PULSAR: Lost Colony News

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.85 is out now! We don’t normally do this many releases between major updates, but we wanted to make a bit more room for updates before releasing Beta 30. This update primarily focuses on fixes, but there are some other tweaks and a new feature for the Captain’s Chair!

Additions

• The Captain’s chair now has the ability to enter a more strategic view of the ship’s surroundings (essentially the piloting camera, without the piloting UI).
  
• Added a new keybinding that governs the toggle for the strategic view in the Captain's chair.
  

Changes

• Moderately increased chance for some special encounters at higher chaos levels (phase drones, shock drones and deathseekers)
  
• Default controller input bindings (for Xbox / Playstation) have lowered look sensitivity
  
• Joystick view sensitivity now adjusted for frame timing for smoother / more consistent input across all frame rates
  

Fixes

• Fixed an issue involving the elevator on Mueva 7
  
• Fixed a flight AI issue with Deathseeker Drones and Death Wardens
  
• Fixed an issue that would register your character model (during class selection) as combat target
  
• Fixed an issue with the Second Wind Processor incorrectly granting a +1 bonus to max upgrade level of Ship Components
  
• Fixed an issue with the new Teleport To: processors that would allow players to enter arenas after the fight was flagged as a loss
  
• Made some changes to the Scanner Screen to try and help prevent a UI issue that’s been reported. We haven’t been able to replicate this issue since, so please let us know if you see anything strange with it!
  

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.8 is now available. While we are working on the Lost Colony, we wanted to take some time and make a smaller content update for the game. This update adds what we think is a fun secret as well as a nice handful of new processors, some of which allow you to teleport to other crew members! We think these new processors will add a nice level of convenience for some crews if they are willing to use up a processor slot.

Additions

• New Data Fragment: ███████████████
  
• Added ███████████████
  
• New Processor: Second Wind - This processor activates when the ship would have taken a killing blow from an enemy. Instead the processor is destroyed and it restores hull to 15% integrity.
  
• New Processor: Scrapper Processor - This processor generates a new processed scrap for each warp to an unvisited sector
  
• New Processor: Combo Processor - Adds a bonus to both Cyberdefense and to Jump Computation Speed
  
• New Processor: PWR-48 - Increases Reactor Output by 5% and adds 1 to the max level limit of Ship Component Upgrades
  
• New Processor: SHD-28 - Increases max shield integrity by 5% and adds 1 to the max level limit of Item Upgrades
  
• New Processor: QCK-90 - Increases ship startup speed and adds 1 to the max level limit of Ship Component Upgrades
  
• New Processor: Teleport to: Captain - Enables teleportation to the Captain
  
• New Processor: Teleport to: Engineer - Enables teleportation to the Engineer
  
• New Processor: Teleport to: Pilot - Enables teleportation to the Pilot
  
• New Processor: Teleport to: Scientist - Enables teleportation to the Scientist
  
• New Processor: Teleport to: Weapon’s Specialist - Enables teleportation to the Weapons Specialist
  
• New topics have been added to the Academy, discussing some newer changes to the game (enemy distress signals, enemy warping, pulse laser for the main turret)
  
• The teleporter screen will now illuminate new options if some of the new processors are installed
  
• Added a Force Respawn option to the Z-menu, this should help players get back to the ship quickly or if they find themselves stuck somewhere.
  

Changes

• Tweaked the difficulty of the scrap processing mini-game, it’s a little more forgiving
  
• Shields now charge 10x faster while in warp
  
• AI can understand the new Processors as new teleportation targets and consider them when making decisions about where to teleport to.
  
• Battle arenas in the game (like the Sandscar Arena) now support players and bots teleporting back into the fight (using the new crew teleportation options).
  

VR

• Changed how some game UI elements appear. Rotating the motion controllers 90 degrees will show the UI.
  
• Using the virtual keyboard now shouldn’t activate an equipped weapon
  
• VR motion vignette is now off by default
  
• Tweaked the size and alignment of the TAB menu and Dialogue / Shop menus in VR
  
• Polished some of the controller visuals in VR
  
• Polished some of the UI in VR
  

Fixes

• Fixed a collision bug that could result in a player getting stuck on the Outrider-class Starship
  
• Fixed a store networking issue that could occur when loading saves
  
• Fixed a store issue wouldn’t properly update items in shops when they were sold to the seller
  

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.7 is now available. It’s a small update focused on fixing bugs that have been reported and a few VR improvements.

VR Changes

• Pointing and clicking at the chat will now open the virtual keyboard allowing you to type into chat
  
• Tooltips can now show up
  
• Oculus: new default custom offsets for Touch controllers
  

Changes

• Can now change your region via the join game menu
  
• Change region menu now highlights your current region
  
• Default video settings tweaked to ensure various post-processing / lighting effects are on by default
  
• Less chance for player teleportation when cargo is added / moved
  
• Moved to an incremental garbage collector which should offer some increased performance
  

Fixes

• Fixed connection issue with player kicks / bans that could cause the kicked player to enter an unending loading loop
  
• Molten Biscuit damage effect should now work properly
  
• Grenade Dmg. Biscuit replaced with Molten Biscuit (Grenade Dmg. Biscuit wasn’t meant to be available)
  
• Emergency Biscuit should now reduce oxygen damage in addition to fire damage
  
• Infected mines now deal Infected damage instead of physical
  
• Armor piercing and system damage missiles now deal physical damage
  

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.6 is now available. It’s a small update focused on fixing a few bugs that have been reported.

Fixes

• Skipping warp jump should be more reliable. Made some changes to reinforce parts of the level loading scripts. We’re continuing to test and gather information on this issue. If anyone continues to experience this, please let us know and perhaps send us a Player.log file. Instructions: http://www.pulsarthegame.com/sending-an-output-log-file
  
• Fixed input issue with the VR pointer that caused it to hit improper targets
  
• Teleportation screen: some changes to help prevent some issues reported from analytics
  
• Fixed some internal issues that could cause some missions to be improperly assigned
  

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.5 is now available. It is focused on fixing bugs and crashes.

This version of Unity changes how output logs work on Windows. They are now called Player.logs, so from now on we’ll be requesting those when we attempt to troubleshoot any issues.

Changes

• Moved from Unity 2018.4 LTS to the new 2019.4 LTS which brings various engine improvements and fixes
  
• Improved join game functionality through Steam friends and Invites, can now change regions automatically
  
• Switching regions menu is a bit clearer
  
• Sensor screen: Misc scan now shows equipped thrusters of ships
  

Fixes

• Potential fix for an intermittent crash reported
  
• Mission sectors now clear themselves from the captain’s path on the starmap when the mission is abandoned
  

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team