Dev Blog : June 12th 2015

[Bench]

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We're back with another addition of our Dev Blog. It's certainly a busy month for StarMade. If you've skimmed the public roadmap you can see there's a lot that is in the works, not to mention the other stuff happening behind the scenes.

One of the things that caught the eye of a fair few players was the planned feature for exporting for 3D printing. The potential for players to be able to actually make a physical 3D model of their ship was quite enticing. So enticing in fact that somehow within a week we had UnknownProcess decide they didn't want to wait and instead try to help the process along by making an OBJ exporter for blueprints that from the looks of the following screenshot seems to work quite nicely.

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As a video creator myself I look forward to trying this out myself. Definitely some cool stuff coming out of the community at the moment.

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We're rolling towards the mid-way point of the year with the conclusion of June, and as such we're also approaching the end of the first term of the Council of Intergalactic Representatives. It's definitely been an interesting first term for our player-elected council. From my personal interactions with them they've been open to what we're after, but also have had good ideas about how to improve the functions and efficiency of the council as well throughout their time.

Our Council members who have served a full term will be issued with the Councillor Gold badge to acknowledge their contribution to the community over the course of their time on the council.

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If any of them are elected for a second term they will also be issued a new badge to denote that it is their second time on the council. But before that can happen we need to hold a new election.​

It'd be around this time we'd actually start the process for applications for citizens wishing to put their name on the ballot to potentially be elected to the Council of Intergalactic Representatives. However for this particular time we're going to delay that slightly to coincide with another exciting thing on the horizon.




Some will have noticed in the roadmap that we have a new launcher on the horizon. Well it's just around the corner, and coming with it will be a whole new launcher layout, simplified for players, and with a bunch more content to sink your teeth into. It will support everything from creating a registry account, to simplified version control, community content, support, a more visually stimulating news section and more.



You may be asking yourself, why are we delaying the council applications then until the launcher is released? Well as part of the launcher we're including a council section, where the latest news from the council can be read, easy access to give your opinion on polls and discussions they are conducting, and all the news regarding being able to apply and vote in the elections for our council members. We want every player to be able to have their vote on who they want to see representing the community as a whole, regardless of the community they're with. So we're including the council into the launcher, so that whoever you are, if you're playing the game, you're in touch with what's happening in the StarMade citizen community as a whole.



All going to plan we should be seeing the new launcher come out by the end of June, so expect that you'll need to update to see that. The second game launcher, that includes all the game settings, display settings, as well as the actual single player and multi player connection settings; will have a replacement at a later date. This first launcher update will see some functions shifting though.

Needless to say we're excited for some of the new stuff coming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned and thanks for playing StarMade.

Until next time.

- Bench

 

[Jay_do]

The new launcher looks pretty nice and official. Not saying the other one looked like crap but it was pretty bland. Also no news on the HP System that's in the works? With the amount of dev builds being released per day it looks like it may be close.

 

[Keptick]

That new launcher looks gorgeous :O

 

[Bench]

Also no news on the HP System that's in the works? With the amount of dev builds being released per day it looks like it may be close.

It's definitely close, it's mostly bug fixing and balancing at the moment, and little things like GUI updates to support showing new data for the player that wasn't there before, stuff you don't consider when you first think of the HP system. I'd wager you'll probably hear more about it in the next week or two.

 

[Jay_do]

It's definitely close, it's mostly bug fixing and balancing at the moment, and little things like GUI updates to support showing new data for the player that wasn't there before, stuff you don't consider when you first think of the HP system. I'd wager you'll probably hear more about it in the next week or two.

Alright. Thank you for the information. I cant wait to hop in and try it out.

 

[Thalanor]

Damnit, Schine GmbH, you have really made the transition from startup to full-out professionalism in quite the short time. Mad props.

 

[FrankRa]

[Production Value Intensifies]
In all seriousness, the new launcher not only looks like an actual game launcher, but it looks cool as heck too, and very coherent with the general aesthetic you guys seem to be going for. Excellent job, guys.

 

[therimmer96]

Great launcher, but please, for the love of god, kill the connection manager aswell.

 

[Valiant70]

The second game launcher, that includes all the game settings, display settings, as well as the actual single player and multi player connection settings; will have a replacement at a later date. This first launcher update will see some functions shifting though.

Oh no.... I hope the bugs don't carry over. I currently have to start the first part of the launcher twice in a short amount of time to get the second part to work, and that's on a good day. To make this work more often, I have created a second copy of the starmade starter jar and launch two instances of it, then click "start game" on both of them a few seconds apart. It seems to work most of the time but it's still annoying as heck.

 

[Megacrafter127]

Will the new launcher also be available on linux? (If not I'll quit :P )

 

[zigyzigy]

Oh no.... I hope the bugs don't carry over. I currently have to start the first part of the launcher twice in a short amount of time to get the second part to work, and that's on a good day. To make this work more often, I have created a second copy of the starmade starter jar and launch two instances of it, then click "start game" on both of them a few seconds apart. It seems to work most of the time but it's still annoying as heck.

Just don't ever close the game

 

[Visitor]

Also no news on the HP System that's in the works?

It's definitely close, it's mostly bug fixing and balancing at the moment

I sincerely hope that as per balancing, importance of no-hull blocks will be decreased in counting HP so people will prioritize thicker hulls. As of not long ago shield blocks between HP addition and shields themselves together with the fact said shields regenerate seem still somewhat more logical choice for the sake of defense.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Looks inspired by EVE :p

 

[Bench]

Looks inspired by EVE :p

We drew inspiration from a number of launchers for how they approach things like news, progress in updating, etc. so when you use the launcher, it feel feel somewhat familiar, as our placement of some features is the way that every launcher seems to do it. If every other launcher places their start button nice and big bottom right with the controls to the left then clearly that positioning works, no sense reinventing the wheel.

 

[Megacrafter127]

We drew inspiration from a number of launchers for how they approach things like news, progress in updating, etc. so when you use the launcher, it feel feel somewhat familiar, as our placement of some features is the way that every launcher seems to do it. If every other launcher places their start button nice and big bottom right with the controls to the left then clearly that positioning works, no sense reinventing the wheel.

Square wheels work better than circular wheels in certain circumstances. :u

 

[Bench]

Square wheels work better than circular wheels in certain circumstances. :u

Gotta put some wedges on them then

 

[Megacrafter127]

Gotta put some wedges on them then

Correction: replace 'square wheels' with 'octagonal wheels' :P

 

[AtraUnam]

Wheels tend to work better without wedges.

 

[Jananton]

Some people seem to be able to make more from those screen shots then I can, but for what it's worth I like the color scheme.

Since the new launcher will be dependent more on an available Internet connection I hope, if there isn't one for any reason, that such a mishap will be handled correctly too.

Greets,

Jan

 

[DukeofRealms]

Some people seem to be able to make more from those screen shots then I can, but for what it's worth I like the color scheme.

Since the new launcher will be dependent more on an available Internet connection I hope, if there isn't one for any reason, that such a mishap will be handled correctly too.

Greets,

Jan

Yes, we have already planned for no internet connections.