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Five new parts are available this update with a new feature for unlocking them and other parts. Every research now has a "shortcut challenge". Progressing a research's shortcut reduces the research cost by up to 50%. All research shortcuts are progressed by destroying the parts unlocked from that research using ship weapons or extracting aboard a ship using them.
There are two main goals of the research shortcut system, the first is to speed up research for players less familiar to the game. If you don't know what you are doing, collecting resources can be very slow. The secondary goal is to entice new players into combat with AI aboard their own ship or more experienced players' ships. This will hopefully get new players familiar with the very high rewards of the gold earned in combat or the resources from siege waves.
This update also brings a variety of new components. The large armored balloons further explore the durable lift options and introduce an all new connection scheme compared to existing balloons.
The new submersibles use the same scheme and shape but expand on watercraft. Submersibles function more similarly to balloons but only in water. Submersibles do not apply a constant upward force like pontoons so combined with ballasts can easily dive below the waves.
Finally, the engine propeller combines propulsion and pressure generation into one component. The propeller has the same stats as the single prop and its built in engine covers ~60% of its pressure cost. The component is highly space efficient but pays for it in mass. Purely replacing normal propellers will likely not be an effective implementation if additional engines and the structure attaching them cannot be removed.
1.10.3
Major Features
- Added the engine propeller. A propeller with a small integrated engine.
- Added large armored balloon drum and cap.
- Added submersible drum and cap.
- Added research shortcuts. Extracting or destroying a unresearched component decreases the cost of the research.
Minor Features
- Added descriptive text to main menu options if tooltips are enabled.
- Picking up a parcel with a grappling gun partially refunds its cooldown.
- Attempting to equip a tool with a full inventory shows a notification if tooltips are enabled.
- Reduced drag coefficient of the armored balloon to 1.2 from 1.4.
Bug Fixes
- Harpoons now behave correctly when attached to minable resources.
- Fixed a bug that could break harpoons if their attached target is destroyed.
- Fixed harpoons not syncing when loading into expedition.