Gaia Beyond News

Dear traveler,

This is not your average Halloween update – it's actually quite heavy with general content!

Enjoy! 🚀🚀🚀





[h2]⏭️ NPC Interaction Shortcuts[/h2]



We are very happy to introduce an important feature that will save us a lot of unnecessary clicks during our shopping tours. It provides useful information about an NPC's functionality, and even direct access to our garages, cargo boxes, quick repair and other functionalities. We have further plans for providing quick info about the actual store content, but the current version already saves a great deal of time and nerves.

Thanks to user info for throwing a new spotlight on this issue with a great UX depiction!



[h2]⚔ Mercenaries[/h2]



Yes, mercenaries - one from each of the five main factions - willing to trade their lives for yours, if you're willing to bring the dime. Once hired, they will stay by your side wherever you go. Their cargo and equipment can be handled via dialog (just like setting up turrets). Level up and expand your squad!



[h2]🎮 Full Controller Support[/h2]

The controller input has been a ride, but the game is now officially fun to play with a controller! We still have quite a list of things going to be done here, so don't hesitate to share your thoughts on the controller experience with us!

• Complete UI Navigation
  Directional movement, dialog and widget interaction
  
  
• New default mapping layout
  From basic interactions to advanced shortcuts (reset controls to get the default!)
  
  
• UI button hints
  For basic windows, new map mode controls and more
  

Other improvements:

• New focus marker graphic
  
• Trigger threshold slider added (Options)
  
• Stick press & directional icons added
  
• Improved shortcut icon legibility
  

[h2]💀 Wicked & Undead[/h2]



Still unclear what's causing these rifts, but once a year, dimensional gates open (it's gotten worse over time) and flood our more or less peaceful game world with undead and the "Wicked". The only reason we haven't delved deeper yet is that it opens up opportunities to get COOL STUFF like:

• Osyluth blueprint
  
• Specter ghost ship (now with improved stats and a fancy blur effect)
  
• Cthulhu's Eye weapon
  
• Mr. Deadhead weapon
  
• Pumpkin weapons

Unlocked content from other dimensions remains – even if we manage to close the rifts. For further instructions, talk to Count Ixua waiting near Pluto!



[h2]New Achievement[/h2]
For unlocking and finishing a new follow-up event to an old sidequest... reunite the pirates of poetry!








[h2]Ships[/h2]

• FTA Station polishing & lights animation rework
  
• Hide the shield health bar if no shield is equipped
  
• Spectre stats increased
  
• Caduceus Turrets price decreased
  
• Pathfinder price heavily increased
  
• Bold Pirates now have a weaker Loot Laser
  

[h2]World[/h2]

• Doomsday Fortress location image: 4K resolution & polishing
  Thanks Floppa Priest for introducing us to the awesome Upscayl AI tool!
  
• Added a second ship crafter (it's Ixillium!)
  
• Added more producers and consumers for some shop items to improve trading
  
• Random Traders prefer targets with a consumer
  
• Some minor improvements for the "Lost Luggage" mission
  
• Improvements for "Protecting Elzo" side mission
  
• All patients outside Caduceus Station are now reacting to "talk" with "look only"
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Remember previously selected dialog answers
  
• Add a dialog text type-out speed setting
  
• Trade HUD: Alt-select should auto select the full stack
  
• Savegame Menu: Add player name and playtime info header
  
• Quickbar icon rework
  New radar icon, level up indicator
  
• Custom map icon for Caduceus drones
  
• Dialogs: "Credits" indication style unified
  
• Blueprints show the ship class in tooltips
  
• Updated cargo HUD icon
  
• Repair screen fade speed increased
  

• Hypocha's wrong introduction dialog while he's outside Caduceus Station
  
• A possible dialog stage repeat with Kalypso at the debris field
  
• Autopilot Follow can lose the target and then flies into the sun
  
• Zopa's skill tree now unlocks when leaving the planet for Caduceus Station
  
• Old Drone is not targeted when ship weapon target was set before the dialog
  
• Missing battle music during the attack on Kalypso at the debris field
  
• Empty inventory of one of the black market traders
  
• Destroy the ship health window if it's out of range
  
• Turret dialog can be duplicated after exiting dialog-triggered inventory
  
• Options Menu: Controls: selecting a shortcut with the controller does not work
  
• Controller Combobox selection switch is broken
  
• Controller: Use the persona name as the player name
  
• O_Dog_Dialog_Handler_4 can be repeated
  
• Landable HUD: Don't show respawning ships
  
• Character HUD: Translate the origin
  
• Trade HUD: Restore the previous controller focus correctly on leave
  
• Options Menu: Landable stays visible after changing font size
  
• Don't evade if the pos target is closer than the nearby sensor sprite
  
• Follower System: Ship gets too close to the player ship
  
• Controller: Some shortcuts can't be assigned
  
• Controller: Support button strength with zoom in/out
  
• Inspace mission target icons are a bit too far away from each other when zooming out
  
• Player ship: Improve the rotation detection to check which ship engine should be active
  
• Trade HUD: controller selection should not be drawn when it does not have focus
  
• Trade HUD: Controller selection is invisible after trading an item (Y)
  
• A faulty dialog event with the Archbishop during the sermon
  
• A minor quest progress failure for "Murder at Lashkar Gah"
  
  
  
  
  

[h2]For those keenly waiting for the Sphere arc:[/h2]
The story expansion is still our main focus and absolutely coming - maybe even with the next update!

Stay tuned! 📡






Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

• Website
• Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Reddit, Imgur

Welcome back, space travelers! This is another update in preparation for the big one. Let's warm up with a few quick facts:


🚀 Milestone reached
Gaia Beyond now has over 100 side missions!

🚀 Performance boost
With the new AMD drivers (July 22), OpenGL performance received a big upgrade. The interface now renders twice as fast, ingame graphics even faster (stress test inside the asteroid belt went from 120 to 165 FPS)!

🚀 Soundtrack expansion
The timing couldn't be more perfect. Since Miguel Johnson just released his new masterpiece "2184", you can look forward to some great new tunes with the upcoming story arc - the full album is already available on Bandcamp!

🚀 Something big
...that we know many people have been waiting for is in development and currently being tested - to be introduced with the new arc!





[h2]Missions[/h2]

New side missions and additional decisions in old ones!

• Help Fernandez collect his poems instead of killing him
  
• New pirate encounter at Tezla on CoC Stralsund

[h2]Caduceus Turrets[/h2]

New turret platform in a custom Caduceus design – with unique specs and upgrades!

Upgrade levels 0-3


[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Looped Weapon Sounds
  A detail that adds a lot: All lasers, including the Naoru repair laser and the Mining Tool have new looping sounds when active / on hit to make fighting and mining simply feel better!
  
• Event and weapon sound additions
  
• Custom Hokucho engine sound

[h2]Other[/h2]

• Cyber kitten portrait added
  

[h2]Precise collisions[/h2]

• Concave collisions: With new ways of refinement, we have added concave shapes to all ship and station colliders for an accurate experience!
  
• Full ship & station collision rework
  
  ⚠ Also in progress: We are reshaping the shield "bubbles" closer to the actual ship shape, which should avoid a large amount of unwanted collisions - stay tuned!

[h2]World[/h2]

• Polished locations: Memorials, Vaults & Living Quarters
• Flower item weights reduced to 0
  
• More Deuterium drops from asteroids
  

[h2]Ships & Weapons[/h2]

• General ship movement improvements
  
• Bulwark updates (graphic polishing, custom engine/emitters/animated lights)
  
• CoC Plattform scale decreased by 20%, shield radius updates, emitter rework
  
• Torpedos: Proton versions accelerate faster
  
• Mining Lasers: Visual beam thickness slightly scales with upgrades
  
• Mining Tool: Blade rotation accelerates upon activation
  
• Projectile turrets: Muzzle position optimizations
  

[h2]Fear and Loathing in Space[/h2]
Your O-Dog road trip adventure was decorated with some annoyingly hypnotizing background effects (animated of course) and trippy new audio!

• Player-based VFX / camera optimizations
  
• New sound effects & dialog background music
  
• O-Dog trippy portrait polished
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Pickup/collect mission target icon
  

[h2]Portraits[/h2]

• Zion male 1 some polishing
  

• Projectile mass & sensitivity rebalancing (torpedos get wicked rotation from nearby explosions)
  
• Cargo unit dialog should be reset to root answer after failing to open/hack/repair a cargo unit
  
• Decrease affinity from NPCs from -20 to -40 to make sure defend behavior settings work
  
• Switching loadouts in space changes your crosshair
  
• Disable key repeat for the action bar (hacking/mechanic)
  
• Hitting ESC while upgrading items exits inventory
  
• Controller: Slider control not accessible
  
• Controller: B doesn't Exit landables or locations
  
• Controller: pressing B on a landable breaks LS input for the quick bar
  
• Controller: Shortcuts with an extra toggle can't be reset
  
• Automatically stop firing the laser when there is no target
  
• Pirate Drones should use defend behavior so they don't move towards the player
  
• Add some missing "dead" dialogs for npcs
  
• Analysis interaction hints are not hidden when overlaid by another window
  
• Mouse button assignment for 'Trade/ Exit HUD' doesn't exit HUD (VillainBob)
  
• Red offscreen target arrow can still appear under some conditions for repair weapons
  
• Limit the current shield value to shield strength on save load
  
• Clamp weapon heat on save load
  
• A rare bullet hit crash
  
• Find a free spot on ship respawn
  
• Entrega Gaseoso had scan amount of 25 (despite having no blueprint)
  
• Nebura's ship is now removed from the game after she leaves it (to resolve some error reports)
  

Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

• Website
• Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Reddit, Imgur

Hey space travelers,

Two weeks have passed since the 1.7 update and it's already 1.7.8! :) Thanks to your great feedback we have already fixed and improved many things - of which we want to give you a small overview here.

Special thanks to Goldberger, Floppa Priest, justcallmebob, VillainBob and UnimatrixZero for their helpful input!





[h3]Radar Sharing[/h3]
Deployed turrets now share the radar with you.

[h3]FTA Cargo Container Upgrades[/h3]
FTA banks now offer expansions for their cargo space, so if you've got the credits, you can upgrade your storage place there.

[h3]NPC Ships[/h3]

• Turret Platforms: Show the deployed weapons when selected
  
• Support for NPC ships to use the repair laser
  

• Many small improvements to "A Hard Day of Work" and "Distress Call"
  
• When deciding against Kalypso during "Crash Course", Kalypso should attack one of the guards first to give the player some extra time in the fight.
  
• Further progress with the German translation (e.g. localized achievements)
  
• Skill to reduce the scan time by 50%
  
• Enkan and Enkan Pro shields have new prices
  
• Added a new CoC shield called "Myr".
  

• Upgrading cargo can crash
  
• Loadout switch shortcut crashes if the Inventory is not open
  
• A ship without persons can crash the game
  
• Shield/Device level is not displayed/saved
  
• Ships in follow mode should leave the station in the same direction as the follow target
  
• Player owned turrets should drop cargo/equipment when not in detail mode
  
• Inventory window does not refresh for a different ship that has the same ship data as the previous one
  
• Turret Platforms: no interaction hints for Chat and Trade
  
• A sequence during "Tale of the Lost Luggage", where Dorobu wasn't selected as the mission target as it should have been
  
• Some Person_Death functions where the ship is preserved and could later cause errors
  
• Confusing Teal dialog on locked Pluto locations
  
• The calculated range of some weapons is too high
  
• The calculated DPS of Alien Pulse Laser and other weapons is too high
  
• Don't transfer cargo back in Lt_Devi_Dialog_Handler_Follower() as trades_freely is now kept anyway
  
• Transferred turret cargo/equipment/ship data weight free space is not checked during pickup
  
• Pirate faction underscores still shown on locations
  
• The defend_nearby_ship link should not be temporarily lost when arriving late to an already landed ship
  
• "Escape Plan" skill level requirement is not updated
  
• Lt_Devi_Dialog_Handler_Follower() script crash
  
• Character selection screen: Seams on portrait background frames
  
• Savegame upgrade for "The Tyrant"
  
• Wrong Aluminium amount is removed from the player's inventory during "Building a Bubble"
  
• Ben's Bubble wrong stats on first upgrade level
  
• Kudo Prime wrong faction assignment
  
• Pharma Missiles and Jolly-Rockets have double turn rate acceleration values
  
• A small cargo memory leak
  
• Typing P into the map marker input field triggers pause
  
• Not all main menu buttons have a click sound
  
• Cooldown HUD: Animation flicker when invisible and recreated
  

For more information, read the original 1.7 patch note:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/788630/view/3337744192489192022






Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

• Website
• Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Reddit, Imgur

Heya space pilots,

Time for another content update! We've been a bit quiet the last 2 months (there has been another big relocation within the team as well as the average health turmoil in 2022), but everything is back on track and most importantly, we have some new content that we finally want to share with you:

We're excited to introduce the promised deployable turrets feature, made all shields upgradable, took another deep look into cargo items (icons and sorting) and last but not least greatly expanded the German translation. During the constraints, we also took the time to revise general things like our website.

In addition, a lot of new content for the main story expansion has been created again in the background, which we are now focusing on completing – the wait will soon be over.

Safe travels, we look forward to your feedback!






[h2]Deployable Turrets[/h2]



You can now place and upgrade turret platforms in space to protect your back. This is the basic version - functionality will be further refined and more types will be added in the future!

1. GET THEM – on CoC Greifswald, Thorn, Riga or Stargard
   
2. PLACE THEM – from your inventory
   
3. CALL DIALOG – for further options like equip, upgrade or undeploy
   
   Upgrading turrets is also possible directly from the inventory!

[h2]Upgradable Shields[/h2]
You can now upgrade all regular shields for your ship! Also, more damage resistances have been added to shields (can be increased with upgrades) - for example, CoC shields now tend to get less damage when crashing into asteroids etc.


[h2]New Item Graphics[/h2]

• Cargo icons: In the process of refining the way inventory items are sorted, new subcategories and more unique icons were created.
  
• Custom drop graphic for diamonds
  

[h2]Audio / VFX[/h2]

• New fail sound added to all mechanic skill checks
  
• Turret placement sound effect
  
• Crystal asteroids have a custom destruction sound
  
• New upgrade sound effects
  
  
• Turret upgrade VFX
  
• Hokucho emitters (special engine, new front thrusters and signal lights)
  

[h2]Minor Story Improvement[/h2]

It is now possible to decide against Kalypso when first crashing into her and join Caduceus at a later point in the story as well.


[h2]General[/h2]

• Reworked a lot of dialog text
  
• Some location images polished up (Pluto Colony, Bars)
  
• Elzo Fartrader now uses the "follower" system when his sidemission is accepted
  
• Some camera movement added to various sequences
  
• Some NPC reactions changed during conversations with the player
  

[h2]DE Localization[/h2]

Over 4500 lines were added to the German translation - bringing the interface back to 100% and the dialogs a big step forward. It's far from finished, but we aim to reach the full DE translation this year.

• Source translation from 50 to 100%
  
• Json translation from 45 to 100%
  
• Scripts and dialogs: +25%
  

Note for translators: All text color codes were replaced by variables to allow easier color handling.


[h2]World[/h2]

• Travel Group: Improved affinity checks
  
• When traders' stores have been full for a while, their items are refreshed (and qualities randomized), allowing you to wait for a better version of a certain weapon
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Inventory item sorting was completely reworked – less alphabet, more intuition!
  
• Character menu: Skill level is shown on the icon
  
• Some person sorting in location lists was improved as well
  
• Skill icons correctly y-centered
  

[h2]Mission item weight / price adaptions[/h2]

• Default weight and price for mission items is 0 (keycards, persons & bodies, instruments, readables)
  
• Marcel Wallas mission item weights reduced to 1
  

[h2]Portraits[/h2]

• J-12 random male #3 polishing / style adaption (incl. its 12 variations)
  

• The Tyrant - Proxy Vaudreuil will now follow the player again after defeating the rebels (if you have a savegame where this sidemission bugged, he will now continue to follow you as soon as you load your game - leading him back to his destination will finish the sidemission)
  
• Travel Group: Use the destination for random NPC groups too
  
• NPC ships do not follow through with docking on FTA garages
  
• Weapon target offscreen arrow is always shown with repair laser normal selection
  
• Turret auto-aim at next target stops working if the nearest enemy is the weapon target
  
• Make the weapon target nearest enemy shortcut also target negative "affinity of us" ships
  
• Map Marker name is shown in non-map mode
  
• Off-screen weapon target arrow appears on-screen after respawn
  
• Savegames: Weapon target settings are always reset
  
• Use damage type colors in shield tooltips
  
• Translation: Inspect window headline shows an untranslated name
  
• Translation: Landable person list names are not translated
  
• Translate the Map Marker accept button
  
• Translated ship names are not displayed in "scanned:" noti
  
• Analysis tooltip: Show pirate faction names without underscore
  
• Skill "Assisted Aim" could be applied multiple times
  
• Missing upgrade stats for Koumiyou weapon
  
• Professor Zolo now uses correct weapon equipment
  
• Death Battery illogical turn rate values removed (default used)
  
• Some regular non-mission readables could not be dropped or sold
  
• Vornoff's Soporiphic wrong icon
  
• In case anyone noticed: The Bartholdy's logo had a spelling mistake ;) and is now redesigned and adapted into a wide version for the interior image of the bar.
  
• First skill arrow rotation is off
  
• Assistant Demoror respawn reduced
  

Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

• Website
• Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Reddit, Imgur

Hiya, space explorers,

welcome back to a small interim update – some fixes, minor additions and polishing here and there. Special thanks this time to pepps and especially mav from the community. Also: general revision of missile homing, all of them were checked through and significantly improved. Work on the next main update continues now! :D






[h2]Missions[/h2]

• "The Tyrant" side mission:
  Rebel spawn position optimized (avoids likelihood of missing them), better handling of the battle event so the player doesn't need to manually target the rebels, script and dialog polishing including alternative dialog, just in case you might still miss the rebels. Some portrait assignment updates
  
• "No Funny Business" side mission:
  Added new jokes, improved dialog and script handling, some dialog polishing
  
• "Sleeping Pods for Three, No Pets!" side mission:
  Removed the possibility to re-enter the mission after it failed due to old dialog at Prescott and/or Billie Jean and Rufus, some script and dialog polishing
  

[h2]Reworked missile homing[/h2]
Finally – homing missiles getting tediously lost on their way to a target or simply shooting past it are a thing of the past. We have tried many different behaviors, resulting in a reliable new preset for acceleration and rotation speed, and tweaked some custom values as well.

New default: 160 / 20 / 60 (acceleration / turn rate accel / turn rate max)

This also improves the speed of some missiles you may already own. Unique adjustments that differ from the new standard:

• Dogfight Missiles: 200/3/3 -> 200/30/30
  
• Noob Missiles: 90/0.4/0.8 -> 90/5/10
  
• Pharma Missiles: 80/0.4/0.8 -> 80/10/20
  
• Pharma Sentry: 100/0.4/0.8 -> 100/10/20
  
• Ahoi-Rockets: 90/0.4/0.8 -> 90/10/20
  
• Jolly-Rockets: 90/0.4/0.8 -> 90/10/20
  
• Mini Seekers: 200/120/120 -> 200/30/60
  
• Hunter Seekers: 200/360/180 -> 200/30/60
  
• Plasma Missile: 280/25/25 -> turn max raised to 40
  
• Plasma Missile Turret: 280/25/25 -> turn max raised to 40
  
• Raketa: 200/1.5/1.5 -> 200/5/10
  
• Twin Missiles: 120/25/25 -> 120/30/60
  

[h2]Ships[/h2]

• Loot Beam improvements: Do not attract if a drop path is blocked
  
• Entrega, Entrega Grande / Gaseoso: animated the engine linked graphics
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Show an arrow to the selected ship and weapon target if it's not visible
  
• Map Marker: Add a hover highlight
  
• Map Marker: Show the name on the right side of the icon when hovering
  
• Draw the weapon/repair target line when hovering over the cooldown entry
  

[h2]Other[/h2]

• Improve the faction support AI
  
• Some minor portrait polishing
  

• "Profit Loses Seldom" side mission:
  Quest progress now needs to be exactly at 75 percent for the "distraction" answer to appear at Dr. Nadir, will not appear before.
  
• "Genocide Consignment" main mission:
  Auxilium now still supports the player, but should not be able to attack Assistant Lucca. Lucca can not attack during the battle, to avoid confusion.
  
• "Revealing Xentron" main mission:
  When denying cooperation with Mr. Shiro during a bonus scene at the end, the quest progress and target will now update, to avoid confusion.
  

• Ship AI: Do not land anywhere if the mining command fails
  
• Fight Behavior: Get a new approach pos if it's not reached in time
  
• Pirates flee to the wrong faction fortress
  
• Disabled turrets with pre-selected target can get confused when enabled again
  
• Remove map marker: replace "cancel" button with "delete" if marker was already set
  
• Loot can get destroyed with Salvor Attractor
  
• Exploit: Freight Container spawners refresh missing ones on savegame load
  
• Exploit: Gas clouds are recharged on savegame load when completely depleted
  
• Count a ship death as player-caused if it was a one shot
  
• Map Marker: When moving the map cam with Z, disable marker interactions
  
• Credits menu back button is invisible
  
• Mission icon on HQ after Shiro bonus dialog (landable overview icons are not updated)
  
• Shield restore_big volume is too low
  
• I18N: Set the thread language also for unknown language countries
  
• I18N: Decimal separator missing for floating point
  
• Landable HUD: Pressing the trade key with a still selected sprite exits the landable
  
• Display the SOS signal distance in same units as in the analysis HUD
  
• Siege convoy balancing
  
• Siege convoy doesn't go straight to the Caduceus Station
  

Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

• Website
• Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Reddit, Imgur