Welcome to the February Update!

A lot of progress has been made over the last few months. You may have seen the core engine upgrade and a lot of recent patches for stability based on that upgrade, enhancements and quality of life improvements. All of that is documented in the other update I just posted.
I really haven't talked about other things that have been going on in the background while all of the coding work has been going on. While I've been working on game systems, I've also been working on KZ-MR7. This includes collaborating with artists who have been developing armor sets and other content. I would not have been able to do this without those of you willing to take a chance on me as a developer and Stellar Tactics as a game. My most sincere thanks to every one of you who has taken a leap of faith to support me and the game. Your game dollars are going towards the development of the game. Stellar Tactics is getting better with almost every patch! A huge thank you to everyone providing feedback on the game. As always, I'm reading your comments and responding when I can.

Enemies for KZ-MR7 have been in development now for several months. I'm showing a few below. There are a number of material variants that are not shown. The armor these enemies are wearing can be looted and worn by your team members. When fighting bosses in KZ-MR7 (and throughout the universe), occasional rare armor set pieces will drop. Combining all pieces of an armor set will unlock special bonuses. These sets come in both melee and ranged variants and, some augmented for skill based specialization. You will see at least one of these sets in KZ-MR7. Major factions in the game have their own armor types and specialize in different forms of combat. There is more, but I need to leave something for a surprise.

House Halamis - Know for ore production, refineries and the manufacture of mining equipment and automated surface mining drones, House Halamis holds a monopoly on mining production across the known universe. Halamis enforces it's hold with a military presence wherever it feels the need. Primarily focused on ranged tactical combat, Halamis Defenders are known for their exceptional training and discipline.

House Shikaru - An ancient society steeped in tradition and secrecy, House Shikaru Initiates are conscripted into service at a young age. Mercenaries for hire, House Shikaru is known for its martial prowess and is widely regarded as deadly and reliable. Throughout history The Shikaru have rarely inserted themselves in politics and wars, preferring to stay neutral, and available for hire. Adults are rarely ever admitted into their service and must prove themselves through a martial gauntlet.


The new space stations are ready to be put in the game. These were quite a bit of work and I'd like to thank Colin, an amazing 3D modeler, for putting these together for me. The stations are built from modular components and can be assembled in countless variations. I have future plans for these besides just populating the universe with diverse locations to explore, but I won't get into that now. Every single one of the stations in the Stellar Tactics universe can be landed on and explored. Some of these locations are mission/combat locations, others are trade stations. Eventually all of them will be driven economically and by faction. I'll populate Achmedius with these stations in the near future, likely with the KZ-MR7 update.


The locations are moving along quickly. All locations have been modeled and I'm now working through each of them adding navigation mesh, doors, props and lighting. There is quite a bit of work left to do, and things are moving along quickly. I expect I'll be populating these locations with enemies in the next few weeks and then writing supporting code. KZ-MR7 will be a endless dungeon that allows players to progress to level 60 and the tier 3 perk lines.
Every time you enter KZ-MR7 the layout is randomly generated from a set of scenes. A rough calculation tells me that there are 144,000 variants of this level set alone, taking into account current enemy variants and positioning, level permutations and other random factors. This procedural "set" will be populated across the universe during Alpha. And this is just the first procedural level set! And the loot...oh the loot!
Every scene requires quite a bit of work - lighting, navigation mesh, doors, interactive objects, enemy placement, loot locations, entry and exit points...


There is more posted about KZ-MR7 on steam here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/465490/announcements/detail/566719912011654863

These are very early rough portraits from a very talented illustrator I'm working with. There is quite a bit of detail work left to do on the color illustrations but I thought I would share them with you. This is just the beginning...


That's all I have for now. Thank you all for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Like me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter !

Welcome to the February Update!

A lot of progress has been made over the last few months. You may have seen the core engine upgrade and a lot of recent patches for stability based on that upgrade, enhancements and quality of life improvements. All of that is documented in the other update I just posted.
I really haven't talked about other things that have been going on in the background while all of the coding work has been going on. While I've been working on game systems, I've also been working on KZ-MR7. This includes collaborating with artists who have been developing armor sets and other content. I would not have been able to do this without those of you willing to take a chance on me as a developer and Stellar Tactics as a game. My most sincere thanks to every one of you who has taken a leap of faith to support me and the game. Your game dollars are going towards the development of the game. Stellar Tactics is getting better with almost every patch! A huge thank you to everyone providing feedback on the game. As always, I'm reading your comments and responding when I can.

Enemies for KZ-MR7 have been in development now for several months. I'm showing a few below. There are a number of material variants that are not shown. The armor these enemies are wearing can be looted and worn by your team members. When fighting bosses in KZ-MR7 (and throughout the universe), occasional rare armor set pieces will drop. Combining all pieces of an armor set will unlock special bonuses. These sets come in both melee and ranged variants and, some augmented for skill based specialization. You will see at least one of these sets in KZ-MR7. Major factions in the game have their own armor types and specialize in different forms of combat. There is more, but I need to leave something for a surprise.

House Halamis - Know for ore production, refineries and the manufacture of mining equipment and automated surface mining drones, House Halamis holds a monopoly on mining production across the known universe. Halamis enforces it's hold with a military presence wherever it feels the need. Primarily focused on ranged tactical combat, Halamis Defenders are known for their exceptional training and discipline.

House Shikaru - An ancient society steeped in tradition and secrecy, House Shikaru Initiates are conscripted into service at a young age. Mercenaries for hire, House Shikaru is known for its martial prowess and is widely regarded as deadly and reliable. Throughout history The Shikaru have rarely inserted themselves in politics and wars, preferring to stay neutral, and available for hire. Adults are rarely ever admitted into their service and must prove themselves through a martial gauntlet.


The new space stations are ready to be put in the game. These were quite a bit of work and I'd like to thank Colin, an amazing 3D modeler, for putting these together for me. The stations are built from modular components and can be assembled in countless variations. I have future plans for these besides just populating the universe with diverse locations to explore, but I won't get into that now. Every single one of the stations in the Stellar Tactics universe can be landed on and explored. Some of these locations are mission/combat locations, others are trade stations. Eventually all of them will be driven economically and by faction. I'll populate Achmedius with these stations in the near future, likely with the KZ-MR7 update.


The locations are moving along quickly. All locations have been modeled and I'm now working through each of them adding navigation mesh, doors, props and lighting. There is quite a bit of work left to do, and things are moving along quickly. I expect I'll be populating these locations with enemies in the next few weeks and then writing supporting code. KZ-MR7 will be a endless dungeon that allows players to progress to level 60 and the tier 3 perk lines.
Every time you enter KZ-MR7 the layout is randomly generated from a set of scenes. A rough calculation tells me that there are 144,000 variants of this level set alone, taking into account current enemy variants and positioning, level permutations and other random factors. This procedural "set" will be populated across the universe during Alpha. And this is just the first procedural level set! And the loot...oh the loot!
Every scene requires quite a bit of work - lighting, navigation mesh, doors, interactive objects, enemy placement, loot locations, entry and exit points...


There is more posted about KZ-MR7 on steam here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/465490/announcements/detail/566719912011654863

These are very early rough portraits from a very talented illustrator I'm working with. There is quite a bit of detail work left to do on the color illustrations but I thought I would share them with you. This is just the beginning...


That's all I have for now. Thank you all for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Like me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter !

Hi all. This is a consolidated update of all bugs fixed since the engine upgrade patch. Lots of fixes, additions and tweaks. Thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

If you find any issues while playing the game, please post them in the Bug forums. I check them daily.

ADDED: Loading progress bar added.
ADDED: Menu's are now accessible via a micro-menu in the lower left of the game screen. A help icon has been added. I wanted to get this done for reasons of accessibility for players that may have disabilities. You should now be able to play the entire ground game with only mouse clicks. Please let me know if I missed anything. NOTE: I'll be working on space keys and menu items soon. For now, the Micro-Warp ( R ) and Afterburner ( Spacebar ) are not mapped to the in-game UI.
ADDED: VSync is now on by default - this may help with some rare physics issues.
ADDED: When exiting the game, the screen fades to black and a message that the game is exiting is displayed. You can run other applications/games while Stellar Tactics in this state.
ADDED: Per player requests in the forums - mouse edge panning has been added.

REMOVED: When starting a new game, the help screen is no longer immediately displayed. The help "reminder" message is still displayed at the start of each new play session. A new icon is available on the micro-menu in the lower left corner (question mark) for key reference and general game-play information.

CHANGED: 64Bit and 32Bit version of the game are installed based on the users system. It is no longer necessary to select the 64Bit version of the game by launching the game from inside Steam.
CHANGED: Combatants within a certain range of team members (any team member) are now visible. The rationale is that you would hear them if they were that close. This does not work if in a smoke grenade field.
CHANGED: On the ship UI, "Energy" has been changed to "Capacitor" in preparation for work on space combat. Note: I'll be adding a ship micro-menu icon to the UI in the future. I'll also be adding the CTRL key during space travel which will display gravity wells and other useful info.
CHANGED: Space "Initiate combat", "Raise shields" and "Mining laser" have been combined into a single bar that includes ship hard points in preparation for work on space combat.


FIXED: If your lead team member initiated combat and rolled initiative to become the first combatant, that team member could be left in a state where they could not attack.
FIXED: If a med-pack was equipped and selected as the active weapon, selecting team members using the character portrait UI in the main combat UI and inside the Inventory and Character Info screens would not work.
FIXED: Screen edge scrolling requires mouse at very edge of screen now.
FIXED: Incorrect level scaling in the case of Dr. Jensen and Dr. Rhamus in the Aznari Ruins.
FIXED: Further fixes to blocked enemies and rare cases where they could be blocked and not pass their turn to the next combatant. Additional debug data added.
FIXED: New game universe generation/save is fast once again.
FIXED: Micro-menu is no longer visible during the initial cinematic.
FIXED: Auto-save when exiting dauntless now functions correctly, letting you load the game state prior to entering the escape pod - just in case you want to change something...
FIXED: Options settings persist between play sessions and are now separated from save games.
FIXED: Ambient sound volume now functions as expected.
FIXED: When leaving The Dauntless, the escape pod mission is now marked as complete.
FIXED: A bug that would display inventory objects occasionally when rolling over ship components and the mining laser.
FIXED - When exiting the crio-pods, the console was not highlighting on rollover or when holding CTRL - could be confusing new players.
FIXED: Hit percentages stay fixed when hovering over body parts and returning. Switching enemies will reset the CTH values on the cursor, calculating new values the next time you hover over an enemy. Holding the ALT key while hovering allows fine aiming as always.
FIXED: When selling items from the backpack to a vendor, inventory space field is now updated.
FIXED: Missing engineering skill description is now visible. Most of these are going to go through a tuning pass in the future.
FIXED - Characters will engage in combat correctly the next time if KO'd in previous combat engagement
FIXED - Team members who are not KO'd will not be able to move until their KO'd team members stand up again.
FIXED - Dead enemies in pit on Halamis Ore will now stay dead. They will no longer die every time you load a save game in this area after they've been defeated.
FIXED - Combat on stairs adjusted to fix a rare lockup
FIXED - Characters are much less likely to get stuck in a walking animation loop when stopping them on stairs
FIXED - A few typos in dialog with Rhamus.
FIXED - Cannot get stuck in hand rail in trade station.
FIXED - A fix that should address the issue of being soft locked when combat ends occasionally. This should also resolve the issue of having characters immobilized until selecting another team member.
FIXED: Fix so input is not registered when leaving combat. May fix rare lockup.
FIXED: Additional support for a small number of systems that are having problems launching the game.
FIXED: Fix for broken armor durability display
FIXED: Major fix for initiative and turn order. Enemies and player team members will no longer receive consecutive turns
FIXED: Fixed a bug that was occasionally locking up team members at the end of their turn, not allowing them to pass turn order. This was a blocker in cases where it showed up requiring a save game reload! ( Thanks rebelwolf75! )

UPDATED: Mouse edge panning and keyboard camera scrolling speeds adjusted
UPDATED: More stability fixes related to new engine update.
UPDATED: Looting crates, packs etc is now much faster.

Hi all. This is a consolidated update of all bugs fixed since the engine upgrade patch. Lots of fixes, additions and tweaks. Thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

If you find any issues while playing the game, please post them in the Bug forums. I check them daily.

ADDED: Loading progress bar added.
ADDED: Menu's are now accessible via a micro-menu in the lower left of the game screen. A help icon has been added. I wanted to get this done for reasons of accessibility for players that may have disabilities. You should now be able to play the entire ground game with only mouse clicks. Please let me know if I missed anything. NOTE: I'll be working on space keys and menu items soon. For now, the Micro-Warp ( R ) and Afterburner ( Spacebar ) are not mapped to the in-game UI.
ADDED: VSync is now on by default - this may help with some rare physics issues.
ADDED: When exiting the game, the screen fades to black and a message that the game is exiting is displayed. You can run other applications/games while Stellar Tactics in this state.
ADDED: Per player requests in the forums - mouse edge panning has been added.

REMOVED: When starting a new game, the help screen is no longer immediately displayed. The help "reminder" message is still displayed at the start of each new play session. A new icon is available on the micro-menu in the lower left corner (question mark) for key reference and general game-play information.

CHANGED: 64Bit and 32Bit version of the game are installed based on the users system. It is no longer necessary to select the 64Bit version of the game by launching the game from inside Steam.
CHANGED: Combatants within a certain range of team members (any team member) are now visible. The rationale is that you would hear them if they were that close. This does not work if in a smoke grenade field.
CHANGED: On the ship UI, "Energy" has been changed to "Capacitor" in preparation for work on space combat. Note: I'll be adding a ship micro-menu icon to the UI in the future. I'll also be adding the CTRL key during space travel which will display gravity wells and other useful info.
CHANGED: Space "Initiate combat", "Raise shields" and "Mining laser" have been combined into a single bar that includes ship hard points in preparation for work on space combat.


FIXED: If your lead team member initiated combat and rolled initiative to become the first combatant, that team member could be left in a state where they could not attack.
FIXED: If a med-pack was equipped and selected as the active weapon, selecting team members using the character portrait UI in the main combat UI and inside the Inventory and Character Info screens would not work.
FIXED: Screen edge scrolling requires mouse at very edge of screen now.
FIXED: Incorrect level scaling in the case of Dr. Jensen and Dr. Rhamus in the Aznari Ruins.
FIXED: Further fixes to blocked enemies and rare cases where they could be blocked and not pass their turn to the next combatant. Additional debug data added.
FIXED: New game universe generation/save is fast once again.
FIXED: Micro-menu is no longer visible during the initial cinematic.
FIXED: Auto-save when exiting dauntless now functions correctly, letting you load the game state prior to entering the escape pod - just in case you want to change something...
FIXED: Options settings persist between play sessions and are now separated from save games.
FIXED: Ambient sound volume now functions as expected.
FIXED: When leaving The Dauntless, the escape pod mission is now marked as complete.
FIXED: A bug that would display inventory objects occasionally when rolling over ship components and the mining laser.
FIXED - When exiting the crio-pods, the console was not highlighting on rollover or when holding CTRL - could be confusing new players.
FIXED: Hit percentages stay fixed when hovering over body parts and returning. Switching enemies will reset the CTH values on the cursor, calculating new values the next time you hover over an enemy. Holding the ALT key while hovering allows fine aiming as always.
FIXED: When selling items from the backpack to a vendor, inventory space field is now updated.
FIXED: Missing engineering skill description is now visible. Most of these are going to go through a tuning pass in the future.
FIXED - Characters will engage in combat correctly the next time if KO'd in previous combat engagement
FIXED - Team members who are not KO'd will not be able to move until their KO'd team members stand up again.
FIXED - Dead enemies in pit on Halamis Ore will now stay dead. They will no longer die every time you load a save game in this area after they've been defeated.
FIXED - Combat on stairs adjusted to fix a rare lockup
FIXED - Characters are much less likely to get stuck in a walking animation loop when stopping them on stairs
FIXED - A few typos in dialog with Rhamus.
FIXED - Cannot get stuck in hand rail in trade station.
FIXED - A fix that should address the issue of being soft locked when combat ends occasionally. This should also resolve the issue of having characters immobilized until selecting another team member.
FIXED: Fix so input is not registered when leaving combat. May fix rare lockup.
FIXED: Additional support for a small number of systems that are having problems launching the game.
FIXED: Fix for broken armor durability display
FIXED: Major fix for initiative and turn order. Enemies and player team members will no longer receive consecutive turns
FIXED: Fixed a bug that was occasionally locking up team members at the end of their turn, not allowing them to pass turn order. This was a blocker in cases where it showed up requiring a save game reload! ( Thanks rebelwolf75! )

UPDATED: Mouse edge panning and keyboard camera scrolling speeds adjusted
UPDATED: More stability fixes related to new engine update.
UPDATED: Looting crates, packs etc is now much faster.

The engine upgrade is now posted to to all depots! I'll be keeping an eye on the forums over the course of the next few days to patch any major issues that come up.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped test over the last week!

Please report any issues you find with the update in this forum post.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/142261352650917432/

Note: This update will wipe your save games! See the section below to recover your saves if you must have them. If you have been testing on the "Publictest" depot, your saves should be fine assuming you've been playing over the last few days.

If you have any problems running the game after patching, try the following:
1) In steam, go to your library
2) Right click the game and select properties
3) in the properties window go to the "Local files" tab
4) Select "Browse local files"

In the "_CommonRedist" folder run the following:

-DXSETUP.EXE in the DirectX folder
-Run the OpenAL installer
-Run either the x86 or x64 installers in the vcredist folder depending on your OS

• UPDATED: Option to raise FPS cap from 30fps to 60fps
  
• FIXED: Major fix for enemies skipping their turns
  
• FIXED: Fix for missed movement clicks. Much more responsive overall.
  
• FIXED: Healing icon no longer appears when rolling over KO'd team members when a med kit is equipped.
  
• FIXED: Ghost projectiles - bullets always provide feedback now.
  
• FIXED: Fixed long standing bug that allowed team members wielding ranged weapons to use the melee movement bonus.
  
• FIXED: Equipment display bug that would show wear as a negative value
  
• ADJUSTED: Enemies that do not have weapons equipped no longer gain a large H2H melee bonus.
  
• ADJUSTED: Spiders are a little less likely to poison
  
• ADJUSTED: Weapon and armor wear is now 1/2 of what it was before until crafting and repair go in.
  
• ADJUSTED: Better loot from bosses on Dauntless.
  
• ADJUSTED: The game now auto-saves when leaving the Dauntless.

• Reworked Load/Save folders for accessibility and future Steam Cloud Saves
  
• 64 Bit support - steam will automatically choose between 32bit and 64bit depending on your systems capabilities
  
• Better support for Windows screen resolutions and tabbing
  
• 4k support (Experimental)
  
• Better performance overall
  
• Stability fixes
  
• Better support for zoomed state in Windows 10
  
• Faster execution of scripts
  
• Lower memory overhead
  
• Better support for lower end video cards (Yeah Intel - that's you, though I still cannot officially support you!)
  
• Updated Steam Libraries
  
• Load/Save games are now much faster
  
• By default, space graphics are set to low resolution (for those with limited VRAM]. For those of you with 2GB or more VRAM, just open the options menu and under video select "HiRes Space" and apply settings. The next time you enter space, you will be using the high resolution graphics

NOTE: Do not attempt this if you do not feel technically competent with the Windows file system!

This update will NOT delete your old save games. If you must have them, you can manually move them to the new save folder. I recommend starting again from scratch, but if you absolutely must have your old saves, then you will need to take these steps.

1. First, backup your savdat.xml - In Steam, under Library, right click Stellar tactics and select "Properties" -> Select the "Local files" tab - > Click "Browse local files". Now, copy the "savdat.xml" file somewhere safe.
   
2. Now, open "savdat.xml" file in "Notepad" and then "File->Save As" and overwrite "sav_dat.xml" file in the Steam installation folder (note that this file is named slightly different with a "_" between "sav" and "dat"). Leave the "savdat.xml" file in the folder in case you want to go back to the public build. - Ok that's the first part, now to get your save files.
   
3. Access "Users\"YourUserName"\AppData\Local\Abyss" - in this folder search for "Saves" (hint: it should be in one of the subfolders. (see below if you are having problems seeing the AppData folder).
   
4. Copy everything in the saves folder - all the ".sts" files. Make sure to leave the "Saves" folder and its contents in case you want to go back to the public build.
   
5. Go back to your Steam install folder (instructions above) and paste all of your save games (".sts" files) into the "Save" folder
   
6. That's it, you should now be able to access your old saves in the new engine.

Missing your AppData folder? It may be hidden - Here is an article if you need more info:
How to access your AppData folder

The engine upgrade is now posted to to all depots! I'll be keeping an eye on the forums over the course of the next few days to patch any major issues that come up.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped test over the last week!

Please report any issues you find with the update in this forum post.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/142261352650917432/

Note: This update will wipe your save games! See the section below to recover your saves if you must have them. If you have been testing on the "Publictest" depot, your saves should be fine assuming you've been playing over the last few days.

If you have any problems running the game after patching, try the following:
1) In steam, go to your library
2) Right click the game and select properties
3) in the properties window go to the "Local files" tab
4) Select "Browse local files"

In the "_CommonRedist" folder run the following:

-DXSETUP.EXE in the DirectX folder
-Run the OpenAL installer
-Run either the x86 or x64 installers in the vcredist folder depending on your OS

• UPDATED: Option to raise FPS cap from 30fps to 60fps
  
• FIXED: Major fix for enemies skipping their turns
  
• FIXED: Fix for missed movement clicks. Much more responsive overall.
  
• FIXED: Healing icon no longer appears when rolling over KO'd team members when a med kit is equipped.
  
• FIXED: Ghost projectiles - bullets always provide feedback now.
  
• FIXED: Fixed long standing bug that allowed team members wielding ranged weapons to use the melee movement bonus.
  
• FIXED: Equipment display bug that would show wear as a negative value
  
• ADJUSTED: Enemies that do not have weapons equipped no longer gain a large H2H melee bonus.
  
• ADJUSTED: Spiders are a little less likely to poison
  
• ADJUSTED: Weapon and armor wear is now 1/2 of what it was before until crafting and repair go in.
  
• ADJUSTED: Better loot from bosses on Dauntless.
  
• ADJUSTED: The game now auto-saves when leaving the Dauntless.

• Reworked Load/Save folders for accessibility and future Steam Cloud Saves
  
• 64 Bit support - steam will automatically choose between 32bit and 64bit depending on your systems capabilities
  
• Better support for Windows screen resolutions and tabbing
  
• 4k support (Experimental)
  
• Better performance overall
  
• Stability fixes
  
• Better support for zoomed state in Windows 10
  
• Faster execution of scripts
  
• Lower memory overhead
  
• Better support for lower end video cards (Yeah Intel - that's you, though I still cannot officially support you!)
  
• Updated Steam Libraries
  
• Load/Save games are now much faster
  
• By default, space graphics are set to low resolution (for those with limited VRAM]. For those of you with 2GB or more VRAM, just open the options menu and under video select "HiRes Space" and apply settings. The next time you enter space, you will be using the high resolution graphics

NOTE: Do not attempt this if you do not feel technically competent with the Windows file system!

This update will NOT delete your old save games. If you must have them, you can manually move them to the new save folder. I recommend starting again from scratch, but if you absolutely must have your old saves, then you will need to take these steps.

1. First, backup your savdat.xml - In Steam, under Library, right click Stellar tactics and select "Properties" -> Select the "Local files" tab - > Click "Browse local files". Now, copy the "savdat.xml" file somewhere safe.
   
2. Now, open "savdat.xml" file in "Notepad" and then "File->Save As" and overwrite "sav_dat.xml" file in the Steam installation folder (note that this file is named slightly different with a "_" between "sav" and "dat"). Leave the "savdat.xml" file in the folder in case you want to go back to the public build. - Ok that's the first part, now to get your save files.
   
3. Access "Users\"YourUserName"\AppData\Local\Abyss" - in this folder search for "Saves" (hint: it should be in one of the subfolders. (see below if you are having problems seeing the AppData folder).
   
4. Copy everything in the saves folder - all the ".sts" files. Make sure to leave the "Saves" folder and its contents in case you want to go back to the public build.
   
5. Go back to your Steam install folder (instructions above) and paste all of your save games (".sts" files) into the "Save" folder
   
6. That's it, you should now be able to access your old saves in the new engine.

Missing your AppData folder? It may be hidden - Here is an article if you need more info:
How to access your AppData folder

The survey results are in. I'm going to post them here and let you know what I plan to do about each of these. Many of you provided a lot of commentary and suggestions which I am still reading through. Thank you all for participating. There will be more survey's in the future.

The majority of all players felt they would enjoy blocking as a game mechanic more if there were more visual indicators in the game environment. This will be a good sized block of work for me to do, so it won't go in soon. Likely during Alpha or even Beta - by it will go in!


As you can see, a majority of people felt that movement could be increased slightly. I'll make sure to increase movement speed a bit - perhaps 10-15% so the animations do not look comical and the feet don't appear to be sliding. This will go in during Alpha.


As you can see, the majority felt the pace of combat was fine as it is. I have already promised to do some work to optimize enemy combat animations and merge attacks so enemies do not return to idle before making their next attack if multiple attacks are made. That should increase the pace of combat a bit. The results were really close so I think upping the pace a little won't hurt.

The survey results are in. I'm going to post them here and let you know what I plan to do about each of these. Many of you provided a lot of commentary and suggestions which I am still reading through. Thank you all for participating. There will be more survey's in the future.

The majority of all players felt they would enjoy blocking as a game mechanic more if there were more visual indicators in the game environment. This will be a good sized block of work for me to do, so it won't go in soon. Likely during Alpha or even Beta - by it will go in!


As you can see, a majority of people felt that movement could be increased slightly. I'll make sure to increase movement speed a bit - perhaps 10-15% so the animations do not look comical and the feet don't appear to be sliding. This will go in during Alpha.


As you can see, the majority felt the pace of combat was fine as it is. I have already promised to do some work to optimize enemy combat animations and merge attacks so enemies do not return to idle before making their next attack if multiple attacks are made. That should increase the pace of combat a bit. The results were really close so I think upping the pace a little won't hurt.

This build is only available on the "Publictest" depot for now - see instructions below to opt in.

I have good news and bad news!


There is no good way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. Better now than later.

THE ENGINE UPGRADE WILL WIPE YOUR SAVE GAMES (sort of)

In order to prepare the game for Steam Cloud Saves, I had to move the save game folders and data. I don't expect that I'll need to do this again, however, I cannot guarantee that there won't be save game wipes in the future while in EA. I'll always provide a way for you to recover you're old saves if possible (see below). NOTE: Cloud saves will go live when this build is ready to be released. There will be no cloud saves while testing on the "Public test branch".

This engine upgrade was crucial for KZ-MR7 and moving forward towards alpha.

I am providing a way for you to manually recover your save's if you must. See the section below.


I am posting a major engine upgrade to the "Publictest" depot! Instructions for accessing the updated version are noted below for anyone willing to test the new build. Please read below, opt-in and give me feedback on the new engine. I'll be providing a pinned thread in the general forums for feedback.

Post feedback here!


There are too many fixes/changes to list here. I'm just going to list the major updates for you.

• Reworked Load/Save folders for accessibility and future Steam Cloud Saves
  
• 64 Bit support - steam will automatically choose between 32bit and 64bit depending on your systems capabilities
  
• Better support for Windows screen resolutions and tabbing
  
• 4k support (Experimental)
  
• Better performance overall
  
• Stability fixes
  
• Better support for zoomed state in Windows 10
  
• Faster execution of scripts
  
• Lower memory overhead
  
• Better support for lower end video cards (Yeah Intel - that's you, though I still cannot officially support you!)
  
• Updated Steam Libraries
  
• Load/Save games are now much faster
  
• By default, space graphics are set to low resolution (for those with limited VRAM]. For those of you with 2GB or more VRAM, just open the options menu and under video select "HiRes Space" and apply settings. The next time you enter space, you will be using the high resolution graphics

To access the public test build:

1. In steam navigate to your Library
   
2. Right click Stellar Tactics
   
3. Select properties
   
4. Select the "Betas" tab
   
5. From the drop down list, select "publictest - Public Testing Branch"
   
6. No code is required. Click the "Check code" button
   
7. Close the properties window, exit Steam and log back in. The updated build should start downloading.

For now, when you launch the public test build, you must launch the game from within Steam - do not use your desktop icon. A popup window will appear - select either the default or 64bit versions. When this build goes to the default depot, Steam will choose the appropriate version for you. If for any reason you have a problem with the 64bit version, please report a bug in the forums and then choose the default version (32bit version) of the game.

• UPDATED: FPS cap raised from 30fps to 60fps - nice and smooth on fast systems.
  
• UPDATED: Physics now automatically scales to your systems performance.
  
• FIXED: Major fix for enemies skipping their turns
  
• FIXED: Fix for missed movement clicks. Much more responsive overall.
  
• FIXED: Healing icon no longer appears when rolling over KO'd team members when a med kit is equipped.
  
• ADJUSTED: Enemies that do not have weapons equipped no longer gain a large H2H melee bonus.
  
• ADJUSTED: Spiders are a little less likely to poison
  
• ADJUSTED: Better loot from bosses on Dauntless.
  
• ADJUSTED: Weapon and armor wear is now 1/2 of what it was before until crafting and repair go in.

NOTE: Do not attempt this if you do not feel technically competent with the Windows file system!

This update will NOT delete your old save games. If you must have them, you can manually move them to the new save folder. I recommend starting again from scratch, but if you absolutely must have your old saves, then you will need to take these steps.

1. First, backup your savdat.xml - In Steam, under Library, right click Stellar tactics and select "Properties" -> Select the "Local files" tab - > Click "Browse local files". Now, copy the "savdat.xml" file somewhere safe.
   
2. Now, open "savdat.xml" file in "Notepad" and then "File->Save As" and overwrite "sav_dat.xml" file in the Steam installation folder (note that this file is named slightly different with a "_" between "sav" and "dat"). Leave the "savdat.xml" file in the folder in case you want to go back to the public build. - Ok that's the first part, now to get your save files.
   
3. Access "Users\"YourUserName"\AppData\Local\Abyss" - in this folder search for "Saves" (hint: it should be in one of the subfolders. (see below if you are having problems seeing the AppData folder).
   
4. Copy everything in the saves folder - all the ".sts" files. Make sure to leave the "Saves" folder and its contents in case you want to go back to the public build.
   
5. Go back to your Steam install folder (instructions above) and paste all of your save games (".sts" files) into the "Save" folder
   
6. That's it, you should now be able to access your old saves in the new engine.

Missing your AppData folder? It may be hidden - Here is an article if you need more info:
How to access your AppData folder

This build is only available on the "Publictest" depot for now - see instructions below to opt in.

I have good news and bad news!


There is no good way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. Better now than later.

THE ENGINE UPGRADE WILL WIPE YOUR SAVE GAMES (sort of)

In order to prepare the game for Steam Cloud Saves, I had to move the save game folders and data. I don't expect that I'll need to do this again, however, I cannot guarantee that there won't be save game wipes in the future while in EA. I'll always provide a way for you to recover you're old saves if possible (see below). NOTE: Cloud saves will go live when this build is ready to be released. There will be no cloud saves while testing on the "Public test branch".

This engine upgrade was crucial for KZ-MR7 and moving forward towards alpha.

I am providing a way for you to manually recover your save's if you must. See the section below.


I am posting a major engine upgrade to the "Publictest" depot! Instructions for accessing the updated version are noted below for anyone willing to test the new build. Please read below, opt-in and give me feedback on the new engine. I'll be providing a pinned thread in the general forums for feedback.

Post feedback here!


There are too many fixes/changes to list here. I'm just going to list the major updates for you.

• Reworked Load/Save folders for accessibility and future Steam Cloud Saves
  
• 64 Bit support - steam will automatically choose between 32bit and 64bit depending on your systems capabilities
  
• Better support for Windows screen resolutions and tabbing
  
• 4k support (Experimental)
  
• Better performance overall
  
• Stability fixes
  
• Better support for zoomed state in Windows 10
  
• Faster execution of scripts
  
• Lower memory overhead
  
• Better support for lower end video cards (Yeah Intel - that's you, though I still cannot officially support you!)
  
• Updated Steam Libraries
  
• Load/Save games are now much faster
  
• By default, space graphics are set to low resolution (for those with limited VRAM]. For those of you with 2GB or more VRAM, just open the options menu and under video select "HiRes Space" and apply settings. The next time you enter space, you will be using the high resolution graphics

To access the public test build:

1. In steam navigate to your Library
   
2. Right click Stellar Tactics
   
3. Select properties
   
4. Select the "Betas" tab
   
5. From the drop down list, select "publictest - Public Testing Branch"
   
6. No code is required. Click the "Check code" button
   
7. Close the properties window, exit Steam and log back in. The updated build should start downloading.

For now, when you launch the public test build, you must launch the game from within Steam - do not use your desktop icon. A popup window will appear - select either the default or 64bit versions. When this build goes to the default depot, Steam will choose the appropriate version for you. If for any reason you have a problem with the 64bit version, please report a bug in the forums and then choose the default version (32bit version) of the game.

• UPDATED: FPS cap raised from 30fps to 60fps - nice and smooth on fast systems.
  
• UPDATED: Physics now automatically scales to your systems performance.
  
• FIXED: Major fix for enemies skipping their turns
  
• FIXED: Fix for missed movement clicks. Much more responsive overall.
  
• FIXED: Healing icon no longer appears when rolling over KO'd team members when a med kit is equipped.
  
• ADJUSTED: Enemies that do not have weapons equipped no longer gain a large H2H melee bonus.
  
• ADJUSTED: Spiders are a little less likely to poison
  
• ADJUSTED: Better loot from bosses on Dauntless.
  
• ADJUSTED: Weapon and armor wear is now 1/2 of what it was before until crafting and repair go in.

NOTE: Do not attempt this if you do not feel technically competent with the Windows file system!

This update will NOT delete your old save games. If you must have them, you can manually move them to the new save folder. I recommend starting again from scratch, but if you absolutely must have your old saves, then you will need to take these steps.

1. First, backup your savdat.xml - In Steam, under Library, right click Stellar tactics and select "Properties" -> Select the "Local files" tab - > Click "Browse local files". Now, copy the "savdat.xml" file somewhere safe.
   
2. Now, open "savdat.xml" file in "Notepad" and then "File->Save As" and overwrite "sav_dat.xml" file in the Steam installation folder (note that this file is named slightly different with a "_" between "sav" and "dat"). Leave the "savdat.xml" file in the folder in case you want to go back to the public build. - Ok that's the first part, now to get your save files.
   
3. Access "Users\"YourUserName"\AppData\Local\Abyss" - in this folder search for "Saves" (hint: it should be in one of the subfolders. (see below if you are having problems seeing the AppData folder).
   
4. Copy everything in the saves folder - all the ".sts" files. Make sure to leave the "Saves" folder and its contents in case you want to go back to the public build.
   
5. Go back to your Steam install folder (instructions above) and paste all of your save games (".sts" files) into the "Save" folder
   
6. That's it, you should now be able to access your old saves in the new engine.

Missing your AppData folder? It may be hidden - Here is an article if you need more info:
How to access your AppData folder