Star Explorers News

[h3]Update - 5.5.23[/h3][p]I forgot to include a file in the 5.5.22 upload so it was not running. Somehow it worked on my computer, but I have figured it out and now I have a better way to test my games after major changes like this. Sorry for any inconvenience! [/p][h3]
Tractor Beam[/h3][p]Space mining just got a little more interesting. The basic functionality is the same, but now you can interact with space debris and use a kind of tractor beam to pull it into your ship's storage container. [/p][p][/p][h3]Music Unfreeze[/h3][p]I also made it so the game music no longer freezes when the game is paused. [/p][p][/p][h3][/h3]

[h3]Dropping Items[/h3][p]You can now set the amount of the items you are dropping. It's just to be consistent with the other item moving mechanics. Maybe you will find it useful.
[/p][p][/p][h3]Menu Sounds[/h3][p]The inventory menus and scanning functions now make nifty, computerized sound effects. [/p][p][/p][h3]Alien Battles[/h3][p]Also, I thought I would just re-share this little movie of a battle between aliens, because it's awesome! It's not a new feature or anything, it's been around for a while, but it was not really working properly.
[/p][p][/p][p]I managed to fix the shooting function for bipedal aliens, allowing these battles to take place in a more consistent manner. Sometimes you would land on a planet, and they would not react the right way, either not shooting or even not moving sometimes. Now they should behave correctly. They will also shoot at you if they are hostile :) [/p]

[p]I have resumed work on the latest version of Star Explorers. Thanks to the success of Cyclopean: The Great Abyss, I have been able to set aside the next two weeks to focus on Star Explorers.[/p][p]I have abandoned the Pre-release version 6.0 that I was working on because it acquired too many bugs to deal with. [/p][p]Now I have taken up the default version and have been re-applying the changes in a more slow and methodical manner. I scrapped the new database and mapping system for now. It proved too complex and was somehow not able to remain compatible with the main code base ... all my fault. [/p][p][/p][h3]New Features[/h3][p]So I have been able to update a lot of the things planned for the 6.0 release into this version. There are three main ones, and a few minor fixes.[/p][p][/p][h3]Fruits[/h3][p]I have alien fruits working in this version. I still have to tweak them a bit, but the basic functionality is there. You can watch them jump around and display their unusual behavior, or capture them and see what they taste like. [/p][p][/p][h3]
New Inventory[/h3][p]The new inventory system is also implemented. This was a major overhaul of the whole way inventory works, but it is much more efficient now. It also has new, nifty graphics to enjoy.[/p][p][/p][p]
I have also incorporated these graphics into the quests system, to keep it looking consistent.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Smoke Beasts[/h3][p]I've also incorporated these new kinds of random creatures I call smoke beasts. In the current default game, they are all just white smoke, but now they come in different colors and a number if unusual patterns.

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Other Fixes[/h3][p]As mentioned before, in the process of updating, I have found a lot of little bugs to fix along the way. Missing files, weird crashes that happened under very specific conditions, and things like the costs of items appearing inconsistently, have all been addressed. [/p][p]I will continue to add new stuff that has been in the works, and fix bugs along the way. In about two weeks I plan to set this as the "real" Version 6.0, and make it the default. [/p][p][/p]

[h3]Ozone --> Oxygen[/h3][p]I was testing out the game to see if achievements were still working. So I only had two unfinished, so I tried the "Die by suffocation and acid simultaneously" achievement. I noticed that the planet with liquid sulphuric acid had an ozone atmosphere, so I saved the game, restarted in normal mode, and tested it out. But then I saw that my oxygen meter was not running out, and I left the planet only to see that the atmosphere was not ozone, but oxygen!

So some ozone planets were getting re-loaded as oxygen for some reason. I seem to remember this being pointed out some time ago, and I was sure I fixed it ... but I guess I was wrong.Well I was able to fix it, test the achievement and succeed to die in acid, while simultaneously suffocating to death. Yay!

[/p][p]It's really great news, but it does not explain why some players are not seeing the achievements pop up. Maybe something about this latest build has fixed the issue, but I don't think so.

Can anyone else confirm that achievements are working? It may be something I did wrong, but I can't seem to reproduce the problem. Maybe I can help the player troubleshoot the issue from their end. Any feedback would be great.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Weapon Swapping Bug[/h3][p]I added a small variable that allows players to disable/enable the mouse scroll wheel. A player was experiencing trouble when playing with a trackpad, and my hope is that this will allow the game to be played without causing said trouble. [/p][p]If you are not having trouble with the weapons swapping at random, there is nothing for you in this update, move along...[/p][p][/p][h3]How to Update Settings[/h3][p]Right now you can only change the setting in the configuration file.

Before you can edit the file, you need to update it by opening the game, going to Options > Video Options change any setting, then click "Restart." Now the new thing will be added to the configuration file.[/p][p]
Go to "C:\\Users\\-Your_Username-\\AppData\\Local\\Star_Explorers"

Open the "options_1.cfg" file.

The last line will have the following text:

enable/disable scroll wheel,1

Change the 1 to -1 (NOT ZERO)

Save the file and restart Star Explorers. [/p][p][/p][p]Now you broke your scroll wheel, congratulations!
[/p][h3]What's a Scroll Wheel Precious?[/h3][p]The scroll wheel does two things in the game. First it allows you to zoom in and out of your star chart. I've tested this and it's still perfectly usable without zooming manually. The other thing it does is swap weapons when you are away from your ship. Instead of manually scrolling through weapons, just use the number keys 1-4 to choose the weapon (1 for the scanning device, 2-4 for equipped weapons).
[/p][p]Hopefully this will prevent the weapon swapping bug and allow the game's myriad other bugs to come back to the forefront![/p]