Sep 1, 2019

Update 2.4.9.8 Stable - The ring shield :D

From the Depths - BaconsTV

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 <here>. 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 don’t 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] <AI>: [BUG] path-finding did not use the player set turning circle value- now it does v2.4.9 [Add] <Build mode>: 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] <Campaign>: [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] <Custom battles>: 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] <Explosions>: [FTD-84] The effect of explosions on vehicles and debris has been tweaked as now looks much better v2.4.9 [Add] <Shield rings>: 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] <Simple AI>: Circling simple ship and tank cards added v2.4.9 [Add] <Tracks>: Added aesthetic tank tracks to the game. Tracks can be applied around existing wheels from the wheels UI. v2.4.9 [Add] <Tutorials>: A large number of new tutorials have been created to replace the old ones v2.4.9 [Add] <UI>: [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] <UI>: 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] <Walker foot>: [FTD-86] Added in a walker foot that supports useful terrain friction v2.4.9 [Change] <Blueprints>: 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] <Blueprints>: 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] <Prefabs>: [FTD-26] Overhauled the way that prefabs are captured, saved and loaded v2.4.9 [Change] <Subobjects>: [FTD-26] Overhauled the way that subobjects are saved and loaded v2.4.9 [Fix] <Missiles>: Small quad launcher inventory tooltips fixed (they stated launcher supports 1 missiles) v2.4.9 [Fix] <Projectiles>: Fixed projectiles, especially frags, sometimes flying through blocks without hitting them ... again [BUGS-1086] v2.4.9 [Fix] <Simple AI>: Simple AI cards now properly maintain their used routine count [BUGS-1285] v2.4.9 [Remove] <Controls>: 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] <Controls>: 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).

Aug 20, 2019

What we are currently working on No2 Mid August - September

From the Depths - BaconsTV

How are things going fellow gamers?

Another ‘what we are working on post’ is here and we have some AWSOME 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 EPIC 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 AWESOME 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 won’t 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)

Aug 9, 2019

2.4.8 Stable release :D

From the Depths - BaconsTV

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 don’t 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: patrol 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] <ACB>: Fortresses can now be controlled using ACBs v2.4.8 [Add] <ACB>: Missile hatches can now be forced open using ACBs v2.4.8 [Add] <Avatar>: 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] <Breadboard>: 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] <Building>: 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] <Holograms>: Color customization for holograms and texts v2.4.8 [Add] <Holograms>: It is now possible to hide the hologram projector block v2.4.8 [Add] <Laser>: Armored focusing and steering optics added: 600 HP, 20 armor, 100 materials and 80 weight v2.4.8 [Add] <Laser>: New targeting option for aimpoint selection card: prefer blocks above water v2.4.8 [Add] <Laser>: 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] <Laser>: 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] <Laser>: 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] <Missiles>: 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] <Simple AI>: Add differential yaw: sets 50% turn left-right preset on all forward/backwards propulsion blocks left-right of the CoM v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: 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] <Simple AI>: Bombing run airplane AI v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: Bombing run hovercraft AI v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: Circling airplane AI v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: Circling hovercraft AI v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: Frontal hovercraft AI v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: New air block: Universal flight surface. Control surface that gets automatically configured. Old ones do not use the auto configuration v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: New behavior: bombing run. Lines up attack runs and pitches to the target on the last leg v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: 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] <Simple AI>: New configuration buttons on AI mainframe basic tab: Basic configuration, Add differential yaw, Remove hover control, Remove strafe control v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: 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] <Simple AI>: New manoeuvre: hover movement. Uses up-down thrusters to control altitude. Parks at waypoints out of combat v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: New simple AI cards that automatically configure a behavior and manoeuvre v2.4.8 [Add] <Simple AI>: Point at and maintain distance behavior extended: left-right evasion, altitude absolute or relative to target, pitch limit v2.4.8 [Change] <Community>: We've added in a live feed of information / annoucements and bug alerts into the main menu v2.4.8 [Change] <Holograms>: Switched to new UI v2.4.8 [Change] <LAMS/Projectiles>: APS flak damage up from 30% of HE to 40%, missile interceptor damage up by 60% v2.4.8 [Change] <LAMS/Projectiles>: APS, CRAM and missile health increased by 50% across the board to follow energy and 0Q/output regulator limiting buff v2.4.8 [Change] <LAMS/Projectiles>: Kinetic projectiles do double damage to missiles v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser>: 0Q laser damage/energy up from 0.5 to 0.75 (pulsed is 1) v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser>: 0Q laser now has 150% AP, compared to pulsed(down from 200%) v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser>: Armor for focusing/steering optics increased from 8 to 10 v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser>: Focusing optics have better damage falloff reduction (10 of them do ~85% damage at 1000m, up from ~78%) v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser>: Laser cavity sizes up from 100/400/4000 to 150/600/6000 v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser>: Laser pump base energy/second up from 20 to 30, power cost from 40 to 60 v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser>: Simple laser damage/second down from 1600 to 1000, AP down from 10 to 8 v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: AP modifier examples: 1 smoke 30%, 3 smokes 20.8%, STR 1 shield 53.6%, STR 10 shield 24.89%, v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: Frequency doubler cost up from 200 to 250 v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: Laser shield is now the equivalent of a smoke with SHIELD_STRENGTH * 175 strength. Still only the strongest shield counts v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: Multiple smoke layers use the sum of their strengths to determine their AP reduction v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: 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] <Laser AP>: Smoke clouds have a strength value: 1000 for dispenser, 100/600 for 200mm/500mm APS warhead v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: Smoke now reduces laser AP, instead of damage v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: 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] <Laser AP>: Smokes with a combined strength over 400 block laser missiles guidance and visual/laser detection equipment v2.4.8 [Change] <Laser AP>: Wavefront coder removed v2.4.8 [Change] <Missile decoys>: Flare and sonar/radar target simulator signal strength up to 250% v2.4.8 [Change] <Missile decoys>: 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] <Missile decoys>: Remote guidance error added by signal jammer down to 75% v2.4.8 [Change] <Missile decoys>: 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] <Missile decoys>: Single pixel IR seeker reduces decoy missile signal strength to 15-30%, instead of 10-100 v2.4.8 [Change] <Missiles>: All damage cut to 75% v2.4.8 [Change] <Missiles>: Fuel tanks hold 25% more fuel v2.4.8 [Change] <Missiles>: Short range thruster now has the same efficiency as variable, 1 thrust for 1 fuel v2.4.8 [Change] <Missiles>: 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] <Missiles>: Target priority modifier at an angle now scales with the the maximum angle of the guidance component. v2.4.8 [Change] <Missiles>: Turning rate increased by 50% across the board v2.4.8 [Fix] <ACB>: Arrows added to the complex control action [BUGS-857] v2.4.8 [Fix] <ACB>: It is now possible to set the warp drives resting charge using an ACB [BUGS-1124] v2.4.8 [Fix] <ACB>: Propulsion powerscale can now be negative [BUGS-867] v2.4.8 [Fix] <ACB>: Setting AI behaviours now works fine [BUGS-1131] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Airpumps>: Opening or closing a door will now update the airpumps correctly [BUGS-799] v2.4.8 [Fix] <APS>: APS barrels now extends correctly after having fired [BUGS-1141] v2.4.8 [Fix] <APS>: APS recoil absorbers tooltip connection fixed [BUGS-1156] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Blocks>: 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] <Boilers>: Pipes must now be correctly oriented to connect to a boiler [BUGS-883] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Breadboard>: Fixed not being able to add more outputs to a component if it has many inputs v2.4.8 [Fix] <Breadboard>: Fixed the 'and', 'or' and '!' operators not working correctly v2.4.8 [Fix] <Build>: The mirror plane marker isn't shrinked with the blocks anymore [BUGS-916] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Chairs>: Main chair feature now working [BUGS-1096] v2.4.8 [Fix] <CRAM>: 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] <Explosions>: The default value for the air bleeding power is now fixed to '0.35', the '/Users/<Windows Username>/From The Depths/Player Profiles/<FtD Username>/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] <Holograms>: No more problem when setting the 'lock to image ratio' toggle with no image v2.4.8 [Fix] <Holograms>: The holograms and texts will not disappear anymore when behind glass blocks [BUGS-95] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Laser>: Lasers are now aiming better at very long distances [BUGS-1131] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Lua>: Fixed NullReferenceException when trying to get the fleet info while a ship in the fleet was being scrapped v2.4.8 [Fix] <Map>: [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] <Missiles>: 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] <PAC>: Fixed PAC missing some blocks if there are more than 20 in a row [BUGS-925] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Pistons>: Color will now be applied correctly to pistons when placed or loaded [BUGS-1176] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Projectiles>: 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] <Propulsion>: Fixed a bug that caused propulsion requests to not be executed [BUGS-1001] [BUGS-995] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Propulsion>: Propulsion controlled by general purpose PIDs or (AI)breadboards now works correctly again [BUGS-1001], [BUGS-995] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Shells>: Fixed shells missing approximately one block out of 10 v2.4.8 [Fix] <Shells>: Proximity fuse will not damage/destroy the shield projector anymore when hitting a shield [BUGS-461] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Shields>: The shield's alpha is now processed correctly [BUGS-991] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Shields>: The shield's alpha is now processed correctly [BUGS-991] v2.4.8 [Fix] <Skills>: Debug explosion skill fixed (be careful, large explosions can hurt very badly) v2.4.8 [Fix] <STL>: 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] <TextBlock>: 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] <Tooltips>: Various laser tooltips updated v2.4.8 [Fix] <UI>: It's no longer possible to accidentally interact with the main menu before the screen has fully faded in v2.4.8 [Fix] <UI>: 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] <UI>: The red channel of the color with shininess pickup is now working well with the mouse-wheel [BUGS-601] v2.4.8 [Fix] <UI>: The UIs are now displaying the correct number of digits [BUGS-1099] v2.4.8 [Fix] <UI>: The UIs are now displaying the correct number of digits [BUGS-1099] v2.4.8 [Fix] <VideoBlock>: No more problem when using an ACB to control it v2.4.8 [Fix] <VideoBlock>: The camera view shouldn't make the whole game to flicker [BUGS-1084] v2.4.8 [Fix] <VideoBlocks>: The Video Screens now have a name by default so the Video Controller list doesn't appear empty [BUGS-1120] v2.4.8 [Fix] <VideoBlocks>: The Video Screens now have a name by default so the Video Controller list doesn't appear empty [BUGS-1120]

Jul 26, 2019

2.4.7.16 The Laser Overhaul and Patch Notes

From the Depths - BaconsTV

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 and sacrificing mainframes with joy!

We do understand that this new look may not be everyone’s 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 you’ve missed your chance to voice your ideas on the whole thing, then perhaps you should visit the main forum a little more :) However, as I’ve already said we are here, reading and waiting for your feedback.

While our current installed laser systems will show less damage output per shot (DON’T 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 mainframe’s 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] <ACB>: 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] <ACB>: Fortresses can now be controlled using ACBs v2.4.7 [Add] <ACB>: It is now possible to set a mainframe AI behaviour using an ACB v2.4.7 [Add] <ACB>: Missile hatches can now be forced open using ACBs v2.4.7 [Add] <Avatar>: Option to make the avatar immortal in singleplayer designer. Option is in the 'Misc' part of the menu v2.4.7 [Add] <Blocks>: 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] <Breadboard>: Added a function to the maths evaluator to get the angle between two vectors v2.4.7 [Add] <Breadboard>: 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] <Missiles>: Missile proximity fuse component now has a 'minimum altitude slider' v2.4.7 [Add] <Missiles>: 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] <Missiles>: 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] <Tutorials>: 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] <Tutorials>: Added ability to highlight all sorts of buttons in the tutorials. Used in first tutorial. v2.4.7 [Add] <UI>: 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] <VideoBlock>: [EXPERIMENTAL] Camera feed is now available v2.4.7 [Add] <VideoBlock>: 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] <VideoBlock>: Local videos can now be played v2.4.7 [Add] <VideoBlock>: Several channels are now available v2.4.7 [Change] <AI>: 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] <APS>: EMP and Flak warhead bodies now have the same kinetic, AP and speed modifiers as HE and Frag warhead bodies v2.4.7 [Change] <APS>: HE, Frag, EMP and Flak heads now have 2 AP instead of 0.1 v2.4.7 [Change] <Avatar>: Aiming cross hair no longer shows up if no weapon slot selected or weapon control disabled v2.4.7 [Change] <Breadboard>: 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] <Campaign>: The supply route UI has been massively improved with a lot of new functionality for easily creating routes. v2.4.7 [Change] <HoloBlock>: 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] <LAMS/projectiles>: APS flak damage increased by 25% v2.4.7 [Change] <LAMS/projectiles>: CRAM health increased, from 3770 to 8000 at 2000mm (same scaling as before) v2.4.7 [Change] <LAMS/projectiles>: Missile body component health doubled v2.4.7 [Change] <LAMS/projectiles>: Missile interceptor damage increased by 25% v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser costs>: Focusing and steering optic cost up from 20 to 50 v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser costs>: Frequency doubler cost up from 50 to 200 v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser costs>: Laser cavity costs down from 40 to 20 materials/cubic meter v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser costs>: Laser pump costs up from 20 to 30 materials/cubic meter v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser energy>: 1 laser energy is 1 damage for pulsed, 0.5 for continuous v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser energy>: 1m/3m laser pump power use decreased from 100/300 to 40/120 v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser energy>: 1m/3m pump energy/second decreased from 100/300 to 20/60 v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser energy>: Cavity energy storage down from 200/800/8000 to 100/400/4000 v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser energy>: LAMS node damage penalty removed v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser optics>: All lasers have a fixed inaccuracy of 0.05° v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser optics>: 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] <Laser optics>: 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] <Laser optics>: Maximum firing angle is smaller for linger optic lines v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser optics>: Steering optics increase maximum firing angle, up to a point where 25% of your optic line is steering. v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser shields>: Continuous lasers still do half the raw damage of pulsed, but they have double the AP v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser shields>: 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>: Laser shields now do not use energy, only power v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser smoke>: 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 smoke>: Laser detection and missiles guidance are blocked if they hit enough smokes to reach 25% final reduction v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser smoke>: 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] <Laser smoke>: Smoke dispensers have 65% density/layer v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser wavefront>: Effective smoke density is reduced to 75% against wavefront lasers(so 30% instead of 40, for example) v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser wavefront>: Wavefront adjuster slider removed, now it reduces base damage to 50% v2.4.7 [Change] <Laser wavefront>: 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] <Map>: Improved the distinction between out of play forces, selected forces, flagships and dead blueprints in the the tactical map icons v2.4.7 [Change] <Memory>: 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] <Technical>: Starting up the game is now largely multi-threaded and should take up to 20s less v2.4.7 [Change] <UI>: Added gifs to behaviour, manoeuvre and additional tabs of AI UI to explain what they do v2.4.7 [Change] <UI>: Changed the behaviour, manoeuvre and additional tabs of the AI UI to be less cluttered v2.4.7 [Change] <UI>: Many new UI icons v2.4.7 [Change] <UI>: 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] <UI>: Some new icons for the 'brushes' in the map editor v2.4.7 [Change] <UI>: The 'favourites' build bar now has some slightly different graphics, and is easier to use v2.4.7 [Change] <UI>: The give to/take from fleets UI has been updated v2.4.7 [Change] <UI>: The 'Tree View' for loading blueprints has been changed to make it display at any size v2.4.7 [Fix] <ACB>: 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] <Appliques>: The health of the applique blocks can now drop under 50%, and they won't explode anymore [BUGS-1069] v2.4.7 [Fix] <APS>: [BUGS-1043] Adv Ammo controller once again shows its ID in the tooltip v2.4.7 [Fix] <Avatar>: Fixed the jump animation of rambot not stopping after leaving a chair v2.4.7 [Fix] <Blocks>: Reinforced wood and stairs no longer render black v2.4.7 [Fix] <Blocks>: The moving parts of the blocks now shrink along with the blocks [BUGS-854] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Blocks>: 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] <Blocks>: Wooden wedges 1m, 2m, 3m and 4m now have the correct UV map for their texture. v2.4.7 [Fix] <Bug>: [Bug]-1056 Misile Testing Range updated into working order. v2.4.7 [Fix] <Bug>: [Bug]-1065 Typo fixed. v2.4.7 [Fix] <Build>: The mirror plane marker isn't shrinked with the blocks anymore [BUGS-916] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Campaign>: Battle is cancelled if all forces are scrapped during setup phase v2.4.7 [Fix] <Campaign>: Enemy force boxes that are invisible on the map are now also invisible in HUD and fleet control UI v2.4.7 [Fix] <Campaign>: Fixed withdrawn forces in a battle still showing up as force boxes v2.4.7 [Fix] <Campaign>: Improved the fleet movements and ordering- they more closely follow orders when out of play now v2.4.7 [Fix] <Campaign>: Magic wand in battle setup now has a tooltip explaining it v2.4.7 [Fix] <Campaign>: Time now returns to 100% when fleet blockade messages are accepted v2.4.7 [Fix] <Campaign>: 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] <CRAM>: 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] <Jets>: Custom jet engines now display the correct max fuel usage v2.4.7 [Fix] <Missiles>: Fixed bug that prevented missiles from turning the direction they wanted to turn [BUGS-1024] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Missiles>: Re-added the 'Apply to all' button to the new missile winch UI [BUGS-1035] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Modding>: [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] <Modding>: 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] <Multiplayer>: Fixed a number of projectile related bugs in multiplayer v2.4.7 [Fix] <Multiplayer>: Fixed a serious bug causing clients to often spawn in with just a camera and no avatar v2.4.7 [Fix] <Multiplayer>: Got 'attack on eyrie' mission and 'tower defence' missions loading again v2.4.7 [Fix] <PAC>: Fixed PAC missing some blocks if there are more than 20 in a row [BUGS-925] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Planet editing>: Planets can now safely change the terrain resolution or terrain section size and planet swapping will work fine. v2.4.7 [Fix] <Propulsion>: Propulsion controlled by general purpose PIDs or (AI)breadboards now works correctly again [BUGS-1001], [BUGS-995] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: [BUGS - 1005] Issue with map pathfinding fixed- it could hang the campaign v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: [BUGS-1004] Fixed a crash caused by warp engines warping from a background thread v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: [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] <Regressions>: [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] <Regressions>: [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] <Regressions>: [BUGS-962] flickering of the vehicle when spawning with 'block-by-block' toggled has been fixed v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: [BUGS-965] Turn wheel adv controller options incorrectly configured and caused crash in ConstructInfoUi (V) v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: [BUGS-966] fixed an issue in map pathfinding that causes campaigns to hang v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: [BUGS-969] Low LOD mode issues with missile ejection fixed v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: [BUGS-981] Missile laser once again properly excludes 'hits' off it's own vehicle v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: Fixed bugs causing connected blocks to fall off and disconnected blocks to not fall off [BUGS-1078] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Regressions>: 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] <Shells>: Fixed shells missing approximately one block out of 10 v2.4.7 [Fix] <Shells>: Proximity fuse will not damage/destroy the shield projector anymore when hitting a shield [BUGS-461] v2.4.7 [Fix] <Sound block>: 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] <Tutorial>: Hold Q options disabled in tutorials v2.4.7 [Fix] <Tutorial>: Tutorial display now remains visible while using certain other UIs v2.4.7 [Fix] <UI>: Fixed terrain view distance being too low in fleet control UI v2.4.7 [Fix] <UI>: Fleet and force rename popups now respond to escape and enter keys v2.4.7 [Fix] <UI>: 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] <UI>: The headers of the UI panels now perfectly respond to mouse over events v2.4.7 [Fix] <UI>: 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] <UI>: The 'map teleport' button now correctly cancels if you right click or re-click the button. v2.4.7 [Fix] <VideoBlock>: Now works in multiplayer v2.4.7 [Fix] <VideoBlock>: The camera view shouldn't make the whole game to flicker [BUGS-1084]

Jun 27, 2019

2.4.6.18 released (multi-threading, menus and more)

From the Depths - From The Depths

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>: ACB can now stop a sound block playing a sound
v2.4.6 [Add] <Block>: Mannequin block added. Options to automatically set pose still to come
v2.4.6 [Add] <Blocks>: A video block has been added (in Decoration)
v2.4.6 [Add] <Breadboard>: Added input with information about the flagship of the fleet
v2.4.6 [Add] <Breadboard>: Added input with information about the point the AI tries to steer towards
v2.4.6 [Add] <Breadboard>: Added optional grid to the breadboards. Modules will snap to it if enabled
v2.4.6 [Add] <Breadboard>: Breadboards now evaluate off the main thread
v2.4.6 [Add] <Breadboard>: Scroll wheel now zooms in and out on the breadboard
v2.4.6 [Add] <Breadboard>: The 'del' key can now also be used to delete in- and output
v2.4.6 [Add] <Breadboard>: You can now zoom in and out in the breadboard
v2.4.6 [Add] <Drills>: Drill bit/extension armour class is improved when drill is spinning
v2.4.6 [Add] <Environment>: Seagulls now circle vehicles and avatars (as well as the camera) when the opportunity arises
v2.4.6 [Add] <Environment>: You can now change the number of seagulls, or turn them off altogether
v2.4.6 [Add] <Game>: Added a cinematic block-by-block spawn option for vehicles in designer
v2.4.6 [Change] <AI>: Changed the maximum for the adjuster disable range setting of the charge behaviour to 2000m
v2.4.6 [Change] <APS>: Autoloaders save the shell they have chambered- this removes extra ammo usage on vehicle spawn
v2.4.6 [Change] <Controls>: 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] <Game>: 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] <Game>: 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] <Menus>: Main menu and in game menus restyled
v2.4.6 [Change] <Sounds>: CW Laser sound now diminishes over time to to make it less annoying when constantly firing
v2.4.6 [Change] <Steam>: Steam engine crank parts have been moved to a different rendering system.
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: All projectiles are calculated off the main thread now
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: Connection of block subsystems is now done off the main thread
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: Creation of chunked meshes is now done off the main thread
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: Pathfinding now allocates much less temporary memory
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: Power creation, usage and controllable blocks all processed off the main thread now
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: Rams are more efficiently processed now
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: Some repair logic and all detection logic calculations calculated off the main thread
v2.4.6 [Change] <Threading>: Terrain generation now runs much faster and with smaller memory allocations
v2.4.6 [Change] <Tutorials>: Game supports the use of 'gifs' in interactive tutorial scenes to help guide player- we've added one so far.
v2.4.6 [Change] <Tutorials>: On completion of a tutorial segment you are prompted to pick another one to complete (three options provided).
v2.4.6 [Change] <Tutorials>: Quizes have been removed from the tutorial content
v2.4.6 [Change] <Tutorials>: Tutorial content interface updated
v2.4.6 [Fix] <ACB>: ACB can now control the new GP-PIDs properly [BUGS-725]
v2.4.6 [Fix] <ACB>: Fixed [FTDSCRUM-288] ACB list of blocks to execute not updated properly with blocks added/removed to/from spinblocks
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Adventure mode>: 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] <Breadboard>: Fixed A, B, C, D and E drives of the propulsion module all affecting the A drive
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Campaign>: [BUGS-887] Fixed a bug regarding the spawning of a vehicle with coloured particle cannon in campaign
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Drills>: Fixed a number of bugs with drills and made them more dangerous
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Game>: [BUGS-322] out of play drones (of a mothership force) no longer have fuel costs associated with their movement
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Game>: [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>: Lua errors are now logged in the Lua box again [BUGS-769]
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Map editor>: [BUGS-793] Fixed map editor error when adding a new weather system
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Missiles>: [BUGS-629] Fixed LWCs not dropping bombs
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Modding>: The build guide capture, added in 2.4.5, now actually works
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Multiplayer>: Blueprint spawners are now moderately supported in multiplayer- but not fully functional. Previously their spawns were not syncronised at all.
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Regressions>: [BUGS-924] Barrels of guns not placed forwards on the construct were rendered in wrong position
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Regressions>: Fixed mimic rendering issue where the mesh normals were not correctly stretched
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Regressions>: Fixed threading issues affecting propulsion / control systems / physics that were created in 2.4.6.0
v2.4.6 [Fix] <Repairing>: [BUGS-948] Fixed repair bugs (the repair-self block's repair bots)