SLOWLIGHT

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Release v0.3.3

v0.3.3 — On foot in the city

Once you set down on a pad you can step out of the ship and walk the city. Ground crews work the spaceport, pedestrians fill the streets, and you can cross town by air taxi or maglev. Atmosphere entry now runs on real physics, and cities light up at night.

Delion's maglev: the line from the spaceport to the city centre, 30 m above the boulevard.

v0.3.2 made the planets real size, but you could only look at the cities from above. In v0.3.3 you step out of the ship when you land and walk into the city.

Delion's maglev: the line from the spaceport to the city centre, 30 m above the boulevard.
Delion's maglev: the line from the spaceport to the city centre, 30 m above the boulevard.

What is in v0.3.3

Walking the city

  • Step out. When your ship is down on a city pad, press G to step out. You see your captain in third person; the mouse turns the camera and the wheel zooms.
  • Walk, run, sprint. WASD moves relative to the camera; the default is a light run, Shift sprints and Ctrl walks. Steps match your speed, so feet do not slide. You bump into walls, pier legs and your own ship, and you can walk under the pier.
  • Back on board. Walk up to your ship and press G to take your seat.
At Delion's spaceport: the pier, the boarding bridges and parked ships.
At Delion's spaceport: the pier, the boarding bridges and parked ships.
  • A living city. Ground crews in coveralls, hi-vis vests and hard hats work the spaceport, and pedestrians walk between the city's places, dressed for the faction that runs it.
  • Trees. Real trees up close, chosen by planet: broad-crowned trees, cypresses in Dominion cities and palms on desert worlds. Nothing grows in the open on ice and volcanic worlds.
Cypresses in Merun, planted along the Dominion's ceremonial avenues.
Cypresses in Merun, planted along the Dominion's ceremonial avenues.

Getting around town

  • Air taxi. Press Y while walking to get a menu of places with their distances. Pick one and a taxi sets down beside you, flies over the rooftops and drops you at the door.
Over Delion by air taxi, on the way to the government seat.
Over Delion by air taxi, on the way to the government seat.
  • Maglev. Every city has an elevated line from the spaceport to the central plaza and the city centre, with three or four stations, and trains run all the time. Press E at the door of a station's lift tower: ride up to the platform, wait for the train, board it and get off at your stop.
The platform at the spaceport station as a train pulls in.
The platform at the spaceport station as a train pulls in.

From orbit to the ground

  • Atmosphere entry with real physics. Your ship slows through a layered atmosphere by lift and drag; heating and g-load are computed, and the autopilot banks to hold the path. During entry the display shows true speed, altitude, g-load and heat flux.
  • The entry tunnel. The path ahead shows up in the sky as a faint tunnel whose frames turn from white to orange to red with the heat. The handover from cruise to entry is now seamless, with no hard braking and no sudden surge.
Entering Delion's atmosphere: the ship in its plasma glow, passing a frame of the tunnel.
Entering Delion's atmosphere: the ship in its plasma glow, passing a frame of the tunnel.
  • Time mode. Choose fast (about 40 seconds) or real time (a few minutes) in the game menu. The physics is the same; only the clock runs faster.

Looks and smoothness

  • Cities at night. Street lamps, façades lit from below, glowing windows and floodlights over the spaceport, under a properly dark sky.
Delion's spaceport at night: floodlights, a lit pier and passengers on foot.
Delion's spaceport at night: floodlights, a lit pier and passengers on foot.
  • Smoother. From 30 to 60 frames per second in cities and at the spaceport.
  • A new station hull. The hangars are unchanged; the rest of the hull is redesigned with armour panels, a sensor spire, radiators, a rotating habitat ring and a reactor.
Delen Station with its new hull, in orbit over the main planet.
Delen Station with its new hull, in orbit over the main planet.
  • Clearer differences between the sexes. Male and female captains now differ visibly in shoulders, torso, neck and jaw.
  • 3D gallery. On the site's 3D page you can turn the ships and the station around and look at them up close.

You need to update

v0.3.3 changes the network protocol. The v0.3.2 client can no longer connect; get v0.3.3 from the download page.

Known issues

  • Places in the cities are still closed: you can walk up to the door but not go inside.
  • Stepping out of the ship is instant; there is no hatch or ramp yet.
  • You can only walk on the ground; the boarding bridges, ramps and the top of the pier are out of reach.
  • Online, other captains do not see you walking, in a taxi or on the maglev.

What comes next

Leaving the ship by hatch and ramp, and the insides of places. Behind the scenes the universe itself has started running: on the server, information now spreads slowly from station to station with the ships that carry it. That is the groundwork for the news, rumours and stories of the coming releases.

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