Hello!
Today I'm releasing an update for v1.1 of Deep Space Exploitation! This update contains some (but not all) of the things I wanted to add before release but never got round to, and also some things that came from suggestions and general bug reports.
I still have things on my list to add, but I really wanted to get this update out before the Winter sale and had much less time to work on things than I thought, given a recent apartment move and general holiday season madness.
Anyway, the Steam Winter Sale starts tomorrow and Deep Space Exploitation will be 25% off, so go fill your stockings!
And here are the things I've been working on... :)
Inertia Switch
Throughout development I'd get the "why are you slowing down in space?" question, and I would tell people that I'd tried it and it's just not fun for the default movement. I still stand by that, but what IS fun is having the option, so I've added a ship upgrade which installs a little switch to turn the inertia control on and off. So now you can drift to your heart's content!
There's an option in the settings to have this work as a "toggle" or a "hold", too.
Permit Costs Applied After Jobs
When starting a job with a permit cost, the amount is now charged once you've finished the job instead of before. The idea here is to remove the frustrating step of spending all your credits or using them all to pay off your debt, then going to the jobs page and finding you don't have enough to pay the price of the permit you want. I'm a tiny bit unsure about this change, as I think maybe it's good to include that bit of friction to make the permit seem more serious, but for now I think it's worth smoothing out the UI interaction in that area.
ASTRO-MINER "GET OUT OF DEBT" EDITION!
I have hidden a second game within Deep Space Exploitation for your enjoyment! This is a little arcade game playable during the mining phase via your tool screen. It's semi-hidden, requiring you to hold down the tool cycle button for 2 seconds (this is revealed part way through the game if you're nice).
Prospector Gun
I felt (and one or two players mentioned) that there needed to be an additional basic tool when starting the game, so I've added the Prospector Gun which is something of a pea-shooter/scatter-gun hybrid. Tap the fire button and it'll shoot a single shot from its clip, or hold down fire to load multiple shots from the current clip and release them in one blast!
I think this solves another problem by being the first new tool available instead of the Mining Hammer, because although I love the Mining Hammer, it's quite a harsh first option for those who don't enjoy it and feel like it's actually a trap.
Achievement Icons
I finally got round to making individual icons for each achievement, which I enjoyed more than I anticipated but was definitely too busy with other aspects of the game to think about before. I've also added a couple of new achievements in there.
What's Next?
I did have a few more things I wanted to get in for this update which didn't make it due to time constraints, so I'll be working on those next.
Full Changelog v1.1
Features
- Inertia switch upgrade.
- Permit costs are taken after a job finishes, not before.
- Prospector gun.
- Actual achievement icons.
- Achievement for hitting a seeker mine with the hammer.
- ASTROMINER mini game.
Tweaks
- Added an extra message from the resistance about this scrap processor job to give an extra nudge and make the puzzle less punishing.
- Made default screen background slightly darker for increased visibility.
- Adjusted some item prices so that new items are still accessible.
- SFX added to standard mining gun when it's ready to fire.
- Added reminder message when the cargo is full which explains controls and dropping unwanted cargo.
- Player can only take 1 damage from point-blank bullet explosions per second, this stops them one shooting themselves with the Prospector Gun.
- Blocked activator tool upgrade from being uninstalled, which can soft-lock the player if they uninstall is before the first scrap processor job.
Bugs
- It was possible for two bullets to collide in the same spot on an asteroid on the same update cycle, resulting in them destructing the same area and effectively wasting one bullet. This would have only really been possible before with the Gatling Gun but the Prospector Gun made it happen a lot more. Fix detects this and defers additional bullet collisions to the next update.