This is the official changelog for Starscape Alpha v5: the Pre-Release update.
Major Features
Residential space stations
Stake a claim on one of the galaxy’s hundreds of residential space stations. Rent an apartment which you can decorate with furniture and customize to suit your personal taste. Chill out in the lounge or settle your differences in the conference room.
Missions
Complete missions for the six in-game factions to earn faction standing and tier up. The higher your tier, the more challenging missions you unlock.
Squads
Invite other players to your squad to explore the galaxy together. Players in the same squad can warp to each other while in the same system, allowing you to complete missions or hunt down anomalies with your friends.
Quick warp menu
You no longer have to spin your ship around in circles looking for planets! The new quick warp menu allows you to easily warp to any object in the system. Just hold down spacebar and move your mouse to access it.
Weapon overhaul
The gun system has been reworked. Weapons now fit into distinct slots: primary, secondary, and utility. Weapons can overheat if they are fired too quickly.
Ship equip slots
You can now equip items like scan probes, mines, and warp disruptors to dedicated slots for quick access. This system will be extended for missiles in the future.
Expanded tutorial missions
Three new tutorials—Combat, Interface, and Industry—have been added to help new players learn the ropes.
Additions
- Added faction uniforms, skins, and symbols as faction rewards
- Added new “Enemy” titles for when your standing with factions is very low
- Added the ability to swap out clothing and added clothing to marketplaces
- Added two new scannable anomalies
- Added several new crafting recipes
- Added a system which will help players unstick their ship if they become stuck
- Added a directory to station lobbies listing all NPC mission agents in the station
- Added graphics quality selector (should reduce space dust framerate drop)
- Added player tags which are dropped on death and can be displayed in apartments as trophies
- Added tracker icons to asteroids
- Added an “Assembly” tab to the ship spawning terminal
- Added hints for ship assembly in the ship spawning terminal
- Added health indicators for structures and powerful NPCs
- Added three new sizes of ship tracker icon to help distinguish between ship classes
- Added defense turrets and fighters to faction stations
- Added a system which allows walking NPCs to make a short teleport if they become stuck
- Added a system which gives NPC ships the ability to unstick themselves if they become stuck
- Added a hint for ship ability key bindings to the left of the ship HUD
- Added UI highlight hints to the introductory tutorial
- Added visual and audio cues for mission stage progression
- Added sixteen new skybox options
- Added five new ambient music tracks by the incomparable composer Stellardrone
Changes
- Changed all in-game NPCs to have unique names
- Changed faction field offices to have reward terminals instead of requisitions officers
- Changed guns to be able to slowly damage player ships if a player is inside
- Changed player tag colors to reserve purple and green for squads and factions
- Changed trade request setting so that you can choose to accept trades from everyone, friends only, or nobody
- Changed the quantity slider to have increment buttons (-10,-1,+1,+10)
- Changed command-tier drone loot drops to always drop something of value
- Changed the intro tutorial so that attempting to leave the Citadel will display a confirmation dialogue
- Changed the tutorial to more transparently disclose game death mechanics
- Changed NPC ship agilities to be a bit more reasonable
- Changed faction space stations to disallow access to suspects or enemies of the faction
- Changed mission screen to set your destination when you click on a mission’s system
- Changed bench seat tracker icons to only show up on hover
- Changed the Trade Union home system name to “Harbor”
- Changed the settings gear button to be on the left-hand side of the assets menu
- Changed the player tags menu to be separate from the settings menu
- Changed the skybox nebula color to be in line with the system spice color
Fixes
- Fixed the music volume slider so releasing the mouse will stop changing the volume
- Fixed several issues which could cause system data to not properly save
- Fixed clone tank NPCs to have pants
- Fixed some minor issues with tile dragging
- Fixed an issue where NPC freighters would immediately despawn after spawning
- Fixed spice so that it is properly ordered by rarity in the cargo dock sell menu
- Fixed an issue where players would fall into the void
- Fixed several issues related to trackers not being interactable
- Fixed some perspective issues with the scan probe effect
- Fixed the wingtips of Lycentian NPC fighters to be equal in size
Performance
- Drastically reduced server load impact of NPC ships, allowing for larger battles with less lag
- Drastically reduced client performance impact of tracker icons