Just three weeks after starting out, we have released Update 2! Along with a Mark & Chris video diving into how things have progressed. In our latest video Mark and Chris show off some of the incredible ships created by the first batch of playtesters and get their hand's dirty with some asteroid mining...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UAIWNZW12Y
The Playtest is now open to MacOSX users as well as PC users! You will need MaxOSX 10.14 or greater.
We will be adding in more testers to the pool very soon!
Here is a full list of all changes made for this build:
NEW CONTENT
= Ice comets / Ice Grinder
Ice comets occur randomly and travel through a system. Mine them for Ice.
The Ice Grinder is a new piece of equipment to grind and melt ice into dirty water.
= Spacesuit Pod
Repleneshes the oxygen on any spacesuit.
= Ratings - Combat / Industry / Humanitarian / Logistics
You will gain XP as you perform these activities and your rating will slowly increase.
Many missions now require a minimum rating to be accepted.
= Parallel pipes
Pipes can now be constructed next to other pipes without automatic (unwanted) connection
= Tooltips
Plus a whole raft of usability improvements to help new players
Including text descriptions of almost all equipment
= Star system save persistance
You can now revisit star systems and they will reload as you left them
= Tweet my Starship
Click this from the Main Menu. A picture of your starship is copied to the clipboard.
Paste it into your tweet to show the world your brilliance!
= Playtest sector limit increased to 5
PERFORMANCE
- Render performance improved
SMALL CHANGES
- It now costs money to hire crew
- Crew will no longer disembark the delivery shuttle if there is no atmosphere, and a warning message is shown
- Smelters can now refine Tilium into Refined Tilium (which you can sell)
- The initial ship-readyness mission is automatically accepted at the start of a new game
- All starting ships now have some cabin space
- You can now press the HOME key to re-center the view on the current ship
- There will always be at least one shipyard in the starting sector
- CO2 scrubbers are now twice as fast at extracting co2 from the atmosphere
- Scientists have determined the void is now expanding slower than before
- Pipe and port graphics have been changed to give better hints when things are wrong
- Hostile ships will no longer randomly camp the sector exit system (permitting a peaceful playthrough if desired)
- Updated graphics for CO2 Scrubber, Small Tank, Docking Port, Box, Smelter, Spacesuits
- You can now click on a Smelter to cycle its recipe setting
- ESC now closes any currently open window, before it will open the main menu
- Hull Damage is now shown in the top status bar
- The Contracts list will now highlight any contract that occurs in a system you are already due to visit with a blue diamond
BUG FIXES
- Mission descriptions now correctly show the ship name they are assigned to, instead of the layer number
- Broken floor tiles are now straightened after Drone or Ship Yard repair.
- The game world will no longer receive keyboard and mouse input when the Main Menu is open
- Objects that extend off the gridmap can now be placed.
- Properly restore the view on game load.
- You can now sell materials even when your stacks aren't 100% full
- Docking Port sound effects would play continuously after loading a save game sometimes
- Crew can now install/dismantle/repair equipment that is entirely inside a wall, so long as they can access a neighbouring square
- Fixed navigation bugs that meant crew and passengers would sometimes get stuck on corners
- Crew would sometimes put suits on before attempting jobs in a wall