We've updated the Helium Rain beta branch on Steam. This is an experimental release meant to ensure the next engine version works well (from Unreal Engine 4.19 to 4.20). Some other changes included here will be part of the next official update too, so you can either try them here or wait.
Fix joystick throttle not behaving in a controllable manner
Fix autopilot not cancelled by joystick controls
Fix unreadable HUD at 4K resolution
This new beta version is fully compatible with existing game saves, so it is safe to move from the main to beta branch, and back, without risk to your game progress.
To enable the beta channel, right-click the game in Steam, go to the Properties menu and the Beta tab. Select the "Beta - Helium Rain Beta" entry and confirm the change.
Thank you for playing Helium Rain, and please tell us of any issue !
Helium Rain 1.2 now available
We've updated Helium Rain to bring some improvements and fix a number of issues with the game. A week after launch, we have a lot to discuss !
Major changes
Here are the big ones - these changes were highly requested changes or really annoying bugs.
New flight control that allows for concurrent inputs - braking while moving left, for example, is now possible.
Improved docking HUD (see below)
Meteorite contracts have reduced meteor counts, higher intercept time, lower probability of spawning to make them less annoying
Fix various issues with auto-trading, including ships ignoring the "trade" settings on stations
Manual docking in Helium Rain is a controversial topic. We've seen lots of discussions about it. Your opinion matters - we've taken some steps to make the HUD easier to read. Keep in mind you can always skip this part of the game entirely by unlocking the auto-docking technology !
The new docking guide simply requires you to match the monitor pattern. The monitor data is still available as a backup. Our changes to the flight controls also make it possible to input lateral movement while braking or accelerating, which will make maneuvers easier.
Helium Rain on the Web
If you like Reddit more than the Steam discussion forum, we've got you covered. Helium Rain has an official subreddit to discuss the game !
Not into forums ? 4sonicride is standing by with a Discord server - thank you for that ! We're lurking there too now.
If you're on the fence about the game, curious about other players, or in need of a tutorial, Youtuber Space Game Junkie started a series of videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvhKR262srY
We'll be live on the SpaceGameJunkie podcat next Tuesday, 3PM CEST. We'll talk about the game, development history, our launch and future plans.
Tech support
We've fixed quite a few bugs today, but we'll gladly fix more. Tell us if you have problems !
Helium Rain will soon be getting a special update on the beta channel, to try a newer release of the Unreal Engine we use for the game. The beta branch will have a less reliable build that might have new, unknown problems, but might also fix hardware support issues or provide better performance.
Thank you for reading !
Helium Rain is released !
After a year in Early Access, Helium Rain is now publicly available as a full-fledged Steam game !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oAKZwCSxSY
This release is meant to be a smooth transition. No change in pricing is occurring, all game saves since we released into Early Access are still compatible. Take a look at the forums if you have questions or issues.
If you're a returning player, you should find that the game has changed quite a bit since the first days of Early Access !
Bug patrol
The game itself has been unchanged since 1.1.4, but we'll still be on the lookout for bugs. Please report all issues you find in the game on on our public bug tracker, or on the Steam forums, so that we can investigate quickly and remove the problems.
Four years ago...
We hope Helium Rain can be a great experience for you. We have been working for more than four years, trying to build a game that would be the perfect blend of strategy and action, with a pinch of realistic elements.
Here's what the game was looking like, exactly four years ago. I think we've come a long way here ! Building a game is a huge, though rewarding, project. I hope we succeeded in making the game we wanted to make - one that has fun action and deep strategy gameplay.
Thank you for reading, thank you for being a part of this adventure, and have fun !
Helium Rain 1.1.2 released
We've released a new update to Helium Rain. It is mainly a bug-fixing update, with a twist...
An oversized surprise
As a surprise addition before launch, we're adding a 13th ship to Helium Rain. The Themis freighter is not a new combat unit, but a smaller version of the old Atlas superfreighter that will provide half of its capabilities for 60% of the cost. We thought this unit would fill the void between the Atlas and the much smaller Sphinx.
A laundry list of bugs
Having the game working perfectly is always our prime concern. Here are all the bugs fixed in 1.1.2, which is a longer list than usual - we've been testing the game pretty intensively since the 1.0 update, and many new players reported issues that existed in earlier versions.
Fix complex cargo bays locking up
Fix miscellaneous trading issues
Fix notifications of scrapping by AI companies
Fix auto-trading fleets not handling fleet supplies
Fix auto-trading fleets not selling
Fix auto-trading still enabled after assigning a fleet to a trade route
Fix blocked quest step on the Pendulum contract
Fix station construction limits in sector blocking substation construction
Fix contract generation while a fleet is stranded at the end of the travel
Fix trade route sliders acting up
Fix typos, contracts wording, bad tooltips, etc
It's happening !
We'll be releasing Helium Rain out of Early Access on October 11. Tell your friends ! This is a big day for us.
No changes are planned until that date, unless we find dramatic issues in the next hours. We'll keep working on issues reported by the community. As usual, please always report crashes our bugs !
Helium Rain 1.1.1 released
We've released a new version of Helium Rain ! 1.1.1 brings a few UI improvements, and fixes a few economy issues. The trade route menu and economy menus are getting new options to handle Storage Hubs, and sortable columns in tables !
Gameplay
Trade routes don't default to trading with hubs anymore
Balance Fusion Power Plant
Improve performance in Night's Home
Graphics & UI
Add "Trade with Hubs" options to trading steps in the Trade Route menu
Add arrow icons on "Move Up" & "Move Down" buttons in the Trade Route menu
Add "Include Hubs" option to the World Economy menu
Add sorting buttons to the World Economy & Resource Prices menu
F4 now the default key binding for the World Economy menu, moving other menus to higher function keys (main menu is F10, settings F12, etc)
Bugs fixed
Fix automated trading not evaluating sales correctly
Fix automated trading stopping sector search on the first hostile sector
Thank you for reporting issues in the game, and feel free to tell us about general issues on the Steam forums !
Helium Rain 1.02 hotfix released
We've released a hotfix to correct a number of issues with the game. The changelog for this update is as follow :
Fix fleet controls available on AI fleets
Fix auto-trade not actually requiring the Automated Trading technology
Fix high memory usage and performance issues in company log
Fix typos in texts
Fix "buying" transactions not defaulting to the contract-bound amount
Fix crash on sector reload
We've also adjusted the rewards from scanning artifacts, to ensure they would be rewarding in end-game, unlike the previous situation.
Last week, we released a new 1.0.0 version on the beta channel with many changes:
New artifact system to earn research points through exploration
New Anomaly & Pharos sectors
New economy model
New auto-trading technology to let fleets work automatically
Trade route & contracts upgrades
Lots of bugs fixed !
We haven't seen major issues with 1.0.0, and we're publicly releasing 1.0.01 today with some minor text changes, and a nerf on the amount of research points earned through artifacts. This version is now available on the default branch for the game !
Be sure to tell us of any issue that you see - we'll do our best to fix any problem that pops up.
Looking back on a year of Early Access
Helium Rain was released in Early Access in August 2017 - around 13 months ago. Here's a sample of everything that was added to the game since it released...
Modular stations to create your own complex station
Economy changes, contracts changes
Upgraded space station models
Upgraded user interface
Upgraded combat with the Skirmish quick-play system
Full gamepad & joystick support
Full Linux support
We fixed no less than hundreds of bugs - the first few updates alone account for half of that number.
We also didn't add some things we wanted to add. In particular, we planned on adding a storyline to the game - other features took priority - and fuel systems to make fuel and engines a more advanced mechanism - that simply didn't end up interesting and was dropped.
There is still a lot of content and features we would have loved to add, but after more than four years in development, we wanted to complete the project, make every existing system as good as it could, and make sure the game works smoothly. This has been a long and wild ride, with a great community. We're happy to have brought Helium Rain to where it is now.
We will now release the game out of Early Access on October 11 this year, a few weeks from now. We'll try getting some attention - make sure you tell your friends about Helium Rain if you enjoy it !
Helium Rain 1.0 now in beta !
We're happy to announce we've released the 1.0 update for the beta branch on Steam. This is our last content update before the game releases, fixing economy, end-game and general gameplay issues. Take a look before you update...
What's new ?
We introduced a new artifact system. Artifacts can be found in the world and scanned for research points, and some additional lore. Explore everything you can ! As part of this feature, we've released two new sectors.
The economy has received immense changes. You will find now that resource contracts are easier to fulfill, and the general AI behavior largely upgraded.
We've made the Trading Hub station relevant again. It is now known as a Storage Hub and can work as a resource buffer in a sector, taking resources from cargos to supply local stations - for a price. Build one in a busy sector to benefit from your competition's bad supplies ! Hubs can no longer be built at complexes, and should be scrapped if that is your case.
We've also fixed a dozen other issues, and made some tweaks here and there. You can find the full changelog here.
Keep your save safe
While we've made sure all works well in our test games, this is a very large beta update that has the potential for bugs, and you will need to wait for the update to be released on the main branch before going back.
Make a copy of your save files before updating, if you care about your progress. Save files are located in "C:\Users\AppData\Local\HeliumRain\Saved\SaveGames" - you can copy this directory elsewhere, and paste it back there if you want to go back to the main branch.
To update to this version, right-click your game in Steam, go for the Betas tab of the Properties menu and pick "Helium Rain Beta". As usual, our bug tracker is available here.
What's next for Helium Rain ?
Hi !
It's been some time since our last update, with a hot, busy summer taking some time away from development. We're back !
Our next update
We've promised you a new patch since July this year, but it has since snowballed into a much larger update to address recurring issues with the game. The current list of changes includes :
Scannable artifacts in the world to unlock for research points and lore details
A completely re-worked AI for the game's companies, fixing a few long-standing issues with contracts
An auto-trade technology to automate your fleet in end-game
Two new sectors
Weapon balancing
Plenty of bugs fixed
We still don't have a firm date for this version's completion, as we'd like to resolve as many long-term issues as possible, and testing all of them together. The changes in the economy are large enough that we might release a Beta version first, before moving on to the main branch.
Getting out of Early Access
We initially planned for a brief Early Access period of only six months, but clearly, the game needed more work than we assumed. Once the upcoming feature update is released, we'll finally be ready to mark the game as finished !
The transition out of Early Access will not change anything for you. The price of the game will not be changed, and we will keep responding to bug reports. We'll probably have to release additional patches to fix new issues. It will only be the end of an active development period where new features were expected, and bugs more likely to be found.
Speaking of bugs...
Helium Rain had its share of bugs, like any Early Access game. We never like seeing players affected by issues, though it is hard for a small company to test every update in depth while in Early Access.
We would like our final game to be as bug-free as possible. To help us achieving that goal, please make sure you report issues you see on our bug tracker. We'll just ask for your save file, or your crash report file, and we'll use that to make the game better for you :)
This also applies to the Linux platform in particular, since our initial support had quite a few issues. Now is the time to tell us if you have weird bugs...
We'll be back soon with our new update - stay tuned !
Helium Rain hotfix
We've released a small hotfix today to address some rare cases of game saves crashing the game at load. The issue was related to the Company Log feature, and is now fixed.
As a reminder, if you ever encounter a game crash or a bug, please do tell us about it - this is how we found, and fixed this issue. Read more on this on our bug tracking home.
