Space Impossible News

BETA 7 is here, and it brings a big overhaul to the Distress Calls and by extension dialogues. Distress Calls can now come in a variety of flavors: wrecks, derelicts, and ships actually in a distress situation.

You can discuss BETA 7 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic


[h2]Calls of Distress[/h2]
Ships in distress are a kind of "mini mission", which are typically brief ways to help (or harm) the vessel.
They may request item parts, a tow to a friendly station, defense against attackers, extraction from undesired tiles, or transportation for passengers.



Additionally, most factions will accept Sixiser pirates or their ships for bounties, and the Sixiser will accept other factions ships and personnel for profit. Rewards typically consist of some faction and money. You are also free to go off the rails, and do whatever you want with the ships, and it follows the usual rules on hull destruction and strong arming vulnerable targets.

[h2]Improved Towing[/h2]



Towing via tractoring (controlled ships cannot be hangared) between regions is easier now, with tractors persisting through warp, jumpgates and wormholes. To turn vessels in, you'll want to find an appropriately factioned space station, hail it, and pick the corresponding dialogue choice. Similarly turning in personnel is done at space stations too.

[h2]Wrecks[/h2]
Wrecks can now spawn with debris clouds of items in space around the vessel, and it may or may not contain a data log, a small bit of story filling in how that ship ended up the way it did.



Derelicts, mostly intact ships, can also be found, but will be pretty rare.


Overall there is approximately 30 new distress call scenarios and wreck logs, and a number of fixes and improvements along with tons of new text.

[h2]Details[/h2]
NOTE: Changes marked with 📡 were inspired by feedback or bugs found by the community!
[h3]Additions[/h3]

• Added ability to spawn items via region template, can now see items floating in space
  
• Dialogue can now have requirements to appear, ex: requiring a tractor component before showing a tractor dialogue response
  
• Added "foreign tile" concept to a vessel's tiles. This can be seen most obvious in the new distress calls where ice must be removed from a vessel before it can be saved. These foreign tiles will not trigger a hostile response from the vessel.
  
• Shipwrecks can now spawn belonging to factions that is not the current region faction
  
• 📡Added a 'boss' discovery icon for Madd's Fleet when in System View
  
• Added data logs, these can be found among the items of a wreck. When picked up they will produce some dialogue, and can then be sold.
  
• People are now items. Certain distress calls can spawn evacuees that require inventory space. These people can be handed in at friendly (or certain not friendly) stations for rewards.
  
• Entering the range of certain vessels can now prompt dialogue, this is in addition to the existing on-enter-region prompts.
  
• Added ESC Menu button to top right button tray.
  
• Added ability to have tooltips for items and codex entries within dialogue to be more informative.
  
• Players can often utilize a "hey, wait" type of hail to encourage temporary peace from potentially hostile vessels. Hostiles actions during this period will cancel any temporary peace.
  
• Tractored objects will now remain tractored on exiting warp.
  
• Tractored objects will now remain tractored on passing through wormholes and jumpgates.
  
• Can now close tutorial window with ESC
  
• 📡Added a distinction between item pickup and manufacturing completion notice. Completion now shows the recipe instead of the output count.
  
• Vessel hand in area lasts for 2 minutes, can be re-displayed if needed with another hail.
  
• For distress calls where the vessel asks to be freed, AI can now tolerate minor damage before becoming hostile when you tell them you'll help.
  
• CTRL + clicking a region icon while at warp will now add the region UID to chat (mostly for development and administrative uses).
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• CHANGE: Overhauled wreck generation, it is now modular, allowing for more control over what the destroyed vessel looks like.
  
• CHANGE: Altered how player->ai dialogue is selected and processed
  
• CHANGE: Changed order of tile killing in the algorithm that calculates AOE damage from reactor explosions
  
• CHANGE: Did a number of behind-the-scene data loading and processing improvements for the new dialogue capabilities
  
• CHANGE: Improved faction calculations related to tile destruction. Bridge tiles are now fully accounted for.
  
• CHANGE: Dialogue will now evaluate their opinion of you when responding, so if they're currently shooting you, they're going to respond a bit differently than if they weren't.
  
• CHANGE: Items removed by dialogue will now use "Lost X" instead of "Received -X" phrasing
  
• CHANGE: Changed how dynamic regions (like distress calls and fleets) were calculating their time-to-live. This should eliminate any future regions from being "stuck around" even well after they should be removed. Also existing "stuck" dynamic regions should now decay properly once the universe is upgraded. NOTE: Regions with uncontrolled player vessels in them at game load will be immediately removed due to the changes, this should be a one-off event.
  
• CHANGE: Minor modification AI path patroling radius, affects mostly situations with large and fast vessels that weren't patrolling very well.
  
• CHANGE: Adjusted navmesh calculation for AI vessels. This should result in better patrolling and fleeing behavior.
  
• CHANGE: Adjusted AI rotation calculations. Hopefully this discourages the AI from over rotating in some specific scenarios.
  
• CHANGE: Adjusted AI local collision detection. Vessels should be more capable of squeezing into areas that are tight, but still passable.
  
• CHANGE: Overhauled warp transitions and inset window. Vessels should now be better centered and the camera position should better reflect who is present. Slight performance improvement due to removing any physics simulating objects that were present.
  
• CHANGE: Keybind displays in text and dialogue should now correctly fade with along the rest of the window.
  
• 📡CHANGE: Min craft speed clamped to 0.1, this mainly affects the use of certain enhancements and the resulting "23 days" craft times.
  
• CHANGE: /runcmd Command now supports variables. Variables can be inserted by putting '%' in the script. e.g. "/spawn %1" will become "/spawn venture" if the file is run with "/runcmd file venture". The line "wait 1;" added to a script will make the client wait 1 second before executing the next line.
  
• CHANGE: /spawnai and /spawn now have an optional "check position placement" argument.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• FIX: Fixed languages using older single file method not showing up correctly in options
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with Traders possibly losing ability to trade, this should also improve trade template picking
  
• FIX: Fixed a bug in warp spoolup checks where the wrong system coordinates were being checked, causing other players to possibly not see the spoolup correctly.
  
• FIX: Fixed F1-F12 keys, and several others, not working when chat is in focus
  
• FIX: Optimized a number of dialogue related networking elements.
  
• FIX: Fixed several ship and station templates missing correct metadata, this may have been causing certain unintended mission or trader behaviour in the past.
  
• FIX: Fixed a major cause of menu related issues that were requiring multiple ESC presses to open/close menus.
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with the CRC32 checking for multiplayer, this should be a tiny bit faster than before.
  
• FIX: Fixed an error that occurred when viewing a hail from a vessel that no longer existed.
  
• FIX: Fixed tractor beams not always displaying if they were forced on.
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed a significant issue where on pressing the "X" for any Error popup window was preventing any further building/construction from taking place.
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue where players would possibly respawn in the default Venture instead of their correct saved ship when being forced out of a region (such as after a crash, tractor drop, or multiplayer shutdown).
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with tractoring where tractoring data wasn't always being cleared correctly, mainly in multiplayer. If player 1 is tractoring player 2 and disconnects, player 2 should now be correctly untractored and free to move again.
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with dynamic region spawning that prevented the region from despawning under certain conditions (if the game crashed when the region spawned, on reload the region wasn't fully saved and would have been broken).
  
• FIX: Fixed map screen when linking jumpgates requiring "X" being pressed twice to close.
  
• FIX: Fixed mouse item showing behind inset warp view.
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with region discovery that in specific situations wasn't behaving correctly.
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed an issue with manufacturing recipes incorrectly consuming input items and never producing output when a lab was removed.
  
• FIX: Fixed an error when receiving tractor data but in an EVA suit
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with vessel orientation during tractor in warp if the tractoring player leaves game.
  
• FIX: Fixed engine trail display on/off state when in warp while tractored
  
• FIX: Fixed a graphics issue, this was occasionally seen in hanger enter/exit effects but also with the new vessel hand-in effect.
  
• FIX: Fixed linear splash direction, was incorrectly using world space instead of local tile space.
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed item mass not be recalculated when sorting/transferring/component swap shortcut(via shift + click)
  
• FIX: Fixed placement of a fresh build area. It should be better at finding a nearby suitable area.
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed enter key opening chat instead of accepting trade when trade slider window is open.
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed cooldown display after the UI is hidden and later re-enabled.
  

We have been talking about this internally for a while now and listening to player feedback, one of the big issues still facing the game is general progression. This ranges from manufacturing progress to combating appropriately challenging opponents. We will be looking at a number of possible ways to improve this starting with universe organization and layout as well as universe size.

We have just pushed a Pre-Release for BETA 7 to the test branch. BETA 7 brings some major improvements to Distress Calls.


Normally for a pre-release we would write this up in paragraph form, but let's try a simple summary of changes:

• Vessels in distress will not be immediately hostile unlike in the past. You will be met with a hail on entering the region too.
  
• Wrecks can now come with item debris spawned in space (composition of pool still in flux)
  
• Can still find abandoned derelicts, ships in a better state to take control of. Should be quite rare.
  
• A large probability of finding ships in actual distress. They may ask for parts to complete repairs, a tow to a friendly station, or a ride for their personnel in your cargo bay. There is also a situation where a ship becomes encased in ice (or other) tiles and require help in freeing them.
  
• You may find a data log for a ship.
  
• Rewards consist of faction and some money
  
• Pirates will accept other factions ships or personnel for pirate reasons
  
• You can always just blow up the distressed ship if you prefer
  
• Tractoring should now stay intact when leaving warp & jumpgates
  
• Lots of new text to add a little humanity (or alienness) to the distressed ships and stations
  

We're looking into a bug or two, fixed a few reported bugs from BETA 6 and will probably have the final BETA 7 build for first week of January.


If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord

If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/24/2995422855907664054/
and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/24/2995422855907653128/

Hi everyone. We were hoping to release the B7 Pre-Release today, but it's still a bit too buggy. The rest of the week will be the Christmas holidays, and work will have to wait until after Boxing Day. But, what we can do is talk a bit about what is coming in BETA 7 and what's been done so far.



As a prelude to revamping missions, we first decided to tackle Distress Calls. These are one of the most obvious things in game, especially while at warp, and yet to date one of the weakest pieces of game content. We are hoping to change that.

BETA 7 sees a number of changes to Distress Calls. Building off some work done in B6, Distress Calls will now not be immediately hostile. You may find a ship in genuine distress for any number of reasons. It could be missing its engines, reactors or more. It may ask for some assistance in the form of items, or it may ask for a tow to a near starbase or several other ways that you can render aid.

Upon successfully helping the vessel, you will typically receive some faction and possibly some currency for your trouble.

Like before, you will still have the chance of finding a wreck, but now the wreck may be littered with debris. There is now the chance of finding a ship's log, a small text log possibly giving some insight into how the ship or station ultimately met its fate.

Of course in keeping with the Space Impossible spirit, you can always be a giant jerk and just blast and loot the vessel, the choice is yours.

That's all for now, we're still aiming for a Pre-Release before or on Dec 31st, nearly reaching our stated goal. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

BETA 6 is focused on general playing experience, for both new and existing players. Along with the usual smaller tweaks and additions this release adds Statistics, a new Tutorial system as well as the Codex, an in game reference manual.

You can discuss BETA 6 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic



[h2]Statistics[/h2]

The game now tracks nearly everything you'd ever want to know about your play experience. Everything from time played, distance traveled, enemies killed, deaths suffered and much more. Statstics can be viewed on the new Statistics screen (accessed with ;). This data is saved per universe, so each universe will be a different experience and may yield some interesting insight.

To go along side these new statistics we have implemnted a behind-the-scenes event system. Its first use is for a new tutorial system, and detecting when stuff happens for the first time, giving you a one time popup with more information (if you want it).

[h2]Codex[/h2]

The Codex consists of ingame reference material, with indepth descriptions and images detailing and explaining game mechanics, ranging from what Power is to topics like Construction and Trading. We hope this provides useful information for both new and existing players, with future updates to add more topics covering universe and game setting topics.

As a note to those community members creating localizations in the workshop, in order to support the Codex, we've overhauled our language files to be far more robust, yet hopefully still easy to edit and understand. Also added a new number of special text characters and symbols for gameplay.

[h2]Missile Defense Shields[/h2]

In BETA 5 we added Point-Defense Lasers as a means to protect against projectiles. Although these served there purpose we found that you always wanted them turned on and they acted unlike any other weapon. Therefore based on player feedback and our own dev gameplay experiences we have decided to replace these with a new shield, the Missile Defense Shield.

Missile Defense Shields are a type of shield that will automatically intercept incoming projectiles, and function very similarly to the Point-Defense Laser weapons. These shields have a distinct shield graphic to differentiate from Energy Shields. Point-Defense Lasers still technically exist, and will still appear on custom vessels, but are no longer obtainable ingame without cheats. All vessel templates have been updated, and any newly spawned AI controlled ships will have the newer shields equipped.

[h2]Inertia and Rotation[/h2]
Through play testing of the new missile shield we discovered a great innacuracy with how rotational interia was being calculated for a vessel. In brief rotational intertia or "moment of intertia" determines how much force is needed to turn an object and is based on how mass is distributed across an object (ie the further a heavy mass is from the center the harder it is to turn). BETA 6 now correctly calculates inertia based on Tile/Component mass and placement.

To go along with this change Rotational force and strafing force is now almost entirely dictated by internal engine characteristics. All engines will now affect ship rotation and strafing regardless of their mount facing. Do note that the placement of Engines still matters greatly as an Engine further from the center can turn a ship with greater force (think of this like a big lever). This is fairly new and may have some unintended side effects, so please let us know if you experience any issues. NOTE: Objects with a reactor, but no engines, still retain some slight rotation ability.

[h2]Underlying Engine Updated[/h2]
Due to a recent Windows Update we have been forced to update the underlying engine of Space Impossible. This is something we have tried to resist as it may have unknown consequences however we have checked the game as much as we can and there doesn't seem to be any major problems (it even boosted performance in a number of areas). Please let us know on the forums or on Discord if you encounter any strange new graphical bugs, crashes or any other problems that may have been caused by this change.

[h2]Details[/h2]
[h3]Additions[/h3]

• Added Statistics. These keep track of nearly everything you do while playing and presents it in a neat little ingame chart. They are per universe and are saved on the server if playing multiplayer.
  
• Added an internal event system. This works closely with the statistics system to detect when a specific event occurred, record it, and possibly spawn a player prompt for the Codex.
  
• Added ingame Codex. The Codex is a repository of information about game mechanics, terminology and general information useful (and not useful) for understanding the universe. Initial version covers "tutorial-like" topics to help players understand the basics of the game. In future updates, more topics will be added on things like faction backgrounds, special or unique people or places and other general interest topics.
  
• Utilizing the Statistics and Codex system, the game now features tutorial-like popups during gameplay. These can be clicked on to open the Codex to the relevant page. These popups appear once per topic per universe. They can be globally disabled in the Options menu.
  
• Added control "cheat sheet". This in addition to tutorial popups replaces the beginner tutorial and can be viewed from the menu again if needed.
  
• Change language formatting and added support for YAML files. It can now come in three different ways:
  
  
  
  1. Single file LANG file (for backwards compatibility)
     
  2. A directory of language of files. All files are combined on load with "last to load" priority on existing entries. Directory should take precedent when loading similar name languages.
     
  3. Same as #2 but inside a ZIP file.
     
• Adjusted internal inertia calculations to be more accurate regarding mass of tiles and components.
  
• Engine thrust and placement now directly affects ability to rotate and strafe a ship. Better engines placed further out from the center will result in faster turn rate. NOTE: Objects with a reactor, but no engines, still retain some slight rotation ability.
  
• Added Missile Defense Shields and removed Point-Defense Lasers.
  
• Attackers now receive the correct credit for causing a reactor explosion, and any subsequent explosions (e.g. a reactor chain explosion).
  
• Control groups can now be saved and loaded with player made templates.
  
• AI vessels now use control groups for targeting and movement logic.
  
• All default vessel templates have been updated with control groups.
  
• Added an element to distressed AI vessels. They will no longer immmediately attempt to attack you, and instead hail you with a general "distress" style message, regardless of your faction standing with them. This will be further enhanced in upcoming releases. NOTE: They will still respond correctly if you are aggressive to them.
  
• Added "key highlighting" for UI text. This will hopefully make key button references more obvious when read in the text.
  
• Added ability to exit vessel for EVA in direction of mouse position.
  
• Added older recipes to higher leveled labs. This should minimize the amount of older Labs you need to maintain.
  
• The option to Begin a Trade is more clearly marked in dialogue.
  
• Added auto saving templates for during Construction. The vessel currently under construction will be saved when: on enter construction, up to three rolling saves every two minutes, and on construction exit. NOTE: This globally per client, across any and all universes.
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• CHANGE: Updated underlying engine to a newer version
  
• CHANGE: Clarified some terminology: Reactors produce Power. Components require Power to operate. Energy exists as a kind of weapon and as a kind of shield.
  
• CHANGE: Clarified shield stat: "Shield Strength" is the max amount of damage a shield can take before collapsing and going into cooldown, was previously called "Shield Energy".
  
• CHANGE: A number of performance improvements including some reduced audio hitching and slight networking improvement
  
• CHANGE: Improved load template UI, preview window is now much larger. Added extra space for tabbed pages for more information in the future.
  
• CHANGE: Trader dialogue will no longer reprint the response options when refreshing text.
  
• CHANGE: Item sprites now share the same material, allowing render batching. This improves performance significantly when many items are floating around.
  
• CHANGE: Improved the performance on some combat related code to reduce number of entity lookups.
  
• CHANGE: Nav Scanner bars are now sorted in the UI. They should now correctly appear behind most other UI elements.
  
• CHANGE: Announcements/Notifications are now separate from item pickup and codex notices
  
• CHANGE: Web links in the UI now highlight to indicate its a clickable link.
  
• CHANGE: The ingame "Computer Panel" is now larger
  
• CHANGE: Added symbols in UI text for a number of game elements.
  
• CHANGE: UI text scrolling should now be more consistent regardless of height of the window and text content.
  
• CHANGE: Internal shield edges are now visible at a low opacity. This should help now when evaluating just how shield stacked an opponent is. This effectively eliminates the "invsisible walls" that occured when fighting larger/more heavily defended vessels.
  
• CHANGE: Starter Star system no longer will spawn Patrol Fleets as they were a bit to aggressive for the "early game".
  
• CHANGE: Key modifiers (shift, ctrl, alt) left/right variants are now treated as equal. That means whether LShift or RShift is pressed, they both equal the same thing.
  
• CHANGE: Recipe text filtering input is now auto cleared when leaving Manufacturing.
  
• CHANGE: Added a tiny warp rating to Outdated Ion Engines Mk. 1
  
• CHANGE: Reactor explosion sounds are now played at the source entity, and to play multiple explosions as one explosion. This should eliminiate the defeaning "MEGA EXPLOSIONS" sound that occurred when blowing up certain vessels.
  
• CHANGE: All inspecting players should now see a Trader's spacebucks count correctly.
  
• CHANGE: EVA action keys to 1 = Combat Laser and 2 = Repair Beam.
  
• CHANGE: Top Right Button tray is now uncollapsed by default.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• FIX: Possible stackoverflow in weapon logic
  
• FIX: An issue that was causing some UI images to have a slight blur.
  
• FIX: /spawnbeacon now obeys owneruid parameter if at warp
  
• FIX: UI events are disabled if game window doesn't have focus
  
• FIX: Added some safety checks to the UI that should reduce the likelihood of the whole UI breaking if an error occurs.
  
• FIX: A rare issue that occurred when certain types of ingame events occurred immediately before or after dying.
  
• FIX: Reflector Cannons should no longer behave weirdly when bouncing inside of shields.
  
• FIX: An error with the paper doll incorrectly not appearing when it should appear.
  
• FIX: A number of input box related issues with certain keys.
  
• FIX: An issue with hologram gameobjects being incorrectly recycled. This was originally causing all sorts of rare issues, including phantom ships appearing.
  
• FIX: A rare issue on player connect that was causing desync and requiring a game restart/rejoin.
  
• FIX: An issue where playing a single player universe and then joining a multiplayer universe (without restarting the game program) was causing unintended issues.
  
• FIX: An error caused by removing the final lab from a vessel, while using text filtering and then closing Manufacturing panel was causing the UI to be unable to reopen Manufacturing. Say that five times fast.
  
• FIX: An issue with tracked missions disappearing from the Mission Panel under certain conditions.
  
• FIX: A number of general item performance issues.
  
• FIX: An issue with some button colliders being incorrectly offset once pressed.
  
• FIX: Double click incorrectly registering when clicking two different elements quickly.
  
• FIX: "Send Player Money" popup not always appearing when it should.
  
• FIX: Respawning now checks to make sure you have the target region and system before allowing respawn.
  
• FIX: An issue on the region server that was resulting in extra log spam when tractors were being used.
  

[h2]Removals[/h2]

• Removed "Energy Available" from Reactors' tooltips
  
• Removed the old mini tutorial has been removed.
  
• Removed Point-Defense Lasers
  

We feel we met our goals for BETA 6 in terms of improving the new player experience along with other improvements, and we further set the stage for future balancing improvements and early game changes. We did touch upon Distress Calls a bit, but we still want to do more. So coming up for BETA 7 we are going to focus specifically on further improving Distress Calls, as well as setting a target release date of: on or before December 31st.

We have just made a Pre-Release build for BETA 6 available. This BETA has taken a little more time than expected we had to add some critical systems as well as being sidelined by a Windows update which has forced us to update the underlying engine for the game.

We hope everyone, whether brand new or experienced, will learn something new or helpful from the additions added in BETA 6.


BETA 6 brings a number of new quality-of-life features to Space Impossible.

First and foremost is the Stats. The Stats will now show you metrics like exactly how far you have traveled, how many bad guys (and what factions) you've blown up, how many items you've sold and bought and much more.

Second is the Codex. The Codex serves as both an interactive tutorial system as well as general ingame information resource. We believe this will help new players learn more about the game, while remaining in game, as well as provide some indepth information that even experienced players may not be aware of.

On the AI front, in preparation for upcoming Betas, AI vessels inside of distress regions will no longer want to immediately kill you, even if they're pleading for help. This will be further fleshed out later, but for now it should ensure gameplay is closer matched to dialogue. Additionally AI vessels now have preset weapon groups, much like player vessels, and will attempt to use them appropriately.

We have also taken player feedback and our own thoughts on shields and the point defense weapons and decided to make them into shields. Similarly on player feedback, we've added old recipes to higher level labs, which should cut down on the sheer number of required labs.

On the technical side, in order to support the new Codex (and the continuously expanding amount of text), we've changed the formatting for the language files to a YAML based system. However, the language system will still load the older .lang file if a yml is not available. Also we have done some terminology clarification. Reactors produce POWER, components require POWER, and ENERGY is a type of weapon and shield.

Finally, we have updated the underlying engine to a newer version. This has already shown some improvement in certain situations like networking, but there may still be a few side effects (mostly visual glitches) still to be caught and fixed. Typically we would not upgrade the version at this stage of development, but a recent Windows 10 update had a significant negative performance impact during development of BETA 6.



If you would like to check out this pre-release build all the usual things apply, it will have problems (some of which we know about) and it may break your universe. Let us know your thoughts via the forums or on our discord

If you still wish to give it a try check out all the changes and details here : https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/23/2997669714007367923/
and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/23/2997669714007369655/