Starbase Progress Notes: Week 32 (2021)

ElluFB

Forever locked into The Pool
Frozenbyte
Joined
Sep 6, 2019
Messages
249
#1
Forum_ProgressNotes.png


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.
Design: first phase of development
Art asset: done after designing of the feature, but can be done either before, after or at same time with programming.
Programming: programmer implements the feature based on design
Configuration: feature is technically done but a designer needs to configure it
QA: feature is technically done but needs testing. May happen before or after configuration.

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.

discord_sb__divider_sb.png


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


Week32_2021_Starbase_Eb_moon_tower.jpg Week32_2021_Starbase_Wip_skyscraperApartment_02.jpg
discord_sb__divider_sb.png


Purchase Starbase Early Access now on Steam!
 

Mutleyx

Veteran endo
Joined
May 22, 2020
Messages
144
#8
Love the new format. So cool to see a broader view of what is being worked on, rather than just what is nearing completion and about to be shipped. Would be nice to see some sort of indication as to how close to completion each section is as well though, if possible. Nothing binding obviously, but just and indication of how far each area has to go, at current estimation. E.g. Done, Nearly Done, Still developing, Starting development, Designed, Starting Design - pick one! :)

Also, some great features in there. Very excited to see them in-game! Big love FB, keep up the good work! <3
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2021
Messages
4
#12
I will receive alot of hate but.... Put some battle pass or something similar for skins and cosmetics so frozen byte so we can pledge a little more 😝😝🤪 I'm loving this game and I want to contribute!!!
 

Kap

Active endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
26
#15
Incredibly progress report, hype meter thru the roof! But I am sad that only the first moon will be buildable upon at the start. What if we want to go hide far away? :D
 

SubaruSama

Veteran endo
Joined
Apr 20, 2020
Messages
115
#16
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.
so does that mean we will get new moons with new belts or that some of the moons don't currently have belts but will soon receive some, like e.g. Mare?
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2021
Messages
6
#17
ITC is gonna love the station and capital ship mechanics. Looking forward to an amazing game Frozenbyte!
 

cl0ck

Learned-to-sprint endo
Joined
Aug 17, 2020
Messages
24
#19
so if im reading this right moon mining is only in the programming stage? is it safe to assume we won't be seeing it this month and the roadmap is already falling behind?
 
Top