Seeing new jets has been on everyone’s wishlist from day one! I’m super excited to finally present the first step in this journey! Starting today, you can take a ride in the legendary MiG-21 Fishbed. Armed with heatseekers and a deadly gun, this dogfighter comes with amazing speed capabilities. This new fighter is also the first in a whole new aircraft class called “Light Fighter” aircraft. Designed for quick intercepts and hit-and-runs, this aircraft can quickly turn the match in the right direction if flown by a skilled pilot!
This patch also brings a new game mode, the Time Race! This is a racing mode, in which you can compete asynchronously against other players on the global leaderboard. Currently, there is only one race track available, but if you guys like it, we’ll be sure to get some more in there!
In Time Race, your aircraft will not evade any mountains by itself, and you will be flying extremely low. This means you’ll need make tight turns and perform well-timed maneuvers to not hit the mountains!
To tie things together, to unlock the new aircraft, you’ll need to finish the race track in 1 minute and 25 seconds! I’m sure that won’t be a problem for you though, captain!
Finally, there has been some smaller additions, like different outside-screen markers for different kinds of aircraft.
See you on the runway, friends!
Cheers!
//Bankler
1.1.0 * New PACT aircraft: MiG-21 Fishbed.
* Added Time Race game mode.
* Added Time Race leaderboard.
* Added new "deck" section in the profile screen, where you can choose your three aircraft for each side.
* Contact markers on the edge of the screen now show the corresponding aircraft icon for the contact.
* One single bomb will now always kill a AAA, even with the Bomber Loadout upgrade.
* Made the F-15 color a little darker.
* Tweaked landing gear height and aligned all aircraft better with the runway.
* Added webhook that posts to Discord when a new public game is hosted.
New map! Woodlands!
One of the community's most commonly requested feature has been to add a new map to the game. While the "Desert Trap" level surely plays pretty good, I agreed that it's time to add some variation. Both when it comes to map layout and visuals. I'm happy to finally announce "Woodlands"! This beautiful lush landscape stretches 6 x 7 kilometers, which is approximately 4 times the size of the Desert Trap map. In a map this big, things like radar coverage and positioning becomes even more important than before. Also be careful with your afterburner fuel. It's a pretty long way home if you run out of juice on the other end of the battlefield.
Woodlands should be considered "beta" meaning it's relatively untested. Please let me know what your think about it. Looking forward to hearing your feedback!
Another requested feature is having the ability to distinguish different kinds of aircraft on the minimap. This is now implemented, and there are six different minimap icon representing the current six different aircraft types.
We have been running regular community event where we crank up the XP income with a +10% modifier for a few hours. While this is great for newer players, there was not that much in it for more experienced players who already have all unlocks. Starting today though, we have the option to make events where you get extra Wings for each match, making it a little easier to afford those hard-to-get customizations.
1.0.9
* Added new map: "Woodlands".
* Aircraft icons on the minimap are now differently looking for different kinds of aircraft.
* Added support for community events with extra Wing rewards.
* Su-27 slow speed turning power slightly increased.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkH-vj2dniI
Hunt down the developer!
This week's update brings a number of requested smaller improvements and tweaks. Aircraft now dive down on their targets when performing strafing runs, there are some adjustments to the AI, some GUI improvements, and more.
I have also added a new achievement "Dev Killer". Easiest way to get it is to join the Discord server, so you can keep track of when I'm in the game. I'm 90% sure I will regret implementing this.
Join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/a5BvDR3
Have a great week!
Cheers! //Bankler
1.0.8
* When playing with mouse and keyboard, clicking on the minimap or credits panel no longer blocks firing.
* All aircraft now make a small dive when targeting a ground target.
* A couple of smaller AI improvements for air-to-ground combat.
* The afterburner meter is no longer fading out.
* The afterburner meter is now hidden when flying aircraft without afterburner.
* Added "Dev Killer" achievement.
* Added an option to enable a green outline on your plane for higher visibility.
* Changed default region from EU to US.
* Fixed glitch where aircraft wheel clipped into the runway a bit.
* Fixed typo in profile screen.
New season! Engine update!
One month has passed since the release. The community on Discord is still very active and has become a really good place for Sky Knights pilots to hang out!
Season #1 has ended! [SDP]Pripyat took the first place this time and earned a 500 wings reward! Congratulations! Everybody else on the leaderboard (position 2-10) received between 100 to 400 wings. Great flying!
Season #2 started today! All ranks have been reset to 25, so take your chance to climb the leaderboard!
In this update I mostly focused on things that perhaps aren't that visual and exciting, but still needed to be done. The biggest task this week was to update the game engine to the latest version. This was necessary in the long term to be able to easily add new things to the game in the future . Such undertakings often turn into a "can of worms" because of technical dependencies. With some assistance from dear friend Jonas Johansson from Neuston (check out his awesome VR game "Drone Hero") we finally managed to fix the broken shaders (saving us from having to play on a completely pink map). :)
I added an email address field in the ingame bug report tool. This field is optional, but it's really nice to be able to contact you to report if/when your bug has been fixed! (I might even have a small gift for you)
1.0.7
* Game engine update.
* Can now click Enter instead of having to press the GUI after having entered a server password.
* Disabled hotjoining in spectator matchers.
* Added support for running experimental Steam beta versions.
* Added option to provide email address in bug reports.
* Fixed a bug that caused GUI overlap in the tutorial suggestion screen first time the game starts.
Spectator mode and balancing!
Update 1.0.6 is out!
In a few weeks, we hope to do a little community tournament, to which everyone is invited. In preparation for this, I have implemented a spectator mode, to enable a streamer to view and broadcast the match without having to fly his/her own jet!
I have also looked at the balance between the aircraft. It's actually looking like a pretty even field. To everyone's surprise though, it turned out that the "ugly duckling", the Su-25, was a little too good on shooting down other jets, because of the high damage cannon. This isn't really what it was supposed to do, so I have tweaked a few values on that aircraft.
In addition to that, update 1.0.6 brings some smaller bugfixes and quality-of-life features as color coded chat and more.
PATCH NOTES:
1.0.6
* Added spectator mode.
* Added option in server settings that controls if spectators are allowed.
* Controls are now disabled when chatting.
* Chat and kill messages in the game log are now color coded.
* Fixed a bug that sometimes placed the cinematic camera slightly under the ground.
* If you reach Ace (i.e rank 0) it clearly says "Ace" in the leaderboard.
* Increased Su-25 engine power from 250 to 260.
* Decreased Su-25 gun damage from 30 to 24.
* Su-27 slow speed turning power slightly decreased.
* Added a four second slowmotion when a player hotjoins, to reduce potential control problems caused by the synchronization lag.
* Adjusted descent so that you're less likely to hit the ground after buddy spawning over the landing strip.
* Fixed some small typos.
* Adjusted the gamepad right trigger afterburner threshold from 95% to 97%.
Patch 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 is out!
The game has been out for a little while now, and things are looking good. So far I've mostly been working on client stability and squashing some of the bugs, while lurking the forum and Discord to collect your input on what you miss the most when it comes to features.
I really suggest you join our little community on Discord! https://discord.gg/a5BvDR3
See you in the skies!
1.0.5
* Changed some of the customizations.
* Game should no longer freeze up if you join a server and it turns out to be full when the level loads.
* Some performance optimizations related to radar.
1.0.4
* Fixed bug where FOB healthbars were sometimes not visible after hotjoining.
* Fixed issue were you sometimes got 5 players in a team when two player hotjoined at the same time.
* Custom server name is now saved between games.
Stability and upgrade cost balancing
It has been a great first few days! Reception is really good and we are starting to see more players joining us in the skies! In today's patch I've taken care of some bugs related to landings. I've also adjusted to some of the upgrade price tags.
1.0.3
* Fixed rare bug where you sometimes could not land.
* Fixed bug where you got a "landing aborted" message when your were inbound for landing.
* Decreased the cost of Bomber Loadout upgrade from 500 to 400.
* Decreased the cost of High Vision Canopy Modification upgrade from 300 to 200.
* Decreased the cost of Stealth Modification upgrade from 500 to 400.
* Adjusted main menu layout to eliminate overlap in 16:10 resolutions.
* Fixed bug where you were awarded the "Watch the mountains!" achievement when an AI dies because of a player hot-joining.
Japanese and Korean servers
As you may have noticed, we have rolled out two small updates the past few days. At this point I'm focusing on making sure that everyone can play the game. People in Japan and South Korea had pretty high pings when connecting to the ASIA or the AU regions, so I opened up two new regions "JP" and "KR". These servers are located in Tokyo and Seoul, and should provide good ping times for all Japanese and Korean players.
You can switch which region you are connected to under "options" in the main menu.
Patch notes:
1.0.2
* Added South Korean servers (KR region).
* AI players now have [BOT] in front of their names.
* Smaller text tweaks.
1.0.1
* Fixed bug where you couldn't login if you had a Steam name with more than 25 characters.
* Added Japanese servers (JP region).
Sky Knights released on Steam!
It was with great excitement I just pressed the release button! Welcome to Sky Knights! Bring your best buddies and join the 4 vs 4 flying action today! See you in the skies, captain!
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Store page online!
After an intense Greenlight campaign around christmas, a following alpha with over 1200 players during the spring, and hundreds of bugfixes, tweaks and additions, Sky Knights is getting ready for public release! Thank you so much, everyone who helped out!
It will be released on Steam Early Access July 27th. Can't wait to get it into your hands! I'll make sure to populate the community hub in the coming days with some nice content.
