Hello! Usually we are trying to release updates as often us possible, following by logic "As soon as we have a new feature - we should release it", but for the next update we want to use a different approach. In the comments to our previous post, people suggested us to focus on the big update, instead of a sequence of smaller updates which are not so noticeable - and that is a great idea! This will be very good for popularity of the game, and more important, for quality of gameplay. Some people also thought that since the game already 4 years in development and still not very popular - it will not be popular any time soon. This seems logical, but actually this is not true. Currently we are working on the various game design tasks and made a conclusion that the game already have large amount of interesting and complex features, however most features just not accessible due wrong game-design solutions, wrong balance of various values or low usability of interface. So, we are going to solve most of these issues in the next, big update, which should put quality of the game on completely new level. Overall, the development focused on 3 main directions: - Construction - Combat - Trading

Construction

Building of space ships and stations it is the most important feature of the game, it is very fun to create various ships in sandbox mode, however, surprisingly we realized that creation of ships in non-sandbox game mode is completely not fun. Usability is so much worse due various reasons and we are not happy with how it works in survival game mode, so it should be solved. In sandbox mode your creativity is not restricted and this is great, but in survival mode, the game just does not allows to do any mistakes. Everything is too slow, too expensive and seems like the only way to build something in survival mode is to design a ship in sandbox, make a screenshot and use a screenshot as a plan to build that ship in survival mode. But this is not a way of gameplay which we want. You should be able to unleash you creativity even in non-sandbox game mode. In order to do that, we will make just a couple of simple, but very important things: 1. Move tool will be much more accessible. It can be used not only within area of shipyard, but also in large circle around it, so it will allow to construct not only a ship inside shipyard, but also a space station itself. Also modules for construction can be placed in much larger radius than radius of engineering module. Large yellow circle shows a radius where you can easily place or remove modules (but modules still should be finished with engineering module which have smaller radius.
And here large yellow circle shows a radius where you can use "move tool" to quickly design or redesign your ships and space station (like on GIF animation above).
2. Most modules will be much more cheaper, especially structural and decoration modules. It is not normal that you are forced to mine huge amount of resources just to build a few decoration elements around your space ship or station. Recipes for crafting should create an interest, it should not restrict a creativity. This seems simple, but turned out it makes construction so much better and more fun. New scaffold frames around unbuilt modules

Combat

Fighting against other space ships it is the second, very important feature of the game. The problem is - it is basically non existed in sandbox game mode. Technically the game is capable to provide an amazing space battles between huge ships, but it is almost impossible to encounter during non-sandbox gameplay. And this is another critical flaw of the game which should be fixed in the next update. Encounters with enemy ships will be much more often and ships will be much more balanced, as well as access to weapons, ammunition and tools for more convenient repairs between combat encounters. These changes also will have a dramatically impact of overall quality of the game.

Trading

Trading between space stations it is an interesting way to earn more credits, but we received a lot of feedback from community about trading and how inconvenient it is - and this is completely true, currently it is a way too overcomplicated, both in terms of functionality and user interface. So, in the next update the trading will be completely redesigned. A functionality of trading now should be much more obvious and easier to use. Also we implemented a special type of commodities which is suitable specially for trading between space stations. Previous version of trading window (so unintuitive)
And this is how new trading window will look (not a final version but close to it)
Besides that, a lot of smaller improvements also will be implemented, each improvements separately seems non significant, but in complex it makes the game so much better. The result should be amazing! When it will be released? We are not sure yet. We planning to release the next update within this month, but we want to make it very polished so maybe it will take a bit more time. Anyway, we will keep you informed about development progress. Also we want to say thanks for everyone who support us on Patreon! You provided a huge help for us in this month, which helps us to develop this big update. Thanks! ; )

[ 2019-04-14 15:02:36 CET ] [ Original post ]