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


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

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

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

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

• 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

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

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

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

• 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

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

• 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 rudders also work upside down

• 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

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

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

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

• Mirror versions added for 2-4m blocks

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

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.

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.

• 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

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

• 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

• 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

• 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)

• 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.

• Air control surfaces now have the same drag custom rudders have

• 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

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

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

• 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

• 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

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

• Fixed the breadboard to animation block filtering by name

• 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

• 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Impact damage can now travel between constructs

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

• 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

• 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

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

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

What is up Depthians!

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

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

• Fixed regression with target prioritisation based on range

• 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

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

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

What is up Depthians!

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

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

• Fixed regression with target prioritisation based on range

• 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

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

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

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

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!

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

• Intravehicle transmitter now connects on the back/down faces.

• 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

• 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

The issue with the cargo calamity mission is now fixed.

• 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.

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

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

• Chinese now fully supported

• 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

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

• Fixed a number of issues in the AI Deep Dive tutorial

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.

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

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

• Simplified Chinese translation is now complete and is officially supported

• 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.

• 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%

• 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

• Fixed mirrored L reverse launchpad not connecting to gantries

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

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

• RTGs now have 100% EMP susceptibility

• 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

• The structural tab was reorganized

• 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.

What is up Depthians!! xD

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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


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


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


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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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

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

Before you decide to separate my hands from my keyboard, we have separation blocks 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 drone’s attachment block to the mothership’s attachment block, and let’s not forget that most motherships may be on the move which is why the docking station would be needed as the separation block currently only has a 10m range. We may also need an origin block on the drone as the docking station pulls from the center of mass of the drone, so by installing an origin block the dock will use that as its center point. The origin block can be placed anywhere deep inside the hull, just make sure that it’s inline and behind the attachment (red blocks in pic).



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




Some things to note:

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

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

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



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

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

Now for the insanely long changelog!
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/