PULSAR: Lost Colony News

Hey everyone!

Beta 31.01 is now out!

Fixes
- Fixed a handful of missing collision issues that were reported in the graveyard sectors
- Fixed a floating rock issue reported on the one of the alien planets
- Fixed a missing collision issue found on the Snowy Train level
- Fixed an intersecting mesh issue found on the Borthix delivery mission
- Balmy Gloom, and drink items should no longer have a cooked status
- Fixed an issue involving a grenade launcher that couldn’t be reached on the Bandit Base Planet
- Fixed an issue that would remove any faction alignment after failing a cargo inspection. Now it should only flag you and remove the Colonial Union Alignment. (If you are a CU crew found carrying contraband, you’ll become unaligned with your faction and any missions that require you to be a Colonial Union crew will still fail)
- Fixed an issue that could allow players to bypass the locked ships in the ship selection menu
- Fixed a reloading issue reported on the Carrier and the Caustic Corsair related to Liar’s Dice
- Fixed an item on the Outrider’s lounge table that wouldn’t hide for Liar’s Dice.

The Unseen Threat (Possible spoilers)
- Fixed an issue with the Unseen Eye Death Explosion
- Fixed an issue that wouldn’t properly display the radiated gas on one of the Bosses component parts
- Tweaked the Laser attack to make it slightly easier to dodge
- Fixed an issue with the Horizon Bridge not being accessible if reached during a single run
- The starting AOG rep of the Paladin-Class starship is now 0 instead of -5


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

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Beta 31 is out! This update adds a new smaller campaign that can be played instead of the main Lost Colony campaign. It’s a shorter story that explores a new faction, the Polytechnic Federation, a group of sentient robots that have risen from the scrapped and discarded remnants on a waste planet. Don’t let their home fool you--their technology is quite formidable. It is so advanced, in fact, that the W.D. Corporation is out for your parts, and some Alliance of Gentlemen crews wouldn’t mind the payday that your ship would bring them.

The story of this campaign is a fairly simple one; while the inhabitants of the galaxy are hunting for the Lost Colony, they’re unaware of the grave threat heading toward them. The Polytechnic Federation has noticed and is preparing to meet this threat. The goal of this campaign is to get strong enough to face the approaching threat.

Since this is an isolated story that is separate from the main campaign, we decided to try twisting up some of the conventional gameplay expectations. A few of the major tweaks include:
Quick Swap: The ability to swap nearly every ship component as well as upgrade them at any time.
Screens built from scrap: The ship was built from scrapped parts, so to further emphasise this, the screens are also unconventionally built and presented.
The Timer: The Unseen Threat is approaching. It doesn’t wait for you. This campaign introduces a timer that counts down after your ship makes its first jump. We think this adds an oppressive feel to the story; the timer is always counting down, so each decision becomes quite important. We know that this timer might be unwelcome to some players, so we built in a way to disable it in the settings. Doing so will track the number of jumps you make, using that as a countdown instead of real time. We still recommend trying the actual timer if possible.

This update is the last content-focused update for PULSAR’s Beta! We’re pretty excited to share it with you. Our focus over the next series of updates (Beta 31.x) is to fix bugs, add polish, and make improvements where we can to get the game ready for 1.0!

Additions
- New campaign: The Unseen Threat
- New playable ship: The Paladin-Class Starship
- New component type: Polytech Module
- New component: P.T. Module: Shields
- New component: P.T. Module: Damage
- New component: P.T. Module: Quantum Charger
- New component: P.T. Module: Rapid Assembly
- New component: P.T. Module: Crew Repair Nano-bots
- New component: P.T. Module: Thrust
- New cutscene: Polytechnic Federation Intro
- New cutscene: Polytechnic Federation Ending
- New Mission: The Compiler
- New Mission (x6): Technology Ready For Deployment
- New AI priority override: All crewmembers are robots
- New sector: P.T. Hub
- New sector: Horizon Bridge
- 13 new NPCs added at P.T. Hub
- 4 new Polytechnic music tracks
- 3 new Unseen music tracks
- 4 new general combat music tracks
- 2 New Robot body types - Made in the Polytech style
- 5 New Robot head types - Made in the Polytech style

Changes
- Fires from screens and systems will no longer be created when the ship’s O2 level is zero (they would exist for a short period of time before) (Heat volumes and star sectors will still create fires the old way)
- Default AI priorities updated to add better handling for EngBot on crews that don’t require O2
- Added icon for main turrets
- Unlocked ships will now show the requirements to unlock them until you click / open them
- Warp drive screen now shows the name of the sector rather than just the sector number


Fixes
- Fixed issue with repair depot comms that could result in an incorrect repair cost
- Non-human characters no longer consume O2 on ships
- Default AI priorities updated to fix over-prioritization of repairing crewmates
- VR occlusion issues on Lost Colony should no longer happen
- Fixed rendering issue with data fragments rendering on top of the ship log UI
- Fixed an input issue that could temporarily prevent mouse clicks from registering in certain menus
- Fixed an issue with scrapyards that would show a reputation discount when none was applicable

Possible Spoilers
- New sector: Unseen Mothership
- New enemy ship: Unseen Fighter
- New enemy: Adjunct Guardian
- New mechanic: Green Fires



Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Hope you're all doing well!

The game is currently on sale this week! Until April 26 the game is available for 40% off its normal price!

We also thought it was worth mentioning that Beta 31, the final major Beta update for PULSAR is well underway and in the final stages of development. No guarantees, but we’re hoping to release Beta 31 before the end of April. As we mentioned before, the main focus of Beta 31 is introducing a smaller bonus campaign which tells a different story revolving around the ever-elusive Polytechnic Federation. We’ve very excited to show you the new stuff and we’re very interested to hear your thoughts about it.

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.8 is now out! This update includes some fixes and improvements. There are a handful of VR and AI improvements as well as improved internal security measures for the in-game voice chat system.

Additions
- Added some internal security to the in-game voice chat system. On the surface it should work as it normally does, so please let us know if you encounter anything strange.
- Updated AI bots to understand and use the Utility Grenade Launchers properly (Healing, Repair, Fire-Killer)
- Added the “fragment collected” stinger track
- Added new AI override option - “Fire Extinguisher Equipped”. This, as well as the “Repair Tool Equipped” will now count the grenade launcher variants too (and take into account their current ammo levels)

Changes
- Default AI Priorities have been updated to allow Bots to better handle the Repair, Healing and Fire-Killer grenades
- The Roland-Class starship’s exterior size has been slightly increased due to the feedback we’ve received. We’ve essentially cut the difference between the Pre and Post Beta 30.0 versions. Let us know what you think!
-We’ve added an option for Linux users to change the audio system the game uses for voice chat. In order to access this option you can use this startup command: -ts-use-pulse-audio
- The Toggle Throttle mode has been moved from the basic section of the keybindings to the Piloting section of the keybindings. (You will need to manually update your default bindings to see this change)

VR
- Improved the rotation math regarding when the UI attached to the controllers appear in the quantum reflection
- Improved the placement of some UI in the reflection
- The controller object is now hidden when an item is equipped on that controller
- Updated the Index Controller bindings to not refer to the grip button since it was much too sensitive, to allow zooming on the starmap, to allow both the Missile Launcher and the Pulse Laser to be used, and to allow ship boosting.
- The snap rotation option can now be used in roomscale mode

Fixes
- Fixed a Starmap audio bug which could occur when viewing the starmap
- Fixed an AI issue regarding the WeapBot not recognizing the Biscuit Bomb as a stand in for a Nuclear Weapon
- Fixed visually broken Sensitivity and Offset sliders for HOTAS Devices (and any axis-based inputs)
- The Swordship respawn / bot deleting issue should now be fully fixed
- Fixed a bug with the Ammo Left custom override that didn’t allow you to specify the percentage
- Fixed a camera clipping issue related to manning the Bio-hazard turret
- Fixed a rendering issue that could occur for players running OpenGL who resized their window and then entered or started in the Quantum Reflection.
- The visible rendering artifacts on Linux computers being visible during the reflection should be fixed
- The black screen effect that would occur in the Quantum Reflection on AMD cards should also be fixed
- Made a change to help a virus issue that could occur when active hostile viruses overflow their internal slots and enter your cargo slots. We’ll be looking more into this issue soon, but this change should help alleviate this issue.
-Fixed a level requirement ship-unlock issue where the count was off by 1 level
-Fixed an issue regarding the Sylvassi Swordship’s “Sword” attack during offline play


Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.7 is now out! This update includes a handful of additions and improvements. A few of the bigger ones include a nice amount of polish given to the Virus Screen and some improvements to how the Progress.data file is handled.

Additions
- Added a new keybind option for enabling text chat
- Added a new keybind option to enable boosting while piloting
- Added some additional protections for the progress.data file and how it works with the Steam Cloud. If there is a conflict with the local file and the one in the cloud you’ll be given the option on which one to keep. This can hopefully help prevent issues where players’ progress can get unintentionally lost.

Virus Screen
- Added the name of the broadcasting ship under the virus name
- The displayed color of the virus should now only be red when it’s actively threatening your ship
- Tweaked the visuals of the decrypt button, and also added a tooltip to help players notice it
- Hostile viruses now appear at the top of the list on the virus screen

Changes
- Hid Lost Colony sectors from the starmap visuals
- Infected spore pods will now target the ship closest to them
- Slightly polished the menu opening and closing effects
- The Virus Booster Beacon now treats all ships as hostile and broadcasts viruses to all
-Tweaked the pool of random viruses other crewed ships start with; there should be a much bigger variety of hostile viruses than before, especially at higher chaos levels
-Tweaked the pool of random CPUs other crewed ships start with; there should be a moderately bigger variety of CPUs than before, especially at higher chaos levels

Fixes
- Fixed a shadowing issue on one of the alien creatures
- Fixed an issue involving virus decryption in sector battles
- Fixed a sound effect issue that would occur when alt-tabbing out and clicking back into the game
-Potential fix for an issue involving the number of biscuits sold
-Fixed an issue with the Siphon Credits virus which could occur during sector battles
-Fixed an issue with the repair tool that made it difficult to repair the ship system when a robot was nearby
-Fixed an issue with the statistics tracking. The number of sectors visited stat was meant to be the number of sector types discovered and should now work properly.


As always, thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team