As the headline already states - we decided to slightly postpone the public release of Empyrion Galactic Survival Alpha 1.0. No worries, the delay is only for a week: next Friday, April 15th will be the big day!
We want to dedicate the extra time towards additional bug fixing and to get some of the newer features more polished. However, we are not only into squashing more bugs but we will also add more features in addition to the already announced features.
Have a look at the additional features that will be integrated into the Alpha:
- First integration of Offline Protection: Build the offline protection device and your PvP area base and CVs will be save when you log off (same applies to factions, when no faction member is around on the server any more; eventually leading to a full shield-feature in later Alpha development stages!) - Tier 2 drill that auto-collects ore (available at Tech Tree Level 7) - New loot for POIs (No spoilers of the contents here. Sorry ;-) - All plants in the wild now re-grow after being harvested (if you discover a nice spot of helpful plants, come back later and harvest them again!) - Slider for all lights for setting Intensity and Range individually - Added new material-related textures for the Texture Tool (each material now has a defined set of “own” textures plus a few that are shared between all materials. This opens up the possibility to have even more textures added in the future!) - New enemy drone model - Survival constructor gets a radar- and planet-map marker (so you won’t lose track of where you set it up when venturing around) - Your player model can now hold its breath for up to 10 seconds under water (without helmet) - When de-constructing blocks, the items you collect are now shown in your HUD - New easy to craft food item made out of sea weed (a lot of underwater plants now have nice goodies to collect) - Bandages (as an easy to craft alternative to small medi kits) - Quality Settings Fast-Good-Best technically refined. ("Fast" now nearly has every eye candy deactivated and render distances reduced) - Warp Drives now use Pentaxid crystals as a fuel (added to an individual placeable warp drive tank) - You can now use your own bases as random POIs for planetary playfields!
The new drone model in action:
You probably want to meet the drone when it is in this state:
The active Offline Protection:
The Offline Protection Device:
The new set of textures:
The new set of loot containers: From left to right: common, rare, very rare and ultra rare.
Finally, as the remaining days need to be filled with some creative tasks, we ask all our players to think about new sets and additions for the “starter blueprints” in the Blueprint Library!
As soon as the Alpha v1.0 is released and everyone has all the new building, texturing and coloring features and blocks at hand, we’ll start a new round of “Get Your Design In TheGame!”
As the headline already states - we decided to slightly postpone the public release of Empyrion Galactic Survival Alpha 1.0. No worries, the delay is only for a week: next Friday, April 15th will be the big day!
We want to dedicate the extra time towards additional bug fixing and to get some of the newer features more polished. However, we are not only into squashing more bugs but we will also add more features in addition to the already announced features.
Have a look at the additional features that will be integrated into the Alpha:
- First integration of Offline Protection: Build the offline protection device and your PvP area base and CVs will be save when you log off (same applies to factions, when no faction member is around on the server any more; eventually leading to a full shield-feature in later Alpha development stages!) - Tier 2 drill that auto-collects ore (available at Tech Tree Level 7) - New loot for POIs (No spoilers of the contents here. Sorry ;-) - All plants in the wild now re-grow after being harvested (if you discover a nice spot of helpful plants, come back later and harvest them again!) - Slider for all lights for setting Intensity and Range individually - Added new material-related textures for the Texture Tool (each material now has a defined set of “own” textures plus a few that are shared between all materials. This opens up the possibility to have even more textures added in the future!) - New enemy drone model - Survival constructor gets a radar- and planet-map marker (so you won’t lose track of where you set it up when venturing around) - Your player model can now hold its breath for up to 10 seconds under water (without helmet) - When de-constructing blocks, the items you collect are now shown in your HUD - New easy to craft food item made out of sea weed (a lot of underwater plants now have nice goodies to collect) - Bandages (as an easy to craft alternative to small medi kits) - Quality Settings Fast-Good-Best technically refined. ("Fast" now nearly has every eye candy deactivated and render distances reduced) - Warp Drives now use Pentaxid crystals as a fuel (added to an individual placeable warp drive tank) - You can now use your own bases as random POIs for planetary playfields!
The new drone model in action:
You probably want to meet the drone when it is in this state:
The active Offline Protection:
The Offline Protection Device:
The new set of textures:
The new set of loot containers: From left to right: common, rare, very rare and ultra rare.
Finally, as the remaining days need to be filled with some creative tasks, we ask all our players to think about new sets and additions for the “starter blueprints” in the Blueprint Library!
As soon as the Alpha v1.0 is released and everyone has all the new building, texturing and coloring features and blocks at hand, we’ll start a new round of “Get Your Design In TheGame!”
As part of our upcoming Alpha Release, we have been hard at work preparing Empyrion to work with the latest and greatest in Windows Operating Systems: Windows 95!
Empyrion really looks beautiful in 256 colour technology! Convince yourself.
Omicron looks really nice at this time of year:
Akua also looks very inviting:
Features: - 256 Colours - 4 MB Video Memory - High Resolution 1024x768 Graphics - Optimised for CRT Monitors and the Latest Pentium I Processors
We hope you will enjoy this amazing new feature and have fun running Empyrion on all your latest Windows 95 systems!
Cheers
Eleon Dev Team
EDIT (April 2, 2016): In case you have already prepared your old PC to get it in shape for Emyprion, we have to disappoint you - it was only an April Fools' Day prank ;-)
As part of our upcoming Alpha Release, we have been hard at work preparing Empyrion to work with the latest and greatest in Windows Operating Systems: Windows 95!
Empyrion really looks beautiful in 256 colour technology! Convince yourself.
Omicron looks really nice at this time of year:
Akua also looks very inviting:
Features: - 256 Colours - 4 MB Video Memory - High Resolution 1024x768 Graphics - Optimised for CRT Monitors and the Latest Pentium I Processors
We hope you will enjoy this amazing new feature and have fun running Empyrion on all your latest Windows 95 systems!
Cheers
Eleon Dev Team
EDIT (April 2, 2016): In case you have already prepared your old PC to get it in shape for Emyprion, we have to disappoint you - it was only an April Fools' Day prank ;-)
We decided to release another small patch (PA 5.4.3) for the current Pre-Alpha before releasing the Alpha version of Empyrion. We fixed the problem that CV/HV/SV could fly through each other in Multiplayer, i.e., there was no collision between vessels.
Bug Fixes: - Fixed problem in Multiplayer that CV/HV/SV could fly through each other
Alpha Preview: We would like to show you some screenshots of the new temperate planet that will be integrated in the upcoming Alpha version:
The new handheld chainsaw:
Finally, the new HUD of the remote controller player drone:
Stay tuned for a more detailed blog about the new structural integrity.
We decided to release another small patch (PA 5.4.3) for the current Pre-Alpha before releasing the Alpha version of Empyrion. We fixed the problem that CV/HV/SV could fly through each other in Multiplayer, i.e., there was no collision between vessels.
Bug Fixes: - Fixed problem in Multiplayer that CV/HV/SV could fly through each other
Alpha Preview: We would like to show you some screenshots of the new temperate planet that will be integrated in the upcoming Alpha version:
The new handheld chainsaw:
Finally, the new HUD of the remote controller player drone:
Stay tuned for a more detailed blog about the new structural integrity.
As promised, today we will reveal the list of features that will make it into the upcoming Alpha Release.
Main Features - Added structural integrity SI (only for bases at the moment): buildings will collapse if not supported correctly - Added basic tutorial system (PDA) - Added dense grass and large decorations (trees, large rocks, underwater deco, etc) viewable from far away (trees can be harvested for wood logs) - Added possibility to completely configure a planet by yourself (terrain, textures, deco, NPCs, etc) - New block rotation system that shows rotation axis - New block shape management system: - craft basic block and choose from block shapes via selection menu (RMB when block group is selected in toolbar) - Shift + RMB now removes block in Creative mode - Added more materials: wood, concrete (wood logs, wood planks, cement) and hardened steel (replacing the armored blocks) - Added player drone to facilitate building
Individualization for Building - New block customization: any side of a block can be colored / textured individually - New color and paint system: - 31 colors available from new color tool menu - all 3d models are colorable (cockpit, turrets, thrusters, generators, deco blocks and other devices) - New system to apply textures / symbols / letters to each side of a block individually - Added a first set of textures, letters, numbers and symbols
Gameplay - Added "Spawn at home base": For example, you can tag your CV in Orbit, any Base or Space Station and respawn on this CV/Base when you die on a planet. (only one Home base can be tagged at any time) - Clone Chamber has been added to set a definite Home-Base spawn point (Without a Clone Chamber you will spawn in a random location close to your home-base tagged base or vessel) - Added auto-grouping feature in Control Panel - Improvements to space map: other faction's icons are no longer displayed except they are near the player (before everything was seen on space map) - Improvements to all maps: own objects (private or faction) are now colored greenish - ALT now toggles a free-move camera - Added filter (text area) and entity type filter-toggles (SV,HV,CV,BA, ALL) to constructor windows - Turrets can now be activated/deactivated in control panel - Founder/Admin of a faction can now set a structure of this faction back to Public/Private - New rotation tool: allows to rotate blocks after placement
Blueprints - Blueprint menu now also shows blueprints with forbidden blocks (with red color and a hint), not allowed to put in factory or publish (Alien Core and any Monster-Spawner) - BP placement: Added possibility to move BPs vertically with Page up/down - Changed: blueprints now spawn without damage - Workshop: Published (or updated) items are now automatically tagged according to their structure type (e.g. "Hover Vessel") - Blueprint now saves the control panel grouping info
Console Commands & Server - Activated console to enter many commands for singleplayer (godmode, teleport, item menu etc) - Added many new server commands (similar to singleplayer) and a new permission group (Gamemaster) - Added customizable, periodic auto-shutdown of playfield servers + server message (configured in dedicated.yaml) - Server messages are now colored to easily see them - Added saw attachment for HV and chainsaw for player
Blocks & Crafting - Re-enabled Alien Container and Alien Core for use in Creative Menu - Added Spawner blocks to Creative menu - Added new block shape: Inverted Corner Thin - Added new railing blocks - Changed Starter Block Base to “Core only” - Added water jug (produced by Water Generator) - Water generator can now be crafted in Survival Constructor
World - Added new temperate planet Oscutune - Added many new POIs (thanks to Dead8Eye) - Added Talon Guardian NPC (no loot yet) - Added ambient sounds according to the biome a player is in (e.g. on Akua: forest, water, open plains, mountains) - Spawning of NPCs now depend on biomes (e.g. on Akua: Woodwalker in forest, Slime at water, etc) - Tweaked loot of many NPCs
Major Visual Improvements: - Atmospheric scattering - New water shader (edge blending for water shores, refractions, waves, etc) - New underwater view - New water droplet effect when leaving water - More details are shown when close to objects (also terrain)
Tweaks - Gameplay: - Backpack is now visible 500m on map (before 50m) - Control Panel now shows damage for all units (not only for essentials as before) - Increased speed of Ion Cannon shots by 30% - SV/HV/CV does not allow to fire any more if not powered - Better planet map preview
Tweaks - Visual & Audio: - Updated many models (all handheld weapons, many devices, deco objects etc) to PBR shader - Replaced truss and walkway blocks with new models - Updated basic hull texture (less dark panel lines) - Tweaked muzzle fire of laser pistol/rifle to blue/red - Added new volumetric laser shot effect to Laser Rifle and Pistol - Improved effect when drilling - Tweaked terrain textures on Alien planet and moon - Added new lava shader + lava fog and improved under-lava shader - Added ground fog and fireflies on Masperon - Tweaked many terrains (especially Omicron and Masperon - Added bullet impact effects on water - Sound tweaks: - lower sound volume when drilling - Slightly reduced distance at which sound from devices is heard (02/water generator, gravity generator, generator) - Updated sound for drill - Exchanged model of survival constructor - Improved texture on non-illuminated stairs - Better smoke on destroyed enemy drone - Tweaked terrain textures to make resource veins better visible
And what about bug fixes? We are still in the midst of working on them. We'll add a condensed list when we have finished this phase of the Alpha preparations!
Please remember that the current Alpha version will not only add big new features like structural integrity, new biome decorations, new painting & texturing possibilities, new block management and more, but also changes a lot of the invisible back end stuff needed to enable those features and – moreover – pave the way for the more demanding features like galaxy, shields, pole barrier removal, oxygenized rooms, custom textures, which will not make it in the Alpha but are planned for the upcoming and future development stages.
Finally, we would like to introduce the first iteration of “Structural Integrity for planetary bases”. A more detailed blog will follow soon.
P.S: Last but not least, the following video shows how easy it will be to color and texture blocks in the upcoming Alpha: https://youtu.be/FmhZlfhQ-aw[/url[[/url]
As promised, today we will reveal the list of features that will make it into the upcoming Alpha Release.
Main Features - Added structural integrity SI (only for bases at the moment): buildings will collapse if not supported correctly - Added basic tutorial system (PDA) - Added dense grass and large decorations (trees, large rocks, underwater deco, etc) viewable from far away (trees can be harvested for wood logs) - Added possibility to completely configure a planet by yourself (terrain, textures, deco, NPCs, etc) - New block rotation system that shows rotation axis - New block shape management system: - craft basic block and choose from block shapes via selection menu (RMB when block group is selected in toolbar) - Shift + RMB now removes block in Creative mode - Added more materials: wood, concrete (wood logs, wood planks, cement) and hardened steel (replacing the armored blocks) - Added player drone to facilitate building
Individualization for Building - New block customization: any side of a block can be colored / textured individually - New color and paint system: - 31 colors available from new color tool menu - all 3d models are colorable (cockpit, turrets, thrusters, generators, deco blocks and other devices) - New system to apply textures / symbols / letters to each side of a block individually - Added a first set of textures, letters, numbers and symbols
Gameplay - Added "Spawn at home base": For example, you can tag your CV in Orbit, any Base or Space Station and respawn on this CV/Base when you die on a planet. (only one Home base can be tagged at any time) - Clone Chamber has been added to set a definite Home-Base spawn point (Without a Clone Chamber you will spawn in a random location close to your home-base tagged base or vessel) - Added auto-grouping feature in Control Panel - Improvements to space map: other faction's icons are no longer displayed except they are near the player (before everything was seen on space map) - Improvements to all maps: own objects (private or faction) are now colored greenish - ALT now toggles a free-move camera - Added filter (text area) and entity type filter-toggles (SV,HV,CV,BA, ALL) to constructor windows - Turrets can now be activated/deactivated in control panel - Founder/Admin of a faction can now set a structure of this faction back to Public/Private - New rotation tool: allows to rotate blocks after placement
Blueprints - Blueprint menu now also shows blueprints with forbidden blocks (with red color and a hint), not allowed to put in factory or publish (Alien Core and any Monster-Spawner) - BP placement: Added possibility to move BPs vertically with Page up/down - Changed: blueprints now spawn without damage - Workshop: Published (or updated) items are now automatically tagged according to their structure type (e.g. "Hover Vessel") - Blueprint now saves the control panel grouping info
Console Commands & Server - Activated console to enter many commands for singleplayer (godmode, teleport, item menu etc) - Added many new server commands (similar to singleplayer) and a new permission group (Gamemaster) - Added customizable, periodic auto-shutdown of playfield servers + server message (configured in dedicated.yaml) - Server messages are now colored to easily see them - Added saw attachment for HV and chainsaw for player
Blocks & Crafting - Re-enabled Alien Container and Alien Core for use in Creative Menu - Added Spawner blocks to Creative menu - Added new block shape: Inverted Corner Thin - Added new railing blocks - Changed Starter Block Base to “Core only” - Added water jug (produced by Water Generator) - Water generator can now be crafted in Survival Constructor
World - Added new temperate planet Oscutune - Added many new POIs (thanks to Dead8Eye) - Added Talon Guardian NPC (no loot yet) - Added ambient sounds according to the biome a player is in (e.g. on Akua: forest, water, open plains, mountains) - Spawning of NPCs now depend on biomes (e.g. on Akua: Woodwalker in forest, Slime at water, etc) - Tweaked loot of many NPCs
Major Visual Improvements: - Atmospheric scattering - New water shader (edge blending for water shores, refractions, waves, etc) - New underwater view - New water droplet effect when leaving water - More details are shown when close to objects (also terrain)
Tweaks - Gameplay: - Backpack is now visible 500m on map (before 50m) - Control Panel now shows damage for all units (not only for essentials as before) - Increased speed of Ion Cannon shots by 30% - SV/HV/CV does not allow to fire any more if not powered - Better planet map preview
Tweaks - Visual & Audio: - Updated many models (all handheld weapons, many devices, deco objects etc) to PBR shader - Replaced truss and walkway blocks with new models - Updated basic hull texture (less dark panel lines) - Tweaked muzzle fire of laser pistol/rifle to blue/red - Added new volumetric laser shot effect to Laser Rifle and Pistol - Improved effect when drilling - Tweaked terrain textures on Alien planet and moon - Added new lava shader + lava fog and improved under-lava shader - Added ground fog and fireflies on Masperon - Tweaked many terrains (especially Omicron and Masperon - Added bullet impact effects on water - Sound tweaks: - lower sound volume when drilling - Slightly reduced distance at which sound from devices is heard (02/water generator, gravity generator, generator) - Updated sound for drill - Exchanged model of survival constructor - Improved texture on non-illuminated stairs - Better smoke on destroyed enemy drone - Tweaked terrain textures to make resource veins better visible
And what about bug fixes? We are still in the midst of working on them. We'll add a condensed list when we have finished this phase of the Alpha preparations!
Please remember that the current Alpha version will not only add big new features like structural integrity, new biome decorations, new painting & texturing possibilities, new block management and more, but also changes a lot of the invisible back end stuff needed to enable those features and – moreover – pave the way for the more demanding features like galaxy, shields, pole barrier removal, oxygenized rooms, custom textures, which will not make it in the Alpha but are planned for the upcoming and future development stages.
Finally, we would like to introduce the first iteration of “Structural Integrity for planetary bases”. A more detailed blog will follow soon.
P.S: Last but not least, the following video shows how easy it will be to color and texture blocks in the upcoming Alpha: https://youtu.be/FmhZlfhQ-aw[/url[[/url]
Today we are very excited to announce the release date of the Alpha:
April 8, 2016
For those of you who do not own a copy of Empyrion by now, this might also be a great chance to get yourself a key (or two) as we will slightly increase the price point shortly after the Alpha release.
We are very hard at work, finalizing the new content - and because we were overwhelmed (in a positive manner) by all of your questions, we decided to reveal the complete list of Alpha features very soon!
Today we are very excited to announce the release date of the Alpha:
April 8, 2016
For those of you who do not own a copy of Empyrion by now, this might also be a great chance to get yourself a key (or two) as we will slightly increase the price point shortly after the Alpha release.
We are very hard at work, finalizing the new content - and because we were overwhelmed (in a positive manner) by all of your questions, we decided to reveal the complete list of Alpha features very soon!