Sphere - Flying Cities Early Access 'Story Phase II' major Update now available!
Commanders, Today, we have released our next majorly update to our Sphere - Flying Cities Early Access and a big announcement!
Announcement first: Sphere - Flying Cities will leave Early Access in September this year!
Additionally, with the new 'Story Phase II' Update, you, the Space Mayors, embark on the next act of your epic mission to save what’s left of the world and its inhabitants. With 6 more missions, it is finally time to establish a global network of specialists and scientists that will aid you in your quest to save the world.
Read all new additions below:
New Features
You want to know more about the storyline of Sphere? - 6 new additional and fully-fledged campaign missions are now available.
Who is this Person? - A new character has been introduced: Professor LaFleur.
Recruit an all-new specialist and convince him to join your journey across the globe – discover new secrets together and work on finding a solution for the future of mankind.
When are we finally there? - We have enabled 'Portals', which is a fast-travel system, we have implemented with this latest update.
Anomalies of time and space symbolize the ongoing deterioration of earth, but come with an unexpected advantage for the player: Use them to travel to unknown, distant locations – if you dare.
It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s moon chunks! - Discovering & mapping of moon chunks has been added.
Fragments of lunar-destructions started to appear in the atmosphere. What secrets do they hold? Are they a possible key to salvation?
Back on earth, there was a thing called TV... - New Handcrafted cutscenes for portal- and moon-chunk events for you to enjoy have been added.
Bugfixes and Balancing:
Red Alert! All crew members are to report to duty! - If it comes to a breakdown in energy, the game will automatically switch to normal game speed.
It's blue light. What does it do? It turns blue. - Color adjustment of the Anti-Gravity Core.
Various small balancing- and bugfixes
Early Access Roadmap has been updated!
Have a suggestion and/or want to see what other players are suggesting?
Please visit our Community-Suggestion-Board: https://sphere-flying-cities.nolt.io/ to help us, improving the game even more!
Sphere - Flying Cities Early Access 'Age & Education' Update now available!
Commanders, Today, we have released our next major update to our Sphere - Flying Cities Early Access today!
The 'Age & Education' Update', or how you also might call it: 'A Colonist's Life', will introduce new intrinsic mechanics to your colonists, like name, age, gender, life, death, and education, whereas education also impacts and boosts your economy!
For sure, we have also brought more balancing and bugfixes, once again based on the valuable feedback of our Flying Cities-Community!
More details below. But first, enjoy the 'Age & Education' Update Trailer on YouTube, giving you a first glimpse, what the update brings and looks like!
Sphere - Flying Cities Devlog #3 - Tech-tree redesign and more QoL-improvements
This week, developer Hexagon Sphere Games dives into some redesign, more QoL-features being added, and overall improvement to Sphere -Flying Cities, also based on the overwhelming feedback by the community. But, without further ado, let's read and see, what Hexagon Sphere Games has up their sleeves this time:
By redesigning the tech-tree, we hope to provide more accessibility to the research menu, which is after all an extremely important area in Sphere. The new layout gives players a better overview of all available technologies, and of the different branches of the tech-tree, too. The new centered tech-tree layout eliminates the need to switch back and forth between branches, and the overall progress in the research menu is now visible at a glance.
Old tech-tree
New tech-tree
We have also made changes to existing technologies and added some new technologies that were originally intended for the second phase. For example, since the last update, players have been able to unlock the Instruction Center or the Large Power Plant.
An additional change in the research area is the revision of the element mechanics. We have decided to distribute only five different element groups rather than different elements from each group in mineral clusters and use them for the prices of some technologies. The previous implementation of the element mechanics, especially the element conversion feature, presented many players with a hurdle they did not need. However, searching for specific elements on the world map remains relevant to game progress even after the modification of this mechanic.
Furthermore, since the last update, the influence radii of various buildings have been implemented and visually displayed.
There are both positive and negative influence radii, and players can improve the colonists' welfare by placing buildings wisely (or worsen it by placing them clumsily).
Medical buildings, in addition to providing beds for the population, provide a faster healing process for colonists living in their area of influence.
Radii of Influence - Medical building radius for faster healing process
Air circulation towers and parks (nature) also improve the health of colonists in the area of influence. Community kitchens, parks (standard), and instruction centers in turn increase the loyalty of colonists.
On the other hand, power plants, mining stations, or refineries negatively affect the health of those colonists who live in the area of influence of these industrial buildings.
The maintenance station provides automatic repair of damaged buildings within its area of influence. Its radius of influence and that of medical buildings can be increased by various technologies. Positive areas of influence are displayed in green and negative ones in red.
Highlighted pollution for players to quickly adapt and counter the negative areas of influence
What do you think of the new changes? We are looking forward to your feedback!
Please visit our community suggestion board: https://sphere-flying-cities.nolt.io/ and help us make the future of Sphere - Flying Cities even better!
Fixed a bug that occurred when selecting an island directly on the world map before the first flight.
Sphere - Flying Cities Early Access: Patch (v.0.2.3) has been released
Commanders, Today we’re releasing another small patch with some quality-of-life improvements and a new music track.
QoL improvements
Environment-Scan starts now automatically when entering a new sector.
Surround scan is now displayed in the main HUD.
Research progress is now displayed in the main HUD.
Addition
One new track has been added to the game.
Please keep the feedback coming and help us to improve our Sphere - Flying Cities even more.
New development Roadmap has been released!
We’re currently working hard on our next big-content update, so please stay tuned for more big and small updates soon! More details in our development roadmap, below.
Have a suggestion and/or want to see what other players are suggesting?
Please visit our Community-Suggestion-Board: https://sphere-flying-cities.nolt.io/ to help us, shaping the future of Sphere - Flying Cities even more!
- Surround scan is started automatically after arrival in new sector - Surround scan is displayed in the main HUD - Research progress is displayed in the main HUD - Longer soundtrack
Sphere - Flying Cities Devlog #2 - The balancing act of difficulty levels
As a developer, you tend to underestimate your own game in terms of difficulty and accessibility. You know all the features, have mastered all the tricks and know how to elegantly avoid stumbling blocks.
We have not been immune to this, either, but very quickly received feedback from players that our game was too difficult. Especially the introduction had some potential for frustration. One criticism was that, as a fresh commander, you didn't have enough time to understand the individual game mechanics and their connections in the early game. The result: A "Game Over" screen, and, in the worst case, disappointment in front of the monitors.
Since we want to present players with some (also quite big) challenges, but at the same time we don't want to overwhelm or frustrate them, we have fine-tuned the difficulty level since the Early Access release in October 2021.
However, we still received comments and remarks that made it clear we need to make further adjustments in the area of difficulty. Now we were faced with a landmark decision: Do we turn the difficulty level down even further, or do we add multiple difficulty levels sooner than we thought? The decision-making process led to some very lively discussions internally, and we ultimately decided to implement four difficulty levels already.
This has several advantages: The default difficulty level does not have to be fundamentally changed, and we can still present players with appropriate challenges - just as we envisioned as developers. At the same time, the first eight missions of the campaign can now be played on 'Easy', making it easier to get off the ground. On the other hand, advanced players can now start the campaign directly on 'Hard' or 'Very Hard'.
Another change that has been made should also make things a little easier. The maintenance station is now available at the beginning of the game and does not have to be unlocked anymore. This point has also been mentioned in comments and forums from time to time, and we have complied with this as well.
With these changes, we hope to offer players of Sphere an even more pleasant gaming experience.
What do you think of the new changes? We are looking forward to your feedback!
Please visit our community suggestion board: https://sphere-flying-cities.nolt.io/ and help us make the future of Sphere - Flying Cities even better!
- fixed bugs in techtree - fixed configuration for Power Plant Big - minor changes
Sphere - Flying Cities Early Access: Content-Patch (v.0.2.2) has been released!
Commanders! Today we’re releasing a content-patch. We call it patch, as it is not fully packed with new features, mechanics and more, compared to the recent major updates 'Missioning' and 'Industry & Pollution'. However, this patch brings more than just few bugfixes and improvements. Among others, we have surely taken into account all your amazing feedback, suggestions and ideas to further improve the game. Therefore, you will find some quite awesome additions made to the game, like the sandbox game, or even new buildings among other things!
And the best thing: We’re currently working hard on our next big-content update, so please stay tuned for more big and small updates and patches soon!
New content
Difficulty modes for the campaign.
Sandbox mode
More gameplay depth through building effect radiuses.
New buildings:
Power Plant - Large
Instruction Center
Revision:
New technology tree with many new technologies.
Simplified conversion feature for elements.
Note on savegame compatibility
. Older savegames are compatible, but the techtree will be reset when converting. In this case, a warning message will appear before loading, informing you that the techtree will be reset.
What happens next? - Sphere - Flying Cities Early Access Development Roadmap
Have a suggestion and/or want to see what other players are suggesting?
Please visit our community suggestion board: https://sphere-flying-cities.nolt.io/ and help us make the future of Sphere - Flying Cities even better!
Please continue to give us feedback and help us make our Sphere - Flying Cities even better.
