* Added triple-speed option for vehicle spawn/despawn (hold SHIFT) * Increased max speed of vehicle spawn/despawn animation
* Added Copy-settings placement option (hold CTRL while adding a part) * Added Copy-Paste for part settings (CTRL+C to copy, CTRL+V to paste) * Added New Part: Angled Y-Split (like a double turn 45 combined into one part) Let's take a look at the changelist, and then go over details of a few of the changes:
I had planned to do a few bug fixes after a short trip last week, but the 0.127 update has expanded into more than just that. Two main things to go over today: Version 0.127 has some nice bug fixes and improvements that advanced vehicle builders will appreciate, while the game's future updates will become larger but less frequent (more details below). I'm really looking forward to trying out all the entries, and as usual there will be a video to highlight the winners and honorable mentions. The official deadline is Saturday, but any submitted by the end of Sunday will likely get played as well. Just a quick reminder to get your Wrecking Ball entries submitted to the Steam Workshop by this weekend. Once the update hits, it shouldn't take long before we start seeing tons of new islands and structures to play with and destroy. I expect to create some tutorial videos for the structure and island editors at that time. I'm hopeful the update will be out in early September, but it's a bit too early to say for sure. Beyond that, there will be a lot of testing and refinement. I'm still not sure what will happen with materials (or grass/rocks) on these custom meshes, but those are things I'll need to experiment with either way. After Steam Workshop is mostly functional, the final big feature to go in will be custom meshes for islands.
I'm hoping by writing about the issues, it'll spark an idea/alternative that works better (as sometimes happens), but so far I don't have any new ideas.Īnyway, I'm approaching the point where I'm just hooking things up to the UI and tweaking the look.
I tried to revise the UI system early in Instruments development to use more data and less code, but it only partially solved the problems and caused more than it solved, so I scrapped the changes and use basically the same UI system I've been using for the past 10 years-define the look of the UI in one code file, and the behaviors of the buttons in another-with a few minor improvements. Working on UI for my games can be a bit tedious, partly because there's just so much of it, and Instruments is no exception, so it's been a slog for the past few days. With those changes working, I recently moved onto making the Steam Workshop interface for structures and islands. It's unlikely the current structures will change too much, but expect future buildings to be less boxy and more colorful.
Combined with the new full rotation controls (instead of only 90 degree increments), you'll be able to create buildings of nearly any shape. Unlike normal box decals, wedges have collision before they break off the structure they're attached to. The second major change is the addition of wedge blocks, which are a kind of decal block (smaller building pieces that can't be broken down further). This makes it easier for custom islands to have more cohesive color themes without having to create multiple copies of a structure. There are 10 colors to choose from, and you can set the available paint colors per island. The first thing to note is the blue and red colored blocks are concrete, with all materials except glass being paintable. I don't know what that is, but it does demonstrate the new structural features. Previously a structure like this was impossible to build: The first wave of changes are all in and working, with just a few bugs left to iron out. WEDGES, ROTATIONAL FREEDOM, AND PAINTED BLOCKS The first large update will be focused on Structures and Island creation, with some significant changes and new features all coming at once. As previously discussed, the pace of game updates is changing.