Hello Shipbreakers!
As always, a massive thank you to everyone who jumped in to play the 0.5.0 update! In particular, thank you to the Players who took the time to provide us with detailed and constructive feedback on the update. We always take some time to watch how our updates go. Members of our team hang out in streams, on our Discord, or lurk in the Steam forums to make sure we are hearing / seeing your initial reactions to the latest update.
We love that the overwhelming response is that folks are enjoying the new challenge that Radiation brings, the cool “holo” stickers, and the visual overhaul of the HAB interface! However, there’s two consistent pieces of feedback on the HAB that we felt were important to address:
- There’s a drop in visual quality and readability of the HAB UI
- Loss of the visually interesting background; it’s just a black screen now
Let’s start with visual quality and readability. This new iteration of the HAB interface actually realizes one part of our initial vision for the HAB: that you are interfacing with a piece of low-grade LYNX technology to do all your employee duties. This matches the lo-fi, cassette-futurist aesthetic you’ll find elsewhere in the game. With this update, most of this lo-fi feeling is achieved with image effects applied on top of the interface in order to make it feel like an old CRT monitor (bloom, scanlines, chromatic aberration, etc.).
We personally adore the lo-fi visuals this brings, but also recognize that some players may not like it and, even more importantly, for some Players it adds a legitimate accessibility barrier. We’d like to improve on this right away, and so we have fast-tracked some work that was planned for the future: adding the ability to disable the screen effects in the HAB interface.
We are releasing this option (found in the Graphics tab of the Options menu) as a hotfix today.
This is something that was upcoming towards the end of Early Access, as part of our “Accessibility Options”, but we brought it forward to right now. We don’t want the readability of this screen to be the thing that impedes someone’s enjoyment or ability to play the game.
Alright, so let’s now talk about the loss of visual interest in the HAB. Some players have described the new UI as “cold”, or lacking the “homey” feel it had previously. We’d like to reassure you that we think this will be addressed in our next update, when we release the SECOND part of our final vision for the HAB: the 3D HAB. This 3D space is intended to be a cozy and comfortable break from the cold vacuum of the Salvage Bay, and in this space you will interact with a terminal to access the HAB UI you use now.
The 2D background of the previous HAB UI was meant to be a stand-in for this 3D space. Moving to 3D also allows the HAB UI to take up the full screen when in use, which is another move toward better accessibility and usability.
We’re aware of and are collecting additional feedback on the actual function and flow of the HAB UI, and will be looking at incorporating fixes and improvements for these issues in future updates. We’re always listening for feedback like this in order to improve the game for everyone as this is a quintessential part of why we opted for Early Access! We hope the Hotfix addresses the concerns expressed by some of you, and we hope the 3D HAB update coming soon will make visiting the HAB feel pleasant and cozy again!
Cheers,
Elliot Hudson
Game Director