Skip to content

0.6.0

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@dmccoystephenson dmccoystephenson released this 24 Oct 15:45
· 17 commits to main since this release
0.6.0
44e0297
This commit was created on GitHub.com and signed with GitHub’s verified signature.
GPG key ID: B5690EEEBB952194
Verified
Learn about vigilant mode.

In this release, the ship can glide, Pluto and Triton get their thin air, and a new race runs through Earth's air.

What's new

  • Gliding (#28): in air at zero throttle and off autopilot, the ship glides down instead of stopping, and the HUD says GLIDING.
    • It flies at the speed at which its wings hold its weight, and sinks at a fifth of that speed. Steer it to where you want to land.
    • Near Earth's ground that is about 80 m/s, sinking at 16 m/s: a soft landing.
    • Mars's thin air gives a fast glide (still a soft landing), and Pluto's gives a hard landing. Venus's and Titan's thick air give a slow drift. Throttle up to fly again.
  • Pluto and Triton (#28): thin nitrogen air, derived from New Horizons' and Voyager 2's measurements. It is about a hundred-thousandth of Earth's: it barely heats or slows the ship, and their skies stay nearly black.
  • Hot entry (#28): an eleventh mission, a race from the Moon to Earth's surface (- in the list). The landing autopilot keeps cool and takes 32.5 s; par is 30.0. Ride the heat higher by hand to beat it, but at 95% of the burn speed the ship burns up.
  • Strata v0.6.0 (#27): the engine is pinned to its v0.6.0 tag.

Known gaps

  • Air is a single exponential layer, with no winds or weather. Lift exists only as gliding.
  • Mission best times stay on the device that set them.

Playing it

The browser build is live at https://orrery.play.danielstephenson.dev. For the desktop build, see the README's Building and running section.

Full changelog: 0.5.0...0.6.0

drafted by Claude on behalf of Daniel Stephenson

Assets 2
Loading