Liftoff: Micro Drones News

[h2]Quickfixes[/h2]

• Removed: an internal drone configuration blueprint that was meant as a test setup.
  
• Fixed: several broken skins were exposed on all propellers. These have been removed.
  
• Fixed: sharing drones on the Steam Workshop are now properly working.
  
• Fixed: the propeller damage display doesn't throw any more errors.
  
• Fixed: toggling the game options for race guides and race triggers now reflect in real-time.
  

Liftoff: Micro Drones update 0.5.2 is here and builds upon the foundations laid by the Milestone update. Today we expand the singleplayer racing experience, by introducing race bots and race guides. Enjoy!

[h2]Changelist[/h2]

• Added: bots for all race tracks. These can be found in the Race, Infinite Race and Hoverdrone Race game modes.
  
• Added: race guides. This option can be toggled in the game options.
  
• Updated: several UI text elements now look more crisp.
  
• Updated: the Nano frame Grunge skin and Nano battery Smudge skins now has the proper amount of color channels. We will include more skins for parts and frames in future updates.
  
• Fixed: name of the Hoverdrone race in Sealand now has a proper name.
  
• Fixed: the Liftoff Pro registration would show an error, even though it succeeded.
  
• Fixed: Nano frame skin and Nano battery had invalid properties that would make the game crash during loading.

[h2]Bots: learning from the best[/h2]
You'll never feel alone in Liftoff: Micro Drones, the simulator now features bots in singleplayer race modes. The secret to our bots is that they are completely player-driven. They learn to fly using real player data and adapt to your flying skills, to offer you an interesting challenge each time. Do you feel the bots are too easy or too hard to beat, just finish a few races and they'll quickly learn and adapt.

[h2]Be social[/h2]
Please say hello on our community channels, we are excited to meet you!
The Liftoff dev team is very active on the multiple Liftoff community channels, always happy to answer your questions, share some development insights and tease what's next.

Make sure to join the community on Facebook and Discord.

The release of our Milestone update performed above expectations, it's been very stable. Nonetheless, update 0.5.1 aims to further polish the newly introduced features and content.

[h2]Changelist:[/h2]

• Updated the race score screen in multiplayer to show the global leaderboard instead of the monthly.
  
• Updated the multiplayer menu to show the sign in as a split panel instead of a single large panel.
  
• Added a notice in the leaderboards menu that scores are only kept saved in multiplayer sessions.
  
• Added the game option to enable/disable checkpoint visual triggers.
  
• Fixed issue with the popup always having a small box visible behind the original popup message.
  
• Fixed issue with leaderboard scores in the race score screen overlapping.
  
• Fixed issue where the global leaderboards wouldn't show the player's best actual score over the course of the monthly leaderboards.
  
• Fixed pixel border masking issue in the leaderboards menu.
  
• Fixed multiplayer room play bar being positioned too high. It now sticks to the bottom of the screen.
  
• Fixed the player score panel not being cleared in multiplayer after a race when no player finished.
  
• Enlarged the player activity icon while in-game.
  
• Updated the progression bar styling to be more consistent with the general UI style.
  

We are super excited to release the first Milestone update for Liftoff: Micro Drones, pushing the game a massive step closer to its V1 release. This is a big one: optimisations, simulation update, Sealand, leaderboards, replays and more!

[h2]Changelist[/h2]

• Added: Sealand day and night environments. Each environment has interactive elements, 3 new race tracks, a hover drone track and 3 balloon collection courses.
  
• Added: The replay feature. From the main menu, in the 'Tools' section, you can now watch saved recordings of your flights.
  
• Added: Leaderboards! Watch your best race and lap times in the leaderboards menu. Cycle through on a monthly bases, or view all-time best scores. The menu is accessible through the main menu, in the 'Tools' section.
  
• Updated: Optimised drone stat calculations, this should result in more authentic simulation.
  
• Updated: Made more motors selectable in workbench, allowing for more configurations.
  
• Updated: Unity game engine. This should give an overall increase in performance.
  
• Updated: All multiplayer menus have been merged into a single menu, saving a few loading screens.
  
• Updated: The multiplayer score screen now shows leaderboard times as well, below to your personal best times.
  
• Updated: The multiplayer room creation menu now shows the environment being selected.
  
• Updated: Set your desired flight mode and assists directly from within the flight controller menu.
  
• Updated: The current flight mode and active flight assists are now shown prior to arming the drone, allowing you to better pre-select the desired flight mode before taking off.
  
• Updated: Larger player avatars are now downloaded, so that they look crisp.
  
• Updated: Optimized the drone HUD to be less CPU intensive.
  
• Updated: Optimized several content files to be more loading efficient. This reduces installation size (-3GB) and decreases loading times when flying on a track.
  
• Fixed: The flight mode and active flight assists are now saved between drone resets. This prevents from having to reselect the right flight mode again after each drone reset.
  
• Fixed: Many minor bug fixes.
  
• Fixed: On macOS only - shader issue with the plant in the San Lipo Drive environments not rendering its leaves correctly.

[h2]Welcome to the Principality of Sealand[/h2]
Have you ever power looped a whole nation?

[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zf8LJzAcQA[/previewyoutube]

With official government permission from the Principality of Sealand, we are excited to see you all discover the coolest micro nations in the North Sea!

Sealand brings a complete new experience to Liftoff simulators: not only do you have to consider that drones don't swim and seagulls don't chill, at night you also have to deal with some stormy weather. Nothing a pro pilot can't handle ;)

E Mare Libertas!

[h2]Soon: Sawdust Inc. [/h2]
Last month we teased a new level called Sawdust Inc, and we are excited to reveal another section of this level. Sawdust inc is going to feature the bigger indoor Liftoff: Micro Drones environment to date, with 4 discting areas, from a wood workshop and a warehouse, to offices and a furniture showroom. Here's another screenshot of this exciting new level that will become available in Liftoff: Micro Drones in the near future.

The Liftoff team has been hard at work behind the scenes. We have some great things for the project coming soon. Today we add the Cetus Pro from BetaFPV to the simulator, a really sleek and lightweight setup that many burgeoning micro drones pilots have enjoyed as a starter setup. We are also excited to reveal what's next for Liftoff: Micro Drones. Make sure to check out new level reveal "Sawdust Inc."

[h2]CHANGELIST[/h2]

• Added new Cetus Pro frame and blueprint
  
• Added new BetaFPV 1102 18000KV Brushless Motor (Currently only usable on Cetus Pro)
  
• Added new BetaFPV BT2.0 450mAh Battery
  
• Added new 1635 Tri-blade propellers
  
• Updated Driblet Antenna and blueprint icon
  
• Minor bugfixes
  

[h2]WHAT DOES THE FUTURE BRING?[/h2]
Expect the following things in the near future:
- The addition of official leaderboards and a replay feature.
- A rework of the simulated parts system. This is mostly an internal improvement that will allow us to add more exotic parts in the future.
- A new level called Sawdust Inc. We are excited to show you the first (work in progress) screenshots of this level.