Weekly Update Hey crew, welcome aboard for the 16th edition of our weekly blog post! How are you finding the new cyborgs? We'll be refining that feature over time, but this week we've shifted gears back to working on other exciting features and essential fixes. As always, we're only highlighting a handful of the changes here; you can dive into the full list of updates on our Changelog Page. Let's see what's new in this week's haul!
Gibtonite!
Heads up, miners! It seems some mischievous entity has been hiding explosives in our rocks, introducing a new thrill (and challenge) to your mining expeditions. Meet Gibtonite, a volatile new material that adds an explosive twist to your mining adventures.
Mining rocks concealing Gibtonite will trigger its fused state. But don't panic! You can defuse it using a mining scanner. Once defused, you can ensure further safety by using a pickaxe or drill to completely disable the Gibtonite.
Gibtonite has three states:
Inactive: It's harmless unless exposed to heat or energy damage, which returns it to an active state.
Active: In this state, any damage to the ore switches it to its fused state.
Fused: In its most dangerous state, Gibtonite will explode in 2.75 seconds unless disabled.
Mining just got a whole lot more interesting. Remember, you can detect Gibtonite with a mining scanner or, if all else fails, running away is also a valid strategy! Props to MaxIsJoe for this explosive addition to our game. Happy (and safe) mining!
Advanced Proto-kinetic accelerator
Janitors recently got a shiny new toy in the form of the "Advanced Light Replacer", a revolutionary item that makes the jaintor's job a little bit easier when replacing light-bulbs and also introducing a new feature to let them customize the station to their liking. But why should our floor scrubbing intern have all the fun?
Miners get an upgrade for one of their under-used tools in their arsenal, the PKA. The new advanced variant is a lot meaner, powerful and useful. The APKA -as I'll call it from now on- is a fully lethal utility that is designed to let miners face the dangers of lavaland head-on while rivaling the Plasma Cutter's usefulness.
The APKA can mine several tiles ahead from where it has impacted, allowing you to quickly dig tunnels. It also utilizes the Gibtonite's explosive capabilities to become a very effective self-defense/xeno hunting weapon.
However, this upgrade does have its own downsides. For starters, it has a full 8-second cooldown between each charge to use. It has a wide AOE damage that can damage both ores and even the person wielding it if they're not careful with their positioning. It is not easily accessible and requires you to spend resources and time to obtain it.
The APKA is not a replacement for the Advanced Plasma Cutter, as it is still much slower and less efficient. But it is a viable alternative for when cargo refuses to spend their credits on supplying their miners with better equipment, or when you need the extra stopping power to go against a nest of xenos.. or if you want a way to troll your fellow shaft miners during your shift over at lavaland.
Big shoutout to MaxIsJoe for this exciting addition to the game. Happy mining, and remember to use your APKA responsibly!
Balancing
We have fine-tuned some gameplay elements to enhance your experience.
First up, dead bodies will no longer generate toxins. We found scenarios where you'd take an organ or body part from a corpse in the morgue and then suddenly die due to the accrued damage/toxins weren't exactly fun. So, from now on, when a player is dead, their body won't produce any toxins, making organ or body part replacement a less hazardous affair.
We've also adjusted the threshold for triggering random events. Previously, at least five players needed to be online for a random event to occur. We've reduced this requirement to just two players. This change should make the game more lively and interesting during times of low population.
The Most Crucial Fix Yet
Brace yourselves for this monumental update - our microwaves are no longer invisible! That's right, no more blindly fumbling around in your kitchen. Your culinary adventures just got a whole lot easier (and visible)! : P Enjoy your visibly heated treats!
That's all for this week's blog post, folks! As always, we're celebrating a play test session in tandem with the release of this post, so why not jump in and join the fun?
If you've got feedback to share, or if you just want to connect with our awesome community, hop into our Discord server. We've got a welcoming bunch of folks who are always ready to lend a hand to newcomers.
Before signing off, we want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who's involved in this project. Whether you're a patron, a player, a contributor, a wiki editor, or any other member of our community, you're the reason we can do what we do. So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for making all of this possible. See you next week!
Weekly update #15
Weekly update #15
by Bod9001
Weekly Update Hello and welcome to the 15th edition of our weekly blog post update! It's been a week since we introduced the first iteration of cyborgs, and we're as excited as ever. As always, we've compiled a list of noteworthy changes for you to enjoy in this visual format. For a complete list of updates, don't forget to visit our Changelog Page.
Map Vote Feature Added at Round End
Map voting at the end of each round! Thanks to Bod9001, players can now have a say in choosing the next map, instead of relying on random rotation. Now you can force everyone to play your favorite map every round (or try to).
Emagging Air Controllers
We're all for expanding the Emag's versatility, and now there's even more you can do with it! Thanks to AtnerNT, you can now use your Emag to break into air controllers and wreak havoc with the AC system. Get ready to explore new ways to cause chaos in-game!
Good news for cyborgs – working in the dark is a thing of the past! We've added lights to cyborgs, so they can now navigate and carry out tasks with ease, even in dimly lit environments. Let there be light!
That brings us to the end of today's blog post. We're continuing our work on polishing the cyborg experience, and while it's already quite enjoyable, we're committed to making it even better. To stay connected, share your thoughts, and report any issues you may have encountered during the playtest, don't hesitate to join our Discord server. We're always eager to hear your feedback!
We can't wrap up without expressing our immense gratitude to our patrons, contributors, and players. Your ongoing support and dedication make all the difference in the world. It's because of you that we're able to bring this game to life and continue to improve it. Thank you for being a part of our journey, and we look forward to sharing more exciting updates with you in the future!
Weekly update #14
by Bod9001
Weekly Update
greetings
Greetings crew, and welcome to our 14th weekly blog post update.
A lot of work but cyborgs are finally here, celebrate yay, further detail below
cyborgs!
after a decent amount of work cyborgs should be in the next build, note they are not finished and they require some playtesting to balance!
how do you get your hands on a cyborg?
how do you get your hands on a cyborg? there are 3 ways, A as a round start job/occupation there are only 2 slots for this B getting a players brain and putting it into a man machine interface, and putting that into a fully built cyborg body C building an artificial brain, putting that into a fully built cyborg body
how do you build a cyborg body so, first of all you need a Exosuit Fabricator, loaded up with enough materials, print out the cyborg chassis, cyborg torso, cyborg head, cyborg arms and legs, battery pack and artificial brain or man machine interface on which brain you're going to be using and finally the tool carousel you want the cyborg to use
and then you need to load some batteries into that battery pack, so print about 5 batteries from the autoLathe, and load them into the battery pack,
put all the parts into the cyborg chassis apart from the mmi/brain , for that you open up the cyborg head from surgery once it is on the chassis, and insert it, once everything is altogether you should have a cyborg!
note: you will have to manually link up the cyborg with by activating the mmi or artificial brain in hand and selecting the AI you want to link it to,
what's special about cyborgs?
cyborgs can survive in hostile temperatures and pressures perfectly fine, and do not require food, however they do require recharging so make sure you have plenty of recharging stations in the station, they have pretty much AA to everywhere on the station , however the downside is that they have a read-only inventory, of predetermined tools they can use, that is dependent on the selection they chose on round start or was installed to them by the Roboticist
Is still WIP
Experience of cyborgs may be buggy and inconsistent for example stunning still applying to cyborgs, but with your input will be able to squash those bugs and make it a great experience for everyone
That brings us to the end of today's update. As always, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to everyone who has contributed to the project - patrons, players, developers, wiki contributors, and friends alike. Your support means the world to us. Don't forget to join us for today's playtest; we're eager to share the fun with as many of you as possible. See you in the game!
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copied from https://www.unitystation.org/blog/weekly-update-12
Weekly update #12
by Bod9001
Weekly Update Greetings crew, and welcome to our 12th weekly blog post update.
Can you believe another week has flown by? Time really seems to warp when you are exploring the cosmos. Anyways, in this week update we have some small but not less important additions, and some more progress on cyborgs. While these are just a few highlights from our developers' recent work, be sure to visit our Changelog Page for a comprehensive list of all the latest changes.
Also, remember that we have a playtest every week and you can join the fun right now! Leave the blog post for later, launch the game and have some spessman action.
Flora and Rocks Update
FuntimeDudeski has been hard at work sprucing up the game's natural elements, bringing a some long time neglected polish to flora and rocks throughout the space landscape. Players can now be one with the environment, as mob/object sprites are occluded when walking beneath tree canopies or branches. Additionally, prefabs for all potted plant varieties have been added to the project. Streamlined the inheritance of trees and rocks, paving the way for a more efficient game design. Mappers working in the Unity editor will also benefit from some quality-of-life improvements, making it easier than ever to create engaging and beautiful worlds.
Dynamic alerts
As we gear up for the arrival of cyborgs, Bod9001 has devised an ingenious system to enable dynamic alerts. This dev-friendly feature simplifies the process of adding new alerts, eliminating the need to modify the player UI for each addition. Now, all that's required is the creation of a new alert object, followed by instructing the system to display it.
Added Ukrainian & Serbian languages support
In our previous blog post, we highlighted DetectiveEnotsky's work on adding Cyrillic-script support, which we initially believed would cater to various nations sharing similar linguistic roots. However, we must clarify that the update solely supported the Russian language. In a continued effort to make the game more accessible to diverse players, DetectiveEnotsky has now incorporated characters for both Ukrainian and Serbian languages within the Cyrillic font. This enhancement allows even more Slavic players to enjoy the game using their native language. A big thank you to DetectiveEnotsky for their invaluable contributions!
That brings us to the end of today's update. As always, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to everyone who has contributed to the project, players, developers, wiki contributors, and friends alike. Your support means the world to us. Don't forget to join us for today's playtest; we're eager to share the fun with as many of you as possible. See you in the game!
Weekly update #11
by Bod9001
Weekly Update Welcome to the 11th edition of our weekly update blog post! We hope everyone had a happy Easter day. This week, we shifted our focus back to regular features and bug fixing. We are also getting closer to implementing cyborgs, but there is still some work to be done. As always, please keep in mind that this blog post only covers some of the changes we've made this week. If you want to see the full list of changes, be sure to check out our Changelog Page.
Disposal Bins improvements
In the past week, MaxisJoe has been working on improving the disposal bins in Unitystation. One major change is that the disposal bins now require power to function properly. Additionally, a quality of life improvement has been added where clicking on rubbish bags will automatically dump them into the disposal bin. MaxisJoe has also made improvements to the hover tooltips on the disposal bins, making them more informative for players.
Cyrillic character support
DetectiveEnotsky has added support for Cyrillic characters in the game, allowing players to use them without any issues. This is a great improvement for our Russian-speaking players, Ukranians and any other slavs spessmen who use cyrillic script can now fully enjoy the game with their native language. Thank you, DetectiveEnotsky, for your contribution!
3D improvements
The 3D mode that was originally developed as an April Fool's Day joke but continues to receive support and improvements from Bod. In the latest update, Bod added a button that allows players to click on themselves while in first person mode, making it easier to see themselves in the game
Work in progress
The team has been making progress on setting up the UI for cyborgs. Players will now be able to have a tool carousel of selectable tools to use as a cyborg. Additionally, the alert system is being reworked to allow for dynamic alerts, which will eliminate the need for manually adding UI assets. This will also make it easier to implement charging and battery level alerts.
We don't have pictures to show yet, but keep an eye on our discord to know all the latest news about the development of cyborgs!
And that wraps it for today. Only left to mention that we just pinged everyone on our Discord server toady, so we expect a little bit more people than usual on today's playtest! We hope to see you there and have some fun with us!
Also, if you want to support us, consider becoming a contribute to our Github. If you can't do either, just playing the game helps us a lot! So join us today or any other day, and join our Discord server to have a chat with us and the community.
Weekly update #10
by Bod9001
Greetings and welcome to the 10th edition of Unitystation's weekly update blog post. This week's update is going to be shorter than usual, as the main focus was on creating something fun to play for April Fool's Day.
Despite the focus on the April Fool's event, there were still a number of important changes made to the game that are worth mentioning. Keep in mind that not all changes are covered in this blog post, but the complete list can be found on our Changelog Page or our Github repository.
Without further ado, let's dive into the update and see what's new in Unitystation this week.
Introducing Unitystation's 3D Mode
For this year's April Fools' Day, we wanted to do something special for our players. That's why we decided to work on a new 3D mode for the game, and we must say it turned out surprisingly well! Although it's not perfect, it definitely adds a fun element to the game.
We had a team of dedicated developers who spent countless hours working on this mode. And although this was a one-time thing, it's always exciting to see what we can do to improve the game's experience.
In addition to the 3D mode, we also made many other changes that players will love. To give you a glimpse of what's to come, we'll be sharing more pictures in the near future. Stay tuned!
Engine content separation first steps
Our developer Max has been hard at work on implementing engine content separation, which involves separating the engine code from the game content. This is a crucial step towards making it easier to create custom code bases, and also protects against malicious code that may be added to a custom code base.
Max recently made a pull request (PR) to merge some small steps towards engine content separation, which is an exciting development for our project. This is just the first step in what will be a long and complex process, but we're optimistic about the progress we're making.
We'll keep you updated on our progress with engine content separation, and we're excited to see howthis will help us expand the capabilities of Unitystation
Weekly Update Hello and welcome to this short weekly blog post update. Although concise, there are some great news we will explore today and as always, remember the full list of changes can be read on our Changelog Page. The blog post is only a highlight of the most colourful changes!
"You're a convicted criminal who has been experimented on while you were in prison. You've gained an unnatural ability to withstand more damage than any other humanoid can, and have formed a ritual with another inmate that gave you the ability to become a "Blood Brother". A shadowy figure took interest in your bond with your blood brother and has offered you a job on behalf of the syndicate in exchange for your freedom."
In this cooperative game mode, at least two Blood Brothers start together with the sole goal of achieving at least 70% of their objectives to earn their freedom and to showcase their newly found capabilities to their shadowy employer. However, there are some unique challenges to this game mode:
* Blood Brothers are linked to each other, and the death of one means the failure and death of all other brothers.
* Blood Brothers start with an uplink that only has 8 TC, limiting the amount of immediate resources provided by the Syndicate for them.
* If the total amount of greentexts is less than 70%, all Blood Brothers automatically fail.
Every Blood Brother starts with significantly more health, making them much more resilient and harder to kill. However, some brothers have a small chance to spawn with Paranoia or a random spell.
It's important to note that "Blood Brothers" will only trigger if there are six players. We're excited to see how this game mode will be received and invite everyone to try it out and provide feedback. Thanks to MaxIsJoe for bringing this new addition to the project!
Cyborg Progress Update
Bod9001 has made significant progress on the cyborg implementation since the last update. They have set up the battery system and custom cyborg UI, and all the limbs have been added. Currently, the team is focused on game balancing and reviewing the original Byond SS13 implementation of cyborgs. If you have any suggestions on how cyborgs should function, please feel free to share them in the Discord community.
However, there is still a lot of work to be done, including adding recharging stations and implementing the all-access feature for cyborgs. The team is committed to bringing a unique and exciting cyborg experience to the game, and we are thrilled to share this progress update with our community.
Bloody Combat
MaxIsJoe heard your feedback and has made some changes to the combat system that will make it even more intense. One of the major changes is the addition of blood effects during combat. Now, every time you attack someone, there is a chance of blood splattering everywhere, even if you're only using your bare hands.
Fixed the Backrooms emptiness
We recently discovered an odd bug that was causing the Backrooms away-site to be completely empty, devoid of any content or labyrinth-like structures. It was just an empty room with no back. Fortunately, Bod9001 was able to identify the issue and fix it. Now, the backrooms are once again procedurally generated with their characteristic labyrinthine structure. Players can once again get lost in the depths of the backrooms and explore its mysteries to their hearts' content.
**mysterious image here**
What was that? ... Anyways, that's all for today's update! We appreciate you taking the time to read this post and for your ongoing support of the Unitystation project. Without you, none of this would be possible.
If you want to contribute to the development of the game, consider contributing to our Github Your donations help us maintain our servers, pay bounties, and improve the game overall. Additionally, we welcome you to join our Discord community where you can chat with other players and developers, share your ideas and feedback, and stay up-to-date on the latest changes.
Thank you again for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in-game
https://discord.com/invite/tFcTpBp
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Weekly update #9
by Bod9001
Weekly Update Hello and welcome to this short weekly blog post update. Although concise, there are some great news we will explore today and as always, remember the full list of changes can be read on our Changelog Page. The blog post is only a highlight of the most colourful changes!
"You're a convicted criminal who has been experimented on while you were in prison. You've gained an unnatural ability to withstand more damage than any other humanoid can, and have formed a ritual with another inmate that gave you the ability to become a "Blood Brother". A shadowy figure took interest in your bond with your blood brother and has offered you a job on behalf of the syndicate in exchange for your freedom."
In this cooperative game mode, at least two Blood Brothers start together with the sole goal of achieving at least 70% of their objectives to earn their freedom and to showcase their newly found capabilities to their shadowy employer. However, there are some unique challenges to this game mode:
* Blood Brothers are linked to each other, and the death of one means the failure and death of all other brothers.
* Blood Brothers start with an uplink that only has 8 TC, limiting the amount of immediate resources provided by the Syndicate for them.
* If the total amount of greentexts is less than 70%, all Blood Brothers automatically fail.
Every Blood Brother starts with significantly more health, making them much more resilient and harder to kill. However, some brothers have a small chance to spawn with Paranoia or a random spell.
It's important to note that "Blood Brothers" will only trigger if there are six players. We're excited to see how this game mode will be received and invite everyone to try it out and provide feedback. Thanks to MaxIsJoe for bringing this new addition to the project!
Cyborg Progress Update
Bod9001 has made significant progress on the cyborg implementation since the last update. They have set up the battery system and custom cyborg UI, and all the limbs have been added. Currently, the team is focused on game balancing and reviewing the original Byond SS13 implementation of cyborgs. If you have any suggestions on how cyborgs should function, please feel free to share them in the Discord community.
However, there is still a lot of work to be done, including adding recharging stations and implementing the all-access feature for cyborgs. The team is committed to bringing a unique and exciting cyborg experience to the game, and we are thrilled to share this progress update with our community.
Bloody Combat
MaxIsJoe heard your feedback and has made some changes to the combat system that will make it even more intense. One of the major changes is the addition of blood effects during combat. Now, every time you attack someone, there is a chance of blood splattering everywhere, even if you're only using your bare hands.
Fixed the Backrooms emptiness
We recently discovered an odd bug that was causing the Backrooms away-site to be completely empty, devoid of any content or labyrinth-like structures. It was just an empty room with no back. Fortunately, Bod9001 was able to identify the issue and fix it. Now, the backrooms are once again procedurally generated with their characteristic labyrinthine structure. Players can once again get lost in the depths of the backrooms and explore its mysteries to their hearts' content.
**mysterious image here**
What was that? ... Anyways, that's all for today's update! We appreciate you taking the time to read this post and for your ongoing support of the Unitystation project. Without you, none of this would be possible.
If you want to contribute to the development of the game, consider contributing to our Github Your donations help us maintain our servers, pay bounties, and improve the game overall. Additionally, we welcome you to join our Discord community where you can chat with other players and developers, share your ideas and feedback, and stay up-to-date on the latest changes.
Thank you again for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in-game
Welcome to the eighth version of our weekly update blog post! This week, our focus has been on refactoring the health system to make it more modular and easier to maintain. While this may not sound as exciting as some of our previous updates, it's an important step towards improving the overall stability and functionality of the game and it brings us one step closer to achieve cyborgs and other quirky living creatures!
As always, we've made a number of other improvements and fixes across the game, which you can find listed in full on our Changelog Page. So without further ado, let's dive into the details of what we've been working on this week!
Protips!
MaxIsJoe has been busy finishing off the last few bits for the Pro Tips system. In this update, he's added a new UI for players to see all of the available pro tips in the game. Additionally, MaxIsJoe has included a few more tips focused on the Intentions system and resting starting time, which should help guide new players and prevent common mistakes.
These improvements are part of our ongoing effort to make Unitystation more accessible and user-friendly for all players. We believe that these Pro Tips will help new players get started and feel more confident in their abilities as they explore the game, and so they don't walk out an airlock to the void of space in their first playthrough.
We extend our gratitude to MaxIsJoe for his dedication to improving the player experience.
Networking package update
Bod9001 has recently updated our networking package to Mirror, bringing with it a range of back-end improvements. As part of this update, we can now use a system to network custom sprites directly to the client, providing a more immersive and engaging experience for players.
LastCaptainBonk has been working diligently on improving Pogstation, with focus on polishing the reactor room and adding seats in the Evac area. For a complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog available at their PR page.
Integration of Modular Health System
We are excited to announce that the new modular health system by Bod9001 has been enabled for all players. This update brings us one step closer to introducing new creatures such as robots, cyborgs, and plasmamen. While the update does not introduce any new features, it is a significant refactor of the current health system. We do expect some bugs to arise during this process, so we encourage all players to report any issues they encounter through our issue tracker. Thank you for your patience as we continue to improve and develop Unitystation.
That's it for this week's blog post. We hope you enjoyed reading about the latest updates and improvements on Unitystation. We want to thank everyone involved in the project, contributors, and players. Your support and dedication keep us going, and we couldn't do it without you!
If you're interested in getting involved in the development of Unitystation, please consider joining our Discord server. It's a great way to connect with the community, get help, and contribute to the project in any way you can.
Thank you once again, and we'll see you next week with more exciting updates!
Weekly update #7
Weekly update #7 by Bod9001
Greetings, and welcome to the latest edition of our weekly update for Unitystation. We're excited to share our progress with you, and we hope you'll find our latest developments to be just as exciting. This week, we've been hard at work addressing some of the issues and bugs that have been reported by our users.We've also been doing some refactoring to improve performance and optimize our codebase.
As always, please keep in mind that this is just a small glimpse into what we've been working on, and we encourage you to check out our Changelog Page for the full list of changes. Thank you for your continued support, and we can't wait to share more updates with you soon!
LastCaptainBonk has taken up the challenge of reviving and breathing some life into Pogstation that was a bit neglected for a while.
He has been hard at work on a variety of improvements, including the addition of navigational signs and other features that have been added since the last time Pog was modified. We're grateful for his dedication and efforts to improve Pogstation and bring it back to rotation!
Although specific treatments for traumas are not yet available, an advanced regen mesh can help heal any traumas you may have. If you're experiencing bleeding, make sure to use gauze to heal the bleed stacks. It's worth noting that slash and piercing can cause bleeding, burn can change the color of your body parts based on the trauma level, and blunt can lead to internal bleeding. In addition, bullets now have the potential to cause bleeding.
All in all, with all this bleeding, it seems that the janitorial staff will have their hands full! Give the updated system a try and let us know your thoughts.
The Kick on join bug has been fixed
For some time, players have been experiencing an issue where they were inexplicably kicked from the game a few seconds after joining. Fortunately, we have now identified and fixed the root cause of the issue. The problem was an invalid message that was being sent to the client, causing the stream of data to become offset and wreak havoc on all other messages. As a security measure, the client was forced to kick itself.
Thanks to the hard work of Bod9001 and your reports, this issue is now a thing of the past. So, jump in and enjoy the game without any interruptions.
With the bug now squashed, you can join servers without fear of being kicked out by a server gremlin. It's party time!
No more leaks: Phase 1
As we briefly mentioned last week, there has been some efforts put into fixing memory leaks that might affect the server performance. We're pleased to report that Havietisov, also known as Angry Sonic Dude, has successfully merged all of their changes into the repository. This is a major milestone in our efforts to make the server more reliable and long-lasting.
However, we recognize that this is just the beginning. With so many mechanics involved in the game, fixing the memory leaks is an iterative process that will require ongoing attention. But we're committed to tracking down the leaking objects and resolving the issue.
Modular Health
We're thrilled to announce that our lead developer, Bod9001, has implemented a new modular approach to player health. This approach involves breaking down the health-related systems such as hunger and blood saturation into individual components that can be generated and assembled through a modularization process. This will greatly enhance the flexibility and customization of player health, making it easier to implement new features like cyborgs and their unique battery system.
We want to emphasize that these changes are not yet active in the game, but we're excited to see how they perform in testing.
We want to express our deepest gratitude to our amazing community of players amd contributors. Your support, feedback, and passion for the game keep us motivated and inspired to keep improving and expanding the experience.
We invite everyone to join us for our weekly playtest every Saturday and to connect with us on our Discord server. We love hearing your thoughts, ideas, and stories about your adventures in the game. Together, we can continue to shape and evolve this wonderful space clown simulator.
Once again, thank you for your ongoing support, and we can't wait to see you in the game!
how do you get your hands on a cyborg?
