Check out our latest video - Mark & Chris demonstrate the new 'Creative Mode' version of the ship editor, where you can build any ship of any size, with unlimited budget and no constraints on construction. You can instant spawn any equipment or resource or item.
We also demonstrate how our Ship Library can take all of your ship designs and all of the ships you've subscribed to on Steam Workshop, and all of our official ship designs, and use them to intelligently populate the game world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yFPpZ_vldw
DEMO LAUNCH
In other big news - the DEMO of The Last Starship is now available on Steam for everyone. You would be doing us a huge favour if you would help us share this demo around - invite all your friends to play, tell everyone you know who will listen :) Steam Next Fest is rapidly approaching, and we are hoping our demo will be popular in that festival.
Latest version changes
We have updated the Playtest build to include the latest ship editor and Creative Mode. We have disabled the other parts of the game for now - we'd appreciate it if you could help us test the editor and creative mode, and provide feedback for those. Thanks!
Creative Mode Unlimited budget to create whatever ship you can think of Instant spawn equipment & resources, with no constraints BUT you cannot leave the system New menu option 'Import Hostile', for combat testing against your ship library
Ship Editor (Continued)) - Ship Editor now supports dragging a box shape to fill large areas, as well as drawing freehand - Ship Editor now shows Mass, Toughness, Crew Capacity, and $Value at the top of the screen - New 'Spawn' button when in Creative Mode, which permits instant spawn of any Equipment, Resource or Item
New Alert System This replaces the previous fullscreen alert system Onscreen alerts for dangerous events - Hostiles, meteors, critical resource shortages, hull breaches, reactor shut downs, low batteries etc With helpful tooltips to guide new players Hull breaches are located with a line from the alert
Small changes - Auto-save after FTL jump now captures thumbnail like manual save. - "Create Storage Hint" now displayed when a Drone Bay becomes clogged with items which do not have a storage place set on the ship. - Loading a ship in the editor will no longer send a shuttle with 5 new crew - New graphics for crew and passenger bodies in space - Enemy ships will always spawn dead bodies after destruction
Bug Fixes - The docking port is now available for sale at shipyards and stations - Pressing J no longer draws boxes around the toolbar at the bottom.
Alpha 1 available to Playtesters
Greetings playtesters! We have been hard at work and have produced an entirely new version of the game for you to try. We have tons of new features including a new ship editor, steam workshop support, and a ship library full of amazing community ships. Almost every aspect of the game has been improved. Give it a try, and let us know what you think.
We are now working towards an Alpha1 build, which will be released in Early Access (hopefully) in Feb. This is the full game as we plan to release it, without any sector limits or hidden content.
Here is the full change list since the last update:
NEW CONTENT = Ship Editor An entirely new in-game ship editor that allows you to change your fleet ships, or desgn and build new ones. You must be at a shipyard to commit any changes, but you can make design changes at any time. You can load any ship directly into the ship editor from the Main Menu. Any ships you create with a value of less than $1M will be usable as New Game start ships Ships can be exported locally, or uploaded to Steam Workshop.
= New Ship Library - We now have a library of ship designs, including many sourced from our talented Playtest community. - When you visit a shipyard, you will find many ships for sale, including those designed by the community. - Some ships for sale will be just the empty hull. Others will be pre-equipped and ready to fly, if you can afford them. - Any ships you subscribe to from the Steam Workshop will be automatically included for consideration - Any ships in the library with a value of less than $1M will now be available to start in the New Game menu. - Ships you create are added to the ship library and will be available for purchase in game, at shipyards.
= Steam Workshop integration You can now share any ship you create from the main menu, by clicking the "Upload To Steam" button You can subscribe to any ship on the Steam Workshop, and it will be included in your game world via the Ship Library You may encounter that ship as an enemy vessel, or as a ship for sale.
= Combat encounters improved Combat encounters now use the Ship Library to create suitable enemy forces. You will now encounter a much larger variety of enemy vessels. The enemy forces will scale in difficulty based on the capability of your fleet, and your combat rank. Sometimes you will face just one or two very powerful enemy vessels. Other times you will face a large fleet of much smaller ships. Enemy ships have been given a rudimentary pilot AI, but this will improve in future - The old boring combat mission has been removed - It has been replaced with a sector-wide objective to eradicate all hostiles, which resets after each sector. - You can earn big money by cleaning up each sector this way.
= Evasion chance During combat your ships now have a chance to evade incoming weapons fire - This is based on the incidence angle between the ordnance and your ship (head on into fire gives no evasion chance. Side on (travelling fast and close to the enemy turrets) gives max evasion chance - The faster you are travelling, the greater your evasion chance - The faster you are turning, the greater your evasion chance - Small ships gain the most from this. Large, slow heavily armoured beasts gain the least.
= On-screen award system Completing any mission or objective will now show an on-screen award The award shows your money earned, as well as any XP points gained, ranks increased etc
= Compass widget / detach camera control There is a new compass widget at the top of the screen, that shows the direction the camera is facing. You can click it to toggle if the camera is attached to the current ship, or moving freely. This is very useful during heavy combat where you can detach the camera from any one ship
= Settings menu (Main Menu) - Controls for UI Scale - Controls for Sound Volume (More to come)
= Lots of new artwork = Lots of new audio
= Equipment resizing Lots of placeholder artwork has been replaced with final art, and some equipment has changed size. - Thrusters are now 3x1 and sit entirely within a wall - Engines now resized to 7x4 to better fit their sprite footprint - Docking Ports are now 6x2, to better fit their sprite, and to give more delivery space
SMALL CHANGES - The visualisation when placing equipment is now different, and is based on the normal view rather than the schematic view - The basic Praxis starting ship now has a Small tank and a Medium tank onboard - You can now repair structural damage from the SHIPYARD menu (when at a shipyard) - FTL Charges now come in a stack of 1 (previously 100) - FTL Travel has been sped up - FTL drive now draws 80MW of energy when charging, instead of 100. (So as not to shut everything else down) - Void Collapse slowed down and made to start further away in each sector, so you have longer before it arrives - 'Weapons Free' and 'Exterior Work' are now enabled at the start of a game by default - Passengers will now sometimes stay on deck during transport - Travelling in hyperspace 'through' the void now causes structural damage. Be careful! - NPC miners will now leave after mining a small amount - Ice Comets are now shown in the sector map
BUG FIXES - You can no longer 'turn in' the flight ready mission - You can no longer turn in an industry/mining mission unless you have enough ore - The Void Collapse predicted size is now accurate when in Home Sector - Drones will no longer continue repairing a ship that has been destroyed - Drones will now properly deactivate when their home ship is destroyed - You will no longer receive CO2 warnings from enemy/neutral ships - NASTY BUG: You will no longer lose tons of money sometimes after completing a mission (happens when revisiting previously visited star systems straight after)
Demo 3 released for playtest
We have released a new version of our Last Startship demo. We are planning to release this demo publicly during the next Steam Next Fest. We have also brought in another batch of playtest volunteers from the pool.
NEW CONTENT = Revamped Trade Screen The trade screen now groups all items into categories such as Power, Resources, Weapons etc. Click to buy 1 of any item, or hold shift and click to buy 5. Use the right-mouse to cancel orders. Selling now has its own dedicated tab where all of your sellable resources and equipment are listed Your trade-in-progress is shown at the bottom of the screen
= Clear Proximity Mines (contract) There is now an incredibly low risk combat mission available early in the game, to clear proximity mines Designed to allow players to practice combat with virtually zero risk (Requires a weapon system of some kind)
= Loaders reconsidered We have noticed many players getting stuck when trying to figure out Loaders for the first time. You now start the game with a 'Fuel Loader' and an 'Oxygen Loader'. These operate identically to the old Loader, but only for their resource. The original loader is still available and can supply any resource as before.
SMALL CHANGES - The HUD will now choose a sensible scale value when you first run the game, taking into account your screen resolution. Use + and - to change. - Logistics drones will no longer collect dead bodies, or space suits containing bodies - New graphics for Railgun, Cannon, Mining Laser, Loaders - Some equipment sizes have changed: Railgun, Cannon, Mining Laser
BUG FIXES - If a drone collected a dead body, it would jam up the drone bay forever - The Shipyward window will no longer remain open when you jump to hyperspace
Demo 2
SMALL CHANGES - The Flight Ready mission now requires a jump to the nearest COLONISED system (so players find the contracts board) - Removed the ‘Nomad’ and ‘Evacuation’ missions from the demo, as they are longer term objectives - The first two starting ships are now available in the demo - The starting ship now has 25 cabins (to permit early Passenger missions) - Guarantee a Delivery mission will always be available in the first sector - Guarantee a Passenger mission will always be available in the first sector - The science mission now has a ‘Research Institude’ that will phone you to inform you of rewards given - New UI sound effects
TIDDLET IMPROVEMENTS - The tiddlet mission is now guaranteed to start at the entry system to the sector - Guarantee there will be no hostiles in that system - Guarantee there will be no hostiles in the destination system either - The player now receives a call at the start of the tiddlet mission, to encourage them to find the job - The Tiddlet mission now shows up at the top of the list with the other special missions - Added character portrait for the tiddlet breeder
BUG FIXES - The special Hyperspace Sensor (LR) is now correctly categorised as Logistics in the Power Usage screen
Demo playtest underway
We have been working on a demo for The Last Starship, which we intend to launch during the next "Steam Next Fest" promotion. We really need some testing and feedback, and you can now try this demo yourself through the Steam Playtest.
We have also invited another 1000 volunteer testers into the fray - so we will see some fresh eyes on the game, and will hopefully get some honest feedback on how it's looking. As we improve the demo and release new versions we intend to bring more testers into the playtest.
This demo is more limited than previous playtest versions, BUT does have some new story content in the second sector, which fans of vintage Star Trek will hopefully get a kick out of :)
Here is a full list of changes since the last release:
NEW CONTENT = DEMO (Playtest) - Brand new story episode (experimental) in second sector : 'The trouble with Tiddlets'. Treat them well! - New music for new games and for the first hyperspace jump etc - New tutorial / help elements at the start of a new game to aid new players, based on EGX feedback - Made the 'Flight Ready' mission more intuitive and informative, based on EGX feedback - All new game scenarios locked on start, except the simple PRAXIS one - Spacesuit O2 level is now much more forgiving in the very first system - so players have a chance to find their feet
= New Main Menu treatment - All saved games and ship exports now have thumbnails (after saving) - The game now pauses when the Main Menu is open
= Shipyard reconsidered - The shipyard no longer permits ad-hoc modification of the hull or interior of a ship - You can still install armour or expand habitation, and construct scaffold
= External work - Your crew can now install some equipment on scaffold, entirely outside the ship. Eg mining lasers. - Crew can also repair and dismantle external equipment - New ORDERS option - "Exterior Work", which permits or forbids your crew to do work outside in spacesuits.
= New 'Exterior view' graphics for all ships (work in progress)
= Other ships in the world You will now encounter more ships in your travels, performing jobs such as mining and scavenging, and coming and going from trade posts - Mining vessels in asteroid belts - Scavengers near derilicts - Trade ships near colonies and shipyards - Evacuation ships near colonies in danger
SMALL CHANGES - New gfx for Spacesuits / Crew / Civilians, lots of equipment - Tooltips added to all 'Processing' machines to show recipe - Drones will now find a new Drone Bay if their home drone bay is destroyed or dismantled - Lots of new sound effects for UI and equipment, and Music added to early game - If the docking port delivery zone becomes blocked, a message is shown to encourage creation of storage zones - If a player has far too many jobs and far too few crew, the game will give them a warning "Crew shortage"
BUG FIXES - Fixed : You can no longer accept missions and accidentally assign them to ships you don't own (eg if you have another ship selected) - Fixed : Bug that stopped the science mission sensors from being delivered - Fixed : Neutral and hostile drones no longer count towards your 'Drones Deployed' value in the FTL window - Fixed : Hyperspace effects did not scale correctly when fully zoomed out - Fixed : Mining missions can be accepted when all your drones are deployed
Update 2 Released
Just three weeks after starting out, we have released Update 2! Along with a Mark & Chris video diving into how things have progressed. In our latest video Mark and Chris show off some of the incredible ships created by the first batch of playtesters and get their hand's dirty with some asteroid mining...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UAIWNZW12Y
The Playtest is now open to MacOSX users as well as PC users! You will need MaxOSX 10.14 or greater.
We will be adding in more testers to the pool very soon!
Here is a full list of all changes made for this build:
NEW CONTENT = Ice comets / Ice Grinder Ice comets occur randomly and travel through a system. Mine them for Ice. The Ice Grinder is a new piece of equipment to grind and melt ice into dirty water.
= Spacesuit Pod Repleneshes the oxygen on any spacesuit.
= Ratings - Combat / Industry / Humanitarian / Logistics You will gain XP as you perform these activities and your rating will slowly increase. Many missions now require a minimum rating to be accepted.
= Parallel pipes Pipes can now be constructed next to other pipes without automatic (unwanted) connection
= Tooltips Plus a whole raft of usability improvements to help new players Including text descriptions of almost all equipment
= Star system save persistance You can now revisit star systems and they will reload as you left them
= Tweet my Starship Click this from the Main Menu. A picture of your starship is copied to the clipboard. Paste it into your tweet to show the world your brilliance!
= Playtest sector limit increased to 5
PERFORMANCE - Render performance improved
SMALL CHANGES - It now costs money to hire crew - Crew will no longer disembark the delivery shuttle if there is no atmosphere, and a warning message is shown - Smelters can now refine Tilium into Refined Tilium (which you can sell) - The initial ship-readyness mission is automatically accepted at the start of a new game - All starting ships now have some cabin space - You can now press the HOME key to re-center the view on the current ship - There will always be at least one shipyard in the starting sector - CO2 scrubbers are now twice as fast at extracting co2 from the atmosphere - Scientists have determined the void is now expanding slower than before - Pipe and port graphics have been changed to give better hints when things are wrong - Hostile ships will no longer randomly camp the sector exit system (permitting a peaceful playthrough if desired) - Updated graphics for CO2 Scrubber, Small Tank, Docking Port, Box, Smelter, Spacesuits - You can now click on a Smelter to cycle its recipe setting - ESC now closes any currently open window, before it will open the main menu - Hull Damage is now shown in the top status bar - The Contracts list will now highlight any contract that occurs in a system you are already due to visit with a blue diamond
BUG FIXES - Mission descriptions now correctly show the ship name they are assigned to, instead of the layer number - Broken floor tiles are now straightened after Drone or Ship Yard repair. - The game world will no longer receive keyboard and mouse input when the Main Menu is open - Objects that extend off the gridmap can now be placed. - Properly restore the view on game load. - You can now sell materials even when your stacks aren't 100% full - Docking Port sound effects would play continuously after loading a save game sometimes - Crew can now install/dismantle/repair equipment that is entirely inside a wall, so long as they can access a neighbouring square - Fixed navigation bugs that meant crew and passengers would sometimes get stuck on corners - Crew would sometimes put suits on before attempting jobs in a wall
Update 1 - Playtest Imminent
Welcome to the first major update video for The Last Starship! Mark and Chris fire up the port guns, arm the fore cannon and kick some space pirate ass in a combat deep dive. (We also say sorry for robbing stuff IRL) Tally Ho!
https://youtu.be/cRRo9zig9VY
Please wishlist the game - it makes a massive difference to us when you do that :)
You can apply to join the Steam Playtest from our store page. Our current plan is to begin the Steam Playtest on Monday 11th July. The first batch of testers will be chosen (randomly) and will receive a notification. We will be adding more batches of testers as and when we feel we need more feedback. Be aware the game is still in a very early stage, and lacks any kind of tutorial to help you.
The Last Starship
Today we officially announced our new game 'The Last Starship'. Start with an empty starship hull and fit her out with propulsion, life-support, weapons and FTL drive, before blasting off into the galaxy to test your design against a range of procedurally generated missions. Build a massive asteroid mining operation; rescue civilians from a transport with a critical engine failure, or build an armada and pick a fight with the pirates who plague the galaxy!
Chris & Mark have made a video demonstrating the features of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a3vn4q3gsM
The game is still in an early phase of development, with many missing features and placeholder art and sound. We are hoping to launch a closed Steam Playtest soon - you can sign up from our Store Page if you're interested in helping us test the game at this early stage.
Please wishlist our game if you'd like to be notified as we make progress on the project!
