Starbase News

[h2]Progress Notes Week 5[/h2]
[h3]February 1st - 5th[/h3]

Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 5 of 2021!

Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.

[h3]Design[/h3] Features

• Design for Paint/Decal Tool features has been worked on
  
• Safe zone sensor has been designed for Transponder
  
• First version of material sensor design has been finished
  
• Mining backpack update has been designed, two ore slots will be added
  
• A split version of the Reconstruction machine has been added
  
  • New machines can all be put into player's inventory and grabbed and there's more space to bolt the machine
    
• Endoskeleton Replacement Kits have been added
  
  • Player may purchase these kits from markets
    
  • Pressing the "Add endo kit" button on the Reconstruction machine will move a kit from the player's inventory to the machine
    
• Remote Explosives and Remote Explosives Detonator have been added to economy
  
• Plasma Thruster design has been worked on, formulas for thruster resource usage have been collected and are ready for balancing
  

User Interface

• Design for Company missions is underway
  
  • UI for invitations, joining and accepting and publishing the missions has been worked on
    

Stations and Cities

• Landing platforms and Ship Design Workshops have been added to the Moon city (currently out of function, due to gravity)
  
• Three Ship Design Workshops and new insurance transfer terminals have been added to Robur station
  
  • Original insurance transfer has been renamed and requires re-binding
    

Spaceship Designer

• Spaceship Modules / Starter Kit now also has pre-assembled ship weapons with fixed mounts
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• A possible fix has been made for disappearing resources in resource networks
  
• Fixes have been made to unarmed melee syncing
  
• Inventory performance for players with large inventories has been improved
  
• 'Sell all' in sell terminal now sells everything and not just the first 250 items
  
• Proper interaction code for Tripods has been added
  
• The creation of a passive tool used to handle tripod weapon shooting has been started
  
• Player stations now have a separate build zone that defines where voxels can be built
  
• Player station default safe zone size has been decreased
  
• Finishing the foundation unit now increases station safe zone and build area size
  
• Adding voxels into a player station increases the station's build area, safe zone and the total claimed area towards a set maximum. Area volume growth is linear, each built voxel increases the volume by a set amount.
  
• Basic functionality of the new audio signal device system is now working
  

User Interface

• First version of the mail system has been finished. It will be used to send mail and credits to other players and can be accessed under social tab inbox
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• Work on melee animations continues
  
• Decalizer & painter tool animations have been worked on (1st person)
  
• "Downed" animations have been worked on further
  

Other

• Ship diagnostic scanner has been modeled and textured
  
• A torpedo laser tracker asset has been created
  
• UI icons for station manager permission toggles have been created
  

[h3]Gallery[/h3]

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and our blog for more pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🪐

[h2]Progress Notes Week 4[/h2]
[h3]January 25th - 29th[/h3]

Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 4 of 2021!

Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.

[h3]Design[/h3] Features

• Asteroid spawns and material distribution have been configured to fit the new belt height
  
• Easy build mode design and testing continues, module icon and rotation configurations have been tested
  
• New large asteroid LODs have been tested and configured
  
• New device that provides information about ships' durability issues and whether the ship is inside a safe zone has been designed
  
• Design on material scanners has started, this would be used to identify materials within a certain range
  
• Plasma Thruster (new big ship thruster) design has been worked on
  
• Design for decommissioning owned spaceships and claiming non-owned spaceships has been made
  

User Interface

• Station Manager UI design has been worked on:
  
  • First version of a station "blueprint page" has been made
    
  • Different iterations for Station Manager Player Access settings have been worked on
    

Stations and Cities

• Ship Despawn Area with 5s timer has been added around Ship design workshop's insurance terminal in Origin station
  
• Marketplace has been added to Robur station
  
• Barricades for the cities are being worked on
  

Spaceship Designer

• Test mode now always starts with magnetic boots off
  
• Welds should no longer interfere with automatic snapping
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• Broken chairs has been adjusted so that they keep ejecting players until there's room to leave them
  
• A fix has been made for not being able to sometimes snap objects next to beams that are welded
  
• A fix has been made for not being able to pick up welded beams to inventory
  
• Fixes have been made to Tripod and Tripod weapon netsyncing
  

User Interface

• Improvements have been made to sorting and visuals in CV bank statement
  

In-game Designers

• A fix has been made for an issue that prevented entering the Station Designer on specific stations
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• Work on melee animations continues
  
• A new Melee Punch effect has been added
  
• "Downed" animations have been worked on (player is incapacitated but can still be recovered- animation)
  

Stations and Cities

• Planet Beacon has been worked on. Planet Beacon is used to claim the building area from moons/planets
  

Weapons and Tools

• Decalizer and painter tool textures have been added
  
• A scope model for the tripod weapons has been created
  

Other

• Remote utility box has been modeled and textured
  
• Device rack core textures have been fixed
  

[h3]Gallery[/h3]

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and our blog for more pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🪐

[h2]Progress Notes Week 3[/h2]
[h3]January 18th - 22nd[/h3]

Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 3 of 2021!

Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.

[h3]Design[/h3] Features

• Large non-mineable asteroid configurations have been tested and updated, non-mineable asteroids are now rarer and clusters are less dense
  
• Solutions for invisible collisions with welds have been designed and tested
  
• Auto-rotation feature for ship modules has been designed (Easy building mode)
  
• Transponder support for developer created stations has been designed
  
• Player looting system design is being worked on
  
• General system for device storage access for more flexible manufacturing has been designed
  
• Utility box device remote variant asset has been designed
  

User Interface

• Improvements for Ship Safe Mode toggle UI design have been worked on
  
• Station and Ship Manager UI designs have been worked on
  

Stations and Cities

• Upper grid slots' walkway issues have been fixed
  
• The rotations of the ships "Mite" and "Mara" have been corrected in Okim Industries' spaceship shop 1
  
• New city sections are being worked on
  
• City borders / barricades are being worked on
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• Support for ship vouchers has been added
  
• Unarmed melee animation syncing plus other small melee fixes and options have been made
  
• Accidental deletion of non-empty station inventories has been prevented
  
• More versatile effect support for damages has been added
  
• Transponder feature for developer made stations has been added
  
• Certain specific items within ships now have correct amounts of resources when bought
  
• Auctions with certain specific resource containers now behave correctly
  
• A fix has been made for players being locked to ships that are hidden by instancing
  
• A fix has been made for autobolting only bolting bolts that are visible to the player
  
• A fix has been made for not being able to fix repair job ships
  

User Interface

• Company layout has been reworked
  
• A fix has been made for players being able to promote other players to their own rank
  
• Auction House UI no longer lists auctions when a category containing subcategories only is selected
  

In-game Designers

• Beams are no longer unwelded when moving them with Move or Rotate tools
  
• Beam welds are now included in created modules
  
• Station parts that have been completely or partially built in-game can no longer be removed in the Station Designer
  
• Resaving a station's blueprint in the Station Designer will now remove any parts not part of the station blueprint
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• Work on melee animations continued
  
• Decalizer & painter tool rigs have been created
  
• Downed animations have been worked on (3rd person)
  

Other

• Base Drone model textures have been updated
  
• Assets for Decalizer tool and Painter tool have been made, these help players insert decals and color their ships while in first person mode
  

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and our blog for more pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🪐

[h2]Progress Notes Week 2[/h2]
[h3]January 11th - 15th[/h3]

Hello everyone, here are the progress notes of week 2 of 2021!!

Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.

[h3]Design[/h3] Features

• First version of the "Easy build mode" ship building method has been tested
  
• Tweak for material consumption configurations has been designed, this should help to keep amounts consistent throughout various interfaces
  
• "Center of Mass" and "Center of Thrust"-indicators in Spaceship Designer have been designed and are now being implemented
  
• Improvements on physical damage depth have been designed, material density will be affecting damage depth after this is implemented
  
• Torpedoes, missiles and their accessories have been added to economy
  
• 55 new player-made ships have been added to economy
  
• Unarmed melee has been tested, and improvements designed
  

User Interface

• Design for how to change decal colors has been completed
  

Station / Lot Designer

• Lot Designer: Lower wide entrance of Medium Hall 1 should now correctly attach to a lot doorway
  
• Instancing has been added to various new landing platforms and fixed in areas where it was broken
  

Spaceship Designer

• Missile and Torpedo parts are now Found in Machinery/Launchers
  
• Machinery/Utility: 3 Support parts have been added for Launchers
  
• Machinery/Tools: Laser Designator and Utility Tool Body 2 have been added
  

Spaceships

• Replaced Transparent Basic plates with window plates in Remus, Urchin and Anubis
  
• New player-made ships have been added to ship shops
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• Unarmed melee strike has been implemented
  
• Durability error notifications are no longer shown in Repair jobs
  
• Cargo Frame's field collision has been changed to appear in the correct location when moving
  
• Adjustment of the volume of the ship-nearing-failure sound has been added to the settings
  
• Chair exit area has been extended upwards
  
• A fix has been made to the destination warp gate effect being in the wrong position when arriving
  
• A fix has been made for certain items getting stuck in the auction system
  
• A fix has been made for being unable to sell ships that had been repaired
  

In-game Designers

• Nearby player station LODs in the Designer background have been fixed and should now appear in correct positions
  
• Some fixes have been made to bolt building, fixing bolts being incorrectly marked as non-buildable or sometimes disappearing when bolted to certain assets
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• New reload animation for assault rifle has been made (1st person)
  
• Remote explosive animations have been polished
  
• Empty fire animations have been worked on (1st and 3rd person)
  
• Work on unarmed melee animations has started
  

Stations and Cities

• Level art for city landing section is done, and is now waiting for LODs
  
• Marketplace colors have been changed to match the style guides
  
• Ladder assets have been updated in station scenes
  

Other

• Icons for ship modules in the ship creator are being made
  
• Warp Gate distortion FX has been adjusted to stop it from 'pulling apart' at entry point
  
• Gravity has been removed on Breaking Lamp effects and the initial break has been made more explosive
  
• The 'popping' in Coolant Leak FX has been fixed, along with some other small tweaks to the visuals
  

[h3]Gallery[/h3]

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and our blog for more pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🪐

[h2]Progress Notes Week 1[/h2]
[h3]January 4th - 8th[/h3]

Hello everyone, here are the first Starbase Progress Notes of 2021!

Please note that the "Progress Notes" are different from the Starbase Alpha "Patch Notes". Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.

[h3]Design[/h3] User Interface

• Mailing system design is in the works
  
• UI elements have been worked on for Ship and Station Manager UI's new functionality
  

In-game Designers

• Control table angle support 45 and Control table stand 45 icons have been fixed
  
• Window Frame 192x36x24 cm has been moved to Windows folder as it is transparent
  
• Old 30 degree beam names have been modified to match with the new 30 degree beams
  
• New 15, 30 and 45 degree beams and plates are being tested and finalized
  
  • More snap points for plates added for easier automatic snapping
    
  • Rotate/Move tool gadget visualization now shows in correct position with new 15, 30 and 45 beams and plates
    

Other

• The Sled has been removed from Sunny Ship Center and Vasama has been added back
  
• Argentavian Federation player ship shop is being worked on
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• Some fixes have been made for ship host transfer failing in some cases
  
• Fast travel should now end correctly even if the ship flies using its thrusters
  
• An optional warning message is shown for players on ships with durability errors
  
• Ships with durability errors apply a "safe mode" by default, avoiding damage due to thruster use
  
• Ships avoid leaving safe zones by default
  
• Ship collisions now affect their residual speed, reducing for example drifting when an impact occurs in the opposite direction
  
• Detached pilot chairs should no longer leave active quick binds stuck
  
• A fix has been made for station transponder signal disappearing if player restarts the game more than a cell away from the station
  
• Pressing the "Edit" button on station terminals is now prevented if the station's resignation has been initiated plates now)
  

In-game Designers

• A fix has been made for rotate tool widget appearing in the wrong position for objects that have a custom center of rotation point defined
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• Rummage animations have been polished (1st person)
  
• Empty fire animations have been started (trying to shoot with no ammo, 1st person)
  

Stations and Cities

• Skyscraper Roof 01 has been finished
  
• Level art is being worked on for Chemosh and Kbot spaceship shops
  

Weapons and Armor

• Some incorrect directional properties have been corrected to Hit effects of several handheld weapons
  
• Visual updates have been made to Missile and Torpedo Hit VFX: some optimizations and matched sizing to better fit damage area
  
• Updates have been made to Remote Explosive VFX. Added debris trails and 'stronger blast': better scaled FX to match damage area
  

Other

• Inventory icons have been added for the 15, 30, 45 degree plate assets
  

Don't forget to check our official Starbase forums and our blog for more pictures and videos of the weekly development.

Until next time! 🪐