Starbase News

[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! 🪐

[h2]Progress Notes Week 51[/h2]
[h3]December 14th - 18th[/h3]

Hello everyone, here are the progress notes of week 51. Starbase development will be quieting down for the holidays, so the progress notes will be taking a break until January 11th, 2021. See you then!

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

• Old Robur station has been removed from the universe
  
• Charodium ore consumption has been fixed for refined material (now identical with other ores)
  
• Crafting data for Laser Cannon Ammo Structure (mirrored version) has been fixed: it now uses Arkanium insted of Xhalium
  

Spaceships

• Santa’s Little Helper Bots have replaced Vasama in Sunny Ship Center with "The Sled".
  
• Swine has been removed from Rando 3 temporarily due to issues
  
• Ship shops have been added to Robur station
  
• Refuel stations have been added to Robur station
  

Other

• Resurrection Machine has been changed to Reconstruction Machine
  

[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay

• Fuel rods should no longer break when attached to structures without bolts.
  
• Auto-bolting has been patched to work with angled beams (also for corner-shaped attachment plates now)
  

User Interface

• A bug with ores not being stackable has been fixed
  
• Mining job tutorial can now be completed in all mining job instances
  
• An issue where auto-bolting/unbolting got stuck when switching tools or grabbing an object while unbolting has been fixed
  
• An issue where auto-unbolting removed weld bolts has been fixed
  
• An issue where auto-unbolting certain object caused other objects around it get unbolted has been fixed
  

Audio

• Ship mass support has been added to structural collisions (equivalent to how asteroid collision sounds are handled)
  
• Distance information to nearest planet has been fixed
  

In-game Designers

• An issue fixed where auto-naming affected thrusters that were being loaded in to the scene
  
• A separate settings window has been added for adjusting thruster device auto-naming
  
• Mouse wheel rotation and scaling control has been added for the decal
  

[h3]Art[/h3] Animations and Emotes

• 1st person weapons/tools now have animations when firing an empty gun
  
• 3rd person animations improved in mid-air events (either due to jumping or falling)
  
• Emote_yes_fps was removed and changed into /thumbs
  
• Rummage animations have been polished (1st person)
  

Weapons and Effects

• 'Afterburn' FX refined and recolored in Mounted Plasma Hits: the spawning and scaling rates over distance have been optimized
  
• 'Afterburn' FX added to Mounted Laser Hits: optimized the spawning and scaling rates over distance
  
• 'Afterburn' FX added to Mounted Railgun Hits: optimized the spawning and scaling rates over distance
  
• Propellant explosion FX Updated to better match explosive damage area - also added more dissipation to reduce 'clumping' on slower moving explosions
  
• New effect created for the large propellant container
  
• Fuel Rod explosion FX updated to better match explosive damage area - also added more dissipation to reduce 'clumping' on slower moving explosions
  
• Tractor Beam FX updated to be more 'stream like' and notably different to Resource Bridge
  
• Some of the reticles have been fixed due to them not being visible enough against darker backgrounds - reticle effects have been improved
  

Other

• Some adjustments have been made to auto exposure (less dramatic change from dark to bright)
  
• Devices: ammunition storage crate has been added
  
• Lighting and holograms added to: Balestra ship shop, Argentavian Federation ship shop, Kbot ship shop
  
• Reconstruction Machine was cut into 4 smaller pieces that can be carried. Inventory icons have been created for the pieces
  
• UI icons created for buttons in the top bar in SSC:
  
  • New icons: asset browser, toolbox, tool options, multi-user undo system, materials, scene view, properties, YOLOL script editor, building budget, paint colors, material cost
    
  • Sharper versions of existing icons: LOD viewer, create, attach, detach, show spaceship orientation
    

[h3]Gallery[/h3]

[h3]Videos[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[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! 🪐

Starbase Alpha invites are back! Now that the game has a proper starter-experience and a ton of new features, we are resuming additional invite waves.

Here's a new video showing some current gameplay from the alpha:
https://youtu.be/hoQxvVKjHLA

If you'd like to participate in the Starbase Closed Alpha, and you've done one of the two signup surveys - await your invitation! If you've not done the survey, head over to https://starbasegame.com/alpha-signup and fill out the form, and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/starbase for the latest info and invite updates.

We'll start with moderate amounts of invites first, but before Early Access launches, we hope to properly stress test the game with massive player counts, so expect the invitations to ramp up significantly in the coming couple of months. Soon enough we'll need everyone who signed up :)

Don't forget to wishlist! https://store.steampowered.com/app/454120