This latest dev blog is all about blowing stuff up! We're doing a lot to improve improve both the visual and gameplay experience surrounding this, so let's start off with the basics:
Explosion Visuals
No matter what you’re doing in a game like SimplePlanes 2, chances are explosions will play a role whether you like it or not. With this in mind, when making SP2 we’ve taken special care to completely overhaul the explosion visuals to make them the best they’ve been in any of our games by adding new procedurally generated 3D effects, replacing the previous reliance on 2D sprites.
Explosions are a deceptively challenging thing to get looking right in video games. Most games opt for a combination of sprites and particle effects; this generally looks perfectly fine and I bet many of you never even noticed that the explosions in a lot of your favourite 3D games are probably mostly 2D. But for our uses this approach leaves a bit to be desired. First, transparent sprites have an annoying tendency to render in front of things like fog and clouds which ruins your sense of depth if there happens to be a cloud between you and an explosion. Second, they aren’t all that versatile; in a game like this you’re going to have a lot of possible explosion scales and angles to look at them from, not to mention the ability to slow down time and pause the game, all of which makes sprites pretty obvious and not great looking.
So in SP2 we’re taking a different approach. Using a procedurally generated mesh-based effect, we can have 3D explosion effects that can dynamically change in shape and size depending on the power of the explosion, while also looking perfectly fine if you look at it in slow motion. A weak explosion will create a relatively unremarkable fireball and a puff of smoke whereas a very strong one may make a big mushroom cloud that scatters debris everywhere, sending a frightening message to anyone on the same island as you.
As a fun bonus, these explosions also create a brief dynamic light source around them, making evening operations a spectacle all of their own as you light up the night. This is a little detail that I personally appreciate when I see other games doing it, and I think it adds a lot here.
Targeting Pod
An important goal of SP2 is not just to give you an improved experience with the things you already know from the original SimplePlanes, but also to give you an expanded sandbox to play with. To that end, I’d like to introduce you to one of the brand new parts coming to the game: the Targeting Pod.
Targeting pods are a cornerstone of modern aerial combat and reconnaissance, allowing you to guide laser-guided munitions to their targets, gaze upon your friends from afar, or do both of those things at the same time and blow up your “friends”. Laser-guided weapons are great for stationary targets on the ground like buildings or anti-air emplacements, but beware that if you want to destroy a moving target there is nothing to hold your hand like with traditional guided weaponry – you will have to rely on your own skills to predict your target’s movement and score a hit.
To use a targeting pod, power it on, switch to Air To Ground mode, and drag the reticle to the spot you want to target (you can also slew it around using the IJKL keys on your keyboard). The little camera in the targeting pod will automatically orient itself to the target position as you move around, and laser-guided weapons you deploy will immediately home in on that spot. It doesn’t do all the work for you though, you will still have to take care not to fly in such a way that your aircraft blocks the pod’s view to the target, and make sure you’re close enough to the target for a bomb to actually hit.
But you might be thinking, “how does this let me spy on my friends?” – that’s where another new part we’re adding comes in: the Multi-Function Display.
The Multi-Function Display, or MFD, is a screen that lets you look at a real-time feed of what your targeting pod is looking at, with zoom capabilities that let you get a clear image of a location from very far away.
But that’s not all it does. In reality, the MFD is an all-in-one control panel that out of the box will let you monitor your aircraft’s telemetry, weapon status, and more, navigable through a bunch of buttons on the side.
The Targeting Pod isn’t the only new part we have for you in the “making things go boom” department. Andrew’s son has been interning with us to bring something to the game that I’m really excited to share:
Procedural Missiles
In SP2, you will have access to a highly customizable procedural missile that comes with a number of settings that allow you to fine tune its functionality and appearance.
Increasing its size will give it more fuel and a bigger boom, but will result in a heavier and less maneuverable missile that you can’t carry as many of.
Adding fins will increase its turn rate, and make it look pretty cool.
Increasing the burn time will give it more range, but less acceleration, meaning it will be less useful for short range encounters.
Increasing the seeker field of view will widen the “cone” at which you can obtain a lock, but will effectively reduce the distance the missile can see which means a shorter lock on range.
Those are just some of the basics, though. We’ve also got multiple different guidance systems you can choose from to ensure the missile knows where it is at all times, each with their own strengths and weaknesses:
Infrared
These have the shortest range, but the fastest lock on time and are “fire and forget”. They home in on the target craft’s heat signature, with propellers and rotors producing the weakest heat signature and jet engines producing the strongest.
Because their lock on method is passive, the target of one of these missiles will not be able to tell they’re being locked on to. If you believe you are in imminent danger from an IR missile, you may want to throttle down to reduce your heat signature and periodically deploy flares to confuse the missile.
Semi-Active Radar
These have longer range than IR missiles, but a longer lock on time. They use the radar built in to your plane, and as such they require the user to maintain a lock until the missile hits its target in order to be effective.
Unlike IR missiles, a lock on also sends the target a warning, which gives them an opportunity to react. If you’re being locked by one of these, deploy chaff and try to put a solid barrier in between yourself and the enemy craft to break line of sight.
Active Radar
These have the longest range and the longest lock on time. Unlike their semi-active counterparts, these missiles use their own built-in radar to track targets, which makes them a very scary fire and forget weapon. But that extra radar equipment makes them the heaviest of the bunch, meaning you’ll need a bigger and heftier missile to make the most out of them.
Countering one of these is similar to the semi-active type, but with the added complication of needing to break line of sight with the missile itself, not the craft that launched it.
Laser
These track a laser emitted from a targeting pod.
If you’re in a ground vehicle and in danger of a laser-guided weapon from an approaching aircraft, try to break line of sight with it using buildings or terrain.
That is a handful, but I’m not quite done yet. There’s also a few different engine types to play around with:
Solid
This uses a simple solid rocket motor to propel the missile.
Thrust Vectoring
Similar to Solid, but can gimbal to improve the missile’s maneuverability. This comes at a weight cost, though.
Jet Engine
Replaces the rocket engine with a jet engine. This drastically increases the missile’s burn time which increases its range, but equally it reduces its acceleration and top speed. This makes it ideal for long range cruise missiles.
Okay, now I’m done. These missiles will add a ton of depth to this game’s combat sandbox, which previously left a lot to be desired. I hope you like them :)
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