1. Starbase
  2. News

Starbase News

Starbase - Progress Notes Week 21 (2020)


[h2]Progress Notes Week 21[/h2]
[h3](May 18th - 22nd)[/h3]
Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 21, hope you enjoy!

[h3]Design[/h3] Features
  • New instruction terminals added to all Mining Job workstations:
    Issue with the screens being destructible by players was fixed, now all screens are static and indestructible
  • Ship blueprint feature for fixing ships on the go is under design
  • Economy design: plans for in-depth material value overhaul is being worked on
  • Economy configurations made for the newly added stations
  • Resource systems conversion components have been checked on, design for simplified system for
  • inventory integration is being investigated
  • Changes made to the group and company chat notifications design: everyone in group/company now have identical group chat log
  • Furnace design is being worked on
Stations
  • New Kingdom outpost station is being worked on
  • Proving Grounds station has been finished and added to the universe
  • Medium Hall 18 added into Lot Designer
Spaceships
  • Modified blueprints created from Spatha, Knight and Wing, without cables and pipes:
    These can be used in the Demolition Job
  • Generator button issue in Remus has been fixed, buttons would not work correctly due to difference in their "OnStateValue"
  • Anubis has been added to the pre-made ship list in Spaceship Designer
Spaceship Designer
  • Updates to the Spaceship Designer Asset browser have been made:
    New folder called "Hardpoints": hardpoints are now in this folder
    Turrets folder is now called "Weapons": this folder consists of only weapon parts now
    New machinery sub-folder created, called "Utility": fixed mounts, turntables, cradles and robot arms now under this folder
    Generator folder is now called "Power": battery is now located here
    Furnace folder has been renamed to "Tools": Tractor Beam, Utility Body, Utility ammo have been moved to this folder
    Interactables folder is now called "Controls": Progress bars, Text Panel, Panel base, FCUs and MFC are now under this folder
    YOLOL: YOLOL rack parts are now in this folder
[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay
  • Gas converter not being detected by the box thruster even when placed properly has been fixed
  • An issue where lamps in lots not being buildable due to material consumption issues has been fixed
  • Thrusters can no longer generate propellant
  • Ship recovery cost now takes ship's carried material value into account
  • Asteroids now have a larger loading range of 200m (from 12m), a bug where asteroids wouldn't occasionally load has been fixed
  • Station lots no longer reload when finishing building the blueprint
  • Issue fixed in resource network calculations that caused a part of the network to advance very slowly and seemingly not consume some resources at all
  • Recovering ships that are hosted by a player has been allowed
  • Issue with grab, release and blocked -highlights not showing up when blocked by a LOD model has been fixed
  • Ship chair quick-bind system has been revised to fix an issue with constant resetting
User Interface
  • Item collection tooltips now show the name of the collection if it has been named
  • Warning triangles and flashing error messages have been added to item shop when chosen item cannot be bought
  • Inspect CV window not showing rank insignia of the inspected player has been fixed
  • An issue where company invites were not always showing the Company name has been fixed
  • Received and sent group invites now show up in Social tab group page UI
  • A bug where objects ended up in the world when trying to drag to a slot that doesn't allow it has been fixed
  • Support added for inclusion of basic hardware statistics in Feedback tool's reports
Audio
  • Movement sound volume adjustment has been fixed
  • Audio feedback for approaching, entering and leaving safe zone and snap mode toggle in grabbing tools has been plugged in
  • Support added for feedback sounds on unsuccessful firing of bolt tool
  • Support added for reloadable tools to indicate shortage of bullets by audio
Spaceship Designer
  • Saving blueprints with an existing name has been prevented
  • Autosave reliability has been improved: autosave must now be manually recovered from the File context menu
  • An issue where using the rotate or move tool could cause the editor to become unresponsive has been fixed
  • An issue where loading a premade ship blueprint and saving the current scene caused nothing to save has been fixed
  • Generated ship LOD models appearing in incorrect rotations and positions has been fixed
Planets and Moons
  • Range finder device not detecting moon surfaces has been fixed
  • Optimizations to improve the moon noisemap baking efficiency are being worked on
[h3]Art[/h3] Animations
  • Pipe Tool rig has been made
  • Reload animation has been made for the Welding Tool (3rd person)
  • Transition animation for activating the Universal Tool during crouch with pickaxe equipped has been made
  • Transition animation made for activating the Universal Tool during crouch with pistol equipped
  • Issues with arms incorrectly holding the pickaxe when in hammer mode or when moving when in prone position have been fixed (3rd person)
  • New emote animations are being worked on
Stations
  • Unnecessary geometry with flipped normals has been fixed in station_base_ramp_108x216x216
  • The exterior LODs for Marketplace's "Back Alley" have been updated
  • The hallways' farLOD model and texture maps in Empire Spaceship Design Workshop (Large) have been updated
  • Irrelevant warning decals have been removed from various Lot Designer modules, grid slots and decorative objects
Moons and Asteroids
  • Ice material variation for asteroids has been made
  • Two snowy material variations for asteroid rocks have been made
Other
  • Remote explosive, remote detonator and explosive pack assets with preliminary textures have been finished, ready for final texturing and gameplay implementation
  • Asset created for small control panel speaker and small signal baton
  • Lifeline icons have been made


[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 - Soundtrack Video



A new Starbase video has been released!

This video is a showcase of the beautiful soundtrack of the game, composed by Marcus Warner and Sauli Lehtinen. In the video you can also hear which of these songs play in which situations, be it at the stations, while exploring, or while in battle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNMLz6iiVu0

Take a few minutes to enjoy Starbase - Music above. In addition, don't forget that the Starbase Soundtrack Vol. 1 is now available for purchase here on Steam.

Join the discussion on the official Starbase Discord.



And don't forget to wishlist Starbase on Steam!

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

Starbase - Progress Notes Week 20 (2020)


[h2]Progress Notes Week 20[/h2]
[h3](May 11th - 15th)[/h3]
Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 20, hope you enjoy!

[h3]Design[/h3] Features
  • Mining job rewards have been increased by 50%, also outer materials will get higher rewards from the Collecting Area and inner materials will get higher rewards from the small Collector
  • The mining job collectors effective area has been increased: ore nuggets are now collected more efficiently from the workstation area
  • Spawn area markings added to Asteroid Mining Job workshops where asteroids spawns; this helps in multiplayer to identify area where players should not stand when spawning new asteroids
  • Modular Ore Cargo Crate inventory slot size was changed from 1x1 to 2x2, it can now be placed only to large slots
  • New instructions screen were added to Mining Job and the lua files have been configured
  • Economy configurations made for stations turning ore into refined materials
  • Empire Outpost trade value was adjusted: some ores are now less valuable
  • Two new armor sets were added to the economy
  • Design worked on for recovery/towing feature improvements
  • Design for device connection (plug/cable/pipe) highlights were updated: Universal tool designs have been updated, combining them with new Spaceship Designer design
  • Design for company tax system worked on
  • Trade window design for ships is underway
  • Notification improvements worked on for group, company and friend requests
  • Different trading options have been worked on (player-player, player-company and public trading/auctions)
  • Socket tool (Socket accidental removal issues): Sockets can't be no longer collected, if there is cable, pipe or device (hybrid button etc.) connected to the socket; Also bolted socket can't be collected
Stations
  • Lot Designer's Asset Browser has been updated:
    Folder and module names have been changed to be more easy to understand,
    Small hall modules have been added to the "Halls" folder,
    Everything is now in size- and type-based order; Bug in the alphabetical order code has been fixed
  • "Small hall 7" has been changed into "Medium Hall 17"
Spaceships
  • Spaceship modules and tutorial ship updated: Propellant tank supports have now pipe ports open by default
  • Hauler, Carrier and Tugger have been added to the list of premade ships in Spaceship Designer
  • Anubis has been reworked with new cockpit, durability fixes and new panels
[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay
  • An issue where building lamps was not possible in lots has been fixed. Lamps also now light the environment as designed
  • Device fields disappearing from the Universal tool if their names are set to nothing has been fixed
  • Welding Tool is now being able to build unbuildable holograms in lots
  • Lot building progress is now module-by-module in lots, starting from the lot doorway: i.e. modules not connected to a doorway through a module with a complete framework cannot be built until a connection is established
  • MFC IDs should no longer run out
  • Despawning a ship with active thrusters no longer produces an exhausts related assert
  • Durability testing colors have been improved, including yellow highlight for otherwise valid beams that are not parts of an existing frame
  • Durability has been modified to accept beam connections in 15-degree steps when considering validity for the frame
  • Small errors in ship prices shown to client have been fixed
  • Container code has been updated (a typo caused ores to get lost in some specific situations)
  • An issue where LODs were not showing for specific derelict ships has been fixed
  • Ship recovery feature is underway
  • Ships can no longer be collected when they are bolted to an asteroid
  • Sockets can no longer be removed if they are attached to pipes, cables, buttons, or if something is bolted to it
  • Newly built missiles should now lock properly
User Interface
  • Resource bridge getting stuck when despawning the ship while connected has been fixed
  • Mouse hovering not working in mining backpack UI when scrolling has been fixed
  • An issue with cargo crates being "inside" cargo crates has been fixed
  • Issues with adding Cargo crates to station storage and dropping them out from it (with and without ore) have been fixed
  • Crate slots not working correctly when scrolling the UI has been fixed.
  • Ore crate becoming unusable if an ore crate is disconnected while ore is being dragged has been fixed
  • A more convenient way for developers to read bug reports from the Feedback tool is being implemented
Audio
  • Audio support has been added to Cable Tool and Pipe Tool
  • Spaceship Designer's object manipulation sounds and button release sounds have been plugged in
  • Support has been added for Spaceship Designer's asset browser search field and visibility/lock buttons
  • Music system is now prevented from entering battle state when ship received damage from a player inside
Spaceship Designer
  • "Exit without saving" button has been added to the File menu
  • Pressing "File" / "New" now autosaves to a blueprint before resetting the scene
  • Pressing "File" / "Save Blueprint and Buy Custom Ship" will now properly save, buy and exit instead of just saving on the first attempt
  • Saving and save prompts are now prevented when nothing has changed in the scene since the last save
  • Player movement bounds have been added. If the player reaches the 50 km movement bounds border they get a message that recommends turning back
  • Better placeholder stringification of timestamps added to blueprints in the object browser
  • Unnecessary lot designer error spam has been reduced
  • Assert on failed action redo has been fixed
  • An issue where open scene parameters reset on test mode visit has been fixed
  • MUUS memory usage on actions that get sent over network has been optimized
  • Spaceship Designer now uses 64 bit floats for transformation operations
  • Color settings have been added for My Selection and other selection highlights
  • Default options not reloading if the user has an options file from a future build has been fixed
  • An issue where modules were not sorted correctly in lot editor has been fixed
  • Custom color index feature has been added to menu label pairs in SpaceTooltip
  • Colorisation has been added to the paint info tooltip text based on paint usage level
  • Tool switch has been added to SSCPlacement when an object is picked and paint tool is active, resetting active tool to select-tool
Planets
  • Player surface movement glitching on steep moon hills has been fixed
  • Assert in editor has been fixed when warping to a moon that isn't the first one due to mismanagement on shared terrain object collision generation tasks
[h3]Art[/h3] Animations
  • New animation has been made for unarmed stand idle: all related animations have been updated to match the new pose (emotes, transitions etc.)
  • Emote_cough has been polished, emote_thumbs2 up down aim animations have been finished and configured
  • Run stop animations (rifle) have been polished
Stations
  • Final exterior decoration updates done for medium-sized hall modules
  • Work hub assembly hall decoration updated
  • Various decorative station assets with broken automated LODs have been manually fixed
Other
  • UI: material icons updated to 2x size
  • UI: inventory category icons updated to 2x size
  • Level of detail (LOD) models have been created for the player drone base model
  • LOD optimization for moon rocks is in the making
  • Some moon related bugs have been fixed
  • Two new colored armorset combinations have been added to shops (Wedge and Trooper)
  • Snow material has undergone some fixes and ice material has been created
  • Parts for Starsol and Seneschal visuals in-game ad concepts are in the making


[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! 🪐

Starbase - Progress Notes Week 19 (2020)


[h2]Progress Notes Week 19[/h2]
[h3](May 4th - 8th)[/h3]
Hello everyone! Here are the progress notes of week 19:

[h3]Design[/h3] Features
  • Assembly Job and Mining Job rewards adjusted back up to 5000-6000 credits per minute, so getting a proper mining ship will not be too tedious
  • New mining ships tested in the asteroid belt, The Hauler seems to be the best choice for the first mining ship
  • Asteroid Mining Job reward issue, where players standing close to the instancing area would also receive credits, was fixed
  • Collision issues were fixed in ship market map
  • Stations now turn their ore stocks into refined ore correctly
  • Potential improvements to YOLOL parsing logic are being investigated
  • Customization UI design continues, edits to the inventory of equipment tab were made
  • YOLOL updates were made to the buses, they now slow down earlier and landing-mode activates faster
  • Socket Tool tooltip description now has binds which update automatically if changed
Stations
  • Lot Designer modules have been updated: New hall modules have been added (Large 8-9 and Medium 14-16), irrelevant warning decals have been removed, new modules had rubber pads on the floors, which have now been replaced with decals in order to keep the floors flat
  • Large Spaceship Shop's floors have been updated: Red areas now mark the location of each ship
  • Holes found in each of the large spaceship shops' exterior structure have been blocked
  • Take-off docks pointing "downwards" have been removed in Spaceship Shop (Large)
  • Ore storage tower base structure has been built. Level art and LODs pending
  • Capital Imperial A's housing slots have been updated: All the areas that have no gameplay yet have been replaced with temporary "empty slots", which are old housing slots without LotAreas or LotTerminals, The remaining 72 rental lots (36 small, 25 medium and 11 large) can be found at the tip of the station's "wings"
Spaceships
  • Twin Vasama & Vasama: Couple decoration plate colors updated, related to recent decoration base material/color change
[h3]Code[/h3] Gameplay
  • An issue where spotlight lamps wouldn't work after saving map in editor has been fixed
  • Device crash in ship showroom has been fixed
  • The lot doorway connection code has been refactored
  • Melee tools' collision check skipping player collision has been fixed
  • Inventory support for resources is in the making
  • Magnetic boots have been set to remember their last state between game sessions
  • Despawn issues of ships inside ship factory have been fixed
  • Some small inventory issues have been fixed
  • Implementation for dropping items while moving is underway
  • Grabbing/ungrabbing poses while moving have been fixed
  • Tractor beam's syncing has been fixed
  • Cargo lock netsync and multi master problems have been resolved
  • Cargo frame's wall model being offset when ship is spawned in has been fixed
  • Changes to Socket Tool implementation have been finished
  • Autobolting issue with devices on client's end is underway
  • Sliders for grabbing rotation sensitivity have been added
User Interface
  • Personal window system has been refactored
  • Company rank rights which aren't implemented yet have been disabled
  • An issue where player couldn't move refined ores to cargo crates has been fixed
  • Rank edit page has been tweaked
  • Resource Bridge - Resource Bridge connection not disconnecting when the bridges are too far apart has been fixed
  • Chat rights are now clickable in Company rank rights
  • Dragging ore from crate slots when Resource Bridge connection is lost now ends the dragging and returns the ore back to the ship inventory
  • Groups now disband when the player is the last member in the group and there are no pending invites
  • More chat messages have been added, such as 'Company name unavailable'.
  • Feedback Tool's screenshot preview functionality has been improved
Audio
  • A limit for total volume per looped sound type has been added
  • Spaceship Designer's button sounds (save, remove, undo, redo) have been plugged in
  • Support has been added for Spaceship Designer's slider sounds
Spaceship Designer
  • Asserts that occurred with large maps have been fixed
  • Crashing when saving an empty scene in ship designer has been fixed.
  • Entering the ship designer with an owned ship has been disabled until the feature has been fully implemented and tested
[h3]Art[/h3] Animations
  • The amount of movement animations (run/walk/crouch) has been reduced to a few core ones
  • Long rifle ADS fire and reload animations have been polished (1st person)
  • Laser rifle reload and fire animations have been polished (1st person)
  • New emotes have been made (ponder2, poke_aim_up, poke_aim_down) and some have been configured (wave2, poke)
  • Run stop animations (both rifle and unarmed) have been polished
Stations
  • Station hall modules now have flat floors
  • Station halls have been updated and LODs completed
  • LODs and texture maps of mega_station_modules_metro_stop_side_1 have been updated
  • Ship showroom has been updated with red highlights under the ships
  • The exterior decoration for "market_station_upper_shop" module has been finalized
Other
  • New Pipe Tool has been finished and is waiting for texturing
  • New Badges for some Empire divisions and military groups
  • Parts that will be animated inside editor for in-game ads of shops have been assembled in editor
  • Sparrow full set low poly model is ready to be textured
  • Vanguard armor set's texture and paint job quality polished
  • Inventory icons for electricity network resource and armor sets have been made
  • Moon rocks have been fixed and moon terrain textures have been updated
  • Materials updated for rocky asteroids, now 4 materials instead of 2 are in use
  • Minor color issues have been fixed and layers in various maps have been updated


[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! 🪐

Starbase Original Soundtrack Vol. 1 now available!



Starbase Official Soundtrack Vol. 1 is now available for purchase on Steam!

The soundtrack contains 23 tracks in total. It includes 14 original songs composed by Marcus Warner, tracks for the "Announcement Trailer" and the "New Features Trailer (January 2020)", two instrumental versions, and five ambient mood pieces by Sauli Lehtinen. The total play time is 2 hours 28 minutes of Starbase goodness.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1312940/Starbase_Soundtrack_Vol_1/

Join the discussion on the official Starbase Discord.



And don't forget to wishlist Starbase on Steam!

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