Here at Schine there’s always so many different developments happening at once. From new features to performance improvements, new content to experience both in and out of the game, it’s almost hard to keep up. With the last release just a few days ago, we’ve returned to our two-week release cycle, giving a lot more reassurance about what’s going on and when to expect updates.
But through it all we want to keep you, the community informed, so here’s some stuff you should know about.
Cargo Update
You may have heard around the watercooler that our next major feature we’re working towards is the cargo update. Coming with it are a number of changes that we’d like to share with you so that you can best prepare. While we have it quite thoroughly planned out, we still have to say that Alpha is Alpha and in the middle of the build we may find that it would actually work a better way or there’s a programming issue preventing a particular aspect. So take this with a grain of salt, but know this is what we’re working towards.
The cargo system will be built as an extension of the current storage blocks. It will utilize the placing of build-only-visible area blocks (think Trigger Areas) to define a 3D area-block-filled region as a cargo area. The cargo area is then connected to a storage block, rather than us having to introduce another block in the process. This also saves us from reinventing the wheel as all the filters, pull mechanics etc already exist in the storage blocks. You will only be able to define one storage area per storage block, so if you have two cargo areas on your ship, you’ll need a storage block for each. When you then store items through the storage block into the cargo area, cargo crates will appear in the cargo area.
As part of this same cargo update we’ll be introducing stack limits. We’re refining exactly the process we’ll be stack limiting but regardless of our mechanics, the main thing we want to address now is the process of rolling this change out, so don’t immediately jump to the bottom to leave a reply demanding that it should be implemented this way or that.
When we first release cargo and stack limits, any stacks in storage blocks or your inventory that are over the stack limit will appear in red text. You will also get an alert if you enter any friendly (probably factioned) entity that there are overstacked blocks in storage on the entity. These overstacked blocks are easy to break apart through the current storage options, and once dropped under their limit the numbers will become white again. You won’t be able to stack more on your already overstacked blocks.
After a couple weeks we will be adding in a server setting that allows server owners to switch on stack decaying. Stack decaying will cause any overstacked blocks (the ones with red numbers) to slowly lose blocks from their stack, decaying until the stack comes under the stack threshold. This setting helps servers transition over to the new system while also giving active players enough time to move to the new system as well.
If you need a quick fix, shop modules will still have their own block storage for now, and will hold more than the stack limits. However this is only a temporary solution, as we’ll be transitioning shop modules as well though it will be staggered with the cargo update.
Launcher
We have been working on a new launcher for StarMade, and we are finally ready to start testing it with the general public. There are still several outstanding bugs that are preventing us from releasing it fully, but we are hoping with your help we can get those stomped out ASAP.
Windows users can find the new launcher available via the Steam menu by simply selecting "Start with Beta Launcher" when starting StarMade within Steam.
For everyone else, we are still working on the Steam integration, so you'll need to download the new launcher from this website: http://sm-launcher-test.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html. Simply select the largest number (they will increase as development continues). These development versions include built-in debuging software, so any bugs should be automatically reported back. If you would like to join in the discussion on the forums, the official thread is http://starmadedock.net/threads/launcher-public-beta-thread.21799/.
Live Dev Q&A on Twitch
We’ll be hosting a LIVE Dev Q&A session on Twitch on Sunday 15th November at 1:00pm PST (or 9:00pm GMT) where you the community will be able to ask questions directly to the developers of StarMade. It will be hosted on a special Q&A Schine server where those lucky enough to jump on before the server cap will be able to check out the recently announced spawn station for yourself. This will be one event you won’t want to miss. But, if you do miss it, we’ll also be uploading it to the StarMade YouTube channel afterwards.
Price increase - Don't get left behind!
We will be increasing the new price of StarMade to be $14.99 USD on November 17th. Steam will adjust automatically to the appropriate pricing structure for all other countries when this happens, and we will occasionally be reviewing them to address any really weirdly generated prices.
So don’t be like Dave above and get left behind, now is the perfect time to get in and save yourself a couple dollars.
You may be thinking, but the game is completely free to download at the moment; that is correct. However it won’t always be completely free to play, so get in now and help support development and get a saving in the process.