This space exploration rogue-like has been through some big changes since the last major update:
Space Station Backgrounds
In the constant effort to not only add new game systems and content, but also improve existing features, we've added unique background art to the space stations of all the different alien races.
Fame, Infamy, and Reputation
Fame, infamy, and reputation have always been opaque background systems that affect how others see you, but it's never been clear exactly how they work... No more!
From now on, any action that changes your fame or infamy (which are measured separately) will illicit some sort of notification (either a floating text or in the message log). Furthermore, upon reaching certain thresholds of fame or infamy, you'll get pop-ups telling you how the alien races you've met feel about the things you've done.
And it changes your reputation with them.
Reputation itself has been remodeled to make it much harder to be friends with everyone at the same time. Most of the aliens out there don't like each other, some are openly hostile to others (or all). And since the enemy of my enemy is my friend, well, the friend of my enemy might just be my enemy too... look out!
Warp Screen Improvements
David (AI's artist) was watching one of my youtube playthroughs and he noticed how much trouble I had when searching sectors for the nearest embassy of a particular alien race (usually so I could go turn in a quest).
So he came up with a simple solution and sent me little images for each race's starbase, so we could put them directly on the warp screen... What a great, easy solution! To go along with making it easier to find things, I decided to add sectors you can reach on your next jump as well, and they're shown in gray. A discord member suggested we add captain's log notes, and here we have it, tons more visual information, at a glance:
There's still plenty of text below, outlining in more detail what is known about each sector. But this makes navigation so much quicker. Thanks David!
Sprawling Planets!
For 8 years, every sector, planet, shipwreck, and cave was represented by a single map. The edges of the screen were the limit. Of course caves can go 20 levels deep sometimes, and "Lower Decks" added more vertical space to shipwrecks...
But now you can find planets with more surface area: on scans, they're revealed as "large" or "sprawling" (depending on how many extra screens there are), and when you approach the edges of the map on those planets, you might see an arrow allowing you to travel to new areas to the north, south, east, or west.
I've only scratched the surface of what can be done with this feature, but for now you can still enjoy planets that are up to 8x larger than before. While that is extremely rare, one should be guaranteed to spawn in sector 6... go find it!
DLC
Many months ago now, David presented me with 5 complete interface re-skins, and asked that I release them as a DLC. That is finally happening, in Approaching Infinity's first downloadable content package, the Interface Expansion.
This DLC contains no new gameplay features or content (because you already get that all the time, for free!) Instead, it's purely cosmetic. All proceeds go to the artist himself, so show some love for this legendary rogue-like pixel pusher, and wishlist it today!
Alien Distress Calls
While exploring shipwrecks, if you touch a control console (desk), there is a chance it might spawn a note about an event the crew of this ship witnessed before their demise...
It will tell of an alien ship in another sector that was sending a distress call. They will have been asking for repairs or evacuation, and if you go there, you can find them and help them yourself, for a nice reputation boost and some tangible rewards as well.
These mini-quests are automatically added to your captain's log (L), and auto-deleted when completed. As with most things, these missions are entirely optional, and really just serve to introduce new players to some of the many gameplay possibilities out there.
Other Changes:
- Alien ships can now hail you
- I added a "melee safety" for non-hostile targets.
- I removed the names of most earthly diseases. The names will be sillier now. The effects are still bad.
- There is now a visual "supply warning" for your ship, similar to the oxygen and HP warnings on planets.
- There is a new rare pirate mini-quest that can be found in caves.
- If you're on a ship "repair" mission for aliens , walking over a system will tell you whether it's "vital" to be repaired.
- I added 2 new enemy types in Galactic Mega-Structures, and changed their spawning distribution (no more warping into the middle of 3 of them at once)
- I Made changes to the "Monks" quest line, including a new unique ending.
- Added a setting: "Tutorial Messages (NEVER)", which turns off all explainer pop-ups. (Intended for experienced players.)
- Alien ships that have been in the sector for a while will sometimes leave.
- Pirate raiders have a new unique behavior...
- A LOT of theoretical and design work on many new major systems... because...
What's Next?
Some really big stuff! Thanks to an overwhelming Discord vote, the next major feature to be added to the game will be "Asteroid Bases": neutral space-ports offering services found nowhere else.
It will introduce an entirely new alien faction to the AI universe. To make this happen, I'll need to finalize my recent behind-the-scenes work on NPCs, and it will give way to the botany and alchemy systems, as well as archaeology quests, legendary weapons, and even fargates!