We just updated Unending Galaxy to version 1.3.1.5. This is a small maintenance patch adding the ability to prevent your trading stations from dealing with foreign traders (you can find the option in your trading stations' setup menu). It also fixes a small bug where AI Core related events could still happen when the faction is dead or disabled.
New Game Project
We are also happy to officially announce we are now working on a new game project, a colony building and management game akin to games like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress. You can read more about it on our official website.
Unending Galaxy 1.3.1.2 Released!
We just updated Unending Galaxy to version 1.3.1. This version features a brand new map, Unruly Galaxy where factions can only control solar systems and strategic crossroads. I also reduced the diplomatic modifier for being at peace and added a diplomatic incident random event to shake things a bit between the various major factions.
Performance have been slightly improved thanks to a much faster path-finding algorithm, while civilian miners will regulate their population based on the amount of available asteroids.
Also, to acknowledge Unending Galaxy's second anniversary the game will be at $4.99 during the whole week.
Hotpatch 1.3.1.2
New
Opening the build station menu also opens the sector info panel
Sector info panel: Clicking the faction's flag open the diplomacy menu
Destroying stations, factories, gates in a territory you have an alliance/cease fire with has a bigger diplomatic impact
Tribute formula tweaked removed randomness, takes player's treachery level, relative strength, distance, treaties into account
Bug Fixes
Added warning message when player is using a faction mod on top of a savegame not running the mod
Fixed: Possible menu opening/closing related crash
Fixed: Possible quicksave/autosave related crash
Fixed: Smaller misc problems
Changelog
New
Added "Unruly Galaxy" map
Added" Diplomatic Incident" event
Improvements
Civilian miners numbers adjust based on the amount of asteroids
Doubled pathfinder's performances
Reduced max "we are at peace" diplomatic bonus from 50% to 30%
Bug Fixes
Miners squatting on top of stations when there's no asteroid on the map
Transparency issues with a blue planet and a backdrop
Unending Galaxy 1.3 Released!
Unending Galaxy 1.3 has just been released on Steam! This is a major release finalizing Steam integration with the addition of achievements, Steam Cloud saving, and more importantly, the Steam Workshop support (thanks to Alex).
Game Features and Improvements
The game should perform better and be more robust. We fixed a few issues, made sure that outdated mods for previous versions would not crash the game without telling you what's happening. 25 Steam achievements have also been added, many of them highlighting some features you might have otherwise missed.
You can now set an area for your scavengers to work in (it works the same way as the mining ships). Also, a bulletin board advertisement has been been added. It will allow you to exchange money for a temporary reputation boost with another faction.
We also fixed a few problems ranging from outdated tutorial texts to crashes under specific conditions. Check the changelog below for more details.
Modding
Our game editor has been significantly improved making the creation of new mods and modification of the base game much easier than before. It also allows you to upload your creations directly to the Unending Galaxy Steam Workshop. Be sure to check this topic for more information. A few official mods have already been posted on the Workshop already, and more will come in the coming weeks.
Changelog
1.3.0.5 Hotpatch Changes:
+ Added option to disable AI Core when starting new game
+ Misc code optimizations
+ Removed "debug" tab from ship scanner
+ Increased refresh rate of galactic map (feels more fluid)
Bug Fixes:
+ Fixed: Minor bugs and code oddities
1.3.0.4 Hotpatch Bug Fixes:
+ Fixed: Fast Shipyard trait not working if manually selected by player
+ Fixed: Profile editor wasn't updating how many trait points are left [editor]
+ Fixed: Missing "Fast Shipyard" faction trait in profile editor [editor]
+ Fixed: Possible corruption in profile editor if the "add new" button isn't clicked before making a new profile [editor]
1.3.0.3 Hotpatch Bug Fixes:
+ Fixed: Bug in profile manager that could corrupt modded profiles [editor]
+ Fixed: Factions created from scratch would end up with a transparent flag [editor]
+ Fixed: Game doesn't take into account modded icons/flags
+ Fixed: Automated sellers/buyers would try to trade with objects flagged as "Always Hostile"
+ Fixed: Possible issue if a modded game or the editor is run from a windows shortcut
1.3.0.2 Hotpatch Changes
+ Added 75FPS frame limiter setting
+ Added graphic option to fix the menu artifact bug on low-end GPU
+ Slightly improved database loading speed / efficiency
+ Default sector map icons can now be changed by mods [editor]
+ Default backdrops, planets, suns and clouds can be changed by mods (alongside their galactic map counterparts) [editor]
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed: Menu artifact that stays open when you close a menu (even with the new option disabled in gfx settings, this one if for low end GPU)
+ Fixed: Popups not always closing when closing related menu
+ Fixed: Potential full stop of the rendered thread (not sure it can happen in the wild)
+ Fixed: Memory leaks with mods overwritting default game sprites
1.3.0.1 Hotpatch Changes
+ Changed DirectX requirements for the Game Editor to be the same as the game itself (if you can run the game with your current settings, you should run the editor too)
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed: Clicking on Map Editor's buttons while there's no map opened would crash the editor. (greyed out until a map is loading / created)
+ Fixed: Game Editor > create new map: not checking map name is correct
+ Fixed: Map Editor save/load not defaulting to selected mod's map folder
1.3 Release Gameplay
+ Added many Steam Achievements (Alex)
+ Added 'mission' to exchange money for improved relation with a faction (Alex)
+ You can restrict the scavenger AI to specific areas (same as the miner AI, will still sell outside of its restricted area)
Game Engine
+ General performances should be slightly improve, as we are using the latest version of the compiler
+ Game will tell you if you are trying to load outdated data files (usually coming from mods)
+ Mod manager handles both local and steam workshop mods
+ Base game data and sprites can be overwritten by mods without having to edit those files directly
+ Steam Cloud Support (for game saves)
Modding Tools
+ Added ability to upload mods to Steam Workshop (Alex)
+ Revamped game editor's main window (check main menu on top)
+ Added menu to create new mod
+ Added option to open selected mod's folder in Explorer directly from the editor
+ Automatically reloads the database with proper mod selecteds when you're selecting (or creating) a different mod
+ It's no longer needed to have your mod loaded in the load order for the editor to behave properly
+ Added field to ship editor showing ship stats like they appear ingame
+ More helpful texts
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed: Crash if the savegame folder has been deleted (Alex)
+ Fixed: Multiple memory leaks and stability problems caused by previous version of the compiler
+ Fixed: Crash if text is missing in language file (which shouldn't really happen)
+ Fixed: Issues when animated ships explode
+ Fixed: Fixed a bug where files aren't saved in proper mod folder [modding tools]
+ Fixed: Crash in map editor if the map directory doesn't exist [modding tools]
+ Fixed: Cargo size in ship editor not properly reset when reloading DB [modding tools]
+ Fixed: Multiple issues ranging from minor glitches to critical errors [modding tools]
+ Fixed: Wrong map and sector info panel keyboard shortcuts in the tutorial texts
1.3 Coming Soon
Yes, it has been a long time since the last post and update. I should apologize for that. I had to take some time off after spending 2 consecutive years on the same project. I also started to work on other projects in parallel, but it’s a bit early to start talking about those in depth.
That being said, we are planning to release Unending Galaxy 1.3 in a few weeks. It’s not going to be as big as the previous updates, but it will integrate Steam achievements, and more importantly the Steam Workshop (so you can post and download mods easily). If you have been modding for UG, leave a comments so we can allow you to post your mod to the workshop before the official opening day, you’ll receive access code so you can download the 1.3 game editor and workshop up loader in advance. Kudos to Alex for making the integration of those Steam related features a reality. Note that the game will still work just fine offline / outside of Steam, so don’t worry. This version will be compiled with the latest version of the compiler, meaning that many bugs and issues that I wasn’t able to fix in 1.2.6 should fix themselves. Content-wise, it will add a couple of missions, ships and other stuff that will be revealed later.
Unending Galaxy 1.3 is also going to be the last major update. While I understand it can be a disheartening news for some of you, after 3 large content updates and multiple smaller patches and fixes, it’s no longer financially viable for me to spend so much time working on this game. While this is the main reason, I also need to point out that it has been written in an outdated programming language for which it’s pretty difficult to find decent and maintained libraries (like the sound and graphical ones which both are quite imperfect, to say the least). For instance, integrating Steam achievements and the workshop has been a cause of many headaches. Adding pretty much any new feature is becoming increasingly difficult.
That’s why for the next projects, I am moving toward C# and true and tested game libraries (Monogame). The first project will be quite small and straightforward, the next one will be more ambitious and likely inspired by my previous work on the GRA roguelike. Anyway, it’s too early to talk directly about those projects, I’ll get back to it when I have something to show for. 🙂
Cheers,
EsKa.
Graphical Update 1.2.6
Graphical Update
This new version adds highly requested fluid rotations for ships, bullets and misc objects. Works both on normal and map view-ports with no negative impact on FPS.
This release also massively increases initial game loading speed. It has a much smaller RAM and VRAM footprint too, which should make things easier on low-end hardware.
It also adds animations to a few ships and fixes a sector takeover issue in 1.2.5.
Changelog
Hotpatch 2
+ You can no longer attack allies even if you issue the order
+ Police and raiders will ignore allies
+ Explosions automagically ignore allied ships (sigh)
+ Fixed: Allies could attack each other
Hotpatch 1
+ Fixed: Menu crash with animated ships (apologies)
Graphics
+ Fluid object rotations on both the map and standard view
+ Shields are shaped and rotate like their owners
+ Added animation to Helios, Charon, Hades, Fenrir and Cerberus ships
+ Added animation to Swarm Queens and Gargants
+ Asteroids are spawned randomly rotated
+ Changed sprite for Swarm Queens and Gargants bullets
Modding
+ Ships can be animated
Performances / Code Stuff
+ Much shorter initial loading time
+ Smaller memory footprint (both RAM and VRAM)
+ Rotating objects can be animated now
User Interface
+ Removed rotation quality setting (obsolete)
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed: Ships 'twitching' from a rotation angle to another when facing a direction
+ Fixed: Weird looking gate rotations
+ Fixed: Rifts aren't rotating like gates
+ Fixed: Can't take over system sectors if those aren't a planet or a sun
+ Fixed: Sirak faction had the raider tag causing relationship issues
Major 1.2.5 Content Update
Unending Galaxy 1.2.5 has just been released on Steam! This is a major release adding a lot of content and dozens of tweaks, requested features and bug fixes.
Major New Features
Play as any faction
While in previous versions you could look like any other faction in-game, you couldn’t really take the place of an existing one. This is now a thing of the past: the overhauled “new game” menu allows you to select any of the major factions from the get go.
Ceridans aren’t accessible due to the fact they spawn late. Pirates aren’t playable, nor is the Swarm (because they rely entirely on AI “ships”). I will see what I can do to make both factions playable in the future.
Dreadnoughts, corvettes and drones
Drones replace fighters, they are fully automated, used by carriers and military bases and come with preset weaponry. To fill the void, the corvette class has been added. Those are usually fast, but lightly armed. Combat-wise between drones and frigates.
I also added the new Dreadnought class. Those are extremely though and powerful combat ships (often coming with drone support), but they are also quite slow and costly. So don’t get fooled by the numbers: as with any large ship, they can be overwhelmed by large numbers of smaller ones if they aren’t provided an escort.
While at it, most ships and weapons have been re-balanced, and the worst looking sprites have been replaced by much nicer ones (AI Core cargo ship to name the worst offender). You can look at the various new ships in the updated wiki too!
Stability and performances
This is the main reason why I want to publish the 1.2.5 version first. To sum it up it’s much, much better. The 1.2.1 was known to freeze completely when you reach a large enough amount of agents (ships and stations). On my computer, it was at around 20.000 of those, this is now fixed.
Loading a save-game is also much faster (3 or 4 times). Issues of ships duplicating are resolved. Long games in which you saved and reloaded multiple times no longer mess up hangar assignments and so on and so forth.
Miscellaneous
There are so many changes it’s hard to keep track of everything. I’d suggest you to check the full changelog at the bottom of this post for more information, but here are a few of the major gameplay and UI changes.
As you can see on this screenshot, the shipyard menu has been overhauled, it’s much better looking and requires less clicks to do the exact same thing as before (which is normally a good policy :p). Other menus have been slightly improved and will continue to be.
The empire manager allows you to set policies for your factions like the ability for your building manager to build outside of your borders or not, if you want to allow your automated military to defend your allies during invasions (which is a thing now: AI allies will defend each other, and they will defend you too if you have this policy enabled), if you want your faction to generate ‘civilian’ raiders, and so on. I will probably add more policies as the time goes on (suggestions are welcome, just understand those are YES/NO policies, no slider or values as parameters).
Oh, and I know many will like this one: You no longer need to fiddle with the various money accounts when you want to build or buy something. The game will automatically use whatever money is available in all your accounts. For instance if you want to build a space station, it will first use the money in your general account, and if it doesn’t has enough, it will check your building, then military, then diplomatic accounts. I think I got all menus beside the colony building one that I will update before the official launch.
Important Warning
Note that this version isn’t save-game or mod compatible with previous editions. A tool has been provided (located in the data folder) to update old mod files (ships, factions and profiles formats have changed), but it’s delivered “as is” and you will need to review the changes in the game editor.
Full Changelog
Faction AI
+ Better allocation of money
+ Better at detecting and responding to building of military bases in territory
+ Allied factions can defend each other against invasions.
Balance
+ Shipyard Build time proportional to ship value
+ Bounties proportional to military strength
+ AI Core gains the "fast shipyards" trait
+ Added "armored" ship tag: hull absorbs 50% of damage
+ Increased colony building time x10 (takes a few minutes instead of seconds)
+ Large shield systems need a longer period of time before being able to charge after a hit
+ Killing a carrier will deactivate all its drones
+ Missiles stop tracking target after 50% of their total lifespan
+ Ceridan (AI) get more money on spawn so production isn't crippled
Gameplay
+ You can now play as any in-game faction
+ Ships are using a tag system to determine how the simulation is going to use them
+ Military bases and carriers use drones instead of fighters.
+ Drones can't be piloted directly and come with preset weaponry
+ New faction trait "fast shipyards" : 20% faster ship production
+ SPQR has gates closed to non allies until the SPQR related event fires
+ Pirates use more ships
+ Warpgates can be destroyed
+ Small chance of spawning capital class raiders and bounty hunter after an hour of gameplay
+ You set various policies for your faction to follow
+ Claiming all sun/planets in a system will convert *empty* sectors even if already owned by other faction
Game Data
+ Weapons fire rate reduced, damage increased (keeping roughly same DPS)
+ Rebalanced weapon prices, damages and energy consumption
+ Rebalanced stats of most ships, too many changes to list
+ Reduced most missiles flight time and turn rate
+ Added many drone variants for each tech group
+ Added corvette class ships for all factions
+ Drath : new dreadnought and armored cargo
+ Federation : new dreadnought and changes to existing ships
+ Siraks : new dreadnought, new corvette, and replaced frigate
+ AI Core: new assault cruiser, old cruiser become a frigate
+ Slightly reduced AI Core shield stats to make up for increased production
Graphics
+ Higher quality sprites for the Siraks
+ Resized many ships
+ Replaced a few sprites by better looking ones
+ Improved ceridan battleship sprite (added border, reworked glow)
+ Newly built docks fade in instead of popping
+ Replaced AI Core cargo ship sprite by better looking one
+ Replaced SPQR frigate ship by larger one, old one reused as corvette
+ Added colored flags
Modding Tools
+ Improved ship and weapon editors (filters, list, stats)
+ Improved faction editor (additional flags)
+ Included file format conversion tool for modders
+ Added option to auto set weapon prices (approximate)
Performances / Code Stuff
+ Improved performances all around in a major way
+ Much faster savegame loading (3-4x faster)
+ Ship order management should use less CPU cycles
+ Ship order managers no longer continuously get and free memory
+ Addition and deletion of objects optimized
+ Large fleet battle should run better thanks to less bullets
+ Killing a carrier ship no longer use way too many CPU cycles
+ Misc stability related improvements
+ Game can recognize outdated, unusable savegames (and warn you about it)
+ Save system error correction mechanism improved
+ Reduced CPU cost of scavengers
+ Some new functions added to debug/cheat menu
+ Removed useless cargo component from asteroids saving ram, disk space
User Interface
+ Manual money transactions, colony and dock building no longer need funds to be in specific accounts to work
+ Click home-base in ship scan to center camera on it
+ Small improvements to shipyard build queue
+ Added command to sell all cargo in Ship Setup menu, with optional notification
+ Move Cargo menu is larger
+ Improved New Game menu layout
+ Added option to filter out drones from asset list (default)
+ Double click on player owned ships/docks will open relevant setup menu
+ Check-boxes are easier to read
+ Changed confirmation sound for trade and guild operations to something more "money-ish"
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed: Game freezing due to memory management (usually in large / long games)
+ Fixed: Game crash due to sound library
+ Fixed: Free traders trying to sell to hostile factions
+ Fixed: Potential issue in cache system which could cause the game to slow down and crash
+ Fixed: Money management wasn't thread safe
+ Fixed: Carriers able to auto build their own drones would ignore manual ship type selection
+ Fixed: Minor display bug in colony build menu
+ Fixed: Minor display bug in station setup menu if player is using a transparent logo
+ Fixed: "My Assets" map filter is counting bullets in currently focused sector
+ Fixed: It was possible to click game editor button while database is still loading [modding tools]
+ Fixed: Saving weapon in editor doesn't auto update ware [modding tools]
+ Fixed: Updating ware data in weapon editor delete ware's picture [modding tools]
+ Fixed: FPS counter obstructed by money widget
+ Fixed: Small issue with ships calling for help
+ Fixed: Station destroyed with a carrier docked to it would cause problems
+ Fixed: Rare bug where the pirate guild would ask for way more money than necessary
+ Fixed: Galactic map would show gates that are closed to you
+ Fixed: ships escorting raiders could still call police for help causing relationship issues
+ Fixed: Rare case of ship/object duplication
+ Fixed: When spawning, ceridan could (temporarily) declare war to self, locking military fleet in place
+ Fixed: Ships visible in unexplored sectors when fog of war is disabled
+ Fixed: Crash when reloading database [modding tools]
+ Fixed: Used TreeViewItem instead of Listboxitem in dockmenu (may or may not cause a display glitch)
+ Fixed: AI Core couldn't build colonies on non capital icy and oceanic planets
+ Fixed: Some issues with tech group selection
+ Fixed: Fixed color of some clouds on Imperium map
+ Fixed: Map descriptions aren't accurate regarding size
+ Fixed: Shield and weapon info popup not closing up on mouse leaving area
+ Fixed: Closing dock menu while popup is open wouldn't close the popup
+ Fixed: Saves messing up hangar assignments on rare occasions
+ Fixed: Derelict and refitted derelict carriers had the exact same name
+ Fixed: Trade operations not changing left panel info in dock menu
+ Fixed: Trade menu not refreshing properly on some OS / config (windows 10)
+ Fixed: Misc pirate guild menu issues
Public Test for 1.2.5
We are making available the work-in-progress 1.2.5 version to the public. It fixes many problems with 1.2.1x and add a lot of the things that were discussed in the 1.3 development log. People who are experiencing freezes or crashes with the current 1.2 version should try this version. But understand there's no guarantee it will work.
This patch contains a potential workaround for the rare "low/high surrogate / index out of range" bug. It doesn't fix it but instead of crashing the game it should display an empty string or one full of "?" characters. Given that we are unable to replicate this bug, results may vary.
It also contains a couple of minor tweaks and fixes.
Changelog
Changes
Pirate bases will no longer ignore players if they owe money to the guild (guild fines)
Updated some sound related libraries
Bug Fixes
Possible work around Low/High Surrogate bug (and related)
Fixed: Pirate bases can attack player's police forces even if he is a guild member
Fixed: Function used to send wings against a target could fail to execute properly (very rare)
Fixed: Asset Manager and Ship Setup menus allowed to assign AI to automated defense ships
Patch 1.2.1.2
Patch Notes
A small maintenance patch adding an option in the general setting to keep the game running while the empire manager is open. It also fixes a few issues and make some docks slightly bigger.
Changelog
Changes
Added option in game settings: Don't pause game when empire manager is open (user request)
Resized a few docks (mines, chemical plant) to fit with the rest of the game better
Misc small performance tweaks
RTS input mode: If camera in follow mode, movements keys will decouple camera from object, reset camera button will reset the view on last followed object
Bug Fixes
Fixed: Rare crash when the game is in active pause
Fixed: Possible issue when an object change sector at the same time it dies (rare)
Fixed: Access violation when talking to a bounty hunter who has no current order
Fixed: Very minor menu coloring glitch in pirate guild menu
Fixed: Changing faction in stats doesn't refresh the stats menu
Fixed: Small memory leak if a hangar get destroyed when a ship is being added to it simultaneously (rare)
Patch 1.2.1.1
Patch Notes
This small patch add a small widget (like fleets and favorite) to monitor your money and accounts in real time. Said widgets are also more transparent when not focused so you can see things that are in the background.
It also fixes a couple of problems reported by the community, including a rare bug that would disable keyboard input, docked ships being reported twice in the asset list, and a few cases where the game would launch the bug report tool for no good reason.
Changelog
Changes
Made fleet and bookmarks widgets more transparent while closed
Added money info widget in the top right corner
Fixes <*>Fixed: Rare bug causing keyboard commands to stop working
<*>Fixed: Docked ships counted twice in asset list
<*>Fixed: ShipListToString could cause an access violation if list contains dead ships
<*>Fixed: Many edge cases where a list containing a dead object would cause a problem (usually, access violation)
<*>Fixed: A few cases where bug report tool is triggered for no good reason
