Deep Space Directive News

Bug fixes! The latest build (version 0.1009) brings with it primarily bug fixes and one new feature to help with sharing bugs and providing feedback.

In the save and load menu to the right of each save file is a new bug icon that will open the feedback form. When the form is submitted the log files and the save game file will be submitted. Hopefully this will lead to identifying bugs faster.

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• Bug Reporting: Share save files and log files from the save and load menu.
  

[h2]Bugs Fixed[/h2]

• Random crashing from the game scene - due to accidental loading of a save file.
  
• Missing build cost for some players should now be resolved.
  

On a personal note, I deeply appreciate the support and patience of all of the DSD players. The timing of the game's release coincided with a significant family emergency. My ability to update the game and respond to bug requests was not what I had hoped. While I expect some continued disruptions, development of DSD can hopefully now get back to a normal-ish schedule. Thank you again!

This update (v 0.1) has been all about improving performance, adding polish, building out the 3rd tier of the tech tree (full version) and of course getting ready for releasing Deep Space Directive into early access!

The all new auto-trader can be unlocked in the 3rd tier of the tech tree - think of it as an assistant to help keep the credits flowing. Plus new special projects bring more progression to the DSD story and timeline!

This build also brings with it all new voice over rendering! It’s been the most requested feature so far. It’s still not perfect, but much of the robotic-ness of the voices is gone and replaced with smoother and more natural sounding voices.

The performance and quality of life improvements will be in demo and non-demo builds of DSD. Additional content is only accessible in the full-version.


[h2]New Features[/h2]

• 3rd tier of the tech tree! New buildings and new resource production chains.
  
• Bio harvesters collect biomass from surrounding forests and bio reactors turn that biomass into fuel cells.
  
• Oil and gas can now be collected and converted into fuel cells.
  
• Steam achievements are now implemented for non-demo builds.
  
• New resource “TerraFlux” has been added. Provide another use for excess terrene.
  

[h2]QOL[/h2]

• All new rendering of voice over audio using an updated engine.
  
• Rebuilt enemy terrene drop system. This should help address performance issues with large numbers of drops.
  
• Tech tree search bar!
  
• New recipe selection window. Easier to find and easier to use.
  

[h2]Bugs Fixed[/h2]

• So many. I lost track.
  

Thanks to all those who sent in feedback and bug reports! Keep sending them in!

Development is going full steam ahead! With an anticipated early access release some time next year - hopeful early next year. A big focus has been performance improvements with a look towards larger colonies and more variety of buildings. This has included an update to the game engine plus countless improvements under the hood.

While all of the performance improvements will make it into the demo, much of the new content is aimed at the next tier of the tech tree and won’t make an appearance in the demo. This includes, new special projects, new automation tools and new resource production chains - those tree tiles are about to get a little more useful!

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• New “Urgent” priority added to buildings to allow players to quickly address the needs of a particular building. Only one building can be set as urgent priority at a time.
  
• Target frame rates have been added to the settings menu. Max your frame rate or keep the fans quiet!
  

[h2]Work in Progress[/h2]

• Development and balancing of the 3rd tier of the tech tree!
  
• Special projects! These are still in early development, but will give the player more medium term goals and help drive the story forward.
  
• The autotrader window helps automate the flow of resources and tech credits. It will allow youto set thresholds for each resource and will automatically place buy or sell orders. It won’t run your economy for you, but it’ll help prevent running out of tech credits or running too low on a particular resource. The autotrader can be unlocked in the 3rd tier of the tech tree.
  
• New biomass resource and production chain. Harvest those trees! The production chain will include a Harvester, Bio Reactor and a Bio Lab.
  

[h2]QOL[/h2]

• Better indication for when mobile units can’t move to a particular location.
  
• Double click functionality added to the save and load menu. It’s the small things :)
  
• The system for spawning Terrene from enemy units is getting a major performance overhaul.
  
• Cargo shuttle routing improvements should speed up delivery as well as improve overall performance of the system.
  
• Performance improvements with the UI.
  

[h2]Bugs Fixed[/h2]

• Fixed issue where sometimes only one infantry unit would spawn with the HQ.
  
• Settings menus will now pause the game.
  

Thanks to all those who sent in feedback and bug reports! Keep sending them in!

Steam Next Fest is over and the community had a ton of good suggestions and feedback! The latest build incorporates as much of those ideas as I’ve been able to add. Improvements include changes to land mass generation, more stats for production buildings, fixes to the save system and of course the much requested space bar properly pausing and unpausing the game.

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• New production stats. “Up Time” is shown to give better feedback on how well a building is being supplied with needed resources and how well produced resources are being picked up.
  
• Hovering over recipe resources will now show how many units will be consumed or produced per minute to aid in optimization.
  

[h2]QOL[/h2]

• Land generation has been tweaked to generate more nearby land clusters as well as more iron ore deposits near the starting location.
  
• The space bar will now properly pause and unpause the game.
  
• Vysnc has been turned on to help keep those fans a bit quieter. Additional FPS target settings will be explored in the future.
  
• Location buttons will now select the unit, if a unit is stored, on the first click and will zoom on the second click.
  
• ”First Play Setup” has been added to let users set audio volume before starting a game.
  
• Directives to “develop a resource” now have buttons to move to the marked location.
  
• Tooltips added to the communication and worker menus.
  

[h2]Bugs Fixed[/h2]

• Resolved the cause of several warnings. This may improve stability for some users.
  
• Resolved some errors preventing saved games from loading.
  

Thanks to all those who sent in feedback and bug reports! Keep sending them in!

Version 0.049 is now live. This brings a few fixes, most notably a fix for crashes caused by loading saved games.

If you continue to have problems with loading saved games, please reach out. I would love to get a hold of the actual save files and see what is casuing the issues.

Other fixes include daily directives correctly being assigned after unlocking the tech tree. As well as a fix for the issue where a daily directive was assigned 4 times.