EarthX News

Hey,

I haven't posted anything for a pretty long time, so I thought I would update you all with the current project status.

I haven't started working on Moon Update yet, as I'm in the middle of final exams and spending my focus and time towards learning stuff, so I could attempt to pass them. This doesn't mean that EarthX is canceled or anything like that, it's just in "pause" mode since the lastest 0.3.3 update.

As far as I know, rykllan and Lucas are slowly starting to work on the Moon Update models, because they're nearly done with their school as well.

The project pause doesn't mean that I didn't collect any feedback during that time. Everything EarthX players mentioned was added to my Trello TODO list, so I'm aware of current issues (like a strange tutorial for example).

You can of course give any feedback here in the comments or Discord server or Steam Discussions Forum :D

That being said, wish me luck, getting back to work soon. Can't wait because I haven't coded for a lot of time and I'm excited to do it again!

Denis

Hey,

First of all, sorry that this patch took so long to release. I have exams coming in June and I had to catch up a little with the school. I also had a big burn-out in April, so I took a two-week-long break :D

The next, and last, Moon Update will be released at around the end of the summer. That's because I will focus on exams in June and July. I just need to get the exams right, I hope you understand. In this time, rykllan and Lucas will prepare the models, so the work on the update will go smooth later on.

• Update all languages
  
• Increase the Martians you can have in one hotel
  
• Set factory employees to max on default
  
• Added Hydrogen Aerospace as a launch provider
  
• Add LinkLink header to translation files
  
• Temporarily remove Hebrew language (Problems with displaying the text correctly. Until I solve it, I'll hide it from the menu)
  

[h2]Bugfixes:[/h2]

• BUG: Managers tab doesn't update automatically.
  
• BUG: Special characters have a small background behind the letters
  
• BUG: Upgrading rockets makes them more expensive.
  
• BUG: Tooltip says LinkLink outline is orange.
  
• BUG: Build mode ignores the no-clouds setting
  
• BUG: "Requires new booster!" shows even before you reuse rockets.
  
• BUG: Production sometimes bugs at the end.
  
• BUG: EX-37A payload has a wrong description.
  
• BUG: Cookies oven has a wrong description.
  

Thanks for your patience and understanding!
Denis

Hey,

I released a quick hotfix patch for the newest 0.3.3 update.

This hotfix only fixes the not-showing produced payloads. I am very sorry for this, it was caused by me "fixing" bugs minutes before release xD And as you know, fixing bugs creates more bugs :D

I hope it works now! No new save is required :)

Denis

Hey,

Stay calm and play EarthX Kalm Update, which adds lots of improvements and long-requested features, like an improved contract system (finally!), and automation (damn, finally!).

We started working on this update shortly after 0.3.2 came out, but we knew that 0.3.2 itself had problems and we didn't want to leave you without any updates for almost half a year. That's why we released 0.3.2.5 perfectly at the end of the previous year.

Since then, works and testing of 0.3.3 have been accelerating and we are able to release it for everyone. We also plan to release 0.3.3.1 next week, which will improve found-by-players stuff, fix bugs (if any), and update translations.

[h2]What's new?[/h2]
[h3]Managers[/h3]
They do basic stuff for you, allowing you to mostly focus on Mars in the mid-game, while your company is up and running.



Launch Director will launch rockets for you.
Lead Engineer will build and refurbish vehicles for you.
Fleet Manager will launch fleets to Mars and back for you.
Assistant will bid contracts and accept offers for you.
Inspector will static fire rockets for you.
Scrap Engineer will scrap overused vehicles for you.
Media Manager will renew fundraisers for you.

[h3]Contracts[/h3]
Contracts have been fully reworked. With refreshed window interface, everything now fits the rest of EX's UI.



Crewed payloads will now look different from normal payloads.



Bidding as well as offers have been improved. The first bidder with the cheapest launch price will now always win, contracts now appear rare with a higher value, while offers will allow you to accept offers for normal payloads. No more time without anything to launch!

To improve EX's performance, I introduced payload stacking and a "smart" payload loader in the Launch Setup window. This idea wasn't mine (thx Sarya), but I liked it the first moment I saw it.
Smart payload loader will not show you 500 LinkLink panels in the Launch Setup window, since if your selected vehicle will be able to launch a max of 5 LinkLinks at once, it will show you only 5.



EarthX got a lot of recognizable missions, which real SpaceX launched into space since its existence. You will get these special missions as you play on your save.

It is now possible to get a commercial contract to launch something to Mars orbit, or commercial ISS crewed contracts (not only CCP).

[h3]Launch Pads[/h3]
rykllan has been working hard on a new rocket model. It's highly detailed and beautiful. Lucas has been working on more detailed launch pads. Together, they created a new definition of EarthX's model quality.



With new rockets, I have completely reworked rocket animations. Now there's more variety of failures at landing or at launch. Next to that, I also reworked rocket sounds, since before the sounds overlapped very strangely causing some ear problems for many (including me).



Long requested feature, you can now build your own launch pads (besides Mega LaunchPad). You can place them anywhere in the world. Droneships won't be a problem anymore, since now you can have an unlimited amount of them.



[h3]Earth to Earth[/h3]
A relatively small sister feature to LinkLink, you can now create your own Earth to Earth network around the Earth. It's probably the laziest feature I was working on and I was about to scrap it, but players like it on the testing phase, that's why it landed in the update.



[h3]Other[/h3]

• Service tab - You can now access all of your vehicles at once in one list
  
  
  
  
• Reworked Mars fueling - You can now only fuel when there's fuel on Mars. First Spaceships will be most likely scrapped by you
  
• In-game screenshots (R+T) (They save in MyDocuments/EarthX/Screenshots)
  
• New office model by Lucas
  
  
  
  
• Your own CEO pictures from files
  
  
  
  

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Pinned windows should save their position
  
• Move Milestones to a separate side window
  
• Improve quick notifications
  
• Improve News UI
  
• Disable project hiding when it's not unlocked
  
• Add "winning" to contract panel when winning
  
• Highlight new milestones
  
• LinkLinks should only protect Martians against sandstorms
  
• Add subtle borders to all windows
  
• Disable tweets on auto-launches
  
• Disable notifications on endless production
  
• Sandstorms should only destroy solar panels and kill Martians
  
• Add more sandstorms on Mars
  
• Display mission reports as normal notifications
  
• Game speed will now save during planet switch
  
• Make tests shorter
  
• Add total rockets launched to Main Menu
  
• Add Moon/Mars models around Earth
  
• Add a Twitter link to Main Menu
  
• Disable tests which you have to complete only once
  
• Improved graphics
  
• Spaceships flying to Mars orbit should park on Mars Parking Orbit and come back to Earth
  
• Add a new difficulty setting, payloads pay will be divided by the payloads amount
  
• Add random name button at company creation
  
• Add tooltips to settings toggles
  
• Removed 20m hop test for Spaceship Prototype
  
• Sidebooster landings should count as 2 auto landings
  
• Add satellites generator on Mars
  
• Limit sats amount
  
• Research window refreshes insanely often
  
• Add launch shake effect setting
  
• Mars Battery Pack will have greater store capacity
  
• Improve Sandstorms look
  
• Add auto-launch setting
  
• Rocket engine sound toggle setting
  
• Save camera rotation on planets
  
• Clouds visibility setting
  
• Disable explosion effect while being on Mars
  
• Settings open on pause menu first
  
• Gameover will now use game time
  
• Move language setting to the top
  
• Allow selecting time range in company finance stats
  
• Add fundraiser general multiplier to game difficulty system
  
• Improve deadline sorting for payloads in Launch Setup Window
  
• Improve window close animation
  
• Allow closing all notifications at once
  
• Flight count on vehicle setup panel will now show flights amount with current flight included
  
• Improved LinkLink performance
  
• Automatic Tanker selection
  
• Removed LinkLink Window refresh animation
  
• Martians shouldn't be killed all at once when a player ran out of resources
  
• Improve water quality
  
• Improved LinkLink finances
  
• 0.3.4 info on Moon surface
  
• Separate Nuke word from Nuke button
  
• Add icons to Main Menu buttons
  
• Make Mars battery pack smaller
  
• Remove random articles from News
  
• Move languages to Scriptable Objects
  
• Add Chinese font
  
• Add Brasilian language
  
• Add the Japanese language
  
• Add Hebrew font support
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• BUG: Upgrade tasks do NOT refresh when a player is focused on the research window
  
• BUG: Mars resources behave strangely when all landing zones are taken.
  
• BUG: Mars resources are able to go negative
  
• BUG: Telemetry slider doesn't have any animation
  
• BUG: You can produce locked units in Giga Factory when you check the "endless" option
  
• BUG: You can launch Murphy with a cargo capsule
  
• BUG: When upgrading to automatic landing during flight, it will switch it to automatic mid-flight
  
• BUG: Action camera sometimes stuck open
  
• BUG: Rocket launch/landing counts even if it's failed
  
• BUG: Rocket explosion shake happens even when the game is paused
  
• BUG: Rocket engine sound does not stop after landing/explosion
  
• BUG: When testing something, building models are not showing.
  
• BUG: Upgrade indicator is not disappearing after unlocking automatic landing before manual landing OR crew capsule support before cargo capsule support
  
• BUG: Planet icons don't disappear after creating a new career game from the sandbox
  
• BUG: First launch/First landing articles/milestones show even if it's failed
  
• BUG: You could open Action Camera multiple times
  
• BUG: Changing language sometimes didn't work on macOS/Linux
  
• BUG: You can static fire a rocket before it's done being built
  
• BUG: Deleting Giga Factory didn't delete the Giga Factory production panel
  
• BUG: Available vehicles count was lying to the players
  
• Unchecking "Show Static Fire" using the static fire window, does not save the setting. The window will reappear after the next game reload.
  
• BUG: You could build on Mars water after terraformation
  
• BUG: Contract preview stays even when there are no contracts
  
• BUG: Unit does not produce if Endless is selected and you pick a different Unit
  
• BUG: Opening LinkLink Window sometimes causes a big lag
  
• BUG: Missing Earth/Mars translations in LinkLink menu
  
• BUG: Landing Zone wouldn't allow launching even if there was space on Parking Orbit.
  
• BUG: Baikonur droneship clips into the land
  
• BUG: You can refurbish Small Rocket after flight sometimes
  
• BUG: Webcast sometimes overlaps wrong cameras
  
• BUG: When clicking fill while having no payloads, missing_so shows
  
• BUG: Action camera title is too small
  
• BUG: Action camera stays open when going into the cinematic camera
  
• BUG: Milestones sometimes do not refresh
  
• BUG: EarthX crashed when a save was broken.
  

[h2]Funeral[/h2]

• Remove John from the CEO list. (Moved to Managers)
  
• Remove random "trash" news
  
• Temporarily remove AI rockets, as rykllan needs more time to finish them, and we didn't want to delay 0.3.3 even more.
  

[h2]Special Thanks[/h2]
Thank you for all testers testing this and the previous update before its public release on Steam.
A special thanks go to:
- Brock Keeble (Captain)
- Benjordy2
- Complete Elon Simp
- Wyatt
- Jan
- iHush
- Bendier

You all rock!

Hey, what's up!

First of all, thanks to everyone for your kind words, they really do help keep everything up. We do read them, we do answer to them.

Works on 0.3.3 accelerated in March, as I finally got all the needed models. I will not spend much time today talking about the update, because I would rather use this month's devlog to talk about EarthX's future.



[h3]EarthX 0.3.3 - Kalm Update[/h3]
Planned to be released in April, Kalm Update will introduce managers, new launch pads management, new visuals, and more.
This month I have been working on new animations. Rockets will get new failures, new models, new landing attempts. When I was reworking the animations, I also reworked Launch Pads and Droneships. You will be able to build your own launch pads of every type and have unlimited droneships.



I introduced a lot of quality-of-life improvements, fixed a lot of bugs. For example, fueling on Mars won't happen "just like that", you will need an actual fuel farm on it first, which will most likely result in you scraping the first Spaceships which land on Mars.



There is more I have been working on, but let's keep it in a secret until the update releases! We plan to start testing it in mid-April on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/sbXwwMs

[h3]EarthX - The Future[/h3]
As you probably noticed, I don't talk a lot about EathX's future, you only get news one update ahead. This time is no different, as 0.3.3 is about to release and 0.3.4 "shortly" afterward. Making this project is pure fun to me, there are some sad moments, but the good moments are the ones we should look for.



What am I trying to say is that EarthX 0.3.4 will be the last content update for EarthX. After 0.3.4 I will spend weeks hearing you guys and release patches fixing bugs and improving current features, then the 1.0 comes - EarthX full release.

To be honest, I did not think this project would go so far. This was supposed to be a small path-finder game (to learn some skills for me), and I ended up making it for almost 3 years. No, I'm not crying, you are.

I couldn't make it without rykllan, she's responsible for all models since 0.2.9. Rykllan basically helped make this game as it is now. She's not able to do everything, of course, so am I. But together, I personally think, we created something cool - an unforgivable experience of our lifetimes.

Let's give some credit to Adrian too - he does not work directly on EarthX often, but he's the one who keeps EarthX kinda alive in the team-things AND the media-things. Something I would rather not do myself because it's boring haha

Patrick (SPATE) makes amazing music and allows me to use it in trailers for EarthX, that's why each update is so special, with different themes, different moods, different us.

Lucas, a new member of the team, but an old member of our community, lately he helps rykllan beating her burn-out and did the launch pad and Starman model. He will work on this project until its full release.

Captain, who likes to test big updates and point out the stupid bugs I forgot about.

You, the community, who makes this project alive when I'm struggling with releasing an update ASAP.

And of course - ME because why not XD

What I'm trying to say is that EarthX is not only the game, we are EarthX, and I'm proud of it.

Ok ok ok I think I got too deep and too serious here lol but you get what I mean
Now I'm going back to work and you go back to whatever you were doing

Next EarthX update soon,
Denis

PS: thank you so much for 252 reviews - really appreciated

Some nice pics: