Hey, I REALLY can't believe I did it to this point. EarthX was a very small prototype game a few months ago, but now with YOUR support, EarthX gets better and better every update. I would like to THANK YOU very much for all the bug reports, feedback and thoughts! It took over a month to make and release this update, which I am very sorry for. The first 3 weeks after 0.2.7 release was amazingly hard for me, due to school begin and my broken PC, which just burned. (I lost a very big amount of data then, EarthX project included). Good that we have a cloud save :D Let's talk about 0.2.8 now. This update is as big as 0.2.7 (probably even bigger).

New graphics apperarance

I liked the graphics in EarthX a month ago, but I just wanted a little bit more. So I started making the new graphics (my old GPU literally burned like a competitor' rocket in EarthX).
- new water - wind effect - shadows - windows light - better textures These new graphics did cost me about 235$. :D

Artictifical Intelligence V1

I've got over a hundred of requests about AI since April this year. I wanted to do it earlier, but there were more important things to do. Please take note, that this is version 1 of AI (I just don't know, how to do it better for now). AI will improve a little bit in every early access update.
What can AI do? AI exists in 2 forms. The AI contains space companies, but also contract givers. The space companies (type A) are here to launch payloads, build rockets and, of course, dominate the market. Type A will fight with other types A and with the player itself too. The contract givers (type B) are generating contracts. The whole contract system was redesigned, as there is now the possibility to negotiate (offer) the launch price to the AI.
The cheaper the launch price is, the more chances you have to get the contract! The launches of the rockets are visible for the player. The AI-rockets are exploding too! (Thank you @rykllan for the models!)

News system

Another exciting (for me) feature, which is highly connected with the AI, is the new news system!
News are showing up during the gameplay. When AI-rocket explodes or AI-company bankrupt, in-game journalists will write some sort of news for you. We've spent pretty much time for writing the text for it (which is then a little bit randomized).
There is currently one special type for it. Every year, there will be a summary of the last year. You will be able to see other companies' finance and stats and take notes. It's nice to see, how everyone is playing with you! Other words, the news are just another step into making the game cooler:D

In-game twitter (Earthmusk)

Why Earthmusk? Because Earth + musk, which is mzg in polish, which means brain. So the English name of Earthmusk is Earthbrain, but I like Earthmusk.
When I launched rockets, it felt a little boring. Then I just thought about how to make it better and I reminded myself, that Elon Musk comments the SpaceX stuff on his Twitter account. There are more features to come to this in the next updates!

New build mode

What should I tell you more about this? You had to select a slot, in which you wanted to build your desired building. Now you just place it where you want (expect water. Buildings don't like water.)

CEO

Now you can choose your CEO avatar! There are only a few available for now, but I plan to add a few each update.

New rocket animations

Now if a rocket flies to the LEO, it will look like it's flying to the LEO. GEO is, of course, a higher orbit, so the rocket will fly higher!

Manual rocket landing

Yeah, also often requested, so here you go!

3 new rocket modules

Simple/Advanced Battery and GPS. These were available earlier, but the game just ignored them. Now they are officially added.

Other smaller changes (bugfixes too)

• Improved: on-earth object scaling (everything is smaller now)
• Improved: changed the earth rotation direction
• Improved: test mission will be no longer selected on default
• Improved: mission report window appearance
• Improved: camera movement is now more responsible\
• Improved: add time controls with numbers (1-2-3)
• Improved: rocket creation tool
• Improved: main menu appearance
• Improved: second stage animation
• Improved: trust system (emojis)
• Improved: pinning availability for windows
• Improved: new interface sounds
• Fixed: rockets didnt reset their position after a launch
• Fixed: rocket reliability could be more than 100%
• Fixed: landing rockets could cause a lot of errors sometimes
• Fixed: mission report showed the wrong info after the failed static fire
• Fixed: particles didnt work properly on some of GPUs
• Fixed: profit after a mission was wrongly calculated
• Fixed: tooltips didnt change their scale
• Fixed: static fire took two payments
• Fixed: side boosters would not disappear sometimes
• Fixed: planes didnt show up
• Fixed: the player level didnt load properly after starting a new save
• Fixed: time didnt load properly after starting a new save
• Fixed: rocket remove button didnt show up at <60%
• Fixed: you could save the game even if the company creator was open
• Fixed: you could get 0$ sometimes
• Removed: the truth mode (flat earth)
• Removed: deadlines for contracts (they will come back!)

Thank you for reading this all!

[ 2019-10-07 14:54:06 CET ] [ Original post ]