{"id":3059,"date":"2020-12-16T14:27:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T14:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chucklefish.org\/?p=3059"},"modified":"2020-12-16T15:15:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T15:15:58","slug":"starmancer-winter-development-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chucklefish.org\/blog\/starmancer-winter-development-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmancer Winter Development Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello folks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted to provide a quick update on the upcoming space simulation game, Starmancer. Ominux have been hard at work on developing the game, and Alpha backers have been receiving regular Steam updates throughout the year and providing the team with valuable feedback to make Starmancer the best it can possibly be! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Steam Demo event in June this year was the first chance for non-backers to get their hands on a slice of the action. The demo gave players 60 minutes to create and manage a ship with most of the game\u2019s systems open to explore (as deeply as you can within an hour). Having a rush of first time players meant the team got lots of fresh voices coming in, and after reviewing player feedback, the team have decided to make some pretty big and exciting changes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can follow all the latest information from the latest DevBlog<\/a> from the team — here\u2019s some highlights they\u2019ve shared recently:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Cosmetics and objects!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players can now build beautiful green-spaces for their colonists to enjoy when they have some time off from their duties keeping the ship running smoothly! Build a spaceship garden to offer your colonists a peaceful retreat, or create a more natural environment to grow crops in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to new cosmetics and functional machines, there\u2019s also a fun new method of generating power early in the game – treadmills! Colonists can use these to store electricity inside an attached battery which can then be distributed to the rest of the station. This allows colonists to get a little more directly involved in collecting power as a resource (but don\u2019t worry, you can still build those powerful power generators later game).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ship Upgrades<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sending your colonists on missions just became a whole lot more interesting! In addition to some exciting map upgrades, players can now upgrade their ships with improvements such as increased capacity and a mining drill to get the most out of their missions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This allows ships to have a lot more options and character – the appearance of your ship will also change with each new upgrade so you can see it develop!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ego level & upgrades<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colonists now have an attribute called Ego Level. Every colonist starts a level 1\u2014drone. A drone doesn\u2019t care about anything. If it eats Biowaste and sleeps on the floor forever\u2014it doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As colonists level to higher ego levels, they desire increasingly better station conditions. If a high level colonist sees a dead body, they\u2019ll have a much more severe reaction than a low level colonist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To unlock each level colonists must meet unique requirements, like \u201cSleep in a bed\u201d. The intent is to force the player to become familiar with game mechanics more gradually before survival becomes more complicated. The game would direct you to first establish that you can place a bed, and then you can start to focus about growing crops. (You can still grow crops before placing a bed, but you won\u2019t be morale penalized for it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At every level, you can select 1 permanent upgrade for your colonist, like: reduced hunger, increased sell prices, and decreased fight chance. They\u2019ll also gain random attributes as they level up which could change how they like to work or interact socially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Galaxy and Starmap updates<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players can now travel between Star Systems, using Star Fuel. Each Star System is randomly generated, but it permanently has whatever is inside it in game. Some systems are better than others. If you\u2019re looking for a good seed, just travel around until you find one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New pop-up window for traveling to distant stars and objects<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are a few different types of star systems, each with a unique spawn pool. Infested Star Systems have a way higher count of Infested Stations, for example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside each star on the galaxy map is the system\u2019s starmap. This shows all the local objects and planets that a station ship can travel to. Once a station has moved into a system colonists can collect resources using ship missions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The background color in both the starmap and the skybox is based on the system star\u2019s color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A blue star solar system<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The team is next planning to move into a beta for early backers, and after that will be the public release! It\u2019s being very actively worked on, and approaching readiness – we can\u2019t wait to share more in 2021! Make sure to wishlist the game on Steam to stay tuned into the latest updates….<\/p>\n\n\n\n