Version 1.0.8 is out, focusing on usability and prettiness.

You can now select modules and decals in the editor. Selected items can be moved, duplicated, deleted, and recoloured.



Nicer mod management: You can now choose the set of mods you want and then apply them all at once.



Tips and lore during world generation:



Many new paints, and more modules and decals:

• Various sloped and rounded struts
  
• Fins
  
• Pointy suspendium tank endcaps

Also, there's a new set of ship designs, provided by Towarish' Browen.

World generation tips are moddable, of course. And so are paints, heraldic tinctures, and city names now.

Fixes and improvements:

• New networking code that should prevent really high ping values and be stable.
  
• The game checks the validity of your data files and refuses to let you enter multiplayer if your data files are changed, as this would lead to desyncs.
  
• Smoother loading of ship designs in the open/save dialog. If you have a long list of really big ships, the game should no longer stutter, or at least stutter a lot less.
  
• You can no longer make infinitely tall towers of dirt.
  
• Fixes to Russian translation, provided by Towarish' Browen.
  
• Modules now indicate how flammable they are and how likely they are to explode.

Edit: Swiftly followed by version 1.0.8.1, which fixes an error that occurred when deleting files.

I'm putting together a list of basic tips for players to display in the world generation screen. What kind of things do you think would be useful?

What confused you early on, or what things did you only learn after a while? What mechanics or effects are not obvious?

This version fixes a bug introduced in v1.0.7 where players in multiplayer conquest would be stuck in "waiting for other players" mode forever.

Sorry about that.

In version 1.0.8, I plan to add a few more paint colours to the game - as well as making paint and coat of arms tinctures moddable. I'm definitely adding army green, but what other colours do you feel are painfully missing in the standard set of paints?


Fig 1: Army Green paint on a battleship

• Fixed invisible damaged modules.
  
• Fixed crash when losing server connection.
  
• Fixed tech screen layout crash and improved tech screen layout.
  
• Fixed crash caused by mods that create quarters with no crew type set.

Also, this was actually in v1.0.7, but I forgot to mention it, the ship info now shows both the numerical quantities of resources and the resource bars.

After some delays due to translation, I present you with the newest update to Airships, which improves the tech tree, mitigates lag, and opens up many new modding possibilities.

Nearly all module stats can now be modified with bonuses, allowing you to do interesting new effects with techs, coats of arms, and monster nests. You can read all about how to mod with bonusable values here.

The game now has additional strategies to prevent lag caused by machines taking different amounts of time to generate maps, or by changing network conditions.

I've also rebalanced the way the tech tree works. You can now unlock improved versions of weapons by doing further research, and I've added four more tech choices. I also improved the way it looks.



New Tech Choices:

Active Stabilisation: +60% Rocket accuracy
Rapid Rocket Fire: Fire 4 small rockets for +100% damage

Monocoque Construction: +30% Airplane speed, -30% cost
Selective Uparmouring: +40% Airplane HP

Armour-Piercing Rounds: +50% Gatling gun and rifle damage
Lightweight Rounds: +50% Gatling gun and rifle accuracy and clip size

High-Pressure Jelly: +70% Flamethrower range
High-Temperature Jelly: +1 Flamethrower direct damage

All the information you need about the new loot boxes in Airships: Conquer the Skies, including detailed drop rates.

• Ship resource quantities are now displayed as bars rather than numbers, which should make them easier to read. The numbers are still available in tooltips.
• You can now explicitly tell a ship to move first and then flip, or flip first and then move.
• The game now remembers where you previously placed your ships during combat setup in conquest, and will try to use the same placements.
• Telling a ship to move vertically no longer causes it to move in a curved path. (Thanks Meowskyi for reporting this bug.)
• Monster nests now reduce income by a fixed amount rather than a percentage.
• The strategic map screen now stops you from scrolling away so far you can't see the map anymore.
• Downwards antennae are now attached correctly.
• When placing a module with upwards ladders, no longer showing connector hint into non-occupable tiles. (Thanks ImperatorRicardo for reporting this bug.)

Edit: Version 1.0.6.6 now has resource bars that use the original quantities of the ship as the baseline.

We're in one of those periods of drought where I'm working on major new changes - co-op multiplayer and diplomacy - where there isn't anything new to show you. So I took a quick break from the coding and added more pipes. T-junctions, cross-junctions, pipes as decals, and the ability to paint them. I also redid the mad science tower to make use of these new things:



Fancier things to come in the future...

• The colors in paint and roundels for arms that don't obey the rule of tincture are now better-chosen.
  
• Fixed an issue caused by mods with modules that take zero time to walk through. Please don't break the laws of physics!
  
• Planes kept being blown up by friendly fire from bombers and torpedo bombers, so I made them immune to splash damage from their own side. Only, I got the logic the wrong way around and instead made them immune to splash damage from the enemy side only. This is now fixed.
  
• Toggling mods while in the process of placing a construction in the mission editor causes a crash from stale data in the construction you're placing. Made it so you can't toggle mods mid-placement anymore.
  
• Fixed "the service ceiling looks fine but when I go place the ship it has a service ceiling of zero" bug. Caused by job assignment system getting too excited about hunky high-HP modded crew.
  
• The game install folder now contains up to date information on how to run your own standalone multiplayer server. No "and then they shut the servers off and the game stopped working" for Airships!

So what's next? I've got a working prototype of co-op combat multiplayer which I'll put up as a beta branch soon. After that, diplomacy and conquest co-op.

As always, if you want to talk to me or other players, come join us on the Discord.