StarMade News

Hi all, this update adds some minor texture updates to existing blocks as well as some fancy new purple forcefields.

[h2]Energy Cells and Energy Pylons[/h2]
The Decorative Energy Cell and Pylon blocks have had a new cap texture added, as well as had their side texture orientations updated. Additionally, some of their textures have had their colors adjusted to be better in-line with other blocks.

[h2]Purple Forcefields[/h2]
A new purple variant of forcefields have been added, with a unique animated texture designed by MeRobo.

[h2]Carved Bricks and Tiles[/h2]
Several of the Carved Brick and Tile blocks have had their textures adjusted to better match the original Carved Block textures.

All of the above blocks have also had Normal Maps regenerated so they appear with correct lighting in-game now.

[h2]Misc. Changes[/h2]
Implemented some security patches for PlayerData and related classes to prevent exploits.
Screenshots and gifs are now saved in a screenshots sub folder in the StarMade directory.
Thrust Plumes will now work from any direction.

[h2]Notes[/h2]
Some users may notice some new (unused for now) build icons in the game files. Please note that these icons are from the upcoming Universe Update, and we merely backported the icon sheets rather than render all new ones.

And as always, thank you for playing StarMade.

[h2]New Launcher Notice[/h2]
There is a new launcher available, which is required to run StarMade versions ≥ 0.3. You can obtain this new launcher one of two ways:

• Via the new launch option on Steam
  
• Via the GitHub releases page

Please note that while this launcher is still a work in progress, it does still support current release versions of StarMade as well.

[h2]System Changes[/h2]
Armor HP
Armor HP has been re-added to the game. Armor HP reduces incoming damage significantly, with the percentage of damage blocked decreasing as Armor HP is reduced. By default, damage will start to bleed through armor starting at
These values need testing, so we encourage players to try out the new system and report feedback in the StarLoader Discord.

[h2]New Tutorial System[/h2]
A new tutorial system is being worked on. This new system replaces the old outdated video tutorials, and will eventually include guides on all aspects of the game, and will even allow mods to add their own tutorials.

While the backend for this system is mostly done, we are asking the community to help contribute their knowledge to this in order to provide a more robust, accurate, and helpful guide for new players. If you are interested in contributing to these tutorials, head over to the StarLoader Discord.

[h2]New Shops[/h2]
New Shop entities have been added. These new shops are much fancier than the old ones and come in two variants:

• Trade Station (Advanced Shop): Comes with docks and a shopkeep spawn block.
  
• Trade Outpost (Standard Shop): Does not have docks or a shopkeep, and is shorter than a Trade Station.
  

Additionally the default player spawn positions have been updated to reflect these new shops.

[h2]Misc. Changes[/h2]

• Screenshots and Gifs are now saved in the StarMade/screenshots folder.
  
• Saved build hotbars can now be cycled through by holding Left-Alt and using the scroll wheel in creative mode.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed map waypoint icon selection.
  

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• Some waypoint icon sprites are missing and need to be finished.
  
• The waypoint icon color picker “recent colors” palette doesn’t function properly.
  
• The Local Universe Advanced Settings panel doesn’t display correctly, and causes OpenGL errors.
  
• Templates can’t be loaded because the selection drop-down isn’t interactable.
  
• The weapon menu detail panes don’t display correctly.
  
• The new shops sometimes don’t spawn after a world is reloaded.
  
• Build Hotbars don’t load correctly in survival mode.
  

[h2]Feature Changelog:[/h2]

• Warp Gates are active by default on placement, but can be deactivated with logic. Persistence appears to work but may need more testing.
  
• HUD selected ship stats in top left-hand corner now shows reactor level, power output, and power consumption rather than just the consumption percentage.
  
• Added brief wait before requesting synchronization, as this seems to make the login issue less frequent.
  
• Added better messages to login loading screen, so the game doesn't appear to be waiting for a config when it's actually already done receiving and processing the configs.
  
• Systems update rate limiter is now absolute regardless of what update threads are doing. The old method seems to have been causing lag at larger scales due to long queue clearing times.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a Fleet order persistence bug.
  - Note: Let us know if it still occurs, as it’s difficult to reproduce sometimes. At the very least, this fix should narrow down the cause of the issue.
  
• Fixed orientation mapping of Decorative Coil blocks.
  
• Added retry for synch-all packet if not received correctly; this was seemingly preventing people from logging in
  - BUG: Due to synchronization/threading shenanigans, activity logging inside of network commands appears to never get written to stderr. May have to move it to an internal command log that prints when the command is finished or times out.
  

The launcher login has been fixed. There are still a few other bugs, which will be fixed as well.

Thanks to everyone involved!

[h2]Feature Changelog:[/h2]

• Reduced HP of Basic Hull from 400 HP to 200 HP.
  
• Replaced duplicate mod error with a less intrusive warning.
  
• AI now has internal support for unfocused fire.
  
• AI will now fire salvage beams unfocused during fleet mining, making it more efficient.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Gave Basic Hull 0.1 Armor value in order to fix an infinite penetration bug.
  
• Fixed severe bug that would cause asteroids to break a sector on modded servers sometimes when they were modified by players.
  
• Fix coil texture orientations.
  
• Partially fixed AI navigation issue when core is too far from center of mass (infinite spinning bug).