[2021] Starbase Progress Notes: Week 17 (2021)

**Week 17 (April 26th – 30th)**

Hello everyone. Here are the progress notes of week 17 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.

Design

Features

Mining backpack: progress bar indicating slot capacity should now be relative to the slot max capacity
Large Generator design, assets and configurations have been finished
Electricity per second upkeep has been updated to 250 on autocannon, laser cannon and plasma cannon (similar to rail cannon upkeep)
Missiles have been tested with safety settings, they now work as intended

User Interface

Asteroid belt tutorial has been worked on, tutorial objectives have been updated
New shop UI with separate manufacturing price has been worked on

Stations and cities

Moon city’s ship spawn terminals, that were inside the landing platform’s floor, have been put to their correct places
Four new player ship shops have been added to Origin station
- Epic Shipyards
- Dynastar
- Vintage Ships
- Quasar Systems
Many player-made ships have been added to the ship shops, and some ships have been moved to different ship shops

Other

Easy Build Mode modules are being updated: updated modules will use mainly ducts instead of cables and pipes

Code

Gameplay

Ship server support for granting ship access to other players has been worked on
Work with factory halls continues: configurations, manager, part connections and hall area detection have been worked on
Sections of structures should no longer disappear when merging them to remote content
Ship thruster effect poses have been fixed
Lifeline should now work better with unconventional chair environments
Lifeline cannot be bound to a chair that is so damaged it cannot be sit on
Many laser-like device visuals no longer have a lag when in motion
Implementation of Company bank accounts has been in the works
Player camera controller functionality has been changed to only allow first person while operating a tripod weapon
Syncing tripod animations to remote clients has been worked on
Tripod specific functionality has been added to first person arms positioning

User Interface

Work on Easy Build Mode continues, new snapping feature has been worked on
Work on asteroid tutorial continues, implementation of second set of objectives has started
Ship UI has been worked on, ownership and access checking has been improved

Audio

Music playback system for music devices has been worked on

In-game Designers

Station utility pipe configuration implementation has been worked on
Adding thruster auto-naming feature to the game has been worked on

Art

Animations and Emotes

Tripod draw/holster animations have been worked on
Weapon/tool poses have been adjusted for when tools are held in the back slot of the inventory

Stations and Cities

Ship Design Workshop holograms have been updated

Other

Large generator: LODs have been updated for the assets
Large Machinery: tint mask areas have been added to Exorium Tank and Large Generator, tint mask changes have been updated to LODs
“Ammo” canisters for the Paint Tool and the Decal Tool have been added as separate assets
Art for cursor hover highlights in Spaceship Designer toolbox and toolbar icons have been created
Cable and pipe duct inventory icons have been created
Station Permission icons have been created for the following:
- Safe Zone Access
- Ship Registration Permission
- Auto-build Permission
- Permission for building with ready-built parts
- Free-form Building Permission
Spaceship Registration Deed model and textures have been created
Further adjustments have been made to Tripod Autocannon VFX
New Plasma Thruster damage effect has been created
Work on Missile and Torpedo thruster VFX continues
Updates and optimizations have been made for Plasma Rifle Hit and Reload VFX