Playtest

DEMO1

The third update to the playtest was released on 10 October 2022.

NEW CONTENT

DEMO (Playtest)

• Brand new story episode (experimental) in second sector : 'The trouble with [Tiddlets]'. Treat them well!
• New music for new games and for the first hyperspace jump etc
• New tutorial / help elements at the start of a new game to aid new players, based on EGX feedback
• Made the '[Contract#Make your new ship ready for flight|Flight Ready]' mission more intuitive and informative, based on EGX feedback
• All new game scenarios locked on start, except the simple [The Praxis|PRAXIS] one
• [Space Suit|Spacesuit] [Oxygen|O2] level is now much more forgiving in the very first system - so players have a chance to find their feet

New Main Menu treatment

• All saved games and ship exports now have thumbnails (after saving)
• The game now pauses when the Main Menu is open

Shipyard reconsidered

• The [shipyard] no longer permits ad-hoc modification of the hull or interior of a ship
• You can still install armour or expand habitation, and construct [scaffold]

External work

• Your crew can now install some equipment on scaffold, entirely outside the ship. Eg [Mining Laser|mining lasers].
• Crew can also repair and dismantle external equipment
• New ORDERS option - "Exterior Work", which permits or forbids your crew to do work outside in spacesuits.

New 'Exterior view' graphics for all ships (work in progress)

Other [ships] in the world

You will now encounter more ships in your travels, performing jobs such as mining and scavenging, and coming and going from [trade] posts

• Mining vessels in [asteroid] belts
• Scavengers near [Derelict Ships|derilicts]
• Trade ships near [Colony|colonies] and shipyards
• Evacuation ships near colonies in danger

SMALL CHANGES

• New gfx for Spacesuits / [Crew Member|Crew] / [Civilian]s, lots of equipment
• Tooltips added to all 'Processing' machines to show recipe
• [Logistics Drone|Drones] will now find a new [Drone Bay] if their home drone bay is destroyed or dismantled
• Lots of new sound effects for UI and equipment, and Music added to early game
• If the [Docking Port|docking port] delivery zone becomes blocked, a message is shown to encourage creation of storage zones
• If a player has far too many jobs and far too few crew, the game will give them a warning "Crew shortage"

BUG FIXES

• Fixed : You can no longer accept missions and accidentally assign them to ships you don't own (eg if you have another ship selected)
• Fixed : Bug that stopped the science mission sensors from being delivered
• Fixed : Neutral and hostile drones no longer count towards your 'Drones Deployed' value in the FTL window
• Fixed : Hyperspace effects did not scale correctly when fully zoomed out
• Fixed : Mining missions can be accepted when all your drones are deployed

Update2.rc3

The second update to the playtest was released on 29 July 2022, only a few hours after Update 2.rc1. The build is dated 29 July 2022. It is unclear what was changed in this build as the only file changed was the game executable.

Update2.rc1

The first update to the playtest was released on 29 July 2022 following the Update 2 video. The build is dated 28 July 2022. This update is the first available to Mac OS X players.

NEW CONTENT

Ice Comets / Ice Grinder

Ice comets occur randomly and travel through a system. Mine them for Ice.

The Ice Grinder is a new piece of equipment to grind and melt ice into dirty water.

Spacesuit Pod

Replenishes the oxygen on any spacesuit.

Ratings - Combat / Industry / Humanitarian / Logistics

You will gain XP as you perform these activities and your rating will slowly increase.

Many missions now require a minimum rating to be accepted.

Parallel pipes

Pipes can now be constructed next to other pipes without automatic (unwanted) connection

Tooltips

Plus a whole raft of usability improvements to help new players

Including text descriptions of almost all equipment

Star system save persistence

You can now revisit star systems and they will reload as you left them

Tweet my Starship

Click this from the Main Menu. A picture of your starship is copied to the clipboard.

Paste it into your tweet to show the world your brilliance!

Playtest sector limit increased to 5

PERFORMANCE

• Render performance improved

SMALL CHANGES

• It now costs money to hire crew
• Crew will no longer disembark the delivery shuttle if there is no atmosphere, and a warning message is shown
• Smelters can now refine Tilium into Refined Tilium (which you can sell)
• The initial ship-readiness mission is automatically accepted at the start of a new game
• All starting ships now have some cabin space
• You can now press the HOME key to re-center the view on the current ship
• There will always be at least one shipyard in the starting sector
• CO2 scrubbers are now twice as fast at extracting CO2 from the atmosphere
• Scientists have determined the void is now expanding slower than before
• Pipe and port graphics have been changed to give better hints when things are wrong
• Hostile ships will no longer randomly camp the sector exit system (permitting a peaceful playthrough if desired)
• Updated graphics for CO2 Scrubber, Small Tank, Docking Port, Box, Smelter, Spacesuits
• You can now click on a Smelter to cycle its recipe setting
• ESC now closes any currently open window, before it will open the main menu
• Hull Damage is now shown in the top status bar
• The Contracts list will now highlight any contract that occurs in a system you are already due to visit with a blue diamond

BUG FIXES

• Mission descriptions now correctly show the ship name they are assigned to, instead of the layer number
• Broken floor tiles are now straightened after Drone or Ship Yard repair.
• The game world will no longer receive keyboard and mouse input when the Main Menu is open
• Objects that extend off the gridmap can now be placed.
• Properly restore the view on game load.
• You can now sell materials even when your stacks aren't 100% full
• Docking Port sound effects would play continuously after loading a save game sometimes
• Crew can now install/dismantle/repair equipment that is entirely inside a wall, so long as they can access a neighbouring square
• Fixed navigation bugs that meant crew and passengers would sometimes get stuck on corners
• Crew would sometimes put suits on before attempting jobs in a wall

Update1.rc2

The initial build was released to playtesters on 11 July 2022 following the Update 1 video. The build is dated 8 July 2022.