Hello pilots!
A little bit of an odd update today. It's on the beta branch for the next few days until I'm sure there's no terrible bugs. I say it's an odd update, because it took a good deal of effort, but if everything's gone well, everything should look exactly the same to you as a player. Remember to swap to the beta branch to give this a try!
Core class code refactor.
As part of an effort to prepare for future updates, as mentioned on the roadmap, I refactored the core code related to how parts attach to each other, interact with the player, and manage being part of a hierarchy in a subsystem. It underwent a massive reorganization to break a single bloated class that ended up responsible for far too many things, into a nice, clean, organized structure with good separation of responsibility. It's a very technical change, and completely under the hood. Like I said, if all has gone well, you shouldn't notice any changes whatsoever. I'm very happy with the changes and it gets rid of a huge source of technical debt. This will make it much easier for me to expand the game and make future improvements.
Because this change is so fundamental, (literally every part in the game uses this class, and nothing at all would work without it) I'm pushing this update to the beta branch first. Please let me know if you see any bugs or issues by posting in the bug reports discussion forum here on Steam. Please specify that you're testing the 0.3.3 update. Thank you so much for helping me test this major change!
As a reward, I do actually have something new for you.
A Complete Six Pack
One instrument that was conspicuously missing from the instrument panel was a Turn Coordinator. I've added one to the panel, and as such, rearranged a few things. The plane now has a proper six pack, and you can have an absolute blast making coordinated, standard rate turns. Exciting!
I know this isn't the most exciting update. More exciting things are coming. Including something that I'll give you a sneak peek of...
Preview: A New Engine
DISCLAIMER: This is not in the game, and I have no timeline for when it will appear and be playable.
I took a week and as a treated myself to a very special modeling project that's still incomplete, but I know many of you will be excited to see that work has begun on a radial engine.
This radial engine will be added as an alternative power train to the electric motors currently in the game. Like many things in the game's design, what you use will be about preference, rather than one being strictly better that the other. To keep things lore friendly, they'll burn hydrogen, rather than avgas. But don't fear, they'll behave basically the same as the radial engines many are familiar with, including the sounds, power curves, and temperamental nature. My current estimates are that there will be around 150 parts PER ENGINE, and that's after simplifying things a decent amount. Having 9 individual cylinders really balloons that part count.
There's more work that has to happen in the modeling stage, and a LOT more work that has to happen after the model is done. So don't expect this to be in the game imminently, but it and a second plane are my next priorities. More updates and more info coming soon! Thanks for your patience!
0.3.3 Changelog
Major Changes
SubassemblyManager refactor: complete refactor of core part code
Added Turn Coordinator to instrument panel
Bugfixes
Fixed an issue where the hand truck's center of gravity would change after being stored in the plane, causing it to start falling over on level ground.
Happy skies!