Space Haven News

[h3]Greetings, Spacefarer![/h3]

Space Haven Alpha 11 is now available to play in the experimental branch. As a reminder, the update process is as follows:

1. A new Update is first available in the Experimental Branch.
   
2. Players, who do not mind playing a more unstable version, will first want to test the new update.
   
3. Once the experimental game build looks solid and stable enough we will push it out officially to all players!
   

NOTE! Joining experimental is completely optional, and you should only do it if you are willing to risk that some new bugs are introduced, which could affect your game play and potentially break your save.

Please do not join the experimental branch if you don't want to risk breaking your save or have the game break on you in midst of play! If you want to play a more stable version please wait for the official release of the update.

Note! We believe old Alpha 10 saves will work, but cannot guarantee it to 100%. A lot of new things have been added to the game. We will know better once many of you have tested it. =)

Here is how you join The Experimental Starfarer crew:

1. Open Steam Library
   
2. Right click Space Haven
   
3. Select Properties
   
4. Go to tab 'Betas' at the top.
   
5. Select 'Experimental' in the drop-down.
   

To see what has been added, check the in-game patch notes.

[h3]Giving Feedback[/h3]



Please give your feedback in the experimental branch forum. Link below:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/5/

Let us know what you think of the new features and if something should be altered or tweaked in your mind. Perhaps something makes the game too hard or something is too annoying, let us know so we can get a feel for how the new features feel! =)

[h3]Space Haven Alpha 11 Experimental Branch Patch Notes[/h3]

You can read up on many of the new features in more detail in the previous post:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979110/announcements/detail/3040460250852032969

• Expanded on the Slaver's Guild faction and added slaves to the game.
  
• Added an Enslavement facility to the game, which the Slaver's Guild use to enslave crew members. The player can also build this facility.
  
• Slaves can now be purchased from the Slaver's Guild but also sold to them.
  
• Added a Slaver's Guild base to the starmap.
  
• Created a slave collar, which gives shocks to slaves for insubordination.
  
• A slave collar needs to be charged with energy cells, otherwise a slave may escape. The wearer will automatically be reminded to recharge the slave collar themselves at the enslavement facility.
  
• Slaves with lower surrender rates (Hero, Iron will, etc...) will use up more charges from a slave collar, as they try to escape more often.
  
• Slaves can escape and may try to free other slaves on the same ship. After this they will seek out to flee the ship if they can.
  
  
• Faction interactions - Factions now react to finding out you have prisoners, refugees or slaves belonging to them but also their enemies or allies. These reactions depend on the relationships between various factions.
  
• Factions can now inspect your ships by: Scanning your ships, boarding your ships, hacking your ships consoles and probing your crafts.
  
• Under Inspection - Implemented a new user interface window to show the results and consequences of another faction spaceship/station inspecting your ship.
  
• Examples of faction inspection interactions include: A faction finding out you are sheltering their enemies, keeping their allies captive or the Military Alliance finding out you have slaves.
  
• Factions may carry out inspections by scanning but also by boarding your ships and having a look around your ship.
  
  
• Added support for contraband items, with related information in the resource/item information tooltip. What is contraband to some factions might not be contraband to others.
  
• Routine inspections - The Military Alliance will board your ships and search for illegal activity and contraband, they will also interrogate your crew members. Some of your crew members might be blabbermouths, while others are better at keeping their mouth shut.
  
• Convincing and bribing - You can try convincing or bribing the Military Alliance when being in a dialogue with them, to avoid an inspection at the time.
  
• Faction spaceships/stations may contact you and ask for help if they run out of some resource they need.
  
  
• The Military Alliance now has prison bases. You can sell them your prisoners, who are of an enemy faction to the Military Alliance.
  
• Factions now get frustrated if you keep bailing on paying settlements owed to them.
  
• Bounties - You can now claim bounties for prisoners belonging to another faction, if you choose to bring them back to the faction who imprisoned them.
  
• Refugees can now be forced into prisoners, but they will fight you for it.
  
  
• Trading UI has been modified to be more intuitive. NOTE that the resources shown for you and the trading partner are now flipped compared to the old UI.
  
• 2-tile wide door (Double door) added to the game.
  
• Improved the interior appearance of the NPC factions stations and ships.
  
• Implemented an under attack UI message, which slows game speed and auto-drafts a crew member when they are being attacked.
  
• Fixed some of the issues with having refugees but their faction spaceship not being able to take more of them onboard.
  
• Added roof decoration graphics to the hyperdrive and the airlock. Check the roof view!
  
• Added comfort values to many objects, which had them missing.
  
• Fixed bugs.
  

Please give your feedback in the experimental branch forum. Link below:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/5/

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

We will gather feedback for Alpha 11 in the experimental branch and tweak as needed. Once everything is looking solid enough we will publish the update to the main branch.

Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!

[h3]Alpha 11 - The Slaver's Guild, the Military Alliance and More[/h3]

Greetings, Spacefarer! We've been working on a big update for a few months now, which will expand on your interactions with factions and also introduces slaves as a mechanic related to the Slaver's Guild faction.

There's lots of new interesting features added. All of these should make your space adventures more interesting and open up some new possibilities.

[h3]The Slaver's Guild and Slaves[/h3]

Mark and Cooper are slaves, not amused by their Algae Dispenser as their only nutrition.

You will be able to enslave crew members you capture from other factions, but you can also choose to be a force of good and seek out to rid the universe of slavery. The choice is yours.

[h3]The Enslavement Facility[/h3]

A poor prisoner being turned into a slave in the Enslavement Facility

The Slaver's Guild use enslavement facilities to enslave people. The enslavement facility is used both for inserting a slave collar on a slave, but also for recharging the slave collar.

You can also be a slaver yourself, by researching the enslavement facility and turning prisoners into slaves using the enslave button located next to the recruit button in the character information window. Slaves can work as normal crew members, and their schedules can be changed. However, slaves cannot operate the system related jobs, like navigation, gunner, shield and operations. They cannot be drafted and manually controlled either.



The slave collar gives electric shocks to the wearer, if it is touched or otherwise tampered with. This prevents the wearer from trying to escape, at least to some degree. Escaping can happen though, and how frequently escapes are tried is tied to the character surrender rate. A hero will try to escape more often than a wimp.

A slave collar needs to be charged with energy cells, otherwise a slave may escape. The wearer will automatically be reminded to recharge the slave collar themselves at the enslavement facility. When slaves try to escape they will aim to form their own group among each other, and work together to flee towards freedom.

[h3]Slaves Escaping[/h3]



Slaves dream of escaping one day, and if they get a chance they will aim to form a group of their own and take their chance at freedom. If a slave is able to wiggle free of their slave collar, they may set others free to and look for a way to escape together.

How they do this will be left as a mystery for now. Perhaps you will witness it yourself in the game. =)

[h3]A base for the Slaver's Guild[/h3]

A Slaver's Guild base, with special chambers to keep their slaves in order.

The Slaver's Guild is getting their own base, buried deep in the galaxy in an area controlled by the Slaver's Guild. Perhaps you aren't keen with the whole idea of slaves, and want to rid the universe of it. Seek out and enter this base, clear it out of any resistance you meet. Find the special chambers made to hold slaves captive and free them of their perilous fate... You will have their undying gratitude!

[h3]Faction Interactions[/h3]

The Military Alliance is happy to see you have some Pirate Coalition crew members as prisoners.

We've implemented some new features, which expands and opens up some new possibilities on how your actions affect your relationship with various factions. We've also expanded the factions in a way where they have a bit more meaningful relationships between each other.

Some examples of these new interactions include:

• A faction finding out you are sheltering their enemies, keeping their allies captive or the Military Alliance finding out you have slaves.
  
• Faction spaceships/stations may contact you and ask for help if they run out of some resource they need.
  
• Factions now get frustrated if you keep bailing on paying settlements.
  
• You'll be able to claim bounties for certain captives factions are interested in. The Military Alliance is keen to get their hands on Pirate Coalition crew members.
  
• Refugees can now be forced into prisoners, but they will fight you for it.
  

[h3]Under Inspection[/h3]

We've implemented a new feature, where factions may want to inspect your ship either by scanning or by visiting your ship and having a look. This can happen if the faction has become suspicious of your activities for various reasons.

Fingers crossed the Military Alliance doesn't scan our room full of contraband!

When you are being inspected by a faction the user interface above will show the progress. It lists the various items you are at risk to be discovered for, and the consequences. This feature gives a reason for factions to visit your ships, and adds to the tension as you watch it happen.

If a faction is allied with another faction, and they scan your ship and find out you have enslaved or taken their allied faction crew members captive, they will react negatively towards you.

Francesco is getting questioned by Darin from the Military Alliance. Hopefully Francesco can keep his cool!

The Military Alliance tries to uphold whatever law is left in this wild west of space, they will sometimes do inspections to see if you are engaging in illegal activity, or have contraband hidden somewhere.

While the Military Alliance searches your ship they will also carry out some interrogations on your crew members. Your crew member might spill the beans, or hold their cool and lie successfully. This gives a bit more depth to the characters, as you may find out that it is Shifty Hal spilling the beans every time he is interrogated.

[h3]Military Alliance prison stations[/h3]



The Military Alliance now has prison stations scattered around the galaxy. Here they hold their enemy faction members as prisoners, for breaking the space law. These are usually members from the Pirate Coalition and the Slaver's Guild. You can sell your own prisoners to them, as long as they are members of the factions who are enemies with the Military Alliance.

[h3]Bounties[/h3]

You can now claim a bounty by bringing prisoners back to the faction these captives belong to. This means you can find crew members imprisoned by the Military Alliance, and instead of making them part of your crew you can decide to ship them to a Military Alliance ship and claim a bounty for them.

[h3]Double doors[/h3]

Sometimes two doors is better than one!

We're adding a double door (2 tile wide door) to appease your symmetry needs. =)

The hyperdrives now have nice looking roof graphics!

With each update, we're also putting some time into making the game look better. Our graphics artist has been working on some roof decoration graphics, and you can see the hyperdrive roof graphics in the image above.

We've also spent time polishing the NPC ships, slightly modifying their looks and adding some more variation to the floor tiles of their different rooms.

[h3]Timeline - When is Alpha 11 Update Available?[/h3]

We don't have an exact date, but we're getting close and we're working on the final additions to Alpha 11. After this we will publish the new update to the experimental branch and iron out any issues. The process is as follows:

• We push a new Update to the Experimental Branch - Where you can test new experimental patches before the game is officially updated. (We will announce when Alpha 11 is available in the experimental branch)
• Once the experimental game build looks solid and stable we will push it out officially to all players!
  

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/

Thank you for reading, Spacefarer. Stay tuned for upcoming news on Alpha 11 and hope 2021 has started well for you!

[h3]Season's Greetings, Spacefarer![/h3]

And thank you for this year. This year has been truly eventful and special. After 4 years of hard work our small 3 developer indie team was finally able to launch Space Haven into Early Access, but we never imagined it would be in such turbulent times. It has been quite the journey and we're extremely grateful for how it all has gone and excited to keep working on the game.

We wish you happy holidays, and hope every one of you get at least a moment to relax. It has been a special year for us here at Bugbyte, and we're looking forward to 2021 with new exciting updates to come. =)

[h3]Upcoming Update[/h3]

Now for the fun part. A report on what we've been working on for the past month for the upcoming update! We've been working on a bigger update, which will expand on your interactions with factions and also introduces slaves as a mechanic related to the Slaver's Guild faction. We shall see what other additions make it into the upcoming update, but read on below to see what we have coming so far.

Slaves

Mark and Cooper are slaves, not amused by their Algae Dispenser as their only nutrition.

You will be able to enslave crew members you capture from other factions, but you can also choose to be a force of good and seek out to rid the universe of slavery. The choice is yours.

Slaves are kept obedient with a slave collar, giving a slave an electric shock each time they try to wiggle themselves free of it. If you choose to you will be able to produce slave collars, once you have researched the tech. The slave collars will be charged with energy cells.

The surrender rate of a character will affect how often a slave will try to test the collar, and thus how much energy is used will depend on if the slave is an obedient personality (Like a Wimp) or someone who would rather try escaping (Like a Hero).

A base for the Slaver's Guild

A Slaver's Guild base, with special chambers to keep their slaves in order.

The Slaver's Guild is getting their own base, buried deep in the galaxy in an area controlled by the Slaver's Guild. Perhaps you aren't keen with the whole idea of slaves, and want to rid the universe of it. Seek out and enter this base, clear it out of any resistance you meet. Find the special chambers made to hold slaves captive and free them of their perilous fate... You will have their undying gratitude!

Faction Interactions

The Military Alliance is happy to see you have some Pirate Coalition crew members as prisoners.

We've implemented some new features, which expands and opens up some new possibilities on how your actions affect your relationship with various factions. We've also expanded the factions in a way where they have a bit more meaningful relationships between each other.

Some examples of these new interactions include:

• A faction finding out you are sheltering their enemies, keeping their allies captive or the Military Alliance finding out you have slaves.
  
• Faction spaceships/stations may contact you and ask for help if they run out of some resource they need.
  
• Factions now get frustrated if you keep bailing on paying settlements.
  
• You'll be able to claim bounties for certain captives factions are interested in. The Military Alliance is keen to get their hands on Pirate Coalition crew members.
  
• Refugees can now be forced into prisoners, but they will fight you for it.
  

Scanning

Fingers crossed the Military Alliance doesn't scan our room full of slaves and prisoners!

We've implemented a new UI element for scanning, which will show information on the scanning procedure done by a faction, and what you are at risk to be exposed for. Scanning can now produce more interesting results.

For example, the Military Alliance is meant to be a faction upholding the law, or whatever law there is left. The Military Alliance will now often scan your ships as a part of their routine inspection, looking for illegal activities, such as having slaves or contraband.

Another example: If a faction is allied with another faction, and they scan your ship and find out you have enslaved or taken their allied faction crew members captive, they will react negatively towards you.

Bounties

You can now claim a bounty by bringing prisoners back to the faction these captives belong to. This means you can find crew members imprisoned by the Military Alliance, and instead of making them part of your crew you can decide to ship them to a Military Alliance ship and claim a bounty for them.

Double doors

Sometimes two doors is better than one!

We're adding a double door (2 tile wide door) to appease your symmetry needs. =)

More? And when?

We will keep working more on this upcoming update after the holidays! We will see what more we can add to the package, as always we look forward to be able to bring you a solid update package once again. Stay tuned for more news early next year!

[h3]Fan Art[/h3]



Many of you often wonder why the Kitchen is on fire so often. Well, the above comic should explain it all. =) What a great comic by TheLittlestTeapot once again! In all seriousness, setting the Kitchen on fire depends on the accident rate a crew member has. Keeping them happy and content (Comfort) helps, lights are also important, as the crew members need to see what they are doing.



Another great comic by nudefireninja. It's awesome to see these pop up, thank you so much for your work!

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/

Thank you for reading, Spacefarer. We wish you a merry end of the year and we are looking forward to seeing you again in 2021. =)

[h3]Spacefarers. I come to you with a dream. A dream of balloons, some beer and a Steam Award! Together we can do it! Hear my speech, Spacefarers.[/h3]

Aye, fight for it and we may be disappointed. Dying in our beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the beers from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our beers and balloons, but they will never take our passion!

I can hear you shout in unison! "You have my beer! You have my balloon! We will vote Space Haven for the Best Soundtrack category and make this dream come true!"

[h3]Spacefarers, vote now at the top of this post. Let's do this Together =)[/h3]

If you feel like Space Haven could possibly be nominated in other categories too, that's great! However, if we focus our efforts we are more likely to achieve an award and the soundtrack has been highly praised!

[h3]The story of how Space Haven and Paul Zimmermann found each other[/h3]



Many space moons ago I sought out to search for a composer for our upcoming game. I posted a thread on Reddit, stating that we were looking for a composer for our spaceship colony sim called Space Haven.

We had some ideas regarding the music, and we needed someone to execute on them and bring it all to life. I did not know exactly how the music should sound, but I was confident that I would feel it and know once I hear it.

Paul emailed me with drafts. Many times. At first it wasn't something that fit the game play, but there was a part of his first draft I liked. I let him know to try to expand from there. He kept emailing me, asking if the track was evolving for the better. We kept going back and forth for a good while.

And then... He sent me a final track, I started the game and played the music alongside and I could feel myself be in the world of Space Haven. I was immersed, and I was enjoying the music. Paul had created something great.

During this time there was another composer, who stated they would withdraw to a cabin and spend a good amount of time on producing a demo track for us. When I heard back from him a week later he had produced something I instantly felt was great as well.

And so, in the end there were two. A track from Paul and a track from the composer who withdrew to a cabin, both with great tracks produced I felt. And I didn't quite know which way it would go. I liked them both. I pondered for a while, knowing that these guys probably both want to work on the game and would have a passion for it.

It struck me. Since we've always developed our game as a team, I knew a good way to settle this would be to present the two tracks to my two other team members, and have their first impressions decide which way it goes. I played both of the tracks to them, and asked which one they thought was more fitting for the game.

They both stated they felt Pauls track was a better fit.

I felt both some relief and some sadness. I knew I would bring great news to one composer, but saddening news to the other.

In the end, I was not only looking for a great composer. I was looking for someone who we could work with, co-operate with. Someone who could listen to our wishes, use their awesome talents to bring it all to life. In the end the process between us and Paul evolved to be exactly the same as how we develop our game, an iterative process where Paul would bring music to life with our feedback guiding the way.

After a few tracks were produced I knew we had made the right choice, I knew we had found someone who we could rely on to produce the kind of music Space Haven deserved, and would make the Space Haven experience more immersive and enjoyable.

One of the things I love about game development is the fact that I get to work alongside people with such talent and passion for what they do. Space Haven would never be the game it is without all of us putting our own visions together, and leaving our own mark on it.

You, our players, are part of it too. And I hope whatever we've managed to accomplish so far is an indication of that. We can't always fulfill every wish, but we are trying our best to make Space Haven the best it can be!

- Aksel from Bugbyte

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Above is the first music track Paul created for Space Haven. Thank you for reading, and remember to cast your vote at the top of this post!

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/

Still reading? Cast your vote now at the top of this post! Until next time! =)

[h3]Greetings, Spacefarer![/h3]

We've been working on improving the Alpha 10 version of Space Haven and we also have an exciting new feature implemented. Ship-to-Ship battles now come with music fitting the scene, giving ship battles that nice space battle feel.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Listen to "Hot On Our Tail" above, another masterpiece by Paul Zimmermann!



We also worked further on the starmap, adding some new elements to the UI to show where the player is and which star systems have been explored. A star system cluster will now light up indicating it has been visited. The circle around the node is divided into pieces matching the amount of sub-systems in a star system cluster. The brighter the piece of the circle the more is explored of a sub-system it represents.



We spent some time working on the AI, particularly how tasks are prioritized and executed. The change should help crew members be a bit more effective with the next task they choose. Remember to set priorities for your crew members in the crew management menu but be careful not to set too many categories as highest for the same crew member, setting all to highest for a crew member actually means none of them is more important than the rest =)

[h3]Fan Art[/h3]



One of our great spacefarers TheLittlestTeapot started creating a web comic inspired by the events in Space Haven. It's amazing to see one of our players enjoy the game and create a comic based on it! We find the art style to be really appealing and hoping to see more of this in the future! =)

Come say hello to us and TheLittlestTeapot on our Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven

[h3]Full Patch Notes[/h3]

[version] 0.10.2

• Ship-to-Ship battle music implemented.
  
• New music! Hot On Our Tail and Entering the Storm.
  
• Modified and Improved AI behavior related to task priorities and task execution.
  
• Added some indication to the highest zoom in starmap to see visited star system clusters.
  
• Wall-mounts can now be constructed on wall corners - Limited to 1 per wall corner.
  
• Wall-mount graphics have been modified and improved.
  
• Vent graphic has been modified and improved.
  
• Red wall piece has been modified and improved.
  
• Thermal regulator graphic has been improved.
  
• Shuttles belonging to other factions now have a faction icon above them.
  
• Fixed bugs.
  

[version] 0.10.1

• Reduced the amount of CO2 needed for plants.
  
• Reduced the amount of water vapor released by plants.
  
• Fixed Android ship not having power linked to their bridge.
  
• Added missing model names for X1 Power Generator and X1 Hyperdrive.
  
• CO2 Producer produces more CO2 per carbon unit.
  
• Added different station symbols to the legend in starmap.
  
• Small graphical improvements.
  
• Fixed bugs.
  

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/

Do join some of our channels above and come chat with us and give us feedback. Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!