Another update on the way to stable version 0.9.

In this update various aspects of the game was fixed and adapted for 3D physics and mostly the game should work well in 3D space now.
Also we added new weapons of various sizes which will be needed for upcoming combat update.

For the next preview update we will focus on combat aspect, more accurate balance for modules, AI and another improvements for large scale fleet battles.




Improvements

• Modules: Added a lot of new weapons and existed weapons is fixed and improved
  
  
• Modules: Shield generator now properly works in 3D and its functionality overall improved
  
  
• Modules: Triangle modules has new model and also now it can be properly attached to each other
  
• Modules: New radars of various sizes is redesigned and properly functional now
  
  
• Modules: Life support modules a bit redesigned
  
• Modules: Turret platforms a bit redesigned
  
• Modules: Parameters of all modules is rebalanced
  
• GUI: Redesigned "total inventory window", now it displays current and maximum volume of cargo hold, also icons no longer respawns each second and its values updated every frame instead of once per second
  
  
• GUI: Redesigned "specify transfer amount window"
  
• GUI: Range of new turrets now displayed as full circle without side borders
  
• Starting ship a bit redesigned with new radar
  
• Preview of weapons now has the same green color as standard modules
  
• Removed several rarely used hotkeys from default settings
  
• Added muzzle fire effect for rocket launchers
  
• Pistons and rotors now much more sturdy and keeps its state better during influence of external force

Fixes

• Engineering modules now properly construct modules in 3D space
  
• Radius of engineering modules now displayed properly when ship is inclined
  
• Salvaging of debris works again
  
• Multiplayer: Position of objects now synced in 3D
  
• O2 and H2 counters no longer inverted
  
• Rockets no longer spins during flight
  
• Guided rockets now properly works in 3D
  
  
• Static solar panels works again
  
• Check of line of sight for solar panels now works properly in 3D space
  
• Modules now can be properly connected to 2x1 adapters
  
• Module preview now much less likely will flicker while you are trying to place it
  
• Preview of large modules no longer appears too close to camera
  
• R F keys no longer moves preview module (it no longer necessary)
  
• Removed unused selection frames which can be found in game world
  
• Move tool in ship editor now works again (but only in 2D at this moment)
  
• Now when you hover cursor on mounting point in order to attach or detach it - it will be visible through the module
  
• Possibility to connect two parts in open space by clicking on mounting point now works again
  
• Altitude stabilizer now works only if a ship oriented horizontally
  
• Now weapons can be placed only on turrets of the same size tier
  
• Crew rename button works again
  
• Fixed "Energy consumption" instead of "Energy production" on module's interface
  
• Shields no longer ignore objects which was located inside its sphere during previous activation
  
• Power generators works again
  
• Magnetic docking now properly works in 3D
  
• Escape pods now properly works in 3D
  
• Shipyard parts and warp drives now has proper 3D colliders
  
  
  
• Autopilot and NPC movement now works again
  
• Now turrets will properly track target in 3D space
  
• Modules which works incorrectly when placed on rotor or piston no longer can be placed on it (rotor and piston designed only for decoration purposes and for fun with grabber)



That update took a bit more time than we expected initially but also this is probably a biggest update in the history.

Actually it is not completely ready yet but we decided to release it in preview branch because some aspects of the new update already more or less ready and the previous update was way too long ago.

Note, this is an early preview build which is provided to show upcoming features.
Many various features can be incomplete or broken.



At this moment we have large list of tasks in TO DO list regarding this preview build, so if you encountered a bug or incomplete feature, bug report is not required because most likely this is already in our TO DO list.

Later, when additional testing will be required we will make an announcement about that.
However feel free to discuss preview build in the Discord chat, there is a new channel "preview-version" for that.

In order to enable preview version, do the next steps in your Steam app:



More info and pictures in our previous posts:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/1595890716660832240
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/3727223146682132461
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/1690470748510608281
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/2082293429501557004
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/2082293429505943986
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/2202765987124786942


Large Improvements

• Full 3D physics! A lot of modules and functionalities is adapted in order to work in full 3D! Ship editor, engines, turrets, solar panels, orbits, interface, physics, almost every aspect of the game is reworked and improved!
  
• Ship editor: Brand new "ship building in isolated environment" feature which allows you to get unlimited ship building creativity in non-sandbox game mode, create a blueprint and project it on existing ship with automatic reconstruction with engineering modules or shipyard!
  
• Ship editor: New when you press X on module, this module will be marked as "for deconstruction" it will be deconstructed by any engineering module nearby
  
• Ship editor: Changed a way how engineering modules works, now you place blueprints instead of incomplete modules and engineering modules works on such blueprints nearby
  
• Ship editor: Added mirror (symmetry) mode which works for module placement and painting
  
• Ship editor: Destroyed modules create a blueprints on its position which makes repairing after combat super easy and comfortable
  
• Ship editor: Repairing of modules is much easier now because it requires only special repair kits instead of huge amount of different resources
  
• New modules: A lot of new weapons and modules for capital ships including capital-size hangar and functional gate
  
• New modules: Redesigned solar panels
  
• Docking ports now has "magnetic feature", it will automatically move the ship to position which required for docking when two docking ports is close to each other, as result docking of two ships now is much easier and comfortable
  
• Multiplayer: Huge improvements for multiplayer, many various bugs is fixed now
  
• Tractor beam now applies proper force to objects with different mass, objects with mass 1 and 1000 will be moved correctly with normal speed, instead of ultra slow or fast, also maximum range is increased and in result tractor beam no longer useless
  
• Combat: Now cannon's projectile can penetrate trough several objects if previous object has less HP than damage of this projectile and also damage to the next object will be reduced accordingly. This feature is important for game balance when large slow firing cannon shooting at a ship which consist of many small modules with low HP, so single module with 1 HP no longer able to stop a projectile which able to cause 100 damage
  
• World: Stars in galaxy now located more uniformly (fixed issue with large empty areas and stars which are too close to each other)
  
• World: Changed a way how network of warp gates is generated, now it is a highway which go through entire galaxy which gives you a way to explore and encounter more challenges
  
• UI: Entire user interface is greatly redesigned and improved in many various aspects
  
• UI: Build menu now have buttons for categories and modules sorted by name
  
• Greatly reworked energy shields, now it have new visual \ audio effects and new functionality. One energy shield per ship for better usability and visual effects. No overpowered damage on impact. Much more obvious and balanced recharging.
  
• Now if you will lost all ships a convenient window with "Load" and "Main menu" buttons will appears, instead of respawn window which was removed because it caused an issue with possibility to duplicate a lot of resources easily
  
• Modules which remains after NPC ships, no longer can be attached to your own ship (it only can be deconstructed for resources) because it caused major issue with game balance and also encouraged to assemble unpretty "Frankenstein's ships"
  
• AI: NPC ships now will retreat if lost its weapons
  
• AI: NPC ships now rotates its ship to the target much better
  
• AI: Enemy ships now moves randomly instead of sitting at the same position

Small improvements

• Ship editor: Holding Shift no longer required in order to place several modules one after another, this mode now enabled by default which should be more convenient because in most cases "shift mode" is required
  
• Ship editor: Now some large modules can be placed only on own space station or capital ship
  
• Ship editor: Now you can hold left mouse button and drag a cursor in order to place many modules by single move
  
• Ship editor: Now radius and direction of warp drive and shield displayed above its preview
  
• Ship editor: Now you can deconstruct \ delete all modules which selected with move tool
  
• Ship editor: Engineering modules in auto mode now will prefer a nearest tasks instead or random tasks within its radius
  
  
• UI: Main menu redesigned, now it is more clean and easier to use
  
• UI: Button in main menu and some in-game buttons now animated
  
• UI: Inventory icons now displays integer values instead of decimal and power storages display values in 15.6k format instead of 15627
  
• UI: Now when you click on window - this window will display on top of other windows
  
• UI: Now when you hover cursor on module in build menu - its info will be displayed on the right side instead of near cursor, which is more comfortable
  
• UI: Added button "sort by name" and "sort by time" to window with saved ships
  
• UI: Added button "open main menu" on the top-left corner of the screen
  
• UI: Value of current credits changed with smooth animation
  
• UI: In-game menu now have the same design as main menu
  
• UI: Total mass and inertia tensor of ship now displayed in more comfortable format
  
• UI: Crew window is a bit redesigned and now it is more convenient to use
  
• UI: Weapon groups now can be enabled with buttons "1-6" instead of combination "Shift + 1-6" which is much more convenient
  
• UI: Weapon direction indicator now displayed automatically once you enabled a manual mode and no longer requires to press separated button
  
• UI: Weapon direction indicator now have a bit more minimalistic design
  
• UI: Dialogue window with NPC stations is redesigned for better usability
  
  
• New starting ship
  
• Now you can see an info about ammo usage when hover cursor on weapon in build menu
  
• Now when you want to load ship from file, radius of "free space seeker" will be different according to ship size
  
• Now you can select an angle of newly loaded ship with A \ D buttons
  
• Radius of xenon collector in aero mode now much larger, in result it is more obvious to use
  
• Added options to invert mouse wheel and change its sensitivity
  
• Combat: Projectiles now have zero chance to bounce off targets which has low HP
  
• Combat: When shield colliding with module or another shield - another object no longer receive damage, as result shield no longer can't be used as overpowered ramming weapon
  
• Now crew of a ship is able consume food and oxygen from docked ships
  
• It is no longer possible to set a module hotkey which already used in global hotkeys list
  
• Camera now focused on center of mass instead of command module
  
• Rotation speed of planets and clouds now looks a bit better
  
• Added hotkey to show FPS counter

Fixes

• Fixed an issue with small jittering of modules at close zoom and also physics is a bit more accurate now
  
• Anti aliasing effect now works as intended
  
• Ship editor: Fixed a bug when sometimes new modules after placement appears not in the same position where was located its green preview object
  
• Ship editor: Fixed a bug when not all mounting points of modules were connected after it was moved with "Move Tool"
  
• Auto mode now properly works for engineering modules on shipyard
  
• Rockets no longer cause damage due collisions (only from its own explosion), as result rockets no longer so overpowered
  
• Removed outdated buttons in sandbox menu
  
• Turret based rocket launcher now has correct rate of fire
  
• NPC ships no longer tries to use escape pod launchers as a rocket weapon
  
• State of ship stabilizer now can be saved and loaded
  
• Hotkey for "Auto center of thrust" now works properly
  
• Calculation of path for ships no longer cause FPS spike
  
• Clicking on planet in aero mode no longer cause an error
  
• Sliders in control panel of shields now displays correct values when you click on several different shields
  
• Ships no longer invulnerable for beam weapon after its shield depleted
  
• In aerodynamic mode planets on map no longer moving on its orbit
  
• Weapon groups no longer can be switched during usage of some input field
  
• Light beams of shipyards no longer visible in space when out of range of radar

This is pretty important topic because some people started to worry that after switching to full 3D the game will lose its attractive simplicity of navigation.

And this is completely understandable, to be honest we were worried about this too. We had a theoretical plan how to keep control simple, but this plan wasn't tested on practice.

Turned out, nothing to worry about, the new system works amazingly well!

We developed two new types of stabilizers:

1. Roll and pitch stabilizer
It will automatically keep your ship in horizontal orientation



2. Altitude stabilizer
It will automatically keep your ship on specified altitude relative to zero plane

Both stabilizers activated by default and in most cases, you don't need to deactivate it.
While it active - you can control your ship using WASD QE buttons as before and the ship will move on horizontal plane like in 2D.



Also, you can change altitude using special buttons and a ship will keep specified altitude.



And also, you can disable these stabilizers and move in 3D space freely if you wish.
Shift + WASDQE controls ship's roll, pitch and vertical velocity.



Minimal complexity of ships also not too much increased, all what you need relative to previous 2D version, is just to add 8 additional maneuvering engines, 4 on top and 4 on bottom near each corner so a ship will use these engines in order to control its orientation.

Also center of thrust now can be displayed for all 6 directions which is useful in order to adjust all engines relative to center of mass.

Yes, yesterday's post was not a joke.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/partnerevents/view/2082293429501557003
Actually we planned to publish that announcement at March 31, but a bit more time was required so we delayed it on the next day, but turned out that the next day is April 1, so we decided it would be interesting to publish announcement today : )

Of course it would be too cruel if such announcement was an April joke, so it is not.
In the next update Celestial Command will be with full 3D physics and ship editor!

So, most systems already adapted for functionality in 3D but need to implement a few more systems before new version can be released in experimental build.

Also we are working on design of various modules and placement of mounting points to provide enough parts to create ships with various design.

Some modules remodeled and a bit redesigned because it should have proper dimensions on vertical axis too and also additional mounting points.
For example new corridors has more symmetrical profile and can be stacked to each other with different angles.



Fun fact, after we switched to 3D, we need less variations of basic shapes to achieve various ship designs. Only a few basic shapes is enough because now each module can be rotated on any direction which creates much more possibilities for construction.





Situation with turrets also became simpler, now it is just a simple flat looking platform which can be placed on any surface with different angles, so weapons can be placed on top, bottom or side part of the ship.



All weapons is adapted for 3D and now can be pointed up or down.



Also wreckage in 3D space looks quite epic.



To make salvaging process more convenient we will extend functionality of tractor beam so it will attract debris closer to robotic arms or drones will help with that task (because drones is possible now, but it will be added a bit later)

As we said in previous posts, ship building is the most important aspect of the game and for the next update we are trying to add many new parts in order to make ship building more diverse and open now possibilities for creativity.

Some time ago, when we already prepared large parts for capital ships and started to thing how to add even more freedom and creativity to the ship building, we thought it carefully and came out to the simple conclusion:

2D physics has more restrictions and disadvantages than advantages.
Full 3D physics will add extreme amount of freedom and creativity for ship building process.

People often asked us for a various 3D features such as:
• Possibility to place turrets on top of the ship like on real life battleships
• Hangar bays with drones
• Solar panels which placed horizontal and not blocked with the ship itself
• More "vertical" ship design instead of flat ships

We even created items in the FAQ to explain why these features can't be implemented (due various restrictions related to 2D physics):
https://trello.com/c/CUsCP7ut
https://trello.com/c/WB6s9LZF

But if we will make the game full 3D, these issues related to 2D physics will be no longer relevant and features listed above will be possible!
So we decided to do that!

Important to mention that the main advantage of 2D physics it is simplicity of control and navigation. You can fly your ship using only WASDQE buttons and no need to worry about 3-rd dimension. This is actually pretty important because navigation in 3D space could be complex and confusing.

However there is a solution which allows to keep that advantage even in full 3D.
Most objects still will be located on horizontal plane, such as asteroids, stations and other ships so you still will be able to control your ship using only WASDQE buttons.

Even if the ship is drifted a bit on vertical axis - we added a new special stabilizer which will automatically keep ship in horizontal plane.
But if you wish to leave horizontal plane, you no longer bound to it and you can do that.

Here is some examples of new 3D ships with new modules and weapons
Possibilities for ship building now is really amazing!







Indicators of altitude relative to standard zero plane



What about orbital mechanics, orbits now can be not only equatorial but inclined too



Customizable point light sources which also may act as flashing lights





Customizable spotlight sources



Changed the way how modules are placed, Now after placement it appears as transparent object which become active after engineering module will work on it for several seconds.
It should make construction process much more convenient.



If you lose part of your ship, blueprint for reconstruction will be automatically created so you can repair your ship easily on shipyard. This feature is extremely helpful for repairing after combat.



Also we want to say special thanks for everyone who supports us on Patreon! Without your help we would not have enough funds to develop such a large and long update.
Fortunately, with you help we can do it!

When it will be released? We are not sure yet, but after this blog post we will try to post progress reports more often.
Also, due large amount changes and possible bugs we will release it in experimental build first, but it will be available for everyone and no additional access will be required.
We will publish a news when it will be done.

Thanks!

Currently we are working on improvements for a combat aspect of gameplay.
Combat should be important part of the game, but at this moment large amount of flaws do not allows to play and enjoy it.

Here is a list of things which will be added in the next update in order to solve that:

• The starting ship now have a proper weapon right from the start. Some basic kinetic cannon and small rocket launcher as well as some amount of ammunition in storage.
  
  
• Activation of weapon is much more convenient now, just press 1 to enable weapon group, instead of complex Shift+1 combination. Also weapon range will be showed automatically and no longer requires to press Ctrl+1. Launching of rocket also much more easy now because hotkeys already designated from the start.
  
  
• AI of enemy ships now much better in terms of navigation. It will properly direct its ship on the target and will not cause FPS drop in the process.
  Also when it is unable to continue combat due lack of any weapon, it will try to retreat instead of sit and waiting while someone destroying its ship.
  
  
  
  
• Cannon's projectile can penetrate trough several objects if previous object has less HP than damage of this projectile and also damage to the next object will be reduced accordingly. This feature is important for game balance when large slow firing cannon shooting at a ship which consist of many small modules with low HP, so single module with 1 HP no longer able to stop a projectile which able to cause 100 damage
  
  
  
  
• Now you may encounter not only an enemy combat ships but allied ships too, which will fight each other.
  
  
  
  
• Currently, reconstruction of missing modules after combat is tedious, this will be fixed with the system which adds a blueprint module each time when some module on your ships is destroyed.
  These blueprints can be easily built on shipyard as it showed in previous post.

And also some reminder about possibility to get Celestial Command with -25% discount until January 2.

Happy New Year!

Hello!
We are preparing so much improvements for the next update, so we decided it will be a version alpha 0.9.

It will be a huge update where almost every aspect of the game will be greatly improved and we will fix most of the crucial issues which exist in the game for a long time.

For example, a ship constructor, it is the most important feature of the game, but currently it have an important issue which should be fixed.

For a long time we are thinking how to solve the problem that ship construction in sandbox mode is much more fun than in non-sandbox mode.

The good ship editor should allow to quickly place and remove parts in order to experiment with different designs and build a ship you want.

However, currently construction and deconstruction of modules it is a complex process, which requires a lot of time and resources, and result it is not possible to experiment with designs and unleash your creativity.



Currently the only way to build something specific, it is to launch the game in sandbox mode, build the ship there, make a screenshot, calculate required amount of resources in notepad and after that load non-sandbox game back and rebuild this ship using screenshot as an instruction.
This is super tedious and inconvenient. Definitely not the way how it should work.

Of course, instant construction \ deconstruction of modules could solve this issue, but we don't want to make it instant because we like a nice animation of robotic arms and its welding effects.

But for the next update we developed the solution - Isolated ship editor!

Now in non-sandbox game mode you can press the button any time and open a special editor screen where you can edit your ship using the same rules as in sandbox mode.
Modules are free and can be placed or removed instantly. Here you can unleash your creativity designing your ship, and after you finished, you can press the button and engineering modules in game world will automatically build a new ship for you!



Also this method will allows to load a blueprint which was saved in sandbox mode or a file from Workshop (which will be added later) and build it in non-sandbox game mode.

In addition, such approach will solve an important issue of orbital game mode where it is very inconvenient to design a ships due drifting of separated modules due tidal forces.
This no longer will be a problem because development of blueprints can be done in isolated environment.

Besides that, recipes of most modules will be simplified, because currently modules requires way too much different resources, in result gathering of resources for ship construction became tedious. We want to make ship construction more accessible for players.

Also take a look on a new energy shield effects:

There was no news from us quite a while, this is because we are working on some big improvements for the next update which requires to do some research about new methods and features, so we were not ready to show result before we will be sure that these new features will work as desired.

The upcoming improvements will be related to the most important aspect of the game - construction of ships.

Currently in the game most modules has the same size and most ships also has the same size, of course there is some a bit larger modules and also you can build a ships of any size you want, but even larger ships mostly looks like a large, flat construction made of small parts.

This is not intentional design choice. From the first day of development, Celestial Command supposed to be the game about ships of very various sizes, where smaller vessels will be able to fly inside a hangars of huge carriers and battleships.

Earlier we had more priority tasks related to core systems instead of a lot of new modules of various sizes, but now we decided to focus on this direction.

For the next update we started to use a new method which allows to create large amount of modules in reasonable time. Now some modules consist of two parts, superstructure above and standardized base structure below.

Besides that, some modules have optional variant with different vertical profiles, allowing to create a huge ships which does not looks flat.



Initially we thought that such method may create undesired "repetitive tiling" effect because base structure of different modules will looks the same, but turned out it is not a problem because most of the time you observe ships from above where superstructure overlaps most of its area, plus different vertical profiles creates very interesting shapes.

Here is some early examples of what is possible to build using new modules:













Besides that we will add huge hangar parts, a lot of new weapons and many various functional improvements, such as mirror tool, magnetic docking, more challenges and a lot more.

That is how research and development area of new modules in 3D editor:



When it will be released? We are not sure yet, we want to make it high quality because when people will start to design and save new ships we want to be sure that save files will not be wasted due some changes in the another update after.
Also we want to provide some kind of game goals to create a purpose for a newly designed ships.
We will keep you informed about update progression.

Thanks for the patience! : )

Currently mining lasers in the game has a very short range, and this is not too correct because if mining device suppose to be a short range it could be just a simple mining drill, but since we have lasers, we should have long range version.
So here it is, long range mining lasers!

Also now it can be mounted on turrets and automatically collect required ore within range! It acts like a great advanced tool for mining and should partially solve a situation with lack of fuel for large ships because mining is much easier now.

A bit later this issue will be completely solved with addition of large mining devices which can be placed on large asteroids in order to extract even more ore.


Large improvements

• Added long range mining laser which should be mounted on turret. Such turrets will automatically mine asteroids with desired resource within its range. Also added a possibility to select which resource you want to mine
  
• Damage and mining rate of all lasers no longer depends on distance to target (this feature didn't adds any interesting aspects to the gameplay, on the contrary it was confusing and non intuitive, also it turned lasers into some kind of "shotguns" which should be used from the minimal distance, that is not a desired game-style for combat lasers). Also visual effect of laser ray no longer falloff with the distance and in result it looks much better
  
• Lasers now activated and deactivated not instantly, but during a short time, as result its visual effect looks much better
  
• Lasers now will consume energy from internal power storage which will recharge over time, so now in cases when you have not enough energy, lasers will wait for full charge instead of attempt to emit thin and weak ray. Overall, combat and mining operations now looks much better in cases when ship has not enough energy

Small improvements

• Added possibility to setup hotkey for auto center of thrust calibration
  
• Text elements such as "+2 Iron ore" which appears over cargo containers now displayed only at close range
  
• Graphs of power monitor now hidden by default
  
• Xenon collector max radius in orbital mode increased from 5 to 30 (it should be much easier to use now)
  
• Added missing info on control panel of xenon collector
  
• Target of turret now visualized only on selection of module

Fixes

• Critical bug with impossibility to save \ load a game with error "Position is NaN" should be fixed (but we are not sure, so let us know if you will encounter this issue again)
  
• Ships with activated warp drive no longer able to move inside a warp field (solved an issue when you press W during warp flight and ship explodes due contact with warp sphere)
  
• Fixes impossibility to load a game which was saved during warp flight
  
• Fixes issue when options and save load windows still visible after menu reopened with Esc button
  
• Fixes internal error when galaxy map opened during warp flight
  
• Xenon collector works again in orbital mode
  
• Pause on Esc now correctly works after save load

Improvements

• Added button which will automatically setup maximum thrust level for all main engines in order to align center of thrust with center of mass. Very useful for asymmetrical ships or for ships with unbalanced distribution of cargo.
  
• Added notification if you try to buy goods to container of not suitable type or if it has not enough free space

Fixes

• Possibility to buy goods on trading stations now works again (it was accidentally broken when cargo types were reworked)
  
• Game speed no longer affects on functionality of double click
  
• Fixed possibility to load a game from existed game (no longer infinite loading screen)
  
• Fixed internal error when cursor hovered on item in global inventory window during sell mode
  
• Station size fuel tank now may contain only 1 type of resource instead of 2 (earlier it caused various issues with fuel production and consumption)
  
• Auto saves now works properly (now each file has correct data such as date, time, version etc.)
  
• Fixed an issue when sometimes salvaging module consumed resources but did not unloaded a product
  
• Added missing on hover info about characteristics for modules: Life support, crew quarters, escape pods
  
• Added missing on selection info about characteristics for modules: Engineering module, escape pods
  
• Added localization for characteristics of some modules