For our first free weekend after release, we're putting up a new build! 1) Added in a new challenge mode. While at the moment there are only 6 challenges, we're planning up updating these over time and adding new ones! If you have a neato idea for a challenge, why don't you drop
For our first free weekend after release, we're putting up a new build!
1) Added in a new challenge mode. While at the moment there are only 6 challenges, we're planning up updating these over time and adding new ones! If you have a neato idea for a challenge, why don't you drop us a line and tell the code monkey so he can implement it.
2) Changed the building placement sprite to be a bit more responsive - it should be clearer when a particular build site is not suitable.
3) Fixed some network bugs, and some graphical issues. This just happens with every update, I don't know why I bother writing this stuff.
4) Fixed a bug with the title GUI that caused the buttons to vanish when the resolution is changed. That will no longer be the case.
For this weekend, we're also running a 30% sale. If you've wishlisted Zero Sum Future in the past, now is a great time.
Hello enterprising space capitalists! While out last update was quite some time ago, we haven't been sitting idle. Today the lst major content update for Zero Sum Future goes LIVE before our scheduled release of October 19. Here are some of the fixes and changes that we've made.
Hello enterprising space capitalists!
While out last update was quite some time ago, we haven't been sitting idle. Today the lst major content update for Zero Sum Future goes LIVE before our scheduled release of October 19. Here are some of the fixes and changes that we've made.
1) The tutorials live again, and there is a LOT more of them around this time. We've reworked the tutorials to be much more descriptive and easier to digest.
2) Zero Sum Future now has fully-fledged achievements. Now the game actively informs you of the great job you're doing when you rack up $100,000 of debt.
3) The beatings our graphics guy received for the lack of good title menu UI has been fixed. Frankly, he's very proud of his new UI in the title menu and if you could soothe his ego in the comments section, that'd be great.
5) Improved the shadows to look a bit better and bleed through solid objects less.
4) Many, many small bugs have been fixed. This is frankly what took the greatest amount of time and why this update was so long in the making. Some of the stuff fixed include: Random memory leaks, random crashes due to said memory leaks, the netcode deciding it doesn't want to send packets, shuttles doing their best Tokyo Drift impression, the sound engine randomly deciding that the player would really be better off deaf, and so on. The testing team has been commended for finding all these faults, and the lead programmer (which just so happens to be the graphics guy) was chided and was given the stick again.
We've also fiddled a bit with the balance:
1) The game-ending carrier tax now only begins triggering if any individual player amasses more than $12k. This ought to make games easier for less experienced players, and give more experienced players something they can trigger to get the ball rolling faster.
2) Wages have been lowered by 10%. Those NPC workers weren't working that hard anyhow.
3) Starting Hydrogen and Shuttle amounts have been increased by 100%. Now, building on desolate but empty planets to start with is an option.
4) The debt timer (the thing that makes you LOSE THE GAME) now ticks down based on the amount of debt held by the player. Now, the population loses it's patience with you at a rate commensurate with how much you owe them.
And that's it! As usual, we'd love to hear your feedback both in the comments and on our discord, which can be found at https://discord.gg/DfYKhw7.
Fellow enterprising space capitalists! Zero Sum Future is getting a new, major update to celebrate what should hopefully be our last month before release. There's a ton of ground to cover and we're super excited about it, so here’s the meat of it: 1) We have totally overhauled ou
Fellow enterprising space capitalists!
Zero Sum Future is getting a new, major update to celebrate what should hopefully be our last month before release. There's a ton of ground to cover and we're super excited about it, so here’s the meat of it:
1) We have totally overhauled our user interface in game. A large number of redundant elements have been removed, and both the warehouse display and the planet display has gotten some nifty new bars to help you figure out exactly how your enterprises are functioning.
2) The theme of the UI improvements continue: We've added animations to these new elements, and they should look and feel a lot smoother during regular play.
3) Because a fresh UI overhaul isn't really worth much without some improvements in the sound department, we did just that: For the past 2 weeks, our sound guy has been working feverishly around the clock to bring you a completely overhauled sound library. Most of the UI sounds have been reworked, and now the in-game units have nifty tricks like making humming sounds when working well, or the shuttles increasing their engine pitch when traveling faster.
4) Oh, and because he can't help himself, our sound guy also composed a brand new track for regular gameplay, and two quick themes for the loss/victory themes.
5) We've redone most of the network code to deliver a better experience to our players: The games should no longer desync or go down in random crashes. And now, you can connect to games you disconnect from, for those with spotty internet connections.
6) The Carrier and her particles have been improved to go along with our sound improvements. It looks properly sci-fi and hyperspace-capable.
7) The sound engine has been overhauled to let diegetic sounds work properly in the vacuum of space. Games should feel a lot more alive when every working building has it's own little hum.
8) The level-of-detail calculation for planets has been reworked to look and feel a lot smoother – this one won't be noticeable to most people unless if they went out of their way to find bugs in previous builds, but at least our graphics guy can sleep a little better at night.
While this is the current version, we're not quite done with our mad update pace this month:
1) At the moment, the tutorials, the map editor, and the single-player challenge mode are all disabled as we're scrambling to overhaul those systems to work better and just be more fun to use. The tutorials should be done in the next few days, and we have exciting plans for both the map editor and the challenge modes.
2) The UI for the title menu is still the old version, and, frankly, looks quite outdated. The graphics guy has been remanded with appropriate disciplinary action and will be submitting those changes later this week with a groveling apology.
3) Because we were at the height of our popularity during our 50% off sale a few months back, we've made the decision to drop our price point to $9.99. This will allow us to deliver better value to our players, and help us continue to expand the playerbase of Zero Sum Future. If you wishlisted us in the past, now is the best time to get in.
That's it for now! As mentioned previously, we'll be pushing out a series of major updates this month, so stay tuned for more announcements soon!
Hello everyone! It's the bi-monthly update time, and this is a big one. While mostly focusing on visual changes, there are balance elements also: 1) Procedural planet generation has been overhauled. Now, planets have much better surface noise, and have much more interesting geolo
Hello everyone! It's the bi-monthly update time, and this is a big one. While mostly focusing on visual changes, there are balance elements also:
1) Procedural planet generation has been overhauled. Now, planets have much better surface noise, and have much more interesting geological features.
2) In line with the above, resource distribution (silicon and hydrogen) has been overhauled. Now, not all planets have all the resources - making certain planets much more valuable to keep a presence on, placing higher emphasis on interacting with other players. Not to worry, every star system will contain each resource at least once.
3) Most of the old, placeholder doodads (rocks, ice blocks, resource deposits) have been removed. A tree rework is in the pipeline in the future.
4) The skybox now contains a lot more detail, and looks a lot more space-like. The generation time will be improved in a future patch.
5) Ambient lighting is now toned down greatly on the dark side of the planet.
6) So that players can see, the cursor light has been made brighter and wider. Shine a light on the dark side!
We hope you enjoy the new visuals!
Hello everyone! We've just finished a few new graphical additions: We now have some volumetric clouds for the planets, and an entirely reworked star. Oh, and a small bug with saving bloom options has been fixed.
Hello everyone!
We've just finished a few new graphical additions: We now have some volumetric clouds for the planets, and an entirely reworked star.
Oh, and a small bug with saving bloom options has been fixed.
Thanks to everyone who tried out Zero Sum Future over the free weekend and gave us feedback. Based on all the comments we got, we're pushing out a quick quality-of-life update: 1) The volume of the music in game has been reduced by 40%. 2) The in-game menu is now more descriptive
Thanks to everyone who tried out Zero Sum Future over the free weekend and gave us feedback. Based on all the comments we got, we're pushing out a quick quality-of-life update:
1) The volume of the music in game has been reduced by 40%.
2) The in-game menu is now more descriptive and has a return to game button.
3) Zero Sum Future will no longer move the camera and/or draw certain UI elements when the game is not in focus. Alt-tabbers, rejoice!
4) Right clicking while placing a building will now cancel the placement.
5) Hydrogen and Silicon mines now do not allow the user to place themselves on locations without resource nodes.
6) The game now continues processing player commands (build, destroy, use powers) during single-player pause.
As always, we take feedback very seriously, so let us know if there's anything else you'd like to see addressed.
Hello all! I hope the free weekend has been enjoyable so far. We're pushing out 1 more hotfix, this time addressing a few crashes caused by our sound engine. Happy building!
Hello all!
I hope the free weekend has been enjoyable so far. We're pushing out 1 more hotfix, this time addressing a few crashes caused by our sound engine.
Happy building!
Added Clouds. Added a new Shader to texture the surface of planets. Added flying burgers to the Burger Joint. Added flying hats to the Education Center. Added lightning particles to the Reactor. Added new visual effects for player powers. Added Fireworks to indicate a planet is c
Added Clouds.
Added a new Shader to texture the surface of planets.
Added flying burgers to the Burger Joint.
Added flying hats to the Education Center.
Added lightning particles to the Reactor.
Added new visual effects for player powers.
Added Fireworks to indicate a planet is celebrating a Festival.
Added a new visual effect for Solar Flares.
Added Cooldown indicators for player powers.
Added in a new building explosion effect.
Added in new Shuttle particles.
Added in a targeting reticle for selection of buildings.
Added win/loss splash screens after a game ends.
Added in a Splash screen at program startup.
Reworked how graphical Options function.
Added in options for Bloom.
Building lighting and animations now change when that building is out of a resource.
Added visual improvement to Carrier arrivals / departures.
Added in numerous new sound effects.
Added in 3D functionality for sounds.
Performed several graphical optimizations - the game should now run much smoother.
Starting Thursday, May 16 and ending Sunday, May 19, Zero Sum Future will be FREE to play on Steam! In addition, we’re running a 50% off sale, so this is the perfect time to get in on the space colony building, scheming, and double-crossing action. This weekend is a fantastic opp
Starting Thursday, May 16 and ending Sunday, May 19, Zero Sum Future will be FREE to play on Steam! In addition, we’re running a 50% off sale, so this is the perfect time to get in on the space colony building, scheming, and double-crossing action. This weekend is a fantastic opportunity to try before you buy and get involved in the process to provide feedback directly to the developers!
We've also prepared a major update that addresses many issues players had with our current build and improve the feel of the experience:
Engine optimizations means performance has increased by up to 50% in some cases.
New and improved graphical assets give a better sense of visual feedback. They also look very cool.
Additional sound assets have been added in to make the environments feel more dynamic.
We're looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say!
NEW GAME MODE: Sandbox - in Sandbox Mode, you are free to build to your heart’s content, away from the constant competition and pressure found in the other game modes. UPDATE: Increased the difficulty of the AI. ADDED: Increased number of resolution options. FIXED: Particles will
NEW GAME MODE: Sandbox - in Sandbox Mode, you are free to build to your heart’s content, away from the constant competition and pressure found in the other game modes.
UPDATE: Increased the difficulty of the AI.
ADDED: Increased number of resolution options.
FIXED: Particles will now turn off correctly.
FIXED: Endgame message will now reset correctly.
FIXED: Lobby browser no longer flickers when trying to select a lobby.
FIXED: Commas now appear only where they are supposed to.
Increased size of Planetary Status icons.
Improved the memory impact of the particle system.
Improved memory usage of the Renderer.
Added in more error checking.
The Map Editor is almost available! We hope to have something ready for you in the next patch.
ADDED: Audio options menu. UPDATE: Options Menu visual improvements. UPDATE: Lobbies are now highlighted when selected in Lobby Browser. BALANCE: Retirement facility now steals 25% of life savings, down from 50%. FIXED: Certain UI elements no longer flicker for clients. FIXED: Se
ADDED: Audio options menu.
UPDATE: Options Menu visual improvements.
UPDATE: Lobbies are now highlighted when selected in Lobby Browser.
BALANCE: Retirement facility now steals 25% of life savings, down from 50%.
FIXED: Certain UI elements no longer flicker for clients.
FIXED: Selection boxes for buildings whose owner has lost will now display their name correctly.
FIXED: the Change Planet keys (Default: left/right arrow keys) now function correctly.
FIXED: Lobby Browser now resets correctly between games.
FIXED: Hospitals and retirement facilities will now display popup text correctly for clients.
Tooltips will now reset when the mouse moves. Lowered tooltip delay to 400ms.
Made substantial improvements to the netcode. Moved certain computations from Host to Client. Fixed an issue where the Colony Vessel wouldn't spawn in tutorials. Fixed a crash associated with the Sound System. Fixed an issue where tutorials 4-7 did not have the reactor and the hy
Made substantial improvements to the netcode.
Moved certain computations from Host to Client.
Fixed an issue where the Colony Vessel wouldn't spawn in tutorials.
Fixed a crash associated with the Sound System.
Fixed an issue where tutorials 4-7 did not have the reactor and the hydrogen drill enabled.
Fixed an issue with the objective display not resetting correctly. Again.
A special thanks to Nookrium ( twitch.tv/nookriumtv ) for streaming ZSF and making us aware of these issues. When Zero Sum Future is first run, a popup will give guidance and direct players to the tutorial missions. Added more detailed information about UI elements to the first t
A special thanks to Nookrium (twitch.tv/nookriumtv) for streaming ZSF and making us aware of these issues.
When Zero Sum Future is first run, a popup will give guidance and direct players to the tutorial missions.
Added more detailed information about UI elements to the first tutorial mission.
Tutorial missions now unlock when the previous mission is completed.
Completing a tutorial mission will now automatically start the next one.
Tooltips now display when the cursor hovers over a UI element. You can still press ALT to toggle tooltips manually.
Fixed an issue where certain tutorial missions could be won instead of completed.
Resource nodes (hydrogen and silicon) now pulse with light to make them more noticeable.
Improved the color of the silicon nodes.
Improved Colony Vessel selection box.
Fixed an issue where the screen would keep scrolling when the Options Menu was opened.
Fixed an issue with resizing the Budget Menu.
Objective display now resets correctly between missions.
Fixed a bug where a planet button could disappear.
Fixed an issue where streaming software (OBS in particular) would cause crashes.
