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New Beings Progress Update #3

Hey everyone!

It's been about three months since I started working on the upcoming major update, and while I'm still far from done, there's a lot of progress.

I have reimplemented most of the basic needs like Hunger, Sleep, Eating, Hygiene, Fun, Electricity (for bots) and a better half of the AI behaviors for tasks like Construction, Hauling, Refilling, Repairing, Demolition, Moving, etc. And the most important feature of the game - cats riding cleaning bots - is already there!


https://twitter.com/dev_spajus/status/1754883175384252852


To get a feel for the scope of this rewrite, here's how much the code has changed:

git diff --ignore-all-space --shortstat master -- "*.cs" "*.json"
 2344 files changed, 51605 insertions(+), 62392 deletions(-)


For perspective, this is how big the whole project is:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                     files          blank        comment           code
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C#                            2066          27122          18418         272135
JSON                          1950            701              0          64152
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                          4016          27823          18418         336287
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The impact of this update will be far greater than just AI and beings. Since I'm touching so many parts, I am taking a critical look at every mechanic I touch, and I'm axing things that are confusing and aren't fun. For example, the controversial "Device Wear" is completely removed.

On the technical side of things, I had a chance to rewrite some core parts of the framework that runs the whole simulation. This yielded significant performance boost at high clock speeds, the simulation is now able to run at a mind blowing rate that was never possible before. 10x speed will be truly 10x for everyone, and in my tests I can simulate a day of game time in just a couple of seconds.

Talking about tests, I'm rewriting them all too. Hundreds of tests were obsolete due to the changes, so I took the liberty to rethink the test architecture completely, focusing on their stability and speed. If you're interested to learn more about how automated tests work in Stardeus, I have a video about it here: https://youtu.be/043EY6H5424

The current focus of development is on body parts and their installation / removal / harvesting, also damage, wounds, healing and various conditions. That involves adding new devices, tons of various body parts, defining the abilities and status effects those parts provide, and figuring out how to tie it all together.

While there's certainly some complexity involved, I love how flexible things are getting due to the new mechanics. Here's an example:


https://twitter.com/dev_spajus/status/1755632007177003049


There's a bit of bad news too. I won't be able to keep my promise of old saves always working for this update. The game has changed too drastically, and trying to make the code backwards compatible with old saves would complicate the development and delay the release of this update by a few months, so I made a choice to break the save file compatibility. This also allows me to clean up some hairy parts of the old code that I had to keep just for ancient save files to work.

There will be a transition period for testing the new update, which should give some time for mods to catch up, and you will have plenty of time to finish your current run.

As of when the new update will be ready, I can't predict that yet, all I can say is that the development pace is increasing, as I'm learning how to use the new AI efficiently, and more and more parts are coming together. I'm doing my best to get it done as soon as I can!

That's it for now, see you next month!
- spajus

[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Get Stardeus[/h2]

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

New Beings Progress Update #2

Hey everyone!



Time for a progress update. It was a busy month, and while Stardeus' codebase currently looks like this fully disassembled car, I have something new to show you.

[h2]New Game Setup Screen[/h2]



Stardeus will have a new game setup screen. You will be able to randomize your starting crew, customize their names, and see their skills.

Each crew member, including robots and even pets, will have a “Backstory” and “Traits” that can modify the skills or add other perks. The age of a crew member determines how much experience they have. There are four phases of a lifetime - childhood, young adulthood, mid-life and retirement. A role will be assigned for each phase, which will make younger crew members slightly less skilled than older ones.

[h2]Human Body Types, Hair Styles and Portraits[/h2]

Humans will become much more unique and distinguishable from each other. They will have four different body types - feminine, masculine, thin and large. There will be dozens of new hair styles, and new clothing items.

All clothing items will fit all body types. Once you have a space suit, anyone can wear it.

The UI will also show accurate human portraits rather than an icon of a bald naked dude that you see right now.

[h2]Development Timeline[/h2]

I can’t yet accurately predict how long it will take to finish this major update, as it literally requires rewriting almost half of the game. Instead of wasting my time on vague estimates, I’ll put my head down and get back to work. I will start adding estimates in the monthly updates as soon as I can tell something other than "at least 6 more months".

If you’re curious to see the development process, catch me live on Twitch, or browse the archive of the development sessions on YouTube.

See you next time!
-spajus

[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Get Stardeus[/h2]

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

New Beings Progress Update #1

Last month I revealed the plan for new beings. It's time for a progress report.

I am currently still in the very beginning of this massive rewrite, and the goal is to lay out the foundations of all the new systems that will have to interact with each other for the whole thing to click.

Here are a couple of highlights of what is already in the oven:

[h2]GOAP Based AI System[/h2]



GOAP (Goal Oriented Action Planning) is revolutionary AI system that allows high flexibility and realism in character decision making and environmental interactions. It was pioneered in F.E.A.R. and used in games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Fallout 3 and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

In addition to making the behaviors more emergent, I feel that this system will make the new combat truly shine. It is still a work in progress, and I yet have to port over a hundred behaviors from the old system, but so far the results are very promising and this new AI will open the possibilities of bringing the depth of the game to the next level.

[h2]Body Parts Framework[/h2]



It enables having interchangeable body parts for both robotic and biological life forms. Here's an example of how it will affect the gameplay. Imagine a micro meteoroid hitting your best construction robot. Previously it would deal a fair bit of damage to the robot, the health bar would go to 0 and the robot would become useless. You would dispose of the robot via the Disassembler and get a few materials out of it. Here's what will happen with the new body parts system:
  1. Micro meteoroid will hit a random body part of the robot. Let's say it hit the "Mobilizer" body part slot and destroys the installed "Tracks" part.
  2. As a result, the robot cannot move anymore. It can still do work that doesn't require moving, so you can carry the robot to the construction site and it will build what it can reach.
  3. However, you have a better idea. You order removing the "Mobilizer" part from one of your carrier drones - you take out the "MiniJet" part.
  4. You install the "MiniJet" on the damaged robot, and it can now move again.
  5. As you may have guessed, the "MiniJet" enables ability to fly, so the previously grounded robot can now fly around in space!
  6. And yes, you won't have to wait for the micro meteoroid to strike the robot to replace the "Mobilizer" from "Tracks" to "MiniJet", you can do it any time.

And it's not limited to just robots. There are close to 30 body parts in a cat, and a human will have even more. Get ready for some war crimes, cross-species organ transplants, cybernetic body parts and organ trading!

[h2]Combat[/h2]



I am building the foundations of new combat together with everything else right from the beginning. This will ensure that it integrates with the body parts, inventory, health and other new systems nicely.

Let's take a look at a few new combat mechanics.

[h3]Directional Cover System[/h3]

Every wall and object on your ship will have a "Cover" value that it can provide. This data goes into a new directional cover map that fighters will use when taking positions in combat.

Additionally, while fighting, beings will take paths with best cover rather the shortest paths like they normally would.

This opens up a great deal of tactical depth to the combat.

[h3]Squad Behaviors[/h3]

When a combat breaks out, an "Army" will be created for each faction. Then the game will automatically create one or more "Squads" for each army by taking unit proximity and type into account. Each squad will elect its "Leader" that will drive the whole squad towards reaching some objective. The "Followers" will tend to stay close to the "Leader" and will have a slightly different set of goals.

[h2]Happy New Year![/h2]

I hope the new changes sound exciting for you, I am absolutely hyped about them myself. There is still a long, long way ahead until anything playable is ready for playtesting, but the good news is that there seem to be no roadblocks ahead so far.

The only setback is that I managed to catch COVID, this is why I stream much less for the past week. But it will pass and I will catch up, I promise!

Since the next development update will come out next year, I wish you the best Holidays and Happy New Year! May all your wishes come true!

See you in 2024!
-spajus

[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Get Stardeus[/h2]

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

The plan for new beings

Hey, Space Traveler!

I'm happy with how the Anniversary Update was received, it felt like a big step forward in the right direction. However, Stardeus is not there yet, and the next couple of steps will have to be even bigger. Let me share a glimpse of what's going on behind the scenes.

From the very start of the project I've been focusing on the mechanical parts of Stardeus - ship building, space exploration, production chains, research, electricity. Meanwhile some very important aspects had only minor incremental changes on top of the initial prototype that was made some 3 years ago.

I'm talking about:
- Beings (depth, body parts, equipment, behaviors)
- Combat (behaviors, tactics, pacing, weapon variety)
- AI (task assignment, emergent behaviors)

These three areas - Beings, Combat, and AI - are immensely important yet heavily underdeveloped, and it is finally time for a serious rewrite.

It is going to be the biggest rewrite to date, and it will have an even larger impact than the new Research system.

The bad news is that it will take considerable time, as doing this right is a complex task that will require enormous amount of work. It could be several months until a playable v0.11 release candidate becomes available, but it should be worth the wait.

While I'll be focused on this huge rewrite, v0.10 branch will still receive bug fixes and occasional balance updates, however some minor issues related to parts that will be removed or significantly changed in v0.11 will likely remain unfixed in v0.10.

Thank you for your support and patience. Your enthusiasm and valuable feedback are the driving forces behind my dedication to making Stardeus the best it can be.

-spajus

[h2]Follow the Development[/h2]


[h2]Get Stardeus[/h2]

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

Spaceship colony building sim Stardeus has a major upgrade out now

Stardeus from Kodo Linija and Paradox Arc is a colony building sim set aboard a broken spaceship you need to rebuild, and a fresh major upgrade and overhaul has been released.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/10/spaceship-colony-building-sim-stardeus-has-a-major-upgrade-out-now