Rocket Science v0.22.1 “Foundation” update has finally arrived! I’ve decided to change my update highlights format a bit and made a video that clearly demonstrates the most important changes. As always, you can find full release notes below.
I want to touch on some things that were not included in the video. Firstly, there are not many implications of thermodynamics at the moment other than engines, re-entry and solar radiation overheating. So you will be able to try it out and tell me if it is working as expected in all cases and all possible part combinations (it is not possible to test everything by myself). I hope to have all the thermodynamics related bugs fixed and any missing thermal control parts added for the next update. Since I am going to introduce operating temperature ranges for some parts, you will have to pay even more attention to spacecraft thermal control in the future.
Secondly, I will spend the next couple of weeks not only fixing new and already reported bugs by players, but working on a thermodynamics tutorial, where I will try to explain all processes that are happening in this system. Also I am planning to add several parts that I didn't have time to work on this time.
That’s all, thank you for your support and have a nice flight!
v0.22.1 release notes
Some spacecrafts may be broken because of these changes.
Features:
🔸 thermodynamics was introduced to the game;
🔸 added re-entry effect;
🔸 extended Earth and Mars atmospheres density, pressure and temperature calculations up to its maximum altitudes supported by models;
🔸 [Flight] total rework of all part windows;
🔸 [Assembly] rocket stages now support undo / redo;
🔸 [Assembly] added an ability to change root part;
🔸 [Assembly] you can change side attachments on already placed part;
🔸 [Assembly] you can configure any module on placed part;
🔸 [Map] you can now pin any tooltip on right mouse click;
🔸 fins are aerodynamic surfaces now that can be used to control the rocket;
🔸 you can disable and hibernate probe cores now to reduce electricity consumption;
🔸 you can disable reaction wheels;
🔸 added new fuel pair: kerosene - lox and engines that support it;
🔸 engine plume was completely reworked;
🔸 all tutorial windows can be dragged now;
🔸 added new thermal part category.
New rocket parts:
🔸 "Razryad-518", “Zaryad-021”, “Duga-8” liquid fuel engines;
🔸 General-Purpose Heat Source (RTG) and Multihundred-watt RTG;
🔸 Payload Fairing Strait Base GO-5;
🔸 Small Fin;
🔸 Passive Heat Shields for 0.55 m, 1.2 m and 2.5 m
🔸 Passive Radiator Panel and Passive Radiator R-2.
Part changes:
🔸 Basic Fin now have control surfaces
🔸 “Vega-072” engine was made bigger and now requires star socket to attach to;
🔸 tweaked ISP and thrust for “Iskra-758”, “Energia-C8.95” and "Yuzhniy-348" engines to be inline with real analogs;
🔸 Structural Adapter 1.2-Cube and Structural Adapter 1.2-Module were moved from structures category to adapters.
Changes:
🔸 flight part window now opens on right mouse click for consistency with assembly;
🔸 engine system performance was increased by a factor of 5 in some cases;
🔸 engine heat emission is no longer fake;
🔸 reworked "warp to" algorithm, it is now much more precise;
🔸 improved precision at which drag data is baked;
🔸 reaction wheels consume energy evenly (previously small wheels consumed first);
🔸 camera will continue to follow spacecraft if its command module was destroyed;
🔸 [Assembly] you can now open part config by right clicking on part;
🔸 [Assembly] removed angle restrictions from all socket types for attached part rotation;
🔸 [Assembly] you can't reattach already attached part to another one;
🔸 [Assembly] significantly improved "Reset all stages" algorithm, that composes stages better now;
🔸 all selection and hover outlines now brighter;
🔸 increased electricity capacity up to 2x for all batteries, probe cores and command modules;
🔸 collapsed solar panel partially produce electricity, reduced by amount of area hidden from the Sun;
🔸 solar panels energy production now depends on distance to the Sun.
🔸 added "burnTime" into engines tooltip. This is the amount of time an engine can burn in vacuum continuously without overheating.
🔸 added area and volume parameters to all tooltips;
🔸 all single side attachments were rotated 90 degrees to be consistent with the direction of line attachments;
🔸 some positions of side attachments were swapped to better support changing them on already placed part;
🔸 cleanup a lot of code and assets related to old timeline system;
🔸 build size was reduced by 2 GB.
Fixes:
🔸 when clicking on item on parts panel, click event happens twice;
🔸 reaction wheels consume 2x time more energy than in spec under heavy load;
🔸 Rocket does not reset if you make changes to it and then exit to space center via main menu;
🔸 if you create new rocket, not make any changes to it and then try to exit from editing mode, not saved window is not shown;
🔸 orbit raycast sometimes not working on highly eccentric orbits (again).
🔸 game freezes when entering atmosphere on high time warp;
🔸 sometimes rocket parts suddenly rotate after coupling;
🔸 [Assembly] center markers get wrong positions if you move spacecraft and then attach any part to it;
🔸 [Assembly] part resets its rotation when reattaching from one socket to other;
🔸 navball autocorrection buttons not change state, when autocorrection was changed from command module window;
🔸 Seeker Decoupler can not be clicked during the flight
🔸 exception when changing part config when part is not attached to the rocket;
🔸 sometimes fuel indicator near navball stuck after decoupling;
🔸 rocket with extended landing struts / solar panels has incorrect bounds when loading from save;
🔸 wrong tooltip for reaction wheel status indicator;
🔸 countless bugs tied to old flight window system;
🔸 stage loses selection outline, when stage button was pressed and there are no more stages left;
🔸 all aerodynamic surfaces have wrong position of lift force application point;
🔸 if aero surface had no control surface, it doesn't change when selecting any other one in part config;
🔸 you can not hover or select engine during the flight if it was placed inside tail block 0 and was smaller that it;
🔸 when spacecraft is in physics simulation, time in spaceport is at 10x speed, not 1x
🔸 infinite exception loop, when you have part selected with symmetry, and then closing spacecraft with changes reset;
🔸exception related to orbit panel when you first time load flight.