Hey Space Travelers!
I want to thank you all for your support, feedback, reviews and bug reports! The amount of feedback was overwhelming, I tried my best to keep up as much as I could and to address any major bugs right away.
In one month since release, Stardeus had 21 patches with hundreds of bug fixes and dozens of QoL changes. Here’s a breakdown of what was done since Oct 11, 2022:
- Bug fixes: 156
- UI / QoL improvements: 66
- Balance adjustments: 34
- New features: 23
- Technical changes: 12
- Misc changes: 11
- Performance optimizations: 9
- Graphics / rendering changes: 2
Now, with the majority of the pressing issues settled, it is time to start shifting the development focus towards new features. I made an interactive roadmap and you will be able to vote on what comes next first. Read on!
The Interactive Roadmap
The time has finally come to share the vision of the future of Stardeus with everyone. This is the first iteration of the interactive Stardeus Roadmap. I will keep it up to date as new ideas flow in. However, I want to make it clear - this roadmap does not imply that everything listed on it will be done during the Early Access. I certainly want to do it all, but the main limitation is time - the current roadmap will take at least a few years of hard work, and some ideas may be much more difficult than others to pull off, so this roadmap is not set in stone.
An important trait of this roadmap is that it’s non-linear. It offers a choice for you, the player, to direct the game towards where you want it to be. Explore the roadmap and cast your vote to see the features you want added next!
There are two visualizations of the roadmap, the data is identical, but depending on personal preference, one may be easier to navigate than the other. Try both to see which one works best for you:
Roadmap 3D: https://kodolinija.github.io/stardeus-graphs/roadmap-3d/
Roadmap 2D: https://kodolinija.github.io/stardeus-graphs/roadmap-2d/
Note: Hover the mouse over nodes to get tooltips with more details.
Cast Your Vote
I want you to help me shape the future of Stardeus! After you familiarize yourself with the Roadmap, head over to this Google Form and vote for one category and one feature you want to be developed the most. I will use your votes to guide what features are going to be worked on first.
Voting form: https://forms.gle/VprnyUkDtReZi7A78
Note: this Google Form requires you to log in to ensure that you can only vote once, it does not collect your email addresses, and is completely anonymous.
How new Big Features will be shipped
Since I am used to releasing new builds nearly every day, you may wonder how big features will be delivered. The answer is - in the same exact way, with daily updates. Stardeus was always developed in a single branch, and all major features and changes were added in small chunks. This is the way Stardeus is made, and this will not change.
However, I won’t expose all the new features to everyone while they are unfinished and untested. If you want to feel the “bleeding edge” of the game and get everything right after it gets added to the build, enable Settings > Gameplay > Experimental Features option. Bigger features may have their own dedicated additional switches added later, and when time comes, the features will be announced and enabled for the general public.
Experimental branch on Steam
I would like to clear up some facts about the experimental branch in the “betas” tab on Steam.
- It has nothing to do with the “Experimental Features” gameplay setting mentioned above.
- While it’s called “branch”, it’s actually not. It is just a slightly newer version of Stardeus. Usually about 1-24 hours newer. After that short period the experimental build gets moved to the default branch.
- You can switch between “experimental” and default (“none”) any time, the switch is instant. Saves will be backwards and forwards compatible.
- The experimental branch is usually as stable, if not even more stable than the default branch, as it contains new fixes.
- I always run automated tests to catch any major new bugs before pushing new builds to the experimental branch.
- There is a slight chance of a new bug slipping in. In that case you can report it, switch back to default and keep playing.
- I appreciate the help of people who are using the “experimental” branch. As I work alone, I don’t have the luxury of fully testing everything after every new build. Thank you for helping me keep the game stable!
If I convinced you to switch to the experimental branch, here is how you can do it: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1380910/discussions/0/5230393378275047235/
A rant about save files and their compatibility with future updates
I’ve seen some players worry about switching to the experimental branch because it could break the save files, so I want to make a statement.
Save files are the most precious customer data and there is absolutely no excuse for any game to break them for any occasion, not even a major update!
Imagine what would happen if Google would ask you to create a new empty account, because they have updated their internal systems, so all your data is lost. That’s unthinkable, right? I don’t understand why breaking saves seems to be a standard practice in game development.
No matter what comes out - huge new features, major updates - your existing Stardeus saves will always work. Some new features or systems might be disabled, some obsolete objects may be removed, some errors may show up when loading the game for the first time with updated code, but the game will still load and should be playable. I have 300+ automated tests that are loading various save files, some of those saves are nearly 3 years old! This means that if I break the game saves at any point, I will have to spend a few months rewriting all my automated tests. This is just not going to happen. I deliberately set myself up for having to support old save files at all times since the start of the project.
I have multiple facilities set up for migrating saves into newer versions of the game, mitigating various load failures after adding and removing content and features, etc. Saves always have to work, no matter what!
If you have a Stardeus save file that fails to load - please send it over to me via [email protected] - I will make this save file load in the next patch update. (Unless the save file is completely corrupted. That has happened a few times when players would exit the game abruptly while it was writing the save file to disk.).
Note to modders: please always try to save the game with your mod, then remove your mod and try to load the game. If the game does not load the save after the mod was removed, please ping me on Stardeus Discord and I will look into it ASAP.
Enough ranting about the development, let’s take a look at a few more significant changes that were shipped in the month since the launch to Early Access.
Improved Firefighting and less aggressive fires
A lot of early post-launch feedback was related to problems with firefighting and fires self-reigniting too often. The fire was made more timid, and the firefighting AI logic was rebuilt from ground up, leading to vast improvement.
Workers near a fire will not ignore the fire even if someone else is going for it already, it will be a team effort, and fire will be dealt with in the best way possible.
You can also take matters into your own hands and use the new and improved Direct Control to orchestrate the firefighting effort exactly the way you want it.
Improved Direct Control
Direct Control was arguably the most terrible feature in Stardeus before. Workers would often ignore your orders, get sidetracked, and you could only control one of them at a time. This has been reworked from ground up.
You can now select multiple workers (shift + click them one by one or click-drag a bunch of them), then put them all under your direct control in one click and Ctrl + click to move them all at once. They will obey you and won’t do anything on their own until you release direct control. This works great in combat situations - units under direct control will fight the enemies as long as their weapons can reach them, but they will not go anywhere. Just don’t forget to release them or they will completely discharge!
You can also select a managed worker and Ctrl + click any unfinished task to order the worker to do it right away. Remember, humans have free will, so until you have a tech to overcome that, you can only control your robots.
Almost forgot, one of my favorite features about the new direct control implementation is taking a Cleaning Bot and Ctrl + clicking the dirty floor to drive there and clean it. For some unknown reason it is extremely relaxing and satisfying to do, especially if a Cat decides to ride the bot while you control it.
The Jukebox
Colonists needed more entertainment! You can now build them a Jukebox where they can gather and jam out. Even pets will use it!
And you can use it to control the soundtrack.
Quality of Life Changes
There were several QoL changes I wanted to go through.
Replacing floors underneath walls and devices
Previously you would have to dismantle walls and relocate devices in order to replace floors underneath them. Not anymore!
Shift + Click to connect or disconnect devices
If you select multiple devices, either by click-dragging them, or by holding Ctrl and clicking individual devices, you can connect them all to a chosen Connector with just one click. Hold Shift and click the desired Connector.
It works the other way around too. Select a Connector and Shift + click any device to connect or disconnect it. No more dragging required!
Exposing more data at a glance
It is much easier to find out things just by looking at them, or hovering anything with the mouse. Tooltips will show codex entries, inventory counts, devices will display what they are producing or processing by showing icons. We are the Ship Computer after all, and we love our data!
More starting game modifiers
While there are many ways to deal with heavy disasters like Asteroid and Meteoroid Showers, some players were very disgruntled about their ships getting smashed. I have added a few options that will disable heavy disasters, and even disable the fire spread to make the game more relaxed.
There’s more, but this update is getting long already, so if you’re interested in the gory details, see the full changelog here: https://stardeusgame.com/changelog
Search for v0.6.103 (2022.10.11) and scroll up to read through what exactly was done.
That’s it for now, see you in the next update!
Follow the Development
- Official Website: https://stardeusgame.com
- Join Stardeus Discord
- /r/stardeus on Reddit
- @StardeusGame on Twitter
- @dev_spajus on Twitter
- dev_spajus on Twitch (live development streams)