Drop Pod This one has been on my list for a long time. There is a room on the Atlantis called the Pod Bay that has always been empty. This has been a fun one. I added a new vehicle called a Drop Pod. The model was designed in the Designer.

• Drop pod is rocket propelled, like a space rocket.
• Flight controls use the Space Rocket controls.
• Drop pod is manufactured at aircraft factories.
• Drop pod has retractable landing gear. The default key for this is I. You also get an on-screen 'Landing Gear' button. That button appears and the state of landing gear is depicted on the screen when the current vehicle has retractable gear.
• New Aircraft Factory and Colony Aircraft Factory blueprints are included. They now have a drop pod shop so there is a place for the drop pod to be parked when manufactured. There is a dozen parking spots so there will be a lot of pods handy when a ship needs to load them.
• Buildings do not fetch drop pods to drop pod parking spots, in case the aircraft factory is used for some other purpose.
• A 'Launch' button appears when you are in a drop pod aboard a spacecraft. The engine does not have to be on. Launch is immediate, placing the pod just outside the bottom extent of the hull heading away at 200m/s with its engine on and gear retracted.
• Recovery system can recover drop pod if the ship has a drop pod parking spot.
• Atlantis was updated to carry drop pods in the Pod Bay.

The retractable gear was fun. The pod falls over on its side when the gear is not down. Landing is fun when you get a feel for the pod. Standing in the pod looking out the big front window, you almost have the feeling of being a superhero flying in and landing on your feet. Don't forget to put the gear down. This work caused me to flesh out the vehicle design portion of the Designer quite a bit. It isn't ready for the general public but it can make vehicles that I can use. This created two new to-do items. 1) Troops need to know how to fly drop pods, which also teaches them how to fly space rockets. 2) Order needed to launch drop pods to a specific long lat, that can be selected off the map or input directly. I am currently working on a bug related to drop pods. I am aboard an Atlantis decelerating from about 58,000m/s. When the pod launches it gets destroyed by a collision with the ship. Mine A new Mine 10 blueprint was added. It features an underground area that is accessible via turbo lift from the building. Capitol Buildings It was so nice to be able to go inside the undersea capitol building. I designed Capitol Spire for habitable climates and Colony Capitol Command Center for harsh environments. They feature interior spaces. Capitol Spire has a turbo lift. Parts Columns Parts window stopped letting the icon-only columns be very narrow. This is a waste of space. Fixed. Workshop Blueprints All of my spacecraft and building blueprints in the Steam Workshop have been updated, with the exception of the new aircraft factories. I just finished updating the blueprints before this update. I will update them in the workshop eventually. Turbo Lift Jig Turbo lift jig is broken after cutting through a hull. Fixed bug when turbo lift part was in an unexpected state during the cut. Designer Item Placer The item placer in the Designer does not remember my preferred on/off state for each new item. Fixed. Turbo Lift Bogus Error I designed a building with a turbo lift. The finalize process kept telling me the turbo lift was outside the hull but it wasn't. Fixed. Unpublish Blueprint Cannot unpublish my own blueprint from the workshop if the blueprint is not in my local library. Fixed. Login Whereabouts Login whereabouts information should say if an avatar is in a designer. Done. Pose on Sailboat The sailboat is supposed to allow different body poses besides standing. It doesn't. Fixed. Sitting is a great pose because you can see under the sail. You can also lie prone. Creatures Attack Creatures attacked me when I was inside a drop pod. It is considered an enclosed vehicle. Fixed bug that allowed creatures to see people inside enclosed vehicles. Design Modified State When I use the designer in the game, it always warns me that I will lose changes, even if I just saved the drawing. Fixed.

[ 2024-04-13 00:30:41 CET ] [ Original post ]