- The Astralecx Merge - 28 September 2021
This build is the follow-on to the Dev Omega build. All of the game's binary packages have been updated along with some bug fixes, more game and quest guidance, and some general playability tweaks. The Cetus combat trials have also been updated for better guidance.
- Dev Omega - 27 August 2021
In late 2017, I started work on a small sandbox space game. There wasn't much to it. You could fly a ship, deploy mines, and build a few things. The star systems were auto generated. There were some wild creatures and your one ship, the Astrela, could laser them and fire the occasional torpedo. One year later and that had morphed into a full blown RPG with the Cetus campaign. Astrela Starlight was still pretty rough but went into Early Access. Several years later, ASL has now reached the completion of all of the original development goals, with a few changes and additions. Thank you to everyone who has supported the journey of Astrela Starlight. From the Cetus, to the Saurum, the Avar, all the way to the Ecxos planetary station, I am sincerely grateful and hope you enjoy solving the mystery of Lystran. - Daniel C. Ray, author of Astrela Starlight Development of the game will slow to bug…
- Quest Guidance - 2 April 2021
Today's release contains Quest Guidance. Quest Guidance adds indicators to the HUD, jump system, and Galaxy Map showing targets that are part of the quest. When starting a new game, the player will be asked if they wish to enable Quest Guidance. When loading a save game that was saved prior to this release, the player will also be asked if they wish to enable Quest Guidance. Quest guidance can be enabled/disabled and configured in the Quests menu. Also in this release: Major performance update to the jump process and star system loading process. Building star systems is never easy. Several graphical changes to the UI. Some minor polishing of menu functions. Fixed issue where some ships showed as having trade items in the Target Info screen when they were empty. Svem was causing the Cetus anomalies to visually appear unsealed after completing his quest, fixed. Fixed an issue with the Tor…
- Experimental Branch - 23 February 2021
The experimental branch of Astrela Starlight is the last step before release. Everyone is welcome to use the experimental branch. If you wish to join the experimental branch, go to your Steam library. Right-click Astrela Starlight, choose Properties -> Betas -> select the "experimental" branch, and the password is "theaslexperiment" without the quotes. Builds in the experimental branch are for testing only. Updates are made without warning or announcement. Updates made to the experimental branch may cause bugs and break any functionality of the game.
- Celestial Alignment Update - 26 October 2020
The latest round of updates in mainly focused on some performance items, the HUD, and working with celestials. Several other items included below: Update to HUD for more usability. Overlapping HUD items further away will fade behind closer ones. Active target will always appear in front. Some celestial updates to Nidium to fill in the empty area of the system. Added more Elpin to Celor system. Fixed issue when merging Astrela and Tserilecx where some materials in storage didn't merge. Several updates to Astralecx model, textures, and engine effect. Navigation pop-up could appear on occasion when communications was active, fixed. Minor updates to audio and UI. Changes to Hohlrom menu for easier understanding of resources required, also better clearance checking. Updates to Lygate system for better clearance checking and object behavior after jump. Changes to anomaly missions and effects…
- Fall Update - 25 August 2020
The latest update has moved from the experimental branch into general release. This includes some changes to models, effects, and other general bug fixes. Changes included in this release If a vessel is permanently wrecked, its cargo can be salvaged, and now the vessel can be reclaimed. A small green dot will now appear on the mining station screen. The dot indicates that another mine is orbiting the target celestial and is already mining the noted resource. New models of the Astrela and Tserilecx have been released along with new engine effects. Engine effects have been expanded to all ships in the game. There were some camera jittering issues related to the Tserilecx' tractor beam, fixed. Filters have been added to the trade menu. Previously selected items will not be filtered. Changes to deep scan detonation quest for more helpful descriptions on where to search. Teselor is now ident…
- Summer Update - 24 June 2020
Summer update is here with some community requests and other tweaks and cleanup. Community requests: Databank entries can now be set as a priority so they show at the top of the list, like mines. Copiae will show incoming streams from the mines in the system. Saurum Lv2 H2 collector added, collects up to 200, requires Lux. Updates to the speed and visuals of the jump system. Other changes: Minor UI changes in radar, target info, quest interface, and main engineering. Target info mode-swap has pop-up description and disappears when not required. Fixed intermittent issue with enter key in save game window. Mouse pop-up in upper left quadrant of the screen will show lower to the right so it's not under cursor. Several small tweaks in the UN and UNN star systems to balance resources. Two extra wrecks added in Tord as a better breadcrumb trail. Extra comet added to Osti for resource balance.…
- Cleaning Celestia - 3 June 2020
An update has been released from the experimental branch with various player related fixes and some community requested features. The "next enemy" HUD algorithm has been updated to better find nearby hostile vessels and cycle through them in order. Minor update to the vessel explosion effect. The pulse system's "north" pointer has minor changes to the model and texture. Various small text updates to some quest information items. The Astrela's specularity has been lessened, helping with bloom. UV update on the Lv1 and Lv2 mining station. Issue fixed in the Galaxy Map where the jump button was taking too long to become available. The navigation UI can now be locked open by clicking on the steering wheel. Forward, reverse, left, and right can all be held down the UI, like holding WASD. Some 2D image updates to NPCs, quest items, and the radar system. The solar info and HUD filters pop-up w…
- Weapons Release - 14 May 2020
The latest set of updates has changed the way weapons are released from various ships. Several audio updates and cleanup of how asteroids and comets are named. Weapon mounts and locations updated on all ships in the game. Repair related audio now states "vessel" repair instead of just hull. Asteroids and comets in all star systems now use standard naming. Audio for highest power setting changed to "Battlestations." Button added to trade menu for select and deselect all. Several changes to help screen showing default keyboard mapping. 2D images updated throughout the game with better textures. The reclaim verify screen now shows materials that will be reclaimed. Bow and stern lights added to the Tserilecx, are we coming or going? Several updates to NPC descriptions and text in quests.
- First Update - 23 April 2020
First update since full release. Some general functionality changes and weapon re-balancing. Most notably, the Level 2 mine schematics added in Obice. Level 2 mine added to the trade station in Obice. Lv2 will mine all resources on a celestial in sequence until the celestial is depleted. An issue was fixed with power systems calculation. Blackout transitions between menus have been updated. Advanced engineering system added for better information about each vessel. Scanner and detection range colors on the radar were changed. Objects will update on the radar when coming into detection range. The radar list will now show what objects have been scanned. Mines will now scan a short distance around them. Scanner Lv1 detection range updated to 6000k, scan range to 2500k. Slights updates to Kyraine, Dolan, and Deca's dialogs. Reclaiming a target will automatically switch to the next owned tar…
- Full Release! - 13 April 2020
After two years of development, Astrela Starlight has finally transitioned from Early Access to Full release! Lots of updates over the last two weeks. Work continues based on community feedback. Changes to several Cetus trade stations for more space and appropriate goods. Updates to celestials in the Cetus star systems for better resources. Mining button graphic flipped for on/off mode. Mines are auto targeted when deployed for easy configuration. Celestial sensor Lv1 price reduced to 100 H2. Lighting directions updated in several systems. Added left shift key to filter HUD and only show player owned vessels. Added 'R' key to switch HUD target to next owned player vessel. Button row added on lower HUD. Dirn will now remove tungsten from inventory upon quest completion. Hullust moved to Thetan with new mission for mining resources and learning how to use the Copiae. Ship updated to a Cet…
- Hullust - Update - 19 March 2020
Lots more audio and bug fixes this week. The NPC Hullust was moved to Thetan and a mission created for the Copiae resource station. Cetus Trade Station name updated. Ruby count on Kattaran updated. Mine on/off graphic updated. When switching to a mine, the mine will become the target for easier management. Celestial Sensor Lv1 price dropped to 100 H2. Inore and Arae systems light updated. Holding down shift will now filter the HUD to only Reisian vessels. Dirn will now take the tungsten at mission completion. The 'R' key will now change the target to the next owned Reisian vessel. Dephs audio redone and his required resources reduced by half. Cetus station voice updated. Svem's audio redone to match text.
- Echo - Update - 13 March 2020
Major audio updates this week as we continue towards full release. Fixed issue with purchasing shipyard schematics in Arae. Added Copiae station to Cetus station and Avar station. Added the Stardock recall system to two Saurum stations. Major changes to Dolan's audio. Cetus, Saurum and Avar trade stations have complete audio. Praeter's audio volume increased. Reisian audio for Dolan and Dera fixed from "I" to "we". Sloar now properly mentions Devoran at the end of the Saurum gravity quests. Caldus and Vertec voices updated. Some changes to Reisian audio for Dereto. Dereto's voice completely redone. Wile's audio finalized. Repaired some issues with standard auxiliary system loadouts on defense stations.
- One Ping - Update - 26 February 2020
Major updates this week to the radar systems. Both radar screens have been completely re-written and polished. The avatars for each object in the system have been updated and some issues fixed with scaling. The rotating detection and scan range bars should behave and scale correctly. Most importantly, the performance of the radar within the game and when it is being interacted with, has dramatically improved.
- The Journey - Update - 14 February 2020
The journey field, which is the dust surrounding the current vessel, has been updated. It should better track the active vessel and be more visible as vessels move. In addition, all vessels other than the Astrela, Tserilecx, and Astralecx, must now be within 200k of a jump exit before jumping out of a system. Lots of other bug fixes and updates this week: The speed bar wasn't always updating correctly when vessels were changed. H2 collector particle field is now rotated correctly. The Ecxos cannot be towed by the Tserilecx or Astralecx. The Ecxos cannot project itself to another star system, it must use the Ecxos jump drive. The regular jump menu has received several performance updates. It should load must faster. Lygates cannot move the Ecxos. Keys to switch between targets and the current ship are now disabled during a jump. Descriptions of Reisian vessels in the databank has been up…
- All Those Nebulas - Update - 28 January 2020
Major update to the various nebulae this week. Color and textures changes, along with a significant improvement in performance using a new type of particle system. Also this week: Significant changes to the build system and game's size on disk. Disabled control of ships heading using the mouse. Some further smoothing of camera follow modes. Several changes to wild creatures and their attack methods. Fixed issue with sizing of some hover pop-ups.
- Cameras and Comets - Update - 17 January 2020
Major updates to the mouse tracking system as well as the camera systems. All camera modes should be much more smooth. The mouse should be functioning slightly better when zooming in and out as well as rotating below the object that is currently in view. The tail of comets has been updated to look a little better and use less particles. All shield bubbles in the game have also been updated to better fit each ship and station.
- More Refinery - Update - 6 January 2020
Some final polishing to the refinery before release. Cleaned up the list that shows the material targets. Moved refinery selector so that it is next to refinery controls. General refinery graphics update. Selecting a refinery switches the target material to the current material target.
- Refinery - Update - 20 December 2019
The refinery has gone through a first-stage polish. More polish work is in progress. A tow beam has also been added to the Tserilecx so owned ships and stations can be moved. Other changes this week: All HUD filters updated to be more readable. Trade/transfer changed to yellow. Star System Map renamed to Galaxy Map. Further changes to the game loading time. Anomalies show correctly in the HUD filter instead of "fountain." Issue with navigation window closing prematurely fixed. Reclaim pop-up window polished. Camera movement in entry sequence updated to be smoother. Rename screen polished. Jump system should be somewhat smoother due to delayed cleanup of existing star system objects.
- Load Time - Update - 6 December 2019
This week includes a major update to Astrela's loading time as well as an Unity update. Load time should be less than 5% of what it had grown to. Other parts of the game should load quicker as well. Also this week: Several changes and polish to the pulse wave the UI screen. The Systems Control screen will now highlight compatible slots when you select a system. Fixed issue when hovering over pop-up menus that was causing them to close before leaving the hover area. Fixed issue with jump box not properly coloring locked gates.
