Jump Space News

[p]G'day, Jumpers![/p][p][/p][p]We did another stream and Q&A this week, so this is recapping everything we showed and answered.[/p][p](We aim to host these every 3-4 weeks on Discord and YouTube, so feel free to tune in and ask your questions.)[/p][p][/p][h3]Sneak Peek at the December Update:[/h3][p]This update will drop sometime before the holiday season, together with a festive little event similar to Halloween. The decorations will be a surprise...[/p][p]As previously mentioned, this update is a bit lighter on content than we planned since we've focused a ton of programming efforts on fixing the common crash, performance and disconnection issues.
[/p][p][/p][p]Augmentations are equipable player perks, and adds another layer of permanent progression and way to play your own personal way. Visuals are still WIP.[/p][p][/p][p]You have your "budget" of Power, and Augments can be cheap and minor or pricey and more impactful.[/p][p]Some examples are:[/p][p]Supplement Injector - Increased Health by 20 (Power Cost - 1)[/p][p]Materia Feed Expander - Multi-Tool Mag Size increased by 6 (Power Cost - 3)[/p][p]Kill Protocol - +10% on-foot damage for 10 seconds after a kill. This effect stacks. (Power Cost - 5)[/p][p]While we don't intend to pigeonhole players into very specific "classes", we hope this lets you choose how you want to play a little more in a satisfying way.[/p][p]The higher your character level is, the more points you will have to spend. This means we might increase the level cap beyond 10. Augments will also unlock through suits, helmets and completing Ventures etc. [/p][p]The Hazard suit will unlock an Augment related to radiation buildup, for example. As you might guess, no Augments force you to wear any specific cosmetic, so feel free to mix and match.[/p][p]We have a ton of ideas for Augments. We will start with a smaller amount of Augments, just to see that you like the system and then add more and more during Early Access as new systems get added that can be worked into Augments as well.[/p][p]Let us know what you think once the update drops!
[/p][p][/p][p]Buddy-Bot now has a command wheel where you can turn on and off what actions Buddy can do.[/p][p]You can access this by being next to Buddy at any time and holding Q, similar to when you want to talk to him and trigger a voiceline.[/p][p]Disable individual actions, or turn everything off for an extra challenge![/p][p]Pretty self-explanatory. Buddy will now be less frustrating for solo and duo players - Nice! [/p][p]
[/p][p]A new "Endless Waves" type of mission will be added![/p][p]Similar to the Data Extraction ship mission in space, there will now be a mission to survive wave after wave of ground enemies in this Data Center arena.[/p][p]Keep the download going by moving around the arena, gaining Materia with each wave.[/p][p]There is an Assembler for you to access, so you can craft weapons, ammo and Medbots as you go. Do as many waves as possible, or extract early when you feel done.[/p][p](we're working on a second map for this mission type with another biome, which will be added later.)[/p][p]Several unique Mission Types are coming next year that we're super hyped to show you.[/p][p][/p][p]There's a few other additions that will land with the December Update, but I'll save that for the proper update launch video so we can show it off cleanly.[/p][hr][/hr][h3]Q&A Section[/h3][p]We answered some common questions again, so here's more miscellaneous things from that part:[/p]

• [p]The Assembler will get more items to craft in the future.[/p]
• [p]We can hopefully add Multi-Tool customization in the future. Weapon Variants is on our roadmap, which might play into this.[/p]
• [p]Offline Support is being worked on, and very highly prioritized. It won't be in for December, but it's coming soon. This means you can play solo offline without any disconnect fears, and all your save progression is stored locally.[/p]
• [p]Decorations for the ship and hangar is planned. For the Hangar specifically, we have bigger plans on making it more exciting and full of... stuff.[/p]
• [p]We will most likely not add official mod tools or Steam Workshop support. We are super cool with mods, and we hope modders make things on their own with modloaders - we just want to focus all our time on our own content.[/p]
• [p]We have grenades almost done - we just have to fix item physics not crashing the game before we add grenades and the football back into the game.[/p]
• [p]Improvements to the Scanner station is planned on the roadmap.[/p]
• [p]"Raid" missions or weekly challenge missions with a specific generation seed or modifiers. This is definitely something we can do in the future when more of the core game is done and stable.
  "Dart ship, missiles only, melee weapons only" for example.[/p]
• [p]More graphics options and performance optimizations will be made in the future. So performance for potato PCs can and will get better in the future.[/p]
• [p]Small fighters controlled by players, maybe parked inside a larger ship is a common wishlist item. Before we stop developing the game, this will have been added to the game in some form. You will get your small fighter Star Wars fantasy.[/p]
• [p]More components are of course being worked on. 4 components to pick from per category is not the final limit.[/p]
• [p]The first content drop in 2026 - Update 3 - is planned to be bigger than 1 or 2.
  With stability fixes done, we hope to spend a bit longer on a CHUNKY update that adds a ton of things and will be very exciting to return to the game for.[/p][hr][/hr]

[p]That's it for this week![/p][p]We're super thankful for all your feedback and patience as we work to fix the issues! Leave any questions in the comments and we'll keep chatting there.[/p][p][/p][p]- The Keepsake Crew[/p]

[p]Hold on to your helmets, a new patch just dropped![/p][p][/p][p]Mission Outcome Streamlining and Recovery System[/p][p]We have reworked mission rewards to be more forgiving when failing or abandoning missions. The intent is to make sure the time spent in missions always yields the player a fair amount of progression rewards. This is also a step on the path to making failed missions feel "fine" and an expected part of the gameplay loop. Further down the line it opens up the possibility of greatly increasing the challenge of the most difficult missions. Challenge should be fun, not a frustrating thing to avoid.[/p]

• [p]Failing or abandoning a mission will now give 75% of the rewards from salvage (ingots, credits) in addition to the experience and credit rewards from completed jumps.[/p]
• [p]If the player disconnects, crashes, or quits to the main menu, they will now receive partial rewards when returning to the hangar, just as if they had abandoned the mission instead.[/p]

[p]Stability[/p]

• [p]Fixed a bug in Unity's low-level networking. This was the source of some of the issues that have caused desync, clogs, massive memory allocations, and crashes.[/p]
• [p]Some additional fixes that aim to reduce RAM usage.[/p]

[p]Bug Fixes[/p]

• [p]Fixed an issue where the pause menu was not available from the Jump Seat and Toilet when using mouse + keyboard. You will now only exit the jump seat and toilet by pressing Interact (default 'F').[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with controllers where the ships would not be selectable after customizing ship colors. The UI will now force-select the first ship in the list.[/p]

[p][/p][p]The patch is out now on Steam and will be deployed on Xbox as soon as it has gone through the submit process.[/p][p][/p][p]We will keep working on stability fixes (connection issues and crashes) that affect both PC and Xbox, at the same time as the content team pushes ahead with the next content update.[/p][p][/p][p]— The Keepsake Crew[/p]

[p]Heya Jumpers![/p][p]Small news thingy today, while we stay hard at work on Update 2 and stability/network fixes.[/p][p][/p][p]We're nominated for Most Anticipated Game in the Unity Awards, and now we need your help to vote for us so we can win![/p][p]Go to https://awards.unity.com/, register real quick and cast your vote! We have until November 21st![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Let's show them why Jump Space is indeed worthy of being ANTICIPATED and HYPED for![/p][p]Thank you again for your help and patience as we add content and fix your issues.[/p][p][/p][p]- The Keepsake Crew[/p]

[p]Happy Friday, Jumpers![/p][p][/p][p]This post is more or less a written form of our latest Q&A stream this week, which you can watch here.[/p][p](We aim to host these every 3-4 weeks consistently on Discord and YouTube, so feel free to tune in and ask your questions.)[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]So what did we talk about in the hour-long stream?[/p][p][/p][h3]Content Update 2:[/h3][h3]The biggest focus of this update will be stability and network fixes.[/h3][p] Despite our best efforts, reports of crashes and people in the same houses being unable to play multiplayer arestill all too frequent. We're disappointed that we haven't resolved these persistent problems yet, so we're laser-focusing on stability fixes right now.[/p][p]We're adding an additional programmer to the team so we can stay on top of crashes and network issues from now on. We can still make the PC and Xbox experience much better, and we promise to deliver. [/p][p]That aside, the big things in Update 2 will be the Player Trait System and Buddy-Bot Improvements.[/p][p][/p][p]Player Traits will function using a point system. You have your "budget" of points, and some traits might be smaller and cost 1 point to equip, while others can be big and cost 5 points.[/p][p]The higher your Pilot level is, the more points you will have to spend. This means we might increase the level cap beyond 10.[/p][p]Traits will also unlock through armors and helmets, so once you've unlocked the Hazard suit you can access the "Radiation" trait which might give you resistance to radiation buildup for example.[/p][p]We have a ton of ideas for traits. One might be increasing melee weapon damage. Or traits that affect the Multi-Tool. As long as traits don't pigeonhole players into a specific "class", then we are down to try a bunch of different things.[/p][p][/p][p]We will start with a smaller amount of traits in Update 2, just to see that you like the system, and then add more and more during Early Access.[/p][p]Important note - You can mix and match outfits and traits. You don't have to wear a specific cosmetic to use the trait.[/p][p]We know a lot of players don't feel a satisfying sense of progression when they aren't the host of the lobby, so Player Traits is one of many pieces we will add to increase the feeling of progression while you're on-foot, and give you something to change for yourself even when you're a guest in another lobby.[/p][p][/p][p]Buddy-Bot Improvements will involve mainly a command wheel (similar to the emote wheel) where you can turn on and off what actions Buddy can do. Is he wasting your materia on ammo? Turn off ammo crafting.[/p][p]He will also focus fire on whatever ships you ping with the ping button. We're also adding more special weapons Buddy can use, like the shield and targeting module.[/p][p][/p][p]Some other things from the roadmap might sneak in, like Power Grid editing from the hangar if we finish that on time. It depends on how smoothly things go for the next month.[/p][p][/p][p]Update 2 will arrive before Christmas holidays, and will be the "Christmas Update". Expect a smaller Christmas event like the Halloween one, but nothing crazy.[/p][p][/p][h3]We moved office![/h3][p]Nothing super exciting, but this ate up some of our time. Expect the backgrounds of each stream and video to change until we find a good room in the co-working space to use consistently.[/p][p][/p][h3]Feedback from Vendor Update[/h3][p]The Vendor update hasn't been out for too long, but we're seeing the feedback and will be making some balance adjustments. Overall the response to Sector Modifiers and Melee Weapons have been positive, but the vendor prices aren't fully balanced, and we changed the Materia economy which some players definitely felt the effect of.[/p][p]We're still engaging in the discussions of how weapon carryover should work (should the game feel more like an extraction shooter or be a forgiving roguelite?).[/p][p]It's not too late for us to rework the weapons, skipping the MK system for something that doesn't encourage hoarding or obsessing over "the best weapons". Players might enjoy an attachment or upgrade system more.[/p][p]These are all ideas, and nothing we will act on immediately. We will revisit the Weapon talks next year.[/p][p]We are actively having design discussions about Inventory slots, so you can expect some changes to that sooner rather than later (to address the issue of having to drop something important just to have room to carry salvage back to the ship).[/p][p][/p][p]Our main goal is ultimately not to punish players for failing. We're looking into making your guns not drop when dying on-foot for example, which also prevents losing weapons if you fall down in the death pits of instant out-of-bounds dying. Any way that we can prevent griefing is also a plus.[/p][p]We will add partial rewards for abandoning/failing/disconnecting from a mission . This might be 75% of the value of the loot you've collected on the ship so far. So the potential rewards for mission completion would not be included.[/p][p][/p][h3]Q&A Section[/h3][p]We try to rapid fire answers from chat, so here's a few of the miscellaneous topics we went through. (Thanks to Orange for taking written notes of these)[/p][p][/p]

• [p]3rd ship is being made. It will be the biggest yet, and be heavy-gunner focused.[/p]
• [p]Mission type is under construction where you go into a giant ship and destroy it from the inside. Will show up next year.[/p]
• [p]The auto-completing missions are more frustrating than cool, so we will change those to let you choose when to leave.[/p]
• [p]"Space sharks" has been a community meme on the Discord for a long time, and we acknowledge that we will reference or add this in some form in the future.[/p]
• [p]Server Browser will get improvements in the future, like showing ping or current mission. Maybe lobby codes/passwords as well.
  On this topic - we know that instant re-joins is a huge request. This is a technical hurdle, so it will take us a longer time to allow mid-sector joining, but we want that as well.
  When we fix the common disconnects in Update 2, hopefully the need for reconnecting will drop drastically.[/p]
• [p]Boss enemies are coming, as mentioned on the roadmap.[/p]
• [p]"Raid" missions or weekly challenge missions with a specific generation seed or modifiers. This is definitely something we can do in the future when more of the core game is done and stable.
  "Dart ship, railgun only, melee weapons only" for example.[/p]
• [p]Higher MKs for each ship, will be added during 2026. You can also pick which MK you want.[/p]
• [p]The Dart ship hatches will not be 100% exclusive to the Dart. Might add to higher ship MKs, or to enemy ships or levels to enable us to make more interesting environments or ship boarding mechanics.
  We're working on an animation for the hatch right now, instead of the placeholder teleport.[/p]
• [p]We're working on making physics and the football work again, and when that's done we can add grenades to the game.[/p][hr][/hr]

[p]That's it for this week![/p][p]Let us know if you enjoy this format of transparent infodumping.[/p][p][/p][p]We're super thankful for all your feedback and patience as we work to fix the issues! Leave any questions in the comments and we can continue discussing the game there![/p][p][/p][p]- The Keepsake Crew[/p]

[p]New patch! We ain't stopping!
[/p][p]Features[/p]

• [p]Melee weapons can now damage destructibles.[/p]

[p] Improvements[/p]

• [p]Increased salvage value of most pickupable items to make salvage during missions a more significant part of credits gain.[/p]
• [p]Set Nisse's salvage value to 50, removing disassembly value and emphasizing the importance of protecting him.[/p]
• [p]Increased memory retention for Heavy Raptor and Raptor AI, making them less likely to lose track of players.[/p]

[p] Bug Fixes[/p]

• [p]Fixed issue with inventory being cleared when abandoning a mission[/p]
• [p]Fixed bug where icons wouldn't display correctly when holding a battery[/p]
• [p]Fixed bug where enemy ships could attack and destroy the player ship while players was deep in a space station, not able to go back and protect it.[/p]

[p]Miscellaneous[/p]

• [p]Removed blinking invite button effect in lobby HUD.[/p]

[p]We are aware that some players are encountering microstuttering and other performance dips since Vendor Update launched. We are working on these, thanks for your patience![/p][p][/p][p]- The Keepsake Crew[/p]