Hello everybody, I'm happy to announce that 0.8.2 is out of testing onto the main branch. This patch is meant to address and stabilize the often reported camera and control issues that many have had since the game was released.
Before, we started though, I recommend that everybody re-run the Quick Setup from the System Settings, and reset their bindings to defaults. A lot of settings change changed, and keybinds moved around. While nothing should 🤞 break if you don't, you might have some weird, conflicting, or confusing control inputs.
Onto the patch! Here's some of the highlights:
Mixed Mouse and Joystick/Keyboard
A quirk of the way the old virtual joystick system worked made it so that pitch/roll inputs coming from the bindings screen (e.g. keyboard binds and joystick axes) were mutually exclusive with using mouse flight controls. This has been rectified, so now a combination of control schemes can be used.
For example, a control scheme many had requested was to be able to use the mouse for fine-tuning aim, while making large stick movements using keyboard keys. This is now possible, and so mouse joystick is enabled by default in all control schemes now.
There's also been tweaks to how input from the mouse gets registered, so mouse joystick controls should match the responsiveness of gamepad/joystick controls. When using momentary control modes, it should also make sustained turns easier.
Mouse-Driven Free Look
Another highly requested feature was some kind of mouse-driven free look. There several ways to configure this, but the default should be similar to how you might have seen other games do it. When you hold (by default) Left-Alt, the mouse can be used to freely pan around the cockpit, or in external views. Important to note: while you are using free look, the virtual joystick input is locked, so that you can continue to turn while glancing in a direction.
Another new feature is that both the cockpit and external cameras now have an adjustable field of view. The default FOVs can be setup in the new camera settings tab, but you can also adjust the FOV in real time using the normal zoom in/out keys, as well as by binding zoom to an axis. There is even a new "quick zoom" toggle (or hold, if you prefer) which will instantly set the FOV to some preset (and configurable) zoom level to get a quick close look at something out the window.
Camera Options
An entire new camera page has been added to the settings menu. There's enough new options that this page actually needed a scroll bar! Please experiment with the new control and camera options to see what you like. I've tried to accommodate as many of the out-there configurations for how people like to fly. Different combinations of settings can produce pretty different results.
What happens now?
With 0.8.2, I feel the game has stabilized. All the major known crashes should be taken care of, and the game feels like it's at a good baseline when it comes to camera and controls so that hopefully it meets peoples' expectations a little better.
This also means, that I should have more time to focus on the game itself. There are many things I need and want to do to make Arena feel like a more complete experience. Much (though not all) of this is visible on the game's Trello board.
I'm sorry for not being able to get a roadmap post out as soon as I wanted 🙏 I've been very busy trying to address crashes, bugs, control, and camera issues as soon as they came up because these were major problems that were preventing people from playing the game. If the worst problems the game has are a lack of content or Arena being too simple, that's a good place to be, a great place to grow from. I prefer working from a solid foundation.
Thanks again for supporting me and this game! I promise there will be a roadmap to 1.0 post, Now that everything isn't on fire anymore, I should be able to breathe a little and find the time to write it.
And finally, for completeness, here is the entire changelog. It's a big one!
New Features:
- Loadouts save between sorties
- Default loadout defined in Arena scenario definition
- Added option in system settings to enable/disable TrackIR loading
- One-time dialog to ask if the player is using head tracking
- Mouse controls can be used in combination with stick inputs from the binding menu
- Mouse-specific curve added for use by continuous mode axes
- Sensitivity settings are now specific to momentary and continuous modes
- Running quick setup dialog will also reset to default control settings (does not affect bindings)
- Mouse horizontal axis acts as nosewheel steering when on the ground
- New default sensitivty values for both mouse axes and input modes
- Renamed many control options for clarity
- Simplified descriptions for some of the control settings
- Fixed many typos and missing settings descriptions
- Double tapping throttle up/down keys will set throttle max/missing
- New hotkeys added for min/max throttle (unbound by default)
- When weight on wheels, and auto flaps set to both, toggling gear will only toggle flaps
- New camera page on settings screen
- Default FOV for the cockpit and external cameras can be set
- FOV for cockpit, external, and chase can be adjusted ingame in real time with zoom keys
- Momentary flight inputs don't reset immediately to zero
- Mouse driven free look added to the cockpit, external, and chase views
- Free look key restored to bindings menu with default of Left Alt
- Cockpit and chase views can be set to automatically recenter themselves
- Mouse look mode options: None, Hold, Toggle, Always
- Mouse look blocks mouse input, but not joystick input
- Options to invert pitch of mouse look
- Mouse look sensitivity slider
- New "quick zoom" behavior which when activated will override current FOV with a preset FOV
- Quick zoom preset FOV can be adjusted in camera settings
- Camera zoom has smoothing applied to it
- Camera smoothing options can be adjusted or disabled entirely
- Moved camera options that previously existed on the gameplay tab to the camera tab
- Throttle sensitivity setting added to change how quickly the throttle moves
- Throttle shortcut setting added to enable/disable the throttle shortcuts
- Option to hold virtual joystick pitch while free look is enabled (on by default)
Improvements
- Flat turns by AI should result in less lost altitude
- Rookie AI is a bit more competent and less likely to spiral to the floor
- All AI will try to fight in the vertical sometimes
- When low on energy, AI should try a shallow drive to gain speed
- New "Light Attack" loadout is new Arena default to make taking off easier
- M163 uses identical bullet to Shilka
- AAA shells self-destruct earlier
- Pressing padlock key while in padlock mode will reset cockpit to looking forwards
- Padlock locks forward when there is no target
- Engine spools down faster than spooling up for increased responsiveness
- Harrier "RCS" system requiers engine thrust to operate
- Text rendered slightly cleaner in cockpit
- Mouse controls now enabled on all quick setup presets
- Moved default keybind for chaff to 'C' to make room for new camera controls
- "First time setup" renamed to "Quick Setup" and moved to the System tab on settings
- MKB preset in quick setup now sets autocenter for cockpit and chase cameras
- Re-ordered realism settings so that more realistic options are to the right
- New version popup appears before any other startup popups
- M163 and Shilka accurate out to a longer distance
- M163 and Shilka max range increased
- 1 M163/Shilka added to M60/T-62 units
- 2 M163/Shilka added to M1/T80 units
- M163/Shilka units now contain 4 of each instead of 2.
Bugfixes
- Attacker aircraft (AV8B) no longer ignore fighter aircraft
- Locking a ground target with radar guided missiles no longer freezes HUD
- Afterburner key bind hidden since it's non-functional
- Base damage percents shouldn't round to >100% anymore
- "Being Captured by Enemy" should no longer appear for a split second after capturing a base
- Starting a new Arena mission resets the "Mission Complete" text
- Centered mission messages (e.g. X has been captured)
- Loading an empty setup file won't freeze the game on startup
- Fixed typo in R-24T database description
- FPS counter won't error if frames take an inordinate amount of time
- Engine cannot throttle up while spooling up
- Cockpit view can now be panned while the game is paused
- Cockpit and external cameras cannot be controlled while escape menu is open
- Scroll wheel functions correctly in settings menu
- Fixed many typos in the settings descriptions
- Disabling invert pitch no longer inverts horizontal mouse axis
- External/chase camera correctly respond to zoom axis input
- Free/photo camera zoom are not blocked by zoom axis input (they shouldn't be affected by it at all)
- Fixes to various typos in the settings descriptions
- Fixed "Block Free Cam Input" selector not syncing up correctly with the setting
- Fixed Arena bug where plane would revert to Clean loadout on second sortie if player never changes their loadout
- Default for mouse look is now mouse button 4 (moved off of nonsensical RMB)
- Default for chaff/flares is now mouse button 5 (off from mouse button 4)