Alpha 3.0: Anniversary Update news

Hi Galactic Survivalists!

A few days ago, we celebrated with you the first anniversary of “Empyrion - Galactic Survival” and released a first test candidate of the Anniversary Update on our Experimental Branch. After having hunted down bugs and added a few other refinements and effects, Alpha 3.0 will go public right now!

As you might already know, this update is about beautification and adding new elements to improve and create more authentic worlds, including increased density of forests, more deco effects and trees, ambient airborne lifeforms, individual ground textures for different biomes, NPCs and animals wandering around in herds, thunderstorms and meteor rain as new distant effects on some planets...and much more. Read through the whole list of features and have a look at the screenshots below or just load the update and take your new Motorbike for a ride and explore!

Tip: If you want to known how far we already got in terms of creating living worlds, just have a look at our 1-year comparison screenshots in the Anniversary Update Blog:Empyriononline.com

The Anniversary Update also introduces an improved version of the PDA, adding a first iteration of a Mission-Reward mechanic to the game. We have prepared several missions for you to try out. More missions are about to follow and we are currently working on a documentation on how to create your own missions. We have also created a new topic in our feedback forum to discuss this new feature: Empyriononline.com

As a closing comment, we want to make an announcement for everyone who plans to visit Cologne, Germany next week: “Empyrion - Galactic Survival” will be at Gamescom 2016!

More info on this event coming very soon! :)

Have another look at the short preview video of Alpha 3.0:

P.S: As always, and because we added a lot of new stuff to some of the playfields, please run the Performance Survey so we can gather direct feedback about your current FPS:Survey.empyriongame.com

Changelog: Alpha 3.0 (Build 547)

Main Features:

1. Motorbike:
- Added first version of motorbike

2. Missions and PDA improvements:
- Added first version of missions and faction missions
- Added tabs to PDA: Tutorial, Missions, Faction Missions Knowledge Base
- Improved event processing system for more flexible action configuration

Missions:

Notice for players: Faction Missions are still heavy work in progress, but we did not want to hold them back. Please read the READ FIRST that is included in the Faction Missions PDA tab. This includes a Howto and the known issues.

Notice for creators: If you are using your own PDA.yaml, please do not use "StructuresSpawned" and "CheckWhat" anymore (see new format in PDA.yaml)

3. Living World:
3.1 Better decorations and more diversity:
- First version of changing terrain textures depending on biome to increase diversity
- Added new plants and trees on Akua - tweaked deco
- Tweaked grass textures on Akua
- Replaced bush on Akua with version that is harvestable (-> fruits can be picked up)
- Increased beach area around lakes on Akua (height + 1)
- Added Alien Honey to worm plant on Akua
- Tweaked LOD levels on some trees
- Plant pixie stalk is now better arranged (closer together)
- Shadow during day now less dark on many playfields

New dense forest on Akua:

Here you see 3 biomes coming together (open plains, forest and rocky area), each with its own terrain texture:

3.2 Better deco effects:
- Added possibility that particle effects on a planet are now dependent on e.g. biome, day/night (Example Akua: Fire flies during night only in forest, Dandelions during day in Open Plains etc)
- Added birds on some planets (Akua, Omicron, Masperon)
- Added meteor showers on Omicron
- Added lightning and thunders on Masperon (see first screenshot on top of page)
- Added butterflies on Akua
- Added flies to worm plant on Akua
- Added pollen particle effect on Omicron
- Added dandelion particle effect on Akua
- Changed texture on Ahax Plant (harvest stage)
- Replaced Aloe Vera plant with high-quality version
- Added proper harvest state for Pixie Stalks on snow planet
- Added better LODs to several plants (higher poly models)
- Tweaked water color on Akua
- Slightly increased light intensity on Omicron

Birds on Omicron:

3.3 Improved NPC behavior and overall visuals:
- Added herd behavior for many NPCs
- Smoother overall movement for NPCs (walking and turning)
- Improved pathing of NPCs on terrain: they should get stuck less often and don't walk on steep mountains any more (e.g. Akua)
- Lizard Mule is now on Akua. Added own texture for Lizard Mule Baby. Lizard Mules flee now when being attacked.
- Triceraptos does not drop milk anymore.
- Added Parasaur to Ningues.
- Improved shader on many NPCs
- Improved terrain shader
- First version of 'round' cutout box to integrate POIs better into terrain (will be improved)

Some NPCs are now walking around in groups / herds:

Improved placement of POIs on the terrain (smoother cutout). Here as an example with the new Transporation Hub:

4. New Player Jetpack Model
- Added new jetpack model to player (male/female) + updated textures of player

5. Better Escape Pod landing:
- Better Escape pod exit: damage model, screen fading, no grass removal and escape pod will not fly away in SP when exiting while flying.
- Some tweaks to Escape Pod controller -> more reactive now.

New model for damaged escape pod:

Changes / Improvements:
- Drones are not visible on the large map M for the whole planet anymore: now drones will be only visible when closer than 250m
- Map / HUD view distance for objects of other players (private and/or faction) are reduced to 250m on planets and 1250m in space (instead of 500m / 2500m)
- HUD object names are only displayed below distances of 200m / 500m (planet / space)
- Added new POI to Omicron: transportation hub (thanks to Vexray)
- Saving player data on kicking him from server to avoid exploits
- Re-balanced player sentry gun: - Higher RoF - More hitpoints - More damage - More gun elevation / depression
- Added New Image Effects: Screen Space Reflections + Bloom
- Added Light Shadows and Sky Reflection quality options to Video Settings
- Increased range for Brightness Slider
- Added better SV on Creative Akua.
- Slightly increased given Unlock Points for levels 19 and 20 (added 30 UP).
- Added damage states to consoles, atmo thruster, sentry guns and laser turret
- Added number of devices in struct info txt and server output info line
- Improved sound loop with thrusters (better zero crossing in wav)
- Adapted tutorial message after Escape Pod crash
- Updated Tutorial: added motorbike
- No collision on Varon Root anymore
- Large grey rocks: Tweaked occlusion strength on Rocks. Adapted LOD group (now: earlier switch to LOD1)

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed problem in Resume Game menu that made it impossible to resume any game if only one of the savegames had a problem
- Fixed: Ground/terrain rebuilding like an invisible layer with drone wrecks nearby
- Fixed: Deco sometimes not removed from POI
- Fixed: Player Avatar Movement issues in Multiplayer
- Fixed: Rocks sometimes create holes next to or below themselves
- Fixed billboards and LODs on Alienpalm tree Omicron
- Fixed: Multitool T1 & T2 imbalance: HP removal per hit inconsistent
- Fixed: Creative Menu Fresh Start leads to error
- Fixed grass shader: grass is overbright when sun is low (i.e., morning or evening)
- Fixed problem when leaving cockpit -> player remained in sitting animation for 0.5sec
- Fixed: light of player drone and flashlight shining through walls (you must turn on shadows for this change to take effect)
- Fixed: Hangardoor 13*7 and 14*7 has invisible gap between frame and blocks
- Fixed: Rocks and Trees sometimes vanish when plants are picked up nearby

Thanks for reading!

Yours

Empyrion Dev Team