Starship EVO News

Hotfixes build.

New features:

Cargo brick added, decorative for now but soon will be functional.
Fuel Scoop brick added, decorative for now but soon will be functional.
Some help messages to do the link were added to the Repair Tutorial.
Hotfixes:
#4280 Player Collision on Arch bricks incorrect
#4264 Gatling barrel invisible on reload
#4241 Sprite Glow visible of prefab preview visible in world
#4224 #4221 #4134 Turret are not tracking correctly in some cases
#4281 #4263 Some SFX are not impacted by volume control
#4279 Cannot place item on Stand
#4278 Specific ship not loading
#4245 Large decal preview not showing up close
#4274 #4186 Warning message not working when linked to an event gate
#4277 Screen resolution reset refresh rate
#4267 #3880 F1 Build option menu config not saved
#4227 Gravity field incorrect bounds applied

Thanks for playing!

The time has finally come for all the big developments of the last few months to hit the main default branch of the game. This represents 49 builds made, if you want to see more details check out the github page!


Here is in a nutshell what is new:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Neovox Update:
This build is one of the biggest the game has seen!
Starship Evo started its life as a voxel building game but has morphed over time to a hybrid tech with voxels and the re-scalable bricks that you all love and that gives some much freedom.
Now we finally unplugged the voxel tech and embraced the true nature of the game building system!
It means:

• You can change the grid-scale of a brick, from a mini 0.125 to a giga-size 32m! If you fully strech a 32m-grid brick it will become 512m is size...
  
• Massive reduction in memory, as now the only factor is brick count. Bricks are quite light too: this massive ship made by Dolan weight only 20mg in VRAM:
  
• This two features combine means that it is now possible to create massive ships!
  
• The codebase has been simplified, which means faster dev in the future and less bugs
  

New Tutorials based on new mission framework:
The work on missions has finally started! The first missions integrated to the game are a brand new tutorial to better introduce new players to the game.

• Learn to use their Jetpack
  
• Learn the basic of build at the Training Center
  
• Fix a small repair ship by adding the various system needed to flight
  
• Fly around the station to repair three modules in order to learn to fly
  

The framework is still work in progress. The end goal is to allows player to create missions with LUA scripting!



New Stations and Kiosks:
We now have some brand new stations modules thanks to 5URG3! They are really looking amazing and they come with full interior. The level of polish and details is amazing, it no longer feel like a building game!
Another important addition is the spawning of kiosks within the station Hub interior. While some kiosks are purely decorative some other are ensuring key component of the gameplay like the refuel station, the repair station or the mission board.
We also have a slew of new Pirates and Tanker roaming the world. Soon there will be some interaction with them as more missions are added!
Many builders helped me creating those amazing stations and ships, a massive thanks to them!



Fuel Technology:
Fuel will be a major component of the gameplay loop: you will have to harvest, craft and manage fuel through your ship.
For now we have been focusing on the fuel transfer technology: reactor require fuel, and fuel flow from tank to reactor through pipes.
It all happen seamlessly over time - you can check it by building transparent pipe and tank! You can also use valve to stop fuel. More features will be added soon.



New physics technology
Some great progress has been made of the physics side: now the game uses a 100% custom physics engine that uses heavily the new Unity Data Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) and multithreading.
It means it is super fast and provide massive improvement over the past implementation: now collisions or mechanism no longer slow down the game.

There is plenty of more stuff added, check out the single dev note for more detail!

Happy building!

Here are the patch notes for the following two updates:

[New build - EXPERIMENTAL] 21w36a: The Fuel Saga #2: Attack of the Valves
[New build - EXPERIMENTAL] 21w37a: Builder's Requests

Theses two builds bring a few features to the fuel experience and catch up on some builders most popular requests.



New features

Valve pipe: The valve allows you to control the flow on a pipe section on request.
You can activate it by hand or via remote logic.

Transparent pipe and tank. This will be convenient to visualize what is happening in your fuel loops.
The transparent tank has a different and cylindrical design (courtesy of womble).
The gas density depends on the % of each tank / pipe.
This will also be convenient when other type of fuel and liquid fuel are added.

Multi-tank logic.
It is now possible to form functional tank chains: the tanks linked together will exchange fuel to form an equilibrium.

Builders Requests

• Gravity field now has an option for ship-wide gravity.
  
• Left shift keybind also maps to Right shift.
  
• [SUGGESTION] Box Delete Tool STICKER/DECAL ONLY delete. #4162 Box-delete on decals only toggle inside Build Options
  
• Docking port shows direction arrows.
  
• Arch brick added
  
• Tile triangle brick added
  
• Copy-paste and Box delete show symmetry status
  
• Pick Material in Action Wheel
  
• Prefabs are editable from the clipboard tab
  
• Docking Config gate can now merge sub-modules spawned
  
• Walk speed and Run key re-introduced
  
• New Build Option: it is now possible to skip some help message (like the "You are stuck" one)
  

Other Changes:

• A corrupt save safeguard has been added following a few cases reported:
  
• A backup save called
• .sevobu file will be created from the previous valid save
  
• The game will not attempt to save if it detect an issue or an 0 length save
  
• In that case a warning message will popup telling the player to book a case.
  
• => IMPORTANT: If you face such an issue it is important to report the case as we were still unable to investigate and fix the real underlying issue!
  
• New look for Decals in the codex
  
• Some refactoring was done on the rendering pipeline too, please report if you spot any issues!
  

Hotfixes:

• Box Delete can now mirror
  
• Pipe link issue after load.
  
• incorrect "Piping Flow Sufficient" tooltip on reactors.
  
• [Bug] Fuel Drains in a fraction of a second, Reactor pulses at negative energy stored #4141 Incorrect fuel consumption computation.
  
• [Bug] Removal FX on tank are misplaced #4144 Removal FX on tank are misplaced
  
• #4165 Copy of children entity render issue
  
• #4167 Fuel transfert issues
  
• #3847 Symmetry incorrect on window tile
  
• Paint quick selection menu fixed
  
• #4175 RGB controller not working
  

Thanks for playing.

Hotfixes build following the first fuel update.

New features

• Pipe thin added.
  

Hotfixes:

• Box Delete can now mirror
  
• Pipe link issue after load.
  
• [Bug] Fuel Drains in a fraction of a second, Reactor pulses at negative energy stored #4141 Incorrect fuel consumption computation.
  
• [Bug] Removal FX on tank are misplaced #4144 Removal FX on tank are misplaced
  

Thanks for playing!

This is the first of several updates introducing a key component to the gameplay: Fuel.

New Features:

• Power balance is now computed at the level of each reactor.
  
• Reactors will consume fuel while producing power.
  
• Reactors have a built-in small fuel tank (250l for a 1m reactor)
  
• Tank can now store fuel (1000l per 1m3)
  
• Pipe can now transport fuel from tanks to reactors when reactors request it.
  
• Reactors will always try to fill their own internal tank.
  
• Entity Codex Setting: [Reactor Auto-refill fuel]
  
• Entity Codex Button: [Refill Tanks]
  
• You can debug Reactors data by clicking on it while the Link Tool is equiped.
  
• You can debug Fuel data on Pipes, Tanks and Reactors while a pipe/tank is equiped by looking at it.
  

State of fuel integration, legacy and creative support:
For now this is useless as we dont have yet a way to harvest gas or buy it a stations.
While these features are being added and in the sake of legacy and creative play an entity setting has been added: [Reactor Auto-refill fuel].
It will be toggled On for legacy blueprints and also on new ship in creative.
You can toggle it Off and use the [Refill Tanks] button if you want to help debug and balance the new fuel system!

A few numbers regarding the current balance:

• A 1m reactor can produce full power for 60 seconds on its interior tank
  
• A 1m reactor needs a 0.25m pipe connection to be refilled in real time.
  

=> those numbers will change depending on community feedback - they are starting figures.
Dont yet spend time on retro-fitting your ship for those wanted to do so.

A few words on the behind the scenes:
The tech is using data driven design and is multi-threaded so performance should be very good (0 impact in my stress-test)
The logic is purely local, so complex piping network will not stress the system.

To be added soon:

• Gas to be harvested
  
• Refill at stations
  
• Transparent tanks and pipe, to see the flow live
  
• Valve to control flow.
  
• Docking transfert
  
• Potentially way to increase tank pressure: cryo addon, or COPV tank.
  
• Bugfixes:
  
• #4100 RBG gate's off color changed after restart
  
• #4132 Issue with copy-paste and link with non-copied children entities
  

Thanks for playing.