Welcome to possibly one of the biggest patches that we've ever released - Custom Games multiplayer support, new game play options such as fleet-wide commands, the addition of our game's friendly (yet sassy) mascot Orbit, not to mention support for the Index controllers.
First off, yes, that sassy little voice that keeps asking "Are you bored?" has a name. Orbit is your personal assistant that brings life and energy to the world of Starblazer. She welcomes you into the Demo Room, jams out to the "Starblazer" song, and walks you through every aspect of the game.
Next, we're opening up Custom Games for you all to try out. Just create a room, invite your friends, and then play a MULTIPLAYER game of Starblazer with them online. Yes, that's right. After all of the anticipation and wait, Multiplayer is finally coming to Starblazer. Note that we're still trying to find all of the bugs and could use your help. Please join our Discord channel (https://discord.gg/jDKWnmX) and let us know what you see! Also, Discord is a great place to meet some new competitors (or friends of course) to play with. We want to iron out all of the details before launching full Matchmaking this November.
The third major feature that we've added in is the Cosmic Controller (CCV1.0) - a simple way of issuing commands to ships. With the near-magical press of a button, you can send a command to all of your fleet at once - asking it to protect your Flagship, swarm the enemy base, or return to your own base. There are also two player usability features that have been specifically requested multiple times on Discord - the ability to Build a ship from a distance and the ability to stop a ship's path in its tracks. You can do either of these with a flick of your wrist!
"When is Index support coming??" Okay, we got it! Sorry, I broke the game programming multiplayer, so the Index patch came later than intended… but yes, we got it to work, and I must admit - it's pretty fun to grab those ships! If you haven't found my Easter Egg on the Start Screen, try grabbing some of the ships there…. And then smash them. Real hard. You're welcome. Highest score can Tweet us for a t-shirt or something (really, why not? Deadline of November 1st).
Wax on, wax off… we're always polishing the game! One example of this is getting rid of the need to pull up your menu to transition between rooms. I guess some of you had problems with that…. Okay, we made it super simple for you now ;) just point at a door and select it to travel into the Fleet Builder, War Room, or back and forth.
Expect more Multiplayer features to trickle in before the big launch. Check out this handy cockpit with the ability to rename your player!
As a side note, Orbit isn't the only one who can jam out to our music. Check out these unofficial mods for our game on Beatsaber: https://beatsaver.com/beatmap/6119 and https://beatsaver.com/beatmap/617c. (Why did we do this? We love VR and support all devs!)
New Features:
• Medics can now attach to and heal Builders.
• Seekers can now disrupt healing of Medics.
• Scoreboards on the side of the arenas keep track of player progress for ship destruction.
• Persistent settings keep track of player preferences (such as room name, last game mode, etc.).
Polish and Tweaks:
• Noises are added to the controller whenever you select ship units.
• Gurgle. Whoosh. Crackle. Water, wind, and sun ambient noises added to all of the maps for immersion.
• All of the ships have been scaled, with the Bruiser being 2.5x bigger. Increases snappiness and ease of gameplay.
• Laser pointer for selection is narrow and changes with the click of the trigger from left to right.
• A Splash Screen opens up the game to help with smooth loading.
• Fixed the radius of the Medic to have to fully cover a ship before healing it.
• All ship speeds are increased to speed up the gameplay.
• Fixed the hole in the roof of Blossom (looks like occupants would catch a lot of rain).
• PEW PEW PEW. Fighter noises changed to something less abrasive.
• Crash. Clunk. Collision sounds added.
• Builders are now placed outside of the fleet by default, leaving the inner space for your full customization.
• Fleet positions moved down and rotated in Fleetbuilder.
• Medics can no longer heal themselves. (Nope. Can't have your cake and eat it too…. It was pretty OP).
• Player can cancel loading of a map if they so choose to (indecisive much?).
• Builder and Flagship health reduced.
Bug Fixes:
• Load times decreased even further between rooms.
• Medic rings indicating healing stay on ships after they've been healed to 100%.
• Medics cannot unpair and attach to another ship.
• Ships snapping to each other cause damage (even Allies).
• Buttons display over Flagship in War Room before the Flagship has even opened.
• Floor flickers in Fleetbuilder whenever the player teleports.
• Menu items aren't highlighting in Fleetbuilder when user points to them.
Pre-loaded scenes are thrown out with the trash… decreasing your RAM overhead (better performance. Yay!)