Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Stardeus
Dev Update 2022-11-12: Interactive Roadmap and Feature Voting
Hey Space Travelers!
I want to thank you all for your support, feedback, reviews and bug reports! The amount of feedback was overwhelming, I tried my best to keep up as much as I could and to address any major bugs right away.
In one month since release, Stardeus had 21 patches with hundreds of bug fixes and dozens of QoL changes. Here’s a breakdown of what was done since Oct 11, 2022:
Bug fixes: 156
UI / QoL improvements: 66
Balance adjustments: 34
New features: 23
Technical changes: 12
Misc changes: 11
Performance optimizations: 9
Graphics / rendering changes: 2
Now, with the majority of the pressing issues settled, it is time to start shifting the development focus towards new features. I made an interactive roadmap and you will be able to vote on what comes next first. Read on!
The Interactive Roadmap
The time has finally come to share the vision of the future of Stardeus with everyone. This is the first iteration of the interactive Stardeus Roadmap. I will keep it up to date as new ideas flow in. However, I want to make it clear - this roadmap does not imply that everything listed on it will be done during the Early Access. I certainly want to do it all, but the main limitation is time - the current roadmap will take at least a few years of hard work, and some ideas may be much more difficult than others to pull off, so this roadmap is not set in stone.
An important trait of this roadmap is that it’s non-linear. It offers a choice for you, the player, to direct the game towards where you want it to be. Explore the roadmap and cast your vote to see the features you want added next!
There are two visualizations of the roadmap, the data is identical, but depending on personal preference, one may be easier to navigate than the other. Try both to see which one works best for you:
Note: Hover the mouse over nodes to get tooltips with more details.
Cast Your Vote
I want you to help me shape the future of Stardeus! After you familiarize yourself with the Roadmap, head over to this Google Form and vote for one category and one feature you want to be developed the most. I will use your votes to guide what features are going to be worked on first.
Voting form: https://forms.gle/VprnyUkDtReZi7A78
Note: this Google Form requires you to log in to ensure that you can only vote once, it does not collect your email addresses, and is completely anonymous.
How new Big Features will be shipped
Since I am used to releasing new builds nearly every day, you may wonder how big features will be delivered. The answer is - in the same exact way, with daily updates. Stardeus was always developed in a single branch, and all major features and changes were added in small chunks. This is the way Stardeus is made, and this will not change.
However, I won’t expose all the new features to everyone while they are unfinished and untested. If you want to feel the “bleeding edge” of the game and get everything right after it gets added to the build, enable Settings > Gameplay > Experimental Features option. Bigger features may have their own dedicated additional switches added later, and when time comes, the features will be announced and enabled for the general public.
Experimental branch on Steam
I would like to clear up some facts about the experimental branch in the “betas” tab on Steam.
It has nothing to do with the “Experimental Features” gameplay setting mentioned above.
While it’s called “branch”, it’s actually not. It is just a slightly newer version of Stardeus. Usually about 1-24 hours newer. After that short period the experimental build gets moved to the default branch.
You can switch between “experimental” and default (“none”) any time, the switch is instant. Saves will be backwards and forwards compatible.
The experimental branch is usually as stable, if not even more stable than the default branch, as it contains new fixes.
I always run automated tests to catch any major new bugs before pushing new builds to the experimental branch.
There is a slight chance of a new bug slipping in. In that case you can report it, switch back to default and keep playing.
I appreciate the help of people who are using the “experimental” branch. As I work alone, I don’t have the luxury of fully testing everything after every new build. Thank you for helping me keep the game stable!
If I convinced you to switch to the experimental branch, here is how you can do it: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1380910/discussions/0/5230393378275047235/
A rant about save files and their compatibility with future updates
I’ve seen some players worry about switching to the experimental branch because it could break the save files, so I want to make a statement.
Save files are the most precious customer data and there is absolutely no excuse for any game to break them for any occasion, not even a major update!
Imagine what would happen if Google would ask you to create a new empty account, because they have updated their internal systems, so all your data is lost. That’s unthinkable, right? I don’t understand why breaking saves seems to be a standard practice in game development.
No matter what comes out - huge new features, major updates - your existing Stardeus saves will always work. Some new features or systems might be disabled, some obsolete objects may be removed, some errors may show up when loading the game for the first time with updated code, but the game will still load and should be playable. I have 300+ automated tests that are loading various save files, some of those saves are nearly 3 years old! This means that if I break the game saves at any point, I will have to spend a few months rewriting all my automated tests. This is just not going to happen. I deliberately set myself up for having to support old save files at all times since the start of the project.
I have multiple facilities set up for migrating saves into newer versions of the game, mitigating various load failures after adding and removing content and features, etc. Saves always have to work, no matter what!
If you have a Stardeus save file that fails to load - please send it over to me via tomas@kodolinija.com - I will make this save file load in the next patch update. (Unless the save file is completely corrupted. That has happened a few times when players would exit the game abruptly while it was writing the save file to disk.).
Note to modders: please always try to save the game with your mod, then remove your mod and try to load the game. If the game does not load the save after the mod was removed, please ping me on Stardeus Discord and I will look into it ASAP.
Enough ranting about the development, let’s take a look at a few more significant changes that were shipped in the month since the launch to Early Access.
Improved Firefighting and less aggressive fires
A lot of early post-launch feedback was related to problems with firefighting and fires self-reigniting too often. The fire was made more timid, and the firefighting AI logic was rebuilt from ground up, leading to vast improvement.
Workers near a fire will not ignore the fire even if someone else is going for it already, it will be a team effort, and fire will be dealt with in the best way possible.
You can also take matters into your own hands and use the new and improved Direct Control to orchestrate the firefighting effort exactly the way you want it.
Improved Direct Control
Direct Control was arguably the most terrible feature in Stardeus before. Workers would often ignore your orders, get sidetracked, and you could only control one of them at a time. This has been reworked from ground up.
You can now select multiple workers (shift + click them one by one or click-drag a bunch of them), then put them all under your direct control in one click and Ctrl + click to move them all at once. They will obey you and won’t do anything on their own until you release direct control. This works great in combat situations - units under direct control will fight the enemies as long as their weapons can reach them, but they will not go anywhere. Just don’t forget to release them or they will completely discharge!
You can also select a managed worker and Ctrl + click any unfinished task to order the worker to do it right away. Remember, humans have free will, so until you have a tech to overcome that, you can only control your robots.
Almost forgot, one of my favorite features about the new direct control implementation is taking a Cleaning Bot and Ctrl + clicking the dirty floor to drive there and clean it. For some unknown reason it is extremely relaxing and satisfying to do, especially if a Cat decides to ride the bot while you control it.
The Jukebox
Colonists needed more entertainment! You can now build them a Jukebox where they can gather and jam out. Even pets will use it!
And you can use it to control the soundtrack.
Quality of Life Changes
There were several QoL changes I wanted to go through.
Replacing floors underneath walls and devices
Previously you would have to dismantle walls and relocate devices in order to replace floors underneath them. Not anymore!
Shift + Click to connect or disconnect devices
If you select multiple devices, either by click-dragging them, or by holding Ctrl and clicking individual devices, you can connect them all to a chosen Connector with just one click. Hold Shift and click the desired Connector.
It works the other way around too. Select a Connector and Shift + click any device to connect or disconnect it. No more dragging required!
Exposing more data at a glance
It is much easier to find out things just by looking at them, or hovering anything with the mouse. Tooltips will show codex entries, inventory counts, devices will display what they are producing or processing by showing icons. We are the Ship Computer after all, and we love our data!
More starting game modifiers
While there are many ways to deal with heavy disasters like Asteroid and Meteoroid Showers, some players were very disgruntled about their ships getting smashed. I have added a few options that will disable heavy disasters, and even disable the fire spread to make the game more relaxed.
There’s more, but this update is getting long already, so if you’re interested in the gory details, see the full changelog here: https://stardeusgame.com/changelog Search for v0.6.103 (2022.10.11) and scroll up to read through what exactly was done.
v0.6.124 (2022.11.10) - [Feature] Add "Experimental Features" toggle in Settings > Gameplay - [Balance] Swap Recycling and Nutrient Extraction research in the tree - [Balance] Make Nutrient Extraction research a prerequisite for Vegetarian Food - [Balance] Prevent Stock Market prices from dropping below $1 - [Balance] Cat wont ride a Cleaning Bot through a teleporter if it leads to an unsafe area - [Balance] Merchant Stasis Pods can now be deconstructed (at your own risk) - [UI/UX] Mark experimental and unfinished content as such in Research Tree and codex tooltips / popups - [UI/UX] Holding Shift or Ctrl while adjusting 0-9 priorities in UI will move them to 1 / 9 - [UI/UX] Improve Planter grow selection UI - [UI/UX] Improve Refillable storage components UI (Reactors, Fluid Cannon, Pet Bowl) - [UI/UX] Show more information when failing a task due to lack of or unreachable materials - [UI/UX] Prevent big tooltips from going above the top of the screen on small screens - [Bug] Fix unbuilt Telescope would show a scanning progress bar - [Bug] Fix merchant ships could change visual direction too frequently while player's ship is flying diagonally - [Bug] Fix root cause of floors remaining with unbuilt looks (thanks to validation and diagnostics added in previous patch) - [Bug] Fix Merchants could get generated with negative amount of cash if player had excessive amount of cash - [Bug] Fix Tractor Beams would make Stasis Pods miss the ship - [Bug] Fix removing targets from various ongoing tasks would not cancel the task correctly, leading to inconsistencies
Patch notes: v0.6.123 (2022.11.09)
v0.6.123 (2022.11.09) - [Balance] Memory Compression Upgrade will correlate with Uranium in the Stock Market - [Misc] Remove unused assets cleanup in between scene changes (suspected cause for some new crashes) - [Misc] Selecting a pile will validate its availability and automatically fix and log diagnostics if the availability was inconsistent - [Performance] Improve performance of electricity grid rebuild with large grids - [Performance] Fix the bottleneck when dragging a big area with Task Priority / Retry / Cancel tools - [UI/UX] Include known materials with 0 count in Inventory overlay - [UI/UX] Holding Shift will make priority adjustment tool set priorities to either 1 or 9 - [Translations] Update Japanese to 100% (thanks to Taijiro Inagaki) - [Bug] Fix merchant inventories would be extremely low since last patch - [Bug] Fix relocating and object onto a different object of same type would create an invalid relocation task and order an upgrade - [Bug] Fix spawning a material pile in the position of another material pile that was not added to the inventory for whatever reason would merge the new pile into the existing one - [Bug] Fix FTL drive would only show up to 32 drive particle systems at the same time - [Bug] Fix Faction information field would not update icon / text after being displayed for the first time in Starmap - [Bug] Fix Merchants and Probes no longer visible behind the ship in the game view when nearby - [Bug] Fix section detection would occasionally create two almost identical overlapping sections if a lot of floors would be ordered and clock speed was high - [Bug] Fix workers would not shut down after 1h grace period with too little CPU available - [Bug] Add extra validation to prevent some built floors remaining with unbuilt looks when large amount of construction tasks was created - [Bug] Prevent plants from floating in space
Patch notes: v0.6.122 (2022.11.07)
v0.6.122 (2022.11.07) - [Balance] Further adjust how Merchant inventory is generated - [UI/UX] ESC will only close UI by default (won't pause the game) - [UI/UX] Swap C and K bindings. C will Cancel Tasks, K will focus on Ship Computer - [UI/UX] Ctrl + clicking "Change" in Trade UI items will remove them from the trade list - [UI/UX] Show work spots for nearby operatable devices when placing a chair - [UI/UX] Improve Quick Search UI (scroll wheel and arrow keys will work, tooltips will appear) - [UI/UX] Run in background setting will be true by default - [Bug] Fix Esc would show Pause Panel when Quick Search was open - [Bug] Fix updating some settings (like ESC behavior) would not update the settings cache - [Bug] Fix swapping LMB and RMB would still use LMB for UI clicks - [Bug] Fix copy configuration would not update the preview icon for crafters and processors - [Bug] Fix "food on device" story event could trigger for food on regular tables - [Bug] Fix Direct Control would allow assigning tasks to workers who had no skill to perform them - [Bug] Fix winching would not update connector position cache, resulting in incorrect connection previews when placing new tiles - [Bug] Fix adjusting priority on Operate task would not synchronize with the rest of device configuration - [Bug] Fix processors would not update percentage since recent - [Bug] Fix replacing floors underneath a planter would float the plant if ship was moving
Patch notes: v0.6.121 (2022.11.06)
v0.6.121 (2022.11.06) - [Feature] Add Jukebox device and Entertainment research branch - [Feature] Add recreational activity: Use Jukebox - [Balance] Move Treadmill research node under Entertainment - [Balance] Generate Merchants with larger inventory - [UI/UX] Unbind Arrow keys from default UI navigation - [UI/UX] Add multiple small improvements to Merchant Trade UI - [UI/UX] Ctrl + clicking "Select" in Merchant Trade UI will add 100% of the item - [UI/UX] Shift + clicking "Select" in Merchant Trade UI will add 50% of the item - [UI/UX] Alt + clicking "Select" in Merchant Trade UI will add x1 of the item - [UI/UX] Ctrl + clicking arrows in the Research Queue will move the item to topmost / bottommost position - [Bug] Fix Workout would not set the mood effect duration correctly - [Bug] Fix relocating a Stasis Pod would trigger stasis pod story events - [Bug] Fix relocating a Stasis Pod would create the relocation ghost as immutable (preventing the relocation task from succeeding) - [Bug] Add extra checks to prevent generating a merchant with blank inventory - [Bug] Fix Achievements on Steam would only unlock after reloading the game - [Bug] Add extra diagnostics for troubleshooting why some Achievements won't unlock for some players (i.e Joy Ride) - [Bug] Fix newly added stock market items without prior history would end up getting an internal error when attempting to render a chart - [Bug] Fix trying to sell a being without equipment (i.e. a pet) would fail the transaction (since the last patch)
Patch notes: v0.6.120 (2022.11.05)
v0.6.120 (2022.11.05) - [Feature] Workers will now be able to replace and repair floors under large objects without relocating them - [Balance] Strip all equipment from a being before selling it to a merchant - [UI/UX] Selecting one or more Connectors and shift + clicking any electrical device will attempt to create (or break) a connection between the device and selected connector(s) - [UI/UX] Selecting one or more electrical devices and shift + clicking a connector will attempt to create (or break) a connection between selected devices and the connector - [UI/UX] Selecting one or more Teleporters and shift + clicking another teleporter will link the selected teleporter(s) to the clicked one - [UI/UX] Holding Shift and clicking beings will add new beings to group selection - [UI/UX] Holding Ctrl and clicking tiles will add new tiles to the group selection - [UI/UX] Holding Alt and clicking objects (piles) will add new objects to the group selection - [UI/UX] Show icons of crafted / processed / produced items in every device - [UI/UX] Configurable processors (i.e. Furnace) will also have an "Idle Warning" toggle - [Bug] Fix Copy Config would not copy the new "Idle Warning" toggle state on crafter components - [Bug] Fix Copy Config would not copy priority on crafter components - [Bug] Fix adjusting task priority directly would not update the crafting / processing device priority in the controls UI submenu - [Bug] Fix internal error that could lead to game crash when selecting and ordering relocation for more than 1024 objects - [Bug] Fix relocating a device mid-operation would not drop the task correctly (root cause of the beings stuck bug that was fixed in last update) - [Bug] Fix removing a mod that introduced a new material type would prevent inventory history from loading correctly
Patch notes: v0.6.119 (2022.11.03)
v0.6.119 (2022.11.03) - [Feature] Add Memory Compression research branch and Memory Compression Upgrade module - [Balance] Biological beings who just joined the colony will not immediately try to do firefighting - [Balance] Have a 1 hour (in game time) grace period for shutting down workers if there is not enough CPU - [Balance] Increase durability of Teleporters 10x (again) - [Tech] Automatically remove traits added by mods if the added trait is causing internal errors - [Performance] Add major performance improvement for situations with large amount of tasks and workers - [Bug] Fix beings could get their grid position and visual position desynchronized too much, which would cause the being to become stuck until save / load (thanks JDPlays for help) - [Bug] Fix selecting the closest Emergency Siren if more than one was available would cause an internal error - [Bug] Fix humans would sometimes not display body / hair sprites - [Bug] Fix Roaming action could fail to find a valid position and cause a looping internal error - [Bug] Fix Beings could be spawned outside map bounds, causing various inconsistent states - [Bug] Fix Beings would try to satisfy hunger need in mid combat - [Bug] Fix Combat AI would try to create a new Home squad when new raiders were added to an ongoing combat - [Bug] Fix dead bots could be taken under direct control - [Bug] Fix ranged attackers would stand still if target was in range on their weapon (even without line of sight)
Patch notes: v0.6.118 (2022.11.02)
v0.6.118 (2022.11.02) - [Misc] Add diagnostics and validation of teleporter pathfinding issues - [UI/UX] Add pathfinding system debug UI to Walking Difficulty overlay - [UI/UX] Add more information and tools to Being Navigation component UI - [Bug] Fix Stasis Pod Raid story events not working since last patch - [Bug] Fix giving a Direct Order to go somewhere would always immediately show a "cannot go there" tooltip afterwards - [Bug] Fix Socializing being would get stuck in a pathfinding loop if the target was operating a device that move the worker inside it (i.e. Research Station) - [Bug] Fix teleporter catching on fire could cause an inextinguishable fire that would make firefighters get stuck - [Bug] Fix linking teleporters via UI would work slightly differently than via drag-connect (could lead to inconsistent behavior)
Patch notes: v0.6.117 (2022.11.01)
v0.6.117 (2022.11.01) - [Balance] Reduce the size of monetary reward for completing "Find a Habitable Planet" quest - [Misc] Add Worker CPU cost section to Codex - [Misc] Skip the "Explore Codex" suggestion if the player has at least 5 unlocked achievements - [UI/UX] Show a popup when a Merchant ship offers a trade - [UI/UX] Lists with pagination in-game can now be scrolled via mouse wheel - [UI/UX] Show worker CPU cost in Managed Worker UI - [UI/UX] Add extended controls for modifying wanted amount when configuring crafting devices - [UI/UX] Show more details in "Device Idle" notifications - [UI/UX] Add a toggle for disabling "Device Idle" notifications in crafting device UI - [UI/UX] Add a toggle for disabling "Auto Haul" on items - [UI/UX] Add shortcuts to Codex > Blueprints and Codex > Materials in Inventory overlay (F2) - [UI/UX] Allow closing the "New Quest" dialog without opening Quest UI - [Performance] Fix story generator checking event preconditions could produce a lag spike / dropped frame - [Performance] Add several minor performance optimizations - [Bug] Fix combat UI would allow switching enemy AI from combat to work - [Bug] Fix workers would have a mass-shutdown if Ship Computer suffered an electricity deficit - [Bug] Fix opening too many popups would prevent save confirmation popup from opening when exiting the game - [Bug] Fix Combat AI and Emergency Siren systems would fight for control over human colonists - [Bug] Fix relocating anything with a built-in storage on top of itself would duplicate the storage contents - [Bug] Fix relocating a processor on top of itself would duplicate all items in the processing queue - [Bug] Fix Starcreds mining would stop working after having an excessive amount of Starcreds
Patch notes: v0.6.116 (2022.10.29)
v0.6.116 (2022.10.29) - [Bug] Hotfix for ship unable to reenter the current Galaxy in Starmap - [UI/UX] Ensure that trade ui closes any open item lists when closing itself
