Planet S Version 0.3.0 - Visual & Diplomacy Update
Hey everyone!
Its time for the next big update! There is a lot to cover! With this update we also focused on preparing the game for the next big update the "Military Update" by fixing a lot of bugs especially around the multiplayer part! But now let`s have a look at the changes and additions:
Visuals:
+ NEW Added atmospheres and clouds to planets! Clouds and Atmospheres can be toggled on and off separately in the advanced graphics options. Clouds will also become invisible if you get too close to them to prevent them from blocking your view onto the planet surface when building or planing your colony. + NEW Added particle effects to many buildings! + NEW Added actual residents to cities which will wander around from building to building and make your cities look a lot more alive! Higher tier city buildings will spawn more residents to make your cities look more and more densely populated + NEW Added actual light sources to many buildings throughout the game which will turn on at nighttime or if another planet blocks the planet the building is on + NEW The game will now display an icon above buildings that require your attention! Example: Farms without at least one field will display a missing fields icon and buildings which are not supplied with enough energy will display a missing energy icon + Buildings will now also light up if they are in shadow because of another planet that is blocking the light ~ Made some improvements to minimap rendering to improve the clarity
NEW Diplomacy:
Added a diplomacy system which allows players to negotiate deals, treaties with and without consequences. Currently there are 3 relation states:
Peace: The default state, not a friend but also not a foe
Trade Treaty: The next level above "Peace" which allows the two factions to trade goods between each other!
Alliance: Currently has no real effect but with next update the two factions will share the same enemies
"War" will be added with the Military Update. You can also demand or offer/gift money! On top of that, all of these function can be combined at will so you can offer somebody a Trade Treaty in exchange for some money or you can also demand money and threaten to cancel the Alliance if with person doesn't pay! We plan to expand this system just like the research system with the coming updates!
NEW Trade:
You can now trade with colonies of other factions in multiplayer! To do that we added a new tab to the spaceport menu where you can add trade entries to buy or sell certain goods. You can specify the price per unit you are selling or buying at as well as an item limit. For example you can sell vegetables at 4 credits per unit as long as your colony has more than 10 vegetables in stock! That you can always keep enough goods in stock while selling the rest. The spaceport menu now also has a tab for the recent trades history which will show you the past 20 deals that happened!
NEW Neutral trader:
Added a neutral trader that will visit the solar system every 10 minutes to trade with everyone in the solar system! We thought this would be a cool addition especially for solo players so that they can also make use of the trading system! The trader has a buget per faction that increases with the tier of the largest colony of each faction! You can identify the trader by his special spaceship as well as his special minimap icon.
NEW Statistics menu:
Added a statistics menu that allows you to manage the production and consumption of goods! On top of that you can manage your income and see the amount of buildings you have on a planet. You can open the menu via the button in the building info menu or via the hotkey (default is "N").
Performance:
~ Optimized frustum culling for buildings ~ Optimized shadows. They should now perform noticably better on higher settings and look a lot better on lower settings at the same performance ~ Optimized ambient occlusion ~ Optimized god rays. They should also perform noticably better
Multiplayer:
* Fixed a possible desync related to trade routes * Fixed a possible desync caused by moving a building * Fixed a possible desync related to residence satisfaction * Fixed savegames sometimes not being submitted correctly * Fixed the world seed being display as a floating point number for clients in a multiplayer lobby * Fixed research effects being shown if you select a building or spaceship of a different faction
Quality of Life:
+ Added the power production of buildings to the construction costs tooltip + Added hotkeys for the four buildings tool. The default keys are assigned to the number keys above the regular letters on your keyboard: Deconstruction = "1", Upgrade building = "2", Pipette = "3", Move building = "4". The keybindings for these can be changed in the options menu as always + Added a scroll bar to the chat window that will show up if somebody sends a long chat message that exceeds the windows width ~ The energy shortage notification now has a cooldown to prevent it from being spammed to often ~ Sounds of the same type that are close to eachother will now be a lot smarter to prevent them from overlapping weirdly
Bug fixes:
* Fixed a bug that caused spaceships that are on a trade route to stop randomly * Fixed the building button in the resource menu sometimes showing up even though the building is not unlocked * Fixed the technology effect of "Servicing Robots" which reduced the upkeep by 100% instead of 25% * Fixed black squares sometimes appearing on the planet surface on AMD GPUs * Fixed the building info menu popping up for a brief moment when select a spaceship that is on top of a building * Fixed god rays passing though emissive parts * Fixed multiple GUI layout issues on 16:10 displays * Fixed another issue that caused buildings and spaceships to be invisible or corrupted
There you go! We hope you enjoy the new features and changes!
TeamJA
Planet S Visual & Diplomacy Update Announcement + Trailer
Hey everyone!
We are happy to finally announce the release date of the Visual & Diplomacy Update which will go live on the 28th of October so next week! The update will include the new diplomacy system which will also lay the ground work for the upcoming military update as well as a system to trade with other players in a multiplayer match. The update will also bring the highly requested statistics menu and of course a lot of visual improvements like atmospheres, clouds, particle effects and citizens that run around in your cities!
Check out the new trailer:
Planet S Version 0.2.4
Hi everyone! This is just a quick hotfix for a couple of very annoying bugs that were reported over the last couple of days!
Bugs:
* Fixed an issue that caused tooltips to stop working * Fixed an issue that caused spaceship ring markers to flicker in multiplayer * Fixed an issue that caused hotkey settings to not save correctly
Enjoy!
TeamJA
Planet S - State of the game #3
Hi everyone!
Welcome back to this months state of the game! As always we want to go through our TODOs, Quality of life features you can expect soon, known bugs as well as your suggestions! On top of that, this SotG will also give you a first look at the upcoming statistics menu that will be part of the next big update. So lets get started.
Roadmap:
Not much has changed in regards to our roadmap! The next big update ("Visual & Diplomacy Update") is on track for a release later this month!
Current state:
QoL and Bug fixes from last SotG:
Here is an updated list of the things we shipped in the last couple of patches since the last SotG:
Highlighting the connected farm fields when selecting a farm - Shipped with 0.2.2
World seed easier to type in - Shipped with 0.2.2
A visual indicator for which planets are colonized by which faction - Shipped with 0.2.3
Add information about the upgraded storage capacity to the tooltip of the depot - Shipped with 0.2.3
Show information about the stats of a spaceship in the construction cost tooltip in the spaceship yard - Shipped with 0.2.3
Slow down the camera when zoomed in - Shipped with 0.2.3
Fixed Buildings / spaceships sometimes not loading correctly and are invisible or corrupted- Shipped with 0.2.3
Fixed tooltips sometimes getting stuck (hopefully this is now done for good)- Shipped with 0.2.2 & 0.2.3
Big TODOs:
Statistics menu showing item production and consumption rates (Coming with the next big update)
Rework and upgrade of the Tutorial system as mentioned in the last SotG (Probably not shipping with the next update)
Terraforming (No ETA for that yet)
Multiple star systems? This was requested A LOT and its a really cool idea. We are looking into if can do that as it would also require A LOT of restructuring so this is not a confirmation that its coming but we are checking if its possible in the future
Quality of life:
You guys made a lot of great new suggestions as feedback in the last couple of weeks! Here is the updated list with the major QoL features we are looking into right now!
Info icons above buildings e.g. when a building is paused
Hotkeys for tools like the pipette
Being able to close windows like the trade routes menu by clicking outside of the window
Setting a minimum amount of items that will always be kept in storage by trade routes
Chat size and overflow improvements
Markers or other visual improvements to help identify the poles of the planet you are on
Spaceships that are constructed by the spaceship yard spawn in each other
Ability to throw items away / Delete items from a spaceship
Buildings light up just like during the night if another planet casts a shadow onto them
And there were even more than that on which we will focus on later after we are done with these.
Bugs:
There is still a potential desync in multiplayer when building or upgrading something
Sounds sometimes overlap very akwardly
The new button in the resource menu is sometimes invisible or visible when the opposite should be the case
Teaser for the next big update:
This is a first look at the statistics menu that will ship with the Visual & Diplomacy update!
...and maybe you have already spotted some of the other improvements that are coming.
That is it for this months SotG! As always we hope this gives you an overview of the stuff we are working on and hopefully we haven't missed anything important! Otherwise please let us know in the comments!
TeamJA
Planet S Version 0.2.3
Hi everyone! This update brings another set of small fixes and QoL improvements that were requested!
Quality of life:
+ The construction costs tooltip of the depot now shows the increase to the storage capacity of the colony + The construction costs tooltip of spaceships now shows the speed and amount of item slots + Colonized planets will now show the same faction color ring as spaceships to make it easier to identify colonized and uncolonized planets ~ The camera will now move slower the closer you get to the surface of the planet
Bug fixes:
* Fixed a very rare crash that could occure while a texture was being loaded in the background * Fixed the alignment of items in the spaceport/warehouse/depot when using a 16:10 display * Fixed another poential issue that could cause tooltips to get stuck
Thats it! Look out for our State of the game #3 post that will release tomorrow!
TeamJA
Planet S Version 0.2.2
Hi everyone! Here is the next patch of little fixes and improvements for the game!
Quality of life:
+ The connected fields/modules of a farm will now also be marked when selecting a farm to make it easier to find what fields belong to which farm ~ Made improvements to the world seed box in the create menu to make it easier to type in numbers
Bug fixes:
* Fixed an issue that caused buildings or spaceships to not load correctly resulting in invisible or corrupted models * Fixed another issue related to mine placement via the resource info menu * Fixed an issue that caused technology effects related to farm to not apply correctly (please let us know if you find any more instances of technology effects not being applied correctly) * The buildings and tools menu can no longer be opened via the hotkey if the corresponding buttons are greyed out * Fixed multiple issues that could still cause tooltips to get stuck (hopefully that was all of them now)
Enjoy!
TeamJA
Planet S - State of the game #2
Hi everyone!
Here is this months state of the game with a slight delay as we just released the research update 2 days ago! Be sure to check it out if you haven't done so already! This SotG we want to give you an update on our roadmap as well as on our TODOs and things you can expect in the coming weeks.
Roadmap:
We decided on one "big"-ish change in the current roadmap and that is that we merged the Visual Update and the Diplomacy Update together into one big update, the Visual & Diplomacy Update. We thought it would make more sense to merge these updates because both of them on their own are not nearly as big or content rich as the research update because each focuses on a specific area in the game. The result would have been that each update would only be of interest for parts of the community. The Visual Update would have only be of interest for those that dont have to run the game on low settings and only for those that are interested in visual changes / improved graphics. The Diplomacy Update on the other hand would have only be of interest mostly for multiplayer players. On top of that the merge cuts down on development overhead like creating a trailer for each update as well as other preparations.
So Tldr:
The merge will cut down the development time (only one trailer instead of two, one testing phase....)
The merge will make the update more interesting for a broader part of the community
Having said that, here is an updated look at our roadmap:
Visual & Diplomacy Update:
We dont want and cant give you an exact list of what will be part of the update just yet, as we just started development but here is a list of the headline feature we are planning to bring with this update:
Particle effects (smoke for chimneys for example)
Atmospheres around planets
People running around in your cities
Diplomacy menu including diplomatic actions between players (will be expanded upon with the military update of course)
Trading between players
Statistics menu showing item production and consumption rates (We have pulled this into this update based on your feedback!)
Current state:
QoL and Bug fixes from last SotG:
Here is a list of QoL features and bug fixes from the last SotG that were already shipped:
Display tile placement requirements for buildings (ocean/land/coast) - Shipped with 0.2.0
Building a mine directly on a resource deposit from the resource menu - Shipped with 0.2.0
Warning if a player wants to destroy their last spaceport/warehouse on a planet - Shipped with 0.2.0
Warning if a player tries to colonize a planet without iron, coal and clay as their first planet - Shipped with 0.1.7
Improvements to the gamma slider - Shipped with 0.1.7
Upgrade hotkey for upgrading a building - Shipped with 0.1.7
Multiple desync fixes - Shipped with 0.1.7 & 0.2.0
Big TODOs:
This a list with the biggest TODOs we currently have on our list:
Rework and upgrade of the Tutorial system as mentioned in the last SotG (This one might ship with the next big update)
Statistics menu showing item production and consumption rates (Coming with the next big update as mentioned above)
Terraforming (No ETA for that yet)
Quality of life:
There are still a couple of QoL features from last time that we are working on but there were also lots of new good suggestions from you that we added to our list:
Hightlighting the connected farm fields when selecting a farm
Showing more info in the overview camera (like what faction is owning which planets...)
World seed is annoying to type in
Add information about the upgraded storage capacity to the tooltip of the depot
Show information about the stats of a spaceship in the construction cost tooltip in the spaceship yard
The camera is moving way to fast when zoomed in
Setting a minimum amount of items that will always be kept in storage by trade routes
Chat size and overflow improvements
(Lots of item consumption / production rate suggestions that we will bundle into the statistics menu)
Bugs:
We are currently aware of a couple of bugs that you have reported to us:
Buildings / spaceships sometimes dont load correctly and are invisible or corrupted (We just found the issue (finally) and this will be adressed with the next patch)
Ships on trade route sometimes just stop and need to be unpaused
There is still a potential desync in multiplayer when building or upgrading something
Sounds sometimes overlap very akwardly
Technology effects sometimes dont apply correctly
There is another bug that is sometimes causing tooltips to get stuck
Again we hope this gives you an overview of what we are working on and whats coming next! Thank you for playing!
TeamJA
Planet S Version 0.2.1
Hi everyone! This is just a very small update to fix a couple of common issues.
Bugfixes:
* Fixed a issue that caused the construction button in the resource menu to place a building that disappears after a couple of seconds (This fix has already been live for a couple of hours, this is just the official notice) * Fixed an issue that caused tooltips to sometimes get stuck on the screen * Fixed an issue in the background related to the UI that randomly caused the game to crash * Fixed an issue that prevented you from unlocking the "Master Mind" achievement * Fixed a typo in the german translation
We hope this adresses the random crash problem that some people reported after the 0.2.0 dropped yesterday, otherwise please let us know!
TeamJA
Planet S Version 0.2.0 - Research Update
Hey everyone, it's finally time for the big research update! So let's get started:
NEW Research system:
Your Tier 2 and upwards citizens will now generate research power based on their happiness. The type of research power is based on their orientation (developers generate science research power, mechanics generate military research power).
There are two research trees, one for each orientation.
Each research tree contains custom and shared technologies. Custom technologies are only part of their specific tree, shared technologies will be researched in both trees.
There are also decision points where you have to choose between two technologies.
In the future we plan to expand and update this system by adding, changing, replacing or removing technologies based on your feedback as well as with new content additions like the military update.
NEW Tier 3 citizens:
+ NEW Added researchers and military technicians as tier 3 citizens. You can now upgrade your developer residences to researcher residences and your mechanics residences to military technicians residences. + NEW Added 22 new items:
Limestone
Wood
Cellulose
Construction cells
Reinforced concrete
Nickel
Soy beans
Corn
Biopolymer
Laboratory instruments
Cars
Ground meat
Convenience food
Protein powder
Vitamin extract
Cultivated meat
Dye stuff
Biofibers
Silk
Silk fabric
Casual wear
Suits
+ NEW Added two new construction materials: Construction cells + Reinforced concrete. Construction cells are specific to science civilizations and reinforced concrete to military civilizations. + NEW Added multiple new buildings and production chains
Buildings:
+ Added a depot as a researchable building which increases the storage capacity by 50 + Added a charcoal kiln as a researchable building which produces coal + Added a fracking tower as a researchable building which produces oil if placed on a coal deposit + Added an offshore wind park as a researchable building which produces energy and must be placed on an ocean tile - Spaceports and warehouses no longer grant additional storage capacity per building (The depot is the improved replacement)
Spaceship rebalancing:
We are rebalancing the speed of both spaceships in preparation for the military update. The current speed was way to high for future combat activities.
We want to make it a bit easier to reach positive income with the first tier (workers) but make it a bit harder to have a positive balance at the end of tier 2.
~ Farm building infos menus will now longer close when canceling farm field construction ~ Changed the icon for the production time in construction costs tooltips to increase visibility + Added a multiplayer version mismatch error to prevent people from joining an incompatible lobby + Added a progress indicator for power generators that require items + The max speed of a spaceship is now displayed in the spaceship info menu ~ Made the blue faction color brighter + Construction cost tooltips now show if a building has to be placed on coast/ocean tiles or resource deposits + Added two tutorial steps (Achieve a positive balance + Unlock work wear) ~ The tutorial system will now skip tutorial steps if the intended order is violated ~ Disabled the building menu button when the planet is not owned by the local player + Added a warning when trying to deconstruct the last spaceport / warehouse of a colony + The enter key on the numpad can now be used as well + Added a construction button in the info menu of a resource to quickly build a mine on it ~ Changed the behavior to hover and select buildings ~ Adjusted the orbit height to be closer on normal maps and higher on maps with tiny planets
Bug fixes:
* Fixed controllers being able to block UI input * Fixed a possible desync caused by non-deterministic drone movement * Fixed tile selection when the transfer menu is open * Fixed an issue when transferring items * Fixed broken savegame sorting in the savegame menu * Fixed materials of old colonies being added to new colonies * Fixed multiple trade route issues * Fixed several visibility issues in the UI * Fixed notification icons having no lighting * Fixed multiplayer timeout timer being way too high * Fixed several lobby issues including swapping slots * Fixed a bug causing savegames to load improperly * Fixed spaceship routing issues * Fixed notification sounds being played after loading
Achievements:
+ Added 6 new achievements related to research and tier 3
Music:
+ Added two new soundstracks by Rochenreiter (one new menu, one new ingame soundtrack)
Engine:
~ The game will now switch to the lowest graphics preset on first start if your system has less than 2GB of graphics memory
Have fun with all the newly added content and we are looking forward to your feedback!
TeamJA
Planet S Research Update Announcement + Trailer
Hey everyone!
We are happy to announce that the Research Update for Planet S will go live on the 31th of August!
It will include the following headline features:
The Research System - Tier 2+ buildings will now generate Research Power based on their orientation
Two Research Trees - One Research Tree for each orientation (Science, Military)
Different technologies and buildings to research
Tier 3 residences - Researchers and Military Technicians will be available as upgrades for Developers and Mechanics
22 new Items including two new building materials
Lots of new buildings (It will almost double the amount of buildings in the game)
New and more complex production chains
Tldr: This update will bring a lot of new content! We hope you are as excited as we are!
In the meantime you can check out the trailer for the update:
Thank you all for playing and enjoying the game as well as for all the great feedback you have given us since release!
