[2023] Space Haven Alpha 18 - Progress Report.

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

Greetings, Spacefarer!
It has been a while, but as always we've been working in the background inching our way towards a new Major Update one step at a time. We have two new major building blocks we've been constructing for the Alpha 18 Update.

The first is a new Starmap, with new features giving more life to the starmap along with more events the player can encounter. The other is a comprehensive sectionalized tutorial, with Sheridan guiding new players to the intricacies of Space Haven.

Let's take a look!

A New Starmap
A new starmap with new features such as faction intentions, interstellar events, more missions and the addition of fog of war.

We've built upon the starmap once before during early access, which in our mind was a clear step in the right direction. However, as a lot of feedback has stated the early and mid game of the Starmap has been enjoyable but once the player has reached a certain point the content has not been able to provide excitement to the same degree.

Ultimately, our goal would be to pack the content of the game in an experience that would make the experience more giving from the beginning to the end. We are working on building a new starmap, with more opportunities to present the player with events and with the content of the game packaged in way that gives more more meaning to the progression of the game.

At the same time we have to remember that the game is also very much a sandbox type of game, and we want to keep the possibility for the player to play in such a way if that is what they desire.

Faction Intentions
The starmap becomes more alive with factions having their own intentions.

Our current idea is to try to create a little bit of life to the starmap, and not have it be entirely static. As a step towards making the starmap a little bit more alive we've thought of a concept of faction intentions.

You will be presented with so called faction intentions, where a faction has some intention to carry out an action in the starmap and you can choose to support them or ignore it.

Interstellar events
Traveling in hyperspace may present you with new encounters, from groups having their ship broken down to enemies wanting to ambush your fleet.

Inspired by the map traveling in Fallout 2 we've implemented a new feature that makes it possible to encounter events mid hyperspace jumps.


Each interstellar hyperlane may have 1 or more events available to discover.

Enemies may catch up to you if you roam the galaxy and get on their wrong side.

The purpose of this feature is that it makes it possible to generate events which the player can encounter free from having them tied to certain sectors and NPC movement in the starmap. These can be distress beacons from ships breaking down mid hyperspace jumps but also groups that are on the hunt to take the player down due to their actions.

This system should work well as a way to generate more events for the player to encounter in the future. It gives us more freedom to generate more in addition to all the events already happening within star systems and sectors.

More Missions
We are adding some more missions, which can be accepted directly in the starmap

We are building upon the missions system and adding some more missions, which can be directly accepted from the starmap. These may work together with faction intentions, giving more variety to the types of missions that factions offer to you as the player.

Fog of War To add to the exploration feel the starmap will have fog of war and only reveal the next destinations.

Previously the whole starmap has been visible from the start. In the new iteration we want to try having a fog of war hiding all but the next available star systems through hyperspace jumps. With this we would like to add more of the exploration feel to the game.

A Comprehensive Sectionalized Tutorial
Introducing Sheridan! A leader of the Haven Foundation guiding new players to become experienced Spacefarers.

Up until this point Space Haven has not had a traditional tutorial. Meaning a fail safe introduction to the game along with lots of information.

Space Haven has only had scenario hints, guiding the player to a hyperspace capable ship. While these work to some degree and we aim to keep them (As an optional help), the feedback we've received has shown that we need to create a proper tutorial for the game.

We have decided to address this issue and we've created a tutorial, which will introduce the player to the game in a comprehensive way. We've also created a character by the name of Sheridan to guide the player on becoming a true Spacefarer! (Sheridan is inspired by a tv-series. =) )


The tutorial is sectionalized allowing the player to revisit any topic that they want to learn more about.

There are a few main points we want the tutorial to fulfill:

1. The tutorial is optional - The player will be able to skip the tutorial and jump straight in, using only the scenario objective hints as before.
   
2. The tutorial gives a sense of progression - For many the tutorial will be the first experience with the game and so we wanted the player to feel like the ship they are building is their own, and that the tutorial has some progression to it.
   
3. The player can revisit any topic as they wish - We wanted to make it possible for the player to revisit different parts of the tutorial in case they felt like they missed something.

Sheridan explaining what the Recycler is for.

We felt it is important to give the player the feeling they are building something of their own right away, instead of just presenting scattered scenarios where the player has to figure out what they are seeing on the screen.

This is why the basic category of the tutorial in Space Haven is for the player to build their own ship on a small ship hull, with each step having information on why certain facilities are built and how they make the ship function as a home for crew members.


In addition to teaching how to build a hyperspace capable ship the tutorial will teach the player about the essential topics for survival.

We divided the building process into different sections, allowing the player to revisit different parts of the tutorial and look into something more than one time. In addition to the basic building tutorial we made a few other categories, which give information on topics that are beyond the scope of just building a hyperspace capable ship.

This combination should make for a great tutorial. The tutorial is of the type where there is a lot of handholding. However, since we aim to keep the scenario hints we have used up until this point as an additional help tool, we feel like players who like handholding tutorials and players who want more freedom right away can both be satisfied.

Smaller Additions
We always try to include smaller additions and polish with every Major Update. This update will be no different. Updates to icons, modifications to facilities and perhaps even some new decorations and more!

When Will the Alpha 18 Update be Released?

The type of tutorial we've implemented has taken a lot of time to create, having to make user interface pointers to show every step along with information text. It is mostly done in terms of programming work, but since the game is translated to 10+ languages we still have to do all the work regarding the translations.

The new Starmap is also under construction, and with any major change like this impacting the gameplay from start to finish it will need refining until ready for play. There are always unexpected problems along the way making it hard to predict a specific timeline for when it's solid enough.

We would definitely want the new starmap to offer a solid enough experience before releasing this update. We will have to see if we can make it for Christmas time or if we need more time.

Stay tuned, Spacefarers!