Paul Jeffrey
Premium
After a lengthy silence Bugbear Entertainment have finally released a new update for Destruction Derby style racing game Next Car Game: Wreckfest bringing modding capabilities to the title.
Entertaining? Yes. Engaging? Yes. Exciting? Yes. Fun? oh very much yes. Full of content? Errr... well no not really...
Next Car Game: Wreckfest has seen a slightly troubled life so far with fairly lengthy gaps between updates and the occasional perceived step back in quality from one new version to the next in the last 12 months or so. However the team over at Bugbear Entertainment have remained loyal to the task at hand and have dragged the title kicking and screaming into what many now consider a seriously good game cram packed full of potential to become an all time classic smash and crash racer on Windows PC.
The latest update from the team behind the Burnout series of games brings along something that could quite easily push Wreckfest to heights as yet unseen by the title: Modding support!
Although reasonably light on features and content at present, the core game and engine behind Wreckfest offers a very impressive foundation up which community modding enthusiasts can turn their skills towards creating a raft of content that should inject new life into the title.
The new facilities provided in the latest update allow modders to create both vehicles and locations to add to the already high quality base content found in game. This is the first time Bugbear have catered for modding support in Wreckfest and the studio do advise that initial implementation in the game may bring server unforeseen issues that will be addressed in future patches.
Bugbear themselves had the following to say about April's new Wreckfest update:
"We’re providing you all the tools you need to export your vehicle model from Autodesk 3ds Max and then set it up correctly. The provided TGA to BMAP texture compiler can be used for other modding purposes as well, not just for vehicles. Be aware that since this is the first time ever that mods are officially support by the game it’s very likely that there will be quite a few hiccups along the way to make Wreckfest a robust platform for modding. Please also note that many things will still change and there is no guarantee that your mod will not break in a future update (or every update!)."
Additional details have been provided by the studio that modders should take note of before commencing new design projects for the game:
"To create a new mod first you should create a new folder under 'mods' that will contain your mod data. You can name the folder as you wish; for example 'mods/MikesPowerMod', 'mods/SamsVehiclePack', and so on are all valid names. You can create as many mod folders as you wish, so it's definitely a good idea to create an own folder for each mod. The mod folders should have the same structure as the game's main data folder (so first subfolder will be 'data'), but only contain edited or new files. After you've created your mod car, you can enable it in the in-game mod manager found in the garage and the car will appear in the in-game marketplace (price can be set to 0)."
A full changelog and additional comments regarding the release can be found below:
- Provided tools allow exporting car models from 3ds Max and converting them to the game's format.
- TGA to BMAP texture compiler is also provided for texture modding.
- Use the included BagEdit editor to modify car's parts and parameters and create completely new parts like custom engines and gearboxes.
- An example Wwise project and a guide for creating your own vehicle sounds can be found in tools/wreckfest_vehicle_audio_tools.zip.
- Mod cars give no rewards and are not allowed on the leaderboards.
- You should not edit stuff inside the game's original 'data' folder, rather copy the files you want to edit to your mod folder.
- Multiplayer requires that server and clients have the same mods enabled (though some things like car skins are excluded as before).
- Dedicated server can also require mods by configuring mods=some_mod,other_mod.
Other changes and new stuff in the update:
- Parts no longer wear in multiplayer. As a consequence, multiplayer gives no crew experience and much less money reward.
- Multiplayer now offers "rental cars" which cost nothing but also give no rewards at all.
- You can now view server's welcome message before joining, in the server browser. Feel free to list your required mods there.
- You can now bring your favorite car to the front of the list by clicking the star icon.
- Added lobby context menu options to show Steam profile page and open Steam chat for selected player.
- Fixed Asian 1 shadow.
- Fixed derby scoring sometimes stopping.
- Fixed incorrectly set aero drag/torque.
Have a look over on our Next Car Game: Wreckfest forum for the latest news and discussions regarding Bugbear's most recent title. Don't forget to keep an eye out on the forum in the coming weeks for details on some of the new mods developed for this great little game!
What do you think of Wreckfest? Doe's it meet your expectations? Are you looking forward to trying out the latest community created mods curtesy of the new tools released? Let us know in the comments section below!
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