It's here! After a rather long period on the experimental branch the great big universe update is ready for prime time! Adding in character customization, a rework of the universe generation, and NPC drones which influence the in game economy!
First up character customization! From now on you will be able to customize your character from the face, to the hair, bodysuit and the armor! You will be able to choose from several faces for both genders as well as hairstyles. And all can be completely customized with several color options for each. The armor items are craft-able in the 3D Printer, and can be placed in weapon racks.
We’ve also spend a significant amount of time in completely overhauling how space generation works, from now on, generated stations will be permanent they will not de-spawn and the types of stations that do spawn will be based on the faction influence in the star system. So the higher the influence of one faction in a solar system the more stations aligned with that faction will spawn. We are also working on a new system that will allow players to control what stations are in a system, and help construct new ones. Stay tuned for more on this system over the coming updates.
In addition asteroids will now spawn in gigantic belts around certain planets and around a star system. This means that you will no longer be able to park your ship in an asteroid belt and mine any resource indefinitely. Asteroids will deplete from your current location, but don't worry, there's no chance of running out of asteroids to mine! This means that it will take more effort to find rare resources. Players will need to use their sensors in order to prospect for the resources that they are looking for.
In addition, stations now no longer generate resources out of the blue, instead supply and demand is now met by cargo and mining drones which will mine the resources inside the star system and then supply space station stores with these resources. Stations equipped with a refinery will convert a percentage of these raw resources into refined resources. Then trade drones will ferry these resources between the other stations in the system based on the trade prices and demand of these stations. As a result players who enjoy trading resources will have compete with these drones.
In a future update these trade and mining drones will also interact with player owned stores resulting a more stable player driven economy.
As always, we’d appreciate any feedback you’re willing to provide, it will only help us make the game better. You can also join us on our public discord here , feel free to drop by and have a chat, we’d love to hear your opinion and feedback!
Thank you all for playing and see you starside!
-The Split Polygon Team