What is up depthians!

As the only new addition to Stable from 3.2.9 Beta, is that you now must use Breadboard to control your constructs as we removed the AI behaviour and manoeuvre cards, nothing else has changed from Beta to Stable. So the following notes are a copypasta from Beta.

In this update, we will be showing you two new features to From The Depths via YouTube rather than screenshots and walls of text. We hope you like this format for showing off new functions or features.

In the following link, we go through the new projectile damage logging tool and a handy visual aid showing you where your turrets are getting stuck while trying to rotate :D. However, in order to try and keep it short, you will have to check out the changelog as there are more additions/tweaks as well as a boatload of bug fixes.
We also go talk about some news at Brilliant skies for the next month or so.

Changelog

Additions

AI

• A troubleshooter has been added for the AI that will provide feedback if your AI does not match the capabilities of your vehicle
• Naval and land AI now properly uses the yaw controller during reversing.
• Naval and land AI now uses forward/backward controller during idling to bring speed to 0 m/s.
• Point at behaviour will make ‘reverse’ paths (sea/land) cheap (if reversing enabled) if we are too close to our target and pointing at them.
• The path view for AI has been upgraded to show how the waypoints are adjusted by the various stages of the AI. The markers, if you mouse over them, will show tooltips.

Blocks

• Spin blocks have an option to reverse the angle controller value when moving backwards. Useful for large rudders on spin blocks.

Damage

• Added damage logging system (enable from vehicle V menu). It shows kinetic, HE, HEAT, HESH and fragment damage markers and explanations for each projectile/missile that hits the vehicle. Useful for debugging.

Missiles

• [BUGS-2350] Added new default guidance to (optionally) replace sea-skimming mode. It flies in the direction it is currently facing.
• [BUGS-2350] Added new default guidance to (optionally) replace sea-skimming mode. It flies in the direction it was launched.
• Added small and large reverse launchers.

Wheels

• Added a reset to default button for wheel configuration tab

Changes

AI

• Airplane movement idle distance is now unified with the wander distance mechanic, creating a circular wander for the out of combat vehicle.
• All AI interfaces have been tidied up and now feature a full description of what the behaviour/manoeuvre does

Air Ducts

• Previous change reverted. All single air duct blocks have now had their HP value halved. 3×3 and larger lose 1/4 HP and weight. This puts them in their intended role.

Applique

• Applique armour can now create air gaps when hit centrally (the path of the projectile through the mesh is modelled). This means HEAT fragments and HESH spalling will be released from it.
• Applique armour does not get directly damaged by HEAT jet penetration
• Applique armour is structural for the purpose of HESH, increasing the AP of the spalling that will come from it (either released into it’s own air gap, or passing down the sides of the armour panels).

APS

• All fragmentation warheads are now forced to share cone angle and offset values, as these were always averaged across the warheads anyway
• Shells without a pen fuse and using heavy, AP or sabot head will not explode on contact. They only trigger when they run out of kinetic damage
• The APS ammo customisation UI has been updated to the new format
• There is now a drop down in the ammo customisation UI to select the gauge of your weapons, and gauges that will fill the various clip sizes

Blocks

• Aileron and tailplane now use the absolute velocity of the vehicle, so they work the as expected when moving in reverse.
• Hydrofoil, by default, will now work in reverse the same as it works in forward
• Rudder, by default, will now work in reverse the same as it works in forward
• The vehicle blueprint spawner can now spawn up to 100 vehicles instead of 10, and if you choose the max value there will be no limitation to the number of spawned vehicles

Ducts

• Ducts no longer absorb HEAT damage. They are treated like ‘structural blocks’ for the purposes of HEAT.

ERA

• ERA no longer explodes below 50% health. ERA also no longer actually kills projectiles near it when it dies.
• ERA rewrote. Projectiles (other than CRAM) have their explosions triggered by touching an ERA. An ERA-triggered explosion has 20% HE/FLAK damage/radius, 20% HESH thump damage, and 180° fragment release angle. The first HEAT jet or HESH implantation to interact with the ERA panel will be stopped in its tracks (HESH must be implanted onto ERA for there to be an effect). Kinetic hollow point damage will not take place if the shell explodes. Kinetic/hollow point damage of a kinetic shell that has not exploded at this point is reduced by 2500 to a minimum of 100 (this includes CRAM). EMP and smoke effects happen as usual.

Missile

• Huge missile efficiency and health modifiers down by 20%
• [BUGS-2209] Beam riders now have the option of following other missile lasers on the vehicle, not just those attached to their controller.
• [BUGS-2209] Laser designator receivers now output a velocity value to allow APN and TPG guidance to improve the chance of hitting a moving designated target. If you don’t want this function just remove the APN and TPG from the missile.
• The missile editing UI now uses drop-down menus instead of incremental sliders, where appropriate.

Fixes

AI

• [BUGS-3121] Empty manoeuvre UI now shows the wander distance, order complete distance and Use Velocity Instead of Forward toggle (which has now been changed to a default of ‘off).
• [BUGS-3129] Failsafes now have a default range of 500m for self-checks. Anything that was the old default of 50m will become 500m.
• Look ahead distance for six-axis now only takes effect as we approach a final waypoint. This fixes issues using it in conjunction with sea surface pathfinding.

APS

• [BUGS-3135] Elevation mantlet is now able to fire at 100° elevation (previously this would be evaluated as a 180° azimuth angle and dis-allowed)
• If you place a secondary HEAT warhead on the nose cone it will now work
• The HE special factor slider is now only shown for HE warheads where it is actually used

Blocks

• [BUGS-3124] Slope transition pieces now all have the same convex ‘seam’ across their top surface.
• Mention of reinforcement bonus in the description was wrong on 2m,3m and 4m beams. This has been removed.

Breadboard

• [BUGS-2255] Drive setter component no longer sets drives where no input wire is attached

Building

• [BUGS-2243] Issue with build marker being rotated long after command was made
• [BUGS-2971] it’s no longer possible to place a fortress at an odd angle

Campaign

• [BUGS-3119] Blockade battle start timers now tick down based on the game speed

CJE hull

• Hull parts have had their descriptions corrected and the cost reduced to +10 over standard parts.

ERA

• ERA is no longer marked as a structural component, and a HESH shockwave hitting a distant ERA panel will damage it like any other nonstructural block.

Exhaust

• [BUGS-2928] Hull exhaust pipes no longer connect to cylinders in directions that they should not

Fleets

• [BUGS-3117] out-of-play fleet vibration fixed

Graphics

• [BUGS-3089] Some minor issues with cut away views fixed

HEAT & HESH

• Multi-threading issues fixed in HEAT and hesh that stopped them releasing fragments on the first non-structural block they killed

Misc

• Multiple typos of the word manoeuvre fixed.

Missiles

• [BUGS-2173] Issues with sea skimming default guidance and APN fixed.. APN and target prediction guidance no longer run when the ‘target’ is a default manoeuvre (such as sea skimming) (or when the target has a dummy velocity value of 0 (e.g beam rider aim points)).
• [BUGS-2209] Designator receiver logic fix for lasers that control ‘Missiles on this team’. Should all work as expected now.
• [BUGS-3112] GPP use of remote guidance is no longer double counted when several LWCs are controlling a missile controller.
• [BUGS-3131] Missiles will no longer change their rotation when in contact with colliders and are no longer super bouncy. This stops them from clipping through their launching vehicle.

Multiplayer

• [BUGS-2956] fixed a number of multiplayer issues with pistons
• [BUGS-3110] issue with undo of block removal fixed for multiplayer clients

Muzzle Brake

• The description mentioned a reduction in speed. This is incorrect and has been removed.

Particles

• All particle systems will now use the ‘Particles factor’ and ‘Auto-regulation’ performance options

PID

• [BUGS-2938] Fake set point for altitude in AI hover controller now goes from -1000 to +3000 (as per GP PID)

Repairing

• [BUGS-2912] Fixed an issue with large turrets not repairing on specific vehicles

Sails

• [BUGS-2942] Wind speed was not properly taken into account for the useful component of force on a sail (sailboats faster now). The weather vane now shows wind speed as well.

Shields

• [BUGS-3111] Shield reflections causing explosions of inertially fused shells to happen at local coord [0,0,0] fixed

Steam

• [BUGS-2815] Idle steam turbine tooltips show correct kinetic energy values
• [BUGS-2943] Steam jet particles now come from the correct place when placed on a sub construct
• Smoke leaking from 4m pipes will now exit at the correct location

Turrets

• [BUGS-3101] turrets and spinners now check overlaps at integer degree steps (1°,2°,etc) to avoid some turrets managing to rotate when they shouldn’t, and becoming very unpredictable.

UI

• [BUGS-3087] drive slider in propeller (and other) UIs no longer disappears after visiting stats tab

Video

• [BUGS-2880] Youtube videos are working again

Weapons

• [BUGS-3116] Fixed a recursion issue in synched weapons when they are synched with each other and dead

Removed

AI

• Tank broadside behaviour no longer selectable. It’s the same as naval broadside behaviour (now called Broadside 2.0) so use that instead.

Just in case, the Breadboard thing is an April fools joke…