New Stars News

Pushing previous beta update to all users.

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More optimizations, new galaxy sizes, and provisional removal of half-added features.

[h2]Added[/h2]

• Add: Map -> Map -> Duel map size - 50 stars galaxy.
  
• Add: Create Map -> Option to select duel stars galaxy map.
  
• Add: Create Map -> Recommended settings for duel stars galaxy map such as player count etc.
  

[h2]Optimized[/h2]

• Optimize: Resource Manager -> Reworked to use multithreading for most monthly resource calculations.
  
• Optimize: Pathfinding -> Reworked to use multithreading for calculating routes, to reduce lag spikes.
  
• Optimize: Fleet -> Eliminated large lag spikes when moving fleets (on modern CPUs).
  

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Start Game -> Does not open Ubiquity and spawns in the center of galaxy.
  
• Fix: Ubiquity -> Regular starbase labels appear huge.
  

[h2]Changed[/h2]

• Change: Resource Manager -> Space entity players no longer have resource calculations, reducing lag.
  
• Change: Map Generator -> Star counts for each map size are now `100`, `150`, `200`, `250`, `300` instead of `100`, `200`, `300`, `400`, `500` for new games.
  
  • 400-500 stars is impractically large.
    
  • Double the smallest map size is too large of an increment.
    
  • Galaxy visuals were generally poor on map sizes of >300 stars.
    
  • Loading saves from old map sizes has been tested to work as normal.
    

[h2]Removed[/h2]

• Remove: Celestial Squid -> No longer spawns in galaxy, because it is currently too broken.
  
  • The celestial squid may appear again when more bug fixes and polishes have been done.
    
• Remove: Blue galaxy smoke from gold galaxy.
  

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

Experimenting with running monthly calculations on multiple threads, to reduce lag spikes.

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Pop manager -> Population of clans does not increase.
  
• Fix: Ubiquity -> Opening a system is very laggy from new ship pathfinding system.
  

[h2]Optimized[/h2]

• Optimize: Pop manager -> Reworked to use multithreading for colony population calculations, which should slightly reduce monthly update lag.
  

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

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Here is the changelog for the update released exclusively to the beta branch:

Total redesign of ship movement, and rescaling of ubiquity star systems, focusing on fixing pathfinding bugs.

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Ubiquity -> Ships often get stuck around planets, or struggle to move around them, especially during battles.
  
• Fix: Loading screen -> Some text appears to overflow their backgrounds.
  
• Fix: Combat system -> Ships collide with each other in combat.
  
• Fix: Ubiquity -> Space squids -> Beelines into planet roundabouts (so does fleet ubi position).
  
• Fix: Xeno Exterminator -> Raze Colony -> Multiple raze orders can be queued.
  

[h2]Tweaked[/h2]

• Tweak: Ubiquity -> Systems now always spawn at 0,0 instead of at a slight offset.
  

[h2]Changed[/h2]

• Change: Ubiquity -> Reduced size of star systems by 10x [due to limitations with new pathfinding system].
  
• Change: Ubiquity -> Starbases of unknown players no longer have empty HUDs.
  

[h2]Note[/h2]
Following the post-release updates, there is a need for more careful and slower updates, like this one, deployed to the beta branch first. This update was delayed by a few days, since it was a huge rework and introduced many bugs that were internally fixed [20+ internally fixed bugs are omitted from the changelog].

This will likely introduce some bugs I have not found, so the update will be deployed on the beta branch first to gather feedback. Sometimes a step backwards is required to take 2 steps forward.

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View changes from previous updates:

Hotfix for colony siege not triggering, and some other fixes.

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Colony -> Siege -> Colony siege is sometimes not triggered [due to an issue with new fleet stats].
  
  • This bug appeared after the previous update which modified siege calculations.
    
• Fix: Ubiquity -> Fleet -> After opening a system, fleets initially don't appear in fleet formation and appear inside each other.
  
• Fix: Load save -> From in-game -> Fog of war duplicates and is not cleaned up [behind the scenes] when loading a save, which may cause memory issues.
  
• Fix: Load save -> Sometimes shows galactic core is visible at first in the initial star system.
  
• Fix: Load save -> From in-game -> Empire borders are not cleaned up [behind the scenes] when loading a save, which may cause memory issues.
  

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

The first update of 2024. A step towards making the game stable.

[h2]Fixed[/h2]

• Fix: Endgame screen -> Does not auto-pause time and allows controlling time while open.
  
• Fix: Endgame screen -> Scrollbar does not work and appears duplicated.
  
• Fix: Colony siege -> If nobody is enforcing siege, it should auto reduce.
  
• Fix: Solace ship builder -> Opens with the previous ship that was loaded automatically instead of unlocked preset.
  
• Fix: Colony panel -> Build queue is not visible when viewing an unoccupied enemy colony, when the starbase is occupied by self.
  
• Fix: Colony siege -> Civilian ships should not progress siege.
  
  • Siege progress is now determined by base damage, as opposed to ship strength.
    
• Fix: Cross-scene -> Music button -> Tooltip starts off as empty.
  

[h2]Improved[/h2]

• Improve: Diplomacy panel -> Agreements -> Show if we grant the other empire border access.
  

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

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.