Jet-powered racing! Major update now live

A major update is now live and includes some huge features

• Three powerful jet engine block types

• Online Racing Game mode for up to 16 players across three game maps

• Two completely new tracks

• Nighttime atmosphere and working headlights

• A variety of new blocks for use in machine editor and world builder

Download it now at Techblox.com

Maps

The three maps below will be online, in persistent dedicated servers. They will each have a racing mode with checkpoints and the world will respawn when a player finishes in first place!

Midnight Techkarts

Portsdown Basin

Dirtfest

We’ve increased the build limits for the maps too, so you can build slightly more complex vehicles!

We will be moving some of the maps into a new area called “Legacy Offline Games”. We didn’t want to remove these maps from the game as some players may still find some enjoyment playing them. Our plan is to create a number of core game modes and maps which rotate in and out so there is always a new reason to build and new games to discover.

Server

We’ve made some optimisations to the online servers and this has allowed us to support even more players. Double, in fact! 16 players will be able to join any of the three online maps mentioned above!

The servers are also now able to support dynamic blocks. This means that we can see some actual movement in the world. A spinning sign like this wasn’t possible before

But this also means maps could have obstacles like breakable barriers, traffic cones being flung around the map etc! We’re really looking forward to experimenting with this and we know someone is going to create a really complex wall that falls apart when smashing a vehicle through it!

World Editor

We will be adjusting the landscape placement to allow for a smaller grid size and a different type of placement.

There will also be a number of new landscape tiles. Most notably diagonal road tiles. Including some that transition from grass to dirt.

New Blocks/ Objects

This update will bring with it the ability to create actual game modes! Using logic, players can already create fun racing game modes. We've been having a lot of fun in the office racing each other online and experimenting with various strategies.

We’ve made the logic required to create game modes visible in code room houses which can be found in the maps.

If anyone creates some racing game maps, do let us know as we may rotate them as a featured playable map in the future!

Here is a list of all of the new blocks which can be used in the world editor

- Football

- Game HUD Timer

- Night-time Atmos block

- Scoreboard block (and player scoring system)

- Centre HUD block

- Checkpoint block

- Sound effect block

- Spawn point block

- World Resetter block

- Floodlights, circle area light

- Boundary material (to stop people from falling off the map!)

New Machine blocks

The BIG update alongside gameplay, is the ability for players to create jet-powered machines. We’ve created some simple, but fun flying vehicles, but we know you are going to make some really awesome creations with these new blocks! These can all be used within the World editor too!

- Area sensor

-Distance sensor

- Jet blocks (Small Medium and Large)

- Stabilizer block

- Functional headlights (Colourable lights)

Driving

We’ve also made a number of changes to the driving to improve the feel. This has been achieved by increasing the wheel rig turning speed, rebalancing wheel grip and adding an FOV change effect when reaching higher speeds.

We’ve also made some adjustments to the Go-kart engine as we have increased its top speed, added a second gear and given it more torque.

Fixes and changes

A number of fixes and changes are included in this update, below is a list of these fixes.

• Fixed some issues with blueprint placements that contain stretched cylinders, wedges and other ‘sloped’ shapes

• Fixed some blueprint placement issues that occur when placing parts at the edges of landscape tiles

• Fixed an error that could occur when entering test mode in the World Editor

• Fixed issues with controller handles (switches, levers etc.) not appearing/updating correctly on machines in simulation

• Fixed a bug where machines would vanish or stop visually updating when players join or leave the server

• Fixed a couple of errors that could occur when swapping between modes (block, color etc.) and swapping between hotbar slots

• Fixed a stall that could occur when swapping between hotbar slots

• Fixed an issue that caused hotbar sprites to appear away from the cursor when moving them

• Improved behaviour when entering seats on moving machines

• Fixed an issue where the ‘Press E to enter’ tooltip would not appear when looking at seats

• Increased turning speed of wheel rigs

• Rebalanced grip of tires

• Fixed visual issues with parts and tiles flickering out of view when moving the camera

• Fixed camera popping when crouching

• Fixed a bug when placing a blueprint in the same hotbar slot

• Bushes no longer have collision in simulation in game modes

• Fixed some placement issues with landscape tiles

• Improved the behaviour of scaling parts

• Improved the behaviour of placing parts while moving the character/camera

• Improved the collisions of the Rumble Strips on road tiles

• Improved the collision of the Bridge tile

• Removed the base plate of Logic/Math blocks to make them more compact

• Engine audio no longer plays on machines that have not been spawned

• Rebalanced engine audio

Known Issues

• Players may experience some slight jittering online. We are already working on improving this with a fix planned soon.

• There are some times when an "EAC Timeout" may happen for players on PC, if you experience this, please do let us know what happened on Discord so we are able to address this.

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Patch 25.02.2022

• Fixed an issue that caused PC CPU usage to continue to rise after entering simulation

• Fixed some memory leaks

• Fixed an issue with Jets that caused their backblast to be in the wrong position and not correctly randomised

• Fixed an error when entering a seat that is attached to a static environment