StarMade v0.201.337 LOD Blocks, Rule System, Balance, Fixes

Hotfix#5 (0.201.349):

• Fixed factory setting on button/activator recipes

Hotfix#4 (0.201.348):

 

• Fixed physics bug that would lock the player character in place upon touching blocks with certain properties

 

FOLLLLOW-UP#1 (0.201.347):

new conditions/rules in dev build:
Conditions:

• DateTime
• Duration Active
• Under Attack
• Same Sector Contains
• Adj. Sector Contains
• Same System Contains
• Is In Fleet
• Is In Specific Faction
• Is AI Active

Actions:

• Set Faction
• Activate AI
• Run Admin Command

Other Fixes/Updates

• draw-block-connection is now a flag in the block config (and no longer active for small buttons)
• Several minor crash fixes
• Added recipes for small button/activator
• Fixed faction rank permission resetting (didn't happen in small tests anymore, but due to the nature of the bug happening more on servers with 5+ people on, I can't confirm the fix 100% yet)

 

Hotfix#4 (0.201.341):

• Fix for servers with custom config coming up (not being able to move astronaut, crashes and other various issues this bug caused)
• Fix for torch beam (didn't do enough damage to compensate for the fullhp encoding (has to do at least one byte of damage)

 

Hotfix#3 (0.201.340): 

• Fixed possible crash when applying rules when entities apply changes at the same time
• Fixed rail logic so only adjacent activation and basic button activate (still any logic block can be connected with c+v) (fix of hotfix#1 didn't apply yet)
• Fixed crash in rule dialog (checkbox cleanup when the field wasn't initialized yet)

Hotfix#2 (0.201.339): 

• Fixed error when spawning ships from blueprint items.

 

Hotfix#1 (0.201.338): 

• Fixed missing icons for new blocks
• Fixed rail logic so only adjacent activation and basic button activate (still any logic block can be connected with c+v)
• Fixed manual turret aim to be off by default to fix AI mobs not firing their turrets

 

Hello players,

 

A new update is out. This will be the last major update before going into the heavy codebase changes of the Universe update. This will include updating lwjgl, java, and a lot of other things to their latest stable major releases, so a lot of refactoring has to be done. During this period until the universe update there will still be updates for the current versions along the way, but they will be mostly minor features, fixes and balance changes, as we will fully focus on the universe update from here.

 

Rule System

As said in the latest dev build, chasing a balance that would satisfy all types of players is nearly impossible, so the vanilla game is going to focus on the game as I envision it, while at the same time creating features so players can play the game like they want it to. Not only does this save a lot of time in development in the long run it also removes a lot of issues with balance since in the end it is subjective to the type of player.

 

The rule system is essentially the beginning of an in-game modding system. It is built very general from the ground up and will be able to support any type of condition/action imaginable in the game. It comes with a full GUI in the main menu and in-game, which is capable of uploading and applying changes automatically while in-game.

 

You can also import and export any amount of rules. This enables server admins to quickly setup a certain type of server without having to do all the configuration themselves. They can download and import anything they need.

 

This update focused on getting the rule system to run. It also focused on making rules as performant as possible, which means that a rule is only checked if any parameter of a condition for the targeted object changes. It has a fair number of conditions and actions already present but there will be a LOT more to add along the way.

 

Eventually the rules system will possibly also be used to create quests and other gameplay elements, so it can already be considered a very small part of the universe update in a way.

Tracking & Marking

With rules there is now also a way for admins to track ships. Conditions can be used to place a tracker on ships. Admins can also now mark ships. This is mainly for admins to manually check ships that trigger their conditions.

 

New Admin commands:

• player_get_block_amount (fixed target inventory)
• entity_set_check_flag
• entity_is_check_flag
• entity_track

(all commands also work with *_UID)

 

New 3D Assets

 

 

Saber and Kupu finished some beautiful new 3D assets. There have been slight tweaks to existing model unwraps and their textures, and many new additions. New models include (from left to right):

• Grate Wedge (previous Grate Wedge has been renamed to Grate Slope)
• Metal Corner and Metal Bar
• Beacon and Colored Light Corners and Light Bars
• Light Rods
• Paint Cans and Resource Capsules
• Small Button and Small Activator
• Red, Orange, Green Consoles and Console Inner and Outer Corners

 

We also improved the block editor to make it a lot easier to import and create new 3D assets.

 

Additionally, some 3D assets now have different states when they are activated. We will expand that eventually to full animations on blocks for actions or just them being in idle state. This means you will be able to place animated modules on your ship.

 

*Paint Cans and Resource Capsules have had their default orientation rotated 90 degrees so they place vertically like the Pipe model. These will need to be replaced in old builds.*

3D Collision Meshes

3D assets now have full detail collision detection for astronauts as well as small enough projectiles/beams. This means you can now even shoot between the bars of grates.

 

Balance

Two major changes to balance are:

• Stabilization beam between reactor and stabilizers is removed
• Integrity is removed

However, with the rules system both of these functions can be restored.

 

We’re currently working with community members on the Quickfire discord (a community driven initiative to help balance StarMade) to bring the games balance into a good state. The first step of doing that was to fix some essential bugs as well as provide more config capabilities and mechanics.

 

Here are a few major and some minor changes to the balance already:

• Removed integrity (can be re-added by rules)
• Remove reactor stabilization beam (can be re-added by rules)
• increased cannon speed from 25x to 40x server max speed
• Increased armor bonus from 0.1 to 0.5 (bonus added on armor thickness)
• Halved vertical cursor recoil
• Beam damage reduction based on armor value of the block hit. 20% of armor value of block reduced per tick. (config option)
• 2.5% flat cannon damage reduced if armor if penetrated (config option)
• Config Option to add additional damage reduction based on armor thickness (currently unused)

 

There will likely be a lot more once the balance proposal is worked through. I have to disclaim though that I can’t promise that everything proposed will make it in.

 

Full Changelog

• Rule System 
  • Full rule system with condition and actions to affect entities
  • Cascading Condition groups
  • Global rule assignment
  • Individual rule assignment
  • Full config export/import
  • Export/import of individual rulesets
  • Full GUI in ‘tools’ main menu
  • Full GUI ingame with live synch feature
  • New ingame file browser
  • Added basic conditions (more to come)
  • Added basic actions (more to come)
  • Tracking feature
• fixed advanced build mode raytrace bug where an imprecise physics test would sometimes select the wrong blocks
• fixed physics bug where cannon shots would sometimes skip a chunk and do damage inside a structure
• 3D assets can now use any existing shape to be represented
• 3D assets can now use any arbitrary meshes as physics mesh to be represented
• 3D assets can now have activated state meshes
• Improved pipeline for mesh import with the block editor
• turrets will no longer be able to shoot through other docked entities (they won’t do damage to their docks)
• improved fleet formation by refreshing ship sizes more frequently and taking ship size more into account for spacing between ships
• Fixed Fleet not slowing down after move order (edited)
• Added delay between weapon switches of AI. delay only applies to within type (from a cannon computer to another cannon computer etc.)
• Added ai_weapon_switch_delay server config and admin command. 
• added effect SHIELD_HOTSPOT_RECHARGE_MODE  to set to rely on recharge instead of capacity
• added and exposed formula switching for power reactor
• player_get_block_amount fixed target inventory
• entity_set_check_flag
• entity_is_check_flag
• entity_track
• all commands with *_UID
• docked pull/push permission now saved in blueprint (edited)
• server.cfg option to allow factories on ships (ALLOW_FACTORY_ON_SHIPS)
• beacon light now is a flag in the block config
• logic block is now a flag in the block config
• updated loading screen tips to reflect game changes
• Refactoring work
• Increase missile tickrate to be more precise
• Added and adapted server config missile target prediction value to prevent missiles from going after a target’s previous position. Added admin command /missile_target_prediction <ticks>. Make sure no missiles are spawned when using or those missiles might get confused.
• Fixed race gates power usage
• Fixed ‘draw beams’ game option
• Self cleaning “waiting for for entities to dock” message for the case that the object isn’t in the db anymore. Reduced frequency of message for all other cases
• Can now load blueprints directly onto docks
• Server.cfg option to remove need to build shipyard structure (SHIPYARD_IGNORE_STRUCTURE)
• Reduced roll speed to balance between rotational axis (more turn speed balance will come)
• Orange and Blue Light Block color adjusted to differentiate from Yellow and Teal
• AI ships now auto charge stealth drive (should fix fleet cloak/uncloak/jam)

Balance (all points are non final and might still change)

• Removed integrity (can be re-added by rules)
• Remove reactor stabilization beam (can be re-added by rules)
• Balance: increased cannon speed from 25x to 40x server max speed
• Balance: Increased armor bonus from 0.1 to 0.5 (bonus added on armor thickness)
• Balance: Halved vertical cursor recoil
• Balance: Beam damage reduction based on armor value of the block hit. 20% of armor value of block reduced per tick. (config option)
• Balance: 2.5% flat cannon damage reduced if armor if penetrated (config option)
• Balance: Config Option to add additional damage reduction based on armor thickness (currently unused)

If you find any issue please let us know in our discord and we will get get right into hotfixing.

 

We wish you an awesome holidays and a very happy new year,

Thank you for playing StarMade,

​- The Schine Team