New Stars News

The last update of 2023, focusing mainly on ship fixes.

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Ship builder -> Simulate combat -> Turrets do not shoot.
  
• Fix: Ship builder -> Simulate combat -> Turrets continue firing when the target is out of range.
  
• Fix: Ship builder -> Combat mode -> Turrets fire at rapid speed when engaged.
  
• Fix: Ubiquity -> Combat -> Ship continues to shoot when paused (shooting ignores time scale).
  

[h2]Improved[/h2]

• Improve: Ship builder -> Use gradient skybox instead of image background.
  
• Improve: Ship builder -> Add text to indicate turret range.
  
• Improve: Ship builder -> Target should move in and out to engage turrets at different ranges.
  
• Improve: Fog of war (FOW) -> Restore previous smooth fog of war (as shown in early-access post cover screenshot).
  

View changes from previous updates: newstarsgame.com/changelog.

A short development log explaining the recent update on reworked combat system mechanics. Forever gone are the days of simply having damage and a slightly different costs for each turret.

[h2]New Turret Stats[/h2]

[h4]Range[/h4]
Only when a turret/ship is within range to an enemy, it shoots.

[h4]Fire Rate[/h4]
How often a ship fires. A fire rate of 0.10 means the turret is fired shots every 10 simulated days.

[h3]Turret Types[/h3]

1. Gatlings - Rapid fire at a short range, with low damage.
   
2. Lasers - Constant damage at a short range, with a constant fire rate.
   
3. Ballistic - Ballistic turrets have medium range and moderate fire rate.
   
4. Snipers - Railguns have a long range, low fire rate but deal the most damage per hit.
   

[h4]Turret Types[/h4]
Animated combat is supposed to animate what the combat calculations behind the scenes, and turrets now fire when required instead of randomly.

[h4]Turret Limitations[/h4]
Larger ships have more turret slots and HP. Smaller ships have less HP and turret slots but can still handle heavy turrets. Medium and heavy turrets can be unlocked with technologies.

[h3]Ideas for Presets[/h3]

[h4]Gunboat: Swarmers[/h4]
Agile gunboats equipped with gatling guns for rapid, close-range assaults.
+ Quick to strike with significant initial damage.
- Vulnerable to long-range attacks; best used in swarms for effectiveness.



[h4]Heavy Cruiser: Snipers[/h4]
Robust cruisers with railguns, designed to make the first impactful hits.
+ Delivers powerful initial blows with railguns.
- Slower follow-up attacks due to the low fire rate; can be outmanoeuvred by swarmers.



There are 5 unlockable ship types and 13 distinct turrets, offering a multitude of strategic combinations.

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[h2]Happy New Years![/h2]
I decided to improve existing systems, based on feedback, rather than plainly fixing bugs, to conclude Part 1 of the 'Meta' update and 2023.

Thank you to all those who have supported development this year and provided valuable suggestions.

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[h3]Stay tuned for more updates...[/h3]
Feel free to comment your suggestions below.

🪵 View the Changelog: newstarsgame.com/changelog.
🕹️ Playtest New Stars: adamjr.xyz.
⭐ Wishlist New Stars to support development.

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

Bug fixes, especially with the main menu.

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Skyboxes -> Appear lower quality on build due to unnecessary mip maps.
  
• Fix: Main menu -> Origin selection -> Origin description text is not legible enough, requiring cybernetic eyesight to read.
  
• Fix: Main menu -> Selecting empire icon and hovering over other input breaks preview icon.
  
• Fix: Pause menu -> Game settings were not applied correctly.
  
• Fix: Battle -> Retreat -> Does not work with new combat system.
  
• Fix: Start game -> Does not start with gunboat.
  
• Fix: Main menu -> Play -> Huge memory usage on 4K resolutions.
  
• Fix: Open galaxy map -> Borders initially do not have correct colours.
  
• Fix: Fleet -> Starter ships don't match preset ships.
  

[h2]Removed[/h2]

• Remove: Main menu -> Ubiquity inspector -> Replaced 3D planet models with images of planet surface as it caused memory issues.
  

View changes from previous updates: newstarsgame.com/changelog.

Backend simulated combat improvements, and animated combat fixes.

[h2]Added[/h2]

• Add: Solace ship builder -> Evasion stat into stats UI.
  
• Add: Combat system -> Use Solace turrets to deal damage in the backend.
  
• Add: Combat -> Min and max turret ranges.
  
• Add: Combat -> Rate of fire per turret.
  
• Add: Solace ship builder -> Rate of fire to turret stats.
  
• Add: Pause menu -> Open credits button.
  

[h2]Improved[/h2]

• Improve: Ship Builder -> Turrets -> Should have stats on screen, instead of tooltip [for clarity].
  

[h2]Balanced[/h2]

• Balance: Colonist -> Reduced from 75 to 45 power cost on standard speed.
  

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Ship builder -> Background has tiling artifacts on ultrawide displays.
  
• Fix: Solace ship builder -> When fleet types are unlocked, filter type UI does not update after opening the ship builder.
  
• Fix: Pause menu -> 'New stars satellites' logo sometimes appeared duplicated.
  
• Fix: Credits -> Credits username appears in broken font.
  
• Fix: Solace ship builder -> Panels remain open when opened.
  
• Fix: Starbase panel -> Upgrade button tooltip showed technological advance required when can upgrade starbase.
  
• Fix: Pause menu -> Game settings info is not fully visible on ultrawide aspect ratio.
  

[h2]How Turret Ranges Currently Work[/h2]

• When combat is being observed, accurate turret ranges are used from the animated ship position, otherwise if a star system is not open, turret range is based on the center of the fleet.
  
• This is because ship positions are not known by the server, only the client, as simulating positions on the server would be more difficult and require more CPU calls.
  

View changes from previous updates: newstarsgame.com/changelog.

Rebranding of main menu back to the original, and fixing of remaining known saving system bugs.

[h2]Changed[/h2]

• Changed: Replaced November 2023 3D main menu background with July 2022 parallax background.
  

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Load save -> From in-game -> Empire borders don't respawn.
  
• Fix: Load save -> In-game -> Does not restore icons, etc.
  

View changes from previous updates: newstarsgame.com/changelog.