This one reintroduces the missing mantlets and switches off part obstruction by armour and the turret basket.
Parts now "punch holes" through armour plates instead of being obstructed, with projectiles ignoring any armour overlapped by a part. The overlapped armour will still add to vehicle mass.
This removes the need to have holes beneath turrets and cupolas, though it'll save weight if you do make them.
After this change I noticed myself getting lost in building tanks when I should've been working - something I had subconsciously stopped doing in 0.2.
This patch is for the alpha branch, you'll need to opt-in to play it:
Reimplemented parts:
Circular Mantlet
M10 Mantlet
Pz38t Mantlet
Matilda II Mantlet
Chi-He Mantlet
Panther Mantlet
Sherman Mantlet
PzII Mantlet
SU85 Mantlet
T34-76 Mantlet
The internal mantlet has been reimplemented as an isolated trunnion, renamed to "Blank Mantlet". You can then attach plate structures directly to the trunnion to build your own mantlet.
Fixes
Fixed laying drive edit UI not opening if nothing is placed on its mantlet.
Trunnions now scale with their mantlet.
Fixed the damage model calculating armour effective thickness using a radian value instead of a degree value. This resulted in sloped armour behaving similarly to flat armour, with ricochets being less common than they should have been.
Fixed the torque multiplier introduced in 0.2.13 being set to elevation x100 and azimuth x0 on newly created laying drives, causing azimuth to stop working.
Fixed laying drives and turrets continuing to receive torque after their gun layers have been knocked out.
Fixed aim lock causing turrets to rapidly jump at framerates higher than 100.
Fixed laying drives and turrets continuing to aim while their controlling crewmember is doing other tasks.
Changes
Disabled part obstruction by armour and the turret basket.
Mantlets now provide armour.
Enabled placement directly on trunnions.
Allowed the mantlet to be selected by selecting the trunnions.
Cannon rotation areas are no longer obstructed by the hull or other turrets. Allowing you to place turrets without building a hole first.
HVS suspension next, with the new riveting system to follow.
- Hamish
0.2.13 - Laying Drive Rework (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
Took a look at the laying drive issues in this one, in preparation for the return of the other mantlets in the next week.
This patch is for the alpha branch. You'll need to opt-in to play it:
Fixes
Fixed spare tracks and wheels not updating to the currently selected model after being duplicated.
Fixed armour mass for faces with non-uniform thickness being much lower than it should be, negative in some cases.
Fixed aim jitter not caused by vehicle movement. This allowed the traverse hard acceleration limits (15deg/s/s) to be removed.
Fixed an issue causing scope view to appear to have lower framerate than the rest of the game. It's nice and smooth now.
Turret rotation constraints are now visualized again.
Fixed camera movement speed being tied to framerate. Unfortunately this will affect your sensitivity settings if you weren't running at 60fps. This also fixes the camera jumping after a lag spike.
Fixed scope crosshair not always moving perfectly to the point you're aiming at.
Fixed screen flickering upon scoping in.
Changes
Cannons are now much easier to move. Utilizing a more accurate mass distribution estimation provided by A1exAndro from the community. This allows laying drive motors to have more realistic torque.
Laying drive motors are now always hand-cranked, with a non-editable torque of 125Nm. Added a torque multiplier in laying drive blueprints to preserve file-editing.
Laying drive max traverse speed raised from 30d/s to 180d/s
Laying drive gear ratio limit raised from 30:1 to 1000:1. Slider maximum raised to 100.
Laying drives will now accelerate faster depending on which side the trunnion's centre of mass is on.
Removed cannon counterweights. These shouldn't be necessary anymore.
Laying drive angle limits given another decimal place.
Still some weight issues with custom mantlets/plate structures on cannons to figure out.
Also added an invisible belt segment part in the game files: "Sprocket_Data/StreamingAssets/Parts/invisibleTrackSegment.json" For it to show up in-game, you'll need to add the "trackBeltSegment" tag. Open the file in a text editor (notepad will do) and add "trackBeltSegment" inside the [] after the "tags" so it looks like this: This'll make the track belts invisible and disable their thickness (A hacky way to build wheeled vehicles until official support is added).
- Hamish
0.2.12 - Spare Wheels (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
Spare wheels back on the alpha branch with this one.
Fixes
En error encountered when loading plate structures will no longer prevent the rest of the design from loading. Only the faulted structure wont load.
Decals no longer appear on track belts, axles, suspensions and wheels. They'll still appear on spare tracks and wheels.
Decals are now correctly excluded to hull, turret or barrel depending on what they're placed on. Prevents turret decals from bleeding on to the hull for instance.
Fixed newly created models not having the current overlay applied. E.g. Extending track belts in interior view would create non-see-through belt segments.
- Hamish
0.2.11 - Spare Tracks (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
Spare tracks back on the alpha branch with this one.
Fixes
Fixed undo/redo for blueprint switches (Such as ammo rack stored shell size and cannon blueprint selection).
Changing a cannon's blueprint now correctly updates the info on which ammo racks supply it.
Fixed general unpredictability of cannon editing after blueprint switches or duplications.
Fixed changes to cannons not reflecting their behaviour after exiting the editor. (More)
Fixed the penetration displayed in the editor being calculated using the mass of the entire shell, propellant included. Causing cannon penetration to behave differently in game than expected. (More)
Changes
Part duplication now copies by default, instead of instancing. Addon structures still instance for now.
- Hamish
0.2.10 - Asset Loading Rework (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
Looked into the part loading issue introduced in 0.2.8 on the alpha branch, and it ran deeper than expected. The whole loading system has been revised in 0.2.10, fixing the part loading issue and cleaning things up on my end.
The only thing you'll notice (aside from fixes) is that the part model switches no longer flicker (changing wheels, belt segments, etc). They'll fully load in the selected model, switch to it, then unload the old one. This instead of the old approach of being hidden, unloading the current model, loading the new one and then being unhidden.
Reintroducing some missing 0.127 parts next week.
- Hamish
0.2.9 - Fixes (Geometrics Alpha)
Some fixes for key issues on the 0.2 alpha branch:
Fixed a 0.2.8 change causing inputs to not be read during the Unity diagnostics prompt, causing a softlock on fresh installs. (More)
Fixed plate structures becoming bugged when setting the thicken mode of a face pointing perfectly downward to 'horizontal'. (More)
Fixed powertrain objects being selectable through the tracks. (More)
0.2.8 - Combat Basics (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
I've implemented the rest of the damage model in this one. There's still plenty of work and fine-tuning to do, but this gets it to its base functionality.
The main improvement in combat should be the predictability of what your shot will do depending on where you place it.
This is a dev view, but I'll be introducing something similar you can use to analyse your own vehicles (once 0.2 is stable).
This update is for the 0.2 alpha branch, so you'll need to opt-in to play it:
Also rewrote the mission system, AI detection and the way orders are delivered to AIs. These rewrites work together to lift a lot of the restrictions on scenario design, so I'll be doing some reworks to scenarios when it's time to bring them back in.
Fundamental damage model fixes
Projectile collisions are now significantly more accurate and shouldn't incorrectly hit your own vehicle. Sponson mounted cannons would often hit their own vehicle when firing, when nothing was visually in the way.
Projectile ricochet angles are fixed. Projectiles tended to slide up plates, instead of bouncing off in the expected direction. This made shot traps trap more shots than expected. Expect more cases of mantlets bouncing the projectile down through the hull roof, instead of into the turret front below the mantlet.
Additions
Laying drives can now be damaged and destroyed. Damaged laying drives will produce less torque.
Fixes
Fixed cases of projectiles exploding immediately after firing.
Fixed cannon rotation limits not being visualized after exiting and returning to the editor.
Track wheel mounts no longer receive uniform dirt levels like wheels.
Fixed blueprints sticking around after the objects using them have been destroyed.
AIs no longer see turrets and hulls of the same vehicle as two separate entities. They're now seen as connected and wont focus fire on whichever one they see first or is closest.
Bullets now drop at the correct rate again.
Fixed shell impact visual effects. These looked off with a rotation applied.
Fixed paint jobs failing to load when loading designs.
Fixed AIs not receiving orders on scenario start, causing them to sit idly.
Missions can no longer be lost after success is achieved.
Changes
Shell overpenetration now let the projectile continue on its journey, passing straight through the vehicle.
The angle in which shells ricochet is now on a curve. Higher calibre shells now ricochet much less than lower calibres.
Ricochets off of the ground now have microbumping (similar to the recent track microbumps). This results in less predictable ground ricochet directions.
Aim lock no longer freezes cannon and turret rotation instantly. Instead, they'll brake to a stationary position at their maximum brake rate.
Made maximum dirt levels more bumpy.
Slightly increased how high dirt gets on to vehicles.
Increased vehicle rolling resistance.
Reduced recoil force.
The last saved vehicle is now loaded on game start once again.
Mission creation has been cleaned up and streamlined to allow for more complex scenarios and lower the chances of bugs.
The orders used to control the enemies in scenarios can now be applied to certain groups of AIs or individuals.
Kill Confirms
I've not reimplemented the kill confirm notifications in this one as I'd like to experiment with a shift away from the arcade mechanic. In short, making enemies more into something that stands between you and your objective, rather than the objective themselves. I'd like to embrace the ambiguity of whether an enemy is considered knocked out. Only testing will tell but your thoughts/ideas on it would be welcome in the comments.
A few known issues
Vehicles don't collide with each other.
AIs don't stop shooting at vehicles once they're knocked out.
Flameout VFXs don't decay.
Engine fires can cause flameouts.
Tracks, driveshafts, turret motors, turret rings, cannon breeches and cannon barrels cannot be damaged yet.
The next steps are iterating on the damage model, reintroducing the missing vehicle parts, as well as some fixes.
After that, work can begin on 0.127 to 0.2 design conversion, allowing you to bring your old tanks to the new update.
- Hamish
0.2.7 - Track Tension Tweaks (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
Just some fixes and tweaks for Wednesday's patch before I start work on reintroducing combat.
This update is for the 0.2 alpha branch, so you'll need to opt-in to play it:
Fixes
Fixed a crash when setting the length of the generated hull to a negative value.
Fixed rapid oscillating of track belts at speeds. More noticeable on low physics quality settings.
Belt segments will now never sag into the two wheels supporting them.
Belt segment pins now align better.
Belt physics sag amount now perfectly matches the sag shown in the vehicle editor.
Changes
Belt physics now feels much heavier and jiggles less.
Belt wrapping now determines segment angle using multiple samples, instead of just one. Particularly noticeable with low tension on small wheels like rollers.
Increased the amount of belt sag below the sprocket and idler wheels.
Smoothed track belts on either ends of the roadwheels.
Doubled maximum track belt tension.
Track belt sag and physics is now fully disabled when tension is set to 100%.
Removed the ability for the belt to sag over the tops of wheels if possible. I'll be reintroducing this later on with a better approach.
Not fully satisfied with the belt physics so I'll be returning to it after 0.2 is stable.
- Hamish
0.2.6 - Track Tension (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
This update is for the 0.2 alpha branch, so you'll need to opt-in to play it:
Here's track slack (surprise!). This long requested feature was at the top of the list of the biggest potential improvements to how tanks look in Sprocket. The 0.2 rewrites made it too easy, I simply couldn't restrain myself any longer.
Fully adjustable in the belt's settings:
Different parts of the track will sag more depending on which way the sprocket is currently pulling the belt:
This has been done in a way with miniscule performance impact, but let me know if you notice a frame drop.
Additions
Added track belt sagging and jiggle physics.
Added micro bumping to the tracks, to simulate driving over terrain features too small to be done via normal collisions. This is very subtle on the current purely concrete maps.
Fixes
Fixed crewmen being spaghettified when exiting the vehicle editor while an overlay other than the exterior overlay is active.
Stopped flickering of track segments while the tracks are moving. This also improves their motion blur.
Torsion bar length and diameter now correctly affect suspension strength.
Stopped the camera being obstructed by the vehicle edit platform.
Edges of plates no longer block selection of internal parts in interior view.
Fixed exhaust plumes splitting at speeds.
Fixed suspension arms not correctly resetting when returning to the editor.
Changes
Improved accuracy of belt wrapping algorithm.
Suspension spring torque and maximum range of motion now visible again.
Damper changed from an absolute value to a percentage.
Optimization
Sped up detection of which part is under the cursor by roughly 500%.
I'm going to spend the rest of the week on further improvements to this because I'm having a lot of fun and you can't stop me.
Then the promised work on combat begins.
- Hamish
0.2.5 - Crew Posture Rework (Geometrics Alpha)
Hi all,
This update is for the 0.2 alpha branch, so you'll need to opt-in to play it:
Here's the promised crew posture editing rework. Switching over from constrained slider editing to dragging of individual joints to wherever you need them.
Fixes
Fixed certain obstruction checks not taking plate thickness into account, this may invalidate some designs, sorry.
Fixed a cause of parts being incorrectly obstructed.
Changes
You now have full control over the posture of crewmembers.
Crewmember height changed from 186cm (6ft 1) to 178cm (5ft 10)
Made crew member obstruction hitboxes more accurate and more forgiving.
Added a (rough-placeholder) list showing all obstructions of the selected part. Found under the "Part" dropdown when a part is selected.
Disabled obstructions by turret ring thickness until this is visualized properly.
Readded red tiger paint job.
Optimization
Sped up detection of which part is under the cursor. Up to x2 faster on complex vehicles.
Significantly sped up part obstruction checks. Up to x2 faster on complex vehicles, with a noticeable FPS increase during part moves or edits.
The physics system is now fully disabled in the vehicle editor.
Almost doubled CPU drawing speed of graphics overlays. Used to draw things like points and edges in freeform.
Work now begins on finishing the new damage model and letting you see some combat once again.
