Developer Branch Instructions

[Jim Offerman]

Update #2!

The developer branch will go offline on September 27th, when the full game launches. Thanks again to everyone who tried out the builds on this branch!

Update!

Stable Orbit is nearing completion! I've just uploaded a first "beta" build to the developer branch. Please try it out and let me know what you think!

Note: the beta does not yet have all the modules that will ship with the final game; I'm focused on locking down the mechanics and the UI first.

Cheers!

Original post

Hi all,

The developer branch is live. This branch gives you a fairly uncensored look at what I am currently working on and is your first chance to try the latest and greatest Stable Orbit features!

Beware!

• Features in the developer branch are work-in-progress and maybe incomplete or broken
  
• Save games compatibility with the main game and between developer branch builds is NOT guaranteed

If you can live with these caveats, you are more than welcome to come see what's cooking!

Here is how you opt-in:

• Right-click on Stable Orbit in your Steam library and select Properties
  
• Go to the Betas tab
  
• In the text field under Enter beta access code to unlock private betas:, enter the following password JYeEyL236VTNpvg
  
• Click on CHECK CODE to unlock the developer_branch beta
  
• Finally, under Select the beta you would like to opt into:, select developer_branch

Steam should automatically begin downloading the new version of Stable Orbit. If the download doesn't start, restarting Steam often helps.

Developer Branch Features (as of August 4)

• Altitude management
  
• Events and disasters
  
• Pressurized / unpressurized gameplay: crew can no longer freely travel between pressurized modules if they aren't connected / build airlocks to allow crew to travel from A to B
  
• Gimbal node: create stations with rotating parts

These new features are all a little rough around the edges still and there is no supporting art yet (airlock is a couple of white boxes and you cannot yet see crew when they are doing an EVA). Please let me know what you think of where these are headed, though!

Cheers,
Jim.

[C-FPAS]

You should exit the sand box mode, your game is very beautiful but the gameplay for money is rotten ... Many people love creativity but the contracts spoil the game ... It's not realistic to manage money Like that ... The space station should only manage : The pieces that come from below (from the ground) and install them ...

I tried to update again but when I see the money go down just for a rolling fee, it cuts me the urge to play ... Sorry I come back to Vector ...

The real Internationnal Station if it has no more money, Is it down to the earth?

[striker101]

ok what follows are my thoughts on what i saw in this "build"

1. UI scaling i love that doing that made this from kinda playable for a VI man to playable forr a VI man however it doesnt seem to scale well with respect to screen resolution I.E it looks like the UI is scaling on a 4:3 aspect ration however my rig uses a 16:9 aspect ratio so some parts of the lower UI elements get cut off particularly with regards to menus such as those for research and the like.
2. UI layout is much more cleanly displayed and easier to figure out what is going on i like the horizontal layout vs the vertical layout from before
3. voice overs are nice i would like to see some in particular for research complete and one to let me know if i have any unemployed crew .
4. i like the map but i am not sure what purpose it has when i dont have any orbital elements to adjust as currently all the boost does is manage a 400 x 400 orbit which is nice but what if i wanted a polar orbit for example.

these represent my initial thoughts and will be updated as the development continues good work

[Jim Offerman]

Ursprungligen skrivet av PTREMBLAY:

You should exit the sand box mode

Sandbox mode will be part of the next developer branch build, which should be up by this time next week.

I know you in particular don't like the money mechanic in Stable Orbit. Thanks for sticking around and trying the new build!

The real International Station if it has no more money, Is it down to the earth?

If they'd stop spending money on the ISS and thus no longer do all the things required to keep it up there, it would fall out of the sky within months.

[Jim Offerman]

Ursprungligen skrivet av michaelkowis:

1. UI scaling i love that doing that made this from kinda playable for a VI man to playable forr a VI man however it doesnt seem to scale well with respect to screen resolution I.E it looks like the UI is scaling on a 4:3 aspect ration however my rig uses a 16:9 aspect ratio so some parts of the lower UI elements get cut off particularly with regards to menus such as those for research and the like.

The UI scaling is actually just a feature of Unity's UI system. I would like to offer even better UI scaling, but I am beholden to the capabilities (or lack thereof) of the Unity UI.

2. UI layout is much more cleanly displayed and easier to figure out what is going on i like the horizontal layout vs the vertical layout from before

Happy to hear you like that change. I too feel the new one gives you a better at-a-glance view of what's going on with the station.

3. voice overs are nice i would like to see some in particular for research complete and one to let me know if i have any unemployed crew .

Noted. More voice cues are forthcoming.

4. i like the map but i am not sure what purpose it has when i dont have any orbital elements to adjust as currently all the boost does is manage a 400 x 400 orbit which is nice but what if i wanted a polar orbit for example.

The plan is to allow you to click one a spot on the map to make the station adjust course until it flies over that particular spot. I may also add some controls to control the inclination of the orbit, so you can try different ones.

Thanks for your feedback!

[C-FPAS]

Thank you ! It's just that in the page of the store you tell us that in 2034 one takes control like commander of the new Station, I never saw a commander to take care of the finances ... May I think the mode Sand box will be appreciated and closer to a real commander ...

Thank you for answering all, I appreciate your work ...

[stripe7]

Trying things out, not sure if this is a bug, I ejected my only small lab after I built a large lab and all research came to a halt. Figured it would move to the next available lab but this was not the case.

How do I set up counter rotating gimbals? Can we have a switch to change the spin direction?

[Jim Offerman]

Ursprungligen skrivet av stripe7:

Trying things out, not sure if this is a bug, I ejected my only small lab after I built a large lab and all research came to a halt. Figured it would move to the next available lab but this was not the case.

Yep. That's a bug. I'll look into it!

How do I set up counter rotating gimbals? Can we have a switch to change the spin direction?

They currently only spin in one direction. I'll look into adding a button to reverse direction. Sounds like a neat little thing to have :)

[stripe7]

Thanks. Figured using thrusters to counter Precession would be a waste of fuel.

I suspect Research would have started up again once the reseach that got hung up expired.

Still waiting on those Agro modules! :-)
Are the Agro modules going to have a transparent section or are they just sealed cans like everything else?

[Jim Offerman]

Ursprungligen skrivet av stripe7:

Thanks. Figured using thrusters to counter Precession would be a waste of fuel.

Thrusters (as implemented in Stable Orbit) are for altitude control only and thus will not counteract precession.

I suspect Research would have started up again once the reseach that got hung up expired.

Yup. Research contracts are currently permanently assigned to a particular lab, which seemed like a good idea at the time. For the final version, I'm changing that to a queue of accepted research, from which each lab will pick the first suitable contract whenever it wants to start researching a new contract.

Still waiting on those Agro modules! :-)
Are the Agro modules going to have a transparent section or are they just sealed cans like everything else?

The intent is for them to have windows and show some of the plants inside. Whether or not that will actually happens depends on how well the modeling goes...

[stripe7]

Yay! Thanks again for the replies. A queestion on the Astronauts, I have a lot of warnings about astronauts not being able to get to the habs. Not sure about this but could it be due to the RCS blocking the astronaunts path between nodes? I put the RCS between two nodes all over the station.

[Jim Offerman]

Ursprungligen skrivet av stripe7:

Yay! Thanks again for the replies. A queestion on the Astronauts, I have a lot of warnings about astronauts not being able to get to the habs. Not sure about this but could it be due to the RCS blocking the astronaunts path between nodes? I put the RCS between two nodes all over the station.

Yeah, the RCS module is not a pressurized module astronauts can pass through. So, if you put an RCS between a lab and a hab, you've created two separate sections.

Your crew will able to travel from section to section if you add an airlock to each section. Going from one section to the next means performing an EVA, which is a 5+ hour procedure... hence, your crew will not travel between sections to go from their assigned hab to work in a lab!

[stripe7]

Heheh, I figured that was it, another station that is toast.

Not a bug, but something I noticed when you pause the game, put in 4 shuttle ports and resume the game, those 4 shuttle ports get their shuttles at the same time every time despite grounding. Maybe there should be some randomization as to individual shuttle pods getting delayed and/or flying out of sequence.

[Jim Offerman]

I just fixed a small bug in the incident controlling code, which could result in the "grounded" state of all shuttles to be wiped before certain shuttle incidents had ran their cause. Might be related to what you saw.

There's no randomization in the launch schedules of shuttle pods, beyond the various reasons for delays (power loss, shuttle accidents, etc). Additional randomness would indeed ensure things look a bit prettier (four shuttles arriving at the same time looks a bit "gamey"), but also unfairly punish players who just had two weeks without supplies thanks to an exploding shuttle pod...

[stripe7]

Is there a method to rotate a truss or node 90 degrees before placement? Since they are not square a rotation is required if we are building a rectangular truss structure. A rotate button next to the buy button would be nice.

Here is something that is new, the gimbaled sweep interects with a truss that was placed directly in the path of the rotating nodes. I guess you have not placed the checks for this in yet.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1120314661

[Jim Offerman]

Ursprungligen skrivet av stripe7:

Is there a method to rotate a truss or node 90 degrees before placement? Since they are not square a rotation is required if we are building a rectangular truss structure. A rotate button next to the buy button would be nice.

There won't be a rotation button. I do plan to rework the automatic orientation code slightly and there will be some additional truss modules for corners and other cases soon.

Here is something that is new, the gimbaled sweep interects with a truss that was placed directly in the path of the rotating nodes. I guess you have not placed the checks for this in yet.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1120314661