Perpetual Worlds are Here!
The new Beta Version 3.1 includes a few new features, most important of which is it's ability to save data in planet and cave loot boxes, and bipedal aliens.
Now, if you put something in a loot box, and leave that planet or cave, you will find the same items there the next time you return. Also, if a certain alien is offering something for sale, or has a particular quest, you may now leave the planet in order to collect money, or find the quest item, then return and make the transaction.
Of course, this is how Star Explorers was intended to work from the beginning, I just hadn't come up with a good way to do it until now. Note: This feature will only work on chests that were created in the new version (3.1) of the game. Chests that were created in the older version (3.0) will still load when you return to a previously saved planet or cave, but they will not have the same items in them from before the update. However, if you return to the the same cave or planet again, later, any items should be there. This is because the new script creates a new save file whenever you leave a planet or cave. If the save file is not there, but you are reloading an old planet, it will work the old way, and repopulate the cache with items (or not). Once you leave that location, any items will be then written into the new save file, and they will be persistent on any subsequent visits.
WARNING!
If you are attempting the Beta 3.1 version (or the previous 3.0 for that matter) you may encounter a crash when trying to land on a planet. This can be resolved by making sure you set the Video Options before playing the game. If the game reads your old settings file, a crucial variable will be missing, and the game will not load planets correctly. Setting the video options and clicking Okay, will reset this variable, and allow planets to load normally. This only needs to be done once.
Another way to do it would be to navigate to your Properties>Local Files>Browse Local Files, and delete the "settings.cfg" file before playing the new Beta version.
This should not effect any new installations of Star Explorers, only for those who had installed the game before the Beta 3.0 update.
Other Features
- I fixed a number of minor bugs, most of which were caused by the new perpetual world script.
- Item Scan - Certain things like grass models, and cave walls would interfere with the item_scan function, which allows you to pick up items or open caches. This should be resolved, and getting that little hand icon (indicating that you can interact) to show up should be easier now.
- Floater Types - those weird little floating aliens actually have a number of different possible forms. Some of these forms were mistakenly disabled since they were added to the game, and I only just caught this issue. If you explore enough, you may encounter some different types of floaters (some of which do not actually float at all)
- Shadows - There was a problem where if you turned shadows off, then tried to turn them on again, they would not appear. This should now be resolved. However, if you encounter this problem, the easiest way to fix it would be to delete your "settings.cfg" file. If you want you could also edit it so that the number after "shadow alpha" is set to 75 instead of 0. This would only effect someone who turned off Real-Time-Shadows in the Video Options menu in the Beta 3.0 release.
- Invalid arguments in Cave_Load - I encountered this issue, and I beleive it should be gone now. However, I am a bit concerned at how water and ice shaders might be effected. If you notice any problems with the reflective ice, or water effects, especially after leaving a cave, please let me know.