I am pleased to announce that Version 6.0 is up and running! It is now the default version of Star Explorers.
If you are still playing an exiting game in the default 5.0 version, scroll to the bottom to see how to access that. 6.0 will require starting a new game. Sorry about that, but I am a bad programmer and that's what happens some times.
So I have been able to update a lot of the things planned for the 6.0 release into this version. There are three main ones, and a few minor fixes.
I have alien fruits working in this version. I still have to tweak them a bit, but the basic functionality is there. You can watch them jump around and display their unusual behavior, or capture them and see what they taste like.
The new inventory system is also implemented. This was a major overhaul of the whole way inventory works, but it is much more efficient now. It also has new, nifty graphics to enjoy. Inventory is actually the main reason this version is incompatible with the previous. Not due to the graphics, but the underlying system works totally differently.
I have also incorporated these graphics into the quests system, to keep it looking consistent.
I've also incorporated these new kinds of random creatures I call smoke beasts. In the current default game, they are all just white smoke, but now they come in different colors and a number of unusual patterns.
As mentioned before, in the process of updating, I have found a lot of little bugs to fix along the way. Missing files, weird crashes that happened under very specific conditions, and things like the costs of items appearing inconsistently, have all been addressed.
I was able to identify and address several memory leaks, so I am hoping this makes the game more stable than ever.
When I started working on this version of the game, I had a lot of other ideas. Gas giants, water planets, mountain ranges and other things like a wider variety of aliens and plan life, did not make it into the game (yet). Once I added fruits and these other above features, so many bugs appeared I had to spend all my energy working on those. I was able to add a nice dithering effect to the game, which was there earlier, but never looked very good. I think it looks nice now, have a look!
I have no intention of ever stopping work on this game. I think it's in a much better state now then it ever has been, and I am hoping that translates to adding new features without triggering all sorts of unexpected bugs. We'll see what happens. I expect there are lots of new bugs I have not encountered yet, so I will wait and see how players react to the new version.
I am in the middle of working on another new game too, so I do plan to step away from Star Explorers for at least a few months, at least in terms of adding new things. I am definitely interested in hearing bug reports and any ideas players may have.
Next to the "Play" button in GOG Galaxy, click on the "More" menu
Then "Manage Installation > Configure"
Under "Installation" there should a drop down menu called "Beta Channels"
Select "Version 5.4.4d"
My previous experimental branch was hitting a dead end. I was not able to fix certain bugs that the new file system introduced, and I started getting ideas on how to improve the older one, so I abandoned that branch and started updating the older version of the game with most of the new features.
Version 5.5.25c is still a work in progress, and I plan on continuing to update it slowly. But I think it may actually be more stable than the main branch at this point ... still it needs more testing. At some point, hopefully later this year, I will update it and assign it to the main branch.
If you are still using the Pre-6.0 - 0.2.1 (or whatever nonsense) I would recommend abandoning that branch as I have. Most of the new features it had are in this updated 5.5.25c, and they are more stable. Unfortunately the file systems are totally incompatible, so saved games are not transferable.
You need the password: 'rocketship1234' to activate the experimental branch
Here are all the new updates starting with the most recent, and going back to where I began this new branch...
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.25c
Bad Inventory Slots Addressed
The new inventory system strikes again! (Again!) This time we (and by me I am referring to play-testers who have suffered the consequences) have encountered a bug where inventory slots could get disabled when picking up certain items.
It turns out that if you entered a cave or some other structure, and left some of the ore or crystals there, and left the cave. If you came back to that cave and picked up those items, they would not function properly and just mess up your inventory. I believe this issue is resolved. At least in this particular situation, it no longer messes up inventory slots.
It's possible there is some other situation that might cause a similar problem, so please let me know if you find the issue again.
If your inventory got messed up, let me know. I can repair the file if you'd like.
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.25a
Ancient Oxygenator Bug
The new inventory system strikes again! This time I realized too late that I had updated the way the ancient oxygenator works, but failed to update all the relevant files to reflect that. Previously, when you had the ancient oxygenator, you could use it to refill your suits oxygen any time you wanted. But in this old system, you could still run out of oxygen if you did not manually refill it with the oxygenator.
The new systems makes more sense. You use the ancient oxygenator once, and from then on, you will no longer lose oxygen. It is constantly replenishing your suit's oxygen, and you don't have to worry about it any more. It also removes the oxygenator from your inventory, and adds a small icon to the bottom right corner of the inventory panel, so you know you have it.
So far so good!
The problem is that after adding this update, I forgot to write the new variable (letting the game know that you have installed the oxygenator) to the saved game file. So after going through all the trouble of finding and building the oxygenator, and installing it, that player (who once again is not hypothetical) would reload their saved game to find the oxygenator gone, and no longer working.
This update addresses the issue so no one else should ever have to suffer through my personal failings (at least this particular one) ever again.
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.25a
Radiation Damage
I recently updated the whole inventory system, which included a different way of calculating damage based on your space suit's stats. I also updated how environmental things like acid, mercury and ammonia effect your suit and health, to match how the suit stats work. However I forgot to update the way radiation damage was determined, and it did not match the way the space suit stats worked, so it was basically multiplying the amount of damage you would take based on how much your suit was supposed to be protecting you! So a player who had 100% radiation protection would actually be taking 100x more damage from radiation. (Note: this is not hypothetical ... this player exists and was not happy) Sorry! So it should be working as designed now.
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.25
Tractor Beam Improvements and More
I was able to fix the problem where the tractor beam would show the wrong object name if you clicked on more than one at a time. Also, to hopefully make the process of collecting ore a bit more streamlined, you can now right click on space ore while in combat mode.
When updating the whole inventory system, I forgot to include the variable that activates treasure caches on planets. So for the previous builds, no treasure caches will have appeared. Now the game will once again produce treasure caches on some planets.
There is one setback from this update. Planets which have been visited before will have to be re-generated. It should happen automatically when you land on them. Once they are newly regenerated they should then behave and reload as normal.
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.24
Tractor Beam
The sonic cannon should be working (again). I think I have this issue resolved now. I've been learning a lot about how to code more correctly with all the more recent games I've been making, and it's helping me spot some of the older, obvious mistakes in the Star Explorers code base. I am hoping this will help me eventually make Star Explorers more stable
A weird bug was making the target sector cubes in the final mission show up as solid blocks, instead of vector outlines. I believe this is resolved. It was not any kind of game breaking bug, but it should be more consistent now.
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.22 (5.5.23)
Tractor Beam
I forgot to include a file in the 5.5.22 upload so it was not running. Somehow it worked on my computer, but I have figured it out and now I have a better way to test my games after major changes like this. Sorry for any inconvenience!
Space mining just got a little more interesting. The basic functionality is the same, but now you can interact with space debris and use a kind of tractor beam to pull it into your ship's storage container.
I also made it so the game music no longer freezes when the game is paused.
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.21
Dropping Stuff and Menu Sounds
You can now set the amount of the items you are dropping. It's just to be consistent with the other item moving mechanics. Maybe you will find it useful.
The inventory menus and scanning functions now make nifty, computerized sound effects.
Also, I thought I would just re-share this little movie of a battle between aliens, because it's awesome! It's not a new feature or anything, it's been around for a while, but it was not really working properly.
I managed to fix the shooting function for bipedal aliens, allowing these battles to take place in a more consistent manner. Sometimes you would land on a planet, and they would not react the right way, either not shooting or even not moving sometimes. Now they should behave correctly. They will also shoot at you if they are hostile :)
Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.2
New Work Underway
I have resumed work on the latest version of Star Explorers. Thanks to the success of Cyclopean: The Great Abyss, I have been able to set aside the next two weeks to focus on Star Explorers.
I have abandoned the Pre-release version 6.0 that I was working on because it acquired too many bugs to deal with.
Now I have taken up the default version and have been re-applying the changes in a more slow and methodical manner. I scrapped the new database and mapping system for now. It proved too complex and was somehow not able to remain compatible with the main code base ... all my fault.
So I have been able to update a lot of the things planned for the 6.0 release into this version. There are three main ones, and a few minor fixes.
I have alien fruits working in this version. I still have to tweak them a bit, but the basic functionality is there. You can watch them jump around and display their unusual behavior, or capture them and see what they taste like.
The new inventory system is also implemented. This was a major overhaul of the whole way inventory works, but it is much more efficient now. It also has new, nifty graphics to enjoy.
I have also incorporated these graphics into the quests system, to keep it looking consistent.
I've also incorporated these new kinds of random creatures I call smoke beasts. In the current default game, they are all just white smoke, but now they come in different colors and a number if unusual patterns.
As mentioned before, in the process of updating, I have found a lot of little bugs to fix along the way. Missing files, weird crashes that happened under very specific conditions, and things like the costs of items appearing inconsistently, have all been addressed.
I will continue to add new stuff that has been in the works, and fix bugs along the way. In about two weeks I plan to set this as the "real" Version 6.0, and make it the default.
I am working on a major update for Star Explorers. It will eventually be Verision 6.0.
This is an experimental testing branch for anyone who wants to try some of the new features and improvements, but please be aware there may be some bugs and issues that still need resolving here.
Currently the new version has a completely different star chart that is no longer compatible with the Version 5.0 games. It saves and loads your galaxy in a completely different way. This is all behind the scenes so you may not notice the differences yet.
The star chart now allows you to warp to stars without having to leave the computer. Here is a list of other updates and fixes that have occurred...
There were a couple bugs when buying and selling to merchants. Prices were not calculated correctly when selling, and weapons were not priced correctly when buying.
I also changed the "price" to "n/a" whenever the player is not actually dealing with a merchant, as that was just a bit confusing.
I have once again fixed the sonic cannon. It works as of the moment I am writing this. I cannot guarantee it will work by the time you try it.
I have now overhauled the whole inventory system and added some other cool stuff. It will also require a new game if you want to play it.
The old inventory items had a very confusing system and I revised the whole thing, so it will not be compatible with old saves games.
The menu and inventory graphics have all been spruced up to look more spacey, and I was able to add some nifty sound effects to these interactions. There is still work to do here, but inventory, quests and blueprints/crafting have all been improved.
This has been updated to include some helpful information about where to find certain items
During these updates I was able to discover and resolve a large number of bugs. Items should retain their correct values when trading A bug occurring when shooting the rocket launcher was fixed The "Place All" and "Take All" buttons now appear correctly depending on the item type UFO interior bug was causing staircase colliders to appear in the wrong place (these colliders are invisible so it's possible no one noticed it)
The trade menu allowed players to cheat by manipulating the amount of an item bought or sold (I won't get into details).
I was able to reproduce the bug, and find the root cause. Now it should not allow for this kind of swindling to occur.
There was a bug in the blueprints. When crafting an item it used the older values and the resulting item would have strange features like having a negative value for trade.
I had updated items which appear in caches and merchant inventories, but forgot to update the items when crafted with blueprints.
This will not fix items that were already crafted, but should produce the right results when crafting any new items. The blueprints themselves should be fine, so don't get rid of those.
I found out recently that the game engine I am using (3D Gamestudio) actually prefers pcx and dds files to bmp, jpg and png files. I have been using a variety of image files for Star Explorers and I occasionally have encountered some "bad file format" errors.
So in an effort to eliminate these kinds of errors, I am going through all the image files and replacing them with the recommended formats.
It is a long process and I am just starting. One good side effect is that I am saving disk space in the process, as well as eliminating a bunch of unused functions in the game script. So by the end of this process I think Star Explorers will become a much tighter program that takes up much less room on your hard drive.
In the process I was able to identify some textures that were missing from the game files. However, I am guessing I will mess up in the process and some textures might be missing (if I failed to reference the right file or something).
I was also able to identify and fix the bug that caused planets to go to night time after players left a cave, so the day/night cycle should be more consistent now.
Two issues have been addressed and resolved in this update.
Bipedal aliens that carry weapons were still utilizing the old inventory system, so the weapons were unusable. I have updated this so those weapons can be used after they are dropped. I also prevented the bug that allowed players to take the alien weapons while they were still being held (although I am thinking about re-introducing this as a possible feature in the future).
The animal type aliens have been updated too. In the past when they were killed their body parts would fling off in different directions. I am not sure what happened but that feature no longer worked. I was able to update it so that it is working again.
A helpful player pointed out an issue that caused the game to crash to the desktop in the testing branch.
If you approached the mothership for the first time, then instead of clicking on the computer panel, you chose to first travel to another solar system, it would then crash once you clicked on the computer panel.
This was easy to fix, it was just one of those things that I failed to anticipate people doing. So it's always helpful to get this sort of feedback!
There was a bug where, when approaching the mothership, if you cancelled the docking procedure, the UI would become unresponsive and you could no longer click on stars or the mothership itself.
I believe this is fixed now.
I was also able to fix the issue where the docking sound would play even if you had the volume all the way down (sorry for scaring any of you).
