EarthX News

Hey,

Most of you were expecting a new update this month because I used to release one big update somewhere at this time. A snapshot update will be available on the last weekend this month. The full 0.2.8 update is now planned to release somewhen in October!

I tried to make it happen now, but I had a lot of troubles while making the AI. I'm now +/- 50% done with that.


I connected the contracts system to the AI, so now there are 3 types of AI: Government, Private, and Contractgiver.



The contract givers are generating contracts and you can literally negotiate with them about the payload launch price The funny thing about it is, that the other AI companies ALSO can negotiate the contract with contract givers!
It's kinda amazing because when you (as a player) don't do much, then you will stay behind, while others will complete contracts and gain money.

The system is pretty much done, but I still need to add more small details to it.

Today I began working with the new models made by rykllan. Seeing a fake rocket in EarthX is such an amazing feeling, which I will never forget about.



I'm streaming all of this on my Youtube channel, so you can watch the development process of the EarthX. https://www.youtube.com/Mesote

Have a good day!

Our friend from Kodera Software, Mariusz, has a birthday today. His game, ΔV: Rings of Saturn, will be available with a 10% discount over the next week.




If you love space games, ΔV: Rings of Saturn will be a great choice.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/846030/V_Rings_of_Saturn/

Hello! I had A LOT of troubles making this snapshot, but uhh... I did it! This snapshot contains maybe a little less new features, but it gave me time to prepare everything for upcoming AI features.

Please take your time to read the changelog and then just play this new snapshot. :)

• Added: Manual landing
  

When you have manual landing legs selected, you have to manually deploy the landing legs while your rocket is at landing.

• Added: 3 new modules
  

Simple battery, advanced battery, and GPS. Those modules were available earlier, but now they actually have their purpose and you can use them in reusable rockets.

• Added: Earthmusk
  

I wanted to add this feature since 3 big updates now, but I was able to do it just now. Earthmusk is just a twitter-like feature, giving the players more world feelings.

• Added: NVIDIA Ansel support
  

This feature allows you to shot beautiful high-res screenshots from the game.

• Improved: Now you can control time speed with keys: 1, 2, 3 and 4
  
  
• Improved: Rocket creator
  

Everything works better now. I completely redesigned the code architecture for it.

• Improved: Trust system
  

I added emojis to it (instead of that stupid shield icon)

• Improved: Main menu appearance
  

The most important thing for the new players: Main Menu was completely redesigned and is much simpler to use.

• Improved: Second stage animation
  
• Fixed: Side boosters would not disappear sometimes
  
• Fixed: The planes didn't show up
  
• Fixed: A lot of smaller issues
  

Go to your library and click with the right mouse button on EarthX on the list. After that go to the properties and select "BETAS", and then "snapshots" from the dropdown list.

You will probably need to restart your steam after that in order to begin downloading snapshots versions.

Snapshots are available only for Windows in the English language.

Note: Snapshots are for testing purposes only. If you've found any bug, please let me know on my discord server:
https://discord.gg/sbXwwMs

Hey,

I've never posted any devlog here, so here I am. Maybe let's introduce myself first :D
I'm Denis and I'm 17 years old. I was born in Poland and moved to Germany when I was 12. I started working on the code year after when I was 13.
Why am I telling you all the stuff? It's important for you to understand, that I still go to the school and I'm able to work on EarthX only in my free time, in evenings.

Last 3 months were amazing. I released my first game ever on the Steam, which I'm very happy for. I've never experienced so many new stuff and things to organize and make in that short period of time. I'm very glad that what I achieved (with the help of you all!), but that all was in my vacation time. Now the school begins and I won't make that much stuff rapidly.

DENIS! What does that mean? No EarthX updates? GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK!
No-no-no. The updates are still going to be released. I just now need little more time to make them. Take in mind, that I began working on EarthX at the beginning of this year, where I also was in school. If I did it in the past, then I can also do it in the future! :D

Gamedev was and will still be my passion and hobby, and I'm glad I can work on EarthX with this community.


All of the things listed below were also announced on my Discord server, where you can very easily contact me! https://discord.gg/sbXwwMs

Firstly: I added NVIDIA Ansel support to EarthX. Now every one of us can make beautiful screenshots from the game. It should be available in the 0.2.8 snapshot 2 update.


Now let's go to the real gameplay features:
As some of you guys know, I'm actively working on the 0.2.8 update, which brings AI and a lot of more new features to the game. I released the first part in the snapshot 1 update, and I will release snapshot 2 in a few days.

The first feature, which I want to remake, is the rocket creafting tool. I released the first preview of it today on Youtube:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I will also add full batteries/GPS support and few other surprise modules-related features. I really hope you will like them.

Thanks for reading it all, let me know if you like this type of posts here.

Denis

Hey,

After 9 days of me taking a "break", I can finally release the first snapshot of the 0.2.8 update.

Why is snapshot 1 amazing? Because it takes the graphics on another level! I tried to make it look nicer but also that you can still run it on low-end PC. The system requirements are going to be a little higher, but this is what I do expect from the players on Steam. You can still launch EarthX on LOW at a potato PC tho.

Why did it take more than a week to make? One of the reasons is my private life problems, like school or my destroyed PC. I will talk about that later in a new post ;)

Changelog:

• Improved: Everything is smaller
  I made every object 30 times smaller to get more space for AI companies, but also for better visual appearance.
  
  
• Added: New water appearance
  The water has now its animation, reflections, and the actual visible ocean deep.
  
  
• Added: Wind
  All trees and clouds are affected now by the wind.
  
  
• Added: Shadows
  All objects have now its shadows!
  
  
• Added: Better color shadings
  Now the colors are looking even more dynamic and nicer!
  
  
  
  
• Improved: The earth rotates now the right way!
  So many players requested me to change this, so here you go!
  
  
• Improved: GEO sats are now static
  Just like IRL.
  
  
• Added: Engine smoke when the rocket is flying in the atmosphere
  

• Added: New build mode
  I reworked the build mode. Now instead of 24 slots, you can place buildings where you want and how you want.
  
  
  
• Added: New rocket animations (AGAIN!)
  But this time with a lot better appearance and performance! I added 3 types of animations for LEO, MEO and GEO orbits, so everything is now visualized. Even the second stage! You can now see the fairings deploy on the second stage :D
  The landing has now sonic booms!
  

• Improved: Test mission will be no longer selected on default
  
• Improved: Mission report window appearance
  
• Improved: Camera movement (it's more responsible now)
  
• Fixed: rockets didn’t reset their position after a launch
  
• Fixed: landing rockets could cause a lot of errors sometimes
  
• Fixed: rocket reliability could be more than 100%
  
• Fixed: mission report showed the wrong info after the failed static fire
  
• Fixed: the offices are looking for wrong contracts after game load
  
• Fixed: particles didn’t work properly on some of GPUs
  
• Fixed: profit after a mission was wrongly calculated
  
• Fixed: Tooltips didn't change their scale
  
• Fixed: Static fire took 2 payments
  
• Removed: Truth mode (Flat earth)
  

This snapshot was published for everyone.
Visit our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/sbXwwMs