Cosmoteer release candidate 0.25.2 is now available for testing! (To play this release candidate, you must opt in to test it. Please see this post for info on how to test release candidates.)

This release candidate contains improvements to the new Build & Battle PvP mode, new built-in ship designs, and a handful of bug fixes.

Have fun, and thanks for testing!

RC1:

• Build & Battle:
  
  • Free-for-all is now supported with up to 8 players.
    
  • Team games now supports up to 4 teams.
    
  • Team starting positions in the battle phase are now randomized each round.
    
  • Once all players have marked themselves as ready, there will now be a 5 second countdown before the battle phase begins.
    
  • If the player has any default crew roles saved, those will now be loaded automatically at the beginning of the match.
    
  • Chainguns will now start the battle phase fully stocked of ammo even if they were firing at the end of the build phase.
• User Interface:
  
  • In the ship editor, a "bullets" icon will now be displayed on Chainguns and Chaingun Magazines to indicate when they are properly connected.
• Built-In Ships:
  
  • Added 4 new Monolith combat ships: Almocaden, Almogavar, Project Mistilteinn, and Thyreos.
    
  • Added 4 new Cabal combat ships: Cassiopeia, Eclipse, Gienah, and Nashira.
    
  • Added 2 new Imperium combat ships: Augustus and Thunderbird.
    
  • Added 4 new Fringe combat ships: Desecrator, Desolator, Hentzau, and Sicario.
    
  • Renamed the 'Elanine' to 'Robin' and the 'Can Opener' to 'Desperado'.
    
  • Miscellaneous updates to various other built-in ships.
• Bug Fixes:
  
  • The recent fixes to the thruster logic screwed up Direct Control Mode, which should now also be fixed.
    
  • Occasional crash caused by recent thruster A.I. fixes.
    
  • Crash when deleting a planet in creative mode while its options window is open and U.I. animations are turned off.
    
  • The battle phase in Build & Battle could end prematurely if a ship makes an FTL jump, which could lead to various other issues.
    
  • In some circumstances, a ship's A.I. was unable to back away from a very close asteroid or other object.
    
  • Using the "grab" tool to move parts wasn't properly copying the existing part settings to the new part.
    
  • Deconstructing damaged parts was sometimes not giving quite as much resources back as you would have received had you repaired the part first.
    
  • Various text rendering issues when a ship contains an ampersand (&) in its name.
• Modding:
  
  • OpenCloseSprite should now properly move/rotate when the component it is chained to moves or rotates.
    
  • Blueprints now support sprite animations.
    
  • Buff provider components can now be set to 'BlueprintsOnly = true'. This will remove most performance costs for buffs that are only used for display purposes and have no affect on gameplay.

Bugfix: Occasional crash caused by recent thruster A.I. fixes.

Reverted the upgrade to Microsoft .NET 8 because it was incompatible with Steam Deck and Linux. (The upgrade may be reinstated in the future if/when Proton adds .NET 8 support.)

Cosmoteer patch 0.25.1 is now available! This patch primarily has a handful of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements for the new Build & Battle multiplayer PvP mode.

Meanwhile, we're continuing to work on Career 2.0. That update won't be ready for a while yet, but nearer in the future you can look forward to a new ship part and some more improvements to Build & Battle (such as the oft-requested support for 3+ teams and free-for-all).

Enjoy!

Full patch notes:

• If Build & Battle is played with an unequal number of players on each team, the team with fewer players will now be given more money each round to compensate.
  
• For Build & Battle games, the lobby will now show the current round (and maximum rounds) instead of the time remaining.
  
• In Build & Battle, the beginning of each build or battle phase will now be "introduced" with large text displaying the round number and phase type.
  
• Build & Battle is now translated into all officially-supported langauges.
  
• Miscellaneous other translation updates.
  
• Cosmoteer now runs on the Microsoft .NET 8 Runtime. This may provide a very small boost to performance.
  
• Bugfix: Crash in Build & Battle if the Unstash button was spammed.
  
• Bugfix: Crash in Build & Battle if all the players were on Team 2.
  
• Bugfix: Rare crash when hiring crew.
  
• Bugfix: In Build & Battle, the players' ships could sometimes be spawned overlapping their teammates when returning to the build phase.
  
• Bugfix: In the information box for a Build & Battle game, the victory point limit was being incorrectly displayed with a credits (money) icon.
  
• Bugfix: In the information box for a build & Battle game, the credits per round was not being correctly displayed with a credits (money) icon.
  
• Bugfix: The thruster algorithm wasn't properly taking thruster ramp-up times into consideration, which was causing ships with large thrusters to be more unstable or "wobbly" when flying than necessary.
  
• Bugfix: The small amount of lateral force exerted by thrusters wasn't ramping up and down properly.
  
• Bugfix: At high game speeds and/or low framerates, ship thruster VFX could appear very glitchy.
  
• Bugfix: Any errors initializing UDP sockets for multiplayer should no longer prevent you from playing "Online" via Steam.
  
• Bugfix: Hosting a multiplayer game with a very large number of mods activated could prevent the game from appearing in the lobby's list of games.
  
• Bugfix: Visual and audio effects would sometimes not play or were glitchy while in Direct Control Mode while the controlled ship was moving quickly and either the game speed was set very high or the framerate was low.
  
• Bugfix: Minor background color issues on some sprites including structure tiles, resources, projectiles, and crew.
  
• Modding: In Build & Battle, multiple techs can now unlock the same resources and toggle choices.
  
• Modding: Fixed crash when crew construction is enabled if a part lists the same resource type multiple times.
  
• Modding: Particle effects now support optional 'FpsCompensation' and 'FpsCompensation' parameters that will "fast-forward" emitted particles by varying amounts to compensate for low FPS. This can be used in addition to or as an alternative for FpsCompensator. It uses more CPU than FpsCompensator and can't spread out the initial starting location of particles like FpsCompensator can, so it is recommend that you still use FpsCompensator unless you have a specific need for the new FpsCompensation parameter.
  
• Modding: The particle 'Lerp' updater was usually reading LerpIn values from the wrong particles when used as an initializer.
  
• Modding: Fixed crash when trying to open the planet generator editor.

Cosmoteer release candidate 0.25.1 is now available for testing! (To play this release candidate, you must opt in to test it. Please see this post for info on how to test release candidates.)

This release candidate contains a small collection of mostly bug fixes, particularly for the new Build & Battle mode.

Have fun, and thanks for testing!

RC1:

• If Build & Battle is played with an unequal number of players on each team, the team with fewer players will now be given more money each round to compensate.
  
• For Build & Battle games, the lobby will now show the current round (and maximum rounds) instead of the time remaining.
  
• In Build & Battle, the beginning of each build or battle phase will now be "introduced" with large text displaying the round number and phase type.
  
• Build & Battle is now translated into all officially-supported langauges.
  
• Miscellaneous other translation updates.
  
• Cosmoteer now runs on the Microsoft .NET 8 Runtime. This may provide a very small boost to performance.
  
• Bugfix: Crash in Build & Battle if the Unstash button was spammed.
  
• Bugfix: Crash in Build & Battle if all the players were on Team 2.
  
• Bugfix: In Build & Battle, the players' ships could sometimes be spawned overlapping their teammates when returning to the build phase.
  
• Bugfix: In the information box for a Build & Battle game, the victory point limit was being incorrectly displayed with a credits (money) icon.
  
• Bugfix: In the information box for a build & Battle game, the credits per round was not being correctly displayed with a credits (money) icon.
  
• Bugfix: The thruster algorithm wasn't properly taking thruster ramp-up times into consideration, which was causing ships with large thrusters to be more unstable or "wobbly" when flying than necessary.
  
• Bugfix: The small amount of lateral force exerted by thrusters wasn't ramping up and down properly.
  
• Bugfix: At high game speeds and/or low framerates, ship thruster VFX could appear very glitchy.
  
• Bugfix: Any errors initializing UDP sockets for multiplayer should no longer prevent you from playing "Online" via Steam.
  
• Bugfix: Minor background color issues on some sprites including structure tiles, resources, projectiles, and crew.
  
• Modding: In Build & Battle, multiple techs can now unlock the same resources and toggle choices.
  
• Modding: Fixed crash when crew construction is enabled if a part lists the same resource type multiple times.
  
• Modding: Particle effects now support optional 'FpsCompensation' and 'FpsCompensation' parameters that will "fast-forward" emitted particles by varying amounts to compensate for low FPS. This can be used in addition to or as an alternative for FpsCompensator. It uses more CPU than FpsCompensator and can't spread out the initial starting location of particles like FpsCompensator can, so it is recommend that you still use FpsCompensator unless you have a specific need for the new FpsCompensation parameter.
  
• Modding: The particle 'Lerp' updater was usually reading LerpIn values from the wrong particles when used as an initializer.

RC2:

• Bugfix: Rare crash when hiring crew.
  
• Bugfix: Hosting a multiplayer game with a very large number of mods activated could prevent the game from appearing in the lobby's list of games.

This hotfix fixes a handful of issues with the new Build & Battle PvP mode.

• Bugfix: Crash when modifying a ship's missile launchers in some very specific circumstances if the player has some but not all of the launcher munition technologies.
  
• Bugfix: It was possible to crash the game in Build & Battle by opening up a "Load Ship" or "Load Paint Scheme" dialog box from the paint, crew, or resource editors and then waiting for the battle phase to begin before clicking okay.
  
• Bugfix: In Build & Battle, exiting build mode before building any parts and then deselecting your ship could make it impossible* to re-select it to continue building. (*Technically you could still press Ctrl+A to reselect it, but this was not well-known.)
  
• Bugfix: In Build & Battle, if a ship is built without a control room, it wouldn't get teleported to the battle area and then would end up as junk in the build area that could get stuck inside the players' ships in future build phases.
  
• Bugfix: In Build & Battle, when a ship spawned into the battle area, it could get stuck on any junk that was left behind from a previous battle phase. Any junk within the ship's spawn area will now be deleted.
  
• Bugfix: In Build & Battle, it was possible for the READY and CANCEL READY buttons to get desynced from the players actual ready state, making it impossible to ready or unready.
  
• Bugfix: It was unintentionally impossible to build 1x3 Armor Wedges in Build & Battle.
  
• Ships in Build & Battle are now called "Unnamed Ship" by default.

Cosmoteer update 0.25.0 is now available!

This update adds a brand new multiplayer PvP mode called "Build & Battle" which combines ship building with ship battles. Played over several rounds, competitors build or upgrade their ship using a randomly limited selection of parts and then battle against the other players. At the beginning of every new round, players receive credits with which they can build or upgrade their ship and unlock new parts. (Ships are repaired for free.) Then they fight against their opponent(s), and the winner earns a "victory point". The first player or team to (by default) 3 victory points wins the game!


This update also adds Medium and Large Hyperdrives. The larger drives store more hyperium and boost jump efficiency within a larger radius. As such, they will likely be more cost-effective and convenient for larger ships than the existing Small Hyperdrive.



Enjoy!

- Walt

P.S. Due to the end-of-the-year holidays, non-English translations for Build & Battle and the new Hyperdrives aren't available yet and will be in a later update (but hopefully soon!). Also, for those of you eagerly awaiting Career 2.0, rest assured that neither Build & Battle or the new Hyperdrives have taken any time away from Career 2.0, since those are/were being worked on by different individuals.

Full patch notes:

• New PvP multiplayer game mode: "Build & Battle". Played over several rounds, competitors build or upgrade their ship using a randomly limited selection of parts and then battle against the other players.
  
• Added Medium and Large Hyperdrives that can store more hyperium and boost jump efficiency in a larger radius.
  
• Split the Launcher blueprint technology into four, one for each type of munition (H.E., E.M.P., Nuke, Mine). Existing saves that have already unlocked the Missile Launcher will now receive all four munition blueprint techs for free.
  
• Modding: Career mode techs now support multiple techs unlocking the same part.
  
• Modding: Career mode techs now support unlocking doors and individual UIToggle choices.
  
• Modding: Rules files now support the old Mac OS style of line endings.
  
• Modding: Mods that add blueprint techs with the Missile Launcher tech as a prerequisite will now act as if all four launcher munitions are prerequisites. It is recommended that mod authors update their mods to use the new techs as prerequisites if different behavior is desired.
  
• Modding: Unlike Career mode, Build & Battle has an explicit whitelist of parts that don't require tech purchases to unlock. This will prevent modded parts from being automatically buildable; those parts must now be added to the whitelist or be given purchasable techs by the mod.

Cosmoteer release candidate 0.25.0 is now available for testing! (To play this release candidate, you must opt in to test it. Please see this post for info on how to test release candidates.)

This release candidate adds a brand new multiplayer PvP mode called "Build & Battle" which combines ship building with ship battles. Played over several rounds, competitors build or upgrade their ship using a randomly limited selection of parts and then battle against the other players. At the beginning of every new round, players receive credits with which they can build or upgrade their ship and unlock new parts. (Ships are repaired for free.) Then they fight against their opponent(s), and the winner earns a "victory point". The first player or team to (by default) 3 victory points wins the game!

This release candidate also adds Medium and Large Hyperdrives. The larger drives store more hyperium and boost jump efficiency within a larger radius. As such, they will likely be more cost-effective and convenient for larger ships than the existing Small Hyperdrive.

Have fun, and thanks for testing!

RC1:

• New PvP multiplayer game mode: "Build & Battle". Played over several rounds, competitors build or upgrade their ship using a randomly limited selection of parts and then battle against the other players.
  
• Added Medium and Large Hyperdrives that can store more hyperium and boost jump efficiency in a larger radius.
  
• Split the Launcher blueprint technology into four, one for each type of munition (H.E., E.M.P., Nuke, Mine). Existing saves that have already unlocked the Missile Launcher will now receive all four munition blueprint techs for free.
  
• Modding: Career mode techs now support multiple techs unlocking the same part.
  
• Modding: Career mode techs now support unlocking doors and individual UIToggle choices.
  
• Modding: Rules files now support the old Mac OS style of line endings.

RC2:

• RC Bugfix: The logic that was supposed to detect when ships should become junk was extremely broken.
  
• RC Bugfix: The Hyperium U.I. tile for the Large Hyperdrive was in the wrong location.

RC3:

• The first round of Build & Battle now has an extra random part offering.
  
• Updates to the official Build & Battle rulesets. They all now give different credit amounts in each round.
  
• Loading of saved ship designs is now disabled by default in Build & Battle but can be re-enabled by the host.
  
• New icon for Build & Battle mode.
  
• It is no longer possible to abandon or self-destruct your ship in the build phase of Build & Battle, which could cause crashes and other issues.
  
• The scoreboard will now have a scrollbar if it is too long to fit on the screen.
  
• Modding: Using mods that had blueprints techs with the Missile Launcher as a prerequisite will no longer crash. Those specific blueprint techs will now require all four of the launcher munition techs as their new prerequisite. It is recommended that mod authors update their mods to use the new techs as prerequisites if different behavior is desired.
  
• Modding: Build & Battle now has an explicit whitelist of parts that don't require tech purchases to unlock. This will prevent modded parts from being automatically buildable; those parts must now be added to the whitelist or be given purchasable techs by the mod.

• Bugfix: Crash in some circumstances if a ship's blueprints are discarded while it is undergoing crew construction.
  
• Bugfix: A local-system hyper-jump command would fail to ever jump if it was issued while there were any pending crew EVA tasks.
  
• Bugfix: Patch 0.24.3 broke the ability to click-and-drag ship command handles if they overlapped with the ship icons that appear when zoomed out.
  
• Bugfix: Completing a mission and thus causing the player's fame or reputation to level up could cause the player to appear to temporarily lose money.
  
• The Chaingun Magazine art appeared to have 5 holes in which ammo could be loaded instead of the actual number of bullets is can hold, which is 4. (Literally unplayable.)

• Bugfix: The 0.24.3a hotfix would crash if a shield generator was destroyed inside a sun's damage zone.
  
• Holding Shift will now bypass the confirmation dialog when starting a new game from within an existing game.