Release Notes

Version 1.2.2: An Explosive New Game Mode

Released September 26, 2019

New features:

• Added a new fast-paced "Satellite Cleanup" minigame, which can help familiarise new players with the basics of orbital maneuvers. Your personal best time will be tracked.
• Explosions! There are now explosion effects when bodies collide with a planetary surface, or with each other in the minigame.

Improvements:

• Minor bodies (such as satellites and rockets) are now slightly larger, and easier to see when they're in their planet's shadow.
• Minor bodies other than the player can now be destroyed from overheating
• Discarded stages now maintain the correct direction.
• Minor bodies other than the player are now subject to rotation due to atmospheric drag.
• If the final stage doesn't have an engine, it wlll be shown as an empty capsule shape in the staging diagram. This should help players to plan their missions more intuitively.
• Added evaporation effects for liquid fuel tanks.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue where mission-specific timewarp multipliers weren't applied properly.
• Fixed an issue where some minor bodies had unstable orbits. This was caused by erroneously performing detailed physics calculations when orbital periods (in game-time) were extremely short.
• Fixed an issue where the player would be labelled if on a hyperbolic trajectory, far away from their reference body.
• Fixed a bug causing too much heat from air resistance while parachutes are deployed.
• Fixed an issue where particles wouldn't always be spawned at the correct rate on slow systems.
• Improved the way the surface is drawn in atmosphere mode, such that bodies will land or crash when they reach the surface, rather than below it.
• Particle effects now maintain the correct rotation when the display mode changes. Previously, when the display mode changed, existing particles would be rotated strangely.
• Fixed a bug where discarded stages would think they had a parachute, if the player's parachute was deployed when the staging happened.
• Fixed a bug where the player could steer quickly during a real-time maneuver with the engine off, as long as the throttle was high.
• Fixed a bug where vessels with only one stage didn't show their staging.
• Fixed a bug where parachute deployment didn't trigger sound effects or a log entry.
• Fixed a bug where vessels with only one stage didn't show their staging.

Version 1.1.7: One Giant Leap

Released July 15, 2019

New features:

• A bonus mission to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. This mission becomes available upon completion of all other missions, and contains a new, functional, pilot-able Saturn V.
• There is a new launcher for the game, available on Windows. This will automatically check for updates, install them, and launch the game. It will also ensure your progress persists across updates.

Improvements:

• Major engine update: the game will run more smoothly and correctly on all hardware, especially on less powerful machines. Specifically, the physics simulation will always run with equal tick sizes, and at a minimum rate. If performance drops, the frame rate will be reduced while maintaining the simulation speed. In situations of extremely low performance, the entire simulation will slow in order to maintain its integrity.
• Players can now stage their vessels even if the current stage has fuel remaining. This gives players more control over when they stage, which could come in handy for re-entry. The stage button will turn orange if fuel remains.
• Significant improvements have been made to atmospheric drag:
• Drag is much more accurately calculated based on both the shape of the vessel and its direction.
• Direction calculations are now more precise.
• Atmospheric drag now causes rotation (making gravity turns possible).
• Minor bodies (such as satellites and spacecraft) are now labeled. This should help players understand what's going on in levels with multiple bodies.
• Message alerts disappear more quickly. This will particularly reduce the amount of waiting players need to do at the beginning of levels.
• Made the messages for some levels more helpful.
• Simplified and reduced the volume of radio messages in the tutorial.
• Reduced the amount of unnecessary waiting in the tutorial.
• Improved the design of the first and second generation rocket stages.
• Improved the scenery of the launch area.
• Added a new 'launchpad' for missions beginning in Darwin.
• Player particle effects are now drawn over the top of the player's vessel in surface mode.
• Objectives are back to being round numbers. Historically, rounding sometimes caused players to be confused about why they had not completed an objective. The earlier fix for that resulted in some numbers being displayed that were quite odd.
• Your target is now always labeled, which will make it easier to identify. For example, if you're targeting something orbiting the moon while you're orbiting the sun, you'll see it labeled with Earth.
• Improved the design of the satellite in the Galeru mission.
• Added black outlines to some rocket parts to improve their appearance in various contexts.
• Stars are now visible through the upper-atmosphere of planets with atmospheres, such as Earth.
• Stars are visible from the surface of the moon and other bodies without atmospheres.
• Slightly improved the Stage button by adjusting the kerning of the text.
• Clarified some of the mission log entries for new engine stages.
• Reduced the necessary distance required for the "Kookaburra" mission. This makes the mission a bit easier, to better match the desired learning curve of the game.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue in the tutorial where disobeying your commander's instructions would prevent some radio messages from being seen.
• The atmosphere will now render accurately on all screen shapes and resolutions.
• Fixed a bug where the staging button sometimes didn't appear when an impulsive maneuver used the last of the stage's fuel.
• Fixed an issue where the player's trajectory when near the surface would be quite jittery.
• Fixed an issue where minor bodies were sometimes drawn in the wrong location when viewing a body's surface.
• Fixed a bug where landed bodies would not rotate with the earth's surface, resulting in gradual spinning.
• Fixed an issue where the Stage button sometimes didn't flash when it should have.
• Fixed an issue where the progress bars in some early missions would be quite jittery.
• Reduced the amount of jittering in the orbit trajectory line in atmosphere mode.
• Fixed a bug where minor bodies, if targeted, could be drawn even if their orbit was too small to be shown.
• Fixed a longstanding issue where upon failing a mission, tapping would return the player to the menu, instead of completing the mission-fail message.
• Fixed a longstanding bug where there could be a notification sound effect even if there were no message.
• Fixed a bug where the background music wouldn't end when the level did.
• Fixed an occasional crash when drawing unusual orbits.
• Fixed a bug where massive bodies wouldn't render correctly if they became very large on the screen.
• Fixed a bug where large shapes (usually the shadow on massive bodies) would sometimes be glitchy when they overhung a corner of the screen.
• Fixed a bug where non-Australian vessels were prefixed with 'HMAS'.

Version 1.0.3: Quality of Life

Released January 29, 2018

New features:

• Not a big one, but we now have a shiny new cursor.
• In order to help players plan their real-time maneuvers effectively, a hypothetical orbit is now projected on top of your existing orbit while steering, showing what will be if you burn in the current direction for a significant period (specifically, if you increase your velocity by 20%).

Improvements:

• Delta V now runs at native screen resolution and aspect ratio.
• Delta V now fully supports touch screens (though not yet multi-touch).
• The G-force meter and throttle have been moved to the far left of the screen, so that they don't get in the way on ultra-wide aspect ratios, and so that they can be easily accessed on a tablet/phone.
• The new orbit shown during impulsive maneuver planning is now projected above any planets, moons and other bodies including the player's vessel. This makes it easier to get feedback when maneuvers must be planned at larger scales, such as in Onur (Mission III.5).
• Objectives requiring specific changes to an apsis will now cause the apsis in question to flash. This will help reduce the learning curve in the Prologue, and help players to focus more generally.
• The timewarp button is now a toggle: it no longer needs to be continuously pressed in order to work.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a bug that resulted in some planets and moons escaping the Solar System.

Version 1.0.2: Fixes from the Launch Party

Released December 8, 2017

New features:

• Added an area to drag impulsive maneuvers in order to cancel them.
• Added a mute button to all menus and cockpits.

Improvements:

• Removed the penalty for rapid clicking Space in the tutorial. Though you still shouldn't touch any of the controls while Travis and Jackson are still conscious :)
• Apses are only shown for interesting bodies.
• Impulsive maneuvers can be much smaller. This makes it easier to make minor adjustments, which is useful for a rendezvous.
• Improved some wording and objectives in later missions to help reduce the steepness of the learning curve.

Version 1.0.1: Linux Support

Released November 18, 2017

New features:

• Added support for x86_64 Linux.

Improvements:

• Improved many aspects of the maneuver vector: The projected orbit is now limited by your fuel, as is the projected delta V shown. The colours of the vector have been changed to more clearly indicate when a maneuver will take place, and how much of the desired maneuver is possible given your fuel.
• Reduced package download size by about 85% (it's down to 7MB on Windows).
• There is much more fuel in the prologue, such that you should never need to be concerned about it

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a crash in the prologue if your orbit became suborbital.
• Fixed an issue with maneuver sounds and particle effects. Previously they would play even if you had no fuel. This no longer occurs.