Galactic Crew will be released this Friday as Early Access. Therefore, I spent the last days with testing and optimizing the game. See below for a full change log.
Engine optimizations
The game's shader models were improved so that less data needs to be transferred to the GPU. While the graphics quality does not change, the performance will increase on older computers.
More loot
Some quests reward you with more loot than before. For example, when you search for valuables in a debris field, you might be lucky to find way more stuff than before.
Improved user interface
I added more information to the user interface. For example, the tool-tips in the achievement view show the progress for each unlocked achievement. So you can see how many enemies you need to kill or how many items you need to gather for an achievement. Tool-tips were also added to the Galactic Map to describe asteroid fields and space stations.
Sometimes you have the opportunity to perform a time-consuming action in an event, like helping someone, looking for valuables, etc. Now, a tool-tips shows the amount of resources that are used during this action. People who did not play the tutorial had problems understanding how the retrofitting works. A new description text in the ship overview explains how to do it. This text is only visible, when you are in a system with a space station.
A new display shows your current supply of food and energy crystals. The display also features tool-tips that show how many jumps you have left before you run out of these resources. When you are running out of resources, the display's colors changes to warn you.
When creating a new game, some cards may be locked. A new description in the tool-tips list the achievements you need to get to unlock a card. In addition, all ship cards got new tool-tips listing their properties like weapon slots or number of rooms.
Splash Screen and icon
When the application is started, you'll see a new Splash Screen indicating that the game is currently loading. This new view replaces the old, empty window that were visible during the game's start-up.
The game's icon wasn't correctly displayed in the game's window and in the Windows task bar. This has been fixed.
Bug Fixes
- The game could crash on Windows 7 SP 1 computers. This has been fixed.
- There was a spelling mistake in a German event description.
Coming up next...
The next update will bring more weapon turrets, a new achievement, a new bonus cards, shipyards to upgrade your ship and different types of weapon rarity!