Hello everyone! The holidays are fast approaching and the end of 2022 is not far beyond. Stuffie and I are hard at work on BETA 12, and we wanted to share a bit about what that will include. For a long while now we have been talking about updating missions in Space Impossible as we go through our iterative passes on developing the game. One of the issues with missions was they were pretty generic and not always obvious what was going on. We wanted them to be more important when in a star system, and equally valuable whether playing alone or with others, all the while having maintaining the influence from scifi tv shows and movies we've been inspired by. There were also some technical costs which made things tedious and bloated when creating factioned versions of a mission.
That desire lead to the creation of "Star System Problems". These problems will affect the whole star system, and will be multi stepped issues that can be addressed by one or more players and it will be quite apparent what the current issue is. Each step's issue will have a clearly define goal, ranging from simple "blow up targets" to "disabling ships" to "deploy object to a location". Each step will have a reward upon completion, and when the entire problem is resolved, the system will receive some boons similar to the end of a conflict. Speaking of goals, we have added more capabilities for the AI and game to recognize. Things like "disable a ships engines (blow them up) and the ship will surrender" is now possible. Or the "deploy object" capability, where, for example, a station will be able to spawn a specific platform, where the player then has to maneuver, to a specific location out in space.
Not all systems will have a problem all the time. It will be influenced by a variety of factors, some of which we're still working on. There will be faction specific ones, so they only appear when a system has a specific owner. We'll probably be releasing a limited set of problems to test from start to finish as an experimental build in the first or second week of January. A full release sometime after that as we add the rest of the initial problems. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

[ 2022-12-23 19:54:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Space Impossible BETA 11 has landed. Conflicts are back! You can discuss BETA 11 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Star System Conflicts Return

Star systems can now be in conflict between two factions and are a great way to gain standing with those factions. When a conflict is finished, the system experiences a period of regeneration, with better prices and rare traders becoming available.
Conflicts can occur between the current system owner, and the faction of a neighboring system (neighbors via jumpgates count too). Once the conflict begins, battle fleets will spawn, and battles will erupt throughout the system.
As the distress calls, battles and just general mayhem happen, a faction will gain conflict points. Whichever faction reaches the goal first, wins the system. A battle will finish once all the ships of a faction are destroyed (all bridges) and if the player captain participates, they can earn extra faction and special faction reinforcement beacons. Or just sit there out of range and let them fight, and steal their wreckage, that's boring, but your call. There are unique distress calls, either asking for parts or for a ride related to the conflict that will spawn too. Systems must be level 3 (bonivium) or above to be eligible for conflicts.

Transponders

As a reward for helping with Battles Factions may reward you Transponder items. Transponders can be used like Beacons and will call in reinforcements of that faction into your current region

Projectile Weapon & Ammo Changes

Projectile weapons have been changed. A long time in discussion, we felt it was just not fun to use projectiles the way they were they currently were. They no longer require ammo, and instead are a specific weapon component that can be found, purchased or manufactured and be used accordingly. This also allowed us to update AI ships to better use projectile weapons without having to load them with ammo, or have them cheat and have infinite ammo.

Improving AI & Dynamic Regions

Other changes include some significant dynamic region re-working, where regions (fleets, stations, asteroid fields) can now merge and separate depending on the actions within the regions. Some other changes include even better AI handling of weapons, navigation and some AI can even use tractor beams now.

Details

NOTE: Changes marked with were inspired by feedback or bugs found by the community!

Additions

• Added battlefield regions
• Added transponder backup caller items
• Added trader regions to recovery phase, with all factions getting improved price mods
• Added AI limit to merging of regions to ensure reasonable performance
• Added additional check to prevent wrecks with no bridges getting AI assigned
• New conflict UI
• Added custom loot table for Madd's Marauders
• Added recipes for all the new projectile weapons
• Added unique station conflict dialogue
• Added /sv_allownewsystemconflicts command. Turning this off will prevent new conflicts from being calculated during game time. It does not affect any conflicts started during universe generation.
• Added two new scrapper ships for recovery period of conflicts
• Added guarenteed begillium region in starter system
• Added a check for waiting-for-destruction objects that will skip certain actions when necessary. This should save on some performance and decrease chance of errors occuring.
• Added /setregionaltfaction command to set "other" faction in a region, mainly useful during conflicts
• Added tractor using capabilities to AI logic
• Scrapper vessels may now select appropriate targets for tractoring (mainly during conflict recovery)
• Added codex entry for jumpgate travel
• Added several missing language entries
• Added auto complete for true/false when entering commands
• Added new warp in/out stretch-y effect

Changes

• CHANGE: Now batches projectile networking sends to improve performance
• CHANGE: Changed spawn rules for regions to support conflicts
• CHANGE: Missions no longer generate during conflicts
• CHANGE: Altered pitch on alarm/error sound to make it less harsh
• CHANGE: Converted all projectiles into weapons and removed ability to acquire ammo and projectile launchers
• CHANGE: Altered mass anchor speed and added a "stop on hit"
• CHANGE: Updated all vessels to new projectile type weapons and updated loot pools
• CHANGE: Level 3 Ticeroy regions will now have attractor mines
• CHANGE: Moved tractor beams to separate weapon groups on all stations
• CHANGE: Several console commands can now use relative values with the tilde '~' modifier. Ex: "/setposition 1 ~10 ~" will move entity 1 to the right by 10 units
• CHANGE: Made /setposition and /setrotation compatible with selectors. Ex: "/setposition @a[ai=true] 10" will move all AI units 10 up.
• CHANGE: Merged objects in a region will keep their relative positions now instead of re-calculating new positions, this should allow fleet organizations to stay more coherent
• CHANGE: Trader and Fighter AI will attempt to return to their original positions once they're done with their current tasks (like fighting).
• CHANGE: Increased audio radius for warpout/warpin sound effect for better awareness
• CHANGE: Increased planet asteroid ring density, there should be more regions now
• CHANGE: Trade button of the inventory panel should no longer appear during inspection if the vessel hates the player, or is currently targeting the player
• CHANGE: Changed command /changeregionfaction to /setregionfaction for better consistency

Fixes

• FIX: Loaded dynamic regions should now have their path correctly loaded too
• FIX: Capital ship loot not using correct factioned loot table
• FIX: Missiles incorrectly firing from wrong mount angle
• FIX: Control groups now load correctly from templates
• FIX: Sixiser loot pools
• FIX: An error with AI targeting
• FIX: An error with AI attempting to flee but can't move
• FIX: Increased AI target search range
• FIX: Modified the AI pathing algorithm costs when trying to avoid active weapons
• FIX: Dynamic regions should no longer spin in place in star system view when failing to merge with region
• FIX: Capital ships of lawless and independent trader should no longer use the Venture class ship
• FIX: Issues with wrecks for ships and stations that weren't always removing AI correctly, or not correctly being assigned a trade table.
• FIX: Some issues with AI merging into regions, namely tractoring or reinforcements
• FIX: A rare potential construction error when building a vessel
• FIX: AI now takes into account broken mounts when calculating weapons to fire
• FIX: Modified AI weapon calculations to better judge weapon type and usefulness
• FIX: Visual of AI weapons being stuck "on" when all weapons are unavailable or lost
• FIX: AI should now cancel warp out on tile death and mount changes to match player gameplay rules
• FIX: A very specific issue with building where the energy overlay was on, while panning and removing tiles
• FIX: An issue with target lock-on window
• FIX: An issue with behind-the-scenes tile construction that could affect building
• FIX: An error where certain deaths in a space suit could interfere with respawning
• FIX: An issue where building drones lose their target mid-journey and improved cleanup when large objects are destroyed
• FIX: An issue with AI moving between regions and incorrect data saving
• FIX: An issue with entities not being saved correctly when added for a mission or via region merging
• FIX: Scavenger and mining vessels dropping their target incorrectly
• FIX: Missing hangars on Odyssey and K'Cateran vessels
• FIX: An issue with region regeneration
• FIX: Tractored AI from not being able to stop spinning
• FIX: Incorrect AI distance calculation that was preventing them from moving when firing weapons
• FIX: Several issues with AI saved file data
• FIX: Several issues where entities moved between regions would lose their associated AI element on universe load.
• FIX: Several issues with tractor flotsam regions.
• FIX: Attractor mines should no longer attract vessels with neutral or better standing
• FIX: Icons incorrectly showing in the warp inset camera
• FIX: Entering a jumpgate should correctly ignore warp spoolup/spooldown times
• FIX: An issue with loading different templates with mounts of different types overlapping. Ex: having a venture and loading a different ship on top of it should replace mounts correctly.
• FIX: An error with editing control groups
• FIX: Hull replacement using wrong levels when spawning vessels
• FIX: AI insta-warping if they had no direct line of sight to their target warpout spot during fleeing
• FIX: An issue with mission panel details missing
• FIX: Label "no missions in conflict" incorrectly being displayed after a conflict has finished and missions have resumed
• FIX: Shields will no longer spam activation failure effects for shields without enough power
• FIX: Shield activation failed effect would not show if shield was not previously active

Removals

• REMOVAL: Removed "get spaced!" response from many of the dialogues
• REMOVAL: Removed all codex references to wormholes
• REMOVAL: Removed a significant number of language entries that were no longer needed. This should speed up loading and make any translation efforts easier.
• REMOVAL: Removed any mention of "chaos" including stats from the stat tracker

COMING BETA 12

In BETA 12, the long awaited mission revamp will begin. We will be using some of the newer processes as well as some hard gained wisdom and insight into improving missions from the ground up.

[ 2022-10-18 17:54:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Space Impossible BETA 11 Pre-Release has arrived. Conflicts are back! Star systems can now be in conflict between two factions and are a great way to gain standing with those factions. When a conflict is finished, the system experiences a period of regeneration, with better prices and rare traders becoming available. Conflicts can occur between the current system owner, and the faction of a neighboring system (neighbors via jumpgates count too). Once the conflict begins, special battle fleets will spawn, and battles will erupt throughout the system. These look similar to distress calls, but have a pair of crossed swords (forming an X) in the middle. As distress calls, battles and just general mayhem happen, a faction will gain conflict points. Whichever faction reaches the goal first, wins. A battle finishes once all the ships of a faction are destroyed (all bridges) and if the player captain participated, they can earn extra faction and special faction reinforcement beacons. Or just sit there out of range and let them fight, and steal their wreckage, that works too. There are unique distress calls, either asking for parts or for a ride related to the conflict that will spawn too. Systems must be level 3 (bonivium) or above to be eligible for conflicts. Other changes include some significant dynamic region re-working, where regions (fleets, stations, asteroid fields) can now merge and separate depending on the actions within the regions. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and universes created may not be compatible with the final release. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/29/3391798007034329347/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/29/3391798007034327156/

[ 2022-10-06 19:35:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 10 is here. With it brings some further improvements to the recently added universe generation, some general fixes, balance changes and most importantly of all (to some at least), the ability to assign the same weapon to multiple weapon groups. You can discuss BETA 10 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Universe Generation & Customisation

Following, BETA 8 and 9's new player feedback and internal impressions, a number of improvements to universe generation have been made. You can now control more discrete elements about universe generation, including most importantly, the starting state of jumpgates, ranging from every gate locked to every gate starting unlocked. We have also tweaked star system cluster size and distribution to better ensure there's always something to do, and ensured universes offer alternate choices in advancement. We have also done a number of behind-the-scenes tweaking on things like orbits to ensure better and more consistent region placement throughout.

Weapon Group Changes

Also a long requested player feature is now an option: weapons can belong to multiple weapon groups.

Bigger Mining Options

Finally, larger mining particle cannons have returned, with updated balance to match current standards. They cannot be manufactured, so be sure to check mining outposts. There are a few general fixes and changes based on initial BETA 8 feedback as well.

Details

NOTE: Changes marked with were inspired by feedback or bugs found by the community!

Additions

• Added ability to put a Weapon into multiple weapon groups
• Added arm count and size parameters when creating a universe
• Added galaxy center size when creating a universe
• Added disorder and ruin choices when creating a universe
• Added jumpgate starting state choices when creating a universe
• Added star system cluster size choices when creating a universe
• Added star system purpose to tooltips on the galaxy map

Changes

• CHANGE: Default universe now generates with 50% gates unlocked for same level. This is configurable on universe creation.
• CHANGE: Large and Gig. Mining Laser and Cannon variants are back and updated to current balance, these can be found on certain traders
• CHANGE: Made improvements on how system purpose is selected to reduce unnecessary redundancy
• CHANGE: Made improvements in how systems are generated and linked via gates
• CHANGE: Tied lawless/pirate spawning systems into disorder, higher the disorder, the more likely a system is to be wholy controlled by lawless or sixiser pirate
• CHANGE: Improved abandoned station spawning in high ruin systems
• CHANGE: Adjusted a number of buy/sell entries for some trade items
• CHANGE: Mining Stations' regions now appear as "Mining Outpost" instead of an asteroid region to help with easier identification
• CHANGE: A number of region position improvements to reduce the amount of overlap and better utilize orbit spacing
• CHANGE: When loading a template from file, missing items can now be ignored and Patch Hull will be used for missing tiles.
• CHANGE: Based on player feedback, we are experimenting with an altered first gate boss. It is still intended to be a challenge, but total size is reduced and components are better organized to be a bit more easy to knock out.
• CHANGE: Adjusted initial boss behavior to give players a bit more time to react
• CHANGE: Colony and Entertainment systems can now show up before level 4

Fixes

• FIX: Scrapper Yard should no longer appear with Lawless faction
• FIX: Game will now better batch building errors to lessen (or ideally eliminate) multiple duplicate messages during building/loading templates.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with AI controller not being set correctly, preventing a gateboss from correctly hailing a player on its entrance.
• FIX: Fixed ruin & abandoned station region templates not showing up when they often were correctly best choice.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where fleeing AI ships were incorrectly cycling between combat and flee behaviors
• FIX: AI that you previously hailed will not hail you on entering range

COMING IN BETA 11

In BETA 11 we will be re-exploring system conflicts and chaos as well as continuing to process feedback.

[ 2022-07-12 19:06:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again! Space Impossible's BETA 10 pre-release is here, and in usual form, here is the overview of what has changed or improved. Following, BETA 8 and 9's new player feedback and internal impressions, a number of improvements to universe generation have been made. You can now control more discrete elements about universe generation, including most importantly, the starting state of jumpgates, ranging from every gate locked to every gate starting unlocked. We have also tweaked star system cluster size and distribution to better ensure there's always something to do, and ensured universes offer alternate choices in advancement. We have also done a number of behind-the-scenes tweaking on things like orbits to ensure better and more consistent region placement throughout. Also a long requested player feature is now an option: weapons can belong to multiple weapon groups. Finally, larger mining particle cannons have returned, with updated balance to match current standards. They cannot be manufactured, so be sure to check mining outposts. As usual with a Pre-Release, the final BETA 10 build will be released once we're happy the state of the game is bug free, sometime probably next week. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and universes created may not be compatible with the final release. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/28/3412055301122084621/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/28/3412055301122082145/

[ 2022-07-01 15:57:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 9.1 is here. As a .1 release, it is a bit smaller than the usual full version release, but the changes are still significant enough we felt that they couldn't wait for BETA 10. There are an assortment of improvements and bug fixes, ranging from UI elements to jumpgate travel. You can discuss BETA 9.1 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Jumpgate Travel

You can now jump across multiple systems when using a jumpgate. Tedious system by system backtracking is no longer required.

Other Improvements

Cut to the chase with traders. The Inspection panel now has a button that will appear which can let you get right to trading. We've also heard your feedback about the general levels of repetitive chatter, and AI has been told to shut up, and as a result, we have reduced the amount of redundant messages. There are a few general fixes and changes based on initial BETA 8 feedback as well.

Details

NOTE: Changes marked with were inspired by feedback or bugs found by the community!

Additions

• Added the ability to transit to any unlocked and visited jumpgate when entering a jumpgate. This will allow you to travel much faster to previous destinations which we feel is fair.
• Added some map improvements including better zooming and panning
• Jumpgate and transit lines on the universe map now show "locked" status
• Added button to inspection panel for quicker trade initiation
• AI now keeps track of how many times it and its faction has talked to the player. This should result in less redundant hails
• Boss icon will now show in systems even if not previously visited
• #load-template-exceedslimits-title and #load-template-exceedslimits-msg have been added to the language file
• Added /sv_itempickcoeff for item pick up multiplier. Note: Previous was 1.2, and it is 2.0
• Added a "Edit Weapon Group" button that now toggles Weapon Group editing. You can use the mouse or the button numbers to switch groups, and mouse click the weapon component to add/remove it from that group.

Changes

• CHANGE: Warp spooling no longer affects jumpgate entry and vice versa
• CHANGE: Significantly lowered Independent Trader station's price mods and trade item availability. This should make it less profitable to just flip items from one station to another within a Trader's Drift.
• CHANGE: Jumpgate spoolup time is now 3 seconds (from 9) to match warp spoolup
• CHANGE: System discovery info is now sent to the player when necessary, this should result in correctly labelled systems in the universe map
• CHANGE: Increased default item pickup radius multiplier, also changed Enhanced Magnetic bridges to be multiplier based instead of flat value. This means all vessels have a larger pickup radius, some slightly changed, others significantly changed.

Fixes

• FIX: Player tractoring/attacking/taking inventory on their own vessels should no longer cause AI to become hostile
• FIX: Issue with "de-icing" distress calls that allow for some accidental damage on hull tiles before the vessel becomes hostile
• FIX: Incorrect coloring of map elements after first use has been corrected
• FIX: "M" keypress was not closing map correctly in certain situations has been identified and fixed
• FIX: Tractoring distress-call vessels should no longer attack the player when entering a new region
• FIX: Several issues with "ai hostile weapon avoidance" should produce more desirable and understandable behavior from the AI
• FIX: Item icon for Proximity Mine Mk 4 has been corrected
• FIX: The action bar may not have been behaving correctly (unable to switch weapon groups, not appearing/updating) has been identified and fixed
• FIX: A possible issue with AI pathfinding in region has been identified and fixed
• FIX: Turns out AI was using an incorrect shield thrust modifier, making them move slower than they should have

COMING IN BETA 10

We will continue to process BETA 8 (and BETA 9) feedback. Will also continue to improve universe generation.

[ 2022-05-16 19:19:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 9.1 unveils some improvements based on recent feedback from BETA 8 and BETA 9 as well as a few bug and balance fixes. With the way the universe now works, sometimes getting somewhere took too long. So we are changing that to allow you to travel to any previously unlocked and visited jumpgate when entering a jumpgate. That means if you travel from System 1 via Gate A to System 2 via Gate B, all the way to System 26, you could now travel all the way back to System 1 in one transversal. Additionally, we have made a few map improvements for panning and zooming to make the things a bit easier to control. We have also heard your thoughts on hailing, and we have done a bit of pruning. General messages will usually appear once per region, but repeat visits will usually not produce hails. Vessels and stations of the same faction will better coordinate now, and not bombard you with hails either. Exceptions include doing things that anger them, or hails considered critical like distress calls. Trading also gets a bit streamlined with a new, optional "Open Trade" button available on the Inspection screen, same area as the Manufacturing or Construction buttons. There are a few AI improvements, with them better understanding relationship between the a player and the player's vessel, and some other player actions that were previously misunderstood. Finally, a few changes to the Independent Trader trade tables have been made, making it far less lucrative to trade from a Trader's Drift station to another. Independent Trader trade ships and other faction's trade tables are unaffected. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and universes created may not be compatible with the final release. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/27/3270186971441446774/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/27/3274688023485017382/

[ 2022-05-06 17:06:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 9 is now ready to go. This is a smaller, more technically focused update, with the main improvements being centered around ease of multiplayer sessions. You can discuss BETA 9 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Steam Networking

We have added in support for Steam Networking, a great feature Steam offers, that allows players to now host game sessions and it "just works" mentality. Port forwarding is no longer necessary when playing outside a LAN environment, so you can just fire up the game, start a multiplayer session, and have your friends join from the Steam friends list. There is also a "Join via Steam" button built directly into the game as well. The previous networking still exists and continues to work, so joining via IP is still an option for those who choose to do so (it is still required for dedicated servers). Singleplayer sessions are entirely unaffected by these changes and will continue to work as before.

Background Improvements

Along with the addition of Steam Networking we have also added in some background visual changes that were in the works since before BETA 8, that we have finally had time to polish up. These changes affect how the background objects are calculated and displayed on screen, shifting from an "always star" focused approach to "local object" approach. It also shifts objects out of the very center of the screen, significantly improving visibility in certain situations. Finally it casts background objects in different phases of lighting, making things far more interesting than before. Also in general some tweaks to asteroid ring rendering. There are a few general changes based on initial BETA 8 feedback as well.

Details

NOTE: Changes marked with were inspired by feedback or bugs found by the community!

Additions

• Added Steam networking. This allows players to host games and invite friends without having to deal with things like port forwarding on the router.
• Added "Join via Steam" button to menu
• Added the background improvements Background improvements

Changes

• Proximity mines and missiles will now check for faction standing before triggering. Neutral and above standing will not trigger. However, once triggered, they can damage whoever they may hit.
• AI less likely now to attempt to fly through an active beam weapon or tractor beam.
• Moved the mine field from Trader's Drift outposts to be further away than player warp in radius
• Reduced chance of AI ships spawning in asteroid fields (from 80% to 50%)
• Trader's Drift regions now start as "known", providing the orbit ring for easier finding.

Fixes

• Fixed components not being loaded correctly from template if previous vessel had a mount in same location
• Fixed an issue with disconnection messages not always being received
• Improved handling of errant unrelated game network data being accidentally processed by the game

COMING IN BETA 10

We will be processing most of BETA 8's feedback. Questions like weapon balance, method and ease of "traveling home", and universe generation options and tweaks are some of the topics we will be addressing.

[ 2022-04-14 16:11:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everybody! We are still gathering and listening and processing feedback from BETA 8's huge release. Overall, people seem to like the changes and improvements. That's good and makes us happy. Well, we have another improvement almost ready to go in the form of BETA 9. For a long time, in order to play Space Impossible with your friends, you needed to do some port forwarding and/or worry about your firewall. It worked, but for some it was too much. The game's underlying networking related systems are now stable and tested long enough that we are adding Steam Networking as an option. What this means is: when starting and playing a multiplayer game, your friends can now connect to you via Steam, and using Steam's networking backbone. No extra configuration needed. To use, all you have to do is be online on Steam, and start a multiplayer game. Your friend can now either join directly from Steam's Friends list, or in-game choose "Join via Steam" from the Multiplayer menu. This should make it possible for the many players who have said in the past "I just want to play with my one friend, but we can't get connected." Singleplayer and player run Dedicated servers will still use the existing networking, and function as before. Additionally, something for everyone, we are adjusting background object placement (moon, planets, stars, etc) and rendering. It is something Stuffie has been messing around with since late BETA 7, but just did not fit in time-wise, and now is a good time. In addition to minor tweaking of the lighting these objects receive, this change should improve background object placement to still be visually interesting and distinct, while less likely to hog the center of your screen and interfere with gameplay. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and universes created may not be compatible with the final release. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/27/3274688023485025509/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/27/3274688023485017382/

[ 2022-04-07 16:14:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch Notes

Changes

• CHANGE: Region decay time for temporary regions will now be reset to 5 minutes every time a player leaves as long as the region still contains previous player vessels including chopped off peices.

Fixes

• FIX: Trader Drift Fabrication section at level 5 now should have the Component Fabricator Mk. 5 instead of two general fabricators.
• FIX: Fixed debris field regions resetting their decay time to 30 seconds when re-entered regardless of if the region contained player vessels or items.
• FIX: Fleet regions should no longer engage the player as they are warping out of a region.
• FIX: Compacted Cargo Bays should now correctly show up for purchase with Independant Trader.

[ 2022-03-28 18:57:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=75k0PmVeWAM;full][/previewyoutube] BETA 8 has finally arrived! A long update in the making, this is one of Space Impossible's biggest updates yet. We have taken all that we have learned over the last few updates and applied it across the board to make it the best it has yet been. This ranges from universe generation and layout, combat balance, content balancing and embellishment, AI interaction and awareness, making faction matter more, manufacturing streamlining, construction improvements out the wazoo, performance improvements, rare bug fixing and more. It has been through a number of Experimental builds, which were a new thing for the game, but proved to be exceptionally useful, both to gather player feedback as well as try out things without the need to fully commit to them, and give them more time to get the bugs rattled out. For those who don't want to read the whole changelog, here's the TL;DR;

• Universe is now organized into clusters of star systems, ranging from 1 to 10 in number. Each cluster can then have one to several links to nearby clusters, accessed via jumpgates.
• Jumpgates must be unlocked. Gates only need to be activated once.
• New "boss battle" events will occur at the jumpgates when triggered.
• These bosses provide the items required to activate the jumpgates. They will drop several items, allowing multiple gates to be activated. Bosses have some unique and brand new weapons and capabilities.
• Cost of materials to build vessels and manufacture recipes have been overall reduced.
• Manufacturing has been streamlined, shifting to a focus on mobility and cost and less on logistics and base building.
• No more building integrity, instead Assemblers break down tile count, weapon mount and other mount count.
• Most stations now offer some kind of trade options.
• Trade items added, certain factions and traders will buy/sell at lower/higher prices.
• Most stations will allow you to use their Assemblers or Fabricators (Labs are now called Fabricators) for a price, or free with good enough faction.

The following changelog is huge, and may be missing something. We reached Steam's new post character limit and have had to leave the Fixes section to the forums that's how large it is. To aid in readability, the changes have been further broken into sub categories. You can discuss BETA 8 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

NOTE: Changes marked with were inspired by feedback or bugs found by the community!

Additions

UI & Graphics

• Added Navigation scanner to system view that shows enterable regions
• Added custom icons for Crystal and Begillium asteroid regions.
• Added floating tile damage text. Can be disabled in options
• Added floating faction reaction emojis. Can be disabled in options
• Key-binds can now be displayed within dialogue text
• Clicking transit lines on the Universe Map will now move your view to the other side of the link depending on where you click
• Added more descriptive tooltips to both warp and enter transit buttons
• Added a size badge to all component and mount item art so you can now see at a glance what slot it can fit into
• Added custom item art for all components that previous were re-using other art
• Added custom visual for corroded tiles
• Added improved particle FX capabilities and customization
• Added a server history drop down menu to the JOIN GAME screen
• Added ability to tab between JOIN GAME input fields

Gameplay

• Added a Warp Cooldown when exiting warp. Your vessel now needs 30 seconds before it is able to warp again. Settable using /sv_spooldowntime.
• Added sub-standings for Factions. Sub-standings are smaller steps between the more significant Faction standings that give incremental boosts. Currently they alter prices paid at Traders/Assemblers/Manufacturing
• Added a more accurate display of current faction standing to Faction panel (K)
• Added a banner to notify player when their faction standing changes.
• Added quick zoom out when holding down SHIFT and pressing the Quick Zoom key (Z)
• Player actions will now have a more dramatic but temporary effect on your faction standing within the region they take place. AI relations in a region will return to your main faction standing after 2 minutes as long as you leave that region.
• Added completely new Universe Generation. The 'Universe' is no longer a continuous field of star systems and instead now has shape and is formed from clusters of star systems connected by jump gates. When creating game you can select from several options to generate the universe.
• Added completely new star system generation. Systems on average are more condensed. Systems are generated from a purpose and mutated with templates rather than completely random giving better control and making different purposed systems unique. Regions are now better placed and can share orbits
• Added Component Recovery. Unslotting components from a ship you do not own or have full access to now requires "Recovery". Recovering a component no longer guarantees it will drop but will give you a chance to get it otherwise it will drop parts.
• Added capability to trigger and spawn region events (not yet used)
• Added new look and several variants for jump gates
• Added a tile replacement system that is used for more "procedural/random" object tiles - not all ore asteroids will look the same anymore
• Added improved dialogue and event triggering system
• Added Disorder and Ruin level to systems. These levels determine which regions spawn
• Added improved dynamic region spawning that gives much more fine grained control of what spawns, how much etc. Dynamic region spawns are now also different depending on the type of system you are in
• Updated universe unique spawn backend (Madd's stuff) for more flexible usage in the future
• Added ability to L-Click items in space to pick them up to the mouse cursor. This should help players who accidentally drop all their cargo bays. Items on the mouse will be dropped when entering warp.

Ships, Station, Component Content

• Added a significant amount of new stations. There should now be a custom station for all purposes, levels and factions. Most stations are now significantly larger than previous and much harder to destroy
• Added Independent Trader Drift Stations - These will spawn in almost every system and include many of the facilities you need and will likely be your main refuge point within a system
• Added some recon/listening outpost satellites for the main factions. These are meant to be smaller stations that are easier to destroy and can show up in systems other than owned by that faction
• Added new Scrapper faction and Scrapyard regions
• Added iced up wrecks in some icesteroid regions
• Added 20 new mining ships. 5 for each of the main factions
• Added 26 new trade goods items used only for trading
• Added Gate nexus objects with a special Mysterious fabricator that will appear next to Jump Gates.
• Added Neutronium tile which is an indestructible immovable tile type
• Added "Dimensional Invader" bosses
• Added "Spacebuck Chit" items that can be consumed to be given money (Not currently available in game)
• Added "Station Hulls" - High health but high mass tiles used for stations
• Added custom "Madd's Railgun" for Madd
• Added Ore for each metal. Ore asteroids now spawn with one or more of these ore tiles.
• Added new Begillium asteroid fields which are the only place Begillium can be found. These have a higher chance to spawn around gas giants and are in general much rarer than the other types
• Added several new variations of crystals asteroids
• Added Capital ships to some fleet regions

Construction

• Added ability to switch and choose inventory source when in construction. The Inventory source determines where both items come from (and appear to select) as well as where items go when they need to be returned. Inventory source can be selected using the buttons in the upper right of the construction UI, these options currently include (in order left to right): -Creative (if creative mode is enabled) -Your Vessel. -Assembler(If different than controlled). -Target Vessel(If different than controlled). -Items floating nearby in the world. This includes items within a 300 radius area from the grid center as well as the current assemblers assembly range.
• Added "All Components" list filter option to PLACE COMPONENTS mode in Construction.
• Added Quick Repair option when picking Assemblers this will repair all damaged tiles without having to fully enter Construction. Quick Repair from an AI Assembler may sometimes require you to pay a fee.
• Holding F in construction enables a "fill bucket" mode. The fill bucket works similar to that found in paint applications. Example usages include filling a hole with tiles when in PLACE TILE mode, replacing a large patch of coloring when in PAINT TILE mode, or replacing one tile type for another when in PLACE TILE mode.
• Added a multi-tile brush capability to construction. Using [ and ] will now allow you to increase/decrease the size of a square "brush" allowing you to place or paint many tiles at once.
• Added a new "CLEAR UNCONNECTED" button to the construction UI. Pressing this will remove any tiles/components not connected to the main piece, these are highlighted in red and are usually removed once leaving construction.
• Added some warning info in construction when some components are un-powered or mounts do not have enough tiles under them
• Added box selection capability to construction. An area can be selected using the middle mouse button. Clicking any other mouse button will clear the selection. Pressing the following key shortcuts you can perform certain actions: -Delete - Performs a remove action based on current selected mode (ie clears tile in tile mode, paints only in paint mode) -Shift+Del - Deletes everything in the area regardless of mode -Ctrl+C - Copies everything in the selected area and converts it into a hologram that can be placed elsewhere on the grid (can be rotated with R or mirrored with X). -Ctrl+X - as above but delete the original area
• Added more detailed vessel stats in construction including max speeds in all directions, turn rates and more.
• Added ability to mirror cut/copied pieces in construction using X.
• Added Patch up Tiles. Patch up tiles are a really low health tile that are in infinite supply from an assembler. There should be no way to get patch-up hull as an item instead it is in the game for when loading templates with tiles you don't have or if you are in need of a quick fix when you don't have any means to get other hull tiles.

Manufacturing

• Added several new sorting options for recipes.
• Added tooltips for recipes.
• Added ability to pay to use an AIs manufacturing fabricators when faction standing is between Neutral and Friendly. At Friendly standing and above manufacturing is free.
• Added item icons to recipe tooltips.
• Inventory source for Manufacturing can now be chosen between the player controlled vessel and whichever vessel is currently being inspected. Right-clicking a fabricator icon in the Manufacturing window will switch inspection to that fabricator.
• Added special fabricators for each of the main factions
• Added several new specialized fabricators

AI

• Added new and improved Nav-mesh generation for AI pathing with less errors and better fitting around static objects
• Added improved weapon selection to AI. They now take into account all of the following: -If they can move/turn and how fast when selecting weapons -If a weapon is on cooldown -How long a weapon takes to charge -If the precise tile target is actually within the weapons arc
• Added new AI for scavengers that will seek out and mine wrecks near them
• Added new AI for miners that will mine asteroids within a region

Commands/Dedicated Server Stuff

• Added /sv_damagemult variable which allow servers adjust damage done globally. This can also be tweaked per player using player settings (/setplayeroverride) Added /sv_thrustmult which can be used to global modify thrust amounts for engines
• Added /sv_thrustcomadjust which can be used to adjust how much engine positioning related to center of mass affects vessel maneuvering
• Added /spawnsystem command
• When creative mode (sv_gamemode 1) is enabled leaving system allows warp to any discovered systems
• Added /regenerateregion command to regenerate all objects within a region
• Added /spawnprojectile command
• Added /removeprojectile command
• Added /setregiontag & /removeregiontag commands
• Added /setregionoredensity
• /spawn can now except an entrytype argument
• Added /sv_recoverchancemult - multiplier for component recovery chance
• Added /sv_damagemult - multiplier for damage done
• Added auto complete to /help
• Added /saveuniverse command to let admins force save universes.
• Added /sv_disabletileloot used to prevent items (including components) dropping from tile destruction.

Other

• Added lots of extra logging and error handling behind the scenes to try and track down the causes of some of the rarer bugs found by the community
• Improved localization to detect missing entries and added almost all text to localization files
• Added a meta data system to objects that allows us to attach more information without worrying about affecting all current and future objects
• Added additional logging and error handling for missions
• Added more detailed network info to F2 screen (Windows only).

Changes

UI & Graphics

• CHANGE: Overhauled look of tooltips with the addition of item icon as well as making the main body of the tooltip a fixed color to improve readability.
• CHANGE: Increased visibility of your own ship while cloaked. Note that how you see your own ship while cloaked is not how other players will see it.
• CHANGE: Space stations and other enterable regions now re-scale with zoom similar to how fleet regions always have
• CHANGE: Region coloring now matches faction standing when faction is known.
• CHANGE: Tooltips will no longer type out. This was a nice effect at first but with ever growing tooltips we have changed them to a fast fade-in/out to make it easier and faster to compare multiple items
• CHANGE: Tooltip is less likely to fade out when hovering between items resulting in a much better experiences when looking through inventories or trying to compare items in construction
• CHANGE: Changed all UI button hover and press sounds
• CHANGE: Changed color of reactor energy overlay hi-light so its more obvious what tiles the hovered reactor is affecting
• CHANGE: Energy overlay is now slightly transparent so you can get a better sense of the tiles underneath
• CHANGE: Orbit rings in system view no longer show when objects parent is not a moon, planet or star
• CHANGE: Tweaked graphics of asteroid rings in system view + map so they have a less hard more realistic edge
• CHANGE: Improved multiplayer disconnection message popup to be less general.
• CHANGE: When the map is open WASD etc will no longer move player ship / suit / region in the background.
• CHANGE: Pressing return/enter on JOIN GAME screen input will now auto join game
• CHANGE: Main game camera no longer renders when viewing fullscreen universe map to help with performance
• CHANGE: Altered the Warp screen loop gfx to avoid some issues that were happening in specific scenarios

Gameplay

• CHANGE: Faction standings have been reduced to 5, Hated, Disliked, Neutral, Friendly and Ally
• CHANGE: Faction standing effects and thresholds have been temporarily unified across all factions, note that this is likely to change in the future.
• CHANGE: Initial player faction standings have been changed
• CHANGE: Faction standing now effects the price of items when selling to or buying from traders, the price of assembler passes and the prices to craft using AI labs.
• CHANGE: Faction information is now almost entirely sent from the server which will allow more custom faction balance per server or even entirely server driven factions in the future.
• CHANGE: Taking inventory items from factioned inventories will now count as an aggressive action.
• CHANGE: Selling to a trader now has a base universe wide price modifier of -50%.
• CHANGE: Altered faction price modifiers which in combination with the above means you should no longer profit from simply buying and selling back to a trader over and over again.
• CHANGE: Condensed levels from 1-100 to 1-5
• CHANGE: Changed how you transit between systems. A "Leave System" button will now show and can be pressed when outside of the stars gravity well. Leaving a system will now bring up the universe map allowing you to pick one of the (up to 8) neighboring systems to travel to. Exit position no longer matters as you can transition to any neighbor
• CHANGE: Improved region template selection
• CHANGE: Stars, Planets and Moons are no longer enterable regions
• CHANGE: All enterable regions now have to be entered via RMB / engage mechanics. You can no longer collide with or fly into regions
• CHANGE: Streamlined variety of region types. Removed ones than didn't have a good visual difference as well as adding some new ones
• CHANGE: Updated many region icons
• CHANGE: Factions at disliked standing will no longer attack on sight and will be willing to trade but at significant cost penalties
• CHANGE: Split off pieces from vessels will now retain their faction knowledge - be careful recovering components while other faction members are around
• CHANGE: Fleeing ships that warp out will now spawn a short duration fleet region rather than simply vanishing
• CHANGE: Paying a pirate bribe will now give you as temporary faction boost allowing you to trade with the pirates in that region (albeit at disliked standing)
• CHANGE: Weapons will now fire through/ignore projectiles that have the same faction as the weapon owner
• CHANGE: Patrolling fleets will no longer engage with a player region that has just left/is leaving a region to give the player time to react
• CHANGE: Adjusted Independent Trader relations with other factions. There are now more factions neutral to them
• CHANGE: Leaving or dying in a fleet region will split the fleet off leaving a debris field with any items or ships that were unable to warp away. This is still a temporary region but will make it easier to retrieve your stuff
• CHANGE: Players now start in Herman's region. Herman has been given an assembler and fabricator you can use
• CHANGE: Starting ship re-balanced to have weaker components to give a first upgrade path
• CHANGE: Player starting money is now 1000 instead of 100
• CHANGE: Herman starts with 5000 instead of 500 space bucks
• CHANGE: Complete re-balanced of Traders, from pricing to what they sell. Traders will now also buy and sell specific trade goods
• CHANGE: Complete re-balance of loot. There is now custom loot per faction as well as a general reduction in item counts found
• CHANGE: Weapons can now have custom splash damage falloff. This means for instance the Mining Particle cannon damages tiles much deeper into asteroids
• CHANGE: Ship wreck regions now spawn a greater variety of ships
• CHANGE: Abandoned station regions now have more variation depending on station type
• CHANGE: Trade ships will generally have less money and items available than they used to
• CHANGE: Fleet regions now reveal faction once they enter scan range
• CHANGE: By default engine position relative to the center of mass should have less (but still some) effect of maneuverability. This can be tweaked with /sv_thrustcomadjust
• CHANGE: Missiles now get launched in the direction of the mount and steer towards target rather than heading straight towards it
• CHANGE: Regions can now spawn objects of factions other than the regions faction based on their relationship to that faction. Say hello to Ticeroy traders in EU regions.
• CHANGE: Missions will no longer override regions - This was creating many problems and bugs. Missions will now either spawn objects in existing regions or create new regions.
• CHANGE: Missions now use all the new BETA 8 generation systems to better place regions. No more random floating asteroid fields.
• CHANGE: Vessels that are part of missions are now tracked between regions. This means a fleeing target will no longer immediately fail the mission, instead you must track them down in warp
• CHANGE: "Destroy X of Y" type missions will now more precisely break down what objects need to be destroyed and how many are left once the region has been entered for the first time
• CHANGE: Star System is now named after its star rather than coordinates
• CHANGE: Control groups are now saved and loaded from construction templates
• CHANGE: Players will be placed next to their home station when spawning rather than at the warp in radius
• CHANGE: Dynamic regions are now forced to spawn if none have spawned for a player in at least 2 minutes and they are not at capacity
• CHANGE: Distress call that used to require robo-servants now requires reactor parts to match dialogue
• CHANGE: Increased faction reward per crew hand-in to unify the reward closer to that of other distress calls
• CHANGE: Madd / Boss icon is now always shown above Madd's region in system view
• CHANGE: Disabled most key presses when either the "E" or respawn menu is up similar to when maps are up.
• CHANGE: Reduced the amount of Ore asteroids found in non-asteroid regions
• CHANGE: Sixiser pirates can now sell narcotics but only to those with friendly standing.
• CHANGE: Reduced length of engine trails for engine thrusting in the opposite direction to which they face
• CHANGE: Re-balanced cooldowns of Missile Shields.
• CHANGE: Madd will no longer have traders in Pirate systems.
• CHANGE: Updated many of the codex topics. Removed some outdated topics.
• CHANGE: Changed faction icon for Lawless faction.
• CHANGE: Dialogue portraits should be more consistent when hailing and trading with the same vessel.
• CHANGE: Certain factions will now react much less or even not at all to friendly fire.
• CHANGE: Deuterium should no longer show up as a required mission item or in loot.
• CHANGE: Improved highlight outline on objects that have transparency.
• CHANGE: Reduced mass of Kelbium and Virmatite Hulls to improve maneuvering with larger vessels.
• CHANGE: Reduced cooldown for Gig. and Large Particle Cannons.
• CHANGE: Increased duration of Lasers.
• CHANGE: Reduced shields' negative effect on engines from 50% less thrust to only 10% less.

Ships, Station, Component Content

• CHANGE: Component slotting/unslotting outside of building now requires a press-and-hold to prevent accidental loss of components
• CHANGE: Increased starting cargo from 8 to 16. All other small cargo bays have also seen an increase
• CHANGE: Complete re-balance of all ships - older higher tier ships have now been re-balanced to be lower tier "Capital" ships
• CHANGE: Updated and re-balanced all turret objects
• CHANGE: Updated and re-balanced many misc object such as crates
• CHANGE: Complete re-balance of all components. Many components have been added some removed the changes here are too numerous to include in patch notes
• CHANGE: Altered several reactor patterns to make them more useful
• CHANGE: Delta singularity reactor pattern is no longer a dumbbell but instead it is a new Druminence specific reactor with higher power for a short distance surrounded by a negative power ring
• CHANGE: Shield extension enhancements no longer increase energy cost
• CHANGE: Shallow reactors now have the same reach as mediums but provide a lot less energy
• CHANGE: Graviton beams duration reduced so they no longer grip onto smaller ships as much as previous as this was quite annoying to play against.
• CHANGE: Lower level ships and objects may now appear in higher level regions.
• CHANGE: Ore from previous level will now appear on some ore asteroids
• CHANGE: Almost all stations are now traders
• CHANGE: Planetoid resources (Ferinium and Maridid) will no longer show up in level 1 asteroids and will be available in lower quantities increasing with level.
• CHANGE: Changes to station impacted by meteor distress call. Station no longer relinquishes control as this was too OP/exploitable. No longer has tractoring option due to stations being much harder to tractor now due to 10x mass change.

Construction

• CHANGE: Construction drones will no longer need to return to the Assembler between edits unless required to pickup items.
• CHANGE: Limited maximum number of Construction Drones allowed to be flying at once. This should improve performance spikes when loading large vessels.
• CHANGE: PLACE COMPONENTS list filter selection is now remembered when switching to and from another mode (such as Place Mounts).
• CHANGE: Removed the restriction that tiles must be placed next to other tiles in construction. This will still be enforced when leaving building but is no longer a restriction while building.
• CHANGE: Access to Construction of an AI station may sometimes now require an "Assembler Pass" this will grant you access to all the Assemblers in a region until you warp out.
• CHANGE: Currently selected item is now highlighted in the Construction inventory.
• CHANGE: Removed construction integrity system. Replaced with Tile / Weapon / Other Component Limitations
• CHANGE: Missing items warning when loading a template in construction can now be ignored, allowing construction to continue as best it can with what is available.
• CHANGE: Construction Template Autosaves are now saved in the client universe directory
• CHANGE: All build actions are now blocked while a template (inc copy/paste) is being constructed to prevent some annoying issues.

Manufacturing

• CHANGE: Renamed "Labs" to "Fabricators" to be more in-line with their actual usage
• CHANGE: Fabricator "Lab" Changes: -Removed Refinement "labs" and moved all relevant recipes into the new "General Fabricators" -General Fabricators will now always have at least some of the basic components. -Consolidated component fabricators into a single "Component Fabricator" for each tier
• CHANGE: Manufacturing a recipe now takes a short amount of fixed time. This is mainly to add "feel" and the recipe will be cancelled if the UI is closed. This is not the same as previous manufacturing time.
• CHANGE: When Manufacturing, Recipe Inputs are now taken from and outputs go to the current Player vessel instead of the vessel which has the fabricator.
• CHANGE: Manufacturing is now accessed from a vessels inspection panel rather than showing nearby. This is similar to BETA 7
• CHANGE: Opening Manufacturing in now done by pressing C on either the player vessel, or if moused over, the target vessel. This will show all fabricators associated with that vessel.
• CHANGE: Complete re-balance of all recipes - removed some, added others
• CHANGE: Input/output sources for manufacturing can now be different
• CHANGE: Recipes list order reversed so newer recipes show first
• CHANGE: Fabricators in manufacturing window are now also sorted by Mk.

AI

• CHANGE: Aggressive actions to an AI vessel will now anger not only that vessel but any of its nearby allies no matter your current faction standing.
• CHANGE: AI will now factor in nearby allies targets rather than just relying on faction standing. This means even if you are on a friendly standing with an AIs faction if any of that factions vessels are targeting you any other vessels will now consider you for targeting.
• CHANGE: AI Stations and Traders will now call for reinforcements based on how many nearby allies they have rather than the damage they have taken.
• CHANGE: Tractoring an AI entity that isn't in distress will now count as an aggressive action.
• CHANGE: Improved AI pathing and collision avoidance and upgraded to the latest libraries
• CHANGE: AI will now commit to a weapon it is firing. This is to prevent them cancelling long charge up weapons without doing damage
• CHANGE: Tweaked AI aggression values and added a modifier for same faction aggression to try and lower friendly firefights (as amusing as they can be)
• CHANGE: Friendly factions will now come to each other aid if they are in the same region. This also includes the player if they have high enough standing with that faction
• CHANGE: Traders will no longer target other ships or try and aid their escort ships unless they are directly attacked
• CHANGE: Trader ships now prefer to flee rather than request reinforcements if they are under attack and there are no friendly ships nearby
• CHANGE: Tweaked AI patrol paths so they have a higher chance of encountering the player rather than circling far out around the regions edges
• CHANGE: Reduced AI detection range. AI can no longer see you from across the region by default.
• CHANGE: AI that cannot rotate such as stations will be more likely to switch targets if they cannot hit their current one
• CHANGE: Fleeing AI will now be guaranteed to warp away (if they have engines) after 2 minutes. Previously they could take more than 5 minutes or as little as a few seconds.
• CHANGE: Enabled multi-threading for AI Pathing. Should improve performance when there are a lot of AI on systems with multiple processors/cores.

Commands/Dedicated Server Stuff

• CHANGE: /forcetraderrefresh will now refresh all Traders in the universe instead of just the current Star System.

Other

• CHANGE: Updated how time is handled internally so its more consistent with the universe. This should mean better ability to resume time checks (such as trader refresh) across savings/loading.
• CHANGE: In save file data, split out universe defaults from universe settings so balance changes in future patches can be applied instead of certain universe properties being locked in at universe creation.
• CHANGE: Improved performance as well as JSON readability on how things (loot, spawned objects etc) are chosen based on level
• CHANGE: Improved load times especially on CPUs with many cores. (I personally saw an ~70% reduction -Stuffie)
• CHANGE: Improved load smoothness
• CHANGE: Improved how things are randomly seeded across the board
• CHANGE: Reduced creation of unnecessary files
• CHANGE: Improved universe loading by loading less unnecessary data for systems
• CHANGE: Added some extra logging to catch the causes to some of the rarer problems players have reported.
• CHANGE: Altered some netcode to be more robust when connections are less than perfect.
• CHANGE: Split-off pieces are now optimized to smaller sizes to improve performance and memory usage.
• CHANGE: Split universe data saving, improving affecting performance.

Fixes

See Forum post (List is too long for news post)

[ 2022-03-17 17:42:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have just pushed a Pre-Release for BETA 8 to the test branch. Some big changes have finally arrived for Space Impossible. It has been a long time in the making and alters Space Impossible in a number of key ways. We have improved nearly every system in game, from universe generation, to core gameplay progress, to component access, to adding trade items and supply and demand, to component balancing, to AI weapon handling and pathing improvements, to fabrication of items and components, to adding component salvaging, to moving around the universe and much more. These changes have all been done in order to make the game more focused while still retaining the key Space Impossible spirit. It is the biggest update yet. You should recognize and feel familiar with all the controls, but what will be noticeably different is how advancement is made, especially if you are use to low-effort/low-risking it. You will have to leave the first star system much sooner than you could previously linger. Money is more integrated into activities now. You will find more places to spend it, as well as more ways to make it. Money will be more difficult to earn just via piracy--though it can be still lucrative. Factions and standing matter more now than ever before. There is far too much to go into detail here, but it's out there, and it's all a better play. Here is a brief summary of some of the changes:

• New universe generation, pick size and shape in more realistic inspired galaxy structures
• Improvements to game progression, making it clearer when you're improving while also eliminating some traps and other unintentional too powerful shortcuts
• Materials have been streamlined to reduce unnecessary overcomplication while still retaining variety and choice
• New ways to make money with trade items, new ways to spend money
• Fabrication overhaul, elimination of time element with addition of source and destination options
• A number of new vessel building improvements including UI overhaul
• New "boss" enemies to deal with
• No longer have to build/maintain a space station--though still an option if you want--as you move about the universe
• A huge number of AI improvements, from navmesh generation and pathfinding to weapon selection and battle tactics
• A slew of of new weapons
• Faction system overhaul, faction matters more than ever before and is more rewarding than ever too
• With all these changes, old universes will not be compatible, but many/most saved vessel designs should be.

If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and universes created may not be compatible with the final release. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/26/3187990390962727684/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/26/3187990390962724405/

[ 2022-02-28 17:52:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Hope December and the end of 2021 is finding everyone well. Space Impossible is making progress at our typical "never quite fast enough" rate. BETA 8 has been in the works for a long time, and incase you aren't on the Discord or keeping an otherwise close eye, nearing completion. We are being a bit more cautious with BETA 8 release, since it is the biggest change to the game since probably ALPHA 4->5. The universe is changing, how you move around the universe is changing, the pacing and progress for how you advance through the universe is changing, nearly every region and object templates have been updated/changed, weapons and other components all rebalanced, trade items introduced and emphasis added (for those so inclined). It is huge. And with huge comes bugs. As usual, we try not to release until we are confident in little-to-none significant bugs. To meet that standard, we have been releasing Experimental builds. You won't see news posts about these, but they are there (can find more info on Discord or the Steam Forums). We had a few at the start of BETA 8 development as we tested out specific system changes, but now we are also using them as we find and fix bugs found by us and some devoted players. We expect one Experimental build a week, give or take, through January, with the Pre-Release and full Release around the end of January or start of February. Once BETA 8 is finally done and released, we will talk in 2022 about what's coming for BETA 9 and BETA 10. We do not expect these to take as long as BETA 8. That's it for now, feast your eyes on some screenshots from BETA 8 if you haven't seen them yet. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and see you (and BETA 8) in 2022. RexSpaceman and Stuffie [table noborder=1 equalcells=1] [tr] [td]
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[ 2021-12-22 17:26:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Release Notes - BETA 7 Hotfix 1

Fixes

• FIX: Fixed dialogue options not showing when completing a chaos mission preventing you from ever being able to start a system conflict.
• FIX: Fixed END DIALOGUE option not showing in certain dialogues.

[ 2021-09-28 17:14:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 8 Update! The last few weeks has been a bit on the quiet side. Summer stuff going on and just the usual challenges. Here is what we've done since the last news post.

AI fixes

AI now properly weighs control groups and attempts to pick the best weapon for the current task (which is blowing stuff up). AI should make better choices about when to turn and when not to turn in order to bring weapons to bear. It now factors in weapon cooldown as well. It does mean some vessels with obvious weak/open spots will still be a bit of an issue--as in too easy--and we'll be updating those vessels.

Level and Content Changes

Going over the recent changes and we have decided to consolidate things down to five levels. This is to give a better "wide" experience, with more ships and stations per level as opposed to a "once you've seen it" type of experience seen before. This also means there should be better challenges per area, and no more easily acquired "biggest ship on the block" issues. Ores are also changing. It will now be the previously seen "one ore = one metal" connection, and no more ore->different metals refinement. Additionally we are making some reduction on the amount of crystal types that will be needed for manufacturing. Even broader, we've been looking at every recipe, every assembler, every fabricator (formerly lab) as well as the rest in an effort to make things better. It's a surprising amount of work, and it's just something that needs to be done. As always, we are working towards a soon(tm) goal for Pre-Release.

Power Level

We have also come up with some basic means of calculating relative player power. The game will now inform you if it thinks you're too low/weak for an area when you enter. This is loosely tuned at this time and is mostly meant to help newer/less experienced players who sometimes need an extra reminder about what they are doing. On a final note here is a gif of a small tweak to how missiles are launched inspired directly by feedback from the community:
Stay cool and enjoy.

[ 2021-08-04 17:04:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello. Hope everyone's summer off to a good start. We're still making good progress on BETA 8.

Adding Some Backstory

We're adding a bit of backstory to the game. For over a hundred years, the ancient jumpgate network has been used by humans and aliens alike to move about the galaxy. No one knows who built the gates and no one is really sure how they work. Then one day a month ago, they stopped working. This effectively severs parts of the galaxy away from each other, throwing it into regional shock. Now, some of the brighter scientists have discovered there is something stirring just beyond the gateways. Perhaps they are the cause of the disruption? Maybe they hold the key to re-establishing the network and resuming life as it was known? This is going hand-in-hand with the universe changes and how the network of jumpgates can be activated and used. Each gate, in a new universe, will be offline and require some work to re-activated and linked to its partner in another star system.
Lurking just beyond the dimensional cusp are a never before encountered type of beings, a parasitical race whose exact intentions aren't clear. But what is quickly discovered is they can be lured into normal space, and they hold the keys to the gates. Defeating, or making a deal with these beings, will be the difference between success and failure for you and all beings of the local star system. Don't worry though, each being will possess enough items to activate several gates so you need not do it for each gate (you can if you want), and the items will also be used in a number of distinct components. These encounters can be done alone or with friends present.

Other Changes

Additionally, following some good indepth feedback and some long internal debates, we'll be changing the "Lab" component to be named "Fabricator". The reason for this is feedback has repeatedly shown confusion over what is expected of this component type, and the slowly changing nature of the component since Prototype made it clear it was time to pick a name more suitable to its purpose.
We've also been doing some balance related thinking along with feedback mulling over and after some experimenting we're implementing "recovery". Recovery is the process of removing components from mounts that are not owned by, or directly accessible by you. Recovery has a chance of breaking the component, so give it an extra moment to consider what you want to do with wrecks or fresh battle-strewn chunks before you loot! If you really want something, it might be safer to drag it to a shipyard rather than just ripping it out then and there. Finally, we're still going over Manufacturing recipes (going hand-in-hand with the Fabricator change). Still a few weeks(tm) to go, but BETA 8 should be a real big update, possibly even bigger than BETA 1 was. We'll announce it when the Experimental build is ready right before the Pre-Release, so stay tuned.

[ 2021-06-09 16:50:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Universe Changes

We are ready to reveal the largest and most significant BETA 8 change: Universe generation.
When starting a new universe you will be able to pick from a number of options, and this will affect how the universe is laid out. It looks cooler, and plays much better. Star systems will spawn in clusters, and be linked together via jumpgates. This means you will have star systems to explore locally, but are no longer able to just travel aimlessly in one direction forever. Depending on some factors, you may be able to visit neighbor systems via the existing warp process, or you can find and use a jumpgate to move to the next cluster. You will also be able to determine things like size, and while there's no exact numbers fixed to size, universes can range from a hundred or so systems and go all the way up to several thousand, more than the average player visits in months of play. We will also be incorporating the new generation visualization into the in-game universe map. It should be much easier to visualize your journey and use to navigate, and above all, easy on the eyes.

Star System Improvement

On a similar note, we're looking at star system generation. Over the course of ALPHA and BETA we discovered that a multitude of similarity becomes tiresome quickly, and we're making systems a bit more specific and purpose driven. This should make economic elements more apparent for players wishing to make a career in trading, and just better gameplay overall.

Experimental

The experimental branch is proving to be a success and we've already received some great feedback from players. The latest build added some improvements to how AI communicate with each other as well as remembering opinions of you even after you warp away. If you're adventurous but haven't checked it out yet you can find out how here.

[ 2021-04-21 15:10:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another week, another BETA 8 Dev Progress Post. We're making progress, and the Experimental builds seem to be doing what we had hoped for. The next build is coming out along with this post with the recent changes, Manufacturing.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is seeing a few changes. First of all, time is going away. It was added back in ALPHA 5 as a way to promote base/intrastructure upgrading (want more stuff faster? have more stuff to make it). However that didn't really work out, and was off the mark. What we want is players to be able to make stuff, either to upgrade their ship(s) or to trade it, or to turn it in for a mission or objective. Manufacturing will also use your current vessel's inventory for both source and destination, so no more having to mess around with the other vessel's inventory. The Manufacturing screen will also show you all nearby labs, and their status (whether free or paid or unavailable due to a restriction), so no more shifting around.
Now with insta manufacturing, that now means using other ships/stations Labs is easier than ever. Much like Construction, you'll now able to pay for access to those labs. Faction standing will ultimately determine how much you pay, and payment will be done on a per recipe basis.

Faction Changes

We're also making some changes to the faction system. We're going to be switching to five standings (ally, friendly, neutral, disliked, hated) for simplification--after all, what really is the difference between disliked and untrusted? We will also be adding in some kind of visual indictator to the faction panel to better indicate exactly where you stand with each faction. Finally, we'll be introducing mini-faction standings, small little bumps that can help decrease/increase prices a little bit smoother. Next Progress Post we'll hopefully go into the universe changes. It's one of the more complex changes we're making, and it's taken some time to get working, but we're confident it's going to really be a great change.

[ 2021-03-09 18:36:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first release is now available on the new Experimental Branch on Steam.

What is the Experimental Branch?

The Experimental branch is a way for us to get playable builds out for new features and changes that may (or may not) end up in the final release. Experimental releases will be much faster and looser than the Pre-Release & Release branches with minimal Developer testing and changes that will will be: in-flux, contain bugs and may potentially never make it into final release. Unlike Pre-Release and Release builds we will not be posting news about updates on the Experimental Branch instead patch notes for Experimental will be posted to this Steam Forums Topic and in Discord The main purpose of experimental is to gain valuable early player feedback so please let us know what you think.

How do I try out the Experimental Branch?

You can find out how to access the Experimental branch here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/25/3109143313953708415/ NOTE: WE RECOMMEND A SEPARATE UNIVERSE FOR EXPERIMENTAL AS WE CANNOT GUARANTEE CONTINUED UNIVERSE COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN RELEASE & EXPERIMENTAL

[ 2021-02-24 18:57:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy February to everyone. We're a few weeks into BETA 8 development, and this one is shaping up to be a bit longer than BETA 6 and 7. We are going to share what's going on in a dev blog or two, and what to expect out of BETA 8 when it does arrive.
(note the construction drones are picking tiles up from space) Construction is getting a good looking over. We've heard the complaints (and have the design related headaches to prove it) concerning inventory storage juggling while building, and have decided to modify how inventory sourcing (where items come from) will work while building your vessel. You will now be able to pick where your tiles/components come from or get stored while constructing. Possible options are: Your current controlled ship, Current target (if editing other vessel), Assembler's inventory (if cargo access is available) and best of all: Local Space. That's right, items can now sit in space around the vessel and be used for construction. You will be able to swap out the source on the fly, and this should be a great aid for all ship architects out there. Universe and star system generation is getting an overhaul. It's been a while since we've looked at these, and we've come to the conclusion that bigger isn't always better. What's the point in thousands/tens of thousands of systems when most players visit about 20 on average, 100 at most. Even then, most of those visited are just taking up space, on the way to another destination. We want to make the areas you do visit better and make traveling more worthwhile so we're adding a better generation model that will produce better, higher quality layouts. Don't fret though, while it will be smaller on an absolute scale, there will still be hundreds of potential systems to visit and explore if you wish. Eventually you'll be able to pick a number of options, like size and shape at universe creation. We are also simplifying levels to a 1-10 scale. Truth be told, there wasn't much difference between a level 51 and a 59 star system, and what there was, it was basically impossible to tell while playing an average game. So let's make each level matter more. In addition to all that, we're going to be experimenting with a new Experimental testing branch. This branch will be less tested/less finished than Pre-Release, but should allow players who want to try the latest changes nearly immediately. It will be less consistently updated than Pre-Release, as it will probably see several builds over a short period, then none for weeks. We're going to try it out and see how it goes. First one will probably be early next week with the new construction changes. That's it for now. We'll have another post coming in a week or two for some changes to faction, manufacturing and travel as we confirm the specific details.

[ 2021-02-18 19:19:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 7 is here, and it brings a big overhaul to the Distress Calls and by extension dialogues. Distress Calls can now come in a variety of flavors: wrecks, derelicts, and ships actually in a distress situation. You can discuss BETA 7 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Calls of Distress

Ships in distress are a kind of "mini mission", which are typically brief ways to help (or harm) the vessel. They may request item parts, a tow to a friendly station, defense against attackers, extraction from undesired tiles, or transportation for passengers.
Additionally, most factions will accept Sixiser pirates or their ships for bounties, and the Sixiser will accept other factions ships and personnel for profit. Rewards typically consist of some faction and money. You are also free to go off the rails, and do whatever you want with the ships, and it follows the usual rules on hull destruction and strong arming vulnerable targets.

Improved Towing

Towing via tractoring (controlled ships cannot be hangared) between regions is easier now, with tractors persisting through warp, jumpgates and wormholes. To turn vessels in, you'll want to find an appropriately factioned space station, hail it, and pick the corresponding dialogue choice. Similarly turning in personnel is done at space stations too.

Wrecks

Wrecks can now spawn with debris clouds of items in space around the vessel, and it may or may not contain a data log, a small bit of story filling in how that ship ended up the way it did.
Derelicts, mostly intact ships, can also be found, but will be pretty rare. Overall there is approximately 30 new distress call scenarios and wreck logs, and a number of fixes and improvements along with tons of new text.

Details

NOTE: Changes marked with were inspired by feedback or bugs found by the community!

Additions

• Added ability to spawn items via region template, can now see items floating in space
• Dialogue can now have requirements to appear, ex: requiring a tractor component before showing a tractor dialogue response
• Added "foreign tile" concept to a vessel's tiles. This can be seen most obvious in the new distress calls where ice must be removed from a vessel before it can be saved. These foreign tiles will not trigger a hostile response from the vessel.
• Shipwrecks can now spawn belonging to factions that is not the current region faction
• Added a 'boss' discovery icon for Madd's Fleet when in System View
• Added data logs, these can be found among the items of a wreck. When picked up they will produce some dialogue, and can then be sold.
• People are now items. Certain distress calls can spawn evacuees that require inventory space. These people can be handed in at friendly (or certain not friendly) stations for rewards.
• Entering the range of certain vessels can now prompt dialogue, this is in addition to the existing on-enter-region prompts.
• Added ESC Menu button to top right button tray.
• Added ability to have tooltips for items and codex entries within dialogue to be more informative.
• Players can often utilize a "hey, wait" type of hail to encourage temporary peace from potentially hostile vessels. Hostiles actions during this period will cancel any temporary peace.
• Tractored objects will now remain tractored on exiting warp.
• Tractored objects will now remain tractored on passing through wormholes and jumpgates.
• Can now close tutorial window with ESC
• Added a distinction between item pickup and manufacturing completion notice. Completion now shows the recipe instead of the output count.
• Vessel hand in area lasts for 2 minutes, can be re-displayed if needed with another hail.
• For distress calls where the vessel asks to be freed, AI can now tolerate minor damage before becoming hostile when you tell them you'll help.
• CTRL + clicking a region icon while at warp will now add the region UID to chat (mostly for development and administrative uses).

Changes

• CHANGE: Overhauled wreck generation, it is now modular, allowing for more control over what the destroyed vessel looks like.
• CHANGE: Altered how player->ai dialogue is selected and processed
• CHANGE: Changed order of tile killing in the algorithm that calculates AOE damage from reactor explosions
• CHANGE: Did a number of behind-the-scene data loading and processing improvements for the new dialogue capabilities
• CHANGE: Improved faction calculations related to tile destruction. Bridge tiles are now fully accounted for.
• CHANGE: Dialogue will now evaluate their opinion of you when responding, so if they're currently shooting you, they're going to respond a bit differently than if they weren't.
• CHANGE: Items removed by dialogue will now use "Lost X" instead of "Received -X" phrasing
• CHANGE: Changed how dynamic regions (like distress calls and fleets) were calculating their time-to-live. This should eliminate any future regions from being "stuck around" even well after they should be removed. Also existing "stuck" dynamic regions should now decay properly once the universe is upgraded. NOTE: Regions with uncontrolled player vessels in them at game load will be immediately removed due to the changes, this should be a one-off event.
• CHANGE: Minor modification AI path patroling radius, affects mostly situations with large and fast vessels that weren't patrolling very well.
• CHANGE: Adjusted navmesh calculation for AI vessels. This should result in better patrolling and fleeing behavior.
• CHANGE: Adjusted AI rotation calculations. Hopefully this discourages the AI from over rotating in some specific scenarios.
• CHANGE: Adjusted AI local collision detection. Vessels should be more capable of squeezing into areas that are tight, but still passable.
• CHANGE: Overhauled warp transitions and inset window. Vessels should now be better centered and the camera position should better reflect who is present. Slight performance improvement due to removing any physics simulating objects that were present.
• CHANGE: Keybind displays in text and dialogue should now correctly fade with along the rest of the window.
• CHANGE: Min craft speed clamped to 0.1, this mainly affects the use of certain enhancements and the resulting "23 days" craft times.
• CHANGE: /runcmd Command now supports variables. Variables can be inserted by putting '%' in the script. e.g. "/spawn %1" will become "/spawn venture" if the file is run with "/runcmd file venture". The line "wait 1;" added to a script will make the client wait 1 second before executing the next line.
• CHANGE: /spawnai and /spawn now have an optional "check position placement" argument.

Fixes

• FIX: Fixed languages using older single file method not showing up correctly in options
• FIX: Fixed an issue with Traders possibly losing ability to trade, this should also improve trade template picking
• FIX: Fixed a bug in warp spoolup checks where the wrong system coordinates were being checked, causing other players to possibly not see the spoolup correctly.
• FIX: Fixed F1-F12 keys, and several others, not working when chat is in focus
• FIX: Optimized a number of dialogue related networking elements.
• FIX: Fixed several ship and station templates missing correct metadata, this may have been causing certain unintended mission or trader behaviour in the past.
• FIX: Fixed a major cause of menu related issues that were requiring multiple ESC presses to open/close menus.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with the CRC32 checking for multiplayer, this should be a tiny bit faster than before.
• FIX: Fixed an error that occurred when viewing a hail from a vessel that no longer existed.
• FIX: Fixed tractor beams not always displaying if they were forced on.
• FIX: Fixed a significant issue where on pressing the "X" for any Error popup window was preventing any further building/construction from taking place.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where players would possibly respawn in the default Venture instead of their correct saved ship when being forced out of a region (such as after a crash, tractor drop, or multiplayer shutdown).
• FIX: Fixed an issue with tractoring where tractoring data wasn't always being cleared correctly, mainly in multiplayer. If player 1 is tractoring player 2 and disconnects, player 2 should now be correctly untractored and free to move again.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with dynamic region spawning that prevented the region from despawning under certain conditions (if the game crashed when the region spawned, on reload the region wasn't fully saved and would have been broken).
• FIX: Fixed map screen when linking jumpgates requiring "X" being pressed twice to close.
• FIX: Fixed mouse item showing behind inset warp view.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with region discovery that in specific situations wasn't behaving correctly.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with manufacturing recipes incorrectly consuming input items and never producing output when a lab was removed.
• FIX: Fixed an error when receiving tractor data but in an EVA suit
• FIX: Fixed an issue with vessel orientation during tractor in warp if the tractoring player leaves game.
• FIX: Fixed engine trail display on/off state when in warp while tractored
• FIX: Fixed a graphics issue, this was occasionally seen in hanger enter/exit effects but also with the new vessel hand-in effect.
• FIX: Fixed linear splash direction, was incorrectly using world space instead of local tile space.
• FIX: Fixed item mass not be recalculated when sorting/transferring/component swap shortcut(via shift + click)
• FIX: Fixed placement of a fresh build area. It should be better at finding a nearby suitable area.
• FIX: Fixed enter key opening chat instead of accepting trade when trade slider window is open.
• FIX: Fixed cooldown display after the UI is hidden and later re-enabled.

COMING IN BETA 8

We have been talking about this internally for a while now and listening to player feedback, one of the big issues still facing the game is general progression. This ranges from manufacturing progress to combating appropriately challenging opponents. We will be looking at a number of possible ways to improve this starting with universe organization and layout as well as universe size.

[ 2021-01-14 19:10:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have just pushed a Pre-Release for BETA 7 to the test branch. BETA 7 brings some major improvements to Distress Calls.

Changes

Normally for a pre-release we would write this up in paragraph form, but let's try a simple summary of changes:

• Vessels in distress will not be immediately hostile unlike in the past. You will be met with a hail on entering the region too.
• Wrecks can now come with item debris spawned in space (composition of pool still in flux)
• Can still find abandoned derelicts, ships in a better state to take control of. Should be quite rare.
• A large probability of finding ships in actual distress. They may ask for parts to complete repairs, a tow to a friendly station, or a ride for their personnel in your cargo bay. There is also a situation where a ship becomes encased in ice (or other) tiles and require help in freeing them.
• You may find a data log for a ship.
• Rewards consist of faction and some money
• Pirates will accept other factions ships or personnel for pirate reasons
• You can always just blow up the distressed ship if you prefer
• Tractoring should now stay intact when leaving warp & jumpgates
• Lots of new text to add a little humanity (or alienness) to the distressed ships and stations

We're looking into a bug or two, fixed a few reported bugs from BETA 6 and will probably have the final BETA 7 build for first week of January. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/24/2995422855907664054/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/24/2995422855907653128/

[ 2020-12-30 22:18:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. We were hoping to release the B7 Pre-Release today, but it's still a bit too buggy. The rest of the week will be the Christmas holidays, and work will have to wait until after Boxing Day. But, what we can do is talk a bit about what is coming in BETA 7 and what's been done so far.
As a prelude to revamping missions, we first decided to tackle Distress Calls. These are one of the most obvious things in game, especially while at warp, and yet to date one of the weakest pieces of game content. We are hoping to change that. BETA 7 sees a number of changes to Distress Calls. Building off some work done in B6, Distress Calls will now not be immediately hostile. You may find a ship in genuine distress for any number of reasons. It could be missing its engines, reactors or more. It may ask for some assistance in the form of items, or it may ask for a tow to a near starbase or several other ways that you can render aid. Upon successfully helping the vessel, you will typically receive some faction and possibly some currency for your trouble. Like before, you will still have the chance of finding a wreck, but now the wreck may be littered with debris. There is now the chance of finding a ship's log, a small text log possibly giving some insight into how the ship or station ultimately met its fate. Of course in keeping with the Space Impossible spirit, you can always be a giant jerk and just blast and loot the vessel, the choice is yours. That's all for now, we're still aiming for a Pre-Release before or on Dec 31st, nearly reaching our stated goal. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[ 2020-12-23 20:20:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 6 is focused on general playing experience, for both new and existing players. Along with the usual smaller tweaks and additions this release adds Statistics, a new Tutorial system as well as the Codex, an in game reference manual. You can discuss BETA 6 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Statistics

The game now tracks nearly everything you'd ever want to know about your play experience. Everything from time played, distance traveled, enemies killed, deaths suffered and much more. Statstics can be viewed on the new Statistics screen (accessed with ;). This data is saved per universe, so each universe will be a different experience and may yield some interesting insight. To go along side these new statistics we have implemnted a behind-the-scenes event system. Its first use is for a new tutorial system, and detecting when stuff happens for the first time, giving you a one time popup with more information (if you want it).

Codex

The Codex consists of ingame reference material, with indepth descriptions and images detailing and explaining game mechanics, ranging from what Power is to topics like Construction and Trading. We hope this provides useful information for both new and existing players, with future updates to add more topics covering universe and game setting topics. As a note to those community members creating localizations in the workshop, in order to support the Codex, we've overhauled our language files to be far more robust, yet hopefully still easy to edit and understand. Also added a new number of special text characters and symbols for gameplay.

Missile Defense Shields

In BETA 5 we added Point-Defense Lasers as a means to protect against projectiles. Although these served there purpose we found that you always wanted them turned on and they acted unlike any other weapon. Therefore based on player feedback and our own dev gameplay experiences we have decided to replace these with a new shield, the Missile Defense Shield. Missile Defense Shields are a type of shield that will automatically intercept incoming projectiles, and function very similarly to the Point-Defense Laser weapons. These shields have a distinct shield graphic to differentiate from Energy Shields. Point-Defense Lasers still technically exist, and will still appear on custom vessels, but are no longer obtainable ingame without cheats. All vessel templates have been updated, and any newly spawned AI controlled ships will have the newer shields equipped.

Inertia and Rotation

Through play testing of the new missile shield we discovered a great innacuracy with how rotational interia was being calculated for a vessel. In brief rotational intertia or "moment of intertia" determines how much force is needed to turn an object and is based on how mass is distributed across an object (ie the further a heavy mass is from the center the harder it is to turn). BETA 6 now correctly calculates inertia based on Tile/Component mass and placement. To go along with this change Rotational force and strafing force is now almost entirely dictated by internal engine characteristics. All engines will now affect ship rotation and strafing regardless of their mount facing. Do note that the placement of Engines still matters greatly as an Engine further from the center can turn a ship with greater force (think of this like a big lever). This is fairly new and may have some unintended side effects, so please let us know if you experience any issues. NOTE: Objects with a reactor, but no engines, still retain some slight rotation ability.

Underlying Engine Updated

Due to a recent Windows Update we have been forced to update the underlying engine of Space Impossible. This is something we have tried to resist as it may have unknown consequences however we have checked the game as much as we can and there doesn't seem to be any major problems (it even boosted performance in a number of areas). Please let us know on the forums or on Discord if you encounter any strange new graphical bugs, crashes or any other problems that may have been caused by this change.

Details

Additions

• Added Statistics. These keep track of nearly everything you do while playing and presents it in a neat little ingame chart. They are per universe and are saved on the server if playing multiplayer.
• Added an internal event system. This works closely with the statistics system to detect when a specific event occurred, record it, and possibly spawn a player prompt for the Codex.
• Added ingame Codex. The Codex is a repository of information about game mechanics, terminology and general information useful (and not useful) for understanding the universe. Initial version covers "tutorial-like" topics to help players understand the basics of the game. In future updates, more topics will be added on things like faction backgrounds, special or unique people or places and other general interest topics.
• Utilizing the Statistics and Codex system, the game now features tutorial-like popups during gameplay. These can be clicked on to open the Codex to the relevant page. These popups appear once per topic per universe. They can be globally disabled in the Options menu.
• Added control "cheat sheet". This in addition to tutorial popups replaces the beginner tutorial and can be viewed from the menu again if needed.
• Change language formatting and added support for YAML files. It can now come in three different ways: [olist]
• Single file LANG file (for backwards compatibility)
• A directory of language of files. All files are combined on load with "last to load" priority on existing entries. Directory should take precedent when loading similar name languages.
• Same as #2 but inside a ZIP file. [/olist]
• Adjusted internal inertia calculations to be more accurate regarding mass of tiles and components.
• Engine thrust and placement now directly affects ability to rotate and strafe a ship. Better engines placed further out from the center will result in faster turn rate. NOTE: Objects with a reactor, but no engines, still retain some slight rotation ability.
• Added Missile Defense Shields and removed Point-Defense Lasers.
• Attackers now receive the correct credit for causing a reactor explosion, and any subsequent explosions (e.g. a reactor chain explosion).
• Control groups can now be saved and loaded with player made templates.
• AI vessels now use control groups for targeting and movement logic.
• All default vessel templates have been updated with control groups.
• Added an element to distressed AI vessels. They will no longer immmediately attempt to attack you, and instead hail you with a general "distress" style message, regardless of your faction standing with them. This will be further enhanced in upcoming releases. NOTE: They will still respond correctly if you are aggressive to them.
• Added "key highlighting" for UI text. This will hopefully make key button references more obvious when read in the text.
• Added ability to exit vessel for EVA in direction of mouse position.
• Added older recipes to higher leveled labs. This should minimize the amount of older Labs you need to maintain.
• The option to Begin a Trade is more clearly marked in dialogue.
• Added auto saving templates for during Construction. The vessel currently under construction will be saved when: on enter construction, up to three rolling saves every two minutes, and on construction exit. NOTE: This globally per client, across any and all universes.

Changes

• CHANGE: Updated underlying engine to a newer version
• CHANGE: Clarified some terminology: Reactors produce Power. Components require Power to operate. Energy exists as a kind of weapon and as a kind of shield.
• CHANGE: Clarified shield stat: "Shield Strength" is the max amount of damage a shield can take before collapsing and going into cooldown, was previously called "Shield Energy".
• CHANGE: A number of performance improvements including some reduced audio hitching and slight networking improvement
• CHANGE: Improved load template UI, preview window is now much larger. Added extra space for tabbed pages for more information in the future.
• CHANGE: Trader dialogue will no longer reprint the response options when refreshing text.
• CHANGE: Item sprites now share the same material, allowing render batching. This improves performance significantly when many items are floating around.
• CHANGE: Improved the performance on some combat related code to reduce number of entity lookups.
• CHANGE: Nav Scanner bars are now sorted in the UI. They should now correctly appear behind most other UI elements.
• CHANGE: Announcements/Notifications are now separate from item pickup and codex notices
• CHANGE: Web links in the UI now highlight to indicate its a clickable link.
• CHANGE: The ingame "Computer Panel" is now larger
• CHANGE: Added symbols in UI text for a number of game elements.
• CHANGE: UI text scrolling should now be more consistent regardless of height of the window and text content.
• CHANGE: Internal shield edges are now visible at a low opacity. This should help now when evaluating just how shield stacked an opponent is. This effectively eliminates the "invsisible walls" that occured when fighting larger/more heavily defended vessels.
• CHANGE: Starter Star system no longer will spawn Patrol Fleets as they were a bit to aggressive for the "early game".
• CHANGE: Key modifiers (shift, ctrl, alt) left/right variants are now treated as equal. That means whether LShift or RShift is pressed, they both equal the same thing.
• CHANGE: Recipe text filtering input is now auto cleared when leaving Manufacturing.
• CHANGE: Added a tiny warp rating to Outdated Ion Engines Mk. 1
• CHANGE: Reactor explosion sounds are now played at the source entity, and to play multiple explosions as one explosion. This should eliminiate the defeaning "MEGA EXPLOSIONS" sound that occurred when blowing up certain vessels.
• CHANGE: All inspecting players should now see a Trader's spacebucks count correctly.
• CHANGE: EVA action keys to 1 = Combat Laser and 2 = Repair Beam.
• CHANGE: Top Right Button tray is now uncollapsed by default.

Fixes

• FIX: Possible stackoverflow in weapon logic
• FIX: An issue that was causing some UI images to have a slight blur.
• FIX: /spawnbeacon now obeys owneruid parameter if at warp
• FIX: UI events are disabled if game window doesn't have focus
• FIX: Added some safety checks to the UI that should reduce the likelihood of the whole UI breaking if an error occurs.
• FIX: A rare issue that occurred when certain types of ingame events occurred immediately before or after dying.
• FIX: Reflector Cannons should no longer behave weirdly when bouncing inside of shields.
• FIX: An error with the paper doll incorrectly not appearing when it should appear.
• FIX: A number of input box related issues with certain keys.
• FIX: An issue with hologram gameobjects being incorrectly recycled. This was originally causing all sorts of rare issues, including phantom ships appearing.
• FIX: A rare issue on player connect that was causing desync and requiring a game restart/rejoin.
• FIX: An issue where playing a single player universe and then joining a multiplayer universe (without restarting the game program) was causing unintended issues.
• FIX: An error caused by removing the final lab from a vessel, while using text filtering and then closing Manufacturing panel was causing the UI to be unable to reopen Manufacturing. Say that five times fast.
• FIX: An issue with tracked missions disappearing from the Mission Panel under certain conditions.
• FIX: A number of general item performance issues.
• FIX: An issue with some button colliders being incorrectly offset once pressed.
• FIX: Double click incorrectly registering when clicking two different elements quickly.
• FIX: "Send Player Money" popup not always appearing when it should.
• FIX: Respawning now checks to make sure you have the target region and system before allowing respawn.
• FIX: An issue on the region server that was resulting in extra log spam when tractors were being used.

Removals

• Removed "Energy Available" from Reactors' tooltips
• Removed the old mini tutorial has been removed.
• Removed Point-Defense Lasers

COMING IN BETA 7

We feel we met our goals for BETA 6 in terms of improving the new player experience along with other improvements, and we further set the stage for future balancing improvements and early game changes. We did touch upon Distress Calls a bit, but we still want to do more. So coming up for BETA 7 we are going to focus specifically on further improving Distress Calls, as well as setting a target release date of: on or before December 31st.

[ 2020-11-19 20:31:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have just made a Pre-Release build for BETA 6 available. This BETA has taken a little more time than expected we had to add some critical systems as well as being sidelined by a Windows update which has forced us to update the underlying engine for the game. We hope everyone, whether brand new or experienced, will learn something new or helpful from the additions added in BETA 6.

Changes

BETA 6 brings a number of new quality-of-life features to Space Impossible. First and foremost is the Stats. The Stats will now show you metrics like exactly how far you have traveled, how many bad guys (and what factions) you've blown up, how many items you've sold and bought and much more. Second is the Codex. The Codex serves as both an interactive tutorial system as well as general ingame information resource. We believe this will help new players learn more about the game, while remaining in game, as well as provide some indepth information that even experienced players may not be aware of. On the AI front, in preparation for upcoming Betas, AI vessels inside of distress regions will no longer want to immediately kill you, even if they're pleading for help. This will be further fleshed out later, but for now it should ensure gameplay is closer matched to dialogue. Additionally AI vessels now have preset weapon groups, much like player vessels, and will attempt to use them appropriately. We have also taken player feedback and our own thoughts on shields and the point defense weapons and decided to make them into shields. Similarly on player feedback, we've added old recipes to higher level labs, which should cut down on the sheer number of required labs. On the technical side, in order to support the new Codex (and the continuously expanding amount of text), we've changed the formatting for the language files to a YAML based system. However, the language system will still load the older .lang file if a yml is not available. Also we have done some terminology clarification. Reactors produce POWER, components require POWER, and ENERGY is a type of weapon and shield. Finally, we have updated the underlying engine to a newer version. This has already shown some improvement in certain situations like networking, but there may still be a few side effects (mostly visual glitches) still to be caught and fixed. Typically we would not upgrade the version at this stage of development, but a recent Windows 10 update had a significant negative performance impact during development of BETA 6. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/23/2997669714007367923/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/23/2997669714007369655/

[ 2020-11-09 21:59:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 5.1 introduces some significant changes to projectiles as well as several community driven quality of life additions and fixes for bugs found in BETA 5. You can discuss BETA 5.1 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Projectile Protection

With the addition of more weapons in BETA 5, we realized that more and more weapons could penetrate shields, devaluing the use of shields overall. This was partly a technical limitation as well as intended design, when projectiles were first added. Now as time has passed, and sitting down playing the game, as well as listening to player feedback, we decided to add the ability for shields to block projectiles. This addition only affects the Plasma Launchers as of right now, which can be blocked from passing through a shield. Other existing projectiles, like mines and torpedoes will still pass through shields. While working on the ability for projectiles to hit shields we noticed another problem, even though the projectile was being blocked, the explosion was still damaging tiles. To this end, splash damage will now check "line of sight" and will not penerate nearby shields or jump across tiles, only those connected by free space should be hit. This will create more accurate explosions, but may appear to do less damage overall as less tiles may be damaged per explosion.

Zoom zoom zoom

Due to many community suggestions we have looked into adding better zoom control. This was not quite ready for BETA 5, but with a few extra days we have it all set. Not only does this release add the much asked for zoom key and zoom speed options we have also added a new "Quick Zoom" feature. "Quick Zoom" lets you easily zoom in to scan, inspect or change components without needing to crank the scroll wheel in and out every time. By holding down the "Quick Zoom" key (default Z) the game camera will zoom into the position around the mouse pointer, letting go of the key will return the camera to the last default position (most likely over your ship) and zoom level before it was pressed.

Community Fixes and Feedback

Thanks to our great community here on Steam and over on our Discord we have found and fixed a number of bugs for this update. We have also listened to feedback and included several quality of life changes.

Details

Additions

• Added the ability for certain projectiles to hit shields intead of ignoring them. All Plasma Launchers will now hit shields and damage them rather than ignoring them, all other projectiles are untouched for now.
• Explosions (such as from projectiles & reactors) will now do an improved Line of Sight check. Only tiles(and suits) with a clear path to the explosion location will take damage therefore tiles behind shields or behind other tiles may no longer be damaged by an explosion.
• Added a 'Quick Zoom' feature. When holding down the quick zoom key (Default Z) the camera will zoom in on the mouse position until you let go. Quick zoom lets you easily switch between an overall zoom for play/combat and then quickly zoom in on objects to inspect or interact with them and their components.
• Added key binds to Zoom In and Zoom Out. These are unbound by default and need to be bound in options -> input screen.
• Added a slider in input options to control zoom speed. Further to the right is faster.

Fixes/Updates

• CHANGE: Greatly optimized projectile networking, this will improve performance greatly when multiple projectiles are alive. This could have also caused projectiles to appear for longer than they should.
• CHANGE: Tiles can no longer be placed on top of existing objects while building. This also applies to loading templates but you will get a warning message before continuing as this can create an undesirable result.
• CHANGE: Optimized certain internal item lookups, this should improve performance and reduce hitching in a number of situations.
• CHANGE: Universe last access dates on the load game screen now better represent the date they were last loaded. Last opened universe should now show on top no matter what was done in said universe on last load.
• CHANGE: Added some extra logging to track down duplication issues reported by a number of players.
• CHANGE: Increased Assembler build radius on most assemblers.
• CHANGE: Game will now show a warning when removing a reactor in building if the reactor powers assembler currently being used.
• CHANGE: Game will now show a critical warning when launching from Construction and object is in a state that would prevent it being self-assembled in the future.
• CHANGE: A vessel's docking hologram should be better centered on the mouse now.
• CHANGE: Vessels in construction can no longer be split by external damage.

• FIX: Control group icons should now refresh correctly when leaving into a hangared vessel or transporting between two vessels.
• FIX: Construction actions that fail integrity check could cause UI to think component/tile actually placed prevent further components or tiles being added to that location.
• FIX: Added back missing cargo bays to 'Cruzer' trade vessel.
• FIX: UI Keybind elements will now display correctly when editing key.
• FIX: Medium/Large/Gigantic shields not collapsing correctly when certain mount tiles were destroyed.
• FIX: Leaving the edge of a wormhole/jumpgate while entering transit no longer causes an error and will cancel transit.
• FIX: Graviton beam graphics should now reach the full length of the weapons range.
• FIX: Warnings encountered when removing tiles in construction should no longer leave red hilight and block further tile construction on that tile position.
• FIX: Small graphics issue with plasma laucher muzzle flash.
• FIX: UI "out of inspection range" circle should no longer cut out other UI elements.
• FIX: Replying to dialogue of a vessel that has since been destroyed should now correctly reply with a "No Response".
• FIX: Arrows for an object that hailed but has since been destroyed will now be correctly removed.
• FIX: Fixed an error that could occur when looking for mounts after a resize.
• FIX: Fixed an error when filtering inventory if vessel had empty cargo bay mounts. This could cause certain UI to become unresponsive.
• FIX: Fixed an error when trader dialogue was closed due to a warp out while mid trade.
• FIX: Fixed an error when hovering over plasma projectiles in flight.
• FIX: Improved JSON logging and caught several bad JSON entries that were miss spelled or in the wrong place.
• FIX: Removed some redundant logging, this should improve performance in a number of areas.
• FIX: Tiles killed during construction by AI or other players will no longer leave those tiles marked as "built on" an prevent further tile placements.
• FIX: Altering search terms when filtering inventory should no longer leave strange gaps.

[ 2020-08-20 20:12:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

A Pre-Release build for BETA 5.1 is now available on the test branch. BETA 5.1 extends some features we laid the ground work for in BETA 5 but missed the release along with some long awaited quality of life additions and several fixes for bugs found by the community in BETA 5.

Changes

5.1 Adds the ability for projectiles to hit shields along with an improved line of sight check that prevents splash from explosions magically penetrating tiles or shields. For BETA 5.1 we have also listened to much community feedback regarding zoom. Along with adding key binds for zoom in/out and a slider to control zoom speed we have introduced a "quick zoom" feature. Quick zoom lets you easily zoom in to inspect or access components etc then return to your previous zoom with a press of a button. We would like to also thank those who have reported several bugs from BETA 5 and have included fixes to several of those in this release. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/22/4009846212734184176/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/22/2789369351344475415/

[ 2020-08-15 18:35:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 5 is an update that takes another pass at combat. Combat is a key part of Space Impossible, and while not the only point of the game, it needs to be as great as possible. To that end, BETA 5 adds two new elements to combat: new weapon types and a faction leader with unique components.
You can discuss BETA 5 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Expanded Arsenal

Several new weapons have been added along with some under-the-hood work that will make future weapon additions even easier and robust. The news weapons are:

• Rail Gun - Fixed aim, high damage, penetrating (goes through shields) gun weapon. Comes in Large and Gig. versions.
• Point Defense Lasers - Auto aims at projectiles within firing arc and attempts to destroy the projectile.
• Reflector Cannons - Reflecting variant of the Particle Cannon. This can bounce multiple times, hitting multiple tiles on the same or different targets.
• Plasma Launchers - Weapons that fire a salvo of projectiles and requires no ammo
• Graviton Beams - Pulls objects toward the shooter with a force. Different than tractor beams in that they only pull, and do not establish a constant link.
• Repair Beams - Fires several beams in a spread that can heal any affected tiles.
• Drag Field Projectiles - Projectile that when it detonates it creates drag field that will slow down any moving object that is caught within. Great for chasing escaping vessels.

Some of these new weapons can be manufactured, others must be found either via combat or trade. We will leave it up to you to discover which. A number of existing ship templates for various factions have been updated to use these new weapons.

The Universe has gone Madd

Madd's Marauders, a new sub-faction see their debut along with their Captain Madd the first faction leader added to the universe. Madd's Marauders are small but efficient. They are a group of merceneries widely popular for their unconventional tactics and lack of official accountability. Their leader and founder, Captain Madd, leads with a hands-on type of approach. Madd's Marauder fleets can be found roaming other faction systems.

Details

Additions

• Added Madd's Marauder faction
• Added unique spawned system, first unique is Captain Madd himself
• Added new damage type, pushing, which will push or pull on an object when hit
• Added Rail Gun
• Added Point Defense Lasers
• Added Reflector Cannons
• Added Plasma Launchers
• Added Graviton Beams
• Added Repair Beams
• Added Drag Field Projectiles
• Added new tiles and items, Ferinium Rock and Maridid Deposits. These tiles produce Ferinium-A and Ferinium-B and Maridid Sludge and Maridid Crystal respectively. These are used in manufacturing and can be found on larger rock asteroids and icesteroids.
• Added suit position checking when spawning/placing vessels. Vessels should no longer be placed on top of living (or dead) suits.
• Added a small warp factor bonus to all Engine Overdrive bridge enhancements

Fixes/Updates

• CHANGE: Disabled ability to zoom the background in the main menu.
• CHANGE: Added some additional logic to prevent an over abundance of ambushes compared to genuine distress calls. Ambush:Distress ratio should now be consistently near 1:5.
• CHANGE: Redid a number of the underlying systems involved with weapons. We have further modularized the weapon code to increase the ease of weapon diversity and weapon types. This has changed some of the weapon's json data but should not change the gameplay.
• CHANGE: Weapon damage is now applied more consistently, which should reduce most sync issues between server and client.
• CHANGE: Weapon range indicators will now highlight when mousing over control action groups.
• CHANGE: Revisited and updated the weapon tooltips. They should appear overall very similar to what they were, but some of code was improved or updated to reflect game changes since they were lasted modified sometime in Alpha development.
• CHANGE: Improved UI scaling when using a ui scale value above greater than 100%. UI elements should no longer appear offscreen in some situations.

• FIX: Addressed an issue with certain peripheral input devices setting the game into controller mode. In this instance, a player's 3D mouse was causing the mouse pointer to be hidden leading to much confusion.
• FIX: Tractor beams activated via weapon groups will now stay attached even if selected weapon group is switched.
• FIX: Fixed a number of performance issues with weapons and memory garbage generation.
• FIX: Improved performance with trying to destroy the same tile multiple times when multiple weapons are in use.
• FIX: Fixed a nullref with being kicked to menu during specific loading step which caused issues during subsequent re-loading
• FIX: Fixed "OK" button not working correctly on override popup when saving a template
• FIX: Fixed an issue where ships (or pieces) would continue to strafe in perpetuity. This was due to missing an engine count check after chunk splitting.
• FIX: Fixed regions generated for missions not having the correct level values.
• FIX: Fixed some missions having empty or broken objectives.
• FIX: Fixed a problem when trying to "Clear All" during building while in Creative Mode.
• FIX: Fixed Item Mass offset. It was incorrectly offsetting towards the objects true center as opposed to the Center-Of-Mass center.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with looping sounds not correctly restarting from the beginning of the sound loop. It was playing from the previous stopping point creating some confusing audio.
• FIX: Fixed a number of weapons that have the Drain Energy damage type. The variants did not have the correct modified damage values that they should have had based on their variant types.
• FIX: Dialogue popup should be better anchored now, ensuring better visibility for all screen resolutions.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with the region server and hangared objects. Previously certain hangared objects were causing the region server to have a bad time after certain actions were performed. A symptom of the region server breaking is objects not moving when colliding, damage no longer working, AI breaking or dialogue not updating.
• FIX: Added some logic to improve network performance and vessel state sync reliability when adding and removing components to/from vessels, especially when spam clicking is involved. This should definitely improve reliability of the available item count as well.
• FIX: Fixed an issue with the Manufacturing window not re-opening in certain situations, this was related to the UI scaling issue.
• FIX: Taking Control of a vessel after an accidental dupe (like after a game crash or PC power loss) should now be possible.
• FIX: Fixed trade slider box not hiding correctly on player warp out.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where fleet regions were not correctly colored red even if they were aggressive.

COMING IN BETA 6

We have been discussing this for a while. There are a few things we want to do, but the top priority will be new player experience. Getting players into the game, and teaching them some of the basics is one of the biggest complaints we receive, and it is something that has been mostly neglected. We think there will also be time for something for the more seasoned players, we will take a look at improving Distress Calls.

[ 2020-08-06 19:07:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

For all willing testers out there a Pre-Release build for BETA 5 is now available on the test branch. BETA 5 takes another look at combat as well as adding a new face to the universe.

Changes

We have added six whole new weapon types and a new projectile. These are: The Reflector Cannon, the Graviton Beam, the Repair Beam, the Railgun, the Point Defense Laser, the Plasma Launcher and the Drag Field Torpedo. Many existing ships have had some of them equipped. If you wish to learn more about these please check out our previous dev post or wait for the full break down which will come with the final BETA 5 release notes. Many Medium, Large and Gigantic Asteroids and Icesteroids now have new tiles, Ferinium Rock and Maridid Deposits. These tiles drop Ferinium-A, Ferinium-B and Maridid Sludge and Maridid Crystals, used in a number of new manufacturing recipes. BETA 5 also sees the addition of a new faction, Madd's Marauders. They are bounty-hunter and mercenary group uninterested in star system control, who can be see patroling some of the more dangerous areas of the galaxy. Additionally, Madd himself is the first faction leader to be added to the game, and he alone is the sole possessor of the Giga Railgun Mk 2. We have also cleared another 30 or so bugs, mostly community reported, in the on going effort to fix things as they occur. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/22/2789369351344477084/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/22/2789369351344475415/

[ 2020-07-30 16:25:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. We hope everyone is having a nice summer so far despite all the craziness shaping up this year. BETA 5 development is well under way, but will be taking longer than BETA 4, so we're putting together this news post. Here's what's being worked on:

New weapon types

One of the core game elements of Space Impossible is combat. We have already come a long way from Prototype's single laser, but there is still more room to grow. BETA 5 will see the addition of:

Reflecting Cannon

A beam weapon that will reflect off its target tile, bouncing up to four times

Plasma Launcher

A weapon that shoots projectiles that does energy damage and does not require ammo like existing torpedoes

Point Defense Laser

A close range anti missile defense weapon, when activated it will detect and auto fire on the closest projectile.

Graviton Beam

An energy weapon that actively pulls the target towards the firing vessel. It is different from the Tractor Beam as the Tractor Beam's range between shooter and target is fixed length once attached.

Rail Gun

Often asked for by you the players, the Rail Gun is a heavy damage, fixed angle weapon that has no moveable arc, and no activation angle either.

Drag Field Projectile

This projectile when it detonates creates a localized field that slows all movement through it. Great for preventing a target's escape or allowing your escape from pursuers.

Repair Beam

A heavy duty, full sized version of the space suit's repair weapon.

New Faction

Additionally, we are adding in a new faction, Madd's Marauders. Madd's will be a mercenary faction, incapable of owning and possessing star systems, but showing up based on events in game, as we continue to build and expand our spawning algorithms. It will also feature the first unique spawn, Madd himself, who can only appear once per universe at any given time. He will have some distinct inventory that will be unique to him. He is the first of what will be several "boss" like unique spawns that will be expanded on in the future. Once these are done, we will take a week or two to update the AI to be able to equip and use these new systems and elements. As usual, the Pre-Release will come during that time, and the release build shortly after. Stay cool out there!

[ 2020-07-09 17:35:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 4 is now ready to download. This update is mainly a clean up and house keeping patch containing a large amount of bug fixes and quality of life changes to get us ready for content focused updates coming with the following BETAs. One of the more significant changes is the addition of a new quick scanning ability (pictured below), this enables you to peek at components without requiring inventory to be open.
You can discuss BETA 4 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Tactical Scanning

We have added a new tactical scan feature which allows you to quickly scan a target and reveal its mount locations. We hope the new scan ability will address a few issues with combat pacing, and improve combat overall. To use the new scanning feature, simply left click any point on a target vessel, this will for a brief time reveal all mounts near the scan point. This scanning ability was added specifically to address issues during combat when wishing to target specific components. Previously the game required you to have a targets inventory open to view component locations which is not ideal and caused issues with interaction, including the inability to target those components. To accommodate the scanning ability, inventory of a target is now accessed by pressing and holding left click for a brief time, or alternatively by pressing "U" on the keyboard whilst hovering over the target vessel.

Bug Squashing

For the second major component of this update we have squashed a significant amount of bugs, ranging from the smallest typos to some significant, long lasting issues, in addition to many minor quality of life improvements. Among some of the larger bugs we have fixed in this update are bugs with construction (mainly incorrectly splitting tiles off of objects, as well as constructions actions that are performed very quickly and losing sync with the server). The full extensive list of bugs fixed is listed below

Details

Additions

• ADDED: Ability to scan vessels and other objects for components
• ADDED: A max range for opening cargo (/sv_maxinspectrange server variable)
• ADDED: Explicit option to the /remove and /removeall commands to keep hangared vessels. This is default is false and will remove any hangared vessels.
• ADDED: Quitting game warning screen
• ADDED: Death location to respawn screen
• ADDED: Tooltip hint for inspection.
• ADDED: Universe check and dialogue box to warn players if a universe had previously not fully saved
• ADDED: Improved redundancy for universe upgrading to make it a bit less fragile in certain situations
• ADDED: A Painting cursor and a color swatch next to the mouse when applying colors during building

Fixes/Updates

• CHANGE: Left click and hold is now required to view inventory/cargo and change components. Alternatively hovering object and press U can be used.
• CHANGE: Universes now store a copy of the universesetup data in their universe.json file. The universe can be considered entirely self contained now (outside of mod data). This will allow making and playing multiple universes easier when they have different settings.
• CHANGE: Dynamic region min/max settings is now located in universesetup.json instead of gendata.json, and will be saved to the universe data
• CHANGE: Added dead zone to mouse control to prevent rotation when clicking inside your own ship
• CHANGE: Tractors have had their max mass increased 10x and their max lengths increased as well
• CHANGE: During building only the range indicators for the current mount or component type will show to reduce clutter. This behavior can be toggled (auto/all/off).
• CHANGE: During building Energy overlay will no longer appear when placing components or mounts when in "auto" mode.
• CHANGE: Object template upgrading and remapping now better supports multiple versions of upgrading. This should make upgrading older templates (more than 1 version out of date) much easier and reliable.
• CHANGE: Player clients now received more faction data on joining, this allowed us to expose a few more things via tooltips
• CHANGE: Minor visual improvements to the Main Menu screen's social buttons
• CHANGE: Early Access notification popup is now partially transparent for improved presentation on game start
• CHANGE: Added keybind for opening pending hails, default: B
• CHANGE: If there is only one hail in the pending hails, pressing the notifier button or key will automatically open it, instead of previously requiring hail selection as well.
• CHANGE: Wrecks will no longer create zero objects. They will now always produce something, this should be most noticeable in lower level regions with smaller ships.
• CHANGE: Improved the "main piece" picking process during wreck generation. This selected piece will now be the chunk with the most bridges, previously it was the first chunk with a bridge.
• CHANGE: Improved wreck generation component picking. This means less overall components being left intact, but should also mean more interesting loot to find. It also means smaller vessels are more likely to keep at least one component around where as previously they would be almost guaranteed to be bare.
• CHANGE: Improved wreck generation piece destruction. Previously if the "main piece" was chosen for destruction this could result in no pieces. This will also increase the amount of varied wreck patterns experienced.
• CHANGE: Objects spawned with bridges and faction but no AI associated will now have public access. This should improve access to certain wrecks
• FIX: Tile changes will now immediately affect components instead of requiring de- then re-activating. e.g. a broken weapon will turn off immediately as soon as enough tiles are removed
• FIX: Completely overhauled split piece detection during construction, it should tolerate lag better and have a minor performance boost
• FIX: Problems encountered with returning split pieces when leaving construction would prevent further pieces being returned. There should be no floating tiles possible now.
• FIX: Dragging quickly when building should no longer result in strange tile boxes
• FIX: Multiple tile building overlay problems leaving ghost overlays
• FIX: Improved item count accuracy during building, especially during rapid input
• FIX: Improved tile edit batching especially when actions are performed quickly
• FIX: Repeated "Run out of items" and similar building error popups should be much less frequent
• FIX: Some issues where hologram tiles in construction would stick around when they shouldn't
• FIX: An issue that was affecting adding tiles during building
• FIX: Object templates created in BETA1 onwards being 'upgraded' when they didn't need to be, resulting in incorrect results when loading
• FIX: Popup message when loading a template failed had broken/incorrect text
• FIX: "Force clear" button not working correctly on template loads during construction
• FIX: Building inventory panel always opening half scrolled on first open
• FIX: Improved legibility of the "infinity" icon most noticeable when building in creative mode
• FIX: Updated item display on the cursor and building inventory items to match the rest of the game
• FIX: An issue with the cursor not being set correctly during construction, which was occasionally breaking the whole UI
• FIX: Removing tiles under multi tile mounts during building would occasionally cause the mount to bug out
• FIX: An issue with multi tile mounts not always associating correctly tiles added during building
• FIX: The energy overlay missing was its texture if inventory was opened with the EnergyOverlay parameter set to "ForcedOn"
• FIX: Tile energy labels occasionally displaying being behind the overlay itself
• FIX: Tile energy labels should now display correctly even when zooming in and out quickly
• FIX: Energy overlay incorrectly appearing when switching out other components if you have any reactor affecting enhancements
• FIX: The component/mount overlay graphics looking out of place for a brief moment when opening inventory
• FIX: Improved currency label count up/down animation
• FIX: Dragging the trade slider widget when buying and selling wouldn't let you pick full range
• FIX: An error when viewing a trader's inventory whilst it refreshed could cause broken UI or incorrect prices
• FIX: Trade dialogue not being closed correctly when another dialogue is opened
• FIX: Issue with Trader UI being considered "visible" when it wasn't, which was causing other UI issues afterwards.
• FIX: SHIFT+AlphaNum keys to pick dialogue responses not working correctly
• FIX: Using SHIFT+AlphNum for dialogue responses also changing action bar slots
• FIX: Missing portrait when being hailed by a dead entity
• FIX: The strange flashing animation on the hail notifier
• FIX: Issues with Faction panel scrolling
• FIX: Improved performance of the faction panel UI and also slightly restyled it
• FIX: Lab queue UI not resizing correctly when switching between labs
• FIX: An issue where labs were still processing their old queues when lab was replaced. Queue is now cleared when the lab is replaced.
• FIX: Spaced out tutorial text to improve legibility
• FIX: State of Energy Overlay/Range Indicators etc. should now correctly those of the buttons in inventory on subsequent openings
• FIX: Home icon on name plates should now show immediately when a new home station is set
• FIX: Pressing ESC whilst in a text input boxes should now consistently clear text input then deselect the input element and then finally close the element/panel
• FIX: Input issues that were incorrectly being performed when the map was open (clicking on things behind the map, firing weapons, etc.)
• FIX: An issue with the UI breaking when transitioning between two star systems when the inventory is open
• FIX: Ability to spam click "Join Game", which was causing some problems
• FIX: Wrong text on respawn screen when dying in a ship
• FIX: Misspellings of the "Zeblalt", spelling should now be unified across the game
• FIX: Click-to-move mouse control causing the ship to continuously spin when not intended
• FIX: Fixed an issue where objects weren't being correctly removed from the region server when tractored objects were taken into warp when other players were present in the region
• FIX: All players in a region should now have correct discovery info for that region, especially important when being tractored by another player.
• FIX: Tractor constraint length is better calculated, resulting in less "shoving" when tractors are used on large objects
• FIX: Mount removal and components changes not always being synced correctly on the region server. This should fix issues where AI thought they had weapons (or other components) when infact they didn't. This should significantly reduce incorrect AI behavior where it is dependent on component counts.
• FIX: An issue with AI target searching when they had no weapons available
• FIX: Improved performance when generating missions
• FIX: Updated several naming patterns in mission generation
• FIX: An issue with tile death and updating the associated region server
• FIX: Added some verification for item pickup to prevent incorrect pickup when someone has just warped or died.
• FIX: Added pickup range verification to the server to ensure consistency
• FIX: An issue when receiving shield health if the shield component had been removed on the client
• FIX: An issue where client input was not being validated correctly against server data
• FIX: A few issues with AI data not being saved correctly, which was causing "dead ai" to appear, especially after a game crash.
• FIX: An issue where the max player limit was being reset to 4 in single player
• FIX: Improved memory cleanup when quitting to menu
• FIX: Improved several networking issues, especially when programs other than the game attempt to connect on the same ports. Previously these connections could sit in the connection processing queue and were not always being cleaned up properly. They were already being ignored once the initial handshake failed however.

COMING IN BETA 5

BETA 5 will see the introduction of a new limited faction, Madd's Marauders, a group of bounty hunters that will show up in other faction's star systems. Additionally we will be looking at adding a few more weapon types to improve combat variety.

[ 2020-06-04 20:01:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

A Pre-Release build for BETA 4 is now available on the test branch. This latest BETA adds a new quick scanning ability along with the most bug fixes yet and many small quality of life changes.

Changes

Tactical Scanning

We have added a new tactical scan feature which allows you to quickly scan a target and reveal its mount locations. We hope the new scan ability will address a few issues with combat pacing, and improve combat overall. To use the new scanning feature, simply left click any point on a target vessel, this will for a brief time reveal all mounts near the scan point. This scanning ability was added specifically to address issues during combat when wishing to target specific components. Previously the game required you to have a targets inventory open to view component locations which is not ideal and caused issues with interaction, including the inability to target those components. To accommodate the scanning ability, inventory of a target is now accessed by pressing and holding left click for a brief time, or alternatively by pressing "U" on the keyboard whilst hovering over the target vessel.

Bug Squashing

For the second major component of this update we have squashed of over 100 bugs, ranging from the smallest typos to some significant, long lasting issues, in addition to many minor quality of life improvements. Among some of the larger bugs we have fixed in this update are bugs with construction (mainly incorrectly splitting tiles off of objects, as well as constructions actions that are performed very quickly and losing sync with the server). The full extensive list of bugs fixed will be coming with the full BETA 4 release. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/21/2275953283823580480/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/21/2275953283823578840/

[ 2020-05-29 18:53:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 3 has arrived, with a focus on improving the star system. We have added a number of new features as well as some polish to existing ones.
You can discuss BETA 3 on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Warp is no longer safe

Fleets can and will now react to your presence. If you get too close to a hostile one, they may chase you down and force you into combat. If you do enough things to their faction in a small frame of time, a pursuit fleet may be spawned just to track you and try to kill you. Regions may now react to players visiting. Distress calls will reveal their true nature when entered. Maybe they are an ambush, or its a ship wreck--the twisted salvage strewn amongst some asteroids--or it could be a genuine ship in distress.

Discover all the things

Region information and discovery has been improved. You can buy information about a system from a trader (if you can find one), and you will see labels for regions known to have Assemblers (for ship building and repairs), Labs (for manufacturing), Traders or where combat is taking place. Discovery has been tweaked overall to make things a bit more interesting, and now visually distinguishes between regions you've scanned, and regions you've visited.

Space is now a little less empty

Finally, the spawning algorithm responsible for spawning dynamic regions (like fleets and traders) has been overhauled. The focus is now on making interesting things for the players, as opposed to just filling up the star system. The end result is actually a more engaging flying time, with the additional benefit of less wasted and extraneous regions the player never visits.

Details

Additions

• ADDED: Regions (fleets and such) can now force players out of warp
• ADDED: Aggressive regions
• ADDED: Factions will now keep track of players actions against them (for the short term). This allows factions to react with different levels of intensity depending on what the player has done, and how pissed off they are.
• ADDED: Several new parameters to universesetup.json
• ADDED: 3 new region templates to support the multi faction capabilities.
• ADDED: Regions will only be marked as "in battle" if they are battling something other than you, the player. Other things include other players and two or more AI factions going at it.
• ADDED: Indepedent Traders will now offer trade options upon initial hail.
• ADDED: Inline tooltips to mission descriptions and other text elements for additional mouseover information. Will be used more in the future.
• ADDED: Traders now offer the option to buy star system discovery information
• ADDED: Ambush regions will now spawn fleets that can chase a fleeing player
• ADDED: Regions known about (via visiting or trader purchasing) will show region faction icon

Fixes/Updates

• CHANGE: Changed how dynamic regions are spawned. They are now focused more on the players active in the star system. This should produce better gameplay while keeping the number of active dynamics limited to a fixed number regardless of star system size.
• CHANGE: Certain hostile regions can and will now be immediately engaging in combat upon player enter instead of the previous multi second delay.
• CHANGE: Suits will now be destroyed if they receive an extra amount of damage after death.
• CHANGE: Enhanced the system used for picking and assigned factions to regions, this now allows for much easier multi faction regions (ex: two fleets in mid battle)
• CHANGE: Systems in conflict will slowly convert regions into battle regions. These regions will have multiple factions spawned.
• CHANGE: After a star system conflict has resolved, regions now have the chance to regenerate into completely different types of regions. Ex: A planet outpost region could become a planet trader region
• CHANGE: Projectiles, like mines, spawned via region templates can now vary their level based on the region's level
• CHANGE: Behind-the-scenes, restructured space suits to be more desirable. This should fix a number of edge cases where space suits were being ignored or overlooked for gameplay elements.
• CHANGE: Improved AI responses to combat elements. Previously AI vessels would only react on tile death, but now they can and will react on tile damage, tile death and shield damage.
• CHANGE: Tweaked how reinforcements are generated. Instead of a pure tile % check, it now uses a more sophisticated agro check.
• CHANGE: AI now are aware of "Transfer all/single" actions when calculating their opinion of cargo theft.
• CHANGE: Taking inventory from factioned cargo may now be seen as an aggressive action and not only lose faction standing, but may result in combat. Also, the closest appropriate vessel will hail you now to let you know what you've done instead of the first valid vessel.
• CHANGE: Changed the data structure for discovery. This goes in hand with changes to the discovery system where elements are displayed at the star system level once the elements have been identified. This includes things like labeling regions that have battles occuring, where traders are known to be present, where Assemblers are present.
• CHANGE: Discovery now lets you know whether you have merely scanned (to scan something you just have to be within range) or also visited (having exited warp into) a region. Scanned regions have a different color boundary than visited, and unknown regions have a dashed boundary.
• CHANGE: Updated how trader items are generated. This should provide more variety yet better accuracy depending on the region and star system characteristics.
• CHANGE: Herman has signed an exclusive deal with the Independent Traders. He is now a member of their faction.
• CHANGE: Adjusted fleet region naming to be a bit more descriptive.
• CHANGE: Distress beacons will now change to a more appropriate type once they have been visited. This means that distress beacons can now be revealed and labeled as shipwrecks, ambushes and distress calls.
• CHANGE: Changed "ping point" to "map marker" for hopefully better clarification
• CHANGE: Certain dialogue will now automatically pop up
• CHANGE: Destroying all alive ships in a distress beacon region should now cause the region to disappear or change into a debris region (depends on what else is left behind) after the last player leaves.
• CHANGE: Removed bulky reactors from the "light" loot pool. This should lessen the issue of small, light ships spawning with these massive reactors in their cargo.
• CHANGE: Wrecks will now retain their faction by default but allow access to inventory etc similar to factioned cargo crates. Be careful no one is around when you loot them!
• FIX: A general issue with connecting via hostname
• FIX: Connecting using hostnames that include a dash "-"
• FIX: Connecting to a hostname with multiple subdomains (e.g. server1.cool.game.server.examplehost.com) should now work
• FIX: Extraneously garbage generation from the weapons system
• FIX: An issue with wreck generation where mounts had phantom tiles present.
• FIX: An issue where commands that required no parameters were given parameters and causing errors
• FIX: Dedicated server console command input now uses the whole input string. This mainly effects things that have information like /kick
• FIX: Some issues with UI culling of star system elements when at warp have been identified and fixed
• FIX: Missing language entries for mission 259 - Conflict: Ticeroy Base Located
• FIX: Regions generated for missions not being seeded correctly resulting in "samey" names, in addition to other things.
• FIX: A rare issue where missions generated via /command for star systems in conflict were being generated with the wrong factions.
• FIX: /clearallmissions not fully clearing missions
• FIX: Fixed Charkles dialogue... again
• FIX: Fixed an issue with ship wreck generation where ownership was incorrectly assigned
• FIX: Fixed region label text wrapping that occured when zooming in and out
• FIX: Fixed an issue with buying bribes when you had the exact amount of spacebucks
• FIX: Corrected a number of misplaced engine recipes
• FIX: Sometimes suits would not be removed when they were supposed to.

COMING IN BETA 4

For BETA 4 we will be looking at general content and polish. This means a larger picture look at what is going on and focusing on lots of little things that we find could be done better.

[ 2020-05-06 18:34:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first Pre-Release build for BETA 3 is now available. BETA 3 features a number of star system level improvements and polish.

Changes

Warp Is No Longer Safe

One of the major issues with the game previously was once in warp, everyone just kind of ignored you, whether they liked you or not. Not anymore. Now different types of regions can spawn and they will behave differently. Fleets now on patrol will turn towards you if you get too close, and chase you should you flee, before ultimately starting a fight if they can catch you. Likewise, fleets can now spawn when a player does certain actions (like faction loss or tile destruction) that have one intent only, chasing you down and killing you like the spacedog that you are.

Better Region Spawning

Overall the spawning algorithm has been enhanced to be more engaging on a player-centric level, now spawning dynamic regions around players, instead of strewn randomly across the star system, even if no one is near to see it. Little did you know, but some Distress Calls were actually Ambushes. These regions will be more obvious once you've tripped the ambush. Finally, hostile ships will engage you immediately once out of warp, instead of the previous "wait for X seconds" behavior.

Improved Discovery

We've also sat down and looked at Discovery and started implementing a number of improvements there. Now visible at warp, a region that has been visited will have additional information displayed. Things like whether an Assembler is present (like a shipyard), a trader is known to be available, or if combat is currently happening. Additionally, you'll find traders who will sell you information about the star system, saving you potential time and effort, but at a cost. As usual there are several smaller improvements that will be noted in the final release patch notes along with fixes to a number of issues reported from BETA 2 and 2.1. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/20/2261313417709440733/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/20/2261313417709438540/

[ 2020-04-29 18:09:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 2.1 is a small hotfix patch that addresses some issues discovered by players as well as some other more technical problems.

Patch Notes

Fixes

• FIX: Fixed an issue where a Construction Access error was being generated even if the vessel should be valid for construction.
• FIX: Fixed some weapon effects not being cleaned up properly at the end of the effect.
• FIX: Fixed some low level issues to do with copying of object data. We caught this happening by chance and it was affecting things like when going to and from warp. This issue may explain certain unexpected behavior with mounts on vessels.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where weapon blob effects were not being cleaned correctly.
• FIX: Fixed some issues to do with object cleanup. This should result in better overall performance and scene integrity.
• FIX: Fixed incorrectly oriented Mag Blastors on the Drumegeethalt.
• FIX: Fixed a reliability issue to do with seating/unseating of Components from Mounts.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where tiles were not being pruned correctly from Mounts when the parent vessel was being split due to tile removal (e.g. in combat).
• FIX: Fixed tile health clamping. In certain situations the health was wrapping around, and the tile was healing instead of being destroyed.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where the original tile being destroyed during certain splash damage situations was incorrectly not dropping tile loot or being properly destroyed on the server leading to unexpected split behavior on following splits.
• FIX: Fixed a number of issues stemming from duplicate tile health network messages leading to sync issues on the client.
• FIX: Removed physics collisions from item colliders, which should lead to massive performance improvements during battle situations.
• FIX: Fixed an issue where the effects of Components (mainly weapons) was not being cleaned correctly when the Component was removed. This should provide a slight performance improvement over long game sessions.

[ 2020-03-31 20:07:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 2 is now available. The latest BETA brings several new improvements to Space Impossible. The long overlooked Ownership and Access aspect of the game has been overhauled. Ticeroy and Druminence factions see their return, now balanced and further fleshed out to meet new BETA level of content. Additionally, some new components have been added and tweaking of existing engines has taken place.
You can discuss BETA 2 on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic

Patch Notes

Ownership & Access

Ownership and Access has two elements to it. The first is the ability for players to own multiple things at once, and the effects that ownership has on an vessel. Second is the ability for access, either for other players (in multiplayer) or for general faction linked activities. In Singleplayer, when a player takes control of an vessel, they immediately become owner of that vessel, if it was unowned. Should the player leave control, they will still remain owner. In Multiplayer, Ownership and Access gets more detailed, where players will be able to choose to take Ownership of an vessel, and once they do that, they can choose several levels of access for certain activities:

• Control - Ability to fly the vessel
• Construction - Ability to alter vessel in building
• Assembler - Ability to use any equipped Assembler on that vessel
• Docking - Ability to dock into and undock from Hangars on the vessel
• Inventory - Ability to take or add items to inventory
• Manufacturing - Ability to queue manufacturing recipes on Labs
• Components - Ability to take, add or replace components

This also applies to factions, where most factions will allow players unrestricted access if they are of a certain faction standing or higher. This means, when you are an Ally now, it can have a big benefit, like free Construction, free control of factioned vessels and more. It also means if you're playing with friends, you can let them do things like fly your ships, but do not let them steal the components (at least, not easily). Ownership also sets the groundwork for what will be coming in the near future, which is player factions. Player factions are organizations for players will be able to form in Multiplayer, and allow things like sharing of resources and more. We are still hashing the fine details, but it is now on our development radar.

Content Updates

Ticeory and Druminence are back in as promised. They took a little hiatus to retool and expand their catalogue of ships and stations, and are back with more than ever. The Ticeroy Navy are a rigid and organized military faction, that values law and order above all else. They are initially apprehensive to new captains, but with some work, their trust can be earned. Their vessels are unique at this time in that they are the only faction to use Slip Drive engines. The Druminence Federation are a very alien faction. They do not speak everyones language, and rely on computer translations to communicate. No one has ever seen a Druminence species and lived to talk about it. They are generally aloof, but can be seen in groups engaging in interstellar trade and resource gathering. Their ships (and seemingly whole mentality) seems to be circular in fashion, and their vessels feature well generalized designs, and they will prove to be very challenging enemies in combat. Finally, we have added a number of new engines, including the Slip Drive type of engine (high trust, low acceleration), new weapons like the Magnatronic Blastor, and new tile types, like Energized tiles that have an inherit baseline amount of energy.

Detailed Breakdown

Additions

• ADDED: 'Energized' tile variants - these tile provide energy without need of a reactor
• ADDED: Slip Drive engines - Engine with high thrust but lower acceleration
• ADDED: Magnatronic Blastors Weapons
• ADDED: Warp Core "engines" - these purely enhance max warp factor
• ADDED: 9 Druminence ships
• ADDED: 9 Ticeroy ships
• ADDED: 12 Ticeroy stations
• ADDED: 10 Druminence stations
• ADDED: 9 Druminence turrets
• ADDED: Extra ship spawns to some construction outposts.
• ADDED: "View Tutorial" button to Esc Menu
• ADDED: Unique AI dialogue for the "untrusted" standing for all factions
• ADDED: Bulky Reactors can now be found in loot and trades

Fixes/Updates

• CHANGE: Further reduced "Abandoned Region" template from being picked. This will result in less blown up stations, and more useful stations.
• CHANGE: All regions can be entered from warp via mouse input (similar to ship regions). Head on collision still works as well.
• CHANGE: Rebalanced Plasma Drivers, now high acceleration with lower thrust
• CHANGE: All existing engines received minor thrust boost
• CHANGE: Overhauled item filtering in inventory and construction -All parts of the filter that are separated by spaces unless in quotes must match to return the desire result. -The exclamation point (!) used to invert a search term must now be before any special terms. -Ex: "!cat:weaps !Laser" in the inventory filter will return ALL items that are not weapons and does not contain the word 'laser'.
• CHANGE: Tweaked sized and color of Notification UI (the indicator at top of the screen when picking up items, etc)
• CHANGE: Made loading a universe from the Multiplayer menu function the same (both visually and behind the scenes) as loading a universe in Singleplayer. E.g. upgrading the universe etc.
• CHANGE: Improved logging backups on game shutdown for more accurate error catching.
• CHANGE: Rotation now requires engines OR reactors components to be present in a mount.
• CHANGE: Enhanced "You are here" label on star system map to improve visibility
• CHANGE: Added some error checking logging to Docking mechanics to help track down some player reported bugs.
• FIX: Added missing entry for Acceleration time to Engine tooltips
• FIX: Added some missing Docking related entries.
• FIX: Several fixes related to ship regions moving or not disappearing even when the region has been emptied of AI vessels -Regions wont move if all AI vessels are missing engines -If all AIs have had their bridges destroyed or warped away, when leaving the region it will change the region to a "Debris Field" that will last 30s by default. The Debris Field can be re-entered. -If the region is left completely 100% empty of all items and tiles, the region will disappear as soon as the last player leaves.
• FIX: "Hailing effect" graphics are no longer glitched
• FIX: Mount energy icons no longer cause possibly excessive log prints
• FIX: An issue with faction evaluation when the internal numbers were less than 0. This is a pretty significant bug fix for factions, and should make improving (or losing) faction more reliable now.
• FIX: Issue with projectiles file loading where certain projectiles where incorrectly being saved to universe data. Projectiles that are short lived (like most torpedoes) will not be saved between game sessions.
• FIX: Issue when the Recovery vessel has no mounts causing a game error. However, this vessel will still probably be unflyable upon respawn.
• FIX: Server setting changes should now properly be sent to clients at all times. Settings like sv_gamemode should now function properly on all clients even when toggled on and off quickly.
• FIX: An issue that was a major cause of duplicate ships. A duplicate player ship is a symptom of an issue, not the actual cause, but we are slowly tracking them all down.
• FIX: An issue with hidden factions that was causing an error when doing anything that affected those factions. Ex: It is now possible to again split tiles off your Starter Station. It is not recommended however.
• FIX: Server errors at the start of Construction now get properly communicated to the client. The player should no longer get stuck in the "Pick Assembler" screen.
• FIX: Energy blobs should now always show correctly on ships
• FIX: Mass text labels to use up to 2 decimals instead of the previous non rounding display.
• FIX: Hails from muted players will now be ignored
• FIX: Auto-enter undocked vessel should now work 100% of the time
• FIX: An issue that was causing items to vanish during Construction
• FIX: Hopefully 100% fixed an issue with AI continuing to drift even once the vessel's bridges are destroyed. We found a difficult issue to reliably reproduce and debug, but initial tests suggest it has been eliminated.
• FIX: You should no longer be able to enter a vessel someone is currently editing

Removals

None

COMING IN BETA 3

The next BETA we will be focusing on Star System level of content. We will be looking at Star System size, region density, region types, how the regions within the star system appear to players and how the game behaves or reacts to a player within the star system (spawning aggressive fleets, possible special events, etc).

[ 2020-03-26 20:51:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 2 pre-release 2 is now available. Thanks to some sharp eyed testers we have identified and fixed a critical bug preventing new constructions. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/19/1864993626715535433/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/19/1864993626712138019/

[ 2020-03-20 18:35:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first BETA 2 pre-release is now available. BETA 2 sees the return of Ticeroy and Druminence factions with all new ships, stations and we've also thrown in some new components just for them. Along with the return of these beloved (or hated) factions is a complete overhaul to how access works. The new Ownership and Access system gives new control over systems like inventory, components, manufacturing and more. We hope this is a welcome change especially for those venturing out with others. Thanks to all those bug hunters out there in the community this release should fix several bugs (more fixes to come). As always for those that do check out the build please let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/19/1864993626712139837/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/19/1864993626712138019/

[ 2020-03-19 19:44:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

BETA 1.1 contains fixes for several bugs located by the community in BETA 1.

Patch Notes

Fixes

• FIX: Inventory item UI stretching when performing certain cargo bay swapping
• FIX: Bridge: Engine reroute Warp to Thrust (was rerouting thrust to warp)
• FIX: Trade Sell Overlay not correctly disappearing when it should
• FIX: Several more issues where tooltips were not going away when they should
• FIX: String for item names for Bridges Warp to Thrust and Thrust to Warp
• FIX: A potential issue with dialogue not disappearing
• FIX: Certain energy patterns drawing incorrectly in tooltips
• FIX: Removed three duplicate recipes from a Lab 5 lab.
• FIX: Enhanced/Modified thrust being able to go negative
• FIX: Construction info being incorrect and "one update behind"
• FIX: Transfer Single and Transfer All Cargo buttons being swapped
• FIX: Being able to manufacture the selected recipe on labs that do not have the recipe.
• FIX: Lab 6 recipe to require Lab 5, and not Lab 4
• FIX: "Lab 9 - Weapon | Shield" being mislabeled as a Lab 8
• FIX: Incorrect AI dialogue entries causing incorrect behaviour following player responses
• FIX: Home icon not showing up correctly on the object's nameplate

Tweaks

• CHANGE: Notifications (the thing at top center of screen) to be larger
• CHANGE: AI rotation to be more similar to player turning

[ 2020-02-17 20:26:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's finally arrived. Beta 1. The game has come a far way from the first Prototype version (still available on GameJolt btw) and many of you have been with us for the full journey. Thank you. For those who are just joining us, welcome and hope you enjoy the Beta. Brew a cup of coffee, or pop open your favorite energy drink or soda, because there is a whole bunch of stuff to go over. For those who won't bother reading the detailed forum post here are the main features :

Game Play Changes

Overall the balance has been the biggest change. Making all the systems work together was a big undertaking after all the Alphas adding each system individually. The game should now be playable from lowest level to highest level with a continuous path in between.

Mine Ores. Refine Metals

A significant change in how materials are acquired and produced. You no longer mine specific metals, but rather ores, and the ores are then refined into a specific metal. The ores are: Paglite, Zeblalt and Durfil.

• Tritanium, Magnesite and Bonivium are refined from Paglite.
• Kelbium, Virmatite and Naronium from Zeblalt.
• Cirelium, Gavitanium and Duralium from Durfil.

There is also a new ore type called Begillium which can be refined into Tryptocite, Jerrelium and Puupooripojuo (a loose Druminence translation, we swear). These are "additives" that can be mixed into the base metals to produce different kinds of Hull tiles. Other changes include crystals, each crystal type is used for a specific component type, Keloirit for weapons, Yoggenite for engines and so on.

Faction Changes

The Indepedent Traders have arrived. These are a faction of traders who will trade with nearly everyone, and exist in most systems. Their prices aren't always the best, but when you're desperate, you can't always be picky. Be warned: they aren't without teeth, and if you offend them too much, you may find yourself given the cold shoulder in the future. Ticeroy and Druminence have been temporarily removed for BETA 1, and will return in BETA 2.

Self Assembly and Construction Changes

Mounts no longer require items. An Assembler can just place them, as long as you have the available Integrity, and the Assembler is capable of making that type of mount (and size). Vessels with an Assembler can now alter itself, but with some limitations

Combat

We have rebalanced the combat mechanics. After thinking long and hard and listening to feedback, we decided to move away from Lasers (they are still in game), and shifted significantly to Particle Cannons. This changes how the AI will fight you, and require you to fight them. There's more room for skill and practice for all players now. There's also new variants for many weapons.

Components and Vessel Characteristics

Bridges have changed. Generally speaking the old "requires X components with Y benefit" is gone (the old bridges can still exist, and will eventually be seen in specific situations). Instead the bridge enhancements are a bit more straightforward in how the benefits (and deficits) are calculated and applied. Items have mass, and with it, Cargo Bays now have a mass reducing value. Now with items have mass (and that mass affecting your vessel), upgrading cargo bays even with the same size, but better mass reduction can be a handy benefit. Engines now have acceleration. This means that a ship's engines will not be at full thrust immediately. Only Ion engines can be manufactured at this time, but other engines are available to those willing to find them. Ships now have a base impulse value, from a formula requiring at least one functional reactor, and factoring in engine count and vessel mass. Thrusters and other lateral engines are no longer required to strafe. They can still help however. Rotation is generally faster overall, though some ships may feel slower due to no longer having thrusters equipped.

Universe Creation

We have changed Universe creation. The default way will now produce ever higher level star systems as you move outwards. Generally speaking the max level systems are about 9 systems away from starting system. For those who prefer the old random way, that's available at creation, but it cannot be changed once the universe has been created. We've also redone our seed words to be a bit more "spacey". We have also honed a number of the elements of universe creation to make generation work better for the game.

Tutorial... of sorts

The first star system is now a sort of "tutorial" system. It's a bit more hand-crafted in terms of enemies and initial loot. Herman is gone from the starter region, but is nearby, and now has upgraded to a station of his own. Whenever you load up a universe, you will see the new tutorial. Images and text will hopefully walk you through how things are done to get started. Let us know what you think.

Tiles and Graphics

We've added an entirely new system for tile graphics. While most tiles will look the same at first glance, there are now transparent tiles to be found, and we have the capability of adding "special effects" (beyond just glow and transparency) to tiles, and we will be fully utilizing this system as Beta continues. There are also more colors to pick from now during tile painting.

User Interface

Almost the entire UI has been changed or improved or both. Inventory is now organized by specific cargo bay and stored as tabs. The Manufacturing and Building UIs have been significantly redesigned, especially the manufacturing, components and painting portions. We've done SIGNIFICANT performance improvements on the paper doll, and other UIs have seen an overall performance increase. Dialogue popups and hailing have been redesigned. No more hailing dialogues intrusively blocking the middle of your screen on warp in. All hailing is now collapsed and located above the top right of your action bar. Please let us know what you think of these changes.

Dedicated Server

Many of you have been asking for it, and its finally been done. There is now a dedicated server tool available for those who wish to keep a game session going for friends and strangers. NOTE: this is not for the novice computer user. It may require some network configuration, and just general knowledge of how these types of things work.

Technical Behind-the-scenes and Mod Support

Significant work has been done to ensure better modding support. This took advantage of the stripping-out-nearly-all-content at the start of BETA 1 development and adding elements to prevent the game from crapping itself if something was missing. To read about all the changes in nitty gritty detail please check out the forum post here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/1744518767211239165/ and as always thank you for all your support, we look forward to hearing how you enjoy the BETA via Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Also of note, to celebrate the BETA release we we have updated the store page including a new trailer: [previewyoutube=4NRmBrMQ0lc;full][/previewyoutube] Finally as we have mentioned in the past, now the game has entered BETA we have increased the games price to $12.99 (local price will vary).

[ 2020-02-10 22:54:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thank you everyone for the exceptional feedback and bug-catching we have received so far during the pre-release of BETA1. This is expected to be the last pre-release before BETA full release. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/18/1744517965165521670/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/18/1738886352894871571/

[ 2020-01-31 19:50:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

This pre-release build contains various fixes and balance changes from pre-release 1. Thank you to all that have played, given feedback or reported bugs. Please continue to let us know what you think and report any bugs to us here on the Steam forums or on our Discord. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/18/3311769660772591988/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/18/1738886352894871571/

[ 2020-01-21 20:44:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

It has been a long while coming but we are glad to announce that the BETA 1 release is now just over the horizon. We are now in the final stretch which for those willing means it is time for the first pre-release. This pre-release contains most of the features and content of BETA1, balance is nearly complete and there are sure to be a number of bugs due to the significant changes this update brings. For those that do check out the build please let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/18/1738886352894911981/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/18/1738886352894871571/

[ 2020-01-09 17:08:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everyone. Just checking in with the latest development update. We know it's been a while. We know people have been waiting, as have we. Things are still moving along. We're still going over every piece of content from start to finish, but we're approaching the end. Just this week we've been going over missions and dialogue as well as a number of technical performance improvements with AI pathfinding. We know soon is taking a while, but it'll be coming. While you wait, check out the screenshot, which shows off a portion of the new ships and stations that will be included in Beta 1.

[ 2019-10-09 19:08:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Oh boy, time flies. Hope everyone is having a nice summer so far. BETA 1 is taking longer than expected, and it's entirely on the content at this point. There were a few minor "can't forget about this part" moments, summer time stuff, and just the fact it's shaping up to be lots of work. But we've got our eyes on the BETA 1 Pre-Release, and are at the point where everyday we say "is this ready yet?". So, soon(tm). With that out of the way, because of the delay, we've (well mostly Stuffie) has been cooking some good stuff. Over the last year we've accumulated a whole bunch of feedback as well as cultivated our own opinions on things, including UI. That's why BETA 1 will see some fairly significant UI improvements. Among these changes are the inventory layout. This panel will be a bit wider, making better use of available space, as well as how the individual cargo bays are viewed. Quality of Life stuff like sorting (with several sort types) has also been added. We've taken another look at Manufacturing. The last time it was significantly changed was Alpha 5 (I believe?), so it's been a while. We're changing how the labs are selected, and how the recipes are displayed. Recipes will also now be able to include multiple outputs (in part to support the material changes mentioned in the last new post). We think this will be a better use of space than the existing layout, and also be a bit more straight forward in useage. Finally, the other addition to mention in this news post is: item mass. Items now have mass. They affect the mass of the object carrying them. Cargo bays will have a mass reduction modifier. This means you can still carry whatever you want, but it will probably affect your flight characteristics. It also means AI ships will often fly differently depending on what they're carrying as well. To prevent the player from being accidentally bogged down with weight, item pickup will now be an activated action. No more physically ramming items, instead, be within a certain radius, press the "pick up items" key, and they will flow into your inventory. In the situation when two or more players try to pick up the same item, whoever presses the key first wins--assuming everyone is within range. That's it for now. We'll have that Pre-Release and resulting BETA 1 in your hands as soon as possible.

[ 2019-07-18 12:20:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. BETA 1 development is well underway. The dedicated server is ready, with all the initial bells and whistles (options for ban list, admin list, white list, steam id integration, etc), and under going internal testing. Content is being planned and organized through release. That is currently what is taking up our time, as we are making sure things are as well organized as possible with an update roadmap we can and will be able to stick to. This includes everything, but the initial focus is individual components, vessel building, manufacturing, universe generation, starting a game (with faction picking included), and new player experience specifically in mind. No tutorial yet, but we are putting in some behind-the-scenes work for it. Some of the things that are being changed and improved: One of the main changes between Alpha and Beta is how materials are gathered and processed. We're intending for the changes to streamline resource gathering a bit, with less dependency on low level materials later in the game. We'll cover that more indepth near the release of BETA 1. Another large change we'll be making involves how building with and without Assemblers is done. Mounts will no longer require an item, but still have an integrity cost. Players in their space suits will be able place very cheap and weak, but still valid tiles. Vessels with an Assembler on board will be able to self-edit, but only under certain conditions and with restrictions. We have gone through all made some error handling improvements while we're revisiting all content. Stripping out all the content should handle much better now for both game reliability and when needed error handling and logging, for future modding. Finally, the price will be increasing with the release of Beta from the current 9.99 USD to 12.49 USD. Actual price depends on region, but we follow Steam's price suggestions for all markets. Once Beta is done, the price will increase one last time to the final Release price. Just a bit of information for those price conscience shoppers. A Pre-Release build should be ready in the next week or two.

[ 2019-06-07 02:43:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 18.1 adds a new projectile and some significant performance optimizations as well as fixing some more bugs. For a full list of fixes please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2019-05-06 21:34:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 18 is finally here. Focusing on combat, ALPHA 18 includes several new weapons and weapon types including everything from mines and seeker missiles to shield penetrating guns and energy sapping cannons. To control all those new toys this update also sees the inclusion of Control Groups, allowing captains to fire only the weapons they want to when they want. Another aspect of control we have added is lock-on targeting, both for whole vessels as well as individual tiles (no more struggling to keep the cursor over that one crucial tile). Sorry the update has taken longer than usual, one reason being Rex's PC was fried by a recent lightning strike. For a full list of all the additions, changes and bug fixes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2019-04-29 20:40:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 18 Pre-Release 2 is now available. This Pre-Release Build adds some more new weapons as well as fixes for a number of bugs and other issues. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/17/1681441347879213087/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/17/1814296907961057935/

[ 2019-04-20 19:48:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 18 is almost here. We know it has been a while but it is not quite ready for final release yet. However for those who are willing to endure some bugs and glitches we have just released ALPHA 18 Pre-Release Build 1. This pre-release contains at least one variant of each of the new weapon types to try out along with the targetting and control group additions mentioned in previous blog posts. Please check the change log for some known issues and as always let us know what you think of the new additions. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/17/1814296907961062854/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/17/1814296907961057935/

[ 2019-04-10 18:09:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. We are still working on ALPHA 18, and while taking a bit longer than we had initially hoped, we think it has been worth doing it all together in this one update. Here is what we've been working on since the last dev post. Projectiles and Physics
We have been re-examining some of the existing physics effects in the game, and how that affects combat. We have also been tweaking networking of player vessels (mostly affecting multiplayer). We have also been looking at projectiles. What we have now is the ability to more easily move vessels via physical forces, whether that's caused by environmental or weapon effects. Players will now be able to push each other more easily than before, and similarly be able to group up and push larger objects together. Also explosions (reactors, torpedoes, etc) now will affect ANY object within a radius and can cause damage. Projectiles have been improved a number of ways, with different effects being data driven via the templates and very customizable. This now means things like projectiles that track & seek targets and projectiles that "glom" on and slow the target down like a giant anchor are possible. It also allows the introduction of mines--stationary, eternal projectiles that can be saved across game sessions--that can cause all sorts of mischief and headaches for players and AI alike. Energy
Finally, we have been working on energy draining, so now it will be possible to reduce or cause temporary deactivation of components. Why destroy a tile, when you can just drain its energy and then steal its cargo? This should open up a number of new possibilities for game play. We have also added a number of performance improvements in regards to logging, namely item and template loading. These changes should improve logging from anywhere between 200-350% faster. We're still working towards that Pre-Release build, and once we have something ready to test, we want to get it out there for initial feedback. All I will say is it will "as soon as possible".

[ 2019-04-05 16:32:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. Another dev post! We are revealing some of the other new features for ALPHA 18. Since the focus of the update is combat improvements, we have been working on ways to either expand combat capabilities, or improve the combat experience.
First off, in the "improve combat experience" section, we have added the "Lock On Target Window". This is a small, resizeable window that can be toggled on and off (and is completely optional) that will give you a view of whoever you have selected. This should allow you to have a better idea of the condition of your target, and help with aiming as the window can be clicked on, which brings us to the second new feature: tile lock-on targeting.
(Explorer Union intelligence provided an image enhancement from a recent covert scouting mission) You can now right click and select a specific tile to target. Once done, you now focus on flying and navigating, while the aiming computers do the rest. It is still possible to manually fire weapons if you wish, so the freedom and flexibility for even more clever trick shots remains.
The next new feature is based off community response. You have asked for it, and now the time for it has arrived. Control groups. You now have up to 10 control groups to assign weapons to, for selective firing. It is also possible to fire all groups if desired. Sadly, moving individual items to the action bar is now lost, but our data suggested hardly anyone utilized it, and items are still usable from inventory as they previously were.
Last but not least, the new weapon type: Pulse Cannons. These weapons require a charge up phase, and expend massive amounts of energy at a specific location. They prove to be inaccurate against fast and nimble targets, though that can be compensated for with masterful targeting. They have an "aiming phase" where the weapon can be aimed, an "armed phase" where the target position is locked and charge up begins, and a "firing phase" where the weapon discharges. These series of weapons also feature a new form of splash damage, linear splash damage (as opposed to radial splash already seen in reactor explosions or torpedo hits), where damage will now propagate in the direction of aiming. We have also decided against putting drones into the game. We did some initial testing, and felt it was not right for the game, in the scope we were aiming for. We feel that with the target window and tile lock-on we accomplish similar outcomes. We will also be looking at making certain mining lasers be able to automatically pick up ore, rock and crystals. We have a few more things we want to work on adding, as well as making the AI somewhat compatible with the new weapon types, so it will be a few more weeks at a minimum. But we may put the first Pre-Release test build out as soon as next week for players to try out the new weapons, help us test for bugs, and give initial feedback. Have a good weekend!

[ 2019-03-15 18:14:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We're in the midst of ALPHA 18 development, but it's time for a news post. Part of the new combat update, and the first of two new weapon types, we're happy to introduce: The Gattling Gun. It's a weapon that is fast firing, short to medium range, and with a fairly wide spread. Unlike the beam laser, it will always fire it's maximum distance, so you'll need to be careful with collateral damage. In its current form, it requires energy, so no separate ammo to worry about. We may ultimately add a subtype of gattling gun that does require ammo, but we haven't made a final decision yet. We've got another weapon type we're working on at this moment, and should be ready to reveal it next week. So far ALPHA 18 is shaping up to really enhance the combat portion of the game, both in terms of weapon choices as well as other features we haven't revealed yet. We're both quite excited.

[ 2019-03-07 19:14:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 17 brings Hangars to your arsenal. Hangars allow you to dock vessels within vessels. Great for bringing along your small nimble mining ship along with your large high warp carrier. This ALPHA also contains a number of performance improvements and bug fixes. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2019-02-05 22:49:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 17 is all about Hangars. Hangars add the ability to dock vessels and other objects inside your ships and will travel wherever the host ship travels. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/16/1743358239842340350/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/16/1743358239842337793/

[ 2019-01-26 20:44:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've posted a forum post detailing some of the immediate, and not so immediate milestones and general development goals for the new year. Forum Post - 2019 Roadmap and milestones. Check it out if you want to know a bit more about what the start of 2019 will bring for Space Impossible.

[ 2019-01-11 22:40:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 16.1 fixes a few issues found with the initial ALPHA 16 release. For a full list of fixes please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2018-12-17 19:53:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Christmas has come early for Space Impossible. ALPHA 16 is a big update, mainly focused on improving AI performance and capabilities. There's also a new change to how vessel building is handled, and some quality of life improvements. We hope you enjoy all the changes and improvements ALPHA 16 brings and as always we welcome any feedback. We'll be back in the new year with more ALPHAs, our current next goal being Hangars with ALPHA 17. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2018-12-13 21:56:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 16 Pre-Release 3 is now available. In this Pre-Release Build we've added some significant features including reinforcements, a new integrity system and the return of collision sounds! This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/14/3374780959388663359/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/14/1735468061766868200/

[ 2018-11-17 19:48:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 16 Pre-Release 2 is now available. In this Pre-Release Build we've added some new features, polish and bug fixes from Pre-Release 1. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/14/1736595227859162843/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/14/1735468061766868200/

[ 2018-11-05 20:09:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. It's been about six weeks since our last news post, and we're well on our way into ALPHA 16. The focus on this update is improving AI in combat as well as fleshing out some of the AI capabilities. Over the last few weeks we've been working first on AI combat. We've focused on AI targeting, they can now engage other AI ships/vessels that belong to factions they don't like. Targets can be dropped if they're hidden from sight, or get too far away. However, if you're the only other enemy in the area, you still unlikely to be ignored. Many AI ships can now engage in idle behaviors, where they will go on patrol around the area, looking out for enemies. We've also improved AI weapon useage and improved their behavior in attempting to get their weapons on target. Another behavior we are planning to include in this update is for the possibility of AI fleeing (if they feel the battle is not in their best interest). In the future this will lay the ground for more sophisticated behavior like repairing or possibly even mining. Once that is done, we'll be focusing on AI/player interaction. Now that the hailing system is in and working to our satisfaction, we'll be adding the capability for AI to hail you. This can be expected in situations where you are not wanted (like entering a hostile region) or a very friendly area. Finally, we've got plans for actually distress calls. One where the AI may call in reinforcements if you can't disable them fast enough. On the other side of things, we've taken the time to flesh out and polish a few features. When a hostile AI ship targets you, the navradar will now reflect that. We've also revisited the Manufacturing UI, and improved some elements, including queue flow and how enhancements are affecting your manufacturing. We're still some weeks away from the full update release, but we're releasing a Pre-Release build today. The usual business applies--it's optional etc, but please give it a try and let us know what you think of the changed AI behavior. We'll do atleast one more Pre-Release, and possibly more as things get nailed down. Head over to the changelog to see whats in the Update so far. To try the Pre-Release out, follow these instructions

[ 2018-10-20 18:39:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 15 is now available. This release now gives you something to slot into those long-time empty bridge mounts, Bridge Components! Bridge components come with a number of effects and abilities we call "Enhancements". Enhancements can improve existing components or add new features to your vessels such as "Cloak" which allows you to sneak up on AI and other players. As per usual this ALPHA also contains fixes for a number of bugs and some small secondary features. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2018-09-20 18:38:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 15 finally adds Bridge Components. While Bridge mounts have been present for a long time now, the Bright Components are now available, and bring some special abilities to the vessels where equipped. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/13/1743346190281899981/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/13/1743346190281884851/

[ 2018-09-15 19:08:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! ALPHA 15 is well under way. We are proud to finally be bringing Bridge components to the helms of every ship. Bridges will feature stats and abilities that make your other components shine. All bridges will have "enhancements". Enhancements are bonuses, penalties and other unique abilities that alter the characteristics of your vessel or the components that are mounted within. Additionally there will be "enhancement sets" that have some rules associated with them. Example:
These enhancement sets all have a "under ", "at " and "over " logic that we're hoping will make for some really interesting builds. You will only be able to have one enhancement of a specific type at any time, but it will be possible to have different enhancements that affect the same stat/capability/components active at the same time. That means NO: 2x 'Enhance 1', but yes: 1x 'Enhance 1' AND 1x 'Enhance 2'. Also, the ability to Cloak is coming. Cloaking will visually hide your vessel. Firing your weapons or activating your shields will cause cloak to automatically drop. You will be able to move while cloaked, but exhaust will be visible and will show up on the scanner. We still need to make sure AI will behave accordingly. We've also been receiving a number of good bug reports (mostly minor, thankfully), and expect to have a majority of them fixed as well. There have already been some really cool workshop entries, so please check them out, and feel free to contribute. Check the official workshop guide for more information on how to upload your own vessels. NOTE: Due to a mistake on our end, the uploader tool wasn't properly available to all game owners. That has been fixed, so if you tried it before and couldn't download, please try again now. We have also decided to shift around the other priorities/goals we announced when ALPHA 14 was released. We have decided that ALPHA 16 will be an entirely AI update. We will be going over the AI from bow to stern, improving their combat decisions, and hopefully make them more fun to engage with. No more half measures! A Pre-Release will be done for ALPHA 15 as soon as its ready, probably in a week or two.

[ 2018-08-23 20:36:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Originally we had planned to release workshop support as part of ALPHA 15 but have decided to release it early as Alpha 14.1. This is just the first step in Steam integration and therefore only supports Ship/Vessel templates and languages for now. If you would like to upload your own items to the workshop we have made a guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1461693416 For more information about this release and how it all works please see the change notes here : forum post

[ 2018-08-13 19:49:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 14 is now available. For ALPHA 14 we have finally re-introduced trading, one of the last key features from early alphas and this time we think we have done a much better job. There is still a ways to go to fully realize and integrate trading with the rest of the game but we hope you like it. Throughout systems you will now find stations willing to trade as well as traders traversing "Trade Lanes". Starting trade is simply a matter of hailing a trader and then interacting with them in a manner very similar to regular inventory. Construction now requires trading/money when using other factions stations. Alongside all of the modifications associated with trade we have as usual fixed a number of bugs and added some small secondary features. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2018-07-24 19:51:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 14 Pre-Release 2 is now available. Along with fixing several from Pre-Release 1 we have now added trading within construction and more populated trade lanes. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/12/2572003428664633947/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/12/1729828401713048191/

[ 2018-07-17 21:22:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 14 sees the (re)-introduction of trading. Stations and ships through out the universe will be now buying and selling items. We haven't completed all of the features we want for this release and already plan to do a pre-release build 2 but for now we would like any feedback on what is currently in from those who are willing to try this pre-release build. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/12/1729828401713053803/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/12/1729828401713048191/

[ 2018-07-10 18:59:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We hope all of your summers are off to a good start. Stuffie and I have been working on ALPHA 14, and it is coming along well. We are working on adding (or re-adding if you want to be technical) trading. So far we have got the UI and the interaction process done, and now are working on the behind the scenes stuff that really drives Space Impossible, things like: data templates, appropriate trader generation depending on things like faction and location, as well as trader maintenance and some trader items. The way trading works we hope will be pretty intuitive, but also powerful. You will have to hail a vessel, and if it is a trader, you will have the choice of starting a trade session. Trading takes place directly from inventory, and you will be buying and selling based on your and the other's stacks. Traders will be limited to what they have available, and will only be able to buy what they have room and currency for. Same for yourself, so keep an eye on what you have present. Traders will have pricing variation based on a number of factors including item type, their faction's opinion of you, and location. We are still hashing out the consequences for attacking traders and stealing their stuff, but we're aiming for it to be both a valid way of conducting yourself, but not something so lucrative that it is "the best way". There will not be player owned traders. Sorry, but it is just a giant pile of problems at this time. It is also something we feel would have limited use and be an extreme burden to set up and maintain. You will however be able to trade directly player to player (in multiplayer) as well as buy stuff from traders that the trader had previously purchased from another player. Currency is added, in the form of SpaceBucks. This will be used to buy and sell, and can be rewarded from missions too. SpaceBucks will not an item, so you will not be able to drop it like you can with inventory. We have had a real design challenge in how to keep traders stocked in both money and items. What we have decided to go with is a refresh timer. Unlike strictly single player games where you can often "rest" or otherwise accelerate time, that is not an option in Space Impossible. We are instead going with a flat time period (probably 20 min by default) after which traders will restock and resupply their piggy banks. This will be something that can be changed in the config files if desired. You will still be able to buy back stuff you have sold previously or accidentally, or even buy stuff that other players may have unloaded, but those traders (especially stations) will actually be able to continue to serve a purpose. Also being worked on are "Trade Lanes". These will be areas in a star system that you will be more likely to find trader vessels (and possibly pirates or escorts) so if you want to get some trade action, or looking for a fight, you will have areas to gravitate towards. We will be attempting to make these logical, e.g. a path between a region with a mining station to a region with a refinery. We have also have received some reports of beacon problems, and we are looking into those. A Pre-Release Build will be out A.S.A.P. for ALPHA 14, as soon as mid next week if things continue on pace.

[ 2018-06-19 18:29:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 13.1 is now available. Alpha 13.1 continues the transit point (wormholes/jumpgates) development from ALPHA 13. The main feature of this release is the new ability to create and link your own jumpgates allowing you to create your own personalized transit networks. Alongside the usual bug fixes bug fixes as well as improvements to the universe map, ALPHA 13.1 also includes a new way to share templates using simple text strings. Below is the string for the ship in the gif, so try it out! 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 For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post On another note for all those who are interested and haven't checked the forums we have setup a discord to hang out, chat about the game and find others to play multiplayer with here: https://discord.gg/4ayjymM

[ 2018-05-31 16:12:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 13.1 is now available. This update completes ALPHA 13 by adding the ability for players to make their own jumpgates and link them together. We have also added the ability to import and export building templates via string. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post. We also for this build have made a discussion for sharing/testing out the new template sharing system here.

[ 2018-05-28 20:50:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 13 is now available. This ALPHA sees the addition of Jump gates and Wormholes, regions you can now rarely find that allow for near instantaneous travel across vast distances between systems. Alongside the addition of these transit points we have added the ability for star systems to be thrown into conflict. System conflicts can be started with new "Chaos" missions allowing the player to start a war with another faction inside a system, once started the system will alter and "conflict" missions will be available. Once enough conflict missions for either side have been completed the system will be handed over to the victor and regions will slowly be taken over. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2018-05-15 17:27:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 13 Pre-Release 2 is now available. This release adds some more conflict missions, improves some existing ones as well as several fixes. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/11/2828702373000948309/ and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/10/1693788384146678594/

[ 2018-05-12 18:42:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 13 sees the expansion of the star system, with an addition of Star System Conflicts, and the wholly new addition of Transit Points aka Wormholes and Jumpgates. We have also fixed and otherwise improved a number of elements of Star System generation. As always things will be a bit rough around the edges but we appreciate any feedback from players who are willing to try the early build. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/11/1696046342860301704/ and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/11/1696046342860298814/

[ 2018-05-04 20:11:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody! Here's what we're working on for ALPHA 13! As part of the ongoing push to finish off major technical features, we're adding in "transits points". These will take the form of wormholes and jumpgates that will be strewn around the universe, making for quick travel over long distances. They won't (naturally) be very common. Each transit point can be linked to one other point of the same type. A region can contain one transit point, and will often, at least in the case of wormholes, be their own special regions within a star system. They are big and difficult to miss. Jumpgates are the artificial forms, and eventually players will be able to construct them and place them throughout their journeys. We're still sorting out some of the details, so things like manufacturing cost is still to be determined.
Also in ALPHA 13 will be the unveiling of Star System Conflicts. This is something we wanted to do when missions were first added, but weren't able to finish in time. The core premise of this system will allow player(s) to change the faction that controls the star system through a set of missions. These are good ways to gain (or lose) faction, and make use of the recently released dialogue and mission systems. The way it works: Systems will have "chaos missions" that exist to edge the system towards conflict. When that mission is completed, the player who completed the mission can choose which faction they wish to represent. Once enough chaos points are gained by a specific faction, the system goes into conflict. The conflict will be between the current owners of the system and whichever faction had the points. Existing missions will be cleared, and conflict specific missions and content will be available. Conflict continues until one faction gains enough mission completions to be declared victor. The recently conflicted system will then experience a shift in it's regions' contents over the next few minutes to reflect the outcome of the conflict. Both of these two new major systems are in-game and working, though there's a few minor mechanics we're still hashing out, mostly in form of interface/interaction. A Pre-Release Build may be ready as soon as the last week of April.

[ 2018-04-20 17:09:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 12.1 is now available. This minor update adds some additional functionality to building, a fix for linux users with multi-displays and a fullscreen resolution option. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2018-03-20 17:18:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 12 is now available. This update adds several new features to aid navigation around the universe. These include a new system map, an overhauled discovery system, the ability to place beacons to mark and find locations and a new "active" and "passive" scanner ability to help you find resources and vessels within regions. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here forum post

[ 2018-03-13 19:47:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 12 Pre-Release 2 is now available. This release includes some fixes and UI improvements from build 1. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/10/1696040635928289247/ and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/10/1693788384146678594/

[ 2018-03-06 19:24:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 12 contains many changes we hope will improve navigation overall. Changes include the addition of a new "scanner", a system map and beacons to find your way to and/or back to interesting locations. All of these systems require some polish and a little more fleshing out before a full release but we would like input from those willing to try. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/10/1693788384146689586/and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/10/1693788384146678594/

[ 2018-02-27 20:49:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody! ALPHA 12 development is well under way. We're working on navigation this time, and here's what's involved:
We're replacing region navarrows with a new passive and active scanning system. Objects are evaluated based on their components (especially activated ones). These will show up on the passive scan. There is now an active scan ability which will show all objects in the region, based on direction and mass. This will fade with time and will require a refresh when wanted. At the moment scanning is a set ability, but will be adjustable in the future when bridge components are added. Inventory and components will be accessible while in warp. There will be some restrictions--like no dropping of items. But now you can swap stuff around without having to leave warp, making for a smoother experience.
Beacons are also going to make their first appearance ingame. These are objects that can appear in a region or a star system, and can be used to signify things of interest. They won't have collision, so you need not worry about destroying them. They will have a customizable name and icon. We hope these prove useful for marking things of interest for later visits. In the future "world" beacons will start showing up. We've added a "discovery" system (different from ALPHA 4's discovery), which affects visibility of things when at warp within the star system. Areas can now range from completely undiscovered to completely known, and various steps in between. This will tie into things like faction as well, where a standing with a faction will reveal some information that otherwise wouldn't be available unless in the immediate vicinity of the area.
Finally, we're introducing a proper star system map. This will utilize the information available from visibility based on the "discovery data", certain radius from your ship (that will be changeable in the future). Some of the data will be clustered together when they're in close proximity (like the moons of a planet), but we hope it will provide enough information to be useful for exploration, navigation and other related tasks, while not too revealing. We expect a test build to be ready in the next 7-10 days, and the actual ALPHA 12 build sometime not long after.

[ 2018-02-16 15:52:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 11 is now available. The main feature of this alpha is the addition of a mission system along with changes to how the various factions interact with you. Missions can be accessed via the current Star Systems Mission Board (Default Key J). We know this update has taken quite some time but we hope you enjoy the changes and that they go some way to our goal of adding more "purpose" to the universe. For a full list of all the additions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here : forum post

[ 2018-01-24 15:52:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 11 Pre-Release 3 is now available. This release adds many more missions as well as improved rewards and some bug fixes. NOTE: Due to fixes to mission save data, universes made in ALPHA 11 Pre-Release 1 will NOT load and will cause and error. Please make a new universe or try loading one from ALPHA 10 instead. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/9/1693785035807229810/ and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/9/2906376154318539530/

[ 2018-01-17 22:56:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 11 Pre-Release 2 is now available. This release adds some small interaction improvments as well as fixing several problems including mission loading and phantom mounts. NOTE: Due to fixes to mission save data, universes made in ALPHA 11 Pre-Release 1 will NOT load and will cause and error. Please make a new universe or try loading one from ALPHA 10 instead. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/9/1621726179566161721/ and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/9/2906376154318539530/

[ 2018-01-04 21:27:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Rex and I hope everyone is having a happy December, with a happy hanukkah and merry christmas to come. ALPHA 11 is still under development. It's a whopper of work, so it's taking a bit longer than we had hoped. It won't be ready before Jan 1st, and with some holiday travels coming up, we wanted to get something out before the new year. We are happy that a Pre-Release build is ready for players to take a crack at the new missions and enhanced faction systems. There's still some bugs present and only a small selection of missions but we're confident that all missions can be completed and give out some rewards. We're very interested in hearing any initial feedback. We've also received some bug reports for ALPHA 10, that we're investigating, and we hope to have some fixes for included when ALPHA 11 is ready. Whether or not you are able to play the test build we both wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays. If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/9/2906376154318564589/ and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/9/2906376154318539530/

[ 2017-12-15 22:17:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone. Alpha 11 is going to see the addition of the mission system to Space Impossible. This news post is a bit late in the Alpha development cycle, as it's taking a bit longer than the last few Alpha Updates.
Missions are based on the star system and will consist of five types: Combat Target, Combat Clearing, Trading, Exploration and Collecting. Combat Target - One, or several, specific targets must be destroyed. The target(s) may be in one region or in several. Ex: Destroy Captain Duncan. Combat Clearing - A number of generally defined targets must be destroyed. These will almost always require visiting several regions. Ex: Destroy five Ticeroy vessels/stations. Trading - You'll encounter people and places that are looking for certain items. Provide this specific item for a reward. Ex: A trader is stranded and wants a new engine. Exploration - These missions will require visiting certain regions and doing something within the region. (NOT INCLUDED IN ALPHA 11). Collecting - These missions will require the player to mine and/or collect a certain number of tiles. (NOT INCLUDED IN ALPHA 11). Missions will be available to everyone in the star system, and may be used to gain and/or lose faction, gain currency and/or items. They won't have to be accepted, rather are open to multiple people who can all contribute to completing that mission. Missions can fail, especially Combat Target, if the target becomes unavailable. One mission may be tracked by each player.
Additionally we're trying out the addition of a star system map. This will let you see neighboring star systems, including the predominant faction.
As part of the mission system, AI will now respond better to a player's faction, so not everyone will try to kill you out right. You'll be able to see your standing with each faction as well from a new menu screen. The real exciting thing about this update is that we're laying and expanding on the groundwork for your actions to have real meaning in the space around you. It also means re-adding Trading (buying/selling) is also one step closer (A12 or A13 depending), and now with real differences between factions. As always we thank you for your patience. We think it'll be worth the wait!

[ 2017-11-08 18:43:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 10 is now available. This alpha overhauls how energy works, replacing the existing energy pools with a tile and reactor-pattern based system. ALPHA 10 also adds multi-tile mounts, medium and above mounts now cover multiple tiles. To go along with these changes we have added a number of new components including some experimental lasers with much longer reach. For a full list of all the addtions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here : forum post

[ 2017-10-05 21:05:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 10 Pre-Release 1 is now available. This release completely revamps how energy works as well as adding multi tile mounts. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/8/1520386297684900880/ and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/8/1520386297684903463/

[ 2017-09-28 20:39:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Last news post we announced the changes to the energy system in Space Impossible. As part of ALPHA 10 (A10), we're also introducing an additional change to mounts and components: Multi-Tile Mounts.
What that basically means is different mount sizes will take up a different number of physical tiles. We decided to do this as part of A10 because we need to rebalance every component anyways due to the energy changes, and by doing multi-tile mounts at the same time, it should ease the impact in broken designs that otherwise would've popped up. We, Stuffie and I, feel Multi-tile Mounts will offer a number of new choices in vessel design:

• It imparts a physical sense to mounts. Bigger is better (in most cases). It'll tie mass, energy requirements and component strengths into that physical size.
• It'll allow Space Impossible to have far more powerful components while needing less of them per vessel.
• It lays the groundwork to provide a better sense of pacing for acquiring upgrades and/or new components.

Mounts still come in the same sizes: micro, small, medium, large and gigantic. Tile destruction works basically in the same way as it does now. Mounts that are more than 1 tile now will be evaluated with the following rules:

• Mounts require all their tiles to be active/activated. Exception being engines, which will operate at significantly reduced capacity.
• When the number of alive tiles goes below 50% of possible tiles, the component becomes unseated. It gets dropped into space as an item.
• When the number of tiles equals zero, the mount is permanently destroyed.
• For a component to be seated, all tiles must be present.
• Mount will exist until it is removed, or the final tile destroyed.
• Energy for components is based on a sum of all tiles energy. If, for example, a 2x2 medium mount with a component requires 50 energy, and the tiles energy is 5, 8, 8 and 30, for a total of 51 energy, then the component would work.

An example of the Odyssey with a first pass rebalance. Compare that to the image in the previous news post and you'll see there's actually less engines, less reactors, less bridges. But same potential and capabilities. So we're going to continue with this. I'm doing most of the balance changes and Stuffie is continuing to work on (and at this point optimize) the UI and some other bugs. We hope for a Pre-Release build sometime next week.

[ 2017-09-21 01:00:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, We're in the second week of ALPHA 10 development and things are far enough along to introduce what's going on.
Basic paperdoll look with energy states Energy is getting a significant change. Previously, reactors would increase a total energy pool, and generate a certain amount of power at a specific refresh rate. The problem that system was it wasn't very rewarding. Having an energy problem? Slap in more reactors. There wasn't enough control over how energy was used, and as other systems were tied to energy (like shields and engines) issues with controlling use of the energy started to rise. We didn't want to add further controls just for energy, so we sat down and did some thinking.
Mousing over a reactor reveals the energy grid. Black is 0 energy What we've come up with is a more passive, but at the same time an indepth solution. The way energy and reactors work now is: Energy is now tile based. Reactors produce energy in a pre-determined pattern. Every tile that the pattern overlaps gains (or loses) energy. Most components require energy to be enabled. If their tile doesn't have enough energy, the component is disabled (or severally crippled). This gives the following benefits: Building is far more indepth. You can just slap stuff on, but there's far more room for really thoughtful ship design. It encourages reactors to be spread out to give adequate coverage for components. No more slapping reactors in the middle of your ship. Ships and stations will now have better vulnerabilities, and it should promote different design philosophies. Finally, it makes reactors far more interesting. There'll be far greater possibilities in reactor design and choices. In addition, reactors will be capable of being rotated, with a 90 degree snap.
Example of how the energy grid looks on large ships, pre-rebalance The biggest challenge at the moment is making the UI give you all the information you need, without overwhelming you with that info. Stuffie's doing a great job on it, and we're sure you're all going to like it too.

[ 2017-09-01 19:11:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 9 is now available. This alpha sees the re-introduction of Torpedoes and multi tile damage. Alongside Torpedoes there are a number of re-addtions (such as Kelbuim and more advanced lasers), new addtions (a new laser type and completely revamped ship wrecks) as well as the usual slew of bug fixes and optimizations. For a full list of all the addtions and changes as well as how they all work please check out the forum post here : forum post

[ 2017-08-17 17:31:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 9 Pre-Release 2 is now available. This releases fixes some problems related to building including other things found in Pre-Release 1. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/6/1471967615873306628/and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/6/1471967615865078115/

[ 2017-08-11 20:14:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 9 Pre-Release 1 is now available. This release re-introduces torpedoes and multi-tile damage, so watch out as reactors now expode when their tile is destroyed! This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/6/1471967615865093528/ and how to access it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/6/1471967615865078115/

[ 2017-08-09 19:01:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just letting everyone know that Rex and I will be live on the SpaceGameJunkie Podcast (www.twitch.tv/spacegamejunkie & https://gaming.youtube.com/spacegamejunkie/live ) on August 1st 2017 6:00 AM PT US/8:00 AM CT US/1:00 PM GMT

[ 2017-07-26 20:00:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 8 is now available. This alpha sees the addition of the EVA Suit which allows captains to exit thier vessel, move around space, repair tiles as well as build new vessels from scratch. Beware however as in an EVA suit you are very vunerable ! For a full list of all the additions and fixes aswell as how they all work please check out the forum post here : forum post

[ 2017-07-13 23:04:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 8 Pre-Release 1 is now available. This release adds the ability to now leave your vessel as an EVA suit, allowing you to repair the outside of your vessel as well as create new vessels from scratch. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe, If you still wish to give it a try check out all of the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/5/1457328392100793532/ and how to access it here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/5/1457328392100789955/

[ 2017-07-06 22:08:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 8 development is well under way. This update will see the addition of EVA suits which will allow you to leave your vessel, make repairs, move from ship to ship as well as finally enable you to create new vessels (or other objects) from scratch when working with an Assembler. Here we see Stuffie and I testing out repairing some damage done to the side of my Venture. Due to the nature of this update, it will take a bit longer than ALPHA 6 and ALPHA 7, but we hope to see a Pre-Release test build very soon.

[ 2017-06-26 18:56:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 7 is now available to play and brings the return of Tractor Beams allowing Captains to push and pull things through normal space as well as drag objects through warp. Alongside the return of tractor beams is the return of some other pre-alpha 5 content such as Comblastors, Salvageborers and Bonivium. For a full list of all the additions and fixes aswell as how they all work please check out the forum post here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/1291817837620270574/

[ 2017-06-01 19:55:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 7 Pre-Release 2 is now available. This release fixes a number of visual issues with the previous build as well as shield interactions and handling what happens with tractored objects when you leave the game. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe, If you still wish to give it a try check out all of the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/4/1291817208492121798/ and how to access it here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/4/1291816880503436581/

[ 2017-05-26 20:15:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 7 is almost ready but there are still a number of things missing and plenty of bugs to be found and fixed. This alpha introduces Tractor Beams which allow other vessels and objects to be pulled alongside as well as through warp to other regions. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe, If you still wish to give it a try check out all of the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/4/1291816880503441606/ and how to access it here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/4/1291816880503436581/

[ 2017-05-22 20:23:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

ALPHA 6 is here! We have made several changes, bug fixes and new addtions including:

• Shields
• Items left in space now save across sessions
• Several building improvements including a preview of templates before loading
• Improved warp transitions
• Additional content, performance improvements, bug fixes and more...

For details and a full changelist check out the forum post here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/1327844097113814104/

[ 2017-05-04 19:59:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 6 isn't quite done just yet but for the brave among you we have just released what we have so far, bugs and all on the pre-release test branch. This is a pre-release build so all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe, If you still wish to give it a try check out all of the changes and details here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/3/1319962417043675712/and how to access it here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/3/1319962417043696650/

[ 2017-04-29 19:49:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a number of months since Alpha 4. We apologize for the delay, but we think it's been worth the wait. We've listened to feedback and we hope everyone is as excited about the improvements as we are.

New features/Major Changes:

NOTE: DUE TO FILE FORMAT CHANGES, UNIVERSES MADE IN ALPHA 4 ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH ALPHA 5. Vessel Building - Fully customize your ships (or anything for that matter) with the help of the new component type "Assemblers". Add and remove tiles, paint, add and remove mounts and components while in the new Build mode. Save copies of your favorite designs locally for later re-use. A Gigantic Universe - We've added the capability for multiple star systems. The universe is now approximately 4 billion star systems large, with each star system consisting of 15-60 regions each. Star System View - No longer use warp gates to hop directly from one region to another, instead go to warp and see yourself inside the larger star system. Steer your vessel from one region to another, or engage with other ships in warp, and drag them into a fight. Completely Redone Manufacturing - Manufacturing has been completely overhauled. No more insta-make, but instead queue things up into a vessel's lab. Check your Home Station for a lab (see the HAMMER on the inspection panel), and use the Build mode to add more. As a result, recipe material costs have been significantly reduced. Full Collision Physics - Thanks to a significant architecture change (Rex Note: I'd say IMPROVEMENT personally) we now have the capability for an authoritative physics simulation. That means anything and everything can be collided with, pushed or jostled. Collision damage is disabled for the time being though. New Paper Dolls - Gone are the static panel and paper dolls from Alpha 1-4. Components and other logical elements are now displayed over the top of your vessel or any other inspected target, and move, rotate and update in real-time. For all the juicy details please check out the forum post that goes more indepth as to what these features mean and how to access them (http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/135512931353253988/). The game is still in alpha and Alpha 5 has experienced some major changes and therefore we expect there will be bugs, for all the current known issues please check this forum post (http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/135512931353278369/) and if you do happen to encounter a problem not on this list we encourage you to let us know over on the bug thread (http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/135512931353228732/) OSX / LINUX USERS NOTE - The current live build does not work on OSX/Linux and gets stuck at 21%. We are currently working on fixing this but suggest you switch over to the "Alpha 4" branch to continue playing the game for the moment

[ 2017-03-30 19:06:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

As promised today we just released Alpha 5 Pre-Release Build 5 on the "publictest" branch. The latest update now has AI enabled as well as balancing and bug fixes but for all the nitty gritty details you can check out the forum post: http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/2/135511757695185173/

[ 2017-03-16 21:23:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone. Alpha 5 is feature locked and going through final bug passes. We were hoping for a release this week, however we're working on eliminating some bugs, so it's not quite ready yet. Instead we're expecting to release Pre-Release Build 5 on Wednesday or Thursday. That's it. No images, no long announcements. Got to get back to it.

[ 2017-03-14 16:49:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have just pushed the latest Alpha 5 test build to the test branch, this includes many changes with the main addition being the ability to now save and load your universes. It is still unstable but if you wish to try it out you can find details of how to access the test branch here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/154644045365782822/ and check out the latest changelog here : http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/2/135509124606398542/ for all the details.

[ 2017-02-16 20:18:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Everyone! Just posting to say that Alpha 5 is closer than ever to release. We just pushed a pre-release build 3 on the test branch of Space Impossible, and if you're interested you should check the forum post on whats new how to try it out (https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/154644045365782822). We're really excited about what Alpha 5 will mean for the game, as we're adding more stuff than ever. We've added:

• Whole new star system movement
• Fully customizable ship and vessel editing
• A complete manufacturing overhaul
• AI changes
• Dynamic events
• A gigantic seamless universe
• Performance improvements
• Fully interactive physics
• Bug fixes galore!

So we're just a few weeks away from the final build, and we want to thank everyone for their patience. We know it will be worth it!

[ 2017-01-25 18:29:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Everyone! The Pre Release build for Alpha 5 is ready as promised for the full information please check out the forum post http://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/0/154644045365782822/. Reminder : This is a pre release test build and contains many bugs and unfinished items. Hope everyone has a happy holidays and we will see you after the new years!

[ 2016-12-20 23:21:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Things have been a bit on the quiet side lately. Between end of the year stuff and some personal stuff (Rex is doing much better, thanks for all the well wishes) Alpha 5 has taken longer than hoped.
It still won't be quite ready before the end of the year. We could maybe rush it out, but we won't be able to support it properly over the week surrounding Christmas and it won't be up to our own internal expectations, so we aren't going to do that. But don't fret just yet. By the end of the day on December 20th, we will be posting a public test branch here on Steam for adventurous players to test out. There will be bugs, there will be issues, you are promised that. However it should be fairly playable and we hope that over the winter holiday players may give it a few minutes and take a moment to either leave feedback or just allay their fears that the development has halted. We're 100% on board and focused.
We will then hit the ground running in January 2017 and wrap up Alpha 5 with a proper release, while also updating the public test build every few days until the release. We think that'll work pretty well. We then hope that Alpha 6 will be back to a 4-6 week turn around as undoubtedly some things from Alpha 5 will need additional balancing or polish.

[ 2016-12-07 15:50:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Though things are taking longer than expected Alpha 5 is well under way and as you can see in the image above we have been working on a new paperdoll and inventory UI. We're putting the paperdolls directly on your ship/vessel (and inspection target) and anchoring the inventory to the left and right of the screen. This should make things a lot easier to see what your ship is doing while the inventory is open. Don't worry though, it'll operate same as before, and only be visible when you want it to (you either click on your vessel, hit "I" or the inventory button next to the action bar). That's a screenshot of it actually in game as of October 24th, not a mockup in Photoshop. So it's currently missing a few additional elements, like a "TAKE CONTROL" or the "ABANDON OWNERSHIP" buttons which will be added in the next few days. As we continue to make graphical improvements to the game to make things nicer looking, we hope to still maintain a consistent art style. If you think something goes too far, let us know. In general, we're eager to hear what you think of the changes, now and when you're finally able to get your hands on the game. For more information and an in depth description of why things are taking so long please check out the full post on our blog : http://spaceimpossible.tumblr.com/post/152296737616/new-paperdoll-update

[ 2016-10-25 16:52:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

link to gifv version Here it is, the much waited for star system to region gif we promised. In it, we’re streaking at high speeds before entering the orbit around a planet with two moons (each moon is a region as well). In development news we’ve got engines working again, and we’re fast towards getting weapons and the rest of the components up and running. We don’t have an ETA yet but we are expecting a publictest branch on Steam to give people plenty of time to try it out and help us find issues before it’s officially pushed as Alpha 5. Back to work!

[ 2016-09-27 17:20:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Last blog post I mentioned there were some things in the works we weren’t quite ready to announce, well that time has passed. Pleased to introduce the new star system gameplay. When in warp, a player will now be able to move about the star system with full control. You’ll be able to fly to destinations and enter back into normal gameplay mode (with combat, mining, etc) but you’ll now be able to transition to a new star system as well. No more hunting for warp gates as you move freely about the universe. Less time spent staring at map UI too. We still have a few weeks to go on it, as we need to finish off a few technical features before it’s ready to start being filled with more dynamic content – ship convoys to overtake, hostile ships to avoid, alien spacestations to encounter – but we’re expecting it to be far more fulfilling for explorers while maintaining the existing sense of tactics that fighters have been enjoying so far. Hopefully next blog post will be mid-next week and we’ll actually have some gifs to show off.

[ 2016-09-07 18:56:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

It’s been two weeks since we unveiled the new ship editor, and it’s still improving every day. We’ve been changing a whole bunch of data structures to facilitate how it works, switching from a custom text format to a JSON based format for templates. We’ve got mirrored tile placement, tile painting (only tiles like Hull Plating will be paintable), mounts and components. We’re getting rid of thrusters as a unique component type and merging them with engines. Mounts - Specifically “Component Mounts” are something completely new. They have two major considerations, type, and size. Type will determine what kind of component (weapon, engine, bridge, etc) can be placed in the mount. Size is a qualifier that will also affect what component can be placed. Cheap, low powered engines might be “small” (or even “micro”) and perfect for a ship like the Venture, while the bigger cruisers (like a Trailblazer) might need “large” or “gigantic” engines to move their mass, and in relation their mounts will need to support those sizes. Additionally you’ll be much more free to mix and match tile types. You’ll be able to swap out incrementally from Tritanium to Magnesite to Bonivium or even replace some tiles with Rock (or more exotic materials) if you really want. We’re really aiming to open up creativity and choice for construction. The same rules apply as before, tiles must share an edge (so no diagonals) in order to be considered joined. We’ve got some other stuff in the works but they’re not quite ready to be talked about. We’re still discussing it, but we’re leaning towards releasing the ship editor as a standalone test, to allow players to try it out sooner and give feedback. We should know in the next two weeks.

[ 2016-08-16 18:47:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've been toiling over the hot coals of Space Impossible since the last update putting together the most requested feature: the Ship Editor. It will still be weeks until its ready, but in the meantime we're happy to release the first gif of it in action. If you pay attention closely to what's going on, you may notice some things that are different than the current game. Well, we're not yet ready to talk about those yet, but that time will be coming soon.

[ 2016-08-02 18:32:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have just pushed 4.1 which tweaks some AI difficulty and fixes some bugs, for more details check the release notes below. Also, if you haven't seen it yet, yesterday's devblog discusses some big changes for Alpha 5, including the shift in focus towards an in-game ship editor. For more details, visit the blog post.

Release Notes

Ver: Alpha 4.1.3181 (Steam Build 1234919)

• AI pirate attacks (in non pirate regions) should be less frequent, with less ships in lower level regions. Both pirates and trade ships should see a more sporadic frequency in how often they appear when the previous spawn is killed or leaves a region.
• AI beam weapons now do slightly less damage than previously, scales approximately to region level
• Torpedoes should no longer explode on warp bubbles
• Ship splitting should no longer result in "warp in" sound effect
• Lasers should now able to hit torpedoes again
• Discovery timestamps now appropriately account for timezones.
• Changed external IP detection process. Should be consistently faster now when creating a multiplayer game.
• Fixed "speed" entry for weapon comparison tooltips
• "/clear" should work again with chat
• Repair Kits should properly stack to 50 again

[ 2016-07-19 18:01:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 4 is now live with the new trading system along with several new ships and bug fixes. For more details on the patch check the notes below and for insight into what's next check out the latest post on the Space Impossible Blog

Release Notes

Ver: Alpha 4.0.3160 (Steam Build 1206798) NOTE: Due to new station AI and other factors it is recommended to create a new universe to experience all new features, however Alpha 2 & 3 universes should still be compatable with this version.

New Trading system

• Added currency to the game. This is seen in your inventory, below your current vessel's name
• Added the trading system. This allows you to buy and sell with AI controlled ships and space stations. To access a vessel's store, there is a OPEN STORE button below its name. To sell, pick up items with the mouse, and click on the SELL area on the center bottom left. Right click will sell one item at a time, left click to sell a whole stack.
• Different factions will sell some general basics as well as some specific items. Of most interest, each faction will now sell a limited supply of ship kits for their faction ships.
• Sell prices for items in inventory should appear on the tooltip while in your inventory and browsing a shop.
• Added trader hub component to ships and stations.
• Added new trader ships to each faction. You should see these flying about now instead of Tradesman everywhere.

Other

• Added basic Station AI. Stations that spawn in a region now generally belong to the same faction as that which controls the region. If hostile, they will shoot at you if/when possible.
• Modified region templates to allow larger diversity of stations spawning.
• Fixed a bug from Alpha 3 where warp chambers were being ignored on tile death.
• Some improvements to AI movement. They will now attempt to engage in combat at different angles better, and will react to what weapons they have.
• Kal'giri ships start off with Comblastors
• Fixed a stackoverflow bug where resuming objects under construction weren't capable of finishing.
• Changed some core logic for the repair graphics to better detect edges of the ship/station.
• Repairing vessels like the K'Eziru should no longer be able to repair portions unconnected to the current tiles.

[ 2016-06-30 19:26:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

We’re two weeks into dev on Alpha 4. We’re currently working on adding in initial trading mechanics. There will be AI traders, that will buy and sell items from players. Their available items will be based off of faction and region level. Some items will be limited by quantity. [url=http://i.imgur.com/HsvEg8x.png]
We’ve got all of the new file formats in, the network messaging 98% done and the UI 99% done. We still need to do multiplayer testing, generate and propagate item data and implement procedural spawning. We’ve planned for and left areas for faction influence to affect things like pricing and availability.

[ 2016-06-14 17:47:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

We’ve just pushed Alpha 3 for Space Impossible live. It’s a smaller update than Alpha 2 was, in part because Alpha 2 took so long. We’ve added a major feature request from players that allows you to tractor certain things through warp when moving about the star system.
If you want to hear more about this and the next update plans please check out the latest entry over on the Space Impossible Dev Blog or check the note below for exact release details.

Release Notes

Ver : Alpha 3.0.3044 (Steam Build 1154754)

• Added the ability to move non player, non AI controlled ships and space stations through warp to other regions.
• Added collision sounds. Different sounds for different tiles.
• Fixed art issue with Yoggenite items being the wrong color.
• Fixed Odyssey and Odyssey Engine Refit having incorrectly placed weapon mounts.
• Added UI notification when inventory is full.
• Controlling a space station inside a warp bubble should no longer enable the warp button.
• Removed the map popup when entering a warp bubble. Instead a button appears on screen.
• Added a player list UI. "TAB" will show all players currently connected.
• Added server game rule setting "enablepvpmap", that when set to 1, will hide other player ships on the map, and treat player controlled ships like other ships with the navradar arrows.
• Error messages that appear when being kicked back to the main menu should display the "best" message if there are multiple.
• Fixed several bugs with ship/station assembly. Starting the assembly and resuming the game or leaving/re-entering the region should now allow the object to be completed regardless of state when it was left.

[ 2016-05-30 17:54:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Release Notes

Ver :Alpha-2.1.3003 (Steam Build 1136140)

• Added new game setting "ALLOWHOSTILEAIEVENTS" to allow toggling of the random hostile pirate encounters (see this post for more info)
• Added new game setting "MAXPLAYERS" to allow servers to set their own max player limit (see this post for more info)
• Reduced warp gate collision damage, you should no longer evaporate when colliding a venture with a warp gate
• Fixed template name typo on Galactic Aquila

[ 2016-05-19 15:49:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 2 is finally out, check below for all the changes, NOTE: DUE TO FILE FORMAT CHANGES, UNIVERSES MADE IN ALPHA 1 ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH ALPHA 2.

Release Notes

Ver :Alpha-2.0.2995 (Steam Build 1129845)

Game Systems

• Added multiple tile healths per object.
• Rewrote weapon damage system. Weapons can do different amounts of damage to different types of tiles. This allows things like mining lasers that do significantly more damage to asteroids, but less damage to ships and space stations.
• Added weapon modules. These modify the characteristics of a weapon, like increased weapon arc, length, energy consumption (where applicable), damage, duration and cooldown.
• Added discovery mechanic.
• Significant changes to star system generation. Regions are now linked together via Warp Gates and are discoverable. Regions usually flow in increasing order, and require discovery to unlock. Any ship can enter warp from a warp bubble associated with a warp gate. Regions are less likely to overlap, though some might still be closely placed.
• Added the "Warp Chamber" component. Larger ships have this component, and it allows these ships to enter warp from anywhere in a region. Ships with warp chambers will exit near warp gates just like any other ships.
• Changed universe creation random seeds from random numbers to a combination of 3 words based on common English words.
• Shrunk starter region (Region 0) significantly, with a conveniently located warp gate. There are a few asteroids and maybe a planetoid. No AI will spawn in the region, so it's completely safe haven.
• Ship thrusters (left and right) now scale relative to ship's mass. We'll see how that feels for now.
• Mouse click on the warp bubble of a warp gate now opens system map instead of inspection panel
• Rewrote object splitting handling. Bridges and cargo bays are now factored into splits. When a player is in control of a ship or spacestation they will retain control of the resulting chunk that has the largest number of bridges. Inventory will remain with the chunk with the largest number of cargo bays. If no bridge is intact, the player loses control no matter. If no cargo bays are available, then inventory goes into the largest chunk based on tile count. We also altered ownership retaining of chunks (even if a player dies) and how that affects looting.
• Changed "Region 0" name to "Start Region" and added an entry to the language file for localization
• Changes to object placement. Should see less spawning into asteroids. Ship and station wrecks may still occasionally be next to asteroids though.

Weapons

• Weapons no longer have to be constantly clicked to activate. Clicking and holding will allow the weapon to activate only when appropriate (as long as there is enough energy, and within firing angle).
• Weapon modules cannot be manufactured, they only drop from wrecks and AI ships.
• Split beam weapons into the : (Basic) Laser, Mining Laser, Comblastor and Salvageborer series. (Basic) Laser is middle of the road, decent damage to asteroids and ships, but doesn't excel anywhere. Mining laser is great for mining but worse for combat. Comblastor are high powered combat weapons that are good for killing ship tiles, but produce little/no wreckage and low damage against asteroids. Salvageborer is slow working, low damage beam weapon that produces a whole bunch of extra wreckage.
• Leaving the bounds of a region no longer warps you to a nearby region, but will attempt to teleport you to the closest warp gate in the region.
• Changes to the wreck generation. Should have less single tile wrecks. Wreck loot is more region level consistent.
• Warp gates and wrecks should no longer spawn on top of asteroids in the occasional moments they did

Object Templates

• Fixed weapon mount angles on Providence ships
• Odyssey received more weapon mounts
• Trailblazer received more weapon mounts
• Reduced number of weapon mounts of Galactic Aquila
• Added the Drumit class to The Drumience Federation ships. This ship is smaller than the Drumen and should be a bit more forgiving in lower level Drumience regions.
• Added a custom "recovery capsule" template
• Asteroid art has been updated
• Added cargo bay parsing for space stations. Space stations now have cargo bays. Can't believe we missed that.
• Added "Outpost" type station. It has 8 inventory, 1 lab, 1 reactor, 1 bridge, 2 cargo, no weapons. It doesn't require any labs to be made, and is about half the resources of the homestation to make. Good for that first initial expansion outside start region.
• Lowered Stellar Raptor rotation rate by half
• Fixed some template issues which were preventing large planetoids from spawning in regions. They should be much more common now, as intended.

UI

• Added LShift + Click to transfer stacks between your vessel and inspected vessel
• Added weapon cooldown indicators to screen
• Region map now updates in real-time
• Added weapon tooltips, and weapon comparison tooltips
• Added mouse control based on player feedback. It is off by default, but can be enabled via "CONTROLS" in options. LClick to move forward/select (if highlighted), MClick to reverse, RClick to fire selected weapons.
• Fixed a UI issue where the "lock state" was being visually reset incorrectly.
• Altered tooltip text on assembly to suggest "Holding" instead of "Clicking" as some players were reporting handstrain.
• Fixed some spelling errors in existing English file.
• Placement holograms for many objects should no longer be half height (ex: storage container)
• Moved search/manufacturing check box from bottom to top
• Fixed issue where inventory collapse wasn't working properly when switching panel size
• Added chat fading. Hardcoded at 30s, we will probably add a configurable time to the options in the future. Let us know what you think of it.
• You can now craft multiple items. This works like crafting in other games. Click and hold to make multiple items. First to second item is 1s, 2nd through 10th is 0.2s (per item) and 11th and on is 0.05s.
• Added sounds for almost all inventory manipulation. So picking up and dropping down should now have an audio cue.

Discovery

• Many objects now appear as a "?" on the map before they are discovered.
• Altered the "last loaded" timestamp on Load Universe from UTC to local time zone

Recipes

• Homestation no longer requires Isomatrix Framer Mk 1 Lab to make
• Isomatrix Framer Mk 1 Lab no longer requires Isomatrix Framer lab (oops)
• Inert Photon Lab recipes use crystal powder instead of methane
• Increased crystal -> powder output

AI

• Significant changes to AI. AI should be better behaved in multiplayer, and they should behave much better when players enter and leave a region. Still not anywhere near final, but should be much better than Alpha 1.
• AI patrols should be more "interesting" in terms of location instead of flying in a big circle
• Added two AI events. Trader (Cargo) ships will now spawn near space stations or warp gates and fly towards a warp gate before warping away. Small pirate groups will occasionally spawn in regions with players and attempt to harass the player.
• AI now have a variety of weapon load outs, including torpedoes
• AI ships will always spawn with some inventory. Trader ships spawn with more than other AI ships.
• AI ships with torpedo launchers should no longer run out of torpedoes. They're kind of jerks now.
• AI now reach to tile damage, not just tile death. They will ignore tile damage from ships on the same faction, but will not ignore tile death as previous. They won't switch targets too frequently either so ping ponging them off your friends may or may not work.
• AI factions should react more diversely to different factions. Pirate incursions into friendly factions will often see skirmishes that the players don't even know happened.

Technical

• Rewrote the shader system to make effect assets more flexible and not be hard coded into Unity scene
• Cleaned up a bunch of log prints to make universe creation faster/logs smaller
• Added universe versions and checking
• Fixed bug where certain objects were dropping "empty" items
• Moved language files from built-in to GameData/base/languages. You can now take the existing english language and replace the definitions with your own. If you do a translation, we'd be happy to include it in the official release, just let us know.
• Added server/client version checking based off of build number. If the client is rejected, they should receive a proper message, and the server will log it as well.
• Sometimes a "client" folder was appearing in the "Load Universe" dialog. That should no longer happen.
• Sometimes when warping back to region 0, the "you are leaving the region" warning would popup. That shouldn't happen now.
• Disabled a fairly verbose log print that was happening due to inspection
• Fixed an issue where AI weren't always getting appropriate targets even if they were in radius after spawning. Also reduced some unnecessary redundancy when an AI target is cleared.
• Seemingly fixed the "item pickup" sound playing when warping due to warp or player death

[ 2016-05-16 15:37:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

As of Tuesday the 19th, Alpha is feature locked. That means whatever feature is ingame that’s going to be released is in in some form. A bunch of bugs to sort out, balancing to be done. Warp Gates
Region Network
Depending on the next few days, we hope starting next week we’ll have a public branch on Steam for players to try out Alpha 2 early and give feedback and help us track down bugs prior to the actual release. It’ll be optional, and probably fairly buggy the first few days so please remember that when the time comes. Star System generation has been tweaked, so while visually some things are a bit tighter packed, there should no longer be any overlap. Moon regions should no longer interfere with other moons and planets. Asteroid regions should no longer overlap with any other regions either. We’ll cover more of the changes when the public branch is made and when Alpha 2 is finally released.

[ 2016-04-20 17:29:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog

• Fix for duplicate key error that was preventing some universes from loading. This was caused by previously undetected asteroid duplicates. Game should handle duplicate removal and processing much more robustly now.
• Fixed the roll->sheet exploit

[ 2016-03-30 20:53:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog

Bug Fixes:

• Added fix for broken universes. These were universes that would fail to load on any subsequent game load. This was due to high fragmentation of asteroid data in a region after several hours of play.
• Fixed Reinforced Kelbium Roll -> Reinforced Kelbium Sheet Recipe

Balance:

• Reduced sheet->roll costs
• Reduced quantity of CPUs required for lasers
• Reduced sheet costs for reactors

We did this based off some feedback, and the fact we want players to get their first upgrade in the first few minutes of playing. Additionally, we want players to be able to lose components due to ship destruction and not be totally devastated due to time/resources spent.

[ 2016-03-29 20:34:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Abandon all hope to ye who reads past this line. There be a wall o’ text coming! /pirate
Glorious teaser vanity pic We’re about a month since Early Access launch, and we’ve learned a whole bunch of things about the game that we didn’t know before. Some people really love mining, others hate the mining and think it’s a grind. Some people only play alone, others only play with friends. The AI is stupider than we thought. Some players have no idea what to do--even for a sandbox. Some people really want mouse control and/or gamepad control. There’s some bugs that we never would’ve found without the communities help. Space Impossible is also getting more attention in Alpha than we expected. Most people seem to enjoy the game, and are excited to see what comes next. And that makes us excited too! So we’re deviating a bit from the roadmap for Alpha 2 (Update 1 is now known as Alpha 2). Instead of adding more regions with more mining, we’re shifting the focus towards:

• Combat
• Early Player Experience
• *AI*. AI was already on the list, but now it has stars and underlines around it.

Combat We’re not going to be fixing or finishing combat in one update. But this first step should give players significantly more choices, both strategically, tactically and visually. We’ve reworked the templates, so that each tile type (on a per object basis) has its own health value. Each tile type can also have a “damage type”, to which its susceptible to.
Medium Asteroid Base Art and Tile Take something like the Medium Asteroid Base as pictured above. On the left you have the visual data that you actually see ingame. On the right you have the tile definitions. There’s black, red, yellow and white. Black corresponds to the rock. With this new system we can make rock have 1000 health and vulnerable to a specific damage type (internally called “Type 0″ but also being known as “Mining Damage”). Compare that to the red tiles, which correspond to manufactured metal. We could give that 3000 health, and be vulnerable to “Type 1″ aka “Combat Damage”. Theoretically there can be up to 255 damage types, but we’ll probably just have three for now, Mining, Combat and Exotic (not yet used but planned for). That leads us to the weapon changes. Each weapon can now have multiple damage values. We can now have “Mining Laser” that does 1000 DPS to tiles marked with the “mining damage” type, while at the same time do only 5 DPS to other tile types. Conversely, we can have “Combat Lasers” that do 3000 DPS to certain tiles, but only 30 DPS to others. Finally, as part of that system, we’ve also added tile loot modifiers. It now will depend on what kind of weapon you use to destroy the tile. A mining laser might drop 2x ore 100%, and a combat laser might cause only 1 wreckage to drop 10% of the time. It opens up the door for a number of specialty beams and roles. Alpha 2 will see a normal “Laser” which is middle of the road, Mining Laser for faster and more plentiful mining, a series of Combat Lasers which use lots of energy, but do lots of damage to “man-made” tiles, and a Salvage Laser series that is slow to drain energy and do damage, but yields increased wreckage amounts. Which leads us to the visual element. Stuffie’s been working on a system that allows us incredible flexibility with both beam weapons, but also engines and other effects. They’re now accessible via text file, instead of hard coded/referenced directly from the Unity scene.
So we’re giving beam weapons a make over. We’re still discussing style choices, but we’re aiming for each beam type to have a distinctive look that also scales with power/tier. Early Player Experience Most of the feedback has been good. But there’s been plenty that says the game is boring and/or they didn’t know what to do and quit. No game is for everyone, and that’s certainly not our plan to appeal to everyone, but we do feel we’re failing to encourage players in the right direction. That means Alpha 2 is going to see a new system introduced amongst other adjustments.
Warp Gate Bubble Art is still WIP We’re introducing Warp Gates. We’re overhauling the warping system to accommodate it. Each warp gate will have a warp bubble (the red thing) will lead to a different region, in a network of connections that (generally speaking) lead to higher and higher level regions. And they have to be discovered. So to move from Region A to Region B, you’ll have to discover (once per universe) the warp gate in Region A that leads to B. If you enter the bubble, the Star System Map will automatically open and prompt for a destination. As you discover more warp gates in regions, you’ll create a network that you can then warp to any destination. Example: You’ve discovered warp gates to A->B->C. If you’re in A and enter a warp bubble, you’ll be able to pick C as a destination so there won’t be tons of needless flying around. Warp gates will be extremely rugged and very difficult to kill. They will be moveable, as is any object, but it might require some really powerful tractor beams to move it about. Larger and/or more advanced ships (haven’t decided the cut off yet) will also be getting a new component type “Warp Engineering” (not 100% married to that name yet). That component slot will allow things like "Warp Engines", that allow those ships to enter warp from any location in space. More seasoned captains can still experience region-region movement like it currently is in Alpha 1. Coming out of a warp from that method will still plunk you down near a warp gate so entrance to a region will be predictable. Additionally, we’re hoping to introduce the basic discovery process this Alpha, but it might be bumped to Alpha 3 depending on scheduling. The data is already present in all objects, but it’ll require some hooking up. Basically certain objects (think ship wrecks or secret outposts) will appear as Unknown Objects until you get close enough to discover them. They will then be marked as discovered, given a timestamp and possibly a reference to the player who discovers it. We hope this system, along with better clues about what is around you (without opening a map) will give new and experienced players something interesting to do. Finally, to spice things up, we’re working on a system of encounters. This system will allow us to expand AI interaction beyond the current “neutral/friendly AI flies in a circle, hostile AI spawn and bee-line for you”. We aren’t going to yet give more depth to AI attitudes so things like stand-offs won’t be happening, but instead the diversity in AI spawning will change. 1) AI on patrol will now pick objects to fly between. So a Ticeroy ship might now patrol from a space station to a warp gate instead of a big circle. 2) We’re going to try out “ship rescue” scenarios, where a trader ship will be flying between two warp gates. Bad guys spawn and are chasing the trader. It’ll be your choice whether to join in on the kill (and deal with the bad guys afterwards), defeat the bad guys, or just ignore it altogether. 3) Warp Gate ambushes. Upon entering hostile regions, you’ll be much more likely to encounter hostiles near and at warp gates. 4) Periodic hostile attacks. This will most likely take the form of “A pirate ship has appeared on the nav”. So even if you’re mining in relative safety, you’ll still have to occasionally address one or two hostile ships that show up to ruin your day. I’d honestly probably just run away myself. 5) *Stretch Goal for Alpha 2* AI bases. Hostile ships will patrol around an asteroid base or something. If you engage them, more ships will spawn from the base. AI Improvements This ties closely in with Early Player Experience goals. Here’s what we plan to do here. AI ships should have a variety of spawn templates. No more “laser mk 1″ on all ships. It means some ships are going to be really deadly, and you might not always be sure who it’ll be. It also means that sometimes AI will blow themselves up with torpedoes. That should be fun. AI improvement in Multiplayer. The AI behaves dumb in MP for two reasons. There’s an occasional bug where only the first player to enter the region is accurately aware of the AIs behavior. All other players know about the AI ship, but not that it’s an AI ship and thus subject to different rules. That process is going to be a bit more forecefully enforced to ensure synchronicity. Secondly, AI spawning. They currently spawn near where a player is. They only despawn if all players have left a region for 30s or more. This leads to problems where Player A enters region at Point 1. Player A leaves region. AI remains near Point 1. Player B enters region at Point 2. AI is too far away from Player B to engage them, and just ignores it. Depending on luck, no additional AI may spawn, and Player B who was expecting a rip-roaring fight is sitting there with his/her thumb up their backside. We’re going to fix it so that AI ships that spawn in certain situations, if they lose engagement and don’t re-engage to a player/other ship in X seconds will “warp away” aka despawn. AI that are attached to a specific spawning event will behavior differently, and attempt to return to their original place and patrol some more. Finally, for AI, going to add a first pass at better sensitivity. Currently you have to destroy one of their tiles before a neutral/friendly ship will turn on you. They should be more sensitive to you shooting up their backside. But the goal will also be for them to revert to neutral if you do no further damage to them in X seconds, so they’ll let bygones be bygones. Summary TL;DR; Alpha 2 is a bit bigger than we originally scoped for. But it’s becoming clear that those systems are more important than growing the size of the universe, yet. It does mean we might not hit a mid April release, though a mid April feature lock (shift to a 1-2 week debug/polish state) is still possible. We’ll have to see. So that’s what’s going on with Alpha 2. We thank everyone for the great enthusiasm we’ve received, as well as patience. We hope Alpha 2 doesn’t let people down. Additionally, we may or may not still release an Alpha-1.4. We’ve received no further reports of failure to load, so we might just release that fix in Alpha 2. I’ll be updating the main website’s roadmap sometime later today or early tomorrow. Original Blog Post

[ 2016-03-28 19:33:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog

• Fixed a bug affecting multiplayer hosts when starting multiple sessions without restarting the game program, players would be unable to connect on the second and subsequent tries. Multiplayer connection issues may still occur with certain setups (i.e. multiple routers, firewalls) and may still require manual port forwarding.
• Fixed issue with Providence not dropping any tile loot, now drops Kelbium Wreckage and Capable CPU Mk4 as it should.

[ 2016-03-14 17:18:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have been busying away over the past week and have just pushed out Alpha-1.2.2646 (Steam BuildID 1018931). The main change this week has been the addtion of a custom keybinding menu as well as numerous bug fixes and tweaks based on all your feedback. Please check out the changelog below for all the details.

Changelog

UI:

• Added custom keybindings. This allows any keyboard, mouse or joystick button to be bound to an action. Joystick (anything that requires an axis) not yet supported. Escape key is not bindable.
• Default Map viewed is now Region Map.
• Dest. Region label should no longer appear in Region Map.
• Region Map is more zoomed out now by default to make things a bit easier to see on first glance.
• Star System Map tooltips now display a hovered regions Level as well as whether or not hostile ships are present. Less unwelcomed surprises hopefully.
• Ships/Stations under construction should now update their tooltip "% Complete" correctly.

Visual:

• Warping while tractoring an object should no longer break the game. The object will remain in its last known position in the original region.
• Engine effects should now be on during warp

General:

• Moved a bunch of configuration parameters from gamesetup.sim (in mod data) to gamerulesetting.cfg (in Space Impossible AppData). These Game Rules are now accessible via the "/gameparam PARAMETERNAME" command. These include things like max movement speed, max number of items in space per region and more.
• Game Rules are now synced between server and client. On joining, client should receive corresponding list. Ones changed during gameplay should be broadcasted and appear in chat.
• Self destruct capsules now do proper bounds checking. Should no longer embed themselves in other capsules, ships or stations. May occasionally get stuck in an asteroid (still requires some more work).
• Fixed two issues where planetoids and space stations had the wrong bounds on creation. This should lessen the probability that they clip with other objects at star system generation
• Added a loading safety check. If the game gets stuck in a game load step now, it should detect it, and kick you back to the main menu. It will display an error including the step it was stuck in, and take a screenshot for reference. Screenshots are located in C:UsersMy DocumentsSpaceImpossibleScreenshots on Windows.
• Small repair kits should now stack up to 50 from 20. Recipes that produce more than 20 should work again.
• Pioneer should drop bonivium wreckage instead of magnesite
• "/remove asteroid" command now sets asteroid to dead, so asteroid should no longer reappear on subsequent reloads
• Pushed min spawn radius for hostile AI factions out. You should get an extra 2-5 seconds now before being in attack range
• Fixed a bug in asteroids that if an asteroid was split but not further altered, on reload would incorrectly still be one object plus the split piece
• Rewrote asteroid tree code so that a heavily modified region (usually 50% or more of asteroids being moved/destroyed) is recreated on reload. This adds about 500ms on loading times, but should allow universes to load where previously they would fail.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes the last few tiles of an asteroid would "come back to life" on reload/post warp. "Sometimes dead is better".

Universe Generation:

• Star System templates were incorrectly labelled and as a result regions were spawning the next level of resources from their actual level. A level 1 region should now definitely have Tritanium, level 2 Magnesite etc.
• Increased the number of regions that are created. There should be 1-2 more planets on average and 3-4 more asteroid regions to hopefully ensure more resources.

Multiplayer:

• In Multiplayer, other players should now appear purple when respawning after dying in a different region
• Multiplayer hosts should now automatically print a status message to the log every 15 min. This will hopefully shed some light on why long running games (12+ hours) fail to allow new connections to previously connected players.

Known Issues

• Region Map doesn't update automatically
• Hostile AI may not be colored correctly
• We've now confirmed the "phantom player" ships re-appearing. We've got a lead on it, next update will probably have a fix
• We've made progress on solving the "Connection refused" bug. It is an actual bug in many cases. It appears when the player who is hosting the game, starts a game, quits to menu, and then starts another game session (doesn't matter on the universe). The best work around is to quit the game completely and restart if you are going to host another session.

[ 2016-03-11 00:26:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Change log Alpha-1.1.2588 (Steam Build: 1007941)

• Changed labeling of bridge, cargo bay and thrusters in paper doll
• Changed "Fire Lasers" to "Fire All Lasers" and "Fire Torpedoes" to "Fire All Torpdoes"
• UI will now disable laser/torpedo firing buttons if no appropriate component is equipped
• Added a highlight to Manufacturing Input to hopefully make it more obvious what to do
• Your current ship/station icon is now green in the Region Map instead of purple
• Fix for ship/station construction which should significantly reduce time (Odyssey has gone from ~10min to about ~2m 45s)
• Trash particle should now appear above background panel instead of behind
• Fixed several tooltips and removed others from unnecessary areas
• Rebindable keys will be coming soon, but for the meantime we've added a summary of default controls in its place
• Fix for problem where players weren't properly leaving Steam Lobby, and you could join a broken game
• Unavailable inventory slots are now invisible instead of grayed out

Known Issues

Heavily played regions may not be re-loadable. Fix in the works...

[ 2016-03-04 18:59:46 CET ] [ Original post ]