Hi Wayfarers!
Today we pushed our third update since launching into Early Access on Tuesday. The update notes are posted in all the usual places: the website, Steam, the roadmap, and so on. It brings performance improvements and a host of changes to crafting and other systems.
The update didn't go entirely smoothly. We planned for a half hour downtime and it stretched to a few hours. The issue was some hardware provisioning on the backend, which resulted in worlds coming up without any objects on them. We immediately went into maintenance mode and started posting public updates on https://playableworlds.statuspage.io/ (This is also automatically cross-posted to the Discord).
We were able to resolve the issue fairly quickly and rolled back the servers to the backup we took immediately prior to the update. It looks like we did suffer some item loss on one starbase (Letiemopas sector) but all the planets and governments and whatnot are intact.
There are other bugs to deal with though!
We are watching for reports of other issues. Rebalancing recipes in skill lines seems to have caused some lost recipes. We also have a few crafting glitches to fix still.
The more you share any progression issues you find, the faster we can fix them -- we have our own tests that run through the data, but nothing beats actual players playing for finding issues. So keep the reports coming!
Also, an asteroid in Cohufotag sector appears to be growing grass. At least that bug is funny. Given all the excitement, we decided to hold back the big rubberbanding fix tonight and release it instead as a rolling release. This means that as servers restart naturally through inactivity or the next time they hit a performance issue, they will get updated automatically. We will keep monitoring the situation. We are already working on the next update, so keep an eye on the roadmap at starsreach.com/roadmap to see what we are tackling next.
Thanks for exploring Stars Reach, and watch out for kharvix. See you in the Garden.
Performance and Stability
We have put in place a fix that we believe should make a big difference to the rubberbanding players were experiencing on Haven and several other planets. This was a server-side memory leak that could affect stability over time. In addition, we have set up automated monitoring to watch for this error in case it still rears its head (which it may! We really need to see it under load to be sure).
We are rolling out a new incident monitoring system so that players can see exactly what server status issues are affecting Stars Reach. You can check out notifications on Discord in the #server-status channel, and you can also take a look at https://playableworlds.statuspage.io/ to track our progress on resolving any given incident.
We've fixed a visual issue with icon culling boxes.
We've also optimized several systems to cut down on unnecessary per-frame processing for smoother overall performance on the client.
On top of that, we've also made some adjustments to weapon audio and related sound cues!
Healing XP Updates
Earning of Healing XP was very limited in our previous update, and we have made some additional updates to make it feel more rewarding.
XP can be earned outside of combat and in situations where you are not the threat list of an enemy
You will receive a bonus to the healing if you are actively part of the combat encounter and on the threat list of the enemies.
Crafting Progression Fixes:
With the introduction of our revised Crafting System, there were a few data bugs that are blocking progression in the engineering and tailoring crafting trees and others. We have addressed many of these issues and will continue to do so, as they pop up. Some of the issues included:
Sorted out discrepancies in player-facing names with Very Common Metal and Common Metal.
Added missing tag to common gem resources.
Expanded cooking tags for salads, grilled dishes, desserts, drinks, soups, fermented foods, and pastries.
Added simple T1 Grilled Meat, Grilled Poultry, and Grilled Alien Meat recipes.
Updated Grill and Fridge station requirements to use the broader "grilled dessert" and "chilled treat" groups.
Eliminated direct recipe tier inversions across Technology, Medical, Clothing, and Cooking.
Reworked early Armorer and Pressure Forge recipes around more accessible resources.
Moved weapons, tools, medical outputs, clothing materials, components, and wearables to tiers compatible with their dependencies.
Aligned Circuit Bench, Fabrication Lathe, Apothecary, Armorer, Pressure Forge, and Sewing Bench recipe grants and descriptions with their corrected tiers.
Redistributed Fabrication Lathe building tiles and components across tiers V–VI.
Moved advanced Circuit Bench tools into appropriate tiers and updated Grappling Hook and Grav Pack skill grants.
Rebalanced Prep Counter and Oven recipes and components, and updated their node unlock descriptions.
Smoothed Lab Bench reagent and output distribution by moving suitable recipes into Tier II.
Adjusted Loom, Biofiber Rig, Armorer, and Pressure Forge recipe tiers and aligned their skill unlocks.
Corrected remaining recipe tier inversions and ensured granted recipes matched their new station tiers.
Reinforced station identities by giving Clothing recipes consistent homes based on purpose: Loom for material conversion, Biofiber Rig for basic clothing and components, Sewing Bench for tailored garments, Armorer for rigid protection, and Pressure Forge for environmental gear.
Rebalanced tier distribution by redistributing sparse and overloaded tiers into a smoother progression curve.
Fixed recipe tier inversions so outputs no longer required components that unlocked at a later tier than the output itself.
Corrected material classification by moving assembly-oriented items such as harness webbing, plate strips, mounting straps, and stitched panels from processed materials to components.
Consolidated material processing under the Loom instead of spreading material conversions across multiple crafting stations.
Fixed stranded recipes by updating skill unlocks so moved recipes remained obtainable through the appropriate station-tier nodes.
Cleaned up invalid and stale skill grants by removing or reassigning dead IDs and grants pointing to recipes at the wrong station or tier. Updated descriptions to match the recipes and station tiers they actually unlocked.
Resolved an issue where some recipes were looking for stone, when it should have been rocks
Corrected some recipes that were incorrectly thinking they should be using a processing action to be crafted.
Haven and Crucible Fixes:
Fixed an issue with Collections, Optional Missions, Resource PQRV and the Maps with Haven and Crucible zones.
Unlike all the other zones in the game, Haven and Crucible are instanced -- there are multiple copies in order to handle influx of new players.
The collection and surveying systems treat each planet as unique for the purposes of building a collection. Each instance of Haven and each instance of Crucible was being treated as a different planet, resulting in oddities like:
If you were to start your map or collection on Haven A, then leave to Crucible A to adventure for a while, only to return to Haven B after using the skiff. You would find your map and collections empty.
We have condensed them into one tracking system so no matter which instance you go through they will count as one.
Bug Fixes:
Hmm, maybe people have been right to be suspicious of Mayor Bob. The repair kits you are getting handed to start do not seem to work. Later ones you craft do! We have gotten to the bottom of this mystery and have made sure that they will now work correctly.
Adventure Zones were not intended to have GovBots and allow for citizenship since they are not available all the time. We have removed them from adventure planets and will also clean up the data on all of you who became citizens of a planet that is doomed to be lost forever pretty soon.
Purchased items from Entitlements should no longer be placed on gravemarkers, preventing loss of them. You should never lose your entitlement objects to death. If you did, please let us know so that we can restore them. Once this is live, they will never drop due to death.
Removed expired missions from Mission boards
Missions to wild wormhole planets were expiring when the planet became unavailable, causing the list to populate incorrectly and end up unable to abandon them. This change should remove those missions from mission boards. and handle closed wormholes better.
Space sectors were seeing an invasion from bosses that were too frightened to show their faces. We have given them more confidence and they will return to invading the space sectors.