Mac & Linux support added in latest Update Full Patch Notes August 31st, 2017
In today's patch we are releasing support for Mac and Linux systems! We look forward to seeing you all in the game! Please report any issues with Mac, Linux, or language localization to the game's Steam discussion boards.
August 31, 2017 v0.1.4 PATCH NOTES:
-When a taxi service is built on a planet, ships will no longer leave empty on their first launch
-Added Mac and Linux Support
-Fixed bugs for mac and linux support
-Added initial Localization and Translations for some parts of the game, these are accessible through the in-game options menu:
-English
-French
-Spanish
-German
-Italian
-Korean
-Russian
-Dutch
-Portuguese
-Brazilian (Portuguese-Brazilian)
-Fixed more multiplayer bugs
-Added "Are you sure?" confim when leaving game
-Changed autosave naming formate to be sortable
-Fixed game save lists to sort descending
MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companys. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
-Translations are not complete, if you would like to help with translations please see discord or steam discussions
August 28, 2017 v0.1.3c PATCH NOTES
August 28, 2017 v0.1.3c PATCH NOTES:
-AI company being liquidated will no longer liquidate all ships in the game
-Company being liquidated now also removes their loans
-10 year milestone will no longer be displayed for games loaded past the ten year mark.
-Ships should no longer turn around before even passing a planet in outer solar system.
-Ships should no longer leave empty on their first run
-Adding first class slots to a new ship won't break the slot UI anymore
MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-When loading a save game with in-transit interstellar ships, odd behavior can be exhibited and you might lose the ships currently.
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companies. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
PATCH NOTES August 25, 2017
Just finished up a nice big patch for everyone tonight! Includes a lot of fixes to some very annoying things you all have been experiencing. We are now diving head-first into the Ships screen to completely rework that and make it much more user friendly in mid and late game. Thanks for everyone's suggestions on this subject, I think what we have planned will really help!
Saved games from previous versions are incompatible with this patch
-"wait for full load" issues are fixed, it now loads the ships that have been waiting the longest
-Loading a save game will no longer break ship icons
-Profit graph fixed to be accurate
-Added more financial graphs comparing you and the competition
-Removing the current stop on a route doesn't break the game with huge cash payments any more.
-Changing cargo rules should be more predictable, there were some cases where they weren't saving previously.
-Lots of multiplayer connectivity issues resolved.
-AI should now better prioritize reliability for long travel distance routes.
-AI should now consider larger ships more often
-Multiplayer chat window greatly improved
-In multiplayer, on client computers, moons of non-colonized planets should orbit better now.
-Planets and moons now orbit about half the speed they did previously
-Reduced spaceport size requirements for multiple ships
-Re-balanced multiple ships (cargo size, system speed, prices)
-Updated to Unity 2017
-Reduced the number of AI companies in predefined games to 3 for easy, 2 for normal and hard, and 1 for unfair
-Enabled loading a save game in multiplayer (still laggy for most clients after a reload however, we're working to correct this)
-Fixed lots of multiplayer bugs
-Improvements to AI companies
-Fixed news items not being saved
MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES: -Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companies. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
Patch Notes (last 3 patches) LOTS of fixes
It's been an extremely exciting and insanely busy 3 days for us! I am so grateful for the reception we've received so far. We finally polished off some of the biggest bug fixes today and are so excited to get this patch out to you. Below are all the patch notes from today and the the previous two patches since launch:
August 19, 2017 4pm EST PATCH NOTES:
-Ship screen jitter fixed when there are lots of ships
-Improved AI Balance
-Improved AI gate buying and selling behaviour
-Improved AI buying, selling and upgrading ship behaviour
-Fixed AI over supplying machinery and other ai bugs
-Fixed and Improved hot join for multiplayer
-Added player list to above chat box and on connecting screen for multiplayer, includes icon for ping warning and kick button to resolve stuck games after player failing to connect
-Optimized multiplayer for large number of ships late game causing network lag
-planet view camera reverted to fix the "jumpy" planet in mid game
-Ship LODs adjusted to help improve framerate with lots of ships some.
-Fixed ship camera when in another system and you "center camera"
-Fixed company rep tooltip in multiplayer showing company names with "_gameobject" prefix
MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Loaded dilithium fuel gets removed from ships
-Multiplayer saved games cannot be loaded
-Randomly Multiplayer clients become unstable (working hard on a fix!)
-News items don't get saved in save game file
-Sometimes "Wait for full load" doesn't work
-Screen judder / delay when ordering ships and other general ship screen performance issues.
2nd patch August 17, 2017 PATCH NOTES:
-Fixed machinery demand being incorrect causing lots of AI issues
-Passenger prices are no longer changeable
-Camera now stays centered with speed increases
-When a colony fails and is re-colonized the spaceport no longer is removed
-Fixed not being able to again assign flights to ships in ships view
-Fixed edge scrolling for only when game is focused
-Added more info to company reputation tooltip
-Increased size of font for save game list
-Changed ai gate buying behaviour
-Fixed loading save casuing company names to "_gameObject" prefixed
-Fixed not being able to ai to custom game and lobby after removing some
-Added a new music track
-Fixed no steamworks link game breaking bugs, ship fuel bug etc
-Dilithium Crystals no longer prioritized by local government colonizing until FTL travel discovered
August 17, 2017 PATCH NOTES:
-Better ship reliability balance
-Loading a saved game no longer "revives" deleted routes
-Gate dialogs currency now formated
-Increased size and readability of dropdowns
-Non-interstellar ships are no longer assignable to interstellar routes
-The first interstellar system that is colonized will now always be within return range of the Gorman Starchaser
-Fixed a lot of multiplayer lobby issues
-Keyboard hot keys no longer break after using an input box and closing it with a carriage return
Interstellar Transport Company early access Available Now!
It's been such a long time since we started this project, and we are so incredibly proud of what we've accomplished so far. We hope that you all love the game and have a blast with it! That being said, this is one milestone on many we have planned. Our early access journey is just starting, and we are looking forward to making this game amazing with your help. So please leave your feedback on the Steam discussion boards, it helps us tremendously!
Thank you also to all the support we've received from our testers, youtubers, and the community that is beginning to grow around this game. You all are awesome and it will be so much fun iterating this game with you over the next year.
Over the coming days our focus is going to be on fixing these known issues:
-Random multiplayer instability
-Need to be able to load multiplayer saves, currently not working
-Need to have news items saved into save game files
-Hotjoining games not working
-Short lag spike when ordering new ships at times
Expect fixes to most / all of these things in the coming days. Thanks again everyone! See you in the game!
-Mike and the MT Worlds team
Early Access Roadmap 8-10-2017
I know, I know.. Most everyone else posts these sorts of things a week or two after early access launch. We hope to not be like everyone else though. We strive to be friggin' awesome! Along with totally transparent.. I thought it would be helpful to everyone deciding whether or not to buy the game now to see exactly what we have planned for the full version, without digging for the information, so we're also posting it now. We expect to be in early access for a year.
In very rough chronological order:
-Ranked multiplayer We think ITC would benefit greatly from a competitive ranked multiplayer ladder system. It's possible this is done before EA launch, but if not, it will be ready in the weeks after
-More cargoes To give players even more reasons to travel interstellar for hard to find natural resources. Also weaponry which will be important for the next item...
-Politics This will make the game incredibly more dynamic. Civil wars will break out and you will need to choose a side and embargo the other, reputations will change depending on factional politics and who you are servicing, planets and systems will change hands, handle huge weapon demands during times of war etc...
-Contracts Local governments, business, and authorities will approach you with contracts that you can fulfill for big bonuses and penalties upon failure.
-Techtree and Research Currently ships are released at predefined days. We will give players more control over what ships are researched and also give companies exclusive rights for a period of time to ships they had a large hand in developing.
-Stock Market and IPOs We feel this is an essential feature for the management side of the game.
-VR Support We love VR and have been planning since day one to add VR support.
-Mod and Workshop support We're not precisely sure how much modding support we can offer yet, but it will at least allow new ships, planet types, and some game balancing variables to be changed. Possibly much more.
Also we will be adding these things periodically throughout development:
-Localizations to other languages -More starships and rockets -Better / more realistic flight paths for ships -More options in galaxy generation -More planetside infrastructure
There's also a hundred different directions we can take this game. It really depends on the feedback we get from all of you during early access. I can't wait to see what you all think, and where you would like to take ITC, starting in just 6 days!
And finally, just for fun, a shot of a multiplayer test we did last night! It works great!
Final VLOG prior to early access launch now available
https://youtu.be/AglGv63q8tQ
In this latest VLOG I discuss everything we've been working on the past couple months as we lead up to our early access launch.
Realism vs Gameplay in Interstellar Transport Company
Something that most tycoon game developers struggle with is how "realistic" to make their simulation. After all, we play tycoon / management games (really games in general) in order to experience something we normally couldn't in life. In our game's case, we are experiencing what it would be like to manage the logistics of the rapid colonization of space. While concessions absolutely had to be made in the name of gameplay, we have struck a balance that we think is both engrossing in the depth of the simulation but also approachable enough that players can have a profound impact on the simulation results.
At Early Access launch on August 16th, there will be 8 different cargo types and 4 different passenger types. We will expand on this during the early access phase, but this gives players a great starting point. Each cargo type is unique in the way it's created and consumed and each requires players to take a different approach and think strategically about how they will source and supply each most profitably. Below is a very rough flow chart (was actually made for our team internally) that shows how the resources, modifiers and buildings interact with eachother.
Passengers are just as interesting, and I don't think we've spoken about them much yet so let me explain how they work. The four different types of passengers are Colonists, Business Travelers, Tourists, and Refugees.
Colonists are created at crowded planets and want to go to new colonies to start a new life; pretty straightforward. They pay well as they are often sponsored by a local government or company to move.
Business Travelers are created by any planet with high development and high populations. They will stay at their destination for a short time and then want to return home. YES! We actually track the passengers and simulate their return trip, which is most notably used in our next passenger type..
Tourists are created again at any planet with high development and high population. They are also created at lower population planets as many people would love to go visit Earth if they have never been there etc... This is where the return trips for passengers really shines. Often large population planets will create many tourists to go to a remote, sparsely populated planet, we want to make sure the traffic back home is simulated after an extended stay, which we do! Every tourist and business traveler will want to return home.
Refugees behave differently. They are created on planets experiencing famine (later on extended wars etc...) they provide very little income when you transport them, but will be very thankful to you and you'll notice a boost to a planet's reputation when you deliver them to a safe planet. They also currently don't use the normal passenger seating, but instead will forcefully crowd into your dry climate controlled cargo bays, filling those to capacity.
Speaking of passenger seating... there are three different types, coach seating, business class seating, and first class seating. Some passengers will desire a higher level of seating, some will desire the cheaper seats. The longer the trip the more common it is for passengers to want the more expensive seating. You can also set your ticket prices for passengers, so you can compete against your rivals for the available passengers.
Thanks for all of your support and we can't wait for August 16th!
-Mike and the MT Worlds team
30 days until launch! We're hard at work here
Hey everyone, just a quick update from our side. We are stoked at the reception the game has been getting when people see the trailer and read about it thus far and hope to keep gaining momentum up until launch. Please be sure to spread the word about the game, it means a ton to us!
We've been working on a lot of interesting things this past week, maybe the most visual being random starting systems. If you want to start in a system that is not completely familiar you can choose to start in a randomized system instead of Sol. The systems are similar enough that everything is there you'll need to get started, but different enough that it's a completely different experience every time you play one of these systems.
We have also been hard at work trying to get ranked multiplayer done in time for August 16th. It may not be fully featured, but it seems that we will have a version of ranked multiplayer with auto-matchmaking in at launch which is great news for everyone! We hope this feature keeps fans enjoying the game for many years to come! Especially as we continue to improve the systems throughout Early Access.
Please let us know if you have any feedback, we love to hear from you!
Thanks,
-Mike and the MT Worlds teamM
Store page for Interstellar Transport Company is now live and Early Access launch date Announced!
We are so incredibly excited to be at this point in development. For over a year this game has been growing and growing, countless thousands of hours have been poured into it and we are just over a month away from letting you all see our creation; we can not wait! There has been so much excitement today, and i'm so pleased to see how well the trailer and game concept has been received. The team just got done with a Skype meeting and we had a very productive multiplayer test and discussion on the final features we hope to add before we focus 100% on polishing it up for launch.
Multiplayer is working very smoothly and we only found a few bugs to fix which is leagues ahead of our last MP test a few weeks ago, so MP should be in great shape for launch! AI was performing awesome as well and was very competitive. We discussed the ranked multiplayer system and various leaderboards we'll have for predefined single player games. I'll try to make a full post on that soon which should be an awesome read for RTS and fans of competitive games in general! This game is set to be an amazingly original deviation from other transportation management / tycoon games and we think everyone will appreciate the work we've put into it. Please be sure to follow us on Twitter for the latest up to the minute info on the game:
MT Worlds on Twitter
Thanks again for all your support, please stop by the Steam discussion forums with any questions or suggestions, we would love to hear them!
-Mike and the MT Worlds team
