Join us on Discord for public playtests Friday at 12pm ET, Saturday at 3pm ET, and Monday at 7pm ET.
AI controlled cargo ships arrive at the Archipelago in Airmen 1.10.2. These ships are loaded with up to 80 cargo parcels and spawn in open waters as players move across the map. Be sure to keep a spyglass handy to spot any coming your way. Cargo ships behave differently than regular AI opponents and will continue towards their goal rather than directly engaging attackers so be prepared to move and shoot.
Many of the new AI cargo ships this update were built by Discord community members including Cristal, Dunawolf, Ailen, Clifer, HelloThere and Mech Hunter. I'm still looking to expand the fleet though so feel free to continue submitting new ships following the guidelines mentioned on the Discord!
This update also introduces Airmen's first main menu. Rather than loading directly into the builder, you can get to the action with a big easy-to-click link straight into expedition. The new menu also frees up the responsibilities of the build menus allowing for some additional ship related stats to be more accessible. Most importantly, it massively simplifies the new player experience by presenting clearly defined options rather than thrusting them into the builder without telling them what they're doing or how to do anything else.
1.10.2
Major Features
- AI cargo ships will spawn across the open waters of the Archipelago. Cargo ships will hold course and fire rather than engage targets like normal ships. When defeated, they will stop to surrender their loot rather than flee. Attacking cargo ships gives you a bounty.
- Added a main menu. Airmen will now launch to a main menu screen where you can quickly enter expedition or the builder. Menus previously linked from within the builder like challenges, cosmetics, and research are now found in the main menu. This empty space will eventually be filled with new building specific functions.
Minor Features
- Removed action specific bounty caps so assaulting and defeating bountyless airships can infinitely raise your bounty. You must still have a bounty to increase your bounty from defeating a ship.
- Bigger player ships place bigger bounties on attackers when defeated. According to 10 + firepower / 1000.
- When a bounty carrying player's ship is defeated, their normally placed bounty is increased by half of their bounty at the time of defeat.
- Small performance improvement rendering nearby islands.
- Full pursuit bonus is reached at a shorter range. Max pursuit engagement range changed from 350 meters to 200 meters.
- Increased float stone spawn chance.
- Added a brightness slider to the settings menu.
- Added a brighter nights toggle to the settings menu. This setting boosts ambient light at night by 30%.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed engines and pressure wells not dropping smoke screens when destroyed.
- Fixed float stone spawning with only 3 hits to destroy (supposed to be 20).
- Fixed float stone sometimes being unbreakable and never dropping parcels.