Stars Reach News

[p]Carneros: What is something you can imagine your character doing in game one or two years from now? What is one thing you are hoping we will have in this game?[/p][p][/p][p]mrgoshdarn: Beautifying any planet I land on and helping others do the same. If a planet becomes a mess, I'd like to make it excellent again for any playstyle to have a great time on, whether it's controlled by a government or a bit on the wild side.[/p][p]The planetologist profession. But with how much I've been mentioning it, I completely understand if you just make it a title at this point.[/p][p][/p][p]ObsidianStone: Cruising the space lanes in my medium to large repurposed freighter. exploring. Making medicines and concoctions to help people. Hopefully searching for clues to Tír na nÓg and other fun mysteries. And so many other possibilities.[/p][p]One?! Oof. Oodles and oodles of outfit options and customisations in general, for ships, buildings, vehicles. Like an absurd amount. Constantly being added too. But it's painful to just pick one thing.[/p][p][/p][p]Dr. Julie Wainlight: I could potentially see myself running a clinic on a GUNC outpost as a medic to triage patients or consult with other guilds for best practices for wildlife management on their governed planets, as well as genetic engineering pets/mounts from custom requests.[/p][p]Servitors exist, we have seen them now too! So I hope to see that we're able to droidmake or create robots or cybernetics! It'd be a strong contender to replace my initial idea of being a genetic engineer![/p][p][/p][p]LastDitchPlan: I came in fully wanting to do cooking! I'm not much of a cook in real life so I felt it would be a lot of fun to be a master chef in a virtual world. That said, the more of Stars Reach I play, the more I have to keep my committment to any one profession in check, simply because I'm loving a lot more professions than I thought I would! Architecture being a great example, I never would have thought I'd enjoy building buildings as much as I do, but it just works great and "clicks" for me (being inspired and learning from other's amazing works has helped a lot too!)[/p][p]Got a little long winded, next two answers incoming shortly![/p][p]I really want to see an entire "entertainer" profession, or more precisely: a profession that encompasses dancing, music, and generally leans more towards a roleplay focus. Any game that has a facet of its gameplay loop that is just for fun really speaks to me. I grew up on Nintendo games and really appreciate fun for fun's sake. Plus the idea of jamming with some friends at a player built bar/hang-out is just what I need after a long work day![/p][p][/p][p]JesDyr: Does annoying the devs count? Really, it is hard to say. Different games can bring out a different player in me at different stages of gameplay. I imagine it will be either player housing or Taming/breeding animals. I have spent an unreasonable amount of hours doing both in other games.[/p][p]Success? No, I think that is too cheesy of an answer. I think I had about 50 things in the old "One wish" channel on Discord. I already got Space Otters in some form, so I guess the one thing would have to be complexity. I can enjoy simple games, but I don't stick with them for years. I don't mean every system needs to have a steep learning curve. Complexity can come in the form of many simple systems interacting with each other. I think the game needs to be approachable, but I also think there needs to be enough depth for those who want to go down the rabbit hole to be able to do so. We are already seeing that in the PreAlpha so maybe the real hope is that it continues..[/p][p][/p][p]hooby: I have not decided yet what I'm going to do with my character. There are so many interesting options to choose from, and I'll be taking full advantage of the opportunity to try out all of it during testing. I'm pretty sure by the time the game does release, I'll know what I want to be doing.[/p][p]But regardless of what specialization I'll end up with – I sure hope that I'll also be able to sometimes just have my character lean back in a comfy chair of some player-run establishment, and watch the hustle and bustle of others rushing by. The game just added a player hub area – the TPL Starbase – and it feels great to have a place where there's always player traffic. People being busy visiting the mission terminals, and going to and returning from the planet portals.[/p][p][/p][p]Dr. Julie Wainlight: I could potentially see myself running a clinic on a GUNC outpost as a medic to triage patients or consult with other guilds for best practices for wildlife management on their governed planets, as well as genetic engineering pets/mounts from custom requests.[/p][p][/p][p]Nadraxes: Hopefully I will be investigating rumours of artefacts. Being an Indiana Jones style explorer and RP'ing my heart out. I already wrote Nadraxes "Lonestar" Jones's Background up and look forward to how the character will take shape. And yes, I stole "Lonestar" from Spaceballs and of course, Jones is a reference to Indiana..[/p][p]There are actually a few things and I have a hard time putting priorities on them. I'dd love to have Archaeology (sp?) in the game. A way to investigate the past of the planets we discover and the civilisations that came before us. I'm a lore mongerer, so the more I can find out, the more I'll love it.[/p][p]Closely tied to that is the opportunity to have player made libraries and writing books in the game. Bonus if we can add graphs and illustrations (maybe through webhooks?) to them. I ran a playermade library in UO at some point and had people donate books to me with their own written stories into it. It became quite a popular hangout spot for the people that loved readin stories or rp. Hiding books with "quests" in the library also became a thing for player-run events. Good memories.[/p][p]Last is a given, but any space game needs spaceships and some space combat attached to that. But this is definitely lower priority for me than the two above.[/p][p][/p][p]Keaggan: Overseeing several planets, collaborating to build memorable cities, running large-scale seasonal events, leading a team known for quest making (missions), participating in PvP sieges, & regularly hunting down random events.[/p][p]CAPITAL SHIPS! Create an instance of the interior for all players to walk around in that does NOT move with the ship. If they connect to a terminal (pilot, weapons, view port, sensors, etc), the camera moves to the ship in space, but only from the perspective of the terminal. No added models.[/p][p][/p][p]Carneros: Who is a streamer or content creator you wish would come play this game?[/p][p][/p][p]mrgoshdarn: I think any type of streamer or content creator that likes MMOs or sandboxes should give it a shot, but I wouldn't want to play favorites.[/p][p][/p][p]LastDitchPlan: I'm not much of a Twitch viewer/content consumer, just not what I grew up with as far as social engagement for video games! That said I absolutely die laughing at Joel Haver's stuff. He has done a number of sponsored videos for video games (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remake to name one!) and has such a funny sense of humor around looking at games and "what ifs?"[/p][p]If you have not seen Lanky's reaction to the DK Rap: do it now![/p][p][/p][p]JesDyr: There are only a handful of content creators I will watch with any regularity and they tend to be more focused on Indy games. Neebs Gaming is the only one that comes to mind. I liked their Ark videos and subnautica series, but it has been a while since I watched them.[/p][p][/p][p]Keaggan: I don't know any except the top people. Once we get PvP, there are a few I'd like to come in just to bring in eyeballs, but they would all; bring in bigger guilds, so it's tough to say lol[/p][p]A guildmate recommended About Oliver ( & )[/p]

• [p]Frame rate improvement! We found a netcode issue and it was a biggie. You should see significant FPS improvements when you get into the game. This is probably not the only issue we need to resolve, but it’s a good fix. Enjoy![/p]
• [p]A very large overhaul of the PQRV stats on all tools. In general, the things you’ll notice most will be big improvements in the behaviors of tool and weapon batteries. In short, you can use them a lot more now before the batteries give out. But additionally:[/p]
  • [p]The Chronophaser works again to melt stuff…however…Quality controls the max heat of the beam. So you’ll need a high-quality Chronophaser to melt really tough stuff like diamonds. However, even a low-grade Chrono will melt dirt.[/p]
  • [p]Higher Quality Healix tools will heal better.[/p]
  • [p]Higher Quality Companion Orbs will do more damage.[/p]
  • [p]Higher Quality Omniblaster will also do more damage.[/p]
  • [p]Gravity Gun doesn’t get increased damage because it already had increased knockback (via Potential).[/p]
  • [p]The base Terraformer was bumped up in Excavation power slightly so that you can use the base version and dig through Dirt more effectively (which helps with those MacGuffin missions!).[/p]
  • [p]Terraformer can also enhance Hopper size (with Potential). This does stack with the skill node unlocks from Mineralogy.[/p]
• [p]You can now merge your inventory stacks (as long as each stack has two units or more in it)! If you have stacks of smaller than two units, then you can either wait until they have more in them and can be merged, or just delete them. To merge stacks:[/p]
  • [p]Drag and drop a stack onto another stack.[/p]
  • [p]The process is lossy. You will end up with fewer units of material than the sum of both stacks.[/p]
  • [p]The stats of the end-product stack will be an average of the two stacks. We add up the stats of all resources involved and then divide by the number of resources. So if you only have two units in one stack and you have 57 in the other, the end result stacks are going to be very similar to the stack of 57.[/p]
  • [p]You’ll get a dialog giving you a preview of the final stack and you can decide whether to do it or not thereafter.[/p]
• [p]Creatures that use cold projectiles no longer generate heat when those projectiles hit the terrain.[/p]
• [p]The Fire Suppressor in the first-time user experience hallway is now more effective and it’s easier to freeze the molten floor.[/p]
• [p]We’ve increased the batch sizes of many recipes (blocks, building tiles, alloys, ores, and more) so that you don’t have to sit there and hit the Craft! button so many times in a row.[/p]
• [p]Many meteor storms have been modified so they deposit different types of metal into the world to supplement the fact that you’ve mostly mined the worlds out right now. This may not be a permanent change.[/p]
• [p]The announcement text at the top, center of the screen now refreshes much more rapidly so it doesn’t get caught in such long update queues.[/p]
• [p]A small memory leak was fixed.[/p]
• [p]Companion Orbs now (correctly) require the skill nodes to be unlocked before you can use its Special attacks.[/p]
• [p]Pulse mining is dead. Oh…and did you know that you can just hold down “Q” when emptying your Hopper? Because you can! (You don’t need to pound the “Q” key.)[/p]
• [p]The Terraformer and Harvester recipes have been changed substantially. This is the first step in a big overhaul of crafted items. You now make these items by first creating interim objects, like Power Chambers, Nano-Compression Matrices, etc. The final recipe requires numbers of those interim objects. This creates a gentler path toward creating upgrades to those essential tools and it paves the way for a future feature where we take the player through a series of tasks to teach them about PQRV, how to craft, as well as how to mine, hunt and harvest. Artwork for the interim objects is placeholder and will be updated soon. If you’re interested in doing a faux test of this, then do the following:[/p]
  • [p]Make a new character[/p]
  • [p]Do missions and get Klaatu until you can have a Harvester
  • and* a Terraformer.[/p]
  • [p]Then look at the Terraformer or Harvester recipes and start working to make the new components you need for those recipes.[/p]
  • [p]By the time you make all those components, you should have enough Crafting XP to unlock both Toolmaker and either Terraformer or Harvester, whichever you prefer to upgrade.[/p]
  • [p]Enjoy![/p]
  • [p]Tips:[/p]
    • [p]Get wood from thickets (harvest)[/p]
    • [p]Get reactive gas from emberbloom torch, blushing bonnet, hexavine spires skunk cabbage, or fight gashog or velocirabbit[/p]
    • [p]Get inert gas from brimmed bonnet, lilac dandy, luminweave tendril, witch’s ringlet or hunt ballhog or skyshark[/p]
    • [p]Get hide and bone from deer, rabbits, prowlers or owldeer[/p]

[h3]KNOWN ISSUES[/h3]

• [p]When other players have their weapons equipped, we have an animation twitching issue that is new, but we're going ahead with the test and we'll fix it in the next update. It is a visual oddity only and shouldn't affect your gameplay (other than aesthetically).[/p]
• [p]The new stack merging feature doesn't work properly if you have the inventory sorted. It only works in DEFAULT view currently.[/p]
• [p]The Harvester and Terraformer tools cannot currently be crafted because a bug prevents the prerequisite ingredients from showing up in the Crafting UI.[/p]
  • [p]Stripped Down low stat versions can still be purchased from the Tools Kiosk on the Starbase[/p]

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• [p]Welcome to the Twilight Update – so named because, among many other things, we have listed to player feedback that night was too dark and slightly reduced the darkness. Please tell us if we got it about right.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Also in this update:[/p]

• [p]Tools and Weapons Refactor[/p]
• [p]We have changed almost all of the tools and weapons to a new underlying system of code that allows PQRV changes to occur (see next section).[/p]
• [p]We have also broken some tools (Terraformer, Harvester) into multiple tools (Terraformer, Depositor, Chronophaser, Harvester, Pruning Shears).[/p]
• [p]Crafting Stats Matter Now[/p]
• [p]Potential, quality, resilience, and versatility are now 4 factors to consider when selecting crafting inputs. PQRV, for short. You will hear this mentioned regularly in game.[/p]
• [p]New Shops to spend those Klaatus[/p]
• [p]The next time you visit the TPL Starbase, please visit the basic tool shop and the homesteader shop.[/p]
• [p]Homesteading Changes[/p]
• [p]Homesteading has been moved out of the Ranger skill tree and is now part of the Architect skill tree. Unlock the skills, purchase a single-use Homesteader from the TPL starbase shop, and place it in the world. Homesteaders are not refunded to you if you disband your Homestead later on. You will need to purchase a new one each time.[/p]
• [p]Resource Selection[/p]
• [p]When you are scanning for resources with your Terraformer or selecting which which resource to deposit with your Depositor, you now open a resource selection menu by tapping the Tab key. This also applies to planting sees with the Xyloslicer or Harvester.[/p]
• [p]Long-Range Scanning[/p]
• [p]At long last, there is a way to prospect for minerals or gems at long range.[/p]
• [p]And much more[/p]
• [p]You can now trade Klaatus (this is huge)[/p]
• [p]Your terraformer now ejects tailings from your hopper instead of gravel.[/p]
• [p]All professions now start with low-end tools to incentivize folks to craft better versions.[/p]

[p]Upcoming Playtest schedule[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Saturday, August 16, Dave Georgeson and Rick Reynolds will host our next Fireside Chat to introduce the new update. You can join us on [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink] at 9:00AM Pacific / noon Eastern.[/p]

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• [p]In yesterday’s Playable Worlds livestream, we jumped into the brand new Twilight Update and gave a demonstration of the all new long-range mineral scanning. Click here to watch the video with Thomas, Leric Dax, Signus, and Carneros.[/p]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

• [p]The new Transplanetary League (TPL) logo merchandise has been a big hit. Check out our licensed merch in our Web Store! https://starsreach.com/store[/p]

[p][/p][p]We also have late pledges available on payment plans at our store[/p]

• [p]Backer Invites + Discord Backer Badge. Almost all of the backers have submitted their survey, but if you haven’t then search your email box.[/p]
  • [p]New testers received an invite from FirstLook with a playtest schedule and instructions. (Check your spam folder if you don’t see it!)[/p]
  • [p]Existing testers will not get a new invite, your Discord role should now show a Backer badge. Not yet? Log into FirstLook.gg and sync.[/p]
  • [p]Can’t find it? Email [email protected][/p]
• [p]Kickstarter late pledges are still available but this may wind down soon: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starsreach/stars-reach[/p]

• [p]Screenshots of the Week: [/p]
  • [p]Chayce discussing the finer points of design with Justa Mirage[/p]

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