Original Post

The combat update is finally here! As in, it's out! Right now! Go play it! Or, if you're still waiting for Starbound to update, why not check out the trailer?A few notes:

• Your existing characters and worlds should be more or less intact, but as usual, you will need to start a fresh universe or explore far-off systems in order to experience some of the new content.
• If you are running any Starbound mods, they may be incompatible with the latest version of Starbound. I'd recommend backing up your existing characters before launching the game!
• In fact, backing up your existing characters in an Early Access game is never a bad idea.

ATTN Modders! We've put a comprehensive tutorial up on the wiki describing how to create new missions in Tiled!

Without further ado, here's the changelog!

• Generated and tiered two-handed weapons now have special abilities that can be activated using right click. Many (45+) possible abilities are available for various classes of ranged and melee weapons!
  • Yes, some guns now have flashlights
• Change to hammer mechanics: hold left click to wind up, release to fire
• Change to spear mechanics: continue holding left click after a swing to keep the spear out to fend off enemies
• Several new classes of hard-to-find unique weapons: boomerangs, chakrams and fist weapons
  • Find blueprints to upgrade these weapons into even more powerful and specialized versions at higher tiers
  • Dual wield fist weapons to enable powerful combo finishers
• A few miscellaneous unique weapons and items such as flamethrowers and remote-detonated grenade launchers

• Lots of new unique monsters found throughout the galaxy, each with their own special abilities and behaviors
• Knockback is more powerful and reliable
• Monsters have clearer ‘telegraphing’ to indicate when they are about to attack
• Remade shields and improved blocking mechanics
• Replaced electric stun status effect with Electrified, which periodically damages other nearby enemies
• Hostile monsters now damage the player on touch

• New system for player-controlled vehicles which can be spawned and despawned using Vehicle Controllers (acquired at the Outpost)
• Hoverbikes!
  • Great for travelling across planet surfaces quickly!
  • They include a passenger seat so you can transport your friends!
  • Come in several attractive colors!
  • Drive carefully to avoid blowing yourself up!
• Boats!
  • Similar to the previous boat tech, useful for crossing large bodies of water
  • Your friends can ride on deck or pose dramatically in the bow
• Visit Rob Repairo in the Outpost shipyard area to repair your vehicles using auto chips, which can be found in the world or purchased at the Outpost

• Quest givers’ portraits are shown on quest dialogs and in the log
• Colonists now occasionally give players new procedural quests to help improve their house or social standing
• The abandon button can be used on procedural quests and the same quests can now be declined

• New ‘Midnight’ planets
• New ‘Frozen’ planets (replaces Tundra)
• Prism, Steam Spring, and Hive sub biomes
• Over 300 new microdungeons and other improvements to all underground biomes, including background caves and parallaxes

• Craftable elevator objects, because stairs are so last millennium
• Consumable dyes to change the color of armor and clothing
• Capture pods are (for now) used to capture and relocate critters, with a more complete pet system returning in a future patch
• Loads of item descriptions have been fixed/replaced/added, including lots of Novakid ones!
• Too many new objects, items, costumes, colony tenants, etc. to list
• Too many bug fixes, item tweaks, and balance changes to list
• Improved support for Tiled map and tileset format for modders

• Some one-handed, unique and biome weapons which still use the old system will be replaced in a future patch

Original Post

The combat update is finally here! As in, it's out! Right now! Go play it! Or, if you're still waiting for Starbound to update, why not check out the trailer?A few notes:

• Your existing characters and worlds should be more or less intact, but as usual, you will need to start a fresh universe or explore far-off systems in order to experience some of the new content.
• If you are running any Starbound mods, they may be incompatible with the latest version of Starbound. I'd recommend backing up your existing characters before launching the game!
• In fact, backing up your existing characters in an Early Access game is never a bad idea.

ATTN Modders! We've put a comprehensive tutorial up on the wiki describing how to create new missions in Tiled!

Without further ado, here's the changelog!

• Generated and tiered two-handed weapons now have special abilities that can be activated using right click. Many (45+) possible abilities are available for various classes of ranged and melee weapons!
  • Yes, some guns now have flashlights
• Change to hammer mechanics: hold left click to wind up, release to fire
• Change to spear mechanics: continue holding left click after a swing to keep the spear out to fend off enemies
• Several new classes of hard-to-find unique weapons: boomerangs, chakrams and fist weapons
  • Find blueprints to upgrade these weapons into even more powerful and specialized versions at higher tiers
  • Dual wield fist weapons to enable powerful combo finishers
• A few miscellaneous unique weapons and items such as flamethrowers and remote-detonated grenade launchers

• Lots of new unique monsters found throughout the galaxy, each with their own special abilities and behaviors
• Knockback is more powerful and reliable
• Monsters have clearer ‘telegraphing’ to indicate when they are about to attack
• Remade shields and improved blocking mechanics
• Replaced electric stun status effect with Electrified, which periodically damages other nearby enemies
• Hostile monsters now damage the player on touch

• New system for player-controlled vehicles which can be spawned and despawned using Vehicle Controllers (acquired at the Outpost)
• Hoverbikes!
  • Great for travelling across planet surfaces quickly!
  • They include a passenger seat so you can transport your friends!
  • Come in several attractive colors!
  • Drive carefully to avoid blowing yourself up!
• Boats!
  • Similar to the previous boat tech, useful for crossing large bodies of water
  • Your friends can ride on deck or pose dramatically in the bow
• Visit Rob Repairo in the Outpost shipyard area to repair your vehicles using auto chips, which can be found in the world or purchased at the Outpost

• Quest givers’ portraits are shown on quest dialogs and in the log
• Colonists now occasionally give players new procedural quests to help improve their house or social standing
• The abandon button can be used on procedural quests and the same quests can now be declined

• New ‘Midnight’ planets
• New ‘Frozen’ planets (replaces Tundra)
• Prism, Steam Spring, and Hive sub biomes
• Over 300 new microdungeons and other improvements to all underground biomes, including background caves and parallaxes

• Craftable elevator objects, because stairs are so last millennium
• Consumable dyes to change the color of armor and clothing
• Capture pods are (for now) used to capture and relocate critters, with a more complete pet system returning in a future patch
• Loads of item descriptions have been fixed/replaced/added, including lots of Novakid ones!
• Too many new objects, items, costumes, colony tenants, etc. to list
• Too many bug fixes, item tweaks, and balance changes to list
• Improved support for Tiled map and tileset format for modders

• Some one-handed, unique and biome weapons which still use the old system will be replaced in a future patch

Hey everyone! A new unstable build is upon us! This means that a new stable build is nearly here. Need a reminder of how unstable updates work? Here you go!

• We automatically upload everything we’ve changed in-game to the opt-in Nightly branch each night.
• When we’ve completed the update we’ve been working on, we push the update to the Unstable branch. You can learn more about opting in to the Unstable branch here.
• When we’re sure that the update isn’t causing crashes or terrible bugs, we push the update to the Stable branch.

Click 'read more' for a changelog listing the most significant changes we've made to the game since the last patch!

• Vehicles are a work in progress! You can purchase/repair them at the outpost, but the repair UI is... definitely WIP.
• Some one-handed, unique and biome weapons which still use the old system will be replaced in a future patch

• Weapons
  
  • Generated and tiered two-handed weapons now have special abilities that can be activated using right click. Many (45+) possible abilities are available for various classes of ranged and melee weapons!
    
    • Yes, some guns now have flashlights
  • Change to hammer mechanics: hold left click to wind up, release to fire
  • Change to spear mechanics: continue holding left click after a swing to keep the spear out to fend off enemies
  • Several new classes of hard-to-find unique weapons: boomerangs, chakrams and fist weapons. Find blueprints to upgrade these weapons into even more powerful and specialized versions!
  • A few miscellaneous unique weapons and items such as flamethrowers and remote-detonated grenade launchers

• Major changes to monster and NPC combat mechanics
  
  • Lots of new unique monsters found throughout the galaxy
  • Hostile monsters now damage the player on touch
  • Knockback is more powerful and reliable
  • Monsters have clearer ‘telegraphing’ to indicate when they are about to attack
  • Remade shields and improved blocking mechanics
  • Replaced electric stun status effect with Electrified, which periodically damages other nearby enemies

• Vehicles
• New system for player-controlled vehicles which can be spawned and despawned using Vehicle Controllers (acquired at the Outpost)
• Hoverbikes!
  
  • Great for travelling across planet surfaces quickly!
  • They include a passenger seat so you can transport your friends!
  • Come in several attractive colors!
  • Drive carefully to avoid blowing yourself up!
• Coming Soon! - Boat and Mech vehicles replace previous tech equivalents
• Repair your vehicles using auto chips, which can be found in the world or purchased at the Outpost
• Quests
  
  • Quest givers’ portraits are shown on quest dialogs and in the log
  • Colonists now occasionally give players new procedural quests to help improve their house or social standing
  • The abandon button can be used on procedural quests and the same quests can now be declined
• Added lots of biome content to Tier 5 (frozen) worlds
  
  • New ‘Midnight’ planets
  • New ‘Frozen’ planets (replaces Tundra)
  • Prism, Steam Spring, and Hive sub biomes
  • Lots of new microdungeons and other improvements to all underground biomes, including background caves and parallaxes
• Loads of item descriptions have been fixed/replaced/added, including lots of Novakid ones!
• Too many new objects, items, costumes, colony tenants, etc. to list
• Too many bug fixes, item tweaks, and balance changes to list

--

There's a new unstable patch out!  This will hopefully be the last patch before we release a new stable, if everything goes well.  For a list of everything new that will be in the next stable, see this post.

Here is a list of just what has been changed in the most recent unstable update:

• Fixed a bug causing players to get stuck in barbed wire
• Fixed a bug causing colonists sometimes getting stuck in the ceiling
• More hover bike and boat vehicle tweaks, both visually and in behavior.  The hover bike now feels much better and can climb steeper slopes
• Changes for how vehicles are sold and repaired
• Much better vehicle spawning from the vehicle controller
• Fixed some more bugs involving lounging, removed the ability of two players to sit in the same seat if they timed it right
• Added knockback for shields
• Changes for how status and movement modifiers are applied to be more clear and more capable
• Armor dyes!
• Fixes for terrain generation at the bottom of oceans
• Fixes for the floran boss damaging too much, also make the ixoling smarter.
• Fixed chat bubbles rendering behind certain interface elements
• Versioning fixes importing characters from previous versions
• Assorted networking fixes, mostly revolving around items
• Fixes for displaying quest rewards
• Several fixes for projectiles so that they don't miss when a small target is near their point of impact
• Fix endlessly repeating sounds
• Fixes for the turret object
• Fixes for the trictus monster
• Fixed monsters sometimes ending up invulnerable near death
• Fixed monsters not aggroing PvP players
• Fixes for capture pods
• Include some things in our distribution for using the Tiled map editor
• A bunch of other miscellaneous fixes too boring to accurately describe!

We're currently working on a modder's guide for using Tiled, which should include everything you need to create dungeons and missions using it.  There should be a post later today or tomorrow with more details.

Hey everyone! A new unstable build is upon us! This means that a new stable build is nearly here. Need a reminder of how unstable updates work? Here you go!

• We automatically upload everything we’ve changed in-game to the opt-in Nightly branch each night.
• When we’ve completed the update we’ve been working on, we push the update to the Unstable branch. You can learn more about opting in to the Unstable branch here.
• When we’re sure that the update isn’t causing crashes or terrible bugs, we push the update to the Stable branch.

Click 'read more' for a changelog listing the most significant changes we've made to the game since the last patch!

• Vehicles are a work in progress! You can purchase/repair them at the outpost, but the repair UI is... definitely WIP.
• Some one-handed, unique and biome weapons which still use the old system will be replaced in a future patch

• Weapons
  
  • Generated and tiered two-handed weapons now have special abilities that can be activated using right click. Many (45+) possible abilities are available for various classes of ranged and melee weapons!
    
    • Yes, some guns now have flashlights
  • Change to hammer mechanics: hold left click to wind up, release to fire
  • Change to spear mechanics: continue holding left click after a swing to keep the spear out to fend off enemies
  • Several new classes of hard-to-find unique weapons: boomerangs, chakrams and fist weapons. Find blueprints to upgrade these weapons into even more powerful and specialized versions!
  • A few miscellaneous unique weapons and items such as flamethrowers and remote-detonated grenade launchers

• Major changes to monster and NPC combat mechanics
  
  • Lots of new unique monsters found throughout the galaxy
  • Hostile monsters now damage the player on touch
  • Knockback is more powerful and reliable
  • Monsters have clearer ‘telegraphing’ to indicate when they are about to attack
  • Remade shields and improved blocking mechanics
  • Replaced electric stun status effect with Electrified, which periodically damages other nearby enemies

• Vehicles
• New system for player-controlled vehicles which can be spawned and despawned using Vehicle Controllers (acquired at the Outpost)
• Hoverbikes!
  
  • Great for travelling across planet surfaces quickly!
  • They include a passenger seat so you can transport your friends!
  • Come in several attractive colors!
  • Drive carefully to avoid blowing yourself up!
• Coming Soon! - Boat and Mech vehicles replace previous tech equivalents
• Repair your vehicles using auto chips, which can be found in the world or purchased at the Outpost
• Quests
  
  • Quest givers’ portraits are shown on quest dialogs and in the log
  • Colonists now occasionally give players new procedural quests to help improve their house or social standing
  • The abandon button can be used on procedural quests and the same quests can now be declined
• Added lots of biome content to Tier 5 (frozen) worlds
  
  • New ‘Midnight’ planets
  • New ‘Frozen’ planets (replaces Tundra)
  • Prism, Steam Spring, and Hive sub biomes
  • Lots of new microdungeons and other improvements to all underground biomes, including background caves and parallaxes
• Loads of item descriptions have been fixed/replaced/added, including lots of Novakid ones!
• Too many new objects, items, costumes, colony tenants, etc. to list
• Too many bug fixes, item tweaks, and balance changes to list

--

There's a new unstable patch out!  This will hopefully be the last patch before we release a new stable, if everything goes well.  For a list of everything new that will be in the next stable, see this post.

Here is a list of just what has been changed in the most recent unstable update:

• Fixed a bug causing players to get stuck in barbed wire
• Fixed a bug causing colonists sometimes getting stuck in the ceiling
• More hover bike and boat vehicle tweaks, both visually and in behavior.  The hover bike now feels much better and can climb steeper slopes
• Changes for how vehicles are sold and repaired
• Much better vehicle spawning from the vehicle controller
• Fixed some more bugs involving lounging, removed the ability of two players to sit in the same seat if they timed it right
• Added knockback for shields
• Changes for how status and movement modifiers are applied to be more clear and more capable
• Armor dyes!
• Fixes for terrain generation at the bottom of oceans
• Fixes for the floran boss damaging too much, also make the ixoling smarter.
• Fixed chat bubbles rendering behind certain interface elements
• Versioning fixes importing characters from previous versions
• Assorted networking fixes, mostly revolving around items
• Fixes for displaying quest rewards
• Several fixes for projectiles so that they don't miss when a small target is near their point of impact
• Fix endlessly repeating sounds
• Fixes for the turret object
• Fixes for the trictus monster
• Fixed monsters sometimes ending up invulnerable near death
• Fixed monsters not aggroing PvP players
• Fixes for capture pods
• Include some things in our distribution for using the Tiled map editor
• A bunch of other miscellaneous fixes too boring to accurately describe!

We're currently working on a modder's guide for using Tiled, which should include everything you need to create dungeons and missions using it.  There should be a post later today or tomorrow with more details.

Hey everyone! <3

Here's a round-up of some of the most recent developer blogs, in case you missed 'em. Check the blog for regular updates!

6th November – Does my Banana Mask look good?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Happy Friday!

We’ve talked a lot about working on generated quests, and if you play the nightly build you may have seen some crop up in your colonies! Here’s an example of a new sort of quest that will result in the questgiver wearing a new hat. The idea is that your NPCs will be customized over time via quests.



I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Let us know what sort of colony quests you’d like to see. :)

---

10th November - Many Magnificent Microdungeons

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Lots of stuff happening this week! Let’s go down the list:

Making sure monsters spawn in the right places
Tweaking, balancing and testing generated quests
More work on vehicles/mechs
Several people have started work on the next update, which is story-focused
Chickens finally lay eggs, enabling players to cook up more egg-based treats and definitively proving that the chicken came first. That’s just science.
Necotho has been creating microdungeons! Lots and lots of microdungeons! Click the image for high-res and check this link for more pretty screenshots. :)

---

12th November – Grand Theft Automato

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hey everyone!

We’ve got a new programmer onboard – say hello to Ian! He’s working on preparing Starbound for Xbox One Game Preview, but in the meantime he has kindly taken the time to set Starbound’s hoverbikes on fire. All of them. There are no more hoverbikes, they are all on fire.

Click for a gif!

On the combat side of things, here’s a shiny new pair of claws!

Click for another gif!

---

16th November - Lunarang

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Happy Monday!

This week’s off to a good start, with lots of testing ahead of the upcoming combat update, as well as some work on the story update that’s coming up after that. Here’s a new weapon that’s totally not a boomerang, because it is a Lunarang! Harness the power of Earth’s moon to crush your enemies and stuff!

---

20th November - Fortune and Glory

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

We’re still ironing out bugs and fixing/tweaking/updating things ahead of the combat update! SamuriFerret has been tweaking some of the existing missions to make them a little more dangerous. Here’s an example!

Click for a gif!

I've been absolutely loving the entries in this week's community Build of the Week! This build is by DemonDog47 and is called 'The Quarantined District'. :)

---

24th November - Party Bike!

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hello everyone!

You can now jump into a hoverbike with one of your friends and hover off into the sunset together, to the tune of Haddaway’s “What is Love”. Check it out!

Click for a gif!

We’re fast approaching an unstable build of the combat update! Keep an eye out. :)

Hey everyone! <3

Here's a round-up of some of the most recent developer blogs, in case you missed 'em. Check the blog for regular updates!

6th November – Does my Banana Mask look good?

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Happy Friday!

We’ve talked a lot about working on generated quests, and if you play the nightly build you may have seen some crop up in your colonies! Here’s an example of a new sort of quest that will result in the questgiver wearing a new hat. The idea is that your NPCs will be customized over time via quests.



I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Let us know what sort of colony quests you’d like to see. :)

---

10th November - Many Magnificent Microdungeons

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Lots of stuff happening this week! Let’s go down the list:

Making sure monsters spawn in the right places
Tweaking, balancing and testing generated quests
More work on vehicles/mechs
Several people have started work on the next update, which is story-focused
Chickens finally lay eggs, enabling players to cook up more egg-based treats and definitively proving that the chicken came first. That’s just science.
Necotho has been creating microdungeons! Lots and lots of microdungeons! Click the image for high-res and check this link for more pretty screenshots. :)

---

12th November – Grand Theft Automato

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hey everyone!

We’ve got a new programmer onboard – say hello to Ian! He’s working on preparing Starbound for Xbox One Game Preview, but in the meantime he has kindly taken the time to set Starbound’s hoverbikes on fire. All of them. There are no more hoverbikes, they are all on fire.

Click for a gif!

On the combat side of things, here’s a shiny new pair of claws!

Click for another gif!

---

16th November - Lunarang

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Happy Monday!

This week’s off to a good start, with lots of testing ahead of the upcoming combat update, as well as some work on the story update that’s coming up after that. Here’s a new weapon that’s totally not a boomerang, because it is a Lunarang! Harness the power of Earth’s moon to crush your enemies and stuff!

---

20th November - Fortune and Glory

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

We’re still ironing out bugs and fixing/tweaking/updating things ahead of the combat update! SamuriFerret has been tweaking some of the existing missions to make them a little more dangerous. Here’s an example!

Click for a gif!

I've been absolutely loving the entries in this week's community Build of the Week! This build is by DemonDog47 and is called 'The Quarantined District'. :)

---

24th November - Party Bike!

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Hello everyone!

You can now jump into a hoverbike with one of your friends and hover off into the sunset together, to the tune of Haddaway’s “What is Love”. Check it out!

Click for a gif!

We’re fast approaching an unstable build of the combat update! Keep an eye out. :)

So here we are, only a few updates left before 1.0 and I wanted to give you a run down on what to expect.

There are 3 updates planned before 1.0. The Combat Update, The Story Update and a miscellaneous Polish Update.

Let's start by talking about what's coming up in the next patch, which isn't far away now.


We've been calling the next patch the combat update, and with good reason. The goal of this patch is to entirely revamp the combat and the moment to moment gameplay in Starbound by revamping weapons, monsters, quests, rewards, vehicles and more.

Weapons

Until now, weapons in Starbound were a combination of hard coded engine features and the configuration files that controlled them. This has changed drastically in the combat update with the engine now allowing for scripted weapons. Creating entirely unique weapons has become massively easier and as a result from this point forwards Starbound patches will include wonderful new items far outside the scope of the previous item engine.

Modders will also be able to take advantage of this system to create incredible new things. The sky's the limit on this one.

Weapons in vanilla Starbound now fall into two categories, generated and unique. Generated weapons have been converted to the new scripted weapons system and we've given them awesome special moves as a result. The general weapon classes have also been revamped in their primary fires. Hammers require a charge up, spears can be held out defensively and so on. We've worked hard to give each type of weapon it's own identity and have built the special attacks around this identity.







Weapons also have elemental types and in future patches we'll be using those to give damage bonuses and reductions on certain enemies.

Unique weapons are hard to find, will require multiple steps to obtain and will do entirely unique things. I don't want to spoil too much, but this is the kind of thing you can expect:



We've worked really hard on ensuring all of the feedback and damage responses from these weapons is satisfying and spot on. Knockback has been massively tweaked, hitboxes, hit sparks, sounds, you name it. Combat 'feels' so much better.

Monsters

Monsters in Starbound have been a mixed bag. We've worked hard on the procedural monster generation system and whilst it achieves a lot of things, we felt that the game was missing recognisable monsters with truly unique hand crafted behaviour. That's where these hand crafted monsters come in.

In a similar manner to the weapons (though not quite to the same extent) we've built a system to allow us to add unique monsters efficiently and easily. This also extends to modders.





The addition of these monsters will allow us to use them in quests, provides hand crafted challenges for missions and gives us a good way have monster drops make sense. There are unique monsters for each sub biome and a large pool of general unique monsters that will pop up from time to time.

We're making sure there's incentive to catch every unique monster and put together a complete menagerie.

Quests

All of the current Starbound quests are going to be replaced by 1.0. We've been building out the quest system and we're finally at a point where we can replace some of the placeholder quests. Many of the new quests will appear in the story update but the combat update will contain procedurally generated colony quests.

From time to time your colonists will have errands they'd like you to run. These quests form a quest line with an overall goal that may have a small, permanent effect on your colony as well as your colonists relationships. Quests are varied, you might be delivering secret notes between colonists or protecting your colony from bandit attacks. The generated quest system is something with the potential to expand into something huge in the future.



Vehicles

Up until this point vehicles in Starbound have been using the tech system. That means vehicles were merely extensions of the player, with their movement entirely being controlled client side. This system had a great number of limitations. With the combat update we're introducing true vehicles into Starbound. Much like the weapon system, vehicles are scriptable, they also exist server side as a separate entity separate to, but controlled by players. This means multiple players can enter the same vehicle, players can leave their vehicles to sit in a garage persistently and vehicles can have their own health, collisions and so on.

Click here for Vehicle Footage!

To start with we'll be adding a handful of finely tweaked vehicles. But again we haven't just built some vehicles, we've built an entire system so both the developers and modders can add new, completely unique vehicles quickly and easily.

Besides these features, the combat update contains a great deal of miscellaneous additions and fixes. More than I can list here.


So what about after the combat update?

We're planning to put out 2 more patches before 1.0 (and many afterwards).

So what will these updates contain? There are a great number of additions planned. Highlights include an entire set of missions, an opening mission that will explain your role in the world, a great deal of new quests that tie the world together, a cast of wonderful unique characters and a huge amount of new content. It'll also include a much improved pet system, a new means of scanning and examining the world, the much improved reimplementation of survival mechanics like hunger and more.

We’re also planning to revamp how mods are applied and managed, add steam workshop support and simplify multiplayer, with the ability to join games via the steam friends list.

There’s a great deal more to these two patches, including massive performance optimisations, multiplayer improvements and controller support but we’ll be talking more about those closer to their release.


We plan to support Starbound far beyond the 1.0 release. We're building a universe that's capable of being taken in a great number of different directions and we'd like to start polling the community to find out where you'd like it to go next.

One thing we'll be looking into soon after release is Director Mode. Something you're able to find information on here.

In the mean time, follow us on twitter, check out our daily blog updates and we'll keep you informed.

Thank you for supporting Starbound guys, we're almost there!

- Tiyuri

So here we are, only a few updates left before 1.0 and I wanted to give you a run down on what to expect.

There are 3 updates planned before 1.0. The Combat Update, The Story Update and a miscellaneous Polish Update.

Let's start by talking about what's coming up in the next patch, which isn't far away now.


We've been calling the next patch the combat update, and with good reason. The goal of this patch is to entirely revamp the combat and the moment to moment gameplay in Starbound by revamping weapons, monsters, quests, rewards, vehicles and more.

Weapons

Until now, weapons in Starbound were a combination of hard coded engine features and the configuration files that controlled them. This has changed drastically in the combat update with the engine now allowing for scripted weapons. Creating entirely unique weapons has become massively easier and as a result from this point forwards Starbound patches will include wonderful new items far outside the scope of the previous item engine.

Modders will also be able to take advantage of this system to create incredible new things. The sky's the limit on this one.

Weapons in vanilla Starbound now fall into two categories, generated and unique. Generated weapons have been converted to the new scripted weapons system and we've given them awesome special moves as a result. The general weapon classes have also been revamped in their primary fires. Hammers require a charge up, spears can be held out defensively and so on. We've worked hard to give each type of weapon it's own identity and have built the special attacks around this identity.







Weapons also have elemental types and in future patches we'll be using those to give damage bonuses and reductions on certain enemies.

Unique weapons are hard to find, will require multiple steps to obtain and will do entirely unique things. I don't want to spoil too much, but this is the kind of thing you can expect:



We've worked really hard on ensuring all of the feedback and damage responses from these weapons is satisfying and spot on. Knockback has been massively tweaked, hitboxes, hit sparks, sounds, you name it. Combat 'feels' so much better.

Monsters

Monsters in Starbound have been a mixed bag. We've worked hard on the procedural monster generation system and whilst it achieves a lot of things, we felt that the game was missing recognisable monsters with truly unique hand crafted behaviour. That's where these hand crafted monsters come in.

In a similar manner to the weapons (though not quite to the same extent) we've built a system to allow us to add unique monsters efficiently and easily. This also extends to modders.





The addition of these monsters will allow us to use them in quests, provides hand crafted challenges for missions and gives us a good way have monster drops make sense. There are unique monsters for each sub biome and a large pool of general unique monsters that will pop up from time to time.

We're making sure there's incentive to catch every unique monster and put together a complete menagerie.

Quests

All of the current Starbound quests are going to be replaced by 1.0. We've been building out the quest system and we're finally at a point where we can replace some of the placeholder quests. Many of the new quests will appear in the story update but the combat update will contain procedurally generated colony quests.

From time to time your colonists will have errands they'd like you to run. These quests form a quest line with an overall goal that may have a small, permanent effect on your colony as well as your colonists relationships. Quests are varied, you might be delivering secret notes between colonists or protecting your colony from bandit attacks. The generated quest system is something with the potential to expand into something huge in the future.



Vehicles

Up until this point vehicles in Starbound have been using the tech system. That means vehicles were merely extensions of the player, with their movement entirely being controlled client side. This system had a great number of limitations. With the combat update we're introducing true vehicles into Starbound. Much like the weapon system, vehicles are scriptable, they also exist server side as a separate entity separate to, but controlled by players. This means multiple players can enter the same vehicle, players can leave their vehicles to sit in a garage persistently and vehicles can have their own health, collisions and so on.

Click here for Vehicle Footage!

To start with we'll be adding a handful of finely tweaked vehicles. But again we haven't just built some vehicles, we've built an entire system so both the developers and modders can add new, completely unique vehicles quickly and easily.

Besides these features, the combat update contains a great deal of miscellaneous additions and fixes. More than I can list here.


So what about after the combat update?

We're planning to put out 2 more patches before 1.0 (and many afterwards).

So what will these updates contain? There are a great number of additions planned. Highlights include an entire set of missions, an opening mission that will explain your role in the world, a great deal of new quests that tie the world together, a cast of wonderful unique characters and a huge amount of new content. It'll also include a much improved pet system, a new means of scanning and examining the world, the much improved reimplementation of survival mechanics like hunger and more.

We’re also planning to revamp how mods are applied and managed, add steam workshop support and simplify multiplayer, with the ability to join games via the steam friends list.

There’s a great deal more to these two patches, including massive performance optimisations, multiplayer improvements and controller support but we’ll be talking more about those closer to their release.


We plan to support Starbound far beyond the 1.0 release. We're building a universe that's capable of being taken in a great number of different directions and we'd like to start polling the community to find out where you'd like it to go next.

One thing we'll be looking into soon after release is Director Mode. Something you're able to find information on here.

In the mean time, follow us on twitter, check out our daily blog updates and we'll keep you informed.

Thank you for supporting Starbound guys, we're almost there!

- Tiyuri

Hello! We've been updating our development blog near-daily, and I've been reminded that we should cross-post some of our updates here. :)

It's difficult to fit several posts within the Steam Announcement character limit, so I'll try to make a habit of posting excerpts here with links to the full posts. You can also access these posts via Starbound's launcher!

We had a group chat about Tccoxon‘s procedural quests system. It’s just about ready for the team to start work on the many quests the system will pull from, hopefully we’ll have some further information to share on this shortly.

...

We also have another round of monsters to reveal! We’re proud to introduce the Yokat, Quagmutt & Toumingo



Continue reading on the blog!

---

...
Work on vehicles has continued today, and we’ve been having some fun working on quests for the generated quest system. Also, Healthire implemented these little guys!



I’ll have more vehicle stuff to reveal next week, but for now, here are some cool monsters. :)



Continue reading on the blog!

---

...
Metadept has been working on alt weapon abilities, and I particularly like this shotgun vacuum. The art is placeholder, and the effect itself still needs some tweaking, but I think it’s a pretty great new way to annoy your colonists.



I’ve got more monsters to show you, too. Meet Crustoise, Wisper and Sporgus.

You’ve sort of already met Crustoise, as he made an appearance in Friday’s post, but I figured he deserved a proper introduction. Which one is your favorite?


Continue reading on the blog!

---

...
Kyren’s been doing a lot of work on the vehicles system, so we’ve got a newer/cooler version of the hover bike to show off. There’s still work to do, including damageable vehicles and keeping track of the damage status of vehicles.

(This gif is too big - click here to watch it!)

P.S- Happy Back to the Future Day!

---

We’ve had loads of stuff going on this week. GameCity starts today, so yesterday Harriet and Rosie went up to Nottingham to get us all set up with the help of our friends at Creeperhost! If you’re in the area, stop by and participate in Operation Colonisation and you’ll get a super cool penguin sticker. :D

Time to reveal some more monsters! Meet Squeem, Crabcano, and Smoglin!





Look at Crabcano go! He’s so adorably mad that you just kind of want to give him a hug and tell him to calm down – don’t do that though, because he will spit fiery rocks at you.

Continue reading on the blog!

Hello! We've been updating our development blog near-daily, and I've been reminded that we should cross-post some of our updates here. :)

It's difficult to fit several posts within the Steam Announcement character limit, so I'll try to make a habit of posting excerpts here with links to the full posts. You can also access these posts via Starbound's launcher!

We had a group chat about Tccoxon‘s procedural quests system. It’s just about ready for the team to start work on the many quests the system will pull from, hopefully we’ll have some further information to share on this shortly.

...

We also have another round of monsters to reveal! We’re proud to introduce the Yokat, Quagmutt & Toumingo



Continue reading on the blog!

---

...
Work on vehicles has continued today, and we’ve been having some fun working on quests for the generated quest system. Also, Healthire implemented these little guys!



I’ll have more vehicle stuff to reveal next week, but for now, here are some cool monsters. :)



Continue reading on the blog!

---

...
Metadept has been working on alt weapon abilities, and I particularly like this shotgun vacuum. The art is placeholder, and the effect itself still needs some tweaking, but I think it’s a pretty great new way to annoy your colonists.



I’ve got more monsters to show you, too. Meet Crustoise, Wisper and Sporgus.

You’ve sort of already met Crustoise, as he made an appearance in Friday’s post, but I figured he deserved a proper introduction. Which one is your favorite?


Continue reading on the blog!

---

...
Kyren’s been doing a lot of work on the vehicles system, so we’ve got a newer/cooler version of the hover bike to show off. There’s still work to do, including damageable vehicles and keeping track of the damage status of vehicles.

(This gif is too big - click here to watch it!)

P.S- Happy Back to the Future Day!

---

We’ve had loads of stuff going on this week. GameCity starts today, so yesterday Harriet and Rosie went up to Nottingham to get us all set up with the help of our friends at Creeperhost! If you’re in the area, stop by and participate in Operation Colonisation and you’ll get a super cool penguin sticker. :D

Time to reveal some more monsters! Meet Squeem, Crabcano, and Smoglin!





Look at Crabcano go! He’s so adorably mad that you just kind of want to give him a hug and tell him to calm down – don’t do that though, because he will spit fiery rocks at you.

Continue reading on the blog!