[2021] Starbase Progress Notes: Week 5 (2021)

Week 5 (February 1st – 5th)

Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 5 of 2021!

Please note that the “Progress Notes” are different from the Starbase Alpha “Patch Notes”. Progress Notes are snippets from the development team and what has been worked on during the previous week, and many of the features might not be present in the current or upcoming builds of the Closed Alpha. Some features, especially in the design portion, can be subject to change as the development continues.

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Design

Features

• Design for Paint/Decal Tool features has been worked on
• Safe zone sensor has been designed for Transponder
• First version of material sensor design has been finished
• Mining backpack update has been designed, two ore slots will be added
• A split version of the Reconstruction machine has been added
  • New machines can all be put into player’s inventory and grabbed and there’s more space to bolt the machine
• Endoskeleton Replacement Kits have been added
  • Player may purchase these kits from markets
  • Pressing the “Add endo kit” button on the Reconstruction machine will move a kit from the player’s inventory to the machine
• Remote Explosives and Remote Explosives Detonator have been added to economy
• Plasma Thruster design has been worked on, formulas for thruster resource usage have been collected and are ready for balancing

User Interface

• Design for Company missions is underway
  • UI for invitations, joining and accepting and publishing the missions has been worked on

Stations and Cities

• Landing platforms and Ship Design Workshops have been added to the Moon city (currently out of function, due to gravity)
• Three Ship Design Workshops and new insurance transfer terminals have been added to Robur station
  • Original insurance transfer has been renamed and requires re-binding

Spaceship Designer

• Spaceship Modules / Starter Kit now also has pre-assembled ship weapons with fixed mounts

Code

Gameplay

• A possible fix has been made for disappearing resources in resource networks
• Fixes have been made to unarmed melee syncing
• Inventory performance for players with large inventories has been improved
• ‘Sell all’ in sell terminal now sells everything and not just the first 250 items
• Proper interaction code for Tripods has been added
• The creation of a passive tool used to handle tripod weapon shooting has been started
• Player stations now have a separate build zone that defines where voxels can be built
• Player station default safe zone size has been decreased
• Finishing the foundation unit now increases station safe zone and build area size
• Adding voxels into a player station increases the station’s build area, safe zone and the total claimed area towards a set maximum. Area volume growth is linear, each built voxel increases the volume by a set amount.
• Basic functionality of the new audio signal device system is now working

User Interface

• First version of the mail system has been finished. It will be used to send mail and credits to other players and can be accessed under social tab inbox

Art

Animations and Emotes

• Work on melee animations continues
• Decalizer & painter tool animations have been worked on (1st person)
• “Downed” animations have been worked on further

Other

• Ship diagnostic scanner has been modeled and textured
• A torpedo laser tracker asset has been created
• UI icons for station manager permission toggles have been created

Gallery

Don’t forget to join our official Starbase Forums and Starbase Discord for Starbase-related discussion and content!

See you next week!