Starship EVO News

This build introduces the new Build Option menu. Activate it with F1.
The goal is to provide more flexibility for power user, be easily discoverable to newer player and limit the explosion of keybinds.
You will be able to tweak a few options mainly relative to the new grid logic:

• Min and Max grid: allow a faster grid cycling through when you know you wont need to go over or under a particular size.
  
• Sub grid for placement: Pick a finer grid to position a brick. This also means that system no longer have a finer placement grid.
  
• Global vs Local grid: this replaces the G keybind.
  
• Tweak glow color: you can now toggle off the glow color tweak if you want a precise glow color.
  

New Features:

• Stations turrets are now functional: You will need to activate first the turret targeting function inside the Station Computer.
  

Bugfixes:

• #3860 Game breaks on Quit To Title
  

Thanks for playing!

Some hotfixes coming your way.

Bugfixes:

• #3839 Screen is placed with an offset.
  
• #3828 Color glow formula tweaked.
  
• #3833 Tool and paint are not visible in Item Stand.
  
• #3830 Hinge collision can stuck mechanism.
  
• #3838 Station spawn algo never stops in some cases.
  
• #3835 Repair not working on children entities.
  
• #3822 Mechanism weight limit does not adjust for grid size.
  
• #3824 Entity Preview wrong decal colors.
  
• #3817 Workshop not showing updated blueprint.
  

Thanks for playing!

The much requested multi-symmetry is now available:
it is now possible to place up to three active symmetry planes.

A new station starter block is also added to help builder to test the station procedural algorithm.
This is still wip as more features will be added.
Spawn this block like the normal starter block, then select several module to be used.
You can press F7 to replace the station with another one.
Note that each module have to contain a Station Computer with a module type selected otherwise they wont show in the menu.

Bugfixes:

• #3834 Some legacy blueprints fail to load.
  

Thanks for playing!

A new Space station computer brick is added, to be placed on stations or station module.
You can toggle the "anchor" that will force the station to remain stationary.
You can also specify the module type if applicable (to be used later by the procedural generation).

Furthermore this build contains many hotfixes following the neovox update:

Bugfixes:

• #3802 SHIFT Rotate keybind not working.
  
• #3805 Removing bricks does not update stats.
  
• #3806 Hoverpod weak stats.
  
• #3812 Cannot place addon in local grid mode.
  
• #3814 Build Range too high compared to delete / paint range.
  
• #3809 Small decals have a vertical size on flat surface.
  
• #3810 Decal on wedge can be clipped.
  
• #3808 Hinge incorrect collisions.
  
• #3816 Rail addon cannot stack.
  
• #3819 Custom paint not loading on save reload.
  
• #3820 Emissive light missing in item icon.
  
• #3821 Color emissive formula tweaked.
  
• #3798 Overlap check with children entity incorrect.
  
• #3804 Addon incorrect scale with grid size different than 1m.
  

Thanks for playing!

The time has come for the Neovox update to hit Experimental as build 21w21a!
It will stay there for a few bugfixes update and a starting zone reboot and then will hit the default branch.

This build is one of the biggest the game has seen!
Starship Evo started its life as a voxel building game like many other building games.
Over time it has morphed to a hybrid tech with voxels and the re-scalable bricks that you all love and that gives some much freedom.
Since the latest physics improvements and refactors we are now able to completely unplug the voxel tech and embrace the true nature of the game building system.



The Neovox update (previously novox) represent a set of new features:

Optimizations across the board:
AS the memory intensive voxels were removed the memory usage is massively reduced, especially for large builds.
The only impact now is how many bricks a given blueprint has, no longer its size.
Furthermore memory usage for brick is really tiny (10mb for some of the biggest ship of the workshop).
FPS and loading times are also improved.

Dynamic Grid:
There is now a new grid-scaling mode for a wide selection of bricks. (Default toggle is T).
The codex is now a lot smaller as 0.25m bricks and 1m blocks where merged.
This is a big change to how you build!
You can switch between a global grid lock or local grid lock by pressing G:

• Global Mode: the bricks will lock to the grid defined by the origin (itself defined by the original starter block). Similar to how hull block used to work. Perfect for large structural work.
  
• Local Mode (the unlock icon...): the new brick will locks its position to the grid defined by the targeted brick. Hence any offset will be carried into a smooth building experience, just like bricks used to work. Perfect for detail work.
  

Massive scale builds:
The two previous point means that now truly massive scale builds are possible. For now there is still a few things to sort for such massive build to be displayed from afar but it is definitely on the roadmap as we plan to replace the Space Habitat by a brick based entity.

Custom color:
For now you can edit the file called "PaintPalettes.xml" on the save folder. An UI will come soon.

Material and Armor type:
This update also introduces various materials. You can replace a hull with another material like with paint.
Each material will have various armor / weight properties (still wip)

Better light:
The new tech is much lighter in memory requirement and has a more realistic look.

New border look: borders are now looking dimmer.

New Armor and damage system using damaged decals. Once a decal is fully damaged they will allow armor piercing.

Heat tweak: hull now dissipate only half the heat. Please use larger system inside your large build to compensate for this!

Voxel Paints are now gone as they where using the voxel tech.



That's it! There is actually a lot more change and simplification behind the scene, it was quite an undertaking to migrate your blueprint to the new format but it is worth it.

Francois