Star Explorers News

Due to some reports of issues with screen resolution, I have made some small adjustments to the testing branch.

• The game will create a new file called "options.cfg" instead of using the old "settings_new.cfg." When you run it, it will go back to the default values.
  
• The game should now start in full screen mode, at whatever resolution your monitor is currently set to by default.
  
• Some code was cleaned up in the process, hopefully it will work better. I plan to get this working right before moving on to other bugs and/or features, so if you can provide feedback on how well it works or doesn't, that will help a lot.
  
• 4K seems to be a problem, but I do not have a 4K monitor to test on. The spaceship panel was not visible, and the health/stats panel on to was off center for some reason.
  

I think the game looks and runs best at 1280 x 720, but it should still work at any resolution higher than that.

Only one small feature has been added to the testing branch...


[h3]Meteor Showers[/h3]

• Be careful, they will do tremendous damage if they hit close to you!
  
• They will probably appear too often right now, but for testing it's better to make sure they work.
  
• They will appear more often on lava planets, but can appear almost anywhere.
  
• I still plan to add a sound effect, as well as making sure they respond to the player's position on the planet. Right now they may disappear if you move out of range.
  

Lot's of small fixes in this one.

[h3]Alien City:[/h3]

• I had to change which planet the alien city appears on due to the temperature being too high for liquid ammonia. At first I tried manually adjusting the temperature, but this did not work properly after reloading the game somehow. So I set the temperature like other planets , via star temp and distance from star
  
• If you already started a new game, the city will not be in the same location, but two planets further out. This may cause issues, and the city may be inaccessible if that planet is a gas giant. It should work properly for any new games though
  
• Next step will be to update the alien city model (from the outside) so it looks better
  

[h3]Aliens and Floaters:[/h3]

• Fixed issue where aliens were stuck up in the air after landing on a planet
  
• Furry aliens (also those with crystals or fungus) had a negative impact in frame-rate. This has been improved.
  
• Frame rate in caves with "floaters" - those eyeball like aliens - has been improved dramatically. Somehow it was creating way too many of them
  
• Fixed a problem where tree leaves were appearing without alpha - like big black squares.
  
• Fixed issue where floater explosion sounds were getting cut off early
  
• Fixed issue where floaters were not respawning after returning to a planet
  

[h3]Ancient Ruins:[/h3]

• Improved debris scattering on ancient ruins
  
• Stair colliders have been added to ancient ruins (inside and outside) so you should not experience as much jerky movement when going up
  

This is the second of a series of small updates primarily addressing the Alien City.

• I made sure the planet on which you will find the city will have Ammonia in the liquid state - it had the potential to be in vaporous form previously, and this was not what I had in mind.
  
• Now the pink fog should only appear if you go under the ammonia canal.
  
• Rain has been limited, so it will not appear in the city. In the future I may allow for rain, if I can find a way from preventing it appearing in buildings, but until then, I am just not having it appear on the planet.
  
• More NPC dialogue options! NPCs in the mothership and the alien city will have more to say.
  
• Removal of repeat statements. NPCs should no longer repeat the same phrase more than once. If you are loading an old game, they may still repeat themselves, but for new games this will not happen.
  
• Star particle effects had a problem where they got stuck in the middle of the star. This should no longer happen.
  

This is the first of a series of small updates primarily addressing the Alien City.

Here I have included a city collider model, which should prevent players from jumping through windows, and getting caught in the map.

Next I plan to fix the issue with the fog level, where the map turns pink in the canal. I will also be adding more dialogue entries so each NPC will offer a wider variety of information.