Iron Skies Devblog – Some Changes

From now on I will be streamlining the devblog a little. The webplayer will now be in one place, (on that top bar up there), and I will continue to update it, commenting on updates from time to time as entries here, so feel free to check back occasionally. Here’s what’s in the latest version:

– Ship’s guns now present and working; the first ship has a single forward cannon for you to play with

– Skyfighters added back in. With their new and shiny flight model that’s almost complete.

– Ships can ram each other! Collision causes damage finally, something the old version never got around to having. The damage model will change too; I want some components to leave behind a ‘shell’ of wreckage so that you don’t get weird gaps when a central system (like the hull) is destroyed. A hierarchy would be another alternative, but I want to make shipbuilding as simple as possible.

– Some targets to shoot at. Both the skyfighters and ship cannons can take em out. You can even ram the crap out of them.

As a final note, I am considering a new name for the project. Since my first version way back in 2006, a Finnish film studio has been working on Iron Sky, a movie about space nazis. I’ve known about it for a few months now, but the fact is it’s inevitably more publicised than mine and to continue using such a similar name is only going to cause me trouble later on. So if you have any ideas, feel free to suggest them!

At the very least it might prevent confusion around the fact that I’ve started again from scratch…

Iron Skies Devblog : Components and Outputs

So it’s been a while since the last one due to all manner of things, but I’d like to tell you what I’m now working on. The Airship / Component system is at the heart of the game’s mechanics and I’ve given it a complete overhaul.

Play the Webplayer Test

  • Controls: WASD move the ship; Left Shift / CTRL to ascend/descend; Right Mouse Drag to move camera and Left click on a ship component to open its properties.

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Rally to Restore Sanity

The Rally to Restore Sanity took place in Washington D.C, a week ago last saturday, and was basically a rally to poke fun at rallies; or more specifically the kneejerk, ill-informed, hypochondriac Tea Party type of rally that America seems to be plagued by in recent years.

Follow the link for a full gallery with some more great examples:

Rally to Restore Sanity

Please note: I don't own these images, they are reproduced here for the purpose of exposure and I highly recommend checking out the rest on Flickr. Thank you!

The Altimeter is Not Magical, But Awesome

The altimeter is essentially a barometer, a device that measures the difference between two pressure levels.

It’s better known as “that thing in a plane that tells you how high up you are”. Exactly what that means varies, but in aviation there are basically two ways of expressing it:

Altitude, or QNH, is your height in feet above mean sea level. Sea level is very often lower than the ground below you, but QNH is useful because it gives a common level to work with between airfields, and constantly updating your setting isn’t really feasible.

Height, or QFE, is your height above the ground level at a certain location, generally an airfield. Hence a good way to remember the two: QNH is Nautical, QFE is airField. The uses of calibrating your altimeter to the ground level are obvious (especially when landing), but of course the ground doesn’t stay at that level and away from the airfield the reading isn’t always useful. Continue reading