Starground News

This small patch addresses some major issues related to being able to select the fishing rod and shovel, as well as issues with fishing on multiplayer. Animals have also been fixed up, with breeding now working as intended.

If any other issues come up, let me know on the Steam forums or on Discord!

[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added heart particles to breeding animals
  
• Added an indicator for what items are required to breed an animal
  
• Added a noise that plays when breeding is successful
  
• Added the mature command, which instantly makes all animals grow up or revert to babies
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where tools were inaccessible after unlocking
  
• Fixed an issue where fish had incorrect offsets
  
• Fixed an issue where sodstars would always revert to babies on load
  
• Fixed an issue where breeding did not require any items
  
• Fixed an issue where the fishing license didn't take any money when purchasing
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen when a disconnected tesla coil is loaded
  
• Fixed an issue where sodstars and fences were invisible on multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where fishing was broken on multiplayer
  

[h2]Optimizations[/h2]

• Greatly improved the performance of all animals, specifically fish (thanks to rain for pointing it out)
  
• Improved performance of loading on singleplayer and especially multiplayer
  

[h3]Starground's third major update has arrived! This update focuses on enriching the "homesteading" aspect of Starground. Fishing and animal ranching tie into the new and improved Space Hub, while potion brewing aims to aid in dungeons.[/h3]



[h2]Fishing[/h2]

Players can now fish in Starground! Fish will naturally spawn around Veridian's oceans, as well as inside of the new fountain in the space hub. Fishing starts off with 11 different fish to collect, each with different difficulty, size, and value.

Fish can be sold at a new NPC found in the Space Hub (more on that below).

[h2]New Space Hub[/h2]

The Space Hub has seen a complete rework, including new tiles, decorations, room for future NPCs, and more. A large fountain now sits in the center, leaving some hints as to how this station may have been created, and livening the place up. Other than visual upgrades, there's some new important things to interact with as well.

[h3]Trading Terminal[/h3]

The trading terminal is a new building inside of the Space Hub. This terminal allows players to sell items in bulk to turn a quick profit. Item prices will sway over time as the market demand changes every day, so timing is critical. Be careful not to sell to many of one item and flood the market!

[h3]Fishing NPC[/h3]

The Space Hub has a new resident, the Fisherman. This NPC sells the player a fishing license (needed to go fishing, different rod upgrades, and will also let players sell their fish for coins.

[h2]Animals[/h2]

Animals are now here in Starground! They continually consume food from troughs, and will die without access to one. Animals each have a favorite food, and can be led when one is held in a player's hand. Animals can be harvested once fully grown either to sell at the trading terminal, or to be used for potions and food.

In order to start breeding them and harvesting their goodies, players can talk to the Snail NPC in the Space Hub to buy eggs to hatch them.

[h2]Potion Brewing[/h2]

Stargrounders can now craft potions that they can bring into dungeons. Alongside this addition includes new effects, and icons on the top left for what effects are applied.

Over time, this mechanic can be expanded out for more effects and even offensive splash potions to harm your enemies.

[h3]As with any update that adds new mechanics of this scale, there's bound to be issues. If you run into any problems, please report them on the Steam forums, or over on Discord. Enjoy![/h3]

[h2]Follow Along[/h2]
Want to follow the development of Starground more closely? Please consider joining the official Discord, or tuning into regular devstreams held over on Twitch.




[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added fishing (and fishing rod tool)
  
• Added a wheel selector for tools
  
• Added the brewing station
  
• Added the endurance effect
  
• Added the strength effect
  
• Added the regeneration effect
  
• Added the embiggening effect
  
• Added an accessibility tab in the options menu
  
• Added the trading terminal, which allows players to sell resources
  
• Added the ability for players to sell certain items to shopkeepers
  
• Added track Browser to the Space Hub (Thanks Ace!)
  
• Added fences
  
• Added macrobear animals
  
• Added sodstar animals
  
• Added fish animals
  
• Added 11 new fish to the game
  
• Added a plaque to the spacehub
  
• Added various decorations to the spacehub
  
• Added a large fountain in the center of the space hub
  
• Added a new fishing NPC
  
• Added 3 new fishing-related artifacts
  
• Added licenses into the game, which let players unlock things by buying them
  
• Added animal spawn eggs
  
• Added Rubygrain
  
• Added Sodstar arms
  
• Added indicators for current status effects on the top right
  
• Added icons to all effects
  
• Added troughs
  
• Added a tutorial for animals
  
• Added a continue button to the main menu
  
• Added the ability to choose mod load order (dependencies coming soon!)
  
• Added strength, speed, and regeneration potions
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Rearranged options so that they are placed in more logical tabs and orders
  
• Changed the music and ambience lists to use region IDs instead of random strings
  
• Changed the stats of various food items
  
• Remastered all space hub tiles
  
• Increased the price of some items in Bissala's shop
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Made multiple fixes and corrections to the audio/ambience system to make them more reliable and consistent
  
• Fixed a couple of issues with the grass tileset (big thanks to Z3NN3!)
  
• Fixed an issue where tutorial tooltips did not display the right text
  

Have you already got a group to play Starground online together?
Check out these other online multiplayer offerings from 2 Left Thumbs!

17.waves is a co-op tower defense, with Overcooked-like multitasking.
There's a free demo available now that you can play online!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2369760/17waves_TD/

In the mood for something scarier? Check out the co-op horror roguelike, The Doorway Effect.
Sign up for the playtest, so you don't miss the demo coming later this year!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2326550/The_Doorway_Effect/

[h3]Today kicks off the big 2 Left Thumbs Publisher Sale![/h3]
Explore the full event page to scope out loads of discounts, free games, bundles and more!



[h2]How about a FREE game?![/h2]
Croak Crusader: Spawn of the Spore Spectre launched TODAY, and is available 100% for free!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2997920/Croak_Crusader_Spawn_of_the_Spore_Spectre/

This free title introduces the general gameplay, protagonist and antagonists of the upcoming (paid) release, Croak Crusader: the Champion of Canada. Be sure to add that to your Wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152060/Croak_Crusader_the_Champion_of_Canada/

[h2]COMING SOON[/h2]
Very VERY soon! Novus Orbis is a combo-based roguelike deckbuilder, set to release into Early Access on February 10th. There's already dozens of hours of content, and the game will only be getting deeper and more varied from here!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2437330/Novus_Orbis/

[h2]NEW UPDATES[/h2]
A collection of games have all timed free updates and big announcements for this event!

[h3]WizardChess[/h3]
WizardChess is a chess-like tactical roguelike with a near infinitely replayable amount of variety and depth. And today takes us a step closer to FULLY infinite replayability, with the addition of Daily Runs!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1274210/WizardChess/

[h3]Starground[/h3]
At the end of 2024 Starground revealed a planned development roadmap. Today sees the Brewconomic Cropdate, adding animals, fishing, potion brewing, and an improved Space Hub.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2793380/Starground/

[h3]Magenta Horizon[/h3]
In addition to making the awesome art for this sale, solo-dev Maddison Baek has crafted new community items for Magenta Horizon! Play the game to earn Trading Cards, and unlock awesome profile backgrounds and other Steam goodies.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2109060/Magenta_Horizon__Neverending_Harvest/

[h3]Schism[/h3]
Schism has a new update dropping Feb 10th that adds some end-game content, and enhanced controller support. Keep your eyes peeled for that! But the BIG news here, is that Schism is leaving Early Access MARCH 10th!! There is no discount now, so as not to conflict with that launch discount.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2084300/Schism/

[h3]Tower of Kalemonvo[/h3]
While this classic-style hack n slash ARPG isn't out yet, it did just receive yet another demo update. The name of the game right now is polish, preparing for our newly set released date of MARCH 28th!!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2351860/Tower_of_Kalemonvo/

[h2]FOLLOW ALONG[/h2]
Follow 2 Left Thumbs on social media to stay up-to-date on all the latest games and news. 👇

• Bluesky
• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Discord
• Twitter

[h2]LOGO UPDATE[/h2]
I'm burying the lead a little here. But as a part of this event, I'm also debuting a redesigned 2 Left Thumbs Publishing logo - made by Fiend Folio artist RedRachis!

This hotfix addresses some small issues, while also adding in a command for reseearch, and a larger stack size for land tiles.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where ovens would sometimes delete their output items on load
  
• Fixed an issue where the death screen would show the incorrect number of lost items, which could potentially cause crashes
  
• Added the research command
  
• Fixed an issue where resources in dungeons would not generate
  
• Fixed an issue where buildings cleared from the dungeon would try and draw onto the minimap
  
• Increased the stack size of land tiles to 999
  
• Fixed an issue where resource node visibility would not sync properly on multiplayer
  

[h3]Starground v0.10.2 is now here! This update adds in a couple new nice to haves, along with a ton of QOL changes, additions, and fixes to some old bugs.[/h3]



[h2]Editable Terrain[/h2]


Stargrounders are now able to modify and move terrain tiles around on Veridan! Once unlocking the Terrain Manipulation research, players can access the new shovel tool to break tiles. You can also place them back down from the building menu, and buy more in the space hub from the Snail.

This will allow players to build out their island for ideal factory layouts, and convert resource nodes from and to oil.


[h2]Commands[/h2]


Commands are finally here in Starground! While they don't mean much for regular play, it allows for a type of "creative mode" world, or changing things to spice up gameplay. Enabling commands will disable achievements that will eventually be added in the future.

[h3]All the commands available are:[/h3]

• /tp - teleport to a location
  
• /give - gives an item and/or quantity
  
• /kill - kills the player
  
• /time - sets the current day time
  
• /noclip - enables/disables noclip
  
• /movespeed - changes player movespeed
  
• /zoomlimit - enables/disables the zoom limit
  
• /miningspeed - changes player mining speed
  
• /rain - start/stop rain
  
• /create - creates a scene that exists within the game files (be careful spawning on some kinds of scenes!)
  
• /help - gives a list of commands
  

Custom commands can also be added via modding (check the modding repo for more details)


[h2]Resource Clustering[/h2]


Resources now spawn in a new way. Instead of being randomly placed around, they spawn in clusters. This means collectors and thumpers are much better when placed in resource-dense locations, and voids between clusters are left free of resources. These are perfect places to build your factory without decreasing your resource production.

Resource positions and types are now also linked to the world seed. This means they will always be the same kind of resource, and spawn in the same location every time you load a game, or use the same seed.

These changes aim to make early game much easier to sustain (especially with fuel), and to make end-game designs more interesting, since clustering requires more thought-process instead of the "place collectors everywhere" approach.

[h3]As always, let me know on the Steam forums, or on Discord if you run into any new issues. Enjoy![/h3]



[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added the ability to go through old chat messages with up and down arrow keys
  
• Added commands
  
• Added the tp command
  
• Added the noclip command
  
• Added the rain command
  
• Added the kill command
  
• Added the give command
  
• Added the movespeed command
  
• Added the miningspeed command
  
• Added the create command
  
• Added the help command
  
• Added the time command
  
• Added editable terrain
  
• Added the shovel tool
  
• Added land tile items
  
• Added the ability to rotate airlocks and storage interfaces to place them vertically
  
• Added the ability to purchase land tiles from the snail in the Space Hub
  
• Added a new resource clustering algorithm to make resources spawn in denser patches (and leave empty voids) instead of randomly or in a grid
  
• Added the terrain manipulation research
  
• Added the ability to clear a second keybind by rightclicking it
  
• Added the new Sedna's Gift track to Tyria (thank you ace!)
  
• Added a world options menu to configure world settings on creation, or in-game (found in the options menu)
  
• Added the ability to add a modifier to a keybind
  
• Added infinite research for thumper speed
  
• Added smooth mining mode for controller
  
• Added a crosshair for controller
  
• Added unbinded keys to toggle smooth mining mode and hit first object
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Increased the size of the back button icon for the chat on controller
  
• Made it so that the hotbar no longer overlaps on the chatbox on large ui scales, now that the chatbox size is dynamic
  
• Made it so V2 tesla coils placed in the water have a water sprite
  
• Decreased the cost of Better Automation and Clean Energy researches
  
• Made it so the "Consumes" and "Generates" tags are now colored, and removed the negative sign
  
• Made it so that training dummies now save their face and sync it on multiplayer
  
• Made optimizations to game loading order, which will help with multiplayer connection issues
  
• Made it so rain splash particles fade in and out
  
• Reworked the controls menu to convert from physical to regular keycodes, make controller binds more obvious and intuitive, and better convert from inputs to icons and text
  
• Made changes to the minimap to better represent shorelines and update dynamically with terrain changes
  
• Changed the minimap colors to increase contrast and readability for those with red/green colorblindness (in the future, we'll likely have colorblindness modes and/or customizable colors)
  
• Made it so the chat line edit now displays the binded key
  
• Updated the translation sheet
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where beach balls flipped their orientation depending on the direction they are hit
  
• Fixed an issue where beach balls rotated way too much
  
• Fixed an issue where non-power using buildings would cause the power tooltip to play
  
• Fixed an issue where tutorial tooltips were not translated
  
• Fixed an issue where ui scale was unchangeable on controller
  
• Fixed an issue where resources could sometimes drop multiple times at low FPSs, or with extremely fast mining speed
  
• Fixed an issue where skateboards could start to multiply your speed up to infinity, softlocking the player and teleporting them to NaNland (NaN coordinates)
  
• Fixed an issue where rotating a building could cause offset issues with 3x2 buildings like the grinder and refinery
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Created In" popup on items showed multiple of the same building
  
• Fixed an issue where treadmills still worked underwater
  
• Fixed an issue where the metal tile sound effect would transfer to veridian
  
• Fixed an issue where movers could access the wrong index, causing crashes on load and during play
  
• Fixed an issue where kickflips didn't sync on multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where the amounts of lost items on death would overlap the pause menu
  
• Fixed an issue where trees and rocks didn't drop their player-specific secondary items
  
• Fixed an issue where rain splash particles didn't work for clients on multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where tesla coils would not react to water changes, causing issues on load and allowing people to illegally connect tesla coils
  
• Fixed an issue where the hotbar selection ability on controller crashed the game
  
• Increased the initial thumper speed from 10 to 12 seconds
  

[h2]Modding[/h2]

• Added the CanPlaceShore and BannedRegions tags to buildings
  
• Added a function to ModAPI to add commands
  
• Added the set_time function to ModAPI
  
• Added the set_rain function to ModAPI
  
• Added the add_command function to ModAPI
  
• Organized and better documented the ModAPI script
  
• Added the input_type_changed signal to Global
  
• Added the language_changed signal to Global
  
• Added the get_input_icon_path() function to Global (returns an icon for a given InputEvent)