Hi Galactic Survivalists!
Are we there yet? Yes, we are! :D
Eleon Game Studios proudly presents the update that has seen the longest development cycle and the highest content and feature count in a single major update we have ever worked on in the Alpha stage: Empyrion Alpha 6.0 is hitting your PC right now!
While mentally handing out the much deserved virtual “we made it” T-shirts with a big fat “THANK YOU” on the front to everyone - especially to those that got engaged in the development process, either by sending in bug reports over and over, reviewing changes and features or just contributing feedback - some quick stats from the development cycle of A6.0:
- The development of A6.0 took 3.5 months (a part of the team already worked on A6.0 during the A5.5 development cycle)
- We created 175 builds and filed more than 2700 commits (i.e., changes to the game that got added to a build) in our repository
- We released 5 major Experimental versions - each of these Experimental versions had as much content as a single previous major update in the past.
- For more details on the A6.0 development cycle, check out the Experimental branch announcements: Empyriononline.com
For everyone who is coming from Alpha 5.5 and/or is entirely new to Alpha 6.0 or Empyrion, we highly recommend to do the following:
1. Closely read through the MAIN FEATURES paragraphs below
2. Closely read through the Alpha 6.0 FAQs
- Gameplay FAQ: Empyriononline.com
- Multiplayer FAQ: Empyriononline.com
- Builders FAQ: Empyriononline.com
3. If you are entirely new to Empyrion, run the new Tutorial (Start a new survival game on Akua and use EASY settings!)
4. Report bugs over here: Empyriononline.com
5. Write down your feedback about the major features over here: Empyriononline.com
Now, let you get inspired by our launch video, listen to our new soundtrack, update your game and have fun!
Alpha 6.0 Launch Video:
Empyrion soundtracks: Soundcloud.com
Cheers,
Empyrion Dev team
P.S. Alpha 6.0 will not break your server or singleplayer savegames ... but as you will miss out a whole lot of the new stuff and in order to rule out all possible side effects, we strongly recommend starting a new game on servers and in singleplayer when going to venture into Alpha 6.0 ;-)
P.P.S. Last but not least, we would like to highlight two very helpful tools created by the community:
(i) “Empyrion Playfield Designer” developed by jmcburn for creating and editing custom worlds (playfield.yamls): Empyriononline.com
(ii) “Emp Admin Helper and Emp Playfield Generator” developed by Jascha to help admins to manage their server: Eah.empyrion-homeworld.net
Both tools are free and will facilitate your life!
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MAIN FEATURES
1. Oxygen System:
- With the new Oxygen System you can create pressurized environments which will allow you to take off your helmet and drop off your player armor without having to care about the possibility of suffocating in your own base or vessel.
- Pressurized rooms have a lower O2-consumption than wearing your suit with helmet on.
Oxygen setup:
These are the force fields that prevent rooms from decompressing:
2. Temperature and Radiation System:
- All playfields now have a temperature and some also have radiation.
- Temperature and radiation have a direct effect on your health if you are not protected well (enough).
- On planets, the temperature depends on where you are (biome, altitude etc) and the time of day.
You should not stay too long close to the lava:
3. Player Armor System:
- The new player armor system not only replaces the old simple suit system, but also adds slot-based configuration by offering boosters for certain task (of course, these boosters have up- and downsides).
- You can choose between: Light Armor, Medium Armor and Heavy Armor (without armor, your player is wearing an Interior Suit without jetpack)
- Each armor has different parameters / characteristics that affect player stats (e.g. armor value, speed modifier, stamina modifier etc)
The new medium armor:
4. Dynamic Weather System:
- All playfields now have a fully dynamic weather system (clouds, fog, wind, rain, snow, thunderstorm, hail, acid rain, radiated fog, heat wave, cold wave, etc)
- The weather not only has a visual effect (e.g. lighting, wind, clouds, particle effects, visibility etc) but also impacts the temperature and radiation level. In addition, some weather effects can cause damage to the player (fire rain, meteor shower, acid rain, hail). Finally, the wind influences the grass, plant and tree movement as well as clouds movement
Radiated fog on Akua:
Rain on Akua:
5. Triggers and Sensors:
- We implemented a signaling system where structure devices can send and / or receive signals to control device-specific functions
- You can use logic circuits (AND, OR, XOR, delay, etc) for configuration
- Current triggers / sensors: light barrier, motion sensor, lever, trap door, trigger plate
Triggers and sensors:
6. Traders:
- You can now buy stuff from NPC traders on planetary and orbital Trading Stations.
Buy from a trader:
7. Sector Visibility:
- When you start a game, only the neighboring sectors are visible on the sector map. You now have to explore the solar system step-by-step
8. Farming Update:
- We integrated a more complex farming system which requires farmers to mind environmental conditions:
- Plants are growing if temperature is between 20 and 30° and Radiation is 0 and Oxygen is available
- Plants are dying if temperature is lower than 0 or higher than 50° or Radiation is higher than 3
- Plants now also grow outside without the need of a growing light if conditions are met.
Plants can now grow outside:
A hull breach can destroy your crops:
9.Scenarios:
- Added possibility to integrate custom Scenarios from the Steam Workshop. Thus, you are now able to design your own Solar System
- Added "Dawn of Galaxy" (single player) and "Invader vs Defender" (multiplayer) scenarios created by RexXxuS
Dive into the mysteries of custom scenarios:
10. New Management System for O2, Fuel, Ammo and Pentaxid:
- O2 and Fuel are now virtual "single tanks". Adding “tanks” only increases volume, but you do not need to move single items from one to the other anymore
- You can now fill O2, Fuel, Ammo and Pentaxid with “Fill All” buttons directly from the Control Panel main tab
The new fast way to manage your devices:
11. Teleporting:
- Added possibility to teleport between POIs using teleporters. For example, you are now able to teleport between planet and orbit in Trading Stations
Teleport from an orbital station down to the planet:
12. Playfield Instances:
- Added instances (playfields) that temporarily open to players and in which they can fulfill missions (accessible via portals)
Portals connect you to hidden and mysterious worlds:
13. Major AI Update:
- Added AI controlled aliens vessels to planets and in space. The planetary vessels patrol on planets and can attack your base. The space vessels are carriers that launch space drones to attack you.
- Added orbital drone bases that launch space drones
- Added ground NPCs to space playfields (e.g. Zirax in orbital bases)
- Added several alien civilian NPCs walking around in Trading Stations (these peaceful civilians do not attack you but will defend themselves when getting attacked)
AI Planet Vessel:
14. New Game Start Options:
- A new Tutorial is available when you start a new survival game on Akua
- Added the possibility to use Scenarios as a game start for Multiplayer
- We do not want to spoil the new game start, try it out!
Notice: you have less equipment now and thus the game start will be much more of a survival experience.
You can now find shelters at the drop location of your Escape Pod:
15. New HUD & GUI:
- We made a complete overhaul of the GUI & HUD. To list all windows and elements that have been changed would be beyond the scope of these update notes. Please refer to the Experimental announcement threads for a detailed documentation of all changes
The new GUI:
16. Improved Random POI and Resource Distribution:
- We improved the random POI distribution so that we have now much more control over the spawning of POIs and resources. For example, we can now ensure that there is no enemy POI in shooting distance to the trading station or we can spawn important resources close to POIs etc
17. Regeneration of POIs and Resources:
- We added the possibility that POIs or Voxel asteroids regenerate to ensure that players, who join a server that is running already for a while, still have POIs to explore and loot
- Regeneration works in single player as well (but we did not activate it in our default SP setting, however, you can use it in your scenarios)
18. Durability and Repair:
- Implemented durability for weapons, tools and player armor.
- Using weapons and tools reduces their durability and requires repair at the Repair Station
19. Map Markers and Waypoints:
- Added map markers and waypoints for better orientation
- Map can also be shared public or in your faction
Map markers are very useful:
20. Lagshot Problem Solved:
- We fixed the so-called lagshot problem (destruction of devices even though protected behind hull) that was driving a lot of you crazy.
To test different strategies to fix the lagshot problem, we used this CV to approach a heavily defended base:
We used a layer of thin hull plates (with 25000 hitpoints) and behind them we placed windows to immediately see if an explosion penetrates the hull layer.
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ADDITIONAL FEATURES and BUG FIXES
This is only a small part of the Alpha 6.0 content. For additional features and bug fixes, please check out the full changelog here:
Empyriononline.com
