Starground News

v7.1.0 of Starground is finally out! This update includes a wide variety of changes and fixes.

The main new features are more decorations (plants and the godot plush), a weapons shopkeeper in the space hub, nuclear bombs, and more weapon components,

Combat mechanics have been reworked to allow for combo chains when attacking (instead of the old Minecraft style combat). This should be a bit more fun to play with, and allow us to easily add new weapon attack animations.

This update also includes the Thumper, which is a new building that spawns resources.

In addition to a bunch of changes and fixes, game performance has been heavily optimized, with conveyors running x10 faster now.

As per usual, let me know on Discord if any issues arise!

Thanks!

[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added a weapons shopkeeper to the space hub
  
• Added buttons to select Russian and Korean as a language (my apologies for not including those before!)
  
• Added Japanese translations (thanks Matthew Armstrong!)
  
• Added a button to hide player names (this is your doing yochic)
  
• Added an icon that is displayed when the day/night cycle has been disabled with f1
  
• Added nuclear bombs
  
• Added the rubber mallet weapon component
  
• Added the Dragonslayer weapon component
  
• Added the Godot plush building
  
• Added the thumper machine
  
• Added the Advanced Collection research
  
• Added 3 decorative plants
  
• Added a language change button to the pause menu
  
• Added a player list
  
• Added combo attacks
  
• Added a cooldown effect to slots when used
  
• Added a spawn animation to moonshrooms (thanks Z3NN3!)
  
• Added an option to set a delay for playing music in Veridian
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Made it so pressing escape when sending a message now unfocuses the text box instead of opening the pause menu
  
• Made it so picking up items with your mining laser no longer has a delay
  
• Made it so the tree of wisdom will not repeat quotes until all of them have appeared
  
• Drastically decreased the game's file size by swapping wav songs with ogg songs (around 400 MB to 142 MB)
  
• Made it so indicator overlays are no longer activated when placing down a building
  
• Made it so weapon slash sound pitch is linked to the weapon speed
  
• Made it so weapon reach in the tool bench reflects total weapon length
  
• Increased the minimum cooldown time to 0.2 seconds
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where player chat boxes were invisible
  
• Fixed an issue where the laser particles would start in the wrong position
  
• Fixed an issue where players would technically be in the dungeon in the automation zone
  
• Fixed an issue where items would be deleted when near the edge of the world
  
• Fixed an issue where oil rigs don't mine oil deposits that already existed before placing
  
• Fixed an issue where rotating an object would cause oblong buildings like the refiner to be offset incorrectly
  
• Fixed an issue where the refiner and electric furnace don't appear on clients
  
• Fixed an issue where hiding the UI on multiplayer would break
  
• Fixed an issue where clients could not hide the day/night cycle
  
• Fixed an issue where underground conveyor belts were flipped incorrectly
  
• Potentially fixed an issue where opening the saves folder on Linux didn't work
  
• Fixed an issue with terrain generation where terrain did not match the map preview
  
• Fixed an issue where plant sway offsets were not set properly on spawn
  
• Fixed an issue where you had to click left click before you could interact when starting the game
  

[h2]Optimizations[/h2]

• Made conveyors run 10x faster (2.0ms frame time to 0.19ms)
  
• Made movers run 3.6x faster (2.2ms frame time to 0.6ms)
  
• Increased the performance of all objects
  

Starground v7.0.0 is now up! This update includes a wide variety of additions and new content. The main features are outlined below, but lots of performance optimizations, fixes, and new QOL features like belt replacing and underground belts have been added.

This version also includes support for Linux. If you are a Linux user and are interested in trying this alpha build, please contact me on Discord!

As always with any big update like this, expect issues that will need to be fixed (please report these on the server!).





Worlds are no longer just a rectangle space to play in. Now terrain is procedurally generated! When creating a new world, you can modify these generation settings to your pleasing. This does make old saves incompatible!





Oil is a brand new resource and automation step that is in Starground now. In the water, oil deposits will spawn in. Players can now harvest this oil with the Oil Rig, made with steel. After harvesting oil, you can process it with the refiner into fuel cells or advanced materials for new buildings like the Electric Furnace.





The fabled space hub is finally working and in the game. This is a region to talk and trade with different NPCs. As it stands, this hub contains the general shopkeeper snail NPC. He will sell you a few different resources (coins finally have a use!)

In the near future, the space hub will see more NPCs, bounty quests, and other NPC dialogue.



[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added a button to hide UI elements
  
• Added the space hub
  
• Added procedurally generated terrain
  
• Added rebindable keys
  
• Added underground conveyor belts
  
• Added a chatbox that displays player's messages above their head
  
• Added oil rigs
  
• Added oil deposits
  
• Added the ability to pick up items by mining them with the mining laser
  
• Added the ability to hide chat
  
• Added player movement interpolation for multiplayer (makes players move way more smoothly)
  
• Added Blmutea and (퉁퉁)사람 to the list of translators for Korean (huge thanks to them!)
  
• Added Eugene301 to the list of translators for Russian (big thanks!)
  
• Added falling leaf particles to the Tree of Wisdom
  
• Added god rays to the tree of wisdom
  
• Added the track Bygone Timber that plays for the Tree of Wisdom (fun fact: made by Jesse and not ace this time)
  
• Added a scroll bar to the building menu
  
• Added the ability to quick select a building by middle clicking on it
  
• Added a resource shop keeper to the space hub
  
• Added the refiner
  
• Added a game version variable to saves to keep track of
  
• Added an item slot info popup for fuel items
  
• Added a fuel icon to buildings that use fuel in the building menu
  
• Added the ability to replace conveyors with other conveyors
  
• Added the oil processing research
  
• Added rotors
  
• Added track Lounge to the space hub
  
• Added track Rewind to the space hub
  
• Added track Grass Roots to Veridian
  
• Added electric furnaces
  
• Added Max Schramm to the special thanks section for creating weapon components
  
• Added the snail general store shopkeeper to the space hub
  
• Added support for Linux
  

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Updated the appearance of collectors
  
• Changed and improved Veridian's tileset (thanks Z3NN3!)
  
• Updated the theme of toggle buttons to make more sense and be more consistent
  
• Updated the theme of the option button
  
• Updated the theme of all sliders to match with the rest of the UI
  
• Moved all building info into the global buildings table (behind the scenes, but will be great for modding support)
  
• Made it so that buildings rotate clockwise by default
  
• Made it so fuel cells are now crafted in the refiner
  
• Changed the fuel cell recipe to use 1 oil and 1 copper ingot
  
• Changed the fuel cell sprite to reflect its use of copper instead of iron now
  
• Removed the power usage label in the building menu for batteries
  
• Changed the order of research
  
• Removed the Advanced Fuel research since it now requires oil
  
• Decreased the cost of the Better Automation research
  
• Increased the mining range so that its the same as the building and interaction range
  
• Made it so the guide no longer shows up when you start a new game
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where player roll particles would not appear for other players on multiplayer
  
• Fixed an issue where V2 conveyor items would be underneath V1 conveyors
  
• Fixed an issue where the regular font looked strange
  
• Fixed an issue where the pixel font would be slightly blurry on edges
  
• Fixed an issue where long unlock names in the research menu would cause the menu to expand
  
• Fixed an issue where the tooltips would keep repeating the success sound over and over
  
• Fixed an issue where treadmills were unusable by clients
  
• Fixed depth sorting issues with the starlauncher
  
• Fixed a performance issue where the main menu would continue processing when in-game
  
• Fixed an issue with the tooltips tutorial where it would try and keep running when disabled
  
• Fixed an issue where walls were not correctly updated when being broken
  

[h2]Optimizations[/h2]

• Optimized the performance of buildable objects
  
• Optimized the performance of hit bar indicators
  
• Improved performance of all conveyors
  
• Significantly improved the performance of collectors
  
• Significantly improved performance of tesla coils
  

Watch the developers of Starground play the game and try and beat different challenges! Stay tuned for the third segment when Max and Jesse play together and talk about the game, and what the future holds for Starground!

This stream is the second of the two special Steam Next Fest livestreams.

Watch the developers of Starground play the game and try and beat different challenges! Stay tuned for the third segment when Max and Jesse play together and talk about the game, and what the future holds for Starground!

This stream is the first of the two special Steam Next Fest livestreams.

This quick hotfix addresses some multiplayer issues with certain buildings not spawning in.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where the training dummy would not appear on clients
  
• Fixed an issue where the Dreadcap monument would not appear on clients
  
• Fixed an issue where the vault would not appear on clients