Hello Everyone!
Today we’re delighted to share the second in a series of posts which delve into the upcoming Broken Beyond expansion and its exciting new content!
If you haven’t already, please consider wishlisting the new expansion as it helps us reach more physics building enthusiasts and will keep you updated about its release.
Last week we began explaining the fundamentals of space in Besiege, delving into gravitational mechanics and our Newtonian physics simulation. This week we’re going to take a look at The Broken Beyond’s atmospheres and how your machines will interact with them!
With the Broken Beyond expansion, we wanted to capture the stark difference between being in a planetary atmosphere and being in the vacuum of space, both with physics mechanics and beautiful visuals.
Working with talented “shader sorceress”, Freya Holmér, we’ve been able to create stunningly beautiful atmospheres for Besiege’s planets. We wanted them to feel like miniature worlds brimming with character and we’ve only been able to achieve that with her exceptional shader work. Thank you Freya!
Inside planetary atmospheres the physics of aerodynamics is applied to your machine, allowing you to move your machines through the air with propellers, create lift with wings and slow your machine down with drag. This means that for a truly inter-planetary machine, you’ll need a design that functions aerodynamically but can also propel and steer itself in the vacuum of space.
Reaching space requires a powerful machine, capable of escaping a planet’s gravitational pull, but landing in a planet’s atmosphere requires control. You will need to establish a course bringing you to your desired destination, accounting for or utilizing the gravitational influence of planets. It’s also essential that your machine can control its descent into the atmosphere, slowing its descent enough to avoid burning up or crashing into the ground!
This week we also wanted to show you a nifty little trajectory prediction tool that we’ve worked into the expansion. It’s designed to help you determine your machine’s path through space, whether you’re on a collision course, or see whether you’ve managed to establish a stable orbit.
To use the tool, you simply zoom out far enough from your machine and a prediction line will appear, showing where you’ve come from and the path your machine is likely to take (in the final version, your predicted path will be a dashed line).
Different colour lines tell you different things about your trajectory;
A red line indicates that you’re on a collision course with a large object, such as a planet.
An orange line shows that your path is predicted to enter an atmosphere.
A yellow line tells you that your machine has reached escape velocity.
If none of the above are true, the line will be green or turquoise. This likely means you’ve established a stable orbit around a planetary body.
That’s everything for this week, but next week we’ll start showing off the expansion’s new blocks, which constitute the most blocks added by any expansion or update ever!
Until then, please wishlist The Broken Beyond if you haven’t already and help us spread awareness!
Cheers everyone,
Von