Stardeus News

Hey Everyone!

Stardeus Kickstarter campaign is over, and I’m thrilled to see that we have been 188% funded. Thank you all so much!

Also, Weapons and Combat stretch goal was unlocked right before the end of the campaign, so now it’s official, Stardeus will not be just a peaceful space colony sim anymore. Building a tactical squad AI is going to be a challenge, but I love challenges like this!

What’s next?

Now I will work hard for the next 12 months and hopefully have the game well polished and ready for Early Access on Steam and GOG around September 2022. I will keep updating the alpha builds nearly every day, like I always did, so those who have Instant Alpha Access will get to enjoy the fresh version and see what I’m working on.

Rewards delivery

We will send out the remaining Instant Alpha Access keys shortly, and some time soon I will personally double check and ensure that every single key has been delivered.

Discord Backer roles will be processed some time soon, I will run a backer survey to get your discord usernames for that.

Other rewards could take a little longer to prepare, but keep an eye on emails from Kickstarter, as I will be running surveys for things that require your input (name in the game, your artwork as in-game cosmetic, etc). Details will follow with future updates.

Thank you again for believing in Stardeus! I will do my best to deliver a high quality product over time.

See you in the next update!

Cheers,
spajus

Hey everyone!

Big thanks to all of you! We have crushed the second Kickstarter stretch goal - Factions & Diplomacy! This means Stardeus universe will be full of life, with other surviving ark ships, pirates, alien and AI factions. That will affect the economy and trade (which I already started working on), since faction relationships will have an effect on prices of goods.

It is time to reveal the 4th stretch goal!

Space Warfare

While the 3rd goal will add tactical combat between living beings, Space Warfare will bring it to the next level, by adding ship to ship combat. This means massive weapons, railguns, force fields, nukes, and other kinds of artillery. Some of the weapons will be powerful enough to wipe out a planet, or maybe even a whole star system. However, you won’t be the only one with such firepower, so often diplomacy will take you further than aggression. But if you want to wage war and reign terror wherever you go, nothing will stop you from trying, as with everything in Stardeus, the choice is yours.

We still have two weeks to go, and Stardeus is nearly 150% funded, which makes me very happy and motivated!

The community is becoming increasingly active on Stardeus Discord, so if you are playing the demo, or the closed alpha, join the server and talk to me and the other players, we will be happy to help you out. I also suggest watching this Tips and Tricks video, it showcases a lot of small QOL features that can make your playthroughs more efficient:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbAYvQmRLxY

P.S.

If you have backed the project on Kickstarter at Stardeus Engineer or higher tier, and haven't received your alpha Steam key in more than 2 days, please send an email to [email protected] and include your Kickstarter display name + backer number, I will do my best to resolve the situation ASAP.

See you in the next update!

Spajus

Hey all!

It didn’t take long, our first Kickstarter stretch goal was reached! Thank you all for making it happen, Economy and Trade will be implemented! It’s time to reveal the third goal, which is an exciting one.

Weapons and Combat

Although Stardeus already has a few very light combat mechanics - turrets shooting down meteors, and fluid cannons loaded with water or biowaste bullets fighting fires and crawler infestations, this goal will bring it to the next level. You can expect hand-to-hand combat, gunfights, melee combat with boarding parties, raids, pirates, and hostile alien creatures.


This will also Enhance the faction and diplomacy mechanics, by making factions fight each other. What could be more fun than being raided by two different pirate factions at the same time and then watching them fight each other? Getting tactical combat right is going to be a huge challenge, but I believe that with help of all your feedback we will manage to come up with satisfying results.


One last thing, you will be able to weaponize your cleaning bots by rigging them with explosives and detonating them remotely while the bot casually cleans the dirty floors right next to the unsuspecting raiders that just boarded your ship. This is going to be epic!

See you in the next update!
spajus

Hey all!

Exciting news, Stardeus is 100% funded! Thank you all so much for your support, you are the best!
There are 24 more days to go, we’ll see how far the stretch goals will take us! Let me cover the first two in more detail.

[h2]Economy & Trade[/h2]
To establish an economy and trade, we will have to have a few new game mechanics. First, there has to be a currency. It will be a cryptographic currency that can be acquired through trade, or by utilizing your Ship Computer’s resources and electricity to “mine” it. You may need to build some GPU Modules to make the currency mining operations more efficient.

The cryptocurrency will allow you to purchase various goods from other ships that you will contact using the Communicator device. Goods will be delivered using storage capsule drops.
This mechanic would let you exchange resources that you have an excess of into ones you are lacking, sell your humans to slavers, or buy a Cleaning Bot to help you out with those messy floors.

[h2]Factions & Diplomacy[/h2]
Factions will add a new layer of depth and possibilities. First, your colony will consist of two friendly factions - AI and Humans. The actions you take as an AI can change how your human colonists behave towards you and your robots. Treat your humans like bags of meat, and their relationship to your AI faction will deteriorate, in extreme cases it could make them sabotage your drones, or try to destroy your Ship Computer.

In addition to that, Stardeus universe will be populated with other human and AI factions. This will impact the economy and trade, as the faction relationships will have a direct effect on prices of goods. Be good to your humans, and most other human factions will like you more, start a local robot uprising and you might find another rogue AI faction sending you gifts.
This mechanic alone will not add any combat or warfare elements, those are introduced in later stretch goals, that will be revealed if earlier ones are hit.

Meanwhile, since Monday, there have been several updates to demo and alpha builds. The amount of feedback is a bit overwhelming, but I am doing my best to process and address the most common requests, and to make the overall experience more friendly to new players.

Happy weekend everyone!
spajus