1. Stardeus
  2. News

Stardeus News

Dev Update 2021-05-22: Face Huggers, Turrets, Dirt System, Planning, and more

Hey Space Travelers!

It’s time to drop another big development update. It has been a month since the last one, and the changelog is over 200 items long! Let’s see what the most notable changes are about.

[h2]Face Huggers[/h2]



Remember those green eggs that can sometimes appear on your space ship? We now have a story event that hatches spider-like crawlers that can attach to your human colonist faces. (I am aware of arachnophobia, and there will be an option to change the graphic for this type of creature.)

[h2]Directional Turrets[/h2]



Since we now have enemies, you can build directional turrets to automatically fire at them. Although these turrets work better facing the outside of your ship, as missed shots will damage your devices and can start fires.

[h2]Fluid Cannon[/h2]



It was also about time to start dealing with fires. They do extinguish themselves if you vent out the oxygen, but now you can build a Fluid Cannon and fill it up with water. This cannon will automatically shoot at fires to extinguish them. Those are safe to build indoors, and while it can deal some damage to your devices, it’s negligible, and it can also be used to fight against invaders.

You can load other types of fluid as ammo, turning the Fluid Cannon into something that can ignite more fires or deal acid damage to your enemies.

[h2]Dirt System[/h2]



Naturally, after all the turrets firing at crawlers and causing fires all over the place, the ship has to look dirty. There’s now a system to handle that.

[h2]Cleaning Bots[/h2]



The dirt cannot just stay there forever, but we don’t want to force our colonists to do such menial tasks, and construction robots and drones are not exactly capable of mopping floors. Thus you can build a bunch of Cleaning Bots that will have just one job - making sure your floors are squeaky clean! They also have docks where they go to chill and recharge when their job is done. If a dock is not available, Cleaning Bot will use a regular Charge Station to restore the battery juice, but it won’t be happy about it.

[h2]Emergency Siren[/h2]



To make sure your colonists survive a critical event, like an asteroid hit, you can now build a heavily secured room and place an Emergency Siren device in there. This device can be activated either manually, or automatically during an emergency event.
Human colonists will drop whatever they are doing and run to the room where the closest emergency siren is blaring.

[h2]Machine Learning Booth[/h2]



Your workers have skill levels that go up when that type of task is performed. And sometimes the skill levels can get critically important, i.e. if you urgently need to build some complex device, but none of your workers have enough skill for it at the time.

Luckily, now we have a solution for these kinds of situations. You can build a Machine Learning Booth that will allow training a chosen skill for one worker at a time. It will consume increasingly large amounts of electricity when skill level goes up.

[h2]Planning Overlay[/h2]



You can now toggle a planning overlay to lay out your ship designs ahead of time. It’s simple, but does the job.

[h2]Multi-Select Actions[/h2]



You can now mass-select a bunch of objects and common actions will be exposed. That will allow you to turn on or off multiple devices really quickly, configure a bunch of Matter Reactors or Planters with just a few clicks.

There’s much more, but this is getting big already, so it’s about time to wrap it up.

[h2]Full list of changes since the last update[/h2]

v0.5.33 (2021.05.21)
- Do not show dead and immobilized beings as potential expedition members
- Do not allow selecting crawlers and cleaning bots as expedition crew
- Update checkered lit floor graphic to look more pleasant
- Fix planning view not updating if clock is stopped
- Show food and clothing items next to raw materials in inventory overlay
- Make mouse forward / back buttons and keyboard [ and ] cycle through active tool branch
- Redo how planters and harvesting works
- Make large planter fit either 1 large plant or 4 small ones


v0.5.32 (2021.05.20)
- Fix window behavior when placing it over an existing wall
- Make floors visible through windows
- Fix window reflection noise
- Remove flashing effect from plants
- Prevent saving during mass construction order creation
- Implement Shuttle takeoff and landing animation


v0.5.31 (2021.05.19)
- Fix engines not cooling down after work
- Add big planter
- Add Oak tree
- Fix Nutrient Extractor destroying processed goods when it's storage full
- Fix Emergency Siren turning on after electrical device breaks down
- Fix Storage Capsule disappearing after being opened


v0.5.30 (2021.05.19)
- Add keyboard shortcut for Planning tool (L)
- Fix mods failing to load definitions on case sensitive file systems (Linux)
- Fix cancelling ML Training task on a robot would still leave ML Booth configured
- Fix tutorial not being cancelled properly during camera move / zoom stage
- Make Task Management tool work properly with large objects
- Make skill level up 10x faster for playtesting
- Make asteroids and meteor showers avoidable by flying away
- Prevent changing Starmap scope when there is a pending space object story event
- Do not trigger Emergency Siren for meteor shower heads up warning
- Fix refillable component failing to create executable AI task when device had no workspot


v0.5.29 (2021.05.18)
- Replace Atlas Size option with Texture Quality and downscale textures properly
- Show what is happening during the game boot phase
- Increase main menu boot performance with large amount of save files
- Fix asteroids, meteors and bullets hitting unconstructed tiles
- Fix tree menu behavior with Quick Search and Build a Copy
- Make tree menu more usable
- Fix hidden tree menu items could be selected with keyboard / controller
- Make it possible to select multiple types of different entities (Beings, Objects, Tiles) at the same time
- Add common multi-select actions for planters
- Add Planning tool and overlay


v0.5.28 (2021.05.17)
- Improve translations system performance
- Fix switching off a device in a complex electricity grid sometimes would end up with unreachable device
- Fix lights not shining on objects right after generating a wrecked ship
- Fix glass floor shader
- Add Windows (regular and reinforced versions)
- Add ML Booth for training worker skills
- Fix research tree showing blurry fonts after being closed while zoomed out
- Create Mods section in Main Menu
- Allow toggling mods on and off
- Fix crash on pasting component config


v0.5.27 (2021.05.15)
- Fix workers stuck in a loop when doing a hauling task where item was lost after load
- Add Switch device
- Fix disconnecting an object that was linking two connectors sometimes ending up with disconnected object being unreachable
- Add common actions for electrical devices
- Show emergency recharge progress bar as percentage (more accurate display)
- Increase emergency recharge speed 2x
- Fix cycling icons not getting removed correctly


v0.5.26 (2021.05.14)
- Update Unity to 2021.1.7f1
- Implement automatic texture atlas pagination (capability to show more and higher quality textures)
- Make Ship Computer and Stasis Array rotatable
- Handle event notification icon hover for entities that are no longer available
- Fix AI actions failing without a parent task hiding worker thought bubbles
- Fix AI tasks attached to moving entities (beings, hauled objects) not synchronizing task location
- Add "Build A Copy" to Ship Computer context menu
- Fix Emergency Siren failing to trigger sound on right after load
- Fix error when trying to cancel storable item (clothing) haul to storage task
- Add system for creating common actions for mass-selected objects
- Add common actions for mass selected raw material piles (hauling)
- Add common actions for all selected objects with AI tasks (cancel task, adjust priority)
- Add common actions for all refillable storages like Matter Reactors, Weapons, Crafter


v0.5.25 (2021.05.13)
- Fix quick search not working properly after loading another save or starting a second new game
- Automatically hide certain events (death, taking damage) after some time has passed
- Fix Emergency Siren getting triggered for non critical events
- Show human comfortable temperature range
- Fix everyone going to the same toilet / shower
- Fix reservations not restored correctly in unstored item haul task after load
- Make engines heat up the surrounding areas while they are operating
- Fix being blood not showing up properly
- Fix loading a new save messing up the heat state of a loaded ship
- Fix Quick Search not allowing proper activation of main menu items while it was showing
- Fix unplaced transparent floor tiles not showing up as red when placement is not possible
- Fix ship still flying after being split in half
- Fix ship still flying after disconnecting Bridge Controls
- Fix game preferences not resetting correctly after starting a new game or loading
- Fix cancelling of processing tasks not getting affected by manage tasks tool if source object was moved
- Add Disassembler device that can deconstruct robots and drones
- Fix some processing bugs
- Make the game more stable when incompatible / malformed mods are being loaded


v0.5.24 (2021.05.12)
- Fix removing an object does not update pathfinding obstacle (broke in v0.5.23)
- Fix Emergency Siren activating while not powered and even when not yet constructed
- Add UI button to toggle Emergency Siren sound alert
- Fix threats that are no longer active still lingering in security system (Fluid Cannon trying to put out fires that no longer burn)
- Prevent humans from dropping activities in order to search for clothing
- Fix electricity displaying incorrect values in megawatts range
- Fix TAB menu index overwriting items with same title (i.e. Floor)
- Update the ShipOS icon
- Fix Heat Sink only placeable in bottom and left sides of Ship Computer
- Fix Solar Panels of different size not chaining correctly
- Fix Heater temperature controls not working properly
- Fix placement ability preview not working correctly with floors and walls
- Do not automatically replace existing floors when creating new ones (except for floor light tiles)


v0.5.23 (2021.05.11)
- Fix dirt system issues
- Fix Cleaning Bot trying to clean same unreachable spot over and over again
- Fix Sola Panels attempted to be cleaned by grounded workers
- Fix ship wreck island floating apart bulldozing entities without properly removing them (fixes ghost "no connection" icons)
- Move "Run in background" option from Input to Gameplay settings panel
- Fix meteors dealing very little blast radius damage
- Make oxygen / heat simulation more accurate
- Fix ghost fires making things infinitely hot and impossible to cool down
- Fix cleaning bots dropping recharge task to go randomly search for dirt
- Fix flickering tooltips on oxygen / heat overlay when event notifications were updating frequently


v0.5.22 (2021.05.10)
- Fix doors not closing after being locked while open
- Prevent humans from taking tasks that can compromise their safety (i.e. deconstructing floors)
- Fix a couple of expedition errors that were making the expedition stuck
- Fix repair damage tool erroring out with out of bounds
- Fix planter not able to load saved plant preventing save from loading successfully
- Unpowered airlocks will leak oxygen and heat though if stuck open
- Add passive research to increase construction speed
- Fix colonists becoming invisible after receiving damage while in toilet or a shower
- Add copy configuration support to all crafters (Assembler, Loom, etc) and cleaning bots
- Allow cancelling tool drag with RMB without exiting to Free Select mode
- Do not require to reselect currently placed object in order to place it where a pile of debris was lying before hauling
- Add more explanations about unreachable task failures


v0.5.21 (2021.05.09)
- Add a safety check where under rare conditions rendering loop failed with out of bounds error resulting in blank graphics
- Fix colonist equipment not restored properly after loading a save
- Fix cleaning bots still attempting to clean a dirty spot that was already cleaned by someone else
- Sanitize save file names to remove illegal path characters
- Trim hex color code string before parsing it when it's pasted into a light source component UI
- Fix exception in Demo Mode where it was unable to find a next target
- Fix ship computer exploding when construction is cancelled or when it is removed in sandbox mode
- Fix game over getting triggered when removing last Ship Computer instance in sandbox mode
- Fix graphics crash on potentially updating a tile that is out of bounds


v0.5.20 (2021.05.08)
- Fix potential reservation failure when processing materials
- Fix tile hashcode crash when graphics component is not available
- Hide red cross icon on dead colonists when they are being processed
- Fix possible to launch same being on two expeditions at once
- Add expedition options to Shuttle UI
- Fix expedition abort while it was preparing for takeoff not working properly
- Add "Texture Atlas Size" to video settings to reduce video memory consumption on systems with less memory
- Fix intergalactic space flight happening 100 times faster than it should


v0.5.19 (2021.05.07)
- Fix vents spreading oxygen / heat too quickly
- Fix dirt leaking from one save to another
- Limit fire spread too quickly through vents
- Fix mouse tooltip appearing below context popup
- Fix cancelling a tool mid drag transferring the dragged area to free select tool
- Fix blood sprites not correctly linked to being species
- Fix occasional AI error for beings without material storage
- Do not show large operation warnings in sandbox mode
- Add warning when trying to mass construct more than 250 objects
- Hide thought bubbles
- Fix damage decals not updating properly


v0.5.18 (2021.05.07)
- Fix placing any electrical device would draw connector preview from same distance for both short and long range connectors
- Prevent crawler showing thought bubbles while its attached to a colonist
- Add dev tool for placing dirt decals
- Add configuration settings for Cleaning Bot
- Improve fire marks display in generated ship
- Improve bleeding
- Make robotic beings leak dirt when their maintenance level is low
- Fix dirt system issue with removing multi tile objects
- Fix unconstructed doors blocking worker path
- Fix solar panels accumulating dust while not constructed yet
- Make .save files loadable without .meta
- Fix solar panels are not supposed to be walkable
- Fix cleanable component displaying dirt accumulation incorrectly
- Prevent scrolling and zooming at the same time in research tree and starmap
- Fix obsolete Printer device trying to be created in random ship
- Fix refilling reactors with more than worker can carry ending up destroying materials


v0.5.17 (2021.05.06)
- Start building graphs at https://kodolinija.github.io/stardeus-graphs/
- Add Fluid Cannon
- Add dirt system
- Add Cleaning Bot
- Add Cleaning Bot Dock
- Implement cleaning bot behaviors


v0.5.16 (2021.05.03)
- Fix fire not lighting objects
- Add explosion visual effect
- Show turret fire range
- Make turrets fire only at defined angle
- Make turrets work against meteors (not asteroids)
- Mark dead beings with red X


v0.5.15 (2021.05.02)
- Fix game save/load not serializing skill levels properly
- Fix game load producing weird state if equipped item is not found during load
- Add hint about managing ad priorities quickly
- Make vents useful
- Don't show a health bar for damaged crawler when it is attached on a colonist
- Fix occasional object graphic override rendering race condition on save load


v0.5.14 (2021.04.30)
- Fix humans getting stuck while trying to do repairs
- Fix materials being lost if unfinished construction is cancelled using deconstruction order tool
- Notify about tasks that no worker has skill or ability to perform
- Limit the max size of all tooltips
- Show tooltips above truncated ui data block titles
- Fix traits not being loaded correctly
- Fix item storage fill bar not refreshing after load until device is selected
- Fix need modifier traits preventing some needs from ever dropping or getting fulfilled
- Add initial implementation of turret firing bullets


v0.5.13 (2021.04.29)
- Implement egg hatch crawlers story event
- Fix equipment reservation failure
- Fix inventory system leaking items into another game
- Implement crawlers attaching to colonist faces
- Add initial implementation of a directional turret
- Add "Crawler Attached" mental breakdown


v0.5.12 (2021.04.28)
- Fix some entity components not cleaned up completely after multiple scenario generation attempts
- Add Emergency Siren device
- Add Stress need for humans
- Fix occasional "eternal flames"
- Make bottom left menu work with small resolutions


v0.5.11 (2021.04.27)
- Show more accurate tile placement preview when placing floors and walls
- Fix floor tile replacement destroying an adjacent floor tile
- Redo the reservation system for non-stackable objects
- Fix expedition failing to save or load when one of the expedition members have died or disappeared
- Reduce default autocleaning amount for solar panels to 33%
- Make planet mining speed tunable
- Increase planet mining speed 5x for playtesting
- Fix some errors during scenario generation
- Remove electricity from sleeping pods
- Fix several small issues
- Make Stasis Array graphic bigger


v0.5.10 (2021.04.26)
- Fix cancelling ongoing deconstruction task keeps showing progress bar
- Rename Storage Module to Disk Module to avoid confusion with Storage Unit
- Fix inventory search algorithm failing when there are more than 256 items available
- Refactor Nutrient Extractor to be a Processor rather than a unique device
- Show more information about failed or rejected tasks
- Make humans equip hats at will
- Fix tall objects near walls catching light incorrectly
- Refactor food to be a generic storable item
- Refactor Fridge to be a generic storage component
- Add Steel Wardrobe furniture item
- Workers will haul unused clothing items to wardrobes


v0.5.9 (2021.04.25)
- Fix research widget not refreshing when research is finished while widget is open
- Add Config/Tunable folder in mods to configure various game balance parameters
- Fix a few internal errors with deconstruction task and processor component
- Add a setting for selecting units of measurement (Celsius / Farenheit)
- Add Hint system that will track certain actions and show hint popups
- Add hint after manually cancelling several tasks
- Add hint for ordering mass nutrient extraction
- Add hint for ordering mass hauling
- Add hint after manually disconnecting several devices from electricity grid
- Add hint for adjusting and mass copying automatic cleaning threshold for cleanable devices
- Make crafter component menu item more informative
- Rename "Remove" tool to "Deconstruct"
- Prevent a situation where an object can end up being built without a floor beneath it
- Fix ore mining expedition event ending up in a loop when shuttle storage is full
- Auto fix door rotation if it is incorrect when loading a save
- Make story events more frequent
- Make stasis wake up events more frequent

[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Add Stardeus to Wishlist[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1380910/Stardeus/

Development Update: 2021-04-23

Hey Space Travelers!

This development update took longer than usual to write, because I prioritized finishing the big changes first. Let’s take a quick look at all the major changes since the last update.

[h2]New Gameplay Trailer[/h2]

The old trailer was a little dated and didn’t reflect the current state of development, so I took the time to make a new one. I hope you like it!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Artwork Overhaul[/h2]

I spent a whole month focused on learning Blender and redoing all of the artwork. Here’s how the art looked before the overhaul:



And here’s after:



You can also zoom in closer than before, because of the increased level of detail, all artwork now contains 4x more pixels!



The new artwork is definitely not perfect, but I am slowly getting better, and the art will probably be reiterated again at some point. However I want to stress that for me mechanics will always be more important than art, and as always, most of my focus and effort will go into making the game fun to play, not good looking!

[h2]Suggestions System[/h2]

After the tutorial ends, playtesters would occasionally get lost and couldn’t figure out what they should do next. To tackle this, I have implemented a dynamic suggestions system that tracks your situation and triggers Ship Computer dialogue events that will guide you towards reasonable actions.

For example, if you aren’t running a research for long enough, it will suggest to start a research, if you haven’t enclosed the Stasis Array with walls, it will suggest you to do so, then suggest you to build a heater and an oxygen pump so that your colonists will not die, etc.

After you load the game, active suggestions will pop up to refresh your memory.



[h2]Ambient Light Setting[/h2]

Several people were saying that the game is too dark, while I often thought I wanted it to be even dimmer. Now it is going to be configurable, you will be able to choose from 4 different ambient light settings. “Immersive Dim” is my personal favorite.



[h2]New Devices and Behaviors[/h2]

  • Loom weaves clothing and various fibers. Naked colonists will try to find and equip clothing that fits their body type.
  • Grinder grinds certain materials into finer grained ones, like rock into soil.
  • Auto Kitchen prints meals from raw ingredients. Drones will then haul those meals to the fridge.
  • Cloning Pod will grow human colonists from protein and water. Water is purified in the recycler after Biowaste is processed.
  • Repair Station will perform maintenance on robots and drones, fixing their damage and reducing wear, while also recharging their batteries.




[h2]New Colonist Traits[/h2]

Human colonists are getting more sophisticated and unique, with combinations of various new traits. To name a few:
  • Insomniacs will go to sleep only when they are close to passing out, and will wake up while their sleep need is far from fulfilled.
  • Ablutophobic colonists will avoid showering until their BO is so strong that even the robots can smell them. This will have interesting effects with interpersonal relationships, when time comes to implement that.
  • Nudists will refuse to wear any clothing.
  • Fast Metabolism will make colonists hungry faster.
  • Slow Poopers will take 4 times longer to relieve themselves in a toilet.


Many traits have their opposites, like Fast Metabolism and Slow Metabolism.



There are more features, improvements, story events and polish I could talk about, but I will stop here, as this is getting too long already. Here is a full changelog for the curious ones.

v0.5.8 (2021.04.23)
- Add "Short Sleeper" being trait
- Add "Long Sleeper" being trait
- Add "Insomniac" being trait
- Add "Nudist" being trait
- Add "Showerer" being trait
- Add "Fast Metabolism" being trait
- Add "Slow Metabolism" being trait
- Add "Slow Pooper" being trait
- Add "Ablutophobic" being trait
- Add "Always Hungry" being trait
- Move keyboard shortcuts around


v0.5.7 (2021.04.22)
- Fix multiple people being able to use the same shower / toilet at the same time
- Mark last loaded save as latest for "continue"
- Make crafting devices more flexible and verbose about their state
- Improve pathfinding to make items stuck in walls or objects reachable from nearby
- Polish crafter and producer components (lots of devices based on these)
- Fix toilet and shower AI task loading issue
- Fix replacing an wall with a door or a vent would not create the construction task
- Show oxygen pump and heater radius when they are placed or selected
- Fix tutorial not waiting for a tile being selected underneath the ship computer
- Fix dead beings trying to get dressed
- Allow opening research view when Electricity research is not complete
- Fix beings sleeping in unconstructed bed


v0.5.6 (2021.04.20)
- Display suggestion dialogue as soon as the suggestion appears
- Repair tool will show damaged tiles as red
- Replace percentage displays with progress bars in construction and repairs
- Add progress bar displays where necessary
- Ensure correct worker facing after loading the game with task in progress
- Fix incorrectly displayed actual and peak output values in electricity grid details
- Add electricity grid, memory and storage bars to research view
- Block research view from opening if ship computer is not connected to a powered grid
- Turn Stasis Array into an electrical device
- Encourage the player to connect to Stasis Array early in game
- Build tool will show green tiles where current object can be placed
- Implement fridge as food storage unit
- Accumulate biowaste when Toilet is used
- Implement toilet cleaning
- Add Cloning Pods
- Heal injured humans when they are sleeping in a bed with satisfied hunger need
- Humans will seek and equip available clothing items
- Add Sleeping Pod
- Automatically haul unstored food items to the fridge
- Fix batteries not charging in bigger electricity grids


v0.5.5 (2021.04.14)
- Add maintenance need for robots and drones
- Add Repair Station to fix damaged robots and do their maintenance
- Add Haul to Storage tool
- Fix task management tool not working properly with non-tile based tasks
- Add Loom device
- Separate Thought Bubble and regular Icon to make them displayable at the same time
- Make it possible to haul dropped harvested wheat
- Fix harvesting task save / load issues
- Change cursor depending on the active tool
- Fix a rendering bug that would sometimes display damage overlay incorrectly
- Improve ship wreckage generation
- Fix broken generation of Empty and Random ships
- Make ship generation more resilient to missing object definitions
- Fix ambience sources autoplaying when they shouldn't
- Break down attachable space objects if adjacent floors get destroyed
- Generate brighter floor lights
- Add dev inspect tool
- Fix object rotation generation ending up with half cut sprites in random ship scenario
- Add health bars
- Add initial implementation of Crawler
- Allow building floors on top of material debris in open space


v0.5.4 (2021.04.09)
- Fix tutorial getting occasionally stuck at energy connection phase
- Fix some bugs with door passability and info icons not updating
- Make meteor shower multi directional
- Make meteor and asteroid impacts drop materials
- Disallow building tiles based objects on top of lose objects
- Make it possible to haul raw materials to storage
- Fix drones getting stuck in distant space after deconstructing something far away
- Add Heat Sink device for Ship Computer
- Make ambient light configurable in video settings
- Improve grouped events behavior
- Add new Story Event: "Dust Storm"
- Make multi tile objects look properly on fire
- Change how fire looks
- Make fresh fire linger for at least 5 minutes before dying out if there is no oxygen
- Fix a bunch of small bugs


v0.5.3 (2021.04.07)
- Upgrade Unity to 2021.1.1f
- Fix ship engines not being generated properly
- Fix some sounds not playing after 48 days of computer uptime
- Make game brighter
- Remove cursor light
- Fix floor lights not turning off when their energy node gets switched off
- Fix info icons occasionally not showing up on an object after an icon of a group was hidden
- Fix some electricity grid bugs related to devices taking damage
- Add new Story Event: "Matter Reactor malfunction"
- Add new Story Event: "Electrical device broke down"
- Add new Story Event: "Capsule Loot: Random Material"
- Add a way to disassemble opened storage capsules
- Rename Printer to Assembler
- Make game load resilient to missing object definitions


v0.5.2 (2021.04.06)
- Fix human graphics rotation when using a bed
- Realign eating graphic offsets after graphics overhaul
- Make all beings move faster
- Fix battery discharge story event stuck forever, preventing new events
- Balance and rearrange some tech in research tree
- Make Research Tree and Starmap widgets draggable with middle and left mouse buttons
- Add "Build a Storage" goal
- Fix a few minor goal and story event related bugs


v0.5.1 (2021.04.03)
- Fix workers possibly getting stuck inside big objects (like Storage) right after constructing them
- Fix ghost electricity icons appearing if wrecked ship needs regenerating
- Make starting conditions generation more reliable
- Fix new bugs related to enlarged object areas
- Increase ambient color brightness


v0.5.0 (2021.04.02)
- Replace all graphics
- Show full object with red overlay when placement is impossible
- Fix engines and solar panels placement validation
- Fix workspot rotation incorrect with larger objects
- Fix lighting not applied correctly on tall objects close to walls


v0.4.6 (2021.03.07)
- Fix pulsating light source pulse working incorrectly
- Fix video settings not showing current resolution properly
- Set "run in background" setting to false by default
- Fix electricity glitch where battery would show both production and consumption at the same time
- Fix suggestion to expand electricity grid failing to initialize


v0.4.5 (2021.03.07)
- Fix being graphics not properly restored after using a shower / toilet
- Fix unreachable charge station no longer usable after 1 failure to reach it
- Fix missing Carbon graphics
- Unlock Construction right from the start
- Make glass floor reflection more visible
- Fix trying connect a node to not constructed connector showing wrong error
- Make electricity grid overlay more understandable


[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Add Stardeus to Wishlist[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1380910/Stardeus/

Check out the latest trailer for Stardeus, a space base building colony management sim

Sprinkle in a little RimWorld, Space Haven, Starmancer and more together and you get what looks like Stardeus.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/04/check-out-the-latest-trailer-for-stardeus-a-space-base-building-colony-management-sim

Development Update: 2021-03-05

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hey, Space Travelers!

It’s been a while since last update, but I’ve been busy implementing more core systems and polishing what is already there. A lot of new things can be seen in the mini trailer that condenses several hours of gameplay into 5 minutes. Let me introduce the most prominent changes.

Human Needs and Behaviors



From now on, all human colonists have a full set of biological needs and functions. They will want to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom and take a shower. This plays along with the mood system, as having a lack of the facilities is going to affect the mood in negative ways, while taking a shower will make anyone happy for a while.

Space Expeditions and Mining



Since we can fly around in space, there had to be a way to explore all the planets, and get something useful out of them. You can now build space shuttles and launch expeditions to nearby space objects. For now we can only explore the planet and mine ores (more on that later), but the system is fully integrated with AI storyteller, so there will be much more than just mining.



While technically it is possible to generate a map for the planet and switch to exploring it first hand, I decided to cut the scope and keep it simple - as the Ship Computer all you can do is give remote orders and wait for the expedition to return with the loot.



Processing Materials and Factory Automation

Most of the materials you will bring back from the expeditions are not going to be usable right away. You will have to set up a small space factory to process raw materials and ores into other materials.

The first piece of the factory, the Furnace that will blast the ores with heat and produce metal sheets, is already implemented.



I have big plans for the factory automation part, and while it’s not going to be on par with Factorio, this will add a lot of depth to the simulation.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this update! And here is the full list of changes.

v0.4.4 (2021.03.04)
- Get rid of long press buttons where possible
- Prevent clearing notifications while in tutorial
- Create dialogue queue instead of replacing dialogs
- Redo tutorial to work with new dialog queue mechanic
- Improve graphics at further zoom levels
- Fix some tooltips getting stuck when mouse moves over a dialog or UI element
- Generate various types of ore deposits in discovered planets
- Implement full space expedition cycle
- Implement first space expedition event: finding mineable ore
- Add new OST track


v0.4.3 (2021.03.02)
- Fix ship generation getting stuck in a loop if starting area failed to generate in first attempt
- Fix objects not being cleaned up in between ship regeneration attempts
- Fix objects destroyed during generation cleanup still showing info icons
- Fix Unity crash when error reporting was triggered not in main thread


v0.4.2 (2021.03.01)
- Change planet looks generation in Starmap
- Fix electricity deficit notification duplicating itself
- Fix electricity connector bug that prevented creating connections if an unfinished connection was released on a non energy tile
- Add new Materials
- Add Furnace for smelting ores into alloys
- Fix trying to open Starmap overlay messing up the tutorial
- Fix Engine sounds playing after load while engine is off
- Fix game being unplayable on Mac


v0.4.1 (2021.02.25)
- Dump contents of a storage when it is removed
- Anchor zoom to mouse cursor
- Fix Starmap view scales and offsets
- Improve Starmap looks
- Add Shuttle and initial implementation of space expeditions
- Normalize volume of all OST tracks
- Normalize volume of all sfx
- Change UI sound fx


v0.4.0 (2021.02.17)
- Stop and play ship engine ambience sound when engines are off / on
- Show current goal events after loading the game
- Fix reach stasis arrays goal not getting completed
- Fix charge station task being stuck if rejected by a worker, leading to workers failing to recharge
- Add more functionality to Tasks overlay menu
- Add confirmation for mass removal and repairs
- Implement being sleep
- Implement being toilet use
- Implement being shower use
- Refactor Needs to be loadable from JSON files through mods
- Refactor Materials to be loadable from JSON files through mods


v0.3.6 (2021.02.14)
- Leak oxygen/heat through damaged floors
- Show damage type in "being taking damage" notifications
- Fix generation placing stasis arrays differently for same seed
- Fix AI need drop rates to be more precise
- Add tooltips for all info icons and texts
- Fix hitting ESC while showing areas overlay with hovered icon not hiding area preview
- Fix enclosed areas and islands count not updating in area overlay
- Fix camera zoom not restored when loading
- Add "Build a Copy" button to constructable object details and context menu
- Add goal system that guides the player with suggestions of what should be done next
- Add a dozen of different early-game goals


v0.3.5 (2021.02.10)
- Add function to hold doors open and release them
- Add new event notification type that will contain an extra info button
- Fix Research Tree and Starmap widget WASD pan speed depending on in-game camera zoom
- Show less components on unreachable devices
- Expand electricity connection failure warning popups with more details on how to solve the problem
- Fix error in environment tab when section has become unavailable
- Make Heater's target temperature configurable
- Improve heat exchange simulation
- Reorder overlay icons
- Make storage haul priority configurable
- Switch to energy connect tool when dragging any energy node in free select
- Redo info icon system to support cycling multiple icons
- Make energy connect tool visual feedback easier to see and understand
- Improve Planter
- Improve Storage
- Fix Drone light source requiring energy
- Add refill priority to Matter Reactor
- Make Matter Reactor configuration mass-copyable
- Restrict copying component configuration for non-reachable devices
- Fix sparks not going away after cancelling an ongoing construction task
- Fix worker priorities being modified for each workers of same species at the same time
- Fix Starmap not loading saved destination properly


v0.3.4 (2021.02.06)
- Fix space travel ship taking forever to stop
- Change haul icon
- Add a way to mute all game sounds
- Retarget the entity link to next entity when clicking an icon on group event widget
- Split Labor component into Labor and Worker
- Add controllable and non controllable worker types
- Implement worker priority management

[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Add Stardeus to Wishlist[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1380910/Stardeus/

Development Update: 2021-02-05

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hey folks!

Time flies, and since the last couple of weeks, so does our spaceship, when it is properly equipped! Let’s take a quick look at what’s new.

[h2]Starmap Improvements and Universe navigation[/h2]



While Starmap is far from finished, we can now take a look at our surroundings. The Starmap is hierarchical, meaning that we can look at system level, galaxy level and whole universe level. Distance changes by orders of magnitude in each level, so if you engines can fly you from planet to planet, it doesn’t mean you can use them to go from system to system. And intergalactic travel between galaxies billions of lightyears away from each other will probably require some new means of transport. Wormholes? Curvature engines? FTL drives?

[h2]Basic Space Travel[/h2]



If you have the necessary tech researched, built and sufficiently powered, you can pick a destination in the Starmap, and your ship will take you there! You will see the space move, engines burn, and your avatar move in the Starmap.

Space travel implementation uses forces to push your ship in the game universe, so you will have to install at least one engine for each direction you will want to move in.

[h2]Easier Electricity Grid split detection[/h2]



Electricity grid is my secret passion, so I can't stop adding updates for it. This change will make it much easier to heal a "split brain" condition, where your grid is severed and needs to be reconnected. Parts of the grid that do not have link to your Ship Computer will show up in gray, and the lines will be dashed. Impossible to miss!



Electricity Connector tool now has a shortcut (G, as in Grid, rebindable). It has never been easier to jump in to connection mode and add a new link.



The newly dragged connection line will become solid once you drag it to a reachable and connectable device. This will result in less errors and less “busy work” trying to connect devices in the right way.

[h2]Research Tree improvements[/h2]



Like the Starmap, the Research Tree widget is now full screen. It also contains extra details about your ship computer’s memory and storage, which used to be inconvenient to find.

[h2]Copy Configuration tool[/h2]



After playing for a while, I felt that configuring some components was a little tedious. You will not want to click on 20 solar panels and change their auto cleaning settings one by one, right? Now you can paste a configuration from any copyable component to multiple others in matter of seconds. Here’s an example where I pick a plant and copy it to a dozen of other planters. Efficient!



[h2]Data Overlay improvements[/h2]



You will no longer have to guess if that’s your funky custom red light, or is the temperature going over the roof. All visual data overlays will disable game lights.



In addition, you won’t have to guess which shade of red is pleasantly warm, and which is scorching 600C, visual overlays will now display a tooltip beneath the cursor with the details of the hovered location.

[h2]Doors and Airlocks will use Electricity[/h2]



Doors and airlocks will now be grid enabled, and will require electricity to be operational. During the open/close cycle, electricity consumption is higher, so the door can get stuck if you don’t have enough energy to spare.

[h2]Build Menu with split categories[/h2]



The build menu was split into multiple categories, it will be easier to quickly find the device you want to build. Oh, and you can press B (rebindable) to activate the build menu without moving your mouse.

[h2]New OST Track[/h2]

Oh, and there is this new chilly OST track that I quite like.

There could be more noteworthy items, but I’ll just leave the full list of changes here and sign off.

[h2]Full list of changes since 2021-01-23[/h2]

v0.3.3 (2021.02.04)
- Don't show non existent shortcuts when controller is in use
- Improve gameplay with controller
- Improve random ship generation algorithms
- Show more details in rooms and section overlays
- Show oxygen, temperature, insulation and airtightness levels under mouse cursor when these overlays are activated
- Make environment tab more consistent with overlay buttons
- Toggle overlays by clicking environment tab icons


v0.3.2 (2021.02.03)
- Restore the ability to connect electricity node to multiple connectors at once for grid redundancy
- Make repeated press of the shortcut toggle tool on / off
- Automatically refresh electricity grid UI elements
- Put Doors on electricity grid
- Fix electricity grid not active right after loading the game
- Fix mouse wheel scrolling game camera beneath some scrollable widgets
- Disable in-game lights when showing a color overlay
- Remove electricity node switch from connectors
- Refactor the UI creation code


v0.3.1 (2021.02.02)
- Fix WIP Starmap component on Ship Computer drawing -20kW
- Don't play dialog sounds multiple times if text changed too quickly (i.e. when loading a tutorial)
- Fix a few small issues with tutorial
- Fix broken feedback form text area widget
- Improve research tree / starmap widget navigation
- Reorder save menu items
- Add shortcut for build menu (b)
- Reorganize build menu
- Don't show zero production on some producer components (i.e. battery)
- Make space background show actual ship motion vector in the universe
- Begin initial implementation of space travel
- Change main menu space background
- Fix battery energy production / consumption value ranges being zero in energy node UI
- Start work on Ship system
- Implement engine autopilot
- Organize energy connections in better way
- Switch research and starmap widgets to full screen
- Show cooldown prompt when clicking the overheating event icon
- Fix energy connector failing to disconnect components outside CPU grid in sandbox mode
- Fix load game panel incorrectly resizing itself after showing a save without image
- Fix drone pathfinding failing to reach tightly packed solar panels for cleaning
- Fix loading saved game would not correctly restore some worker tasks
- Make default lights dimmer
- Add shortcut for energy connect tool (G, as in Grid)
- Add shortcut for repair and remove tools (F and V)
- Add shortcut for task priority tool (J, as in jobs)
- Add copy paste configuration tool (P shortcut)
- Change overlay colors to be less aggressive
- Improve tool shortcut behavior
- Change how removal tool works
- Prevent silent energy connector backlink failures that resulted in ghost energy grids
- Fix some events showing incorrect start time
- Make electricity grids without ship computer show up in a different way
- Don't show energy consumption in energy overlay for grids that are disconnected from the ship computer
- Improve energy connect tool visual feedback
- Fix energy connection tool visual problems
- Automatically enable electricity overlay when switching into grid connect tool
- Add a full discharge robot / drone recharge lockdown mechanic
- Fix energy grid split brain situation in certain connector configurations
- Add more restrictions to energy node connectivity
- Show tool shortcuts where possible


[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Add Stardeus to Wishlist[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1380910/Stardeus/