Powerboat VR News

Public Beta "newship"

It has been a while since I released some new content into the game but seeing as the delivery system seems to be working much better now I think I can spend some time adding some new toys :)

Cuttlefish BHT
Based on an old tug boat design this is a big ship measuring about 50m in length. It has been converted to carry dry cargo and is pretty good in all sea conditions.

It will appear for purchase in the "Commercial Ship" section but current it uses the same image as the FerryCat - I will update that shortly. "Free Play" users will get it for free as usual.

I haven't tested the ship fully in VR but you should be able to explore the vessel on foot and use the custom steering wheel.

There's still some work to do on water effects etc but the important bits are all done :)

Let me know what you think...

Quick update as follows....

1. Tidied up some of the asset loading so that loading will be a little quicker.
2. Fixed some rock colliders that were not generating correctly.
3. Reflection settings in the video options will now be saved and loaded correctly.
4. Stutters when transitioning between islands has been minimised as much as possible. I'm reasonably sure I can get rid of it completely.
5. Regenerated the wave masks etc around Svenningen so that there is no obvious transition which was visible in the water.

Known Bugs
1. Quick Jobs still can't be saved mid mission, working on a fix.

This update adds all the recent improvements made in the public beta...1

1. New cargo management page which shows your current jobs and what is in your cargo bays together with weights and a final Dead Weight Total (DWT). This page also allows you to load/unload cargo to specific bays much more easily.
2. Cargo bays now have up to 4 slots for loading different cargos from different jobs
3. Cargo is now correctly tracked from its origin to its final destination so you can no longer use cargo from job 1 to complete job 2 if it was using the same cargo.
4. Fuel and Ballast can now be loaded from the new cargo management page
5. Boats should now spawn correctly aligned with the port
6. Boats can only be swapped when inside a port loading area.
7. Port loading areas now have new animated loading area icons.
8. There are now 4 different starting points

• Easy - Gives you £10,000,000 and the Bluefin starting boat (roughly equivalent to a saveable Free Play)
  
• Medium - Gives you £1,000,000 and the Bluefin starting boat
  
• Hard - Gives you £100,000 and the Bluefin starting boat
  
• Rags 2 Riches - Gives you £10,000 and the Bluefin starting boat
  

9. The pause when loading/unloading scenery assets has been minimised. This was most noticeable on the approach to Svenningen port.
10. Ports will now be activated correctly when loading a save game
11. Save games now allow you to save you progress mid mission. However, quick jobs still don't save correctly - fix incoming shortly.
12. Fixed the horrible cloud shadow rendering which was visible on distant terrain that was covered with fog.
13. Improved the clouds so they look a bit more like clouds rather than smudges! Also they render further into the distance.
14. Boat MFD is no longer used to load or unload cargo. However, it can still be used to purchase fuel and load/position ballast.

Quick update for the Windows 7 beta...

1. Added ability to add/remove fuel level from cargo management screen
2. Added ability to add/remove ballast from cargo management screen
3. Added weight calculations to give final Dead Weight Total (DWT) for vessel
4. Fixed an issue where the job delivery amounts would not clear from previous completed job
5. Hidden the route map by default on the cargo management screen

This updates the windows7 beta - but anyone can opt in to the beta to try it out. It is NOT specific to windows 7 and will work on Windows 10 as well.

UPDATES

1. Added the new cargo management screen to the "Current Jobs" menu which should make it much easier to see what cargo you are carrying, where it is going and how you are progressing with jobs.

2. Ship MFD is no longer used for loading/unloading cargo - it is still there but please don't use it :) You should still be able to load fuel and ballast.

3. Updated the save game structure to handle the new cargo system

4. Unified the "Quick Job" system so that it works using the same system as normal jobs.

5. Fixed an issue with the world scaler preventing save games from loading

6. Fixed an issue with some of the ports being incorrectly assigned to the wrong islands.

7. Cargo loads and job progress should now be saved correctly

KNOWN ISSUES

1. Previous save games will not be compatible with the new cargo system.

2. The "Refuel" button on the "Current Jobs" menu doesn't work yet.

3. Total weight calculations do not currently work (the bay/compartment weights do work though)

4. There may be other issues that I haven't spotted yet...