I have just made the Beta 3.0 version of Star Explorers available for testing. This is a significant update, and unfortunately will not load previously saved games. Here's what's fixed and what's new:
Planet Updates
- A new terrain generator may not look too different, but it is more stable and allows for bigger planets
- Player and NPC collision - New collision functions prevent player and NPCs from going through landscape features
- Updated A.I. Along with collision detection, aliens do do not "shake" back and forth when approaching or running away from the player
- Bipedal aliens will now jump from time to time
- Bipedal aliens now carry visible weapons, and will drop them if defeated
- Bipedal aliens laser sound volume is now controlled with the volume slider, like everything else
- Clip distance has been optimized to improve performance
- Updated script that controls terrain features allows features to "jump" from one part of the planet to another - this reduces the total number of objects on each planet significantly - the previous script created copies of each object - it should also improve performance
- Previous version sometimes encountered an "invalid arguments" error when leaving planets - this should no longer happen
Player & Controls
- Player will gain health slowly when aboard the spaceship
- Updated script prevents controls from "sticking"
- Updated flashlight - shines more consistently on grass features
- Money is now handled fully as integers - there were some items that allowed decimal places in the value, causing some confusion when buying and selling
New Video Options
- Shadows - turn shadow effects on or off to improve performance
- Bloom - turn bloom feature on or off as preferred, and for possible performance boost (when off)
- Max Planet Size - large planets may run slower on some machines- if you experience problems, you can reduce the maximum size planets will form - you may also choose to increase the size above the default max size of 14 (planets are created on a grid, in this case 14 x 14 tiles)
- Terrain Density - grass, rocks, trees, plants and more are effected by this number - lowering this slider will make your planets look a little barren, but will improve performance
Other Fixes
- Warping to a nearby star (especially after completing a mission, when the mothership moves near) was causing a problem, and getting the spaceshp stuck in warp - this should no longer be an issue.
- Oxygen planets will now replenish your oxygen tank when above the surface of any liquid body
- Incomplete Fungi - the previous version allowed fungi to appear incomplete and/or floating in the air - this should no longer happen
- Cave laser issue - previous builds would prevent the player from firing in caves when facing a certain direction - this should be working now
- Problem in database caused a problem when trying to rename stars - this should work fine now
- Another problem would prevent player from writing longer names, or additional notes in a star's entry (I just realised I need to fix this in the planet database too)
Notes
To access the Beta 3.0 version, go to Star Explorers > Properties > Betas and select "beta" from the drop down.
You will need to start a new game to test it.
I will keep the "default" and "testing" versions active for anyone who wants to complete an existing game. Once the new version is made to "default" I will create a "legacy" version for old players who still want to complete an older game.
This update was more about stability and consistency, not many new features are present.
There are a couple known issues that are either things I had not noticed before, or they were introduced as a result of these changes.
Known Issues
- Grass jumping - when the player crosses over the "edge" of a planet, terrain features "jump" to make it appear that he has gone around the whole planet - when this happens, sometimes the grass or small rocks seem to jump into different positions - I'm working on fixing it
- The new collision features have caused the player to jump somewhat differently - it seems to work fine on planet surfaces, but there are some strange results in caves - jumping is not a major part of the gameplay at this point so I allowed this to pass for now
- Save game in a star system - if you start a new game, then exit before saving near a star system (after warping to it) the game will not load correctly, and you will have to start a new one - this is the next big issue I will be fixing
Final Important Statement
When testing the game I use the default video settings - 1280 x 720 and in windowed mode, also keeping planet sizes limited to 14 and density limited to .5. I have tested full screen, and changing the window size, but I am referring to playing through the whole game. There may be issues that pop up in different video modes that I have not encountered. For best performance, keep the video setting on default.
If anyone prefers changing the screen size or going in full screen mode, feel free to do so. Please let me know if you encounter any errors.
This last request applies to everyone. There are so many different combinations of features and events that can occur in a generatively designed game like Star Explorers. It's impossible to test every possible combination of actions and events. If you do encounter errors, I would love to know about them. Finishing the game, and making it as stable as possible for its full release (still planned for May of 2018) is my top priority
And Happy New Year!