Into the Stars
Big Patch Next Week - Trading Preview
Trading Overhaul
The binary Trade interactions of the past have been replaced with a system offering greater player choice and dynamic values for each resource. Finding a Trade ship can now mean the difference between life and death for the human race!
· Trade for any of the 5 game resources
· Each Trader has Unique Wants where you’ll find the greatest value
· The Glubdon will make you pay dearly for anything but your Civilians
· Multiple Trades now available during each encounter
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=544889376
We'll detail the entire patch when it goes live next week. See you then!
- The Fugitive Team
Great Things Around the Corner
Difficulty Settings
One of the strongest points of feedback during our time in Early Access has been the desire to travel through the universe free from the torment of the Skorn. That’s why with our next patch we’ll introduce three Difficulty Levels to fit varying play styles.
Easy: No Threat Levels – Reduced Skorn Patrols
Normal: Balanced Threat Levels – Increased Skorn Patrols
Hard: Challenging Threat Levels – Heavy Skorn Patrols
With Easy difficulty, players will be free to explore the world at their own pace, whereas with Hard they’ll face a constant threat meant to keep them moving.
Revamped Patrols
In order to make the new Difficulty Settings shine, we decided to overhaul Skorn Patrols and how they impact your journey. Now, when you come within their range, Patrol ships will signal the Skorn fleet to alert them of your presence. If you fail to destroy them in time, the threat level will increase and the likelihood of an ambush will jump.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=534640121
That’s all for now, but you can expect much more in the coming weeks as we approach release for the next update!
- The Fugitive Team
Workaround - Crash on Launch
This was very difficult for us to track down as none of us or our QA team could reproduce the crash. But this week we worked directly with a number of community volunteers to dig into the issue and we've found a temporary solution.
Long story short, a critical .dll file from windows update that is required to run our UI may be missing from your computer. A workaround (as silly as it seems) is to install the latest version of Internet Explorer (IE 11).
We’re working on a permanent solution that will be rolled out in a future patch, but for now, this workaround may fix the problem.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/download-ie
Note, it’s possible some people may have other issues in addition to this, but it potentially fixes the main issue preventing launch.
Again, we apologize for the delay here, but we urge those of you who've had issues launching the game to give this a try, and please report back with your results here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/360510/discussions/0/517142892053245292/
- The Fugitive Team
Twitch Stream Today at 4PM PST
Our Creative Director, Roy Orr, will be hosting a Twitch stream at 4PM PST today to step through Update 0.1 - He'll look at things from a design perspective and share some hints to maximize your play!
Join us for a good look at all the new content:
http://www.twitch.tv/fugitivegames/profile
Update 0.1 Now Live as well as 15% off this weekend !
New Features – Build 0.1
Civilian Management
This new system grants you control of the Civilian City on your ship, and requires solid management in order to keep your populace content. The happier they are, the easier it will be for you to focus on actually reaching Titus Nova.
There are four components that now directly impact your Civilian population: Health, Happiness, Order and Rations. The first three are dictated by your management of events on the ship and the buildings you construct in the City.
The Rations you dole out fluctuate between Low, Normal and High and affect the other components as well as the Growth Rate of your population. That’s right, babies are now born on the Ark-13 to help balance out all the lives you’ve lost along the way! Upping the Rations to High can be a quick fix for morale issues while you wait for Buildings to be completed.
Each of the aforementioned components feeds into three states of Civilian well-being: Happy, Unhappy and Angry, indicated by the smiley face on the Management screen. The more upset your population becomes, the more events will spawn on your ship. Now events are tied into Health, Happiness and Order, so you’ll want to quickly clear them up before their associated percentages plummet and you’re left with an Angry mob.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=520049744
Now, the best way to keep your population Happy is to construct additional Buildings in the Civilian City. When added, these buildings feed directly into Civilian well-being. There are a number of options here, each with unique costs/benefits, so tinkering with the city layout will likely be necessary during your voyage. With well-being percentages on the rise, your City Level will increase in kind, unlocking upgrades for each structure that boost their abilities and bring joy to your population.
Skorn Wreckage
Remnants of Skorn encounters with previous Ark ships are now spread throughout the galaxy. They’re too damaged to attack your ship, but certain dangers await any Captain bold enough to explore their cavernous interiors.
- Possible Reward: Crew Member, Civilians, Module, Parts, Enhancements
- Detection Range: Large
- Interaction: Shuttle Mission
- Crew Danger: Medium-High
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=523868138
Gas Clouds
Pockets of gaseous resources can now be found tucked into asteroids, fractured moons and rock formations. They often provide significant resources but can only be mined a single time.
- Possible Reward: Hydrogen, Nitrogen or CO2
- Detection Range: Large
- Interaction: Probe
- Crew Danger: None
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=523867234
Storage Container
Menkhet pirates make use of Storage Containers to hide their coveted loot, and you’ll need to explore quite a bit to find their riches. Be warned however, as they often patrol these locations or surround them with mines.
- Possible Reward: Resources, Repair Parts, Enhancements, Module
- Detection Range: Small
- Interaction: Probe
- Crew Danger: None
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=523866527
Changelist for Build 0.1
- Added Civilian Management Feature
- New Incidents added to Database
- Updated Ark ship to reflect Civilian City changes
- Added Skorn Wreckage
- Added Gas Clouds
- Added Storage Containers
- Visual Update to Crew Screen UI (Coming Soon to other Screens!)
- Fixed crash issue for some video cards on game launch (Using Min Spec config file should allow most people having issues on initial start to get into game successfully)
- Updated world content to conceal / lead towards new features
- Tuned Combat Accuracy
- End-Game Scoring Tuning
- Adjusted Interaction Functionality
- Forced interact distances tightened
- UI elements disappear when interact complete
- Tuned discovery rates for “Epic” Crew Members
The game world is starting to fill out and will only get more interesting as we push towards launch. Those experiencing a crash on startup should now be able to play the game, and you have our apologies for the delay. More details on that here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/360510/discussions/0/517142892053245292/
There's a lot more to come, so if you're interested in where we're headed, be sure to check out the Roadmap on Trello: https://trello.com/b/47OqxpnV/into-the-stars-public-roadmap
Enjoy the update and thanks again for your support!
- The Fugitive Team
Patch v0.1 Coming Tomorrow!
It's been a few weeks since our last patch, but we've put a lot of effort into this one and we think you'll enjoy the results! We'll have a complete breakdown of the new content tomorrow, but we wanted to share a changelist so you can see what we've been up to...
Changelist for Build 0.1
- Added Civilian Management Feature
- New Incidents added to Database
- Updated Ark ship to reflect Civilian City changes
- Added Skorn Wreckage
- Added Gas Clouds
- Added Storage Containers
- Visual Update to Crew Screen UI (Coming Soon to other Screens!)
- Fixed crash issue for some video cards on game launch (Using Min Spec config file should allow most people having issues on initial start to get into game successfully)
- Updated world content to conceal / lead towards new features
- Tuned Combat Accuracy
- End-Game Scoring Tuning
- Adjusted Interaction Functionality
- Forced interact distances tightened
- UI elements disappear when interact complete
- Tuned discovery rates for “Epic” Crew Members
The game world is starting to fill out and will only get more interesting as we push towards launch. Those experiencing the Nebraska.exe crash should now be able to play the game, and you have our apologies for the delay.
If you're interested in where we're headed from here, be sure to check out the Roadmap on Trello: https://trello.com/b/47OqxpnV/into-the-stars-public-roadmap
See you tomorrow!
- The Fugitive Team
New Feature: Civilian Management
Next week, Civilian Management will be added to your role as Captain. This new system grants you control of the Civilian City on your ship, and requires solid management in order to keep your populace content. The happier they are, the easier it will be for you to focus on actually reaching Titus Nova.
There are four components that now directly impact your Civilian population: Health, Happiness, Order and Rations. The first three are dictated by your management of events on the ship and the buildings you construct in the City. The Rations you dole out fluctuate between Low, Normal and High and affect the other components as well as the Growth Rate of your population. That’s right, babies are now born on the Ark-13 to help balance out all the lives you’ve lost along the way! (Shame on you, Captain…)
Each of the aforementioned components feeds into three states of Civilian Wellbeing: Happy, Complacent and Angry. As you move from one to another you’ll notice a significant uptick in events taking place on your ship. Each of these are now tied into Health, Happiness and Order, so you’ll want to quickly clear them up before their percentages plummet and you’re left with an Angry mob.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=520049744
But wait, you say, what of these buildings I can now construct?! Well, as any city manager will tell you, public works projects are a great way to keep the population Happy. As Captain, you’ll now oversee the construction of buildings that feed directly into Civilian well-being. There are a number of options here, each with unique costs/benefits, so tinkering with the city layout will likely be necessary during your voyage.
Obviously this is a rich feature in terms of both depth and content, so we’ll save some of the details for a future update, but we wanted to give you a taste of what’s to come. Stay tuned in the coming days for more as we near the release of our biggest patch to date!
New Content around the Corner!
PAX
Recently we spent a few days on the floor of the Penny Arcade Expo as part of Indie MEGABOOTH. It was awesome being able to share the game with the public and meet more than a few Kickstarter backers at the show. The feedback we received there was overwhelmingly positive and very much in line with what you all have been sharing with us. To that end, we've been hard at work adding content and fixing issues, which should all be packaged in our next release, Version 0.1
Version 0.1
I'ts been a few weeks since our last patch as we're now digging into the big changes. Though large efforts like localization are happening behind the scenes, several big gameplay updates will be coming with the next release.
First up, we've added Civilian Management to your job requirements as Captain. This new system grants you control of the civilian quarters on your ship, and requires solid management in order to keep your populace content. The happier they are, the more they'll focus on procreation instead of wreaking havoc. You can read more details on this system here:
https://trello.com/c/I4x6YcRI/35-civilian-management-and-incidents
Additionally, we're creating a number of world objects to explore and aid in your journey. Skorn Wreckage is now scattered about, allowing exploration via Shuttle Missions that hold their own perils & rewards. Storage Containers are hidden in various locations, and sending a probe to investigate could yield anything from repair parts to module upgrades. Gas Clouds are also tied to probe missions and provide resources of a specific type. These are just a few of the numerous interactions we'd like to add, but they should go a long way in helping you reach Titus Nova!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514989818
For those of you who are still experiencing crashing, please know that we're working to find solutions! We've made some headway as part of the Hardware Compatibility Test we're currently undertaking and will update you all when solid improvements are in place.
That's all for now, but stay tuned as we'll preview Civilian Management and share a release date for Version 0.1 in a future update.
Cheers,
- The Fugitive Team
PAX Prime 2015
We've also got a contest for show goers where you can win a copy of the game. So step up and show us your skills, Captain!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=507940455&fileuploadsuccess=1
- The Fugitive Team
Development Roadmap Now Live!
https://trello.com/b/47OqxpnV/into-the-stars-public-roadmap
Voting has been enabled on the page so you can show us what you're most interested in seeing! We'll continue to gather feedback and assess priorities beyond what's listed on Trello, so please keep posting your thoughts on where we should take the game.
Want to discuss the Roadmap and upcoming content for Into the Stars? You can do so right here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/360510/discussions/0/530649887219894583/
Cheers,
The Fugitive Team