@OrderlyHippo stalling generally happens at the same angle of attack (critical angle) of the wing. Using the ailerons changes the angle of the wing and hence the angle of attack.
“Under some conditions, an aileron that is set to lift a drooping wing may actually stall that wing and drop it viciously,”
Essentially, trying to roll left, you're using the right aileron to "lift" the right wing up. If that wing is just on the verge of stalling, the extra lifting is too much to ask of the wing, causing it to stall and lose even more lift, making it fall instead of rise.
Looks like you scaled a piston to 0,0,0 in the XML and it's causing issues with the drag calculation. If you want to get the craft working again it should just be a case of opening the XML and changing it back to something that's not zero. It's part 12620.
Unfortunately it's not that simple and has never been. "3rd party app support" would I assume mean allowing people to install apps from outside the apple app store. Not mods. iOS has a security policy that prevents apps from writing to executable memory pages. So, the only code that can run is code that was compiled with the app before it was distributed. This means that the JIT compiled runtimes that would be required to load mod code at runtime can't run on iOS. This announcement says nothing to imply that would change. Even in the very unlikely case that restriction were lifted - since that has never been supported, Unity has never supported using the Mono JIT runtime on iOS because it would never have worked, so you'd have to wait for them to implement support for that before we could do anything. And trust me, Unity has a lot else on their plate right now and I can't see them spending what is quite a lot of work and time spent testing on a feature the core of the engine that would benefit such a small portion of their users. And even in the extremely unlikely (pretty much fantasy-level) case of that happening, it'd be in years and probably in a newer version of the engine that would take us a bunch of time to upgrade to which could cause bugs and we'd have to find an alternate app store to distribute it on and then do two iOS builds for every release.
Check if you have oculus software installed. There's a bug with it where it prevents games that have optional VR from loading (even in non-VR mode) if it's set as the active XR runtime but isn't running. Try running the oculus software and then launching the game, or setting your openxr runtime to something else
I felt inclined to write a long response to this, but I don’t think it’d flow so I’ll try to summarise it in as few bullet points as I can. It’ll probably be really long anyway, because I have a lot of thoughts and I type too fast for my own good. First, on your comments about fuselage cutting:
Fuselage cutting never removed any options to the game, only added more.
I started work on the fuselage cutter after pondering solutions to the issue of easily making hollow cockpits – necessary to lower the skill barrier to making planes with detailed cockpits – a necessary change for the launch of SimplePlanes VR. Countless people had asked for a mesh subtraction feature, but this was always seen as complex and time consuming to implement, the interface would also be complex to use and there are technical constraints that would make life hard; such as PhysX not supporting dynamic concave meshes – subtracting one mesh shape from another can produce a concave shape even if both initial shapes are convex. I picked clipping by a flat plane because it’s the simplest 3d clipping, which made implementing the algorithm with the particular quirks of SP’s mesh system achievable. Also, clipping a convex mesh by a flat plane will always yield flat planes, which fixes the collider issue. It was only after this investigation that I came up with the idea of defining the plane using sliders in the same way in the UI as width, height or corner radius.
Understand that you’re playing ‘SimplePlanes’ and although you, and other players who put such huge amounts of effort into getting their planes to precisely match real life, are important to us and we’re always impressed with what you manage – naturally, you are pushing the game to its limit. And that can be fun. But remember, this a PC/mobile game about snapping blocks together and flying them.
I don’t understand your complaints about other people’s builds being ‘lazy’ since 1.11 – I’ve only seen top-end quality permeate across to a much wider range of people.
There are definitely some annoyances to the workflow in building in SP, especially at the high end. And we’d all love to have everything work as flawlessly as possible but we have a lot of other things deserving of our time to work on – personally I’m also at university now too, so the time I do get is stretched even thinner.
Everyone enjoys the game differently and everyone’s free to do that. We play games for fun and if you’re not enjoying it, simply don’t play. It’s not like you’re paying Jundroo a subscription or anything – I’d absolutely prefer players to not burn themselves out, and maybe pop back in once in a while to check out what we’ve been up to :)
And secondly, about your comments on Flyout (which seem to have changed since I wrote most of this):
Flyout and SimplePlanes are at heart different games with different target groups they appeal to
Of course, there is overlap between these groups – and you’re free to play one, the other, or both! This isn’t a romantic relationship or an exclusive contract, and barely anyone plays just one game
In addition, there are many other games that also overlap with SP’s fanbase, like War Thunder, KSP, SR2, Besiege, Homebrew, and I’m sure countless I haven’t named. And that’s fine. I play other games too.
In particular, I think Flyout definitely has a lot of appeal to the people like you who want to design their aircraft in a more technical way (this would explain your perspective on it)
In addition to targeting a different (though overlapping) audience, Flyout (as far as I know) isn’t targeting the mobile market.
To summarise, Flyout looks like a nice game and I’m sure plenty of people who play SimplePlanes will give it a go – this isn’t some sort of cult. To paraphrase what you said earlier, my metaphorical pants will remain un-pooped.
Interesting. Would be cool to see if you could save some characters by simplifying larger squares that are all the same colour into larger font squares. Also, if it's just an HTML file where everything is clientside JS, you could host this for free with GitHub pages.
Imagine editing compliments about yourself into a Wikipedia page and then not having the attention span to wait more than 3 hours to pretend you "just found it while browsing" and not sound suspicious
Do you have oculus software installed? There is a bug with oculus' XR loader that if you try to launch a game with optional VR (even trying to launch the non-VR version of SP) it will take ages to launch. This affects other games too. If you do have oculus software installed, try making sure oculus software is open and then launching SP.
Please stop trying to spread misinformation as if the moderation team were just handing out that punishment for saying Allahu Akbar, while omitting the fact that you followed it up with "B o o m", clearly implying you were making reference to terrorism and extremism, rather than peaceful religious practice. If you continue to lie like this, you'll probably be banned again.
@BigAeroplane this isn't a thread for suggestions, it is for issues. However, if you want to customise the units in the game, you can create a custom unit system by modifying the game's Settings.xml file. All the existing unit systems are in there so they should be self-explanatory.
Curating is a check to make sure that the craft is usable in VR, but also that the content is appropriate to be shown directly in the app. If you want to change your description, ask a curator to un-curate it while you change the description and have it re-curated.
There are some changes that were made to the account deletion system to comply with Apple app store regulations. I think the name of the button was changed to clarify its function.
@Prerewsertre still won't work. That's the old version from when android did support code mods. Trust me, just because the square block fits through the square hole, it doesn't mean it'll do anything good in there.
@Weirdoguymajig there's two ways really, if you just want a simple conversion just multiply the value by the conversion factor (ie {Altitude * 3.28084} would express altitude in feet. The label formatting also has a feature built in that hooks into the game's built in units system and formats units in the user's currently selected unit system. For that, there must be 3 sections in the {}, each separated by semicolons. The first is your expression, the second is the format specifier, which is just a string that controls how the number is formatted (how many decimal places, leading and trailing zeros, commas etc). Putting N there will give a fairly standard format but there is more info here. Then the 3rd section indicates what type of units to use. The options are: LongDistance - takes input in m, shows mi/km/nm ShortDistance - takes m, shows ft/m - use this for altitude TinyDistance - takes m, shows mm/inches Speed - takes m/s, shows mph/kmh/kts Mass - takes kg, shows kg/lbs Force - takes N, shows N/lbf Volume - takes L, shows L/gal (US gallons) Area - takes m^2, shows m^2/ft^2 WingLoading - takes kg/m^2, shows kg/m^2 or lbs/ft^2.
For instance for altitude, {Altitude;N0;ShortDistance} would make an altitude readout.
@Deandash The layer selector is in the top right of the Inspector panel, just below the name of the GameObject. You should be able to set it to 20: Terrain. If you did this and it didn't work, make sure that it's also set on child objects (and specifically make sure it's set on the object that has the terrain collider on it). Also make sure you're re-saving the map object with the mod tools before you export.
The "empty forum title" thing has been done many times before, it's kinda boring now. Also, you directly linked the image here to an image on an aircraft post which means everyone can see the ID string 9dG2oh and put it into an aircraft URL and access your "private chat room"
@Lake that's just the website formatting glitching. if you put " inside code block it shows as ". I changed the text to be bold so it doesn't do that
@Mrdumb9l191 most of the maths functions could be constructed from simpler functions, but that doesn't mean they're not useful. They allow people to write simpler, cleaner and probably faster expressions. Also, your expression will return NaN in the case x = 0, which is not desired behaviour for sign
What that is is the post ID for the biography, as the biography is handled similar to other posts like forums for the purposes of editing, reporting, removing etc. Users existed well before biographies implemented into the site so this isn't an accurate indicator of when an account was created, more so when their bio was created. Note that also post IDs are shared between all posts, so post ID 1 million doesn't make it the millionth user. here's an old archive page of the site before biographies existed
As trivia: The first account created on the site is AndrewGarrison. Followed by PhilipTarpley, and an old account of Nathan's. First user account was HellFireKoder, followed by Nassassin.
Just found this post. Looks like you removed it? Can't see anyone removing it in the mod log. Either way, I want to say that I have been following these posts today and yesterday and I do agree that, from having followed messages in SPBC from time to time, that the culture/environment there hasn't been the most welcoming and there is a lot of people in there into the "edgy teen" humour or making excessive digs at particular groups, as well as a sense of apathy to things like that in the moderators/regulars. It is definitely an issue in the server's wider culture. It's something that had bothered me for a while about that server and I'm glad you're recognising it. I wish you good luck in improving the environment in SPBC, I'll make sure to check in from time to time.
As for the original post by Bummer, I think it was automatically removed due to spam reports, but I think it can remain that way if this is properly resolved. Though, I was disappointed in the brigade of people that appeared to try and kick it off the site and deny the issue exists, including a lot of prominent members of the server, even someone who has recently left the site creating a new account under a pseudonym to make rude comments on that post and elsewhere.
If I had two tips for dealing with people who will inevitably drag their heels at being told to be more respectful it's this: You don't have to be "woke" or an "ally" to extend the basic human dignity to all people for being people. This includes standing up for people who can't stand up for themselves. Don't mistake this for a political statement of course, because it doesn't matter if it's about political views, race, gender, sexuality or anything else. You can stand up for someone without endorsing their views. Don't be scared to because you think you'll be associated with them in some way.
The other tip would be that perhaps if we're seeking a more welcoming environment, making those announcements with a badge by your name labelled "Stasi" isn't the best look. I never did get an answer as to why that role exists, and it doesn't sound like the kind of thing that we really need...
This statement has obviously been my own work and obviously the SP mod/admin team doesn't have total influence over discord servers by them being unofficial, but personally I really want to see the community have a good face and put its best foot forwards into what the future has lined up for it.
Another thing - pressing the S key to pitch up will max out your elevator to full pitch up. You'd very rarely do this in a real aircraft, so it might struggle to pull itself. You might gain some knowledge by taking a look at the very simple fly-by-wire system on the stock "Wasp" aircraft. The elevon rotator is a bit hard to get to, but the expression for it is fairly simple:
The -PitchRate expression is what is used here to dampen the oscillations caused when abrupt keyboard inputs are used. It has a similar damping for yaw on the rudder.
As for "it will start rolling down while pitching", what you might be experiencing is a "flick roll" (I think it's a "snap roll" in the US) where due to increasing the angle of attack greatly, one of your wings stalls before the other causing it to rotate down, which then increases the difference in angle of attack of that wing further, causing the aircraft to spin. The way to stop that is simply to not stall your main wing.
Holding shift while dragging a part will break it away from all connected parts and drag it alone. There were also a bunch of new designer inputs added in the steam deck compatibility update that was pushed.
It's all based on experimental data. If I had to guess it could be that there's 24 individually moving nozzle flaps that aren't combined into the part group mesh like most parts are.
.
1 - Removing an upvote will remove the points it gave when that users points next update
2 - Here's a super old video of SP https://youtu.be/clglambOTHA, on Andrew's channel. This was well before my time (I joined between 2 and 3 years ago) but it gives you some idea of when the game was being initially developed. Jundroo had already made a number of engineering/building games including the original SimpleRockets, so it was probably a continuation of this trend, upped to 3d.
3 - Don't know, probably a test mod. Mods section is relatively new (on the timescale of the game's lifetime). Previously they were on the forums, and maybe even on the subreddit before that.
4 (and 5) - Depends what the mod is and who makes it. Mods can do basically anything if you know how to do said thing. It's not about what a mod can do but what the person making the mod makes it do.
7 - There's no hard limit, just what system resources can handle. It'd definitely blow up over 2147483647 since integer indexing would overflow but you'd run out of memory way way before then.
8 - Don't know
9 - I think it's this one - it was uploaded before accounts were a thing so nobody has the points from it, but I think it was Andrew's.
10 - no clue, and "release" is a relative term given it was released at different times on android/ios, gumroad, then steam, and also other app stores like amazon and GOG.
11 - dunno. Probably by Andrew because he's the one that does the website development.
@GorillaGuerrilla an easy way to download stuff from your normal browser is to copy the link to the plane and then press Ctrl+L in the designer
+2@OrderlyHippo it's just an angle of attack. Have something show your current angle of attack and bring the plane to a stall.
SP build photos come up a surprising amount when you search for images
+4@OrderlyHippo stalling generally happens at the same angle of attack (critical angle) of the wing. Using the ailerons changes the angle of the wing and hence the angle of attack.
here's a page that might explain some of the concepts: https://www.aviationsafetymagazine.com/features/stall-recovery-ailerons-or-rudder/
Specifically the section titled "the stall":
Essentially, trying to roll left, you're using the right aileron to "lift" the right wing up. If that wing is just on the verge of stalling, the extra lifting is too much to ask of the wing, causing it to stall and lose even more lift, making it fall instead of rise.
+5Looks like you scaled a piston to
0,0,0in the XML and it's causing issues with the drag calculation. If you want to get the craft working again it should just be a case of opening the XML and changing it back to something that's not zero. It's part 12620.Unfortunately it's not that simple and has never been. "3rd party app support" would I assume mean allowing people to install apps from outside the apple app store. Not mods. iOS has a security policy that prevents apps from writing to executable memory pages. So, the only code that can run is code that was compiled with the app before it was distributed. This means that the JIT compiled runtimes that would be required to load mod code at runtime can't run on iOS. This announcement says nothing to imply that would change. Even in the very unlikely case that restriction were lifted - since that has never been supported, Unity has never supported using the Mono JIT runtime on iOS because it would never have worked, so you'd have to wait for them to implement support for that before we could do anything. And trust me, Unity has a lot else on their plate right now and I can't see them spending what is quite a lot of work and time spent testing on a feature the core of the engine that would benefit such a small portion of their users. And even in the extremely unlikely (pretty much fantasy-level) case of that happening, it'd be in years and probably in a newer version of the engine that would take us a bunch of time to upgrade to which could cause bugs and we'd have to find an alternate app store to distribute it on and then do two iOS builds for every release.
tldr
+3Check if you have oculus software installed. There's a bug with it where it prevents games that have optional VR from loading (even in non-VR mode) if it's set as the active XR runtime but isn't running. Try running the oculus software and then launching the game, or setting your openxr runtime to something else
+2@OkaNieba the sea is a flat circle that follows you around. You normally can't see the edge because it is beyond the fog distance
+3I felt inclined to write a long response to this, but I don’t think it’d flow so I’ll try to summarise it in as few bullet points as I can. It’ll probably be really long anyway, because I have a lot of thoughts and I type too fast for my own good. First, on your comments about fuselage cutting:
And secondly, about your comments on Flyout (which seem to have changed since I wrote most of this):
- Flyout and SimplePlanes are at heart different games with different target groups they appeal to
- Of course, there is overlap between these groups – and you’re free to play one, the other, or both! This isn’t a romantic relationship or an exclusive contract, and barely anyone plays just one game
- In addition, there are many other games that also overlap with SP’s fanbase, like War Thunder, KSP, SR2, Besiege, Homebrew, and I’m sure countless I haven’t named. And that’s fine. I play other games too.
- In particular, I think Flyout definitely has a lot of appeal to the people like you who want to design their aircraft in a more technical way (this would explain your perspective on it)
- In addition to targeting a different (though overlapping) audience, Flyout (as far as I know) isn’t targeting the mobile market.
- To summarise, Flyout looks like a nice game and I’m sure plenty of people who play SimplePlanes will give it a go – this isn’t some sort of cult. To paraphrase what you said earlier, my metaphorical pants will remain un-pooped.
+9Interesting. Would be cool to see if you could save some characters by simplifying larger squares that are all the same colour into larger font squares. Also, if it's just an HTML file where everything is clientside JS, you could host this for free with GitHub pages.
+2@uwugaming69420 read the huge text in the description
Imagine editing compliments about yourself into a Wikipedia page and then not having the attention span to wait more than 3 hours to pretend you "just found it while browsing" and not sound suspicious
+11@UPTOSPACE345 that's the
maxfunction -max(a,b)is the greater of a and bDo you have oculus software installed? There is a bug with oculus' XR loader that if you try to launch a game with optional VR (even trying to launch the non-VR version of SP) it will take ages to launch. This affects other games too. If you do have oculus software installed, try making sure oculus software is open and then launching SP.
Please stop trying to spread misinformation as if the moderation team were just handing out that punishment for saying Allahu Akbar, while omitting the fact that you followed it up with "B o o m", clearly implying you were making reference to terrorism and extremism, rather than peaceful religious practice. If you continue to lie like this, you'll probably be banned again.
+4I'm gonna take this down because the forums really aren't for calling out individual users, even if you think they're cringe.
@PlaneFlightX nothing happened to it
@BigAeroplane on windows,
+1%APPDATA%\..\LocalLow\Jundroo\SimplePlanes@BigAeroplane this isn't a thread for suggestions, it is for issues. However, if you want to customise the units in the game, you can create a custom unit system by modifying the game's
Settings.xmlfile. All the existing unit systems are in there so they should be self-explanatory.@JacksEpicGamingYT added Iran, Iraq, Norway, Denmark.
+2@SheriffHackdogMCPE added Philippines.
Ukraine tag has been added. If anyone wants another country to be added, feel free to ask.
+7Yeah if it's a comment like that with an advertising link just drop a report and the account should be banned if it is just an ad bot.
+10I suppose it was only a matter of time
+13conversely, consider the following: this button
+1Curating is a check to make sure that the craft is usable in VR, but also that the content is appropriate to be shown directly in the app. If you want to change your description, ask a curator to un-curate it while you change the description and have it re-curated.
+5There are some changes that were made to the account deletion system to comply with Apple app store regulations. I think the name of the button was changed to clarify its function.
+1@Prerewsertre still won't work. That's the old version from when android did support code mods. Trust me, just because the square block fits through the square hole, it doesn't mean it'll do anything good in there.
+3@YourLocalPerson iOS doesn't support mods
+1@Seel50 quest 2 is based on android so won't support code mods anyway, which is why there's currently no UI for enabling them either.
+2@Weirdoguymajig there's two ways really, if you just want a simple conversion just multiply the value by the conversion factor (ie
{Altitude * 3.28084}would express altitude in feet. The label formatting also has a feature built in that hooks into the game's built in units system and formats units in the user's currently selected unit system. For that, there must be 3 sections in the {}, each separated by semicolons. The first is your expression, the second is the format specifier, which is just a string that controls how the number is formatted (how many decimal places, leading and trailing zeros, commas etc). PuttingNthere will give a fairly standard format but there is more info here. Then the 3rd section indicates what type of units to use. The options are:LongDistance- takes input in m, shows mi/km/nmShortDistance- takes m, shows ft/m - use this for altitudeTinyDistance- takes m, shows mm/inchesSpeed- takes m/s, shows mph/kmh/ktsMass- takes kg, shows kg/lbsForce- takes N, shows N/lbfVolume- takes L, shows L/gal (US gallons)Area- takes m^2, shows m^2/ft^2WingLoading- takes kg/m^2, shows kg/m^2 or lbs/ft^2.For instance for altitude,
+2{Altitude;N0;ShortDistance}would make an altitude readout.@Deandash The layer selector is in the top right of the Inspector panel, just below the name of the GameObject. You should be able to set it to
+120: Terrain. If you did this and it didn't work, make sure that it's also set on child objects (and specifically make sure it's set on the object that has the terrain collider on it). Also make sure you're re-saving the map object with the mod tools before you export.Yeah this does sound like the terrain being on the wrong layer, make sure it's on the Terrain layer.
+1Removed for spam
The "empty forum title" thing has been done many times before, it's kinda boring now. Also, you directly linked the image here to an image on an aircraft post which means everyone can see the ID string 9dG2oh and put it into an aircraft URL and access your "private chat room"
+2@Lake that's just the website formatting glitching. if you put " inside code block it shows as
+1". I changed the text to be bold so it doesn't do that@Louisianaboy2021024 that looks like part of a dev console command, not an FT variable.
@Mrdumb9l191 most of the maths functions could be constructed from simpler functions, but that doesn't mean they're not useful. They allow people to write simpler, cleaner and probably faster expressions. Also, your expression will return NaN in the case x = 0, which is not desired behaviour for sign
+2An alternative format of this could be
(using a logical AND operator)
+1@Ghaves it probably once was but gun have infinite ammo now
+2@Ghaves nothing, it's an old unused property left in there.
What that is is the post ID for the biography, as the biography is handled similar to other posts like forums for the purposes of editing, reporting, removing etc. Users existed well before biographies implemented into the site so this isn't an accurate indicator of when an account was created, more so when their bio was created. Note that also post IDs are shared between all posts, so post ID 1 million doesn't make it the millionth user.
+14here's an old archive page of the site before biographies existed
As trivia: The first account created on the site is AndrewGarrison. Followed by PhilipTarpley, and an old account of Nathan's. First user account was HellFireKoder, followed by Nassassin.
Just found this post. Looks like you removed it? Can't see anyone removing it in the mod log. Either way, I want to say that I have been following these posts today and yesterday and I do agree that, from having followed messages in SPBC from time to time, that the culture/environment there hasn't been the most welcoming and there is a lot of people in there into the "edgy teen" humour or making excessive digs at particular groups, as well as a sense of apathy to things like that in the moderators/regulars. It is definitely an issue in the server's wider culture. It's something that had bothered me for a while about that server and I'm glad you're recognising it. I wish you good luck in improving the environment in SPBC, I'll make sure to check in from time to time.
As for the original post by Bummer, I think it was automatically removed due to spam reports, but I think it can remain that way if this is properly resolved. Though, I was disappointed in the brigade of people that appeared to try and kick it off the site and deny the issue exists, including a lot of prominent members of the server, even someone who has recently left the site creating a new account under a pseudonym to make rude comments on that post and elsewhere.
If I had two tips for dealing with people who will inevitably drag their heels at being told to be more respectful it's this: You don't have to be "woke" or an "ally" to extend the basic human dignity to all people for being people. This includes standing up for people who can't stand up for themselves. Don't mistake this for a political statement of course, because it doesn't matter if it's about political views, race, gender, sexuality or anything else. You can stand up for someone without endorsing their views. Don't be scared to because you think you'll be associated with them in some way.
The other tip would be that perhaps if we're seeking a more welcoming environment, making those announcements with a badge by your name labelled "Stasi" isn't the best look. I never did get an answer as to why that role exists, and it doesn't sound like the kind of thing that we really need...
This statement has obviously been my own work and obviously the SP mod/admin team doesn't have total influence over discord servers by them being unofficial, but personally I really want to see the community have a good face and put its best foot forwards into what the future has lined up for it.
+1no guys you just press the pin button it's right there look:
Another thing - pressing the S key to pitch up will max out your elevator to full pitch up. You'd very rarely do this in a real aircraft, so it might struggle to pull itself. You might gain some knowledge by taking a look at the very simple fly-by-wire system on the stock "Wasp" aircraft. The elevon rotator is a bit hard to get to, but the expression for it is fairly simple:
The -PitchRate expression is what is used here to dampen the oscillations caused when abrupt keyboard inputs are used. It has a similar damping for yaw on the rudder.
+2As for "it will start rolling down while pitching", what you might be experiencing is a "flick roll" (I think it's a "snap roll" in the US) where due to increasing the angle of attack greatly, one of your wings stalls before the other causing it to rotate down, which then increases the difference in angle of attack of that wing further, causing the aircraft to spin. The way to stop that is simply to not stall your main wing.
Good luck changing it back again :P
+1Holding shift while dragging a part will break it away from all connected parts and drag it alone. There were also a bunch of new designer inputs added in the steam deck compatibility update that was pushed.
+1It's all based on experimental data. If I had to guess it could be that there's 24 individually moving nozzle flaps that aren't combined into the part group mesh like most parts are.
+16.
+111 - Removing an upvote will remove the points it gave when that users points next update
2 - Here's a super old video of SP https://youtu.be/clglambOTHA, on Andrew's channel. This was well before my time (I joined between 2 and 3 years ago) but it gives you some idea of when the game was being initially developed. Jundroo had already made a number of engineering/building games including the original SimpleRockets, so it was probably a continuation of this trend, upped to 3d.
3 - Don't know, probably a test mod. Mods section is relatively new (on the timescale of the game's lifetime). Previously they were on the forums, and maybe even on the subreddit before that.
4 (and 5) - Depends what the mod is and who makes it. Mods can do basically anything if you know how to do said thing. It's not about what a mod can do but what the person making the mod makes it do.
7 - There's no hard limit, just what system resources can handle. It'd definitely blow up over 2147483647 since integer indexing would overflow but you'd run out of memory way way before then.
8 - Don't know
9 - I think it's this one - it was uploaded before accounts were a thing so nobody has the points from it, but I think it was Andrew's.
10 - no clue, and "release" is a relative term given it was released at different times on android/ios, gumroad, then steam, and also other app stores like amazon and GOG.
11 - dunno. Probably by Andrew because he's the one that does the website development.
@IceCraftGaming no, it does not use the subassembly system, it automatically combines parts at all times, behind the scenes.
+3