Space Impossible News

Changelog BETA 17 Pre-Release Build 1

Space Impossible BETA 17 Pre-Release has arrived. It brings with it a few additions, some balancing adjustments and a few fixes.

The Kal'Giri and Druminence Federation bosses are in, each with a new distinct weapon, and offer a serious challenge. They can be found in high level systems, and require their factional communiques in order to appear.

The gun weapons favored by Kal'Giri have been given a balance pass to bring them in line with equivalent energy weapons.

Then there's the usual bug fixes, nothing too serious in nature.

Finally there are a few removals/exploit-ish changes. Traders will no longer buy items for more than they sell them to a player to prevent an obvious economic exploit, and Fabricator related bridges have been removed from game as they were just too good, and no manufacturing recipe that had required a physical material should just suddenly stop requiring it.

As usual with a Pre-Release, the final BETA 17 build will be released once we're happy the state of the release is bug free.

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 universes created may not be compatible with the final release. 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/35/598522969867737749/
and how to access it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/416240/discussions/35/598522969867737717/

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
We have fixed several instances where certain combinations of factions in conflict systems who were then generating hails post-battle was introducing bad data to player faction standings. That in turn was being saved and then loaded on subsequent universe loads and causing the problems some players were experiencing.

We have also introduced the automated use of the player backup vessel data. Previously this was being saved but had to be restored manually. Now, when the player vessel is missing (such as after a bad previous load), the backup data will be used. This should make resuming play much smoother for players who had previously lost a ship after a crash. Please note, this will only work on going forward, any player ship lost previously should be assumed lost.

• Random region trader enter event is less likely to happen when there is no station for it to travel to (such as after the player has exploded it)
  
• Tweaked trade outpost template so traders spawned in trade corridor arent just stationary
  
• Downgraded a few "unable to find" entity warning from incoming RS messages as they are known to occur frequently and are handled. They generally occur due to msg being in the queue after something that destroys the entity such as warp out/split/death.
  
• Fixed an issue where initial "timesMyFactionPreviouslyTriggered" included the current triggering. This prevented dialogue such as inventory stealing or other dialogues that checked this not showing up immediately even though their min threshold was 0.
  
• Fixed issue with scavenger AI if movement is lost while in scavenge mode
  
• Fixed inverted conflict battle completion dialogue confusing being the attackers vs defenders
  
• Fixed potential issue when leaving building that could break the UI
  
• Fixed pirate station regions using the wrong templates during conflicts
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
Thanks to player reports we have identified an issue with universe corruption. We have added a temporary fix to the game that should prevent further corruption due to this issue, but we are still looking into the root cause and will be crafting a better fix for release in a BETA 16.3 update. Meanwhile, please try this version out and let us know if you continue to have any problems.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• FIX: Fixed it so that mount types, namely bridges, that incorrectly were set to require power, but since mounts don not need power, and was incorrectly displaying "some components are not powered" message
  
• FIX: Fixed reverse thrust with a controller also causing some strafing
  
• FIX: Fixed dialogue options incorrectly showing when talking to certain factions
  
• FIX: Fixed mipmap of the grappling hook to better display when at maxed out zoom levels
  
• FIX: Fixed saving of templates to correctly use the player provided template name, NOT the current vessel name, for the template file name
  
• FIX: Fixed missing default map bindings for the suit hotbar slots
  
• FIX: Fixed the range icon in building
  
• FIX: Fixed it so you can now bind keys/buttons that did not previously have defaults
  

Space Impossible BETA 16 has landed. It brings a few new things to the game. Several faction bosses have been added. We have also added full controller support to the game. There is a new Dimensional encounter that can be found in the higher levels. Add on to that, a number of bug fixes and balance tweaks.

You can discuss BETA 16 and let us know your thoughts on Discord or as usual on the Steam Discussion Topic



[h2]Endgame Bosses[/h2]

Faction bosses are intended to be the highest and hardest encounters in game for each faction. They each have a unique component to acquire and may have a distinct strategy in mind when fighting. There is the Chief Scientist of the Explorer Union to be on the look out for, the Lord High Ticeroy commanding among the stars and the Sixiser Chief prowling deep space. There is also a special unique trader, Arkwright, who can be found with some special deals and a special delivery ship. These are found in level five systems, so something for more experienced players to enjoy.



They can be spawned in several different ways: the Chief Scientist, the Ticeroy and Sixiser bosses are spawned via Communique items that can be rarely found among their respective factions. The Trader Arkwright is based on player wealth. Our old friend Charkles also received an update, and may be found in an appropriately scaled ship in any level system once his first appearance is defeated.


[h2]Full Controller Support[/h2]


We have also added full controller support for those who want to play without mouse and keyboard. More options for control is always a good thing in our book.


[h2]Dimensional Delving[/h2]


There is a special new Dimensional encounter that can be discovered in the higher levels as well. These feature new dimensional ships and some unique rewards for players brave enough to venture into their home reality.

We have also done some Linux compatibility testing to bring that game experience in line with what we want and deal with some of special issues running Space Impossible on Linux has.

As always we have fixed bugs, many of them player reported, and tweaked a few balance issues. Most noticeable is loot generation, and on larger vessels with multiple cargo bays, you should find each cargo bay can now have loot, not just the first one.

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

[h3]Additions[/h3]

• Added Valter Arkwright - trader boss
  
• Added Chief Scientist - Explorer Union boss
  
• Added Lord High Ticeroy - Ticeroy boss
  
• Added Captain Benozar, Chief Sixiser Pirate, Scourge of the Stars - Sixiser boss
  
• Added some new surprises from Charkles, the mad miner
  
• Added a new unique dimensional boss event. These can be engaged with upon entering a "Dimensional Rift"
  
• Added game controller support
  
• 📡Quick repair is now limited per player to once every 30 seconds. Can be changed with /sv_repaircooldown
  
• All weapon types may now be able to apply enhancements to targets, not just projectiles. This is more of a background system change for now.
  
• Unique spawns can now be triggered via item use
  
• Enhancements can now apply visual effects to the entity that is affected, helping to make these enhancements more obvious
  
• Added new Ionic Field Emitter weapon - This weapon provides an enhancement to any affected allies, increasing weapon damage, engine thrust, shield recharge rate and max reactor energy.
  
• Added Grappling Hook
  
• Added Missile Launcher Array
  
• Added Cluster Mine Launcher
  
• Added several new components including Gig. Reflector Mk 2 and Dimensional weapons
  
• Added a super secret Quantum Assembler
  
• Added communique items for interacting with bosses
  
• Added size indicator and pips to all projectile weapons that were previously lacking them. Now all weapon icons should have a size indicator.
  
• Added a new discovery state for regions "hidden". This is used for creating pocket dimensions and other star system stuff.
  
• Added universe stats. This is currently not visible to the player normally, but we will probably make this visible to the player in the future.
  
• Added /backupuniverse command that forces the universe to be saved and then zips it to an optionally named zip file.
  
• Added a teeny tiny additional size on ship tiles that hopefully will decrease changes of inter-penetration of objects.
  
• 📡Added path/filename validation and sanitization for template and universe names
  
• Added a transitional element to System Info UI when transitioning between systems
  
• 📡Added some additional logic to the currency labels to better reflect final value when animating the label
  
• 📡Added several new tips for display during building
  
• Added some additional UI optimizations
  
• Added ability to CTRL + click on the universe map to put the system coordinate in chat
  

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• 📡CHANGE: Any tile damage should now end construction
  
• CHANGE: Improved unique spawn triggering
  
• CHANGE: Changed how splash damage works
  -A tile no longer needs to die to propagate splash damage
  -A blob splash will now apply damage across a fixed area scaled on its falloff value rather than propagate only through remaining damage
  -Repair splash damage is now an option
  -Fixed an issue with recursive splash damage causing a stack overflow in distinct situations
  -Takeaway: Some weapons may do more damage now, for instance rail guns will do more total damage due to splash damage, even if no tiles are killed. Some weapons may do less damage now, especially powerful weapons against weak tiles because the weak tile dies immediately.
  
• CHANGE: Repair beams now do some splash damage, making them able to penetrate to interior tiles
  
• CHANGE: Significant performance improvement for when replacing a large vessel with a new large vessel loaded from template.
  
• 📡CHANGE: Significantly improved performance of text related to tile damage.
  
• CHANGE: Improved performance regarding calculations with damage that resulted in splits
  
• CHANGE: Improved performance on the region server related to weapons and AI's ability to dodge them
  
• CHANGE: Possible performance improvement related to player exit of a large vessel
  
• CHANGE: Improved performance on region server networking, should result in less garbage generation
  
• 📡CHANGE: Significantly improved performance with hangar/assembler/transit portal detection on the client. Previously it was possible to completely tank FPS when several objects in a region had multiple assemblers. This should no longer be possible.
  
• CHANGE: Graviton Beam weapons now apply the Graviton Field enhancement to the target instead of just applying a basic force
  -This is a subtle change to the weapon, that instead of just pulling the hit target towards shooter, it makes the target hit attract other nearby objects, whether vessels, oresteroids or even projectiles.
  
• CHANGE: Adjusted chat focus. When it is open and you click on a screen object, the chat should lose focus, but still remain open. Clicking back on the chat or pressing Enter should return focus to chat. You should not lose any text that has been inputed but not yet submitted.
  
• CHANGE: Nest tiles now take mining damage instead of combat damage
  
• CHANGE: Changes to the unique spawn rules allow these distinct enemies to appear multiple times. Most familiar will be Madd can now re-appear after an appropriate time following his first defeat.
  
• CHANGE: Changed region removal to obey total universe time instead of the previous relative to star system time. What this means is the universe will carry on, even if the a star system is unloaded because no player is present. For example, a tradeship that was there when last visited, will probably not be there next time you swing through whether a few minutes or hours later.
  
• CHANGE: Lawless' Sparrows now have cargo bays
  
• CHANGE: Added missing bridge to Madd's Striker ship
  
• CHANGE: Construction traders should now pay more for Ore items
  
• CHANGE: Time delay for the tooltip to hide is now instant
  
• 📡CHANGE: Adjusted flying mechanics when using WASD in warp at the star system level. Should make things more controllable than previously
  
• CHANGE: Universe init should no longer attempt ID upgrades if no mod or other additions were detected. This should improve load times on larger universes.
  
• 📡CHANGE: Redesigned the Dimensional Interrogator boss for better game performance and less overall annoying fight design
  
• CHANGE: AI weapon firing code should now respect salvo weapons better and allow the entire salvo to fire before switching weapons
  
• CHANGE: AI fleet regions should no longer split if one or more of the vessels is unable to warp.
  
• CHANGE: Improved UI layout for low resolutions, especially 1280 x 800
  
• CHANGE: Made the version label more discreet
  
• CHANGE: Pressing ESC (or similar controller key) when asked to confirm Quit Game should no longer choose the "Quit" option but the "Resume"
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• FIX: Fixed T3 boss summons requiring tritanium instead of bonivium
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed issue with certain tiles causing an error when removing them in construction
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed insta hit weapons applying damage until the whole salvo is done firing
  
• FIX: Fixed tooltip rounding of salvo times
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed randomization of salvo spread to be correctly random
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed other dialogue options appearing in trade dialogue if it is opened when the initial hail is being displayed
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue in region->region transition when no player is involved
  
• FIX: Fixed an exception cause when receiving local faction for a region that had just be removed
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with mount placement server validation
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with mount replacement after a previous mount on the same tile was destroyed
  
• FIX: Fixed Gig. Magnatronic Blastor Mk. 1 doing 800 mining damage. Now does 50 which is inline with other weapons of its type
  
• FIX: Fixed incorrect pricing on large and gig. crystal items (kelorit etc)
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue for when AI auto-resurrects
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed an issue where dynamic price dialogue variable would not correctly clamp its value, leading to a nice overflow and incorrect value
  
• FIX: Fixed System Info not updating its layout if its currently open when the information changes
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with Universe Map not correctly centering on the player on opening
  
• FIX: Fixed issue with text wrap size being incorrectly calculated. This mainly was noticeable with the reactor energy patterns being incorrectly offset on tooltips.
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue that could occur with projectiles incorrectly inheriting its initial velocity from fasting moving vessels
  
• FIX: Fixed a multi-tile mount issue where selecting an area in building cuts through the mount. Mounts will no longer be included in the cut/copy if any part of it is outside that selected area.
  
• FIX: Fixed white halo around damage masks
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with particle effects loading
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with our 7Bit datatype implementation that could affect negative or very large values
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue where the Leviathan's background edge could possibly be seen
  
• FIX: Fixes for the loot table system. Individual loot limits is now obeyed across the entity's entire inventory instead of per cargobay only. This does mean some spawns will now have slightly less loot overall, but many adjustments were made that should bring loot to similar levels, or in some situations increased total loot count.
  
• FIX: Fixed an error that was causing an exception for a log message and impacting performance
  
• FIX: Fixed an exception that could occur during System Problem selection and prevent the selection from finishing
  
• FIX: Fixed a failure in universe version updating incorrectly not throwing the player back to main menu when they should have
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed damage text persisting far too long after damage had stopped being done
  
• FIX: Fixed banding on the 360 degree visuals for weapons
  
• FIX: Fixed several missing language entries
  
• FIX: Fixed several weapons using the wrong item type names on tooltips
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue where a region could in theory not be removed even though it should be removed in multiplayer sessions.
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue where placing a template (including copy/cut) could ignore placement rules and allow tiles to be placed outside the grid which is bad and thus cannot be allowed
  
• FIX: Fixed white border around control group icons when UI was scaled other than 100%
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with child region naming for star system generation
  
• FIX: Fixed incorrect inset camera scaling in warp view when UI scale is other than 100%
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue with UI widgets repositioning incorrectly when UI scale changes
  
• FIX: Fixed mod manager scroll bar UI sort order
  
• FIX: Fixed handling of zoom in/out on the map affecting your game camera too
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed several typos and grammar issues
  
• FIX: Fixed several instances of client incorrectly referencing server time in multiplayer code
  
• FIX: Fixed an issue introduced with one of the B15 network performance improvements that ended up causing some jittery movement. This should now be smoothed out.
  
• FIX: Fixed regular Marauder fleets behaving like Madd himself with dialogue and insta attack
  
• FIX: Fixed issue with UI scales other than 100% incorrectly placing elements off screen on load
  
• 📡FIX: Fixed target window tile targeting
  
• FIX: Fixed item based stats registering under the wrong categories
  
• FIX: Fixed sounds not playing correctly when hovering drop down UI elements in Create Universe screen
  
• FIX: Fixed small pixel gap with input popup
  

[h3]Removals[/h3]

• Removed Charkles from his previous guaranteed region in the starter system. He now has a chance to spawn in dense asteroid regions.
  

[h2]COMING BETA 17[/h2]
Some additional bosses/unique spawns will be added, including a Druminence and Kal'giri bosses. We will be looking closer at polish and balance as it's been a few updates since we gave that some elbow grease. Finally, we are getting to the point in Space Impossible's development where we want to consider leaving Early Access, as all game systems we had originally planned on (and many more) are ingame.