Nov 3, 2023

Above Earth - MidwestVideoGames

This test build can be opted into in the Steam properties for the game. (test - Test Public Branch)

New Content and Features:

-New Options Menu Sliders:

Field of View, Brightness, Contrast.
These options sliders will allow players to adjust the appearance of the game to suit their own visual needs/preferences.
The default Field of View has been increased slightly.

-Sprinting and Stamina:

There is now a sprinting and stamina system in the game that is fully functional.
Sprinting and jumping will deplete stamina.
Without sufficient stamina, sprinting and jumping are no longer possible.
Sprinting will cause hunger, thirst and fatigue to increase at a much faster rate than while walking. It will also increase the warmth of the player.
All audio and cold breath effects are completed for this system.

-Launch Checklist Interface:

This interface is now inside the starships and the reentry capsules.
It serves as an end goal for completing a scenario.
It provides functionality for choosing a destination scenario and traveling to it.
More distant destinations have a more difficult checklist to complete with larger resource requirements.
These checklists will require equipment on board these spacecraft to be repaired in order to initiate a launch sequence.
This interface replaces the old starship launch interface which was not adaptable enough for having different locations and destinations.

-Surface Functionality for Spacecraft:

Starships and reentry capsules are now fully functional on the surface scenarios.
They can now be entered on the ground via their own EVA port. The starship has a ramp with a bay door and the reentry capsule has a hatch.
Moving between sections of the starship on surfaces is handled through various door interaction menus.
If their launch checklist is completed they can be launched off their landing pad.

-Station Menu Wreckage and Debris Selection:

Items on the exterior of the stations can now be selected on the station menu and set as the current target.
Other information about the wreckage can be viewed in this menu once the item has been visited.
The contents of containers and wreckage can be viewed for objects that have already been visited.
A question mark symbol will appear over objects that have not yet been visited.

Bugfixes:

-Fixed an issue with inner EVA doors not opening/closing properly when initiating airlocks.
-Fixed an issue where the intro cinematic would not end until the station was entered.
-Fixed an issue where station exterior items could spawn on top of the player camera.
-Fixed some issues with sun alignment for cinematics on various scenarios.
-Fixed an issue with spacecraft interior doors not opening/closing properly when initiating airlocks.
-Fixed the positions of certain module interfaces that were clipping into walls.

Tweaks:

-The EVA fuel warning will no longer make noise(i.e. beep) when there is gravity and the jetpack is not on.
-Increased the rate at which oxygen scrubbers and thermal regulators will control their environment.
-Reduced the max distance of certain types of wreckage from the station.
-Reduced how much inventory encumbrance affects the ability to turn.
-Increased the volume of the Jetpack sounds slightly.

Other Improvements:

-The deep space scenario now has its own end goal requiring the damaged booster engine to be repaired and an anomaly be explored.
-When a VLAR Bot is now shot and destroyed the force from the last shot will be applied properly to the wreckage(usually sending it flying some distance).
-Electroshock weapons will now create an electricity visual effect when they hit a target.
-Tilting solar panels now appear more damaged when they require repairs instead of just having some missing panels.
-Some more improvements to the look of the Earth in various scenarios.
-Made the buttons on the EVA port menu slightly more pronounced.
-There is now an angle limit for the camera on surface scenarios so it cannot clip into the landscapes.
-EVA exterior item HUD tracking will now be hidden when sleeping on the surface scenarios. (since drifting is not allowed)
-Completed all functionality to assign physical materials to assets in the future for surface type specific footstep and collision sounds.
-Completed all surface type specific footstep and collision sounds.
-Improved footstep sounds. Player animations are now synced up with footstep sounds during walking and sprinting.
-Enabled slight volumetric fog on the Mars scenario to give the appearance of slight dust in the air.
-Improved collisions sounds.
-Added more realistic jump sounds.
-Fixed an issue with how starships were procedurally spawned on surface scenarios. The problem was caused by an improper rotation.
-Made some New Game Menu visual improvements.
-The oxygen scrubber menu will now show the current air quality as well as the projected air quality.
-The thermal regulator menu will now show the current temperature as well as the projected temperature.
-Station windows will now appear to glow from a distance. This makes them visible from longer distances when before they would look too dark.

Things that would be most helpful for testers to test in this build are:

In terms of general performance, how does the game perform on your system?
Do the new options settings work properly for everyone(FOV, Brightness, Contrast).
Do the larger Moon and Mars landscapes cause people any significant performance losses?
Does saving and/or loading in any awkward/unusual situations cause any issues?

What remains before the merge?

This will probably be the last build before the merge with the main build. The focus from now until the merge is going to be on bugfixing and stability. It will also be to create a new trailer and take new screenshots as the game has improved significantly visually. The old trailer and screenshots do not accurately reflect the current visual quality of the game. This shouldn't take too long. After the merge is done, the focus will be on a tutorial.

Thank you for your patience while the test build is prepared for a general release.

Nov 3, 2023

Minor Update 0.12.2 - Better Shadows

Saleblazers - e Zinc

👤Better Shadows

We've identified a reason for the flickering shadows you may have experienced in the tutorial (it was a particle effect's Cast Shadows feature, if you were curious). Blurry shadows were a band-aid fix to this shadow flickering bug, so now we can have crisp shadows!

❌Before Shadow Fix:

✅After Shadow Fix:

🌿Longer Grass Near Pop Pop's Shop Shop

The grass was a bit too short near the start of the game, which took away some of the mystery of finding creatures and items. So, we've made some of the bushes taller.

Let us know how you feel about this over on the Steam forums and https://discord.gg/Saleblazers!

🏃Faster Prologue Flow

We hear a lot of feedback on how the tutorial can be boring for a lot of players. We've added a lot more ziplines and set dressing to try and alleviate this issue. You should be able to blast past the prologue much faster now!

0.12.2 Changelog

➡️ Changes

Increased shadow crispness in general, without sacrificing performance
Added many new ziplines and set dressing to the prologue track & field area to expedite progression
Clothing racks only accept clothes now, and can fit large clothes too
Increased height of some grass around Pop Pop's Shop Shop
Added Pine Cones as drops to Pine Trees, which can be planted to grow into Pine Trees
Gave Fighting Fineries shopkeeper a unique outfit, custom dialogue, and name
Updated Fighting Fineries shop stock with bulk sell and rarity functionality

🎷 Audio Changes

Added new object destroy sounds to various object types

🛠️ General Fixes

Fixed flickering shadows in prologue
Fixed missing description for sake
Fixed wrong albedo on zipline material
Fixed waterfall missing splash effects in prologue
Fixed Bamboo Tree LOD kicking in too early in prologue
Fixed Z-fighting on track & field mesh in prologue
Fixed potential kick to menu with spawner system
Fixed broken recipe in the Fighting Fineries shop stock
Fixed water rendering over glass
Fixed wallpaper not applying correctly on triangle pieces
Fixed potential reroll of employees when clicking the button quickly
Added descriptions to several items

Nov 3, 2023

The Story of Captain Lionheart

Pirate Patrol - author

My name is Lionheart. For 20 years, I have been the most wanted pirate captain in the Federation.

For 20 years I've waged war in distant colonies that the corrupt politicians of the Federation have turned into farms of exploitation for political gain and more power. I've shot down navy ships, looted the trade convoys of giant bloodsucking corporations greedy for profit.

I have turned countless young men, many of them with no future but slave labor, into warriors of their own destiny.

I watched them declare me a terrorist on media screens funded by the evil businessmen whose interests I had disrupted.

But nothing compares to the sheer evil I have witnessed in recent years.

While the usual suspects for scientists reported missing from industries around the Pirate Den were pirate groups in the region, it didn't take me long to learn that no pirate clan was responsible.

2 years ago, I realized that I had to look into these strange disappearances, because the conspiracy that was being foisted upon us was one big hoax.

One day in Uncharted Territory, we found a ship that had been abandoned in the void. All its crew, all its passengers, everyone on board had been killed and left to disappear into the infinity of space.

In the Uncharted Territory, a vast, dark, cold unknown, evil monopolies had set up huge laboratories to develop forbidden artificial intelligence technologies. Scientists and engineers who worked in these laboratories in exchange for irresistibly large sums of money were sent home after completing their tasks, never knowing the full scope of the project they were working on. Of course, while they thought they were going home, the entire ship was destroyed on the way, the evidence destroyed.

We found one of these secret labs by hacking into the ship's navigation systems. We raided that lab with everything we had. We burned the guard ships. We went in. We wiped out the guards. We left the scientists to watch the fate of their friends, unaware of what was about to happen to them. We downloaded all computers, servers, data, projects.

What we found was astounding.

A diabolical technology that would turn humanity into a horrible war machine and robots that would do the bidding of their masters.

At first I didn't know what to do with this technology... If I burned it and destroyed it... Surely a copy would come from somewhere and they would pick up where they left off. Humanity would never be the same unless this evil monopoly was stopped.

The Federation Navy has been looking for me for 20 years, but the Federation Secret Service has never had a problem finding me. Our relationship with them was on an entirely different level. Sometimes we worked together on joint operations to take down corrupt politicians who were exploiting the Federation.

With this terrible technology at my disposal, I had nowhere else to go and ended up knocking on the Federation's door.

With a few honorable officers I could trust, we had to operate in the utmost secrecy.