Stellar Tactics News

I'm posting a few bug fixes and updates today. Here are the notes:

UPDATED - INT EXP bonuses for the following skills: HACKING, FIRST AID, CRAFTING, REPAIR and SALVAGING.
UPDATED - Descriptions are now displayed when rolling over icons on the minimap/radar.
UPDATED - A visual reminder for players to re-center the camera is now placed on screen in cases where the camera has been scrolled away from the active crew leader.
UPDATED - In the CREW MANAGER, you can now drop portraits to the right side of the screen on both the portrait and name fields.
UPDATED - The next weapon special attack skill tier level is now displayed when rolling over special attacks on the action bar.
UPDATED - Stat descriptions updated. Added information displaying various STAT influences. I'll be doing a bit of UI work to break these influences out so they present better in the future.
UPDATED - When new players first start the game - game FPS is set to 60fps instead of uncapped. This does not affect current settings for existing players - only new installs. A warning is displayed when uncapping frame rate to let players know that uncapping the frame rate could cause stability issues on some systems.
UPDATED - Various UI fixes/tweaks

FIXED - Fabricant player portrait genders were swapped and did not match voice.
FIXED - Random crew members being stuck when entering a new area. Previously required crouch->stand to fix as a workaround.
FIXED - Occasionally, crew members were be left behind when moving after entering a new area and require a second click.
FIXED - Occasionally, when entering a new area, the incorrect weapon was displayed for the selected crew member.
FIXED - Zoom In/Zoom Out buttons on map were inverted.
FIXED - The psionics selection bar remained hidden if you swapped to a weapon and then back to the amplifier while not in combat.
FIXED - Default psionic effect descriptions are now translated.
FIXED - Grenade status effects from assigned perks were not being applied. Perk +DMG bonuses were working as expected (+DMG)
FIXED - In space, approaching a target and selecting other orbital bodies via the system object list while approaching would reset the approach target. This would cause odd issues like arriving at a jump point and circling it etc.

Hi all. I decided to branch away from the chapter 3 content so I could post an update that includes a few things I think you might like for the holidays.

First, this build does not include chapter 3. I am still working on that and it is moving along (finally) at a reasonable pace. Instead, I am releasing a smaller update with the following main features:

Updated icons – The new icons are simplified and designed so you can easily visualize object types (weapons, armor etc.) and their quality levels at a glance. These icons are now the default icons for the game. You can revert to the original icons in the options menu in the video panel by selecting “Vivid Icons”. You can do this in-game and open the inventory and then exit to instantiate the changes. I’m still looking into icons for the various perks.

New crew portraits - By default, updated portraits will be assigned to your crew. If you preferred the old portraits, they are still available by entering the inventory or character info screens, selecting the crew member you want to adjust and then clicking the portrait. The portrait/voice UI will be displayed. Scroll past the new portraits, and you will see that the old portraits are available for selection. Note that you can also open the crew manager, select a crew member, select “REVIEW CREW MEMBER” and adjust the portraits. When starting a new game, the old portraits are not available – though they can be assigned once you are in the game.

Custom portraits – You can now add custom portraits to the game. Detailed instructions are provided in the new “PLAYER_PORTRAITS” folder in the install directory. Here are the basic steps.

• Make sure you exit the game.
  
• Navigate to the game install folder and open the “PLAYER_PORTRAITS” folder.
  
• Open the “instructions.txt” file in notepad or other text editor.
  
• You can have a total of 20 portraits for Human Male, Human Female, Fabricant (male/female) and Khor.
  
• The portraits must be 512x512 Pixels and be perfectly square.
  
• Portraits must be saved in JPG format with the “*.jpg” extension.
  
• These portraits must use the naming convention called out in the “instructions.txt” file or they will not be displayed in the game.
  
• The old portraits are stored in the "PLAYER_PORTRAITS" folder now and you can use them as a template/example.
  

Once you have added your portraits/illustrations, launch the game and load any save (or create a new game). Open the inventory, select the crew member you want to adjust and select the portrait in the upper left of the screen. The portrait/voice UI will be displayed. Scroll through the portraits and if everything was done according to the instructions, you should be able to select your custom portrait.

Custom portraits must be assigned once you are in the game. Right now, they are not visible during character creation.

Updated NPC portraits - I've updated all main story NPC portraits.

If you discover any bugs, out of place icons or issues with the portraits, please post them in the bug forums at the link below:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/


I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday and best wishes to you and your families. Thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Hi all! A quick update today. First, thank you all very much for the kind notes in my previous post. It means a lot to us. My wife is doing well. The first series of chemo is complete and surgery was successful. She will still be going through post operative radiation and chemotherapy over the coming months. She responded very well to the treatment up to this point.

Work is getting done on chapter 3 and a number of other things that I need to do to get ready for a full BETA. Here is a quick summary:

Chapter 3 – of course.

Crew missions – These missions will let you send idle crew members on various tasks that reward general and skill experience for that crew member and rewards like credits, weapons, armor, ship equipment etc. The rewards depend on the type of mission the crew member is sent on. I’ll explain how this works in detail once the system is finished.

Updated crew portraits.

Player generated portraits – I’ve finished work on loading player generated portraits. That means, you will be able to add any images you want (512x512 JPG’s) and they will load into the game for selection using the inventory or character information screen portrait/voice selection screen.

New icons for general inventory items. The new icons are simplified and made so you can easily distinguish between various items like weapons, armor, mods and grenade types. I’m also looking at ways to generate icons for the rest of the content like component parts, trade items, ore, refined ore etc. There are lot of icons in the game so I may not be able to create unique icons for everything – though most icons in the game will get a treatment of some sort.


New enemies.

New enemy ships.

Updates to the economy.

Assigned stats will affect space skills.

New devices for your ship – equipped to your hardware mount points. These will let you apply various de-buffs to enemy ships via the security bonuses and security perks in the electronics skill line.

Various bug fixes – as always.

Patrolling enemies are out – To be clear – patrolling enemies are terrible. I wasted almost a month trying to get this to work and really, when it comes down to it, it’s just an annoyance. There is already a chance that wandering into the line of sight of another enemy group could trigger “adds” to the current combat session. Add to this with patrolling enemies and it's just not sustainable. So, this is scrapped. I wish I could get my time back…but that’s the way game development works – you try something and it just doesn’t work.

I don’t have a release date for BETA at the moment as my schedule is still variable. However, I wanted to let you know that progress is being made.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics!

First the facts since I’ve seen a few comments:

• This game is not abandoned! It will never be abandoned.
  
• I’m running late with chapter 3 and all milestones I’ve set following that.
• The last patch was 2/9/24 – a hotfix. I generally do not post minor patch updates on the main Steam page.

You can always find the latest patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/343787283753661833/


I’ve struggled a bit with whether I should share this as I generally do not talk about my family. I do think it’s important to be transparent, so here it is.

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in January. I’m sure some of you know how this goes. Endless tests, MRI, PET scan, samples, and doctors office visits. She is half way through the first cycle of chemo and doing well. We were lucky that we found it early as the prognosis is excellent. My heart goes out to anyone who has or has had this disease and their loved ones – or any form of cancer for that matter. It’s terrifying!

My time has been very limited since February, and I have not been making the progress I expected. I am working on the game. However, my wife takes priority, and it’s been a bit difficult staying focused. Around the middle of April, I started working at nearly my normal pace. All of the locations, enemies, enemy ships, modeling and other assets for chapter 3 are complete now. I’ve finished about 1/3 of the dialog, and when that’s done I’ll start integrating everything.

Right now I’m considering just finishing everything on my list and releasing chapter 3 and all other planned content/features in one major patch as a full BETA, rather than mini-releases over the coming months. It will save time and I won’t need to pause for bug fixes between updates. As I do this work, I’ll try to post progress updates more often. I get it, if you don’t hear from me on a regular basis – some might assume I’ve abandoned my game. Not going to happen…

I'm not posting this looking for well wishes or sympathy. Really, I'm convinced she will be fine. It's a difficult treatment though, and I need to be present and supportive. I am asking you to be patient with me as I work through the rest of this content. It will get done - I'm on it.

Thanks as always for your support and have a great weekend!

I'm posting a few fixes and updates in todays patch before I lock everything down and start integrating the chapter 3 content. I've completed all assets for the new content update and it's time to put everything together.

This update adds pre-caching for all space content. You will notice that resources are being loaded when the game launches. This means a longer load to the main menu of the game, however, load times to space while in the game with be much faster. I also did a bit of work on load times for transitions between ground locations and will continue to work on this.

You will also find a new "Dark Space" option on the video options screen. This will set a single high resolution sky throughout the game. I felt this was a good option for players who would prefer a more realistic experience when flying through space. If you enable this at the main menu, loading a save will apply the new setting. If already in the game and in space, you will need to save and reload to see the changes.



Join Bumpy McSquigums as he streams Stellar Tactics live on the store page over the holidays. Here is the full schedule:

All streams will start at 1 PM EST and last 2 hours assuming no technical issues.
December 21
December 22
December 23
December 27
December 28

As always, thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics.

Notes for this patch:
UPDATED: The game now pre-caches content when first loading the game. This results in transitions from ground to space loading much faster than before. Your mileage may vary.
UPDATED: Improvements in loading speed between ground mission areas.
UPDATED: Using the character info, inventory, log, and ship UI now pauses the game while in space.
UPDATED: Asteroid fields indicated by [AF] in the star system object list on the star map and in space are now named "Asteroid Field [AF]". [AF] wasn't good enough.
ADDED: The video options screen now has an option for "Dark Space". This will set a single space material taken from public domain imagery of the Milky Way galaxy. I'm adding this for those of you who would prefer a more realistic space background. When enabling this option, you will need to exit and launch the game again for the option to take effect.
FIXED - Raider base story location - lighting and transition from last level to previous level location.
FIXED - Crew members would occasionally spawn above floor level in some areas.
FIXED - Map zoom in/out now matches the environment zoom mouse wheel settings. In - mouse wheel forward. Out - mouse wheel back.
FIXED - Disabling autosaves from the options menu was not functioning as expected.
FIXED - In a few instances, NPC's turned hostile could end up invisible. For example, Lazlo Eklund.
FIXED - Crew members equipped with armor, weapons, devices, and shields cannot be dismissed. You must remove all gear from a crew member before dismissing them in the crew manager. This resolves a problem where the crew could be dismissed, destroying story-critical devices like the Aznari Scanner and Psionic Amplifier.
FIXED - Missing planetary description info when targeting Coven base during story content mission.
FIXED - Ship pitch control would invert when flying in certain directions while using the keyboard controls. Tuned keyboard controls so they are more responsive.
FIXED - A bug that would fail to display planetary mining node scan data.

Other recent patches:
11/14/23 - 0.722b
Fixed: Cargo volume on the "Ship" screen was not displayed correctly when various sorting filters were applied.
Fixed: Ship equipment on the "Ship" screen did not display the correct quality indicators in the cargo list.
Fixed: If you had very high skill in mining, and perks selected (+Mining speed), it was possible that you could depleted an asteroid before fully heating the asteroid. I adjusted the minimum bracket scaling to compensate for this.

11/3/23 - 0.722
Fixed - Ship repair components should not be rewarded from asteroids - really - I really hope so this time :)
Fixed - When mining, the asteroid "heat" bar would flash and disappear when mining.
A bit of tuning on the new mining system:

--The "Lower" indicator of the "sweet spot" when mining is decreased further with mining skill. At higher levels of mining skill, it was possible that an asteroid could be depleted before it even warmed enough to enter the "ideal heated" state.

--Increased the amount of ore generated overall when mining. The new system feels a bit slower because asteroids are being depleted at a slower rate - however, the amount of ore mined is greater than before over the same amount of time. Increasing the amount of heat (changed above) and increasing the amount of ore generated should bring things back to where they were before - if not better.

--Increased the amount of heat generated during a pulse.

--I should mention, some asteroids are "clunkers". This is by design. You can usually tell when you crank the energy on a turret to max and after a few pulses, it has not heated significantly. It's best to stop mining that asteroid and move on...

11/1/23 - 0.721
Fixed - Cargo inventory was not being displayed correctly. This was a display only issue and did not affect the items in your cargo. Let me know if you see any further issues related to ship cargo not being displayed.
Fixed - If an asteroid was clicked rather than actually targeted by first selecting a turret, the asteroid would incorrectly think it was already targeted and could not be mined.
Fixed - In some cases, stopping mining could leave an asteroid in a state where it could not be targeted by other mining turrets.
Fixed - Asteroids were rewarding ship repair components - ooops!