Mars First Logistics News

Hello,

As part of the Melbourne International Games Week Steam event, I'll be live-streaming some of your designs submitted using the new Steam Workshop feature. Please submit your builds and let me know in the comments! I'll try play as many as I can.

I'll also be talking about the game in general and answering your questions about our plans for the game.

The stream will start Sunday 24 Sept 10am AEST / Saturday 23 Sept 5pm PDT.

Hope to see you there!

Ian.

Hello!

This update includes all the updates from the beta branch as well as a few surprise features such as Steam workshop, creative mode and new parts and cargo!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h2]New parts[/h2]



There are 6 new parts to discover:

• Light, medium and heavy springs. These are dampened so they can be used as shock absorbers, but also have many other applications!
  
• Ball joint. This is similar to the hinge, but can freely rotate around all 3 axes.
  
• Antenna and End Cap. These are mainly cosmetic. The end cap can be used to visually fill the gap left between hubs or other parts that don't physically connect.
  

[h2]Steam workshop[/h2]

You can now share your designs through Steam workshop! This can be done through the saved designs tab in the editor. It's now also easier to organise your designs with the ability to rename, delete and move them.

There's a new tab in the editor where you can browse and build any workshop items you've subscribed to.

[h2]Creative mode[/h2]

Creative mode is much like the standard mode, except that you have unlimited access to all parts from the start. It's also a great way to try out other player's designs from the workshop if you don't yet have all the parts to build them in standard mode.

[h2]Map improvements[/h2]



The map now shows more detail so it's easier to see where bumpy regions are, and you can plot a detailed route to your destination using up to 32 waypoints. Other changes include updated icons, a map scale and the ability to turn off the contract list so you can see more of the map.

[h2]New side job cargo[/h2]



[h2]Other changes[/h2]

The fishery has been redesigned and both the fish and butterfly contracts have been moved to hopefully make them a bit less frustrating.

The magnetic wheels now corner better on curved surfaces and the stability of the all terrain wheels has been improved.

Support for big picture mode has been improved with the game now pausing when a gamepad is disconnected or the Steam overlay is triggered, as per Valve's guidelines.

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

Performance of online co-op when using large vehicles has been greatly improved.

I also fixed bugs with cargo spawning high in the sky or not triggering the delivery animation, amongst others.



New stations and main contracts will be coming in the next major update, expected before the end of the year.

Thanks for all the suggestions and support! Please keep 'em coming!

Ian.

Hello!

After being on holiday for most of July and then spending the first few weeks of August recovering from Covid, I'm happy to report that I'm now back working on the game!

I've decided to start pushing more regular updates to the beta branch. If you'd like to be the first to try all the new features and fixes, you can subscribe to the beta branch by right-clicking the game in your library, then clicking "properties", then "betas" then selecting the beta called "beta" (no access code is required).



To start, I've pushed an update to the beta branch that adds more terrain detail to the map and improves performance of online co-op for larger vehicles.

Here's what the new, more detailed map looks like:



Do note that the beta branch will not be as well tested as the default branch. Please let me know if you encounter any bugs, either using the in-game feedback form, the Steam forums, the Shape Shop Discord, or by emailing [email protected].

I'm planning to push updates to the beta branch roughly once a week. Those updates will then make their way to the default branch once they've gone through more testing.

Thanks for reading!

Ian.

- Fix a bug introduced in patch v202307011051 where some objects were not despawning when far away, potentially causing stuttering.

Thank you for alerting us to the problem!

Some players were experiencing frame rate drops after the last patch. This patch reverts one change from the previous patch which I think was causing the problem, namely the improved fishery and crane hook colliders. Since this was a very minor change I decided to revert it for now. If you were experiencing frame rate drops, please let me know if this helps!