Update 0.86 is out! It consists of many small changes that add up to make some bigger knock on effects, especially some of the Nation and new player changes. As well as changes to make life easier while playing Sky Nations.
Before we go over the a bunch of the changes I'd like to announce something pretty neat. I'll be exhibiting at Insomnia 53 in the Indie Zone. For those that haven't run into the iseries events before Insomnia is a big gaming event in the UK that happens 3 times a year and is a whole lot of fun! It runs from the 21st of November across the weekend. I'll be showing off something secret I've been working on over various weekends so if you're about in Coventry come say "Hi"! There's still a lot of stuff to get sorted for the event, so much of the prepping and actual event may delay the next update by about a week. Rather than the usual 3 week schedule.
Nation Changes Nations can now upload their own Emblem, a 64x64 image which will appear on the newly added Emblem Signs and more things in the future. The list of available Emblems is taken from the "[install directory]/GameData/Emblems/" and the images you use must be PNG format.
Demo accounts joining a Nation no longer count towards the Nations claim cap to prevent a lot of Demo account registrations solely for the purpose of boosting a small Nation's capping ability on the Community Servers. Nations can now also only claim adjacent Systems to their first claim rather than any System on the map to mitigate a singular Nation blocking many key spaces on a server. These changes will not delete existing claims but Nations who find their claiming cap considerably reduced will not be able to Claim any more Nations until they unclaim existing ones or gain more legitimate members.
Chunk Caching Clients will now cache up to 100mb of Chunk data that it receives from the server. This means that revisiting areas that have had little change will be a much faster load time as the server does not need to resend the data and the client will simply load it off your hard drive instead. This will be particularly beneficial for those with slower connections. This should also reduce bandwidth use for servers significantly from their regular players.
Japanese and Russian Language Support Since Japan is the 5th biggest portion of the Sky Nations userbase I've added support for Japanese Kanji characters in most of the UI including chat, though only about 1000 characters that are commonly used(taken from up to Grade 7 learning) are available. Cyrillic is now supported by a lot of the in-game GUI text including chat so Russian players can now chat in their Native language. These changes do not mean that the in-game text is translated. Just that game is capable of displaying your Native languages which is useful specifically for the chat window.
Quality of Life Changes Map can now be zoomed in and out using the mouse scroller making it much easier to use and identify areas you would like to visit. Rafts now spawn with all the basics already built onto them such as a Steering Wheel and Thrusters. On top of this I have added a "New Player" block for Server Admins to place at their spawn which will teleport the player using it to a random system up to 3 jumps away from spawn with a prebuilt raft which should help mitigate people griefing new players at their spawn by breaking their ship and other such means.
You can now delete ships from your plans, however for Nation plans only leaders have the permissions to delete their respective Nation's ship plans.
Lasers no longer drop blocks to the ground when using them to mine materials. They will pump out the block to an adjacent crate if there is one or out the top of the laser if there is not a crate available. This is to mitigate the big performance hit having many players mining with large ships that we see at busy server times hurting the servers performance due to the tens of thousands of active item entities. This is also a lot more convenient for players as you no longer have to manually collect materials laser mined or use magnets to automate collection in most cases.
You can now ignore specific players in all chat including whispers using "/ignore Username". To ignore a player you can use /unignore in the same manner. If you'd like to view everyone you have ignored you can use "/ignorelist".
This is a quick overview of some of the changes. For a more in-depth list of all the changes check the change log below.
Updating Steam clients will be updated automatically. To update the non-Steam version the launcher will update the game. For server host, make a backup of your files as always. Then simply download the new files and overwrite your existing ones with them.
Update 0.84 is out, if you're wondering why this update is out a week ahead of the usual update schedule it's because it coincides with the Steam demo launch. Which will be out today at 9pm GMT roughly. It also revises a lot of the demo player limitations and new player experience when first starting Sky Nations.
The demo has been revised considerably for it's Steam launch. A few of the more nuisance limitations such as not being able to set respawn points have been removed. Don't worry you can still play with other players who own the game on the Community servers as before. The new limitations consist of the following:
Demo players cannot enter a system claimed by a Nation they are not part of.
Demo players can only login to the Community Servers and play with people who own the game. Not player servers.
Demo players cannot create Nations. However you can join them.
Demo players cannot create items with Item Kits
Demo players cannot change their player skin.
Demo players receive the same updates as people who have bought the game.
There is no time limit on demo accounts.
Depending on feedback these limitations may be altered in the future. Easier access via Steam and these new revisions will hopefully bring more players to try out Sky Nations and give the existing playerbase a much needed boost. Which brings us to the next change.
Better New Player Experience To make Sky Nations a bit more welcoming to new players a simple hints system has been added to help curb the learning curve. The hints appear when you login to any server and can be simply toggled off in the Options menu for veteran players. These hints will run you through the basics of crafting, ship building, tools, controls and navigation. You can also move back and fourth through them at your own leisure using the < and > keys.
To bolster this the Guides in the in-game Knowledge Base(B key by default) have also been expanded to cover more topics and have also been updated to reflect changes since they were written.
Gameplay Changes This update also includes many changes to various mechanics. The major ones are:
Ship Production time for Ship Constructors has drastically been reduced. Very large expensive ships such take upward to about 18 minutes.
Holding a block in your hand that emits light when placed will now emit light in your hands.
Escape Bubbles from Escape Drives no longer kill players. However you will not be teleported with the ship if it is recalled.
Atomic Waste now has 20hp.
Community Servers now show as green in the server list. You can also now see the server version for post 0.8 servers.
For the full change log check below.
Updating If you own the game on Steam the client will be automatically updated, those who own it outside of Steam the game will be updated when you run the launcher. For server hosts you can download the new server files here.
Make sure you backup your server files before updating. To update close your server with /shutdown in-game. Then just copy the new files over your existing ones and then restart the server.
Scheduled Downtime The Sky Nations web server will be down for roughly 45 minutes while our host performs maintenance. You won't be able to login to the game during this time. However if you're already in a server you will be able to say so until you log out. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Unfortunately we don't have any control over this matter.
The downtime will be at: Friday, 24th October 2014 at 09:00 UTC+2
Change log Changes
Added a hints system that will popup when you enter the game to help new players learn the game. You can disable these via the options menu.
Added more guides to the in-game Knowledge base.
Production time for large ships is now much shorter. Time is calculated as: time in minutes = (Ship Value
3) / 60000. With a minimum of one minute for production time.
Demo players can now use spawn points.
Demo now shares Steam cloud save so your settings will transfer across from demo to full game.
Ships with demo players onboard cannot enter Nation Claims that demo players are not a member of.
The server lobby now shows server versions.
When you have a lantern selected it will now emit light from the player.
Dispersion Generators now start the moment they’re set down rather than waiting for 20 minute tick. This fixes them not turning on instantly when entering a system.
Blue Guide Blocks(blue blocks from manufacture) are now removed from a chunk on loading.
Nations save after many more actions to make sure they are correctly kept up to date.
Added support for a Steam Demo in Steam Build.
Changed Ship Manufacture to cancel and remove blue blocks if the production fails due to Energy loss or similar circumstances.
Bullets now break glass wedge blocks too.
Escape bubbles no longer vaporize players.
Atomic Waste now only has 20hp vs previous default 100.
Flares now emit a big light using snazzy deferred rendering.
Magmasites are now only attracted to ships with 5000 or higher current energy.
Nerfed Magmasite splash damage to 60 from 100.
Above all else Magmasites now covert flares.
You can now whisper players with spaces in their names by replacing the spaces with ‘_’ for example: “/w cool_dude_masterchef_xxx I heard you like cooking”
Energy Relays now have a correct price.
Community servers now shown in green to make them easier to identify for players.
Added join Steam group button.
Added purchase button for Steam demo.
Added some protection vs malicious clients spamming packet data.
Added more verbose logging for errors when receiving packets that may cause a crash.
Fixes
Fixed a server crash from plans allowing invalid plan names.
Fixed manufacture economy exploit where Unrefined copper was worth 140 but copper was 40. Unrefined copper is now 80(Unrefined Copper = x2 Copper).
Fixed another manufacture economy exploit where sand was worth more than glass.
Fixed Scan nodes sometimes being duped into wrong positions when scanning.
Fixed a server crash from energy relays.
Fixed packet errors from Lidgren.Network packet recycling causing network traffic to stop between a single client and server.
Fixed a packet sending crash.
Fixed Scanning Nodes so they can’t scan Gates, Beacons, Merch Cat or any other special ship.
Fixed a server crash caused by Cannon Balls.
Fixed Radar blip rendering for new Deferred Renderer.
Fixed Mallet not appearing in other players hand correctly.
Fixed Demo accounts being able to use Skins so they cannot.
Corrected leaving message for clients in server console.
Fixed Nations disbanding after server crashes.
Fixed flares being seen in all systems and not being correctly depth rendered.
Fixed climbing ladders not using key bindings.
Fixed an exploit where opening chat would make jetpack thrust infinitely.
Fixed last block not dropping an item on a ship/land chunk.
Fixed incorrect normal angles for lighting on characters.
Fixed time format causing a crash for Greek players on viewing debug info(hopefully!).
Fixed a bug where mass generators would show you incorrect status.
Fixed a client crash.
Fixed Power Display missing description.
Hopefully fixed player ghosts.
Update 0.8 - Ship Manufacture and Many Lights!
Update 0.8 is uploaded and available! This update brings 2 main features to Sky Nations. The first is being able to create plans and duplicate your ships and the second is a whole new rendering pipeline as well as the usual fixes and suggestions.
Ship Manufacture Ship Manufacture in Sky Nations is quite simple. First of all you need a plan of your ship. You can get this by crafting 8 Scan Nodes. Placing these in a large cube shape, with each Scan Node at a corner with a space in the middle big enough to fit your ship in. This will allow you to scan the ship. Scan Nodes do require power, so make sure you have an energy relay hooked up to the particular node you're accessing them from. When you go to scan your ship(by right clicking the Node) you have a choice to save it to your Personal plans. These are only accessible by you or save it to your Nation(if you're in one). Nation Plans are accessible to anyone in the same Nation.
Once you've got a plan of your ship. You'll need a Ship Constructor, this can be crafted with 4 Steel and 1 Burntout Core. Simply place it down and hook it up with an Energy Relay and you're ready to manufacture your ship. One thing to remember is you need enough space above the block for the ship to fit! The cost of producing a ship is based on the sum of the materials it was made of. These are the same prices Merchant cat goes by. You do not need to match the materials that you used to make it. However you need to match the ship's value. To do this you'll need to place a crate or crates adjacent to the Constructor and fill them with materials to make up this value, this should be materials you no longer want as they'll be used(destroyed) during the ship's construction. Depending on the value of the ship it will take varying amount of time to complete. If power runs out it will pause so make sure your constructor is adequately powered. If you leave the System while construction is going on and it becomes unloaded the construction will fail. So bare that in mind. Another important note is that plans do not contain the contents of blocks. For example the contents of your Crates or Mass Generators are not recreated.
Deferred Renderer On to the second big change. Deferred Rendering! One of problems that's being biting away at me for awhile is that we could only have 16 lights effecting one object at once. This meant the game had to grab the nearest 16 lights to an object and nearest to you then do it's best to prioritise them. Unfortunately a chunk(32x32x32 blocks) whether it be a ship or a piece of land is an object. So you'd find when you had a lot of lights in a small area many would shut on and off depending on how they're prioritised and you'd get sharp edges like this:
This is no good! This is where converting SN to use a Deferred Renderer comes in. Without getting too much into the technical side this basically means we can do lighting as post process and have a whole lot of lights effecting everything in screen space without the limiting factors we had previously. These lights also look much nicer than they ever have before.
This was a bit of monolithic task to change basically how every game object is rendered but I think it was definitely worth it. I also took the time to adjust and upgrade a lot of the existing graphical effects in Sky Nations such as Bloom which now dynamically adjusts to day and night to prevent it whiting out during the day! I've added experimental dynamic shadows and a new sun and moon too!
The server files are already available via the download page. The client will be automatically updated via Steam or the Launcher.
Update 0.7 is out! For the builders of you this brings in vertical wedges. These are slopes that axis to the ground/ceiling allowing you to put a bit more detail to your creations. Currently this covers a portion of existing blocks. These may be expanded for more blocks to get a wedge counterpart based on feedback. These do not contain corner case wedge blocks but they are something I want to try out in the future.
The basis for Ground based power also comes in with this update in the form of Dispersion Generators. These generators work hand in hand with another new block called Energy Relays to create and move power on land for land based machines such as turrets. Don't worry though, turrets will not need power themselves until the next update so you have plenty of time to update your existing turrets. Dispersion Generators do not require fuel however they do require a sealed hollow space below them, this acts as a tank for their waste product(Atomic Waste). This will fill up slowly over time and when the tank becomes full it will simply stop producing power. The max size for these tanks is a 512 block area which takes roughly 7 real life days to fill. This means in the future for Nations to remain defended you must login at least once a week to maintain your generators so they can keep powering your defenses and other machines. This will essentially mean that Systems will recycle over time if no one maintains it, since after this period of time the defenses will cease to be powered and players will be able to reclaim this area. The waste product emptied from the tank is also use-able as a new highest tier fuel source for ships. This power system will lead to a lot more land based machines and mechanics in future updates!
For a full list of changes check the change log at the bottom of this post.
As always your client will be automatically updated via Steam or the Game Launcher.
You can grab the new server files from: http://skynations.net/?page=download
To update your server just paste the files over your existing server files. [color="#FF0000"]Make sure you backup your existing server before doing so[/color].
0.7
Changes
Increased Cannonball damage by 10.
Added Flare launcher as means to signal players. Crafted with 10 copper blocks.
Added Flares which are ammo for the Flare Launcher and are crafted from 1 molten rock.
Added Dispersion Generator. This generates ground based power(i.e. not ships). Ground power will be used to power machines on land in future updates. Make sure you hook up turrets to this. They won’t need power this update but will do in the next. Crafted from 20 steel and 4 burnout cores.
Added Atomic Waste block. This is generated in the sealed tank below a Dispersion Generator and can be used as powerful fuel source for ships. 3 is generated per hour(1 every 20 minutes) from a Dispersion Generator.
Added Energy Relay which distributes power to machines on the land from the Dispersion Generator. Machines and Generators must be adjacent to this block to be powered. To link energy relays you must right click two relays and they will be become linked. You can determine the direction of the link by the laser effect between the relays. Crafted from 10 steel and 1 burntout core.
Added support for vertical slice wedges. Wedges include: Copper Wedge, Plank Wedge, Steel Wedge, Titanium Wedge, Glass Wedge, Hard Glass Wedge, Iron Wedge and Stone Wege. Crafting recipes allow for 1 block = 1 wedge and vice versa.
Improved artillery cannon to not use power when not being able to fire. Also limited it’s firing arc downward to prevent it from hitting the block it sits on in most cases.
Changed cannonballs to move a bit faster and a bit further to make the cannonballs following the ship’s velocity a bit easier to aim(see cannon ball fix).
Changed missile pods to be based on Nation claim. When you reclaim an area with existing turrets you no longer have to replace the turrets.
Missile Pods now spin when they are powered(they will not need power until next update so make sure you hook them up before then!).
Added antichat flood script to the default scripts.
Added backup script to the default scripts. The GameData folder will be backed up every 5 hours and placed in a Backups folder. Which includes Systems, Player etc.
Added IBiomeManager.PauseSaving() and IBiomeManager.ResumeSaving() to Mod API.
Added IGameServer.GetDataDirectory() to Mod API.
Many improvements and fixes from Community CTF events for the CTF mode script available in GameData/Scripts/.
Added ability to change player skins in the Mod API.
Various small misc additions and exposures of classes in Mod API.
Fixes
Fixed cannon balls not matching velocity of ship firing them correctly. Note: This means if you’re moving forward and fire a cannon from the side of the ship you need to now account for your velocity effecting the cannon ball. i.e. It will be moving forward as well as sideways.
Fixed a server crash caused by explosions in some cases.
Fixed not being able to see block items when dropped.
Fixed EWDs not unloading their holograms when broken by tools.
Fixed nation missiles hurting nation beacons.
Fixed jetpack exploit where relogging in midair would reset the boost.
Fixed the chat getting stuck sending the same message.
Fixed server not ending the process correctly when /shutdown is used or a crash occurs. The server process will now stop correctly.
Fixed an exploit where putting a jetpack on top of a parachute would make both a jetpack.
Fixed some incorrect death messages to do with explosions.
Fixed signs not updating when text is edited by players until rejoining the zone.
Fixed Mass Generator window being offset when opened.
Fixed distance for system claiming being +1 to far from the settings parameter.
Fixed crash caused by characters not supported by fonts in the scoreboard.
Fixed crash caused by characters not supported by fonts in markup text(such as the chat overlay).
Fixed crash caused by characters not supported by font in Name tags.
Fixed the Crafting window when opened from the Workbench block being offset and sized weirdly for some resolutions.
Sky Nations Community CTF - Saturday 20th of September(10pm BST)
Hey guys,
CTF will be back again this Saturday. We tried Friday last week which worked out pretty well. But it may be a bit more convenient specifically for US players to try it on the Saturday as we can suit more peoples timezones. Since it's less likely they're at work or school. We had a great time last week, specifically on Teamspeak(voice comms), it was a lot of fun!
What is CTF?
CTF stands for Capture the Flag. It's a modded game type within Sky Nations(available in the Scripts folder if you'd like to run your own!). It's a great chance to get a bunch of people together to play straight combat within Sky Nations. Players are separated into two teams and must build ships and head to the opposing team and steal their flag. The team that steals the opponents flag 5 times wins. However both teams are given a replenishing set of resources for building ships including many weapons so getting away with the flag is a tricky task!
This is a great chance to get to play with a bunch of people in an organised game type as well as the developer(me!). We'll also have a public TeamSpeak as we have previously, though joining it is not required(but a lot more fun!).
Attending will also trigger the "Captured My Heart" achievement in case you missed it last week.
When is CTF?
The coming CTF is the 20th of September, which is the coming Saturday. It's at 10pm BST, you can convert this to your timezone here:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Sky+Nations+Community+CTF&iso=20140920T22&p1=2483&ah=1
If you'd like an automatic notification on Steam for when the event starts you can join the Community Group which has an event posted for it that will be pop up:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/skynations
It will roughly run for an hour. Though in the past we've played a couple more rounds and chatted with people on Teamspeak.
Community CTF - Friday 12th 10pm BST
Hey guys, it's time to start up the CTF events again! We haven't done one in a little while as I wanted to make sure I'd ported a lot of the CTF stuff to the mod API before we happened to do another so it wasn't so effected by changes happening in updates, which it was in the last patch!
What is CTF?
CTF stands for Capture the Flag. It's a modded game type within Sky Nations. Where players are seperated into two teams and must build ships and head to the opposing team and steal their flag. The team that steals the opponents flag 5 times wins. However both teams are given a replenishing set of resources for building ships including many weapons so getting away with the flag is a tricky task!
This is a great chance to get to play with a bunch of people in an organised game type as well as the developer(me!). We'll also have a public TeamSpeak, though joining it is not required.
Attending will also trigger the "Captured My Heart" achievement!
When is CTF?
The coming CTF is 12th of September, which is the coming friday. It's at 10pm BST, you can convert this to your timezone here:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Sky+Nations+Community+CTF&iso=20140912T22&p1=2483&ah=1
It will roughly run for an hour. Though in the past we've played a couple more rounds and chatted with people on Teamspeak.
Sky Nations Update 0.6 - Jetpacks, Parachutes and Artillery Cannons
Update 0.6 is out and with it comes a bunch of gameplay features and some new stuff exposed to the Mod API.
Parachutes have been added allowing a safer descent to the ground if you happen to lose your footing. Parachutes are now default gear and are given to you when you first enter a server or use the reset block. Jetpacks are also in which allow you short travel between cliffs and platforms with a boost bar that refills on landing. Both these items use a new slot in the equipment window called the backpack slot.
Artillery Cannons are also new which are the equivalent to the Iron Cannons however they can be manually aimed like Mounted Repeated allowing for much more precise shots during battle using the same ammo as their predecessor.
Missile Pod Missiles have been changed a little, they will no longer damage protected land of the Nation that owns the Missile Pod that fired them. Meaning they won't break your own things! They will also speed up over time while chasing their target.
Much of the UI art has been remade to make it much cleaner and slicker with more sane text colours being used making it easier to read. Something I hadn't time to do until recently but makes a huge difference to interacting with the game.
For a full list of changes scroll down to the change log below.
How to update Clients will be updated automatically be the launcher for the website version and automatically in your Steam library for the Steam version.
You can download the server update here. To update your pre-existing server. Make a backup of your files. Then just copy and paste the files in the new server zip over your current ones you're running the server from. It's as simple as that!
For those that use custom scripts via the modding API for their Servers if you're familiar with Mercurial you can use it to merge your scripts with the changes for 0.6 via this repository:
https://bitbucket.org/MrBenjammin/sky-nations-scripts/
Update 0.6 Changes
Created new icon for: Steering Panel, Copper Door, Missile Pod.
Added backpack slot.
Added Jetpack. It requires 6 steel and 2 burntout cores to build.
Added Parachute. Parachutes are part of the default gear and come equipped to the player in the backpack slot when starting out or resetting.
Added Artillery cannon which is an aimable cannon that fires cannon balls. It’s crafted with 10 Steel and 2 Burntout Cores.
Turret missiles no longer damage protected land of the same Nation. They will also accelerate over time to catch speedy targets.
Server now states script files it’s using at startup so you can tell exactly what files are being loaded for mods and debug problems.
Added on-screen Block so you can see the current block you’re holding.
Much of the UI art has been remade.
Added particle effect to breaking blocks.
Changed dropped items so they follow the same gravity rules as players. They now fall at a max of 20 gravity and steadily increase at the same rate as a player’s gravity.
Changed respawn chambers so they can’t be placed on ships to remove confusion.
Improved font sampling/rendering for GUI and changed general use font. Though still not perfect when in windowed mode.
Improved item icon rendering. All blocks should be the correct proportions and have correctly mapped textures now(which was incorrect on oddly sized blocks such as steps).
Added a CTF mode example script in the Server scripts.
Added OnServerWriteLog to IGameServer in the Mod API so you can grab console input.
Added ICTFFlag to Mod API. You can create flags by IGameServer.CreateFlag. See: http://skynations.net/modapi/interface_s_n_script_1_1_i_c_t_f_flag.html
Added IScoreboard to Mod API. Which will create a scoreboard scoring system both server and client side with a UI based on the Community CTF mode events. See: http://skynations.net/modapi/interface_s_n_script_1_1_i_scoreboard.html
Added IActor.IsPlayer to determine if an actor is a player or not to mod API.
Added ISpecialBlock and IChunk.GetSpecialBlocks() to the mod API so you have access to various block meta data which will be expanded in the future.
Added IShipRegister which contains a list of all loaded/unloaded ships. You can access it via IGameServer.Ships. See: http://skynations.net/modapi/interface_s_n_script_1_1_i_ship_register.html and http://skynations.net/modapi/interface_s_n_script_1_1_i_ship_properties.html
Fixes
Fixed item slots showing 4 of a 32x32 icon texture repeated.
Fixed a couple of item icons being the wrong size.
Fixed Mounted Repeaters not showing their rotation correctly after being reloaded.
Fixed a server crash caused by removing Respawn Chambers in some cases.
Fixed crafting window starting position being offset from inventory height.
Sky Nations Getting Started Video
Hey guys,
I've started a short series about how to get started playing Sky Nations. Covering your first ship and in the future more complex mechanics such as combat and a larger explanation of energy. For those getting started and having trouble understanding what to do, this should give you enough information to expand on as you play.
Update 0.5 is finally out and with it brings some major changes to gameplay and some more subtle changes. Nations can now claim Systems for themselves. Once a System is claimed it's marked the on the in-game map as your Nations and becomes protected. Protection prevents players from outside of your Nation placing, editing or interacting with blocks in the System owned by you. However they can still be damaged by weapons such as Cannons. A claimed System has a Nation Beacon created in the middle when it's claimed. This is a largish structure that unusually has it's own health bar, which you simply need to hover your mouse over to view. Attacking this and destroying it will lose the claim on the System and it's protection will be nullified. The beacons have quite a lot of health and will regenerate it's health during downtime.
To go with the above changes, Ships have also received similar protection. To protect your ship you need to grab a Ship Protection Field block which can be purchased currently from Merchant Cat. Once placed these will protect your ship from placing, editing and block interactions(most blocks) by players not in your Nation. However if the SPF is destroyed then this protection will be lost.
The last thing you need to know about the new protection is that Copper Defense Guns have been remade into Copper Missile Pods. These essentially work the same but fire slow removing projectiles with trails so you can pro-actively seek out their origins and destroy them when attacking a System. Instead of the previous situation of them being very hard to locate. They can also only be placed in claimed Systems, pods that currently in exist in non-claimed areas will be inactive. They do a lot more damage to players now and are subject to future balancing.
Borders preventing you from sailing too far out from the Systems have also implemented. They are fairly far out so they don't limit your movement during combat. For a full list of all changes check out the Change Log below.
The client updates are already deployed for the Launcher and Steam. Unusually the server files are out right away. You can grab them on the download page:
http://skynations.net/?page=download
If you're hosting a server check my twitter for updates on fixes that we may come across during first day of the update so you can stay up to date with fixes.
Update 0.5 Changes
Added a border to systems. When you fly out so far you will see a border appear as you get close to it and you cannot pass it with a ship.
Added System Status to top right of screen.
Added claiming systems. Each Nation has a minimum of 1 claim. For every 5 members they can claim a new system. A player not in the Nation that claimed a system cannot mine, place or interact with most blocks in that system. However they can damage them with weapons. You can claim the system you’re in via the Nation window Territory tab. Once claimed it will create a Nation beacon between 0 to the ceiling vertically depending on space. If this Nation beacon is destroyed your claim is lost. Mousing over it will tell you it’s health. To damage it you must fire weapons at it from a ship.
Claimed areas will appear on the World map so you can tell if you’re flying into someone else's territory. Their names are also colored red.
Added ClaimRange to setting to Settings.xml that allows you to choose how far away players can claim Systems from the spawn. The default is 6.
Added Ship Protection Field(SPF). Placing this on your ship will protect it to your Nation. Only your Nation members can place blocks, interact with the majority of blocks and use tools on the ship. However the ship can still be damaged from offensive weapons. If the block is destroyed then the ship loses it’s protection. Ship fields can be purchased from Merchant Cat.
Altered Max speed to 20. Ships over 200 weight can still only max out at 10 though.
Defense Turrets can only be placed in Claimed systems now.
Defense Turrets have been changed to Missile pods and are now called Copper Missile Pods. This is so they are easier to spot the firing position when being attacked by them. The projectiles are slowish and provide a trail so you have more time to escape. They do however do more damage, pending balancing.
Defense Turrets left over from before this update that are in unclaimed areas will become deactivated.
Removed System status icon from System title when entering a System.
Fixes
Fixed System title/status being wrong if you enter it before it’s loaded.
Fixed lighting not always correctly effecting Defense Turrets.
Fixed individual particle fading.
Fixed achievements causing a crash on Steam version if the game is unable to query the achievement list from steam fast enough.
0.458
New server files are now available with a small set of bug fixes for the remaining major bugs that have been reported to me. You can grab them here:
http://skynations.net/?page=download
0.458
Changes
Changed order of items in inventory so it makes sense vs right item bar.
Changed max player skin size from 4kb to 25kb so more skins should work now.
Fixes
Improved memory build up from jumping, teleporting or reseting graphics device(alt+tabbing/minimizing) so it shouldn’t cause a Memory Overflow if you have enough memory.
Fixed ghost blocks.
Fixed players dying when they login and fall through the land.
Fixed items falling through the floor in most cases.
Fixed players occasionally being thrown out of their ship after a jump.
Fixed clicking Remove Bookmark in the map causing a crash.
Fixed it being possible to end up below map floor when jumping from certain angles.
Fixed merch cat buying items from player from wrong slots.
Fixed a crash when alt+tabing back into the game when item sculpter was used previously.
Fixed merch cat from losing his ship if he was caught in an area as it unloaded.
