Dear shipmates,

Finally, after all these months of furious coding for the "frontier maintenance" work, we can proudly present...Floating Sandbox 1.16.0!

This update contains the first of a series of physical phenomena that may be efficiently simulated thanks to the frontier work, namely hydrodynamics: while previous versions of Floating Sandbox only implemented the friction component of water drag, version 1.16.0 also implements its pressure component, which acts on the edges of physical bodies imparting directional thrust and rotational moments.

But that's not all - this release also introduces a few new features and improvements, together with Spanish localization and quite a few new ships!

Here is the official changelog for this release:

• Completed "Frontier Maintenance" sub-system

  • With this new sub-system the simulator is now constantly aware of the edges of a ship, enabling implementation of a plethora of new features

• Added first implementation of hydrodynamics

  • Water drag is now calculated as separate friction and pressure (aka "directional") drags

  • Re-calibrated all drag forces in the simulation

• Added a new "surprise" feature, will be publicized in a week or so to maintain anticipation!

• Improved clouds

  • Thanks to Dario Bazzichetto for the ideas!

• Improved materials database:

  • Added new "Nuclear Alarm" ship sound - check it out in the new "Floating Nuclear Reactor" ship!

  • Recalibrated paper and cardboard materials

• Added Spanish translation

  • Thanks to Joaquin Olivera (Joadix100)!

• Reduced mechanical oscillations due to buoyancy discontinuities close to the air-water interface

  • "Nature abhors discontinuities"

• Fixed issue with completely burnt materials becoming super-heated when close to flames

  • No more burnt cardboard flying up in the air

• Added 17 new ships

• ...and a few more small improvements here and there!

• Musical theme for this release: A-Ha, Lifelines (2002)

Before you rush to download the installer, please remember that during the first few days of the release Windows Defender will complain that the Floating Sandbox installer is not (yet) trusted. Follow the instructions in this post and you'll be fine!

Lastly, we're taking this opportunity to carry a message from Wreno, the owner of the Floating Sandbox Discord Server:

Greetings all!

I am Wreno, owner of the Floating Sandbox Discord server. We have recently had a major server rework and I am writing this to let you all know about our server.

We have lots to offer and do, such as:

• An open community to discuss Floating Sandbox, history, other games, art and more

• Sharing your own ships and finding other people's creations

• Public tutorials explaining and helping you with any of your Floating Sandbox queries

• Contests to exercise your artistic talent for rewards (such as a winning piece being featured in the game)

• Game nights to relax with the community and make friends

• Opportunities to talk to the dev team

• Having an impact on game development by helping test new builds and suggesting new ideas

Come and be a part of the awesome Floating Sandbox community! https://discord.gg/E3FemDtHRE

That is all, shipmates! We sincerely hope you enjoy 1.16.0 - and we wish you all Happy Holidays and a happier, healthier, and more humane 2021!