Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.5.3
It may be too early to say, but the new save/load script does seem to be more stable so far.
I spent some time on a few issues that have been brewing in my mind for some time. Nothing too major, but things that may help to increase the game's immersion a bit.
Sun Movement
Until now, whenever you landed on a new planet, the sun would be somewhere around the mid-morning position. Since planets are relatively small in Star Explorers, this meant few players would ever experience night time in their travels.
Now, the when you land, the game takes the actual planet model's current rotation and applies that to the sun's position. So when you land, it may be any time of day.
Planet Orbit
In a related effort, I have written an simple equation that keeps track of each planet's position in orbit, in all solar systems. It effectively allows planets to continue orbiting their stars even when the player is in a different star system. When you return to a system, planets will be in new positions based on how much time had gone by when you were away.
This does not currently apply to the Star Chart, where planet positions are still just randomized. I'm not sure if anyone will even notice this, but I was trying to see if it could be done for the sake of thoroughness.
Tree Leaves
Some planets with trees were failing to reload their leaves when returning to the surface, specifically on planets with a vaporous atmosphere. I believe I have found the cause of this error, and it should not happen any more.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.5.2
The 0.5.1 release earlier today fixed several foundational issues, but caused a variety of smaller bugs. I was able to address several of these very quickly.
Issues:
The interactive guide was stuck when viewing the Star Chart the first time. This should work once again.
"Orbit Disengaged" audio on landing. A script error caused the disengage audio to play when landing on a planet. It should no longer do so.
"Press and Hold" is no longer required when leaving orbit. This phrase was removed from the tutorial panel as well as the interactive guide.
Unused orbit rings were visible when viewing the star chart overlay, when a system had less than nine planets. This should no longer occur.
New feature:
Solar systems used to randomize the orbit of planets whenever players left and returned to them. Now the game has an algorithm that keeps track of each planet's orbit, and they will continue to orbit (mathematically) even when the player is in a different star system. It probably won't impact anyone's gameplay too much, but I found it satisfying to get that to work. There was also a bug in the 0.5.1 update that allowed a planet to randomly appear directly over the player's ship on a reload. This was obviously bad, and needed to be fixed, though it would only occur very rarely.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.5.1
I have learned a lot from my experiment in re-making Star Explorers from scratch, and have applied some of that knowledge to the testing branch. This is a pretty major update, but most of the changes will be invisible to players.
The script is much more coherent in some of the fundamental areas like saving and loading games. This should make it less prone to errors and crashes related to saving and loading files, or at least easier to find those errors and crashes should they occur.
I encountered a number of other issues after changing the script so dramatically, but have managed to get all the other systems back online.
Some Minor Differences:
The Star Chart will only show sectors in which stars have been scanned. This is slightly different that the previous Star Chart, which only showed sectors that the player's ship had passed through. I think the new way works better, as it will no longer show sectors with no data in them.
Pressing "M" to aim towards the mothership should no longer give a "insufficient fuel" warning. This will be stated when the player actually warps.
Aiming toward a star/planet when selecting orbit/warp from the drop down has been improved. It was possible to get caught in a strange, shaky cycle that sometimes caused a long delay in aiming. I have implemented a better aiming script, and it should be smoother.
Disengage Orbit
When leaving orbit, you will no longer need to hold the back key, "s" by default. The ship should handle this action automatically now. It will slowly back your spaceship away from the planet while angling upward. This will position your spaceship directly "above" the planet, so there will be no possibility of backing into another planet, or into the gravity well of a star. Planets and orbits are not really scaled realistically in Star Explorers, so this was a problem in the past.
Going Forward
One of the main reasons I even attempted to re-write these scripts were some ongoing issues with the main plot of the game. Finding Acknexium crystals on a planet would sometimes not register when you dropped your beacon. I believe this problem has been resolved. I have tested it numerous times, even leaving the system in which I found the crystals and returning prior to dropping the beacon, and it seems to work correctly every time. This had a lot to do with the complex and elaborate saving/loading system i had devised years ago, so this new one, being much simpler, does not end up with conflicting data as it may have previously.
I am trying to only address those systems that actually present problems, rather than trying to fix or improve things that are not broken. If all turns out as hoped, version 5.0 will be ready and fully stable by the Fall as planned.
Devlog Entry: Refactoring Star Explorers
In my second official dev-log entry, I describe what the heck I've been doing for the past month. Lots of progress, but little to show for it (yet)...
"I finally put my thoughts together and decided to do a small experiment. I would start a fresh project and import only the game assets, like textures, 3D models and sounds, writing the actual script from scratch. I allotted myself two weeks to accomplish this task, and would decide on any long term changes after this two week period expired.
I did not expect to get very far in two weeks, but I felt that was enough time to figure out how things would go. Well, they went pretty well. I was able to rewrite many of the game's basic systems in a much more efficient way than I had 7 years ago. This highlighted to me many of the redundancies and problems that were plaguing my current script..."
Fixed the problem when saving near mothership. The game should load properly now.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.4.7
Meteors have been Updated Again
Meteors will now spawn a bit more sporadically. The time between meteors will usually be longer, but sometimes shorter, and occasionally a couple might spawn nearly at the same time.
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Tornadoes Have gotten a major update
Tornadoes will no longer spawn near the player
Tornadoes now make a sound, so you can hear them approaching
Only the nearest tornado will be audible, to avoid clashing sound effects
Tornadoes once again will damage the player on easy and normal difficulty
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.4.6
Meteors have been Updated
Meteors will no longer be aimed quite so directly at the player. They will still spawn based on player position, but, depending on difficulty level, will have a much wider range in which they will appear
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Tornadoes Have gotten a major update
They will no longer do damage at Normal or lesser difficulty. I may change this back, because the other factors will make the damage less challenging, but lets see what happens.
Also, damage area has been reduced significantly. I fixed an issue with the player's distance being calculated wrong, so the damage range should make more sense now.
A visible area of debris around the base of the tornado will now indicate where the player takes damage. This will also help players avoid the tornado, as players should feel the pull of the tornado well before actually taking damage.
The arrows point at the edges of the debris field in this image. Players will not take damage until they enter this field. Note: There are different sized tornadoes, and this field's range will be dependent on the size of the tornado. Tornado in image is relatively small.
Testing Branch Updated to 5.0 Pre-Release Version 0.4.5a
A few issues have been addressed:
Incorrect information appeared in the tutorial tab/panel
Biped aliens on planets should now retain correct trade information
If data was already lost it will not be recovered, but new planets should not have this issue
Glitch in the star chart caused chart to appear briefly before switching to mission panel
Testing Branch Updated to 5.0 Pre-Release Version 0.4.4
Something was creating strange, defective blueprints. I have implemented a workaround, where they should be identified and removed without being seen by the player. I still need to identify the root cause that allowed them to appear in the first place...
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.4.3
New Stuff
Inventory now has an outline that highlights the selected item.
Fixes
A rare bug that created defective blueprints has been addressed
Crafting weapons will no longer generate extra ammo - to balance the crafting mechanic
Crafting spacial items should also only generate one item now
Player took damage after leaving alien city - this should no longer happen
