Since the weapon update there have been a lot of smaller updates along the way which fixed several issues and added smaller features. For this one, we wanted to make a seperate release announcement for some bigger features as well as more bug fixes.  

Entity Sidebar

You now have have another tab on the left side of your advanced build mode. This can be used for quickly building up and managing a ship. It has all the previously missing information for weapons and other modules. There is a quick overview of what blocks you need and how many you have for each ship system. The build button will automatically put the block in your hotbar and select it to build. You can also choose to add blocks for an existing weapon, which selects the computer and puts the module into your hotbar.   In the future, this mode is going to be enhanced to be a non-intrusive tutorial for new players. When placing a ship core the buttons will light up to lead the players on what modules to build and how to build them. This eliminates the need to watch lengthy non-interactive videos or having to check on the wiki.  

Build Mode Camera Drones

A long requested feature. Players can now be seen when in build mode. They will each fly in a small camera drone (made by Saber). These drones can also be seen if watching outside of build mode.   The drones come equipped with a flashlight (toggles on ‘P’ by default or in the display setting in adv. Build mode), as well as the option to display the name of the player below the drone.    

Adjustable Cockpit view

Another long requested feature. It is now possible to adjust the view of your cockpit blocks individually. Just press ‘P’ while in a cockpit in flight mode to unlock the camera and freely move it. Press ‘P’ again to lock the new view in place. This mode is fully persistent, meaning it will not only save between sessions and apply for other players that fly your ship, it will also save within the blueprint.   Keep in mind that this mode is currently still a bit experimental, as there are some minor issues and more features coming for this. One of those features will be delayed camera movement to make flying a lot more fun all around, as well as HUD updates. There will be fixes to handle differently orientated cockpit blocks better as well as other fixes for the “aim at” check.  

Block Editor Model Tab

The block editor has been cleaned up to make block editing a lot faster and easier. An all new tab has been added for the Block Editor. This tab contains all information and management for the models in the game. This will speed up development and integration of models considerably in the future, especially for the universe update.  

Textures

Kupu completed specular mapping, made a unique texture for the Area Trigger and the Cargo Space, Green Forcefield, as well as the Green Cascade deco block.  

Logic Changes

Logic will now only transmit the end state of the blocks. Fast logic clocks caused over 500 state changes per update, which was not only a performance drain but also bandwidth.   To compensate for the necessity of having fast clocks, modules now stay active when a logic block is connected that was switched to active. Currently the activity will reset if the entity unloads, in which case the logic block would have to be turned off and on again. Persistence for that will be added in the next update.  

Pin AI Targets

Pilots can now specify (pin) targets for AI targeting. When having a target selected, press ‘x’ in flight mode to specify this target for AI fire, while the pilot can select a different entity.

Bugfixes

The more important bugfixes will be listed first.  

• Possible Fix for missing/reverted chunks This bug seems to be finally fixed (can’t call it 100% fixed yet without long term experience on production, since we had no way of reproducing it). The bug was possibly caused by save events marking chunks as not validated on the server, but at the same time not queuing them for validation cause of another event at the same time. This caused those chunks to not be saved in that session.
• Fixed all crashes due to malformed translation Strings If there was an error in a translation string format (e.g. using malformed arguments), the game would previously crash. These bugs would be fairly hard to track down since they would only happen in that specific language. The system has now been updated to compensate for those bugs and automatically replace the string with an error.
• Fixed pirate/tg spawning when attacking a station
• Fix for missing Area Trigger icon, + icons for new blocks.
• Custom texture for cargo block in build mode
• Fix for cargo draw issues (on transparent blocks)
• Torch beam damage upped from 1 to 4
• Fixed nullpointer on UI when active reactor changes
• Fixed bug that would prevent newly spawned planets and asteroids from being saved when edited (existing ones had no problem).
• Removed popup when opening storage
• Added more info in the build mode entity info
• Temporary shield disable now affects whole structure incl. all docks, instead of just the entity it was triggered on.
• Fixed crash after setting the "Pull up to" value of Cargo to 0.
• Turn rate config values exposed and explained in blockBehaviorConfig
• Fixed custom block texture handling
• Fixes map drawing
• Fixes crash when changing certain graphics settings ingame.
• Fixes shield message spam
• Fixed client crash when shipyard anchor was removed when a design was loaded

      We will release further fix and cleanup updates while we are working on the universe update. If you have an issue a request, please join the discord. We’re always ready to add smaller features as well as handle bugs when I get the necessary information.   Thank you for playing StarMade,

• The Schine Team