New Stars News

We are getting closer to the New Stars closed-beta with the features added after December 2022. Here are some features that I have worked on since the last development log, earlier this week.

[h3]Interactive Hyperlane HUDs[/h3]
Hyperlane HUDs have been added to help fleets navigate across systems. You can now send fleets everywhere in star systems, as intra-system movement has been fully implemented. Hyperlanes act as entries and exits to star systems, and movement between points within a star system is automatically routed and calculated when ordering a fleet to move.



[h3]Cinematic Mode[/h3]
You can now toggle on/off HUDs and orbits to get a cinematic view of a star system. This allows for more flexibility when taking screenshots, without the lines and text.



[h3]Trade Special Resources[/h3]

Players can now trade special resources with each other, instantly and monthly. Special resources are rare and are therefore the most valuable resources that can be traded.



[h3]Multiplayer Chat Console[/h3]

I have added a custom multiplayer chat console. This will allow for game events such as players joining/leaving to be logged in the game chat.



[h3]View Planets in Menus[/h3]
The new planets have replaced the old toon planets on all menus.



The fleet panel now shows the updated fleet model, with empire-branded colours.



A lot more features are being worked on, although they will be announced in future development logs.

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[h3]Stay tuned for more updates, or join the community Discord (linked below).[/h3]

Join the Closed-beta Discord Server if you are interested in closed-beta testing New Stars.
YouTube: youtube.com/adamjr

[h3]Rate-up this post, and wishlist New Stars to support development. Feel free to comment your suggestions.[/h3]

This page is subject to change in the future and is intended to be a development preview, which may not reflect the final state of the game.

Credits:
- Star satellites icon by Lorc under CC BY 3.0
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For the past two weeks, I have been busy with development on New Stars. This devlog is overdue, and there have been quite a few developments. Here are are a list of developments made on Ubiquity - the 3D star system simulation.

youtu.be/KyDc__u8hF0

[h2]Ubiquity Fleet Movement[/h2]
There is now system-level fleet movement in New Stars. This means that you can order fleets to move anywhere within a star system. This may have strategic value in the future for combat engagements.



[h2]Star System Structures[/h2]
There are 5 structures in New Stars: star-bases, star-docks, star-hubs, star-forts, and jumpgates. Jumpgates could be called 'star-gates' to match the theme. Tell me what you think in the comment section below.



Each structure gives its own unique benefit to the owned star system:

• Star-bases are a claim on a star system.
  
• Star-docks grant the ability to build ships.
  
• Star-hubs collect resources from adjacent systems.
  
• Star-forts give the defender a combat advantage within a system.
  
• Star-gates/Jumpgates allow you to skip hyperlane/star-lane travel between systems.
  

As of writing this I'm considering using the 'star' prefix where possible, for star system structures.

[h2]Ubiquity Nebulae[/h2]
Star systems have environment nebulae that allows fleets to hide in. They serve a similar purpose as solar storms. Environment nebulae could allow for extra resources in the future, although currently it only effects has visibility.



[h2]Solar Storms[/h2]
Solar storms are animated nebulae within a system that block fleet visibility. This could allow for many interesting combat surprises and encounters. Currently, they can be spawned with supernovas or hypernovas. They generally last around 5 in-game years.



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To allow for more dev logs in less time, 'dev-preview' will not be applied to most screenshots on devlogs. However, all screenshots in devlogs are still a development preview only and may not reflect the final state of the game.

[h3]Stay tuned for more updates, or join the community Discord (linked below).[/h3]

Discord: discord.gg/qVyUFHY
YouTube: youtube.com/adamjr

[h3]Rate Up to support development, and feel free to comment your suggestions.[/h3]

This page is subject to change in the future and is only intended to be a development preview, which may not reflect the final state of the game.

Credits:
- Star satellites icon by Lorc under CC BY 3.0

After hundreds hours of development working on many new features, this month has been the busiest and most expensive month of development. Here is a list of some features we have been working on in January.

[h2]1) Ubiquity (Part One)[/h2]

Ubiquity adds new level of depth for New Stars, and will be the foundation for future updates. This is only part one of the 'Ubiquity' update, due to the scale of the content being added. Ubiquity also includes dynamic orbits, moons, binary star systems, and more.



This is just the beginning of 3D simulation in New Stars. We have lots of exciting things planned with 'Ubiquity'. Stay tuned for more updates on New Stars, or join our community Discord!

Note that after the screenshots were taken, moons now have a letter suffix, and planets that orbit a star have the full star name as a prefix.

[h2]2) Colony Events[/h2]

We are also working on natural disaster events! There's nothing wrong with a bit of chaos every now and then. In some events, the player will have a choice to act to lead to different outcomes. Some choices have different costs, or none at all.

Everything going too well for one of your colonies? Not when there is climate change. Climate change can change a planet to an ice world.



Think your colonies are safe from damage while not in a war? Think again. There are multiple outcomes to these events, and the best outcome may require the highest cost, although it there is a chance things won't end up going well...



Note that these features were added before Ubiquity, and the old toon-style planets may be replaced with new assets in the coming weeks. They will be missed. Click 'Rate Up' below to pay respects.



[h2]3) Space-based Natural Disasters[/h2]

New Stars now has natural disasters. They may not be disasters after all as they can unlock new resources.

Solar storms can block sight of fleets within systems, which can be useful for staying hidden.



Other disasters can create white dwarf stars, which are very valuable, or create black holes, which may not always be beneficial. Note that white dwarfs have been in the game since October.



[h2]4) Special Resources[/h2]

Owning any surplus of a special resource will grant empire-wide bonuses. These are essential for getting an edge over other empires.

Antimatter - void matter; found in void worlds, and black holes.



Pink Plasma - found on pristine worlds, or rare Class-O stars.



Crimson Stardust - found in ancient ruins, broken worlds, and other secret locations.



Golden Spice - precious stuff that grows in small quantities on Arid worlds.



[h2]5) Wormholes[/h2]

Wormholes act as two-way portals from one system to another. They can enable access to otherwise closed-off regions of the galaxy. Be careful to with star systems with wormholes, as they can make it easier to gain entry to other regions, for better or worse.



[h2]6) Whiteholes[/h2]

Whiteholes are the opposite of black holes. Just because we haven't discovered one yet in reality, it doesn't mean that it can't be added to New Stars, where the game starts in the year 2100.

In the context of New Stars, white holes are one-way wormholes. Once you enter them, you cannot go back the way you came. This gives a great advantage to an empire that controls the whitehole entry system, but a disadvantage to whoever controls the whitehole exit system.



[h2]7) Void Worlds[/h2]

Black holes are probably not good for supporting life, or are they? Void worlds are dark worlds that orbit black holes and are less suitable than regular worlds, but can still be colonized.



[h2]8) Graphics - URP Upgrade[/h2]

Also, we have moved to Unity URP, which resulted in a complete graphics rework. This move means that some old particles and materials have to be completely reworked, for benefit of better graphics. This increases the general quality of planets and stars in-game, which is why we have done this in conjunction with Ubiquity.



The graphics will require further optimization however, so that 'New Stars' doesn't become 'New GPU'. Thankfully there are graphics settings to optimize performance on less powerful systems.

[h2]9) Multiplayer Support[/h2]

At the start of the year, we announced Steam multiplayer support. This means that the regular game will be able to played in multiplayer, with your Steam friends. The first multiplayer lobby was added in July 2022.



[h2]10) Rename Colonies, Fleets, Ships, and more...[/h2]

Ships, colonies, empires, and fleets can be renamed. Click the name text, then choose your name.



But that's not all...

January was the most productive month for New Stars, and established a new foundation for depth in New Stars. We have been working on other exciting features as well, that are not listed above. We will focus on improving and expanding these features in the coming months. After all, why add lots of features if you're not going to make them good?

[h3]Stay tuned for more updates, or join the community Discord (linked below).[/h3]

Discord: discord.gg/qVyUFHY
YouTube: youtube.com/adamjr

[h3]Rate Up to support development, and feel free to comment your suggestions.[/h3]

Screenshots on this page are subject to change or improvement in the future and are intended to be a development preview, which do not reflect the final state of the game.

Credits:
- Star satellites icon by Lorc under CC BY 3.0

We are excited to announce that our upcoming game, New Stars, will feature full Steam multiplayer support. This means that when the game is released, you will be able to compete against your Steam friends to see who can conquer the galaxy!

As a development update, we want to remind everyone that with the addition of full Steam multiplayer support, 'New Stars' is set to be a truly immersive and competitive experience. Multiplayer support and a Steam player lobby was originally added in July 2022, with the intention of adding multiplayer support later on. Recently real-time multiplayer has been implemented and playtested to work for the most part, although it may be refined and improved in the coming months.

July 2022 Multiplayer Lobby:


December 2022 Multiplayer Lobby:


Wait, that's not it! This announcement has been long delayed and in the meantime we have been working very hard on a lot of other major features as well. Here is a sneak peak of one of the features:



If you want to join our community, or are interested in closed-beta testing, or want more updates about the game, you can join our Discord server at discord.gg/WsZnCkaGyJ. Note that we are getting closer to closed-beta testing and it may be available in the near future, albeit with limited access. We can't wait for you to join us!

Please wishlist New Stars to support the game and stay tuned for more updates on the development of New Stars. Happy gaming!