Sky Knights 
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Update 1.9.3 Eyecandy UpdateApr 2, 2021 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/1e827094b2005f7c68a44d5384083b0898e05adf.png Polish! In preparation for an upcoming full release, it was time to polish some of the smaller stuff in there. The minimap now looks considerably sharper, the missiles have new exhaust particle effects as well as some other minor improvements. Take nice screenshots in offline mode When running the game in offline mode (Profile -> Log out -> Offline Mode) you can now pause the game with ctrl+alt+P. Try starting a 4 vs 4 game with yourself as a spectator. Let the bots take off and merge, then pause the game. Use the free camera mode and press ctrl+alt+U to remove the HUD as well. You are all set up to take amazing screenshots, where you can put the camera anywhere you want! If you create something nice, please share it with us in Discord! Simple Water It turned out that the new water used in the Turning Tides map was a bit heavy on low end computers. I added an option where you can disable the high quality water and replace it with a simpler one. While not as fancy looking, it will be a life saver if running the game on an older computer or a laptop. Patreon Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.9.3 Fixed issue where a SARH missile could go full active and track on its own if you launched more than one missile. Added pause (ctrl-alt-P) when playing in Offline Mode. This can be used with the disable HUD feature (ctrl-alt-U) to capture fancy screenshots. Added option for setting detail level. Improved free look movement when manually controlling the camera as spectator. It should now be much easier to position the camera for cool screenshots. Sharpened the minimap considerably. Missiles exhaust effects improved. Missiles no longer burn through their whole flight, but instead only some seconds after launch. Fixed visual glitch where a network object, like a ground vehicle, sometimes showed up for a split second in the middle of the map just after spawning. Clouds will now fade out rather than instantly disappearing when reaching the end of their lifetime. 1.9.0 New Map: Turning TidesFeb 16, 2021 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/ba2540e7d63208d2373aedd1cbf3c12d25306eec.png New Map! It's ice cold winter here in Sweden, and despite what they say about viking blood, I can't say I really particularly enjoy it. Luckily this new Sky Knights map takes us to the sunny Caribbean. Sun, beaches, yachts, umbrella drinks... and a rain of 1000 lbs bombs! This map features a rather unorthodox layout, with isolated islands and short distances between the opposing center FOBs, and a final backline one very close to the home base. Ships! During play testing, it got apparent that the vast seas were a little empty at first. Our awesome Patreon heroes talked me into investigating if adding some kind of ships would work, and I'm happy they did! Light corvette class ships spawn on both sides and can inflict heavy damage to FOBs if left unopposed. When attacking them, watch out for their machine guns! Patreon Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.9.0 Added new map "Turning Tides". Added new ground mover type "Corvette". Tweaked AI behavior related to ground mover targeting priority. Fixed bug where you could get 0 hp after refunding an item if you also had the Hull updgrade item. Update 1.8.0 Christmas ChallengeDec 9, 2020 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/849b24050d457e4850712ac45eb99476ba7a941a.png Christmas Challenge! Christmas is closing in to round this strange year off. This month we will run a shorter season beginning now and ending in early 2021. Everyone who wins at least 20 pvp matches during this season will unlock an exclusive Desert Camo skin for the Su-27, normally only available to our high tier Patreon supporters. Not sure if a desert skin really fits Christmas, but who cares? It looks badass regardless! Engine upgrade Before this patch, I updated the game engine to a much newer version, in order to ensure the game stays playable on new hardware, let it make use of engine optimizations and make future updates easier to perform. Engine updates are always a little risky, but I hope no game breaking bugs did make it into the build. Just let me know if something seems off, and I'll do my best to fix it. Twitch integration fix The Twitch integration hasn't beeing working for a while (sorry for that), but now it's running again. If you're streaming on Twitch, your viewers can type !creep in the chat to join the game as one of the ground forces, and you will see their names in there! Long time Patreon reward All current Patreon supporters will receive the exclusive Spectre skin for the MiG-29! Thanks for the support! It really means a lot to me! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/08f4f1058ea34858087ae0bb648b3c74e6c8fa92.png Patreon Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.8.0 Added Christmas challenge to unlock the Desert Camo Su-27 skin. Updated engine version. Added VSync support (mutually exclusive with Max FPS setting). Fixed Twitch integration. Updated Patreon Race Landmark names. Added Spectre MiG-29 skin for longtime patrons. Update 1.7.0 Pilot VoicesJan 28, 2020 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/13fae00184d8eb4c763cc07c2544f9fe838add2a.png Pilot voices! One of the most iconic things in air combat is pilot lingo. We all love those "Fox 2!" calls before launching a heatseeker towards an enemy tailpipe. In Sky Knights, they have unfortunately been missing. Until now. Five pilot voices have been recorded, with over 200 lines per voice. Whenever your pilot does something of interest (launching a missile, coming in for landing, gets shot down etc) they will trigger a radio callout. Naturally, you will also hear your team mates radio calls. Everything is 100% network synched, so you will all hear the exact same thing, even the same random variation of a certain voice line. Different hi- and lowpass filters have been used to make it easy to distinguish your own pilot's voice from others'. You are free to select any voice and match it with any avatar of matching gender. Comms wheel This patch also brings a related feature to the table. In addition to the contextual radio calls triggered by events happening in the game, you can manually trigger communication with the new comms wheel. Press L Bumper on gamepad or L Alt on keyboard to bring up the comms wheel, and choose from any of the available commands, making team work much easier than before. And don't worry. There's a spam filter in place, preventing people from over-using the comms wheel. Don't forget to check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! You can unlock cool skins and other exclusive stuff by becoming a Patreon. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.7.0 Added contextual pilot comms. Added comms wheel for quick communication. Default binding is LAlt or left bumper on gamepad. You can now choose a pilot voice in the profile page. You can customize your voice by selecting a higher or lower pitch than the default one. Added separate sfx volume slider for easier sound balancing. Fixed some instances in the tutorial where you could get double audio. Fixed bug where you lost your Anti-Radar missile if you sold another upgrade. Engine sfx now turns off instantly when an aircraft is destroyed. Fixed bug where the already equipped aircraft did not get auto-selected when opening the pact deck window. Update 1.6.8 Sell Your UpgradesNov 4, 2019 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/0b6c0b7a6fcafef73ed292581dbe183a7239674f.png Sell your upgrades! I always wanted to change the Race shop so that you don't have to buy the upgrades every time you made a new attempt on a track. So you kept the upgrades that you had bought between lives. However, I also wanted you to be able to swap them out if you changed your mind. Basically, sell them. With this in place, I played around with the idea of adding it into the main game as well. Only difference is that you'd not get the full refund for them. So if you wanted to change tactics later in a match and no longer needed a certain upgrade, you can at least get a 50% payback when selling it. And when I was at it, I realized how many times I had bought an upgrade, only to realize 3 seconds later that I should have bought something else. To fix this, I also implemented an upgrade refund feature. What this means is that you can sell back upgrades for 100% of the price as long as it hasn't been used (defined by you moving your jet at a certain speed). Another little change in this update is how the aircraft looks when combining turns with holding the maneuver button. It's a purely visual change, so no need to learn any new stuff, but it will look much more natural now! In other news, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! It's awesome! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.6.8 Fixed issue where contact markers in the HUD were not immediately removed when an aircraft crashed. Fixed issue in the shop GUI where an aircraft button was selected after buying an upgrade. You can now refund upgrades that you just bought for 100% of the price as long as you don't start moving. You can now sell upgrades that you previously have bought for 50% of the price. Adjusted bank animations on aircraft when performing maneuvers and turning simultaneously. Upgrade purchase messages are now batched and only sent when the window for refund has closed. Fixed bug where you didn't see the opening animations on the reward boxes if you spammed the Continue button. Fixed graphical glitch in the Match Over-screen where the buttons intersected the daily challenge box. Added new Patreon landmark names to Race #4. Update 1.6.7 Weekend Bug SquashOct 11, 2019 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/670da0ae06f48135659a890d852dcf6f0d5a8d75.png Squashing them bugs! In my ambition to keep Sky Knights 100% bug free, it's necessary to sometimes forget about making new stuff and just fix the glitches before they start to add up. This philosophy has paid off resulting in a maintainable code base, very few bugs and less player frustration. This little update features five minor bug fixes which should make the Sky Knights experience even more smooth! Have a great weekend! Oh, I almost forgot, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! Cool things, like exclusive aircraft skins are waiting for you if you want to become a supporter! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.6.7 Fixed bug where minimap vision circles were offset from the aircraft in the Cold Snap level. Fixed bug where aircraft without no radar (A-10 and Su-25) didn't see contacts on the minimap unless they're seen by someone else. Fixed bug where only 100 radar contacts could be shown at a time on a player's mini map. Fixed camera glitch in Woodlands where the intro camera could clip into the hangar building. Fixed an edge-case bug where a player sometimes didn't receive a match reward modification. Update 1.6.6 Advanced RadarsOct 3, 2019 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/0e7e15a9c373ac9f68b4d3aac6443a61223b16e4.png New radar implementation! On real military jets, the radar is typically a forward looking thing located in the nose cone. Despite this fact, when I first created Sky Knights I wanted to keep things as simple as possible (I still do, to some extent), hence I implemented the radar "sci-fi style" making it simply cover a circular area around the aircraft. Several players have feedbacked that they would like the radar to be more of a cone (like in real jets). Not only for the sake of realism, but also for the tactical gameplay it would provide, enabling players to stay out of radar coverage and so on. The more I thought of it, the more it made sense. Furthermore, the aircrafts' different radar performance stats would provide an interesting way to make the aircraft even more unique. In this new implementation, there are two separate zones around the aircraft that can locate enemies. The first one is a small circle around you (just like before, only much smaller) representing the pilots eyes. The other is a cone shaped thing in front of you, representing the radar coverage. This cone looks different on different jets. For instance, the radar performance of an F-15 is much better than on an F-5, and the Su-25 doesn't have a radar at all. A rough balance pass has been done. But keep the feedback coming if you think anything seems off! Season challenge skin For this season only, you have the chance of unlocking the Woodlands skin for the A-10A. This is done by winning 20 matches before the season ends with the end of October. A must-have for all you BRRRRRT gunners out there! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29661056/638be76e0809cb60b74aafc824f26d93b20d0e2c.png Patreon loyalty reward I'm amazed and humbled by the support from the Sky Knights patrons. As a little sign of gratitude, I just added a 3 month loyalty reward. Everybody who has been a Patreon subscriber on any tier for at least 3 months (counting from the first transaction) will get an exclusive black "SPECTRE" F-16A skin (as featured in this update's splash image). If you have only been on Patreon for 1 or 2 month (or you're signing up just now), don't worry. The skin will be waiting for you when you reach the 3 month line! If this stuff is appreaciated, I might add additional loyalty rewards in the future, maybe for 6- 9- and 12 months or something like that. Let me know what you think! If you want to support the development, and get access to exclusive stuff, like skins, a special Discord channel and other nice things, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.6.6 Optimized parts of the network code. Reworked the ground and water visuals on Woodlands and Cold Snap. Added a terrain detail slider in options. New radar and vision system where you have a smaller circle around your aircraft represen...Update 1.6.5 New Co-op campaign!Aug 29, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/e1a7a82781692e6584472bcdadc333b682025da9.png New Co-op campaign! Long time Discord veteran, Patron, tech wiz and awesome person Turavis has contributed with a co-op campaign! Actually, he handed me the draft for this months ago, but I admit it was challenging enough for the testing to take a considerable time! I'm hyped to bring you the first user-created content. Thanks a lot for the contribution and your hard work, Turavis. The campaign puts you in the cockpit of Russian jets across several different maps, and is intended to play with one wingman. I warn you though, it's NOT easy! :) Power 100 modification crafting When you craft a new modification using a power 100 raw material, you are now guaranteed to get another type of modification than the one you used for the crafting. Hopefully good news for the high-tier players trying to optimize their aircraft! Patreon The Patreon is moving along nicely! We are up to eleven patrons now. A few more and we'll reach the first milestone (which means I'll create a new map). If you also want to support the development, and get access to exclusive stuff, like skins, a special Discord channel and other nice things, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Best regards //Bankler 1.6.5 Added new co-op campaign "Angels Two" by Turavis. When crafting, if you use a power 100 raw material you are now guaranteed to get a modification of another type than the raw material. Added experimental feature for disabling the HUD (press LCtrl+LAlt+U) for screenshot/video making purposes. Increased contrast on F-5E Desert skin. Fixed glitch where chat input lost focus when another auto-selecting GUI element popped up (Shop screen and such). Fixed glitch where next reward box wasn't selected when you opened a reward by explicitely selecting and pressing it with gamepad. Fixed glitch where the gamepad device scroll list initially were scrolled to the bottom. Fixed spawn timer and kill flair overlap in HUD. Fixed bug where player name was set to Default Player when reseting client preferences. Fixed bug where daily tasks were visible in co-op mode, causing overlapping text. Fixed bug where it showed your flight time wrongly if you have flown an insane amount of hours. :) Fixed edge case bug where the boxes to change HUD color could become unresponsive. Added Patreon landmark names in races. Added Patreon custom tailart. In coop-mode, the grounded AI aircraft types will now reflect the types present in the mission rather that always being F-16s and MiG-29s. Update 1.6.4 Winning StreaksJul 19, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/0686c6762ca86346c54e3a8e7f8824bc8909d597.png Winning Streaks! Some players have expressed concern over the time it takes to reach ACE rank during a season. While ACE should of course be something really hard to get, I'm inclined to agree that it has been a little extreme. As a response to the feedback, I've added a Winning Streak feature. What it means is that when you win a match, if you also won the previous one, you'll be rewarded with one extra star. This could potentially cut the number of matches it takes to reach a certain rank in half, but only as long as you're victorious in your battles! Patreon I'm blown away by the response on Patreon. No less than six people have already signed up. I'm very happy for the support! If you also want to support the development and get some cool ingame stuff like custom skins, check out the Sky Knights Patreon page! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Fixed nose and tail art Most or all of the nose and tail art glitches are now fixed! Please join us on Discord! Best regards //Bankler 1.6.4 Added Winning Streak feature. If you have at least 2 consecutive wins, you will get one extra rank star when winning a pvp game. Thunderbird and General tier patrons shown on the splash screen can now be updated without patch updated (game will need to restart one time after a patron has been added before they show up). Fixed bug where the shop button became visible if you landed on north-to-south runways even before the aircraft came to a halt. Fixed bug where tail art could get corrupted in the intro sequence. Fixed bug where tail art could get corrupted in the hangar. Adjusted color on some nose art. Adjusted F-5E nose and tail art positions. Adjusted AJS 37 tail art position. Adjusted MiG-29 tail art position. Adjusted Su-17 nose art position. Adjusted F-15A nose art position. Fixed bug where Su-17 tail art didn't render on the rudder surface. Optimized Su-17 rendering performance. Update 1.6.3 Skins and PatreonJul 12, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/8c1afa34b51c7bfce9e646244852386b11ed3cdf.png Skins! The tech required for changing the default skin for fancy ones is now in place. This feature is still in limited testing. At this time, there are two ways to unlock skins: 1) A challenge is in place, for this season only, where you can unlock the Viggen Splinter Camo by winning 20 PVP matches. 2) You can also get access to skins by becoming a Patreon. Later down the road, I'll look at adding some other ways to get skins (possibly both paid and non-paid). https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/2d20a1bb4c89dd4b236fe3bfbb0cf0cede6b4dd9.png Patreon Quite a few players have asked if they can help out financially by donating. While flattered by the offer, I have not accepted any donations so far. I think Patreon however is a fun way to support the development, and get access to some fun bonus content. Please check it on Sky Knights Patreon page! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c785dabb33d03f81f32d9d25551ebce9f5a205c6.png Updated airport visuals! I've added taxiways and tarmacs to the runways making the airfields a little more interesting. You can also see the players' main aircraft parked on the tarmac. Match intro sequence A short sequence has been added to the beginning of each match, showcasing the jets' skins and customizations as well as any player medals. New little wingman! As you might have noticed, the update frequency has been lower the last months. This is mainly since we've gotten our first kid and she's taking quite a bit of my attention and time. Thanks for the patience! Please join us on Discord! Best regards //Bankler 1.6.3 Added new skins feature. All the default skins have been polished. Added monthly challenge, where you can complete a certain task to unlock one skin this month. Added a short intro sequence in the beginning of a match, show-casing your main aircraft, tailart and medals. Added decorative taxiways and tarmacs to the airfields. Missiles no longer despawn when out of fuel, but instead go ballistic. Created a Patreon page, where you can support the game and receive some goodies. Fixed bug where non-host players could add bots in coop and custom game lobbies. Fixed bug where re-joining players' preserved stats did show up for other players. Update 1.6.2 Deep Freeze - New co-op campaign!Jan 24, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/93b721a6f6d22826bd3795d23d523e1f1cb27ecc.png Defend the Motherland! In this new challenging co-op campaign, you'll take off towards the northern parts of Siberia to defend the Motherland. Grab a friend or two, or three (or pick some people up on Discord) and fly the mighty PACT aircraft like the Su-27 Flanker and the MiG-29 Fulcrum into battle. In this campaign you'll sometimes see a lot more than the usual maximum of 8 aircraft. In the final stage of the campaign, there will be up to 14 aircraft fighting in the skies! It's a bit chaotic but a lot of fun! :) More stuff in the Custom Co-op Match Toolbox! For the mission creators out there, I have added three more attributes that you can change for your co-op mission: StartingUpgrades StartingCredits DisabledObjectiveAAAs Chech out the details about those ones in the documentation. Please join us on Discord and find some players to try out the new campaign! Best regards //Bankler 1.6.2 Added new co-op campaign "DEEP FREEZE". Added "StartingUpgrades" as a custom co-op match setting. Added "StartingCredits" as a custom co-op match setting. Added "DisabledObjectiveAAAs" as a custom co-op match setting. Adjusted some visuals on the scoreboard to make it work better for 5+ players. Fixed a bug where you couldn't disable friendly AI in co-op mission when playing on the PACT side. Fixed a bug where co-op matches defaulted to not allowing reinforcements. Updated the custom co-op match documentation. Update 1.6.1 Create your own co-op levels!Jan 16, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/009906439d445bb4ebde0f73f883b269196b010a.png Show us your design! Last update introduced the Co-op game mode, in which you and your friends battle through a campaign of custom rules matches. We're now adding the next layer on this feature, enabling you to create your own custom campaigns, and even share them with other players. If you feel that a campaign you've built is fun to play, there's nothing stopping you from submitting it to us so we can put it in the game for all players to enjoy! If we think the campaign feels good, we'll be happy to put it in there and credit you for it! We might even have little treat for you if you choose to share your campaign with the community! :) How does a cool Campaign Builder Medal that you can wear on your pilot portrait sound? https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/991fbc03daef4f83af9c83ebba508caab9c3b19d.png In the game (Battle/Co-op/Use Custom Campaigns), there's a link taking you straight to a step-by-step guide how it's done! The matches are setup using a standard JSON format, which is quite easy and a really useful thing to learn for any aspiring game designer or programmer! Boom! Client settings nuked! With this update, the developer company name in the build has been fixed. This causes Windows to save the game's settings in another folder in the registry. Unfortunately this means that locally saved stuff, such as your key bindings, and offline (not online) progress is lost. In most cases, you don't need to do anything. Just make sure your key bindings are alright and go fly! However, if you really need to revive your settings (for instance, if you only play the game offline and had your save in there), there's a (hack-ish) way to get it back. Just follow this guide closely if you need it. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1624721745 Please join us on Discord to discuss this new stuff! Best regards //Bankler 1.6.1 You can now build your own custom matches and campaigns. Fixed bug where you couldn't hotjoin a game after the game's original host left (causing a host migration). Fixed bug where bots sometimes stopped spawning after a host migration. Update 1.6.0 Co-op mode!Dec 22, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/f2e3c7fe9f9f5839056f25782fc6411d7c15c3cd.png New Co-op game mode! This update introduces a new game mode, in which you take on challenges in the form of matches with customized game rules. For instance, in one match you may be restricted to only flying the F-16 in a 2 vs 4 scenario. In another there may be no enemy aircraft at all, but much more ground threats to worry about. The co-op challenges are played on the usual maps, but things like number of FOBs, what aircraft types you may use, ground vehicle spawn rates and lots of other things will change between each co-op challenge. Each challenge has a max player amount (between 2 and 4 depending on the challenge). You can of course play the challenges solo as well (though some of them will be extremely difficult). Each finished co-op challenge rewards the player with a bunch of Wings and Scrap. Be advised that these are the first baby steps for this feature. There could be a few bugs here and there. Also, for this initial launch, there is only one campaign available, with 8 levels on the Desert Trap map. Be prepared for more to come though, very soon! :) Finally, big shoutout to TorchedForever, Zeropoint and p0p who helped me out with testing! You guys are the best! Please join us on Discord to find a good wingman for taking on these challenges! Best regards //Bankler 1.6.0 Implemented Co-op mode. Added first Co-op campaign "Desert Inferno" containing 8 levels. Fixed bug where other players' aircraft movement sometimes were stuttering. Season 17 is starting! Free Wings available!Dec 6, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/34e76f9f674d160c0ef6c30fe05992d6ed9ca6ed.png New season! Free Wings! Season 16 is over, and Season 17 (The big Christmas season!) is now starting! Nice flying everyone and big congratulations to the TOP 10! This season we got three player who reached ACE RANK, generating three 50-wing vouchers that any player may use, so be sure to credit them here on Discord! To use them, enter the code under options/redeem. These are the codes: * ACE_JARMEN * ACE_WEW * ACE_TURAVIS (Not valid forever, so jump in and claim them right away!) Season 16 Final Results 1 Jarmen Kell 2 「wew」 3 Turavis 4 Strigon_Actual 5 alumican on the orange 6 TruongBradley 7 Bullet Spongy 8 TorchedForever 9 CoDeViRuS 10 coda777 Update coming soon? Yes! I'm working on a little larger feature this time around, so can't say for sure when it'll be done. But I'm sure you'll enjoy it when it is! Please join us on Discord! Best regards //BanklerUpdate 1.5.1 Quality of Life and bug fixing!Nov 6, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/10868aeb513212a0981e6f958589d3665a530f10.png Uncapped frame rate Since the day of launch, Sky Knights has been locked to 60 FPS. By popular request, I have now provided an option to either set an alternative frame rate cap (25, 30, 60, 80, 120 and 144 is available) or to disable the cap completely. To be clear, we still recommend using the 60 FPS cap. It will let your computer run cooler and more silent since the fans won't have to cool the graphics card as much. Furthermore, most monitors are running at 60 hz anyway. If you're running the game on a low end computer, it might even be a good idea to cap the frame rate at 30 FPS, as it's often a better experience to have 30 solid FPS than having a higher but more inconsistent frame rate. When you're in a match, and enable the options menu, you'll now see a frame rate indicator in the top left corner. You may also toggle this indicator manually with the F2 key. Bug squash! Even though it's more fun to create new features, every now and then, I'll spend a week or so just going through the backlog of those small irritating bugs and glitches to keep the game polished. While the game certainly is in a good state already, I'm determined to keep it that way and not accept bugs and hide behind the Early Access label. Big thank you to everyone who's helping out by posting about issues in the Discord #bugs_and_feedback channel. Regardless if you want to give feedback, or just hang out and chat about aircraft geek stuff, please join us on Discord! Best regards //Bankler Patch notes 1.5.1 You can now switch region by just selecting a new region from the dropdown, without having to click the "Change" button. Added season number to the main menu leaderboard. Added option to change the frame rate cap to 25, 30, 60, 80, 120, 144 FPS or uncapped frame rate. Changed font on some HUD elements to match others. Rewritten the netcode for AAA fire, to be much more performance efficient. Fixed bug where you could get stuck on the runway collider edge in rare cases. Fixed bug where the wrong traits were displayed in the HUD trait panel. Fixed bug where the blackout effects were no longer visible. Fixed bug where the spawn button didn't get highlighted when closing the pause menu if the spawn timer reached zero when the pause menu was open. Fixed bug where an aircraft could appear to be the wrong type when hotjoining a game.Update 1.5.0 HUD RedesignOct 29, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/07ea4bfcee07637ff0638203dd830f41307f043f.png New HUD This is something I've wanted to take care of for a long time. The original HUD was inspired by a fighter aircraft hud, with bars along the edges, indicating speed and such things. While this certainly made sense, given the theme of the game, it was quite problematic that important elements (such as the health bar and the ammo counters) were located very far from each other. This required the eye to constantly look in different places. The new HUD is more inspired by a classic RTS/MOBA HUD grouping all the important elements in one place. Hopefully this will be much more efficient. Since this is a rather drastic change, and it might take a while before things are perfected, I have provided an option to use the classic HUD until we feel completely confident that the new HUD works as well as we intend! New F-5E Model The old F-5E model and texture didn't really live up to the quality of the other aircraft models, so I've replaced them with new ones. Hope you like this classic USAF style! Optimized tree rendering! This might be less important for people running the game on gaming rigs, but for our laptop gamers every little bit of performance improvement is important. What I've done is that I've batched all the trees in the levels into groups bases on their locations. What this means is that instead of rendering 100 tree models, we're now rendering 1 model with 100 trees, which is much more efficient. Furthermore, I've added LODs (levels of detail) to these tree batches, meaning that when the trees are seen from very far away, a simpler model with fewer polygons is used, improving performance. Some results (tested on a three year old laptop with a GT940 GPU) Average FPS improvement: ~12.7% Worst case (takeoff with PiP camera) FPS improvement: ~18% I'm always interested in your feedback, so please leave a comment here and join us on Discord! Best regards //Bankler Patch notes 1.5.0 New aircraft HUD where important numbers are grouped together in one single panel instead of being separated in different corners. Optimized tree rendering with better static batching and LOD techniques. Fixed scrolling in the scrapyard, so that it works even if you have lots of modifications. New F-5E Tiger II model and texture. Added option to use classic HUD instead of new HUD. Fixed some smaller issues related to Twitch integration. Pressing TAB in the post-match screen now toggles between stats screen and scoreboard. Fixed some collision issues in the race level where you could run through the mountains at a few places.New AAA modelsOct 8, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/8cbb6658e6c5c953b00ad0d9753fc12a06c6f3db.png New AAA models We've finally put some proper AAA models in there, replacing the old ones. These new ones have rotating turrets and cannons that can tilt upwards. The muzzle flash particle effects should look much better now as well. Go ahead and bomb them, or just casually fly over and enjoy the tickling feeling of 20/23 mm bullets on your belly! Shoutout to awesome artist partner .modernator! Custom game modifications cap Some people have been setting up organized matches on Discord, which is just awesome. There was a request for a feature to limit modification power in these matches, to ensure a completely level playing field. This made a lot of sense, so now, when you start a Custom Game (previously known as Practice Game) you'll have the option to set a power cap or even disable modifications completely. Multi-aces and free wings! Al and Clalaclan did it again! ALCaPWNy is the first player in the game who has managed to become ACE three seasons in a row. Guess we can call that a hat track, right? To celebrate these accomplishments, we're giving out two coupons worth 50 wings each. Yes, all players can use these codes (Options/Redeem Code), but only for a limited time, so make sure to jump straight in and claim the rewards! The codes are: TRIPLE_ACE_ALCAPWNY DOUBLE_ACE_CLALACLAN Clan tag tests! We've put the fundamentals of clan tags in there. While we don't have a full concept of squadrons/clans in the game (at least not yet), we still wanted to make it possible for teams to wear uniform tags without having to change Steam names. The way you apply for a clan tag now, is by jumping into Discord and contact Bankler about it. You'll need to be a team of at least four active pilots to qualify. Regardless if you are playing with a team or if you're a lone-wolf, please join us on Discord! Best regards //Bankler Patch notes 1.4.9 Renamed "Practice" games to "Custom" games. When starting a custom game, you can now set a modification power cap. More powerful modifications will scale down to this value. Added rudimentary clan tag support. Established squadrons can apply for a tag in Discord. Replaced AAA models with nice looking ones, in line with the factions (ZSU-23-4 for PACT and M-163 VADS for NATO). Added black outlines on all name tags. Added black outlines on FOB health icons. New IFV muzzle flash particle effect. Fixed rare bug where you could lose online preferences if losing connection when logging in.Update 1.4.8 Su-17 FitterSep 21, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/b583af56c3f3f23bc0dc8314692bab3268891130.png Click for trailer! The Su-17 Fitter The time has finally come for the PACT faction to get a tool comparable with the recently released AJS 37 Viggen. Unlocking it! Finish Race number 4 under the required time. After that is done, you can put the mighty Su-17 in your PACT deck! What can it do? The Su-17 shares many of the strengths and weaknesses with the Viggen. They carry similar loadouts and share the power of being able to quickly getting into enemy territory for a quick airstrike and escape! However, the Su-17 has a unique feature that no other aircraft in Sky Knights has. It can sweep its wings! This changes the aerodynamics in several ways. In general, when you want to go fast, sweep the wings! When you want to turn and dogfight, extend the wings. And don't try to take-off or land with the wings in the sweeped position. It might not end well... :) The Viggen might have the stronger engine and a more powerful afterburner. So while a Viggen pilot may be able to kick in the afterburner to outrun a Su-17, the Su-17 is much faster than the Viggen if you're looking at the non-afterburning top speed. This makes the Su-17 much less fuel dependent high speed cruiser than the Viggen. Press the new Aircraft Ability button to change the wing sweep setting. By default it's Q (mouse/keyboard) or R3 (i.e press down thumbstick, on gamepad). Su-17 Fitter trailer! Check out the trailer, demonstrating the Fitter in action! Please leave a like and a comment! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHX1Z9PQEBQ And hey, don't be shy! Join us on Discord and discuss this update! Best regards //Bankler Patch notes 1.4.8 Added the Su-17 Fitter aircraft. Added new race track (finish this track under 00:52 to unlock the Su-17!). Implemented variable-sweep wing mechanic (default key binding is Q). Adjusted how to aircraft gun auto aims up and down to reduce GUI flickering. Adjusted gamepad and keyboard reference images to show the new Aircraft Ability button (used to sweep the wings on Su-17). Slightly decreased slowdown on hard turns. Added daily task list under scoreboard. You can now copy your online progress and settings to offline mode. This is done by clicking "Mirror Offline" in the profile page. In the lobby, if the host changes map during countdown, the match start process is now aborted.Update 1.4.7 Game BalanceSep 12, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/c6abd70c7f0a6e091446ceaa35f138f33af2f81d.png Balance! Tweaks! Fixes! This was meant to be a small update, adressing some minor balance issues. The more I worked on it, and the more I talked to the player base, the more inspired I got to keep polishing things. In the end the change list got pretty big. Thanks a lot for all the great and constructive feedback. I hope you enjoy the changes! Shorter respawn times The increasing respawn times are necessary to make the match end at some point. Sky Knights matches should generally take 10-25 minutes, not longer. However, many player felt that towards the end of the match, it's just too much waiting around. We'll try reducing the respawn time cap by 10 seconds, and the intial respawn time by 5 seconds. Most importantly, I have now put all these number on the server so it's now very easy to change them again, if it needs some fine tuning (does no longer require patching the game). Viggen balancing The Viggen is supposed to be a fast and sturdy ground attacker. Get in, unleash the rockets and get out. It turned out though, that with the Viggen's high hull and large fuel tank, it was just too hard to intercept. The fuel has been decreased (which also makes a lot of sense, as the real life Viggen emptied its tanks pretty fast) and the hull has been slightly weakened (it's still sturdy!). Furthermore, the Viggen has gotten a little more dependent on the afterburner. The normal (non-afterburning) top speed has been slightly reduced, while the afterburner power has been increased. This will hopefully require players to be careful in their fuel management. Hotjoiner respawn times Previously, when you hotjoined a game, you started with the initial 15 seconds (now 10 seconds) respawn timer. This usually worked okay, since you'd be behind on upgrades and credits anyway. However, it turned out that this sometimes didn't play well with the reinforcement mechanic. It was just too easy for a late hotjoiner to take full advantage of the reinforcement and easily turn the whole match around, which didn't feel fair. Hotjoiners now start with a respawn time equal to the current average of the other players. New season! Free Wings! To be fair, it was almost two weeks ago the season ended. Anyway, ALCaPWNy (for the second time) and CLALACLAN achieved ACE rank this season! And it's time to celebrate! For these these achievement, we're giving out two vouchers, worth 50 wings each (open up Options/Redeem Code and enter the codes in there). Yes, that's right, everyone can use these! (For a limited time though, so jump in right away!) These are the codes: * DOUBLE_ACE_ALCAPWNY * ACE_CLALACLAN Jump on Discord and discuss this update! Best regards //Bankler Patch notes 1.4.7 Minimum respawn time has been decreased from 15 to 10 seconds. Max respawn time has been decreased by 10 seconds. It's now 35 seconds in 4v4 games, 30 in 3v3 and 25 in 2v2. Added option ...Update 1.4.6 Viggen and unguided rockets polishSep 4, 2018 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29661056/44ab0ced2de1deb00f8e37f220ed8826d0872df6.png Tweaks and fixes! With the help of the awesome community, we quickly figured out some details that could use some tweaking, as well as fixed a couple of bugs. This resulted in this little hotfix! Thank you so much for the help! If you want to be part of this great community of aviation and gaming enthusiasts, jump on Discord! Best regards //Bankler Patch notes 1.4.6 The aircraft's speed now relates to the throttle setting in a more linear fashion than before. Replaced rocket explosion particle effects. Rockets should no longer detonate slightly under the ground. The aircraft will now start the dive towards ground targets a little later, to better align the rocket sight. The AJS 37 Viggen's nose is now black, as it should be. Fixed a bug where rockets could stop working after you fired all the rockets, used other weapons, died and then respawned. Fixed a bug where the goal waypoint in the races didn't react instantly after landing when using larger aircraft.
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