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Instruments of Destruction update for 2 March 2023

Round and Round in Instruments' One-Year Anniversary

Share · View all patches · Build 10675408 · Last edited 23 February 2024 – 13:20:07 UTC by Wendy

Patchnotes via Steam Community

Instruments of Destruction released 1 year ago today, with the trailer below marking the release:

I like that trailer, but it's only the 3rd-best trailer the game has had so far, with the Announce Trailer and Release Date Trailer easily topping it. There have been over 100 updates to the game in the past year, with many of those adding fairly significant new features or parts. The game still has a way to go before it's ready for 1.0. But instead of talking about the future or past of the game, let's talk about the present, because today also marks the release of version 0.215.

TAKE CONTROL

The most significant new feature in version 0.215 is the ability to take control over certain types of objects in the world. The objects you can control include the 3 automobiles, the 2 bounders, and the crash test dummy. First, here's how you do it:

Enter "Place Object" mode in Sandbox during gameplay (P is the shortcut). You'll likely place whatever object you want to control, but it can already be in the world. Then mouse over the object, and push Shift+RMB. The camera will switch to that object, and you'll see controls for the object on the left side of the screen.

There are 4 movement directions, and an action button. The movement controls are fairly obvious, but the action button depends on the object type. For vehicles, the action button is both accelerate and a boost button. Basically, when you first press the button, you'll get an extra push. The faster you're going the less push you'll get. If you want to accelerate without a boost, just use forward instead.

For boulders, the action button is a jump button, and while in the air, you can push and hold the action button to slam back to the ground. Boulders will often cause a shockwave on impact when slamming back down, though not always (depending on what they hit and how fast you're going, etc).

For dummies, the action button is context sensitive. If you're flat on the ground, it lifts you up so your body is floating/standing off the ground a bit. Push the button while floating and you'll jump, and you can also double jump. Once you jump or fall off a ledge, you'll return to "no float" mode. It sounds kinda weird when I describe it, but it feels (mostly) logical when you're in game.

To exit "object control" mode, just push Shift+RMB when not highlighting a controllable object. [You can still control your normal vehicle while controlling an object.]

ROUNDING IT OFF

The other significant addition/change to the game is making all the wheel colliders a lot more rounded (64-segment cylinders), and adding some new small wheel parts (with sphere colliders) to the game. The new small wheels and the Giant wheels also have flexible sizing, so you can make wheels of a lot more sizes. Finally, I added 2 new tire materials to the material override list (with a bit less friction than the original tire), and made all tires able to use the overrides.

Altogether these wheel changes let you do a lot more with vehicle handling than previously possible, without resorting to thrusters or other "hacks". Between the automobile control and the improved wheels, I want to mess around with driving a bit more, and will be adding some new test maps soon that are essentially tracks to race around.

Aside from adding maps, I don't expect to spend too much more time messing with vehicles for the player. But I will be trying out AI-controlled vehicles, as they will be necessary for the combat campaign. It's possible there will be driving-heavy maps in both the combat campaign and the main one, but I want to avoid going too far in that direction for the game. It's a good change of pace, but based on previous experience with Red Faction Guerrilla, it's better to not have raw racing in a destruction game. If destruction can't be tied into the gameplay, it won't be in the campaigns.

That's all for now, but here's the full changelist for version 0.215:

VERSION 0.215 CHANGELIST

  • Added ability to take control over cars, dummies, and boulders
  • Controls are shown on HUD, and you can change them in Remap Controls screen
  • Added new parts: Small Wheels (Free and Powered) that use spherical colliders and variable sizing
  • Changed all other wheel parts to use much smoother colliders (64-segmented cylinders)
  • Changed all wheels to have selectable materials
  • Changed Giant Wheels to have variable sizing
  • Max part count increased to 2,000
  • Limit number of times the "place another rope" message appears (6 times)
  • Fixed alt input on release connector not working
  • Update part count more frequently/generally, so it should be correct the majority of the time now
  • Fixed Flex wheel mass/cost to be more reasonable (and not scale to 0)
  • Adjusted some other wheel costs slightly
  • Fixed Steering wheel angles not working
  • Reduced ground effect for vehicles that are touching the ground, particularly when using powered wheels and treads
  • Removed strength limit message
  • Changed bombs so they can explode every consecutive physics frame
Windows 64-bitEnglish Instruments of Destruction Content Depot 1428101
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