Starpoint Gemini 3 News

[h3]Hello everybody![/h3]

As one awesome man once said: „ That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. “, our Starpoint Gemini 3 development process is currently at one such crossroad. With Roadmap milestone 5 being reached, we're entering the second half of the entire process.

First of all, you've probably noticed there was a longer pause between the last two updates. That was planned since the amount of assets and features needed for this cross into the beta stage was really huge. After all, you'll get the chance to check it all out!

The roadmap originally called this milestone „Narrative“, but we'll call it „Beta“, since the size of this update grew significantly in the past months. Everything planned for the Narrative update is here, but so is a lot of other cool stuff.


So, what's new? Well, to check this out, you'll need about 5 seconds of playtime - starting with the main character. Jonathan Bold was given a complete overhaul, from the 3D model to animations. The old model has been removed, since, you know... Gemini isn't big enough for two Bolds.

What's more important is that Bold's journey continues further with this update. For the first time after Early Access launch, the main campaign is unlocked several steps further. There are new places to visit, new characters to meet, new intrigues to uncover... In the new missions you'll be able to start noticing changes in the main character’s personality. These changes will become more and more significant later on as we near the final stages of the campaign. The beta game version does not enables the entire storyline, but pushes it several steps ahead.

All of you that already played through the game, will also notice that the first part of the campaign has also been upgraded with new animations and scenes. This is the plan till the end of development - to upgrade and polish everything, including the already implemented game elements.

For destruction-oriented addicts we also have a couple of treats. The first is the arrival of anti capital ship combat mechanics. You now have weakpoints to target and exploit on these juggernauts, but beware - they also bite back and usually aren't alone. Note here that this system is just a small part of what we'll need later for player commanded capital ships. The second treat in this category is the addition of ADAH combat mechanics - our sweet drone can now encounter bad drones and waste them. ADAH can also find and gather loot on her away missions. Oh, and did I mention that the ADAH model is also replaced with a new enhanced one?


Of other important news - we've revamped the loot reward system, mining rewards including „rich asteroids“ system, made changes to the UI and added a number of UI elements, added lots of events, encounters, between-faction events... Basically, the freeroam dimension of the game is also getting a serious boost. More places to visit, more stuff to see and more events to participate in. All of that will generate more opportunities for experience and level gains and ship improvements.

Before we post the intricate details of this mega update, one information for all players - as we already mentioned as expected situation earlier - from this update you, unfortunately, you won't be able to use your old saves. We tried our best to keep the consistency of save files throughout all updates since September last year, but this massive update simply changed too much, both in the campaign and the freeroam mode. Forcing old saves to work with this version would cause a lot of unforeseen issues, so it was unavoidable. If all goes according to plans, this will be the only such situation during development, and we figured it's better to do this synchronization now rather than later when much more gaming hours could be in jeopardy. We hope you understand why we had to do this.


CHANGES

• ADDED: New campaign missions
  
• ADDED: New main character model
  
• ADDED: New storyline characters: J.J Digins, Vassily Ratbone, Night Watchman, Glenn Curacao
  
• ADDED: New interior and exterior locations
  
• ADDED: New character animations and voiceovers
  
• ADDED: New interface elements and notification systems
  
• ADDED: New hint and notifications
  
• ADDED: New quest tracking and information panels to Starchart
  
• ADDED: New encounters and random events throughout maps
  
• ADDED: New loot system with more frequent drops
  
• ADDED: New „rich node“ asteroids system for much more lucrative mining
  
• ADDED: New weakpoint system for anti-enemy capital ships combat
  
• ADDED: Enemy capital ship combat mechanics
  
• ADDED: Hostile drones in interior maps
  
• ADDED: ADAH drone combat mechanics
  
• ADDED: New ADAH drone movement mechanics
  
• ADDED: ADAH drone inventory
  
• ADDED: Option to use quick interact button when using drone
  
• ADDED: New loot and reward system for drone interior missions
  
• ADDED: Enemy drones to fight against in interior missions
  
• ADDED: HUD markers for discovered mining and scavenging objects - gas pockets, rich nodes and derelicts
  
• ADDED: Asteroids HP bar visible to player
  
• ADDED: New collisions with asteroids and other objects
  
• ADDED: Ships can now destroy smaller asteroids by ramming into them
  
• ADDED: Collisions from other objects now also add damage to player
  
• ADDED: Large batches of new sounds linked to actions and objects
  
• ADDED: New indicators when locked and targeted by enemy missiles
  
• ADDED: New voiceovered chatter lines for number of events throughout maps
  
• ADDED: Outlaw Guerilla special ship design
  
• ADDED: Outlaws Stalker special ship design
  
• ADDED: Options to scan the scenery objects
  
• ADDED: New cutscenes for additional storyline missions and some revamped old ones
  
• ADDED: Large batches of chatter voices for NPC ships and stations
  
• ADDED: Additional sounds for HUD, cockpit and cutscenes
  
• ADDED: Almost all asteroids yield loot now
  
• ADDED: Encounter system when attempting to use TGate
  
• ADDED: Encounter system when using NavBuoy
  
• ADDED: Enemy space drones spawn system on various locations
  
• ADDED: New Mars sector map, along with objects, encounters and characters
  
• ADDED: Additional civilian and military traffic to various sectors
  
• ADDED: Lock on enemy missiles as they are approaching
  
• ADDED: New hints and HUD feedback information regarding missions and events
  
• ADDED: HUD element - weapons fire range indicator
  
• ADDED: Ship convoys near space stations
  
• ADDED: Ship convoys near structure clusters
  
• ADDED: Ships entering and exiting Starpoint
  
• ADDED: Ships entering and exiting T Gate
  
• ADDED: Ships using Nav buoys
  
• ADDED: New information to stations and planets
  
• ADDED: More additional variety in appearance of derelicts
  
• ADDED: Scanner ship module now has new and upgraded stats
  
• ADDED: New explosion visual and sound effects
  
• ADDED: Derelicts now have special ambient sounds
  
• UPDATED: Revamped experience rewards system
  
• UPDATED: Revamped quest system with barmans
  
• UPDATED: Shortened duration of damage effects on player ship
  
• UPDATED: Modified visual particles when viewing game from cockpit
  
• UPDATED: AI agression levels with ships in fleets
  
• UPDATED: Firing weapons is now disabled in cruise mode and while charging cruise as well
  
• UPDATED: Optimizations to physics system
  
• UPDATED: Lens flare visual effects now depend on surrounding ambient
  
• UPDATED: Weapons targeting against objects is now more precise
  
• UPDATED: Revamped lighting effects and ambients in multiple sectors
  
• UPDATED: Starchart received additional direction lines showing the path of jumps
  
• UPDATED: Prices of numerous missiles reduced
  
• UPDATED: Loot prices and availability increased throughout sectors
  
• UPDATED: Rebalanced difficulty to adjust for new enemies and capital ships
  
• UPDATED: Rebalanced prices of weapons and equipment
  
• UPDATED: Rebalanced experience gain system
  
• UPDATED: Rebalanced enemy weapons and rate of fire
  
• UPDATED: Almost all crafting blueprints are rebalanced
  
• UPDATED: Spin up cycles for Cyclone and Sorm modified
  
• UPDATED: Increased the price of wing ship modules
  
• UPDATED: Increased how much additional turrets influence wing module price
  
• UPDATED: Music system now plays all tracks scattered in various sectors
  
• UPDATED: All missions and other planned actions now yield experience points
  
• UPDATED: T-Gate now has correct hit collision sphere
  
• FIXED: Issues with releasing of 3D sounds
  
• FIXED: Enemy weapons fire sounds now have correct ranges and volumes
  
• FIXED: Mission and object markers on Starchart now are now saved correctly
  
• FIXED: Corrected waypoint tracking and position on Starchart
  
• FIXED: If already initiated, quick action cannot be started again
  
• FIXED: Soundtrack is now properly played throughout sector maps, both combat tracks and ambiental ones
  
• FIXED: Sound issues with playing multiple sounds at the same time
  
• FIXED: Sound issues related to distance of the sound origin
  
• FIXED: Multiple issues and desync during character animations
  
• FIXED: Encounters will now spawn on correct positions
  
• FIXED: Encounter ships will use correct predefined faction
  
• FIXED: Several bugs during Jeepers Creepers Boss fight
  
• FIXED: Lynx wings module now has correct stats
  
• FIXED: Magellan refinery quests now work correctly
  
• FIXED: Trade convoys follow correct paths and behaviour
  
• FIXED: Autosaves now work correctly during campaign mission stages
  
• FIXED: Cutscene on Pyros campaign mission doesn’t cause camera to offset
  
• FIXED: You cannot accidentally sell quest items anymore
  
• FIXED: Vfx from boost engines now shuts down correctly when disengaged
  
• FIXED: Post processing effects from radiation now shuts down properly
  
• FIXED: Iolia factory is now placed in the correct sector
  
• FIXED: Crafting process now has more info on what is gained and invested
  
• FIXED: Skipping cutscene doesn’t break the game anymore
  
• FIXED: NPC AI behavior doesn’t halt indefinitely
  
• FIXED: Target sphere on loot objects increased for easier selection
  
• FIXED: All wings now have correct turning speed information
  
• TWEAKED: Decreased energy recharge of weapon batteries
  
• TWEAKED: Increased energy cost of scattergun weapons
  
• TWEAKED: Increased inventory size for all hull modules
  
• TWEAKED: Increased loot drop value of “ore nodes” and derelicts
  
• TWEAKED: Repair and scan sounds now have normal volume
  
• TWEAKED: Enemy structures now cannot be interacted with
  
  

We'd also like to note that, despite the fact that the game is now largely improved and expanded on, development is still some ways off from being finished. All features included in the beta update will now be polished and tweaked according to requirements and feedback from players, plus we still have some major stuff to add, like player capital ship, remaining maps, rest of the campaign etc... A very busy schedule is ahead of us, but hopefully this update will give you all a taste of what's to come soon!

[h3]And just like last time, fly safe![/h3]
[h3]LGM Games[/h3]

Greetings captains!

It is high time to give a glimpse into what's coming next for Starpoint Gemini 3.

During March, we aim to enter the beta stage of production. As before, this doesn't mean we're shutting down all feature additions, but including new additions to the feature list will be limited in scope. So here's a little snippet...

[h2]NPC Capital ship mechanics[/h2]
The first part of the new capital ship mechanics is implemented. This means sub-targeting. You will be able to attack and knock out specific weakpoints on any large vessel, causing massive damage, but also a side-effect as well. This side-effect can be anything from a freightliner dropping some loot when you knock out its storage container, to preventing a battleship from using its weapon turrets. The dilligent crews of these vessels will however be ready to start repairs as soon as they can so don't expect to permanently disable a cruiser's weapons. Where would be the fun in that?

As noted above, this is only the first cap ship segment and it will be used on player-controlled capital ships as well, once they're implemented.

[h2]Storyline changes and additions[/h2]
Following a lot of Your feedback on the forum, we've done a lot of changes (and will do some more before beta and final release) to the main campaign. This includes the texts, voiceovers, character models, animations, cutscenes, missions... Basically everything was at the very least tweaked. We look forward to hearing what you think.
[h2]Encounters[/h2]
The entire encounter system has gone through a review and partial rebuild. Again, following Your feedback. To make it easier and faster to add variety into the encounter system, our scripters have redone the system almost from the ground up. We realize the current implementation's shortcomings were too significant to just let it slide. You guys deserve better and we'll do whatever we can to deliver.

[h2]Interface[/h2]
The first parts of the interface have received a facelift in the previous update. Our work on this hasn't stopped and I'm sure You'll notice quite a few quality-of-life improvements as well as changes that are more on the visual side of the equation.

[h2]Game world[/h2]
New maps are also arriving in beta (and a couple more are coming during beta too). As before, the maps will come as finalized as possible in the current stage of production. As we progress more, the available maps will also be upgraded.

Naturally, each update brings a host of fixes and tweaks, and the beta update will be no different. It is however too early to dump the entire changelog here, so we'll just leave that for when the update actually arrives.

We're looking forward to getting the update out to You!

Safe travels,
LGM Games

Hello!

It wasn't previously scheduled, but we're pushing another smaller update today! Why? Because it's Monday and, unlike most of the world, we love Mondays :) .

But seriously - last major Update was released a couple of days ago, and we did have some more improvements almost ready, but delayed it until we test a few more details. Now, since next Roadmap update (5th in line) includes changes to storyline, and finally few more parts of the storyline missions, we will probably have slightly longer pause until that update. And improvements in today's upgrade concerns gameplay and HUD corrections, so there is no sense in keeping that away from you until next update.

Anyways, list is not large this time, but everything should be neat and useful:


CHANGES

• ADDED: New jump visual effect when travelling via Nav Buoys
  
• ADDED: HUD notification when using equipment items
  
• ADDED: HUD now displays numbers on each equipped item showing how many are left
  
• ADDED: Shortcut hint for equipments on controller
  
• ADDED: New crosshair with live info on energy status and consumption
  
• ADDED: Animated VFX in crosshair showing when a target is close and in range for firing
  
• ADDED: New target lock - first iteration
  
• FIXED: several Starchart errors and missing info
  
• FIXED: Death screen will not crash the game anymore in any situation
  

That's all regarding important elements of this update. There are also some small optimizations and tweaks, but no need to push all that to the list this time.

We'd also like to remind you, fellow space enthusiasts, once again that price of game will be increased at the end of January, first time in Early Access, so anyone considering diving into our creation still has a few days to make use of lowest possible price.

In the end, a little taste of next major Roadmap update - that one will touch narrative side of the game on several levels. Existing storyline missions will get some changes and updates, and game story will progress several missions ahead, first time since release of Early Access.

Hope you find our little news today a good one to start the week with :)

Enjoy!

LGM Games

Hello captains!

Hope you had a splendid holiday season with many presents and sufficient time too play your favourite games!

We are starting right where we left off – with an update. Starpoint Gemini 3 is rushing to reach first half of planned major updates, and this update marks another step towards that goal.

This time, as we already mentioned in earlier announcement, unexpected paths of game development took us in a little bit different direction, and in order to avoid wasting any valuable time, we had to modify previously planned elements for this update. Few things planned for Update 4 will be delayed for Update 5, while several features from Update 5 is moved ahead for this Update. After next milestone, feature list from both Updates should be back in sync. Apologies if this will confuse some of you, but when we executed tasks for this update, we realized some features simply need to be forced to a more complete stage immediately as they can cause a chain reaction later. Following next milestone, everything should be back in pre-planned order as stated on Rodamap.

So, what is the cornerstone of this update? I'd say there are three pillars - first infusion of extra life into our Universe, then new Starchart to give you much better tool when understanding where the heck you're going and how this Universe looks like, and finally pretty extensive batch of improvements and fixes to existing features based on what players reported and suggested in forum discussions. Those of you that participated in them and threw ideas at us, will certainly recognize what we're talking about.

Once you boot up the game, how will these changes spice up your life? It's simple really – open a Starchart and notice you have a proper map that shows much more details and area objects. Each object has a pop up window describing in short what a specific location is, where it's exactly located and what's its purpose. Starchart also has 2 layers – local sectors and overall Universe map. Second layer allows you to cycle through all distant Star systems and see what local maps are available. Best thing is – you can access and browse sector maps within a specific system map even if you're not physically located in that system at all. Ladies and gentleman, you can now snoop around and determine your next target for pirating even if you're sitting half a galaxy away!

When your spying of global maps is over, and you finally hit the road in any given direction, be careful of traffic – it's gotten a helluva more dense. Trade convoys, individual ships going about their business, everybody using T Gates, Starpoints and Nav Buoys... you'll see much more stuff happening around. All these events are to be considered as a welcome opportunity or simply as greater variety of targets to plunder. But beware of unintended consequences – AI got first batch of updates, so trade ships and convoys will have armed escorts that won't sit idly by while you plunder the hell out of them.

But, enough of me talking, here's the entire changelog. Read through it as you wish and feel free to jump into game and check out the changes for yourself.

Oh, and, when you start cruising around, little surprise can be found – double tap forward key for max throttle.

CHANGES

• ADDED: New Starchart system, both visually and functionally
  
• ADDED: Added info notes on starchart locations
  
• ADDED: Dynamic map system with overview of all systems and sectors
  
• ADDED: New locations and objects markers are now added to starchart
  
• ADDED: New cutscenes when using fast travel via Nav Buoys
  
• ADDED: Nav Buoys now have visual effects showing direction and destination point
  
• ADDED: New game starting scenario – Outlaw
  
• ADDED: Seed in random generator, adding more variety when statring new game
  
• ADDED: NPC ships now use Fast travel objects and follow various behaviours
  
• ADDED: Convoy system, meaning existence and behaviour of convoys and escorts
  
• ADDED: Ship convoys near space stations
  
• ADDED: Ship convoys near space structure clusters
  
• ADDED: Ship traffic entering and exiting Starpoint
  
• ADDED: Ship traffic entering and exiting T Gates
  
• ADDED: Ship traffic entering and exiting Nav Buoy structures
  
• ADDED: New ship model from Outlaw faction – Guerilla fighter
  
• ADDED: New ship model from Outlaw faction – Stalker scout ship
  
• ADDED: Hotkey to enable constant speed without need to hold forward movement button
  
• ADDED: Ambient sound in bar on Delta station
  
• UPDATED: Decreased number of spawned enemies near stations when player is low level
  
• UPDATED: Map locations and objects near planets Extera, Earth, Caterton and Sora
  
• UPDATED: Jeepers Creepers boss fight now works properly in any situation
  
• FIXED: Missiles don't occassionally disappear and now have normal blast effects
  
• FIXED: NPC ships now follow intended proffession behaviour
  
• FIXED: Errors with loading when jumping to distant sectors
  
• FIXED: Objects for fast travel (Starpoint, T Gate, Nav Buoy) are now of correct, civilian faction
  
• FIXED: Targeting of gas collector ships now works correctly
  
• FIXED: After dock, player marker on starchart will now resume normal behaviour
  
• FIXED: Loading sequence allows ship collisions to work as intended
  
• FIXED: Encounters will now spawn on correct positions
  
• FIXED: Encounters will now use correct faction alignment
  
• FIXED: Proximity trigger on stations now has correct values and doesn't interrupt level loading
  

Largest portion of this update is aimed at creating more vibrant and alive universe. And everything added this time for this purpose is just a beginning of creating a very vivid and lively feeling. Also, many features are only just a foundation for massive chunks of the game that are yet to come.

This time we can also announce that before next major update, we will be pushing out another not planned upgrade with some neat features that are nearly done but need a little bit more testing.

You're welcome to try all of this out, and bombard us with your opinions!


P.S. following this update, and in line with previously announced plan, price of Early Access Starpoint Gemini 3 will be increased for the first time. If you're interested, you still have several days to use original price + current discount!

Fly safe!
LGM Games team

Greetings everybody!

We hope you had a spectacular holiday season! Time for extra food, drinks and R&R is slowly behind us, and time to do some serious work lies ahead.

As far as LGM studio is concerned, we've survived the end of December with minimal losses :) , and we're already preparing our first Update of 2020.

As promised at the start of Early Access, we're also using this opportunity to announce first price increase that is coming after next Roadmap update. If you're on the fence about jumping into Starpoint Gemini 3, you still have a bit of time to make use of initial price. In fact, currently active discounts are best opportunity to hop in. Price will be increased following the release of next Update.

In about a week time, Starpoint Gemini 3 will start this Year with a nice Update. Many of you invested some noticable hours into our game in the past weeks providing us with great feedback and suggestions. That and previously planned content is the backbone of the upcoming Update. Expect a new Starchart (both visually and funcionality wise), HUD improvements, increased traffic and more vibrant life in various sectors, new Nav Buoy jump elements and many more useful stuff...

In this Year, plans for Starpoint Gemini 3 are huge, so we better start early. This upcoming update is the result of hard work during final weeks of December and first week of January. 2020 is the Year this game will get its final shape, so be prepared for many updates, many changes and all those awesome things layed out in Roadmap plan some months ago.

Thank you and once again, have an awesome gaming 2020 !!!

LGM Games