Star Explorers News

A bug in the last update caused a DirectX error when using the star chart. I think it should be resolved now. I have not been able to reproduce it since the update, so hopefully it will no longer bother anyone.

There are still some tweaks to make with the star chart, but I plan on having it resolved by the end of the week.

Okay, I have delved into some 2+ year old code and improved the Star Chart quite a bit.

[h3]The Star Chart should now:[/h3]

• Retain it's focus even when switching between the mission panel and star chart
  
• Also retain its focus when leaving the ship and returning
  
• Also when leaving the game and returning
  
• Stars and planets with notes will appear yellow (instead of green, red or blue)
  
• Added option to delete notes
  

See the pretty yellow color of noted stars and planets...


I had to rewrite and redesign the code quite a bit in order to get this to work, and it took much longer than I anticipated. It also caused me to completely break the star chart at one point in order to rebuild it as needed. There were moments where I questioned my abilities as a programmer, and frankly my sanity.

I am sure it will still have some errors, but it does do all those things mentioned above if you are nice to it. If you encounter any errors, please report them to me after the weekend :)

Many small UI (User Interface) issues have been updated

[h3]New Stuff:[/h3]

• Star Chart adjusted to zoom out a bit more in the star view
  
• Star Chart should retain focus between game loads
  
• Mothership announcement updated
  
• Mothership elevator music is a part of the environment, but can now be turned off by opening the "options.cfg" file and changing the last value to -1 (C://users/username/AppData/Local/Star Explorers)
  
• Planet and Star names should now appear immediately after scanning them
  
• "Overlay Activated" message will now appear whenever the Star Chart overlay is on
  

Also some bugs were addressed

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• False Sectors could show up on your star chart, like sector 25 or 45
  
• Gas giants - computer no longer suggests landing
  
• Current Sector should now read correctly when orbiting planets
  

There are some other cool things added to the game, but you'll have to explore a bit to find them :)

The mysterious "floaters" have received a pretty major update.

[h3]New Stuff:[/h3]

• New floater types - not just the eyeball and sparkly ones
  
• New floater variables - visibility, particle types, segment spacing, tentacle direction etc...
  
• New floater behaviors - shooting floaters and some other surprises await!
  
• Improved floater optimization - floaters should not impact frame rate as much anymore
  

Here's an example of one possible variation...


[h3]Major Bug Fix[/h3]

• Saving the game near (but not docked with) the mothership could cause a corrupted save file.
  
• I was able to isolate the problem and address the cause in the script
  
• If you have a game that will not load, please send it to me and I can fix the file too
  
• Use [email protected]
  

When taking, placing, buying or selling items, you will find a couple of new options...

• There is a "Take All" radio button that will allow you to skip the amount dialogue
  
• A similar button exists for buying, selling and placing items
  
• It only appears for items that allow splitting amounts
  
• Once selected it will remain as default for all future transactions of the same type
  
• There are also a couple "+" and "-" buttons that allow for choosing exact amounts