This is a combined post. Firstly I will go into details of what precisely is coming in the new Patch and then Ben will outline the handling changes in more detail.
As always this is for Patreon members only so please don't share beyond here or the Patreon section of our Discord.
Firstly here are the full patch notes :
New Drifting Model will be available to all players (switch to it in Mix My Car - it is not on by default and we will always allow switching between)
Additional Drift Improvements (see more details in Ben's post below)
Drift entry is now more consistent across all cars
Drift exit is less "sticky", meaning there isn't a big delay right at the end of counter-steering before actually exiting
Drift transitions improved
Cars much less likely to roll over when drifting over the start of a downward slope on Sky Tracks
Braking and Handbraking now have a larger slowing effect while drifting
Over 30 new Liveries
The Motorhead, Headbanger, Vagabond, Hauler, Powerslave, Mulsanne, Cigarello and Bison all have new liveries created by Wreckreation player ‘Biggie’ - 34 new liveries in total
Thanks to another Wreckreation player KekAnTing the cop cars now have their county alternate liveries available via Customise My Car.
Improved network replication - player cars will now look more authentic when drifting, turning, handbraking, flatspinning and barrel rolling online
Upgraded the Boost system on the Huntsville Hauler and Maiden Manhattan cars (and their Wreckoning versions) so they can carry 95% of their top speed when boosting offroad (to match other cars in the Offroad class).
Fixed barrel rolls being limited to 1 roll on keyboard controls
SkyTracks have been optimised allowing for larger tracks to be uploaded.
We hope the patch will go live soon but this is out of our hands and THQ have let us know they may not be able to get it live until next Tuesday. We really hope to get it to you sooner but we are dependent on their bandwidth. Please bear with us.
Now passing over to Ben for more details on the Drifting.
_______________________________________________________________________
Hey everyone, it’s Ben again.
First of all, thank you to everyone who has been continuing to test the new drift system and share feedback. A lot of you have been really thoughtful in explaining what feels good, what still feels off, and the situations where things behave differently than expected. That kind of detailed feedback is incredibly useful, and it has played a big part in shaping the changes that are going into the next patch.
Since opening the system up to all Patreon subscribers, we’ve had a much wider range of players trying it out across different cars, tracks, and driving styles. That has helped highlight a few areas where the system was already working well, and a few where it clearly needed more work.
This post is a quick update on the changes I’ve made that will be in the next patch.
Drift Exit Improvements
The biggest point that kept coming up in feedback was the transition from drifting back to normal driving.
While this had already improved a lot compared to the original implementation, several players pointed out that it could still feel slightly too slow for the car to fully straighten itself out, particularly at higher speeds.
I’ve spent some time refining this behaviour so that exiting a drift feels cleaner and more decisive, while still keeping the ability to hold those long, shallow drifts that many of you have been enjoying. As before, it’s a bit of a balancing act, but this update should make the transition back to normal driving feel more natural.
Shout out to Discord Mod Solid_Kris for putting together this beautiful rendering of how the drift exit didn’t feel right for him:
A quick aside…
Actually, I will go one step further and say Solid_Kris has been incredibly helpful with his detailed feedback throughout this whole process. However, it has definitely not been a one man show. I’ve had a lot of comments and DMs from many of you over the last month or so. It’s really refreshing as a developer to be working so closely with the people who are playing the game, and being able to take that feedback and turn it into something you want to see and play.
Back to the changes…
Drift Entry Tuning
Drift entry was already working well for most cars, but feedback suggested that a few specific models could feel a little sluggish when initiating a drift.
For this patch I was planning to focus on tuning those cars individually rather than changing the behaviour globally, however I was able to make a change that improved the Entry feel on all cars, so I went with that instead! The goal here was to make the system feel consistent across the vehicle roster while still allowing different cars to retain their own character, which I think this latest version does.
Transitions Between Drifts
There was an interesting bug here, where sometimes transitioning from one drift to another would cause your car to just quit drifting immediately, regain full grip and send you off into a barrier/tree/traffic car/anything else unlucky enough to be nearby. Other times it was fine!
Thankfully with a bit of assistance from a couple of Discord community members, I was able to track it down and get it fixed - flawless transitions are back on the menu!
(The bug turned out to be caused by a safety check I had written years ago to prevent your car rotating the wrong way during a drift. Normally that’s a good thing, but when you are chaining drifts together you sort of need to allow that for a few tenths of a second!)
Quick tip for nailing those transitions to improve your drift-chain game: tap the brake while steering out of your drift to start a new drift in the opposite direction, and keep steering towards the new drift until it fully kicks in. Make sure you hold the throttle down throughout, you can’t start a new drift without it!
Braking
In the previous update I made the brake and handbrake/e-brake do a couple of things to your car while drifting: they both slowed you down, and they also made your car rotate more sharply into the drift (as long as you were steering-in!). The feedback for this was along the lines of “it’s good that the brakes now do something, but it’s too subtle!”. So for this next update, the braking forces have been ramped up (brake by a little, handbrake by a lot), and the extra rotation has had a little tweak too.
Further Fixes for the “Car Tipping Over” Issue
Some of you also continued to report cases where a car could tip over when drifting across a sudden drop in the road surface (this is most prevalent on Sky Tracks now).
This is something Fiona and I had both seen during testing as well. Previous fixes had improved things, but there were still situations where it could happen.
I’ve added further work to stabilise the car’s behaviour in these edge cases (pun unintended, but it’s staying in!) so that drifting over changes in road height should feel more predictable in the upcoming patch.
Expanding Access to All Players
Up until now, the new drift system has been available to Patreon subscribers while we gathered feedback and refined the core behaviour.
With the improvements made so far, the plan is to make the new drift system available to all players in the upcoming patch.
As before, the existing drift system will remain available, so players will still be able to choose which model they prefer.
Opening it up more widely will help us see how the system performs across an even broader range of play styles and situations, which is incredibly valuable when tuning something as fundamental as vehicle handling.
Thanks Again for the Feedback
Once again, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to test the system and share their thoughts. The feedback we’ve received so far has been extremely helpful, and it has directly influenced the changes going into this update.
Looking forward to hearing what you think once the patch is out and you’ve had a chance to try the changes for yourselves.