Star Explorers News

The 5.0 update did not roll out as smoothly as I'd hoped. A last minute bug report caused me to make some major changes this morning, which had unforeseen consequences. The bug seems to be centered on using the interactive guide. However, after "fixing" it, even bigger issues were later reported when players did not use the interactive guide.

So, I have rolled back some of those last minute changes, and relegated the interactive guide to the "beta" designation. If you use it, expect to have problems. I will be taking a slower, more careful look at that in the next few days. I know I announced this in the main update, but that was actually before I realized how big the ripple effects would be.



Thank you for your patience, and sorry for any confusion or inconvenience.

This is the official 5.0 Update I've been harping on about for over a year!

[h3]What's New?[/h3]
There are a lot of new features and improvements in this major update, when compared to the previous version (4.6.5D is still available in under Properties>Betas if you want to continue your current game).

I cannot list all the new features, but here are a few big ones:

[h3]Ship interior:[/h3]
Your spaceship has a few extra areas. The storage room is no longer just a door, but an actual room you can go in. In it, you will find your storage locker as well as a sleeping pod. Using the sleeping pod will restore your health, try it!



There is also a proper hangar for your landing craft.



Finally, an airlock allows you to actually dock with the mothership...

[h3]The Mothership Altair:[/h3]
Now when you visit the mothership, you can enter and interact with the people, buy goods from several shops, and have a cup of coffee at the Cygnus Lounge (now serving Starbux Coffee), or at either of two Starbux Coffee locations.



Shops will have specific items in stock, for greater reliability in terms of getting repair kits, ammo and other reusables.

[h3]More Surface Features:[/h3]
More unique features will present themselves on planet surfaces, offering emergent gameplay and challenges.

Tornadoes can spawn on some planets, presenting a different kind of environmental danger.



Meteors will occasionally fall on some worlds, depending on certain conditions. These pose a danger, but it is rare that one would actually fall on or near a person...



Planets now have a temperature range. Day and night will differ from one planet to another, depending on atmospheric conditions. On planets with no atmosphere, the change from day to night can be extreme. Planets with a vaporous atmosphere will have more consistent temperatures etc...

Caves also have a different temperature than the planet's surface. Usually caves will be cooler, but on some occasion, the hot core of a planet may warm up its interior. In general, cave temperatures will usually be easier for the player to withstand than those on the surface.

There are so many other features, it's tough to try to list them all here. If you really want to know everything that's changed, go ahead and play the game. Or you can read through the last year or so of updates.



[h3]About the Interactive Guide:[/h3]
The interactive guide is working, but I am calling it a "beta" because it has some known issues. It will guide you through the opening sequence, and explain the interface for new players. If you use it, I recommend doing what it says, and only what it says. Try to avoid experimentation until the guide lets you know it is finished.



Also, I would suggest playing through the whole guide in one sitting if possible. Saving and returning to the guide at the wrong point can cause issues. I plan to revisit the guide in the next few days, to make sure it is more robust.

[h3]About Version 5.0:[/h3]
Version 5.0 represents the full feature list of Star Explorers. I am uploading it now for two main reasons. First, I am fairly confident that it is more stable than the previous 4.6.5D version (especially after the game breaking planet landing freeze bug was fixed this morning). Also, with the recent Realms Deep conference, I wanted to make sure that new players have the best experience possible.

While the game now has the full set of features I have had in mind (with one or two exceptions) I make no claims that it will be a completely bug free experience. So, while I have no current plans to continue adding new features to the game, I do plan to continue supporting it and fixing any outstanding problems. If there is one thing I have learned through the many years of working on Star Explorers, it's that I am definitely not qualified to have made this game. So I offer my sincere apologies to anyone who was not satisfied with the experience.

Of course, I am totally ready to update to version 5.0, and of course the game is getting a ton of additional exposure thanks to Realms Deep ... and of course a major game breaking bug is discovered on the eve of battle!

Well, the good news is that I believe I have really found the source of the bug. It looks like it effected players of the testing branch the first time they land on a planet IF they are running through the interactive guide (perfect place right?).

What would happen is that when landing the game would hang as it was trying to load the planet. Then, to add insult to injury, when attempting to reload the game, it would place your ship near the orbited planet, but forget to put it in orbit, so your ship would end up crashing into the planet.

I was able to reproduce the bug thanks to a helpful player (who probably hates me now). Once i could see exactly where it happened, it was obvious what was happening, and I was able to create a workaround that allows the planet to be loaded properly.

As recently planned, I will be updating the default branch to the latest version, and stamping the 5.0 label on it.

I'll be here all day, so let me know if you find anything else!


EDIT:
I have updated again (at 2:30) with a very minor change. The interactive guide option now has the "BETA" label slapped on it. It works overall, but has introduced some issues. If you do use it, my recommendation would be to follow what it says, and don't do anything it doesn't tell you to do if possible. You should also prepare to finish the guide in one sitting. Issues have shown up when players save and return to the game, or do things they are not instructed to do. I plan to look more carefully at the guide in the next few days, and hopefully will be able to make it more stable.

With the Realms Deep event starting, I realized I should have the best and most stable version of the game up. With this realization, I have decided that the current testing branch is fundamentally done, and represents my best effort towards what was meant to be version 5.0.

So some time tomorrow I will be updating the main/default branch and announcing that Version 5.0 is ready.

I plan to be doing some last minute testing and updating graphics and such, so if you discover any game breaking bugs, please let me know.

I had to fix a couple things and I also added a few more small features.

[h3]Cave Temperatures Fixed[/h3]
These were not working as planned. If the planet temperature was between 200 and 400 Kelvin, the cave temperatures would not be calculated correctly, and would have been set to 0. Now cave temperatures should correspond correctly with surface temperatures.

[h3]High and Low Temperature Data[/h3]
Now your ship computer will display the low and high temperature for a planet. This will show both at the helm of your ship, as well as in the star chart.



[h3]Warning Message[/h3]
Now the ship computer should take a planet's high and low temperatures into account when issuing a warning about "surface hazards."

[h3]Realms Deep 2021[/h3]
Also, don't forget that Realms Deep is in less than four days! Watch the new Star Explorers trailer at it's world premiere this weekend. There are also supposed to be some other games being showcased too :)