Wrench has been in a state of redesign and rewrites for the last 3 years. This beta update includes our first pass at co-op multiplayer support. We do not have enough work finished on the new car starting and symptoms systems to support our new game loop, and we are waiting on a new game loop before we move everything to the main branch. Some progress on things like the new electrical solver with individual wire/pin level continuity simulation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H5tuUkj_CM We are aware that we still have polish work to do on multiplayer code and that desktop key binds still need some streamlining. Regardless please report issues that you have. We wanted to share some of our plans for where Wrench is headed in the very near future: [b]Multiplayer[/b] Multiplayer is not required and we are intentionally building the game to be a single player experience that your friends can join you in. That said, wrench in multiplayer is an extremely cooperative social experience. Players are working on the same car literally handing each other tools, pointing things out, teaching, helping organize and track parts, etc. Few other games have this depth of player to player cooperation. [b]Living assembly[/b] We are working towards building detailed simulations for each subsystem of the car. Our latest projects have been a new electrical solver that accurately simulates current moving through a circuit and a procedural animation system to handle engine, chassis, and suspension movement. The ultimate goal is to make the car feel fully interactable and not limited to nut, bolt, and part install interactions. Eventually we want suspension arms to move when grabbed, the steering rack to operate, wheels to be free spun when the car is on jackstands, latches to operate correctly, etc. We are also building the car starting/running condition systems so that the car can exist in any number of broken or incomplete states and the player will get natural feedback instead of text statements telling them what the car is doing. Example: Pull a spark plug while the car is running and the system will misfire. Remove the chassis ground and expect sensor noise/failure, etc. Pull an electrical connector or fuse and the correct cascade of events will occur. We also are removing all text based information about the car and the condition will be something players observe through audio, visual, and performance information. The running condition of the car should exist in a gray area where there isn’t necessarily a clear distinction between running well and running poorly. An intermittent misfire from a leaking injector o’ring isn’t going to keep your car from running but it will impact the engine based on the severity. This complexity will all be layered into the game experience so new players can focus on getting the car running and then progressively dig deeper into the car to fix more issues as they become comfortable. [b]Moving away from maintenance[/b] Maintenance will always be part of Wrench but we want the focus of the player's time to be spent on car building and creative problem solving - not repeat oil and pad changes. You will still be responsible for maintaining the car but the game is moving away from immediately having the player enter endurance races which will reduce the number of race hours and mechanical wear so there will be less repetitive work. The same systems that feed the running condition of the car also allow for intricate and creative car performance tuning. In our upcoming game loop we will give the players challenges that use a combination of performance targets and constraints. We are building the car systems so that there can be many possible routes to solve a problem. An example might be: Achieve a certain lap time at a track but you must use a specific set of tires and the car must weigh at least x number of lbs. Or build a car capable of a lap time at a specific track using a limited selection of aero parts and a peak horsepower less than x amount. We want players to combine parts and tune their cars for specific goals instead of building unrealistic vehicles that are just faster at everything. Car performance will be an interaction between assembly quality, specific part selection, part condition, and chassis + engine tuning.