Jun 20, 2019

ASTRONEER - staymighty

Steam players should receive this update now! Watch the trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFuA3gwxHJ8
Salutations, Brave Astroneers! Prepare yourselves accordingly for the latest transmission of changes, fixes, and upgrades from headquarters…

Readings from the Northern Hemisphere of EXO Dynamics HQ indicate that we are entering into what could be called the "Summer." Although it may be an entirely different set of seasons that you encounter on each of the worlds you visit, we have nonetheless decided to celebrate this change of (our) seasons with an influx of new schematics for our hardworking Astroneers, in both practical and recreational capacities. Please feel free to purchase and enjoy them in a proper and responsible manner! We are also pleased to release to you a pair of chromatic combinations in both helmet and visor varieties with matching palettes. We hope that you find them pleasing to the eye, and that the resultant satisfaction is an enhancement to your exploration and engineering goals.

UPDATES

The EXO Recreational Sphere and Recreational Canopy have been added to the game! There are also reports of special edition versions of these spheres scattered throughout Arid type planets! EXO Dynamics is not responsible for harm caused by hazards encountered while searching for this item.

Recreational Sphere

Printed from: Medium Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Aluminum Alloy, 1 Rubber
Byte Cost: 4,500
There are also reports of special edition versions of these spheres scattered throughout Arid type planets! EXO Dynamics is not responsible for harm caused by hazards encountered while searching for this item.

Recreational Canopy

Printed from: Large Printer
Resource Cost: 2 Aluminum, 1 Steel, 1 Explosive Powder
Byte Cost: 4,000

There have also been a number of items to help Astroneers with storage, and building bases!

Medium Platform C

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Resin
Byte Cost: 400

Tall Platform

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Copper
Byte Cost: 1,000

Tall Storage

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 1 Ceramic
Byte Cost: 400

Medium Storage Silo

Printed from: Small Printer
Resource Cost: 2 Titanium
Byte Cost: 3,000

A new lighting item, the Floodlight, has been added to the game to help Astroneers in dark environments!

Floodlight

Printed from: Backpack
Resource Cost: 1 Tungsten Carbide
Byte Cost: 2,000

Summer themed Palettes and Visors have been added to the game! Log in before August 31st to acquire them!

These Summer "Sunset" and "Sunrise" themed Palettes and Visor sets are only available for a limited time. In order to unlock them for your account, make sure you log in on your platform(s) of choice before the end of the Summer, (August 31st, 2019) because after that point they will become unavailable to unlock.

New Harmless Hazard seeds will sometimes spawn when hazards get destroyed!

An unexplained phenomenon is causing previously seedless "hazards" to very rarely drop what we at EXO Dynamics are calling "Mutant" seeds. While these seeds are too anomalous to be properly scanned as research, we have found that the resulting plant that spawns from them carries none of the dangerous traits of its parent, and is instead docile and - well - harmless, and multiple Astroneers have been recorded utilizing them for decorative purposes. Look for these fascinating new finds as potential drops from:

Boomalloon
Common / Vicious / Deadly Hissbines
Noxious Spewflower
Elegant Spewflower
Spiny Attactus
Volatile Attactus
Noxious Cataplant
Volatile Cataplant

QUALITY OF LIFE

The Terrain Tool reticle decal has been updated to better aid deformation.
This new Terrain Tool decal has gotten a visual overhaul, allowing one to better respond to the relative angle of your environment! The functionality of the terrain tool remains unchanged, but this new visual should help when trying to manipulate terrain.

A slew of vehicle QOL adjustments have been implemented. EXO firmware updates to the locomotion systems in each of your vehicles has given them improvements to handling and a vastly increased ability to execute maneuvers. Executing "donuts," and "sick tricks" should now be much easier.

Twist Tolerance and vehicle cables:

In addition to vertical and lateral bending (pitch and yaw), cables can now twist (roll). This tolerance is limited to 15 degrees.

Braking Assist:

Added braking force boost to vehicles so that they slow down faster than they speed up.
Applied braking friction to wheels on the entire caravan so that rover wheels are less slippery when braking.

Automatic Parking Brake:

Releasing the throttle below a certain speed will automatically engage the parking brake. If the throttle is released above that speed, the vehicle will coast as normal. The goal of this change is to address recurring feedback from players that the parking brake only engaged when fully exiting the vehicle.
With the above change, exiting the vehicle will engage the parking brake, regardless of how fast the vehicle was going.

Tow Boost improvements:

Tow boost applied to wheel forces, instead of being applied as a separate force to the back of the vehicle. This makes for more stable towing, especially when the lead vehicle doesn't have traction on all of its wheels.
Tow boost takes into account the difference in weight between itself and its trailers. This addresses the Tractor having the least amount of torque when it had no connected trailers.
Adjusted tow boost forces on all vehicles to be more effective in longer caravans.

Drill Control Improvements:

Front-mounted drills now respond to left or right steering, and will shift the deformation sideways appropriately.
While steering left or right, the angle of the drilled surface will bank left appropriately.
When steering straight ahead, the drilled surface will align with gravity. This keeps surfaces level.
Vehicles have a wider turn radius while drilling to prevent creating overly-tight tunnels.
While drilling up-hill, vehicles have boosted acceleration proportional to the grade of the slope.

Drill Resistance:

While drilling, vehicles have a reduced maximum speed. The reduction is greater if the drill is removing harder terrain than it's level (Drill 1 removing Level 2 terrain, Drill 2 removing Level 3 terrain, etc).
While drilling, wheel friction is increased on the entire caravan. The friction is greater if the drill is removing harder terrain than it's level (Drill 1 removing Level 2 terrain, Drill 2 removing Level 3 terrain, etc).
The goal of these changes is to not only make the drills feel more realistic but also to provide more tactile feedback to players while they drill tunnels.

Tuning:

Adjusted acceleration, max speed, steering speeds, and wheel traction on all vehicles.
Tuned suspension forces, neutral suspension height, and vehicle weight on all vehicles.
Increased the strength of the parking brake.

BUGFIXES

The following bugs have been fixed as of version 1.2.0.0

General

Fixed a bug where the fabric of the spacetime continuum would break, causing the solar system to stop moving.
[AS-5943] - Ammonium and Quartz nuggets should no longer appear disconnected from Terrain Tool slot when being harvested
[AS-5491] - Adjusted the value of the Extra Large Storage to better match its cost
[AS-6752] - EXO research aid lids are no longer mislabeled as detritus when packaged
[AS-6879] - Players can now exit the dropship when they press "Use" before prompted to do so in the Tutorial
[AS-6937] - Cursor selection should no longer break in the Rename Save Game submenu after renaming a saved game
[AS-7006] - Medium printer's print animation is now properly synced with the completion of the Research Chamber
[AS-7069] - Small gravel like nuggets are no longer left behind when a player explodes resources with Dynamite.
[AS-5120] - Planted seeds should no longer float if the terrain is dug out from underneath them
[AS-7084] - Drops from hazards should no longer be ejected at high velocity
[AS-7159] - Restored the Popper death animation to its appropriate size.
[AS-7196] - Fixed a bug where projectiles shot from the Shooters did not have SFX upon impact.
[AS-7314] - Proximity Poppers should no longer play their explosion VFX when they spawn.
Fix vehicles failing to brake when sliding faster than their max speed, causing runaway rovers.
[AS-6926] - Fixed a bug where wheel constraints would occasionally break when wheels get stuck in the ground, requiring a save-reload to recover.
[AS-6927] - Vehicle-flip operation should now work consistently on every planet.
[AS-6958] - Deforming terrain with a Tier 2 vehicle drill should no longer cause nearby decorators to fall through terrain.

Multiplayer

[AS-6911] - Saving and exiting a Multiplayer game while a Client player is still in the dropship will no longer leave behind a dropship on the landing pad.
[AS-7081] - In Multiplayer games, seeds should no longer disappear immediately from Client player’s perspective when planted.

Customization

[AS-6612] - Fixed the Recruit palette properly apply to the Retro, Flight, and Terran suits
[AS-7007] - Fixed a bug which allowed Players to remain in unearned suits and color palettes after cycling through menu tabs while in preview mode.
[AS-7018] - Fixed a bug were Multiple emotes were missing SFX when paired with certain suits.

PERFORMANCE

Significantly optimized system for flecks that fly from harvested resource deposits into the player’s terrain tool. This should eliminate spikes in frame time when harvesting resources.
Various optimizations to actor spawning to reduce the impact of spawning things on frame rate.
Various optimizations to transform updating and object overlap detection.

Thanks for checking out the Summer Update! Stay tuned for details about updates for the next few months! And while you are at it, watch the most recent episode of the SES Vlogs! https://youtu.be/SLOAZaX4lCI
-jt

Jun 20, 2019

Alpha 2a Released!

Interstellar Space: Genesis - Adam Solo

Hello everyone!

We've just released Alpha 2a, which is an update to Alpha 2 released last week. This update adds 21:9 monitor support, AI improvements and fixes several issues among other tweaks and changes. See all the changes in the release note below.

The update is available in the main branch of both Steam and Humble! For instructions on how to play the latest build please go here. On Steam you need to OPT out from the Beta branch and set to the "NONE - Opt out of all Beta programs" (if you did not opt in for the Beta unstable branch before you just need to open Steam, wait for ISG to be updated and off you go!). If you pre-ordered the game you can check how to get your Steam key here. On Humble, you have two branches to choose to download the game from. Just choose the download from the "Main" branch.

Compatibility note: Saves from Alpha 2 are not compatible with Alpha 2a, so you'll need to start new games to play this version. Also, custom races created with older versions are not compatible with this new version (either you play with them or the AI, it doesn't matter, they are not supported anymore). Please delete all custom race XML files in C:\Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\LocalLow\Praxis Games\ISG\Races\ or just delete them one by one in the New Game screen. Then you can create new ones with no problem.

Thanks a lot to everyone who has been playing and providing feedback!

Cheers,
Adam Solo & MalRey
Praxis Games
Please wishlist the game on Steam!

Interstellar Space: Genesis is a new turn-based space 4X strategy game currently under development by Praxis Games. The game is currently in Alpha. Feel welcome to open threads and discuss any topic you’d like in the game forums.

We’re making the most complete and comprehensive Turn Based Space 4X ever developed, and we count with your support to make it happen! So, please tell your friends about ISG, people who loved Master of Orion but also space 4X games or strategy games in general and soon you will Discover the Unknown. Thanks!

---
Alpha 2a (Release Note)

NEW

21:9 resolution monitors now supported (example: 3440x1440)!
FX volume now separate from Music volume.
Initial game settings now kept between sessions (includes galaxy size, difficulty, number of players, leader name, empire name, color and all the game options.
Tech brokering option added. When enabled the players can exchange all the techs they have. If disabled, only the techs actually researched by the player can be exchanged.
Autosave frequency option added to the game settings, including the possibility to disable autosave. Not recommended to disable autosaved during playtesting! :)

GAMEPLAY

Ship rotating in combat now up to a maximum of 45º per action, for a max total of 90º rotation in a given round.
Capturing ships in combat autoresolve now less frequent.
The Automated Governor AI feature in the colony view will probably not make it for release, so we removed that from the colony view for the time being.

PERFORMANCE

Saves were too big. They now occupy only half the space.
Run-time performance increased during turn resolution (due to saves being smaller now, since the game autosaves in every turn by default).

BALANCE

Smuggler leader skill bonuses changed to +2/+4/+6 BC per strategic resource owned (was +1/+5/+10 before).
Number of Powerful Creatures planet specials reduced a bit in Red Stars and White Dwarfs.

The AI tribute requests frequency was tweaked. Previously, the AIs were asking for tribute very often. Also, tribute requests made by the AIs now much less frequent when at war.
Combat AI tweaked to make it a bit more aggressive. It was too passive before. AI ships kept the distance but should have moved forward and be more aggressive and it would have won.
AI no longer accepts many tech exchange proposals by the human player in one go.
Reputation hits on breaking treaties increased.
Ambassador leaving cooldown after declaring war increased a bit.
Ambassadors now leave (diplomacy between the two empires isn't possible) when treaties are broken.

UI / GRAPHICS

Replaced the "ship" and "fleet" icons everywhere in the game.
Many icons in the game were polished.
Tooltip added for the map size in the new game screen.
Tooltip added for "PD all targets" option in the space combat weapons console.
The selected ship, and the enemy ships in space combat are now displayed showing the actual ship graphics and not the previous placeholder graphic in the UI panel.
Now possible to select the color for the Nova in the new game screen.
Now possible to scroll with the mouse wheel in the ship modules panel in the ship design.
Crew XP now also shown in the combat alert panel (just before a combat).
The "location" and "messages" panels were removed from their top position in the space combat. The "location" info is now shown every round and the "messages" info is shown slightly above the main combat UI panel.
The infrastructure specialization window now closes when the population details window opens and vice versa.

AUDIO

BUGS

Fixed a major bug when using the Clairvoyance unique ability where sometimes it was not possible to proceed with the turn.
Fixed a major bug that was causing game sessions to freeze. This was being caused when bomber ships were being captured and the new owner didn't have the bomb rack special.
Fixed a major bug when the AI was offering gifts. Turn could not proceed due to unresolved action decision.
Fixed a bug where the gravity tooltip in a colony would sometimes show information on the wrong colony when there were other colonies in the same system.
Fixed a bug that was allowing the same leader to appear twice from ruins.
Fixed a bug where fighters could not be launched in subsequent combat sessions (were only launchable in the first combat run of a given session).
Fixed a bug that was allowing fighters to be launched by the AI when no fighters were installed in their ships.
Fixed a bug that was allowing the AIs to do all kinds of diplomatic interactions even when the ambassadors for the given empires were not available.
Fixed a bug that was allowing ammo to be designated for torpedoes. Energy torpedoes have unlimited ammo.
Fixed a bug that was allowing AI empires to frame others (including the human player) without first having made contact with them.
Minor corrections made to ruins searching text.
Fixed an issue that was not showing the "little dots" over the system labels with rival settlements (the little circles in a given system just above the system label indicating the number of system objects there).
Fixed a bug that was allowing the AI to sometimes create too many survey ships.
Fixed an issue that was causing the colony view to be a bit slow to open in the first 2 times the screen was shown.
Fixed an issue in the colony assignment screen (when assigning a colony for a governor leader) where the list of colonies would wrap incorrectly at the end.
Fixed a few issues in the lateral fleet panels in space combat. The overload icon was not being displayed correctly for when energy overload was possible or was used. The "already fired" icon was also not showing correctly.
Fixed an issue that was causing the 6th planet in a system to now show correctly in 4:3 resolutions (e.g. 1280x1024).
Fixed an issue involving the exploitations panel, which when open from the overview panel would close the overview panel; and the exploitation panel would not appear in the correct position.
Fixed a glitch where the rogue planet was not being displayed correctly in the system view.
Fixed a bug where Positron torpedoes were being displayed as having 0 HP.
Fixed an issue where the Ion Discharger weapon cooldown was not changing to green in the weapons console when the cooldown ended.
The shield tooltip colors in space combat now match the correct color scheme for the shields.
Fixed a glitch that was canceling the "crosshair" icon when issuing a rotation action hover a targeted enemy ship.
Fixed a bug that was not allowing the shields overload action to be used after firing and moving the ship.
Fixed an issue that was causing the remote exploration panel to show beneath the UI notifications.
Fixed an issue where 0% tax rate could sometimes be displayed as -1.490000E-17 or similar (round issue).
Fixed typo on leader opinion tooltip. Said "othwerwise", now "otherwise".
Fixed a glitch where sometimes the system view tooltips and the planetary assault tooltips could be left hanging after leaving the colony view or the invasion cutscene has ended, respectively.
Fixed a bug where our ship was being displayed in the enemy ship console sometimes when the AI had the initiative and moved first.
Fixed a glitch where sometimes the enemy AI was being displayed in the human player console after the AI ended its combat round.
Fixed a glitch that was not allowing the "round panel" to be shown in space combat in the first round.
Fixed an issue that was causing the number of missiles in a given pack of missiles to be shown incorrectly when the missiles had the heavily armored modification.
Fixed a typo in strategic resources trade screen (now Dark Matter, was Darm Matter).
Fixed a glitch that was causing 2 beep sounds when clicking in the "New Game" button in the main menu, and sometimes one would hear 1 beep, while other times no beep at all.
Fixed an issue that was causing the ISG logo to rotate badly in both the main menu and in-game menu.

---
Instructions on how to download the latest build can be found here.