In preparation for an upcoming full release, it was time to polish some of the smaller stuff in there. The minimap now looks considerably sharper, the missiles have new exhaust particle effects as well as some other minor improvements.
Take nice screenshots in offline mode
When running the game in offline mode (Profile -> Log out -> Offline Mode) you can now pause the game with ctrl+alt+P. Try starting a 4 vs 4 game with yourself as a spectator. Let the bots take off and merge, then pause the game. Use the free camera mode and press ctrl+alt+U to remove the HUD as well. You are all set up to take amazing screenshots, where you can put the camera anywhere you want! If you create something nice, please share it with us in Discord!
Simple Water
It turned out that the new water used in the Turning Tides map was a bit heavy on low end computers. I added an option where you can disable the high quality water and replace it with a simpler one. While not as fancy looking, it will be a life saver if running the game on an older computer or a laptop.
Patreon
Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon.
Best regards //Bankler
1.9.3
Fixed issue where a SARH missile could go full active and track on its own if you launched more than one missile.
Added pause (ctrl-alt-P) when playing in Offline Mode. This can be used with the disable HUD feature (ctrl-alt-U) to capture fancy screenshots.
Added option for setting detail level.
Improved free look movement when manually controlling the camera as spectator. It should now be much easier to position the camera for cool screenshots.
Sharpened the minimap considerably.
Missiles exhaust effects improved.
Missiles no longer burn through their whole flight, but instead only some seconds after launch.
Fixed visual glitch where a network object, like a ground vehicle, sometimes showed up for a split second in the middle of the map just after spawning.
Clouds will now fade out rather than instantly disappearing when reaching the end of their lifetime.
1.9.0 New Map: Turning Tides
New Map!
It's ice cold winter here in Sweden, and despite what they say about viking blood, I can't say I really particularly enjoy it. Luckily this new Sky Knights map takes us to the sunny Caribbean. Sun, beaches, yachts, umbrella drinks... and a rain of 1000 lbs bombs! This map features a rather unorthodox layout, with isolated islands and short distances between the opposing center FOBs, and a final backline one very close to the home base.
Ships!
During play testing, it got apparent that the vast seas were a little empty at first. Our awesome Patreon heroes talked me into investigating if adding some kind of ships would work, and I'm happy they did! Light corvette class ships spawn on both sides and can inflict heavy damage to FOBs if left unopposed. When attacking them, watch out for their machine guns!
Patreon
Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon.
Best regards //Bankler
1.9.0
Added new map "Turning Tides".
Added new ground mover type "Corvette".
Tweaked AI behavior related to ground mover targeting priority.
Fixed bug where you could get 0 hp after refunding an item if you also had the Hull updgrade item.
Update 1.8.0 Christmas Challenge
Christmas Challenge!
Christmas is closing in to round this strange year off. This month we will run a shorter season beginning now and ending in early 2021. Everyone who wins at least 20 pvp matches during this season will unlock an exclusive Desert Camo skin for the Su-27, normally only available to our high tier Patreon supporters. Not sure if a desert skin really fits Christmas, but who cares? It looks badass regardless!
Engine upgrade
Before this patch, I updated the game engine to a much newer version, in order to ensure the game stays playable on new hardware, let it make use of engine optimizations and make future updates easier to perform. Engine updates are always a little risky, but I hope no game breaking bugs did make it into the build. Just let me know if something seems off, and I'll do my best to fix it.
Twitch integration fix
The Twitch integration hasn't beeing working for a while (sorry for that), but now it's running again. If you're streaming on Twitch, your viewers can type !creep in the chat to join the game as one of the ground forces, and you will see their names in there!
Long time Patreon reward
All current Patreon supporters will receive the exclusive Spectre skin for the MiG-29! Thanks for the support! It really means a lot to me!
Patreon
Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon.
Best regards //Bankler
1.8.0
Added Christmas challenge to unlock the Desert Camo Su-27 skin.
Updated engine version.
Added VSync support (mutually exclusive with Max FPS setting).
Fixed Twitch integration.
Updated Patreon Race Landmark names.
Added Spectre MiG-29 skin for longtime patrons.
Update 1.7.0 Pilot Voices
Pilot voices!
One of the most iconic things in air combat is pilot lingo. We all love those "Fox 2!" calls before launching a heatseeker towards an enemy tailpipe. In Sky Knights, they have unfortunately been missing. Until now. Five pilot voices have been recorded, with over 200 lines per voice.
Whenever your pilot does something of interest (launching a missile, coming in for landing, gets shot down etc) they will trigger a radio callout. Naturally, you will also hear your team mates radio calls. Everything is 100% network synched, so you will all hear the exact same thing, even the same random variation of a certain voice line. Different hi- and lowpass filters have been used to make it easy to distinguish your own pilot's voice from others'.
You are free to select any voice and match it with any avatar of matching gender.
Comms wheel
This patch also brings a related feature to the table. In addition to the contextual radio calls triggered by events happening in the game, you can manually trigger communication with the new comms wheel. Press L Bumper on gamepad or L Alt on keyboard to bring up the comms wheel, and choose from any of the available commands, making team work much easier than before.
And don't worry. There's a spam filter in place, preventing people from over-using the comms wheel.
Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon.
Best regards //Bankler
1.7.0
Added contextual pilot comms.
Added comms wheel for quick communication. Default binding is LAlt or left bumper on gamepad.
You can now choose a pilot voice in the profile page.
You can customize your voice by selecting a higher or lower pitch than the default one.
Added separate sfx volume slider for easier sound balancing.
Fixed some instances in the tutorial where you could get double audio.
Fixed bug where you lost your Anti-Radar missile if you sold another upgrade.
Engine sfx now turns off instantly when an aircraft is destroyed.
Fixed bug where the already equipped aircraft did not get auto-selected when opening the pact deck window.
Update 1.6.8 Sell Your Upgrades
Sell your upgrades!
I always wanted to change the Race shop so that you don't have to buy the upgrades every time you made a new attempt on a track. So you kept the upgrades that you had bought between lives. However, I also wanted you to be able to swap them out if you changed your mind. Basically, sell them.
With this in place, I played around with the idea of adding it into the main game as well. Only difference is that you'd not get the full refund for them. So if you wanted to change tactics later in a match and no longer needed a certain upgrade, you can at least get a 50% payback when selling it.
And when I was at it, I realized how many times I had bought an upgrade, only to realize 3 seconds later that I should have bought something else. To fix this, I also implemented an upgrade refund feature. What this means is that you can sell back upgrades for 100% of the price as long as it hasn't been used (defined by you moving your jet at a certain speed).
Another little change in this update is how the aircraft looks when combining turns with holding the maneuver button. It's a purely visual change, so no need to learn any new stuff, but it will look much more natural now!
Fixed issue where contact markers in the HUD were not immediately removed when an aircraft crashed.
Fixed issue in the shop GUI where an aircraft button was selected after buying an upgrade.
You can now refund upgrades that you just bought for 100% of the price as long as you don't start moving.
You can now sell upgrades that you previously have bought for 50% of the price.
Adjusted bank animations on aircraft when performing maneuvers and turning simultaneously.
Upgrade purchase messages are now batched and only sent when the window for refund has closed.
Fixed bug where you didn't see the opening animations on the reward boxes if you spammed the Continue button.
Fixed graphical glitch in the Match Over-screen where the buttons intersected the daily challenge box.
Added new Patreon landmark names to Race #4.
Update 1.6.7 Weekend Bug Squash
Squashing them bugs!
In my ambition to keep Sky Knights 100% bug free, it's necessary to sometimes forget about making new stuff and just fix the glitches before they start to add up. This philosophy has paid off resulting in a maintainable code base, very few bugs and less player frustration.
This little update features five minor bug fixes which should make the Sky Knights experience even more smooth!
Have a great weekend!
Oh, I almost forgot, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! Cool things, like exclusive aircraft skins are waiting for you if you want to become a supporter!
Best regards //Bankler
1.6.7
Fixed bug where minimap vision circles were offset from the aircraft in the Cold Snap level.
Fixed bug where aircraft without no radar (A-10 and Su-25) didn't see contacts on the minimap unless they're seen by someone else.
Fixed bug where only 100 radar contacts could be shown at a time on a player's mini map.
Fixed camera glitch in Woodlands where the intro camera could clip into the hangar building.
Fixed an edge-case bug where a player sometimes didn't receive a match reward modification.
Update 1.6.6 Advanced Radars
New radar implementation!
On real military jets, the radar is typically a forward looking thing located in the nose cone. Despite this fact, when I first created Sky Knights I wanted to keep things as simple as possible (I still do, to some extent), hence I implemented the radar "sci-fi style" making it simply cover a circular area around the aircraft. Several players have feedbacked that they would like the radar to be more of a cone (like in real jets). Not only for the sake of realism, but also for the tactical gameplay it would provide, enabling players to stay out of radar coverage and so on. The more I thought of it, the more it made sense. Furthermore, the aircrafts' different radar performance stats would provide an interesting way to make the aircraft even more unique.
In this new implementation, there are two separate zones around the aircraft that can locate enemies. The first one is a small circle around you (just like before, only much smaller) representing the pilots eyes. The other is a cone shaped thing in front of you, representing the radar coverage. This cone looks different on different jets. For instance, the radar performance of an F-15 is much better than on an F-5, and the Su-25 doesn't have a radar at all.
A rough balance pass has been done. But keep the feedback coming if you think anything seems off!
Season challenge skin
For this season only, you have the chance of unlocking the Woodlands skin for the A-10A. This is done by winning 20 matches before the season ends with the end of October. A must-have for all you BRRRRRT gunners out there!
Patreon loyalty reward
I'm amazed and humbled by the support from the Sky Knights patrons. As a little sign of gratitude, I just added a 3 month loyalty reward. Everybody who has been a Patreon subscriber on any tier for at least 3 months (counting from the first transaction) will get an exclusive black "SPECTRE" F-16A skin (as featured in this update's splash image). If you have only been on Patreon for 1 or 2 month (or you're signing up just now), don't worry. The skin will be waiting for you when you reach the 3 month line!
If this stuff is appreaciated, I might add additional loyalty rewards in the future, maybe for 6- 9- and 12 months or something like that. Let me know what you think!
If you want to support the development, and get access to exclusive stuff, like skins, a special Discord channel and other nice things, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page!
Best regards //Bankler
1.6.6
Optimized parts of the network code.
Reworked the ground and water visuals on Woodlands and Cold Snap.
Added a terrain detail slider in options.
New radar and vision system where you have a smaller circle around your aircraft representing vision, and a cone in front of you representing the radar. The range and width are different for each aircraft.
Added new upgrade "Advanced Radar" which increases both radar range and width.
The Recon Specificalist trait now provides both radar and vision bonuses.
The High Visibility Canopy upgrade now provides both higher vision and FOV.
Added the new radar and visibility stats to the stats panel in the Hangar and when holding TAB in a game.
Added a system for Patreons to modify aircraft stats when playing in offline mode.
Added a monthly challenge to unlock the A-10A Woodlands skin.
Added a unique Spectre F-16 skin for 3 month+ Patreon subscribers.
Update 1.6.5 New Co-op campaign!
New Co-op campaign!
Long time Discord veteran, Patron, tech wiz and awesome person Turavis has contributed with a co-op campaign! Actually, he handed me the draft for this months ago, but I admit it was challenging enough for the testing to take a considerable time!
I'm hyped to bring you the first user-created content. Thanks a lot for the contribution and your hard work, Turavis.
The campaign puts you in the cockpit of Russian jets across several different maps, and is intended to play with one wingman. I warn you though, it's NOT easy! :)
Power 100 modification crafting
When you craft a new modification using a power 100 raw material, you are now guaranteed to get another type of modification than the one you used for the crafting. Hopefully good news for the high-tier players trying to optimize their aircraft!
Patreon
The Patreon is moving along nicely! We are up to eleven patrons now. A few more and we'll reach the first milestone (which means I'll create a new map). If you also want to support the development, and get access to exclusive stuff, like skins, a special Discord channel and other nice things, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page!
Best regards
//Bankler
1.6.5
Added new co-op campaign "Angels Two" by Turavis.
When crafting, if you use a power 100 raw material you are now guaranteed to get a modification of another type than the raw material.
Added experimental feature for disabling the HUD (press LCtrl+LAlt+U) for screenshot/video making purposes.
Increased contrast on F-5E Desert skin.
Fixed glitch where chat input lost focus when another auto-selecting GUI element popped up (Shop screen and such).
Fixed glitch where next reward box wasn't selected when you opened a reward by explicitely selecting and pressing it with gamepad.
Fixed glitch where the gamepad device scroll list initially were scrolled to the bottom.
Fixed spawn timer and kill flair overlap in HUD.
Fixed bug where player name was set to Default Player when reseting client preferences.
Fixed bug where daily tasks were visible in co-op mode, causing overlapping text.
Fixed bug where it showed your flight time wrongly if you have flown an insane amount of hours. :)
Fixed edge case bug where the boxes to change HUD color could become unresponsive.
Added Patreon landmark names in races.
Added Patreon custom tailart.
In coop-mode, the grounded AI aircraft types will now reflect the types present in the mission rather that always being F-16s and MiG-29s.
Update 1.6.4 Winning Streaks
Winning Streaks!
Some players have expressed concern over the time it takes to reach ACE rank during a season. While ACE should of course be something really hard to get, I'm inclined to agree that it has been a little extreme. As a response to the feedback, I've added a Winning Streak feature. What it means is that when you win a match, if you also won the previous one, you'll be rewarded with one extra star.
This could potentially cut the number of matches it takes to reach a certain rank in half, but only as long as you're victorious in your battles!
Patreon
I'm blown away by the response on Patreon. No less than six people have already signed up. I'm very happy for the support! If you also want to support the development and get some cool ingame stuff like custom skins, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page!
Fixed nose and tail art
Most or all of the nose and tail art glitches are now fixed!
Added Winning Streak feature. If you have at least 2 consecutive wins, you will get one extra rank star when winning a pvp game.
Thunderbird and General tier patrons shown on the splash screen can now be updated without patch updated (game will need to restart one time after a patron has been added before they show up).
Fixed bug where the shop button became visible if you landed on north-to-south runways even before the aircraft came to a halt.
Fixed bug where tail art could get corrupted in the intro sequence.
Fixed bug where tail art could get corrupted in the hangar.
Adjusted color on some nose art.
Adjusted F-5E nose and tail art positions.
Adjusted AJS 37 tail art position.
Adjusted MiG-29 tail art position.
Adjusted Su-17 nose art position.
Adjusted F-15A nose art position.
Fixed bug where Su-17 tail art didn't render on the rudder surface.
Optimized Su-17 rendering performance.
Update 1.6.3 Skins and Patreon
Skins!
The tech required for changing the default skin for fancy ones is now in place. This feature is still in limited testing. At this time, there are two ways to unlock skins:
1) A challenge is in place, for this season only, where you can unlock the Viggen Splinter Camo by winning 20 PVP matches.
2) You can also get access to skins by becoming a Patreon.
Later down the road, I'll look at adding some other ways to get skins (possibly both paid and non-paid).
Patreon
Quite a few players have asked if they can help out financially by donating. While flattered by the offer, I have not accepted any donations so far. I think Patreon however is a fun way to support the development, and get access to some fun bonus content. Please check it on Sky Knights Patreon page!
Updated airport visuals!
I've added taxiways and tarmacs to the runways making the airfields a little more interesting. You can also see the players' main aircraft parked on the tarmac.
Match intro sequence
A short sequence has been added to the beginning of each match, showcasing the jets' skins and customizations as well as any player medals.
New little wingman!
As you might have noticed, the update frequency has been lower the last months. This is mainly since we've gotten our first kid and she's taking quite a bit of my attention and time. Thanks for the patience!
