Update v0.24.7 "Breaking Silence" is out now!

Rocket Science v0.24.7 “Breaking Silence” update has finally arrived! Since it is a huge one, I decided to make a video that clearly demonstrates the most important changes again. As always, you can find full release notes below.

I will spend the next couple of weeks not only fixing already reported and not yet discovered bugs by players, but working on new parts, including a parachute, I’ve promised in one of the previous updates (finally!).

That’s all, thank you for your support and have a nice flight!

v0.24.7 release notes

Features:

🔸 added space communications and antenna parts;

🔸 Deep Space Network and default relays as an option on game start;

🔸 implemented instruments system;

🔸 added flight journal, that records all events that happened to the spacecraft during the flight;

🔸 added milestones system, which replace simple contracts like reach orbit, land etc and group it by planet;

🔸 added fuel / resource flow priority system;

🔸 added part panels and instrument data rate requirement for probe cores;

🔸 added rotation tracking module and solar panels that can track the Sun;

🔸 added active cooling systems (cryo cooling, liquid will be added soon after);

🔸 reworked navball: moved instrument buttons there and added more indicators that show additional information about spacecraft status;

🔸 implemented radial to linear velocity conversion on decouple or undock;

🔸 electricity overhaul: implemented better production / consumption routines, added total production / consumption information to resources;

🔸 added basic game API and extension mods support;

🔸 added methane fuel and engines that consume it.

New rocket parts:

🔸 command pod 2;

🔸 probe core 5, 6

🔸 decoupler 9

🔸 structure 12;

🔸 antenna 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

🔸 cryocooler 0

🔸 radiator 2

🔸 thermal separator 0, 1

🔸 instrument 0, 1;

🔸 solar panel 5, 6;

🔸 engine 12.

New content:

🔸 new “Communications 101” tutorial.

Part changes:

🔸 Payload Enclosed Cap GO-5 added dynamic attachments to the bottom of part;

🔸 complete rework of command pod 1;

🔸 rework of decoupler 3 and 5, so they are now smaller.

Changes:

🔸 conductive heat transfer now uses not average heat transfer coef but harmonic mean;

🔸 thermal conductivity can now be configured separately for part skin;

🔸 you can manually cut the parachute;

🔸 parachute min pressure is now set in kilopascals and not in atmospheres;

🔸 most of the contracts were converted to milestones;

🔸 active stage TWR is now shown under the dV on action groups UI;

🔸 spacecraft will maintain its auto correction rotation on very high time warp;

🔸 reaction wheel power consumption no longer overconsume electricity on high time warp;

🔸 battaries produce heat on recharge;

🔸 wheels with motors produce heat when driving;

🔸 docking ports can now transfer hydrazine;

🔸 hydrazine is consumed evenly from tanks now;

🔸 added "show target markers" button to UI;

🔸 all ambient sounds now respect audio settings;

🔸 date time format and input values now depends on system culture, but not on selected locale;

🔸 all tooltips have consistent positioning relative to hovered item and size now;

🔸 reworked font sizes and text clipping in control center and rocket lists;

🔸 you can close control center map UI using ESC now;

🔸 updated all physical constants using latest CDATA values;

🔸 probe cores are now far more aerodynamically stable and will less likely to flip on atmosphere re-entry;

🔸 part window module order is now stable;

🔸 internally reworked part tooltip system, more data is shown in tooltips because of that;

🔸 you can't see instrument and part panel values during the flight if you have no stored electricity or electricity production available;

🔸 spacecraft now saves selected command module between game sessions;

🔸 added some missing localization strings;

🔸 you can deselect spacecraft in the spacecraft list by clicking on the list panel itself;

🔸 [Assembly] improved part initial placement behaviour yet again;

🔸 camera zoom now supports continuous controls.

🔸 module panels and assembly configs now show units when applicable;

🔸 HeatProductionSystem now operates on per part basis to support heat dissipation using coolers.

Settings:

🔸 [Audio] added master and ambient volume sliders;

🔸 [Game] added culture selector;

🔸 [Game] added map camera zoom sensitivity;

🔸 [Quality] added FPS limiter toggle and slider;

🔸 [Quality] SSGI is temporary disabled because it is broken in current Unity version (a lot of ghosting artefacts).

Fixes:

🔸 burn vector is incorrect for every maneuver on the orbit with eccentricity higher than 0.2.

🔸 you can reset riteg decay by docking recently launched spacecraft and then undocking from other port;

🔸 game stuck when decouple and switching to decoupled spacecraft and then quick load.

🔸 sometimes values in part panels roll back after change with no reason;

🔸 electricity consumption and production is changing proportionally to the number of installed batteries;

🔸 celestial filter doesn't affect body tooltips;

🔸 mach VFX is swapped with re-entry VFX when rocket part changes physics state and vice-versa;

🔸 reentry and mach VFX not changing when part change shape in some cases;

🔸 decoupler 4 looks wrong after separation.

🔸 quick load is not working when trying to load in the space center and not a single spacecraft was selected;

🔸 target orbit changes color when you set it as target and then unset;

🔸 decouplers that split lead to NaN temperature after deploy;

🔸 exception when dragging one fuel tank over two connected ones;

🔸 some strings are not localizable on Chinese, because of font size;

🔸 wheels produce electricity, when driving backwards;

🔸 [Assembly] part config incorrectly sets values from the previous part when adding a new one;

🔸 [Assembly] fuel level values are wrong when inspecting fuel tank with bigger capacity followed by the smaller one.

🔸 some parts of Navball are changing brightness depending on camera exposure;

🔸 you can't expand autocomplete dropdown manually, by pressing on the arrow;

🔸 location name overflows when rocket or spacecraft have a very long name;

🔸 parachute always fail to deploy when`another spacecraft is nearby;

🔸 sometimes spacecraft is not interacting with separated parts after decouple;

🔸 conductive heat transfer is slower, than expected;

🔸 time panel stops updating when time was reversed backwards (for example, for tutorial).

🔸 outline not including parts that have more than one submesh;

🔸 landing strut 0 stuck on decoupler in some rocket configurations.

Known issues:

🔸 abnormal mesh bouns spam in the console, when you are flying very far from Earth and have an established link.