Stable 3.3.8

Stable 3.3.8

What is up Depthians!! xD

Before we set sail into the depths of this MASSIVE update list/post/wall of text, we feel that we need to point out a few things first.

If you start to see a black screen when you launch the game, please remove mods.

Our merch is on sale with 50% off until the end of January !! Check out Borderwise upload here if you want to see the merch.

We updated to unity 2020.3.22 and due to this the FTD boot-up process now begins in the launcher and is more multi-threaded and concurrent, so it should take less time to boot the game up.

FTD now uses Steam Multiplayer and the Data Relay Network. The old networking system is no longer available. Joining friends is much easier now and NAT punch through and port opening should no longer be necessary.
We have fixed numerous multiplayer issues, however, there may be still some left, so as always feel free to poke us with them on our bug tracker page. https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/bug-tracker

As we have updated to one of the most recent Unity engines, you may see that your lighting in-game has changed. This has confused some players that were on Beta into thinking the graphics/textures have changed which is not the case.

So if you can see that your lighting is duller or brighter in-game, you will have to pop back into your options and set the levels to your liking.

We have also released an alternative avatar, the Droid! This also comes with an animation block where you can animate him manually or through the breadboard. You can swap avatars by hitting Z and checking the avatar tab.

We have heard your prayers and added the full set of corner slopes for applique.

However, time to get to the bulk of this update… Diplomacy! As well as some more new features.

When you first set out on your campaign run, and pop into map view you will see a timer.

This timer will be running after each council meeting where you will decide who to go to war with or make peace with for the duration shown in this UI “until the next campaign season starts in X hours”. Each option lists out the changes in the relationship with the factions and all the options will be different each time while keeping in mind that the stronger you get the more factions you will be at war with! In this screenie, we can see that we can have total peace for 2 hours at the cost of 3,752 commodities.

Some options will have rewards like the second example below, we can go to war with the DWG, have peace with all the other factions, and have a sweet little reward in commodities. Commodity rewards/costs are affected by the difficulty level that you select. Please note that there may be some factions that simply do not want to have peace with you! So you cannot keep bribing them for world peace each meeting.

You will also see a mini-map showing you the territory where the factions are. In this case, it’s showing us our territory in yellow and the DWG territory in red as they will be our enemy should we choose this option.
So remember that with more enemies and fewer allies you will get more commodities and with higher difficulties, you will get fewer commodities.

The AI is has had another upgrade too, such that allied factions will be working together and better grouping.

You will also be able to have a secret meeting as your fleets will trigger a ‘secret emergency meeting’ when they stay near allied/neutral resource zones, or inside non-border tiles of neutral factions, for more than 120 seconds. In a ‘secret emergency meeting’, the offending nation and all their allies declare war against the player’s faction.

Another sweet addition to this update is the clampy feet, which will help us make mechs without the need for thrusters to assist.

We have also added new features to decorations that allow you to hide the block that the tether is created on. Let’s say you had a fancy pipe decoration, and you also set its color within the decoration UI which is also a new feature. However, it’s being covered by the block that it’s tethered to, as you can see in the first screenie.

Simply click “Hide original mesh” and poof that nasty block that was covering your beautiful spam of decorations is now gone, but not really gone as its collision mesh is still there and will ofc take damage, die, and fall off. We can also turn off that noisy wireframe too which is another sweet addition brought to you by our ever awesome Weng! (but it was all my idea I swear!)

The V menu / Construct information UI has had a few tweaks, and as you can see we can now swap block types. Select which material you want to change from EG Alloys with a specific color or “Any color” which would select all Alloy blocks and change them to all metal if you wish.

We have some new additions such as a suspension spring mesh for our wheels (visual only), and before you roll off your seats with excitement we also have anti-roll bars for our land constructs!

Note that the center attachment point of the wheels is in line with the roll bar.

If this has not got you all hot and steamy, yes you guessed the next poor pun is about steam fixes and tweaks xD

Before you decide to separate my hands from my keyboard, we have separation blocks 1×1, 3×3, and also a 1×1 docking station! xD

You will need to set a few parameters before attaching the drone via the separation block as the options you choose will be saved to the drone that is attached, and any future changes you would need to detach the drone first before they take effect.

Before we get into the settings we “should / could” use a docking station on the mothership per drone. This will help us align the drone’s attachment block to the mothership’s attachment block, and let’s not forget that most motherships may be on the move which is why the docking station would be needed as the separation block currently only has a 10m range. We may also need an origin block on the drone as the docking station pulls from the center of mass of the drone, so by installing an origin block the dock will use that as its center point. The origin block can be placed anywhere deep inside the hull, just make sure that it’s inline and behind the attachment (red blocks in pic).

Firstly hit “Q” on the separation block and choose how you want the drone to be detached. In order for our drone to have its attachment point flush with its hull and also for the mothership, we need to select “Attached and in front”, else you will be notified that the drone cannot be detached.
You will need to decide if you want your drone to use its propulsion while attached, from “Extra”. You will also need to state whether you want this to be rebuilt once detached or not by ticking “Permanently remove”, this gives you the option to rebuild the “missing” blocks from the mothership allowing you to keep spawning multiple copies of the drone, which will be built by Rambot or repair drones, not tentacles. We also suggest giving the drone a name in the “Vehicle Settings” of the separator control UI.

Some things to note:

  • Attaching a drone to the mothership be it fort or vehicle, the drone will inherit the paint job of the mothership. Therefore if you had two paint schemes one for the mothership blue slot 4 and another for the drone green slot 4 it would be overwritten.
  • Remember to set the AI prioritisation in the AI tab, as only the AI(s) with the highest priority will try to control the vehicle.

We have also updated and basically redone the CIWS system, and before you panic, any old values from your previous constructs will be transferred to the new system.

The new system works with weights if a projectile is within a weight range that you specify or not within “Main ruleset”, we can also set weights for the target that is firing those nasty projectiles at your construct from the “Locked target ruleset”. However, I think the most epic part is that you can now visually see what your CIWS is prioritising from your settings.

The red circles mean they are the highest prioritised missiles, while grey is ignored, green has the lowest weight. Other projectiles have colors in-between showing their relative weight. The red line is the currently targeted projectile. 

We have also integrated a mod from the Steam workshop by Cappycot, which tweaks up the cinematic camera and a few other things.

Now for the insanely long changelog!
This covers 6 Beta updates so I shall list them in version order, hoping that this will be a little simpler to read.

Beta 3.3.0

Additions

AI
  • Added a priority slider to the AI mainframe. On a vehicle, only the AI(s) with the highest priority will try to control the vehicle
APS
  • Added missing numbers for autoloaders, clips and recoil absorbers. 3,5,7 where applicable.
  • Some values for cost and weight were marginally incorrect in autoloaders and clips, they have been fixed.
Attachment Point
  • Added an attachment point block which combined with a separator block can attach a vehicle to another vehicles, turning them into one vehicle
Blocks
  • Anti-roll bar added to the ‘Land’ tab
Build marker
  • Transparency added to the build marker. The transparency level can be configured in the options.
Build mode
  • [FTD-673] Press T to place cursor as decoration. It creates a decoration on the nearest block with the current item mesh, position, rotation and color. Works with Undo/Redo.
  • [FTD-679] Customizable build cursor speed.
  • [FTD-679] It is now possible to double tap Space/Alt to move faster vertically.
Camera
  • Integration of the mod ‘Film the Depths’ which improves camera movement and removes the splash sound when the camera is entering the water when not in first person
  • Option to draw hole on water only when the camera is inside a pumped space. Enabled by default. Don’t forget to enable the visual effect in vehicle settings as well!
CIWS
  • [FTD-677] CIWS controller can now control any type of weapon, including fixed weapons.
  • [FTD-677] CIWS controller now uses customizable lists of rules to determine the weight of targets and which targets should be ignored. Every rule has a rule type, an input type, an input range, and weight scale if applicable. Old AMCC parameters are converted to a set of rules that have nearly the same behavior.
  • [FTD-677] CIWS controller UI now visualizes the weight of targets on screen, and indicates the current target and ignored targets.
  • [FTD-677] Idle aim modes for CIWS controller (none, aim at enemy, or keep weapon direction).
  • [FTD-677] Option to take target acceleration into account in CIWS controller.
  • All-in-one CIWS controller block with built-in failsafe and wireless receiver.
Decorations
  • Option (in Build Options) to hide the moving dash line when hovering cursor over a mimic or a decoration.
Lua
  • Added coroutine.yield, setmetatable and getmetatable
LWC
  • All-in-one local weapon controller block with built-in failsafe and wireless receiver.
Missiles
  • [FTD-677] Missile interceptors can now prioritise the target of the CIWS controller when it was fired.
  • [FTD-677] Missiles now deal kinetic damage to enemy missiles during collision.
Modding
  • Modding manual added (you can access it in the ‘Content’ tab, under the mod creation button)
Separator
  • Added a separator block that can be used to decouple part of a vehicle into a separate new vehicle or to reattach a decoupled vehicle back. See Jon’s patch notes for details of the function.
UI
  • New button in APS ammo customizer: changes every part in the shell to match the one last placed, between the position of the last change and the head
  • New button in APS ammo customizer: duplicates the part that was last changed, moving 1 step towards the head every click
  • New button in APS ammo customizer: fixes invalid shells by moving casings in front to the back of the shell and changing other invalid parts to the most common warhead in the shell
  • Right clicking a component slot in the missile editor now copies the last changed component into that slot

Changes

Blocks
  • All components can now be placed on subobjects with the exception of a few such as refineries.
CIWS
  • [FTD-677] CIWS controller now uses the same weapon discovery and priority logic as LWC.
  • [FTD-677] Renamed AMCC (anti missile cannon controller) to CIWS controller.
Impact
  • Harpoon missiles now do not do impact damage (cable connection is more reliable)
Lasers
  • Cavity block cost down from 60 to 50 materials for each cell occupied
  • Cavity lines lose their charge when blocks belonging to them get destroyed/removed
  • Every 10000 laser energy storage capacity now counts as a single pump for AP calculations
Space
  • A new visualisation of the space backdrop has been added
SpinBlock
  • Spinblock now has the same AC as a 1m turret.
Wheels
  • Wheel connectors now connect on the side relevant to their position e.g A left wheel connects on the right. They also now connect Up
  • Wheels suspensions is now using a spring (it’s only a visual change)

Fixes

BUGS-3176
  • Fixed breadboard maths evaluator not handling input from new components correctly
BUGS-3233
  • Fixed error on loading AI state
Drag
  • Fixed asymmetric clearance requirement on 1-4m, front and back wedge structural blocks
Duct
  • Fixed error with HP value of an alloy duct
Explosions
  • Contaiment for explosions is now working as intended, which will increase the damage at the center of the explosion, and also in contained space (it should improve APHE shells efficiency) [BUGS-3285]
Glass
  • All effects now visible through glass.
Impact
  • Fixed a problem causing missile impact damage to be too high after a coordinate origin shift
Localisation
  • Lots of localisation tweaks for the upcoming Chinese and Russian translated version of FtD.
Lua
  • Fixed incorrect error handling inside coroutines
Missile
  • Fixed missile laser emitters hitting themselves when the construct is moving backwards (green-red flickering is gone)
Steam
  • Improved steam distribution for boilers with multiple outputs and some setups with circular valves
Visuals
  • Fix decoration mesh contour so that it no longer lags behind when the vehicle is moving.
Wheels
  • Fixed an issue that caused fully compressed suspension force to be off at different time scales (causing too much jumping or sinking too low)
  • Which way the ‘Axle length extension’ slider moves the wheel now only depends on the block’s orientation (the side of the vehicle the wheel is on doesn’t matter anymore)

Beta 3.3.1 Diplomacy

Additions

AI
  • Add ‘maximum hull CoM shift before switching side’ parameter for Broadside 2.0 behavior. Useful for spreading damage evenly on both sides of the hull.
  • Add ‘minimum firepower fraction before switching side’ parameter for Broadside 2.0 behaviour. Useful for vehicles that heavily depend on side weapons.
Armor refit
  • New tab on the V menu: ‘Armor refit’. Changes all armor blocks from a specific material and color (or any color) to another material and color (or keeps the color)
Blocks
  • Added 2m,3m and 4m surge protector beams. These have adjusted values for the EMP test mentioned elsewhere in the notes.
Breadboard
  • Breadboard modules for reading/writing to custom axes added
Campaign
  • Added a mini-map to the diplomacy screen so you get an idea of where the different factions are before choosing your wars
  • Fleets are now teleported to the nearest non-hostile territory if the faction they are located in become hostile to the fleet’s owner, after a diplomacy council meeting
  • Markers on the campaign map to show who you are at war or allied with and where they are based
  • Player’s fleets now trigger a ‘secret emergency meeting’ when they stay near allied/neutral resource zones, or inside non-border tiles of neutral factions, for more than 120 seconds. In a ‘secret emergency meeting’, the offended nation and all their allies declare war against the player’s faction.
Clamp foot
  • Added a clampy foot which is an advanced form of the sticky foot
Control
  • [FTD-679] Add bindings profile which allows changing input bindings on the fly to accommodate different situations with a limited number of available bindings. For example, you may want to have a profile for 3rd person camera where the controller left stick is used for camera movement and another profile for aircraft where the left stick is used for pitch and roll.
  • [FTD-679] Change key binding system to support analog bindings, multiple bindings per action, and arbitrary key combinations.
  • [FTD-679] Support for controller input.
Decorations
  • Display the name of the current mesh in mimic and decoration UI.
  • Option to hide the mesh of the block that a decoration is tethered to.
Laser warners
  • ‘Apply to all’ button in laser warner UI.
Lua
  • Added _VERSION global constant to get the Lua language version
  • Lua commands for reading and writing to custom axes added
Power Priority
  • Power creators and users are now grouped by name. Each group is collapsed by default to avoid performance issues.
Separator
  • Added an option to the separator block to not separate unless the blocks it is separating are all repaired. Intended for use with ACBs
  • Added an option to the separator to, instead of separating any block attached to it, only separate attached blocks that are in front of the separator block. In this mode, the separated vehicle is allowed to be connected to the main vehicle in other places
Steam
  • Valves got a new option to disable pressure control. Makes the valve ignore breaches and pressure ranges, so one-off open/close commands from ACBs stick
UI
  • New buttons in V menu: ‘Remove decorations’ and ‘Remove subconstructs’

Changes

ACB
  • It is now possible to detect an object up to 5000m in front of the ACB [BUGS-3315]
Campaign
  • AI controlled factions that are allied will now work together to capture board sections from their enemies
  • AI won’t try to capture board sections that are far away as often
  • Changed AI intercepting of enemy fleets to have much better grouping and better logic in general
  • Changed how the AI goes about capturing board sections. It should now group better and not send weak individual vehicles to the player very often
  • Changed movement of AI fleets to be more smooth when following other fleets
  • It is now possible to capture board sections that don’t border your own board sections but that do border a board section of an ally. After capturing the board section, it is given to that ally
  • Limited how much forces the AI will stack to attack a single board section
CJE
  • Custom jet generator power/thrust up from 0.05 to 0.055
Decorations
  • Choose the color from a list of previews instead of using a slider.
  • Improved the mesh search function to be much faster
Ducts
  • Drag for 1×1, 3×3, 5×5 and 7×7 ducts up from 0.05 (4m wedge equivalent) to 0.4 (1m slope equivalent). They still don’t need clearance
EMP
  • As a test EMP has been adjusted by adjusting all materials and their values, the main change being HA no longer acts as a giant EMP sink and some materials don’t outright block EMP anymore. Feedback for this should be via the betatest feedback channel in discord. THIS IS JUST A TEST AND CAN BE REVERTED.
Fuel engines
  • Base power/material up from 500 to 520
  • Models for fuel parts have changed. Purely a visual change, this fixes issues with the old models and textures.
Loading
  • Faster loading of details in the blueprint browser.
Missile
  • Connectors and IIF blocks and ejectors now use the missile controller’s Q menu
  • Ejector addons and Lua transceivers now use the missile launcher’s Q menu
  • Missile harpoon and sticky flare attachment is more reliable
  • Missile winch max power up from 5000 to 24000
  • Allow selecting nose component on missiles with length of 1 or 2.
Separator
  • Removed the 2 second delay before a newly placed weapon can fire if the weapon is placed by a separator block
  • Separators have an 0.1s cooldown between separating and attaching
  • The separate ACB action has a 1s cooldown
Steam
  • Steam crank motor default RPM ratio up to 2
  • Steam stat page tracks steam jet thrust and material use
Visuals
  • Increase maximum low LOD distance from 1 km to 5 km.

Fixes

BUGS
  • BUGS-3348 Manoeuvre Hover no longer says ‘strafe is necessary’ when it is already ticked as being present
  • BUGS-2951 Fixed CRAM packing steps being 1 frame off
  • BUGS-3082 Updated HESH AP tooltip in the ammo customizer UI
  • BUGS-3105 Fixed steam valve tooltip reporting 10 pressure when attached to some empty pipe sections
  • BUGS-3236 Ducts now handle steam pipes the same way they do fuel exhausts
  • BUGS-3330 Fixed various ACB related bugs with separators
  • BUGS-3334 Increased separator block vehicle name field length to 100 characters
  • BUGS-3338 Fixed a problem causing a blank screen on avatar death
  • BUGS-3340 Fixed steam stat page displaying wrong values if multiple boilers were connected to turbines without pipes
  • BUGS-3355 Added a failsafe to make sure missiles never get stuck in the gantry at high speeds
  • BUGS-3356 Valve tooltip pressures improved when turbines are the highest pressure consumers in the pipe network attached to the given valve
  • BUGS-3358 Fixed a problem with steam valves attached to exhausted pipe sections without a boiler/tank
  • BUGS-3365 Fixed steam hull pipes acting as 6-way pipes
  • BUGS-3370 Fixed secondary torpedo propellers without primary propulsion breaking the missile stat page
  • BUGS-3242 Fixed an exception that could pop up in some situations
Camera
  • Fixed scroll wheel zoom not working with wireless camera.
Campaign
  • Fixed a bug where the AI would get stuck trying to do something it couldn’t do
  • Fixed all AI fleets stacking on top of each other when following a fleet
  • Fixed some cases where AI fleets would move out before all fleets where grouped up correctly
  • Fixed some cases where the AI would fail grouping when trying to capture a board section
  • Fixed some issues with AI trying to move fleets above their maximum altitude
  • Fixed various small issues with the AI, mostly related to path finding
CRAM
  • CRAM packers and pellets were set to have 20 detection signatures instead of 3. This is now fixed.
Docking station
  • Fixed vehicles still being marked as ‘taken’ after the docking station that had taken them has been deleted
  • The 1m docking station was using the 2m mesh. This is now fixed.
Drag
  • Fixed asymmetric clearance requirement on 1-4m, front and back wedge structural blocks
  • Fixed top clearance requirement for 1-4m, front and back wedge structural blocks (they had it set up wrong, leading to inconsistent behavior)
Drills
  • Resting drill bits no longer cause insane amounts of damage.
Editor
  • Resource zone starting material now editable in the editor.
Performance
  • Much faster loading of vehicle information UI with large vehicles.
Power priority
  • Fix power priority not getting saved for multipurpose lasers and simple drills.
Separator
  • Fixed advanced cannon ammo clips not keeping their shells after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed advanced cannon ammo intakes losing their ammo controller selection after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed blocks getting back all their hp after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed CRAM cannons resetting their reloading state after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed docking stations losing their target when separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed laser cavities losing their stored energy after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed missiles instantly reloading after being separator from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed PACs resetting their reloading state after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed simple weapons losing their ammo controller selection after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed simple weapons losing their shells and then instantly reloading after being separated from or attached to a vehicle
  • Fixed typo in the description and name. Removed 3m separators from build menu for now
Steam
  • Improved steam distribution for multiple boilers feeding into the same L pistons from both sides
  • M and L turbines are now functional with only 1 body element (for aesthetics, stats are bad)
Undo/Redo
  • Undo/redo for decorations placed using prefab.
Visuals
  • Stop AI path visualization from blocking mouse clicks in inventory.
Weapons
  • Fix bug that blocks a weapon from firing when it’s set to synchronize with itself.

Beta 3.3.2

Additions

Armor refit
  • New buttons in armor refit tool: refit 100 and refit 500 blocks
campaign
  • You can now trigger a diplomacy meeting if you have no enemies (or your enemies are dead)
CRAM
  • Added idle elevation option in the CRAM settings UI
  • New option in the fusing box: hollow point tip conversion. Switches kinetic to impact damage, at the conversion rate used in APS
Multiplayer
  • It is now possible to join lobbies through the Steam friends list if you are in the main menu
  • Joining a lobby through the steam friends list without the game running will start up the game and join the lobby if possible
Planets
  • You can now include a zip file of imagery with your planet when you upload it to the steam workshop. If your planet is called Mine.planet then make a zip file called Mine.zip and put into it files with names such as #mytag.jpg and #anothertag.png. You can use these hashtags for the diplomacy portraits.
Targeting
  • New slider for target prioritisation card: bonus priority multiplier for current target

Changes

Adventure
  • Adventure mode now allows 3rd person camera as per other modes
APS
  • AP modifier for soft heads up from 0.8 to 1
  • AP modifier for soft parts except flak up from 0.1 to 0.8
  • HE, frag, and EMP damage up by 10%. Also affects HEAT and HESH. Flak damage up by ~5%
  • Health modifier for soft heads up from 0.5 to 0.9
  • HP head switched from 1 AP and 1.2 kinetic modifiers to 1.2 AP and 1 kinetic
  • Penetration depth fuse speed modifier up from 1 to 1.1, same as solid bodies
  • Shaped charge and squash heads are now fast (1.6 speed modifier, instead of 1.45)
  • Shell health up by 25%
  • Speed modifier for slow heads up from 1.3 to 1.45
Blocks
  • Most blocks can now be placed on fortresses and structures. This is to make separators work, was also requested for testing parts.
Campiagn
  • Diplomacy meeting timer no longer advances during combat
  • In council meeting mode there is no longer relationship damage from moving in neutral territory belonging to someone you are not at war with.
  • Salvage increases its pick-up radius massively after two hours to de-clutter the map and keep the economy going.
CRAM
  • Gauge increase component costs up from 10 to 12
  • Hardener pellets cost up from 120 to 150
  • HE, frag, and EMP pellet cost up from 150 to 180
  • Health for each HE/EMP/frag payload packed up from 3 to 3.6
  • Kinetic damage for each hardener payload packed up from 10 to 16
  • Kinetic damage for each HE/EMP/frag payload packed up from 4 to 5
  • Material cost and recoil for each payload packed up by 20%
  • Packer costs up from 20 to 25
  • Payload compactor cost up from 20 to 25
  • Shell power for each HE/frag/EMP payload packed up from 18 to 22
Engine
  • FTD boot-up process now begins in the launcher and is more multi-threaded and concurrent. It should take less time to boot the game up.
  • FTD now uses Steam Multiplayer and the Data Relay Network. The old networking system is no longer available. Joining friends is much easier now and NAT punch through and port opening should no longer be necessary.
  • Now using Unity 2020.3.22, instead of Unity 2017.4.25.
Fuel engines
  • Exhaust tooltips now show the full name of the part, instead of the generic ‘Engine exhaust’
HEAT
  • HEAT base metric up to 10/9 the old value
  • HEAT damage up to 8/7 the old value
  • Final spalling metric now scales with TOTAL_ARMOR^0.47, instead of TOTAL_ARMOR^0.5 (lower loss against lots of armor)
Missiles
  • Damage done down by 10%
  • Reinforced body health modifier down from 2 to 1.6
  • Remote guidance now has a base error, up to 8m along each axis. Signal processor reduces base error by 50% (also affects error from not having enough GPP)
Modding
  • Most constant files use plain fields instead of expression bodies
Multiplayer
  • You will now only take ownership of nearby weapons if you actually have their weapon slot selected
PAC
  • Damage done for 1 energy used up by ~4.5%
  • Piercing AP up from 50 to 60. DAMAGE * AP stays the same (except the 4.5% buff all PACs get)
Projectiles
  • All projectiles lose power as they are damaged, down to 20% when they reach 0 health. HE/frag/EMP/HEAT/HESH get their base power reduced, kinetic/impact damage lose AP
Sensor scrambler
  • Error added to remote and lua missiles is 12 * (INTERFERENCE_STRENGTH/20000)^0.45 meters. Interference strength can go over 20000 from multiple scramblers
  • Interference strength and radius is the same for missiles as for detection components
  • Material cost up from 100 to 200
Sound
  • Changed simple lasers to use the sound of standard continuous lasers
Steam
  • Armor for M and L turbine parts up from 20 to 30
  • Boiler controllers generate heat again, temperature scales with OUTPUT^0.8. Medium boilers run cooler than smalls, large boilers than mediums for the same output.
  • Large boiler armor up from 20 to 30, output up from 22500 to 24000 (capacity and material use follow the increase)
  • M boiler controllers can be attached to M boilers from any direction, including the sides
  • Max kinetic loss for S crank parts up from 140 to 180 (translates to ~5% lower max output)
  • Small boiler armor down from 20 to 15, cost up from 10 to 20

Fixes

AIO LWC
  • Fixed AIO LWC not using processing power for attached remote missiles
APS
  • Reducing length of a propellant casing also reduces material cost
Armor refit
  • Armor refit tool stops if there are not enough materials in campaign (so doesn’t remove blocks/get stuck when trying to place something in a position with all neighbours removed)
BUGS
  • BUGS-1142 Fixed fins possibly adding an upwards force higher than gravity for missiles not under thrust
  • BUGS-2433 Fixed campaign favorite build menu types going out of the bounds of their panel
  • BUGS-2791/2822 In mouse build mode blocks larger than 1x1x1 get the proper offset in every orientation
  • BUGS-3162 ‘Warp now’ button in the warp drive UI now only warps up to the set target distance
  • BUGS-2889 Custom jet engines and steam jets not output the proper force with a power scale below 1
  • BUGS-3196 Particle cannon UI label improvement
  • BUGS-3198 Airplane idle thrust works as it should again
  • BUGS-3205 Fixed direct connections from boilers to pistons and turbines ignoring attachment points
  • BUGS-3217 Fixed force from gravrams and warp drives being lower at low game speed
  • BUGS-3230 Fixed APS barrel recoil tooltips not updating on caliber change
  • BUGS-3263 Wheels with a negative power scale and negative drive now do not ignore the wheel speed caps
  • BUGS-3296 Impact damage can now possibly spread to every cell next to a block larger than 1x1x1 (checked the 6 cardinal directions from the origin of the block before)
  • BUGS-3329 Following review, blocks have their mesh shown or as a general block as appropriate in the build marker.
  • BUGS-3337 All detection parts have drag blocker removed. All detection drag set to 0.2 from 1. This should make creating planes and subs easier.
  • BUGS-3373 Advanced cannon ammo intakes do not show no space in rack messages during normal operation
  • BUGS-3378 Fixed being able to use multiple mantlets with a single advanced cannon
  • BUGS-3402 Fixed some cases where fuel engines do not distribute exhaust gases between multiple exits. A pipe section is only obstructed if all possible exits are obstructed
  • BUGS-3424 Fixed pressure readouts for some special steam piping setups
  • BUGS-3433 Fixed the tooltip for advanced cannons with a shell loaded but no intakes showing 1 available intake
  • BUGS-3436 Fixed outdated planar shield projector description
  • BUGS-3455 Refinery L pipes are rotated properly.
  • BUGS-3254 A vehicle will only go into the ‘too damaged’ destruction state if it has actually been damaged (to avoid slow-building mega vehicles from being destroyed) (affects Obelisk mode multiplayer).
  • BUGS-3448 You can no longer teleport using the teleport avatar item when in a chair or being carried by out of play force
  • BUGS-3210 STL export has funky position and rotation. Now fixed. If vehicle has an origin block that will be used
  • BUGS 3160 AI UI manoeuvre screen now displays correctly at small window sizes
  • BUGS-3214 Helispinner UI now shows the yaw and roll rotation settings and the default resting spin rate sliders
  • BUGS-3453 Fixed resource zone description typos
  • BUGS-3404 Youtube is working again
  • BUGS-3442 Fixed a bug where broken decorations on APS barrels (and some other places) can stop systems working
CJE
  • Exhaust bonus for custom jet generators is reduced if the exhaust is blocked
Decoys
  • Radar decoys no longer has an attachment point facing up. This was a bug
Feet
  • Clampy feet should now properly disconnect when killed
Fortress
  • Optimization of the power management for the Sky fortress turbines [BUGS-3282]
Frags
  • Fixed frag trails being connected to a far away point on spawning
Impact
  • Impact damage now looks for a different block to start from if the original was already destroyed on another thread
Lasers
  • Fixed some laser setups using less power than they should at low game speeds
Missiles
  • Ejector meshes are now the correct size, centered, and aren’t floating.
  • When missiles take damage their HE damage is reduced using the standard scaling, instead of simply being divided
Multiplayer
  • Fixed campaign resource cap not being constant in multiplayer
  • Fixed chat text getting highlighted/selected for no reason
  • Fixed clients not rendering harpoon lines
  • Fixed control inputs not being synchronized for fortresses
  • Fixed custom axes not being synchronized in multiplayer
  • Fixed various crashes in multiplayer
PAC
  • Fixed explosive mode damage after attenuation not using HE scaling (range0 damage was simply multiplied by attenuation loss)

Separators
  • Fixed separators breaking steam engines both on the separated vehicle and the main vehicle
  • Fixed separators not working in multiplayer
Steam
  • Fixed crank generator and propeller labels being switched in the block stat overview

Beta 3.3.3

Additions

APS
  • Added KINETIC_DAMAGE * AP stat to shell customizer
Missiles
  • Added missiles fired/hit counter tooltips to missiles launchpads and controllers

Changes

APS
  • HE, EMP, and frag head kinetic modifier up from 1 to 1.2
  • Heavy head kinetic modifier up from 1.65 to 1.75
  • Hollowpoint AP modifier down from 1.2 to 1.15
  • Sabot head and body health modifier down from 1 to 0.9
  • Soft part health modifier down from 0.4 to 0.35
Armor refit
  • Armor refit tool now shows a warning on the hud if a lack of materials caused it to stop
Campaign
  • New campaigns now have a 1 hour period before the first council is automatically triggered. You can trigger one yourself before that.
  • Reduced the reward/cost for diplomacy options to 80% of original value.
CRAMs
  • Removed automatic orientation packers from the inventory tab
Missiles
  • Laser designator receiver drag modifier from 0.6 to 0.2 (same as thumper and single pixel IR seeker)
  • Laser emitter health down from 900 to 800, armor up from 40 to 50, cost down from 150 to 100
  • Laser emitters now send out a position estimate for the last target after losing it. After 1 second of the beam not hitting anything they revert to the old behavior
  • Missile smoke trail length scales with missile size, not only velocity
  • Remote guidance has a fixed 3m max error, instead of 4-8. Max sensor scrambler error up to 24m and signal processor reduces that to 50%
  • Scaling for impact damage from reinforced bodies back to be ~equal to a HE/frag/EMP warhead at 400 m/s, instead of 360

Fixes

Avatars
  • Improved avatar motion over slopes, and stopped avatar being above to move in 1m high crawl spaces (which results in the camera being stuck in the block above)
Bugs
  • BUGS-2917 Laser guided missiles show in the stat panel that there is no distance limit for a lock
  • BUGS-2823 Wheels placed with prefabs now won’t attach to existing tracks on the vehicle
  • BUGS-3161 Fixed laser emitters not registering valid hits in some cases
  • BUGS-3186 Fixed failsafes not working with short range laser combiners
  • BUGS-3357 Steam piston outputs are also updated when a non-steam block is permanently added/removed
  • BUGS-3460 Fixed hover maneouvre not handling negative azi for the forward/strafe limit slider
  • BUGS-3470 Max value for secondary and tertiary drive ACB conditions is in the [-1, 1] range, instead of [0, 1]
  • BUGS-3481 Altitude fuses for missiles work again
  • BUGS-3485 Reducing gunpowder casing length for APS also reduces clip explosion power
  • BUGS-3499 Steam networking message buffer increased in size to allow large save files to be sent to clients in multiplayer
  • BUGS-3257 Sticky feet UI now shows the friction slider again, allowing direct control.
Lasers
  • 0Q lasers with a minimum damage set will also check if total remaining laser energy dipped below 1 before pumps recharged. Fixes bursts with some 0Q setups
  • Output regulator ‘Minimum shot energy’ text fixed, it’s ‘Minimum shot damage’
  • Output regulators burst threshold default set from 0 to 80, no longer adjusted when changing minimum damage. Only matters for lasers with a minimum damage set to be over the default 0
Missiles
  • Improved laser emitter hit detection
Physics
  • Certain collisions between large vehicle should no longer massively slow down the game or cause a crash. The improvment will vary per situation and in some rare cases there might even be a slight decrease in performance, but in many of the worst cases you can expect a large improvement
Steam
  • Direct turbine/piston connections added to the sides of L boilers

Beta 3.3.4

Changes

CRAM
  • Time after first impact fuse default time from 0.3s to 0.05s
Ducts
  • 3×3, 5×5 and 7×7 ducts now have the cost as 10, 30 and 60 individual blocks of the same material
  • 3×3, 5×5 and 7×7 ducts now have the same health and weight as 7, 18 and 30 individual blocks of the same material

Fixes

Bugs
  • BUGS-3479 Target prioritisation scores below 0 get divided by (1 + CURRENT_TARGET_BONUS), instead of multiplied by it
  • BUGS-3479 Fixed railgun magnets and decorations attached to mantlets flipping with some specific setups
  • BUGS-3502 Switching between solid/HE/flak/EMP bodies now immediately updates the mesh of the customizer
  • BUGS-3504 Sabot, supercavitation and disruptor modifiers all affect the base power for HE/flak, before scaling
  • BUGS-2931 Larger wheels can now set their spring force multiplier to larger values in order to better offset a collection of small wheels at the other end of the vehicle
  • BUGS-2443 Avatar now climbs ladder at a sensible speed. Ladders in a 1×1 space now work (rather than needing an extra free space behind the ladder). Moving through an open hatch at the top of the ladder now works (but requires a jump when at the top of the ladder).
  • BUGS-3492, BUGS-3418 Hide original mesh now also works for decorations on barrels, spinners, control surfaces. STL file writing now shows barrels/spinners/control surfaces properly.
  • BUGS-3298 Fixed an error where failures to write a log message to disk would create more requests to write those failure messages to disk
  • BUGS-3309, REQ-1817 Added a page select for managing uploaded workshop entries and viewing subscriptions. This means you can now see more than the first 50.
  • BUGS-3190 Fixed an issue where wheels could ‘pop’ below the ground and cease exerting suspension forces
  • BUGS-3473 Youtube audio fixed
Ducts
  • Fixed 7×7 alloy and HA ducts only having ~60% the weight they should, compared both to smaller ducts and other 7x7s

Beta 3.3.5

Additions

Avatars
  • Released an alternative avatar called ‘Droid’, and an Animation Block where you can animate him. It can be controlled via the breadboard, or manually
Blocks
  • Added Applique corner block for diagonal edges.

Fixes

Bugs
  • [BUGS-2622] Multiplayer Info Screen (MIS) (F2) is now rebindable. F1 is no longer hard bound to the instance information screen (IIS). MIS & IIS now both correctly toggle on/off rather than stacking several copies. Chat mode (F5) is now rebindable. HUD toggle (F9) is now rebindable.
  • [BUGS-3495] Detection equipment no longer momentarily forgets its visible targets when it is unlinked and relinked to the mainframe
  • [BUGS-2899] Torpedoes will limit their aim point altitude when they lose target, to stop them trying to jump out of water
  • [BUGS-3163] the FOV slider is now correctly marked as being the vertical FOV.
  • [BUGS-1975] the old Complex Controller (and old drives) code now runs in the same thread as the newer control stuff, which removes jitters in controlled by these historic ‘stim drives’.
Propulsion
  • [BUGS-3360] Ions, standard jets and steam jets no longer apply force directly to the COM when placed within 1 or 2 meters of the line through the COM. This is seen a confusing and historic piece of code that is not really needed any more, and did not take account of propulsion offset angles.

Beta 3.3.6

Additions

Camo
  • You can now add camouflage texture to applique as well
CRAMs
  • Added a button to instantly reload all CRAMs in the designer’s refill menu (the one triggered by holding Q)

Changes

Campaign
  • Changed the format of the saved pathfinding data used for campaigns. The old format will still be loaded correctly, but the new format will load much faster. Worlds saved will automatically use the new format
Dediblades
  • Armor for dedicated helicopter blade parts up from 5 to 40
Diplomacy
  • Removed most options in the council meetings where the player would only be at war with factions far away from the player
Ducts
  • 3×3/5×5/7×7 ducts cost as much as 14/40/80 individual blocks of the same material
EMP
  • Surge protector EMP damage taken up from 1% to 5%
Missiles
  • Torpedo sonar and propeller component health modifier up from 1 to 1.4
  • Water resistance for missiles down by ~10%
Options
  • Added default lighting intensity options for reflection probe on and reflection probe off cases, with a button for resetting to default

Fixes

Avatars
  • Droid model now sits at the correct position in the chair
Bugs
  • BUGS-3510 Helium pump interpolation of buoyancy at maximum altitude is fixed. This is a minor change.
  • BUGS-3157 APS shell module parameters are properly synced in multiplayer
  • BUGS-3506 Some setups with serial steam pistons do not report being blocked when placing/removing a non-steam block
  • BUGS-3507 Fixed hiding the mesh on APS barrels making them functionally not count as a barrel
  • BUGS-3509 Fixed forced fire from ACBs getting around the rate controller of APS
  • BUGS-3069 Issue where initial tensor is first calculated for a spawned vehicle based on the COM of the main hull only, not the sub-objects. Now fixed to always include sub-objects.
  • BUGS-2839 wing blocks underwater now gradually ramp up to the x5 lift force rather than jumping immediately which can cause physics instability

Beta 3.3.7

Additions

Applique
  • A lot of applique corner blocks added

Changes

HEAT & HESH
  • HEAT and HESH direct damage penalty down from 2 to 1.75 (means having gaps before soft blocks is slightly better)
HESH
  • Armor modifier exponent down from 0.47 to 0.46
  • Squash head cone angle up from 60° to 85°

Fixes

Bugs
  • BUGS-3490APS tooltip now shows the first loader with a shell can load, falls back to the first loader with a shell if none are ready
  • BUGS-3525 Detection components take 50% EMP damage and absorb 10 EMP (most were 0%/10, some 60%/10). Coincidence rangefinders are 25%/10
  • BUGS-3493 Fixed issue where some decorations shared the same vertex count as each other and would not render properly when swapped in
  • BUGS-2324 debris no longer interacts with vehicles at all. This stops destroyed turret debris glitching out the movement of the hull.
  • BUGS-3524 Fixed the broken flak head APS shell mesh that stopped some vehicles from loading incorrectly

Beta 3.3.8

Fixes

Bugs
  • BUGS-3527 Large reversed launcher now properly mirrors.
  • BUGS-2891 Fixed steam crank transmissions not taking their gear ratio into account when sanity checking their current kinetic energy after a change
  • BUGS-884 Removing an AI behavior card will also remove the last behavior added if the limit if exceeded, and the construct is not damaged