Astra Protocol 2 News

Attention Captains,

We have uploaded a minor version to the beta branch that allows those who are a little more technical minded to tinker with Astra Protocol 2.

There are two main components to this patch:

• Ability to seed the game's random numbers.
  
• Ability to configure most of the game's variables.
  

The biggest change of this build is that you can set the value that the game uses to seed the random number generation, this means that on boot (and boot only) you can ensure that you always start in the same sector, location, and initial spawn without needing to mess around with save files etc.

This can be enabled by putting the value "seed=X" (where X is a non-zero, positive number, e.g. seed=5) into the Launch Options in Steam - however this only occurs on game boot. If you die and restart in the same session, you will not start in the same sector.

The other change was actually introduced into an earlier build but wasn't publicised. In this build, we've added in a _config.config file that can be used to control a lot of the variables used in game, such as the algorithms generating planets, probe speed, strength of the fauna etc. If this file is renamed to config.config the values in that file will override the defaults in the game. It involves playing around with xml, and also risks affecting your game experience, so use with caution.

We're leaving this in beta for a while to gauge opinion on whether we need to roll it out.

Please let us know how useful you find either of these features as it will help steer the direction of future improvements.

Minor patch to re-enable logging to a dot-matrix printer which was lost between the v1.3.1 and v1.4 patch.

To enable, you need to do some configuring of your computer - DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

In a command prompt, you need to register your printer as a parallel printer:

"NET USE LPT1: \\[Computer-Name]\Printer /PERSISTENT:YES"

Then, in the Terminal Configuration (accessed using the command argument -c) you need to enable the external log and ensure it is set to LPT1:

However, for those unfortunate enough to not have 30+ year old obsolete printers, and are technically minded, this External Log can be set to any file handle.

Nominations are now open for the Steam Awards 2023!

If you've loved Astra Protocol 2, why not nominate us for an award?

Attention Captains,

Patch 1.4 is now live! This is possibly the biggest patch we've released to date with over 120 tasks and bug-fixes involved.

This patch brings in a mix of new features, improvements and bug fixes:

• Ships can dock with space stations
  
• Ships now have a life-support you must manage
  
• New failure state - loss of life support
  
• Science missions
  
• Animation when reading transmissions from the Scientific Division
  
• New life form - Crystalline entity
  
• New life form - Rift worm
  
• New life form - Shield mites
  
• Speedometer in the Helm Module
  

• Space stations now have expanded scientific details
  
• Target locked objects show their trajectory in the Science Module
  
• Survivors detected on ships are displayed in the expanded scientific details
  
• Ship reactor temperatures are displayed in the expanded scientific details
  
• Expanded scientific details can be multi-page
  
• Transmissions can be multi-page
  
• Can press RETURN to load the current HELP page immediately
  
• Stars and planets display summaries of the number of planets and moons scanned
  
• Tweaked chance of space-time anomalies occurring
  
• Tweaked layout of scientific details
  
• Additional biological matter can be detected on asteroids
  
• Updated user documentation for new commands
  
• Fighters with no fuel no longer expire
  
• Space stations prevented from spawning too close together
  
• Heliosaur swarms of a certain size appear on the combat radar
  
• Tweaked collision meshes for better improvement
  
• Tweaked the effect that noise has on the missiles homing
  

• Fixed rendering issue with doughnut meshes
  
• Fixed issue with heliosaurs sometimes not registering hits on a ship
  
• Fixed issue with minefields sometimes not registering hits on a ship
  
• Fixed text issue with recharging shields
  
• Fixed graphical issue with the laser targeting appearing outside of the laser range
  
• Fixed issue with spaces in the PLOT ROUTE command causing a syntax error
  
• Fixed issue with the computer not reporting target loss
  
• Fixed issue with destroyed ship count not saving
  

Thank you for the time and patience, this patch took a while to get out.

As with the other patches, the previous version is available as its own branch.

If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, please post them here or via the usual channels.

We hope you enjoy the changes and have fun with the work we've done on Astra Protocol 2.

Attention Captains,

Patch 1.4 is nearing completion - all new features have been implemented, but some tweaks, refinement, and bug fixing remains.

As this patch has been in development for a while, we've decided to give you a preview of what is to come and upload patch 1.4 as a beta.

To opt in to this beta, go to the Astra Protocol 2 properties in the Steam client, select Betas and opt into the beta named beta.

As this is a beta, we must stress that it is not a finalised product so bugs and issues are highly likely. We strongly recommend you backup and store elsewhere any save files. Additionally, some of the remaining tasks involve updating the documentation to account for the new features.

This beta is likely to change as we perform more updates and fixes, but if you're happy to have a look at what we've been working on, feel free to dive in!

We would also appreciate any feedback around the new features - Does something not work? Does something look odd? Is something occurring too often?

As usual, we can't provide a date for when the patch will be made public, but watch this space!