Slipways
Spring is the time for bugs... and fixes
- Game startup fails (Apple): Occasionally, the Steam integration library has a hard time starting up on Apple Silicon machines. This used to hang Slipways during startup. Now, we give Steam a few seconds and if it's not able to get its act together, we start without it.
- Game startup fails (Apple): Slipways used to defer initializing some Unity services until they are first needed. However, initializing them when they are first needed could hang the whole application on Apple Silicon machines. We now initialize these services earlier to avoid the issue, in exchange for a few milliseconds more of initial startup time.
- Crash/hang: Using a project or other means of removing the last person made on a planet would hang the game when the Insecurity sector modifier is active. Logic in Insecurity was tweaked so that this does not happen.
This update brings the version numbers up to v1.3 (b1139) on Windows and v1.3 (b1140) on Mac.
An apple a day sends the patch away
- Mac: Slipways is now a universal app, which means it no longer needs to run under emulation on your new-fangled Apple Silicon machine - anything with Apple M1 or up. This makes the game run smoother and more battery efficient, but also fixes any problems caused by the emulation layer itself. Speaking of which...
- Mac: On Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1, something changed in Apple's emulation layer, causing Slipways to no longer register clicks in windowed mode. This should no longer be the case with the new version.
- Steam: The Steam SDK Slipways uses has been updated to 1.57, which fixes a few glitches around mods/Steam workshop use.
This update brings the version numbers up to v1.3 (b1113) on Windows and v1.3 (b1114) on Mac.
Getting the fix in for October
- Endless: Since a few versions, retired endless runs would not save properly into the statistics tab. This should no longer be the case.
- Campaign: A mission completed with exactly 0 score would not count as complete for the purposes of progression. The game should now properly let you through with no additional gatekeeping.
- Seed selection: If you went into ranked mode, then back to main menu, then into standard, and if the sector type for that week's ranked was not unlocked for standard play, you'd *sometimes* get in a weird state where the game would auto-select a locked sector type for you, which would result in a confusing UI experience. Possibly even more confusing than this bug description.
This patch brings the version numbers up to "v1.3 (b1109)" on Windows and "v1.3 (b1110)" on Mac.
New Year's fixings
Slipways welcomes 2023 with a small bugfix patch, addressing the following issues:
- Void Synthesizer: a previous patch broke the functionality of this technology, causing it to misbehave when it was supposed to deliver two copies of the same resource to different planets. It should now hopefully work correctly, and it's now in my personal top 5 of "rude technologies that have caused multiple bugfixes".
- Loading/Ranked: when a savefile was loaded, some sector quirks would not be properly taken into account when an early "empire state update" would happen. One of the consequences of this bug were incorrect run previews on this week's ranked leaderboard, showing higher scores than the leaderboard itself. The issue should now be fixed for both the ranked previews and in general.
- Statistics: The "best runs by perk" tab had weird display bugs for runs with more or less perks than the usual two. Those runs should now display correctly.
This patch brings the version numbers up to "v1.3 (b1106)" on Windows and "v1.3 (b1107)" on Mac.
Thursday tiny patch
- Campaign - Greener pastures: Some savefiles in which the construction of the fargate has been started would crash the game upon loading. This should no longer happen.
- Campaign - Ghost in the Machine: The completion event would reappear after reloading a savefile where the megastructure was already reactivated. This should no longer happen.
- Visual: The "smudges" in the sector select screen background should no longer be visible. The galaxy is fine, please don't worry - these artifacts were actually part of the menu background which was dimly visible behind the galaxy.
This patch brings the version numbers up to "v1.3 (b1103)" on Windows and "v1.3 (b1104)" on Mac.
November patch of pumpkins
- Crash: Mass Reactors used in combination with Energy-Driven Industry and some planet types could cause a "product list sync discarded exported product" crash. This should no longer happen.
- Campaign: A combination of using undo, saving and restoring at the exact worst time, and Jupiter being in retrograde would prevent the completion event from popping up for the Forebear Archive and Forebear Megastructure. The events should now show up consistently, and if you have a broken save where they failed to fire, reloading should fix it.
- Upgrade: Planets would fail to upgrade to successful if they only had one native export, but they had an unexportable resource such as science or happiness added through a tech or project. Only exportable resources should now count for the upgrade requirements.
- Terraforming: Changing planet types would sometimes change their radius, making slipways at the very limit of their range no longer reach. Terraforming a planet will no longer cause that, and all planet types are considered the same radius for the purpose of calculating slipways.
- UI: The "fold details" button on the scenario end screen used to show up even if there are no details to fold (like on the bankruptcy screen, for example).
This patch brings the version numbers up to "v1.3 (b1100)" on Windows and "v1.3 (b1101)" on Mac.
Sunday small patch
- Campaign - Hard Truths: Losing a council member while having a tech upgrade that is both made available by them and also in some other way (like Infraspace available through Silthid Mass Lensing, but also through Slipstream Relay) would cause weird problems with the upgrade, including a way to trigger a crash. It should now behave reasonably.
- Endless: The "maximum achieved" stats in the Miscellaneous Stats tab weren't display correctly in some cases.
This patch brings the version numbers up to "v1.3 (b1092)" on Windows and "v1.3 (b1093)" on Mac.
Tuesday touch
- Ranked preview: When viewing a ranked run played by another person, their settings would "bleed through" for a second, causing weird effects during loading - including resolution changes and even crashes, in some cases. This should no longer happen. This fix should also help with other issues you might be having if you're sharing saves played on different machines.
- Campaign: Ghost in the Machine: Established planets would be so eager to help that they would redirect their income towards the reactivation effort even before they actually had anything to contribute. They should now restrain themselves until they reach "successful" and can actually help.
- Campaign: Through the Looking Glass: Xenostudies is now usable inside rifts, as an alternate vessel-based version. This was intended from the start, but the relevant modification was missing from the mission files.
After this round of fixes, the version numbers should be up to v1.3(b1086) on Windows and v1.3(b1087) on Mac.
Patch Notes (Jun 26 - July 9)
- Crash: In some circumstances, the inactive, experimental gamepad support code could wake up and cause a crash. Maybe as vengeance for being turned off. In any case, it should no longer be able to do that (at least not in that specific way).
The current version of the game after the batch is v1.3(b1083) on Windows and v1.3(b1084) on Mac.
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In addition to that, due to a weird quirk of the Steam interface that I can't really talk about, I've had to remove several of the previous patch note events. To ensure that no information gets lost, I'm including the patch notes for several previous patches in the last two weeks below.
Archived patch notes
July 6, v1.3(b1080):
- Port in the Storm vs rewinding time: Rewinding time using a ruins event, then undoing this was a bit too much for the spacetime continuum in this mission, resulting in a crash. I applied additional duct tape to the continuum.
- Tutorial slowdown: Two in-game tutorials could exhibit a pretty heavy frame drop because *somebody* left debugging code in. I have reprimanded myself and the tutorials should now work normally.
- Campaign mission descriptions: Ingame text for the fargate, the vaults and the advanced pylons has been revised for more clarity (hopefully). Only in the English version for now until the next localization update.
July 3, v1.3(b1077):
- Machine Sentience/Cybernetic Bodies: An earlier fix to another problem broke the delicate seventyfold balance that is crucial to making these technologies work correctly. The balance should now be restored. If you were already experiencing problems with machine sentience/cybernetic bodies in a run, this patch unfortunately won't retroactively fix old saves - but the problems should no longer occur on new ones.
- Greener Pastures mission: Various problems caused by activating a terminal and then doing a deep undo many steps back should now be taken care of.
- Insecurity sector quirk: This quirk fell into the classic trap of activating again once it was already inactive, specifically with projects that were adding new needs (eg. Megastructures). This resulted in crashes when products that were already exported got removed. This should no longer happen, and the quirk will only look at "base needs" that are part of the planet's core industry.
July 2, v1.3(b1074):
- Project interaction: Megastructures and Elysium did not play along when built on the same planet, resulting in duplicate, unsatisfiable needs. They're now best buddies.
- Void Synthesizer vs Fargate Terminal: Void Synthesizers had a bunch of weird behaviors when connected to a fargate terminal in the "Greener pastures" mission, leading to crashes. These issues should now be resolved.
- Automation dependence quirk: the behavior of the quirk did not match its description, affecting structures as well as planets. It should no longer do so, and the description is more precise about what's going to happen.
- Campaign: The forebear archive and fargate terminals now have an option to return to them later after you trigger their completion event, instead of forcing you to go through with activating them.
- Isolated sector: "Borrowed" technology options that are duplicates of what you already have are now greyed out and disabled on the "copy techs" screen.
June 28, v1.3(b1065):
- Game summary screen: You can now fold the run details - especially useful with the ranked "peek at a run" feature, where the full run record can easily take half the screen
- Key shortcuts: the key shortcuts for the various "lenses" (the views enabled by the "eye" icon in the bottom right) are now rebindable to whatever you want
- Ranked: Sometimes, a previously downloaded run by the same player would be displayed instead of their current run.
- Campaign: A tooltip was visible when you moused over empty space, revealing spoilers about the campaign's third act.
June 27, v1.3(b1059):
- Vattori mission: Labs in rifts incorrectly started producing science even before researchers (vessels) were provided.
- Isolated sectors: Duplicate technologies would appear for two council races in the "copy techs" screen, causing issues. The random generator now ensures no duplication happens.
- Steam Deck: Fixed touchscreen errors appearing on the new Proton version.
June 26, v1.3(b1053):
- UI: Having a controller attached could still cause weird problems due to left-over experimental controller code in the game. This code should now be fully dormant and should no longer cause issues with controllers plugged in.
- Isolated sectors: Runs with this sector type should now have the "borrowable" technologies correctly randomized according to the sector seed. Before the fix, they were always the same for all runs.
- Ranked: A problem was fixed that would have prevented tomorrow's seed from working correctly.
Wednesday welding
- Port in the Storm vs rewinding time: Rewinding time using a ruins event, then undoing this was a bit too much for the spacetime continuum in this mission, resulting in a crash. I applied additional duct tape to the continuum.
- Tutorial slowdown: Two in-game tutorials could exhibit a pretty heavy frame drop because *somebody* left debugging code in. I have reprimanded myself and the tutorials should now work normally.
- Campaign mission descriptions: Ingame text for the fargate, the vaults and the advanced pylons has been revised for more clarity (hopefully). Only in the English version for now until the next localization update.
After these fixes, the version numbers should be up to v1.3(b1080) on Windows and v1.3(b1081) on Mac.