Hey,
After 4 snapshot updates, I'm glad to announce, that the full 0.2.7 update has been released now.
This update was actually really easy to make, but of course, there were some hard times, which I passed through.
0.2.7 "Research is consistent" update was focused on adding research stuff and I think I've achieved the goal. You can now upgrade your modules, the rockets are getting cheaper and cheaper over time, and you can research the explosions. This update gave EarthX more deep and opened me the door to add a lot of more stuff.
Please take your time to read this changelog (Screenshots are here too!) and in the end, I will talk a little bit about 0.2.8 (next) update.
Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/hspjjg0l8w4
Changelog:
- Added: Completely new explosions system The explosions are now based 100% on the reliability of the modules. There're of course some randoms in it, but now you can really do something about it. If a rocket explodes, you actually know why. I've added about 25 reasons (4-5 for each module) like overpressure or software failure. An issue can happen only one time, so after 15-20 explosions the rockets are getting more and more reliable. A perfect fundament for crew missions :D
- Added: New rocket animations I moved the animations 100% to the code, so I can have a lot of more control over it. That's why now if a rocket explodes, it starts to spinning around before it. The rockets can now tip over at landing and explode after it.
- Added: New explosions effect Now if a rocket explodes, the camera shakes.
- Added: New static fire logic If you're making a static fire now, there's a 5% chance that the rocket explodes on the launch pad. However, there's also a 20% chance of finding an issue in the rocket, which adds reliability to it.
- Added: Mission reports
You can now see a report after every mission. It contains stats and so on. No more annoying notifications while launching the rocket :D
- Added: New rocket repairing system Now repairing rockets is more intuitive and easier.
- Added: One step forward to make rockets affordable Now the modules are cheaper each build. For example, if you've built 10 small fairings, they just get cheaper (so is the rocket too).
- Added: New durability system I moved the durability from the rocket to each of the modules, so the rocket repairing would be more intuitive. It also affects the explosions a little bit.
- Added: Now you can preview the modules in the rocket preview
You can see the build costs at building and durability status at launching/repairing.
- Added: Module upgrades Module upgrades make the desired module cheaper, more reliable and the build time is faster.
- Added: 3 new skill point types
Fairing, Fuel tank, and Engine skill points are used for upgrading the modules.
Other
- Added: Tutorial
Now the John (James actually) will teach you, how to play EarthX :D
- Added: Factory stats Now if a factory builds 60 engines, it will build them 6% faster. You can see it as the building upgrades (which got removed in snapshot 2). All buildings have now their level.
- Added: Hangars existing sense Now the hangars are actually storing your rockets. Every hangar can store up to 3 rockets.
- Added: Tooltips As the players requested, I added tooltips to some places in the UI.
- Added: GEO ring The satellites launched on GEO orbit are flying around the earth in a very visible way. Besides that, I added 6 new satellite models, which are made by rykllan.
- Added: Naming buildings Now you can name every building as you want. Feature requested by one of the players.
- Added: Flying numbers It's just a better visualization of money income/outcome etc.
- Added: Game version control Now you can't play the save files from older versions of EarthX. This caused a lot of bugs and it will be not supported in Early Access. This game develops rapidly ;)
- Added: One secret easter egg
Improved: Working with offices
Now you can decide, which type of contracts the office should look for.
Improvements and small features:
- Improved: Research tree look
- Improved: Overall UI improvements
- Improved: Unlocking balance
- Improved: Rocket look
- Improved: Added 150 satellites object limit You can still launch more than 150 satellites, but the game will show only the max of 150 of them on the Earth orbit.
- Improved: Added colors to the building icons
- Improved: Building trackers appearance and performance
- Improved: Shadows appearance
- Improved: Explosions & engine particles appearance
- Improved: Interface sounds
- Improved: Buttons Now if a button is disabled, it will look more like it's disabled.
- Improved: Rocket repair logic Now the durability of the fairings after a mission on a reusable rocket will be 0%.
- Improved: Loans amount are now higher (Inflation hehe)
- Improved: Paying taxes In older versions of EarthX, if you got 10M$ of income and 5M$ of the outcome, you would still pay 13% of that 10M$ income. Now you pay 13% of (income - outcome), in this case, 5M$.
- Improved: Game balance
- Improved: Increased the character limit on every input field.
- Improved: Main menu home look
Bugfixes:
- Fixed: Research tree loading
- Fixed: 3-core rocket building was too easy
- Fixed: Contracts and missions didn't work properly
- Fixed: Modules build didn't progress sometimes
- Fixed: Bug, where you could create a new game, while you were already in the game.
- Fixed: Bug, where you could build a rocket without unlocked modules.
- Fixed: Truth mode loading didn't work properly.
- Fixed: The resolution in the settings tab was always the lowest.
- Fixed: You couldn't get into the build mode if any window was open
- Fixed: You couldn't pause the game if any window was open
- Fixed: If you paused the game, it would unpause if you closed any window
- Fixed: Employees pay was always 0$
- Fixed: Buildings rent was always 0$
- Fixed: The contract would be removed even if you're launching a mission right now.
- Removed: Building upgrades Added in a new form of factory stats.
- Removed: City names Now you can name every building on your own.
Rockets and modules
Research is consistent.
Big thanks to rykllan for mental support and for helping to make the next update 0.2.8 possible.
Now I will begin working on the 0.2.8 update, which will focus on... competition. Imagine fighting against other space companies. The contract count is limited and you have to convince others, that you're the best. I really hope I can do that because the game will get much more gameplay deep after that.
Anyway, we will see how it goes :D
Discord server: http://mesotegames.com/discord