It's been a while since the last update but rest assured hard work has been going on behind the scenes. Coffee fueled hard work!
Learning To Walk
Developer note: Elon is intended to border on difficult but not be overly hard. Space Survival should require a bit of thinking, learning, discovering and possible yes even dying. Which is why most people SKIP the tutorial all together. That said for those that might be interested, The Tutorial has been reworked totally.
Now it is a separate level with tasks oriented to anyone that feels they need a leg up on what to do. It covers:
Player Movement and Stats
Building Stations and Station Uses
Mining and Refining Ore
Crafting and Hub Building
And how to launch Probes and warp through space
Hub Have Been Hitting The Gym
They have clearly been working out and have a sleek new look.
The corners have all been rounded out, as well as. Tops and Bottoms have been added to provide a more rounded shape. With likely VERY VERY rare exception nothing in space is square, it just didn't feel right the hubs were so square.
Developer Note: A more Square shape helps with the building system correctly aligning newly built items. The closer to that shape the hubs are the more space that is left for the player to utilize so making them totally round doesn't really benefit the player, or make logical sense for someone attempting to survive in space.
Building Changes
When building a Hub near another but, occasionally, doors are blocked and cant be build on. Previously, this would resort in the Door Blockade blocking the door, preventing its use. Now, any door that cannot be used as a door will just instead become a window.
[i]Developer Notes: This is a change that has been wanted for a while. If you are building a hub with all doors in a place only one or no doors are usable, the room would look very prison like. This also allows for more viewing into the Space outside the ship. It was hard work to make, SO LOOK AT IT EVERY CHANCE YOU GET!
Mining Animation
For the Longest time the animations surrounding mining an asteroid have needed to be reworked. They are being fine tuned still but you can see the new Fracturing in both the game and the tutorial.
Developer Note: Yeah, no note..... It's getting there. Just check it out.
This concludes the update. Thanks for all your support.
Oh One More Thing
The first of the Mini Games "RobotElonAttack" is done and will soon be available in the main menu to test and play.
"The time has come", the Walrus said, "To talk of building things:
Building on to your Space Station has finally been finished.
Now you can craft and build "Hubs" or rooms on to your station to make your home in space that much larger.
5 Different Hubs have been added to the game. They are as follows
Small hubs with all Doors, It can be built on from all side.
Small Hub with All Windows, Enjoy the view from the many view points.
Small Hub With both. These allow for building off the sides but offer viewing from the front.
Small Air Locks. These allow you to leave and enter the ship from other places,
Medium Hub. This is a much larger hub with plenty of space to fill as you see fit.
Along with the Hubs a few buildable signs have been added to help make life easier.
To prevent you from getting lost in a maze of your own creation, an exit sign has been introduced. post these next to the doors leading your nearest air lock. Or post an Arrow sign pointing back to the main Hub. Lastly, a customizable sign has been added. Build it to label rooms, objects or anything you wish.
Pop Up Text has been reworked to provide better performance as well as a better experience for the player.
Warp Drive Active
This Update brings a lot for the player to do.
Warp Drive
Build Probes and Probe Launchers
Launch Probes to search for new systems.
Choose a new location and Warp into the Unknown.
Explore endless combinations of Star Systems.
Station Repairing
Starting Stations are now broken and require repair. As well, new stations have been added.
The Warp Drive requires Tritium and coordinates from a probe.
The Probe Launcher Stores and Probes.
The Gravity Core has been reworked and also now requires repair.
Loading Screen
The loading screen has also been reworked. The new loading screen includes background images, the percent loaded as well as helpful tips about the game.
Added to Inventory Text
Text has been added indicating what items and how many were added to the inventory.
Pick Up Item Overlay
An Overlay has been added to items the player can pickup. it is activated when the player looks at them.
Bug Fixes
Numerous bugs have been fixed.
Road Map Moving Forward
building add on rooms to your ship is done, but there is a bug with loading them after a save so then have been held off.
Warping to abandoned ships and asteroids is also done. but I'm working on Procedural levels to explore once you arrive.
Recipe Researching rework. At the moment recipes are just provided as research was turned off till it's reworked. Mostly Ui.
Adding a lot of Craft able Items.
Elon Update
Development Update June 2022.
A Crafting Rework has been needed for a while. the time has arrived. Now refine metals, create chemical compounds and craft items all from new stations.
New Stations:
Bio Converter- Converts Algae Pods, using science, into Plastic and Rubber.
Ore Refiner- Refine ore into metals that can be used for crafting.
Laboratory- Used to produce and synthesize elemental compounds.
Workbench- Used to Craft Tools, Items, Stations, and more.
Recharge Station- Allows the Player to recharge their suits energy.( no more need to used a small reactor.)
Solar hub- A Solar hub is capable of producing small amounts of energy from sun light.
New Features and Changes:
Ship AI has been added to guide the player and provide useful information.
Audio and voice alerts have been added to provide the player with warnings and useful information.
Player Movement has been reworked to allow a smoother first person experience.
Being in space now takes a small amount Energy and Air passive, and more when you are moving. (Be careful not to fully run out or you'll be stranded in space.)
Just like in real life leaving the safety of your ship should be a risk. Now you can only save while on your ship. Get stranded in space? Hope you saved when you left.
More rooms have been added to your ship to allow for more freedom and expand-ability.
The background music now changes randomly to provide variety. Tracks can be skipped, paused and played back.
Separate volume controls have been added for music and overall and alert volume.
This Update has been a long time coming. But more exciting and fun changes are in the works. Coming soon:
More Stations.
Probes and Drones. From scanning for anomalies to mining, a bit of autonomy is always useful in space.
Building more rooms is coming. The code needs to be perfect before it's released so it's still on hold.
Share your thoughts, or Ideas of features you'd like to see in future updates.
Patch
<*> Corrected delay when Switching between view. <*> Changed doors to slide open rather than vanish. <*> Added over head lights to doors to show active doors. <*> Adjusted player field of view. /list]
Small Patch
Just a small patch.
Added Mute Music Toggle to the Main Menu.
Added Volume adjustment slider to pause menu.
Fixed issue with Starter Objects being difficult to find.
Adjusted Ship Stats Monitor to only use whole numbers.
Fixed issues where players would fall infinitely trying to get into the ship with gravity enabled.
Adjusted Crafting UI slightly to make it easier to access.
Hid Research ability till Tutorial is finished to avoid any confusion.
Fixed issue where game would allow the player to hit continue even if they didn't have a save file.
Switched Main Menu to "Press Any Key".
Planned for immediate and not so immediate Future
First of all, thank you to everyone that has tested Elon and provided feedback.
You all have spoken and thanks to their feed back I have compiled a list of fixes requested.
Volume adjustments and muting are first and for most on the list.
The Miner Pickup seems to be difficult to find so it will be moved and made easier.
Stats monitor screen Adjustments to stop flickering.
Door Visualization and Animation. The doors should be easier to see when open and closed from outside the ship.
Adding alerts for low air and energy in your suit.
Small camera tweaks and FoV adjustments. Making switching views more smooth.
What to look forward to in the future.
The most important coming addition is the building Hubs to expand your home. This will arrive very soon.
Crafting Rework. Crafting is intended to be done at stations where each "printer" can make a single item at a time if given the materials.
Locomotion and moving through space to explore and avoid dangers like black holes and planetary gravity, both of which would result in a very fiery unpleasant day.
Hydroponic farming and food. Surviving on algae gets old and is just that surviving.
Repairing your ship and built items.
Gravity Rework so you can have Hubs with and without gravity.
Adding Range and randomness to the asteroid field.
These next few are ideas that are tentatively planned but are subject to removal based on player interest.
Space is boring and having access to old classic games from the past would help to pass the time. The in game arcade will be accessible from the ships computer and have a variety of small throwbacks to great iconic games. getting a good score will provide boosts to your player as well as possible show on a leader board. In fact one of these already has a prototype.
Rescuing NPC's. build a scanner, locate stranded others and rescue them. But be careful they will also need food, water, oxygen and a place to sleep. rescue too many and you all might die. VERY LIKELY TO SHOW UP. AS WELL.
Animal Farm. No not Orwell. More like "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should" Thanks to the amazing technology of cloning you too can have a farm in space, all you need is the DNA, it cant be that hard to find in space. Right?.
