Gaia Beyond News

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/F0tx0cQQHZM[/previewyoutube]

Welcome back, space traveler – to our 1.0 release!

During some sleepless nights we did our best to fix a lot of bugs and put as much fine tuning as possible into this release. The Caduceus Arc is now finally complete and fully playable. The 1.0 release offers you an involving storyline, where your decisions matter and may lead to unforeseen consequences. Branching out is of course always an option! Explore the solar system in a distant future – now more populated and polished than ever before. Equip countless weapons, shields and devices, discover mysterious artifacts, old wrecks and other secrets. Maybe you'll even spot an extraterrestrial...

As always, we welcome any feedback and ideas, while we're still working on some of the things we're asked to bring to the game. Have a blast flying and don't bump into asteroids... or pirates... or mad scientists.

Big thanks to Sergalicious and cdutson for some last-minute testing and of course to all of you who supported us during the early access time!






[h2]Missions[/h2]

• Reworked the Supreme Court sequence, a positive outcome is now more than possible
  
• If Supreme Court is won, the Sphere will send a squad and one of their generals to help during the final battle
  
• added two new BG5000 sidequests
  
• added a new Nookrium mission (more to come)
  

[h2]Giant Shields for Pirate Fortresses[/h2]

• Unlock them with rare modulator keys and fight their leaders

[h2]World[/h2]

• Added dozens of NPCs, new items etc.
  
• Added new locations to planets and stations
  
• Obira Water has a system dynamic trade price
  
• Congress Station is now landable
  
• Added a new ISA Research Station (removed the old templates that were empty)
  
• Added new wrecks with a lot of background story to check on and chests to loot
  
• Added the ISA Collector ship for a later story arc
  
• Turrets have a tiny hull regeneration
  

[h2]Trading Cards[/h2]
All the cool kids have trading cards! Currently waiting for approval, you should be able to collect 10 fancy motives from this first set, craft your badges and get some wallpapers and chat emojis within the next couple of days!

• Badges & Foil Badge
  
• 5 Wallpapers
  
• 10 Emojis
  

And while we're at it, hardcore fans can now use the Steam emojis as Telegram stickers! ;)




[h2]FTA trade missions[/h2]

• Show mission timer in MM:SS format
  
• Trade partners use random portraits
  
• Mission briefing text formatting
  

[h2]World[/h2]

• O-Dog spawns a ring of mines around his boss fight location
  
• Some faction spawners reworked
  
• Graphic reassignments
  • Don Gorgon Farms
    
  • Many random NPCs
    
• Background nebulas to SMD Woodrow and Sperrholz Fortress
  
• More background asteroid fields
  
• More freight spawners to FTA stations
  
• Improved and added a lot of descriptions to NPCs and locations
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Main menu background rework
  
• Weapon upgrade HUD polishing
  
• Various big font optimizations
  
• Ace Pilot has a custom skill icon
  

[h2]Portraits[/h2]

• Some more polishing
  
• More Atlantic males (and a new Samuel Isaac)
  
• Bloodstained terminals
  

• FTA pilot trade missions broken
  
• Upgrading a weapon from the inventory list keeps the old one in a broken state
  
• The Seraphim attackers during Fakir's mission can not call for help from other Seraphim ships
  
• During the Bat-Mission, when O-Dog dies, he won't respawn close to Zion Station anymore and finish the mission
  
• Autopilot evasion ignores stations sometimes
  
• Waechter actual hacking range is bigger than visible one
  
• One-Eyed Swanson spawns in plasma field and dies
  
• Zion Farms don't have shields
  
• Don't spawn Hokucho weapons
  
• O-Dog battle peaceful route & Bat Trip music infinite loop
  
• Background asteroid fields are drawn behind background wrecks
  
• Nortnex(Event) hacking should show the default icon instead of the cargo icon
  
• Inventory HUD: Dropping a part of a stack does not select the same list item again
  
• Use the correct trade price adjustments in tootlips
  
• Radar gets reactivated after savegame load
  
• Tutorial gives too much XP
  
• Passive self-repair skill is too strong
  
• FTA Trade Node is broken after failing a timed quest
  
• Punctual Mechanic becomes Cad Station leading person after O-Dog fight
  
• Rebels & Tyrell randoms have no portraits
  
• Lucca now switches dialog as planned when entering Pluto
  
• Most of the Pluto missions are now canceled shortly before the "Leaving Event", if you haven't finished them by now
  
• removed a broken quest for now (it will return very soon)
  
• Find a way into Caduceus HQ quest marker now points to Caduceus Station, not Lashkar Gah
  
• Destroyable mine damage can overflow
  
• Link_Dialog_Handler_1_1() crashes
  
• Update the person location tooltip instantly when it changes
  
• Cargo limit is ignored for trading (rare)
  
• Do not ignore the restocking cargo group max_amount
  
• Erich stoltz dialog handler 1_1 can crash
  
• Do not allow to quick travel with an active FTA pilot mission
  
• fixed two barkeepers that got stuck after you asked them for drinks
  
• If you get a "special drink" at Bartholdys you actually can keep it in your inventory now
  
• Agent Gendo's generic kill quest should now be finishable
  
• Atlas doesn't get stuck/looped in his dialog stage after the final battle
  
• After leaving Pluto, Shiro - if destroyed - spawns now at his target location to stop him from wandering around endlessly
  
• Limit the DPS hit count calculation to one second
  
• Use (energy_regen / energy_usage) instead of fire_interval if it's lower for DPS
  
• Ramming ships causes hull damage when the shield is still online
  
• Radar HUD is not shown with some Tutorial_Skip() calls
  
• Luke Razmus does not repair your ship
  
• The XP needed to level up test should ignore the fraction
  
• AI Ships should stop trying to reach a target that is dead
  
• Old saves: Caduceus Distribution Hall is J-12
  

Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

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

Welcome back, space travelers!

We hope y'all had a decent summer so far. Things are definitely heating up on our side as the 1.0 release is more than around the corner – it is a WEEK away!

As you would expect from a last early access update, Apophysis goes many ways at once - focusing on details and filling gaps. It adds alternative paths and consequences to the main story, based on your decisions, and cleans up some things we've had in our backlog for a while. We did our very best to make the whole experience as smooth as possible – hope you enjoy it!

From now until 1.0, small patches could come in with high frequency - allowing us to react to every little bit immediately, so please leave us your feedback in the forum or on discord.

Special thanks to cdutson and Kazarus for their many hours of streaming and tons of valuable feedback at the right time!





[h2]Main Story[/h2]

• Chondros has a fully developed arc now. Depending on your decisions, the outcome will change a lot
  
• Kalypso has a fully developed arc now for the Caduceus main story - your choices can have fatal consequences!
  
• 'The Doctor is Out' has been reworked with additional events, tasks and a lot of new dialog
  
• 'Diversionary Tactic' has been reworked with an additional event
  
• New and improved dialog pieces here and there
  

[h2]Shock Grenades![/h2]
Brandnew technology from the ISA!

[h2]New missile turret with upgrades[/h2]
That previous thing didn't look like it was able to carry missiles or even launch them... ;)


[h2]Show the solar system date[/h2]
How many years did you venture around?

[h2]New Portraits[/h2]

• Sphere loyalists
  
• 5 new Sphere male variations
  
• 3 more ISA male variations
  
• 2 more CoC bouncer variations
  

[h2]New Sounds[/h2]

• Dialog hacking and repair
  
• Shock explosion hit / non-hit
  
• Plasma projectile fire and hit
  
• Engine jamming / jam device trigger
  
• Evil buzz (Waechter hacking)
  

[h2]Logo Shader[/h2]
Gaia Beyond may now use up to 1% of your graphics card power!




[h2]Ships & Stations[/h2]

• Caduceus, Hokucho, CoC Station hi-res polishing
  
• AI trading now ignores low affinity targets and checks every landable person for credits or cargo
  
• Some ship slot rearrangements
  

[h2]World[/h2]

• Location image polishing:
  
  • Workshop
    
  • Supreme Court
    
  • Terminal / Bank location: added a more detailed interface, finally in 4K
    
  • Zopa's Greenhouse (+ version with collected plants)
    
  • ISA Outpost / Science Academy
• More faction spawners added to small stations
  
• FTA Hubs now have random traders, FTA Garages have mechanics
  
• 4th gas cloud type with Helium-3 added
  
• Some background nebulas behind pirate fortresses and O-Dog battle
  
• Added a lot of descriptions and sort keys to NPCs
  
• A lot of proofreading
  
• More tiny stuff
  

[h2]Weapons[/h2]

• The weapon tooltip shows a level progress bar
  
• Added some non-homing missiles
  
• Improved hit emitter scaling for lasers
  

[h2]Shields[/h2]

• All shields have been rebalanced and repriced
  
• Added new shields
  

[h2]FTA Trading Missions[/h2]

• Added a lot more targets to the FTA Trading Missions
  
• Added FTA Trading Missions with time limit for greater reward
  
• Show the target name instead of the identifier
  
• Improved the involving dialog
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Landable location/dialog/person window fades in
  
• Quest log shows the quest giver and location
  
• Hide the fire interval progress bar for burst weapons
  
• Show a confirm question box when using a skill point
  

[h2]Portrait polishing[/h2]

• Nortnex, CoC portraits, J-12 males, ISA male 2, Cameron, Ben, Lume
  
• Many reassignments
  

• Auto pause from events/dialog should always show the input shortcut (and support controller)
  
• AI: Fighting a landed ship should not fire weapons nor ram the station
  
• Affinities can be duplicated (should be overwritten)
  
• Plasma field and gas cloud icons should not be visible on the map until it was explored
  
• Self-repair devices are broken
  
• Fixed "The Vanished Transport" (talk to the questgiver again to restart the quest)
  
• Device comparison: longer cooldown is displayed as better
  
• Thruster tooltip: interruptable "false" is displayed as better
  
• Passive devices tooltip should not show the cooldown lines
  
• Tezla astronaut quest: timer is still visible (and counting) during and after the mission success dialog
  
• Rockets are leading the target a little bit
  
• Autopilot: Do not reduce the max ship speed for the player when near asteroids
  
• Skill tooltip text is not centered when entering from the New Game Menu
  
• 0 weight items can't be collected
  
• 3-line quest descriptions are cut off with a large font
  
• O-Dog doesn't proceed after first stop
  
• Crashing into Kalypso with a thruster gives -10 affinity
  
• Landable HUD: Quickbar is hidden after a player teleport
  
• The in-space item collect noti can be displayed in a black box at bottom of the screen
  
• Event_Shield_Equip_Invalidated() is not always called
  
• Shock projectile hit sound wasn't played
  
• Weapon max hit count is ignored for the DPS calculation
  
• One line dialogs could be printed twice
  
• Landable credits/items noti overlaps with location name
  
• Mining laser hit emitter is drawn below asteroids
  
• Extracted Gas (test item) shouldn't be spawned
  
• 'Alloy' items (icon & color) grouped to tech category
  (so you guys can stop trying to equip them ;))
• Asteroid emitter are not z linked
  
• O-Dog fight: background lightings had old position after location was moved
  
• Player radar mode update could be delayed if a sprite spawns inside the range
  
• Main Menu: Only move the mouse on init when the window has focus
  
• Let Sleeping Docs Lie: Hacking is not unlocked
  
• Erich Stoltz dialog improvements (doesn't exit automatically anymore after choosing certain answers)
  
• Some faction spawner positions were outdated
  
• Added missing quest givers
  
• Nancho: collision scaling fixed, landing deactivated
  
• Radar gets disabled on save load
  

Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

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

[h2]📡 Attention, traveler![/h2]

Collision course has been validated.
Calculated impact: 20 August, 2020.
Another pre-1.0 update is pending.
All measures will be taken – yet your support is crucial.
Relay this information to as many space pilots as possible.

Don't panic: Major content updates can be expected, even in the distant future! 🚀

Transmission completed.

Welcome back, space travelers!

Big update warping in! A lot of new improvements for weapons, including shooting ahead of a moving target, better special effects, improved homing on some rockets, new weapons in general and a lot of new upgrades, even some new devices for some active abilities during combat. Most of the Caduceus storyline got a little rework, including long-awaited changes for the final mission and a lot more.

As the 1.0 release is around the corner and things are getting serious now, test pilots are heavily encouraged to try out everything new and old - we want to find all the bugs and polish everything the best way possible before this big milestone. All of your feedback is welcome and needed to push this project into its next stage!





[h2]Frozen flower collectibles[/h2]
Repair Eliz3, the robot and help Zopa cultivate her greenhouse with rare plants from the solar system.

Flowers – in space, frozen in time! Unbelievable? Wait until you've seen the flamethrower...


[h2]Extractable gas clouds[/h2]
A long-forgotten feature - to bring some extraction (extra-action!) to the last corners of the universe - has been finished and implemented. These clouds provide various raw materials, mainly - guess what: gases!

Hunt them gassy clouds, buddy!

[h2]New sidequests and events[/h2]
Have a taste of mob mentality during the Ganymede Flu!

[h2]Tougher fights[/h2]
The AI now fires fixed weapons with high precision. Shooting ahead of any moving target (leading the target) - which will very likely be YOU!

[h2]Persistent savegames[/h2]
Asteroids, Plasma clouds, and spawned ships are now fully restored with savegames

[h2]New J-12 big guy: Ferox[/h2]
Some of the very early birds may recognize this one - from back when a rough version of him was idling around in the Jupiter area. After some polishing, it's kind of a whole new ship now - and most important: It's playable.

2 big turrets, 3 medium ones – what else do you need to know?

[h2]Weapons[/h2]
Weapons have been kind of a main focus this time. We've added dozens of new ones, new effects and reworked basically the whole arsenal (also check the 'improvements' section). Here are some rather exotic hightlights:

• Zion Junk Cannons - yup, they're shooting trash!
  
• Flamethrower
  
• 'Razors Edge'
  
• New upgrades & level graphics!
  
  
  
• Damage type visualisation (custom projectile and impact FX)
  
  • plasma
    
  • shock
    
  • radiation
    

[h2]Active Devices[/h2]

• Distance Enforcer A shockwave that lets you take a breath from intrusive attackers. Can be absolutely devastating in combination with asteroid fields!
  
  
• Crash Creates a radial impulse, jamming all engines around you!

[h2]Locations[/h2]

• ISA Observatory Deck, Hokucho Gate, Bartholdy custom location pic

[h2]Portraits[/h2]

• Loreley "NO drinks on the house!"
  
  
• J-12 male thrashed / patched up This poor guy is having a rough time...

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Some new location and weapon icons

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Enemy alert (NPC turns hostile)
  
• New weapon sounds
  
• Bartholdy's Bar background music - 'Night in Venice' by Kevin MacLeod
  
• Drinking sound
  

[h2]New achievements[/h2]

• Crash on First Sight, Flower Power, Exitus Igneus

[h2]Main Story[/h2]

• During the pirate attack on Pluto, pirate ships of the second wave will now attack the player if damaged by the player
  
• The Waechter hacking mission got reworked, new dialog, incorporated the actual hacking skill into the hacking event, improved balancing, also added a mini text-only hacking tutorial to the beginning of the mission
  
• During the Caduceus transport from Pluto, Assistant Lucca will now stop after the player has stopped the escort
  
• Some changes for O-Dog's boss battle. Advanced dialog, new primary weapon. After the mission ends, the player doesn't have to return to Atlas HQ anymore
  
• Some improved dialog before the Supreme Court hearing
  
• Additional dialog for Kalypso for the whole Caduceus Arc
  
• First big changes to the final mission, support from Atlas and Kalypso, Kouji now actually works, added dialog and first version of an ending scene (for that arc at least)
  

[h2]World[/h2]

• Draw asteroid belts behind the Fog of War
  
• Plasma fields damage
  

[h2]Weapons[/h2]
As mentioned before, a lot of work has gone into weapon finetuning and optimizations. A quick summary:

• Reworked stats of almost all weapons
  
• Changed some weapons essentially to make them more fun / diversified
  
• Added more preferred weapon sets to NPC ships for more variety and combat difficulty
  
• Switched the projectile blending for better visibility (no more glowy projectiles looking dark on bright backgrounds)
  
• Optimization of projectile collisions, spawning and visual FX
  
• Inventory: Weapons sorted by subcategories
  
• A lot of weapon renaming
  

[h2]Ships & Stations[/h2]

• ISA Research Station polishing
  
• Include tracked damage in some affinity tests
  
• Improve the ship death shockwave scaling
  
• Show the shield on hit effect a bit stronger/longer for weak weapon hits
  
• Add shield damage type weakness/resistance
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Radar HUD Scanline shader
  
• Some more UI & json DE translations
  
• Analysis HUD: Use the shield bar for gas clouds (uses the item color)
  
• Analysis HUD: only show the shield bar if it's useful
  
• Readable HUD: Improve the layout sizing
  
• Select the inventory list item again after a weapon upgrade
  
• Options Menu: Keep the scroll position on shortcut assign
  
• Localization: Show incomplete translations in the Options menu
  
• Inventory HUD: Keep the scroll position on equip/unequip
  
• Show the Cooldown HUD when selecting a weapon target
  
• Radar HUD: Show it with the tutorial
  
• Binary: additional icon resolutions
  

• Small loading time improvements
  

• Show the critical chance in tooltips
  
• Freight Containers: hacking level 3 is 100% with hacking level 1
  
• Fight AI does not move sideways sometimes (stuck with switching)
  
• Laser hit graphic is not always sized correctly
  
• Travel group engage should undock all group ships
  
• Use the full progressbar width for the hacking bar layout on freight containers
  
• Add an autopilot recover behavior state that does not resume fights
  
• Travel group can wait endlessly (does not restart) if the stage is WAITING_AT_DEST
  
• Person trader level is not set
  
• Some weapon upgrades / damage types were broken
  
• Ships don't randomly buy big-type weapons (weapons were unspawned)
  
• Bartholdy always provides the same drink as 'today's special'
  
• Collision aggro triggers too easily with defend mode behavior
  
• Show the cargo noti weapon name like it is in the inventory (with quality)
  
• Map icons can disappear early when they should still be visible on screen
  
• Weapon inaccuracy setting is limited to one plane and affects speed
  
• Turret z-fighting
  
• Kouji doesn't defend the player
  
• Cooldown HUD: Stop the fade out if any weapon still has heat
  
• Big turret uses wrong base item icon (has fixed color)
  
• Projectile additive blending mode is not used
  
• Haas-Rocket: lights offset in upgrade window
  
• Energy regen upgrades not displayed
  
• Weapon Upgrade HUD: Use a different method to uppercase the damage type
  
• Don't save a dying weapon target identifier
  
• Set the type_name for spawned_mine
  
• Analysis HUD: enable clipping for the linked renderer
  

Let's have a chat on Discord:



Learn more & stay tuned!

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

[h2]Are you receiving, space traveler?[/h2]

Big update incoming! Major changes and things yet to come.
Preparations for 1.0 release, which has been moved to August, are underway.
Don't forget, even then the journey is just beginning!
More full storylines and content will follow after 1.0.
Now's another opportunity to join in early and help us with feedback.
For this purpose, enjoy our big discount on steam this weekend.

Transmission over.