It's been less than a week since the last update, but there's a lot to go over today. Let's just jump right in with the Trebuchet and Catapult Featured Vehicle winners, and we'll cover the update below.

Here's the video of the Featured Vehicle winners, with lists below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55lrUG1aAco

FEATURED WINNERS

• Trebupult - Joefulle
  
• One Button Trebuchet - SparkyMcCalci
  
• Trebuchet - JMMAJ2
  
• Plebuchet - OscBear
  
• Run Awaaaaay! Trebuchet - Zombine Ninja
  
• Heavy Catapult mk3 - Tatsmesan
  
• Will It Catapult - Detaal
  
• Floating Arm Trebuchet V3 - Miss Stabby
  
• Steel Catapult - DarkySword
  
• Inertial Catapult - Pyroteknikid
  
• Trebuchet Fortest Island - Rattlesnake82
  
• Sci-fi Trebuchet - Ajaxgamr
  

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Experimental Void Lobber - Jonny_Arson
  
• Cab Trebuchet - Pyro_Knight
  
• Catapult Tank - Pyro_Knight
  
• Catabuchet - Stranger
  
• Dakkapult - Stranger
  
• Cross-apult (V2) - TurtleBravo85
  
• B29 Enola Gay Trebuchet30 - WC4513
  
• Reloadable Trebuchet - SparkyMcCalci
  
• Tree-Bushey - IceCreamMan4254
  
• Tre-Mrr-Chet - Lady Loranda
  
• Rocket Propelled Catapult - Red Cassette
  
• Simple Trebuchet - SparkyMcCalci
  
• Antimatter Catapult - JS_Coulthard
  
• Cross-apult - TurtleBravo85
  
• ACME(tm) Catapult - IceCreamMan4254
  

Over 50 entries this time, and many of them were quite impressive. I think this theme would have benefitted pretty significantly from more logic/automation parts, as some of the machines were very cool but also a bit too complex to operate consistently. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a number of the entries' controls/concepts, and I think I figured them all out, but in the end I favored the simpler/elegant trebuchets and catapults. As usual it was hard to draw the line between winners and honorable mentions, but I prefer two categories rather than trying to rank them. Either way, I appreciate everyone taking the time to enter these contents, and I'm plan to keep doing them until 1.0 at least, possibly beyond that.

AUGUST'S THEME: WRECKING BALL

Next month's theme will be Wrecking Ball. This means building a traditional-ish demolition vehicle whose method of destruction is swinging a ball (or something similar) into a structure. Mechanical devices are preferred, but not required. Satisfaction when used (how fun is it to use to destroy a building), and overall design will be the top priority. As usual, easy-to-use vehicles will likely have an advantage as well. There's no particular island/building this time, and I'll be sure to try each vehicle against multiple structures/targets. Deadline will be August 20th.

0.126 - A BIG WEAPONS UPDATE

It's been a while since I added some new parts, and though there was a big content addition recently in the form of 7 new islands, I decided it was a good idea to add some new parts before going into gameplay prototype mode for a few weeks. That's a long way of saying 0.126 is here, and it's got some pretty cool stuff in it. Here's a quick preview:



And the changelist for 0.126:
* New part: X8 Rifle (fires bullet, with high rate of fire possible)
* New part: Gauss Gun (fires explosive bullet, with medium rate of fire possible)
* Added weapon firing modes to all 4 projectile weapon parts (Single Shot, Automatic, Burst)
* Added refire rate, burst size, and relative delay settings to weapon parts (advanced mode)
* New parts: Suspension Swivel, Suspension Socket, and Suspension Arm
* Added Strength (mass) setting to Steel Orb and Steel Orb XL
* Replaced Structure Zoo 2 with Compound, which is now the default Sandbox island
* Fixed weapon trails jumping around sometimes (particles and trails each had a similar to distinct version of this)
* Updated cannon part model to fit sizing of projectile a bit better

Lots of fun new things in this update, with the new weapons and weapon firing adjustments being the most significant. It's easy with these new settings to create over-powered vehicles, but there are already so many ways to do that (lasers, vortex, magnets, fixed bombs, etc) that adding more potentially-OP parts doesn't really change the balancing issues. I did have to simplify the weapon counters so there's just one "shot" counter for regular projectiles, and if more energy-based weapons (plasma gun/etc) are added, those will use the power system as lasers.

The new suspension parts are just some things I've wanted to add for variety, though they probably don't change what's possible very much. The mass/strength thing was added to steel orbs, as it was pretty obvious when testing the featured vehicles that they needed the option to be heavier. And there's a new default island for Sandbox mode. That may change/evolve into a campaign island eventually, but for now I just wanted to see something besides Structure Zoo 1.

This will be the last update for a bit, as I'll be going into gameplay prototype mode for 2-3 weeks. Have a long list of things to try out, and the new weapons in particular provide some basis for potential enemies/obstacles. The game will definitely have more combat of some sort in the future, though I may draw a line between the demolition/puzzle style islands and those that focus more on combat. Will have to see how the next few weeks go, and I'll aim for some prototype islands to showcase the new gameplay elements before going too far in a particular direction. Until next time...