Starbase News

Welcome back to Starbase Community News, your monthly post dedicated to all things Starbase community, both in-game and outside the game! Community News has been running since October 2020, and past issues can be found on the official Starbase forums under Developer topics.

March has been a busy month all over with new game updates and the announcement about upcoming heat mechanics, not to mention within the community with lots of new cool creations and designs.

The highlight of the month was undoubtedly the Laborer Rumble event on Saturday the 26th March, hosted by Biohazard. Laborers fought for survival at Ghost Station Relicta. This Captain's Journal on reddit by ZombieMouse guides us through the preparation and aftermath of the event.



Next, let us take a closer look at what else the community has been creating in the past month!



[h2]Community Highlights[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Introducing the Trans-Continental, a new Quasar Systems ore hauler by Arion234!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Commando Doggo takes the Jaeger mech on a station tour!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Happy Trigger 42 Plays presents a handy, self-made digicode!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Meet the inertia dampener, also by Happy Trigger 42 Plays!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Want to learn more about enhancers? FatFly World of Games has got you covered!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Howler Monkey presents a highlight clip from an anti-pirate operation!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Krawll Unchained showcases The Tugger by Egomaniac.



[h2]Screenshot Showcase[/h2]


Posted by HappyTrigger42 on reddit


Posted by HappyTrigger42 on reddit


Posted by DRSTARKE on reddit


Posted by HappyTrigger42 on reddit


Posted by Kodey on Steam


Posted by Toomboost on Steam


Posted by DRSTARKE on Steam


Posted by KamataSatomi#0642 on Discord


Posted by H3I70R on Steam


Posted by rekiat55 on Steam



[h2]Fanwork Showcase[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Waffle presents a YOLOL cover of "A Cruel Angel's Thesis"!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Meanwhile, this new hit by Loops hits the Eos Radio Top 10! Recommended for your journeys to the moons and back.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Check out Moon Walk, a YOLOL game by Beat Breaker!


"lesWAV CLBH-1 Leporinus" a small and agile asteroid hauler by Leslawangelo on reddit. Find the blueprint here!


Posted by Lazy_Adagio_4762 on reddit


Starbase wallpaper, posted by FatFly#6857 on Discord!


Ship design sketches, posted by Beatbreaker#1783 on Discord


An updated version of Starbase Research Calculator has been released! v0.6 contains new recipes and the possibility to add weights to materials has been added. Read more here.



Would you like to be featured in next month's Starbase Community News? To submit your creations, contact us via e-mail at [email protected] with the subject headline "Starbase Community News"! Remember to mention who the submission is from and what name you want to be credited. We reserve the right to curate suggested content and cannot guarantee all submissions will be published.

We hope you've enjoyed this issue of the Starbase Community News. See you next month!

Notice: these patch notes are a preview for what's coming in the next potential live Early Access build.

[h2]Animations[/h2]

• Minor modifications to crouch carry arm animations
  
• Added 1st person prone move animations
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Added missing UI sounds to Ship Designer
  
• Fixed repeated button hover sounds in menus
  

[h2]Crafting and research[/h2]

• All Furniture and Decoration Modules under "Misc." subcategory have been move to the "Furniture & Decorations" category
  
• "Misc." subcategory has been removed from the "Station Modules" category
  
• Fixed an issue where crafting from ship crates failed, if the crafted item needed at least 2 different ores and none of them were in backpack's ore slots
  

[h2]Devices[/h2]

• Added support for filling nearby cable and pipe holograms with the Blueprint Filler
  
• Towing Beam
  
  • If Towing Beam loses power, it remains off for at least 0.3 seconds
    
  • Fixed an issue where ship moves further and further away during a tow until it is eventually detached for being too far away
    
  • Fixed an issue where pointing a Towing Beam at a ship not owned by the Towing Beam's owner causes the beam to blink between locked and not locked status
    
  • Change Towing Beam's minimum locked range from 50 to 75
    
  • Towing Beam electricity consumption raised from 3 per 1000kg to 5 per 1000kg
• Fixed an issue where building tool doesn't repair anything and stays in character's hand after it's unequipped
  
• Fixed asteroid scanning behavior change breaking material scanner scripts
  

[h2]Easy Build Mode[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where selecting an item for Easy Build Mode placement just before opening the esc menu, caused the esc menu to stop working
  
• Fixed an issue where the Easy Build Mode was unintentionally turned off
  
• Fixed an issue where some modules didn't have the fix that should prevent large gaps between them
  
• Fixed an issue where trying to snap anything requiring hard point connection to a hard point in Easy Build Mode froze the first time and dropped framerate to 1 afterwards
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where player hitboxes were not working correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where dead endoskeleton's armors were turned into "default" appearance after dead player respawned
  
• Fixed an issue where Magnetic Boots caused framerate drops
  
• Fixed an issue where the game crashed if the Universal Tool was opened while seated in a pilot chair right after autosave has saved the blueprint
  
• Fixed an issue where getting killed while seated on a pilot chair with no space to exit leaves you in control of the ship
  
• Added more chat messages for different Insurance Transfer failures
  

[h2]Ship Designer[/h2]

• Added windows layer opacity options to settings menu
  
• Fixed an issue where containers such as propellant tanks did not show their values in edit mode
  
• Hidden layers are now properly ignored in snapping, after visiting test mode
  
• Added crafting bench upgrades
  
• Ship designer material colors adjusted to be more colorful instead of greyish
  

[h2]Ships[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where Main Flight Computer and Flight Control Unit were not working unless there was another device in the network
  
• Fixed an issue where ship owner with "host owned ships ON" loses controls to ship if the ship is hosted by other client with "host owned ships OFF"
  

[h2]Ship shops[/h2]

• Added lesWAV CLBH-1 Leporinus player-made ship
  
• Added Arkhonus Larve player-made ship
  
• Updated 16 Red Chains player-made ship
  
• Added lesWAV CLBH-1 Leporinus (spaceship_ssc_leswav_leswavclbh1) ship to Rando 4 ship shop
  

[h2]Ship repair hall[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where extra items were not sometimes transferred to station storage when repairing ships that you do not own, but can operate
  
• Added more info on the repair terminal screen if something isn't working
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Added station permission icon for resource adjustments
  
• New look for Vokarium ore and raw ore UI icon
  

[h2]YOLOL[/h2]

• Fixed a crash that occured in specific modulus operations due to integer overflow
  
• Fixed an issue where YOLOL did not catch a runtime error
  

[h2]PTU ONLY[/h2]

• New Heat Mechanics
  
  • Heat Mechanics have been added to the PTU. For more information, see our official announcement and the heat mechanics wiki page.
• Capital Ships
  
  • Capital Ship warp frame corner and turn modules now connect properly for warp frame block count calculation
    
  • Added info about the requirement of of nozzle rings and the max amount that can be used for a single thruster to their tooltips
    
  • Capital ships station UI should now say expansion available if validity is met
    
  • Prevented creating capital ship if there are no station slots left
• Heat sinks added to power category in Ship Designer asset browser:
  
  • Heat Sink Beam
    
  • Heat Sink Cube
    
  • Heat Sink Plate
• Modules
  
  • Module changes:
    
    • Cockpit 2 Small Exposed (T1 Laborer) -> updated with heat information panels
  • New modules:
    
    • Tier 1 Generator 2 Radiator 1 heat Sink
      
    • Basic 1 Heat Sink Flat
      
    • Basic 1 Hardpoint 1 Heat Sink
• Moon
  
  • Moon bases now have anti-gravity zones equal in size to the safe zone
    
  • Moon base support modules can no longer be stacked on top of each other, as in occupying the exact same space
    
  • Trying to place objects on moon bases to a spot that a player is blocking no longer incorrectly sends the message "Object is outside the reach of a support leg."
    
  • Fixed an issue where the ore collector collects the Moon's surface Valkite even if it is not turned on
    
  • Surface mining will now collect ore through resource bridge, and will prioritize resource bridge over the player backpack
• Research tree:
  
  • Heat sinks added to "Tier 1 Generators"-node
    
  • New heat sink modules added to "Tier 1 Generators"-node
    
    • Tier 1 Generator 2 Radiator 1 heat Sink
      
    • Basic 1 Heat Sink Flat
      
    • Basic 1 Hardpoint 1 Heat Sink
  • Radiators moved to "Tier 1 Generators"-node
    
  • "Radiators"-node reneamed to "Coolant"-node
    
  • Cooling cells, related devices and modules moved to "Coolant"-node
• Ships
  
  • Laborer Module (Tutorial reward ship) updated to work with the new heat mechanics
    
  • Updated Hauler, Laborer, Laborer II, Belka (starter), Vigo (Starter), Alfrigg (Starter), Trident T1 (Starter), Worker Ant (Starter), Workmate (Starter), Rockhopper (Starter), Mara (Starter), Marmot-ST (Starter), Modulus (Starter), Momento (Starter), Moneymaker (Starter), Catbox M (Starter), Aphelios (Starter), Initium (Starter), Antares (Starter), Gofer, Hedron, Nautilus Cargo, Ocelot, Pioneer, Romulus, Vasama and Zilant spaceships to work with the new heat mechanics
    
  • Changed names and description of ships:
    
    • Gofer -> Gofer Explorer
      
    • Hedron -> Hedron Tug
      
    • Nautilus Cargo -> Nautilus Miner
      
    • Ocelot -> Ocelot Bus
      
    • Pioneer -> Pioneer Builder
      
    • Romulus -> Romulus Hauler
      
    • Zilant -> Zilant Racer
      
    • Vasama (description change only)
• Ship weapons:

Mounted Weapon electricity and heat generation sees a noticeable change. Weapons now have more distinct differences between electricity used and heat generated. In general, all mounted weapons have very effective heat transfer rate to heat sinks. Using heat sinks to store and dissipate heat is key to keep all weapons cooled. Now different weapons have three archetypes between electricity and heat resource management for ships. Autocannons generate more waste heat per shot and require less electricity while Laser Cannons and Rail cannons are more heat efficient due to their nature but require far more electricity to operate. Plasma cannon is hybrid of both, requiring balanced amount of both electricity and heat dissipation.

• Autocannon
  
  • Electricity per shot reduced from 330 to 94
    
  • Heat generated per shot increased from 45 to 125
• Laser Cannon
  
  • Electricity per shot increased from 400 to 440
    
  • Heat generated per shot increased from 60 to 80
• Plasma Cannon
  
  • Electricity per shot reduced from 2,500 to 2,000
    
  • Heat generated per shot increased from 250 to 800
• Added a new "Ship weapons" PTU directory for crafting the following new items:
  
  • 5-Tube Rocket Launcher
    
  • Fixed High Explosive Missile
    
  • Fixed High Explosive Dumbfire Torpedo

Hello everyone!

We’re happy to announce a new feature on its way to the game - heat mechanics. In short, this includes changes to how devices like generators, radiators, ship weapons and coolant work, as well as the addition of heat sinks. These changes will allow new possibilities in gameplay and more depth in ship designs.

For more details on what exactly changes and what is new, you can check out the feature video linked below as well as the Heat Mechanics wiki page. Heat mechanics will make their way to the PTU first and to the live server later.

IMPORTANT NOTE: After the implementation of these changes, most ships will need some amount of rework. This means it’s good to start preparing and adjusting for these upcoming changes as soon as they're added to the PTU. The ships that will be affected the most are small fighter ships: after this update they will start needing a heat sink for the weapons to work properly, and the heat sinks are quite large and heavy. See the Heat Mechanics wiki page for details that will help you best prepare for the changes.

In addition, the tutorial’s Laborer will have its cooling board removed and replaced with a cube-shaped heat sink. Any existing Laborers will need a bit of rework too, but just bolting a heat sink to it is enough for it to work properly again. You can see how to fix the Laborer yourself from the gif below, but if you need any help you can always reach out to us as well.



https://youtu.be/X7Zencrf5AI

Join the discussion on the official Starbase Discord.



And don't forget to wishlist Starbase on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/454120/Starbase/

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where ships being repaired in the Ship Repair Hall got stuck
  
• Fixed an issue where deleting nameless modules also deleted other items
  

Note: the same update also released on the PTU server. No separate PTU patch notes will be posted as the same changelog applies.

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• Station Renaming: Stations can be renamed via the station list
  
• Towing Beam
  
  • Towing Beam can tow ships and only ships
    
  • Only one ship can tow one additional ship at a time
    
  • The device consumes electricity in relation to the mass of the ship it's towing, 1000 kg mass requires 3 electricity per second
    
  • Towing a ship inside a safe zone can be enabled for a specific ship in the Ships menu, from the setting "Allow towing in safe zone" allowing anyone to tow the ship
    
    • Without this setting ships need to be decommissioned to be towable inside safe zones
      

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• Towing a ship at high speeds can cause the towed ship to gradually move further away from the towing ship and ultimately detach from the tow beam
  

[h2]Art[/h2]

• Xhalium raw ore art updated
  
• Exorium raw ore UI icon art updated
  

[h2]Auction House[/h2]

• Fixed a crash where adding Ores that were already being listed at the Auction House in another auction caused the game to crash
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Prevented the playing of multiple Missile launch sounds per launch
  

[h2]Crafting[/h2]

• Crafting Benches now allow crafting from anywhere within one Player Station Easy Build Mode area
  

[h2]Devices[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where Asteroids got stuck on ships when a Cargo Lock Frame was used on them
  
• Company owned ship's transponders now show company name to outsiders and ship name with color to company members
  
• Fixed an issue where picking up a solar panel setup caused it to vanish from existence
  
• Reconstruction Machine
  
  • Fixed an issue where Reconstruction Machine activated at station only after the player has relogged after the first time it was built
• Fixed an issue where Solar Power recharge did not start/work when built with items from inventory in-game
  
• Ducts
  
  • Fixed side edge connectivity issue for three ducts, edges of these ducts did not connect with hardpoints
    
    • Duct Straight 12x192 cm
      
    • Duct Straight 12x36 cm
      
    • Duct Corner 15x15 cm

[h2]Easy Build Mode[/h2]

• Fixed an issue with M2 unwelding not working more than once
  
• Expansion visualizations are shown when in Easy Build Mode or when close to an expansion
  
• Building long lines with modules should no longer create considerable gaps, miniscule gaps might still be noticed in extreme cases
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• Fixed issues with dead endoskeletons showing as default models and colliding with players
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the game to freeze when loading/unloading certain ships
  
• Player characters that were stuck in a permanent death state have now been fixed and unstuck
  
• Fixed an issue where ship Batteries did not recharge
  

[h2]Inventory[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where items that can't be equipped to hand/leg inventory slots could still be placed in those slots. This has now been prevented and only items that can be equipped to hand/leg slots can be placed there.
  

[h2]Player Stations[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where being close enough to another station made setting up new stations sluggish or impossible in nearby cells
  
• Updated Station Info HUD
  

[h2]Settings[/h2]

• In Gameplay - Mouse Rotations you can now set default behaviour of mouse scroll to push/pull or rotation
  
• In Gameplay - Mouse Rotations you can now toggle on or off the hold M2 to rotate objects feature
  

[h2]Ships[/h2]

• Updated:
  
  • 30 Allons Danser
• Added descriptions for:
  
  • Mammoth II W
    
  • Phat Roadster
    
  • Atolla
    
  • Ramora
    
  • Batfish
    
  • Komatsu T2
    
  • SkipJack
    
  • Vector7a
• Updated description of:
  
  • Manta-DC

[h2]Ship Shops[/h2]

• Removed the following ships from OKI ship shops:
  
  • Piece of Cheese from OKI 1
    
  • Flatter Extands from OKI 2
    
  • Barrow84 from OKI 2
    
  • Barrow40 from OKI 2
    
  • Miredge 8 from OKI 3
• Added the following ships to ship shops:
  
  • Rocker Duo to Rando 2
    
  • MPMS-2 T2 CLF to Rando 4
    
  • Arundel Mk1 TypeA to Rando 4
• Moved The Manta-DC from Rando 1 to K-Bot ship shop
  

[h2]Ship Designer[/h2]

• Fixed an issue that enabled building blueprints without building area restrictions
  
• Autobolt action in Ship Designer should now avoid bolting objects connected to joints to rest of the ship, which would cause the joint to no longer be able to move
  
• Added ship design workshop halls to the moon city
  

[h2]Ship Repair Hall[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where damaged components that are not part of the ship were sometimes not moved to Station Storage
  
• Fixed an issue where components that were damaged but later repaired using Building Tool sometimes counted as being damaged by the Ship Repair Terminal
  
• Added Ship Repair Halls to the moon city
  

[h2]Stations[/h2]

• Added Ship Designer and Ship Repair Halls to the moon city
  
• Added new Furniture research for stations
  

[h2]Weapons[/h2]

• Fixed Tripod Weapon UI showing 0 as Magazine count when entering a Tripod
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Fixed collision detection, highlights and sound for quickbar placement previews
  
• Added "don't show this again" option to Station expansion notification
  
• Added "reset pop-up hints" option to Esc menu settings tutorial section
  
• Tooltips now follow cursor when mouse is moved instead of closing
  
• Tooltip opening delay can be adjusted in settings
  
• Removed permission edit page from Stations Tab
  
• Permissions are now changed by clicking Permission icons
  
• Fixed broken station names in Insurance Transfer Menu