Hello everyone!

Devlog #59: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ir5D0zYabo

First off, PULSAR: Lost Colony is now available for purchase on the Steam store as part of the Early Access program. We hope that you will welcome the new players as they learn all the details of PULSAR’s starship operation!

The W.D. Destroyer has been introduced! We call it an “Armored Warship”. It is a combat focused vessel with a smaller interior than most of the current ships. It has a high armor rating and slightly increased turret damage, and it also features a layout that’s different from what many of you may be used to!

We’ve also added some rare space sectors. These include black holes that engulf everything in the sector and damage ships that get too close. It’s best to just warp away as fast as possible to avoid being sucked into oblivion! Another new addition is nebulas, which greatly reduce the effectiveness of EM sensors. This can make finding and destroying ships much more difficult! We’ve also worked on a sector type that starts you inside an asteroid. Be sure to scavenge what scraps you can find in there!

Thrusters have also had a lot of work done. We’ve added two more thruster types that handle rotational and omni-directional input. These add power requirements to all possible Pilot movement. This solves some problems that allowed Pilots to go faster without using additional power and gives Pilots more control in overall power usage.

We’ve spent some time testing and made some balance changes to the game’s difficulty curve. Drones are overall a bit weaker. Many components have had changes to effectiveness. Sell prices have been tweaked, and repair depots are cheaper to use. However, chaos will still greatly affect enemies and increase the difficulty as the game progresses. We look forward to your feedback in this area.

A new controls menu has been added. This allows players to rebind keys in-game without fiddling with the bindings file scripts and such. We’ve also added better support for setting up joysticks, and the in-game prompts (i.e. “R” to use laser turret) will now update based on the bindings.

The Captain can now kick players. We will be paying close attention to community feedback and possibly making changes to this system to assure it has a positive effect for most players. In addition, the Captain can toggle or change the game’s password after it has been created.

We’ve also added some additional HUD text to explain a few of the more unique controls in PULSAR. This can be disabled in the Game Settings menu at any time.

Ship damage numbers are now displayed next to enemies. This can also be disabled in the Game Settings menu.

Also check out the in-game manual and credits. We’ve added to the credits all the Kickstarter backers who have submitted names through our pledge manager.

The save game file format has been edited so previous saves will not be compatible. This is because we added new ship components (rotational and maneuvering thrusters), and we also found a bug with destroyed ships not staying destroyed. We’ll try our best not to update the format frequently in the future, but it’s one of the downsides to being in development.

As always we look forward to your feedback!

We hope you enjoy the update!

Additions
-New Ship: W.D. Destroyer (Armored Warship)
-New Sector Type: Black Hole
-New Sector Type: Nebula / EM Storm
-New Sector Type: Asteroid Interior
-New Planet (with Mission): Artifact Planet 2
-New Component Type: Rotational Thruster
-New Component Type: Maneuver Thruster
-New Component Type: Auto Turret
-The Captain can now kick players (other than the host) from the game
-The Captain can now add, edit or remove the game’s password after the game is started in the overview menu
-New Controls menu that allows players to edit key bindings in-game
-In-game manual added to main / pause menu
-Credits are now viewable from the main menu
-Ship Components menu can now show full ship stats
-Added some in-game controls help text that can be toggled in the game settings menu
-Added ship damage numbers that can be toggled in the game settings menu
-We’ve improved and re-added our ship room culling system. This is something we’ll be improving over the entire course of development.
-The Captain can jettison cargo from the ship in any sector. They are destroyed right now, but in the future we want to have them visible in space.

Balance
-Crews now start with 10000 credits instead of 2500
-W.D. Drones are a bit weaker overall
-Missile and turret damage have been tweaked / reduced
-Hull repair now costs less than before (about a 30% reduction in price)
-Selling components to shops will now give more credits than before
-Tweaked how enemy ships upgrade themselves when chaos levels increase. They shouldn’t get as powerful as before.
-Enemy crewed ships are slightly more rare. They also have the ability to use mega turrets, so watch out!


Changes
-Ship rotation speed is no longer determined from Max Thrust. Instead a specialized component (rotational thruster) determines rotation speed.
-Ship omni-directional translation is no longer determined from Max Thrust. Instead a specialized component (Maneuver Thruster) determines omni-directional translation speed.
-Proximity mines can be shot down with a turret
-Added a character limit to ship names (25)
-Added a text popup when in range of piloting screen
-The Airlock can now be used to dump components while not in range of a shop
-Both asteroid and graveyard sectors are now farther away from where players ships arrive. This should help with the occasional “warp into asteroid mesh” or “instant kill via proximity mine”. Those aren’t fun.
-Roland now has 4 auto turrets placed upon the belly of the ship.


Fixes
-Ship name should dynamically update on the join game menu when the Captain changes the name in-game
-Ship type name should properly update when a new ship is captured on the join game menu
-Fixed scaling issue with Infected minefields
-Fixed issue with Infected Carrier AI
-Fixed Sun Shafts
-Fixed issue that could cause shops, missions, and planets to appear in starting Infected space
-Fixed an issues that could spawn a sand shark on top of the terraforming station on Mueva 7, also fixed a collision issue.
-Fixed bug that caused AI Weapon Specialists to not start with Advanced Operator talent, this now means enemy crewed ships will have access to their mega turrets and missiles… good luck!
-Fixed bug that caused enemy crews collision errors when navigating some ships
-Fixed issue that could cause ships to begin the game not fully booted / started
-Fixed issue that could cause some stuttering in-game once per second
-PiBot can now be selected from the AI Priorities menu
-Fixed some spelling mistakes for the Phalanx virus
-Saves now handle destroyed ships properly. New save file format is required.
-”Objective Completed” message should now show on host
-Roland now drops credits on destruction


Known Issues
-Some issues have been seen with crew bot networking
-Some audio crackling has been observed
-Bandits will sometimes not spawn / fall through the level on certain planets
-Space scrap is sometimes not visible
-Some isolated issues with disconnections from the Photon Cloud
-When playing on or fighting against the W.D. Destroyer, music doesn’t play properly

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hello everyone!

Devlog #59: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ir5D0zYabo

First off, PULSAR: Lost Colony is now available for purchase on the Steam store as part of the Early Access program. We hope that you will welcome the new players as they learn all the details of PULSAR’s starship operation!

The W.D. Destroyer has been introduced! We call it an “Armored Warship”. It is a combat focused vessel with a smaller interior than most of the current ships. It has a high armor rating and slightly increased turret damage, and it also features a layout that’s different from what many of you may be used to!

We’ve also added some rare space sectors. These include black holes that engulf everything in the sector and damage ships that get too close. It’s best to just warp away as fast as possible to avoid being sucked into oblivion! Another new addition is nebulas, which greatly reduce the effectiveness of EM sensors. This can make finding and destroying ships much more difficult! We’ve also worked on a sector type that starts you inside an asteroid. Be sure to scavenge what scraps you can find in there!

Thrusters have also had a lot of work done. We’ve added two more thruster types that handle rotational and omni-directional input. These add power requirements to all possible Pilot movement. This solves some problems that allowed Pilots to go faster without using additional power and gives Pilots more control in overall power usage.

We’ve spent some time testing and made some balance changes to the game’s difficulty curve. Drones are overall a bit weaker. Many components have had changes to effectiveness. Sell prices have been tweaked, and repair depots are cheaper to use. However, chaos will still greatly affect enemies and increase the difficulty as the game progresses. We look forward to your feedback in this area.

A new controls menu has been added. This allows players to rebind keys in-game without fiddling with the bindings file scripts and such. We’ve also added better support for setting up joysticks, and the in-game prompts (i.e. “R” to use laser turret) will now update based on the bindings.

The Captain can now kick players. We will be paying close attention to community feedback and possibly making changes to this system to assure it has a positive effect for most players. In addition, the Captain can toggle or change the game’s password after it has been created.

We’ve also added some additional HUD text to explain a few of the more unique controls in PULSAR. This can be disabled in the Game Settings menu at any time.

Ship damage numbers are now displayed next to enemies. This can also be disabled in the Game Settings menu.

Also check out the in-game manual and credits. We’ve added to the credits all the Kickstarter backers who have submitted names through our pledge manager.

The save game file format has been edited so previous saves will not be compatible. This is because we added new ship components (rotational and maneuvering thrusters), and we also found a bug with destroyed ships not staying destroyed. We’ll try our best not to update the format frequently in the future, but it’s one of the downsides to being in development.

As always we look forward to your feedback!

We hope you enjoy the update!

Additions
-New Ship: W.D. Destroyer (Armored Warship)
-New Sector Type: Black Hole
-New Sector Type: Nebula / EM Storm
-New Sector Type: Asteroid Interior
-New Planet (with Mission): Artifact Planet 2
-New Component Type: Rotational Thruster
-New Component Type: Maneuver Thruster
-New Component Type: Auto Turret
-The Captain can now kick players (other than the host) from the game
-The Captain can now add, edit or remove the game’s password after the game is started in the overview menu
-New Controls menu that allows players to edit key bindings in-game
-In-game manual added to main / pause menu
-Credits are now viewable from the main menu
-Ship Components menu can now show full ship stats
-Added some in-game controls help text that can be toggled in the game settings menu
-Added ship damage numbers that can be toggled in the game settings menu
-We’ve improved and re-added our ship room culling system. This is something we’ll be improving over the entire course of development.
-The Captain can jettison cargo from the ship in any sector. They are destroyed right now, but in the future we want to have them visible in space.

Balance
-Crews now start with 10000 credits instead of 2500
-W.D. Drones are a bit weaker overall
-Missile and turret damage have been tweaked / reduced
-Hull repair now costs less than before (about a 30% reduction in price)
-Selling components to shops will now give more credits than before
-Tweaked how enemy ships upgrade themselves when chaos levels increase. They shouldn’t get as powerful as before.
-Enemy crewed ships are slightly more rare. They also have the ability to use mega turrets, so watch out!


Changes
-Ship rotation speed is no longer determined from Max Thrust. Instead a specialized component (rotational thruster) determines rotation speed.
-Ship omni-directional translation is no longer determined from Max Thrust. Instead a specialized component (Maneuver Thruster) determines omni-directional translation speed.
-Proximity mines can be shot down with a turret
-Added a character limit to ship names (25)
-Added a text popup when in range of piloting screen
-The Airlock can now be used to dump components while not in range of a shop
-Both asteroid and graveyard sectors are now farther away from where players ships arrive. This should help with the occasional “warp into asteroid mesh” or “instant kill via proximity mine”. Those aren’t fun.
-Roland now has 4 auto turrets placed upon the belly of the ship.


Fixes
-Ship name should dynamically update on the join game menu when the Captain changes the name in-game
-Ship type name should properly update when a new ship is captured on the join game menu
-Fixed scaling issue with Infected minefields
-Fixed issue with Infected Carrier AI
-Fixed Sun Shafts
-Fixed issue that could cause shops, missions, and planets to appear in starting Infected space
-Fixed an issues that could spawn a sand shark on top of the terraforming station on Mueva 7, also fixed a collision issue.
-Fixed bug that caused AI Weapon Specialists to not start with Advanced Operator talent, this now means enemy crewed ships will have access to their mega turrets and missiles… good luck!
-Fixed bug that caused enemy crews collision errors when navigating some ships
-Fixed issue that could cause ships to begin the game not fully booted / started
-Fixed issue that could cause some stuttering in-game once per second
-PiBot can now be selected from the AI Priorities menu
-Fixed some spelling mistakes for the Phalanx virus
-Saves now handle destroyed ships properly. New save file format is required.
-”Objective Completed” message should now show on host
-Roland now drops credits on destruction


Known Issues
-Some issues have been seen with crew bot networking
-Some audio crackling has been observed
-Bandits will sometimes not spawn / fall through the level on certain planets
-Space scrap is sometimes not visible
-Some isolated issues with disconnections from the Photon Cloud
-When playing on or fighting against the W.D. Destroyer, music doesn’t play properly

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team