Star Trucker News

Hi Truckers!

The festive season has passed, but now's our time to gift you some Star Trucker details. So today we’re sharing a little bit of information around our customisation system, specifically the paint shop!



[h2]Rewarding Play[/h2]

Star Trucker has a wide range of paint jobs available for your rig. Some of these will be unlocked from the very start but to get your hands on new liveries you’ll need to complete a variety of challenges. These challenges provide progression goals and cover a range of activities. From ranking up and clocking up the miles to focusing on jobs from specific companies, we hope you’ll always feel like a new unlock is just around the corner!



[h2]Shades of Style[/h2]
Once a livery has been unlocked you’re free to color your rig however you like. Many of our liveries are split into multiple colour groups too so we look forward to seeing how players experiment with these to create unique looks.



[h2]Just My Type[/h2]
Lastly, we have a selection of paint finishes to choose from. These can be applied to any livery and provide a little extra personalised style.

Maybe you want some slick reflective metallics? Perhaps you prefer a retro matte look? Whatever your choice we’re sure your rig will look great out there against a backdrop of stars and space stations!

It’s worth pointing out that the paint shop is only one aspect of truck customisation! We look forward to discussing more around this very soon!



[h3]- Monster Dave[/h3]



** Moooooooo! A quick example of how you can abuse the color schemer for some truly weird and wonderful results.

Star Trucker is joining Rawcember! Our 3-week celebration of all things Raw Fury with exclusive reveals and news.

We start today with nothing less than a brand new gameplay trailer. A new glimpse into the daily life of a star trucker: accepting contracts, transporting cargo... and being prepared for the unexpected in a sometimes hazardous galaxy.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This is not our only early Christmas gift: We are giving away two exclusive caps! Come to X (you know, that Twitter thing) to learn how to win one and feel like an authentic star trucker. Well, without the big rig and all that...





And finally, come join us on the Raw Fury Twitch channel this Thursday, December 21st, at 9AM PT / 6PM CET for a fireside chat with Dave from Monster and Monster, and get your Start Trucker questions answered. If you have any in mind, share it with us on our Discord channel.



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Hi Truckers!

Welcome to another blog post. This month we’ve spent a lot of time tweaking and balancing our game economy. So with that fresh in our heads it felt like a good time to give a little bit of context around what that means in Star Trucker…

[h2]A Fair Day’s Pay[/h2]
The biggest question that lies at the heart of the game economy is “How much should the player get for finishing a delivery?” It seems like a simple question on the face of it but we’ll quickly fall down a rabbit hole if we’re not careful.

The payout for a job should ideally cover the costs of fuel and wear and tear, but perhaps only just. In Star Trucker, the truckers operate on tight budgets and money should feel like it’s been hard-earned.



[h2]Job Satisfaction[/h2]
The job boards in Star Trucker will have a constantly-changing list of jobs on offer. Which job the player takes will greatly affect their money-earning potential.

For starters, the distance the player needs to haul will affect the payout but also the nature of the cargo e.g. fragile, perishable, heavy, temperature sensitive etc.

This will be a risk / reward calculation for the player. Not one to be taken lightly! In some cases taking an unprofitable job might be sensible if it partially pays for you to reach a sector with better paying jobs.



[h2]Skills To Pay The Bills[/h2]
The player will also earn experience for completing jobs and this can be used to unlock new certifications in the skill tree.

Certifications open up new job types (the aforementioned fragile, heavy etc.) and unlock a suitable trailer for the cargo. These jobs are generally more difficult but pay better. On top of that certifications will also apply bonuses to related job types.

Find a job that is both fragile and long distance and you will get a bonus for both categories, meaning clever players can take jobs with multiple difficulty aspects and earn money much more quickly.



[h2]Are We Nearly There Yet?[/h2]
Balancing this economy would be a challenge in a purely stats-based game but Star Trucker is also a physics simulation with a lot of player agency. Both the player’s driving skill and chosen route will affect profitability. Would you risk taking a trailer of frozen goods through a hot sector if it meant earning an early delivery bonus?

And that’s if everything goes to plan! Things can go south quickly in Star Trucker. If you haven’t checked your core power cells during a pre-flight then that’s going to be a nasty surprise when they run out. Imagine approaching a depo at cruising speed and your truck controls stop working! A job that was profitable on paper has suddenly cost you thousands in fines and repairs.

So with all that in mind - “How much should the player get for finishing a delivery?” - Well, you’ll have to wait a little longer to find out as we continue to tweak and refine the economy until Star Trucker releases next year!



That’s all for this post. We’ll continue to plot a path to some fresh new content for next month but in the meantime be sure to follow us on X and Tiktok, and check back regularly for the latest Star Trucker news.

-- Monster Dan

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380050

Hi Truckers!

As we continue to work hard on our interstellar haulage game we want to make sure we take a little bit of time each month to share some behind the scenes information with the community and give insight into Star Trucker’s production.

This month we thought it might be nice to dig up some old files and footage to show you just how far our big rig has come since the initial days of the project…

[h2]Boxed Beginnings[/h2]

We began messing about with Star Trucker in our spare time way back in 2020. Behold the amazing visual fidelity of the first ever star truck!



For those interested each square block is 1m x 1m. So even at this early stage we knew the truck would be **massive!

During this early phase we had two main goals. Firstly we wanted to prototype controlling a truck with 6DoF. Secondly we wanted to test the feasibility of being able to explore a truck while it spins out of control in space.

This ended up being a fairly complex problem that took multiple attempts to solve. The solution we settled on involves treating the inside of the truck as a totally separate 'physics world' and then using that info to work out the relative positions of objects inside the truck as it flies and spins in space.



[h2]Taking Shape[/h2]

In early 2021 we commissioned the first piece of concept art for the game from our good friend and industry veteran Martin Johnson.



This concept eventually became the basis for our truck greybox and set the tone and style for all things Star Trucker in the years to come!

During this period a lot of time was spent working out scales and the positions of key elements as we moved towards a prototype worthy of pitching. In fact you can see a quick snippet of this below…



[h2]The Truck Today[/h2]

Skipping ahead a couple years brings us to today! As the project progressed we layered in details and worked hard on shaders that give us the flexibility to layer in paint, grime and damage.



Refinements are still ongoing but we’re really proud of how the star truck has evolved since our first block-out and we look forward to sharing more about the truck systems and customisations in the future.

That’s all for now. Next month we’ll dive a little into the job economy and galaxy design so be sure to follow and check back for the latest Star Trucker news.

[h3]--Monster Dave[/h3]



** For reference the current truck is around 27m x 16m x 15m. That makes our truck around 4 stories tall. That’s taller than 2 giraffes stacked on top of each other!?

UK truckers, you ready to search for fame and fortune among the stars?

The Star Trucker team waits for you at EGX London, from October 12th to 15th. You'll find us at the Rezzed area (stand RZ14B).



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