This second update from the 0.9.900 series, aiming to polish the game towards the 1.0 release, originated on a Game Jam that started with a question: What defines the game? What it is made for, or how it is played? We don't plan to have weapons in the game, but we wanted to explore how it would feel if we had the tools in the game to spice things up a bit... And we loved it!
Until this update, SR2 wasn't just a sandbox because of it's gameplay style, but because of how well protected players were, but this changes today! The 0.9.910 update aims to overhaul the entire damage system, with more and better visuals to help you be aware of some of the aspects that make rocket science... rocket science.
Before parts either blew up or didn't, now they will accumulate damage, and we also made them be damaged upon collision. This leads to more common and better looking rapid disassemblies, including wing snaps when they go under too much stress. You can still disable collision damage and tinker things to be as sturdy as a block of concrete if that's your vibe.
Everybody loves Newton's 3rd Law, but we were missing half of it. Now rocket engine exhausts will push and heat up parts, allowing you to make some really imaginative creations (remember to put some heatshields on whatever you are launching with your cannons). There are some xml parameters for you to tinker with, that should allow for some new unique uses of the engines.
You may have noticed that some parts were turning orange. That's because now parts will emit black body radiation when they get hot, and this isn't only for when they are inside of an exhaust, but for when they are too close to Juno, when they push the reentry too far or when they fall in lava. The stock system lava hasn't been updated yet, so it's still going to be orange juice, but that's because we want to do a single update focused on adding some things to the Juno System with Career mode in mind.
Rocket engines aren't the only thing that can push now. Like with collisions, explosions will now damage parts that are nearby and even push them away. For the xml savy, there's a hidden fuel that you may want to check out. It's id is PETN, it isn't something I'd want to have at less than a 100m than me, but sometimes that's what some of you wanted so 🤷.
We have tried to add as many legacy support features as we could, balanced things out a ton and fixed bugs that had been in the game for years, unlike other times the beta patches for 0.9.910 didn't come with flashy features but a lot of fixes and necessary polishment that we hope, will lead to a better user experience. You can find them all in the Release Notes.
This first update will be only available for Steam on the experimental branch. To join the Steam beta right-click SimpleRockets 2 in the Steam client -> Properties -> Betas -> and then select experimental from the dropdown. Make sure to backup your local files, this is in the experimental branch for a reason, theres a decent chance of old crafts breaking, so be careful.
Once we have fixed all the bugs (I'm sure some will come up with how many things we changed this time) we will move to a non experimental beta. The mobile beta will be released no earlier than May 4th.
@Utkin Planet Studio is not supported on Android. If you open the settings you should see a series of sliders to adjust the collision and heat damage independently.
@Pedro Android 916
@Utkin what version are you using?
@Pedro Is there any update on planet studio? When I change sphere of influence of a planet,the new changes can't be saved properly. So does the change of rotation.Other parameters can be saved. I can only adjust the parameters by xml editor.
@Pedro All right..How to deal with it? I tried to change the excessive damage in the settings but there's no item.
@Pedro it seems that custom made control surfaces (i.e. wings attached to rotators and hinges) don't work or have very little effect in the new update. That is just a bummer 🤐
@LonelySpaceGuy can you report a bug while flying the craft?
Just updated my game today as I was enjoying my airliner with interior builds and now I'm just frustrated that my planes are much harder to control now. It doesn't even turn that much when I use the directional NAV sphere and my rudder explodes. What can I do?
@Utkin 30m/s is an insanely strong collision, that's close to the max legal speed on highways in some countries. We are going to raise the threshold more, but not that much, for such situations you can change your game settings or use the tinker panel.
@Pedro Yes.But I think you have mistaken my words.You know us players always use modeling tools to make Apollo capsule by fuel tanks.What I hope is to increase the damage threshold of fuel tanks.Just a little,So they can withstand an impact of 30 meters per second instead of killing the astronaut.
By the way,my system is Android mobile.
@Pedro ok
@MarcSadbastrd could you please share a craft that reproduces the issue or submit a bug report from within the game?
@Pedro well like you take a basic rocket and slam some RCS on its side and take it to launch pad and just tilt it sideways to make it fall and tries to stop the impact with RCS it's still destroys our craft and same thing happenes if on mun. mun have low gravity so I think it should've just fall safely without exploding the craft
@MarcSadbastrd do you have any example of a craft that breaks with a 2m/s impact? If you also has a sandbox just before it collides that'd help a lot too
@Pedro it's not only capsule and heat shield every thing is too fragile except landing gear and wheels EDIT: well our only problem is if our craft land on a slope or by mistake fall side ways even at 2 m/s it's gonna waste all our progress.
@Utkin in 915 we bumped up the damage threshold for both capsules and heatshields, and increased the drags chutes have, so that should help with the capsules exploding. Do you have any craft showing the fairing issue? If you make a bug report I'll check it out.
@Utkin I agree
Am I the only one who thinks that very part has became more fragile in this new update cuz I can't even land my craft in water without losing the half of it
With all due respect, There are some practical problems that should be paid attention to in the version 0.9.914.(I think) First,I hate the updated excessive damage mechanism.All my return capsules would explode at the speed over 2m/s when hitting the ground. Second,all the fairings can't open properly.Fairing nose can't separate in time and scratches my payload.Of course they worked well before 0.9.910.
I hope the full mobile update will be in a few days cuz I can’t wait longer
@Oxide can you submit abug report while flying the craft?
@Pedro There is a bug with the wings of this craft that I cannot fix. Can you please help. The lift vectors of the big wings seem to jerk like the game doesn't know how to properly calculate them.
https://www.simplerockets.com/c/iLv82e/Odyssey-Supersonic-Plane
@MirazAerospace tru
@IceCraftGaming ragdoll physics for droods would be epic