- 2024-06-10 Leaky EV Suit, Distance Sort Planets, Asphalt Road on Inferno World - 10 June 2024
Leaky EV Suit It would be nice to see a visible effect when an EV suit or helmet is leaking. EV suit and helmet now emit a stream of steam/smoke when they are leaking. Distance Sort Planets List When the mission order to orbit a planet or sun is selected, the distance sort does not work. Fixed. Asphalt Roads on Inferno World Asphalt roads are not supposed to be allowed on inferno worlds. Cursor used to show a flaming icon but now it does not. Nothing stops me from building an asphalt road on an inferno world. Fixed.
- 2024-05-16 Pirates, Fleet Improvements, Designer Bugs, Corrosion Shield, Thorns - 17 May 2024
Pirates Pirates got some improvements in this update. Pirate marauders will form into fleets. Pirates sometimes escort a pirate freighter that could have any sort of cargo. Pirate scouts will sometimes be encountered. Encounter size has always been determined by the relative mass of the pirate vs the human vessel. Previously the encounter size was limited to three; now it may be as many as five. Up to six if they are escorting a freighter. Pirate scouts play an important role in the creation of pirate bases. Previously, the first pirate ship encountered triggered the creation of a pirate base somewhere in the sector. Now a pirate scout is encountered when there is no base in the sector. It will move somewhere in the solar system and perform a sensor scan. If it completes the scan, a pirate base is created somewhere in the sector. Scouts may also be encountered after a base exists so see…
- 2024-05-09 Fleets, Starforce, C4 Doors, Shield Types - 9 May 2024
Fleets I don't always know what I'm going to work on next. Sometimes the current sweeps me away. This past two weeks I found myself unexpectedly delving into fleet formations of spacecraft. Here is the result. A ship can be designated as a flagship of a fleet. Any number of ships can be joined to that flagship's fleet. An empire can have more than one flagship thus more than one fleet. A new Fleet order was added to the Mission Orders list. Using a Fleet order, you can order a ship to become a flagship, to join a flagship, or to depart from their fleet. Ordering a fleet ship to become a flagship promotes it to the flagship and the previous flagship is demoted. Ordering a flagship to exit the fleet dissolves the fleet. A new Fleet page was added to the Spacecraft window tabs. There are some fleet management controls to designate the ship as a flagship, to join a fleet, and to exit a flee…
- 2024-04-27 Missiles, Ordnance, Sensor Lock, Salvage, Pirates - 27 April 2024
Missiles Missiles don't seem to hit their targets very often, if ever. Fixed numerous issues with guided missiles and other projectiles. Ordnance Window Ordnance window doesn't work correctly on Gulliver when I access a weapon station from a captain's chair. Fixed. This would have also been a problem at a weapon station when trying to operate a different weapon system than the default system for that station. Sensor Lock Update Bug Sensor lock reticle range does not update if I lock on to a target then switch to the captain's chair. Fixed. Sensor Lock Linger Sensor lock reticle remains in space after destroying a target, when there are no other targets to lock onto. It just seems to drift away. Fixed. Salvage Order Salvage order needs to be easier to issue instead of being way down the list of orders. I find myself frantically trying to issue the salvage order before the TEUs drift away…
- 2024-04-26 Pirates, Sensor Screen, Christen Ship Vehicles - 26 April 2024
Pirate Encounter Frequency It seems like pirates are pretty rare. Pirate encounters should occur more often now. Pirate Plunder Bug Pirates showed up. I ordered my crew to stand down. The pirates parked in a nice line out in front of my ship but they never plundered my ship. They kept calling out to wait until they arrived. Fixed several problems with this whole encounter. Sensor Screen Bug When the info pane is displayed for an object on the sensor screen, sometimes I can't scroll it back up to the topmost line. Fixed obob (off by one bug). Sensor Contact Long Lat It would be nice if contacts on the sensor screen showed their longitude and latitude. Sensor screen contacts now show their longitude and latitude on the info pane if the object is inside the atmosphere of a world. Christen Ship Vehicles After I christen my ship, its vehicles still identify themselves using the id only. When…
- 2024-04-25 TEU Containers, Salvage Order, Designer Tweaks - 25 April 2024
TEU Containers Deantwo suggested that exploding spacecraft should leave cargo containers behind. When spacecraft explode their cargo is now disbursed in cargo containers. The algorithm for this insures that no ship will ever leave more than 100 containers behind when it explodes. Access Containers A TEU containers sitting on the ground begs for a way to access its contents. A UI was added to access the contents of any container you are looking at. A Content button appears on the screen to do this. TEU Containers on Sensors TEU containers should show up on sensors. Done. TEU Containers on Helmet HUD Radar TEU containers should show up on the radar display of my EV helmet. Done. Transport TEU Containers Transporter should be able to beam up a TEU container. Done. When beaming up a TEU container, the contents are placed directly into the hold. If the entire contents cannot fit, nothing hap…
- 2024-04-18 Recover Vehicle, Runways, Orbit Altitude, Drop Pods - 19 April 2024
Runways Space Vehicle Recovery System. Hmm. That's a mouthful. Changed this to Runway everywhere. Recover Vehicles Drop pods are fun but they can be impossible to get back aboard without a runway. Any vehicle can now request recovery by a spacecraft if they are close enough. A Recover button appears among the on-screen buttons while you are in a vehicle. "Close enough" is inside the shield bubble ellipse, regardless if the ship has shields. Vehicle must also keep pace with the ship. The ship must have a parking spot for the vehicle. As with runway landings, the vehicle will be placed in 1) an empty spot, 2) replace a new vehicle of the same kind, 3) replace a used empty vehicle of the same kind, 4) replace a used vehicle of the same kind containing items, in that order of preference. There is some communication from the ship to help you succeed. This has some intentional delays so it's…
- 2024-04-12 Drop Pod, Mine, Capitol Buildings, Bug Fixes - 13 April 2024
Drop Pod This one has been on my list for a long time. There is a room on the Atlantis called the Pod Bay that has always been empty. This has been a fun one. I added a new vehicle called a Drop Pod. The model was designed in the Designer. Drop pod is rocket propelled, like a space rocket. Flight controls use the Space Rocket controls. Drop pod is manufactured at aircraft factories. Drop pod has retractable landing gear. The default key for this is I. You also get an on-screen 'Landing Gear' button. That button appears and the state of landing gear is depicted on the screen when the current vehicle has retractable gear. New Aircraft Factory and Colony Aircraft Factory blueprints are included. They now have a drop pod shop so there is a place for the drop pod to be parked when manufactured. There is a dozen parking spots so there will be a lot of pods handy when a ship needs to load them…
- 2024-04-05 Undersea Buildings, Submarine Parking, Decorative Potted Plants - 5 April 2024
Undersea Buildings Someone reported being unable to place a wharf at an undersea city. This prevented the undersea city from being connected by sea with surface cities that have wharves. Fixed an error checking placement of coastal buildings at underwater cities. Designed a few buildings specifically for undersea cities. They can be found in the exchange. Undersea Capitol - I decided to give this building an interior, so I could go inside while building and managing my underwater city. It features a bottom entry up into a dive chamber, like on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and other sea fiction. This presented some challenges because a number of small bugs prevented this from working properly; they are fixed. Undersea Factory 5 - A basic factory with 5 shops. Undersea Nuclear Power - Single generator nuclear power, nothing fancy. Undersea Wharf - A simple wharf with a few submarine pa…
- 2024-04-04 Hull Volume Errors, Helmet Suit Status, UI Freeze, Exchange Size Sort - 4 April 2024
Hull Volume Calculation Inconsistency Hull volume is not calculated consistently between unfinalized and finalized blueprints that have a turbo lift. This makes finalizing the blueprint impossible. Fixed. Hull Volume Calculation Error Buildings do not consider weapon bays when reconciling hull volume. This makes it impossible to finalize a building with a weapon bay. Fixed. Helmet Status Indicator for Suit Broken When my suit is broken, the status indicator in my helmet blinks faintly yellow. Fixed. Blinks red now like it was supposed to. Season on Planetoid Compass should not show season on a planetoid. Fixed. Disable Subscribe Button Subscribe button should be disabled while a blueprint is being downloaded. Done. UI Freeze Making Spacecraft Selecting a huge spacecraft in the spacecraft buy/commission/build dialogs causes a gigantic lag. Fixed. Achievements on Accounts Page Accounts pa…
- 2024-03-30 Lockup Bug, Billion Hit Point Buildings - 30 March 2024
Lockup Bug Two different cases of program lockups were reported. One occurred at the moment the avatar gave the vulcium knife to Xian at the University, something I have done hundreds of times. The other lockup occurred at the moment a spacecraft entered a wormhole, another activity I have done hundreds of times. Both of these juicy bugs were captured in save game files. I lumped these two bugs together because the same program error was causing the problem. Oddly the bug was introduced some time in 2015. It is fixed. Billion Hit Point Buildings Pirate buildings report billions of hit points. This makes them very difficult to destroy. This problem is caused by an inconsistency between the building subsystem volumes and the overall volume of the building itself. This error also afflicts some spacecraft blueprints. I updated the building and spacecraft blueprint finalize functions to catc…
- 2024-03-29 Texture Error, Empty Transporter Module - 29 March 2024
Parts of My Hull are Orange Some parts of the hull of my ship were weirdly orange. Later they were black and green striped. Fixed a texture error that was introduce when making decals respond to room lighting. A texture was not restored after rendering the decals. I regret that this bug made it into the final Win32 build. I will build a Win32 update with the latest changes if someone asks for it. Empty Transporter Module A ship built with empty transporter modules can still use its transporters. Fixed.
- 2024-03-27 Ringworld Seasons, Potted Plants, Atmosphere Density, Survey Info - 27 March 2024
Ringworld Seasons "It is always summer on ringworlds but the plants have their flowers. Think of it as early summer." I could not be satisfied with this. After mulling over several possible ways to induce seasons on a ringworld, I settled for modulating the day length as follows. Shadow panels now modulate the width of the sunlight gap, down to half the normal day length in winter. This is done continuously around the ringworld so all four seasons are present all the time, each in a different quadrant of the ringworld. When a stargate is opened the shadow panels retract to their summer configuration, with maximum aperture. This means you can no longer look up to see when the shadow panels are in position to open a stargate. Instead the obelisks at the corners now show a light at the top when the shadow panels are in position to open a stargate. The Control Center story chapter was updat…
- 2024-03-22 Seasons, Delete Blueprints - 22 March 2024
Seasons There have been requests for seasonal variations of plants. Planets now determine the current season at the viewer's location. This is shown on the Compass window, where the current weather conditions are shown. Season determination is based on the position and movement of the world's sun. Other suns in the solar system do not affect season. Plants and ground texture change appearance with season. Season changes are not gradual. There is no scene generation time between scenes; the rendering change is instantaneous. Winter to spring is quite abrupt when all the trees and plants suddenly have leaves and flowers and everything turns green. Non-aquatic plants: Spring - Leaves, flowers Summer - Leaves, no flowers Autumn - Leaves in fall colors, no flowers Winter - No leaves or flowers. Aquatic plants: Spring - Leaves, no flowers Summer - Leaves, flowers Autumn - Leaves, no flowers W…
- Slight rollback because of a critical error. - 17 March 2024
This is a slight rollback because of a critical error that was made in the very last update.
- 2024-03-16 Celarious' File, Decay Systems, Save Game, Terrain Option, City Light - 17 March 2024
Celarious' Game File Celarious allowed me to download a large saved game file, in excess of 4gB. He was curious about why the file was so large. That file flushed out some bugs. The original file is used more or less like this: 5mB of game data, empires, and species. 4gB of building blueprints, 329 of them. 300mB of spacecraft blueprints, 32 of them. Nice spaceships! 30mB of Universe and its atoms. A big surprise was watching memory usage. As soon as QFile::open is called on the file, 8gB of memory gets consumed. That is without reading any data from the file. The memory does not appear to be released after I close the file. I am continuing to research this feature. Total memory usage only gained 1gB after that, for a final total of 11gB virtual and 8gB resident. Another surprise was the 2,626 sectors, 52,526 solar systems, and 2,383 ringworld arc sections. This led to some improvements…
- 2024-03-14 Custom Spacecraft, Decal Lighting, Mfg Options, Autopark, Warp Field - 14 March 2024
Custom Spacecraft Manufacture The ability to customize a spacecraft blueprint at the time of manufacture has been requested quite a lot, in one form or another. Done. This was a ton of work but I think you will like the result. You can replace modules but you cannot add or remove them. You can also adjust the volume assigned to each subsystem. You can even save/load your customizations. Customizations can be applied when scheduling regular production at a spacecraft factory, when buying a company spacecraft, and when commissioning a fleet spacecraft. Some modules can be replaced with empty modules, as a placeholder. That does not reduce the number of crew berths so the ship will have extra crew. Empty modules can be upgraded later, when appropriate modules are available. Decal Lighting Decals should be lit according to their group. Currently they are always lit as if they are outside th…
- 2024-03-07 Memory Usage, Item Models, Little Things, Bug Fixes - 8 March 2024
Memory Usage I did an analysis of the memory used by the program to determine if there was any significant leakage or overuse. All the big memory consumers in the game were accounted for. There were a few surprises. It surprised me that initializing the OpenAL sound system used up 500MB of memory. That was simply initializing the system, without loading any of my own sound files. It also surprised me that each atom manager used 100MB of memory. They contain very few variables and a couple of thread objects. I presume the thread objects were responsible for the overhead. You can control the number of these. The default on my system was 10, which used up 1GB of memory. I loaded a game that has several cities in multiple solar systems, with spacecraft flying around harvesting things. This game ran all night long. In the morning the overall memory usage was not significantly higher than whe…
- 2024-02-29 Helicopter Bugs, Lighting Bugs, Prone Movement, Falling Damage - 29 February 2024
Helicopter Too Feeble Helicopter is too feeble to taxi up the ramp on Gulliver. Fixed a bug that determined the air pressure in a room, due to the ramp room being an outside room. The helicopter was unable to move because it was reading zero air pressure in its environment. Helicopter Stuck in Ceiling Helicopter in vehicle bay on Gulliver gets stuck in the ceiling quite easily. Just take off. Fixed. Prone Movement Buggy Moving on a hill while prone is quite an experience. Sometimes you get dragged uncontrollably around the terrain. Fixed. Falling Damage Creatures, vehicles and spacecraft are not damaged by crashing into terrain. I can fall from orbit and land unhurt on the terrain. Falling damage was disabled for a long time due to the previous prone movement bug. That bug invariably ended up killing you due to falling damage. This is reported as "collision with terrain" in messages tha…
- 2024-02-26 Game Restore Crash - 26 February 2024
Game Restore Crash The Feb 21 update introduced an unfortunate bug that caused a crash when attempting to restore a saved game, including the Current Game. Fixed a streaming bug in the player stat object that tracks how many times you have burnt up in the sun, by vehicle. If no avatar in the game had ever burnt up in the sun there was no problem. Saved games that were crashing will load properly after this update. The data was saved correctly. The error was in reading the data. Obsolete Objects Bug While working on the crash bug, I found/fixed a bug that occurred when loading data that included references to obsolete commodities. Remove Unreferenced Deleted Blueprints While working on the crash bug, one of the games I loaded had a large number of deleted spacecraft and building blueprints in its library. These only need to be kept if they are used anywhere in the game. Added a cleanup f…
