Starbase News

[h2]Progress Notes Week 47[/h2]
[h3](November 16th - 20th)[/h3]

Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 47 - hope you enjoy!

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

• Class 9 and 10 asteroids have been added back to the game
  
• Remote Explosive inventory bugs in job areas have been fixed
  
• Remote Explosives have been added to Demolition Job and Mining Job
  
• Work with easy building mode continues
  
• New ore distribution configurations have been tested, more localized distribution options are now available for creating ore hot spots for example
  
• New player ships have been added to economy
  
• Work on factory systems continues:
  
  • Iteration on 3D printer design has been worked on to improve player feedback and control
    
  • Initial pre-installed blueprint chip selection has been designed
    

User Interface

• Additional options (company purpose and public listing) for company edit page have been designed
  
• Design for company ship UI and access options have been worked on
  
• Ship platform and spawning tutorial design is underway
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• 3D Printer is now able to consume ores from connected ore crates and can output items to station storage when connected to a Resource Grid Utility Box
  
• The ability to resign stations has been added: resigning a station has a 60 second cancelable timer, visible to all users near the station terminal
  
• The ability to claim resigned stations has been added: claim button has been added to station terminals
  
• A fix has been made for some new armor models that had incorrect rotation
  
• A fix has been made for not being able to pick up station items to player inventory
  
• A fix has been made for being able to auto-bolt without a magazine
  
• A fix has been made for being able to auto-bolt other players' ships
  

User Interface

• A new window has been added to tutorial that tells when a quest reward has been awarded
  
• New tutorial hints about Magboots and how to align an endo's orientation to a surface have been added
  
• Owned Ship List page's basic functionality is done
  

In-game Designers

• Station foundation element modification has been prevented in the Station Designer
  
• A fix has been made for station grid slot LODs in the Station Designer
  
• A fix has been made for attachment plates placed in the Interior Designer getting deleted when moving the module in the Lot Designer
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• Work on tripod animations continues
  
• Resource port animations polished (3rd person)
  
• Rummage animations for Cable, Pipe, Welding, and Bolt Tools have been added (1st person)
  
• Fixed issue with sit animations and aiming at buttons
  

Stations and Cities

• Skyscraper interiors are being worked on
  
• New city areas are being worked on
  
• The overall layout of the Moon city has been updated
  

Weapons and Armor

• Serpentai armor set textures have been tweaked and paintjobs have been updated
  
• Empire armor set colored areas have been slightly tweaked
  

Other

• Asteroid materials are in the process of being tested and adjusted
  
• Work on the "resurrection machine" has been started
  
• Updated the Battery Explosion and related afterburn VFX
  
• Created new VFX for exploding ammo containers: Autocannon, Laser, Plasma and Railgun
  

[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 46[/h2]
[h3](November 9th - 13th)[/h3]

Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 46 - hope you enjoy!

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 on "easy building -mode" has started: this will be a simplified way to build ships from modules in-game, outside the Spaceship Designer
  
• New factory parts and player made ships have been added to the economy
  
• Safe zone has been added around the moon city, and new collision rules have been assigned:
  
  • Collision damage has been applied, but weapon damage is not allowed
    

User Interface

• Updates for the company bank statement UI, withdraw and deposit features and access control for credits have been worked on
  
• Tutorial UI and functionality design continues:
  
• New logic worked on for pause, disable and restart functionality
  
• Changes to UI visibility, lightning and hint texts and binds have been made
  

Other

• The following updates have been made to the player ship shops:
  
  • New ships added: Malamute, Tick, Corundum, Starfire, Kaiser, Clownfish, Eikenskald A, Heretha A, Baracuda, Hornet
    
  • Removed: Markolf Typ 1, Sparrow IV
    
  • Moved to Rando 2: Nate, Miter Saw
    

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• Chair quick binds now only reach devices of the same structure
  
• Safe zones now have specific settings for preventing structural collision damage
  
• A fix has been made for being able to drop electric resource to the world
  
• Kill zones have been added below the moon surfaces as a failsafe
  
• Ability to resign stations has been added: resigning a station has a 60 second cancelable timer, visible to all users near the station terminal
  
• Ability to claim resigned stations has been added: claim button has been added to station terminals
  

User Interface

• Electric resource amount has been added to UI
  
• 1x1 items will occupy 1x1 slots in inventory by default if possible, however they can be manually moved to larger slots
  

User Interface

• Electric resource amount has been added to UI
  
• 1x1 items will occupy 1x1 slots in inventory by default if possible, however they can be manually moved to larger slots
  

Spaceship Designer

• Station foundation element modification has been prevented in the Station Designer
  
• A fix was made for station grid slot LODs in the Station Designer
  
• A fix was made for attachment plates placed in the Interior Designer getting deleted when moving the module in the Lot Designer
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• All weapons and tools now have sprint animations
  
• All 1st person "lower weapon" animations have been improved and poses have been updated so they take less space on screen
  

Stations and Cities

• Moon City prototype has been created and added to the game
  
• City holograms are being implemented into the cities, these will also see more use in Space Stations
  
• First batch of skyscraper modules (entrances, floors and roofs) have been created and combined. Interiors are currently being worked on.
  
• New city areas are being worked on
  

Weapons and Armor

• New tripod heavy weapon has been rigged, animated and waiting for finalization
  
• Tripod heavy weapon will get more weapons, for now we've made the autocannon for it, as seen in the video
  
• Serpentine textures and paintjob polishing in progress
  
• The Remote Explosive Device's explosion VFX has been updated to be more 'forceful' and generally bigger in size and impact
  

Other

• Karnite asteroid concept image has been made
  
• Station asset icons have been added from decorative surfacing and decorative furniture categories
  
• Asteroid materials are being updated
  
• New rougher variations of the asteroid materials are being made
  

[h3]Gallery[/h3]

[h3]Videos[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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 45[/h2]
[h3](November 2nd - 6th)[/h3]

Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 45 - hope you enjoy!

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

• Mining backpack is now the default backpack: new players will spawn with the Mining backpack
  
• Ore distribution and material progression design work continues
  
• Restricted areas regarding player stations have been configured: building a station on some key locations is forbidden and prevented
  
• Player stations have been tested and improvements designed based on the results
  
• Bolt Tool autobolt improvement has been tasked: the tool should add bolts to all port profile suggestions, ignoring the max hard cap (i.e. ore crates and generator units)
  
• Mining Laser power consumption issue resolved and fixed: it now consumes 6k power per second
  
• Economy configurations and design have been worked on:
  
  • Player progression and material availability in the belt and beyond
    
  • Spaceship Designer assembly design and assembly cost changes
    
  • New player made ships were added to the economy
    

User Interface

• Auction House buy order, service fee variants and alternative UI have been worked on
  
• Design for alternative tutorial routes has been worked on
  

Other

• Halloween ship shop has been removed
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• Resource Bridge transfer with a single powered bridge port has been enabled
  
• Asteroids should be loaded again before colliding into them
  
• Thruster blocked-ness checking has been extended to avoid all kinds of encapsulated thrusters
  
• Ship "acceleration" sound system has been refactored
  
• Multisource sound system has been tweaked
  
• Cargo Lock Frame's wall no longer disappears during fast travel
  

User Interface

• Ores not being stackable has been fixed
  
• A fix has been made for not being able to autobolt objects with no bolt profiles, if objects already have bolts
  

Stations

• Build restriction area configuration has been added to allow developers to specify areas where player stations cannot be built
  
• Owned station limit has been updated to 1 per user profile
  
• New permissions to station management have been added
  
  • The adjustment of how many lots a user can rent within the station has been made possible (can be specified for default users)
    
  • The possibility for a user to be exempted from rental payment has been added (can be specified for default users)
    
  • The station owner can rent any number of lots and pays no rent for them by default
    

Spaceship Designer

• Quick bar has been enabled in Spaceship Designer test mode
  
• A fix has been made for selection not working properly after rotating the camera in Spaceship Designer
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• Work on 1st person sprint animations and general polish continues
  
• 3rd person resource port animations worked on
  

Stations and Cities

• Skyscrapers, street levels and city holograms are being worked on
  

Weapons and Armor

• Adamant armorset textures have been tweaked and paintjobs have been updated
  
• Toxine armorset colored areas have been slightly tweaked
  

Other

• Moon terrain texture tiling has been adjusted
  
• Lukium asteroid concept image has been made
  
• Inventory icons have been added for blueprint projectors, remote explosive assets and station assets (bases and beams)
  
• New 'Warp Gate entry' effect and a first version of 'Warp Gate travel' effect 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! 🪐

Starbase has a new Early Access release date target: Q1 2021.

Right now Starbase is in Closed Alpha, with roughly 1,200 members of the community having access to the game in addition to developers. Aiming for Q1 2021 will allow us enough time to better prepare the game for Early Access, and add a few more important gameplay loops. For example we have recently added Fast Travel gates and the beginnings of a player-based economy, and in the coming weeks we will be doing fixes and improvements to those. In addition, we will be adding other important gameplay features such as the tutorials, player stations and gravity. Once these are added, we expect to start inviting Alpha testers in larger numbers!

Here are some ways to keep up with our development progress and latest news:

• Join our official Discord
• Sign up to the mailing list
• Watch the forums

We hope to bring you the best possible experience when Early Access becomes available, so we thank you for your patience and support!

[h2]Progress Notes Week 44[/h2]
[h3](October 26th - 30th)[/h3]

Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 44 - hope you enjoy!

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

• Bolt Tool autobolt-feature has been designed and first version tested
  
• Ore distribution design continues, new material sets have been worked on for areas around the safe zone
  
• Spaceship Designer virtual mass-feature has been tested, it's now possible to test ore crates with extra mass and how it affects ship's durability and behavior
  
• Minor tweak and test has been made to Spaceship Designer autobolt, there's no more fixed limit on how many bolts are placed
  
• Fast travel gate locations and other related features have been fixed
  
• New player-made ships were added to the economy
  
• Auction House terminal was removed from marketplace and added only to the Origin station
  

Other

• Auction House UI design updates have been worked on based on community suggestions
  
• Device connection issue where the cradles purchased from the shops did not work should now be fixed
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• First working version of station blueprint caster was implemented for testing
  
• A fix was made for grabbing devices with jointed objects, such as turrets, breaking jointed objects' device connectivity
  
• A fix was made for holograms auto-built from the station/player inventory not having their proper visuals when built, instead appearing blank
  
• An old utility box that allows transferring resources (such as power) from station storage to containers located on lots was reimplemented
  

User Interface

• A fix was made for not being able to pick up some tools/weapons with interaction pickup
  
• Auction House terminal where Auction House UI can be opened has been added
  
• Auction House UI closing when moving far enough away from Auction House terminal
  
• A fix was made for Auction House not opening with "F" when weapon is raised
  
• Station creator specific selection types were added to the Designer selection menu
  
• Basic layout for Ship Ownership UI has been made
  
• Auto-bolt single object feature has been worked on
  
  • Auto-bolting when pressing down left mouse button was added
    
  • Progress bar was added
    
  • Auto-removing bolts when pressing down right mouse button was added
    

Spaceship Designer

• Removed the Insurance Transfer button from the Spaceship Designer Esc menu
  
• Virtual mass debug tool was made for the Spaceship Designer
  
• Material costs were added to the blueprint buy -dialogue
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• Work on 1st person sprint animations and general polish continues
  

Weapons

• Mounted AutoCannon muzzle effects were updated to be more 'focused' and less 'explosive' from the barrel itself
  
• Most weapons have reticles now, some are still incomplete but will be refined soon
  

Other

• Assets for blueprint chips and blueprint slots were added
  
• Asset for 3D printer now added and being finalized
  
• Decorational holograms being tested and approved for cities and megastations
  
• First wall sections for skyscrapers have been created and skyscraper entrance modules are also being detailed
  

[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! 🪐