For this month, we have another Relentless Expanse update rather than just a studio update! For this update, we mainly focused on general maintenance for the game, but there's still a new map from last month's event, and we decided to get a little experimental with a new font (mwahahaha >:)
ALSO, before I get to the exact changes, I wanted to let everyone know that we have a Ko-fi now! Our next game will be monetized, but Relentless Expanse isn't, and I've just been turning down donation requests for more than a year now... which feels a bit silly. So, I've set up a Ko-fi that we can accept donations from! To thank players that donate, we've also added a "Supporter" role in our discord, which basically makes you a VIP playtester! Regardless of whether you all choose to donate or not, thank you for playing, and I hope you enjoy the changes!
https://ko-fi.com/cowmera_games
Added the new "Jellyfish" map and achievement
Changed the default font, and made the font look (hopefully) better in general! I know it may be a bit jarring at first but let me know what you all think about it after you get used to it (and if any text still looks weird or hasn't been updated)
Added a warning if you have a challenge or income modifier selected
Fixed a bug where planets were spawning way close together, or even overlapping
Fixed an issue where planets would sometimes spawn on top of or too close to hyperlanes, causing ships to interact with that planet instead
Hopefully fixed a rare bug where Steam Stat-based achievements randomly got their progress "wiped" (such as number of multiplayer and singleplayer wins)
A few other random smaller bugs (trust me bro)
As for the studio update, I have a limited number of topics to cover so I wanted to save a more detailed update post for the next month that doesn't have a game update. That being said, this update has paved the way for more content updates, which the game has been sorely lacking lately! There are (almost) no known bugs remaining, and multiplayer is FINALLY functional. We're currently eyeing some pretty big mechanics, but first we need to validate how realistic they are for a free game of this scope, so I won't tease them until we make sure we can include them. If that takes longer than expected (all of our programmers are still focused on our next game for a while longer) then we'll try to make sure we push out an update with some minor features and/or QoL improvements for everyone. Until then, I hope you all enjoy the improvements that came with this update, thanks for playing!