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We have released Pre Beta 3 and a new video devlog. This adds a hand-held scanner and an exosuit that allows for exploration of extreme planetary environments. We also discuss future plans and features that we will be working on in the Beta phase.

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Hello everyone!

We apologize for the lack of updates here on our IndieDB page. Moving forward we will keep it more up-to-date!

We have been updating the game regularly and our website always contains the latest announcements and releases.

We release devlogs with the new updates to explain and showoff the new features. Those are available on YouTube here:
youtube.com/user/leafygamesofficial/videos

Our forums are currently the best place for feedback, discussions and bug reports: forums.pulsarthegame.com

Here is our latest video devlog that goes over some of the new features.



I've included our most recent State of the Galaxy below which contains information about our future plans and features.

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Since we are finishing up the Alpha we figured it was about time to do another one of these write-ups! With this we hope to explain what we’ve been up to, as well as what our goals are moving forward into Beta!

Moving into Beta doesn’t mean we are done adding, tweaking and polishing features, just that we will now be spending much more time working on scenarios and content! There were a few features we were hoping to get in during the Alpha, but we explain below why they were delayed.

List of Some Non-Content Features (Early / Mid Beta)

- Research / sample collection. The Scientist will be able to create useful consumables / unlock new talents.
- Captain order system. A more in-depth order system with the potential for contextual orders based on the current sector and such.
- More fleshed out chaos system with randomized galaxy events
- More depth and refinement to each class
- Refined ship components and shop interface
- Ship-to-Ship hailing
- UI / Menu overhaul
- VR
- LAN
- Leaderboards and high scores
- And more!

Plans for Early Beta

- Content, content, content (more ships, planets, space scenarios, missions, factions, items, components, etc)
- Work on features listed above
- Improve UI
- Improve AI
- Work on balance / combat

Plans for Mid Beta

- Networking solution overhaul (adding LAN support in the process)
- More content, polish
- Finish up features listed above
- Continue to improve AI
- Continue to work on balance / combat

Plans for Late Beta

- End game
- The Lost Colony and related content
- Content, polish
- Continue to improve AI
- Continue to work on balance / combat

Other Features:

Virtual Reality Support

VR / Oculus Rift was part of our original plans for Alpha phase. We have been working on internal implementations but aren’t currently satisfied with the experience yet. This is partly due to the Unity implementation missing some advanced control options that are required to use our unique camera system. It is very close, but without these options it won’t be a workable experience. We will also need to do some major overhaul of our UI / menus which is something we were already planning. These will take some time but we are hopeful that it will come together in the first half of the Beta process. The VR community and movement has changed a lot since we first ran our Kickstarter and promised VR support, but we are still dedicated to supporting these awesome devices. We will also be investigating other VR headsets to see if they would be compatible with PULSAR.

Offline LAN Support

Our current networking solution is the Photon Cloud. It provides some huge advantages that are sometimes not obvious, including a hassle-free way to play with friends over the internet without messing with ports or routers. That being said, there are a few downsides of the Photon Cloud including a lack of LAN support. For this reason we will likely be moving to another networking solution during Beta. We are investigating a few possibilities, but these still need some time to mature and stabilize. We don’t want to lose the ease-of-use functionality for connecting players but need some more control to allow for an offline LAN mode.

Mod Support

There have been some hopeful developments related to Unity 5 that might allow for this in the future. However, it is not a small task to add mod support to a game like PULSAR, especially after years of development without the feature. We are not promising that mod support will be part of the release of PULSAR. There is a chance that we will add it post-release, but it would be a large and time-consuming undertaking.

How much content is planned?

The amount of content is somewhat flexible. We want many hours of play, unique scenarios and bits of content throughout. We have a hefty behind-the-scenes list of planned content that we will implement over the course of Beta.

How much longer do you plan to work on PULSAR?

Our current estimate is 12 - 18 months. This is mostly based on how long it will take us to create a satisfactory amount of content.

Multi-Crew Support?

We are completely focused on the single crew experience. We have no plans for any multi-crew modes and/or MMO features. We have our work cut out for us already with the announced feature set and amount of content, so we want to make sure we have the time and resources to make it sufficiently polished.

Dedicated Servers?

Dedicated server functionality might be in the works. No definite promises at this time. A lot depends on our final networking solution.

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Best,
The Leafy Games Team

Post comment Comments
Pixelbombgames
Pixelbombgames

Looks really fantastic so far, well done to your whole team. We'll start tracking this now!

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Thaiauxn

Ah man, I've been missing you guys! Glad you're still hard at work! You're the only other first person starship command genre out there that's doing really well, and I love reading your updates. Gives me hope!

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malteins
malteins

Amazing game guys! At such an early stage it is very very promising. No doubt I'll be buying this one soon!

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