Celestial Command News

Another update with fixes and improvements for the previously released version 0.88



Improvements

• Now modules which fall off from the NPC ships (due combat, for example), will have proper collisions with your ships as standard (non transparent) modules
  

Fixes

• Ship hotkeys now works properly on ships which have rotor or piston
  
• Fixed internal error when you are loading a ship with warp drive which previously had a target
  
• Remained science data in planets now properly save \ load
  
• Warp drive works again
  
• Engines now works correctly at x2 \ x4 \ x8 speed
  
• Fixed 1 second delay before engines of a new ship will be ready to use
  
• Fixed wrong symbol of silver, now it Ag, not Ar
  
• Fixed an impossibility to buy resource in a container which already contains the same resource
  

In the previous update we are rewritten a lot of game systems (for much better optimization), so it is not a big surprise that some systems which worked before, turned out broken, so here is a quick fix for that.

Thanks everyone for quick bug reports!



Improvements

• NPC ships spawned from sandbox mode does not requires an ammo for its weapons, which allows them to use weapon in case if it is an old ship file which does not have ammo in containers
  
• NPC ships spawned from sandbox mode now will properly engage enemies which can be found around
  
• Pirate invasion in starting system is disabled until guards will be implemented, otherwise their attacking right in the beginning of the game is unfair
  

Fixes

• Quests works again
  
• Fixed error "Out of range of shipyard" when you are trying to repair or sell a module on a shipyard
  
• NPC no longer circling around the same point (usually around station) for no reason
  
• NPC ships no longer crashing in your ships
  

Hello! We are glad to introduce a big and super important update!
The world of the game no longer empty and lifeless, from now, it is filled with others ships and space stations of different factions.



Now, when you will travel to another sectors, you will encounter an hostile ships and stations which can be captured.



This may sounds simple, NPC ships pretty standard feature for a space game, but since ships in Celestial Command is fully physical, we made a great improvements to AI of these ships.



But the most important it is optimization. Earlier, just a couple of AI ships caused significant FPS drop, but for this update we rewritten and redesigned many various systems of the game, so now you may see 20-40 AI ships around with good performance!



Boost of performance is especially noticeable during combat.
Earlier we used "sphere collider" component, so PhysX engine detected object in range for us, but turned out it is extremely slow in case if each ship made from many physical modules. Turrets had such sphere collider too, as result, two battleships near each other dropped performance to just a few frames per second.



But turned out, simple distance checking algorithm is very effective and much faster than previous solution. Especially if it will be performed only once per second, which is more than enough for functionality of radars.
So now you may observe a battle of massive fleets without any performance issues!

Here you may see how many spherical colliders (green spheres) was in the region which caused an intense drop of performance. Now this issue completely solved!





By the way, new implementation of radars turned out not only more effective, but also it opens a possibilities for new features, for example, we plan to do the next: Each ship will have different radar detection range depending on its size \ emission. Now it is possible to implement and it could be quite an interesting feature. For exmaple, low detection stealth ship will be possible.

Also, we plan to check line of sight to some objects, so it will be possible to hide from radars behind planets and large asteroids.



Note, that it is just a first version of world populated with AI ships. Its logic and behavior is pretty basic, however, we are going to add more interesting features in the nearest update. Cargo ships will move goods between stations, guardians will protects them from pirates and allied fleets will try to engage on enemy sectors.



Also note that AI is not available yet in orbital mode, because implementation of AI was extremely complex task and it is not fully done even in aerodynamic mode, but when it will be properly improved and tested, we will add it to the orbital mode too.



Overall, we made a lot of improvements which are greatly improves many various aspects of the game, please refer to the full change log for more information.

And also, Celestial Command is 25% off during winter sale!
Happy holidays!



Large improvements

• NPC! Game world now filled with life!
  
• Now other system populated with the hostile factions and its station. You may invade their sectors and capture a stations
  
• Super huge optimization of everything! A lot of code was rewritten. Now everything should be much better performance, both in terms of CPU and GPU! Performance no longer dropped to 2 frames per second during combat of several battleships! Completely rewritten radar and turret systems
  
• Changed a way how radars works. Now it acts as "upgrade" module for radar of command module. When additional radar placed anywhere on the ship, it will extend radius of radar of command module. Only 1 additional radar can be active on the ship.
  
• Turrets now works in cooperation with radar. It will search targets from the list of targets visible by radar. If radius of radar will be reduced, turrets will be able to track targets within this new radius, even if weapon range is much larger.
  
• AI now capable to fly on ship which have only 2 main engines
  
• AI now much better in ship rotation
  
• AI now will react on your attack and will fight back
  
• AI will try to retreat from combat in critical situations
  
• NPC Shipyard station new really looks like a shipyard
  
• Station's modules now available for construction!
  
• All warp gates now located on the edge of the region and directed toward the region where it leads
  
• Camera now smoothly follows movement of your active ship, as result it create better feelings of its velocity
  
• Added PvP mode option, if enabled, your ships will consider ships of other players as an enemy faction
  
• Added audio effect on ship collisions
  
• Added audio effect on energy shield impact
  
• Added new module: Small radar RLM-1
  
• Cannons no longer limited by "burst fire" functionality, since it have not too much sense for large ship's cannons. Now cannon may keep their rate of fire without interruptions
  
• Cannons no longer have 100% accuracy, direction of projectile now will have a random deviation, so now, distance of combat is important, cannons is more accurate at close range and fire-fight at large ranges now much more dynamic
  

Improvements

• Added Christmas lights for NPC space stations. It is added only to allied stations, but enemy stations will have it too after it will be captured. Spread the celebration across the galaxy!
  
• Added detailed description for game modes which explains benefits and features of each game mode
  
• Redesigned HP bars, now they are located closer to the module and scaled down at high zoom level, as result, it looks much more better and much less annoying during combat
  
• Rebalanced speed and damage of rockets so it no longer so overpowered
  
• Turrets in manual mode no longer will fire if not directed at the position of cursor
  
• Added "projectile velocity" info when cannon selected
  
• Improved design of turret range \ angle visualizer
  
• New impact audio effect for light kinetic projectiles
  
• Map now can be dragged by any mouse button
  
• Added option to hide list of stations on the map
  
• Now when you open a system map, camera will be located at the center of system
  
• Switching between main view, system map and galaxy map now much more comfortable since camera located in better positions by default
  
• Research window now can be dragged by any mouse button
  
• When the game started, on the galaxy map will be revealed neighbor systems near a starting system with warp gates (not just systems within specific range)
  

Fixes

• Fixed various bugs related to broken warp gates and impossibility to save the game after warp gate was broken
  
• A lot of things no longer cause intense FPS drop! Especially during combat, the game should be much more smoother
  
• AI now will properly avoid collision with a warp gates
  
• Info about lasers now translated
  
• Outdated fuel generator removed from tech tree
  
• All weapons now can be properly selected after placed on turret
  
• Ships now properly save \ loaded if it had rotor \ piston which was destroyed recently
  
• Fixed "infinite rate of fire" value for heavy cannon
  

Hello!
In the previous update we added a tech tree and possibility to scan debris, but this is not enough for science! In this update we are added another way to obtain a science data!

Now you can scan planets and other celestial bodies using special, new module, orbital scanner.



In order to scan, it should be close to the planet and directed on it.
In orbital mechanics mode, "keep your ship always directed to a planet" - it is quite an interesting task.

In order to do that, you should calculate a proper angular velocity. It is quite simple and depends of orbital period (duration of one rotation on a orbit). For example, if orbital period = 120 seconds, it means that your ship should make one full turn (360 degrees) during these 120 seconds. 360 / 120 = 3 deg\s.
So all what you need is to keep your angular velocity at 3 deg\s and your ship will be always directed to the planet!

Later we will add a special tool (unlockable via research tree) which will automatically direct your scanning ship on the planet, but at this moment, you may use a way described above.

Also we want to remind that the game still have 20% discount!

Thanks!
In the next update we are going to add something even more significant.



Improvements

• Added possibility to obtain science data by scanning moons \ planets \ stars \ black holes
  
• Added new module: Orbital scanner
  
• Added more powerful version of mining laser
  
• Starting ship now have a grabber, so you can perform delivery missions using normal way
  
• Changed names of many modules (so now it have more Sci-Fi classification)
  
• Renamed "Allow usage" to "Allow consume fuel" for fuel tanks
  
• Capacity of Cargo container 2 changed from 120 to 280 (so it no longer useless), same for long fuel tank
  

Fixes

• Long names of the modules now properly displayed in build menu
  
• Fixed incorrect description of some modules
  
• Fixed incorrect empty lines and spaces in some descriptions
  
• "Advanced mining" research no longer useless
  

Hello!
Today we are gladly to introduce a new update with the new, very important aspect of the game - science and tech tree!



Previously, the modules was unlocked via linear "reputation system", which was pretty boring. You had no a possibility to select what to unlock next and you even didn't saw what will be unlocked next.



But now you can see entire tree of technologies and you are free to select a direction of progression!
Technologies should be unlocked using special research module which requires "science data", which could be obtained using various ways.



Currently there is two ways to get science data:
- You will receive it from missions
- We added a special scanning module which may scan debris with some chance to get science data



Later we will add more applications of scanning module. It could be used for scanning of asteroids, anomalies, planets, stars, black holes, etc.
This science concept with combination of large Galaxy, opens a huge possibilities for explorations in the further updates!



By the way, Celestial Command is 20% off during Steam Autumn Sale!

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Also, today we have another special event. The game was firstly released in Steam on 21 November 2014, so today our project 4 years in Steam!
We are very grateful that you are with us. Thanks to your support, we have a possibility to develop the game better and better!

Many others indies games usually became abandoned after such period of time, or development is not so active as before, so we are really glad that due your supporting we may continue working on the game at full power and we are going to develop a complete, interesting and high quality space game! Thanks you!



Of course we thought that the game will be fully released earlier, but we are 3 developers and it is our first project so we really glad to see how many work has been done and you are happy with what we are managed to achieve!

During this year we did a lot of things, but some of them especially large and important:

1. Galaxy and reliable orbital mechanics! One year ago, game had only single, locked star system. But now game extended to the huge galaxy which opens a very important possibilities for exploration and "feel of space"
2. Improved space graphic, added new backgrounds, stars, various lighting. The space looks much better. It no longer so gray and boring as it was 1 year ago.
3. Working multiplayer! Due new implementation of UPnP and NAT Punch-through technologies, we finally solved an issue with inaccessible servers, so now almost every user is capable to host a server to play with friends. Also network synchronization is better than ever before, movement of ships now smooth and comfortable for connected users.
4. Fully redesigned inventory, trading and production systems

Also, you may check our previous anniversary posts
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/3211492895079957897
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/710835733884410740
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/115201797087397375

Also, for those who would like to check out how the game looked 4 years ago. We added a possibility to launch the most first version of Celestial Command released in Steam.
In order to do that, open properties of Celestial Command, Beta tab and select "old version".

Thanks for your support! It is super important for us! : )





Improvements

• Added a tech tree! Now modules should be unlocked in research module which requires science data which could be obtained by missions of by scanning of debris
  
• Added research module
  
• Added scanning module which could be used in order to scan debris and extract science data required for new researches
  
• Implemented auto cleaner for debris. When there is more than 500 debris in the game, the oldest debris will be despawned which prevent performance issues in a worlds which exist for a long time
  
• Significant optimizations of physics, especially in orbital mode. Now performance should be better in several times
  
• On damage HP bars no longer displayed for objects which have low maximum HP value, such as debris. It improves visual design
  
• Now you can assign custom hotkeys for modules using Ctrl Shift Alt buttons
  

Fixes

• Fixed incorrect collision damage between piston \ rotor and its second part. Pistons and rotors no longer will explode for no reason!
  
• Rotation speed of module preview now the same at any game speed and not it is possible to rotate preview during pause
  
• Fuel level of nuclear reactor now correctly saved and loaded
  
• Game time label in the top-left corner now bigger and suitable for large values
  
• Cargo icon during drag and drop process no longer stuck if source inventory was destroyed
  
• Inventory transfer panel no longer cause error if one from related storages was destroyed