Fleets
I don't always know what I'm going to work on next. Sometimes the current sweeps me away. This past two weeks I found myself unexpectedly delving into fleet formations of spacecraft. Here is the result.

A ship can be designated as a flagship of a fleet. Any number of ships can be joined to that flagship's fleet. An empire can have more than one flagship thus more than one fleet.

A new Fleet order was added to the Mission Orders list. Using a Fleet order, you can order a ship to become a flagship, to join a flagship, or to depart from their fleet. Ordering a fleet ship to become a flagship promotes it to the flagship and the previous flagship is demoted. Ordering a flagship to exit the fleet dissolves the fleet.

A new Fleet page was added to the Spacecraft window tabs. There are some fleet management controls to designate the ship as a flagship, to join a fleet, and to exit a fleet. Fleet ships check in with the flagship periodically. The flagship lists those ships in a table with information about them on the Fleet page. Right click them to manage them.

One handy action that is not obvious is that you can select multiple ships in your fleet and right click on the one that will be the new flagship. Then select the Make Fleet menu option and they will split off into a separate fleet with the new flagship.

The Fleet page also has a combo box to select the fleet formation. This determines where the ships in the fleet belong relative to the flagship. Formation changes happen instantly; locked ships immediately change positions rather than have a gaggle of ships trying to rearrange themselves.

At the helm, you see a box indicating your ship's position in the fleet when it is not locked into position. Once you are close enough to that spot, you can use a helm button to lock your ship into its formation position. At that point, your ship is slaved to the flagship and it will move in sync with the flagship until it is unlocked, which the pilot (or the flagship) can do at any time.

NPC pilots of fleet ships always try to reach their formation position so they can lock in to the fleet. They are more successful when the flagship is not moving. Some formations, such as column formation, make it easier for the ships to get locked into their positions.

I tried having NPCs fly in formation and I tried it myself. That was a fools errand with ships that accelerate or decelerate at hundreds of meters per second constantly and that lack the ability to achieve that fine of control. Airplanes and navy ships can easily move at the same speed as each other, making formations a bit easier. Not so with spacecraft trying to go the speed of light as fast as possible all the time.

The locking mechanism proved to be the answer. It might not be super realistic but it gets the job done and it looks pretty good. It also keeps the fleet together very well through wormholes and at warp speed. The NPC pilot of the flagship considers the radius of the entire fleet when avoiding obstacles.

The fleet ship checkin information shown in the Fleet table is used to limit the maximum warp and maximum acceleration of the fleet to the slowest ships. If anybody can't warp the flagship will not go to warp. Likewise, if anybody can't wormhole the flagship will not go through wormholes.

When flying to a space station, the flagship moves the fleet next to the station as if it were one huge ship. All the locked ships in the fleet are considered to be in range of the station for trade purposes.

Fleet ships are free to have their own individual missions. They just can't move if they are locked. There are a few mission orders that become the current order for the entire fleet when they are the current order for the flagship. They are: Attack, Plunder, Hide, and Stand Down.

I haven't tested every possible situation with fleets. Beware of "Land" orders. I'm not sure how that would go. If you have trouble with fleets, avoid using them until the next update. I'm sure there will be improvements between now and then.

Starforce
The addition of fleets introduced a nomenclature problem. Previously all government owned spacecraft were called fleet ships. Privately owned vessels are called company ships.

I struggle with this one. I almost went with Navy but that is just too nautical. Space Force? Not a chance. Space Fleet? Space Navy? Ho hum. Star Fleet? :/

Searching did not turn up any existing trademark on the term Starforce. There was a video game called Star Force, two words, but I figure that's no more of a problem than saying star fleet, instead of starfleet(tm). If anybody knows of a conflict please tell me and I will consider changing it.

I did in fact change the term Star Fleet Academy to Starforce Academy.

There is now a Starforce comm channel and a Fleet comm channel. The Starforce channel talks to all ships in your empire that are not fleet vessels under a flagship. In other words, only the flagships and ships not in fleets will answer on the Starforce channel. Of course, only ships with an officer will answer hails.

The Fleet channel communicates with other ships in the same fleet.

C4 Doors
Someone commented that explosives like C4 and dynamite do not open the doors of spacecraft.

The code for explosives required them to be very close to the door switch, not the door. I fixed that. This works well now. You can stick a bomb onto a door anywhere and it should blow open.

Incidentally, a door that is blown open becomes jammed open. A jammed door will not close itself and it cannot be closed with a remote door switch. It requires someone to physically touch the door to close it.

Shield Types
There are three kinds of energy shields but they all do the exact same thing.

This is finally done. Here is the result.

Cloaking shield was renamed to Stealth shield. The name is more indicative of what it does. Unlike the cloaking shield of popular scifi which acts more like an invisibility cloak.

• Kinetic Shield - Provides full protection against kinetic damage. Provides 20% less protection against energy damage.
  
• Energy Shield - Provides full protection against energy damage. Provides 20% less protection against kinetic damage.
  
• Stealth Shield - Provides 20% less protection against kinetic and energy damage. Reduces sensor detection range based on shield module quality. If sensor can't detect your ship, weapons cannot lock onto it.

Missiles
Missiles don't seem to hit their targets very often, if ever.

Fixed numerous issues with guided missiles and other projectiles.

Ordnance Window
Ordnance window doesn't work correctly on Gulliver when I access a weapon station from a captain's chair.

Fixed. This would have also been a problem at a weapon station when trying to operate a different weapon system than the default system for that station.

Sensor Lock Update Bug
Sensor lock reticle range does not update if I lock on to a target then switch to the captain's chair.

Fixed.

Sensor Lock Linger
Sensor lock reticle remains in space after destroying a target, when there are no other targets to lock onto. It just seems to drift away.

Fixed.

Salvage Order
Salvage order needs to be easier to issue instead of being way down the list of orders. I find myself frantically trying to issue the salvage order before the TEUs drift away.

Salvage order is now the first order on the list.

Pirates
Pirates got some minor improvements as a result of many battles with them.

Pirate Encounter Frequency
It seems like pirates are pretty rare.

Pirate encounters should occur more often now.

Pirate Plunder Bug
Pirates showed up. I ordered my crew to stand down. The pirates parked in a nice line out in front of my ship but they never plundered my ship. They kept calling out to wait until they arrived.

Fixed several problems with this whole encounter.

Sensor Screen Bug
When the info pane is displayed for an object on the sensor screen, sometimes I can't scroll it back up to the topmost line.

Fixed obob (off by one bug).

Sensor Contact Long Lat
It would be nice if contacts on the sensor screen showed their longitude and latitude.

Sensor screen contacts now show their longitude and latitude on the info pane if the object is inside the atmosphere of a world.

Christen Ship Vehicles
After I christen my ship, its vehicles still identify themselves using the id only.

When a ship is christened, it now updates the mothership name info on all of its vehicles in the solar system.

TEU Containers
Deantwo suggested that exploding spacecraft should leave cargo containers behind.

When spacecraft explode their cargo is now disbursed in cargo containers. The algorithm for this insures that no ship will ever leave more than 100 containers behind when it explodes.

Access Containers
A TEU containers sitting on the ground begs for a way to access its contents.

A UI was added to access the contents of any container you are looking at. A Content button appears on the screen to do this.

TEU Containers on Sensors
TEU containers should show up on sensors.

Done.

TEU Containers on Helmet HUD Radar
TEU containers should show up on the radar display of my EV helmet.

Done.

Transport TEU Containers
Transporter should be able to beam up a TEU container.

Done. When beaming up a TEU container, the contents are placed directly into the hold. If the entire contents cannot fit, nothing happens. Messages report the various results.

When beaming to a TEU, nothing special happens. You just beam down somewhere near the container.

Salvage Order
A mission order is needed to salvage cargo from nearby TEUs.

Done. A Salvage Cargo order was added. Every TEU in range is collected one-by-one until no more will fit into the hold. Range is 500m. If the ship has a transporter, the range is the transporter range.

Messages report progress. This order is reported by the officer if there is one but the ship actually carries out the order; no officer or crew are required.

Pirate Crash
A crash happened when a pirate was encountered.

Fixed.

Pins at Site Vertices
Sites drawn in a building design respond to red glow at the vertices, to decide how much influence each vertex has on the terrain. This is impossible to see.

Added "pins" at the vertices that have a non-zero red glow. If a vertex has red glow, a cap is placed 1m above the vertex. A line is drawn from the vertex to the cap. The length of the line, from the vertex to the pin, is modulated by the amount of glow. A vertex with .75 red glow will have a line that is .75m tall, then there is .25m gap before the cap at 1m, to assist in visualizing the amount of red glow.

This revealed errors in the default coastal and agricultural sites. Those were fixed.

Buildings that used those sites were also fixed. This will not affect buildings that were already built.

Paths in Preview
There is a way in the code to show the paths in a design. Could this be useful in the designer preview?

Done, whether or not it is useful. Preview settings now has a check box to show the paths through the buildings or spacecraft.

Designer Repeat Command
It would be nice if there was an easy way to repeat the last command that was used in the designer.

Done. Esc key kills the current command. When there is no current command, Esc key now restarts the last command.

Designer Esc Key
Esc key in the designer kills all running commands. Could this step down by one command when they are stacked?

Done. For example, if you start drawing a mesh extrusion, then use the command to reposition the grid, the Esc key will kill only the grid movement command and fall back to where you were in the mesh extrusion command. Previously one hit on the Esc key would kill both commands.

Map Orbit Bug
Right-click menu on the world map shows two options to orbit low and no option to orbit high.

Fixed a copy constructor bug in the orbit at coordinates order.

Orbit Altitude on Every Order
The mission order UI shows the combo box to select orbit altitude on the options for every order, even those where it is not relevant.

Fixed control visibility bug.

Runways
Space Vehicle Recovery System. Hmm. That's a mouthful.

Changed this to Runway everywhere.

Recover Vehicles
Drop pods are fun but they can be impossible to get back aboard without a runway.

Any vehicle can now request recovery by a spacecraft if they are close enough. A Recover button appears among the on-screen buttons while you are in a vehicle.

"Close enough" is inside the shield bubble ellipse, regardless if the ship has shields.

Vehicle must also keep pace with the ship.

The ship must have a parking spot for the vehicle. As with runway landings, the vehicle will be placed in 1) an empty spot, 2) replace a new vehicle of the same kind, 3) replace a used empty vehicle of the same kind, 4) replace a used vehicle of the same kind containing items, in that order of preference.

There is some communication from the ship to help you succeed. This has some intentional delays so it's not faster than using a runway, if the ship is so equipped.

Orbit Altitude
It would be nice to specify the altitude when issuing an orbit order. This became more important with the drop pod launch direction, as discussed below.

Orbit orders now offer a Low or High altitude orbit option. Low altitude is the altitude that space stations orbit and new spacecraft are launched. High altitude is the altitude that NPCs orbit a world when flying around it. In the past, all orbit orders resulted in a low orbit.

Preview Bug
When previewing a spacecraft in the designer, the 'Empty Space' option is weird. It's like I am floating inside the ship model but I'm not "in" the ship.

Fixed.

Drop Pod Launch Direction
Launch direction of drop pod could be smarter.

Done. 

In low orbit, drop pod launches in orbit, perpendicular to the path to the world.

In high orbit, drop pod launches toward the world.

If the ship is moving fast enough, drop pod launch direction is adjusted to be perpendicular to the path of the ship.

Eden Story Bug
Eden story started while I was in orbit.

Fixed. You must be on the ground in the atmosphere for the Eden story to start.

Lost Atlantis Lights
In the Lost Atlantis scenario, all the interior lights on the ship are dim instead of the brightness in the blueprint.

Fixed. This was also true in the ship in the Stowaway scenario.

Drop Pod Death
Launched a drop pod from Atlantis at 58k m/s and the drop pod was instantly destroyed.

Fixed.

Drop Pod Life Boats
Drop pods should act like life boats when the ship is destroyed.

Done. Each person and NPC aboard locates the nearest drop pod to them, by straight line distance. A dice roll is made to see if they made it to the pod, modified by distance. If they make it they are placed into the pod and launched.

It is possible for drop pods to go unused if people aren't lucky or they are too far away.

Human players are checked before NPCs.

Drop Pod
This one has been on my list for a long time. There is a room on the Atlantis called the Pod Bay that has always been empty.

This has been a fun one. I added a new vehicle called a Drop Pod. The model was designed in the Designer.

• Drop pod is rocket propelled, like a space rocket.
  
• Flight controls use the Space Rocket controls.
  
• Drop pod is manufactured at aircraft factories.
  
• Drop pod has retractable landing gear. The default key for this is I. You also get an on-screen 'Landing Gear' button. That button appears and the state of landing gear is depicted on the screen when the current vehicle has retractable gear.
  
• New Aircraft Factory and Colony Aircraft Factory blueprints are included. They now have a drop pod shop so there is a place for the drop pod to be parked when manufactured. There is a dozen parking spots so there will be a lot of pods handy when a ship needs to load them.
  
• Buildings do not fetch drop pods to drop pod parking spots, in case the aircraft factory is used for some other purpose.
  
• A 'Launch' button appears when you are in a drop pod aboard a spacecraft. The engine does not have to be on. Launch is immediate, placing the pod just outside the bottom extent of the hull heading away at 200m/s with its engine on and gear retracted.
  
• Recovery system can recover drop pod if the ship has a drop pod parking spot.
  
• Atlantis was updated to carry drop pods in the Pod Bay.

The retractable gear was fun. The pod falls over on its side when the gear is not down.

Landing is fun when you get a feel for the pod. Standing in the pod looking out the big front window, you almost have the feeling of being a superhero flying in and landing on your feet. Don't forget to put the gear down.

This work caused me to flesh out the vehicle design portion of the Designer quite a bit. It isn't ready for the general public but it can make vehicles that I can use.

This created two new to-do items. 1) Troops need to know how to fly drop pods, which also teaches them how to fly space rockets. 2) Order needed to launch drop pods to a specific long lat, that can be selected off the map or input directly.

I am currently working on a bug related to drop pods. I am aboard an Atlantis decelerating from about 58,000m/s. When the pod launches it gets destroyed by a collision with the ship.

Mine
A new Mine 10 blueprint was added. It features an underground area that is accessible via turbo lift from the building.

Capitol Buildings
It was so nice to be able to go inside the undersea capitol building.

I designed Capitol Spire for habitable climates and Colony Capitol Command Center for harsh environments. They feature interior spaces. Capitol Spire has a turbo lift.

Parts Columns
Parts window stopped letting the icon-only columns be very narrow. This is a waste of space.

Fixed.

Workshop Blueprints
All of my spacecraft and building blueprints in the Steam Workshop have been updated, with the exception of the new aircraft factories. I just finished updating the blueprints before this update. I will update them in the workshop eventually.

Turbo Lift Jig
Turbo lift jig is broken after cutting through a hull.

Fixed bug when turbo lift part was in an unexpected state during the cut.

Designer Item Placer
The item placer in the Designer does not remember my preferred on/off state for each new item.

Fixed.

Turbo Lift Bogus Error
I designed a building with a turbo lift. The finalize process kept telling me the turbo lift was outside the hull but it wasn't.

Fixed.

Unpublish Blueprint
Cannot unpublish my own blueprint from the workshop if the blueprint is not in my local library.

Fixed.

Login Whereabouts
Login whereabouts information should say if an avatar is in a designer.

Done.

Pose on Sailboat
The sailboat is supposed to allow different body poses besides standing. It doesn't.

Fixed. Sitting is a great pose because you can see under the sail. You can also lie prone.

Creatures Attack
Creatures attacked me when I was inside a drop pod. It is considered an enclosed vehicle.

Fixed bug that allowed creatures to see people inside enclosed vehicles.

Design Modified State
When I use the designer in the game, it always warns me that I will lose changes, even if I just saved the drawing.

Fixed.

Undersea Buildings
Someone reported being unable to place a wharf at an undersea city. This prevented the undersea city from being connected by sea with surface cities that have wharves.

Fixed an error checking placement of coastal buildings at underwater cities.

Designed a few buildings specifically for undersea cities. They can be found in the exchange.

• Undersea Capitol - I decided to give this building an interior, so I could go inside while building and managing my underwater city. It features a bottom entry up into a dive chamber, like on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and other sea fiction. This presented some challenges because a number of small bugs prevented this from working properly; they are fixed.
  
• Undersea Factory 5 - A basic factory with 5 shops.
  
• Undersea Nuclear Power - Single generator nuclear power, nothing fancy.
  
• Undersea Wharf - A simple wharf with a few submarine parking spots.

Submarine Parking
My submarine would not autopark itself at my undersea buildings.

Fixed.

Also fixed a positioning bug that would have pulled the sub down to its CG into the dirt if it had worked. They would also have been placed that way when fetched from a shipyard. That positioning is needed when placing water vehicles on the sea surface.

Decorative Potted Plants
Potted plant growth should not affect potted plants with DNA that is not viable, i.e. those put on static display. They are considered to be decorations.

Fixed. Decorative plants always appear at full mature size with flowers. 

The overall size, whether live or decorative, can still be adjusted with the pruning control on the flower pot. You can adjust the size without picking up the pot if you click on the control inside the lip of the pot. If you pick it up you can adjust the size on the item's properties in your gear but then a live plant must start growing all over again when you drop it.

Military Headquarters Flag
The flag at the Military Headquarters building is only visible from one side.

Fixed.

Hull Volume Calculation Inconsistency
Hull volume is not calculated consistently between unfinalized and finalized blueprints that have a turbo lift. This makes finalizing the blueprint impossible.

Fixed.

Hull Volume Calculation Error
Buildings do not consider weapon bays when reconciling hull volume. This makes it impossible to finalize a building with a weapon bay.

Fixed.

Helmet Status Indicator for Suit Broken
When my suit is broken, the status indicator in my helmet blinks faintly yellow.

Fixed. Blinks red now like it was supposed to.

Season on Planetoid
Compass should not show season on a planetoid.

Fixed.

Disable Subscribe Button
Subscribe button should be disabled while a blueprint is being downloaded.

Done.

UI Freeze Making Spacecraft
Selecting a huge spacecraft in the spacecraft buy/commission/build dialogs causes a gigantic lag.

Fixed.

Achievements on Accounts Page
Accounts page should show my Steam achievements.

Done.

Exchange Size Sort
Size column does not sort properly in the building and spacecraft exchanges. Sorts alphabetically.

Fixed.

Finalize all Spacecraft and Buildings
All of the spacecraft and building blueprints included with the software were finalized. A few of them needed slight changes.

Done.

Achievement Graphics
The last of the basic set of achievement graphics were received from the graphic artist. Now all achievements have a graphic.

Done.

Lockup Bug
Two different cases of program lockups were reported. One occurred at the moment the avatar gave the vulcium knife to Xian at the University, something I have done hundreds of times. The other lockup occurred at the moment a spacecraft entered a wormhole, another activity I have done hundreds of times. Both of these juicy bugs were captured in save game files.

I lumped these two bugs together because the same program error was causing the problem. Oddly the bug was introduced some time in 2015. It is fixed.

Billion Hit Point Buildings
Pirate buildings report billions of hit points. This makes them very difficult to destroy.

This problem is caused by an inconsistency between the building subsystem volumes and the overall volume of the building itself. This error also afflicts some spacecraft blueprints.

I updated the building and spacecraft blueprint finalize functions to catch this situation and report it as an error. It also tells you how to fix it, which simply requires a refresh of the obstacles data and then to Ok the properties. A careful look at the subsystem volumes is recommended.

I also fixed the total hit points function to return a reasonable number when this situation occurs.

The default building and spacecraft blueprints should be reviewed and republished as necessary. There is no time for that today. I'll do it some time next week.