The UI improvements continue to arrive this update adding a persistent notification center to the TAB menu. A combination of notifications that came though the chat, center screen popup, or old side screen popup have been moved into the new notification center. The old side screen popups have been reworked to look like the new notification center and now anything that appears there will hang out in the notification center until 5 new popups appear to flush it out.
Added a persistent list of the previous 5 notifications to the TAB menu in expedition.
Minor Features
Changed some chat and center screen popups to use the new notification system.
Decreased cowardly quarry maximum flee range.
Bug Fixes
Fixed harvest contracts always requesting drop off at copse.
Airmen 1.19.17: Expedition UI Overhaul
The expedition user interface is massively overhauled this update moving each individual element into its own sub-menu. While the original menu had everything in one quick-to-access location it was massively cluttered. The new menus bring focus to each screen and free up space for new menu functions.
Future updates will make good on the sacrifice of menu interaction speed by adding new tools to the interface. Expanded objective information and hiding along with a log of your most recent notifications will be the first new menu features to arrive.
Items marked with a * were added in a small update last week.
1.19.17
Major Features
Reworked the expedition menus.
Minor Features
Increased Bone, Torpedo, Lance and Bunker t3 cannon damage.
Increased gatling and bone cannon armor penetration.
Decreased 4 focuser mag beam damage.
Decreased Bunker t1 AoE size.
Added keybindings for opening the new map (M), objectives (O), and players (P) menu.
Increased contract rewards for hunts, rescues, and captures.*
Added a new transmutation loop to Black Mud Trenches.*
Bug Fixes
Attempted fix for spawn regions being blocked despite no ships being nearby.
Airmen 1.19.16: Black Mud Trenches Overhaul
Black Mud Trenches is completely overhauled this update. The old sloping cliff faces have been replaced with new cliff meshes. The region's trenches have be consequently widened for easier landship access. The number of willow trees has also been reduced to improve performance of the region.
If you notice any holes in the new cliff faces, please post a screenshot of the hole and your location on the map to the official discord.
Removed the very small ship power reduction on the ship stabilizer.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the camera flashing an incorrectly rotated frame when mounting a steering wheel with "Piloting Free Look" enabled.
Airmen 1.19.15: Box Balloon Remodel
The hoard of box balloon shapes grows larger this update now fully eclipsing the original balloon options. Box balloons have proven to be the more popular and accessible balloon option and will now replace the original balloons as the front-facing options. Their in-game models have also been updated to both look better and fill out more of their build-mode collider.
Remodeled all the large box balloons to give them a fuller bulging appearance.
Added the box balloon drum and drum cap.
Minor Features
Replaced the front balloons with box balloons.
Changed the small balloon part group to show box balloons first.
Added first person hand bobbing when landing from a fall.
Replaced the rocks in the hangar.
Bug Fixes
Fixed player animations not immediately returning to normal after dismounting a steering wheel.
Airmen 1.19.14: Roll Corrector Rework
This week's update overhauls the roll corrector. The old roll corrector has been removed from the parts list and made inactive in battle. The new ship stabilizer replaces the roll corrector allowing for correction around both the X and Z axis of the ship depending on how the stabilizer is placed. The ship stabilizers when placed appropriately fully enable traditionally unstable ships and in exchange come at a higher mass, volume, and pressure cost their their retired counterpart.
A slew of new box balloons arrive this update to fill the role of the small balloons. The new balloons are bulkier than their original counterparts but feature the massive number of connection points typical of box balloons. The small box balloons are available without any research.
Added the ability to destroy deployed shards by right clicking while in the turret.
Added a new small armored balloon: small armored balloon wide.
Added new box balloon shapes: rod, cone, and cone long.
Added a new glass shape: glass nose
Bug Fixes
Fixed square rudders not having a low detail variant.
Airmen 1.19.13: Environment Updates
Long ago promised terrain detail passes arrive this update targeting the most egregiously underdeveloped regions first. All ice islands are now textured to match their earthy counterparts leaving their old solid blue and pure white snow behind. The goal of using textures in some places of the game and not others is to up the level of detail on what would otherwise be large solid color blocks so don't expect similar updates to things with high mesh detail such as airmen and airships.
Alongside the ice island update, the improvements to Sunken Grove from last update have been finished off. This pass adds more cliffs, updates its old tree model, and adds an updated version of the large roots that appeared in the new build area.
Added more cliffs and large roots to Sunken Grove.
Updated the sand texture.
Updated the leaf and bark texture.
Updated tree models.
Updated the water shader to have a sharper edge and deeper semi-transparency.
Made the steering wheel a hard point.
Updated the hangar floor rim.
Dragoons can now be placed on forts and are not invincible when done so.
Expanded the spawn blocking size of ships on the map.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the tool tip name for pressure draw on the missile silo.
Update 1.19.12: The Spookening Part 3
The final chapter of the Spookening arrives this update adding a new themed weapon as a reward for dealing the finishing blow to the Glass Demon. The shard silo and shard cannon turret are an experimental paired weapon system. The shard silos function similarly to pigeon missiles however instead of seeking the furthest ship's engines the shard silos seek shards fired from allied ship's shard cannons. Shards fired from shard cannons deal minor damage but embed themselves into the target like a harpoon.
The new shard weaponry is likely the most complex ship weapon in Airmen so far. The weapon will likely under-perform pigeon missiles in a damage contest but offers many unique strategies. The shard silos can be mounted horizontally and their projectiles are more easily boarded. Additionally, while the shard turret has far shorter range than the shard silos, a separate ship can fire the designating shot allowing a slower ship equipped with shard silos to stay on target.
Remember that each impaled shard can be destroyed by damage like a harpoon. The designating shot can be destroyed by the target's crew or your own shard silos scoring accurate hits. Shard turrets are also stuck with whatever shard placement they end up with as shards can only be destroyed by damage and cannot be cleared from the turret like a harpoon.
1.19.12
Major Features
Added shard cannon turrets and silos.
Minor Features
Added some new cliffs between Stone Pillar Garden and Sunken Grove.
Bug Fixes
Fixed turreted gatling guns firing slowly at long range.
Airmen 1.19.11: The Spookening Part 2
This year's spooky enemy arrives to haunt your hardened aetherium hauls. Something seems disturbed by the amount of interdimensional travel across the Archipelago and has awakened from slumber. Take on the guardian of the demon gates to earn the resources you smuggle from the other side.
New rewards for taking on the guardian and collecting your easily earned demon glass will arrive next update as the final part of this year's Spookening.
1.19.11
Major Features
Added a spooky guardian that sometimes appears when Airmen pass through it's realm.
Minor Features
AI ships now display their bounty values as if they were player ships.
AI gunners will remain loyal to the original team of the ship after capture.
Increased the ship-mounted demon gate on ship-mounted demon gate linking range.
Bug Fixes
Fixed collected and acquired bounty not being delivered when redeploying.
Fixed AI ships being able to complete transmutation loop checkpoints.
Airmen 1.19.10: The Spookening Part 1
The prelude to this year's Spookening begins this update with the appearance of a mysterious new resource across the archipelago. Discover Demon Glass and the riches it leads to before anyone notices the meddling you've been up to.
On the less spooky side of this update the AI turret targeting algorithms have been updated to better deal with parts that are valid targets but functionally cannot be damaged. AI turrets will now choose targets based on their previous experience targeting that part. The turrets now consider how much damage they were able to deal when previously targeting a part and how much of that damage "stuck" so parts being heavily repaired or hidden within a ship will be lower priority.
1.19.10
Major Features
Added a mysterious resource hidden across the archipelago.
Added a new part related to the Spookening.
Minor Features
Improved auto turrets and AI gunner's ability to target parts they successfully damage.
Added a few trees to the hills between Fairleaf Plains and the volcano.
Bug Fixes
Fixed harvest contracts not being acceptable.
Airmen 1.19.9: Bunker Cannon Type III
The final variant of the bunker cannon arrives this update to round out the set. The Type III fires the most accurate projectile of the set and features a penetrating blast on impact like the lance and breach cannons.
The build mode environment receives a long overdue overhaul this update. The changes only affect the summer version for now but eventually it's style will spread to the winter variant and locations across the archipelago as part of map detail updates.
