Development ·
The way down
Test build 0.1.381: Nova Eridani from orbit as the opening film shows it, the ship coming down to a deployment orbit, a rebuilt pod bay, and the drop pod's launch as a short film. In the opening film, ships that leave their docks on their thrusters.
Development update. Everything here is in the current test build, 0.1.381 (with 0.1.376, which went out without notes). Details will change.
Nova Eridani from orbit
When the shutters on the bridge open, the planet you see is now the one from the opening film: its seas and continents, real weather drawn across them, and a thin blue glow of air along its edge. It sits where it always did, beside the debris shield's boom, but it is the true size at the true distance, so it no longer shifts as you walk about the bridge.
The stars behind the ship and behind the main menu are now the real sky too, the same catalogue of stars the night sky on the surface is drawn from.
Down to a deployment orbit
The ship arrives high, too far out for a drop pod, and comes down while you get ready. By the time the pod goes it is 410 km up, and the planet's horizon fills the bridge's port windows. The navigation station says so as it happens.
The pod bay, rebuilt
The drop pods' round doors never matched the pods behind them. Each berth's door is now the shape of the pod's own crew hatch, with a small window in it. Behind it is a short docking vestibule, deep enough for the pod's hatch to swing open into, and the pod itself stands in its bay beyond, hatch open and waiting. An inspection window above each door looks into the bay.
The launch
Boarding the first pod is now a short film. The door slides up, you duck through the vestibule and in at the open hatch, past the survey beacon strapped inside it, and settle into your seat as the hatch swings shut.
Outside, the Meridian finishes its burn down into orbit. Then the doors of the pod's hangar on the hull slide apart and the pod is pushed out on its springs, turns its heat shield round, fires its retro rockets and drops away behind the ship. The descent follows as before.
The opening film
The ships in the opening film now leave their docks the way a spacecraft would: side thrusters lift them out of their cradles a little unevenly, small bursts correct them and turn them to their heading, and only then does the main drive light, with a stutter, a low glow and thrust that builds. The farmland no longer flickers, and one line of the narration is reworded: "But there was no time to build anything better."
Thank you, testers
Much of this came from your notes. Keep them coming through the tester feedback page.
