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Name

 PULSAR: Lost Colony 

 

Developer

 Leafy Games 

 

Publisher

 Leafy Games 

 

Tags

 Action 

 Indie 

 

Adventure 

 

Simulation 

 

Singleplayer 

 

Multiplayer 

 

 Co-op 

Release

 2021-06-22 

 

Steam

 16,79€ 15,59£ 19,99$ / 20 % 

 

News

 159 

 

Controls

 Keyboard 

 

 Mouse 

 

Players online

 29 

 

Steam Rating

 Very Positive 

Steam store

 https://store.steampowered.com/app/252870 

 

How long to Beat

Main Story

 1 Hours 

 

Main Story + Extras

 3 Hours 

 

Completionist

 9 Hours 

 

SteamSpy

Peak CCU Yesterday

  

Owners

 100,000 .. 200,000 +/-  

 

Players - Since release

  +/-  

Players - Last 2 weeks

  +/-  

Average playtime (forever)

 208  

Average playtime (last 2 weeks)

 0 

Median playtime (forever)

 269 

Median playtime (last 2 weeks)

 0 

Public Linux depots

 PULSAR: Lost Colony Linux [1.81 G] 




LINUX STREAMERS (4)
hadetnekoputervrfasio_vitadiddumite




v1.2.04 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.2.04 is now available containing some bug fixes based on issues reported by the community.

Fixes


  • Fixed issue with the Academy engineering test
  • Fixed issue with ARX-JP consuming power when warp jump calculations have completed
  • Fixed issue with Tetragonal Surface Projector damage reduction not applying to all damage types
  • Fixed issue with Siphon Credits virus that caused it to incorrectly drain crew credits when an enemy ship infected a non-player ship
  • Fixed internal issues with beam pistols in certain situations that caused it to not fire correctly / not consume ammo
  • Fixed issue with long range warp station override screens in certain galaxies. The screen can now handle more warp targets without issues with selections going off-screen



Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2023-05-12 22:22:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.2.03 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.2.03 is now available containing some bug fixes based on issues reported by the community.

Fixes


  • Fixed a bug with the Min Integrity stat for shield generators not correctly scaling / not using the appropriate base values for that shield type
  • Fixed a bug with mega turret damage not being correctly synced over the network when damaging certain types of targets (non-ship space targets)
  • Fixed a bug with Liars Dice that could cause players to not correctly reset their position when exiting the game
  • Fixed a bug with Liars Dice that could cause your character to flicker when playing the game



Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2023-02-10 23:37:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.2.02 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.2.02 is now available containing some bug fixes based on issues reported by the community. Thank you for sending in those reports!

On a somewhat unrelated note, our team is in pre-production of our next project! Its still too early to share anything yet, but we figured some of you might be interested to know.


Additions


  • Added Noto Sans Syriac as a embedded fallback font

Improvements

  • Increased font size and overall readability of bridge dialogue/hailing display
  • Core safety shutdown now triggers only when core stability is under 95%
  • Camera shake should be more controlled at various frame rates
  • Entering the Captains Chair and Turrets as non-host players should now be more responsive


Fixes

  • Fixed Phase Turret damage scaling to ensure it takes into account the component level and any turret damage scaling added by other components / effects
  • Can no longer abandon certain main story missions (ex. Find the Lost Colony)
  • Fixed line spacing issues for certain dialogue interactions on the bridge dialogue/hailing display
  • Slightly tweaked math of AI priority override (Reactor Stability >= X%) to better match displayed stability
  • Engineering no longer shuts down when your ship is affected by reactor temperature increasing effects when running without a reactor
  • Fixed issue that caused player crews to incorrectly lose faction alignment / reputation if they happen to be in a sector of a Fluffy Biscuit crew as they lose the biscuit selling contest
  • Missions could in limited circumstances could end in mission failure after successfully being completed
  • Shield Generators did not always scale their Min Integrity stat based on level / max shields



Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2023-02-09 19:32:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.2.01 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.2.01 is now available! This hotfix fixes a few issues reported in the newly released campaign, Depths of Umbra-K54.

Fixes


  • Fixed an issue with boss doors not visually closing upon entering their room
  • The All Umbra Logs achievement should now trigger correctly
  • Fixed an issue with the status screen incorrectly showing the reactor heat rating
  • Correctly ordered the logs so that they appear in chronological order (sorted by the time the logs themselves were written)
  • Fixed an audio issue on Mac builds


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-07-23 21:35:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Depths of Umbra-K54 (New Bonus Campaign)

Hello everyone,

Launch Teaser: https://youtu.be/MRbIM8VirbI

Version 1.2 is now available! Were excited to introduce a new campaign: Depths of Umbra-K54, and a new ship: The URV-500 Submersible.

This campaign takes place in the sea under the icy surface of the rogue planet Umbra-K54. Your crew is tasked with investigating an unusual warp-field anomaly.

Important note: It is not recommended to rely on the AI PiBot for the new campaign, as the challenges found within would require a lot of specific behaviors. Because of that, we recommend planning accordingly!

Additions


  • New Campaign: Depths of Umbra-K54
  • New Ship: The URV-500 Submersible
  • 3 New Enemy types
  • 4 New Boss Enemies
  • New systems and screens including hull breaches and ship flooding for the URV-500
  • New URV components
  • 28 readable logs
  • 2 new achievements


Changes

  • Increased the size of the top-right UI showing your ships hull and shields for improved clarity
  • The dialogue window has been increased in height to allow for more dialogue options to be displayed and more text to be shown
  • Certain UI elements now hide themselves when the Tab menu is open to prevent overlapping
  • Turrets can now be exited without delay for non-host players


Fixes

  • Fixed issue with dropped item Captain notification not showing the name of the item dropped
  • Fixed issue that could cause audio issues in certain situations
  • Fixed some issues with offline mode that caused menus to not properly update themselves while open
  • Fixed visual issue when a fuel capsule is loaded but the ship is out of fuel
  • Fixed issue with the repair gun that could cause it to stop working in certain situations
  • Fixed issue that caused fog effects to affect in-game cinematics
  • Fixed issue with loading AI priorities that could cause incorrect priorities to activate
  • Changed some internal physics settings to improve performance in certain situations
  • Academy: Removed option for external camera when using the Captains Chair in the Academy due to lack of a proper exterior environment
  • VR: Fixed issue with certain UI elements not aligning with the camera properly in VR mode
  • VR: Fixed issue with in-game opening cinematics not being visible in VR mode


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-07-22 23:01:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.18.6 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.18.6 is now available. This update fixes a reported issue involving the Warp Guardian.

Fixes


  • Fixed an issue that caused invisible projectiles during the Warp Guardian battle


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-04-21 18:14:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.18.5 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.18.5 is now available. This update fixes a few issues that have been reported.


Fixes


  • Fixed a turret issue introduced in the previous patch that prevented certain turrets from being usable in VR mode and could cause some performance issues both in and out of VR mode
  • Fixed a few character customization options that werent correctly showing the specified color
  • Fixed an issue with certain hand-held items not having the correct materials when returning from a Sylvassi cloak state
  • Fixed a duplicate character issue that would appear sometimes in the character customization window
  • Fixed some issues reported by analytics regarding the voice chat system


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-04-21 00:21:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.18.4 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.18.4 is now available. This update includes a handful of fixes based on community feedback and some changes to improve compatibility with the Steam Deck.

Additions


  • You can now toggle whether or not ship boost is activated by double-tap. You can find this option in the general input settings in the controls menu.
  • Weve opened up the ability to fully unlock the player camera. If youre interested, you can check out this page on how to do it: https://www.pulsarthegame.com/unlocked-camera-mode


Changes

  • Player should no longer be able to drop quest-related items
  • Tweaked certain text fields to be larger and more readable for smaller screens and resolutions
  • Improved sync speed for AI priorities when a non-host captain adds bots; it still takes a minute or two for all of the priorities to fully sync up
  • The game can now interact with multiple SteamInput devices at the same time. This is especially helpful when using an external controller with the Steam Deck.


Fixes

  • Fixed an issue regarding projectiles occasionally colliding with one another and bouncing off in unintended directions
  • Atomizer should no longer be able to destroy quest-related items
  • Fixed a collision issue found on the Barwick Warp Coil Refinery Station
  • Fixed an incorrect item description found in the Madmans Mansion
  • FIxed a navmesh issue in the generator room of the Icefields planet
  • Fixed a networking issue that could result in floating heads for crewbots when the captain is not hosting the game
  • Fixed a security issue with password protected games


Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-04-19 18:52:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.18.3 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

Version 1.18.3 is now available. This update includes various bug fixes reported by the community.

Changes


  • Flashlight in VR mode will now be attached to the headset and should no longer drift upwards over time


Fixes

  • Fixed issue with joysticks (ex. HOTAS setups) not responding introduced in v1.18.2
  • Fixed networking issue that could cause clients using a main turret to not have the bonus timing damage applied correctly
  • Fixed IK timing issue in VR mode that caused items to not properly follow your tracked controllers
  • Fixed issue with enemy drone ships that prevented them from firing main turrets
  • Fixed issue with PiBot boosting that could cause extreme boost maneuvers across sectors
  • Fixed a missing collider at the High Rollers Station


Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine.

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-02-24 16:19:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.18.2 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.18.2 is now available! This update improves controller support and includes various bug fixes reported by the community. Weve also introduced some changes to ensure compatibility with the upcoming Steam Deck system. If playing outside of Steam, the controller bindings are unchanged and should work as before!

Changes


  • Switched the voice chat system to use Photon Voice as a backend. This offers improved compatibility (for Linux and Steam Deck especially) and should decrease the latency in certain situations
  • Controllers now use Steam Input, adding the ability to show controller buttons and new options to customize and share your bindings
  • Tab menu should now better scale with the screens aspect ratio causing it to be larger and more usable in certain situations


Fixes

  • Fixed camera timing issue that caused your active item to stutter when moving the camera
  • Game should no longer start SteamVR when not running in VR mode
  • Fixed issue with mismatching eyebrow color for crew bots
  • Fixed issue that caused some Fluffy Biscuit mission dialogue to trigger for non-F.B. crews
  • Fixed some issues in the Academy that prevented controller inputs from being displayed
  • Fixed an issue with the Academy that caused certain tutorials to not progress while a menu was open
  • Crew bot look at animations should be more accurately targeted at the players head
  • Fixed issue that caused some hats / headwear to not be lit correctly
  • The Research Specialty talent should now properly update the Research screen with the correct warp research times
  • Fixed issue with certain tabs of the tab menu being unable to be selected in some circumstances
  • Fixed an issue with humanoid enemy accuracy not being set correctly, certain enemies should now miss more often
  • Fixed an issue with scrapyard NPCs not showing up in dialogue view
  • Fixed a mistake in some NPC dialogue on the ice colony planet


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-02-15 21:07:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.18.1 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.18.1 is now available! This is a quick bug fixing update based on community reports and feedback

Fixes


  • Fixed issues with extractor UI introduced in 1.18
  • Fixed some internal exceptions reported by analytics


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-01-28 21:49:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.18 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.18 is now available! This is an update focused on optimizations, tech upgrades and bug fixes. Weve improved the CPU performance and memory usage across the game and have seen increased framerates on a variety of setups. In addition weve upgraded the game engine from Unity 2019 LTS to Unity 2020 LTS providing a variety of fixes and improvements.

The VR mode of the game has been reworked to use the latest VR libraries and plugins. As part of these changes weve decided to focus entirely on SteamVR mode and have dropped native Oculus mode (to be clear, we arent dropping support for any Oculus devices). This has enabled us to bring some SteamVR-specific features to the game and will allow us to more easily upgrade and maintain the VR mode in the future.

Weve switched from the Mono runtime to using IL2CPP as our default scripting backend for additional CPU performance. Quick note: There is now an additional beta branch on Steam if you want to still use Mono scripting for any reason.

Changes


  • Can now load local language files without using Steam Workshop
  • CPUs that require power now show the current and max stats based on current power levels


Translation

  • Updated translation string database (v0.88)


Fixes

  • Fixed input issue when using controllers in offline mode
  • Flamelance and Bio-Hazard Turrets have updated damage detection that should be more reliable and work on more types of targets
  • The inventory tab should now properly display the weight and weight limit of the selected player
  • Fixed damage issue with main turrets that prevented the timing from affecting the damage bonus
  • Fixed issue with Unseen Threat intro that would allow missions to start during a cinematic
  • Fixed some issues with stats not showing correctly for CPUs when using the Component Upgrader
  • Fixed visual issue with distant ship battles in the Unseen Mothership level
  • Fixed issue that allowed certain types of AI to use pulse lasers on turrets without that capability
  • Fixed issue with certain beam weapons (Beam Rifle / Healing Beam Rifle) that caused them to damage invulnerable targets
  • Moved to Vulkan renderer as the default system for Linux players which fixes a rendering issue with the scanner mini-map
  • Fixed issue with the reactor screen power level sliders that caused a rounding error and didnt allow for a specific power level (tick 15) to be set
  • Fixed issue with certain special W.D. weapons that didnt trigger a decloak when fired
  • Fixed issue with certain beam weapons (Beam Rifle / Healing Beam Rifle) in VR mode that caused them to incorrectly align the beam
  • Removed an assassin bot that was spawning outside of the AOG mission line
  • Fixed a texture issue found in the lounge of the Carrier-class starship
  • Fixed a turret spotlight shadow issue that was prominent on the carrier
  • Updated the color descriptions of the stations in the Sylvassi Cypher Lab notes
  • Fixed typos in the NPC dialogue of the Compiler, Vedrana Falk, and Aben Randall
  • Fixed an animation issue on some NPCs found on the mining station planet
  • Fixed an issue with bounty hunter mission "WANTED: Slapdash and The Torch" not spawning a sector with the target ships


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2022-01-27 20:11:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.17 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.17 is now available! It is focused on bug fixes reported by the community and a few changes based on feedback!

Translators: Use the In-Place Language Update feature in the Edit Language menu to update your existing translations! This will make changes to the translation.tsv file in the folder. When the file has been updated, you should continue editing on that new file going forwards. If you have any questions feel free to let us know.

Changes


  • Changed the internal logic of PiBot defensive mode to make it more usable and effective in ship combat
  • Main turrets are now affected by the turret charge speed stat like other ship turrets
  • Main turrets now show the timing bonus damage percent on screen when relevant
  • Surviving "Special Training" during the Fluffy Biscuit sales competition will now zero out your Fluffy Biscuit reputation and remove your faction alignment
  • Dialogue text size for the NPC dialogue window now scaled with the UI scale setting
  • Controls menu now has an option to adjust mouse scroll wheel sensitivity


Translation

  • Exosuit environment text is now run through the localization system (ex. HIGH TEMP, ACIDIC)
  • Sensor information for planet environments is now run through the localization system (ex. High Temp, Acidic)
  • Controls menu now has translated categories and binding names
  • Updated translation string database (v0.87)


Fixes

  • Fixed a collision issue that could result in invisible walls inside of Sylvassi Cyphers and other interiors on some planets
  • Cleaned some unnecessary error reporting which should slightly help performance
  • Fixed some internal errors reported by analytics, might help with some rare issues in the UI and other systems
  • Deathseekers are now targeted by Auto Targeting before they cause damage
  • Potentially fixed an issue related to AI overrides thinking there is a repair depot in the sector when there isnt one
  • Can now adjust the alert level when at the Lost Colony. This could prevent AI bots from working as expected depending on your AI priorities
  • Fixed an issue with the Warp Guardian fight that could cause certain attacks to defeat the boss and skip phases of the fight
  • Changed how crew deaths are tracked by the game to help ensure crew deaths are saved
  • Main turrets that use the circle timing mini-game were incorrectly applying damage amounts and didnt match the circle timing
  • Fixed some issues with reputation for Grey Huntsman targets and Relic Hunters. They should no longer cause reputation loss when attacked and killed
  • Completing the Sandscar Arena could result in other objectives incorrectly being completed
  • Long range dialogue should no longer be able to persist through game resets
  • Fixed issue that prevented certain contraband components from being able to be discarded
  • Fixed issue with Eliminate Outlaw Headquarters mission that caused its sector to not appear in the galaxy


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-10-21 17:42:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.16 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.16 is now available! This is a small hotfix to fix one reported issue in 1.15

Fixes


  • Removed an unused UI element from the turret view


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-10-06 20:50:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.15 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.15 is now available! This update is focused on multiplayer fixes and other reported issues.

Fixes


  • Upgraded the games networking system to the latest version of Photon which should hopefully help with several connectivity and stability issues reported by players
  • Players on the Europe region will correctly use the Europe servers rather than United States servers to connect
  • Fixed an issue with long range ship dialogue which could cause the text and options to not appear on clients
  • Fixed an issue that occurred when clients would join a crew mid-warp that would cause warp to continuously activate and deactivate until the crew exits warp
  • Fixed an issue with the captains notification when crewmembers would send items to another crewmember
  • Removed a sector from initial galaxy generation that should have only been spawned with its associated mission
  • Fixed a typo with a door name on a planets surface (Stiltz and Shanders)
  • Fixed an issue with the Find The Engineer mission not being completable in certain circumstances
  • Corrected a GX entry to be more accurate. The entry for Star now references plasma instead of gas
  • Fixed an issue with a hatch in the Lost Colony that could only be opened while holding "R"
  • Fixed an issue that allowed civilian ships to be summoned through a distress signal during the Warp Guardian fight


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-10-06 16:02:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.14 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.14 is now available! This update is focused on bug fixes and improvements based on community feedback.

Translators: Use the In-Place Language Update feature in the Edit Language menu to update your existing translations! This will make changes to the translation.tsv file in the folder (e.g. removing unnecessary lines and adding a few more necessary ones). When the file has been updated, you should continue editing on that new file going forwards. If you have any questions feel free to let us know.

Translation File Format (v0.86)


  • Fixed an incorrectly removed translation string related to the component upgrader
  • Translated keycard names should now be accepted by doors in-game



Fixes

  • Fixed issue with talents incorrectly being reset for certain enemy crews
  • Fixed client-side talent syncing issue for enemy crews
  • Fixed NPC dialogue formatting issue for certain translations that caused overlapping text in certain situations
  • Fixed missing information in certain captain notifications
  • Fixed issue that caused encumbrance to not affect backwards movement speed
  • Fixed issue with certain missions if Explorer's Appeal and certain other missions are abandoned
  • Fixed issue preventing parts of the cloaking system to not apply translations
  • Added a price to cloaking system ship component to prevent it from being 0 Cr
  • Changed how throttle override interacts with full/reverse throttle buttons
  • Custom HOTAS setups should now be working better in a variety of situations, perhaps most notably when moving the camera in first person piloting
  • Fixed some stuttering when switching between keyboard + mouse mode / gamepad + joystick mode in certain situations


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-08-30 21:33:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.13 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.13 is now available. It is focused on improving the translation system and fixing bugs reported by the community. Its been really exciting to see new languages being worked on. Thank you for your help!

Translators: Use the In-Place Language Update feature in the Edit Language menu to update your existing translations! This will make changes to the translation.tsv file in the folder (e.g. removing unnecessary lines and adding a few more necessary ones). When the file has been updated, you should continue editing on that new file going forwards. If you have any questions feel free to let us know.


Translation File Format (v0.85)


  • Added some missing ship type names to translation files
  • Removed various unnecessary strings from translation files


Fixes

  • Fixed various issues with certain displayed text not being translated. Includes some ship screens, parts of the inventory menu, some item names and other reported issues
  • An items name should now be correctly displayed when sent to other players



Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-07-29 19:01:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.12 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.12 is now available. It is focused on improving performance and fixing bugs reported by the community.

Changes


  • Added additional caching to the core localization system string mapper which should increase game FPS / performance in many situations


Fixes

  • Fixed an issue with loading a save for a Fluffy Two ship incorrectly duplicating its starting components
  • Join private game menu no longer overlaps with the menu behind it
  • Switched the games Europe relay servers to hopefully improve latency for players in that region


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-07-27 19:40:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.11 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.11 is now available. Its a small hotfix for the translation system based on community reports and feedback.

Fixes


  • Fixed an issue with the Select Language menu not showing usernames for workshop translations
  • Fixed an issue with certain Windows-specific options showing for Mac and Linux players
  • Fixed an issue with the thumbnail preview not clearing when creating / editing a language
  • Language titles should no longer overlap with other elements if the title is too long
  • Fixed a potential issue with the workshop menu page system that could prevent some languages from appearing in some circumstances


Thank you for your time and feedback!
Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-07-27 00:12:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.1 Release Notes - New Ship and Translation Tools

Hello everyone!

Devlog #92: https://youtu.be/MQS1sM9ciNc

[h2]Version 1.1 is now out![/h2] This update is focused on two main additions to the game.

The first is a new starting ship for the Fluffy Biscuit Company, the Fluffy Two! This ship was slightly based off of the Outrider with its larger circular bridge room but with a more open layout with a gap leading to the bottom floor. We hope you like the look and feel of the new ship!

The second is a localization system! This system currently uses the Steam Workshop system as a way to upload and share fan-made translations of PULSAR. We decided to use Steam Workshop because it has a built-in way for players to connect to the ones making the translations and directly provide feedback to help. For fans who would like to translate the game weve made some documentation on how to do that, and we tried to make the process of uploading a translation a simple one.
More info about that can be found below.

PULSAR: Lost Colony Translation Guide: https://pulsarthegame.com/translation-system-guide

Additions


  • New Ship -The Fluffy Two: The Fluffy Biscuit Companys second model of delivery ship. It has a circular design with an open bridge floor-plan. The ship starts at chaos level 2 and has special Fluffy Biscuit themed missiles pre-installed.
  • New Missile Type: Biscuit Missile - This is a recolored version of the system damage missile, themed for the Fluffy Biscuit Company
  • Change Language Menu - Found in the game setting menu. This will be empty until language translations are uploaded to the Steam Workshop.
  • Add / Edit Language: This menu can be used by translators to create and share the language files. It has built-in support to directly upload the language to Steam Workshop, add /edit a description, upload a thumbnail image, update the internal language file, change the text to read from right to left, or delete the file. More information can be found about this system via the link mentioned above.


Fixes

  • Fixed some collision and visual issues reported on Cornelia Station
  • Fixed a camera culling issue found on the Roland-class starship
  • Fixed a few collision issues reported on the Cliffside planet
  • Improved some collisions reported on the Sylvaasi Cypher Lab Planet
  • Fixed a collision error involving an exterior mesh on the Grey Huntsman Base
  • Fixed a collision issue found in the Scrapyard level
  • Fixed a reflection issue with the Fluffy Biscuit scoreboard and cooking station



Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-07-26 19:39:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.04 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.04 is now out! This update fixes a handful of issues that were reported. Were currently working on more fixes as well as making progress on Version 1.1.

Were aiming to release Version 1.1 sometime in July. Well be releasing a new playable ship, as well as a way for fans to help us get the game translated into more languages! Weve gotten a lot of requests from members of the community who would like to help translate the games text, and were very excited to have the tools for them to do that soon. Thank you to everyone who has offered to help us with this! Were extremely grateful!

Fixes


  • Fixed an issue that could allow player crews to blind jump to the Lost Colony / Warp Battle
  • Removed a legacy piece of AI code regarding the Engbots use of coolant
  • Fixed a potential issue with ships being able to jump to the Lost Colony through normal means via extremely long jump ranges
  • Ships in the warp battle should no longer get permanently stuck in between the warp bubble and the level bounds. Ships will be destroyed after being outside the level bounds for more than 10 seconds to prevent a soft lock.
  • Fixed an issue with the Ghosts not appearing in the Lost Colony
  • Fixed an internal error related to background civilian ships located at Outpost 448
  • Fixed an internal error related to the Warp Guardian


Thank you for your time and feedback!
Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-07-02 22:52:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.03 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.03 is now out! This update is a quick one to help connectivity issues that were reported from the Europe region.

Changes


  • Internal switch to the Europe regions server, which should hopefully alleviate the reported connectivity issues
  • Added a difficulty indicator for the Track Down Security Drone mission as well as a High Priority Mission tag in the mission description
  • Reduced the disconnect timeout time when hosting a game


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-30 00:32:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.02 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.02 is now out! This update contains several fixes and tweaks that were reported or suggested.

Additions


  • Added new input bindings for directly switching to red, yellow and green alerts levels when playing as the Captain (defaults to F1 - F3 keys)


Changes

  • Tweaked the control stations for the Sylvassi Cyphers to use yellow and magenta colors to hopefully be more accessible to colorblind players
  • Added an additional sound effect to the Sylvassi Cypher control stations when an error is made
  • Pilots can now use the boost hotkey to activate boost directly through the maneuvering thrusters
  • Join game menu will now show a message when you are offline
  • Final missions and reward missions in faction mission chains can no longer be abandoned
  • Tweaked position of tooltips to help prevent overlap with mouse cursor
  • Moved the Sector types discovered stat to the statistics menu
  • Medium graphics quality now defaults to full texture resolution


Fixes

  • Fixed issue with The Academys shooting range that would sometimes prevent players from being able to complete basic training after previously starting / joining a game
  • Fixed issues with the reactor core ejection process when the core is not ejected before the 30 second countdown is completed. Should no longer have a chance to spawn more than one reactor core or deal damage multiple times
  • Added difficulty notifications for faction mission chains as well as a High Priority Mission tag in the mission description
  • Fixed a mission bug in the Pickup Shipment from Barwick mission that could allow you to skip one of the objectives
  • Removed some unused or previously cut sector types from the check determining how many sector types discovered
  • The Frequency Amplification talent now works for enemy crewed ships
  • Added a 1/20 second delay to the push-to-talk keys when typing text in the chatbox
  • Fixed an issue that would incorrectly show the low fuel warning when travelling through the grand warp gate


Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-29 19:44:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

v1.01 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Version 1.01 is now out! This is a smaller update focused on fixing a few of the issues that have been reported! Thanks for your time and support!

Fixes


  • Fixed a Pilot AI bug that could cause framerate issues in certain situations (e.g. The Stop Asteroid Crash mission)
  • Fixed an issue that prevented inverted piloting controls from working correctly
  • Fixed a few visual issues with some Stun Grenade pickups
  • Fixed an issue on the Paladin-Class starship where two of the exploded computer screens would share mouse input
  • Fixed an issue that required the player to hold R to keep the Atomizer window open, this should no longer be required
  • Fixed a visual bug that would incorrectly display the low fuel alert when using a Long Range Warp Station


As always, thank you for your time and feedback!
Best.
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-24 19:54:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

PULSAR has launched! (1.0 now available)

Hello everyone!

Were proud to announce that PULSAR: Lost Colony has left early access and is now in version 1.0!

Launch Trailer: https://youtu.be/dPEdW8FxaAM
Devlog #91: https://youtu.be/_-XbLEvhI_s

It has been a long but amazing development to get here, and weve had the best community we could ever ask for to help us along the way. To all of you who have played PULSAR, sent in bug reports, written up feedbackwe are forever grateful. This game has changed drastically from our original idea, and its because of your help and support that weve come this far. PULSAR is better for your part in it. Truly, from the bottoms of our hearts, thank you so much.

Even though weve reached 1.0 and consider the main experience to be complete, we still have plans to expand upon and improve the game with post-release content and updates. We dont want to get into specifics in case our plans are forced to change, but weve already begun work on some post-release content and are excited to share it with you in good time.

We will be updating the roadmap with our plans as we work on post-release updates: https://www.pulsarthegame.com/roadmap

Weve also added a new section to the manual providing more information on the crew AI system and an overview of editing AI priorities and creating new AI behaviors!

Crew AI Overview: https://www.pulsarthegame.com/crew-ai

In case anyone missed the earlier announcement, the soundtrack for PULSAR: Lost Colony is now available! You can find it on most online music hosting sites. If youre interested, please give it a listen! Weve been lucky to have two amazing composers work with us on this project, and were extremely proud of the soundtrack they have produced.


[h2]v1.00 Release Notes[/h2]

Additions


  • New Manual Page: Crew AI
  • Added a repair gun to the Lost Colony level
  • Added a Status screen to the bridge engineering station on the WD Cruiser
  • Added various pickup items / research materials to the kilnseed planet, ant colony planet, artifact planet with the alien tablet, main bandit base in the medical supplies mission chain, Colonial Union cave base, Barwick Warp Coil Co. station, snow train planet, Lotharus 9 planetary colony, Karattis, Sylvassi Cypher Lab, The Harbor, crashed WD drone planet, desert terraforming station, crashed Roland planet, planet for AoG mission "Fetch Borthix", station for mission "Move Live Cargo Elsewhere, abandoned xenoraptor station, purple storm planet, sandshark station, planet for "Artifact Retrieval III", distress signal storm planet, tall rock planet, toxic planet 2, waste planet 3, molten asteroid station, Madman's Mansion


Changes

  • Polished the character animations when holding items and moving forward
  • Polished character look animations for both players and crewmembers
  • Humans have had their stamina pool doubled
  • The abandoned Fluffy Factory 04 no longer has ship repair capabilities
  • Reordered the teleport screen in the A.O.G Hideout sector so the repair depot is on the second page


Fixes

  • Fixed an issue with enemies only sometimes spawning in the Colonial Union cave base planet
  • Fixed an issue with some assets not appearing properly on the snow train planet
  • Fixed an issue with some pickup items on the planet of bounty mission "WANTED: The Drafters"
  • Fixed some floating assets at the planets for the Alliance of Gentlemen missions "Fetch Borthix" and "Move Live Cargo Elsewhere"
  • Shortened the creeping lung item description so it wouldn't get cut off in the inventory menu
  • Fixed an issue that wouldnt correctly update the player character model preview in the class selection menu
  • Fixed an issue when the game would attempt to go online again; it should be a smoother process now
  • Fixed an issue where the startup switchboard may become desynced
  • Fixed a navmesh issue on the WD Destroyer
  • Fixed a neck clipping issue that would be present when playing robot characters
  • Fixed a collision issue on the Burrow
  • Fixed some collisions issues on the Fluffy 1 ship
  • Fixed a space collision bug with the Fluffy Factories
  • Fixed some collision issues found on both Intrepid variants
  • Fixed some collisions issues found on the WD Cruiser
  • Fixed an issue with the lockers overriding other R prompts when in range; this was especially noticed on the WD Cruiser when attempting to play Liars Dice
  • Fixed a handful of naming inconsistencies with biscuits and their descriptions
  • Fixed an issue with the Garlic Biscuit
  • Fixed a collision issue found at the WD Hub
  • Fixed some collision issues found at Outpost 448
  • Fixed a visual issue with the Stun Grenade Launcher pickup in the Wasted Wing
  • Fixed a color mismatch with the space visuals and the light color for random sectors
  • Fixed a visual issue with the Burrows atmosphere
  • Fixed a networking error with the Sand Shark


As always, thank you for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-22 18:29:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

The PULSAR: Lost Colony Soundtrack is live!

Hello everyone!

Were really pleased to announce that the soundtrack for PULSAR: Lost Colony is out!
It contains nearly 3 hours of custom music made by our two very talented composers Isaac Vail and Alex Yoder!



Were really proud of the work theyve done on the soundtrack, and we couldnt be happier with the results. The Leafy Games team is in full agreement that it adds so much to the world of PULSAR and the experience of playing the game.

You should be able to find it at all the expected places: iTunes, Spotify, etc.

Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/pulsar-lost-colony-original-soundtrack/1572540540

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/25gPt22o5nvWSEG8TcuCDZ?si=7oQKFMfRQa6_BKyzT9JO4A&dl_branch=1

Additionally, if you purchased Alpha Access through the Humble Store, you should be able to find a way to download the soundtrack in your library there.

Thanks for your time!
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-18 23:35:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 31.4 is now out! It is focused on bug fixes based on community feedback and reports.

Changes


  • Added more pickup items to the planet from the Fluffy Biscuit Co. mission Deliver Biscuits to Restricted CU Site 881
  • Cargo inspection bot will no longer have a chance to detect contraband in hidden cargo slots


Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that would occur when an enemy crew steals the playership while multiple enemy crews are present in the sector
  • Fixed an issue with hidden cargo not showing a name when your character physically approaches it
  • Potential fix for the crew of the Grim Cutlass getting stuck
  • Fixed an issue with the Carriers and the Caustic Corsairs navmeshes which could cause the Cargo Inspection Bot to go through the floor and find hidden cargo
  • The game over menu should show more correct information
  • The Scanner HUD should now disable itself when opening Trade menu and Dialogue windows
  • In world Tooltip UI (when holding Alt) should now scale with the UI scale
  • Fixed a networking bug with the Sandshark
  • Fixed a bug with the Engine Sludge drink improperly showing the effect when playing as a Robot
  • Fixed a bug that prevented crews from playing Liar's Dice on the Carrier and the SunCircler Nomad 5 starships
  • Fixed a placement issue of a research material on the Planet Bombardment mission
  • Fixed a handful of collision bugs reported on the Polytech HUB planet
  • Fixed a few collision issues on Planet Bombardment mission
  • Fixed a door-related collision issue on the WD Annihilator
  • Fixed a reputation bug with the WD mission Scour for IU-03020
  • Fixed an issue with the Barber menu when playing in offline mode
  • Fixed an issue that disabled input for liars dice in VR
  • Fixed a navmesh issue found on the Grim Cutlass, which could cause loading errors later
  • Fixed an issue with chat input while paused


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-16 18:02:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 31.3 is now out! This update focuses on more bug-fixing as well as a balance pass on Sector Commanders. Its been a while since we really worked on them, so they were certainly falling behind a little bit. We hope these changes help make them more challenging again.

Balance Changes
- Sector Commanders should clear viruses faster
- Drone-type Sector Commanders have increased system healing rates
- Ancient Sentry: Doubled ship system health, further increased weapon system health
- Ancient Sentry: Improved turret tracking behavior
- Ancient Sentry: Missiles are faster, better at tracking the players ship, and deal more damage.
- Deathwarden: Improved speed and maneuvering
- Deathwarden: Increased ship system health (Eng to 50, Weap to 40, Science to 50)
- Keeper: Faster and smoother movement
- Keeper: Beam damage slightly decreased, but can now rotate the beam towards the players ship
- Keeper: Engineering system health increased to 60
- Keeper: Laser turrets changed to railgun turrets
- Grim Cutlass: Added more crew talents
- Grim Cutlass: Crew now has more powerful repair and fire extinguishing tools
- Caustic Corsair (Alchemist): Added more crew talents
- Caustic Corsair (Alchemist): Upgraded ship components, added additional tracker missile component slot and another acid missile
- Caustic Corsair (Alchemist): Crew now has more powerful repair and fire extinguishing tools

Changes
- Tweaked the Weapbots AI to make it less likely to leave turret in battle to repair systems
- Added new override to Scibots block long range comms program behavior in the default AI priorities
- Reduced all incoming system damage by 30%
- Enemy turrets are a bit more accurate than before

Fixes
- Fixed an issue with the scanner HUD that could overlap ship component slots in the expanded view
- Fixed an issue with the ship attribute display not correctly updating certain values
- Potential fix for the issue related to the sensor dish not receiving input from the player controlling it
- Fixed a bug where the Scibot would enter and leave the sensor dish repeatedly
- Fixed an issue that would incorrectly apply the galaxy-wide occasionally damaged effect to Sector Commanders. They should always start at full hull integrity now.
- Sector Commanders should no longer warp away from battle
- Fixed an issue with the Swarm where higher-quality graphic settings had an impact on its healing rate
- Fixed a different issue with the Swarm related to random timing based on the hosts framerate
- Fixed some class-specific talents which werent working correctly on enemy crews
- Fixed an issue with the Defender, Railgun, Biohazard, Flamelance and Phase turret bases showing up in the sensor dish view when they should be hidden


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-08 18:21:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 31.2 is now out!

Changes
- Increased the push-back force in the warp-battle level to help prevent players from going out of bounds
- Crashing your ship into damageable components should now correctly apply damage.
- Reduced camera shake when manning turrets

Fixes
- Fixed an issue with the warp guardian instantly colliding with cloaked ships as they enter the grand warp gate
- Fixed a timing issue that related to handheld weapons when playing offline mode on Linux
- Improved crew-death stat tracking
- Fixed an issue with an NPC at the Polytechnic Federation hub not displaying their name and dialogue
- Improved the behavior of the SandShark

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-04 15:40:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Devlog #90: https://youtu.be/CGhx3PNuW2I

Beta 31.1 is now out! This one includes some larger changes and improvements, including better support for offline mode with pausing, a collection of various performance improvements, and a new feature for handheld scanners!


Additions
- Better support for offline mode: you can now choose to play online or offline in the start game menu. You can also load a save in any mode by toggling the Play Online checkbox. Playing in offline mode will prevent your game from appearing in the game lobby.
- Offline Pause: Opening the TAB or escape menu will now pause the game if you are playing in offline mode. This is fairly experimental, so let us know if you encounter any strangeness with pausing. Weve done some extra work to make sure the functionality of the TAB menu is immune to the pause, meaning you can change and update AI priorities mid-fight or use consumables.
- Scanner Minimap: Having a scanner in your inventory will add a small, simplified version of the scanners screen on your HUD.
-Render Scale Video Setting (Mac and Linux) - this is another video setting that can help if your machine is struggling to run the game. Right now it still scales down the TAB menu but it should exclude most of the games UI. We plan to work on this setting more in the future.
- Added Polytechnic Federation faction-specific dialogue to the League of Free Machines NPCs at the Estate

Changes
- Upgraded internal Unity engine
- Improved the game resolution options in the video settings - it should only show the highest refresh rates your monitor can support
- Tweaked skybox visuals to improve performance on Low and Lowest settings - those settings will now have a simplified visual but may see an increase in performance, especially if the machine was GPU limited
- Various other improvements to post-process effects should improve performance across all video settings
- Polished the look of the drop down menus
- A handful of visual and collision tweaks to the Paladin-class starship
- Improved the network security, specifically between different game versions
- Tweaked dialogue of the League of Free Machines NPCs at the Estate

Fixes
- Fixed an issue with custom lit sectors (like Outpost 448) where the lighting rotation would randomize after revisiting the sector
- Fixed an issue where ambient light could improperly show on screens and certain doors
- Fixed a screen conflict issue with the status screen on the Outrider
- Fixed an issue with the SPIKER and IMPACT guns related to the screens in the Lost Colony
- Fixed some networking issues related to elevators on planets
- removed the option to abandon the Find The Lost Colony mission
-Fixed an issue that would improperly spawn multiple Lava planets of the same type



Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-06-01 17:13:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31.03 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 31.03 is now out!

Additions
- Gamepads can use the on-screen keyboard to type into the chat box by clicking the chat box
- Gamepads can now access the Ship Component Overview screen by pressing left on the d-pad - will require keybindings to be reset
- New key-binding for Keyboard and Mouse setup allows for direct access to the Ship Component Overview screen (V) - will require keybindings to be reset
- Added ambient music to the main menu
- Two new general ambient music tracks should now currently play in the game
- Added the ability to back out of the virtual keyboard
- Improved the Kick Button: There is now a separate Ban and Kick button for the host.
- Added captain notification noting when the ship shuts down due to active virus limit
- Added options to assign keybindings for direct maneuvering thrusters for HOTAS setups - will require keybindings to be reset

Changes
- Slight visual improvements to the Main Menu background
- Sitting Duck virus will now disable pilot boost charging

Fixes
- The Captains Scavenger talent should now properly work at the 10% rate per rank instead of the incorrect 5%.
- Fixed an issue with which moons could sometimes cast strange shadows onto planets
- Fixed an error with bot pathfinding that was noticed in analytics
- Fixed an internal error that was noticed in analytics
- Fixed a few problematic probe pickup areas on asteroids
- Fixed an issue where ships could blind jump to hidden sectors that werent available yet (i.e. The Wasted Wing)

The Unseen Threat (possible spoilers)
- Fixed an issue with the P.T. Module: Thrust used coolant when it should not have
- The Strike Window is now Open mission should properly reference the playerships name.

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-04-28 22:10:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31.02 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 31.02 is now out!

Changes
- Ships will now automatically shutdown if they are infected with more than 12 active viruses
- Tweaked the math on how ship boosting works. It shouldnt apply as much drag, so it will be less likely to slow down ships already moving at high speeds.

Fixes
- Fixed a collision issue regarding the engineering system instance and the reactor structure on the W.D. Destroyer-Class starship
- Fixed issue related to active viruses being added to your cargo slots
- Fixed an issue with emissive materials on robot characters

The Unseen Threat (possible spoilers)
- Fixed a handful of reported collision and other visual issues on the Paladin-Class starship
- Fixed a handful of collision issues reported at the Polytechnic Federation hub

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-04-27 01:00:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31.01 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 31.01 is now out!

Fixes
- Fixed a handful of missing collision issues that were reported in the graveyard sectors
- Fixed a floating rock issue reported on the one of the alien planets
- Fixed a missing collision issue found on the Snowy Train level
- Fixed an intersecting mesh issue found on the Borthix delivery mission
- Balmy Gloom, and drink items should no longer have a cooked status
- Fixed an issue involving a grenade launcher that couldnt be reached on the Bandit Base Planet
- Fixed an issue that would remove any faction alignment after failing a cargo inspection. Now it should only flag you and remove the Colonial Union Alignment. (If you are a CU crew found carrying contraband, youll become unaligned with your faction and any missions that require you to be a Colonial Union crew will still fail)
- Fixed an issue that could allow players to bypass the locked ships in the ship selection menu
- Fixed a reloading issue reported on the Carrier and the Caustic Corsair related to Liars Dice
- Fixed an item on the Outriders lounge table that wouldnt hide for Liars Dice.

The Unseen Threat (Possible spoilers)
- Fixed an issue with the Unseen Eye Death Explosion
- Fixed an issue that wouldnt properly display the radiated gas on one of the Bosses component parts
- Tweaked the Laser attack to make it slightly easier to dodge
- Fixed an issue with the Horizon Bridge not being accessible if reached during a single run
- The starting AOG rep of the Paladin-Class starship is now 0 instead of -5


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-04-24 01:58:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 31 Release Notes - New ship, faction and campaign!

Hey everyone!

[previewyoutube=FrwfbOeHvS0;full][/previewyoutube]

Beta 31 is out! This update adds a new smaller campaign that can be played instead of the main Lost Colony campaign. Its a shorter story that explores a new faction, the Polytechnic Federation, a group of sentient robots that have risen from the scrapped and discarded remnants on a waste planet. Dont let their home fool you--their technology is quite formidable. It is so advanced, in fact, that the W.D. Corporation is out for your parts, and some Alliance of Gentlemen crews wouldnt mind the payday that your ship would bring them.

The story of this campaign is a fairly simple one; while the inhabitants of the galaxy are hunting for the Lost Colony, theyre unaware of the grave threat heading toward them. The Polytechnic Federation has noticed and is preparing to meet this threat. The goal of this campaign is to get strong enough to face the approaching threat.

Since this is an isolated story that is separate from the main campaign, we decided to try twisting up some of the conventional gameplay expectations. A few of the major tweaks include:
Quick Swap: The ability to swap nearly every ship component as well as upgrade them at any time.
Screens built from scrap: The ship was built from scrapped parts, so to further emphasise this, the screens are also unconventionally built and presented.
The Timer: The Unseen Threat is approaching. It doesnt wait for you. This campaign introduces a timer that counts down after your ship makes its first jump. We think this adds an oppressive feel to the story; the timer is always counting down, so each decision becomes quite important. We know that this timer might be unwelcome to some players, so we built in a way to disable it in the settings. Doing so will track the number of jumps you make, using that as a countdown instead of real time. We still recommend trying the actual timer if possible.

This update is the last content-focused update for PULSARs Beta! Were pretty excited to share it with you. Our focus over the next series of updates (Beta 31.x) is to fix bugs, add polish, and make improvements where we can to get the game ready for 1.0!

Additions
- New campaign: The Unseen Threat
- New playable ship: The Paladin-Class Starship
- New component type: Polytech Module
- New component: P.T. Module: Shields
- New component: P.T. Module: Damage
- New component: P.T. Module: Quantum Charger
- New component: P.T. Module: Rapid Assembly
- New component: P.T. Module: Crew Repair Nano-bots
- New component: P.T. Module: Thrust
- New cutscene: Polytechnic Federation Intro
- New cutscene: Polytechnic Federation Ending
- New Mission: The Compiler
- New Mission (x6): Technology Ready For Deployment
- New AI priority override: All crewmembers are robots
- New sector: P.T. Hub
- New sector: Horizon Bridge
- 13 new NPCs added at P.T. Hub
- 4 new Polytechnic music tracks
- 3 new Unseen music tracks
- 4 new general combat music tracks
- 2 New Robot body types - Made in the Polytech style
- 5 New Robot head types - Made in the Polytech style

Changes
- Fires from screens and systems will no longer be created when the ships O2 level is zero (they would exist for a short period of time before) (Heat volumes and star sectors will still create fires the old way)
- Default AI priorities updated to add better handling for EngBot on crews that dont require O2
- Added icon for main turrets
- Unlocked ships will now show the requirements to unlock them until you click / open them
- Warp drive screen now shows the name of the sector rather than just the sector number


Fixes
- Fixed issue with repair depot comms that could result in an incorrect repair cost
- Non-human characters no longer consume O2 on ships
- Default AI priorities updated to fix over-prioritization of repairing crewmates
- VR occlusion issues on Lost Colony should no longer happen
- Fixed rendering issue with data fragments rendering on top of the ship log UI
- Fixed an input issue that could temporarily prevent mouse clicks from registering in certain menus
- Fixed an issue with scrapyards that would show a reputation discount when none was applicable

Possible Spoilers
- New sector: Unseen Mothership
- New enemy ship: Unseen Fighter
- New enemy: Adjunct Guardian
- New mechanic: Green Fires



Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team



[ 2021-04-23 19:25:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

PULSAR: Lost Colony is on sale this week!

Hey everyone!

Hope you're all doing well!

The game is currently on sale this week! Until April 26 the game is available for 40% off its normal price!

We also thought it was worth mentioning that Beta 31, the final major Beta update for PULSAR is well underway and in the final stages of development. No guarantees, but were hoping to release Beta 31 before the end of April. As we mentioned before, the main focus of Beta 31 is introducing a smaller bonus campaign which tells a different story revolving around the ever-elusive Polytechnic Federation. Weve very excited to show you the new stuff and were very interested to hear your thoughts about it.

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-04-19 20:14:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.8 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.8 is now out! This update includes some fixes and improvements. There are a handful of VR and AI improvements as well as improved internal security measures for the in-game voice chat system.

Additions
- Added some internal security to the in-game voice chat system. On the surface it should work as it normally does, so please let us know if you encounter anything strange.
- Updated AI bots to understand and use the Utility Grenade Launchers properly (Healing, Repair, Fire-Killer)
- Added the fragment collected stinger track
- Added new AI override option - Fire Extinguisher Equipped. This, as well as the Repair Tool Equipped will now count the grenade launcher variants too (and take into account their current ammo levels)

Changes
- Default AI Priorities have been updated to allow Bots to better handle the Repair, Healing and Fire-Killer grenades
- The Roland-Class starships exterior size has been slightly increased due to the feedback weve received. Weve essentially cut the difference between the Pre and Post Beta 30.0 versions. Let us know what you think!
-Weve added an option for Linux users to change the audio system the game uses for voice chat. In order to access this option you can use this startup command: -ts-use-pulse-audio
- The Toggle Throttle mode has been moved from the basic section of the keybindings to the Piloting section of the keybindings. (You will need to manually update your default bindings to see this change)

VR
- Improved the rotation math regarding when the UI attached to the controllers appear in the quantum reflection
- Improved the placement of some UI in the reflection
- The controller object is now hidden when an item is equipped on that controller
- Updated the Index Controller bindings to not refer to the grip button since it was much too sensitive, to allow zooming on the starmap, to allow both the Missile Launcher and the Pulse Laser to be used, and to allow ship boosting.
- The snap rotation option can now be used in roomscale mode

Fixes
- Fixed a Starmap audio bug which could occur when viewing the starmap
- Fixed an AI issue regarding the WeapBot not recognizing the Biscuit Bomb as a stand in for a Nuclear Weapon
- Fixed visually broken Sensitivity and Offset sliders for HOTAS Devices (and any axis-based inputs)
- The Swordship respawn / bot deleting issue should now be fully fixed
- Fixed a bug with the Ammo Left custom override that didnt allow you to specify the percentage
- Fixed a camera clipping issue related to manning the Bio-hazard turret
- Fixed a rendering issue that could occur for players running OpenGL who resized their window and then entered or started in the Quantum Reflection.
- The visible rendering artifacts on Linux computers being visible during the reflection should be fixed
- The black screen effect that would occur in the Quantum Reflection on AMD cards should also be fixed
- Made a change to help a virus issue that could occur when active hostile viruses overflow their internal slots and enter your cargo slots. Well be looking more into this issue soon, but this change should help alleviate this issue.
-Fixed a level requirement ship-unlock issue where the count was off by 1 level
-Fixed an issue regarding the Sylvassi Swordships Sword attack during offline play


Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-03-29 22:22:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.7 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.7 is now out! This update includes a handful of additions and improvements. A few of the bigger ones include a nice amount of polish given to the Virus Screen and some improvements to how the Progress.data file is handled.

Additions
- Added a new keybind option for enabling text chat
- Added a new keybind option to enable boosting while piloting
- Added some additional protections for the progress.data file and how it works with the Steam Cloud. If there is a conflict with the local file and the one in the cloud youll be given the option on which one to keep. This can hopefully help prevent issues where players progress can get unintentionally lost.

Virus Screen
- Added the name of the broadcasting ship under the virus name
- The displayed color of the virus should now only be red when its actively threatening your ship
- Tweaked the visuals of the decrypt button, and also added a tooltip to help players notice it
- Hostile viruses now appear at the top of the list on the virus screen

Changes
- Hid Lost Colony sectors from the starmap visuals
- Infected spore pods will now target the ship closest to them
- Slightly polished the menu opening and closing effects
- The Virus Booster Beacon now treats all ships as hostile and broadcasts viruses to all
-Tweaked the pool of random viruses other crewed ships start with; there should be a much bigger variety of hostile viruses than before, especially at higher chaos levels
-Tweaked the pool of random CPUs other crewed ships start with; there should be a moderately bigger variety of CPUs than before, especially at higher chaos levels

Fixes
- Fixed a shadowing issue on one of the alien creatures
- Fixed an issue involving virus decryption in sector battles
- Fixed a sound effect issue that would occur when alt-tabbing out and clicking back into the game
-Potential fix for an issue involving the number of biscuits sold
-Fixed an issue with the Siphon Credits virus which could occur during sector battles
-Fixed an issue with the repair tool that made it difficult to repair the ship system when a robot was nearby
-Fixed an issue with the statistics tracking. The number of sectors visited stat was meant to be the number of sector types discovered and should now work properly.


As always, thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-03-18 18:58:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.6 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.6 is now out! We tried to get this one out fairly quickly to address the issue that was introduced in Beta 30.5. Let us know if anyone continues to have issues.

Additions
-Added a new AI behavior tweak which can be used to customize the overall priority of shooting down missiles for each bot.

Changes
- AI using turrets capable of shooting down missiles should no longer always prioritize incoming missiles and be a little more intelligent when deciding what to shoot.


Fixes
- Fixed an issue with certain mission objectives that required players to eliminate all enemies in a sector not triggering when it should
- Fixed an issue with the military-grade shield boosting program not providing its bonus
- Fixed some internal issues with AI data that we hope will stabilize some issues with the bots
- Fixed an issue with the Defend Self AI behavior that could make it not work correctly in some situations
- Strengthened a few network security messages
- Fixed an issue with the ship off-screen indicators preventing input on menus

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-03-07 01:04:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.5 is now out! It contains a handful of fixes and tweaks. As a side note, progress is underway and going well for Beta 31!

Changes
- Made some optimizations to how captains orders are handled. They should use less bandwidth and hopefully put less of a strain on the network (which may result in fewer disconnects).
- Tweaked how damaging the explosions of ejected reactor-cores are. The damage from distance now scales linearly rather than exponentially. Their damage is reduced and also scales based on the value of the reactor.


Fixes
- Fixed an issue with NPC Valter Clement not providing the auction data fragment after purchasing it from him
- Fixed an issue with completing the Sensor Repair mission at the Harbor
- Fixed a typo in the Remove Obstructions W.D. mission
- Fixed an additional issue allowing players to skip content at the Lost Colony
- Fixed a geometry clipping issue found on the Lost Colony
- The Ancient Sentry battle music now loops correctly
- Fixed an issue related to the must kill all enemies mission objective type.

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-03-04 22:52:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.4 is now out! This update contains more fixes and improvements. A few of the bigger ones include a fix to a warp-related collision bug and a warp-related networking issue that could result in a disconnect.


Changes
- Tweaked how the Final High Rollers table works. It should no longer remove the chips you have collected when sitting at the final table, making the game a little easier.

Fixes
- Fixed a few internal errors that were appearing due to the game analytics. Its unclear if these were causing any noticeable bugs though.
- Fixed another issue related to ship collisions during warp.
-Fixed an issue with the Sylvassi Swordship, in which its atrium would accidentally be culled causing strange issues
-Fixed a bug that wouldnt properly give achievements to non-host players when the achievement involved a game object being destroyed (Killing Sector Commanders, etc.)
-Fixed a bug in the High Rollers Station that would allow players to keep their score when moving between tables
- Fixed a bug on the Fluffy One ship that prevented players from tweaking the Engineering System Screen
- Fixed a placement issue with the Life Support system screen on the Outrider
- Fixed a networking issue that could sometimes cause a disconnect while syncing ship components during warp.
- Potentially fixed an internal issue related to the first artifact planet level

Additions (Lost Colony)
- New Screen: Containment Screen Log - This should help make the containment screen puzzle a little easier to understand for new players.
- New Screen: Security Door - Another screen to help new players better understand what to do in order to progress.
- New Log: Better explaining the lore behind the Lost Colony

Changes (Lost Colony)
- Updated the ending cutscene files. They should appear a bit sharper now.
- Changed the location of a few of the keycards in the Lost Colony after a few reports of players having trouble finding them.
- Tweaked the selection line visual in VR to always appear during the neural calibration sequence hopefully making it easier to select the desired option.

Fixes (Lost Colony)
- Fixed another level issue that could allow players to skip some of the Lost Colony content
- Fixed a VR issue related to the neural calibration sequence. The camera should no longer move, and the scale and placement of the visuals should be better.

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-02-24 19:54:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.3 is now out! This is a hotfix focused on a few reported issues we wanted to get fixed quickly. The most critical is a fix for an ironman mode issue that can result in improperly losing saves.

Fixes
- Fixed ironman mode issue that caused false save deletions when the ship wasnt actually destroyed
- Bounty Hunters should always be flagged and no longer cause reputation loss when attacked or destroyed

Additions (Lost Colony)
- Added an additional log page at the Lost Colony with a hint on how to complete the Free For All ending

Fixes (Lost Colony)
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to skip to the containment room through a hole in the level

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-02-19 22:07:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.2 is now out! This update mostly contains more changes to help with clarity as well as addresses some of the bigger issues that have been reported regarding the new Lost Colony content.

Changes
- Weve reverted an earlier change to how Neutral stores react to AOG rep. They no longer take any faction rep into consideration. The only exception being shopkeepers and the new general store in the Estate sector.

Fixes
- Fixed a few broken pickup items on the Bulb Tree Planet
- Fixed an issue involving exiting warp where the Ships Exterior would collide with its interior causing it to explode.
- Fixed an issue that could potentially create Bounty Hunters for factions youre friendly with.
- We believe we have fixed an issue involving the Fluffy Biscuit Leaderboard not properly updating
- Fixed a few broken pickup items on the Bulb Tree Planet
- Fixed a missing collider on the Caustic Corsair Ship
- Fixed an issue with the ironman save system that prevented it from deleting the active save upon ship destruction. It could be loaded in-game before the game deleted it.
- Made tweaks to the ironman save system to help prevent any false deletions of save files on a game over, if anyone else has an issue like this in Beta 30.2, wed love to see your player log! It should include more information about what might be happening. Instructions here: https://www.pulsarthegame.com/sending-an-output-log-file
- Fixed a minor issue with Viruses regarding destroyed ships

Additions (Lost Colony)
- Added an Alert UI to help guide non-captain players during the Neural Calibration sequence, it lists the number of errors and what to do to help the captain.

Changes (Lost Colony)
- Tweaked the error generation rate on the Containment Screen, its speed should not scale as high when playing with more human players
- Changed the size of the numbers in the Neural Calibration sequence, as well as how they scale based on resolution to increase readability at certain screen resolutions
- Incorrect options are eliminated faster when fixing / clearing errors during the Neural Calibration sequence
- Removed the final Layer to the neural calibration sequence making it slightly easier to complete
- Made a special case for the scenario when a single captain (no crew at all) tries to perform the Neural Calibration sequence, theyll have around 50% more time before the layer reverts.
- Tweaked the lighting for the screens connected to the containment system, the previous lights were blowing out the name of certain screens making the process of finding a specific screen much harder
- Tweaked when the Grand Warp Gate appears in the game. It now appears immediately rather than waiting for the player crew to acquire at least 1 Data Fragment


Fixes (Lost Colony)
- Fixed a minor visual issue on the Lost Colony
- Fixed an issue that could prevent the Grand Warp Gate from properly appearing
- Fixed a save issue that wouldnt properly store the contents of the Hatch in the final room of the Lost Colony
-Fixed an internal issue relating AI bots and the Neural Calibration sequence


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-02-18 23:49:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 30.1 is now out! It is focused on fixing bugs reported by the community. This hotfix should also help with the reported issues involving the HOTAS bindings. We still plan to do more, but we figured it was worth getting a fix out for this sooner rather than later.

Changes
-Updated a locked door in the Lost Colony to make it clearer how to open it
-Tweaked the security containment screen to allow for the Ultramagnetized Enclosure property to be toggled from either the screen or the lever next to it. It wasnt very clear that the lever was related to this property which led to some confusion

Fixes
-Starting a new game in offline mode should no longer cause an endless loading loop
-Fixed a mission bug that could cause duplicate missions when reloading in certain situations
-Fixed an issue with HOTAS-style controllers that caused their axis-based input to be ignored
-Fixed an issue preventing the new Military-Grade Shield Boosting program from appearing in general shops and the program shop
-Fixed an internal error causing minor performance issues during the Lost Colony sequence
-Fixed an issue with missiles that could cause them to incorrectly deal damage to distant targets

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-02-17 00:05:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 30 Release Notes - The Lost Colony

Hey everyone!

Devlog 88: https://youtu.be/RSHZntKJYvk

Beta 30 is now out! This update adds the Lost Colony, which is the ending sequence of the game! Once your crew collects four data fragments, you will be able to use the Grand Warp Gate to reach the Lost Colony itself. Make sure youre prepared; once you warp, theres no going back.

In addition to the Lost Colony, weve also added a boost ability for piloting. This allows for a short burst of thrust for both maneuvering and directional thrusters, helping pilots dodge incoming projectiles or obstacles. You can access this by double-tapping the desired input for thrust.

We really appreciate your patience with us on this update. We ended up doing a few iterations on the ending sequences in order to improve them, and we also ran into some considerable snags with a new game mode that this update adds. Its been a challenging update, but we hope you all enjoy it and we look forward to getting your feedback! Just to let you know, there has been some speculation that this is the last beta update, but that is not the case. We still have a bit more planned before version 1.0. We discuss this in a bit more detail in Devlog #88. As always, a big thanks to everyones reports and suggestions!

Below youll see two lists of release notes. The lower list contains possible spoilers, so read at your own risk!

***Non Spoiler Notes***

Additions
-The Lost Colony - Ending Sequence - This piece of content will allow players to finish a run of the game.
-New Sector - Grand Warp Gate
-Ship boosting system that allows pilots to trigger a burst of speed to help in combat
-New Program: Military-Grade Shield Boosting
-New Cutscene: Intro - This cutscene plays when the game starts and sets up the story of the game.
-New Mission: Find the Lost Colony
- Added General Store to The Estate sector
- Added the Lost Colony transmission - This message will appear on the hailing screen when you start a new game and acts as an inciting incident for the galaxy
-New Game System: Ship Unlocks - Certain ship classes are now locked behind progress milestones (such as gaining a certain number of levels in a specific faction or completing the Lost Colony mission line)
-New basic turret slot for the Fluffy One starship - The control station is by the main turret, near the bridge. The new control station on the bottom floor near biscuit storage now controls the turret on the underside of the ship (which now starts as an empty slot).
-Added a way to view start ship components from the start game menu


Changes
-Some ships now require certain achievements or conditions to unlock and start a game with
-Updated AI priorities for EngBot and PiBot to better handle cloaked ships
-Emer. Shield Boosting Program - Reduced charge rate boost (from 45 to 15)
-Resetting the galaxy after a ship death now allows you to select a different ship or change the galaxy settings in-game
-Edited mission objective text of nearly all missions to make it more consistent. Some missions also had objectives and rewards tweaked.
-Nukes should now be able to damage DSOs (damageable space objects)
-AI Pilots should have the ability to use the new ship boosting system, to dodge projectiles and use during the ship races
-Weve drastically changed the size of the Roland's exterior. Were interested to get feedback on how this feels, as we pushed it pretty far.
-Tweaked screen placement: Lowered the ship comms screens on the Interceptor to account for the name of the dialogue actor
-Tweaked screen placement: Added a cloned comms screen near the captains chair on the Stargazer
-Tweaked the default AI priorities for Engbot and Pibot allowing them to better manage power while cloaked.
-Tweaked the Sylvassi Cypher Lab planet texture
-Improved the lighting in the ant colony caves
-Tweaked the exit hole on the crashed Roland to help players find it
-Tweaked the look of the start game menu


Fixes
-Fixed an issue with the join game menu that could prevent a player from joining a crew with an available slot. It would also sometimes allow players to join a full crew.
-Fixed EngBot power allocation issue in which they could get stuck in a cooling loop, constantly cooling off the reactor when it didnt need to be cooled
-Removed some languages from the profanity filter that were causing too many false positives
-Fixed some issues with the starmap that could cause the ship to invisibly collide and act strange while the starmap was open
-Fixed some warp timing issues that could cause desync in ship location between players
-Fixed a missing material issue in the AOG Hideout sector
-Fixed a broken teleporter location on one of the cave planets
-Fixed an issue with shop inventories not properly displaying during a galaxy reset or reload
-Removed Super Inertia thrusters from the traders in the racing sectors - These ship components arent really meant to be used by player ships
-Fixed save loading issue where bot and player talents would inadvertently reset
-Fixed a minor lighting issue with one of the random space obstacles
-Fixed a minor visual bug found on Mueva 7
-Fixed a mission bug that would inadvertently lower chaos level
-Added credit rewards to the W.D. Forsaken Flagship missions
-Fixed an issue that may slightly improve performance across the game



***Potential Spoiler Notes***

Additions
-New Sector: The Lost Colony
-New Sector: Warp
-New Mission: Investigate the Lost Colony
-New Space Enemy: Warp Guardian
-New Enemy: Domesticated Crawler
-New Enemy: Ghosts
-New Enemy Ship Ability: Phase Transporter - Teleporter can bypass quantum shields.
-New Game System: Quantum Reflection
-Relic Hunters: New challenging space encounters with deadly ships hunting you for your data fragments. The more data fragments your crew holds, the more likely relic hunters will spawn
-New readable logs and screens at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Biology Research - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Life Support - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Power - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Computer - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Security - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Water - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Material Research - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Coolant - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen: Containment Screen - Found at the Lost Colony
-New Screen Effect: Broken
-New Game System: Neural Calibration
-New Inventory Item: Poison Capsule
-New Inventory Item: Facility Keycard
-New Inventory Item: Lower Facilities keycard
-New Inventory Item: Storage Room Keycard
-Game Endings: There are seven different game endings available. Certain ones depend on which faction you start as.
-New Cutscenes: Each ending has a unique cutscene
-5 New music tracks related to the Lost Colony
-New Achievement: Unexpected Guest - discover the Warp Guardian
-New Achievement: Colony Found - Find the Lost Colony
-New Achievement: Together We Survive - Colonial Union ending completed
-New Achievement: Progress Above All - W.D. Corporation ending completed
-New Achievement: Never Trust A Gentleman - Alliance of Gentlemen ending completed
-New Achievement: Eat Biscuits Feel Butter - Fluffy Biscuit Co. ending completed
-New Achievement: Intergalactic Overlords - alternate ending completed
-New Achievement: Take No Chances - alternate ending completed
-New Achievement: Free For All - alternate ending completed
-New Achievement: Completionist - all Lost Colony endings completed
-New Achievement: True Mettle - complete the game in ironman mode
-New Game Mode: Reflected Galaxy - Quantum reflection is inverted, and you begin the game in the reflection


Changes
-Infected health regeneration can now be hampered by blocking long range comms
-Pibot can fly through the Grand Warp Gate when four data fragments have been collected


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2021-02-15 22:04:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.97 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

This update is mostly focused on addressing some of the feedback weve gotten regarding the recent scrap changes. Hopefully these help balance out the issue.

Changes


  • Reduced the amount of scrap available at scrap yards (removed Level 7 scrap options)
  • Increased the price of scrap purchased at scrap yards by 50%.
  • Slightly increased the scalar determining the amount of processed scrap required to upgrade ship components and items
  • Updated input system to add better support for non-US keyboard layouts


Fixes

  • Fixed an missing material issue found in the AOG hideout sector
  • Fixed some intermittent errors caught by analytics in various systems



Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-10-08 19:47:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.95-96 Release Notes

Hey everyone!



Beta 29.95 is now available! While the majority of our time is still going to Beta 30, weve been setting time aside for some additional polish passes and bug fixes which have formed this update. Some of the bigger additions, changes and fixes include:

-A new way to fight viruses: Manually decrypting a virus can allow a crewmember to remove a hostile virus without restarting the ship or enabling a program. You can do this at the virus screen by clicking on the red box to the right of the virus. Youll see a series of numbers in a pattern, and youll need to figure out the pattern and find the number that doesnt belong in the group.
-New gamepad support: Weve redone the gamepad and HOTAS support. Gamepads now use a virtual cursor system and can enable/disable themselves when plugged in and used. (PS4 and Xbox One controllers). The game will prompt you to reset your default bindings and we recommend doing so, especially if you like using gamepads.
-Warp input bug: For long-time players, youve no doubt experienced this input hitch during warp. Its been a tricky thing to tackle and probably the oldest bug in the game, but it should be fixed now!
-Bounty Hunters: Weve drastically changed the timing of these (it was a little too much before this update). Weve also added crewed ships as potential bounty hunters. These ships can actually warp away and return, and continue to chase your ship to additional sectors if you manage to slip away.

-New programs: Active Reset is a pretty interesting program that we think could be powerful under the right circumstances.
-Program timers: You can now see how long a specific effect will last instead of counting in your head.
-Bots dying during warp: Another long-time issue we finally managed to track down, this one has been pretty elusive on our end, but it should be fixed now.
-Flashlight self-shadows: This was a lower priority issue, but feels a lot nicer now that its been handled!

Additions


  • Bounty Hunter Upgrades: Can now spawn powerful crewed ships that will pursue your crew through the galaxy
  • Virus Manual Decrypt: Can now use the Virus Screen to manually remove active viruses on your ship
  • Added CyberAttack ship stat that increases virus broadcast rate
  • New Processor: ARX-CWR (Increases CyberAttack)
  • New Program: Active Reset (Reset all active program timers)
  • New Program: SyberWar (+50% CyberAttack for 30 seconds)
  • Cinematic health bar for Sector Commander has been added
  • Ship Name Labels: This appears above the ship name labels include Sector Commanders and Bounty Hunters


Changes

  • Upgrades to our internal input systems to add polish and better controller / joystick support
  • Switching items with mouse scrollwheel is smoother and can handle non-sequential items without resetting to hands
  • Tweaks to bots combat movement / pathfinding
  • Timing / spawn rate of bounty hunters has been tweaked, bounty hunter travel speed increased while overall spawn rate over time has been decreased
  • Tweaked some of the environment fog conditions on the Forsaken Flagship and tweaked a mistakenly offset teleporter screen
  • Scrap found in the galaxy or purchased at Scrapyards can now provide multiple processed scrap when processed. The level of the scrap determines the amount of scrap it can produce.
  • Warp drives no longer lock in at 100% charge. Hull damage will now always reduce the warp drive charge amount
  • Added camera shake to piloting / turret / sensor dish camera modes
  • Tweaked background loading thread priority: warp travel (level loading) should be a little smoother overall
  • Enemy AI crewed ships: warp travel now has to be initiated by their engineer at the warp drive screen, instead of automatically activating
  • New default AI priorities that adds more default overrides for viruses / new programs
  • Player flashlights no longer cast shadows for your own items
  • SteamVR bindings are no longer automatically opened in the controls menu. Click the SteamVR controller to trigger it now
  • Tweaks to game UI, added more info to the controls text on the right of the screen
  • Paladin mini-boss in the Wasted Wing no longer respawns
  • Game name / ping time label in the tab menu could get cut off
  • Moved Windows builds to 64-bit for increased support and performance with modern software / hardware


Fixes

  • Fixed a few missing material issues on the Forsaken Flagship
  • Fixed a missing material found in the Command Center at Outpost 448
  • Fixed an issue with bots that could cause them to be killed during warp
  • Fixed an AI issue that caused bots to not use certain ship screens
  • Fixed a ship screen input issue that caused some virus screens to not react to input
  • New Bindings: Fixed issue with the firing of main turrets on controllers that made it impossible to control the timing circles
  • Fixed issue with bots / bandits that caused them to lose accuracy over time
  • Fixed issue with enemy ships never using their warp drive
  • Warp travel (level loading) should no longer reset active inputs
  • Pawn damage - effect of armor reduced
  • Enemy crews dont always capture screen properly when boarding your ship
  • Cloned screens no longer show up as locked for clients
  • Fixed issue that caused some missions / dialogue to not load properly on certain systems
  • Fixed issue with crew bots that could cause them to get stuck on the wrong ship on some clients, especially after a new ship has been claimed
  • Fixed issue with sell biscuits priority that could cause bots to die during warp
  • Fixed internal issue with internal bot pathfinding that could cause Captains to be unable to issue a move order to bots





Beta 29.96 Release Notes

Fixes

  • Fixed an issue with the upper right ship UI when non-ship targets were displayed
  • Made some changes related to SteamVR input to prevent an error reported by the analytics system


Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-09-26 19:27:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.9 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.9 is now available! It is primarily a bug fixing update but weve also done some polish to the ships and some game systems.

Additions


  • Updated many ships with a polish pass to add some additional color to their interiors
  • Alarm lights now appear on all ships, these turn on when the ships hull integrity and shields are both low.


Changes

  • Stop asteroid crash mission: updated moon visuals
  • In-game manual updated
  • Shops in neutral / A.O.G. space will provide price hikes/discounts based on A.O.G. reputation
  • Oxygen damage for ships / planets / stations is now using a shared system and should cause damage exactly the same (ignores armor)
  • Minor tweaks to some visuals / feedback for scrap processing minigame
  • Changed the hidden stash planet, added a few more clues to help players finish the mission


Fixes

  • Item upgrader: upgrade button no longer turns greys when an upgrade is still available
  • Fixed issue with auto targeting after claiming a new ship. It should be able to be changed easily without reloading the game
  • Stop asteroid crash mission: Fixed galaxy visuals, fixed desynced countdown for newly joined players, fixed lose cinematic issues
  • Fixed blind jump so it cant bypass certain sector restrictions
  • Fixed issue that allowed players to buy multiple of an item from shops
  • Swap component menu can no longer stay active between warps
  • Added new default SciBot AI priorities for the Shock The System program
  • Fixed issue with new players not able to teleport to the Forsaken Flagship
  • Fixed issue with damageable objects in space not saving correctly
  • Fixed issue with damageable objects on planets not saving correctly
  • Fixed saving issue Forsaken Flagship encounter that caused the Infected Fighters to not be destroyed after loading a save
  • Fixed issue that caused mines and scrap in graveyards to spawn duplicates
  • Bots no longer flag an unclaimed ship as hostile. They should now be able to switch ships automatically when a new ship is claimed
  • Text boxes and input fields no longer cause other keybinds / actions to trigger (for example editing Captains orders or submitting a bug report)
  • Scrapyard space station moved from warp in location
  • Fixed issue that could cause players to get stuck if revived while in an arena
  • Fixed AI teleportation issue that could cause them to appear in active arenas when using move orders
  • Mission / special components should no longer show Equip Component button if not equippable
  • Fixed dialogue issue with accepting the third mission from Tilmur in the Colonial Hub
  • Fixed a few material issues found in the abandoned Carrier-class ship
  • Fixed window material issues found on all the abandoned ships
  • Fixed a temperature issue found on the abandoned Destroyer
  • Fixed a collision issue found while flying around the Forsaken Flagship
  • Fixed a minor issue with the galaxy visuals in some conditions


Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-08-06 19:13:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.85 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.85 is out now! We dont normally do this many releases between major updates, but we wanted to make a bit more room for updates before releasing Beta 30. This update primarily focuses on fixes, but there are some other tweaks and a new feature for the Captains Chair!

Additions


  • The Captains chair now has the ability to enter a more strategic view of the ships surroundings (essentially the piloting camera, without the piloting UI).
  • Added a new keybinding that governs the toggle for the strategic view in the Captain's chair.


Changes

  • Moderately increased chance for some special encounters at higher chaos levels (phase drones, shock drones and deathseekers)
  • Default controller input bindings (for Xbox / Playstation) have lowered look sensitivity
  • Joystick view sensitivity now adjusted for frame timing for smoother / more consistent input across all frame rates


Fixes

  • Fixed an issue involving the elevator on Mueva 7
  • Fixed a flight AI issue with Deathseeker Drones and Death Wardens
  • Fixed an issue that would register your character model (during class selection) as combat target
  • Fixed an issue with the Second Wind Processor incorrectly granting a +1 bonus to max upgrade level of Ship Components
  • Fixed an issue with the new Teleport To: processors that would allow players to enter arenas after the fight was flagged as a loss
  • Made some changes to the Scanner Screen to try and help prevent a UI issue thats been reported. We havent been able to replicate this issue since, so please let us know if you see anything strange with it!


Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-07-24 22:09:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.8 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.8 is now available. While we are working on the Lost Colony, we wanted to take some time and make a smaller content update for the game. This update adds what we think is a fun secret as well as a nice handful of new processors, some of which allow you to teleport to other crew members! We think these new processors will add a nice level of convenience for some crews if they are willing to use up a processor slot.

Additions


  • New Data Fragment:
  • Added
  • New Processor: Second Wind - This processor activates when the ship would have taken a killing blow from an enemy. Instead the processor is destroyed and it restores hull to 15% integrity.
  • New Processor: Scrapper Processor - This processor generates a new processed scrap for each warp to an unvisited sector
  • New Processor: Combo Processor - Adds a bonus to both Cyberdefense and to Jump Computation Speed
  • New Processor: PWR-48 - Increases Reactor Output by 5% and adds 1 to the max level limit of Ship Component Upgrades
  • New Processor: SHD-28 - Increases max shield integrity by 5% and adds 1 to the max level limit of Item Upgrades
  • New Processor: QCK-90 - Increases ship startup speed and adds 1 to the max level limit of Ship Component Upgrades
  • New Processor: Teleport to: Captain - Enables teleportation to the Captain
  • New Processor: Teleport to: Engineer - Enables teleportation to the Engineer
  • New Processor: Teleport to: Pilot - Enables teleportation to the Pilot
  • New Processor: Teleport to: Scientist - Enables teleportation to the Scientist
  • New Processor: Teleport to: Weapons Specialist - Enables teleportation to the Weapons Specialist
  • New topics have been added to the Academy, discussing some newer changes to the game (enemy distress signals, enemy warping, pulse laser for the main turret)
  • The teleporter screen will now illuminate new options if some of the new processors are installed
  • Added a Force Respawn option to the Z-menu, this should help players get back to the ship quickly or if they find themselves stuck somewhere.


Changes

  • Tweaked the difficulty of the scrap processing mini-game, its a little more forgiving
  • Shields now charge 10x faster while in warp
  • AI can understand the new Processors as new teleportation targets and consider them when making decisions about where to teleport to.
  • Battle arenas in the game (like the Sandscar Arena) now support players and bots teleporting back into the fight (using the new crew teleportation options).


VR

  • Changed how some game UI elements appear. Rotating the motion controllers 90 degrees will show the UI.
  • Using the virtual keyboard now shouldnt activate an equipped weapon
  • VR motion vignette is now off by default
  • Tweaked the size and alignment of the TAB menu and Dialogue / Shop menus in VR
  • Polished some of the controller visuals in VR
  • Polished some of the UI in VR


Fixes

  • Fixed a collision bug that could result in a player getting stuck on the Outrider-class Starship
  • Fixed a store networking issue that could occur when loading saves
  • Fixed a store issue wouldnt properly update items in shops when they were sold to the seller



Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-07-22 21:59:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.7 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.7 is now available. Its a small update focused on fixing bugs that have been reported and a few VR improvements.

VR Changes


  • Pointing and clicking at the chat will now open the virtual keyboard allowing you to type into chat
  • Tooltips can now show up
  • Oculus: new default custom offsets for Touch controllers


Changes

  • Can now change your region via the join game menu
  • Change region menu now highlights your current region
  • Default video settings tweaked to ensure various post-processing / lighting effects are on by default
  • Less chance for player teleportation when cargo is added / moved
  • Moved to an incremental garbage collector which should offer some increased performance


Fixes

  • Fixed connection issue with player kicks / bans that could cause the kicked player to enter an unending loading loop
  • Molten Biscuit damage effect should now work properly
  • Grenade Dmg. Biscuit replaced with Molten Biscuit (Grenade Dmg. Biscuit wasnt meant to be available)
  • Emergency Biscuit should now reduce oxygen damage in addition to fire damage
  • Infected mines now deal Infected damage instead of physical
  • Armor piercing and system damage missiles now deal physical damage



Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-07-03 22:19:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.6 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.6 is now available. Its a small update focused on fixing a few bugs that have been reported.

Fixes


  • Skipping warp jump should be more reliable. Made some changes to reinforce parts of the level loading scripts. Were continuing to test and gather information on this issue. If anyone continues to experience this, please let us know and perhaps send us a Player.log file. Instructions: http://www.pulsarthegame.com/sending-an-output-log-file
  • Fixed input issue with the VR pointer that caused it to hit improper targets
  • Teleportation screen: some changes to help prevent some issues reported from analytics
  • Fixed some internal issues that could cause some missions to be improperly assigned



Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-06-26 22:17:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.5 is now available. It is focused on fixing bugs and crashes.

This version of Unity changes how output logs work on Windows. They are now called Player.logs, so from now on well be requesting those when we attempt to troubleshoot any issues.

Changes


  • Moved from Unity 2018.4 LTS to the new 2019.4 LTS which brings various engine improvements and fixes
  • Improved join game functionality through Steam friends and Invites, can now change regions automatically
  • Switching regions menu is a bit clearer
  • Sensor screen: Misc scan now shows equipped thrusters of ships


Fixes

  • Potential fix for an intermittent crash reported
  • Mission sectors now clear themselves from the captains path on the starmap when the mission is abandoned


Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-06-24 20:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.4 is now available. It is focused on fixing major bugs reported by our players.

Changes


  • Changed how our audio listeners are setup with relation to our multi-camera system, which should be more accurate


Fixes

  • Fixed issue related to switching the multiplayer region. It should be a smoother process now
  • Fixed issue with error correction of ship rotations. Could cause performance issues and desync of ship orientations
  • Fixed issue with pickup mission internals that could cause performance problems
  • Fixed an intermittent crash bug related to pathfinding
  • Fixed issue related to certain Photon viewIDs not being properly cleared
  • Fixed sound bugs related to certain items (fire extinguisher, beam rifles) that could cause them to continually play
  • Fixed issue with some SFX not being heard when onboard certain stations
  • Fixed visual issue with certain wandering NPCs that could cause them to appear offset from their target position
  • Fixed issue related to some missions not being able to be started / some NPCs having broken dialogue


Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-06-15 20:14:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.3 is now available. It introduces new systems designed to allow customization of your gameplay experiences.

From now on, when starting or loading a game youll be able to choose settings for the galaxy. Hosts can change properties for faction spread, difficulty, sector types, number of sectors, chaos increases, and more.

These settings will determine the type of galaxy: Standard, Expert or Custom.


  • Standard Galaxies are the classic settings that have been used up to now.
  • Expert Galaxies are a more challenging version of the Standard Galaxy, designed for experienced crews. It increases enemy ship power, chaos spread and other settings.
  • Custom Galaxies are those that dont match either of the two above configurations.


Certain settings cannot be changed after the initial galaxy setup, but many can be changed when loading a game (including current saves).

Were interested to hear your feedback about this new system, especially about features like Expert mode. We're considering having an achievement related to Expert mode in the future, but we wanted to make sure it was an appropriate challenge.

Custom Galaxy Settings

  • Galaxy Size (The initial number of sectors in a galaxy - from 800 to 5000)
  • Chaos Growth Rate (The speed at which chaos increases - from 0.5x to 5x)
  • Max Chaos (The maximum amount of Chaos the galaxy will reach - from 3 to 9)
  • Enemy Ship Power (Scales the average enemy ship component levels - from 0.5x to 2x)
  • Drone Modifier Power (Scales the chance that special modifiers are added to unmanned ships - from 0.5 to 2x)
  • Galaxy Seed (Base number used for galaxy generation; -1 means a random number)
  • Enemy Ship Backup Rate (Increases the rate of ships warping in to provide backup - from 0.5x to 2.5x)
  • Beacon Spawn Rate (Multiplier for the max number of beacons to appear in a sector - from 0.5x to 2.5x)
  • Bounty Hunter Spawn Rate (Multiplier for the rate at which bounty hunters are generated - from 0.5x to 4.0x)
  • Colonial Union Initial Spread (How many sectors start as CU sectors - from 0.5x to 2x)
  • Colonial Union Continuous Spread (The rate of growth for new CU sectors - from 0.5x to 5x)
  • WD Corp Initial Spread (How many sectors start as WD sectors - from 0.5x to 2x)
  • WD Corp Continuous Spread (The rate of growth for new WD sectors - from 0.5x to 5x)
  • Infected Initial Spread (How many sectors start as Infected sectors - from 0.5x to 2x)
  • Infected Continuous Spread (The rate of growth for new Infected sectors - from 0.5x to 5x)
  • Moon Count (The average number of moons orbiting planets - from 0x to 2x)
  • Planet Enemy Respawn Rate (Scales the respawn speed of enemies on planets - from 0.5x to 5x)
  • General Stores (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Long Range Warp Stations (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Nebula Sectors (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Scrapyard Sectors (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Minefield Sectors (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Graveyard Sectors (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Asteroid Field Sectors (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Faction Battle Sectors (Scales the amount generated by the galaxy - from 0.5x to 4x)
  • Modifier Player Ship - Energy Damage (Outgoing energy damage - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Enemy Ship - Energy Damage (Outgoing energy damage - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Player Ship - Physical Damage (Outgoing physical damage - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Enemy Ship - Physical Damage (Outgoing physical damage - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Player Ship - Reactor Strength (Reactor output multiplier - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Enemy Ship - Reactor Strength (Reactor output multiplier - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Player Ship - Shield Charge Rate (Charge rate multiplier - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Enemy Ship - Shield Charge Rate (Charge rate multiplier - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Player Ship - Thruster Boost (Thrust multiplier - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Enemy Ship - Thruster Boost (Thrust multiplier - from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Player Ship - Warp Charging Rate (Scales from 0.5x to 3x)
  • Modifier Enemy Ship - Warp Charging Rate (Scales from 0.5x to 3x)


Additions

  • Galaxy Settings: allows for hosts to customize properties of the galaxy for their games
  • New Planet and Artifact Planet Mission. The final mission assigned by Rumibard Warger in Outpost 488. Completing this mission grants a Lost Colony Data Fragment.
  • Grey Huntsman Bounty Hunters Guild will grant a Lost Colony Data Fragment after completing a number of missions for them.
  • New Data Fragment: Wargers Fragment - no effect
  • New Data Fragment: Grey Huntsmen Fragment - no effect


Changes

  • Many internal updates to plugins including Photon, WWise, Oculus, SteamVR, and Teamspeak
  • Moved main game scripts to .NET 4.x equivalent for increased performance and compatibility with newer software/plugins
  • Moved our linux builds to 64-bit (Unity is dropping support for 32-bit linux builds)
  • The No Questions Asked Achievement has been moved to Wargers new final mission.
  • Increased Outriders angular drag, itll rotate slightly slower now.


Fixes

  • Fixed some issues with enemies on the abandoned Fluffy Biscuit Co. factory
  • Optimizations for the smoke creature in Sylvassi Cyphers
  • Fixed pathing issues for certain areas like space shops
  • Custom appearance menu should look better at larger field of view settings
  • Fixed a crash on exit bug
  • Distress signals for enemy ships will no longer work in sectors with blocked long range communications (such as nebulas)
  • Tweaked ship component power scaling with chaos level: minimum level is now 25% of maximum instead of 12.5%



Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-06-11 15:36:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.2 is now available. Its mainly focused on bug fixes based on your reports!

Changes
- Game can show controls for more turret actions like firing missiles or activating the pulse laser
- Signal Jammer Beacons no longer stack to reduce EM detection below 50%
- Maximum number of AI overrides per priority raised to 15 (from 10)
- Sybers Threat program updated to add turret charge speed instead of turret damage
- Thumbnails in the Customize Appearance menu no longer show model with additional rotation
- Join game menu now shows the current region and number of crews found in total
- Increased the respawn time of some rat creatures on one of the cave planets

Fixes
- Saved AI data could sometimes be outdated without the game notifying the player
- Some game menus were smaller than intended, should be fixed now
- Starmap camera in saves sometimes wouldnt let you select sectors on the edge of the galaxy
- Fixed various internal errors reported by analytics
- Certain ships could spawn Neutral drones which have been replaced with Bandit drones
- In new galaxies The Estate now does additional checks to ensure it has sectors within warp range
- Updated power test for the Engineer in The Academy to take into account new changes
- EngBot a little better at managing power while cloaked (requires a reset of AI priorities)
- Scrap icon for the hull repair system on the Interceptor can no longer be seen through walls
- The scanner should no longer pick up certain long range dialogue actors as NPCs on planets
- Ships and beacons should no longer spawn inside of asteroids
- Sybers Threat programs effect should now apply properly and show as blue when active on the computer screen
- Fixed some ammo-based pistols that wouldnt properly fire their last shot
- Added message to inform the player if the game cant write the bindings file to disk
- Updates to resource and memory management to prevent crashes in certain situations
- Ship cargo could sometimes not sync their positions correctly initially

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-05-14 19:33:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 29.1 is now available! It is focused on bug fixes with some changes to missiles and AI priorities in saved games

Changes
- Load game menu now provides an option to reset the AI priorities and automatically enables it if newer defaults are detected
- Missile tooltips now show more info
- Missiles now increase their damage when upgraded
- Error message should now appear when a player attempts to join a Secured game without being logged into Steam
- Processor Shop now includes Overcharge Processors (may require new galaxy)

Fixes
- Fixed High Roller Fragment bug related to coolant refill causing broken coolant screen / incorrect refills
- High Roller Fragment notification now shows actual coolant refill amount (15%) rather than (25%)
- Fixed Commander Fragment issue with upgraded hulls not repairing correctly
- Fixed issue with internal virus components being dropped on ship destruction
- Fixed issue with shopkeepers and stores that could cause de-sync and other problems
- Fixed issue with black hole sectors that caused performance issues and collision issues with asteroids
- Fixed issue with High Rollers if ship warped while a player was playing Liars Dice
- Fixed some small internal errors reported by the analytics system

Thanks for your reports and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-05-10 00:45:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 29 Release Notes

[previewyoutube=R0cSXKUHLqk;full][/previewyoutube]

Hey everyone!

Beta 29 is out now! This might be one of the biggest updates weve done yet! This update focuses on a few big additions as well as several balance passes and quality of life features.

Lost Colony Data Fragments have been added to the game. These are required to get to the Lost Colony and can be gained through numerous ways. While the Lost Colony isnt in the game yet, data fragments are the last feature we needed to add in order to introduce the Lost Colony content in an upcoming update. Many of the fragments grant passive effects to your ship, which we think add a nice bonus to acquiring them.

Two new places to acquire Lost Colony data fragments are the Auction found on the Spiderbarge in the Burrow, and the Highrollers Station which will contact crews and invite them to play Liars Dice at an exclusive station.

In order to add more variety to space combat, sectors now have a chance of including a beacon. These beacons create sector-wide modifiers to ship systems, and can either help or harm your ship. Some of the effects include thrust boosting, damage increases, armor increases and many others. Keep in mind that other ships also have these bonuses, and its possible to target and destroy these beacons if necessary (with no rep loss to do so).

This update also includes some big changes to Crew AI. AI can now charge programs, patrol sectors, and even launch nuclear devices! These effects dont just apply to your crew, but enemy crews as well. The default AI priorities and behaviors have been greatly improved and updated. A few new additions include the Pibot being able to fly into Long Range Warp Stations, and the Engbot automatically lowering the shields when the Pibot enters a repair depot.

With the changes to crew AI, this means that enemy ships can launch nukes if they own them and are desperate enough. In order to help you manage this, the Scientist can now see if there is a nuke on board their ship through the sensor screen, and the Weapons Specialist now has a pulse laser affixed to many of the main turrets. This pulse laser can fire rapidly, allowing them to deal pinpoint damage to nukes and missiles.

Weve also worked on new sector types including asteroid fields and faction battles. Faction battles are in-progress fights between a small number of ships and/or drones that can be approached in many different ways. Asteroid fields are cluttered with asteroids of various sizes requiring pilots to pay close attention to their surroundings to defeat enemy ships. Asteroids across the galaxy have also been updated with a new sharper look.

Ship combat has been tweaked to look and feel more impactful with new effects like hull debris flying off the ship and sparks flying on the bridge. Enemy ships are now more capable in ship combat, they are now able to warp out of difficult fights and call for backup with a distress signal. Ships can now also warp-in to provide backup to an enemy during a fight including both drones and powerful crewed ships!



Additions
- New Sector: Asteroid Field
- New Sector: Faction Battle - Neutral / CU
- New Sector: Faction Battle - CU / Infected
- New Sector: Faction Battle - Neutral / WD
- New Sector: Faction Battle - WD / Infected
- New Beacon: Sniper - Fires at enemy ships from range
- New Beacon: Warp Disable - Disables activation of warp drives
- New Beacon: Shield Boosting - Boosts shield recharge rate
- New Beacon: Power Boosting - Boosts reactor power
- New Beacon: Boarding Drones - Sends boarding drones to ships with disabled quantum shields
- New Beacon: Block Comms - Blocks Long Range Comms (no rep loss, no flagged condition for stealing ships)
- New Beacon: Energy Damage Boost - Boosts damage output of energy based turrets
- New Beacon: Corruption - Broadcasts the corruption virus
- New Beacon: Disable Cloak - Prevents and disables cloaking technology from working
- New Beacon: Program Recharger - Recharges more program slots during manual program charging
- New Beacon: Fire Spread - Increases the spread and growth of fires aboard ships
- New Beacon: Overcharge - All ships and beacons will accumulate overcharge when near one another
- New Beacon: Random Component Effect - Boosts the efficiency of a random ship component per ship
- New Beacon: Armor Reduction - Reduces effectiveness of armor for all ships
- New Beacon: Physical Damage Boost - Boosts the damage output of physical turrets
- New Beacon: Warp Range Booster - Boosts the range of your ships warp drive
- New Fragment: Auction fragment - Grants special deals in general store
- New Fragment: AOG fragment - Your current ship clears its flagged status each jump
- New Fragment: CU fragment - +50% max shield integrity, +15% warp range
- New Fragment: Liars Dice fragment - Random bonus each jump (+50 credits, +25% coolant, +1 processed scrap)
- New Fragment: Fluffy Biscuit Fragment - 2x food supply, 2x credits from sales
- New Fragment: W.D. Fragment - 15% tracker missile refill each jump
- New Fragment: Racing Fragment - 30% thrust increase
- New Fragment: Sector Commander Fragment - 5% hull repair each jump
- New Fragment: Sylvassi Fragment - 2 additional program slots
- Faction Battles: New sector types at the frontlines of competing factions
- Enemy ships have functional distress signals and can receive backup
- Some enemy ships can now warp out
- Most mega turrets now have a fast-firing pulse laser
- New Ship HUD Elements for distress signals, warp drive charging, and ship system damage.
- Sparks can fly from lights in the ship when taking damage or while at low hull
- Hull damage can cause some hull bits to fly off into space
- Ships emit some smoke and sparks occasionally when hull is low
- Lifeform Scan
- Radiation Alarm
- New Processor - Overcharge Processor - Creates overcharge based on incoming energy damage
- Added more dialog to hailing crewed ships; some options include hints for finding Lost Colony data fragments
- New UI Element: a colored line appears above the ship info HUD in the upper right corner of the screen, If this line is there, then the ships Quantum Shields are online and boarding is prevented.

AI
- Crew AI Priority menus have been tweaked. The Top priorities section now includes the current top behaviors from both Main and Class specific priorities, this should hopefully give a better idea about what priorities are currently important to that particular crew AI.
- New crew AI ability: Manual Program Recharge
- New crew AI ability: Launch Nuclear Device
- New pilot AI ability: Use Warp Station
- New pilot AI ability: Patrol - Fly to random points in the sector
- New engineer AI ability: Lower Shields
- New engineer AI ability: Shutdown Ship
- New engineer AI ability: Eject Reactor Core
- New engineer AI ability: Overclock
- New scientist AI ability: Sensor Sweep
- Scientist AI ability fixed: Search for Ships
- New AI priority override: Healing item is equipped
- New AI priority override: Healable crewmate is nearby
- New AI priority override: Fuel capsules on ship is > X
- New AI priority override: Unfilled program charges on ship is > X
- New AI priority override: Current ship has a nuclear device installed
- New AI priority override: Active Long Range Warp Station in sector
- New AI priority override: Target ship's combat level > X% of ours
- New AI priority override: Captain is sitting in the Captain's Chair
- New AI priority override: Reactor stability is > X%
- New AI priority override: Ship has been out of warp > X seconds
- New AI priority override: Ship has been in warp > X seconds
- New AI priority override: Target ship's warp drive is > X% charged
- New AI priority override: Target ship's distress signal is active
- New AI priority override: Nuke path is clear
- New AI priority override: Ship is inside a repair depot
- New AI priority override: Captain is onboard a ship
- New AI priority override: Target ship's hull > X% of ours
- New AI priority override: Last time doing this priority > X sec ago
- New AI priority override: Target ship's armor > X% of ours
- New AI priority override: Target ship's shields > X% of ours
- New AI priority override: Time since manual program recharge > X sec
- New AI priority override: Reactor is currently overclocked
- New AI priority override: Reactor core safety is enabled
- New AI priority override: Target ship can currently be detected
- New AI priority override: Quantum shields are online
- New AI priority override: Overcharge > X%
- New AI priority override: Reactor core is in meltdown
- New AI priority override: Ship does have a Reactor equipped
- New AI priority override: Reactor core was recently ejected
- Crew AI will stay in place longer when responding to Close To Captain order
- Scibot is a bit smarter about running programs
- Engbot is smarter about leaving their station, they will reduce usage and coolant flow so the ship is less likely to overheat or waste coolant while they are away.
- Engbot can now use the Aux Reactor. A priority of (1) will signify that.
- Custom Events menu has been improved to be more space efficient (tabs)
-The Custom Event Repair Depot Nearby is now a sector-wide check instead of distance based
- AI will now generally move slower, and also ramp up speed when starting to move from a standing position


Changes
- UI - Tab menu now has a spot to display any currently held Lost Colony data fragments and their descriptions / effects.
- UI - Tab menu has been tweaked and the crew reputation section has been slightly reworked.
- Starmap now starts with fewer sectors (around 1700). This helps with the problem of mission sectors being labeled (2001, 2002, etc)
- General stores now sell higher level ship components based on chaos level
- WD ships have increased the number of missile slots from 2 to 3.
- Tweaked galaxying syncing, should be a bit faster.
- Tweaked galaxy generation, should be a bit faster and show progress percentage.
- Tweaked the warp-out SFX
- Overhauled the visuals and level of the Fluffy Biscuit mission planet for Deliver Biscuits to Restricted CU Site 881. Should be a better overall experience. Dialog of NPCs also tweaked to accommodate the changes.
- Fluffy Biscuit mission location for Deliver Biscuits to Food Reviewer has been slightly tweaked. Added moving walkways to the long hall.
- Tweaked the starmap clipping range
- Removed all sensor types but EM sensors, simplified some screen visuals
- Ship destruction credits / XP / rep only given if you have have done significant damage
- Laser-type turrets can shoot down many missiles including nukes and Defender Turret missiles
- Shield visuals tweaked
- Players can now leave the Liars Dice Gaming table by pressing R instead of ESC
- Liars Dice Rules have been changed. The number of dice must always increase with each bid, though the face value can change. The first to three points wins.
- Missiles have lower reload times
- Lock-on time for missiles has been reduced
- Damage calculation for missile explosions has been tweaked to be more predictable
- Missiles deal more damage overall
- Nukes can also be shot down but may take multiple shots to destroy
- Auto-aiming turrets and bot AI can now shoot down missiles
- Changes to how explosion damage is assigned to make it more predictable
- Crews can no longer shoot down their own missiles
- Ship shields should no longer block flares
- Lasers now check for collisions against the hull instead of the shield bubble when shields are down
- Turret networking updates more frequent
- Some settings from the Game Settings menu moved to Controls menu
- Game Settings menu has been cleaned up a bit
- Overall thruster power usage has been reduced
- Overall shield power usage has been increased
- Aux Reactor power amounts have been tweaked
- Scientist can now scan a ships installed programs
- Increased the variety of processors / programs on enemy crewed ships
- Tweaked / reduced spread rate of Infected sectors
- Infected can now take over graveyard, minefield and nebula sectors
- Optimised internal chaos updates
- Reduced initial spread rate of every faction. This will likely lead to blotchier sections of faction space with the intent of making navigation more interesting
- Galaxy pathing (course plotting and bounty hunters) is more efficient
- Nearly all asteroids have been overhauled with new visuals


Fixes
- Defender Turret missiles will now track their target properly on clients
- Fixed SFX issue on missiles that caused them to still be heard after destruction
- Fixed a missing material on desert terraforming station planet
- PiBot should be better at collecting scrap
- Fixed an issue with items incorrectly spawning under the level. This should be fixed, but older saves may still have the issue.
- Fixed a small railing issue found in the WD hub
- Fixed a rendering issue for the Character Customization menu
- Fixed a moon issue on the AOG Secret Hideout Planet
- Fixed an issue with Programs / Viruses not correctly saving the order in which they were placed in.
- Fixed an issue that would show screens through walls
- Fixed a crashing issue found on the Interceptor and the Swordship. If you continue to experience issues try verifying the game files.
- Fixed a floating mesh issue found in Cornelia Station
- Fixed a UI issue with the Missions in the TAB menu
- Fixed a skybox rendering issue
- Fixed an issue that would occasionally lead to bots dying unexpectedly
- Fixed an issue with tooltips not always disappearing
- Fixed an issue with ships sometimes spawning in asteroids
- Fixed an issue that would occasionally make bots invisible
- Fixed an issue that prevented certain dialogue options from being selected when a captains notification was being displayed

Thanks for your time and please be safe out there!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team




[ 2020-05-08 22:36:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 28.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 28.1 is out now! This should address some of the issues that were reported. As always, thanks for sending in those reports!

Fixes


  • Fixed a few issues where star visuals would appear on some cloudier planets
  • Fixed an issue where players could clearly hear other ships thrusters regardless of distance (more updates / improvements coming soon for ship thruster SFX)
  • Fixed an issue that arose when some keys were renamed. The Tomb Keys on the Planet Bombardment mission should now properly open the doors.
  • Fixed an issue with certain enemy bots on planets that prevented their bodies from properly rendering
  • Fixed a destroyable object issue found on the Planet Bombardment mission that created some confusion as to when the prisoner gate was destroyed.


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-02-28 19:32:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 28 Release Notes - Bounty Hunters Galaxy Visuals

[previewyoutube=DGBH_pV1lh4;full][/previewyoutube]

Hey everyone!

Beta 28 is out now! This update adds space visuals that represent actual areas of the galaxy. While in space, you can now see sectors represented by stars, nearby nebulas, the galaxy core, and other sizable features. This should help the galaxy feel more interconnected and provide more visual information about your surrounding sectors.

Weve also added bounty hunters that can track down your ship if your reputation with a faction is very low. Bounty hunters will appear on your starmap, informing you about their current location, and move in real-time towards the sector where your ship is. When a bounty hunter catches up with you, theyll try to board your ship and attack your crew.

Missiles have also been tweaked, including new tracking behavior and improved networking. They should be better at hitting their targets overall, especially slow moving ones. AI ships can also use missiles now too. Turret camera input has also been redone in smooth turret mode to better allow for more flexibility and predictability in camera movement at certain angles.

AI piloting has some updates that add a little more unpredictability to their attack patterns. Projectile-based turrets are overall slightly less effective at range due to targets being harder to hit. AI pilots now are also aware of their ships turret ranges and can better distance the ship to potentially out-range an opponent.

This update also includes a number of other additions and fixes, many of them centered around the Academy and the feedback weve received.



Additions


  • Bounty Hunters: Factions can now employ Bounty Hunters to attack the playership if they have a low enough reputation with them. The chances of a bounty hunter appearing begin at -5 rep. They are pretty low at first, but more negative rep as well as higher chaos increase those chances. You can view the location of the Bounty Hunter on the Starmap and here is the real kicker: while time is usually tracked by the jumps of the playership, the Bounty Hunter can move independently of that, meaning if your ship lingers in an area for too long, your crew may be in for an unexpected surprise. Bounty Hunters can follow your crew into many sectors but not hub, missions or special sectors.
  • New Enemy Ship: Bounty Hunter Ship - This ship enters the sector and can pose a minor threat, alongside the actual bounty hunter.
  • Galaxy Visuals: These visuals represent a large portion of the surrounding galaxy. Previously there were no visual indicators of other sectors in the galaxy besides toggling the icons of the sectors, but now those sectors are often represented by stars. Nebulas and infected space sectors are also rendered. These visuals accurately represent nearby sectors, giving the galaxy a more connected and tangible form.
  • Sectors displayed in-game have had their vertical spread increased. The galaxy got thicker.
  • Added landmark nebulas for hubs and special sectors
  • Added a galactic core visual to represent the center of the galaxy. This is displayed nearly everywhere, even on certain planets!
  • Added globular cluster visuals to represent Exotic Shops
  • Added thruster visuals for the various unmanned drones in the galaxy
  • New sector visual behaviour: when the ship gets closer to aligning to a sector, the visual will slightly grow in size
  • Added an improved respawning system to the Academy. It should place players back near the challenge where they died, instead of needing to run back from the start.
  • You can now practice processing scrap in the Engineering Class hall of the Academy. You can reset the scrap and the failed attempts by exiting and returning to the room.
  • Added a sensor dish practical area to the Academy, where players can better understand the concept of sensor strength, how to collect scrap, fire probes and lock onto ships.
  • Added some additional objectives for the Piloting test in the Academy. They must now collect a piece of scrap and align the ship with a specified sector.
  • The Academy now supports the player being able to place waypoints on the starmap.
  • Added text to the following Academy posters: Silhouette of Long Range Warp Station, Racing Sectors, Silhouette of Automated Trading Station, Silhouette of Repair Depot, Mission Sectors
  • Added a description to the log screen in the Captains section of the Academy
  • Added more information to Academy HUD training assistant, Misc Info
  • Added more information to the Sectors training assistant in the Pilots section of the Academy
  • Added more information to the Ships and Temperature training assistant in the Pilots section of the Academy
  • Added NPC by piloting station in the Academy to explain the piloting test
  • Added NPC to the Scientists section of the Academy to explain the Sensors screen in more detail
  • Added NPC to the Scientists section of the Academy to explain handheld scanner and healing beam rifle
  • Added more to / changed Programs and Viruses training assistant in Scientists section of the Academy to explain the Computer screen in more depth
  • Added more to / changed training assistant in the Weapons Specialists section of the Academy to explain the nuke launching sequence in more depth
  • Added scanner pickup to the Scientists section of the Academy
  • Added NPC to Academys General Information Hall to explain player and crew death
  • Added NPC to Academys General Information Hall to explain ship boarding
  • Added NPC to Academys General Information Hall to explain Z menu
  • Added explanation of processing scrap to Engineers section of the Academy
  • Added brief explanation of scrap to Weapons Specialists section of the Academy
  • Added some additional information to the nuke screen to explain the arming process
  • Tweaked the missile screen to improve readability of missile descriptions
  • Status tab of the computer screen now shows a reading of the average incoming damage type



Changes

  • Tweaked Academy lighting in the class hall to better communicate that there are spaces beyond the pillars.
  • Tweaked lighting and arrows at the bottom of the flight-pack course to better clarify where to go if you fall down.
  • Made some minor tweaks and improvements to the Nuke Screen
  • Robots can get drunk off of engine sludge, but no other alcoholic drinks.
  • The Load menu will now provide a heads up message if the player is offline.
  • Changed Academy Infomasters dialog tree for better organization of topics
  • Tweaked dialog of starmap training assistant in the Academy
  • Tweaked text of Planets and Stations starmap poster in the Academy
  • Tweaked text of Scrapyards starmap poster in the Academy
  • Changed dialog tree of mission training assistant in the Academy to add an in progress dialog line
  • Tweaked dialog of Flagging training assistant in the Captains section of the Academy
  • Tweaked dialog of Sensor Dish training assistant in the Scientists section of the Academy
  • Tweaked dialog tree of Engineering Test training assistant in the Engineers section of the Academy; also tweaked dialog on coolant
  • Reorganized NPCs, screens, and props in the Scientists section of the Academy
  • NPC Vera Scems in Outpost 448 has been removed to avoid confusion
  • Academy description removed from NPC Infomaster Weise Quel in Outpost 448
  • Tweaked UI for crew allowance / credits
  • AI crewmembers are better at choosing appropriate items to use
  • Piloting for drones and AI crewmembers has been tweaked
  • Enemy Piloting AI can now occasionally act unpredictably, changing direction and distance
  • Piloting AI now understands the various turret ranges aboard their ship, and will attempt to keep within the smallest range of installed turrets. If you install a very short range turret, the AI piloting should try to get closer to their targeted ship.
  • Piloting AI can now utilise maneuvering thrusters
  • Nuke screen panel for active nukes updated to be clearer
  • Food item descriptions tweaked: Classic Biscuit, Perfect Biscuit, CU Rations, Marinated Sandshark Fillet, Protein Packet, CU Emergency Rations, W.D. Rations, Engine Sludge, Port Ale, Sylvassi Brew, Balmy Gloom, Bottled Sylvassi Brew, Fungal Spore Pod, Gloom Wine, Long Life Biscuit, Emergency Biscuit, Hearty Biscuit, Healthy Biscuit, Carrot Cake Biscuit, Healberry Crumble Biscuit, Garlic Biscuit, Frozen Biscuit, Funky Biscuit, Lucky Biscuit, Spicy Biscuit, Spicy Crumble Biscuit
  • Pickup item descriptions tweaked: Ancient Statuette, Broken Ancient Statuette, Ancient Sculpture, Broken Ancient Sculpture, Borthix Crystal, Simple Coronet, Ancient Coronet, Regal Coronet, Discarded Scrap, Old Battery, Shipping Logs, Research Medal, Thermal Regulator, Raw Warp Coil, Sealed Box, Sandshark Egg, Ancient Sylvassi Tablet, Train Keycard, Entrance Security Keycard, Level 1 Admin Access Card, Level 2 Admin Access Card, Level 3 Admin Access Card, Aberrant Organisms Lab Access Card, Blue Tomb Key, Orange Tomb Key, W.D. Control Room Access Card, W.D. Flagship Weapons Badge, Estate Access Card
  • Research material descriptions tweaked: Sylvassi Stems, IU-03020, Bulbtooth, Graywrack, Gracilia Floris, Bluffstem, BH-00300
  • Handheld item descriptions tweaked: Fire Extinguisher, Beam Pistol, Smugglers Pistol, Burst Rifle, Heavy Beam Pistol, Heavy Pistol, SplitShot, Scanner, Pulse Grenade Launcher, Heal Grenade Launcher, Mini Grenade Launcher, Fire-Killer Grenade Launcher, Repair Grenade Launcher, FB Multitool, Beam Rifle, Healing Beam Rifle, Stun Grenade Launcher, I.M.P.A.C.T. Prototype, S.P.I.K.E.R. Prototype, W.D. Heavy, Ammo Clip
  • Items tweaked to better fit the inventory item preview window: Thermal Regulator, Ancient Green Artifact, Ancient Red Artifact and the Sensor Station Battery.ai
  • Miscellaneous component descriptions tweaked: Sensor Dish, Cloaking System, Sylvassi Cloaking System, Scrap, Stolen Medical Supplies, Smuggled Medical Supplies, Borthix Crate, Refined Sundust, Protector Head, Colonial Classic Captains Chair, Colonial Modern Captains Chair, W.D. Classic Captains Chair, Standard O2 Generator, Calypso O2 Generator
  • Weapon component descriptions tweaked: Acid Missile, W.D. Small, C.U. Enforcer, Tactical Nuke, Biscuit Bomb, Railgun Turret, Plasma Turret, Defender Turret, Scrapper Turret, RapidFire, W.D. Prototype FlashFire, Modified CU Long Range, Automated Railgun Turret
  • Thruster component descriptions tweaked: Dark Thruster, Inertia Thruster, Mini Inertia Thruster, Super Inertia Thruster, Gimbal Inertia Thruster, Maneuvering Thruster, Heavy Maneuvering Thruster, Racing Maneuvering Thruster
  • Processor component descriptions tweaked: ARX-CD, QDI-RCG, BKP-HEAT, BKP-WARP, BKP-THRUST, BKP-WPN-POWER, ARX-TGT, QDI-FIX-ENG, QDI-FIX-WPN, QDI-FIX-LIFE, QDI-FIX-SCI, Research Pipeline Module, Improved Defenses, Sylvassi Cyber Defense Processor, Warp Range Processor
  • Reactor component descriptions tweaked: Null Point Reactor, Colonial Fusion Reactor, Military-Grade Fusion Reactor, Fluffy Biscuit Jumbo Reactor, G.T.C. Quiet Cupcake, Advanced Fusion Reactor, P.F. Anti-Matter Reactor, Strongpoint Reactor, Leaky Reactor, Sylvassi Reactor
  • Shield generator component descriptions tweaked: Tactical Holoscreen, Heavy Tactical Holoscreen, Military-Grade Shield Generator, G.T.C. Blue Goose, W.D. Corp Particle Shield, Fortified Holoscreen, Dense Particle Shield, WD XC-7 Prototype Config 4, Modified Military-Grade Shield Generator, Sylvassi Shields
  • Warp drive component descriptions tweaked: Long Range Jump Module, G.T.C. Silent Cricket, Workhorse Jump Drive, G.T.C. Custom, Dark Drive, Snap Drive, WD XW-5 Prototype Config 1, Old Wars Super Jumper
  • Program / virus component descriptions tweaked: Sitting Duck, Warp Disable, Phalanx, Backdoor, Emergency Shield Boosting, Gentlemans Welcome, Siphon Credits, 0x84B7A2, 0xF592B1, Barrage, OverDrive, Sybers Shield, Armor Flaw, Shutdown Defenses, Discharge, Digital Coolant, Quantum Defenses, Shock The System, Reinstall++, Quantum Tunnel, Extended Shields, Burst AV, Random Access
  • Tracking capability of Tracker Missiles have been improved
  • Tracking missiles have improved networking
  • Missile physics system has been overhauled / improved
  • Improved ship location / rotation networking and error correction
  • Tweaked implementation of Defender Turret Missiles
  • Improved missile visuals / flares
  • Damage calculation for missile hits should be better
  • Thruster visuals for many ships have been tweaked / improved
  • Improved space sector readability. They now have backgrounds to prevent the text from getting lost in bright spots.
  • Older star skyboxes have been removed since they now conflict with the represented visuals


Fixes

  • Fixed a few screen clipping errors in the Academy
  • Fixed a dialogue camera issue for the Atrium description text
  • Fixed a few sensor issues in the Academy
  • Fixed an issue with reviving humans the moment after your ships claim was removed by an enemy
  • Fixed some placeholder text in the Captains hailing tutorial in the Academy
  • Fixed some placeholder text in dialog of Turrets training assistant in the Academy
  • Fixed a typo in dialog of Flagging training assistant in the Academy
  • Fixed an issue with fires on ships that could cause networking issues / invisible fires
  • Shops can no longer spawn in an Infected sector in initial galaxy generation
  • Fixed an issue with sector faction changing while crew was in the sector and possible desync for new clients
  • Fixed an issue causing the active item for players to not be properly synced to other players in some situations
  • Fixed an issue with some ship screens that could cause them to not to update on initial game join for the host
  • Fixed an issue with boarding bots that could cause them to sometimes be invisible for some players
  • Fixed issue with laser turret SFX continuously playing if its owner ship is destroyed while the turret is firing
  • Enemy crews are no longer able to board your ship if your QT shields are up
  • NPC Otwin Velis has had dialogue camera removed
  • Fixed an issue with the Sector Search results displaying no planet for sectors with planets in them
  • Fixed an issue regarding the anti-cheat system and ship names
  • Fixed a computer screen tab issue for hosts
  • Fixed an issue that prevented enemy ships from properly firing missiles
  • Infected reputation is no longer visible / tracked through UI
  • Fixed a moon position error that could occur when entering / exiting piloting mode
  • Fixed a visual issue with phase pistol firing into infinity (the sky)
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) effect on planets
  • Fixed an issue that prevented radiation SFX from properly playing
  • Fixed a pathing issue on the Outrider-class starship
  • Fixed a pathing issue on the W.D. Destroyer-class starship
  • Fixed an AI pathing issue related to certain slopes


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team




[ 2020-02-24 21:34:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 27.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 27.2 is out now! This is a small bug-fix update focused on your feedback and reports.

Changes


  • Engine sludge now heals robots instead of Sylvassi
  • Robot characters are no longer affected by alcoholic drinks


Fixes

  • Fixed issue with exosuit not appearing in the Academy if the player has selected a robot character in the appearance menu
  • Fixed issue with long range warp station refunds that could result in the wrong amount of credits being returned
  • Fixed a minor issue with infected crawlers that could cause errors on clients
  • Fixed a minor issue with dragging and dropping ship components that could cause errors


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-01-26 00:23:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 27.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 27.1 is out now! This is mostly tweaks and fixes for the Academy based on some of the feedback weve gotten so far.

Additions


  • Added a missile screen to the main turret control station in the Academy.
  • Added an additional message letting people know they are playing offline when they try to start games, this should hopefully help reduce confusion.
  • Added a description to the atrium respawner in the Academy


Changes

  • Weve removed the interaction prompt from the pickup up parts of the tip system as this may have been causing some confusion.
  • Fire Gun tutorial prompt has been changed to Fire Extinguisher
  • Tweaked the location of the Engineering Test NPC to avoid confusion about the lever interaction
  • Changed Use lever to start test into Click lever to start test to hopefully make things extra clear.
  • The Caustic Corsair no longer has the attribute text describing the toxic interior


Fixes

  • Fixed a visual issue with the ship while piloting in the Academy
  • Fixed an issue with first person piloting in the Academy. Due to its unusual nature, its no longer possible to try that piloting mode in the Academy.
  • Fixed an online/offline mode problem that could occur after playing the Academy. This may have made it seem like certain games being hosted were not visible in the game lobby or that the lobby was incorrectly empty.
  • Fixed an issue involving the Shock the System program.
  • Steam friends count when joining games should be more accurate


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2020-01-24 21:36:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 27 Release Notes - The Academy



Devlog #85: https://youtu.be/ewhIVnx86yU

Hey everyone!

Beta 27 is out now! It adds an in-game tutorial called the Academy. This update was surprisingly challenging to put together. Turns out ripping apart a starship and exposing all of its systems in a controlled way is a little complicated. The Academy is now available from the main menu. We decided on having it be a single-player experience so each player could learn at their own pace. In the spirit of teaching, weve also implemented a tip system and a tooltip system which we explain more about below.

Besides that, weve added a way for the captain to remove the purchasing limits on ship components. This should allow the captain to delegate more of the component shopping to their crew if they want to.

Weve also added the possibility of moons to show up around the planets. These are just visual additions, but we hope you like them!

Additions


  • The Academy: This is a single player tutorial experience to get new players familiar with the various systems and roles of the game. The goal is not to be a fully comprehensive overview of each system but rather give new players a bit more confidence and understanding before joining a live game.
  • In-game tip system: These tips will show during the loading screen after joining a game as well as when you are respawning in an atrium. They will first cycle through in order and then choose from the pool of tips randomly. If you have ideas for any tips you think people should see, please send us an email here: team@leafygames.com
  • Crew Purchase Limits: The captain can now disable crew purchase limits if they want their crew to participate more in the purchasing and selling of ship components and other high-price items. Crewmembers can only install components by swapping them through the Compare option in the store. Otherwise the captain must still install them. By default, limits on crew purchases are active, but the option can be checked off at any time through the captain menu.
  • New captain notifications for crewmembers buying and selling ship components
  • Moons: This is a purely visual addition, but planets now have the chance to generate moons which can sometimes be seen from space and the planet surface.
  • Tooltips: Players can hold ALT to unlock their cursor. This functions similarly to holding SPACE, but it will also display various tooltips when hovering over certain screen systems. This should hopefully be useful for quickly referencing or refreshing ones knowledge of the screen systems.
  • GX Database: The GX Database, which provides general information about ships and hazards in the galaxy, can be accessed again from the Search section of the scientists computer screen.


Changes

  • Made some changes to the frozen base planet, requiring players to use their scanners to navigate the mines more.
  • Improved the visuals for the bridge teleporter location in the Forsaken Flagship
  • Added a new area to the Burrow. It will play more of a role in a future update.
  • Cursor is no longer locked when game is loading


Fixes

  • Fixed an issue that could sometimes occur if multiple crew members attempted to process the same scrap simultaneously
  • Fixed a lighting issue found on the Fluffy One starship
  • Fixed a VR bug that wouldnt correctly orient repair guns and fire extinguishers
  • Fixed a Steam issue regarding the ban list showing unknown names
  • Spotlights no longer illuminate planets
  • Fixed a fire generation issue in the Too Close to Star scenario
  • Fixed a visual issue that could sometimes appear with the sensor dish
  • Fixed a possible performance issue relating to planets
  • Fixed an issue with cheat detection that could potentially cause false positives


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team



[ 2020-01-23 22:33:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 26.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 26.5 is out now! This update was mainly focused on fixing a few low level networking issues we found which may have been causing connection problems in certain circumstances. We also slightly tweaked the ThermoCore reactor stats to help make it more manageable.

In a future update were planning on adding in-game tips during times like loading or respawning. If you have any ideas about topics we should cover or where new players could use additional advice, please let us know either by making a comment below or emailing us here: Team@leafygames.com Thanks!

Changes


  • Fire-killer grenades no longer have an effect on reactor temperatures.
  • Tweaked various stats regarding the ThermoCore reactor, which reduce its heat output and help make the reactor more manageable.
  • The ThermoCore reactors stat for output references its maximum output now.
  • Heat output now affects core stability. More output will cause more instability when the reactor is in critical temperatures.
  • Overclocking now affects core stability. An overclocked reactor will cause more instability when the reactor is in critical temperatures.


Fixes

  • Fixed some issues with secured games that could cause connection issues in some rare circumstances. Could prevent clients from joining a game until the client was restarted and cause the host to drop a game if a player who was previously the host joined them.
  • Fixed an issue with private games that could cause some desync issues for some clients.
  • Fixed an issue with the character customization menu not properly displaying the page arrows.


Thanks for your time and feedback! We hope everyone stays safe and warm this season!

Happy Holidays,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-12-20 20:24:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 26.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Devlog 84: [previewyoutube=HpWTfk0UCv0;full][/previewyoutube]

Beta 26.4 is out now! This update includes a few new additions as well as some fixes.
Weve added a new Sector Commander, the Deathwarden which can be found in W.D. Space. Its flagged as an enemy to all, so WD crews can attack it without losing rep.

Weve also added the ability for Engineers to overclock their reactor. This instantly increases the amount of output the reactor has but also builds heat very quickly. Were interested to hear what you have to say!

Besides those weve also added a few other things and tweaked a few more.

Additions


  • Added new system to allow captains to reclaim their ship (in the event it was stolen or unclaimed in any way) without having it become flagged.
  • Added an Overclock option to the reactor screen. This greatly boosts the reactors potential output but also increases heat output significantly. Should only be used with coolant or it will overheat your reactor very quickly.
  • New Sector Commander: The Deathwarden: A larger, more violent deathseeker that is constantly emitting overcharge and comes equipped with lighting turrets and a slowly repairing hull.
  • Combat Levels: Ships in the game now have an estimated combat level which is calculated by comparing all of the ships installed components. You can identify a ships combat level if your sensor rating is high enough, and you can see your own ships combat level by examining your own ship through the sensor screen. These ratings are estimations solely based on ship components, and dont consider talents or other factors.
  • New Ship Component: Deathwarden Hull - Unique to the Deathwarden, has hull repairing tech.


Changes

  • Made some tweaks to the Starmap for VR players
  • The Healing Beam Rifle now uses ammo and heals quicker
  • Fire Extinguishers no longer cool reactors. When we first added this, we thought it would be a neat secret feature, but since it encourages a playstyle thats not particularly engaging we removed this effect.
  • The Lightning Turrets chance of turning off ships when dealing hull damage has been reduced by half
  • Added some additional ammo clips and Revitalizing Syringes to the Wasted Wing
  • Names / health UI of players tweaked to show crewmember health bars when a healing item is being used. The health bar also now flashes green when healed.
  • Overclocked Null Point Reactor renamed to Reinforced Null Point Reactor
  • Tweaked mission text for WD mission Defend Mining Base, removed one hostile ship, increased credit reward, and increased jump count requirement
  • Chat window text now fades away after a period of idle time, it reappears if a crewmember sends a chat message or the player begins to write one.
  • Tweaked visual effects for Sylvassi Swordship beam attack. Also added sound effects.
  • Internal tooltip system improvements and fixes
  • Certain ship components are now flagged to not drop, these are particularly relevant to the ships they belong to and werent meant to be used by player crews (I.E Super Inertia Thrusters)
  • Tweaked explosion visuals for some handheld guns
  • Tweaked projectile visuals to the Splitshot weapon
  • Tweaked the Default AI priorities: The Engbot a higher priorities for fully starting the ship again before repairing systems
  • Fuel and coolant will now be more expensive at higher chaos levels



Fixes

  • Made some improvements to the kick menu to make it clearer when a kick is also a ban
  • Fixed the ship destruction camera
  • Fixed an issue that could make your player character invisible during class selection
  • Fixed an issue that allowed pilots to use their jetpacks while piloting
  • Fixed an issue with the Caustic Corsair dialog not accepting an exact 5000 credit bribe
  • Fixed a visual issue involving a mesh on the Outrider
  • Fixed a networking issue with Morley Morpaltis ship component store in Cornelia Station
  • Fixed a ship hailing issue related to the Caustic Corsair
  • Players can now atomize research materials while the system is currently researching a new talent
  • Fixed an issue with the ship racing music if the ship was on Green Alert
  • Fixed a few out of bounds issues in the Wasted Wing
  • Fixed a collision issue found on some of the windows of the Outrider
  • Fixed an issue with ships not showing up in some of the UI in some situations
  • Fixed a ship networking issue that caused some ships to rotate and stutter on clients
  • Fixed an issue that could cause enemy ship deaths to register twice
  • Fixed an issue with AI pathing on the snowy terraforming planet
  • Fixed a visual issue on the WD Destroyer
  • Fixed a password window issue that would cause it to incorrectly appear when joining the game lobby
  • Fixed an issue that prevented players from sometimes dropping items on planets
  • Fixed a visual issue with warp that was causing it to not fully show up
  • Fixed a visual issue regarding the Sword attack for the Sylvassi Swordship



Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-12-12 22:31:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 26.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 26.3 is out now! This update includes a few fixes to VR and ship racing! Weve also dropped the rule that crews can only try each Ion Race once. While the previous implementation may have been more realistic, this way is more convenient and less prone to misunderstandings.

Besides that, weve also made some large changes to how Steam VR bindings work. The default bindings for both the Vive and Rift controllers have been updated, and players should now be able to use the Steam controller configuration system to quickly customize their bindings. Weve also made bindings for the Index, though we dont currently have knuckle controllers to test them on, so we cant entirely vouch for them. That being said, players using the Index should be able to customize those bindings however they wish.

Additions


  • Added some additional information regarding kicks and bans (as well as how to reverse them) in the kick confirmation menu
  • Crews can now re-try the Ion Races after losing. They can retry by reloading a save made during the race or leaving the sector and returning.
  • Added the ability to activate personal cloak for Sylvassi characters in the Order (Z) menu


Changes

  • Tweaked the Interceptors shower doors so that they open further away, and its less likely for players to run through them
  • Changed the position of the captains log screen on the Interceptor so its action prompt doesnt interfere with the captains locker action prompt
  • Made some changes to what information loads first when a level is loaded.
  • Tweaked turret rotation math to possibly yield smoother results in certain circumstances
  • Tweaked the default VR control bindings and removed some legacy requirements from the system



Fixes

  • Fixed a dialogue issue with an NPC in Outpost 448
  • Fixed an issue on the storm planet regarding creatures in a zero oxygen environment
  • Fixed an issue with research materials spawning beneath a terrain on the kiln seed mission planet
  • Fixed an issue with the Balmy Gloom objects on toxic planet 1
  • Fixed a missing material in Dutains Garage (Race 1)
  • Fixed an issue involving saves made on the racing levels not loading properly
  • Fixed an issue that would reset the player ship mid race if a player joined the game
  • Fixed a VR camera issue with the new dialogue windows
  • Fixed a VR issue with the player character model showing up when the Tab menu opens
  • Fixed a few issues that might have caused some voice chat problems
  • Fixed an issue that might have been causing warp drives to show incorrect range when loading a save
  • Fixed an issue with damage tracking that caused runs to be flagged as not eligible for the Pacifist achievement when the player ship had not dealt any damage
  • Fixed a VR issue that prevented players from navigating the Starmap
  • Fixed an issue related to tracking and networking mission objectives for players joining ongoing games
  • Fixed a networking issue with long range dialogue, mission dialogue and objectives during initial ship syncs
  • Fixed a visual error related to certain mission objectives requiring crews to visit planets


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-11-30 21:23:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 26.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 26.2 is out now! It seems weve forgotten to mention one of the other additions we made to the game when Beta 26 first came out. Well add it here.

You can manage your ban list much easier now by going into your game settings and clicking the manage bans button. If you kick someone and want them to rejoin your game, youll need to go to this menu and remove their name from the list.

Additions


  • Controls menu will now open SteamVR bindings window to allow for those controls to be customized in VR


Changes

  • Tweaked the location of the Ship Component upgrade station on the Interceptor. Its now to the right of the status screen in the cargo area, which may make it easier to find.
  • Raised credit reward for WD mission Remove Obstructions


Fixes

  • Fixed a small visual issue with the virus shop interior
  • Fixed an issue with Outpost 448 NPC Wilta Trems dialog range
  • Fixed an issue with missing materials in a general shop
  • Fixed some issues with floating assets on purple storm planet
  • Fixed an issue with a floating object in space in first artifact planet sector
  • Fixed an invisible NPC (Silaya Ovon) in Cornelia Station
  • Fixed an issue with Outpost 448 NPC Ghogran Varseils dialog
  • Fixed a collision issue on the Long Range Warp Station Interior
  • In-game bug reports should now submit more information (active bindings file, game settings, etc) to help us track down issues faster
  • The report a bug button in the escape menu should now work
  • Fixed some small internal errors being reported by analytics
  • Fixed a minor nav mesh issue found in the CU Command Center
  • Fixed a few lighting issues found across Outpost 448
  • Fixed an issue that could show the outdated SteamVR controllers binding controls / inputs for in-game messages
  • Fixed an issue that would kick bots on the Civilian Ship upon their death
  • Fixed an issue on the Civilian Ship where the respawn timer wouldnt start at the appropriate time



Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-11-25 23:52:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 26.1 Release Notes

Hey Everyone!

Beta 26.1 is out now! Its mostly focused on fixing a few of the bug reports that have come in.
Thanks for sending in those reports and for giving us your feedback!

Additions


  • Added some additional floor props to the Interceptor


Changes

  • QDI processors now have a limit of 10 activations per sector. This was added because the new programs which were added in Beta 26.0 could cause an infinite loop of activations.
  • Tweaked the lighting on the Interceptor
  • Tweaked ship flight AI to be more comfortable for players using turrets in some situations


Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that would occasionally make crewmembers invisible on Waste Planet 2
  • Fixed a bug that would occasionally make crewmembers invisible on Barren Planet 2
  • Fixed an issue with a floating asset on planet with crashed deathseeker
  • Fixed missing materials in CU hub
  • Fixed an issue with missing assets in CU hub
  • Fixed an issue with missing mesh colliders at the bandit cave base planet
  • Fixed a missing materials issue with Automated Trading Station Interiors
  • Fixed an issue regarding Racing sectors not properly showing up after loading a save or resetting the galaxy
  • Fixed a minor visual issue relating to turrets on the Interceptor
  • Added a glass collider to the Interceptors reactor
  • Fixed a visual issue where one could see the bridge of the interceptor from another window
  • Fixed issue with infected crawlers not properly dropping from ceiling
  • Fixed an issue that caused projectiles / missiles to not properly cause damage / effects to some ships
  • Fixed an issue with a wandering NPC on the grassy planet in the sundust delivery mission
  • Fixed an issue with player dropped items not being visible in certain situations
  • Fixed an issue involving out-of-date / missing sounds


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-11-22 23:50:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 26 Release Notes

Hey Everyone!

[previewyoutube=PYMe5FO_4uw;full][/previewyoutube]

Beta 26 is out now! This update includes an upgrade to the core game engine, as well as three new ships with unique systems and various ship components! In addition, weve made multiple improvements to VR support!

New Ships: This update is the first where were adding three new ships at the same time. Each of these new ships were crafted with the goal of making them a unique experience.

The first ship is the Nomad 5 produced by SunCircler. This ship is a civilian vessel and wasnt built with heavy combat in mind. Crews who begin in this ship have no faction. They start at chaos level 3 and have sub-par ship components making this ship challenging for players, especially early on.

The second ship is a relic from the Old Wars known as the Interceptor; it has been restored and retrofitted with modern technology, allowing it to properly interact with todays systems. The interceptor is unique because a shield generator cant be installed. Instead crews must utilize one of the ships unique features: field repairs. While its not as economic as going to a repair depot, captains on the Interceptor can use processed scrap to heal the ships hull, even during a fight.

The third ship in this update is also a relic from the Old Wars, only it was a ship on the opposite side of the battles. The Sylvassi Swordship was faithfully restored and retrofitted to be usable today. Its design is very different from the other starting ships and it comes equipped with a unique ability; once per jump the pilot can fire a frontal beam that can deal enormous damage to unsuspecting ships. It works well when used in tandem with the ships cloaking system, and it was feared by humans during the Old Wars. It also comes equipped with a host of new ship components that are uniquely Sylvassi in style.

This update also adds improvements to VR support. While there are still some rough edges, weve tried to take your feedback and our own experiences with the game to improve upon the usability and comfort. Some of the bigger changes weve made are to many of the interactive menus while playing the game, movement controls, and piloting.

Many of the interactive menus are now attached to the motion controllers, allowing players to more easily interact with them. The Main hud is also attached to the two controllers and should hopefully make it more readable and interactable. The offsets of these menus can be adjusted in the vr offsets menu.

Weve added options for snap turning and the ability to customize the degrees in which the camera rotates. Weve also added a toggle function for running which should make the experience more comfortable, especially on the rift.

A note about piloting: By default VR players will be restricted to the Manual Flight mode and the first person camera mode. We have found these to be the most playable and comfortable modes when playing in VR with controllers. For those who dont want these restrictions, its possible to disable them in the VR settings menu, just keep in mind that we dont recommend piloting with those restrictions turned off and that our tweaks to the vr controls have been made with those restrictions in mind.

Besides that, weve added some quality of life changes to the game. A few of them include: the addition of access hatches on Cornelia Station, the Estate and the Roland which help players maneuver those larger spaces faster than before; the talents menu opens to your specific class right away; the dialogue window allows for more text to be displayed; the computer screen shows which programs are currently active.

Weve also done a number of other additions and improvements which you can read more about below. This update has taken longer than we originally anticipated, but we hope the new stuff makes up for the wait.

Additions


  • New Ship Class (The SunCircler Nomad 5 - Economic All-Purpose Space Vehicle) - This ship is intended to provide experienced players with an added challenge. This starting ship begins at chaos level 3 with low-quality ship components and no active faction. This makes early game much more difficult and hopefully provides an engaging challenge to players looking for a harder game. We anticipate crews starting on this ship will tend to avoid all-out conflicts in space until they begin to improve their ship. This ship has only one basic turret slot instead of two, and its startup switchboard is much closer to the bridge which is fairly unusual.
  • New Ship Class (Interceptor - Restored Old Wars Relic) - This ship is a refurbished relic from the Old Wars back when Atriums, Shields and Teleporters were not widely used. This ship has had some of those amenities added, but it doesnt come with a shield generator and its impossible to install one. Its hull is designed to take a beating and can be repaired using scrap while away from a repair depot. Processed scrap can be used to repair the hull even in the middle of a fight! This ship also has a reactor that periodically leaks radiation into the engineering bay.
  • New Ship Class (Sylvassi Swordship - Restored Old Wars Relic) - This ship is a refurbished relic from the Old Wars. It has a cloaking system that charges very quickly, as well as a beam weapon called the Sword than can be activated once per jump by whoever is piloting the ship. It also starts with several new programs.
  • Interceptor Screens - The Interceptor has been retrofitted to use a modern computer OS but the screens are still the authentic monitor-based screens used in the Old Wars. They are older and more utilitarian.
  • New System - Field Repairs for the Interceptor - The captain has the ability to repair the Interceptors hull at any point by consuming processed scrap. 1 processed scrap will repair 100 points of hull. While it may be cheaper to purchase repair at a repair depot, this system allows one to repair the ships hull mid fight.
  • New System - Sword for the Sylvassi Swordship - Powerful front firing beam weapon that the Pilot aims and fires. This weapon can be used once per jump and is very taxing on reactors, often accumulating lots of heat during the firing process. Its potential for ambush tactics made it feared among humans during the Old Wars.
  • New System - Locked Ship Components - These ship components cant be uninstalled, sold or swapped. They can, however, be upgraded. If a ship component is locked its usually a special part of the ship or intended to be part of a playstyle.
  • New Ship Component - [Warp Drive] Old Wars - Super Jumper - increases warp drive range each time the manual program charge is activated. Resets each jump.
  • New Ship Component - [Hull] Interceptor Hull - Unique to the Interceptor - This hull is exceptionally strong and has unique properties that allow field repairs, yet it isnt compatible with shields.
  • New Ship Component - [Main Turret] Retrofitted Coil Gun - Projectile-based main turret. Originally manufactured during the Old Wars, it has since been refurbished and improved.
  • New Ship Component - [Nuclear Device] Tactical Nuke - Cheaper nukes with smaller blast ranges, ideal for heavy assaults within close / medium range
  • New Ship Component - [Warp Drive] Old Wars Super Jumper - This warp drive will increase its jump range each time a fuel capsule is used at the manual program charging station. This effect resets after each jump.
  • New Ship Component - [Reactor] Leaky Reactor - Powerful reactor that occasionally spews radiation. Label Reads DO NOT USE.
  • New Ship Component - [Shield Generator] Sylvassi Shields - This shield generator has a unique function that increases shield charge rate when shield integrity is above 50%.
  • New Ship Component - [Reactor] Sylvassi Reactor - A competent reactor with a lower maximum temperature.
  • New Ship Component - [Processor] Sylvassi Cyber Defense Processor - A more efficient Cyber Defense Processor.
  • New Ship Component - [Processor] Warp Range Processor - Adds +1 range to the warp drive
  • New Ship Component - [Processor] Research Pipeline Module - Adds one fuel capsule whenever a new talent is researched
  • New Ship Component - [Processor] Improved Defenses - Increases effective hull armor
  • New Ship Component - [Program] Extended Shields - Increases max shields by 80 for 60 seconds
  • New Ship Component - [Program] Quantum Tunnel - Advances the current research track by 1 step
  • New Ship Component - [Program] Burst AV - Removes one random active hostile virus from the ship
  • New Ship Component - [Program] Random Access - Fully recharges one random uncharged program
  • New Ship Component -[Program] Sylvassi Capacitor - Provides 5 warp program charges on execution
  • New Ship Component - [Cloaking System] Sylvassi Cloaking System - More power efficient cloaking system
  • New Ship Component - [Processor] Warp Range Processor - Increases warp drive range
  • New Sector - The Processor Shop - Sells a large selection of ship processors
  • New Sector - The Program Shop - Sells a large selection of programs
  • New Sector - The Virus Shop - Sells a large selection of viruses
  • New Sector - The Sylvassi Shop - Sells various Sylvassi related ship components
  • New Talent - Turret Cooling Optimizations - (Weapon Specialist) +5% to crew turret cooling rate per rank (5 ranks)
  • New Talent - Turret Cooling Optimizations - (Engineer) +5% to crew turret cooling rate per rank (5 ranks)
  • Cornelia Station now has Access Hatches that lead to deeper parts of the station and back to the teleporters.
  • The Estate now has Access Hatches that lead to various parts of the ship as well as back to the teleporters. It also now has a repair depot available in the sector
  • Added Forward Spotlight on the Carrier
  • Added Forward Spotlight on Roland
  • Added Forward Spotlight on Outrider
  • Added Forward Spotlight on Destroyer
  • Added Forward Spotlight on Fluffy One
  • Added visual space particles to the Carrier, Fluffy One, and Caustic Corsair ships. These particles help illustrate ship movement.
  • Added a colored border to current selected ship when starting a game. This should help signify which ship is selected and the color illustrates that ships faction.
  • The game settings now have a way to toggle sprinting instead of requiring the sprint button to be held continuously.


VR

  • Upgraded internal VR plugins
  • UI tweak - The right and left sides of the HUD are now paired to the right and left controllers. Players can adjust the offsets of these in the VR Setting Menu under Offsets.
  • UI tweak - The Tab Menu is now attached to a VR controller. This should make it quicker and more intuitive to use the menu.
  • UI tweak - The Escape Menu is now attached to a VR controller.
  • UI tweak -The Z menu is now attached to a VR controller
  • UI tweak - The NPC dialogue window is now attached to a VR controller
  • UI tweak - The store window for both Items and Ship Components are now attached to a Controller.
  • The Z menu has new option to reset VR orientation and Skip Warp
  • The controller bindings for Steam VR have been updated to Steams new binding system. This should make it easier to customize controller support or build support for other VR controllers
  • Added a Snap Rotate option in the VR menu. There is also a setting for customizing the degree of each snap step.
  • Fixed an issue with action prompts being rendered behind objects
  • Fixed an issue when VR players playing under the roomscale settings would zero out their perspective when attempting to reset their orientation
  • Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented VR players from being able to process scrap
  • Piloting in VR has been tweaked - Its now set to a first person perspective with manual controls, this, from our experience is the most usable setup for VR players
  • Drop Down Menus should be working better in VR
  • Fixed an issue regarding your player characters image moving around during class selection
  • VR players can toggle sprint (as mentioned above)
  • Ships log should work better in VR
  • VR now responds to the games graphics settings
  • The Motion, Healing and Damage vignette strengths have been reduced
  • Improved the look of the vr controllers in game


Changes

  • The Dialogue Window for interacting with characters has been greatly tweaked, allowing for more text to be displayed but also (when the camera permits) better shows the individual youre currently talking to.
  • Opening the talents menu should now show the talents for your current class
  • The Roland-class starship now has two access hatches to make travel to the teleporter and cargo room faster from the bridge
  • Multiple space backgrounds have been tweaked, they should be slightly brighter.
  • Nuclear devices updated across the board. Overall cheaper and slightly lower ranges / damage
  • Programs on the scientist computer screen now show when they are active (if applicable)
  • Chaos level increases from ship destruction and warping is now half of previous values
  • Barrage program - increased active time from 8 to 15 seconds. Decreased boost amount from 50% to 35%
  • Updated Abandoned Station: added lighting, added more props and pickups, tweaked materials, tweaked mission text, lowered buy-in for AOG crews
  • Updated Cryogenics Station: added lighting, added more props and pickups, edited text for Alosius Grec and Yiria Sali, decreased credit reward, fixed an issue with the turrets not attacking properly
  • The cryo chamber cargo assets have been updated with the current character models
  • Updated WD Toxic Waste Mission Planet: tweaked materials, tweaked Reese Novos dialog, raised credit reward, fixed pathing issue with station interior
  • Updated Rocky Plains Mission Planet: changed lighting on planet and station interior, tweaked materials, added more props and pickups, edited Kirod Ennishs dialog, decreased credit reward and removed reputation reward
  • All installed nuclear devices now increase the intimidation rating of dialogue choices
  • Armored drone modifier now boosts hull armor less than before
  • The default flight and camera mode for new players or those who reset settings are Manual and Hybrid, this can still be changed at any time while piloting by pressing X and Y respectively
  • Captains Waypoints should not only be more accurate when determining the fastest route, but also update faster. Curren players who are still syncing galaxy data may not see the waypoints until its all synced however. (1-2 minutes)
  • The scrapyard is now listed on the Starmap legend
  • Weve made some tweaks to how armor scales and how it affects damage reduction, this should allow armor to play a better role when reducing damage for particularly bit hits
  • Sensor readout now shows Ship Type instead of GX ID
  • The ARX-TGT processor now also provides a turret cooling bonus in addition to turret damage
  • Reactor coolant is now more effective when cooling turrets
  • Turrets now cool down faster after overheating
  • The WD Destroyers screen type was changed to the WD style
  • Starting WD Destroyers now begin with a WD classic Captains Chair
  • WD Destroyer no longer have the boost to turret damage
  • WD Destroyers Armor bonus is now +25% instead of 50%
  • The WD Destroyers hull is now locked
  • The WD Destroyers reactor now begins with a slightly weaker reactor
  • Tweaked the starting orientation of ships in the Estate Sector to a more interesting view


Fixes

  • Player names should not appear if they are in different areas (i.e. different interiors)
  • Fixed a networking issue regarding Scrapyards
  • Fixed a teamspeak issue regarding game names with more than 18 characters. The game should limit the names properly
  • Fixed a few fire issues found on the Intrepid and the Roland
  • Fixed a room culling issue found on the Roland
  • The in-game bug reporting system should be improved
  • Fixed a few small visual issues on the WD Annihilator
  • Tweaked a visual issue found on the Carrier
  • Fixed a few symmetry issues that were reported
  • Fixed an issue regarding fires not being visible due to culling reasons
  • Fixed a character head flicker issue
  • Fixed a lighting issue regarding The Estates thruster lights
  • Fixed a pathing issue found on one of the cave planets
  • Fixed a screen culling issue found near the bridge of the Roland
  • Fixed a pathing issue found on WD Base Planet
  • Fixed missing collision in Dutains Garage race sector
  • Fixed missing materials in Sylvassi Cypher Lab
  • Fixed missing materials on red dunes planet
  • Fixed floating assets on artifact planets
  • Fixed issue with temperature on artifact planet 3
  • Fixed floating asset on Fluffy One ship
  • Fixed an issue that might have been causing false positives with an in-game security method
  • Added a small change to potentially help an issue regarding bots occasionally firing through walls
  • Fixed an nav mesh issue found in the cargo area of Fluffy One
  • Fixed a potential networking issue regarding the Atomizer
  • Fixed an issue regarding bots occasionally becoming invisible when playing Liars Dice
  • Fixed an AI issue regarding the Weapbot on the Carrier
  • Fixed a potential issue that might occasional prevent fires from starting on the Carrier
  • Fixed a networking issue regarding players entering and exiting interiors
  • Fixed a bug that would occasionally render players invisible if they died on a separate ship
  • Fixed a few minor errors found on some abandoned ships which may have been leading to some issues
  • Fixed an issue with nukes when they were not manually detonated
  • Fixed a pathing issue at the Grey Huntsmen station
  • Fixed a minor visual issue on one of the cave planets


Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-11-21 22:11:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 26 Preview

Hey everyone!

We wanted to give an update on some of what weve been working on. Were in the process of upgrading the version of Unity we use as well as many of the plugins and libraries used for development. This should set us up for better performance and compatibility as we get closer to release. We have also been working on a lot of new content, some of which will be part of Beta 26.

This update is taking longer than expected and it will still be a while longer before its ready for release, but we wanted to at least provide some info on what will likely be in Beta 26:

New ships and components! We are developing 3 new starting ships for Beta 26. This will include a civilian ship that could provide a fresh challenge for experienced crews. In addition, two artifact ships from the Old Wars will soon be uncovered! While these will be available to play upon release of Beta 26, later they may need to be unlocked in order to play them.

Beta 26 will include a core engine upgrade, were moving from Unity 2017.4 LTS to 2018.4 LTS. This brings us the latest bug fixes and features from Unity. Were experimenting with some new rendering systems and scripting runtimes to improve performance and compatibility. In addition, weve updated and reconfigured plugins that needed the new version.



Were working on some improvements to the VR experience. Were updating to newer versions of the SteamVR and Oculus SDKs to better support newer hardware and VR features. Were adding support for SteamVR Input to better support all types of controllers and easy rebinding through the Steam client. VR players with motion controllers will have overhauled menus that better utilize both hands and are more fun to use!

The voice chat system has been partially reworked to allow for more options. Youll be able to select separate capture and playback devices just for voice chat. It will also remember the preferred devices more accurately than before.



Other improvements include a redesigned dialogue window for interacting with NPCs and an additional pass to update some planets and missions. This update will also fix a number of reported issues and introduce a few new quality of life additions.

Weve also been working on the Academy (the games tutorial which goes over the basics of operating a ship and filling each class role) and the Lost Colony itself (which is the end-game scenario)! These wont be ready for Beta 26, but they will very likely be appearing in the next couple updates.

Thanks for your time and patience!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-09-13 00:08:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 25 Release Notes - Planet Pass / Sylvassi Cyphers

Hey everyone!

Devlog #82: https://youtu.be/oTf5-iNH-hI

Beta 25 is out now! This update focuses primarily on improving the planets currently in the game. We did this by adding additional details, more enemy variety, and more rewards for exploring. Some planets only needed a few touch ups while others have been heavily overhauled. Some planets and stations related to missions havent been changed yet, but well be making a pass on them soon. Around 45 planets have been worked on for this update.

Part of the planet pass was adding additional rewards for exploring them, to do this weve added a few new pickup types that you can find planetside. We have Fuel - which adds 1 additional fuel capsule to your ship supply. We have Credsticks, which of course add credits to the ship account, we also have Experience pickups, which may be a little harder to find, these add 1 additional XP point to your crew experience!

This update also adds an additional method for acquiring a Lost Colony Data Fragment (reminder: the Lost Colony hasnt been added yet). The new method involves exploring planets and discovering ancient Sylvassi structures known as Cyphers. Each of these ancient ruins contains a cryptic puzzle that the crew can work together to solve. We dont want to give too many details away, but we tried to design a puzzle that could benefit from teamwork and communication while also being possible if youre playing solo. The complexity of the puzzle increases based on the number of human players in the session.The Sylvassi Cypher Lab on your starmap is a great place to head to get started!

This update also contains unlockable uniforms! These new looks work the same way as the other cosmetic features but can help add a bit more character. Many of the uniforms allow color tweaks to further player customization!

Additionally, this update contains some changes to how starship turrets operate. They now use a heat-based system similar to how the hand-held weapons work. This allows crewmembers manning turrets to potentially fire their turrets faster than before, but with the added risk that if they fire too much too fast the turrets could overheat and be unusable for a short time. The turrets will cool faster if the engineer is using coolant. We believe this change allows for a bit more agency in the turret seat.

Additions
- New Item Pickup Type: Fuel - Picking up this fuel capsule will add 1 to your ships fuel supply.
- New Item Pickup Type: Experience - Picking this up will add 1 point to your crews experience.
- New Item Pickup Type: Credstick - Picking this up will add a handful of credits to your ship account.
- New Item Pickup Type: Credstick Pile - This pile of credsticks will add several hundred credits to your ship account.
-New Cosmetic Item Type: Uniform - You can now switch which uniform you wear. Faction restrictions have been removed and several new options are available. Some uniforms allow players to modify up to two of the uniforms colors.
-New Uniform (Human Male and Female): C.U. Vice Admiral - Unlocked when 250 levels are earned playing as the Colonial Union faction.
-New Uniform (Human Male and Female): W.D. Vice Admiral - Unlocked when 250 levels are earned playing as the W.D. Corp.
-New Uniform (Human Male and Female): Lab Coat - Unlocked when 100 levels are earned playing as a Scientist.
-New Uniform (Human Male and Female): Civilian Clothes (Striped) - Unlocked after 25 levels earned
-New Uniform (Human Male and Female): Civilian Clothes (Solid Colors) - Unlocked after completing 60 Jumps.
-New Uniform (Human Male and Female): Civilian Clothes (Variant) - Unlocked after 200 levels earned
-New Uniform (Human Male and Female): Civilian Clothes with Robot Hand and Foot - Unlocked after 180 levels earned
-New Uniform (Human Male): Civilian Clothes with Robot Arm - Unlocked after 125 Levels Earned
-New Uniform (Human Male): Civilian Clothes with Robot Leg - Unlocked after 25 Crew Deaths
-New Uniform (Human Female): Civilian Clothes with Robot Leg and Arm - Unlocked after earning 220 levels
-New Uniform (Robot): Body Type 2 - Unlocked after earning 100 levels.
-New Uniform (Sylvassi) Ancient Sylvassi Suit - Unlocked after completing the Sylvassi Cypher Lab Quest.
-New Quest Item: Ancient Sylvassi Tablet
-New Sector: Sylvassi Cypher Lab - Shown on the Starmap, this sector is the central research base in this galaxy for the study of Sylvassi Cyphers and ancient Sylvassi culture.
-New Steam Achievement: Cypher Master - Gained from completing the Sylvassi Cypher Mission.


Changes
-Ship turrets now generate heat when fired and can overheat. This works similarly to how guns work on foot. Using reactor coolant applies to all turrets onboard, causing them to cool down faster depending on the coolant pump speed. Turrets can overall fire faster than before but turret operators will need to consider the heat buildup over time. Turrets operating themselves will manage their heat automatically but wont fire over 60% heat, limiting their usefulness compared to a manned turrets damage potential.
-Some of the turrets found in the game have had their stats adjusted to compensate for the change mentioned above.
-Planet Pass - Many planets have undergone many changes, from optimizing the levels, adding additional details, new rewards, more enemy variety and more!

Fixes
-Fixed a collision issue found inside KOWZ Retreat
-Fixed a visual issue found within KOWZ Retreat
-Fixed a few texture seam issues found on the Forsaken Flagship and a toxic planet
-Fixed an exception found in the racing sectors
-Ships can no longer warp to invisible sectors (sectors that havent been unlocked yet)
-Fixed a bug regarding armor for the Destroyer, armor flaw and shutdown defense
-Fixed an issue with non-Captain players potentially having a minor performance issue due to the AI priorities system
-Fixed a syncing issue related to the Sandshark
-Fixed an issue regarding ship fires not spawning correctly

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-07-08 22:45:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 24 - 24.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Devlog 81: https://youtu.be/ONTZWHxwDCM

Beta 24 is now out! The main focus for this update is Steam integration and some ship combat variety!

To start off, the game now supports new features when playing on Steam.

Weve added support for Steam friends including the ability to directly join a friends game and invite other players into your crew through Steam. You can also see information about a friend (role and crew level) in the Steam friends list while they are playing.

When logged into Steam, the host can now optionally start a Secured Game, which offers some additional account-based features for crews. This allows in-game kicks to be more permanent, and the game lobby shows you games where your friends are playing as well as games where people who you have blocked or previously kicked are playing. You can now also add your crewmates as Steam friends via the Tab menu.

Steam achievements can now be earned. Some of these may be immediately achieved based on your previous statistics, but others will not. Were starting with 26 achievements and well likely be adding more as we continue to develop the remaining parts of the game.

Steam Cloud Support allows saves, progress data, AI priorities and input bindings information to be saved on the cloud so they can be accessed on a different computer.

As for ship combat variety, we have added quite a few more enemy ship modifiers for unmanned drones. The modifiers change various aspects of the enemy ships and stats. For example, ships with the irradiated modifier can impart radiation into your ship when they deal hull damage, and ships with the corrupted modifier continually broadcast the corruption virus and can attack ships of the same faction. Some of the other new modifiers are negative modifiers that weaken enemy stats, which we hope adds another layer of decision making to the fight.

The negative modifiers are more likely to exist near the lower chaos levels to help keep the difficulty curve from being too harsh. Weve also taken the time to rename the drones in the game. While the previous names were practical, we thought there was additional room for variation. Additionally, faction-specific drones have slight differences between them.

We will be working on an issue with bot pathfinding for a hotfix in the near future. A content / polish pass of planets is planned for Beta 25.


Additions
- Steam Friends: You can now join games from the friends list. As host, you can invite friends to your crew from the friends list, and you can add friends in-game through the Tab menu. Additionally, friends of the host do not need to type in the correct password to join their private game.
- Secured Games: Hosts can pick the secured game option when starting or loading a game. Secured games enable Steam account-based online features like friends, persistent kicks as well as viewing which games in the lobby have friends or people you have kicked previously. Secured games require players to be playing through Steam in order to join.

NOTE 1: Secured games are also susceptible to Steam activity (if it goes down for maintenance, then secured games will too).The normal game mode is still available for those not playing on Steam, and Steam players can join normal games.

NOTE 2: Kicking a player in a secured group will block them from all future games you host. If you wish to undo this you must find their steam ID and remove it from the Blocked IDs section of your settings.xml file. Alternatively you can just delete the entire settings file and it will reset all blocked Steam IDs.

- Steam Cloud Support: Support for saves, progress data, AI priorities, and bindings files
- New Drone Class: Drone Overseer - This drone can coordinate field repairs to other drones in the sector mid-fight. The other ships will need to lower their shields for a brief period of time in order to receive the repair, which opens up a window for your crew to deal some direct hull damage!
- New Drone Modifier: Corrupted - Continuously broadcasts the Corruption virus. It also attacks any ship it detects regardless of faction. It is also flagged so no reputation loss with occur if you defend yourself.
- New Drone Modifier: Irradiated - When a ship with this modifier deals hull damage to your ship, it imparts radiation inside your ship.
- New Drone Modifier: Legendary - This ship is a better version of the Elite modifier. Its ship components are better and finely tuned. Be careful when choosing to fight a ship with this modifier.
- New Drone Modifier: Secure - A ship with this modifier has a much higher cyberdefense and can resist being infected with viruses very well.
- New Drone Modifier: Vulnerable - This ship has armor and shield weaknesses, both are reduced by 50%
- New Drone Modifier: Neglected - A ship with this modifier hasnt been maintained in a while and its starting to show. Turret damage and charge speeds are reduced by 50%.
- New Drone Modifier: Brutal - A ship with this modifier is finely tuned to deal as much damage as possible.
- New Drone Modifier: Frozen - surrounded by cooling gas which helps manage its heat, if you fly very close you might also benefit from the effect.
- New NPC: The Sylvassi Skiah has a structure set up in Cornelia Station in the hopes of getting daring crews to take out some Sector Commanders.
- New Mission: Defeat 3 Sector Commanders - Assigned by Skiah in Cornelia Station. This offers a few rewards, one of which will be a Lost Colony Data Fragment when implemented.


Steam Achievements
- Steam Achievements: Now possible to unlock. The game has 26 achievements listed below:
- Veteran Crew: Reach Crew Level 25
- Galaxy In Chaos: Reach Chaos Level 6
- The Wasted Wing: Complete the Colonial Union faction mission line
- Call of The Void: Defeat the Vuurog
- The Swarm: Defeat the Swarm
- Researcher: Research 10 talents
- Pacifist: Reach crew level 10 without dealing any damage
- The Madmans Mansion: Complete the Alliance of Gentlemen faction mission line
- Dice Champion: Win a game of Liars Dice
- Hold Still: Heal 5,000 hit points on your allies
- The Grim Cutlass: Defeat the Grim Cutlass
- The Great Biscuit Race: Win the Fluffy Biscuit sales competition
- The Forsaken Flagship: Complete the W.D. Corporation faction mission line
- The Ancient Sentry: Defeat the Ancient Sentry
- Extortionist: As captain, extort 25 ships
- Explorer: Make 150 jumps
- Diplomat: As captain, pacify 25 hostile ships
- Seeking Death: Defeat a deathseeker
- The Caustic Corsair: Defeat the Caustic Corsair
- Leap of Faith: Blind jump 5 times in a single game
- Biscuit Madness: secret
- Master Chef: Perfectly cook 5 biscuits in a row
- Big Spender: Spend 100,000 credits in a single game
- Sandscarred: Win the Sandscar Arena
- No Questions Asked: Complete Rumibard Wargers artifact collection missions
- First Place: Win the Ion Races

Changes
- Renamed common drone ships in galaxy based on faction owner:
- C.U. Scout Drone >>> C.U. Ranger
- C.U. Security Drone >>> C.U. Guardian
- C.U. Tactical Drone >>> C.U. Arbiter
- W.D. Scout Drone >>> W.D. Scout
- W.D. Security Drone >>> W.D. Warrior
- W.D. Tactical Drone >>> W.D. Vindicator
- Bandit Scout Drone >>> Bandit Clunker
- Bandit Security Drone >>> Bandit Ripper
- Bandit Tactical Drone >>> Bandit Marauder
- C.U. Ranger, W.D. Scout and the Bandit Clunker have a chance to have obsolete hulls, making them easier to defeat.
- Bandit specific drones will generally have stronger sensors, be harder to detect, and move slightly faster.
- CU specific drones will generally have 15% faster charging shields.
- WD specific drones will generally have stronger weapons with 15% more damage.
- Research materials from probes can now be any type.
- Other ships you encounter can now be damaged when you first encounter them.
- UI tweaks - Enemy health bars should be easier to differentiate from allies.
- The above-player crew health bars have been removed, although you can see information about their health if you have a hand-held scanner equipped.
- Load game UI has been tweaked
- Drone modifiers are much more likely to appear
- Significant tweaks to how enemy ship components are leveled up as chaos increases, the result should be certain ship components spike up in level more often while the average component level is the same



Fixes
- Spreadshot turret should be firing in a proper spread now
- Sensor screen tweaks to help prevent incorrect order of UI elements especially when scanning for components
- Heal grenade launcher model updated
- Fixed an issue regarding autosaves
- Fixed an issue that caused Fluffy Biscuit mission Deliver Biscuits to Restricted CU Site 881 to fail upon start
- Fixed a collision issue found in the Caretakers room on the Estate.
- Fixed a collision issue found on the abandoned robot factory planet
- Fixed a texture error found on the abandoned robot factory planet
-The Compare Ship Components shop menu now correctly shows a decrease in min shield integrity as a positive and an increase in Min for QT shields as a negative.


Beta 24.1 Release Notes

Beta 24.1 is now out! This addresses some of the early feedback and reports we received so far from Beta 24. As always, thanks for your feedback and suggestions!

Changes
- You can now change your in-game online player name when logged into Steam. In the game options you can type whatever name you want to appear in game and it should work in secured games. If you want to use your steam handle you can leave the field blank.

Fixes
- Destroying unclaimed ships now doesnt cause reputation loss
- Hunt The Resolution mission should no longer cause rep loss


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-05-31 16:55:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 23 Release Notes - The Madman's Mansion

Hey everyone!

Devlog #80: https://youtu.be/VSGxyV4WVks

Beta 23 is now live! Its mainly focused on adding end game content for the Alliance of Gentlemen faction. In these new missions, your crew will be stealing cargo from a W.D. transport ship, breaking a prisoner out of a secure prison, and gathering equipment in order to pull off a heist in the mansion of the notorious businessman Torsten Rowe.

In addition to the new content, we also added penalties and bonuses to player death. Your maximum health will now degrade each time you respawn. Conversely, each jump you make will increase your maximum health and can even surpass what you started with.

We made an additional pass on a few of the currently implemented Sector Commanders. The two that received the biggest changes were the Grim Cutlass and the Ancient Sentry. You can read more about the changes below!

This update concludes the faction-specific end game content that we have planned. There will be a handful of other non-faction related ways in which youll be able to gain Lost Colony Data fragments, which well be adding in the near future. Were excited to hear feedback on the new content as well as the other additions. Thank you for any reports!


Faction Specific Additions (potential spoiler warning!)
-New Sector: WD Transport - A W.D. ship holding cargo and flanked by armored security drones
-New Sector: Hollow Rock - Secret CU prison sector for especially dangerous prisoners
-New Sector: Old Factory - Abandoned robot factory
-New Sector: Torsten Rowes Estate - The Madmans Mansion
-New Area: The Captains Quarters on the Estate
-New Planetside Enemy: Downed Protector - A massive creation, luckily its already defeated...
-New Planetside Enemy: Guard Drone - Teleporters guards to its location if it spots intruders
-New Planetside Enemy: Assassin Bot - This entity can be slowed, but not stopped entirely.
-New Item: The P.U.N.T. Chip - A missioned related item
-New Item: Estate Access Card - Grants access to the Captains Quarters on the Estate
-New Mission: Open Call - Given through long range comms (requires AOG faction, crew level 3 minimum)
-New Mission: Break Out Conrad - Given by NPC the Caretaker in the Captains Quarters of the Estate (requires mission Open Call completed and related quest component in cargo)
-New Mission: Investigate Prison Cell - Given by NPC Saliki in the Captains Quarters of the Estate (requires mission Break Out Conrad to be in progress)
-New Mission: Retrieve Robot Head - Given by NPC Conrad in the Captains Quarters of the Estate (requires mission Break Out Conrad completed)
-New Mission: The Madmans Mansion - Given by the Caretaker in the Captains Quarters of the Estate (requires mission Retrieve Robot Head completed)
-Added 4 New Mission NPCs

Additions
-New System: Fluctuating Health - Each time your character dies, their maximum health decreases. If you character does not die in the current sector, their maximum health can increase in small increments upon warping.
-New System: Pin Screens - Screens near security checkpoints. These screens require the correct pin to be entered before they can be unlocked. The pin numbers can be found somewhere within the sector on data pads or memos.
-New System: Limited Teleportation Dock - You can teleport into certain restricted stations only if your ship is located within a specific area.
-New System: Mission Status Toggle - Allows us to show or hide different elements in a level based on the status of a specific mission
-New Item: Revitalizing Syringe - Using this consumable item will not only fully heal you, but will also increase your maximum HP to its highest possible state.
-New Sound Effects: Robot and Sylvassi will sound appropriate when damaged
-Captains can now target destroyable space objects. They appear on the top-right corner as condensed versions of normal ship targets.
-New Ship Component: CU Long Range (tweaked) - The Grim Cutlass has modified this main turret.


Changes
-Captains can move cargo to other cargo slots (including hidden cargo slots) without having to be near a repair depot.
-Enemy AI Aiming has been tweaked. They are slightly less accurate and sometimes take longer before shooting / in between shots.
-Enemy AI weapon distribution has been altered. They are less likely to be equipped with the really powerful weapon varieties.
-AI behavior for Repel Invaders and Defend Self (Ship) has been improved. AI will now begin to search for potential intruders.
-Enemy AI crews will now have talents randomly applied to them.
-AI movement has been tweaked
-Updated default AI priorities regarding the Defend Self (Ship) behavior. This is a slight tweak and wont give a prompt to players to reset to default AI priorities.
-The Grim Cutlass now has improved shields and upgraded cyberdefense. Its crew has also been given upgrades.
-The Grim Cutlasss crew now starts with better weapons.
-The Caustic Corsair has had its toxic interior effect removed.
-The Ancient Sentrys EMP ability has been replaced with an overcharge generator in its core.
-The Ancient Sentry now has two destroyable systems embedded in its hull. The first system allows the Ancient Sentry to repair itself over time. The second system allows it to fire missiles. Destroying each system will prevent the Ancient Sentry from performing that specific ability.
-The jump count restriction for the W.D. mission Weapon Demonstration has been removed. This allows crews to leave and revisit once they are a higher level / better equipped without the mission failing.
-Targeting drop-down option in the TAB menu for captains has been changed to two options: Auto-target and clear target. You can still click on the ships directly in the upper right to target them individually.
-Tweaked the current ship target visuals
-Decreased likelihood of cargo inspections. They should no longer be assigned until chaos level 3, and they should also be rarer.
-Heavy Pistol has been tweaked, it fires slower and does a bit less damage
-Elite versions of humanoid enemies have had a few tweaks

Fixes
-Fixed an issue with extracting special components, now preventing them from also dropping when the same ship is destroyed
-Fixed a naming issue with the I.M.P.A.C.T. prototype.
-Fixed a few issues occuring on BSOs (boardable space objects - stations with windows)
-Improved the networking on missiles exploding in space
-Fixed animation issue that could result in characters repeatedly playing the death animation based on where they died.
-The language filter should produce fewer false positives.
-Improved visuals for Burst Rifle
-Automated Trading Station shopkeepers should now be easier to talk to in certain situations
-Fixed a lighting issue on the W.D. Cruiser
-Fixed crew bot issue that broke their ability to navigate the ship after they play Liars Dice
-Fixed a sound issue on the Ant Colony Planet

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-05-08 18:11:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 22 Release Notes / "The Forsaken Flagship"

Hey everyone!

Devlog #79: https://youtu.be/VIRNC3R83Uo

Beta 22 is now available! It focuses on creating end-game content for the W.D. Corporation Faction. The update includes multiple missions leading up to the climactic Forsaken Flagship mission.

Besides that, weve done a lot of work related to hand-held weapons. The weapons should feel nicer when looking around. Weve also worked on the heavily requested feature of two-handed weapons. All grenade launchers should now come as two-handed weapons, as well as the Burst Pistol (now called the Burst Rifle) and the Hand Cannon (now called the Splitshot).

Weve also reworked weapon ammo by adding an additional feature. You can now reload weapons anywhere as long as you have an ammo clip in your inventory. Holding R will reload the gun you currently have equipped.

An ammo clip will spawn in the ammo crate each time a fuel capsule is consumed (either via jumping or recharging programs). The crate wont store more than one ammo clip so remember to pick them up! This new ammo system has allowed us to rework some of the existing ammo amounts certain guns have, so be on the lookout for those changes as well.

Weve also added the ability to send items directly to other crewmembers. Captains can use this system to better equip their AI bots, and players can use it to send items or resources quickly to one another.

Beta 22 also includes various additions, improvements and fixes!

WD Content (potential spoiler warning!)

-New Mission Sector: WD Weapons Demonstration Area
-New Mission Planet: AOG Secret Hideout
-New Area: WD Control Room (located within WD HQ). Requires special security clearance to access.
-New Mission Sector: The Forsaken Flagship
-New WD Mission: Track Down Security Drone (acquired through long range comms, requires WD rep 5 minimum, crew level 3 minimum, near WD sectors)
-New WD Mission: Weapon Demonstration (acquired through long range comms, requires WD rep 6 minimum, crew level 5 minimum, near WD sectors, mission Track Down Security Drone completed)
-New WD Mission: Planet Bombardment (acquired through long range comms, requires WD rep 7 minimum, crew level 7 minimum, mission Weapon Demonstration completed)
-New WD Mission: Report to Sullivan Vorcolp / The Forsaken Flagship (acquired through long range comms / NPC Sullivan Vorcolp in the WD Headquarters Control Room, requires WD rep 10 minimum, mission Planet Bombardment completed)
-New WD Mission: Additional Tasks (acquired through NPC Oskal Shardes in the WD Headquarters Control Room, requires mission The Forsaken Flagship to be in progress)
-New Weapon Type: Unstable - This weapons upgrade bonus will degrade every few jumps, these normally start at +5 and crews will need to occasional upgrade them if they want to keep that +5 bonus.
-New Weapon (unstable): The W.D. Heavy - Held with two hands. Capable of firing powerful shots at long ranges. If the projectile doesnt kill on impact, the force alone will likely push the target back.
-New Weapon (unstable): The S.P.I.K.E.R. Prototype (Sporadic Point Industrial Kinetic Energy Reducer) - Held with two hands. Creates a field of ice when fired. The ice deals damage to enemies traversing through it, and it also slows them down.
-New Weapon (unstable): The I.M.P.A.C.T Prototype ( Internal Manifold Projection Arc / Combatant Thrower ) Generates a powerful force effect to keep enemies from approaching you.
-New Creature Variant: Adamantine Drones - These creatures have been genetically modified to withstand incredible amounts of damage.
-New Creature Variant: Waste Wasps and Crawlers - These creatures have also been genetically modified to grow bigger and more dangerous.
-New Creature: The Impossibility - A sphere of mysterious force that seems to feed on the bodies of its foes. If an Impossibility kills a crewmember, it will regain some of its health.
-New Creature: Large Infected Crawler - A larger, more imposing version of the Infected Crawler.
-New Creature: Infected WD Crewmembers (Male and Female) - These individuals are lost to the Infected and will attack anyone on sight.
-New Creature: Mindslaver - This large Infected organism instinctually cultivates infections.
-New Creature: Heart of the Ship - This parasite uses a ships own energy source as fuel to grow and spread.
-New Enemy: Bandit - Can be any faction or race
-New Enemy: Elite Bandit - A stronger version of the Bandit.
-New Ship enemy: Infected Drone - A security drone that has been corrupted and controlled by the Infected.
-New Ship Enemy: Infected Fighter - A fully formed Infected Fighter grown from the chassis of an infected drone. It is capable of launching spore pods.
-New Ship Enemy: Infected Grappler - An orgasim that will defend a newly forming infected ship.
-New enemy spawning system - Will occasionally spawn enemies out of sight, which then attack the players. Used on the Forsaken Flagship Mission Scenario.
-Improved Infected Spore Pods - Better about tracking and connecting to ships
-Improved Infected Crawlers - Much better about boarding ships. They also have a proper death animation now.
-9 new NPCs for Weapon Demonstration mission
-6 new NPCs for Planet Bombardment mission
-11 new NPCs for Forsaken Flagship mission
-3 readable logs in AOG Secret Hideout (Planet Bombardment) mission location
-4 readable logs in Forsaken Flagship mission location
-New dialog for some NPCs at W.D. Headquarters in reaction to certain mission completions

Additions

-Two handed weapons have been added. They function similarly to pistols.
-New Ammo System: Guns can now be reloaded on the fly. Pressing and holding [R] will start the reloading process. You must have an ammo clip in your inventory to reload. The ammo clip will be consumed during the process. This only reloads the gun you currently have equipped.
-New Kickback System - will slightly move your aim upwards when firing certain weapons.
-New Item: Ammo Clip - used to reload weapons
-Ammo Clip configured to randomly appear in general stores
-Some Ammo Clips have been added to the Wasted Wing Scenario
-New Ship System: Ammo Drop - By expending a fuel capsule (during a jump or program recharge) an ammo clip will be formed in the ammo crate. Pressing [R] will pick it up.
-New System: Send Item - Players can now send items to other crew members. Sent items will appear in their inventories. Players can send any item they currently have in their inventory. Players can also send items to Bots. The captain can also use this system for bots (you can have a bot send you an item it is currently holding).
-New Notification: You will be notified if an item has been sent to you.
-New Notification: You will be notified when a weapon in your inventory degrades (for unstable weapons)
-New AI Behavior - AI will prioritize the weapons they use in combat based on the numbering in the equip slots (AI will tend to favor a weapon in slot 2 over slot 4).
-New AI behavior - AI will attempt to get better positions during combat

-New sound effects have been added for the new content
-New networking implementation for flight packs. Players in flight should look much smoother and less laggy.
-New additions to internal campaign editor
-Added a visual indicator for voice chat above characters in the world
-New Character Visuals: Male and Female WD Executive Uniform
-New Character Visuals: Male Commander Uniform
-More variation in space backgrounds
-Added a system for the Teleport Screen to display when teleportation locations are obstructed
-New Talents: Quick Reload I & II: General talent to reduce reload time

Changes

-The Heal, Mini, Fire-Killer, Pulse, Repair and Stun Grenade launchers have updated art assets, they are now two-handed weapons.
-First person weapon visuals have been improved, with less movement and wonkiness when looking around.
-First person scanner has also been improved.
-Some weapons can now hold more ammo.
-Pulse Grenade Launcher damage has been reduced
-The Hand Cannon has been changed to the Split-Shot and is now two handed.
-The Burst Pistol has been changed to the Burst Rifle and is now two handed.
-Slightly changed end credits sequence
-Edited dialog of NPC Remhan Zesho at W.D. Headquarters
-WD Hub NPCs should have different dialog if you are not aligned with the WD faction
-Added some more props to the Captains Quarters section of the Estate
-The Burrow, Cornelia Station, Ant Colony, Artifact Planet 4, Bandit Base, Bandit Caves, FB Delivery Mission 2, Cave Planets 1, 2 and 3, Lava Planet 1, Mining Station Planet, and Toxic 3 have gotten some improved textures.
-Some tweaks to Infected Carriers
-Made some tweaks to AI navigation which should help them from getting stuck in certain types of environments
-Tweaked the inventory object system to help show larger items in the display
-Manually charging programs will now also refill ammo supply

Fixes

-Fixed a UI issue related to abandoning missions
-Fixed an issue on the Roland related to equipping auto-turrets from the expanded ship component menu
-Fixed an issue with a WD mission giving Fluffy Biscuit Co. reputation
-Fixed a root motion issue with an NPC in the W.D. hub
-Fixed animation on NPC Bolgath at the Burrow
-Added a credit reward to WD mission Remove Obstructions
-Fixed a collision issue found on the WD Annihilator
-Fixed a lighting issue on the snow observatory planet
-Fixed a bug with dropping and picking up items on ships
-Fixed an issue with a mesh on lava planet 1
-Removed seasonal props from the Roland-Class starship
-Fixed a visual issue when interacting with the Barber station at the WD Hub.

Looking ahead, Beta 23 will include end-game content for the Alliance of Gentlemen Faction, nicknamed The Madmans Mansion!

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-03-27 22:00:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 21.6 - 21.7 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 21.6 is now available! Weve added a few new systems focused on getting us to be more informed as developers. Weve added in an optional analytics system to help us start getting a clearer picture about how the game is played and what we might need to work on more.

Weve also added an in-game bug reporting system which may make the reporting process easier for some. We have a field to include an email address if youd like the possibility of us contacting you with potential workarounds or further questions. Just know that if you dont include an appropriate way for us to respond we may not be able to tell you of known ways to resolve common issues quickly.

Additions
-Added optional analytics to help us be more informed, especially when making balancing decisions
-Added in-game bug reporting via the main menu or escape menu
-Added an option to use a virtual cursor instead of the default hardware option, this is primarily for those having cursor issues like the ones reported on many Linux machines.
-Added an option to abandon missions
-Added a hardware incompatibility menu that can detect a common video card issue and inform the player automatically of a possible workaround

Changes
-Keeper Beam overall damage reduced
-Starmap now shows filled diamonds for visited sectors and unfilled diamonds for unvisited sectors in the galaxy
-Oculus plugin updated for better compatibility with newest versions of Oculus software

Fixes
-Fixed a collision issue found on the WD Cruiser
-Fixed a culling issue found on the WD Cruiser
-Fixed collision and potential root motion issue on storm planet
-Fixed rotated chair on Roland
-Fixed an issue with radiation areas that could cause them to work improperly


Beta 21.7 Release Notes

Beta 21.7 is now available! This fixes a pretty serious bot issue that managed to make it into the previous build. Thanks to those whove been sending in reports!

Fixes
-AI crew bots should no longer start falling and dying when they go out of sight
-Bug reporting menu now should always unlock the cursor so you can use and close it


UPDATE:
Seems like there's an issue starting the game at least for some players. Until we can release the fix you can use the beta_21_5 branch to play on the older known working build as a workaround. You may need to restart Steam to see the new branch which should show in the game's Properties menu under Betas within Steam. Remember to check back and switch back to the latest version once it's fixed!



Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-01-28 18:58:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 21.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 21.5 is now available! Its an update focused on fixes and some changes based on player feedback. Thanks for the reports and suggestions!

Changes
-AI Priorities menu has been tweaked to make it easier to edit/update bot behaviors when they might be changing quickly. Priorities now sort themselves on a fixed timer to allow for easier selection
-Grim Cutlass will be more deadly and overall tougher at higher chaos levels
-Caustic Corsair will be more deadly at higher chaos levels
-Scanner Mode: Research Materials talent is now unlocked by default and no longer needs to be researched
-Ship log should now contain the reason your ship was flagged in cases where it may be unclear
-Autosaves should no longer be created while in a race
-Look at IK tweaked for players sitting in the captains chair

Fixes
-Sylvassi stats tweaked to have slightly less starting armor (12 to 10)
-Internal/hidden missions were incorrectly showing messages and announcements
-Fixed issue with SteamVR input processing that made it impossible to process scrap while using SteamVR controls
-Fixed voice chat / microphone not working on newer versions of macOS
-Fixed visual issue with your arms and hands disappearing if you were pointed up
-Look at IK is now disabled for yourself to help prevent animation issues

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-01-11 00:05:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 21.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 21.4 is now available!

Additions
-New Sector Type: Scrapyard - This station sells unprocessed scrap. Some pieces of scrap are more expensive than others to capitalize on more desperate crews. The more expensive scrap components dont come with any additional benefits. These sectors also include a repair depot.

Changes
-Seasonal props have been removed from the game

Fixes
-Fixed an issue relating to certain items when dropped onboard ships
-Ion Storm visual on starmap should work better when loading from a save
-Removed the delay on the Asteroid mission, this should help prevent crews from warping prematurely and allow them to be brought to the CU supply station for a new reactor core
-Players are invulnerable for a short period after teleporting
-Fixed a few minor issues found on Mueva 7
-Fixed an internal error that could occur when starting a new galaxy
-Fixed a networking issue that would sometimes not display unlocked teleporter locations to clients after loading a save

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-01-09 00:28:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 21 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Devlog #78: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8oWRPRtc_c

Beta 21 is now available! This update adds new end-game content for the Colonial Union faction. The next big updates after this one will be adding end-game content for the W.D. Corporation and Alliance of Gentlemen factions.

To see the new content, youll need to be playing on a Colonial Union crew with a fairly high CU reputation (more details discussed in the devlog). The chain of events start with a special assignment to stop an asteroid from colliding with a planet. Successfully completing this mission and keeping a high reputation will allow your crew the chance to be given a special assignment by the commander of Outpost 448!

Were very excited to add more end-game content to the galaxy. This update has been in the works for a while, but weve managed to solve a lot of interesting problems and build a nice set of tools to help us make content like this faster. Wed love to get your thoughts on the new content and let us know if its appropriately challenging!

If youd like to experience the new content without any spoilers we recommend not reading any further.

Additions
-New Weapon: Held Beam Rifle - Similar to the healing beam. This weapon focuses on higher damage output and forgoes healing effects.
-New Weapon: Stun Grenade Launcher - Explosion can stun most enemies, stopping them in their tracks for a short time.
-New system for planetside fires - these do not spread and cannot be extinguished.
-New door type: Seamless Security Door - Opens when the crew is in possession of required item (such as a keycard).
-New door type: Quarantine Door - Door remains closed until all enemies within a given space are defeated.
-New system for spawning enemies - Enemies can now spawn when a player enters a specific area.
-New system for respawning enemies - Certain enemies can now respawn on their own.
-New slider for camera shake - From 0-200% camera shake intensity, you can find the slider in the game settings.
-New system for in-game cutscenes - Used sparingly for the occasional cinematic moment.
-New system to illustrate mission difficulty - If a mission has a suggested crew level and your crew level is lower, it will first appear red, then turn to yellow and finally look normal when youve reached the specific level. This is to illustrate when a mission may be especially difficult. This is will mostly be used for the end-game content but will likely be used with other missions over development.
-New system for automatically jumping ships to specified sectors, used primarily for unique story moments.
-New system for timed mission objectives - Used to add some tension to important moments or fights.
-New threat system for special enemies that track damage over time by certain players, and can target the individual currently dealing the most damage

-New Content: The Commander Center of Outpost 448 - Located on the second tier of the station. Inaccessible until Report to the Commander CU mission has been accepted.
-New Content: Sylvassi Research lab - Located in the Sylvassi Quarter of Outpost 448
-New Content: Asteroid Level
-New Content: The Wasted Wing

-New Creature: Experiment 72
-New Creature: Stalker
-New Creature: Infected Scientist
-New Creature: Advanced Paladin
-New Creature: The Source

-New CU Mission: Stop Asteroid Crash (assigned via long range comms at CU rep 7 by CU sectors)
-New CU Mission: Report to the Commander (assigned via long range comms at CU rep 9)
-New CU Mission: The Wasted Wing (assigned by NPC Commander Darine Hatham in Command Center)
-New CU Mission: Retrieve Data Pad (assigned by NPC Alarick Soun in Command Center)
-New CU Mission: Eliminate Stalker (assigned by log in Wasted Wing)
-New CU Mission: Eliminate Infected Scientists (assigned by NPC Mat Kornoan in Wasted Wing)
-New CU Mission: Retrieve Medicine for Vilvard (assigned by NPC Noemi Prast in Wasted Wing)

-15 readable plaques and logs in Wasted Wing
-22 NPCs added for CU Wasted Wing mission
-2 NPCs who discuss Sylvassi lore added to research lab in Sylvassi Quarters of Outpost 448
-New NPC Uniform: Colonial Union Commander

Changes
-PiBot should be better at entering repair depots
-Ground combat internal values tweaked, players now take less damage overall
-Enemy humans / bandits aiming routines tweaked, this should make them slightly less accurate overall
-Garlic Biscuit should now have correct inventory visual
-NPCs will now look at the player whose turn it is in Liars Dice
-Crew AI will now look at players
-A few security additions have been added to the game
-During a disconnect, host will try to autosave game
-Talents have now been grouped into class specific and general, locked talents are displayed at the bottom of the list
-Crew allowance should be faster to set for captains
-Default Camera shake has been adjusted / strengthened
-Player armor has been slightly reduced overall
-The Wasted Wing station has been moved to a seperate close range sector- its still visible from Sector 0 but youll need to perform a jump in order to reach it. The sector will be jumpable when you have The Wasted Wing mission active.
-Changes/Additions have been made to dialog of the following Outpost 448 NPCs in reaction to the Wasted Wing: Jin Saineg, Remi Hocklan, Ranchelle Fieaque, Yondia Dremera, Vera Scems, Lesia Driay, Bain, Viar Tothim, Ide Fellus, Ena Sekra, Safia Neyonus, Weise Quel, Iresa Youls, Daza Susarin, Degoh Gervam
-Changed dialog of Outpost 448 NPCs Remian Folstera and Gusiva
-The new stalker creature has been added to the crashed Roland mission.
-Food items and research materials should weigh less in your inventory, allowing players to hold
more of them.
-Gun cooling talent strength has been reduced
-Replaced dead body meshes on Tall Rock planet and Ant Colony planet
-Changed some visuals on the Ant Colony planet
-Further reduced angular drag on Roland-class ship
-The system for choosing Long range mission assignments have been tweaked
-Internal AI system that can allows bots to adjust flight distance based a specific creature.
-Tweaks to how bots use jetpacks. They now only use them when targeting a location on a different nav mesh ( i.e unreachable by foot or very uneven surfaces )

Fixes
-Backup CPU scaling is fixed and is no longer overpowered due to a double scaling math bug
-Fixed a collision issue found in the Outrider
-Fixed an issue that wouldnt fully display longer lists of inventory items
-Potentially fixed an error that occasionally killed bots after teleporting
-Fixed a bug that prevented talents from fully syncing / unlocking
-Fixed a bug with the Intrepid item upgrader
-Bots should appropriately target ground turrets
-Turrets should be able to damage and kill enemies in Sand Scar Arena after players lose
-Fixed an issue that would break lighting inside of room interiors when resuscitated as a human
-Fixed a visual issue found in the captains quarters on the Fluffy One
-Fixed a visual issue with the ExoSuit helmet exterior and interior and supply tank on human characters
-Fixed an issue with Investigate Unmanned W.D. Unit mission not giving rewards for completion
-Fixed a root motion issue with NPC Ide Fellus in Outpost 448
-Fixed an error that allowed non-captains to edit bot inventories
-Fixed a bug that did not properly show class preview in VR
-Fixed a bug that had AI try to heal crewmembers with the incorrect tool
-Fixed an issue found on the Outrider that would limit music played to ambient only
-Two sectors were being spawned in the base galaxy that should have been restricted to specific missions.
-Waste planet 2 (radioactive one) has been reworked and now has static radiation scrubbers instead of patrolling NPCs
-The Grim Cutlass / Intrepid Night Variant is no longer preventing players from using their flightpacks
-Further removed possibilities for fires to appear in strange places on the ship. As there are quite a few ways fires can spawn on ships, weve applied additional checks to all of them to hopefully ensure fires dont appear in strange places.
-Jumbo Biscuit now has better visual and description.
-Boarding bots should now be less memory intensive
-More checks in-place to prevent AI from using locked teleporters on planets

Thanks for your time! If all goes well, the next main update will be focusing on the end-game content for the W.D. Corporation faction and its climactic mission titled The Forsaken Flagship.

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2019-01-02 23:59:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 20.3 Release Notes



Hey everyone!

Beta 20.3 is now available! It contains some fixes for reported issues and some balance changes to ship combat. Enjoy the seasonal decorations on the ships and at some of the major hubs!

Additions
-Tweaked some internal values to help slow down ship fights a little and make them slightly more survivable
-Space mines will occasionally be found around some asteroids
-Seasonal decorations have been added to various ships, planets and stations

Changes
- Asteroids should generally be closer to ships after exiting warp, giving pilots better options for cover during fights
-Inertia Thrusters now provide more rotational thrust overall, which should help make piloting more responsive. We increased the angular drag on the Intrepid and Fluffy One class vessels since they didnt need to rotate any faster.
-Crew bots AI / navigation when selling biscuits on planets and transitioning between planet interiors has been improved
-The Burrow is now presented at night! After the holidays are over itll be random.

Fixes
- Artifact Mission III should now properly display a sector on the starmap (will require a new galaxy / game to take effect)
-Both rat creatures and spiders have had their attack range reduced
-Piloting area mesh seam has been fixed on the Annihilator-class starship
-Fixed a navmesh issue on the Annihilator-class starship that may have prevented AI from moving well
-Crew bots will no longer target friendly turrets in some situations (like the Sand Scar Arena)
-Layered hull armor boost now properly scales when upgraded
-Fixed an issue with the Atrium on the Destroyer-class starship that would heal and respawn players at the incorrect location
-Fixed a small visual issue in the Destroyer lounge
-Fixed a comms screen bug that would sometimes duplicate options

Thanks for your time! Progress on Beta 21 is coming along, and barring any major issues with this update, should be the next thing we release!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-11-28 23:50:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 20 - 20.1 Release Notes - The Annihilator / Lounge Mini Game

Hey everyone!

Devlog #77: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R92F1FX2I4

Firstly, we apologize for the lack of updates recently; weve been hard at work building some of the end-game content related to the Colonial Union. It will ultimately be a way for Colonial Union crews to get ahold of a Lost Colony data fragment and will hopefully be a climatic moment within their faction!

Weve also taken some time to see family and do some research about future goals for the project. While the majority of that work will be coming in a few weeks (were doing some final testing and waiting for the sound effects) we thought wed spend some time and put together a different update since its been a while. A lot of you have been requesting a lounge activity pretty much since our first devlog and we decided now would be a good opportunity! Weve played around with some different ideas and ultimately decided on Liars Dice (also known as Dudo, Pirates Dice, Bluff, etc.)

A few of the reasons we went with this game:
-The rounds are quick and dont involve a large time commitment so crews can pick it up when they find some free time, like while the captain is shopping for components.
-The number of players can fluidly change from 2 to 5.
-The mechanics are fairly simple and easy to network / build AI for.
-We think its pretty fun!

There are a ton of different variants of Liars Dice, so below well outline the specific rules that we went with:

Liars dice is a bluffing game about stating the number of dice with a specific face. Each player secretly rolls 5 dice, and then betting begins. Players place bets on how many dice of a certain face are up amongst the total pool of dice, even though they can only see 5 of them. On a players turn, he or she can choose to raise the current bid or challenge it (if they think its false).

When raising a bid, players must either raise the face value or the number of dice, or both. For example, if the current bid is 4 x [3]s you can raise the bid to 5 x [3]s or 2 x [4]s. As long as either the die count or face value is raised, the other can be lowered.

Players win points through challenges. If the bid was true, the player who placed the bid receives a point. If it was false, then the challenger receives a point.

The first player to reach 5 points wins the game, and a new game will start 20 seconds later!


It can be a strange game to get used to at first, but weve had a lot of fun with it and we hope you all will too! A few extra things to be mindful about: the number of dice in the pool changes based on how many players are playing. For example, the odds of 7 x [6]s are far less likely to happen in a 2 player game than a 5 player game. Also, since points are only awarded during challenges, you want to make bets that others may want to challenge.

In addition to this, weve also build a new ship class for the W.D. Corporation: the W.D. Annihilator!
The recurring theme for this ship was advanced prototype. Crews manning this ship are on the bleeding edge of W.D. technology. This ship is unique in its starting configuration of components. It begins the game with numerous experimental ship components that may drastically change how crews normally operate.

- Its reactors output is tied to the overall ship system health.
- Its hull is layered and increases armor when integrity falls
- Its warp drive gives each and every installed program / virus a single charge per jump.
- Its shield generator has a fast charge rate but a very high minimum shield integrity
- Its main turret deals fire damage to enemy ships (starting fires), but also heats up the Annihilators reactor faster.
- It starts with 0 credits but 20 processed scrap.
- Its basic turrets are designed to cut pieces of hull off of enemy ships, producing extra scrap

Among those starting features, it possesses two new attributes innate to the ship itself:
- It has proprietary shield stealing technology that saps enemy shields when turrets damage them. It converts 20% of damage to an enemy ships shields to your own shields immediately.
- It has flaky internal systems. New technology can sometimes be unreliable, and there is a chance the ships systems will be damaged upon exiting warp. Crews flying this ship should pay extra attention to their ship systems.


Additions
- New Ship - W.D. Annihilator - A W.D. prototype unit thats currently being field tested in this galaxy. Equipped with multiple experimental ship components, a starting scrap pool, and shield stealing technology. It is a prototype however, which means the systems can sometimes be flaky, and exiting from warp has the chance to damage one of your ship system instances.
- Liars Dice - Found in the lounge of each ship. Liars Dice is a competitive mini-game played amongst the crewmembers of your ship. Read more about it above!
- New talent: Armor Boost - + 1 Armor per rank
- New Talent: Armor Boost II - Can be accessed when Armor Boost is fully invested
- New Talent: Health Boost II - Can be accessed when Health Boost is fully invested
- New UI Addition - Crew health indicators can now be seen in the top left corner of the interface. They can be disabled in the game settings.
- New Weapon: Healing Beam Rifle - The Scientist now starts with a healing beam rifle instead of a phase pistol. While it damages enemies it can also be pointed at fellow crew members to heal them!
-New Crew AI behavior - At Ease - If this is the highest priority, it will prompt AI crewmembers to head to the lounge to play Liar's Dice
-Crew AI should be a bit better about choosing a teleporter location closer to the captain when there are multiple options to choose from.
-Mouse Scroll Wheel can now cycle through equipped items
-New art additions to lounge areas
-New Ship Component: Strong Point Reactor - Starting reactor for Annihilator
-New Ship Component: WD XC-7 Prototype Config 4 - Starting Shield Generator for Annihilator
-New Ship Component: WD XW-5 Prototype Config 1 - Starting Warp Drive for Annihilator
-New Ship Component: WD Prototype FlashFire: - Starting Main Turret for Annihilator
-Captains can now issue a move order / rally point by clicking the middle mouse button / scrollwheel. To currently cancel a move order, captains can issue one into space or a place not accessible via nav-mesh. Move orders will also expire on their own after 30 seconds.


Changes
-Aux Power talent has been increased from 10% to 15%. The text description has been updated too.
-Changed dialog of Ranchelle Fieaque, Weise Quel and Remhan Zesho to accommodate for changes in lore of Outpost 448
-Talents are now arranged in alphabetical order and will show unavailable talents in grey
-Captain Order Status Update has been renamed to At Attention and is now the default order when starting a new game.
-Captain Order At Ease is no longer the default option. Bots will not man stations on Green alert and will join in Liars Dice.

Fixes
-Fixed T-pose NPC found at Outpost 448
-Fixed an incorrect character preview during class selection for factions other than Colonial Union
-Fixed the descriptive text of the Aux Power Talent
-Fixed Yiria Salis dialog to mention Alosius Grec as a Sylvassi, not a robot
-Fixed Grey Huntsmen bounty missions for Striker, Drafters, and Biscuit Burners to appear through long range range comms only when players have accepted the Bounty Hunters Contract
-Fixed Rosalia Scillo at AOG hideout to open trading window
-Fixed an issue that may have sometimes prevented players from dropping items


Like we mentioned above, there is a big update arriving in a few weeks. Thanks for your patience and support and were hoping long pauses like this dont happen again.

Beta 20.1 Release Notes

Fixes
-Tweaked Annihilator to fix fire visibility errors


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-11-13 22:37:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 19.4 + 19.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 19.4 is now out! This one should include a fix for those of you who have reported performance issues while playing in VR. Additionally it contains a few other fixes and additions.

We also tweaked the Auxiliary Reactor, making each option more powerful across the board, and added an Intruder Alert function. The Intruder Alert function should hopefully improve feedback about when the fight might be becoming more personal. For those of you who want to prevent enemies from boarding your ship (besides keeping your shield integrity up), you can pick up the new program “Quantum Defenses” which should ensure your quantum shields are online for a few crucial moments.

Additions
- Added more feedback for players when they try to customize their appearance or bot appearances, letting them know to visit a barber.
-Players can now upgrade maneuvering thrusters and inertia thrusters
-Main turrets can now be extracted
-Ship thrusters can now be extracted
-New Program: Quantum Defenses - Keeps your quantum shields online regardless on shield integrity or viruses (like gentlemens welcome) for 30 seconds. As long as a ship’s quantum shields are online, no enemies should be able to teleport.
-New NPC uniform - Human Male and Female Scientist
-New NPC uniform - Human Male and Female CU High Ranking Officer

Changes
-Extraction success rates have been slightly reduced
-Tweaked the WD HQ Station galaxy map
-Shield coprocessor charge rate has been increased

Aux Reactor Changes
-Auxiliary reactors values have been standardized based on the Intrepid
-Spotlights and Interior lights have been merged and are now named Lights
-Intruder Alarm has been added, it alerts the crew when enemies teleport onboard. It will flash a crew-wide announcement as well as add a notification to the chat box. If disabled it could provide 400 MW to the reactor.
The following information is based on an Intrepid-class ship from Beta 19.3.
-Aux Values - Atrium Healing increased from 400 to 600
-Aux Values - Oxygen Generation increased from 800 to 2000
-Aux Values - Air Filter increased from 400 to 1000
-Aux Values - Spotlights and Interior lights increased from 500 (together to 1000)
-Aux Values - Projectile Aim Assist increased from 200 to 400
-Aux Values - Cyberdefense increased from 800 to 2000
-Aux Values - Missile Lock On increased from 100 to 1200

Fixes
-Fixed a lighting issue found on Outpost 448 that would occur on lower graphics settings
-Engineering fires should now be properly displaying on the status screen, and should properly damage the engine system.
-Fixed a few issues found at WD HQ
-Fixed a bug that would occasionally allow The Swarm to drop its hull component
-Fixed a networking issue related to the Captain plotting courses on the starmap
-Fixed a sound issue regarding ship damage
-Fixed an issue with an abandoned ship not appearing
-Fixed an issue that reduced performance in VR over several minutes
-Fixed an issue related to bots getting stuck while trying to repair a system on certain ships



Beta 19.5 Release Notes

Beta 19.5 is out! This is a quick update to address some of the changes we released earlier.

Changes
-The researchable Aux Power talent’s bonus has been reduced from 40% per rank to 10%

Aux Reactor Changes
-Aux Values - Oxygen Generation decreased from 2000 to 1000
-Aux Values - Air Filter decreased from 1000 to 400
-Aux Values - Spotlights and Interior lights decreased from 1000 to 600
-Aux Values - Missile Lock On decreased from 1200 to 1000

Fixes
-Exotic shop owners should be lit correctly
-Corbin Taskerhall should now talk / sell face to face
-Bandit Drones should be less prone to attack one another
-Potentially fixed a sound effect bug related to probes

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-09-14 01:03:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 19.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 19.3 is now out! Along with some fixes, it includes changes to ship hostility which make Colonial Union space safer and neutral space more dangerous. In addition we’ve changed some ship spawning properties to make reputation loss more predictable during the course of exploring the galaxy. It also adds a new Grey Huntsmen station and bounty missions.

We have spent a lot of time working on content that will likely be added in Beta 20, mainly the faction mission chain for the Colonial Union which will conclude with a bigger piece of content focused on exploring the Wasted Wing (the section of Outpost 448 that was recently severed from the main station for mysterious reasons).

We’ve also been experimenting with new networking solutions and how we might move the project over. It’s still early on that front but we feel it’s important to jump into that one prepared.

Here is a sneak peek of our work in progress: https://imgur.com/a/x1XPAw5

Additions
-Bandit Drones can now be found across the galaxy. These ships will attack any and all ships they find. Attacking them incurs no reputation loss from any faction. Bandit drones are most common in neutral space, however there is a slight chance you can find them in Colonial Union space (blue sectors) and WD territory (orange sectors).
-In game manual has been updated and now includes sections on Ship Cloaking, Ship Sensor Dish, Item and Component Upgrade Stations, a several other tweaks.
-New Sector: Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency
-9 NPCs added to Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency
-5 NPCs added to Planet Crash 2 (planet with blue sand and crashed W.D. security drone)
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: U.S.S. Xarius
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Butcher
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: Crumb Cleaners
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: Unit 10, Div #44
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Striker
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Umbra
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: The Drafters
-New Bounty Mission: WANTED: Biscuit Burners
-New Mission: Hunt Infected Carrier (given by Roka at Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency)
-New Mission: Rid of Crawlers (given by Uleq on Planet Crash 2)
-Added a locked interior room to Cornelia Station for a bounty hunting mission

Changes
-Neutral space has been tweaked to be more dangerous, this should hopefully make it feel more chaotic and lawless.
-CU space has been tweaked to be less dangerous to ships of other factions. These sectors are meant to reflect civilization so CU ships and drones should only fire upon flagged ships.
-Crewed AOG ships now have the chance to be more directly hostile to other ships
-The Grim Cutlass sector commander is now considered flagged.
-Ship Processors should now get better when upgraded
-Updated Planet Crash 2 (planet with blue sand and crashed W.D. security drone)
-Original 5 Grey Huntsmen bounty missions have been updated with adjusted credit rewards
-It is now possible to join the Grey Huntsmen at the Grey Huntsmen Bounty Agency

Fixes
-Made some performance optimizations to the starmap when loaded
-Fixed an issue that wouldn’t prompt a mission failure in some circumstances
-Fixed an incorrectly spawning sector that should only be available during a Colonial Union mission
-Fixed an issue that could cause corruption of item unlock progress
-Fixed a visual issue regarding the Item upgrade station on the Destroyer
-Fixed some pathing issues found at Cornelia Station
-Fixed a teleportation issue found at Cornelia Station
-Ancient Sentry no longer associated with the Polytechnic Federation
-Removed two mission-related planets from generating in the base galaxy
-Fixed an issue with long range comms in “Help CU Roland in Alliance Ambush” mission

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-08-21 19:09:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 19.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Devlog #76: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y-HxPSej8w

Beta 19.2 is out now! This update contains a bit more than changes and fixes; we’ve added a few new systems which you can learn more about in the devlog or by reading further!

This update adds two new ship stations: the Installed Component Upgrader and the Item Upgrader. These systems can usually be found in the engineering room and weapons area respectively. We’ve also added a new resource: Processed Scrap, which can be collected from pieces of scrap and used to upgrade components and items.

To use the item upgrading station, equip the item you want upgraded, and press R. Then find someone who has the Item Upgrader Operator talent to perform the upgrade for you. You can also add this talent yourself, but the weapons specialist and the captain start the game with the talent already installed.

Important notes about the Item Upgrader:

  • The maximum level an item can reach by upgrading is 5.
  • Anyone can place their item on the station, but only a crewmember with the talent can perform the upgrade.
  • The Scanner cannot currently be upgraded.
  • Your ship does not need to be in a sector with a repair depot, you can upgrade items anywhere.


Similarly, the Engineer and Captain also begin play with the Component Upgrader Operator talent. To use the component upgrading station, be sure your ship is in a sector with a repair depot. Then use the component upgrader screen to cycle through your installed components and select which one you want to upgrade.

Important notes about the Installed Component Upgrader:
  • To upgrade a ship component you must be in a sector with a repair depot.
  • The maximum level to which you can upgrade a component is 10.
  • Certain components are inherently better than others, so keep that in mind when deciding to upgrade. For example: a level 3 Adelaide Thruster is still less powerful than a level 1 Racing Thruster.
  • Certain components (like programs and viruses) cannot be upgraded.
  • Currently certain ship processors do not improve when upgraded.
  • This ship system cannot be used to upgrade components in the cargo area.
  • You must have the appropriate talent in order to perform the upgrade.


Additions
-New System: Process Scrap - Players with the Item or Component Upgrader Operator talents can process scrap by holding R next to the object. You’ll need to succeed at a small timing obstacle to succeed (release ‘R’ when the bar reaches the middle white line). You can fail up to three times per jump before you are prevented from processing any more scrap.
- New Ship System: Installed Component Upgrader - Found in the engineering sections of each ship, this station uses processed scrap to increase the levels of certain installed ship components.
-New Ship System: Item Upgrader - Usually found near the weapons area on each ship, this station uses processed scrap to increase the levels of most equipable items.
-New Talent: Item Upgrader Operator
-New Talent: Component Upgrader Operator
-New Captain Notifications: Item Upgraded, Component Upgraded, Crewmember Processed Scrap

Changes
-Ship component shops at Outpost 448 and WD HQ have doubled their selection of components
-Neutral reputation will no longer affect shop prices in neutral stores (including exotic shops)
-Sensor object has been added to the “Too close to star” blind jump scenario. This should help communicate to players that it’s a dangerous sector.
-Larger groups of Scout Drones are less likely to appear in sectors
-The Captain talent “Advanced Training” is replaced with “Heavy Armor Training”: a talent that boosts the crewmembers’ individual armor ratings

Fixes
-Fixed a linux keyboard input issue that caused repeated characters when typing
-Fixed a linux input issue that caused stuttering player movement
-Fixed an issue that could potentially damage players interacting with the Starmap
-Fixed an issue involving jetpacking and player movement being disabled while the Starmap was open
-Fixed an animation issue found at The Estate
-Fixed a geometry seam found on the Roland
-Fixed an issue with the Fluffy Biscuit robots not selling items on the FB automated Trading stations
-“The Trader” NPC found near a destroyed satellite relay now functions as a normal shop as well
-Fixed an issue that prevented certain bots from talking at the general automated trading stations
-Fixed the Heal Grenade explosion effect. It should now heal players correctly
-Fixed a ship hailing issue that could cause networking problems in certain situations

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-06-27 19:46:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 19 Release Notes



Hey everyone!

Devlog #75: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyZx8616qVU

Beta 19 is now out! This update adds a new type of content: battle races! Battle races are pretty much what you might expect them to be; multiple ships compete to be the first around the track while they barrage each other with turrets and lasers. To spice things up each race track has their own assortment of benefits and hazards, from a giant unstable spinning laser machine to the entire track being inside of an electrical ion storm!

These races are balanced to pose a challenge, so starting ships likely won’t fare too well and certain ship types may inherently be at a disadvantage due to poorer maneuverability or other factors. Upgrading the various ship thrusters and ensuring that you have a good reactor--as well as using good teamwork and communication--will be important in giving your ship a fighting chance!

To try out a battle race, you can warp towards the storm on your starmap. When you arrive in a race sector you’ll have the chance to fly through the race track on your own to get a feel for the various obstacles and layout. Once you’re ready, the captain can board the station, find the race registration screen and click enter! You’ll have 30 seconds to prepare yourselves and the race will begin. You only have one chance at winning each race, so make sure to save beforehand if you want to keep trying it! (any loaded saves made during the race won’t allow you to retry the race)



This update is also the first chunk of Lost Colony related content we’ve added. By that we mean that when the Lost Colony is added to the game, winning these races may be one of the several ways crews can gain more information on where the Lost Colony is located.

When crews overcome certain parts of the game, they will be rewarded with Lost Colony Data Fragments. Lost Colony Data Fragments will be highly sought after and dangerous to hold onto, but once a crew has collected enough of these data fragments, they will be able to move one step closer to finding the Lost Colony. Winning these races will eventually reward your crew with one such fragment.

We are also planning on having a unique and challenging quest line for each faction, exploring the themes of that faction and allowing your crew to rise up the ranks. Each one of those faction mission lines will also grant a data fragment. There will also be several non-faction restricted ways your crew can come across more data fragments (such as these races). Our goal with this is to hopefully reward exploration and offer several different paths a crew can take to find the Lost Colony, making the main campaign more replayable in the process.

Let us know if you have any questions or feedback, and thanks for reading!



Additions
-New Racing UI - This new interface replaces the normal ship information cards in the upper right corner of the screen with a new list visual that shows the positions of each racing ship along with the relative location on the track.
-New Environment Hazard: Overcharge - Being near a Stormbringer or near other ships inside of an ion storm will cause your ship to accumulate overcharge. This is displayed by the electrical effects coming off of your ship and a blue meter on the screen. As overcharge increases, your ship’s reactor will begin to output more energy and the lights on your ship will begin to brighten. If you accumulate too much, however, your ship will shut down and your crew will need to startup the ship again.
-New Sector: Dutain’s Garage (Race) - One of the two starting race tracks with a mix of corners and straight aways.
-New Sector: W.D. Mining Station 41X (Race) - The second of the two starting race tracks with a heavy focus on sharp turns and temperature/fire control.
-New Sector: The Ion Port (Race) - The third and final race, requires wins from both previous races in order to compete. The open track is battered by a massive super-storm which can cause electrical overcharge if two ships are close to one another. This sector also sends boarding bots to damage your ship systems and crew, so keeping your quantum shields online is a much higher priority.

-Race Hazard: Heat Gas - Flying through these pockets of superheated gases will increase reactor temperature and potentially start fires on your ship
-Race Hazard: Small Lasers - Slowly moving laser fields your ship must navigate through, hitting a laser will cause damage to your shields and ship
-Race Hazard: Turrets - Large Turrets will target and fire upon ships in the first place position
-Race Hazard: Massive Laser Ball - Rotates around dealing large amounts of damage to things in its path
-Race Hazard: Stormbringer - Large ball emitting a dangerous electrical field, contributes to ship overcharge
-Race Hazard: Heating Vents - Large structure that continuously vent super hot gases, these work like heat volumes but can also violently push the ship around if the pilot is caught in one of them.
-Race Hazard: Asteroid Fields - Groups of smaller asteroids fly through these fields, so pilots should be ready for evasive maneuvers
-Race Hazard: Boarding Bots - Will potentially board your ship (provided the quantum shields are offline) and cause damage to ship systems and crewmembers.
-Race Benefit: Program Pickups - Small blue points of light that can be found on the tracks, pilots can fly through them to fully recharge all installed programs
-Race Benefit: Ice Dust - flying through these pockets of cold dust will lower reactor temperature
-New Food Item: Racing Noodles
-New Food Item: Chilled Noodles
-New Food Item: Crispy Noodles
-New Food Item: Grubhaven Noodles
-New Food Item: Swamp Noodles
-New Food Item: Premium Noodles
-New Ship Component: Mega Turret: Rapid Fire - Can be acquired after winning the final race (The Ion Port)
-New Ship Component: Program: Digital Coolant - Instantly cools 30% of total reactor temperature; can be acquired after winning the Dutain’s Garage race
-New Ship Component: Discharge - Instantly removes 30% of total overcharge accumulated; can be acquired after winning the W.D. Mining Station 41X race
-New ship exterior meshes for both Outrider and Cruiser racing ships
-New Human Male Cosmetic Item: Headplate - unlocked after winning the final race
-New Human Female Cosmetic Item: Headplate - unlocked after winning the final race
-New AI override: Crew is Currently Racing
-New Starmap Asset - Ion Storm
-New conditional pickup component type allows players to see a component but must meet a requirement before they can take it.
-Added 64 NPCs across the 3 racing stations

Changes
-Lowered the temperature effect of heat gas emitted by molten asteroids
-Exosuit helmet interior and exterior meshes have been updated
-Exosuit glass frost effect has been tweaked
-Reduced bonuses for Pilot’s thrust and rotation talents
-Reduced bonus for Scientist’s sensor boost talent
-Reduced bonus for Captain’s run speed talent
-Drastically improved the jump charge capabilities of a ship without a jump processor installed
-Added “U.S.S.” prefix to Gallantry and Valiance. Tweaked some CU mission briefings to include prefix. Also fixed abandoned Intrepid (U.S.S. Centuria) to display correct name.
-Infection spread rate has been reduced, a fixed cap on maximum spread is now enforced around 30%
-AI bots will now equip exosuits on your ship if the environment is hazardous to them
-Default AI priorities have been updated, adding new overrides for racing and a few tweaks to selling biscuits. Engineer bots will put full power into engines, weapon specialist bots will target the engineering of other ships with their missiles and Sci bot will use programs faster.
-Improved the mission indicator visuals
-Replaced the FB logo on the character customize menu with the newer version
-Shop may now sell higher level ship components
-Intro screen transitions smoother if skipped
-The compare ship components menu should be a little clearer when illustrating the before and after values of the components in question.

Fixes
-Potentially fixed a physics issue that occasionally causes players to disappear. If anyone still experiences this issue, we’d love to know what ship and/or planet you were interacting with!
-Fixed an issue that caused a network bug with entering and exiting the Sensor Dish
-Fixed an issue that would prevent players from drinking drinks
-Fixed a few geometry issues on the Stargazer
-Fixed a few geometry issues on the Roland
-Fixed a potential performance issue that would occur after executing several virus programs
-Fixed an issue with Cyberdefense Processors not adding the appropriate Cyberdefense
-Fixed an issue that would still allows players to finish missions even if specific mission items were sold or no longer in their possession
-Fixed a potential performance bug relating to ship and shield colliders


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team




Beta 19.1
-Fixed issue that caused some screens to not be interactive


[ 2018-06-14 18:26:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 18.7 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 18.7 is now out! We are still working on Beta 19, but since we managed to find a fix for the teleportation issue, we decided it was worth it to get that fix out sooner rather than later.

Changes
-Intrepid-Class starship and its night variant have bathroom doors
-Roland crew area have shower and bathroom doors
-Stargazer-class ship have bathroom doors
-Added color descriptions to research material taxonomies in Kavin Arent’s dialog at Burrow
-Added support for OpenGL rendering on Windows (use -force-glcore as a command line argument)

Fixes
-Fixed a potential issue with disappearing wandering NPCs on Outpost 448
-Fixed a collision issue on the Carrier
-Fixed a culling issue on the WD Cruiser
-Fixed an issue that caused twisters to not damage clients
-Fixed an issue that would occasionally have clients fall through maps after teleporting
-Fixed an issue with respawning after reclaiming your ship
-Fixed positioning / visibility issues with fires spawning from fire-based ship damage
-Fixed Fluffy Biscuit radar screen

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-05-31 19:23:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 18.6 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 18.6 is now available!

These changes were supposed to go in Beta 19, but were released early in order to be compliant with the new EU data privacy regulations. We’ve disabled all analytics and reporting from the game until we sort out a better solution for player data / privacy settings.

The majority of changes are smaller quality of life improvements and additions.

Beta 19 will introduce new content and will be released once we do a bit more balancing and get some sounds in.

Additions
-Added an additional direction sign to the Intrepid-Class Starship
-Added direction signs to the Outrider-Class Starship
-Added direction signs to the Stargazer-Class Starship
-Added direction signs to the Carrier-Class Starship
-Added direction signs to the Fluffy One-Class Starship
-Added direction signs to the Cruiser-Class Starship
-Added an additional Teleporter towards the front of the Estate
-Added additional teleporters to Cornelia Station
-Added some pickups in a dangerous part of the Estate
-Added a custom cursor to the game, which will replace the default computer cursor image. This cursor will also change color based on the class you are currently playing as, similar to how the tab menu works.
-All ship startup switchboards now have appropriate labeling on each switch
-Atriums are now labeled as medical aid stations, to hopefully inform new players that this is where they may be healed (provided the auxiliary reactor screen is sending power to them)
-Oribit , Fixed and Hybrid pilot camera settings will now adjust based on collision in the sector (less likely to clip through and show backfaces)
-Pilot HUD now shows thrust rating
-Pilot HUD now shows reactor temp percentage
-Added a galaxy map legend, which illustrates the various sector types and faction territories / jurisdictions
-New NPC visual: Female Civilian 1 Amputee
-New NPC visual: Female Civilian 2 Amputee
-New NPC visual: Male Civilian 1 Amputee 1
-New NPC visual: Male Civilian 1 Amputee 2
-New NPC visual: Male Civilian 2 Amputee
-Added transition doors to the Sylvassi Quarter environment area on Outpost 448

Changes
-Overcharge program has been renamed to Overdrive
-Tweaked ship teleporter pads to help make them more distinct.
-Character dialogue windows now have an option for ending the conversation, alternatively you can press the X button in the corner or press R again.
-Removed the jetpack restrictions on all remaining ships, this hopefully removes some potential confusion especially for newer players
-Ship components are better labeled based on if they are contraband (red), experimental (yellow) or special (quest related, blue)
-Items are also better labeled in the above mentioned format
-Special items (quest related) can no longer be destroyed or dropped. They may still be sold, however.
-Teleporter screens no longer give the option to teleport to the ship you are currently on
-Dialogue window border has been tweaked
-Thrust Booster warp drive program now adds +6 thrust instead of multiplying thrust
-Character names and health bars are now shown through geometry within a certain distance, this may help with locating positions of crew members on ships


Fixes
-Fixed an issue with the floating robots found at The Estate
-Fixed a visual issue on the Carrier-Class Starship
-Fixed a space collision issue in Sector 0
-Fixed a few visual issues in Outpost 448
-Fixed a visual issue in Cornelia Station
-Fixed a temperature effect in the Sylvassi Quarter on Outpost 448

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-05-25 18:53:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 18 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 18 is now available!

Also for the next week the game is available for 40% off!

Devlog #74: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx6m8wcNlHw

This update is focused on revamping the character art in PULSAR and adds two new playable races: the Sylvassi and robots! Player and NPC models have been replaced with a new, slightly more stylized look. This style allowed us to make a lot of extra improvements that we feel will better the experience of the game. It's different, but we're happy with the new characters and hope you guys like them too!

New Races:

The Sylvassi are an alien race that were embroiled in conflict with the humans during the Old Wars and are still recovering from those days. They possess a cloaking ability that allows them to go "invisible" for a short time, letting them flee from or reposition themselves in combat. They need a liquid methane environment to survive and are immune to extreme cold, but as liquid methane is highly flammable, they take extra damage from fires.

Sylvassi home worlds are cold and comprised largely of liquid methane, though many Sylvassi have grown up enclosed in their suits. A good number alive today are part of the first generation born free of the W.D. Corporation labor worlds since the end of the Old Wars. In the past century, more Sylvassi have begun to forge their own paths; some have joined the Colonial Union, others have found sanctuary in the Alliance of Gentlemen, and others still have pursued their own ambitions and joined the W.D. Corporation by choice.

Humanoid Robots are common in the galaxy, but are just beginning to branch out as full time crewmembers on starships. They don't gain nourishment from regular food, but a repair tool can patch them up. They are immune to all hostile environment types (no oxygen, extreme heat and cold, toxic atmospheres), though they are still susceptible to radiation.

Often employed for automated trading stations or labor in conditions that are otherwise dangerous to living organisms. Recently, however, there has been a rise of seemingly sentient machines who are joining crews and fulfilling roles that have been traditionally performed by biological persons. As robots are particularly resistant to hostile environments, they are well-suited for planetary missions and the unexpected perils of work aboard a starship.

Humans now have a special ability as well. They tend to cling to life, and once per jump a fellow crewmember has the opportunity to revive a fallen human.

Humans have recovered some of their former glory since the dark ages after the Old Wars, and they have become a prominent intergalactic presence. Their innate drive for exploration has propelled them across many galaxies, discovering new worlds and paving the way for those who would follow. Though they are ill-suited for many environments, their tenacity, ingenuity, and will to survive rival even the most resilient of species.


As for the updated character models, we wanted proper uniforms for each faction, crisper silhouettes, more customization options, and characters that could work well in nearly every lighting angle we could throw at them. Because the new style doesn't use traditional texturing techniques, it's quick to make and cheaper on the CPU. We've made an interesting shader that allows us to forgo many of the textures the previous characters needed, which reduces the number of draw calls per character. We optimized the NPC character rigs for the same effect.

We’ve also taken a look at player progression and offering new customization unlocks for certain accomplishments or milestones within the game (no micro-transactions or loot boxes needed). Flaunt your accomplishments, if you so choose.


Additions
-Play as Human, Sylvassi or Robot crewmembers
-New appearance menu and more unlockable cosmetic items
-Sylvassi can cloak themselves to prevent enemies from targeting them for a short time, this personal cloaking field is shut down if the player shoots their weapon, similar to ship cloaking.
-Robots can be healed with repair tools
-Humans can be revived once per jump
-New Statistics menu that can show various info about your time playing the game. This can be accessed from the main menu.
-You can now access the character appearance / customization menu from the main menu
-The Barber is now a place where you can change your race/appearing during play. Since there are mechanical differences to each race now, we’ve decided to only allow in-game changes through the Barber located in the major hubs of the galaxy.
-New AI Behavior: Revive Crewmate
-New AI Behavior: Repair Crewmate
- Sylvassi AI characters should cloak themselves automatically when their low on health
-New AI Custom Event: Repairable crewmate is nearby
-New AI Custom Event: Repair gun is equipped
-New AI Custom Event: Nearby crewmate can be revived
-General AI Tweak: The “Close To Captain” Behavior stops bots from continuously running around when they are near you. They are more likely to stand near you calmly now.
-Status screen has been added to Outrider engineering bay
-Added a splash screen with various logos and a photosensitivity warning
-Game Options menu now contains option for profanity filter. It will be on by default.


Character Art
-3 Human Male Faces
-3 Human Female Faces
-10 Human Skin Colors
-11 Male Hairstyle Options
-8 Male Hats
-10 Male Facial Hair Options
-12 Female Hairstyle Options
-8 Female Hats
-26 Human Face Prop Variants
-New Uniform: Colonial Union (Human male and female)
-New Uniform: W.D. Corporation (Human male and female)
-New Uniform: Alliance of Gentlemen (Human male and female)
-New Uniform: Fluffy Biscuit Co. (Human male and female)
-New Uniform: 2 Civilian variants (Human male and female)
-3 Sylvassi Faces
-10 Sylvassi Skin Colors
-7 Sylvassi Head Markings
-7 Sylvassi Face Props
-New Uniform: Sylvassi Suit and Helmet
-6 Robot Heads
-10 Robot Paint Colors
-New Bodies: 4 Robot Humanoid Bodies
-New shoulder light and flight pack meshes
-New player movement animations
-New interaction animations
-Over 400 NPCs have been replaced with the new style and animations across all planets, stations, ships and hubs.
-All metal bandits have received the art update too


Changes
-Colonial Union hub “Outpost 448” has been revamped. It is slightly more consolidated and now includes Sylvassi quarters, a hydroponics lab, and a Fluffy Biscuit shop. Certain NPCs have been changed, removed, or had their dialog updated.
-NPC names now show up over their heads when looking at them
-New mission visual indicators when an NPC has a mission available
-New mission visual indicators when an NPC has a mission to complete
-Handheld scanner also displays mission indicators to help you find important NPCs
-Added more props to certain sections of Cornelia Station
-You can now see your character during the class select menu and can make modifications to your appearance before joining the game.
-Status screen has been added to the engineering section of the Outrider-class starship
-All Exotic shops will now deal in Contraband items (selling and buying them)


Fixes
-Fixed visual issues that caused players to disappear when on ships
-Temperature fixed in abandoned WD Destroyer
-Dark Drive should now show up for sale in exotic shops
-Fluffy Biscuit factories now sell biscuits
-Fixed a collision issue found on a WD toxic waste planet
-Fixed a collision issue on CU toxic planet
-Fixed a visual error on the CU warp coil refinery
-Fixed a visual error at the interdimensional research station
-Fixed a scrolling UV issue in the borthix lab on the Estate
-Fixed some potential typed input issues when typing in the chat box
-Fixed a collision issue found at the Burrow
-Fixed a visual issue found at the Burrow
-Fixed a visual mismatch for a nuke ship component



Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


Beta 18.1 Release Notes

Fixes
-Sylvassi cloak input binding no longer requires resetting input bindings
-A few small changes to prevent some internal exceptions that were reported

Beta 18.2 Release Notes

Fixes
-Fixed Fluffy Biscuit ship ranking board
-Scanner IK / animation updates to improve positioning

Beta 18.3 Release Notes

Fixes
-Fixed extractor UI

Beta 18.4 Release Notes

Fixes
-Fixed Fluffy Biscuit creation station UI on Fluffy One
-Improvements to help avoid teleportation issues and stuck in ground issues
-Fixed bots targeting friendly ground turrets

Beta 18.5 Release Notes

Fixes
-Fixed Fluffy Biscuit crate remaining UI on Fluffy One
-Tweaked camera properties to make handheld scanner more visible when using it
-Fixed AI priority override menu issue preventing edit button from appearing


[ 2018-04-16 19:14:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 17.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 17.3 is out! It contains various changes and fixes.

Changes
-Component extraction interface now has a small cooldown after each extraction attempt to prevent multiple extractions at once
-Auto saving timing tweaked to be more predictable (timer resets each game load)
-Scanner is now automatically equipped by Scientists when starting a new game

Fixes
-Fixed some collision issues that caused AI to see/shoot through some ship doors when closed
-Fixed some sun/star flare issues on Mac/Linux platforms
-Fixed some loading issues with player inventories that could cause equipment to not correctly be synced/ordered
-Fixed damage issue when players/bots are teleported in the Sandscar Arena
-Fixed scanner issue that showed pickups when none were available
-Fixed issue with enemy ship hostility system that caused them to become hostile to each other too easily
-Fixed issue with drone modifier random setup that caused only one type of modifier per sector
-Fixed issue with probe flares being visible during warp / on planet surface
-Crew bots of other factions than Fluffy Biscuit can no longer sell biscuits
-Fixed a visual issue on the snow terraformer planet

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-02-26 23:00:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 17.2 Release Notes


Hey everyone!

Beta 17.2 is out! It contains various changes and fixes.

Resetting your default keybindings will allow players to further customize their piloting settings. New optional bindings allow pilots to access maneuvering thrusters without toggling maneuvering mode. This allows pilots to potentially access both maneuvering thrusters and rotational thrusters while piloting in manual mode, which was not possible before.

One of the less noticeable changes we’ve made is move a few random elements to be more deterministic. This means that while they are still random, they act predictably during reloads (reloading a save and warping to the same sector will yield the same ship with the same components installed, it will be in the same location and will drop the same components / scrap)

We’ve also added a way for crews to make an enemy ship neutral before claiming it, allowing a bit more flexibility than before. More information about that below.

Additions
-Added a new temperature unit you can choose to display temperature with: Kelvin
-New behavior for SciBots: will occasionally fire probes and rotate sensor dish looking for things in a sector
-A new step is added in the claim ship process - after capturing enough screens and heading to a status screen, you must now remove the enemies claim before you can place your own. We think this will be a valuable additional step because it now allows you to prevent enemy crews from respawning as well as allow you to extract components from the ship and perhaps steal cargo if it has any, all while keeping your original ship claimed and preventing you from getting a “flagged” status.
-New Ship-wide notification: Removed enemy ship claim
-New Ship-wide notification: Ship claimed
-New sub-priority for Scientist’s Man Station (found under behavior tweaks) : Search for ships - the scibot will continually search around using the sensor dish, and will fire probes when this sub-priority is the highest one in main priority

Changes
-Enemy ship components are now more deterministic
-Enemy ship modifiers are now more deterministic
-Enemy ship component chaos boosts are now more deterministic
-Scrap is more deterministic
-Ship starting locations should now be more deterministic

Fixes
-Fixes a few reported issues with the sensor dish
-Fixed an issue that may damage players and bots when switching from an interior to an exterior area or any time a pawn is instantly moved without using a teleporter
-Fixed a sound issue that caused players to hear and see probes fired on planets
-We’ve done some work making sure graveyard assets are despawned properly, let us know if any of you continue to have issues
-Fixed an issue that might prevent players or bots from properly exiting the sensor dish when they lose their claim or when they are removed from the game
-Fixed issue that could cause AI priority data to not be reset when the player quickly started a game after selecting upgrade in the AI version upgrade menu


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-02-07 00:39:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 17.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 17.1 should be out now! It contains a few fixes and improvements!

Additions
-Ramming into a ship is now considered a hostile action and the rammed ship will act accordingly
-New directional fog system
-AI should now be better about claiming ships and can also now reclaim their original ship in more situations (if they claimed your ship and then lost it).
-AI can also now capture ships even if their captain is deceased (like players).
-The Captain will now see probe research / pickup notifications in addition to the Scientist

Fixes
-Sensor dish input should now respect input sensitivity / inversion settings (same settings as turrets)
-Long Range Warp Stations have been improved and shouldn’t send the crew to the wrong destination in certain situations
-Sensor signal now shows when selecting a non-ship entity (planets, stores, etc)
-Enemy crews should no longer respawn when you have claimed their ship
-41 screens across various ships have had their tilt ability locked or unlocked to either prevent clipping into geometry or look more uniform with neighboring screens
-Probes should no longer fire on click when a menu is open


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-01-30 19:52:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 17 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 17 is out now!

Devlog #73 covers the new features and systems! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk3mq6AaoQM

It features updates to ship sensor systems allowing for more options for the scientist inside and outside of combat. This update also introduces a new stealth system for Alliance of Gentlemen ships: cloaking.

The sensor dish is a new system that’s part of every ship’s sensor screen. When near the sensor screen you can press R to use the sensor dish. It allows for the Scientist to focus the sensors in a direction, lock them onto a target for bonus signal strength and launch probes into space! Only one ship can be in a sensor lock at any time so choose carefully.



The Scientist can also use probes to scan interesting phenomena found in space (many can be identified via a faint sparkling visual). This can grant extra XP or research materials to a curious crew.

The sensor dish has a capacitor that stores power to generate probes, start a sensor lock on a ship, and pick up scrap. It is charged using the ship’s reactor though the Science conduit.

The sensor screen has been updated and now has multiple levels of detection. The stronger signal you have to another ship, the more options you’ll have to scan / weaken them.
-The first level is simply noticing their existence and location (0.5+ signal)
-The second level allows you to see their reactor power allocations (3.0+ signal)
-The third level allows you to view their ship components (10.0+ signal)
-The forth and strongest sensor level allows you to exploit the ship’s weaknesses via the sensors. (18.0+ signal)

Sensor exploits are new offensive options that focus damage or reduce the enemy’s effectiveness. These new sensor exploits include Sensor Focus options for directing hull damage to a selected ship system, making enemies more susceptible to viruses, the ability to negate the shield frequency defenses and a way to cause extra heat generation in enemy reactors. To see if enemy ships and crews are using exploits on your ship, you can check your own ship on the sensor screen and some screens on your ship may hint at having an exploit.



A.O.G. ships are now equipped with cloaking systems (retrofitted Sylvassi technology). These can be activated using the two glowing switches on the cloaking system panel. The cloaking system has a priming sequence and it requires constant power to charge/cloak. If not enough power is supplied, the cloaking screen will flash and the cloaking system will disengage after a short while. If a probe, turret or nuke is fired the cloak will immediately disengage. The cloak will also shut down if the ship takes damage, or if another ship fires a probe close enough to the ship’s location.



When a ship is cloaked the interior lights will turn blue (overriding the current alert level effect) and all players will see a blue vignette on the edges of their screens (even when manning a turret or piloting the ship). This is to communicate that the ship is cloaking and to avoid actions that could break it.

Ships are undetectable (EM signature 0) while cloaked but must avoid enemy probes. Probes can be launched by left-clicking while using the sensor dish. They will fly in a straight line for a short while, boosting sensor signals and decloaking any ships near them. When a player ship activates a cloak it’s not uncommon for other ships in the sector to fire probes towards your last known position, their search field will slowly widen and stop after a time.

Autoturrets or unmanned turrets will never automatically fire while a cloak is active, even if there is a targeted ship and you are on red alert.




Additions
-Sensor Dish added as additional functionality for the sensor screens to all ships
-New Ship component and ship component slot: Sensor Dish
-New Ship Component and ship component slot: Cloaking System
-Probes
-Stargazer-class starships now come equipped with cloaking technology
-Carrier-class starships now come equipped with cloaking technology
-Caustic Corsair now comes equipped with cloaking technology
-Last known position UI - Will display for ships in sector if you lose detection of them.
-New Class specific AI priority (Scientist): Enable Cloaking System
-New Talent: Sensor Disk Certification (Scientist and Captain start game with this already acquired) - Allows individual to operate the sensor dish
-New Scientist Talent (Researched): Probe Specialty: XP Gain, Increased chance to gain extra XP when performing probe research (10% per rank - 5 ranks)
-New Scientist Talent (Researched): Probe Specialty: Cooldown, Decreased cooldown and capacitor usage when firing probes (10% per rank - 5 ranks)
-Several dozen researchable probe locations have been places in the galaxy, many have faint sparkling visuals that give XP or research materials when a probe is fired at them. (For example, firing a probe into a black hole is likely to yield something useful)
-New Captain notification: Research material is gained through the firing of a probe
-New Captain notification: XP is gained through the firing of a probe

-Sensor Exploits:
-Sensor Focus: Engineering
-Sensor Focus: Science
-Sensor Focus: Weapons
- Negate shield frequency bonus
- Cyberdefense flaw
- Increase reactor heat

Changes
-Sensor Screen: signal strength mechanics, added sensor exploits, changed how component scans work
-Overall sensor strengths have been reduced
-Sensor dishes moderately increase sensor strength within their field of view
-Nebula storms have had their sensor penalties reduced to reflect the other changes
-Can now toggle whether captain notifications are visible in game settings menu
-Fog effects tweaked
-Updated AI priorities to work with cloaking (Engineer increases power to science and does not charge warp drive while ship is cloaked, Scientist will try to cloak when “Hide from sensors” command is on)
-Tweaked shield visuals on the Caustic Corsair
-Adjusted sensor screen position on the Fluffy Biscuit ship
-When buying ship components the “Swap” option has now been changed to “Compare”. This should better communicate what that button does.
-When confirming a trade through the compare menu, you’ll be properly notified if you don’t have enough credits to complete the transaction.
-Special captain notifications will appear during the “Fluffy Biscuit Special Training” sequence for players playing on Fluffy Biscuit ships, these should help clarify what’s happening.
-Toxic gas strength has been reduced during the “Fluffy Biscuit Special Training” sequence to give crews more time to react to what’s happening.
-Distance from piloting screen needed to pilot the ship has been reduced
-Stargazer-class starship has had it’s piloting activation point moved to the piloting console mesh instead of the piloting screen
-New AI priority custom event: Current ship does have a cloaking system
-New AI priority custom event: Current ship is priming the cloaking system
-New AI priority custom event: Current ship is cloaked

Fixes
-Pressing “R” will now close dialogue windows again
-Warp count-down until arrival should work better while playing the game offline
-Fixed some issues related to despawning enemy crew members in some situations
-Reactors now respect emergency cooldown time shown on stats
-Fixed issue with Fluffy Biscuit ships being immediately destroyed when eliminated from contest in certain situations
-Fixed a potential framerate issue some might have experienced

Remember to reset your AI priorities if you play with bots! The game should prompt you to do so! Loading a pre-beta 17 save should properly install a sensor dish and a cloaking device (if appropriate).

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2018-01-25 20:19:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 16.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 16.3 should be out now!

Additions
-Captain notifications - Captain is now notified of specific events that take place onboard the ship as well as which crew member was responsible. Our goals with this system were to simply give the captain more information about what's happening on their ship, hopefully leading to more informed decisions while framing them as a stronger authority figure.

New Notifications
-Coolant use
-Ammo usage
-Damaging ship systems
-Research
-Purchasing an item
-Aux screen: cyberdefense
-Aux screen: oxygen gen
-Ship crashing into objects
-Firing a turret in green alert
-Starting jump prep
-Pausing jump prep
-Initiating a jump
-Modifying / starting distress signal
-Revealing crew rep
-executing a program
-Attempting a component extraction
-Low fuel (lower than 10)
-Changing ship system conduit power levels
-Starting a mission
-Player death

Changes
-Removed halloween decorations
-Game UI now shows up while viewing starmap
-Captain can now reset bot AI talent points

Fixes
-Fixed a collision issue involving Fluffy One’s reactor glass
-Fixed a smoke issue involving boardable space objects
-Fixed a networking issue related to dropped items on planets and boardable space objects
-Fixed a few visual bugs related to boardable space objects
-Fixed a chat input issue on linux

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-11-15 16:42:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 16.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone, Happy Halloween!

Beta 16.2 should be out now! It contains a handful of tweaks and fixes. Thanks to those who sent in reports!

Changes
-The Fluffy One class starship’s freezer room now has the appropriate temperature when entering. It may hurt those not wearing an exosuit.
-Tweaked a few temperatures on the ice ball crater level.
-Added more footholds to the central chamber on the ice ball crater level.

Fixes
-Fluffy’s biggest fan dialogue needed to be tweaked to actually “complete” the mission, despite selling the required crates.
-Fixed a transition error when leaving the bunker where Fluffy’s biggest fan is located, which caused an issue with the outside lighting.
-Fixed an error that would allow players to visit the abandoned fluffy factory, the ice ball crater, and the explorer’s planet even if they don’t have the required mission. This error is still present on saves made prior to this update since we didn’t want to wipe everyone's galaxy data, but if you start a new game it will be fixed.

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-10-31 17:14:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 16.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 16.1 should be out now! It contains a handful of tweaks and fixes.

Changes
- Coolant / Fuel / Distress Signal Screen has been moved next to the Manual Program Charging Station.
-Status Screen in engineering room has been moved to the central display.
-Computer screen in engineering room has been moved to the science lab.
-Status screen, virus screen and sensor screens have been added to the science lab.
-Windows on the Fluffy-One Class starship now allow flares to pass through
-Ice Ball Crater caves have been tweaked to give more footholds to players climbing up the central chamber
-The new AI priority override types can now be added

Fixes
-Fluffy’s Biggest fan should be available now.
-Collision has been added to the Fluffy Factory stations
-Fixed issues with VR menu input
-UI tweak to credits and biscuit elements to make a little more visible in certain situations


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-10-30 18:25:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 16 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 16 is now out!

Devlog 72: https://youtu.be/6obgEzno0YM

The Fluffy Biscuit Company was first established as a wholesome biscuit delivery service with one goal: to spread warm, buttery biscuits across the reaches of space. Being a Fluffy Biscuit crew means creating, selling, and delivering biscuits in an intense competition to be the best sales crew in the galaxy. There are a lot of new systems which we try to briefly explain in the release notes below.

Also, we are participating in the Halloween sale on Steam and Humble. For a limited time Pulsar will be available at a 40% discount!

The Fluffy Biscuit Company
-New Ship: The Fluffy One is the most common ship type that the company utilizes, formerly a waste hauler it’s been refurbished and upgraded in a few special ways, read below to find out more!

-Rival System: 12 other ships are working this galaxy, and you are racing amongst them to sell a certain amount of biscuits!

-Ranking Board: Check where your crew places on the ranking board and occasionally see what the other crews have to say, you’ll also be able to compare individual sales per player per sector!

-Customer Radar: This station helps you locate nearby sectors that contain crewed ships, you’ll want to keep these sectors in mind because those ships may very well buy your biscuits.

-Repair / Selling Multi-Tool: Everyone can play a part in selling biscuits on planets and stations! This tool allows you and your fellow crewmates to sell biscuits to virtually any NPC in the game, Using the tool is easy, first you are given the choice between a hard sell and a soft sell.
A Hard sell has a higher chance of selling many biscuits but is a little less likely to succeed overall.
A soft sell will not sell as many biscuits but will have a higher chance to succeed. If you succeed on a soft sell you’ll then be given the choice to push them to buy a crate or another soft sell, you’ll also be able to gauge their interest too!
Two strategies to think about. Also due to Union solicitation regulations your tool will only allow 5 rejections per jump!

-Biscuit Creation Station: That’s right! You’ll not only sell biscuits but you can create them! There are many different biscuit flavors which create a variety of effects! Once you have a recipe installed you can cook a biscuit. Cooking a biscuit is a skill that requires attention and practice, as all as perfect timing. Cooking a Perfect biscuit will give you additional time bonuses while under or overcooking will result in a less effective biscuit. The amount of resources available for cooking biscuits resets every jump.

-New Ship Component type: Biscuit Recipe, when installed will allow you to create biscuits of that type when using the Biscuit Creation Station.

-New Ship Component: Emergency Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Healthy Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Carrot Cake Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Funky Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Frozen Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Spicy Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Lucky Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Healberry Crumbly Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Long Life Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Spicy Crumbly Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Hearty Biscuit Recipe
-New Ship Component: Garlic Biscuit Recipe

-New Biscuit: Emergency Biscuit - Increases fire resistance and decreases damage in no oxygen environments
-New Biscuit: Healthy Biscuit - Increases max health and adds a small amount of health regen
-New Biscuit: Carrot Cake Biscuit - Increases pistol accuracy
-New Biscuit: Funky Biscuit - Random effect
-New Biscuit: Frozen Biscuit - Your guns will cool down faster
-New Biscuit: Spicy Biscuit - Increased weapon damage
-New Biscuit: Lucky Biscuit - Increased chance of selling biscuits to in-person customers
-New Biscuit: Healberry Crumbly Biscuit - Heals nearby crewmates over time
-New Biscuit: Long Life Biscuit - Will prevent lethal damage once
-New Biscuit: Spicy Crumbly Biscuit - Increased weapon damage for nearby crewmates
-New Biscuit: Hearty Biscuit - Increases armor
-New Biscuit: Garlic Biscuit - Damage dealt to enemies will slightly heal you

-Note About Biscuits: Only one main effect may be active at a time, eating two of the same biscuit will stack the amount of time they last. A player may have an effect from a biscuit they’ve eaten as well as effects from other biscuits (i.e. Eating a Spicy Crumbly Biscuit will still increase weapon damage for others nearby even if they have eaten a biscuit themselves).

-New Uniform: Fluffy Biscuit brand uniforms are worn by crewmembers.
-New Hair Prop - FB Hat

-Biscuit Crates: Every Fluffy Biscuit Ship is equipped with a freezer full of biscuit crates, each contains 100 Biscuits and they are sold as a single unit. They may be sold in person using the selling multi-tool or through ship hailing as the captain. Visiting a Fluffy Biscuit factory will allow your crew to restock these crates.

-Biscuit Bomb - Every Fluffy Biscuit ships is also equipped with a unique defensive device which may be activated during time of extreme duress. While these bombs can do a sizeable amount of physical damage they are known for their special secondary effect which is a sector-wide short-circuit of every single ship instance (excluding your own ship). This gives you and your crew a valuable moment to either attempt an escape or gain the upper-hand while the enemy ships are momentarily crippled. Visiting a Fluffy Biscuit Factor will allow your crew to restock this weapons but only once per chaos level.

-Sector Interest Level: Other crews are roaming the galaxy selling biscuits this means that certain sectors will be more or less interested in buying biscuits based on the history of that sector. This also means if you keep trying to sell biscuits to a large station, they will be less and less interested over time, which encourages you and your crew to move around.

-New Mission: Delivery to planetside explorer
-New Mission: Delivery to food reviewer
-New Mission: Delivery to Restricted CU site
-New Mission: Delivery to Fluffy’s Biggest Fan
-New Mission: Salvage Parts
-New Station: Fluffy Biscuit Factory 1
-New Station: Fluffy Biscuit Factory 2
-New Station: Fluffy Biscuit Factory 3
-New Station: Fluffy Biscuit General Store - Usually found next to other general stores, a place to buy biscuits if you aren’t playing this faction.
-New Station: Fluffy Biscuit Factory 4 - Abandoned factory used for a mission
-New Station: Manor - used for a FB mission
-New Planet: Ice Ball Crater - Used for a FB mission
-New Planet: Desert Storm Planet - Used for a FB mission

-New AI behavior: Bots will automatically go to stations and planets to sell biscuits provided they have the item equipped (which it is by default). You will need to reset your AI priorities in order to gain this functionality.

-The Great Biscuit Race: What better way to promote innovation and boost sales than with a competition! You and your crew are tasked with a race to sell 5000 biscuits, the first one to reach that goal wins! If you fall too far behind you might be selected for Special Training! As chaos increases and the galaxy gets more and more dangerous some of your fellow competitors may succumb to the pressure, let that only serve to remind you of victory!

-Biscuit Madness - [redacted by Fluffy Biscuit Co.]
-Special Training - [redacted by Fluffy Biscuit Co.]
-Biscuit Race Victory - [redacted by Fluffy Biscuit Co.]
-Fluffy Biscuit Music has been added


Additions
-Dropping Items - Players can now drop items in their inventory onto the floor of ships, stations and planets, dropped items will be saved if they are planets / stations or your ship. We hope this will be useful for players who want to trade items quickly.
-New AI Behavior: Engage Warp Drive - Engineer bot can now engage warp
-New Save Data: Talents and Equipment are now saved to a specific class. Due to popular demand this is the direction we are heading in. If you want to reset your talent points you’ll need to do it at a neural re-writer. This should not hinder your existing save data (barring the galaxy data).
-Alert Level Lights: Alert levels now have a visual component, red alert will have all lights flashing red accompanied by a noise. Yellow Alert will have an initial sound and slowly flash yellow. Green Alert has no sounds or colors.
-New Creature - Unknown
-Non Captain crew-members can now claim a ship if their captain is incapacitated
-Bots now have smarter weapon selection.
-New UI illustrating timed status effects

Changes
-neural rewriter glow effect has been reduced
-Screen explosion damage has been reduced
-Credits are displayed better, they also have better feedback when the number changes. Biscuits Sold will also be displayed if you are playing the Fluffy Biscuit Faction.
-Line of sight to players will now override room area culling
-Tweaked the entrance to The Burrow
-Cost for fuel has been raised from 75 to 125 credits.
-Enemy crews have armor scaling with chaos
-Air-filter replaces climate control on the Aux Reactor Screen. This will filter toxic air.


Fixes
-Fixed a visual issue with one of the male tech face props
-Fixed an issue with the Long Range Warp Station at sector 0.
-Fixed a visual issue with the Ship Log
-Fixed a visual issue with exo-suits
-Fixed an issue with the captain’s chair on the Stargazer
-Fixed the hull tooltip regarding armor
-Nukes now correctly use their blast range figure
-Fixed a menu issue in full-screen ship components menu



Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-10-26 20:13:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 15.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 15.3 is now out!

The game can now autosave while you play! It will keep the last 10 autosaves, and you can determine how often it saves in the game settings menu.


Screens can now overload and burst into showers of sparks if the ship takes a lot of hull damage. These screens will damage nearby crewmembers and may also start fires.

Besides that, we’ve spent some time working on a few quality of life features, such as being able to load from a previous save during game over. Neural Rewriters are also available at major hubs to allow players to reset talent points in-game.



If all goes well with this update we’ll continue forward onto Beta 16, which will add a new faction with a whole lot of flavor!

Additions
-Autosaves: the game will now autosave your game by default. You can determine the frequency of autosaves in the game settings
-Screen overloads: screens will now explode into sparks when taking large amounts of hull damage, temporarily disabling them and damaging nearby players
-Can now load a saved game at the game over screen to continue with the same crew
-Neural Rewriters can be found at major hubs. These allow players to reset and reallocate spent talent points.
-Can now toggle private or full games from displaying in the join game menu
-Captain now starts with Advanced Operator talent to allow use of mega turrets
-Expanding component view in the tab menu shows some ship stat bonus information

New Talents
-Engineer Talent: Reactor Calibration: increases core reactor output by 2% per rank. Needs to be researched.
-Engineer Talent: Reactor Cooling Specialist: decreases core reactor heat output by 2% per rank. Needs to be researched.
-Captain Talent: Screen Defensive Measures: increases friendly screen capture time by 5% per rank. Needs to be researched.
-Captain Talent: Screen Safety Systems: decreases chance of ship screens exploding in battle. Needs to be researched.
-Weapons Spec. Talent: Screen Hacker: decreases enemy screen capture time by 5% per rank. Needs to be researched.
-Weapons Spec. Talent: Reloader: small chance of gaining some ammo every shot. Needs to be researched.


Changes
-Maximum distance players and AI bots can interact with a screen has been reduced
-Long Range Warp Station can now be found at the Colonial Union Hub
-Teleportation screen can now handle more targets
-Tweaked some UI textures to not scale resolution at low settings
-Escape menu visuals tweaked

Fixes
-Fixes to menu stacking / rendering in certain situations
-Fixed chat bug that could cause players to accidentally break chat formatting


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-08-24 17:52:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 15.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 15.2 is now out!

Additions
-New Enemy Type: Paladins and Elite Paladins can be found on some planets
-Twisters can be found on some planets
-Desert terraforming station planet has had NPCs and more props added
-Two missions added to the desert terraforming station planet

Fixes
-Updated to Unity 5.6.3 which contains fixes for some reported linux mouse input issues
-ARX-TGT should now list the correct info in its tooltip / stats
-Talent level up SFX should only play when successful
-Alert level should now respond better to Captain input
-Target ship dropdown tweaked to fix input / display issues
-Guns won’t fire when mouse is unlocked to help prevent accidental shooting
-Heat Backup processor should now work properly
-Fixed an issue that caused some game options and bindings to load incorrectly in certain situations
-Gun heat UI element now resets its color correctly after overheating
-Fixed issue that could cause beam pistol damage to not always be reported
-Fixed an issue that broke xenoraptors’ ability to navigate and move
-Fixed issue that caused turrets attached to creatures to not report the creature as the killer
-Scientist sensor screen now more accurate power levels percentages
-Escape menu now enforces save time restrictions for more stable saving
-Snow train interior SFX should now stop looping correctly

Changes
-VR settings menu now contains an option for tweaking the Z depth of the in-game UI
-VR settings menu now contains an option for tweaking margin of the in-game UI (in VR)
-Game settings now contains an option for tweaking margin of the in-game UI (out of VR)
-Tab menu now shows current game name
-Doors on ships now block gunfire and AI line of sight when closed
-In game UI tweaks to player HP, O2. It now shows a temperature reading
-Z menu now has quick access to food in your inventory
-Ship UI element text tweaked to avoid any confusion for the dash as a negative sign
-Escape menu hides buttons that are unavailable / inaccessible at the time
-Line of sight routine timing tweaked to be more consistent across platforms / systems
-Turrets attached to creatures are now more in sync with parent creature targeting / status


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-08-07 18:47:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 15.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 15.1 is now out!

It contains various fixes and changes. In addition, enemy ship crews will now board and attempt to take over your ship during ship-to-ship combat more effectively than before. This means that a once rare type of game-over condition is now more likely to happen. If your crew loses control of your ship, you’ll need to retake an Atrium before you’ll be able to respawn. You can either retake your ship or take theirs! Your AI crew should also be more effective at seeking and capturing ship screens.

Fixes
-Light flares should now be working properly (not in VR yet)
-Enemy crew appearance should now be properly randomized
-Fixed error with reclaiming a stolen player ship
-Fixed issue with dead enemy crewmen using their jetpack
-Teleport screen won’t show the player ship as blocked when you can teleport to it
-Enemy crew captain bots now have much improved priority set that better matches rest of crew
-Fixed camera issue when a player died on enemy ship
-Fixed a material error found during one of the phases of the Sand Scar Arena
-Fixed timing issue when players joined during a warp jump that could cause warp to be unskippable until the player leaves the game
-Improved timing systems when creating a new game that could cause long timeouts and errors

Changes
-Crew AI boarding logic overhauled
-”Kowz Retreat” and “Grenades!” signs now spin counterclockwise
-Prize money for the Sand Scar Arena has been increased to 50,000
-Load game menu now shows when the save was created and sorts the list by most recent
-Can see ship system UI’s on enemy ships but can’t modify them. You’ll now be able to see enemy ship system health while attacking them directly
-After death menu can now show some limited info about who killed you
-Enemy bots on Alliance of Gentlemen ships will be much more likely to board and takeover player ships
-Enemy crewmen base armor levels increased
-Bots are more adept at finding and taking ship screens on enemy ships
-Exotic shops: Gruff’s Stuff, ???, and Corbin’s Emporium now sell a selection of grenade launchers (you can also buy them at The Burrow)
-One of the Lava Planets has received another detail pass


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-07-25 19:24:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 15 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 15 is now out!

Devlog #71: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmHVPkBhM3E

As we mentioned in Beta 14.9, this is sort of the second half of what we originally planned for Beta 15. It features new grenade-based weapons and tools with networked physics, a new hub called the ‘Burrow’, and a gladiator-style pit called the ‘Sand Scar Arena’. During the rest of the Beta 15 release cycle we’re looking to add creatures and take another look at AI boarding behavior.

Additions
-New Hub: The Burrow - A planetside hub built into a rocky outcrop on an arid desert planet.
-30 new NPCs have been added
-New Mission: Find the Strange Creature (offers reward for finding V’uurog)
-Burrow NPC ‘Kavin Arent’ sells a limited stock of research materials
-The Sand Scar Arena - Found in the Burrow, this arena pits players against numerous waves of deadly foes in a dynamic arena landscape. Crews who survive all rounds will win 10,000 credits!
-Ammo reservoirs can now be found on all ships
-Reloading system: Some weapons now require ammo to function, you can reload these weapons at an ammo reservoir usually found in the armor of each ship. The reservoir replenishes after every jump.
-New Enemy: Jet Bandit
-New Enemy: Armored Mega Ant
-New Weapon: Pulse Grenade Launcher
-New Weapon: Mini Grenade Launcher
-New Tool: Fire Killer Grenade
-New Tool: System Repair Grenade
-New Tool: Healing Grenade


Changes
-Quick respawn talent reduced from 20% per rank to 12%
-Player characters now have some intrinsic damage reduction to help them survive longer during fights
-Base fire extinguisher is slightly less effective
-Removed green reticle on players. This system would prevent players from shooting one another and hampered combat.
-Beam pistols now use ammo
-Colonial Union outpost 448 (Sector 0) has had its exterior mesh tweaked and optimized
-Base stamina for players has been doubled


Fixes
-Changed some mouse behavior to improve experience on some linux setups
-Fixed some rendering issues that prevented detail normals from working
-New save file system should help prevent saves from becoming corrupted if game is closed in unexpected ways

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-07-12 20:10:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.9 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.9 is now out!

This update contains a lot of things we intended for Beta 15, but we decided to push it out earlier when we figured out a work around for the VR issues. It contains gunplay changes, a new camera mode after pawn death, and VR rendering fixes.

One of the aspects we looked at improving was how weapons and heat worked, after building and testing some possible solutions we arrived at the over-heating system that’s now in the game. It essentially allows you to fire your weapons as fast as you can click, with the penalty that your gun builds up heat with every shot and becomes inactive for a short time if it reaches its maximum heat threshold.

We’ve also begun to look into better feedback for when your character dies. You’ll now see them fall to the ground instead of having a harsh cut to the bridge camera like before!

There are quite a few things we’ve made that aren’t ready just yet, but you can expect new updates soon that introduce more weapons and tools. We’re also planning to focus more on content updates during the Beta 15 cycle.

Changes
-Changed the weapon firing system to allow for quicker firing (can fire as fast as you can click)
-Weapon heat system changed, instead of slower fire rate with more heat, it will overheat when heat is too high and you can’t fire for a short time
-Tweaked pawn health / O2 UI
-Death cam added

Fixes
-Grim Cutlass collision issue near the bridge railings should be fixed
-Fixed a few issues that would result in unreachable scanner data on certain Cave planets
-Ship fires should be more predictable and not spawn outside of reachable areas
-Updated to Unity 5.6.2
-Updated Unity 5.6 rendering system handles VR multi-cam systems much more predictably
-Updated SteamVR and Oculus libraries
-Fixed some internal systems that weren’t properly adjusting for quality levels. Now works properly for the lower quality levels
-Fixed issue that could cause other players to not be visible until a teleport
-Rendering fixes to external pawn camera system (death cam, customizable appearance menu)

Known Issues
-A rendering bug in the latest version of Unity causes some materials to not appear correctly. We are working on a solution

Beta 15 is coming soon with new content and weapons!

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-06-27 17:09:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.8 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.8 is now out! It is a small update focused on fixing a few reported bugs.

Changes
-Added a jump computer to the default loadout of the Caustic Corsair

Fixes
-Metal Bandits should now attack players as they should
-When reloading a game playing as the Caustic Corsair it should now reload the correct components
-Creature attack ranges tweaked, should be working properly now

Known Issues
-Certain VR setups have rendering bugs at certain head rotations/positions. Unity is aware and it appears to be fixed in Unity 5.6. More info below.


We are looking into Unity 5.6 which adds Vulkan support. It also seems to fix the VR issue mentioned above in our testing. Unfortunately it also has a few changes / bugs that are preventing us from moving to it as of this moment. They are aware of the bugs and should have the fix out shortly.

Vulkan is definitely something we will be experimenting with. If it’s a good fit and improves performance for PULSAR then we’d like to offer it as an option to players. It might take a little while before we know how well it’s going to work for PULSAR though.


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-05-23 18:45:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.7 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.7 is now out!



This update focuses on new content and fixes!

We’ve added a new sector commander. An individual known only as “The Alchemist” captains the “Caustic Corsair” a heavily modified Carrier-class starship. The ship is continuously filled with toxic chemicals to making boarding the ship more hazardous than normal. Because of this, the entire crew wears ExoSuits. This sector commander opens up a new ship variant that you can board and capture!

This update also includes an optional mission line centered around a bounty hunting organization named the Grey Huntsmen. There is a chance they will ask you to join from long range comms, but you can also sign up by talking to “Ivok Milligan” (a new NPC in the Harbor) or “Baris” (a robot found in one of the lower levels of Cornelia Station).

Additions
-5 New Missions: Grey Huntsmen bounty hunting mission line, specializing in taking out dangerous outlaws (three found frequently in neutral space, one near long range warp stations, and one near CU space)
-New Sector Commander: Caustic Corsair
-New Carrier Variant: Alchemist
-New Tracker Missile: Acid Missile

Changes
-Internal network security improvements to blind jump networking
-Galaxy generator tweaks that should put more variety in the average run
-Can now access Escape menu while selecting a class
-Enemy CaptainBot AI is much more robust than before (won’t get stuck as often and has more behaviors)
-Bots can now automatically put on ExoSuits when ship air is toxic
-Research upgrades involving the scanner are no longer restricted to the Scientist class
-Carrier starting EM sensors upgraded one level
-Ships now drift much less after exiting warp

Fixes
-Fixed an issue that would occasionally show a pink asteroid (no material)
-Fixed a UI scaling issue that could cause some item stats to be unreadable
-Join Private Game menu now properly shows game name
-Changed how the trading system assigns shop IDs over the network to help reduce syncing errors
-Fixed an issue with an internal system that caused ships to sometimes spawn with incorrect components
-AI bots a little smarter about equipping items, will use better items if they have access to them

Known Issues
-Certain VR setups have rendering bugs at certain head rotations/positions. Restarting the game / VR runtime will sometimes fix it temporarily. We are working on a fix.

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team




[ 2017-05-19 23:30:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.6 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.6 is now out! It is an update focused on fixing bugs as reported by players and found in our testing.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and support!

Changes
-Increased scroll speed of ship log menu

Fixes
-Changed how some enemy ships are spawned to help prevent ships from spawning in asteroids
-VR startup should be smoother and more predictable
-Fixed issue with Keen Eye visuals that caused UI elements to not be removed correctly
-Reactor screen / reactor tooltip max temperatures should match now as expected
-Custom appearance menu should now work properly when editing bot appearances
-Fixed a bug on a cave planet’s teleport screen that prevented it from being useable
-Fixed a few issues that could cause some performance drops due to error logging

14.7 will be focused on bug fixing based on your feedback, we’re hoping to get many more fixes (and maybe some suggestions) in soon!

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-05-12 21:27:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.5 is now out! It is a small hotfix that should address the input issues with the custom appearance menu.

Thanks everyone so much for the support and for playing! Special thanks to everyone sending in bug reports and feedback, we really appreciate the time and effort!

Fixes
-Fixed input issues with the custom appearance menu
-Fixed some input issues related to UI scaling
-Menu scrolling speed when viewing games to join is higher

We’ll also looking at the comments below for any suggestions on other menus that might need a scrolling speed boost and hopefully get them addressed soon!

We’ll leave off with a list of some of our short term goals:
-Autosaving
-Improving VR startup/config
-Improving Force No VR mode
-More bug fixing

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-05-08 00:10:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.4 is now out! It contains a few bug fixes, as well as some new content.

PULSAR is on sale for 50% off (Offer ends Monday 5/8 at 10AM Pacific Time)! If you happen to be joining the community, we recommend giving the Ship Owner’s Manual a quick look as there are quite a few systems in the game. You can find the manual in the game or on our website: www.pulsarthegame.com

Feel free to ask a question below or you can email us here: team@leafygames.com Welcome aboard and fly safe!

Additions
-New blind jump scenario: Unknown Alien Creature
-Dozens of new asteroid variations
-Some ship stats now display in expanded ship component menu

Changes
-Made ship windows fully transparent and removed their glossy effect
-Stargazer now starts with two inertia thrusters (adds a new slot)

Fixes
-Fixed bug that sometimes caused percent sectors discovered to display as 0%
-Fixed problem with revealing crew rep
-Carrier exterior visuals have been fixed
-Fixed an issue with maneuvering thrusters that caused incorrect thrusters to be bought/swapped





Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-05-06 22:48:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Daily Deal - PULSAR: Lost Colony, 50% Off

Today's Deal: Save 50% on PULSAR: Lost Colony!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time


[ 2017-05-06 19:00:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.3 is now available. It contains changes to how reactors overload, AI fixes/improvements and some updated component descriptions.



We’ve added a core stability system that should give better feedback to Engineers about critical heat reactors when the safety is disabled. Instead of being partially random it is based on the stability of the reactor (displayed on the reactor screen). When the stability reaches 0% the reactor core will begin to overload and it must be ejected.

Also we’ve been working on improving the AI boarding / defending behaviors and fixing some bugs related to pathfinding on ships. We plan to do more in a future update overhauling when AI crews invade/take over player ships.

We’ve updated the default AI priorities as well including some minor changes to how the AI handles itself on enemy ships. To get the new AI priority defaults you’ll need to reset them to the defaults in-game (Crew AI menu)!


Additions
-Reactor Core stability system (reactor screen)
-Many new and old ship components now have updated descriptions in the tooltip window
-Flamelance/Phase Turret SFX (first pass)

Fixes
-Fixed some AI pathfinding glitches (especially on the W.D. Cruiser)
-Voice chat shouldn’t break due to certain game names anymore

Changes
-Coolant lasts a little bit longer
-Can no longer use enemy exosuits

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-05-02 19:44:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.2 is now available. It is a small hotfix that contains a few fixes and changes.

Fixes
-Fixed an input issue with the Custom Appearance menu
-Fixed an issue involving incorrect collision with the science system instance specifically when shooting at one

Changes
-Slightly lowered spawn rate of shock drones and deathseekers at lower chaos levels
-Added additional lighting to Flamelance and BioHazard turrets

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-04-28 22:26:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 14.1 is a small update focused on fixing a few bugs with screen capture, a VR rendering issue and a handful of fixes for AI.

Fixes
-Disables SMAA internally when in VR mode. If enabled it causes a split screen. Will enable it again in VR once we get it working well with single-pass stereo rendering
-Fixed networking issue with screen capture that could cause some screens to unlock when a player enters the game and caused friendly capture requests to be overwritten by a friendly player (now should properly add requests together)
-Fixed AI issue with capturing screens, much more aggressive in defending screens and taking back captured screens
-Added ship log event when a player toggles the reactor safety switch
-Fixed AI pathing issues


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-04-27 23:38:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 14 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Devlog #70: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCs4G9w_XVw

Beta 14 is focused on improving the balance, pacing and variety of space combat. It includes a collection of new components and nearly every component in the game has been tweaked in some way.

Because of many large changes to nearly every component in the game, saves made on previous versions will not be compatible in Beta 14.

If you want to continue your current saved game, you’ll need to join a separate beta branch (beta_13_6) that will let you continue on the previous version of the game.

Beta 14 includes new content in Cornelia Station and six more W.D. missions.

One new feature of Beta 14 is Drone Modifiers which will start appearing at higher chaos levels. These give additional stats and behaviors to drones you encounter. Drones are also no longer locked to specific component layouts and can be seen with a variety of turrets, shields, hulls, CPUs, etc. In fact nearly all enemy ships (including crewed ships) can now spawn a larger variety of component types, so they aren’t always using the same builds.

Many existing components have been renamed, and we are removing most numerical characters from the names themselves to avoid potential confusion with the component’s level. Beta 14 also renames the old ‘Railgun Turret’ to ‘Plasma Turret’ and creates a new railgun turret that matches the name a bit better (much faster projectiles).

Additions
-New planet (part of a new W.D. mission)
-New mesh used for flame lance turret
-79 new NPCs have been added to Cornelia Station

New Components

New Turrets:
-Defender Turret: Fires a small barrage of homing rockets
-Phase Turret: Phase damage is extremely effective against ship systems
-Flamelance: Strike at enemy ships with the power of flame! Starts fires and heats reactors!
-Railgun Turret: Very fast projectile-based weapon with longer range than Plasma Turret
-BioHazard Turret: Fires an acidic stream that poisons onboard crew and reduces effective hull armor for a short time

New CPUs:
-ARX-TGT: +5% Turret Damage
-QDI-FIX-ENG: Slightly repair Engineering system whenever a program is run
-QDI-FIX-SCI: Slightly repair Science Lab whenever a program is run
-QDI-FIX-WPN: Slightly repair Weapons whenever a program is run
-QDI-FIX-LIFE: Slightly repair Life Support whenever a program is run
-BKP-HEAT: -10% Reactor Heat Generation when Hull < 30%
-BKP-WARP: +20% Warp Charge Rate when Hull < 30%
-BKP-THRUST: +10% Thrust when Hull < 30%
-BKP-WPN-POWER: +10% Turret Charge Rate when Hull < 30%

New Shields:
-Corbin's Wall: An unusual choice for sure, this shield has an extremely high integrity, but the downside is its almost equally as high minimum integrity and slow charge rate
-Fortified Holoscreen: The fastest charge rate of any shield in the game as of this update.
-Dense Particle Shield: Uniquely built to withstand physical damage, this shield can resist 20% of physical damage
-Tetragonal Surface Projector: A fast charge rate coupled with the lowest quantum integrity and a whopping 15% resist of every damage type makes this one of the most advanced shield generators you can buy

New Warp Drives:
-Explorer’s United Jump Drive: Built for scientists and explorers, this drive can bring you great distances
-W.D. Jump Drive: The standard now installed on all W.D. ships, decent charge speed with good range
-W.D. Military Jump Drive: Fast charge speed and long range
-"Dark Drive" (Contraband): Warp drive with zero signature
-"The Snap Drive": Very fast jump drive that comes with a very large signature

New Programs:
-Armor Flaw (Virus): Reduces armor effectiveness by 50% for 30 seconds
-Shutdown Defenses(Virus): Disables defensive systems for 10 seconds

-Various New Thrusters

New W.D. Missions
-2 given by NPC ‘Haush Drahvix’ in W.D. hub
-1 given at W.D. Rep 6 by NPC ‘Enid Ultarin’ in W.D. hub
-1 given at W.D. Rep 6 by NPC ‘Bakul Faros’ in W.D. hub
-1 given via long range comms in neutral space
-1 given via long range comms within vicinity of Cornelia Station

New Drone System
-Can now have drone modifiers which grant various buffs and behavior tweaks
-Armored: Increases effective armor of hull
-Swift: Increases effective thrust
-Brutal: Increases effective damage
-Elite: Increases nearly all effective stats. Be careful of these!
-Silent: Increases the difficulty of detecting the drone
-These modifiers will be extremely rare at low chaos levels but will become more common as chaos increases. We hope these modifiers help add some variation and unique challenges that drive crews to strategize more

General Balance Tweaks
-Player ships now start slightly upgraded relative to enemy ships
-Components typically don’t get to as high of levels (stores typically spawn components no more than Level 3)
-Overall damage is lower for most tracker missiles
-Carrier no longer starts with nuclear device
-Most reactor outputs have been increased
-Starting ship component and program layouts have been tweaked
-Crews start with 5000 credits instead of 10000
-CyberDefense is slightly less effective overall
-Tracker missiles have improved tracking ability
-Most missile components start containing more than the previous builds.
-Drones now start with a variety of CPUs
-Added more virus options for Tactical Drones
-A.O.G. crews now start with upgraded pistols

Starting Intrepid
-Shield generator integrity increased by 500
-Intrepid now starts with a military-grade fusion reactor (5000 MW Increase)
-C.C.G Hull component has had a decrease in integrity (352 decrease)
-Hull armor decrease of 14
-Number of processor slots has been decreased by 2
-No longer starts with any viruses installed
-New starting programs include: Detector and Barrage

Starting Roland
-Shield generator integrity decreased by 150
-Roland Reactor output has been decreased by 5000 MW
-Now starts with a basic laser turret instead of a focused laser turret
-Hull armor decrease of 7
-Number of processor slots has been decreased by 3
-Additional program is installed: Detector
-No longer starts with auto turrets - but the ship still contains the slots for them
-Improved flight handling and maneuverability (easier to rotate while piloting)
-No longer starts with nuclear device
-Shield recharge attribute lowered to 25%

Starting Outrider
-Reactor output has been increased by 3000 MW
-Number of basic turret slots has been reduced by 1
-The Outrider retains all 8 processor slots
-No longer starts with any basic turrets
-Mass has been slightly increased which should slightly affect maneuverability.
-Weapons system health is now 10
-Science system health is now 30

Starting W.D. Cruiser
-Reactor output has been increased by 4,200 MW
-Jump range has been increased by 2
-Hull integrity has been decreased by 400
-Number of processor slots has been decreased by 4
-The Backdoor virus is no longer installed
-Engineering system health is now 25 (+5)
-Weapons system health is now 25 (+5)
-Science system health is now 15 (-5)
-Life support system health is now 15 (-5)

Starting W.D. Destroyer
-Reactor output has been decreased by 1,200 MW
-No longer starts with auto turrets - but the ship still contains the slots for them
-Jump range has been increased by 2
-Hull armor has been decreased by 13
-Number of processor slots has been decreased by 4
-Weapons system health is now 30 (+10)
-Science system health is now 15 (-5)
-Life support system health is now 15 (-5)

AOG Stargazer
-Reactor output has been decreased by 4,840 MW
-Number of processor slots has been decreased by 3
-Additional program is installed: Block Long Range Comms
-Engineering system health is now 21 (+1)
-Weapons system health is now 13 (-7)
-Science system health is now 27 (+7)
-Life support system health is now 23 (+3)


Starting AOG Carrier
-Shield generator integrity decreased by 60
-Reactor output has been decreased by 720 MW
-Hull integrity has been increased by 300
-Hull armor has been increased by 3
-Number of processor slots has been decreased by 3
-Replaced one of the emergency shield boosting programs with Block Long Range Comms
-Engineering system health is now 27 (+7)
-Weapons system health is now 16 (-4)
-Science system health is now 24 (+4)
-Life support system health is now 17 (-3)




Changes
-Turrets now show range in tooltips. This indicates effective range and how close unmanned turrets will automatically fire
-Memory optimizations throughout the game. Allocations during gameplay is less than half what it was before but more work is still needed
-CPU optimizations for planet /station sectors
-Shield Co-Processors can now use power to increase the effective shield recharge rate
-Science Lab power conduit now allows modification of shield processor power usage
-The Warp disable virus now prevents blind jumps
-Clarified and corrected how turrets report damage types in tooltips
-Fire extinguisher can slightly cool the reactor
-System used to determine if a fire starts at a ship system now looks at a percentage of its health rather than a flat number
-Phase drones no longer ‘phase’ when they are infected with the Sitting Duck virus
-Missions given via long range comms should begin within range of appropriate sector types
-Some more difficult W.D. missions have been changed to be assigned at higher crew levels
-Added more information to the ship selection menus

Fixes
-Fixed bug with chat when setting the max lines to a higher value
-Turret auto-aiming math tweaked to improve accuracy in various situations
-No longer closes the expanded ship component view when a comp is dragged to another slot
-Ship Log menu now properly closes when you close the tab menu
-Fixed issue with main turret that caused incorrect results in the ship log
-Ant Drone attack range fixed
-SSAO post processing rendering bug fixed
-SMAA post processing anti-aliasing bug fixed
-Fixed issue that caused video settings menu to sometimes ignore resolution settings and show the current screen resolution as the active resolution even when it isn’t
-Fixed a small collision issue on the cube cave planet
-Fixed visual issues with the virus screen and an internal issue that caused viruses to be ineffective in some situations
-Improved a number of AI navmeshes on various planets


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-04-25 18:43:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13.6 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 13.6 is now available. It’s a small hotfix with various fixes and tweaks.
Thanks to everyone who sent in a report or gave us feedback!


Fixes:
-Fixed a terrain visual issue on a planet
-Fixed issue that caused certain equipped items to incorrectly appear in piloting view in VR
-Fixed controller mapping issue in SteamVR mode that could cause performance issues in certain situations
-Fixed issue that prevented locked doors from working if another crewmember has the required item
-Fixed a small dialogue issue on Lotharus 9

Changes:
-Can now use spaces and underscores in player names when editing from Game Settings menu
-Grim Cutlass thruster visual issues should be fixed
-Grim Cutlass bridge lighting issues should be fixed
-Additional runtime memory optimizations

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-03-22 22:52:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 13.5 is now available. Provides a variety of fixes and optimizations.
Thanks to everyone who sent in a report or gave us feedback!

If you haven’t seen our release notes for initial VR support, please check them out here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/252870/announcements/detail/514937077746072907

Fixes:
-Ship UI (piloting / turret UI) now shows up above world objects
-Ship damage numbers have been re-added
-Launching in No VR mode should work more consistently
-In-game UI now defaults to on for new players

Changes:
-Piloting talent Keen Eyes should now work in VR mode
-MegaTurret UI should now work in VR mode
-Missile Lock UI should now work in VR mode
-Credits and Manual have been redone to work in VR mode
-Some turret fire rates / damage / power usage tweaked
-Outrider starting programs changed (added some speciality programs, removed viruses)
-Intrepid starts with original turrets (Missile Turret replaced with Laser Turret)
-Can no longer blind jump an enemy ship
-Added the ability to bind a joystick axis to an input key action in the Controls menu, this should allow Xbox One controllers to fire weapons using the trigger
-Some minor tweaks to the default controller bindings for the PS4 and Xbox One controllers

Optimizations:
-CPU optimizations related to wandering NPCs in hubs
-Small CPU and memory optimizations in various internal systems
-New lighting optimizations that partially or fully disable lights based on light properties and distance



Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-03-20 20:47:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 13.4 is now available. As always thanks for the reports!

If you haven’t seen our release notes for initial VR support, please check them out here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/252870/announcements/detail/514937077746072907

Fixes:
-Fixed lighting issue that prevented shadows from working
-Fix for rare issue where bots could get stuck
-Small tweaks to audio memory bank config that should prevent audio / SFX from cutting out in certain situations
-Fixed an additional collision issue found on the Harbor
-Fixed collision issues that could be encountered at some science stations and reactors

Changes:
-TurretUI leading reticule has been remade and now works in VR mode
-Added a small VR crosshair when controlling turrets to make it easier to aim with motion controllers
-Motion controllers should now ‘stick’ to their left/right hand once assigned instead of switching during gameplay in SteamVR mode

Known Issues:
-Some visuals previously available in piloting HUD need to be redone (keen eyes)
-Some menus do not currently have gamepad support
-Virtual keyboard doesn’t work outside of VR (ex. Gamepad on monitor)
-Rendering bug in VR where ship interiors disappear in certain rotations
-MegaTurret UI is missing in VR (to be redone soon)
-Credits and Manual are not accessible in VR

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-03-03 19:05:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 13.3 is now available. Thanks for all your reports and comments!

If you haven’t seen our release notes for initial VR support, please check them out here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/252870/announcements/detail/514937077746072907


Fixes:
-A few collision issues on the Intrepid have been fixed
-Fixed a collision issue found on The Harbor
-Fixed a strange visual geometry bug that might occur while flying the Outrider
-Fixed an issue that caused the possibility of missions to be broken due to chaos spawns
-Fixed a post processing shader error that caused sun shafts to not work in some situations (black screen)
-Fixed a turret targeting issue that caused it to attempt to target destroyed ships
-Fixed a pathing issue on the Carrier that prevented proper repairing / fire patrol of life support
-Fixed an issue with the video settings menu that caused certain settings to reset when entering the menu
-Fixed a visual issue with the pilot waypoint UI rotation
-Fixed an issue with the UI that prevented correct hull / shields from showing up in space if the ship didn’t have a shield generator
-Fixed an issue with the Ancient Sentry that caused performance and potential networking errors

Changes:
-The captain can now set the target ship by clicking on the UI again
-Create game menu now shows selected ship info / stats
-A few small optimizations

Known Issues:
-Some visuals previously available in piloting HUD need to be redone (keen eyes)
-Some menus do not currently have gamepad support
-Virtual keyboard doesn’t work outside of VR (ex. Gamepad on monitor)
-Rendering bug in VR where ship interiors disappear in certain rotations
-Turret and MegaTurret UI’s are missing
-Credits and Manual are not accessible in VR

Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-03-01 23:00:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 13.2 should now be available. Thanks for all your reports and comments!

If you haven’t seen our release notes for initial VR support, please check them out here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/252870/announcements/detail/514937077746072907



Fixes:
-Roomscale VR mode should work better for players using an Oculus Rift headset
-PULSAR can now detect when using Rift in SteamVR mode to show the Touch controllers instead of SteamVR controllers when available
-Mouse Invert Y setting should now be working as expected
-Video settings menu improvements to make it a little easier to use
-Fixed issue that caused errors when you died with a scanner in your inventory
-Flares should no longer have a chance of showing up in the starmap

Changes:
-Added an optional game framerate limit back to the video settings menu
-Added a VAD Level setting back to the audio settings menu
-Change region menu no longer available in-game since it caused a disconnect on region change
-Added VR controller offsets menu to allow custom position and rotation offsets of VR motion controllers inputs. This is available in the VR Settings menu
-Scanner now responds to motion controller input
-Added back the ability to sort games
-The Customize Appearance menu should be working better in VR mode
-Turrets now have VR controls. They are still missing their UIs in VR mode at the moment
-In-Game UI in VR has been scaled down to make it easier to see chat, ship health, etc
-Added default bindings for Saitek X52 and X55, you may need to reset bindings to get the new functionality

Known Issues:
-Some visuals previously available in piloting HUD need to be redone (keen eyes)
-Some menus do not currently have gamepad support
-Virtual keyboard doesn’t work outside of VR (ex. Gamepad on monitor)
-Rendering bug in VR where ship interiors disappear in certain rotations
-Turret and MegaTurret UI’s are missing
-Credits and Manual are not accessible in VR


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-02-17 23:12:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 13.1 is out now. It contains a few fixes and tweaks based on player feedback. Thanks for all your reports and comments!

If you haven’t seen our release notes for initial VR support, please check them out here:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/252870/announcements/detail/514937077746072907

Fixes:
-Fixed an input system issue that caused all input to be ignored on some Mac and Linux computers
-Fixed an input system that prevented smooth interactions with ship world UI (hailing, research, etc)
-Fixed an issue that would sometimes not display the weapon / equipped item properly, especially when visiting a planet or station
-Fixed an issue involving the inventory and being able to “unequip” hands as well as other strange things
-Fixed issue that caused old/unavailable games to show in join game list
-Fixed a strange respawn issue involving the Outrider-Class Starship

Changes:
-Pilot UI now shows the next waypoint when displaying sectors
-Pilot UI text / scale has been tweaked to be more readable
-Join game menu now shows whether a game is private or public with a small lock icon
-Game now internally uses Lowest settings when playing in VR to help prevent certain rendering errors. We will change this back once the issues are fixed.

Known Issues:
-Turrets are not very usable in VR
-Some visuals previously available in piloting HUD need to be redone (keen eyes)
-Some menus do not currently have gamepad support
-Virtual keyboard doesn’t work outside of VR (ex. Gamepad on monitor)
-The Customize Appearance menu is not fully supported in VR
-Rendering bug in VR where ship interiors disappear in certain rotations.
-Scanner doesn’t respond to motion controller input



Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-02-15 18:50:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 13 is now out! It was a little later than we originally planned, but we added support for the motion controllers on the Oculus Rift and the Vive! While a bunch of time was spent on getting VR support integrated we’ve also made numerous changes to other parts of the game that include updating the core game and audio engine, overhauling various menus, and adding more content and missions.

Because of all these changes there very well might be some unforeseen problems we didn’t catch during development, so please bear with us during this initial release!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgLwwm4BKso

First off, since the game wasn’t necessarily built from the ground up to support VR it will inherently be a more intense experience. Therefore we don’t recommend new VR players to jump in until they have some VR experience in more comfortable titles. There are also a few areas that still need a bit more work; for example, controlling a ship’s turret is not currently recommended.

-PULSAR’s VR mode is very intensive on computer hardware and has much higher hardware requirements than the standard version. We recommend adjusting settings to Lowest at first and moving up based on framerate. The current build has not had the time to be optimized for VR yet. More work on that is coming soon.
-VR settings are available in the new VR settings menu. Render scale can be adjusted there which can dramatically affect framerate.

-PULSAR implements both the Oculus and OpenVR runtimes. Either can be used and the game should detect which is installed automatically.
-PULSAR supports both the Oculus Touch and SteamVR motion controllers
-We use direct movement controls (joystick-based) in VR and don’t have a teleportation movement option.
-Support for both Seated/Standing and Roomscale setups is available
-Multiplayer can support both VR and non-VR modes playing together.

-Switching to VR mode and “2D” mode is possible by pressing F10
-To reset your orientation in seated/standing VR mode, press F11
-A virtual keyboard can be used in VR mode to fill in text fields.
-Warning: If you’ve played PULSAR before Beta 13, initially loading Beta 13 VR mode will automatically reset any previous bindings to allow you to access the menus with the controllers.

PULSAR VR Recommended Specs:
-CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
-GPU: NVIDIA 980
-RAM: 8 GB

New additions:
-New Planet - Stiltz and Shanders
-New Planet - Deathseeker Crash
-New Planet - Colonial Union Planetary Colony (Lotharus 9)
-New Planet - Purple Storm
-New Station - Dimensional Rift Research Station
-4 New Colonial Union Pickup Missions
-Players can now see a percentage of how many sectors they have visited. It’s a conservative estimate system that we’re planning on improving.
-Captain’s order menu now supports equipment shortcuts
-Pilot HUD now sees more information on targeted ship

VR:
-Oculus Rift Support
-HTC Vive Support
-Motion Controller Support
-Keyboard and Mouse +HMD
-Gamepad + HMD

Changes:
-Unity Core upgrade (5.5.0)
-Single pass stereo rendering
-Name and health now appear above crewmembers and enemies
-Locomotion Speed has been slightly reduced
-Gamepad support has been improved, however there are a few menus and things that still need work. We’re planning on adding support for those very soon!

Menu Improvements:
-Main Menu
-Video Settings
-Audio Settings
-Game Settings
-Controls (bindings)
-VR Settings
-Ship Selection Menu
-Escape Menu
-Save Game Menu
-Game Over Menu

Fixes:
-Fixed an issue that would allow players to get stuck behind the weapons and science systems on the Outrider
-Save format has been updated to keep track of visited planets
-Fixed an audio issue with the Grim Cutlass, should be more stable overall

Known Issues:
-Turrets are not very usable in VR
-Some visuals previously available in piloting HUD need to be redone (keen eyes)
-Some menus do not currently have gamepad support
-Virtual keyboard doesn’t work outside of VR (ex. Gamepad on monitor)
-The Customize appearance menu is not fully supported in VR
-Rendering bug in VR where ship interiors disappear in certain rotations. Playing VR in Lowest settings seems to mostly prevent it for the moment
-Scanner doesn’t respond to motion controller input


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-02-13 18:23:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 13 Coming Soon

Hey everyone!

Beta 13 is very close to release. We’ll be adding a handful of new planets and missions, but the biggest change will likely be VR support and some updated menus. Earlier in the month, we mentioned that we were going to look into supporting touch controllers for the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. After quite a bit of work, we are happy to say that PULSAR will have support for those devices! Working on VR support has been a fun and interesting challenge, and we’re very close to having something to share with you all.

We’ll release Beta 13 as soon as it’s ready. Adding motion controllers took a bit longer than we anticipated, but we think it’ll really add to the experience. We apologize for the delay, and we look forward to your feedback.

Below are screenshots of some of the new content that’s arriving with Beta 13:


VR Motion Controller Preview:


Thank you for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-01-31 23:16:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 12.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 12.2 is now available!

Changes
-Removed commands/exploits that could cause crew-wide bugs and weren’t intended to be available in the live build



We also have some news for the next feature update: Beta 13 will include Oculus Rift support. Specifically, it will include an Oculus VR mode that allows players to use either keyboard and mouse or a gamepad.

Motion controller support (Oculus Touch, Vive) will be looked into and experimented with but may or may not end up being feasible for PULSAR.

Beta 13 should be out later this month.

Thanks everyone!

UPDATE: A lot of you have expressed your concerns about Vive support, we've spent some time today looking into it and doing some simple tests with our Vive setup. We're glad to say that Vive HMD support will be in Beta 13. We were pretty much planning on implementing it but simply hesitant to make any guarantees without testing it ourselves. As for touch controllers, we still have more work to do before we can say if PULSAR will support them.

To reiterate: Beta 13 should support both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets with KB+M / Gamepad. Touch / Vive motion controllers are still being looked into.

Hope this helps / clarifies!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2017-01-05 00:37:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 12.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 12.1 is now available!

Fixes
-Some improvements to the ship occlusion system to help prevent invisible objects / players

Outrider
-Fixed a collision issue on Outrider that could cause crewmembers to get stuck in front of the bridge section.
-Fixed an issue that could cause engineering fires to not show up on the Outrider
-Fixed a screen culling issue on the Outrider
-Tweaked the base of the Captain's chair.

Thanks everyone!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-12-27 23:41:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 12 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Devlog 68: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4oTJpIvyXA

Beta 12 is out now! Many of you have been requesting more ships, so we decided to add a new one to the collection for this update! It’s a Colonial Union research vessel called the Outrider. It is a highly maneuverable, compact vessel that includes a research material harvesting lab.
It is also the only ship so far to start with a handful of research components, which means crews who start on an Outrider can dive into research projects faster than if they started on other ships.

Tracker missiles have been rebalanced to be more effective in combat. Enemy ships will now use them more aggressively, so be careful!

A number of new planets and missions, as well as a new raptor-like creature, are included in Beta 12.

We are also participating in the Winter Sale!
PULSAR is 30% off until Jan 2 on Steam and the Humble Store!


Additions
-New Ship: C.U. Outrider
-New Creature: Xenoraptor
-New ambient SFX for various planets
-New Planet: Snow Train
-New Planet: Grassy Plains
-New Planet: Poison Station 2
-New Planet: Grey Plains
-New Planet: Toxic Craters
-New Planet: Cave Base
-New Mission: Deliver Sundust (Tam Mora mission line)
-New Mission: Retrieve Ore Sample
-New Mission: Collect an Egg
-New Mission: Clear the Crash Site
-New door lock system that requires the crew to be in possession of a specific item to have access
-New ship component: A nuke that rivals all others…
-New Items
-New physics volumes that act as a directional force against players

Improvements
-Updated bot turret systems to enable bots to be smarter about turret selection
-Few optimizations of raycasts for UI / combat
-Tracker Missiles have been rebalanced to make them more important in ship-to-ship combat. Enemy ships will now use this system more aggressively
-Enemy ship AI now detects and prevents hostility for accidental AI hits on friendly AI ships

Fixes
-Fixed an issue that could cause the starmap waypoint path planner to go through non-existant sectors
-Few SFX bug fixes
-Fixed an issue with the ship fire system that could cause unreachable fires
-Fixed a mission objective bug that could cause players to not be able to complete certain objectives
-Galaxy generation tweaked to help prevent scenarios where the playership has no warp targets in range
-Updated default AI priorities (fixed a behaviour bug on some planets). Won’t take effect until the Captain resets the AI settings
-Small bug fix that could cause stuck loading screen on galaxy reset

Thanks everyone, and happy holidays!


Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-12-23 22:06:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 11.5 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 11.5 is now out! This update is focused on fixing a number of networking issues that appeared in 11.3.

Fixes
- Fixed an issue that was likely causing a handful of network desyncs

As always, thanks for the reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-11-30 00:03:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 11.3-11.4 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 11.3 is now out.

Over the past few days, we’ve gotten reports about games being disrupted by players who are using an exploit to enter private games. This update focuses on strengthening the kick features and making private games more secure. We have more planned to combat exploits like this in the future, and from this update forward game security has become a much bigger priority for us.

Please note that the Leafy Games development team does not enter player games, especially for the purposes of hindering gameplay. Anyone who enters a game and claims to be a developer does not represent our team. Our job is to try and make an enjoyable experience for PULSAR’s players. Please know that none of us would ever sabotage your games.


Changes
-Private games are more secure than before
-Kick functionality is more secure
-Only the Captain can send messages to kick players


Here are some tips we believe might be useful while we continue to add more security in the following updates:
-Save often
-Try to use the private game setting when you are content with your current crew. You can change the setting while playing the game by going to the ESC menu and clicking on “Edit Game Settings”. Remember to click “Apply Changes” afterward.
-Be skeptical about player names that you see, anyone can put anything as their name.


As always, let us know if you encounter any issues. We appreciate your feedback, and we’re grateful for everyone’s reports.


We sincerely apologize for the trouble, and we hope this update is a good first step to improve the security of your games in PULSAR.


If you’re traveling this week, we hope you have a safe trip.


---


Beta 11.4 is now out, this mainly fixes a few network issues that began with the last update.


Fixes
-Items, inventories and lockers should be networked better
-Scientist scans and the engineering switchboard should be networked better
-The text chat box should work properly now

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-11-21 21:04:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 11.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 11.2 is now available. It contains a few fixes.

Also, we didn’t mention it but Beta 11 can load Beta 10 save files in many circumstances (it may show as outdated but should still load if you select it). As always with new content, the galaxy information will be wiped but your ship, credits, and crew level will be preserved.

Fixes
-Fixed loading issue that could cause long range comm targets to appear when they shouldn’t have
-Fixed loading issue that could cause missions to not correctly load their status


Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-11-16 22:31:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 11.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone!

Beta 11.1 is now available. It contains a few changes and fixes.

Changes
-Swarm now has sector commander icon on starmap
-Civilian fuel ship tweaked


Fixes
-Fixed an issue with ship components not properly showing up in cargo when starting some missions


Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-11-15 19:22:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 11 Release Notes



Hey everyone!

Beta 11 is out now! It includes a new Sector Commander that can be encountered out in the galaxy, a pass on sound effects, as well as several bug fixes. To find the Sector Commander, check your starmap for the three sectors connected by blue lines. This Sector Commander acts as a bit of a puzzle, both in how you unlock it and how you fight it. We are planning a hotfix if necessary and then we’ll work on more content updates.


Additions
-New Sector: Keeper
-New Sector Commander: The Swarm
-New Mega Turret: Keeper Beam


Changes
-Improved the investigator effects and timing
-Various new and improved sounds


Fixes
-Fixed an issue when loading saves that displayed all of the objectives completed upon entering the game.
-Fixed a number of networking and turret bugs
-Fixed an issue that would cause distress beacons to not be visible after galaxy reset
-Fixed a ship component error that would sometimes not properly display recently acquired components from shops and planets
-Fixed an issue that would sometimes not properly reset code that would result in not being able to turn in missions despite completing all of the objectives
-Fixed a few issues that could cause crashes and some saves to not load properly
-Fixed issues related to certain long range dialogue sequences not loading when continuing a save game


Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-11-14 23:58:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10.7 Release Notes

Hello explorers!

Beta 10.7 is now out! This should fix voice chat!


Fixes
-Voice chat should now work again on Windows computers
-Clients should no longer see “Option A” in the targeting drop down menu when joining a game.


Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-10-29 18:52:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10.6 Release Notes

Hello explorers!

Beta 10.6 is available now. It contains bug fixes, UI tweaks, audio updates and balance improvements for sector commanders.

Beta 11 is well along and should be available early November. It will feature a new sector commander and some other new content.


Additions
-Theo Eikeni (located in the Estate) now offers crews the ability to unflag their stolen ships. It’s not cheap though.
-More sound effects have been hooked up!


Changes
-Ancient Sentry balance and bug fixing pass (more to come later too)
-Grim Cutlass balance pass
-Captain ship target selection overhauled. Tab menu now contains a drop-down menu instead of left-right selector. The Captain can also click on the upper-right UI panel to directly select a target ship. This should help Captains not accidentally target and allied ship during a fight.
-First time game creation will now default the game name to name based on the host’s playername instead of the hard-coded “PULSAR Game” to make game creation smoother.
-Some tweaks to auto turret power usage and auto turrets can now be found as scrap and in the stores at different levels
-Material and lighting tweaks to the Ancient Sentry fight.


Fixes
-Improved dynamic sector creation to help avoid spawning sectors that can’t be accessed
-Fixed a bug that caused bots to not repair systems correctly on the Stargazer and Carrier ships
-Fixed auto turret bugs that caused various issues with using and equipping auto turrets



Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-10-29 00:10:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10.5 Release Notes

Hello explorers!

Beta 10.5 is out now. Thanks for those quick reports!

Fixes
-Loading a saved game game should no longer uninstall your ship components. If this happened to you yesterday, you should be able to just load that save again and things should work properly.
-Unequipping inventory items should work appropriately
-Fixed an issue with accepting one of the AOG pickup missions


Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-10-07 22:11:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10.4 Release Notes

Hello explorers!

Beta 10.4 is out now!



This one is a bit more content focused than usual for these types of updates. We wanted to add a contraband system to the game for a while now, and we took this update as an opportunity to do just that! We think it helps make being a Gentleman a little more dangerous.

We added a handful of new, colorful components that in one way or another are illegal to have in your possession.

But what is contraband without the risk of getting caught? Colonial Union inspection stations are now in the galaxy. When in Colonial Union space, they select ships at random for a full ship inspection. If you don’t have a spot to hide your illegal cargo, you’ll be at great risk of getting caught when the station investigates your ship. If you do have a spot to hide all of your illegal goods, make sure to stash away your cargo, and you may be able to sneak it out safely.

Running from an inspection station request will result in your ship being flagged. Your ship will also be flagged if they spot cargo during the investigation, and they will also attempt to destroy your ship, so be careful!

Inspection stations like to be thorough. A CU investigator bot will board your ship and begin to examine your ship's interior. It’ll inspect ship systems, ship cargo, and player lockers. This means if you have some kind of contraband item in your locker, you’d better remember to get rid of it!



Additions
-New system for contraband
-Hidden cargo slots on AOG ships should now work appropriately
-New Cargo - Contraband items; most shopkeepers won’t buy them, and you could get in trouble if you’re caught with them.
-New Sector: Colonial Union Inspection Station
-New Station: Secret Cryogenics Facility (quest related)
-New Planet - Poison Mist (quest related)
-New Planet - Borthix Mining Operation (quest related)
-Automated ship investigator - New object that will fly around and investigate your ship for contraband items. There is a small chance it might find your hidden stash if you have one.
-4 new AOG smuggling missions


Changes
-The Estate’s reactor room is no longer as dangerous as it was in 10.3


Fixes
-Fixed a few minor geometry bugs on one of the toxic planets
-Fixed an error that would occur during bribes or Long Range Warp Station purchases that would sometimes give your crew a negative credit balance
-Saving/loading an AI crew should now work a bit better and now stores bot names / genders


We know quite a lot of you are requesting more content, so that’s what we’re going to be focusing on in the coming updates. Thanks for the reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team



[ 2016-10-07 00:35:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10.3 Release Notes

Hello explorers!

Beta 10.3 is now available! It contains a handful of fixes and tweaks!

Changes
-Added a first pass of optimization for The Estate
-Missions involving medical supplies now have special version of said ship component (i.e Stolen Medical Supplies, Smuggled Medical Supplies)

Fixes
-Fixed a mesh bug on “Alien Tablet” mission planet
-Fixed a texture bug found in the SunDust facility on the Estate
-Fixed a Navmesh bug that prevented the WeapBot from reaching the mega turret control station on the Stargazer
-Tweaked some internal voice chat settings in an attempt to increase stability
-Fixed a Ship component ID error that would make it impossible to complete the medical supplies mission

Thanks for the reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-09-28 19:13:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10.2 Release Notes

Hello explorers!

Beta 10.2 is now available! It addresses some of the issues that have been reported so far! As always, thanks for taking the time to let us know if when something isn’t working quite right.

Changes
-Added more space turrets to the CU Hub (Outpost 448)
-Background civilian ships should no longer light up shields when flying close to your ship
-Phase pistol projectile doesn’t cause a crazy bloom effect anymore

Fixes
-Fixed an internal networking issue that caused projectiles to constantly be created and a potential framerate drop in certain situations
-Fixed a collision bug on the W.D. Cruiser
-Removed a couple redundant systems from the W.D. Cruiser, may have been causing a slight performance hit
-Fixed an issue that could occur when loading from saved game data
-Fixed a few visual bugs with the new flare system
-Fixed a few small internal AI issues that could cause strange behavior
-Fixed a loading bug that caused AI data to not be properly stored in a game save which caused most AI priorities to not load when continuing a game as a host-Captain


Thanks again for the reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-09-26 23:26:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10.1 Release Notes

Hello crewmates!

Beta 10.1 is now available. It addresses the talents screen not being accessible for non-captain players.

Thanks for the reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-09-24 23:10:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 10 Release Notes

Hello crewmates!

Beta 10 is now available!

Devlog #67: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTlo3CGzdGw
AI Overrides In-Depth Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppXovo4DeOc


This update features an in-depth AI priority system and the infamous Alliance of Gentlemen hub called ‘The Estate’. If you’ve been following our progress announcements, you may have already seen some of the work that’s been done for this update. Keep reading below for a full list of features for Beta 10.


Main Features
-The Estate (new hub): The Estate was once a W.D. Corporation Flagship that the Alliance of Gentlemen hijacked during the final stages of its construction. It now serves as a hub for the Gentlemen
-AI Priority and Override System: The new AI system will allow you to customize your AI crewmembers, their class behaviors, and their responses to orders. AI priorities can be set to different strengths and tailored to specific orders or events with overrides. For more details on how this all works, watch our in-depth AI override video above
-AI Saves: AI crew settings can now be saved and loaded as files
-AI Customization: You can now customize the appearances of your AI crewmembers, as well as name them
-AI Pathfinding Overhaul: Switched main navigation system to RecastGraphs for more robust pathfinding and environment analysis
-AI can now use flight packs
-AI can now teleport to and navigate on planet surfaces

Additions
-Captain can now create custom orders for crew. This is accessed by clicking Captain in the Crew tab
-8 new Alliance of Gentlemen missions
-CU and WD Infomasters (Weise Quel and Remhan Zesho) who can provide galaxy lore
-Wandering NPCs
-Background ships at main hubs
-New consumable items
-New ground-based turret system that can be encountered
-New space turret system at CU and WD hubs

Changes
-Can now use jetpacks while wearing ExoSuit
-New lens flare system
-New temperature game setting for Fahrenheit or Celsius
-Ship physics tweaks; acceleration and momentum have been heavily tweaked
-Ship collision damage has been greatly increased

Known Issues
-In certain situations (warp, some planets) flare system has visual bugs
-Enemy ship crew appearance can sometimes not be randomized correctly


Other Beta 10 videos:
Pathfinding Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-yzZOLgt2I
Estate Preview / AI Jetpack Actions Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-SxKAMF_Ps

Thanks for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-09-24 00:43:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mid September 2016 Progress

Hello explorers!

First off, with the one year anniversary of PULSAR’s early access launch on Steam we want to thank the community for supporting the game over the course of its development!

We’re in the home stretch of Beta 10. Most of the new features and content are now in testing or polish stages. Our current plan is to release next week, but we aren’t promising anything specific yet!

We’re quite excited about the new priority system for Beta 10. We believe it will end up giving a lot of control to the captains on how they want their AI crew to react to orders and the world around them. Our two main goals for this system were to help communicate what the AI is currently doing and to allow the captain to really fine tune the actions of his crew to mesh well with his play-style. It’s a big project, and we’re certain it’ll grow when we start getting some of your feedback! Please keep in mind the screenshots below are subject to change as we still have work to do! More information and a quick tutorial / overview will be part of the Devlog!


Priorities being arranged by importance. Example of overrides in action.



The current list of overrides possible. Post ideas for new ones below! Click image for full size.



New AI Priority System


  • Allows the Captain to define priorities to specific actions just like before
  • Main Priorities are now sorted by the computed importance
  • Main Priorities now can have subpriorities for more fine control over behavior
  • Additionally allows custom overrides to priorities so you can customize the AI to match your playstyle
  • Can be synced to alert level, captain’s orders, or from a set of overrides based on crew or bot status
  • Some have a data field that can modify when the override is active
  • Ex. Hull > X% can be customized to any percentage the Captain chooses
  • All overrides can be inverted to reverse the situation in which it is active
  • You can rename and customize the appearance of bot crewmembers
  • You can save / load your bot data anytime
  • Some priorities have editable metadata allowing you to customize certain aspects of bot behavior within a priority

New navigation system is now fully implemented

  • All planets now have built networks
  • Some enemies can even use the navgraph
  • They also get the combat routines and gunplay enhancements from the crew bots
  • Future enemies might be able to use the jetpack system

Work on Hubs

  • New Background Ships
  • Help to add the feeling of a busy sector
  • Space Turrets attached to hubs, space stations, etc
  • Wanderers
  • New type of NPC that can walk around hubs
  • More progress on the Estate

Other small tweaks

  • Ship physics tweaks
  • Hopefully piloting skill has more impact
  • Jetpacks in Exosuits
  • New lens flare system
  • Changing the temp unit in the settings (we heard you loud and clear!)
  • Turrets on planets and stations
  • Ground based turret systems that protect areas / bases


We are planning a series of updates during the Beta 10 cycle (10.1, 10.2, etc)
The first few will likely be focused on smaller fixes and tweaks based on community feedback.
We are planning on adding the contraband system (hidden cargo support) and a polish pass on the Estate adding some things that didn’t make it in.

Couple screenshots of the Estate and a new planet:





After Beta 10, we’re planning on switching the focus to content for a time. The past few major updates have been focused on game systems or more technical improvements that are important but perhaps not as exciting to some players.

One of the more interesting concepts for us in working on a space game was the idea of adding strange scenarios and phenomena to the universe. We’re planning on dedicating a good chunk of time to that endeavor for Beta 11.

That’s it for now, keep an eye out for Beta 10!

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-09-15 20:36:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mid-August 2016 Progress Video

Hey everyone,

We are releasing another progress video today for Beta 10. It has a quick preview of some of the new content (The Estate) and an overview of a new AI system (jetpack actions).

Youtube: https://youtu.be/9-SxKAMF_Ps

We would like to thank everyone for being patient with this update. We’re working very hard to get it out as soon as possible!

More information and videos on Beta 10 will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

Thanks for your time!
-The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-08-16 23:20:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Late July Progress Video

Hey everyone,

Beta 10 is coming along nicely with the new AI system development in full swing. We wanted to share a bit about what we’re working on and what to expect from Beta 10 when it launches. We plan to release more videos over the course of Beta 10’s development so keep on the lookout for those!

This video is about AI pathfinding and the changes coming to it in Beta 10:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-yzZOLgt2I

It goes over how pathfinding was done before Beta 10 (waypoint graphs) and how we are doing in after Beta 10 (navmeshes). It shows recordings of various tests to show the steps we’ve taken to integrate the new system and brief explanations of the decisions we’ve made.

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-07-27 22:31:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 9.5 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

9.5 has some crash fixes for issues that have been reported. We are now using XAudio2 by default on Windows platforms, which seems to increase stability for some headset users.

Changes
-PULSAR now uses XAudio2 on Windows platforms by default

Fixes
-Fixed crash bug that would occur when drinking certain beverages on low settings

As always, thanks for your time and reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-07-07 18:22:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 9.4 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

9.4 is a small tweak to reduce memory usage. Might help with some crashes that appeared in 9.3.

In addition we have done some more research on the Razer headset issue and may have found an easier way to stop the startup crashes. Setting the headset to output at 48000 Hz has solved the issue in our internal testing. Instructions are here: http://www.pulsarthegame.com/change-frequency-to-48000-hz

Changes
-Reduced runtime memory usage

As always, thanks for your time and reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-07-05 20:10:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 9.3 Release Notes

Hello everyone,

We took a quick break from Beta 10 to push out another small collection of fixes and tweaks. Beta 9.3 includes the following:

-Took another pass on improving and fixing visual bugs involving Outpost 448 occlusion culling
-Added some consequences for drinking any intoxicating beverages. A quick trip to your atrium will fix these effects should you need to have your wits about you
-Found a few audio bugs that may have been behind the crackling issues that some of you have reported
-Fixed a networking desync with the long range warp stations
-Fixed a bug that caused bots onboard while the host was on a planet to take damage from incorrect sources
-Sensor ship components now have a market value (no longer -1)
-Fixed visual issue when swapping shield generators
-Fixed bug with “Eliminate all hostiles” objectives that could incorrectly count hostiles on planets
-Can no longer fire turrets while starmap is active
-Some of the scrollable menus now scroll faster with a scrollwheel
-Fixed a collision bug on a planet
-Fixed networking issue when a non-host captain would discard components in warp

Thanks for your time and reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-07-04 21:45:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Quick Announcement!

Hello everyone,

The game’s now available on sale! A lot of you requested it, and due to the demand we decided to put it at a discounted price for the rest of the Steam Summer Sale.

We’re working on Beta 10. It will include improvements to the AI system as well as a chunk of new content that will focus around The Estate, which is a stolen W.D. flagship and central hub for the Alliance of Gentlemen. We are also planning on adding a number of missions, planets, and sectors exploring the criminal underworld of the galaxy.

In an effort to keep you all updated, we’ll be posting videos/information discussing the progress we’re making in the following weeks. We’ll try to show a bit more of the behind-the-scenes development as well, for those who are interested.

Enjoy the summer!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-06-29 20:21:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 9.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

Beta 9.2 is now available. Thanks for sending in your reports!

Fixes
-Multiple tweaks and fixes to the Colonial Union HUB (outpost 448) in terms of occlusion culling.
-Fixed an issue related to moving cargo around while not in a shop sector.
-Fixed a bug that removed faction territory visuals on the starmap during warp
-Tweaked the damage dealt when a Blind Jump is activated, this should hopefully improve the chances of escaping a battle when the ship’s hull is on the lower side.
-Infected reputation is no longer tracked
-Players joining a ship mid-warp should no longer cause issues
-Can no longer plot courses to hidden sectors
-Can no longer scroll the Starmap while in the Escape menu

Thanks again for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-06-14 17:41:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 9.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

Beta 9.1 is now available. Thanks for all of the helpful feedback and bug reports!

Fixes
-Red dunes planet lighting error should now be resolved
-AI crew should now be able to control the central forward turret on the Carrier
-Fixed issue with the graphics quality / performance systems that prevented a number of optimizations from working with various graphics settings
-Fixed issue that prevented respawning in some circumstances
-Missions tab now supports scrolling
-Can now rearrange cargo while not at shop / depot
-Ship levers should no longer be clickable through the tab menu / starmap
-Fixed a material error on the abandoned ships
-Tweaked a few SFX

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-06-08 22:28:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 9 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

Beta 9 is now available! This update mostly focuses on a collection of smaller things. We’ve added a new ship salvage system that can extract specific components from abandoned ships. We’ve done work on the ship component display system, various piloting tweaks and visuals, new behaviors for existing ship components and some new experimental components that could be interesting to experiment with. We’ve also been working on some CPU and memory optimizations.

Devlog 66: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJp2dBNV_iI

Our plans for Beta 10 include a new chunk of content and a large overhaul on the AI system. It may take a little while for it to come out, but we’ll be releasing more information as we make more progress. Just wanted to let you all know in advance.


Additions
-New component type: Extractor
-New ship screen: Salvage System
-New expanded component view available in the tab menu (just press the spacebar when in the tab menu to activate). This allows you to see and edit all your ship components at once. It is also accessible from the escape menu.
-New Engineer talent to increase success chance for salvage operations
-Handful of new missions
-New sector - Abandoned Station
-New and tweaked sound effects

New Experimental Components
-QDI-RCG: processor that partially recharges shields whenever a program is run
-ThermoCore Reactor: provides more power the hotter the core temperature
-Second Hull: shield generator that has high integrity, very low charge speed and power usage
-Layered Hull: armor scales with current hull integrity. Stronger when hull is lower

New Components
-Beam Shields (25% extra resistance to beam attacks)
-Superior Beam Shields (40% extra resistance to beam attacks)

Changes
-All hull max integrity values have been doubled
-Shields now have a “min integrity” value. Whenever a shield reaches zero integrity it needs to reach this value to reactivate.
-Reactors now have a “heat output” value. This affects how they react to cooling and how quickly they heat up.
-Some ships are no longer capable of reversing the main thrusters. The Intrepid, Stargazer and Carrier have reversible thrusters.
-New piloting visuals for directional thrusters (rotation and translation)
-Space scrap from destroyed ships is now based on the ship’s components
-In-game manual visuals and content have been updated
-CPU / Memory optimizations

Fixes
-Fixed internal issue with startup switches
-Audio tweaks to help reduce crackling in some circumstances
-Fixed issue with Ancient Sentry that caused it to behave incorrectly
-Fixed a few rare bugs when a shield generator was not installed
-Fixed a math bug that occured when damage overflowed from shields to hull in a single attack that resulted in hull damage amount errors
-Fixed issue with ship dialogue during the ship claiming process
-Fixed issue with EngBot spamming the chat
-Fixed positioning errors for some SFX
-Fixed small visual issue in displaying some ship names

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-06-07 23:16:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 8.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

Beta 8.1 is now available! It contains a number of fixes for Beta 8.
Thanks for all your reports and feedback!

Fixes
-Fixed galaxy sync issue that caused clients to have incorrect sector data
-Improved comm target selection netcode, should be more reliable
-Fixed a small performance regression in planetary sectors
-Fixed loophole in dialogue system that could allow crews to bypass penalties
-Fixed an issue with swapping components that could cause components to be lost or invisible

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-05-12 00:37:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 8 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

Beta 8 is now available! This update features ship hailing, blind jumps and four new screens for the main ship systems.

Devlog #65 is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqFXcdkDZnQ

Due to the type of changes we’ve made in this update, save files will no longer carry over into this new version. We try not to do this often, but we’ve made a lot of changes to the files in Beta 8. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we hope you’ll bear with us as we add new features over the course of development.

For the next few weeks, we’ll keep a 7.3 branch open for those of you who would like to continue your game with the old saves. This will not contain the new features in Beta 8, but hopefully it will give you some more time with your old ships until you’d like to switch over to the new version. Below is an image showing where to change your beta version through Steam:




Main Features:

Ship Hailing - Ships you encounter in the galaxy can now be hailed. The Captain can interact with ships and use Diplomacy or Intimidation actions to negotiate with a hostile ship or extort weaker ones.

Ships will treat you differently depending on which faction they belong to, which faction you ‘appear’ to be, and where you are in the galaxy. Hopefully these factors will be a good start in adding a bit more life to the other ships in the game.

Diplomacy options may appear when a ship is prepared to fight. These options allow you to potentially ease a ship’s hostility and prevent any turrets from firing.

If a Captain wishes to know how likely certain diplomacy options are to succeed, they can attempt to probe information from the other ship. Probing a ship will display percents of how likely the ship is to accept certain diplomacy options, but it may also pick away at their patience and instigate a fight.

When a ship is not hostile, you can attempt to intimidate that ship into giving you fuel or credits. A failed intimidation will cause the ship to become hostile towards you.

Blind Jumps - Ships are now equipped with an Emergency Blind Jump System. This allows you to immediately activate your warp drive to travel to a random sector in the galaxy. It may cause significant damage or total ship destruction, so it should only be used in dire circumstances.

New Ship Screens - Ships have four additional screens, one for each of the main ship systems (Engineering, Science Lab, Weapons and Life Support). These screens display the main systems’ current conditions and give you more choices to allocate power within the systems. For example, you can now control power levels for individual turrets. There are currently no settings for the Life Support screen yet. We’re still planning which settings it will have.

We hope this will help new players understand the purpose of each system, as well as offer new settings and functionality to experienced crews.


Additions
-Ship-to-ship dialogue system
-Emergency Blind Jump system
-Main System Screens
-Unlockable teleporters
-Captain can drag and drop components in tab menu
-New planets / sectors

Changes
-Tweaked warp visuals
-Mega turrets now use more power overall
-Two new talents for the Captain to boost either Diplomacy or Intimidation actions in ship dialogue
-Ship drag coefficient is now modified by engineering system health
-Ship screens visual tweaks / now works with fog effects properly
-Warp jumps should be slightly smoother and input shouldn’t stutter / be ignored for a short time
-Memory optimizations (about 30% reduction from Beta 7)
-Some balances changes to certain ship attributes
-Small rendering optimization during warp
-Tweaks to galaxy generation
-Save file format updates
-It is now possible for enemy ships to be flagged (won’t cause rep loss when attacked)
-Added fog/smoke visual for ship fires

Fixes
-Fixed collision issue that could cause players to be killed if near the Captain’s Chair
-Fixed issue with core safety toggle visuals on certain configurations
-Fixed rare bug that could prevent warp skipping
-Fixed bug that could cause the stamina bar to show up when the local player is in high radiation levels
-Fixed bug that could cause long range comms to be disabled when it should be functional
-Fixed some visuals glitches (especially on Destroyer)
-Fixed potential saving issue caused by pickup missions
-Can no longer warp an abandoned ship
-Fixed issue with non-host Captain ship targeting
-Fixed issue that caused abandoned ships to possibly attack the player ship once power was restored
-Fixed internal power allocation issue that caused thrusters and warp drive to not use proper amount of power


Thanks again for your time and feedback!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-05-09 23:12:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 7.3 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

7.3 is out now!

Changes
-Colonial Union HUB has now been renamed to “Outpost 448” to help clear up any misunderstandings. This will be visible when starting a new game.


Fixes
-Fixed a bug where some missions could only be completed when the host interacted with the specified NPC. Those should now properly complete when any player uses the dialogue.
-Fixed a bug that allowed players to interact with screens while viewing the starmap or the shop menu
-Fixed a bug that did not properly sync shopkeepers in The Harbor sector, resulting in non-host players seeing nothing.
-Fixed a bug that allowed players to assign an item to the “hands” slot.
-Deathseeker / Shock Drones should properly take damage now
-Shields should now charge during warp
-Resolved an issue with voice chat on Mac computers


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-04-04 19:49:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 7.2 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

7.2 is out now! This should help with a few of the bugs that have been reported!


Fixes
-Fixed an issue that would cause the ship component details / mission info window to flicker occasionally or not show up at all
-Fixed an issue related to firing a weapon while running
-Fixed a mission completion bug on The Harbor
-Reactor safety toggle switch networking has been improved
-Fixed issue that prevented some sectors from showing up properly on the starmap
-Prices should now work correctly when swapping ship components in a store
-Deathseeker / Shock / Phase drones should no longer attack each other
-Pickup missions should now illustrate when they are completed
-Pickup missions should now properly remove specific items from a player's inventory when turning in missions
-Fixed a collision error that cause players to be able to climb on top of the WD Cruiser’s Reactor / Engine

Thanks again for your time and bug reports!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-04-02 22:15:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 7.1 Release Notes

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback and bug reports!

7.1 is a small hotfix that fixes the thruster swapping issue that has been reported. It also cleans up the W.D. Destroyer path network.

We are now working on 7.2 which will also focus on bug fixes.

Fixes
-Fixed issue that prevented players from installing / uninstalling the ship's thrusters
-Fixed some issues with the W.D. Destroyer path network

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-03-30 19:41:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 7 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Devlog #64: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6TRmmHgGs4

Beta 7 should be out now! A lot of our time has been spent building and working out the underlying systems for dynamically assigned missions based on your crew’s faction, as well as a new reputation system that should have more benefits and consequences. This update adds stronger faction roles, the ability to impersonate other factions with stolen ships based on ship registration, and missions that can be assigned to your crew through long range comms.

It’s important to keep in mind, these systems were built to lean on the Ship-to-Ship hailing system which is not in the game yet. While ships may or may not be hostile, they won’t hail you and start a discussion yet. We are planning on adding Ship-to-Ship hailing in Beta 8 which should hopefully add more depth to this update.


Additions
-Added a reputation system that adjusts store prices inside that faction's territory
-Added a system that can scramble long range communications to prevent reputation loss or flagged ship status. Nebula storms will also have this effect.
-Added a new system for assigning faction-based missions
-Added a ship registration system that allows factions to recognize allies. It’s still early, but this can potentially allow crews to “steal” ships while maintaining their registration (provided long range comms are scrambled).
-Game saves should now store ship reputation. We’ve done a bit of effort to make sure you can keep your current saves.
-New sound effects have been added to the game
-We’ve added an ability that can reveal your crew reputation to any ship in the sector; this is still early
-Radiation has been added. Areas can now be irradiated; the ExoSuit will slightly help but does not make a player immune to the effects.
-New Talent: Anti Radiation Injection
-A few abandoned ships have been added as part of the new missions
-Added a behind the scenes editor tool that allows us to tweak temperatures more specifically


New Programs and Viruses
-Block Long Range Comms
-Overcharge
-Barrage
-Syber’s Shield



21 New Missions
- New missions for the Alliance of Gentlemen
- New missions for the Colonial Union
- New missions for the WD Corp
- New missions that can be accepted by any faction

New Planets
-AOG Hidden Stash
-WD Base
-The Harbor
-Artifact Planet III
-Grassy Mountain
-Cube Caves
-Storm Planet
-Ice Plains
-Asteroid Refinery


Changes
-Tweaked the radius in which those small space particles appear around the ship
-WD security drones have been tweaked to make versions for the CU as well
-Nuke damage has been increased
-Lighting has been tweaked to reduce improperly lit doors on ship interiors
-Pilot AI should attempt to line up to sectors a bit faster
-Upgraded Wwise Implementation
-Reactors with core safety toggle disabled and running at higher temperatures will begin to leak radiation
-The virus screen can now display viruses that are being broadcast by allied ships. These viruses should not try to infect your ship.
-Drones will no longer endlessly jump to a continuing distress signal
-Tweaked lifeform sensors on all ships so that they are harder to detect
-Tweaked the quantum signature of ships while charging their warp drives
-Neutral sectors (in white) are now more of a “wild card” where almost anything can show up
-Carrier starting components have been tweaked


Starmap Changes
-Starmap sectors can now be dynamically loaded based on ship position and other variables
-Changed some of the visuals
-Galaxies can now have different numbers of arms
-Adjusted placement of shops in relation to long range warp stations
-Tweaked how sectors are labeled for optimization purposes
-Added more nebula storms to the galaxy and special visuals to accompany them
-Faction territories are no longer large expanses; they are now more likely to be a number of smaller pockets throughout the galaxy. This results in more neutral space.
-Adjusted distress signal visual to make it stand out a bit more
-Mission sectors have been tweaked
-Hub Icons are now visible on the Starmap
-Exotic shops are now found in Neutral space


Fixes
-Fixed a floating geometry issue outside one of the lava planets
-Fixed a room culling issue on the W.D. Cruiser
-Selecting “Install Ship Components” will now bring out the tab menu
-Fixed targeting UI for missiles if the in-game scale is not at 100%
-Spent a lot of time ironing out some of the issues on the virus screen; some of them included visual overlap with the comms screen, players joining a game can no longer miss a virus due to timing. The virus screen is also more optimized, will more accurately sort viruses the same on all clients and will no longer show viruses whose sender has been destroyed.
-Ship doors will now respond to non-human creatures
-Fixed a visual error regarding the “Find Sector” button
-Adjusted path networks to account for spawned objects (i.e The Captain's Chair)
-Fixed a strange sound issue found on the Grim Cutlass
-Fixed a UI sorting issues with the ship list on the right of the screen
-Fixed a comms screen issue on the Grim Cutlass
-Fixed a shop issue regarding invisible / equipped components
-Fixed the AI priorities menu from potentially getting stuck
-Fixed a bug that would start a crew in the Grim Cutlass ship if they died in it and performed a Galaxy Reset
-Fixed an issue regarding incorrect information as to whether a ship can or cannot detect you
-Fixed a small visual issue regarding NPC dialogue boxes
-Fixed a visual issue regarding the name on the side of some ships not appearing correctly after changing certain video settings
-Tweaking ship component pricing to accurately reflect the level of that component
-The Carrier now drops credits
-Fixed an issue where programs would not always charge in the correct order.
-Fixed an issue regarding distress signals not being accurate after a galaxy reset
-Fixed an issue that could potentially cause a desync regarding ship sensors
-Fixed another “locker hands” issue that would happen when adding and removing bots
-The Carrier now has a tracker missile slot. Its special attribute should also be a bit more powerful.

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-03-29 23:38:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 7 Preview

Hello everyone!

We wanted to give you all a preview of what we’ve been working on for Beta 7.

First off, we’re estimating a late March release as we still have more work to make sure all the new changes work properly. We’ve been working on fixing bugs, dozens of new / tweaked SFX, memory optimizations, some UI polish, new missions, new sectors, balance tweaks and the new features listed below.

New Features Coming Late March

Faction Alignment - The new reputation system will add more depth to each of the factions. Managing reputation will be a new challenge for crews as it affects how other ships see you and what prices will be offered in shops. Your route across the galaxy will probably need to take the faction of each sector into account; sectors belonging to your faction will be safer to traverse, while sectors belonging to other factions will lack such benefits. Your reputation will be a large part of what determines if a ship is hostile towards you. Losing reputation with your faction can also have dire consequences.


More Dynamic Space Battles - Before Beta 7, ship battles were always “us-vs-them”. With Beta 7’s emphasis on faction alignment and reputation, you will be able to encounter friendly ships in the galaxy, especially within your faction’s territories. You can also encounter different combinations of hostile and friendly ships. Two ships may be locked in combat with each other, and your assistance (or lack thereof) can affect the outcome of their battle.


Ship Registration - Starships will have ship registrations. This indicates to which faction a vessel belongs. If a ship is stolen or deserts its faction, the ship will become flagged and can no longer receive the benefits of its faction. However, the flagged status can be bypassed with a bit of preparation, and a crew can use a stolen vessel to freely enter another faction’s territory under the guise of that ship’s registration.


Long-Range Comms - A new mechanic has been developed that allows for long-range communications between your ship and other entities in the galaxy. This allows for missions to be assigned to you at any time on your journey. It will ultimately be your choice to complete the mission, but certain factions may see neglecting or declining missions as insubordination. These “pickup” missions will be important for gaining reputation with your faction and will typically have rewards for your crew.


Missions - We’ve also done a lot of behind-the-scenes work related to missions that enables more varied mission types. Beta 7 should more than double the number of missions currently in PULSAR. A lot of you have been asking for more missions, so we hope that you will enjoy the new content upon release!


Some screenshots of upcoming content:





We know this one’s taking a while, but we think these new additions will help greatly in the creation of more missions and scenarios to come.

As always we appreciate your patience, feedback and support. Thanks for reading. Hope you have a good day!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-03-08 23:26:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 6.2 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Beta 6.2 is out now. This should contain some various bug fixes that have been reported. Thanks again for all your feedback and reports!

Fixes
-Fixed a rendering issue that caused the research and atomizer screen to sometimes be seen on planets
-Pressing sprint key while in a turret / piloting will no longer cause the stamina bar to appear
-Fixed UI issue with W.D. Cruiser that caused the research / atomizer screens to be unusable
-Fixed issue that caused various artifacts and items on planets to only appear for the host
-Fixed UI issue that could cause the bottom info text (ex. “[R] Pilot ship”) to flicker on certain systems
-Stamina is no longer used when sprinting in place


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-02-01 21:33:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 6.1 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Beta 6.1 is out now, and this should fix the issue with loading game saves. We’ve gotten a lot of reports about this one, so this update is solely focused on getting this particular bug fixed.

The good news is that if you did make a save while playing Beta 6, you should be able to load them now. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused anyone, thanks for being patient with us!


Fixes
-Saves should now load correctly


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-01-29 18:37:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 6 / Research + Gathering

Hello everyone!

Devlog #63: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN5fMOEquZY

Beta 6 should be out now! Its main focus is the research system for Scientists, as well as a bunch of new talents and items! On some planets, you can now find rare research materials that can be placed in a machine called the Atomizer. This breaks down the materials into their unique components, which in turn can be used in the research and development of new talents and improvements for the crew. Research will require warp energy to progress; it will advance while the ship jumps from sector to sector or when fuel capsules are expended (similar to program charging).

The manual on the website has also been updated to include the tab menu changes, as well as the new research system.


Additions
-New system: Atomizer, reduces research samples into their base components
-New screen: Research screen, allows scientist to research new talents and abilities for the crew by spending research components
-New items: research materials

New Talents
-Custom Jetpack Fuel
-Strength Boost
-Stamina Boost
-Armored Skin Cells
-Advanced Training
-Research Specialty
-Gun Cooling
-Warp Charge Booster
-Turret Zoom
-Atrium Healing Enhancement
-Cloaked DNA
-Scanner Mode: Research Materials
-Scanner Mode: Item Pickups
-Reaction Time
-Damage Mitigation
-Encumbered Sprint
-Turret Damage Booster
-Upgraded Turret Power Conduits
-Custom Eye Implants

Changes
-There is now a Stamina bar that will deplete when sprinting.
-Inventory weight limits are now enforced; exceeding the limit will encumber the player.
-Save game will now save AI priorities, as well as items in the Atomizer and research components
-Save game has also been tweaked to support galaxy chaos events, which we hope to add soon in a future update. We did this now so we hopefully won’t need to break the saves again when we add them.
-System instances materials have been changed; they will now appear to become darker when damaged instead of the growing black patches. This is an attempt to see if there is a noticeable improvement on performance.
-Changes to a bit of the math behind how sectors are placed in the Starmap
-Some slight tweaks to Starmap visuals
-Talents page now has a scrollbar
-Handheld scanner no longer starts with item pickup detection, instead this must be researched by the Scientist.

Fixes
-Pawn names are no longer seen in the Starmap
-Items should rotate a bit better in the inventory
-Saving/reloading shouldn’t create a pair of hands in your locker
-Selling one of two identical items should no longer create issues
-You should no longer be able to open your inventory while being rematerialized
-Fixed some sound issues when ships would reach very high speeds
-Fixed some sound issues related to fires on the Intrepid
-Default ship targeting setting is now “Auto”
-Made some internal improvements to pickup items to reduce the possibility of any desync
-Starmap should sync a bit faster after a galaxy reset
-Fixed a lighting issue on the Carrier
-Fixed a collision issue on the Carrier
-Fixed a room culling issue on the Roland
-Potentially fixed an AI pathing issue on the Roland
-Fixed sector color issues related to CU and WD sectors returning a “pink” color

Known Issues
-Shop menu is not very gamepad compatible
-Jetpack isn’t assigned in default bindings for controllers
-Some space trader menu issues
-Tab menu UI issues with certain resolutions (reported on Linux)
-Mouse stutter issues (reported on Linux)
-Elevator use can cause player visual desync
-Static sound can be heard in some circumstances


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-01-28 23:46:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 5.3 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Beta 5.3 is now available with more fixes and tweaks. Thanks everyone for your reports and feedback!

We have added another launch option for PULSAR when using Steam on Windows. This launch option will force DirectX 9 drivers and can help in some situations if you are experiencing crashes while playing PULSAR.


Changes
-Captain can modify the current ship name via the “Edit Game Settings” menu
-Added cancel button to join private game menu

Fixes
-Fixed an issue that could cause players to be unable to respawn
-Fixed an issue that would spawn an unreleased planet type.
-Fixed an issue with the space caves that would display and unfinished variation
-Fixed issue with smooth turret camera that caused a slow drift over time
-Fixed issues with warp targets (waypoints) that could cause visual desync between the host and clients
-”FIND” button on sector results in computer screen now works
-Fixed UI input issue that caused an inability to find the sector of missions that aren’t the first selected mission
-Fixed issue that caused ship thruster sounds to fade when the ship is far from the origin
-Sector names no longer show when the item shop menu is active
-Star lens flares no longer show when starmap is active
-Comms screens are no longer interactable through other ship screens


Known Issues
-Shop menu is not very gamepad compatible
-Jetpack isn’t assigned in default bindings for controllers
-Some space trader menu issues
-Tabmenu UI issues with certain resolutions (reported on Linux)
-Mouse stutter issues (reported on Linux)
-Elevator use can cause player visual desync
-Static sound can be heard in some circumstances


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-01-10 00:41:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 5.2 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

5.2 is available now with some various fixes and tweaks. The next update will likely be another hotfix (5.3) with some more fixes.

We are still investigating some isolated crashing issues and will let you know when we know more.

For anyone having sound issues visit this page: http://www.pulsarthegame.com/resolving-sound-issues
If you use Steam the appropriate libraries should automatically install on launch if you need them.


Changes
-Added support for pages in the dialogue / comm choice screen to allow for more options to be selectable
-Captain’s Chairs are now available in general shops
-Captain’s Chairs now have bonus stats depending on types
-Added raw mouse input option in the game settings menu
-Moved the coolant screen to engineer's bridge area on the Carrier

Fixes
-Fixed issue with save game loading that could cause chaos level processing to happen again after load. Old save files should work but any double processing that previously occurred will still exist until a new save game is created.
-Tabmenu is no longer accessible out of a game
-Fixed issue that could cause a player to be stuck in sitting position if the captain’s chair is removed while someone is sitting in it
-Ship selection images now scale better with more resolutions and aspect ratios
-Sorting by name is now easier in the item shop menu due to some fixed UI input issues

Known Issues
-Shop menu is not very gamepad compatible
-Jetpack isn’t assigned in default bindings for controllers
-Some space trader menu issues
-Sound issue with ship thrusters
-Tabmenu UI issues with certain resolutions (reported on Linux)
-Mouse stutter issues (reported on Linux)
-Some issues with waypoints / galaxy pathing have been observed


Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-01-07 23:18:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 5.1 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

We’ve just released the first Hotifx for Beta 5. We really appreciate the reports that came in through the various channels. We’ll continue to hunt down the bugs we didn’t get with this update.

Changes
-HUD scale can now be modified in the game settings menu
-Lightning turrets will now show up in some exotic shops
-Locker menu now has scrollbars
-Inventory menu now has scrollbars
-Toggling precise / binary thrust is now assigned to the [P] key by default

Fixes
-Carrier AI Path Network has been fixed
-Starmap course plotting should now provide matching results on all clients
-The current sector will now be removed from the starmap course results
-Fixed skip warp label alignment
-Carrier attribute text in create game menu now doesn’t overlap the ship stats
-Fixed issue with moving items in and out of lockers
-Fixed issue that would create an extra set of default components for the Carrier when loaded from a file (also fixes issue that caused a duplicate Captain’s Chair to appear on the Carrier)
-Fixed issue with EngBot that could cause an endless loop of toggling the shields when alert level was yellow or red. The EngBot will drop the shields when the captain sets alert level to green and the ship is in the repair bay.
-Fixed a small shadow issue on the bridge of the Carrier
-Removed some of the masks from the CU HUB.

Known Issues
-Shop menu is not very gamepad compatible
-Jetpack isn’t assigned in default bindings for controllers

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-01-06 01:18:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 5 Release Notes

Hello everyone!

Devlog #62: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTkLvLvi-wA

Alright! So this update has been quite a doozy! Lots of changes to a lot of things. As we’ve stated previously, this update is focused on a number of UI changes and tweaks in order to better support gamepads and (in the future) VR!

We learned two things while working on this update--this game has a pretty complex user interface with a lot of moving parts, and making a system that’s easy to use for both keyboard and mouse as well as gamepad is not as easy as one might think. We will no doubt be making changes and improvements to this system, but the foundation is set and we feel good about it.

Beside the changes to the UI, we’ve also tried to see this update as an opportunity to put in some of the more requested features. Among these are: Comparing ship components in the shop, the Captain's chair and an overhauled locker system.

Something to keep in mind: Gamepad support still has a long way to go before we are satisfied with it. Beta 5 will come with some early bindings for the PS4 controller, the Xbox One controller and we’ll provide Steam Controller bindings through Steam. We’ll work on additional controller bindings soon.


Additions
-New TAB menu interface, hopefully a good step forward in terms of readability and gamepad support.
-New Ship component: The Captain's Chair - This one is still fairly early, the chair doesn’t really add any bonus effects to the ship right now, we’ll likely add multiple new chair and effects shortly.
-New Screen: Comms - Found near the Scientist’s area on the bridge, this screen will show possible targets the ship can communicate with. Clicking on one of these targets will open up two large displays that the Captain can use to interact with various stations.
-New system for lockers, each crewmember owns a locker which can store items. You can open other crewmembers’ lockers and add items, but you cannot remove them. The Captain can open any locker and add or take anything.
-New ship: The AOG Carrier - An older, unassuming ship, which has some unique scrap collecting abilities. The second starting ship for the Alliance of Gentlemen.
-New Enemy Ship: Shock Drone - Surrounded in a constant cloud of electricity, this small automated ship can prove to be quite dangerous due to its unique turret, the Lightning Turret.
-New Turret: Lighting Turret - Does a large amount of damage against shields but very little against hull. What makes this weapon formidable is the slight chance for it to shut down the enemy ship if it strikes the hull.
-New Space Sector: Molten Asteroid
-New Space Sector: Elder Ore
-New Planet: Waste Planet
-New Planet: CU Farm
-New Planet: Toxic Surface
-New Planet: Grounded Destroyer
-New Planet: Lava Surface
-New NPCs have been added to the AOG hideout
-New NPCs have been added to the WD HUB
-New Mission: Can be found on the Waste Planet
-New Ambient music has been added
-New Creature: Waste Wasp
-New Creature: “???”
-You can now locate mission related sectors by clicking on the little magnifying glass on the mission description page. This will open up the Starmap to that sectors locations
-New Starmap visuals, general faction locations will now be visualized, this will also highlight Infected areas of the galaxy.


Changes
-Removed seasonal props
-Ship components have been moved to the TAB menu under the “SHIP” tab.
-Captain’s order system is now used by holding down the “Z” key by default.
-Ship component and Item trading menus have been tweaked / improved
-NPC dialogue window has been improved / tweaked
-Visual indicators for weapon heat and flight pack fuel have been improved
-Visual indicators for your character’s health points have been tweaked


Fixes
-Fixed a collision issue in the AOG hideout
-Fixed a collision issue inside the Long Range Warp Station

Known Issues
-Shop menu is not very gamepad compatible
-Jetpack isn’t assigned in default bindings for controllers

This update took some time so there is a chance we might’ve forgotten to list one or two things.
Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2016-01-05 01:52:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another heads up about Beta 5

Hello everyone!

We wanted to get the community up-to-date on PULSAR’s development. Our plan was to finish up the build (Beta 5) and release it on Dec 31st. We have been hard at work doing the final lap of internal testing and bug fixing to make sure it is a playable experience when it releases.

We have found some serious bugs that can cause desync when warping so that the incorrect level is loaded on some clients. This causes all sorts of issues and is serious enough for us to delay the release of Beta 5 until they are fixed.

We will continue our work to fix it but wanted to make sure that you guys were aware that it might delay the update from the “late December” deadline into an “early January” deadline. We are unable to give a precise release window at this time but believe it will be on or before the 4th of January.

This is going to be one of the most comprehensive updates we have released since Beta and we wanted to make sure it is stable and somewhat polished when it is released.

Here’s a preview of some of the new content / features in Beta 5:

The new Lightning Turret (has a chance to shut down the ship when it deals hull damage):



An alien creature on a new toxic planet:



A geothermal power plant sector / interior:




The crew locker system has been overhauled



New NPCs have been added



One of the new sector types



Thanks for your time and we apologize for the delay!

The Leafy Games Team


[ 2015-12-31 00:59:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a heads up!

Hello everyone,

First off we would like to apologize for the radio silence the past few weeks. We’d like to take some time here to explain what we’ve been working on and our plans for Beta 5!

Our plans for Beta 5 mainly focus on a UI overhaul. This overhaul can be broken down into three main parts: an attempt to improve the usability based on the feedback we’ve received, a better interface for gamepad support and have it all properly built so VR integration will go smoothly.

Because the UI is so ingrained in almost every aspect of the game, it would be difficult to deliver it half-finished. Because of this we want do it all, which takes time. Beta 5 should include the majority of UI changes we hope to make. We hope it’s an improvement overall, and we’re looking forward to your feedback.

We are planning to release Beta 5 in late December. It’ll be a large update, and after that it’ll be back to the smaller / quicker updates for a while. UI overhaul is one of the bigger features on our to-do list, so we are excited to cross it off.

Below are some work-in-progress screenshots as well as some details and thoughts about various parts of the update. Things may change before Beta 5 gets released.










Beta 5 Features - Coming Late December

Totally redesigned in-game UI


  • The Tab Menu will be fully redesigned and have much better controller support..
  • We’re hoping that the look of the new UI is well received. We’re going for an “in-world” look that we’re hoping will keep players more immersed when using the tab menu
  • A new orders menu for the Captain
  • A totally new starmap is also in development. This should allow all sectors to be visible when the map is zoomed out. It also includes some visuals for faction areas. We also also working on improved search capabilities.


Gamepad / controller support

  • We have been working on full support for the following controllers: PS4, PS3. Xbox 360, Xbox One, Steam Controller, Saitek X-52, and the Saitek X-55. We will of course have the option to create completely custom bindings for other controllers / joysticks.
  • We aren’t sure if “mouse unlocking” is going to work the same way on controllers. We are experimenting with a toggle button to slow down the view speed to allow for the accuracy required to interact with screens
  • In addition the options menus (video, audio, etc) may not be fully compatible in Beta 5. Those may have to wait until a future update for full controller support.

Captain’s Chair

  • A brand new component type for ships and a long requested feature
  • It allows a player to sit in the chair (on ships with a Captain’s Chair slot) and get a tactical overview of the battle. It is the same visuals that the pilot has access to when piloting
  • We will introduce several chairs that can be swapped out. Different chairs will have different visuals, properties and/or stats.


We are also planning on having a sound effects pass, adding some new ambient music tracks as well as a handful of new planets.


If you have any questions ask below. We’ll be keeping an eye on the comments section here, and we’ll do our best to answer them!

Thanks for your time!
Best,
The Leafy Games Team


[ 2015-11-30 19:43:17 CET ] [ Original post ]