Star Explorers News

[h3]EDIT[/h3]
I have updated the game again to version 5.2.5a. The last build allowed for planets with Acknexium crystals to have no caves. This would make it difficult or perhaps even impossible to complete the game. Note: I do not believe this will solve the bug where Acknexium is sometimes not recognized. I am still working on that, but generally a visit to another planet in the same sector, or perhaps a repeat visit to the same planet, will make the game recognize the quest as complete.

If anyone is able to reproduce that bug, please let me know. It may be related to using the interactive guide, which is still in beta testing...

[h3]Alien Interactions [/h3]
Aliens will now interact with each other. They might fight each other, they might run away from each other ... they might do stuff that makes little sense, but that's the point!

I was still getting a rare, occasional bug, but nothing game breaking. Also, it hasn't happened in a while and I suspect it might have been resolved. At worst, what might happen (with this bug in particular) is that one of the bipedal aliens might freeze and stop interacting.

I plan to release it to the main branch by the weekend but I figure this is something I should continue testing a bit longer. These are pretty significant changes, so who knows what else might go wrong...

Here is a strange animal confronted by a star shaped floater


[h3]Weapon Tiers[/h3]
I have updated the whole weapons system, now weapons have three tiers. Yellow weapons represent the lowest quality weapons. Blue are the middle quality, and red are rare, and highly powerful weapons. From a gameplay standpoint, these kinds of weapons, in terms of the increase in firepower, already existed in the game, but they were not color coded and all looked the same.

I think it adds a certain level of comprehension, so you can tell at a glance which weapons will be more useful. I also might actually update the models, so each tier has more interesting looking weapons, but for now color coding was a fast and easy way to get this system started.

Here, you can see two different color laser pistols (yellow and blue) among other things


[h3]Alien Weapons[/h3]
Bipedal aliens have been given an upgrade. Instead of just standard laser pistols, they can now have assault rifles and even rocket launchers! I have abstained from giving them access to sonic cannons because they would be likely to kill off their friends.

[h3]Weapon Costs[/h3]
Weapons now have a working system of differentiating the cost of the weapon from the cost of any ammo that has been loaded into the weapon. You can still buy and sell loaded weapons. But if you unload them, the price drops accordingly. Rocket launchers and sonic cannons are considerably more valuable when loaded.

[h3]Testing Branch[/h3]
If you want to try out the latest version, navigate in Steam to "Star Explorers > Properties > Betas" and enter the code "rocketship1234" to unlock the testing branch. Please report any bugs or issues to me, or better, record your play session so I can see exactly what went wrong. I hope nothing goes wrong, but I'm trying to anticipate these issues before they happen.

In this upcoming update, aliens will be able to interact with each other, and not just the player. I am hoping this will lead to more emergent gameplay and interesting situations. This video shows just a small sample of different interactions. They are mostly hostile in these examples, but this can change depending on the demeanor of the aliens involved.

https://youtu.be/7sRhgyqcavI

You may also have noticed some robots outside of the crashed UFO ... that's new too.

It is somewhat hard to see what's happening in the video, so as an example, in the following image, you can see a robot shooting at two tentacled "floaters." In this image, one of the floaters has been hit, and it is in the process of exploding into little bits (also new).



There are still a few loose ends and possible bugs to tie up, but I hope to have something ready by this weekend. Please feel free to share any thoughts or suggestions on this. It's the first time I have attempted anything like this, so player feedback is important.

So this seems like something I should have done a long time ago ... somehow it slipped my mind, I guess.

Explosions now damage the player.

To be fair, some explosions did damage the player previously, namely exploding aliens and meteors. However, the rocket launcher did not damage the player at all if you fired it at close range. Now it does, as do the exploding fuel crystals seen in the last update.

You can see how it works here:
https://youtu.be/40swfyAk8v0

ALSO:
I think I finally fixed the Sonic Cannon. It was working, but sometimes it didn't always register a hit, so it seemed a bit faulty. I found out it was calculating direction incorrectly, and now it should actually hit stuff when pointing at it.

Okay, if you really want to enjoy this game, I recommend not reading further, and just go play the game knowing that I have updated the explosions.

However, for the sake of being thorough, I will describe exactly what I've done.

[h3]Explosions Updated:[/h3]
First, the rocket and meteor explosions have been updated to work more efficiently. Previously, these explosions would use a light source to create a glowing area. However, this was quite awkward, since some of the games materials do not allow for more than two lights. The result was some strange switching on and off of lights, the player's flashlight included. It was an ugly solution to a problem that has no right to be in a modern game of any standard, but here we are.



So, what I did was to use a glowing mass of particles instead of an actual light source. The effect is different, maybe not quite as dramatic looking, but it allows for a more persistent and sensible environment in the game.

Okay .. go play the game. It's much more fun if you actually just experience these things first hand.

...

Still here?

Okay fine.

[h3]Chain Reactions:[/h3]
One thing I really want to do in Star Explorers is to create emergent and unexpected gameplay. This, as it turns out, is not an easy thing to accomplish. Getting things in the game to react and interact with each other is challenging, and coming up with and implementing these kinds of things has proven difficult for me.

But I figure if I continue to add one or two little things here and there, eventually they will start interacting in unexpected and exciting ways. In this latest update I am adding an interaction with Acknexium crystals, the primary fuel source in the game.



Fuel crystals are unstable, allowing them to provide power to the game's spacecraft. This instability will result in explosions and possible chain reactions if the crystals are damaged by weapon's fire. Direct fire from a laser will cause the crystals to explode immediately. Indirect damage caused by nearby explosions or sonic weapons will set up a kind of resonance feedback loop that will result in a brief period of instability, followed by an explosion. If crystals are close enough together they can set each other off in a chain reaction this way.

[h3]Plans for the Future:[/h3]
No promises. When I think of stuff, I get excited and add it to the game. If it actually works, then you will likely see an update. I do want to have more, interesting interactions like this, especially with the various life forms in Star Explorers.

NOTE: You will need to run the game in order to let it create the "VSync2.txt" file. There is an older "VSYNC.txt" file that will only have the first line. That file can be safely deleted if you want.

Star Explorers now allows you to cap the framerate of the game as an option.

In order to do this, you will currently have to modify an external text file. Some day, I may add an in-game menu option for this if there is demand.

To do it, find the "VSync2.txt" file in the save game folder.

"C:\Users\Your_Username\AppData\Local\Star_Explorers"

When you open the file, you should see this:



The second line is new. Keeping the 0 at the end of the second line will allow your game to run as fast as your hardware can take it. This may cause some strange issues as hardware is getting faster and faster every day. Setting this to a comfortable speed like 60, should allow the game to run smoothly without unexpected issues.

Here's what it should look like if you want to cap the framerate to 60 fps.



The first line sets the game to run at the same speed as your monitor if it's set to 0. This was already a feature of the game. You can unlock this limit by changing the 0 at the end of the first line to a 1.