Hello everyone, here are the progress notes of the week 32 of 2021!
The Progress Notes format has gotten a bit of a face-lift, to hopefully give a clearer vision about the state of upcoming features. Instead of the previous style with separate categories for Design, Code and Art, we have listed out the game features and their current state of development.
Below we have listed the different states, and an explanation of what that state means in terms of development process.
Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Starbase Early Access. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.
Starbase Progress Notes: Week 32 (2021)
Moon mining (programming)
Allows mining the moons and large asteroids. Allows digging holes in the actual moon terrain and discovering rare ores from the ground. Digging moon terrain also gives valkite or ajatite to the player.
Moon bases (programming)
Allows building bases on the moon. Bases are like stations, but built on the surface of the moon and they require special foundation legs (support plinths) for the construction. The moon bases have similar build area logic as stations, base area and base safe zones. Base building will be initially enabled only on the first moon (the one which has the city and an existing fast travel gate).
Capital Ships (programming)
Capital Ships explained:
Station siege (programming)
Station siege explained:
Furnaces to create alloys (design)
Alloys are a combination of two or more materials. Alloys usually have better stats than single ore materials, and for example the Capital Ship frames and hulls are both built from alloys. In addition to the raw materials, furnaces require also a lot of energy and sometimes special conditions or a certain type atmosphere dust cloud.
New moon belts and moon mining materials (configuration and design)
The new moons that will added to the universe will have unique ore distribution profiles. Often moons will also have their own unique raw materials. The moon belts and the moon ground may have different ores and they pose their own challenges when mining.
Combat balances (configuration and programming)
Especially tripod autocannons, but also new materials and weapon progress from tripod autocannon onwards. The tripod autocannon will get damage reduction and electricity consumption (it will require electricity).
New modules for station, moon base and Capital Ship building (programming and configuration)
Designers and artists create together new blocks, furniture and single items for stations, moon bases and Capital Ships. New station blocks will also include more decorative elements. Most furniture comes pre-assembled.
Moon mining techniques and tools (configuration)
Configuring mining laser and various explosives to work with moon mining.
Repair hall (design)
Allows players to "drive in" or spawn a ship in a hall and get it repaired with parts, ore and some money.
Blueprint chips (programming)
Allows storing blueprints for trading or manufacturing use. Chips can be either secure or non-secure. The secure chips can only be used for manufacturing, while content from the non-secure chips can be further edited in the Ship Designer.
Blueprint caster (programming)
Casts a blueprint for manufacturing, or just for fun from a blueprint chip. For manufacturing purposes a number of other devices are needed as well, such as a 3D printer and an item spawner, and of course a ton of energy.
Blueprint filler (programming)
A technology that allows a ship blueprint or any blueprint cast by the blueprint caster to auto-fill itself using parts found nearby. Usually combined with item storage, a 3D printer and an item spawner to automate the process. Works also with ship blueprints for field repairs.
Drive-in designer (design)
Ships with non-secure blueprints, or with blueprints owned by a player, can be flown back to a Ship Designer for updates, and the existing ship is used to cover some of the manufacturing costs.
Company ships (programming)
Allows company to own ships and use various rights settings to operate the ships.
Cosmetics (design)
Allows painting of weapons and armor, and adds a lot of new armors. Enables cosmetics shop.
New tutorials (design and programming)
Currently work is being done on Storage menu guide, durability error tutorial, cable and pipe guide, player station factory hall tutorial, and a guide for respawning ships after despawning them.
New binds menu for ship quick binds (design)
Replaces current pilot seat binds menu with a new, much more versatile system
Easy Build HUD (design)
Ship and station easy build gets consistent HUD, that also has buttons for most of the operations as well as some controls tooltips.
Moon city apartment rental (design, art assets)
Allows renting units from the city towers. Creating apartments inside the towers.
Station build area expansion (programming)
Stations, bases and Capital Ship build areas can be expanded once certain volume of the previous build areas are filled.
Factory halls (programming)
Factory halls enable building various factories inside stations, bases and Capital Ships. For example, with the upcoming blueprint projector and its additional tools, a ship building factory is possible.
Painting stations (programming, art assets)
Paint tool support for stations (and bases and Capital Ships). New effects for the paint tool.
Auction House categories (programming)
Similar categories to the Auction House as the crafting currently has.
Auction House shopping list (programming)
Allows using ship blueprints as a shopping list in the Auction House.
Sell confirmation UI (programming)
Confirmation button to station Sell screens.
Inventory V2 (programming)
Completely rehauled inventory system. Allows stacking items, opening different windows for inventories, accessing containers directly, improved sorting and searching functions, etc.
Item crates (programming)
Allows hauling items in crates. This is included in the new inventory system.
Moon terrain generation & customization (programming)
Enables a lot more variety to moon terrains.
Navigation chip data saver (Art asset)
A device which saves coordinates on coordinate chips for Capital Ships.
New moon terrains (Art asset)
New looks from new assets like rocks and from new textures for the moons.
Miscellaneous
List of various other features that are being worked on:
- Missiles and torpedoes bug fixing
- Easy Build Mode (ships) bug fixing
- Gravity improvements
- Various SFX improvements
- Various new animations
- Various tweaks and bug fixes
Gallery
Purchase Starbase Early Access now on Steam!
