Greetings ladies and gents. We took a bit more time on compiling this update, but I'd say it was time well spent. We hope you agree!
Here's the rundown:
- Steam Workshop - We're not done with the game or the toolset yet to make modding easier, but you can start publishing your mods on Steam and share your creative work with everyone! Check out the Modding guide on how to start ;).
- Cloaking - You can finall cloak your ship and attack unsuspecting ships from the shadows
- Junkyard - One more world element implemented: the junkyard. Feel free release destruction upon them and who knows... you might get to collect some loot as well.
- Global events - Time to start activating these little ones. Not all events are fully implemented at the moment, but the system is in place and it's only a matter of time before we get the rest in the game too. They're also accompanied by News so you know what you're dealing with. Check your Captain's log regularly... the Info tab ;).
You might have noticed there's no word above on the Campaign. Yeah... implementing the features listed below took a bit more time than planned, meaning Campaign was pushed into backstage again. We apologize for that, but once we starged working on global events, we couldn't stop. Worry not, though, as we
ARE continually working on implementing the campaign.
LIST OF CHANGES
- FIXED: An error where the Fleet panel could not be accessed on several occasions
- FIXED: Fire at will no longer attacks dying ships
- FIXED: Alameda, Hamilton, Memphis, Roanoke, Zoemin, Cleora, Clearwater and Maniwaki stations now sell Equipment as intended
- FIXED: Several errors in the game text files
- FIXED: Player no longer receives Experience for ship he/she didn't destroy
- FIXED: Ships no longer spawn inside planets
- ADDED: Steam Workshop support
- Mods can now be integrated into the game by subscribing through Steam Workshop. Afterwards, the game handles the installation and activation via the Mods panel in-game
- Mod Manager is added to the game root folder which is used to build up and upload mods onto Steam Workshop, BUT also for downloading mods too(this method is only temporary, as we will continue improving Workshop integration and mold the experience into what everybody is already used to on Steam)
- Two mods are already available. One that adds more ship banners, and the other boosts Light and Heavy weapons. The latter is actually our "Weapons balance" testing mod.
- ADDED: Global event system that can influence a number of world elements (prices, encounters, anomalies, wars...)
- Global events can now trigger at random (time-based)
- Active global events are noted in the Captain's log
- ADDED: Player can now use the ship's cloaking field and hide from his enemies, and as intended... strike from the "shadows"
- Cloak is for the moment only usable by the player. NPCs will use it after one of the following updates
- Various actions can deactivate Cloak and the entire mechanics will be further tweaked and upgraded
- ADDED: General tab in the options menu and reorganized some options
- ADDED: NPC level now influences their Shield recharge (for starting-level balancing)
- ADDED: Faction descriptions on mouse hover on the Reputation panel
- ADDED: Passing through wormholes can now damage the ship
- ADDED: Small notices (like Critical hit) on NPC ship
- ADDED: News regarding "heroes" now appear on stations/planets which makes it somewhat easier to find them.
- ADDED: Junkyard(s) added to the game world. Junk can be "mined" for loot much like asteroids; by firing at them.
- ADDED: Station News panel for an overview of all ongoing news (global events included)
- ADDED: NPC threat level now actually calculates threat level and is properly displayed on the Quick scan
- ADDED: Hints on Enhancements on the Fleet and Drydock panels
- ADDED: New T-Gate, T-Drive and Wormhole transition animations
- ADDED: NPCs can (and will) use PTE disruptor on the player to knock him/her out of Power to Engines and prevent reactivating it for awhile. PTE disruptor also affects T-Drive.
- UPDATED: Ship system hints now show added values received from installed Enhancements
- UPDATED: Boarding now also depends on the state of the boarded ship. A ship with full Hull is severely more difficult to capture than a damaged one, making Capturing harder.
- UPDATED: Power To Engines has received a visual upgrade
- UPDATED: Made some tweaks to spawned encounters when entering a region
- UPDATED: NPC levelling system now works as intended (further tweaks planned)
- UPDATED: Tweaked Experience gain when destroying ships
- UPDATED: Nyxian ships now have proper color of engine flares (green-ish)
- UPDATED: Neptune and Nibiru ships now have engine flares
- UPDATED: Base\Faction.wdt now includes columns for Description line (Texts\Descriptions.txt) and Logo Id (Base\Banners.wdt)
- UPDATED: Weapons fire from a single weapon battery tweaked for better visuals
- UPDATED: Tactical overlay sound effect volume
- MODDING: Added new script functions (mostly regarding global events). Please check modding.starpointgemini.com for details
Very strange. OK. We plan on releasing another patch out today, but I'd advise to you try Verifying game files through Steam Client if it still continues to crash. And send us the game log please :)
Here's a procedure on reporting bugs to Oliver:
http://www.starpointgemini.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=11
He'll be happy to get it. I mean not about the bug part obviously... but he likes reports :).