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From The Depths News

Beta 3.2.9

What is up Depthians!!

In this update, we will be showing you two new features to From The Depths via YouTube rather than screenshots and walls of text. We hope you like this format for showing off new functions or features.
In the following link, we go through the new projectile damage logging tool and a handy visual aid showing you where your turrets are getting stuck while trying to rotate :D. However, in order to try and keep it short, you will have to check out the changelog as there are more additions/tweaks as well as a boatload of bug fixes.
We also go talk about some news at Brilliant skies for the next month or so.

https://youtu.be/sA-v_b9NYG4

Changelog

[h2]Additions[/h2]
[h3]AI[/h3]
- A troubleshooter has been added for the AI that will provide feedback if your AI does not match the capabilities of your vehicle
- Naval and land AI now properly uses the yaw controller during reversing.
- Naval and land AI now uses forward/backward controller during idling to bring speed to 0 m/s.
- Point at behaviour will make ‘reverse’ paths (sea/land) cheap (if reversing enabled) if we are too close to our target and pointing at them.
- The path view for AI has been upgraded to show how the waypoints are adjusted by the various stages of the AI. The markers, if you mouse over them, will show tooltips.
[h3]Blocks[/h3]
- Spin blocks have an option to reverse the angle controller value when moving backwards. Useful for large rudders on spin blocks.
[h3]Damage[/h3]
- Added damage logging system (enable from vehicle V menu). It shows kinetic, HE, HEAT, HESH and fragment damage markers and explanations for each projectile/missile that hits the vehicle. Useful for debugging.
[h3]Missiles[/h3]
- [BUGS-2350] Added new default guidance to (optionally) replace sea-skimming mode. It flies in the direction it is currently facing.
- [BUGS-2350] Added new default guidance to (optionally) replace sea-skimming mode. It flies in the direction it was launched.
- Added small and large reverse launchers.
[h3]Wheels[/h3]
- Added a reset to default button for wheel configuration tab
[h2]Changes[/h2]
[h3]AI[/h3]
- Airplane movement idle distance is now unified with the wander distance mechanic, creating a circular wander for the out of combat vehicle.
- All AI interfaces have been tidied up and now feature a full description of what the behaviour/manoeuvre does
[h3]Air Ducts[/h3]
- Previous change reverted. All single air duct blocks have now had their HP value halved. 3×3 and larger lose 1/4 HP and weight. This puts them in their intended role.
[h3]Applique[/h3]
- Applique armour can now create air gaps when hit centrally (the path of the projectile through the mesh is modelled). This means HEAT fragments and HESH spalling will be released from it.
- Applique armour does not get directly damaged by HEAT jet penetration
- Applique armour is structural for the purpose of HESH, increasing the AP of the spalling that will come from it (either released into it’s own air gap, or passing down the sides of the armour panels).
[h3]APS[/h3]
- All fragmentation warheads are now forced to share cone angle and offset values, as these were always averaged across the warheads anyway
- Shells without a pen fuse and using heavy, AP or sabot head will not explode on contact. They only trigger when they run out of kinetic damage
- The APS ammo customisation UI has been updated to the new format
- There is now a drop down in the ammo customisation UI to select the gauge of your weapons, and gauges that will fill the various clip sizes
[h3]Blocks[/h3]
- Aileron and tailplane now use the absolute velocity of the vehicle, so they work the as expected when moving in reverse.
- Hydrofoil, by default, will now work in reverse the same as it works in forward
- Rudder, by default, will now work in reverse the same as it works in forward
- The vehicle blueprint spawner can now spawn up to 100 vehicles instead of 10, and if you choose the max value there will be no limitation to the number of spawned vehicles
[h3]Ducts[/h3]
- Ducts no longer absorb HEAT damage. They are treated like ‘structural blocks’ for the purposes of HEAT.
[h3]ERA[/h3]
- ERA no longer explodes below 50% health. ERA also no longer actually kills projectiles near it when it dies.
- ERA rewrote. Projectiles (other than CRAM) have their explosions triggered by touching an ERA. An ERA-triggered explosion has 20% HE/FLAK damage/radius, 20% HESH thump damage, and 180° fragment release angle. The first HEAT jet or HESH implantation to interact with the ERA panel will be stopped in its tracks (HESH must be implanted onto ERA for there to be an effect). Kinetic hollow point damage will not take place if the shell explodes. Kinetic/hollow point damage of a kinetic shell that has not exploded at this point is reduced by 2500 to a minimum of 100 (this includes CRAM). EMP and smoke effects happen as usual.
[h3]Missile[/h3]
- Huge missile efficiency and health modifiers down by 20%
- [BUGS-2209] Beam riders now have the option of following other missile lasers on the vehicle, not just those attached to their controller.
- [BUGS-2209] Laser designator receivers now output a velocity value to allow APN and TPG guidance to improve the chance of hitting a moving designated target. If you don’t want this function just remove the APN and TPG from the missile.
- The missile editing UI now uses drop-down menus instead of incremental sliders, where appropriate.
[h2]Fixes[/h2]
[h3]AI[/h3]
- [BUGS-3121] Empty manoeuvre UI now shows the wander distance, order complete distance and Use Velocity Instead of Forward toggle (which has now been changed to a default of ‘off).
- [BUGS-3129] Failsafes now have a default range of 500m for self-checks. Anything that was the old default of 50m will become 500m.
- Look ahead distance for six-axis now only takes effect as we approach a final waypoint. This fixes issues using it in conjunction with sea surface pathfinding.
[h3]APS[/h3]
- [BUGS-3135] Elevation mantlet is now able to fire at 100° elevation (previously this would be evaluated as a 180° azimuth angle and dis-allowed)
- If you place a secondary HEAT warhead on the nose cone it will now work
- The HE special factor slider is now only shown for HE warheads where it is actually used
[h3]Blocks[/h3]
- [BUGS-3124] Slope transition pieces now all have the same convex ‘seam’ across their top surface.
- Mention of reinforcement bonus in the description was wrong on 2m,3m and 4m beams. This has been removed.
[h3]Breadboard[/h3]
- [BUGS-2255] Drive setter component no longer sets drives where no input wire is attached
[h3]Building[/h3]
- [BUGS-2243] Issue with build marker being rotated long after command was made
- [BUGS-2971] it’s no longer possible to place a fortress at an odd angle
[h3]Campaign[/h3]
- [BUGS-3119] Blockade battle start timers now tick down based on the game speed
[h3]CJE hull[/h3]
- Hull parts have had their descriptions corrected and the cost reduced to +10 over standard parts.
[h3]ERA[/h3]
- ERA is no longer marked as a structural component, and a HESH shockwave hitting a distant ERA panel will damage it like any other nonstructural block.
[h3]Exhaust[/h3]
- [BUGS-2928] Hull exhaust pipes no longer connect to cylinders in directions that they should not
[h3]Fleets[/h3]
- [BUGS-3117] out-of-play fleet vibration fixed
Graphics
- [BUGS-3089] Some minor issues with cut away views fixed
[h3]HEAT & HESH[/h3]
- Multi-threading issues fixed in HEAT and hesh that stopped them releasing fragments on the first non-structural block they killed
[h3]Misc[/h3]
- Multiple typos of the word manoeuvre fixed.
[h3]Missiles[/h3]
- [BUGS-2173] Issues with sea skimming default guidance and APN fixed.. APN and target prediction guidance no longer run when the ‘target’ is a default manoeuvre (such as sea skimming) (or when the target has a dummy velocity value of 0 (e.g beam rider aim points)).
- [BUGS-2209] Designator receiver logic fix for lasers that control ‘Missiles on this team’. Should all work as expected now.
- [BUGS-3112] GPP use of remote guidance is no longer double counted when several LWCs are controlling a missile controller.
- [BUGS-3131] Missiles will no longer change their rotation when in contact with colliders and are no longer super bouncy. This stops them from clipping through their launching vehicle.
[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
- [BUGS-2956] fixed a number of multiplayer issues with pistons
- [BUGS-3110] issue with undo of block removal fixed for multiplayer clients
[h3]Muzzle Brake[/h3]
- The description mentioned a reduction in speed. This is incorrect and has been removed.
[h3]Particles[/h3]
- All particle systems will now use the ‘Particles factor’ and ‘Auto-regulation’ performance options
[h3]PID[/h3]
- [BUGS-2938] Fake set point for altitude in AI hover controller now goes from -1000 to +3000 (as per GP PID)
[h3]Repairing[/h3]
- [BUGS-2912] Fixed an issue with large turrets not repairing on specific vehicles
[h3]Sails[/h3]
- [BUGS-2942] Wind speed was not properly taken into account for the useful component of force on a sail (sailboats faster now). The weather vane now shows wind speed as well.
[h3]Shields[/h3]
- [BUGS-3111] Shield reflections causing explosions of inertially fused shells to happen at local coord [0,0,0] fixed
[h3]Steam[/h3]
- [BUGS-2815] Idle steam turbine tooltips show correct kinetic energy values
- [BUGS-2943] Steam jet particles now come from the correct place when placed on a sub construct
- Smoke leaking from 4m pipes will now exit at the correct location
[h3]Turrets[/h3]
- [BUGS-3101] turrets and spinners now check overlaps at integer degree steps (1°,2°,etc) to avoid some turrets managing to rotate when they shouldn’t, and becoming very unpredictable.
[h3]UI[/h3]
- [BUGS-3087] drive slider in propeller (and other) UIs no longer disappears after visiting stats tab
[h3]Video[/h3]
- [BUGS-2880] Youtube videos are working again
[h3]Weapons[/h3]
- [BUGS-3116] Fixed a recursion issue in synched weapons when they are synched with each other and dead
[h2]Removed[/h2]
[h3]AI[/h3]
- Tank broadside behaviour no longer selectable. It’s the same as naval broadside behaviour (now called Broadside 2.0) so use that instead.

Stable 3.2.8 Hotfix

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h2]Changes[/h2]
[h3]Ducts[/h3]
  • HP and weight values have been halved have for parts of the duct that have less armour visible. 3x3 has a 1 block adjustment, 5x5 has a 5 block adjustment, 7x7 has a 24 block adjustment.


[h2]Fixes[/h2]
[h3]Ducts[/h3]
  • Heavy armour HP values were wrong, these were corrected.

[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
  • Fixed issue with infinite materials in multiplayer designer overflowing to -materials on the client

Stable 3.2.7 Hotfix

Changelog


[h2]Fixes[/h2]
[h3]Missiles[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3096] H missiles can no longer default to interceptor types

[h3]Regression[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3095] rail charge was being used up on guns that could not fire due to synch delays

Stable 3.2.6 Missile Hotfix

Hey Depthians!
We had reports about missiles not despawning properly which needed to be squashed asap and therefore, you have some more bugfixes xD
Changelog

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
[h3]Blocks[/h3]
  • 16 pounder cannon now has a sound effect when firing

[h3]Laser Warner[/h3]
  • [BUGS-252] laser warner now explains that it only deploys smoke on the same level of the construct as itself (hull,turret,spinner) and the ACB ‘Laser attack’ condition now checks for attacks on the level of the construct that the ACB is on.

[h3]Modding[/h3]
  • Sound pitch and distance in the modding menu now have a suitable number of decimal places

[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3094] added ‘Destroy All Vehicles’ and ‘Destroy Enemy Vehicles’ options to multiplayer designer
  • [BUGS-3094] Blueprint spawned automated spawns should now work regardless of the source of the blueprint you (or the enemy faction motherships) are trying to spawn
  • BUGS-3094] Infinite resources now in the multiplayer designer, for all teams

[h3]Regression[/h3]
  • Missiles did not disappear after a call to destroy all vehicles

[h3]UI[/h3]
  • Fixed display of ‘events’ (would not properly display the text paragraphs due to localisation issue)
  • Fixed Steam stats UI issue where ‘interval’ was displayed instead of the actual interval in seconds. Localisation issue.

Stable 3.2.5 bug fixes

Changelog


[h2]Additions[/h2]
[h3]AI[/h3]
  • Airplane manoeuvre routine now explains it's usage of the 6 control modules in the UI
  • Airplane manoeuvre routine now writes explanatory messages to the text shown in 'path view' so you can see what it is doing

[h3]CJE[/h3]
  • Pressing Q on any CJE part (except the generator) will now open the controller interface

[h3]Missiles[/h3]
  • Missile damage is now shown by the addition of black smoke and a black trail to the missile.

[h2]Changes[/h2]
[h3]AI[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3079] Airplane manoeuvre when doing a banking turn will now use yaw to get the vehicle to pitch at a specific angle rather than simply commanding the yaw axis to activate. This should increase pitch/altitude control during banking turns.

[h3]CJE[/h3]
  • Hull blocks are now only 50 mats more expensive than their non-standard counterpart. They have a weight increase of 0.50.

[h3]Missiles[/h3]
  • Missile damage, thrust and manoeuvrability are now proportional to the missile's health. This has been changed to make non-lethal missile defences still useful. It's also seen as a realistic and interesting change.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
[h3]AI[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2290] Naval AI behaviour no longer tries to maintain the mean broadside distance if the specified angle is more than 30° from the -90 or 90 broadside angles. Simple broadside behaviour now has a maximum range of 5km.
  • [BUGS-2404] hover and airplane manoeuvre routines now have a toggle to ignore the pitch demand sent from the behaviour. Useful if you have a helicopter that needs to pitch forward to move forward.

[h3]APS[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3085] transparent shell clip 2m armour class was 7, should have been 8

[h3]APS and Missile[/h3]
  • The meshes for APS shells and missiles are no longer wiped when the projectiles are still in flight. The deletion of the mesh happens when it's certain the mesh is no longer needed (visible).

[h3]Autosave[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3071] Issue with autosave and player triggered save of the same vehicle messing each other up. Fixed now.

[h3]Blocks[/h3]
  • [BUGS_2671] Balloons no longer die when god mode is active for a vehicle
  • [BUGS-3072] Helium pump UI says 'Air pump' all over the place. Fixed now.
  • The video screen will now display the camera using the correct LOD [BUGS-3047]
  • Tracks freezed the game in some rare situations when despawning [BUGS-2965]

[h3]Building[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2793] it is no longer possible to get a free block via mirrored placement of a block you can afford (when you don't have the money for the mirrored copy)

[h3]CJE[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3077] Fixed incorrect stats on connectors.
  • Flooding calculation inverted between small and large CJE [BUGS-2940]

[h3]Control[/h3]
  • [BUGS-1413] Misc control axis A-E now have the non-reversable toggle

[h3]CRAM[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2662] CRAM explosions can now damage missiles

[h3]Custom Battle[/h3]
  • Fixed custom battle health fraction ignoring sub-constructs

[h3]Fleets[/h3]
  • [BUGS-1290] Fleets will now return to the final waypoint they were given if they wander off station whilst in some other mode (when they are returned to fleet move or put out of play).

[h3]Game[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2785] Fixed an issue where spawning a dead blueprint that had an 'illegal block' that could not be placed messed up the assignment of data packets to all subsequent blocks
  • [BUGS-2923] out of play stats now include the use of Crank Motors
  • [BUGS-3049] the construct water level calculation type can now adjust for a growing vehicle even if the vehicle is out of the water. This issue led to large structrures becoming laggy whilst building them (fixed by pulling and playing or saving and loading).

[h3]Lasers[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3065] made it clear that trying to synch laser combiners that are attached to the same multi-purpose laser is not recommended

[h3]Lua[/h3]
  • [BUGS-1041] Added some code to avoid errors being thrown by GetNumberOfWarnings() calls by Lua (looking for munition warning count)
  • [BUGS-2750] I.BlueprintSpawners property exception fix for Lua
  • [BUGS-2846] GetLuaControlledMissileInfo no longer throws an exception if there is no Lua receiver on the missile being returned

[h3]Missiles[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3064] Fixed a missile UI issue where if you only had a few components on the missiles then only the first few parameters of a missile module would be editable
  • [BUGS-3078] H missiles work with failsafes (bug fix)
  • Fixed some issues with custom smoke colours. Setting R,G,B to 0,0,0 now disables smoke (as was originally intended) and dark smoke can now be displayed.
  • Staggered salvo firing of missiles managed to bypass the hull aiming constraints and fire off one missile in a salvo

[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2674] missile hatches now work correctly on clients in multiplayer

[h3]PAC[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2845] PAC lenses now take into account the orientation of the PAC firing piece when considering the horizontal and vertical drift of the PAC pulse

[h3]Pathfinding[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3070] Pathfinding 'on sea' now checks for land within 60m instead of 30m. Pathfinding 'on land' now checks for land sea within 60m (it was previously using the 'on sea' check)
  • [BUGS-3070] Tanks will now respect their 'max altitude' variable when pathfinding on land (they will use this variable to determine what hills they can climb and what hills they should avoid

[h3]Sounds[/h3]
  • [BUGS-3055] Audio popping of CRAM and dediblade fixed (mostly affects Linux I believe)

[h3]Turrets[/h3]
  • Some tweaks to the code to try and catch the bug where turret rotation speeds are calculated to be 0°/s

[h3]UI[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2748] Tweak to the inventory to fix issues when pressing R to select a mirrored block that is not displayed on the inventory
  • [BUGS-2895] 1m piston now has a quick access icon for the middle mouse click HUD extensions in build mode

[h3]Weather[/h3]
  • [BUGS-2655] It no longer rains/snows on the map

[h3]Winches[/h3]
  • Fixed an issue with sail winches (and perhaps other things) where they could be driven negative by using the a -1 power scale