Oct 31, 2023

Updated mining, FTL fast travel, advanced gameplay settings and more...

Stellar Tactics - Stellar Tactics

This update brings the updated mining system, fixes, advanced options and QOL changes.

Updated mining system:

The old mining systems was pretty much click and forget. That's still the case with wrecks, however, asteroid mining has changed. The new system uses "heat". As the turret pulses, the asteroid is heated. You have control over how much power you allocate to your turrets, which in turn controls the ideal temperature of the asteroid.

You can only target asteroids with a single turret. Attempting to target an asteroid that is being mined will generate an error message in the log.
Increase power to your turret to quickly heat the asteroid.
As you approach the ideal temperature, back off a bit on the power until turret pulses remain between the "sweet spot" brackets. The bottom bracket will extend downward as you gain more mining experience making it easier to keep asteroid heat under control.
Some asteroids are bit more unstable than others and the amount of energy required to maintain ideal temperatures will vary.
Overheating asteroids will quickly deplete the asteroid and result in lower yields.
If the asteroid is too cool (temperature below the bottom bracket) less ore is produced.
You can see the remaining amount of ore left in the asteroid in the circular progress bar. The bar is also color coded - red=too hot, yellow=ideal, blue=temperature too low.

When mining wrecks, you can target all turrets, so, no major changes in salvaging these objects. There are a few changes:

Reduced the amount of ore produced by wreckage.
Increased the number of ship repair components harvested.
Changed the color of the mining turret beam when mining wreckage.

FLT fast travel

You can now choose to fast travel in FTL space. There are two limits:

You cannot fast travel to nearby star systems.
There is a maximum range for fast travel.

To fast travel, enter FTL space. Choose a target star system by either selecting the star system on the Universe Map, or if a story/mission location, select the mission in the objective tracker.
The upper left panel will display the targeted star system. There will be a new icon that can be selected that will move your ship near the selected system. There is a short delay while universe data is generated when traveling between star systems using the fast travel icon.

Advanced gameplay options

I've added advanced gameplay options to the options menu. These options are only visible when in a loaded game - not at the main menu. These are not global settings and only apply to the save game they are set in. You can reset these advanced settings at any time. All gameplay options now have rollover help.

Adjustments to the advanced options modify the currently selected difficulty. In some cases, you may need to save and reload and/or exit the current mission area and re-enter to see the changes take place.

If any of these options are enabled, the game will stop tracking Achievement progress. Resetting the advanced options to default will re-enable achievement tracking Currently the game is tracking a number of things like enemy deaths, ships destroyed etc. Any progress in existing saves will reward achievements when achievements are enabled later in the roadmap.

GROUND COMBAT:

Increase/Decrease enemy damage
Increase/Decrease enemy health
Enable/Disable enemy missile launchers
Enable/Disable enemy grenades

SPACE COMBAT:

Increase/Decrease enemy ship damage
Increase/Decrease enemy ship shields
Increase/Decrease enemy ship armor
Increase/Decrease enemy ship systems (boarding systems)

EXPERIENCE MODIFIERS:

Increase/Decrease general experience rewarded
Increase/Decrease space skill experience rewarded
Increase/Decrease support skill experience rewarded

VENDOR PRICES- Note that any modifiers adjusted are applied after faction and charisma bonuses.

Increase/Decrease vendor prices for items sold by vendors
Increase/Decrease vendor purchase prices for loot and gear
Increase/Decrease ship prices at vendors

QOL Items

You are now warned if you enter a star system or a ground combat location that is well above your crews average level.
Date and time have been added to save games. This is not retroactive and only new saves will register the date and time.
Sorting options have been added to the cargo hold column headers.
Repairing equipment only requires a single click now and will repair items as long as repair components are in your inventory.
Increased ship repair components rewarded when mining wreckage. The number of components harvested are not displayed in the log.

Things that didn't make it
Crew missions did not make it into this build. This system needs more time in the oven before I can release it. I'll get this done as soon as I can and release a patch when it's ready.

Added: When on the FTL map, you can now fast travel to star systems within a certain range. If fast travel is available for the selected star system, a new icon is displayed to the right of the "APPROACH/ENTER SYSTEM" icon under the selected star system panel in the upper left of the screen. This allows players to move quickly through FTL space to story mission locations and other star systems. Whether or not you use it is up to you. Azimuth does not recharge in FTL space when fast traveling. Piloting experience is not granted when fast traveling. (See piloting EXP below)
Added: Date and time added to load/save interface. This is not a retroactive fix. Saves that have no date/time data associated will display the date as "---".
Added: You can now sort alphabetically, by value and quantity on the ship cargo screen [K] by selecting the column headings.
Added: If you unintentionally stray into a star system that is above your average crew level, a message is displayed to the screen and your log letting you know you will be annihilated forthwith.

Updated: Repairing equipment now requires a single click and will automatically complete the repair process for the selected item if enough materials are available for the repair.
Updated: Jump point models.
Updated: NPC ship navigation updated for better collision avoidance with planets and other objects. They will now prioritize avoidance with planets adjusting course as necessary.
Updated: NPC ships are less likely to ram you in space combat.
Updated: Piloting EXP is no longer earned by entering or leaving FTL space. Instead it is calculated by distance traveled over time both in star systems and on the FTL map. Piloting EXP rewarded from space combat has not changed.
Updated: Increased overall ship repair components when mining ship wreckage.
Updated: Asteroid mining now uses "heat" to determine yield of asteroids. Keeping the asteroids heat levels within acceptable tolerances increases the yield of asteroids. If the asteroid is cool (below the bottom bracket) less ore is generated. If the asteroid is too hot (above the upper bracket), the yield is lowered and the asteroid is destroyed faster.
Updated: Only one turret can be targeted to an asteroid now with the changes to the heat system. You can mine multiple asteroids at the same type by selecting the turret and targeting asteroids. If an asteroid is already being mined by a turret, a message is displayed to the screen that the asteroid cannot be mined by more than one mining turret.
--If you are too aggressive with heating, asteroids can get in a state where they are very hard to cool. You may need to stop mining the asteroid and let it cool down.
Updated: Reduced overall ore yield when mining ship wreckage. Note that you can target all mining turrets to wreckage.
Updated: Changed beam color to blue when mining ship wreckage.
Updated: When awarded ship repair components, the number of components rewarded is now displayed in the log.
Updated: If your ship is not moving, you will take additional damage in space combat. Some ships may be able to tank this additional damage if they have excellent shields and armor equipped.
Updated: Reduced general EXP gain from space combat applied to crew in ship station slots.

Fixed: The in-game guide is now accessible in the middle of space combat and will pause the game. This also applies if space combat is currently paused with the [P} key.
Fixed: Collisions with objects in FTL space and in star systems now return control to player much faster.
Fixed: When loading a save game in a star system, NPC ships could spawn in the center of the sun.
Fixed: In some cases, mining beams were not displayed when mining ship wrecks.
Fixed: In some rare cases, it was possible to spawn in the wrong universe position when first launching your ship from the planets surface.
Fixed: If stun immunity through Azimuth was active, and NPC's used stun grenades, crew members were partially stunned leading to various UI elements not working as intended.
Fixed: Initial ground exploration camera rotation values could be set to zero, locking the camera from rotating in new playthroughs. This required players manually set the camera rotation value in the gameplay options menu.
Fixed: Incorrect display of pooled experience toggle in options menu selection box.
Fixed: Crew member in ship repair slot was not receiving general experience from space combat.
Fixed: Crew member combat state was not completely cleared after combat in rare cases resulting in various errors. Most visible was that crew member was stuck in combat idle stance with no weapon in hands.

There will be bugs. Please, if you see anything - post a bug report here - > https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

Thats all I have for now. I'll keep an eye on the forums and address any issues that pop up. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Oct 31, 2023

October News Update

Verdant Village - Assailant107

Hello everyone, thanks for checking out this devlog. Let’s jump right in, its been an interesting month full of things I don’t usually do as much. This month’s work was more planning than work if I had to classify it.

To start out, I did do a few things to the actual code of the game. Chests can now be picked up, so they are back to functioning as they do in the live version of the game. Aside from that I rebuilt a minor system to keep UI behaving correctly, specifically it ensures that you can’t click a button in the same frame it is made. I also fixed an issue where moving diagonally was faster cause that was strange.

Lastly, I rebuilt a system for in game messages. If you play the current game you’ve probably seen the small messages that appear from the top of the screen, that system has now been setup in the new engine.

All of the things mentioned above were really just minor additions. The meat of work this month was, as I said at the start, planning. I wasn’t expecting to do that, but realistically I probably should have expected it. Most of this planning revolved around the shipping chest, specifically the process of ordering items.

For those who are maybe unfamiliar the shipping chest allows you to order objects, usually furniture. This involves paying a fee as well as supplying one to three items. All very simple, in fact making the actual system likely won’t take very long at all. The issue was that the old version of the game essentially populated the database that this system worked from at runtime.

In short what this means is that there isn’t just a spreadsheet out there I can port into this version of the game. As a result I had to scrape the data manually, which wasn’t too bad. The next part was where things sort of spiraled out of control and the reason this basically just turned into a planning month.

Because of how the shipping chest and items work it is better to have everything related to it worked out when it is implemented. So the first step to that was to figure out what exactly the player can order from the shipping chest. This sounds like a simple question, but as I quickly found out, it ends up branching into several other systems, specifically quests, secrets, shops, and tangentially into any sub-system that requires a station to work from like sewing, hunting, or engineering (which is new and not in the current version of the game).

So, the bulk of the work was setting in stone exactly what was a shop item and what was a catalog item. The game has several secret shops that operate on either gold or additional currency. The items in these shops are unique to them. I had to determine what I wanted to just be something you unlock via quest reward and order from the catalog or an item in a special shop.

In addition to this I added a whole bunch of stuff. Partially to fill out some rewards and shops, but also because I felt what was there was a bit lacking. The furniture item list is currently sitting right around 390 items. 229 of those items are ordered through the catalog. All of this is to say that I spent a good chunk of time setting up the prices and item requirements of those 229 items in the catalog.

That however, is not all. As I said earlier this sort of spilled out into other systems. Shops, secrets, and quests were mostly just a matter of re-arranging or setting exactly what would be available. Other systems involved a bit more investment. Mostly this was a lot of nailing down exactly how I wanted things to work. A simple example is archeology. In the current version its just a button in your inventory menu. Because of changes that are coming to the UI there is now a station that you’ll access for it instead. Engineering needed to have its projects sorted and ideas for what it can do for the player set. Engineering is basically the late game automation system for a few things. Tailoring, which is new, had to have its items and stations sorted out. Brewing is also seeing an overhaul which involved a few new things that needed to be set into place.

Which is actually a good place to transition. Last word on the catalog, it is done. It was basically just a lot of data entry as well as setting rewards and requirements for a variety of systems. As for brewing, it will see some changes. In short I’m trying to simplify it. I’m still mulling over exact details, but the general idea is to make it a less intimidating system. First there are now a few degrees of separation. You can now make beer, wine, and liqueurs (flavored liquor). Beer is the easiest, you’ll just throw an item into a station and you get beer after time. Wine is a similar process but adds an element of aging, the longer you let it ferment the better the wine.

Liqueurs are what will replace what currently exists. I still want to simplify it but allow for a bit of player decision as well. Instead of just tossing a bunch of stuff together like in the current version and sorting values this will be a more precise process. I am doing away with custom recipes; I like the idea but I think its daunting to a player. Also, the concept of custom items that are created on the fly in a game like this is a nightmare from a code perspective.

Instead, how I currently have things is that there is a five-step process that you basically setup and let it run. I did some level of research into brewing and this is supposed to mimic that process. If anyone who actually makes alcohol is reading this I apologize because it’s an extremely simplified version of the real-world process.

First, you pick a catalyst which determines what type of alcohol you get. You can make rum, whiskey, vodka, or gin. Next you pick a water purifier. There are basically a couple of items you can use that purify water to various degrees. Third you pick a heat source, again there are a few items that generate more or less heat. Fourth you pick a flavoring item. This is the largest group of items you’ll get to pick from. Basically, there is a big list but the items simplify down into one of 5 categories with some items being better than others. Finally, you determine how long you want to age it.

All of these elements determine a specific item that you create. The better purifiers, heat, and aging you use the better the product. I figure between this, beer, and wine, players can pick how much they want to interact with the system (if at all). This seems better than being forced to learn a huge convoluted system that garners mixed results unless you really invest a lot of time in writing down combinations.

Last thing that I won’t swear to, but I did a bit of fiddling around and I think it would be possible. I know other games, specifically Stardew I guess, offer multiple farm layouts. I may follow suit on that, but I also did a bit of dabbling in a custom map creation tool this month and I think it would be possible. To explain it would allow players to go in and create a farm layout with a simple tile editor and then use it in game. Because of how it would be saved it should be easy to also allow players to basically share their layouts as well if they choose. Like I said I don’t swear to it because it is still early days, but it seems feasible.

And that’s mostly it. There are a couple of things I didn’t get around to but this is already pretty long and those things aren’t super important. Hopefully November will be more coding and less data entry. For my own sanity I hope so at least. As always, thanks to everyone for playing the game and giving feedback. Happy Halloween if you celebrate that sort of thing and I’ll see you all in a month.