The Third Anniversary Event kicks off this week adding the smoke dragoon, a new celebratory part. The smoke dragoon has a special cannon that can be fired to release a trail of smoke for 30 seconds. The new dragoon and last year's event items (fireworks cannons) can be unlocked by launching an expedition between now and next Thursday.
A new engine is available this update that fills a similar role to the small engine. The box engine is a mass-inefficient volume-efficient engine ideal for the loose mass constraints of landships. Its most tileable placement method consumes similar volume to the drum engine at a far higher mass cost. The new box engine does not require any research to unlock.
Reworked ship and resource spawning to use player positions instead of ship positions.
Weapons can be fired from control stations. This feature currently does not work with gatlings.
Added the box engine.
Added the smoke dragoon unlockable by launching an expedition during the 3rd anniversary event week.
Minor Features
The "building ships" screen now updates with its progress.
Updated all conquest related challenges to be completable in siege mode.
Wheels and tracks respond more harshly to going over draw.
Turrets now display 0 ammo when reloading starts.
Improved mirror mode to be capable of mirroring parts without symmetry around a placement point.
Bug Fixes
Fixed toggling player name visibility not updating while on an expedition.
Fixed some hunt ships spawning underground.
Fixed mines and missiles exploding when hitting players.
Cleaned up some always-on audio sources to reduce the frequency of audio cut outs.
Fixed dragon tails animating in reverse when on the left side of a ship.
Airmen 1.18.5: Beam Mount and Hull Ridge
Two small new parts are available this update thanks to last week's improvement to the hangar grid system. The beam mount and hull ridge add some extra flexibility by allowing any hull plate surface to function as a hull root or hull fork.
Custom servers can now set the maximum mass and part count in their server settings file. All official servers will maintain the standard limit of 30k mass and 700 parts. If you'd like to modify your maximum parts for solo play, you must edit your serversettings.txt file in the directory your ships are saved. Starting an expedition through the "Solo Expedition" button will reset this file to default so in order to maintain any modified limits the expedition must be started through the "Host" menu.
Added a beam mount part that has a cargo connection and a beam connection.
Added a hull ridge part that has a cargo connection and hull connection.
Minor Features
Added the ability to set the maximum part count on a server in the server settings file.
Added the ability to set the maximum ship mass on a server in the server settings file.
Mirror mode is toggled off when you return to hangar if it was off when you left.
Set ladders, railings and riggings as "transparent" for the purpose of third person piloting.
Upgraded the settings, research, stockpile and quest menus to the new UI style.
When connecting to a server a chat message containing the server's name, max parts, and max mass will appear.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the water in the hangar appearing white on lower quality settings.
Fixed the selected ship preview thumbnail not appearing when available if thumbnails were toggled off.
Fixed a white box appearing in the ship preview thumbnail.
Fixed glass not colliding with some ship parts.
Fixed the cargo haul menu not hiding if the menus were toggled in the hangar.
Fixed smoke screen being placeable inside itself.
Airmen 1.18.4: Grid Combined Parts
This week's update rolls out a major improvement to ship building mechanics, allowing parts with connection points in the same grid location to be placed in the same grid location. The new "4D" grid enables previously unavailable placements such as tool boards on opposite walls of a hallway or railings at the bottom of a ladder. Remember that while parts may share grid locations they still cannot be placed if one collides with another.
A swath of anti-greifing features are also available giving captains more control over who can join their crew without having to enable private crew. Captains can now ban players from their crew and any kicked crew member will be unable to rejoin the crew while the captain is still on the same expedition. Players dealing too much damage to their own ship will also be automatically kicked if their captain has "Auto Kick Griefers" enable in their settings. This function is on by default.
Any number of parts can now be placed in the same grid location when building, baring any collisions.
Minor Features
Players kicked from your crew cannot rejoin until the next time you captain. Inviting the player to your crew after they are kicked will allow them to join again.
Added the ability to mute players using /mute + any portion of a username. Players can be unmuted with /unmute + any portion of a username. Your mute list is stored alongside your ships and additional .mutelists can be added to the directory to combine them into one.
Added the ability to optionally automatically kick crew members that accumulate too much grief score. This option is on by default and can be toggled off in settings.
Captains can now ban/unban other players from their crew from the scoreboard. Crew banned players are kicked immediately if they are banned by their captain and can never join the crew of a captain that banned them. Your ban list is stored alongside your ships and additional .banlists can be added to the directory to combine them into one.
Mirror mode will now only delete matching parts instead of anything that fills the same grid location.
Updated the example ship roster to include researchless ships, an updated starter and landships.
Bug Fixes
Fixed cargo ships not spawning.
Fixed the turret handles on the hangar version of the light upside down surface mounted twin turret being out of position.
Fixed being able to repair players beyond full HP.
Fixed gravity turning off past the borders of the map.
Fixed some rocks in Windgrove Forest that were missing colliders.
Fixed clouds on some islands using low quality versions up close.
Swapped the rescue provider's transport dragoon to a scout dragoon.
Airmen 1.18.3: Initial Spawn Selection
The benefits of the redeployment system are further expanded this update allowing captains to choose their initial spawn location during the loading process. A captain can choose their spawn point by pressing the "select spawn point" option in the connecting overlay. If the spawn select UI is not opened before its time to spawn the ship, the server will wait 10 seconds before randomly selecting a region.
When choosing a spawn region and bringing a fort, the fort will spawn in the nearest possible fort spawn point to the region selected. Keep in mind not all regions support all types of forts so selecting an island such as Cauldron with a landfort will result in a spawn at Sunken Grove.
This week's update also breaks the record for oldest bug fixed, fixing an error in the calculation of a ship's rotational inertia. Previous values were far lower than they should be especially for ships that are very flat along one axis. Rudder and propeller torque values have been adjusted to compensate but every ship will undoubtedly handle differently. This fix should also improve the jittering on landships.
Added the ability to select your spawn region while loading in.
Fixed an error in rotational inertia calculations that resulted in ships having unrealistically low inertia. Adjusted torque applying effects accordingly. This change should reduce landship jittering and affect how every ship tilts and turns.
Minor Features
Reworked the thrust limit calculation to better limit multi-axis thrust. Previously a ship using 100% thrust forward and vertical would suffer a ~30% thrust penalty; the ship would now suffer a 50% thrust penalty.
Only forts will appear in the fort selection menu. Landforts must be loaded and resaved to appear.
Only ships will appear in the ship selection menu.
The active tab in the ship loading menu is underlined.
Removed the old map and conquest mode since they both no longer function properly.
Bug Fixes
Fixed airman elbows not being in the right place immediately when mounting a steering wheel, dragoon, or turret for the first time.
Fixed opening the settings menu while in free camera showing HUD after all menus are closed.
Fixed trees at tablet not being properly batched.
Gravity will not be applied to ships if the cell they are in has not been fully loaded. This should fix landships spawning underground in some specific cells.
Airmen 1.18.2: Tank Tracks
Airmen's third form of land movement arrives this update with tank tracks. Tracks and a new researchable propulsion system that is highly durable, reliable and mobile at the cost of speed. Compared to wheels, tracks have lower acceleration and top speed but can pivot in place and more easily handle rough terrain. While their suspension length is greatly reduced, their large footprint means their thrust isn't wasted spinning in midair. Tracks should fill an accessibility role between wheels and spider legs.
It should be unsurprising that despite the treaded appearance of tracks that they still function using the existing wheel system and will share in all the drawbacks. Each "track" consists of three wheels and will count towards the twenty wheel limit accordingly. The five wheel track variants also use three wheels and the second and fourth wheels are fakes. There are a few mechanics working together to make these three wheels function as a track should though such as thrust pooling that ensures three wheels worth of torque is output even if only one wheel is grounded. While these limitations shouldn't appear when using track within their limits know that pushing them beyond will encounter unavoidable issues.
1.18.2
Major Features
Added 5 new track variants.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the collider of the default steering wheel being too large on the bottom.
Fixed ships with insufficient lift being treated as airships when redeploying.
Fixed the desert installation caches being uncollectable.
Fixed some cacti being not being properly destroyed when cut.
Airmen 1.18.1: New Map Detailing
This week's update focuses on many minor features of the new map adding things like location arrival HUD popups, cacti to Riverguard Island, and exterior independent lighting to tunnel outposts. More minor features along these lines will continue to roll out over time to further improve the new map.
The heavy cannon also receives some attention this update. Fixed ship weapons have never been very popular in-game due their increased difficulty of execution. the goal of adjusting the heavy cannon is not to change its nature but to slightly lower the difficulty of execution. The heavy cannon now fires a shotgun-like blast of three projectiles so pilots can score consistent hits on critical parts without perfect aim and a large number of guns. Unlike a shotgun, each projectile gains damage as it travels so short, long, and medium range hits are all equally effective.
Added descriptions for all regions in the redeploy menu.
Added cacti to Riverguard Island.
Added copse to the new map.
Reimplemented the Francis Drake challenge on the new map.
Added region entry popups to the new map.
Added independent interior lighting/weather conditions to sewer outpost interiors.
Heavy cannons now fire 3 shots at once with damage scaling from 30% to 100% from minimum to maximum range.
Increased the hit points and pressure generation of the heavy engine.
Added audio for when the local player takes or stores parcels or scrap.
Bug Fixes
Fixed respawning in the ocean in sandbox.
Fixed sandbox AI ships spawning far away.
Airmen 1.18.0: New Map Full Release
This week's update implements the final missing feature of the map: random AI ship spawns. With this final feature now included, all servers will now host the new map and systems that rely on the old map will be temporarily unavailable as they are configured for the new map such as the Francis Drake Challenge. While the new map has feature parity with the old map, there is still some work to be done in resource distribution across the land regions, region descriptions, and regional detailing.
A major utility function has also been added allowing captains to change their ship without leaving their expedition lobby. The captain can change their ship from the redeploy or resupply options menus and the change in ship is applied after the next redeployment. An option to abandon ship has also been added in the event you'd like to redeploy but your ship cannot be extracted.
Retired the old map and changed the default map to the new map.
Added AI cargo ship spawns to the new map.
Added AI fort and outpost spawns to the new map.
Minor Features
You can abandon your ship at any outpost.
You can change your ship at any outpost.
Landships now spawn the same height above the ground no matter their size.
Updated quests and tool tips to reflect gameplay on the new map.
Bug Fixes
Blocked some wheel placements that cannot be properly animated.
Fixed being able to control map zoom while not mousing over the map.
Parcels dropped off the map will no longer disappear or be unable to be picked up.
Deployable targets off the map can now be targeted.
Fixed collecting some resources locking the crosshair.
Fixed drone lasers firing through glass.
Airmen 1.17.15: Player Fort Overhaul
Forts receive a major overhaul this update transforming them from weaponized cubes to player designed outposts. Player forts now feature amenities you'd find at an outpost including ship repair, redeploying, and contracts. The new player forts are also completely invincible so you can bring a fort without babysitting it. Player forts are now available on the new map.
The artifact has also been added to the new map and received a small overhaul to accommodate the new map's design. Instead of dragging the artifact to a fort to receive the rewards of its transmutations, the artifact will automatically deliver its reward once 50k mass has been transmuted. Whichever ship controls the artifact at the time of the final charging will receive the reward.
The new map has come a long way since introduction and only a single feature of the old map is still missing. Once random map spawns like cargo ships and cargo forts are introduced to the new map, it will have achieved parity and the old map will be retired.
Player forts are now indestructible and cannot have weapons.
Removed player fort's ability to teleport.
Added redeploy and resupply options to the fort teleporter.
Minor Features
Added player land forts.
Added fort foundation parts.
The selected part in the hangar now rotates to match the current placement faces.
Added a marker indicating the current placement face of the selected part.
Reworked player fort contract boards to use the new contract interface.
Reworked the artifact to automatically deliver once more than 50k mass has been transmuted while being controlled.
The body sections of the domesticated mechalodon are now immune to damage to match enemy mechalodon.
Removed the 4 player fort limit.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the planar shifting button axes being swapped and reversed.
Fixed mag beams not damaging glass.
Fixed submerged ships with pressure wells sometimes not having pressure.
Fixed the domesticated mechalodon jittering in water with low mass.
Fixed the dismantle button not hiding after being clicked.
Airmen 1.17.14: New Map Sieges
Sieges arrive on the new map this week and are ready to play for airships, watercraft, and landships. Each siege is transferred from the old map and three have been made available for landships. Remember to bring a dragoon to easily reach the airforts. Along with sieges, the remaining functionality of contract forts have been implemented into all outposts across the map. You can now repair and restock your ship at any outpost as you can at a contract fort.
Third-person piloting has also been enabled in expedition. This is a highly impactful feature intended to help pilots better understand how their ship is handling. Its all too common for ships to have bad visibility pilot seats that trade away important information about the ship in exchange for meaningless durability. To maintain the scope of this feature and not negate the advantage of well placed pilots seats, a clear line of sight must be maintained to the camera's location or it will zoom in till it is no longer obstructed. You can toggle piloting perspective by pressing "V" while using the steering wheel.
The backed up camera while piloting in sandbox is now available in expeditions.
Minor Features
Added the obelisk to horizon on the new map.
Added a quartermaster to all outposts that can be used to activate repair ship, refill scrap, and refill tools fort functions.
Upgraded some siege forts.
Added markers for all outposts on the new map.
Added some installations from the old map to the new map.
Siege players now receive the bounties of destroyed ships when the siege ends or is failed.
Added a map view to the contract selector and redeploy menus.
Added map mouse over text to regions on the new map.
Added a small amount of CoM assist to wheels so inevitably top heavy landships roll less easily.
Bug Fixes
Removed the custom keybinding for sending chat as it cannot be remapped and causes issues if it is.
Fixed hovering bushes sometimes appearing.
Fixed connection faces not hiding when creating ship thumbnails.
Fixed contracts not abandoning when redeploying.
Fixed lightning appearing too low on the new map.
Fixed resupply messages not appearing in solo expedition.
Fixed the chat field not appearing in the contract UI.
Airmen 1.17.13: New Map Islands
This week's update brings all islands from the old map to the new map. The islands have been reorganized and tightly packed in the northern and eastern sides of the new map. Each island has also been updated with redeploy points for airships and watercraft. Not all of the island's special activities have been transferred yet but the synthesizers and mechalodon are ready for battle.
Now that all the required land has been added to the new archipelago, its map has been rendered. Due to the higher detail of the new map and extra information required to navigate it with a landship, its style has been switched up. A player location focused zoom has also been added to better see the details of your surrounding area.
Finally along with water focused terrain, the tunnel redeploy points have been upgraded with fully equipped interiors. Airships, landships and watercraft should now all have equal access to contracts on the new map.
