Version 0.8.3h brings the following improvements and fixes:

Features:

• Added Worker’s Counter UI (showing current total and max capacity)

Fixes:

• Fixed error with a build mode when playing multiple games in one session
  
• Fixed error for Storage Order UI when a player removed an order with Order’s settings open

Please restart Steam if the update doesn't show up immediately.

- New checkpoint.
- Fixing some bugs.
- Some improvement on the levels.

Lowered the resolution of a bunch of textures.

Adjust streaming pool budget options in the settings. You can now pick between 2GB, 4 GB (default), and 6GB.

Game size lowered from 9.7GB to 5.9GB after these changes.

If you encounter issues with this update, please post in the SteamVR Bug Report forum. If possible, please include a system report to aid in tracking down your issue. Replies to this post are not tracked for bug reporting purposes. Please use the forum linked above to report issues.

SteamVR:

• Fixed a bug that could lead to error -201 when the HMD was plugged in after SteamVR was started.

OpenXR:

• OpenXR settings tab hidden in-headset because it requires UAC interaction on the desktop.
  
• Updated XR_EXT_active_action_set_priority structs to finalized naming convention.
  
• Updated XR_HTCX_vive_tracker_interaction implementation to revision 3 - addition of wrist and ankle roles.

Our latest update aims to improve balance with a mix of buffs and nerfs to a variety of areas. In addition we've fixed a number of reported bugs. Thanks for all the feedback, keep it coming!


This patch will be released at approximately 10 am PT (UTC-7) on August 30th, 2023.

This link will convert that to your local time.

1. Tuned down the amount of enemy damage scaling for 2 player parties, making 2-player co-op runs slightly easier.
   
2. Players can now ctrl-click to force moving to/consuming a pickup when out of range. This is usable for battle pickups - Orbs, Cultivate flowers, and Cynder Mushrooms.
   
3. Fixed bug where some players could not see the quests to unlock new Aspects. Those quests should now show up for affected players.
   
4. Cleaned up a few abilities which may have been showing duplicate or incorrect tags.
   
5. Fixed Spiked damage tooltip not scaling with physical or ability power, although Spiked itself did the correct damage.
   
6. Fixed bug where Critical Lightning augment wasn't completing quest.
   
7. Fixed bug where ascending Smoke Bomb to Cluster Bomb also completed the Smouldering Incendiary quest.
   
8. Separated all of the status effect Run Quests so that there are no longer any hybrid versions. There is now a different quest for inflicting Burn, inflicting Poison, inflicting Frostbite, and gaining Spiked. Bleed and Dodge no longer appear in Run Quests.
   
9. Essence of Quillion status effects no longer have extraneous words.
   
10. Increased Movement related quest from 35>>>90.
    
11. Fixed some unclear objectives + repeat Gardener conversations in the Anchoring the DARVe quest.

1. Updated Rare vestige Heavenly Eclipse: "On dealing Magic damage, gain 1 stack of Dawn. On dealing Physical damage, gain 1 stack of Dusk." >>> "On using a Magic Binding, gain 1 stack of Dawn. On using a Physical Binding, gain 1 stack of Dusk." Dusk grants 1 Magic Power per stack >>> 2 Magic Power per stack. Dawn grants 1 Physical Power per stack >>> 2 Physical Power per Stack.
   
2. Updated Uncommon vestige Scattered Samples. Uncommon >> Common.
   
3. Updated Rare vestige Stonemind. Rare >>> Uncommon.

1. Everfrost of Arcutria trinket: Frostbite damage amount reduced from 2 >>> 1.
   
2. Blaze of Brigid trinket: Burn damage amount increased from 1 >>> 2.

Currently the Star Captain is performing higher than all other Aspects so we’re going to reduce its overall damage slightly, and take some power away from Cryoclasm’s AoE. The defensive power gained from both shields and dazed in the Cryoclasm augments proves to be too useful at mitigating damage, so those are modified as well.

1. Sentinel Drone damage reduced from 50 >>> 40.
   
2. Reduced the AoE size of Cryoclasm.
   
3. Reduced the Frosbite stacks from secondary Cryoclasm from 2 >>> 1.
   
4. Shielding Cryoclasm augment: Shield on secondary hit changed from from uncommon >>> rare.
   
5. Dazing Cryoclasm augment: Dazes all targets hit >>> Dazes primary target only. Changed from rare >>> uncommon.
   
6. Fixed the weapon cosmetic rewards granted from Star Captain aspect quests.
   
7. Granted Star Captain cosmetics to players who already completed Star Captain aspect quests before cosmetic was swapped out.

1. Fixed Stitch Pull range not increasing with Widened Stitch augment.

1. Fixed Quicken Augments Magic Quicken, Physical Quicken, and Enhanced Quicken not triggering on Quicken ascensions.
   
2. Fixed Blink Uncommon augment Shielding Blink showing up as Common.

1. Removed countdown effect from Support Spindlecasters that increased attack of enemies on using a Binding.
   
2. Increased Book 1 Support Spindlecasters HP from 150 >>> 200. Increased Book 2 Support Spindlecasters HP from 450 >>> 600.
   
3. Tuned down several early combats that were killing players too fast.
   
4. Fixed Mimicked Threads not being removed from the player on defeating a Mimic that shows up in villains.
   
5. Reduced Book 1 Lusk’s base damage slightly.
   
6. Reduced Lusk’s projectile area of effect damage.
   
7. Increased health of Book 2 Lil’ Lusks from 200 >>> 260.
   
8. Nim now only gets attack bonuses from Nimbits dying.
   
9. Reduced Book 1 Nim’s base damage slightly.
   
10. Increased health of Book 2 Nimbits from 250 >>> 300.
    
11. Book 2 Captor now creates Chompys instead of Inkstains.
    
12. Argolath now gives 2 stacks of the damage increasing buff to the tentacles.
    
13. Argolath no longer gives the damage increasing buff to Mimics.
    
14. Ghostquill now will stand slightly closer to players by default.
    
15. Rhinkling will now stand slightly closer to players by default.
    
16. Reduced Thantaloupe and Razorshade collision size.

1. Slightly tweaked the display of Movement rings so that the player's new movement area is more visible.
   
2. Fixed issue where fill bar could show wrong experience value at the end of a run.
   
3. The HP bar no longer shows over-healing values.

1. Added a new batch of environmental VFX for the Derelict Starship.

1. Fixed sea of ink humming, Argolath scream, and Barbed Banshee volume.

Fixing Broken Pause Menu

Hello!
Welcome to another Weekly Update, Before we start next week’s goals will be the same as this week's!

Today I’ll show the progress I’ve made in remaking the game’s HUD!



Here’s the concept I made for the new HUD, It’s supposed to look nicer, be more customizable with themes and such, and show more/less information if you want it to!

The right side would be a “Widgets” section, Where you could pin various information you want to see!

The concept shows Active Effects, Notices, Wave Information and Daily Tasks! (Daily Tasks don’t exist yet)

You could also add these currently planned optional ones:
- Stats (Total Enemies Killed, Clicks, Kills per Minute etc.)
- Quick Buy (Favourite Upgrades will show up allowing you to quickly upgrade them without opening the shop)

So far I’ve implemented all but the widgets section into the game, which will be the main focus of this next week as well as working on better controller support!



Here’s what I’ve implemented so far!

As you can see it’s a little bit of a mess but you can see it looks a little nicer from what it used to look like (I hope), the old version is seen below:



It also matches your chosen theme thanks to the work of last week!

I also plan this week to add better controller support mainly with a wheel that will show up when you hold down a button allowing quick access to menus and actions (that you can customize) or with a different method, shown later.

I also want to allow you to set the 0-9 keys to open various menus and actions of your choosing, in the future hopefully allowing you to assign any keys to actions.

To end this week’s update I’ll show 2 concepts I have for better controller support:



The first is a simple wheel, You’d hold down a button and then use the stick to select what you want, Let go and the selected menu opens!

This one is very simple and is used in a lot of games, The second one below I just came up with like 5 seconds ago



The second one is a bit more confusing but would support up to around 16 shortcuts

You’d hold down a part of the d-pad, and the Up button would have 4 other buttons assigned to it.

So you’d hold down the Up button and then press A to open the Shop, But if you held down Right, A might be assigned to something else of your choosing

Does that make sense, I hope so!

Tell me your thoughts and such (If anyone does)
I’ll see you next week!

Navigation Challenges: We acknowledge navigation problems on the map and are actively rectifying these navigational glitches at the level.

Control Customization Menu: Presently, the control customization menu is not integrated into the game build. However, we're actively working on its inclusion for tailored gameplay.


People were reporting units not following pathing or constructing structures, this should be updated.

Phase III .1:
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Fixed Car/buggy issue where landscape would disappear.
Fixed tons of Packing errors and warnings.
Many other small bugs, Would have gotten further but had a personal loose that will slow efforts a bit.
My goal remains to put out some type of update every two weeks until November full release.

Public playtesting has started, and access will be granted in small increments. The game will improve based on player feedback during this period. The bug reporting UI has also been added to efficiently report bugs or suggest feedback in-game.

New bug reporting UI where you can suggest feedback or report bugs.



I expect public playtesting to last at least a few months, provided it is constructive towards improving the game, and it will be the last step before early-access. The intent is to use feedback to make the right improvements / bug fixes to the game.

PC Requirements: You must have a GPU with at least 1GB of dedicated VRAM, otherwise the game will probably crash while starting a game.

- Multiplayer is disabled for the until it's playable.
- There are currently 93 known bugs, none of are known to crash the game, but that may change.
- Some special abilities may not work in some scenarios (i.e. raze colony / peacekeeping).
- Ship modules may not be 100% balanced.
- If the game randomly stops responding to input, saving and reloading the game will likely fix it, but this should not happen often.
- Switching scenes between main menu and game constantly may cause thought provoking bugs to occur.
- Save the game may result in corrupted saves due to unaccounted for serialization issues, later in the game.
- The 'Cobalt' UI apparently does not go well with the game, so it's experimentally a cyan background colour.
- The animated combat needs a lot more polishing, although there have been improvements since the last trailer.
- Player leaders are placeholders, and will hopefully be improved in the near future, although getting multiplayer to work is a higher priority.
- Tips are being improved to be more beginner friendly, so feedback on tips would be helpful.

TL;DR
Overall, the game should be playable to the end-game years, although timing/pacing tweaks may be needed since the end-game has little playtesting. Expect bugs although they will be fixed eventually. Getting the core gameplay right and is the main priority for now.

Here are some questions that you can give feedback on. Note that feedback is optional, but it will help inform future updates into improving the game.

Questions:
- Do you know how to play the game based on the tutorial?
- Does the game feel fun to play once you know what to do?
- What is the your favourite mechanic, and why?
- What is the mechanic that needs the most improvement, and why?

Changes may be made based on feedback to further improve the game.

The preferred method is via the game 'Report Bug' button in the game pause menu, via Steam discussions, or via Discord.

Via the Steam store page. Access will be granted in small increments.

---

Feel free to comment your suggestions below.

🪵 View the Changelog: https://newstarsgame.com/changelog.
🕹️ Playtest New Stars: https://adamjr.xyz.
⭐ Wishlist New Stars to support development.

This page is intended to be a development preview, which may not reflect the final state of the game.

Credits:
- Star satellites icon by Lorc under CC BY 3.0