Summer content drop is here!

Waves of Steel v0.48 is out, and with it comes a ton of new content! Four new missions, a racing minigame bonus mission (complete with unlockable rocket boosters for your ships!), a boss fight, and over 50 new parts to unlock! It's been a very busy few months here. The end of the campaign is
still a little ways away, but it's in sight, and I'm working hard to get the game to the finish line.

Thanks to everyone who has sent in feedback about their experience while playing the game! You all are making a big difference by telling me what's not working, whether that be bugs or bad gameplay experiences. I'm trying to fit in bugfixing / quality-of-life improvements around my work on the campaign, but rest assured that there will be a lot of dedicated polishing work done before the game hits 1.0.

The complete release notes for v0.48 are below:

Gameplay:

• Add four new playable missions and one new bonus mission, with 53 associated techs to find.
• Additional accessibility option to adjust display contrast, for people whose eyes were getting tired.
• Mission "Chrysalis" automatically advances to the next wave if you destroy everything in the current wave.
• The code that suggests targets to lock onto is better about prioritizing targets near the center of the view.
• Combat at night has improved visibility making it brighter and easier to see.
• Anti-aircraft guns now use a more visible projectile
• Improve the guidance for placing parts during ship designer tutorial.
• PD Command systems grant considerably more command.
• Ocean visuals improved with better wave motion
• Tweaked the appearance of weapon reticles for weapons that are unable to lock onto the current target
• Can use left/right in parts menu to switch between adjacent submenus (e.g. going from 4" guns to 5" guns, or from Main Guns to Point Defense Weapons)
• Anti-Aircraft Missile VLS has a new model
• You can now restart the ship designer tutorials when you're in the middle of them
• Superstructure parts have slightly different colors in the ship designer, to better differentiate between placed guns and low-lying superstructure
• Tethered mines have longer tethers, and should be easier to use
• Takao cruiser underdeck is more generous, making it easier to fit drives/powerplants
• Homing systems require considerably more aux space to install
• The rolloff torpedo launcher is easier to place
• The Flying Dutchman is significantly less terrifying

Bugfixes:

• Fix numerous issues with weapon groups and weapon UI when changing weapon config mid-combat
• Fix some ships spawning already on fire.
• Fix planes flying sideways.
• Ballistic laser moved to "Energy" weapons category
• Fix guns not targeting center-of-mass for some ships
• Fix dialog covering important UI elements in ship designer tutorial.
• Fix possibility of softlocking during ship designer tutorial, when adding engines to ship.
• Fix hovering cranes in mission "The Tendency of Power"
• Fix clipping issues with ship designer cameras for exceptionally large ships
• Fix weapon reticle flickering as weapons constantly lose/regain target lock
• Fix Akizuki Bridge colliding with belowdecks parts
• Fix a render issue with projectiles that have particle trails
• Fix some in-universe "UI elements" (such as impact warning indicators) not disappearing when in photo mode
• Fix some issues with ships having inaccurate colliders
• Fix some pop-in when drawing unusually large guns
• Fix Sakura underdeck being beneath the bottom of the ship
• Fix collision being slightly off for player "go here" markers (big green rotating halos)
• Fix a bug causing the strand part of flag strands to draw in an incorrect location
• Fix mission "Stress test" being unlocked from the start of the game for new saves
• Fix the options UI not being able to load immediately after creating a new save
• Fix player being allowed to try (unsuccessfully) to delete the "new save" option
• Fix inconsistent text sizes in the ship designer menus
• Fix player being able to bring up the Systems UI in the ship designer when their ship has no bridge
• Battleship König now properly has umlauts in its name
• Some boss equipment that is not really functional for player use is no longer displayed in the ship designer, if the "unlock all techs" assist is used
• Character portraits should be more visible on top of the tactical map display during mission briefings
• Fix the Vulcan not firing once its armor has been removed
• Fix the world map display for the mission "Winter" being broken
• Fix cruiser Cöln and battleship Bayern lacking red paint on their undersides
• Several visuals have been tweaked to be easier on the eyes
• Fix certain types of weapons continuing to be able to damage the player even after their owner has been destroyed
• Fix allies being suggested as targets in preference to certain enemies
• Fix long playership names causing UI issues in the mission selection screen
• Fix "terraced" terrain in mission "The Fallen"
• Fix bad lock-on points for certain ships
• Fix melee weapons being broken
• Fix melee weapons firing hitscan bullets
• The Bow Drill weapon should be easier to place on ships
• Fix certain parts requiring a target lock to be able to fire when this does not make sense
• Better transitions between non-combat and combat music tracks
• Fix a building being buried in terrain in mission "The Tendency of Power"
• Fix the player sometimes being put into the simplified ruleset for the ship designer. This ruleset has now been completely removed
• Fix being unable to place parts on the Yugumo bridge's gun platforms
• Fix certain weapons not drawing in the inset target display

Modding:

• Ships can specify a custom collision sound to use instead of the default sound