A preview of our new terrain shader

Hi Galactic Survivalists!

We are a bit behind schedule with our blog post about the new Solar System Generator because we are currently reworking parts of it. Thus, we thought it does not make sense to reveal info which is already outdated in the very moment we post it.

However, don't worry - more info about the new tool for easily creating your very personal solar system will be published in the near future. For example on how to utilize the new "planet tilt" setting, which will allow for different day/night cycle length on the northern and southern hemisphere of a planet!

Instead of a walk-through of the "SSG" (Solar System Generator), we want to provide you with some quick info about our progress on some of the other, more gameplay-relevant features!

Let's roll :)

1. Game Start

• If you start a new default game, the new SSG system will randomly pick names from a database of around 600 playfield names. So if you start a new game with a different seed, your planets will have different names!
  
• You will be able to "sleep" in your escape pod to forward time and it will not despawn (SP only)
  
• You will have a very limited "Suit Constructor" at your disposal (slow, only the very basic items like a food item, bandages etc)
  
• We are planning to provide you with a much better survival experience as a game start. More details to come...

2. For Scenario Creators

• You can still use the system with a fixed sectors.yaml and fixed planet names!
  
• You will now have the possibility to place POIs and Ore Deposits BY BIOME!
  
• You will be able to preview the POI and resource distribution in the SSG
  
• The PDA system now offers repeatable missions!

3. For Builders

• You can now set Hotkeys for console commands. Having SI turned to off, godmode on, teleport and more can be activated at the same time with a simple hotkey click!
  
• Automated doors now have an override priority for Sensors: if you add a sensor/signal to a door, the door-integrated auto-opening will not be triggered.
  
• Devices with Sensor Input and Output fields can now send and receive signals. Before, SEND did not work as long as the device was set to listen/receive signals at the same time. Note: you cannot create blink-lights this way, because of an integrated Loop-Protection. But we will add a proper "blink lights" feature in the course of the 8.x development!

4. New Status Effects
The current status effects rarely rely on each other and do not develop into a more serious disease if not treated well or at the right time.

The new status effects system will focus on this a bit more, so not caring about an open wound, might you get to an infected wound and a serious Sepis right away.

See the current status-effects tree (Work in progress)



There are basically always 2 or 3 stages of where a "base disease" can evolve into.

The planned templates-rework for curing diseases will reflect this approach. While an easy-to-craft bandage or paste or even a hot beverage might be enough to remove the status effect in the Stage 1, the following stages might need Pills or even Injections, which will need more ingredients and time to craft.

So having the right medicine available will be much more important and we will put more focus on this in future iterations to convert the currently used "broadband heal-everything"-item approach to a more logical and specialized gameplay where certain medicals have their own purpose not shared with others. And - very important! - without making it a grind in terms of getting the ingredients needed!

Said that, to make sure you are not overwhelmed with having to search for rare ingredients on far away planets, we plan to change what and how plants and deco drops the needed stuff. This also will contribute to a changed food-template system.

We'll detail how this works in one of the next blogs - as soon as this is technically implemented and tested. ;)

Last but not least, here are some previews of the visuals improvements that will be waiting for you in Alpha 8 such as a brandnew terrain shader with amazing blending capabilities between textures, major update of decoration placement & quality & performance and much more...




Any questions? Do not hesitate and write us in the comments!

Have a great weekend!

Empyrion Dev Team

PS: Look who is back again and might play a role in the upcoming story missions ;)

(thanks to LiftPizzas for the refurbish!)

A preview of our new terrain shader

Hi Galactic Survivalists!

We are a bit behind schedule with our blog post about the new Solar System Generator because we are currently reworking parts of it. Thus, we thought it does not make sense to reveal info which is already outdated in the very moment we post it.

However, don't worry - more info about the new tool for easily creating your very personal solar system will be published in the near future. For example on how to utilize the new "planet tilt" setting, which will allow for different day/night cycle length on the northern and southern hemisphere of a planet!

Instead of a walk-through of the "SSG" (Solar System Generator), we want to provide you with some quick info about our progress on some of the other, more gameplay-relevant features!

Let's roll :)

1. Game Start

• If you start a new default game, the new SSG system will randomly pick names from a database of around 600 playfield names. So if you start a new game with a different seed, your planets will have different names!
  
• You will be able to "sleep" in your escape pod to forward time and it will not despawn (SP only)
  
• You will have a very limited "Suit Constructor" at your disposal (slow, only the very basic items like a food item, bandages etc)
  
• We are planning to provide you with a much better survival experience as a game start. More details to come...

2. For Scenario Creators

• You can still use the system with a fixed sectors.yaml and fixed planet names!
  
• You will now have the possibility to place POIs and Ore Deposits BY BIOME!
  
• You will be able to preview the POI and resource distribution in the SSG
  
• The PDA system now offers repeatable missions!

3. For Builders

• You can now set Hotkeys for console commands. Having SI turned to off, godmode on, teleport and more can be activated at the same time with a simple hotkey click!
  
• Automated doors now have an override priority for Sensors: if you add a sensor/signal to a door, the door-integrated auto-opening will not be triggered.
  
• Devices with Sensor Input and Output fields can now send and receive signals. Before, SEND did not work as long as the device was set to listen/receive signals at the same time. Note: you cannot create blink-lights this way, because of an integrated Loop-Protection. But we will add a proper "blink lights" feature in the course of the 8.x development!

4. New Status Effects
The current status effects rarely rely on each other and do not develop into a more serious disease if not treated well or at the right time.

The new status effects system will focus on this a bit more, so not caring about an open wound, might you get to an infected wound and a serious Sepis right away.

See the current status-effects tree (Work in progress)



There are basically always 2 or 3 stages of where a "base disease" can evolve into.

The planned templates-rework for curing diseases will reflect this approach. While an easy-to-craft bandage or paste or even a hot beverage might be enough to remove the status effect in the Stage 1, the following stages might need Pills or even Injections, which will need more ingredients and time to craft.

So having the right medicine available will be much more important and we will put more focus on this in future iterations to convert the currently used "broadband heal-everything"-item approach to a more logical and specialized gameplay where certain medicals have their own purpose not shared with others. And - very important! - without making it a grind in terms of getting the ingredients needed!

Said that, to make sure you are not overwhelmed with having to search for rare ingredients on far away planets, we plan to change what and how plants and deco drops the needed stuff. This also will contribute to a changed food-template system.

We'll detail how this works in one of the next blogs - as soon as this is technically implemented and tested. ;)

Last but not least, here are some previews of the visuals improvements that will be waiting for you in Alpha 8 such as a brandnew terrain shader with amazing blending capabilities between textures, major update of decoration placement & quality & performance and much more...




Any questions? Do not hesitate and write us in the comments!

Have a great weekend!

Empyrion Dev Team

PS: Look who is back again and might play a role in the upcoming story missions ;)

(thanks to LiftPizzas for the refurbish!)

Hi Galactic Survivalists,

We released a small patch on the Alpha 7 branch. Please continue to report bugs and issues here: https://empyriononline.com/threads/bug-reports-alpha-7-6.36123

Next week, we will post another "Road to Alpha 8: Development Update" where we will provide more info about the upcoming Alpha 8 release - especially the Experimental phase.

Changelog: Alpha 7.6.1 (Build 1466)

Changes:
- Optimized turrets to obtain a big performance gain when a lot of turrets are involved
- Removed the “last open“ mechanism in favor of “open log if mission is active“ if PDA is opened (e.g. open PDA with an active mission > show PDA log page)
- Changed the way how the "energy left" is calculated for a base: now we only take into account the current amount of energy in fuel tank + battery and divide it by the current consumption

Updated Akua + Omicron Playfields:
- Trading Station is now further away from enemy POIs
- Omicron: resource deposits are placed around wreckage POI
- Akua: resource deposits are closer to wreckage POI

Tutorial Update:
- Added info on how to re-read messages to some of the message popups
- Adjusted wording of some messages
- Added Alien honey to Greenhouse2 fridge

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed: Problem with huge number of drones gathering at position (0,0,0)
- Fixed: HV's getting stuck under water after going through the green wall.
- Fixed: Survival Constructor 'Allow faction access' & 'Show on map' missing from UI.
- Fixed: End of stairs can create an invisible block
- Fixed: Problem that resource asteroids did not spawn when a low amount was configured in yaml
- Fixed: After removing the capacitor, the solar panel LED's remained on until the game was reloaded
- Fixed: Problem with "ManagerShipFighter Write unknown task" warning
- Fixed: Playfield server exception spam
- Fixed: Several other internal exceptions

Updated Empyrion Admin Helper (EAH) Tool
Patch notes - 1.40.3.7
- Added: Changed Player column "Cheat" to "Warning"
- Added: Backpack Backup working for remote slave
- Added: Config Discord: Send Auto-Chat's to discord
- Added: Deposit Check (only on local tools): For now it lists all deposits and their current status. The refresh function has to be delayed till A8.0
- Added: Feedback for GetShipDown
- Added: New Items
- Added: Structure limits: Added overall limits for CV/SV/HV Player/Faction
- Added: Admin Profile: Fill automatically with all in-game admins
- Added: Player/Structure: Warp to me
- Fixed: Logs about wrong triangle count
- Fixed: To many space warnings on full backups
- Fixed: Removed Hoover vacuum cleaner and added Hover ;)
- Fixed: Structure limit: Warning sound not right. Now showing high warnings for the last 3 messages

For more details, please visit: https://empyriononline.com/threads/tool-emp-admin-helper-eah-free-v1-40-0.5771/page-39#post-215938

Hi Galactic Survivalists,

We released a small patch on the Alpha 7 branch. Please continue to report bugs and issues here: https://empyriononline.com/threads/bug-reports-alpha-7-6.36123

Next week, we will post another "Road to Alpha 8: Development Update" where we will provide more info about the upcoming Alpha 8 release - especially the Experimental phase.

Changelog: Alpha 7.6.1 (Build 1466)

Changes:
- Optimized turrets to obtain a big performance gain when a lot of turrets are involved
- Removed the “last open“ mechanism in favor of “open log if mission is active“ if PDA is opened (e.g. open PDA with an active mission > show PDA log page)
- Changed the way how the "energy left" is calculated for a base: now we only take into account the current amount of energy in fuel tank + battery and divide it by the current consumption

Updated Akua + Omicron Playfields:
- Trading Station is now further away from enemy POIs
- Omicron: resource deposits are placed around wreckage POI
- Akua: resource deposits are closer to wreckage POI

Tutorial Update:
- Added info on how to re-read messages to some of the message popups
- Adjusted wording of some messages
- Added Alien honey to Greenhouse2 fridge

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed: Problem with huge number of drones gathering at position (0,0,0)
- Fixed: HV's getting stuck under water after going through the green wall.
- Fixed: Survival Constructor 'Allow faction access' & 'Show on map' missing from UI.
- Fixed: End of stairs can create an invisible block
- Fixed: Problem that resource asteroids did not spawn when a low amount was configured in yaml
- Fixed: After removing the capacitor, the solar panel LED's remained on until the game was reloaded
- Fixed: Problem with "ManagerShipFighter Write unknown task" warning
- Fixed: Playfield server exception spam
- Fixed: Several other internal exceptions

Updated Empyrion Admin Helper (EAH) Tool
Patch notes - 1.40.3.7
- Added: Changed Player column "Cheat" to "Warning"
- Added: Backpack Backup working for remote slave
- Added: Config Discord: Send Auto-Chat's to discord
- Added: Deposit Check (only on local tools): For now it lists all deposits and their current status. The refresh function has to be delayed till A8.0
- Added: Feedback for GetShipDown
- Added: New Items
- Added: Structure limits: Added overall limits for CV/SV/HV Player/Faction
- Added: Admin Profile: Fill automatically with all in-game admins
- Added: Player/Structure: Warp to me
- Fixed: Logs about wrong triangle count
- Fixed: To many space warnings on full backups
- Fixed: Removed Hoover vacuum cleaner and added Hover ;)
- Fixed: Structure limit: Warning sound not right. Now showing high warnings for the last 3 messages

For more details, please visit: https://empyriononline.com/threads/tool-emp-admin-helper-eah-free-v1-40-0.5771/page-39#post-215938

Hi Galactic Survivalists!

Last week, we set up a thread where everyone had the possibility to write down questions about the upcoming larger planets. We finally found time to compile all the answers to a shiny Q&A document for your reading pleasure - to be found below ;)

What's happening behind the scenes at the moment?

While the first internal version has been released to our QA team yesterday, the dev team continues to work hard on the design and layout of the new biome system.

The new "Terrain and Biome Generator" will not only allow to distribute the biomes according to certain criteria, like temperature and humidity (Read more: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-balancing-bug-fixes-and-alpha-8-info.36122/) but it will also allow to generate procedural terrains. Yes - procedural terrain generation is back (no fixed heightmap planets anymore) - in the quality of the Alpha 7 planets and maybe even better!!!

Here are some screenshots of the new terrains:








The best thing is that the "Terrain and Biome Generator" is an in-house production and can be used for creation of playfields and planets by any owner of the game. You will see it will be very easy to create new planets!

For those of you who missed the overview of the main features for Alpha 8, here we go:

- Larger Planets: increase size from the current 8x4km (32km²) up to 32*64km (2048km²) playfields!
- Updated planet-tech: biome distribution based on humidity and temperature!
- Solar System random generator: just swipe a few sliders and create a solar system on the go
- Procedural terrain generation
- Improved AI behavior (the new NPCs will behave much more natural and will better react to the players)
- New and improved threats (and possibly a new and more varied threat-progression)
- Repair-2-Blueprint
- Better Creative and Building tools

Stay tuned for another blog post about Alpha 8 soon.

Thanks for reading

Empyrion Dev team

===============

LARGER PLANETS - Questions & Answers

== Global Changes ==

Q: Will the planets that have been made before 8.0 now be unplayable or can we convert them from 7.x to 8.0 version?
A: Since we completely changed the decoration system, you will need to add the new decorations to the old heightmap planets with the help of our new editor.

Q: Will the GREEN BORDER with pathing/waypoint problems* be taken care of?
A: Yes - we intend to solve this problem.
[SIZE=3]*Game currently does not pick the shortest route for a marker that lies directly behind the green wall in front of you, but sometimes goes "around the planet"[/size]

Q: Will the larger planets remain square heightmaps wrapped around cylinders or will they be changed to spherical planets, where you can travel to the north and south poles?
A: The playfields of any planet are still rectangular maps, but we aim to improve the technical limitations (red and green wall) to a point where you will hardly notice them.

Q: Are there going to be any changes to performance that I should anticipate (such as more RAM usage, CPU usage, etc) for single player and servers?
A: The new larger planets themselves will not have a higher performance impact.


== Planet Generation ==

Q: Are main biomes treated the same like the sub-biomes now (in yaml definition, entity-distribution etc.) ?
A: Yes

Q: Will it be possible to give a size-range of the generated planets in the generator with possible biome ranges?
A: Yes

Q: Will it be possible to have more generation parameters (like amount of resource rich planets, amount of inhabited planets etc.)?
A: Yes, we will provide several parameters to control the generation of the solar system

Q: How will you handle flora and fauna if the tool you have developed allows complete random and custom planets to be made (or an entire solar system)?
A: Fauna and flora distribution is handled as before, but is much more convenient with the new generator.

Q: Are you planning on adding a wider variety of fauna and flora, or are you considering keeping flora and fauna species rigid with the specific biomes found on the planet surface. e.g. Spider only spawning in a forest, but due to this it will spawn in every forest on every randomly generated planet? The concern is that every planet will have the same flora/fauna since planets will have similar biomes due to each planet accommodating a vast array of biomes now.
A: This pretty much works like before. The creator can choose where he wants to spawn deco, NPC and POIs. There is no such thing like an "universal biome reference".

Q: Will the generator include the ability to cluster POIs better?
A: The generator will allow you to pull the POI setup from your .yaml and directly displaying in the editor view! Same for ore deposits.

Q: Is it possible to have multiple biome types within the same planet ?
A: Of course! This is the overall goal of the new generator/editor approach!

Q: Are there multiple different large planets in the make or do we start with just one?
A: We will rework all the planets that are currently in the game, so you will have a similar same selection as before.


== Global Planet-related Topics ==

Q: Will all planets be the same size?
A: No. The solar system generator will randomize the planet size (note: The same seed will give you the exact same solar system)

Q: Is the heightmap limit remaining the same, so the distance from the surface to orbit or down to the core, regardless of the diameter of the planet?
A: For the moment, we have the same overall playfield height but it may change depending on the size of the planet.

Q: Will day-length vary based on different planet sizes? Or would this only be based on planet rotational-speed, which is not added in game yet?
A: For now the day-length is the same on all planets. However, we plan to integrate tilted planets so that the day/night ratio depends where you are on the planet (eg longer days and shorter nights on the northern hemisphere and vice versa on the southern hemisphere)

Q: Will resource nodes be more spread out on larger planets due to the current limit of nodes we have right now on smaller planets? I.e. If a small planet has a max of 9 Iron deposits on its surface, is a larger planet also going to be capped at 9?
A: The deposits amount and count can still be set in the .yaml. So it is up to the creator of the playfield. However, we might introduce an automated scaling parameter that takes into account the planet size

Q: Will custom terrain files (XMLs and heightmaps) be usable on multiplayer scenarios?
A: For 8.0 this is not yet possible. However, the new procedural planets can be used for multiplayer scenarios.


== Gameplay ==

Q: Will the max traveling speed be increased ?
A: The traveling speed is limited by how fast the terrain is generated. In the current state, we are not planning to significantly increase travel speed.

Q: Will the view range be adjusted and will LODS/view distances be increased so we can see objects further since the planets are bigger?
A: We are currently not planning to increase the view distance.

Q: If planets are larger on the surface, does this also mean the spherical representation of the planet in the space playfield will also be larger?
A: Yes.

Q: Will there be quirks such as it is faster to get to the other side of the planet by going to space first?
A: As long as we do not increase the heightmap of playfields, yes this would be a shortcut. Think of how a rocket nowadays can get faster from point A to B if it goes through space.

Q: On larger planets, would the solar panel theoretically have a wider "sweet spot" due to a wider area that the sun is hitting? i.e. On a small planet you only have say 500m where you are near the equator, but a large planet could be 2km (providing random numbers)?
A: Yes

Q: Will the entire planet share the same weather?
A: We are currently not planning to change the overall weather system. We might add biome-dependent weather.


== POI & Dronebase Threats =

Q: Will there still only be one Drone Base that provides drones for the entire planet, or will there be regional drone bases?
A: We could increase the number of drone bases to have regional bases. However, we are not yet sure to include this feature in A8

Q: Will drones and transporter have an increased speed factor, reaction agility, larger attack force due to larger planets ?
A: Yes.

Q: Will there be more than one Patrol Vehicle per planet?
A: This is pretty much up to the creator of the playfield.

Q: Will we see larger POI settlements now with larger flat areas and will it be easier to spawn POIs without a drastic change in drop or climb of terrain
A: The larger planets will have larger areas of "flat terrain" (Of course this depends on how the playfield creator designs the terrain)


== Deco & Additions ==

Q: Will there be more ENTITIES (POIs, RESSOURCES, Drones, animals, enemies, etc.) on the larger planet possible (right now very limited) ?
A: There is an entity limit for any playfield. This means the amount of NPC, POI, deposits that are on the planet at the same time, is limited. However, we are planning to increase the entity limit per planet.

Q: Will there be caves, deeper oceans, underwater caverns and large redwood forests with this larger planet update.
A: This is planned for the future.

Q: Can we get few more planet types aka 'I want new additional planet textures'?
A: Additional terrain textures will be considered in the future.

Q: Are you planning to introduce different GASES as environmental factors on new planets to make them more diverse & dangerous?
A: Entirely new planet types are planned for the future, yes!

Q: Will you introduce "ice" as ore in underground rock form on some barren, desolate or toxic future planets (and in space in asteroids)?
A: This is also a topic for a future update (more different materials in general)

== Other ==

Q: Are there any plans to make the space playfield larger as well to keep it from feeling too crammed together?
A: Yes, the space playfields can now be significantly increased as well (probably more than 100 times the current size)

Q: Will way-points act any differently? A big planet could have lots of spots marked and really start to fill up your screen. A player might only want to see them within a certain distance, or they might want to hold down a key for a quick check against them.
A: This is planned for the future.

Q: Will there be something dynamic between POIs, proper AI vehicles, wildlife migration routes, regular Zirax patrols, anything?
A: We are currently working on improving the ground AI. Expect some cool stuff and stay tuned for more info on this topic in the near future.

Q: Will we see a first implementation of a wildlife pecking order, meaning territorial behaviour less randomised, more centralised on certain environmental conditions according to species.
A: We are currently working on improving the ground AI. Expect some cool stuff and stay tuned for more info on this topic in the near future.

Hi Galactic Survivalists!

Last week, we set up a thread where everyone had the possibility to write down questions about the upcoming larger planets. We finally found time to compile all the answers to a shiny Q&A document for your reading pleasure - to be found below ;)

What's happening behind the scenes at the moment?

While the first internal version has been released to our QA team yesterday, the dev team continues to work hard on the design and layout of the new biome system.

The new "Terrain and Biome Generator" will not only allow to distribute the biomes according to certain criteria, like temperature and humidity (Read more: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-balancing-bug-fixes-and-alpha-8-info.36122/) but it will also allow to generate procedural terrains. Yes - procedural terrain generation is back (no fixed heightmap planets anymore) - in the quality of the Alpha 7 planets and maybe even better!!!

Here are some screenshots of the new terrains:








The best thing is that the "Terrain and Biome Generator" is an in-house production and can be used for creation of playfields and planets by any owner of the game. You will see it will be very easy to create new planets!

For those of you who missed the overview of the main features for Alpha 8, here we go:

- Larger Planets: increase size from the current 8x4km (32km²) up to 32*64km (2048km²) playfields!
- Updated planet-tech: biome distribution based on humidity and temperature!
- Solar System random generator: just swipe a few sliders and create a solar system on the go
- Procedural terrain generation
- Improved AI behavior (the new NPCs will behave much more natural and will better react to the players)
- New and improved threats (and possibly a new and more varied threat-progression)
- Repair-2-Blueprint
- Better Creative and Building tools

Stay tuned for another blog post about Alpha 8 soon.

Thanks for reading

Empyrion Dev team

===============

LARGER PLANETS - Questions & Answers

== Global Changes ==

Q: Will the planets that have been made before 8.0 now be unplayable or can we convert them from 7.x to 8.0 version?
A: Since we completely changed the decoration system, you will need to add the new decorations to the old heightmap planets with the help of our new editor.

Q: Will the GREEN BORDER with pathing/waypoint problems* be taken care of?
A: Yes - we intend to solve this problem.
[SIZE=3]*Game currently does not pick the shortest route for a marker that lies directly behind the green wall in front of you, but sometimes goes "around the planet"[/size]

Q: Will the larger planets remain square heightmaps wrapped around cylinders or will they be changed to spherical planets, where you can travel to the north and south poles?
A: The playfields of any planet are still rectangular maps, but we aim to improve the technical limitations (red and green wall) to a point where you will hardly notice them.

Q: Are there going to be any changes to performance that I should anticipate (such as more RAM usage, CPU usage, etc) for single player and servers?
A: The new larger planets themselves will not have a higher performance impact.


== Planet Generation ==

Q: Are main biomes treated the same like the sub-biomes now (in yaml definition, entity-distribution etc.) ?
A: Yes

Q: Will it be possible to give a size-range of the generated planets in the generator with possible biome ranges?
A: Yes

Q: Will it be possible to have more generation parameters (like amount of resource rich planets, amount of inhabited planets etc.)?
A: Yes, we will provide several parameters to control the generation of the solar system

Q: How will you handle flora and fauna if the tool you have developed allows complete random and custom planets to be made (or an entire solar system)?
A: Fauna and flora distribution is handled as before, but is much more convenient with the new generator.

Q: Are you planning on adding a wider variety of fauna and flora, or are you considering keeping flora and fauna species rigid with the specific biomes found on the planet surface. e.g. Spider only spawning in a forest, but due to this it will spawn in every forest on every randomly generated planet? The concern is that every planet will have the same flora/fauna since planets will have similar biomes due to each planet accommodating a vast array of biomes now.
A: This pretty much works like before. The creator can choose where he wants to spawn deco, NPC and POIs. There is no such thing like an "universal biome reference".

Q: Will the generator include the ability to cluster POIs better?
A: The generator will allow you to pull the POI setup from your .yaml and directly displaying in the editor view! Same for ore deposits.

Q: Is it possible to have multiple biome types within the same planet ?
A: Of course! This is the overall goal of the new generator/editor approach!

Q: Are there multiple different large planets in the make or do we start with just one?
A: We will rework all the planets that are currently in the game, so you will have a similar same selection as before.


== Global Planet-related Topics ==

Q: Will all planets be the same size?
A: No. The solar system generator will randomize the planet size (note: The same seed will give you the exact same solar system)

Q: Is the heightmap limit remaining the same, so the distance from the surface to orbit or down to the core, regardless of the diameter of the planet?
A: For the moment, we have the same overall playfield height but it may change depending on the size of the planet.

Q: Will day-length vary based on different planet sizes? Or would this only be based on planet rotational-speed, which is not added in game yet?
A: For now the day-length is the same on all planets. However, we plan to integrate tilted planets so that the day/night ratio depends where you are on the planet (eg longer days and shorter nights on the northern hemisphere and vice versa on the southern hemisphere)

Q: Will resource nodes be more spread out on larger planets due to the current limit of nodes we have right now on smaller planets? I.e. If a small planet has a max of 9 Iron deposits on its surface, is a larger planet also going to be capped at 9?
A: The deposits amount and count can still be set in the .yaml. So it is up to the creator of the playfield. However, we might introduce an automated scaling parameter that takes into account the planet size

Q: Will custom terrain files (XMLs and heightmaps) be usable on multiplayer scenarios?
A: For 8.0 this is not yet possible. However, the new procedural planets can be used for multiplayer scenarios.


== Gameplay ==

Q: Will the max traveling speed be increased ?
A: The traveling speed is limited by how fast the terrain is generated. In the current state, we are not planning to significantly increase travel speed.

Q: Will the view range be adjusted and will LODS/view distances be increased so we can see objects further since the planets are bigger?
A: We are currently not planning to increase the view distance.

Q: If planets are larger on the surface, does this also mean the spherical representation of the planet in the space playfield will also be larger?
A: Yes.

Q: Will there be quirks such as it is faster to get to the other side of the planet by going to space first?
A: As long as we do not increase the heightmap of playfields, yes this would be a shortcut. Think of how a rocket nowadays can get faster from point A to B if it goes through space.

Q: On larger planets, would the solar panel theoretically have a wider "sweet spot" due to a wider area that the sun is hitting? i.e. On a small planet you only have say 500m where you are near the equator, but a large planet could be 2km (providing random numbers)?
A: Yes

Q: Will the entire planet share the same weather?
A: We are currently not planning to change the overall weather system. We might add biome-dependent weather.


== POI & Dronebase Threats =

Q: Will there still only be one Drone Base that provides drones for the entire planet, or will there be regional drone bases?
A: We could increase the number of drone bases to have regional bases. However, we are not yet sure to include this feature in A8

Q: Will drones and transporter have an increased speed factor, reaction agility, larger attack force due to larger planets ?
A: Yes.

Q: Will there be more than one Patrol Vehicle per planet?
A: This is pretty much up to the creator of the playfield.

Q: Will we see larger POI settlements now with larger flat areas and will it be easier to spawn POIs without a drastic change in drop or climb of terrain
A: The larger planets will have larger areas of "flat terrain" (Of course this depends on how the playfield creator designs the terrain)


== Deco & Additions ==

Q: Will there be more ENTITIES (POIs, RESSOURCES, Drones, animals, enemies, etc.) on the larger planet possible (right now very limited) ?
A: There is an entity limit for any playfield. This means the amount of NPC, POI, deposits that are on the planet at the same time, is limited. However, we are planning to increase the entity limit per planet.

Q: Will there be caves, deeper oceans, underwater caverns and large redwood forests with this larger planet update.
A: This is planned for the future.

Q: Can we get few more planet types aka 'I want new additional planet textures'?
A: Additional terrain textures will be considered in the future.

Q: Are you planning to introduce different GASES as environmental factors on new planets to make them more diverse & dangerous?
A: Entirely new planet types are planned for the future, yes!

Q: Will you introduce "ice" as ore in underground rock form on some barren, desolate or toxic future planets (and in space in asteroids)?
A: This is also a topic for a future update (more different materials in general)

== Other ==

Q: Are there any plans to make the space playfield larger as well to keep it from feeling too crammed together?
A: Yes, the space playfields can now be significantly increased as well (probably more than 100 times the current size)

Q: Will way-points act any differently? A big planet could have lots of spots marked and really start to fill up your screen. A player might only want to see them within a certain distance, or they might want to hold down a key for a quick check against them.
A: This is planned for the future.

Q: Will there be something dynamic between POIs, proper AI vehicles, wildlife migration routes, regular Zirax patrols, anything?
A: We are currently working on improving the ground AI. Expect some cool stuff and stay tuned for more info on this topic in the near future.

Q: Will we see a first implementation of a wildlife pecking order, meaning territorial behaviour less randomised, more centralised on certain environmental conditions according to species.
A: We are currently working on improving the ground AI. Expect some cool stuff and stay tuned for more info on this topic in the near future.

Hi Galactic Survivalists,

We just released a small patch for the Alpha 7.6.0 release. Thanks for all the feedback on the various changes that were included in the Alpha 7.6 release. Especially for the extremely helpful discussion regarding food and medical templates.

As a result, we changed some of the recipes to make them easier to craft again. We removed a few exotic components like Alien Spike Lemon from all food templates (these and others might come back in 8.0 when more plants have become self-grown) and in particular changed some of the medical templates to make them accessible on both starter planets for the "early game".

Thanks to all of the feedback which has gone far beyond the isolated discussion of the likes and dislikes in terms of the templates setup, we now have picked up a lot of good ideas on how to progress with food- and medical-gameplay and crafting in the future. A special "Thanks" to all of you that took part and provided suggestions in that context - right now and in the past. :)

Please continue to report bugs and issues right here: https://empyriononline.com/threads/bug-reports-alpha-7-6.36123/

In case you missed it: a sneak preview of the Alpha 8 features can be found here https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-balancing-bug-fixes-and-alpha-8-info.36122

Cheers!

Empyrion Dev team

===============

Changelog: Alpha 7.6.0 (Build 1461)

Updated Food/Medical Templates:
- Bandages and StomachPills: changed template so they are craftable on both starter planets
- Removed Alien Spike Lemons from all food templates (sorry for the hassle)
- Antidote Pills: changed so it can easily be created on Akua
- Antibiotic Ointment: changed so it can easily be created on Omicron.
- Reduced complexity of small and large MediKit
- Removed need for VaronRoot and Alien Parts for Large Medikit (added Opuntia Cactus Spears instead)
- Reduced complexity of Radiation Pills
- Reverted Emergency Ration template to previous version
- Reduced Stamina bonus from Akua Sparkling Wine

Please note: IF you are using a custom config.ecf the changes named above and below will NOT automatically update your config.ecf, but only the example_config.ecf. If you made any changes to your config.ecf these are safe, but PLEASE review your settings after the patch has gone public (or right now!) as they might become obsolete or get overwritten when templates were changed!

Updated Trader Config:
- Added alien, biological and chemical compounds needed for Medicals to Ok'y Medical Traders
- Added biological compounds needed for medics to Aunt Mary's Traders

Changes:
- Added translations for Robinson Protocol: GER (Philipp), FR (Spartan47), CHS (Ken Guo), GREEK (Gabriel)
- Added again point lights to Light Blocks (instead of spotlights)
- Removed homing from Alien Ion Turrets
- Added correct localization string for Survival Constructor

===============

Updated Empyrion Admin Helper (EAH) Tool
Patch notes - 1.40.3.6
- Added: Config: Discord: Ingame color
- Added: Config: rename "Bug fixes" to "Bugfixes/ Debug"
- Added: Config: Chat / Chatbot: Free CB:Restarts in first 10 hours after wipe:
- Added: Config: Chat / Chatbot: Increase hours between CB:Restart (see tooltip)
- Added: Config: Setup: Name of Server (used for Backup names and Dev-Logs)
- Added: Config: Upload only full backup
- Added: Config: Backup, upload only on restart
- Added: Offline Jobs: Run only when player moved (to prevent problems during login)
- Added: CB:Restart -- > Increase time each time it was used
- Added: Structures: Set to Adm Faction (the ingame Adm faction)
- Added: Structures from Backup: Load saved coordinates
- Added: Activated Backpack Backup in Lite Version
- Added: Structure Control: Execution: Detach Pilot to change faction
- Added: Structure Control Messages: Better warnings for player
- Added: Class restriction: Allow 0.5 tolerance for damage ships
- Added: Statistics: Re-assign Process to Playfields
- Added: RAM Check: Include also Dedicated Server RAM
- Added: Coordinate log: Warp to
- Added: Remove old Backups on Structure Backup
- Fixed: Impossible restart due to open process of game
- Fixed: Discord Crashes
- Fixed: Fixed ' in discord message
- Fixed: Player-Structure logs wrong
- Fixed: Structure Control Execution timer

Hi Galactic Survivalists,

We just released a small patch for the Alpha 7.6.0 release. Thanks for all the feedback on the various changes that were included in the Alpha 7.6 release. Especially for the extremely helpful discussion regarding food and medical templates.

As a result, we changed some of the recipes to make them easier to craft again. We removed a few exotic components like Alien Spike Lemon from all food templates (these and others might come back in 8.0 when more plants have become self-grown) and in particular changed some of the medical templates to make them accessible on both starter planets for the "early game".

Thanks to all of the feedback which has gone far beyond the isolated discussion of the likes and dislikes in terms of the templates setup, we now have picked up a lot of good ideas on how to progress with food- and medical-gameplay and crafting in the future. A special "Thanks" to all of you that took part and provided suggestions in that context - right now and in the past. :)

Please continue to report bugs and issues right here: https://empyriononline.com/threads/bug-reports-alpha-7-6.36123/

In case you missed it: a sneak preview of the Alpha 8 features can be found here https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-balancing-bug-fixes-and-alpha-8-info.36122

Cheers!

Empyrion Dev team

===============

Changelog: Alpha 7.6.0 (Build 1461)

Updated Food/Medical Templates:
- Bandages and StomachPills: changed template so they are craftable on both starter planets
- Removed Alien Spike Lemons from all food templates (sorry for the hassle)
- Antidote Pills: changed so it can easily be created on Akua
- Antibiotic Ointment: changed so it can easily be created on Omicron.
- Reduced complexity of small and large MediKit
- Removed need for VaronRoot and Alien Parts for Large Medikit (added Opuntia Cactus Spears instead)
- Reduced complexity of Radiation Pills
- Reverted Emergency Ration template to previous version
- Reduced Stamina bonus from Akua Sparkling Wine

Please note: IF you are using a custom config.ecf the changes named above and below will NOT automatically update your config.ecf, but only the example_config.ecf. If you made any changes to your config.ecf these are safe, but PLEASE review your settings after the patch has gone public (or right now!) as they might become obsolete or get overwritten when templates were changed!

Updated Trader Config:
- Added alien, biological and chemical compounds needed for Medicals to Ok'y Medical Traders
- Added biological compounds needed for medics to Aunt Mary's Traders

Changes:
- Added translations for Robinson Protocol: GER (Philipp), FR (Spartan47), CHS (Ken Guo), GREEK (Gabriel)
- Added again point lights to Light Blocks (instead of spotlights)
- Removed homing from Alien Ion Turrets
- Added correct localization string for Survival Constructor

===============

Updated Empyrion Admin Helper (EAH) Tool
Patch notes - 1.40.3.6
- Added: Config: Discord: Ingame color
- Added: Config: rename "Bug fixes" to "Bugfixes/ Debug"
- Added: Config: Chat / Chatbot: Free CB:Restarts in first 10 hours after wipe:
- Added: Config: Chat / Chatbot: Increase hours between CB:Restart (see tooltip)
- Added: Config: Setup: Name of Server (used for Backup names and Dev-Logs)
- Added: Config: Upload only full backup
- Added: Config: Backup, upload only on restart
- Added: Offline Jobs: Run only when player moved (to prevent problems during login)
- Added: CB:Restart -- > Increase time each time it was used
- Added: Structures: Set to Adm Faction (the ingame Adm faction)
- Added: Structures from Backup: Load saved coordinates
- Added: Activated Backpack Backup in Lite Version
- Added: Structure Control: Execution: Detach Pilot to change faction
- Added: Structure Control Messages: Better warnings for player
- Added: Class restriction: Allow 0.5 tolerance for damage ships
- Added: Statistics: Re-assign Process to Playfields
- Added: RAM Check: Include also Dedicated Server RAM
- Added: Coordinate log: Warp to
- Added: Remove old Backups on Structure Backup
- Fixed: Impossible restart due to open process of game
- Fixed: Discord Crashes
- Fixed: Fixed ' in discord message
- Fixed: Player-Structure logs wrong
- Fixed: Structure Control Execution timer

A sneak preview of the new large and diverse planets that are waiting for you in the upcoming Alpha 8 release. For more details, see below.

Hi Galactic Survivalists,

Today’s version 7.6 is not only adding bug fixes and technical changes but also a slew of rebalancings - most of them being first-time-ever changes.

We invested some time to change a few aspects of the gameplay that were only partially or even never touched at all until now: Loot distribution, food- and medical crafting templates. For the templates, the primary goal has been to make the values of the end-product consistent with the values inherited from their ingredients. This is also preparing for more game mechanics coming to the underlying gameplay in future major updates. For the loot-rebalancing the primary goal has been to make the loot better match the traits and tasks of your target.

We also rebalanced all of the HV, SV, CV and BA weapons and turrets in terms of damage and hitpoints to make fights last shorter and the threats, for example coming from POIs, feel a little bit stronger.

Please read below for the full details and all the other changes - and please make use of the FEEDBACK threads for more discussion around these topics.

Please report bugs and issues right here:
https://empyriononline.com/threads/bug-reports-alpha-7-6.36123/


Last, but not least: we promised you to release some info about the upcoming Alpha 8.0 last week. Turns out, that some decisions we need to make for the next big milestone are tough ones - and will take some additional time until they are set in stone.

Said that, please bear with us that we cannot give you a full disclosure of all the features yet, but only a few of the highlights - which are (see below for more detail):

- Larger Planets: increase from the current 8x4km (32km²) up to 32*64km (2048km²) playfields!
- Updated planet-tech: biome distribution based on humidity and temperature!
- Solar System random generator: just swipe a few sliders and create a solar system on the go
- Improved AI behavior
- New and improved threats (and possibly a new and more varied threat-progression)
- Repair-2-Blueprint
- Better Creative and Building tools

We plan to release a more detailed blog with more info soon. :)

=============

Changelog: Alpha 7.6.0 (Build 1460)

Food Rebalancing and Template Changes:
- Adjusted Food/Health/Stamina/Perish data of all food items and meals.
- Reduced parameters of most raw food and other direct-consumable collectible food items.
- Changed templates for all meals. They are now CALCULATED based on their ingredients values. (using a few parameters that refer to how the meals are created, like cooked, grilled, baked, raw, alcohol, durability etc - please see examples below)
- Most of the complex meals now hold much more health (2x up to 12x) and food points (up to 3x the amount for complex meals).The perish timers have been increased as well (1.5-3x). In exchange some of them need ingredients that you cannot grow, but need to collect.
- Pickup food items that are used in meals do not have negative values anymore.
- The following food items can now be directly consumed: SeaWeed, KavaeBeans, Pumpkin, Wheat
- More meals now have an effect on body temperature and body radiation (inherited by their ingredients)
- Emergency Rations have a completely new, more complex template and does not add that many Stamina points, BUT in exchange adds 250 health points ( before: 0)

Examples for internal multiplicators:
- Grilled stuff is a little bit healthier and contributes more food points than cooked meals. (As 25th century “gills” are able to avoid unhealthy elements ;-)
- Cooked meals have a slightly higher perish timer compared to grilled meals, but a lower multiplicator for health, food and stamina.
- Canned/Durable stuff is less healthier and contributes lesser food points than the summary of their ingredients, but the perish timer is very high.
- Baked meals add more food points than cooked and strongly increase the perish time compared to the summary of their ingredients, but have strongly reduced health (like all sweets :D ). In exchange to their complexity, the perish time is quite high (>100)
- Cold foods ( f.ex. sandwich) have no multiplicator
- Beverages and Alcohol have special multiplicators

Note: The recipe changes are a first step in direction of an improvement and more meaningful food system. Although some of the templates have become more complex now (for the higher-yield item you need to collect some more items), the rewards are significantly increased than before, so you will need to eat less often, compared to items consumed before 7.6. We’ll also add some of the now often-used collectible ingredients for farming. We are looking forward to your feedback!

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-food-rebalancing-and-template-changes.36118/

Medical Templates Change:
- Revamped all templates for medicals
- Added ingredients based on an internal "biochemical property list" (see below)
- Increased Health for Small Medikit to 150
- Increased Health for Large Medikit to 300
- Both Medikits are a bit more complex due to the Health increase
- Removed Status Effect 'FoodPoisoning' from Antidote Pills (Now focused on PoisonBit; FoodPoisoning is removed by StomachPills)

BioChemical compound reference (not visible ingame!)
Anti Parasite - Alien Thorn
Anti Parasite Amplifier - Alien Tooth
Anti Poison - Opuntia Cactus
Anti Poison (Strong) - Varon Root
Anti Poison Amplifier - Phoenix Fern Frond
Anti Radiation - Alien Spike Lemon
Anti Radiation Amplifier - Spiky Mushroom
Injection supplement - Purified Water
Chem. Amplifier T1 - Confetti Moss Scrapings
Chem. Amplifier T2 - Fire Moss Scrapings
Chemical Health T1 - Alien Plasma ZR1
Chemical Health T2 - Alien Plasma T6
Global Amplifier - Cobra Leaves
Global Amplifier (Strong) - Alien Parts
Global BioMed - Pixie Stalk Bundle
Open Wound Amplifier - Alien Honey
Open Wound - Aloe Vera
Stamina Amplifier - Brafus Fungi
Stamina - Kavae Beans
Tissue (Strong) - Plant Fibers
Tissue (weak) - Seaweed

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-medical-templates-and-effect-changes.36119/

Note: For balancing the template, the bottles now require metal plates as the Survival Constructor does not need energy (like the terrain-placeable generators did) and the other Constructors are much more energy efficient than the placeable generators.

Damage/HP Balancing and Range Setting:
- Added possibility to set a separate Range and Speed for weapons ins space in Config.ecf: "SpeedSpace" and "RangeSpace"
Important: since we now dynamically set the correct range, you must set "display: false" for Range and RangeSpace > see our Example_Config.ecf (for all Item Ids, we will do the same for all Block Ids soon)
- Set a dedicated PLANET range for all weapons (this range is influenced by the atmospheric density as usual)
- Set a dedicated SPACE range for all weapons
- Significantly increased SPACE range for all weapons
- Slightly decreased PLANET range for some devices (Especially for now stronger Minigun and Cannon)
- Removed explosion damage from all Laser weapons
- Increased DAMAGE for all devices (up to 30%)
- Significantly increased DAMAGE for Minigun and CANNON but reduced Rate-o-Fire in the same scale (so the DPS are similar to the before state)
- Set a dedicated PLANET and SPACE Speed for all devices
- Increased PROJECTILE SPEED for all devices
- Slightly increased hitpoints of all SV, HV, CV and BA weapons and turrets

Notes:
- The balancing only affects weapons and turrets of HV,SV,CV and BA. Hand-weapons are NOT changed yet. A more global revamp of damages and HP is planned for v8.0
- NPCs and Drones have not yet been touched. This is also planned in the context of the bigger rework in v8.0

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-damage-hp-balancing-and-range-settings.36120/

Loot Update:
- Adjusted drop chances of various loot items for devices with inventories.
- Golems: Adjusted drop groups and chances ( Chances: Basic > Advanced > Rare )
- Golems: Increased ore amount for advanced and rare ores
- Golems: Increased amount of crushed stones
- Adjusted Ammo drop for Zirax
- Added small drop of Laser Pistol Cells to Traders and Civilians
- Drones: Added loot items that are more appropriate to the drones weapon class and design
- Drones: Slightly increased drop chance of components for small drones.
- Drones: Reduced weapon drop chance for heavy drones
- Added specific loot to TroopTransport
- Adjusted item drop-chances of Alien Containers
- Added Egg as a drop item for all dinosaurs
- Removed Flour from Loot (Not needed anymore)
- Slightly reduced drop rate of large and small Medikit (due to increased capabilities)
- Adjusted various medical item drop rates

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-loot-distribution-and-dropchances.36121/

PDA Update (Robinson Protocol):
- Some refinements in mission descriptions
- Added a few new steps (claim base, equip items)
- Added additional info (Multitool)

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-faq-and-feedback-updated-default-singleplayer-scenario.21942/

Contructors and H2/O2 Generation:
- Survival Constructor now has automatic crafting capabilities as other constructors
- Removed O2/H2O2 Generator terrain placeable
- Added O2 bottle templates to ALL constructors, including the Survival Constructor!
- H2 bottles are available from the Large- and Advanced Constructor
- Adapted template of Small O2 Bottle (can be crafted from Water Jug and corresponds now to O2 content)

Other Changes:
- Added console cmd: "uresource destroyall" in case there are problems with underground resources
- Added alternative version for Masperon Moon (NewAlien2_V2)
- Scenario Shadow of Starlight: removed random resources and re-added fixed resources on Kayam Planet

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed: Several remaining problems with solar panels
- Fixed: Solar battery drained after Day/Night Cycle in Space.
- Fixed: When walking or running into a wheel of a motorbike the player could be launched large distances or into space
- Fixed: HUD tag in SCOPE is offset a lot compared to non-scoped view
- Fixed: When a player removes their helmet underwater or in space the player doesn't suffocate.
- Fixed: SV Ammo lost after cancel reload time
- Fixed: SV mounted weapon ammo lost when re-joining a server.
- Fixed: 'FixedResources' when setup don't have any SSOR's.
- Fixed: Exploit: Players can approach POI's & drones with a ready to spawn BP out which stops turrets & drones firing.
- Fixed: Deposits spawn directly below POIs
- Fixed: Loot drop did not work as intended. Now the loot should spawned as defined
- Fixed: Control Panel MAIN tab: 'Current Output' stays zero
- Fixed: Small problem in PDA mission
- Fixed: Exception when kicked from the exp server.
- Fixed: Symmetry plane location needs to be reset after setting it to none & unchecking the Symmetry checkbox.
- Fixed: Symmetry plane location needs to be reset after using selection area.
- Fixed: Warning in log "ManagerShipFighter Write unknown task"
- Fixed: Exception after placing a motion sensor after removing a light barrier
- Fixed: Problems with descriptions of some biomes and orbit names
- Fixed: Several internal exceptions

===============================

ALPHA 8: Sneak Preview

Here is a sneak preview of some of the planned main features for Alpha 8 (please note that these features are still WIP). We are planning to make a more detailed blog post very soon.

Planned Major Features for Alpha 8:

1. Larger planets
Currently our planets are small. They have a circumference at the equator of 8km and a surface area of 32km^2. We are planning to introduce different size classes of planets. The largest ones could have a circumference at the equator of 64km and a surface area of 2048km^2, which means they are 64x larger than the current planets (please note that we did not yet decide about the max size of a planet - 64km or 32km circumference).

We would like to give you an idea how big these planets will be. Do you see the spire base on the other side?

It looks quite far away - right? However, if you look at the map, it seems to be just in front of you:

This example nicely illustrates the size of the planet.

2. More diverse biomes
We are working on an editor that will allow to generate biomes based on temperature and humidity:


Example of biome distribution:


By changing Temperature and Humidity, the biome distribution changes as well:


With this approach, we obtain varied planets with different biomes:





(all pictures are taken on the same planet)

3. Random generation of solar system
You can choose among some input parameters and a random solar system will be created

4. Better AI behavior and more AI Threats

5. Repair-to-Blueprint
You will be able to create a save point for your vessels and can restore it back to this state - it will be very useful when your vessel got partly destroyed in a fight

6. Better Creative and Building tools

.... and much more!

A sneak preview of the new large and diverse planets that are waiting for you in the upcoming Alpha 8 release. For more details, see below.

Hi Galactic Survivalists,

Today’s version 7.6 is not only adding bug fixes and technical changes but also a slew of rebalancings - most of them being first-time-ever changes.

We invested some time to change a few aspects of the gameplay that were only partially or even never touched at all until now: Loot distribution, food- and medical crafting templates. For the templates, the primary goal has been to make the values of the end-product consistent with the values inherited from their ingredients. This is also preparing for more game mechanics coming to the underlying gameplay in future major updates. For the loot-rebalancing the primary goal has been to make the loot better match the traits and tasks of your target.

We also rebalanced all of the HV, SV, CV and BA weapons and turrets in terms of damage and hitpoints to make fights last shorter and the threats, for example coming from POIs, feel a little bit stronger.

Please read below for the full details and all the other changes - and please make use of the FEEDBACK threads for more discussion around these topics.

Please report bugs and issues right here:
https://empyriononline.com/threads/bug-reports-alpha-7-6.36123/


Last, but not least: we promised you to release some info about the upcoming Alpha 8.0 last week. Turns out, that some decisions we need to make for the next big milestone are tough ones - and will take some additional time until they are set in stone.

Said that, please bear with us that we cannot give you a full disclosure of all the features yet, but only a few of the highlights - which are (see below for more detail):

- Larger Planets: increase from the current 8x4km (32km²) up to 32*64km (2048km²) playfields!
- Updated planet-tech: biome distribution based on humidity and temperature!
- Solar System random generator: just swipe a few sliders and create a solar system on the go
- Improved AI behavior
- New and improved threats (and possibly a new and more varied threat-progression)
- Repair-2-Blueprint
- Better Creative and Building tools

We plan to release a more detailed blog with more info soon. :)

=============

Changelog: Alpha 7.6.0 (Build 1460)

Food Rebalancing and Template Changes:
- Adjusted Food/Health/Stamina/Perish data of all food items and meals.
- Reduced parameters of most raw food and other direct-consumable collectible food items.
- Changed templates for all meals. They are now CALCULATED based on their ingredients values. (using a few parameters that refer to how the meals are created, like cooked, grilled, baked, raw, alcohol, durability etc - please see examples below)
- Most of the complex meals now hold much more health (2x up to 12x) and food points (up to 3x the amount for complex meals).The perish timers have been increased as well (1.5-3x). In exchange some of them need ingredients that you cannot grow, but need to collect.
- Pickup food items that are used in meals do not have negative values anymore.
- The following food items can now be directly consumed: SeaWeed, KavaeBeans, Pumpkin, Wheat
- More meals now have an effect on body temperature and body radiation (inherited by their ingredients)
- Emergency Rations have a completely new, more complex template and does not add that many Stamina points, BUT in exchange adds 250 health points ( before: 0)

Examples for internal multiplicators:
- Grilled stuff is a little bit healthier and contributes more food points than cooked meals. (As 25th century “gills” are able to avoid unhealthy elements ;-)
- Cooked meals have a slightly higher perish timer compared to grilled meals, but a lower multiplicator for health, food and stamina.
- Canned/Durable stuff is less healthier and contributes lesser food points than the summary of their ingredients, but the perish timer is very high.
- Baked meals add more food points than cooked and strongly increase the perish time compared to the summary of their ingredients, but have strongly reduced health (like all sweets :D ). In exchange to their complexity, the perish time is quite high (>100)
- Cold foods ( f.ex. sandwich) have no multiplicator
- Beverages and Alcohol have special multiplicators

Note: The recipe changes are a first step in direction of an improvement and more meaningful food system. Although some of the templates have become more complex now (for the higher-yield item you need to collect some more items), the rewards are significantly increased than before, so you will need to eat less often, compared to items consumed before 7.6. We’ll also add some of the now often-used collectible ingredients for farming. We are looking forward to your feedback!

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-food-rebalancing-and-template-changes.36118/

Medical Templates Change:
- Revamped all templates for medicals
- Added ingredients based on an internal "biochemical property list" (see below)
- Increased Health for Small Medikit to 150
- Increased Health for Large Medikit to 300
- Both Medikits are a bit more complex due to the Health increase
- Removed Status Effect 'FoodPoisoning' from Antidote Pills (Now focused on PoisonBit; FoodPoisoning is removed by StomachPills)

BioChemical compound reference (not visible ingame!)
Anti Parasite - Alien Thorn
Anti Parasite Amplifier - Alien Tooth
Anti Poison - Opuntia Cactus
Anti Poison (Strong) - Varon Root
Anti Poison Amplifier - Phoenix Fern Frond
Anti Radiation - Alien Spike Lemon
Anti Radiation Amplifier - Spiky Mushroom
Injection supplement - Purified Water
Chem. Amplifier T1 - Confetti Moss Scrapings
Chem. Amplifier T2 - Fire Moss Scrapings
Chemical Health T1 - Alien Plasma ZR1
Chemical Health T2 - Alien Plasma T6
Global Amplifier - Cobra Leaves
Global Amplifier (Strong) - Alien Parts
Global BioMed - Pixie Stalk Bundle
Open Wound Amplifier - Alien Honey
Open Wound - Aloe Vera
Stamina Amplifier - Brafus Fungi
Stamina - Kavae Beans
Tissue (Strong) - Plant Fibers
Tissue (weak) - Seaweed

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-medical-templates-and-effect-changes.36119/

Note: For balancing the template, the bottles now require metal plates as the Survival Constructor does not need energy (like the terrain-placeable generators did) and the other Constructors are much more energy efficient than the placeable generators.

Damage/HP Balancing and Range Setting:
- Added possibility to set a separate Range and Speed for weapons ins space in Config.ecf: "SpeedSpace" and "RangeSpace"
Important: since we now dynamically set the correct range, you must set "display: false" for Range and RangeSpace > see our Example_Config.ecf (for all Item Ids, we will do the same for all Block Ids soon)
- Set a dedicated PLANET range for all weapons (this range is influenced by the atmospheric density as usual)
- Set a dedicated SPACE range for all weapons
- Significantly increased SPACE range for all weapons
- Slightly decreased PLANET range for some devices (Especially for now stronger Minigun and Cannon)
- Removed explosion damage from all Laser weapons
- Increased DAMAGE for all devices (up to 30%)
- Significantly increased DAMAGE for Minigun and CANNON but reduced Rate-o-Fire in the same scale (so the DPS are similar to the before state)
- Set a dedicated PLANET and SPACE Speed for all devices
- Increased PROJECTILE SPEED for all devices
- Slightly increased hitpoints of all SV, HV, CV and BA weapons and turrets

Notes:
- The balancing only affects weapons and turrets of HV,SV,CV and BA. Hand-weapons are NOT changed yet. A more global revamp of damages and HP is planned for v8.0
- NPCs and Drones have not yet been touched. This is also planned in the context of the bigger rework in v8.0

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-damage-hp-balancing-and-range-settings.36120/

Loot Update:
- Adjusted drop chances of various loot items for devices with inventories.
- Golems: Adjusted drop groups and chances ( Chances: Basic > Advanced > Rare )
- Golems: Increased ore amount for advanced and rare ores
- Golems: Increased amount of crushed stones
- Adjusted Ammo drop for Zirax
- Added small drop of Laser Pistol Cells to Traders and Civilians
- Drones: Added loot items that are more appropriate to the drones weapon class and design
- Drones: Slightly increased drop chance of components for small drones.
- Drones: Reduced weapon drop chance for heavy drones
- Added specific loot to TroopTransport
- Adjusted item drop-chances of Alien Containers
- Added Egg as a drop item for all dinosaurs
- Removed Flour from Loot (Not needed anymore)
- Slightly reduced drop rate of large and small Medikit (due to increased capabilities)
- Adjusted various medical item drop rates

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-6-feedback-loot-distribution-and-dropchances.36121/

PDA Update (Robinson Protocol):
- Some refinements in mission descriptions
- Added a few new steps (claim base, equip items)
- Added additional info (Multitool)

FEEDBACK THREAD: https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-7-faq-and-feedback-updated-default-singleplayer-scenario.21942/

Contructors and H2/O2 Generation:
- Survival Constructor now has automatic crafting capabilities as other constructors
- Removed O2/H2O2 Generator terrain placeable
- Added O2 bottle templates to ALL constructors, including the Survival Constructor!
- H2 bottles are available from the Large- and Advanced Constructor
- Adapted template of Small O2 Bottle (can be crafted from Water Jug and corresponds now to O2 content)

Other Changes:
- Added console cmd: "uresource destroyall" in case there are problems with underground resources
- Added alternative version for Masperon Moon (NewAlien2_V2)
- Scenario Shadow of Starlight: removed random resources and re-added fixed resources on Kayam Planet

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed: Several remaining problems with solar panels
- Fixed: Solar battery drained after Day/Night Cycle in Space.
- Fixed: When walking or running into a wheel of a motorbike the player could be launched large distances or into space
- Fixed: HUD tag in SCOPE is offset a lot compared to non-scoped view
- Fixed: When a player removes their helmet underwater or in space the player doesn't suffocate.
- Fixed: SV Ammo lost after cancel reload time
- Fixed: SV mounted weapon ammo lost when re-joining a server.
- Fixed: 'FixedResources' when setup don't have any SSOR's.
- Fixed: Exploit: Players can approach POI's & drones with a ready to spawn BP out which stops turrets & drones firing.
- Fixed: Deposits spawn directly below POIs
- Fixed: Loot drop did not work as intended. Now the loot should spawned as defined
- Fixed: Control Panel MAIN tab: 'Current Output' stays zero
- Fixed: Small problem in PDA mission
- Fixed: Exception when kicked from the exp server.
- Fixed: Symmetry plane location needs to be reset after setting it to none & unchecking the Symmetry checkbox.
- Fixed: Symmetry plane location needs to be reset after using selection area.
- Fixed: Warning in log "ManagerShipFighter Write unknown task"
- Fixed: Exception after placing a motion sensor after removing a light barrier
- Fixed: Problems with descriptions of some biomes and orbit names
- Fixed: Several internal exceptions

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ALPHA 8: Sneak Preview

Here is a sneak preview of some of the planned main features for Alpha 8 (please note that these features are still WIP). We are planning to make a more detailed blog post very soon.

Planned Major Features for Alpha 8:

1. Larger planets
Currently our planets are small. They have a circumference at the equator of 8km and a surface area of 32km^2. We are planning to introduce different size classes of planets. The largest ones could have a circumference at the equator of 64km and a surface area of 2048km^2, which means they are 64x larger than the current planets (please note that we did not yet decide about the max size of a planet - 64km or 32km circumference).

We would like to give you an idea how big these planets will be. Do you see the spire base on the other side?

It looks quite far away - right? However, if you look at the map, it seems to be just in front of you:

This example nicely illustrates the size of the planet.

2. More diverse biomes
We are working on an editor that will allow to generate biomes based on temperature and humidity:


Example of biome distribution:


By changing Temperature and Humidity, the biome distribution changes as well:


With this approach, we obtain varied planets with different biomes:





(all pictures are taken on the same planet)

3. Random generation of solar system
You can choose among some input parameters and a random solar system will be created

4. Better AI behavior and more AI Threats

5. Repair-to-Blueprint
You will be able to create a save point for your vessels and can restore it back to this state - it will be very useful when your vessel got partly destroyed in a fight

6. Better Creative and Building tools

.... and much more!