Open Beta Patch v1.27a (18 june 2025)

[Soar_Slitherine]

Very promising. This looks like it will expand the strategic depth of the game in a big way and really help make different sorts of planets feel different to play on.

Some feedback:

* Nomenclature issue: Currently, the first type of jet engine you can research in the game is called the "jet engine" and the second one the "turbojet engine". I decided to read a bit about jet engines on Wikipedia and apparently, early airbreathing jet engines were actually all already turbojet engines, so it doesn't seem like that nomenclature makes any sense. In real life most jet aviation design has moved from the early turbojets to more efficient turbofan engines.

* Particularly on planets with no atmosphere, there should be a possibility to design rocketcraft with VTOL-equivalent capability (VTVL - Vertical takeoff, vertical landing - is apparently the technical term used in the case of rockets in real life). On atmosphereless planets, this capability is otherwise unavailable since helicopters, thopters and VTOL jets need air. This seems like a highly plausible capability, as there have been experiments with related technology in real life in recent decades, and landing or launching a rocket in low gravity on an atmosphereless moon is much easier compared to Earth conditions.

ORIGINAL: Destragon
I haven't tried the proper mechanics yet, but my first bit of feedback is that the model design process needs to be reworked a little. This was already a small issue beforehand, but it's become a bigger issue now that we have airplanes with 7 components.
Instead of the process being "click one of the components, get to the next screen", it should list all component choices (engine, fuel tank, weapon, etc) on one single screen and display the unit's stats on that screen, too, which should dynamically change as you select the different components. It would make designing units a lot clearer, especially with airplanes where you only get to see the statistics like operational range on the very last screen and if you don't like those stats, you have to go back all the way to the beginning, restarting the process.

Strongly agreed. The model design UI wasn't good before, but it's really obnoxious now when designing aircraft. Also, the UI needs to list the aircraft's fuel consumption at the end like it does when picking the engine for ground units.

ORIGINAL: Maerchen

Attention:
In order to test the new Air Forces addition you'll need to flag "Air Forces enabled" in the PLANET GENERATION setup page.

I do not see the flag option. Where is it located?

The next checkbox below the ones for picking the starting tech level on the right.

[Dan1911]

Beta 11 is getting +10min turn timers again 😥😣

[bvoid]

In beta 11:
I have a new airforce research org - but the techs are duplicated with the military research org?

So have 2 orgs researching same tech, is this right?

[Destragon]

ORIGINAL: Soar_Slitherine

* Particularly on planets with no atmosphere, there should be a possibility to design rocketcraft with VTOL-equivalent capability (VTVL - Vertical takeoff, vertical landing - is apparently the technical term used in the case of rockets in real life). On atmosphereless planets, this capability is otherwise unavailable since helicopters, thopters and VTOL jets need air. This seems like a highly plausible capability, as there have been experiments with related technology in real life in recent decades, and landing or launching a rocket in low gravity on an atmosphereless moon is much easier compared to Earth conditions.

Yeah, that's a good idea. There should be a VTVL rocket engine or something, like the VTOL jet engine.
Here's a cool experiment of a rocket powered drone that can even hover in multiple directions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMU6l6GsdM

[Soar_Slitherine]

* I formed some fighter-bomber units, primarily in order to have some air defense but with bombing capability since I figured making them multi-role would be cost-effective, and then I noticed that they stockpile enormous quantities of ammo for bombing that they shouldn't actually need to perform the "fighter" part of their role (I assume air-to-air combat uses the ammo consumption value for their MGs, not their bombs). Could you add an option to limit an unit's ammunition stock level under Unit Administration, similar to the replacement percentage, so we can cut down on unnecessary stockpiling for multi-role units that aren't currently required to perform the more ammo-heavy role?

* I can see some use for a similar option for fuel stocks as well, in case you're having a fuel shortage and want to limit your fuel from going to very fuel-hungry units that you can't afford to use at the moment, without having to transfer them to a SHQ (which prevents them from draining fuel from the SHQ stocks but can sometimes be expensive in terms of fuel/logistics in itself).

* If an air unit with both MGs and bombs engages enemy aircraft using the MGs, will it take ammo supply penalties to the air-to-air attack if the air wing doesn't have a full 100 ton stockpile of bombs? If you don't have a special rule for that already, I suggest scaling the penalty based on available ammo stock relative to a multiplier of the attack's ammo consumption, rather than relative to maximum stock.

[Vic]

ORIGINAL: bvoid

In beta 11:
I have a new airforce research org - but the techs are duplicated with the military research org?

So have 2 orgs researching same tech, is this right?

changed this in beta12

[Vic]

ORIGINAL: Destragon

ORIGINAL: Soar_Slitherine

* Particularly on planets with no atmosphere, there should be a possibility to design rocketcraft with VTOL-equivalent capability (VTVL - Vertical takeoff, vertical landing - is apparently the technical term used in the case of rockets in real life). On atmosphereless planets, this capability is otherwise unavailable since helicopters, thopters and VTOL jets need air. This seems like a highly plausible capability, as there have been experiments with related technology in real life in recent decades, and landing or launching a rocket in low gravity on an atmosphereless moon is much easier compared to Earth conditions.

Yeah, that's a good idea. There should be a VTVL rocket engine or something, like the VTOL jet engine.
Here's a cool experiment of a rocket powered drone that can even hover in multiple directions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMU6l6GsdM

heh. for now i am not adding any other engines... there are already somany. first bugs out

[Vic]

ORIGINAL: Soar_Slitherine

* I formed some fighter-bomber units, primarily in order to have some air defense but with bombing capability since I figured making them multi-role would be cost-effective, and then I noticed that they stockpile enormous quantities of ammo for bombing that they shouldn't actually need to perform the "fighter" part of their role (I assume air-to-air combat uses the ammo consumption value for their MGs, not their bombs). Could you add an option to limit an unit's ammunition stock level under Unit Administration, similar to the replacement percentage, so we can cut down on unnecessary stockpiling for multi-role units that aren't currently required to perform the more ammo-heavy role?

* I can see some use for a similar option for fuel stocks as well, in case you're having a fuel shortage and want to limit your fuel from going to very fuel-hungry units that you can't afford to use at the moment, without having to transfer them to a SHQ (which prevents them from draining fuel from the SHQ stocks but can sometimes be expensive in terms of fuel/logistics in itself).

* If an air unit with both MGs and bombs engages enemy aircraft using the MGs, will it take ammo supply penalties to the air-to-air attack if the air wing doesn't have a full 100 ton stockpile of bombs? If you don't have a special rule for that already, I suggest scaling the penalty based on available ammo stock relative to a multiplier of the attack's ammo consumption, rather than relative to maximum stock.

Ideally i should implement your idea 3. For the moment I moved it to the nice-to-have list.

[Vic]

bump and we are at beta12

[Destragon]

Shouldn't the "all 8 councils" in the game start options be changed to "all councils" now that we have (depending on game settings) 9?

[Akrakorn]

What are the differences between a high altitude plane vs a low altitude one? It seems there are more units that are good against low altitude planes than high altitude ones, so why shouldn't I always choose to make level bombers as opposed to tactical bombers?

[zastaver]

so i can say with out a doubt air units are getting perks, got a dive bomber squadren with a knight feature and its the most horrifing thing i have ever seen

[zastaver]

also i have a save thats crashing my game and i was wondering where i would, or how to post the save for investigation?

[Destragon]

ORIGINAL: zastaver

so i can say with out a doubt air units are getting perks, got a dive bomber squadren with a knight feature and its the most horrifing thing i have ever seen

When did you start this game? Because the fix for air units getting perks was only for games started with beta 12.

ORIGINAL: zastaver

also i have a save thats crashing my game and i was wondering where i would, or how to post the save for investigation?

You can send it to Vic's email:
vic@vrdesigns.net

[Nemesison]

Hey Vic,

I think I found a couple of bugs in the latest beta release:

-1 After constructing an airbase in one of my cities, the game will not allow me to create another one in a completely different city, quoting that an asset of this type already exist. If I try to build it one hex away it works just fine

-2 I don't seem to be able to research heavy combat armors anymore due to "requisite condition missing". I don't know what this condition is, since the game will not tell me. I might be missing something, but I remember having no problem unlocking it in older version games.

[jimwinsor]

I don't know what this condition is, since the game will not tell me.

I've brought this up before on the suggestions section, but there REALLY needs to be a way for the game to tell you this. Just adding this info to the tech tree tooltips would do the job. It is SO frustrating to run into this problem! [:@]

And I've experienced the air base issue too, but it is fairly easy to work around as you can build an airstrip anywhere outside a city in the open.

[Clux]

ORIGINAL: Nemesison

Hey Vic,

I think I found a couple of bugs in the latest beta release:

-1 After constructing an airbase in one of my cities, the game will not allow me to create another one in a completely different city, quoting that an asset of this type already exist. If I try to build it one hex away it works just fine

-2 I don't seem to be able to research heavy combat armors anymore due to "requisite condition missing". I don't know what this condition is, since the game will not tell me. I might be missing something, but I remember having no problem unlocking it in older version games.

You need both combat armor and Polymer armor in order to unlock heavy combat armor.

[Vic]

And we're at beta 13!

Big big thanks for all the bug reports. It is so immensely helpful to have you guys.

Best wishes,
Vic

[Vic]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

I don't know what this condition is, since the game will not tell me.

I've brought this up before on the suggestions section, but there REALLY needs to be a way for the game to tell you this. Just adding this info to the tech tree tooltips would do the job. It is SO frustrating to run into this problem! [:@]

And I've experienced the air base issue too, but it is fairly easy to work around as you can build an airstrip anywhere outside a city in the open.

added to my to-do list

[Templer_12]

v1.05-beta13?
Sir, another new beta patch?
You are scary to me!