Hi Mechanics!
How about we open up our window and let you grab another little glimpse into our magical workshop of delights? That's right friends, it's time for another delicious devblog!
The last month at Scrap HQ has been a busy one, so get comfy in your driver's seat and let's jump into one of our most epic devblogs yet! Now you're strapped in, let's just take a quick moment to say a massive thank-you to all you Mechanics who've been helping us test our new game engine. Your bug reporting skills have been invaluable, thanks so much!
Engine Update
We've started testing the new engine on a public test branch, and your feedback has been fantastic! Heaps of Mechanics have been reporting improvements in their FPS and players who couldn't start the game before are now all up in there, scrapping away like champions. This makes us very, very happy! We want to make sure we're all up front and transparent with you about our hopes and priorities for the engine. First up, we want to make sure the game works for the players who've so far been unable to play without issues. After that, we'll be working towards improving FPS and and making sure the physics run more smoothly which is work that we'll continue smashing away at up to and beyond release of the engine. We really want you to keep all of this in mind: just because the engine's released doesn't mean we're completely done with optimizations. You guys deserve all the tricks we've got up our sleeve, not just one or two! Some of you will have noticed that we get a sneaky weekly update out into the test branch with fixes and improvements, and that should carry on happening right up until the official release in the coming weeks. We're working as quickly as we can, and aim to keep on improving after the release.
Female Machanic
In the last devblog, we promised a redesign of our female Mechanic and here she is! We've made a ton of new faces and hairstyles, and here's your first look at a few examples that we hope you'll like. Really looking forward to getting her into the game when Survival Mode's ready.
Updated Textures!
As we beaver away in the background, cleaning up and improving the code in Scrap Mechanic, we're also working hard to improve a whole bunch of visuals. Since release, the block textures have been really small, making it tough for us to make a texture that both looks great and doesn't tile too obviously. Thanks to the glory and magnificence of our new game engine, we can get the block textures bigger, meaning there's more working room for us to make them all look incredible. The new textures are also way more in line with the ambitions we have for the quality of visuals on offer in Survival Mode. Here is a first look at the new wood and concrete textures! All of our block textures will be getting the nips, tucks and full-on facelifts they so richly deserve, so get ready to see your creations looking a whole lot more awesome in the near future!
Encrypt Your Connections
While you're exploring buildings in Survival Mode, the temptation will definitely be there for you to whip out your connect tool and examine where all the interactive parts are located so you can get your scavenge on. One upcoming spanner in those particular works is gonna be the encryptor. This device will hide all of the connection wires until it's removed from the structure on which it's placed. Mechanics will of course be able to place and hide this device on their creations so that you can make life harder for any mischievous Mechanics, protecting yourself from those who are out to fiddle with your connections and snaffle your stuff.
Survival Outfits
Oh me, oh my! More Survival Mode goodness! Right now, we're working on a range of alternate outfits that Mechanics can stumble upon in Survival Mode. We want to keep these sweet styles a secret until release, but the Farmbots have said it's ok to give you a sneak peek of this one. Naturally, gloves, jackets, pants and other items are all separately interchangeable giving all you fashion-conscious Mechanics a whole bunch of ways to express your style! Exciting times for personalization fans, right?
More Beards & Hairstyles
As the ancient saying goes, with great beard comes great responsibility. You're now gonna have the chance to choose just how great your beard is with the new range of beards and hairstyles for the male Mechanic so you can always be certain of fantastic follicles. Here are a few examples. Some of them are hil-hair-ious.
Suspension Update: You Asked, We Deliver!
Ahh, the new engine is making all our fixes so much smoother already, we can't tell you how happy we are about all of this! This time, it's freeing us up to focus a bit more on showing our beloved suspension a little extra love. Your feedback has led us to throw in a resistance slider to the suspension function. Some creations are incredibly heavy, and do nothing but instantly squash the suspension, so now it's possible to adjust the resistance to handle different weights. We're also fixing up the possibility for you to be able to add color to your suspension using the paint tool, which wasn't previously an option.
Particle Engine for the Modders!
Our awesome programmers have put together a brand new particle engine with a whole load of new features, meaning we can add more particles as well as improve the current ones. Best of all, we've made it crazy easy to use so all you modding Mechanics can make your mods even more amazing!
Survival Mode
Just a quick update! As you're reading this, we're working hard on the crafting system and terrain. There's still a long way to go on Survival Mode because our ambitions for this are high, and we won't be releasing anything that's half-done with a heap of cut corners. We're aiming to make it great! Unless it's something we can feel proud of at the same time as knowing it's something you'll all love and enjoy, what would the point be? Progress is good though, and we will of course share news as and when we get closer and we'll be doing our very best in the meantime to keep you entertained with new fun updates to make your wait less painful.
That's all for this devblog, thanks so much for reading. Until next time, Mechanics! Keep on scrapping!