Star Command Galaxies Alpha 8 Released! news

Greetings Star Commanders!

We have just released Alpha 8 and it's our best yet! can check it out on Steam here: Store.steampowered.com

So what’s new? What’s the focus? Bugs of course! This update has more bug fixes than all of our other releases combined. We spent all month just going through and fixing up crashes, save bugs, quirks and weird stuff that was happening in the game. TO BE CLEAR there are likely some bugs left and some new ones we made along the way but the game should be MUCH more stable and a lot more fun.

Our patch notes should give you an idea of the breadth of fixes we have addressed. We highly encourage you to try it out. It’s not perfect but it should be a much clearer vision of where we are going with the game.

IMPROVEMENTS

• LOYALTY: Rewrote all of loyalty so that the captains will react according to their proper loyalty level
• LOYALTY: Mouseover on loyalty for each character displays the reasons they do or do not like you
• ONELINERS: Added new feature where characters will update you about mission status and their intentions
• GAMETIPS: Added in Gametips for game concepts
• Revised hand-to-hand combat so that enemy will fire, acquire targets, beam in intelligently and move through their decisions much better

CHANGES

• UNITY5: Switched game to Unity5
• CREWDOCK: Quick select numbers displayed next to crew members. You can press each corresponding key to select a crew member.
• MOUSE: Now shows teleport and steal icons when you are using those actions
• Station owners are now a part of the Hierarchy tree
• Made Hierarchy tree a vertical layout so your standing is clearer
• Compressed all species onto one page on Hierarchy tree
• Revised hierarchy menu to better display how races feel about each other
• DISTRESS MISSIONS: Only receive distress missions if you have high loyalty or more with ship
• WARP JUMP: Completely rewritten to be more stable and efficient
• WARP JUMP: New jump sequence implemented
• MISSION REWARDS: Improved mission rewards menu
• TELEPORTER: Esc/Right Click cancels teleport
• SHIP LEAVING: Crew automatically return to ship when ships are leaving
• SHIPCOMBAT/DISTRESS MISSIONS: Mission will fail if you leave the area
• FOG OF WAR: Completely revised - each ship now has its own fog of war map
• Mission targets should be at their displayed location
• Added Bounty missions
• Added in Crew Warnings where crew will tell you if there is an issue on your ship
• STEALING disabled for the time being - objects can now be scrapped
• Beds now give limited HP when crew rest
• Added in intruder alert
• Added mission hover bubble above the appropriate node
• Limited active missions to 3 + Distress
• Space station lights are improved
• Shortcut keys added to mouseovers

FIXES

• FIXED: Saves are MUCH more solid and reliable but they will continue to get work
• FIXED: Ship not returning to 100% health after repairing all damage
• FIXED: Placing stolen items locking up the game
• FIXED: Black screen of death at Space Station arrival
• FIXED: Placing duplicate items removes the previously placed item
• FIXED: Could not switch out of Red/Yellow Alert
• FIXED: Options menu blocks clicks
• FIXED: Game saves crew HP
• FIXED: Mission target not being the correct one for ShipCombat
• FIXED: Multiple mission indicators on map for Trade
• COMBAT: Enemy invaders acquiring targets much better
• COMBAT: Crew reacting to enemies much more consistently
• FIXED: Repair particles staying stuck on objects being repaired
• FIXED: Heal particles not appearing
• FIXED: Engineers repair AoE much more solid and reliable
• FIXED: Placement tiles not appearing when placing an object
• PARTICLES: Sparks revised and much more efficient
• FOG OF WAR: Ship no longer fades to black during warp
• FIXED: Windows appearing in front of characters
• FIXED: Beam weapons not being blocked by shields
• CREWDOCK: Sorts correctly
• UI: Lifebar no longer reflecting opponent's HP in character orbit
• NAV UI: Game is now pausing in nav
• NAV UI: Time controls staying on/highlighted in each state
• UI: "Navigation" still no longer getting stuck on mouseover
• FIXED: Travel circle animation getting stuck
• GAME GUI: Damage rounded at first decimal
• FIXED: NPC’s dying on Antorian stations from radiation
• FIXED: Antorian space station missing a door
• FIXED: Crew phaser being spawned in space
• MAPS: Lights on the Falchion
• GENERAL GAMEPLAY: Asteroids no longer moving when game is paused
• NAV UI: Correct space station images on nav map

• LOYALTY: Ships will now correctly attack the proper ships
• FIXED: Characters getting stuck in space after buying new ship
• STATIONS: All ships can no longer enter red alert at stations
• STARTING NODE: Now safe (no other races/pirates will spawn there)
• PIRATES: Will avoid space stations (no more suicide runs)
• DISTRESS MISSIONS: Timer disappears when you arrive to distress missions
• WARP JUMP: Crew no longer disconnect from their station during jump
• WARP JUMP: Camera jumping fixed
• GUI: Stations use species frames
• MISSION INDICATOR: Changes when mission is complete or failed
• MISSION FAIL POPUP: When leaving an area to fail a mission a menu will popup informing player
• MISSION OPTIMIZATION: LUA sets up which missions each job profession works
• ASSETS: Potential fix to messed up sprites appearing on characters
• ASSETS: Fixed missing midorian sprite sheets
• AI: Enemies no longer stop moving when they teleport to your ship
• All objects and weapon LUA’s revised for game balances, errors and missing data
• NAVMAP: Ships are being displayed on the edges of the nodes correctly
• Music starting at 0 volume
• ShipPurchase not working correctly
• Carter notices not coming in at correct times
• Added in giver faction to mission indicator
• FIXED: Targeting allowed weapons to be fired before battery requirement
• FIXED: Distress missions not completing
• FIXED: Crew loyalty pulling from personal loyalty after mission complete
• FIXED: Freighters threatening the player
• FIXED: Crew shader
• FIXED: NPC’s and crew will try and avoid food and scrap instead of walking through them (unless trapped)
• FIXED: Crew walking through walls when they decide their own path
• FIXED: Enemies trigger animations
• FIXED: Enemies shooting after death
• FIXED: Garbled text on text popup
• FIXED: Crew details now displays proper information
• FIXED: Hover icons getting stuck behind crew members
• FIXED: Multiple purple icons on trade locations
• FIXED: Footsteps getting stuck on loop
• FIXED: Sounds are again in 3D
• FIXED: Clicking on GUI while teleporter is on no longer teleports your crew
• FIXED: Hid some loyalty items that shouldn’t have been showing
• FIXED: Shield status not getting saved
• FIXED: Shields not appearing
• FIXED: Shields on a ship when the first start even if they haven’t charged them
• FIXED: Mouseover on crew hire not giving the right info
• FIXED: Null reference after going to main menu and starting a new game
• FIXED: Null reference when station was unloading and trying to reveal FoW
• FIXED: Null reference when arriving at station and there was a conflict with stores
• FIXED: Loyalty adding hidden values to crew loyalty
• FIXED: Mission bubbles are now orange on nav map
• FIXED: Mission bubbles no longer animating
• FIXED: Rapid fire exploit

KNOWN ISSUES

We have a few known issues that we will be doing our best to address in the coming weeks.

• NPC behavior is still a bit wonky. Sometimes they will target you and forget or decide to beam over to you ship and then do nothing. Missions and character behavior will be our primary focus for Alpha 9.
• Crew HP, Food and Hunger are not being saved. This is a complex issue having to do with our character behavior rewrite and will be addressed in Alpha 9.
• Crazy texture sheets on characters. Still trying to get down to the root cause of this, but if you mouse over these characters the sprite will be fixed. It is our top priority
• Mission targets occasionally not at node. Alpha 9 will be totally focused on missions and we will be rewriting the whole system so this will no longer be an issue.
• Mystery loyalty on characters. There is some old mood stuff still affecting your crew’s loyalty. We are still working on tracking this down and will issue a patch as soon as we get to the bottom of this.

Alpha 9 will be focused on character/AI behavior and missions. Exciting things to come! Hope you enjoy the game.

Cheers,
Warballoon