We have cleared many hurdles but the replacement for the T-2 Stratoranger aircraft is getting ready for flight testing. Preliminary numbers confirm that it is sleeker and safer than it's predecessor.
To give you an idea of the process we come up with a requirement (VTOL vs. wheeled, air vs. space capable, cargo capacity) and a preliminary design that fits those specifications. Then the artist constructs it in our proprietary modeling program which does baked lighting (for speed), rigging (for animations), and a virtual wind tunnel (for aerodynamics). We then take the numbers we come up with and plug them into the attached spreadsheet. This can be iterative as the CG might need to be adjusted or surfaces that are designated as control surfaces expanded. Finally (the stage we are at now) we have numbers we can plug into the game engine and let our QA take it for a test drive in the simulator.
If there are no red flags we might be seeing these flown by test pilots in the game within a week!
Steam users will be given vouchers to upgrade their tired T-1 Stratoranger to the new T-19 Stratomaster
CAS Upgrades
What is CAS?
The crew-alerting system (CAS) is used in place of the annunciator panel on older systems. Rather than signaling a system failure by turning on a light behind a translucent button, failures are shown as a list of messages in a small window near the other EICAS indications.
What has changed?
We moved the "acknowledge" key binding from "Q" to the "Scroll Lock" key. In addition, we wired up the scroll lock light to flash with the CAS messages for an immersive effect. Finally, we added "inhibits" to eliminate distractions during the most critical phases of flight (takeoff and landing).
Additional DIHV Scheduled
We just received official word that an additional DIHV ship will be making a stop at Vieneo routinely starting August 16!
The USV Valley Forge (IVR 3811-A) will be added to the Hontras - Vieneo - Zygus (M) route. This will increase the frequency of appearances but also economic opportunities among these systems.
Pushing Release Date
We had a late realization that you could not select a female character during our "immigration" process so we have our lead artist working on that in between projects.
There was also some confusion regarding "controller" support ... we support flight sticks, rudders, and throttles (HOTAS) but not gamepads.
