Slingshot Speeders v0.0.9 is live

Play: slingshotspeeders.com

The first orbital mechanics racing game. Free in the browser. Real inverse-square gravity. You fly. The server scores.

• Talk: r/SlingshotSpeeders · Lemmy
• Full notes: slingshotspeeders.com/changelog

Elevator (New Map)

• Location: Sits at the top of home with a gold New! mark.
• Objective: Start in orbit around the lower well, ride a rising well on the side rails, and capture a tight closed orbit in the green ring around the top well.
• Mechanics: Rail wells slow, reverse, and shuttle continuously (they don't vanish or get stuck at the top).
• Win Condition: Must maintain a bound orbit around the top well, inside the green ring and outside the crash core. A wide loop that only clips the ring does not count.
• Leaderboards: SCORE / TIME / FUEL start empty. Old runs on this map were wiped.

Mobile & Tablet Support

• Dedicated Touch HUD: Native layout instead of a squished desktop interface.

• Left Thumb: On-screen Q W E / A S D (hold).

• Right Thumb: SHIP / WORLD / FREE, MAIN / RCS, KILL / BURN (tap).

• Telemetry: Slim strip along the top to keep the field clear.

• Desktop Unchanged: Same keyboard controls, dense bottom card, and chips.

• Input Fixes: Typing now stays in the name field without boards jumping or stealing focus. PLAY properly opens the OS keyboard on mobile.

Replays & Tapes

• Persistent Live Rooms: Rooms stay up after a run finishes with full playback controls (pause, skip, speed, drag timeline).

• Playback Mechanics:

• R jumps directly to the start.

• End of tape freezes on the last pose (no auto-loop).

• Speed selection range: 1x–100x.

• Path Rendering: Replays draw the exact white path recorded while flying (does not re-solve gravity on watch, accurately showing curves around moving wells up to 100×).

• Trefoil Updates:

• Click any ship to track that racer's white path.

• ALL mode displays every stored path simultaneously.

• Race start delay reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.

Leaderboards & UI

• Timestamps: SCORE, TIME, and FUEL lists now display WHEN (matching Trefoil timestamps).
• Name Visibility: Ship names now stay readable when zoomed in, sitting above the hull without obscuring the field.

Rendezvous Map Updates

• Velocity Visualizer: The green arrow shows relative velocity to the moving ring (stretches/shrinks as you match speed).
• Trajectory Line: Dotted purple line illustrates the moving ring's orbital path.
• Win Condition: Hold position inside the moving ring for 5 seconds.

Performance & Engine

• Smoother Stress Tests: Faster WebAssembly gravity calculations in-browser. Desktop lab can now utilize extra CPU cores for moon simulations.
• Multithreading: Capture, free play, and Trefoil run on dedicated simulation threads to keep the UI responsive.
• Server Authority: Wins, tapes, and positions remain strictly server-verified (client sends button presses only).

Play: slingshotspeeders.com