We are ending the year in style with a final Liftoff: Micro Drones update for 2021. Thank you for your support and enthusiasm, it makes a massive difference! Stay tuned for an amazing 2022!
Changelist
Tweaked drag values, this should result in a more locked in feeling.
Introduced damage calculation differences for frames with and without prop guards.
Update the damage indicator with colors, should be easier to notice prop damage.
Level selector has been added to the singleplayer finish screen, quickly jump to the next level or track when finishing a race.
Some ground surfaces should now slide more.
More drone customisation options: added a motor category
Added 3 brushed and 10 brushless motor variations. These impact flight behaviour.
Flight behaviour tweaks
Last week’s throttle update was a success: you tried it out, liked it (awesome!) and provided us with additional feedback. This feedback all pointed in the same direction, tweaking the drag value might push it another step closer to perfection. In this update, the drag coefficient has been slightly increased, this should make the micro drones feel more locked in: sharper cornering, less drifting, and a slight decrease in overall speed. Your favourite Micro Drone should now be a lot more controllable, without losing that magic fun feeling we already offered in previous versions. We’d love to know what you think!
More content and customisation
The current Early Access version already offers solid fun experience, but can’t hold its ground in terms of content compared to classic sims like Liftoff, that have had a 6 year head start. Introducing new content to Liftoff: Micro Drones is a long-term endeavour that starts with this update. Included are more parts to customise your setup, now you can change the motors of your favourite Micro Drones, impacting not just the way your drone looks but also flies.
Early next year we hope to introduce a few additional frames, and soon after we’ll be teasing the next level that's currently in production.
Update 0.4.2 released
This update introduces 2 changes that have been at the center of the feedback we have received from you.
We noticed pilots new to Liftoff simulators were unaware of some of our shortcuts (example: "V" to change camera "A" to change flight mode). It was clear we needed to make information of these shortcuts more easily available. Before, you could only access our Button menu by going to Options in the Main Menu. We have reworked the systems to be more easily offered at different locations in the game: more specifically you can now access the Button setup menu in the Pause menu, while playing the game.
Another point of feedback was the flight behaviour. Different pilots look for different things, have different experiences, opinions and preferences. Collecting feedback as early as possible is key to making a successful simulator, that's what Early Access is all about. Our goal is to work incrementally and keep tweaking and improving physics and flight behaviour for years to come, as there's no such thing as a perfect simulation. This update introduces some first tweaks to throttle controls and should also make the drones feel slightly more powerful. Your feedback on these changes should help us define the next step in flight behaviour improvements. Disclaimer: some of your fleet setups (and Workshop uploads) might need to be tweaked again.
Changelist:
Reworking our Button setup menu to be consistent at different places in the game.
Making the Button setup menu available in the Pause menu, easy to access during gameplay.
Providing a first tweak to the flight behaviour: drones might feel slightly more powerful and will require less throttle input to start hovering.
Decreased project size by 2Gb.
Update 0.4.1 released
Thank you!
Liftoff: Micro Drones is a love letter to the FPV community and we have gotten nothing but love back. Our launch was super exciting and we are glad you joined us to explore and improve this new adventure we have started. It’s been so great to finally fly together in our virtual micro drone environments! Thank you so much!
The wealth of responses is heartwarming, and the dedication from the community to provide us with valuable feedback and suggestions is all we could have wished for. Liftoff: Micro Drones is very much a project in the middle of development. It's currently incomplete and contains a fair amount of bugs. To everyone who dedicated time to write us a post, email or chat in-game: thank you, we are listening! The past few days we have redefined our priority lists for the next few days and weeks. Our current focus will be on fixing bugs and polishing the current experience.
This update is the first in a series of quick-fix updates we have planned for the near future.
Changelist
Button/switch assignment should now be saved correctly.
Fixed incorrect chat layout
Fixed glitchy drone visualizer while selecting a new level in the pause menu
Small UI fixes and improvements to the Getting Started wizard.
Disabled unsupported voice chat functionality.
Renamed "Balloons" game mode to the more accurate "Collect"
Fixed issue where a drone icon would not be generated immediately when duplicating a drone
Changed default colors of the Fractal blueprint
Fixed flipped textures on the back of some gates
Fixed orientation of remote antenna used by virtual pilot. Signal should now be improved. 😉
Menu option "disable drone trails" renamed to the correct "show drone trails".
Enabled on-screen HUD by default.
Fixed a UI issue where the player could get stuck during MP room creation when interacting with the account options.
Made RC connect/disconnect popup easier to read
Fixed some small UI mistakes in drone editor
Visually Updated Nano frame
Visually Updated Nano Camera
Adjusted Fractal 65 frame info to match the frame type (Squished-X)
What's next?
More fixes and updates based on your feedback. More specifically, two items are currently a priority:
tweaked throttle range for some Blueprint setups.
Making the Button Setup window available in the Pause Menu, so you don't have to return to Main Menu.
