Starship EVO News

The Crafting update is finally here! It is a big update and an important stepping stone on our way to the survival mode.
Use the new assembler to craft the various bricks of the game.
Some intermediate components might be required to create some bricks.
This update also introduces some UI changes like multi-shape brick variants.
It is released in experimental as I expect some issues due to inventory (crashes/freeze are unfortunately likely due to the nature of the beast), and as the tutorial requires some tweaking.



Assembler and schematics:

• A new assembler bricks has been added.
  
• You can queue schematics in order to craft components or bricks.
  
• Auto-add components option: this will add automatically any missing needed component to the queue
  
• Drag or double-click on a schematic to add it to the queue. Double-click on the queue to remove the schematic.
  
• The assembler will either show a 3d printing effect or an assembly animation
  
• Push to connected inventories option
  

UI Changes

• Proper item quantity are now introduced on the item bar and storages.
  
• "Brick Build Uses Quantity" option in F1 menu: Allows to test brick consumption on build
  
• Right click while dragging an item to drop a single unit. SHIFT-right click to drop 10x, ALT-right click to drop 100x.
  

=> it become a bit unwieldy to do while holding left button. Should we move to no hold needed to drag, like in minecraft?

Multi-Shape:
In order to not have to deal with a logistic hell while building, many block variants have been bundled in a single multi-shape.
For example the hull contains the 5 basic shapes (cube, wedge, hepta, tetra, corner), barrier contains the straight and angle and so on.

• Each multi-shape will have a single entry in the codex / storage / item bar.
  
• Simply Switch between variants with the mouse scroll.
  
• Item bar slots nb shortcut have been added as it will now takes more time to use the scroll-wheel to switch between items.
  
• It is possible to drag a single variant in the item bar by dragging the single round button from the codex.
  

Ore:

• Put 8 rocks inside the furnace to craft a silicon ingot. Needed for glass and computer craft.
  
• Copper added. Ore vein is red-blue. Needed for electrical, mechanical and computer craft.
  
• Iron is the basic resources, needed everywhere.
  
• Silver is needed basis system like reactor and thruster
  
• Gold and Cobalt is for higher tier system like lightcruise engine and shield.
  
• All the craft will be tweaked once survival is in place!
  

Still to-do

• Update tutorial
  
• Advanced filter for inventory block, to do push-pull request on specific bricks or components.
  
• Assembler can query connected inventory for components needed.
  
• The various ore / ingots needs better color and more differentiation.
  
• Many bugs are to be expected.
  
• Some tweak to the schematic shader as it hard to differentiate a few blocks.
  
• Craft for weapons still tbd
  
• Drop bricks into the world
  
• My goal moving forward to make crafting (and hence exploration) more rewarding will be to add various raw materials type beside ore / ingots.
  

Thanks a lot for playing!

As I have spent a lot of time lately on bug fixing the progress on the second big crafting update has been slow but steady. I just wanted to update you on what the assembler will look like!

The crafting philosophy will require you to build several subcomponents to craft a bricks.
This will give advanced player the opportunity to create complex "assembly lines", or simply use a single assembler and wait a bit more.

For example to craft a hull block you will need:
- A frame
- 6 plates

To create the frame you will need 6 beams. Finally, to create beams and plate you simply need ingots. Of course more advanced systems will require more exotic materials pushing you to explore to mine for those!

Here is how it look in action:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I wanted to make something visual where you see the actual crafted brick being assembled and not a simple black box.

Of course sub-components will never match perfectly the end product so a little suspension of disbelief will be needed. I need to keep things relatively simple for the player and manageable for myself!
Part made from ingots will be 3d printed.

I added an arm for the 3d printing and to do some welding during the assembly, it still needs a bit of tweak as it overlap a bit too much, but I think it sell the look of the assembler.

Some more work is needed:

• First I need a recipe (called schematic in the game) for all the bricks, and make all sub-components!
  
• Then I need a few tweak on the inventory side. I dont want players to have to craft a different hull brick for each shape for example, so I will add the ability to switch shape on the fly.
  
• Option to automatically craft any required subcomponents.
  

Thanks a lot for playing!
Francois

This build delivers a long overdue fix for gimballed weapons.

Hotfixes:

• #4853 #4614 Hotkey gimbal fix.
  
• Various fixes regarding inventories.
  

Thanks for playing!

This build add a few suggestions from the community and a few more fixes.

Suggestions:

• #4863 "Teleport to any ship" and "Enable Fast Move Keys" are now inside the F1 menu, which mean they are saved.
  
• #4859 A new "Free Look Toggle" keybind has been added. It is not set by default. Previous keybind "Free Look" is renamed to "Free Look Hold".
  
• #4845 Small tile triangle and Glow Pipe Thin brick added.
  

Hotfixes:

• #4848 Computer hitbox
  
• #4843 Camera command position
  
• #4837 Transparent windows issue when painted with a material
  
• #4847 Target Grid wrong positioning on non-grid scalable blocks.
  

The window flickering issue is finally fixed.
This does not fix the transparency order issue we get when several windows are viewed together, as this one will require a major improvement to the rendering tech.

Hotfixes:

• #4826 Window flickering