Hey all!

As many of you have noticed, we’ve released several small updates to the Stable branch since last week’s big patch. These have mostly been bug fixes, but since a lot of people have asked for a changelog, here it is!

• Fix a crash when trying to keybind unrecognized keys
  
• Fix masking on headband for avian beaks
  
• Fix a button position overlap in sign store GUI
  
• Fix border detection on adjacent signs
  
• Fix some bugs with cat AI
  
• Fix exploit with Dreadwing not properly aggroing player at long range
  
• Change default ‘hide interface’ binding to avoid overlapping with Steam screenshot key; now uses Alt + Z
  
• Update a few more human armor designs
  
• Alien biomes now properly apply radiation status
  
• Fix scrollable list widgets starting at bottom
  
• Fix reversed alphabetical sorting in songbook
  
• Fix a crash due to inconsistent animation sorting in networked animator
  
• Change a number of container sizes to better match their object sizes
  
• Fix a 32 – 64 bit compatibility issue
  
• Fix bug with servers not properly clearing temporary files
  
• Fix a few other miscellaneous server and client crashes
  
• New fireableItem Lua API
  
• Fix erroneous hotkeys listed in paint tool / wire tool descriptions
  
• Restore Nanostove to portable pixel printer unlocks
  
• Fix asset loading errors on several Windows versions including XP, pre-SP2 Vista, 10 preview
  
• Change Windows file locking to allow multiple simultaneous client instances
  
• Fix a bug sending excessive inactive client disconnect requests
  
• Change Erchius Horror phase 3 to not cross the beams
  
• More sign fixes
  
• More changes to container sizes
  
• Fix cooked fish hand position
  
• Fix more issues with keybinding international keyboard layouts
  
• Fix bug where NPCs were killed by breaking beds
  
• Updated more human armor graphics
  
• 3D printer shouldn’t show prices for items that can’t be scanned
  
• Fix monsters being hit while dying
  
• Fix wired objects being wired to themselves
  
• Fix a graphical glitch in aurora parallax
  
• Fix bugs with spawn adjustment and don’t allow spawning in liquids
  
• Fix a graphical bug where some monsters’ animation parts displayed the wrong image
  
• Fix universe server world corruption due to double world loading
  
• Adjust rarity of food items
  
• Fix hue shifting some stone types which prevented cobblestone from stacking properly
  
• Fix effects for player damage and energy depletion / regeneration

Check our support page or post in our support forums if you're having trouble!

<3

Hey all!

As many of you have noticed, we’ve released several small updates to the Stable branch since last week’s big patch. These have mostly been bug fixes, but since a lot of people have asked for a changelog, here it is!

• Fix a crash when trying to keybind unrecognized keys
  
• Fix masking on headband for avian beaks
  
• Fix a button position overlap in sign store GUI
  
• Fix border detection on adjacent signs
  
• Fix some bugs with cat AI
  
• Fix exploit with Dreadwing not properly aggroing player at long range
  
• Change default ‘hide interface’ binding to avoid overlapping with Steam screenshot key; now uses Alt + Z
  
• Update a few more human armor designs
  
• Alien biomes now properly apply radiation status
  
• Fix scrollable list widgets starting at bottom
  
• Fix reversed alphabetical sorting in songbook
  
• Fix a crash due to inconsistent animation sorting in networked animator
  
• Change a number of container sizes to better match their object sizes
  
• Fix a 32 – 64 bit compatibility issue
  
• Fix bug with servers not properly clearing temporary files
  
• Fix a few other miscellaneous server and client crashes
  
• New fireableItem Lua API
  
• Fix erroneous hotkeys listed in paint tool / wire tool descriptions
  
• Restore Nanostove to portable pixel printer unlocks
  
• Fix asset loading errors on several Windows versions including XP, pre-SP2 Vista, 10 preview
  
• Change Windows file locking to allow multiple simultaneous client instances
  
• Fix a bug sending excessive inactive client disconnect requests
  
• Change Erchius Horror phase 3 to not cross the beams
  
• More sign fixes
  
• More changes to container sizes
  
• Fix cooked fish hand position
  
• Fix more issues with keybinding international keyboard layouts
  
• Fix bug where NPCs were killed by breaking beds
  
• Updated more human armor graphics
  
• 3D printer shouldn’t show prices for items that can’t be scanned
  
• Fix monsters being hit while dying
  
• Fix wired objects being wired to themselves
  
• Fix a graphical glitch in aurora parallax
  
• Fix bugs with spawn adjustment and don’t allow spawning in liquids
  
• Fix a graphical bug where some monsters’ animation parts displayed the wrong image
  
• Fix universe server world corruption due to double world loading
  
• Adjust rarity of food items
  
• Fix hue shifting some stone types which prevented cobblestone from stacking properly
  
• Fix effects for player damage and energy depletion / regeneration

Check our support page or post in our support forums if you're having trouble!

<3

The huge winter update is here!

After many months of work the winter update has finally been released. It contains more changes than we can list but below are some of the most obvious updates.

• ***Universe and Worlds***
  
• Sectors have been removed, so all stars are part of the same map
  
• Star and planet types correspond to difficulty levels, giving players access to progressively more extreme environments as they advance through the game
  
• Added oceanic world types including tropical and arctic oceans, toxic and magma planets
  
• Added rare Barren and Asteroid worlds with no monsters for large scale building
  
• New biomes
  
• New surface and underground mini biomes
  
• Many changes to surface and underground terrain generation
  
• Improvements to background parallaxes and sky coloration
  
• ***Ships and Navigation***
  
• Player ships now include an AI avatar specific to each race that gives access to the player’s techs, missions, 3D printer, and a variety of ship-related commands
  
• Each race’s ship has its own unique set of upgrades, giving players much more room to expand as they progress
  
• Fuel costs for travel have been reworked. Moving between planets within a system is now free, while jumps to other systems require fuel in proportion to the distance traveled.
  
• Coal no longer powers spaceships! Instead, they can use either radioactive ores or the new Liquid Erchius Fuel that now appears in Moon biomes
  
• Many improvements to the Cockpit interface, which now indicates more detailed planet information including weather and environmental hazards
  
• ***Outpost***
  
• The universe now has a civilized hub containing shops, quests, and other services. This is where players will find quests, missions, and ship upgrades which allow them to advance through the game
  
• Includes a Sign Store based on the popular custom signs mod, where players can design and print their own signage for use in game
  
• ***Missions***
  
• At key points in the progression, players will unlock special Missions
  
• Missions take place in unique instanced dungeons containing special monsters, bosses, and rewards not available anywhere else
  
• Some missions can be quite difficult, so you’ll want to prepare carefully - or bring friends!
  
• ***Novakids***
  
• New playable race!
  
• Unique progression of craftable guns
  
• Unique progression of armor sets
  
• Unique progression of ship upgrades
  
• ***Tech***
  
• Techs are now split into head, body, legs and suit slots, so you can equip up to four at once!
  
• Head techs provide various activated effects triggered using the tech hotkeys
  
• Body techs provide lateral movement abilities triggered by double tapping direction keys
  
• Leg techs provide vertical movement abilities triggered with the jump key
  
• Suit techs provide passive protection from specific environmental hazards
  
• New tech unlocking system makes a variety of techs visible each time the player upgrades their ship. The player can then use Blank Tech Cards to unlock and equip these techs
  
• Many new techs
  
• ***Mining***
  
• Matter Manipulator can now be upgraded over the course of the game to increase its mining power, area of effect, and allow it to collect liquids as well as blocks
  
• Pickaxes and drills are more powerful, but have lowered durability and cannot be repaired, making them a consumable alternative to the Matter Manipulator
  
• Smashable rocks found rarely underground contain richer deposits of certain ores
  
• ***Combat***
  
• Energy regeneration has been changed. Rather than continuously regenerating energy at a slow rate, energy rapidly regenerates when not being used
  
• Using energy that exceeds your maximum pool will disable energy usage for a few seconds until your energy has fully recharged
  
• New weapon type staves!
  
• Use a staff by holding the fire button to charge it, aiming, then releasing the button to unleash a powerful effect
  
• Unlike guns, staves manifest their projectiles directly at your targeting cursor for precision combat
  
• A variety of staves can be crafted at the new Manipulator Table
  
• Beginning at Tier 5, armors are divided into three different progression paths with different stat balances
  
• Separator armors have high armor and low energy for melee weapon users
  
• Accelerator armors have a balance of armor and energy for ranged weapon users
  
• Manipulator armors have low armor and high energy for staff users
  
• Many new unique biome weapons
  
• More bows (and crossbows) for higher level hunting
  
• Many new thrown weapons of various tiers
  
• Defense Turrets have been massively improved and can be equipped with a variety of weapons for different effects
  
• ***Monsters***
  
• New monster type: large flying monsters
  
• New monster type: large aquatic monsters
  
• Many improvements to monster AI
  
• Birds less of a menace
  
• ***Survival Mechanics***
  
• Temperature has been replaced by a system of specific planetary hazards, which the player will need to unlock new technology to resist
  
• Hunger has been removed for now, replaced by an expansion of the cooking system with a variety of buffs (see below)
  
• New difficulty option to drop ores and other valuable materials on death
  
• ***Farming and Cooking***
  
• New crops
  
• Hundreds of new cooking recipes
  
• Cooked foods now provide a wide variety of buffs, with more elaborate recipes giving stronger effects
  
• ***Bug Catching***
  
• Bugs unique to each planet type now spawn across the universe
  
• Use the bug net to collect and display them!
  
• ***Wiring***
  
• Most lights in game can now be wired
  
• More interactable switches
  
• More sensors, switches, and logic gates
  
• Fixed lots of usability bugs with wiring
  
• ***Other Content***
  
• Many new status effects
  
• Many new costumes
  
• Many new biome furniture/object sets
  
• Many new block types
  
• Many (over 150) new underground microdungeons
  
• Many new toys and novelty items
  
• ***Performance Enhancements***
  
• Tile rendering
  
• Liquid processing
  
• Many other optimizations
  
• ***Miscellaneous Improvements***
  
• Specialty hotbar slots and keys for Matter Manipulator, Wire Tool and Paint Tool
  
• New font
  
• Keybinding GUI
  
• Character deletion option
  
• ***Modding Features***
  
• Items are now scriptable
  
• Status effects are now scriptable
  
• New Script Console functionality gives a client-side scripted canvas to build your own GUIs, games, or whatever you can imagine
  
• Many new Lua API bindings
  
• ***Server Features***
  
• Access to tile protection system, preventing modification of specific dungeon IDs
  
• Ability to set spawn point for a world
  
• Several other new admin commands
  
• rcon support

The huge winter update is here!

After many months of work the winter update has finally been released. It contains more changes than we can list but below are some of the most obvious updates.

• ***Universe and Worlds***
  
• Sectors have been removed, so all stars are part of the same map
  
• Star and planet types correspond to difficulty levels, giving players access to progressively more extreme environments as they advance through the game
  
• Added oceanic world types including tropical and arctic oceans, toxic and magma planets
  
• Added rare Barren and Asteroid worlds with no monsters for large scale building
  
• New biomes
  
• New surface and underground mini biomes
  
• Many changes to surface and underground terrain generation
  
• Improvements to background parallaxes and sky coloration
  
• ***Ships and Navigation***
  
• Player ships now include an AI avatar specific to each race that gives access to the player’s techs, missions, 3D printer, and a variety of ship-related commands
  
• Each race’s ship has its own unique set of upgrades, giving players much more room to expand as they progress
  
• Fuel costs for travel have been reworked. Moving between planets within a system is now free, while jumps to other systems require fuel in proportion to the distance traveled.
  
• Coal no longer powers spaceships! Instead, they can use either radioactive ores or the new Liquid Erchius Fuel that now appears in Moon biomes
  
• Many improvements to the Cockpit interface, which now indicates more detailed planet information including weather and environmental hazards
  
• ***Outpost***
  
• The universe now has a civilized hub containing shops, quests, and other services. This is where players will find quests, missions, and ship upgrades which allow them to advance through the game
  
• Includes a Sign Store based on the popular custom signs mod, where players can design and print their own signage for use in game
  
• ***Missions***
  
• At key points in the progression, players will unlock special Missions
  
• Missions take place in unique instanced dungeons containing special monsters, bosses, and rewards not available anywhere else
  
• Some missions can be quite difficult, so you’ll want to prepare carefully - or bring friends!
  
• ***Novakids***
  
• New playable race!
  
• Unique progression of craftable guns
  
• Unique progression of armor sets
  
• Unique progression of ship upgrades
  
• ***Tech***
  
• Techs are now split into head, body, legs and suit slots, so you can equip up to four at once!
  
• Head techs provide various activated effects triggered using the tech hotkeys
  
• Body techs provide lateral movement abilities triggered by double tapping direction keys
  
• Leg techs provide vertical movement abilities triggered with the jump key
  
• Suit techs provide passive protection from specific environmental hazards
  
• New tech unlocking system makes a variety of techs visible each time the player upgrades their ship. The player can then use Blank Tech Cards to unlock and equip these techs
  
• Many new techs
  
• ***Mining***
  
• Matter Manipulator can now be upgraded over the course of the game to increase its mining power, area of effect, and allow it to collect liquids as well as blocks
  
• Pickaxes and drills are more powerful, but have lowered durability and cannot be repaired, making them a consumable alternative to the Matter Manipulator
  
• Smashable rocks found rarely underground contain richer deposits of certain ores
  
• ***Combat***
  
• Energy regeneration has been changed. Rather than continuously regenerating energy at a slow rate, energy rapidly regenerates when not being used
  
• Using energy that exceeds your maximum pool will disable energy usage for a few seconds until your energy has fully recharged
  
• New weapon type staves!
  
• Use a staff by holding the fire button to charge it, aiming, then releasing the button to unleash a powerful effect
  
• Unlike guns, staves manifest their projectiles directly at your targeting cursor for precision combat
  
• A variety of staves can be crafted at the new Manipulator Table
  
• Beginning at Tier 5, armors are divided into three different progression paths with different stat balances
  
• Separator armors have high armor and low energy for melee weapon users
  
• Accelerator armors have a balance of armor and energy for ranged weapon users
  
• Manipulator armors have low armor and high energy for staff users
  
• Many new unique biome weapons
  
• More bows (and crossbows) for higher level hunting
  
• Many new thrown weapons of various tiers
  
• Defense Turrets have been massively improved and can be equipped with a variety of weapons for different effects
  
• ***Monsters***
  
• New monster type: large flying monsters
  
• New monster type: large aquatic monsters
  
• Many improvements to monster AI
  
• Birds less of a menace
  
• ***Survival Mechanics***
  
• Temperature has been replaced by a system of specific planetary hazards, which the player will need to unlock new technology to resist
  
• Hunger has been removed for now, replaced by an expansion of the cooking system with a variety of buffs (see below)
  
• New difficulty option to drop ores and other valuable materials on death
  
• ***Farming and Cooking***
  
• New crops
  
• Hundreds of new cooking recipes
  
• Cooked foods now provide a wide variety of buffs, with more elaborate recipes giving stronger effects
  
• ***Bug Catching***
  
• Bugs unique to each planet type now spawn across the universe
  
• Use the bug net to collect and display them!
  
• ***Wiring***
  
• Most lights in game can now be wired
  
• More interactable switches
  
• More sensors, switches, and logic gates
  
• Fixed lots of usability bugs with wiring
  
• ***Other Content***
  
• Many new status effects
  
• Many new costumes
  
• Many new biome furniture/object sets
  
• Many new block types
  
• Many (over 150) new underground microdungeons
  
• Many new toys and novelty items
  
• ***Performance Enhancements***
  
• Tile rendering
  
• Liquid processing
  
• Many other optimizations
  
• ***Miscellaneous Improvements***
  
• Specialty hotbar slots and keys for Matter Manipulator, Wire Tool and Paint Tool
  
• New font
  
• Keybinding GUI
  
• Character deletion option
  
• ***Modding Features***
  
• Items are now scriptable
  
• Status effects are now scriptable
  
• New Script Console functionality gives a client-side scripted canvas to build your own GUIs, games, or whatever you can imagine
  
• Many new Lua API bindings
  
• ***Server Features***
  
• Access to tile protection system, preventing modification of specific dungeon IDs
  
• Ability to set spawn point for a world
  
• Several other new admin commands
  
• rcon support

Hey there! ːpizzasliceː

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

As Tiy mentioned in his last post, we’re now back in the office after a refreshing holiday and back to work preparing for a stable update. Hooray!

There are a few things that we need to address before the update will be ready. One is, of course, bug fixes. We’ve been looking at your feedback and bug reports over the break, and this week I’m focusing on working through as many of these miscellaneous issues as possible while we get up to speed. Today I cleaned up a number of annoying things with staves and bows, such as: players being forced to walk/stand when cycling weapons, right click charging but not firing, being able to charge (and being forced to walk) without energy, etc. I’m hoping to get through most of this rapidly shrinking issue list by the end of the week.

After that we’ve got a few large-ish but clear tasks. We need to balance the effectiveness of armor against very high and low rate of fire weapons. Kyren will be doing everything she can to improve performance for both servers and clients. Omni will be fixing the parallax transitions between layers. Artists are adding more micro dungeons and miscellaneous content to improve variety of exploration, particularly underground. If we have time, we’d also like to add a key binding GUI and possibly some form of planet bookmarking or teleportation. Once all that’s done, we can finally update the stable branch, and move on to more new and exciting features!

---

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hey Guys!

We’ve spent some time today updating the Starbound font amongst other things.

Hopefully this font should be easier to read, contains some fun symbols and also contains a huge amount more special characters.

It’ll also be useful in the upcoming custom controls GUI.



Still have the buttons to update, but here’s how SAIL looks now..

---

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hello!

For the past week and a half, a bunch of us have been busy adding many more microdungeons to the game.

These will be small to medium sized areas that you’ll discover while exploring beneath the surface. Right now we have about 100 of these microdungeons prepared for implementation. Here’s a few examples:









Until next time!

---

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

This last week programmer Healthire and I have been working on another new boss for the next update. I don’t want to show too much, but let’s just say you battle this one a bit differently compared to other Starbound bosses.



That place looks familiar. Where could this battle be taking place? You can play through this when it’s completed in the next stable patch, or you can take a sneak peek in the nightly right now.

Until next time!

<3

Hey there! :pizzaslice:

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

As Tiy mentioned in his last post, we’re now back in the office after a refreshing holiday and back to work preparing for a stable update. Hooray!

There are a few things that we need to address before the update will be ready. One is, of course, bug fixes. We’ve been looking at your feedback and bug reports over the break, and this week I’m focusing on working through as many of these miscellaneous issues as possible while we get up to speed. Today I cleaned up a number of annoying things with staves and bows, such as: players being forced to walk/stand when cycling weapons, right click charging but not firing, being able to charge (and being forced to walk) without energy, etc. I’m hoping to get through most of this rapidly shrinking issue list by the end of the week.

After that we’ve got a few large-ish but clear tasks. We need to balance the effectiveness of armor against very high and low rate of fire weapons. Kyren will be doing everything she can to improve performance for both servers and clients. Omni will be fixing the parallax transitions between layers. Artists are adding more micro dungeons and miscellaneous content to improve variety of exploration, particularly underground. If we have time, we’d also like to add a key binding GUI and possibly some form of planet bookmarking or teleportation. Once all that’s done, we can finally update the stable branch, and move on to more new and exciting features!

---

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hey Guys!

We’ve spent some time today updating the Starbound font amongst other things.

Hopefully this font should be easier to read, contains some fun symbols and also contains a huge amount more special characters.

It’ll also be useful in the upcoming custom controls GUI.



Still have the buttons to update, but here’s how SAIL looks now..

---

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hello!

For the past week and a half, a bunch of us have been busy adding many more microdungeons to the game.

These will be small to medium sized areas that you’ll discover while exploring beneath the surface. Right now we have about 100 of these microdungeons prepared for implementation. Here’s a few examples:









Until next time!

---

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

This last week programmer Healthire and I have been working on another new boss for the next update. I don’t want to show too much, but let’s just say you battle this one a bit differently compared to other Starbound bosses.



That place looks familiar. Where could this battle be taking place? You can play through this when it’s completed in the next stable patch, or you can take a sneak peek in the nightly right now.

Until next time!

<3

(cross posted from the forums)

A vulnerability has been discovered in the Starbound server executable that allows writing non-arbitrary data to an arbitrary file that the user running the starbound_server executable has permissions to write to.

The mechanics of this vulnerability involves incorrectly validating sector names from the client.

This vulnerability affects versions Enraged Koala and lower. It is fixed in the current unstable and the current nightly. To workaround this issue run the server under a heavily restricted user account. Unfortunately, it is still possible to denial of service attack a server using the workaround. Thanks goes to members of the ##starbound-modding IRC channel for bringing this issue to our attention.

A vulnerability has been discovered in the Starbound server executable that allows players to gain admin privileges if they have been in the same area as an admin user.

The mechanics of this vulnerability involves cloning the uuid of the admin player.

This vulnerability affects all current versions; however, has been fixed in our repository and any nightly version dated after Jan 9 should be immune. To workaround, un /admin yourself before logging out. If you have logged out as /admin the last time you logged out, simply log in and un /admin yourself and log out. This exploit only functions if were an admin the last time you logged out or you were an /admin the last time an automatic store was running and haven't logged out yet.

To find out if you are currently an admin you may type: "/whoami"

More specific technical details will be forthcoming after the next stable update.

(cross posted from the forums)

A vulnerability has been discovered in the Starbound server executable that allows writing non-arbitrary data to an arbitrary file that the user running the starbound_server executable has permissions to write to.

The mechanics of this vulnerability involves incorrectly validating sector names from the client.

This vulnerability affects versions Enraged Koala and lower. It is fixed in the current unstable and the current nightly. To workaround this issue run the server under a heavily restricted user account. Unfortunately, it is still possible to denial of service attack a server using the workaround. Thanks goes to members of the ##starbound-modding IRC channel for bringing this issue to our attention.

A vulnerability has been discovered in the Starbound server executable that allows players to gain admin privileges if they have been in the same area as an admin user.

The mechanics of this vulnerability involves cloning the uuid of the admin player.

This vulnerability affects all current versions; however, has been fixed in our repository and any nightly version dated after Jan 9 should be immune. To workaround, un /admin yourself before logging out. If you have logged out as /admin the last time you logged out, simply log in and un /admin yourself and log out. This exploit only functions if were an admin the last time you logged out or you were an /admin the last time an automatic store was running and haven't logged out yet.

To find out if you are currently an admin you may type: "/whoami"

More specific technical details will be forthcoming after the next stable update.

Hey there!

We pushed the changes mentioned in our recent trailer to the unstable branch last night– rejoice! Anyone who’s been playing the nightly builds won’t see a huge difference, but anyone who makes the switch from stable to unstable will see some pretty massive changes.

So here’s what you need to know about the unstable update, starting with…


There’s a handy tutorial right here about how to switch to the unstable or nightly branch of the beta. Be sure to follow the instructions to switch to unstable. :)


If you choose to switch to the unstable branch, please know that your characters and worlds will not yet be compatible with the latest version of the game. Your old characters and worlds will still be there, but the unstable branch will use a different storage location than the stable branch for the time being, while we work out how to upgrade old characters.

We will try to maintain save file compatibility within unstable as much as possible, but it will depend on what sort of changes we have to make during unstable, so we cant make any promises.

If you are currently running nightly, then you probably already know how everything works already. FYI The unstable branch will use a ‘storage_unstable’ directory while we work on compatibility with stable.

• Many progression quests aren’t final, some are placeholders for future missions
  
• Combat balance is still WIP
  
• Performance issues, particularly in dense areas like dungeons and the outpost
  
• Background parallaxes have problematic transitions between world layers, e.g. oceans
  
• Pixel costs and rewards not yet balanced
  
• Interface windows (containers, AI, etc) can remain open after switching worlds or moving away from the triggering object
  
• Cooking recipes for tier 5 and 6 crops need to be implemented
  
• Crops sometimes get out of sync when grown on ship
  
• Enemy hit/death sounds sometimes fail to play
  
• Some errors in enemy movement and pathfinding
  
• Rare crash when removing items from containers, appears as “(InventoryException) Not allowed to discard stack when locked.”
  
• The launcher, on some people’s machines, will spew dll errors about missing ordinals. This is not fatal however, and the launcher will still work after you close them.
  
• And a whole lot more (probably)
  
  We’ll keep everyone posted as we make more updates and plans evolve, but thank you all for being so patient! Have fun!
  
  ---
  
  Tiy also did an AMA on the Starbound subreddit last night answering lots of questions about development and the unstable update, so be sure to check that out. :)
  
  Hope you all have a nice weekend and a lovely holiday. <3 :)
  
  ːSBHorseː

Hey there!

We pushed the changes mentioned in our recent trailer to the unstable branch last night– rejoice! Anyone who’s been playing the nightly builds won’t see a huge difference, but anyone who makes the switch from stable to unstable will see some pretty massive changes.

So here’s what you need to know about the unstable update, starting with…


There’s a handy tutorial right here about how to switch to the unstable or nightly branch of the beta. Be sure to follow the instructions to switch to unstable. :)


If you choose to switch to the unstable branch, please know that your characters and worlds will not yet be compatible with the latest version of the game. Your old characters and worlds will still be there, but the unstable branch will use a different storage location than the stable branch for the time being, while we work out how to upgrade old characters.

We will try to maintain save file compatibility within unstable as much as possible, but it will depend on what sort of changes we have to make during unstable, so we cant make any promises.

If you are currently running nightly, then you probably already know how everything works already. FYI The unstable branch will use a ‘storage_unstable’ directory while we work on compatibility with stable.

• Many progression quests aren’t final, some are placeholders for future missions
  
• Combat balance is still WIP
  
• Performance issues, particularly in dense areas like dungeons and the outpost
  
• Background parallaxes have problematic transitions between world layers, e.g. oceans
  
• Pixel costs and rewards not yet balanced
  
• Interface windows (containers, AI, etc) can remain open after switching worlds or moving away from the triggering object
  
• Cooking recipes for tier 5 and 6 crops need to be implemented
  
• Crops sometimes get out of sync when grown on ship
  
• Enemy hit/death sounds sometimes fail to play
  
• Some errors in enemy movement and pathfinding
  
• Rare crash when removing items from containers, appears as “(InventoryException) Not allowed to discard stack when locked.”
  
• The launcher, on some people’s machines, will spew dll errors about missing ordinals. This is not fatal however, and the launcher will still work after you close them.
  
• And a whole lot more (probably)
  
  We’ll keep everyone posted as we make more updates and plans evolve, but thank you all for being so patient! Have fun!
  
  ---
  
  Tiy also did an AMA on the Starbound subreddit last night answering lots of questions about development and the unstable update, so be sure to check that out. :)
  
  Hope you all have a nice weekend and a lovely holiday. <3 :)
  
  :SBHorse: