Alpha 14 Released

Alpha 14 is ready to go and is a massive new update!

Who has the best ship design when it comes to combat? We've created an entirely new ARENA mode in which you can battle fleets of ships against each other, and answer that question once and for all.

We've finally solved the problem of pipes crossing over each other, and we've introduced a new AUTOTRADE system that lets you automate the process of buying and selling common items whenever you visit a trading post.

On top of all of that, we've turned our attention back to the original SURVIVAL mode, and embarked on a major reworking. Survival mode is now more of a challenge intended for experienced players, but is also more balanced. Your ultimate objective is the safe evacuation of as many civilians as possible - and to that end, there is now a new DISTRESS CALL mission in which a ship under attack needs urgent assistance. Destroy the pirates and you have a choice - take the reward money, or welcome the rescued ship into your fleet. More mouths to feed, more of a burden on your fleet's vital resources, but also more capabilities, and more cabin space for your survivors.

Here is our video demonstrating all the new features:

https://youtu.be/q28rHubv52M?si=bqmjEDrT_Ug_L0uM

= NEW FEATURES

• Arena mode
  • A new game mode available from the main menu.
  • You can choose any two ship designs, and watch them fight it out to the death.
  • You can choose 1v1 or set how many of each ship design to include in the battle.
  • You can choose to control the Green team if you wish, or watch an entirely AI v AI battle.

• Pipe Crossing
  • Pipes can now optionally cross over each other without touching.
  • You can click on any pipe crossing to toggle between two pipes connected, or two pipes crossing over.
  • Pipes can be removed without disturbing cross pipes.

• Auto-Trade
  • You can now create automatic rules for buying and selling of all resources and equipment.
  • Click on the triangle at the end of each trade item row to set this up.
  • You can set values to buy when below, or to sell when above a specific quantity. You can also ctrl-click to set 'Buy All' or 'Sell All'.
  • A new entry in the Trade window shows all currently active autotrade rules.

= Language support

• The game now supports translation to other languages. You can change the current language from the Settings screen.
• If you'd like to help us with translation, click the new 'Help us Translate' button from the main menu.
• New translations:
  • German
  • Spanish (Thanks to EMAP0707 for this translation)
  • French (Thanks to FABISIMS for this translation)

• Text input has been much improved, you should be able to input characters from any language provided that the game font supports it.
• The Vector Text font has been updated to support French, Spanish and German directly.
• Fallback to the default font for other languages.
• Different keyboard layouts, such as French (AZERTY) are now supported.
• The tutorial and interface will show the new key bindings for your keyboard layout.
• You can now type accents in the game.

= SURVIVAL MODE UPDATED

• Survival Mode has been revisited and has undergone some major changes, with more still to come in future alphas.
• The intention is to make this a more complete game mode, with a clear objective and slowly escalating challenge.
• It is designed for experienced players, and should feel quite different to 'Boldly Go' mode.
• The ultimate aim is to evacuate as many civilians as possible through the STARGATE, before it too is destroyed by the expanding anomaly.= Starting conditions made more generous:
  • You can start with any hull up to a value of $1.5M (increased from $1M).
  • The starting budget remains at $150k.
  • Hulls need at least one Docking Port and at least one Cabin space.
  • You can also start with the "BUILD NEW SHIP" option, which places you at a shipyard with $1.5M in cash to build your own vessel.
  • Your first delivery will contain a 'starter kit' containing any critical equipment/resources you don't already have (engines, reactor, ftl, airduct, loaders, supplies, crew).

  
  = Critical resource shortages

  • Critical resources (Fuel, Food, Water, Oxygen, FTL charges & Ammo) become much more scarce (and expensive) as you progress through the sectors.
  • In addition, critical resources will become much more scarce and expensive when close to the rim of the Anomaly.
  • Beyond sector 5 there will be virtually zero critical resources available for sale, anywhere.
  • Recycling and Production within your fleet are your only hope of long-term survival.

  
  = Civilians

  • You can now collect civilians from any colony or shipyard, and they will pay for a place within your fleet.
  • The number of civilians available will increase as the Anomaly expands, and the money offered will also increase.
  • The count of rescued civilians will be your final 'score' in survival mode (eventually).

  
  = New 'Protect' mission

  • A new mission type that occurs up to once per sector. It will be visible in the Sector Map as a DISTRESS CALL marker.
  • A ship is under attack, and they won't survive long without your assistance.
  • Your task is to intercept and destroy the pirates, before the stricken ship is destroyed.
  • If you succeed, you are given a choice: You can take the reward money, or the ship can join your fleet as a permanent member.

  
  = Other survival mode changes

  • The old (obsolete) Tiddlets storyline has been removed.
  • The Stargate project and all associated research is no longer available in Survival Mode.
  • Introduced some new starting ships in the 'New Game' screen.
  • The New Game screen now shows useful ship stats: Total Mass, Total Cabins, Hull Value, Armour coverage.
  • Ice Comets are now more common (one in MOST sectors), and now release 5x as much water ice per shot when mined.
  • Rebalanced food & water consumption, waste recycling, water purifying, hydroponics, and ice grinding.
  • All have been made more efficient, consuming less and producing more.
  • All recycling starts at 66% efficient, and can be upgraded in the research screen, up to a maximum of 100% efficient.
  • New research to increase crop yield from Hydroponics and unlock schematics to manufacture Hydroponics Gardens on an Assembly Table.
  • Made fuel production via Metreon Gas more forgiving. Gas refining takes less time and is more efficient, producing more output.
  • Hostile ships will no longer respawn in systems marked "HOSTILE" on the map. Once they're gone, they're gone.
  • The sector jump screen now shows you a count of the total number of survivors within your fleet. This will eventually be your final score.
  • The sector-wide 'Destroy All Hostiles' mission has returned.
  • You will receive a cash bonus after clearing out each hostile system in the sector.
  • This is a very dangerous but lucrative mission.

= COMBAT CHANGES

• Deflectors will now count toward the Combat Rating of a ship.
• Gun Turrets will no longer autotarget exterior scaffold.
• Gun Turrets set to AUTOTARGET will now pick targets in advance even when out of range or out of their field-of-fire, lining up their shot in anticipation. They will fire earlier and more reliably. This applies to Player and AI controlled ships.
• This should fix AUTOTARGET turrets being far less effective than manually targetted turrets.
• Evasion has been rebalanced. The benefit tails off at higher speeds, approaching a maximum of 90% for the fastest and most nimble vessels.
• You can now disable the auto-slowdown effect during combat, from an option in the Settings menu.
• Fixed a bug that prevented cannon shells & railgun slugs from impacting exterior equipment.
• Fixed issue with Weapons Consoles not being manned on AI driven ships

= BUG FIXES

• Parallax rendering of Boxes fixed.
• Industry (Mining) missions item collection fixed when ship has more than one docking port.
• Option to cancel the deal with X in DSI not present in pre-Alpha 13 saves
• Fix tiddlet jump ranges displaying when not in a system with a ship containing tiddlets.
• Fix storage crates not having contents wiped when fabricating a ship.
• Fix negative quantities sometimes appearing in containers taken from crates.
• Fix "Drones Deployed" warning in FTL tooltip showing *X instead of the number of drones.
• Fix formatting of prices and balances over one billion.
• Fix ship value inconsistencies between fabricating and selling a ship (there may still be a small difference as the sell price is rounded.)
• Fix Tiddlet Farm being sellable in The Trouble With Tiddlets Part 3.
• Increased metallic mineral trade availability during construction of Stargate phase 2.
• Fixed the player sometimes receiving free ships if an NPC ship with docked ships arrives in a system.
• Fixed certain episode ships (Tiddlet Farm, Short Hopper) not restocking on critical resources, leading to crew dying. Seen in #353.
• Issue #344 - Can't turn in trouble with tiddlets part 3.
• Issue #350 - Storage crates do not work with mission cargo (storage crates no longer store mission cargo to avoid cargo getting mixed up between different delivery missions).
• Issue #351 - Items in Storage Crates not counted towards mission achievements.
• Issue #352 - When the game is paused, the stargate still rotates.
• Issue #353 - Trouble with Tiddlets Part 3: Tiddlet Farm has mostly dead crew.
• Issue #359 - Logistics drones can't be moved via logistics menu if one docked ship doesn't have a logistics drone bay.
• Issue #361 - Can't pay X, no option given.
• Issue #366 - Can't progress past Stargate Phase 4 if Andromeda Project Part 3 is unlocked before starting DSI part 2.
• Issue #372 - Crash when trying to load a storage crate but no slots are available
• Issue #375 - Resin/Isotope objectives in DSI part 2 sometimes don't update.
• Issue #377 - Storage crate shows wrong spacesuit sprite.
• Issue #382 - Memory Leak in Vertex Arrays
• Issue #383 - Missions require ranks greater than the maximum rank
• Issue #385 - Deep Space Industrialists - typo in character text.
• Issue #390 - Can't turn on battle stations when you only have deflectors installed
• Issue #402 - Tiddlets 2 can be assigned to ship that is not player-controlled
• Crash in Tiddlets Part 3 if Short Hopper runs out of charges or the FTL Drive is dismantled.
• Fixed components salvaged from derelict ships having a quantity of 0, which made them impossible to sell

= NEW COMMUNITY SHIPS - thank you!

• JOHNNY STRUGGLES - Defense Platform Mk4, Grumpy Sardine + Lots of updates.
• RAKRENT - DRX Anvil, DRX Torana, DRX Monaro + Lots of updates.