We've reached a major milestone with BallisticNG's multiplayer update! We still have some work to do, mostly in the quality of life department, but we're currently in a good place for a new development branch release.

If you haven't seen the other multiplayer changes we've made recently, be sure to also check out the previous announcement:

[dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/473770/announcements/detail/547864348725346504"][/dynamiclink]

Remember to check out our roadmap for a look at what we're working on for 1.4.1.

Playing on development builds

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties

• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens

• From the dropdown select development. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam

• Once you have opened the game, the version at the bottom right of the menu for this release will read 1.4.1-d9

Multiplayer

Multiple Gamemodes

Multiplayer now supports Knockout, Rush Hour, Upsurge and Eliminator! Bots can also join in and play these gamemodes if you enable them!

Dedicated Servers now also have a gamemode vote, and the random lobby example lua script has been updated to change the gamemode from time to time.

Some notes:

• When playing Eliminator, bots will combat spin to maintain proximity to the player who has the lowest race position. If there aren't any players (everybody leaves on a dedicated server), then the bots will keep proximity amongst themselves to ensure that the event can end in a somewhat reasonable time.

• The placement of barriers in Upsurge are handled client-side. The tradesoffs with this was accurate positions but barriers could pop out of nowhere, or inaccurate positions but you get a chance to react, and we think it's better if you don't have to deal with barriers spawning out of nowhere.

Bot Variants

Bots will now be given random ship variants when the server is deciding which ship to give them. These are always random and are currently not configurable on dedicated servers.

Beforehand, bots always used the default (2159) variant of ships.

More synchronization

Many more game events are now correctly synchronised, such as ships being eliminated, ships respawning, ships passing the mid and start line, etc.

These used to be handled client side as they aren't essential to accurately synchronize for just racing. The other gamemodes however have progress and win conditions that are bound to these events, so it was vital that the server is aware of when these events happen instead of just guessing based on the latest information it has on everybody.

This should also fix the long standing bug where some ships can stay on fire after being eliminated.

Controllable Spectator Camera

The spector camera, previously only used if you died in a race with spawns disabled, is now user controlled! You can now switch between ships and the track cameras / orbit camera modes for yourself, the game will no longer do it automatically.

We'd like to potentially include this in the post race cameras for singleplayer too.

Full Changelog

Ships

• The eliminated fire sound is now stopped when entering a spectator camera

• Elimination fire now only plays for 10 seconds

Input

• Controllers no longer rumble when the players ship is eliminated

Pickups

• Hellstorm no longer locks onto eliminated ships

• Projectiles no longer collide with eliminated ships

• Fixed plasma impacts not creating camera shakes against walls

AI

• The AI ahead of player lap multiplier is no longer applied in multiplayer

Gamemodes - Rush Hour

• Fixed discharge start time notice not displaying

Gamemodes - Eliminator

• The target score can now be lowered to a minimum of 150

Multiplayer

• Peer names are now cached on their linked ships (prevent Unknown Networked Player showing if a player disconnects mid-race)

• Bots are now assigned random ship variants

• The gamemode is now shown under the track name in the lobby

• Knockout can now be played in multiplayer

• Upsurge can now be played in multiplayer

• Eliminator can now be played in multiplayer

• Rush Hour can now be played in multiplayer

• Chat messages can no longer re-enable parsing with tags

• The spectator camera is now user controlled and allows access to the pause menu

• Ship laps are now synced as trigger events happen instead of being included in per-tick ship data

• Ship eliminations are now synced as they happen instead of being handled on each clients side (this should also fix the long standing fire ship bug)

• The race completion check no longer tries waiting for players who have backed out to the lobby

• Disconnected peer ships are now hidden

• Fixed bot ship weapon hits not registering against the host in Server Authoritative and Sender Trusted hit detection modes

• Fixed pause menus remaining open when switching to result screens

• Fixed the racers list not always updating correctly when ships are eliminated

• Fixed a race condition where both the gamemode and race manager can trigger a return to lobby

Dedicated Server

• Added Vote Gamemode option

• DedicatedServerExample.cfg updated with LobbyVoteGamemodePercent entry

• Random Lobby example scripts updated with random gamemode selection

• Fixed bots not having eliminations reported

• Fixed several sources of null reference exceptions being thrown due to notification buffer messages being triggered without anything listening for them