It's been a month since our last major update, and we've some news for you today !

New military contracts

We've upgraded military contracts in depth. Previously, a military contract meant only one thing - war. You would attack a faction on another faction's orders, and end up at war with the target, making this business unsustainable. This changes with our new mercenary-type contracts, where you will be free to attack your target at no reputation loss. Some variations of military contracts have also been introduced, including a new sector attack / sector defense contract. We hope this will let you play as pirates in a financially rewarding way. Good hunting !

Game updates

Unreal Engine was upgraded from 4.19 to 4.20, enhancing support for some hardware that used to not start the game. We've also fixed a few bugs. We're always on the lookout for issues, so please report us anything weird !

New Russian localization

Helium Rain is a small-scale project that doesn't have a large publisher's backing - we haven't invested into localization. However, dedicated player Alexander Pyrov took the problem in its own hands, and decided to localize the game in Russian. All our Russian players can now enjoy his work in the game !
While we haven't set up an easy localization tool, we'll gladly include fan-made localization in the game. Contact us if you're ready to tackle a database of 12,000 words in your own language !

Modding support

Modding games has been a staple of PC gaming for decades. As it happens, I have myself learned game development by modding games. We've always developed Helium Rain with modding support in mind, and while we can't officially announce anything yet, we've made sure this new release has the technical structure required for clean mod support through Steamworks. Here's more about how modding Helium Rain is planned to work.

• Preliminary documentation is available on our Wiki.
• A dedicated modding kit is in development, based on the Unreal Engine 4 editor.
• A new executable,"HeliumRainLauncher", is now installed with the game and will collect Steamworks mods you've subscribed to before starting the game. This is currently not launched by Steam, and will be enabled when the modding kit releases. Feel free to start it to make sure it doesn't crash.

We look forward to announcing mod support once we've completed our development kit ! That's it for today ! We hope you have fun with the game. As usual, thank you for supporting us with this project.

[ 2018-11-21 17:39:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Helium Rain is a single-player space simulation that places you at the helm of a spacefaring company. Exploration, trading, station-building, piracy are all options. You will need to master both real-time action and long-term strategy: destroying a freighter has a direct impact on the economy, while declaring war will make your spaceflight environment slightly more hostile...

• 12 playable ships with weapon and engine upgrades
  Play fighters, bombers, cargos, corvettes or capital ships.
  
• Realistic economy model
  Take advantage of an accurate simulation of space trade to be the most competitive company. If diplomacy fails, blockades are in order.
  
• Fast-paced combat with a Newtonian flight model
  There is no speed limit in Helium Rain. You can fly at half a mile a second while aiming backwards !
  
• Localized damage model for spacecrafts
  Aim for critical systems in order to disable ships, kill their crew or capture targets.
  
• Procedural contracts, world exploration, technology upgrades
  Pick contracts and build your empire.