Approaching Infinity News

Approaching Infinity has been in Early Access on Steam for 2 years and it has changed my life!

And with your help, I've taken a game that was "complete" according to the original design, and used it as a framework for an increasingly-deep space exploration adventure.

[h3]Here is a partial list of features that have been added:[/h3]

• Alien race portraits
  
• Hailing ships
  
• Planet scans
  
• Elemental weapons
  
• Activated skills
  
• Starting quests
  
• Sprawling planets
  
• A new melee weapon
  
• Custom ships
  
• A UI-skin DLC
  
• Med pods
  
• Shipwreck stories
  
• Gadgets, stacks, and scrap
  
• Explosive decompression
  
• Grenades
  
• Lower decks
  
• Monsters with powers
  
• Floating texts
  
• Exploding tanks
  
• Planetary surveys
  
• Towing shipwrecks
  
• Invisible space mines
  
• Retribution strikes
  

I got tired of scrolling through all the Steam News items, so that's not everything, but as you can see, an abundance of new interactions. And those things are all new. It doesn't even touch on the existing systems that have been remodeled and improved, or the hundreds of quality-of-life upgrades.



If you haven't tried Approaching Infinity, now is a great time, because I'm offering

for this anniversary milestone.



But if you're waiting until it's out of early access, I'd like to offer you some perspective: I've been at it *constantly* for 2 years, and I estimate another 2 years to bring my vision to life. Players have used Steam and Discord to help shape the game, and the community interaction has VASTLY improved it.
[h3]Join us now![/h3]










And now really is the time, because I just released a limited-edition beta of the asteroid bases with NPCs, and that is going to CHANGE THE UNIVERSE!
https://youtu.be/azoe8Tv0hv4

• A new combat-free area
  
• 2 new factions
  
• NPCs with branching conversations
  
• 30+ new types of stores
  

This is *not* a DLC, it's ongoing development of the game. And there's more to come after that. Yep, it's big.

But First...




The quest log update that was in beta is now released into the main branch for everyone:





Wow, what a change! There hasn't been any problem with expanding the number of quests or items. I think you'll find your game experience greatly enhanced by this one new screen.





After 2 years of constant improvements, Approaching Infinity's first-ever DLC package launches today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1691390/Approaching_Infinity_Interface_Expansion/

This is purely a cosmetic update that changes the way the interface looks. It has no new monsters, items, quests, or features (because those things happen all the time, for free!)





All proceeds of the DLC go to AI's artist, David Gervais, one of the unsung heroes of roguelikes and indie game developers everywhere. If you recognize (or have used) these tiles, you should thank David. (I thank him daily.)




...are *NOT* part of this update, but I did have a conversation with an NPC on an asteroid base just the other day... They told me about a new faction called "the Syndicate", but mentioned that there was some confusion about the name.

Which is good, because I was attacked by Syndicate Enforcers on a loot stockade! Look out, because they're taking over those lucrative loot-caches.

The first beta in 2 weeks brings just one big obvious change:







This is obviously a big improvement over the existing system, where you had to scroll left and right to go through your quests.





Now you have a list of every quest on the left, and a large detailed description on the right. The destination sector is included in the quest list, and the faction, environment, and even target item or creature or whatever, is clearly indicated.

It will also tell you if the quest is done, and when it is, the destination will become the nearest space station where it can be turned in!





On top of all this, the total number of quests you can have at once has been raised from 10 (too few!) to 38, which is more than you could possibly have at any time (right now). Why do that? Because new quests are coming!

Similarly, the total number of items (ship components) the game could handle has been increased 4x (Only a few people ever noticed this limit, but still, it's gone now!)





A streamer (Lord Haywire) recently told me, after doing a 3-hour dry run of Approaching Infinity "Your game doesn't give your game enough credit." To go on quoting: "What I mean by that is that your game is actually pretty deep and has a lot going for it, but you wouldn’t know that from playing it at the beginning. In the first 30 minutes I was sure I knew everything I needed to know. but I stream for three hours[...]. By the time I was done streaming though I wasn’t sure I knew everything, and I wanted to play more!"

Ever since AI came to steam, this has been an ongoing project: how to hint to players, up front, just how deep the rabbit hole goes. So I'm giving that area some more love.

You know I recently left some clues about the Amulet of Yendor quest, and now I've expanded the starter quest "Humanity's Fate" to actually lead somewhere, instead of just saying "it's up to you". *I* know there's a ton of stuff out there to find, and I want you to know too!



All that is in the

right now.





...are still coming, including 30+ new stores, new quests, a new FACTION, and more!

This space exploration rogue-like has been through some big changes since the last major update:


In the constant effort to not only add new game systems and content, but also improve existing features, we've added unique background art to the space stations of all the different alien races.






Fame, infamy, and reputation have always been opaque background systems that affect how others see you, but it's never been clear exactly how they work... No more!

From now on, any action that changes your fame or infamy (which are measured separately) will illicit some sort of notification (either a floating text or in the message log). Furthermore, upon reaching certain thresholds of fame or infamy, you'll get pop-ups telling you how the alien races you've met feel about the things you've done.

And it changes your reputation with them.

Reputation itself has been remodeled to make it much harder to be friends with everyone at the same time. Most of the aliens out there don't like each other, some are openly hostile to others (or all). And since the enemy of my enemy is my friend, well, the friend of my enemy might just be my enemy too... look out!




David (AI's artist) was watching one of my youtube playthroughs and he noticed how much trouble I had when searching sectors for the nearest embassy of a particular alien race (usually so I could go turn in a quest).

So he came up with a simple solution and sent me little images for each race's starbase, so we could put them directly on the warp screen... What a great, easy solution! To go along with making it easier to find things, I decided to add sectors you can reach on your next jump as well, and they're shown in gray. A discord member suggested we add captain's log notes, and here we have it, tons more visual information, at a glance:





There's still plenty of text below, outlining in more detail what is known about each sector. But this makes navigation so much quicker. Thanks David!




For 8 years, every sector, planet, shipwreck, and cave was represented by a single map. The edges of the screen were the limit. Of course caves can go 20 levels deep sometimes, and "Lower Decks" added more vertical space to shipwrecks...

But now you can find planets with more surface area: on scans, they're revealed as "large" or "sprawling" (depending on how many extra screens there are), and when you approach the edges of the map on those planets, you might see an arrow allowing you to travel to new areas to the north, south, east, or west.

I've only scratched the surface of what can be done with this feature, but for now you can still enjoy planets that are up to 8x larger than before. While that is extremely rare, one should be guaranteed to spawn in sector 6... go find it!




Many months ago now, David presented me with 5 complete interface re-skins, and asked that I release them as a DLC. That is finally happening, in Approaching Infinity's first downloadable content package, the Interface Expansion.





This DLC contains no new gameplay features or content (because you already get that all the time, for free!) Instead, it's purely cosmetic. All proceeds go to the artist himself, so show some love for this legendary rogue-like pixel pusher, and wishlist it today!




While exploring shipwrecks, if you touch a control console (desk), there is a chance it might spawn a note about an event the crew of this ship witnessed before their demise...

It will tell of an alien ship in another sector that was sending a distress call. They will have been asking for repairs or evacuation, and if you go there, you can find them and help them yourself, for a nice reputation boost and some tangible rewards as well.

These mini-quests are automatically added to your captain's log (L), and auto-deleted when completed. As with most things, these missions are entirely optional, and really just serve to introduce new players to some of the many gameplay possibilities out there.

• Alien ships can now hail you
  
• I added a "melee safety" for non-hostile targets.
  
• I removed the names of most earthly diseases. The names will be sillier now. The effects are still bad.
  
• There is now a visual "supply warning" for your ship, similar to the oxygen and HP warnings on planets.
  
• There is a new rare pirate mini-quest that can be found in caves.
  
• If you're on a ship "repair" mission for aliens , walking over a system will tell you whether it's "vital" to be repaired.
  
• I added 2 new enemy types in Galactic Mega-Structures, and changed their spawning distribution (no more warping into the middle of 3 of them at once)
  
• I Made changes to the "Monks" quest line, including a new unique ending.
  
• Added a setting: "Tutorial Messages (NEVER)", which turns off all explainer pop-ups. (Intended for experienced players.)
  
• Alien ships that have been in the sector for a while will sometimes leave.
  
• Pirate raiders have a new unique behavior...
  
• A LOT of theoretical and design work on many new major systems... because...
  

Some really big stuff! Thanks to an overwhelming Discord vote, the next major feature to be added to the game will be "Asteroid Bases": neutral space-ports offering services found nowhere else.

It will introduce an entirely new alien faction to the AI universe. To make this happen, I'll need to finalize my recent behind-the-scenes work on NPCs, and it will give way to the botany and alchemy systems, as well as archaeology quests, legendary weapons, and even fargates!

There have been a lot of unannounced changes in the beta branch lately, but today's is too big of a deal to ignore...



One of Approaching Infinity's core design choices is "small maps". Caves add to the depth of planets, but each level is still self-contained. Lower decks on shipwrecks further expanded those areas in a similar way.

But now, every so often, you'll come across a planet surface where the map's edge is not the end. A flashing arrow will show up over the away team, and then you can click yourself or press space to travel ... BEYOND! Most maps only have one or two of these areas, but there can be up to 9 (center + 1 map in every direction). They are detectable by planet-scanning, and show up as "large" or "sprawling".

As soon as everything checks out, it will move into the main branch, for all to enjoy.

• You can find ship's logs referencing other ships in other sectors that need your help.
  
• These notes go into your captain's log, and you can go find those ships and help them. (Or steal all their stuff and leave them to die...)
  
• You can also find messages about what races inhabit which unexplored sectors, in case you're looking for someone (or trying to avoid someone).
  
• Galactic Mega-structure generation has been improved, and 2 new enemy drone types have been added.
  
• The Monks' quest line has a new ending (and a new middle too!)
  
• Lots more aditions and fixes for the fame/infamy/reputation systems.
  

There was a problem where ship weapons would fire one at a time when using the mouse. This is now fixed. I also added a very rare new mini-quest in caves... good luck finding it!