Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 6:

Design

Features

• Old tooltips remade with a bigger font, to improve readability
  
• Ship weapons tested against basic materials / ships to get better feel of current material/weapon balance
  
• Company functionality design worked on: co-ownership, disband / owner leaving and general Company controls
  
• Inventory buy limits tested and confirmed, currently settled on 5000
  
• Asteroid spawner rotation offset configurations tweaked to improve the Mining Job experience
  
• Configurations updated:
  
• Oninum Armor value adjusted from 5000 to 3500
  
• Autocannon projectile mass increased from 10 to 11
  
• Laser Cannon projectile mass reduced from 6 to 5
  
• Damage adjustments tested against Onimum, new values feel better
  
• New bolt profiles made for mounted weapon body 2

Stations

• VIS grid slot: support beams added, collisions fixed, walkways, landing platforms, hallways and take-off docks updated
  
• Skyscrapers worked on: corridor apartment entrance and roof modules updated and new room modules created

Spaceships

• Vasama and Twin Vasama re-balanced, some plating had to be removed / relocated

Code

Gameplay

• Support added for kill zones that instantly kill players and destroy objects
  
• An assert fixed with the building tool autofill feature
  
• A bug where virtual bridges disappear from components with multiple virtual bridges has been fixed
  
• Custom ships created via SSC are now bought for the intended price instead of obtaining them for free

User Interface

• Inventory tabs have been added to Material Sell menu
  
• Bank tab code has been refactored
  
• Filter buttons have been added to sort players and ships
  
• An issue related to too long company names fixed by making the company name be maximum of 24 characters long

Audio

• First simple approximation of projectile-to-ship context detection for battle music has been implemented
  
• Distance filtering has been added to hostility events, so that fighting far away doesn't start battle music
  
• Player distance-to-ship parameter has been added for player-ship association in battle context

Planets

• Ship collisions with planets have been implemented
  
• A bug where planets would disappear after visiting SSC was fixed
  
• Planet memory usage has been optimized

Art

Stations

• Asteroid Collection Zone ad design has been made
  
• Asteroid Mining Job sign post and new logo sign pieces have been created
  
• Skyscraper wall level art underway
  
• Skyscraper base module building underway
  
• Elevator hall and salvage shop decoration updates
  
• VIS office module has been updated and some windows added

Moons and Asteroids

• Alpha moon terrains have been finished
  
• Updated moon textures are in the making
  
• Procedural object placement for moons has been adjusted
  
• Asteroid rock and material updates
  
• Rock meshes topology fixes has been made

Other

• Cargo crate baking and texturing has been made
  
• Universal Projector's high poly, low poly, UV's, bakes and materials have been finished
  
• Resource Grid Utility Panel's assets design modified
  
• Resource Grid Utility Panel & Box's assets finished, high poly, low poly, UV's, bakes and materials have been finished
  
• Armor sets: Jackal set textures and paint jobs have been polished
  
• Weapon lockers have been updated
  
• Whiplash gun's hit effect edited and switched
  
• Offset on maneuver thruster's effect has been edited as the spawn point had been moved
  
• Maneuver thruster on torpedo changed for a smaller one

Gallery

Videos

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and Frozenbyte's blog for more pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🪐

We just released a new Starbase video! This video will show how we filmed the Starbase - New Features Trailer, especially focusing on the scenes with a massive number of ships. In it we will explain some of the underlying technology behind those scenes and take a look at the rendering and netsync tests we’ve performed with a thousand ships.

https://youtu.be/vGvjtAAQ4RA
Find out how the trailer scenes came to life and watch us test the game's capabilities with a 1000 ships by checking out Starbase - Trailer Making-of: 1000 Ships Rendering & Netsync above!

Join the discussion on the official Starbase Discord.



And don't forget to wishlist Starbase on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/454120/Starbase/

Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 5:

Design

Features

• Assembly Hall station modules updated with fixed level art
  
• Cargo Crate configurations tested, after some code rework the Crates now work properly
  
• New single entity object created from the new Cargo Crate components
  
• Economy configurations: new items added to market, infantry weapon pricing adjusted and general economy rule adjustments were made
  
• Insurance transfer terminals added to the new station
  
• Autocannon electricity usage increased from 110 to 150 per bullet
  
• Autocannon projectile velocity reduced from 900 to 800
  
• Utility panels:
  Design for UI that players use to move resources (power, propellant, building materials) between station storage and lot/ship devices. Design for basic alternative, automatically providing devices with resources from storage
  
• Station storage:
  Design for updated station item storage UI logic, targeting better filtering and sorting of item grid. Design for shop UI adjustments improving interaction with station storage

Stations

• Skyscraper modules have been updated to minimize the needed module and instance amount
  
• Station lot areas have been made compatible with the upcoming Utility panel
  
• Capital Imperial A's missing MapPartNames have been added
  
• Landing platforms in Capital Imperial A have been relocated due to possible collisions with the public transport
  
• Collisions caused by the "slanted triangle" asset update have been fixed

Spaceships

• Twist handles for propellant containers added for Zilant
  
• Cable added to Lancer, to fix an issue where lever was not connected to the data network
  
• Mining laser and mining laser controls removed from Ithaca V2 and V4

Code

Gameplay

• An issue fixed, where camera panning to YOLOL chip resulted in an unplayable game state when the chip was destroyed
  
• YOLOL chip is now locked when pressing escape while zoomed into it
  
• Support added for safezones that are larger than a single universe cell
  
• Chat notifications for leaving/approaching/entering safe zones have been added
  
• Building tool now restores object armor/environment damage as well as voxel damage
  
• Showroom ships loading into the main menu fixed
  
• Support added for cargo crates having the latch on the crate rather than the lid
  
• Sitting rotation restrictions updated, feature implemented for pilot chairs
  
• Custom ships can now be created via SSC
  
• Client showing incorrect prices for some items fixed
  
• Economy now treats bolts, cables and pipes within ships correctly

User interface

• An issue where materials dropped to the world spawned in wrong sized cubes has been fixed
  
• Dragging not starting when pressing LMB and dragging item out of equipment slots has been fixed
  
• Weapon with magazine not reloading on the first try after logging has been fixed
  
• Opening animation has been added to the main menu's message box

Audio

• Damage signalling has been updated
  
• Main menu state has been implemented
  
• Background music in SSC has been fixed
  
• Tracking of aggressive players added to detect end of battle better

Art

Art notes

• VIS headquarters has been fully updated with level art
  
• New logo sign pieces have been made
  
• Texture stretching on device rack cores and the new socket to the socket core have been added
  
• Thruster textures and tintmasks have been finished
  
• UI inventory category icons have been updated
  
• Resource Grid Utility Panel and Resource Grid Utility Box have been added (allow transfer of resources between station storage and devices)
  
• Alpha moons have been updated
  
• Backpacks: Thruster pack textures updated and paintjobs added
  
• Armor sets: All base armor pieces were fixed to have white base colour
  
• New asteroids made and some distance/size tests made with them
  
• Asteroid base material microdetail/color adjustments and testing has been made
  
• The depth based emission of particles modified (reducing particles based on distance)
  
• Particles added to thrusters
  
• Existing flamer effect reworked and new hit effect made for it
  
• The laser turret hit effect updated with depth settings
  
• Landing animations have been polished

Gallery

Videos

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and Frozenbyte's blog for more pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🚀

We have released an adventurous new trailer for Starbase, showcasing the look and features coming to the game in 2020!

https://youtu.be/GAax6kzJkfc

The trailer reveals the possibility for players to colonize moons and planets, where small outposts and early trading routes can eventually turn into huge cities with a thriving society. Players can land anywhere with no loading screens, walk around the big cityscapes and interact with other pioneers - explore the new world! Reaching even the closest moon, however, will require a massive joint effort and ingenuity from players. It will be the first major community objective.




Don't forget to wishlist Starbase on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/454120/Starbase

Join the discussion on Discord for latest Starbase news and eventual Closed Alpha access!



Visit https://www.starbasegame.com for even more Starbase related content!

Here are also some new screenshots for you to enjoy:

Hello everyone! It is time for another week of progress notes!

Design

Features

• A mock-up designed for new Assembly Job workstation layout
  
• Assembly Hall reworked, so all the workstations can be identical and fit well
  
• Issue where mining backpack's inventory icons were not visible in game fixed
  
• Font, text locations, names and other changes made for Player Profile page
  
• Tax related design worked on and new tax values tested
  
• Mining laser statistics and damage adjusted

Stations

• New starting station 'Capital Imperial A' has been created and added to the universe
  
• Threshold in marketplace hangar module has been lowered, since it caused the player to get stuck
  
• Blueprint terminals have been removed from take off docks

Spaceships

• Veles' armor plating improved and propellant tanks fixed
  
• Beam structure near rear triangle thruster stack on Ithaca v4 reinforced

Code

Gameplay

• Ship LODs warping out of place when viewing client warps to a new cell fixed
  
• Camera panning fixes made
  
• Issues with missile thruster propellant consumption fixed and tested
  
• Torque adjustments made and issue fixed with torpedo YOLOL
  
• Rotation and translation by thrust adjusted
  
• Effect-support added on torpedo maneuver thrusters
  
• Ship prices can now be configured

User interface

• Issue with bank's inventory scrollable items not clipping correctly fixed
  
• A bug where newly created characters were not able to equip weapons fixed
  
• Ores bought to backpack from shop will now be stacked and merged with current ores in the inventory
  
• Material amount bought is now in kilovoxels instead of voxels
  
• Item on the backpack slot is now spawned / removed when the item on the large backpack slot changes
  
• Swapping items via quickbar only unequipping current item on hand fixed
  
• Backpack changes not reacting to swap (item on large slot wouldn't change on player's back) fixed
  
• Item Shop code refactored
  
• Message of the Day added to the main menu and infobox added to it
  
• Common function for "Click to edit" input boxes added

Audio

• Player context tracking improved
  
• Context tracking added for projectile-environment collisions
  
• First iteration of battle logic now works

Renderer

• Depth scaling added to particle emit rate

Art

Stations

• Hall LODs updated
  
• VIS main hall exterior decoration: windows placed in loading docks and other floors

Weapons

• Proper textures and paintjobs added for the Sentinel rifle
  
• Sentinel rifle now has a 3rd person reload animation
  
• Torpedo trail effects updated and new explosion effect made for the hit

Other

• Snapping points and rotations of multiple models fixed
  
• Slanted triangles fixed
  
• Combat shield orientation and position fixed
  
• New 3D stars single object has been made and skybox updated
  
• Cargo crate updated: lid won't clip with the crate itself anymore
  
• Thruster nozzle textures fixed
  
• Problems with voxel generation in the displays of the modular control asset set fixed
  
• Preliminary HUD icons for transponder states have been made
  
• Rank plates for the drones armor sets made
  
• Asteroid base material adjustments
  
• Sit animations when wielding a weapon/tool are being worked on
  
• Landing animation for pickaxe
  
• Crouched relax in/out animations for rifle and pickaxe polished
  Distance scaling to existing weapon effects being implemented
  
• Particle visibility on plasma turrets tests underway
  
• Beam for weaker laser cutting tool updated

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and Frozenbyte's blog for pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🚀

Hello everyone! The development continues - here are the progress notes of week 3:

Design

Features

• All the Mining Job UI screens now support localization and dynamic key binds in the instructions
  
• Mining Job tested, issue regarding a delay when grabbing things investigated and improved
  
• Mining Job UI configured and some bugs fixed
  
• Assembly Job visual instructions mock-ups designed, the visual instructions screen in Assembly Job workstation setting tested
  
• Mock-ups made for various station inventory grid arranging solutions
  
• Design for company social features (chat functions and commands) worked on

Stations

• The stem wall modules and corridor entrance modules adjusted to match the updated apartment grid

Spaceships

• A pipe section and a piece of cable that were not connected to spaceships fixed

Code

Gameplay

• LODs of perfectly still ships not showing up until they move fixed
  
• Building tool issue solved, already intact/fixed objects would get fixed when using the tool
  
• Fixes to sensors and missile thrusters and YOLOL improvements on torpedoes
  
• Profile deletion reworked to be more reliable
  
• Tool ammo consumption along with Grabbing Tool updated

User interface

• When creating a company the owner now gets the correct rank
  
• Missing scrollbars added to boxes
  
• Name restrictions added to rank creation (max character limit, ranks can't share same name)
  
• A big fixed where failing to join a company caused all other invites to be deleted

Audio

• Basic station/exploration music logic updated
  
• Battle state detection in the making

Starbase Spaceship Creator

• Tech needed for buying a ship made in the SSC has been worked on

Renderer

• Size depth scaling and scale stop distance added for particles

Art

Stations

• VIS floor decoration in the making
  
• Elevator shaft decoration in the making

Weapons

• Distance scale settings edited on all weapon hit effects except turrets
  
• Bolter's hit effect reworked and reload effect added and tweaked
  
• Bolter weapon's effects worked on: muzzle flash updated, hit effect modified, the projectile is now based on the rail cannon projectile
  
• Auto-cannon's muzzle flash not having audio fixed
  
• Debris particles removed from some hit effects
  
• Bolt Tool now has a 3rd person animation when reloading
  
• New animations: landing with a pickaxe and a rifle along with crouched pickaxe relax in/out transitions

Other

• High-poly models made for triangle thruster assets, triangle thruster nozzles updated
  
• Modular control assets for cockpit/control surface use: Bases with different button, switches and screen that be combined in a control surface layouts. 2 different buttons, 2 buttons with safety lids, 1 switch, 5 screens/progress bar bases
  
• A new trim sheet texture in the making to be used with small assets, can also be used to replace some older texture sets in use. Aim is to have trim sheets that are easier to use and expand for needs of future assets
  
• Resource Junction: The twist handle width has been scaled down to 24 cm, as it was not usable in certain configurations
  
• Resource Junction: The twist handle width has been scaled down to 24 cm, as it was not usable in certain configurations
  
• Tools: Bolt Tool textures updated and paintjobs added for the pickaxe
  
• Backpacks: Weapons rack, communications pack, Energy booster pack textures updated and paintjobs added
  
• Asteroid base materials optimized and adjusted

You can check the Progress Notes on the official Starbase forums and on Frozenbyte's blog for some progress pictures and videos, as well!

Hello everyone! It is time for the first Starbase Progress Notes of 2020. We apologize for the silence over the last couple of weeks, but now the developers are back at work after the restful holidays! We hope you continue to enjoy these snippets of the development progress this year.

Design

Features

• Local tests done on the initial weapon balance
  
• Player to player trade design worked on
  
• Necessary sub components added to the new Cargo Crate assets
  
• All components of the new Cargo Crate assets configured and tested
  
• Calculations made for taxation and different taxation events

Stations

• Missing snap points placed on multiple hall modules
  
• Window frames found in marketplace_small_corner -hall module updated
  
• Station modules' names have been updated to follow a more unified and distinctive naming pattern

Spaceships

• Propellant containers enabled for the following ships: Lancer, Spatha, Knight, Vector, Vasama Vanette, Vasama, Twin Vasama, Republic wing and Ithaca V1

Code

Gameplay

• Device fields approach of FlightControlUnits and MainFlightComputers refactored
  
• Building Tool autofill feature: resource consumption implemented and final tests and fixes made
  
• A bug fixed where cables were drawn twice or more when they crossed separate objects the right way
  
• A bug, where the game would crash if you tried to exit game while holograms in the lot were loading, fixed
  
• A bug Fixed with mining laser hitting other objects as well as the player momentarily if the player was its closest hit entity
  
• Multiple fixes to grabbing tool options
  
• Chat and company client: if a company invitation is received, a link with a company name now shows up in chat. By clicking the link, the CV-Menu, with CompanyTab pops up, with invite screen opened
  
• The station tech refactoring project started, the purpose of refactoring is to introduce player-created stations into the game

User interface

• Company member info now shows time since member was last online and the right rank
  
• Ranks now show up in the company tree
  
• Checkboxes and input fields added for rank name and description
  
• Some sound bug fixes
  
• Settings: FPS limit slider added, Vsync made default in settings, slider handle positions and scrolling fixed, shadow quality setting definitions fixed, support added for resetting ephemeral settings
  
• Quickbar swapping of backpack items fixed: couldn't previously swap items if there was no free slot in backpack
  
• A bug fixed where Company tab wasn't opening when inventory menu wasn't open
  
• An error fixed where old chat company invites could be opened and where company invites could be sent to players who already were in the company; it is also now possible to leave a company
  
• Detecting conditions for different music events to be fired in the making and station proximity logic implemented for music context switching

Starbase Spaceship Creator

• Automated test that reports any missing asset browser localizations added
  
• A number of issues fixed where the autobolter and the bolt tool interacted with the repair assist hologram
  
• The repair assist hologram appearing in invalid pose for certain ships has been fixed
  
• SSC terminal accessibility improved. Ships no longer have to be completely within the terminal's bounds for the terminal to be activatable
  
• Missing UI localizations have been fixed

Art

Stations

• Trading market LOD and windows in the making
  
• Snap points on window plates fixed

Weapons

• Assault rifle's hit effect and muzzle flash updated
  
• Rail rifle now has a reload effect and its hit FX has been updated
  
• Some minor weapon effect fixes: minigun's projectile has now been assigned correctly
  
• Shotgun and assault rifle's muzzle flash tweaked and updated
  
• Hit FX used by Gauss rifle switched as well as the beam used by laser cutter tool
  
• Rocket launcher, grenade launcher, combat shield and Whiplash textures and paintjobs updated

Other

• More variations of asteroid medium/small rocks in the making
  
• Asteroid rock basic material underway
  
• Light optimization tests
  
• Shelf assets in the making
  
• Medal concepts for achievements and actual medals underway
  
• Colour palette has been updated
  
• Cargo crates have been updated
  
• Snap points updated for a bunch of intersection and corner beams and flight computer assets
  
• Material Cubes: collision problems caused by extra voxels fixed, visual update on the bolting holes finished
  
• UI: Bigger versions of raw material icons created to be used in the 2x2 inventory slot
  
• Device Hardpoints: snap pointsadded to the middle of the outer edges of the small device hardpoint
  
• Modular buttons and switches updated
  
• Cable tool, laser cutter, building tool and durability tool textures updated

You can check the Progress Notes on the official Starbase forums and on Frozenbyte's blog for some progress pictures and videos, as well!

In this Episode of Boltcrackers, Bob and Dr. Bolt create amazing modifications to various spaceships.

In pursuit of science they make good use of railmovers, cargo lock beams as well as missiles.

Watch to find out how to make a hull-breacher bike, carrier ship, a minelayer, and more!

https://youtu.be/yH8GJwxDSs4

Hello everyone! With less than two months remaining of 2019, many of you have been rightfully asking what our current plans with Early Access and the Closed Alpha are as well as the schedule regarding them.

Even though we've made a lot of progress during the months after the announcement, we've not been able to start outside testing as early as we predicted. This means that Starbase will not be Early Access ready in 2019.

Our current focus is getting the Closed Alpha underway as soon as possible. Once the Alpha starts, our plan is to increase the number of its participants in stages. We want to test the game thoroughly in Alpha before going into Early Access to make sure everything works and we're ready for a large playerbase.

As unfortunate as this delay is, we hope the added features and polish will make it worth the extra wait time.

In the meantime, you can follow the development progress of Starbase in the weekly progress notes that we post on the Official Starbase forums.

A new Starbase video has been released. This video shows the smallest ship, the Vasama, being disassembled in reverse to show what kind of a structure and what parts the ship needs to work. This is done by hand, outside the game's ship/blueprint editor.

If you wish to know more about the inner workings of a spaceship in Starbase, check out the video below.

https://youtu.be/h7Tv6VE8ZCw
Join the discussion on the official Starbase Discord.



And don't forget to wishlist Starbase on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/454120/Starbase/