Approaching Infinity News

This is a test.

A Beta Test.

Opt in to the beta branch now to try out all the new officer skills, like:

• Oxygen Conservation
  
• Wreck Tech
  
• Surprise Attack
  
• Communications Officer
  
• Questing Perception
  
• Elemental Trigger
  

Yep, while you were enjoying the cloud saves and gambling machines, I was finally reworking the passive officer skills.

No, these aren't the long-awaited cool-down skills, but they are better than what was there before. No two officers have the same skill now, and all the lesser skills have been removed or greatly improved. Each class still has room for one more skill to be added later.





Relax, I said I won't break your saves, and I mean it. So instead, all your officer lose their old skills, get all their XP back, and you can choose new skills :D


[h2]What else?[/h2]

• The Sil have started answering hails
  
• Space-Mines are now invisible until you get close (LOOK OUT!)
  
• Monofilament weapons can cut down trees
  
• Water-walker and Mountain climber abilities now have a second level that eliminates the speed penalty
  
• Officers can (once again!) get injured on away missions
  
• Vordalene, Tentaculons, and Eaters now offer a "re-speccing" service
  

This will spend about a week in beta, so I expect it will hit the main branch by Jan 22nd. Please let me know what issues you find, and any recommendations you might have. I'll be making plans for what comes next...


Enjoy, and stay safe!

I know, manually transferring your files is a pain, so...



Approaching Infinity uses a feature called "Steam Auto-Cloud" which syncs your save files when you close the game. This is now activated globally, for all users by default.


No other changes were made today.


There is a Known Psuedo-Issue with auto-cloud: sometimes it causes the Steam overlay to become unresponsive for a few seconds after closing the game. That is the nature of auto-cloud, because it does everything all at once. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Steam or your computer, and it's not something I can control, other than turning cloud saves back off for all users. So let's see how it goes, ok?


If you don't play on multiple machines, want to keep the data separate on purpose, or have another reason, you can always turn off cloud saves.

Here's how:


From your Steam library, go to settings, general, and then un-check the cloud box.



Wow, that's easy.


OK, enjoy, and we'll take a look at how it's going on Friday the 15th.

Sunday update: Steam Cloud Saves Are on!



The number of alien art items that can be found in Approaching Infinity has more than doubled, including a brand new series of detailed abstract doodles from player Cameron, like this:




You can see more of his work here. Thanks for getting in touch!

• The number of crafting parts bought from stations has been raised to 10 per purchase.
  
• Daily codes found in-game are now copied directly to your clipboard for easy pasting.
  
• Daily codes also get a second printing in a larger, more readable font.
  
• Crew-related aspects of the UI have been modified due to recent changes. They look better.
  
• Damage to your ship's hull can now kill crew members!
  
• To take the 2nd level of a skill, an officer must already be level 4.

That's right: you can't max out the most powerful skills as early in the game. I've always felt it was very exploitable (and actually narrowed player choice) when a particular skill was just too good...

So now you have to wait a bit.


But hey, look:



Cloaking devices have been split into two types, certain aliens de-cloak you at different ranges, and you get tool-tips about it too!

Tactical Cloak

• Short duration (6-20 turns)
  
• Short cool-down
  
• One-time supply cost (~125)
  

Strategic Cloak

• Long (indefinite) duration
  
• Long cool-down (~100 turns)
  
• Per-turn supply cost (2-5)
  

Some hostile aliens can de-cloak you within a certain range. Usually, the more powerful the ship, the longer range. Tool-tipping the ship while cloaked will tell you the range. If it doesn't mention it, then they can't see you!


...AND...




This started from a fun little graphic David provided me with a few months ago, and player's frequent calls for more rescue codes.





So now, on some shipwrecks, you'll find a space-age slot machine. If you've got the money, you can take your chances and get random prizes such as...

• Boxes of boxes (or any of the other trade commodities)
  
• A new weapon, grenade, or space suit
  
• Credits
  
• Crafting parts
  
• New Uniforms
  
• RESCUE CODES!

That's right. Now you can find rescue codes in the game, and share them with your friends (or the entire community).


Thanks to everyone who helped beta test these new additions, you found a few things I had no idea about :)


Like someone last time who found an earthquake on a shipwreck ;)

Whoah, it's January!

Time for me to get back to work... and you too!

There are some new features that need to be beta tested, so if you've got some time this week, opt into the "betafromnowon" branch and check out some of these things:

• The number of crafting parts bought from stations has been raised to 10 per purchase.
  
• Daily codes found in-game are now copied directly to your clipboard for easy pasting.
  
• Daily codes also get a second printing in a larger, more readable font.
  
• Crew-related aspects of the UI have been modified due to recent changes. They look better.
  
• The number of alien art items has more than doubled (more about this on Friday)
  
• Damage to your ship's hull can now kill crew members!
  

But what really needs to be tested is...



Cloaking devices have been split into two types, certain aliens de-cloak you at different ranges, and you get tool-tips about it too!

Tactical Cloak

• Short duration (6-20 turns)
  
• Short cool-down
  
• One-time supply cost (~125)
  

Strategic Cloak

• Long (indefinite) duration
  
• Long cool-down (~100 turns)
  
• Per-turn supply cost (2-5)
  

Some hostile aliens can de-cloak you within a certain range. Usually, the more powerful the ship, the longer range. Tool-tipping the ship while cloaked will tell you the range. If it doesn't mention it, then they can't see you!


...AND...




This started from a fun little graphic David provided me with a few months ago, and player's frequent calls for more rescue codes.





So now, on some shipwrecks, you'll find a space-age slot machine. If you've got the money, you can take your chances and get random prizes such as...

• Boxes of boxes (or any of the other trade commodities)
  
• A new weapon, grenade, or space suit
  
• Credits
  
• Crafting parts
  
• New Uniforms
  
• RESCUE CODES!
  

That's right. Now you can find rescue codes in the game, and share them with your friends (or the community).


So do us both a favor and join the beta (it's super easy) and send me some

I said I wanted to do one more update before 2020 was over, and it's actually a pretty big one! The last version letter was 'e', so next it's the perfect letter to sum up the year:





A near-universally shared sentiment we'd all like to express regarding this pandemic / recession / political / rioting year. So I'd like to close it out with another awesome feature update. Here's what you can expect:



How many times were phasers used to dig or burn or otherwise mess with the environment? Plenty! Why can't I do that in Approaching Infinity?!

Now you can!



Previously, you could only affect the environment when there was a monster to shoot. No more! Now you can spend all day shooting a tree or a rock or the broad side of a shipwreck if you want.

You'll still need a weapon that has some kind of special power, like cryo, explosive, of incendiary. Launchers will always have a chance to alter the scenery, regardless of what type it is. They're just that powerful.

And speaking of launchers: you will now take proximity damage from all types of launchers if you fire them at point blank range. Stop shooting yourself! :P

Anyway, you can now shoot anywhere within range and line-of-sight, either by left clicking (once to select the target, and again to actually fire), or using the "Peer/Look" command, which now has the additional shortcut [CTRL]+[F], then pressing [F] again to fire.

Try it!





When planet scanning was introduced, suddenly there was a wealth of information to be gathered and acted upon. Many of the planet's stats have effects on gameplay: fires spread faster on planets with high atmospheric oxygen, and sonic weapons don't work without enough atmospheric pressure, things like that.

But one readout was mostly for show: tectonics.



Uh oh...

Yep, now you have to look out for planet-quakes! Any planet where the scan shows "frequent" or "constant" tectonics will sometimes have ground-shaking ripples propagate across their surfaces. These disturbances don't last too long, but they can hurt you if you get too close (they also hurt monsters and your shuttle!), and they can leave a mess.

The deeper you go into caves, the worse they get :)





As a first step towards introducing multiple UIs for the game (another request from David the artist), and in response to a thread here on Steam...

We are experimenting with having a different user interface for non-perma-death games. It's gold, and it's just the right side of the screen so far. Perma-death games will not see any change.

But maybe in the future, we can have UI choices based on accomplishments...

• Fixed: a display bug that always said "unexplored". (thanks Huntroid!)
  
• Fixed: Narcratu ships will never surrender!
• Changed: All grenades now have some chance of destroying cave-in traps.
  
• Changed: Launchers hurt you at point-blank range (don't forget!)
  
• Changed: Flying monsters are immune to certain ground-based effects.
  
• Changed: You get even
• more* oxygen with every space suit!
  
• Added: There are 4 new kinds of custom cursor available.
  

That's It, go celebrate, stay safe, have fun!