Spaceship Commander News

May your starships be warm and cozy this year!
And your space base will have a lot of yummy🍪and gifts :)

How many Earth days lasts 1 year on different planets (1 revolution around the Sun):
- Mercury: 1 year = 87.9 Earth days
- Venus: 1 year = 224.7 Earth days
- Earth: 1 year = 365 Earth days :)
- Mars: 1 year = 686.9 Earth days
- Jupiter: 1 year = 4332 Earth days (12 Earth years)
Saturn: 1 year = 10759 Earth days (23 Earth years)
- Uranus: 1 year = 30685 Earth days (84 earth years)
- Neptune: 1 year = 60190 Earth days (165 Earth years)
- Pluto: 1 year = 90553 Earth days (248 Earth years)

In the new update, I have been working on further improving the process system.
Now the assignment of a crew member to the module maintenance process has become more intuitive.

Also, in the game has appear a cool process called production (crafting).
For now, several production modules and simple recipes have been added. As well as a new crew member who will serve all this stuff.

Module "Metalworker"

It is intended for the manufacture of Parts that are used to fixi module breakdowns, and they are also often used in the above-mentioned production process as one of the components of the recipe. The Parts are made of steel ingots (not to be confused with titanium ingots or nickel ingots).

Module "Assembler"

It is intended for the manufacture of finished products from various components. For now, the manufacture of not the coolest clothes is available (several types of armor and hand weapons).

Module "Chemical reactor"

It is designed to produce some components, and also here you can make a very useful thing - medicines.

It is recommended to install such modules on ships that have at least several slots of a general type. They can also be installed on the player's station, now it has several slots for modules.


Crew member "Production Engineer"

A smart guy in a fancy vest. It is needed to maintain the above modules, they will not work without him.
Meanwhile, he has average skills for servicing any modules in principle, as well as an average level of "Fixing" skill. As usual, his combat skills leave much to be desired and he does not have military equipment when hiring.
Class: engineer, subclass: process engineer.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the production chains introduced in this update are a kind of start for larger-scale updates in the future and will be significantly rebalanced. Some ingredients for production can only be bought so far. For example, the smelting of steel ingots from ore will be in the next updates, you will have to buy it at the station or somewhere else, but the nitrogen gas needed for the production of medicines can already be extracted from gas clouds.

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Some problems were also fixed, when, for example, a crew member engaged in module maintenance did not react in any way to a module breakdown (he was simply thrown out of the module maintenance slot), now a crew member will try to fix the module breakdown (if he has the necessary skill and consumables for this).

Breakdown fixing process


The mechanics of breakdowns have also been changed - their overall chance of occurrence has been reduced, but there is a nuance - breakdowns can now occur at any time while the module is connected to the ship's electrical network (for example, a short circuit), and not only during processes.
But there are also breakdowns relevant only to specific processes. For example, the breakdown of medical probes in the module "Medical bay" can only occur during the execution of the "healing" process.

And other small bug fixes for the work of processes:
- Now, if a crew member is already maintain a module, when you hover the mouse over this module, there will be no "maintenance" icon under the mouse. I.e. you cannot assign a crew member to maintain the module that he already maintains.
- Now, if a crew member is unable to maintain the module due to insufficient skill level, then there will be a relevant icon under the mouse.
- Fixed a bug with incorrect display of the current action when a crew member maintain the module.
- Now, if a module breaks down, the crew member which maintain this module immediately tries to fix the damage and continue maintenance.
- During the fix process, the crew member now has wrench icon instead the gear icon.
- If the repairman runs out of consumables or some other problem occurs during the fix of a breakdown, his icon of the current action will start flashing.
- The color of the fixing icon has turned olive green.

Try the update! And good luck with your work and production!

I'm just working on the next update (quite small). Simple crafting will be added. Crafting will be possible in several ways: either create an item directly by a crew member using a special hand tool, or craft on the production module of the ship / station. Crafting items will be a new crew member of the engineer class - production engineer. The production engineer will have the ability to use hand tools for crafting and also maintain the production modules of the ship.

I haven't been heard from for a long time, but that's all because I was hard working to preparing a complex but interesting update - the "Processes System".
And now it's ready! The new "Processes System" deepen the gameplay and gives the player new tasks and new opportunities.
Based on this update, the following ones will be released, which will add even more variety of game scenarios and features!

More info about the "Process System" update:
Now many activities (for example, or drilling, healing, unloading, etc.) are based on a single "Processes System". The process has such parameters as: cycle time, consumables used per cycle, a tool without which the process is not possible, as well as personnel.

- Process personnel this is crew members who must be assigned to the process carrier (for example, an engineer is assigned to the reactor module). Moreover, there are "mandatory personnel" - this is the personnel without whom the process on the carrier does not work (it is on pause), as well as "support personnel" - this is the personnel whose presence is not necessary, but it gives bonuses for the process (mostly it a bonus to speed of the process).
It is important to note: that sometimes there are requirements to the personnel. For example, a crew member (personnel) must have some of skills (module maintenance skill, engineering equipment mastery, etc.), and some kind of equipped tool and consumables.

The medic work as the personnel for the med. module (process speed bonus)

- There are processes without personnel (for example, the mining drone is automated and its drilling process does not require any personnel).

Mining drone do an automatic drilling process

- Also has been added to the game a "breakdowns". As a rule, breakdowns occur just during the execution of processes. Moreover, each process has its own unique breakdowns.
For example, on the mining drone there are two processes - the ore drilling process and the unloading process. During ore drilling, the drill may break (and the mining process will pause) and during unloading the unloading connector-conveyor may be damaged (the unloading process will pause). There are also quite universal breakdowns, such as a short circuit on the module or a failure of the module's control panel. They occur on almost every module, but they still look unique to each module.

- Breakdowns can have different effects - some slow down the process and some stop it altogether, and some can generally cause damage or disconnect the module from the electric system of the ship.

Broken fuel line

Reactor short circuit

Broken drill of the mining drone

By the way, the engine module and the reactor module can now be serviced (the so-called maintenance process) this gives bonuses for the speed of the ship and a bonus for energy production.

Flight engineer maintains the reactor

- Each breakdown has its own unique "fix process", which has its own set of requirements: as a rule, the fix process requires personnel with some kind of skill, tool and consumables. Most often, only personnel with the "fix skill" of a certain level are required (when there are no complex breakdowns). But sometimes, in addition, may be required consumables - "parts". Again, different breakdowns require different amounts of them.
By the way, in future updates, support maintenance slots will also be available for the fix process (to speed up the fix process), but this is for later.

- By the way, the fix process may also have breakdowns. That is, the repairman, fixing a breakdown can breaks something else because of his crooked hands), but this does not happen often.

Do not confuse the "fix process" of breakdowns/malfunctions and production problems with the "repair process". Repair process (ship, car, module) this is quite another thing - his task is to restore health points (HP). The repair process is similar to the healing process, when we restore HP from a character, but repairs restore HP from ships, equipment, modules and other inanimate things.
So far, there is no repair process in the game, you can only repairing from traders. But the repair process will appear in the next updates. It also will be not easy:) but more on that later.

By the way, medicines are now needed for the healing process (by a medical module or by medics). They can be bought from traders. Medics can maintain med. module (increase in the rate of healing).
There is also an idea to make such a feature - a medic crew member begins the process of healing a target and support personnel can be attached to him (well, like assisting a medic), they can be an ordinary soldier. If you are interested in such a feature - write here:)

Parts and medicines

New crew members have also been added to the game: a pilot and a flight engineer.

Flight engineer can repair more complex breakdowns and maintain more complex modules (for example, soldiers can also maintain modules, but not all), also flight engineer has good skills in engineering equipment. But the main task of a flight engineer, as can be understood from its name, is to maintain the ship's modules, which increases overall efficiency.


Pilot is needed to maintain the Bridge module, which increases bonuses for the speed of the ship and its maneuverability (which increases the chance of evading an enemy hit). Other characters can also maintain the bridge module, but they will not have a bonus for evasion, only for speed.
Also, the pilot is generally not bad at maintenance usual ship modules and has the skills to fix breakdowns, but to a lesser extent than the flight engineer.


Both of these subclasses are considered non-military. Their weapon and armor skills are very weak, but in general it is possible to equip them with low level weapons.
Both the pilot and the flight engineer are subclasses of the profession (class) engineer. That is, the class is an engineer, the subclass is a flight engineer. Other subclasses will appear in the future, such as a repairman (specialist in repairing the hull of the ship and fixing module failures), a miner (specialist in mining equipment for resource extraction, etc.)

In general, it is desirable to have at least one engineer on board (1 pilot and 1 engineer are now included in the free ship, instead of old soldier recruits).

Hint: always take at least one flight engineer with you, as module breakdowns can be caught at the most unsuitable moment, and soldiers cannot fix breakdowns of high complexity. It is recommended to take a pilot in the same way, his bonuses for the ship will help in space battles.
It is also better to take as many medicines and parts on board with you as possible, they are inexpensive and can be useful. And in general, it's good take more armor suits on your ship, especially with a helmet for walking on airless planets, as well as hand weapons. Fortunately, the cargo hold of the ship is large and these things take up little space.

Here's an update. Well, I'm going to do the following update as usual:)

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Mars


Which planet should humanity go to? Of course to Mars! In the game Spaceship Commander people fly to Mars like they go to their grandmother's village, some for work, and some as a tourist.
Why to Mars? Because for a people he is the most favorable from the planets closest to us.
Mercury is not an good decision, it is too hot there (+427°C on the sunny side and almost -170°C on the dark side).
Venus - landing there is a sure suicide (pressure 100 atmospheres and temperature +464° C).
Earth - well, we are already here :)
The moon - although it is close the conditions there are not very good (there is no atmosphere, harsh temperature drops from +100°С to -170°С), and low gravity.
And then Mars - the planetary traveler's best choice. The force of gravity is 30% of the Earth's, more or less acceptable temperature conditions (about them later), as well the atmosphere, though it is of carbon dioxide (CO2). Another bonus is that the length of a day on Mars is 24 hours 37 minutes 22.7 seconds, just like on Earth.
Our gas giants Jupiter and Saturn also have interesting satellites, but they are much further than Mars.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun


Solar system. The bunch of planets in the center are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - also called the "Inner Region of the Solar System". Next up are the gas giants.


The mass of Mars is 0.10 of the mass of the Earth, and the diameter is 0.53 of the diameter of the Earth. Mars is called the "red planet" because of the reddish hue of the surface, given to it by the mineral maghemite - iron (III) oxide.

Size comparison


The relief of Mars has many features - impact craters like on the Moon, volcanoes, valleys, deserts and even polar ice caps like on Earth.
The Martian extinct volcano Mount Olympus is one of the highest known mountains on the planets of the solar system, its height is 21 km. The grandiose Mariner Valley has a length of 4500 km (a quarter of the planet's perimeter), a width of up to 600 km (an average of 200) and a depth of up to 11 km. At the north pole of Mars is the Great Northern Lowland - a plain that occupies 40% of the planet's surface, which lies 4-5 km below the average radius of the planet, and is essentially a crater from a colossal collision with another celestial body.
Mars is a godsend for "space archaeologists", because Geologically, it has remained almost unchanged for 3 billion years! And on Earth during this time, violent tectonic processes took place, which erased almost all traces of the early history of our planet.
Previously, Mars had rivers, lakes and seas and reminded the Earth. However, a billion years ago, active processes in the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere of Mars is stoped, and it has acquired a modern look. The fault of the global catastrophic changes in the Martian climate is considered to be the large eccentricity of the orbit and the instability of the axis of rotation, which cause huge, up to 45%, fluctuations in the flow of solar energy incident on the surface of the planet. And also weak influx of heat from the bowels of Mars, due to the small mass of the planet, and the high rarefaction of the atmosphere.
Mars is a quite harsh place, although there are a more worse places. The atmosphere of Mars consists of 96% carbon dioxide, and oxygen here is only 0.1%, which is clearly not enough for breathing. Also, the atmosphere here is very rarefied, how much? Approximately 100 times more rarefied than on Earth! Therefore, walking on Mars without a helmet you will very quickly get air out of your lungs and you will feel yourself very bad.
And Mars is also famous for its dust, it is able to cover any apparatus or building very quickly, by the way it is very toxic, since it contains perchlorates.
There is more bad news about the very powerful radiation that comes from the Sun, because Mars does not have a magnetic field and nothing stops it, unlike Earth, for example. To date, the best way to hide from this radiation is to sit in caves (lava tubes). But in the game Spaceship Commander people use a special nanofiber that effectively shields radiation (used in buildings, ships and uniforms).

Somewhere in the wastelands of Mars


Oddly enough, it cannot be said that Mars is catastrophically cold. Of course, it is better not to go to the surface of Mars without a heated spacesuit, but on a good summer day the planet can be warm. Since the atmosphere of Mars is very rarefied, it does not smooth out daily fluctuations of surface temperature. Here there is a temperature below -120°С, and sometimes +20°С, it also depends on the season, but on average it is somewhere around -60°С, which is comparable, for example, with the Arctic regions of the Earth, so if you are a Siberian, then Mars will not surprise you much with frost.
On Mars, the color of the sky is reddish. This is due to the size of Martian dust, which is suspended in the atmosphere, as well as the composition of this dust - it consists of iron oxides. There is an interesting point - at sunset, the color of the sun on Mars ... red? Very red? No blue! The physics of this process is not very simple, but in short it is again due to the size of the dust particles.
Mars in the game Spaceship Commander is the main transport hub. It has many supply bases and most of the personnel of these bases work on a rotational basis.

Supply base


Working days on Mars


Inside the Martian base (plants are highly valued here)


Landing window


So, Mars although not a paradise, is quite suitable as an initial base for humanity on another planet. After the infrastructure is built, it is already possible to go to other, more distant planets from here more efficiently than from Earth. There are also ideas about terraforming it, but that's a completely different story.