New Quests, Items, and Locations... and... PLAYABLE!

[h2]Greetings space captains! [/h2][p]Development continues, 12 years and counting.[/p][p][/p][p]Approaching Infinity has been found to be "playable" on the Steam Deck.[/p][p][/p][p]You may have already known that, since there are thousands of deck player-hours... But do you know there's a "Big Text" option (options => Text/buttons => Big Text) that makes text bigger? Mostly for the deck players but anyone can use it ;)[/p][p]The Steam Team has given me a list of requirements needed to get it up to "Verified", but I honestly doubt that AGK is up to the task of fulfilling all of them.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]S.O.S. beacons can now give "rare plant" quests, where you need to find 2 different kinds of rare plant (which are now detectable from scans).[/p]
• [p]Beacons can also give "Merc needs a gun" quests. I urge you to read these if you get them. This is great for players who like crafting, because you can usually build what they need...[/p]
• [p]There's a new mini-quest through a hail interaction, where an alien ship needs a replacement component (engine, sensors, etc.) and they are willing to trade. You've got your choice of rewards with this one, I hope you find something you need ;)[/p]
• [p]Another new hail quest, this one from stations: they need a certain consumable that you either have or can build, and are offering a choice of rewards. Some of the problems can have serious consequences...[/p]
• [p]Finally, if there are space monsters in the sector (amoebas, nebula fleas, etc.), a station might hail and give you a quest to remove them. They'll also give you hints on how to do that, so you could learn a thing or two.[/p]

[p][/p][p]The Force Drill: a consumable that destroys 1 tile of force field in space, red, blue, or yellow (not purple). Found on the 6 level of narcratu hives.[/p][p][/p][p]The Firax Cipher: a consumable that eliminates 3 wrong choices when identifying an artifact! Found in galactic megastructures.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Distillery: a device that gives 1 extra essence when extracting, and also 1 additional jitter juice or rage-a-hol when creating those consumables.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Multi-Tool: a device that gives a 50% chance to not consume parts (repair kits, gadgets, crafting parts) when repairing shipwreck systems.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Supply Converter: a device that gives 5x the amount of supplies when burning commodities in your reactor.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is a new area that is both "a narrow dangerous passage" and a desecrated, corrupted place. It is completely taken over by the Narcratu. Do not go there unless you are ready to lose your game. I died 4 times in one I thought I was ready for. There are new enemy ship types. Look on the warp screen![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can now see certain special sector types right on the warp screen before you go there. You'll also get popups explaining what those are. Additionally, the inhabitants of sectors are now shown in all sectors (it used to be only up to sector 33).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]With magnetic boots, you can walk on the outer hull of shipwrecks. But until recently, there wasn't much out there. Sometimes you could use it to get to previously unreachable areas, and exploring it gives data, but that's about it.[/p][p]That changes now.[/p][p]There is a new kind of monster out there: the "Sparnacle": an unmoving lump of silicoid life that is full of rare essences, if you can manage to harvest them before they float off into space (the grappler gun is a blessing here).[/p][p]There are also new exterior components (including a lootable "hull locker") and stuff like solar panels, which give bonus points when using a ship as your own. If there are items on the outer hull, there is guaranteed to be a "hull access" door that leads out while maintaining the atmosphere.[/p][p][/p][p]On top of that, auto-explore has been revamped to ignore the outer hull until the inner area has been explored. That was a player request. You're welcome ːsteamhappyː[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]

• [p]I think I have finally, no really this time, eliminated the "red switch behind yellow forcefield" problem. It's not released, but I've seen it in action several times now, it works.[/p]
• [p]Silent Running and Stealth Coating can now reduce the distance you can be decloaked to 0.[/p]
• [p]I made "Haste" away team cyber skill more effective.[/p]
• [p]Disease cures cost less in early sectors (this was supposed to be a thing but the math was wrong!)[/p]
• [p]Scrambler weapons now destroy nanostructure in a radius (not just plink 1 at a time!)[/p]
• [p]I improved the spawning of sprawling planets: the areas will be more varied in both structure and terrain images.[/p]
• [p]Unlearnable recipes should no longer show the "recipe unknown" icon.[/p]
• [p]Shooting Vacuum Amoebas with various weapons now gives popups and suggestions.[/p]
• [p]Antimatter now destroys vacuum amoebas in a 2-tile radius (5x5 area). [/p]
• [p]Astral Phoenix now also has popups and suggestions because blister beam heals it and spinal driver kills it permanently.[/p]
• [p]Space monsters (not ships) now drop essences[/p]
• [p]I wrote one-time popups for 13 different sector types, the first time you see them on the warp screen. Many come with warnings.[/p]
• [p]I found and fixed a few things that weren't obeying the "Ignore 3rd Party Attacks".[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Hitting "overwhelmingly positive" after launch was a great milestone and helps bring in new players, which in turn makes sure the universe will keep expanding for years to come.[/p][p]Please keep those positive reviews coming! [/p]