Approaching Infinity News

[h2]After 6 months of big changes and 6 weeks of beta tests, version 1.8 may be complete.[/h2]
How will we know? Let's check in with Starmap 1.8, created long ago to guide this part of the journey.

[h2]Looks like a big ✔ next to all the major points.[/h2]

Here are some of the final touches coming to all players as of today:

• NPC ship captains exist :O
• You can get trade missions from a Sigorn captain (if you're friendly with them).
  
• Pirates can offer missions where you smuggle illegal goods into Limoquee space.
  
• Alien corpses found on planets will sometimes have stories explaining what happened to them.
  
• The Eaters will now judge you based on how many other factions you're friendly with.
  
• New feature: "Mark for Transport". Tired of making multiple trips to the shuttle when you find lots of big loot? Just mark it for transport and those days are over!
  
• Once unlocked in any game, rare plants will spawn in all games, but not much in lower sectors.
  
• "Fake ID" and "Credentials" now require you to pay a bribe to get into stations where you otherwise would not be welcome. Higher levels reduce the effect.
  
• Docking at faction embassies can reduce your reputation with their enemies. (For example, docking at a pirate base can reduce your rep with the Sigorn, Bankers, and Limoquee.) This happens once per sector.
  
• Pirates and Eaters will actively go after big stacks of commodities left on the map.
  
• Cyber-skills picked up are now automatically equipped to any officer who can use them.
  
• Nebulas are now continuous clouds with nice round edges.
  
• I changed how away team hit points are calculated so small away teams aren't so useless ;)
• I introduced "pay it forward" daily codes.
  

There are, of course, the usual host of fixes and quality-of-life changes. Enjoy!


What's next?


1.9 will be the final push to (let me check my math...) 2.0 , which means



That's probably still a year away...


1.9 is going to start *big*. The long awaited, much requested, feared-and-lamented-by-me


The plan is to emphasize the play area and keep the UI as sleek and out-of-the-way as possible. Here are some mock-ups we've done:

Space, with the map zoomed out:

The new installation screen:

Zoomed in on the away team:


[h3]For those who are perfectly happy with everything the way it is...
Right now, the plan is to offer a "classic mode"... check it out:[/h3]




And for everyone who uses the UI DLC, don't worry! We'll make lots of special UI skins for the new UI too.

Other plans for 1.9 include:

• A mega-quest about the Narcratu invasion
  
• Learning more about the Engravers
  
• Finding a way to fight the nano-pocalypse
  
• More rooms and quests from asteroid bases
  
• Crafting system overhaul
  
• Introduction of "commerce planets"
  
• Much much more...
  

[h3]If you enjoy Approaching Infinity and all the work I've done over the last 3 years, please leave a positive Steam review... Thanks, it really helps![/h3]

[h2]Version 1.8F6 is live in the beta branch now, with the following changes:[/h2]

• Cyber-skills you pick up are automatically equipped by any officer who can use them.
  
• After you've unlocked rare plants once, they'll be unlocked in all future games.
  
• Ant-hills now spawn ants when damaged.
  
• Nebulas have rounded edges.
  
• Fix: "Close your account" achievement should now trigger.
  
• Fix: NPC ship captains will now properly surrender.
  
• Fix: You can no longer accidentally click through from the quest success dialog.
  
• Fix: right clicking to drop cargo no longer crashes the game.
  

[h2]Last Words[/h2]
You may have found the occasional cluster of alien corpses on away missions and wondered "what happened to them?" Sometimes you can figure that out for yourself, but now sometimes you can find their final log entry.

Maybe it's related to nearby monsters or local diseases. Maybe it was the environmental conditions, running out of supplies, or a crew member that turned against everyone else. Plenty more stories to find, and as with many systems, I'm just scratching the surface of what can be done with this ;)

In case you missed it, there were some big changes to away team HP, and a new kind of daily code. Check out update #133.

Have fun, space captains!

[h2]Away Team HP:[/h2]
The base HP of all space suits has been greatly increased, but your HP will no longer be multiplied by the number of crew on the away team.

Having more crew will still result in being able to take more total damage, but in a much more reasonable way. For example, in previous versions, an away team with 24 crew would have 30 times as many total HP as one with only 4 crew! Now the difference is only 6 times (24/4=6).

If this isn't making sense, don't worry! It will all just happen and look normal when you play.

[h2]New Daily Codes:[/h2]
I've added a new type of daily code: it adds directly to your "Pay It Forward" account, which is money you can withdraw when you start a new game (optional,of course). There are also codes that give equipment, devices, or credits. There are even codes that can save you from danger! These are shared regularly on our Discord, and also in this steam thread.

To get you started, here are 3 Pay It Forward codes, each for 1 million credits:
RQacGRBS (Sept 9)
OXR6%F3K (Sept 10)
RQAm2fx4 (Sept 11)

• You can only use one daily code per day.
  
• They are only good for the date listed.
  
• They're entered from the in-game options menu.
  
• You can cut-and-paste the codes (they're all 8 characters, so don't include the date or spaces).
  

This version also includes several bug fixes and minor QOL features. Enjoy!

[h2]It's the final hours of the Steam Strategy Fest,
don't miss your chance to pick up this
unique space exploration roguelike at a discount.[/h2]

I really liked shield-piercing weapons as a concept, I'm sad to see it go. But it had the potential for instant death without warning, which is not fun. And "fun" is what you're here for.

The machine gun, hull raker, railgun, spinal driver, and neutron beam will no longer ignore shields. Their base damage has been increased, so your existing versions of those weapons may be under-powered.




Most space activated skills now have cool-down times of 25-50 turns, a few are 100-125, and the most potentially disruptive ones (including "false evidence", where you can pit 2 other ships against each other) are 250 turns.

This should make them much more useful. I've also increased their drop rate, so you'll get more of them earlier in the game.




This game comes from a genre (traditional roguelikes) where graphics were of minor importance. I wanted to fit as much information on the screen as possible, and I didn't really care how big the play area was...

Times have changed, and so will Approaching Infinity.

My eyes were opened when I got this mockup from Polat Yarisci (who you may know from his work on the Caves of Qud UI). I encourage any indie developer who isn't a front-end genius to get in touch with him.


Here's how he saw my game:
Amazing, right?!


I immediately set to work making lists and taking apart the existing UI and realizing that I wasn't really ready to work on this yet, it was just too big.

But my pixel artist friend David Gervais got involved and together we started moving things around and re-imagining them...


Here's an early iteration:



And here's one of the latest:
Look at all that _S_P_A_C_E_!


Or Maybe you can move those info windows wherever you want?!


You can expect the evolution to continue until we get everything right. Then we'll take the revolution to the entire game, revising every screen for maximum style and user-friendliness.

None of this is in the game right now. I'd make an even bigger deal out of it if it were ;)



After 10 years in the making and 3 years on Steam Early Access, this is the 131st update (I went back and counted), and the end is in sight:


I hope to reach full release (version 2.0) in 2024.


[h2]Join me on my quest to save destroy create the galaxy![/h2]