Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.1.6
Only one small feature has been added to the testing branch...
Meteor Showers
Be careful, they will do tremendous damage if they hit close to you!
They will probably appear too often right now, but for testing it's better to make sure they work.
They will appear more often on lava planets, but can appear almost anywhere.
I still plan to add a sound effect, as well as making sure they respond to the player's position on the planet. Right now they may disappear if you move out of range.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.1.5
Lot's of small fixes in this one.
Alien City:
I had to change which planet the alien city appears on due to the temperature being too high for liquid ammonia. At first I tried manually adjusting the temperature, but this did not work properly after reloading the game somehow. So I set the temperature like other planets , via star temp and distance from star
If you already started a new game, the city will not be in the same location, but two planets further out. This may cause issues, and the city may be inaccessible if that planet is a gas giant. It should work properly for any new games though
Next step will be to update the alien city model (from the outside) so it looks better
Aliens and Floaters:
Fixed issue where aliens were stuck up in the air after landing on a planet
Furry aliens (also those with crystals or fungus) had a negative impact in frame-rate. This has been improved.
Frame rate in caves with "floaters" - those eyeball like aliens - has been improved dramatically. Somehow it was creating way too many of them
Fixed a problem where tree leaves were appearing without alpha - like big black squares.
Fixed issue where floater explosion sounds were getting cut off early
Fixed issue where floaters were not respawning after returning to a planet
Ancient Ruins:
Improved debris scattering on ancient ruins
Stair colliders have been added to ancient ruins (inside and outside) so you should not experience as much jerky movement when going up
Testing Branch Updated to 5.0 Pre-Release Version 0.1.4
This is the second of a series of small updates primarily addressing the Alien City.
I made sure the planet on which you will find the city will have Ammonia in the liquid state - it had the potential to be in vaporous form previously, and this was not what I had in mind.
Now the pink fog should only appear if you go under the ammonia canal.
Rain has been limited, so it will not appear in the city. In the future I may allow for rain, if I can find a way from preventing it appearing in buildings, but until then, I am just not having it appear on the planet.
More NPC dialogue options! NPCs in the mothership and the alien city will have more to say.
Removal of repeat statements. NPCs should no longer repeat the same phrase more than once. If you are loading an old game, they may still repeat themselves, but for new games this will not happen.
Star particle effects had a problem where they got stuck in the middle of the star. This should no longer happen.
Testing Branch Updated to 5.0 Pre-Release Version 0.1.3
This is the first of a series of small updates primarily addressing the Alien City.
Here I have included a city collider model, which should prevent players from jumping through windows, and getting caught in the map.
Next I plan to fix the issue with the fog level, where the map turns pink in the canal. I will also be adding more dialogue entries so each NPC will offer a wider variety of information.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release Version 0.1.2
It's going to require another new game at this time. Again, sorry. Also, I have some fixes in store, but the new functionality is in place. I wanted to get something up this weekend, just to test it a bit before I go crazy.
NPC names - human and alien
NPC dialogue - humans and friendly aliens only. This will get an overhaul soon. They just give you three phrases right now. They can repeat the same phrase and there are not a lot to choose from, but I have a longer list to add to the game. I will also prevent them from repeating in the next build.
Alien City - It still needs a proper 3D collider, so you might get stuck in some of the windows or details. I am working on that now. For now, I recommend staying on the ground and using the proper doors as much as possible. There are also some weird issues I will fix soon, like it rains inside the buildings (if it's raining) and alien NPCs seem to switch trade items with each visit. But overall it seems to work, and adds a new environment to the game. GOOD LUCK FINDING IT!
If this works out, I may add one more unique alien city to the game. That would again require a new game at this point, but I will see if I can work around that.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release 0.1.1
UFO Debris
The debris produced by an exploding UFO worked only for the first storage compartment. This was actually true for debris from asteroids as well. This feature should now be working correctly.
Misplaces Sitters
It appears that for new games, the seated NPCs will appear in the correct positions. I am not sure why this problem happened, but it appears to be working properly for new games, so I am not going to worry about it at this time. If you have a saved game, and you want to correct the position of the seated NPCs, you can go to your game's save folder in "C:/users/-your username-/AppData/Local/Star_Explorers" and find your game's save folder. Open that and delete the "mship_storage1.txt" file.
This should correct the positions, but it will also reset all the NPC inventory.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release 0.1.0
UFO Update
UFO's should no longer be brought back if you destroy them. This will not work retroactively, so you will have to destroy them one last time.
UFO Bipedal Aliens should now behave properly. They were getting stuck in the previous build, and would not react to the player. Their guns would appear, but would remain stuck in the middle of the alien's body. Now they should hold their guns, and either attack the player (if hostile) or behave neutrally if not.
UFO Bipedal Aliens should now spawn inside of the UFO rooms. They were in a bad habit of spawning between the walls. They still might shoot through walls, but I have reason to believe I will be able to fix that in the next update.
UFOs will now produce space debris if you destroy them. Capturing this will put alien tech item's into your ship's storage.
Vsync
I have included a file in the game's save folder called "Vsync.txt" which you can edit. It will be set to 0 by default, enabling Vsync. If you want to disable Vsync, open that file in "C:/users/-your username-/AppData/Local/Star Explorers" and change the 0 at the end of the line to a 1. If you don't know what vsync is, just ignore this.
Previously vsync was set to be disabled by default, and there was no way for users to change it.
I will look into adding an in-game button to enable/disable vsync.
Problem
All the seated NPCs in the mothership seem to have moved a foot or so (in game space) forward, and are now intersecting the tables at which they sit. This is true for games that are reloading the mothership, I am not sure if it effects games in which the mothership has not yet been entered.
If this is only for reloaded motherships, I will probably not fix it. I would test it now, but I cannot work on it any more today, and I did not want to delay the update.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release 0.0.9
Mothership Issues
Mothership NPCs have been improved, with better lighting/shadows. Also, their inventory for sale has been adjusted so they will not have as many alien items. Vendors will now have a better budget with which to buy back items.
Cave Pits Removed
Pits should no longer appear in caves. These are still a feature I want to add, but currently there is no way to escape them.
Wind Reduced on Storm Planets
Storm planets will no longer push the player around constantly, however, tornadoes themselves will still push the player and damage them.
Issue with Missing Planets
I found a strange issue where planets do not reload properly. I was not quite able to resolve why it was happening, but have applied a work-around for the time being. Hopefully this will not cause any new problems!
UFO Robots
Robots have been reintroduced to hostile UFOs. They were replaced by bipedal aliens, which should still appear on UFOs, so now you should be seeing both.
Missing Lander
During playtesting, I noticed the player's landing craft did not appear in the UFO hangar. However, when reloading a UFO, it appeared where it should be. Let me know if this is still an issue. I would resolve it, but it is not game breaking, and I wanted to upload the new branch tonight.
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release 0.0.8
UFO - Ancient Ruin Bug - FIXED
This update fixes a bug that was introduced when I added crashed UFOs to the game. What happened is that when a planet had either a crashed UFO or an ancient ruin, it would not allow that planet to reload on later visits.
It was easy to fix once I was able to identify the cause. I want to thank the players for reaching out and for their patience. This sort of thing is inevitable when new features are added, especially when it's me programming them :)
Galaxy Bug - NOT FIXED
There is another bug that will prevent a galaxy file from reloading. It is actually easy to fix the file but I have not been able to identify the cause yet. If you encounter this, where the game will hang when trying to reload from the main menu - or I suppose it might happen when returning from a planet or the mothership - please let me know. I can fix your file if it happens, and it might give me a clue as to how it occurred.
I plant to test some ideas on why, where and when this might be happening.
Loot
The most feedback about the mothership so far seems to be how it is causing some unbalance as far as loot and money are concerned. I like a lot of the suggested solutions to this, so I will be working on re-balancing these aspects of the game in the latest version. If you have any feedback regarding this, let me know here, or over on the discord server: https://discord.gg/vTxpb8Z
Star Explorers Testing Branch Updated to Pre-Release 0.0.7
This is a pretty big update. What I thought would take a week or so, ended up taking over a month. The Mothership Altair is now becoming a location to visit in-game!
The Bad News!
First, I apologize, but this latest version will again require a new game. I hate to do this, and I try not to have this happen, but some times it is unavoidable due circumstances outside of my control. This usually means some error that I wrote into a previous version, but it is what it is.
Mothership
It is still rough, very rough. I have to add some actual characters, new models, and work on improving the graphics, which somehow do not want to work the way I expect them to right now :)
Still, there are new shops for ship, suits and weapons that you could not access from the ship's computer before. That shop is still available, in case you just want to refuel or sell some stuff quickly.
The idea here was to create a different, more familiar kind of environment the player can visit. A kind of home base with friendly npcs to interact with. I do want to elaborate a lot on the look, feel and functionality of the place, but it is currently working and accomplishing a good portion of what it needs to right now. Having player feedback and ideas will be welcome at this point.
Fixes
A few issues have popped up in the previous build, and i have begun to address those as well.
Leaf alpha - some leaves were being rendered incorrectly. This only occurred on liquid ammonia planets, and only after leaving and returning to the surface ... so that was fun to test!
Missing storage containers - this only effected the visible storage model, not your actual storage capacity. It should work properly now.
