There were a few rare crashes and some bugs in 1.2 which I've now fixed and released in version 1.2.1:
Prevent players hiring a ship twice
Prevent players buying a ship they've already hired without returning it first
Guard against weird situation when character is alive without an AI
Prevent crash when clicking on conversation options very quickly
Prevent crash when hiring a room after other character has left chat
Prevent saving after death
Prevent close chat crash when GUI hasn't caught up
Prevent corrupt opinions crashing game
Fixed data for opinions and added better validation
Stopped an endless positive loop exploit when ordering drinks or asking about another's story
Prevent ejection of character whilst still in base
Show how to quit a mission on the "Launch Ship" tooltip to aid the player with too many passengers
Enjoy!
Until next time,
Chris
1.2 now released!
I'm really pleased to announce that Sol Trader 1.2 has been released!
Version 1.2 is the most feature packed and streamlined Sol Trader experience yet, with a myriad of UI and gameplay improvements. Here's a trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTGFze-oh4
The update is packed with job salaries, new missions, upgraded conversations, transit options, full modding support and Steam Achievements.
The gameplay has had a number of improvements made to it, both to the core systems and to the user experience. The addition of salaries for jobs, and the possibility of being fired, provides early direction to the game. You also now have a reason to stay close to home and build relationships with co-workers.
The hundreds of UI improvements and extra tooltips have streamlined gameplay. New missions provide a more interesting and rounded set of things to do for characters. New conversation questions and a 'meet me' option makes finding people that much easier. The ability to ask characters for transit between cities and planets helps with mid-late game ship management.
The addition of Steam Achievements provides an extra opportunity for players to notch up rewards and compare their progress. Finally, full modding support is added in 1.2, which gives modders the ability to change almost everything about the game, including all the graphics.
Thanks for all your support beta testing: if you have any further issues please do post them to the forums.
Until next time,
Chris
Sol Trader 1.2 trailer
Thanks for all the help testing the beta of 1.2. The trailer for the new version is now available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTGFze-oh4
I've released 1.2 to the press today, and I've set a launch date for general release for November 23rd - just seven days away!
Until next time,
Chris
Play version 1.2 early... and help make it stable!
Dear all,
Would you like to have a early stab at the Sol Trader 1.2 beta? It's ready to go (bar achievements) and I’m looking for a few existing game owners to flush out any last minute bugs.
There are plenty of new features to get your teeth into, from earning salaries whilst working, to the ability to eject passengers from your ship, hire someone to take you to a new planet, stacks of UI improvements and extra tooltips, many new work-related missions to try, more conversation options… the list goes on!
To try the game, follow the following steps:
Reply to this announcement to let me know you're in
Right click on the game in your Steam Library and choose 'Properties'
Click the 'Betas' tab
Enter the beta access code ’soltraderbeta’ and click 'Check code'
Choose the ‘beta12’ option from the drop-down list above
Wait for your game to update and play!
If you hit any bugs, please do report them on the Technical Support forum here on Steam so that I can fix them this week.
Thanks!
Chris
New Developer Let's Play video series; 1.2 now feature complete
Hello everyone
Things are getting exciting with Sol Trader as we head into November! 1.2 is now feature complete and has just entered a bug testing phase, with only Steam Achievements left to add to the game before we go live in a few weeks.
Overall, I'm very pleased with how the new version has turned out. Salaries and the possibility of being fired from your job provides early direction to the game. It also gives you a reason to stay close to home and build relationships with co-workers. The UI improvements and extra tooltips have really streamlined gameplay. The new missions provide a more interesting and rounded set of things to do for characters. New conversation questions and a 'meet me' option makes finding people that much easier. Finally, being able to ask characters for transit between cities and planets helps with mid-late game ship management.
If you'd like a sneak preview on the new build, watch this space: I'll be posting information on how to get on the 1.2 beta to the discussion forums soon.
To mark the new release, and to help people learn the game, I've started posting my own series of Developer Let's Play gameplay videos. In the series, I've started a new game completely from scratch, with the aim of teaching the basic gameplay and to point out new 1.2 features.
The first one is up right now, with more to follow over the next few days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaeVCr-w3iI
Until next time,
Chris
1.2: achievements, salaries, hidden professions, and more
Hi all,
Another 1.2 development update for you! Here's the latest list of features that are going to make it into the build, along with a new ship date.
Hidden professions
People's professions are now hidden by default on the ABOUT tab. If you know the correct events about people, then their job history is displayed, including where and when they worked.
This does make the game slightly harder, but the extra information allows people to track others down more easily, and I've added a number of different ways of finding this information out through conversations.
Opening the airlocks: flushing people out of your ship
With 1.2 it's going to be much easier to dispatch someone by inviting them on to your ship, flying off and then opening the airlock, flushing them out of the passenger bay. Be careful not to let anyone else see you do this, though...!
Transit: obtaining passage to other planets
One feature I want to 1.2 will be the ability to hire another character to take you to another location. This is a reasonably complex change, but will be the first step towards more expansive ways to hire and order characters around in future updates.
Job salaries
1.2 will contain the first round of job upgrades, probably our most requested feature. Jobs will now pay a salary if you give up your time to work at that location. You'll also need to ensure that you turn up the right number of times a week, or you might find yourself fired...
Achievements
Achievements will go into 1.2 - at least the initial round. I'd love to add Steam workshop support if I get time, too.
Usability fixes
In addition to some of the other features we have in, like modding support and more missions, I've spent quite a lot of time refining the user interface to make it clearer. There are now a lot more tooltips
New ship date: November
I've decided to delay this build again, just for a few weeks, until I get the balance right for the new missions. It's a big round of changes and will need much more play testing to guarantee everything is working. Sorry for the delay, but it makes sense to get a large change like this right. There will be details on how to help with beta testing soon.
Until next time,
Chris
1.2 development update
A quick development update for you on version 1.2, the next major set of new features for the game.
Modding support
I've completed the loading system overhaul to better support modding. Customising all the graphics, or adding completely new graphics is now very easy. You can now quickly add new organisation types, planets, missions, commodities and more.
New missions!
I've also been added new mission types as promised. The first new strand of missions I'm adding are all about universities and academics. Influence is key to academic focused missions. You'll need to earn it before high ranking professors will trust you with their academic opinions, or the delivery of their manuscripts. You can also end up in major arguments about plagiarism if you're not careful...
Next time I'll be talking about the other mission types that are going in, including more political and military missions to get your teeth into.
Delivery: mid-October
I'm now expecting 1.2 to be released in mid October, as I don't want to rush the mission addition. It's coming along nicely, but there's a lot of combinations to check before it becomes stable, and I want to get the balance and fun-factor right.
Sol Trader will be at EGX next week
We're going to be taking Sol Trader on the road to Birmingham for EGX next week! We'll be exhibiting in the Rezzed Area for all four days, and I'm giving a talk about the launch of the game in the Developer Sessions on Friday.
If you're coming to EGX, do stop by and say hi, try an alpha of 1.2, or come along to the talk: would be great to meet as many of you as possible!
And finally...
Check out this brilliant thread on the community forums, to show just what can happen when you use Sol Trader as a framework to tell stories...
I've just pushed a new bug-fixing build to Steam, with the following changes:
Stop people vanishing from buildings, only to reappear on pause/unpause
Fix display issue on trade component screen
Fix reported 'gtcFace' crash
Fix crash caused by displaying jump gate info when landed
Prevent launch with too many people for ship
Fix UI issue when quitting whilst asleep
Enjoy! Work continues apace on 1.2, I'll post more on that soon.
Until next time,
Chris
New build: 1.1.3 released
Hi all,
Another quick point release has just gone out:
Fix a new error message which pops up when completing a mission in someone's home.
Stop framerate slowdowns that occur after a Big Tiger ship jumps through a gate.
The bonus feature is the ship hyperdrive effects are now fixed and working nicely. You'll need to start a new game to see them - they'll appear whenever you jump through a gate.
Until next time,
Chris
New build: 1.1.2 bug fix release
A small build has just been released, to fix a crash bug encountered when the player completed a mission in the mission giver's home.
