InfraSpace News

Hello everyone!

Today I'm stoked to announce a feature for the next major update that has been requested *a lot* in the community: Mod Support!

You will be able to:

• change all kinds of gameplay settings by editing json config files
  
• change the consumption and production rates and resources of buildings
  
• edit all texts and add your own custom translations for fun
  
• add new models and textures to the game. Specifically, this lets you create new buildings and entire new production chains
  
• add new resources to the game
  
• change the speeds and settings for roads and rails
  
• decompile InfraSpace and look through the code yourself
  
• write script mods by implementing Mod classes that we pre-made for you
  
• use the well known Harmony library to hook into our functions and change the game in deeper ways
  

Modding is available in different tiers of difficulty and possibilities:

1. Editing configuration files is so simple that anyone can do it. This includes changing building settings, production rates, etc.
   
2. Adding new models and textures to the game requires you to install Unity and Blender. You need to import your models into the InfraSpace ModKit project and export them to be used by the game.
   
3. Script mods require you to have some programming knowledge. Depending on the complexity of the mod, your goal can be reached in a few lines or it requires you digging deeper into the InfraSpace code.
   

In order to make things easier for you, we will provide 3 things:

1. A tutorial series that covers all the different kinds of mods.
   
2. An InfraSpace ModKit Unity project that contains all the resources you need to get started
   
3. Three small example mods that are available on the workshop and can be downloaded to check them out and see how they work.
   

The Cryo Chambers example mod adds another spaceship module and shows you how to edit configuration files and change simple values.



The salt mine example mod shows you how to create new buildings, add some animations, add them to the game and configure their new production chains.


With the new world and the mod support, the next update is going to be packed with big new features - and we haven't even announced the biggest news yet ;)

While we're working on it, I wish you as always, happy playing!

Hello everyone,

another week, another patch of biomes. The terrain overhaul in the next major update is going to bring 5 major biomes: you saw the dried river and the petrified crater in last weeks post, this week we're showing you our concepts for the volcano, the highlands, and the desert biomes.



The inactive volcano used to shape the landscape in the area. Now, its unusual soil composition nourishes some strange alien fungi. Also, the inactive caldera is a good source of valuable iridium.





The highlands are some of the most alive areas of this planet. The soil is still full of nutrients because of the proximity to the previously not-dry river and the plants here get enough sunlight compared to the ones in the dried river itself.



Most of the area in the map is taken up by the desert biome. Much of it is empty to give you enough space to build your city, but there are some rock structures strewn throughout containing the most basic mineral resources, copper and iron.

That's it for this week's Friday Dev News - we hope you enjoy the look of the new map and are looking forward to playing on it when it's released. We still need to create the procedural generation for the terrain, but on the other hand, we have not yet announced all the features we have been working on for the next update. Stay tuned...

... and happy playing!

Hello everyone!

As promised in last week's Friday Dev News, we're now showing our first 3D concepts for the new biomes. For now these are just artist test scenes and not procedurally generated. That comes later!

We tried to make the landscape look both interesting and alien, but still familiar enough that it doesn't look "off". Also, we added some slight fog effects for visual variety, but not so dense that they get in the way of gameplay or make the scene too dark.






While the dried river contains no flowing water, it's geology makes it a lot easier to reach underground water and methane deposits. The steep rock walls protect the area from both sun and wind and gives opportunity for mushroom-like alien plants to grow on the sides.



The petrified crater is a very different biome: It seems like a large asteroid impact long ago has compressed the soil can't hold much liquid resources at all and neither man nor nature can reach through the ground very easily. Any plants that grow here risk drying out and getting petrified in seasons with a lot of sun. On the other hand, the leftover asteroid material provides for some rich aluminum deposits.







I hope you like the scenes so far, let us know what you think! The art team would be happy to hear any comments.
We'll be able to show some of the other new biomes next week.

In other news, after 2 years of pandemic, I finally got covid myself. Luckily I'm already well on the road to recovery and the rest of the (remote) team has been doing a great job of continuing work on the game in the meantime, so it all turned out fine :)

See you next week and happy playing!

Hello everyone!

first of all, tiny update today:

• Fixed a bug where 2 players couldn't load their saves
  
• Added Japanese translation (thanks to the community translators!)
  

That's right , in the next major update you'll be getting a complete planet overhaul to play with!

(Note: we will try to keep your old maps playable. the next major update will also take 2 months or so)

It's still a work in progress, so today I'd like to show you some of our concepts and ideas.

Our first attempts started by modifying the terrain we already had - what if we added a couple more interesting biomes? How about a volcano? An ancient dried up river?

This thought process got us to the following sketches:



Still looks familar, for sure... but also with some interesting twists.

Then we thought what if we expanded on the idea. Made the dried river an actual deep geological feature that you could even build part of your city in?



Looks pretty good for a quick sketch, but we have this featuer on our roadmap called "cargo gondolas". How about we not only use them in the river, but make an entire feature out of it where you need to traverse height to access resources?



That's nice! But we also need some big open a
reas for players to build their city in - lot's of people just want space to build freely. How about a big crater?



Ok, cool, but I mentioned volancoes earlier. What about them, are they just for decoration? Or do they hold precious resources at the top that you could maybe gather with a mining outpost and transport to your main city?



Interesting, so that's a lot of new ideas, but what *could* they look like put together? Just a quick sketch?



The sketches you see here are still far from the final result, but they should give you an overview of the kinds of ideas we are working on and what might be coming to InfraSpace in the next major update.

Next week, you can look forward to seeing the first 3D scenes of the new terrain and I can tell you, you can look forward to them because they look good :D

Also, the terrain is not the only thing we're working on - but you'll have to wait a little longer for that to be revealed...

Until next week and happy playing!

Hello everyone!

Last week we saw the release of the pipes update and in the last 7 days you've already seen 3 small bugfix updates. Today, you're getting another one:

• Added messages for completed spaceship parts to let you know which bonus you unlocked or which technology got boosted
  
• Improved pipes building so they more easily merge with neighboring pipes
  
• Improved pipes building so that unconnected pipes in the same location collide and let you know something's wrong
  
• Improved pipes handling so you can't click on roads and buildings in pipe mode and can't click on pipes in any other mode
  
• Fixed an issue where bonus immigrants from completing part of your spaceship would vanish instantly
  
• Fixed an issue where methane pipes wouldn't connect to the Adamantine Drill
  
• Fixed a bug where a save was stuck in pipe edit mode
  
• Fixed a bug where you could keep building some spaceship parts infinitely
  
• Fixed a bug where spaceship efficiency bonuses wouldn't be applied
  

Even before the latest update release, some of us have already been working on and preparing for the next update after pipes. You'll find out the details next week - one hint: it's going to involve the planet.

Until then, happy playing!