VTOL VR version 1.0 is now available, exactly 3 years after the early access release! With the support of the wonderful community that has grown around it, the game has totally exceeded what I had initially envisioned. I am so grateful to all of you who’ve joined me on this journey, with an open mind and enthusiasm to try a totally new way of playing a flight sim. I hope you are as excited as I am to see how far this game has come, and where it will go in the future.
The incremental changes in the 1.0 update are mostly polish, bug fixes, and final touches to help bring the game to a state worthy of “full release”. I can’t give enough thanks to everyone participating in the public_testing branch, providing feedback and helping to smooth out the rough spots in each test build. As a solo developer, there’s really no way I could have brought the game to this level without you.
I’d also like to give a shout out to those of you of who have been pushing custom missions and maps to the workshop. I’ve been having a ton of fun trying them out, and you’ve done a superb job!
Here are some highlights of the major visible changes since the last update:
Missile Warning System
The system that detects missile launches now also detects heat signatures that are approaching at high speed, and gives you warning and a bearing to the threat. This greatly helps you to be aware of short range heat seeking missile threats that are not detected by the RWR.
LSO
When you request landing on a carrier, the landing signal officer (LSO) will tell you to “call the ball”. If you have voice communication enabled, you can respond with your callsign and/or vehicle type and “ball” (meaning you can see the landing guidance signals) or “clara” (meaning you can’t). Calling “clara” will signal the LSO to immediately begin giving you landing guidance, but either way (or if you don’t say anything), you’ll be given verbal guidance as you come closer to landing. They’ll wave you off if your approach is unsafe, tell you which wire you caught, or call “bolter” if your hook misses.
Lighting at Night
Previously, the night environment was mostly pitch black. Now, as you may have noticed in the new trailer, custom maps have window and street lights in cities, and airbases have runway lights.
Symmetry Mode
In the equipment configurator, you can enable symmetry mode to attach or remove the same weapon on both sides of the vehicle. This greatly speeds up the setup process.
Open Canopy on Cold Start
Due to popular demand, the F-45 and F/A-26 canopy will start open on missions with a cold start. Don’t forget to close it before take off! The roaring jet engine and intake noise should be enough to remind you.
Countless Bug Fixes
This is where the meat of the update is. All kinds of issues, including quicksave bugs, misbehaving AI, highly specific mission editor edge cases, visual glitches, nitpicky interface problems, and more get reported daily on the public_testing branch. I did my best to solve as many of these as I could, to bring the most seamless and bug free experience possible to the full release update.
What’s next?
I will continue to fix bugs as they arise, as well as work on expanding the tutorials to help limit the need to search for external help to learn how to use various systems and tactics. I’d also like to add more missions, editor assets, weapons, and other content in small periodic updates. At the same time, I will switch gears slightly to focus on developing the more community-oriented features. I’ve been working on a few things on the side that have been kept under wraps, so I hope you continue to follow along and see what’s coming! Version 1.0 is just the beginning!
