[2022] Space Haven Alpha 14 - Now In The Experimental Branch!

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Greetings, Spacefarer!
Space Haven Alpha 14 is now available to play in the experimental branch. As a reminder, the update process is as follows:

1. A new Update is first available in the Experimental Branch.
   
2. Players, who do not mind playing a more unstable version, will first want to test the new update.
   
3. Once the experimental game build looks solid and stable enough we will push it out officially to all players!

NOTE! Joining experimental is completely optional, and you should only do it if you are willing to risk that some new bugs are introduced, which could affect your game play and potentially break your save.

Please do not join the experimental branch if you don't want to risk breaking your save or have the game break on you in midst of play! If you want to play a more stable version please wait for the official release of the update.

Note! It is strongly recommended to start a new game. There are a lot of new big changes and it is not known how well older saves work.

Here is how you join The Experimental Starfarer crew:

• Open Steam Library
  
• Right click Space Haven
  
• Select Properties
  
• Go to tab 'Betas' at the top.
  
• Select 'Experimental' in the drop-down.

To see what has been added, check the in-game patch notes.

Giving Feedback


Please give your feedback in the experimental branch forum. Link below:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/5/

Let us know what you think of the new features and if something should be altered or tweaked in your mind. Perhaps something makes the game too hard or something is too annoying, let us know so we can get a feel for how the new features feel! =)

Space Haven Alpha 14 Experimental Branch Patch Notes
You can read up on many of the new features in more detail in the previous post:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979110/announcements/detail/3120428406790001091

Crew Members Leveling Up

• Implemented crew members leveling up in skills.
  
• Modified crew member max skill levels from 3 to 10
  
• Added a skill potential bonus to some traits, these traits give a bonus point to some max skill level.
  
• Implemented a way to customize start crew attributes and skills.
  
• Implemented a way to customize if one can customize crew members, in the game customization menu. =)

Crew Member Related Modifications

• Modified the default crew member priority system to take the learning potential into account, as we often want someone who can learn up to a high skill level to execute certain tasks.
  
• Modified the crew management menu priority section to show both the current skill level and how many levels the crew member can learn.
  
• Added minimum skill requirements to production tasks and other tasks.
  
• The general Working speed value no longer has an effect on the console tasks. Instead, the bonus effect comes from the relevant skill tied to the task (Navigation, Gunner, Operations and Shielding).
  
• Added a new condition, which can be triggered by long term low comfort. Crew members can rebell and refuse to work for some hours to show that they are displeased.
  
• Balanced the need to fight trigger to make it less possible for a crew member to get stuck in a need to fight mood.

Comfort Map Reworked

• Divided the comfort map into three categories: Work, Leisure and Sleep.
  
• Added comfort categories for objects to allow determining comfort values from a category instead of values from individual objects. All tables are now in the tables category, and all beds in the beds category. There are many other categories such as gaming and music. This prevents the need to build multiple different objects of the same type to optimize comfort.
  
• Modified bonus comfort to not have a radius fall-off. This prevents the need to build multiple objects next to each other to optimize comfort. Negative comfort still has a fall-off.
  
• Rebalanced comfort values for objects.

Power System Reworked

• Reworked the power network to be divided into two. One network being the integral basic power network, which is low capacity power distributed into the hull.
  
• This network is capable of keeping basic facilities with low power needs functional. The other network is the advanced power network, which is needed for facilities with higher power needs such as industry facilities, ship turrets and shields.
  
• The first network will be easy to manage and can keep the ship alive, while the other network will be more resource intensive and is needed for production and ship-to-ship combat.
  
• Added power control sliders, which will allow the player to redirect power to ship-to-ship combat systems, like the turrets, shields or the hyperdrives.

Hull Stabilizers and System Points

• Tied system points to the Hull Stabilizer, and added a minimum distance radius to the Hull Stabilizer. Two Hull Stabilizers must be a certain distance from each other.
  
• Generators, Hyperdrives and Power Capacity nodes now use system points.
  
• Power Capacity Nodes (Batteries) make power boosting possible, which means more than 100% power can be directed towards some ship system in the power control menu.

Shield Modifications

• Shields now take the size of the ship into account. When the size of the ship grows the strength of the shield is reduced to a degree, as the shield needs to cover a larger area compared to a smaller ship.
  
• When shields are depleted to 0 they will need to be charged with a few hit points before coming online again. This will cause some intervals where shields are down, presenting opportunities for specialized turrets to strike in ship-to-ship combat.

Ship-to-Ship Combat Modifications

• The Autoturret and Small Shield generator have been added to the game. These are researched and found in the same research modules as the weapon console and shields console.
  
• Hyperdrives can now be targeted in ship-to-ship combat and it is possible to stop a ship from escaping.
  
• Turrets and their projectiles can have a chance at penetrating the shields. This penetration rate depends on multiple factors, the strength of the shield, the skill of the defending shield operator, the skill of the enemy ship gunner and the penetration chance of the turrets themselves.
  
• Improved the AI behavior in ship-to-ship combat and made it take the set difficulty into account. The AI will be more lenient with targeting on easier difficulties while trying to disable and destroy more effectively on higher difficulties.

Battlestations

• Implemented Battlestations - A new mode for crew members where they seek out their assigned battlestation post in ship-to-ship combat situations. This can be assigned manually or let the crew members do it automatically.

Hyperdrives

• Hyperdrives only consumed hyperfuel based on the need of 1 hyperdrive. This has been fixed.
  
• Hyperjumps are now possible to execute within a range of the mass capacity needed, but there is a cost in hyperfuel spent and the possibility of the ship/hyperdrives taking damage.
  
• Implemented user interface improvements to the prepare for a hyperjump menu.

Robots

• Logistics robots and salvage robot docks now consume a bit less power than before.
  
• Logistics robots and salvage robots consume a bit less energy cells than before.
  
• The Solar panel produces basic power and costs less in building resources.

Plants and Food

• Plants now have a higher growth rate penalty if left untended.
  
• Increased the consumption of fat, carbs, protein and vitamins for crew members. Goal is to increase the chance of a deficiency if some food component is missing.
  
• Modified the default meal recipe in the Kitchen settings.
  
• Balanced plants to need more tending. Previously, 1 crew member was able to tend to 10-12 of the largest (5 crop) grow pods alone. Now, 2 crew members are needed for such an amount.

Starmap and Factions

• The negative effects of Siren Worlds have been nerfed in an earlier update, and now they are also hidden in the starmap.
  
• When NPC ships asks for a resource they will now offer to pay a higher price for the goods and also a relationship bonus in return.
  
• Crew members for hire at a leisure station now ask for a smaller price at a maximum to join the player crew.
  
• The chance for the Military Alliance to carry out an inspection of your ship has been increased.
  
• Created new random derelict spaceships.
  
• Polished and added more details to derelict ships rooms.

Lore Related

• The HSS Call Me Crazy spaceship featured in one of the data log series has been added to the game as a derelict ship the player can find. A character from the story can be found on the ship in a hypersleep chamber, as well as an additional data log to give more information on what happened to HSS Call Me Crazy.

Fixes and Modifications

• Energy cells now take less energy rods to produce.
  
• Modified the large tooltips for facilities, which can be seen in the build menu and the research tree menu.
  
• Fixed hyperdrive placement on many NPC ships.
  
• Fixed bugs.

Please give your feedback in the experimental branch forum. Link below:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/5/

Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/

We will gather feedback for Alpha 14 in the experimental branch and tweak as needed. Once everything is looking solid enough we will publish the update to the main branch.

Thanks for reading and see you again in the next update!