Sep 3, 2015

[September 3, 2015] Major Update Pre-Alpha 3.0.0: Procedurally generated planets, new starting planet, swimming and much more

Empyrion - Galactic Survival - Luke Empyrion

Hello Galactic Survivalists!

We are very excited to present you the new update Pre-Alpha 3.0.0. It is the biggest update since the release of Empyrion. We listened to your feedback from the last survey and integrated one of your most demanded features: fully procedurally generated planets! You can select a Seed which then determines how the world is generated (terrain, resources & POI distribution and enemy spawning). However, you can play with the "old" Seed and you will find the setting from the previous version of Empyrion with manually placed resources and POIs. This means also that you can continue your old save games.

In addition to random generation (which we will improve over time), we added a new planet, swimming and the possibility to take off your helmet & save oxygen. Finally, we fixed a lot of bugs and added many more things as documented in the Changelog below.

In the next weeks we will focus our efforts on implementing the solar system. Thus, in Pre-Alpha 4.0.0 you can expect to explore a whole solar system with many procedurally generated planets that are much further away from each other. To travel from one planet to the other, you will need your capital vessel.

Approaching the new temperate planet Akua:

Taking off your helmet on Akua, saves you precious oxygen:

The female character without helmet:

When you dive, don't forget to wear your helmet:

You can build your base in the water:

Planet Akua seen from the moon:

Here is the full Changelog for Pre-Alpha 3.0.0:

Features:
- Added fully procedural planets: Added random distribution of resources and POIs and random terrain generation (controllable via Seed)
- Added new starting planet Akua with breathable atmosphere (temperate planet with vast oceans)
- Added male / female character without helmet and possibility to remove helmet
- Added swimming
- Added 2 new creatures on Akua
- Added a first (2D) Minimap
- Added door for SV and GV (to build dropships)
- Added emergency O2 bottle (can be used to refill O2 without Oxygen Station)
- Added work light that illuminates an area (not just a spotlight). Increased spot angle of old work ight.
- Neodymium is now used in templates (can be found on e.g. Omicron)
- Added size of resource deposit to HUD / Map object text
- Prepared automatic email when user quits on an 'Internal Error'
- Added "Rename Game" option
- POIs need now to be discovered and are then marked on map (similar to resources) in setting with Seed>0
- Added flare block (no light source just flare) for SV and GV
- Added bunk bed
- Added several community builds (dropship SV, SV, alien tower, GV): Thanks to Arturius1967, Boan929, Dead8Eye, Fabrizio and Glorfinnin

Changes:
- Improved New Game menu
- Improved Constructor and Food Processor GUI: now showing more items simultaneously (thanks to Kane for the idea)
- Better ship controls: Increased sensitivity (faster turning)
- GV now hovers certain distance over ground when powered. Added “Hover Distance” in info panel of GV
- Temporarily deactivated orbital gravity. Reason: Exiting a game while in the gravity zone of a planet caused the disparition of your ship after resuming game (the ship was pulled to the planet and was lost).
- Moved Dinos from Omicron to Akua
- Now player is dying faster (again) if running out of Oxygen or Food
- For resource detection height now matters
- Slightly changed location of planets in Orbit
- More detailed in-game message when block cannot be placed
- Adapted color of Silicon Ore (to better differentiate from Crushed Stone)
- Adapted prefab of Crushed Stone
- Increased rate of fire for Pulse Laser SV
- Radar turret are now placeable also on SV and GV
- Attack distance of turrets reduced to 250m on planets (but still 500m in space)
- Balanced space drones (less hitpoints)
- Tweaked sound of Desert Worm on Omicron
- Slightly increased amount of starting resources in Escape Pod
- Templates change: Laser ammo does not use advanced CPU anymore
- Small generator cannot be placed in CV anymore
- 3D Map: Hover texts now exactly match the better positioned icons
- Changed icon for base on map and added icon for GV on map
- Decreased damage inflicted by sentry guns
- Gravity unit is now g (instead of m/s²)
- Reduced fire range of Laser Rifle and Laser Pistol
- Better ground blast particle colors. Added special particle effect for ground blast on water
- HUD: Moved message boxes to top (left of MiniMap)
- Video Options: aspect ratios < 16:10 are marked as not supported. Increased minimum resolution.
- Slightly different preview icons for window transparent/non-transparent
- Pulse laser SV now shoots blue plasma (similar to turret GV)
- Adapted new WIKI links (Gamepedia)
- Tweaked sound of fridge
- Changed sun color on Omicron Moon in evening/morning
- Renamed GV as HV (Hover Vessel) to better differentiate (the letters ‘G’ and ‘C’ look too similar)

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed problem with drill that caused the creation of additional terrain around the player while mining
- Fix for turret bug: sometimes after resuming a game the turrets did not attack anymore
- Fixed texture bug with several creatures (Desert Worm, Desert Golem, Otyugh, etc)
- Fixed bug with line/plane tool
- Fixed another save game corruption bug
- Fixed clipping issue in multiplayer with Assault Rifle
- Fixed bug that Durian sprout showed up in Control Panel
- Fixed bug that gravity display did not show on first entering GV
- Fixed problem with jetpack thruster of male character
- Fixed perish time display
- Fixed landing gear position
- Fixed wrong emissive texture in map view of planet (e.g. Aestus)
- Enabled quick-fill of O2 / Water Generator with fuel packs
- Fixed wrong normal maps in 3D map view
- Fixed bug with Undo function

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next update

Eleon Game Studios