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Thread: The future of BallisticNG

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Lightbulb The future of BallisticNG

    Hey guys! I'm posting this to announce some big plans for BallisticNG. To keep things consistent across the board, this post is a slightly edited version of our Steam Announcement.

    All the information you need to know is below, but in summary we are looking at extending BallisticNG further then we originally aimed. We will however need some financial backing if we are to do this. As of posting this thread and our Steam announcement we have started a Patreon campaign.

    What this is about
    As a small group of three working on a free title we don't have the funds to continue developing BallisticNG too much further in the long term. There are many goals that we would love to hit but simply can't because of time and financial constraints. We stand by BallisticNG being a free game and we will never change that; but by supporting us on Patreon you can help provide us with the income we need to take this from what has so far been a hobby into a full-time line of work.

    If we can achieve that then we plan to take BallisticNG as it is now, reprogram the core and expand upon it to provide a much more fleshed out racing experience.

    Making these changes will take a while. We fully understand any stigmas or concerns that are involved when doing such tasks, such as games dying or entering an infinite development state where they never reach completion. To combat this, we have set out clear goals for ourselves to measure against and we would like to provide people with the opportunity to get their hands on every change and improvement as soon as it happens.

    If we are not able to get the financial backing for this then we will simply continue on with development as it is now, with a target final release date in Summer 2017 with the goals we mentioned in our 0.6 Steam release announcement. We would love to have the opportunity to extend the game further though.

    We want people to gain something through their supporting us straight away, so if you donate to us through Patreon you will be given access to our development branch: a version of BallisticNG that is usually updated daily with all of the latest features, fixes, and immidiate corrections directly in response to player feedback. This branch represents the most current, cutting-edge state of the game as it exists on our own PCs. If you have previously donated to us through Itch.IO, check your inbox!

    Our Plans
    Below is a list of plans. This list can also be found on the Patreon page.
    • Reprogram a large portion of the game to optimize it further and modularize everything. This will improve performance, speed up future development and allow us to implement new gamemodes, settings and content very easily.
    • Vastly improve the modding tools. Our vision with the modding tools is to provide an intuitive and polished set of tools that casual users can pick up instantly and advanced users can dive into to make something amazing to share with people. We would also love to provide people with a scripting environment to program their own gamemodes and weapons with.
    • Allow the game to read more industry standard file formats for modding such as FBX and DAE for models and TGA for textures.
    • Extend upon multiplayer. Provide new features such as ingame chat, voice chat and rewrite the underlying structure to provide anti-cheat, stability and much, much better synchronization between players.
    • Rewrite and standardize the user interface, improving user experience.
    • Introduce a replay and replay editing system that allows you to share your best races with others and produce videos of your races with a set of tools to manipulate the camera and apply effects in realtime.
    • Introduce an extended singleplayer campaign that provides content rewards including alternative ship skins and badges.

    All these features are primarily an extension of the current game. While being funded will naturally give us the time to make supplementary improvements such as updating track scenery and ingame effects, the fundamental goal is to take the game we have now and make it even better. Ships will continue to handle exactly like they currently do and the game will continue to use the retro-3D artstyle.

    BnG and you
    Myself, Xpand and Dreadofmondays would like to also take this time to personally thank everyone here on WipeoutZone for supporting us through development so far. Working on BallisticNG is a lot of fun and it's been so good to be able to get positive and negative feedback that we can have discussions about. It's because of this forum that BallisticNG, and not to forget SlipstreamGX, were able to get a foothold and kick off to begin with. We are infinitely grateful to anyone who can find some spare change to throw our way once a month - developing games is what we want to do, and to be able to make a living off of our passion could only be called a dream come true.

    P.S Hellfire and Infoxicated if you havn't already checked the BnG credits, you should
    Last edited by bigsnake; 20th January 2017 at 05:45 AM.

  2. #2
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    Hybrid_Divide
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    My funding isn't always good enough to do a monthly Patreon donations, but is there a way to do one-time donations? Like via Paypal?

    I'll donate when I can, of course! Good luck!

  3. #3
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    bigsnake009
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    Sorry for replying late to this. We did have the game's Itch.IO setup so you could donate on there but in trying out some ideas with a Steam DLC that unlocks special ship liveries we've currently got loads of Steam keys tied on there that we need to wait to be removed first. I contacted Itch.IO about it on Friday so I should have a response after the weekend. After those unused keys are removed I'll be enabling the pay what you want on it again, I'll update everyone with a post here on when that happens

  4. #4
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    I have been able to pick up a PC, so I haven't played the current version. However the latest videos Bigsnake has put up look astounding. The physics look spot on, and the float is perfect. Looks right on the money for Wipeout 3. I cannot wait to get the funds to get a computer to play this.

  5. #5
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    I really hope that word can be spread out wide about this. You guys deserve the money for sure!

    I'll happily toss in some money when I can spare it over on Steam. Would it be possible to have some kind of set amount to people who donate in this manner could get the special liveries/credits? Say, if someone donates $20, they'll get the liveries when they're released and $35 for the credit? Something like that. I know for myself, I'd have an easier time doing a single donation rather than a monthly thing.

    (Sorry some of this post repeats from my last one.)

    Good luck!

  6. #6
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    There are rewards for being a Patreon, regardless of the amount. We haven't made them yet, but they consist in alternate skins and the likes.

    There have been problems with the single donation system (hence why it's impossible to do that for now), but I think the reward system with the alternate skins also applies in that case, although in that case the amount does matter.

    We're more focused on getting most of the core content done quickly, then we'll focus on the rewards. We have a list of donators so we know who to give the rewards to when the time comes.
    Last edited by Xpand; 30th January 2017 at 06:10 PM.

  7. #7
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    I wonder what it would take to get this title onto the switch.. Would it be possible? I remember looking forward to getting dlc for wipeout pure/pulse.. I'd probably pay indefinitely for that kind of thing again.

    **Edit** Nevermind, there's always a mobile pc gaming device. You guys can delete this if ya like.**Edit**
    Last edited by Chill; 17th August 2020 at 08:04 PM. Reason: Requested deletion

  8. #8
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    Is there any console release planned?

  9. #9
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    lol, riiiight.

  10. #10
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    Speaking of a console release: Did someone manage to install the game on some cheap-ish hardware, connect it to a PS4 controller easily and just tuck it behind the TV? Any recommendations? 1080p 60fps should be the goal.

  11. #11
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    Sorry, I cannot add much to your question. Before I bought a decent grahics card, I had the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5450 with 1 GB RAM. It worked, but 60 fps? I highly doubt it - And of course, all the possible effects were turned down. Now I have a GTX 970 and it works like a charme. But okay, even used, it might not be what you look for when you say "cheap-ish".

  12. #12
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    I love BNG since I first found out about it (at least going back to 2016) and I'm also glad I kept different versions in a backup, as a few old track layouts+environments were over-improved for my taste, and I miss the older prototype tracks.

    In general the outcome nowadays is amazing:
    • Controlling the crafts just feels like in Wip3out: floaty, but smooth.
    • So many different tracks, and each one has so many details.
    • So many different crafts.
    • Much improved controller support over the years - even with Win7 I'm able to use a PS3 pad (yes, consider both to be antique).
    • Even the music is much better than it needs to be for a somewhat free game.
    • Technically no installation is needed (but Steam is needed to download it).
    I'm running it smoothly on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (GPU) with Intel Core i5-4570 3.20 GHz (4 core CPU; 6 years old PC). Tried to run it on Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3600 (GPU) with Intel Atom N2600 1,60 GHz (4 core CPU; 8 years old netbook) and the race was in slowmotion, impossible to play.

    I'm amazed by the speed but never got talent for mastering it. When in older games Rapier class is enough for me and more speed just kills my fun BNG increases the top speed even more, which gets me stuck in campaign mode sooner or later. But then again I'm no fan of analog sticks on a pad, so I guess it's partly my own fault. Why nothing like the neGcon has ever evolved for PC is beyond my understanding - that controller feels so much right for racing.

    I strongly encourage everyone to at least trying out BallisticNG - even if you tried it in the past: try it again nowadays.

  13. #13
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    I used a Negcon when I was playing it, Awesome gameplay

  14. #14
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    I didn't even think of trying it with a Negcon. Must be amazing! Was it one of your DIY project Negcons or a stock one with a USB adapter?

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by JABBERJAW View Post
    I used a Negcon when I was playing it, Awesome gameplay
    How'd you use a Negcon. The Raphnet dualshock adapter?

  16. #16
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    Hey, is it true that BallisticNG it's going to Nintendo Switch? I mean, I do not own one, but I was thinking on getting one to my 6yo daughter and I was just curious if there was any WipEout version out to play, then I read that somewhere on the www, I mean, if that's the case, huge congrats, that could be amazing! I've kinda followed your development of the game since you started it, coz' (you may've seen, might not...) me here asking you about your spreadsheet with the HD/Fury game stats that I've been using to build my "Wipeout Excel-based RPG", anyways, just curious.

  17. #17
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    yeah, it's true...BNG will release on the switch, even with online crossplay with pc as far as i know...if the price is right, and the performance too, it'll have huge sales xD

  18. #18
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    I hope this still happens

    - - - Updated - - -

    Getting right back to you lol. It is an ps3 adapter that someone made for me

  19. #19
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    I like BNG, but the true successor to Wipeout as far as I'm concerned is Redout.. especially the sequel.

  20. #20
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    I absolutely love Redout 2 - we should play some time, I hope you're on Playstation - but I don't consider it a wipEout successor. Both visually and gameplay-wise, this is an entirely different approach. I'm still hoping for a true next gen wipEout...

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