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[Akura]

They've released a new version today... and in my opinion it has thoroughly screwed over controls. You can now control all three drive settings(main, second, tertiary) separately without needing to use a complex controller/drive maintainer combo, which is good, but they've rearranged the controls for doing so.

Default controls for main/secondary/tertiary drives are(respectively) U/J, T/G, and R/F. This applies to both the vehicle controller and ship's wheel, not sure about other control interfaces. There's a lot of other control actions, but I don't know what any of them do, and the GUI showing the control layout is now so tiny that it's impossible to read.

Also, ships made in this version are not going to be backwards compatible once saved.

[Ozyton]

I was waiting for the AI update to get back into this. Was contemplating getting a game called Stormworks which also allows you to build stuff but is more focused on having you manually pilot stuff than having robots doing it but maybe if this update is good enough I'll be entertained over the 4 day weekend I have coming up.

The key mapping UI is kinda ugly, but you can make the font large in the UI tab. I'm using a 2560x1440 monitor with the font set to 16 point and I can see it fine. If anything I wish the giant buttons to select building blocks were smaller, they're so big that the poles go over the checklist on the bottom right and if you click on a button that's over that then you might click the checkbox underneath it instead. What exactly are the secondary and tertiary drives for? I've only seen craft with primary drives before.

Just opened the game now. Seems the only new AI stuff is being able to set a left-only or right-only broadside? Unless I'm missing something.

[Akura]

I played around with some of the new control setups, in spite of the UI difficulties. You can set things other than propulsion systems to use drive controls(among other things), for example I was able to change the burn rate on a boiler using secondary drives while using main drives for the propellers. It's a bit screwy, though. Aside from having no explanation on how it works, trying to zero out the drive setting(for secondary drive, that's T+G at the same time) caused the boiler to flip between 2% and 54% or around there.

[EnigmaticHat]

Since I keep trying to give people advice about this game, I figure I might as well upload some of my (very few) successful designs.  Some of them might not work in this version of the game... I don't really have the time to tweak designs in this game like I used to.  All 3 of them are ships.

A cruiser that's just generally expensive and powerful.  The only thing I've ever built that can 1v1 most of the midgame caimpaign vehicles and win... or at least there was a previous version where it could.

A ship designed on the premise that its turrets are standard sizes so they can be swapped out to customize it for different roles.  Unfortunately what I discovered is that the ammo and energy requirements of different weapon types vary enough that just swapping out turrets isn't enough.  Used to be able to catch almost any physical projectile sent at it, but was hit hard by LAM changes a while ago.  Still should be a decent example of CRAM cannons + LAM + shields.

A battleship designed to snipe surface targets from the edge of sensor range.  It used to have grappling missiles that would drag small fighter craft into the ocean where it could hit them, but they seem to crash into the ship upon launching now.  Its defense scheme also seems to be markedly worse now, not sure why.

[Akura]

Working on a submarine. Rubber exterior with metal backing. I remember that rubber is one of the best anti-radar/anti-sonar materials besides alloy, but alloy is terrible for a submarine since it is more buoyant than wood. Along the bottom of the hull there's a fairly large 3m-wide lead keel, which is sufficient to keep it from rolling.

Current problem is that is does not sink. An unsinkable ship? Inconceivable! An unsinkable submarine? More inconceivable!
There's nothing inside besides doors at the moment. No air pumps, so the whole interior is flooded. But the water line comes just below the deck. If I start adding the interior parts, such as the engine, will it that be heavy enough to sink it but not too heavy that air pumps cannot float it?

Is there also a better way to utilize ladders to enter/exit the submarine besides using two hatches(or a 2m-tall door laid flat)? Because ladder blocks do block motion.

[MrRoboto75]

My subs used a hydrofoil setup with PID, to force them underwater.  The sub pulls itself down as long as it moves forward.

[Greiger]

Working on a submarine. Rubber exterior with metal backing. I remember that rubber is one of the best anti-radar/anti-sonar materials besides alloy, but alloy is terrible for a submarine since it is more buoyant than wood. Along the bottom of the hull there's a fairly large 3m-wide lead keel, which is sufficient to keep it from rolling.

Current problem is that is does not sink. An unsinkable ship? Inconceivable! An unsinkable submarine? More inconceivable!
There's nothing inside besides doors at the moment. No air pumps, so the whole interior is flooded. But the water line comes just below the deck. If I start adding the interior parts, such as the engine, will it that be heavy enough to sink it but not too heavy that air pumps cannot float it?

Is there also a better way to utilize ladders to enter/exit the submarine besides using two hatches(or a 2m-tall door laid flat)? Because ladder blocks do block motion.

I am having a similar problem.  All metal submarine, not even hydrofoils are enough to push it under  I got it to finally sink by putting a bunch of propellers on the underside of it to pull it down but the damn thing just insists on constantly pitching upward so it's nose points out of the water.  It's also got a problem with the weapon mainframes that are supposed to control a dumbfire torpedo broadside just fire the torpedos no matter where the enemy is.  I remember hearing secondary mainframes let you do that, but I don't see how.

[EnigmaticHat]

There's a good chance that from underwater its detection is so bad that it generates wildly inaccurate/random target locations.  You could try creating an above-water platform with sensors + an wireless transmitter, to relay targets.

Alternately, I've heard that you need to place the main block of another weapons system down on a dumbfire turret for the thing to actually point where its supposed to point.  So if you're using a turret try slapping a laser block down.

[MrRoboto75]

Yeah, I don't think the gunnery AI knows to lead the shots for dumbfire missiles.

[Akura]

Tried using hydrofoils and a PID, no go. Had to install the hydrofoils upside-down since they were installed aft. Might have to redo the propeller placement. I do however hate using propellers to fake an effect that physics should have had, whether it's getting a sub to go down or keeping a ship from doing so. And as for propellers, I'd actually like them to have more power and subsequently use more engine power. Since the sub I'm building is mostly based off the WWII US Gato-class(main difference is the lack of an aft torpedo room), it would have two engine rooms yet one 8-cylinder/carb engine is several times sufficient.

[Vivalas]

I have a really good ASW platform that doubles as an anti-surface platform in a pinch. It's a thrustercraft so a bit inefficient, but fast and sturdy as airplanes go. It launches sonar bouys into the water when an enemy is detected within 500 or so meters, and then uses a camera and laser tracker to home in precisely on the submerged target. It has 2 triple torpedo launchers on each side that it then uses to blow up the underwater crafts.

I tweaked the hell out of it and it is very deadly, even against surface ships. I love the lua script I found on the forums, since it can accurately do runs and come back and reacquire, but it is also able to dodge missiles whilst doing so.

Edit: link

[Ozyton]

There was an update yesterday, apparently multithreading? I haven't played for a few months so I have no idea how the game is now. The menus look cleaner overall, but more boring. Then again a lot of the buttons used to look like they were made using Power Point or something.

[Akura]

Reading off the patch notes: multithreading support, improvements to the breadboard(which I have absolutely no idea how to use), autoloaders now save the bullet they have chambered with the design, and the best feature of all: you can get rid of those damn seagulls.

[LoSboccacc]

> autoloaders now save the bullet they have chambered with the design

about goddammit time, took them long enough for such a simple thing that made advanced cannons a travesty in the campaign. now if they could fix steam pressure in the same way it'd be playable again

[Ozyton]

I kinda want to be able to set an order for APS shells to fire. I have a rapid fire AAA set up to fire a mix of sabot shells and sabot with tracer rounds, and I only want to fire a tracer round every 10-15 shots or so. Right now it seems to shoot a tracer whenever it feels like it.

I also found the option to lower tracer lengths of all shells and reduced it to 0.1 and now the shells look much nicer in flight.