PULSAR: Lost Colony News

Hey everyone!

Beta 19.4 is now out! This one should include a fix for those of you who have reported performance issues while playing in VR. Additionally it contains a few other fixes and additions.

We also tweaked the Auxiliary Reactor, making each option more powerful across the board, and added an Intruder Alert function. The Intruder Alert function should hopefully improve feedback about when the fight might be becoming more personal. For those of you who want to prevent enemies from boarding your ship (besides keeping your shield integrity up), you can pick up the new program “Quantum Defenses” which should ensure your quantum shields are online for a few crucial moments.

Additions
- Added more feedback for players when they try to customize their appearance or bot appearances, letting them know to visit a barber.
-Players can now upgrade maneuvering thrusters and inertia thrusters
-Main turrets can now be extracted
-Ship thrusters can now be extracted
-New Program: Quantum Defenses - Keeps your quantum shields online regardless on shield integrity or viruses (like gentlemens welcome) for 30 seconds. As long as a ship’s quantum shields are online, no enemies should be able to teleport.
-New NPC uniform - Human Male and Female Scientist
-New NPC uniform - Human Male and Female CU High Ranking Officer

Changes
-Extraction success rates have been slightly reduced
-Tweaked the WD HQ Station galaxy map
-Shield coprocessor charge rate has been increased

Aux Reactor Changes
-Auxiliary reactors values have been standardized based on the Intrepid
-Spotlights and Interior lights have been merged and are now named Lights
-Intruder Alarm has been added, it alerts the crew when enemies teleport onboard. It will flash a crew-wide announcement as well as add a notification to the chat box. If disabled it could provide 400 MW to the reactor.
The following information is based on an Intrepid-class ship from Beta 19.3.
-Aux Values - Atrium Healing increased from 400 to 600
-Aux Values - Oxygen Generation increased from 800 to 2000
-Aux Values - Air Filter increased from 400 to 1000
-Aux Values - Spotlights and Interior lights increased from 500 (together to 1000)
-Aux Values - Projectile Aim Assist increased from 200 to 400
-Aux Values - Cyberdefense increased from 800 to 2000
-Aux Values - Missile Lock On increased from 100 to 1200

Fixes
-Fixed a lighting issue found on Outpost 448 that would occur on lower graphics settings
-Engineering fires should now be properly displaying on the status screen, and should properly damage the engine system.
-Fixed a few issues found at WD HQ
-Fixed a bug that would occasionally allow The Swarm to drop its hull component
-Fixed a networking issue related to the Captain plotting courses on the starmap
-Fixed a sound issue regarding ship damage
-Fixed an issue with an abandoned ship not appearing
-Fixed an issue that reduced performance in VR over several minutes
-Fixed an issue related to bots getting stuck while trying to repair a system on certain ships



Beta 19.5 Release Notes

Beta 19.5 is out! This is a quick update to address some of the changes we released earlier.

Changes
-The researchable Aux Power talent’s bonus has been reduced from 40% per rank to 10%

Aux Reactor Changes
-Aux Values - Oxygen Generation decreased from 2000 to 1000
-Aux Values - Air Filter decreased from 1000 to 400
-Aux Values - Spotlights and Interior lights decreased from 1000 to 600
-Aux Values - Missile Lock On decreased from 1200 to 1000

Fixes
-Exotic shop owners should be lit correctly
-Corbin Taskerhall should now talk / sell face to face
-Bandit Drones should be less prone to attack one another
-Potentially fixed a sound effect bug related to probes




Beta 19.6 Release Notes

Beta 19.6 is out! This is just an update to fix a save issue that popped up. While working on Beta 20 we’ve been building a few new systems that involved the save-file format. Some of that code wasn’t ready to handle a pre-Beta 20 Release. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Fixes
-Saves should now load correctly.





Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Beta 19.3 is now out! Along with some fixes, it includes changes to ship hostility which make Colonial Union space safer and neutral space more dangerous. In addition we’ve changed some ship spawning properties to make reputation loss more predictable during the course of exploring the galaxy. It also adds a new Grey Huntsmen station and bounty missions.

We have spent a lot of time working on content that will likely be added in Beta 20, mainly the faction mission chain for the Colonial Union which will conclude with a bigger piece of content focused on exploring the Wasted Wing (the section of Outpost 448 that was recently severed from the main station for mysterious reasons).

We’ve also been experimenting with new networking solutions and how we might move the project over. It’s still early on that front but we feel it’s important to jump into that one prepared.

Here is a sneak peek of our work in progress: https://imgur.com/a/x1XPAw5

Additions
-Bandit Drones can now be found across the galaxy. These ships will attack any and all ships they find. Attacking them incurs no reputation loss from any faction. Bandit drones are most common in neutral space, however there is a slight chance you can find them in Colonial Union space (blue sectors) and WD territory (orange sectors).
-In game manual has been updated and now includes sections on Ship Cloaking, Ship Sensor Dish, Item and Component Upgrade Stations, a several other tweaks.
-New Sector: Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency
-9 NPCs added to Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency
-5 NPCs added to Planet Crash 2 (planet with blue sand and crashed W.D. security drone)
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: U.S.S. Xarius
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Butcher
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: Crumb Cleaners
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: Unit 10, Div #44
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Striker
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Umbra
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Drafters
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: Biscuit Burners
-New Mission: Hunt Infected Carrier (given by Roka at Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency)
-New Mission: Rid of Crawlers (given by Uleq on Planet Crash 2)
-Added a locked interior room to Cornelia Station for a bounty hunting mission

Changes
-Neutral space has been tweaked to be more dangerous, this should hopefully make it feel more chaotic and lawless.
-CU space has been tweaked to be less dangerous to ships of other factions. These sectors are meant to reflect civilization so CU ships and drones should only fire upon flagged ships.
-Crewed AOG ships now have the chance to be more directly hostile to other ships
-The Grim Cutlass sector commander is now considered flagged.
-Ship Processors should now get better when upgraded
-Updated Planet Crash 2 (planet with blue sand and crashed W.D. security drone)
-Original 5 Grey Huntsmen bounty missions have been updated with adjusted credit rewards
-It is now possible to join the Grey Huntsmen at the Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency

Fixes
-Made some performance optimizations to the starmap when loaded
-Fixed an issue that wouldn’t prompt a mission failure in some circumstances
-Fixed an incorrectly spawning sector that should only be available during a Colonial Union mission
-Fixed an issue that could cause corruption of item unlock progress
-Fixed a visual issue regarding the Item upgrade station on the Destroyer
-Fixed some pathing issues found at Cornelia Station
-Fixed a teleportation issue found at Cornelia Station
-Ancient Sentry no longer associated with the Polytechnic Federation
-Removed two mission-related planets from generating in the base galaxy
-Fixed an issue with long range comms in “Help CU Roland in Alliance Ambush” mission

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Devlog #76: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y-HxPSej8w

Beta 19.2 is out now! This update contains a bit more than changes and fixes; we’ve added a few new systems which you can learn more about in the devlog or by reading further!

This update adds two new ship stations: the Installed Component Upgrader and the Item Upgrader. These systems can usually be found in the engineering room and weapons area respectively. We’ve also added a new resource: Processed Scrap, which can be collected from pieces of scrap and used to upgrade components and items.

To use the item upgrading station, equip the item you want upgraded, and press R. Then find someone who has the Item Upgrader Operator talent to perform the upgrade for you. You can also add this talent yourself, but the weapons specialist and the captain start the game with the talent already installed.

Important notes about the Item Upgrader:

• The maximum level an item can reach by upgrading is 5.
  
• Anyone can place their item on the station, but only a crewmember with the talent can perform the upgrade.
  
• The Scanner cannot currently be upgraded.
  
• Your ship does not need to be in a sector with a repair depot, you can upgrade items anywhere.

Similarly, the Engineer and Captain also begin play with the Component Upgrader Operator talent. To use the component upgrading station, be sure your ship is in a sector with a repair depot. Then use the component upgrader screen to cycle through your installed components and select which one you want to upgrade.

Important notes about the Installed Component Upgrader:

• To upgrade a ship component you must be in a sector with a repair depot.
  
• The maximum level to which you can upgrade a component is 10.
  
• Certain components are inherently better than others, so keep that in mind when deciding to upgrade. For example: a level 3 Adelaide Thruster is still less powerful than a level 1 Racing Thruster.
  
• Certain components (like programs and viruses) cannot be upgraded.
  
• Currently certain ship processors do not improve when upgraded.
  
• This ship system cannot be used to upgrade components in the cargo area.
  
• You must have the appropriate talent in order to perform the upgrade.

Additions
-New System: Process Scrap - Players with the Item or Component Upgrader Operator talents can process scrap by holding R next to the object. You’ll need to succeed at a small timing obstacle to succeed (release ‘R’ when the bar reaches the middle white line). You can fail up to three times per jump before you are prevented from processing any more scrap.
- New Ship System: Installed Component Upgrader - Found in the engineering sections of each ship, this station uses processed scrap to increase the levels of certain installed ship components.
-New Ship System: Item Upgrader - Usually found near the weapons area on each ship, this station uses processed scrap to increase the levels of most equipable items.
-New Talent: Item Upgrader Operator
-New Talent: Component Upgrader Operator
-New Captain Notifications: Item Upgraded, Component Upgraded, Crewmember Processed Scrap

Changes
-Ship component shops at Outpost 448 and WD HQ have doubled their selection of components
-Neutral reputation will no longer affect shop prices in neutral stores (including exotic shops)
-Sensor object has been added to the “Too close to star” blind jump scenario. This should help communicate to players that it’s a dangerous sector.
-Larger groups of Scout Drones are less likely to appear in sectors
-The Captain talent “Advanced Training” is replaced with “Heavy Armor Training”: a talent that boosts the crewmembers’ individual armor ratings

Fixes
-Fixed a linux keyboard input issue that caused repeated characters when typing
-Fixed a linux input issue that caused stuttering player movement
-Fixed an issue that could potentially damage players interacting with the Starmap
-Fixed an issue involving jetpacking and player movement being disabled while the Starmap was open
-Fixed an animation issue found at The Estate
-Fixed a geometry seam found on the Roland
-Fixed an issue with the Fluffy Biscuit robots not selling items on the FB automated Trading stations
-“The Trader” NPC found near a destroyed satellite relay now functions as a normal shop as well
-Fixed an issue that prevented certain bots from talking at the general automated trading stations
-Fixed the Heal Grenade explosion effect. It should now heal players correctly
-Fixed a ship hailing issue that could cause networking problems in certain situations

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Devlog #75: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyZx8616qVU

Beta 19 is now out! This update adds a new type of content: battle races! Battle races are pretty much what you might expect them to be; multiple ships compete to be the first around the track while they barrage each other with turrets and lasers. To spice things up each race track has their own assortment of benefits and hazards, from a giant unstable spinning laser machine to the entire track being inside of an electrical ion storm!

These races are balanced to pose a challenge, so starting ships likely won’t fare too well and certain ship types may inherently be at a disadvantage due to poorer maneuverability or other factors. Upgrading the various ship thrusters and ensuring that you have a good reactor--as well as using good teamwork and communication--will be important in giving your ship a fighting chance!

To try out a battle race, you can warp towards the storm on your starmap. When you arrive in a race sector you’ll have the chance to fly through the race track on your own to get a feel for the various obstacles and layout. Once you’re ready, the captain can board the station, find the race registration screen and click enter! You’ll have 30 seconds to prepare yourselves and the race will begin. You only have one chance at winning each race, so make sure to save beforehand if you want to keep trying it! (any loaded saves made during the race won’t allow you to retry the race)



This update is also the first chunk of Lost Colony related content we’ve added. By that we mean that when the Lost Colony is added to the game, winning these races may be one of the several ways crews can gain more information on where the Lost Colony is located.

When crews overcome certain parts of the game, they will be rewarded with Lost Colony Data Fragments. Lost Colony Data Fragments will be highly sought after and dangerous to hold onto, but once a crew has collected enough of these data fragments, they will be able to move one step closer to finding the Lost Colony. Winning these races will eventually reward your crew with one such fragment.

We are also planning on having a unique and challenging quest line for each faction, exploring the themes of that faction and allowing your crew to rise up the ranks. Each one of those faction mission lines will also grant a data fragment. There will also be several non-faction restricted ways your crew can come across more data fragments (such as these races). Our goal with this is to hopefully reward exploration and offer several different paths a crew can take to find the Lost Colony, making the main campaign more replayable in the process.

Let us know if you have any questions or feedback, and thanks for reading!



Additions
-New Racing UI - This new interface replaces the normal ship information cards in the upper right corner of the screen with a new list visual that shows the positions of each racing ship along with the relative location on the track.
-New Environment Hazard: Overcharge - Being near a Stormbringer or near other ships inside of an ion storm will cause your ship to accumulate overcharge. This is displayed by the electrical effects coming off of your ship and a blue meter on the screen. As overcharge increases, your ship’s reactor will begin to output more energy and the lights on your ship will begin to brighten. If you accumulate too much, however, your ship will shut down and your crew will need to startup the ship again.
-New Sector: Dutain’s Garage (Race) - One of the two starting race tracks with a mix of corners and straight aways.
-New Sector: W.D. Mining Station 41X (Race) - The second of the two starting race tracks with a heavy focus on sharp turns and temperature/fire control.
-New Sector: The Ion Port (Race) - The third and final race, requires wins from both previous races in order to compete. The open track is battered by a massive super-storm which can cause electrical overcharge if two ships are close to one another. This sector also sends boarding bots to damage your ship systems and crew, so keeping your quantum shields online is a much higher priority.

-Race Hazard: Heat Gas - Flying through these pockets of superheated gases will increase reactor temperature and potentially start fires on your ship
-Race Hazard: Small Lasers - Slowly moving laser fields your ship must navigate through, hitting a laser will cause damage to your shields and ship
-Race Hazard: Turrets - Large Turrets will target and fire upon ships in the first place position
-Race Hazard: Massive Laser Ball - Rotates around dealing large amounts of damage to things in its path
-Race Hazard: Stormbringer - Large ball emitting a dangerous electrical field, contributes to ship overcharge
-Race Hazard: Heating Vents - Large structure that continuously vent super hot gases, these work like heat volumes but can also violently push the ship around if the pilot is caught in one of them.
-Race Hazard: Asteroid Fields - Groups of smaller asteroids fly through these fields, so pilots should be ready for evasive maneuvers
-Race Hazard: Boarding Bots - Will potentially board your ship (provided the quantum shields are offline) and cause damage to ship systems and crewmembers.
-Race Benefit: Program Pickups - Small blue points of light that can be found on the tracks, pilots can fly through them to fully recharge all installed programs
-Race Benefit: Ice Dust - flying through these pockets of cold dust will lower reactor temperature
-New Food Item: Racing Noodles
-New Food Item: Chilled Noodles
-New Food Item: Crispy Noodles
-New Food Item: Grubhaven Noodles
-New Food Item: Swamp Noodles
-New Food Item: Premium Noodles
-New Ship Component: Mega Turret: Rapid Fire - Can be acquired after winning the final race (The Ion Port)
-New Ship Component: Program: Digital Coolant - Instantly cools 30% of total reactor temperature; can be acquired after winning the Dutain’s Garage race
-New Ship Component: Discharge - Instantly removes 30% of total overcharge accumulated; can be acquired after winning the W.D. Mining Station 41X race
-New ship exterior meshes for both Outrider and Cruiser racing ships
-New Human Male Cosmetic Item: Headplate - unlocked after winning the final race
-New Human Female Cosmetic Item: Headplate - unlocked after winning the final race
-New AI override: Crew is Currently Racing
-New Starmap Asset - Ion Storm
-New conditional pickup component type allows players to see a component but must meet a requirement before they can take it.
-Added 64 NPCs across the 3 racing stations

Changes
-Lowered the temperature effect of heat gas emitted by molten asteroids
-Exosuit helmet interior and exterior meshes have been updated
-Exosuit glass frost effect has been tweaked
-Reduced bonuses for Pilot’s thrust and rotation talents
-Reduced bonus for Scientist’s sensor boost talent
-Reduced bonus for Captain’s run speed talent
-Drastically improved the jump charge capabilities of a ship without a jump processor installed
-Added “U.S.S.” prefix to Gallantry and Valiance. Tweaked some CU mission briefings to include prefix. Also fixed abandoned Intrepid (U.S.S. Centuria) to display correct name.
-Infection spread rate has been reduced, a fixed cap on maximum spread is now enforced around 30%
-AI bots will now equip exosuits on your ship if the environment is hazardous to them
-Default AI priorities have been updated, adding new overrides for racing and a few tweaks to selling biscuits. Engineer bots will put full power into engines, weapon specialist bots will target the engineering of other ships with their missiles and Sci bot will use programs faster.
-Improved the mission indicator visuals
-Replaced the FB logo on the character customize menu with the newer version
-Shop may now sell higher level ship components
-Intro screen transitions smoother if skipped
-The compare ship components menu should be a little clearer when illustrating the before and after values of the components in question.

Fixes
-Potentially fixed a physics issue that occasionally causes players to disappear. If anyone still experiences this issue, we’d love to know what ship and/or planet you were interacting with!
-Fixed an issue that caused a network bug with entering and exiting the Sensor Dish
-Fixed an issue that would prevent players from drinking drinks
-Fixed a few geometry issues on the Stargazer
-Fixed a few geometry issues on the Roland
-Fixed a potential performance issue that would occur after executing several virus programs
-Fixed an issue with Cyberdefense Processors not adding the appropriate Cyberdefense
-Fixed an issue that would still allows players to finish missions even if specific mission items were sold or no longer in their possession
-Fixed a potential performance bug relating to ship and shield colliders


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team




Beta 19.1
-Fixed issue that caused some screens to not be interactive

Hey everyone!

Beta 18.7 is now out! We are still working on Beta 19, but since we managed to find a fix for the teleportation issue, we decided it was worth it to get that fix out sooner rather than later.

Changes
-Intrepid-Class starship and its night variant have bathroom doors
-Roland crew area have shower and bathroom doors
-Stargazer-class ship have bathroom doors
-Added color descriptions to research material taxonomies in Kavin Arent’s dialog at Burrow
-Added support for OpenGL rendering on Windows (use -force-glcore as a command line argument)

Fixes
-Fixed a potential issue with disappearing wandering NPCs on Outpost 448
-Fixed a collision issue on the Carrier
-Fixed a culling issue on the WD Cruiser
-Fixed an issue that caused twisters to not damage clients
-Fixed an issue that would occasionally have clients fall through maps after teleporting
-Fixed an issue with respawning after reclaiming your ship
-Fixed positioning / visibility issues with fires spawning from fire-based ship damage
-Fixed Fluffy Biscuit radar screen

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team