Hey spacebrains! I made some spacetime to hit the issues you brought up in the forums and the fixes from the todo list: -Saving the game is 80x(!) faster thanks to some sqlite tweaks -The radio now remembers where it left off between warps so you can enjoy whole "Dimension X" and "X Minus One" programs as you explore the multiverse -A new anomaly - Dead Space Deities - these randomized crumbling bodies contain rare Actinoid elements to craft with -Resource planets (food, water, fuel) now have a handy icon to help in tracking down what you'll need to survive in space -When resources are low, the corresponding icon flashes red and oscillates scale to get your attention instead of just the resource meter flash -General performance improvements - physics, particle system updates and more careful handling of memory - the min spec test machine had a 30% improvement in framerate between this and the last build -Colliding planets spawn explosions in addition to spawning planet chunks that careen away from the impact -The translation mini-game has a 4 second "incoming message" warning to keep from being so abrupt -The player is now invincible mid-warp to avoid cheap shots from enemies while entering a system -Larger event notification -UI input timing tweaks -Fixed camera FOV error when you use a dimension door with a non-default camera FOV in the options menu I spent a good part of the beginning of 2016 trying to shoehorn VR into Planetship but I'm afraid it's not ready for primetime, there are many camera issues and it honestly makes me sick to play for more than a few minutes as it is. Going to have to go back to the drawing board on how to really make it shine. Let me know if you like what's going on in the updated version of the game or if anything is irksome to ya. Thanks for playing everybody! -j

Hey spacebrains! I made some spacetime to hit the issues you brought up in the forums and the fixes from the todo list: -Saving the game is 80x(!) faster thanks to some sqlite tweaks -The radio now remembers where it left off between warps so you can enjoy whole "Dimension X" and "X Minus One" programs as you explore the multiverse -A new anomaly - Dead Space Deities - these randomized crumbling bodies contain rare Actinoid elements to craft with -Resource planets (food, water, fuel) now have a handy icon to help in tracking down what you'll need to survive in space -When resources are low, the corresponding icon flashes red and oscillates scale to get your attention instead of just the resource meter flash -General performance improvements - physics, particle system updates and more careful handling of memory - the min spec test machine had a 30% improvement in framerate between this and the last build -Colliding planets spawn explosions in addition to spawning planet chunks that careen away from the impact -The translation mini-game has a 4 second "incoming message" warning to keep from being so abrupt -The player is now invincible mid-warp to avoid cheap shots from enemies while entering a system -Larger event notification -UI input timing tweaks -Fixed camera FOV error when you use a dimension door with a non-default camera FOV in the options menu I spent a good part of the beginning of 2016 trying to shoehorn VR into Planetship but I'm afraid it's not ready for primetime, there are many camera issues and it honestly makes me sick to play for more than a few minutes as it is. Going to have to go back to the drawing board on how to really make it shine. Let me know if you like what's going on in the updated version of the game or if anything is irksome to ya. Thanks for playing everybody! -j

HEY THERE! There's a few new updates I'd like to share with youse guise and I think you're gonna like em: -The Star Map now highlights the zone of the selected system making it easy to hop to your preferred space-type destination. The planetary info panel is color-coded to make it faster to find a planet with the resource you're looking for & is much more responsive after a cleanup of the map code. A new indicator effect makes finding your spot in the galaxy easier as well. -Performance Tuning in the main gameplay, Crafting & Star Map states has made memory consumption more stable and as a result of less frequent garbage collection there are fewer dropped frames when things get intensive. -The new Boost Toggle Option when enabled lets you toggle boost on/off by tapping either shift key instead of holding it down. -Shuttles now tractor into the shuttle bay when they are close to the ship, making it much easier to grab them after they pick up resources. -Bugfixes/Tweaks: Event and Schematic text issues, detour warping/collision issues and many star map quirks were ironed out in this build I would love to hear your thoughts on the changes and if they make your experience better or worse, I plan to do more updates in the future based on the feedback I get here on the forums. Thanks everyone!

HEY THERE! There's a few new updates I'd like to share with youse guise and I think you're gonna like em: -The Star Map now highlights the zone of the selected system making it easy to hop to your preferred space-type destination. The planetary info panel is color-coded to make it faster to find a planet with the resource you're looking for & is much more responsive after a cleanup of the map code. A new indicator effect makes finding your spot in the galaxy easier as well. -Performance Tuning in the main gameplay, Crafting & Star Map states has made memory consumption more stable and as a result of less frequent garbage collection there are fewer dropped frames when things get intensive. -The new Boost Toggle Option when enabled lets you toggle boost on/off by tapping either shift key instead of holding it down. -Shuttles now tractor into the shuttle bay when they are close to the ship, making it much easier to grab them after they pick up resources. -Bugfixes/Tweaks: Event and Schematic text issues, detour warping/collision issues and many star map quirks were ironed out in this build I would love to hear your thoughts on the changes and if they make your experience better or worse, I plan to do more updates in the future based on the feedback I get here on the forums. Thanks everyone!

Hey spacebrains! After looking over the feedback from the new release I made some updates that are feeling pretty nice, I hope you'll dig em! -Star Map / Warp Gate Color Coding: Now the Systems displayed on the Star Map have unique colors assigned to them with corresponding colors blended into the Warp Gate effects, making it MUCH easier to warp to a specific unknown System. Thanks to Demon Bean for the feedback on this! -System info text in the Star Map is now color-coded by Planet/System type and scrolls by 100x faster, making it much more useful and faster to visually parse. -Star Map node selection has changed, getting rid of the need to precisely rotate the camera to select a node. It should be simpler to quickly swipe over a node to see it's stats and fast travel to it right away. -Elemental Pickups: The resource amount has been rebalanced for these pickups, making it much easier to find enough of the elements you need to build schematics in the Crafting menu. They also attract to the player a bit faster, making grabbing a grip of these even faster! -Bugfixes: Spawn point is pulled out to avoid getting hit right as you enter a system, your view is auto-aligned on warp to keep from getting disoriented after warping, your weapons are removed on death (Thanks for catching that .gnosis!)

Hey spacebrains! After looking over the feedback from the new release I made some updates that are feeling pretty nice, I hope you'll dig em! -Star Map / Warp Gate Color Coding: Now the Systems displayed on the Star Map have unique colors assigned to them with corresponding colors blended into the Warp Gate effects, making it MUCH easier to warp to a specific unknown System. Thanks to Demon Bean for the feedback on this! -System info text in the Star Map is now color-coded by Planet/System type and scrolls by 100x faster, making it much more useful and faster to visually parse. -Star Map node selection has changed, getting rid of the need to precisely rotate the camera to select a node. It should be simpler to quickly swipe over a node to see it's stats and fast travel to it right away. -Elemental Pickups: The resource amount has been rebalanced for these pickups, making it much easier to find enough of the elements you need to build schematics in the Crafting menu. They also attract to the player a bit faster, making grabbing a grip of these even faster! -Bugfixes: Spawn point is pulled out to avoid getting hit right as you enter a system, your view is auto-aligned on warp to keep from getting disoriented after warping, your weapons are removed on death (Thanks for catching that .gnosis!)

The space cat is out of the bag now baby, and it's excited to tell you in perfect English that Planetship is DONE, so let's enumerate some updates: -New Schematics: 20 new stuff/things to craft, including the Ray Cutlass, an energy sword that can instantly destroy turrets or fighters! -50+ new "Choose your Adventure" Events -4 New Anomalies: Some fun new oddities await you! -AI Updates: The game is really difficult on space madness mode now, all enemy types put up a real fight and require forethought & tricky maneuvering to defeat -Resolution Picker: This was the last requirement for Big Picture status, now you can do everything in the game with a controller or KB/Mouse -New Tutorial Video: When starting/continuing a new game you'll see a quick 45 second looping video explaining important features of the game -New Options Menu: The number of options was getting silly to put on one page, now there's Graphics / Audio / Gameplay sections with clearly labeled and described options for your configuration pleasure -Achievements! 10 lofty galactic goals to accomplish, if you're a bad enough space dude[tte] -Translation minigame update: Now the inhabited planets belong to a Faction that speaks the same language, so you only have to translate for one Faction and the rest you find will happen automatically. Remember if you warp to a new galaxy it has a whole new set of local Factions. -Picking up elements now shows you the current total of that element, makes it easy to track specific elements you need to craft withsteamhappy -AI Fixes: Ship vs Ship / Ship vs Mine / Ship vs Turret combat fixes, now random AI space battles are not so confusing! Finally, thanks so much to all Early Access players, you helped me tighten up the experience and keep the game on track. The motivational support and guidance you all gave is priceless, hopefully I can thank you by making some more fun games down the road. That said I'm going to keep an eye on all Planetship feedback and in a few months I'd like to do another update with some more content to keep it fresh and fun. Thanks again everyone! -john steamhappy

The space cat is out of the bag now baby, and it's excited to tell you in perfect English that Planetship is DONE, so let's enumerate some updates: -New Schematics: 20 new stuff/things to craft, including the Ray Cutlass, an energy sword that can instantly destroy turrets or fighters! -50+ new "Choose your Adventure" Events -4 New Anomalies: Some fun new oddities await you! -AI Updates: The game is really difficult on space madness mode now, all enemy types put up a real fight and require forethought & tricky maneuvering to defeat -Resolution Picker: This was the last requirement for Big Picture status, now you can do everything in the game with a controller or KB/Mouse -New Tutorial Video: When starting/continuing a new game you'll see a quick 45 second looping video explaining important features of the game -New Options Menu: The number of options was getting silly to put on one page, now there's Graphics / Audio / Gameplay sections with clearly labeled and described options for your configuration pleasure -Achievements! 10 lofty galactic goals to accomplish, if you're a bad enough space dude[tte] -Translation minigame update: Now the inhabited planets belong to a Faction that speaks the same language, so you only have to translate for one Faction and the rest you find will happen automatically. Remember if you warp to a new galaxy it has a whole new set of local Factions. -Picking up elements now shows you the current total of that element, makes it easy to track specific elements you need to craft withːsteamhappyː -AI Fixes: Ship vs Ship / Ship vs Mine / Ship vs Turret combat fixes, now random AI space battles are not so confusing! Finally, thanks so much to all Early Access players, you helped me tighten up the experience and keep the game on track. The motivational support and guidance you all gave is priceless, hopefully I can thank you by making some more fun games down the road. That said I'm going to keep an eye on all Planetship feedback and in a few months I'd like to do another update with some more content to keep it fresh and fun. Thanks again everyone! -john ːsteamhappyː

-Planet Variation: There are 10x as many planet textures(!) as the previous build and the code for randomizing them has been updated for better visual quality. -Colonel Bleep: Now there is a flying TV satellite showing full episodes of "Colonel Bleep" which was the first cartoon ever in the history of broadcast television to be shown in full color. I think it really fits in the multiverse of Planetship, it's full of corny plots and robutts! -Radio: In this build you'll encounter a new entity - an old timey radio playing "Dimension X" and "X Minus One" episodes. Some are dark and twisted, some are full of hi-sci-fi concepts, it adds another dimension to the gameplay and the radio follows you around inside a system making sure you can hear the story while blasting away at the Empire of Death. -AI Updates: Turrets can dynamically switch targets independently of the ship they're connected to, making for seriously excellent space battles. A lot of the ally code has been cleaned up as well, making the experience of joining an ally faction for a short skirmish feel complex and fun! Also some changes for difficulties - Chillout mode will never have an enemy faction (only ally or neutral) and Space Madness mode will only have enemy factions :) -Ammo Meters: The old text display for ammo was temp, now there's a nice easy to visually parse meter showing you exactly how much ammo is left. -Input Update: Since the L/R bumpers weren't being used for anything in particular they mimic the L/R trigger input, I can see it being a more comfortable setup for some players after trying it that way for a while. -Multiple Ending Text: Now when you find a habitable planet you'll get a more unique and random description of the new home you've found.

-Planet Variation: There are 10x as many planet textures(!) as the previous build and the code for randomizing them has been updated for better visual quality. -Colonel Bleep: Now there is a flying TV satellite showing full episodes of "Colonel Bleep" which was the first cartoon ever in the history of broadcast television to be shown in full color. I think it really fits in the multiverse of Planetship, it's full of corny plots and robutts! -Radio: In this build you'll encounter a new entity - an old timey radio playing "Dimension X" and "X Minus One" episodes. Some are dark and twisted, some are full of hi-sci-fi concepts, it adds another dimension to the gameplay and the radio follows you around inside a system making sure you can hear the story while blasting away at the Empire of Death. -AI Updates: Turrets can dynamically switch targets independently of the ship they're connected to, making for seriously excellent space battles. A lot of the ally code has been cleaned up as well, making the experience of joining an ally faction for a short skirmish feel complex and fun! Also some changes for difficulties - Chillout mode will never have an enemy faction (only ally or neutral) and Space Madness mode will only have enemy factions :) -Ammo Meters: The old text display for ammo was temp, now there's a nice easy to visually parse meter showing you exactly how much ammo is left. -Input Update: Since the L/R bumpers weren't being used for anything in particular they mimic the L/R trigger input, I can see it being a more comfortable setup for some players after trying it that way for a while. -Multiple Ending Text: Now when you find a habitable planet you'll get a more unique and random description of the new home you've found.

Hey space brains! This is a fancypants update that is both fancy + pantsy, if you haven't played for a while this build is worth checking out imo. The new stuff: -System Color Palettes: Now the randomly generated star systems have a randomly chosen hand-made palette associated with them that gets factored into the random color of objects in the system, making each spot look more unique and unified at the same time! -3 New Weapons: -Ray Cutlass: Are you the space ninja we've been looking for? Cut a fool with the new shiny laser sword for your Planetship! -Dimension Saw: With this you can plow through your enemies and saw everything in twain. -The Seeker / Swarm Missiles: Swarm missiles now act more like something from macross and The Seeker is now the longer lasting enemy tracking assassin-class projectile that continues to track your most recently acquired target. -New Game+++++++: After finding a habitable planet you can scope out the area around your new home and continue your space trek with a skeleton crew that needs little food or water. This means you can focus on what's important: exploring the multiverse and shooting at space stuff! -Astrophotography: Double detail for star systems thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope and all the wonderful images it's brought us! There are now twice as many astrophotography shots in the library for the procedural generation, giving more visual life to the systems.

Hey space brains! This is a fancypants update that is both fancy + pantsy, if you haven't played for a while this build is worth checking out imo. The new stuff: -System Color Palettes: Now the randomly generated star systems have a randomly chosen hand-made palette associated with them that gets factored into the random color of objects in the system, making each spot look more unique and unified at the same time! -3 New Weapons: -Ray Cutlass: Are you the space ninja we've been looking for? Cut a fool with the new shiny laser sword for your Planetship! -Dimension Saw: With this you can plow through your enemies and saw everything in twain. -The Seeker / Swarm Missiles: Swarm missiles now act more like something from macross and The Seeker is now the longer lasting enemy tracking assassin-class projectile that continues to track your most recently acquired target. -New Game+++++++: After finding a habitable planet you can scope out the area around your new home and continue your space trek with a skeleton crew that needs little food or water. This means you can focus on what's important: exploring the multiverse and shooting at space stuff! -Astrophotography: Double detail for star systems thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope and all the wonderful images it's brought us! There are now twice as many astrophotography shots in the library for the procedural generation, giving more visual life to the systems.

-Ships: Now the look of ships & turrets are unified and there are new ships for each class: Fighter, Capitol Ship, Pirate Frigate & Shuttle. -Factions: Now ships belong to one of 4 of the largest factions in your galaxy and may be allies or enemies (check your star map for faction info). -Space Battles: Ships and turrets will go blast-nuts on each other if they get close enough and they're on opposing factions, which means random laser fights will break out spontaneously :) Some odd behavior shows up but sometimes the fights are truly spectacular, while testing I saw a single fighter take out a fully loaded pirate frigate in a 1:1 battle! -Ally Ships: As a by-product of factions you now can obtain ally ships to follow you around and start fights with the Empire of Death. -New Anomalies: Now you can find 3 new types of refractive, shifting and nebulous anomalies waiting for you in the void! -Star System Randomness: New code is in place to make the systems look more organic and distinct from each other. -X & Y Control Inversion Option: Now under the "Invert Controls" option there's a "Full" value that inverts both axis of analog input if you're into that kind of stuff. Thanks to The Belated Gentleman for the idea! -Performance Improvements: After adding all of this new content I paid careful attention to the profiler and reigned in a bucket full of poorly performing assets and bits of code for a noticeably smoother framerate!

-Ships: Now the look of ships & turrets are unified and there are new ships for each class: Fighter, Capitol Ship, Pirate Frigate & Shuttle. -Factions: Now ships belong to one of 4 of the largest factions in your galaxy and may be allies or enemies (check your star map for faction info). -Space Battles: Ships and turrets will go blast-nuts on each other if they get close enough and they're on opposing factions, which means random laser fights will break out spontaneously :) Some odd behavior shows up but sometimes the fights are truly spectacular, while testing I saw a single fighter take out a fully loaded pirate frigate in a 1:1 battle! -Ally Ships: As a by-product of factions you now can obtain ally ships to follow you around and start fights with the Empire of Death. -New Anomalies: Now you can find 3 new types of refractive, shifting and nebulous anomalies waiting for you in the void! -Star System Randomness: New code is in place to make the systems look more organic and distinct from each other. -X & Y Control Inversion Option: Now under the "Invert Controls" option there's a "Full" value that inverts both axis of analog input if you're into that kind of stuff. Thanks to The Belated Gentleman for the idea! -Performance Improvements: After adding all of this new content I paid careful attention to the profiler and reigned in a bucket full of poorly performing assets and bits of code for a noticeably smoother framerate!

New Features: -Difficulty Levels: Now when starting a new game you can choose from Chillout (slow resource loss, fewer enemies), Normal (original) and Space Madness (tons of enemies and higher overall difficulty). Now the difficulty level will have a nice slow ramp up throughout a game as well! -Craftable Weapons: From the crafting interface you can build the P.E.W. 2 orbital laser, Swarm Missiles or the HyperBeam to gear up before a space fight! -Space Madness: The first pass at madness effects are in and are triggered if you spend too much time inside a black hole. I plan on extending this system in terms of randomness of the visual effects and how objects in the world will affect your madness levels. -MiniMap: Now at the top of the main gameplay screen there's a minimap showing your proximity to planets and hostile entities. -New Space Stuff: Now Dimension Doors (local teleporters) and new nebulous anomalies with new atomic resource types are shuffled into the star system's procedural generation. -Detours: The detour system is in and now I can spawn a tunnel or any sort of interim space between system warps, so now whenever you fast travel it sends you on a detour into the inner workings of a warp gate before you get to your destination. Would love to hear everybody's opinion about the updates, feel free to start a new thread in the forums to braindump about Planetship!

New Features: -Difficulty Levels: Now when starting a new game you can choose from Chillout (slow resource loss, fewer enemies), Normal (original) and Space Madness (tons of enemies and higher overall difficulty). Now the difficulty level will have a nice slow ramp up throughout a game as well! -Craftable Weapons: From the crafting interface you can build the P.E.W. 2 orbital laser, Swarm Missiles or the HyperBeam to gear up before a space fight! -Space Madness: The first pass at madness effects are in and are triggered if you spend too much time inside a black hole. I plan on extending this system in terms of randomness of the visual effects and how objects in the world will affect your madness levels. -MiniMap: Now at the top of the main gameplay screen there's a minimap showing your proximity to planets and hostile entities. -New Space Stuff: Now Dimension Doors (local teleporters) and new nebulous anomalies with new atomic resource types are shuffled into the star system's procedural generation. -Detours: The detour system is in and now I can spawn a tunnel or any sort of interim space between system warps, so now whenever you fast travel it sends you on a detour into the inner workings of a warp gate before you get to your destination. Would love to hear everybody's opinion about the updates, feel free to start a new thread in the forums to braindump about Planetship!

After doing some playtesting with the most recent update I've found that people really hate losing save data when they die. So now when you do, most of your atomic resources and schematics are quantum-ported to a new Planetship in an alternate reality where you can continue after ship-death. So you ARE technically dead but hey you get to shift player-conciousness into a shiny new ship with 85-95% of your gear so it's mostly a wash. Oh also there's this new hit effect on enemies that kinda looks like the hit effect on the Battle Android Trooper in the old G.I. Joe arcade game, looks kinda neat. Also these enumerated features: -Star map shows extended log & has new system info panel -Inverted controls option toggle -Crafting requirements are now also shown in the periodic table view and are highlighted green/red depending on if you meet the schematic cost requirement -Aim assist on planets fixed -Mines now cause chain reaction explosion with each other -Enemies made out of metal now drop useful metals like Nickel and Iron (handy for building a shuttle fleet!) OK! Systems are getting tightened up, next is lots of space junk :) Please let me know if you run into any problems with the update, thanks!

After doing some playtesting with the most recent update I've found that people really hate losing save data when they die. So now when you do, most of your atomic resources and schematics are quantum-ported to a new Planetship in an alternate reality where you can continue after ship-death. So you ARE technically dead but hey you get to shift player-conciousness into a shiny new ship with 85-95% of your gear so it's mostly a wash. Oh also there's this new hit effect on enemies that kinda looks like the hit effect on the Battle Android Trooper in the old G.I. Joe arcade game, looks kinda neat. Also these enumerated features: -Star map shows extended log & has new system info panel -Inverted controls option toggle -Crafting requirements are now also shown in the periodic table view and are highlighted green/red depending on if you meet the schematic cost requirement -Aim assist on planets fixed -Mines now cause chain reaction explosion with each other -Enemies made out of metal now drop useful metals like Nickel and Iron (handy for building a shuttle fleet!) OK! Systems are getting tightened up, next is lots of space junk :) Please let me know if you run into any problems with the update, thanks!

Hey! Since the new save functionality was tied into every part of the game it was difficult to do regular build updates, but now it and all core systems have been fleshed out. That's great news for me AND you, since now it's down to tweaking, juicing, polish and adding more content, been waiting for this day for many moons. So here's the boxback list of stuff I've been holed up in the dev cave crunching on:

---[NEW FUNCTIONALITY]---

---[VISUAL UPDATES]---

---[NEW CONTENT]---

---[FIXES]---

Hey! Since the new save functionality was tied into every part of the game it was difficult to do regular build updates, but now it and all core systems have been fleshed out. That's great news for me AND you, since now it's down to tweaking, juicing, polish and adding more content, been waiting for this day for many moons. So here's the boxback list of stuff I've been holed up in the dev cave crunching on:

---[NEW FUNCTIONALITY]---

---[VISUAL UPDATES]---

---[NEW CONTENT]---

---[FIXES]---

Thanks to a handy tool from Gallant Games ( gallantgames.com ) called InControl, Planetship now supports a wide new array of exciting new-ish controllers including the DualShock 4, XBox One & Logitech F510. Wowzers! Performance Tuning: -less than half the original build size which means faster load times -better framerate in main game state, that with the input system overhaul the game feels much smoother, like super smooth even -less than 60% of last build's memory usage, lowering the requirement to 2GB Build update thread: http://steamcommunity.com/app/337280/discussions/0/610574394236162117/

-UI Opacity Slider in Options [good call Sairven!] -Potential for double/triple rings on planets - was watching the space dandy episode "a race in space is dangerous, baby" and they had TRIPLE RINGED planets, had to put that in! -Slight speed up flying through gas pockets -New space deity added to the Pantheon, thanks to my bizarro sibling Kelly who is now properly credited for her weird abstract paintings of elder space deities which are nice and unsettling to look upon. Don't stare into their eyes! -Library vocabulary highlighting terms is 200x larger, making reading fun again -Now you can page-flip while reading in the Library section with the Left/Right arrow keys or the controller L+R bumpers -Further development on the OSX & VR versions of Planetship -Previously researched items show up (disabled) at the bottom of the crafting screen schematic list so you can track your progress and feel good about yourself again -Additional important messages available in the event log so you can breathe easy again -Resource depletion / acquisition re-balancing so you can... I dunno something again -Updated system warp effect

---[FIXES]---