Lethal Orbit

Lethal Orbit

I made this in about an hour with AI. What do you think?

An experimental ship-flight overhaul for Lethal Company. Sit in the pilot seat, fly through space towards 3D moons, enter their actual levels, and move the ship around the map yourself.

This is an early alpha, built with AI-generated code and tested in a real solo game. Feedback on the idea, controls, cockpit and bugs is welcome!

What you can do

• Pilot from inside the ship. A framed front windshield and physical instruments replace the usual lever-based travel flow.
• Fly over the moon and choose your position. Release the controls to hold position; leave the pilot seat and the ship stays there. Terrain and buildings limit where it can go.
• Leave a moon by climbing. Fly upward past the atmosphere boundary, 220 m above the arrival point by default, to start the return to orbit. No Park, Takeoff or Ascend to Orbit buttons.
• Use four exterior camera monitors: left, right, rear and underneath the ship.
• Open the airlock in space or during surface flight. Outside in space you have zero-gravity suit movement; the cabin and loaded moon use normal gravity.
• Board using extending ladders. Both exterior boarding ladders reach down to the ground as the ship's height changes.
• Climb with two-handed cargo. The item moves to your back while climbing, then returns to your hands.
• Push through recognized trees, bushes and lamp poles. They disappear and lose collision with an impact sound. Buildings and terrain remain solid.
• Hear the vanilla ship engine respond to flight input.

The native terminal remains usable in its new location farther back along the side wall. Original ship monitors have their own clear rack beside the cockpit. All mod controls and messages are in English.

Installation

Install Mod Manager or r2modman. BepInExPack 5.4.2305 is the required dependency.

For manual installation, install BepInEx 5 first, then copy the package's BepInEx folder into your game or mod profile folder. The plugin should be at BepInEx/plugins/LethalOrbit/LethalOrbit.dll.

Remove duplicate copies of Lethal Orbit before upgrading. Start with a separate mod profile and a new save while trying this alpha.

Getting started

Host a game and approach the chair marked PILOT [E]. Sit down, use the cockpit navigation display to identify a moon, and fly towards its 3D model. Approaching a moon loads its real game level. After arrival, use thrust to descend or fly elsewhere.

Controls

| Key | Action |

| --- | --- |

| E | Sit in / leave the pilot seat |

| W / S | Forward / reverse thrust |

| A / D | Strafe |

| Mouse | Steer |

| Space / Left Ctrl | Climb / descend |

| Left Shift | Boost in orbit |

| X | Brake |

| Hold right mouse button | Look around the cockpit |

| Tab / Shift+Tab | Select next / previous navigation target |

| O | Open / close the airlock while piloting |

Outside in space: WASD for suit thrust, Space / Ctrl up and down, Shift boost, X brake. Release thrust to coast.

Alpha status and limitations

Solo tested; multiplayer is not yet verified. Host-authoritative networking is implemented, but this release has not passed a two-player test. If experimenting with multiplayer, every player must install the same version.

The flight, descent, boarding and return loop was tested on Vow, including collision recovery, extending ladders and two-handed cargo. An earlier build was tested on Experimentation. The relocated terminal and repeated seat entry/exit were also tested in-game.

• Entering and leaving a moon still uses the game's scene loading. This is not a seamless, fully explorable planetary surface.
• Planets are procedural models. There is no fuel system or space combat.
• Original quota, deadlines, enemies, scrap and end-of-day rules remain active. Manual routes currently bypass terminal travel fees.
• Maps were not designed for free flight. The default surface flight radius is 600 m, and some scenery may not be recognized as destructible.
• Other