Public playtesting has started, and access will be granted in small increments. The game will improve based on player feedback during this period. The bug reporting UI has also been added to efficiently report bugs or suggest feedback in-game.

Bug Reporting/Feedback UI

New bug reporting UI where you can suggest feedback or report bugs.

Public Playtesting

I expect public playtesting to last at least a few months, provided it is constructive towards improving the game, and it will be the last step before early-access. The intent is to use feedback to make the right improvements / bug fixes to the game.

Before You Playtest

PC Requirements: You must have a GPU with at least 1GB of dedicated VRAM, otherwise the game will probably crash while starting a game.

What is the current state of the Game?

- Multiplayer is disabled for the until it's playable. - There are currently [spoiler]93[/spoiler] known bugs, none of are known to crash the game, but that may change. - Some special abilities may not work in some scenarios (i.e. raze colony / peacekeeping). - Ship modules may not be 100% balanced. - If the game randomly stops responding to input, saving and reloading the game will likely fix it, but this should not happen often. - Switching scenes between main menu and game constantly may cause thought provoking bugs to occur. - Save the game may result in corrupted saves due to unaccounted for serialization issues, later in the game. - The 'Cobalt' UI apparently does not go well with the game, so it's experimentally a cyan background colour. - The animated combat needs a lot more polishing, although there have been improvements since the last trailer. - Player leaders are placeholders, and will hopefully be improved in the near future, although getting multiplayer to work is a higher priority. - Tips are being improved to be more beginner friendly, so feedback on tips would be helpful. TL;DR Overall, the game should be playable to the end-game years, although timing/pacing tweaks may be needed since the end-game has little playtesting. Expect bugs although they will be fixed eventually. Getting the core gameplay right and is the main priority for now.

What can I give feedback on?

Here are some questions that you can give feedback on. Note that feedback is optional, but it will help inform future updates into improving the game. Questions: - Do you know how to play the game based on the tutorial? - Does the game feel fun to play once you know what to do? - What is the your favourite mechanic, and why? - What is the mechanic that needs the most improvement, and why? Changes may be made based on feedback to further improve the game.

Where can I give feedback?

The preferred method is via the game 'Report Bug' button in the game pause menu, via Steam discussions, or via Discord.

How can I join the playtest?

Via the Steam store page. Access will be granted in small increments.
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Stay tuned for more updates...

Feel free to comment your suggestions below. View the Changelog: newstarsgame.com/changelog. Playtest New Stars: adamjr.xyz. Wishlist New Stars to support development. This page is intended to be a development preview, which may not reflect the final state of the game. Credits: - Star satellites icon by Lorc under CC BY 3.0