Hello all, I've just pushed a new build of Sol Trader this morning for you! The key new feature is the optional reduction of generation time - helpful if you're on older hardware or testing mods. There are also a few bug fixes for you.

• Option to reduce generation time to only 50 years, which means generation is four times quicker. Choose it at the bottom left of the generation screen.
• Fixes a couple of reported crash bugs with generation and death
• Fix a few gameplay bugs around what children are capable of
• Add a missing string for the research paper mission

The latest version of Sol Trader is released! As well as many crash fixes, we have some significant new features to show...

New ship: the Puma

UI improvements: Notifications

History now runs in-game

Sol Trader celebrates its second birthday today! To mark the two year anniversary of being released, I've spent some time chasing out old crash bugs and adding a few new gameplay features. I've added UI improvements, including better notification support and integrated history events happening in the main game. Best of all, we have a new ship, the Puma...
These changes are currently in final testing and should be released as 1.4 in the next week.

Sol Trader is 75% off this week!

Hi all, The builds are coming thick and fast! As more people have been playing the game recently due to the new builds, more bugs are being reported and fixed. Your saved games from the previous version should work fine with this release. Here's a list of changes:

• Unblock AI when 2 agents get stuck. This was a nasty bug and should cause characters to behave normally in longer running games - they should now be more reactive in general (follow you onto your ship, turn up for meetings, or run the transit mission you paid them for, etc).
• Fixed academic manuscript mission to be completable
• Proper version number on main menu now
• Fixed missing string on certain locations

Hi all, The builds are coming thick and fast! As more people have been playing the game recently due to the new builds, more bugs are being reported and fixed. Your saved games from the previous version should work fine with this release. Here's a list of changes:

• Unblock AI when 2 agents get stuck. This was a nasty bug and should cause characters to behave normally in longer running games - they should now be more reactive in general (follow you onto your ship, turn up for meetings, or run the transit mission you paid them for, etc).
• Fixed academic manuscript mission to be completable
• Proper version number on main menu now
• Fixed missing string on certain locations

Hi all, A quick point release for you all, to fix a couple of crashes discovered in the yesterday's release. NOTE: This build will reset your game options - you'll need to set resolution and sound levels etc again. Sorry about that.

• Fix crash when filtering conversations by planet or ship
• Added enable VSync option to help faster computers manage frame rate better.
• Fix bug on windows with conversation icons going super large when vanishing!
• Stop game attempting to autopilot to own ship
• Changed keyboard input for flight slightly in an attempt to fix a weird stuck keyboard bug that happens only on a very few computers.

Hi all, A quick point release for you all, to fix a couple of crashes discovered in the 1.3.1 release. NOTE: This build will reset your game options - you'll need to set resolution and sound levels etc again. Sorry about that.

• Fix crash when filtering conversations by planet or ship
• Added enable VSync option to help faster computers manage frame rate better.
• Fix bug on windows with conversation icons going super large when vanishing!
• Stop game attempting to autopilot to own ship
• Changed keyboard input for flight slightly in an attempt to fix a weird stuck keyboard bug that happens only on a very few computers.

Dear all, I've just released version 1.3.1 of Sol Trader, which fixes a number of niggling issues in 1.3 and improves gameplay balance. NOTE: this version will invalidate save games. If you want to continue with an older save, then do the following to stay on an older version of the game:

• Right click on the game in your Steam Library and choose 'Properties'. Click the 'Betas' tab.
• Enter the beta access code ’soltraderversion13’ and click 'Check code'
• Choose the ‘version1.3’ option from the drop-down list
• Wait for your game to update and play!

• New feature: Organisation charts are now available on a tooltip over the organisation name, and also by clicking on the small organisation button in the middle panel heading.
• New feature: Communes are now Parks: hippies still hang out there, but so can everyone else. It's another place you can find people socialising during the day, who perhaps don't like visiting bars.
• New feature: History generation now prioritises jobs in low-population cities. This has the effect of rebalancing things so that Frontier Space and the Outer Alliance have more people than before, so it's easier to progress.
• Made the AI more likely to choose to go to work, even for non-essential jobs.
• Increased speed of history generation by 5% and dropped save file footprint by 40%.
• Stopped traders getting stuck when selling goods.
• Stop the player from asking for an introduction to someone who is dead.
• Fix crash when landing in a place with a destroyed ship.
• Fixed Missing Strings in profession choices.
• Fixed bug where having map open whilst landing would cause weird effects.
• Characters now tell you the missions they have available on the tooltip before you start speaking to them.
• Triple-click on a navigation label or arrow will now start autopilot.
• Made Tiger I slightly lighter and therefore faster.
• Sleep/work/launch are now icons at the top of the screen, so that they don't conflict which each other.

Dear all, I've just released version 1.3.1 of Sol Trader, which fixes a number of niggling issues in 1.3 and improves gameplay balance. NOTE: this version will invalidate save games. If you want to continue with an older save, then do the following to stay on an older version of the game:

• Right click on the game in your Steam Library and choose 'Properties'. Click the 'Betas' tab.
• Enter the beta access code soltraderversion13 and click 'Check code'
• Choose the version1.3 option from the drop-down list
• Wait for your game to update and play!

• New feature: Organisation charts are now available on a tooltip over the organisation name, and also by clicking on the small organisation button in the middle panel heading.
• New feature: Communes are now Parks: hippies still hang out there, but so can everyone else. It's another place you can find people socialising during the day, who perhaps don't like visiting bars.
• New feature: History generation now prioritises jobs in low-population cities. This has the effect of rebalancing things so that Frontier Space and the Outer Alliance have more people than before, so it's easier to progress.
• Made the AI more likely to choose to go to work, even for non-essential jobs.
• Increased speed of history generation by 5% and dropped save file footprint by 40%.
• Stopped traders getting stuck when selling goods.
• Stop the player from asking for an introduction to someone who is dead.
• Fix crash when landing in a place with a destroyed ship.
• Fixed Missing Strings in profession choices.
• Fixed bug where having map open whilst landing would cause weird effects.
• Characters now tell you the missions they have available on the tooltip before you start speaking to them.
• Triple-click on a navigation label or arrow will now start autopilot.
• Made Tiger I slightly lighter and therefore faster.
• Sleep/work/launch are now icons at the top of the screen, so that they don't conflict which each other.

Dear all, I've deliberately avoided going on about this on here, but I thought you'd like to know that my next game is going live on Kickstarter at 4pm UK time today! Visit Ealdorlight’s Kickstarter Campaign (This post is deliberately a little earlier than 4pm to give you a sneak preview and so you can watch the campaign go live if you want. Earlier backers get lower edition numberings on some of the rewards, so you might want to be there from the start!) The sixth of June is a significant day for me personally. In 2004, I spent the entire of the day in hospital. I remember the 60th anniversary commemorations of D-day on the TV in the background, as I sat beside my wife, in labour with our first child. I became a father an hour after midnight on the 7th June; my son becomes a teenager tomorrow. Twelve years later, in 2016, I spent the entire of 6th June glued to Steam watching and waiting whilst Sol Trader was released to the world. This was a career dream come true: since I started programming at six years old I’d always wanted to create and ship my own games. Sol Trader’s release was ultimately a painfully formative experience for me, which I wrote about at the time and was interviewed about recently in this article for GamesIndustry biz. Over the last year, I’ve been keeping busy doing two things. One is to support Sol Trader as much as I can with countless updates and patches. I’ve also been working on a new game, Ealdorlight, a medieval RPG-style take on Sol Trader’s mechanics, with turn-based combat, realistic damage and great graphics. I announced Ealdorlight in March and demonstrated it at Rezzed, strengthening my hope that the idea was a good one. I decided fairly early on that I wanted to take Ealdorlight to Kickstarter. Sol Trader’s successful Kickstarter was a brilliant experience. The Kickstarter community is one of the kindest, most positive on the Internet. I also needed funding for this game: Sol Trader was self-funded through many long evenings and contracting work, and for Ealdorlight I need a bigger team to realise the vision. It’s built in Unreal Engine 4, which simultaneously saves me loads of development time and means I need a bigger team to pull off the realistic art style I’ve gone for. As time came near to launch, the first anniversary of Sol Trader’s released seemed an appropriate day to launch the campaign. So today, 6th June 2017, I will spend the entire day glued to Kickstarter as my campaign goes live at 4pm today. Visit Ealdorlight’s Kickstarter Campaign
There’s plenty more about Ealdorlight on the campaign - head over there and read all about it! A huge amount of work has gone into it, and I’m very grateful for all the support and help I’ve received from the team I’ve put together, and for friends and family who have given me endless encouragements and feedback. One immediate question you might have is "What about Sol Trader?" Whilst the bulk of my time and attention needs to be spent on Ealdorlight to make the awesome game it could be, I'm still committed to fixing bugs and issues in Sol Trader as they arise. Thanks for being part of my video game creation adventure so far, and I hope you'll stick with me for the next game! Until next time, Chris

Dear all, I've deliberately avoided going on about this on here, but I thought you'd like to know that my next game is going live on Kickstarter at 4pm UK time today! Visit Ealdorlights Kickstarter Campaign (This post is deliberately a little earlier than 4pm to give you a sneak preview and so you can watch the campaign go live if you want. Earlier backers get lower edition numberings on some of the rewards, so you might want to be there from the start!) The sixth of June is a significant day for me personally. In 2004, I spent the entire of the day in hospital. I remember the 60th anniversary commemorations of D-day on the TV in the background, as I sat beside my wife, in labour with our first child. I became a father an hour after midnight on the 7th June; my son becomes a teenager tomorrow. Twelve years later, in 2016, I spent the entire of 6th June glued to Steam watching and waiting whilst Sol Trader was released to the world. This was a career dream come true: since I started programming at six years old Id always wanted to create and ship my own games. Sol Traders release was ultimately a painfully formative experience for me, which I wrote about at the time and was interviewed about recently in this article for GamesIndustry biz. Over the last year, Ive been keeping busy doing two things. One is to support Sol Trader as much as I can with countless updates and patches. Ive also been working on a new game, Ealdorlight, a medieval RPG-style take on Sol Traders mechanics, with turn-based combat, realistic damage and great graphics. I announced Ealdorlight in March and demonstrated it at Rezzed, strengthening my hope that the idea was a good one. I decided fairly early on that I wanted to take Ealdorlight to Kickstarter. Sol Traders successful Kickstarter was a brilliant experience. The Kickstarter community is one of the kindest, most positive on the Internet. I also needed funding for this game: Sol Trader was self-funded through many long evenings and contracting work, and for Ealdorlight I need a bigger team to realise the vision. Its built in Unreal Engine 4, which simultaneously saves me loads of development time and means I need a bigger team to pull off the realistic art style Ive gone for. As time came near to launch, the first anniversary of Sol Traders released seemed an appropriate day to launch the campaign. So today, 6th June 2017, I will spend the entire day glued to Kickstarter as my campaign goes live at 4pm today. Visit Ealdorlights Kickstarter Campaign
Theres plenty more about Ealdorlight on the campaign - head over there and read all about it! A huge amount of work has gone into it, and Im very grateful for all the support and help Ive received from the team Ive put together, and for friends and family who have given me endless encouragements and feedback. One immediate question you might have is "What about Sol Trader?" Whilst the bulk of my time and attention needs to be spent on Ealdorlight to make the awesome game it could be, I'm still committed to fixing bugs and issues in Sol Trader as they arise. Thanks for being part of my video game creation adventure so far, and I hope you'll stick with me for the next game! Until next time, Chris

Now that I’m back after some time away with family and training away from home, I’m able to support a new release of Sol Trader: 1.3 is now finally released after a length beta period. Here are the highlights:

• You can now chat to characters directly on the right if they’re in the same location as you
• Pirate Chief and criminals are now more likely to try to destroy you
• Fix a bug where you’re not paid enough for a mission
• Dignitaries now fly around a little less than before to make it easier to pin them down
• Inter-faction missions now pay slightly less
• Business trips now pay slightly less
• Taxi missions now pay slightly more
• Talking to your criminal parents will no longer cause them to forget who you are
• Fix crash where a character develops an opinion of the player mid-conversation
• Fix crash when showing GUI for a ship the AI is driving
• Fix crash where a character would attempt to sell a good on a ship they’ve lent to the player
• Can now initiate conversations when paused - will restart the game but at realtime speed
• Fixed the Tiger II achievement

Now that Im back after some time away with family and training away from home, Im able to support a new release of Sol Trader: 1.3 is now finally released after a length beta period. Here are the highlights:

• You can now chat to characters directly on the right if theyre in the same location as you
• Pirate Chief and criminals are now more likely to try to destroy you
• Fix a bug where youre not paid enough for a mission
• Dignitaries now fly around a little less than before to make it easier to pin them down
• Inter-faction missions now pay slightly less
• Business trips now pay slightly less
• Taxi missions now pay slightly more
• Talking to your criminal parents will no longer cause them to forget who you are
• Fix crash where a character develops an opinion of the player mid-conversation
• Fix crash when showing GUI for a ship the AI is driving
• Fix crash where a character would attempt to sell a good on a ship theyve lent to the player
• Can now initiate conversations when paused - will restart the game but at realtime speed
• Fixed the Tiger II achievement

Hi all, Sol Trader has update 1.3 on the way! Get an early look at the latest UI and gameplay improvements by helping to beta test it! There are a wealth of things for you to try out:

• You can now chat to characters directly on the right if theyre in the same location as you
• Pirate Chief and criminals are now more likely to try to destroy you
• Fix a bug where youre not paid enough for a mission
• Dignitaries now fly around a little less than before to make it easier to pin them down
• Inter-faction missions now pay slightly less
• Business trips now pay slightly less
• Taxi missions now pay slightly more
• Talking to your criminal parents will no longer cause them to forget who you are
• Fix crash where a character develops an opinion of the player mid-conversation
• Fix crash when showing GUI for a ship the AI is driving
• Fix crash where a character would attempt to sell a good on a ship theyve lent to the player
• Can now initiate conversations when paused - will restart the game but at realtime speed
• Fixed the Tiger II achievement

Hi all, Sol Trader has update 1.3 on the way! Get an early look at the latest UI and gameplay improvements by helping to beta test it! There are a wealth of things for you to try out:

• You can now chat to characters directly on the right if they’re in the same location as you
• Pirate Chief and criminals are now more likely to try to destroy you
• Fix a bug where you’re not paid enough for a mission
• Dignitaries now fly around a little less than before to make it easier to pin them down
• Inter-faction missions now pay slightly less
• Business trips now pay slightly less
• Taxi missions now pay slightly more
• Talking to your criminal parents will no longer cause them to forget who you are
• Fix crash where a character develops an opinion of the player mid-conversation
• Fix crash when showing GUI for a ship the AI is driving
• Fix crash where a character would attempt to sell a good on a ship they’ve lent to the player
• Can now initiate conversations when paused - will restart the game but at realtime speed
• Fixed the Tiger II achievement

Hi all, Another new point release of Sol Trader for you to enjoy! Here's the list of fixes:

• Show the working hours on the GUI so you can see when you are supposed to work.
• Made ship components the same cost across all ships
• Closed exploit: Can only now eject people from your own ship
• Can no longer eject whilst paused
• Fixed smuggling GUI crashes
• Disallow introductions to existing family members
• Luring people for an eject is now only possible if you are a at the 'blue' level or higher with them
• Prevent repeatable delivery of special gifts from powerful people
• Fix crash where ship blows up whilst in mid-jump transition
• Fix typo in missions file
• Fix crash where ship blows up the same frame it overlaps a jump gate
• Fix incorrect relationship labels on GUI

Hi all, Another new point release of Sol Trader for you to enjoy! Here's the list of fixes:

• Show the working hours on the GUI so you can see when you are supposed to work.
• Made ship components the same cost across all ships
• Closed exploit: Can only now eject people from your own ship
• Can no longer eject whilst paused
• Fixed smuggling GUI crashes
• Disallow introductions to existing family members
• Luring people for an eject is now only possible if you are a at the 'blue' level or higher with them
• Prevent repeatable delivery of special gifts from powerful people
• Fix crash where ship blows up whilst in mid-jump transition
• Fix typo in missions file
• Fix crash where ship blows up the same frame it overlaps a jump gate
• Fix incorrect relationship labels on GUI

Hi all, There were a few rare crashes and some bugs in 1.2 which I've now fixed and released in version 1.2.1:

• Prevent players hiring a ship twice
• Prevent players buying a ship they've already hired without returning it first
• Guard against weird situation when character is alive without an AI
• Prevent crash when clicking on conversation options very quickly
• Prevent crash when hiring a room after other character has left chat
• Prevent saving after death
• Prevent close chat crash when GUI hasn't caught up
• Prevent corrupt opinions crashing game
• Fixed data for opinions and added better validation
• Stopped an endless positive loop exploit when ordering drinks or asking about another's story
• Prevent ejection of character whilst still in base
• Show how to quit a mission on the "Launch Ship" tooltip to aid the player with too many passengers

Hi all, There were a few rare crashes and some bugs in 1.2 which I've now fixed and released in version 1.2.1:

• Prevent players hiring a ship twice
• Prevent players buying a ship they've already hired without returning it first
• Guard against weird situation when character is alive without an AI
• Prevent crash when clicking on conversation options very quickly
• Prevent crash when hiring a room after other character has left chat
• Prevent saving after death
• Prevent close chat crash when GUI hasn't caught up
• Prevent corrupt opinions crashing game
• Fixed data for opinions and added better validation
• Stopped an endless positive loop exploit when ordering drinks or asking about another's story
• Prevent ejection of character whilst still in base
• Show how to quit a mission on the "Launch Ship" tooltip to aid the player with too many passengers

I'm really pleased to announce that Sol Trader 1.2 has been released! Version 1.2 is the most feature packed and streamlined Sol Trader experience yet, with a myriad of UI and gameplay improvements. Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTGFze-oh4 The update is packed with job salaries, new missions, upgraded conversations, transit options, full modding support and Steam Achievements.
The gameplay has had a number of improvements made to it, both to the core systems and to the user experience. The addition of salaries for jobs, and the possibility of being fired, provides early direction to the game. You also now have a reason to stay close to home and build relationships with co-workers.
The hundreds of UI improvements and extra tooltips have streamlined gameplay. New missions provide a more interesting and rounded set of things to do for characters. New conversation questions and a 'meet me' option makes finding people that much easier. The ability to ask characters for transit between cities and planets helps with mid-late game ship management.
The addition of Steam Achievements provides an extra opportunity for players to notch up rewards and compare their progress. Finally, full modding support is added in 1.2, which gives modders the ability to change almost everything about the game, including all the graphics. Thanks for all your support beta testing: if you have any further issues please do post them to the forums. Until next time, Chris

Thanks for all the help testing the beta of 1.2. The trailer for the new version is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTGFze-oh4 I've released 1.2 to the press today, and I've set a launch date for general release for November 23rd - just seven days away! Until next time, Chris

Dear all, Would you like to have a early stab at the Sol Trader 1.2 beta? It's ready to go (bar achievements) and I’m looking for a few existing game owners to flush out any last minute bugs. There are plenty of new features to get your teeth into, from earning salaries whilst working, to the ability to eject passengers from your ship, hire someone to take you to a new planet, stacks of UI improvements and extra tooltips, many new work-related missions to try, more conversation options… the list goes on! To try the game, follow the following steps: [olist]

Hello everyone Things are getting exciting with Sol Trader as we head into November! 1.2 is now feature complete and has just entered a bug testing phase, with only Steam Achievements left to add to the game before we go live in a few weeks. Overall, I'm very pleased with how the new version has turned out. Salaries and the possibility of being fired from your job provides early direction to the game. It also gives you a reason to stay close to home and build relationships with co-workers. The UI improvements and extra tooltips have really streamlined gameplay. The new missions provide a more interesting and rounded set of things to do for characters. New conversation questions and a 'meet me' option makes finding people that much easier. Finally, being able to ask characters for transit between cities and planets helps with mid-late game ship management. If you'd like a sneak preview on the new build, watch this space: I'll be posting information on how to get on the 1.2 beta to the discussion forums soon. To mark the new release, and to help people learn the game, I've started posting my own series of Developer Let's Play gameplay videos. In the series, I've started a new game completely from scratch, with the aim of teaching the basic gameplay and to point out new 1.2 features. The first one is up right now, with more to follow over the next few days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaeVCr-w3iI Until next time, Chris

Hi all, Another 1.2 development update for you! Here's the latest list of features that are going to make it into the build, along with a new ship date.

Hidden professions

Opening the airlocks: flushing people out of your ship

Transit: obtaining passage to other planets

Job salaries

Achievements

Usability fixes

New ship date: November

A quick development update for you on version 1.2, the next major set of new features for the game.

Modding support

New missions!

Delivery: mid-October

Sol Trader will be at EGX next week

And finally...

I've just pushed a new bug-fixing build to Steam, with the following changes:

• Stop people vanishing from buildings, only to reappear on pause/unpause
• Fix display issue on trade component screen
• Fix reported 'gtcFace' crash
• Fix crash caused by displaying jump gate info when landed
• Prevent launch with too many people for ship
• Fix UI issue when quitting whilst asleep

Hi all, Another quick point release has just gone out:

• Fix a new error message which pops up when completing a mission in someone's home.
• Stop framerate slowdowns that occur after a Big Tiger ship jumps through a gate.
• The bonus feature is the ship hyperdrive effects are now fixed and working nicely. You'll need to start a new game to see them - they'll appear whenever you jump through a gate.

A small build has just been released, to fix a crash bug encountered when the player completed a mission in the mission giver's home. Enjoy! Chris

It’s raining hard here today - the summer seems to have vanished completely. It’s the perfect weather for listening to the moody ambient tones of the Sol Trader soundtrack, available now as Steam DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/506120/  10 dark expansive tracks await you, composed especially for the game: [olist]

A very quick extra point release has just come out, to fix a couple of minor gameplay issues in 1.1:

• Trading goods quickly no longer crashes the game
• Multiple trades no longer annoys or delights people too quickly
• Characters now wait in the space port preparing their ship before leaving, allowing you to more easily talk to them

Hi all, It's the moment you've been waiting for - 1.1 is finally out! The version brings a brand new conversation system into the mix, with loads of different ways of interacting with the characters you meet. Your stats (and theirs) are now much more important, and you can now talk about anyone in the game. I’d encourage you to check out the tutorial to get the most from it: you can access it from the help menu at the top right of the screen.
Also brand new in this update is a full system map to help you find your way around. It’ll tell you which parts of the system are easy to get to and which areas aren’t accessible yet.
There are also many many other changes in this update, including the addition of much needed tool tips, the ability to pause the game, a streamlined opinions system, less memory usage, a fix for 32-bit windows, and a couple of crash fixes. I'd love to know what you think of the new update - let me know on the forums!

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What’s next?

You'll be pleased to know that 1.1 is complete and out for final testing. If the beta testers don't find any issues, then we're ready to ship as soon as I get back from a much needed break in the middle of August. Time for me to take a bit of a break and start planning 1.2. Sneak preview: missions... see you after the jump. Until next time, Chris

Thanks for your patience whilst I fine-tune 1.1 for release! The conversations are almost done - here's a new preview video I released yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPb1u7MUm9k I've been working very hard on this and have gone through two major iterations so far. There's still a few more things to add into the mix, such as opinion bonuses based on stats checks, and asking about someone's connections. I'm working on those over the next few days.

1.1 release date update

I'm still working on the conversation upgrade still this week. Conversations are about to become much more fun... Here's a bit more about how it's going to work. The length of conversations has been revamped. I've replaced the concept of "patience" with the character's opinion of you, and ensured that you cannot keep going on about the same thing for too long without taking a big hit to how the other character feels about you. You can now pick different topics to talk about (ships, people, politics, gossip, etc) and a character will respond differently depending on how they feel about the topic. If you know a little bit of a character's past, it is possible to guess which topics you might get an opinion boost from. Gone is the "choose a person to talk about" screen. You can now bring up any character in the game to discuss, and will be able to ask a wider variety of questions about them. Stats are now a much bigger part of the new conversation system. Less intelligent characters can only handle a few topics in the same conversation, and characters with low charm are unable to handle talking about too many different people at once. I'm also in the process of adding stats tests to conversations. For example: you might challenge a character to an arm wrestle in a bar if you fancy your chances: if you win you'll get a big boost to their opinion of you, but if you lose the opposite will happen. Of course, not all characters will take kindly to being challenged like this... That's a taster of the new features. It's all subject to change, and I'm not quite ready to show screenshots yet, but I should be asking a few active community members to test the new system soon. Until next time, Chris

Hi all, I've written up a Sol Trader launch post-mortem on my blog: http://chrismdp.com/2016/06/5-ways-i-screwed-up-sol-traders-launch-a-postmortem/ In the meantime, work continues apace on 1.1 - I have the conversation system disassembled in pieces right now and I'm working hard on improving it. ETA for 1.1 is towards the end of July. Thanks for your continued support! Chris Developer, Sol Trader

Hi all, Here's another build of Sol Trader for you!

• You can now choose missions from a list, which allows much easier and tactical selection of missions.
• The location for missions are now colour-coded to show the ones you cannot easily get to because of visa issues.
• Finally squashed all the gui.cpp boxCount crashes. Let me know if you come across those again.
• Better error messages on crashing allowing me to fix future issues faster

Morning everyone... found another GUI crash due to large numbers of events, so thought I'd get a quick point release out to sort it out for you. If you're still having the issue, let me know if that fixes it. Until next time, Chris

Just a small change for you today:

• Work around two commonly reported crashes (Gui.cpp:28 and Gui.cpp:99)
• Stop loyalty boost through failure to complete missions for an enemy faction

I'm hard at work responding to your feedback at the moment: I'm in the middle of reworking the conversation system to make it more intuitive and to give the player many more nuanced choices. That's not quite ready for you yet, but I've also managed to fix a ton of errors and add some smaller suggestions in, so here's a new build!

• Resizable windows!
• Added sliders for music and SFX volume
• Sorted "who's here" people list in alphabetical order
• Shaved yet more off the memory footprint - if you are having trouble on a 32-bit machine please try again
• Put in workarounds for "Framebuffer" errors on low-spec machines - if you're getting this error please try this build - it won't look as good but should at least run
• Stop Autopilot when launching ship
• Stop pirates hungering after debris quite so much
• Put in an audio compressor to stop speaker distortion at high volume levels.
• Stop preschoolers receiving missions
• Stop shops firing aimlessly after their target is killed

Hi all, Here's another build to bust those Monday blues! :)

Highlights

• Big revamp of sharing info during chat. Now there's a much clearer screen which can be sorted:
  Edit: Here's a video from JohnnyO showing how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bhD-PdptO8&feature=youtu.be
• Show your opinion of a character at top of their sheet
• Now does not generate gossip/scandal mission unless there's something to find
• Allow players to sleep in their passenger cabins, if there's space
• People will now leave their jobs if 80% of people have a bad relationship with them - it's now possible to force someone out of an organisation rather than blowing up their ship

Other changes

• Balance improvements to trading prices
• Make supplying wanted goods when there's no demand display a helpful message rather than just vanish as an option
• Reduced the number of guns on Cougar ships by two. Sorry :)
• Don't allow the trade of ship components via hailing
• Stop autopilot occasionally freezing ship in place next to a planet
• Reduced memory footprint by 250MB
• Reduced fire rate of high end guns
• Make first names a little more random
• Don't allow hailing unless you are both in a launched ship and are in the same local area
• Added a planet graphics next to the character's "known for" information

Just a couple of fixes for you this morning:

• fix recently reported Relational.cpp:295 crash
• stop missing strings switching to desktop with error
• OSX/Linux: fix bug preventing load of two mission types

There's a stack of stuff in the new build all ready and waiting for you on Steam!

• Better code to ensure that people are available for enquiries, and are less likely to put them in a position to get themselves killed
• Stop more than one mission of each type being generated per character
• Fix component debris pickup when no space for the component
• Fix the component buy/sell returning to the wrong screen
• Actually make peaceful mode work this time
• Spotting a character in space by clicking on their ship and seeing them on board now completes the "locate character" mission
• Remove reward collection - the mission now rewards as soon as the mission is completed
• Allow players to always interact with mission givers, with a minimum amount of patience to allow small talk
• Stop players being able to accept the same job more than once
• Stop the AI orbiting endlessly around planets
• Add a quorum of 3 for reputation to count in city or faction, which means you won't get spurious reputation reports anymore
• Stop ships planning things like mining when they are already in space in a ship that isn't equipped for the task
• More naval presence in cities

I've fixed another slew of reported bugs with this build: changes below. Important note: due to the increase of the number of opinions stored on players, I've had to invalidate all save games for this build. I'm really sorry about that and it's something I don't take lightly, but it's essential to help people complete certain missions when characters already know a lot about you. If you're desperate to stay on the old build for a bit to finish something, ask me for some pointers on how to do that.

• Added 'nearby planets' to planet information, so you can easily see who is connected to who.
• Fix profession bug where a job could not be taken despite having the requirements.
• Fix 'sleeping' bug where people seemed to endlessly sleep all day and not be available for chatting
• Order the small talk options by impact, so most impactful are at the top.
• Increase number of types opinions that can be held on a character to 8.
• Don't allow missions to preschoolers, as you cannot talk to them.
• Prevent endlessly increasing patience through secret gift delivery.

Hi all, I'm continuing to work as hard as possible to fix all the bugs as fast as I can. This new build contains the following fixes:

• Getting a job no longer teleports your hire ship back to the starting point
• You will no longer hit your 200k credits goal on hiring a ship
• Remove 'turbo boost' bug
• Vastly improved autopilot - no more 'orbiting' behaviour (hopefully)
• Stop missions expiring at deadline even when they're completed
• Made memory error messages less likely on 32-bit windows (fix #2)
• Remove loud static jarring sound when heading back to the main menu
• Allow repeat visa requests
• When you start as a prisoner, start the game in the prison at the end of your sentence
• Stop autopilot rotating ships the "long way round" round at certain angles
• Made gate names consistent
• Fix crash when unpinning character when at maximum number of pins
• Made the large Tiger ships faster
• Made minerals slightly harder to mine
• Fix load game gui screen showing wrong message

Firstly, I'm overwhelmed by the level of support and love Sol Trader has got since launch yesterday - thank you all so much! Sorry about the bugs some of you have experienced when playing the game. There's a new build now right now which fixes some of these issues:

• Made memory errors less likely on 32-bit windows
• Fixed NewHistory.cpp:1759 crash
• Fixed Ai.cpp:201 crash
• Added some missing people to credits
• Stopped it being possible to become trapped in Frontier Space
• Default the scroll speed to more than zero. *If you're upgrading to this version, you will need to set your scroll speed manually in the options menu*

The title says it all - after a 4.5 year rollercoaster journey, Sol Trader is now available on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux. If you have been on the fence about the game thus far, then this is your chance to purchase Sol Trader today. For the rest of you, I cannot thank you enough for helping me make it to launch. Time for us to share this news to the far reaches of the Sol System, and say nice things about the game to all we meet!  

What's next?

Now that the loading and saving is being properly road tested by a large number of people, I've found a few little inconsistencies which were causing crashes on load. I hope that I've ironed out all the major ones with this new build. Unfortunately in order to flatten these bugs across the board, I've had to invalidate saved games for this build. I'm really sorry about that - the perils of early access to games! I promise to be much more careful about this when the game is fully released next week. I've also been tweaking the GUI to remove some mouse clicking bugs, and removed some crashes surrounding missions. Enjoy the new build! Any questions do post here on or http://forums.soltrader.net. Until next time, Chris

Hi there, Another day, another build :) This one is a small improvement to fix text issues and make ship components a little more varied and interesting. Note: it's possible that with all these new builds coming out, I'm making changes that are invalidating saved games. I'll try and minimise this as much as possible, but the pre-launch polishing phase will contain a few "save breaking" changes. If your game crashes loading a saved game, this will be the reason. I'm working on preventing the crash and putting out a better message. Thanks for your patience! Until next time, Chris

One further quick update: I noticed on a YouTube stream that no missions were available. Turns out that due to a subtle memory usage change, none of the missions were getting loaded and therefore the AI never chose any missions for the player to do. Restart your steam client to force it to grab the new build, and you should get some missions to complete! I'm also aware of an occasional crash loading saved games on Windows which I'll figure out first thing in the morning. Until next time, Chris

I've been working hard on fixing some niggly issues based on watching the first playthroughs on YouTube: - I've added a zoom in space mode to give you a clear idea of where you are. Press 'Z' to toggle zooming in and out. - It's now clearer how to hire ships (you have to talk to someone in the organisation to do so.) - There are now options to mute the music, hide the tutorial and speed up scroll. The side effect is that you'll have to redo your video preferences - sorry about that. - You can now show any part of the tutorial at any time by clicking on the '?' top right during the game. Thanks so much to everyone who has taken the time to play through the game onstream - it's been very helpful! Not long to go now! Until next time, Chris

I've just released another new build with the all important final feature: "life goals" are now in the game. This small feature has made all the difference to the purpose and drive of the player. Now that there's something concrete to shoot for, the early game is much clearer and intelligible. I've also spent a lot of time tweaking the tutorial to make it as clear and easy to follow as possible. There are also plenty of balance improvements to ships and components. The video options are also much better now - besides running the game in a window, you're able to choose from the fullscreen resolutions your OS claims to support, along with 'desktop' full screen which matches your current resolution. Enjoy the latest build! This will be one of the last before release next Monday! Until next time, Chris Developer, Sol Trader

Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far! I've been hard at work making the build as good as possible for launch. Here are the major latest changes: - New video options screen allows a wider range of cards and displays - Much improved tutorial system with more comprehensive coverage - Ancestor backers names are now in the game - Pre-generating asteroids removes a lot of complexity for the renderer - Escape capsules on death option - Peaceful mode option - A myriad of balance changes There will be another build or two next week as we gear up to launch, so please keep letting me know of any feedback or bugs that you find. Thanks! Until next time, Chris -- Developer, Sol Trader

Calling all beta backers from Kickstarter! You should have had an email from me with your Steam key for Sol Trader. The game should now work on Windows, Mac and Linux. If possible, I'd love you to spend some time testing the game and making sure it all works ok! If you have issues, please use the technical support forum here: http://forums.soltrader.net/?forum=472670. I'd appreciate hearing about anything, from technical and graphical issues to gameplay balance and how easy it is to figure things out. Also feel free to post screenshots, videos and live steam the game! Do send me a link if possible or post it on the Steam community. For those of you who are waiting until release: not long now... Here's a brand new never-seen-before picture of Neptune to whet your appetite.
(get a load of those random ship colours!) Until next time, Chris Developer, Sol Trader

Time for a development update! Owned ships are now fully customisable and paintable: the artwork went in this week, which makes it all worthwhile:
Getting the paint job right  
Customising your ship  
Trading ship components This build is available here now (only Insider backers will have access to this link.) Dev update: factions and embassies Today is rather momentous: the final Sol Trader features are going in. I've spent the last week putting in the rest of the Solar System, and adding factions and embassies. Players can no longer travel freely through the system and will need to acquire visas at embassies to move beyond their home sector.
Time to go back and get a visa. There are four main factions in the game: Pirate, Old Federation, Outer Alliance and New Order. These factions have diplomatic relations with each other that will be different every game. Doing missions for any faction will also affect your relationship with the other factions, depending on their various foreign policies. This has also affected the history generation: characters will now only take jobs in their own faction, unless they have a visa to travel, which they might have got through their parents' work when they were children. They are also not allowed to take certain high powered jobs outside of their birth faction. So that's all the features in! Everything else is polish, refinement, balance and necessary infrastructure: such as allowing the player to load/save, getting Steam builds working, adding achievements, polishing the AI, ensuring you can earn the right opinions and progress correctly, various Kickstarter rewards, a Linux port, graphics and driver compatibility checks: there's plenty to do in the final few weeks! Thanks for all your support getting me this far: the game will be release in five weeks so everything now goes into getting the game ready for launch.  Until next time, Chris Developer, Sol Trader

Dear all, The end is in sight - we're well into the second 90% of development (although I harbour this hidden fear that there's a third 90% somewhere in here!)

Development update: game balance

What's next?

• Single-player combination of top down 2D spaceflight and strategic manipulation of your network of contacts
  
• Run missions using your family and friends' connections to government or business
  
• No ship given to you at game start: you must take a loan and hire a ship, or borrow one from a wealthy relative
  
• Fly between planets, interacting with the various characters you come across in cities and in space
  
• Research information on other characters through chatting to friends and relatives
  
• Customise your ship with better guns, engines, hyperdrives and passenger cabins
  
• Trade goods for profit
  
• Procedural generation of a whole society of thousands of random characters
  
• Start every new game from your character's birth
  
• Choose your parents and all your major life choices as you grow up
  
• Your choices determine your personality and your friends, relatives and enemies
  
• Full modding support: change all the organisations, events, weapons, planets, ships, conversations and tutorial system.

200 years of characters

It's not what you know...

• OS: SteamOS
• Processor: 2.0GHzMemory: 2 GB RAM
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: 1GB+ RAM. OpenGL 2.1+
• Storage: 1500 MB available space