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Starground News

Starground v0.8.1.1 Hotfix

This quick hotfix fixes an issue related to the hot bar not being accessible, and the building menu showing all unlocks when loading into a world from another.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed an issue where research was still unlocked when loading in a new world from an end-game world
  • Fixed an issue where you couldn't assign items to the hotbar

Starground v0.8.1.0 Released

[h3]Starground v0.8.1.0 is now out![/h3]
This update focuses more on QOL and addressing a ton of bugs to improve the experience of all players, but especially for multiplayer. I've focused on alleviating pain points where people were confused by some things, and making sure to eliminate as many bugs as possible.

This update does not see much in terms of brand new content, but it's still very necessary to ensure we have a stable and bug-free foundation to work off of. v0.8.1.0 is essentially the equivalent of Minecraft's Bugs and Bees update. The full changelog below mentions all of the tiny changes and fixes that I don't highlight in this post.

Next update will be all about content, so don't fear! Let me know on the usual places what you would like to see for that.

[h2]Minimap[/h2]

A minimap has been a very highly requested feature, so I'm happy to say that it's finally here! Now you can view a small preview window of your world, and it also shows all players and their locations. This will be a massive help in navigating your world and also lets you see your circuit-like factories grow.

A minimap for dungeons will also be coming soon, but unfortunately not in this update!

[h2]Building Overlays[/h2]

Building overlays have now seen a nice upgrade. For a long time, there's always been questions that were difficult as a player, like:

Is my tesla coil connecting?, Is my building within range of power?, What are the radius of my other buildings?

These issues have been addressed by having two separate indicator overlays for both tesla coils and all ranged buildings. This means you can see the range of a building (like a collector) and also see where the power area is. A no connection icon also appears when a building is not within range.

Tesla coils also will now show a wire connection preview before you place it. This helps a lot since you can now visually see if they are connecting to the network or not.

[h2]Upcoming Controller Development[/h2]
While this update sees some small changes and improvements to controller support, I understand that it's not quite at a level that is enjoyable to play with. I wanted to do all this for this update, but I decided to push it back for next time. I've purchased a Steam Deck, and will be focusing controller development on that platform, since it lets me get things all good for controllers on PC, but also lets me visually see how I can scale UI elements properly. Some things that are planed are ways to automatically translate rebinded keys to the correct glyphs, onscreen icons for the right keybinds, and manually setting focus neighbors so slot navigation makes more sense. Be tuned for many of those changes with the next update!

[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]Full Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Additions[/h3]
  • Added a decorations tab in the building menu
  • Added a play button to the speaker, allowing players to play sounds for other people
  • Added Krystian Stachyra to the translators credits (huge thanks for your work on Polish and Danish!)
  • Added a minimap for the automation area
  • Added preview connection lines that are displayed when placing down tesla coils
  • Added a no connection icon that appears when a building is being placed outside of the range of a tesla coil
  • Added the ability to close the pause menu with B on controller
  • Added a controller keybind for rotating buildings (RS for now)
  • Added a controller keybind for shift clicking items (RB for now)
  • Added language support for Edikan (thanks Ategon, check him out on Twitch!)

[h3]Changes[/h3]
  • Updated all translations
  • Made it so that oil will now spawn outside the edges of the map (this is to prevent maps with only land from being unplayable)
  • Decreased the hitbox of slimes to prevent them from getting stuck in some areas
  • with the current window state, fullscreen mode not being saved on exit, and strange window appearance issues
  • Made it so that resources now spawn at a consistent rate for all map sizes
  • Decreased the world size maximum from 512 to 256
    • 512 words caused more problems than they solved, but maybe they'll return one day. Until then, all saves created as a 512 world will be completely fine.
  • Made it so that the music delay setting is off by default
  • Made it so first time users will have their local language set if it is one of the supported languages
  • Added error checking for network connections. Now instead of the game stalling when a connection fails, it throws an appropriate error message and returns to the main menu.
  • Slightly shrunk the beach ball hitbox to prevent collision issues
  • Increased the spawnrate of all resources
  • Decreased the TCP timeout time from 30 to 10 seconds
  • Increased the length of daytime and consequently made nighttime shorter. This is to help with visibility and to buff solar panels.
  • Made it so tesla coils have white overlays
  • Made it so any building that uses power will make the tesla coil overlays activate
  • Made it so collector overlays overlap with tesla overlays
  • Increased the resolution of all overlay radiuses
  • Made it so you can no longer build conveyors on top of the spawn platform
  • Made it so the precision building offset is reset back to its origin when moving the right stick on controller

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed an issue where the dragon slayer drop from the fountain would return a null item
  • Fixed an issue where the rubber mallet would deal damage to the player when held in their hand
  • Fixed an issue where summoned moonshrooms were spawning on top of eachother and in walls
  • Fixed an issue where the mining laser would freak out on really low frame rates
  • Fixed an issue where the game did not remember the setting for fullscreen
  • Fixed multiple issues related to window fullscreen toggling, including syncing the fullscreen button
  • Fixed an issue where "last played" and "day" was not translated on the save/load menu
  • Fixed an issue where nuclear bombs didn't cause a white flash
  • Fixed an issue where nukes were invisible for clients
  • Fixed an issue where the setting for tooltips was not saved
  • Fixed an issue where plants were invisible for clients
  • Fixed Linux cloud saves and optimized their storage space (thanks Scott for your help!)
  • Fixed an issue related to loading saved locales
  • Fixed an issue where walls would update strangely on multiplayer
  • Fixed an issue where conveyor curves didn't update sometimes on multiplayer
  • Fixed an issue where thumpers didn't work for clients on multiplayer
  • Fixed an issue where the training dummy blocked objects above it
  • Fixed an issue where items held by bees were not synced on multiplayer
  • Fixed issues related to velocities with the player, preventing people from getting stuck in walls, jittering on low frame rates, and issues with knockback and rolling momentum
  • Fixed an issue where players could be completely invisible sometimes
  • Fixed an issue where player nametags were hidden for clients
  • Fixed an issue where dead players were visible when joining the game
  • Fixed an issue where tutorial sounds would play for the server when a client joins the game
  • Fixed an issue where tutorial sounds would play regardless of set audio volume
  • Fixed an issue where tutorial sounds would play before a player has fully loaded into a game
  • Potentially fixed an issue where other players on multiplayer would be stuck at spawn and not move
  • Fixed an issue where the player list was visible by default on multiplayer
  • Fixed an issue where newly placed buildings did not show their indicators
  • Fixed an issue where the save/load menu showed invalid files (steam cloud file specifically)
  • Fixed an issue where tesla coils did not have their power lines drawn when a client first joins the game
  • Fixed an issue where researchers would break with infinite research being selected
  • Potentially fixed an issue related to research not updating for clients

[h3]Optimizations[/h3]
  • Improved performance of trees
  • Increased the performance of all objects
  • Greatly optimized performance of conveyors by setting up target caching


[h3]MORE ONLINE CO-OP FUN?[/h3]
Add to your online co-op party night by checking out the demo for the upcoming 17.waves TD.
The tower defense gameplay is inspired by PixelJunk Monsters, with the chaotic role-assignment co-op of Overcooked.

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

Also published by 2 Left Thumbs, be sure to add 17.waves to your Wishlist so you don't miss out!

Starground blends together factory building automation with dungeon crawling

Build a factory, get it automated and go on an adventure? Sure why not! Starground will give you exactly that alone or with friends.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/08/starground-blends-together-factory-building-automation-with-dungeon-crawling

Starground v0.8.0.1 Hotfix

This quick hotfix addresses some minor issues that were identified from the launch into early access.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed a crash when trying to type into the speaker text edit box
  • Fixed an issue where clients couldn't open the UI for refiners
  • Fixed an issue where clients couldn't open the UI for electric furnaces

[h3]Changes[/h3]
  • Changed the version numbering to v0.8.0.1

Starground is Now in Early Access!

Starground initially started last year in December when I (Jesse) was messing around with multiplayer. I just wanted to see if it was possible in Godot, and maybe make a little fun game to play with friends. However I can now happily say that 8 months later, Starground has become something much more, and is now available in Early Access!

Version 0.8.0.0


With this Early Access launch also comes a lot of brand new features and content to work through. Check out all of the new awesome stuff:

[h2]New Dungeon Content[/h2]


The first dungeon in Starground has always been a bit basic, so a lot of time has been put in for new stuff! The overall visuals of everything has seen a nice upgrade, with new visual decorations. Hazardous obstacles also make their debut, with the spike trap and poison capsule. These are a danger to you (the Stargrounder) but also to enemies! Use them to your advantage for a huge boost.

The slime enemy also makes an entrance. Unlike the automatons or moonshrooms, slimes aren't able to directly hurt you. Instead they act as a debuff, slowing you down significantly whenever you get stuck in their slime. You can kill them for a nice coin boost as well!

Dreadcap has also seen some love in this update, and now has brand new animations and attacks!

[h2]Refreshed Space Hub[/h2]


The Space Hub has also seen some well deserved love. In addition to a whole bunch of new decorations, there's now two more buildings you can use and interact with. The first is the fountain, which acts as a sort of gatcha machine. Put in coins, and hope you get something good back out! A vending machine also has a spot, which allows you to buy food for dungeons.

[h2]Infinite Research[/h2]


Automation is kind of pointless if you don't have anywhere to put your resources into, so infinite research helps alleviate that problem. This allows you to continually dump your resources into high level researches for powerful end-game bonuses to your factory. Early Access comes with 2 - mining laser speed, and collector efficiency. More to come soon!

[h2]Full Controller Support[/h2]


Controller support is always something that I wanted to add to the game, and it's finally arrived! You can now play through the game with your controller of choice. This also sets us up for verified Steam Deck support sometime soon.

[h3]And Thank you![/h3]
To everyone that's helped me along the way (Big Boy Games team, the community, our publisher Graeme, our translators, content creators, and playtesters). It's been super fun working on this game, and I can't wait to keep adding new stuff for you all!

Ad Astra

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Languages[/h3]
Every available language is available through the hard work of dedicated Starground fans! Please join the official Discord if you'd like to contribute or report any errors in existing translations. Thank you!
  • Added support for Danish (massive thanks to Doublado!)
  • Added Turkish language support (massive thanks toYiğit!)

[h3]Additions[/h3]
  • Added full controller support
  • Added particles and a purchase sound to shop menus
  • Added rain
  • Added percentages to translation buttons to see how much is translated
  • Added a new slam attack to Dreadcap
  • Added new animations to Dreadcap
  • Added Doublado and liberodark to the translator credits
  • Added infinite research
  • Added mining laser power research
  • Added categories for research type in the research menu
  • Added a fountain to the space hub
  • Added a tooltip that appears when you first pickup food
  • Added an Ok button to the tool bench (doesn't actually do anything, but is only psychological)
  • Added slime enemies
  • Added poison capsule decorations
  • Added spike traps
  • Added the collector efficiency infinite research
  • Added a vending machine to the space hub
  • Added an option to mine the first hit resource instead of where your mouse is

[h3]Changes[/h3]
  • Made it so Bissala and the Snail have different greetings and goodbyes
  • Removed the satisfactory language
  • Made it so Dreadcap drops coins
  • Removed Dreadcap's crescent projectile attack
  • Made it so Dreadcap is smarter about how and when he attacks players
  • Made it so Dreadcap's minions will die when he dies
  • Increased Dreadcap's attack range
  • Increased the power output of solar panels to 10
  • Made it so some enemies can move through doors
  • Changed infinite research to show the percentage increased
  • Improved the appearance of the space hub
  • Made it so mover behavior is more defined and reliable with all types of buildings
  • Removed the guide from the pause menu
  • Made it so movers will take items out of researchers more intelligently to allow for better research automation

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed an issue where you could pick buildings while in a menu
  • Fixed an issue where planet descriptions and names were not translated
  • Fixed multiple translation issues in the building menu
  • Fixed an issue where power indicators were incorrect sometimes
  • Fixed an issue where disconnected batteries would not display a no connection icon on load
  • Fixed an issue where placing or destroying an underground conveyor did not cause nearby conveyors to recalculate their curve
  • Fixed an issue where weapon reach had too many decimals
  • Fixed an issue where the snail trader had the same hitbox as Bissala (the weapons trader)
  • Fixed an issue where music delay was not loaded
  • Fixed a crash in multiplayer that happened whenever a client entered another room
  • Fixed an issue where thumpers were not visible on clients
  • Fixed an issue where underground conveyors did not insert into other underground conveyors
  • Fixed an issue where placing underground conveyors sometimes linked to the wrong conveyor
  • Fixed a crash related to a mover taking an item directly from an underground conveyor
  • Fixed an issue where another tooltip activating while the initial tutorial was still active would break everything
  • Fixed an issue where you could try and activate an item in your hotbar that did not have any function
  • Fixed an issue where rain did not sync for clients
  • Fixed an issue where attack boxes were not big enough
  • Fixed an issue where the player death animation would not play
  • Fixed an issue related to hovering over a chest and the label not becoming visible

[h3]Optimizations[/h3]
  • Increased the performance of all resource nodes
  • Increased performance of rocks

[h3]MORE ONLINE CO-OP FUN?[/h3]
Do you have a group who love to play online co-op games? Add to your party night by checking out the demo for the upcoming 17.waves TD. Think Overcooked, but instead of cooking meals, you're building and maintaining towers to fend off waves of buggish aliens.

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

Also published by 2 Left Thumbs, the full release is due for late 2024.
Be sure to add 17.waves to your Wishlist so you don't miss out!