Rock 3 Patch Notes — December 22, 2022
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
Rock 3 now models daily, yearly, and long term periodic orbital variations and the impact on climates. This paves the way for more accurate Koppen biome modelling, and gives the ability to customize worlds even further.
Beyond that, several other quality of life improvements and feature requests have been incorporated, alongside some aesthetic ones too.
First up, now every planet generates its own unique galaxy. I plan to expand on this to increase variety in future updates.
Mouse controls have been re-worked for consistency. Now, the left mouse button controls the time of day in globe and map views, the middle button controls camera rotation in globe and projection orientation in map view, and the right mouse button controls orbital position around the sun in globe and map views.
When you enter the map projection view, or toggle off the atmospheric effects, you now enter a new focused visualization mode making it easier to see details.
The day/night cycle is now visible on the map projection view, which I personally found to really clarify how strongly seasonal changes correlate with the length of days near the poles.
You can now toggle latitude and longitude grid lines in all views, to make it easier to see variations in tilt and rotation through the cycles.
For example, grid lines make it much easier to see how Milankovitch cycles affect the planet's rotation axis.
Finally, when you slow a planet's rotation speed right now, you can create tidally locked or near-locked planets, which concentrates heat strongly towards the side facing the sun.
I hope this update helps you create more interesting and creative worlds! Please stay tuned for future updates, such as the upcoming overhaul of tectonic plates for more realistic continents, moving to Koppen biome modelling, and UI enhancements to provide detailed breakdowns of surface statistics.