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