From the Depths

Brilliant Skies Ltd. Developer

Brilliant Skies Ltd. Publisher

2020-11-06 Release

Action Indie Strategy RPG Adventure Simulation SingleplayerTags

Game News Posts: 204

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse

Very Positive (10118 reviews)

http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com

Steam Store

The Game includes VR Support

Public Linux Depots:

From The Depths Linux 64 [973.8 M]

Available DLCs:

From the Depths - Steel Striders Anime Girls character pack
From the Depths - Gone to Sea DLC

Alphatest 4.2.5

Alpha build Live 4.2.5

Access the alpha builds by going into the Steam library, find the game, right click on it and go to properties. Click on the betas tab and choose alphatest alphatesst Just remember that this doesn't always hold the latest version of the game and should only be used to test things. On a stable update always remember to swap back to stable.

Fixes:

Animation block, Removed errors when trying to spawn a locked avatar type. UI compass, Fixed the azimuth positions of enemy markers on the in game compass. UI, The screen no longer rotates when the mouse cursor is moved to a different screen/application. CRAM, New CRAM 2 way connector now connects front and down instead of right and down, as per other 'corner style' connector pieces/pipes. You'll need to replace any of these. Missiles, Fixed exceptions that can occur when gantry blocks are deleted in certain positions. LWC, Deleting an LWC that had an active failafe check should no longer lock the weapon.

Changes:

Missiles, New proximity fuse component now uses 8 hitscan rays to find a target and will move the detonation point onto the target. EMP, incendiary, and HE move to the contact point. Frag moves to the contact point and is directed towards the contact point. Thump is also applied for consistency at the contact point. This means it should achieve the optimal hit on the target regardless of payload type removing any potential for a "noob trap."

[ 2025-01-22 14:47:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 4.2.4

Changes (These can be rebound) Key binds, Numpad 2 is no longer bound to camera-mode-cycle which is now purely TAB. Numpad 2 is reserved specficially for construct-mode-camera. Key binds, Numpad 0 is bound specifically to the free-camera mode. Construct camera, Construct camera now has a maximum of 9 cameras per user and cameras can be re-ordered and easily activated/added/removed from the UI. Construct camera, The default camera for a vehicle now has roll and pitch stabilisation enabled by default, with buttons on the UI to disable them or add yaw stabilisation. Construct camera, Reduced the smooth duration in the construct camera orbit distance scroller. Drills, Components of the drill system are now immune to impact damage like rubber to make them more viable. Fixes Regression, Fixed the UI issue in the width value of the prefab window. Saves, Construct saving now has a check to make sure that the save is valid before overwriting the original file as the JSON serialisation has been known to fail and write empty white space. Fill tool, Fixed an issue with the fill tool when filling far from the origin of the game world. CRAM, Two way connector now has a mirror part. Pivots, Pivot parts should now render as decorations correctly. APS, 7m clip now uses the correct mesh. Add Modding, Added to the ExampleMod all the other UnityEngine.[X]Module.Dll DLLS that may be required for mods to reference. Missile, Added a basic proximity fuse component back into game. Campaign Neter Bucanneer (DWG): Standardized weaponry to Sven Kno CRAM weaponry, minor aesthetic update. Coyote (DWG): Added deco to missiles, fixed LWC parameters. Jacobs Folly (DWG): Fixed turret rotation getting stuck Ransack (DWG): Added torpedo decos, adjusted shield activation range Sailfish (DWG): New Sven Kno thrustercraft; a highly-aggressive, swift monstrosity that gets in close to incinerate its targets. Godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 35-45. Tug of War (DWG): Replaced some reinforced wood with regular wood. Walrus (DWG): Partial overhaul using Riverhome hull as a basis; slightly cheaper with more appropriate weaponry. Cargo craft so no difficulties to note. Original Walrus has been converted to an SM version for story missions. Harrow (WF): Overhauled water skimmer; gets in close to broadside with a powerful flamethrower. Difficulties unchanged. Pandemonium (WF): Overhauled water skimmer; a ramming craft outfit with your typical WF melee arsenal of sawblades. Medium difficulty, adventure difficulty 35-45. Veles (WF): Fixed APS being incorrect gauge. Wrecker (WF): Slight aesthetic change Fear (TG): Updated interceptor positions so they can properly fire. Pearl Swarm (TG): Retired, replaced by Tolerance Swarm. Tolerance (TG): Changed to now be a swarm design, which spawns 5 of them. Anode (LH): Overhauled; a durable, PAC-equipped submarine that broadsides from afar. Medium difficulty, adventure difficulty 35-55. Candela (LH): Overhauled; large carrier-style water skimmer that still retains the firepower and mobility of their other large skimmers. Godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 65-85. Chrysoprase (LH): Fixed EMP protection, slightly improved primary weapon. Coulomb (LH): Added a combat subroutine for fighting submarines. Gigawatt (LH): Updated detection, added a combat subroutine for fighting submarines. Hydrovolt (LH): Much less susceptible to self damage with PAC. Megawatt (LH): Minor detection updates. Superradiance (LH): New LH water skimmer; when you hear the gun charge, pray. Godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 65-85. Thunderbolt (LH): Updated movement, minor deco update. Craftsman (SS): Fixed an issue that made it dive into the water. Submarine Pen (SS): Produced submarines should no longer clip into the structure. Lowly Skybase (GT): New decorative structure, replaces Rusted Ram Small House. Hydroponics Spire (GT): New decorative structure, replaces Hydroponics Farm. Neutrino (SD): New drone; a drone-like design that gets in close to zap with laser weaponry. Easy difficulty, adventure difficulty 1-20. Pulsar (SD): Overhauled; frontsider thrustercraft with burst plasma and laser weapons. Easy difficulty, adventure difficulty 20-30. Ashes Accuser (WF): General improvements. Acolyte (WF): Complete internal overhaul improving the gun/armor and adding anti air capabilities Inferno (WF): Fixed targeting issues when multiple enemies are present. Pariah (WF): Improved the shell for the main gun Rapture (WF): Fixed an AI issue Ravager (WF): Added ramming against smaller targets and laser defense Saviour (WF): Fully rebuilt to be more like the Zealots style, difficulties unchanged.

[ 2025-01-20 13:53:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 4.2.3

Hey everyone, in case you didn't notice. Stable is now on 4.2.3. Nick's been pulling extra shifts to listen to feedback and concerns and has addressed a lot of these with the changes below. Thanks to everyone who engaged in a constructive manner. Happy New Year to everyone when it comes and to those already in the future! Add Simultaneous mode option where UHJK (or any other combination) can be used for vehicles and WASD for the camera/build mode simultaneously with no need to toggle between vehicle controls on and off. See the Vehicle Key mapping tab of the UI for more details. Tutorials, Added a voice-over volume slider to the build guides (there is already one in the tutorials) Change Crosshair, Tidied up the drawing of the crosshair. It no longer appears in keyboard based building mode. Camera, Warping the avatar to a vehicle will make that vehicle the focus of the construct cam so that when you toggle into the construct cam it is your focus. Fix UI, Fixed the mouse button function messages so that they are correct for mouse-based building. (LC = place, RC = remove) Camera, Projectile camera no longer disables weapons. Detection, Detection UI no longer goes crazy when the detection equipment being viewed is destroyed. Regression, AC viewer tool now calculates stacked armour AC correctly again. Camera, Focusing on enemy units now focuses on the center of mass of the enemy unit, not their origin. AI, Fixed the enemy simulator. Regression, Got the remote control and remote terminal working again. Regression, Made it easier to build a new vehicle from free cam by looking at empty space and pressing B. Camera, Tab now correctly comes out of projectile focus mode. Camera, Fixed residual camera movement being applied after resetting the view in the construct cam, making cam swapping more reliable.

[ 2024-12-31 23:07:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

4.2.3 (minor patch)

Little update to the cross hair elements of the UI.. no cross hair is now shown in keyboard based building and none in general views when the mouse cursor is active. Fixed a bit of misleading UI text that stated incorrectly the purpose of left and right click when in mouse based building.

[ 2024-12-31 14:15:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

4.2.2 now live

Patch 4.2.2 address some of the feedback we received about the camera update. One of the most common complaints was the remapping of vehicle controls to WASD (etc) such that camera/build controls and vehicle controls share the same keyboard space and are toggled with CTRL. i.e. CTRL is pressed to swap between camera controls (and Q and E as interaction and fleet control UI) and vehicle controls. This patch addresses that issue by providing a button in the Vehicle Key Map tab of the options menu to rebind the vehicle to UHJK (etc). There is also a button to bind back to WASD (etc) if you wish. When the bindings are in UHJK (etc) the game has no conflicts between WASDQE for camera/UI/building and vehicle control and as such activates SIMULTANEOUS mode in which CTRL is unused and both camera/UI/building commands and vehicle commands are executable simultaneously- the way FTD has always been. Another complaint was that warping the avatar to a vehicle did not make that vehicle the focus of the construct-cam. That's been fixed. This means that when you press tab to swap from avatar to construct cam your construct cam will be looking at the construct your avatar is on. Thanks for raising that issue. Projectile cam no longer disables weapon use and can be tabbed out of as per other modes. And I fixed a residual camera movement that made it quite hard to tab out of construct cam immediately after moving the camera around. Various other small fixes are included in the patch, and the previous patches dealt with things like the avatar jumping out of chairs whenever space was pressed. Thanks for bearing with me whilst I gather up all this feedback and address as much of it as I can. Happy holidays to you all, Nick Smart, Project lead

[ 2024-12-30 22:31:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Christmas, Camera and Controls Stable Update 4.2

HELLO DEPTHIANS. Wishing you all a great Holiday period! Before I begin...

ALPHA TEST, BETA TEST AND EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH USERS. CHANGE TO STABLE.

The Christmas Campaign is live and updated in this build. Thankyou to all of the Christmas builders!

Microsoft OneDrive continues to be a royal pain. If you are experiencing issues like crashes or strange behaviours in game then please use the support system or go to the help channel in the discord or give me (Sean) a DM on there and I'll try to help! There is a workaround to bypass your Documents shell path if need be until we have a way to move the profile to avoid this in the future. Many people assume they don't have it when infact windows updates have stealth installed it and it has indeed hijacked a shell path. The issue is that it places file locks which prevents the game from being to access files it needs resulting in all manner of problems. Moving on!

Unity6

Under the hood we are on now on Unity 6, this did result in some changes to certain text colours and fonts. We've changed a few that were reported but the rest we are ok with. The change to Unity 6 may allow us in the future to move over to the Universal Render Pipeline but that's a different story for another time.

Camera Update

Rambot

So Rambot is now something that is an optional spawn (unless the scenario or instance is designed to have it spawn automatically. You can spawn Rambot by pressing Shift + G by default. It's best to do this on a focused vehicle.

World Editors

There are new options for spawning on spawn points and for the instance itself. You'll want to select "Player AND avatar" on any spawn points so that both the camera and the avatar can spawn there.

Heart Stones

Heart stone energy now governs Rambot's weapons. Being on a friendly vehicle will preserve the energy state but a heart stone is needed to recharge. Depending on the game mode Rambot can still die if energy is 0.

Focusing

To select a vehicle to focus on, we look at it and left click on it. This then focuses the vehicle and uses a default orbit camera that is placed above the skin of the vehicle (if no other camera has been set.) The little green marker here is our camera position. To unfocus the vehicle just left click anywhere off of it.

You can also use these buttons or their keybinds to traverse and focus on other vehicles or cameras. Pressing Tab will cycle through any configured cameras. Camera positions can be edited using these buttons (yes they are buttons) in middle mouse mode or you can set the position of your current camera using Ctrl + Tab by default at the position you are at. Binoculars are now built in to the camera. Just use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

Driving

Once focused we can take control of a vehicle if a vehicle controller exists on it by pressing Left Ctrl by default.

(Note all keybinds are editable in the options)

When we are in control a green vignette appears.

Again the opacity of this is configurable in the options.

Please note the default vehicle control keys have changed to something people are more familiar with in other games. W,A,S,D.

If you have multiple controllers use this to swap to the one you want to use while driving.

Weapons

If we right click we can control weapons. Control of weapons is indicated by a red vignette. Please note you can also click on the weapon groups now on their icons and there are more of them. Enemy information is now displayed when you place the mouse over them. The location and size of this can be configured in the Misc section of the options. You can focus on an enemy and order an attack by left clicking on it. To unfocus just left click anywhere off it.

Tools Mode

Pressing Shift + T by default will enter tools mode. Here you can access tools such as the spray can for working with free cam instead of being tied to Rambot.

Advanced Camera Placement and Editing

In camera edit mode you can add more advanced options to the camera. Add new camera positions, stabilise its pitch,yaw and roll, keep it above water and so on. By manipularing these you can create unique viewpoints that mirror other games. Like creating an arcade plane viewpoint or a boat view akin to world of warships.

Feedback can be provided in the discord. (Link is on the launcher.) Please make sure you aren't making duplicates by using the search function before you post.

Other Patch Notes

A lot of bugfixes and work hasn't been logged properly. We've been split between projects (announcement of a new game in Januaryish. No it is not FTD related.) and had a high amount of staff changes. Apologies for this but many, many bugs reported have been addressed. Thanks to everyone who has reported them!

General Changes

Tutorials, The initial tutorial has been split into two tutorials: one for camera controls and one for avatar controls. Other tutorials have been changed as needed. CRAM, Changed base lifetime to 60 from 40. CRAM, Changed mortar turn rate from 2 degrees to 8 degrees to increase mortar effectiveness. You'll still need good detection to make them work. Missiles, Changed cluster holders and ejectors to have slightly higher health. Extensions now have a significant health boost and higher ammo cost. Subject to changes in future based on feedback.

General Additions

CRAM, 2,3,4,5 way connectors added. Build guides, Voice overs have now been recorded and added to all build guides. Diplomacy, Changed diplomacy material amount given to 30% value from 80% value. Armour Refit, Added warning about requiring materials to perform the refit.

General Fixes

Weapons, Fixed aiming issue where many weapons would fire despite not being aimed at the target (simple weapons, plasma, potentially CRAM, APS and flamer tool.

Cameras

Additions

Camera, The camera-system has a new mode that can easily focus a construct with customisable camera points

Changes

Camera, There is a specific free-camera mode that can be used to move the camera around the world Camera, Construct camera points can be set to be maintained above water Camera, Construct camera points can be set to hide your vehicle during weapon aiming if your construct gets in the way to maintain your line of sight Camera, Construct camera points can be set to visually tunnel through your vehicle during weapon aiming to maintain your line of sight Camera, Construct camera points can be set to move forwards when aiming to maintain your line of sight Camera, Construct camera points can be set to ignore vehicle roll, pitch, or yaw. Camera, Construct camera points can be named / moved / rotated. Camera, Construct camera points can be easily 'saved' using CTRL + TAB to snap them to the current position of the camera Camera, Construct camera points can be easily 'loaded' using TAB to snap the camera to the saved position Camera, Construct camera points can be easily moved using WASD ALT and SPACE when not driving vehicles Camera, Primary camera modes can focus enemy vehicles by left clicking on them. Avatar, The avatar has been made optional. You can spawn/dismiss the avatar easily in most game modes. Avatar, The avatar uses energy when firing his avatar weapons. When his energy is below 20% his weapon will not fire. Heartstones are used to replenish energy. Energy will is used for life support when away from a friendly vehicle. Avatar, The binocular item has been removed. Zooming is available at any time in any of the primary camera modes by using the mouse wheel. Tools, Many avatar 'skills' are now player tools that can be used in tools-mode (shift+T) with or without the avatar being present. Vehicle control. When your avatar is on a vehicle or your construct-mode camera is activated on that vehicle you will control whichever vehicle controller is closest to the camera. This is to make it easier to drive a vehicle without needing an avatar present/in position. Vehicle control, CTRL activates/deactivates vehicle control mode Vehicle control Vehicles are now driven using the WASD (QE) (FR) (TG) keys not UHJK (YI) (IK) (OL) as before Vehicle control There is now a green vignette in the corner of the screen when in vehicle control mode to remind you that you are in vehicle control mode Weapon control When your avatar is on a vehicle or your construct-mode camera is activated on that vehicle you will be able to control all weapons on the vehicle. Weapon control Right click activates/deactivates vehicle weapon mode Weapon control There is no 'off' / 'AI' slot for weapons anymore. Deactivate (right click) weapon mode to stop aiming/firing. Weapon control With the mouse cursor visible (middle click) you can aim weapons using the mouse cursor. In free look mode you can aim weapons using the centre-of-screen cross hair. Weapon control There is now a red vignette in the corner of the screen when in weapon control mode to remind you that you are in weapon control mode Campaign Log Dump - Note there could be duplicates There are more updates due over the next month or two that'll trickle in via small updates. Thankyou to Kotl, Kotl helpers and players who have worked on bounties!

Neter

Ransack (DWG): Removed decorative, non-functioning guns. Primary APS ammo updated to incendiary, other minor updates. Adventure difficulty increased to 20-40 from 15-35. Ennui (TG): Overhauled; still retains its original design concept but now with more modernized technology. Difficulties unchanged. Lachesism (TG): New godly sub; a large weapons platform using PAC/APS with complementary spotter drones. Adventure difficulty 70-100. Armageddon Protocol (SD): New godly plane; twin Velocity planes that deploy nukes capable of pursuing targets at any altitude, including underwater and in space. Adventure difficulty 60-100. Updated Felix vehicle controller to be for air units. Pulverizer (WF): Removed non-functional laser tracer, replaced with wireless snooper, added 1 extra GPP for 100% efficiency. Conduit (LH): Updated with repair tentacles to handle build jobs. Current (LH): Retired as Conduit now handles all its functions. Gamma Squad (LH): New submarine, easy difficulty; a trio of PAC submarines. Adventure difficulty 20-40. Aurora (SS): Fixed invisible glass on cockpit. Novgorod (SS): Updated scuttling to properly scuttle when sitting on water. Kobold (GT): Minor, generalized updates. Wasp (GT): Fixed scuttling to properly scuttle when landing in water. Hypernova (SD): Fixed a couple untethered decos. O.C.P.L.A.C. (SD): Potential fix for spawning too high and failing to stabilize before hitting gravity. Complementary nuke BP and singular version of the Velocity nuke carrier have been added to files. Sinners Luck (DWG): New godly difficulty ship; large houseboat-style with a plethora of CRAM broadsiding. Adventure difficulty 20-40 Tug of War (DWG): New godly difficulty ship; large gun platform with a spinal-mounted, high RoF APS cannon. Adventure difficulty 20-40 Stronghold (OW): Firing restrictions set for turrets, tuned active defenses. Warden (OW): Minor aesthetic updates. Pontus (WF): Bugfixes from previous committal. Firefly (LH): Retired, replaced by Thunderbolt (see below) Gigawatt (LH): New hard difficulty ship; a large water skimmer with a plethora of weaponry. Adventure difficulty 55-75. Skyscraper (LH): Aesthetic overhaul; this is a cosmetic building. Thunderbolt (LH): New medium difficulty plane, replaces Firefly. Adventure difficulty 15-35 Tempest (LH): Updated with missile decos, improved laser efficiency, and reworked surge protector layout. Asphodel (SS): Updated missile settings, improved armouring, redesigned radar dish somewhat Balmung (SS): New hard difficulty ship; alongside Nothung (see below), replaces Rhea. Adventure difficulty 55-75 Cyclone (SS): Updated hydrofoils and fixed turning issues it may have had. Nothung (SS): New hard difficulty ship; alongside Balmung, replaces Rhea. Adventure difficulty 55-75. Reefshark (SS): Various fixes/improvements alongside changes to AI behaviour. Rhea (SS): Retired, replaced by Balmung and Nothung. Nimbus (GT): Updated missile interceptor parameters. Onslaught (GT): Improved roll control. Peacekeeper (GT): Now serves as the HQ for Tribe of the Iron Storm. Any other spawning of it has been removed. Venator (GT): Overhauled, but still retains its difficulty levels. (Medium, adventure difficulty 45). Crucible (SD): Fully retired, info removed from editor. BP remains in files. Lepton (SD): Minor updates. Davy Jones Outpost (DWG): Fixed some odd paint and refinery piping. Smoker (DWG): Optimised AI connection (DWG economy saved) Buzzsaw (WF): Saws should now spin properly. Earth Raker (WF): Melee weapons should now spin properly. Pontus (WF): Redesigned, now uses steam drills. Black Current (SS): Fixed frontal VLS altitude restrictions. Guernsey (SS): Greatly improved in terms of weaponry and aesthetics; should spawn in the water more appropriately to not smash into its spotter plane subvehicle. Alchemist's Lair (GT): Adjusted scuttling. Magnetar (SD): Added scuttling and speed metrics. Fishing Hole (DWG): May be a repost of one that was previously submitted, but the fortress has been vastly overhauled. Sinner's Outpost (DWG): Redesigned; this version has also replaced the version used in the DWG story missions. In turn, the duplicate Sea Cobra in those missions has been removed. Halberd (OW): Fixed disconnected AI/detection pieces. Stronghold (OW): Heavily updated; firepower focused back on CRAMs, slightly improved AA, reduced block/volume count slightly. Warden (OW): Redesigned, but retains its original purpose. Wrecker (WF): Redesigned and modernized; difficulties unchanged. Amusement (TG): Redesigned; difficulties unchanged. Euphoria (TG): Breadboard logic fix for PAC. Impulse (TG): Breadboard logic fix for PAC. Cherenkov (LH): Minor updates, should shoot itself less. Conduit (LH): Redesigned, still remains a cargo craft. Coulomb (LH): Redesigned, burst laser hydrofoil ship. Medium difficulty, adventure difficulty 40. Aerotyrant (SS): Fixed hole in windshield. Sacrilego (SS): Minor deco fix. Stralsund (SS): Corrected missile interceptor receiving on wrong channel. Watchman (SS): Redesigned; difficulties unchanged. Crivetz (GT): Redesigned; medium difficulty. Nimbus (GT): Redesigned; hard difficulty. Pelekan (GT): Iron Pelican replacement; hard difficulty. Pyre (GT): AI fixes. Warbird (GT): Redesigned; medium difficulty, may increase in difficulty with future updates. Casimir (SD): Redesigned; medium difficulty, adventure difficulty 16. Lepton (SD): New SD drone, replaces Star Cry; hard difficulty, adventure difficulty 10. - RZ descriptions for Quest for Neter have gotten some grammatical fixes. - Removed Annotations from Kookie Kestrel, Peacebreaker, and TGS version of Ghost Fixed scuttling for LH Cherenkov. Updated scuttling for Sunfish and Monkey Barrel. - Updated default Ghost with a more optimised shell. - Added Ghost TGS variant to a new built-in folder. - Attack on Conger MP mission actually spawns the Conger appropriately now. Fishing Hole (DWG): Entirely redesigned, heavily improved in both functionality and aesthetics. It even has fish! Veles (WF): Redesigned; a large, Zealot-style rammer with melee PACs and grinders. Hard difficulty, adventure difficulty unchanged. Disgust (TG): Various LWC fixes, updated missiles. Fear (TG): Overhauled with a new torso, major cosmetic updates. Gravitas (TG): Added mainframes to shield plates. Black Current (SS): Updated towed decoys to (hopefully) not get stuck, minor aesthetic updates Bullshark (SS): Potential fix for missiles getting stuck. Megalodon (SS): Air pumps should now always remain active. Aardwolf (GT): Improved EMP protection, steam engines more efficient. Hobgoblin (GT): Comprehensive overhaul to upgrade weaponry. Difficulties unchanged. Iron Gate (GT): Entirely remade; hard difficulty, adventure difficulty unchanged. Thunderclap (GT): Entirely remade; godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 80. Venator (GT): Deco cleanup, EMP insulation improved, block optimization. O.R.I.O.N. (SD): New small bombardment satellite using APS as its weaponry. Easy difficulty, adventure difficulty 20 Proctor (OW): Updated firing restrictions, should shoot itself less. Cherenkov (LH): Slightly increased missile firepower, EMP routing protection improved, removed disconnected invisible missile gantries. Asphodel (SS): Further updates to the recently-submitted version; I apparently forgot to commit this. Bullshark (SS): Potential fix for missiles getting stuck.

Story Missions

- Player stock craft have been improved/stabilized and use the updated connection logic. - Player stock aircraft (Kookie Kestrel, Peacebreaker) now have an ACB to set main drive to 100% at the start of the mission. This is to prevent possible nosediving/instability before the player can react. - SM (story mission) designs are now using the updated connection logic. Most that used mimics have had those converted to deco, improving performance slightly by virtue of lower block count. - Most if not all SM craft should now have more appropriate scuttling. - Some SM craft had superfluous components that weren't needed for the missions (such as flares) and these have been cleaned up a bit, which should improve performance on some missions. Note that there may still be a few flares and such. - SM craft using APS have had some range restrictions applied in some cases to reduce the likelihood of a cheap shot ruining the mission. - Most SM ships now desire a shorter broadside range for engagement, should help improve interaction. - Material allowance for most missions and par times for a few missions have been adjusted a bit. - Some spawns in missions have been made a little closer to improve interaction time, others have different spawn locations for follow-up waves to make it less likely for them to spawn on/adjacent to the player. - DWG mission Cargo Calamity now has 3 Shrikes in its second wave rather than 2 Shrikes and a Felix. - SS mission Martyrdom now has an additional Martyr in the last wave. - New mission version of the Allegiance to replace the original version in the SS mission A Prowler's Torment. No actual changes aside from the aforementioned range adjustments. - New mission version of the Chorus to replace the Retarius in the SS mission A Hornet's Memoir. This version is heavily altered to use propellers instead of jets, and missiles also adjusted. Other superfluous parts not needed for story missions was also removed. The mission also features another Harpoon in the second wave. - New mission version of the Catshark added to replace original version in the mission; turns out it could just solo the SS mission Breakneck Blitz if it wasn't unlucky so I had to nerf it a bit to be slower, no LAMS, less RoF on guns, and one less L torpedo. It still nearly solos the dang mission, might look to nerf the shells next if necessary. - SS mission Circuit Breaker now has an improved coal factory that shouldn't be buried partially into the ground, and by virtue, also more durable. There's also another Felix bomber, and the distance that the DWG units need to travel has also been increased. - SS mission Ace Combat has another Drake that spawns with the Piraiba, and there will now be reinforcement waves. These craft aren't necessary to kill but ignore them at your own risk; they'll pile in before you know it!

Aote

Accuser (WF): New Priest-style APS tank. Adventure difficulty 25-85 Acolyte (WF): New Priest-style PAC tank. Adventure difficulty 20-80 Pariah (WF): New Zealot-style APS tank. Adventure difficulty 30-100 Ravager (WF): Overhauled, Priest-style APS tank. Adventure difficulty 25-100 Reaver (WF): Overhauled, Zealot-style command tank. Adventure difficulty 20-80 Karambit (DWG): New Sand Scorpions autocannon tank; adventure difficulty 25. Khopesh (DWG): Reduced adventure difficulty. Shotel (DWG): New Sand Scorpions tank destroyer, replaces Taipan. Adventure difficulty 45. Pilgrim (WF): Added repair tentacles so it can actually do repair jobs. Saviour (WF): Decoration update. Slayer (WF): Decoration update. Beholder (WF): Redesigned, priest-style elite tank. Forsaken (WF): Redesigned, zealot-style standard tank. Inferno (WF): New zealot-style tank. Pilgrim (WF): Redesigned, cargo tank. Rapture (WF): Redesigned, zealot-style tank. Salvation (WF): New priest-style tank. Smite (WF): Redesigned, zealot-style suicide tank. Hadron (SE): Renamed to "Thor". Jackal (SE): Fixed IFF connection. Orion (SE): Renamed to "Janus". Harasser (WF): Entirely remade; an armoured car using a flamethrower and a deployable nuke. Adventure difficulty 30 - Fixed an issue where an archived design was still in a pre-deployed SS fleet. Fixed for both versions of the campaign.

[ 2024-12-23 17:11:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

v4.2.0 Alpha - "The Camera Update"

HELLO DEPTHIANS. The camera update is now in the alphatest build. Please note that by going into alphatest you fully accept that stuff can break and might be changed. Also this update has been in testing for a very long time, we've had it at gameshows, we've watched 10000 hour veterans and 0 hour noobs; Veterans, you will be fighting your muscle memory to begin with! Noobs, don't click around randomly! Experimental testers, thank you very much! You'll need to right click on any keymaps that have had their defaults changed in the options. Microsoft OneDrive continues to be a royal pain. If you are experiencing issues like crashes or strange behaviours in game then please use the support system or go to the help channel in the discord or give me (Sean) a DM on there and I'll try to help! There is a workaround to bypass your Documents shell path if need be until we have a way to move the profile to avoid this in the future. Many people assume they don't have it when infact windows updates have stealth installed it and it has indeed hijacked a shell path. The issue is that it places file locks which prevents the game from being to access files it needs resulting in all manner of problems. With that information firm in your mind, lets continue... So rambot is now something that is an optional spawn (unless the scenario or instance is designed to have him spawn automatically. World editors, this is something you need to look out for. There are new options for spawning on spawn points and for the instance itself. You'll want to select "Player AND avatar" on any spawn points so that both the camera and the avatar can spawn there.) You can spawn rambot by pressing Shift + G by default. It's best to do this on a focused vehicle. Heart stone energy now governs rambot's weapons. Being on a friendly vehicle will preserve the energy state but a heart stone is needed to recharge. Depending on the game mode rambot can still die if energy is 0. We'll probably be tweaking this as time goes on but to start with its very strict and something like the chaingun will burn through energy very quickly. To select a vehicle to focus on, we look at it and left click on it. This then focuses the vehicle and uses a default orbit camera that is placed above the vehicle (if no other camera has been set.) The little green marker here is our camera position. To unfocus the vehicle just left click anywhere off of it.
Once focused we can take control of a vehicle if a vehicle controller exists on it by pressing Left Ctrl by default. (Note all keybinds are editable in the options) When we are in control a green vignette appears briefly. Again the opacity of this is configurable in the options.
If we right click we can control weapons. Control of weapons is indicated by a red vignette. Please note you can also click on the weapon groups now on their icons and there are more of them.
Please note the default vehicle control keys have changed to something people are more familiar with in other games.
Pressing Tab will cycle through any configured cameras. Camera positions can be edited using these buttons (yes they are buttons) in middle mouse mode or you can store a position at your current position using Ctrl + Tab by default.
In camera edit mode you can add more advanced options to the camera. Some of these are very useful for things like fighters where you want the camera to be less aggressive!
The binoculars are now built into the camera, just use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Enemy information is now displayed when you place the mouse over them. You can focus on an enemy and order an attack by left clicking on it. To unfocus just left click anywhere off it.
That's the main stuff! If I think of anything else or I'm made aware of anything else I'll add it to the stable post whenever it goes stable. Feedback can be provided in the alphatest forum on the discord. Please make sure you aren't making duplicates by using the search function before you post. With regards to campaign there will be a few changes coming to address some of the issues raised by players. In this patch diplomacy values are adjusted. By stable the area of enemies drawn into combat will be increased to bring more of the approaching enemies into combat. Defence platforms are being added (per difficulty) to HQs, those are being worked on at the moment.

Other Patch Notes

Changes

Tutorials, The initial tutorial has been split into two tutorials: one for camera controls and one for avatar controls. Other tutorials have been changed as needed.

Additions

Cameras

Additions

Camera, The camera-system has a new mode that can easily focus a construct with customisable camera points

Changes

Camera, There is a specific free-camera mode that can be used to move the camera around the world Camera, Construct camera points can be set to be maintained above water Camera, Construct camera points can be set to hide your vehicle during weapon aiming if your construct gets in the way to maintain your line of sight Camera, Construct camera points can be set to visually tunnel through your vehicle during weapon aiming to maintain your line of sight Camera, Construct camera points can be set to move forwards when aiming to maintain your line of sight Camera, Construct camera points can be set to ignore vehicle roll, pitch, or yaw. Camera, Construct camera points can be named / moved / rotated. Camera, Construct camera points can be easily 'saved' using CTRL + TAB to snap them to the current position of the camera Camera, Construct camera points can be easily 'loaded' using TAB to snap the camera to the saved position Camera, Construct camera points can be easily moved using WASD ALT and SPACE when not driving vehicles Camera, Primary camera modes can focus enemy vehicles by left clicking on them. Avatar, The avatar has been made optional. You can spawn/dismiss the avatar easily in most game modes. Avatar, The avatar uses energy when firing his avatar weapons. When his energy is below 20% his weapon will not fire. Heartstones are used to replenish energy. Energy will is used for life support when away from a friendly vehicle. Avatar, The binocular item has been removed. Zooming is available at any time in any of the primary camera modes by using the mouse wheel. Vehicle control. When your avatar is on a vehicle or your construct-mode camera is activated on that vehicle you will control whichever vehicle controller is closest to the camera. This is to make it easier to drive a vehicle without needing an avatar present/in position. Vehicle control, CTRL activates/deactivates vehicle control mode Vehicle control Vehicles are now driven using the WASD (QE) (FR) (TG) keys not UHJK (YI) (IK) (OL) as before Vehicle control There is now a green vignette in the corner of the screen when in vehicle control mode to remind you that you are in vehicle control mode Weapon control When your avatar is on a vehicle or your construct-mode camera is activated on that vehicle you will be able to control all weapons on the vehicle. Weapon control Right click activates/deactivates vehicle weapon mode Weapon control There is no 'off' / 'AI' slot for weapons anymore. Deactivate (right click) weapon mode to stop aiming/firing. Weapon control With the mouse cursor visible (middle click) you can aim weapons using the mouse cursor. In free look mode you can aim weapons using the centre-of-screen cross hair. Weapon control There is now a red vignette in the corner of the screen when in weapon control mode to remind you that you are in weapon control mode

Campaign Log Dump - Note there could be duplicates

There are more updates due over the next month or two that'll trickle in via small updates. Thankyou to Kotl, Kotl helpers and players who have worked on bounties!

[Neter]

Story Missions

Aote

[ 2024-12-10 12:25:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

4.1.2 Bugfixes

Fixes: APS, [BUGS-3940] [BUGS-4144] APS ammo intakes are checked more frequently, reducing inaccuracy at low calibers in cases where intakes are the throughput limit. APS, Fixed builtin shells created by the client not showing up at the host in multiplayer games. Steam, [BUGS-4137] Fixed steam crank generators connecting even when placed at a 90 rotation.

[ 2024-06-27 14:45:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 4.1.1

What is up Depthians! A small update to the standard sable branch that fixes a few issues mainly directed towards multiplayer APS.

Changelog

Additions

Misc

Added the ability to teleport to craft via the C menu
There is now a button on flag posts to determine if the flag texture is flipped on the other side
Changes

Misc
Increased the max size on hologram projectors from 100x100 to 350x350
Fixes

Multiplayer
Fixed client avatar repair tentacles always working, despite being turned off
Fixed spray painter not being synced
Fixed starting vehicle possibly spawning under ground in land adventure
Fixed various problems with clearing clips and loaded shells not being synced
Fixed clearing clips now works for both host and client

[ 2024-06-06 15:20:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Set the world on fire! Stable 4.0 Update

What is up Depthians! Exciting news the long-awaited fire update has arrived in the stable branch! Now, alongside flamers, incendiary options for CRAM, APS, missiles, and even lasers are at your disposal.
As we dive into this blazing update, let's extend a warm welcome to four talented programmers joining our team! And before we ignite into showcasing the new features, we must express our deepest gratitude to our player base and the special community that supports us. We extend heartfelt thanks to Kap, also known as neekap, for crafting stunning new load screens, and to JustAWrench, Kev1n, Hawkins656, ApertureGaming and Lathland for presenting some epic clips that captures some fiery battles. We recognize the considerable effort involved in setting up these clips in-game, capturing angles, scenes, and the meticulous editing process.
[previewyoutube=qWCl6EsXl4I;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=ReSw7xEXQTo;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=s8JK-_0PJcM;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=Oy6k853avHg;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=xoqpzJSzzB0;full][/previewyoutube] Rorsten will also be streaming at 2pm-5:30pm EDT to showcase and answer any questions about fire mechanics. Link to Rorstens Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/rorstenvt On to this hot fiery update! Fires inflict continuous damage and often pack more raw power than high-explosive rounds. They prove particularly effective against fast-moving targets above water, although their efficiency diminishes underwater. Additionally, fires weaken enemy armor, making them ripe for subsequent assaults. You can now monitor fire activity on your or your enemy's vessel by pressing "V" while targeting and accessing the Fires tab, which displays active fires, remaining fuel, and oxidizer levels.
Utilize the debug fire tool by pressing "Z," selecting "debug fire," and then choosing a slot in your tool belt (Designer mode).
For convenience, customize the fire debug tool settings by selecting it in your tool belt and pressing the right mouse button to access further adjustments.
Flamers, being cost-effective and compact, lack effective countermeasures. However, their short range and gradual damage via fire ignition are notable drawbacks.

Furthermore, lasers now possess the ability to ignite blocks, and fire size adjustment is achievable with the Superheating Module. CRAMS now have Incendiary pellets, APS has been given Incendiary head and body modules, Missiles have also been given Incendiary modules. All except lasers can have incendiary and oxidizer adjusted.
Stay vigilant and adapt your strategies to harness the power of this fiery update!

Changelog

Fires

Added fires. A fire is a group of cells that take damage over time. Cells below the waterline are extinguished
Fire damage taken reduces the armor value of blocks, to a minimum of 1. X% total health taken as fire damage = (1-X)% armor left
Fires spread when they destroy blocks, or if they have lots of fuel relative to their size
Fires have 3 properties: fuel, intensity and oxidizer
Fuel determines how much total damage a fire can do. The baseline is 1 fuel = 1 damage
Intensity determines how much fuel/s a fire uses for every burning cell, and reduces the damage reduction of fire resistant materials. Fuel used/sec/burning cell is 1.5 * INTENSITY
Oxidizer doubles the armor reduction effect of fires (50% fire damage taken reduces every block to 1 armor), and makes it possible for them to burn under water
At 20 intensity 1 oxidizer is used for every 4 fuel over water, 1 oxidizer for every 2 fuel below water. Every 10 intensity increase also increases oxidizer use by 1/3 of the base
Blocks have 2 new properties: fire resistance and flammability
A fire with intensity below the block's fire resistance does reduced damage to that block. Damage multiplier: (INTENSITY - RESISTANCE * 0.15) / (RESISTANCE * 0.85), 0-1 range.
Blocks with flammability above 0 add fuel to the fire for every unit of fuel used. Intensity of the fuel added is the block's fire resistance
Wood has 10 resist and 80% flammability, 1 cell taking damage from a 100 fuel, 50 intensity fire: 25+60=85 fuel left, new total intensity is ~21.76
Blocks generally have 10-60 fire resist, and 0-80% flammability
High speed fans the flames, increasing fire damage done/fuel
Big fires choke themselves out, reducing damage done/fuel. Reduction starts at 5000 total burning cells on a vehicle, minimum efficiency is 30% of the original.
Added incendiary bodies to APS and missiles and incendiary pellets to CRAM. Their intensity range is 20-40, and they can also pack oxidizer
APS and missile impacts ignite a fire around the explosion point
Fires have an IR signature, a function of total fuel and intensity. IR guidance and AI hot point targeting can target individual fires
A burning block colliding with another construct spreads the fire to it
Added a tab to the V menu showing all the active fires on that vehicle/structure
Added a designer-only character item for igniting fires
Destroying fuel tanks ignites fires, fuel of the fire depends on the fuel level of the vehicle. Intensity is 20
Destroying steam boilers and controllers creates fires, and weaker explosions. Intensity is 20, fuel is a function of the steam in the boiler chain

Flamers

New weapon system: flamers
Flamers use fuel, and ignite fires at short range. Cheap and compact for the firepower
Flame speed is ~300 m/s, maximum range is ~400m
2 main block variants, both 1x1x4m beams: connection point in the back with +-35 azi and elevation range, connection point at the bottom with 360 azi and -10 to 89 elevation range
Pipes connect the main blocks to tanks
3 tank types: fuel, oxidizer and catalyst. They increase fuel/oxidizer throughput and intensity
Intensity without catalyst tanks is 20. 2:1 fuel:catalyst tank ratio is 30 intensity, 1:2 is 50, ...
2 tank sizes: 1x1x1 and 1x3x3. Smaller tanks are more compact and more expensive for the firepower
Tanks can be chained, they can only connect to tanks of the same size and type
Destroying flamer tanks ignites fires
Tank lines have to be pressurized by adding compressors to their end
Compressors use power, and have a variable power use
Flamer pressure is the weighted average of the pressure of individual tank lines. Lower pressure means slightly lower range

Lasers

Lasers have intensity instead of AP, and they are mitigated by fire resistance instead of armor. Damage multiplier is RESIST / INTENSITY, capped at 1
Lasers ignite fires when they destroy blocks. Fuel of the fire is determined by flammability of the blocks destroyed, intensity by fire resistance
Laser base damage is reduced to 50%, and smoke/shield reduction is much weaker
Laser damage counts as fire damage, also reduces armor of the blocks damaged
Laser fires don't add any oxidizer
New laser component: superheating modulator. Can be placed on combiners, reduces base damage to a minimum of 75% and increases fuel of fires ignited to a maximum of 250%
Short range combiner ranges from 100-500 to 150-600

Misc

Wood base health up from 180 to 200
Impact damage gets the same boost as explosions under water
Local weapon controllers now have an alternate mode, they can control weapons up to 4 cells away in 2 directions
Steam pipe durability increased
Propeller hub overlay is only displayed in build mode
Increased particle cannon damage output by ~4.2%
Added target prioritisation options for plasma and flamer firepower
APS projectiles have 20% more health
APS flak damage reduced by ~11%
APS flak warhead renamed to munition defense warhead, flak damage to anti-munition damage
Missile interceptors do 20% reduced damage to projectiles under water
Maximum turbocharger power/fuel bonus up by ~11%
Limited maximum ring shield destruction energy to EFFECTIVE_AREA * 3000 (intensity is unchanged, 6)

[ 2024-05-03 13:46:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 4.0.3.1

What is up Depthians! A couple of changes and fixes for the current Alpha branch.

Changelog

Changes

AI

Added target prioritisation options for plasma and flamer firepower

Fire

Oxidizer-efficiency at 40 intensity compared to 20 down from 66% to 50%
Projectiles with 20->40 fire intensity get 20->0% extra fuel and oxidizer. Fire damage modifier back to (INTENSITY - RESISTANCE * 0.15) / (RESISTANCE * 0.85)

Fixes

APS

Added incendiary parameters in the shell customizer for incendiary head

CRAM

Fixed incendiary pellets not contributing to shell health and kinetic damage

Fire

Fixed (mainly small) fires possible not spreading to the parent construct if they kill the subconstruct's root block
Fixed a problem causing fires to spread back from subconstructs to possibly far away parts(around 0,0,0) of the parent

Flamer

Fixed flamer main blocks causing problems when the vehicle is destroyed
Tank connection markers correctly show which direction they can send and receive connections from

[ 2024-04-19 13:54:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 4.0.2 Update

What is up Depthians!
We are pleased to introduce Incendiary pellets for CRAMs, as well as a number of changes and fixes.

Added incendiary pellets to CRAMs. Intensity and oxidizer content can be changed in the cannon's Q menu
Removed minimum caliber needed for incendiary bodies. Turns out igniting fires is fast even at RPMs in the 1000s
Added incendiary head to APS shells
AI hot point targeting can target fires (could already do it in previous versions, was missing from the changelog)
Small flamer tanks only get 75% fuel/catalyst/oxidizer for every material spent compared to large
Cargo container health from 8100 to 15000, armor from 7 to 5, flammability from 60 to 200%, fire resistance from 10 to 20
Improved performance for igniting fires
Made projectiles with a strong incendiary component much more consistent in finding blocks that are close enough to ignite
Various tooltip/UI fixes

[ 2024-04-17 13:34:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 4.0.1 Update

What is up Depthians! We hope you are all enjoying the new fire mechanics and incendiary rounds/modules. If you do not know how to access the Alpha branch: Right click From the Depths in your library list of games. Properties > Betas tab, look at the Betas participation menu and select alpha_test - alpha_test

Fire changes

Fire burn rate increased from 1 fuel/intensity to 1.5. Fires do damage faster
Fires spread when they have 10000 FUEL:CELL_COUNT ratio, instead of 7500. Fires are more localized
Fires need ~11% more fuel*intensity to be considered 1 firepower. This means APS and missile damage is increased
Block fire damage modifier is (INTENSITY - RESISTANCE * 0.1) / (RESISTANCE * 0.9). Was 0.15 and 0.85, low intensity fires are relatively stronger
Heavy armor fire resistance up from 50 to 60
Fixed non-heavy APS barrels having 10% flammability, down to 0%
Non-armored laser optic fire resistance down from 60 to 40
Fire efficiency reduction starts at 5000 total cells being on fire, and reaches 30% slower

Flamer changes

Added idle azimuth/elevation options for flamers
Increased flamer fuel and oxidizer output by 25%
Increased max rotation speed of flamer main parts from 60/s to 75/s
Removed steam connection for flamer tanks. Boilers are too compact for steam connections to be interesting without making flamer steam use too high, compressors are buffed instead
Flamer compressor power use depends on the amount of tanks they are connected to and the target range set for the flamer
S compressors only have 75% the power-efficiency of L ones
Compressor cost reduced to 50%
Flamer power use is generally low, extremely low when set to lower ranges(<300m range is mostly possible for visuals)

Other changes

Reduced minimum diameter needed for incendiary bodies from 195mm to 100mm
APS projectiles have 20% more health
Increased particle cannon damage output by ~4.2%

Flamer fixes

Fixed not being able to remove flamer main blocks when connection highlights are on
Fixed flamers possibly getting blocked by ground if the bottom of the jet touches it, instead of the top
Fixed a problem possibly making flamer hits very close to the ground not registering
Flamers now won't fire and display a warning when they have no fuel tanks
Fixed flamer particle effects flickering when fired from high speed vehicles
Fixed flamers not adding oxidizer when hitting targets beyond very short range

Other fixes

Fixed APS incendiary body tooltip not mentioning minimum diameter needed
Fixed EMP resistance on scented candles

[ 2024-04-15 13:24:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha Flamer Update 4.0

What is up Depthians! This update brings fires and incendiary weapons to From the Depths! If you do not know how to access the Alpha branch: Right click From the Depths in your library list of games. Properties > Betas tab, look at the Betas participation menu and select alpha_test - alpha_test

Fires

Fires do damage over time and generally have more raw damage than HE. They are very strong against high speed vehicles outside water. Can still work, but are less efficient against strong materials and under water. Beyond doing damage fires also soften enemies up for other weapons: they reduce the armor of the blocks they damage. 2 small, but important balance changes worth noting: - to compensate for being very flammable wood got a small health boost - incendiary weapons are relatively weak against subs, so the underwater HE damage boost now also applies to all thump damage. More options for submarine hunting!

Added fires. A fire is a group of cells that take damage over time. Cells below the waterline are extinguished
Fire damage taken reduces the armor value of blocks, to a minimum of 1. X% total health taken as fire damage = (1-X)% armor left
Fires spread when they destroy blocks, or if they have lots of fuel relative to their size
Fires have 3 properties: fuel, intensity and oxidizer
Fuel determines how much total damage a fire can do. The baseline is 1 fuel = 1 damage
Intensity determines how much fuel/s a fire uses for every burning cell, and reduces the damage reduction of fire resistant materials
Oxidizer doubles the armor reduction effect of fires (50% fire damage taken reduces every block to 1 armor), and makes it possible for them to burn under water
At 20 intensity 1 oxidizer is used for every 4 fuel over water, 1 oxidizer for every 2 fuel below water. Every 10 intensity increase also increases oxidizer use by 1/3 of the base
Blocks have 2 new properties: fire resistance and flammability
A fire with intensity below the block's fire resistance does reduced damage to that block. Damage multiplier: (INTENSITY - RESISTANCE * 0.15) / (RESISTANCE * 0.85), 0-1 range.
Blocks with flammability above 0 add fuel to the fire for every unit of fuel used. Intensity of the fuel added is the block's fire resistance
Wood has 10 resist and 80% flammability, 1 cell taking damage from a 100 fuel, 50 intensity fire: 50+40=90 fuel left, new total intensity is ~32.22
Blocks generally have 10-60 fire resist, and 0-80% flammability
High speed fans the flames, increasing fire damage done/fuel
Big fires choke themselves out, reducing damage done/fuel. Reduction starts at 3000 total burning cells on a vehicle, minimum efficiency is 30% of the original.
Added incendiary bodies to APS and missiles. Their intensity range is 20-40, and they can also pack oxidizer
APS and missile impacts ignite a fire around the explosion point
Destroying fuel tanks ignites fires, fuel of the fire depends on the fuel level of the vehicle. Intensity is 20
Fires have an IR signature, a function of total fuel and intensity. IR guidance can lock onto individual fires
A burning block colliding with another construct spreads the fire to it
Added a tab to the V menu showing all the active fires on that vehicle/structure
Added a designer-only character item for igniting fires
Wood base health up from 180 to 200
Impact damage gets the same boost as explosions under water

Flamers

Flamers are very cheap, compact weapons and there is no active defense that works against them. Their main downsides are the short range and damage being done over time through the fires they ignite.

New weapon system: flamers
Flamers use fuel, and ignite fires at short range. Cheap and compact for the firepower
Flame speed is ~300 m/s, maximum range is ~400m
2 main block variants, both 1x1x4m beams: connection point in the back with +-35 azi and elevation range, connection point at the bottom with 360 azi and -10 to 89 elevation range
Pipes connect the main blocks to tanks
3 tank types: fuel, oxidizer and catalyst. They increase fuel/oxidizer throughput and intensity
Intensity without catalyst tanks is 20. 2:1 fuel:catalyst tank ratio is 30 intensity, 1:2 is 50, ...
2 tank sizes: 1x1x1 and 1x3x3. Smaller tanks are more compact and more expensive for the firepower
Tanks can be chained, they can only connect to tanks of the same size and type
Destroying flamer tanks ignites fires
Tank lines can be pressurized by adding compressors or steam pipe connections to their end
Compressors use power, and have a fixed throughput. Compressors can maintain lower pressure in long tank lines
Flamer pressure is the weighted average of the pressure of individual tank lines. Lower pressure means slightly lower range

Lasers

Fires were a good opportunity to spice lasers up: they now ignite fires on destroying flammable blocks! They also reduce armor on doing damage and instead of armor the fire resistance stats protects against them. Raw laser damage was cut in half to compensate, and smoke reduction is much weaker now. Overall lasers are weaker against most unprotected targets and do better against smoke. LAMS damage output is unaffected, damage against projectiles is the same as in older versions.

Lasers have intensity instead of AP, and they are mitigated by fire resistance instead of armor. Damage multiplier is RESIST / INTENSITY, capped at 1
Lasers ignite fires when they destroy blocks. Fuel of the fire is determined by flammability of the blocks destroyed, intensity by fire resistance
Laser base damage is reduced to 50%, and smoke/shield reduction is much weaker
Laser damage counts as fire damage, also reduces armor of the blocks damaged
Laser fires don't add any oxidizer
Short range combiner ranges from 100-500 to 150-600

Other changes

Local weapon controllers now have an alternate mode, they can control weapons up to 4 cells away in 2 directions
Steam pipe durability increased
Propeller hub overlay is only displayed in build mode

[ 2024-04-12 11:41:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hotfix

Candles are no longer EMP proof. Delay pulse fixed for when the second option in the dropdown is selected.

[ 2024-04-01 17:17:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

3.9.2 Update April Fools

What is up Depthians! :candle: Update Alert: Introducing Lightning Hood Larry's Latest Creation - The Scented Candle! Hold onto your hats, adventurers! Lightning Hood Larry, famed inventor and fashionista extraordinaire, has unleashed his latest marvel upon Neter: the Scented Candle! Be prepared to embark on an olfactory journey like never before, as this revolutionary creation promises to tantalize your senses with delightful aromas. But beware - rumors swirl that these candles may have a trick or two up their sleeves... or wicks. For just 5 Neterbucks, you can bask in the glow of science and style, courtesy of Lightning Hood Larry. It's a deal too good to pass up!

There will be more hot stuff on the way...

Changelog

Additions

Candles

Added a range of beautiful smelling candles to the game to decorate your priceless wooden ships with.

Changes

Nuke

Added a new nuke effect to replace the old missing one.

Fixes

Breadboards

Delay pulse now activates and does a full countdown even if a 1 is no longer present but has been triggered once.

[ 2024-04-01 09:10:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

3.9.1 Hotfix

We've had to remove the video recording feature for Linux users as this isn't supported on Linux and was preventing an options menu from appearing. Sorry folks. Two small additions: ACB controllers can now be read by Breadboard Getters. So button presses can execute breadboard functions. ACBs now have a readable variable to let the breadboard know if it's condition is met or not.

[ 2024-03-13 16:34:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable Update 3.9.0

What is up Depthians! We have set the current Alpha build to Stable, which brings several new additions to Breadboard. Our Kotl/Kotl help team and Mike aka ABYAY have also made numerous tweaks and upgrades to campaign craft for Neter, AotE and Glao which you can find after the changelog and numerous new prefabs have been added. One very important change is that we have upgraded to Unity 2022.3.20f1. What this means is that all mods that reference UnityEngine.dll should now be converted to "NET standard 2.1" class libraries (instead of "NET framework 4.6 class libraries"). The easiest way to do this is (in our experience) to replace the contents of the .csproj file with: netstandard2.1 enable Then delete the Properties, obj and bin folders. Then open the project in Visual Studio and back in all the dependencies and references that were removed in the process. I apologize for the inconvenience. Existing mods which have not been updated may not function as expected. Nick has also left us some short clips explaining some of the new Breadboard additions.

Variable Reader and Writer

[previewyoutube=zUgXKKfQ8DM;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Link between AI and Breadboard

[previewyoutube=7YQlkv49DBs;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Updates to the Generic Block Getter

[previewyoutube=wUEJE1g4gdg;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Mass evaluator and new data types

[previewyoutube=ILAO-ogB8hw;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Changelog

Additions

Breadboard

Added a pair of breadboard modules and associated AI behaviours/manoeuvres, the AI Manoeuvre Output (Breadboard Manoeuvre Link in the AI) and the AI Behaviour Input (Breadboard Behaviour Link in the AI). These allow you to retrieve manoeuvering information from the AI (primarily relating to its waypoints) for the former, or send waypoint information to the AI for the latter. Navigation performed using the behaviour input/link will benefit from normal AI features such as collision avoidance.
Added a pin to the flagship info component to directly output the flagship's position as a Vector3
Added a shared-data-reader and a shared-data-writer component. These can share data across a vehicle, fleet, team, mothership/drone group or globally. All breadboard data types are supported and you can store data in indexed arrays of up to 1000 elements of length. Variables can be given custom names.
Added a toggle to the PID component to flip the sign on its output, for example from 1 to -1.
Added the ability for the Orientation input to output either the forward vector, rotation euler angles or rotation quaternion.
Added the ability to output the current physics step to the Time input.
Added the ability to switch between 'Universal' and 'Standard' coordinates to various modules, namely the Primary Target Info and PositionInput components. Universal coordinates have their origin at the centre of the map, and Standard coordinates have an origin that changes with the current frame of reference, with Universal being the old behaviour for these modules.
Breadboard accumulator and differencer components now support all data types
Breadboard Clamp component now has support for doubles, longs, vectors, quaternions and strings
Breadboard Constant input component now has Vector3, Quaternion and long output types (as well as double and text)
Breadboard is now double precision and also supports 64 bit integers (longs) when necessary. Maths evaluator has a lot of support for longs now and longs can be typed into the maths evaluator like this "10L" or "15l".
Breadboard Multiply component now has support for doubles, longs, vectors and quaternions
Breadboard one shot component now supports all data types
Breadboard Printer component now has support for more inputs and supports format codes and multiple lines.
Breadboard switch component now supports all data types and will pass sensible defaults when switched 'off'
Constant input component can now output a Vector3, Quaternion or 64 bit integer (long), as well as the usual floating point value or string
Maths evaluator can now use .x .y .z or .pitch .yaw .roll to extract the pitch yaw or roll from a quaternion. .x and .pitch do the same thing. .y and .yaw do the same thing. .z and .roll do the same thing. Angles are in degrees.
Maths evaluator now has functions String(x) and String(x, [format code]) that turn x (float,Vector3,Quaternion) into strings. The version with [format code] accepts standard C# format codes for numeric values.
Maths evaluator now has functions ToStandard(v) and ToUniversal(v) that convert a universal Vector3 position coordinate into a unity game engine Vector3 position, and visa versa.

Breadboard GBG

Almost every player editable variable is now accessible to the Generic Block Getter (GBG) plus some extras that required custom code to obtain information.

Breadboard GBS

ACB can be 'tested' (executed) via the GBS
Ammo ejector can eject via GBS
APS can have all clips cleared via GBS
Tactical nuke can be exploded via GBS

Video

Added built in video capture (see options menu tab) which allows you to capture smooth video at high frame-rates without any visible performance issues by using "offline" mode. In "real time" mode it supports microphone recording but the video will not be as smooth.

Changes

Breadboard

PID components can now have their SetPoint pin removed. If so, it will treat its setpoint as being equal to 0.
The Primary Target Info component will now output an empty vector to its Target Position and Target Velocity pins if there is no target, rather than outputting 0.

Unity

Upgraded to Unity 2022.3.20f1.

Fixes

Breadboard GBS

GBS should no longer be able to set the power scale of certain equipment above its usual maximum value.

Workshop

Fixed the blueprint subscription browser so that the page changing works.

Blueprint changes

Neter

Harasser (WF): While retired, old campaigns that spawned the Harasser on the map would use the new AotE version, which obviously wasn't designed to be on water. The Neter files now use the old version for compatability. Once all of them are destroyed on the map, no new ones should be spawned. Terravore (TG): Reduced repair tentacles, changed AA mantlet. Megawatt (LH): Updated lore to reflect new weaponry. Aerotyrant (SS): Updated lore to fix grammar/spelling issues. Banshee (SS): Removed weak LAMS system, improving cost efficiency. Kitakami (SS): Fixed turret rotation. Wintersday (OW): Fixed a typo in the lore. Partisan (OW): Overhauled lore as old lore was misleading of its current design. Timid (TG): Disabled turret clipping debugging. Tolerance (TG): Adjusted to be a little more consistent with staying in the water. Note that some circumstances may still cause it to flail out of the water. Amusement (TG): Now properly classified as a thrustercraft. Slightly increased floating height. Disgust (TG): Now properly classified as a thrustercraft. Hysteria (TG): Now properly classified as a thrustercraft. Fear (TG): Now properly classified as a thrustercraft. Escalade (OW): Added missing missile deco to its crossbow missile turret. Pioneer (OW): Fixed decoration blocking rear turret rotation, added turret restrictions to rear CRAM turret. Gog (GT): Fixed main turret's rotation being blocked. Anvil (OW): Fully overhauled to modern faction standards, also a bit stronger. Expert difficulty, adventure difficulty 40. Ravager (WF): Fixed turret collision. Glaukos (GT): Fixed turret rotation collision. Venator (GT): Fixed turret rotation collision, removed aethetic functional parts for deco, and minor internal updates. Note that this craft has a rework in progress. Zephyr (GT): Fixed turret rotation collision. Covenant (WF): New carrier ship, replaces Leviathan; launches a multitude of Martyrs, but also holds its own with powerful cannons. Godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 85. Aquila (GT): More permanent fix for turret rotation issues; disabled old connection logic and reinforced parts that would otherwise fall off due to the change. Iron Gate (GT): Minor aesthetic update, now has sufficient energy generation to keep guns firing, shouldn't fall out of the sky due to power shortage. Craft is undergoing a full replacement to be added in the future. Impedance (LH): Fixed turret rotation problems. Harpy Squadron (SS): Aesthetic improvements, internal optimization, EMP insulation added. This version will be used for both Neter and AotE. Aquila (GT): Fixed turret rotation problems. Pike (GT): Updated thrust to be manual, should no longer fall out of the sky while in combat and undamaged. Palladium (SD): Updated altitude restrictions and scuttling parameters. Sovereign (SD): Fixed turret rotation problems. Megawatt (LH): Fixed turret rotation issues.

AotE

Harpy Squadron (SE): Updated pathing to use the updated Neter version.

Glao

Katana (GI): New plane; an unorthodox flier that delivers heavy missile payloads while barrel rolling to dodge incoming fire. Spitfire (GI): Updated name to Naginata. Sai Squadron (GI): New plane; a trio of swift planes that fire large barrages of IR missiles. Helicopter (TRD): Retired; this design was intended to be retired a few months back but was missed. Shade (TRD): New hydrofoil ship; loaded with offensive missiles and interceptors, and is rather unique in functionality. Check it in build mode to see for yourself.

[ 2024-03-08 16:17:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

3.8.5 Hotfixes and material replacer addition

Fixes: Tracers - Accounted for the addition of the new 3rd parameter in builtin shell designs. Accounted for legacy tracers being loaded in the new builds. (Tracers should now not default to 0.1 length.) Smoke generator - Steam effect now correctly uses drag, gravity etc. Additions: Decorations/Mimics - Added the ability to swap decorations to different materials, and added an emissive-only material. (These materials will have better names in a future release.)

[ 2024-01-18 14:23:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.8.5 released

Hi everyone! Following the Christmas update and some confusion regarding turrets and collisions Nick has spent a bit of time working on them. We are sorry this bug persisted and crept into builds as it did. A contractor and long time player was working on a bug relating to spinblocks and he disappeared, we've waited on him returning to fix things but he hasn't appeared back. We hope he is okay. This has resulted in Nick picking up the work and having to make the changes he did, though he has went further and improved subobject collision checking after reverting the changes in the previous patch. Here is a list of changes and clarifications in the recent update that I hope clears things up. 1. This only affects level 1 turrets, spinblocks and pistons. Once you go further than that you can clip as you always have so no this doesn't affect spin clipping. That is exactly as it always was. 2. As per the image below, if you are on a block causing a problem the green ring will show the radius of the check and the red part will show where the issue lies. If you need to check a subobject for collisions you can also use the tools in the shift + e advanced build tools menu and the debugger there for recording collisions.
3. As per the image below, slopes are now checked for more precisely. So instead of them being classed as a full block they are checked as they look. Some blocks such as intakes also have relaxed rules to allow turrets to turn as they did. It could be we've missed something with this so if you think another block needs this treatment please post in alphatest channel in the discord.
4. This also means you can now armour up your turret wells with slopes where they couldn't have went previously.
5. If you exploited the origin point of beams in order to place longer blocks where they shouldn't have been then you'll need to fix those. You can no longer exploit origin points. Additions APS Visible tracer - length multiplier now editable. Smoke generator - Added steam particle effect as an option. Changes Walkers - Stability will go no lower than 0.8 when a clamping foot is clamped. APS Ammo intake feeder - This is now fully modelled as an appropriately sized (small/simple) mesh for the purpose of the new turret rotation calculations. Fixes [Regression 3.8.3] Fixed an issue with 2 axis turret where the elevation axis would not move if the azimuth axis was not also moving. Pistons - Piston collision check for slopes / corners / plates added, as per turrets and spinners. Pistons - Piston collision checks now cached for performance improvement. Turrets/Spinners - Slight performance improvement when rechecking collision checks after sustaining/repairing damage. [Neter] Excruciator (WF): Entirely overhauled; a high-speed battleship armed with multiple railguns to live up to its name. Godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 60 Spectre (SS): Duplicated text removed from lore. Damacy (GT): Replaced missing block and fixed material allocation. Glaukos (GT): Fixed random out-of-place blocks, added ball turret mounts to S missile turrets, smoothed some of the structure, painted "The One" deco block. Corsair (DWG): Updated propeller logic to lessen chances of pitching and flipping. Lamprey (GT): Deco fix for rail magnets. Parallax (SD): Remade and reintroduced; a fast spacecraft which delivers two huge missiles at larger targets, uses a weak laser to swat smaller targets. Medium difficulty, adventure difficulty 50. Carnage (SD): Aesthetic improvements, including gimbal thrusters. [AotE] Sentinel (OW): Fixed turret rotation, internally overhauled, AI tweaks, and rear was redesigned. Longhorn (OW): Re-enabled spawning in adventure. This was intended sooner and was missed.) Overseer (OW): Overhauled and reintroduced to the active roster. Does it fire a massive cannon shell, or is it a missile? You decide! [Glao] Obsidian (OFD): New plane which replaces the Bomber; a compact plane with a wavy movement pattern with missile arrays and an underslung turreted cannon. Quartz (OFD): New thrustercraft; similar in appearance to the Emerald, but goes all in on a powerful frontal plasma cannon. Conqueror (GI): New thrustercraft; a cannon-focused brute that outlasts foes with its heavy frontal armor and delivers a kinetic barrage in return. Gladiator (GI): New thrustercraft; similar in appearance to the Conqueror but sacrifices some of its cannon power for missile arrays. Fixed turret rotation issues introduced from recent patch for the following designs: Longhorn (OW, AotE) Lucerne (OW, AotE) Chorus (WF) Longinus (WF) Purifier (WF) Redeemer (WF) Retaliator (WF) Slasher (WF) Thrasher (WF) Angstrom (LH) Atriedes (SE, AotE) Scarab (SE, AotE)

[ 2024-01-16 17:28:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Regarding Steam sync

We have once again disabled Steam sync. After liaising with Steam it became clear that there is a bug at Steam's side with their sync product which they have now admitted to. However, they don't seem to have any appetite to fix it because the ETA for a fix is "unknown." Their proposed fix of reducing files both; doesn't work for some of the player base and it doesn't seem to always work anyway. I am sorry to anyone this affects, but it is out of our hands until they fix their issue. This also means GeForce NOW is off the table for players that want to use that. I suggest you setup some kind of backup of your player profile. DO NOT use Onedrive or google file sync, that causes its own headaches and problems. See the bug reports channel in discord for a workaround if you do have any of those.

[ 2023-12-29 22:43:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Christmas campaign and update

BrilliantSkies would like to wish everyone a great holiday period! To celebrate the holidays some of the community led by Melch (curator) and Lyons(map) have created the Christmas Campaign once more. You can load the planet by using the Content menu in game. Thank you to everyone who contributed a design! Nick put on his elf hat and has been working on some bug fixes. There are also updates to various campaign vehicles. Just to let everyone know flamers and flames will be coming in the New Year so that is something to look forward to in the New Year! Enjoy and have a good one! PATCH NOTES ADD APS [BUGS-4260] railgun magnets can now be 'hidden' using decorations, and decorations attached to them will nominally spin as per the magnet. Lua Added GetConstructLocalCenterOfMass() method to return the local center of mass. Physics [BUGS-4255] The 'V' menu (General info -> Physics) now has an option to turn off the half-voxel rounding/snapping of the centre of mass point. This may be useful for certain vehicle types. Blocks [BUGS-4247] GP PID can now has output yaw control option. CHANGES XMAS The xmas 2023 campaign has been released. Map editor 'View distance' now affects storm cloud layer as well as standard clouds. If you use a terrain size less than 1024m the game will spawn more terrain pieces to make up for it so that there is not obviously missing terrain. This is has a very bad effect on frame-rate however so don't do it...) Fire control computer, Fire control computers can be assigned weapon slots so that they can be limited to controlling certain weapon groups.) UI There is now more information displayed about why weapons are not firing, when you manually try to fire them.) Fuel engine build UI changes following community discussion. FIXES Environment The horizon object that blends sky to sea has been broken for a while, it is now fixed. Breadboard [BUGS-4050] Doppler shift for sound effects was limited (by accident) to be no less than 10%. This has been removed, allowing breadboard playback module to produce sounds with no doppler shift. RandomInput now has correct inputs and outputs number. Turrets Reverted a previous change to turrets that was supposed to make hull collision checks more lenient. This change was because it was possible for a quickly rotating turret to access rotations that a slowly rotating turret could not, by effectively jumping through some of the more problematic angles such as 45. Rather than making it more lenient I have changed it so that checks are performed incrementally to ensure no difficult angle is jumped through. I have increased the precision of the calculation from floating point to double precision calculations. UI When aiming weapons manually you'll now see bombs, torpedoes, turrets, missile-block-lasers, plasma cannons and particle cannons as separately listed weapon types in the RDY/IDLE list in the bottom right (as well as cannons, missiles and lasers.) Missiles [BUGS-4270] missile controllers with no missiles on them will now use the missile-laser-block position as the firing post position for the purposes of aiming (if applicable). They will prioritize missile-laser-blocks with an encoding of 'our team' or 'our vehicle.' [BUGS-4289] when a munition decorator is repaired it will apply the decoration to the missiles that need it. Multi-player Fixed building and material spending issues in multi-player when players are on different teams. Tutorials Fixed the AI build guide. Weapons AI fail-safes attached to AI equipment that controls a weapon are now used by the player when trying to fire the weapon manually. This enables you to test your fail-safe (and also not shoot yourself.) CRAM [BUGS-4269] CRAM barrel decorations had an issue where original mesh hiding was not working after spawning. Now fixed. Campaign Blueprints [Neter] Brigand (DWG): New carrier ship that deploys a helicopter and launches barrages of missiles at its foes from afar. Godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 30. Now uses water travel mode as intended. Rat (DWG): Fixed a turning problem, removed excess missile controller. Judgement (WF): Overhauled as a potent particle cannon destroyer. Difficulties unchanged (Expert, adventure difficulty 60). Disemboweler (WF): Updated AI behaviors to make its attack runs more consistent. Slight rudder changes. Whaleshark (SS): Updated CA and scuttling parameters to help lessen the chances of planes going to space; note that this isn't a full fix and some may still do this, but should be a bit more manageable until a more permanent design fix is deployed. Now uses BB control for plane management. Exocets overhauled, even less prone to going to space from recent update. Glyptos (GT): New thrustercraft, replaces the Perseus; you want missiles? You got missiles. Medium difficulty, adventure difficulty 40. Perseus (GT): Retired, see Glyptos. Flail (GT): Minor deco update. Gog (GT): Deco fixes, minor block adjustments. ICBM (GT): Fixed a few disconnected CJEs, deco updates. Morningstar (GT): Same as Flail. Velocity (SD): Overhauled; still retains its original role as a high-speed missile plane. Hard difficulty, adventure difficulty 30. Anguish (TG): Updated CA parameters. Spite (TG): Updated scuttling. Spear (OW): Fixed duplicate airpumps/connection logic. Umbra (LH): Now classified as a submarine Banshee (SS): Fixed missing glass block. Damacy (GT): Fixed side turret rotation. Peacekeeper (SD): Retired, awaiting rework. Corsair (DWG): Deco fixes, added turret ring. Shrike (DWG): Paint update, added steam jets for more velocity, updates to tail section. Bulwark (OW): Removed scuttling tag from turrets, causing it to scuttle when one primary turret was destroyed. Harasser (WF): Harasser has been retired from Neter and remade as a new craft for AotE. Details will be in AotE section. Piercer (WF): Fixed scuttling issue involving material storage. Jealousy (TG): Internally redesigned to be cheaper PAC tuning. Satisfaction Swarm (TG): Added OoC scuttling for drones. Cherenkov (LH): Removed disconnected missile parts. Exadyne (LH): Fixed frontal turret being disconnected. Impedance (LH): Removed unneeded laser transceivers, filled in holes around the cockpit, fixed glass aesthetic near the stern. Asphodel (SS): Updated Penguin subspawn with propellers over old dediblades. Gannet Squadron (SS): Added OoC scuttling. Kitakami (SS): Updated Penguin subspawn with propellers over old dediblades. PredatorX (SS): Updated with thrust vectoring, removed side thrusters. Improved EMP insulation, added Breadboard for previous ACB functions. Fixed missiles not firing properly. Spectre (SS): Fixed a few holes due to deco conversion from decos. Typhoon (SS): Reduced minimum altitude so that its missiles could breach the surface properly. Optimized missile ranges. Valiant (SS): Updated Penguin subspawn with propellers over old dediblades. Damacy (GT): Fixed firing arc of primary cannon as well as problems with maneuvering and armor. Alterations to some weaponry. Lamprey (GT): Redesigned; a hunting ship turned warship with a potent cannon to shoot at ships (and sea monsters theoretically) alongside complimentary weaponry. Difficulties unchanged. Lore added. Carnage (SD): Aesthetic improvements, including gimbal thrusters. - All designs through Neter, AotE, and Glao should have updated collision avoidance settings (Christmas campaign will get a passover in the near future). Note that there may be some mistakes with the parameters, which can be updated based on feedback. However, craft intended to ram should at least try to ram properly. If designs aren't behaving as intended, please report it to the unit-design-bugs channel on Discord. [AotE] Dust Chopper (DWG): New DWG bike unit; a small, fast, agile unit with a powerful missile. Adventure difficulty 5. Smuggler (DWG): New DWG tank; a monosider with a mixture of cannons and missiles. Adventure difficulty 25. Tuareg (DWG): Entirely overhauled; a large mobile base with a large assortment of weaponry alongside 2 Copperheads and 2 Dust Choppers accompanying it. Will be updated with adventure difficulty once validated. Longhorn (OW): Overhauled and added back to active roster; an aggressive, ramming tank. Have you ever had a castle drive into you at over 80 m/s? Adventure difficulty 60. Sand Raider (DWG): Fixed resting drive on wheels to be 0, this way it'll actually stop when not AI controlled. Bison (OW): Rebuilt; now functions as a broadsider with its top turrets removed and replaced with a crossbow missile turret. Bombard (OW): Minor paint aesthetic update. Ember Forge (OW): The land version of the Ember Forge has been overhauled with a beautiful aesthetic update, alongside some light firepower to fend off attackers. The Neter fortress version may receive an update in the near future. Lucerne (OW): Reworked to now be a frontsider with a large cannon barrage. Harasser (WF): New "tank" unit: A fearsome bike with a rapid-fire cannon and a tactical nuke lance. Adventure difficulty 20 with low deviation. Ravager (WF): Overhauled; an intimidating tank with a high top speed, a slew of varied weaponry, and if looks could kill, your next visit would be the Flayed God. Adventure difficulty 80 with high deviation. Atreides (SE): Replaced the crude fans of the subspawn with propeller hubs. Overseer (OW): Overhauled and reintroduced to the active roster. Does it fire a massive cannon shell, or is it a missile? You decide! - Player designs should no longer spawn on the main menu. - Fixed a "too high" scuttling problem for various land designs (and their subconstructs) - All AotE designs have had their collision avoidance parameters adjusted from the 50s default. There is likely room for optimization here that will be addressed based on feedback/extensive testing. [Glao] Emerald (OFD): Now properly spawns in the air. Whoops. Helicopter (TRD): Removed dediblades, minor deco overlapping fixes. Likely slated a for a rename/rework in the future. Granite Squad (OFD): Updated to be faster, more aggressive, and with improved cannons. Obsidian (OFD): New plane which replaces the Bomber; a compact plane with a wavy movement pattern with missile arrays and an underslung turreted cannon. Quartz (OFD): New thrustercraft; similar in appearance to the Emerald, but goes all in on a powerful frontal plasma cannon. Conqueror (GI): New thrustercraft; a cannon-focused brute that outlasts foes with its heavy frontal armor and delivers a kinetic barrage in return. Gladiator (GI): New thrustercraft; similar in appearance to the Conqueror but sacrifices some of its cannon power for missile arrays. - All active Glao design bp files have been moved to their respective folders. Duplicates still remain in the main Glao folder which will be cleaned up in the near future. - All active Glao designs have had their collision avoidance parameters adjusted from the 50s default. There is likely room for optimization here that will be addressed based on feedback/extensive testing.

[ 2023-12-23 17:25:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Suggestion for anyone who thinks they have lost data recently

Not sure what is going on but it seems steam sync related before I re-enabled it today. If you think you've lost your game data suddenly check this path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\0\268650\ac\WinMyDocuments\From The Depths\Player Profiles I am unsure why this happened, but I have contacted Steam. Sorry for any inconvenience if this has happened to you.

[ 2023-12-15 00:19:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

3.8.0.4 More small fixes and campaign updates

Fixes: Multiplayer - Resource zones will now no longer be infinite in multiplayer if they've been set to be finite in the world editor. Fuel build UI - Same treatment the plasma one has had. Will gradually roll this out where its appropriate and possible to do. [Neter] Brigand (DWG): New carrier ship that deploys a helicopter and launches barrages of missiles at its foes from afar. Godly difficulty, adventure difficulty 30. Flail (GT): Minor deco update. Gog (GT): Deco fixes, minor block adjustments. ICBM (GT): Fixed a few disconnected CJEs, deco updates. Morningstar (GT): Same as Flail. Velocity (SD): Overhauled; still retains its original role as a high-speed missile plane. Hard difficulty, adventure difficulty 30. Anguish (TG): Updated CA parameters. Spite (TG): Updated scuttling. Spear (OW): Fixed duplicate airpumps/connection logic. Umbra (LH): Now classified as a submarine Banshee (SS): Fixed missing glass block. Damacy (GT): Fixed side turret rotation. Peacekeeper (SD): Retired, awaiting rework. [AotE] Dust Chopper (DWG): New DWG bike unit; a small, fast, agile unit with a powerful missile. Adventure difficulty 5. Smuggler (DWG): New DWG tank; a monosider with a mixture of cannons and missiles. Adventure difficulty 25. Tuareg (DWG): Entirely overhauled; a large mobile base with a large assortment of weaponry alongside 2 Copperheads and 2 Dust Choppers accompanying it. Will be updated with adventure difficulty once validated. Longhorn (OW): Overhauled and added back to active roster; an aggressive, ramming tank. Have you ever had a castle drive into you at over 80 m/s? Adventure difficulty 60. - Fixed a "too high" scuttling problem for various land designs (and their subconstructs) - All AotE designs have had their collision avoidance parameters adjusted from the 50s default. There is likely room for optimization here that will be addressed based on feedback/extensive testing. [Glao] Emerald (OFD): Now properly spawns in the air. Whoops. Helicopter (TRD): Removed dediblades, minor deco overlapping fixes. Likely slated a for a rename/rework in the future. - All designs through Neter, AotE, and Glao should have updated collision avoidance settings (Christmas campaign will get a passover in the near future). Note that there may be some mistakes with the parameters, which can be updated based on feedback. However, craft intended to ram should at least try to ram properly. If designs aren't behaving as intended, please report it to the unit-design-bugs channel on Discord.

[ 2023-11-15 15:53:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Teeny update

A few small changes added: Decorations, Added strategic antenna and dish piece to a conversion dictionary to retain any decos that used the old meshes. This would need to be applied to an old blueprint saved prior to 3.8.0. Collision Avoidance, Changed defaults to 5 and changed increments to 0.1. Collision Avoidance, Added warnings to routines that may be affected by collision avoidance to check collision avoidance settings.

[ 2023-11-08 12:12:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Teeny update

[ 2023-11-08 12:11:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.8.0.1

This is basically an AI update. We've spent a lot of time getting waypoints and collision avoidance working a lot better. There are also a few more goodies thrown in. As with every update you might need to close down steam entirely to get it to show the download promptly. Added: Collision avoidance - Added a bearing/heading collision avoidance routine where vehicles will turn to avoid each other. This complements the existing vertical collision avoidance which orders pairs of vehicles to change altitude to avoid one-another. UI - Increased the fidelity of path view mode showing each alteration that collision avoidance / altitude adjustment etc make to the waypoint. LWC - Added minimum block count limit and minimum speed limit to the existing slider. Breadboard - Added a time of day module for outputting the time of day. Breadboard - Added a target volume output to the target info module for AI breadboard. Fixed: Collision avoidance - Fix to the aerial collision avoidance where the choice to avoid only friendly units would result in only avoiding enemy units. UI - Fixed an issue causing path view tooltips to not show up when in fleet control mode with a unit selected. Multiplayer - Adventure bell ringing noise is more audible and triggers correctly on clients. Multiplayer - Munition decorations for missiles now spawn in correctly on clients. APS - Bug with 2m mantlet fixed where the tooltip was displaying incorrect max possible elevation. Target Prioritisation - Bug fixed where the bonus to current slider couldn't go negative. Changed: Pathfinding - Paths that finish in unsuitable terrain (water depth or land height issues) will never be selected, but paths that travel through these areas can still be chosen if the starting point of the vehicle is also unsuitable. Collision avoidance - Fixes to the system that determines when an aerial collision is likely to take place. Collision avoidance - Collision avoidance option is no longer ON/OFF/FRIENDLY ONLY. You can toggle avoidance for FRIENDS/ENEMIES and toggle ON/OFF each different routine. AI - Point at and maintain distance behaviour tries harder to find a suitable place to position the original waypoint when the waypoint is inaccessible due to land height /water depth. Pathfinding - Pathfinding will move the final path node onto the goal position to make pathfinding more accurate when a large turning circle is selected. Pathfinding - Pathfinding will effectively reduce the turning circle variable when close to the end point to increase the accuracy of getting to the waypoint. Cutaway - Changed increments in UI to 0.5. Decorations - Changed allowed decotabs on a block to be 200 from 32. Removed: AI - Removed the practically unused support for multiple terrain pathfinding end points to simplify pathfinding.

[ 2023-10-26 20:10:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

3.7.3 Stable

Stable 3.7.3 Simple weapons, It is now possible to remove a built-in shell type from the simple weapons UI [BUGS-4214]. Simple weapons, Removing a built-in shell type from the ammo controller UI will now be properly processed in the simple weapons UI. Simple weapons, Editing a deleted/destroyed shell type is not possible anymore. Plasma cannons, Build guide and prefabs added. Plasma cannons, Added short names for localisers. Plasma cannons, Weight of all plasma components halved. Plasma cannons, Fixed some descriptions. Plasma cannons, Damage variance increased to 70-115%. For most of testing it was 70-110% and later went down to 50-110% and then 20-120% (currently). 70-115 means smaller projectiles do slightly more damage and larger ones do slightly less. Originally didn't want to buff small since without overkill its very similar to APS and APS should be the default generic with plasma focusing on anti armour. After review though it was too in favour of large than small. Plasma cannons, Added damage falloff to tooltip. AI, Some textures and meshes have been changed to make them easier to identify. An alternate camera 90 mesh is available with a base plate. If you want to discuss these further please do so in the alphatest channel of the discord. I'll ask Alma to keep an eye out. Constructive only please. Typos, Many typos fixed, thanks for the reports. Blocks, Rubber poles weren't immune to collision damage like other rubber blocks.

[ 2023-09-01 19:41:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.7.2

Hey everyone! Stable 3.7.2 is here! Plasma! Along with the past 6 months of fixes, additions and changes from the alpha builds. Thankyou testers! Most discussion involving plasma will happen on the discord so I encourage you to go there. Please remember that this has been in closed testing for weeks and the values and numbers are what they are meant to be to fit into its intended role. Information about the plasma system is in the notes. Thanks and enjoy! Notes: 3.7.2 stable notes

[ 2023-08-28 18:35:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

3.7.1 Alpha

3.7.1 Alpha Lots of under the hood changes to AI as well as some bug fixes. Nick is absent for the next 2 weeks and then I (Sean) will be absent for 2 and Alma is currently recovering so it'll be quiet for a little while following this. If AI mesh stuff throws a GUID error just hold down enter. Will clear it in a later update. Add: Ram behaviour, The ram behaviour now has a dropdown with 3 options for 3 different types of guidance. Direct, APN and Predictive. Direct is the old ram behaviour where it goes direct to the target. APN uses the APN missile guidance code to setup a line of sight to a target and then try to close in on it. Predictive tries to intercept the target by calculating where it should be in the future and closing on it at a cross point. APS CRAM, Resting azimuth added to APS and CRAM firing pieces/mantlets along with a warning about when a mantlet is misaligned with a firing piece. The warning appears on the firing piece. Changes: Ram behaviour, The various sliders in the ram behaviour UI now have larger values available in some cases to allow for things like disengaging the adjuster further away on very fast things. Traveling further away before reengaging etc. PointAt behaviour, New slider added for configuring the view cone to decide when to turn and face away to retreat. Set to 180 for reverse only. AI, All in one weapon controllers now accept physical connections as well as wireless connections. Fixes: Blockcounter, Fixed the blockcounter incorrectly calculating subsubconstructs. Missiles, Fixed a bug for a rare case where a rotation could be zero and therefore do nothing. AI, Fix to ship & tank maneouvre to allow 'reverse' when 'point at and maintain distance' behaviour is selected and the adjuster is set to 'air mode' and the vehicle needs to retreat to maintain distance. AI, Fix to encourage reversing land-surface and sea-surface paths to be formed when 'point at and maintain distance' behaviour is selected and the adjuster is set to 'on land' or 'on water' and the vehicle needs to retreat to maintain distance. AI, Fix to collision avoidance. There was a bug causing calculations to be wrong. Things can now also evade left right as well as up down. This still isn't perfect and we will try to refine it further. Manual, Updated the helicopter guide so that it doesn't reference dediblades anymore. Plate, Alloy and metal plate triangles now mirror correctly on a horizontal mirror. Poles, Pole hit calculations now use a perfect cylinder to calculate intersections rather than the quantised cylindrical mesh of the pole. Modding, Item duplicators can now define a class name override for the duplicate block. Turrets, Turrets and spinBlocks shouldn't be 'stuck' when trying to rotate at max speed and free to move when rotating slowly, the collision check with the mainConstruct is now more permissive. [BUGS-4146]

[ 2023-06-19 19:57:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.6.4 campaign notes

World files: Updated DWG with all of its intended corporations. They currently don't serve a purpose but will do so when DWG HQ layout is updated. Craft will be updated to proper corporations at a later date. [Neter] Marlin (DWG): Applied connection rules, adjusted terrain prediction time. Transient (SD): Completely remade; now classified as a spacecraft, retains its cargo carrier status; when attacked, broadsides from afar with a long-distance laser. Deimos (SD): Updated with interceptor decos, minor evasion tweaks, EMP-proofing. Anguish (TG): Redesigned; it's now a melee mech with a large sword using a laser cutter core. Removed "comment" annotation from Neter Adventure raft. Patchwork (DWG): Overhauled; still retains its original identity but has been modernized. Wanda (DWG): Updated cannon to be APHE, weakened missiles. Slight difficulty balancing tweaks to Adventure for some designs that could spawn as the first enemy when they shouldn't have. Removed LH Current and GT Weaver from spawning in Adventure (cargo craft) [AotE] Slight tweaks to early unit spawning for Adventure. [Glao] Granite Squadron (OFD): New fighter unit, replaces Fighter; 3 small fighter drones using burst APS. Fighter (OFD): Retired.

[ 2023-03-15 13:02:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.6.4

Fix Adventure, Trying to create/load a "structure" in adventure mode will instead spawn a "vehicle". Decorations, No longer possible to select other decorations when the mouse is hovering over the UI (this was unintended.) Rendering, Explosions should no longer end up accidentally occasionally rendering behind the sky layer / horizon layer. Separator, Built-in shell designs copy into separated vehicles, and shells referring built in designs that are in clips no longer disappear on separation. Munition Decorator, Removed EMP invulnerability. Gone to Sea, Fixed character textures in linux. Add Blocks, Added 2m and 3m versions of the 4m beam-slope block.

[ 2023-03-14 15:17:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

From the Depths Gone to Sea character pack DLC now available

Not much to say other than check out the store page that contains all the information. Gone to Sea store page Adds 4 more characters: Sea Captain, sailor 1, sailor 2 and diver.

[ 2023-03-06 18:43:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.6.3.2

A stable update with some interesting changes in there. Adventure mode continues to be worked on and tweaked, thanks for all the feedback so far. The new adventure bell can be found in the Misc tab, ring it once per minute to summon a new enemy in both adventure modes. If you want to play land adventure you need to load the "ashes of the empire" planet in the content menu and start adventure after loading that. It's a land based campaign. There are still blueprint updates trickling in to get that more up to date. Glao has started actually being updated, thanks strider for managing that and to the builders! Tracks are now moddable, Gladyon has added that, still not had anyone do it I think so would be good to know how people get on with it. On top of that the tracks algorithm had a rewrite a little while back which Gladyon has now ironed the kinks out of. There's a new widget when decorating (ctrl+x) that you can click and drag to alter your meshes! Add Tracks, Track texture will now keep its original ratio when the track's width is modified Breadboards, Added a comment module with no inputs or outputs, for annotation purposes Adventure, Bell Added - Misc Tab. Use it to summon enemies in any adventure mode. 1 min cool down, not underwater, not above 300m. Change Tracks, It is now possible for modders to add selectable materials for tracks by checking the 'Is available to tracks' option in the material screen of the modding UI Adventure, Spawning now happens every 10 minutes as well as the other spawn types. Adventure, Terrain hill scale changed from 0.5 to 0.4 (less hilly) Adventure mode, In land adventure mode enemies will now spawn at 3km not 5km Map editor, Removed unused HQ settings from the map editor Fix Achievements, Neter campaign achievements (e.g. destroying HQs on different difficulties) fixed Tracks, Fixed a lot of edge cases bugs in tracks creation Decorations, When placing a prefab in mirror mode with the prefab intersecting the mirror plane, all the decorations will now be placed [BUGS-4119] Decorations, The decoration widget position and scale values are now rounded to 5 decimal places Steam, [BUGS-4113] Changed cases where crank friction loss was applied before kinetic energy was added to the shaft Steam, [BUGS-4083] Fixed sealed 2m shaft not connecting to transmissions CRAM, [BUGS-3972] Fixed ERA triggering CRAM shells APS, Shaped charge and secondary shaped charge tooltip shows damage/fragment, instead of total damage of all fragments Interceptors, Interceptor priority for targets with >120% of their health in incoming interceptors reduced to 30%, instead of >150%/50% Explosions, Fixed some strange explosion behaviour with subConstructs due to multi-threading (undamaged blocks which should be damaged or explosion leaking through subConstruct) [BUGS-4100] I don't usually include this part but it just goes to show how much work goes on behind the scenes by community to improve the various planets. These are updates from the 6th Feb onwards. Campaign blueprints: [Neter] Abactor (DWG): New DWG ship, hard difficulty, replaces Prowler. "The Prowler" in Sal's fleet is another design and will be untouched. Difficulty changed to godly from expert. Removed some unnecessary LWCs, artifacts of a previous version. Hoplite (DWG): Re-added back as an easy design, updated with modern touches. There might be an "old bp" bug that will require it to be rebuilt as a new bp, will do testing. Loggerhead (DWG): Paint/deco updates. Wanda (DWG): Deco updates. Davy Jones Outpost spawn logic has been set to just spawn all possible units. This is to "futureproof" spawning situations when new designs are added. Airship Gantry has been given the Hoplite to possibly spawn as well. Fitzgerald corporation made for DWG but doesn't serve much of a purpose for the time being with the HQ spawn logic. This logic may get improved later when corporations are all fleshed out. Abactor (DWG): Prowler (DWG): Retired from campaign and adventure. Smoker (DWG): Redesigned to be larger and pack a bigger punch, also includes missile deco. The old version has been converted to an SM variant for the story missions. SmokerSM (DWG): See above. Tortuga (DWG): Moved to expert difficulty. Sunfish (DWG): Reintroduced as a small expert thrustercraft; attempts to sit over its target and rain down munitions. Leatherback (DWG): Heavily updated to be a smaller profile but retain similar functionality. Monkey Barrel (DWG): Missile deco added to give it "barrel mines". Also has pivoting helicopter behaviors. The SM version is unaffected. Defender Turret (TG): Redesigned, retains similar functionality. - As a futureproof measure for Adventure, all installations/buildings have had their spawn rates removed for Adventure. - More, if not all cargo craft have had their spawn rate removed in Adventure. Parapet (OW): Difficulty dropped to Expert as intended, from godly. No bp changes. The Repentance (WF): Deco missiles, slight optimization. Harbinger (WF): Completely redesigned; has a large cache of cluster missiles as its primary armament. Thresher Shark (SS): No design changes, fixed some typos in its lore. Aerotyrant (SS): Improved thrust and lift near the rear to improve pitching issue. Impedance (LH): Fixed up-props not working. Astraeus (SD): Miscellaneous fixes and slight shape improvements. Carnage (SD): Overhauled, still retains its original purpose as an AA thrustercraft. Added a Heartstone. Archangel (SD): Difficulty dropped to medium from expert. AI updated to prevent it from falling out of space. It's now classified as a Spacecraft and if they're part of Adventure, I've reduced its spawn rate a little. [AotE] Sand Viper (DWG): Fixed missing armor, added missing paint. Black Mamba (DWG): Increased difficulty for Adventure. Cataphract (WF): Completely redesigned. Saviour (WF): Completely redesigned and slightly different name from Savior; uses melee PACs as its primary armament. Bombard (OW): Redesigned and refit to standards. Oxen: Complete overhaul to get it up-to-date. Nemesis (TG): Redesigned up to faction standards. I wasn't given a detailed list of changes. Paladin (TG): Same as above. Fun to watch it charge at things with a giant lance! [Glao] Updated a typo in the fleet colors for TRD; the red trim was intended to be much darker. Explorer (GI): New thrustercraft design. Not set to replace anything, just an addition to their roster. Fixed AI to recommended settings, removed some blocked thrusters Buzzsaw (GI): Redesigned; still a melee craft but it's now a thrustercraft with more dynamic control. Echo (TRD): New design, replaces Hammer of God. Spacecraft that hovers over its targets to rain down missiles. Gold Turret (OFD): New turret design to replace the original "Cannon". AA turret. Silver Turret (OFD): New turret design to replace the original "Cannon". CRAM cannon. Defender Turret (GI): New turret design to replace the original "Doomcannon". Multipurpose APS cannon. Protector Turret (GI): New turret design to replace the original "Doomcannon". Missile turret. - "Cannon" and "Doomcannon" spawns in fleets have been replaced the appropriate turrets. - At a later time the stationary turrets will be spread out to defend RZs and map locations as well.

[ 2023-02-20 16:58:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.6.3.2

A stable update with some interesting changes in there. Adventure mode continues to be worked on and tweaked, thanks for all the feedback so far. The new adventure bell can be found in the Misc tab, ring it once per minute to summon a new enemy in both adventure modes. If you want to play land adventure you need to load the "ashes of the empire" planet in the content menu and start adventure after loading that. It's a land based campaign. There are still blueprint updates trickling in to get that more up to date. Glao has started actually being updated, thanks strider for managing that and to the builders! Tracks are now moddable, Gladyon has added that, still not had anyone do it I think so would be good to know how people get on with it. On top of that the tracks algorithm had a rewrite a little while back which Gladyon has now ironed the kinks out of. There's a new widget when decorating (ctrl+x) that you can click and drag to alter your meshes! Add Tracks, Track texture will now keep its original ratio when the track's width is modified Breadboards, Added a comment module with no inputs or outputs, for annotation purposes Adventure, Bell Added - Misc Tab. Use it to summon enemies in any adventure mode. 1 min cool down, not underwater, not above 300m. Change Tracks, It is now possible for modders to add selectable materials for tracks by checking the 'Is available to tracks' option in the material screen of the modding UI Adventure, Spawning now happens every 10 minutes as well as the other spawn types. Adventure, Terrain hill scale changed from 0.5 to 0.4 (less hilly) Adventure mode, In land adventure mode enemies will now spawn at 3km not 5km Map editor, Removed unused HQ settings from the map editor Fix Achievements, Neter campaign achievements (e.g. destroying HQs on different difficulties) fixed Tracks, Fixed a lot of edge cases bugs in tracks creation Decorations, When placing a prefab in mirror mode with the prefab intersecting the mirror plane, all the decorations will now be placed [BUGS-4119] Decorations, The decoration widget position and scale values are now rounded to 5 decimal places Steam, [BUGS-4113] Changed cases where crank friction loss was applied before kinetic energy was added to the shaft Steam, [BUGS-4083] Fixed sealed 2m shaft not connecting to transmissions CRAM, [BUGS-3972] Fixed ERA triggering CRAM shells APS, Shaped charge and secondary shaped charge tooltip shows damage/fragment, instead of total damage of all fragments Interceptors, Interceptor priority for targets with >120% of their health in incoming interceptors reduced to 30%, instead of >150%/50% Explosions, Fixed some strange explosion behaviour with subConstructs due to multi-threading (undamaged blocks which should be damaged or explosion leaking through subConstruct) [BUGS-4100] I don't usually include this part but it just goes to show how much work goes on behind the scenes by community to improve the various planets. These are updates from the 6th Feb onwards. Campaign blueprints: [Neter] Abactor (DWG): New DWG ship, hard difficulty, replaces Prowler. "The Prowler" in Sal's fleet is another design and will be untouched. Difficulty changed to godly from expert. Removed some unnecessary LWCs, artifacts of a previous version. Hoplite (DWG): Re-added back as an easy design, updated with modern touches. There might be an "old bp" bug that will require it to be rebuilt as a new bp, will do testing. Loggerhead (DWG): Paint/deco updates. Wanda (DWG): Deco updates. Davy Jones Outpost spawn logic has been set to just spawn all possible units. This is to "futureproof" spawning situations when new designs are added. Airship Gantry has been given the Hoplite to possibly spawn as well. Fitzgerald corporation made for DWG but doesn't serve much of a purpose for the time being with the HQ spawn logic. This logic may get improved later when corporations are all fleshed out. Abactor (DWG): Prowler (DWG): Retired from campaign and adventure. Smoker (DWG): Redesigned to be larger and pack a bigger punch, also includes missile deco. The old version has been converted to an SM variant for the story missions. SmokerSM (DWG): See above. Tortuga (DWG): Moved to expert difficulty. Sunfish (DWG): Reintroduced as a small expert thrustercraft; attempts to sit over its target and rain down munitions. Leatherback (DWG): Heavily updated to be a smaller profile but retain similar functionality. Monkey Barrel (DWG): Missile deco added to give it "barrel mines". Also has pivoting helicopter behaviors. The SM version is unaffected. Defender Turret (TG): Redesigned, retains similar functionality. - As a futureproof measure for Adventure, all installations/buildings have had their spawn rates removed for Adventure. - More, if not all cargo craft have had their spawn rate removed in Adventure. Smoker (DWG): Redesigned to be larger and pack a bigger punch, also includes missile deco. The old version has been converted to an SM variant for the story missions. Parapet (OW): Difficulty dropped to Expert as intended, from godly. No bp changes. The Repentance (WF): Deco missiles, slight optimization. Harbinger (WF): Completely redesigned; has a large cache of cluster missiles as its primary armament. Thresher Shark (SS): No design changes, fixed some typos in its lore. Aerotyrant (SS): Improved thrust and lift near the rear to improve pitching issue. Impedance (LH): Fixed up-props not working. Astraeus (SD): Miscellaneous fixes and slight shape improvements. Carnage (SD): Overhauled, still retains its original purpose as an AA thrustercraft. Added a Heartstone. Archangel (SD): Difficulty dropped to medium from expert. AI updated to prevent it from falling out of space. It's now classified as a Spacecraft and if they're part of Adventure, I've reduced its spawn rate a little. [AotE] Sand Viper (DWG): Fixed missing armor, added missing paint. Black Mamba (DWG): Increased difficulty for Adventure. Cataphract (WF): Completely redesigned. Saviour (WF): Completely redesigned and slightly different name from Savior; uses melee PACs as its primary armament. Bombard (OW): Redesigned and refit to standards. Oxen: Complete overhaul to get it up-to-date. Nemesis (TG): Redesigned up to faction standards. I wasn't given a detailed list of changes. Paladin (TG): Same as above. Fun to watch it charge at things with a giant lance! [Glao] Updated a typo in the fleet colors for TRD; the red trim was intended to be much darker. Explorer (GI): New thrustercraft design. Not set to replace anything, just an addition to their roster. Fixed AI to recommended settings, removed some blocked thrusters Buzzsaw (GI): Redesigned; still a melee craft but it's now a thrustercraft with more dynamic control. Echo (TRD): New design, replaces Hammer of God. Spacecraft that hovers over its targets to rain down missiles. Gold Turret (OFD): New turret design to replace the original "Cannon". AA turret. Silver Turret (OFD): New turret design to replace the original "Cannon". CRAM cannon. Defender Turret (GI): New turret design to replace the original "Doomcannon". Multipurpose APS cannon. Protector Turret (GI): New turret design to replace the original "Doomcannon". Missile turret. - "Cannon" and "Doomcannon" spawns in fleets have been replaced the appropriate turrets. - At a later time the stationary turrets will be spread out to defend RZs and map locations as well.

[ 2023-02-20 16:41:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.6.3

Adventure Bell Added - Misc Tab. Use it to summon enemies in any adventure mode. 1 min cool down, not underwater, not above 300m. Enemies now spawn every 10 minutes in addition to the spawns based on moving around. The 'hunter fleet' spawns based on sitting still for too long have been disabled. Achievements, Neter campaign achievements (e.g. destroying HQs on different difficulties) fixed

[ 2023-02-09 21:51:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Betatest 3.6.2

(Remember you might need to restart Steam if you are already in betatest to get it to detect the new build) Add Tracks, Track texture will now keep its original ratio when the track's width is modified Breadboards, Added a comment module with no inputs or outputs, for annotation purposes Change Tracks, It is now possible for modders to add selectable materials for tracks by checking the 'Is available to tracks' option in the material screen of the modding UI Adventure, Spawning now happens every 10 minutes. (There'll be a block added soon that you can interact with to spawn more enemies when you like.) Fix Tracks, Fixed a lot of edge cases bugs in tracks creation Decorations, When placing a prefab in mirror mode with the prefab intersecting the mirror plane, all the decorations will now be placed [BUGS-4119] Steam, [BUGS-4113] Changed cases where crank friction loss was applied before kinetic energy was added to the shaft Steam, [BUGS-4083] Fixed sealed 2m shaft not connecting to transmissions CRAM, [BUGS-3972] Fixed ERA triggering CRAM shells APS, Shaped charge and secondary shaped charge tooltip shows damage/fragment, instead of total damage of all fragments

[ 2023-02-08 15:06:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Betatest 3.6.2

(Remember you might need to restart Steam if you are already in betatest to get it to detect the new build) Add Tracks, Track texture will now keep its original ratio when the track's width is modified Breadboards, Added a comment module with no inputs or outputs, for annotation purposes Change Tracks, It is now possible for modders to add selectable materials for tracks by checking the 'Is available to tracks' option in the material screen of the modding UI Fix Tracks, Fixed a lot of edge cases bugs in tracks creation Decorations, When placing a prefab in mirror mode with the prefab intersecting the mirror plane, all the decorations will now be placed [BUGS-4119] Steam, [BUGS-4113] Changed cases where crank friction loss was applied before kinetic energy was added to the shaft Steam, [BUGS-4083] Fixed sealed 2m shaft not connecting to transmissions CRAM, [BUGS-3972] Fixed ERA triggering CRAM shells APS, Shaped charge and secondary shaped charge tooltip shows damage/fragment, instead of total damage of all fragments

[ 2023-02-08 14:35:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable mini update for adventure

Hills have 20% less variance (they are flatter) Things spawn in at 3km instead of 5km The starter car got an upgrade

[ 2023-02-06 12:19:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.6.1

Hello everyone, Stable build 3.6.1 is here. A lot of bug fixes and a few major items. Land Adventure mode is here! You can now take to the hills in Ashes of the Empire in a land adventure mode. If you've never been in ashes before you can find the planet in the content menu. Just click on it. To help with this there have been a load of land based bugs fixed and the addition of the articulated chair. This chair eliminates camera roll and pitch and can be fine tuned by press Q on it. Missile decorations are here! Click on the missile decorator in the missiles tab. Place it anywhere, add decorations to it. (Make sure and adjust the number of elements to the size of your missile.) Give it a name. Press Q on a missile launchpad of your choice and select the named decorator to apply it to the missile. Yes this can get extremeley wacky so have fun! Also in the land of decoration a new widget has been added that can make editing them a bit visually easier. You'll see arrows appear on the 3 axis that you can click and drag. Change mode by right clicking. Patch Notes Additions: Adventure, Added land adventure mode as an option for planets and activated it for 'Ashes of the Empire'. Breadboards, Breadboards can now pass strings (text) around. Generic Block Setter and Generic Block Getter can make use of this for the Hologram projector, sign post, Text screen, Poster holder, Blueprint spawner. Breadboards, Components with a block name filter now invert the filter when the first character of the filter text is ~ or ! Breadboards, The adder component will concatenate strings if one or more of the inputs is a string. Breadboards, The constant input component can now define a constant string output as well as the usual constant numerical output. Editor, Added effective health to the design inspector in the planet editor. Land, Some improvements to the spawning of terrain to ensure it is present for vehicles. Anime DLC, Intelligence officer Yuka added to SS character anime DLC package. Chairs, Added a self-stabilising chair version that can stabilise roll and pitch. Wheels, Wheels can now approximate collision with land even when the land is not yet spawned beneath them. Decorations, You can now decorate your missiles using a new 'munition decoration' block in the missiles tab. Decorations, There is now a widget for editing decorations. Fixes: Anime DLC, Sakura left hand turret holding orientation fixed. Anime DLC, Shaders changed for anime characters so that they are better lit at night. Particle cannons, Fixed melee lens applying damage type scaling twice Missiles, Fixed too much time passing between laser and remote guidance missile aim updates on the player faction in some cases. Steam, Fixed missing friction loss for crank systems where all kinetic energy can be lost to usage+friction in a single frame. Steam, S crank gen cost fixed, now half of the M generator's cost at 90 materials. Propulsion, All propulsion block yaw/pitch angle changes are smoothed out (takes 0.25s to go from 0 to max, same as the rate added for ACBs in 3.5.0). Example Mod, Some problems with the assassin imported from the example mod have been fixed. Auto propulsion balancing, Canceling yaw/roll now more important than cancelling pitch when hovering up and down. Auto propulsion balancing, Fixed an issue where propellers were unlikely to be recruited in reverse to help balance a craft. Auto propulsion balancing, Propellers pointing in the correct direction will no longer be turned off for forwards motion due to the pitching motion they create. Auto propulsion balancing, Propellers pointing in the correct direction will no longer be turned off for strafing motion due to the rolling motion they create. Campaign, [BUGS-4097] Faction HQs now act as defenders to their board section regardless of whether they are in a capture zone. Multiplayer, Many issues fixed that were stopping vehicles or turrets communicating with each other on different machines. Land, Some tweaks to help vehicles successfully surface above the land when they happen to end up beneath it. Land collision damage disabled and stabilisation added whilst emerging. Wheels, Fix to vehicles catapulting into the sky (due to first frame wheel forces) when spawned on the terrain. Breadboard, Fix to block to block copy paste for breadboards. Decorations, The lighting of scaled and rotated decorations is now correct (error in the calculation of their normal angles.) Adventure, Old adventure mode saves will now allow the external camera controls, just like new adventures do. Blueprint block search, Now correctly searches through subobject chains as well as the main construct. Changes: Fuel engines, Power output of all fuel engines increased by ~3.8%. Steam, Added ~8% loss to crank generators.

[ 2023-01-26 19:35:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.6.1

Hello everyone, Stable build 3.6.1 is here. A lot of bug fixes and a few major items. Land Adventure mode is here! You can now take to the hills in Ashes of the Empire in a land adventure mode. If you've never been in ashes before you can find the planet in the content menu. Just click on it. To help with this there have been a load of land based bugs fixed and the addition of the articulated chair. This chair eliminates camera roll and pitch and can be fine tuned by press Q on it. Missile decorations are here! Click on the missile decorator in the missiles tab. Place it anywhere, add decorations to it. (Make sure and adjust the number of elements to the size of your missile.) Give it a name. Press Q on a missile launchpad of your choice and select the named decorator to apply it to the missile. Yes this can get extremeley wacky so have fun! Also in the land of decoration a new widget has been added that can make editing them a bit visually easier. You'll see arrows appear on the 3 axis that you can click and drag. Change mode by right clicking. Patch Notes Additions: Adventure, Added land adventure mode as an option for planets and activated it for 'Ashes of the Empire'. Breadboards, Breadboards can now pass strings (text) around. Generic Block Setter and Generic Block Getter can make use of this for the Hologram projector, sign post, Text screen, Poster holder, Blueprint spawner. Breadboards, Components with a block name filter now invert the filter when the first character of the filter text is ~ or ! Breadboards, The adder component will concatenate strings if one or more of the inputs is a string. Breadboards, The constant input component can now define a constant string output as well as the usual constant numerical output. Editor, Added effective health to the design inspector in the planet editor. Land, Some improvements to the spawning of terrain to ensure it is present for vehicles. Anime DLC, Intelligence officer Yuka added to SS character anime DLC package. Chairs, Added a self-stabilising chair version that can stabilise roll and pitch. Wheels, Wheels can now approximate collision with land even when the land is not yet spawned beneath themChairs, Added a self-stabilising chair version that can stabilise roll and pitch. Decorations, You can now decorate your missiles using a new 'munition decoration' block in the missiles tab. Decorations, There is now a widget for editing decorations. Fixes: Anime DLC, Sakura left hand turret holding orientation fixed. Anime DLC, Shaders changed for anime characters so that they are better lit at night. Particle cannons, Fixed melee lens applying damage type scaling twice Missiles, Fixed too much time passing between laser and remote guidance missile aim updates on the player faction in some cases. Steam, Fixed missing friction loss for crank systems where all kinetic energy can be lost to usage+friction in a single frame. Steam, S crank gen cost fixed, now half of the M generator's cost at 90 materials. Propulsion, All propulsion block yaw/pitch angle changes are smoothed out (takes 0.25s to go from 0 to max, same as the rate added for ACBs in 3.5.0). Example Mod, Some problems with the assassin imported from the example mod have been fixed. Auto propulsion balancing, Canceling yaw/roll now more important than cancelling pitch when hovering up and down. Auto propulsion balancing, Fixed an issue where propellers were unlikely to be recruited in reverse to help balance a craft. Auto propulsion balancing, Propellers pointing in the correct direction will no longer be turned off for forwards motion due to the pitching motion they create. Auto propulsion balancing, Propellers pointing in the correct direction will no longer be turned off for strafing motion due to the rolling motion they create. Campaign, [BUGS-4097] Faction HQs now act as defenders to their board section regardless of whether they are in a capture zone. Multiplayer, Many issues fixed that were stopping vehicles or turrets communicating with each other on different machines. Land, Some tweaks to help vehicles successfully surface above the land when they happen to end up beneath it. Land collision damage disabled and stabilisation added whilst emerging. Wheels, Fix to vehicles catapulting into the sky (due to first frame wheel forces) when spawned on the terrain. Breadboard, Fix to block to block copy paste for breadboards. Decorations, The lighting of scaled and rotated decorations is now correct (error in the calculation of their normal angles.) Adventure, Old adventure mode saves will now allow the external camera controls, just like new adventures do. Blueprint block search, Now correctly searches through subobject chains as well as the main construct. Changes: Fuel engines, Power output of all fuel engines increased by ~3.8%. Steam, Added ~8% loss to crank generators.

[ 2023-01-26 18:52:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small update to the existing betatest

Fix: Particle cannons, Fixed melee lens applying damage type scaling twice Missiles, Fixed too much time passing between laser and remote guidance missile aim updates on the player faction in some cases Steam, Fixed missing friction loss for crank systems where all kinetic energy can be lost to usage+friction in a single frame Steam, S crank gen cost fixed, now half of the M generator's cost at 90 materials Land, Some tweaks to help vehicles successfully surface above the land when they happen to end up beneath it. Land collision damage disabled and stabilisation added whilst emerging Add: Land, Some improvements to the spawning of terrain to ensure it is present for vehicles Wheels, Wheels can now approximate collision with land even when the land is not yet spawned beneath them Change: Fuel engines, Power output of all fuel engines increased by ~3.8% Steam, Added 8% loss to crank generators Draba: "Goal is mostly to reduce block count and nudge the larger blueprints towards M/L steam"

[ 2023-01-16 17:14:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Betatest 3.6.1

The following update will go to stable on Monday assuming nothing comes up. It contains land adventure mode which is on the ashes of the empire planet selectable via the content tab. Betatest 3.6.1 Fixes: DLC, Sakura left hand turret holding orientation fixed. DLC, Shaders changed for characters so that they are better lit at night. Example Mod, Some problems with the assassin imported from the example mod have been fixed. Auto propulsion balancing, Cancelling yaw/roll now more important than cancelling pitch when hovering up and down. Auto propulsion balancing, Fixed an issue where propellers were unlikely to be recruited in reverse to help balance a craft Auto propulsion balancing, Propellers pointing in the correct direction will no longer be turned off for forwards motion due to the pitching motion they create Auto propulsion balancing, Propellers pointing in the correct direction will no longer be turned off for strafing motion due to the rolling motion they create Campaign, [BUGS-4097] Faction HQs now act as defenders to their board section regardless of whether they are in a capture zone Multiplayer, Many issues fixed that were stopping vehicles or turrets communicating with each other on different machines Additions: DLC, Intelligence officer Yuka added to SS character anime DLC package (yes keyboard warrior sleuths its middleware. Put down your magnifying glass and stop writing your novel.) Breadboards, Breadboards can now pass strings (text) around. Generic Block Setter and Generic Block Getter can make use of this for the Hologram projector, sign post, Text screen, Poster holder, Blueprint spawner Breadboards, Components with a block name filter now invert the filter when the first character of the filter text is ~ or ! Breadboards, The adder component will concatenate strings if one or more of the inputs is a string Breadboards, The constant input component can now define a constant string output as well as the usual constant numerical output Adventure, Added land adventure mode as an option for planets and activated it for 'Ashes of the Empire' World Editor, Added effective health to the design inspector in the planet editor

[ 2023-01-13 20:57:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

First animation and character pack DLC is now live

[previewyoutube=m8P9gemB2zs;full][/previewyoutube] Hey Depthians! Well that was the quickest betatest ever. Steam got back to us really quick with test keys and we are now able to set the animation and first character set (Rin and Sakura) live so beta has had to go to stable. Other character sets will follow as we get them ready. These updates can really breathe some life into your builds and as you can see by the trailer movie you can really go wild and make some machinima! The documentation to add your own will follow at a later date, quite simply we are getting ready for Christmas with our families and we've set this live just now so you can play around with it over the holidays. We can and will expand upon it we just need to know what it is you want and need, there'll be a channel in the discord for discussion and requests. Certainly if you look on mixamo, we can add in any animations there fairly easily in any future updates. Have a great Christmas and New Year those who celebrate and others have a great couple of weeks! The team will now be absent for a few days at least to spend time with our loved ones. (Though we'll keep an eye out for anything major that may pop up.) Have a good one! DLC Link Stable 3.6.0 Fix: Explosions, Internal algorithm problem fixed and more explosions debug data added, explosions should deal about 10-15% more damage Tracks, Tank tracks should now be generated correctly in all situations (only convex tracks are allowed) [BUGS-3878] CJE, The flame orientation will now be correct when loading a blueprint [BUGS-4080] Automatic propulsion, Fixed some cases where the automatic propulsion UI lists assignments with 0 value Add: Tracks, It is now possible to configure the tracks thickness Tracks, It is now possible to configure the lateral position of the tracks, relative to the wheels Tracks, It is now possible to reset the axle length of all the wheels in the track to 0 Tracks, It is now possible to add an offset to the axle length of all the wheels in the track Tracks, It is now possible to override the track material per track Wheels, It is now possible to set a coefficient to the wheel's width Wheels, It is now possible to set an offset to the position of the suspension's spring attachment Change: Tracks, BPs saved in a previous FtD version will have their tracks width reset to 1m, use the 'Track' tab in the UI of any of its wheel to set the track's width as desired Tracks, Tracks now have a uniform width, even if the wheels do not have the same width Tracks, The tracks width isn't linked to the wheels width anymore, it can (and must) be configured independently using the 'Track' tab in the UI of any of its wheel Tracks, It is now impossible to mix mirrored and non-mirrored wheels in the same track, all wheels in a track must be either mirrored or not mirrored

[ 2022-12-24 12:20:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Betatest 3.6.0

Have a great holiday period! There is a Christmas campaign created by a small army of elves led by Melch. Help Santa retake the North Pole from South Pole backed elf separatists! This could've been bigger if there had been more helpers, we can maybe build upon it going into January if people see this and want to help. Access it on the content menu. Thankyou Elves and Santa! Gladyon has extensively changed the wheel algorithms and what you can all change on them. Animation DLC stuff is coming we are just waiting on Steam giving us some test keys and okaying everything. Betatest build: Fix: Explosions, Internal algorithm problem fixed and more explosions debug data added, explosions should deal about 10-15% more damage Tracks, Tank tracks should now be generated correctly in all situations (only convex tracks are allowed) [BUGS-3878] CJE, The flame orientation will now be correct when loading a blueprint [BUGS-4080] Automatic propulsion, Fixed some cases where the automatic propulsion UI lists assignments with 0 value Add: Tracks, It is now possible to configure the tracks thickness Tracks, It is now possible to configure the lateral position of the tracks, relative to the wheels Tracks, It is now possible to reset the axle length of all the wheels in the track to 0 Tracks, It is now possible to add an offset to the axle length of all the wheels in the track Tracks, It is now possible to override the track material per track Wheels, It is now possible to set a coefficient to the wheel's width Wheels, It is now possible to set an offset to the position of the suspension's spring attachment Change: Tracks, BPs saved in a previous FtD version will have their tracks width reset to 1m, use the 'Track' tab in the UI of any of its wheel to set the track's width as desired Tracks, Tracks now have a uniform width, even if the wheels do not have the same width Tracks, The tracks width isn't linked to the wheels width anymore, it can (and must) be configured independently using the 'Track' tab in the UI of any of its wheel Tracks, It is now impossible to mix mirrored and non-mirrored wheels in the same track, all wheels in a track must be either mirrored or not mirrored

[ 2022-12-23 23:27:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

v3.5.9.4 stable

Steamworks, Upgraded from Steamworks 1.51 to Steamworks 1.53. This will allow mac computers with m1 chipsets to connect to Steam Stability, High stability increases munition warner range by up to 20%, instead of 10% Cannon hit rate, CRAM and APS cannon tooltips now have a line for shots fired, shots hit and hit % Cannon hit rate, A hit is a direct hit on a construct/shield/missile/CRAM shell, explosive damage on missiles or timed fuses triggering close to constructs Sound, Added a slider to the sound tab for adjusting the volume of in-game speech, such as in the tutorial APS, 3m heavy barrel is now different from the 3m regular barrel

[ 2022-11-22 16:44:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable update that updates steamworks to 1.5.3

Update for Mac users to steamworks 1.5.3 which resolves issues launching the game with M1 silicon ARM_64 chips

[ 2022-11-16 09:38:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

FTD is 40% off for a week Oct31st to Nov7th

WINNARS

The first ever Scottish Game Awards and Scottish Game Week was held last week. We were finalists for two categories and won the 'Technical Achievement' award. As such we thought it would be cool to run a week long sale in case anyone is sitting waiting to see why we deserve such an accolade! Scottish Games Week was Scotland's first ever giant industry conference set across multiple cities, with different speakers, government officials and games developers in attendance. Met some of my own game dev heroes and to be in a room with them while also receiving an award was truly an amazing feeling. If you want to find out more, news should become available at: https://scottishgames.net/

[ 2022-10-31 12:46:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

3.5.7 Bug fixes

Fixes: CJE : [BUGS-4002] Pusher preset, Turner preset etc now work correctly with CJE with thrust direction changed by exhaust routing. Blocks : [BUGS-4014] drive maintainer UI now displays correctly, allowing selection of the stim drive to control and manual setting of the value. Data : Fixed an issue that stopped empty strings from being saved as empty (they would return to default values. Podium : Fixed an issue with copy paste of some podium breadboard components. Podium : IK positions coming from two different breadboard components trigger a lerping change in the animator rather than a jump of position. Projectiles : Fixed an issue where complicated scenes would result in projectiles not moving as fast as they should and thus triggering timed fuses early, and potentially missing fast targets. Tutorials : Fixed the AI deep dive tutorial. UI : Use of the toolbar no longer causes a one frame screen flicker. Toolbar usability improvements such as responding to being clicked on being linked to configurable key map entries.

[ 2022-09-29 08:55:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.5.5 Is finally here!!

What is up Depthians! A massively, massive update to the Stable branch that holds roughly 8 months of tweaks, fixes and new additions! Before we get started tho, if you do run into crashes, things not working correctly or not displaying correctly make sure you are not running any mods, that your mod folder is empty and that you are not subscribed to any mods on Steam. If you have problems with launching or the game crashing: [olist]

Remove or disable any mods

Reverify the integrity of the game cache in steam.

Reinstall the game.

Check in discord in the feedback channels. Discord link:https://discord.gg/fromthedepths

Raise a support ticket:https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/support-private

[/olist] On to the update post. Unfortunately due to the character count and screenshot limitations from Reddit and Steam, details and changelogs will only be posted on our main site. If you have been following Alpha and Beta branches then you can skip the change logs as this Stable is the final build we had running in Beta which is a copy paste job from our last beta post. Key points of interest for those that have not been following Alpha and Beta is to read about the vehicle stability changes, APS shells can also be made within the turret UI, Custom propellers, Generic block setter and Generic block getter here: https://fromthedepthsgame.com/stable-3-5-5/ .

[ 2022-09-02 21:35:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.5.5

Hey Depthians! Our Alpha test branch has now moved to the Beta stage and after further testing for a few days shall move on to the main stable build :) Unfortunately there as there are too many pics for Reddit and too many characters for Steam you can check out the Beta notes here : https://fromthedepthsgame.com/beta-3-5-5/ Thanks

[ 2022-08-25 22:53:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha Test 3.5.4

What is up Depthians! Another dose of bug fixing :)

Changelog

Additions

Controls

Added a dead zone slider for control pads and set the default dead zone to 20% (up from 0%).

GBS

Laser Targetter data can now be controller with the Generic Block Setter
Particle cannon reload time (charge time) can now be adjusted with the Generic Block Setter
Steam valve can now be controller with the Generic Block Setter
[BUGS-3897] added power creation priority to the Generic Block Setter and added a slider for fuel engine generator power user priority to the fuel engine UI sliders section.

Propulsion

The auto-balance default for new propulsion will change as you press the 'Turn [ON/OFF] automatic control for all propulsion' button

Fixes

Blocks

Light-block now uses the same shader as glass blocks and thus renders damage, can be cut-away and painted.

Drones

Subvehicle spawners on turrets should now work more reliably (spawn the vehicle in the correct place and more robustly link to the correct drone).
The 'force position' of a drone in a fleet is now set, which can help to reduce the chance of collision for drones (they'll try to stay where the SVS puts them).

Regression

Fixed a threading issue that caused the creation of chunk meshes to slow down the game
Map now correctly changes when loading another planet
Remote missile guidance module no longer causes issues

Translation

Saving of vehicles using custom tags in non-english languages now works

Damage

[BUGS-3862] Missiles, CRAM shells and APS shells now adjust their health based on the configurable damage factor of the session, in the same way that blocks do

Diplomacy

[BUGS-3818] Fixed a serious issue with the late game diplomacy calculations that lead to a crash when trying to get the council to meet

Game

[BUGS-3892] Fixed a gridcasting issue that affected turret blocks and caused issues for mouse based build mode (interaction with turret bases) and perhaps damage calculations as well

Multiplayer

Fixed an issue where the 'head' is on at a 90 angle when first spawning in multiplayer

Wheels

[BUGS-3893] wheels should now respond correctly when first placed (auto-balancing bug).

[ 2022-07-11 14:30:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha Test 3.5.2

What is up Depthians!! While this update does focus more on a number of bug fixes and tweaks, we also have a new feature that is still a WIP. We will be setting up the APS system to allow users to create inbuilt shells without placing cusomisers. You can access the new APS shell setup by pressing Q on a turret, APS tab and then clicking on Access intakes. Please note this is a WIP so for now there is no need to create bug reports for this system.

Changelog

Additions

Applique

Side drag is now the same as slopes, full drag instead of half.

APS

All constructs can have shells that do not need any ammo customiser blocks to use

Breadboard

Added control of laser output regulator, laser combiner and PAC to the Generic Block Setter (GBS) component
Added control of missile stagger,missile laser encoding and missile launch pad and missile component parameter to the Generic Block Setter (GBS) component
Added an 'event input type' for collisions with vehicles
Added control of ACB parameters to the Generic Block Setter (GBS) component
Added Generic Block Getter (GBG) that can read the current azimuth of a spin block and about a dozen other things.
Added 'rotation input' module that outputs own-ship rotation in various Quaternion or Vector3 formats
Added the ability to duplicate breadboard modules, and copy and paste their contents
Added the 'outputV' function to the evaluator, which does the same as the 'output' function but with vectors instead of numbers [BUGS-3835]
CJE Generator, Smoke Generator, Shield Projector,LAMS, Ammo intake, aim point, target prioritisation, steam crank motor, tractor beam, wireless equipment channel and AI mainframe added to Generic Block Setter (GBS)
Non-AI breadboard now have a single connection point same as the AI variant.
Position input module added that outputs own-ship position (Vector3) as 'frame-independent global position' to match the new position output of Primary target info module.
Primary target info module now outputs new outputs of target Position (frame-independent global position) and Velocity as vector3s.
Speed input module now outputs own-ship speed as a Vector3 (will be convertible to float as necessary so no issue with backwards compatibility)

CRAM

Added Pipe part with front and back connections. Added 3 port piece with 3 connections. Meshes will appear as updates roll out.

FOF marker

Editing turret restriction marker so that it can display over the top of blocks and remain visible.

Mimics

Added buttons to convert all mimics to decorations in the V menu

Neter

Every unit is undergoing inspection for basic function. Some have been replaced and there are some additions. Changes have been committed for DWG, OW, SS, LH, TG so far, more to follow. There is no exact changelog for these as it would be a 50-page essay. Please report any issues on discord in a new unit_design_bugs channel.

Prefabs

Removed defunct steam prefabs. Fixed usage of deprecated block in fuel engine prefabs.

Rendering

After a stint with render queues changed everything has been regressed. This only affects viewing of things through glass at certain camera angles. TL;DR It's not worth it and is a massively complex issue.

Changes

Breadboard

The Differencer now work with vectors, when the input is a vector the output is a vector, and when the input is a value then the output is a value (previously it was using the magnitude of the vector)

Custom control surfaces

Extended tooltips and improved helper visualisations

Defences

Laser warners now check the real distance to the impact point, whatever the subConstruct the warner or the impact point is. However, only the smoke dispensers on the same construct than the laser warner (hull, turret, spinBlock, etc.) can be activated

Key bindings

Added button to remove controller bindings
Made some small quality of life changes to the key bindings menu
Removed default controller bindings

Lasers

Lasers are now visible 'through' the GPU ocean surface

Stability

Instability from construct rotation down by 25%
Low velocity magnitude change adds less instability, high acceleration adds more

Tractor beam

The rotation wobble of vehicle held by tractor beam has been removed

Fixes

ACB

Setting wheel's spring length using ACB now works fine [BUGS-3836]

APS

No more 'blank' shots [BUGS-3630]

Blocks

When hiding the original mesh, the porthole will now be fully hidden (as a lot of other blocks with subObjects) [BUGS-3827]

Breadboard

Custom axis value is not flickering anymore when constantly set by ACB [BUGS-3834]

Build

Filling with beam slopes in mirror mode now place the mirrored blocks in the correct orientation [BUGS-3849]

Camera

Cursor lock when an enemy is present and you enter in the detection screen while being in build mode [BUGS-3831]

CJE

Automatic thruster control now works for CJEs who have corners in their exhaust pipe

Control surfaces

Fixed custom control surfaces on spinblocks possibly having different force outputs depending on orientation

Custom air surfaces

Fixed 4m air pivot calculating its center position incorrectly

Custom jets

Fixed addons ignoring placement rules for attachment after loading a blueprint

Decorations

Fixed an issue where churning thousands of decorations on the same vehicle could make the vehicle fail to save
Pasting a prefabbed block with more than 16 decos and with mirroring activated do not paste all the decos on the mirrored block [BUGS-3441]

Defences

Laser warners now work when they are on a subConstruct [BUGS-3810]

EMP

[BUGS-3874] Fixed blocks that should be destroyed sometimes surviving EMP with a small amount of health left

Favourites

Changing something in a favorite will not lag anymore when there's a lot of intel pictures (note that opening the favorites menu for the first time may still take a few seconds) [BUGS-3815]

Localisation

AI routine names now save all character sets, not just English characters

LWC

It is now possible to select altitude in the LWC down to 500m, and the min difference between high and low altitude has been reduced to 20m [BUGS-3864]

Plates

[BUGS-3796] Fixed sides of sloped plates having very low drag without clearance requirement

Regression

The build marker was missing some meshes. Now fixed.

Separators

[BUGS-3804] Laser cavities now lose charge if a separation changes their capacity

Stability

Fixed a problem causing almost stationary vehicles to possibly have only ~97-98% stability

Steam

[BUGS-3859] Fixed some wheel groups containing more than 2 wheels
Fixed a multithreading issue causing steam systems to lose pressure
Fixed a threading problem with steam drill hit detection
Fixed steam distribution problems with some valve setups

UI

Fixed some formatting errors on the detection overview panel

Water propellers

[BUGS-3754] Fixed reversed water propellers ignoring their speed limit

[ 2022-07-05 07:14:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha Test 3.5.0!

What is up Depthians! Another sweet update being propelled to you epic people! Numerous changes, tweaks, bug fixes and new features! Before we get into the changes we need to point something out for you good peeps that have been running the Alpha test. Positive/Negative force axis code has changed for custom rudders so if you made anything in alpha using them you should check their yaw/roll/pitch inputs.

Vehicle stability

Acceleration and evasion being very cheap, and having basically no downside is a very old FtD problem. It makes cannons unreliable, ships relatively weak and kiting disproportionately strong. The new stability mechanic adds a benefit for having a stable platform. Overview

New stat: stability. Possible range is 0-100%, it's based on the movement of the main construct in the last 3 seconds
Added a slider to the target prioritisation AI card, from -1000 to +1000 value for each 1% stability
Munition warner range is now a function of stability, instead of rotation rate. Varies between 20-110%, for 0-100% stability
All direct fire weapons gain 0.004 inaccuracy for each 1% stability below 100%
Missile laser target inaccuracy is rerolled every second, and the actual inaccuracy of the beam is interpolated to the new value over 1s Remote and lua missile error is increased by 0.1m for each 1%

4 values are tracked

Average velocity magnitude
Velocity magnitude change
Velocity rotation rate * velocity magnitude
Construct rotation rate

Example vehicles

Ships generally have 95-100% stability
Flyer moving in a straight line, at 220 m/s (~CJE practical limit) ~90%
Flyer circling at 2000m distance, 220 m/s speed ~75%
Flyer circling at 1000m distance, 220 m/s speed ~65%

The changes mean stable vehicles and fortresses gain a slight boost against projectile weapons. Faster, and especially more evasive vehicles have a harder time shooting down projectiles, and at long distances their weapon efficiency is noticeably reduced. Makes slow vehicles, cannons and IR/radar/sonar missiles more useful in general.

Custom Propellers

One of the first big changes is custom propellers. We have created a very in-depth system for customising the look of the custom propellers and we also suggest updating your builds to the new custom propellers, as power usage and thrust have been tweaked. You can remove blades and rotate any blade around the hub if you wanted to go for a 3 blade Y shape setup, yet keep the functionality of all 4 blades! The sliders are purely aesthetic only and will not change the performance of the custom propellers. As you can see from the screenshot below, this is the default look until you start adjusting the overall shape via the sliders and also material type from the texture dropdown list.

After spending a little time getting used to the controls you can create something that may fit the style of your craft more. To give a general overview of this UI, the top screenshot is where you set the general shape, blade orientation, size of the blade and material type. The second screenshot above shows current nodes and where they are on the blade 0%, 25%, 75%, and 100% you can also insert nodes and set how far down the blade you want the node to be.

This propeller was created using a linear node setup. What that means is that the preset removed 3 nodes along the blade, unchecked one of the blades in the bottom section of the list and setting +/- 35 degrees to the side blades. Adding nodes along the blade gives you more points to adjust the blade thickness, rotation, width and shaping. However, if you still want more customisation, you can always use the decoration system with Ctrl X on one of the blade segments and create something from multiple parts. (yellow decorated custom rudders)

While we are discussing propulsion, we do have a few new changes.

What you are seeing in the above screenshot has been added to all propulsion methods, auto-balancing and manual. Manual is the usual means of setting up a propulsion block to be strafe/forward/yaw/pitch... Auto-balancing on the other hand (imagine a thruster placed dedicated to looking after roll) auto-balancing can add a few points of thrust to assist in pitch or hover. Auto-balancing will automatically calculate the combination of propulsion required for smooth roll/pitch/yaw/strafe/hover/forwards motion. Auto-balancing does not change the manual settings you have already stored, so you can turn it on and off without affecting things permanently. Lastly, on the subject of propulsion, we have set up a function very similar to what was removed previously, which was the "always up" function and added a new method that will also assist the thrust pointing horizontal. You can choose manual control of pitch/yaw and set the two sliders up as needed as a permanent angle or, via the new breadboard component which we shall discuss next.

Generic block setter. (GBS)

This new component in breadboard allows you to interact with any block on the construct that can be manipulated. I'll try to show a very basic example with a neon light. The basic neon light has 6 attributes we can tweak within its UI: R,G,B, the intensity, the range and if it casts shadows on/off. If we place down a number of neon lights we can tweak all of them at the same time via the GBS, however for this example we will name the neon light (Example1). If you keep the build cursor on the light and hit shift N, this will bring up the naming UI. You should see the tooltip of your light now has "? Name changed to "Example1" ". Place down your mainframe and attach the AI breadboard to it. Scroll down to the GBS and click on the new component. You will see that the GBS has something already selected by default that it would interact with. With the new module selected type the name we gave our neon light Example1 in the block name filter text box, check the dropdown list under block name filter and select neon light. You will know if everything is linked as you can see in the GBS module "LightFitting (#1) " If it still reads #0 then you may have a typo in the filter text box or when you named the neon light. You will also see the left side notches turn from white (requires input) to grey (not used). This indicates that the attributes tied to LightData: Intensity, requires one type of input and in this case it requires a number from 0 to 10. The other notches correspond to different input types which will be used for other settings if that block type and the attribute selected from the dropdown list allow it.

In order to keep things simple, let us insert a timer and give it a max of 5 seconds. We shall plug that into the topmost notch. (Don't forget to mouse over each notch for a description as to what they require/do) If everything is working correctly your neon light should start to slowly get brighter and turn off once the timer resets and repeat.

In order to access the other attributes, we need a new GBS linked with the same name. This time we will check the dropdown list under the neon light label. Other block types can have quite the long list depending on the complexity of the block, you may also see (LOCKED) and this indicates that currently we have not enabled GBS to access these attributes. So please feel free to poke us and tell us what you need unlocked and why with hopefully some sort of example.

Select LightData: The colour, now you will see that all the notches are white. Mouse over these again and you will notice that each one represents the colour red, green and blue as well as other parameters. Drop 3 "Constant" components into the breadboard UI and attach one to the first notch. Set the constant component to something from 0.00 to 1 and as soon as you plug in your constant the light should be red if left with the default value of 1. Repeat this for the last two notches green and blue and set the colours as you wish. Try doing the same things again and setting up a method to turn on or off Lightshowdows :)

This was just a poor and easy example as you can use GBS with every block that has some tweakable options from spin blocks to turret blocks, from jets to engines, APS components, CRAMS etc... and the usual infinite amounts of trigger types that you can create via breadboard and more so now as we have created a logic gate component :D .

Changelog

Additions

AI

Projectiles avoidance fake-missiles now have velocity and lateral distance configuration

Animation Block

Added emotion control for the animation block (the droid model does not support this as it is aimed at a future character pack DLC)
Added IK control for the limbs of the avatars of the animation block. Added breadboard support for this.

APS

Added an option to the APS menu to disable barrel retraction on firing

Auto-balancing

Added an auto-balancing option to jet/huge jet/ion/huge ion/propeller/huge propeller/custom jet engine/propeller hub. Auto-balancing will automatically calculate the combination of propulsion required for smooth roll/pitch/yaw/strafe/hover/forwards motion.
Auto-balancing does not change the manual settings you have already stored, so you can turn it on and off without affecting things permanently
Auto-balancing updates when propulsion systems rotate, or when they become inoperable (i.e a submerged jet or a dead propeller)

Breadboard

Added a new breadboard component that can theoretically 'set' any (whitelisted) setting on any block. It is called the 'Generic block setter'
Whitelisted propulsion block, light bulb, animation block, adv cannon firing piece, cram firing piece, cram fusing box, boiler controller, fuel engine values for the 'Generic block setter'
Added logic gates as a new breadboard component, with all standard gate types available.

Custom Control

Custom control surface tooltips have visualisations showing their pivot axis and force direction for positive/negative input

Custom Rudders

Mirror meshes added for all rudder parts.

Fuel Engines

Pressing Q while looking at fuel engine parts now also brings up the overview menu of the main block

Propeller Hub

Mesh and material customisation for propeller hub added

Propulsion

Added automatic adjustment of yaw and pitch orientation adjustments to point the propulsion system directly up, or keep it horizontal. This is the successor to the 'always up' value of the now obsoleted dediblades. It works for jets, ions, propellers,crank propellers, steam jets, CJE and propeller hubs. The maximum angle for yaw and pitch is still 15.

Stability

Ships generally have 95-100% stability. 220 m/s (~CJE practical) limit flyer moving in a straight line ~90%. 220 m/s flyer circling at 2000m ~75%, circling at 1000m ~65%
Stability components: velocity magnitude change, velocity magnitude, velocity rotation rate * velocity, construct rotation
Weapons gain 0.004 inaccuracy for each 1% below 100% stability. Remote missile error is increased by 0.1m. Missile lasers roll a new inaccuracy error each second and interpolate from the old one over 1s

Changes

ACB

Propulsion block yaw/picth angle change triggered through ACB takes 0.25s for a full 0-15 rotation

Aero Elevator

Now has an AC of 20 and health of 300 and a cost of 15.

Aero Rudder

Now has an AC of 20 and health of 300 and a cost of 15.

Aileron

Now has an AC of 20 and health of 300 and a cost of 15.

APS

Effective impact angle for sabot head is reduced to 75% of the actual impact angle (affects ricochet and damage reduction calculations)

Breadboard

Modules on the breadboard expand to fit the text being displayed within them

Control surfaces

Control/flight surfaces only add 0.75 drag for each 1 unit of force generated

Custom Control Surfaces

Custom control surface force direction is now always normal to the placement plane. Local velocity only affects the magnitude of the force
Pivots now have an AC of 40 and health of 400 with a cost of 50 other parts have an AC of 35 and health of 350 with a cost of 40.

Custom Rudders

Positive/Negative force axis code has changed so anything made in alpha using them should check their yaw/roll/pitch inputs.

Custom Wings

Wing parts now have an AC of 20 and health of 300 and a cost of 15.

Debug Tools

Explosive, EMP and impact debug tool minimum damage down to 10

Interceptors

Improved behaviour for thruster+secondary torpedo propeller interceptors
Interceptor hit rate is now also tracked on the controller
Interceptor missiles reverted to the old behaviour of trying to get as close as possible before exploding. Got a fallback to make sure they always hit the main target (if possible)

Particle Cannon

Beam coherence for the same focus value improved by 25%

Shades

Flags, sails and balloons now have opaque shaders.

Spinners

Precision spinblock max turn rate in rotate to angle mode scales with MASS^0.2, instead of MASS^0.25 (faster, especially for spinners with lots of mass on them)

Steam

Stable pressure of steam containers isn't affected by the number of vent outputs

Tailplane

Now has an AC of 20 and health of 300 and a cost of 15.

UI

Propeller clearance visualizations aren't displayed when the hud is turned off
V menu now also shows how many cells are occupied by subconstructs, not just the total

Wing

The old 1x1x1 wing is now removed from the build menu to encourage more performance-friendly usage with custom wings.

Fixes

AI

Enemy simulator can no longer be activated when in campaign mode, other than in battle.

Breadboard

An exception in a breadboard doesn't get up to the surface now and stops that breadboard for ~40 frames

Bugs

[BUGS-3709] A sign evaluator with NaN input also outputs NaN (doesn't stop physics now)
[BUGS-3546] Physics breaking sometimes when copy/pasting a breadboard
[BUGS-2905] The game configuration slider for damage factor, and the campaign "damage difficulty" now affect block health rather than affecting damage output. It was discovered that many damage types were not properly adjusting for these values and this is a more reliable way of making sure everything works. The higher the damage factor, the lower the block health will be. The higher the campaign damage difficulty the lower player block health will be and higher enemy block health will be.
[BUGS-3726] Repaired control surface pivots now work as expected
[BUGS-3702] Steam crank wheel connections cannot be copy-pasted to bypass restrictions
[BUGS-3705] Transmissions and crank motors with relative RPM other than 1 can be connected now
[BUGS-3768] Blocks placed as decoration have a slight rotation error due to float precision
[BUGS-3768] Hiding an original mesh, and then applying mirroring makes the original mesh re-appear
[BUGS-3768] Some decoration wireframe aren't displayed when there are too many of them (can still happen but should happen a lot less often, it's a limitation due to an optimization)
[BUGS-3774] Priority given to hit structural blocks first when several blocks are projected into the same mainConstruct cell
[BUGS-3666] Placement offsets for blocks larger than 1x1x1 are now wiped on switching to prefab mode
[BUGS-3667] Fixed a multithreading issue causing erratic flight. Mostly affected control surfaces, with multiple vehicles in play
[BUGS-3695] Fixed stable pressure for some setups being affected by game speed
[BUGS-3700] Fixed steam stat page reporting gearbox power output instead of turbine energy/s
[BUGS-3778] Some map markers disappearing in campaign after changing language
[BUGS-3738] Projectiles avoidance priority evaluation not displayed correctly

Crank Wheels

A steam crank wheel can not be added to a group if it's already part of another group

Custom Control Surfaces

Issue with 3m inverted CS corner mirror fixed.

EMP

Fixed EMP potentially spreading in the wrong construct for some setups

Interceptors

Interceptors without any propulsion can target projectiles above 5m

Missiles

Added EMP susceptibility to missile wireless transmitter and receiver.

Multithreading

Fixed various threading problems causing aim for all weapons to be ~1-2 frames behind the current position of the target

Physics

Changed multi-threading code to ensure the main physics calculation chain finishes in time to apply the force to the vehicle rigid body on the correct frame
Moved buoyancy force application, sail force application, wing force application, steam calculations and all propulsion force application into the same thread that handles the bulk of force applications and the calculation and application of the rigid body force. This should improve the stability of the physics simulation.

Shaders

Some issues with particles/VFX not playing nicely with glass have been fixed.

UI

Force lines in build mode (toggled with backspace) now show in the correct position (previously they were showing the forces calculated on the previous frame)

Unity

Updated to unity 2021.2.18 from 2021.2.3. This is to fix a Linux UI issue where the mouse is never properly hidden and made inactive

Vehicle Controller Small

Fixed sub mesh misalignment on small vehicle controller.

[ 2022-04-26 09:48:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable Hotfix 3.4.3.10

Hey Depthians! A quick little hotfix for the 33 separator block. The 33 separator attachment was incorrectly designated to be a separator block (not an attachment block). The 33 separator block had a bug meaning it would not properly separate if it had multiple blocks attached to it.

[ 2022-03-21 18:44:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.4.3.7 Hotfix

Hey Depthians! This little hotfix addresses a few issues with the new camera movement as well as changes to the way ducts work. Ducts will no longer be watertight or airtight unless a propulsion block is directly behind them leaving no gaps to the hull, or "roomed off" if you wish to have your propulsion further behind the duct.

Changelog

Additions

Camera movement

Added sliders for camera speed in mouse-based building mode

Changes

Decorations

[BUGS-3736] The "flat white" material that mimics/decorations use for mimic-sphere etc is now a PBR material with smoothness and metallic values
When a block is hidden by a decoration the sub meshes of that block will also not render. This applies only to certain blocks.

Ducts

[BUGS-3733] Ducts are no longer 'water tight' or 'air tight' and as such air/helium pumps can 'leak' through a duct.

Fixes

Camera movement

Camera control code was overhauled to fix a number of issues. New transitions between camera modes can be disabled in the options menu by setting the "transition time" to 0.
Fix viewport (tac map) camera not working after scrolling to an altitude beyond the normal map transition altitude in adventure mode.
Fixed camera not working when starting custom battle mode.
Fixed most, if not all cases of camera misbehaving when accessing certain UIs during build mode.
Some internal camera transitions smoothed.

Subconstructs

[BUGS-3729] Fixed 33 and 55 turrets with multiple valid connections disconnecting when the block touching their center is destroyed.

[ 2022-03-18 16:22:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.4.3 Hotfix.

What is up Depthians! A quick little hotfix. Throughput pipe fix and localisation fixes to inventory name overrides.

[ 2022-03-14 15:48:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.4.3.6 Hotfix.

What's up Depthians! A quick little hotfix that addresses some small issues with the new camera system, we also added nicer transitions when swapping camera views. If you do not like the transitions you can set the camera transition time to 0 from View & Control.
In the current stable update, we have incremental garbage collection turned off. This may have affected some PC builds differently due to different configurations of hardware (GPU/CPU). We are trying to find out which method will be best for the player base by having IGC off or on. In this current beta build we will reinstate IGC, as we are interested in whether the game is more stable with IGC off or on. For example: Is the game crashing more often with IGC on? Is the game freezing less with IGC on compared to the current stable? If you see more crashes, firstly please ensure you are not running any mods no matter how insignificant you think it may be. You can then create a bug ticket here attach the log file from your FTD profile to the ticket: Default is: C:\Users\yourprofile\Documents\From The Depths\Logs Your player.log file from: C:\Users\yourprofile\AppData\LocalLow\Brilliant Skies\From_The_Depths The crash dump from: C:\Users\yourprofile\AppData\local\CrashDumps Please also include a description of what you were doing when it crashed thanks!

Changelog

Changes

IGC

Incremental garbage collection has been turned back on

Refinery junction pipe

Junction has had orientations fixed (made the same as the mesh) and removed from build menu.

Fixes

Camera movement

Camera control code was overhauled to fix a number of issues. New transitions between camera modes can be disabled in the options menu by setting the \" transition time\" to 0."

[ 2022-02-23 17:27:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Russian localisation update.

. , , . ! , , ) https://discord.gg/SDBMEaDFKx

[ 2022-02-22 22:32:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.4.3

What is up Depthians! This build has a number of tweaks, fixes and some new additions. We are also pleased to say that the game now fully supports Russian localisation, however, if you feel that something is incorrect please let us know. With the update to the Unity engine in 2021 and after reviewing a number of crash reports, we decided to turn off incremental garbage collection. This should resolve some from games crashing. The Animation block has had a few new additions as well as breadboard. This will allow you more customisation and animation via any triggers that you wish to use with the Droid model.
These functions will allow you to manipulate bipedal model limbs that use IK, as well as choosing one of the preset animations.
You can also adjust the size of the model via the animation block UI, choose a pose / preset animation from the large selection via the dropdown list. The standard droid is fully functional with the animation block and breadboard. We will be releasing more models as DLC in future, which will also allow you to use custom bipedal models that have a propper IK setup. If you feel that something in the changelog needs explaining further let us know in the comment section or DM me Jon in Discord.

Changelog

Additions

Options

It is now possible to change which display FTD is displayed on

Changes

APS

HEAT secondary body for APS is only 70% of a head now (final power is ~unchanged beyond the 5% base buff)
HESH base power up by ~11%, HEAT base power up by 5%
Squash and shaped charge base power increased by 15% for APS only (missile HEAT is the same)

Campaign

At the maximum difficulty level the player's faction strength is now overestimated by [x3 + 5 million] rather than [x10 + 10 million].
There is a new slider for diplomacy/strategic AI aggressiveness. This used to be included in 'design difficulty' slider. You can now have a more 'diplomatic' campaign against the hardest vehicles, or all out war but with easy vehicles.

Diplomacy

At least one of the available options should now not cost any commodities

Garbage collection

Turned off incremental garbage collection to see if it improves stability

Missiles

Checks for invalid components added to missile loading and some other places where it was missing
Default missiles for newly placed launchpads improved
Initial speed for drop as bomb option in rail gantries reduced from 30 to 25 m/s

Wheels

It is now possible to only display the spring and axle for a wheel, not the block attachment [BUGS-3612]

Fixes

ACB controller

ACB controllers now work correctly if they are spawned in a destroyed state and are then repaired

Animation block

Fixed the breadboard to animation block filtering by name

Breadboard

Fixed an issue where some breadboard components would run their logic more than one time per frame
One-shot component will now correctly only activate once
The first output of the steering info component now indicates whether the mainframe's movement is turned on or off

Bugs

BUGS-3629 Fixed fortress turbines taking damage when out of power if the language is changed from English

Campaign

BUGS-3659 Fixed strategic AI moving fleets through terrain they cannot move through resulting in fleets getting stuck
Fixed a rare issue where the strategic AI would not correctly change the path of a fleet if its destination changed
Fleets with a patrol route setup will now properly save and load the waypoint they were moving towards

Diplomacy

Fixed a problem preventing the player from getting options with a lot of enemies

EMP

EMP charges can now travel between constructs
Laser Q switch EMP resistance fixed

Explosions

BUGS-3618 Explosions should now be rounder (it probably won't change a thing as no explosions reach their max radius)

Fleet movement

A fleet with a land unit will no longer move over water

Gridcasts

Fixed a rare problem causing gridcasts with an alignment very close to a construct's rotation to miss

Hologram projector

Hologram projector Hologram projectors now work correctly if they are spawned in a destroyed state and are then repaired

Impact

Impact damage can now travel between constructs

Lasers

BUGS-3638 Lasers fired through non-AI, non-manual methods will keep aiming forward as they are rotated
Charge lasers will fire if either continuous or pulsed shot does more damage than the minimum damage set in the output regulator

LUA

Added functions to get the number of subconstructs and to get information for a specific subconstruct by index similar to the other APIs
Replaced outdated propulsion methods with new functions 'AddPropulsionRequest', 'SetPropulsionRequest' and 'GetPropulsionRequest'
The docking station now uses the correct ids to identify friendly vehicles for all functions
Weapons fired by Lua can now hit missiles

Missiles

BUGS-3632 Fixed L and H rail gantry missiles sometimes getting tangled in their gantry when being dropped as bombs

Separator

Separating or attaching a vehicle while the player is in a chair will no longer eject the player from the chair except for multiplayer clients

Steam

BUGS-3635 Fixed steam transmissions not their input's RPM limit for their gear ratio in some cases, when loading

Transparency

Changed render queues for smoke and shields to render properly in front of and behind glass.

Video block

BUGS-3646 Playing local video is now working again

Wheels

BUGS-3550 The suspension (spring, axle and block) are now displayed/hidden correctly when the setting is changed, when loading the BP, when repaired or placed as a prefab

Wings

Effective speed for wings is capped at the speed of the mainconstruct

[ 2022-02-22 18:26:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta (Alpha Test) 3.4.8

Hey Depthians! A small update for those in the alpha test build

Changelog

Changes

Decos

Maximum decoration distance on all axes up from 10m to 20m

Spinners

Mass-based rotation speed limit up by ~11%
Rotate to angle speed isn't limited for spinblocks with only decos on them
Spinner and turret weights up to metal level. Mostly unnoticeable for a 1x1x1 block but helps with tiny vehicles twitching and makes some physics problems less severe

Sticky feet

Max stickiness increased from 100 to 400

Subconstructs

If subconstructs on a vehicle take up at lest half the total volume then all drag for the mainconstruct is multiplied by TOTAL_VOLUME / MAIN_VOLUME

[ 2022-02-17 11:48:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.4.3

What is up Depthians! This build has a number of tweaks and fixes. We have also turned off incremental garbage collection to see if it helps with some stability issues. If you feel that something in the changelog needs explaining further let us know in the comment section or DM me Jon in Discord.

Changelog

Additions

Options

It is now possible to change which display FTD is displayed on

Changes

APS

HEAT secondary body for APS is only 70% of a head now (final power is ~unchanged beyond the 5% base buff)
HESH base power up by ~11%, HEAT base power up by 5%
Squash and shaped charge base power increased by 15% for APS only (missile HEAT is the same)

Campaign

At the maximum difficulty level the player's faction strength is now overestimated by [x3 + 5 million] rather than [x10 + 10 million].
There is a new slider for diplomacy/strategic AI aggressiveness. This used to be included in 'design difficulty' slider. You can now have a more 'diplomatic' campaign against the hardest vehicles, or all out war but with easy vehicles.

Diplomacy

At least one of the available options should now not cost any commodities

Garbage collection

Turned off incremental garbage collection to see if it improves stability

Missiles

Checks for invalid components added to missile loading and some other places where it was missing
Default missiles for newly placed launchpads improved
Initial speed for drop as bomb option in rail gantries reduced from 30 to 25 m/s

Wheels

It is now possible to only display the spring and axle for a wheel, not the block attachment [BUGS-3612]

Fixes

ACB controller

ACB controllers now work correctly if they are spawned in a destroyed state and are then repaired

Animation block

Fixed the breadboard to animation block filtering by name

Breadboard

Fixed an issue where some breadboard components would run their logic more than one time per frame
One-shot component will now correctly only activate once
The first output of the steering info component now indicates whether the mainframe's movement is turned on or off

Bugs

BUGS-3629 Fixed fortress turbines taking damage when out of power if the language is changed from English

Campaign

BUGS-3659 Fixed strategic AI moving fleets through terrain they cannot move through resulting in fleets getting stuck
Fixed a rare issue where the strategic AI would not correctly change the path of a fleet if its destination changed
Fleets with a patrol route setup will now properly save and load the waypoint they were moving towards

Diplomacy

Fixed a problem preventing the player from getting options with a lot of enemies

EMP

EMP charges can now travel between constructs
Laser Q switch EMP resistance fixed

Explosions

BUGS-3618 Explosions should now be rounder (it probably won't change a thing as no explosions reach their max radius)

Fleet movement

A fleet with a land unit will no longer move over water

Gridcasts

Fixed a rare problem causing gridcasts with an alignment very close to a construct's rotation to miss

Hologram projector

Hologram projector Hologram projectors now work correctly if they are spawned in a destroyed state and are then repaired

Impact

Impact damage can now travel between constructs

Lasers

BUGS-3638 Lasers fired through non-AI, non-manual methods will keep aiming forward as they are rotated
Charge lasers will fire if either continuous or pulsed shot does more damage than the minimum damage set in the output regulator

LUA

Added functions to get the number of subconstructs and to get information for a specific subconstruct by index similar to the other APIs
Replaced outdated propulsion methods with new functions 'AddPropulsionRequest', 'SetPropulsionRequest' and 'GetPropulsionRequest'
The docking station now uses the correct ids to identify friendly vehicles for all functions
Weapons fired by Lua can now hit missiles

Missiles

BUGS-3632 Fixed L and H rail gantry missiles sometimes getting tangled in their gantry when being dropped as bombs

Separator

Separating or attaching a vehicle while the player is in a chair will no longer eject the player from the chair except for multiplayer clients

Steam

BUGS-3635 Fixed steam transmissions not their input's RPM limit for their gear ratio in some cases, when loading

Transparency

Changed render queues for smoke and shields to render properly in front of and behind glass.

Video block

BUGS-3646 Playing local video is now working again

Wheels

BUGS-3550 The suspension (spring, axle and block) are now displayed/hidden correctly when the setting is changed, when loading the BP, when repaired or placed as a prefab

Wings

Effective speed for wings is capped at the speed of the mainconstruct

[ 2022-02-17 11:18:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta (Alpha Test) 3.4.7

What's up Depthians! This update focuses on further physics fixes, quality of life improvements, and polishing the recent changes.

Steam crank wheel connections

In the previous update, a new feature was added that some people might have missed: pressing 'Q' when you look at a steam crank wheel brings up a menu that allows them to connect to other steam crank wheels. It is possible to:

merge gearbox lines for redundancy
split a line so multiple propellers/drills can be attached to it
merge the power of multiple transmissions/crank motors
flip the orientation of a crank
or a combination of the above

To make complex systems more practical transmission and crank wheel kinetic penalties were reduced. Many people felt that cranks are not worth the trouble over just plopping down crank motors, this should help and crank motor output was also slightly reduced (they are still denser than simple propulsion, and can be linked now). Keep in mind that in the next update wheels will need empty space between them for a connection to be possible (no belts through solid blocks). That's part of why wheels got a pretty big durability increase. Related changes/fixes:

Transmission kinetic loss reduced to 50% (transmission max energy/s was also doubled when crank wheel connections were added, missing from the notes there)
Crank wheel kinetic loss reduced to 25%
Crank wheel kinetic energy storage reduced to 2x shaft for S, to 3x shaft for M and L. 1x1x1 M wheel has the same max kinetic energy as shafts
Crank motor kinetic energy/power down from 0.65 to 0.6
Steam wheels can not connect to wheels already taken by other shafts spinning in the opposite direction
Propellers/drills connected to multiple crank motors broadcast their output request to all motors now
[BUGS-3682] Steam wheels placed in prefabs properly wipe their connection and ID now

Custom rudders, custom control surfaces

Another important change that might have slipped under the radar: custom rudders are useful strong now (custom control surfaces also saw improvements). Adding hydrofoil beams and making hydrofoils more durable was also a common request, so the mostly decorative custom rudders were fixed up to be better hydrofoils. They are much more durable, much more compact, and have a much lower impact on game performance since every continuous plate only calculates its total force. Hydrofoils are kept and were slightly buffed so they can be used when something with a very fast reaction time is needed. Simple rudders are kept as an easy-to-use, newbie-friendly solution where you just plop 1 down and it'll make anything turn without too much hassle.

Custom control surface changes/fixes:

Custom pivots automatically set up their control axis, like jets/ions/hydrofoils/...
Custom pivots got an option for switching output on reverse
Mirror versions added for 2-4m custom rudder and custom control surface parts

Collisions Collisions were very unpredictable, with some problems:

A tiny, fast vehicle slamming into a stationary huge one had the ~same collision energy as the opposite case
How many collisions are registered in a given amount of time isn't predictable, so total damage done had very wild swings
Overall collision damage could easily be off by something like ~5 orders of magnitude

Another problem is that melee weapons, in general, were useless/forgotten about, spinning rams were virtually free with damage so high they evaporated anything they touched. Overall sentiment for spinning rams after the update was that they are on the weaker side, so they got a minor numerical and a significant indirect buff. Keep in mind that drill systems are in general harder to place and use, and spinblocks cause lots of performance/overlap headaches so spinning rams are supposed to be usable but slightly weaker than steam and simple drills. Ramming with fixed rams is stronger now for most heavy vehicles. Collision changes:

Basic collisions without rams now also use the same kinetic energy system (stronger than before)
Ram and basic collision AP up from 5 to 10, kinetic damage stored is up by ~33%, kinetic damage regen up by ~10%
Spinning rams also use the appropriate fraction of energy from the main construct on contact. On top of that they use 5% of the remaining energy from the spinner for each ram and hit
Kinetic energy for main constructs up by ~11%
Simple and steam drill parts have a 0.4 drag modifier from the front, with no clearance requirement. 1x1x1 simple drill bits and non-wide steam drill heads have a 0.2 drag modifier from the front

Propellers

Made their rules a bit more lenient, so it's possible to have no efficiency reductions and aesthetics aren't penalized. Above ~60-70% clearance, they are generally the cheapest propulsion by far, so this is mostly a QoL/"how they feel" change. Also made it a bit easier to control pitch/roll with them. Propeller changes/fixes:

Propeller hubs now only start losing efficiency below 90% clearance
Time for propellers to fully spin up reduced by ~30%
Trusses now count as ducts for the purpose of blocking propulsion, from every side
Power scale for propellers doesn't reduce max rotation speed, only power use and thrust output (just a visual change)
Propeller hubs not supported from either the top or bottom are now properly destroyed, even if the ends of some blades are touching other blocks
Fixed power draw for some propeller setups with 0 clearance
Orphaned propeller blades do not disconnect when connection rules are off
Improved clearance checks

Physics

Weeded out some other ways forces could run away and cause ludicrous speed/teleporting/jumping. Physics changes/fixes:

Added extra sanity checks for wing and sail force output, prevents a speed feedback loop with very low drag spinblock vehicles
Light blocks have 0.1 drag (half of wedges). Prevents physics problems with 0 drag spinblock vehicles
Subconstruct main blocks directly on the main construct add 1 block worth of drag on the mainconstruct
Non-structural/plate blocks with weight <=1 now have a weight of 3
Precision spinblock speed in rotate to angle mode is limited by mass of the construct (like for turrets, but more lenient). Small spinners with single propulsion block are ~350-600 /s, big chunks of armor ~100 /s

Quality of life/misc changes

EMP and impact debug tools got the same right click UI explosive one has
Piston max extension rate up from 2 m/s to 6 m/s
Effective speed limit for wings on powered spinners is increased, based on power use (relatively weak, only for novelty use)
Connected serial pistons on separate crankshafts now share their stat systems when only 1 has a boiler connections
Crank gearboxes now can't get stuck in their old priority when it is changed from their UI
Flak base damage up from 80% to 90% of HE. Makes it slightly more attractive compared to kinetic CIWS
Simple rudders also work upside down
Propeller hub mesh can now be hidden, propeller mesh handling is faster
Hydrofoil mesh can now be hidden

Changelog

Changes

APS

Flak base damage up from 80% to 90% of HE. Makes it slightly more attractive compared to kinetic CIWS

Collisions

Basic collisions without rams now also use the same kinetic energy system (stronger than before)
Kinetic energy for main constructs up by ~11%
Ram and basic collision AP up from 5 to 10, kinetic damage stored is up by ~33%, kinetic damage regen up by ~10%
Spinning rams also use the appropriate fraction of energy from the main construct on contact. On top of that they use 5% of the remaining energy from the spinner for each ram and hit

Custom control surfaces

Custom control surfaces>: Custom pivots automatically set up their control axis, like jets/ions/hydrofoils/
Custom pivots got an option for switching output on reverse

Decos

Hydrofoil mesh can now be hidden
Propeller hub mesh can now be hidden

Drills

Simple and steam drill parts have a 0.4 drag modifier from the front, with no clearance requirement. 1x1x1 simple drill bits and non-wide steam drill heads have a 0.2 drag modifier from the front

Pistons

Piston max extension rate up from 2 m/s to 6 m/s

Propellers

Power scale for propellers doesn't reduce max rotation speed, only power use and thrust output
Propeller hubs now only start losing efficiency below 90% clearance
Time for propellers to fully spin up reduced by ~30%

Simple rudder

Simple rudders also work upside down

Spinners

Precision spinblock speed in rotate to angle mode is limited by the mass of the construct (like for turrets, but more lenient). Small spinners with a single propulsion block are ~350-600 /s, big chunks of armor ~100 /s

Steam

Crank motor kinetic energy/power down from 0.65 to 0.6
Crank wheel kinetic energy storage reduced to 2x shaft for S, to 3x shaft for M and L. 1x1x1 M wheel has the same max kinetic energy as shafts
Crank wheel kinetic loss reduced to 25%
Transmission kinetic loss reduced to 50% (transmission max energy/s was also doubled when crank wheel connections were added, missing from the notes there)

Trusses

Trusses now count as ducts for the purpose of blocking propulsion, from every side

UI

EMP and impact debug tools got the same right-click UI explosive one has

Wings

Effective speed limit for wings on powered spinners is increased, based on power use (relatively weak, only for novelty use)

Fixes

Custom control surfaces

Mirror versions added for 2-4m blocks

Physics

Added extra sanity checks for wing and sail force output, prevents a speed feedback loop with very low drag spinblock vehicles
Light blocks have 0.1 drag (half of wedges). Prevents physics problems with 0 drag spinblock vehicles
Non-structural/plate blocks with weight <=1 now have a weight of 3
Subconstruct main blocks directly on the main construct add 1 block worth of drag on the mainconstruct

Propellers

Fixed power draw for some propeller setups with 0 clearance
Improved clearance checks
Orphaned propeller blades do not disconnect when connection rules are off
Propeller hubs not supported from either the top or bottom are now properly destroyed, even if the ends of some blades are touching other blocks

Steam

Connected serial pistons on separate crankshafts now share their stat systems when only 1 has a boiler connections
Crank gearboxes now can't get stuck in their old priority when it is changed from their UI

Steam connections

[BUGS-3682] Steam wheels placed in prefabs properly wipe their connection and ID now
Propellers/drills connected to multiple crank motors broadcast their output request to all motors now

Steam crank connections

Steam wheels can not connect to wheel already taken by other shafts spinning in the opposite direction

[ 2022-02-16 08:01:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

If you are in beta_test branch please move to the new alpha_test branch

If you are in beta_test branch please move to the new alpha_test branch in the next 24 hrs. beta_test will soon be required for testing the next stable release so we have created alpha_test branch to test new experimental features. Going forward all experimental features will go to alpha_test and beta_test will be reserved builds heading shortly to stable. These changes will take affect at noon GMT on the 15th of February.

[ 2022-02-14 11:18:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 3.4.4

What is up Depthians! This update brings numerous changes and tweaks to blocks such as propellers, steam cranks, custom control surfaces, drills, hydrofoils, and rams.

Changelog

Additions

Drills

3x3x1 drill head added for M crankshafts. 3x3x3 drill extension and 3x3x6 drill head added for L. 5x5x1 and 7x7x1 drill heads added for L
5x5x1 drill head added for simple drills

Options

It is now possible to change which display FtD is displayed on

Propellers

Base output is 140 thrust/blade/area. Power use is 3.5/blade/area
If a block is in the way of a blade the propeller stops working
Longer blades change speed slower. Hubs with more blade arms change speed slower
Max length for blades is 15
Output(but not power use) for any given cell is reduced by 25% for each direction if its up/down side points inside the swept area of at least 1 other propeller. Spinblocks are also checked
Output(but not power use) for any given cell is reduced by 50% if it's blocked in 1 direction, by 100% if it's blocked in both directions. Vents and similar blocks count as 25% obstruction. Spinblocks are also checked
Overall propellers with good clearance are a very good form of propulsion, and the parts are a small part of the cost so can be made redundant
Parts: propeller hub 1000 health, 60 armor, 100 weight, 100 materials. Propeller blades 600 health 60 armor 50 weight 50 materials
Propellers are affected by air density
Similar to dediblades, but ~1 order of magnitude stronger, much more durable, can't be turned from -100% to 100% around instantly and have stricter placement rules
Thrust output and power usage is based on the area covered by each individual blade line attached

Steam crank connections

Crank motor efficiency down from 0.75 to 0.65 kinetic energy/power
Parallel steam crank wheel with the same size and RPM limit can be connected within 6/8/10/12m (S, 1x1 M, 3x3 M, 3x3 L wheels)
When connected to wheel attached to other gearboxes/transmissions/crank motors the crankshaft share energy, if 1 part is destroyed the other can take over
When connected to wheels not belonging to any other crankshaft the new connection will act as part of the parent crankshaft
When multiple propellers or drills are attached to the same transmission group the drive request with the highest absolute value will be used by all transmissions
When multiple transmission outputs are merged their transmission power is summed

Changes

APS

HEAT secondary body for APS is only 70% of a head now (final power is ~unchanged beyond the 5% base buff)
HESH base power up by ~11%, HEAT base power up by 5%
Squash and shaped charge base power increased by 15% for APS only (missile HEAT is the same)

Campaign

At the maximum difficulty level the player's faction strength is now overestimated by [x3 + 5 million] rather than [x10 + 10 million].
There is a new slider for diplomacy/strategic AI aggressiveness. This used to be included in 'design difficulty' slider. You can now have a more 'diplomatic' campaign against the hardest vehicles, or all out war but with easy vehicles.

Control surfaces

Air control surfaces now have the same drag custom rudders have

Custom control surfaces

2-4m pivots added for custom control surfaces. 1-4m pivots and a 2m shaft pivot added for custom rudders. 2-4m rectangular plates added for custom rudders
Custom control pivot base health up from 100 to 200, armor from 1 to 20, weight from 2.5 to 20, cost from 5 to 30
Custom control surface base health up from 100 to 200, armor from 1 to 15, weight from 2.5 to 15, cost from 5 to 20
Custom control surfaces give 50% more thrust in air than custom rudders
Custom control surfaces now also add drag based on their force output
Custom control surfaces turn 3x as fast as a custom rudder of the same size
Custom rudder base health up from 35 to 400, armor from 15 to 50, weight from 4 to 80, cost from 1 to 30
Custom rudder blocks using multiple cells now also provide more force
Custom rudder pivot base health is 500, armor 50, weight 100, cost 50
Custom rudders give 100% more thrust in water than custom control surfaces
Force output up by ~1 order of magnitude for both custom control surfaces and custom rudders
New, common code for custom control surfaces and custom rudders. Both can be used as simple plates on spinblocks or with their own pivot blocks

Dediblades

Removed from the inventory and can't be saved into/loaded from prefabs. Existing vehicles keep working as before. Replaced by propellers

Diplomacy

At least one of the available options should now not cost any commodities

Drills

Simple drill and steam drill special hit detection merged and fixed, both are faster and more consistent
Simple drill power inputs convert power to kinetic energy, torque amplifiers reduce max rotation speed and damage but increase AP
Simple drills reworked/fixed: base components slightly more durable, much more compact. Drill heads are much more durable
Steam drills are generally stronger against armor above ~stone, simple drills easier to place/rotate. Spinning rams very efficient at low motor drive

Hydrofoils

Base force up by 50%
Health up from 85 to 150, armor from 1 to 5, cost from 3 to 10
Now have the same drag custom rudders have
Turn rate increased from 40/s to 180/s

Melee PAC

PAC damage multiplier for melee lens reduced from 20x to 10x

Missiles

Checks for invalid components added to missile loading and some other places where it was missing
Default missiles for newly placed launchpads improved
Initial speed for drop as bomb option in rail gantries reduced from 30 to 25 m/s

Rams

Damage done by each individual ram impact is a function of impact speed and spinner mass
Max kinetic energy stored in a spinblock is a function of its mass and rotation speed
Ram and spinblock tooltips added
Rams on other constructs and pistons use the energy of the mainconstruct to do damage
Rams on spinblocks use up kinetic energy generated by the spinblock for each hit
Spinblock kinetic energy regenerates based on motor drive. 1x rate is free, motor drive can increase it to 2x-11x the base rate

Simple rudders

Base force down to 20% the previous value
Health up from 85 to 600, armor from 1 to 10, weight up from 15 to 50, cost up from 10 to 50
Multiple simple rudders combined provide the same force as 1
Now have the same drag custom rudders have
Now only work if their up-down and forward-back axis matches the main construct

UI

Custom rudder/control surface tooltips show how many custom blocks are in the given sheet, and the sum of their current output
Force visualisation helper in build mode now shows FORCE^0.5 and line thickness for buoyancy is lower. Easier to see what's going on in a vehicle
Hydrofoils now show their force output
Simple rudder tooltips show how many simple rudders are on the ship, and the base/current force output

Fixes

ACB controller

ACB controllers now work correctly if they are spawned in in a destroyed state and are then repaired

Animation block

Fixed the breadboard to animation block filtering by name

Bugs

BUGS-3612 It is now possible to only display the spring and axle for a wheel, not the block attachment
BUGS-3629 Fixed fortress turbines from taking damage when out of power if the language is changed from English
BUGS-3618 Explosions should now be rounder (it probably won't change a thing as no explosions reach their max radius)
BUGS-3638 Lasers fired through non-AI, non-manual methods will keep aiming forward as they are rotated
BUGS-3632 Fixed L and H rail gantry missiles sometimes getting tangled in their gantry when being dropped as bombs
BUGS-3635 Fixed steam transmissions not their input's RPM limit for their gear ratio in some cases, when loading
BUGS-3646 Playing local video is now working again
BUGS-3550 The suspension (spring, axle, and block) are now displayed/hidden correctly when the setting is changed when loading the BP when repaired or placed as a prefab

Breadboard

Fixed an issue where some breadboard components would run their logic more than one time per frame
One-shot component will now correctly only activate once
The first output of the steering info component now indicates whether the mainframe's movement is turned on or off

Campaign

Fleets with a patrol route setup will now properly save and load the waypoint they were moving towards

Collisions

Fixed too many collisions triggering at once, damage output is more predictable now

Diplomacy

Fixed a problem preventing the player from getting options with a lot of enemies

EMP

EMP charges can now travel between constructs
Laser Q switch EMP resistance fixed

Gridcases

Fixed a rare problem causing gridcasts with an alignment very close to a construct's rotation to miss

Hologram projector

Hologram projectors now work correctly if they are spawned in a destroyed state and are then repaired

Impact

Impact damage can now travel between constructs

Lasers

Charge lasers will fire if either continuous or pulsed shot does more damage than the minimum damage set in the output regulator

LUA

Added functions to get the number of subconstructs and to get information for a specific subconstruct by index similar to the other APIs
Replaced outdated propulsion methods with new functions 'AddPropulsionRequest', 'SetPropulsionRequest' and 'GetPropulsionRequest'
The docking station now uses the correct ids to identify friendly vehicles for all functions
Weapons fired by Lua can now hit missiles

Separator

Separating or attaching a vehicle while the player is in a chair will no longer eject the player from the chair except for multiplayer clients

Transparency

Changed render queues for smoke and shields to render properly in front of and behind glass.

Wings

Effective speed for wings is capped at the speed of the main construct

[ 2022-02-09 13:44:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.4.2

What is up Depthians! A few bug fixes and tweaks for you to enjoy before we put this into stable hopefully this week :)

Changelog

Changes

Chair

Elevated chair now has its own elevated chair model to fit the new avatars

Fixes

AI

Fixed regression with target prioritisation based on range

Bugs

BUGS-3601 Ammo connection UI is no longer limited to only showing 30 customisers.
BUGS-3582 Issue with moving fleets to non-hostile locations on the campaign diplomacy screen. This caused the options to be unselectable.
BUGS-3588 Plates now use the correct hitbox. Avatar can now properly walk up against them / over them.
BUGS-3593 Et Tu, Brute? achievement should now work in new diplomacy style campaigns (declare war on a faction you have a 50+ relationship with
BUGS-3617 Sabot heads/bodies without an inertial fuse now do not trigger payloads on a ricochet
BUGS-3616 Functional steam pistons taking steam directly from valves do not warn about having any input

Helium pump

Minor adjustment to the COB for helium pumps to weight more strongly for the underwater component

Steam

Fixed some valve setups not venting without an extra pipe after the valve output

[ 2022-01-07 15:33:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.4.2

What is up Depthians! A few bug fixes and tweaks for you to enjoy before we put this into stable hopefully this week :)

Changelog

Changes

Chair

Elevated chair now has its own elevated chair model to fit the new avatars

Fixes

AI

Fixed regression with target prioritisation based on range

Bugs

BUGS-3601 Ammo connection UI is no longer limited to only showing 30 customisers.
BUGS-3582 Issue with moving fleets to non-hostile locations on the campaign diplomacy screen. This caused the options to be unselectable.
BUGS-3588 Plates now use the correct hitbox. Avatar can now properly walk up against them / over them.
BUGS-3593 Et Tu, Brute? achievement should now work in new diplomacy style campaigns (declare war on a faction you have a 50+ relationship with
BUGS-3617 Sabot heads/bodies without an inertial fuse now do not trigger payloads on a ricochet
BUGS-3616 Functional steam pistons taking steam directly from valves do not warn about having any input

Helium pump

Minor adjustment to the COB for helium pumps to weight more strongly for the under water component

Steam

Fixed some valve setups not venting without an extra pipe after the valve output

[ 2022-01-05 18:16:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.4.1

What is up Depthians! From all of us at Brilliant Skies, we hope you have all had an epic start to the new year and continues to be truly epic! We released 3.4.1 to stable which includes 3 new fixes from beta. Which is:

BUGS-3446 The message stating whether a CJE's exhaust is blocked or not now shows on all CJE components

Fix to ensure GP PIDs maintain their old default values when saved with them pre v3.3.9 Changelog

Fixed Extra entries in the tutorial menu being created when the language was switched from the main menuChanges

Changelog

Changes

Decorations

Old fuel engine parts have been changed to object definitions and have been reverted to original pre-2020 textures

Fixes

AI

Intravehicle transmitter now connects on the back/down faces.

Bugs

BUGS-3560 Fixed single direction rail magnet fixtures ignoring firing piece orientation
BUGS-3561 Fixed ERA blocks giving up to 100 kinetic damage back to pure kinetic projectiles
BUGS-3564 Fixed the reference to the throughput pipe (rather than Junction pipe) in the fuel engine tutorials
BUGS-3446 The message stating whether a CJE's exhaust is blocked or not now shows on all CJE components

PID

Fix to ensure GP PIDs maintain their old default values when saved with them pre v3.3.9
For constructs saved before version 3.3.9 all PIDs are switched to 'basic' mode, if the construct doesn't have any AI PID blocks

Story Mission

The issue with the cargo calamity mission is now fixed.

Translations

Fixed issue with the separator block working in different languages
Fixed subobject root block swapping in the sub-object UI for players in languages other than English.

UI

Fixed Extra entries in the tutorial menu being created when the language was switched from the main menu
Fixed issue where windows could be moved or resized to be off screen

[ 2022-01-03 16:11:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.4.1

What is up Depthians! Some fixes before the holidays :) and we all wish you all the best for the new year and many more to come!

Changelog

Changes

Decorations

Old fuel engine parts have been changed to object definitions and have been reverted to original pre-2020 textures

Fixes

AI

Intravehicle transmitter now connects on the back/down faces.

Bugs

BUGS-3560 Fixed single direction rail magnet fixtures ignoring firing piece orientation
BUGS-3561 Fixed ERA blocks giving up to 100 kinetic damage back to pure kinetic projectiles
BUGS-3564 Fixed the reference to the throughput pipe (rather than Junction pipe) in the fuel engine tutorials

PID

For constructs saved before version 3.3.9 all PIDs are switched to 'basic' mode, if the construct doesn't have any AI PID blocks

Story Mission

The issue with the cargo calamity mission is now fixed.

Translations

Fixed issue with the separator block working in different languages
Fixed subobject root block swapping in the sub-object UI for players in languages other than English.

UI

Fixed issue where windows could be moved or resized to be off screen

[ 2021-12-22 03:51:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.4.0

What is up Depthians! A quick little update which was mainly directed towards people who were having issues as they had an AI control module set to basic/none but also had an AI PID block "enabled" for that controller. We have also fully translated the game to Chinese! :D

Changelog

Additions

Chinese

Chinese now fully supported

Fixes

Bugs

BUGS-3416>: Fixed ACB blueprint spawning for adventure mode
BUGS-3558] Armour refit tab disabled on clients temporarily until we fix the client-side implementation of this feature

PIDs

Migration of old PID settings now only affects those controllers which were set to PID mode (leaving those in basic/none alone)

Tutorials

Fixed a number of issues in the AI Deep Dive tutorial

[ 2021-12-13 22:29:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.3.9 + 3.3.10

Hey Depthians! Sorry for being a little late getting the Xmaslogs out. :p We are really happy that we have nearly finished the Chinese localisation, which should be complete this December. Few fixes and tweaks for you all to enjoy.

Changelog

Beta 3.3.9

Additions

Animation

Added inverse kinematics (IK) control to the characters of the animation block

Blueprint Loading

The blueprint selector window now has a search field at the top

Localisation

Simplified Chinese translation is now complete and is officially supported

Modding

You can now define multiple plugin DLLs to load using a comma-separated list. Only the last plugin is given the full treatment but others are loaded. For example [[[filename: "0Harmony.dll, Mono.Reflection.dll, APSGaugePlugin.dll"]]] would ensure 0Harmony.dll and Mono.Reflection.dll are loaded before loading the APSGaugePlugin DLL. This is a fix for problems loading dependencies automatically that have occurred since we moved to Unity 2021.

Changes

EMP

Average reductions: applique/alloy plate 3%, most components 2%
Best reductions: rubber 40%, wood/stone/glass 15%
Blocks now reduce the strength of EMP charges passing through them by a % for each m. They also keep a smaller flat reduction (1% resist = 2 flat reduction)
How many iterations the EMP algorithm can do scales with damage. From a fixed 1000 it's now 500 base, +1 for every 10 EMP damage (small EMP spam less CPU-heavy, large less likely to get lost)
Most detection components take 30% EMP damage (was 50%). Coincidence rangefinders take 20% (was 30)
Munition warners, laser warners and sensor scramblers take 30% damage from EMP (was 50)
No reduction: heavy armor 0%
Sonar, radar, heat decoys and chaff emitters take 100% damage from EMP (was 0)
Strong reductions: reinforced wood/wood duct 10%, alloy 5%
Surge protector health down from 500/m to 250/550/862.5/1200, for the 1/2/3/4m variants
Weak reduction: metal/metal plate 1%

PID

AI PID blocks aren't needed to choose PID control, they were removed from the inventory. Newly placed AIs have all PIDs enabled by default, with 0.05/250/0.3 P/I/D values

Fixes

Missiles

Fixed mirrored L reverse launchpad not connecting to gantries

Modding

Broken mod plugins are now less likely to crash the game's boot up sequence leaving the game in a broken state

Beta 3.3.10

Additions

Chinese

More Chinese translation added. The remainder should be in by Monday 13th December 2021

Changes

EMP

RTGs now have 100% EMP susceptibility

Helium

Helium leak rate increased from 1 to 2 cubic m for each hole over water. Pumps now still fill 10 cubic meter/s with leaks in their compartment

Inventory

The structural tab was reorganized

Fixes

BUGS

BUGS-3539 Fixed issue where lobby would return only geographically local games
BUGS-3548 The button to open the AI pitch controller actually opened the roll controller
BUGS-3538Sound blocks no longer trigger the sound when they appear after being taken out of existence in certain build mode views
BUGS-3531 the power tab of the constructable info UI now properly opens the UIs of the blocks when you hover them and press Q.

[ 2021-12-11 18:29:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.3.8 Mega Update!

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. [previewyoutube=oa9KK14JXh4;full][/previewyoutube] 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, its 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 players 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. Lets say you had a fancy pipe decoration, and you also set its color within the decoration UI which is also a new feature. However, its being covered by the block that its 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 1x1, 3x3, and also a 1x1 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 drones attachment block to the motherships attachment block, and lets 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 its 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! As this covers 6 Beta updates Steam could not handle its immense and epic content so I'll leave a link to the main site which you can view here: https://fromthedepthsgame.com/stable-3-3-8/

[ 2021-12-08 18:00:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.8

What is up Depthians! Quick and cheeky little update

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

[ 2021-12-07 22:19:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.6

What is up Depthians! Some more bug fixes and tweaks :) As always with any release, if you do see something not quite right then please send us a bug report here: https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/bug-tracker Please send us an example blueprint showing only the components needed to replicate the issue. If it is a campaign issue send us a save file shortly before the problem shows its self. You can find the save file here: C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\From The Depths\Player Profiles\PlayerProfileName\Saves.

Changelog

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

3x3/5x5/7x7 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

[ 2021-12-06 16:54:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.5

What is up Depthians! Another round of bug fixes, however, 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.
We have also added the corner slope blocks for the applique slopes !! YES, the others will be added too for each size of our applique slopes.

Changelog

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'.

Removals

Propulsion

- 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 as a confusing and historic piece of code that is not really needed anymore and did not take account of propulsion offset angles.

[ 2021-12-03 20:30:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.4

What is up Depthians! Some more bug fixes from the tickets you good peeps have been sending in xD You will see that your lighting has changed in-game. Unfortunately, you will have to pop back into your options and set these up to your liking. We are currently gathering info from people on Discord, but feel free to leave a comment in Reddit or Steam with a link to your lighting settings and a screenshot of a construct/s in morning/afternoon/evening/night. We are trying to find a common ground to set as a default setting.

Changelog

Changes

CRAM

Time after first impact fuse default time from 0.3s to 0.05s

Ducts

3x3, 5x5 and 7x7 ducts now have the cost as 10, 30 and 60 individual blocks of the same material
3x3, 5x5 and 7x7 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 1x1 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 7x7 alloy and HA ducts only having ~60% the weight they should, compared both to smaller ducts and other 7x7s

[ 2021-12-01 19:59:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.3 !

What is up Depthians! As always, back with more fixes and goodies. We are happy to point out that From The Depths, now uses Steam Networking so this should resolve some issues people had in the past, but as always please send us any bugs here: https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/bug-tracker . Leave us a small example blueprint if its component related rather than the full 1 million volume construct :p. Please also include the output log. If it's campaign issues send us the save file hopefully shortly before the issue happens and all the info needed to recreate any of the problems you encounter. Save files can be found in C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\From The Depths\Player Profiles\PlayerProfileName\Saves.

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

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

[ 2021-11-30 16:18:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.2

What is up Depthians! Another round of bug fixing, tweaks, and some additional features. We shall explain any functions/features etc fully in the stable release, however, please feel free to ask about anything in the notes that you feel needs explaining. We would also like to point out that we updated to unity 2020.3.22 and therefore 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 a number of multiplayer issues, 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

Changelog

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 prioritization card: bonus priority multiplier for the 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.

Campaign

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 the campaign (so doesnt remove blocks/get stuck when trying to place something in a position with all neighbors removed)

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 the vehicle has an origin block that will be used

BUGS 3160

AI UI maneuver 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 from working

CJE

Exhaust bonus for custom jet generators is reduced if the exhaust is blocked

Decoys

Radar decoys no longer have 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 faraway 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 arent 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

[ 2021-11-22 18:03:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.1 - Diplomacy

What is up Depthians! We are pleased to kick off the long-awaited diplomacy update to beta! As well as numerous bug fixes, tweaks, and some new features. Let us try and be diplomatic about this update and start there :p 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 random 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.
You will also see a mini-map showing you the territory where the factions are. In this case, its showing us our location in yellow and the DWG territory. 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 also undergoing 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 offended nation and all their allies declare war against the players faction. On to a frequently requested feature is better feet to make mechs without the need for thrusters to assist, and we are happy to say YES! However in this current beta they are still being worked on! So remember Clampy Feet = WIP.
We have also added new features to decorations that allow you to hide the block that the tether is created on. Lets say you had a fancy pipe decoration, and you also set its color within the decoration UI which is also a new feature. However, its being covered by the block that its 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.

Changelog

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 fleets 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
Players 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 players 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 wont 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 dont 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 11, 33, 55 and 77 ducts up from 0.05 (4m wedge equivalent) to 0.4 (1m slope equivalent). They still dont 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 dont 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 controllers Q menu
Ejector addons and Lua transceivers now use the missile launchers 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 couldnt 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 its set to synchronize with itself.

[ 2021-09-30 15:49:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.3.0!!

What is up Depthians! Before we get into all the goodies, I feel that I need to share the following. As most of you probably know by now that Nicks daughter is seriously ill, which is why there has been such a long gap between updates and I am sure you would agree that family comes first. So far the news has been positive and treatment is underway. With that out the way let us spring into action and go over this update, as 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 So before you decide to separate my hands from my keyboard, we now have the separation block! xD Which is truly awesome yet needs some explaining for the current beta. At the moment we have 11 separation blocks and you will need to set a few parameters before attaching the drone 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 drones attachment block to the motherships attachment block, and lets 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 also need to ensure that the attachment blocks are not surrounded by other blocks (for now) and 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 its inline and behind the attachment (red blocks in pic).

Firstly decide if you want your drone to use its propulsion while attached. You will also need to state whether you want this to be rebuilt once detached or not, 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 until detached.
Building an air/land vehicle drone attached to a fort would need to be built separatly as you will not have access to the air items/land items. However repair drones will repair any lost air/land blocks while attached to the fort.
For now do not build around the attachment blocks, leave them petruding from both mothership and drone, as shown in the screenshot above.
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.

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. This is still a WIP so more additions and tweaks are on the way, therefore everything can be subject to change. Currently, it:

Alters the Caps Lock camera behavior so that it doesnt lag behind the vehicle of focus.
Adds a mouse smoothing effect to the Caps Lock camera.
Alters the top-down tactical map camera behavior so it follows vehicles you double-click on properly.
Removes the annoying splash sound when the camera submerges unless you are in first person.

We are also in the process of updating some textures at the moment, such as the AI blocks and fuel engine are WIP textures in this beta.

Changelog

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. Dont 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 Jons 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 (its 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 blocks orientation (the side of the vehicle the wheel is on doesnt matter anymore)

[ 2021-07-24 20:41:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Summer Sale!

Steam Summer sale 2021 is here and From the Depths is on a -30% discount for a limited time. Grab it while this ship is still sailing

[ 2021-06-24 22:17:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.9 is here!!

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. https://youtu.be/sA-v_b9NYG4

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. 33 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 its 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 dont 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] its 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 shouldnt, 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. Its 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

[ 2021-04-01 09:50:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.2.9

What is up Depthians!! 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. https://youtu.be/sA-v_b9NYG4

Changelog

Additions

AI

Blocks

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

Damage

Missiles

Wheels

- Added a reset to default button for wheel configuration tab

Changes

AI

Air Ducts

- Previous change reverted. All single air duct blocks have now had their HP value halved. 33 and larger lose 1/4 HP and weight. This puts them in their intended role.

Applique

APS

Blocks

Ducts

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

ERA

Missile

Fixes

AI

APS

Blocks

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] its 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

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

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 shouldnt, 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. Its the same as naval broadside behaviour (now called Broadside 2.0) so use that instead.

[ 2021-03-29 14:55:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.8 Hotfix

Changelog

Changes

Ducts

HP and weight values have been halved have for parts of the duct that have less armour visible. 3x3 has a 1 block adjustment, 5x5 has a 5 block adjustment, 7x7 has a 24 block adjustment.

Fixes

Ducts

Heavy armour HP values were wrong, these were corrected.

Multiplayer

Fixed issue with infinite materials in multiplayer designer overflowing to -materials on the client

[ 2021-03-03 10:37:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.7 Hotfix

Changelog

Fixes

Missiles

[BUGS-3096] H missiles can no longer default to interceptor types

Regression

[BUGS-3095] rail charge was being used up on guns that could not fire due to synch delays

[ 2021-03-02 11:59:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.6 Missile Hotfix

Hey Depthians! We had reports about missiles not despawning properly which needed to be squashed asap and therefore, you have some more bugfixes xD

Changelog

Fixes

Blocks

16 pounder cannon now has a sound effect when firing

Laser Warner

[BUGS-252] laser warner now explains that it only deploys smoke on the same level of the construct as itself (hull,turret,spinner) and the ACB Laser attack condition now checks for attacks on the level of the construct that the ACB is on.

Modding

Sound pitch and distance in the modding menu now have a suitable number of decimal places

Multiplayer

[BUGS-3094] added Destroy All Vehicles and Destroy Enemy Vehicles options to multiplayer designer
[BUGS-3094] Blueprint spawned automated spawns should now work regardless of the source of the blueprint you (or the enemy faction motherships) are trying to spawn
BUGS-3094] Infinite resources now in the multiplayer designer, for all teams

Regression

Missiles did not disappear after a call to destroy all vehicles

UI

Fixed display of events (would not properly display the text paragraphs due to localisation issue)
Fixed Steam stats UI issue where interval was displayed instead of the actual interval in seconds. Localisation issue.

[ 2021-03-01 17:25:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.5 bug fixes

Changelog

Additions

AI

Airplane manoeuvre routine now explains it's usage of the 6 control modules in the UI
Airplane manoeuvre routine now writes explanatory messages to the text shown in 'path view' so you can see what it is doing

CJE

Pressing Q on any CJE part (except the generator) will now open the controller interface

Missiles

Missile damage is now shown by the addition of black smoke and a black trail to the missile.

Changes

AI

[BUGS-3079] Airplane manoeuvre when doing a banking turn will now use yaw to get the vehicle to pitch at a specific angle rather than simply commanding the yaw axis to activate. This should increase pitch/altitude control during banking turns.

CJE

Hull blocks are now only 50 mats more expensive than their non-standard counterpart. They have a weight increase of 0.50.

Missiles

Missile damage, thrust and manoeuvrability are now proportional to the missile's health. This has been changed to make non-lethal missile defences still useful. It's also seen as a realistic and interesting change.

Fixes

AI

[BUGS-2290] Naval AI behaviour no longer tries to maintain the mean broadside distance if the specified angle is more than 30 from the -90 or 90 broadside angles. Simple broadside behaviour now has a maximum range of 5km.
[BUGS-2404] hover and airplane manoeuvre routines now have a toggle to ignore the pitch demand sent from the behaviour. Useful if you have a helicopter that needs to pitch forward to move forward.

APS

[BUGS-3085] transparent shell clip 2m armour class was 7, should have been 8

APS and Missile

The meshes for APS shells and missiles are no longer wiped when the projectiles are still in flight. The deletion of the mesh happens when it's certain the mesh is no longer needed (visible).

Autosave

[BUGS-3071] Issue with autosave and player triggered save of the same vehicle messing each other up. Fixed now.

Blocks

[BUGS_2671] Balloons no longer die when god mode is active for a vehicle
[BUGS-3072] Helium pump UI says 'Air pump' all over the place. Fixed now.
The video screen will now display the camera using the correct LOD [BUGS-3047]
Tracks freezed the game in some rare situations when despawning [BUGS-2965]

Building

[BUGS-2793] it is no longer possible to get a free block via mirrored placement of a block you can afford (when you don't have the money for the mirrored copy)

CJE

[BUGS-3077] Fixed incorrect stats on connectors.
Flooding calculation inverted between small and large CJE [BUGS-2940]

Control

[BUGS-1413] Misc control axis A-E now have the non-reversable toggle

CRAM

[BUGS-2662] CRAM explosions can now damage missiles

Custom Battle

Fixed custom battle health fraction ignoring sub-constructs

Fleets

[BUGS-1290] Fleets will now return to the final waypoint they were given if they wander off station whilst in some other mode (when they are returned to fleet move or put out of play).

Game

[BUGS-2785] Fixed an issue where spawning a dead blueprint that had an 'illegal block' that could not be placed messed up the assignment of data packets to all subsequent blocks
[BUGS-2923] out of play stats now include the use of Crank Motors
[BUGS-3049] the construct water level calculation type can now adjust for a growing vehicle even if the vehicle is out of the water. This issue led to large structrures becoming laggy whilst building them (fixed by pulling and playing or saving and loading).

Lasers

[BUGS-3065] made it clear that trying to synch laser combiners that are attached to the same multi-purpose laser is not recommended

Lua

[BUGS-1041] Added some code to avoid errors being thrown by GetNumberOfWarnings() calls by Lua (looking for munition warning count)
[BUGS-2750] I.BlueprintSpawners property exception fix for Lua
[BUGS-2846] GetLuaControlledMissileInfo no longer throws an exception if there is no Lua receiver on the missile being returned

Missiles

[BUGS-3064] Fixed a missile UI issue where if you only had a few components on the missiles then only the first few parameters of a missile module would be editable
[BUGS-3078] H missiles work with failsafes (bug fix)
Fixed some issues with custom smoke colours. Setting R,G,B to 0,0,0 now disables smoke (as was originally intended) and dark smoke can now be displayed.
Staggered salvo firing of missiles managed to bypass the hull aiming constraints and fire off one missile in a salvo

Multiplayer

[BUGS-2674] missile hatches now work correctly on clients in multiplayer

PAC

[BUGS-2845] PAC lenses now take into account the orientation of the PAC firing piece when considering the horizontal and vertical drift of the PAC pulse

Pathfinding

[BUGS-3070] Pathfinding 'on sea' now checks for land within 60m instead of 30m. Pathfinding 'on land' now checks for land sea within 60m (it was previously using the 'on sea' check)
[BUGS-3070] Tanks will now respect their 'max altitude' variable when pathfinding on land (they will use this variable to determine what hills they can climb and what hills they should avoid

Sounds

[BUGS-3055] Audio popping of CRAM and dediblade fixed (mostly affects Linux I believe)

Turrets

Some tweaks to the code to try and catch the bug where turret rotation speeds are calculated to be 0/s

UI

[BUGS-2748] Tweak to the inventory to fix issues when pressing R to select a mirrored block that is not displayed on the inventory
[BUGS-2895] 1m piston now has a quick access icon for the middle mouse click HUD extensions in build mode

Weather

[BUGS-2655] It no longer rains/snows on the map

Winches

Fixed an issue with sail winches (and perhaps other things) where they could be driven negative by using the a -1 power scale

[ 2021-03-01 13:59:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.4

Hey Depthians! We are looking into the issues pointed out about H thumper / reinforced missiles.

Changelog

Changes

AI

[BUGS-2870] six axis manoeuvre routine now has 'use velocity instead of forward' off by default. Some players who had this on and wanted it on will now find it has toggled off, sorry about that.

Ammo Intakes

[BUGS-2687] the ammo intake UI has been changed so that it now longer alters your camera position or camera mode

Fixes

APS

[BUGS-3056] a railgun will now respect it's energy limitations even when multiple LWCs are trying to get it to fire simultaneously (used to result in extra shots with low energy being fired)

Decorations

[BUGS-3060] Fixed decorations that are placed right on the root position of a dediblade spinner

ECM

Fixed an error in the ECM UI where NaN could appear instead of the induced aim point error in metres

Enemy simulator

Enemy simulator now saves and loads the duration variable correctly (rather than reverting to 60 seconds each time)

Map editor

[BUGS-3054] the map editor no longer recalculates the attack-opportunity-matrix each time you edit the terrain. That calculation can take a long time (especially for a big planet) and is only used for campaign mode. It's calculated when you load your planet so there is no need to calculate it more often than necessary.

Missiles

[BUGS-2896] [BUGS-2921] missiles(particularly H missiles) can no longer detonate on their on hatches/gantries when launching (a problem that happened when too many ejectors were used)

[ 2021-02-22 16:25:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.3

Changelogs

Addition

CRAM

[BUGS-3047] Added an option to disable the rotation of a cram barrel when it reloads (and split the auto-reconfigure-payload options onto their own tab)

Steam

Added a way of directly controlling a transmission motor transmission value from a connected steam drill (the steam propeller can already do this).

Changes

Air Pumps

[BUGS-2746] [BUGS-1006] In order to fix issues with railings (and some other blocks) creating leaks where there should not be leaks the code has been changed so that 1) several components marked as 'not watertight' are now marked as watertight and 2) all components left as 'not watertight' now no longer register for detection signatures. The 'not watertight' components are railings, ladders and trusses and coal piles.
Only one leak point can be found at a single position now. The calculation used to be able to find up to five leaks (in different directions) for a single breach point, usually affecting leak points on the top surface of the vehicle.
When an air pump is removed only the neighbouring pumps that share a boundary with the pump are recalculated (it used to trigger a full recalculation of all pumps)

Ladders

It's now possible (but not easy!) to move up and down a ladder that's on a sub-object and at a strange angle

Fixes

Air Pumps

[BUGS-2358] Fixed an issue with upwards facing doors/hatches not properly sealed when closed
Fixed an error that stopped leaks on the left-hand side of the vehicle from being perfectly-recognised

APS

[BUGS-3051] APS guns with the desired fire rate of <=120 rounds per minute no longer use the 'burst' calculation that allows them to theoretically fire in quick succession to catch up with theoretical maximum fire rate.

Autosave

[BUGS-3001] Autosave routine will now shorten paths as necessary to avoid hitting operating system path length limitations
Autosave deletion now no longer spamming log with misleading messages

Flag Post

Description changed to match that it doesn't need an AI anymore.

Fuel Engine

Throughput pipe renamed to Junction pipe so tutorial is referenced correctly.

Map Editor

[BUGS-2999] The faction drop down on the area-> faction assignment tab of the map editor did not scroll so not all factions could be selected (and the panel was incorrectly positioned)

Steam

[BUGS-2927] Fixed a crash when interacting with a steam drill directly connected to a gearbox

Tutorials

[BUGS-3050] Both engine building tutorials require the placement of part (junction pipe) that has been replaced with a different part (throughput pipe). Now fixed.

Weapons

[BUGS-3005] Issue with prefab placement of weapons messing up the weapon synchronisation options (incorrect weapon IDs and weapons being listed twice in the synchronisation tab weapon list)

[ 2021-02-16 20:29:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.2

Changelog

Addition

Sound Block

#Hashtag sound system can now also load .ogg files (as well as .wav)
Mods with audio clip definitions that reference a hashtag are now included properly in the full hashtag system (previously only playable from sound blocks).

Changes

Chairs

A movement of the rambot chair location has been reverted, hes now back where hes always been

Launcher

The launcher is now much more easily navigated with click and drag, and the rows have been moved around and resized
The scroll wheel and scroll bars have been removed from the launcher to avoid confusion: the universal method of navigation for this interface is click and drag.

Starter fort

Added teleport pad and respawn beacon to start fortress in case of accidents.

Fixes

Air pumps

[BUGS-1814] air/helium pumps now correctly recalculate pumpable space sharing when walls are built between them

Launcher

hover sounds on the launcher no longer sound when the launcher is not in focus

Sound Block

Sound block now plays #hashtag sounds

[ 2021-02-11 20:38:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

v3.2.1 hotfix

There'll be an update with some launcher changes later. Right now this had to go out to fix a bug with respawning crashing the game. (Localisation issue.) [BUGS-2989] changes to drones do not trigger the autosave of the mothership (now fixed)" [BUGS-1772] damage counters are synched to clients so clients can see how much damage they are doing" [BUGS-3023] blueprint spawner no longer counts each vehicle twice in the concurrently spawned vehicles" Fixed an issue in the spectate tab (when your avatar dies). Has caused some serious issues with respawning." Fixed an issue in the lobby where clients could still interact with options during the count down"

[ 2021-02-11 12:17:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.2.0 Hotfix

Hey Depthians! We are really sorry that a nasty bug got through in the last update which effected Mac OS. We have totally squashed that bug in this hotfix, as well as implementing a means to browse the Breadboard screen much easier.

Changelog

Addition

Breadboard

Breadboard UI can be dragged by clicking and holding left mouse button

Fix

Regression

Layout issue in the tutorial UI and manual UI fixed
Mac OS users crashing on initialisation because of issues with the operating system and loading so many localisation files

[ 2021-02-10 14:44:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.1.9

Hey Depthians! Happy to release 3.1.9 stable, which incorporates Betas .6 .7 .8, which introduced a number of new functions for Breadboard, but before we get into the new stuff and things, we would like you to guess what this is.
We would also like to give you good peeps a basic explanation of each function, these are by no means for only playing sound. To give you a basic example. You can set up your construct to listen to an event such as CRAM fired [yes/no] if yes change the AI to broadside: imagine a spinal mounted CRAM and when it fires you want the construct to turn and broadside for X seconds which X is the reload time and swap back to point at AI. You can also set up a method that if a missile is reloaded, change the altitude of your submarine to surface, once its fired change the altitude to descend again and much more.
Event input listens to various vehicle events such as weapons being fired and outputs the value of events on a particular frame of the simulation. The event input does not need anything attached to it as it listens to the events triggered from the construct itself after choosing one from the list. Read without resetting to 0, toggle this to allow the value of the event to increase indefinitely rather than resetting once read. Useful for knowing the total amount of damage sustained. Inspection period X seconds, the time between checks. On frames when its not checking it will output 0. A larger period can be useful for accumulating a larger sample of events (such as damage from an explosion).
Accumulator (with threshold), The first output is the sum of the first input over time. The second outputs is a trigger value of 1 when a threshold is reached. Reaching the threshold resets the counter.
The Differencer outputs the change in input since the last frame.
Threshold the first output is 1 when the input exceeds a threshold. The second output is 1 when the threshold is not exceeded. You can set it to Trigger when above the threshold or untoggle for triggering when below the threshold
One shot will only pass a non-zero input to the output once. The output will be zero after this. This would be used mostly when you want to play a sound once, or trigger an action once. Adding other components such as event input, threshold and playback(described further down) would allow you to play a sound or action once if you have a set of CRAMs firing. If you do not add the one shot then a sound would be played per CRAM fired. The threshold in this case would be the volume of CRAM fired.
Playback plays a sound clip when the first input is above 0. The second input can be used to adjust volume and the third can be used to adjust pitch. As you can see from the list on the right, we have many test sounds to choose from which were implement for testing as you can add your own sound clips using #tags as you can see from the centre section where we call up the sound #miho_start. Any input above zero will play a sound file. The output link is used to snake playbacks together, such that you can have it play something and then between 3 and 5 seconds later play something else.
Random number outputs a random number between the two limits. You can find the full list of sounds here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TLbnQhohCAQpp3HbDiCF8WQATyYxLZ2o/view?usp=sharing

Changelog

Additions

ACB

Wheels parameters now in ACB [REQ-1399]

Breadboard

A prefab representing an example of how to use the audio playback features of the breadboard has been added
Accumulator module added that sums all inputs together. It has a threshold inside that allows for a trigger pulse to be sent and reset to occur when the threshold is met.
Audio pack of 120 samples of Japanese language anime-style voice have been added that can be played via the breadboard
Differencer module added that outputs the difference between this input and the previous input
Event Input module added that listens to various vehicle events and sends out appropriate signals
One-shot module added that will only pass one non-zero value. It has a reset timer on it in case you want to use it again
Playback module added that allows a sound or voice to be played
Random input added which can produce a random number between two limits
Threshold module added that will send out a signal when the input exceeds the threshold

Decorations

A way of mass painting decorations at a single location has been added

Designer

A new starter fortress has been added to replace the old raft. It has a new Spawn-o-matic spawning console on it for spawning starter vehicles easily.

Launch screen

Added a launch screen showing recent patch notes, steam announcements, bug alerts, merchandise, popular workshop entries and social buttons
Sound effects equalized, scroll speed increased, exit button added.
Launcher screen now displays in windowed mode

Multiplayer

God mode for vehicles is now accessible in multiplayer designer as well as single player designer

Teleporters

he name of the teleporters is now displayed when teleporting (and when looking at a teleporter) [REQ-181]

Translation

Changes made to the JSON text files automatically trigger updates in-game
CTRL+F5 now synchronises what is on screen in FTD with the localisation/translation tool. If the tool is not open it will open the JSON files containing the game text that is on screen. Useful for finding and fixing translation errors.
CTRL+F6 toggles between your currently selected language and English, to help translators look for mistakes.
The translation tool now has a glossary feature in it

Wheels

[REQ-1810] Ability to paint wheels added
[REQ-373] Added a slider to move a wheel axle downwards (acting as a solid extension to the spring)

Change

Breadboard

Multiply module can now multiply all of its inputs together, as well as multiplying by the constant

Fuel Pipe

AC changed from 5 to 40 on fuel hull pipe to match steam hull pipe. Both priced to 40.

Scuttling

[BUGS-2946] Material quantity, material capacity and health scuttling rules now will not trigger until the current value is below the previous maximum value. This allows drones to repair without scuttling.

Wheels

[REQ-1228] wheel forces are no longer scaled by configurable propulsion forces, as it also scales the suspension and can potentially break things
Wheels now do a better job of not sinking into the ground
Wheels now scale the suspension force by the number of in contact wheels, not the total number of wheels

Fix

AI

[BUGS-2988] Fixed issue in the roll angle used by hover manoeuvre when rolling to point broadsides down/up at the target vehicle

Block

Cameras displayed on screen should freeze a lot less often [BUGS-2803]
Dediblade could go up to 400% power scale when using an ACB, its now clamped to [-1..1] as in its UI [BUGS-2918]

Build menu

Wing missile struts were sitting on top of the wing struts, they are now in the wing strut sub menu.

CJE

[BUGS-2985] (regression from 3.1.6) Issue with positioning of CJE particle effects

Code

Fixed an issue with main thread callbacks not executing until the next frame which affected projectile follow camera

Commodities

It was possible to waste commodities by gifting them to a vehicle that had no room to accept materials. Fixed now.

Decorations

[BUGS-2984] its no longer possible to shift decoration tether points so that a single point has more than the limit of 32 that is currently supported.

Ducts

Some ducts were incorrectly set to be drag blockers.

Graphics

[BUGS-2611] cut-away view now correctly cuts away glass materials

Modding

Subobjects (turrets/spinners) can now define an active block in the modding menu to make it easier to spawn the correct active block

Regression

Fixed issues with hosting multiplayer games
Fixed some broken inventory thumbnails

Spawn-o-matic

[BUGS-2979] Issues with Spawn-o-matic blueprint spawn ownership tags fixed

Special effects

The flame of the custom jet engines is now placed correctly when repaired [BUGS-2954]

Turrets

Turrets now load up at their idle azimuth and elevation (again)

Wheels

[BUGS-1337] Wheel track visuals are now properly synced in multiplayer
[BUGS-2424] Wheels now stay active regardless of building mode special view type
[BUGS-2581] Turn wheel yaw response value is no longer reset (similar to above but a wider problem)
[BUGS-2641] Wheel positions standardised and a slider added to shift them
[BUGS-2866] 1m balloon wheels now have a wide track
[BUGS-2910] Building turn wheels in block by block mode on longer reset their turn yaw response
3m diameter wide wheel track slightly repositioned and rescaled
Fixed jumping in wheels when the origin of the game world resets

Wings

Missile strut block added and now works as a strut block

[ 2021-02-09 15:11:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

What is happening at Brilliant skies? Jan - Feb

What is up Depthians! Some more of What is happening at Brilliant skies?. I think the first thing we should talk about is the voice pack that Nick put in the game for us to use via breadboard. Firstly this month we have had our Christmas holidays so most of the team were not around. In the meantime, Nick continued to pump out bug fixes and we still have a few members away that will be back with us in February. Quite a while back we had joked about putting shipgirl themed features in the game. This joke got out of hand quite fast and the shipgirl topic has continued to be mentioned for well over a year. During the Christmas holidays, Nick implemented a 120 voice pack in his free time, which can be used with triggers through breadboard. All this while everyone was chillax with the family, as he had enough of people bugging him about shipgirl themed content. So in regards to our latest beta update, we have spoken to a number of people who were upset with the latest beta update due to this voice pack which is a test bed for breadboard functions. There will be more added in future and different themes, so this is not solely anime content as it is being made out to be and the voice clips can be replaced with anything you want. We have also been looking into new avatars for you all to choose from. Themes would range from Sci-Fi, realistic Marine types, Steampunk, Anime, Cyborg etc We are going to continue to work on the new launch screen to fit better in terms of size during February. The reason we implemented this new launch screen is that in future we will have a language selector and we also noticed a number of common comments such as I didn't even know about the discord channel, which provides a lot of help to new and old players so we added shortcut links to our media sites etc The other reason is due to the fact that a lot of information is not read via the in-game news, such as repeatable bugs that you can avoid until we resolve, update posts, news posts and also top workshop builds. Continue with all the translation work, which we have nearly completed Russian and simplified Chinese, with many community members still active and contributing to DE, FR, JP, ZH, ES, SV, KR. Work has started on the coming separator blocks and more info on that in future xD . The next major feature is the diplomacy update, which Nick will be making a post about explaining features etc... The idea in February is setting up a testbed for space! Continue work on diplomacy, localisation, checking out collisions to hopefully make them less resource-intensive. Concepts and ideas for space factions, as well as the usual dosage of bug fixes as well as a number of other features and requests taken from our Steam suggestion section and our Request page. If you are reading this and saying Where is the roadmap? / Wouldn't it have been better to post a roadmap? The reason we are not posting roadmaps is due to a number of people saying we promised X which in most if not all posts with the roadmap I believe I made sure to say that all these are subject to change. The roadmap is a plan which we intend to follow, however, certain ideas can change throughout the implementation, or we simply feel that the function or feature just does not fit right and therefore removed or it could be put on the backburner to a later sprint. Lastly, a question to all you good peeps. Would you be interested in a build competition to build a space station something sci-fi as a fort?

[ 2021-02-04 19:41:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.1.8

Hey all :)

Changelog

Change

Fuel Pipe

AC changed from 5 to 40 on fuel hull pipe to match steam hull pipe. Both priced to 40.

Fix

AI

[BUGS-2988] Fixed issue in the roll angle used by hover manoeuvre when rolling to point broadsides down/up at the target vehicle

CJE

[BUGS-2985] (regression from 3.1.6) Issue with the positioning of CJE particle effects

Code

Fixed an issue with main thread callbacks not executing until the next frame which affected projectile follow camera

Decorations

[BUGS-2984] it's no longer possible to shift decoration tether points so that a single point has more than the limit of 32 that is currently supported.

Ducts

Some ducts were incorrectly set to be drag blockers.

Modding

Subobjects (turrets/spinners) can now define an 'active block' in the modding menu to make it easier to spawn the correct active block

Spawn-o-matic

[BUGS-2979] Issues with Spawn-o-matic blueprint spawn ownership tags fixed

Wheels

Fixed jumping in wheels when the origin of the game world resets

[ 2021-02-01 20:29:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.1.7

Changelog

Additions

Designer

A new starter fortress has been added to replace the old raft. It has a new "Spawn-o-matic" spawning console on it for spawning starter vehicles easily.

Launcher screen

Sound effects equalized, scroll speed increased, exit button added.

Fix

Commodities

It was possible to waste commodities by gifting them to a vehicle that had no room to accept materials. Fixed now.

[ 2021-01-28 14:56:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 3.1.6

Changelog

Additions

ACB

Wheels parameters now in ACB [REQ-1399]

Breadboard

A prefab representing an example of how to use the audio playback features of the breadboard has been added
Accumulator module added that sums all inputs together. It has a threshold inside that allows for a trigger pulse to be sent and reset to occur when the threshold is met.
Audio pack of 120 samples of Japanese language anime-style voice have been added that can be played via the breadboard
Differencer module added that outputs the difference between this input and the previous input
Event Input module added that listens to various vehicle events and sends out appropriate signals
One-shot module added that will only pass one non-zero value. It has a reset timer on it in case you want to use it again
Playback module added that allows a sound or voice to be played
Random input added which can produce a random number between two limits
Threshold module added that will send out a signal when the input exceeds the threshold

Decorations

A button to remove all "untethered" decorations has been added
A way of mass painting decorations at a single location has been added

Launch screen

Added a launch screen showing recent patch notes, steam announcements, bug alerts, merchanise, popular workshop entries and social buttons

Mutliplayer

God mode for vehicles is now accessible in multiplayer designer as well as single player designer

Teleporters

The name of the teleporters is now displayed when teleporting (and when looking at a teleporter) [REQ-181]

Wheels

[REQ-1810] Ability to paint wheels added
[REQ-373] Added a slider to move a wheel axle downwards (acting as a solid extension to the spring)

Changes

Breadboard

Multiply module can now multiply all of its inputs together, as well as multiplying by the constant

Scuttling

[BUGS-2946] Material quantity, material capacity and health scuttling rules now will not trigger until the current value is below the previous maximum value. This allows drones to repair without scuttling.

Wheels

[REQ-1228] wheel forces are no longer scaled by configurable propulsion forces, as it also scales the suspension and can potentially break things
Wheels now do a better job of not sinking into the ground...
Wheels now scale the suspension force by the number of 'in contact' wheels, not the total number of wheels

Fixes

Block

Cameras displayed on screen should freeze a lot less often [BUGS-2803]
Dediblade could go up to 400% power scale when using an ACB, it's now clamped to [-1..1] as in its UI [BUGS-2918]

Graphics

[BUGS-2611] cut-away view now correctly cuts away glass materials

Special effects

The flame of the custom jet engines is now placed correctly when repaired [BUGS-2954]

Turrets

Turrets now load up at their idle azimuth and elevation (again)

Wheels

[BUGS-1337] Wheel track visuals are now properly synced in multiplayer
[BUGS-2424] Wheels now stay active regardless of building mode special view type
[BUGS-2581] Turn wheel yaw response value is no longer reset (similar to above but a wider problem)
[BUGS-2641] Wheel positions standardised and a slider added to shift them
[BUGS-2866] 1m balloon wheels now have a wide track
[BUGS-2910] Building turn wheels in 'block by block' mode on longer reset their turn yaw response
3m diameter "thick" wheel track slightly repositioned and rescaled

[ 2021-01-25 15:28:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.1.5 Happy Holidays !

What is up Depthians!! Happy holidays from all of us at Brilliant skies
Thanks to Ninjin_Ninja for this awesome xmas tree and giving himself a present :p Beta Test v3.1.3 Came with the changes to warp drives, nothing much to explain, however, please read the changelog below. 3.1.4 gave us the new decorations which Ill leave the beta notes on that below for those of you that did not check the beta test out. In addition to the two betas hitting stable we also have a new system for missiles, which ill jump right into! xD 3.1.5 brings us two new blocks that greatly effects the way we can launch missiles and more so cluster missiles! We have added a missile wireless transmitter and wireless receiver, which allows a missile controller to control several distant missile launch points.
This also allows us to make more sleeker wings and keeping the missile controller and local weapon controller inside our construct.

But thats not all!!! Turrets and cluster missiles. Did you ever want to make a crazy cluster missile on a turret? Well now you can xD
v3.1.3 Mimic 2.0, which we all need to call Decorations so that we are on the same page and not get confused. Decorations are essentially mimics but have several key differences they are free, have no volume, mass, health, armour buoyancy or any other physical effect They are tethered to existing blocks, and you can have up to 32 of them connected to one block. If the block dies they go invisible to simulate the damage. When the block is repaired they re-appear. They can be attached to barrels, dediblades and custom control surfaces and will move and spin with the barrel/dediblade/surface The primary reason for adding them is to allow decorative constructs to be made without affecting the physical behaviour of the vehicle. There are only a few situations where a mimic is better than a decoration (e.g when you need a wood/metal/alloy cube but wanted it to look different you would use a wood/metal/alloy mimic). For most situations, a decoration would be more appropriate. We should probably start off by saying that there is a slight change made to the old mimics, as they can be converted to the new system. So dont be thinking they are useless or no longer work on your other constructs, they are still usable with no issues. The new decorations will work as follows. Ctrl + X IN any block, notice me using capslock for IN a block not flush on a block as the mimicked item will be then highlighted as red. Ctrl + X will open up this UI.
Add new decoration will bring up our usual mimic UI.
However, as you can see the mimic UI has been added as a new tab in slot 0. Therefore this means that you can have multiple decorations tethered to the exact same block/location on a 4m beam.
The UI is self-explanatory, copy all would copy all the tabs allowing you to paste all at another locationDelete all destroys the world and all of your blueprints. The other important thing to explain is the Shift tether point
As you can see the decoration block in the pic has no physical collision/mesh it has no volume and adds 0 to the block count or cost. The tether, in this case, is created in the applique slope which is where the mimic block is currently and the blue corners showing the tether. If I click right we will move the tether 1m right, yet the mimic block remains where it was.
I had mentioned the new Change to decoration feature in our old mimic block.
In this pic you can see the mimic block its self with the blue corners is sitting on the deck. If we click Change to decoration now, we will see our decoration tinted in red like something is wrong. This is because the game needs the decoration block inside any block as it thinks its not attached to anything / the block it was in has been destroyed. To fix this once converted simply move the tether where you want it inside any block. After moving the tether point, you can access all the decoration parts from one point and you can have up to 32 tethered at one point but a max of 900 decorations per construct per subobject, the standard mimics do not add to this number.
All five decorations in one point.
If we turn on our mirror mode and pop back into our new decoration setup we can mirror all five of these tabs.

We also have a new way to view the actual location of mimic blocks and decorations.
You need to cycle through the shift+p views. Yellow are the mimics and blue is where the decoration is tethered.

Changelog 3.1.3

Changes

WARP

After a warp the warp drives used must be stabilized before a jump in that direction is possible again
After a warp vehicles get a big IR and sonar detection signature increase. That increase is a function of warp energy used, decays over time
Battery energy: warp energy conversion rate depends on ROD:VEHICLE length ratio
Controllers and warp terminators now also count as a 1m rod
Controllers only have rod attachment points in the front
Each m of warp rods can store 10000 warp energy and use up to 400 battery energy/s for warp energy creation
Maximum warp distance is a function of WARP_ENERGY_AVAILABLE / VEHICLE_MASS
Target warp distance can be set on the warp controller. Warps will only use the energy necessary for that distance
Vehicles get a push after a warp, force of that push if a function of the warp energy used
Warp component durability up from 300 health/3 armour to 400/4 for each cubic meter
Warp component weights reduced to 20 for each cubic meter (half of metal)
Warp components are now susceptible to EMP
Warp drives got new tooltips and a standard UI showing cost/volume breakdowns
Warp drives in a given cardinal direction are grouped and triggered together
Warp stabilization time is 40s. Thats reduced by 15s if stabilizers cover the entire width of the vehicle, and another 15s if they cover the entire height (if the jump was forward/backwards)
Warp stabilizers: new components replacing chargers. They determine how much time the warp drive needs after a jump to be available again
Warping under terrain or into constructs is no longer possible. Longer warps have a higher safety margin before/after other craft

Changelog 3.1.4

Additions

DECORATIONS

Added a new new mimic-type feature available with CTRL+X in build mode. A decoration is visually like a mimic but does not take up physical space on the vehicle.
Decorations can be attached to barrels, dedi-blade spinners and custom control surfaces and will move with those objects
Decorations can be prefabbed with blocks and placed

UX

Ability to drag and drop .txt FTD log files into the FTD application to parse and display them has been added
Ability to drag and drop blueprints into the FTD application to load them in single player designer has been added

Changes

ADVENTURE

Decreased the spawn chance of warp gates by 2

Fixes

BREADBOARD

Fixed complex control controller input component not displaying the value of the input

PREFABS

Added hull prefabs to new blueprints section. This will be updated over the month along with others.
There is now a new start fort that contains the spawn-o-matic. The spawn-o-matic contains trainer blueprints with annotations that people can learn from. This can also be modified to suit your own needs.

REGRESSION

Fixed a bug where a disconnection of over 400 blocks would halt the disconnection code from making subsequent disconnections

Changelog 3.1.5

Additions

BLOCKS

Indication that theres a minimum time between 2 vehicle spawns using the vehicle blueprint spawner [BUGS-2861]

MISSILES

Missile wireless transmitter and wireless receiver have been added. This allows a missile controller to control several distant missile launch points.

Changes

DECORATIONS

APS barrels in a multi-barrel system are now all rotated so that decorations placed on each one will be radially symmetric
APS mantlet decorations will behave differently to decorations placed elsewhere on the APS barrel. Also note that they can be made to spin independently if you have a rail-gun.
Decorations using metal/alloy/HA/wings and placed on barrels/control surfaces/dediblades now correctly adopt the camo of that material (if applicable)

UI

The load/save vehicle UI now allows you to deselect a default designer spawn, and deselect a favourites bar entry
The setting of default designer spawn and addition to favourites bar are now separated in the load/save vehicle UI.

Fixes

ACB

The ACB Interaction condition now behaves as a standard condition, not as the test button. The dot button in mouse-mode will still behave as the Test button [BUGS-2875]
The closest boiler pressure condition boundaries are now adapted to the new steam boilers [BUGS-2849]
The list of custom jet generators to activate is now updated correctly when a vehicle is loaded [BUGS-2702]

APS

Fixed various issues with rail magnet spinning speeds/flags.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

The color customization for the smoke of missiles and jets now works [BUGS-2784]

[ 2020-12-18 14:30:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA TEST 3.1.4 Decoration 2.0 (mimicking the mimic with better mimics)

What is up Depthians!!!!! We are really happy to release our new Mimic 2.0 to Beta Test, which we all need to call Decorations so that we are on the same page and not get confused. Decorations are essentially mimics but have several key differences

They are free, have no volume, mass, health, armour buoyancy or any other physical effect
They are tethered to existing blocks, and you can have up to 32 of them connected to one block. If the block dies they go invisible to simulate the damage. When the block is repaired they re-appear.
They can be attached to barrels, dediblades and custom control surfaces and will move and spin with the barrel/dediblade/surface
The primary reason for adding them is to allow decorative constructs to be made without affecting the physical behaviour of the vehicle. There are only a few situations where a mimic is better than a decoration (e.g when you need a wood/metal/alloy cube but wanted it to look different you would use a wood/metal/alloy mimic). For most situations, a decoration would be more appropriate.

We should probably start off by saying that there is a slight change made to the old mimics, as they can be converted to the new system. So dont be thinking they are useless or no longer work on your other constructs, they are still usable with no issues. The new decorations will work as follows. Ctrl + X IN any block, notice me using capslock for IN a block not flush on a block as the mimicked item will be then highlighted as red. Ctrl + X will open up this UI.

Add new decoration will bring up our usual mimic UI.

However, as you can see the mimic UI has been added as a new tab in slot 0. Therefore this means that you can have multiple decorations tethered to the exact same block/location on a 4m beam.

The UI is self-explanatory, copy all would copy all the tabs allowing you to paste all at another locationDelete all destroys the world and all of your blueprints. The other important thing to explain is the Shift tether point

As you can see the decoration block in the pic has no physical collision/mesh it has no volume and adds 0 to the block count or cost. The tether, in this case, is created in the applique slope which is where the mimic block is currently and the blue corners showing the tether. If I click right we will move the tether 1m right, yet the mimic block remains where it was.

I had mentioned the new Change to decoration feature in our old mimic block.

In this pic you can see the mimic block its self with the blue corners is sitting on the deck. If we click Change to decoration now, we will see our decoration tinted in red like something is wrong. This is because the game needs the decoration block inside any block as it thinks its not attached to anything / the block it was in has been destroyed. To fix this once converted simply move the tether where you want it inside any block. After moving the tether point, you can access all the decoration parts from one point and you can have up to 32 tethered at one point but a max of 900 decorations per construct per subobject, the standard mimics do not add to this number.

All five decorations in one point.

If we turn on our mirror mode and pop back into our new decoration setup we can mirror all five of these tabs.

We also have a new way to view the actual location of mimic blocks and decorations.

You need to cycle through the shift+p views. Yellow are the mimics and blue is where the decoration is tethered.

Changelog

Additions

DECORATIONS

Added a new new mimic-type feature available with CTRL+X in build mode. A decoration is visually like a mimic but does not take up physical space on the vehicle.
Decorations can be attached to barrels, dedi-blade spinners and custom control surfaces and will move with those objects
Decorations can be prefabbed with blocks and placed

UX

Ability to drag and drop .txt FTD log files into the FTD application to parse and display them has been added
Ability to drag and drop blueprints into the FTD application to load them in single player designer has been added

Changes

ADVENTURE

Decreased the spawn chance of warp gates by 2

Fixes

BREADBOARD

Fixed complex control controller input component not displaying the value of the input

PREFABS

Added hull prefabs to new blueprints section. This will be updated over the month along with others.
There is now a new start fort that contains the spawn-o-matic. The spawn-o-matic contains trainer blueprints with annotations that people can learn from. This can also be modified to suit your own needs.

REGRESSION

Fixed a bug where a disconnection of over 400 blocks would halt the disconnection code from making subsequent disconnections

[ 2020-12-16 14:44:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

BetaTest 3.1.3 "Engage!"

That is all that needs to be said.

Changelogs

Changes

Warp

After a warp the warp drives used must be stabilized before a jump in that direction is possible again
After a warp vehicles get a big IR and sonar detection signature increase. That increase is a function of warp energy used, decays over time
Battery energy: warp energy conversion rate depends on ROD:VEHICLE length ratio
Controllers and warp terminators now also count as a 1m rod
Controllers only have rod attachment points in the front
Each m of warp rods can store 10000 warp energy and use up to 400 battery energy/s for warp energy creation
Maximum warp distance is a function of WARP_ENERGY_AVAILABLE / VEHICLE_MASS
Target warp distance can be set on the warp controller. Warps will only use the energy necessary for that distance
Vehicles get a push after a warp, force of that push if a function of the warp energy used
Warp component durability up from 300 health/3 armour to 400/4 for each cubic meter
Warp component weights reduced to 20 for each cubic meter (half of metal)
Warp components are now susceptible to EMP
Warp drives got new tooltips and a standard UI showing cost/volume breakdowns
Warp drives in a given cardinal direction are grouped and triggered together
Warp stabilization time is 40s. That's reduced by 15s if stabilizers cover the entire width of the vehicle, and another 15s if they cover the entire height (if the jump was forward/backwards)
Warp stabilizers: new components replacing chargers. They determine how much time the warp drive needs after a jump to be available again
Warping under terrain or into constructs is no longer possible. Longer warps have a higher safety margin before/after other craft

[ 2020-12-08 15:44:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable update 3.1.2.3

What is up Depthians! For those that have not checked out the beta test branch post for 3.1.2, a few things need explaining when it comes to the connection rules. If you have been on our beta test branch then skip the following as its a total copypasta job xD and check out the changelog for any new additions/changes/fixes. We listened to the feedback from 3.1.0 and put in this feature to help people build more freely. This allows more freedom than ever before to plan out a build with a rough blueprint of disconnected pieces and then connect it all later. Pressing backspace in build mode de-activates the connection checks. You can then place anything literally anywhere. The connection checks will re-activate if you have been out of build mode for 30 seconds, or if a block is killed by hostile fire. You can save the vehicle with connection checks de-activated so that you can continue your disconnected building over several play sessions or save points. The change also makes it so that the first disconnection check when a vehicle is loaded will not make blocks fall off but will simply mark them with a warning so that the player can enter build mode, disable connectivity checks, and fix the issues so that the parts never fall out. That change has been made so that we can be a bit more liberal with tidying up the connection logic of some blocks but not create a nightmare situation where the vehicle is loaded and then immediately just falls apart. Note carefully that many of the changes in the change list are for removing the connection surfaces of blocks so that in 3.1.1 some unlucky people are going to have a few designs that need to use this feature to save a few blocks from falling off. We have also changed the way munition/laser warners and signal jammers work. They no longer need to be connected to the AI and the reason for this is that none of those parts made any usage of the AI mainframe as the munition warning manager and laser warning manager is specific to the vehicle, not an AI mainframe, so they have no reason to be coupled to an AI mainframe any more. This allows player controlled vehicles without AI to make proper use of all countermeasures ( flare dispensers, interceptors and smoke, etc)". I thought I should leave some basic instructions / demonstration in regards to the connection check, how to turn on off and what you should keep an eye on. When you load up the designer mode, by default the connection check and rules are in place and therefore you would not be able to place blocks like the following pic.
In order to deactivate the connection rules, you will need to press "Backspace". Anything you place that is not allowed, due to the connection rules would be coloured in Magenta and you will also see a warning to the left of your screen.
Once you reactivate the connection rules and you still have something connected that would potentially fall off, you will be warned.
If you come out of build mode, you will notice a timer indicating that the connection rules will be reactivated in X seconds and when it reactivates the Magenta coloured blocks will fall off, unless you pop back into build mode.

Changelog

Additions

Connections

Connection logic is reapplied if a block is killed by damage, or if no one is in build mode on the vehicle for 60 seconds
If you press backspace in build mode you can disable the connection logic and build freely (even in open space away from any other block).
The disabling of connection logic can be saved/loaded with the vehicle allowing you to continue building on disconnected vehicles over several play sessions or save/loads or play/pulls

Missiles

Huge missiles have been added in

Changes

AI

Changed adjustments so that the max altitude can go to 2000 from 1000.
Changed hover above so that the max altitude can go to 2000 from 1000.
Flag post is no longer part of the AI subsystem- just a free-standing block now
Increased AI wireless channel count from 1 empty + 4 usable to 1 + 9

APS

Reduced HEAT/HESH damage against non-structural blocks without a gap before them. Closer to, but still very slightly higher than the total damage against blocks after a gap

Connections

16 pdr cannon - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 1.
30mm assault cannon - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 1.
32 pdr swivel gun - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 1.
AI bread board - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Ammo controller - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo customizer 1 module - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo customizer 2 modules - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo customizer 4 modules - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo ejector - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Ammo ejector backwards - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Camera 90 - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Control terminal - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 5.
Frequency doubler - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 6.
Gauge increase corner - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 6.
Heat decoy - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Interface screen - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Invisible gantries - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
LAMS node - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Large crank motor - Changed - Attaches on 4 from 6.
Large radiator - Changed - Attaches on 6 sides from 5.
Large rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Large rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Laser - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Laser cutter - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Laser destabiliser - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 6.
Medium crank motor - Changed - Attaches on 3 from 6.
Medium rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Medium rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Medium transmission - Changed - Attaches on 3 faces.
Moving light - Changed - 5 sides from 6.
Neon Light - Changed - 5 sides from 6.
Non - AI breadboard - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Particle tube corner - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 6.
Particle tube terminator - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Radar decoy - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Radiator - Changed - Attaches on 6 sides from 5.
Railgun charger - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 6.
Sail Main Block(Square Rig!) - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 3.
Signpost - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 1. I don't think this would do any harm.
Signpost (long) - Changed- Attaches on 4 sides from 1. I don't think this would do any harm.
Single input cavity - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Small crank motor - Changed - Attaches on 3 from 6.
Small rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small single rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small single rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small steam controller - Changed - Attaches on 1 face.
Switch - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Text screen - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
The following connection changes are based on community feedback and a review of that. Sail Main Block - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 3.
Warp charger (2m) - Changed - Attaches on 6 from 2.
Wireless camera - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.

Decoration

Changed ammo processor prop cost from 300 to 3. Collectors are up in arms at the devaluation

Defenses

Munition warners, laser warners, smoke dispensers and signal jammers now aren't AI components and do not need a mainframe connection

Laser

If a laser has an output regulator its sliders are at the top of the stats tab
Laser cavities and transceivers use the multipurpose laser's tooltip
Laser optics use their combiner's Q menu stats UI
Laser parts use their multipurpose laser's Q menu stats UI
Multipurpose laser block got a stats UI, accessible from the Q menu

Missile

Harpoon cable thickness scales with missile size
Signal processors now reduce decoy strength to 4-40% for all sizes
Summary: decoys are better for smaller designs, multiple smaller decoys are stronger and missiles without processors are more usable
Target simulator and flare base strength reduced from 2500 to 1600
Target simulator and flare strength scales with surface, instead of volume. Means S decoys are 2x as strong as for M and L missiles. All missiles use the same detection threshold as S missiles now.

Prefabs

Added new simple prefabs where appropriate. Removed some fuel engine examples.
Removed hull prefabs from the build menu as we plan to change how this works.

Steam

Added ACB control for steam valves

Tooltip

Repair tentacle tooltip now no longer mentions player skills.

Fixes

Adventure

[BUGS-2796] Fixed an issue where players could be accidentally assigned to the chairs of distant enemy vehicles

AI

[BUGS-2789] Added control module descriptions and fixed out of date tooltips for the manoeuvre hover routine

APS

Fixed some setups of turreted 0 gunpowder railguns firing twice in 1 frame under AI control

Autosave

[BUGS-2828] Auto-saves now correctly save the author details (sorry about that)

Controls

[BUGS-866] the binding for toggling the keyboard/mouse build mode (F3) is now properly re-bindable

Decoration

Changed position of the fuel processor prop. It was overlapping crystal trays.

Gridcasts

Fixed another old Gridcast problem, mostly noticeable when lasers jump through the firing construct's own blocks without damaging them

Missiles

[Steam forum] reloading missiles on playing a vehicle no longer costs materials when it shouldnt

Multiplayer

Fill operations in multiplayer depended on the orientation of the host camera, not the client trying to do the fill. Fixed now.

Physics

[BUGS-1161] continuous-reverse spin blocks now (correctly) has the opposite torque

Planets

Fixed a map fleet pathfinding issue that occurs after swapping to a planet with a different sized map

Steam

Fixed a pressure loss problem in closed-loop systems
Fixed some valve setups not properly discovering the full pipe network
Improved stat over time accuracy

[ 2020-12-08 11:10:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

What is happening at Brilliant skies News post for December.

What is up Depthians! It's about time for another What is happening at Brilliant skies post for December.
As most of you already know we had enforced the connection rule set for numerous blocks and with that, we had a lot of feedback. Therefore in Beta update 3.1.2, we added a new feature which I hope I explained well enough in the Beta patch notes. We also changed the way munition/laser warners and signal jammers worked so that they no longer need a direct or wireless connection to the AI mainframe, also explained in the Beta patch notes. We have implemented the new huge missile parts in 3.1.2 so I do hope to see some epic screenies with a lot of marauders being turned into confetti.
The team is also working on tweaking up the way the warp system works which we should see hopefully in 3.1.3 if all goes well. Further details on that will be disclosed on release and this will most probably be in Beta before it hits stable. Another new block that will hit From The Depths is the Spawn-o-Matic, which while it is mostly directed to help new players when spawning in designer mode to give them a little direction and not feeling overwhelmed. Rather than spawning on a raft, we should see a new default fort(you can the starting construct change to whatever you want), which will have this new block that will hold a number of craft ready to be spawned that a new player can check out and use as a reference when building their own crafts(land, air, sea surface, sub, hover, thruster etc..). Mimic 2.0, this following new feature is going to be a massive change to the way mimicry works. For 3.1.4, we hope to release Mimics 2.0, in short, and a basic vague description for now. This new system will allow us to place a non-physical block that won't take up space nor add to block count on any block we choose. We get all the usual tool sets the current mimics have to select what we want mimicked distance in the usual directions, size, rotation and everything else. Once the block that this new mimic is tied to dies then ofc the mimicked object will also fall off, however, they do not cost any material they will reappear once the block they are tied to is repaired. In regards to our current mimics, they will still remain in-game with no changes. While all this and much more is being done during December, such as steam drive shaft splitters, missile wireless system, Rambot weapons, sky fortress turbine model and much more! We are also working on Diplomacy for 3.1.5 more details on that once we get closer to releasing the beta update.

[ 2020-12-07 11:27:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 3.1.2

What is up Depthians! We listened to the feedback from 3.1.0 and put in this feature to help people build more freely. This allows more freedom than ever before to plan out a build with a rough blueprint of disconnected pieces and then connect it all later. Pressing backspace in build mode de-activates the connection checks. You can then place anything literally anywhere. The connection checks will re-activate if you have been out of build mode for 30 seconds, or if a block is killed by hostile fire. You can save the vehicle with connection checks de-activated so that you can continue your disconnected building over several play sessions or save points. The change also makes it so that the first disconnection check when a vehicle is loaded will not make blocks fall off but will simply mark them with a warning so that the player can enter build mode, disable connectivity checks, and fix the issues so that the parts never fall out. That change has been made so that we can be a bit more liberal with tidying up the connection logic of some blocks but not create a nightmare situation where the vehicle is loaded and then immediately just falls apart. Note carefully that many of the changes in the change list are for removing the connection surfaces of blocks so that in 3.1.1 some unlucky people are going to have a few designs that need to use this feature to save a few blocks from falling off. We have also changed the way munition/laser warners and signal jammers work. They no longer need to be connected to the AI and the reason for this is that none of those parts made any usage of the AI mainframe as the munition warning manager and laser warning manager is specific to the vehicle, not an AI mainframe, so they have no reason to be coupled to an AI mainframe any more. This allows player controlled vehicles without AI to make proper use of all countermeasures ( flare dispensers, interceptors and smoke, etc)". I thought I should leave some basic instructions / demonstration in regards to the connection check, how to turn on off and what you should keep an eye on. When you load up the designer mode, by default the connection check and rules are in place and therefore you would not be able to place blocks like the following pic.
In order to deactivate the connection rules, you will need to press "Backspace". Anything you place that is not allowed, due to the connection rules would be coloured in Magenta and you will also see a warning to the left of your screen.
Once you reactivate the connection rules and you still have something connected that would potentially fall off, you will be warned.
If you come out of build mode, you will notice a timer indicating that the connection rules will be reactivated in X seconds and when it reactivates the Magenta coloured blocks will fall off, unless you pop back into build mode.

Changelog

Additions

Connections

Connection logic is reapplied if a block is killed by damage, or if no one is in build mode on the vehicle for 60 seconds
If you press backspace in build mode you can disable the connection logic and build freely (even in open space away from any other block).
The disabling of connection logic can be saved/loaded with the vehicle allowing you to continue building on disconnected vehicles over several play sessions or save/loads or play/pulls

Missiles

Huge missiles have been added in

Changes

AI

Changed adjustments so that the max altitude can go to 2000 from 1000.
Changed hover above so that the max altitude can go to 2000 from 1000.
Flag post is no longer part of the AI subsystem- just a free-standing block now
Increased AI wireless channel count from 1 empty + 4 usable to 1 + 9

APS

Reduced HEAT/HESH damage against non-structural blocks without a gap before them. Closer to, but still very slightly higher than the total damage against blocks after a gap

Connections

16 pdr cannon - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 1.
30mm assault cannon - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 1.
32 pdr swivel gun - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 1.
AI bread board - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Ammo controller - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo customizer 1 module - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo customizer 2 modules - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo customizer 4 modules - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Ammo ejector - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Ammo ejector backwards - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Camera 90 - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Control terminal - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 5.
Frequency doubler - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 6.
Gauge increase corner - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 6.
Heat decoy - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Interface screen - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Invisible gantries - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
LAMS node - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Large crank motor - Changed - Attaches on 4 from 6.
Large radiator - Changed - Attaches on 6 sides from 5.
Large rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Large rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Laser - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Laser cutter - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Laser destabiliser - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 6.
Medium crank motor - Changed - Attaches on 3 from 6.
Medium rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Medium rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Medium transmission - Changed - Attaches on 3 faces.
Moving light - Changed - 5 sides from 6.
Neon Light - Changed - 5 sides from 6.
Non - AI breadboard - Changed - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Particle tube corner - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 6.
Particle tube terminator - Attaches on 1 side from 6.
Radar decoy - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Radiator - Changed - Attaches on 6 sides from 5.
Railgun charger - Changed - Attaches on 2 sides from 6.
Sail Main Block(Square Rig!) - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 3.
Signpost - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 1. I don't think this would do any harm.
Signpost (long) - Changed- Attaches on 4 sides from 1. I don't think this would do any harm.
Single input cavity - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 6.
Small crank motor - Changed - Attaches on 3 from 6.
Small rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small single rail gantry - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small single rail launcher - Changed - Attaches on 3 sides from 6.
Small steam controller - Changed - Attaches on 1 face.
Switch - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
Text screen - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.
The following connection changes are based on community feedback and a review of that. Sail Main Block - Changed - Attaches on 4 sides from 3.
Warp charger (2m) - Changed - Attaches on 6 from 2.
Wireless camera - Changed - Attaches on 5 sides from 1.

Decoration

Changed ammo processor prop cost from 300 to 3. Collectors are up in arms at the devaluation

Defenses

Munition warners, laser warners, smoke dispensers and signal jammers now aren't AI components and do not need a mainframe connection

Laser

If a laser has an output regulator its sliders are at the top of the stats tab
Laser cavities and transceivers use the multipurpose laser's tooltip
Laser optics use their combiner's Q menu stats UI
Laser parts use their multipurpose laser's Q menu stats UI
Multipurpose laser block got a stats UI, accessible from the Q menu

Missile

Harpoon cable thickness scales with missile size
Signal processors now reduce decoy strength to 4-40% for all sizes
Summary: decoys are better for smaller designs, multiple smaller decoys are stronger and missiles without processors are more usable
Target simulator and flare base strength reduced from 2500 to 1600
Target simulator and flare strength scales with surface, instead of volume. Means S decoys are 2x as strong as before, L 1/2
Target simulators add 1/10 of their signal strength to the missile's passive detection range (sonar only underwater, IR/radar only above)

Prefabs

Added new simple prefabs where appropriate. Removed some fuel engine examples.
Removed hull prefabs from the build menu as we plan to change how this works.

Steam

Added ACB control for steam valves

Tooltip

Repair tentacle tooltip now no longer mentions player skills.

Fixes

AI

[BUGS-2789] Added control module descriptions and fixed out of date tooltips for the manoeuvre hover routine

APS

Fixed some setups of turreted 0 gunpowder railguns firing twice in 1 frame under AI control

Decoration

Changed position of the fuel processor prop. It was overlapping crystal trays.

Gridcasts

Fixed another old Gridcast problem, mostly noticeable when lasers jump through the firing construct's own blocks without damaging them

Multiplayer

Fill operations in multiplayer depended on the orientation of the host camera, not the client trying to do the fill. Fixed now.

Steam

Fixed a pressure loss problem in closed-loop systems
Fixed some valve setups not properly discovering the full pipe network
Improved stat over time accuracy

[ 2020-12-07 11:06:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Steam Awards 2020, Dont Forget To Vote!!

Hey Depthians! It has been a long road developing From The Depths which has recently come out of Early Access, however that does not mean that we will slow down in releasing new features and other tweaks! From The Depths would have not been able to reach this point without all your support throughout Early Access, and we would love to see your support once more. Help us achieve the "Labor of Love" award by smashing that little circle above! Thanks as always for your support from all of us at Brilliant Skies.

[ 2020-11-26 15:59:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merchandise Store and From The Depths trading cards

What is up Depthians! Just a quick FYI, we now have From The Depths trading cards on Steam and we have also launched our merchandise page >HERE<, for you to add some goodies to your Christmas wishlist. We hope you like the selection of items, and if you have any suggestions in terms of merch dont hesitate to let us know!
I cant wait to get my hands on that epic desk mat and a cosie hoody for the cold Christmas thats on the way xD Must not forget about nutmeg in a new mug too

[ 2020-11-21 21:46:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

STABLE + BETA 3.1.1

Hey Depthians! Some tweaks and changes to the block connection surfaces and a new block type connection strut, which comes in alloy, metal, wood and heavy armour. This will allow you to connect parts like the long side of an exhaust to the hull of your construct as well as many other blocks. We have also added a wing variant of the strut block, which also make use of - / + force like other wing parts and at the same time resolved some issues with surface drag.

Changelog.

Additions

BLOCKS

Added an optional (off by default) visual effect for the docking station

Changes

AVATAR

Rambot avatar texture update

BLOCKS

Added a second connection surface for AI wireless receivers
Inline turbochargers now connect directly onto carbs
Simple laser has a connection surface UP now (as well as DOWN)
The large chain now has connection surfaces on the left and right side

CONNECTIONS

Protection of old blocks is no longer applied to blocks that connect on all six sides anyway- this reduces the file size of the blueprint

[ 2020-11-20 12:52:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable + Beta 3.1

What is up Depthians! What is this new disconnection check? I hear you scream As some of you know, some blocks can only be attached by a specific side and some of the other sides you may not be able to build on/attach blocks to(red squares). We have enforced this rule with this update as we could bypass this rule by shift+click to replace a block which initially would not be able to be put in that specific location. Lets take this exhaust as an example
As you can see it is only connected on the T junction and the corner. It is not attached to any of the light-alloy blocks of the construct, therefore if I delete or if the T junction gets destroyed the rest of the exhaust system will fall off. However! Do not worry about your current blueprints already saved block placement as they will not be affected and you will see a tooltip saying that the block you are looking at is protected. Only newly placed blocks will be affected as the rule and block connection logic is enforced. Its a common-sense thing should a floating block be able to connect to something like this exhaust? Not unless it has a face that can be attached to something like the corner exhaust.

You can also disable the protection on your current saves by hitting V on the construct
You may see a few blocks falling off your construct if they were placed incorrectly by using shift+click to replace. For example, this receiver and munition detector will fall off.

Changelog

Additions

Blocks

Added a 3m sign post and increased the display capacity of the normal sign post

Build mode

Area and block group erase now work with mirror
Attempting to replace a block when the new block cannot be placed now has no effect. It used to delete the old block without placing a new one.
Block group erase can now also delete a chunk of blocks of the same type if the selected block is not part of a multi-block system
Option to show build marker coordinates on HUD

Undo/Redo

Undo/redo now works in multiplayer. Every player building on the same construct share one undo/redo list. Only the author of an action can undo/redo it.

Changes

Blocks

[FTD-586] Blocks from old blueprints are spared from the strict disconnection check
[FTD-586] Changed placeable faces of ACB, ship wheel, fire control computer, drone spawner, blueprint spawner, docking station, repair bot, respawn beacon, gauge block, AI wireless receiver, Lua box, stair, door, and a few other blocks.
[FTD-586] Replace, repair, and disconnection check now respect placeable faces of the blocks

Fortress

In-play movement speed of a Fortress under AI / player control increased to 3m/s (from 1m/s)

Harpoons

Improved the rendering of missile harpoons so you can now see a sensibly thick cable rather than a constant thickness black line

Missile

Large 2x2 hatch texture replaced

Physics

'Autosynch transforms' flag has been turned off in the Unity physics engine which should improve performance particularly for vehicles that are very close together, without affecting the simulation much

Fixes

AI

Fortress manoeuvre routine will no longer try to move a fortress if it is within 3m of its waypoint, this is for performance reasons (moving large fortresses can be quite computationally expensive)

CJE

Custom jets with both thrust and energy/power output do not use more materials than intended

Drones

Docked motherships and drones will no longer activate their colliders immediately after spawning, they now correctly identify that they are connected by a tractor beam and don't need colliders.

LWC

Fixed a threading problem possibly causing different priority LWCs/AMCCs controlling the same turret making it twitch and not fire

Missile

Harpoon cable width scales width is reduced further from the camera

Performance

Air pumps calculation didn't stop when vehicle is frozen. Now fixed.

Steam

Fixed a problem causing steam propellers to be considered higher than intended relative to the water level
Fixed transmissions possibly changing direction instantly when getting a sequence of 0-opposite direction rotation requests

[ 2020-11-19 17:33:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.0.9

Hey Depthians! Another round of fixes and tweaks!

Changelog

Additions

Adventure

Changed the warp gate visual effect

Autosave

Added a lot of customisation for the blueprint autosave feature (in the misc tab of the options menu)

Build Mode

Area and block group erase now work with mirror
Block group erase can now also delete a chunk of blocks of the same type if the selected block is not part of a multi-block system
Option to show build marker coordinates on HUD

Performance

It is now possible to automatically regulate the number of particles
Multi-threaded the missile guidance, seeking and water level checking code
Multi-threaded the munition warning code
Removed many sources of excess 'garbage' creation (FTD should perform garbage collection less often (pause less often during play))

Steam

L pistons got a second output port on the opposite side of the input, arrows not show port directions. L pistons renamed to Large serial pistons.
L turbines added: generators 5x5x1, bodies 5x5x2, maximum throughput 30K steam/s. Efficiency stats match M turbines with the same blade count
New L piston variant: parallel piston. Has an input-output pair on both sides, parallel pistons placed next to each other share their in- and outputs
S and M pistons now have arrows marking their in- and outputs

Undo/Redo

Undo/redo now works in multiplayer. Every player building on the same construct share one undo/redo list. Only the author of an action can undo/redo it.

Changes

APS

APS shell splash size reduced
Muzzle flash size reduced to ~80%
The time it takes for barrels to reach full length after firing is capped at 0.5s

CIWS

Fixed a low prio LWC and a high prio AMCC controlling the same weapon interfering with each other
Fixed LWC causing AMCC controlling the same weapon to ignore maximum range restriction

Laser

Laser cutter armor up from 10 to 40
Laser cutters now damage CRAM shells

Missile

Ballast tank now has the same free volume 1-turn does (so torpedos have a lower 'mandatory' part count)
Interceptor damage slightly up (~7.6% for S, ~11% for M)
Torpedo sonar and torpedo propeller health up to 50% of a reinforced body. A slight boost for torpedos since they can't use bodies well and are easy to fish for with CIWS

Steam

Boilers can connect directly to pistons
Boilers can connect directly to turbines
Crank motor braking force doubled
L crankshaft, wheel, transmission and axis shift armour up from 20 to 40
L gearbox armour up from 20 to 40, health from 1200 to 2000
L piston and crank generator armour up from 20 to 30
Transmissions and propellers can connect directly to cranks and axis shift gears
Turbine body costs up from 10 to 20 mat/volume. Means long turbines are ~10% more expensive for 10 minutes (not counting battle damage)

Fixes

APS

Fixed an issue with cooling not being fully utilized at very high rates of fire

Pathfinding

Sea/land surface pathfinding and collision avoidance bug fixes and optimisations

Steam

The crank generator adds and displays the correct flat kinetic loss
Turbines do not keep the last minor fractions of the kinetic energy almost indefinitely

Removed

UI

Removed the 'more'/'less' complexity toggle from the inventory as the feedback has always suggested it's doing more harm than good

[ 2020-11-17 16:22:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.0.8

Hey Depthians! More bug fixing and minor changes.

Changelog

Additions

Autosave

Added an auto-save feature that runs in designer and multi-player designer. This will save many time-tagged versions of your vehicle.

Steam

S and M pistons now have arrows marking their in- and outputs

Changes

Special effects

Better muzzle flash for the simple weapons

UI

Adjusted the UI so that tables are generally displayed with equally spaced columns
Tweaked the names of some missile components to be more consistent with their use of capitalization, and a bit shorter

Fixes

Adventure

Fixed a UI bug if you move beyond the usual limits of the Neter map in adventure mode

APS

Fixed an issue with cooling not being fully utilized at very high rates of fire

Campaign

Fixed various situations where the campaign AI would break if a fleet died at the wrong moment

Missiles

The 'thrust before locking' parameter is now saved/loaded correctly in missile's blueprints [BUGS-2583]

Multiplayer

Board section capture progress now properly loads in a multiplayer campaign
The performance of the player in previous battles now correctly loads in a multiplayer campaign (helps to tune the difficulty)

Steam

Crank generator adds and displays the correct flat kinetic loss
Turbines do not keep the last minor fractions of the kinetic energy almost indefinitely

[ 2020-11-11 22:25:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.0.7

Hey Depthians!! Another sweet round of changes and fixes.

Changelog

Addition

STEAM

New setting for gearboxes: RPM limit
New setting for steam valves: close on breach. When enabled they shut down if either of their sides has a non-vent steam exhaust

Change

MAP

UI markers showing how to capture/defend territory is now only shown when a fleet is selected

MISSILES

Missile trails are less colourful and more realistic

STEAM

Crank generator RPM-based kinetic loss reduced to 1/3. The crank generator gets a flat kinetic loss, crank wheel RPM-based kinetic loss increased. At low speeds, multiple generators do not increase e
Gearbox flat kinetic loss reduced to half. Lower piston count engines are slightly better
Large turbine kinetic loss down by 10%, small turbine loss up by 20%. Minor output change mostly affecting long turbines, large ones get a slightly bigger boost to compensate for being harder to fit
Steam jet maximum thrust up to 10000, maximum steam use to 5000/s, cost to 1000
Transmission motors renamed to crank motors

WEAPONS

The material-limitation preventing to fire when theres not enough material/energy is now preventing to reload for APS, CRAM, missile and simple weapons (they can now fire despite the limitation if they are already reloaded)

Fix

ADVENTURE

There is a limit on the maximum volume of enemy units that will spawn simultaneously in adventure mode.

BLOCKS

Engine crankshaft block can now be placed either way around
Its now a bit easier to see which way around the electric engine should be placed

BLUEPRINTS

Fixed a very uncommon issue causing some old blueprints not to load

BUILDING

The markers showing connection points no longer disappear when you zoom all the way in

SPECIAL EFFECTS

The smoke generator will not switch to fire mode anymore when using Shift+P or being repaired [BUGS-2720]

STEAM

Fixed an inaccuracy causing multiple boilers attached to the same pipe section outputting more than 1000 steam for 1 material burned
Fixed blocked steam propellers not getting their efficiency reduced accordingly
Fixed gearbox max power display jumping around under variable load (calculation now runs on the same thread as power generation)
Fixed some vent and valve setups causing steam usage to go down
Fixed transmission outputs having a flat kinetic loss on top of the one scaling by their speed
Propellers and transmissions only connect to matching sized cranks
Steam jets can now connect anywhere pipes can
The piston sounds of the steam engine are now at the correct Hz
Valves now correctly show and track their output when they are connected to plain pipes with exhausts

[ 2020-11-09 18:46:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Borderwise Streaming

Join Borderwise as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BorderWise12

[ 2020-11-09 10:01:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Borderwise Streaming

Join Borderwise as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BorderWise12

[ 2020-11-09 07:00:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ohm is Futile Streaming

Join Ohm is Futile as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjzJXurqJJWQB9fNll2W_w

[ 2020-11-09 00:37:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Oscillanders Streaming

Join Oscillanders as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb_foSUKU8k0aOupI7VHRBA

[ 2020-11-08 22:00:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ohm is Futile Streaming

Join Ohm is Futile as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjzJXurqJJWQB9fNll2W_w

[ 2020-11-08 00:01:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Borderwise Streaming

Join Borderwise as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BorderWise12

[ 2020-11-07 18:00:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.0.6

Hey Depthians! A quick little update to Stable.

Changelogs

Change

GAME

Our UI icons are now loaded asynchronously which should speed up booting times

LASER TRANSCEIVER

It is now possible to have the laser transceiver beams going through stacked turrets without intermediate laser transceivers. The turrets/spinblocks/pistons must be perfectly stacked (same up, and centred)

PROPULSION

Control surfaces now only block propulsion perpendicular to it.

SOUNDS

The doppler effect has been removed from the sound of the steam engine as it sounded odd to be speeding up the RPM of the engine like that

STEAM

Fixed blocked steam propellers not getting their efficiency reduced accordingly
Fixed transmission outputs having a flat kinetic loss on top of the one scaling by their speed

[ 2020-11-07 15:58:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

From The Depths has Left Early Access!!

Hi everyone. Nick here, the lead developer of From the Depths. I am writing this on the day of FTDs exit from early access. This is a special moment for me (made only slightly less special by working 20-hour days and being slightly deranged with exhaustion). FTD has been in development for 8 years. It started out as (to cut a long story short) a one man indie dev project but to call it that now is entirely inappropriate given the monumental amount of work put into the game by the team, community contributors and the community themselves. Id like to give special thanks to my team. Jeff Madole (Majyst) who has been looking after the games planet/faction content for years now, which is a monumental job made even harder by the frequent rebalancing of the game and introduction of numerous new mechanics. Draba (Jnos Blask) whose dedication to getting the game mechanics balanced and streamlined has been indefatigable even in the face of the frequent pushback that changes inevitably create. Without these two the game would be nowhere near as enjoyable and polished as it is today. Many thanks also to Joris Wingelaar (HerpeDerpeDerp) who has spent the last year at the coal face of strategic AI (and many other things) and produced a campaign that is significantly more interesting to play. Huge thanks to Arnaud Lewden (Gladyon) who has been coding on FTD for many years now and contributed an enormous amount to so many different areas. Thanks to Haoyu Weng (WengH) for putting in the undo-redo mechanic for building, amongst many other epic things. Further thanks to my business manager Sean Darling (Beastman) and community manager Jonathan Bacon (BaconsTV) who have allowed me to focus on what I love to do best, which is coding. You both work tirelessly to bring the community feedback to the team (whatever the timezone). Its fantastic to know I can rely on you guys to keep things going smoothly. Thanks to Peter (Khaz) for creating the visual aesthetic of the game and doing a bunch of coding as well. Peter worked for years alongside Jeff and me and together we brought the game a long way forward. Thanks to Mattia Pizzaia (Mangmod) for all his work on the trailer, UI buttons, sounds, artwork and many other things. Thanks to Rhea for your modelling contributions, and Joan Palacios (Strivvy) for yours, and thanks to the more recent members of the art team as well such as Mira Dzhantova for the new box art branding and trading cards and Claire Monoghan (Claire) for new block models and textures. Thanks to Ben Reeve (BlueNexus) for his work getting the game localised ready for translation. This was a monumental job. Thanks to Charlotte Nguyen (Hikari), Scarlet Devil and Karim Ben Ghorbal (Karbengo) for your significant contributions to the games content and community management. Thanks to Mike Haynes (ABYAY) for coming to Scotland and working on the content, the tutorials, the build guides and much more. Thanks to Lukaz Guzman for Rambot character art and loads of the original models and textures. Thanks to the dozens of translators working on getting our translations of the game ready. Thanks to Tor Johan (OwO) for testing. Thanks to everyone Ive forgotten (Im sure Ill remember once I get some sleep). Thanks to our moderators, wiki editors, bug reporters, feature suggesters, donators and players. Special thanks to our dozens (hundreds?) of Keepers of the Lore (KOTL) for helping our content team create the blueprints of the factions Neter, AOTE and Glao. And thanks to all the youtubers and streamers who have adopted FTD and stuck with it. Without you the game would not have reached the audience it and development would have run out of funding a long time ago. Thanks to my wife, Laura, for putting up with this . So with the important part done Id like to talk about what FTD means to me. Its become my life now. When I started the project, I had hardly any coding experience, no 3D modelling or texturing experience, no unity experience, no UI experience (shocking, right?) and had never run a business. With the support of you all Ive been able to make game development my life and am now recognised officially, in many player reviews as one of the worst UI coders in the world". It has been a really great experience working with such talented people and making a product so many people are passionate about. I know FTD is very special to a lot of you as well and seeing you all enjoying it so much has been the driving force for me for this whole time. So what does leaving early access mean for us. I know a lot of you are celebrating this achievement with us, but I know a lot of you are worried for one reason or another. Dont be. Leaving early access just means that I think that weve got a sufficient breadth of features that are now in a stable state. This means I am proud to put it on general sale, rather than a limited sale to enthusiastic early accessors. This absolutely isnt the end of development for us, it just means that our existing engines, weapons, armour, game modes, etc are now pretty much in place and wont be changing every month. So for people coming back to FTD to see what the release version looks like here are some highlights for you depending on how long youve been gone there will be too many to mention... Universal Production Music UK have provided us with an epic sound track of 90 songs that you can listen to in game. You can now add camouflage textures to your alloy, metal, heavy armour and wing materials You can get back into the game more easily with voice acted build guides and interactive tutorials, and new manual pages Youll find a new and improved steam engine system to play with. Thats fresh out today. The campaigns 8 enemy nations have improved strategic AI making the campaign more interesting to play The story mission arcs have been recreated and contain an interesting story for DWG, and some fun combat for Steel Striders The multiplayer is now much more stable, and you can play adventure mode multiplayer now (as well as campaign co-op and many standalone multiplayer maps) Achievements and leaderboards have been added Visuals for jets, ion thrusters, torpedos and missiles have been refined. To those of you coming to FTD for the first time, I really look forward to meeting you on the Steam discussion forums, the Reddit or the official FTD Discord. I hope you all enjoy the release, and thanks again for all your support over the years. Nick Smart, Lead developer and Director Brilliant Skies And here's a wonderful video Jon put together for the release https://youtu.be/QLfN7F91O6o

[ 2020-11-07 12:11:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ohm is Futile Streaming

Join Ohm is Futile as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjzJXurqJJWQB9fNll2W_w

[ 2020-11-07 00:01:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 3.0.5.6 Steamy Update

The final version of steam engines is finally here! So lets go over the changes! The difference between main power sources

Fuel engines: versatile and the components are very cheap. If they arent consistently used at their maximum output they will cool down, and their efficiency will be above whats shown on the stat screens. Good for backups and craft with erratic power usage.
Custom jet generators: efficient, but the components are very expensive to buy and have strict placement rules if you want to use their full potential. Very attractive if you already have a working jet engine, and just have to pay for the generator and some extra combusters/compressors. Cost-inefficient if they are consistently taking damage.
Steam engines: very cheap components and they are much more compact than fuel engines with the same efficiency. No placement restrictions, but their efficiency drops sharply when they arent running at their maximum output. Good as the main power source of craft with consistent power usage.

Important QoL changes

All components save the steam and kinetic energy they have when the craft is saved or pulled from play. On loading, everything is instantly restored to that point
Boilers do not burn materials when they reached maximum pressure now, out of play resource usage is similar to the in-play one
Crankshafts and multipurpose shafts are not separate anymore. If its a rod and it rotates it can connect to axis shift gears, propellers and drills.
Reduction gears do not need to be and cant be stacked anymore. They were renamed to transmissions, see their pros and cons below
The changes above hopefully emphasize the different pros/cons of steam and take away the focus from some usability problems

Pressure differential, kinetic energy

Pistons and turbines have a fixed maximum steam throughput. How much steam can actually pass through them depends on the difference between input and output pressure (output pressure for turbines is 0)
Pistons convert 40% of the steam passing through them to kinetic energy on the crankshaft, pass the remainder to their output
Small turbines get 2 turbine blades for each body, large ones 1 blade for each body. How much steam they convert to kinetic energy depends on the input pressure, divided by the blade count. Lower pressure drop/blade = higher efficiency
Piston and turbine output scales with the kinetic energy of the crankshaft or the turbines rotating assembly

kinetics loss

Crankshafts and turbines both slowly lose a portion of their kinetic energy over time. This loss is proportional to rotation speed (so more significant at lower outputs), could be thought of as a combination of friction/inefficiency from lubricants gunking up at lower temperatures
Each gearbox, crank, piston, crank generator, flywheel and turbine blade increases maximum kinetic energy loss
At maximum output, this loss is low enough for steam to handily beat fuel engines, but gets more significant when power needed drops. You can combat it by shutting off by cutting steam from the rotating components, but youll still lose their stored kinetic energy over time and have to respin them when they are needed

Reusing steam from pistons

Single-stage pistons and turbines now have decent stats, very high power density but low efficiency (still much higher efficiency than before)
Feeding the piston outputs into another set of pistons or turbines adds another processing step and increases efficiency. Also reduces the pressure difference in the pistons whose output is reused, so total volume-efficiency goes down
When you resuse piston steam you also add parts increasing kinetic loss, so how many steps are worth it depends on you crank size, layout and use-case. More stages mean noticeably higher kinetic loss: total output ratios
This means your choice is between a dense+inefficient engine, or efficient+high volume one. The dense engine also has lower total mass and a lower portion of its output is kinetic loss, so tolerates changing demand better.

Crank sizes

Small crank lines are the most power-dense, all efficiency-improvements are dropped in favour of being compact so they also have the highest relative kinetic loss
Medium cranks have similar raw output to small ones, but their relative kinetic loss is much lower.
They are slightly less dense and more efficient and lose less at lower output. Also, have higher relative crank mass so their response times are slower
Huge cranks are very efficient and have a low relative kinetic loss. Volume-efficiency is slightly lower but still very good to compensate for the awkward form-factor

Shape and volume considerations

Each individual piston and crank adds the same base kinetic loss, so sharing cranks between multiple pistons means that loss is slightly lower relative to the total output. Can also make the crank lines harder to place, especially for large-huge pistons
Turbines can be very conveniently fit anywhere, so their base stats are slightly lower than something like 12 huge pistons sharing 4 cranks

Propellers and transmissions

Transmissions are single blocks that can take a fixed amount of kinetic energy/s from their input shaft and add it to their output. Their output shaft has a minor kinetic loss
Transmission braking takes away kinetic energy at the same rate, wastes the kinetic energy taken from the output shaft
Steam propeller thrust scales with their rotation speed
Steam propellers can now be used directly on the crankshaft, reducing volume and removing the minor kinetic loss. Also means their rotation speed cant be directly controlled
Transmissions max output: input shaft rotation speed ratio can be set on the transmission. Twice the output rotation speed for propellers means twice the thrust, but also 4 times the kinetic energy stored (responds slower and wastes more energy when braking)

The previous system had very narrow and specific rules, had to break some of the designs using engines made under those rules to open steam up and add some variety. We are sorry about that, but it had to be done to make the game better in the long run. With the release and steam being done the big breaking changes and reworks are out of the way.

[ 2020-11-06 17:33:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Borderwise Streaming

Join Borderwise as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BorderWise12

[ 2020-11-06 07:00:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ohm is Futile Streaming

Join Ohm is Futile as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjzJXurqJJWQB9fNll2W_w

[ 2020-11-06 00:02:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Borderwise Streaming

Join Borderwise as he plays From the Depths! You can find his main channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BorderWise12

[ 2020-11-05 18:52:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable update 3.0.2 A bug fixing round.

Hey Depthians! A quick bug fixing round, sorry no new toys :'( but plenty of multiplayer fixes.

Changelog

Addition

CAMPAIGN

Added in little UI tips showing your creator types, cargo types, and some hopefully useful resource warnings
Strategic AI will scuttle vehicles that havent done anything useful in a while

Change

CAMPAIGN

Changed how the fleets are assessed for usage in fights to make the AI more likely to engage large groups of enemies
Changed how the strategic AI chooses what to build to favour important tasks more
Improved performance for strategic AI pathfinding
Strategic AI pathfinding tweaks

UI

Character sheet UI updated

VISUALS

Changed the jet, CJE, propeller, ion thruster, torpedo and missile visual effects

Fix

AVATAR

Fixed the minigun textures and tidied up minigun code a bit

CAMPAIGN

Fixed issues with AI fleets that consist of both flying and not flying vehicles. AI will now correctly use Sals fleet
Lots of bug fixes that I cant remember
The AI no longer places extra unnecessary resource harvesters next to HQs
The AI will no longer create multiple jobs to capture the same board sections simultaneously
Various strategic AI fixes

CJE

[BUGS-2696] the fuel usage out of play for movement using CJEs now properly considers how much of each CJE was being used for the generator.

LUA

Main drive will now properly be set to 0 when calling RequestControl with the MainPropulsion type and value 0

MAP

You can no longer see the waypoints of enemy teams

MULTIPLAYER

Corrections made to the out of play repairs for both standard block damage and the extra damage AI fleets receive in offscreen combat with each other
Fixed the synch of avatar weapons when one of the players has a mod installed- it used to knock the items out of order and cause mayhem.
Fleet positions are now calculated on the server and synched to the clients as and when necessary
Force deletions on the server are now more reliably executed on the clients
Misc improvements to the multiplayer lobby and some issues removed
Player team units following waypoints will now let the server decide when a waypoint has been reached, and that is synched to the clients
The Blueprint Spawner block now functions fully in multiplayer
The strategic AI state in a multiplayer campaign save is now correctly loaded and applied on the server, rather than creating a fresh state each time
Various important multiplayer synch fixes and bug fixes

PREFAB

Hover Frame prefab changed and fixed.

SHARD CANNON

Shard cannon no longer destroys itself.

TRANSITION BLOCKS

Hard edge fixed on some models. Should stop the wavy effect seen sometimes.

WINGS

Fixed the display of the centre of lift. It now displays the centre of lifts any/all of the 6 directions, as applicable.

Removed

AVATAR

The telekinesis torque player item has been removed

[ 2020-11-04 11:34:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Steam experimental build in Beta Test!

Hey Depthians! We are releasing an experimental build to beta test which will have the steam overhaul. We will publish the change logs soon.

[ 2020-11-01 13:11:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

STABLE 3.0.1 CAMO AND CJE POWER!

Hey Depthians! We know most of you have been waiting eagerly for the Camo and CJE power/energy generation, and we thank you as always for your patience and support! This update also has a number of voice-overs for our tutorials with more coming soon! A load of music and you can now play adventure with your mates in multiplayer! I wish I had friends now :'( You may be thinking why are those CJEs not in the usual orientation facing the front with the exhaust towards the back, and this is because they now have another function and that is generating power or energy.

By no means are these two made optimally, thats for you all to figure out :p but they do generate a decent amount of power or energy for their size and fuel consumption. Hoping to see some optimal builds from you, good peeps! I guess I should wrap this up with some more epic news and that is the ability to skin our constructs and not the White Flayer way. The first screenshot is showing my Green Hornet, its hull colour slot 21 and the cockpit paint slot is 2. Its looking quite dull right?
But what about now?
In this instance, I did not want the cockpit colour which is slot 2 to have any camo texture so I turned that off by right-clicking on the paint slot 2 Enable camouflage for this colour to off. I also turned off any paint colour in slot 21, which allows me to increase or decrease the alpha of the camo texture. Had I left apply paint over the top of the camo layer, the alpha would increase or decrease the actual colour set on slot 21, so if you are unable to see the camo while you have the paint active I would suggest decreasing the paint alpha until the camo is visible. You can access the skinning section by pressing V on your construct and Camouflage textures tab, and choose which material should take the camo skin. Even wing parts can be skinned!!

Changelog

Addition

CAMO

Added a camouflage texture skin system for adding skins to alloy, metal, heavy armour and wing blocks on the vehicle. Press V to engage with it.
Added non-PBR support for camo textures
Vehicle colour palettes now include an option for each colour to disable/enable the rendering of the new camo textures on blocks painted that colour
You can also decide whether you want the paint on top of, or below, the camo

CUSTOM JET GENERATOR

ACB commands added for switching between jet generator output modes (power/energy), and for changing the maximum thrust reserved
Generator reserves a fraction of the custom jets maximum thrust and generates up to THRUST_RESERVED * 0.05 power or energy/second
Generators are 3x3x1 and 1x1x1 parts fitting the main blocks line, costs are 100 and 20 materials
New block for both custom jet sizes: generator

MULTIPLAYER

Adventure mode can now be played multiplayer

TUTORIALS

Added a voice over for the APHE cram tutorial
Added a voice over for the APS build guide
Added a voice over for the Carb engine tutorial
Added a voice over for the Injector engine tutorial
Added a voice over for the laser build guide
Added a voice over for the resource management tutorial
Added a voice over for the strategic control tutorial
Added a voice over for the Vertical Launch missile tutorial

Change

CIWS

Anti missile cannons can now target and damage CRAM shells. Max diameter slider up from 1000 to 2000mm

[ 2020-10-29 19:36:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta Test 3.0.0!

Beta test is now 3.0.0!!

Changelog

Addition

TUTORIALS

Building tutorials are now better at figuring out whether a placement is functionally equivalent to the recommended placement and allowing it
The rotation instructions in the building tutorials have been tweaked to be a bit more clear
The tactical control tutorial now has a voice over

Change

MANUALS

Many updates and tweaks to the in-game manuals and how they are displayed
The manuals are more usefully integrated into the inventory now

STRATEGIC AI

Strategic AI now uses a finer pathfinding grid- all custom campaigns must recalculate the grid in the garrison tab of the map editor

Fix

ACHIEVEMENTS

Fixed the achievement for declaring war on an ally
Fixed the Oynx watch HQ achievement for QfN

AI

The empty manoeuvre routine no longer bothers to check for out of control state

CAMPAIGN

AI scuttling rules for distance now only take effect if the unit is moving away from all of your units at least 5 m/s
Capturing a board section now takes 10 minutes (1 minute at x10 speed), this gives the AI more time to respond.

DUCTS

Set EMP susceptibility and resistivity values to match parent blocks.

MULTIPLAYER

A number of adventure mode (beta_test only) issues fixed that resulted in clients not spawning properly or receiving incorrect data
Fixed an AI exception on clients in multiplayer
Players who are not in an adventure mode (beta_test only) session have their previously saved positions wiped (when saving) so they dont end up spawning in the middle of no-where should they join a future session

[ 2020-10-28 09:50:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.9.9 Achievements and the usual fixes :)

Hey Depthians! A quick sneaky update and a new addition...Achievements xD

Changelog

Addition

ACHIEVEMENTS

Added a stats and achievement viewer, accessed from the main menu single player tab
Added achievements (32 of them) for defeating faction HQs in Quest for Neter on various difficulties.
Added an achievement for building up 1 million explosive combo damage (in campaign/adventure/missions of built-in planets with standard game constants)
Added an achievement for doing high damage per second in a campaign battle
Added an achievement for getting a unit with maximum radar range in campaign
Added an achievement for getting into a 3-way battle in campaign
Added an achievement for going 150m/s under 500m in designer, in your own vehicle
Added an achievement for killing 20 planes in the campaign, story mission or adventure mode (in built-in planets with standard game constants)
Added an achievement for RTG usage
Added an achievement for Scarlet Dawn kills in campaign and adventure
Added an achievement for shooting down 1000 missiles in built-in campaigns/missions/adventures with standard physics
Added an achievement for winning a battle in the campaign where you bring approximately an x10 smaller force and defeat the enemy with approximately 60% of your force intact
Added in achievement for saving a huge sub-object (i.e turret)
Added in two achievements for creating and gifting commodities in campaigns
Added in two achievements for killing large and small godlies in (fixed difficulty) campaigns/missions/adventures in built-in planets

Change

LUA

Lua missile transceiver cost to 100 (from 2000). Lua missiles are now affected by ECM unless they have an intact cable connection

UI

Updated the enemy spawning UI for designer

CAMPAIGN

Damage difficulty for all preset difficulties is now 1 (easy was 0.4, hard was 2, godly was 4). You can still edit this slider in custom if you want.
In the campaign, the kill to death ratio used to adjust difficulty is now only calculated for blocks destroyed on a vehicle with >85% health. This should get a better estimate as below 85% health the fate of most vehicles is sealed.

CIWS

CIWS damage multiplier down from 2.5x to 2x
Flak damage up from 50% of HE to 85% of HE. Increased armour effectiveness bonuses against flak and the customizer tooltip now shows that flak is weak against armour
Kinetic projectiles now do not check the angle of impact against missiles and CRAM shells. Damage is noticeably higher/more consistent, performance increased

DAMAGE

Frag AP up from 3 to 4. The buff paired with ricochet changes was not enough to keep frag close to HE damage
HE mechanics adjusted so it does less damage with lower variance, and smaller HE is comparatively better. Geometry is more important(hits on flat walls relatively weaker, in tight places stronger)
HE scaling adjusted to make huge explosions slightly stronger
Missile impact damage done for each m/s speed up by ~11%

LASERS

Base AP without frequency doublers up from 20/30 to 40/60 AP (pulsed/continuous)
Frequency doublers give 1 AP if there are 100/150 pumps in the system, down from 180/270
Laser cavity capacities down to 5/6 the previous value
Non-armoured optic variants have 300 health and 60 armour, up from 250/40
Pumps convert 30 power into 24 cavity energy/second, down from 30
Short-range combiner armour up from 50 to 60

LEADERBOARDS

All old leaderboards wiped
Leaderboard UIs updated and added, where applicable, to the debrief screen and mission launch screen
Missions and campaigns with leaderboards will now frequently check to see your game configuration constants are standard and offer you the choice to reset them or opt-out of the leaderboard
New leaderboards added for all DWG and SS missions. Quest for Neter retains its four leaderboards

MISSIONS

Mission allied units are now all configured so they spawn full of material but you cannot resupply from them, build on them, scrap them or retrofit them. This is an optional setting, should custom campaigns need different settings for allies.

NETER

Fixes to board section capture locations, many of which were erroneously on land, sorry about this

SCUPPERING

The old fleeing check that would kill a unit that was deemed to be running from battle has been removed, now that the out of control check is in for problematic faction vehicles.
You are alerted when you AI thinks it is out of control

Fix

MISSIONS

The system that migrates your selected custom vehicle from one mission to the next (where appropriate) has been fixed

YOUTUBE

Fixed a bug where the youtube plugin would spam error messages. All old error messages will now be deleted

[ 2020-10-26 00:54:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.9.6 Hotfix

Hey Depthians! A small update mainly to address faction HQs being destroyed.

Changelog

Addition

CAMPAIGN

In the tactical map view, you can now visualise faction vs faction battles, and enemy unit health bars are shown on the map

MISSILES

Single rail launchers can drop their missiles as bombs (30 m/s initial speed, 90 elevation). Option for that is in the launchers Q menu

SMOKE

When show dispensers display their tooltip they also show a visualisation of the sphere their smoke will affect

Change

APS

Flak radius multiplier up from 3 to 4x (combined with previous damage boost its much higher than before)

CAMPAIGN

Faction vs faction battles sped up by x10
Medium spawn now only makes WF attack you initially, not WF and LH

LASERS

Base AP without frequency doublers up from 20/30 to 40/60 AP (pulsed/continuous)
Frequency doublers give 1 AP if there are 100/150 pumps in the system, down from 180/270
Pumps convert 30 power into 24 cavity energy/second, down from 30
Short-range combiner armour up from 50 to 60
Work in progress! Combiner and optic models replaced

LOGGER

In-game emailing of a log will now only email the first 3mb of it, to reduce the length of the hang, (and to not fill my outbox/inbox)

PAC

Particle cannon focus increased to 4/3 (so 15 focus now has the same spread 20 had before the change)

PROJECTILES

CIWS damage multiplier down from 4 to 2.5
Health for missiles/CRAMS down to 60%, for APS down to 2/3 the old value
S/M missile interceptor base damage down from 1200/7500 to 650/4500

Fix

CAMPAIGN

Faction vs faction battles had some bugs that resulted in (amongst other things) HQs being destroyed by distant enemies.

[ 2020-10-19 13:45:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.9.5 Stable hotfix

Changelog

Change

Avatar

The rate at which avatar gifts materials is set so that it will never take longer than 20 seconds to fill a vehicle to max

Fix

Regression

'Build guides' were broken, now fixed

[ 2020-10-17 02:07:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.9.4 Stable Hotfix

Hey all :) A quick little hotfix for our 2.9.3 stable release.

Changelog

Addition

UI

Added back in left-hand side HUD the bars representing ammo and fuel allowances of the current vehicle. These can be disabled in the options menu, as they are non-essential.

Fix

FUEL ENGINE

A bug when fuel allowance runs to 0 has been fixed- engines will now slow down as they run out of fuel access.

MULTIPLAYER

Fixed a UI bug in the server screen when a server is using a planet you dont have
In adventure mode the adventures reference frame for the world is updated when you save the adventure, to improve the likelihood of a smooth loading process.

UI

Removed an out-dated reference to Easy campaign using centralised materials (it doesnt)

[ 2020-10-16 12:08:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.9.3 Stable Release

What is up Depthians! We are back with another monstrous update as this one incorporates five beta test builds, so we have a lot to cover. If you want to dive straight into the massive changelog / dissertation Click We should probably start with the biggest change to From The Depths in this update and that is the change of fuel and ammo storage. Quoting Nick, our lead developer [quote = Nick Lead Developer] The change is quite simple: "remove ammo and fuel as separate resources. Weapons will consume materials directly, fuel engines and CJEs will burn materials directly". Before I dig into why I think this is the right thing for FtD, I'd like to explain a few details. Energy, fuel and ammo are still needed for your constructs. We have changed the "ammo barrels (etc)" and "fuel tanks" so they are just alternative material storage containers, but with the following properties: --"ammo barrels" now increase the maximum possible rate of usage of materials as "ammo" for reloading guns. They still explode. --"fuel tanks" increase the maximum possible rate of use of materials as "fuel" for fuel engines and CJEs, with the future stretch goal of fuel tanks being flammable. --So ammo racking is going to remain a feature of the game- vehicles that need to reload a large amount of materials may need additional ammo barrels Ammo and oil processors are replaced ship-wide with existing material storage containers of the same size. They'll be made decorative blocks so you can still use them decoratively in future if you want to. The oil refinery will be repurposed (described later in the patch notes) There are two main reasons why I think this is the right move. Why it's right for the business and why it's right for the player. Let's start with why I think it's right for the player: Ammo and fuel containers are currently purchasable as either "empty or full". This is confusing when considered in the context of the campaign, story missions, custom battles, multiplayer matches...how do empty and full tanks behave in these modes? I'd need an hour to study the code and a small essay to explain it. That's not good game design. Localised resources, when considering just the moving of material (and energy, if you want), becomes infinitely more manageable. The supply group system and the transit fleet system are not intuitive and for a lot of situations, their usage becomes fiddly and too complicated. We've replaced these systems with a new supply system that is much more intuitive for moving materials and energy around. The UI is less cluttered now that ammo and fuel bars are not shown. This is not a minor point...it'll reduce the amount of data on screen by about 40% in a lot of the different views. It'll be so much easier to know at a glance if a particular fleet is running low on "materials" or doing fine. Is a transport ready to leave, or does it need to pick up more materials? Will a set of vehicles have enough materials for the next fight...this is so much easier with just one main resource type per vehicle. When you or an enemy run out of ammo or fuel in a battle it's just frustrating. By combining fuel, ammo and materials for repairing you can guarantee that if someone runs out, the fight is going to be over quickly. I imagine that deep down the majority of players would rather not have to create, stock and resupply fuel and ammo. I know that personally, the requirement to do this puts me off playing the campaign. By using a single material it still focuses the game on making efficient war machines, maintaining supply lines and growing your economy, but without the extra confusion of mat->ammo and mat-> fuel conversion. Being able to assess weapons, engines and vehicles in terms of material cost and running cost is elegant. Most grand strategy games and RTS games don't have localised resources, and many don't have more than 2 resource types to handle. Very few combine localised materials with multiple types. Why it's right for the business: The ammo and oil processors were created about 8 years ago. Boring single blocks that don't add much to the game. It's been our intention to add something similar to the oil refinery but for ammo creation. That's a lot of work and adds to the complexity of the logistical part of the game, which we feel is already a burden. Making the localised resource supply system more user friendly to make it easy/natural/pleasant to move ammo, fuel and material around the map would require a lot of effort and, quite frankly, I'm not sure we'd ever manage it. The complexity of the UI scares off a lot of our customers. The barriers to getting a gun firing or a boat moving will be lowered if a single material container can theoretically get everything working. Running out of ammo/fuel in combat is a problem for our players. We want to find a solution to that, but it would take a lot of effort to do so. We also want the strategic AI to always enter a battle with enough ammo and fuel for the fight- that's another massive bunch of work. The campaign's strategic AI has to work hard to get materials where it wants them. It's a bundle of work and added complexity to get NPC fleets to restock ammo and fuel as well. We had proposed work to make resource dumps (from dead ships) contain ammo and fuel...again, that's more work, more bugs, more testing. Certain game modes such as story missions, tournament mode, and multiplayer maps should theoretically allow the player to choose the amount of ammo or fuel stocked into their vehicles before the match begins. That's another bundle of work and added complexity we'd like to avoid. Currently out of play units on the map can run out of fuel and will still continue to move "for free". It's exploitable and we don't have a solution to that...but if all the different out of play movement calculations are burning material, there will be no avoiding the cost. The development effort can be much better spent polishing up other features that I actually believe in, rather than flogging the dead horse of logistical complexity in an attempt to make it interesting, approachable and fun for everyone (which I fundamentally don't think it would ever be). Fundamentally I think that by winding back this feature we tie up a large number of loose ends and it results in a far more finished and enjoyable product. And what's-more everyone on the development team agrees that we enjoy the game for fighting, looting and creating...not staring blankly at dozens of resource bars trying to figure out who needs to head back for more fuel and how long we need to wait for ammunition to process. We've also simplified the resource transfer system. "Supply groups" and "Transit Fleets" have been replaced with a simple but comprehensive three-tier system. You can mark a vehicle as a "Creator", a "Cargo" or a "User". Creators fill up Cargos (and Users), Cargos give to Users (up to procurement levels). Users equalise their material with their neighbours, so do Creators, and there are a few handy transfers from Users back to Cargo and Creator to make sure they maintain their procurement levels as well. This system covers 95% of the way people were using the resource system and does it all semi-automatically. This simplification is much more possible now that materials are the only resource, as they invariably just need to flow from the resource zones to the front line, with everyone (Creators and Cargo) keeping what they need and passing the rest on. This new resource system also facilitates the long-range transport of materials from refinery to refinery, which is neat. The system also has an option, for Creator and Cargo types, to set their "supply chain index", so if you want to relay materials from output to output in order to accumulate them at a central location you can set the supply chain index to determine which way along the chain the materials will flow. It's all explained in the game. [/quote] After spending a lot of time with this new system from adventure to campaign and designer mode, the gameplay feels a little faster to get going and a little simpler for fleet management. As if you didnt already know, you can shift+right click (with your supply construct selected) on the target construct / flagship of a fleet to keep supplied, keep holding down shift and right-click where you want to pick the resources up from and once again while not letting go of shift, shift+right click on the target construct/flag ship to finish the loop. This would be done of course after setting up the settings Creator, Cargo and User. Creator as an example is the harvesting construct, Cargo which would be the supply ship, User which would be a single target construct that uses the mats. This will keep the supply ship target waypoint updated and therefore your supply ship will always head to the target construct no matter where it has moved to after setting up the loop. You still need ammo and fuel boxes on your constructs, as these are governing the transfer rate / the speed that stock your turrets and fuel engine with the materials needed for them to run. You can run a construct without fuel or ammo boxes, however, once your APS clips are empty you will see a drop in your rate of fire as the material is not being transferred fast enough, this is the same for fuel engines and CJE. Another change that goes hand in hand with resource management is the changes to fuel refineries. In short: [Quote = Nick Lead Developer] Refineries on a force with greater than 1 million materials on it will begin refining the material into 'commodities' that are stored centrally. Commodities (AKA centralised materials) can be added by the player to any vehicle in allied territory, at any time. [/quote] Resource zones have a new feature too, and that is the ability to deactivate a resource zone on your owned tiles and if you own enough territory as you can see from the UI when double clicking on the resource zone Zone Deactivation.
Custom Jet Engines, have had some additional parts and new features. We have the new ducted air intakes which as you can see have different attachment points
These ducted intakes allow you to have your CJE enclosed inside your construct enabling you to pass ducting through to access airflow outside.

And as you can see in the pic below they are enclosed and making use of the air duct intakes.
You can also funnel the exhaust of your CJE's that would be under the waterline by using the two new connector blocks, a 90-degree corner and an extension piece which allows them to work as long as you funnel the exhaust out above the waterline.
PACs have also had a rework and new additions. We now have the long range lens which has a circular 10 field of fire, the close range lens which has a circular 35 field of fire, the scatter lens which has a circular 30 field of fire, and the vertical lens which has a 10 horizontal / 60 vertical field of fire (good for AA). The other differences between them is the percentage of damage drop off at certain ranges, which is marked in their UI.

One other awesome change to the PAC system is that melee lenses do not need to be hooked up to the now called long range lens. Simply setup your melee head and snakey noodle PAC tubes with a terminator on the end, then link up to your other melee lens via Q in the drop down menu. The scatter lens also deserves some attention here, as it can double up the number of beams if we increase the charge time max x4 at 30 seconds. The PAC system has had many tweaks which you should check up on in the change logs. Shields have also had some love. Projector shields reflect and laser scatter modes are now merged and have also had a slight buff to ricochet chance. Ring shields armor bonus has also increased by 50%. We also have some new additions to APS in terms of coolers. From left to right we now have an L shape, 4 way and a 5 way cooler.
We now have some new wide wheel additions too for all you land vehicle lovers.
The next biggest change would be steam engines even though other changes will be implemented in this update. We are once again rehashing the whole system, which will be released in the following updates. I had asked Weng a number of questions as to why the change was needed, why are the parts expensive, when and why would you use steam over fuel, and this is what he had to say: Reason why steam changes are needed:

Steam was previously totally unbalanced and arbitrary. For example, 9 small boilers with 1 small piston was the optimal steam setup, which was more efficient and denser than almost all other engines; and turbine power generation only depended on its pressure, so compact turbines were always optimal.
It lacked many critical info in its UI.
It was hard to control the usage of steam

What's good with new steam:

A bit more of realism and complexity
Larger steam now generally have better efficiency and density than equivalent smaller steam
More useful info such as total power production, performance over time
Possibility to regulate steam usage with valves

Pros of steam compared to injector fuel:

More dense and more efficient
Even more dense with turbines
Easier to fit into irregular space
Provides a buffer with flywheels or steam tanks
More efficient when used for propellers
Doesn't require fuel containers, uses material directly from any type of storage
Computationally less intensive

Cons of steam compared to fuel:

Still hard to regulate, so it's only useful when the power usage is constant or there's a buffer energy storage
Turbines waste energy when batteries are full
Crankshafts waste energy when reaching speed limit
More susceptible to damage (injector engines can often still run fine even when half of it is gone, steam can stop working when a single pipe is destroyed)

Why cost of parts is hilariously high: Steam engines have better efficiency and density (many players seem to forget that one) than injector engines. So a higher initial costs makes it less overpowered. (In my opinion, the potential waste of energy is a major drawback of steam and justifies for its high potential power. But iirc Draba said that injector engines would be useless on designs that require a lot of power if steam doesn't have higher initial cost, which also makes sense.) Problem with new steam that can't be fixed:

Many old designs are broken due to low power output
More complexity

Problems that can probably be fixed but I don't have a solution:

Inefficient steam engines are ridiculously bad (a bad steam engine is like 30 PPM and 50 PPV, while a good one is around 600 PPM and 110 PPV) (I tried to fix this and spent like 40 hours on that, but I only managed to make it easier to build a mediocre engine)
Cannot be simulated to calculate a stable power output, like fuel engines do (actually it's easy but would take a lot of time to do and I don't think it's necessary)

Another massive change is the detection rework which I also left a few questions for Ian AKA Blothorn to explain the system and how it works. Why a change was warranted:

Different types of detection weren't well balanced--for instance, visual components had better accuracy than IR and vastly better range.
Detection autoadjust used an incorrect formula, so optimizing adjustment was both mechanical and tedious.
Trackers having much better detection ranges than search sensors meant that detection was very binary--if you could see something at all you could usually get a precise lock (barring ECM, which was only counterable by large numbers of components).
Needing both sensors and munitions warners made reactive missile defense difficult on small vehicles.
There were a number of other inconsistencies/imbalances, e.g. some visual/IR sensors working through water, steam engines producing no heat, etc.

Overview of the new system: On the offensive side, each sensor type now has a role in which it is optimal, and large vehicles are best using a variety to cover their weaknesses. Visual probably remains the default for above-water detection--it remains impossible to reduce visual signature other than reducing size. IR is better against fast vehicles, as they have trouble avoiding high IR signatures from thrust and drag. Both visual and IR are weak in rangefinding (although coincidence rangefinders are adequate for most purposes); radar is correspondingly strong in range and weak in bearing, although it often offers better detection chances against vehicles that don't pay attention to radar stealth. On the defensive side, there are two approaches. Most obvious is signature reduction--while it is deliberately difficult to avoid detection entirely, reducing signature reduces detection chances and thus degrades opposing accuracy. At short ranges, however, this doesn't work well--detection chances are likely high regardless, and low errors at short range mean even sparse detections can give a good fix. Smoke and chaff can be useful here: they increase detection chance while adding a distance-independent error to opponent's visual and radar sensors, respectively. ECM, buoys, and radar guidance have also been reworked. Buoys are more powerful, becoming more accurate as they get closer to the target. While their base error is high, at long ranges a buoy at close range can beat the accuracy of any onboard sensor. If you worry about opponents buoys, ECM can now intermittently jam them--except if they are connected to their parent vehicle by a harpoon cable, in which case they don't need the vulnerable wireless connection. Most blueprints should need no modifications under the new system, although a few may want a few more or less GPP cards. The one exception is water interactions--IR cameras, laser rangefinders, and retroreflection sensors can no longer work through water, so submarines that used them underwater or vehicles that used them to detect submarines will need to replace them (likely with buoys). Vehicles that predominantly used visual detection should also consider adding a greater variety of sensors--in particular, visual camera trackers tied to AA mainframes should likely be replaced with IR cameras. Also, radars and cameras can take over missile and projectile detection (radar is required for projectile detection), so munitions warners can be removed/replaced with additional sensors. Last but not least a sweet little addition to our build menu prefabs.

Please do make sure you go through the Changelog we did not post the logs here as they would need multiple posts xD

[ 2020-10-15 14:37:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta Test 2.9.2

What is up Depthians! A quick little update.

Change

AI

Added a number of inputs to the projectile avoidance routine, particularly bearing, closing velocity, and closest approach/deviation from intercept course

APS

Beltfeeder loading cycle tooltip accounts for intakes being almost always ready when the cycle starts (so displayed cycle time is shorter)
Beltfeeder minimum reload delay down to 1 sec
Beltfeeders need at least a 2 x SHELL_RELOAD_TIME delay after the last shot before switching from loading to firing cycle again
Bore evacuator cost up from 30 to 40
Muzzle brake and bore evacuator armor up from 40 to 50
Muzzle brake cost up from 20/40 to 40/80 for the 1/2m variants
Muzzle brakes increase inaccuracy by 5%, instead of reducing shell speed by 5%

DETECTION

Missile/projectile warnings are now shared among mainframes. This mainly affects CIWS and projectile avoidance routines; LAMS/interceptors/ACBs already checked all mainframes. Mainframe parameters removed from Lua functions dealing with missile warnings; the old invocations will continue to work, but will access the global pool.

WORKSHOP

Updated the planet and mod workshop interfaces for easier uploading and downloading of planets and mods

Fix

APS

Cannon controller by multiple LWCs still obeys the fire rate limit
Fixed a problem causing cannons to damage their own barrels
Performance of aiming/barrel handling logic improved

DETECTION

Tracker assignment mode now saves correctly

LASERS

Laser couplers now clear up sides that do not have any connections to cavities/doublers/destabilizers

MULTIPLAYER

Locked the game world origin for multiplayer maps (not adventure/campaign) so that host and clients dont end up too far from the origin (which creates graphics issues)

NETER

Fixed starting resource values in land and multiplayer designers.

NUKE

Tactical nukes on subconstructs now do their explosion damage in the right location

PROPELLERS

Propellers currently spinning backwards no longer instantly provide a forward force when target thrust changes towards the forward direction

REGRESSION

Fixed a bug where lasers would crash client machines

[ 2020-10-15 12:01:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta Test 2.9.1

Additions

PERFORMANCE

Theres now a per-light shadows option, by default all lights will not cast any shadows, and it can be activated per-light (each light casting a shadow will greatly reduce the FPS)

Changes

APS MODULE COUNT

Beltfeed modifier scaling changed from 0.75 * DIAMETER_IN_M ^ 0.4 to 0.75 * DIAMETER_IN_M ^ 0.45. Paired with module count cap means optimal low cal beltfeeders fire significantly faster
Maximum module count of APS shells capped at 20. Customizer parts that would get above this wont connect

LIGHTING

Lighting blocks now use low resolution shadows and per vertex lighting. Explosions have smaller lighting radii and use per vertex lighting. The sun now uses per vertex lighting. This is to improve performance.

PROJECTILE ARMOUR

All projectiles have 20 armor, instead of 1
Explosions do their full nominal damage to missiles/CRAM shells within their radius. Doing damage to a projectile no longer reduces the explosions strength
Laser AP without frequency doublers is now 20/30 for pulsed/continuous. AP bonus of a frequency doubler with 1 pump is 180/270, instead of 200/300
Missile interceptors now have 20 AP

SAILS

Sails are now affected by air density
Sails now have a soft speed limit of 50m/s

SIMPLE WEAPONS

Armour of age os sail guns up from 10 to 15
Armour of casemated guns up from 30 to 50
Armour of modern guns with a gunshield up from 25-30 to 40
Armour of modern guns without a gunshield up from 20-25 to 30
Armour of ram up from 20 to 40
Armour of revolving blast gun up from 15 to 20
Armour of simple laser up from 10 to 20
Cost of 50mm AA gun down from 200 to 150, AP up from 5 to 6
Damage of 30mm assault cannon up from 250 to 300, shell velocity from 250 to 450
Shell velocity of 60mm autocannon up from 300 to 500

TURRETS

2m piston health up from 800 to 1600
All 1x1x1m turrets and pistons have 800 health (up from 400 for piston, 500 for elevation only turret)
All turret and piston blocks have 50 armor, up from 12 for pistons and 25-35 for turrets

UI

Various UI improvements

WORKSHOP

Added the ability to change item name, description and tags of a workshop item
Added the option to in the workshop UI spawn a workshop blueprint item into designer, where you can view it and save it as you wish
Made it essential that a screenshot is present before the blueprint can be submitted to the workshop
Revamped the steam workshop for vehicle blueprints.

Fixes

ACB

The GPID set to action will now be loaded correctly [BUGS-2612]

APS

Ammo intakes attached directly to a firing piece can always load a shell if there is space for it, no need to wait for the intake time
Fixed a problem causing explosions from shells clipping through slopes/triangles and similar structural blocks on subconstructs

CJE

Changed cost of connectors from 800 to 20, 800 was an unintentional value.

CRAM

Fixed CRAM barrels sometimes not extending back to 100% length after reloading

MULTIPLAYER

Fixed Rattle Boyale multiplayer map as LH had a broken starting vehicle
Spawning of resource zones in adventure mode is now synched over network-sorry about that!

RENDERING

Fixed a unity rendering glitch that was causing low frame rates when lights and explosions mixed

SHARD CANNON

Fixed collider to better match the model.

VIDEO BLOCK

Better MP synchronization when selecting a new camera

WHEELS

Fixed costs and hp of 1m wide wheels and mock wheels.

WORKSHOP

Fixed a bug where entering the Vehicle Workshop would re-activate Steam cloud for FTD. You should probably disable Steamcloud for FTD as it can cause issues.
Fixed the loading of very legacy workshop entries. They should pretty much load OK now, but dont expect them to be too functional

[ 2020-10-12 19:14:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

BetaTest 2.9.0

Hey all :) Hopefully this BetaTest will be available later today or tomorrow.

Addition

MULTIPLAYER

For simplicity we have added a blueprint transfer interface to the strategy tab selection of player made designs. So you can transfer and select in the same interface.

Change

STEAMWORKS

Upgraded to Steamworks version 1.48 and brought the Steamworks.Net wrapper inside the FTD codebase- will refresh the Steam workshop UIs soon.

UI

The debriefing screen (mission won/failed) has been updated

Fixes

AI

Target prioritisation now use the real firepower for weapons, its not just counting weapons anymore (all weapon types, armor cost percent and nukes -as melee- have been added) [BUGS-2368]

APS

Fixed unfused APS shell explosion visuals spawning in the wrong place on a mainconstruct hit
Fixed unfused APS shell explosions possibly spawning in the wrong place on a subconstruct hit

BLOCKS

The resource gatherer / oil drill now check against wave height not mean sea level

MULTIPLAYER

Hosts setting for team selection mode is now saved, and defaults to host->client->auto
Loading an adventure mode/campaign save will no longer incorrectly adjust team commodity level
Lobby now shows the victory/failure options on the Rules tab as it should.

REGRESSION

Fixed the rotation of turrets on clients in multiplayer
Music player exception spam hopefully fixed now
Player team on Neter Land Designer now has infinite materials again, a bug reset it to 1000 materials

UI

Factions not present in instance are no longer shown on diplomacy interfaces
The join our discord button now actually does something
Weapon sync tab label fields are wider

[ 2020-10-09 16:30:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta Test 2.8.8 is here!!

What is up awesome Depthians! A new beta test is up on Steam, please remember that beta updates are for testing new features and changes before they hit stable! I will set up a detailed post once this beta test hits stable. Small note CJE generators will produce force unless all of the thrust is used v2.8.8 [Add] : The avatar drop pod can now track the target vehicle to help it land on target v2.8.8 [Add] : Quest for Neter campaign now has 4 unique starting positions and background stories, one for each difficulty level. v2.8.8 [Add] : Added small intake piping capability to small CJE system. v2.8.8 [Add] : An 'all rambots of X faction are dead' victory condition type has been added v2.8.8 [Add] : A 1 vs 1 player vs player map has been added v2.8.8 [Add] : Adventure mode can now be played multiplayer v2.8.8 [Add] : Custom jets, dediblades and all powered propulsion got a PAC-style stats tab v2.8.8 [Add] : Fuel engine UI replaced, it now matches the style of the particle cannon one v2.8.8 [Add] : Supply dumps are now rendered in game to show you where they are (previously only visible on fleet control UI or map). Color and size show how much material they contain. v2.8.8 [Add] : Updated the avatar respawning UI and added a 'spectate' tab to it v2.8.8 [Add] : Various UI improvements v2.8.8 [Add] : All weapons got a new tab on their Q menu: Synchronization v2.8.8 [Add] : Each weapon can be assigned a parent on the synchronization tab, and will try to fire at least X seconds, but at most Y seconds after the parent did v2.8.8 [Add] : Each weapon can have a maximum waiting time. If only syncing stopped it from shooting for over Z seconds it'll fire a shot without waiting for the parent v2.8.8 [Add] : If 2 weapons are synced to each other with a 0 delay they will try to fire with a 1 frame difference between them v2.8.8 [Add] : If a weapon is destroyed all other weapons depending on it will fire freely until it's repaired. If the destroyed weapon was synced to something its children will sync to the grandparent v2.8.8 [Add] : Missile controllers set to continuous mode, with a stagger between missiles will sync each individual missile v2.8.8 [Add] : Weapon firing delay setting removed (it was a trap silently decreasing rate of fire) v2.8.8 [Add] : Weapons get an integer ID that's persistent and unique on their craft. It is shown in their tooltip, and syncing can be set up based on that v2.8.8 [Add] : Weapons now hold fire for 3 seconds when they are put into play v2.8.8 [Change] : Added a below water toggle. v2.8.8 [Change] : Added a block cluster aimpoint type that attempts to avoid selecting isolated blocks (e.g. masts). v2.8.8 [Change] : Added a hot blocks aimpoint type. v2.8.8 [Change] : Armor damage reduction is now AP / AC, instead of AP / (2 * AC). AP values halved across the board (the 3 pdr simple cannons got their damage halved instead) v2.8.8 [Change] : Frag angle damage modifier from (2.5 + ANGLE^0.5) / 16 to (2 + ANGLE^0.5) / 16. Paired with the damage buff this means high angle is slightly better v2.8.8 [Change] : Frag base damage up by 25% v2.8.8 [Change] : Projectiles that ricochet only do 75% damage to the block hit (on top of armor and angle reductions) v2.8.8 [Change] : Projectiles that ricochet still lose damage potential as if they did full damage, and their damage is reduced to 75% after that v2.8.8 [Change] : Ricochet chance went from COS(ANGLE) ^ (AP / AC) to COS(ANGLE) ^ (4 * (AP / AC) ^ 0.5). Ricochets are less common, and the angle is now more important/AP less important v2.8.8 [Change] : 130mm casemated simple gun barrel length up from 4.25 to 5m v2.8.8 [Change] : 150mm casemated simple gun barrel length up from 6.56 to 7m v2.8.8 [Change] : APS cannons on turrets now start elevating their barrels even when the target is out of their azimuth arc v2.8.8 [Change] : Barrel length needed for full GP burn is now 2.2 * GP_COUNT * (DIAMETER/100)^0.55, instead of 5 * (GP_LENGTH * DIAMETER/100)^0.75. Medium-high cal and low cal without too much GP generally needs shorter barrels. Low cal with 10+ GP needs noticeably longer barrels v2.8.8 [Change] : Base kinetic damage up by 5% v2.8.8 [Change] : Cannons using fire rates below 2400 are using the proper fire rate (fix for that was suspended to sort out some timing issues) v2.8.8 [Change] : Default special factor setting for HE bodies is now 1, instead of 0.8 v2.8.8 [Change] : Firing piece builtin recoil absorption capacity up by 25% v2.8.8 [Change] : Firing piece builtin recoil recovery up to 4/3 the old value v2.8.8 [Change] : Flak base damage up from 1/3 of HE to 1/2 of HE v2.8.8 [Change] : Flak base radius down from 3.5x of HE to 3x of HE v2.8.8 [Change] : For barrel traverse multiple barrels no longer set effective caliber to the diameter of the cylinder around them. Each barrel beyond 1 increases effective caliber by 20% instead v2.8.8 [Change] : Gunpowder casing kinetic energy and recoil up by 25% v2.8.8 [Change] : Hollow point head kinetic damage modifier is down from 1.5 to 1.2 v2.8.8 [Change] : Low caliber kinetic damage boost reduced from (500 / MAX(CALIBER, 125)) ^ 0.25 to (500 / MAX(CALIBER, 125)) ^ 0.125 v2.8.8 [Change] : Max penetration HEAT damage up from 30% to 40% of a frag warhead with the same 30 angle v2.8.8 [Change] : Maximum rail charge for any given shell is up by 25% v2.8.8 [Change] : Shell speed penalty from 2m muzzle break no longer stacks v2.8.8 [Change] : The way NPC structures are placed, repaired,saved and synchronised in multiplayer has been made much more efficient v2.8.8 [Change] : Anti missile cannons aim at the attached mainframe's first possible target when idling v2.8.8 [Change] : Anti missile cannons can now target and damage CRAM shells. Max diameter slider up from 1000 to 2000mm v2.8.8 [Change] : Anti missile cannons got a slider, increases or decreases priority of missiles depending on their diameter v2.8.8 [Change] : Anti missile cannons got a target type selector, missiles + CRAMs/missiles only/CRAMs only v2.8.8 [Change] : CIWS damage multiplier down from 8x to 4x v2.8.8 [Change] : Diameter of missile colliders is 2.5x the diameter of the actual missile against cannon projectiles and frags v2.8.8 [Change] : CRAM cannons on turrets now start elevating their barrels even when the target is out of their azimuth arc v2.8.8 [Change] : Flash suppression barrel reduces detection range to 50%, instead of 20% v2.8.8 [Change] : Fuses reduce health by an additive 10% each, instead of 5% v2.8.8 [Change] : Non-kinetic payload damage up by 20% v2.8.8 [Change] : Detection components now test line-of-sight against all subobjects. v2.8.8 [Change] : Further tweaks to visual, IR, radar, sonar, and passive sonar signatures. v2.8.8 [Change] : Most detection components' AC increased to 30; costs standardized. v2.8.8 [Change] : Personal grenade launcher base damage up from 200 to 1500. Radius uses standard scaling now, from 3m to ~8.97m v2.8.8 [Change] : ACB got a new condition: enemy CRAM shells within X-Y range band v2.8.8 [Change] : Interceptor CRAM damage multiplier goes from 0.4x against 1000mm to 0.8x against 2000mm (damage multiplier against S/M missiles is 0.5x/1.0x) v2.8.8 [Change] : Interceptors can now target and damage CRAMs v2.8.8 [Change] : Interceptors can target missiles and CRAMs, only missiles or only CRAMs v2.8.8 [Change] : Interceptors do not target CRAM shells more than 5m underwater v2.8.8 [Change] : LAMS node targeting improved v2.8.8 [Change] : LAMS nodes got a slider, increases or decreases priority of missiles and shells depending on their diameter v2.8.8 [Change] : LAMS nodes start checking for targets again when the distance to their locked one starts to increase v2.8.8 [Change] : Added minor visual explosion effect to all missiles (missiles with no HE or frag payload simply disappeared when shot down) v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile base health down to 5/6 the previous value v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile damage up by 25% v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile interceptor damage down to 3/4 the previous value v2.8.8 [Change] : Lua missiles now require GPP. v2.8.8 [Change] : Remote guidance missiles are immune to ECM as long as they have an intact cable connection, like sensor buoys. v2.8.8 [Change] : Assault on Eyrie co-op multiplayer map has been re-balanced and tweaked and is now Assault on Conger v2.8.8 [Change] : Co-op campaigns can now be customised before you launch them in multiplayer v2.8.8 [Change] : The multiplayer lobby UI has been designed v2.8.8 [Change] : The tower defence map has been fixed and adjusted v2.8.8 [Change] : There is a 5 second count down before a match is started in multiplayer during which changes to the configuration are locked v2.8.8 [Change] : Tournament of Kings multiplayer map now includes the Rambot avatar v2.8.8 [Change] : The Neter map has been redrawn and Quest For Neter faction areas have been moved around v2.8.8 [Change] : Tactical nuke base damage up from 80 000 to 500 000. Radius uses standard scaling now, up from 50m to 51.2m v2.8.8 [Change] : Tactical nuke cost up from 100 to 2500 materials, weight from 40 to 400 v2.8.8 [Change] : Particle cannon damage down to ~73.33% v2.8.8 [Change] : Custom control surfaces now move a lot faster v2.8.8 [Change] : All fragment trails are shorter and width scales with damage. HEAT particles are closer to yellow, HESH particles are red now v2.8.8 [Change] : Shell trails are now shorter and color for APS/CRAM is fixed orange-ish (tracers work the same as before). Length scales with shell speed less, CRAM trails are thicker and still scale with payload v2.8.8 [Change] : Size-based detection range for projectiles reduced to 72% of the original value (CRAM shells have 396-792m base detection range) v2.8.8 [Change] : Visible tracer trail is twice as long as the trail of a standard shell. Tracer width is a multiplier now, default is 2 (value range is still 0.5-10) v2.8.8 [Change] : Shield projectors now spawn fully charged to their target strength v2.8.8 [Change] : CRAM barrel tooltip now also shows shell health v2.8.8 [Change] : Laser colorer function is now built into the standard laser combiner. If the combiner has a colorer the colorer's settings will be used v2.8.8 [Change] : Q menu for turrets now doesn't have the mostly empty stats tab v2.8.8 [Change] : Various tooltip improvements v2.8.8 [Change] : Detection uses a different velocity compensation method for targets that have warped within the previous second in order to limit the usefulness of rapid, short warps in fooling detection. v2.8.8 [Change] : APS 1x1x1 mantlet healths up from 600 to 1000 v2.8.8 [Change] : APS barrel armor up from 25 to 35, health up from 700 to 800/m v2.8.8 [Change] : APS bore evacuator and muzzle brake armor up from 30 to 40. 2m muzzle break now has 1600 health, instead of 800 v2.8.8 [Change] : APS firing piece armor up from 20 to 30, health up from 350 to 500 v2.8.8 [Change] : APS heavy barrel armor up from 40 to 50, health from 900 to 1000/m. APS heavy barrel cost down from 70 to 60 material/m v2.8.8 [Change] : APS laser targeter armor up from 25 to 50 v2.8.8 [Change] : APS non-1x1x1m mantlet healths up from 1000 to 1500/block v2.8.8 [Change] : APS rail magnet and attaching fixture armor up from 30 to 50, health down from 600 to 500 v2.8.8 [Change] : APS recoil absorber armor up from 10 to 20, health from 125 to 150/m v2.8.8 [Change] : CRAM barrel armor up from 30 to 50, health from 900 to 1000 v2.8.8 [Change] : CRAM firing piece armor up from 25 to 30, health up from 500 to 800 v2.8.8 [Change] : CRAM gauge increase armor up from 30 to 40, health from 400 to 500 v2.8.8 [Change] : CRAM heavy barrel armor up from 40 to 60 v2.8.8 [Change] : CRAM laser targeter armor up from 25 to 50 v2.8.8 [Change] : LAMS node armor up from 10 to 25 v2.8.8 [Change] : Laser armored optics armor up from 20 to 60, health stays 600 v2.8.8 [Change] : Laser combiner armor up from 4 to 30, health from 100 to 400 v2.8.8 [Change] : Laser optics armor up from 10 to 40, health stays 250 v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile connector armor up from 3 to 30 (health is still 100) v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile controller armor up from 12 to 30. It is now susceptible to EMP, takes 10% damage from it v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile ejector addon armor up from 3 to 30 (health is still 100) v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile hatch armor up from 40 to 50 v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile rail launcher and gantry armor up from 20 to 40 v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile standard launcher and gantry armor up from 20 to 30 v2.8.8 [Change] : Missile winch armor up from 3 to 40, health up from 100 to 200 v2.8.8 [Change] : Short range laser combiner armor up from 15 to 50, health from 600 to 1500 v2.8.8 [Fix] : Custom jet exhaust particles exit the right way on jets using 90 connectors v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fix to collision damage that makes damage spread more evenly in all directions v2.8.8 [Fix] : When copy/pasting a block, any empty string in it wasn't pasted to the destination, now it is [BUGS-2543] v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed CRAM cannons counting EMP payload twice in shell power and firepower calculations v2.8.8 [Fix] : Explosions not doing any damage after a while [BUGS-2238] v2.8.8 [Fix] : Ducts (in the air tab) will not block fuel engine exhausts anymore [BUGS-2534] v2.8.8 [Fix] : Blocks and shell racks exploding on the main construct can no longer jump through blocks at high speeds v2.8.8 [Fix] : Explosions are less likely to jump through blocks on subconstructs moving towards them v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed a problem causing armed missiles to bounce off constructs v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed a problem causing explosions triggered from certain directions to sometimes spawn inside(and teleport through) blocks in certain positions/orientations v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed a problem causing fragments from ricocheting projectiles to be spawned facing the wrong way v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed a problem causing shells to sometimes explode inside targets moving towards them v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed explosion damage teleporting through intact non-cuboid structural blocks v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fragments are less likely to jump through blocks on constructs/subconstructs moving towards them v2.8.8 [Fix] : Frags spawn at the speed the projectile moved at right before impact (so frags from fast shells hitting the back of fast vehicles will still usually connect) v2.8.8 [Fix] : Missile hit detection improved v2.8.8 [Fix] : The 'Spread to' feature will now spread either to the small or huge jets, not both [BUGS-2544] v2.8.8 [Fix] : 4Q lasers can now fire a single shot (1 fire command always triggered at least 2 pulses before) v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed pulsed laser fire rates being lower than intended. 4Q fired ~6.67 shots/s, 3Q ~3.63, 2Q ~1.9, 1Q ~0.975 v2.8.8 [Fix] : Laser transceivers now re-connect correctly when on an elevation-only turret with an angle of more than 60 degrees [BUGS-2335] v2.8.8 [Fix] : Laser transceivers visible laser is now correctly displayed even when the elevation of a 2-axis or elevation-only turret is modified v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed missile firepower readout showing old values that counted S warheads/second (only visual, firepower displayed was ~75% of the real one) v2.8.8 [Fix] : The turning thrusters trail will now be removed properly when destroying the vehicles [BUGS-2077] v2.8.8 [Fix] : The simple weapons variables 'ExplosiveDamage' and 'ExplosiveRadius' are automatically modified to automatically balance the weapons, you can now use 'OverloadedExplosiveDamage' and 'OverloadedExplosiveRadius' to override these modifications [BUGS-2459] v2.8.8 [Fix] : Clients can see the laser beams and other effects from firing simple lasers and LaserCombiners v2.8.8 [Fix] : Clients now see turrets facing the way they are facing on the server v2.8.8 [Fix] : Faction vehicles spawned in the multiplayer designer now spawn full of material v2.8.8 [Fix] : Nukes can now be detonated by the client by pressing Q on them v2.8.8 [Fix] : Fixed manually fired particle cannons sometimes shooting in the wrong direction v2.8.8 [Fix] : The volume of the sound when deleting a lot of blocks at once isn't too loud anymore (the fix will work for all other cases, such as placing a prefab, undo/redo, etc.) [BUGS-2517] v2.8.8 [Fix] : The toolbar with shortcuts to blocks is now saved properly, and all settings are now saved even if using Alt+F4 [BUGS-2406] v2.8.8 [Fix] : The 'DamageMultiplier' coefficient should now work as intended for kinetic damage [BUGS-2446] v2.8.8 [Remove] : Avatar levels, experience and stat points have been removed as we don't feel they sit well with the engineering focus of FTD.

[ 2020-10-06 20:50:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta Test 2.8.7 is out! with some sweet camo skinning options

Hey Depthians A nice little update to our beta test branch I think the most eye-catching one is the new camo skins for our constructs, which you can access via "V" on your construct. v2.8.7 [Add] : Added a camouflage texture skin system for adding skins to alloy, metal and heavy armour blocks on the vehicle. Press V to engage with it. v2.8.7 [Add] : The number of board sections you need to capture in order to enable your next RZ deactivation is now listed v2.8.7 [Change] : If you kill your own vehicles and have no storage capacity for the self-looted materials they'll go into / create local material dumps for you to pick up later v2.8.7 [Change] : Killing things with avatar weapons e.g minigun adds to the commodity store (it has always added to the centralised team store in previous versions) v2.8.7 [Change] : Scrapped enemy vehicle resource dumps now contain the material that was in them when they were scrapped v2.8.7 [Change] : You now get material for destroying enemy material storage in combat v2.8.7 [Change] : Avatar gifting of commodities from the global commodity store is now turned off by default. Press F5 to turn it on/off. v2.8.7 [Change] : Buttons added to fleet control options to gift 1k, 10k and 100k commodities to your forces in your territory (or neighboring). Cannot be performed in campaign battles. v2.8.7 [Change] : Fuel refineries now convert raw materials to commodities that are globally gift-able to your forces in your territory (or neighboring territory) (not available during campaign battles). They can only operate when sitting on a 1 million material stockpile or greater v2.8.7 [Change] : Pressing 'Q' on a material storage container will gift global commodities into it as materials. Cannot be performed in campaign battles. v2.8.7 [Change] : The 2.8.5 mechanic that refinery-forces acted as a large world-wide supply group has been de-activated now that they have this new function v2.8.7 [Change] : UI updated to display 'nearby' materials as well as 'commodities'

[ 2020-09-03 15:24:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta Test 2.8.5 is here, with some big changes.

Hey Depthians! Another long list of new additions and some very big changes to the game such as the removal of fuel as a resource and ammo. I would advise you to read thread by Nick, which explains the changes in full detail, any comments/suggestions/ideas/concerns should be posted in that thread, just so we have everything all nicely gathered in one place. v2.8.5 [Add] : A new material/energy sharing system has been added where forces can be separated into different types (Creator / Cargo / User) and their material/energy sharing is automated depending on their type. v2.8.5 [Change] : Ammo barrels hold materials now, and increase the availability of materials for reloading guns (materials per minute) v2.8.5 [Change] : Ammunition and fuel have been removed as resources- guns and engines use materials directly now v2.8.5 [Change] : Existing ammo processors will be automatically replaced with a 2m long material storage locker in this version of the game. The block is now decorative only v2.8.5 [Change] : Existing oil processors will be automatically replaced with a 2m tall material storage tank in this version of the game. The block is now decorative only. v2.8.5 [Change] : Fuel refineries don't create fuel from materials anymore. Instead they form a world wide material sharing network where all 'on' refineries can slowly share materials with each other (however the refineries also burn materials so a lot of material is wasted in this process) v2.8.5 [Change] : Fuel tanks hold materials now, and increase the availability of materials for powering engines (materials per minute) v2.8.5 [Change] : Resource harvesting, when out of play, runs at 5% even if there is no power source. This is to avoid outposts getting stuck at zero materials and being unable to get any. v2.8.5 [Change] : The smoke dispenser now burns materials instead of fuel v2.8.5 [Change] : Tutorials updated to reflect new resources (material and energy) and new resource transfer system. v2.8.5 [Fix] : Pressure no longer drops or increases when boiler or pipe is shrank v2.8.5 [Fix] : In story missions your vehicle will no longer get free resources and free reloads after spawning- you shall only get the materials you pay for in the mission launcher v2.8.5 [Remove] : The supply group and transit fleet systems have been removed. They've been replaced with something simpler.

[ 2020-08-27 13:16:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.8.1 Beta test is here!

Another long list of fixes and changes in beta 2.8.1 :D we will have a proper write up once this hits stable. v2.8.1 [Add] : Added 4way APS connector v2.8.1 [Add] : Added 5way APS connector v2.8.1 [Add] : Added L shape APS connector. v2.8.1 [Change] : Removed Thruster Balancing from additional AI routines. v2.8.1 [Change] : APS autoloaders with intake counts that do not match the amount needed for sustained fire get a warning and an orange outline in build mode v2.8.1 [Change] : Made T splitter APS connector connect on all connecting faces v2.8.1 [Change] : Removed component count limit v2.8.1 [Change] : Durability estimate is also used for the difficulty assignment of faction designs. The difficulty of many designs will change and these might be tweaked a bit later v2.8.1 [Change] : NPC factions are more aggressive towards the player at higher difficulties v2.8.1 [Change] : NPC factions should no longer completely wipe each other out v2.8.1 [Change] : Reworked how the strategic AI decides which territories to capture to make it more intelligent v2.8.1 [Change] : Rough estimates of the durability of designs is now used by the strategic AI for combat related assessments v2.8.1 [Change] : Added warning that shows output reduction when the engine is partially/fully submerged v2.8.1 [Change] : Generator power/thrust up from 0.05 to 0.052 v2.8.1 [Change] : HEAT base damage up, from 20% of a frag warhead's damage for 1 max special HE body to 30% v2.8.1 [Change] : Short range laser combiner max distance up from 300m to 500m. Damage multiplier at max distance down from 2x to 1.5x. Inaccuracy at max range is the same (so at 300m changed from 1 to 1.5) v2.8.1 [Change] : Powered jets, propellers and ions now gradually spool down when they get a request for 0 output (change was gradual in all other cases before) v2.8.1 [Change] : Powered propellers do not instantly stop when getting above water. They gradually slow down until they stop v2.8.1 [Change] : Reflect and laser scatter modes on shield projectors merged v2.8.1 [Change] : Reflect mode base ricochet chance up from 20 to 25% at minimum angle, from 40 to 45% at maximum angle v2.8.1 [Change] : Ring shield armor bonus increased by 50% v2.8.1 [Change] : Shield projector UI updated v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Cost of steam pistons, turbines, gearboxes and generators multiplied by 60 v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Heat dissipation rate of boiler decreased from 0.5 kW/(m2*K) to 0.05 kW/(m2*K) v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Heat of material decreased from 3000 kJ to 1500 kJ v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Max power of small gearboxes increased from 3000 to 6000 v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Piston base efficiency decreased from 0.9 to 0.75 v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Piston cylinder length is now 1.1 for small, 2.5 for medium, and 3.5 for large v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Piston efficiency changed from (0.8)^(0.5*input/output-1) to (input/output-1)^(-1/5), which means better throughput (ppv) and efficiency (ppm) for naive steam engine designs v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Reduced the intensity of steam crankshaft noise v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Reduced turbine flow virtual volume to 2m * end area of turbine v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Side shell thickness of turbine, piston and boiler increased from 5mm to 1cm v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Steam components are now updated in a fixed order, to avoid inconsistencies caused by the order of placement. The order is now {Boiler, Piston, Turbine, Valve, Jet, Pipe, Propeller, Crankshaft, Gearbox, Transmission, Generator} v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Steam jet max speed changed from 200m/s to 150m/s v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Steam jet power limited to 10000 and thrust limited to 50000 v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Steam jet thrust per power changed to 3.5 (it is 15 for ion, 25 for jet, 40 for propeller) v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Steam pipe tanks can now restore their pressure v2.8.1 [Change] : [FTD-466] Turbines flow half life reverted from 0.4s to 0.1s v2.8.1 [Fix] : The height map for alloy has been fixed to stop one face from looking like it is moving. v2.8.1 [Fix] : Railgun chargers can no longer connect to barrel magnets. v2.8.1 [Fix] : Added code to locate the cause of a block disconnection bug v2.8.1 [Fix] : Fixed duplicating text in text block v2.8.1 [Fix] : Custom jet generators are now also disabled under water v2.8.1 [Fix] : Custom jet generators now use the correct amount of fuel when supply is low v2.8.1 [Fix] : Custom jet parts are no longer automatically rotated to match the controller's orientation v2.8.1 [Fix] : Fixed custom jet generator mode switch possibly not registering on being put into play v2.8.1 [Fix] : Jet controller tooltip now shows the correct thrust/fuel value even when some output is reserved by a generator v2.8.1 [Fix] : Fixed powered propellers providing forward thrust on a backwards request v2.8.1 [Fix] : Powered jets, propellers, ions and wheels now use the correctly scaled amount of power when running below their maximum allowed output v2.8.1 [Fix] : Fixed ability to set clamped value beyond the bounds v2.8.1 [Fix] : [FTD-466] Fixed a bug that increased some pressures by 101 kPa v2.8.1 [Fix] : [FTD-466] Fixed crankshaft fluctuation v2.8.1 [Fix] : [FTD-466] Steam components can no longer consume more energy/steam than available in shaft/pipe v2.8.1 [Fix] : [FTD-466] Steam jet now correctly respect the maximum thrust and power consumption

[ 2020-08-19 08:31:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

What we are currently working on Aug-Sept 2020

Hey Depthians! We are back with some more news for Augusts sprint. Currently, I have my hands on the coming changes to steams tweaks and new additions. However, while I cannot get into specifics on numbers and exact components etc.. I thought I would give you all a steamy little tease with this.
That, as well as other additions and some multiplayer fixes, will soon be in the next Betatest for you all to brake for us xD We will also be putting more focus on MP issues in the coming months and hopefully resolve all issues. I think this sprint is quite self-explanatory, but if you do have questions as always feel free to ask. For those on the current Beta 2.8.0 give me feedback on wheels please mainly issues/things you are not happy with like spring force, turning and so on. Except for glitching through terrain and tracks bugging out, we know about that. If you are interested in what is happening with the current 2.8.0 beta then check this thread out which I shall keep up to date with any changes. Thanks for your support as always! Join the rest of the community, who are always willing to help, chat, sharing blueprints and all that good stuff. https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/ Discord.gg/fromthedepths https://steamcommunity.com/app/268650 https://www.reddit.com/r/FromTheDepths/ https://twitter.com/FTD_Game https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDepthsGame/

[ 2020-08-05 21:52:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

New 2.8.0 BetaTest build is up for you all to break

Hey Depthians! 2.8.0 has hit our BetaTest branch. If you are interested in the changelog please check that out here (Trying to get everyone's feedback in one location)

[ 2020-08-03 16:05:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.7.4 Update :D

What is up Depthians! We are back with another update which is hopefully going to be wheely good. I was thinking of a number of puns to use in this update post but Im already tyred and feeling deflated. Yes! You guessed right, Wheels are here! We have our usual 1m, the new 3m, and also 5m wheels! Isnt that wheely amazing?

Both the 3m and 5m can be used with tank tracks, and you can use a mix of sizes with your tank tracks too :) We can also hide the wooden attachment point of the wheels by bringing up the wheel UI, wheel configuration tab, and drag the slider show suspension to 0.
Of course, we have fixed a number of issues such as the idle twitching and constructs that were jumping around.
Propulsion has had a number of tweaks, such as particle effects, turning props off if they are above the waterline or jets off if under the waterline. In terms of thrust, we have added a power scale, which you can see in the pic below. Output * X , Power use = *Y, which affects the thrust of powered jets, ions, propellers and wheels, within the UI of the component. This acts similar to our dediblades when we increase the motor drive, which gives us more push yet uses more power, which we are calling power factor.
When placing a propulsion block, it should be at x4 by default, and anything above power scale 1, the power use/thrust increases up to 50% more power at 4x. So a propeller at scale 4 provides 4x as much thrust and uses 6x as much power as at scale 1. All propulsion methods have been tweaked up, be it health / ac, pushing force and costs can be found in the changelog below. Join the rest of the community, who are always willing to help and have a chat. https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/ Discord.gg/fromthedepths https://steamcommunity.com/app/268650 https://www.reddit.com/r/FromTheDepths/ https://twitter.com/FTD_Game https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDepthsGame/ v2.7.4 [Add] : It is now possible to change the PowerScale of the control surfaces (hydroifoils, rudders, ailerons, etc.) using an ACB [BUGS-1607] v2.7.4 [Add] : Custom control surface multi-blocks system ('air' tab) v2.7.4 [Add] : Maximum thrust and power use tooltips added for dedicated heliblade parts v2.7.4 [Add] : Current thrust and fuel use bars added to custom jet tooltips v2.7.4 [Add] : Detailed tooltips added for powered jets, ions, propellers and wheels v2.7.4 [Add] : More propulsion system now have the 'yaw/pitch' adjustment (dediblade and steam jets) v2.7.4 [Add] : Power used is now displayed in the gearbox's tooltip v2.7.4 [Add] : The 'V' power menu now indicates a rough estimate of the material consumption of the gearboxes v2.7.4 [Add] : The CJE's last blocks, Jets and Ion thrusters now have their pitch and yaw angle reflected visually v2.7.4 [Add] : 3 and 5m drive and turning wheels added v2.7.4 [Add] : Option to hide the wooden attachment point of wheels added v2.7.4 [Add] : Spring force explanation added to wheel UI v2.7.4 [Add] : Turning wheels now have a max steering speed: 120/s for small, 90/s for 3m, 60/s for 5m v2.7.4 [Change] : Ammo processor cycle time doubled v2.7.4 [Change] : Ammo processor power use up from 20 to 50 v2.7.4 [Change] : Ammo customizer text changed to clarify number is the damage for every single fragment, not the sum v2.7.4 [Change] : Inaccuracy from unmitigated recoil down to 60% the previous value v2.7.4 [Change] : The F4 performance benchmark now doesn't fade the screen and pop a summary up when stopped v2.7.4 [Change] : The free roaming camera now cannot go below the ground surface v2.7.4 [Change] : Dediblade upwards force fraction now from [-1 ; +1] instead of [0 ; +1] [BUGS-2304] v2.7.4 [Change] : The number of chat entries is now limited to 250 for performance reasons (the previous ones are removed) [BUGS-1562] v2.7.4 [Change] : Custom jet particles scale with current output fraction v2.7.4 [Change] : Ion thruster effects rescaled, trail varies with size and is wider/shorter v2.7.4 [Change] : Mock wheels are no longer placeable v2.7.4 [Change] : Power scale UI slider now also shows power use increase v2.7.4 [Change] : Powered jet temperature uses the same thrust-based scaling as custom jets v2.7.4 [Change] : Powered jets now do not use power or show particles under water. Powered propellers now do not use power or spin above water v2.7.4 [Change] : Wheel UI tab names cleaned up v2.7.4 [Change] : Wheels now have 50% forward/backwards drag v2.7.4 [Change] : Ion thruster cost up from 100/900 to 150/1350 v2.7.4 [Change] : Jet cost up from 50/450 to 100/900 v2.7.4 [Change] : Propeller cost up from 30/270 to 60/540 v2.7.4 [Change] : Small wheel cost up from 5 to 20, 3m wheel costs 180 materials, 5m wheel 500 v2.7.4 [Change] : 3m wheels have 5400 health and 30 armor v2.7.4 [Change] : 5m wheels have 15000 health and 30 armor v2.7.4 [Change] : Powered jet and ion thruster health up by 50% v2.7.4 [Change] : Powered propeller health up by 25%, armor up from 15 to 30 v2.7.4 [Change] : Small wheel health down from 900 to 800, armor from 40 to 30 v2.7.4 [Change] : Steam propeller and steam propeller shaft armor values up from 20 to 30 v2.7.4 [Change] : 3m wheel maximum force is 3600, power use 90 v2.7.4 [Change] : 5m wheel maximum force is 10000, power use 250 v2.7.4 [Change] : Above power scale 1 power use/thrust increases, up to 50% more power at 4x. So a propeller at scale 4 provides 4x as much thrust and uses 6x as much power as at scale 1 v2.7.4 [Change] : Ion thruster power is now reduced above 150 m/s v2.7.4 [Change] : Maximum power scale (so thrust) of powered jets, ions, propellers and wheels up from 1 to 4. The default for newly placed blocks is also 4 v2.7.4 [Change] : Small wheel maximum force is 400, power use 10 v2.7.4 [Change] : Soft cap for wheel speed is 60 m/s. Wheels use their full force for braking v2.7.4 [Change] : 3m wheel weight is 900 v2.7.4 [Change] : 5m wheel weight is 2500 v2.7.4 [Change] : Small wheel weight up from 20 to 100 (half of heavy armor) v2.7.4 [Change] : Parts now use a small, medium and large naming scheme. So 3m 5m propeller will now be Medium 5m propeller. v2.7.4 [Change] : It is now possible to use the 'mouse-wheel' equivalent keys to zomm in/out when using the control terminal v2.7.4 [Change] : The inputs in the key-mapping UI are now into categories so that it's easier to find them, and the names of the inputs are now localizable v2.7.4 [Change] : Profiler entries added for various wheel and track calculations v2.7.4 [Change] : Track performance hit decreased (~half the previous value, much better at low level of detail distance) v2.7.4 [Change] : Wheel performance hit decreased (~1 order of magnitude better) v2.7.4 [Change] : Damper max bump force down from 20 to 6 v2.7.4 [Change] : Damper max rebound force down from 10 to 6 v2.7.4 [Change] : Max forward friction up from 1 to 2 v2.7.4 [Change] : Max forward friction up from 1 to 2 v2.7.4 [Change] : Max side friction up from 1 to 2 v2.7.4 [Change] : Spring max force up from 30 to 50 v2.7.4 [Change] : Turning wheels now can't be part of tracks v2.7.4 [Change] : [FTD-417] Wings can now create lift in it's upwards direction. It used to be restricted to the constructable upwards direction. v2.7.4 [Fix] : Lasers and PACS can now be fired using an ACB, whatever direction the camera is looking toward to [BUGS-2259] v2.7.4 [Fix] : The ACB will now correctly display the infinity boundaries, even when pasting or loading the vehicle [BUGS-1839] v2.7.4 [Fix] : The altitude control actions in the ACB now match the new AI (min alt over land, min lat over water, max alt, and combat/hover alt for aerial AIs) [BUGS-2264] v2.7.4 [Fix] : Control surfaces now provide their force in the correct way whatever their orientation (they work like the hydrofoils now) [BUGS-2380] v2.7.4 [Fix] : [FTD-467] Fixed bug that broke prefab AI cards v2.7.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-2355] Fixed low priority fuel engines at 0 output still using fuel in some setups v2.7.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-2382] Fuel engines work properly after the main block is repaired v2.7.4 [Fix] : Fixed bug that prevents placing subobjects on another subobject in multiplayer v2.7.4 [Fix] : Better explanation of the URL for the video and sound blocks in the tooltips and texts [REQ-774] v2.7.4 [Fix] : One more digit displayed (when necessary) for the total length of a shell in the 'Shell editor' [BUGS-2284] v2.7.4 [Fix] : The simple weapons with simple shells will now forget the fuse time after 2s if nothing is targeted (before, they remembered the fuse time indefinitely) [BUGS-2331] v2.7.4 [Fix] : Fixed jumping vehicles v2.7.4 [Fix] : Idle twitching removed from small wheeled vehicles v2.7.4 [Fix] : [FTD-417] Added more details in wing tooltip v2.7.4 [Fix] : [FTD-417] Fixed rotation of wing mesh when the wing block is not facing upwards. v2.7.4 [Fix] : [FTD-417] It is now possible to change the lift factor of wings from -1 to 1. v2.7.4 [Fix] : Old wings placed upside down now have default lift factor of 1

[ 2020-07-07 13:38:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

What we are currently working on June - July 2020

What is up Depthians! Its probably about time I did another whats happening at Brilliant Skies posts. As you know we released the Strategic AI this month, and we continued ironing out some features and killing off some bugs. Abyay has been working hard on revamping the story missions making them more fun, and I think they accompany the tutorials nicely, as the DWG missions are like partial tutorials. Currently, the SS missions are complete and Abyay plans to add a few more DWG missions into the mix. He has also reworked that sodding pensive pigeon, to something more fun to use in terms of player-controlled which is the aim of these missions, and that will motivate players to add to it as the aim is to complete these missions preferably player-controlled rather than AI cards.
Draba has been working a lot on the backend code for our fuel engines, ironing out some kinks with engine prioritisation, and to be less stressful on some systems. He has also been working on improving the performance of wheels, suspension, and also the backend stuff for the larger wheels. He has also added a x4 Power scale to our wheels, propellers, and thrusters which you can find by hitting Q on the wheel / prop / thruster. Increasing the power scale is similar to the motor drive on dediblades, which gives more push yet uses more power. Weng was busy working on bug fixes, some of which are multiplayer and backend stuff for our wings. Gladyon has also been working on the backend code for our new wing parts. The new Custom control surfaces will allow us to make wing flaps which can move and generate force for roll, pitch, up/down and yaw after being set up in the Q menu of that sections CCS.
There should be a nice gif showing off the flappy flaps flapping in action, but I could not upload it so feel free to check that out on Reddit or our main forum in the Developer updates section. Nick, has been working hard on the AI pathfinding in battles so that we no longer get landships as well as bug fixing and all that good stuff. Sean he is not cool enough to grace this post ;p So what is coming up next? I hear you scream. Our current and second sprint are listed below unless something gets pushed back or brought forward. I tried to export the info in a way that it wont burn out your retinas xD. If you have any questions about a particular card feel free to ask.

Next sprint is currently looking like this

As always we thank you all for your continued support and feedback! Join the rest of the community, who are always willing to help, chat, sharing blueprints and all that good stuff. https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/ Discord.gg/fromthedepths https://steamcommunity.com/app/268650 https://www.reddit.com/r/FromTheDepths/ https://twitter.com/FTD_Game https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDepthsGame/

[ 2020-07-01 18:09:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.7.3 Betatest (was known as Devtest)

Hey Depthians! We are releasing a new Betatest branch (previously known as Devtest) ; this version will be 2.7.3, which will include the changes and fixes in the changelog below. Later on we will also have an experimental branch, this branch will be used as a very early testing ground for features/bug fixes before hitting the Betatest branch. We do know about the issue with the reinforced wood texture, this is because currently there is no triplanar texture for wood and there is no non-triplanar texture for metal. We will resolve this in future. Thanks for all your support as always, and for all the encouraging and positive comments to the Strategic AI update. v2.7.3 [Add] : [BUGS-2217] Added an empty manoeuvre routine that can be used when you want to replace the AI manoeuvres entirely with a AI breadboard. v2.7.3 [Add] : The collision avoidance choice drop down in the adjuster is now fully functional for land/water/air avoidance toggling. v2.7.3 [Add] : The waypoints picked by non flagship forces when in fleet move is a bit more sensible, allowing better in formation movement v2.7.3 [Add] : Vehicles structures and fortresses now spawn on the terrain surface, never below it (structures already did this). v2.7.3 [Add] : Added option to disable mimic interaction tooltip outside of build mode v2.7.3 [Add] : It is now possible to mimic 'objects' like the moving part of a propeller. v2.7.3 [Add] : Steering points from the AI behaviours are now adjusted so they are on land/water (as appropriate based on your Adjuster) to help avoid crashing your ship into land or driving your tank into water v2.7.3 [Add] : Added the voice over for the fourth tutorial: 'automating your boat' v2.7.3 [Change] : Proxy fuse removed, old proxy fuses converted to inertials on load v2.7.3 [Change] : Ammo processor material cost from 50 to 300 v2.7.3 [Change] : 2 axis turret and elevation only turret health increased from 500 to 800, armor from 25 to 35 v2.7.3 [Change] : Armor of 1 axis turret variants increased from 15 to 35 v2.7.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-2115] Aerial collision avoidance changed so a docker will ignore it's dockees v2.7.3 [Fix] : Reinforced wood no longer uses an extra submesh for the metal part and as such is far less computationally demanding when used extensively. v2.7.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-827] Construct dimensions now decrease after removing blocks v2.7.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-2289] material cost shown in the V menu now does not include the contents of the blocks, just the blocks themselves. v2.7.3 [Fix] : Fixed some issues with operation of steam turbine out of play v2.7.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-2273] Linux issues with prefabs and the inventory now fixed v2.7.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-2248] fixed issues loading dead structures into campaign

[ 2020-06-19 17:50:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.7.2 small update and some new features.

Hey Depthians! We have released an update to stable v2.7.2. This addresses a few issues mainly the Linux prefab and menu bug, some new features, such as Wengs Q menu in designer mode which will allow you to refill ammo, fuel, resources, refill APS and more. v2.7.1 [Add] : [FTD-65] Added designer mode actions in interaction overlay (long-press Q on construct) to refill resources, reload APS shells, instantly repair blocks and kill construct v2.7.1 [Change] : [BUGS-1538] Projectiles now explode at an interpolated position if they are triggered by a fuse v2.7.1 [Fix] : Build menu prefabs have been updated. v2.7.2 [Add] : [BUGS-2217] Added an empty manoeuvre routine that can be used when you want to replace the AI manoeuvres entirely with a AI breadboard. v2.7.2 [Add] : Vehicles structures and fortresses now spawn on the terrain surface, never below it (structures already did this). v2.7.2 [Add] : Added option to disable mimic interaction tooltip outside of build mode v2.7.2 [Add] : It is now possible to mimic 'objects' like the moving part of a propeller. v2.7.2 [Add] : Added the voice over for the fourth tutorial: 'automating your boat' v2.7.2 [Change] : Proxy fuse removed, old proxy fuses converted to inertials on load v2.7.2 [Change] : Ammo processor material cost from 50 to 300 v2.7.2 [Change] : 2 axis turret and elevation only turret health increased from 500 to 800, armor from 25 to 35 v2.7.2 [Change] : Armor of 1 axis turret variants increased from 15 to 35 v2.7.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-2115] Aerial collision avoidance changed so a docker will ignore it's dockees v2.7.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-827] Construct dimensions now decrease after removing blocks v2.7.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-2289] material cost shown in the V menu now does not include the contents of the blocks, just the blocks themselves. v2.7.2 [Fix] : Fixed some issues with operation of steam turbine out of play v2.7.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-2273] Linux issues with prefabs and the inventory now fixed v2.7.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-2248] fixed issues loading dead structures into campaign

[ 2020-06-17 19:00:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Some news about Devtest 2.7.2 and a small update to stable.

Hey Depthians! We have had a number of reports regarding wheel load bearing which we are looking into and we are also investigating issues that are unique to linux and mac, such as the build menu list disappearing and invisible models. We released another little fix to stable which you can check out here dated 12/06/2020. We are also releasing a new Devtest branch which will be v2.7.2, currently it has a few minor features. However, we are carrying out some major optimisation work on fuel engines. It may be unstable to begin with and will need testing. Devtest will be available at some point Friday 12 You will find changes that Devtest has here, this forum post will be kept up to date. :)

[ 2020-06-11 22:49:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.7.1 Multiplayer hotfix.

Hey all! Hopefully you are all enjoying 2.7. Currently both DevTest and Stable are on the same build for now. We just released a hotfix for multiplayer and some other things which you can check out in the link below tagged with today's date 9th June. Or if you already read the full game news, this hotfix addresses: v2.7.1 [Add] : Added 1m ducts. v2.7.1 [Add] : Added 2m muzzle brake variant of new type. v2.7.1 [Change] : Updated the detection build menu. v2.7.1 [Fix] : Corrected radar signatures of ducts to match material type. v2.7.1 [Fix] : Fixed bug that cause host to throw an NullReferenceException when a client disconnects blocks on a different construct than the host v2.7.1 [Fix] : Build menu prefabs have been updated but a bug remains that affects ammo customisers that is being investigated. v2.7.1 [Fix] : Prowler and circuitbreaker missions bugfixed. v2.7.1 [Fix] : Corrected various misspellings of the word further. If you do run into issues and need to report any bugs please use the bug tracker page which I have left below. Please remember that we have set Neter 2019 physics as the default setting which you can turn off from Options > Config > Neter 2019 Settings, however we do not recommend it. Full update post Bugs go here

[ 2020-06-09 21:50:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Stable 2.7 Strategic AI update

Strategic AI update. What is up depthians! It is that time again where I say It is finally here, the update many of us have been waiting for and talking about [strike]The strategic AI[/strike] MORE SLOPES AND THE REAL 4M CORNER! Done by yours truly coz I am awesome and all that. (You may need to restart Steam if your game has not updated) We also have another massive list of bug fixes and tweaks and many new features, such as Area Erase in prefab mode, which will remove all blocks inside the prefab capture box. Block Group Erase activated with Shift-Del, which will remove all blocks in the selected connected block group, brought to us by Weng from a request made on our request tracker REQ-35. Weng also picked out a few more requests REQ-1150, a roll option for the Tractor Beam. REQ-176, a new chair that doesn't raise the height of the character.
REQ-1112 Added an option to disable pumps when the vehicle is frozen. What this means is, if you have the construct with capslock on and you have also enabled this option in Options > Build Options Disable pumps calculation when the vehicle is frozen which is on by default, this will improve performance as buoyancy calculations are made each time you place or remove a block when you have air pumps or helium pumps installed and active. Weng has also implemented a search function as you can see at the lower right corner, which will be of help to a number of us and we have resolved over 250 bug fixes, changes and additions!
When it comes to Wengs awesome additions...behold the Erase Block Group. No more must we delete things block by block xD Love it!
But wait there's more! Delete by area
And if you thought that was all, well you are wrong ;p Weng has created a method to show us which mimicked block is tied to a mimic.
We can now dedicate steam power to only spin our steam propellers by setting the Gearbox power output to 0 in our Gearbox Control. What this means is that it will stop power production on the steam gearbox that is only intended to power propellers.
As some of you know, boilers turn material into 'steam energy'. Pistons turn that steam energy into rotational energy of the crankshaft, pistons etc (energy-rpm ratio depends on the mass of the spinning assembly). Max power output and propeller thrust depend on the rpm (and thus on the energy in the system). Using power or using steam props removes energy from the system, depending on how much you use them. Friction also always removes energy from the system and removes more energy if rpm is higher. So using power or using steam props removes rotational energy from the spinning assembly and thus slows it down Keeping on the topic of power distribution, we can now set up priorities on our power generators. As you can see with the snippet above, we can set the power priority of that steam setup and with the fuel engine pic below as well as electric engines.
High priority engines are used first. Lower priority engines only produce power when higher ones are not enough. Another sweet addition is that we can right click our mousy while in any submenu in the build section which will exit the current submenu. As a number of you good people know, there are also a number of new blocks in the game now. We now have Offset Slopes which will help out our slope stacking builders. Before the new Offset Slopes, some of us made hulls stacking slopes like this pic
And now you can slope stack with these 1m Offset slopes leaving you a much smoother hull :D Look how happy it is, as it's now smoking hot!!
Read lots of comments with builders needing to mimic a 1m square corner and stretch it out to 4m. Well not anymore!! :D A pic of a rare real 4m square corner!
All sizes are included 2m to 4m There are also transitions from one slope to another. Slopes transitioning from one to another size up.
The 1 to 4m transition and the 2 to 4m
We also have inverse transitions which work the same as transitions however, they line up from the tip of the slopes. Beastman/Sean the Noob, has also been doing some stuff and things, like rearranging our build menu and adding some colouring to sections :D
The idea with the new layout is set with a build order in mind. First, you would state what construct you are making (Vehicle, Fort or Structure). From there you would start your build and that means structural blocks, then manoeuvre components and control to engines, spin blocks and the turret components etc There are also numerous prefabs ready to help you with your builds to speed up the process, or if you feel that you are a little too green still in some aspects, this update should have you covered. Most prefabs were sent to us from community members. We have hulls, fuel engines, steam engines, lams, lasers, APS, CRAMs, missile setups including antimissiles, AI setups, Dediblades and CJEs too! Big thanks to all that sent us prefabs :D
Another awesome addition is the APS customiser now has a module which can hold 4 components! :D
We also have new wing shapes which will allow us to nail most replica wings or any shape that tickles your fancy. There will be more wing additions implemented later on, and I believe we may see some flaps that actually move :D. However, I think I should go over a few things first.
If you do plan on making large wings, you may find that your construct is continuously gaining altitude and ending up in space. This is not a bug, it's simply the fact that we are now using more wing parts as they just look awesome and therefore we end up with more upwards push. If this does happen to you, simply take away some of the middle wing parts and replace them with the universal surface and set them to hover. This should look after your altitude, ofc don't forget to add some pitch, roll wing parts and the PIDs. Stuka Junker JU.blueprint CRAMs have also been tweaked and we now have this awesome UI, thanks to Draba, which will help us builders tune up our CRAM system. This is a handy UI for us to set ratios of what we want the CRAM to use. You will find the specific changes to the blocks further down in the change logs.
The screenshot above is the UI where you can set the sliders to the pellet ratios you want to use, and it switches out pellets/compactors to be close to that. So you have a CRAM with 100 total connections and set up 20 compactor (previously known as ammo box) /100 hardener/100 HE Total of your weights is 220. Compactor will be 20/220 so ~9%, hardener and HE both 100/220 so ~45.4% each Since you have 100 total connections it will try to get: 9 compactors 45 hardeners 45 HE The way this works is that it would look at all the pellets on your CRAM, and it starts to replace the ones with the lowest amount of packer connections with compactors (since compactors are the cheapest). Once it has 9 or more compactor connections it moves on to hardeners, then HE-Frag-EMP. So if it can't get the exact ratios (because there are only pellets with 2 and 4 connections, can't get 9) then it will use the topmost slider. If there are any rounding errors leftover (9+45+45 is only 99) it will dump the last few slots into HE-Frag-EMP-hardener, it chooses the first from that list that has a weight over 0. If a cell (the area where a pellet can be placed) only has 1 connection to its own cannon's packers but is shared between 4 cannons, it will count as a 4 slot one, so will get an expensive pellet, but the cannon that owns it will only get 1 connection from it and does not look at its neighbours. So if a cannon has 40 own pellets + 20 HE ones shared from a neighbour and is set to 100% hardener, it will end up with 40 hardener + 20 HE Be sure to have pellets installed in your cram as this will not add pellets for you, it only swaps them out! Draba has also given our fuel engines and CJEs a bit of an overhaul too. Custom jet engine basics

mechanics were reworked, should be simpler with more options
they are much more compact than powered jets
efficient CJEs give more thrust/fuel than powered jets
durability went up, now they can tank some hits
price went up

Custom jet efficiency

shorter ones are more viable, custom jet thrust no longer scales with the square of length
small custom jets are more powerful for a given volume, but have a lower fuel-efficiency than the full-sized version
choice is between being compact (combustion chambers, injector addons) or efficient (lots of compressors, intake addons, full intake clearance, exhaust)

Custom jet addons

they are now slightly more expensive (both in materials and volume) than base components
using addons means you need lower volume in base components, losing those usually cripples the engine so addons make same thrust a bit more durable

Fuel engine basics

mechanics reworked, volume-efficiency went up and fuel-efficiency down
all components should be useful for some purpose now, turbos aren't just better than anything else above a certain size
propulsion fuel cost for fast things is noticeable
old engines should keep working and generally give more power, but use more fuel

Fuel engine efficiency

an engine is now either compact or fuel-efficient
from dense to efficient: injector, 1 turbo/carburettor, medium RPM supercharger, 2-3 turbos/carburettor, low RPM supercharger
radiators are much stronger now, but are somewhat expensive relative to other fuel engine components

Fuel engine exhausts

exhaust gas from a given source now looks for pipe exits with no turbochargers between the exit and the source
if it finds some it distributes the exhaust gas evenly between the clear exits
if it finds no unobstructed exits it'll distribute the gases evenly between the turbos with the least amount of chained turbos behind them
gas pressure is now used up by turbos up to a cap, excess above that cap passes through them.

Exhaust demo I

gas from green section is divided evenly between yellow section turbos
yellow section has a clear exit so red turbos get no gas

Exhaust demo II

gas from green section is divided evenly between yellow turbos

leftover gas from yellow section is divided evenly between red turbos

leftover gas from red section is divided evenly between red exits

Engines, from left to right fuel-efficiency increases and power/volume decreases (see attached blueprint)

injector
injector with extra cooling
1 turbo/carb
2 turbos/carb
Medium RPM supercharger
2 turbos/carb, chained
3 turbos/carb Low RPM supercharger

example_engines.blueprint With all that out the way, we shall now go over the main focus of this update, the Strategic AI and how this AI will work and how the change to the resource zones are working. The Strategic AI assigns numerous jobs to constructs, such as capture territory, build forts on resource zones to mine up materials, defend / attack / repair, transport materials to the HQ and build constructs. We shall be seeing more AI jobs in future however we wanted to get the basics laid out and working. The AI is building and transporting materials just like us when we are playing From The Depths. Force strength on tiles has been removed, however, there are territory boundaries. Territories will grow or shrink as the factions battle it out taking territory from one another. The AI will attack other factions HQ or forts on resource zones to capture and then build their fort and use as well as attacking constructs. To stay on topic regarding territory, a faction will set up fleets to counter, intercept and pursue any invading forces. It will gather and group up constructs to form a fleet or build new constructs if it thinks that the current constructs are not up to the task, or if the current fleets already have orders such as attack, defend or intercept/pursue. As we have mentioned force strength we should also discuss how the difficulty is set up and how the AI will determine what is best suited to put against you depending on how well your constructs are doing + the selected difficulty level The campaign still has four difficulties: easy, medium, expert and godly but these will not be tied to fixed design difficulties. Design difficulties will instead be automatically generated by assessing the firepower to material cost ratio. The AI will build using materials and will bring out the efficient killing machines when the player is doing well. To explain the doing well. Firepower to material ratio is split into containers, with each container holding easy, medium, expert and godly constructs. The system would be tracking how much of the last million (example number) materials that were destroyed belonged to the player and how much the opposing faction did. During each battle damage is done to the players construct by an enemy construct, and the firepower to material ratio is added to the player side of the appropriate container and damage to said enemy construct is added to the faction side of the same container. The enemy faction would build from the containers where the KD ratio is somewhat equal, less than or greater than, depending on the difficulty level. As an example and imaginary numbers, with godly difficulty, the AI would build preferentially from containers where the KD ratio is 1. However, in easy difficulty the AI will choose constructs from containers where the KD ratio is 10 or more in the players favour. The AI can also reposition constructs during battle setup and also add constructs that are within x range to the lineup. As you all probably know by now, resource zones have also changed. The material value of the campaign is calculated at the start of the campaign. It is the sum of the resource zone material, the blueprint costs and their stored ammo and fuel. As the campaign progresses materials may be lost or used up in combat and causes the material value of the campaign to drop. Every second the game will pump fresh materials into the resource zones so that the total material balance of the campaign remains constant. This means that in order to grow your material economy you'll need to take it from other factions by destroying their fleets, scavenging the dropped material and conquering the resource zones that will be replenished with any spent materials lost in the combat. Unfortunately Steam, has a character limit xD and I could not leave the change log, so please check that out here on the main forum Strategic AI update thread.

[ 2020-06-08 13:14:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Neter 2019 Physics and Save file compatibility with the coming update.

We will be setting Neter 2019 physics as the default setting with the coming update, this may affect a number of your builds in terms of forward and upwards thrust. You can turn on the 2019 physics from now if you wish from Options > Config > Neter 2019 Settings. Campaign saves from the current stable will not work when the update goes live

[ 2020-06-06 16:30:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

A little news about upcoming sprints / Devtest / Stable updates.

Hey everyone we have decided that we are aiming to release devtest builds to stable after each sprint is completed. The current sprint is estimated to be completed around the 8th of June. So there should be a stable release shortly afterwards. The main thing is that stable is actually stable and is relatively up to date. With the "stable" part in mind, this is why we are waiting another week to get to the bottom of some particularly nasty lockup bugs to increase the robustness of the game. We apologise to all that have been waiting eagerly for the fixes and new features in devtest to hit stable. You just need to wait a tiny bit longer! Thanks.

[ 2020-05-29 17:32:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Current Roadmap 25/05/2020

Hey everyone, below is a link to the current roadmap to release. This doesnt always include bugs and a few things like the world builder are still being discussed. There are windows where we may take on requests from the request board. At the start of each sprint period Ill update the roadmap. This is NOT set in stone. Some things may take longer, other things may be done quicker. Some things from post release may move in to the earlier sprints, these are ESTIMATES.

[ 2020-05-25 20:55:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.5.2.11 [Stable]

Welcome back to another round of bug fixes and tweaks. We are pushing this small update to stable since we will be setting up the ammo overhaul in a devtest branch soon() and for now, we will be using the ammo processors to produce the ammo in that devtest branch only! This update, as well as our previous update, brings a number of changes to faction craft. A number of constructs were cut, meaning the spawn chance is set to 0. However, you can still find them in the world editor tagged retired after the name. The idea is to prepare for future AI changes and campaign overhaul. Some changes that we wanted to see was not having numerous designs that were very similar to each other as we wanted constructs to be specialised in certain tasks and probably classes. Currently, we have removed 15-20 constructs from the DWG, OW, LH, and WF from the spawn lists and removing more from other factions in future. DWG has had many designs made to do strange some strange things or fight in different ways. OW has a number of new classes of ships which were conversions of older designs. They now have 4 new Missile ships with slow large missiles, 3 Tank ships that have heavy armour that move faster and get up close to fight, and the Warden has been converted to Artillery. WF has had significant changes to many designs making them more aggressive in melee. Their aircraft have been removed if they did not specialize in melee attacks. Check out the old Gnumura, now known as The Last Rite its a scary beast. The Old priest ships are being rebuilt to be better looking and specialize in certain things. LH has had their small laser designs changed to either Short-range lasers or Missiles to compensate for their lack of damage. All small designs have been increased in speed, some by a lot. The Battleship Terrawatt is now a 100 m/s Hydrofoil battleship. SS has started their update process, some designs have been improved or fixed. Not many big changes yet, but in the future, all shark ships will be replaced. Currently, DWG and OW are finished, WF is 95% done, LH 90% done, SS 15% done. This update brings a few bug fixes and changes to steam : Starting pressure in the pipes is now 0.1 time the pressure of the connected boiler with the highest pressure [BUGS-1640]. : Target pressure set to 100k max [BUGS-1624]. : Formula changed for the material burned ratio, it is now * ((x+0.3) * (x+0.3) - 0.09) / 8.0 where 'x' is the burn rate [0..1]Missile fix (Im sure Borderwise is happy with this :D ) : Fixed issues with cluster missiles causing them not to fire under AI control and to calculate the size of the container incorrectly depending on the placement of the container controller. Lastly some UI tweaks and changes to Cram : Weapons and LWCs now show how much materials they have destroyed, and how much ammo and energy they have expended. : Local weapon controller updated. : Double ended sliders with a min and a max value have been added to the game. : The display block is now fully customisable : Docking station UI updated : Anti missile cannon controller UI updated : CRAM Fusing box UI updated : Decoy UIs updated : Belt fed autoloader UI updated : Signal jammer UI updated : Enemy simulator UI updated : Laser colorer UI updated : Laser warner UI updated : Missile stagger UI updated : Poster holder UI updated : Smoke generator UI updated : Steam release valve UI updated : Teleport pad UI updated : Wireless camera UI updated : Vehicle spawner UI now has path selection and testing features : Simple laser UI now has option to change laser beam color : [BUGS-1595] Fixed being to remove inputs from the PID component : [BUGS-1554] Fixed errors caused by removing the input of a printer component. Also added the button to add the an input after deleting it. : [BUGS-1543] The settings in the 'Environment' tab of the options menu now also apply to custom battle. Making the avatar immortal now also applies to custom battles. : CRAM cannons set to 'prefer high' or 'prefer low' if the actual arc used to aim is the high one. : CRAM shell guidance for high arcs now also compensates for weapon inaccuracy. : CRAM shell lifetime is now increased if the flight time of the shell is expected to be very long. : Added a configurable maximum muzzle velocity to CRAM cannons.

[ 2019-12-12 16:19:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 2.5.2.7 [Stable] Cluster missiles, Steam tweaks and fixes.

We are back with another CLUSTER of bug fixes, tweaks and new features which we hope you will all like :D A quick note before we get to the goodies. We have turned off Steam cloud sync as it has been causing some upsets and issues, this will remain off for the foreseeable future. :( To continue with steam but the steamy type. Gladyon has tweaked up our steam systems so that we can run them more efficiently. We can set the steam pressure to start with when spawning/pulling the construct into play/battle, and we can also set the material burn rate or use the auto-regulate function so that we reach the given pressure. This can be done via the boiler controller UI or ACB.
We can also use ACBs to check the steam pressure of the closest boiler on the same construct, spin block and piston. Material consumption has also been tweaked such that the consumption is more efficient at low burn rates and less with high burn rates.

Gladyon has also increased the volume that large boilers have to 10% more volume than 9 small, and huge boilers to 20% more volume than 25 small ones. Steam engines now consume material in out of play while the vehicle is moving using steam jets or steam propellers, however, constructs will not consume material out of play for power generation if there is no turbine or generator. Next, we have Nicks Cluster missiles, a new feature in From the Depths which I have covered here: https://youtu.be/LmQtViNwqz0 In that upload, I go through how we create the parent missile that will fire off the child missile and also parent to fire parent+child to fire a child, and we can also use flares with missile interceptors inside them. What I did not cover is that we can have a small missile carrying small missiles or medium carrying medium and large carrying large. We have three new components, the Cluster container controller, which allows us to set how our missile will behave and fire off any child missile.
The Cluster container extension which gives us length and volume to hold our child missiles and the Cluster ejector which goes on any child missile or parent which is also a child missile eg: L holding M holding S the M missile is the parent and child at the same time in this case. You can find the stats on volume and size at the very bottom of the stats window, in the picture above you can see the stats and this L missile can hold 11m in length and 2.16m cubed volume. We will also see these stats on a missile which has the Container ejector installed, informing us how long in terms of Container extension length we need and volume on the parent missile. A small example of a large missile that would fire 4 medium missiles which they would then fire off 4 small missiles each.
There will be some tweaks coming to cluster missiles in terms of ammo costs for the extensions etc. We may also have a method to spread out the child missiles from the parent missile in future (like the ejector setup for missiles). Nick has also started work on the achievements. The first step towards us unlocking achievements is the authoring of constructs and subobjects/prefabs. As you can see from my most epic life-like sculpture of Beastman our business manager, in the top box we have Name and author. This is where all the details will go in regards to who made this and how many blocks were added by others.
Draba has made a whole lot of changes ranging from ammo use, elevation, range, mat costs and a number of other stats to our simple weapons, you can see the list in the patch log section below. He has also tweaked up the Signal Jammer and replaced this with a Sensor Scrambler ECM. This will use power and reduce the bearing/range accuracy of enemy sensors, however, the strength falls off with distance 80/67/50/29% at a range of 500/1000/2000/5000m, their strength stacks with each other. Other changes to detection are: Visible, radar and sonar detection range is reduced to 30% for subconstructs. Being close to the ground or sea surface decreases the radar detection range. Radar signature change increase from 75% at 0m to 100% at 50m. Being high above the ground increases the radar detection range. Radar signature change increase from 100% at 50m to 135% at 400m. Fav pick of pics. These were created and posted by Tourist in our discord channel. Very well made, so much detail has been put into these tanks its unbelievable. Well done!!

: Pressure when spawned can now be configured (it will be the 'auto-regulated one'). : It is now possible to auto-regulate the material burn in order to achieve the given pressure (configurable using the boiler controller UI or an ACB). : It is now possible to check the pressure of the closest boiler controller (on the same construct, spinBlock, piston, etc.). : New 'Clear shells' action for the APS firing pieces. : Material consumption is more efficient at low burn rates, and less efficient at high burn rates. : Large boilers now have 10% more volume than 9 small ones. : Huge boilers now have 20% more volume than 25 small ones. : The minimum distance is now '1' (as it will select no block, there's no need for '0') [BUGS-1620]. : Steam engines now consume material in out of play when the vehicle is moving using steam jets or steam propellers. : Steam do not consume material out of play for power generation if there's no turbine or generator. : All non-water-only propulsion will now work fine in a closed room with an air pump [BUGS-1537]. : Turbo-charger buoyancy fixed [BUGS-1487]. : Winch description now indicates that it must be connected to the launchpad [BUGS-1438]. : [BUGS-1460] fixed an issue with mainframe naming on the AI interface. : Removed the velocity estimate of the aim point for sea skimming mode and one turn mode to stop conflicts : Fixed an uncommon issue with the deletion of a blueprint potentially breaking the UI. : [BUGS-1565] Fixed a bug in the left click place, right click place build mode options when left mouse is held down. : [BUGS-1614] UI line overlays are no longer affected by ambient lighting levels.", : [BUGS-1484] barrel placement when 5 or 6 barrels is now perfectly symmetric/spaced. : [BUGS-1497] Reduced some garbage allocations and moved some large calculations to background threads to make game run smoother in adventure mode and other modes. : [BUGS-1570] Tweaked the way the water clarity slider works and how the underwater shader looks. : [BUGS-1566] Building mode free paint issues corrected. : authoring details to vehicles/structures/fortresses placed in 2.5.2 and beyond. This will be used to help with the unlocking of steam achievements. : Added a quick edit button to save a copy of the suggested vehicle and open the designer ready to edit it : Added a 'tag' system for story mission arcs to allow the automatic assignment of a player edited blueprint from mission to mission. : Added a firepower estimate adjustment for each design so that the AI will be able to better select units to match the player skill in future. : Added a Cluster munition system to the missiles. Cluster containers can fire missiles cluster ejector units that fit (length and volume) into the cluster container. : When you launch designer with a default vehicle it no longer spawns the vanilla designer raft. : The effect for dying in the absense of a heartstone has been changed and it's more clear what is going on. : When the adjuster is set to 'on water' the altitude of the behaviour set point is no longer lost. : Applique has a new model and material to reduce vertex count. : The display block is now fully customisable. : Docking station UI updated. : Anti missile cannon controller UI updated. : CRAM Fusing box UI updated. : Decoy UIs updated. : Simple laser UI now has option to change laser beam color. : Simple lasers and cannons show their firepower stats and ammo use in their tooltips. : Particle cannons show their firepower in their tooltip. : The total firepower and the firepower breakdown in the V menu now includes simple weapons and particle cannons. : Combiner and short range combiner got a slider: only fire if cavities are at least X% charged. : Combiners now display on their tooltip if they are waiting for burst charge, or if total cavity energy is stopping them from firing. : Non-hollow point kinetic damage gets a boost at lower diameters: KD_MULTIPLIER = MAX(2, (500/DIAMETER)^0.25). : Kinetic base AP increased by 20%. : Heavy head AP goes from ~30 to ~36 with 5GP/2 solids. : AP head AP modifier down from 1.8 to 1.65, AP goes from ~60 to ~65. : Sabot head AP modifier down from 3 to 2.5 (AP unchanged), kinetic modifier from 0.75 to 0.85. : Hollow point head AP modifier from 0.5 to 0.45. : Explosive shock now uses the same damage scaling as missiles and APS. : Explosive shock now uses the same radius scaling as missiles and APS: RADIUS = DAMAGE^0.3. : Explosive shock base damage is 50% of impact/piercing, instead of 100%. : SRLC minimum range increased from 50 to 100, max is still 300 : SRLC does 200% total damage at max focus, 400% at min. : SRLC only has 75% AP at max focus, 50% at min. : SRLC inaccuracy is 1 at max focus, 2 at min. : Explosive warheads used for HEAT/HESH now contribute to HE damage, as they should : Gunpowder casing damage for clip explosions halved (7.5 gunpowders are the same as 1 HE). : LAMS nodes now display a warning in their tooltips if the laser has storage for less than 15 seconds of pumping : Armor for all turret and spinner block increased from 15 to 25. : Airplane maneouvre got an option to pitch towards the waypoint, instead of pitching to reach target altitude ASAP. Smoother and easier to use, this is the default. : Bombing run behavior got an abort distance and abort timer. It'll cancel the run that time after touching the abort distance. This helps to avoid getting stuck with short range weapons. : M interceptor base damage from 10000 to 12000. : Missile HE explosions now always originate 1m behind the nose. : Remote guidance got an option, oldest one self-destructs when its launchpad fired a 2nd one(5th for quads). Default is off. : Fixed a bug, remote guided missiles properly. : Speed bonus at high altitudes reduced, speeds increased across the board. : Missiles with fins can got a small lateral movement to increase hit rates. : At high speeds IR seekers aim 1-3m ahead of the target block. : Visible, radar and sonar detection range is reduced to 30% for subconstructs. : Being close to the ground or sea surface decreases radar detection range. Radar signature changes increases from 75% at 0m to 100% at 50m. : Being high above the ground increases radar detection range. Radar signature changes increases from 100% at 50m to 135% at 400m. : Chaff emitters can't reduced radar detection range below 50% of the original. : Signal jammer replaced with Sensor scrambler ECM", : Sensor scrambler uses power and reduces bearing/range accuracy of enemy sensors. : Sensor scrambler strength falls off with distance: 80/67/50/29% at 500/1000/2000/5000m. : Sensor scramblers stack, their effective strength is summed to determine the accuracy reduction. : Sensor accuracy multiplied by: 10 + (MIN(SCRAMBLERS_POWER_SUM, 20000) / 20000) ^ 0.25. 76% for 100 power, 57% for 1000, 24% for 10000. : Remote guidance missile direct accuracy reduction from jammers removed(they are affected by worse detection. : Laser designator receiver inaccuracy from smoke halved, max 3.5m for 1000 strength smoke and 7m for 5000. : Remote missiles now properly use general purpose processing power again.: [BUGS-1594] Point at and circling AIs now properly pitch/roll to match the target if it's above the craft. : Damage/AP fixed, instead of 400 DPS with 35 AP they have 1000/8 as shown in their tooltip. : Fixed SRLC multiplying damage every time the beam kills a block. : Health from 350 to 500. : Armor from 15 to 20. : Damage from 30 to 100. : AP from 4 to 10. : Inaccuracy from 2.5 to 1. : Ammo cost from 10 to 15. : Cost from 10 to 200. : Health from 650 to 2500. : Armor from 15 to 25. : Damage from 150 to 200. : Magazine reload time from 2.2 to 6s. : Cost from 80 to 1000. : Health from 840 to 800. : Armor from 10 to 20. : Damage from 220 to 250. : Ammo use from 50 to 25. : Cost from 60 to 100. : Health from 840 to 800. : Armor from 10 to 20. : Ammo use from 30 to 10. : Cost from 60 to 100. : Armor from 10 to 15. : AP from 20 to 10. : Simple Rokkits gun", "Inaccuracy from 18 to 7.5. : Ammo use from 500 to 1000. : Cost from 125 to 500. : Armor from 20 to 25. : Max shell length from 0.5 to 0.3m. : Inaccuracy modifier reduced to 30% the previous value. : Time between shots from 0.8 to 2s. : Magazine reload time from 30 to 60s. : Inaccuracy down to 30% the previous value. : Cost from 100 to 250. : Health from 1200 to 3000. : Armor from 15 to 30. : Damage from 150 to 300. : Ammo use from 200 to 80. : Explosive damage from 200 to ~157, radius from 0.5 to 4.6m. : Magazine reload from 3.5 to 9s. : Cost from 125 to 1000. : Weight from 150 to 200. : Health from 1500 to 3500. : Armor from 15 to 30. : Damage from 150 to 300. : Ammo use from 400 to 160. : Explosive damage from 200 to ~157, radius from 0.5 to 4.6m. : Magazine reload from 3.2 to 13s. : Cost from 275 to 1500. : Weight from 200 to 300. : Health from 1700 to 3500. :Armor from 15 to 25. :Damage from 150 to 300. :Reload time from 0.225 to 0.4. :Ammo use from 1500 to 1000. :Explosive damage from 200 to ~157, radius from 0.5 to 4.6m. : Magazine reload from 12 to 30s. : Magazine capacity from 1120 to 200. : Cost from 575 to 4000. : Weight from 260 to 350. : Health from 1700 to 3000. : Armor from 15 to 25. : 1.5x damage multiplier removed. : Fixed firerate changed, uses 15% of the last shell's reload time instead. : Cost from 150 to 2000. : Health from 1600 to 3500. : Armor from 15 to 30. : 1.5x damage multiplier removed. : Fixed firerate changed, uses 15% of the last shell's reload time instead. : Cost from 175 to 2500. : Weight from 220 to 300. : Health from 2500 to 4500. : Armor from 20 to 30. : 2x damage multiplier removed. : Fixed firerate changed, uses 20% of the last shell's reload time instead. : Cost from 275 to 2500. : Health from 3500 to 6000. : Armor from 20 to 30. : 2x damage multiplier removed. : Fixed firerate changed, uses 30% of the last shell's reload time instead. : Cost from 350 to 3500. : Ammo use from 10 to 5. : Cost from 30 to 100. : Inaccuracy from 2 to 1. : Ammo use from 30 to 15. : Inaccuracy from 0.2 to 0.1 : Cost from 100 to 150. : Ammo use from 75 to 30. : Maximum elevation from 15 to 20. : MAzimuth range from 11 to 15. : Minimum elevation from 0 to -10. : Ammo use from 75 to 30. : Cost from 60 to 250. : Health from 1120 to 1200. : Cost from 100 to 150.

[ 2019-11-29 17:37:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.5.1.12 Stable release.

What is up awesome FromTheDepthians! We have released the current devtest build into stable, which brings you good people the following goodies and some new additions :D Some minor changes to a few block types such as; Munition warners can see through railings Sheild projector UI has been updated APS and Crams now have the option to aim straight at the enemy, ignoring gravity and movement, which can be found in the dropdown list when using Q on the turret and changing from Only low to Direct line. Crams also have a tiny bit of guidance and built-in gravity compensator when using aim setting Only High this will give them a slightly better chance of hitting an enemy. In terms of propulsion changes; Dedi-blades are now more powerful when the blades are further away from the centre axis. This reflects the increased area of air swept Helium pumps are now more powerful. Both air and helium pumps have changed the way that they leak to be more realistic. Propellers now have a pitch adjustment so that they can be angled -15 to +15, so we can now counter wheelies or nose dives if we place a number of props under the or over the centre of mass for forwards push. This may be added to all propulsion types in future.

We have also created a patreon page and we have had two Patreon requests already which we have added to the game. We now have a slider that changes the clarity of the ocean depth you can see through. This can only be used if you have GPU ocean enabled. This slider is also available in the planet editor too. Spot the difference:

The settings for these two screenies were clarity factor 10 first pic and 0 second pic. Set this to 1 for default settings.
Our second Patreon request was to add gravity, drag, particle count and lifetime to the smoke generator for a more realistic smoke trail.
Nick has also added a new laser fire piece Short Range Laser, which can deal very powerful short-range beams for bombing runs, interceptors or melee style constructs.
The shorter the focus range is the higher the damage multiplier will be. 50m would have a x10 multiplier so you can indeed dish out quite a bit of damage! 300m is the max distance for this system, the multiplier would be x2.880665 which is still very good (imo) :D
As many of you already know during this latest devtest we have finally got our hands on the epic Undo Redo feature by Weng :D So just in case you did not know, the Undo Redo feature is in stable! Have you accidentally chopped your whole boat in half?? Fear not little Rambot! Smash that CTRL Z and bring it all back!! And if you are still not happy smash CTRL Y and lose half your boaty again :D rinse and repeat until content. The Undo Redo feature does not have a limit as to how many blocks it keeps track of for you to undo, so you can manually delete 100 or 1000 blocks one by one and spam CTRL Z to bring them all back. However, once you save and exit the game that history will be lost! The Undo Redo will also resolve misclicks like deleting the turret block by mistake or deleting the block under the turret block thus killing your turret. One CTRL Z and you have the block you deleted back again and also the turret :D Spin blocks and pistons, stacked or not, are also recognised by this feature and any blocks that were attached to them. Our latest new addition is the Steam Jet, from our most awesome Weng :D
Steam Jets can use a maximum of 2000 steam per second, which will give us 2000 thrust. You can also hit Q on the steam jet and lower the amount of steam used. As an example, I have a light flyer and using steam jets for yaw, I would set these around 500 to be on par with a small jet or even lower to 150. The minimum is 1. Currently the steam jet does not have a max speed, however, this is subject to change! You can find this awesome new addition in Steam Engines/Piping - Steam Jet at 50 material :D To continue on this steamy subject, Weng has also made us a new drill which is currently quite deadly! As you can see below. I have attached the steam setup and drill on two telescopic pistons, just to help reach those parts that matter most :D and if you find people are making fun of your drill, feel free to extend your shaft much as you please with the shaft extension block.
The steam drill is made up of two parts the drill head 150 materials and the drill shaft 100 materials. Currently, the health and armour are the same for all 3 steam setups small/med/large at 1500 health and 25 armour. We are also tweaking up tutorials to also have voice instructions, currently, the 1st tutorial has the voice of T3hJimmer. Patch notes : [REQ-835] Munition warners now see through railings (and any other block transparent to IR light). : The power of a dedi-blade is now more powerful the further away from the axis it is- which reflects the increased area of air swept. : [FTD-7] shield projector UI updated. : Helium pumps are now more powerful, and air pumps and helium pumps have changed the way that they leak to be more realistic. : Propellers now have a 'pitch' adjustment so they can be angled -15 to +15 : Added a short-range laser that can deal a very powerful short-range beam for bombing runs, fighter-interceptors or melee style laser units. : Added a voice over to the first tutorial. Controls>: You can now modify the pitch of water propellers. [Patreon request]: Added a slider for water clarity that affects the depth you can see through the GPU ocean. It's available in the planet editor for weathers but the player also has their own slider in the options menu for it. [Patreon request]: Added a gravity, drag, particle count and lifetime slider to the smoke generator to achieve more realistic smoke trails : [BUGS-1491] Fixed an issue existing since april '19 caused could be caused by repairing a mainframe with particular AI behaviours on it : [BUGS-1550] laser target data now saves for CRAM cannon laser target block. : [BUGS-1545] short range laser beam is now correctly colorable : [BUGS-1544] Circling Ship and Circling Tank simple AI cards now correctly configure the adjuster when freshly placed. : [BUGS-1464] some small fixes to sub object saving and loading : [Bugs-1463] Out of play repairing bug causing massive speed and altitude fixed : Added in undo/redo functionality for building. : Added Steam Jet. : Added Steam shaft and steam head. Added added to APS and CRAM to aim the cannon straight at the enemy, ignoring gravity and movement. : Shells fired by a CRAM cannon set to aim using only high trajectories now have a tiny bit of guidance to give them some chance of ever hitting an enemy. They also get a build in gravity compensator.

[ 2019-10-31 19:24:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.5.0.7 [Stable]

What is up, awesome people of the internet. We have been working our empennages off once again like someone strapped a Small Custom Jet Engine to it! We are really pleased to introduce you all to the new Small Custom Jet engine, which has been created by the awesome Weng! :D. We also have Drabas legendary APS overhaul, which has been a very hot topic (Any APS numbers are subject to change) we also have a new missile warhead! And other missile tweaks, not only that but tweaks to the shield generators, and projectors, its an extensive list which you will find in the patch notes section and the proposal post linked above. Our artistic Mattia has created a number of new sounds and updated a number of sounds. Of course, we cannot forget Gladyon and Nick with the bug squishing, and Joris getting things ship shape for the campaign overhaul, and if you have missed the discussion you can find it . So before this little intro gets plane boring, let's get into some detail with all the new stuff and things.
Small Custom Jet Engine. If we create two CJEs exactly the same however one would be the small variant, we should see a difference in force and fuel usage at around 1/9th of the large CJE. The CJEs have a number of parts exactly like the standard CJE, the major parts are currently 5 materials cheaper, while the addons like extra compressor, fuel injector and combustor are 2 materials cheaper than the standard CJE. Large and to some extent small CJE addons have had a small change in the way they work. Prior to this update, the addons connect in a number of directions and when they connect, the model of the addon automatically rotates to line up with the main jet. This is what will be changing, they will only connect in one direction and must be manually rotated to fit on. The caveat to this is that they will still provide their benefit even though the model is not visibly being attached and also showing us the warning in the tooltip, which will be sorted out in the next few updates. In future add ons will not work if they are not properly attached and this of course means the sharing of addons between CJEs will be removed Both CJEs have had their sounds changed which also changes in comparison to the force they are outputting. We are looking forward to seeing all your builds using these little babies :D and if you cannot wait to build something to use them (unless you have been using the DevTest branch), then I have you awesome people covered :D I have also left it plain for you to colour in :P
SmallGunShipThing This is by no means efficient or the best way to setup CJEs and don't expect it to 1 shot a moray or live too long :P We won't be held responsible for the loss of life or being sacrificed by the White Flayers. Seeing these missiles brings us to the next sweet addition to From The Depths, which is the Shaped charge head. It has the same drag as a thumper and uses the HE warheads placed directly behind it, blasting a stream of superheated armour-piercing copper into our target. So feel free to change the missiles in the little drone, they should be long enough to have some fun :D While you are using the little drone above and if you add some munition warners, or your own construct, you will be able to hear some new beeps and alarms when you Q on the warner.
We have added alert noises for missile detection, torpedo detection with active sonar, shell detection, radar ping detection and sonar ping detection. Now if you do want to sit there and listen to all the new alarms but don't want to see your construct full of holes, then we suggest you turn on God Mode! :D (or be boring and just hover the cursor over the options in the warning sound settings) Yes!, we now have the ability to make our constructs invulnerable in designer mode only.
Yellow / Gold is on and white is off :D Our Crams have had a little bit of love as we now have tooltips showing damage and shell power/firepower at the highest rate of fire the cannon is capable of. Michael has also been busy with the story missions and they are now accessible in the Fight menu, however they are still being worked on! As always I pic something sweet you awesome people create. This was posted by Object2791 @Object2791 on our @FTD_Game twitter Boss Ship from Darius Gaiden
Patch notes: : Added in a smaller 1x1x1 variant of the Custom Jet Engine. : Flags are now moving using wind, vehicle and SubConstruct velocity, and they also are oriented correctly [REQ-34]. : The assault cannon is now displaying the build arrow [BUGS-1361]. : The name of the ammo controllers is now displayed in the list of controllers attached to a simple weapon [BUGS-1360]. : Loading a blueprint with the avatar in the chair is now working again [BUGS-1423]. : PAC charge time is now saved/loaded properly [BUGS-1417]. : Spinblocks mode not locked properly [BUGS-1390]. : Exhausts are now detected correctly even when the CPU is under heavy load [BUGS-1389]. : When the limit number of shells is reached, the oldest ones will be removed instead of the newest ones [BUGS-1382]. : Fragments shouldn't go through armor as often as before when the target is moving fast [BUGS-1172]. : Flags are now updated immediately when changed [BUGS-1344] : Up to 4 fleet colors can now be saved, named and/or protected (*** : Game configuration panel of options menu now has an alternative (2019) Neter physics setting that we are experimenting with. : Added missile launch sounds. : Added missile reload sounds. : Tidied up the missile burn sound. : Fixed the sound manager so that fast firing cannons do not become inaudible. : Replaced the simple laser sound. : Updated jet SFX. : Added a sound when rambot jumps. : Added the #hashtag system for sounds. : Added a button to the UI displaying how to get into the avatar inventory screen. : Added alert noises for missile detection, torpedo detection (with active sonar), shell detection, radar ping detection and sonar ping detection. : God mode for vehicles is now toggleable in the 'C' menu in designer- allowing easier testing of a craft or weapons without being blown up. : Right click with the river tool now removes a neighbour-merge on one specific side- allowing you to make better rivers and mountain ranges using the river tool . : [FTD-118] ability to add custom scripts to all instances added. : Added sliders in the game config for adjusting APS speed, missile speed and CRAM speed. : I have removed the building control variant where G locks and unlocks the build marker orientation (when unlocked it automatically followed camera placement orientation) and tab would flip the build marker upside down when unlocked. This is a hang over from the initial style implemented 6 years ago where blocks were all 1x1x1 and their orientation was not that important. You can still tap G to orient the block in the direction of the camera, so you are not forced to use the rotation widget (tab). : Changing the controller mode of a vehicle controller can now only be done by looking at the controller and pressing Q. : Story missions have been removed whilst we work on fixing them up : Dangerous waters has now been entirely removed from FtD : [BUGS-1418] fix for saving vehicles in multiplayer obelisk assault map : Fixed a bug with ailerons and universal control surfaces when placed on spinners / turrets. : [BUGS-1425] Fixed an issue with the point at behaviour and the ship/tank manoeuvre combination where the vehicle would never 'idle' because it never met it's point at combat altitude. : Fixed a bug where you can be left with two avatars if you restart designer whilst drop pod is falling : Fixed a number of bugs with the map editor height map editing screen. : AICirclingTankCard, AICirclingShipCard, AICirclingPlaneCard,AICirclingHoverCard have been adjusted so that the IDs of the routines they make are actually unique. This change will cause some small issues for cards that have been placed so far (duplicate behaviours and maneouvres) but will fix other issues in the long term. : [BUGS-791] Rudders now respond again to custom controls. : [BUGS-1476] default pitch angle for altitude control is now 15 degrees in the AI plane cards. : Lasers cavities now spawn with up to 30 seconds worth of pump energy. : LAMS node cost down from 200 to 100. : Laser cavity energy back from 100/400/4000 to 150/600/6000. : Laser shields are now the equivalent of 100 smoke strength/shield strength, instead of 175. Final AP at STR 10 from ~24.9% to 30% : Missile damage cut to 1/2 the previous value. : Missile HP reduced by 25%. : Missile body/thumper HP modifier back from 150% to 200%. : Missile thump damage up by 25%. : CIWS damage multiplier up from 8 to 10. : L missile 50% HP bonus removed". : Signal jammer maximum error added to remote guidance reduced from 15m to 10m. : Prelock thrust now can't reduce thrust below 50% of the minimum setting for the propulsion component. : Shaped charge head added, same drag as thumper. It fully uses the HE warheads directly behind it. : Thrust-based detection range doubled. : Multiple HE/EMP/flak warheads give a linear damage increase (also goes for HE behind HEAT/HESH). : Smoke warhead smoke amount at 500mm up from 600 to 1000, has linear stacking. : Velocities of shells with the same modules now match at different sizes(no more penalty for small ones). : Kinetic damage down to ~. : Kinetic AP up to 1.5-3 times the previous values. : Kinetic damage scales linearly with shell length. More bodies with same propellant and rail draw = higher kinetic damage but less AP, lower speed, higher ammo cost and higher reloadtime. : Hollow point AP now scales with speed/shell AP modifier. : Explosive radius has the same scaling as missiles, DAMAGE^0.3 (slightly higher for low cal, lower for high cal). Missiles down from 0.34 to 0.3. : Flak radius is now 3x the radius of a HE explosion with the same damage. : Frag adjusted to match the missile HE-frag damage ratio. : Frag damage changed to have the same scaling as everything else (total frag damage is proportional to MODULE_VOLUME^0.5). : HESH now spalls in a single line perpendicular to the surface hit. : HESH now spalls on hitting a non-structural block, like HEAT. : HESH heads now give 80% of a full warhead's worth of special charge, and 20% plain HE. : Effective spalling metric of armor can't get below 3 against HESH. : heads now give 80% of a full warhead's worth of special charge, and 20% plain HE. : now won't spawn more frags than 20. Above 20 frags damage is increased instead. : pen metric is now linear with factor(range tightened). : frag counts reduced. : Autoloader clip modifier is now: 2 / (1 + UNIQUE_CLIP_DIRECTIONS). : Autoloader clips don't have to have shells to provide the loading speed bonus. : Autoloader complexity modifier removed. : Autoloader length modifier removed. : Casings only cost half as much ammo as other full-length parts. : Casings only count at half length for intake and loader reload times. : Intakes attached directly to the firing piece take twice as much time to reload. : Loader and intake times ~doubled. : Reload time multiplier at a given diameter: 2 + SHELL_LENGTH, where casings only count as half length. : Smaller shells have an additional VOLUME^0.15 firerate penalty, to account for lower gauge/barrel overhead. They are still slightly stronger in smaller guns. : Barrels have enough base cooling to sustain ~2 intakes with 5 gunpowder casing shells each. : Additional barrels increase base cooling time. COOLDOWN = BASE_COOLDOWN * (1 + 0.2 * (BARREL_COUNT - 1)), so 6 barrels give only 3x total speed. : Gauge coolers give a 50% additive bonus to cooling rate(each one can support 1 intake). : Cooler bonus % is reduced with multiple barrels, total increase is the same as with 1 barrel. : Cooler bonus % is reduced with higher calibers, to match their lower intake-loader ratios. : Bore evacuators give a 15% additive bonus. : Overclock setting removed. : Barrel length requirement now ignores casings, to reach 0.3 inaccuracy: SHELL_LENGTH ^ 0.75 * 4. : Inaccuracy is: 0.3 * (BARREL_LENGTH / LENGTH_FOR_0.3)^0.4. Roughly doubled base accuracy, and barrels lengths matter less. : Additional barrels increase inaccuracy by 20/25/30/35/40%. : Rails triple the shell's accuracy at the maximum possible draw(without casings). Scaling is linear, small charges are much weaker than before. : Tracer's maximum accuracy bonus is 50%. : Stabilizer fin now uses the same component modifier system as other parts, 0.2 inaccuracy multiplier/0.95 speed multiplier. : A 500mm gunpowder casing is 2000 recoil. 1 recoil = 1 kinetic energy = 1 rail draw. : Barrels give enough recoil reduction capacity to fire a 5 GP shell at their caliber. : Barrels recharge enough recoil reduction to sustain ~2 intakes with 4 GP shells at 0 recoil. : Shots with recoil over 0 have increased inaccuracy. The penalty is 2x base inaccuracy with completely unmitigated 5 GP shells. : Recoil absorbers give 800 capacity and 120 recharge/sec for each meter of length. : Recoil force of a 5 propellant shell reduced to ~70% (won't push things around as hard). : Absorbed recoil doesn't increase inaccuracy and only pushes the vehicle with half the force. : Gunpowder and rails use a kinetic energy system: a single 500mm gunpowder module gives 2000 kinetic energy, 1 rail charge gives 1. : Shell speed is roughly SQRT(KINETIC_ENERGY) / SHELL_MODULE_LENGTH, before volume scaling and shell speed modifier from different parts. : Every shell has a maximum energy it can take from rails without being destroyed(scales with module count). At max draw shells reach ~1000-1500 m/s without rail casings. : Rail casings increase the maximum usable rail energy without adding mass to the shell. : Maximum rail draw is now a fixed number, instead of total battery energy %. Final rail draw is the minimum of this value and the shell's maximum possible energy. : Magnet attaching fixtures and barrel magnets now provide 10000/5000 maximum rail capacity. Only fixtures having at least 1 magnet count. : Rail charger energy/s up from 100 to 200. : Rail charger overclock setting removed. : Shield reflection chance now does not depend on projectile speed. : Base reflection chance between 0-90 impact angle is 20-40% for STR 10, 5-10% for STR 1. : Shield stacking limitations removed., : Projectiles roll a shield penetration value on being fired and use that for all shields(stacking only matters for different angles/strengths). : Disrupt shield mode removed. : Shield projector cost down from 300 to 200. : Disruptor-tipped shells now pass through all shields, and cut their strength to X% of current value(debuffed strength is tracked separately, doesn't reduce power cost). : Disruptor effect strength depends on the EMP payload of the shell. : Disruptor head reduces all payloads in the shell to 50%. : Disruptor head now has the standard fast head component speed modifier, and counts as an EMP warhead. : Shields hit by disruptors regain their strength over time. The higher the power cost of the shield, the faster it stabilizes. : Railgun charger cost up from 15 to 400., : Autoloader costs up from 20/volume to 200/250/275/300/350/400 for 1/2/3/4/6/8 meter ones. : Clip costs up from 5/volume to 100/125/140/150/175/200 for 1/2/3/4/6/8 meter ones. : Beltfed loader cost up from 35 to 400. : Ammo input feeder cost up from 15 to 50. : Gauge increase cost up from 15 to 20. : Gauge splitter cost up from 15 to 50. : Gauge cooler cost up from 20 to 50. : Railgun magnet attachment fixture cost up from 15 to 50. : Railgun barrel magnet cost up from 15 to 50. : Hydraulic recoil absorber cost up from 10 to 80 material/meter. : Firing piece cost up from 30 to 100. : Heavy barrel weight down to 50%. : Railgun chargers can now connect to each other (back-front). : The back of a firing piece can now connect to autoloaders. : The sides of gauge increase splitters can now connect to autoloaders. : Gauge splitters are now coolers, and accept the same connections. : 6 way connectors now connect to recoil absorbers. : The module in the first slot determines the base AP/kinetic damage/speed/HP/accuracy modifiers of the shell. : Modules behind the first slot average their modifiers, weighted by their length. : Final modifiers are HEAD_BASE * MODULE_AVERAGE. : AP cap renamed to heavy head, slower and has less AP but does more kinetic damage. : Composite head is faster with higher AP and has a higher KINETIC * AP value than heavy head. Downside is its kinetic damage is lower, prone to AP overkil. : Sabot head is even faster/higher AP than composite. : HP increased to ~5 times the previous values. : Fuse lengths are now capped at 100mm. : Ammo costs of short parts are now proportionally lower. : Pendepth fuse time after first surface slider now has 3 decimals. : Pendepth fuse defaults are 5m depth, 0.01s time after first surface. : APS clip explosions are now merging their HE, flak and powder damage into a single explosion, radius is FINAL_DAMAGE^0.3. : APS clip explosion uses HE at 1/4 strength and flak/EMP at 1/2 strength. : APS clip explosions of lower calibers are slightly weaker than higher calibers with the same amount of clips(clip volume, not count). : APS autoloaders and clips now display how much explosive/emp/frag damage they do if destroyed : CRAMs got tooltips showing damage and shell power/firepower(at the highest rate of fire the cannon is capable of). : Laser combiners have a tooltip showing the estimated firepower of the multipurpose laser they are attached to. 1 laser firepower is 400 DPS at 50 AP (or 200 DPS at 100, ...). : All craft show a firepower breakdown in their V menu, below volume stats. It only counts APS, missiles, CRAMs and lasers for now. : Stone cost up from 2 to 3 materials for each cubic meter. : The option to target AI mainframes and ammo was removed from the aimpoint selection card.

[ 2019-10-10 08:48:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

[2.4.9.27] Stable

What is up, and how are things going? :D We are setting our DevTest branch to stable, as I type this. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of new additions in this update, this has been more of a bug fixing round. However, the few visible additions are: Flags are now moving using wind, subconstruct velocity and are also oriented correctly which was a request on our request page REQ-34. Flags can also use the hashtag system which I will explain. As you may know, Nick has setup a method to change the background of the main menu screen, it now comes with a default image that turns on when your mouse is not over any part of the menu and then turns off when your mousy is hovering over the menu. We know that this is not something you all may like, and we shall be adding a toggle so that you won't have any image and just the usual dark background.
You can add your own favorite images to the default rotation by locating the imagery folder in /Documents/From The Depths/Imagery and they need to be named as follows name #background
[strike]Yes I chose ship girls to upset a few people :p[/strike] This same method is also used for setting up flags too, you can setup a #flag for example and type that into the old URL box for flags. The # does not need to be flags it can be #AnyWordHere and would still work.

Projectors are also affected with the hashtag system too

Patch notes: 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Copy/pasting will not change the reload time anymore [BUGS-1368]. 2.4.9.27[Add]: Flags are now moving using wind, vehicle and SubConstruct velocity, and they also are oriented correctly [REQ-34]. 2.4.9.27[Change]: You can now browse the built in designs in campaign load menu. 2.4.9.27[Change]: Load and save UI moved over to the new formats. 2.4.9.27[Change]: Map editor and modding UIs now use the unscaled UI display with font size selection. 2.4.9.27[Change]: Destroy all vehicles now removes APS,CRAM,other projectiles and missiles. 2.4.9.27[Change]: Destroy enemy vehicles now also removes their APS, CRAM, other projectiles and missiles. 2.4.9.27[Change]: Broken mods are now less likely to cause the boot of the game to stall. Broken mods can be disabled from the main menu so they do not load on the next boot of the game", 2.4.9.27[Change]: Wireless channels are now changed using a UI to avoid accidentally swapping them and causing issues. 2.4.9.27[Change]: Fixed a bug where thrusters were being assigned to be strafe and hover when they should be pitch and yaw. 2.4.9.27[Add]: Right clicking the mirror button in build mode (when extended options are shown) will place a mirror immediately down the middle of the vehicle", 2.4.9.27[Add]: Damaged mimics now fall off the vehicle with the correct position, size and rotation. 2.4.9.27[Add]: When launching a new campaign FtD will prompt you to complete some essential tutorials first. 2.4.9.27[Add]: Added artwork to the background of some of the menus to add a bit of spice. 2.4.9.27[Add]: Putting files in From the Depths/Imagery/ with the name including #background will allow them to be used on the UI backgrounds. 2.4.9.27[Add]: Flags can use the same #hashtag system as described above. 2.4.9.27[Add]: Projectors can use the same #hashtag system as described above. 2.4.9.27[Removed]: Story missions have been removed whilst we work on fixing them up. 2.4.9.27[Removed]: Dangerous waters has now been entirely removed from FtD. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Fixed an issue where vehicles would warp around every time the coordinate system changed if building on them in mouse based build mode at the time. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: [BUGS-1313] Fixed an issue in large battles where velocity is calculated completely incorrectly leading to odd gun aiming. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Avatar death has been broken for a while- since the immortal in designer option was added a few weeks ago. Fixed now. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Ring generator now saves it's drive settings. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: [BUGS-1203] [BUGS-1271] Systematically retrofitting RTGs onto a vehicle can no longer produce infinite materials. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: [BUGS-1373] Fixed a bug with ammo supplies that allowed NaN ammo and negative ammo to occur. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Fixed an issue with terrain when changing planets and swapping between different modes. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Fixed a multi-threading issue with chaff emitter. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Fixes and improvements to the AI broadside calculations to help get the correct angle and achieve the correct range to target. 2.4.9.27[Fix]: Fixed a bug where thrusters were being assigned to be strafe and hover when they should be pitch and yaw.

[ 2019-09-13 23:48:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Help us choose a promotional advert for From the Depths

We are carrying out a poll on our main forum, as we would love to know which of the three following videos to use for as a promo advert. Please leave your votes, opinions and suggestions in the official poll thread here Thanks for your support as always :) [previewyoutube=SWCTZ1BcNt8;leftthumb][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=Z6h6W4xyx7c;leftthumb][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=nIPn6JRZ4eU;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

[ 2019-09-07 23:20:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 2.4.9.8 Stable - The ring shield :D

What is up you impressive builders! We are back with another round of new features, updates and fixes We think we should get some of the bad news out the way first. Unfortunately, we have had to move cluster crams and also the steam jets to our next sprint as we had a cluster of higher priority issues which we wanted squared away. Abyay, has been working his stern off, revamping and tweaking our tutorials under the Essentials section. He is also working on story missions and would love to know what you liked / disliked from the missions, in order to make new ones or fix up the current story missions . He has also tweaked the price of cram and steam parts including the health of some steam parts. Joris, has also been working on a ton of stuff for this update and these are just a few that I think are the most interesting; Custom battle mode, which you can find under the Fight tab of the main UI. We have plenty of options to set up our battles which can be saved and loaded, so we can jump right into a battle

Yet I think the most interesting part of this is the ability to setup teams but try pay attention to how much volume/blocks are going to be in play at the same time
Joris has also tweaked the UI to show the material costs for our constructs. Numerous bug fixes and tweaks as well as also focusing on the coming campaign changes, which are going to be awesome! Note: in-order to notice the material costs you would need to resave the construct in this update. Draba, has been breaking our LAMS and missiles tweaking up and balancing our LAMS, missiles and missile distractors. He is also currently (it's not in this update) working on future ammo changes and more APS tweaks, while keeping in mind our new shields system, which gives an AC buff to any block that is on the outside of the construct (more on that below). We now have groups for the simple weapons, Light / Medium / Heavy and the Custom shell weapons, thanks to Rhea for the models and Gladyon for implementing them. The new additions from our last news update are: Light T-Class 20mm AA gun 79 Material, uses simple shells with an AP of 10 and Kinetic of 150, reload 0.16s.

Medium 40 mm Quad AA Mk-I 211 Material, uses simple shells with an AP 10 and Kinetic of 150, reload 0.225s.

40mm Octuple AA Mk-S 331 Material, uses simple shells with an AP 10 and Kinetic of 150, reload 0.5s.

Heavy Assault cannon 59 Material, uses simple shells with an AP 4 Kinetic 250, reload 0.1s.

Custom shell weapons Type A(L)3.7 Gun Shield 173 Material, uses customised shells, reload time 3s shell calibre 94mm

Type L Casemated Gun 277 Material, uses customised shells, reload time 4.5s shell calibre 130mm

Gladyon, has also tweaked the rail decorations so that they do not block detection gear and increased the distance that mimic blocks can be moved, as well as the numerous bug fixes and tweaks which you guys and girls can see in the update log below The following though is the most exciting thing (for me) from this whole update and that is the Ring Shield. Ring shield is found in the misc tab under Shield Generator. The ring shield is created using 3 parts: The Generator, ring pipe and ring corner. This simple setup will buff the AC of the front most or rear most block. When creating your ring shield ensure that the generators tube/spike is facing inside the ring.
Translating the tooltip, currently this size shield wants 510 power to run, and the area inside the ring is 120m2. However, the issue is charged with, if our pipe gets destroyed the power flowing through the system, which is coming out of the side of the tube/spike (in this case to the right-hand side), all that energy will shoot out and damage anything in its path.
This is how the setup will affect our outermost blocks. As you can see everything in green is what is currently being buffed and red are blocks that are not affected. If it is the outer most block it will have the AC buffed, this will also be added to the AC when stacking. This applies to every block type in the game.

However, if we add another ring horizontally, we have now buffed the top and bottom of our construct. Also note that the whole area is affected which can be bigger than the shield size.
Our single ring shield on this construct is giving us a bonus of 5.3 so this is buffing this single 4m wood beam to 8.3. This buff remains the same up to 16m, however after extending our wall 17m we can see that this drops to 8.2 AC, at 30m this drops again to 8.1.
In the following shot you can see that I have doubled up on our rings in every direction. The AC buff stacks so you can have multiple rings looking after top + bottom, left + right, front + back and the more area you have within your ring, the bigger the AC buff will be.
Please note: the bigger the area the shield has to cover (bigger the outer wall is) you will get less of a bonus as the shield has to cover a larger area. To clarify some finer points, as an example you have 3m of 4m long beams stacked. Once you lose the outermost beam, the second beam (which is now the first) inherits the AC bonus and then the damage remaining from the shot will be applied to that block. Turrets and anything placed on spin blocks are also affected by the AC bonus. You cannot use both types of shields at the same time. You can build your ring in any shape as long as it connects back to the generator block, so go and experiment, think about the direction of the beam should a pipe be destroyed so that it may not destroy a whole row perhaps :p . If a part of your ring gets destroyed, be prepared for a stream of raw energy destroying blocks in its path.... (Sitting here waiting for someone to turn that into a weapon just dont tell Nick about it) Later on, we shall have an effect showing which blocks are affected via shift+p and also a shielding effect on the blocks for a bit of eyecandy Our fav build since our last update / news, is created by Dullparchment18, which we found over on Steam.

v2.4.9 [Add] : [BUG] path-finding did not use the player set turning circle value- now it does v2.4.9 [Add] : Added a 'surface' view mode- this shows which blocks can be buffed by shield rings and also which blocks contribute to detection cross sections v2.4.9 [Add] : [FTD-88] There is a new reason for vehicle destruction- prolonged fleeing from the battle area. This is to catch out of control enemies and destroy them to allow the battle to end. Sustained movement away from the centre of the battle will trigger this clause. v2.4.9 [Add] : Added a custom battle mode where you can configure teams and add various settings to make vehicles fight in a controlled environment v2.4.9 [Add] : [FTD-84] The effect of explosions on vehicles and debris has been tweaked as now looks much better v2.4.9 [Add] : A new shielding system has been added that buffs vehicle armour class. It's based on the construction of large shielding rings that buff armour class in either the forwards/backward axis, the up/down axis or the left / right axis. v2.4.9 [Add] : Circling simple ship and tank cards added v2.4.9 [Add] : Added aesthetic tank tracks to the game. Tracks can be applied around existing wheels from the wheels UI. v2.4.9 [Add] : A large number of new tutorials have been created to replace the old ones v2.4.9 [Add] : [FTD-55] Aircraft can now be ordered to 50m their maximum recorded altitude so you no longer need to manually fly them high to record a high altitude v2.4.9 [Add] : Right clicking the mirror button in build mode (when extended options are shown) will place a mirror immediately down the middle of the vehicle v2.4.9 [Add] : [FTD-86] Added in a walker foot that supports useful terrain friction v2.4.9 [Change] : Blueprints, prefabs and saved subobjects now store the material cost and block count in the file to allow faster loading. They now all display the block count and material cost in the file browsers, but only if saved in the this or a newer version of the game. Old blueprints won't show block count anymore until loaded and saved v2.4.9 [Change] : Improved file loading to load blueprints for the file browser faster. Opening a folder with many blueprints should be significantly faster v2.4.9 [Change] : [FTD-26] Overhauled the way that prefabs are captured, saved and loaded v2.4.9 [Change] : [FTD-26] Overhauled the way that subobjects are saved and loaded v2.4.9 [Fix] : Small quad launcher inventory tooltips fixed (they stated launcher supports 1 missiles) v2.4.9 [Fix] : Fixed projectiles, especially frags, sometimes flying through blocks without hitting them ... again [BUGS-1086] v2.4.9 [Fix] : Simple AI cards now properly maintain their used routine count [BUGS-1285] v2.4.9 [Remove] : Changing the controller mode of a vehicle controller can now only be done by looking at the controller and pressing Q. v2.4.9 [Remove] : I have removed the building control variant where G locks and unlocks the build marker orientation (when unlocked it automatically followed camera placement orientation) and tab would flip the build marker upside down when unlocked. This is a hang over from the initial style implemented 6 years ago where blocks were all 1x1x1 and their orientation was not that important. You can still tap G to orient the block in the direction of the camera, so you are not forced to use the rotation widget (tab).

[ 2019-09-01 20:45:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

What we are currently working on No2 Mid August - September

How are things going fellow gamers? Another what we are working on post is here and we have some [strike]AWSOME[/strike] excellent stuff coming up in the next update which should be in our grubby mitts around the 27th August. Towards the bottom of this page, you will find our current sprint, where you will find the whole list of all the additions and fixes we are working on, as well as what we have completed. Some of these you may have already seen in-game. We shall start with what we think are the most [strike]EPIC [/strike]exciting additions. Sticky feet have already been released (19th Aug), Nick had shown off some sort of sad looking stick insect with eight legs on Discord a while back, already walking with no issues. I think I may finally start to make some land mechs and tanks :) Totally intrigued atm :D No stick insects were harmed in the making of this. Walking straight
Cluster Crams! After a joke that got a little out of hand in Discord, we bit the cram shell and started working on these little babies :D Cluster Crams should work as follows: once the shell is launched and reaches x distance to the target, it would split into x amount of smaller shells inheriting the flavours of the Cram. Unfortunately, for now, we do not have any figures in terms of how many clusters would spawn and if that would depend on guage or shell HP/both and how frag would be divided among them, and if they will also be able to use the pendepth fuse. Abyay, has also been tweaking up our Crams
You can check out all the talk on the Cram changes here and also view the current idea in terms of material cost changes here. In short, Abyay is generally reducing the cost of Crams, so if your tetrising is up to scratch with autoloaders surrounding pellets, you would use fewer pellets - therefore a cheaper turret. A few adjustments will be made to heavy barrels as well as buffing frag pellets and other tweaks. These changes will not be detrimental to the current setups. Trying to stick to all things projectile, APS will be getting a rate of fire stats to the UI.
We have also started to integrate most of Rheas simple weapons, which look absolutely [strike]AWESOME[/strike] wondrous! Stats are subject to change Introducing the 94mm 'Type A' Heavy AA gun, which has a good elevation, uses APS shells.
The 'R Class' Very light MG fires very fast but doesn't do a lot of damage, and is best used for destroying exposed components or players. 600 rpm and a 30 round magazine.
The 'Mk-H' 40mm AA gun fires explosive shells, accurate and good against small and wooden aircraft. 200 explosive damage, 750m/s shell velocity, 2.6km range.
'Type-E' 60mm grenade launcher fires once per second, deals explosive damage in a fair area and fires relatively quickly. 700 explosive damage, 1.5 seconds reload 20 round magazine.
'64 pdr cannon' low tech is short-range but quite high damage if it hits. Good against wood at close quarters. 9,000 KE damage, 1 armour piercing, 1km range.
'Rokkits Revolutionary Revolving Blast Gun' is a 6 barrel invention of the DWG. A revolving automatic shotgun. 250 damage per shotgun fragment, 20 fragments per shot, 120 rounds per
We will also be seeing the first few changes to steam and also additions such as Steam engine parts are a little stronger now Steam jets for propulsion and turning. These will be able to work above and below the waterline once they are attached to the system via piping. We will also be changing the steam engines to be self-regulating. Regulation would depend on our chosen steam pressure, which will be adjustable via ACB and perhaps in future via Breadboard. The custom battle will also be ready for the next update, so I hope you have a few blueprints to send to friends and challenge them to a duel :D Lately, we have been making tweaks and changes to the UI. This update also brings more artsy stuff and we have arranged the retrofitting UI. However in addition to these UI changes, we have also spruced up and released the Prefab and Subobject page earlier on the 19th of August, we now have unlimited slots to save all our good stuff in :) We had a very nice suggestion on Steam by Ai, where a number of points were brought to our attention with regards to the starting fortress. From that post, we shall be seeing some changes to the starting fortress in the Neter campaign, such as

The refinery now has more flare stacks. This is going to help new players so they wont be shocked out of their seats when something randomly explodes :D

AI has been moved away from the ammo storage, some material storage has also been moved.

Fortress has a starting altitude of 7m, which of course we can change in-game.

Missiles had some love and were changed up a bit, giving them more range around the 3k mark and the fortress can generally keep up with firing the missiles with no issues.

Fuel engine has been changed; it only puts out about 1500 power and it's built to where we can upgrade the engine and It's also more fuel-efficient at lower RPM.

As well as some eye candy tweaks.

On the subject of eye candy, we have done some small tweaks to the mimic block by increasing the traversal range by 10m :D and rail decorations no longer block detection systems. During September we shall be seeing the changes to the campaign. The whole garrison system will be removed and replaced with a new and more lively Neter, including toggleable AI personalities (I would like a sadistic White Flayer one but I doubt that will be a thing :( ) We shall also be seeing the new 1x1 custom jet engines, a drill setup using steam, god mode for constructs in designer and the ability to automatically refill all ammo clips. This will save us time when we are testing out new ways of putting holes into White Flayer test subjects (Marauder lives matter!). The ability to enter battle with hot engines for steam-powered constructs, steam engines to burn more efficiently when the burn rate is low, and efficiency will also be affected by the size of the steam setup. Our pic of the week: This was created by ThinkingShobe which was posted on Discord. Very well done looks mighty epic, and I am sure a lot of time was put into this.

Sprints end of August and through September, which is subject to change. (We accept no responsibility for strained eyes)

[ 2019-08-20 15:16:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Walker feet and Save/Load prefab released early! :D

Firstly, big thanks to you all for supporting and helping. We are proud to have such an [strike]AWESOME[/strike] mighty fine community! We are currently (19/08/209) sitting at 86473 followers. We have released the walker feet and the save/load subobject-prefab super early!!

[ 2019-08-19 15:28:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

From The Depths Trailer

Hey all :) We would love to show you all our new trailer :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhTNESwAzs4

[ 2019-08-19 12:04:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.4.8 Stable release :D

What is up epic community We have released the next update v2.4.8 which comes with numerous bug fixes, tweaks and new additions. (2.4.7 is a special beta branch if anyone doesn't like 2.4.8.3) We have worked hard to get tank tracks in this update, and I know the track taken to get here has been a long one. However there is a small delay as the delivery van had a puncture, since its still using tires. We will have the tracks here on Wednesday 14th along with the custom battle mode :( *cough about time cough* (I was going to insert a tank joke but I fear I would go off track) Tank tracks will wrap around wheels automatically, choosing to lay above or below the wheel depending on placement. As you can see in the screen shot, the center wheel on the top row has the track passing under as the wheel is a bit lower than the rest in the line.

AI behaviour and maneuver

These cards will automatically add a behaviour and a manoeuvre which can come pre-configured as well as customisable.

Missile tweaks balance and improvements

Our epic missiles of mass boomness have been tweaked up! They are now 50% more agile meaning a much better hit rate and precise and fuel tanks store more fuel by 25% and an epic 250% boost to the decoys :O but missiles have had their damage cut to 75% - more stat changes and details on the decoys below

Lasers

Lasers have had another epic tune up, the list is long so more details will be found in the patch notes. However the new additions are, Armored focus and steering optic with 600HP, 20 armor costing 100 materials and 80 weight. The Output regulator now allows us to reduce the base energy discharge rate of cavities. Regarding minimum shot energy, the laser won't fire until the energy stored in the laser system reaches the value given. Burst size, if the energy gets below the minimum it will not shoot until the total cavity energy reaches the % given.

Aiming above water line

We now have the option to tell our dakka and anything connected to the mainframe using aimpoint selection to fire above the sea line! This is going to be a great benefit to us when it comes to our lasers for sure! Say no more to firing under the sea and losing a crap ton of damage :D

Cinematic camera

The cinematic camera will now allow us to focus on a shell APS/Cram/missile and specific parts of the construct will work by using shift+caps or ctrl+caps, which should give us a better way to record those special moments :D

Mirrored prefabs

We have recently set up a road to release challenge and we are really grateful that we have such an awesome community, and as you may know already we have hit the first milestone and unlocked prefab mirroring

Exporting STL files has been resolved :D So go 3D print your epic builds!

Live feed

You will be seeing announcements by us like news, bug related issues / fixes and any events etc at the main screen :D

News With all that good stuff out the way, this is how things are looking behind the scenes. What you are seeing in the images below are our sprints, and each sprint is a new update. This first image is the current sprint/update.

Everything that is crossed out on the right side is what has been completed. Items tagged with Community engagement are suggestions that we pick up on from the main forum, Reddit, Steam and Discord. Tags with request tracker which is a more preferred method in sending us requests is through requests/suggestion page found here https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/request-tracker. Please go check that out and vote on the things you like and if there is something you want added please leave a detailed suggestion and try to keep it to one suggestion per ticket. For our next update we have the following planned, however we will probably be adding to this list and perhaps shifting one or two tasks to the next sprint. This is the current list, which we hope will be settled for the 22nd August.

As you can see, there are signs of steam tweaks (there is more to come for steam in this or the next sprint) a new feature Steam jets, which we shall talk about another time and the most awesome cluster cram :D (cannot wait to stick a bomb chute using cluster crams on the White Flayers). The rail decorations in this list is a small fix to the current rails so they dont block detection systems. The following is subject to change! You have probably noticed the Campaign stuff, which I am really looking forward to. We will be seeing a number of changes. There will no longer be garrisoned AI, and fleets will be on the map doing things like: partoll guarding fortifying / harvesting. The AI should respond effectively to what the player is doing as well as the AI having a job system prioritising jobs like reclaiming a resource zone / reconstruct fortress to gather resources. Lastly the AI should be using localised resources, and this should generate a lot of movement on the map with transporters. Lastly my fave build that I found. This time on Reddit by MarijusLTU12 https://www.reddit.com/r/FromTheDepths/comments/cn50mv/i_like_boats/

Update log

v2.4.8 [Add] : Fortresses can now be controlled using ACBs
v2.4.8 [Add] : Missile hatches can now be forced open using ACBs
v2.4.8 [Add] : A cinematic camera option has been added. Press SHIFT + CAPSLOCK by default to access this. It follows the shell / missile or vehicle you are looking at. Mouse wheel or [ ] brackets zoom in and out in this view. It only works when not in first person view, at the moment.
v2.4.8 [Add] : Added the 'output' function to the maths evaluator that gets last frames output. If you can't wait for proper memeory components, you use this to make your own in the meantime.
v2.4.8 [Add] : The ability to mirror the placement of a prefab has been added. When a mirror is active only the mirrored prefab will be created. Remove the mirror to create the unmirrored version.
v2.4.8 [Add] : Color customization for holograms and texts
v2.4.8 [Add] : It is now possible to hide the hologram projector block
v2.4.8 [Add] : Armored focusing and steering optics added: 600 HP, 20 armor, 100 materials and 80 weight
v2.4.8 [Add] : New targeting option for aimpoint selection card: prefer blocks above water
v2.4.8 [Add] : Output regulator slider: burst size, if energy of a shot gets below the minimum it won't shoot again until total cavity energy reaches this %
v2.4.8 [Add] : Output regulator slider: minimum shot energy, laser won't fire until the energy given to the next shot reaches this value
v2.4.8 [Add] : Output regulator slider: reduces base energy discharge rate of cavities, between 0.1%-20%/second (mostly useful for big pulsed LAMS systems)
v2.4.8 [Add] : The the point that TPG or APN wants to aim for is now also displayed if the AI path view is enabled
v2.4.8 [Add] : Add differential yaw: sets 50% turn left-right preset on all forward/backwards propulsion blocks left-right of the CoM
v2.4.8 [Add] : Automatic propulsion setup: newly placed thrusters/control surfaces use all possible presets based on their position/orientation(from pusher, turner, pitcher, roller)
v2.4.8 [Add] : Bombing run airplane AI
v2.4.8 [Add] : Bombing run hovercraft AI
v2.4.8 [Add] : Circling airplane AI
v2.4.8 [Add] : Circling hovercraft AI
v2.4.8 [Add] : Frontal hovercraft AI
v2.4.8 [Add] : New air block: Universal flight surface. Control surface that gets automatically configured. Old ones do not use the auto configuration
v2.4.8 [Add] : New behavior: bombing run. Lines up attack runs and pitches to the target on the last leg
v2.4.8 [Add] : New behavior: circle at distance. Circles the enemy, can rolls to match its elevation, can use up-down evasion, set specific sides and max approach angle
v2.4.8 [Add] : New configuration buttons on AI mainframe basic tab: Basic configuration, Add differential yaw, Remove hover control, Remove strafe control
v2.4.8 [Add] : New manoeuvre: airplane movement. Can use pitch to control altitude and roll into turns. Reduces thrust and circles the waypoint when idle.
v2.4.8 [Add] : New manoeuvre: hover movement. Uses up-down thrusters to control altitude. Parks at waypoints out of combat
v2.4.8 [Add] : New simple AI cards that automatically configure a behavior and manoeuvre
v2.4.8 [Add] : Point at and maintain distance behavior extended: left-right evasion, altitude absolute or relative to target, pitch limit
v2.4.8 [Change] : We've added in a live feed of information / annoucements and bug alerts into the main menu
v2.4.8 [Change] : Switched to new UI
v2.4.8 [Change] : APS flak damage up from 30% of HE to 40%, missile interceptor damage up by 60%
v2.4.8 [Change] : APS, CRAM and missile health increased by 50% across the board to follow energy and 0Q/output regulator limiting buff
v2.4.8 [Change] : Kinetic projectiles do double damage to missiles
v2.4.8 [Change] : 0Q laser damage/energy up from 0.5 to 0.75 (pulsed is 1)
v2.4.8 [Change] : 0Q laser now has 150% AP, compared to pulsed(down from 200%)
v2.4.8 [Change] : Armor for focusing/steering optics increased from 8 to 10
v2.4.8 [Change] : Focusing optics have better damage falloff reduction (10 of them do ~85% damage at 1000m, up from ~78%)
v2.4.8 [Change] : Laser cavity sizes up from 100/400/4000 to 150/600/6000
v2.4.8 [Change] : Laser pump base energy/second up from 20 to 30, power cost from 40 to 60
v2.4.8 [Change] : Simple laser damage/second down from 1600 to 1000, AP down from 10 to 8
v2.4.8 [Change] : AP modifier examples: 1 smoke 30%, 3 smokes 20.8%, STR 1 shield 53.6%, STR 10 shield 24.89%, 
v2.4.8 [Change] : Frequency doubler cost up from 200 to 250
v2.4.8 [Change] : Laser shield is now the equivalent of a smoke with SHIELD_STRENGTH * 175 strength. Still only the strongest shield counts
v2.4.8 [Change] : Multiple smoke layers use the sum of their strengths to determine their AP reduction
v2.4.8 [Change] : Pulsed shots use all doublers with the same Q switch count as the beam. If multiple Q switch configs fire in the same frame their pump and doubler counts are summed to determine AP.
v2.4.8 [Change] : Smoke clouds have a strength value: 1000 for dispenser, 100/600 for 200mm/500mm APS warhead
v2.4.8 [Change] : Smoke now reduces laser AP, instead of damage
v2.4.8 [Change] : Smoke reduces laser AP to: 300 / (SMOKE_STRENGTH^1/3) % of the original (in other words reduction is proportional to density)
v2.4.8 [Change] : Smokes with a combined strength over 400 block laser missiles guidance and visual/laser detection equipment
v2.4.8 [Change] : Wavefront coder removed
v2.4.8 [Change] : Flare and sonar/radar target simulator signal strength up to 250%
v2.4.8 [Change] : Radar/IR/torpedo guidance now tries to recognize missile decoys, randomly reducing their signal strength to 10-100% (rolled when fired)
v2.4.8 [Change] : Remote guidance error added by signal jammer down to 75%
v2.4.8 [Change] : Signal processor component improves the decoy recognition of guidance, reducing remaining decoy signal strength to 25/20/15% (S/M/L)
v2.4.8 [Change] : Single pixel IR seeker reduces decoy missile signal strength to 15-30%, instead of 10-100
v2.4.8 [Change] : All damage cut to 75%
v2.4.8 [Change] : Fuel tanks hold 25% more fuel
v2.4.8 [Change] : Short range thruster now has the same efficiency as variable, 1 thrust for 1 fuel
v2.4.8 [Change] : Single pixel IR seeker angle down from 35 to 30, still can't use signal processor and has half the signal strength threshold
v2.4.8 [Change] : Target priority modifier at an angle now scales with the the maximum angle of the guidance component.
v2.4.8 [Change] : Turning rate increased by 50% across the board
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Arrows added to the complex control action [BUGS-857]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : It is now possible to set the warp drives resting charge using an ACB [BUGS-1124]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Propulsion powerscale can now be negative [BUGS-867]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Setting AI behaviours now works fine [BUGS-1131]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Opening or closing a door will now update the airpumps correctly [BUGS-799]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : APS barrels now extends correctly after having fired [BUGS-1141]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : APS recoil absorbers tooltip connection fixed [BUGS-1156]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The 'Spread to' feature now copy all the data of the block, not only the data of current UI panel [BUGS-840]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Pipes must now be correctly oriented to connect to a boiler [BUGS-883]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Fixed not being able to add more outputs to a component if it has many inputs
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Fixed the 'and', 'or' and '!' operators not working correctly
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The mirror plane marker isn't shrinked with the blocks anymore [BUGS-916]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Main chair feature now working [BUGS-1096]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The automatic auto-loader can no longer have 4 connections, and it also visually auto-rotate in order to be correctly placed [BUGS-730]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The default value for the air bleeding power is now fixed to '0.35', the '/Users//From The Depths/Player Profiles//profile/profile.ExplosionBalancing' file will be overwritten in order to reflect the correct default values (the automatic overwriting will be removed after a few weeks) [BUGS-1140]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : No more problem when setting the 'lock to image ratio' toggle with no image
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The holograms and texts will not disappear anymore when behind glass blocks [BUGS-95]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Lasers are now aiming better at very long distances [BUGS-1131]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Fixed NullReferenceException when trying to get the fleet info while a ship in the fleet was being scrapped
v2.4.8 [Fix] : [BUGS-1135] fleet and force commands can now be ordered to locations shared by map area names and scrap symbols (again).
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Required accuracy can now be enabled/disabled for missile controllers on the hull, the default status is disabled (when not on the hull, then it will always been activated) [BUGS-788]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Fixed PAC missing some blocks if there are more than 20 in a row [BUGS-925]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Color will now be applied correctly to pistons when placed or loaded [BUGS-1176]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Projectiles now correctly hit (or not hit) moving vehicles. Ricochets against moving vehicles now also take the velocity of the vehicles into account.
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Fixed a bug that caused propulsion requests to not be executed [BUGS-1001] [BUGS-995]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Propulsion controlled by general purpose PIDs or (AI)breadboards now works correctly again [BUGS-1001], [BUGS-995]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Fixed shells missing approximately one block out of 10
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Proximity fuse will not damage/destroy the shield projector anymore when hitting a shield [BUGS-461]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The shield's alpha is now processed correctly [BUGS-991]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The shield's alpha is now processed correctly [BUGS-991]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Debug explosion skill fixed (be careful, large explosions can hurt very badly)
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The STL exporter is now fixed. It exports 3D models of your vehicles which can be loaded into other modelling applications or 3D printed. It's accessible in the Construct Info UI (press V on a vehicle)
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The text block allowed 512 characters but actually could only save 255. Two more 255 text slots have been added to the block to fix this issue.
v2.4.8 [Fix] : Various laser tooltips updated
v2.4.8 [Fix] : It's no longer possible to accidentally interact with the main menu before the screen has fully faded in
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The ACB Controller UI now works fine when modifying the name of a button which is not the first one [BUGS-1111]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The red channel of the color with shininess pickup is now working well with the mouse-wheel [BUGS-601]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The UIs are now displaying the correct number of digits [BUGS-1099]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The UIs are now displaying the correct number of digits [BUGS-1099]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : No more problem when using an ACB to control it
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The camera view shouldn't make the whole game to flicker [BUGS-1084]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The Video Screens now have a name by default so the Video Controller list doesn't appear empty [BUGS-1120]
v2.4.8 [Fix] : The Video Screens now have a name by default so the Video Controller list doesn't appear empty [BUGS-1120]

[ 2019-08-09 17:58:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have hit the first road to release milestone ! :D

What is up epic community! We are really happy to see the follower count skyrocket from yesterday's post :D We have unlocked the first milestone and we should be able to use the mirrored prefabs in the next stable release :D We are really proud to have such an awesome and helpful community! Keep it up as we really appreciate it :D So make sure you are all following us on the following platforms: https://twitter.com/FTD_Game https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/ https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDepthsGame/ Discord.gg/fromthedepths https://steamcommunity.com/app/268650 https://www.reddit.com/r/FromTheDepths/

[ 2019-08-07 16:20:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Road to release challenge

What is up allyouepic people :D Hope you are all having an awesome day and if not, then perhaps this may brighten things up. As the full release is just around the cornerand as the White Flayers sacrifices of fluffy unicorns, that fart rainbows and pukeNyancats are just not getting us anywhere, we need to expand our social media presence. This will help our community grow and we will all get to interact with new members, see more epic builds and have access to many more suggestions to improve From the Depths. We also need to remember that we are relying on attracting new players since we are not creating paid for DLC. With that out the way, we will be unlocking the following additions to the game with every milestone we hit, so if you have not followed us on the following platforms, please go and smash that follow button like it owes you money! We are currently (while writing this) sitting at 84k in total across the platforms listed below, so all we need is 1200 followers and we shall unlock the Prefab Mirroring :D https://twitter.com/FTD_Game https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/ https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDepthsGame/ Discord.gg/fromthedepths https://steamcommunity.com/app/268650 https://www.reddit.com/r/FromTheDepths/

[ 2019-08-06 16:27:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.4.7.16 The Laser Overhaul and Patch Notes

What is up all you awesome people! It is finally here, the update most of us have been waiting for and talking about: The Laser Rework! And an epically long list of bug fixes, tweaks and other additions to From The Depths. We have also switched up a number of UI elements and many new icons giving From The Depths a fresh look that even the White Flayers were over the moon [strike]and sacrificing mainframes[/strike] with joy!
We do understand that this new look may not be everyones cup of tea and as always, we are here listening (reading) and paying attention to concerns, dislikes and welcome any awesome suggestions you guys have to improve any aspect of From The Depths. Before we continue, we would like to thank you all for your support, suggestions and bug reporting. We have overhauled the lasers which has been discussed since May, so if you missed that you can find it here. If you did miss it and feel like youve missed your chance to voice your ideas on the whole thing, then perhaps you should visit the main forum a little more :) However, as Ive already said we are here, reading and waiting for your feedback.
While our current installed laser systems will show less damage output per shot (DONT PANIC!), lasers are also using less energy per shot, meaning we can trim down our power houses and extend our lasers or install more shields/increase their power. Lasers are also at a fixed 0.05 inaccuracy, and the focusing optics reduce the damage loss over long distances, which is calculated as follows: for every 10m in air 3% /(2+FOCUS_COUNT) and if the laser is passing through water it would be 20x that. The rest of the changes are as follows for all thing's laser related and anti-projectile/missile: APS flak damage increased by 25% CRAM health increased, from 3770 to 8000 at 2000mm (same scaling as before) Missile body component health doubled Missile interceptor damage increased by 25% Focusing and steering optic cost up from 20 to 50 Frequency doubler cost up from 50 to 200 Laser cavity costs down from 40 to 20 materials/cubic meter Laser pump costs up from 20 to 50 materials/cubic meter 1 laser energy is 1 damage for pulsed, 0.5 for continuous 1m/3m laser pump power use decreased from 100/300 to 40/120 1m/3m pump energy/second decreased from 100/300 to 20/60 Cavity energy storage down from 200/800/8000 to 100/400/4000 LAMS node damage penalty removed Max size of optic meshes reduced to 60%, now the entire line is the same size (steering optics now do not form cones) Maximum firing angle is smaller for longer optic lines Steering optics increase maximum firing angle, up to a point where 25% of your optic line is steering. Continuous lasers still do half the raw damage of pulsed, but they have double the AP Laser shields do not directly absorb damage; they reduce laser AP instead. REDUCED_AP = 1 / (2 * SHIELD_STRENGTH), only the strongest shield counts Laser shields now do not use energy, only power A 500mm APS smoke warhead has ~45% density, 200mm 7.5%. Smoke warheads in the same shell use HE's stacking and scaling rules Laser detection and missiles guidance are blocked if they hit enough smokes to reach 25% final reduction Smoke clouds now have a density between 0 and 100%. Lasers hitting them lose that percentage of their damage. Smoke layers are still multiplicative Smoke dispensers have 65% density/layer Effective smoke density is reduced to 75% against wavefront lasers (so 30% instead of 40, for example) Wavefront adjuster slider removed, now it reduces base damage to 50% Wavefront lasers retain 4x the AP after hitting shields compared to a normal one (100% AP against strength 1, 20% AP against strength 10) And if you think that was all we have done in the past two weeks then you should think again! We have created a new block type, The VideoBlock, which gives us a camera feed that can play local videos and YouTube, so you can watch your favourite anime while you traverse the 7 seas "liberating" Neter. You can also use the cameras attached to your turrets to see what they are pointing at and even from drones, which is awesome for recon flyers! I have to say I am in love with this block!! Its EPIC!
APS have some more changes that deserve mentioning here: HE, Frag, EMP and also Flak warheads now have 2AP from 0.1 We also have a configurable ACB controller which can control 12 ACBs, and we can set a mainframes behaviour using ACBs which was a suggestion by you awesome people. Another suggestion was to make the avatar immortal in designer mode, which can be toggled in the "Misc" tab. Among the plethora of other bugfixes that you have all reported, namely missiles were not heading towards the targets due to increasing the max FPS setting, missile tutorial could not be completed has been fixed. Barrels exploding while shooting its own projectile and visual glitches like black wood and railgun parts were not at the correct position / angle. The advanced ammo controller ID was not being displayed has also been resolved, and Spin block torque was causing an issue on a number of constructs has been sorted. We have also resolved the fluctuating battery bug along with, constructs that have been teleporting all over Neter, which has been reported by numerous members of the community. We have done many tweaks and additions from what you awesome people have been telling us, and these can be found further down. Lastly, we come to what is going to be happening at Brillant Skies for the next two weeks. After compiling a list of frequent suggestions and issues some players were having, we shall be working on the following among a number of other issues and additions. One of the most discussed topics on discord is steam balancing. We have read so many awesome ideas and suggestions and the most common is scaling up steam power, leaving small engines as they are but making it far cheaper to run steam as you use larger boilers, sacrificing space for efficiency like turbocharger fuel engines. Another idea has been to make steam engines use less material as they spool up, which would allow more highly efficient slow spooling engines and much less efficient fast spooling engines. We shall have some changes for the next DevTest build, which you can all check out soontm and leave us your feedback here. Please remember to check the other topics in case someone has listed the same thing already, and if so smash that vote button. Some of the suggestions that will be ready for our next DevTest build are: Numerous breadboard updates with requests from the community including more target information, memory component which will store values when the construct its spawn in, logic gates and the most common suggestions is to drag and drop function for components along with dragging components into position instead of constantly snapping to the grid. There has been talk about tank tracks for next DevTest build too! Which is something that is always popping up as a suggestion from our epic tank building community Some other interesting news, Gladyon is fixing bugs fulltime with us and the last time I checked with him, he had squished over two dozen bugs! A little sneak peek much further down the road the campaign will be getting looked into, the garrison areas may be removed and the AI constructs that would be there may be able to roam around dynamically. So that means the AI will also be getting looked into! Tutorials are also listed to be revamped and we should be getting a road map very soon too. I have also been hearing about Ship girls and how much Nick loves them. This creation is by Arkhangelsk, that was posted on our Discord, which I think is awesome!

The full list of patch notes: v2.4.7 [Add] : A configurable ACB controller block has been added, it can control up to 12 ACBs using in-game buttons activated by pressing 'Q' when pointing at them v2.4.7 [Add] : Fortresses can now be controlled using ACBs v2.4.7 [Add] : It is now possible to set a mainframe AI behaviour using an ACB v2.4.7 [Add] : Missile hatches can now be forced open using ACBs v2.4.7 [Add] : Option to make the avatar immortal in singleplayer designer. Option is in the 'Misc' part of the menu v2.4.7 [Add] : Rubber wedges (front and back 1m,2m,3m,4m) are now hand UV mapped rather than be procedurally tri-planar mapped like the rest of the rubber v2.4.7 [Add] : Added a function to the maths evaluator to get the angle between two vectors v2.4.7 [Add] : Multiple expressions separated by commas in the maths evaluator can be used to set different outputs of the component to different values v2.4.7 [Add] : Missile proximity fuse component now has a 'minimum altitude slider' v2.4.7 [Add] : Missiles with a harpoon that are attached to a winch can now pull and be pulled by the vehicle they are attached to. Enabled in the winch UI v2.4.7 [Add] : The the point that TPG or APN wants to aim for is now also displayed if the AI path view is enabled v2.4.7 [Add] : Ability to set tutorial vehicles so that their blocks cannot be accidentally removed by the player. Now used in the first tutorial. v2.4.7 [Add] : Added ability to highlight all sorts of buttons in the tutorials. Used in first tutorial. v2.4.7 [Add] : Buttons (resource view, detection view, objectives, diplomacy) are displayed as required on the Fleet Control, strategic map view and tactical map view. v2.4.7 [Add] : [EXPERIMENTAL] Camera feed is now available v2.4.7 [Add] : A pre-configured video controller block has been added, it can fully control a VideoBlock using in-game buttons activated by pressing 'Q' when pointing at them v2.4.7 [Add] : Local videos can now be played v2.4.7 [Add] : Several channels are now available v2.4.7 [Change] : Choosing the types of AI PIDs you want to use is now done with toggles in the AI menu instead of setting them in the AI PIDs themselves. v2.4.7 [Change] : EMP and Flak warhead bodies now have the same kinetic, AP and speed modifiers as HE and Frag warhead bodies v2.4.7 [Change] : HE, Frag, EMP and Flak heads now have 2 AP instead of 0.1 v2.4.7 [Change] : Aiming cross hair no longer shows up if no weapon slot selected or weapon control disabled v2.4.7 [Change] : The breadboard now uses a new maths evaluator that can use data types other than normal numbers. All available functions can be viewed in the breadboard v2.4.7 [Change] : The supply route UI has been massively improved with a lot of new functionality for easily creating routes. v2.4.7 [Change] : The 'Set to image ratio' button has been replaced by a toggle to lock the ratio of the projection to the ratio of the image v2.4.7 [Change] : APS flak damage increased by 25% v2.4.7 [Change] : CRAM health increased, from 3770 to 8000 at 2000mm (same scaling as before) v2.4.7 [Change] : Missile body component health doubled v2.4.7 [Change] : Missile interceptor damage increased by 25% v2.4.7 [Change] : Focusing and steering optic cost up from 20 to 50 v2.4.7 [Change] : Frequency doubler cost up from 50 to 200 v2.4.7 [Change] : Laser cavity costs down from 40 to 20 materials/cubic meter v2.4.7 [Change] : Laser pump costs up from 20 to 30 materials/cubic meter v2.4.7 [Change] : 1 laser energy is 1 damage for pulsed, 0.5 for continuous v2.4.7 [Change] : 1m/3m laser pump power use decreased from 100/300 to 40/120 v2.4.7 [Change] : 1m/3m pump energy/second decreased from 100/300 to 20/60 v2.4.7 [Change] : Cavity energy storage down from 200/800/8000 to 100/400/4000 v2.4.7 [Change] : LAMS node damage penalty removed v2.4.7 [Change] : All lasers have a fixed inaccuracy of 0.05 v2.4.7 [Change] : Focusing optics reduce damage loss over long distances. Damage loss for every 10m in air: 3% / (2 + FOCUS_COUNT). In water 20x that. v2.4.7 [Change] : Max size of optic meshes reduced to 60%, now the entire line is the same size(steering optics now do not form cones) v2.4.7 [Change] : Maximum firing angle is smaller for linger optic lines v2.4.7 [Change] : Steering optics increase maximum firing angle, up to a point where 25% of your optic line is steering. v2.4.7 [Change] : Continuous lasers still do half the raw damage of pulsed, but they have double the AP v2.4.7 [Change] : Laser shields do not directly absorb damage, they reduce laser AP instead. REDUCED_AP = 1 / (2 * SHIELD_STRENGTH), only the strongest shield counts v2.4.7 [Change] : Laser shields now do not use energy, only power v2.4.7 [Change] : A 500mm APS smoke warhead has ~45% density, 200mm 7.5%. Smoke warheads in the same shell use HE's stacking and scaling rules v2.4.7 [Change] : Laser detection and missiles guidance are blocked if they hit enough smokes to reach 25% final reduction v2.4.7 [Change] : Smoke clouds now have a density between 0 and 100%. Lasers hitting them lose that percentage of their damage. Smoke layers are still multiplicative v2.4.7 [Change] : Smoke dispensers have 65% density/layer v2.4.7 [Change] : Effective smoke density is reduced to 75% against wavefront lasers(so 30% instead of 40, for example) v2.4.7 [Change] : Wavefront adjuster slider removed, now it reduces base damage to 50% v2.4.7 [Change] : Wavefront lasers retain 4x the AP after hitting shields compared to a normal one(100% AP against strength 1, 20% AP against strength 10) v2.4.7 [Change] : Improved the distinction between out of play forces, selected forces, flagships and dead blueprints in the the tactical map icons v2.4.7 [Change] : The garbage generated in memory has been divided by approximately 2 while in battle (so, the game should stutter 2 times less often) v2.4.7 [Change] : Starting up the game is now largely multi-threaded and should take up to 20s less v2.4.7 [Change] : Added gifs to behaviour, manoeuvre and additional tabs of AI UI to explain what they do v2.4.7 [Change] : Changed the behaviour, manoeuvre and additional tabs of the AI UI to be less cluttered v2.4.7 [Change] : Many new UI icons v2.4.7 [Change] : Removed the UI of the AI PID block. Selecting what kind of PIDs you want is now done in the AI UI, which is also opened when interacting with an AI PID v2.4.7 [Change] : Some new icons for the 'brushes' in the map editor v2.4.7 [Change] : The 'favourites' build bar now has some slightly different graphics, and is easier to use v2.4.7 [Change] : The give to/take from fleets UI has been updated v2.4.7 [Change] : The 'Tree View' for loading blueprints has been changed to make it display at any size v2.4.7 [Fix] : The 'Target' panel is now updated correctly when using the 'Paste' button of the UI instead of using 'Ctrl+V' [BUGS-996] v2.4.7 [Fix] : The health of the applique blocks can now drop under 50%, and they won't explode anymore [BUGS-1069] v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-1043] Adv Ammo controller once again shows its ID in the tooltip v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed the jump animation of rambot not stopping after leaving a chair v2.4.7 [Fix] : Reinforced wood and stairs no longer render black v2.4.7 [Fix] : The moving parts of the blocks now shrink along with the blocks [BUGS-854] v2.4.7 [Fix] : The 'Spread to' feature now copy all the data of the block, not only the data of current UI panel [BUGS-840] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Wooden wedges 1m, 2m, 3m and 4m now have the correct UV map for their texture. v2.4.7 [Fix] : [Bug]-1056 Misile Testing Range updated into working order. v2.4.7 [Fix] : [Bug]-1065 Typo fixed. v2.4.7 [Fix] : The mirror plane marker isn't shrinked with the blocks anymore [BUGS-916] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Battle is cancelled if all forces are scrapped during setup phase v2.4.7 [Fix] : Enemy force boxes that are invisible on the map are now also invisible in HUD and fleet control UI v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed withdrawn forces in a battle still showing up as force boxes v2.4.7 [Fix] : Improved the fleet movements and ordering- they more closely follow orders when out of play now v2.4.7 [Fix] : Magic wand in battle setup now has a tooltip explaining it v2.4.7 [Fix] : Time now returns to 100% when fleet blockade messages are accepted v2.4.7 [Fix] : You can now give multiple forces who are in patrol mode patrol orders even if they are split over several fleets v2.4.7 [Fix] : The automatic auto-loader can no longer have 4 connections, and it also visually auto-rotate in order to be correctly placed [BUGS-730] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Custom jet engines now display the correct max fuel usage v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed bug that prevented missiles from turning the direction they wanted to turn [BUGS-1024] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Re-added the 'Apply to all' button to the new missile winch UI [BUGS-1035] v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-937] meshes provided by mods with no normals will now have normals recalculated. This avoids issues where the block is rendered black. v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed the bug where changing the mesh, material etc in a copied mod item also changes it in the pasted mod item [BUGS-1077] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed a number of projectile related bugs in multiplayer v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed a serious bug causing clients to often spawn in with just a camera and no avatar v2.4.7 [Fix] : Got 'attack on eyrie' mission and 'tower defence' missions loading again v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed PAC missing some blocks if there are more than 20 in a row [BUGS-925] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Planets can now safely change the terrain resolution or terrain section size and planet swapping will work fine. v2.4.7 [Fix] : Propulsion controlled by general purpose PIDs or (AI)breadboards now works correctly again [BUGS-1001], [BUGS-995] v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS - 1005] Issue with map pathfinding fixed- it could hang the campaign v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-1004] Fixed a crash caused by warp engines warping from a background thread v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-1007] Fixed the rotations of the railgun magnets- which all pointed downwards due to a bug in the last patch. v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-1027] Multithreading issues to Helicopter Blade and Helicopter Blade Always Up components now fixed. Large numbers of these components spawned at once would create odd physics before the fix. v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-955] All projectiles now advance one iteration immediately after firing to avoid destruction of own barrel (issue caused by multi-threading) v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-962] flickering of the vehicle when spawning with 'block-by-block' toggled has been fixed v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-965] Turn wheel adv controller options incorrectly configured and caused crash in ConstructInfoUi (V) v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-966] fixed an issue in map pathfinding that causes campaigns to hang v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-969] Low LOD mode issues with missile ejection fixed v2.4.7 [Fix] : [BUGS-981] Missile laser once again properly excludes 'hits' off it's own vehicle v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed bugs causing connected blocks to fall off and disconnected blocks to not fall off [BUGS-1078] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed fortress jitter, 'next song' button fixed, map editor UI scaling fixed, fleet/force button panel buttons now the correct size. v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed shells missing approximately one block out of 10 v2.4.7 [Fix] : Proximity fuse will not damage/destroy the shield projector anymore when hitting a shield [BUGS-461] v2.4.7 [Fix] : The sound block now works in Multi-Player (it's also now possible to stop the sound with UI) [BUGS-1045] v2.4.7 [Fix] : Hold Q options disabled in tutorials v2.4.7 [Fix] : Tutorial display now remains visible while using certain other UIs v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fixed terrain view distance being too low in fleet control UI v2.4.7 [Fix] : Fleet and force rename popups now respond to escape and enter keys v2.4.7 [Fix] : The 'favourites' build bar no longer spawns your vehicles directly under the crosshair if there is already a vehicle there- this avoids 'telefragging'. v2.4.7 [Fix] : The headers of the UI panels now perfectly respond to mouse over events v2.4.7 [Fix] : The 'info' panel on the right hand side (that displays warnings, etc) is now correctly positioned for most use cases in HUD, Fleet Control UI and Map UI. v2.4.7 [Fix] : The 'map teleport' button now correctly cancels if you right click or re-click the button. v2.4.7 [Fix] : Now works in multiplayer v2.4.7 [Fix] : The camera view shouldn't make the whole game to flicker [BUGS-1084]

[ 2019-07-26 17:29:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.4.6.18 released (multi-threading, menus and more)

Hi all, Excited to say 2.4.6.18 is now live. Main focus has been performance improvements via multi-threading. Early testers are seeing extremely significant improvements in frame rate (50% to 100%). The other focus has been on tidying up the main menu, in game menu and tutorial system. The breadboard system has seen a lot of improvements and a number of quite serious bugs have been addressed, including fixes and improvements to Drills and Repair bots. v2.4.6 [Add] : ACB can now stop a sound block playing a sound v2.4.6 [Add] : Mannequin block added. Options to automatically set pose still to come v2.4.6 [Add] : A video block has been added (in Decoration) v2.4.6 [Add] : Added input with information about the flagship of the fleet v2.4.6 [Add] : Added input with information about the point the AI tries to steer towards v2.4.6 [Add] : Added optional grid to the breadboards. Modules will snap to it if enabled v2.4.6 [Add] : Breadboards now evaluate off the main thread v2.4.6 [Add] : Scroll wheel now zooms in and out on the breadboard v2.4.6 [Add] : The 'del' key can now also be used to delete in- and output v2.4.6 [Add] : You can now zoom in and out in the breadboard v2.4.6 [Add] : Drill bit/extension armour class is improved when drill is spinning v2.4.6 [Add] : Seagulls now circle vehicles and avatars (as well as the camera) when the opportunity arises v2.4.6 [Add] : You can now change the number of seagulls, or turn them off altogether v2.4.6 [Add] : Added a cinematic block-by-block spawn option for vehicles in designer v2.4.6 [Change] : Changed the maximum for the adjuster disable range setting of the charge behaviour to 2000m v2.4.6 [Change] : Autoloaders save the shell they have chambered- this removes extra ammo usage on vehicle spawn v2.4.6 [Change] : You can now command an AI to attack a specific target (using E interface) regardless of if it has a target prioritisation card on v2.4.6 [Change] : FTD no longer changes 'unity scenes' between different modes- it just cleans out rubbish from the old mode and loads in the new stuff. It's faster and more stable this way- but if any rubbish is left over, let us know. v2.4.6 [Change] : Item thumbnails in the inventory now load asyncronosly so they do not pause the main thread when you change inventory page. v2.4.6 [Change] : Main menu and in game menus restyled v2.4.6 [Change] : CW Laser sound now diminishes over time to to make it less annoying when constantly firing v2.4.6 [Change] : Steam engine crank parts have been moved to a different rendering system. v2.4.6 [Change] : All projectiles are calculated off the main thread now v2.4.6 [Change] : Connection of block subsystems is now done off the main thread v2.4.6 [Change] : Creation of chunked meshes is now done off the main thread v2.4.6 [Change] : Pathfinding now allocates much less temporary memory v2.4.6 [Change] : Power creation, usage and controllable blocks all processed off the main thread now v2.4.6 [Change] : Rams are more efficiently processed now v2.4.6 [Change] : Some repair logic and all detection logic calculations calculated off the main thread v2.4.6 [Change] : Terrain generation now runs much faster and with smaller memory allocations v2.4.6 [Change] : Game supports the use of 'gifs' in interactive tutorial scenes to help guide player- we've added one so far. v2.4.6 [Change] : On completion of a tutorial segment you are prompted to pick another one to complete (three options provided). v2.4.6 [Change] : Quizes have been removed from the tutorial content v2.4.6 [Change] : Tutorial content interface updated v2.4.6 [Fix] : ACB can now control the new GP-PIDs properly [BUGS-725] v2.4.6 [Fix] : Fixed [FTDSCRUM-288] ACB list of blocks to execute not updated properly with blocks added/removed to/from spinblocks v2.4.6 [Fix] : Multiple bugs fixed for adventure mode. Moving through warp gates no longer needs to physically reposition everything in the world, which is nice. v2.4.6 [Fix] : Fixed A, B, C, D and E drives of the propulsion module all affecting the A drive v2.4.6 [Fix] : [BUGS-887] Fixed a bug regarding the spawning of a vehicle with coloured particle cannon in campaign v2.4.6 [Fix] : Fixed a number of bugs with drills and made them more dangerous v2.4.6 [Fix] : [BUGS-322] out of play drones (of a mothership force) no longer have fuel costs associated with their movement v2.4.6 [Fix] : [BUGS-322] out of play fuel consumption of forces now correctly stops when the force is not moving, and is proportional to the movement speed of the force v2.4.6 [Fix] : Lua errors are now logged in the Lua box again [BUGS-769] v2.4.6 [Fix] : [BUGS-793] Fixed map editor error when adding a new weather system v2.4.6 [Fix] : [BUGS-629] Fixed LWCs not dropping bombs v2.4.6 [Fix] : The build guide capture, added in 2.4.5, now actually works v2.4.6 [Fix] : Blueprint spawners are now moderately supported in multiplayer- but not fully functional. Previously their spawns were not syncronised at all. v2.4.6 [Fix] : [BUGS-924] Barrels of guns not placed forwards on the construct were rendered in wrong position v2.4.6 [Fix] : Fixed mimic rendering issue where the mesh normals were not correctly stretched v2.4.6 [Fix] : Fixed threading issues affecting propulsion / control systems / physics that were created in 2.4.6.0 v2.4.6 [Fix] : [BUGS-948] Fixed repair bugs (the repair-self block's repair bots)

[ 2019-06-27 18:03:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.4.5 released- new UI, HUD, usability improvements

Really excited to release 2.4.5. It's been a really busy week since 2.4.4 and we've achieved a lot. The HUD/UI in normal mode and build mode has been updated, there is a great new feature where pressing middle mouse brings up loads of extra HUD visuals and gives you a mouse with which to interact with them (build mode and normal mode). We've also added a way to save down user interfaces for later use (so you don't need to navigate back through menus to find them, or find blocks deep inside the vehicle). A lot of bugs have been fixed and a lot of other changes have been made which you can read more about below. As for 2.4.3 and 2.4.4 I've made a video explaining the changes- you can find it here https://youtu.be/dVKxSJfGTp8 The main place to talk about this patch should be on the official forums here: v2.4.5 [Add] : Strafe and hover commands added v2.4.5 [Add] : Added %, <, <=, >, >=, == and != operators to the maths evaluator v2.4.5 [Add] : Added input to get the last propulsion request to any drive v2.4.5 [Add] : Added input with various time related values to breadboard v2.4.5 [Add] : Added select manoeuvre component to AI breadboard v2.4.5 [Add] : Added target bearing input to primary target info of AI breadboard v2.4.5 [Add] : Breadboards maths evaluator can now use the same functions as other maths evaluators. Also added many extra functions to all maths evaluators v2.4.5 [Add] : Electric engines can now use complex controls v2.4.5 [Add] : You can now create a Build Guide in game by pressing Shift+Insert (re-mappable) when in build mode to capture the current vehicle as a state in the build guide. Holding the key for 3 seconds will wipe what you have captured. In the modding interface you can dump your capture into a build guide definition. Expect to see higher quality build guides in game shortly. v2.4.5 [Add] : [REQ-113] A bunch of modal confirmation windows added to avoid exiting to the main menu by error v2.4.5 [Add] : You can now 'collapse' a UI instead of closing it, it will be added to the HUD so that you can open it at any point in the future- very useful for keeping track of useful blocks and PIDs! v2.4.5 [Change] : Ai tutorial and manual updated. v2.4.5 [Change] : Inventory names reorganized and new descriptions given. v2.4.5 [Change] : You can rename blocks in build mode using SHIFT + N. All blocks can now be renamed. v2.4.5 [Change] : Perma-build and Perma-remove are now remappable, but bound to CTRL+H instead of middle mouse (you can rebind it where-ever you like, but I have plans for middile mouse...) v2.4.5 [Change] : The basic controls tutorial has been updated and expanded to be a lot more useful. v2.4.5 [Change] : A display of what the mouse buttons do is now displayed whenever an avatar item is selected v2.4.5 [Change] : ACB UI tidied up a bit, to make it all display on screen at once (no scrolling needed) v2.4.5 [Change] : Added block thumbnails to the inventory so you can search visually by appearance v2.4.5 [Change] : Controlled weapon status glitches fixed- now displays correctly the number of missiles v2.4.5 [Change] : HUD and inventory UI no longer use the one size fits all scaled UI system- now they fit on the screen and use your selected fontsize and button dimensions v2.4.5 [Change] : Painted and renamed blocks will display their paint index and custom name in the tooltip now v2.4.5 [Change] : Path View is no longer an avatar item, but an option which is toggleable from the HUD after pressing middle mouse button v2.4.5 [Change] : Resource bar view remapped from R to CTRL+R but is now toggleable from the extended HUD mode after pressing middle mouse button v2.4.5 [Change] : Ships wheel no longer displays the 'turn sail left/right commands', these are simply 'roll left and roll right' buttons (you can hook them up to control sails / roll / whatever you want). v2.4.5 [Change] : Tidied up the main HUD and the building HUD v2.4.5 [Change] : Using icons for most character weapons / items on the toolbar now v2.4.5 [Fix] : [BUGS-685] Fixed all the command inputs in the ACB v2.4.5 [Fix] : [BUGS-717] Electric engine power not considered by ACB v2.4.5 [Fix] : [BUGS-719] ACB aerial AI related crash v2.4.5 [Fix] : [BUGS-704] Possible crash when removing a pipe when using steam engines with really a lot of pistons (or a dozen huge ones) v2.4.5 [Remove] : Melee attack has been removed v2.4.5 [Remove] : The old tactical UI, opened traditionally with 'N', has been removed from the game

[ 2019-05-03 12:00:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.4.4 (Annotation system, multiplayer fixes and more)

2.4.4 deals mainly with multiplayer fixed, but also adds a cool new system called "annotations" (accessible from the vehicle V menu and visible when the game is paused, or in build mode) It also makes a really nice quality of life change to the UI where holding middle mouse or holding E (both rebindable) allows the "mouse look" in all interfaces. Keyboard moving of the camera is already active in UIs so now you can really explore things whilst you have a UI open. A number of other bugs have also been fixed, but are small and as such I did not put them into the change log. v2.4.4 [Add] : Added 'annotation' options for vehicles (accessible from V menu). These are visible when the game is paused (F11) or you are building on the design. See DWG 'Duster' for first examples. v2.4.4 [Add] : Holding middle mouse or pressing E allows you to 'mouse look' from inside an open user interface. Available in almost all UIs. Rebindable in the options menu. v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-763] Bug with 'above' type adjuster for naval behaviour fixed (caused issue with broadside) v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-753] Auto-orientation of custom jet engine extension parts fixed v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-767] Bug with ACB setting GP-PID type triggering the pre-2.4.0 vehicle migration code for assigning hover thrusters now fixed v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-758] Propulsion and drive breadboard modules no longer act when vehicle is being tractor beamed by friendly docking station v2.4.4 [Fix] : Fortress manoeuvre and behaviour routines now have a default setup migration for the 'adjuster'- this will keep them at sensible altitudes v2.4.4 [Fix] : Fortresses can now turn under AI control v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-740] large gantries only connect when they are exactly lined up with the launch pad (odd configurations used to be possible) v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-759] Missiles fired / reloaded during a warp jump are now the correct size v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-709] Breadboards will sync changes correctly in multiplayer now v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-738] Copy Paste now synchronises in multiplayer v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-738] Reset buttons on the UI (such as those for propulsion blocks) now correctly sync in multiplayer v2.4.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-739] 'Repair Other' repair beams now render on the client as well as the host in multiplayer v2.4.4 [Fix] : Fixed various issues retrofitting a vehicle with stacked subconstructs v2.4.4 [Fix] : Fixed various issues with new vehicles built in multiplayer not syncronising data v2.4.4 [Fix] : Fixed various issues with sub vehicle spawners and syncronisation of the drone/mothership states v2.4.4 [Fix] : Spawning a vehicle with drones no longer creates issues v2.4.4 [Fix] : Fixed issues with PAC melee lens and made it a lot more damaging v2.4.4 [Fix] : Drone and mothership links are maintained until the SVS block is permanently removed from the design (not just killed), or the UI is used to disconnect the drone.

[ 2019-04-23 20:53:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.4.2 2.4.3 series changelog.

Hello all, The focus this last week has been to make the new AI more versatile and easier to use. There is now a module called the "adjuster" that sits between the behaviour and the manoeuvre routines and adjusts the waypoint to take acount of various things such as desired altitudes, avoiding other vehicles, pathfinding around sea or land. I'm quite pleased with the result of this. I've also expanded on the functionality of the breadboard (and made an AI version of the breadboard) that can be used to automate the switching of different behaviours. A lot of bugs have been fixed.Various usability improvements and simplifications have been made to the UI, and a few more AI behaviours (including a ramming AI) have been added. v2.4.2 [Add] : Added altitude type selection to the altitude input module v2.4.2 [Add] : GP PID now has a simple axis responder that controls the fake set point v2.4.2 [Change] : The addition of an automatic manoeuvre routines has been disabled, as many mainframes are for weapon control only and don't want one. v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-699] Projectile avoidance additional routine crash fixed v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-712] Fire control computer and weapons go unresponsive after avatar death v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-711] Tooltip for air rudder and air elevator added, and alerts user when parts placed upside down. Many tooltips updated. v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-722] Fixed a crash in the equation editor v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-721] Ensured the LUA .so files ship with the linux installers v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-701] The 2x2 large missile hatch now mirrors correctly v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-713] Most story mission events were pre-triggered and would not trigger again. Fixed now. v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-700] Pressing the preset buttons in the game config tab of the options UI now triggers the reevaluation of the game's config after the options have been changed v2.4.2 [Fix] : [BUGS-715] Fixed an issue with the display of fixed width tooltips v2.4.2 [Fix] : Interaction with sub objects in build mode easier now v2.4.3 [Add] : Added a universal waypoint adjustment module in between the behaviour and the manoeuvre v2.4.3 [Add] : Added in some new AI behaviours, including a ramming one v2.4.3 [Add] : Ramming AI has a new slider for disabling the adjuster when within a certain distance of the target v2.4.3 [Add] : Six axis manoeuvre routine has a new 'look ahead distance' for configuring the way the vehicle points v2.4.3 [Add] : The projectile avoidance additional routine can now target all vehicle movement axes (not just A/B/C/D/E) v2.4.3 [Add] : Added orientation input to the breadboards- providing roll pitch and yaw of the vehicle v2.4.3 [Add] : Added GetAIMovementMode and GetAIFiringMode functions to replace AIMode field. AIMode now returns only 'off' or 'on' v2.4.3 [Add] : Added GetPowerFraction and GetElectricPowerFraction functions v2.4.3 [Add] : Added PowerFraction and ElectricPowerFraction to FriendlyInfo v2.4.3 [Add] : Construct modules can now save data packets in the same way as the blocks do by overriding the UniqueSetId field and declaring the packets in the class v2.4.3 [Add] : Added set point adjust (number added to the set point) and a set point multiply terms to the PIDs. This will make it easier to tweak the pitch of your vehicle so that it maintains altitude. v2.4.3 [Add] : Added some refinements to the Responding module UI v2.4.3 [Add] : Added to UI sliders so they don't change length as you are dragging them v2.4.3 [Add] : Added tooltips to help show that it is possible to resize and move the UI windows v2.4.3 [Add] : Provided toggles to hide a) misc axes, b) custom axes, c) secondary/tertiary drives d) strafe hover. This helps to declutter the UI v2.4.3 [Add] : The AI UI now shows the details of one of the routines, alongside the main window v2.4.3 [Add] : The LAMs UI has been updated- option to copy to all LAMS and copy just the color to all LAMs has been added v2.4.3 [Add] : You can now right click the preset button to add the preset without removing other settings v2.4.3 [Fix] : When you issue patrol orders the rotation is now used (important for six axis manoeuvre routine) v2.4.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-726] Sub vehicle spawner no longer resets to default when put into play v2.4.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-80] Pulsed LAM beams now color correctly v2.4.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-731] Issues with the removal of turrets and spinners fixed (removing the block under them caused de-sync issue) v2.4.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-733] Missile component changes now syncronise over the network correctly v2.4.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-734] ACBs now run on the clients right up until the point of making the change- this ensures all the UI data is correct on clients v2.4.3 [Fix] : [BUGS-736] setting restraints relative to parent construct now shows the correct visualization of the constraint setting arrows

[ 2019-04-18 18:44:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.4.0.11 released

I'm really excited to be releasing the 2.4.0 series of patches to the main branch today. These patches expand on the AI framework of the game, allowing more modular AI. They also expand on the control aspect of the game, allowing more control over your vehicle systems. The way data is saved and synchronised in multiplayer has also been reworked and this should lead to a smoother multiplayer experience. There are a load of other changes as well, so have a look at the full list below. v2.3.2 [Add] : Mimic Lead added, same stats as lead with 4 cost. v2.3.2 [Add] : Added wedge front and back to glass, wood, and heavy armor. v2.3.2 [Add] : Lead, Stone, and Rubber received full block variation. v2.3.2 [Add] : Mimic Alloy added, same stats as alloy with 7 cost. v2.3.2 [Add] : Mimic Metal added, same stats as metal with 7 cost. v2.3.2 [Add] : New Cargo Material containers. Now you can make the perfect cargo ships! Or just have a nice large container to hold your mats. v2.3.2 [Change] : Mimics now cost 2. v2.3.2 [Change] : Updated Stone, lead, and rubber material. v2.4 [Add] : Added 'Wander distance' to aerial AI so you can chose the size of the holding pattern they fly if they reach their final waypoint v2.4 [Add] : AI naval and land AI now has the ability to hover at a specific height and control pitch v2.4 [Add] : Some new AI modes added such as a ramming behaviour mode and a six axis stabilisation manoeuvre mode v2.4 [Add] : You can now disable the AI PID/other control over roll, pitch, yaw, strafe, hover or propulsion v2.4 [Add] : You can now configure how far apart the barrels of a multiple barrel APS gun (i.e. chaingun) are placed v2.4 [Add] : Complete sets of rubber, stone and lead blocks added v2.4 [Add] : Added in the initial prototype of the BreadBoard control unit- more to come v2.4 [Add] : Balloon deployer now has much more fine control over the size (and lift) of the balloon. v2.4 [Add] : Added radar/sonar equivalent of sticky flare(same as sonar/radar buoys but no GPP requirement, no detections and twice as powerful). v2.4 [Add] : Heat decoy got a power slider, between 100-5000 v2.4 [Add] : New block: chaff emitter. Uses materials/sec, reduces radar signature by a flat value. Reduction scales with the third root of total materials used by all chaff emitters on the vehicle(better on small things). v2.4 [Add] : New block: radar decoy. 100-5000 power, radar missiles have a chance to lock onto it based on power(see tooltip). v2.4 [Add] : New block: sonar decoy. 100-5000 power, sonar torpedos have a chance to lock onto it based on power(see tooltip). v2.4 [Add] : Signal strength scales with size and decoy count on the missile. See tooltips for more info. v2.4 [Add] : You can now change the maximum number of projectiles the game supports at any time, for all four types of projectile. Options in the Misc tab of the options menu. v2.4 [Add] : Text can now be added to holograms v2.4 [Add] : New block: output regulator. Attaches to the multipurpose laser, if it's present cavity drain is a % of max energy, not current. v2.4 [Add] : New missile component replacing IR camera: signal processor. v2.4 [Add] : S/M/L signal processors reduce enemy decoy missile strength to 20/15/10% of the original. v2.4 [Add] : Takes a full component on all missile sizes. v2.4 [Add] : New block: 2x2 L hatch. v2.4 [Add] : New block: single rail S launcher. 1/5 the cost of a quad rail, 1/4 weight, 1/2 health. v2.4 [Add] : You can edit the velocity of piston movement from the piston UI now (you no longer need an ACB to change it) v2.4 [Change] : AI cards now provide one 'routine slot' for a 'behaviour' or 'additional' routine that is configured and saved in the AI mainframe. This change is backwards compatible with all old designs. v2.4 [Change] : AI control has been separated into three types of routine: 'behaviour', 'manoeuvre' and 'additionals'. This allows more customisation of the AI. v2.4 [Change] : AI PIDs reworked a little bit for simplicity v2.4 [Change] : AI now directly controls the drives, rather than sending single frame commands v2.4 [Change] : Each functional block can now 'respond' to inputs (such as pitch up, roll left, A,B,C,etc) in various ways/magnitudes v2.4 [Change] : GP PIDs set to 'propulsion hover' will automatically migrate all upwards facing thrusters so that they can still control them in this new update v2.4 [Change] : It is now possible to request hover up / hover down / strafe left / strafe right as well as five extra commands (A,B,C,D,E) and custom named commands v2.4 [Change] : Spin blocks can now be directly mapped to respond to controls in a much more sensible way v2.4 [Change] : The Adv Controller input keys and three drives remain unchanged v2.4 [Change] : The GP PID controller has it's settings separated into inputs and outputs and multiple outputs are now selectable. v2.4 [Change] : There are now two sets of player editable vehicle key mappings, one for a typical plane and one for a typical boat. v2.4 [Change] : Water drive and air drive have been simplified into 'primary drive' and a 'secondary drive' and 'tertiary' drive have been added. v2.4 [Change] : AI mainframe cost down from 400 to 300 v2.4 [Change] : General purpose processing card cost down from 200 to 100 v2.4 [Change] : Missile controller cost down from 100 to 50 v2.4 [Change] : Missile stagger addon cost down from 100 to 50 v2.4 [Change] : Cavities now spawn full v2.4 [Change] : New tooltips breaking down relevant info on cavity lines, couplers and multipurpose/combiner/optics/LAMS nodes v2.4 [Change] : Flak damage down to 80% (now 120% of the pre-rework value) v2.4 [Change] : HE/flak push force halved against missiles v2.4 [Change] : Missile HE warheads don't damage missiles, only push them v2.4 [Change] : Interceptor damage is now 100/200/400 for S, 500/1000/2000 for M v2.4 [Change] : Interceptor damage is now constant within the radius v2.4 [Change] : Interceptor radius down to 15m/30m for S/M, from 35/35 v2.4 [Change] : Old one treated all visible things as equal if they had 100% detection chance, with angle being the biggest factor to choose one(this meant decoys are exactly the same as any huge thing within 1000m). New one uses signal strength(=detection range for constructs) as a base for everything (IR/radar/sonar). Adjusts signal strength based on distance(50% at 1000m, 33.33% at 2000, ...) Adjusts signal strength based on angle(50% at 15, 33.33% at 30, ...) Checks whether or not the the signal strength is below a minimum threshold innate to IR/radar/sonar guidance components. Chooses the best score from the signals above the threshold v2.4 [Change] : Ejection angles can be changed in 1 steps v2.4 [Change] : Harpoon cable strength increased by 50% v2.4 [Change] : Missile magnet force down to 50% v2.4 [Change] : Remote guidance GPP cost changed from 4/4/16 to 2/3/18 v2.4 [Change] : Shortrange/variable thruster start delay can be set in 0.1s steps v2.4 [Change] : Stagger addons go up to 5s, has a slider with 0.025s increments v2.4 [Change] : TPG lookahead is now capped at 5 seconds, down from 10 v2.4 [Change] : It is now easy to mod in a new AI behaviour, routine or manoeuvre. v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-647] Only non empty (or growing) resource zones are approached by the resource gathering AI behaviour now v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-648] Added the 'cease movement below' slider back onto the land behaviour AI routine UI v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-649] APS customisation UI tidied up a bit to stop ammo cost going offscreen v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-654] bulkheaddoors and hatches now allow the avatar to pass correctly v2.4 [Fix] : The mirroring of Rubber, Stone, and Lead that resulted in metal has been fixed. v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-569] dead player forces still see through fog of war- now fixed v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-595] Some illegal turbo->cyclinder and turbo->exhaust connections were previously accepted, these have been fixed. v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-36] working on the fix of 1m sloped faces rendering black on AMD graphics card-hopefully fixed now. v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-501] Propellers and jets now scale particle count with the Particle Factor slider in the Performance tab of the options menu. Option added to disable particles from jets and propellers etc on a block by block basis. v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-617] Fixed duplicate reflection on the water surface after LOD switch v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-630] on Linux some steam engine part meshes did not load due to case sensitivity issues in the filenames v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-655] Crosshair no longer drawn when HUD disabled (F9) when using wireless camera v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-608] Now catching issues trying to load non existant missile parts- defaulting to body sections. v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-659] Missile hatches no longer stop failsafed missiles from firing v2.4 [Fix] : Missile don't spawn trails from the launch point when a delayed thruster activates v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-632] vehicles spawned from blueprint spawner now calculate their drag correctly as they repair themselves v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-644] Water start balloon control fixed v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-646] PAC charge time reset to 1 second after load- this is now fixed. v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-650] Fixed an issue with steam engine propulsion crashing vehicles/warping them into space v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-663] Piston now loads in the correct visual position again v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-665] PID 'type' value not being synced or saved v2.4 [Fix] : Fixed the migration of roll and roll reverse thrusters from 2.3.1 to 2.4.0 v2.4 [Fix] : In the old version insta spin speeds were incorrectly calculated when power scale was not 1. Spinners configured like this are now faster than they used to be. v2.4 [Fix] : Propeller emission displayed when the propeller is stopped v2.4 [Fix] : Slowdown when removing the boiler controller in a steam-propeller setup v2.4 [Fix] : The propeller rotate when there's no boilers and the command is in reverse v2.4 [Fix] : [BUGS-645] Console text input bar in AI UI disabled as not used v2.4 [Fix] : The 'Mock Wheel' now does what it was supposed to do v2.4 [Remove] : Due to change in data format wheels will forget their settings - sorry about this. v2.4.1 [Add] : Mobula Airbourne Cruiser added to fill out SS Godly aircraft arsenal. v2.4.1 [Add] : Albatross joins the airfleet. v2.4.1 [Change] : Most SS aircrafts recieved some make over. The new SS fleet is now much sleeker. v2.4.1 [Fix] : Drag for wedge front and back adjusted. v2.4.1 [Fix] : Serveral crafts fixed for the new ai transfer.

[ 2019-04-03 19:45:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

v2.1.3.15 Patch Notes - Mac problem fixed.

More of a hotfix but the issue of iOS users not able to start the game has been fixed. Update your FTD and it should be solved. Sorry for the inconvience. v2.3.1 Revision 15 v2.3.1 [Fix] : Crafts resaved with proper speeds and altitudes. v2.3.1 [Fix] : Sea Kruzer enters the fray! v2.3.1 [Change] Renamed Item Duplicate and Modify to ItemDup to reduce path length.

[ 2018-12-29 15:36:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

v2.3.1.13 Updated [Stable] Patch Notes

The more technical patchnotes of the stuff added since the Halloween Event. You can also find these in your game in the main menu, you can see for yourself by category and version number. This is more of just a dump for overall viewing. v2.2.28 [Add] : Added a slider for the one turn to control the flight path v2.2.28 [Fix] : Code for rotating turrets and spin blocks tided up. Slow moving spinners now actually rotate correctly [BUGS-376] v2.2.28 [Fix] : Failsafes can now optionally check for friendly vehicles v2.2.28 [Fix] : Failsafes can switch targets when a friendly is in the way instead of holding fire v2.2.28 [Fix] : Failsafes won't use chached values that are older that 1 second v2.2.28 [Fix] : Fixed failsafes not working correctly for missiles v2.2.28 [Fix] : Improved performance of existing failsafe functionality v2.2.28 [Fix] : Switched to the new UI v2.2.28 [Fix] : Mimic is synced over network [FTD-251] v2.2.28 [Fix] : Fix to non PRB rendering of tiled structural components v2.2.28 [Fix] : Fixed an issue with laser designated missiles (not) using other lasers on the vehicle v2.2.28 [Fix] : Fixed various bugs in the new lua functions [BUGS-384] v2.2.28 [Fix] : Missiles resetting to default now fixed v2.2.28 [Fix] : Readded the 'Allow fire when partially charged' button to the railgun UI [BUGS-383] v2.3 [Add] : Propeller shaft: new type of shaft, used after a reduction gear and allowing to connect a propeller to the steam engine v2.3 [Add] : Reduction gear: can be connected to any shaft block or propeller shaft block. It manages the transition between the steam engine and the propeller rotation speeds, the more you add, the more responsive the propeller is v2.3 [Add] : Sealed propeller shaft: it is a 2m long propeller shaft which allow you to place any other block in the second part, allowing you to seal your ship while letting the propeller shaft going through v2.3 [Add] : Shaft bearing block: increase the max safe rotation speed of the assembly v2.3 [Add] : Shaft shift-axis: allow to shift the axis of the shaft by one meter (must be connected to a standard shaft block, not a crank or even a propeller shaft) v2.3 [Add] : Steam-propellers: specific propellers which must be attached to a shaft propeller. It cannot rotate faster than the rotation speed of the main shaft, and its speed is reduced if the steam engine do not provide enough energy v2.3 [Add] : When you move or resize a UI element (of the new UI system), those changes are saved (for a resolution and font size) v2.3 [Add] : You can swap tabs in the new UI system by pressing [ and ]. They keys are remappable v2.3 [Change] : Overhaul of the way the rotating blocks takes damage, any rotating block can now be damaged (not only the pistons) v2.3 [Change] : The gears maximum safe rotation speed will now decrease when rotating components are added to it. Using cased cranks is better, shaft bearing blocks even increase the max safe rotation speed of the assembly v2.3 [Fix] : Ejectors are now properly attached to the large gantry and don't glow red showing an apparent 'disconnection' v2.3 [Fix] : Gantries need to have the same forward direction as launch pads in order to connect. Fixes some issues with large rail missiles v2.3 [Add] : Added high arc options to CRAM cannons as well v2.3 [Add] : 2 parameters: start delay and fuel budget(in % of total fuel on missile) v2.3 [Add] : New component: turning thruster. Gives 2.5x as much turning force as a fin in the same position, not affected by air density, uses fuel. v2.3 [Add] : Only engages when the angle to the target is above 10, has a 5 inaccuracy v2.3 [Add] : Uses up 1 fuel tank in 5 seconds v2.3 [Add] : Steam-propellers: specific propellers which must be attached to a shaft propeller. It cannot rotate faster than the rotation speed of the main shaft, and its speed is reduced if the steam engine do not provide enough energy v2.3 [Change] : New target type options: missile only, cannon shell only or everything v2.3 [Change] : Explosion force against missiles reduced even more, 50% of the previous value(only the pushing force, damage dissipation comes later) v2.3 [Change] : M interceptor base damage up from 800 to 1000 v2.3 [Change] : Regulators give 100% of the base lifetime instead of 50% v2.3 [Change] : S missiles take more damage from interceptors(80-100 from a small one) v2.3 [Change] : Turnrate now isn't reduced below 100 m/s v2.3 [Change] : 3 firing modes adjustable on the controller: Continuous, Salvo, Full salvo v2.3 [Change] : Continuous: is the current behavior, fire 1 missile on a trigger pull. Fire all at once if stagger is 0. v2.3 [Change] : Full salvo: same as salvo, but won't start firing until all launchpads not missing a gantry are fully loaded. v2.3 [Change] : Salvo: fire every missile of every launcher once on a trigger pull. Also stops if it can't fire missiles in a stagger step. Fire all at once if stagger is 0. v2.3 [Change] : Part of the propeller shaft weight is now added to the total assembly weight, depending on the command sent to the propeller (0: no weight added, 1: full weight added) v2.3 [Change] : The blocks descriptions better describe how they are connected to each other (an update of the steam build help will be done at some point) v2.3 [Change] : The friction coefficient applied to the main assembly is now only based on the number of reduction gears v2.3 [Change] : The medium propeller of the small gearbox has been removed v2.3 [Change] : The propeller shaft blocks are now a lot more durable and should resist against most explosions v2.3 [Change] : The propeller shaft can now rotate faster than the engine shaft, by x1.5 per reduction gear v2.3 [Change] : The propeller shaft texutre is now different from the engine shaft texture to help differentiate them v2.3 [Change] : The propellers are less heavy v2.3 [Change] : The propellers now consume some (very few) of the energy generated by the steam engine v2.3 [Change] : The tooltip indicating the state of the steam engine now display more information and is a lot more readable v2.3 [Change] : There is now a mirrored version of the large reduction gear v2.3 [Change] : Transition to the shaft added to the propeller models v2.3 [Change] : All fragmentation warheads now create an actual cone of fragments instead of a square-base pyramid v2.3 [Change] : Fragments are now evenly distributed (on average) instead of concentrated at certain directions v2.3 [Fix] : Fixed bug in interceptors that causes it to destroy all enemy missiles v2.3 [Fix] : Fixed turrets with missiles using the wrong information for aiming v2.3 [Fix] : Missiles are no longer assumed to inherit the velocity of the parent vehicle for aiming v2.3 [Fix] : Torpedoes no longer consider gravity for aiming v2.3 [Fix] : Torpedoes now use the correct speed when aiming v2.3 [Fix] : The 1m propeller is now working as intended v2.3 [Fix] : The small sealed propeller shaft now works as intended v2.3 [Add] : Updated the UI to the new format v2.3 [Add] : Non PRB shaders now use triplanar mapping for structural components, like the PBR shaders do v2.3 [Fix] : The propeller shaft weight is now initialized correctly, so the shaft won't lose rotation speed each time a steam block is added anywhere v2.3 [Change] : All fragmentation warheads now create an actual cone of fragments instead of a square-base pyramid v2.3 [Change] : Casket bolt updated with mimics and updated haproons. v2.3 [Change] : Davy Jones Outpost beaming redone. v2.3 [Change] : Hoplite given a tuneup. v2.3 [Change] : Nessie spotted once again but with some minor changes. v2.3 [Change] : Sea Adder now paddle powered. v2.3 [Change] : Shrike given more booms. v2.3 [Change] : Scuttlegun replaced with fully paddle powered varient. v2.3 [Change] : Shuriken given a shiny new gun. v2.3 [Change] : Water Buffalo now fully paddle operated. v2.3 [Change] : Conveictor given some touch up and mimics. v2.3 [Change] : Dragonfly touched up.(edited) v2.3 [Change] : Latobius given mimics and tune up. v2.3 [Change] : Noir had mimic touch up. v2.3 [Change] : Osprey touched up. v2.3 [Change] : Songbird touched up. v2.3 [Change] : Valkyria given functional harpoons again. v2.3 [Change] : Cerberus had some missile changes. v2.3 [Change] : Lamprey new railings and has been buffed. v2.3 [Change] : Hunter given functional harpoons and extra tune up. v2.3 [Change] : Razormaul touched up the missiles and has been given a shave. v2.3 [Change] : Cutlass updated to new missiles. v2.3 [Change] : Gnat updated. v2.3 [Change] : Raft updated. v2.3 [Change] : Rapier adjusted missiles. v2.3 [Change] : Sentinel updated. v2.3 [Change] : Starting rib changed missile gantries. v2.3 [Change] : Wanderlusts updated. v2.3 [Change] : Defiance Updated. v2.3 [Change] : Iron Maiden replaced with a more up to date look. v2.3 [Change] : Falcon has been completely overhauled. v2.3 [Change] : Gannet replaced with a new body. v2.3 [Change] : Banshee updated. v2.3 [Change] : Lynx has a new shiny replacement. v2.3 [Change] : Retribution has been completely overhauled. v2.3 [Change] : Dragonclaw missiles swapped out.(edited) v2.3.1 [Add] : The night is dark and full of terrors. Darkness encrouches upon FTD. v2.3.1 [Change] : Grav. compensators now increase effective time by 100% of base v2.3.1 [Change] : Increased cram projectile lifetime from 20s to 40s v2.3.1 [Change] : Airship Gantry Atlas given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Atlas given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Costal Defense given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Monkey Barrel given a cleanup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Sea Viper now much more aggressive. v2.3.1 [Change] : Atlas retrofit given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Duster now has a secret weapon. v2.3.1 [Change] : Iron Maiden drop a new album....I mean new Lore! v2.3.1 [Change] : Retribution replacement finally overcome its stage fright. v2.3.1 [Change] : Credits updated v2.3.1 [Fix] : Projectile tooltip now shows secondary head charge stats when following the shell [BUGS-372] v2.3.1 [Fix] : Autocannon now works (after repair) if killed whilst firing [BUGS-392] v2.3.1 [Fix] : Temporary fix to [BUGS-421] that was causing fast ships with the new modular big rudders to fly into space v2.3.1 [Fix] : Mouse 3 and 4 can now be mapped to most things v2.3.1 [Fix] : Missiles no longer explode underneath the target's armour [BUGS-418] v2.3.1 [Fix] : Propellers in reverse now consume power instead of creating some [BUGS-417] v2.3.1 [Add] : The Forces of Winter in the North begin to show signs of movement! Rambots its time to take up arms and fulfil our Oath and fend off this Invasion! v2.3.1 [Change] : DWG missiles updated for the entire faction to new specification for the new missiles. v2.3.1 [Remove] : Attack on Rambot sucessfully defended, the forces of night retreat... for now. v2.3.1 [Add] : Alloy and Metal armoured hatches added to decoration. Just like the bulkhead doors, they should add style without too much structural sacrifice. v2.3.1 [Add] : Alloy and Metal bulkhead doors added to decoration. They should add style and not hinder your craft now. v2.3.1 [Add] : Alloy Wedge Slopes added in 1m, 2m, 3m, 4m. In both front and back configuration. v2.3.1 [Add] : Big and small chains added to decoration. You can now have proper chains for your ship anchors or... other things ( ). v2.3.1 [Add] : Coal has been added to the game in the form of new styled resource containers. 8 cost for Coal Pile, 24 cost for Coal Pile Large. v2.3.1 [Add] : Metal Wdge Slopes added in 1m, 2m, 3m, 4m. In both front and back configuration. v2.3.1 [Add] : Reinforced Wood added in 1m, 2m, 3m, 4m variants. You can find them in them in the Blocks tab. Have nice reinforced Ship decks now. v2.3.1 [Add] : Two new stairs for the more basic steel look in Regular and Stacked. v2.3.1 [Change] : Mimics increased by 0.5 Material Cost. Ask Rhea Tongue v2.3.1 [Change] : Portholes fixed of purple issue. Forum Post Link to the patchnotes. https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/showthread.php?tid=38506

[ 2018-12-27 16:50:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

v2.3.1.13 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone! Festive Event is here!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. We hope you are having a wonderful time at home with the family or alone, enjoying the Holiday break. The Festive Event is here! With the help of the community for ideas and all the submissions of holiday themed crafts, we're happy to announce a seasonal campaign to play and enjoy the creations. Please feel free to leave any feedback or suggestions as this campaign will be up for a while for everyone to enjoy. Just download the update to FTD and it should be on the planet selector up top. With the Festive Event going up, the Halloween Event comes down but we've archieved the files so you can add it to your own game if you wish to continue playing it. The file can currently be found on our official discord pinned to the festive event channel. Join the Official Discord to be ontop of updates as they happen, or even chat with the Devs. https://discord.gg/pKgnWdf We're looking for your experience through the event! Take some snapshots and share it to everyone and if you think its a great photo, post it to #media_submissions and we'll post it to our media. Follow our Twitter or Facebook for the screenshot showcase, perhaps even get your own posted to the official pages. https://twitter.com/FTD_Game https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDepthsGame/ Check our forum where more of the technical details go for updates, and in an easier to keep up format if you're not accustomed to Discord. https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/ Remember, have fun and stay safe in the Holiday seasons. Think of others too before you start overindulging.

[ 2018-12-24 15:37:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v2.3.1 Attack on Rambot Released! - Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone is have or had a wonderful time dressing up in costume, giving out candy, or receiving candy! Update v2.3.1 comes with the return of From the Shadow campaign! This time with the special event mission: Attack on Rambot! I hope everyone has fun with this little special mission as it contains all community designs. It is a special Tower Defense mission which hopefully is a different From the Depths experience. Special thanks to everyone that submitted and helped. Craft in image created by zombieeeeeee. Huge steam parts have been accidently pushed out early, do not worry. They've been fixed up and it should all be corrected in the next quick patch. Will update the technical changes when that is done. Join the Official Discord to be ontop of updates as they happen, or even chat with the Devs. Share your screenshots and designs with others in the community as well. https://discord.gg/pKgnWdf Follow our Twitter or Facebook for the screenshot showcase, perhaps even get your own posted to the official pages. https://twitter.com/FTD_Game https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDepthsGame/ Technical change listing: v2.3.1 [Add] : The night is dark and full of terrors. Darkness encrouches upon FTD. v2.3.1 [Change] : Grav. compensators now increase effective time by 100% of base v2.3.1 [Change] : Increased cram projectile lifetime from 20s to 40s v2.3.1 [Change] : Credits updated v2.3.1 [Fix] : Projectile tooltip now shows secondary head charge stats when following the shell [BUGS-372] v2.3.1 [Fix] : Autocannon now works (after repair) if killed whilst firing [BUGS-392] v2.3.1 [Fix] : Temporary fix to [BUGS-421] that was causing fast ships with the new modular big rudders to fly into space v2.3.1 [Fix] : Mouse 3 and 4 can now be mapped to most things v2.3.1 [Fix] : Missiles no longer explode underneath the target's armour [BUGS-418] v2.3.1 [Fix] : Propellers in reverse now consume power instead of creating some [BUGS-417] Content Changes v2.3.1 [Change] : Airship Gantry Atlas given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Atlas given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Costal Defense given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Monkey Barrel given a cleanup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Sea Viper now much more aggressive. v2.3.1 [Change] : Atlas retrofit given a tuneup. v2.3.1 [Change] : Duster now has a secret weapon. v2.3.1 [Change] : Iron Maiden drop a new album....I mean new Lore! v2.3.1 [Change] : Retribution replacement finally overcome its stage fright.

[ 2018-10-31 15:11:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.3.0.8 released

New steam parts such as a steam drive-shaft propeller. A turning jet for missiles and some bug fixes. Large rudder pieces and some new armour / decorative pieces. APS and CRAM cannons can now aim to lob shells in high artillery arcs. v2.3 [Add] : Added high arc options to CRAM cannons as well v2.3 [Add] : 2 parameters: start delay and fuel budget(in % of total fuel on missile) v2.3 [Add] : New component: turning thruster. Gives 2.5x as much turning force as a fin in the same position, not affected by air density, uses fuel. v2.3 [Add] : Only engages when the angle to the target is above 10, has a 5 inaccuracy v2.3 [Add] : Uses up 1 fuel tank in 5 seconds v2.3 [Add] : Updated the UI to the new format v2.3 [Add] : Non PRB shaders now use triplanar mapping for structural components, like the PBR shaders do v2.3 [Add] : Propeller shaft: new type of shaft, used after a reduction gear and allowing to connect a propeller to the steam engine v2.3 [Add] : Reduction gear: can be connected to any shaft block or propeller shaft block. It manages the transition between the steam engine and the propeller rotation speeds, the more you add, the more responsive the propeller is v2.3 [Add] : Sealed propeller shaft: it is a 2m long propeller shaft which allow you to place any other block in the second part, allowing you to seal your ship while letting the propeller shaft going through v2.3 [Add] : Shaft bearing block: increase the max safe rotation speed of the assembly v2.3 [Add] : Shaft shift-axis: allow to shift the axis of the shaft by one meter (must be connected to a standard shaft block, not a crank or even a propeller shaft) v2.3 [Add] : Steam-propellers: specific propellers which must be attached to a shaft propeller. It cannot rotate faster than the rotation speed of the main shaft, and its speed is reduced if the steam engine do not provide enough energy v2.3 [Add] : When you move or resize a UI element (of the new UI system), those changes are saved (for a resolution and font size) v2.3 [Add] : You can swap tabs in the new UI system by pressing [ and ]. They keys are remappable v2.3 [Change] : New target type options: missile only, cannon shell only or everything v2.3 [Change] : Explosion force against missiles reduced even more, 50% of the previous value(only the pushing force, damage dissipation comes later) v2.3 [Change] : M interceptor base damage up from 800 to 1000 v2.3 [Change] : Regulators give 100% of the base lifetime instead of 50% v2.3 [Change] : S missiles take more damage from interceptors(80-100 from a small one) v2.3 [Change] : Turnrate now isn't reduced below 100 m/s v2.3 [Change] : 3 firing modes adjustable on the controller: Continuous, Salvo, Full salvo v2.3 [Change] : Continuous: is the current behavior, fire 1 missile on a trigger pull. Fire all at once if stagger is 0. v2.3 [Change] : Full salvo: same as salvo, but won't start firing until all launchpads not missing a gantry are fully loaded. v2.3 [Change] : Salvo: fire every missile of every launcher once on a trigger pull. Also stops if it can't fire missiles in a stagger step. Fire all at once if stagger is 0. v2.3 [Change] : Overhaul of the way the rotating blocks takes damage, any rotating block can now be damaged (not only the pistons) v2.3 [Change] : The gears maximum safe rotation speed will now decrease when rotating components are added to it. Using cased cranks is better, shaft bearing blocks even increase the max safe rotation speed of the assembly v2.3 [Change] : Part of the propeller shaft weight is now added to the total assembly weight, depending on the command sent to the propeller (0: no weight added, 1: full weight added) v2.3 [Change] : The blocks descriptions better describe how they are connected to each other (an update of the steam build help will be done at some point) v2.3 [Change] : The friction coefficient applied to the main assembly is now only based on the number of reduction gears v2.3 [Change] : The medium propeller of the small gearbox has been removed v2.3 [Change] : The propeller shaft blocks are now a lot more durable and should resist against most explosions v2.3 [Change] : The propeller shaft can now rotate faster than the engine shaft, by x1.5 per reduction gear v2.3 [Change] : The propeller shaft now need less energy from the steam engine in order to reach its maximum rotation speed, it depends on the number of reduction gears v2.3 [Change] : The propeller shaft texutre is now different from the engine shaft texture to help differentiate them v2.3 [Change] : The propellers are less heavy v2.3 [Change] : The propellers now consume some (very few) of the energy generated by the steam engine v2.3 [Change] : The tooltip indicating the state of the steam engine now display more information and is a lot more readable v2.3 [Change] : There is now a mirrored version of the large reduction gear v2.3 [Change] : Transition to the shaft added to the propeller models v2.3 [Change] : All fragmentation warheads now create an actual cone of fragments instead of a square-base pyramid v2.3 [Change] : Fragments are now evenly distributed (on average) instead of concentrated at certain directions v2.3 [Fix] : Ejectors are now properly attached to the large gantry and don't glow red showing an apparent 'disconnection' v2.3 [Fix] : Fixed bug in interceptors that causes it to destroy all enemy missiles v2.3 [Fix] : Fixed turrets with missiles using the wrong information for aiming v2.3 [Fix] : Gantries need to have the same forward direction as launch pads in order to connect. Fixes some issues with large rail missiles v2.3 [Fix] : Missiles are no longer assumed to inherit the velocity of the parent vehicle for aiming v2.3 [Fix] : Torpedoes no longer consider gravity for aiming v2.3 [Fix] : Torpedoes now use the correct speed when aiming v2.3 [Fix] : The 1m propeller is now working as intended v2.3 [Fix] : The propeller shaft weight is now initialized correctly, so the shaft won't lose rotation speed each time a steam block is added anywhere v2.3 [Fix] : The small sealed propeller shaft now works as intended

[ 2018-10-23 16:01:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.2.27.11 released. New missile sizes!

The full suite of missile changes has now been released for feedback, alongside a bunch of other new features such as the decorative "mimic" block, some new structural blocks and a "laser cutter" laser power based melee weapon, and improvements to wheels. Hope you enjoy it, and post any bugs here v2.2.26 [Add] : Added a 'mimic' block that is a decorate block that can take the mesh of any of the blocks in the game. It can also orientate it, position it and scale it. [FTD-251] v2.2.26 [Add] : Rudder, jet(s) and propeller(s) now have smoothly increasing force outputs so they cannot go from +1 to -1 in one frame v2.2.26 [Change] : Sail attachments, blocks and weather vanes now have reduced drag v2.2.26 [Change] : Marauder given more fuel v2.2.26 [Change] : Sea Adder switched to fill paddle power, and 100% more grenades! v2.2.26 [Change] : Hummingbird widgets removed. v2.2.26 [Change] : Iron Juggernaut performance increase. v2.2.26 [Change] : Aardsterk performance increase. v2.2.26 [Change] : Firefly performance increase. v2.2.26 [Change] : Volta performance increase. v2.2.26 [Change] : Eclipse performance increase v2.2.26 [Change] : Flash perforamnce increase. v2.2.26 [Change] : Refactored construct module code and the attributes that put a module into the game[FTD-42] v2.2.26 [Change] : Vehicles now have high friction on terrain [BUGS-335] v2.2.26 [Change] : Archangel improved to prepare for new missiles. v2.2.26 [Change] : Pixy given more lunch from Mother Eros v2.2.26 [Fix] : ACB complex key various bugs fixed v2.2.26 [Fix] : ACB enemy/target altitude bounds fixed [BUGS-195] v2.2.26 [Fix] : ACB range not shared in MP fixed [BUGS-243] v2.2.26 [Fix] : ACB steam valve control now works [BUGS-337] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Mimic block when loaded as part of a sub object now works [BUGS-301] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Polarity taught that it is not Superman. v2.2.26 [Fix] : Mouse based shift to replace in build mode now works on clients [BUGS-317] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Rubber-banding of client vehicles when frame shifted in multiplayer fixed [BUGS-338] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Fixed the flickering of the water pumped effect when the camera moves [BUGS-234] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Jet particle trails no longer get stretched when the reference frame jumps v2.2.26 [Fix] : Mass slider in game config panel now works again [BUGS-267] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Missiles resettting to default missiles fixed [BUGS-290] [BUGS-269] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Air balloons now function correctly for client in multiplayer [BUGS-258] v2.2.26 [Fix] : All new wheel settings are correctly applied to the physical wheel model after load now [BUGS-238] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Explosions now make visuals and sound on the client in multiplayer [BUGS-278] v2.2.26 [Fix] : Qualification mode no longer crashes when a missile is fired [BUGS-298] v2.2.27 [Add] : Rendering approach for chunks has changed, and a new construct module for efficiently rendering rotating drive shafts / crank shafts / anything that rotates on an axis has been added [FTD-263] v2.2.27 [Add] : Spin blocks in motion now create propulsive forces when they hit the ground- this allows large rubber wheels and some styles of walkers to be made [FTD-265] v2.2.27 [Add] : Added in a laser cutter component that creates a powerful melee weapon using the laser system [FTD-240] v2.2.27 [Add] : Major additions to Lua: reworked Components and additions to Weapons, Self Awareness, SubConstructs and Misc. v2.2.27 [Add] : All sizes have 2 launcher/gantry types: normal and rail v2.2.27 [Add] : Both gantry versions cost the same, rail gantries have half the HP and 1/4 the weight v2.2.27 [Add] : Gantry durability up, a bit below metal HP and 20 armor v2.2.27 [Add] : Hatches added: 4x4 large hatch, 2x1 normal M hatch, 1x2 aerodynamic M hatch(less durable than the 2x1), 1x1 S hatch. The S/M hatches also contain a 1m gantry v2.2.27 [Add] : Hatches have a bit below HA level weight and durability. They are not structural v2.2.27 [Add] : Launchpads missing a gantry won't reload v2.2.27 [Add] : Rail gantries can't have hatches/ejectors/lua transceivers but are as aerodynamic as a 4m slope v2.2.27 [Add] : Rail launchers can connect to gantries on both sides v2.2.27 [Add] : Rail launchers have an invisible version for aesthetic purposes v2.2.27 [Add] : AI mainframe cost up to 400, GPP card cost up to 200 v2.2.27 [Add] : Each missile in the air needs general purpose processing power to function. If there is not enough GPP available its aimpoint will be off(right now by ~5m for every 10% missing) v2.2.27 [Add] : Follows the aimpoint of the attached LWC, or the player aimpoint if the missile's weapon slot is selected v2.2.27 [Add] : New missile component: remote guidance. 100% drag, 10% base HP, not limited to nose v2.2.27 [Add] : Can only be placed after a short range/variable thruster v2.2.27 [Add] : New component: secondary torpedo propeller, a wide rotating rim hanging over normal thrusters v2.2.27 [Add] : Same options/output as a normal prop v2.2.27 [Add] : The only component with double mass and has twice the drag of fins(slightly worse agility/acceleration and is ~20% slower than a dedicated missile/torpedo) v2.2.27 [Add] : Currently uses 100-10000 power, that translates to 0.1-1 jamming strength in a ~300-1000m radius. Strength decreases further from the jammer v2.2.27 [Add] : Each 0.1 strength adds ~1.5m inaccuracy to enemy remote guided missiles(only the strongest counts) v2.2.27 [Add] : New AI block: signal jammer, attaches to mainframes/connectors v2.2.27 [Add] : This means small fighters can get away with 100-200 power and have a decent defense against remotes(or a carrier can cover them from up to 1Km out) v2.2.27 [Add] : Uses power and interferes with enemy electronics(read: remote guidance missiles) v2.2.27 [Add] : The vehicle event scheduling system has been refactored a bit [FTD-264] v2.2.27 [Change] : Advanced cannons can now be set to aim using high arcs instead of only low arcs v2.2.27 [Change] : Steam shafts given less cute names. v2.2.27 [Change] : Naming has gone through some OCD changes, more consistant for mimic searching. v2.2.27 [Change] : Duster now actually a propeller airplane. v2.2.27 [Change] : Falkenheim had some new windows installed. v2.2.27 [Change] : Shrike had mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Paddlegunner given paddle power! v2.2.27 [Change] : Pilferer fully paddle powered and tuned up. v2.2.27 [Change] : Aardsnel had the shakes removed. v2.2.27 [Change] : Cirrus has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : DreadNought had mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Morning Star struck with military cutbacks. v2.2.27 [Change] : Mosquito now has less malaria. v2.2.27 [Change] : Rusted Ram Small House renamed. v2.2.27 [Change] : Talon SkyFortress has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Warhorse gone through some cutbacks. v2.2.27 [Change] : Kite Fighter has a tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Machination given new railings. v2.2.27 [Change] : Cerberus has been replaced with Maro's. v2.2.27 [Change] : Aardvark Refinery has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Aeonic given minor tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Ascension has been given some makeup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Bee given more sober pilots. v2.2.27 [Change] : Endeavour given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Gnasher given some makeup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Hermes given some makeup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Hunter has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Hydroponics Farm has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Iron Curtain has new shiny railings that are up to code. v2.2.27 [Change] : Nightjar has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Peacekeeper given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Smog given some backup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Vulture given some makeup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Warbird given some makeup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Wasp given some makeup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Werebat given a tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Beluga Elite fanned off a bit. v2.2.27 [Change] : Dagger received some honing. v2.2.27 [Change] : Mantis now has some new shades. v2.2.27 [Change] : CrossBolt had mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Terawatt received more stabilizations v2.2.27 [Change] : Inquisitor received some tune ups. v2.2.27 [Change] : Functions added to get the propulsion inputs issued by AI and the player v2.2.27 [Change] : Faster missiles are clumsier, turnrate decreases linearly with speed down to 30% at 600 m/s. v2.2.27 [Change] : Fin force is proportional to the distance from the the center of the missile. Putting fins in the front come with a speed reduction/warhead offset but increases agility more than the 2nd fin in the back. v2.2.27 [Change] : Fins are weaker higher up, turnrate decreases linearly from 100% to 50% at 500m. Combined with speed bonus higher up this means turning is still practically disabled at 500m+. v2.2.27 [Change] : Turnrate is reduced at very low speeds, for now linear increase from 0% at 0 m/s to 100% at 100 m/s (high speed scaling ) v2.2.27 [Change] : Turnrate is reduced by SQRT(LENGTH_IN_METER), so a 3m S missile turns twice as fast as a 12m L with the exact same components. v2.2.27 [Change] : Turnrates decreased across the board v2.2.27 [Change] : APN changed, now it is affected by gravity v2.2.27 [Change] : Missile controller now aims bombs using 70% the ejection speed of the first attached launcher v2.2.27 [Change] : Missile controller now aims dumbfires using the max speed of the first attached missile at the current altitude v2.2.27 [Change] : Ammo cost is 100(?)/cubic meter of gantry (3m S missiles 4x75, 6m M missiles 600, 12m L missile 4800) v2.2.27 [Change] : Each gantry costs 200, 800 for large v2.2.27 [Change] : Each launchpad costs 600 materials, 2400 for large v2.2.27 [Change] : Launchpads that contain missile components cost 400/3200 v2.2.27 [Change] : Lua transceiver cost up to 2000 v2.2.27 [Change] : All missiles do some speed-based thump damage, adding bodies/thumpers increase this (1 body adds as much damage as 20 normal components, thumper is worth 1.5 bodies). v2.2.27 [Change] : All warhead scaling is linear. v2.2.27 [Change] : EMP damage is 200/2000/20000 v2.2.27 [Change] : Frag damage is 15x400, 30x2000, 60x10000 with all sizes having 6 AP v2.2.27 [Change] : HE damage is 400/4000/40000 per warhead, radius is TOTAL_DAMAGE^0.33 (~33-50m for L missiles) v2.2.27 [Change] : Replacing 1 normal warhead with a body means losing ~50% damage but gaining lots of HP. Missile impacts have 20 AP. v2.2.27 [Change] : Underwater HE damage bonus down to 50% v2.2.27 [Change] : All missiles/bombs in the air can be detected at a distance based on their size, even at 0 thrust v2.2.27 [Change] : Passive sonar only picks up torpedos at a range that depends on their thrust v2.2.27 [Change] : Thrust-based detection range scales with the ~square root of thrust v2.2.27 [Change] : Each S/M/L ejector adds 75/50/25 speed (L heavy launchpad can take 8 ejectors) v2.2.27 [Change] : Ejector addon cost up to 50 v2.2.27 [Change] : If launchpad has 0/0 ejection elevation/azimuth thrusters and propellers give a base launch speed: SR thrusters 100 m/s, torpedos(only primary) 50 m/s, S/M/L variable thrusters 40/20/10 v2.2.27 [Change] : Launchpads with hatches can't set ejection elevation/azimuth v2.2.27 [Change] : Setting ejection azi/ele further from straight forward/backwards gradually reduces speed, down to 75% when either is 90, 50% when both v2.2.27 [Change] : Variable thruster got a start delay parameter, 0-10s v2.2.27 [Change] : Proximity fuse only available on M/L missiles v2.2.27 [Change] : Proxy should be a bit more reliable now, not terribly useful but those so inclined can go squirrel hunting with L missiles v2.2.27 [Change] : Proxy takes up volume equal to 20% of an M missile component v2.2.27 [Change] : Safety fuse only takes half the volume of an S module, rest can be filled up with useful things v2.2.27 [Change] : L launchpads and gantries are 2x2 and 1m high, each gantry contains 1 missile component v2.2.27 [Change] : M is the current size v2.2.27 [Change] : Missile lifetimes are 10/20/40 seconds, 20/40/80 for bombs and torpedos v2.2.27 [Change] : Reload time of a launchpad is 10 * SQRT(LENGTH_IN_METER) v2.2.27 [Change] : S has 4 missiles/launchpad and each gantry holds 4x4 missile components v2.2.27 [Change] : Small/medium/large missiles (S/M/L from now on) v2.2.27 [Change] : Flak damage up from 20% of HE to 30% of HE v2.2.27 [Change] : Flak radius multiplier down to 2.5 from 4 (~76% the previous final value with the damage change) v2.2.27 [Change] : LAMS attenuation ~75% at 500m, ~49% at 1000m v2.2.27 [Change] : LAMS damage down to 20% of the previous value (uses the same amount of laser energy) v2.2.27 [Change] : LAMS inaccuracy down to 0.05 v2.2.27 [Change] : LAMS node material cost up to 200 v2.2.27 [Change] : Both harpoons and cable drums are max health components v2.2.27 [Change] : Cable length is 300/600/1200 for S/M/L cable drums, half that for the harpoon itself v2.2.27 [Change] : Cable strength is 500/2000/8000 for S/M/L v2.2.27 [Change] : Cables break at max range v2.2.27 [Change] : Each winch power provides 3 force(an M harpoon cable with maxed winch is 133% the force of a huge jet). v2.2.27 [Change] : Half the harpoon force is applied at the mainconstruct's CoM, half at the contact point(part CoM to reduce flipping) v2.2.27 [Change] : Winches are now attached to launchpads v2.2.27 [Change] : Winches can only have 1 harpoon cable attached(won't let you fire a harpoon without a free winch) v2.2.27 [Change] : Winches need power to work and they can be configured to use up to as much power as the cable strength of the attached launchpad(like a fishing pole, it will ease up if the cable would break) v2.2.27 [Change] : EMP/HE/frag warheads, thrusters and IR/radar/laser guidances 20% v2.2.27 [Change] : Fuel/fins/everything else 40% v2.2.27 [Change] : Lua transceiver/remote guidance 10% v2.2.27 [Change] : Missile component base HP is 20/200/3000, each type has its own modifier on that v2.2.27 [Change] : Missile HP is the sum of component HPs v2.2.27 [Change] : Single pixel IR seeker, torpedo sonar, torpedo propeller modifier is 50% v2.2.27 [Change] : Thumper head, body, harpoon/cable 100% v2.2.27 [Change] : All countermeasures are even more WIP than the rest, numbers are just illustrations v2.2.27 [Change] : Charge damage is 6 * BASE_HP_OF_M_MODULE, 1200 right now v2.2.27 [Change] : Charge range is 35m v2.2.27 [Change] : Interceptor heads are only available on M missiles v2.2.27 [Change] : Interceptors coordinate, they will assign enough damage to comfortably kill the target and prioritize finishing missiles others already got a lock on v2.2.27 [Change] : Interceptors have 3 charges, they use them all at once: main target + 2 additional missiles if there are any in range, otherwise the charges are wasted v2.2.27 [Change] : Interceptors only trigger if they are very close or have started to move away from the target but are still in range(goal is to get in the middle of swarms) v2.2.27 [Change] : Interceptors prioritize targets larger than themselves(+also take range and angle into account) v2.2.27 [Change] : They retarget if the have missed their contact or the target is destroyed v2.2.27 [Change] : APN, TPG and 1-turn are now small components: only take 1/2 the volume of an S component, 1/16 of M, 1/128 of L v2.2.27 [Change] : Final component health will be the volume-weighted average of APN/TPG/1T (40%) and the filler's health modifier (body 100%, fuel 40%, HE/EMP 20%) v2.2.27 [Change] : The rest can be filled with fuel, HE, EMP or be reinforced for health/thump damage(body). Launchpads got a slider with these options v2.2.27 [Change] : Less possible downtime against destroyed projectiles v2.2.27 [Change] : Option to stop firing when under smoke v2.2.27 [Change] : Option to target only out of water/under water projectiles v2.2.27 [Change] : Options to target only projectiles with a diameter above X mm and/or below Y mm (missiles are 250/500/1000mm) v2.2.27 [Change] : Stricter angle/distance checks v2.2.27 [Change] : Will look for another target when the previous one is starting to get further away v2.2.27 [Change] : After they left the vehicle all non-terrain contact will trigger the full impact damage v2.2.27 [Change] : EMP/harpoons/flares now still work if impact damage destroys the block hit (EMP can jump 6m, harpoons/flares 3m to the nearest block) v2.2.27 [Change] : Explosion triggered by missile impacts/destroying missiles only happens if warhead arming delay is over(and impact is not on the launcher if there is a safety fuse on the missile) v2.2.27 [Change] : harpoons/flares now still work if EMP damage destroys the block hit v2.2.27 [Change] : Impact damage uses the relative velocity of the missile and the target hit (head on collision more damage, hitting a plane from behind less) v2.2.27 [Change] : Missile use new gridcast hit detection, can't teleport through armor v2.2.27 [Change] : Missiles that didn't leave the launching vehicle can only damage it if the go faster than 75 m/s (below that they only bounce around on collisions) v2.2.27 [Change] : Missiles with 0/0 ejection angle and downwards facing bombs are moving on rails, won't deviate from the launchpad until they completely leave it v2.2.27 [Change] : Overall launching is much more lenient, no more scattering v2.2.27 [Change] : Anything with fins can glide, redirect their velocity(from gravity/turns) to a forward pointing one v2.2.27 [Change] : Conversion rate depends on angle of missile and velocity, 100% at 0, 50% at 90, 0% at 180, with 20% loss v2.2.27 [Change] : Conversion rate is further reduced at very low speeds, 0% at 0 m/s, 100% at 30 m/s v2.2.27 [Change] : Fin bonus speed and cheat method reworked into 'gliding' v2.2.27 [Change] : Drag reduction is linear from 100% at 0 altitude to 50% at 500m (missiles are still faster higher up, but aren't off-the-charts) v2.2.27 [Change] : Fins 200% drag, secondary torpedo propeller 400%, sonar/radar buoys 500% v2.2.27 [Change] : Fuel tank capacity doubled (1000/10000/100000) v2.2.27 [Change] : Highest practical missile speed is ~400m/s (2m long S with SR thruster) v2.2.27 [Change] : Maxed out variable thruster speeds are ~240/220/200 m/s for 3/6/12m S/M/L missiles v2.2.27 [Change] : Radar/IR/laser guidance 60% drag, single pixel/thumper/torpedo sonar 40% v2.2.27 [Change] : Short range thruster is fixed 450/4500/45000 output and 600/6000/60000 fuel/sec, 5 sec max v2.2.27 [Change] : Torpedo limit 200/2000/20000, 80/800/8000 fuel/s at max v2.2.27 [Change] : Torpedos are ~90/80/70 m/s v2.2.27 [Change] : Variable thruster limit 300/3000/30000 v2.2.27 [Change] : Variable thrusters/torpedo propellers can also set a start delay v2.2.27 [Change] : Bailey has less booze on board. v2.2.27 [Change] : Churl has less booze on board. v2.2.27 [Change] : Constellation has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Defiant given more sober Captain. v2.2.27 [Change] : Partisan given new railings. v2.2.27 [Change] : Constitution has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Fairday has a new captain. v2.2.27 [Change] : Angler has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Chancellor has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Huskarl given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Essen has less boose on board. v2.2.27 [Change] : Iron Cross has minor tuneups. v2.2.27 [Change] : Nightingale has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Seagull has new railings. v2.2.27 [Change] : Straussland given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Event Horizon has a tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Allegiance installed new railings up to code. v2.2.27 [Change] : Chrysaetos had mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Coal Factor has a mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Dromaeo had their pilots retrained. v2.2.27 [Change] : Gannus given a slight new paintjob. v2.2.27 [Change] : Hammer now has some new shades. v2.2.27 [Change] : Iron Maiden installed new railings up to code. v2.2.27 [Change] : Reefshark appointed a new Captain. v2.2.27 [Change] : Thunderchild has a big tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Annularis given new shades and tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Catshark has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Excalibur given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Greatwhite has a new captain with some tuneups. v2.2.27 [Change] : Icarus has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Maelstrom given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Novara received a new Captain. v2.2.27 [Change] : Remora has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Trident given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Trondheim has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Victoria given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Asphodel given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Bayonet has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Bullshark has a new Captain and given some tuneups. v2.2.27 [Change] : Kitakami has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Spectre has a tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Thyr has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Valient given some tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Cinder has new been given new crew training. v2.2.27 [Change] : Exter has some minor tuneups v2.2.27 [Change] : Guernsey given a tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : Hydra has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Manatee has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Norge has new riggings up to code. v2.2.27 [Change] : Reaper has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Rhea given large tuneup. v2.2.27 [Change] : S.M.S. Daring installed new railings up to code. v2.2.27 [Change] : Sabre given crew retraining and tuneups. v2.2.27 [Change] : Sacrilego had some corners cut off. v2.2.27 [Change] : Shadowcat has mimic treatment. v2.2.27 [Change] : Weapon UIs moved to the new UI format v2.2.27 [Fix] : Ohm had its LAMs reconnected. v2.2.27 [Fix] : Remote guidance when under manual control can aim at the specific player aim point now. v2.2.27 [Fix] : Missile control blocks that have been killed and repaired stopped working [BUGS-350] v2.2.27 [Fix] : Mouse based building shift to replace stopped working in mirror mode [BUGS-357] v2.2.27 [Fix] : Tank mode wheels are now controlled well by AI and work when forward speed request is high

[ 2018-10-15 15:22:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.2.24 Released

Hi all, Here is the change log from 2.2.4 to 2.2.24. The last stable release was 2.2.16. 2.2.17 through to 2.2.24 have been done in the dev test beta's branch. It's all live now in the main branch. We've been concentrating mostly on fixing the bugs in the bug tracker, but have also made substantial progress on the missile rework which is currently underway, and added a bunch of new features such as the slope of sloped armour now being used in the projectile damage / ricochet calculations. You'll find a lot of changes to the way missiles work in this build, but the more radical changes such as small, medium and large gauges of missile, hatches, new guidance modules and balancing is still being worked on. v2.2.5 [Fix] : Custom flags download when game starts, like they used to [BUGS-37] v2.2.5 [Fix] : Fix for RTG bug allowing infinite material in campaigns [BUGS-31] v2.2.5 [Fix] : Improved buoyancy for vehicles with over 2K blocks [BUGS-26] v2.2.5 [Fix] : Multiplayer speed of time syncronisation issue fixed [BUGS-35] v2.2.5 [Fix] : Ocean colors slightly updated for some weathers v2.2.5 [Fix] : Various fixes to drop down menus [BUGS-29] [BUGS-32] v2.2.5 [Fix] : White highlighting now only for blocks with a tooltip to display [BUGS-30] v2.2.6 [Fix] : Various plotting problems fixed [BUGS-24] v2.2.6 [Fix] : Vehicles saved with 'Nan' position can now be loaded at [BUGS-14] v2.2.7 [Fix] : Fixed 'mostly-black screen' when loading some old incompatible mods v2.2.7 [Fix] : Fixed a bug causing world to go orange / purple [BUGS-42] [BUGS-20] v2.2.7 [Fix] : Fixed battle deployment limits [BUGS-40] v2.2.7 [Fix] : Multiplayer client vehicle spawning fixed [BUGS-43] v2.2.7 [Fix] : Multiplayer transfer blueprints no longer reporting as corrupt [BUGS-43 v2.2.7 [Fix] : Weapon slot 10 now functions again [BUGS-25] v2.2.8 [Fix] : Block IDs once again converted to GUID before being sent across network to fix multiplayer bug [BUGS-59] v2.2.8 [Fix] : Bug with barrels loading in incorrect position on pistons fixed [BUGS-53] v2.2.8 [Fix] : Default designer vehicle should now be saved when changed [FTD-130] v2.2.8 [Fix] : Exploding text no longer splits over multiple lines as it grows [BUGS-54] v2.2.8 [Fix] : Speed factor now affects spin block visual rotation and helicopter blade force [BUGS-56] v2.2.8 [Fix] : Stabilisation level of wireless camera now saved [BUGS-58] v2.2.9 [Add] : Highlighting of blocks is now optional, controls are in the UI panel of the menu [BUGS-30] v2.2.9 [Fix] : Condition and action value ACB sliders linked together [BUGS-44] v2.2.9 [Fix] : Fixed physics crash when placing a SubObject containing a wheel v2.2.9 [Fix] : Centre of mass changes no longer affect vehicle speed estimates [BUGS-78],Tutorial completion metre is updated correctly now [BUGS-74] v2.2.9 [Fix] : Coordinate frame now updated in multiplayer- fewer graphical glitches and shaking. [BUGS-70] v2.2.9 [Fix] : Multiplayer saves now send correctly [BUGS-71] v2.2.10 [Fix] : APS and CRAM frags should now detonate from the correct point [BUGS-18],Jets now use the real water level, rather than 0, to determine whether or not they should run. Useful in storms. [BUGS-91] v2.2.10 [Fix] : Campaign options are once again customisable from the options menu [BUGS-88] v2.2.10 [Fix] : Lensed particle cannon shots no longer use twice as much energy as they should [BUGS-12] v2.2.10 [Fix] : Loops fixed for fleet movement orders [BUGS-97] v2.2.10 [Fix] : Particle cannon effect is more colourable now [BUGS-94] v2.2.11 [Add] : Poster holders and projectors can define a #hashtag in their URL to load images from Texture Definitions in the mods (which can also define a hashtag for themselves). Try #Cezar for an example. [FTD-167] v2.2.11 [Fix] : Bug fixed in inertia tensor calc that made vehicles often very wobbly [BUGS-96] v2.2.12 [Fix] : Adv Ammo UI displays the correct average frag damage now [BUGS-107] v2.2.12 [Fix] : Fixed 'exploding suspension' on the new wheel system [BUGS-22] [BUGS-57] [FTD-145] v2.2.13 [Add] : Blocks now connect using a stack, rather than recursion. Should avoid all crashes when making, for example, long PAC arms. [BUGS-88] [FTD-183] v2.2.14 [Add] : When you defocus a slider's text input box, it will apply the text now. [BUGS-121] v2.2.14 [Fix] : Fixed laser coupler connection issues of 2.2.13 [BUGS-123] v2.2.14 [Fix] : Fixed PAC arm issues of 2.2.13 with more than one arm [BUGS-125] v2.2.15 [Add] : Head torch added to camera for building / exploring in the dark [REQ-46] v2.2.15 [Fix] : Cooling time is now properly reflected in the APS ammo UI. Cooling time is now 50% of 2.1.6 cooling time, rather than the 2.2.4 tweak of adding 10 imaginary gauge coolers, which takes overall cooling time down to 42% of 2.1.6 values. [BUGS-77] v2.2.15 [Fix] : Loading a campaign with custom difficulty now shows the custom difficulty sliders without asking once again if you are happy with custom difficulty [BUGS-112] v2.2.15 [Fix] : Passive regeneration of ammo out of build mode has been added [BUGS-126] v2.2.15 [Fix] : Spin block in rotation mode no longer uses motor power. [BUGS-127] v2.2.15 [Fix] : Wheel force requests go via the vehicle, so you can now visualise them in build mode [FTD-185] v2.2.15 [Fix] : Wheels exhibit less side ways jitter [BUGS-128] v2.2.16 [Add] : Added Medium/Hard/Very Hard Quest for Neter campaign scoreboards. Results should be posted properly. v2.2.16 [Add] : Material replace and mesh replace are now functional for the first time [BUGS-140] v2.2.16 [Fix] : Fixed the Easy Quest for Neter campaign scoreboard. Results are now posted properly. v2.2.16 [Fix] : AI components report connection to the mainframe using the correct name now [BUGS-133] v2.2.16 [Fix] : Batteries spawn full in designer mode now, and for 'fresh' constructs [BUGS-130] v2.2.16 [Fix] : Custom difficulty damage difficulty no longer resets to 1 if modified mid campaign [BUGS-112] v2.2.16 [Fix] : Explosion force no longer has the ability to send vehicles immediately off into space due to a bug [BUGS-137] v2.2.16 [Fix] : Feedback UI message now allows multiple lines [bug reported by email] v2.2.16 [Fix] : Missile warner no longer disables when in the dip of a big wave, but above water [BUGS-91] v2.2.17 [Add] : The reflection probe can now be disabled entirely, as well as being set to an infrequent update or a full frame update v2.2.17 [Add] : It is now possible to adjust the CPU ocean colours independently of the GPU ocean colors. CPU ocean colours updated for Neter. [FTD-193] v2.2.17 [Add] : Fuel tanks use the body component's model v2.2.17 [Add] : Launchpad and missile logic completely revamped v2.2.17 [Add] : Launchpads/controllers/gantries display reload information v2.2.17 [Add] : Missile components of the same type are now merged into a single model(visual only) v2.2.17 [Add] : Missile trail length changeable from the options menu (misc tab) v2.2.17 [Add] : Missile trails improved v2.2.17 [Add] : Missiles and downward facing bombs with 0° ejection elevation/azimuth won't move or rotate away from the gantries until they clear them v2.2.17 [Add] : Missiles can only have one thruster or torpedo propeller, in the back v2.2.17 [Add] : New missile building UI that also provides detailed stats v2.2.17 [Add] : Pressing fire will only launch 1 staggered missile, holding the button continuously fires missiles(unstaggered behavior unchanged) v2.2.17 [Add] : Variable propellers are removed, plain Propellers take their functionality v2.2.17 [Add] : Variable thruster max thrust down to 3000, propeller thrust limit is 2000 v2.2.17 [Fix] : APS ammo customisation UI now presents the correct barrel length needed for accuracy factor of 1, and displays the correct equation for barrel length needed for propellant burn. [BUGS-135] v2.2.18 [Fix] : ACB piston extension in now in meters and in percent [BUGS-115] v2.2.18 [Fix] : An ACB executed by another ACB (directly or via a complex control) will be execute in the same frame or in the next frame, depending on the ACBs execution order [BUGS-52] [BUGS-101] v2.2.18 [Fix] : Victory conditions now latch to a pass state, when appropriate [BUGS-182] v2.2.18 [Fix] : Missile editor UI made to fill the screen [BUGS-177] v2.2.18 [Fix] : Missile torpedo propeller now applies the initial launching boost once again v2.2.18 [Fix] : Torpedos will 'sea skim' without an altitude preference, but no higher than -1m altitude. But if a running depth is defined 'sea skim' torpedos will use it v2.2.18 [Fix] : Various ballast tank regressions from 2.2.17 fixed [BUGS-178] v2.2.18 [Fix] : Recursive air pump calculations replaced with stack based. This will stop (potential) crashes when penetrating high volume hulls [BUGS-172] [FTD-31] v2.2.19 [Fix] : Ballast tank buoyancy adjust now works as expected. And buoyancy once again overcomes gravity for standard missiles [BUGS-178] v2.2.19 [Fix] : Saving and loading of missible blueprints now reimplenented v2.2.21 [Add] : ACB water, air, primary, secondary and tertiary commands v2.2.21 [Add] : Added a railing block, same as the paddle wheel but with no executable code v2.2.21 [Add] : Paddle wheel is now affected by the subconstruct's motor buff from motor drive of spin block. v2.2.21 [Change] : Adjustable HEAT factor range is now 0.5-1 instead of 0.5-2 v2.2.21 [Change] : HEAT cone angle to 30° from 15° (more consistent damage that's a bit worse on a perfect 90° hit) v2.2.21 [Change] : HEAT frag count rescaled so max is lower/min is higher v2.2.21 [Change] : HEAT penetration metric scales with the square of HEAT factor (0.5 has 1/4 the metric of 1), metrics increased by 25% across the board v2.2.21 [Change] : Dediblades got a soft speed limit of 50m/s v2.2.21 [Change] : Marauder now 100% paddle powered. v2.2.21 [Change] : Vanguard stability improved and a shiny new gun. v2.2.21 [Fix] : ACB propulsion command now works in manual, not only under AI control v2.2.21 [Fix] : Achievement some minor missile fixes. v2.2.21 [Fix] : Numbus missile fixes. v2.2.21 [Fix] : Iron Maiden map updated. v2.2.21 [Fix] : Cezar missile fixes. v2.2.21 [Remove] : Vanguard Retrofit removed from the lineup. v2.2.22 [Add] : Repetative / continuous sounds (engines, sea creak, turrets) now attenuate over time so you don't have to listen to at max/any volume forever. Customisable in sound options menu. [BUGS-221] [FTD-218] v2.2.22 [Add] : Content change logs automatically imported into the main change log [FTD-217] v2.2.22 [Fix] : Dediblade spiners once again listen to the motor drive (regression from 2.2.15) [BUGS-153] v2.2.22 [Fix] : Wings that are placed upside down now also provide lift [BUGS-218] v2.2.22 [Fix] : Missile maneouver axis system fixed- missiles (especially one turns missiles/torpedos) should have less problems now. [BUGS-191] [BUGS-242] v2.2.22 [Fix] : Missile thrusters work when underwater if in a dry space- this includes all missile gantry blocks. This fixes a regression from 2.2.17. [BUGS-211] v2.2.22 [Fix] : Less memory footprint for explosions [BUGS-198] v2.2.23 [Change] : Shrike bombs now more reliable. v2.2.23 [Change] : Hydrovolt minor rearrangements. v2.2.23 [Change] : Buriser got some fresh ACbs v2.2.23 [Change] : Perdition got a real lesson on the difference of boat and plane. v2.2.23 [Change] : Matyr now actually a boat instead of thrustercraft pretending. v2.2.23 [Change] : Drive wheels can now be configured in 'Tank mode' in order to be able to turn like a tank (off by default) v2.2.23 [Change] : It is now possible to copy the current wheel configuration on all the wheels on the same side v2.2.23 [Change] : Turning wheels can now be configured to turn in the opposite direction if placed on the rear of the vehicle (default setting) v2.2.23 [Change] : Wheel suspension can now be configured v2.2.23 [Fix] : Issues of ticket [BUGS-212] addesssed, with exception of CRAM heavy barrel costs v2.2.23 [Fix] : Decorative railing now placeable on fortress / structure [BUGS-215] v2.2.23 [Fix] : Walrus paddle wheel no longer spins the entire craft. v2.2.23 [Fix] : Explosions on the very extreme edge of the vehicle work properly again [BUGS-108] v2.2.23 [Fix] : Grid casting has a better approach to air interface calculation [BUGS-205] v2.2.23 [Fix] : HEAT correctly recognises air gaps between spaced armour [BUGS-204] v2.2.23 [Fix] : Number of hit elements now limited correctly, when sub constructs are involved [FTD-13, FTD-51] v2.2.23 [Fix] : Subobject repairing regression fixed [BUGS-208] v2.2.23 [Remove] : Vanguard Retrofit removed from the lineup, DWG Muddywaters, WF Speed Bumps, MP Tower Defense all adjusted accordingly to the change. v2.2.24 [Add] : Added an articulated paddle that only applies force in the vehicle's forwards direction v2.2.24 [Add] : Pathfinding codebase for FTD combined with that of FS. FTD pathfinding for naval AI expected to improve [FTD-221] v2.2.24 [Add] : An automatically incrementing 'build revision' number has now been added to handle hot fixes without version changes. [FTD-224] v2.2.24 [Fix] : Avatar has rudimentary ability to walk up slopes now v2.2.24 [Fix] : Dediblade max speed set to 100m/s, not 50m/s v2.2.24 [Fix] : Spawning subconstructs like the prefabs in the inventory now works across multiplayer games without causing a desync [BUGS-68] v2.2.24 [Fix] : Stacking many SubConstruct do not freeze FtD anymore [BUGS-225] v2.2.25 [Change] : Javelin now more ship than rocket ship. v2.2.25 [Change] : Kalmar now fully paddlewheel powered. v2.2.25 [Change] : Ocelot slowly backs itself back into the bush. v2.2.25 [Change] : Aerotyrant received a new nose paint job. v2.2.25 [Fix] : Vanguard crew removed the reverse gear after a few accidently wrong shifts.

[ 2018-09-14 13:26:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.2.4 released! Updates to oceans/UI/shaders/post processing/game engine and lots more.

Very excited to finally release 2.2.4 with new features and small mountain of fixes, New features include ocean simulation, new UI work, physically based rendering (PBR) shaders for all blocks and ACB improvements as well as various other graphics improvements and smaller changes. Here are the patch notes - v2.2 [Add] : ACBs can now have a custom 'min interval between activations' v2.2 [Add] : ACBs delayed action can now be queued (before it wasn't possible, so when an action was delayed the ACB couldn't issue another action) v2.2 [Add] : ACBs now have a custom priority (highest priorities have more control) v2.2 [Add] : All ACB-controlled block types can now have a custom name (use the 'Block naming' skill, or Shift+N when building or not) v2.2 [Add] : An ACB 'AND' logic gate is simulated when several ACBs are touching each other, the ones with only a condition or only an action are 'attached' to the ones with an action and a condition v2.2 [Add] : Major ACB modifications, the inputs and blocks are now in collapsable categories; the states of the condition and action are now displayed v2.2 [Add] : Most ACB conditions can be inverted (as with a 'NOT' logic gate) v2.2 [Add] : Most ACB conditions now have a min and max inputs v2.2 [Add] : The ACB can now use a string pattern to select blocks according to their names v2.2 [Add] : The ACB has been completely overhauled v2.2 [Add] : The ACB now have a 'design' GUI, which displays the location of the blocks controlled by the ACB v2.2 [Add] : Various new ACB conditions and actions v2.2 [Add] : GP PID now has an option for height above land and waves (rather than land and mean sea level) v2.2 [Add] : Spot light added (model for it to come) v2.2 [Add] : Telekenesis skill now scales with vehicle size v2.2 [Add] : There's a new block data copy/paste skill which does the same as 'Ctrl+C' and 'Ctrl+V' in build mode v2.2 [Add] : There's a new debug skill to see the AC and health of a block (the real AC, with all the stacking if any) v2.2 [Add] : There's a new EMP debug skill (working as the explosion or impact debug skills) v2.2 [Add] : Added a reflection probe to the camera to facilitate reflections v2.2 [Add] : Added an ambient occlusion effect which is toggleable from the options menu v2.2 [Add] : Added an image blooming effect which is toggleable and customisable from the options menu v2.2 [Add] : Added PBR shaders for all vehicle materials to produce Physically Based Rendering v2.2 [Add] : Added the ability to scale sun light and ambient light from the options menu v2.2 [Add] : Implemented deferred rendering v2.2 [Add] : Variable thrust propellers added v2.2 [Add] : Ability to add changes to the patch notes change log by using static constructors in block classes v2.2 [Add] : ExampleMod mod has been added to FTD which contains a boilerplate mod that adds a new block to the game as well as some code. Visual Studio project included. You'll find this mod in your FTD installation game files alongside all other 'core' mods. v2.2 [Add] : Modders can now indicate that a SubObject is 'decorative only', it will automatically display it along with the ablock it is attached to v2.2 [Add] : The dictionary 'CustomVariables' has been added to 'AllConstruct', 'Block' and 'INode', so mods can have and share their own variables attached to vehicles, blocks and nodes v2.2 [Add] : Added the option to enable / disable the shadow casting of vehicle lights v2.2 [Add] : Added support for a new and improved UI framework v2.2 [Add] : Created a new change logging system v2.2 [Add] : Main menu vehicle demo camera now follows vehicles more smoothly v2.2 [Add] : Moved the Naval Movement Card UI over to the new framework v2.2 [Add] : Moved the options menu to the new UI framework v2.2 [Change] : The patrol routes have been simplified and the code made more generic and robust v2.2 [Change] : -APS firing pieces now have the equivalent of 10 gauge coolers base(balance for smaller systems vs large) v2.2 [Change] : There's now one decimal place for the RoF of the APS firing piece v2.2 [Change] : Blocks now have a unique Id over the whole vehicle (not only its current SubConstruct) v2.2 [Change] : Distortion sphere for ERA fixed and new shader v2.2 [Change] : It is now possible to customize the color of the particle cannon effect v2.2 [Change] : It is now possible to customize the color of the smoke for the smoke generators v2.2 [Change] : LWCs now have a custom priority (highest priorities have more control) v2.2 [Change] : Simple lasers can now have their color modified in their GUI v2.2 [Change] : Smoke generators can now be stopped v2.2 [Change] : Buoyancy for larger vehicles now takes into account waves and uses a sparse sampling system to maintain performance v2.2 [Change] : Water level heights for large vehicles are sampled sparsely to ensure full coverage but at a lower resolution v2.2 [Change] : A mod .dll can contain multiple 'plugin' classes. These now extend interface GamePlugin not FtdPlugin. v2.2 [Change] : Making your own custom 'object pools' is now possible using Pooler.GetPool. All pools now accessed via this mechanism. v2.2 [Change] : Player profile files now moddable. Use ProfileManager.Instance.GetModule() to get and set content of the profile. Loading and saving of this content is automatic. v2.2 [Change] : Plugin.json file property name 'FTD_version' changed to 'gameversion' for compatibility with future games. Update this to read "2.2.0" for compatibility with this release v2.2 [Change] : StaticPools.AdvSoundManager replaced with BrilliantSkies.Core.Pooling.Pooler.GetPool. Pooler.GetPool when using 'Using statements'. v2.2 [Change] : When there are an error and a warning for a mod, the error is now displayed in priority v2.2 [Change] : Acessing blueprints via the designer loading window is now faster v2.2 [Change] : Loading a blueprint is now faster v2.2 [Change] : -Change to explosive force acting on vehicles, includes a small amount of rotational torque and less random flying into space marauders v2.2 [Change] : Shields distort and reflect calculation changed to be more forgiving of angle of incidence and velocity(this is a stop gap until shield reforms) v2.2 [Change] : Each engine is now slightly pitched differently (not noticeable until you have a whole lot), will reduce crazy noise levels with a lot of them v2.2 [Change] : Now compliant with Steamworks 1.41 rather than 1.32. Steamworks dot Net version 11 rather than 9.0 is being used. This doesn't add any new functionality- just keeping up to date. v2.2 [Change] : Turning wheel does everything a drive wheel does plus turning (they used to only turn) v2.2 [Change] : Wheels now use a purpose built wheel physics package and should behave much better than previously. You are no longer limited to a maximum of 20 wheels v2.2 [Fix] : Better management of the LWC firing, the APS guns shouldn't 'eat themselves' anymore when the vehicle is going fast v2.2 [Fix] : Holoprojector wrong URL when loading a blueprint from v2.15 v2.2 [Fix] : Negative idle azimuth of the 2-axis-turret now works fine v2.2 [Fix] : Shield external drive now displayed in its GUI (and the plots are updated accordingly) v2.2 [Fix] : SpinBlock badly displayed when upside down v2.2 [Fix] : The small and large cannons can now be fired with the ACB v2.2 [Fix] : When a drill is turned off it slows down now. Before it just kept going. v2.2 [Fix] : When loading a SubConstruct which has a SubConstruct on it and this child SubConstruct has ammo intakes, the ammo intakes configuration is now loaded correctly v2.2 [Fix] : Guns will now fire correctly when they have a delay if fired using an ACB v2.2 [Fix] : It is now possible to follow a shell fired manually (using Caps-Lock) even if the weapon has a delay v2.2 [Remove] : BoomBlock removed v2.2 [Remove] : Removed 'races' from designer. v2.2.1 [Add] : Vehicle paint now has an option to include a modifier for shininess v2.2.1 [Add] : [not recommended] Change streaming assets inside FTD files by creating a file called StreamingFolder.txt next to the executable / app and writing your directory within that text file. Directory must exist. v2.2.1 [Add] : Bug reporter / emailer created which is accessible with SHIFT + F1 v2.2.1 [Add] : Change save location from 'my documents' by creating a file called SaveLocation.txt next to the executable / app and writing your directory within that text file. Directory must exist. v2.2.1 [Add] : In game block information now displayed in a more consise and easy to read format v2.2.1 [Add] : When a block is selected all connected blocks light up blue. Some blocks display issues with a red tint. v2.2.1 [Add] : You can now make cutaway views of vehicles by pressing 'end' in build mode v2.2.1 [Change] : Heliump pump is losing helium x10 time slower for an above water leak compared to an underwater leak v2.2.1 [Change] : Heliump pump is now providing x1.33 the up-force of an airpump for the underwater volume, and x0.33 for the above water volume (before it was x0.33 for all the volume) v2.2.1 [Change] : If a block contains 'NOPID' in its name (be careful of the case), then it will not be controlled by a GP PID. Will not work for roll and pitch v2.2.1 [Change] : Newly placed (or repaired) airpump and helium pump will now start in a fully flooded room v2.2.2 [Change] : Skills and items are automatically unlocked/locked when added/removed from your toolbar. v2.2.2 [Change] : Hologram projector now has a new model v2.2.2 [Change] : It is now possible to go to the previous or next chair by using '[' and ']' keys (previous and next vehicle keys) v2.2.2 [Change] : It is now possible to set the main chair by looking at it and pressing Q when sitting in it v2.2.2 [Remove] : Removed the shield colour changer. It is now a decoration. Colours can of course still be changed inside the shield projector itself v2.2.3 [Fix] : Fixed two long standing bugs in the projectile grid casting. [BUGS-3] [FTD-126] [FTD-84] v2.2.3 [Fix] : Fixed some issues with windowed modes and font sizes [BUGS-8] [FTD-26] [FTD-127] And here is the focus for the month of September 2018 1) Updating missiles. Three different gauges, some new mechanics, missile hatches and balancing is all being worked on. 2) Testing and improving the multiplayer aspects of the game 3) Improving wheels for land vehicles 4) Rolling out the new UI style to more parts of the interface In other news we have added several new staff to the team and created bug and feature request trackers linked in with out development tools. You can find these https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/bug-tracker and https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/request-tracker We apologise for the long delay between the stable release of 2.1.6 and 2.2.4. That is due to the large scope of work involved in upgrading to PBR shaders, Unity 2017.3, and a huge amount of code refactoring that took place to make FTD easier and faster to work on in the long run. If you want more detailed information, and want to follow what's going on more closely, check out the forums! https://forum.fromthedepthsgame.com/index.php If you want to hang out with the dev team and community, visit the discord - https://discord.gg/ATseFkc Report all bugs here please https://brilliantskies.customercase.com/forums/bug-tracker

[ 2018-08-27 18:00:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.2.0 Coming soon!

2.2.0 Has been released onto the dev test server, and will be releasing soon. Here is a sneak peak of a few new features. The water graphics change -

The new waves -
The patch also includes a ton of behind the scenes changes, ACB updates, and some adjustments to the balance of weaponry, as well as a few new additions. All of that will be posted when 2.2.0 is officially released. If you want to keep up with the updates more closely, you can visit http://fromthedepthsgame.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=4

[ 2018-07-29 02:02:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

2.12 released!

Excited to release this fantastic new patch. It has lots of cool new things such as pistons and the ability to place turrets, spinners and pistons on other turrets, spinners and pistons. There are also a lot of quality of life and fine tuning options added. Note that a lot of mods may need updated after this release so if you are having issues then try uninstalling any mods that add code. Please check out the full change log below: [added] Support for pistons (1x1x1 and 1x2x1) [added] Support for spinners, turrets and pistons on other spinners, turrets or pistons (limited to 25 levels, including the MainConstruct) [added] it is now possible to set the idle azimuth and elevation for turrets [added] it is now possible to set the idle azimuth for APS (not CRAM due to some technical problems) [added] spinblocks and pistons can now be locked via their GUI, so the ACBs won't be able to move them [added] elevation only turret (1x1x1 version only) [added] ACBs can now be turned on/off by using their GUI or another ACB (an ACB cannot turn itself on/off automatically) [change] ACBs can now be placed on SubConstructs [change] The Aimpoint card can now be configured, the maximum time before targeting another block can be configured, and it can be set to target Mainframes and ammo storage as usual or any random block [change] Shields can now have their color changed using directly their GUI, no need to use the shield projectors anymore (but they still work) [improved] it is now possible to choose between local and global field of fire restrictions for weapon and turrets [improved] It is now possible to manually control the SpinBlocks using their GUI [improved] copy/paste feature for ACBs, LWCs and AMCCs [improved] if you look at an airpump with leaks, the leaks will be indicated by small red squares [improved] ACBs input values now have different decimal places depending on the type of the input [improved] ACB input for control key stimulus now display the actual key instead of a number [improved] GP PID altitude test values can now be set between -1000 and +3000 [improved] 'Clear clips' button added to the APS firing piece [improved] 'Access to intakes' button added to the APS firing piece (exiting that GUI will return to the APS GUI) [improved] When clicking on the selected ammo controller in the ammo intake GUI, the ammo controller GUI is now displayed (exiting that GUI will return to the intake GUI) [improved] It is now possible to slow down the rotation speed of the turrets (using a percentage) [improved] Optimization of the fuel engine power creation when using turbos or exahusts [improved] a LWC can now control weapons on all the stacked children SubConstructs, including pistons or spinblocks [improved] the LWCs now aim x40 times per second, which will make targeting a lot more efficient [improved] the LWC on the MainConstruct are executed before the ones on the first level of SubConstructs, which are executed before the ones on the second level of SubConstructs, which are executed before the ones on the remaining levels of SubConstructs [improved] the LWC can now control a turret (or stacked turrets) which have no weapons (so, you can place a radar 90 on a turret controlled by a LWC in order to rotate the radar toward the target) [fix] When a shield projector is placed next to a shield color changer, it now connects the shield color changer automatically [fix] When loading a blueprint and after having taking hits, the shields are now returning to their specified color [fix] The external venting of turbos is now displayed correctly in the cylinder's tooltip [lua] Due to the extensive modification on the SpinBlocks, the functions related to the Spinners and turrets have been largely modified (old functions still there, but shouldn't work for stacked SubConstructs) [lua] SubConstructs now have a unique Id, such an Id will never be reused in the same blueprint. The turrets, pistons and SpinBlocks are now accessed using that unique Id [modders] The blocks array have been removed, blocks are now accessible in 'ElementStorage' using the Local Position coordinates [modders] It is now possible to mod the constructs thanks to the introduction of 'Modules' that are attached to the constructs (most of the existing modules can be replaced) [modders] It is now possible to add new audio assets (they will now be loaded correctly even if not in the FtD directory) [modders] it is now possible to add new types of turrets by naming its parts ' Turret' and 'Turret Block ' (case and spaces are mandatory) Hope you'll enjoy the new stuff- and wishing you a fantastic 2018, Thanks for your continued support, Nick and the FtD team

[ 2018-01-02 11:07:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

v2.0 released!

FTD has been updated to the latest version of the Unity3D game engine (Unity 5.6, we were on Unity 4.7) and we've also incorporated a HUGE balance patch and a lot of new features. I know you've been waiting a long time for an update but hopefully this one will be worth the wait! The migration to the new engine took a long time but opens up a lot of new doors for development and I believe FTD is running better than ever.

Change Log

Game Engine updated from Unity 4.6 to Unity 5.7 Added - 1m wood block variants that were previously only available by toggling F10 now available from build menu under wood block Added - Mock wheel items Added - Laser 3m laser pump Added - APS 6m and 8m recoil absorbers Added - APS EMP,HE,Frag APS shell heads Added - Circular weather vane variant Added - Circular propeller variant Added - Jet and ion Circular variants added Added - Aero rudder and Aero elevator components added to use with (or replace) the tail plane component Added - 3mx3m and 5mx5m turret prototype sub-constructs added Removed - Old engine items removed Mechanic - Armor layering bonus changed from 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2,0.1,0.1 to 1.0,0.85,0.7,0.55, 0.4,0.25,0.1,0.1 Mechanic - Maximum volume option (For battles) in campaign increased from 50k to 200k Mechanic - Oil refineries now slightly more tolerant of altitude Mechanic - Fragmentation (All variants) now results in the expected angle of fragmentation, not a distorted cone Mechanic - Armour calculation for projectiles and hitscan weaponry changed from ((AP / AC) 0.45) + 0.05 = Effective damage multiplier To ((AP / AC) 0.50) = Effective damage multiplier Mechanic - Armour for Partial blocks (Slopes, Triangles) Apply partial reinforcement bonus (Equal to block type, triangles are 1/4, slopes are 1/2) General - Many blocks visually re-modelled General - Textures mid/part way reworked for better visuals General - Fastest video quality setting will now display half texture resolutions and highest will turn on soft shadows General - Some optimisation on simple projectile models General - APS shells bugging out with no gunpowder and one of the player skills (railgun only shells) bug fixed General - Wireless receiver ACB options fixed General - Spinblock controller and fortress controller model updated General - Simple weapons trails General - Huge ion thruster realigned General - Grenade launcher normal map General - Pistol duplicate material removed and redirected to the original General - Nuclear engine textures removed from resources and reference pointed to mod directory General - Steam engine mesh normals fixed (improved quality) General - Last of the texture import settings set (improved quality) General - Light block now using distortion shader (same as aps fire distortion or warp effect distortion) General - Wedge volume factor fixed General - Various particle effect improvements General - Shield visuals updated General - CRAM models re-exported with smoothing groups for proper lighting with the shader General - Minor mesh export fixes General - Re-exported missile blocks to fix smoothing map issues (also large reduction in verts) General - Missile parts excess vertices removed (some were 10x the required verts) General - Ricochet chance curve evened out so armour vs penetration is taken more into account General - Local weapon controller made more lenient for range of speed to engage General - sailing blocks updated General - spin block model/texture updated General - 'Lasers' build menu tab renamed to 'Energy Weapons' General - Min view distance from block decreased so you no longer look through walls walking around Stats - Wood HP buffed to 180 (From 120) Stats - Stone buffed to AC 7 (From 5). HP buffed to 300 (From 220) Stats - Metal buffed to AC 15 (From 10). Health buffed to 350 (From 280) Stats - Alloy buffed to AC 13 (From 7). Health buffed to 260. (From 140) Cost increased to 5 (From 4) Stats - Heavy armour cost reduced to 25 (From 40) Stats - Light block cost reduced to 20. (From 100) Health reduced to 50 (From 75) Stats - Surge Protector cost reduced to 20. (From 25) Health increased to 250 (From 150) AC buffed to 5 (From 1) Stats - Rubber cost reduced to 3. (From 5) Health buffed to 100 (From 75) Stats - Glass cost reduced to 1. (From 2) Stats - Lead cost reduced to 3 (From 5) Health buffed to 300 (From 200) Stats - ERA Armour is now a structural component. (Full block only, not the slope) Stats - Ram cost increased to 25. (From 15) AC buffed to 20 (from 10) Health increased to 1000. (From 400) Stats - Standard Door AC buffed to 15. Health increased to 250. Now a structural block Stats - Fuel Engine Hull Pipe AC buffed to 15. (Was 3) Health increased to 300 (From 160) Weight increased to 40. (Was 30) Cost increased to 10. (Was 1) Now a structural block Stats - Steam Engine Hull Pipe AC buffed to 15. (Was 10) Health Increased to 300. (From 280) Cost increased to 10 (Was 6.5) Now a structural block Stats - Deck Port Now has identical stats to 1x1x1 metal block. It is also now a structural block. Cost is (5), Same as metal Stats - Smoke Generator Now has identical stats to 1x1x1 metal block. It is also now a structural block. Cost is (5), Same as metal Stats - APS Firing Piece AC buffed to 20. (Was 15) Health buffed to 350 (Was 300) Weight reduced to 40. (Was 70) Stats - APS Ammo Ejector Cost Reduced to 20 (Was 50) Stats - APS Belt Fed Autoloader Cost reduced to 35 (Was 40) Stats - Firing Piece – CRAM AC buffed to 20. (Was 5) Health buffed to 350 (Was 150) Stats - EMP Pellet (CRAM) Cost reduced to 30 Stats - CRAM Gauge Increaser (All Variants) AC Increased to 15 (Was 10) Health Increased to 350 (Was 200) Cost reduced to 25 (From 35) Stats - CRAM Autoloader (Both Versions) Cost reduced to 25 (From 35) Stats - CRAM Hardener Pellets Cost reduced to 20 (From 25) Stats - Fragmentation Pellet (CRAM) Cost reduced to 30 Stats - Range Finder 5m AC Buffed to 10 (Was 7) Health Increased to 750 (Was 375) Stats - Range Finder 7m AC buffed to 10 (Was 7) Health Increased to 1125 (Was 562.5) Stats - Range Finder 9m AC buffed to 10 (Was 7) Health Increased to 1500 (Was 750) Stats - Armoured Range Finder 5m AC Buffed to 20. (Was 12) Health Increased to 1500 (Was 600) Cost increased to 70 (was 50) Stats - Armoured Range Finder 7m AC Buffed to 20. (Was 12) Health Increased to 2100 (Was 840) Cost increased to 100 (Was 70) Stats - Armoured Range Finder 9m AC Buffed to 20. (Was 12) Health Increased to 2700 (Was 1080) Cost increased to 125 (Was 90) Stats - All standard Detection Equipment (Everything in the Detection tab except ; Wireless Snooper, Missile Radar Buoy Holder, Missile Sonar Buoy Holder) AC buffed to 15 (Was 10) Health increased to 300 (Was 200) Stats - Spinblock, One Axis Turret, Two Axis turret; AC Increased to 15. (Was 10) Health Increased to 800 (Was 150) Stats - Sky Fortress Turbine AC Increased to 15 (Was 10) Health Increased to 1000 (Was 500) Stats - Missile Controller AC buffed to 12 (Was 10) Health increased to 300 (Was 100) Stats - Missile Gantry AC buffed to 8 (Was 3) Health increased to 150 (Was 100) Stats - Strategic Antenna + Dish Piece AC buffed to 15 (Was 10) Health increased to 250 (Was 150) Stats - Docking Station AC buffed to 12 (Was 1) Health increased to 600 (Was 100) Stats - Sub-vehicle spawner AC buffed to 12 (Was 1) Health increased to 250 (Was 100) Stats - Vehicle blueprint spawner AC buffed to 12 (Was 10) Health increased to 250 (Was 150) Stats - Small Propeller AC buffed to 15 (Was 10) Health increased to 300 (Was 150) Stats - Huge Propeller AC buffed to 15 (Was 10) Health increased to 2700 (Was 600) Stats - Small Jet AC buffed to 10 (Was 5) Health increased to 200 (Was 100) Stats - Huge Jet AC buffed to 10 (Was 5) Health increased to 1800 (Was 600) Stats - Small Ion Thruster AC buffed to 10 (Was 3) Health increased to 200 (Was 75) Stats - Huge Ion Thruster AC buffed to 10 (Was 3) Health increased to 1800 (Was 450) Stats - Wing + Aileron + Tailplane Health increased to 100 (Was 50) Stats - Jet Stabilizer AC buffed to 12 (Was 5) Health increased to 250 (Was 150) Stats - Heat Decoy AC buffed to 10 (Was 3) Health increased to 200 (Was 85) Stats - AI mainframe Cost reduced to 50 (From 100) Stats - Radiator AC buffed to 10 (Was 3) Health buffed to 200 (Was 100) Stats - Large Radiator AC buffed to 10 (Was 3) Health buffed to 1800 (Was 900) Stats - Ammo Storage + Ammo Parts box Weight reduced to 40 (From 45), volume factor reduced for same overall buoyancy Stats - Laser Munition Defence – AC buffed to 10 (Was 4) Health increased to 300 (Was 100) Cost reduced to 30 (Was 100) Stats - Laser Optics & Steering Optics – AC buffed to 8 (Was 4) Health increased to 250 (Was 100) Cost reduced to 20 (Was 50) Stats - Tactical Nuke – Cost reduced to 50 (Was 100) Weight increased to 40 (Was 4) Stats - RTG (All types) Cost reduced by 50% Stats - Small turbine AC reduced to 6 (From 46) Stats - APS Barrels (All types); AC buffed to 15 (From 12) HP increased to 350 (From 200/225/250) Weight reduced to 40 (Was 50) Stats - CRAM Barrels (All Except bomb chute.); AC buffed to 15 (From 10) Hp increased to 350 (From 150) Stats - Bomb chute; AC buffed to 15 (From 5) HP buffed to 350 (From 150) Weight unchanged (5) Stats - CRAM - Recoil Suppression Barrel; Muzzle velocity factor increased to 0.95 (From 0.9) Stats - Railgun Magnet Attaching Fixture Health increased to 300 (Was 200) Stats - Railgun Barrel magnet AC Health increased to 350 (Was 200) Stats - APS 3x3 Omni mantlet AC buffed to 28 (Was 20) Health Increased to 5000 (Was 3150) Stats - APS 1x1 Omni mantlet AC buffed to 20 (Was 15) Health increased to 500 (Was 350) Stats - APS 1x1 Elevation Mantlet AC buffed to 20 (Was 12) Health Increased to 500 (Was 300) Stats - APS 1x3 Elevation Mantlet AC buffed to to 20 (Was 15) Health increased to 1500 (Was 900) Stats - APS 1x2 AA Mantlet AC buffed to 20 (Was 12) Health increased to 750 (Was 450) Stats - Drill (Controller) AC buffed to 15 (Was 5) Health increased to 500 (Was 300) Stats - Extension AC buffed to 15 (Was 8) Health increased to 300 (Was 150) Stats - Verical/Horizontal Splitter AC buffed to 15 (Was 8) Health increased to 300 (Was 150) Stats - Small Drill Bit AC buffed to 25 (Was 15) Health Increased to 700 (Was 200) Stats - Large Drill Bit AC buffed to 25 (Was 15) Health increased to 6300 (was 1800) Cost increased to 100 (Was 60) Stats - Power Input AC buffed to 10 (Was 4) Health increased to 300 (Was 150) Stats - Torque Amplifier AC buffed to 10 (Was 4) Health increased to 300 (Was 150) Stats - Wing force per speed increased from 0.05 to 0.1. Cost increased to 5 Stats - Aileron force per speed increased from 0.1 to 0.2. Cost increased to 5 Stats - Aero Rudder, Aero Plane, Tailplane force per speed increased from 0.2 to 0.4. Cost increased to 5 Stats - Simple Laser cost from 40 to 100, Ammo usage from 10 to 40 Stats - Spinblock, One Axis Turret, Two Axis turret; AC Increased to 15. (Was 10) Health Increased to 800 (Was 150) (For 1x1x1) Stats - 3x3 One Axis Turret; 7200 Health Stats - 5x5 One Axis Turret; 20,000 health Missile - Interceptor kill strike range increased and damage increased Missile - HE warheads no longer detonate other missiles and instead push them away Missile - Thumper head Effective AP 6 > 10 Missile - duration reduced to 30 seconds (From 1 minute) Missile - Torpedo HE bonus damage reduced from 4x to 3x PAC - Impact effective AP 10 > 15 PAC - Pierce effective AP reduced 20 > 15 PAC – Explosive Shock damage percentage changed from 10% to 100% PAC - EMP, Damage reduced by 50% Ram - (Simple Weapon) Frontal drag reduced to 0.3 CRAM – Duration before projectile deletion increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds APS & CRAM – “Heavy” Basic barrels added: AC 25, HP 900, Weight 200, Cost; 70 APS & CRAM – beamed(4m) barrels added, Heavy and normal variants APS – Flak Radius increased to 6x HE Radius (Was 2x), Damage reduced to 30% of HE (Was 50%) (APS) APS – Accuracy penalty removed from Disruptor shell caps APS - HEAT and HESH now explode on impact, and cannot ricochet APS - HEAT Air gap pen metric drain increased to 60. AP 6 from 10 (molten metal isnt known for its AP) APS - HESH cone angle 60 from 30 APS - HESH will also create spalling at 5 other airgaps randomly selected from the forwards hemisphere APS - Squash head thump effective AP is now 10 APS - Hollow Point Effective AP 6 > 10 APS - Hesh frag number divided by the square rooted AC of the armour it passes through instead of the raw AC. (HA=6.3, Metal = 3.6) APS – All fuse module kinetic stats increased to; (Excluding Inertial Fuse) APS – Shell health factor – 1.0 (Was 1.0), Kinetic damage factor – 2.5 (Was 0.5) , Armour Piercing factor – 1.5 (Was 0.2), Speed factor – 1.1 (Was 1.0) APS – Stabilizer Fin Kinetic stats increased to; Shell health factor – 1.1 (Was 0.95), Kinetic damage factor – 3.0 (Was 0.7), Armour piercing factor – 1.5 (Was 0.5), Speed factor – 1.0 (Was 0.95) APS – Super Cavitator Base Kinetic stats increased to; Kinetic damage factor – 1.5 (Was 0.6), Armour piercing factor – 1.5 (Was 0.4), Speed modifier – 1.0 (Was 0.9) Now has a maximum length of 100mm APS – Grav. Compensator stats increased to; Shell health factor – 1.1 (Was 1.0), Kinetic damage factor – 1.5 (Was 0.6), Armour piercing factor - 1.5 (Was 0.4), Speed modifier – 1.0 (Was 0.9) Now has a maximum length of 100mm APS – Reduce propellant burn barrel length requirement from 12*(Shell length)^0.75 to 6*(Shell length)^0.75 APS - Autoloaders start loaded; inputs start at max count down so they immediately load APS - Clips HEAT Vulnerability, 3m is now 33% (Was 0%), 6m is now 16% (Was 0%), 8m is now 13% (Was 0%) APS - 8m Autoloader, removed health loss from HEAT penetration (To match the rest of them) APS - New APS recoil absorber system; now has total recoil capacity which refreshes over time. Smaller absorbers refresh faster but have lower capacity RTGS - Produce energy 5 times a second rather than once a second (same total per second) Batteries - start full rather then empty Lasers - less engine power usage while game is slowed down bug fix Lasers - Wavefront no longer pierces multiple layers of smoke with its full potential, its now iterative per smoke as per the laser shields Lasers - frequency doublers AP bonus now scalar with pumps: 0.5AP per pump at 10 pumps scaling to 0.005AP per pump at 100 Lasers - Storage Laser Cavity health loss from HEAT penetration reduced to 40% (Was 100%) Lasers - Q Switch EMP Susceptibility Reduced to 40% (Was 60%), This now matches other laser components Laser - Steering optics & regular optics, removed health loss from HEAT penetration AI - General Purpose Processing Card, added EMP Susceptibility of 60% With protective drainage of 10 AI - Laser Warner EMP Susceptibility reduced to 40% (Was 60%) Health increased to 200 (Was 100) AI - Smoke Dispenser – Removed health loss from HEAT penetration Propulsion - Jet Engine (Small) & Jet Engine (Large) Removed health loss from HEAT penetration Propulsion - Ion Engine (Small) & Ion Engine (Large) Health loss from HEAT Penetration reduced to 50% Propulsion - Propellers speed cap increased to 100 (Was 50)

[ 2017-07-18 14:38:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.96 released! Steam engines!

Really pleased to be releasing steam engines today along with a multitude of other features changes and fixes. Hope you like the new changes and we will be responding to bug reports posted on the offical bug report forum over the next few days and releasing and required hot fixes. [New feature] Steam engines added [New Feature] Active Radar Missiles are decoyed by Radar Buoys [New Feature] Active Sonar Torpedo Seekers are decoyed by Sonar Buoys [New Feature] Multithreading of many complex game calculations to improve frame rate [New Feature] Fuel engine exhaust is bi-directional and can be fed combined from many engines. [New feature] Steam cloud activated for your entire From the Depths folder. Let me know if it creates any issues. [Addition] new light and smoke emitter deco blocks [Addition] Copy/paste, copy to all Added to Missile winches, Belt Feb autoloaders, laser colorer [Addition] Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard difficulty preset buttons added [Change] Prefabs and Sub objects are all loaded in a second thread (removes the delay before accessing the inventory screen). Load is done when profile loaded. Permanent inventory prefabs also loaded in second thread. [Change] Textures are now loaded from resources to speed up game boot time. The textures the vanilla game uses are still available in the modding folders if you want to modify them and override them. [Change] The naming convention for mod files has changed. They are no longer numbered (which led to a lot of annoying version control issues). [Change] Tips of the day; spelling/grammar and general wording updated. [Change] Vehicle select in qualification mode now has test vehicle height heading for altitude buttons [Change] New campaign options text updated [Change] Adventure mode spawn height 50 instead of 100 (less chance of falling into the ocean, less awkward green from no heatstone) [Change] Missile menu -left +right swapped to correct sides [Change] Simple Tutorial now has a seat bit so players dont fall out [Change] Tutorial vehicles now have seats for players to start on or spawn location lowered [Change] Notice that saved games are world specific on load game menu [Change] Story missions default to 'Player' tab if nothing selected (looks really odd if nothing selected) [Change] Laser colorer secondary return updated to say if connected [Change] Laser wavefront secondary return updated [Change] Missile carry across all settings on assign. Ejection angle etc. [Change] Ammo processor sub meshes now carry with main block [Change] APS trail set to diameter with a minimum of 150mm (the old default) [Change] APS ammo component spelling fixed [Change] Missile trail slider in options now [Change] Visible tracer color customise actually show colour in description [Change] Inventory layout for structural blocks moved around a bit slightly so blocks no longer over checklist [Change] Blueprint Spawner block max range now 100 from 30 [Improvement] All in all the game should now be back to booting up in about 30 seconds or less and will not pause when you access the prefab or sub object inventory tabs or when you click the multiplayer button. [Improvement] APS trail shorter, wider and now scale with gauge from a minimum of 150mm (Easier to see, especially the light blue tracers) [Improvement] All trails optimised for better performance [Improvement] Particle effects redone for most emitter (missiles, jets,smoke etc) to not be so wasteful (and hopefully look better) [Improvement] Pulse lasers now have the full effect set and a nice fade [Improvement] Toon ramp and Outline standardised between all game materials (0.009 for components and 0.02 for structural blocks) [Improvement] Block information popup standardised between all blocks. [Bug fix] Space designer platform now has required down thrusters [Bug fix] Tutorials updated for changes in game [Bug fix] Heli tutorial never actually ended – fixed now [Bug fix] 1m omni mantlet texture fix

Content Update

Dangerous Waters: -All ships have been updated to give a more enjoyable, faster, and controlled battle experience. -All ships converted to Metal with Alloy only used for balance and flotation boost -All Cannons standardized and made more powerful. Now, ships can actually hurt each other. -Strength of the cannons are properly reflected by their gauges. No more will a 100mm cannon beat a 200mm cannon. -Ammo stashes that were spread around the ships sabotaging the ships have been removed. Now the ships dont kill themselves, your cannons do. -Ships will no long run from each other. All ships have the same engagement range and will turn to broadside instead of one always running away to maintain a further distance. -Weapon controllers set so big guns shoot further -Torpedoes made awesome. Now having a torpedo ship is worthwhile -AA made better. Planes are no longer safe. Its not great, but better. -Ally descriptions "one liners" changed to reflect the exact weapons the ships have so the player can make a more educated choice about what they build -Planes updated a bit, Axis planes now blow up when they fly into space. Ashes of the Empire -Tanks updated some to improve sensor detection. Some designs have been update to survive better or be offensively stronger. -New DWG Tank "Taipan" Designed to be a Tank destroyer. -The DWG copperhead has been reworked so it never gets stuck under ground. It now has missiles instead of APSs. It is no longer a sub-spawn on all DWG designs (on a few) and it can now freely spawn independently. - New SE Tank added "Scarab" -DWG design "Sand Viper" has been replaced -New WF Tank "Slayer" -All Faction designs have been limited to only spawn 2-3 copies per fleet. This should encourage more diversity and higher chances of Elite tanks spawning in large fleets. -DWG will now ALWAYS declare war on the player at the 1 hour mark. Other Factions still have a random chance to also declare war. -Elite tanks spawn chance has been increased -All tanks have had their FPs reduced, including Elites. Expect to see more tanks per fight now. -Player starting base has been updated to have its old tents, campfires and random junk laying around. -Fixed various other annoying issues and stuff ive forgotten about. Neter: -Typical design updates and OW beaming. -Easy OW designs have been Nerfed -GT Tribe of the Iron Storm overhauled thanks to the GT crew -DWG Generic Fleets severely changed and im not sure how they will behave. Now fleets will be grouped by "Pirate Lords" following that lords style -4 new DWG Airships added to the game for the new pirate lord "Sven Kno" - DWG "Pendragon" deleted from game -4 hour Grace period is dead I have removed the entire concept. There are no more super noob designs. They have been rolled into Easy difficulty or removed. There is no more pre-made attack fleets. Now, DWG will declare war on you after 2 hours. If you dont want to wait, declare war on them right away. Intent of this change is too allow those who want to play their difficulty to do so right away and those who want to build in peace to be able to do so. -Now when you defeat a faction there will be a chance of all other factions having a change of relationship status with you. For example, killing WF has a 70% of making LH immediately hate you and SS 30% chance of gain +10 in relations. This is untested and i have only a vague idea of what will happen. Also, when a Faction is defeated a pop up message will appear about their deaths (7 out of 8 factions so far) -DWG garrisons around the player have been increased in strength slightly Glao -HQs moved off land so they will produce water units in addition to their air units -Hauler Design replaced -Broken SD event fixed and changed

[ 2016-11-12 14:51:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.9587 released (detection: radar, sonar, IR, visible etc)

Really pleased to be pushing this huge series of development branch patch to the stable branch tonight. There are three main areas of focus here: 1) Detection mechanics (radar, sonar, IR, visual, retroreflection, wireless signal detection). Vehicles must now detect and track each other and can be designed with stealth in mind. All the new components are AI components although missiles have got some new components too (radar active seekers, radar and sonar buoys). 2) Usability improvements: prefabs in the inventory to speed up building for new and old players alike. A checklist in the inventory to help new players get to grips with the game and help old players remember the basics. A new weapon aiming system that turns the avatar in to a serious threat and adds a lot of gameplay options for those wanting to control their own weapons. 3) A single raw resource (called Material) replaces the natural, metal, oil, scrap and crystal raw resources. This doesn't involve much, if any, redesigning of your vehicles but it makes the game far more streamlined, balanced and understandable. Scrap smelters and crystal farms are now for decoration only but fuel refineries and ammo production still works as usual. Spare parts are no longer in the game at all. Here is the full change log although I think we've forgotten a few things.. [Change] Detection equipment now available and necessary [New Feature] Sonar Active / Passive added for detecting submarines and other ships [New Feature] Radar Active / Passive added for detecting above water targets [New Feature] Visible cameras and coincidence range finders added for detecting above water targets [New Feature] IR Cameras added for detecting above water targets [New Feature] Retroreflection sensors added for detecting targets with visible band optical systems [New Feature] Wireless snooper added for detecting systems with wireless transmission and reception [New Feature] Range finders added for tracking detected targets and delivering range estimates [Change] Natural, Metal, Oil, Scrap and Crystal have been replaced with a single Material [Change] A 'none' weapon slot has been added [Change] a simple two slot weapon system is now the default for new players- you can select which you prefer in the options menu [Bug fix] AI weapon control is no longer overrriden when you are using a UI [Change] you can begin building on a force when it is out of play by using a new button on the UI or by looking at it and pressing B [Change] You can begin building on a force or vehicle by looking at it from a distance of up to 1km, rather than 30 metres [Change] the fleet info tooltip has been revamped [Change] your player's position is clearly marked in the fleet control UI and the map UI [Addition] new exhaust pipe added [Addition] 2m and 3m beams/slopes added [New Feature] Player aiming of weapons is now far more accurate and allows pin point accuracy of all weapons under your control [New Feature] A checklist has been added to the inventory to help new players figure out what is needed [New Feature] Prefabs are now in the main inventory tabs to help players quickly assemble fuel engines (more to come) [New feature] Radar guided missiles added [Change] Passive sonar can detect sonar torpedoes and LAMS can engage them [Change] Passive radar can detect radar guided missiles and LAMS can engage them [New feature] Missile radar buoy, Missile sonar buoy added [New feature] Reverse fire missile launch pad added

[ 2016-08-07 23:31:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.957 released!

Huge update with loads of new components, new mechanics and balance changes. Nukes, heavy armour, warp drives, optimisation and laser's shooting down large shells are just a few of the new features. Let me know what you think in the comments section below :) New Components New laser cavities added which have more energy storage 3 new RTG parts for generating constant power for a high initial cost without the requirement for fuel Spares Processed added to keep your spare parts topped up Tactical Nuke component added for Kamikaze runs Land AI card added Shield busting 'Disruptor Conduit' nose cone added for APS that channels EMP damage into the shield projector itself 3m and 6m Autoloader variants now available (with clips) Warp drives added Wavefront corrector component added for offensive lasers APS shell ejector added for avoiding ammo racking Heavy Armour added Fixes and improvements [Improvement] Fixes to Adventure mode spawning difficulties [Bug fix] 2x2x2 resource containers now mirror correctly [Improvement] Fuel refineries now have several warnings when being damaged from gas build up [Bug fix] Fix to the damage from particle cannon pipes that are correctly terminated [Bug fix] more support for spawning land vehicles in land designers (used to spawn under the terrain level and pop up!) [Improvement] RTG Generators now charge batteries out of play [Bug fix] Fixed a bug regarding the selling of raw resource containers and placing of containers as prefabs [Bug fix] LUA error reporting fixed (has been broken for a few weeks, sorry! [Improvement] Diplomacy UI revamped a bit [Improvement] Unavailable single player game modes no longer visible [Improvement] Fleet move AI pathfinding for naval vessels is now better [Bug fix] rendering of big chunks of debris now fixed [Bug fix] identification of when blocks should be perminently removed is now better (no more perminent battle damage during build mode) [Bug fix] engine display is now correct when using an electric engine as well [Bug fix] Laser range now correctly calculated and displayed [Bug fix] APS penetration depth fuse fixed [Improvement] Optimisation of several slow areas of code [Change] Several APS blocks vertices count reduced signicantly (small fps boost) [Change] many blocks retextured [Bug fix] CRAM shells now explode on impact with terrain Content updates Loads of content updates to all three planets and a new planet "Ashes of the Empire" added with a land vehicle campaign [Improvement] DWG tutorial story missions updated [Improvement] New planet Icons in main menu for switching between planets [Improvement] Faction flags added for Glao planet New Features [Improvement] Brawler player buff added, very useful for adventure mode [Improvement] Leader boards many missions which feed scores into a 'Player Score' metric... which unlocks the "luck" attribute [Change] You cannot order a fleet into allied territory, and lose relationship when you trespass there [Improvement] you can now save your vehicle as an STL file for 3D printing. The option is in the Vehicle info UI (press V) [Improvement] Low level of detail mode added for distant vehicles [Change] SHIFT + P in build mode will cylce the following views: density (mass/volume) of components, forwards drag, cost density and hiden structural blocks [Change] Centre of mass, buoyancy and drag clearly shown in build mode Balance Changes and mechanic changes [Improvement] Engineering captain skill works on fuel engines to increase efficiency and keep heat down [Improvement] Armour smithing faction skill increases resitance to all damage types except EMP which it adds a susceptability to [Improvement] Fleet supply faction skill implemented to increase supply range of forces [Improvement] no skills adjust gravity or air density any more [Improvement] Leadership ability increases fleet speed on the map and radar view distance [Improvement] Luck can make a x4 accurate LAM shot [Improvement] Skills have been rebalanced substantially [Improvement] APS required barrel lengths for propellant burn and accuracy have been reduced and have a roll-off for high shell lengths [Change] APS rebalanced so that cooldown scales using the 'standard' gauge equation and damage scales using the 'strong' gauge equation. Large shells should now achieve higher DPS than before and be more competative. [Change] Effective range added for APS shells [Change] Particle cannon arms with lenses now fire 2 50% strength shots not one [Change] Jets and propellers have a 'top speed' and thrust falls off as they approach this speed [Improvement] APS shell modules have a maximum length, allowing you to use more fuses at higher gauge than previously [Change] Inertial fuses now allow fragments to explode on the far side of the shield [Change] LAMS can shoot down CRAM shells and APS shells [Change] Missile warners can detect large CRAM and APS shells [Change] A docked vehicle can no longer use repair tentacles to repair the vehicle it is docked to [Change] Munition Warners need to have a clear line of sight out of the vehicle to function [Change] Missiles have a detectable range base on the thrust their thrusters are putting out [Change] Munition warners are less effective if the vehicle is quickly rotating [Change] Thumper heads increase missile health by a factor of 2.5 [Change] It's now the barrel not the gauge cooler that smokes in an APS system [Change] Laser warner now needs a clear view out of the vehicle in order to operate- much like the munition warner does [Change] You can now factor shield strength rather than change it using an ACB [Change] Shield projectors cannot project through other shield projectors [Change] both reflect and disrupt shields ignore AP and instead have effectiveness proportional to shell indicent velocity [Change] Exhausts need a clear line of sight out of the vehicle or they lose cooling potential [Change] if a shell with no fuses ricochets it will not explode [Change] HE Missiles expoding underwater (i.e. torpedos) do significantly more damage and have larger radii [Change] vehicle temperature is now far more important for the use of IR missiles [Change] Shields and light fittings now radiate heat, as does the firing of cannon shells and missiles

[ 2016-06-30 10:29:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.9513! Particle Cannons, Adventure Mode and two new planets to test

Really excited to be pushing the particle cannons to stable and to be releasing the first iteration of Adventure Mode and two new planets, as well as the many other new additions and features that you will find detailed below. Adventure Mode is a back to basics game mode where you have to manually build up a ship or fleet and fend off enemies whilst warping through warp gates, hunting for resource and salvaging your enemies. It's an atmospheric survival style game where everything is done in 1st person (or through the newly revamped wireless camera control system) and there is only one save slot per adventure. It'll be getting more updates as the week goes on to add more warp dimensions of different types. A new planet has also been added called Glao which features a fun, small and strategic campaign mode. You're a mining corporation fighting for control of a small planet against three other corporations. It's still a work in progress. Dangerous Waters WWII planet has also been added. It's a community project featuring an Allies vs Axis campaign with replicas of most of the hardware of WWII. It's still very much a work in progress and you're welcome to get involved with this project on the official forums here: http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=137 We've also added Particle Cannons which use stored battery energy to fire high energy particles. These are great fun and currently have no direct counters which make them a great investment. We've also added Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators which cost a lot of crystal to place but produce an infinite (but slow) battery charge capability. Perfect for Adventure Mode. Wireless cameras when placed on turrets can now control the turret aiming and weapon firing. They also have up to x20 zoom so you can see further than every before. Also perfect for Adventure Mode. Here is the full change log since the last announcement was posted: [Improvement] Nanites and Scientist fleet buffs implemented. Non-implemented buffs/skills have been marked in the Character sheet [Improvement] AI aiming prediction more precise by an order of magnitude. CIWS and long range combat should see a marked improvement [Change] Laser systems now provide double the damage at double the power cost [Improvement] Auto-loaders now show multiplier for larger variants in overlay [Improvement] Several new tutorials [Improvement] Iron Cover ship test facility added to help give new players some basics of ship building [Change] Custom Jet intake add-on is now 1x1x1m instead of 3x1x1m [Improvement] New Particle Cannon weapon now added [Improvement] Texture upgrade (and some models) for Laser Components, Custom Jets, Drills, Strategic Antenna, Surge Protector, Scrap Smelter and Crystal Farm [Improvement] APS mantlets can be placed at any orientation and work as expected [Bug fix] EMP damage bug fix- it was choosing bad paths occasionally [Improvement] Ships will not spawn in land garrisons and land vehicles will not spawn in sea garrisons [Change] Enemies of 2 or more difficulty levels above or below the player's selected design difficulty level will no longer ever spawn [Bug fix] Fuel is spent for out of play movement with custom Jets [Improvement] New game mode (adventure mode!) added [Improvement] Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator added for charging batteries [Improvement] Docking on off button added to the generic force control button panel [Improvement] Wireless cameras can now aim and shoot turrets [Bug fix] Cross platform multiplayer bugs introduced in the mod support release are fixed [Change] Oil drills no longer work underwater [Improvement] Oil drills and resource gatherers turn off when there is no storage for raw materials [Bug fix] No engine icon does not display when there is an electric engine with battery power available [Bug fix] Issues with scrolling and group selection on the map due to mouse over map icons now fixed [Change] Shortcuts to the planets added to the top of the main menu [Bug fix] Bug with sailing AI card turning into an endless 'off state' after loading fixed [Improvement] Particle Cannon tube lenses can now fire in all directions [Bug fix] Balloons more stable and will not warp you miles under glitchy circumstances [Improvement] Laser anti missile defense now has adjustable range and firing angle [Change] Lasers and bullets fired from the Cannon Anti Missile Controller can physically connect with and destroy missiles [Bug fix] Sail winch settings are synchronized in multiplayer [Bug fix] The sailing AI card roll avoidance mechanism is now working as expected [Bug fix] Sailing AI now controlling sails more sensibly

[ 2016-05-09 14:23:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.947 [mod support and so much more]

So pleased to release this huge update to the stable branch. Land vehicles, mod support, multiplayer improvements, improved player movement (and stairs!), balance changes, CIWS turrets and bomb chute barrels are among the hundreds of changes. You can view and share mods here - and steam workshop support for them will be added shortly. [Improvement] Wheels controllable by piggybacking onto water mode or air mode propulsion [Improvement] Resource zone resource growth rate is now constant again- rather than increasing when the zone is empty [Improvement] new control options added to the Automatic Control Block [Improvement] Mod support added to the game [Change] Ammo router no longer required for the Advanced Projectile System [Improvement] Stairs block added" [Improvement] Rambot avatar can now cling to his vehicle (which is the default movement mode). Press \ to change mode. Double tap space to release from vehicle [Change] Scuttlebot avatar removed from the game [Improvement] replace block now works in multiplayer [Improvement] Prefabs now work in multiplayer [Improvement] Sub object save and load now works in multiplayer [Improvement] Weapon control is better in multiplayer [Improvement] Client movement is controlled client-side in multiplayer so is lag free [Improvement] New hand holding tutorial system added to lead you through the tutorial resources available [Improvement] New sound manager system added which has nice effects and models speed of sound [Improvement] support added for land units and all terrain vehicles as forces and fleets [Improvement] Bomb Chute barrel for Cram cannon added [Improvement] Significantly increased the FPS when on the map [Bug fix] land should no longer disappear from beneath the player or vehicles [Change] the way sails are placed has changed a bit- some may well now be broken- sorry about that [Improvement] Prefabs and sub objects now stored in individual files [Change] Missile drag decreases from 100% at altitude 0m to 50% at altitude 300m and then 0% at altitude 500m. Ability to turn using fins decreases from 100% at 300m to 10% at 500m [Improvement] Projectile follow camera is now an orbital view of the projectile / missile [Change] Lasers can damage out to 10km now- not just 3km [Change] Raw resource storage containers now store 2k resource per meter cubed- not 10k [Improvement] game config sliders for resource storage and overall damage scaling [Improvement] You can pause the game at any time by pressing F11- you can still move the camera and look about [Change] vehicle drag is reduced from 100% at 300m altitude to 10% at 500m altitude (where air density reaches 0) [Improvement] event outcome likelihood is now customizable in the map editor [Improvement] Resource dump levels are now controlled by the server and synchronized to the players [Improvement] Retrofitting is enabled in multiplayer games [Improvement] Resource supply distance based on the force's resource storage capacity [Improvement] There is now the option in the V menu to disable the removal of water effects due to air pumps [change] APS Autoloaders now have a bonus to reload speed for the larger variants, roughly 40% of the previous size [Improvement] Several new player skills/buffs have been added, structure inplace for more in future. Current new skills that work are Gunnery, Sea Captain, Gun smiths, Salvo Batterries, Naval engineering, Aerial engineering and Astro enginerring [Improvement] tooltips enabled for enemy vehicles in the fleet control UI. [Improvement] Close In Weapon Support (CIWS) AI weapon controller added for firing turreted APS at missiles [Improvement] Control block can now force all weapon types to fire [Improvement] LCW shots per second limit is now 40 instead of 2. Not sure why it was ever 2 [Improvement] Vehicle on vehicle collision bugs ironed out [Improvement] when you give orders to your vehicles they will sort of speak back to you. There are four personalities associated with the four modes: water, air, land, all terrain. [Bug fix] bug fix regarding fog of war view distance for dead blueprints [Improvement] build bar / favourites list works in multiplayer now [Change] Missile explosive warhead damage doubled from 200 to 400 per warhead [Change] You no longer need a patrol AI card to give orders to the AI- so the card is now obsolete [Change] User interface for fleets and forces simplified and unified quite a bit [Change] you can now longer have a fleet without a flagship- one will always be assigned [Bug fix] Fleet rotation speeds now properly calculated and applied [Change] Volume used instead of block count in a number of places throughout the game now [Improvement] AI, Fleet, and Resource Zone bindings added to Lua. [Bug fix] Lua editor will now select all code when CTRL+A is pressed. [Improvement] Inventory, fleet control and map UI declutter [Improvement] Dangerous Waters WWII RTS planet is in the built in planet's folder and ready for v0 testing.

[ 2016-04-01 10:27:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.915 [Campaign updates, CRAM Cannons and much more]

Huge update- drag calculation updated (with "localised drag"), a new type of cannon called the CRAM Cannon replaces the Custom Cannon component set (it's fairly backwards compatible- don't worry too much), loads of new campaign and usability updates (including fleet patrol loops). A building bar of favourite designs has also been added so you can play the different game modes with more of an RTS feel. Planet editor has had numerous updates so expect more vibrant campaigns, missions and community made worlds soon. [Improvement] Profile moved to a new, more robust system that stores more preferences [Improvement] A favourite design building hot bar has been added [Improvement] Out of play vehicles can be retrofitted [Improvement] A 'Quick Retrofit Wizard' has been added for upgrading automatically to the latest version of a blueprint during campaign play [Improvement] Battle setup GUI simplified [Improvement] Game speed can be controlled from the E GUI now as well as the map [Improvement] Graviton ram APS shell base added [Improvement] Text applied to the out of play force markers to add clarity [Fix] Out of play repairs now provides ammo and fuel and spares when repairing the respective components [Improvement] you can now target a fleet as the target of a fleet move order [Improvement] you can hold shift and click on a previous waypoint to create a loop back to that waypoint for fleets [Improvement] a 'force feed' option for dumping all spare resource into the target of the transit fleet [Improvement] Aerial Pitch PID has an 'altitude error to elevation request factor' slider for helping tune the aircraft's altitude control [Improvement] Armour class of armour is increased when in multiple layers- for both exp damage and kinetic damage [Improvement] Explosive damage equations changed so that high armour materials absorb a reasonably large amount of the explosive power [Improvement] Aerial AI collision avoidance added to standard Aerial AI. Only works with altitude at the moment (one goes high, one goes low) [Improvement] Drag is applied at the center of drag- you may need to re-balance your vehicles with this change [Improvement] blocks have their drag reduction potential defined in all 6 directions- not just one value. Slopes are therefore only useful when placed in certain orientations [Improvement] Slopes and corners all specify two positions that need to be free of blocks for them to work- this is to avoid exploits [Improvement] APS EMP, HESH THUMP, HEAT frag and HESH frag damage have all been increased by a factor of 2 [Improvement] CRAM cannon replaces Custom Cannon [Improvement] Event system added to the map editor [Fix] Fix with in play retrofitting providing unlimited resources [Improvement] Increase and Decrease game speed now rebindable [Improvement] Lots of new Map Editing options for facilitating game-play types and fine tuning how designs spawn [Improvement] Resource zones can be specified to have a finite reserve amount of any or all resources [Improvement] HQs can be specified to only build certain types of design or designs of certain corporations [Improvement] New "faction merge" functionality added to map editor to create super factions.

[ 2016-01-30 10:57:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.897 patch notes

Loads of fixes and improvements- and quite a number of new features to keep you busy. [Improvement] Missile laser retains aim direction more effectively [Improvement] Shield projector has complex controller input for excess drive factor [Improvement] Turrets are now back to being smoothly rotating like they used to be [Improvement] Firing constraints for turrets have a bug fixed that was affecting azimuth when using elevation only constraints [Improvement] turret traverse speed is now based on turret mass [Imrovement] Explosions now limited in their ability to turn corners and get past armour [Improvement] APS barrel traverse speed is slower for larger barrels [Fix] Loading a shell directly into the firing piece now works as intended [Fix] battery power will not be used to run generators to charge batteries- in the absense of any fuel [Fix] Aerial AI less likely to lose altitude whilst moving to waypoint [Change] Jet model replaced with a new one- and jet engine drag factor set to 0.25 [Improvement] Inline turbo provides cooling to cylinder if exiting directly from it [Improvement] Standard turbo can be placed inline if you wish [Improvement] Exhaust outputs are a source of heat for the attraction of IR missiles [Improvement] Inline turbos which have a lot of exhaust passing through them are equivalent to a turbo that is run at a higher engine RPM [Improvement] The turbo efficiency improvement curve now goes up to a value of 5- which results in 50% fuel usage. You can achieve this efficiency by running an engine at 100% with an inline turbo with 5 exhausts flowing through it [Fix] Jets are now counted as hot objects again [Fix] Qualification mode now counts advanced projectile system projectile damage correctly [Fix] Fix with APS explosions managing to pass through a single layer of armour [Fix] Bribing in localised resource mode fixed [Fix] A fuel refinery when destroyed and repaired will still work now [Improvement] hot object list added to the Constructable Info GUI (V) [Improvement] Required accuracy before fire has a minimum of 0.5 instead of 2 now [Fix] Out of play resource gathering now uses fuel- and needs fuel to run [Fix] issues fixed when fuel engines run out of fuel [Improvement] railguns reworked to use vehicle battery energy storage and be more configurable. New rail gun propellant component added as a shell module [Improvement] Experience is given to all players in multiplayer [Improvement] Intel images can be taken for all vehicles. Screenshots now properly encoded as jpeg [Fix] Fixes to naval AI that broken when the PIDs we introduced and fix to submarine fleet move [Fix] Fix to out of play oil to fuel conversion and fuel use for resource gathering (numbers were both too pessimistic)

[ 2016-01-13 19:46:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.88 now live! [New engines, Local Resource, and loads more]

Huge new content update for the stable branch. Engines have been completely reworked and replaced, you can now play all game modes with 'local resource' stored on your vehicles. Supply groups and Transit fleets added to manage the logistics of your war. Loads of new features, simplifications to overly complex systems, balance improvements have been added. To name but a few we have Laser Aborb shields, Explosive Reative Armour, new HEAT and HESH mechanics. There's also a new campaign we threw in at the last minute where you can play as DWG vs. just the Onxy Watch! The in game manual has been updated to reflect the changes, and so have the building guides- so you'll find plenty of info in game. You'll also find buttons on the main menu where you can learn more about these changes. Here is an absolutely must watch video from IreLAN gaming on the new update. Definitely worth a watch! [Improvement] Code re-written to support modding in future [Improvement] Aim point selection is less deterministic in it's selection of block. [Improvement] Maximum strength attribute added to the planet editor for setting maximum garrison sizes [Improvement] Special and Generic fleets now have difficulty levels assignable in the map editor [Improvement] perminently locked unlock and faction design visibility options added to world editor [Improvment] A new engine system called the Fuel Engine has been created to replace the current engine [Improvement] Added a new system for electric engines and electric energy (plus electric energy supplying) [Improvement] Lots of new content updates [Improvement] Localised Resource Mechanic Addded, as well as supply groups and transit fleets for sharing both Raw Resource (in Localised Resource Mode) and Processed Resource (in all modes). [Improvement] HEAT and HESH mechanics changed (manual pages added for both so you can learn more. [Improvement] AI PID controllers and General Purpose PID controllers added for controlling loads of systems accurately [Improvement] Explosive Reactive Armour added [Improvement] Reworked electric engine system to be far more useful, and made electric energy the '4th processed resource' [Improvement] Added Laser Absorb shield that uses electric energy from batteries to absorb laser damage [Improvement] Added ACB options for changing shield type (to laser absorb) and changing excess drive factor [Improvement] If excess drive factor set below 1 the shield turns off [Improvement] ACB inputs added for responding to roll, pitch and forwards requests from AI [Improvement] ACB inputs added for vehicle roll, and fractional engine power remaining [Improvement] ACB outputs added for controlling Fuel Engines [Improvement] ACB output added for setting spinners in Continuous and Continuous Reverse modes to spin at a certain speed (not disrupting those in other modes) [Improvement] ACB output added for controlling PID set points [Improvement] Advanced Projectile System ammo feeding system simplified. Ammo Ouputs gone completely and shell part boxes no longer needed. APS takes ammo directly from vehicle reserves [Improvement] Scrapped vehicles leave a resource dump on the map that you can pick up (mainly for Localised Resource Mode) [Balance] Jet engines are now use more power than propellers [Balance] Custom jet engines now need clearance behind the exhaust / compressor to be able to work. [Balance] Fuel tanks cost oil to place and return resource equivalent to their fullness. [Balance] Ammo barrels cost metal to place and return resource equivalent to their fullness. [Balance] Spares crate cost natural to place and return resource equivalent to their fullness. [Balance] Smoke deployment now costs ammo and fuel [Balance] Experience gain in Campaign depends on difficulty setttings [Balance] APS shells no longer begin loading timer afresh on failed load attempt- they try again one second later. APS no longer costs shell parts (they use ammo instead). Ammo cost is effectively x4. [Balance] Lasers use 20% less power to charge up [Change]Air and water drives now go from -1 to 1, not -5 to 5. [Change] Resource gatherer gathering made visually less complex (no debris floats up from sea bed) [Change] Resource View toggle button is R [Change] Toggling repairs is now F7 [Change] Naval AI is now less likely to select reverse gear for long journeys [Change] Failsafe upgraded to be more accurate when radius set non-zero [Change] Air pump now provides buoyancy at the center of the underwater unbreached volume- not the center of mass. [Fix] 8m autoloaders now actually hold 8m shells. [Fix] many vehicles under Naval AI control driving slowly [Removal] Supply pump, Electric Engine Charger, Electric Engine Generator ,Shell Parts Box, Ammo Output Feeder and Oil Processor blocks removed.

[ 2015-12-18 16:10:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.861 now live! (advanced projectile system)

Really pleased to announce the Advanced Projectile System is coming to stable branch for the first time. It features a new type of cannon that fires customisable ammunition (customisable in the same way as the missiles already are) and all sorts of neat features like ammunition clips, belt autoloaders, multiple barrels and rail guns. The ammunition can have all sorts of payloads (explosive, frag, emp, kinetic), fuses (altitude, proximity, timed, penetration, inertial), heads (squash head, shaped charge, sabot, AP capped) and auxiliary components (base bleeders, fins). The custom cannons are not going to be removed. [feature group] Advanced Projectile System released [feature] New wood textures added [bug fix] When a propulsion unit is placed on a spinner or turret only 'main' mode can be selected from the GUI now [bug fix] air pumps will recalculate buoyant volume even when turned off to stop them getting out of date [bug fix] dedicated hel spinners use their 'drive fraction' variable now [bug fix] Desired gauge now reflects actual shell diameter for multibarrel systems- not the single barrel equivalent [bug fix] hydrofoil force calculation was incorrect (using degrees as input to a function requiring radians) Several other bug fixes have also been added.

[ 2015-10-27 14:06:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

First official tournament to begin soon!

First official From the Depths tournament in the AlphaMaster League is starting soon, anyone can join so long as they follow the rules. Deadline for your submissions to the tournament is the 30th of September! Everyone is encouraged to take part and submit a design if they think they can brawl with the best! Forum post with more information : http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=10286

[ 2015-09-18 12:58:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes 1.772 to 1.793

Hello! Large patch moving to stable- very significant performance improments (up to 220% of previous frame rate), saving times in campaign reduced by factors of 50 to 100, new more robust damage system for projectiles, melee impacts, missile impacts and lasers, new NPC crew, and lots more. A significant bug in the drag calculation for water vehicles over 5000 block has also been corrected- which increases the speed of these large ships significantly. In a bit of a rush as I'm catching a plane in 10 minutes but here is the full change log. [1.772] Out of play repairs can be conducted by in play vehicles (in play can repair out of play-> not the other way around) [1.772] Some more mission updates [1.773] Locks for blocks accidentally added again- removed now [1.773] More alloy shapes added [1.773] Bug with autodestroy count down timer continuing forever fixed [1.78] [bug fix] Missile speed now independent of game time [1.78] enemy AI can be controlled in MP designer [1.78] Missile launch pad settings syncronised over network [1.78] Poster block size synced over network [1.78] Fixed a bug with cannon barrels not rendering after being repaired [1.78] Lua box crash potentially averted (checks for Update before trying to call it)" [1.78] Air pump bugs with respect to beams and large blocks should now be fixed [1.78] Respawn process failures (bug) fixed in multi and single player. [1.78] Turret and spinner block health increased from 150 to 500 to help with 'turret pop' [1.78] New missions and vehicle updates added [1.78] Server crash when player disconnected / kicked should be fixed [1.78] Fixed a bug with players being spawned in upside down if they saved when in an upside down chair that they did not then spawn into. [1.781] Build mode automatically stopped when viewing blockade or enemy battle start info- loss of control bug avoided [1.781] Lua: interface added for setting target of interceptor missiles [1.781] Mission: surplus objectives removed from steel striders mission 1, and auto win after 15 minutes added. [1.781] Character sheet GUI flag setup screen now has added clarity on options [1.781] Local Weapon controller will target vehicles above 2000m altitude if 'no limit' is set [1.781] AI will only start battles with player fleets if they are at war with them [1.781] Hopefully rare issues with save button not appearing should be fixed [1.79] A more efficient replacement for raycasting is implemented- reducing the use of the physics engine and improving FPS performance by up to 50%. [1.79] Laser Anti Missile Systems only damage missiles now [1.79] Weaponised lasers don't hit missiles at the moment [1.79] Projectile ricochets of terrain removed [1.79] Issues with inability to save should be resolved [1.79] Missiles should not be able to phase through objects and armour at high velocities anymore [1.79] Instances can be marked as hidden in the map editor- this works currently only for story missions [1.79] Repair bots move with the vehicle and have simplified physics [1.79] Distant engines, cannons, lasers, AI and other generally interior objects are not rendered beyonf 500m range [1.79] All turrets replaced with just two types- the one axis and two axis precision (two axis precision is new)", [1.792] Saving format changed for campaign which makes it approximately 60 times faster for complicated campaigns (the first save in this new format will take a while) [1.792] large (>5k block) ship water drag bug fixed making large ships faster [1.792] barrels increase kinetic damage as they should (broken since 1.79) [1.792] Crew (NPC Spawner) updated significantly [1.792] Melee damage detection for spin blocks and turrets fixed [1.792] Simple weapon category missile launcher and torpedo launcher not placeable or supported anymore [1.793] Some fixes to the grid casting- specifically for mouse based building [1.793] Fixed some graphical artefacts with projectiles [1.793] You can now remove designs from a force in the map editor to leave a force blank (for MP map design)

[ 2015-09-12 13:20:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.76 TO 1.7713 (LUA SCRIPTING SUPPORT)

Lua scripting for custom AI and control has arrived- along with a new missile warhead type, new thruster type, and the first iteration of 12 new story missions.

Change log

[1.76] LUA scripting added via a new block called the LUA Box. [1.76] Corrupted blueprints in your consturctables folder will lo longer cause problems- and a pop up will alert you that they are corrupt. [1.76] Heartstones are no longer perminently removed when destroyed- but in some game modes they cannot be repaired [1.76] Some new 4m metal blocks added [1.761] Confirm buton added for restarting vehicle designer [1.761] Default LUA code written in LUABox [1.761] Poster board and LUABox sync text over network [1.761] Tab is remappable [1.761] Unlocks (story missions) removed [1.762] LUA: WeaponInfo.PlayerCurrentlyControllingIt added [1.762] LUA: F8 saves and runs your code [1.762] LUA: Missile Warning interface functions added [1.762] LUA: Missile Guidance interface functions added (and a missile block to facilitate) [1.762] LUA: Construct orientation interface functions added [1.762] LUA: Thrust control functions added to interface [1.763] Variable thrust thruster added for missiles [1.763] LUA: GetTargetPositionInfoForPosition fixed [1.763] LUA: ClearLogs() function added [1.763] LUA: TargetInfo getting code won’t crash if target has died [1.763] LUA: TimeSinceLaunch added to MissileWarningInfo structure [1.763] Bug fix for Multiplayer so that changes to force selection in lobby is forwarded to new players when they join the server [1.763] LUA: Hydrofoils added to adjustable component list [1.763] LUA: Some more functions added for getting info about the construct, and terrain height [1.763] LUA: LUA box didn’t save properly- you’ll see an error message but your LUA code will be copied to your clip board so you can put it back in and press SAVE. [1.764] Thumper warhead for missiles added (kinetic kill) [1.765] Some more LUA fixes and some fixes to missiles and the thumper warhead [1.765] LUA: Complex controller style interface added for ‘pressing’ TGYHUJIKOLUpDownLeftRight [1.766] NavalAI: Reversing ships should reverse properly now [1.766] LUA: LUA library swapped for more powerful /faster replacement. Create function Update(I) end [1.766] Added missile guidance delay slider in Missile Setup GUI [1.77] slua LUA library now supports linux, Vector3, Quaternion and Mathf libraries added to LUA by default. [1.77] A number of minor bug fixes [1.77] Line numbers added to Lua Editor. Roughly correct to error messages. [1.771] LUA:MissileWarningInfo and TargetInfo have Id field added (unique for each missile, target) [1.771] Seagulls follow the player, not the camera [1.771] LUA: Added shield projector to component interface [1.771] LUA: BlockInfo structures retrievable through component interface [1.771] LUA: BlockInfo structure enhanced with position relative to Center of mass, and local and global rotation quaternions [1.771] LUA: Spin block interface added [1.771] LUA: Sandboxing completed [1.771] Fixed a double counting error regarding scores in qualification mode [1.771] Fixed an issue with the auto sloping of wood [1.771] New missions added and factions updated [1.771] Bug fixed with the upload of planets to the workshop from folders containing more than one planet [1.7711] LUA: math.randomseed added onto white list [1.7711] LUA: .so file replaced with working one [1.7712] LUA: getn added to table whitelist [1.7712] Flayed soul vehicle improved for it’s use in story mission [1.7713] More story missions added and newly added story missions tweaked

[ 2015-08-16 18:32:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.72 Patch notes

I'm really excited to release this new set of patches to the stable branch. The new developments have been focused on making the campaign a bit more versatile and user friendly- we've got out of play repairs, a new, more structured, battle mechanic (allowing battles to be started from up to 5km away), loads of improvements to the user interfaces, a whole bunch of bug fixes and multiplayer co-op saving and loading working again. It's still quite fresh and untested but due to the bug in co-op campaign loading I didn't want to delay any longer. Any issues you find you can report and I'll fix them tomorrow night. [1.7] Markers added to mission editor, and objectives can link in to them [1.7] Random number generator for terrain replaced with a thread-safe one- terrain will be slightly different now (sorry) [1.7] (bug fix) problem with victory condition GUI removing force references when editing multiple different missions now fixed [1.7] (bug fix) Missile turrets will fire further than the previous max range of approximately 1.5km [1.7] (bug fix) EMP damage calculation maths was wrong [1.7] (bug fix) fixed an issue with possible faction colors not rendering as paint jobs [1.7] (bug fix) Fixed an issue with prefabbed mainframes being placed [1.7] Repair bug code release code made more efficient [1.7] New battle system for single player and multiplayer campaign [1.7] Out of play repairs added for campaign [1.7] Dead blueprint state added for campaign to allow damaged ships to be taken home for repairs [1.7] In campaign forces can be duplicated to dead blueprints- which can then be repaired [1.7] Fleet control and strategic interfaces made top down (revert to old view by toggling with TAB) [1.7] User interfaces cleaned up [1.71] Battles can be started from a force selection, as well as a fleet selection (relevant to E menu and zoomed in map) [1.71] Dead blueprint marker style change [1.71] Water and jet control preferences (settings of vehicle constructs) are synced over the network when changed [1.71] Fixed issue with GUI bugging out after AI starts a battle on you [1.71] Kill blueprint button shown next to recycle blueprint option in campaign [1.71] Storm sound effects no longer go funny when camera is moving fast [1.71] Endless zoom from E and N GUIs to Map and back (scroll wheel) [1.71] You can use [ and ] in the E and N GUIs to zoom in and out (like on the map) [1.71] Warning added to HUD when Heartstone power less than 50% [1.71] Respawn pods fall much faster [1.72] Global mods (based on character level) not being applied- now fixed [1.72] Game speed problem after slowing game and opening main menu fixed

[ 2015-07-27 22:46:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes 1.651 to 1.655

Hi All, Main changes are to the steam workshop- glitches and crashes that have affected the vehicle workshop since 1.6ish should now be fixed and planets can now also be added to the workshop and shared (along with all the vehicles of that planet). It's not had much testing beyond what I've done myself so let me know if you run into bugs via the forum at www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum. Memory usage has been reduced by about 500MB so that should help to avoid crashes (for those of you who might have had out of memory errors and crashes) The map has had a bit of a tidy up and comes with some extra functionality :) A few bugs have been fixed as well.

Change log

[1.652] Another default spawn point added for the campaign in the event that the fortress is scrapped- so that new players don't spawn in the middle of the map [1.652] Bug fixed with clients rejoining the lobby of a map they were just in [1.652] Other misc. bug fixes to multiplayer [1.653] Static fleets (structures) now have a different map marker (tactical view) [1.653] Fortreses have a different map marker (tactical view) [1.653] Loads of the map GUI enhancements [1.653] Vanilla designer has a resource zone by default now [1.653] DWG faction update [1.653] Credits GUI (access from main menu) updated with community 'keepers of the lore' [1.6531] Added ACB option for 'enemy range > [input] or no enemy [1.6531] Add quick buttons from campaign to designer and designer to load game [1.6531] Fixed a bug for story missions where the player team was not correctly assigned [1.654] Steam workshop for planets added, workshop for vehicles upgraded with bug fixes [1.6541] Steamworks version updated- crashes should be avoided now [1.6541] Huge amounts of smoke no longer crash game (and lasers are weakened when firing out of smoke as well as into smoke) [1.655] Memory usage reduced by about 500mb. Should help to avoid crashes. [1.655] Prefab block parameter saving fixed- so prefabs captured after this point should be placed with correct parameters

[ 2015-07-16 21:04:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Multiplayer (inc. co-op campaign) back in stable branch

I'm pleased to announce that changes from about 8 "development branch" releases are now being pushed into the stable branch to get more people involved in the multiplayer testing. This involves a lot of adversarial and creative multiplayer maps as well as the ability to test co-op campaign play. Multiplayer is still rough around the edges so report any bugs you find at www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum You can also design maps for multiplayer in the map editor and upload them to the forum for integration into the game.

Changes

(Bugs created in one version and fixed in the next are not listed here) [1.633] Friendly missiles should no longer target flares [1.634] Issues with laser designators retargetting all the time fixed [1.634] R also changes block rotation as well as type selection [1.634] Augmented nav missiles and one turns play ball with each other [1.634] Fixes for mac users who are experiencing infinite loading screens. [1.634] Control for firing vehicle weapons (CTRL and middle mouse) more widely advertised [1.635] Prompt on screen when you are overriding AI control of weapons [1.635] ACB has new inputs where it can respond to turn left and turn right commands to the vehicle [1.635] Button in options to disable slow motion explosions [1.635] ACB can activate a drone's mothership's docking station [1.635] ACB inputs added for fuel and battery charge [1.635] Dedicated heli spinner has a 'world vertical' fraction setting for adding stability [1.635][bug fix] Guide construct is never accidentally destroyed on the main menu but the Auto Battling process. [1.635] Multiplayer added back in to FtD with lots of new features. [1.635] Guide interface tidied up a bit [1.635] [bug fix] Water no longer visible inside boats (it was casting shadows even when transparent [1.635] Save vehicle GUI logic changed so you no longer need to deselect the current selection to enable renaming [1.635] Prefabs save and place the settings of the blocks now [1.635] Damaged enemy vehicles are culled in the vanilla designer [1.635] Complexity prefererence is saved [1.635] Missile seeking parts and one turns fixed a bit- note that one turns and APNG don't work well together due to the guidance algorithm of APNG. [1.641] New game mode- attrition added [1.642] Blueprint Spawner (block) and Blueprint Respawner And Scrapper (block) disabled in multiplayer [1.643] Autoloaders no longer accidentally connect into cannon connectors [1.643] Resource zone growth of resources have been stabilised [1.643] Less likely to target a random dead block- more likely to choose an alive one [1.643] World map deactivated on deaths [1.643] Problem with placing dedicated heli spinners on precision turrets fixed [1.643] new map 'Tournament of Kings' added to multiplayer [1.65] Laser Colorer block added for changing laser beam color and width for laser weapons. [1.65] Map editor allows setting of faction designs to different difficulty levels [1.65] Co-op campaign now available (still pretty rough around the edges I think) [1.65] Faction updates (DWG, TG and GT especially) [1.65] Basic design merging options added to map editor for merging two .faction files together

What's next

I'll be spending the rest of the week tidying up loose ends, maturing the features already in the game, and fixing bugs in the single and multiplayer, and then begin preparations for the custom cannon ammunition overhaul, which will begin with some changes to the engine to optimise performance and potentially the inclusion of a "fire mechanic (things burning).

[ 2015-07-08 17:48:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.63 1.631 1.632 patch notes

Hello, This patch is created to help new players climb the learning curve- but also has a few features for experienced players. Tutorial material and the in-game manual have been improved and linkages from the inventory to the relevant sections have been improved. The game now categorises all blocks by "complexity level" to help new players understand what blocks are fundamental to the game, and what are optional extras to be mastered once the fundamentals are mastered. Let me make it clear that no blocks have been "locked"- the complexity system is entirely optional. You'll see it as soon as you open the inventory. Another great addition to the game is the poster block which allows you to display an image from a URL. I've also tried to make it clear to new players that there are two totally different building control schemes available- mouse based and keyboard based- and added tutorials for both. I'm also extremely conscious that some mac users are having difficulties and so I've added special automatic logging to help diagnose their issues. Assuming the logging catches your issues, I'll be able to fix them for the next patch. The game now also displays informational messages when you try and do something you can't for example build a vehicle backwards, or fire without ammo, or steer without a rudder. These should help new and experienced player's alike figure out why their designs aren't functioning as they expect!

Change log

[1.63] Profile creation comes with a control scheme selection menu [1.63] New tutorial videos for mouse and keyboard building [1.63] 4 meter sloped beams added for wood, alloy and metal [1.63] Faction fleet color selection in character sheet fixed. [1.63] Desired accuracy can be set to much larger values to allow vertical launch missiles to be launched without looking up. [1.63] Work progressed to stop laser and cannons shooting at land- but this functionality is not activated yet [1.63] Error checking performed on scene change to help diagnose mac issues for the next release [1.63] 'No ammo' clicking sound added [1.63] Status messages regarding reasons for not being able to fire and reasons why control inputs aren't functioning have been added [1.63] left, right and up slopes have been removed from inventory as they are duplicates of the down slope [1.63] Sound disabled when watching tutorial videos from the knowledge base [1.63] A 'poster holder' block has been added that will display an image from a website URL [1.63] Teaching tools have been improved greatly [1.63] Components are sorted into categories depending on complexity and usefulness- to help new players [1.63] Bug fixed with degraded mode FPS being saved into desired minimum FPS [1.631] ACB Spawner control now uses the range check function to only activate nearby spawners [1.632] Warhead arming time copied with 'copy to all same length missiles' button [1.632] Story mission GUI tidied up

[ 2015-06-15 17:35:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.623 Patch Notes

1.622 Introduced a nasty bug for mouse based builders- sorry about that guys. 1.623 is out to fix that, but also fixes a number of other things. Unfortunately it may introduce bug of it's own particularly in regards to campaign saving and loading- but so far the initial testing suggests it's working fine. I'll be keeping a close eye on the forums at www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum for any bug reports over the next few days. 1.623 also fixes a number of other bugs, some of which were quite serious and adds a bunch of interesting new features such as the ability to eject missiles laterally from the launch pad (using ejectors) and the ability to colour your shields. There's a much desired slider in the options menu to reduce the trail length of projectile trails as well. I also noticed that many of the tutorials have been broken since 1.6- so those are all fixed now, and several of the confusing steps in the tutorials have been removed.

Changes

[1.623] Smoke partices capped for smoke deployers- to increase stability of game [1.623] You can reduce trail length in the options menu for projectile trail effects [1.623] A new shield coloring component has been added [1.623] Fleets now save the altitude of their movement orders [1.623] Missiles can be ejected at almost any angle now- options in the launch pad. [1.623] Light fittings can be placed on turrets [1.623] Resource refunded correctly when scrapping forces that have never been in play in your game session [1.623] Lots of tweaks to campaign based code to help with multiplayer reintegration- bugs possible. [1.623] Developer mode added to options menu so that you can save over built in blueprints and planets [1.623] Tutorials improved [1.623] Futher attempts to stop load screen bugs [1.623] Mouse based build mode bugs fixed (many bugs introduced in the last version) [1.623] Sound clicking reduced [1.623] Pathfinding of enemy fleets on map fixed (broken since 1.6) [1.623] EMP resistence of stone, rubber, glass added

What's next

Work has been going on over the last few weeks to bring multiplayer back bigger and better than ever- supporting all sorts of new maps and game modes. That work will continue. I also plan to tighten up the campaign experience and user interfaces as a priority to make the campaign a smother and less fiddly experience. I also want to get targetted tutorial videos into the game for new players, and will be linking in a dedicated "mouse based building" and "keyboard based building" tutorial in the next patch.

[ 2015-06-12 23:30:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.622 patch notes

1.622 is a great update with a raft of new features and fixes. Flares and EMP are the two main new features. Flares are a missile component that attracts other heat seeking missiles and can be used to cheaply protect your vehicles. You'll need Automatic Control Blocks and Missile Warners to get an AI controlled automatic flare dispenser set up. EMP is a new type of damage available in EMP Missile Warheads. It forms a snake of electricity that avoids "resistant" materials such as wood and seeks out electrical equipment such as AI parts and blows them up. Surge protectors attract and disipate the electrical damage of the EMP warhead so make sure you place a few of them around your metal vehicles. EMP can also blow up explosive ordenance and in future patches will cause blocks to behave strangely, such as causing missiles to fire and control blocks to activate. 1.623 will be released very shortly with a few minor fixes and a handful of nice new features such as laterally ejecting missiles and shield coloration.

Features

Flare module added to missile modules- can stick to enemy vehicles and attract your missiles to specific points on the vehicle, as well as protecting from IR missiles Laser designated missiles will not seek to a laser that has hit a smoke cloud Laser beam riders will not work beyond a smoke cloud Heat viewer item available for characters Missiles select target based on total temperatures of target Laser warner can now trigger on missile lasers- toggle option in the Q GUI of the laser warner to activate this ACBs can be triggered by the input of 'missile below X range ACBs can now trigger weapons to fire Player death is an option in the map editor You can control enemy AI in the vehicle designer You can delete enemy vehicles from the vehicle designer You can control propulsion blocks from the ACB and set their drive fraction (power scalar) Vertical mirroring works for sloped blocks now EMP missile warheads and EMP mechanics added to the game EMP susceptibility shown in the inventory now Damage display shown on the HUD Surge protector component added to protect against EMP warheads Many built in designs updated White Flayer faction overhauled- thanks to Majyst on the forums for this! [ and ] zoom in and out on the map now

Bugs fixed

Blueprint spawner shows correct resources cost Warhead arming time saved Helispinners cannot be put into rotate and reverse rotate modes- which they do not suppport

[ 2015-06-12 00:18:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes for 1.607 through 1.621

Loads of new features and fixes added over the past few weeks in a number of areas. In particular automatic control blocks (ACBs), Naval Pathfinding and game performance have been significantly improved.. but the list is quite extensive and should contain something for everyone. [1.607] New options of ACBs (many more!) [1.607] Bar showing the fleet strengths in battle, and how much is in reserve [1.607] Bug fixed where factions would put too many forces into play in battle, then have to take some out, and repeat [1.607] Bug fixed on the map editor victory conditions screen where a group condition name would not update in the drop down menu [1.607] Sending fleet / force orders uses the old height of the force order as the new order altitude if you don't change the altitude intentionally (rather than defaulting to 0) [1.607] You can now mirror the placemnt of sub objects in build mode [1.607] Launching guides from the inventory no longer glitches, and link to laser guide added. [1.607] Leaving the new Q interactive overlay puts you back into your last camera configuration [1.607] Console display added to overlay pop out on RHS of the main menu (move mouse to extreme right edge to activate). Use Console.WriteToConsole(string myString) to write here. Ignore this message if you aren't interested in modding. [1.608] Add a new item for viewing the paths that your repair bugs are trying to take- called the Path Viewer. [1.608] Light fitting now supports all colors and intensities of light [1.608] Press \ in build mode to show all forces affecting a vehicle. 1.609] Upgraded to Unity 5- shaders, line renderers, Steam integration and turret physics are the main components affected [1.609] Waves now affect buoyancy again (broken in 1.6) [1.609] Explosion skill GUI working again [1.609] Frame rate displayed in slide out main menu overlay [1.610] Line drawing flicker glitches addressed [1.610] Story mission overlay circles drawn at the wrong angle- fixed [1.610] Player in chair issues fixed [1.610] Reverted to Unity 4.6 [1.610] Added deep water effects, and customisation through the map editor [1.611] Automatic Control Blocks can affect shields now [1.611] You can set a flag URL in the Character Sheet, which will override your faction's flag if the instance allows it. [1.611] Bug fixed whereby French and German players would be getting place holder translations for main menu buttons displayed to them. [1.611] Player gravity does not get messed up when leaving a chair [1.611] Glitches causing saves to not load correctly should be fixed now [1.62] Tailplane and aileron will work on spin blocks and turrets now [1.62] The automatic pulling of forces out of play when the block limit is exceeded is now turned off [1.62] Mirror placing can no longer place a block on top of a spin block or turret. [1.62] Automatic Control Block altitude inputs go over a much more full range of values. [1.62] Armour piercing rounds give a boost to kinetic damage [1.62] Aerial AI minimum and cruising altitude is settable via the Automatic Control Block [1.62] Spin blocks can be set to draw power- to give a huge boost to helicopter blades [1.62] Missiles can have their warhead arming time adjusted [1.62] Electric engine output is configurable via the Automatic Control Block [1.62] Pathfinding for naval AI very much improved- should be able to travel large distances avoiding land. [1.62] Added a missile test range vehicle designer map [1.62] Added a bench marker (press F4 to activate and deactivate) for reporting frame rate and game speed [1.62] Added a bench marking vehicle designer map [1.62] Added a 'degraded mode' such that when frame rate drops below 30 Hz it will reduce non essential effects until frame rate increases above 35Hz [1.62] Trails, Particles, Shadows, Explosions, Effects are all handled in degraded mode [1.62] Chunk rendering engine updated to allow far more agile updates and redraws [1.62] Dedicated rotor blade spinner added so that you can build nearly lag free helicopter blades- as well as placing spinning rotor blades on spin blocks [1.62] Cannon barrels rendered with new form of chunk mesh [1.62] AI Failsafe code is more efficient [1.62] Structures use origin block for placement if they have one [1.62] Structures use minimum height above ground of all blocks if they lack an origin block [1.62] Structures can be placed at any rotation [1.62] These changes provide a significant performance improvement [1.621] Pathfinding bugs from 1.62 fixed [1.621] Projectile collision bugs from 1.62 fixed [1.621] Rendering bugs from 1.62 fixed [1.621] Campaign bugs fixed [loading/map/saving] [1.621] You can teleport in battle (it was a bug stopping that) [1.621] Degraded mode has a slider in the options menu to say at what frame rate it turns on The next project is to get the multiplayer back and better than ever... you can see a rough introduction to the plans, and the progress so far, on the official forum in this thread: http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6865&page=2

[ 2015-05-26 17:11:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.606 Released!

It's been a long time in the making but 1.6(06) is now in the stable branch. It is a huge overhaul of the game and paves the way to a massive amount of community made content. It allowing players to create their own planets, factions, missions, campaigns, designer worlds, weather systems, unlocks, and loads more, all in an in-game planet editor. The built in campaign that ships with the game has also had an overhaul, with the world of Neter being a lot richer than before. You won't be able to continue with your old campaigns in 1.606 but you can sign up to the "oldcampaign" beta branch. Multiplayer is also not available in 1.606 yet, but is still functional in the "oldcampaign" beta branch. So many things have changed that a change log isn't really appropriate for this patch, but look out for the following features: Planet editor Multithreaded terrain generation Planes can now fly OVER land not INTO it new "hold Q" based interface for a context sensitive way of interacting with everything (change warhead loadout on missiles or turn all shield on or off for a vehicle, open all the Guis and put forces in and out of play) More intense weather systems Deep oceans and high hills Dramatically improved scene change times New GUI system under the hood, GUIs can be stacked. The aim of 1.6, (and the justification for expending so much time and effort creating it) is that as we speak at least half a dozen custom planets are being worked on by the community over at www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum. These custom planets will allow the player to essentially completely change the FtD experience, swapping between Neter, or a World War 2 based planet, or an Napoleonic wars Planet or a science fiction planet. Almost everything is changeable with the planet editor- you can create 500 meter deep oceans or 500 meter high hills, you can extend the atmosphere up to several kilometers or remove the atmosphere and the gravity completely from the planet. Unity 5 integration begins tomorrow and will be followed by a refresh of the multiplayer and steam workshop integration for planets. The usual one-ish week cycle of updates will be commencing once again. Keep up with the development on the official forums over at www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy 1.6!

[ 2015-05-12 18:29:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

What's coming next, and patch notes for v1.590/1/2/3/4/5/6

What's next:

The current development of FtD is a custom campaign editor which will allow all players to create their own worlds, physics settings, create the terrain and land masses (featuring very deep seas and very high mountains), create their own factions from scratch and set the world up with towns and fleets and fortifications. The addition of custom campaigns will also see the default campaign getting an overhaul as well. A "beta branch" will be created for those players currently playing a campaign who want to finish it. I'm really very excited about this change as I know many people in the community have already started creating several factions and I can't wait to play some community made campaigns which will cater for players of all skill levels and players who want to play using technology and ships of different styles and eras. The custom campaign patch will also come with multithreaded terrain generation which reduces the stutters as you move around in game and terrain segements are loaded in.

Patch notes for 1.590 series

Here are the patch notes for the 1.590 series, which actually came out about a month ago. New 'Tactical' level f

[ 2015-03-15 11:51:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.567/8/9 1.570/1/2 1.580/1/2/3/4/5/6 patch notes

Summary

It's been a long time since a stable branch release, but there have been many developments in the development branch in that time. The game has an extra 70 build in designs for the campaign, loads of new physics tweaks, new missile components, a qualification mode for empirically testing your designs and the multiplayer client side experience has been much improved and bandwidth requirements reduced significantly. Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy the new release :)

Change logs

[bug fix] Sails and sailing AI were supposed to be locked by DWG mission 2, not mission 1 Tractor beam bug fixed (problems with new drag mechanic) Rudders made more powerful Launch pad ejector component added for missiles to speed up launch Floating point precision issues fixed so jitter is gone AP increases for cannons start at AP 3, as intended Option to load vehicles out of play (campaign) to avoid any loading crashes [bug fix] Missile winch timed release bug fixed Local weapon controller setting synced between host and clients Same for Aerial AI card Same for Naval AI card Same for air pump Same for Automatic Control Block Same for Local Weapon Controller Same for laser warner and smoke deployer More physics calculations done on the client as well as the host Propulsion and steering systems done on the client as well as the host Consumables (ammo,fuel,spares) distributed amoung all containers and synced to clients Electric charge, cannon ammo box ammo and engine own fuel levels are synced to clients Projectiles more efficiently syncronised AI mainframe direct connection to smoke/warners/and some others is now fixed Fixed bug when returning to lobby from AI fight mode Ammo & oil processor, scrap producer and generator on off state is syncronised Bug fix with inventory and repair tentacle fixed Repair bots no longer use much bandwidth in multiplayer Repair tentacles show repairing on client Missiles only syncronised for a period of time after launch (depends on volume of missile spam) Target Prioritisation Card synced between client and host So is sign post So is hydrofoil So are misisle winch and missile staggered firing unit and missile blocks and missile component parameters Build modes (simple and complex) improved somewhat Issues with strategic patrol GUI cleared up Link to complex controller manual page from inventory Angular drag depends on distance of the surface area from the centre of mass Angular drag information displayed in ConstructableInfoGUI(press V to access this) Qualification mode added for testing the combat performance of vehicles Many new vehicles added to the game Blueprint spawners can spawn 'built-in' designs via a toggle button Added a new autoloader for cannons which is completely controllable in placement orientation Increased the weight of engine components Wing lift calculated and applied far more efficiently Seeking missiles won't loose target once they overshoot the 'origin' of the vehicle Fixed the electric engine bugs from the last minor patches Supply pumps now work at long range Resource gathering changed so that you don't simply depleat the resource zone In play AI Fleet movement mode updated to use the waypoint & pathfinding system Engineer attribute added Missile warners and LAMS work in qual mode Hole in qualification mode sea bed fixed Test units missiles only aim at their designated targets Spawner auto spawning options saved correctly and used correctly Spawning in the qualification mode now works correctly with the spawned unit being targeted by the test units Fixed issues with lines (GUI,harpoon etc) stopping being drawn on screen Helicopters shown in spawn GUI in vehicle designer Camera issues fixed Real time update when engineering skill added Bugs fixed and more vehicles added updated Turret and spinner weight is applied at the position of the turret and spinner (bug fix) Turrets and spinners contribute to centre of mass of vehicle, and have buoyancy calculated Issues with fortress power consuption fixed Physics made more stable during damage

[ 2015-01-29 02:07:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

1.564, 1.565, 1.566 patch notes

Notes on drag

Over the Xmas period a lot of things changed regarding the drag calculations. Drag is now applied in three axes (forwards/backwards, left/right, up/down). "Form Drag" as usual depends on speed and cross sectional area in the direction of movement (and the submersion in water of that cross sectional area) but now also contains "skin drag" components from the length of the vehicle. Sloping the vehicle can reduce the "form drag" but cannot reduce the "skin drag" components. Press V to see the form and skin drag components in the forwards dimension. Due to this series of updates both planes and ships handle slightly differently. Some of your old designs might not control very well anymore and may need some tweaks. Some tips for updating vehicles: reduce the number of propellers and size of sails; Increase size of buoyant air pumped compartments; Place keels made of lead below the center of the ship; keep heavy components as low down as possible.

Other changes

[Bug fix] AI control of cannons improved [Bug fix] Bug fixed with display of resource costs [New feature] Water mode with jets... jet thrusters now work too Inventory arrangements tidied up Default options changed (text hud enabled by default)(build marker rotation locked is now the default option) Tutorials updated to reflect changes [new feature] Custom jet build guide added [new feature] Text hud shows colored filling bars where appropriate [Bug fix] Rudders are no longer more efficient when reversing Eyrie added for Onxy watch [new feature] More meshes displayed in build mode (not just slopes and corners now)

[ 2014-12-29 16:19:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Summary

In From the Depths you can build and take first-person command of battleships, planes, submarines, space ships, hot air balloons and more! The game is currently in alpha and contains a wide range of single player content including:

A creative mode allowing you to push your designs to the limit and ensure the total annihilation of your opponents.
A campaign waged over hundreds of islands against eight unique factions.
A Story Mode where you can (eventually!) play 15 missions as each of the eight factions - a fantastic mixture of strategy, design and wild battles! Defend your fleet against waves of enemy forces in a series of extremely tough challenges that unlock new components.

An expansive multiplayer and co-op element is planned for the coming months!

Key Features

Design and build your fleet, fortresses and structures however you want. The alpha currently has over 400 unique components blocks, not including 29 different components for making missiles, torpedoes, depth charges and bombs.
The sky's the limit, you can equip your vehicle with - cannons, lasers, mines, bombs, missiles, torpedoes, propellers, rudders, jet engines, wings, hydrofoils, hot air balloons, anchors, fire control computers, blueprint spawners, repair bots, air pumps, automated control blocks and many, many more!
Realistic physics - every block destroyed or added affects the vehicle's functionality, physics and control. Drag, inertia tensors, buoyancy and sealed compartments are all updated based on the design of your vehicle and the damage sustained.
Be part of a fantastic community (http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum), with new releases made on average once a week. Community organised challenges and blueprint sharing make it an extremely friendly place to hang out!

Customisable Components

The customisable components in From the Depths allow a unique level of engineering customisation:

Design custom missiles, bombs, depth charges and torpedoes by combining various warheads types, fuse types, IR seekers, laser beam riders, laser designators, thrusters, navigation algorithms, fuel pods, sonar seekers, buoyancy compartments and propellers, to deliver a truly bespoke weapon.
Design custom cannons by combining four different barrel types and lengths with autoloaders, warhead types, ammo boxes and auxiliary components to create everything from AA cannons to howitzers.
Design custom AI by combing an AI mainframe with 'AI cards' slotted into motherboard blocks. Add radar detection, laser detection and tracking and local weapon controllers to give partial or full control to AI. Create anything from a fully AI controlled aircraft carrier to a battery powered drone.
Design custom engines using crank shafts, cylinders, carburetors, super chargers, exhausts and fuel injectors. Electric engines, generators and chargers are also available for backup power supplies and drones.
Similar systems exist for the creation of anti-vehicle and anti-missile lasers, as well as drills that can cut even the largest of battleships in half.

Workshop

MINIMAL SETUPMemory: 4 GB RAMStorage: 3 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Steam connection required to play the game
Storage: 3 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Steam connection required to play the game
RECOMMENDED SETUPMemory: 8 GB RAMStorage: 3 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Steam connection required to play the game
Storage: 3 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Steam connection required to play the game

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