Slipways News

It's here!

Enjoy the second act of the campaign, explore new sector quirks and events, strive to establish imperial hubworlds and find new fun ways to play with a rebalanced perk and tech set including a couple new technologies!

In a few minutes, a 15% sale for Slipways and its soundtrack should also start - so if you have anybody in your life who would enjoy a gift of Slipways, now's the time!



Your game should update automatically to the new version. If it doesn't, restarting Steam usually makes it notice the changes. Existing runs started in the old version remain playable, but they'll keep using v1.1 content and rules. This includes all ranked weeks up to the current one - they'll use the old rules to keep them consistent with v1.1 runs. Newly started games and ranked games starting from next week will feature all the new additions.

I had lots of fun working on this update and I believe this is the best version of Slipways yet. I can't wait to see you all play and hear what you think. I appreciate any and all feedback and I'm always happy to listen - at least once I wake up from a deep sleep that my body insists on for some reason :)

Happy holidays, a happy new year, and... yes, see you around the galaxy!



PS. I included a list of all perk/tech changes below for reference.

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[h3]List of balance changes[/h3]

Not all the changes are obvious, so I figured some of you might appreciate this being summarized in a single place.

Most of the list is things getting stronger to make them more viable. The few changes going in the other direction are mostly to techs which dominated a bit too much. I hope they'll remain strong options, but will now leave more breathing room for alternatives.

New technology:

• Megastructures: a new tier 3 Ba'qar tech, a project generating happiness and money on populated planets based on [ore] delivered
  
• Interstellar Networks: replaces Ubiquitous Network (which mostly doubled what Sleep Replacement does, just in a different way) with a more interesting tech based on exchanging a new resource
  

Perks:

• Joint Factories: its option is now a strict upgrade over the [ore]->[tech] option, and it no longer disables the standard [ore]->[bots] factory option
  
• Experimental Tech: three free relays instead of two
  
• Efficient: Also increase income on forgeworlds
  
• Luxury: Increases income for each [goods] received instead of once
  
• Researchers now allows ignoring tech tiers three times
  
• Reciprocity, Miners, Prospectors: higher numbers
  

Technologies weakened:

• Culture Dissemination: no longer enables prosperous planets to generate multiple happiness from culture
  
• Quantum Computing: it is now a project that you explicitly build on labs, which increases their upkeep. The second level is now +3 science instead of +4.
  
• Hyperdrive: now takes 2 months to build each connection, to put it more in line with other techs allowing crossing connections and stop it from working better with relays than Infraspace Mastery. Its science costs are also higher.
  
• Orbital Labs: increased science cost
  
• Gene Adjustment: cannot reduce upkeep below -1$
  
• Skill Download: no longer affects special resources like culture or energy
  
• Sleep Replacement: slightly lower bonus
  

Technologies buffed:

• Self-Sustaining Ecosystems, Asteroid Dwellings: both types of habitats now generate happiness like planets and can reach 'prosperous'
  
• Infraspace Mastery: cheaper to invent and cheaper to build (same cost as standard relay)
  
• Asteroid Mining: allows a [bots]->[ore] option, both options are upgradable to two [ore] production now
  
• Precise anchoring (upgrade): moved down a tier
  
• Slip Amplifiers: cheaper to build, reduce cost for slipways built from/to the planet as well
  
• Xenostudies: allows [people]->[science] on the first level, available on primordials, swamps, jungles
  
• Biohybrids: cheaper, less upkeep, available on primordials, swamps, jungles
  
• Trade League: can reach +4% happiness now (with all 7 resources delivered), pays for resources like any other destination now instead of directly generating $ as production
  
• Monoliths: cheaper, get +2% happiness when activated now
  
• Void Synthesis: cheaper, can support up to 3 destinations now
  
• Nanofabrication: added to Ba'qar tech list, enables Terraforming Drones now
  
• Geothermals: lower upkeep, additionally available on iceball planets
  
• Drillbots: moved one tier lower, better output
  
• Ascension gates: accept any number of people, +1% happiness for the first three, +2% happiness for anything beyond that
  
• Universal Miniaturization, Plasma Containment, Limited Teleportation: costs lowered
  

Almost there!

The last two months were very busy, but I'm happy to announce: the second update is coming in just three days on December 22, 2021!

To get into the spirit of the holiday season, the game will also be 15% off once the update hits - so if you know somebody who doesn't have Slipways yet (why?), this is a good opportunity to get the best version of the game yet for less than it usually costs.

The update itself is free and it's going to be available to all new and existing players.



[h2]What's in it?[/h2]

The biggest chunk of new content is the second act of the campaign: four new missions tackling the mystery of the forebears' fall and setting up the final, third act coming down the road. Each mission features a new gameplay twist, and they're all pretty massive this time around!

There are some fun additions outside of the campaign as well:

• rebalanced perks and tech tree - lots of changes and a few new technologies, all of it intended to enable more strategies on how to approach the game
  
• new sector types and tons of new sector quirks - intended to spice up both your standard runs and the ranked mode
  
• imperial hubworlds - rewarding you with a unique planet modifier for getting a council member to level 4
  
• new ruins events - exploring forebear ruins now offers new options, ranging from rewinding time to reactivating an ancient weapon
  
• many smaller fixes and improvements
  

[h2]What's next?[/h2]

Unless there are game-breaking bugs still lurking in there (hopefully not too many!), I'm going to take a good long rest. Getting this done was another long push and the new campaign missions were really tricky to get right. In the end, I'm very happy with the end result and can't wait to see you play them.

With the holiday season coming, I hope you're able to relax and get some rest as well, and I'm sure a few rounds of Slipways can help with that!

In the meantime, see you around the galaxy!

This is a bugfix patch that fixes the following issues:

- UI: The income/happiness view modes would sometimes display stale information for planets/structures that changed indirectly as a result of your action.
- UI: The 'known seed' warning message would disappear after going forward to the council select screen, then back again.
- UI: The end year banner counted upkeep differently than the actual game does, resulting in it sometimes displaying lower income than the one actually applied (if an upkeep-changing action rolled over to the new year).

This patch brings the version numbers up to 1.1 (b830) on Windows and 1.1 (b831) on Mac.

Hi everyone!

I'm here to quickly let you all know that the break is over and the second update is now in active development. I'm making good progress and I expect you should have the update in your hands soon: in time for the winter sales in the second half of December!

This update is not DLC and will be free to all existing and new players of the game.

[h2]What's in the update?[/h2]

The centerpiece is of course the second act of the campaign, consisting of four new missions that will shed new light on the mystery of the forebears (and feature fun new gameplay twists in the process). Here is a sneak peek at one of those:



In addition to the big chunk of new campaign content, the update will also expand other areas of the game. Here is my current working list:

• new sector types and sector quirks to spice up standard and ranked
  
• a few new perks and technologies to give some of the council more choices in strategy
  
• new forebear station events and council tasks to improve variety during the game
  
• new modifiers for planets that will be encountered even in "normal" sectors
  
• balance changes to make some less-used perks and techs more viable (and curb some of those that are a bit too dominant)
  
• as always, smaller fixes and UI improvements
  

I can't promise everything on the list will make it into the update. With a deadline in mind, I might have to prioritize some ideas and discard others, but I'll try my best to deliver as many goodies as I can before the update drops. I'm always eager to hear feedback, so if there is something on that list that feels particularly important to you (or if there is something else you'd like to see in future updates), do let me know in comments or on Discord!

Thank you for reading and see you around the galaxy!

This is a bugfix patch that fixes the following issues:

- Undo: Multiple issues where performing a probe scan or colonizing a planet, then quickly performing another action and undoing it caused inconsistencies.
- Tasks: The Ba'qar "explore area" task could sometimes get stuck if another action was quickly performed, then undone after the region was revealed.
- Lensify: The upkeep for the lensified relay would not count for the first year after it was built.
- Map: Ruins and structures discovered at the very edge of your field of view could sometimes show up as "uncharted" when you attempted to connect ot them.
- Menus: The stats screen would needlessly pop up again if you finished a run, then went forward and back through the selection screens.
- Researchers perk: If you went through the technology tab to find an upgrade tech for which the parent tech hadn't been invented yet, the invent button would be clickable. Clicking it resulted in a crash.
- Economic zones: The bonus from economic zones would not immediately show up in the income/upkeep view mode after connecting planets.
- UI: Pinned colonization choices would sometimes be hard to click due to UI refreshes caused by probes/discovering signals.

This patch brings the version numbers up to 1.1 (b827) on Windows and 1.1 (b828) on Mac.