Two main things to go over today: Version 0.127 has some nice bug fixes and improvements that advanced vehicle builders will appreciate, while the game's future updates will become larger but less frequent (more details below).
VERSION 0.127 IMPROVEMENTS
I had planned to do a few bug fixes after a short trip last week, but the 0.127 update has expanded into more than just that. Let's take a look at the changelist, and then go over details of a few of the changes:
* Added New Part: Angled Y-Split (like a double turn 45 combined into one part)
* Added Copy-Paste for part settings (CTRL+C to copy, CTRL+V to paste)
[NOTE: Paste is to the HIGHLIGHTED part, not selected part]
* Added Copy-settings placement option (hold CTRL while adding a part)
* Increased max speed of vehicle spawn/despawn animation
* Added triple-speed option for vehicle spawn/despawn (hold SHIFT)
* Added warning for workshop vehicles with hacked strength values
* Changed lighting settings for Compound
* Fixed bullet collision issue that made them collide with water incorrectly (and disappear mid-air)
* Fixed custom island loading issue with old islands
* Fixed key-holding bug when you started gameplay
* Disabled shot cost display in advanced mode
I plan to do a more extensive vehicle building update in the future, but one thing that would really help speed up large vehicle designs is not having to adjust settings for so many parts. There are now two ways to do that, depending on how your prefer to work. The first is using traditional copy-paste, with Control+C making a copy of the selected part's settings, and Control+V pasting those settings to the highlighted part. Note the difference, as this means you can just mouse over a part without having to click on it for the pasting. Also note the game doesn't stop you from pasting settings between different part types, but it does give you a warning each time you do so. The second way is to hold CTRL while adding a part. It'll use whatever the last copied settings are instead of the defaults (it also has no part-type restriction, just a warning).
If you look through a lot of vehicles on the workshop, you'll probably appreciate the animation speed being increased more on large vehicles, and you can now hold SHIFT to triple the speed on top of that. It can cause a little framerate slowdown, but it helps overall. There were also a couple important bug fixes, and the angled Y-split part was an easy addition that'll make it a little easier to create compact angled designs.
LARGER, LESS FREQUENT UPDATES
Version 0.127 marks the 20-something-th update to the game since it was released in March, and there have been 25+ more minor updates for bug fixes/etc. That's a lot of updates in a short amount of time, and I've enjoyed working at this pace. But aside from the occasional YouTube video to highlight the featured vehicles or significant new features, I've completely stopped promoting the game in any way. Coverage of the game is way down as well (aside form Scrapman, no big YouTubers still consistently play the game). I think the constant stream of updates can be a bit overwhelming to keep up with, and only hardcore players are really aware of all the changes going into the game. It's also hard to know whether version 0.123, 0.124, or 0.125 is the one to promote (for instance), as they each added significant things, but if they were all combined, I would have felt more justified in telling more people about the update.
So even though I enjoy creating smaller updates every week or two (or more often sometimes), I'm going to shift to larger, more significant updates, with more of a theme to the updates, and more promotion to go alongside them. There are some definite development advantages to larger updates, aside from the focused attention each release can receive. I can focus on larger issues with the game, and tackle multiple related larger tasks, and it'll help me focus my long-term plans a bit more. Speaking of long-term plans, I'll be writing up a list of bigger updates I plan to do and updating the sticky Roadmap thread later today.
With all that said, I'm going to get to work on finishing that roadmap and do more a bit more planning, then get to work on whatever the first big update ends up being.