Hello Builders! Brace yourselves for an update of epic proportions! Over the past month, I've poured my heart and soul into refining Gate Builders. I've brought to life numerous features that have long lingered in the backlog, and I've taken on the final challenges of the alpha phase. I hope that you'll find as much delight in playing this update as I found in crafting it!

Multiplayer

Behold the shiny new addition to the main menu: Multiplayer! Now, you can engage in asynchronous matches of Gate Builders with your friends through a Play-By-Email (PBEM) system. Host or join games, play alongside your peers, and put your strategic skills to the test. To initiate a new game, simply host it on the multiplayer lobby, wait for fellow players to join, and commence the action. Once the game is underway, the host will fine-tune the game settings (map size, etc.), and each player can tailor their faction to their liking. After each turn, a savegame will be uploaded to the cloud and passed on to the next player. You have the choice to either exit the game and return at your convenience when everyone else has taken their turns, or stay within the game and witness your next turn kick off as soon as each player has played theirs.

Dev Analytics

I'm reaching out to you for a crucial favor! The next time you launch Gate Builders, a prompt will greet you, seeking your consent to share some analytics with me.
Your agreement to participate would be truly invaluable. Understanding how players engage with the game is pivotal for me. This analytics data will provide insights into your in-game constructions, preferred game options, and various other aspects that contribute to shaping your gaming experience. This will allow us to make the game better for every player.

Beacons

Navigating the vastness of space within the Belt can be difficult, but drawing inspiration from the age-old wisdom of Earth's sailors will guide us on this journey. Introducing a new feature: the ability to construct Beacons in space! These beacons come in two distinct types: Navigation Beacon: Aiding spaceships in skilful navigation between asteroids, significantly enhancing their speed. Radar Beacon: Unveiling expansive sections of the fog of war, providing critical visibility in the Belt. To construct these beacons, use the new dedicated Beacon Builder ship and electronics. Some sponsors can even amplify the effectiveness of the beacon effects, adding an extra layer of strategic depth.
With the dawn of Beacons, your capacity to enhance infrastructure reaches new heights, allowing you to push the boundaries of progress like never before. Do you want to try the Beacons by yourself? Luninc now starts the game with a beacon builder ship!

Academy

The Academy lessons were significantly outdated, with some no longer functioning properly. My primary focus has been on rectifying these issues, refining the content, and ensuring they are more comprehensible. These lessons play a pivotal role for players who engage for the first time with Gate Builders without bypassing the tutorials. (Who would ever do that? Hmm...) Additionally, four new lessons have been introduced: Building Beacons: Learn the intricacies of constructing beacons in space. Utilizing Mining Barges: Understand the nuances of deploying and leveraging mining barges effectively. Trading with Neutral Factions: Master the art of establishing trade relations with neutral factions. Setting Up Automated Trade Routes: Explore the process of configuring automated trade routes.

User Interface

4X games are renown for having a bad user experience. There is a lot of information to display and a limited amount of space on the screen before it gets too crowded. With every update, I try to streamline the experience, making it more accessible, easier to read and yet, complete enough for the player to take meaningful decision.

Enhanced Citizen Info Panel

I've revamped the layout of the Citizen Info Panel, now featuring a prominent, larger picture of the citizen for a more clarity.

Expanded Construction Information

Experience a new level of convenience: simply double-click on a building to open the construction menu with the building upgrade automatically pre-selected. When queuing a building, the construction options will dynamically include the buildings and units that the queued building will unlock upon completion. This empowers you to set up extensive construction chains and explore your options.
Moreover, each building now provides a Gatepedia link to explore potential upgrades. It is now also possible to queue multiple spaceship constructions of the same hull.
And for extra clarity, a new sprite visually indicates when a building is queued for construction on a station platform.

Dividend Visibility

Keeping track on dividend percentages for your investors was a bit tricky. That's why I've introduced a handy solution. Now, you can easily see the dividend percentage right next to your credit balance on both the Belt Map and in the Homeworld view. For instance, in the image below, the dividend is displayed at 18%:

Trade History

Ever find yourself struggling to recall what you traded five turns ago? Well, you're not alone. Introducing the Trade History panel in the Homeworld view! This log captures every trade: whether manual, through trade routes, or via subspace by your stations. Now, your past trades are neatly organized and easily accessible.

Personalized Spaceships

Express your creativity! You now have the ability to personalize your spaceships by giving them unique names.

Trade Clarity for Neutral Outposts

Ever struggled to remember which trade was offered by each neutral outpost? Worry no more! The trade information is now conveniently displayed next to the name of the outpost on the Outpost Badge.

Quality of Life Enhancements

- When another player attacks any of your assets, the camera will now smoothly center on the action before the first weapon is fired. (This feature can be turned off in the Options menu.) - You can now close the current screen or dialog by simply right-clicking anywhere. - Easily change the visibility of the fog of war with a button on the top of the Belt map, allowing you to switch between three modes: always visible, always hidden, or visible when zoomed out. - Investors are now visible in the Gatepedia, providing clarity regarding buildings and sponsors locked to specific investors. - Keep track of your game time with a real-time clock visible at the top of the Belt Map. Hover over the clock to see how much time you've spent in the current game. (This feature can be turned off in the Options menu.)

AI Enhancements

I've revisited the AI players, implementing significant refactoring and clean-up for improved coding and future enhancements. While the default AI has become slightly better at constructing larger stations, expect more improvement in future updates. Additionally, Pirates have upped their game and can now target not only your spaceships but also your stations, beacons, and gates. The revamped AI foundation will pave the way for different AI "personalities" with distinct goals and strategies, making the opponents feel more dynamic and challenging.

Technical Tweaks

- To optimize save files, they are now compressed by default, resulting in a substantial reduction in file size. A mid-game save is now approximately ~80 KB compared to the previous ~800 KB. If you prefer human-readable saves, you can toggle this feature on and off in the Options menu. - An update to the computation speed of the Fog of War enhances performance, with ongoing plans for further improvements in subsequent updates. - Both the Intro and Game Intro share the same logic for displaying slideshows. New voice-overs replace the old ones, and a new slideshow awaits victorious players.

Small changes:

• New commands for twitch integration:
  • myskill: Show the experience level of the viewer citizen
  • Imanai: Make the current player an AI (used to debug)
  • whereami: Let the viewer know where their citizen is
  • mutiny: Trigger a mutiny for a few turn in a player spaceship
• Bug fixes:
  • Do not kill all of the invading army if the winner of an invasion decide to destroy the invaded station
  • Prevent many tooltip to open if any dialog is open
  • Prevent clicking on building platform if any dialog open in the Station map
  • Prevent a crash to desktop on double click a specific "floating crate" in the Outliner
• New sound effect and animation for:
  • Build a ship
  • Settle a station
  • Deploy a gate
  • Upgrade a gate
• Small features:
  • Tint ship in red on the outliner when they mutiny
  • Add the number of turn to finish each station current construction on the outliner
  • Make the outliner larger at the start of a new game
  • Hide explosion if they are in the fog of war
  • Popular Achievement is now only counting available sponsors for the player faction

Conclusion:

As always, your feedback is invaluable to me. Please let me know if you have any comments on the game. Your input greatly helps me improve it. To engage with our community and participate in discussions, feel free to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC. Lastly, if you've been waiting for a sign to add the game to your Wishlist, this is it! :)
Visit our Steam store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955200/Gate_Builders/