Starbase Early Access - Release Time, Pricing & Updated Roadmap Details Revealed
After a long wait, Early Access is finally starting next week on Thursday, July 29th at 6PM EEST / 8AM PT / 3PM UTC. Starbase will be priced at 32.99€ / $34.99 / £27.99, and kicks off with a weeklong 10% launch discount.
When Early Access begins, the Starbase universe will be a blank canvas ready to be populated. While many new core gameplay features such as the tech tree, crafting, ship easy build mode and station easy build mode will be available on release day, we want to be clear about the state of the game at launch. Starbase launches into Early Access in a clear alpha stage, however the core features are well established and there's fun to be had for sure. Now is the time to finally open up Starbase to a bigger population and see how everything comes together. The scale and scope of the game will quickly start to show as we update more massive features to the game every two weeks in August and September, like Capital Ships and Station Siege mechanics!
Many important gameplay loops are coming to Starbase shortly after launch. The idea behind the major content updates is to ease players into the big new features, and by introducing them a few weeks apart with planned dates announced, everyone will have time to prepare for their arrival.
Details about the August and September updates, as well as the whole 2021 Roadmap can be found below.
The Next Major Updates
After a short period of tranquil mining, ship and station designing and building, as well as relatively small scale pvp engagements, the post-launch period will quickly start to heat up. The August updates will introduce Moon Bases & Mining and the massive-sized Capital Ships, while the September update that introduces Siege Mechanics will send the world into full-scale calamity, as player stations will become fully destructible and capturable.
Complete 2021 Roadmap
Full sized (4k) version available here: http://cloud.frozenbyte.fi/index.php/s/kzcr5C3rIZRFH1w/download
We hope to see you next week!
Starbase - Progress Notes Week 28 (2021)
Progress Notes Week 28
July 12th - July 16th
Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 28 of 2021!
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Design
Features
Blueprint projector
Configurations for adjusted asset with blueprint chip support
Iterating on design plans to support blueprint filler feature
Design for the Capital Ship docks has been refined
Improvements for Station Easy Build Mode have been designed
Starting Job rewards tweaked to match Early Access economy settings
Starting Job weekly reward caps set
Crafting data for station parts reworked. A lot more can now be crafted while using less materials.
13 new Easy Build modules for spaceships have been added, including:
Modules with batteries
Large Propellant Tank modules
More Ore Crate modules
Stations and Cities
Komatsu (Tier 1) removed from Sunny Ship Center
T35-B Initium and Modulus removed from Oki 2 ship shop
Moneyman moved from Oki 1 to Oki 2
User Interface
Easy Build Mode HUD design has been worked on
In-game Designers
Rails and Rail devices are no longer available in the Spaceship Designer. Rails Layer also has been removed.
Code
Gameplay
Fixed bolting "boltlessly connecting" components in the Spaceship Designer
Fixed Large Generator not using all the power available to it
Fixed radiators not working with Large Generator
Adding Tripods to the Spaceship Designer has been worked on
Implementing the Capital Ship shield generator for fast travel has been worked on
User Interface
Increased the input character limit to have more room for certain characters (ó, ä, ö etc.)
In-game Designers
Removed the lag spike that occurred when entering the Spaceship Designer or when test flying a ship in a ship shop
Scene view window now lists modules in alphabetic order
Fixed many module related actions' undo functionality not working
Audio
Synchronised Pickaxe hit sounds have been worked on
Art
Animations and Emotes
Work on melee running and walking animations continues
Sprint animation blending improved when running into and against obstacles, such as walls
Other
Fixes to numerous muzzle and hit VFX not attaching correctly at higher velocities
Fixes to Tripod Autocannon hits not registering have been worked on
Performance improvements for direct Mounted Plasma hits have been worked on
Electronics crafting bench has been created
Skyscraper stem 4 module interiors have been updated
Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 27 of 2021!
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Design
Features
Work on the moon base Easy Build mode continues
Factory Halls have been tested and improvements have been tasked to coders
Paint Tool has been tested and improvements have been tasked to coders
Large Generator durability issues have been resolved and bolt profiles updated
Capital Ship speed in relation to the scale of the universe has been worked on
New moon locations have been worked on
13 new Easy Build Mode modules has been added, including:
Cargo lock beam modules
Big Cargo lock Frame modules
More bottleneck modules
More Generator Modules
Stations and Cities
Added ships to the following ship shops:
Balestra: Apis, The Mako, Aquiro, Esaro, Huginn, Muninn, Cyclone, Firescarab
Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 26 of 2021!
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Design
Features
Improvements were designed for the Fast Travel Gate Core
Work on the new block module production and testing with the Easy Build Mode for stations continues
Design for integrating Easy Build mode with moon base building has been started
Design for the first phase of moon mining (acquiring surface materials) has been completed
Work on moon material distribution continues
Work on the ship checklist for the Spaceship Designer continues
Other
Improvements to tutorials, guides and hints have been worked on
Improvements to the Feedback Tool and how screenshots are shown and selected in it have been worked on
Code
Gameplay
A bug in looped sounds management was fixed, hopefully reducing cases of random "wrong" sound loops being played
Fixed constant Durability recalculations (flickering in Spaceship Designer, for example) in certain cases
Fixed the general Durability UI behavior in Spaceship Designer (there was a lot of apparent randomness). Durability error boxes are now also dimmed while they cannot be selected.
Fixed a bug with tripod weapon jittering
Tweaked Center of Mass & Center of Thrust visualizations in Spaceship Designer, the latter now being limited to selected thrusters when there's a selection
User Interface
Offline players' Company, Job and Rank info is now shown in the Social menu
Work on Station Access user interface continues
In-game Designers
Fixed a bug that prevented durability and transform tool gizmo visualization from rendering after the first visit to Spaceship Designer per program run
Other
Added the TravelCoreAssembled status field to Fast Travel Cores
Art
Animations and Emotes
Unarmed falling, fly and landing animations have been improved
Jump animations have been improved
Other
Further performance improvements for multiple Remote Explosive VFX
Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 25 of 2021!
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Design
Features
Triangle and Box thruster exhaust area has been shifted to start at the end of the casing, overlapping the nozzle part which is now ignored by the exhaust
New block module production and testing continues with the Easy Build Mode for stations
Stations and Cities
Quasar, Dynastar, Vintage and Epic player ship shops have been added to the following stations:
Robur, Empire Outpost B, Empire Outpost C and Mini Pirate
Sunny Ship Center ships have been rearranged and a starter variant of the player made ship Komatsu was added.
Other
Tutorial reward ship Laborer module: One basic module has been replaced; Fuel Rod Rack module was replaced with Fuel Rods
Code
Gameplay
Work on station Easy Build Mode continues
Work on factory halls continues
Certain beam-emitting devices no longer play their stop sound when already inactive; a bug related to their hit sounds stopping was fixed also
Device field related issues on Solar Panel's light sensor have been fixed
Work on Spaceship Registration continues, registration issues with two players have been fixed and tested
Work on Paint Tool has been started
A fix for tripod weapon jittering has been worked on
Crafting benches have been worked on
Work on Easy Build Mode for ships continues, a lot of bug fixes have been made
User Interface
UI adjustments have been made to the Job terminals
Easy Build Mode toolbar has been finished
Work on building budget window UI has been started
Other
Fixes for Capital Ship fast travel issues have been made
Art
Animations and Emotes
New 3rd person pistol reload animation has been made
Stations and Cities
Boltcrackers combat memorial 2020 -slot has been added to Moon city
Other
Mining backpack update: Mining Backpack redesign for the equipment arms has been finished, new design is symmetrical and more compact
Updates to Grenade and Rocket Launcher explosive effects due to previous double spawning issue have been made
Basic shoot effect has been added to the Cutting Tool
Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 24 of 2021!
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Design
Features
New features for Material Point Scanner have been tested: Scan and Reset
Ice asteroid spawning has been adjusted
Basic modules for station Easy Build Mode have been designed and tested
Stations and Cities
10 min and 20 s despawn areas have been added around the starting area of the Origin station
Ship spawns have been added in the Easy build hall
Komatsu ship has been added to K-Bot ship shop
Q52 ship removed from Rando 4 ship shop
Non-starter ship variants have been replaced with starter variants in Sunny Ship Center (beginner ship shop)
Kaiser ship should no longer clip into the floor/wall in Quasar ship shop
Balestra ship shop has been added to Origin stations (Without ships for now)
Other
Tutorial reward ship Laborer module has been updated: Modules refreshed to work more versatile way in easy build mode
Easy build mode ship modules: Modules have been updated so that there is less restrictions when placing easy build modules
Code
Gameplay
Work towards Easy Build Mode for stations continues:
Fix for asserts that occasionally occur when placing station Easy Build modules
Visualization has been added for the station Easy Build Mode area
Fast Travel Cores function only when undamaged and not carried as cargo, the jump gate GUI updates accordingly as the Core state changes
Different sections (doors etc.) of a structure can no longer be bolted together, which among other things reduces cases where cables/pipes would then prevent the sections from separating
Material point scanner changes have been committed
Module autobolting feature for Easy Build Mode has been worked on
User Interface
Tutorial menu update has been finished and committed
Job terminal adjustments have been worked on
Station selection UI logic has been finished
Other
Capital ship propellant tank station device has been added
Issues in the capital ship warping system have been fixed
Art
Animations and Emotes
New 1st person pistol reload animation has been worked on
Stations and Cities
Holograms have been updated to 10 starting stations
Easy Build Hall Signs and holograms have been finished
Other
Inventory icons for the connector assets and large machinery modules have been finished and configured to the assets
Textures have been updated for moon type 2, visible seams at edges of texture have been fixed
Tripod railgun weapon textures have been added
Security crafting bench assets have been created
Updates and fixes have been made to Mounted Laser, Rail and Plasma hit VFX
Updates and optimizations have been made to battery explosion VFX
Fix to duplicate Grenade and Rocket Launcher hit VFX spawning has been made
Fix to some Rocket Launcher effects orientating incorrectly has been made
Once you’ve managed to acquire enough wealth with your protected stations and moon refineries within safe zones, you might want to risk some of the extra wealth for possible massive gains in the vast non-protected universe. This is what Starbase’s station siege mechanics exist for and what this video is focused on.
https://youtu.be/N18X4KNsh6o Do you wish to know how exactly a station can be captured, destroyed, or what happens after the fight? Watch Starbase- Station Siege Feature Video above to find out!
Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 23 of 2021!
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Design
Features
Mining Job has been tested and a bug preventing the mining of some materials has been fixed
Large Generator has been tested in the Ship Designer
Refill & Recharge terminal UI redesign has been completed to support multiple resources
Cooling Rack and Pipe Socket Board rate limit change has been configured to have the same delay as the Generator Units' rate limit change
Manual welding design has been completed and tasked to programmers
User Interface
New comment feature for Company bank statements has been worked on
New steps on the crafting and Easy Build Mode tutorials have been tested
Withdrawal and deposit UI for company bank has been updated
Stations and Cities
The following player made ships have been added to Epic Shipyards ship shop:
Namib, B16 Endurance, Redtail, The Bread Box, Hover Tank Prototype
Sunny Ship Shop (Beginner ship shop) has been finished, added to Origin stations and filled with the following ships:
The Early Access release of Starbase on June 17th is unfortunately going to be delayed. We have looked at the release-readiness of the game and listened to the feedback of our alpha testers, and decided to delay.
A video message from Joel & Kai: https://youtu.be/l_AoMjMJLqY
Missing Features & Lack of Testing There's some key features that haven't quite made it into the game yet. These include the easy-build-mode and more tutorials (which are important for new players and the early-game experience), factory stuff, company controls and a number of other features that we feel are essential to the launch. We don't want to release without those features, or without having tested those features properly. So unfortunately we have to delay at the last moment.
For our many thousands of fans waiting for access and the chance to play, we apologize for having given a now-false releaase date earlier. We have made this decision with the game's best interests in mind, and the game will benefit the most if we delay one more time.
Next Release Target Our next release target is July 29th and we'll confirm this after we've ran some bigger tests in the alpha, and are sure the needed features have made it to the game. We also want to test the servers and server scaling technology, especially for the starter stations.
Closed Alpha Invites In good news, we are preparing new invite waves to the Closed Alpha, some of the biggest ones we've done to date. We are also preparing to arrange some massive events where we really test how the servers hold up and how the game handles big amounts of players simultaneously. So for those tests, we'll need a lot more testers in the coming weeks. We'll also need many fresh eyes to give feedback on the early-game experience and a number of other things, so you can expect more invites whenever new features get added.
We are in this for the long haul, and we are committed to releasing 2-3 updates every month once in Early Access. It's a long journey and we hope this delay gives us a better start.
- Team Frozenbyte
Starbase - Progress Notes Week 22 (2021)
Progress Notes Week 22
May 31st - June 4th
Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 22 of 2021!
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Design
Features
Asteroid belt radius has been increased: it is now 20km wider, asteroids start to spawn 10km closer to Origin station
Asteroid belt ore distribution has been reworked, supporting designed item progression
Starter Job weekly reward cap has been implemented (not yet configured)
User Interface
Tutorials for crafting and Easy Build Mode have been worked on
Stations and Cities
Wall/floor clipping issues have been fixed in Rando 1 and 2 for a couple of ships that no longer fit their previous designated slot
Code
Gameplay
Easy Build Mode for stations have been worked on
An issue with items duplicating in the inventory during swapping has been fixed
Blueprint transparency settings have been added for Easy Build Mode
Lot of bug fixes for tripods and tripod weapon spawning and general functionality has been made
Work on fixing module position and rotation issues with Easy Build Mode continues
User Interface
Tutorial functionality has been worked on
Texts for bank statement events have been changed
Changes to Company Ship Access UI have been made, design for changing Ranks and Jobs has been worked on
Easy Build Mode notification HUD has been implemented
In-game Designers
Station ad hologram LODs appearing on close range in large stations around the station edge have been fixed
First version of Capital Ship fast travel core has been implemented
Art
Animations and Emotes
Shotgun and Long rifle 1st person fire animations have been polished
Stations and Cities
Legacy window assets have been replaced in Epic, Quasar, Dynastar and Vintage player ship shops
Other
LODs for the modular crate assets have been improved
LODs for the hardpoint assets have been improved
Mining backpack textures have been updated, proper colors implemented for all mining backpack assets
Following solar panel assets have been created:
solar_panel_144x144x12
solar_panel_144x144x12_light_sensor
solar_panel_support
solar_power_converter
Work on Building Tool VFX continues
New launch effects have been added and previous thrusters for missiles/torpedoes have been updated
Simple Hit effect for Bolt Tool has been added
Shotgun Reload VFX has been updated to match new animations
