StarMade News
All Station Polls Open & Crafting Changes
Greetings Players,
Station Polls
The polls for the new default stations are up and tallying votes! Check out the Trade Guild / Abandoned / Pirates polls to browse the the thumbnails, look up their content pages, even find the Dev Server locations of each station to have a look in person, then cast your votes. You may also download all the station entries Here. Many thanks to AndyP for helping sort out all the stations, links, pictures, downloads and information. Each player may vote for 5 stations per category, you may change your votes at any point, but the polls and votes will lock once the polls have reached their 21 day time limit. To access the Dev Server, make sure you are running the latest dev build, then in the launcher, select the multiplayer option and this IP play.star-made.org:4242
Crafting Changes
Many changes have been occuring to crafting in the dev build and players who have tried the recent dev builds have been quite helpful with their input. After listening to some issues and concerns and doing a bit of playtesting ourselves (Schema won a Race to Space survival match!) We have found that some of the changes to crafting costs didnt transfer over very well. These issues, mostly revolving around resource refinement, should be fixed in the latest dev build being uploaded today. There have also been several other major changes to resource gathering that we felt important to inform players of rather than forcing players to discover through trial and error (and frustration)
- Capsule Refining - The players personal refinery (the one in your inventory) will no longer grant capsules, instead it will grant 10 Alloyed Mesh or 10 Composite Crystals, depending on the raw resource used. To obtain the named crystal and metal capsules used in the more advanced crafting recipes, players will need to craft and place the Capsule Refinery block. When using the Capsule Refinery block, raw resources will be processed into 5 capsules (based on the raw resource used) in addition to providing the 10 Alloyed Mesh or 10 Composite Crystals. Processing the new rocks in the Capsule Refinery block will yeild 30 capsules of the appropriate type, these are useful for making paint and making carved stone, as well as possible future recipes.
- The players personal salvage beam has a 25% chance to obtain one bonus raw resource when mining, since players have an easier time spotting additional resources within a block that a ships salvage system might otherwise miss.
- Using Build Blocks to strip mine no longer yeilds raw resources as they lack the proper mining and sorting hardware found in specailized salvage equipment.
- We are working on changing how the salvage beams mining frequency occurs to close up a salvage speed exploit some players had found in specific ship setups.
- Abandoned Station now spawn in with a new condition applied to them. When you try salvaging them, or building on them, you will receive a warning message informing you that the station is worn and decayed. Placing blocks onto the station in this state will cause those blocks to also become worn. Blocks placed will still function on these stations, but when picked up or salvaged, all blocks on Abandoned Stations will yeild only Scrap Alloy or Scrap Composite. These scraps can subsequently be refined by a Micro Assembler to create additional Alloyed Metal Mesh and Composite Crystal Blocks. This makes abandoned a decent source of materials for begining players, instead of a get rich quick scheme. If players find they enjoy a particular station and would like to make it their own, they can pay to have it refurbished. This will charge the player a price based on the blocks on the station (including any blocks placed by the player). This then allows the player to salvage normal blocks, as well as giving you the opportunity to rename the station as you see fit. A good strategy for newer players may be to salvage the decrepit station down to just a few blocks, then pay a cheap price to have it refurbished, giving a fair amount of starting resources as well as a cheap base.
- The Capsule Refinery will now also display what items are created from refining specific resources.
World Manager
Players looking into the new dev build will notice that there is now a World Manager button in the launcher. This will allow players to play on various different single player saves without needing to reset their universe or run multiple starmade folders.
Thanks for playing!
Crafting and Station Polling!
Greetings!
Schema mentioned that we would be holding off on releasing the new crafting system recipes so that we can get some play testing done on it. So, now that version 0.1726 is available to download as a Dev version, you can update to this latest build and try the crafting system out for yourself. The Dev Server will be running the latest builds, so if you want to test the crafting out in a multiplayer environment, use this IP
play.star-made.org:4242
Speaking of the Dev Server, you may also use it to preveiw all the stations entered win the Default Station Contest. The first poll for that is now available http://starmadedock.net/threads/default-trade-station-poll.3560/
Check out the stations on the server, check out their content pages, browse the pictures, and then vote a total of 5 times for your favorite stations. This poll is only for the Trade Guild entries, the next two polls should be up within a day or two.
Other news on the Dev Build is that new item descriptions are in the works (many are already in) the shop lists are getting some vitally needed re-organization.
Remember to remind your friends to vote on the stations!
Thanks for playing
Hotfix v0.1723
Hello players,
the last release didn't have all the updates in the config. This is now fixed. Also the shop categorization is now a lot better for hulls. Better organization will follow with the other crowded shop categories also.
Thanks for playing StarMade,
- schema
StarMade v0.1721 More building options
Hello players,
another update is uploading (done in ~30min after this is posted). The universe redesign is good on the way and the crafting system is basically done and only needs testing. Meanwhile, enjoy these new features.
Astronaut Block OrientationBlocks can now be orientated in astronaut mode when holding the control key. The context of the orientation will adapt to what the character is currently aligned to (by hitting space or if in gravity).
Template Symmetry and Rotation
Templates now come with a full preview. They also work with symmetry now and can be rotated in all 3 axis with the mouse wheel (or Pg-Up/Down). Rotation along the other axis can be done by holding left shift or control. Connections are also completely preserved when rotation or using symmetry.
Build HelperThe game now supports build helpers. Those are made in a way that can easily be extended. At the moment, there are 3 helpers to choose from:
- Ellipsoids, which are spherical objects defined by 3 radii.
- Circles, which can be rotated in all dimensions
- Torus, which can be defined by outer and inner radius. They can also be rotated in all dimensions
Sniper Zoom
The sniper rifle now has a zoom by right clicking when selected.
New Doors
There now are door wedges as well as two additional types of doors: Blast Doors and Glass Doors
Manual Storage triggers
Storage triggers now also work if players put items in/out manually
Various New Blocks & Wedges
There have a lot of new blocks added, as well as a lot more shapes for existing blocks
Lighting Shader improvementOther than creating all the new textures, kupu improved the values for the lighting shaders to look a lot more crisp. It also removes the problem of whites beeing flooded with light.
Universe Redesign WorkThe universe redesign is well underway, although all the done features are not active yet.
Crafting SystemThe crafting system overhaul is basically done. We wanted to release a version before going into testing for it immediately afterwards.
API-WorkThanks to experienced modders now being in contact with us, I finally have a better picture of what requirements are needed, and how it's best to be implemented. Some parts of the code have already been deobfuscated.
Furthermore, thanks to Megacrafter127's ModLoader, it was a lot easier to understand what is needed for a solid API. Work has begun for a Mod-API. Mods can be registered and first hooks are already placed in the code for modders to insert their own code. This is still work in progress, but progress will go fairly quickly I think.
BugsA lot of this update was also bugfixes. As always, thanks so much to our testers:
Expect the crafting overhaul very soon.
Thanks for playing StarMade,
- schemaStarMade 0.171 Salvage to Storage and more
Hi players,
I'm working on the universe redesign, but I'm trying to do some features along the way (which is no problem anymore because of all the work done on the core). A lot of things have been done and are running in the background for the universe system, but you won't see any of it until it's (mostly) done.
Calbiri is also working hard on a better system for the recipes in crafting.
Here are some of the features I did along the way:
Replace Mode
This mode is now a checkbox in advanced build mode when selecting the "remove/replace filter" button in the bottom. Instead of just removing, this feature will replace the blocks taken with the one selected in the hotbar. This will make refitting ships a lot easier.
Missiles can be hit (Point Defense)
Missiles can not be shot by anything but laser. This will probably remain an advantage of using lasers. Missiles were the OP weapon in the game, and we hope, that making them attackable will allow especially smaller fighters a skill based chance to evade. Missile Point Defense is also on the way as a turret AI option, but not in this release.
Salvage to Storage blocks
You can now finally link you salvage systems to your storage blocks. Just hit C on the salvage computer and V on the storage block you want all the goods to flow into. You can also select multiple storage blocks from one salvage computer, and overflow will be put in the next free storage (if they are all full you will still loose the item), and connect from multiple salvage computers to the same storage block.
New Storage Block features
A bug has been fixed that would overwrite connections from multiple storage blocks to the same (n->1). Also you now have a "filter all" and "clear" button in your filter options to create filtered storage system much quicker. Finally you can now have the logic systems react to the fill rate of your storage blocks:
- Place an activation block next to a storage block, and it will send a "false" signal if the storage goes from not-full to full
- Place an activation block next to a storage block, and it will send a "true" signal if the storage goes from full to non-full
- Place an OR-block next to a storage block, and it will send a "false" signal if the storage goes from not-empty to empty
- Place an OR-block next to a storage block, and it will send a "true" signal if the storage goes from empty to not-empty
So basically to remember, the sigal will be "true" if the storage becomes neither empty nor full, and false otherwise
The OR-block in this case is being used to save on metadata. I'll try to make ingame information to make it more clear when these blocks can be used and what they do in those situations.
HUD changes
as you will quickly see, the hud has been changed a little bit to be much more slick. This is of course the work of Kupu, who did the new icons of the new weapons as well.
You will not also have a hit indication popping up. This indication is synched to the server so whenever it flashes you hit with 100% certainty. Pilots get this indication on anything (blue when shields are hit, white when blocks are taking damage, and red if an astronaut is hit), while astronauts get them on anything but hitting planets and stations.
Also, the feature that astronauts blick red when hit is now back. This feature is also server synched.
New personal weapon: Sniper Rifle
This new weapon is at the moment only available for admins with /give_sniper_weapon playername
It fires a high damage hit-scanning beam in a pretty long range but has a medium reload rateNew personal weapon: Rocket Launcher
This new weapon is at the moment only available for admins with /give_rocket_launcher_weapon playername
it fires a slot bu powerful missile and has a very long reload rate
(also some stats have been changed in the laser weapon, so ask for a replacement from your admin (or alternatively start a new character))
Admin Command
There are 3 new admin commands to help with the creation of PvP minigames:
- You can now use for example /sector_chmod 2 2 2 + noindications, so no player in this sector will get any indication where others are (as if everyone was jamming) (using the same command with '-' reverts it back to normal)
- You can now use for example /sector_chmod 2 2 2 + noexit (or noenter) to close down sectors from people entering or leaving
- A new command /tint r g b a, lets you tint the texture of a selected astronaut. The values for r, g, b, a have to be between 0.0 and 1.0, so /tint 1.0 0.4 0.4 1.0 would tint the astronaut in red
- The same command can be used as /tint_name r g b a playername, to tint an astronaut without having to select him
Missile Blast Behavior Change
Missiles will no longer kill astronauts that are behind walls. The kill will only occur if the blast center has a clear line to the astronaut. It's far from a perfect solution, but it's a lot better, and I already have another more realistic solution in mind. Keep in mind that the check is most likely done before the blocks are killed, so you will survive one missile even if the blocks you got behind to shield yourself are being taken out by that missile.
Misc
Amongst some other bugs (which I'm going to list next update), the power consumption of jamming/cloaking when flying with docked ships have been fixed. Special thanks goes out to all the testers :D
I will continue to work on the bigger project that is universe redesign and also continue to release features along the way.
Thanks for playing StarMade,
- schema
