StarMade Changelog

What's new in StarMade 0.201.200

Oct 29, 2018
  • Since the weapon update there have been a lot of smaller updates along the way which fixed several issues and added smaller features. For this one, we wanted to make a seperate release announcement for some bigger features as well as more bug fixes.
  • Entity Sidebar:
  • You now have have another tab on the left side of your advanced build mode. This can be used for quickly building up and managing a ship. It has all the previously missing information for weapons and other modules. There is a quick overview of what blocks you need and how many you have for each ship system. The build button will automatically put the block in your hotbar and select it to build. You can also choose to add blocks for an existing weapon, which selects the computer and puts the module into your hotbar.
  • In the future, this mode is going to be enhanced to be a non-intrusive tutorial for new players. When placing a ship core the buttons will light up to lead the players on what modules to build and how to build them. This eliminates the need to watch lengthy non-interactive videos or having to check on the wiki.
  • Build Mode Camera Drones:
  • A long requested feature. Players can now be seen when in build mode. They will each fly in a small camera drone (made by Saber). These drones can also be seen if watching outside of build mode.
  • The drones come equipped with a flashlight (toggles on ‘P’ by default or in the display setting in adv. Build mode), as well as the option to display the name of the player below the drone.
  • Adjustable Cockpit view:
  • Another long requested feature. It is now possible to adjust the view of your cockpit blocks individually. Just press ‘P’ while in a cockpit in flight mode to unlock the camera and freely move it. Press ‘P’ again to lock the new view in place. This mode is fully persistent, meaning it will not only save between sessions and apply for other players that fly your ship, it will also save within the blueprint.
  • Keep in mind that this mode is currently still a bit experimental, as there are some minor issues and more features coming for this. One of those features will be delayed camera movement to make flying a lot more fun all around, as well as HUD updates. There will be fixes to handle differently orientated cockpit blocks better as well as other fixes for the “aim at” check.
  • Block Editor Model Tab:
  • The block editor has been cleaned up to make block editing a lot faster and easier.
  • An all new tab has been added for the Block Editor. This tab contains all information and management for the models in the game. This will speed up development and integration of models considerably in the future, especially for the universe update.
  • Textures:
  • Kupu completed specular mapping, made a unique texture for the Area Trigger and the Cargo Space, Green Forcefield, as well as the Green Cascade deco block.
  • Logic Changes:
  • Logic will now only transmit the end state of the blocks. Fast logic clocks caused over 500 state changes per update, which was not only a performance drain but also bandwidth.
  • To compensate for the necessity of having fast clocks, modules now stay active when a logic block is connected that was switched to active. Currently the activity will reset if the entity unloads, in which case the logic block would have to be turned off and on again. Persistence for that will be added in the next update.
  • Pin AI Targets:
  • Pilots can now specify (pin) targets for AI targeting. When having a target selected, press ‘x’ in flight mode to specify this target for AI fire, while the pilot can select a different entity.
  • Bugfixes:
  • The more important bugfixes will be listed first.
  • Possible Fix for missing/reverted chunks:
  • This bug seems to be finally fixed (can’t call it 100% fixed yet without long term experience on production, since we had no way of reproducing it). The bug was possibly caused by save events marking chunks as not validated on the server, but at the same time not queuing them for validation cause of another event at the same time. This caused those chunks to not be saved in that session.
  • Fixed all crashes due to malformed translation Strings
  • If there was an error in a translation string format (e.g. using malformed arguments), the game would previously crash. These bugs would be fairly hard to track down since they would only happen in that specific language. The system has now been updated to compensate for those bugs and automatically replace the string with an error.
  • Fixed pirate/tg spawning when attacking a station
  • Fix for missing Area Trigger icon, + icons for new blocks.
  • Custom texture for cargo block in build mode
  • Fix for cargo draw issues (on transparent blocks)
  • Torch beam damage upped from 1 to 4
  • Fixed nullpointer on UI when active reactor changes
  • Fixed bug that would prevent newly spawned planets and asteroids from being saved when edited (existing ones had no problem).
  • Removed popup when opening storage
  • Added more info in the build mode entity info
  • Temporary shield disable now affects whole structure incl. all docks, instead of just the entity it was triggered on.
  • Fixed crash after setting the "Pull up to" value of Cargo to 0.
  • Turn rate config values exposed and explained in blockBehaviorConfig
  • Fixed custom block texture handling
  • Fixes map drawing
  • Fixes crash when changing certain graphics settings ingame.
  • Fixes shield message spam
  • Fixed client crash when shipyard anchor was removed when a design was loaded

New in StarMade 0.201.142 (Aug 20, 2018)

  • Added [shieldPercent] to display module:
  • Player is now being notified when shield recharge is negative due to shield upkeep
  • Full chamber tree can now be opened with a double click on the chamber icon/tab
  • Fixed that beams would in rare situations still do one tick of damage through shields
  • New and fixed admin commands:
  • ​Fixed /player_get_inventory
  • Fixed /blueprint_set_owner
  • Fixed /player_get_block_amount
  • Renamed /list_ships to /list_blueprints
  • Added /list_blueprints_by_owner [owner],
  • Added /list_blueprints_verbose with extra info and /list_blueprints_by_owner_verbose [owner]
  • Added owner, total(incl childs) block count and total(incl childs) dimension to /blueprint_info
  • Added /destroy_uid_only_docked
  • Added /player_suspend_faction and /player_unsuspend_faction to temporarily remove a player from a faction and put them back with the same settings afterwards
  • Added additional info to /list_factions
  • Added /player_set_spawn_to [name] [secX] [secY] [secZ] [localX] [localY] [localZ] to set a respawn point for a player to any position in the universe
  • Added /player_get_spawn [name] returns the absolute or relative spawn point(when spawning on a ship)
  • Added /put_player_into_entity_uid [name] [UID] and fixed other issues surrounding automatic entity attachment and detachment
  • ​fixed language bug in german language causing the default server.cfg to not parse correctly

New in StarMade 0.201.138 (Aug 6, 2018)

  • FIXED: Sniper Rifle did damage through shield
  • FIXED: No missile damage
  • Shader fixes
  • Beam damage changes and fixes (more to come)
  • Repair beam fixes

New in StarMade 0.201.133 (Aug 1, 2018)

  • FIXED: Frambuffer init failure results in crash
  • FIXED: torch did not ignore shields
  • FIXED: Shield bubble drawing on docked entities is confusing
  • IMPLEMENT: mine ammo for all mines (delayed removal after depletion)
  • FIXED: arming mines with right click not functional
  • FIXED: logic controlled modules on client
  • IMPLEMENT: variable amounts of logfiles capability (settings.cfg)
  • FIXED: mine strength not calculated correctly
  • FIXED: rail docker not usable after combat
  • FIXED: repair beam should not be working on asteroids
  • FIXED: shops being damaged​
  • New AdminCommands:
  • clear_overheating_sector x y z (clear overheating entities in a loaded sector)
  • structure_set_vulnerable_uid
  • structure_set_minable_uid
  • faction_set_entity_rank rank: set faction rank (numeral -2=unset, -1=personal, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4=founder) to an entity
  • faction_set_entity_rank_uid
  • player_get_inventory player: lists a player's inventory
  • player_get_block_amount player type: lists amount of blocks a player has of a block type

New in StarMade 0.200.315 (Jan 22, 2018)

  • Some entites weren't loading right or would disappear (they will reappear in this version)
  • Thruster integrity now displayed in the build mode statistics in the top left
  • Fail-Safe for old hp when switching from old to new power back. Ships should no longer accidnetially overheat
  • Stabilizer energy stream radius halved. We are looking into options for the weapons update

New in StarMade 0.200.269 Pre-Release (Dec 29, 2017)

  • Stabilization Efficiency:
  • The first change is how stabilization affects your reactor power generation to make it a lot more dynamic by introducing more risk-reward for building in a certain way, and to make the stabilizer distance curve less of an obstruction.
  • Players are now able to get full power regeneration at a low level of stabilization, currently set at only 25%. This allows you to get much more raw power which directly translates into more firepower, more mobility and functionality.
  • Essentially this means, you can build the same amount of stabilizers either 75% closer, or 75% smaller at optimal distance without any power penalty.
  • However, there will be negative effects in place to make you consider getting more stabilization than the bare minimum, besides not running into a power reduction as soon as you drop below 25% in combat.
  • We’re still working on these negative effects, but each effect would be limited to a phase between a minimum and maximum % stabilization for each.
  • Possible effects include extra damage to systems, explosions, or up to direct reactor damage upon any hit.
  • All of this will be available in the blockBehaviorConfig. If you have any ideas for possible effects, feel free to share!
  • Energy Stream:
  • Any stabilizer group and its active reactor now gets a non physical beam that connects the two groups together. This beam is automatically created and can be redirected through energy stream nodes. A node is a simple block that will be used as a waypoint for the beam to find its stabilization group. They can be made into a path by connecting them into a chain. The start and end point of this stream will always be the active reactor and a group of stabilizers.
  • Here are two energy streams, each connected to their stabilizer group. The width of the stream depends on the reactor size, but is distributed over the stabilizer group sizes.
  • This stream, while non physical, can still be hit by weaponry. Any damage dealt to the stream will instead be redirected to your reactor power generation in some way.
  • In the current build, it simply disables your power regeneration for a few seconds for testing purposes, but this mechanic will be changed to a more dynamic mechanic. A reasonable one would to have the damage to the stream, apply damage to its stabilization group instead. It is very easy to hit if exposed, as you can "cut" through it with a beam.
  • The main purpose of this stream is to emphasize on the stabilizer-reactor relationship. Block conduits between reactors have been ruled out before not only for performance and scalability reasons, but also for the possibly difficulty in maintaining them. We were looking for a system that would incerease the role of the stabilizer-reactor relationship, while not being too bothersome to maintain, too complicated, abusable, or imperformant. Since the energy beam is generated and its effects visible it should be a natural progress for the player to undertstand its mechanics. It is also versatile enough to allow for a lot of ways to balance, as that would also be very hard with block conduits.
  • Group integrity creates the decision to either make denser stabilization groups or suffer from extra block damage if hit. It also results in a long and wide stream, making it easier to damage this particular group by hitting the stream.
  • This mechanic should encourage to make more than just one stabilization group, and in different locations to prevent the same hit from damaging multiple streams. It also makes any “island” ship pretty much impossible to fully protect as now there is also a visually exposed stream to target. You would need to visually hide this stream and try to protect it as best you can.
  • We also hope that these changes will make other shapes more interesting for ship building. An example would be a ring of stabilizers around your reactor to minimize the energy stream. However that doesn't have any inherit advantage, since the ship is still as vulnerable as other ships, maybe even more so. A line ship might be an efficient shape, but a dangerous choice as any breach in that line exposing the single energy stream might lead to its downfall.

New in StarMade 0.199.651 (Jul 31, 2017)

  • T2513: Old exploit fixed
  • T2510: OSX OpenGL crash
  • T2507: Connections and statistics not showing correctly - client issue that was always there, but became a lot more common because of the improved speed with chunk requesting.
  • T2500: Sorting in Main Menu Local Play Adv. Settings is by tooltip
  • T2498: Unable to lock symmetry plane in place with empty hotbar slot
  • T2495: false positive for “is waiting for docks” | “still needs entities to dock on it”
  • Fix for infinite stock shops

New in StarMade 0.199.646 (Jul 19, 2017)

  • Features:
  • Segment requester:
  • As mentioned in a previous dev blog, we’ve completely rewritten the chunk request system.
  • The new approach streamlines the order of chunk requests over multiple entities. They’re now ordered in the background on a global level, meaning nearby chunks will have much shorter load times. This also benefits the lighting calculations, which should improve overall performance.
  • Outline:
  • A new graphical effects that outlines/highlights entire entities or groups. Right now we only use it for the current selected target and for most C + V systems out there. Most likely we’ll integrate this system later with the upcoming power changes and its information warfare portion.
  • The outline system uses a highly optimized mesh that can quickly be generated for any number of blocks. Although this system is not able to replace the existing mesh and chunk system due to lacking information, they’re still a necessity for future plans as they would also be used in far-aways LoD views of a model. In combination with higher-granularity chunk system, should give a large FPS increase when viewing bigger objects in the distance.
  • Note: framebuffer has to be enabled in your graphic options as it would not work properly otherwise. We’ve added the option where you can enable/disable the older purple box from within the build mode Display menu.
  • Build Mode:
  • Line Tool:
  • This is an addition to the build helpers. You set two points (using your camera position, as with the fill tool) and it will create a line between them. You can adapt the line thickness with a slider.
  • We’ll add more features in the future, such as splines.
  • As with the new GUI, this is also a work-in-progress, so we’ll be improving it and fixing any issues that arise.
  • Fill Tool:
  • The fill tool allows you to incrementally fill (or replace) areas with your desired block. It’s quite simple to use: you can freely select your starting point with the camera (similar to ‘create docking’), and press the fill button with a block selected on your hotbar.
  • The fill tool allows both space-filling and block-replacing, depending on what the starting point is. If it’s empty space, the tool will flood-fill; if it’s a block, only that block type will be replaced. Also: this is a step-based system, meaning undo and redo work, allowing you to easily fix any mistakes.
  • You can use the slider to set the amount of blocks added by step. The max amount can be changed in the config.
  • Different method of selecting:
  • With adding the line tool, we added a new way to select portions of blocks altogether. It is now possible to select boxes by selecting the starting and the end point. This comes in especially useful for copy & paste which in the past always was a bit finicky to use.
  • UI improvements:
  • Besides the new look, we’ve changed quite a lot of the original’s build mode functionality. We’ve grouped the available tools together accordingly and those groups can be collapsed or expanded when needed. When the expanded areas become too large, it becomes scrollable. However, the orientation group with the undo/redo buttons however is fixed at the top so that you never lose track of it.
  • Which group is expanded or closed is saved on exit and restored next session.
  • The orientation group at the top also functions as a radial menu for shape selection, simply left click it and hold to make it popup.
  • The sliders have received a makeover, now allowing more ways for you to change their value. Their value can now be entered manually by left clicking the value on the left side and functions like a text box only allowing numeric input.
  • If you have a mouse wheel, you can also change the slider’s value by hovering your mouse over the textbox on the left and scrolling up or down, allowing for quick adjustments.
  • The build helpers have also gotten a general overhaul. We got rid of the annoying popup dialogs, so everything can be set or changed directly from the build mode panel itself. This also allows you to recalculate a build helper’s parameters without having to redo everything. You can also change the placement of the build helper
  • The placement of the build helper can also be moved independently without having to clear the current build helper.
  • Symmetry planes now have their individual odd-mode, allowing you to work with an off-center XZ plane but a centered YZ plane at the same time for example.
  • Symmetry received another option to disable/enable the mirroring of non-cubic blocks such as wedges. This also works with the replace filter.
  • We’ve also added tooltip support to the build mode panel. It’s not used that much right now but later we can add some nice descriptions to some of the tools if needed.
  • Additionally we added “sticky advanced build mode” by pressing the advanced build mode key twice rapidly, which allows you to keep advanced build mode active without having to hold the key. Pressing the key once more gets it back to normal.
  • A Block picker function, to look at a block and add that to your hotbar is in the game too now, you use it by holding the advanced build mode button and clicking with your middle mouse button.
  • If you use the middle mouse button in normal build mode, it gives you the ability to automatically switch to any of your docked ship you’re looking at.
  • Load/Unload Rail:
  • We’ve added two new blocks to the game: the “Rail Load” block and the “Rail Unload” block. (We’re still working on their textures)
  • You can place them anywhere, and they work identically to normal rails, but they have an added feature: item transfer. These blocks allow transferring items between connected storages on a station and a docked ship via the Load/Unload Rail. Example:
  • You connect a storage to your rail docker on a ship, and dock it to a Load Rail on a station. The ship is then able to pull items from any storage on the station connected to that Load Rail.
  • If you instead dock the ship to a Rail Unload block, the station may then pull items from the ship’s connected storage to any storages connected to that Rail Unload block.
  • Again, both docker and rail need active connected storages. Also, the station will only pull items if it has permission to do so!
  • The full changelog can be found herE: http://www.star-made.org/news/starmade-v0-199-646-build-mode

New in StarMade 0.199.535 (Apr 25, 2017)

  • Fleets/ships losing entities:
  • After many iterations and tries, this error seems finally fixed. The main problem was a faulty database query when a fleet changed sector. It was supposed to bring all of their dock with it, but due to the bug only brought some of them. To catch this bug we implemented debug functions, so that fleets would be able to monitor themselves patrolling between sectors.
  • There is one leftover issue which is catched by a fallback method, and therefore doesn’t affect the game at all. It will just notify the admins with a small popup to send in the logs, since using a fallback isn’t the cleanest way solve this left over.
  • Thanks to all the testers and helpers on this bug! You really helped a lot finally squashing this pesky bug.
  • Collision solving for lagging sectors:
  • Server has a lot of problems when there were a lot of bad spawns caused by either a bug or intentional griefing. It goes so far that some servers has scripts to detect those sectors and despawn objects.
  • It comes down to that when multiple physical objects were in the same space, the physics would slow down the whole server. In the past this could happen with fleets spawning or asteroids in rare cases. These issues have been fixed. However, should it still happen, the game has now its own detection system, automatically warping objects to a save closest position after the sector was detected to lag from that object causing too much physics lag.
  • Rail logic switching:
  • Switching rails through logic interaction seemingly worked well but block data was not properly refreshed. You would end up with ghost connections and depending on building, could create an invalid link. A safety check done by the game would prevent any rail working on that entity because of it. This would most likely explain why quite a few rails stop working.
  • Rolling Ships:
  • Rolling ships has been significantly improved. By redesigning the algorithm used, rolling while looking around now feels a lot more natural and doesn’t do these strange figure eights anymore.
  • OSX Fixes:
  • We apologize for taking a bit longer to fix some of the more pressing OSX issues. Macs can finally use framebuffer and advanced graphics functions to speed up the game using the optimizations that come with that. Also some crashes with videos and some text input issues have been fixed.
  • If you find more problems that are OSX related, please report them and we will try to fix them for the next release.
  • Exploits:
  • We fixed a number of exploits. Thanks to all the players reporting them.
  • One of the more difficult things was implementing a system that would check connection validity without affecting performance, because it would be horrible to check every block that has a connection. The system we came up with distributes the load to check connections over time. It also only checks when the numbers “don’t check out”.
  • Optimization:
  • The drawing for display blocks has been significantly improved
  • Logic activation sending has been improved significantly, reducing bandwidth and improving performance
  • Features:
  • Fleets can now cloak
  • Fleets can now radar jam
  • Bobby AI can now be activated via logic
  • Size Restriction via GameConfig.xml
  • Admins can now restrict the ship and station size per entity they want to allow on their server. The exact syntax has been added to /data/config/GameConfigDefault.xml
  • Also there is a general size restriction in the server.cfg now. RESTRICT_BUILDING_SIZE will restrict building size to multiples of sector size. The value in the GameConfig.xml has priority if set.
  • List of Bugs fixed:
  • Private issues are exploits or issues that, if known to the public, would cause a lot of harm.
  • Even though we fixed them, knowing the steps to reproduce could give you ideas on finding a way to bypass the fix and still abuse it, for that reason we do not share.
  • T2349 (Private): Grouping issue
  • T2139 (Private): Power and shield drain issue
  • T2138 (Private): Player max build area not working properly
  • T1969 (Private): Performance issues with logic
  • T1963 (Private): Missile and AI targeting issue
  • T1931 (Private): Shop module crash
  • T1851 (Private): Transporters and grapple beam issue
  • T1828 (Private): Jumpdrive/inhibitor charge issue
  • T1823 (Private): Bounding box issue
  • T1627 (Private): Performance issues with logic
  • T1602 (Private): Linking update issue
  • T1575 (Private): Undo issue
  • T1570 (Private): Ion issue
  • T1558 (Private): Crash when enabling shadows
  • T1299 (Private): Rail logic switching issue
  • T1227 (Private): Collision issue
  • T1145 (Private): Derelict stations issue
  • T1080 (Private): Faction protection removal issue
  • T1050 (Private): Docking issue
  • T1023 (Private): System claiming issue
  • T941 (Private): Docking issue
  • T895 (Private): Faction rank permission issue
  • T840 (Private): Asteroid respawning issue
  • T823 (Private): Another Ion issue
  • T659 (Private): Logic issue
  • T654 (Private): Warhead issue
  • T643 (Private): C+V linking issue
  • T512 (Private): Design issue
  • T2353: Sector Import fails to load ships docked to planet plates/asteroids
  • T2352: (Prebuild only) Shipyards causing disconnect and class cast exceptions
  • T2347: Caps-lock mouse interaction on OSX
  • T2339: /load_as_faction crashes server
  • T2333: Nullpointer being spammed in server console
  • T2309: /destroy_uid_docked command not working properly
  • T2294: Gold, silver and bronze bar icons missing
  • T2291: Autofill “ingame player name” from launcher
  • T2289: Make Bobby AI activation logic controllable
  • T2278: Cannot dock here
  • T2273: Adjust starter equipment for the new block selection method
  • T2270: Server deadlock, unknown cause
  • T2267: Server crash related to physics, and meta objects
  • T2252: Registry has a max password length of 128 characters but not stated anywhere
  • T2249: Flip flops not working properly
  • T2246: Torch cannot destroy faction module
  • T2214: Navigation menu mass of docks is always 0.1 and 0.0 for stations/planet plates
  • T2181: Nullpointer with processErrorDialogException
  • T2150: Radar jammer and cloak stay active on exiting core for fleet ships
  • T2140: Display module performance issues
  • T2118: Add dimensional limits to game config
  • T2101: Rail detection with rotators and set rotation broken
  • T2100: Sell available and price updates at the wrong time
  • T2099: Place order edit button is switched around
  • T2094: Fleets losing docked entities
  • T2044: /despawn command with fleet entities fails
  • T2009: Derelict stations get false positive removal for “ship only blocks”
  • T2004: Crash when attempting to access online play without internet connection
  • T1995: Importing sector fails with ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
  • T1980: Cargo spaces can be reused by multiple storages
  • T1957: C+V Rail detection doesn’t send false signals
  • T1776: Converted blueprints have undocked entities as response fleet
  • T1678: Uplink doesn’t save for OSX
  • T1664: Loading sector causes mass timeouts with colliding asteroids
  • T1658: Shop price not set without ownership doesn’t allow moving blocks in between
  • T1639: Nullpointer with joystick connected
  • T1616: ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException with missiles or effects
  • T1553: Error handling for version mismatch and missing uplink insufficient
  • T1525: ffmpeg causing crash for OSX
  • T1510: Nullpointer in character file
  • T1466: Frame buffer capabilities not detected for OSX
  • T1465: Nullpointer with projectiles, causing invisible beams
  • T1422: NaN illegal comparison with shootout rail
  • T1384: Nullpointer when charging shields
  • T1337: Wedge blast door texture reversed
  • T1318: Spawning ships with same names as formerly existing one may lack docked entities
  • T1282: Creative mode doesn’t allow dropping specific block quantities
  • T1257: Incomplete build mode undo/redo
  • T1004: New unchanged stations turn into red hull blocks
  • T990: Rolling not working properly
  • T684: Shop permission resets when server restarts
  • T524: Weapons hitting deeper inside your ship
  • T428: Not staying attached to ship when logging out
  • T355: AHP and SHP is capped
  • T325: Asteroids can spawn in solid entities
  • T252: Startup crash with custom Windows theme
  • T25: C+V Linking memory leak

New in StarMade 0.199.491 (Mar 31, 2017)

  • Optimizations and New Features resulting from bug fixing:
  • Considerable improvement of network load sending logic activations, and improving overall performance of logic
  • Optimization of display blocks, making their drawing speed multiple times faster
  • Fleet Commands now include cloaking and jamming
  • Bobby AI can now be activated via logic
  • GameConfig can now include size restrictions on ships and stations to add more customization for servers. This also includes blueprint spawning.
  • T2139 (Private): Power and shield drain issue
  • T2138 (Private): Player max build area not working properly
  • T1969 (Private): Performance issues with logic
  • T1931 (Private): Shop module crash
  • T1828 (Private): Jumpdrive/inhibitor charge issue
  • T1823 (Private): Bounding box issue
  • T1627 (Private): Performance issues with logic
  • T1570 (Private): Ion issue
  • T1558 (Private): Crash when enabling shadows
  • T1299 (Private): Rail logic switching issue
  • T1145 (Private): Derelict stations issue
  • T1050 (Private): Docking issue
  • T1023 (Private): System claiming issue
  • T941 (Private): Docking issue
  • T840 (Private): Asteroid respawning issue
  • T823 (Private): Ion issue
  • T659 (Private): Logic issue
  • T654 (Private): Warhead issue
  • T643 (Private): C+V linking issue
  • T512 (Private): Design issue
  • T2289: Make Bobby AI activation logic controllable
  • T2273: Adjust starter equipment for the new block selection method
  • T2270: Server deadlock, unknown cause
  • T2267: Server crash related to physics, and meta objects
  • T2252: Registry has a max password length of 128 characters but not stated anywhere
  • T2246: Torch cannot destroy faction module
  • T2181: Nullpointer with processErrorDialogException
  • T2140: Display module performance issues
  • T2100: Sell available and price updates at the wrong time
  • T2009: Derelict stations get false positive removal for “ship only blocks”
  • T2004: Crash when attempting to access online play without internet connection
  • T1995: Importing sector fails with ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
  • T1980: Cargo spaces can be reused by multiple storages
  • T1957: C+V Rail detection doesn’t send false signals
  • T1776: Converted blueprints have undocked entities as response fleet
  • T1678: Uplink doesn’t save for OSX
  • T1639: Nullpointer with joystick connected
  • T1616: ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException with missiles or effects
  • T1525: ffmpeg causing crash for OSX
  • T1510: Nullpointer in character file
  • T1466: Frame buffer capabilities not detected for OSX
  • T1465: Nullpointer with projectiles, causing invisible beams
  • T1422: NaN illegal comparison with shootout rail
  • T1384: Nullpointer when charging shields
  • T1337: Wedge blast door texture reversed
  • T1318: Spawning ships with same names as formerly existing one may lack docked entities
  • T1257: Incomplete build mode undo/redo
  • T990: Rolling not working properly
  • T524: Weapons hitting deeper inside your ship
  • T428: Not staying attached to ship when logging out
  • T355: AHP and SHP is capped
  • T325: Asteroids can spawn in solid entities
  • T252: Startup crash with custom Windows theme
  • T25: C+V Linking memory leak
  • partially fixed so far:
  • T1963 (Private): Missile and AI targeting issue
  • T1851 (Private): Transporters and grapple beam issue
  • T1602 (Private): Linking update issue
  • T1575 (Private): Undo issue
  • T1227 (Private): Collision issue
  • T1080 (Private): Faction protection removal issue
  • T895 (Private): Faction rank permission issue
  • T2291: Autofill “ingame player name” from launcher
  • T2278: Cannot dock here
  • T2150: Radar jammer and cloak stay active on exiting core for fleet ships
  • T2118: Add dimensional limits to game config
  • T2101: Rail detection with rotators and set rotation broken
  • T2044: /despawn command with fleet entities fails
  • T1664: Loading sector causes mass timeouts with colliding asteroids
  • T1553: Error handling for version mismatch and missing uplink insufficient
  • T1282: Creative mode doesn’t allow dropping specific block quantities
  • T1004: New unchanged stations turn into red hull blocks
  • T684: Shop permission resets when server restarts
  • Areas to focus on:
  • Faction signature inheritance and protection
  • Building including all advanced build mode tools
  • Logic
  • Rails
  • Weapons and their offensive/defensive effects
  • Shipyards and cargo
  • Shops

New in StarMade 0.199.472 (Mar 8, 2017)

  • Fixed old (chunk16) blueprints not being usable in chunk32
  • Fixed bug where all rails would stop moving on a ship
  • possible fix for servers that have chunk errors (to admins that have a server with this problem: please turn on DEBUG_EMPTY_CHUNK_WRITES in the server.cfg for more logging should the error still happen)

New in StarMade 0.199.464 (Feb 27, 2017)

  • In this release we’re making good on our earlier promises of performance improvements and updating some of the existing systems, focusing on combat.
  • Huge swarms of missiles no longer cripple servers, nor cause disconnects or “rubber banding.” This should also help with balancing, as users can no longer disconnect their opponents with ridiculous numbers of missiles.
  • Cannon projectile hits now require considerably less processing than before. As an example of just how large of an improvement this is: a shot penetrating through hundreds of blocks previously caused a half-second freeze, give or take. The processing from this same shot now takes 5 milliseconds -- barely even noticeable.
  • We hope these two major optimizations make combat much more enjoyable.
  • Missile Performance Update:
  • We developed an algorithm that is capable of handling any amount of missiles without adding extra network load. It is based on a lock step algorithm plus adaptive updating. This enables missile paths to become deterministic, even when chasing a moving target, and when that target is not in the same position for server and client, e.g. due to network delay.
  • With the previous system, 500-1000 missiles would generate a half-megabyte per second load (or more). With the new system, not only is the initial burst of data when firing much smaller, even a cluster of a thousand or more missiles only require a few bytes per second while flying.
  • Even the smaller servers should be able to easily handle 2000+ missiles flying at once without causing slowdown.
  • We will look into faster rendering and explosion calculations in the future.
  • Projectile Performance Update:
  • We’ve also made some major optimizations for projectiles (cannon fire). Projectiles’ penetration always caused major lag on both client and server, which restricted our ability to balance the weapon system.
  • The new system uses a much leaner and more straightforward method to handle projectile penetration. We’ve offloaded some of the effort into threads, such as bounding box recalculations (which, since the box only gets smaller in this case, isn’t needed right away). Not only does cannon fire process literally hundreds of times faster now, it is also more accurate in terms of damage done. In addition, not having restrictions due to performance will help us balance weapons a lot better in the future.
  • The simultaneous destruction of large numbers of blocks still creates network load, but we have plans to reduce this.
  • Power Overhaul Thread:
  • We would like to thank everyone that has provided constructive criticism. Thanks to you, we’ve already made some major (positive!) changes to our proposed design, and eliminated some of its shortcomings.
  • We will still need a few days to present our plans in as clear a manner as possible so there’s no misunderstanding. We’ll write a more informative post about this soon.
  • As for implementation:
  • Granted we can remedy the flaws the community points out, we will make the new power system available via an opt-in config option during its development. When (and if) it is ready for release, we’ll aim for a transition phase similar to the release of rails, wherein both versions are available simultaneously (though this may not be possible).
  • (If there are irreparable issues with the power system, we obviously will not implement it.)
  • A few minor bug fixes:
  • T235: Overridden blueprints show wrong mass
  • T2234: Galaxy map stops reading scroll wheel inputs
  • T2180: Placing wrong block when swapped on the hotbar with another

New in StarMade 0.199.435 (Feb 6, 2017)

  • Fixed some blocks not being consumed in blueprints

New in StarMade 0.199.434 (Feb 2, 2017)

  • fixed macet ore not spawning

New in StarMade 0.199.433 (Feb 1, 2017)

  • Fixed problem with blueprints and worlds that weren't converted to chunk32 yet (For broken blueprints please use the automatically made backups to have them converted in this fixed version)
  • Fixed double typing problem on macs
  • Fixed Beams not being able to hit objects in other sectors

New in StarMade 0.199.429 (Jan 30, 2017)

  • Fixed old tempaltes being broken
  • Fixed door wedges being misaligned
  • Fixed Radial menu popping up when it shouldn't
  • Added default shape stickies
  • Fixed IME letter input not being registered
  • Fixed functionality to press keyboard numbers reapeatedly to select subslots

New in StarMade 0.199.402 (Jan 16, 2017)

  • Texture fixes/adjustments:
  • Texture coordiate fixes (rotation fixes): All blocks should now be correct.
  • CPU Top Faces: are now all the same and correctly orientated.
  • Overdrive + Pierce modules: Assignments fixed to display unique textures for each. Texture colour difference increased to help differentiate.
  • Gravity Module: Sides point to the right direction.
  • Activation Gate: Fixed non mirroring wires on the unique face.
  • Gold / Silver / Bronze bars: Reinstated after mistaken removal.
  • Pick up point: Alignment (partial fix - rotation when activated doesn't work with non symmetrical texture. requires minor redesign).
  • Red force fields: A little less glowy.
  • Thruster: Heat haze / wobble removed from the thruster ring. (Based on community feedback).
  • Blast Door: Reduced damage on texture, altered contrast and saturation. (Based on community feedback).
  • Build Block: Reduced damage and worn look on texture. (Based on community feedback).
  • Bloom: Slightly more performant.
  • Lens flare (Bloom mode): Changed so the sprites don't distort to screen resolution ratio + Improved sprites.
  • Lens dirt: New, improved lens dirt texture (subtle), the texture should no longer multiply sun brightness (as much).
  • Pixel Pack: Now updated for new layouts (possibly not 100% bug free)
  • To report more texture related bugs we may have missed, feel free to post it in Kupu’s thread: https://starmadedock.net/threads/kupus-thread.839/
  • Other Fixes:
  • T2125 Sensor does not compare right values for Thrust (now uses max ship speed
  • T2128 Armor HP bonus adds extra structure HP damage
  • horizontal divider in trade menu fixed
  • fix for a rare issue involving diplomacy messages (could crash server)
  • dynamic prices also work now for (raw) ores and (raw) shards
  • There is now also an additional modifier for dynamic prices that increases the price of a block’s basic resources, that way the more complicated blocks will end up a bit more expensive to promote trading a bit.
  • Set it to 1.0 to keep previous dynamic prices:
  • DYNAMIC_RECIPE_PRICES_MODIFIER in server.cfg

New in StarMade 0.199.357 (Jan 3, 2017)

  • Texture Update:
  • We’ve been working on an overhaul of our default textures for some time now, and this release implements the first and largest portion of that overhaul with all-new ship and structure textures.
  • Taking advantage of recent lighting improvements, these new textures provide better material definition, allowing glossy metals and matte plastics, and removing highlights where light should be occluded.
  • Please note all screenshots below are all using the Linear Mag Filtering (Block) setting, at 256 resolution, with normal maps enabled.
  • Visual Logic changes:
  • Logic blocks that do not emit a high or low signal themselves are now green colour-coded. For example, a Sensor or Area Trigger block will no longer be blue, potentially confusing the player that it is emitting a High state.
  • The Pick-up Point rail block now has an OFF state texture when toggled with an activator.
  • The logic pipes are a little less glossy, and a little more in line with the rest of the universe.
  • Miscellaneous changes:
  • Animations given to some decorative screens, water, etc. with more to come.
  • More blocks now make use of emissive textures, making those darker areas a little more exciting!
  • Fixed visual rotation errors. e.g. computers will now rotate correctly.
  • Water is now non-physical.
  • Lighting on 3D model objects is now a little more accurate.
  • New hotbar cursor, allowing better clarity when hovering over charged and charging systems. (Shoutout to Valck for finding this better solution in his mod).
  • Almost all artificially lit bevels within the textures have been removed, improving the illusion of cohesive lighting when rotated.
  • What don’t we get:
  • This update does not include terrain, flora, resources or capsule art.
  • Those will all be coming at a later date, as we still continue to refine the assets and implementation.
  • There is a known issue of block shapes being harder to see in this icon set. It will be amended asap.
  • Shader Updates:
  • New, softer bloomed suns.
  • New lens flare. Less lens glare.
  • Removed big Lens dirt.
  • Added smaller Lens dirt.
  • Cleaned up Display Modules a for extra clarity: the scan lines reduced in strength, the flicker removed, and colour brightened to fit better with surrounding screens and lights.
  • Patterns within the procedural backgrounds are now “softer.”
  • Please note unless Procedural Backgrounds and Bloom are enabled, you won’t see the changes to the backgrounds or stars mentioned here.
  • Asteroids:
  • Reworked the asteroid resource placement system and fixing a bug causing inconsistent placement since the chunk32 update. A part of that was already in the previous update but wasn’t mentioned in the news update.
  • In the server config, there are 2 new asteroid related values:
  • Asteroid resource chance
  • Asteroid resource size
  • This new system also adds the ability to generate more exciting features on asteroids in the future! Ruins and debris, anyone?
  • Extra Language Entries:
  • We’ve found ~250 missing strings for translation, which we have added into this update. We expect there are still quite a few stray strings out there, which will take a while to locate. You can help out by reporting missing strings to our bug tracker phab.starma.de . We aim to have all missing strings included in the next update, ready for translation.
  • Bugfixes:
  • We’ve added some minor bugfixes during the holidays
  • T2106 NPC Faction Descriptions contain typos
  • T2105 Faction window "tab" area font is too large
  • T2103 Faction expansion takes the wrong systems
  • T2098 Fleet location broadcasted to clients on login
  • T2093 No pickup text when picking up credits
  • T1945 Flight mode minimap shows radar icons for radar jammed entities
  • T1895 invert hotbar scrolling direction (Council)
  • T1796 Close button of build mode info panel does nothing
  • T1734 display cursor coordinates in build mode (Council)
  • T1715 Username is erased after hitting enter/tab on username in online play
  • T1567 Crash on startup - /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.8' not found
  • T1394 Missile-Lock animation played after no longer selecting Lock on Missile
  • T1355 Mouse Option "Flip through hotbars... Without Control" incorrect
  • T905 Incorrect shield power consumption display values
  • T68 Incorrect texture face orientation

New in StarMade 0.199.351 (Dec 22, 2016)

  • Fixed issue of blocked being spawned in space when deconstructing ship in shipyard.

New in StarMade 0.199.349 (Dec 19, 2016)

  • NPC Factions:
  • As mentioned in previous Dev Blogs, this update doesn’t require a universe reset and instead adds the NPC factions to all your existing universes without touching player created content.
  • Each comes with its own config and blueprints. The config defines their basic behavior out of all those variables. Factions are dynamic in their block demand and they adjust their trading, expansion and production to that. If a particular block is more used than others, it will be produced and traded more, even the blocks needed to make this block will have a larger demand because of that.
  • Other than what they have set in their config, demand and supply will also determine their expansion rate. They need to be able to build a certain amount of ships and stations before they can take more territory but they also need the same blocks to maintain what they already have. If they can’t, they’ll have to give away territory.
  • Keep in mind that most stations used by these factions aren't ready yet for release and they're using temporary placeholders.
  • Trading:
  • Based on their configuration and available blueprints, NPC factions will develop a demand for specific resources and blocks. Not only will they adapt their prices dynamically for that, they will also automatically trade with any trade node (human or NPC).
  • This means that there is now an actual economy in the game. However, the old stick shops are still there for now. They will change into trade node access hubs when we release the update that requires a universe reset.
  • They will select the trades they deem to be the best in terms of value. So if you will have a better chance to be traded with , you’ll have to make some good offers.
  • There have been also countless bugs fixed for the trading system in general which will make it a much smoother experience.
  • Physical Trade Fleets:
  • Possibly one of the coolest features in this update is that NPC trading fleets are fully physical. That means, they will have all the blocks used in a trade loaded onto them and you can actually intercept and raid them.
  • Trades initiated by a player will still use the non physical simulation until we made sure the system fully works and isn’t exploitable, so any problem with the physical trade system will not affect players.
  • Fleets and Fog of War:
  • An NPC faction has fleets in each system, as well as general fleets that get built for different purposes. You will likely see them fly by a lot if you stay in or close to an NPC owned system. They will mine and patrol, but also scavenge sectors where recent battles have taken place.
  • One of the hardest parts of this update was to build a scalable system that can handle potentially hundreds of fleets without slowing down the process, but to not use the copout of spawning non persistent fleets just to fake activity. Once a fleet spawns, its ships are actually persistent.
  • They will also attack fleets of their enemies as long as they are at war. NPC on NPC warfare will be fleshed out more in the future.
  • You can now see routes of fleets if you are in an explored system and if a trade route goes through it you can also see where the convoy is located at that moment.
  • Fleets that are flying around will have a blue dashed line pointing towards their destination. The defense fleets stay within their system and go from station to station.
  • Trade fleets go between 2 trade nodes, there is an additional green dashed line between those 2 nodes to indicate which ones are trading.
  • For admins, we’ve added a scan button to the map as an easy way to see fleets and their stations.
  • NPC Systems:
  • Like player factions, NPC factions can take systems as territory. They will also determine a contingent based on their blueprints and the relative position of the system to the faction’s home system. Most factions will have less density in the outskirts of their territory although you can adjust that in the config.
  • Some will spread faster and uneven, some prefer to be a big dense blob. The expansion behavior is also preferred towards the resources they mostly need for their contingent. Empty systems and especially black holes are avoided, although they still go into empty systems if there is really no other choice.
  • The contingent will also determine which and how many fleets will be in that system, as well as determining production and mining.
  • If enough ships and/or stations of a system get killed, the faction will lose control over the system. If the damage isn’t too much, the faction tries to replenish their losses at their next turn, and if that is not possible, they will abandon the system.
  • You can see the system status in the Galaxy Map at the top right to see how much damage the faction has taken in that system.
  • For testing purposes, NPC faction home-bases are currently indestructible and will also refuse to abandon their home base system, but that feature will open up after potential issues have been resolved.
  • Resources and Mining:
  • Systems now have a resource richness. This amount is hidden at the moment but will actually be reflected by spawned asteroids in an upcoming universe revamp. The factions will use their contingent to mine resources from their territory. The amount of resources they can mine is limited and will reflect on what the player actually sees when they go there. For example, if a system is mined out, there will be no more asteroids spawning. The npcConfig can define a resource replenish value if needed.
  • Production:
  • Factions will produce more advanced blocks from their mined raw materials each NPC faction turn. The rate of production is bound to config values as well as how many factory stations they have in their contingent for each owned system. The blocks produced will try to match the faction’s demand although this can take a while due to the large amount of blocks needed to expand and resupply.
  • Maintenance:
  • To counteract the introduction of countless blocks into the universe and to have a simple controller for NPC factions in general, they will consume general maintenance blocks per turn according to their config. This allows for an effective way to steer the growth behavior of NPC factions without touching other areas such as trading and production.
  • Diplomacy:
  • Diplomacy right now is at a stage where most of its functionality is in but individual player relation scores aren’t tied together with their player factions scores yet. The lack of that connection will result in odd behavior and will make you end up in illogical situations.
  • For that reason only, we force NPC faction to offer you peace after a few minutes of no aggression and your own peace offers will always be accepted. This is for this update only and diplomacy will be completely functional for the next one.
  • As mentioned above, NPC factions have separate opinions of players and faction. That means they could declare war at you personally while not declaring war at your faction.
  • The system for diplomacy is a point based system. There are two different kinds of modifiers: status modifiers that will apply to your points as long as the status is active, like being in a war.
  • The other kind are dynamic modifiers that will affect your diplomacy points permanently over time. These are triggered and increased/decreased by actions. After an action times out, the modifier will diminish and eventually be removed, but the change it applied to the points will stay.
  • This system will allow for a better approach of AI handling relationships than with just using status modifiers.
  • They will not like it if you are in war with their friends but they will like you for attacking their enemies. They also don’t like it if you mine in their territory and the longer you do it, the less they’ll like it. You can aim for getting an alliance with them if you want to, or you can make them your enemies.
  • Diplomacy is also fully customizable with each faction having conditions and reactions for actions in the configs for modders to customize their experience. It offers quite a lot of possibilities that also make it hard to balance.
  • The diplomacy values given to the NPC Configs are far from final and will receive a complete makeover when the diplomacy feature is done.
  • Admin Config and commands
  • On starting new universes or on update, admins can control the starting conditions of NPC factions by copying the configs from ./data/npcFactions to ./customNPCConfig and modify them (for them to not be replaced on the next update). Most of the values in the XML should have comments on them for better understanding.
  • There are also several admin commands for better control over the NPC factions. The admin command list on the forums will be updated but these are some important ones:
  • ~ /npc_spawn_faction
  • Spawning an NPC faction yourself using the ones in the npcFactions folder.
  • ~ /npc_spawn_faction_pos_fixed
  • Same as before with the ability to also set their home system.
  • ~ /npc_remove_faction
  • Removing any existing faction using their ID (visible in the Diplomacy menu)
  • Soon to be updated admin command list: https://starmadedock.net/threads/admin-commands.1283/
  • Known Issues:
  • The local ship AI as probably all of you know is still a bit wonky. There have been a lot of improvements made already for this update, like spawn collision avoidance to prevent fleet ships spawning on top of each other, as well as an unstuck system where ships with a move order will warp away if they’re in a sector for too long. Other issues, like NPC ships sometimes undocking their docks or cargo display issues, still exist but these will be addressed and fixed in the upcoming updates.
  • Thanks to all the testers and bug reporters! Don’t hesitate to report any bugs you encounter on our bug tracker Phabricator. In case they’re severe, we’ll release a hotfix as soon as possible.
  • Any other new NPC Factions issues will be addressed in the following updates.

New in StarMade 0.199.253 (Oct 10, 2016)

  • Fog of War:
  • Most of you already know this mechanic in one way or another. This is how it works in StarMade in its current state
  • Fog of war happens on a per-system level with local granularity. This means that any sector and its neighbors become ‘scanned’ instantaneously when visited, and they keep being visible in the map until you log out (for personal usage) or the server/game restarts (for faction usage). You can ‘scan’ a system if you have visited at least 15 of its sectors (trackable in the galaxy map) or if you simply use your scanner. A system will be always visible in the map once available.
  • The reason for this two tier-system is simply scalability, as it would cause immense database load (and size) for an entirely per-sector fog of war.
  • Keep in mind that the Fog of War system is subject to change, since it’s an important piece of the NPC update. Scanners will also likely be rebalanced to be better at exploring. The system also already supports trigger based and time based “re-fogging” of areas.
  • Faction Sharing:
  • Factions share their fog of war. This not only means that newly scanned systems are instantly available to all members, but it also means that factions share progress per system: if a 16-member faction all warps into different sectors within a system, they would reveal it instantly.
  • There is also a new permission available for faction ranks: Fog of War Sharing
  • This means that factions don’t have to share their information to new members they don’t trust yet. However, once the information is shared, the player will retain the gathered fog of war information, even in the event they lose the permission or get kicked from the faction entirely.
  • At the same time, a player will always share their personal fog of war information when they join a faction, even at a rank that doesn’t provide the player with any faction fog of war data in return.
  • Additionally, a member with the ‘Faction Edit’ permission can share the faction’s fog of war information with other factions. This option is available in the diplomacy panel.
  • Display Block Upgrade:
  • In addition to last update’s new copy function, you are now able to modify the content of your display blocks in even more ways. When copying the content from one display block to another, you can now use the following tags
  • [shield], [shieldCap], [shieldPercent], [power], [powerCap], [powerPercent], [auxPower], [auxPowerCap], [auxPowerPercent], [structureHp], [structureHpCap], [structureHpPercent], [armorHp], [armorHpCap], [armorHpPercent], [mass], [blockCount], [sector], [system], [name], [docked], [cloaked], [jamming], [speed]
  • [PASSWORD]text': The text in this block will not show up.
  • '[ADD]text': The text after [ADD] is added to the existing text of the connected block ([ADD] must be in the very front)
  • '[DEL]number': Removes an amount of characters from the conneted block ([DEL] must be in the very front)
  • '[REPLACEFIRST]regexp[WITH]replacement': use java conform regular expressions to replace specific text ([REPLACEFIRST] must be in the very front)
  • '[REPLACEALL]regexp[WITH]replacement': use java conform regular expressions to replace specific text ([REPLACEALL] must be in the very front)
  • You can also use the sensor block to check if two display blocks have equal text content. Just connect the sensor block to two display blocks as input. The [password] tag is ignored when comparing text.
  • All this information is also available in the ‘Help’ panel on any display block!
  • It’s worth mentioning that, with enough logic circuitry, you could write a command parser using the above additions. You could, quite literally, type “open airlock 12” into a display block and have your ship execute the command.
  • Further Development:
  • Progress on the NPC update is steady, but we might need a 4-week release period to get the NPC update done more quickly.

New in StarMade 0.199.234 (Sep 26, 2016)

  • New Logic Blocks:
  • This update adds a new logic block and system to the game.
  • Randomizer Block:
  • As you probably guessed by the name, this block produces random results when activated. Each time it receives any signal (true or false) it has a 50% chance to change its state.
  • This can have several applications:
  • Using multiple randomizers can create a random binary number depending on how many you use. You also can also modify the odds by chaining these blocks together with ANDs to reduce the odds, or ORs to increase them.
  • Logic Sensor Block (Council suggestion T1756)
  • The logic sensor block is part of an entirely new system that can probe the current state of most systems on a structure, such as power or shield percentage. This means you can now include the state of those systems in your logic circuits.
  • The following systems can be probed:
  • Power and Power Aux: The output is based on the power/capacity percentage.
  • Shields: The output is based on the percentage of shields compared to its capacity.
  • Jump Drive: The output is based on the charge percentage.
  • Jam/Cloak: The output is 100% when it’s on and 0% when it’s off.
  • Doors: The output is 100% when closed and 0% when open.
  • ~ Cargo: The output is based on that unit’s volume/capacity percentage.
  • We will add more in the future.
  • The sensor block outputs a true signal to all touching logic blocks if its condition is met.
  • It only does this check when it’s triggered by an external signal such as an incoming true signal from a button/activation module. It’s best to make your own clock so it constantly asks the sensor block to check again.
  • Just link the sensor to any of the systems mentioned above to change what it should be checking. Linking it to a single block is enough. For doors it will look at the entire group, for systems such as power it will look at the total power. Make sure you only have 1 type linked.
  • Its default condition is 100% (or above but it’s already the maximum value). Meaning that closed doors, cloaker/jammer/… enabled, and fully charged power/shields/.. Will make it output a true signal when triggered.
  • You can change this condition by linking the sensor to activation modules. It’s using the same system as rail speed controllers so it’s looking at the ratio of true signals versus the total linked.
  • 3 true activation modules out of 5 linked ones means the condition is set to 60% (3 / 5 * 100) and above.
  • The reasoning behind requiring a logic signal to pulse the sensor is that it both adds more control over signal rates and significantly reduces overhead. A reverse trigger (meaning the block automatically firing when sensing the desired value) had several problems: Not only would it be performance intensive by having to iterate through all sensor blocks on every update (as inputs don’t know their incoming connection), but it is also less versatile, since this logic-based approach lets you sense a value on events (e.g. a better automatic door that only sends a signal to close a door that is actually open).
  • The whole system also ties nicely into the general design of StarMade, which is to avoid countless menus of configuring systems with dropdown menus and entering numbers.
  • Radial Menu:
  • We have developed and included a new radial menu for this update. This menu will finally make remembering shortcuts for menus a thing of the past.
  • The default hotkey for the menu is TAB; everything that was previously bound to TAB has been moved to F1. Keep in mind that the design and usability of this menu is not final! We understand that there are several approaches and ideas on how radial menus work, and we will adapt it according to what feels the most comfortable for users.
  • New Graphical Effects:
  • This update also contains some shiny new effects, as well as improving existing ones
  • Thrusters and Cannons:
  • We’ve added new post-processing to both the thruster plume and cannon fire that will make your ships significantly prettier, and the effect isn’t simply linear, so the more thrusters you expose, the more rockin’ that ship’s tail will be. This is a prototype and it will be expanded upon later.
  • Likewise, cannon fire now glows, and scales with that cannon’s damage. You can also customize the muzzle flash by connecting its computer to a light block. The same goes for the thrusters on your ship, just connect the ship core to a light.
  • This glow has also been applied to our beacon blocks.
  • Display Block Logic:
  • Due to high demand, we’ve had this planned for quite a while now. The content of display blocks is transferrable, and it works exactly the same as rail replacement. Just place an activation block next to a display block and connect it to a second display elsewhere. On activation, the content of the adjacent display block will be transferred onto the remote display. This allows, among many other things: cycling systems readouts, security feeds, and even a chat/alert system.
  • Since we’re aware that players will make some crazy things with this, we’ve made improvements to the network code so that changes only affect nearby players. In this case, it only sends the text to nearby players (as opposed to everyone) when displays change.
  • Rail Connection Logic:
  • You may now connect rails to activation blocks. This allows you to use logic without needing to place the activation blocks directly adjacent to your rails -- potentially in the middle of nowhere. This will, however, disable touch logic for the specific rail block you’ve linked.
  • Additional Features:
  • Rail pickup points are now invisible if the point is deactivated. (Council suggestion T1735)
  • Furthermore, it is now possible to toggle the logic pipe graphics on/off in the game’s graphics options.
  • Block Config change:
  • Power auxiliaries were changed from 100 SHP to 25 SHP. This should make it less punishing to lose them. We’ve planned other changes, but they’ve been delayed for the time being due to insufficient feedback.
  • We’ve changed the grouping of logic multi-slots to make room for the new randomizer and sensor block.
  • Bugfixes:
  • T1869: Client crash in specific sector (nullpointer)
  • T1918: Power aux explosions aren’t random
  • Ghost linking by switching rails with logic is fixed.
  • The shadows have been fixed and improved using values from Crusader’s mod. The shadow map updates now runs at a limited framerate compared to the game, which improves performance. We’ve also greatly increased the draw distance for ultra quality shadows. Also, instead of objects beyond the shadow draw distance being dark, they will be lit instead.

New in StarMade 0.199.214 (Sep 12, 2016)

  • Auxiliary Power:
  • The need for power in StarMade is always present. So much so, that players came up with complex designs that involve using the supply beam to overcome built in restrictions to docked entities.
  • The problem with this kind of construction was, that they didn’t really perform very well, and if they actually undocked in combat or on accident, they would cause major lag.
  • We don’t want to punish players by just taking their power away, so we had to come up with a compromise. Together with the council we developed a new block Power Auxiliary
  • This new power block replaces the functionality of the current docked reactor concept with an onboard block. Eliminating any lag caused by physics.
  • Auxiliary power can be assigned to your hotbar (from your weapons menu) and can be turned on and off on demand. It works like a reactor with internal storage that can act as a buffer.
  • When it’s on, its regeneration gets added to the main ship and also its stored power gets dumped into it (even if there is no room).
  • When it’s off, it charges its internal storage although at a slower pace compared to its normal generation.
  • Stations/Planets can’t switch between modes, their reactor is always on. The AI though can’t use the block right now, that will be added at a later stage.
  • Docked reactors had downsides though. They were easily found on a ship because of their navigation markers. And when damaged, they would rapidly lose their efficiency.
  • The new block has a different downside that comes down to the same thing, loss of efficiency/regeneration.
  • If a block of a group gets taken out, the whole group starts to discharge. Explosions will occur inside that group. The amount of explosions, their radius and damage depend on the size of the group at the time of being hit.
  • The biggest reactors can almost reach an efficiency of 200 power per block but they’re also the ones that are easily hit and take the most damage when exploding. They’ll lose most of their blocks in about 1-2 minutes which still makes them useful for a short period after they got shot.
  • However, it is strongly advised to use armor, not only to protect those groups from external damage, but also to interlace it within the group, so a potential discharge would minimize damage inside a group.
  • It’s a high risk high reward system. Using it wisely can make your ship superior to others. Using it recklessly can make your ship useless with some lucky hits. Your power is the most important part on your ship and you want to make sure it’s out of reach.
  • (Smaller ships didn’t have docked power reactors to begin with. We have other systems planned that will affect them.)
  • Supply/Drain Beams:
  • To make sure people will stop using docked reactors of any kind, we have now included a config option to modify the output of these Beams when they’re hitting a docked entity, or an entity where it is part of. It’s set to 0 meaning that
  • Power Supply
  • Power Drain
  • Shield Supply
  • Shield Drain
  • don’t work anymore on any docked reactor type. We didn’t make a shield reactor replacement system since this is just a fancy way of avoiding the “regen under fire” mechanic. If shield rechargers or capacitors need a buff, then we’ll simply change the config values.
  • Role play servers that still want these reactors to work just to have to change in their blockBehaviorConfig to 1
  • Lighting Shader Overhaul:
  • We completely reworked the lighting shader engine. It now looks much cleaner than before, allowing better specular control and removing previous oversaturation issues. More features will be coming to improve lighting indoors. If you have previously altered your Gamma or Lighting Quality settings to manipulate the brightness you may want to re-check your settings to find a desireable light level in this update.
  • Texture Changes:
  • Hulls and Light blocks have been adjusted to work accurately with the new lighting system. All others blocks have been given a basic working specular value temporarily while we prepare for new texture projects.
  • Normal maps have been re-enabled on hulls and measures added to help prevent Moiré effects.
  • We’ve squashed lots of rotation bugs on hulls meaning hazard stripes and hull blocks with normal maps will no longer sit at odd angles to each other when rotated. They should now smoothly tessellate across varying shapes and angles and lighting will flow accurately along their maps
  • Small Shipyard Features and Fixes:
  • Several shipyard bugs have finally been fixed. If you find more, make sure to report them. Shipyards will be a key component later on so it’s important to make them reliable. There is still more to do in terms of usability but some small new features have already been added:
  • Designs can now be created directly from the catalog list.
  • A permission block next to the Shipyard now also acts like a permission block next to the shipyard anchor, making it possible for players to create ships on a shipyard that doesn’t belong to their faction. The constructed ships will have the faction of the player who issued the order.
  • Shipyards can be linked to factories (pull on construction will pull from factories)
  • Rail Fixes:
  • In tandem with the Shipyard fixes, some important fixes to rails have also been made:
  • Rail movement is now delayed until all necessary elements have been loaded. That means, docked entities will no longer just start moving if they are on a rail that has 0 speed. They will also not collide into each other on loading making them unusable until redocked.
  • Rail collision behavior has been improved by delaying a resetting entity by a random time, this decreases the potential of a deadlock at intersections considerably. You could also use this as a random signal generator (until a block for that is introduced).
  • Config:
  • The SHP of Shield capacitors and rechargers was reduced from 100 to 25. This should make them a more viable choice to use as a buffer block between your armor and your power.
  • These blocks lost most of their usefulness when you start taking block damage so there’s no reason to have their SHP this high.
  • The new power auxiliary block has the same values as power reactors/capacitors except for its HP and its recipe:
  • Block HP is 50 (instead of 25)
  • Crafting recipe is: 1x power reactor + 1x power capacitor
  • Looking for new forum admin(s):
  • The StarMade Forums (StarMade Dock) are currently looking for one to two new community administrators. Admins are volunteers who manage the moderation team, site policy and overall ensure the community is running well. More details can be found here: https://starmadedock.net/threads/looking-for-new-administrator-s-for-smd.26679
  • Other Bugfixes:
  • Your player character getting reset on exiting the game might be fixed now. This one is hard to trace.
  • Fixed an exploit involving shipyards
  • T1360 Shipyard adds suffix and prefix to chosen name

New in StarMade 0.199.172 (Aug 29, 2016)

  • Fixed servers with lots of blueprints freezing when a player saves a blueprint (Uncontrolled multithreading caused too much memory being consumed)
  • Fixed cores being destructible on client side (didn't affect servers, so it had no direct gameplay implication)
  • Fixed orientation resetting for damaged blocks on client side (also didn't affect servers, so it fixed itself on reload)
  • Changed entity saving method to possibly fix issue of playerstates resetting on some systems. Also increased log output on that should it still happen.

New in StarMade 0.199.161 (Aug 17, 2016)

  • The chunk32 update introduced a bit of delay on it since it is doing 8 times the work now. There are more optimizations planned in that regard very soon.
  • Also, a lighting bug has been fixed. It caused the lighting switch to distance lighting to be a hard edge, so chunks appeared to be suddenly darker when coming closer.

New in StarMade 0.199.159 (Aug 15, 2016)

  • Optimizations:
  • Physics:
  • Physics are heavily upgraded now, as promised in the last update. Colliding or getting close to bigger structures should show a drastic improvement. This will bring down general load, and remove some of the high ping issues.
  • The only remaining bottleneck is two structures getting close with lots of smaller rail docked entities on them, but that should also be fixed soon.
  • Blueprints:
  • There was a problem with blueprint handling in the last update, where a change to the Catalog would cause a full read of every entry, causing high pings for a long period of time.
  • Memory:
  • Several memory issues have been fixed. One was that, as mentioned before, the catalog read and cached every ship, which resulted in a lot of wasted memory.
  • There were also some other minor to medium leaks that caused high memory usage such as when using lots of missiles at the same time, and physics data sets not being cleaned up properly when thrown back into the pool for reuse.
  • Model Export:
  • Ships can now be exported as 3D models (.obj format) that can be read by most common 3D editing programs (3ds max, maya, blender, etc). With how our game engine works, most of the necessary elements were already there so we decided to turn it into a feature.
  • To export a ship, go to your catalog as if you want to save a ship and click on the export as 3D model button. You can then choose a name for the export which will be added to the modelexport folder in your StarMade directory.
  • Make sure, when loading it up in a program to use the alpha channel of the textures to get transparency on blocks and sprites.
  • Smaller Changes:
  • The game will now automatically set the resolution to what the desktop resolution is on first start on a fresh install.
  • The game will now warn you if you play with in 32bit.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • T1807 Dropped meta items stack when picked up
  • T1791 Creative mode can’t be turned off in singleplayer
  • T1785 Shipyard fail to load designs
  • T1782 Can no longer dock to a shipyard with core beam
  • T1698 Log files have an unexpected file extension
  • T1692 Catalog manager deletes wrong blueprints when not sorted as numbered list
  • T1689 Settings reset when starting a dedicated server
  • T1641 Collision detection in docked entity pilot mode has severe performance issues
  • T1544 Shoot out rail undocks too soon after direction change
  • T1407 /destroy_entity and overheat despawning makes some entities non physical
  • T1198 unfactioned ships will get stuck on pickup rails when re-docked without a pilot inside
  • T1148 Tooltip shows incorrect names for swapping meta item places
  • T574 Improper orientation of blocks when using undo in advanced build mode
  • Several typo fixes

New in StarMade 0.199.132 (Aug 2, 2016)

  • Chunk32:
  • With this update, all worlds will use the new chunk format, which (among other things) increases the chunk size from 16x16x16 to 32x32x32. Code wise, this was probably one of the biggest changes in a long time because it affects such a huge portion of the codebase: we needed to update pretty much every area that interacted with chunks. Not only that, but we also had convert old worlds and blueprints and make sure everything is still fully functional.
  • A new object always starts at the center of a chunk, so moving to 32-block chunks means all blocks in every object had to be shifted by 8 blocks in all dimensions. But not only that: all logic, connections, rails, and a lot more had to be adapted as well.
  • The reason for centering objects within their chunk is simple: small objects only consume one chunk (instead of eight), not only saving memory, but significantly improving the performance of nearly every operation (physics, lighting, etc.) as well.
  • This change also requires converting all files, which happens while initializing the universe. All existing blueprints are fully compatible with the new system, and are converted while initializing, or when used in-game if needed. They will also migrate on the fly if you upload an old version of a blueprint, or if you copy one directly to the blueprint directory.
  • Note: Converted blueprints are not backwards-compatible; however, the game retains backups of the chunk16 blueprints, so downgrading is not an issue.
  • The new format considerably reduces both the amount and size of files stored in the database, resulting in a significantly smaller overall size. As an example, the test server shrunk from 49GB to 9.2GB with the new format -- 81% smaller! Other servers can expect similar reductions.
  • The migration process automatically creates a backup of all old databases and blueprints in the installation directory before touching anything, preserving your data should anything go wrong. The migration might take awhile depending on the database size, so expect updating servers to be down for a bit. (The test server takes between 60 and 90 minutes)
  • Note for servers: If you have already made backups yourself, you can turn off the automatic backup by adding the following lines in the server.cfg, if not already present: BACKUP_WORLD_ON_MIGRATION = false, BACKUP_BLUEPRINTS_ON_MIGRATION = false.
  • We’ve also renamed ASTEROID_SIZE to ASTEROID_SIZE_MAX. We’ve lowered its default value from 4 to 1 because of the new larger chunk sizes. (Addendum: as it’s a radius, it doesn’t include the center chunk. We will switch to a by block radius in upcoming versions).
  • On top of all the conversions, we needed to make sure the new system can work with every prior version of the game as well. One of the hardest things to adapt was the planet generation, which in its current state may not see performance gains. However, the update greatly improves frame rates while looking at already-generated planets.
  • The new chunk size also made it difficult to adapt physics, requiring large changes and improvements to get everything to work. However, we’ve already surpassed the previous performance for turrets and rails. The same performance update will follow for the regular (non-rail) physics in the coming update. This will improve performance for collisions, and things such as flying inside a hangar. There are still a lot of ways to optimize the physics engine, so we can continue to improve performance in the future.
  • You may ask, “Why stop at 32-block chunks? Why not 64, or even 128?” Apart from diminishing returns, the biggest reason against this is that the gains from larger chunks begin to negatively affect any operation that looks at chunks as a whole. Not only would a larger chunk have more wasted space, the size would significantly slow down other lighting calculations, meshing, etc. The 32-block chunk size is the sweet spot, providing significant gains with only minimal performance losses.
  • The only thing that may temporarily suffer a bit is the lighting calculations. If the slowdown is too much, or if you’re having too high CPU when objects are loaded in visually, you can reduce the ‘Block light quality’ in the in-game options. We’ve already planned methods to eliminate any performance loss from this issue, and will include them in a future update.
  • One last thing we did, was implementing and upgrading the shaders to be able to handle the larger chunks. The new shaders make use of more modern Open-GL calls, speeding up drawing even more. However, as always, there is a fallback for older graphics cards.
  • New translation:
  • We’ve added Portuguese-brazilian to our supported languages. A big thank you to all the contributors on our Crowdin project!
  • Anyone can contribute translations, we’re currently working on 21 languages and need all the help we can get! Sign up to our translation site here: http://translate.star-made.org/
  • Gamma:
  • The gamma setting is now available in the ingame graphics options.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • LoD models act like rails
  • Cargo space/area trigger display issue
  • Teal standard armor config fix

New in StarMade 0.198.485 (Jul 19, 2016)

  • Inventories pulling large amounts of items previously caused immense server lag, visible even in single player. This release almost completely eliminates the lag, therefore squishing yet another cause of the dreaded server lag popups. This fix not only improves the speed of pulling, but of all inventory operations.
  • The visual glitch of placing LoD shapes (such as console and light bar) onto transparent blocks has been fixed
  • Significantly improved the rendering speed of structures comprised of many transparent blocks (e.g. ice asteroids and certain ship/station designs). A bug in the drawing engine caused this by drawing concealed faces (such as the hidden face between adjacent ice and rock) despite the player being unable to see them. This lowered frame rates while viewing the structures due to the large number of unnecessary polygons being drawn.
  • T1670: Fixed importing sectors

New in StarMade 0.198.476 Hotfix #2 (Jul 15, 2016)

  • Fixed game lagging out in multiplayer (low fps). Also fixed a NullPointerException at Startup (happened semmingly at random)

New in StarMade 0.198.476 (Jul 13, 2016)

  • This update marks an important step in the overall progress. The trading system will be used throughout the universe -- not only by players, but in the future by NPC Factions as well. This will create a dynamic economy throughout the universe, and should make gameplay much more engaging.
  • TRADING SYSTEM:
  • The most important part of the trading system is the Trade Network. This network makes it possible to access inventories and prices without having to visit the stations themselves (or even having them loaded). Not only can they be accessed, but they can also be modified, meaning stations may trade with one another regardless of their distance and loaded states.
  • The Trading Guild itself handles trades made using the Trade Network. This means anyone can trade with any other shop in the network, given they have sufficient credits to pay the Guild its fee.
  • TRADE NODES:
  • A station with a shop module can now opt-in to the Trade Network. This option is only available to the owner of the shop. There are also now more options added for shop owners, such as the ability to let their faction, allies, or everyone use the shop as an owner (except for the right to add/remove owners, of course).
  • Everyone with that permission can make trades at that shop and set the prices. Keep in mind not to leave money and blocks in a shop with a broad ownership, however.
  • Player Shop Capacity and added functions:
  • Player shops now require capacity the same way storage blocks do. You will need to connect cargo blocks to the shop in order to expand its capacity. However, shops also gained some of the functionality of storage blocks: they can now pull items (and be pulled from), which should make it much easier to manage shop inventories.
  • Setting Prices:
  • As before, there are two type of prices you can set per block: the price that you want to sell blocks at, and the price you want to buy blocks for. Players can now also impose a stock limit, preventing blocks from being bought or sold past that limit, thus allowing reserves for ship building, repairs, and the like.
  • Players can set Prices both within the Shop tab as before, or within the new Set Prices tab. If the shop is in the Trade Network, this tab publishes all credit prices in real-time. The previous shopping permissions (located within the Options tab) still apply, but only to local trading -- that is, trading with ships that actually visit the shop.
  • Placing Orders:
  • To place an order, go to the Trading tab. This lists all shops within the Trade Network in a sortable and searchable list. Select a shop of your choice and click its [Order] button to bring up the order menu. Alternatively, you may search for offers by block type instead. This fetches the buy/sell prices for that particular block type from the server, making it easy to find the best price for specific items.
  • The order menu allows you to buy and sell from other shops. The availability of purchasable items of course depends on the target shop’s inventory and stock limits. Likewise, the amount of inventory that a particular shop can buy from you is limited by its cargo capacity and stock limits, as well as its credits.
  • The top of the menu lists the price/profit for a trade. Since the Trading Guild is handling the actual trading, they require a delivery fee, as well as a share of the profit based on delivery distance.
  • The delivery price itself depends on distance and quantity of ships used. As every ship has a fixed amount of cargo space, certain order volumes are more cost-effective. Example: if you buy only a single block (or a single block over the capacity of one ship), you must still pay for the use of that entire ship.
  • Keep in mind that buying/selling will send an individual Trading Guild fleet, because orders have different shops as starting points. Also: Trading Guild fleets are only virtual at the moment and therefore cannot be intercepted nor raided … yet. We will add this feature in the coming weeks, along with some of the NPC faction features. This will also include an upgrade to fleet AI.
  • Active Trades:
  • Once you click [ok], all credits of the trade will be instantly added/removed from shops in the trade. All bought/sold blocks are also instantly removed from the shop and loaded onto the Trading Guild fleet. When the fleet has reached its destination, it will transferred the cargo to the destination shop.
  • The shop’s Trading tab displays all trades to/from that shop. Shop owners will also receive a message when a trade completes, as well as a faction message (if applicable).
  • Galaxy Map:
  • Active trades to/from your personal or faction shops are visible on the galaxy map. Every shop within the Trade Network is also visible on the map. In the future, we will change how the map handles and shares information between players.
  • Trade Config:
  • Currently the values used in the Trade System are adjustable in the blockBehaviorConfig.xml (open with any text editor).
  • When other features get added, these values will change:
  • Cargo Hold of trade ship: 1000 volume
  • Cost per trade ship: 1000 cr
  • Cost per system travelled: 300 cr
  • Travel time: 1 sector every 3 seconds
  • Trading guild flat share: 20%
  • Trading guild share per system travelled: 2%
  • NEW LOD BLOCKS (AND GRAPHIC CHANGES):
  • To test the integration of the LoD (Level-of-Detail) system with existing blocks, we have replaced the mushroom (found on red planets) with a model that uses LoD. As you travel further from the model, it will reduce in complexity, thereby improving graphics performance. The LoD system will make use of multiple steps in the future to help further improve performance while retaining proportional detail.
  • Additionally, we’ve added a new block: the light bar. This block will make hallways look quite nice, but of course can be used in a variety of other ways. Unfortunately, due to the block requiring 24 orientations, it currently cannot be switched off; there are plans to fix or work around this problem soon. We are aware of some glitches in the graphics on the light bar. Those will hopefully be fixed till friday.
  • We have been slowly working on optimising our textures and their application, meaning less occupied VRAM. The footprint of our planet LOD textures, Non cubic model emissive maps and some UI sprites have been cut by up to 80%. We will continue to further streamline our assets wherever possible.
  • ASTEROID TWEAKS:
  • Generation is now 2-3 times faster.
  • Configurable asteroid sizes within server settings
  • Some FPS improvements for ice asteroids, more to come soon.
  • FLEET CONTEST RESULTS:
  • Results of the Community Fleet Contest have been made publicly available, you can find the thread providing more details here: https://starmadedock.net/threads/community-fleet-contest-results.25911/
  • BUG FIXES:
  • Unlisted bug fixed: shop panel could be unusable after logging out and in again without exiting the program.

New in StarMade 0.198.219 Hotfix 4 (Jun 28, 2016)

  • Fixed sound switching off completely at some instances

New in StarMade 0.198.219 (Jun 20, 2016)

  • New Asteroids:
  • A new (faster) system for generating terrain noise has been added. This system has tweaked asteroid generation to produce larger and more natural looking asteroids.
  • Thanks to native libraries and SIMD instructions this new system has a large performance increase over the previous system, therefore asteroids should generate faster and put less load on the CPU by doing so. Comparison testing has shown around 7 times performance increase compared to the old asteroid generation.
  • Further native library usage will be used for other CPU heavy parts of the game. This means, we now have the speed of C/C++ for the performance critical parts, while still keeping the convenience of java.
  • Custom Shapes:
  • The engine now supports custom shapes. Those shapes can pretty much be any 3d object. The game automatically handles natural Level of Detail. That means that from afar, shapes will automatically turn into either cubes, “sprites” (like current flowers for example), or completely transparent. Objects further away will not have any decrease in fps that way. The distance at which objects blend to blocks can be adjusted in the options.
  • We are adding just a few decorations for now to test the limits and how players will use it. There will also be functional objects later. However, these objects should never be a main build component. If needed, more restrictions can be done like a limit on objects per area (client sided), to avoid slower computers lagging out.
  • The shapes we will add in this build are a Pipe and a Console, both of which can be found in General -> Decoration -> NonCubic.
  • In following updates, there will also be options for physics meshes. For ship vs ship collisions, the cube (or nothing) will always be taken.
  • More shapes will be added over time, as the process to make new ones and get them into the game is very straightforward. Also depending on tests we will replace existing shapes like flowers, capsules, and light rods with custom shapes.
  • New Languages:
  • Thanks to the awesome translators that helped us, StarMade now supports seven new languages:
  • French, Russian, German, Japanese, Chinese Traditional, Polish, and Spanish!
  • The system we have set up for translations is very easy to maintain and add new or changed strings without messing up the code at all.
  • Languages packed with the game have most strings translated; translations may not be accurate. As translation progresses, we will update language packs and add new ones. It's a community effort, so if you can contribute, the translation project is here: http://translate.star-made.org/ . Anyone is free to edit, simply sign up and translate!
  • Reworked GUI Graphics:
  • We have reskinned the User Interface with a cleaner theme akin to our main menu. The noisy and heavier elements of the older design often cluttered up the denser menu structures. We hope this new theme not only helps with legibility, but allows us to easily scale up our assets to higher resolutions in the future.
  • Further fine tuning will take place in the coming weeks with updated HUD elements currently being worked on.
  • Bugfixes:
  • First and foremost: Logic Lag when loading in an object has been fixed. Inner logic (weapons etc) are also now loading a lot faster by using more Threads, but keep in sizeable tiers, so small calculations don’t fill up the queue and can be handled much faster.
  • T1540 Exit Test Sector brings up Tutorials instead
  • T1512 tutorial tile menu isn't constrained by menu size
  • T1509 new tutorial menu doesn't end processes when closed
  • T1484 Log spam...too much yhole (PDLDLKDJLKDJLKDJLKDJLKDJDLKJD)
  • T1352 Faction Permission Block Texture bug (Pixel texture pack)
  • (Fixed Linux/Mac crash on startup when sound system cannot be initialized)
  • (White lines appearing on White hull fixed - no phab report)

New in StarMade 0.198.146 (Jun 13, 2016)

  • Fixed issue where "Play in Background" isn't shown on the automatically played intro video
  • Fixed issue where F8 didn't open the Tutorial Selection Screen
  • Fixed backside of angled shapes being drawn, even if adjacent to an opaque face
  • Fixed wedges side triangles being drawn both in transparency and opaque (rest of the angled shapes will follow soon)
  • Fixed crash on mac when playing any video

New in StarMade 0.198.133 (May 25, 2016)

  • fixed tutorial
  • fixed totorial not being usable if player leaves and reenters a game from main menu
  • added delete/export context menu to local universe menu
  • added saving of manual server entries
  • fixed cpu being high in empty sectors
  • fixed several crashes
  • fixed error handling to not be in the background (might still happen rarely)
  • fixed crash on encryption exception
  • fixed mouse vanishing when being put in the main menu for any reason while the mouse is grabbed ingame
  • fixed storage blocks not being connectable to logic (storage -> logic as indicators of full/empty)
  • fixed adv. single player settings using wrong values
  • antenna modules and conduits are no longer rotatable
  • light blocks have slab variants
  • server filters save now

New in StarMade 0.198.131 (May 23, 2016)

  • Main Menu:
  • A lot of things had to be done to give players the best possible experience starting the game. We designed a new GUI theme from scratch. Most importantly, you’re now able to switch from server to server or to a single player universe without having to restart the game. Not only that but once the game resources are loaded, they stay loaded. So switching worlds or servers just takes seconds.
  • Furthermore, all advanced graphics options like texture pack and its resolution, shadows, AntiAliasing, etc, are now available ingame and don’t need a restart.
  • The server list has also been implemented for the menu, with the ability to set and filter by favorites. Not only that, but your last game, be it single or multiplayer, will be remembered and you will be able to join that Universe again with just one click.
  • World settings previously stored in .cfg files are now accessible via the main menu making the customisation of your single player worlds much easier.
  • Tons of minor changes have been done to the game and GUI to make error handling better.
  • We hope you enjoy the new Main Menu. From now on, we will focus more on game features, while at the same time work on better usability, like finally finding a better solution for the current tutorial.
  • New Gear Model:
  • A new model (and sprite) has been created for the Grapple Beam.
  • New block:
  • Only 1 new block this time: Ice wedge!
  • Bug fixes:
  • A bug causing an unusual long shutdown time of a server was fixed. Several reasons strange server behavior has also been fixed (but hard to explain ;) )
  • T963 Mass not affecting turn rate when docked
  • T829 Language Editor unable to exit by clicking "exit" under "file"
  • T785 Certain tool windows close Connection Setup when unnecessary

New in StarMade 0.197.51 (Apr 25, 2016)

  • Small GUI Enhancements:
  • Build helper now remember the previous settings
  • Inventory “search for name” filters now have quick clear option you can click on
  • Replace filter can now be picked from what block the player is looking at, button is located in the advanced build mode panel
  • If you replace a block type with another block type, it uses the orientation set in the build mode panel instead of the default orientation.
  • As mentioned in the bug fix list, dates on blueprints and faction members are implemented now. Blueprint description also works now
  • Bugfixes:
  • T1361 creating design new or from blueprint causes nullpointer exception
  • T1338 beta launcher overlay
  • T1339 class cast exception when firing lock on missile while docked
  • T1330 Search bar keeps focus when using right click resulting in unwanted behavior
  • T1290 a teleport or jump to another player can crash client
  • T1273 first person view should be placed on the astronaut’s head
  • T1269 using any hotbar slot undocks you from a shipyard anchor
  • T1250 Frequent Crashes In Latest Version
  • T1208 Can't add ship to fleet if it isn’t in the same sector
  • T1180 fleets get stuck with old orders (sometimes until they are unloaded?)
  • T1101 playerlist and navigation menu use the same saved size and position
  • T968 scrolling in tab player list menu also scrolls through hotbar
  • T943 all textures on t002.png appear broken on debris blocks
  • T942 shield sharing against explosions is fixed at 50% shield capacity no matter what the config says
  • T904 Cargo block doesn't become full if it's the only one linked to a chest
  • T881 Dark Grey Advanced Heptas incorrectly made in standard factory
  • T858 Build Mode for Shipyard design displays total power cap, including Shipyard's Station.
  • T853 shield effect overrides lighten mode
  • T791 display module formatting help button is not visible
  • T788 area trigger controller doesn't auto link with other logic blocks
  • T787 Ships/Stations do not save AI enabled state on docks
  • T753 Block count and mass is off
  • T750 Shield regeneration rate displayed on GUI does not reflect combat nerf
  • T736 Astrotech does not accept slave modules
  • T625 inventory filter needs a quick reset button
  • T542 Gravity Unit not working far away from core of the Ship
  • T469 Z Fighting on Galaxy Map
  • T437 Background noise persists even when game is muted
  • T386 Alignment/gravity overridden by vessel you're docked to
  • T340 "power failure" event does not check power inheriting
  • T303 beams passing through ship
  • T281 When in build mode, lighten Mode-esque shader effect is applied to nearby chunks of any nearby block-based entities.
  • T246 Clicking spawn multiple times after suicide generates multiple suicides
  • T231 Restricted build helper still applies in astronaut mode
  • T204 dates for faction members and blueprints do not work
  • T197 editing blueprint description also edits faction description
  • T187 Up and down Arrow key stuck between rail entities
  • T104 Safety element: Faction Menu
  • T103 Safety element: Structure Menu
  • T97 Replace tool doesn't always replace with correct orientation
  • T51 can't toggle Flip Flop manually

New in StarMade 0.197.36 (Apr 11, 2016)

  • We have added a new model for the Marker Beam.
  • Shield hits now scale with weapon power. (For example: your pistol will no longer light up the entire ship when fired inside.)
  • We have made some small changes to the lighting shader which improves graphics at longer distances.
  • The atmosphere of planets now looks better when viewed from different a sector.
  • Mirror Cubes is now enabled by default.
  • The yellow/red build box now has a new appearance, and scales with box dimensions.
  • Shipyard computers now have an [Edit Design] button to access ship cores without having to manually get in.
  • Confirmed fixes:
  • T1294 star reflection makes some blocks appear white
  • T1293 Shipyards able to take over an existing entity
  • T1292 thrust circle slider can go under or above 100% total thrust
  • T1276 turning off gravity un-aligns you from ship
  • T1267 exit tutorial dialog menu appears on top of confirmation dialog
  • T1244 Missile Tracking inaccurate vs smaller ships
  • T1226 Cannot modify rotational thrust using out-of-ship thrust menu as astronaut
  • T1221 fleet on sentry or defend doesn't fight back if enemy is out of weapon range
  • T1211 AI aim is nearly 100% accurate, regardless of difficulty setting
  • T1248 "Preview Block to Place" appears inside Galaxy Map
  • T1185 Carrier recall first uses an old flagship position to home in
  • T1177 Faction description can't be blank (no warning message issue)
  • T1081 "Select Nearest Entity" while inside a ship core selects your astronaut
  • T1065 Unable to unlink weapons and effects in weapons menu
  • T1020 Diminishing returns of Inherited Thrust is based off the dock, not mothership
  • T971 storage pull on asteroid results in class-cast exception
  • T897 tooltip not showing for ship hotbar 2 -> 10
  • T798 Chat main log blank after first 100 lines
  • T794 Transporters preserves alignment but not gravity on the same ship
  • T778 scrolling through ship hotbar is jumpy
  • T709 LOD of planets are the wrong colour seen from other sectors
  • T8 Sector change moves players in gravity/alignment

New in StarMade 0.19624 (Mar 21, 2016)

  • Fleet Mining:
  • Fleets now have an additional order “Mine Sector”, that when given will do exactly that. Keep in mind that for now the sector they are mining in will have to be loaded. Also, the flagship will not participate in any mining. It currently only works on Asteroids.
  • Other Changes:
  • Newly generated Void Systems are mostly empty now.
  • Minimum Rail movement and rotation speed is now 5 times higher.
  • With fixing simulation through the introduction of fleets, simulation spawn (pirates/traders) frequency has been increased. This may need to be increased more in the future.
  • AI aggro range is now a lot higher.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • T1238 carrier recall drones unable to redock properly and get stuck in a loop, caused by non physical rails
  • T1205 nullpointer on entering tutorial
  • T1201 textures don't get extracted
  • T1199 Nullpointer when opening map after deleting a fleet
  • T1194 docked fleet members stay behind in unloaded move orders
  • T1191 Ship arrow versus Galaxy Map arrow
  • T1186 During carrier recall, drones can dock to the wrong pick up point
  • T1182 Fleet and normal AI is stationary in combat
  • T1172 ships assigned to fleet lose all rail based entities on unload
  • T1152 typos and oddities in fleet GUI
  • T1049 Personal Cargo drops at astronaut position on death w/ setting on
  • T1143 overheating fleet ships are still AI controlled
  • T1142 Cannot open calibrate thruster menu from build mode
  • T1125 removing shipyard computer while constructing results in item loss
  • T1122 shipyard nullpointer
  • T1121 Z-fighting with "preview block to build" enabled while using some build tools
  • T1118 explosions don't trigger shield recharge outage
  • T1115 ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException on modified planet plate
  • T1110 "View Relations" does not display correct relationship values
  • T1106 Body moves when buying from shop
  • T1060 Cannons with penetration depth have damage loss
  • T1051 Defensive Ion Effect Not Affecting Docked Entities
  • T1021 Shipyard pulling extremely inefficient
  • T973 Creating ores by replacing cargo space with rock types
  • T969 Nullpointer when removing filled cargo blocks
  • T883 Forcefield Slabs Lighting is Fullbright and Uncolored
  • T733 creative mode hotbar doesn't allow you to remove items
  • T714 Game complains inventory is full in creative mode
  • T711 ship core can be destroyed completely
  • T689 Tab + F6 causes nullpointer when in build mode
  • T675 Multislot ITEM LOST at Ship Deconstruction by Shipyard with Storage
  • T663 Shipyard running out of power causes loss of blocks
  • T647 Turrets on ships built in shipyard do not inherit AI settings.
  • T546 Using "create docking" on station and planets causes nullpointer
  • T534 F5-screenshots of galaxy map appear with background transparent
  • T291 AI without thrust modules does not work well
  • T261 Server cannot be started because of one collapsed "SIMULATION_STATE.sim"
  • T256 Filter options in Catalog/Mail window
  • T251 Collision Damage: protected sectors don't protect you from collision damage
  • T116 unexpected behavior of infinite shops and credits
  • T107 using thrusters and mouse input while power outage causes fast spinning
  • T87 NoSlotFreeException Issues, Factory production losing product/raw material
  • T72 shop prices display prices incorrectly
  • T57 Inner ship remote toggles on ANY click, even in menu
  • T45 firing weapons on docked ships while cloaked
  • T28 Faction restriction does not apply for chests
  • T27 Invisibility mode ship issues

New in StarMade 0.19592 Hotfix (Mar 4, 2016)

  • Fixed astronauts in gravity of a ship falling out on sector change. Fixed Nullpointer at the end of tutorial. Fixed ClassCastException crash on server.

New in StarMade 0.19590 (Mar 2, 2016)

  • Fleets:
  • This is an entirely new system within the game’s backend. It is basically a cached virtual layer that can quickly operate on the main database of a server without the need to actually load in ships. We had to make some major modifications to the database’s tables to allow for this, so it took some effort to set up just right.
  • But enough of the technical details. Here’s an overview of how fleets work in-game: A player can create a fleet in the new fleet panel (default key ‘k’) and add multiple ships to it. There are several other management options for fleets in that panel as well. The first ship in the list is always the flagship (the ordering is easy to change later), and a ship can only belong to one fleet at a time. The flagship of every owned fleet will also always appear in the galaxy map. Ships don’t require Bobby-AI blocks to be part of a fleet.
  • Fleets can currently perform the following actions:
  • Idle: This is the default state. Ships in this fleet will neither move on their own nor attack. In the event of a server restart, fleets will automatically revert to this order. (In the future, the last fleet order will be saved.)
  • Move: The Move command sends the fleet to a sector, whether or not that sector is loaded. Currently the fleet’s movement speed while in an unloaded state is fixed, and the fleet is also unable to use jump drives as of yet. These will be added in the future.
  • Attack: A fleet will go to a specific sector and attack. Currently, attacks will only commence on loaded sectors; if a sector is unloaded, the fleet will wait on the sector’s edge until it is loaded.
  • Defend: Similar to Attack, the fleet will go to a sector and attack any (loaded) enemies. However, the fleet will not pursue any enemies beyond 2 sectors of the target sector.
  • Sentry: The fleet will attack any enemy in proximity.
  • Formation Idle: the fleet will assemble into a formation, but will not attack anything. The flagship can be manually controlled.
  • Formation sentry: the fleet will assemble into formation. Additionally, ships will break off and attack any enemy in proximity.
  • Carrier Callback: This order is explained further below.
  • Important: Formation orders are currently experimental and may lead to strange AI behavior or fleet pile-ups.
  • Carriers:
  • Carriers are now supported in-game thanks to the new fleet system. For this purpose, we’ve added three additional blocks: the Pickup Rail, the Pickup Point block, and the Shootout Rail. All of these blocks are non-physical and only visible while in build mode. This means that, while the two new rail blocks still function as rails and allow you to change them using existing logic systems, you can not collide with them even if you’re on the rail itself. They also do not provide any armor or hp to the ship.
  • New Blocks:
  • Pickup Rail: you can use it to lead your ship inside your carrier safely. It works exactly like a normal rail.
  • Pickup Point: these go on the entry points of your ship. They are kind of an expansion to contact docking. Each block you place has a 3 meter radius. If any ship flies in that radius with its rail docker, it will automatically dock that ship to any rail block adjacent to the pickup area block. You can use the pickup area and the pickup point to make pickup points outside of your ship. Then, as the ship gets reeled in, you can use normal logic to open doors and store the ship inside your carrier. Keep in mind that the last pickup point used will be saved in the ship that used it. That will enable the carrier to call ships to the last pickup point they used. In the future you will also be able to control whether a pickup area is active or not via logic. Flying a ship manually into a pickup area will also result in it docking and it can be used to allow touch docking of flat surface which wasn’t possible before.
  • If you have your rail docker selected in flight mode, you’ll be able to see all pickup areas on your display.
  • Shootout Rail: the shootout rail is a way for docked ships to leave your carriers in a safe and not obstructed way. Any ship reaching this rail will accelerate and shoot out the rails direction with some speed. To prevent misuse, ships will always undock on the end of a shootout rail even if you place a normal rail at the end of it.
  • Carrier Configuration:
  • To make a carrier, all you have to do is use the pickup areas on your flagship with your drones once. Your drones have to be fleet members. Then you can use the “Recall to Carrier” order on your fleet to order all drones back to their pickup points from anywhere in the universe. Keep in mind that currently only one carrier (the flagship) per fleet is possible, but as long as a ship has no pickup point, it won’t try to dock, so you can mix drones and other fleet ships. You can also wipe a pickup point in the fleet menu if you click on a member.
  • Fleet server options:
  • Option to only allow factioned ships (of your own faction) to be added to your fleet, servers probably want to put this on true to prevent ship theft.
  • ONLY_ALLOW_FACTION_SHIPS_ADDED_TO_FLEET = false
  • Option to allow fleet formations or not, it’s an experimental feature that could cause collisions and performance drops.
  • ALLOW_FLEET_FORMATION = true
  • Art Assets:
  • There is now a unique model for the healing beam, and minor adjustments have been made to the UI and other art assets as well. Furthermore some sprites (missile/shield effects) have been updated.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • T1197 Placing a block on an asteroid, removes said asteroid
  • T1107 GameConfig.xml on new install is broken
  • T1055 Nullpointer when sitting on blocks, crash
  • T939 unload/load will drop blocks if volume used is bigger than default chest capacity
  • T926 Cargo mass does not update correctly after over capacity bleeding
  • T903 tooltip doesn't always display or shows wrong data
  • T743 Linux version fails to start
  • T737 Shield Supply and Drain textures are swapped
  • T546 Using "create docking" on station and planets causes nullpointer
  • T510 undocking ship from shipyard will usually redock it immediately
  • T361 Missiles do no shield damage
  • T37 abandoned stations don't have decaying turrets
  • Performance ‘Bug’ has been fixed for servers where general performance would go down due to another fix for beams being able to hit objects in other sectors.
  • Possibly fixed problem where ships would lose block connections
  • Asteroids no longer vanish when placing blocks on them
  • Fixed some inconsistencies on sector borders
  • Pressing enter on any input dialogs now counts as clicking “Ok”

New in StarMade 0.19556 (Feb 1, 2016)

  • New Gear Models:
  • For a long time, we’ve only had a pistol in game to use for all gear. We decided it was time to change that. We have started this by adding in 4 unique models for player gear. The Build Inhibitor, Laser Pistol, Power Beam, and Cutting Torch now all have unique models. We’re continuing to create unique models for the rest of the gear, so expect more to come in future updates.
  • Sun damage:
  • Sun Damage is now a lot more potent, so be sure not to get too close to a star. Sun damage will now do explosive damage. It also scales depending on block count so that larger ships will take more damage. These numbers can be modified in the gameConfig.xml (if you already have an existing one, you can look up the variable names in the defaultGameConfig.xml in the ./data/config directory, add the SunHeatDamage tag and its contents to your gameConfig.xml to adjust them)
  • In further releases, there will be ways to make your ship more heat resistant, as that will become a vital strategic decision in future universe designs
  • Furthermore, we are planning and working on a new feature that will add a lot to gameplay: Fleets! We can’t tell you too much about it, yet, but this feature will be implemented in two stages: The “active” phase, and the “inactive” phase. This basically means fleet behaving while the ships are loaded (active), and on the other hand, fleets being able to perform tasks or even fight in an unloaded state (inactive/simulation). The first phase we are going to tackle is the “active” phase, so you can expect that very soon (maybe next release).
  • This update also contains some bug-fixes:
  • T1047: create docking is allowed if old docks are still being used
  • T1032: Faction permission personal can lock out everyone if owner leaves the faction
  • T900: Recipes for Brown Crystal Armor sub blocks wrong
  • T812: Unable to delete blocks while camera is inside the block
  • T786: Players that are attached to a ship via alignment share the ship's shield when shot.
  • T753: Block count and mass is off
  • T568: Factions Relations always display own relations, instead of selected factions relations
  • T510: undocking ship from shipyard will usually redock it immediately
  • T236: can't move or rescale the player list menu (Tab)
  • T211: Star Heat damages astronaut in a ship's core even when ship isn't taking damage.
  • T91: beams have trouble hitting ships at extreme ranges

New in StarMade 0.19549 (Jan 18, 2016)

  • Personal Faction Rank:
  • Faction modules now have a new “personal” rank that will help make joining and working within a faction a lot more secure. Selecting this rank within a faction module will set you (and only you) as the owner of the entity. This means other faction members will not be able to use that entity regardless of their rank – including the faction’s founders. If you leave the faction for any reason (including being kicked), you will retain your ownership of the entity. In this event, the entity would keep the existing faction signature, but your ownership will override it. Pressing R on the faction module will allow you to reset its faction once it is no longer docked to that original faction.
  • It’s important to note, however, that you can only set something to “personal” if you have permissions to access the faction module’s settings.
  • The rank selected in a faction module will now propagate to any docked objects so long as you the player have permission to set the ranks on those. This propagation will not apply to docked objects with faction modules set to “personal.” This prevents exploitation of the propagation feature to gain access to personal-set objects.
  • Faction and Public permission blocks:
  • A new block has been added that will give faction-wide access to blocks it’s placed next to. The previous block, originally called “Faction Permission Block”, has been renamed to “Public Permission Block”. The new block has now been named “Faction Permission Block” since this makes more sense.
  • Permissions will now also extend to storage blocks, making it easy to protect your cargo.
  • There will be additional blocks in the future providing more rank customization.
  • Rails on Trading Guild Shops:
  • Advanced TG shops now have docking rails by default. Server admins can also activate this feature on normal TG shops if desired, or switch it off completely. Changing the option does not require a database reset, however the docking rails will only appear on newly generated shops.
  • Docking on these rails will function similarly to docking on a home base, with the exception that no weapons can be used while docked. This should give factionless and new players a lot more room to secure their ships without having to rely on a home base or a faction.
  • New Default Keybinds:
  • There have been some adjustments made to the keyboard.cfg which will provide a new default keybind set. Most of these changes were made to make controls more intuitive for newer players.
  • Your keyboard.cfg file should not be overwritten unless using a new install, so your custom keybinds should not be affected except in the case of a few buttons which were remapped to blank keys.
  • Any duplicates (in respect to context) in the keyboard settings ingame are now marked red for easy fixing.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed issues:
  • T1010 can build on factioned entities regardless of permissions
  • T1003 Can overwrite any blueprint by uploading one with same name
  • T964 Teal and pink light rods have full-block collisions.
  • T939 unload/load will drop blocks if volume used is bigger than default chest capacity
  • T903 tooltip doesn't always display or shows wrong data
  • T894 "Create Docking" not working on factioned entities
  • T860 BufferOverflowException + render issues with mass placement of non cubic blocks
  • T846 In game can't show full-width characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) But it works in setup window
  • T820 stuck in ship core /stuck in undeathinator
  • T789 deleting shipyard core anchor when design is loaded, removes it from the database
  • T680 Ships not checking for collision before docking
  • T649 docked entities created in adv build under create docking will not undock
  • T618 Flora items missing from creative menu
  • T548 "Filter by block name" does not work for multi slots
  • T442 Old docks can still be bought at shops, when using 'Buy amount' instead of 'Buy'
  • T243 Player character repeatedly removing/replacing helmet
  • Also, lists in GUI are now sorted by default and ‘Preview Block to build’ is now on by default. Removed additional arrow in “create docking” in adv. build mode to make overall orientation more clear.
  • The Metal Mesh has been given a new improved texture and Trigger Area blocks now have a block icon among other graphical improvements.
  • Council Term 2 Voting Closing Soon:
  • For those unaware, as part of our continued engagement with you, the community, we have a community-elected council. For 4 months, the council assists the dev team with filtering suggestions, running poles and discussions on topics or concerns the community has, amongst many other things. Currently, voting is open for the new council and will be closing in a couple of days. Any player with a Citizen Registry account can vote, so head over to http://council.star-made.org to view who’s in the running and cast your votes!

New in StarMade 0.19538 (Dec 21, 2015)

  • Thrust System:
  • Corrected Inertia:
  • Inertia is now physically correct to mass distribution. This means, that if you bump a stick by either end it will rotate slower that if you would cause any rotation on the axis along the stick.
  • This also applies to your ship’s thrusted rotation. However, you can now influence the effect with thrusters. More on that later.
  • Max Speed Differences:
  • Max speed is now thrust dependent. Your thrust to mass ratio determines how fast you can go. This should make smaller fighters a lot more interesting as scouts and agile fighters.
  • The minimum you will go is 0.5 server speed. The max is up to 3 times (with overdrive even 4.5 times) the set server speed at a 2.5:1 Thrust:Mass ratio. Going beyond this ratio will not increase your max speed. You can see your current values in the build mode stats.
  • Also, note that taking Structural HP damage will decrease your max speed.
  • Please make sure your server speed isn’t set to more than 100 m/s (to start with at least) after updating.
  • Thrust Customization:
  • This often requested features gives players the ability to customize thrust.
  • We don’t think having to balance out directional thrusters by themselves is all that fun, especially on bigger ships, so we tried to make a simple solution that will in later stages also be usable in a crewed ship.
  • To change your thrust balance go to the “Ship”->”Thrust” tab in your top task bar when you are piloting a ship.
  • You can change what axis you want to put your thrust in: forwards/backwards, right/left, and up/down. You can also put thrust into your rotational thrust to make your ship turn faster. Changing thruster settings does take a little time though, 15 seconds to be exact. All these values are adjustable in the blockBehaviorConfig.xml, which is since the last hotfix also available as a mergeable custom config (check the customBlockBehaviorConfig directory in your StarMade installation folder).
  • You can now also inherit all the thrust of docked ships. Simply press the “Inherit Thrusters from docks” to enable this on your ship.
  • Flight modes:
  • We have now included a newtonian flight mode to all ships. The old, dampening mode is still there of course although you’ll most likely not use it a lot anymore. The newtonian mode comes equipped with an option to enable dampening if you leave the ship, like a parking brake, so your parked ships aren’t floating away into deep space.
  • Capacity limit switched on:
  • Personal stash will now have its limit switched on (you can still switch it off in the server config is needed).
  • To lessen the blow to people that didn’t follow the last update, all personal inventories that are overcapacity will automatically create a “block storage” meta item with all your blocks in it. You can take out as many blocks as you need at a time but you can’t put any blocks back into that item (except as admin, who can use this item to create rewards). You can move the item around and empty it in a high volume chest.
  • Next update we’ll enable chest bleeding when over-capacity. If a chest/factory/shipyard goes over capacity, it will drop blocks over time till it’s under capacity again!
  • The give_metaitem admin command has been updated to automatically adapt to current and all new meta items. Its description will also automatically be updated.
  • Also we forgot to mention in the last news, but as most of you probably already saw, you can now tether any storage from a friendly ship in the same sector. Just go to the storage you want to use and toggle the “Use as personal Cargo” button. Then a new tab will appear in your personal inventory to access it at any point, as long as you are in the same sector.
  • Asteroid spawning fix:
  • The asteroid spawn system is based on temperature. Some asteroid types spawn near a star, in high temperature zones and others spawn near system edges where it is cold.
  • Some asteroids, such as blue Larimar would only spawn in very cold zones. Unfortunately this meant it only spawned consistently in system corners, the place where asteroid belts almost never cross.
  • We’ve adjusted all asteroid spawns now and you should be able to find the ones you need without a problem.
  • Because there’s not a lot of known information about what asteroid spawns where, Kupu has made some nice infographics to illustrate it, you can find them here: http://starmadedock.net/threads/asteroid-belts.22386/
  • New Blocks:
  • Pink hull sets have been added to the game, including Crystal Armor variants, slabs and lighting options.
  • Faction Config Change:
  • By request, a mining factor for unowned system is now available. Server owners and others that use a custom faction config must insert this new value into their config, else the game will not start (ParseException)! A better solution (by xml merging) will follow in the future...
  • Config changes:
  • We implemented some changes to accommodate for the new thrust system
  • Total Thrust has been reduced by 25%. This is just to compensate for the new system, most ships should still be capable of moving as fast as they could before.
  • Cannon projectile speed is now 12.5 times the server speed, used to be 10.
  • Missile projectile speed is now 2.48 times the server speed, used to be 1.98.
  • Overdrive has been reduced to a maximum of 50% efficiency. However you do need 4 times less blocks to reach maximum effectiveness now. It also consumes a little bit more power now, 10 per block per second, used to be 6.66.
  • We’ve adjusted the complex crafting recipes for coloured hull.
  • Standard armor: 1 basic hull with 1 standard hardener
  • Advanced armor: 1 standard hull with 1 advanced hardener.
  • Both hardeners use 1 asteroid ore which wasn’t used for much else before + some alloyed metal meshes.
  • Standard hardener: 5 fertikeen capsules + 10 alloyed metal meshes
  • Advanced hardener: 4 fertikeen ingots + 20 alloyed metal meshes
  • Asteroid spawn chances are more or less equal so we can finally tweak other crafting recipes. There are several resources not being used at all and some get used too much. We don’t want the same resource costs for everything though but decreasing the gap between them seems to be a good idea.
  • Other changes include a new config option to increase mining yield in un-owned systems. That’s set to 3x now, with other territory still sitting on 6x and faction owned territory on 12x.
  • Starting players now receive a lot more essential blocks:
  • 350 basic grey hull + 100 wedges + 50 corners + 50 heptas + 50 tetras
  • 100 power reactor blocks
  • 100 thruster blocks
  • 2 salvage computers + 50 salvage modules
  • 2 faction modules
  • 5 ship cores
  • They still get their meta items of course, but you don’t get any weapon computer or cannon barrels. If you want to arm yourself you’ll have to buy it from a shop.
  • We’ve also adjusted the volumes of all basic resources:
  • Raw ores/shards and mineral blocks are 0.01 volume
  • Refined resources like capsules are only 0.001 volume, to allow easy storage.
  • There were more volume and cargo changes planned but those got reverted, we need more cargo feedback to get a feeling of what you want, and what you definitely not want.
  • If you don’t like some changes and you know something better, feel free to make a suggestion here: http://starmadedock.net/threads/game-balance-suggestions.22101/
  • Bugfixes:
  • T1000 Structure HP condition triggers don't work for thrust
  • T984 ratio to mass uses block count and not thrust amount
  • T951 Micro assembler can't be linked to cargo space blocks
  • T949 Infinite money Glitch.
  • T948 Planet textures disappearing.
  • T939 unload/load will drop blocks if volume used is bigger than default chest capacity
  • T937 No way to reclaim large item stacks
  • T931 can't split or merge multi slots when over or near capacity limit
  • T926 Cargo mass does not update correctly.
  • T870 Slabs act like full blocks with rails
  • T860 BufferOverflowException + render issues with mass placement of non cubic blocks
  • T786 Players that are attached to a ship via alignment share the ship's shield when shot.
  • T680 Ships not checking for collision before docking

New in StarMade 0.19519 (Dec 7, 2015)

  • Cargo:
  • Cargo is a physical representation of things loaded in your ship or station/planet. The more you have loaded, the more boxes you will see appear in your cargo area.
  • There were some main concerns for it in terms of scalability, organization, usability and migration which I hope we solved sufficiently.
  • Since it’s impossible to organize your things into different little boxes with limited capacity, your storage block will still be the main piece to use. Because having a limit on both slots and stack capacity would be tedious, we decided to just have a overall capacity for a storage with unlimited slots. Each item’s needed space in the inventory is represented by its volume (which defaults to mass, but can be adapted in the block config if needed).
  • So basically, you can fill up your storage with as many slots as you like, as long as the total volume of all items is within capacity.
  • Because of this sudden change, penalties for being over-capacity are turned off by default in the server config. These penalties will be switched ON by default in future updates. A player whose inventory is over-capacity will move more slowly, and a ship which is over-capacity will leak items out of storage over time.
  • So how do you increase that base capacity each storage gets?
  • It’s simple: just get a few Cargo Area blocks and connect them to your storage. Each block adds capacity to your storage block. They are non-physical and not visible as long as they are empty, but they will fill up with the inventory reaching its capacity.
  • Keep in mind that items in storage now also add mass to your ship. It’s a lot less mass than it would add if you would build the blocks on your ship by using the patented “warp storage technology”, which stores most of the mass in the void.
  • Also please note that the balance is by no means final. We put it at the lower end, because buffing it in future version is a lot easier than nerfing (and also causes less anger amongst players ;) ).
  • Factory changes:
  • This same cargo capacity concept also now goes for factories and shipyards. Factories also now only pull as many items as they need to do one tick, so they won’t fill up. And instead of sending a signal to adjacent Activation (full not full) and ‘OR’ blocks (empty nonempty), they will send it to connected ones.
  • Docked Cargo pulling:
  • Cargo can now be transferred from or to docked entities. Just connect your docker and rail to the storage you want to pull from or of, then deactivate pulling on the one you want to be pulled from, and it will pull to the other just like it would on the same entity.
  • Docking on contact:
  • You can now also dock to rails by physically touching them with your docker block. After undocking you will not be able to re-dock to that rail for 5 seconds. In the future this time interval will likely be switched to a distance limit, where if you move a certain distance from the rail you will be able to re-dock.
  • Optimizations:
  • There has been a nice optimization done for planets which should add some fps for you (after the planet is loaded in)
  • Balance changes:
  • Thanks to player feedback and the help of the council, we’ve changed several values that should improve your gameplay experience.
  • Power soft cap has been increased from 1 000 000 to 2 000 000
  • Max shield regen under fire has been increased from 10% to 25%
  • Shields sharing is disabled when you go under 25% shield capacity instead of 50%
  • The system penalties you receive when you suffer damage are now less harsh.
  • Starting cash is now 50 000 credits instead of 20 000 credits for new clients and station cost price has been decreased from 1 000 000 credits to 50 000 credits
  • We’ve introduced multi-slots for lights and their respective light rods, the delay-signal is now also sitting in a logic multi-slot. We’re planning to add controllers + modules next release.
  • Missile + cannon its missile speed has been buffed from 0.5 to 2.0, now it can go 6 times the max server speed.
  • Bug fixes:
  • T917 Emissive mapping make rod lights appear on when they're off
  • T839 Certain weapons mounted directly to an asteroid and then fired will crash the game at the next autosave
  • T786 Players that are attached to a ship via alignment share the ship's shield when shot.
  • T680 Ships not checking for collision before docking
  • T655 Shipyards give free cores
  • T258 All blocks are rotatable
  • Power Supply and Power Drain textures are now correctly labeled.

New in StarMade 0.19498 (Dec 1, 2015)

  • Slabs:
  • While implementing cargo, we looked at different options to display different states of a cargo area filling up, and a long planned feature came back into discussion: slabs.
  • With having finished a lot of ground work in the past year, they finally became possible, and here they are. As always, of course, scalability is our main concern, so we made sure that slabs wouldn’t impact performance any worse than any other block. This is possible because of the grid system in use.
  • There are 3 different sizes of slabs available: Quarter, Half, and Three-Quarter Slabs
  • The slabs are taking a block id, but a system was built to make creating and maintaining them as easy as right clicking on a category in the block editor.
  • Since we knew that with another 3 sub-types of blocks, the inventory would become incredibly cluttered, the slabs aren’t items in the inventory, so only the full block version is needed. They can be placed down by selecting any full block that has slabs, and then conveniently selecting the slab size in the advanced build mode. Any slab can of course also be rotated in all 6 directions.
  • Slab versions of special blocks like wedges and corners will follow. If necessary the internal size of blocks can be expanded from 3 to 4 bytes, effectively doubling block ids a few times, so don’t worry about block ids running out.
  • Currently we have added slab variants for all Hull types, Hazard Stripe blocks, Doors and Force Fields.
  • New Textures:
  • Good news everybody, we are expanding your range of building materials! We have monitored feedback over the past year and have begun to implement a few of the most popular requests. In this release, we have added Dark Grey Hulls. You can expect a few more in the run up to the winter holidays.
  • You may (or may not) have noticed some slight UI changes. We have begun to look into some legibility and scale issues. Our plan is to further streamline the UI, provide support for players using high resolutions and a wider range of characters for translation packs.
  • List of fixes:
  • We are working to fix the problem of spawning inside a block for good. For now, you can hit the 'up arrow' key after spawn to warp out of any stuck situation.
  • T839 Certain weapons mounted directly to an asteroid and then fired will crash the game at the next autosave
  • T789 deleting shipyard core anchor when design is loaded, removes it from the database
  • T786 Players that are attached to a ship via alignment share the ship's shield when shot.
  • T748 Tutorial Immediately Bugged
  • T722 Recursive use of create dock feature in shipyards breaks out of creative mode
  • T680 Ships not checking for collision before docking
  • T640 game config: computer limitation does not work and acts like group limitation
  • T490 Planet part entities does not vanish even without any blocks
  • T450 Fix for entity-flag exploit does not affect already created entities.
  • T400 Warpgate faction permission issue
  • T258 All blocks are rotatable
  • T233 Chat kick and ban options
  • T64 /Destroy_Entity and overheating making rail entities invulnerable/untouchable
  • T52 ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in storage UI
  • Black Hull textures are now darker.
  • Shield Drain & Shield Supply are now correctly labeled on their CPU texture.
  • Next update, the cargo system should be ready,

New in StarMade 0.19488 (Nov 9, 2015)

  • Bug Fixes:
  • We heard the criticism about the transporter beacon and we agree that it makes shuttle play too irrelevant. The “beam down beam” will therefore be on hold for a little while until we further assess the balance and maybe come up with more elegant solutions. The transport beacon now has a charge time. The default is a little slow but item improvement will also be a thing. If there is future debuffing needed we are playing with the thought of having the beacon discharge on movement of the astronaut.
  • Some major bugs have been fixed. Foremost there seemed to be a NullPointer which was plaguing servers, which hopefully shouldn’t happen anymore.
  • Also, all weapons/tools have been a little bugged due to the optimization where it appeared that the entity behind another entity was hit. This issue has been fixed and does not occur anymore.
  • Race Gate laps have been fixed. There was also a bug that Race Gates wouldn’t always trigger when going through, which has also been fixed/improved.
  • Another bug was that people were getting stuck in their cores, which should have been improved now. Getting stuck inside a block prevented you from removing/using it but that has been fixed completely so it should be easy to unstuck yourself.
  • Furthermore the tutorial has been fixed. There was a problem that NPCs appeared to fall through the tutorial station, and also a NullPointer when talking to NPC-00.
  • AI macro Simulation was overall pretty broken, but should now be fixed. Response fleets should again work correctly, as well as other encounters/patrols. All weapons trigger a fleet event again.
  • Some minor fixes have been done to shipyards to prevent exploitation. Also there was a bug that any multi slot item in an inventory of a deconstructed ship was lost. This is now also fixed. The bug that ships are cut off was already fixed in the last release.
  • Collision damage has been improved and is now applied to both colliding entities. It is also now saved correctly.
  • Lastly, linking a computer to itself will no longer cause that computer to lose its link with the shipcore. This caused it to disappear from the Weapons Menu.
  • You can now also use the admin command /simulation_info and /simulation_clear_all to combat potential lag caused by simulation (pirate groups getting stuck, or just cleaning up in general).

New in StarMade 0.19476 (Nov 3, 2015)

  • Transporters:
  • A long awaited feature is finally here! Transporters! Transporters allow you to instantly warp between transporter platforms within a short distance (the current sector, and any adjacent sectors). Be careful though! Using a transporter between ships will temporarily bring down shields on both the sending and receiving ships. If shields drop from transporters, they will recharge back up at the ship’s set shield recharge speed.
  • Much like other systems within StarMade, the transporter system comes with a transporter computer and transporter modules. The modules are simply pads that you stand on, while the computer is used to control and activate the module. Make sure that you can either reach the computer while standing on the module, or have someone manage your transporter room. Logic will be added to the system in a coming update.
  • Destination setting can be done from within the computer. All available destinations will become available. Any transporters that are located within the current ship or any of its docks will be available as a destination. Any transporters that are on other entities located either in the current sector or adjacent sectors, can also be made available by setting them to “public/faction access”. Be aware though that upon warping to a transporter on another entity, the shields of both entities will be dropped and have to be recharged! So never leave your transporters open; or you might find your shields dropped or a boarding party invading your vessel.
  • Transporter Beacon:
  • The transporter beacon is a personal tool that enables the user to warp to a transporter as long as the vessel is in vicinity. Just use its beam to mark the transporter controller you want to be warped to, then open your inventory, right click on the item, and hit ‘transport’ to be warped to that transporter. This is very handy for exploration without a proper way to get back. In a future update there will also be a ship beam that lets the player set a manual target for a transporter.
  • Activation Gates:
  • Activation Gates work just like Warp Gates with the difference being that instead of warping, they will emit a ‘true’ signal when a ship is passing through. This is only activated on actual passing of an entity. This feature will help for logic with much bigger structures where the trigger area blocks start to lag.
  • Race Gates:
  • This is a feature I wanted to do for some time. It seems a bit random but is part of a bigger picture. There are most likely several bugs with the race gates, however they should be mostly functional for basic racing.
  • To create a race track, you will have to create a chain of Gates. These gates can be on the same or multiple entities. To link gates, the same method as the warp gates is used: the marker beam. Right click with the marker beam on the computer of one destination gate and left click on the gate you want to create the link from. Continue to do this process for each Gate in the chain, linking the Race Gate Computer to the next gate’s computer.
  • Then you can create a race by activating the Race computer with ‘R’. The computer you use is going to be the starting gate of that race. Players can join either from the computer itself (if it’s public access), or from the menu on the top (messages/quests) if you have any dialog open.
  • To start the race, you have to link from an activation module/button to the race computer you used to create the race (the starting gate). The race will start when a true signal is received in that race computer, so it’s possible for the builder to set up logic count downs and other mechanics that all racers can see
  • The race creator can even set laps and buy-in money which is then paid out to the first 3 finishers. We will keep an eye on how this works in the real world and tweak the settings if needed in a future update.
  • Raycasting Optimizations, aka a lot less lag from extensive mining:
  • Planet eating miners that in the past brought down a server in seconds now only create a fraction of the lag they did before.
  • Database update to get rid of block data for found stations
  • Databases now load the NPC stations without copying them to the database as long as they are not modified. This means a huge decrease of database growth.
  • Admins can retroactively apply the feature to their db (as it only is applied to newly spawned stations) with the startup parameter
  • -cleanuptransient
  • PLEASE NOTE: Depending on size, this can take hours (we are talking 48h+ for 200gb. This will most likely be optimized with the next update), as the program looks through every file looking for similarities and header matches.
  • Also PLEASE BE SURE TO CREATE A BACKUP before doing this.
  • Asteroid replenish server option:
  • There is now an option to periodically let the server replenish asteroids in the server cfg. To trigger, a sector will have to be unloaded and completely empty. If the time of the time it last replenish is beyond the waiting period set in the config, the sector will regenerate. This will help bridge the time until a better system takes its place.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • One bug that had haunted me for a long time is (hopefully) finally fixed. Players should no longer fall out of moving ships upon sector change.
  • T796 Items can't be dragged into inventory menus
  • T795 game crashes when trying to view relations of another faction
  • T782 Transporter unreliable in multiplayer/synch bugs with transporter
  • T769 Null pointer when pasting linked modules in un-initialized chunks.
  • T768 "create docking" doesn't check for already existing entities, duplicate method
  • T719 Shipyard exploit while server is updating block count
  • T711 ship core can be destroyed completely
  • T671 Not all weapons trigger response fleets
  • T663 Shipyard running out of power causes loss of blocks
  • T658 Shipyards cut off parts of a ship
  • T654 warhead explosion lag allows damage without warhead destruction
  • T653 Null pointer/GL_STACK_OVERFLOW when you look at rail blocks in build mode
  • T646 Game config: ship limit affects station and planet entities
  • T640 game config: computer limitation does not work and acts like group limitation
  • T639 Nullpointer when using "search by name" with meta items
  • T637 Shipyard Item Duplication Bug
  • T621 Keyboard help does not update without game restart
  • T614 Tech info shows confidential information
  • T576 Amount sellable appended instead of replace when overselling using sell amount
  • T561 creative mode allows you to drop blocks in a shop -> infinite blocks
  • T539 ship core not producing power when first spawned
  • T490 Planet part entities does not vanish even without any blocks
  • T450 Fix for entity-flag exploit does not affect already created entities.
  • T428 Stay attached to ship while being logged out
  • T400 Warpgate faction permission issue
  • T384 Power/Shield Drain and supply beams power issues
  • T379 Removing containers places there content in an offset position
  • T323 COLLISION_DAMAGE_THRESHOLD does not work
  • T313 JVM Crash detected: incorrect dialog
  • T297 Player hp doesn't get saved
  • T234 no meta items in storage filter system
  • T233 Chat kick and ban options
  • T199 able to lock on in zoom mode
  • T185 Multi slot items don't show tooltip
  • T86 Planet segments have 0 mass

New in StarMade 0.19431 (Sep 8, 2015)

  • This update is meant to clean up some stuff that has been in the queue for a while. It is also an update for server admins to make their lives a little bit easier.
  • Turret/Raildock Optimization :
  • Due to optimizations in several parts of the code to reduce the quantity of collision checks and make them faster altogether, as well as some relief in the docking chain updates, approximately 90% of turret lag has been eliminated. Depending on turret sizes and count, ships that before had a hard time to get 5fps with active AI now run smoothly with almost no lag due to turrets.
  • Also, some advanced algorithms have been implemented to reduce lag on very large turrets, once again making use of special properties in a block game. If anyone is interested in the techniques used, please leave a comment and I’ll write up a dev blog for it.
  • Jump Inhibitors:
  • In pvp, the advantage of being able to change multiple one-block jump drives to jump into an enemy sector, fire all weapons, and jump out has been rightfully criticized a lot.
  • To combat this situation, but not to nerf long distance traveling, a new system has been introduced: The jump inhibitor.
  • This system works exactly like the jump drive with the difference that a player doesn’t have to actively charge it. It can be turned on/off at will. When on, the jump inhibitor will discharge all jump drives in the same or adjacent sectors. The rate of discharge depends on the amount of modules used on the jump inhibitor. This means if you have a strong enough jump drive, you can still overcome the jump inhibitor.
  • Inventory Management:
  • Better creative mode inventory:
  • The creative mode inventory has been improved to now copy & paste items to the hotbar instead of moving them. Also, the search will no longer blend out filtered items, but display them one after another.
  • Inventory Pulling add-ons:
  • You can now set an inventory to pull whole categories (same as in a shop). This should make automated inventory management a lot easier.
  • You can now also pull meta items.
  • Admin Tools:
  • Server Update Lag Monitoring Tool:
  • A tool to monitor sectors and objects that take very long to update has been added. This will make it easy to identify any sector where a lot of slowdown is happening. You can turn on the monitor in the general options ingame, but you have to be admin to enter the detailed view (F7). Lag will also be recorded so you can check on lag-spikes after they happened. Be aware that the reason, the “server not responding” message can appear is not only due to objects taking long to update on the server. It could be a simple network lag, too.
  • Restrictions for the Game Config:
  • Admins can now add restrictions to the GameConfig.xml to better control their server and prevent possible abuse/lag.
  • There are examples for possible restrictions in /data/config/GameConfigDefault.xml (if you already have an existing GameConfig.xml in your install dir, you have to edit that, as the default is only a template that gets copied if no config exists)
  • Restrict ships by mass or block-count
  • Restrict ship computers by count per type
  • Restrict ship systems by connected groups per computer (prevents monster salvagers)
  • Starmote has been revived:
  • The tool now once again works, but is still a little barebone. A lot more features will be added in the future though.
  • Temporary Bans/Whitelisting
  • Admins can now issue temporary bans. Players will be notified about the time remaining on their ban on attempting to connect to that server.
  • The option has been added to the standard ban commands like for example
  • "/ban (playername) (kick) [reason] [time]"
  • Wave management:
  • Admins can now manually manage spawnable waves. This will be applied to all the spawning AI on the server.
  • Each wave can be assigned a difficulty (should be between 1 and 10 for now), and even a faction.
  • Upon the game requiring a wave it will use the closest difficulty of a wave with the faction it needs to spawn on.
  • Wave Management can be accessed in the admin tab of the catalog.
  • If no wave is set for a faction, and the AI requests one for it, the old system of 'enemy usable' flags will be used.
  • Texture updates:
  • As some of you may have noticed, we are in the midst of working on new texture features.
  • In the coming weeks, emissive, specular and shine maps will be added to the game. The project is ongoing and still in infancy, should you spot any anomalies please report your findings to Kupu. He has an open thread for such things in the Texture Pack sub-forum.
  • IMPORTANT:
  • As we found that the quality suffers too much from compression to the point where the next lower resolution looks almost better than a compressed higher one, Texture compression has been disabled as a default setting from now on. If you are experiencing extreme FPS drop, we recommend you either reduce the resolution of your texture pack, turn off normal maps, or re-enable Texture Compression in the Advanced Options within the Starmade launcher.
  • Emissive and Specular maps will soon be available in the Pixel pack for those running on slower systems.
  • Fixes:
  • T580 Nullpointer while saving of Station blueprints from multiplayer to local
  • T576 Amount sellable appended instead of replace when overselling using sell amount
  • T551 Turrets are not saved and linked correctly in shipyards
  • T546 Using "create docking" on station causes nullpointer
  • T544 reboot key combo (tab+y) in astronaut mode causes nullpointer
  • T543 Multiple Shipyards on single station cause issues
  • T531 Add resolution: 3440 x 1440 to selectable game resolution
  • T529 Unable to split multi stacked items
  • T525 doors and forcefields can make a ship invulnerable
  • T517 Multiplayer: Loading designs does not work.
  • T511 cannot deconstruct to design/without design if shipyard inventory is full but has linked empty chests
  • T510 undocking ship from shipyard will not allow you to redock it
  • T501 Cooldown/reload animation not intuitive
  • T490 Planet part entities does not vanish even without any blocks
  • T489 ship catalog manager does not sort anymore
  • T467 Highlighting/selecting sectors on galaxy map
  • T463 placing block on asteroid not previously built on drops asteroids' original mass to 0
  • T450 Fix for entity-flag exploit does not affect already created entities.
  • T436 Factories on asteroids
  • T428 Stay attached to ship while being logged out
  • T415 Unable to kick members out of faction
  • T233 Chat kick and ban options
  • T225 radar jammer pirate exploit
  • T99 Structure Tab: UNABLE TO LOAD GUI-UNIT: Jamming System

New in StarMade 0.194 (Aug 21, 2015)

  • This is one of the bigger updates as shipyards are finally done. Their main purpose is to create a bridge between normal game play and a new creative mode. But it has a lot more functions than that. You can automatically construct or deconstruct ships, repair ships according to a design, test out ideas, and much more.
  • Creative Mode for Blocks:
  • Before we talk about shipyards themselves, we shortly want to talk about a long anticipated feature: Creative Mode.
  • This can be either in the game startup settings (below Tutorial) for single player, or via the admin command ‘/creative_mode ’ for multiplayer.
  • This mode adds an extra tab in your inventory with unlimited amounts of every block type in the game.
  • In future updates the sorting option as well as the assignment to the hotbar will improve, as at the moment the nicely sorted blocks quickly get unsorted when used.
  • In this absolute creative mode you can also drop as many items as you want into other inventories like chests.
  • Shipyards:
  • Now for the main part of this update. Shipyards are now available for stations.
  • They come in 3 blocks:
  • The shipyard computer, from where the shipyard is controlled and managed.
  • The shipyard module, which defines the shipyard physically
  • The core anchor, which defines where ships in a shipyard will be docked.
  • How to create a shipyard:
  • In future updates, build mode will be enhanced not only for shipyards but also to give a visual guide on how to construct different systems. At the moment, the shipyard will give feedback in the form of text raising from the shipyard computer or the modules if it was constructed incorrectly.
  • Shipyards are the most advanced entity in terms of structure next to warp gates. It has to be built as a series of arcs.
  • So here is a guide on how to construct your first shipyard:
  • Place down the shipyard computer and select it. (All shipyard modules have to be connected to it)
  • Place down an arc, or a U shape. Both end points have to be in one straight line.
  • Place down another arc that looks exactly like the first one to create a corridor. (The maximal distance from arc to arc is currently 50 blocks, but it is configurable in the blockBehaviorConfig.xml)
  • Place down exactly one shipyard core anchor anywhere in the corridor. You can orientate this block in all 24 directions like a rail block.
  • And you are done already.
  • The size of ship you may dock is unlimited but the shipyard will not work if the length of the yard is too small (the other dimensions don’t matter as long as the docked ship doesn’t overlap with any block except the anchor).
  • Keep in mind that docking your ship will put its core directly into the anchor. There are plans for the functionality to be able to add multiple anchors to serve multiple shaped ships.
  • Designs:
  • Ship designs are a new type of meta items. They are bound to a concept of a ship and can be loaded in shipyards to edit or to construct.
  • Shipyard functionality:
  • A shipyard has several features. To access them, just hit ‘R’ (Activate/Open) on the shipyard, and press the “Place Order” Button.
  • Here you can choose from several commands depending on the shipyard’s current state (e.g. if a ship is docked or not)
  • Create New Design:
  • This will create a new design meta item, and load its content into the shipyard. A core will be placed exactly where the shipyard anchor is. A design is just a projection, so while you are able to edit it in the shipyard, you are not able to undock it. The huge advantage of editing a design is that you can edit a ship in creative mode.
  • Unload Design:
  • This will unload the currently loaded design so the shipyard can be used for other tasks. This can also be done by right clicking on the currently loaded design meta item.
  • Load Design:
  • You can either choose a design from a dropdown, or you can right click on any design that is currently placed in the inventory of the shipyard to load it.
  • Construct Design:
  • This will create a real ship from the currently loaded design. It will calculate the required resources and collect them from the shipyard inventory. You can also activate item pulling for the shipyard to acquire blocks it needs from inventories that are connected to the shipyard computer. Once a ship is done constructing, you can undock it and use it like any other normal ship.
  • Test out Design:
  • If you want to test out your loaded design before collecting the resources to build it, you can use this order. It will teleport you and the design into a virtual test sector. In future updates the test sector will contain several targets as well as an option to spawn in AI waves.
  • Create Blueprint from Design:
  • You can also create a normal blueprint catalog entry from a loaded design.
  • Deconstruct:
  • This can be used if a normal ship is docked to the shipyard. You have the option to either deconstruct a ship completely, or to create a design from it. All blocks the ship consists of (as well as the content of all chests) will be placed into the shipyard inventory and connected chests. All items that have no room to be placed in the inventory, are going to spawn in space beside the shipyard.
  • Repair:
  • This option restores a ship according to a design and places any leftovers into the inventories/space. In future versions, an option will be added to assign a design directly to a ship’s core to make repairing even more streamlined.
  • Future Functions:
  • There are many more tools we want to add to shipyards, including being able to move a ship’s core, and connection to the logic and rail system for automatic deployment.
  • Create Docking Tool:
  • There is also a new feature in the advanced build mode. You can now create a new dock in any shape and orientation. Just click on the button, select a rail surface to spawn it on, place the core and select its orientation with the mouse wheel.
  • Optimizations:
  • There were some optimizations in physics and rails to decrease the resting load of structures with a lot of them. Also, the collision routines of anything non cube (wedges, players, etc) has been improved.
  • Furthermore, planet generation has been optimized a bit so it will be faster and put less total load on the cpu.
  • Graphics:
  • Continued textural improvements include:
  • Cleaner PlexDoor texture.
  • Cleaner Metal Mesh texture.
  • Revised computer back face.
  • Revised Effect module tessellation.
  • Revised Factory textures to fit the same theme as Shipyard blocks.
  • New Motherboard textures.
  • New Circuit textures.
  • New Charged Circuit textures.
  • New Decorative Fan texture.
  • New Shipyard Computer / Shipyard Module / Shipyard Core Anchor textures.
  • In preparation for coming graphical updates, we have performed a full overhaul of our normal maps and it’s shader for more accurate results. Accurate texture padding has also been added to avoid unsightly seams on block edges.
  • For more information and samples see this post; http://starmadedock.net/threads/kupus-thread.839/page-38#post-221795
  • Bugfixes + small config change:
  • There have also been some bugfixes like a softlock in the tutorial, and several crash fixes.
  • Power penalty has been reduced for missiles (10% -> 2.5%) and disabled for damage pulse.
  • Server admins can also now choose to not let players spawn directly from blueprints (mostly interesting for Role Playing or servers with harder settings). Also, it’s now possible to combat heavily modified blueprints by enabling a check in the server config that will remove any ship that has disallowed blocks on it (e.g.jump gate on a ship)
  • Here is a list of other fixes:
  • Starmade (Private) | T488 Ships that are piloted dissapear and eject the pilot when pilot fires weapons
  • Starmade | T483 Nullpointer with "T" weapons menu
  • Starmade | T467 Highlighting/selecting sectors on galaxy map
  • Starmade (Private) | T450 Fix for entity-flag exploit does not affect already created entities.
  • Starmade | T444 Turrets shoot at targets out of range in "Selected Target" mode
  • Starmade | T417 Moving stations as admin by using /change_sector or /change_sector_for breaks territory claims
  • Starmade | T400 Warpgate faction issue
  • Starmade | T398 Ships can instantly use the cloaker or jammer after they have been revealed by a scanner
  • Starmade | T313 JVM Crash detected: incorrect dialog
  • Starmade (Private) | T225 radarjammer pirate exploit
  • Starmade | T215 Players on docked rail entities are left behind during sector changes or jumps
  • Starmade | T14 mouse sensitivity sync

New in StarMade 0.19361 (Aug 3, 2015)

  • We have another bugfixing update while bigger features are in work.
  • Fixes contain a lot of things that have been a pain for some time, but there is also a new item: the flashlight. You can buy it from the shop clerk.
  • Spawn on ships:
  • Another feature is also the functionality that you can now spawn on moving ships. Even if the ship is moved after you logged out, and then in a sector that is currently not loaded, you will still spawn on your ship. This will work as long as you are in any way aligned to the ship while logging out: Pilot, in gravity, or simple spacebar alignment.
  • This currently is limited to spawn after logout, but mechanics will come for respawning on ships after death. There still have to be some gameplay aspects discussed, as you wouldn't want a player to spawn on a ship you just stole.
  • Ship Scores:
  • Another larger feature which is still in the making is ship score.
  • This is basically a way to automatically classify ships.
  • Ship scores are aggregated from multiple simpler scores.
  • As for example weapons generate scores from:
  • damage per second
  • hit probability (projectile speed, reload, spread)
  • distance
  • power consumption
  • These scores are then aggregated with the power score, and other scores to generate 4 main scores:
  • Offensive Score
  • Defensive Score
  • Mobility Score
  • Support Score
  • Since it's fairly obvious that these values have to be balanced, the main scoring process has been externalized to a LUA script to change it on the fly.
  • After a few iterations of initial balance not only will they make it easier to classify ships in the blueprint/website, we can also then use the scores to determine pirate spawning by difficulty, and adapt it depending on how powerful the combined scores of the players in an area are, which should lead to a lot better scaling difficulty and therefore more fun.
  • Exploit Fixes and Optimizations:
  • There also have been lots of small optimizations in various parts of the game. For example, framerates on very large structures should go up a bit when higher max-segments are set in the options.
  • There also have been some fixes to exploitations of game mechanics like the shield drain/supply being overpowered. Also cloaking/jamming now has a reload sequence when switched off.
  • Balance:
  • The block behavior config received some minor changes:
  • Power consumption per second was changed to power consumption per tick, all related values were changed accordingly.
  • EMP power damage was doubled, the power damage dealt to a ship is 2 times higher than the power consumed to fire that weapon.
  • Shield drain, supply and power drain received some value changes, it should be balanced:
  • Shield drain has the same shield DPS and power use as any other basic weapon but it gives you 50% of the drained HP.
  • Shield supply is set to power supply levels, its power consumption is 10 times lower though since a supply transfers 100% of your own shield.
  • Power drain, drains 50% less power than an equal EMP weapon but you gain 50% of the drained power.
  • Shield drain and supply now allow supports.
  • Bugfixes:
  • Here is the list of all fixed bugs:
  • T452 planet plate alignment odd when astronaut logout restart on planet surface
  • T444 Turrets shoot at targets out of range in "Selected Target" mode
  • T439 Blocks/items in crafting slots aren't deleted on death when inventory drop on death is enabled.
  • T424 Kicking someone out of the core with torch let Navigation Point disappear
  • T422 Block information not wrapping lines like shops do
  • T421 Missiles do once again damage mother entities (turret base and motherships)
  • T417 Moving stations as admin by using /change_sector or /change_sector_for breaks territory claims
  • T416 Entity flag editing
  • T414 Loot is not generated when the entity is destroyed by an AI/Turret
  • T412 Logic blocks with multiple inputs loose connections when pasted using the copy/paste feature
  • T407 windowPositionAndSizeConfig.tag sporadically corrupts.
  • T406 Attempting to place a block with nothing in slot will crash the game.
  • T405 Check if the player has a ship-core in the inventory is performed after the player is requested to enter the new ship's name.
  • T401 Pressing Left ctrl and left alt will drop the framerate to 10
  • T400 Warpgate faction issue
  • T397 AI ships can not use anti missile turrets
  • T396 Pirate AI does not work
  • T395 Missiles ignore shield sharing
  • T393 damage numbers don't show correctly for cannons, missiles and damage pulse
  • T391 Client logs show confidential information
  • T389 docked warheads don't explode on contact
  • T377 Failing Alignment after exiting docked entity
  • T374 faction inheriting mechanics override faction ID's
  • T366 Option for Personal faction enemy broken
  • T355 ship and armor HP is capped
  • T343 entering occupied build block causes several issues
  • T331 Redo/undo doesn't work correctly with Replace
  • T326 Astronaut mining bonus notice doesn't show correct bonus
  • T313 JVM Crash detected: incorrect dialog
  • T312 ship speed while being pulled into a wormhole can be limited by pressing a movement key
  • T310 Network data too large: priceUpdateBuffer, controllerKeyNameBuffer and controllerKeyBuffer
  • T278 Leaving a C aligned ship causes issues with searching a safe exit position
  • T238 Display Module text; shadow effect makes writing non-legible
  • T233 Chat kick and ban options
  • T225 radarjammer pirate exploit
  • T222 Can reset cool down of long cool down weapon systems
  • T215 Players on docked rail entities are left behind during sector changes or jumps
  • T203 Typo in /sector_chmod help
  • T173 Completely mined asteroids not properly saved / respawn of half mined asteroids
  • T166 Block list not working on Blueprint Catalog
  • T165 Trading Guild Resupply Convoys will resupply player-owned shops.
  • T148 Wrong warning when kicking Player from Faction
  • T136 Turret AI does not always follow its setting
  • T100 shield supply/drain beams are invisible
  • T89 Item Duplication Using Asteroid Respawn
  • T79 map filter shows text for turned off filters
  • T44 Rail enhancers consume power but running out of power does not change anything
  • T39 several menus allow background interaction
  • T37 abandoned stations don't have decaying turrets
  • T34 Phantom weapon and effect computers
  • T32 admin command mistakes: /sector_info /ship_info /last_changed
  • T24 Godmode does not transfer through rail docks
  • T14 mouse sensitivity sync
  • T6 shield damage applied by shield sharing is multiplied per chain

New in StarMade 0.19318 (Jul 13, 2015)

  • New Explosion System:
  • For the longest time, explosions were a big headache, not only because they were incredibly hard to balance, but also because their damage was unrealistic. Some visible cases of this are ships being hit inside hangars and players being killed inside ships, without the damage penetrating.
  • Since a system with actual rays doesn’t scale well, a completely new and unprecedented algorithm was developed to make explosions, in a fully three dimensional environment with any number of obstacles, as realistic as possible. With the help of complex data structures, it’s possible to approximate the explosion as if raytracing was used. Not only that, but also the whole system works fully asynchronously so that most of the work can be done multithreaded.
  • The performance can be finetuned through a server option which determines the maximal count of possible explosion threads. Server owners can increase that value by some, as it is currently set for a mid-level CPU.
  • Additionally, a new update system for transporting the data to the clients has been developed which means a lot less network bandwidth being used.
  • New balance for missiles and pulse:
  • The new explosion system gave us a ton of new possibilities to balance explosions, especially for shield damage, effects, and scaling. Since now damage to blocks is exact, the damage will only penetrate as far as the rays can possibly go.
  • Missile damage has been adapted to compensate for the fact that on average half of a missile’s energy goes into the void of space if, for example, the missile is impacting a flat wall. They have also been adapted for armor on both ship and blocks.
  • All explosive style systems have been upgraded including the pulse, which will now also emit in front of it’s output block. Pulse will also do some piercing damage. This makes it an excellent weapons to bypass armor when you get close to a target.
  • AI targeting improvements:
  • AI no longer targets the center of mass of an object. It will now specifically target blocks of ship systems. Of course target-seeking missiles will now also do the same.
  • Build Inhibitor:
  • Another little tool for boarding is the build inhibitor. This useful tool is turned on in the hotbar and prevents any building within a radius of 32 (which of course can be upgraded in the future).
  • The tool is available to buy from all shop keeps.
  • Note that there will be a lot more tools and gadgets coming for astronauts.
  • Rebooting/Repairing Stations:
  • Rebooting stations either over structure tab or by pressing the reboot hotkey will now also repair all armor HP.
  • UI Text Box Fixes:
  • The text boxes now have variable sizes. They also now automatically dock to the radar or build mode, so they will no longer block the advanced build mode when building.
  • Textures:
  • Kupu has updated some textures. We are also updating some Hud elements soon to give pilots better information when flying.
  • Council Applications for Next Term now open:
  • Applications for the Council of Intergalactic Representatives are now open! (You must sign in with your StarMade Registry account to apply) Everyone is free to apply. Applications have no set date for closing at the moment, but will not be closed before the 19th of July 11:59 PM UTC. You can learn more about the council here and be sure to check out the applications news post for further details.
  • Music Submissions Update:
  • In the v0.19282 news we announced we’re currently looking for someone to create SFX and soundtrack for StarMade. We’ve received an overwhelming number of emails, thanks must go out to everyone who has showed interest in the open role. We’ll still be accepting submissions till the 17th of July at 11:59 PM UTC. So, if you have the skills and are interested, be sure to send an email to [email protected]!
  • Other things:
  • Work on Fauna continues and focus on it increases with this update. There will also be some graphical upgrades to the block engine to make it more and more shiny (always in the philosophy: make the game fun first, then make it pretty)
  • Bug Fixes:
  • As always a big thanks to all the devs and testers!
  • T394 unable to repair armor and ship HP for stations
  • T387 Moving CBS links and vanishing blocks leaving behind links
  • T388 kick option broken for factions
  • T383 EMP effect power drain is multiplied by penetration depth
  • T376 Indestructible Warhead
  • T375 LOCK_FACTION_SHIPS = false on client, overrides server setting
  • T368 hitting an unshielded entity with damage pulse crashes game
  • T367 group power penalty does not work for most weapons
  • T321 EMP effect doesn't drain all power
  • T316 power supply/drain computer expected firing direction reversed from ‘normal’
  • T310 Network data too large: priceUpdateBuffer, controllerKeyNameBuffer and controllerKeyBuffer
  • T308 escape options menu, controls sub menu doesn't scale
  • T307 Ships can't undock from Rail Basics via Logic in certain directions
  • T284 forcefield and scaffold wedges don’t have icons
  • T277 overheating does not disable AI
  • T275 Storage box filter menu bug.
  • T274 Item duplication issue
  • T270 /shop_restock_uid and /shop_restock_full_uid do not work on player shops.
  • T269 Replace block with Active Slot - Factories
  • T265 Undeathinator not functional / Spawn point save broken
  • T247 Strange behavior on turrets attached to rail rotators
  • T222 Can reset cool down of long cool down weapon systems
  • T189 Blueprints incorrectly save wireless logic links
  • T180 Renamed planet. Name doesn't show on the galaxy map
  • T165 Trading Guild Resupply Convoys will resupply player-owned shops.
  • T146 "Destroyed" ship core blocks weapon projectiles
  • T142 Placing a salvage beam computer on an Asteroid causes Nullpointer
  • T108 build mode camera issue when hitting escape
  • T98 missile damage radius on nearby entities significantly higher than direct impact
  • T95 missiles hit behind a wall
  • T74 creating a new universe sets all blueprints to enemy usable/others and owner to none
  • T65 Turrets get stuck in collisions
  • T44 Rail enhancers consume power but running out of power does not change anything
  • T33 moving through walls exploit
  • T26 stack split item loss
  • T20 Logic Rail Detection on docking doesn't trigger
  • T14 mouse sensitivity sync
  • T11 Enable/Disable all AI only works for last chain
  • T6 shield damage applied by shield sharing is multiplied per chain
  • T4 controller block system exploit

New in StarMade 0.19282 / Development Build 20150613_214827 (Jun 22, 2015)

  • Fixed beam aiming for AI turrets
  • Fixed missing logic signal when docking to a rail block
  • Fixed defeated ships not being salvageable when overheating
  • Fixed defeated ships not giving errors
  • Fixed several issues in Galaxy Map.
  • BUG FIXES
  • T255 can't load old templates
  • T253 Old docking system makes astronauts stop moving
  • T213 Numpad Enter causes newline in dialog, instead of "submitting" the value
  • T196 Blocks dropped on death do not spawn properly
  • T184 Diaply.Hide Help Screen typo
  • T160 TAB + F8 nullpointer
  • T155 texture faces are rotated
  • T139 Damage Pulse modules listed as "beam unit" in Weapons menu
  • T132 Hotbar indicators are missing
  • T131 Selected waypoint sometimes wrong color after closing Navigation menu
  • T130 Cannot access ship storage after removing named chest
  • T127 "Killing" the ship core kicks pilot out
  • T125 removing blocks as astronaut doesn't update ship or armor HP
  • T123 Destroyed entity will cause you to go back to where you got in.
  • T114 blocks discarded on deletion as astronaut when not enough inventory space
  • T112 HP System - tiny ships and cores cannot be killed
  • T110 shooting factioned planet with missiles crashes all players not in that sector
  • T88 Area triggers are invisible
  • T77 escape key does not close options menu
  • T60 Inner Ship Remote labels don't work until weapons menu is opened
  • T58 Joining a faction when not being in one causes all factionless players to recieve a " has left your faction" notice
  • T49 Crash when holding weapon menu items in your cursor and opening inventory
  • T48 rail basic acts like turret axis block
  • T38 Faction systems do not work for all 12 planet segments
  • T35 Scan history nullpointer
  • T31 Oculus Rift DK2 Error
  • T30 Anti-missile turrets ineffective
  • T23 Station not saving
  • T21 /explode_planet_sector explodes planets in all loaded sectors
  • T15 Serverlist ping-check only trying TCP
  • T13 Ship HP damaged systems does not change anything
  • T12 Rail turret blueprint and nullpointer issue
  • T10 Rail entities are not properly synced across clients
  • T7 Ship always inherits faction after reloading sector
  • T5 local rail blueprint errors with multiple chains
  • T3 Require auth + not uplinked does not show a clear enough error-message on connecting

New in StarMade 0.19228 (May 12, 2015)

  • EDIT: fixes in 0.19228: New blocks now have recipes. Lag should be much less for other players when someone mines (still will be optimized even more). Also:
  • Cannot delete waypoints
  • Fix hidden error message for faction names too short.
  • Fix float rounding causing imprecise build helper values.
  • Fix escape key not closing all windows, and sometimes closing parent window.
  • Fix build mode flashing issues
  • Fix outer radius size of atmosphere.
  • planets and asteroids now have a default power capacity of 501

New in StarMade 0.19226 (May 10, 2015)

  • Finally the time has come to release the much anticipated Rail System. This update contains a full redesign of the docking and turrets system, as well as a lot of new features. The new rail/docking system also solves a lot of old problems.
  • Furthermore, thanks to the new devs, a lot of work has been done to fix bugs. With them getting more and more familiar to the huge codebase, bugfixing and work on new features will continue to pick up the pace.
  • Rail System
  • Here is a short overview of all the systems. They are explained in detail at the bottom.
  • Complete Redesign:
  • Due to the lack of usability and dynamic in the old docking system, we have decided to completely redesign the system from the bottom up. The new design is a lot more suited for all the current demands, as well as things to come.
  • The old system is still functional and no ships, blueprints, or other structures will break. The only restriction is that the docking beam is replaced with a pure activation beam, but if necessary the docking can be turned back on in the server config.
  • Rail basics (docking):
  • The new Magnet block can be docked to any Rail so long as the docking ship will not encounter a collision by doing so. This means no more docking zone boxes. Also, the orientation of your docked vessel can now be fully customized.
  • Rail movement:
  • In addition to the removal of the docking zone, Rail blocks can be chained together in paths to allow for docked objects to move along them. The system is completely dynamic and allows for full control with the logic system.
  • Rail rotation:
  • Rails are not the only new block allowing for docked objects and movement. Rotor blocks can be placed in your rail designs, or separately from them. The direction and angle of rotation can also be customized.
  • Rail interaction:
  • Logic signal interactions and linked speed control blocks can dictate the direction, distance and speed of movement/rotation of the new Rail and Rotor blocks. Also, power and some of the shields are now shared between the rail-docks and the mothership, as well as every object in between.
  • Rail logic:
  • The new rail blocks also come with complete integration with the the logic system in Starmade.
  • New Turret System:
  • Since the old docking also included the turret system, it now has also been redesigned. Turrets can now be divided into multiple rotational axes. In the most common example that would be a turret base that can rotate horizontally, and a turret top which would rotate vertically.
  • New logic blocks:
  • Several new logic blocks were added to expand the functionality of the logic system with StarMade’s gameplay and to help integrate the new Rail system. These new blocks include:
  • Button block (Provides a short (0.5 sec) ON signal then deactivates)
  • Flip-Flop block (Will only change its output when receiving an ON signal)
  • Wireless block (Allows logic systems to connect from ship to ship)
  • Remote block (Allows access to ship logic to be triggered from your action bar. Each block’s label can be changed by hitting ‘R’ on it)
  • Bug fixes:
  • An issue has been resolved that caused lag spikes whenever a new player join on more populated server. Also the configuration for the hotbar is now set by ship. That means when you load a blueprint after setting it, you will get the exact hotbar you saved the blueprint with.
  • This unfortunately had the effect that currently all hotbars reset once, but in the long run the new system is a lot more comfortable.
  • The login procedure on servers that require authentication has been improved so that non-uplinked players now get an explanation as well as a prompt to enter their credentials or go to the registry to setup a new account. Also, the pesky error messages which blocked the real message have been gotten rid of.
  • We fixed some bugs probably causing a lot of java version errors, making the code more strict to its version dependencies, so hopefully a lot less problems for new players will occur related to that.
  • Closed:
  • Dis-Integrator do not work on asteroids
  • unable to track down path calculation failed
  • Map: Interface skips the sectors near a system border
  • Sniper rifle can zoom in the galaxy map
  • Admins getting revoked of admin after logging on/off of server
  • Logic on asteroid crashes the game (ClassCastException)
  • IndexOutOfBoundsException with some handheld weapons
  • Non-linear camera movement speed
  • Ending tutorial brings you back to global spawnpoint
  • Weapon menu not refreshing correctly
  • Tab + F10 - Can be used to see cloaked entities
  • Asteroid name mismatch (Zerkaner & Zercaner)
  • Large, nearly complete blueprint quotas round to 100%
  • NEW claimed systems do not get saved
  • Overdrive power consumption doesn't scale with ratio
  • 1th and 2th typos in Faction Rank
  • Renamed entities cannot be searched for
  • cloaked ships still have the "pilot" marker visible
  • Cannot enter build block on asteroid - prevent placing it, not entering it
  • docking module on asteroid crashes game on activation - prevent placing it, not activating it
  • Lag/Freeze on autocomplete
  • Tutorial fails to import sector correctly
  • Launcher's world manager has no scrollbar
  • /search only searching loaded entities
  • Resolved:
  • Gui Error - faction menus refresh too fast and endlessly
  • (All bugs fixed caused with the rail system itself are unlisted)
  • Rail Docking Explained:
  • This part will serve as an in-depth explanation and reference for all new systems.
  • Rail docking basics:
  • The simplest kind of rail docking, which essentially replaces the old docking system, requires two blocks:
  • Rail Basic
  • Rail Docker
  • Rail Basic
  • The basic rail block serves as a docking access. You can dock to it using your rail docker. Placing only one basic rail serves as a static dock. Using more than one in a line produces a track a docked entity can run on.
  • Rail Docker:
  • This block is needed on the entity that you want to dock to a Basic Rail block. Each placed Rail Docker contains a docking beam that can be assigned to your hotbar in the weapons panel of the ship. On firing, this block emits a docking beam. When that beam hits the Basic Rail Block of another entity, it will attempt to dock to that block.
  • All rail blocks have a direction not only indicating the direction of the track, but also determining the docking orientation. On docking, the arrow of the docker as well as the direction of the Basic Rail, or any other dockable rail block, will be matched together like aligning the poles of two magnets so they will stick together.
  • The only restriction that docking has is that the docked entity has to fit. This means no block of the docked entity may overlap with any block of the structure it wants to dock on, as well as any other already docked entities.
  • Upon docking, a ship will also retrieve the faction ID of the structure it is docked to. This however now only lasts for the time it is docked and will revert to its old id when undocked. Also any ship docked to a rail block that has a public exception block next to it will keep its original faction while docked.
  • The docker has one logic input and one output. Linking an activation block to the Docker will cause that docker to undock on activation. Placing an activation block next to the docker will cause it to activate on docking, and deactivate on undocking.
  • Rail Movement:
  • As said, you are now able to make rail tracks by using the basic rails as well as the rail rotators explained below. Movement can be done in all three dimensions, and the rail docker will move on, as long as it has a tail track it can go to. It will stop if anything is in the way, or if there is no more rail to go onto. The direction of the rail to go onto can be different from the rail the block moves from as long as the primary face of the rail still touches the rail docker block.
  • Rail Rotator:
  • There are two types of rail rotators. Clockwise and counterclockwise. Upon docking or moving onto this block, the docked entity will do a 90 degree turn, and then move on in the direction the rotator block is pointing if it can. The amount as well as the degree of the block can be dynamically modified with the logic system. Connect up to 9 activation blocks to any rotator block to control the amount of rotation. The amount of active activation blocks determine the block’s rotation. Each active block will add 45 degrees. If all 9 are active, the block will constantly rotate.
  • Keep in mind, that to re engage a rotation, the logic system as explained below can be used.
  • Rail manipulation:
  • Rail manipulation allows for full control of rails. It works like a template copy & paste system:
  • All logic blocks that are placed next to a rail block have this rail block as an input to overwrite other rail blocks.
  • That means if you place an activation block with a basic rail block pointing forward next to it, and then connect that activation block to one or more other rail blocks, upon activation, all connected blocks will be replaced with the rail block pointing forward. If more than one rail block is next to an activation block, the system will take one pretty much randomly, so that is not recommended. The same also works for rail rotator blocks. Using it on a rotator block also resets it so if there is an entity currently on the rotator block, it will then rotate again with the new parameters. Basic rail blocks and rail rotator blocks are also interchangeable, allowing for more control over how docked entity move and rotate on a single rail layout.
  • Rail Logic:
  • Everything rails is controllable via the logic system. The rails have inputs which is the rail manipulation mentioned above, but they also have outputs. Every activation block that is next to a rail is activated when the rail docker block of the docked entity moves on it, and deactivated when it leaves it. The new button block also works in this way to detect a docked entity, sending out a 0.5 second on signal when the rail docker block passes over the rail next to it.
  • Rail Speed Control:
  • The rail speed controller is another block that can be used to manipulate how fast a rail moves a docked entity. It can be connected to any amount of activation blocks. The ratio of active blocks to inactive blocks determines how fast the rail will move in percent of the maximal speed. So connecting 5 active and 5 inactive is 50% speed, the same as connecting 100 active and 100 inactive. The rails that should be under influence of the speed controller also have to be connected to it. Using shift-V on rails connects straight lines of rails quicky. Also, mass plays a role in rail speed. Should the mass get too high, the speed of the rail will get slowed down eventually to a minimum. To combat this speed decrease, rail mass enhancer blocks have to be placed to increase the load every rail on the ship can take. These blocks do cost a little power.
  • Reasoning why rail controls work this way:
  • Some people might think: “Why can’t I just set the amount of rotation and speed in a menu?”. The reason is, that it would be then a static value, unless scripting is used. The rail system is fully dynamic and gives visual feedback. So you can change speed, rotation, and rail directions at any time manually or triggered by the logic system. Having it in a script would firstly be harder to understand and learn, secondly break with the game’s principle of using block architecture to solve problems, and lastly would be more a simulator or programming studio than a game.
  • Allowing dynamic control through logic enables a lot more control of movement.
  • Here’s one example of this as created by Crimson-Artist
  • Rail Turret:
  • With the rail system, turrets have been completely redesigned, too. Over are the times where turrets would glitch into the ship, and would look awkward with limited options to manipulate and control them.
  • The new system works with a 2-axis system. That means you can use at minimum one and at most 2 separate entities to form a turret.
  • The first one is the turret basis. This one can only be moved horizontally (rotate left/right), probably best imagined like a turret works on a battleship. The second one is the turret’s barrel, that, again like on a battleship can move vertically (rotate up/down). The cool thing is, that if you enter the turret on the barrel, you will have control over both parts at the same time, which would allow for turrets with full 360% freedom in all directions. However be aware that the turrets also now check the collision with its mothership and other docked entities and will restrict its movement in doing so.
  • The AI is fully integrated as well, and will work with almost any turret when placed on the barrel part. While in the turret its rotation can be reset by pressing ‘C’. You can also reset all turrets to the orientation they were in when you docked in the structure menu (under ‘rail system’).
  • AI will also reset the turrets after a while of not fighting. Currently it’s instant movement on reset to avoid getting stuck, but in the future the reset will also be smooth.
  • Please not there are still some minor issues with some turrets controlled by AI getting stuck. We are trying to fix that ASAP. Meanwhile please use teh reset feature.
  • Power and Shield Sharing:
  • To provide even more freedom when designing rails, you can now use the full power provided by the mothership and any docked entity in between.
  • The same goes for shields: If a turret or other dock gets hit, the chain to the mothership will check if any ship in between can take the hit. The requirement for overtaking a hit is that the ship must have above 50% of its shields and at least as many shields to take the full hit for the turret.

New in StarMade 0.19226 (May 10, 2015)

  • Finally the time has come to release the much anticipated Rail System. This update contains a full redesign of the docking and turrets system, as well as a lot of new features. The new rail/docking system also solves a lot of old problems.
  • Furthermore, thanks to the new devs, a lot of work has been done to fix bugs. With them getting more and more familiar to the huge codebase, bugfixing and work on new features will continue to pick up the pace.
  • Rail System
  • Here is a short overview of all the systems. They are explained in detail at the bottom.
  • Complete Redesign:
  • Due to the lack of usability and dynamic in the old docking system, we have decided to completely redesign the system from the bottom up. The new design is a lot more suited for all the current demands, as well as things to come.
  • The old system is still functional and no ships, blueprints, or other structures will break. The only restriction is that the docking beam is replaced with a pure activation beam, but if necessary the docking can be turned back on in the server config.
  • Rail basics (docking):
  • The new Magnet block can be docked to any Rail so long as the docking ship will not encounter a collision by doing so. This means no more docking zone boxes. Also, the orientation of your docked vessel can now be fully customized.
  • Rail movement:
  • In addition to the removal of the docking zone, Rail blocks can be chained together in paths to allow for docked objects to move along them. The system is completely dynamic and allows for full control with the logic system.
  • Rail rotation:
  • Rails are not the only new block allowing for docked objects and movement. Rotor blocks can be placed in your rail designs, or separately from them. The direction and angle of rotation can also be customized.
  • Rail interaction:
  • Logic signal interactions and linked speed control blocks can dictate the direction, distance and speed of movement/rotation of the new Rail and Rotor blocks. Also, power and some of the shields are now shared between the rail-docks and the mothership, as well as every object in between.
  • Rail logic:
  • The new rail blocks also come with complete integration with the the logic system in Starmade.
  • New Turret System:
  • Since the old docking also included the turret system, it now has also been redesigned. Turrets can now be divided into multiple rotational axes. In the most common example that would be a turret base that can rotate horizontally, and a turret top which would rotate vertically.
  • New logic blocks:
  • Several new logic blocks were added to expand the functionality of the logic system with StarMade’s gameplay and to help integrate the new Rail system. These new blocks include:
  • Button block (Provides a short (0.5 sec) ON signal then deactivates)
  • Flip-Flop block (Will only change its output when receiving an ON signal)
  • Wireless block (Allows logic systems to connect from ship to ship)
  • Remote block (Allows access to ship logic to be triggered from your action bar. Each block’s label can be changed by hitting ‘R’ on it)
  • Bug fixes:
  • An issue has been resolved that caused lag spikes whenever a new player join on more populated server. Also the configuration for the hotbar is now set by ship. That means when you load a blueprint after setting it, you will get the exact hotbar you saved the blueprint with.
  • This unfortunately had the effect that currently all hotbars reset once, but in the long run the new system is a lot more comfortable.
  • The login procedure on servers that require authentication has been improved so that non-uplinked players now get an explanation as well as a prompt to enter their credentials or go to the registry to setup a new account. Also, the pesky error messages which blocked the real message have been gotten rid of.
  • We fixed some bugs probably causing a lot of java version errors, making the code more strict to its version dependencies, so hopefully a lot less problems for new players will occur related to that.
  • Closed:
  • Dis-Integrator do not work on asteroids
  • unable to track down path calculation failed
  • Map: Interface skips the sectors near a system border
  • Sniper rifle can zoom in the galaxy map
  • Admins getting revoked of admin after logging on/off of server
  • Logic on asteroid crashes the game (ClassCastException)
  • IndexOutOfBoundsException with some handheld weapons
  • Non-linear camera movement speed
  • Ending tutorial brings you back to global spawnpoint
  • Weapon menu not refreshing correctly
  • Tab + F10 - Can be used to see cloaked entities
  • Asteroid name mismatch (Zerkaner & Zercaner)
  • Large, nearly complete blueprint quotas round to 100%
  • NEW claimed systems do not get saved
  • Overdrive power consumption doesn't scale with ratio
  • 1th and 2th typos in Faction Rank
  • Renamed entities cannot be searched for
  • cloaked ships still have the "pilot" marker visible
  • Cannot enter build block on asteroid - prevent placing it, not entering it
  • docking module on asteroid crashes game on activation - prevent placing it, not activating it
  • Lag/Freeze on autocomplete
  • Tutorial fails to import sector correctly
  • Launcher's world manager has no scrollbar
  • /search only searching loaded entities
  • Resolved:
  • Gui Error - faction menus refresh too fast and endlessly
  • (All bugs fixed caused with the rail system itself are unlisted)
  • Rail Docking Explained:
  • This part will serve as an in-depth explanation and reference for all new systems.
  • Rail docking basics:
  • The simplest kind of rail docking, which essentially replaces the old docking system, requires two blocks:
  • Rail Basic
  • Rail Docker
  • Rail Basic
  • The basic rail block serves as a docking access. You can dock to it using your rail docker. Placing only one basic rail serves as a static dock. Using more than one in a line produces a track a docked entity can run on.
  • Rail Docker:
  • This block is needed on the entity that you want to dock to a Basic Rail block. Each placed Rail Docker contains a docking beam that can be assigned to your hotbar in the weapons panel of the ship. On firing, this block emits a docking beam. When that beam hits the Basic Rail Block of another entity, it will attempt to dock to that block.
  • All rail blocks have a direction not only indicating the direction of the track, but also determining the docking orientation. On docking, the arrow of the docker as well as the direction of the Basic Rail, or any other dockable rail block, will be matched together like aligning the poles of two magnets so they will stick together.
  • The only restriction that docking has is that the docked entity has to fit. This means no block of the docked entity may overlap with any block of the structure it wants to dock on, as well as any other already docked entities.
  • Upon docking, a ship will also retrieve the faction ID of the structure it is docked to. This however now only lasts for the time it is docked and will revert to its old id when undocked. Also any ship docked to a rail block that has a public exception block next to it will keep its original faction while docked.
  • The docker has one logic input and one output. Linking an activation block to the Docker will cause that docker to undock on activation. Placing an activation block next to the docker will cause it to activate on docking, and deactivate on undocking.
  • Rail Movement:
  • As said, you are now able to make rail tracks by using the basic rails as well as the rail rotators explained below. Movement can be done in all three dimensions, and the rail docker will move on, as long as it has a tail track it can go to. It will stop if anything is in the way, or if there is no more rail to go onto. The direction of the rail to go onto can be different from the rail the block moves from as long as the primary face of the rail still touches the rail docker block.
  • Rail Rotator:
  • There are two types of rail rotators. Clockwise and counterclockwise. Upon docking or moving onto this block, the docked entity will do a 90 degree turn, and then move on in the direction the rotator block is pointing if it can. The amount as well as the degree of the block can be dynamically modified with the logic system. Connect up to 9 activation blocks to any rotator block to control the amount of rotation. The amount of active activation blocks determine the block’s rotation. Each active block will add 45 degrees. If all 9 are active, the block will constantly rotate.
  • Keep in mind, that to re engage a rotation, the logic system as explained below can be used.
  • Rail manipulation:
  • Rail manipulation allows for full control of rails. It works like a template copy & paste system:
  • All logic blocks that are placed next to a rail block have this rail block as an input to overwrite other rail blocks.
  • That means if you place an activation block with a basic rail block pointing forward next to it, and then connect that activation block to one or more other rail blocks, upon activation, all connected blocks will be replaced with the rail block pointing forward. If more than one rail block is next to an activation block, the system will take one pretty much randomly, so that is not recommended. The same also works for rail rotator blocks. Using it on a rotator block also resets it so if there is an entity currently on the rotator block, it will then rotate again with the new parameters. Basic rail blocks and rail rotator blocks are also interchangeable, allowing for more control over how docked entity move and rotate on a single rail layout.
  • Rail Logic:
  • Everything rails is controllable via the logic system. The rails have inputs which is the rail manipulation mentioned above, but they also have outputs. Every activation block that is next to a rail is activated when the rail docker block of the docked entity moves on it, and deactivated when it leaves it. The new button block also works in this way to detect a docked entity, sending out a 0.5 second on signal when the rail docker block passes over the rail next to it.
  • Rail Speed Control:
  • The rail speed controller is another block that can be used to manipulate how fast a rail moves a docked entity. It can be connected to any amount of activation blocks. The ratio of active blocks to inactive blocks determines how fast the rail will move in percent of the maximal speed. So connecting 5 active and 5 inactive is 50% speed, the same as connecting 100 active and 100 inactive. The rails that should be under influence of the speed controller also have to be connected to it. Using shift-V on rails connects straight lines of rails quicky. Also, mass plays a role in rail speed. Should the mass get too high, the speed of the rail will get slowed down eventually to a minimum. To combat this speed decrease, rail mass enhancer blocks have to be placed to increase the load every rail on the ship can take. These blocks do cost a little power.
  • Reasoning why rail controls work this way:
  • Some people might think: “Why can’t I just set the amount of rotation and speed in a menu?”. The reason is, that it would be then a static value, unless scripting is used. The rail system is fully dynamic and gives visual feedback. So you can change speed, rotation, and rail directions at any time manually or triggered by the logic system. Having it in a script would firstly be harder to understand and learn, secondly break with the game’s principle of using block architecture to solve problems, and lastly would be more a simulator or programming studio than a game.
  • Allowing dynamic control through logic enables a lot more control of movement.
  • Here’s one example of this as created by Crimson-Artist
  • Rail Turret:
  • With the rail system, turrets have been completely redesigned, too. Over are the times where turrets would glitch into the ship, and would look awkward with limited options to manipulate and control them.
  • The new system works with a 2-axis system. That means you can use at minimum one and at most 2 separate entities to form a turret.
  • The first one is the turret basis. This one can only be moved horizontally (rotate left/right), probably best imagined like a turret works on a battleship. The second one is the turret’s barrel, that, again like on a battleship can move vertically (rotate up/down). The cool thing is, that if you enter the turret on the barrel, you will have control over both parts at the same time, which would allow for turrets with full 360% freedom in all directions. However be aware that the turrets also now check the collision with its mothership and other docked entities and will restrict its movement in doing so.
  • The AI is fully integrated as well, and will work with almost any turret when placed on the barrel part. While in the turret its rotation can be reset by pressing ‘C’. You can also reset all turrets to the orientation they were in when you docked in the structure menu (under ‘rail system’).
  • AI will also reset the turrets after a while of not fighting. Currently it’s instant movement on reset to avoid getting stuck, but in the future the reset will also be smooth.
  • Please not there are still some minor issues with some turrets controlled by AI getting stuck. We are trying to fix that ASAP. Meanwhile please use teh reset feature.
  • Power and Shield Sharing:
  • To provide even more freedom when designing rails, you can now use the full power provided by the mothership and any docked entity in between.
  • The same goes for shields: If a turret or other dock gets hit, the chain to the mothership will check if any ship in between can take the hit. The requirement for overtaking a hit is that the ship must have above 50% of its shields and at least as many shields to take the full hit for the turret.

New in StarMade 0.19173 Hotfix (Mar 19, 2015)

  • Server:
  • fixed server crash on specific skin upload requests
  • fixed server crash and general problems of the unique id of entities being too big (DATABASE TRUNCATION)
  • fixed log output spam from requesting zones

New in StarMade 0.19171 Hotfix (Mar 19, 2015)

  • Server:
  • Console input using /chat will now be sent to the general channel.
  • The /chatchannel "channelname" "message" command can be used to send to specific channels.
  • Chat output in log has been restructure to be easier to parse for server admins.
  • Skin validation has been fixed, so skin distribution should now work again
  • Skin upload/download rates can now be defined in the server.cfg
  • Client:
  • Fixed window not scrolling to the bottom on multilined chat

New in StarMade 0.1917 (Mar 17, 2015)

  • Redesigned Chat:
  • Since we didn’t want to go for an only slightly better chat, we tried to go for the full package: That means a full channel systems with passwords, moderators, auto-rejoin, and on-hud-customization.
  • Channels:
  • The chat is now structured in channels. There is a general output always on your hud where all messages from systems, and channels you have joined but aren’t currently open for hud are displayed.
  • But of course if you open the channel and fix it to the hud, the messages will only display there.
  • There are a few default channels that are autocreated. These channels also can’t be left and there is no moderation. The General channel, and the Faction channel (which is auto-created for each faction). Moderation in the General chat is equal to moderation of admins in general. Moderation for faction channels can be done by removing someone from a faction.
  • But the most important channels are the custom channels. Any user may create temporal channels. These channels exist as long as there is at least on online player in it, and will automatically be removed otherwise (to prevent channel spam and abuse).
  • Furthermore admins can create permanent channels, which exist as long as an admin doesn’t delete it. It will also still exist if the server restarts. The channels password/options are saved.
  • Each channel has moderators. They have the ‘@’ sign in front of the name. Furthermore you can now identify server admins have the ‘§’ sign additionally. Admins always have moderator powers, and can join any password protected channel.
  • Also all messages are still logged on server in ./chatLogs, now by channel. The protection against other clients has been improved significantly. It is now impossible to hack a client to read other players PM’s and messages of a channel the client isn’t in. This is done by single casting messages only to the clients that are supposed to get it. It’s a more complicated system to design, but has many other advantages also, like less bandwidth used.
  • You can private message now with any player conveniently by just right clicking on his name in any chat. A private message channel is handled like a temporal channel and will only exist as long as both players are online (in fact the channels exist on the clients only, as the server just forwards the message to the specific clients).
  • On-Hud-Customization:
  • Also all chat panels can now be pinned to the hud. that means multiple chat windows can be displayed at all times exactly where you want them to be. This will get some additional improvements in the future like color coding of the background, and more.
  • Auto-Rejoin Channels:
  • Channel positions and options are also saved on logout. While a client will also never receive a password of a channel, the system saves the last password the client has used.
  • ATI and Intel problems:
  • There have been some bugfixes for both Intel and ATI cards. If there are further problems, please create a ticket and we will try to solve the problem asap.

New in StarMade 0.189996 (Mar 6, 2015)

  • this version is mostly for fixes to the current version. It got a little delayed to figure out the various graphical glitches a lot of ATI users have. Some shader fixes have been done to fix some drawing problems, but there is now also a draw option disabled for ATI users, which can be re-enabled in the in-game options (named 'MultiDraw' in the graphics settings) for machines where the gamed worked before,a s it saves some OpenGL call overhead.
  • Also, some problems are due to some ATI drivers and can be solved by switching on Framebuffer in the advanced options.
  • Furthermore the price setting for personal shops have been re-enabled and can be done by shop owners in the main shop menu.
  • There are also some updates to balance:
  • We changed a few things on punch through and piercing effect blocks again. After some more testing we noticed a bug. You would always deal 2 times more damage than we intended.
  • The listed damage would apply more total hull damage than the listed number.
  • Example: a 10 000 damage listed weapon would on punch through do: 10,000 -> 5,000 -> 2,500 -> 1,250 -> 625 -> ...
  • If you make the sum of that, you get near 20,000 damage which is not what we want.
  • This has now been fixed, that means these 2 effects will deal 50% times less damage (still a whole lot better than not using any hull effect).
  • We also noticed that piercing effect, even though it does double block damage and has an armor efficiency bonus, it was slightly less effective against non-armored blocks than a double sized punch through array.
  • Because of that, the damage loss on the next block is less than punch through now. Piercing will go around 2-3 blocks deeper, providing you have the damage of course.
  • We hope that this is now enough to justify the 100% shield damage debuff.

New in StarMade 0.18999 (Mar 5, 2015)

  • This update is something very special. While we are still working on a lot of new features, we took the time to take an indepth look at several systems. Mainly the graphics and the network code.
  • A lot of this game’s choices in terms of style and design have been made to make the game as big and as scalable as possible. This is the whole reason we stayed with the block only system as opposed to detailed polygon graphics, as blocks present a unique set of optimizations and designs that would be lost in a conventional LoD (level of detail) polygon system.
  • To tell the results upfront, we managed to increase the performance of both graphics and network immensely.
  • In numbers, this means an almost doubled framerate (depending on hardware), and a decrease of average network traffic to about 10% of what it was previously (profiled by stress tests on the server).
  • These kind of improvements are some of the most technical ones to be made for any program. A vast amount of hours went into analyzing and profiling, while in other areas like the network that even required to write additional modules to make analyzation even possible.
  • A big thanks to servers who gave us profiling information as well as the tester team and players creating stress tests to verify and improve the changes.
  • For any one interested, there is a more technical explanation of methods used and designs on the end of this post.
  • Custom Starter Gear :
  • Servers are now able to define their own starter gear for new players. This includes credits, blocks, meta items, and blueprints (filled or not).
  • To edit the starter items, after the first start in this version a GameConfig.xml will appear in the starmade base directory, which should be fairly self-explanatory to edit.
  • Forcefield doors:
  • This new door types added by kupu adds wonderful looking new doors.
  • Faction permission changes:
  • A lot more options for customization has been added to faction roles. There are now permissions to control relationship changes (declare war, personal enemies, etc), faction news posting, taking/abandoning a homebase, and territory claiming/clearing. If you are a faction leader be sure to check and adapt your roles accordingly.
  • Balance changes:
  • Calbiri, Lancake, as well as the tester team modified and gave feedback to a whole bunch of balance changes.
  • Hull blocks have been buffed in order to improve the survivability of ships:
  • Normal hull has 75 HP now.
  • Standard armor now has 60 armor and 100 HP, bringing it to 250 EHP.
  • Advanced armor now has 75 armor and 250 HP, bringing it to 1000 EHP.
  • Power supply beams have been buffed to bring it back to near pre-rework levels.
  • They are slightly less effective compared to what they used to be but they still offer around 5 to 6 times more power regen than their onboard equivalent in pure power regen blocks.
  • Power supply/tick: 40 -> 240
  • Power consumption/tick: 50 -> 270
  • The piercing defensive effect cap has been decreased but the amount of blocks you need to achieve max percentage has been decreased. This will bring the max achievable EHP to 2500!
  • Shield capacitors have now 2 times more shield HP, this is to make fights last longer and increase the chance of surviving high alpha damage.
  • Regen rate has remained unchanged.
  • Shield Capacity Total Mul: 55 -> 110
  • Warheads (dis-integrators) have doubled block damage:
  • Missile + Pulse:
  • Radius has been nerfed to 48, with explosive you can get 58
  • Slightly faster, nerf: 4 -> 3
  • Does more damage, buff: 1 -> 2
  • Missile + Beam:
  • Slower so anti missile turrets have less chance of missing buff: 2 -> 1
  • Other changes:
  • Ingots and crystals are 2 times cheaper to make it easier to craft advanced and crystal armor.
  • Shield cap and rechargers are 2 times cheaper.
  • HP of the more expensive systems, mainly weapons and support tools, has been increased by a factor of 2-3 in most cases.
  • Gameplay changes:
  • The punch through damage system now has an effective penetration depth of around 7 blocks.
  • It used to make the other hull damage effects more or less obsolete and is in large groups gamebreaking. It is now equal to the piercing and explosive system in terms of block destruction per hit.
  • The piercing effect blocks are now switched over to the punch through damage system, with its double damage for blocks it would be ideal to use this system to destroy heavily armored ships.
  • This is also great for low damage weapons but with the drawback of doing no to low shield damage, depending on effect ratio.
  • The punch through effect blocks use the piercing damage system, making it capable of damaging blocks below armor without really destroying the armor itself first. It did lose its armor efficiency bonus though so if you want to destroy armor, piercing is the way to go. It doesn’t have a shield debuff though.
  • Explosive has not changed. It doesn’t exactly penetrate but it can damage a wide surface area with a minimum of weapon groups.
  • To clear things up, these are the current 3 hull damage types (not blocks):
  • Piercing damage system: Damage applied on a block gets halved and goes to the next block. This will automatically lead to a softcap at around 7 blocks deep. This also makes it able to destroy/damage blocks below armor plates without destroying that first.
  • Punchthrough damage system: Damage applied on a block gets deducted with that block’s EHP, then it is halved and passes to the next block. This also has a softcap at around 7 blocks.
  • Explosive damage system: ⅙ of damage gets applied to all touching blocks.
  • Unfortunately these changes do require an overhaul in ship design. Because of the stronger shields, and more durable hull, it would be highly recommended to put more armor and weapon blocks on your ships and sacrifice some shields.
  • Any constructive feedback is appreciated.
  • Bugfixes :
  • Bug 1769: Nocx Charged Circuit Wedge (typo bug)
  • Bug 1538: Brown paint can be bought in the shop; it can't be crafted
  • Bug 1285: Active circuit wedge have no animated texture
  • Bug 834: Ice Crystal Wedges missing from shops
  • Bug 565: Pentas are actually Heptas
  • All fixed prices have been adjusted so that they are around 1.5-3 times higher than their dynamic price.
  • There also have been some bugfixes to combat the slowdown of sound played, as well as more rare problems like driver crashes from the new GUI, and a lot of smaller bugfixes that caused crashes and glitches.
  • Technical explanation of optimizations:
  • Graphics:
  • To begin with, these optimizations will only work with occlusion culling off. Occlusion culling is a nice concept with a fata backdraw: It’s very hardware dependant and will be slower, cause glitches, or straight up crash on crash on some systems.
  • For graphics the main work was to find out the bottleneck of the graphics systems. There were two main bottlenecks, which are either CPU or GPU bound. StarMade graphics are not CPU bound right now, which means there is something in the GPU processing causing the longest wait per frame.
  • Since OpenGL is a pipeline design, waits are not identifiable by just checking how long the code needs to execute on the specific commands. What happens is that the graphics card works asynchronous to the program execution. That means that all calls to openGL may be executed at an undefined time within the frame. If the program is GPU bounds it usually takes longer for the instruction to synch change to the next frame at the end, as the CPU waits for all the instructions that haven’t finished yet.
  • To actually find out what part in the code there has to be a deep analysis of graphics processing, which means switching of parts of graphics processing one by one to identify where exactly a framedrop happens, while keeping the graphics card processing large amounts of work.
  • In openGL (and other systems) there are 5 main bottlenecks to check: Framebuffer Fillrate, Vertex processing, Fragment Processing, Light processing and Texture Fetches.
  • By turning off specific parts of graphics processing combinations of what parts make the graphics run faster can be used to identify the bottleneck.
  • In StarMade’s case, there was a severe bottleneck going on with fragment processing (putting the pixels into the polygons and the screen). This started the second tier of finding the bottleneck within the fragment shader. It turned out to be the shire load of passing interpolated variables like occlusion and normals to the fragment shader.
  • To combat that I first changed the simpler per vertex lighting to look exactly like the per pixel lighting, and that would have worked overall, but it would look worse at close distance as wella s completely disable bump/normal mapping which depend on per pixel normals.
  • The solution to finally break this was to do preprocessed shaders, which use a simpler lighting on distance and a more advanced up close. The result was immense giving about 70% more fps to a planet of ~230 radius.
  • The next bottleneck identified was fillrate of textures. Since on high res, the textures have to lookup and interpolate pixels a lot more than on low res, another optimization was made to use low res textures at a distance. This also had the nice effect of eliminating texture noise when viewing objects at a distance.
  • Lastly the render queue has been optimized to greatly reduce draw calls and depth lookups by separating drawing in opaque and transparent parts, and also using chunked multi-drawing to the chunks of whole objects called with just one command.
  • Overall the optimizations yielded that a frame with large objects on it can be drawn in half the time it used to, which essentially doubles the graphics performance.
  • Furthermore these optimizations will also greatly benefit the shadow system, which also should be a lot faster now.
  • Network:
  • Network profiling is a lot more tricky as all you see on a basic level is individual bytes. Even listing packets is not very efficient as for one it itself costs a lot of performance, and secondly, it’s very hard to interpret.
  • Thanks to the design of our network protocol it was easy to aggregate per class and fields of time, which made it possible to exactly analyze network traffic and where it came from.
  • Furthermore, a profiling tool was build to help catch any fluctuation in the traffic by sent and received. It can even save individual timeframes for later analysis. if you are interested, you can look at it with F12, as well as turn on the live graphs in the options.
  • There were several bottlenecks identified immediately:
  • Block modification: All modifications to blocks, be it by battle, or by building were sent to all players which meant a huge load for players that have nothing to do with what happens in another part of the Galaxy. These are now made into private channels to only be sent to people in the area. Other players entering the area will get all the changed with the usual chunk requests. (note that making private channels is not advisable for everything as the cost for building and sending individual packets can outweigh what private channels would actually save).
  • There were a lot of other small places where making things private saved a lot of basic bandwidth.
  • The biggest optimization however was to bigger ships and their control structure. In order for client and server to synchronize, the data of what block connects to what has to be transmitted as soon as that ship is loaded. This was already done on a private channel, but a bigger ship, even with compression and everything turned on, cost 2.8 mb of data per player in the area. That is of course not acceptable, as it caused servers to burst data, and depending on provider entering a slow mode to compensate.
  • This was solved with a specially developed algorithm. By taking advantage of the block system once again and how ship systems work, a 2D map based on the shortest two dimensions can be made and per line regression can be applied. While this is a little to complicated to explain in details, here is the result: That 2.8mb ship now only took 14Kb, which is an improvement by 2000 times

New in StarMade 0.18999 (Mar 5, 2015)

  • This update is something very special. While we are still working on a lot of new features, we took the time to take an indepth look at several systems. Mainly the graphics and the network code.
  • A lot of this game’s choices in terms of style and design have been made to make the game as big and as scalable as possible. This is the whole reason we stayed with the block only system as opposed to detailed polygon graphics, as blocks present a unique set of optimizations and designs that would be lost in a conventional LoD (level of detail) polygon system.
  • To tell the results upfront, we managed to increase the performance of both graphics and network immensely.
  • In numbers, this means an almost doubled framerate (depending on hardware), and a decrease of average network traffic to about 10% of what it was previously (profiled by stress tests on the server).
  • These kind of improvements are some of the most technical ones to be made for any program. A vast amount of hours went into analyzing and profiling, while in other areas like the network that even required to write additional modules to make analyzation even possible.
  • A big thanks to servers who gave us profiling information as well as the tester team and players creating stress tests to verify and improve the changes.
  • For any one interested, there is a more technical explanation of methods used and designs on the end of this post.
  • Custom Starter Gear :
  • Servers are now able to define their own starter gear for new players. This includes credits, blocks, meta items, and blueprints (filled or not).
  • To edit the starter items, after the first start in this version a GameConfig.xml will appear in the starmade base directory, which should be fairly self-explanatory to edit.
  • Forcefield doors:
  • This new door types added by kupu adds wonderful looking new doors.
  • Faction permission changes:
  • A lot more options for customization has been added to faction roles. There are now permissions to control relationship changes (declare war, personal enemies, etc), faction news posting, taking/abandoning a homebase, and territory claiming/clearing. If you are a faction leader be sure to check and adapt your roles accordingly.
  • Balance changes:
  • Calbiri, Lancake, as well as the tester team modified and gave feedback to a whole bunch of balance changes.
  • Hull blocks have been buffed in order to improve the survivability of ships:
  • Normal hull has 75 HP now.
  • Standard armor now has 60 armor and 100 HP, bringing it to 250 EHP.
  • Advanced armor now has 75 armor and 250 HP, bringing it to 1000 EHP.
  • Power supply beams have been buffed to bring it back to near pre-rework levels.
  • They are slightly less effective compared to what they used to be but they still offer around 5 to 6 times more power regen than their onboard equivalent in pure power regen blocks.
  • Power supply/tick: 40 -> 240
  • Power consumption/tick: 50 -> 270
  • The piercing defensive effect cap has been decreased but the amount of blocks you need to achieve max percentage has been decreased. This will bring the max achievable EHP to 2500!
  • Shield capacitors have now 2 times more shield HP, this is to make fights last longer and increase the chance of surviving high alpha damage.
  • Regen rate has remained unchanged.
  • Shield Capacity Total Mul: 55 -> 110
  • Warheads (dis-integrators) have doubled block damage:
  • Missile + Pulse:
  • Radius has been nerfed to 48, with explosive you can get 58
  • Slightly faster, nerf: 4 -> 3
  • Does more damage, buff: 1 -> 2
  • Missile + Beam:
  • Slower so anti missile turrets have less chance of missing buff: 2 -> 1
  • Other changes:
  • Ingots and crystals are 2 times cheaper to make it easier to craft advanced and crystal armor.
  • Shield cap and rechargers are 2 times cheaper.
  • HP of the more expensive systems, mainly weapons and support tools, has been increased by a factor of 2-3 in most cases.
  • Gameplay changes:
  • The punch through damage system now has an effective penetration depth of around 7 blocks.
  • It used to make the other hull damage effects more or less obsolete and is in large groups gamebreaking. It is now equal to the piercing and explosive system in terms of block destruction per hit.
  • The piercing effect blocks are now switched over to the punch through damage system, with its double damage for blocks it would be ideal to use this system to destroy heavily armored ships.
  • This is also great for low damage weapons but with the drawback of doing no to low shield damage, depending on effect ratio.
  • The punch through effect blocks use the piercing damage system, making it capable of damaging blocks below armor without really destroying the armor itself first. It did lose its armor efficiency bonus though so if you want to destroy armor, piercing is the way to go. It doesn’t have a shield debuff though.
  • Explosive has not changed. It doesn’t exactly penetrate but it can damage a wide surface area with a minimum of weapon groups.
  • To clear things up, these are the current 3 hull damage types (not blocks):
  • Piercing damage system: Damage applied on a block gets halved and goes to the next block. This will automatically lead to a softcap at around 7 blocks deep. This also makes it able to destroy/damage blocks below armor plates without destroying that first.
  • Punchthrough damage system: Damage applied on a block gets deducted with that block’s EHP, then it is halved and passes to the next block. This also has a softcap at around 7 blocks.
  • Explosive damage system: ⅙ of damage gets applied to all touching blocks.
  • Unfortunately these changes do require an overhaul in ship design. Because of the stronger shields, and more durable hull, it would be highly recommended to put more armor and weapon blocks on your ships and sacrifice some shields.
  • Any constructive feedback is appreciated.
  • Bugfixes :
  • Bug 1769: Nocx Charged Circuit Wedge (typo bug)
  • Bug 1538: Brown paint can be bought in the shop; it can't be crafted
  • Bug 1285: Active circuit wedge have no animated texture
  • Bug 834: Ice Crystal Wedges missing from shops
  • Bug 565: Pentas are actually Heptas
  • All fixed prices have been adjusted so that they are around 1.5-3 times higher than their dynamic price.
  • There also have been some bugfixes to combat the slowdown of sound played, as well as more rare problems like driver crashes from the new GUI, and a lot of smaller bugfixes that caused crashes and glitches.
  • Technical explanation of optimizations:
  • Graphics:
  • To begin with, these optimizations will only work with occlusion culling off. Occlusion culling is a nice concept with a fata backdraw: It’s very hardware dependant and will be slower, cause glitches, or straight up crash on crash on some systems.
  • For graphics the main work was to find out the bottleneck of the graphics systems. There were two main bottlenecks, which are either CPU or GPU bound. StarMade graphics are not CPU bound right now, which means there is something in the GPU processing causing the longest wait per frame.
  • Since OpenGL is a pipeline design, waits are not identifiable by just checking how long the code needs to execute on the specific commands. What happens is that the graphics card works asynchronous to the program execution. That means that all calls to openGL may be executed at an undefined time within the frame. If the program is GPU bounds it usually takes longer for the instruction to synch change to the next frame at the end, as the CPU waits for all the instructions that haven’t finished yet.
  • To actually find out what part in the code there has to be a deep analysis of graphics processing, which means switching of parts of graphics processing one by one to identify where exactly a framedrop happens, while keeping the graphics card processing large amounts of work.
  • In openGL (and other systems) there are 5 main bottlenecks to check: Framebuffer Fillrate, Vertex processing, Fragment Processing, Light processing and Texture Fetches.
  • By turning off specific parts of graphics processing combinations of what parts make the graphics run faster can be used to identify the bottleneck.
  • In StarMade’s case, there was a severe bottleneck going on with fragment processing (putting the pixels into the polygons and the screen). This started the second tier of finding the bottleneck within the fragment shader. It turned out to be the shire load of passing interpolated variables like occlusion and normals to the fragment shader.
  • To combat that I first changed the simpler per vertex lighting to look exactly like the per pixel lighting, and that would have worked overall, but it would look worse at close distance as wella s completely disable bump/normal mapping which depend on per pixel normals.
  • The solution to finally break this was to do preprocessed shaders, which use a simpler lighting on distance and a more advanced up close. The result was immense giving about 70% more fps to a planet of ~230 radius.
  • The next bottleneck identified was fillrate of textures. Since on high res, the textures have to lookup and interpolate pixels a lot more than on low res, another optimization was made to use low res textures at a distance. This also had the nice effect of eliminating texture noise when viewing objects at a distance.
  • Lastly the render queue has been optimized to greatly reduce draw calls and depth lookups by separating drawing in opaque and transparent parts, and also using chunked multi-drawing to the chunks of whole objects called with just one command.
  • Overall the optimizations yielded that a frame with large objects on it can be drawn in half the time it used to, which essentially doubles the graphics performance.
  • Furthermore these optimizations will also greatly benefit the shadow system, which also should be a lot faster now.
  • Network:
  • Network profiling is a lot more tricky as all you see on a basic level is individual bytes. Even listing packets is not very efficient as for one it itself costs a lot of performance, and secondly, it’s very hard to interpret.
  • Thanks to the design of our network protocol it was easy to aggregate per class and fields of time, which made it possible to exactly analyze network traffic and where it came from.
  • Furthermore, a profiling tool was build to help catch any fluctuation in the traffic by sent and received. It can even save individual timeframes for later analysis. if you are interested, you can look at it with F12, as well as turn on the live graphs in the options.
  • There were several bottlenecks identified immediately:
  • Block modification: All modifications to blocks, be it by battle, or by building were sent to all players which meant a huge load for players that have nothing to do with what happens in another part of the Galaxy. These are now made into private channels to only be sent to people in the area. Other players entering the area will get all the changed with the usual chunk requests. (note that making private channels is not advisable for everything as the cost for building and sending individual packets can outweigh what private channels would actually save).
  • There were a lot of other small places where making things private saved a lot of basic bandwidth.
  • The biggest optimization however was to bigger ships and their control structure. In order for client and server to synchronize, the data of what block connects to what has to be transmitted as soon as that ship is loaded. This was already done on a private channel, but a bigger ship, even with compression and everything turned on, cost 2.8 mb of data per player in the area. That is of course not acceptable, as it caused servers to burst data, and depending on provider entering a slow mode to compensate.
  • This was solved with a specially developed algorithm. By taking advantage of the block system once again and how ship systems work, a 2D map based on the shortest two dimensions can be made and per line regression can be applied. While this is a little to complicated to explain in details, here is the result: That 2.8mb ship now only took 14Kb, which is an improvement by 2000 times

New in StarMade 0.1885 Hotfix (Feb 9, 2015)

  • this update contains a fix for servers freezing up (clients can't connect but the server will not hard crash).
  • It also contains a few other fixes like asteroids turning brown after revisiting a sector. All asteroids that were affected by it will turn back retroactively, as long as they have not been moved or edited.
  • Some GUI fixes are also done like new sliders with better usability as you can now click in the lane and new progress bars, as well as some smaller functionality fixes.
  • Cargo:
  • Oh and one bigger thing is that you can now switch to chests or factories from the inside of your ship/build block. The new option "cargo" is in the ship/station dropdown on the top task bar. You can also access all the named inventories from any chest from the panel's dropdown in the top right.
  • You first have to rename at least one chest/factory though which can be done from within the inventory panel. You can name up to 16 inventories per structure for the moment, but it is going to maybe get raised depending on its data usage on servers.

New in StarMade 0.1882 (Feb 4, 2015)

  • Here is a quick update to fix a lot of GUI related bugs and missing element:
  • fixed display block dialog and input font
  • fixed text limit on trash items
  • fixed list optimization
  • fixed list vram leak
  • fixed catalog delete button
  • fixed navigation panel nullpointer exception
  • fixed personal weapon indexoutofbounds exception
  • fixed reload indications for personal weapons
  • fixed active indication for cloaker etc
  • current recipe now displayed when factory inactive
  • fixed home-base display on own faction. added home-base in faction details in the diplomacy panel
  • added main size in the weapon panel
  • added name of weapon in the weapon panel. I'm still unhappy with this panel and it will probably be redesigned from scratch
  • re-added search for last ship in navigation
  • re-added scan history in navigation
  • re-added change owner for catalog (admins only)
  • updated player list (tab) with new style and sorting
  • texture fixed/changes (by Kupu):
  • added slot numbers to hotbar
  • minor fixed for graphics
  • new inventory slot background
  • added new sprite for several function to make them more clear visually (will be integrated to game in a later update)
  • fixed list reset on updates

New in StarMade 0.188 (Feb 2, 2015)

  • the new GUI is finally done. I know it took a little, but now the normal update cycle will start again.
  • Designing, programming, and testing a GUI is a very time consuming process, especially when it’s replacing an already existing one.
  • This update might seem lacking in new features, because it replaces a lot of things. But we hope it will make gameplay and usability a lot more comfortable.
  • GUI System Main Features:
  • All of the art has been made by the awesome Kupu. Besides the new look, a lot of basic functionality has been added to the GUI. While the foundations for the new GUI designs are in, we are aware some older windows need replacing and further work will be continued.
  • Window position and size save:
  • Every window can now be resized and moved. Also the position of each window is saved and restored even after exiting the game.
  • Dynamic window resize:
  • All key element of windows will dynamically resize with the window.
  • List optimization:
  • Large lists will no longer cause lag.
  • List filters, sorting, and searches:
  • Virtually every list in the game has now responsive search bars, filters, and sorting on every column. One feature many people requested for a long time was for example a shop search, which comes for free in the new GUI.
  • Also the fixed tabs have been replaced with a menu bar on top for easy access to every panel.
  • A lot of GUI elements like buttons give a lot better feedback to the user now.
  • HUD System main features
  • New Radar:
  • The radar in the top right has been replaced with a completely new system that will show other entities relative to the player’s current horizon.
  • You can also switch on a bigger version in the options.
  • New Message popup System:
  • The message system has been redone to be less obtrusive. There is still some work to do to get rid of unnecessary messages.
  • Effect and Feedback System:
  • A pilot will now get feedback on what effects are currently affecting him. Also more instant information like power failure, being hit by a weapon with a side effect and much more will now appear in the HUD for the pilot to see.
  • Cleaned up HUD:
  • The HUD has been made much cleaner with much less unnecessary info. Speed and other information is now in bars to the side. Information on what bar is what will display when changing into flight mode and then blend out to make the screen more free.
  • The 3 icons on the top right are “shop in distance”, “new mail”, and “trading” (which will be implemented very soon)
  • Small additions improving usability:
  • Selecting an object now displays shield and power on the top left. Also if the name is too long, it will automatically scroll the name back and forth.
  • Options have been restructured to be much easier to navigate.
  • Relations of other factions are now accessible in the diplomacy tab.
  • Asteroid resource specs are now displayed in its name and also accessible in the navigation tab.
  • Item description is now available in the inventory.
  • Items can now be destroyed from the inventory
  • If the game window isn’t focused (alt+tabbed), the first click on the window will be consumed, as it’s pretty much random for the mouse system where the first focusing click went. This means no accidentally shooting a weapon or other unwanted actions upon returning to the game.
  • Other features added:
  • Navigation bookmarking:
  • Players can now set up to 20 bookmarks (can be changed in server config) of sectors, and name them.
  • Station Blueprints:
  • Stations now behave exactly like normal blueprints. You can now save your station from within a build block, and buy the blueprint of it. Buying the blueprint from the shop will cost 1m credits. This price can now also be changed in the server config.
  • Updated shop descriptions:
  • Calbiri updated the shop description for missing entries and correcting spelling etc. More balancing will follow in the coming updates.
  • New Decorative Blocks:
  • Kupu has added three awesome new decorative blocks;
  • Decorative Charts
  • Decorative Conduits
  • Scaffolding
  • Also the icons got updated to be more visible (e.g. for the glas).
  • Bugfixing:
  • Some issues, large and small, have been fixed.
  • Something to mention is a fix for players that would prevent the world from saving at all.
  • Another new server config option is now also the separation of total thread pool and cpu thread pool. The default value of CPU thread pool has been lowered to combat the issue of some machines slowing down to the point freezes.
  • Minor fix : Yellow Lights and Yellow Rods now have a working “OFF” state.
  • What’s next:
  • There will be some cleanup required for the old graphics and code. Also the new GUI will be made more organized so that it can be made into GUI/HUD packs that will be put on the content page for sharing.
  • GUI layouts will receive a little more polish and some placeholder sprites will be replaced.
  • The big messages on screen will be cleaned up to not be as intrusive as they are now.
  • Also a new chat system with groups tabs and all the good stuff will be made (That’s why we held of changing the chat system for now)
  • A lot of servers reported performance problems when a lot of people are playing. Thanks to their reports I already found a lot of areas to optimize the pipeline to hopefully eliminate the problems.
  • The new docking system along with the rail system will be the next main project for gameplay.
  • We’ll also will do further work on the game API.

New in StarMade 0.1867 (Dec 16, 2014)

  • Hopefully fixed vanishing ships bug (hard to track down)
  • Reverted audio lib but added an alternative library (in the startup sound settings (turn OpenAL off)) to combat the problem
  • Fixed faction being overwritten when docking as a neutral on a docking block of another faction
  • Fixed Station spawn propabilities (too much pirate). This will normalize in undiscovered territory only.
  • Fixed black holes spawning in totorial system.
  • Probably fixed black holes spawning in 0 0 0, but if it's still happening, it won't apply gravity
  • Turrets on neutral stations are now decayed
  • Fixed people crashing because of audio lib in the last versions
  • Fixed older blueprints that were not working
  • Fixed new worlds not having any ships with the "enemy spawnable" flag

New in StarMade 0.1862 (Dec 15, 2014)

  • Faction Role Permissions:
  • This new feature now allows faction members to restrict access to their structures over the faction block. The access can be set by rank, and only that or better ranks can edit/enter that structure.
  • That way, factions don't have to worry about double-agents infiltrating the faction and destroying the home base and all their ships when they are offline, as long as they don't promote that double agent.
  • Another feature is a 'Friendly fire' options for factions. This can be set to each role individually in the faction options. A member in that role with that option will be kicked from the faction on the 3rd attack on their own faction.
  • This will hopefully help factions to admit more new players without having to fear about their belongings being destroyed.
  • I will also add faction rank based permission blocks that can be placed on any block that can be activated (e.g. storage) to serve the same purpose on a more detailed scale.
  • Station Contest Winners:
  • Finally the stations of the winners are in the game. They will deployed only if the server didn't use custom stations yet (removing the folder would deploy them on next start).
  • These station will now spawn in neutral slots in the galaxy generator. Already explored systems might have a little bit more pirate stations than they should have but it is fixed and should normalize over time. All trading guild stations are shops and currently invulnerable (since there is more planned for them). Pirate stations not only have turrets, but they also call for support.
  • Descriptions are taken from the content pages of the entries.
  • Derelict Stations:
  • Gamma Derelict by tenk11kamikaza:
  • Author's description: well here it is,my first completed entry for station contest,abandoned station. 10 bedrooms,1 command tower,1 medium hangar,1 external landing pad,1 bar,1 core room. hope you like it!
  • Tranquility by Tshara:
  • Author's description: The station is part of the neutral faction. So basically an abandoned station. However I see this station more as mothballed. It’s in perfect order just stripped of all equipment. The only thing left are the power and shield systems.
  • Medical Derelict by Atomic Yams:
  • Author's description: A semi-destroyed hospital station
  • Shangra-La by Crimson-Artist:
  • (no description)
  • Nova by worms:
  • (no description found)
  • Trading Guild Stations:
  • Outpost by dalmond:
  • Author's description: My first entry into the station contest! A small Trading Guild outpost; features a biodome, habitation ring, logical gravity elevator, hangar bay, shielding, shop, respawn point, and much more!
  • Space Port by MaranellongGuild:
  • Author's description: This station have a very high-tech factory built look of course with civilians eye for aesthetics and prestige.
  • The SpacePort features 3 docks, all designed for Isanth type-Zero's, A factory that's able to macro-assemble, micro-assemble and refine ores. the station also features a control room/ office area, where materials are sold and bought.
  • all three docks have signals at the entrance, showing if the dock is occupied or not.
  • Refueling Station by Zeno9141:
  • Author's description: My entry for the Station Contest. A simple but pleasing Trading Station used for refueling.
  • Features:
  • A cozy, detailed interior
  • A free parking spot for ships
  • Explosive fuel tanks... BOOOOM!
  • Trade Hub by Vanhelzing:
  • Author's description: So here is my entry for the contest. This is a trade hub. Designed more for the storage of goods and temporary visits. Basically a pit stop where you can rest while your ship is loaded with goods.
  • Gamma Trade Station by tenk11kamikaza:
  • Author's description: well here it is: 7 medium infinity class turrets,luxury floors,big power supply,2 hangars
  • Pirate Stations:
  • Nexus by tenk11kamikaza, Dalmont and Raiben
  • Hub Station by Vanhelzing:
  • Author's description: This is my second station for the station build contest. It is a pirate hub, a home base as it were for the pirates of StarMade. The station was abandoned until pirates came along and starting adding to it. It is meant to look functional, but also amalgamated with chunks of metal that the pirates have added on over time.
  • Night Bane Station by jzimmerman4:
  • Author's description: The most sinister pirate station created for the station contest.
  • Features:
  • Factory
  • Isanth friendly hanger
  • Ship storage (for all them stolen goods)
  • Treasure room
  • Cryo pods
  • The all so necessary space bar
  • Research facility (lets hope the purple vines don't get out of control again)
  • Holo room
  • 5 defense towers
  • 20 turrets
  • Pirate Military Station by Lancake:
  • Author's description: It's an expensive/sturdy looking station made by the richest pirates in the starmade universe. Has 8 strong turrets that have 0 shields but should be able to damage medium sized ships without a problem.
  • The station itself has automatic opening external hangar doors. Lights in those tubes will go red when vacuum is entering (when the doors open on the outside) and there is a switch at the command center to put the station on high alert, closing all elevator doors and turning on flashing red lights.
  • Because the owners of this station are a bunch of cowards they also placed down a 100 000 hp strong shield on it so they get more time to escape if needed.
  • Command Center by Fwiffo:
  • Author's description: This is my entry for the StarMade station contest - A pirate station with a command center theme, has 9 small turrets for defense, decent shields, a faction module, and a pretty big interior.
  • after lots of trouble trying to get these pictures uploaded, here they are, enjoy.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Those with sound looping problems, I apologize for this bug. I updated the sound library and am trying out several things, but it's very hard to test unfortunately.
  • Resolved 2
  • 1433 Docked/Turret entities docked to homebase planets are vulnerable on the segments other than the one with the faction block
  • 1424 Random "indexoutofboundsexception" crashes when playing on Multiplayer
  • Closed 8
  • 1372 Duplicate by using factories, multi slots only
  • 1224 Inconsistencies In blockBehaviorConfig.xml
  • 1351 Skin File Exploit
  • 1431 Anyone can reset the faction signature/ salvage the faction module
  • 1405 Item duplication in factory
  • 1252 Explosive defense system does NOT protect against stop, push or pull
  • 1362 group power penalty is not applied
  • 1441 Faction: Typo and OK button doesn't work
  • As always, if there is anything pressing, I'll do my best to fix it asap!
  • Next Steps:
  • The redesign of the HUD/GUI is in works, and we hope to get the update out before christmas. Then work on a new docking system (including a rail system, and a new turret system) will begin.

New in StarMade 0.1851 (Dec 3, 2014)

  • The last update sparked a lot of discussion. I understand both sides, but since both arguments are very play-style specific (casual, hardcore, fighter, etc) it's not easy to make everyone equally happy. I'm trying to add more and more options for servers to find a setting their players can enjoy.
  • But as a game mechanic, buying blueprints from credits destroys any effort to make an economy. In game economies there are always "in"s and "out"s. You want to minimize the "in", else something like "demand" cannot be generated. Something that basically generates blocks from nothing is an infinite "in" which is ok for creative, but not ok in any other setting, since the "in" should be the blocks themselves (which are practically infinite already, but they take work to process)
  • So here are the changes:
  • Possible asteroid size has been increased by 30%
  • Raw resources in asteroids have been increased by ~30%
  • Doubled mining bonus in territory (both for owner and others)
  • Max stock for shops increased from 10k to 50k
  • Initial fill and refill of shops is now 10 times more
  • Added server.cfg mining multiplicator to basically allow the server admins to decide how hard it should be to mass up blocks.
  • Hotfixes:
  • Fixed Planet Cores being vulnerable in protected sectors
  • Fixed blueprints not being destroyed (and refunded) when blueprint is deleted or changed
  • Fixed Scanner Antenna not showing up in blueprint lists

New in StarMade 0.185 (Dec 2, 2014)

  • A little update with a major gameplay feature: Shops instead of selling ships of blueprints for credits, they will now sell blueprint metaitems that the player has to fill up with exactly the blocks the ship of the blueprint requires.
  • Should the blueprints you bought in any way differ in materials when you spawn it (if it's been deleted, or modified), it will give you back all your materials.
  • Yes, this means that credits will lose a lot of value, but that's intended as crafting should be the thing that drives economy. If you disagree, I added a value in the server.cfg to revert all that to the old system.
  • This is basically the first step towards shipyards, which will use those blueprints as input and will gradually put your ship together. So please keep in mind that this current system is not final. Also the fact that you can spawn the blueprints in anywhere is a test and by no means final (you still need to buy the meta items from a shop).
  • To give credits still a value, all support/weapon meta items are now available to buy from the shop NPC's.
  • Also there have be some minor balance fixes for weapons, though nothing has been buffed or nerfed, but accuracy of values has been increased.

New in StarMade 0.18392 (Nov 25, 2014)

  • The simultanious fps drop issue on servers has been fixes, as well as a random ClassCastException.

New in StarMade 0.1839 (Nov 24, 2014)

  • Balance Changes:
  • Ratio Fixes:
  • Since not many people were happy with the change in distribution in ratio, I went back and rewrote the module to make it possible to redistribute in any combination. This means ratio of master to slave will once again just be 1:1. Effects are independent once again and are also 1:1 to master.
  • This is NOT the old system. The change still fixes the bug that forced me to change it in the first place. It is also not a buff or a nerf, as the dps will just stay the same. With 50 modules you get that 50 modules worth of dps no matter how you distribute it (as long as you don't go over 100% ratio)
  • I apologize for any inconvenience and players having to adapt ships again, but the truth is that balance just is not easy to achieve. Moving things around affect 1000 other things, and that's why sometimes drastic measures are necessary only to find a more elegant solution later.
  • Salvage Change:
  • Salvaging was broken for a longer time. Putting more than one module in a group didn't matter at all, and power consumption didn't represent the actual gain in blocks.
  • A salvager now works more like the damage beam. it does "virtual" damage to a block, and if that damage is enough, the block will be mined. The block doesn't take actual damage of course. The default salvager now comes in bursts, but can me made a constant beam by combining it with a cannon.
  • The virtual salvage damage done to a block is just like the damage beam dependent on how many blocks are in a group. That means simply: The more salvage modules in a group, the faster you will mine.
  • Other Beams:
  • All the other support beams have also been adapted to use the new tick-rate style the same way damage beams do.
  • Missiles:
  • The radius missiles do and the potential block destruction make missiles very powerful. The default radius has been decreased a little but the radius for the missile+pulse combination has been upped by a lot for all your doom device needs.
  • AS ALWAYS: all of these changes are not final. Balancing is always a hard topic, since it's very subjective in a lot of cases, and believe me: I'm not actually trying to make the game worse for players, but the opposite. I'm doing my best to do so, and even if sometimes it might seem a little drastic, I only have the best for the complete picture in my mind.
  • Bugfixes:
  • The game crashed when using pulse on an astronaut, and beams still didn't hurt them. Undo had a bug where there could be leftovers of the undo when relogging, or saving it as blueprint. While astronauts now take damage from suns and inside black holes, that shouldn't be the case if you are on a ship.

New in StarMade 0.1836 (Nov 21, 2014)

  • This update contains a big bunch of bugfixes of some of the most annoying bugs which have been in for a while, small additions, and a brand new tutorial.
  • The tutorial consists of various new features added to the game in terms of scripting. A lot of the functionality in it, I did with the goal of reusing the same mechanics for a mission system. The tutorial station was made by Dalmont.
  • (Also sorry for typos. Since nothing is hard coded in the tutorial, it will be an easy fix for helpers)
  • There has also been an update for the textures. Kupu added brand new ultra crisp textures for all the terrain and flora.
  • There have also been some fixes for bottlenecks on servers to reduce lag in some situations.
  • The stations of the contest winners will probably be added in the next few days, as a few builders wanted to do some fixing on their stations first.
  • EDIT: Update to fix the minable pile in the tutorial. Also the textures for the overlays for minable blocks have switched around (since one looked more like ore before when it was actually crystal).
  • About the ratio:
  • The weapons DID NOT get nerfed. It was a bug fix:
  • 2/2/2 did more dps than 6/0/0. This was a bug and it got fixed. It had to be fixed, there is no reason why it should be that the same amount of blocks should do more damage in other setups, because then it would be the only thing people would use.
  • You don't need to add more blocks, you just need to redistribute. Power usage is also less now without the bug so there is absolutely no nerf involved other than the ability to get more dps by using effects, which shouldn't be.
  • You don't have to put more stuff on your ship. The damage has NOT been reduced, just the ratio needed, if you have now 50% on your machine gun, all shots will do double damage as when they were at 100% minus a very small amount from the bugfix.
  • the system is now:
  • combiPercent = slave : master+effect
  • effect is still = effect : master
  • Here are the bugfixes:
  • Resolved 26:
  • Adding an effect computer and zero effect blocks gives 100% effect status
  • current amount of Power not stored in blueprint / ship
  • Effect Modules Add Double Damage To 1:1 Slaved Weapons
  • Inconsistencies In blockBehaviorConfig.xml
  • Small weapon with 100% stop effect can stop huge ships and affect shield
  • ANY sector change ejects players in gravity
  • Drain beams unbalanced
  • Items destroyed if inventory is full
  • Radar Jammer and/or Cloaker is not working against homing missiles
  • Random damage numbers appearing in space
  • USE_PERSONAL_SECTORS = true results in NullPointer
  • Weapons fire from AI ships becomes severly maloriented, beam animation renders significant distance away from ship.
  • 2 config values under explosive effect do not work
  • Adv. Build / Remove: Replace with active slot doesn't auto connect
  • AI has a fixed range.
  • beams and pulse not killing astronauts
  • Block removal and auto linking not working correctly
  • Docked Ships do not use Gravity correctly
  • Explosive defense system does NOT protect against stop, push or pull
  • Jump Drive ignores sector permissions
  • Leaving the gravity of ships not aligned with "C" is disorientating
  • Missiles can damage docked entities from any point on a ship
  • Shops don't get restocked with the new blocks.
  • Sitting + Planet gravity field
  • Turret settings not saving in blueprints
  • Non-Repeating Delay and Delay have no texture difference anymore
  • Closed 24:
  • Cant over write blueprints
  • Local blueprint isn't correctly saved
  • Player position does not appear to save properly
  • Scan report does not give location of galaxy system owning structure and owner
  • You can place more than 1 scan/jumpdrive computer
  • Activating gravity block rotates charakter
  • Door wedges affecting rotation of adjacent wedges
  • Factories pull from chained storage and ignore filter
  • Map: color coded areas not fully showing after logging in
  • Mass counter doesn't update when docked
  • Remove unnecessary icons/buttons from shop
  • Shift+V Logic Connection on plexlights (All types) does not work
  • Shift-V only half-works with new door types
  • 'Undo' doesn't restore connections
  • Astronauts unaffected by black holes or star heat damage
  • Crash with Joystick connected Joystick.cfg error
  • Ion effect defense not effecting docked entity though % calculation uses total ship mass including docked entities
  • scanner computer/antenna dont have crafting recipes.
  • Ship mass still heavy after detaching docked ships and/or turrets
  • carved Lukrah and carved chabaz missing and incorrect recipes.
  • massive item lose when creating subblocks (mini slots bug) in factories
  • Factory Blocks indistinguishable types
  • Typo in weapon firing notification
  • Typos in startup tips

New in StarMade 0.18 (Nov 6, 2014)

  • Galaxy Update:
  • This had a long time coming and is now finally here. It will switch to the new system once you reset your world. So you can use your old world as long as you please, but a reset is recommended.
  • Make sure to export all the sectors you need for the new universe.
  • Galaxies:
  • A Galaxies in StarMade contains of 128x128x128 Systems, each containing 16x16x16 sectors. This means a galaxy is pretty huge.
  • However not every system actually has something viable in it. Most of a galaxy is composed of so called 'Void' systems.
  • Void Systems do not have a star, and will have an increased chance of spawning pirates. Note that in the future the pirate spawning will get ramped up even more the farther away you go from claimed territory. Also, claimed territory will make that system safe, and decrease pirate spawning in the surrounding systems (not in yet).
  • The most common viable system is a stellar system. A stellar system can have different variation or stars in different sizes, and can even be even binary system with two stars in one system.
  • Note that the damage rates and distances on stars depend on color and size: Blue stars are more intense and do more damage on a longer range, giants have 8 sun sectors in the system, and binary star systems count distance from the nearest star.
  • The view distance for galactic entities has been increased by a great deal, so you can now see planets and stars or other objects of your surrounding systems. It might look a little crowded with planets in the old universe, but gives you an idea on how much planets there were :)
  • Also, the stars in the background now represent the exact galaxy you are in, so you can get a kind of fell for where you are.
  • Of course there are a lot of other galaxies you can visit, and every one of them has a different look to it (although they all follow a basic pattern)
  • You can also find black holes in the galaxy. They form a wormhole network which warps you if you go into one. The network goes from the inner galaxy to the outer arms, and the furthest worm hole leads back to the closest to center. That means if you get lost, you can always find your way to the center if you follow the worm
  • holes. In the map you can arrows from near, and also have an indication of the line getting whiter in the direction of the destination.
  • Syste:
  • Stellar Systems now also generate differently from the old universe. Every system has now a generated name, too, which players will be able to change in a future update. Each stellar system has a random amount of orbits, within the sectors that are intersected by those orbits, certain things will spawn. On planet orbits, a planet will spawn somewhere on the orbit, and there is a very small chance of a second one. The other type of orbit are asteroid belts. On asteroid belts a high amount of asteroids will spawn. Everywhere else there is only a small chance of finding them, and if they spawn, they do it in much less amounts.
  • Keep in mind that in a claimed system (see faction points), you get a 6x bonus to mining.
  • Galaxy Map:
  • Since all of those things are not easy to navigate, there is now a galaxy map (press P) available to all players. It not only shows you the complete galaxy with all its systems, they also show planets and stations in each sector (that is open to change with the introduction of radars in the future).
  • You can see all faction territory in the map, so you can easily find your way around on a server.
  • You also see all the FTL connections in the map. Colors for faction warp gates will be added later.
  • You can now also easily plot a path for a waypoint within the map.
  • There are several filter options available which should be relatively self explanatory, like blending out orbits, objects, etc, as well as changing the color of territory to a per-relation color instead of a random color per faction.
  • Faction Points:
  • Most of the information in this section is already in the dev update post.
  • Faction Point System:
  • PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL VALUES OF THE FACTION SYSTEM ARE EXPOSED IN A CONFIG FOR ADMINS TO CHANGE (./data/config/FactionConfig.xml). That config doesn't distribute yet (next update), so please only try changing it in singleplayer.
  • Faction Points:
  • Faction Points are a new form of currency in StarMade and shall be abbreviated 'FP' from here on out. They are shared throughout the faction, and in the future can be made physical for reasons I will go into later.
  • Their value can not be compared to credits and resources, as their total availability doesn't follow the principle of an infinite universe like credits and resources do.
  • Their existence as the name says depends on the factions of a server. So on a server with more players the overall faction point count will naturally be higher (but the demand is also rising with that)
  • Faction Point Acquisition:
  • A server now does hourly calculations. I'll call this a "turn" from now on.
  • At the end of a turn the following will happen:
  • You get 50 FP for every online member of your faction
  • You get 20 FP for every active online member of your faction (see member activity)
  • You get 0 FP for every inactive member of your faction (see member activity)
  • Member Activity:
  • A member counts as active if the member at least spent 10 minutes playing within 48 hours. After 48 hours after logoff, the member will become inactive and the faction no longer gets any FP from his membership.
  • There are several methods in place to combat FP farming with multiple nicks on the same server.
  • Territory:
  • One of the biggest things with FP is the ability for factions to take territory. You can take a whole 16x16x16 sectors at once. 16x16x16 sectors are also known as "system" as mentioned above.
  • Taking a sector can be done easily with the faction module on a station or planet. If someone else has already taken the system, that faction module has to be destroyed before another faction can take the system.
  • Territory has the following advantages:
  • Your faction gets a mining bonus in that system of 6x (other factions get 3x still in an owned system so be alert of eventual thieves)
  • Your faction gets a notice whenever a player enters your territory. You even get a faction news post if that player is an enemy. (No names are transmitted though, so you have to go there with a scanning capable ship to check out the location (see scanning))
  • Scanning range (see scanning)
  • Faction point spending and loss:
  • Of course you can't just go and claim every system as fast as possible as you like. You also have expenses each faction point turn. The following are the costs explained:
  • Each owned system costs 10 FP each turn
  • Each owned system costs FP in the distance in systems it is from the homebase (or a random owned system when no homebase exists)
  • Each owned system costs FP in the distance it is from a galaxy center (something that will be more clear with the structure update. it is the system 0,0,0 in this case)
  • The cost for center distance will decrease the more total territory is taken. This means, factions will probably move together a bit. Roaming vagabonds are still a thing since they don't use too much points (the first system is free). However they don't have the luxury of a bigger base of course.
  • There is a flat expense of 1 FP
  • FP loss from player deaths:
  • Each player death costs a fixed FP amount
  • Each player death costs also an FP amount times the amount of members in the faction. That means that while you get more FP each turn with a bigger faction, you lose more when someone gets killed. suicide does not count in that regard. Admin commands are in place to allow admins to protect players against faction point loss (that will be broadcaster on death to all players to avoid abuse), and making sectors safe against FP loss, so minigames can be played there without problems.
  • After dying, the player gets a 30 min protection of losing faction points again.
  • Repercussions for to few FP:
  • Should at the end of a turn the FP of a faction be below zero, the faction will lose the system that is farthest from the homebase (random if there is none).
  • You also can NOT take any territory if your faction has below zero faction points.
  • Home Base danger:
  • This is an admin option in the server.cfg. If a faction has below zero FP and no territory (this will only happen if a players get taken out repeatedly), the home base becomes attackable. Server have also the option in the faction point config to set a flat FP expense every round (as mentioned in expenses). This will make it possible that completely inactive factions (depending on config) will get attackable eventually.
  • Scanners:
  • This is a new block you can put on your ship or station. Its mechanics work similar to the jump drive as it needs to be charged up to do a scan.
  • But unlike the jump drive, the scanner will automatically charge. You are also only allowed one scanner per structure.
  • The basic range of the scanners is fixed, but also depend on the territory you are in. The recharge time depends on how many blocks you place, of course costing more power. The textures are of course made by the great Kupu (Tom):
  • Default scan range is 4 sector radius
  • In an allied territory you get twice the default scan range (as do the owners) (8 sector radius)
  • The owners of a system ADDITIONALLY get the whole system scanned.
  • If you scan in an enemy territory, your scan range is halved (2 sector radius)
  • if you scan in an owned system, you always get the location of the station that has the faction module owning it.
  • This means with good strategy and infrastructure, as soon as your faction gets signal of someone intruding, you can send a player with a scanner ship into that system which can find out the exact position.
  • Scans are a snapshot, so to track moving targets, you need a very good recharge.
  • Scans are also persistent, so you always, even after logging out and in again, have access to the last 5 scans you made.
  • Future Uses for Faction Points:
  • In the future, faction points will be the main currency for diplomacy and missions. The only way to earn additional FP is to do missions.
  • But also factions themselves can issue missions. A faction can pay FP for a bounty on the head of another player, or for a mission taker getting them an amount of resources. And many more.
  • Faction points will also be usable to replenish asteroids in a system.
  • GUI:
  • Because nobody would be able to remember all the rules and keep track, the GUI has been expanded with several statistical functions regarding FP and scans.
  • Just click the "Faction Point" button in the faction tab, and it will tell you exactly how much you gained and lost, listed per type. it also gives you an overview of all your owned systems.
  • You can access your scans in your navigation panel.
  • Sitting
  • The great Omni (Keaton) has made some nice sitting animations for dave. You can sit on blocks and wedges. Just press 'O' on a block to do so. Your sitting position depends on how close you press on an edge. You can also sit on the ceiling/etc if you have the gravity to do so :).
  • Database Size:
  • An upgrade has been made to how fast the StarMade database grows. More then 70% reduction in growth has been achieved by not saving planets and generated station in the database as long as no block is modified. This change was always delayed by planets being generated to slow.
  • Planets generation speed:
  • Planets now generate up to 4x faster. On top of that they now use the full power of multithreading (something planets could not use until now since they need a huge amount of data and parts of them depend on other parts).
  • Admin Commands:
  • Beside a lot new admin commands for the faction point system, such as setting faction points, protecting against faction point loss on death, and even protecting a sector so no one dying in it will lose faction points, server admin management has been added. Admins can now allow and disallow admin commands by admin and command. This should help server super admins to manage their admins much better, and reduce admin abuse. This can also be done on the admin file directly, if you need to do a lot of it. Make sure to disallow other admins to use the allow/disallow commend themselves, or they can grant themselves the rights to use anything.
  • Default Sector Size:
  • The default sector size has been upped to two times the value it was before. This value will only apply if you either remove the server.cfg, of change the value yourself (or do a fresh install of course)
  • Balance changes:
  • Calbiri has been working hard on getting the game balanced further. The power usage of tertiary effects have been reduced to make it more managable on ships. We are not going to allow a good for all ship, so block counts keep the same. Also there have been several changes to other weapons and support systems. As always, this is not final, and you also have the option to modify the configuration yourself if you disagree with what the balance should be. Support beams are also currently being worked on to make them also fit into the bigger picture.
  • Other changes:
  • This post is unfortunately too long to mention a lot of the smaller teaks, fixes, and updates made.
  • Station Contest Winners:
  • Thank you all for voting. You can see the winners in the repective threads. The stations are not yet included as we need some time to go through them and do a last check up. Once they are in there will be a news post dedicated to that.
  • Bugfixes:
  • Missiles should now have a much better lag reduction, meaning that they should much less rubberband around.
  • Most of the fixes have been done on the active dev builds, so they are not listed here, since they never were in the current release.
  • critical error on start up
  • HealBeam in a Factory Causes Crash
  • java.lang.ClassCastException: obfuscated.xK cannot be cast to org.schema.game.common.controller.SegmentController
  • ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException When Updating to .179
  • Random deaths
  • Stars render on top of everything else
  • Suns and backgrounds appear in void system blocks with Bloom on
  • Neighboring Galaxys Don't Render (Map)
  • Cannot Leave Wormhole
  • Crash on log in when using 256x texture pack
  • Map: "Entered System" message appears every time you enter/leave a sector
  • Map: bloom overrides black background
  • java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
  • Nullpointer - catched but persistent
  • Nullpointer on death - resulting in server-shutdown
  • SQLSyntaxerrorexeption on new install after 0.1751 in SP
  • Shield drain beam's power cost not increasing.
  • Custom Textures - Error on startup - missing normals
  • Multi slot stack disappears
  • Map does not render till you press shift
  • Defensive effect piercing added armor bonus uses the wrong formula
  • Rotating a paste sets all contained logic blocks to "active"
  • Storage/factory connections break after sector is unloaded
  • NullPointerException crashing client while on remote server. Crash repeats at every attempted login at spawn dialogue.
  • Lag causes power production to stop.
  • Safety element: Entering and/or leaving ships
  • Max visible missiles on screen
  • Flickering Objects - Occlusion culling
  • Crash at 100% (cube shader)
  • Effects increasing power consumption on missiles and increase damage for cannons/pulse/beams + other issues, last message
  • Deffensive stop effect computer not working
  • UI is unusable in large lists
  • "Shop in Range" still showing after teleport - using shop = nullpointer
  • Linking already linked computers - hides but preserves the sublink
  • Game crash at loading 100% (explosion shader)
  • Blocks disappearing when advanced build mode activated and rotatable block selected
  • Feature: one click beam activation

New in StarMade 0.175 (Oct 20, 2014)

  • Build Helper Restriction:
  • Build helpers now allow building restriction to be turned on and off. Build restriction means, that you can only build or remove inside the Build Helper area. This should make using them even easier. Furthermore, most of the work has been put into a thread to prevent the game from freezing and eventually disconnecting when selecting a build helper.

New in StarMade 0.1724 (Oct 15, 2014)

  • Crafting Update:
  • Calbiri put in a lot of work to make crafting more enjoyable and more balanced. The essential system is still the same.
  • When putting raw resources into the capsule refinery you will now get 10 generic resources (alloyed metal mesh and crystal circuits depending on the raw type), as well as 5 capsules of the raw flavor. But the 5 extra capsules will only be made in the capsule refinery. In the personal refinery, you will just get the generics.
  • You can turn the capsules into generic resources in the micro factory, too, but depending on strategy it might be better to hold on to them, since they are needed in more advanced recipes.
  • The micro factory also can process scrap, which I will talk about in the next section.
  • There now are 3 types of factories: The basic which replaces the macro, which can make all essential block needed for survival, the standard factory which you can make from the basic, which has most of the ship building materials, and the advanced which makes all the effects and more advanced stuff in the game.
  • Please note that all placed factories/refineries consume power as long as they are switched on, even if there is nothing to produce.
  • Scrap Stations:
  • All newly generated/spawned neutral stations will now be scrap. This means harvesting blocks will get you scrap, instead of the blocks themselves, which you can turn into generic resources. You can repair a scrap station by pressing M on a block of the station. This will turn all blocks into real blocks, but the price to repair is the price of all blocks in that station.
  • This is done to prevent the get-rich-quick method of stripping down space stations. They still have a lot of value, but it's much more balanced now. A trick is for example to strip a space station down to one block, and then repair it for cheap, to have a very cheap space station, since you only pay for one block.
  • IMPORTANT: Placing blocks on a not repaired scrap station will turn any block into scrap, so you will lose that block, unless you buy the station. Only newly generated Station are scrap station, so if you have build on them already, everything is like it was before on those.
  • Raw resource texture switch:
  • As it was often pointed out, and also our own opinion, the overlay texture for metal looked more like crystal, and vice versa. These textures have now been switched around. We have planned that for some time, but we waited for the crafting update to do it, so it's all in one with the new system.
  • World Manager:
  • You can now manage multiple universes (databases) in the same client. You can also import and export universes to share with other people. The button to do that is in the startup settings.
  • Multi Slots:
  • Another change are multi slots. Those were harder to implement as I though, since there are so many cases of those slots interacting with other multi-slots, compatible multi-slots, other compatible single slots, incompatible single slots... you get the idea ^^
  • Basically these slots hold all shapes of the same type of block in one slot: Normal, wedge, penta, tetra, and corner. You can just drag them together to form a multislot, and right click them to take specific blocks out. To use in buildmode you can just scroll over them to select the block you need to build. This will make building a lot faster and more efficient, as the number of objects that can be in the hotbar at the same time rises to max 5 times what it was before.
  • Server Lockup fix:
  • A bug that has been around for a very long time has been finally caught in the act. This bug caused servers to lock up, and all players to disconnect until a forced restart.
  • Other Bug Fixes:
  • there were other fixes, too, but I will go in detail in the next update. As always, thanks to all the testers.

New in StarMade 0.1723 (Oct 6, 2014)

  • the last release didn't have all the updates in the config. This is now fixed. Also the shop categorization is now a lot better for hulls. Better organization will follow with the other crowded shop categories also.

New in StarMade 0.1721 (Oct 4, 2014)

  • Astronaut Block Orientation:
  • Blocks can now be orientated in astronaut mode when holding the control key. The context of the orientation will adapt to what the character is currently aligned to (by hitting space or if in gravity).
  • Template Symmetry and Rotation:
  • Templates now come with a full preview. They also work with symmetry now and can be rotated in all 3 axis with the mouse wheel (or Pg-Up/Down). Rotation along the other axis can be done by holding left shift or control. Connections are also completely preserved when rotation or using symmetry.
  • Build Helper
  • The game now supports build helpers. Those are made in a way that can easily be extended. At the moment, there are 3 helpers to choose from:
  • Ellipsoids, which are spherical objects defined by 3 radii.
  • Circles, which can be rotated in all dimensions
  • Torus, which can be defined by outer and inner radius. They can also be rotated in all dimensions
  • Sniper Zoom:
  • The sniper rifle now has a zoom by right clicking when selected.
  • New Doors:
  • There now are door wedges as well as two additional types of doors: Blast Doors and Glass Doors
  • Manual Storage triggers:
  • Storage triggers now also work if players put items in/out manually
  • Various New Blocks & Wedges:
  • There have a lot of new blocks added, as well as a lot more shapes for existing blocks
  • Lighting Shader improvement:
  • Other than creating all the new textures, kupu improved the values for the lighting shaders to look a lot more crisp. It also removes the problem of whites beeing flooded with light.
  • Universe Redesign Work:
  • The universe redesign is well underway, although all the done features are not active yet.
  • Crafting System:
  • The crafting system overhaul is basically done. We wanted to release a version before going into testing for it immediately afterwards.
  • API-Work:
  • Thanks to experienced modders now being in contact with us, I finally have a better picture of what requirements are needed, and how it's best to be implemented. Some parts of the code have already been deobfuscated.
  • Furthermore, thanks to Megacrafter127's ModLoader, it was a lot easier to understand what is needed for a solid API. Work has begun for a Mod-API. Mods can be registered and first hooks are already placed in the code for modders to insert their own code. This is still work in progress, but progress will go fairly quickly I think.
  • Bugs:
  • A lot of this update was also bugfixes. As always, thanks so much to our testers:
  • Resolved 14
  • 1022 Resolved TutorialException #2
  • 984 Resolved Lag causes power production to stop.
  • 979 Resolved Friendly Fire - Turret vs. Infinite Chain Docking
  • 965 Resolved Orientation and textured face are wrong. Affects blocks and wedges (confusing)
  • 960 Resolved Updating SegmentsDrawn gives ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
  • 950 Resolved Radar Jammer and/or Cloaker is not working against homing missiles
  • 940 Resolved Docking beam switches between active camera and ship core when moving mouse
  • 915 Resolved Exiting a build block on planets changes gravity to sector alignment
  • 847 Resolved Using Thrusters + overdrive w/o Power Cancels Mouse Input
  • 770 Resolved Beam and missile weapons without a support don't use their effect.
  • 767 Resolved You can't build ships on planets
  • 648 Resolved Station alignment - depends on player position/facing
  • 566 Resolved Deffensive stop effect computer not working
  • 488 Resolved Linking already linked computers - hides but preserves the sublink
  • Closed 32
  • 1036 Closed Factories with enhancers have to have enough blocks to craft
  • 1034 Closed Exploit - when you buy a Blueprint you may overwrite other players ships
  • 1028 Closed Filter settings on storages are not preserved in blueprints
  • 1024 Closed Certain weapons unable to damage any ship (that has docked entities?), only happens for 0.1704 ships.
  • 1017 Closed Plexlifter fails to unlink after removal or to relink after adding more
  • 1016 Closed Defensive Effects using MUCH more power than normal
  • 1009 Closed Cloak NOT ending on docked ships when main ship goes to 'power outage recovery'
  • 1003 Closed When buying a ship from catalog with existing name you loose the credits
  • 1002 Closed Adv. Build / Remove: Replace with active slot always active
  • 989 Closed Effect computer does not change color on activation in hotbar / Effect indicator missing
  • 985 Closed Display module screens are visible while cloaked
  • 969 Closed Linux: Nullpointer on Startup
  • 968 Closed factories apear broken
  • 961 Closed Sort by ping not sorting properly
  • 939 Closed non-procedural backgrounds inoperative
  • 937 Closed Joysticks do not get recognized anylonger by the game
  • 931 Closed Chargestate of Jumpdrive is not saved
  • 928 Closed Template list is unordered
  • 927 Closed ESC not working intuitive #2
  • 897 Closed Camera marker in Build mode not disappearing when zoomed fully in - Yellow Box Frame
  • 889 Closed Template menu : can't click on end of text from list to load + buttons are (half) on each other
  • 875 Closed Settings for AI difficulty doesnt get saved in settings.cfg
  • 853 Closed Damage Pulse on Turrets/Docked Ships still damage mothership
  • 850 Closed Undocking Infinite Chain Docking Freeze and Crash the game with some larger ships
  • 821 Closed Copy and Paste debris even with proper parts in inventory
  • 813 Closed Passive effects stay active if module is connected to a weapon
  • 554 Closed d1000 missiles report "type=HeatSeeking"
  • 539 Closed Entities can overwrite others with case variant names
  • 522 Closed Copy/paste does not work with Symmetry
  • 485 Closed FileNotFoundException with blueprint naming
  • 454 Closed Turret rotation bug
  • 428 Closed Salvage cannons do not work

New in StarMade 0.171 (Sep 22, 2014)

  • Replace Mode:
  • This mode is now a checkbox in advanced build mode when selecting the "remove/replace filter" button in the bottom. Instead of just removing, this feature will replace the blocks taken with the one selected in the hotbar. This will make refitting ships a lot easier.
  • Missiles can be hit (Point Defense):
  • Missiles can not be shot by anything but laser. This will probably remain an advantage of using lasers. Missiles were the OP weapon in the game, and we hope, that making them attackable will allow especially smaller fighters a skill based chance to evade. Missile Point Defense is also on the way as a turret AI option, but not in this release.
  • Salvage to Storage blocks:
  • You can now finally link you salvage systems to your storage blocks. Just hit C on the salvage computer and V on the storage block you want all the goods to flow into. You can also select multiple storage blocks from one salvage computer, and overflow will be put in the next free storage (if they are all full you will still loose the item), and connect from multiple salvage computers to the same storage block.
  • New Storage Block features:
  • A bug has been fixed that would overwrite connections from multiple storage blocks to the same (n->1). Also you now have a "filter all" and "clear" button in your filter options to create filtered storage system much quicker. Finally you can now have the logic systems react to the fill rate of your storage blocks:
  • Place an activation block next to a storage block, and it will send a "false" signal if the storage goes from not-full to full
  • Place an activation block next to a storage block, and it will send a "true" signal if the storage goes from full to non-full
  • Place an OR-block next to a storage block, and it will send a "false" signal if the storage goes from not-empty to empty
  • Place an OR-block next to a storage block, and it will send a "true" signal if the storage goes from empty to not-empty
  • So basically to remember, the sigal will be "true" if the storage becomes neither empty nor full, and false otherwise
  • The OR-block in this case is being used to save on metadata. I'll try to make ingame information to make it more clear when these blocks can be used and what they do in those situations.
  • HUD changes:
  • as you will quickly see, the hud has been changed a little bit to be much more slick. This is of course the work of Kupu, who did the new icons of the new weapons as well.
  • You will not also have a hit indication popping up. This indication is synched to the server so whenever it flashes you hit with 100% certainty. Pilots get this indication on anything (blue when shields are hit, white when blocks are taking damage, and red if an astronaut is hit), while astronauts get them on anything but hitting planets and stations.
  • Also, the feature that astronauts blick red when hit is now back. This feature is also server synched.
  • New personal weapon: Sniper Rifle:
  • This new weapon is at the moment only available for admins with /give_sniper_weapon playername
  • It fires a high damage hit-scanning beam in a pretty long range but has a medium reload rate
  • New personal weapon: Rocket Launcher:
  • This new weapon is at the moment only available for admins with /give_rocket_launcher_weapon playername
  • it fires a slot bu powerful missile and has a very long reload rate
  • (also some stats have been changed in the laser weapon, so ask for a replacement from your admin (or alternatively start a new character))
  • Admin Command:
  • There are 3 new admin commands to help with the creation of PvP minigames:
  • You can now use for example /sector_chmod 2 2 2 + noindications, so no player in this sector will get any indication where others are (as if everyone was jamming) (using the same command with '-' reverts it back to normal)
  • You can now use for example /sector_chmod 2 2 2 + noexit (or noenter) to close down sectors from people entering or leaving
  • A new command /tint r g b a, lets you tint the texture of a selected astronaut. The values for r, g, b, a have to be between 0.0 and 1.0, so /tint 1.0 0.4 0.4 1.0 would tint the astronaut in red
  • The same command can be used as /tint_name r g b a playername, to tint an astronaut without having to select him
  • Missile Blast Behavior Change:
  • Missiles will no longer kill astronauts that are behind walls. The kill will only occur if the blast center has a clear line to the astronaut. It's far from a perfect solution, but it's a lot better, and I already have another more realistic solution in mind. Keep in mind that the check is most likely done before the blocks are killed, so you will survive one missile even if the blocks you got behind to shield yourself are being taken out by that missile.
  • Misc:
  • Amongst some other bugs (which I'm going to list next update), the power consumption of jamming/cloaking when flying with docked ships have been fixed. Special thanks goes out to all the testers

New in StarMade 0.1703 (Sep 12, 2014)

  • fixes:
  • fixed yellow box in build mode of stations
  • fixed some shader related crashes
  • fixed factories being broken when old recipes are used
  • fixed server list sorting
  • server list item compatibility checkbox now doesn't need refresh
  • normal maps from kupu are now updated with the latest blocks.
  • optimization:
  • Having a little time for optimization I did some profiling and found some rather taxing parts. After optimizing those processes server performance should get a good boost (less red messages ^^)

New in StarMade 0.17 (Sep 10, 2014)

  • Warp Gates:
  • Warp technology was something I held back to really have the necessary core to be able to make work, as that can easily break game play. With all the updates to the core, as well as all values available in the config, and also combined with our now concrete plans for a universe redesign, it's finally time to put warp into the game.
  • Warp gates are the stationary version of structures that enable players to warp. Their rage is 8 systems (128 sectors), but that still can change if needed (available in config). They have a steady power cost on size, and also a one time cost per ship that passes through, which is based on the mass of the ship.
  • Once passed, your ship will take 2 seconds to warp up and then warp. Note that you can only jump to stations with an operational jump gate.
  • How to build and connect Warp Gates:
  • Warp gates have to be build in a two-dimensional loop. That means, each block that is connected to the gate computer (place that one first) must exactly touch two other gate blocks. The simplest form is to build a flat square. The computer will give feedback if the gate is currently operational. Be sure to select the computer with 'C' as it also happened to me that I patched up a gate without connecting the blocks to the gate computer, and then wondering why it didn't go online.
  • Now that you have your gate, it's time to connect it. For that you will need need the new marker beam. It will be in your inventory as a fresh player, or you can ask an admin for it (/give_marker_weapon yourname). This new beam is not only going to be used with gates, it will be the main tool to use for inter-structure connection, which for example also comes in handy with the coming AI fleets, and more.
  • This marker beam has two firing modes: Right Click will mark a structure. In the case of warp gates you can shoot the gate station anywhere to mark it. Right clicking the marker beam in the inventory will not tell you that it has a marking saved. You can now shoot the marker beam on another gate to enter its destination. To do that you have to use Left Click on the gate computer you want to set the destination for. As a fast way to connect the other ons to this, you can then then shoot the gate with right click to overwrite the saved marking with that gate, go then through the now working gate, and enter the mark on the other gate. You now have both gates connected.
  • Jump Drives:
  • Jump Drives are the portable version of structures that enable players to warp. You can put them on a ship, charge them up, and instantly travel up to 8 sectors (max distance is also in the config). The destination to jump can be influenced in two ways. Either you jump in the direction you were looking at when engaging the jump drive, or you can use a more precise method: entering a waypoint in the navigation panel will enable you to jump towards the waypoint no matter in which direction you look in. It even puts you directly at your waypoint sector if it is fewer than 8 sectors away.
  • Jump Drives can be placed like any other weapon or effect. They will appear in the weapon panel to put in the hotbar to use. Keep in mind that there is a sweet spot for jump Drive modules depending on ratio of total mass to jump drive modules. You can build them as small as you want, but they will take much longer to charge up. Placing more blocks than the sweet spot will make charging even faster, if you want to specifically build a jumping ship. But keep the power costs in mind. The statistics of where the sweet spot is are in the weapons panel if you click on the jump drive.
  • To charge, you have to hold the left mouse button in flight mode like shooting a weapon. After it is charged, you can press right click to jump. The mechanic to actively have to charge up the Jump Drive is in place to make it more dangerous to use in battle. The drive has a small cooldown after jumps (10sec at the moment).
  • But be warned. Changing the blocks on a jump drive will reset the charge immediately. The charge will also be reset if hit, so make sure you are save before starting to charge up (you can still of course do it while flying).
  • Save/Load Templates to paste:
  • A new feature has been added to the advanced build mode. You can now save what you selected with "copy" and load it to paste any time you need it. The only restriction is, that you can't paste templates that exceed the mass build area dimension of the server you are playing on. These files can also be shared (located in StarMade/templates) to make toolboxes for any purpose.
  • Optimization for up to 50% more fps (depending on hardware):
  • Occlusion Culling was a technique I tried over and over to make work over the past 4 years. The problem is that it has a very narrow line of performance taken to gain performance. So a wrong design or a small mistake will cause it to not give any performance boost, or even lower the overall graphics performance.
  • Some graphics cards have not full support of this feature (even if they say they do by specification), so if you get any flickering, you can turn it off without having to shutdown the game in the in-game options. A one time message when starting the game will also provide this info.
  • Technical: Basically, occlusion culling is the technique to not draw parts of geometry that is behind other objects (occluded). What sounds easy informally, is one of the hardest problems to get working right. The first problem is, that at the time of draw, you don't know which objects are occluded without drawing them first. Draw too few, and the objects that would be normally occluded will be falsely drawn, draw too much, and there is no actual gain in performance, as you have already basically drawn it. The second problem is that graphics processing is happening in a pipeline and asynchronous, so the data is not actually there yet at the time the draw command returns. That means a lookup to check if an object is occluded forces the pipeline to a halt to have all the data flushed before being able to continue. And this of course means immense slowdown. The third problem is that occlusion culling require objects to be drawn front to back (else they objects wouldn't known to be occluded), and blended draw (for glass etc) requires back to front.
  • To combat the first two problems, there are two techniques used based on the same premise: "If one object was not visible in this frame, it's highly unlikely to be visible in the next". What is done is drawing all chunks that are known to be visible, then (very fast) bounding boxes are drawn for each chunk that may be visible or not. At the start of the next frame, the results of the query of the last frame are pulled to have no pipeline stall. The again, all possibly visible chunks are drawn based on the new result, and the rest as bounding boxes.
  • The 3rd problem is lucky already solved by design. StarMade sorts chunks threaded, and vertex storage is done in a way so non-opaque parts of chunks can be drawn separately.
  • Movement cancel (cancel rolling of big ships):
  • Pressing 'V' (but you also can assign it to the break button) will now cancel any mouse movement. This is especially handy for bigger ships, when you start to roll the ship and want to stop.
  • Storage blocks filters:
  • Another big feature are storage block filters. The storage blocks now essentially work like factories, but have a distinct use case. You can make list of which blocks and how many of them to take each cycle from other storages. Just open up your storage block and click on filter. The blocks will be taken out of any block that is connected to this one with 'v'.
  • This way you can not only sort items after production or from looting, you can also split them up and direct them into a factory system to make exactly what you need.
  • Each storage block or factory can be turned on and off now. Please note, that factories placed in the old version had the default active state "false", which means you will have to switch those back on again. All newly placed factories or storage blocks are switched on by default though.
  • The whole system now also is fully logic capable, so you can connect storage/factories to activation modules to control your production and item sorting with the press of a button.
  • Oculus Rift support:
  • StarMade now has full oculus support, including head tracking. It was an amazing experience to try out for the first time.
  • Lib extraction:
  • By fiddling with the way StarMade versions are built and deployed I was able to decrease the size of the main program to 5-7MB. That means, that unless there are more files to download (like in this update, as you have to download all the libs one time, as well as textures), an update will only be 5-7MB with the new launcher.
  • Launcher version 14:
  • Downloadable from the main download list, the new launcher version is now fully deployed. Some bugfixes have been done based on the feedback from the tests. One new feature since v12 is that downloads will now be a lot more stable, as they can actively resume. As a test, I was able to resume downloading after disabling my network card for 30 seconds.
  • StarMade Server List
  • StarMade now has its own dynamic server list. You can now click on the server list button next to multiplayer and get an overview of all StarMade servers that choose to annouce themselves to the list.
  • For Server Admins:
  • Announcing to the Server List is just a few server.cfg parameters:
  • This is an example for the test server
  • ANNOUNCE_SERVER_TO_SERVERLIST = true //announces the server to the starmade server list
  • HOST_NAME_TO_ANNOUNCE_TO_SERVER_LIST = play.star-made.org //this must be a valid hostname (either ip or host, e.g. play.star-made.org)
  • SERVER_LIST_NAME = Official Test Server //max length 64 characters
  • SERVER_LIST_DESCRIPTION = Unlimited building //max length 128 characters
  • please make sure, that the host name is right. The server list server will check if there is indeed a real starmade server on the other side.
  • Port is set automatically by the running game server. You can also enter multiple instances from the same server that run on different ports.
  • The server will usually appear within a few moments of starting it with correct parameters.
  • Crafting:
  • The personal salvage beam now has a 25% chance to harvest an extra raw resource each harvested block. This setting can be of course modified in the config.
  • The personal power supply beam now provides a lot more power per hit to be a lot more usable in survival situations. Also the display bug of factories showing 500/100 has been fixed.
  • Calbiri is currently working on missing recipes as well as overall tweaking on the balance. It's now also possible to set the manufacture time of each block individually to allow for more balance options.
  • Lots of Bugfixes:
  • There has been a lot of testing and a lot of fixes. Thanks especially to AndyP, der_scheme, gamesaucer, Lancake, Spaceking, testkil, and all the other testers! You guys are awesome!
  • Resolved 30
  • 948 Resolved Copy/Paste and Undo/Redo gives free blocks
  • 939 Resolved non-procedural backgrounds inoperative
  • 937 Resolved Joysticks do not get recognized anylonger by the game
  • 928 Resolved Template list is unordered
  • 926 Resolved Factories/chests: Can't deactivate.
  • 924 Resolved Mail Spam: Your faction declared war
  • 891 Resolved Flickering Objects - Occlusion culling
  • 889 Resolved Template menu : can't click on end of text from list to load + buttons are (half) on each other
  • 878 Resolved Heatseeker missile targeting AI is bugged
  • 877 Resolved Locking on entities when using right shift
  • 853 Resolved Damage Pulse on Turrets/Docked Ships still damage mothership
  • 850 Resolved Undocking Infinite Chain Docking Freeze and Crash the game with some larger ships
  • 848 Resolved Crash on spawn—TutorialException
  • 838 Resolved Some java versions prefer IPv6 stack over IPv4 stack
  • 837 Resolved Changing install location throws ERROR "Please only use numbers"
  • 835 Resolved Rotating Display Module 6 times causes exception
  • 822 Resolved New Playerlist GUI-Buttons do not catch the clicks
  • 821 Resolved Copy and Paste debris even with proper parts in inventory
  • 819 Resolved Switching "Simple light" causes GL_INVALID_OPERATION
  • 815 Resolved Encryption Operation not possible
  • 782 Resolved Crash at 100% (cube shader)
  • 774 Resolved Unexpected Behavior of Infinite Shops and Credits
  • 728 Resolved Effects increasing power consumption on missiles and increase damage for cannons/pulse/beams + other issues, last message
  • 632 Resolved Beam weapons do not report all stats in weapons menu
  • 616 Resolved Plex Beacon Lighting Issues
  • 554 Resolved d1000 missiles report "type=HeatSeeking"
  • 540 Resolved UI is unusable in large lists
  • 495 Resolved Docked Ships do not use Gravity correctly
  • 488 Resolved Linking already linked computers - hides but preserves the sublink
  • 420 Resolved importing sector from 0.153 to 0.154
  • Closed 129
  • 933 Closed Occlusion culling: Warp effect is broken
  • 900 Closed Irritating hyperspace effect with glazed cockpit
  • 888 Closed invisible character-Dev build
  • 885 Closed Using Jumpdrive while docked - crashes server
  • 874 Closed Weapons hotbar not showing computers but you can still fire
  • 871 Closed Marking a planet as faction home does not prevent the core from being destroyed by cannons/beams.
  • 863 Closed Warp gate + jump drive : Moving cursor when warping causes ship to move but not camera
  • 860 Closed Warp Gates and Jump Drives do not save ship orientation or position of arrival
  • 859 Closed /remove_admin only works on online players
  • 845 Closed Missile/Cannon computer ignoring direction
  • 844 Closed NullPointerException when opening the Structure menu of a station with a warpgate
  • 842 Closed Red Error Message when buying blueprint from shop
  • 841 Closed some planets teleport away when approched.
  • 840 Closed R no longer closes block inventory screens
  • 823 Closed Handheld weapons 'alternate fire' removing blocks
  • 816 Closed Spam in console: ACTIVATING::::
  • 810 Closed Duplicated Block: burnt yellow dirt (206), burnt yellow dirt (131)
  • 809 Closed ClassCastException caused by beam weapons
  • 805 Closed Starmade now require authentification when offline
  • 804 Closed Core /Ship Duplicates
  • 779 Closed Crafting buttons in inventory screen capture input incorrectly
  • 769 Closed Entities rendering partially invisible (Exception on occlusion computations)
  • 768 Closed Mac Freeze on Game Start
  • 760 Closed Firing Push Effect on stations causes ClassCastException
  • 753 Closed Nacht ore block gives you a raw hattel shard
  • 752 Closed Power supply handheld beam causes ClassCastException when used on a shop.
  • 751 Closed Non physical micro assembler
  • 747 Closed Can place ore blocks
  • 745 Closed REQUIRE_STARMADE_AUTHENTICATION does not work even with USE_STARMADE_AUTHENTICATION is set to true.
  • 742 Closed NullPointerException when clicking on handheld weapons if a plex storage is being used.
  • 741 Closed Turning down/off in game sound does not remove background noise
  • 740 Closed Game crash when using inventory "Craft factory" after using a macro assembler
  • 737 Closed Plexlifter can´t get activated by logic
  • 732 Closed planets not fully generating.
  • 724 Closed When editing Display blocks, text is reset for all directions except one
  • 723 Closed some keys are still functional while chatting
  • 721 Closed Open Plex doors block beams and projectiles
  • 713 Closed Area trigger blocks visible in build mode even when TAB+G'd.
  • 710 Closed You can still see block info with right shift in a zoomed out view in astronaut mode
  • 702 Closed Beams + cannon scale in the wrong way.
  • 700 Closed Random elevations on planets do not look aesthetically pleasing
  • 697 Closed You can buy blueprints when you are not near a shop
  • 689 Closed Hard to build while moving ship
  • 664 Closed Scrollbar for block type removal cannot be click-dragged
  • 662 Closed Setting faction to auto-war on aggression makes it possible to auto-war traders guild
  • 653 Closed destroying faction home planet cores with missiles
  • 651 Closed Build mode switch inertia follows into flight mode
  • 650 Closed Station bugs: Turrets and docked ships are not saved/loaded
  • 649 Closed Scroll Bar Glitches on Plexstorage
  • 639 Closed Update conversion recipes for new orange blocks
  • 638 Closed Add 'Orange Paint' for recipe update
  • 637 Closed display module re-edit sometimes places blocks
  • 636 Closed display module not accessible with R while in ship core
  • 628 Closed Ion system used defensively still causes invulnerability
  • 625 Closed Non-Block Models On Ships Are Rendering Through Blocks
  • 624 Closed Display Module: Orientation and position of screen, not correct on ships
  • 613 Closed Destroy Entity not logging correct target
  • 602 Closed Build Error with Symmetry
  • 593 Closed Shields not updating properly when ship takes damage
  • 582 Closed FAILED ACTIVATING - reenqueueing
  • 579 Closed Missiles: impact detection often too late
  • 559 Closed Radius on missiles incorrectly reported
  • 544 Closed The online players list and Database window (F3) jumps back up.
  • 526 Closed Ships that are undocked immediately turn to look in the direction they were in right before they docked.
  • 523 Closed Dumbfire Missles + Overdrive Effect
  • 519 Closed Line in the middle of planet pentagon
  • 515 Closed Copy/paste does not auto-connect blocks
  • 498 Closed Beams Do Not Consume Correct Power
  • 493 Closed Salvage Cannons get stuck on if power runs out
  • 484 Closed Damage Beam Incorrectly Calculated.
  • 474 Closed Switching frequently to inventory/ai config tab causes heavy ship rotation
  • 465 Closed Damage Pulse system does not gain damage from additional blocks
  • 455 Closed salvage cannons stay on if you run out of power
  • 452 Closed "Size of hit indications" option bug
  • 448 Closed Planet HP can go negative
  • 444 Closed /shop_restock over fills a shops stock
  • 439 Closed Ghosted sections of ship after missile strike
  • 419 Closed Shotgun beams don't work (Beam + D1000)
  • 417 Closed Beam targeting doesn't match the crosshairs
  • 413 Closed Several effects broken when used with beams
  • 403 Closed Connecting new computers to weaponsystems allows quick reloading
  • 402 Closed Weapon computer as master and slave at the same time
  • 389 Closed Loading large ships causes tons of lag (400k mass +)
  • 387 Closed SDBB type missiles and beam d1000 combo tracking docked turrets when zoomed out
  • 383 Closed Sector border: Missiles fired at an oobject in another sector pass through objects without damaging
  • 382 Closed Effect module bug: Firering with effect -> inactive
  • 374 Closed Defense Effects & Docked Entity's and Turrets
  • 371 Closed Releasing 'fire' button while weapon recharges influences power consumption
  • 370 Closed Missiles do not do damage to planet cores.
  • 369 Closed Inadvertent block placement when using ABM sliders
  • 367 Closed Lighting in ships changes depending on orientation
  • 364 Closed /ship_info_name requires server/game to restart
  • 355 Closed Can't hot-swap between turrets/docked ships and main core
  • 353 Closed /despawn_all ignores anything after underscore
  • 345 Closed Lock on missiles lock onto targets that are not displayed.
  • 344 Closed /clear_overheating Functions Erratically
  • 340 Closed Turrets damage the entity they are docked to and each other
  • 339 Closed Blocks become non-solid if you build far out on planets
  • 338 Closed PlexLifter glitches out on planets
  • 333 Closed Looking directly up/down while in gravity screws up movement controls
  • 331 Closed Holes to Core in Planet Segments/Tall Cube Mountains - Terrain Generation
  • 328 Closed Deleting a planet(-core) via /destroy_entity doesn't delete its segments
  • 312 Closed Beams do not do any damage to planet core
  • 303 Closed /shop_restock_uid appears to not work
  • 287 Closed Planet setting changes not updating all segments
  • 282 Closed Persistant 'locked target' marker
  • 269 Closed Firing D1000 + Beam slave without modules gives warning about no effect
  • 254 Closed Block orientations in Avanced Build Mode are not always saved when switching to other blocks
  • 250 Closed Memory error - Build mode
  • 230 Closed AMC "Slave" system firing with main, on turrets
  • 217 Closed Unable to hotkey Docking modules on a ship/station
  • 201 Closed Feature: Faction home should lock/protect entire planet
  • 195 Closed /import_sector can ONLY add stuff to sector
  • 194 Closed Long reload time trigger 'permanent effect' icon
  • 191 Closed Power Sink
  • 187 Closed Random Crash when using explosive effect
  • 186 Closed Ion weapon system reduces damage against shields by half.
  • 175 Closed Godmode doesn't prevent death from collision damage
  • 141 Closed Damage Display at range
  • 135 Closed New weapons - Output point / Control
  • 134 Closed Antimatter projectiles fire much slower or don't move at all with a slave linkup
  • 132 Closed Hazard stripes - Orientation mismatch on 'mirror mode'
  • 118 Closed Explosive Effect
  • 117 Closed Peirce Effect
  • 95 Closed Settings defaulting to deprecated textures
  • 93 Closed Explosions (missiles, etc) cause hit segements(chunks) to not be drawn until they are updates
  • 90 Closed Symmetry plane graphics not working when ship dimension to small
  • 78 Closed Obsolete textures still selectable - Oldstyle / cartoonish

New in StarMade 0.163 (Aug 25, 2014)

  • Shield Supply/Drain Beam:
  • This new beam will work like the power drain/supply beam with the difference that instead of power, it will drain/supply shields. This is just a first version, and it might not be balanced yet, but that will be done as soon as possible.
  • New Moddable Tutorial System:
  • When going into the main menu, there is now a new option "Tutorials" on the bottom, where you can select from a list of topics. These are at the moment mostly drafts as the most work went into making the system to externalize the tutorial system. The refinement, organization, and more of those tutorials will be done over time, as basically now anybody can make and change them. The data for them is in StarMade/data/tutorial, and itis based on a simple finite state machine.
  • Optimizations:
  • The lag from entering a large ship the first time should now be gone.
  • Planet generation has been improved to look a lot better on the edges. The algorithm now adapts per distance to the edges gradually in itself (hard to explain without getting technical (basically the noise generation is smoothing itself).
  • This will lead to a lot less hard lined cliffs.
  • Not that that only planets that haven't generated yet are affected by the change. Planets you visited, or flew by in a one sector distance will not change until universe reset or deletion of the raw planet files individually.
  • Bugfixes:
  • Importing sectors with planets will now also finally work as intended. You will have to export the sector again though, as the exporting was flawed and didn't include the planet core.
  • A very annoying bug, that the players faces glitch through helmets is now also fixed.
  • Also, missile radii were calculated with a wrong base always causing small craters, which is now fixed. Additionally we now have the option to assign explosion absorption to the block stats. This means the block damage itself will still be based on hp and armor, but the overall damage the missiles goes on to do in a bigger radius is lessened. This option isn't in use for any blocks yet though, to not accidentally make something overpowered.
  • And lastly one extremely annoying bug for basically ever was that the build indicator in moving ships was flickering. This has now be finally fixed, too.
  • 819 Resolved Switching "Simple light" causes GL_INVALID_OPERATION
  • 816 Resolved Spam in console: ACTIVATING::::
  • 804 Resolved Core /Ship Duplicates
  • 782 Resolved crash at 100%
  • 728 Resolved Effects increasing power consumption on missiles and increase damage for cannons/pulse/beams + other issues, last message
  • 495 Resolved Docked Ships do not use Gravity correctly
  • 420 Resolved importing sector from 0.153 to 0.154
  • 383 Resolved Sector border: Missiles fired at an oobject in another sector pass through objects without damaging
  • 303 Resolved /shop_restock_uid appears to not work
  • Closed 57
  • 810 Closed Duplicated Block: burnt yellow dirt (206), burnt yellow dirt (131)
  • 809 Closed ClassCastException caused by beam weapons
  • 805 Closed Starmade now require authentification when offline
  • 779 Closed Crafting buttons in inventory screen capture input incorrectly
  • 769 Closed Entities rendering partially invisible (Exception on occlusion computations)
  • 753 Closed Nacht ore block gives you a raw hattel shard
  • 752 Closed Power supply handheld beam causes ClassCastException when used on a shop.
  • 751 Closed Non physical micro assembler
  • 747 Closed Can place ore blocks
  • 745 Closed REQUIRE_STARMADE_AUTHENTICATION does not work even with USE_STARMADE_AUTHENTICATION is set to true.
  • 737 Closed Plexlifter can´t get activated by logic
  • 732 Closed planets not fully generating.
  • 713 Closed Area trigger blocks visible in build mode even when TAB+G'd.
  • 710 Closed You can still see block info with right shift in a zoomed out view in astronaut mode
  • 700 Closed Random elevations on planets do not look aesthetically pleasing
  • 697 Closed You can buy blueprints when you are not near a shop
  • 689 Closed Hard to build while moving ship
  • 662 Closed Setting faction to auto-war on aggression makes it possible to auto-war traders guild
  • 639 Closed Update conversion recipes for new orange blocks
  • 638 Closed Add 'Orange Paint' for recipe update
  • 637 Closed display module re-edit sometimes places blocks
  • 636 Closed display module not accessible with R while in ship core
  • 625 Closed Non-Block Models On Ships Are Rendering Through Blocks
  • 613 Closed Destroy Entity not logging correct target
  • 582 Closed FAILED ACTIVATING - reenqueueing
  • 579 Closed Missiles: impact detection often too late
  • 571 Closed Trigger Area acting
  • 559 Closed Radius on missiles incorrectly reported
  • 544 Closed The online players list and Database window (F3) jumps back up.
  • 526 Closed Ships that are undocked immediately turn to look in the direction they were in right before they docked.
  • 524 Closed Blocksaround z -113 to -114 vanish on placement
  • 523 Closed Dumbfire Missles + Overdrive Effect
  • 519 Closed Line in the middle of planet pentagon
  • 493 Closed Salvage Cannons get stuck on if power runs out
  • 484 Closed Damage Beam Incorrectly Calculated.
  • 474 Closed Switching frequently to inventory/ai config tab causes heavy ship rotation
  • 467 Closed Mesh block face invisible next to area trigger
  • 465 Closed Damage Pulse system does not gain damage from additional blocks
  • 455 Closed salvage cannons stay on if you run out of power
  • 452 Closed "Size of hit indications" option bug
  • 448 Closed Planet HP can go negative
  • 444 Closed /shop_restock over fills a shops stock
  • 439 Closed Ghosted sections of ship after missile strike
  • 413 Closed Several effects broken when used with beams
  • 389 Closed Loading large ships causes tons of lag (400k mass +)
  • 387 Closed SDBB type missiles and beam d1000 combo tracking docked turrets when zoomed out
  • 382 Closed Effect module bug: Firering with effect -> inactive
  • 370 Closed Missiles do not do damage to planet cores.
  • 369 Closed Inadvertent block placement when using ABM sliders
  • 364 Closed /ship_info_name requires server/game to restart
  • 353 Closed /despawn_all ignores anything after underscore
  • 344 Closed /clear_overheating Functions Erratically
  • 338 Closed PlexLifter glitches out on planets
  • 254 Closed Block orientations in Avanced Build Mode are not always saved when switching to other blocks
  • 230 Closed AMC "Slave" system firing with main, on turrets
  • 217 Closed Unable to hotkey Docking modules on a ship/station
  • 195 Closed /import_sector can ONLY add stuff to sector

New in StarMade 0.1617 (Aug 11, 2014)

  • fixed rendering glitches (structures not or only partially drawn). I looked in to problems with intel, but in this case it wasn't intel at all. Due to the optimization in chunk lighting calculations, some raytrace counts selected in the options would cause the bug because of a rounding error. You can now also change the raytrace count ingame without having to restart
  • Nacht ore blocks should now give you the correct raw ore when harvesting
  • As promised, I implemented a simpler dynamic lighting model for older graphics card to gain some fps (can be selected in the ingame options)
  • Some more optimizations have been done to shaders to further gain some fps in the default lighting model
  • New textures for new light blocks and new tinted glass have been added (Arwork from Tom(Kupu) of course)

New in StarMade 0.1616 / 20140803 Dev (Aug 9, 2014)

  • Infinite Chain Docking
  • Chain docking is no longer limited. The only restriction is, that you can't currently dock anything on a turret.
  • Bug Fixes
  • Some major fixes have been done. Especially in the unwanted rotation when undocking or entering a ship. Also the initial docking process when loading in ships with a lot of turrets has been made more robust to not cause lag on server or client.
  • Several causes for crashes have also been identifies and fixed.
  • Also, debris now falls down on planets.
  • Optimizations
  • Shadows have been optimized by a lot, and you should now get a lot higher fps when using the.
  • Also some small optimizations have been made to general drawing performance.
  • I also plan a new reduced dynamic lighting mode, that will boost fps for slower machines, but that isn't in this update.
  • Also, optimizations to the lighting calculations have been made, so chunks should now display much faster.
  • Other Things
  • Most of the time this week however went into a new launcher/updater system. The new system will have the ability to only download files that have actually changed. Furthermore, you will be able to change the installation directory, manage multiple installations, and switch to any older version with just a few clicks.
  • For planned features, it's finally time to design a new more interesting structure for the universe, and with that various forms of FTL.

New in StarMade 0.1611 (Aug 4, 2014)

  • General:
  • Armor harden now also caps at 50% to prevent invulnerability
  • Crash when accessing personal factories after opening a block factory inventory
  • Factory blocks could not be connected
  • BattleMode:
  • fixed server crash when player faction suddently becomes unavailable (player leaves faction in battle)
  • players in battle are now killed when changing or leaving factions to prevent exploitation
  • ship copy is now done in a more safe way to prevent corruption (block connections lost)
  • winner display has been fixed
  • players in battle are now updated life in the leaderboard panel (k)
  • spectators are now instantly warped into battle if there is one going on (killed fighters can watch the rest of the battle)
  • if the battle cannot start because the sector cannot import because it's still active, all players in that sector will be killed

New in StarMade 0.16 / 20140710 Dev (Aug 2, 2014)

  • Crafting:
  • The crafting system essentially replaces the currently recipe system (random recipes still work, but will be taken out gradually).
  • Basically, each block has now a number of other blocks they consist of. Those blocks then again have something they consist of, and so forth. This forms the basis of the crafting tree.
  • New Raw Resources and Rocks
  • There are two types of raw resources: ore and shards.
  • Those are now separated from blocks. That means they can spawn in any rock. If you salvage a rock that has a resource in it, both the rock and the resource will be placed in your inventory. If you destroy the block, the resource is lost, too.
  • Raw resources have to be processed first! There are two new factories to do that: The capsule factory, which turns raw resources into capsules, and the micro assembler, which turns capsules into either metal meshes or circuits which are used as basis for blocks.
  • Capsules basically are refined resources made from raw ones. You'll get multiple from each raw resource you put in.
  • There are also 8 new types of rocks used in recipes. Those are now spawned on asteroids. You will also find 2 types of ores/shards on asteroids and planets now. On asteroids, depending on the asteroid type, the same resources will spawn. On planets it will be 2 random resources.
  • New Crafting Items:
  • Several new block types were added as part of the crafting system, although they serve only as an intermediate stage in the crafting of other blocks, we gave them textures that you might find useful in decorating parts of your ship. With Kupu’s changes to the texture sheet, and the addition of these new crafting items, there are a lot of new looks to try out on your ships and stations!
  • Personal Crafting:
  • But now you can not only use factories to craft, it can also be done in the player inventory. The capsule factory and micro assembler are permanently available there. They work slower than factories, but they can do all basic things. The last one available in the inventory is the factory crafting, where you can make the macro factory. The macro factory makes ALL other blocks in the game.
  • This means, even if you are stranded on a planet without any block, you can make a core from nothing, survival mode! Here is a little rundown on how
  • Small Tutorial:
  • To make a core:
  • 1. collect ore or shards (type is irrelevant but it's better focus on either shards or ore exclusively at first)
  • 2. open inventory and click on the capsule button
  • 3. place either ore or shards in the slot. Don't place both, or else you won't have enough space for the product to be put there.
  • 3. You should be getting capsules
  • 4. Place the produced in your inventory
  • 5. click on the micro button in the inventory and place your produced capsules there. You should be getting either circuits (from shard capsules) or metal meshes (from ore capsules). Also only place one type at a time in the slot, as there has to be space for the product to be placed.
  • 6. with 20 metal meshes or 20 circuits you can finally make the macro factory, which can produce all other blocks. put the 20 meshes in the slot after you press the factory button in the inventory.
  • 7. place down your factory.
  • 8. open the factory with R and select the ship core as production. In the graph you can see that other than circuits, you require metal grills. A factory can only do ONE STEP OF THE TREE at a time, so you will first have to change the production to metal grill
  • 9. place in some metal meshes and the factory should now produce metal grills. Because factories require power and you don't have a power block, you can shoot it with with the new personal PowerSupplyBeam weapon until you can produce a power block.
  • 10. when you have enough grills, put in some circuits and select "core" as product again.
  • 11. your factory will now produce cores if you have the required resources.
  • Calbiri did a great job conceptualizing all the recipes applying them to the game. Still, the recipes may be adjusted as the need arises, it’s not always easy to predict every issue in a new crafting system.
  • Factory Linking:
  • As before, factories can be linked together. Linking a factory to another has the effect, that the factory can move elements out of all other factories that are connected into its own inventory and proceed to use them for production. This means, you can basically rebuild a crafting tree with the necessary factories linked together to be able to create anything from just resources and rock.
  • Dynamic Prices:
  • To fix the economy, prices will also be based on what blocks are made of. The option is available in server.cfg but not on at the moment, as not all base elements and prices are fully balanced yet.
  • Battle Mode:
  • On a completely other area, an all new game mode has been added to StarMade. Because PvP in sandbox is always connected to time consuming rebuilding, fleeing ships, and other things that don't allow for quick simple fun, battle mode was created. Essentially, an admin can either run this mode on top of sandbox, or dedicate the server to the mode.
  • Dedicated means, that players will spawn in a personal sector that has its own unlimited shop. They can't leave that sector though.
  • This is how battlemode works:
  • 1. A countdown will run down. Players can press k to look up the current status and leaderboards.
  • 2. To enter a battle, the players have to join the battle factions defined by the admin. Those factions will always be open to join from the faction hub menu. Logged out players are automatically removed
  • 3. Depending on what faction configuration have the most players, an FFA (if more players are in the FFA faction), or team battle (if more players are in the team factions) will start
  • 4. upon start, all players are warped into battle in that ship they are currently in. A copy of that ship will remain in the personal sector. You can also warp into battle as an astronaut
  • 5. Before the battle starts, the ships can neither fire nor move, except the astronauts, so they have time to man a turret of a teammate
  • 6. The battle itself is deathmatch or team deathmatch at the moment, but more modes will come.
  • 7. After the match, the players are brought back to their sectors where they can make changes to improve their fighters.
  • Admins can also define the map that is used in the battle secor by simply exporting a sector and setting that name in the config.
  • All the necessary options are in the server config. Please do not turn on personal sectors on existing sandbox servers as it might jail players (the sector mode to not be able to enter/exit can be set with admin commands).
  • I’ll add a tutorial on the config options for battle mode shortly.
  • Personal weapons:
  • Two new personal weapons have been added. A healing beam that also works on astronauts, and a power supply beam that will supply power to ships/stations/planets.
  • Both new weapons will be in the default inventory, and soon be craftable. There are also (amongst others) new admin commands to acquire them.
  • Bugfixes:
  • Some performance updates include better shard management to combat lag spikes from them.
  • Special thanks to all the testers! In the following week I’ll try to make the bug count a lot smaller.
  • Here are the fixes for this version:
  • Resolved 9
  • 732 Resolved planets not fully generating.
  • 724 Resolved When editing Display blocks, text is reset for all directions except one
  • 723 Resolved some keys are still functional while chatting
  • 702 Resolved Beams + cannon scale in the wrong way.
  • 664 Resolved Scrollbar for block type removal cannot be click-dragged
  • 651 Resolved Build mode switch inertia follows into flight mode
  • 628 Resolved Ion system used defensively still causes invulnerability
  • 498 Resolved Beams Do Not Consume Correct Power
  • 195 Resolved /import_sector can ONLY add stuff to sector
  • Closed 5
  • 690 Closed View distance of planets and stars are fixed: increasing sector size doesn't change it
  • 675 Closed Undocking a ship, causes random logic updates.
  • 673 Closed Docking Module: Docking modules with enhancers cannot be triggered by logic anymore
  • 618 Closed Logging out in a build block -> Logging in near origin's point of the object (see notes)
  • 405 Closed docked ship desync

New in StarMade 0.15997 (Jul 25, 2014)

  • Features:
  • New Texture Pack:
  • A whole new texture pack by kupu has been added to the game. It is called "Default", and as the name implies will be the new default texture pack.
  • Debris:
  • A debris effect has been added to the game when taking out blocks. The game will spawn in debris modeled by Keaton (Omni).
  • It's made in a way to be as fast as possible for the computer. It is a client only effect so it wont affect servers in any way. It will also automatically adapt to the cpu performance, so the faster your performance is, the more debris will be kept around. There might be still some issues on spawning in larger amounts at once on slower machines, but I will sort those out. You can also just switch the debris off in the ingame options if you set the debris lifetime to 0.
  • Display block styles:
  • Upon clicking on a display block (which now has a better texture), you can now change the color and the font size. Furthermore you can now use variables like shields and shield capacity as well as power of the ship in the text. More variables will of course follow. Display blocks now also save correctly in the blueprints.
  • Lighting:
  • The lighting system has been overhauled. The first thing is, you will no longer see any change of lighting indoors when the ship is moving. Also, dynamic shadows will no longer darken indoor areas when turned on.
  • Furthermore occlusion light and light source light have been separated and extended to increase lighting quality by a lot.
  • An option has been added (at startup) to customize the amount of raytracing rays used by the lighting system. Increasing this will not impact your fps, it will just take longer for chunks to update lighting (or load in at start). The higher the number, the finer the light will look.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • The logic issues have been fixed. Signals now will only delegate if their state was changed. Because they forwarded before, logic could have a lot of false loops in them causing the logic circuit to be unusable, Loading of logic has been optimized so it should come in a lot faster.
  • Further optimization to system logic has been done to increase speed of loading the ship systems up and decrease its memory usage.
  • Several more optimizations have been done on various places.

New in StarMade 0.1595 (Jul 11, 2014)

  • Display blocks:
  • Found in the "decoration" category, this block can be placed anywhere in the game. It will basically display its text content to a screen on the outside. The screen position depends on the orientation of the display blocks. It is made using starmade's streaming capabilities to use private channels and "request only what you see" to minimize impact on performance and network. Press R on a display block to edit its content. The editor is a little wonky still so your text might get cut of in it (but still is considered valid if you write on). Also, kupu already made a way better version of the background screen, which will follow soon.
  • Custom station spawning:
  • In this build, admins will be finally able to customize station spawning. There is a new directory "blueprints-stations" in the main dir of starmade. in there there are 3 subfolders "pirate", "neutral", and "trading-guild" (those folders might not exist when updating, since there are no defaults yet, so you can create them if needed). Depending on the location, blueprint folders from that locations will be taken to replace the default station (which is still used if the folders are empty), and the content is spawned with the according faction.
  • Over 20 bugs have also been fixed for this version.

New in StarMade 0.159 (Jul 2, 2014)

  • This update should finally fix the rollback (saving) bug, that was happening on servers for some time. I can't say yet if it's 100% fixed as there is no real method to trigger it on purpose, but I'm fairly confident.
  • The crafting system is also mostly done in terms of implementation (it's not yet active in game though).
  • Mailing System:
  • Players (and the system) can now finally send mail to other players even if they are not online. All data is stored in the database and consistent over logouts or server restarts.
  • You can open the message panel with F4 (until i find a better spot in the GUI). A message will popup if you have new mail.
  • Also as a first application for system mail, all players of the affected factions will now receive mail if war is declared.
  • Fixes and Balance:
  • Several fixes have been done.
  • Thrust and shields have been buffed more.
  • For people wanting thrust to less effect the max speed on servers with high max speed, please ask your admin to lower the linear damping. A new default value has been set, but it will not apply on existing servers (only when installing new).

New in StarMade 0.1584 (Jun 27, 2014)

  • Thrust and shield capacity has been buffed.

New in StarMade 0.151 (Jun 7, 2014)

  • Schema has uploaded a fix for the weapon combination curves. A calculator to see how a buff/nerf works has been added in the "tools" section of the client startup screen.
  • Also there are a few fixes:
  • AI can now use Missiles and Beams
  • Shields are now ignored by pull/push/stop effects (can be edited in the config though if you want to turn it off again)
  • /kill_character admin command crash fixed
  • some initial changes to the vanilla config. There will soon be more as more feedback comes in.

New in StarMade 0.1401 (Mar 23, 2014)

  • Fixes the ClassCastException and the exception you get in the options if no controller is attached

New in StarMade 0.14 (Mar 17, 2014)

  • improved character physics (hopefully no more gliding through lifts)
  • improved transformation pipeline in physics, so objects no longer fall out of other moving objects if bound (astronaut in gravity falling out of ship)
  • changed universe rotation system to local rotation of planet sectors
  • usernames now case insensitive (means, all variations of cases of the same name point to the same account [e.g. "Test", "test", "teSt" all point to the same player save-file, and have the same protection]. Same goes for
  • white/black lists, as well as admins. It will be applied automatically, so admins won't have to rewrite any files)
  • fixed crash on recipe (number overflow)
  • soft migration for block structure to allow for additional orientations. things get migrated as they are loaded, so no version compatibility issues will occur (unless a newly saved blueprint is loaded into an old starmade version).
  • old->new: ok, new->old: not ok
  • added additional corners front/back
  • added additional corners left/right
  • cleaned up orientation system (confusing bit of code) with migration
  • spawn_entity command now works from console
  • built system to automatically include all symmetry options for all new and old shapes
  • astronauts can now align themselves with a ship by pressing the jump button. the alignment works just like in gravity without actual gravity
  • improved block-orientation system to remember last selected for each block type
  • optimized character physics further (100 characters on the same planet from 10 to >200 fps)
  • fixed lighting not updating all surrounding segments when a block is added/removed
  • complete redesign of mid level segment data structure into a dynamic octree structure (on top of the existing low level octree)
  • integrated new structure for more performance in memory, light calculation, physics, simple iteration, etc. (especially on structure with lots of empty space)
  • fixed ugly little graphical glitch in planet atmosphere
  • fixed a memory leak that would fill up over a longer time (mostly on clients)
  • fixed occlusion bug that would cause areas to be brighter when there is non-opaque objects near (flora, glass, etc)
  • fixed bug that may have cause faction ids to be wrongly set on server restart
  • fixed bug where case of the names of members in a faction would cause bugs when logged in with a different case
  • implemented cascading shadow maps with zoom fitted frustum
  • improved shadow quality and fixed some bugs in the system
  • implemented shader preprocessor to efficiently handle options and backwards compatibility
  • fixed bug from new system where single blocks are not updated on server
  • fixed turrets not being controllable by players
  • a set-recipe a player buys (coarse/refine) will now refund credits instead of blocks if the recipe cost credits
  • fixed command auto-complete
  • added player name auto-complete to all command parameter as well as /pm and /f
  • improved method to check on modified blueprints (hopefully won't misfire modification)
  • fixed turret movement in chain docking
  • turrets no longer reset rotation when entered (and flight mode is used)
  • made restricted camera (turrets) homogeneous to be much easier to use for advanced application
  • turret rotation is now persistent (does not reset when turret get loaded after being unloaded)
  • chain docked objects are no longer excluded from faction home base protection
  • player movement speed in gravity now independent from look direction
  • added key for player walking in gravity (default left shift)
  • implemented multiple texture packs chooser
  • fixed graphical glitch where stars/sun would be visible on glass/water (or through any other transparent object) even when there is a solid block somewhere in the background
  • fixed client turret glitching if rotation has been already modified by another client before the client enters a the sector containing the turret
  • fixed docked structures becoming physical on client when the docking process was not completed yet (major lag)
  • improved loading times of structures by setting initial sizes of maps from expected data
  • improved blueprint loading time using a faster method to transfer block connection data
  • improved general block-block physics collision performance
  • debug mode no longer stays active when joining a multiplayer game after activating it on single player
  • fixed faction offer/relation id's possibly colliding leading to random war/peace declarations
  • added error handling for texture packs (to check if all files are there and if they have the right resolution), so modders get good feedback
  • added fixed helmet animation triggers
  • fixed character getting stuck on ceiling when jumping
  • implemented directional gravity blocks. Players can walk on walls/ceiling
  • fixed new-block-transmission not generating segments other then 0,0,0
  • further improved shadow quality (not quite there)
  • fixed bug that caused clients to have a 5-10 second delay when adding/removing/harvesting blocks or open/closing doors
  • decreased network overhead by using pure primitives for buffers when applicable
  • fixed background when using frame-buffer only
  • implemented signature fetching: clients request a map of what the server knows for sure at the time and the region file is going to be empty. This decreases load times and network overhead because empty segments don't have to be processed in the segment-manager at all. And thanks to the octree system, the update of empty segments takes 0 memory and is very fast
  • fixed out-of-direct-memory danger for 32-bit java when using texture arrays
  • fished shadows of characters being falsely frustum culled
  • fixed method of saving virtual memory (memory outside the heap). Out-Of-Memory crashes on 32-bit systems should now be eliminated
  • added auto-rotate camera
  • added gif recorder
  • chain-docked objects now also in home-base protection (if origin is home-base)
  • fixed faction home not resetting when removing faction block
  • added info to track a faction home change (faction news) to track eventual bug causing faction home resets (made that already more robust already, also)
  • redesigned AI panel
  • added crew tab
  • added fleet tab
  • implemented crew AI control
  • implemented fabricator animation control
  • docking beam origin is now currently used cockpit
  • fixed 6 sided gravity
  • implemented fabricator to harvest blocks instead of being able to remove at once
  • added scaling to bone implementation
  • added rest of the new blocks to the config
  • fixed bug that would cause brightness on blocks when a ship is exited when using shadows
  • integrated Luaj libraries for full Lua support
  • implemented Lua interface
  • implemented new conversation System
  • implemented system to create conversations with Lua
  • implemented networked conversation
  • fixed block modding tool not to crash when reflection reports non accessible field
  • improved shadows to not "shine through" far away objects when close up to something else that normally should be shadowed from that far away object
  • fixed some shader issues for mac-graphics card drivers
  • added failsafe for path calculation to stop after a threshold is reached
  • implemented normal maps
  • fixed source of bugs: on unloading entities were triggered to save twice. one time for the sector unload, and one time on unload of the object itself. This was a source of various random bugs like Objects completely vanishing
  • fixed characters controlled by players falling of moving objects when in gravity (or in sector change)
  • implemented skin files
  • implemented transmission for full skins
  • removed lag from flying through open doors
  • further improved physics performance with advanced lookup tables
  • removed unnecessary non-scaling transformation from physics cube-cube collision process
  • improved performance of single block-updates by a lot (building, salvaging, opening doors)
  • reduced lag from load of missiles in one place by a lot
  • improved A-Star path finding to avoid turning if possible
  • implemented basic path smoothing
  • implemented settings sliders
  • integrated sliders for advanced build mode
  • advanced build mode size now saved by ship entered
  • integrated sliders for weapon settings
  • implemented OAuth2 test communication
  • server config option for collision damage (damage and physical response is not yet calculated perfectly, but fast block transmission to handle from physics works)
  • minor physics optimizations
  • fixed small synch problem with octrees (server didn't apply the data it sent to clients (marking a segment as empty), and since the clients had teh data, empty segments where never requested and therefor checks if a segment has been loaded returned false on the server which sometimes lead to gravity not being applied
  • fixed several chunk error sources
  • fixed hidden flag not being updated correctly after docking process
  • implemented message log
  • implemented message log filters
  • implemented message log fast chat (system will place /f for faction chat or "/pm name" automatically if chat is used in message log panel with the according filter selected
  • fixed lag/bug on docked structures after the object has already loaded in, the server tells the client that the object is physics active
  • fixed extension error in skin transmission
  • implemented structure to handle unloaded AI entity for clients (in the future when a controlled entity e.g. fleet is not necessarily fully loaded and has to be simulated in the database)
  • fixed pirates attacking the NPC character in shops
  • redesigned AI crew Panel buttons and fixed functionality
  • added AI settings
  • implemented basic customizable AI behavior for NPC crew
  • fixed bug where gravity block cannot be turned off
  • explosion blocks (disintegrator) now cause chain reaction with each other
  • explosion blocks (disintegrator) now explode on damage
  • draw distance no longer an option (calculated over "max segments" now)
  • navigation filter setting is now saved on the client
  • fixed migration problem when a sprite style block was activated
  • fixed bug where object would be displayed from cache after spawning if before an object with the same name was deleted
  • buying from catalog with blocks now includes value of docked ships
  • if not enough blocks to buy from catalog, a list of total blocks needed will be sent to the player (using new chatlog panel to view)
  • core can now be entered on the same ship if someone already is in the build block
  • now skipping docked structures that are already occupied when up/down was pressed in flight mode
  • fixed bug where would not be able to pick up core as astronaut
  • fixed docking beam not resetting to core when cockpit changed to core
  • auto-completion of player name not puts right case
  • auto-completion of player name now works outside of commands
  • docking on faction base with faction exception will no longer change faction of the docked ship
  • possible fix for AI not firing on turrets
  • fixed bug where cache would be considered newer even if object has been modified in absence
  • fixed mass calculation in docking situations
  • fixed build orientation arrow
  • fixed bug where docking zone is not drawn in build-mode when the ship itself is docked
  • fixed possible crash in shutdown
  • fixed shield hit effect
  • home-base protection now extends to all docked ships (e.g. if faction permission block was used)
  • ship indicators of docked ships are now again displayed in structure (in build mode)
  • fixed missile sector positioning for new system
  • immensely decreased lag from loading in big structures with a lot of usable blocks (weapons etc) by first eliminating an unnecessary network transmission, using a better data structure in the grouping algorithm, and removing an unefficient exception
  • changed faction_create to include name of initial member, and added faction_create_as to also include faction Id to create faction as (useful when importing sectors)
  • fixed several bugs that might cause a crash of the lighting threads
  • fixed synchronization bug that lead to crash or other glitches when re-requesting segments (missile battles)
  • Turret/ship AI no longer engages targets in invisibility mode
  • fixed freeze on faulty transformation orientation
  • fixed narrow-octree invalidation by repeatedly removing the same position
  • AI now shoots on turrets
  • improved AI engagement behavior
  • improved menu vs in-game activity behavior
  • reorganized initial items a bit and added helmet
  • fixed exploding block update not triggering
  • fixed stations not being collectible by faction members
  • faction owned blocks can now be activated by docking beam of a ship without a faction signature, but being flown by the pilot of that faction
  • fixed missile head graphics
  • increased maximal number of missile trails
  • further decreased lag from missiles
  • improved long term performance of server by fixing a bug that could possibly prevent sector from unloading (even if players are no longer present)
  • fixed clustering of shops (for newly generated sectors)
  • implemented personal enemies of factions
  • made personal enemies of factions consistent
  • added GUI options for personal enemies of factions consistent. Editable if the rank of the faction member has permission to edit
  • attack on hostile action now will add a non-faction-player to the personal enemies, and no longer consider all neutrals enemies
  • fixed naming in AI dialog
  • added option to rehire/discharge AI by dialog
  • filled in some shop employee dialog
  • implemented buttons light up on mouse over (used in dialog options to make navigation easier on the eyes)
  • fixed AI exception (caused by another bugfix)
  • used chance for migration to set all 3-sided (e.g. grass patches) blocks as TOP orientation in preparation for them to be able to be rotated in any direction
  • fixed texure bug for some graphics cards (mac)
  • fixed possible server block service hang-up when placing auto-connected blocks like disintegrator (ty tominosama)
  • implemented texture compression
  • improved graphics memory cleanup function
  • improved physics performance by removing lag from removing calculation after microscopic fluctuations of object positions
  • fixed crash from pressing tab on some dialog text entries
  • added player name auto-complete to text input panels that require player names
  • added advanced options to deal with possible graphics driver bugs (compression, and mipmap options)
  • improved synchronization of server segment requests to hopefully get rid of physical chunk errors (those that won't go away after restart and cache clear)
  • fixed migration crash when trying to migrate block type that is not known in the block config (custom blocks)
  • compressed inventory-changed transmission for factory blocks to be more scalable
  • fixed AI error (FSMException) on servers
  • fixed bug that would cause crash on startup (ResourceException)
  • improved segment sorter to be more thread safe
  • fixed bug where player character could be considered neutral for a short time. player character now set faction id to player's faction id before spawning
  • fixed bug where sector information would not be updated correctly in sql database (causing protection mode of sector not to save, re-spawning asteroids etc)
  • added mining effect
  • improved responsiveness of all beams
  • hopefully fixed crash from sorting factions by relation in teh faction hub panel
  • implemented procedurally generated background (still a little slow, can be turned on in the in-game options)
  • fixed crash on loading shop AI skin (NullPointer)
  • inserted more tests to find a specific bug causing a gl exception
  • switched to regular textures for better compression and mipmap handling (some graphics card threw OUT_OF_MEMORY, despite having plenty on using compressed texture arrays)
  • decreased texture size of ultra quality shadows (not noticeable, but cuts memory consumption in half)
  • implemented adapting procedural backgrounds in different qualities (resolution. Please note that some graphics cards don't support 4096)
  • fixed NullPointer crash when joining multiplayer in the vicinity of an NPC player
  • fixed jiggling when traveling in docked ship or turret
  • slightly optimized object position transmission to reduce data that has to be sent on update
  • fixed crash when system tries to draw floating item that doesn't exist
  • added (probably) final vertex component mask for cube shader
  • added correct normals for wedges
  • added correct normals for corners
  • added correct normals for penta
  • added correct normals for tetra
  • fixed GL_INVALID_OPERATION Error happening in build mode. Happened when using multi-sampled frame buffers and reading pixels from it (in advanced build mode to check for mouse position)
  • improved lighting
  • reduced green color in procedural backgrounds
  • implemented admin-command "/delay_save seconds" for server admins to safely create backups. Make sure to wait a bit after using this command since in case there are running write requests, they will continue to run and finish.
  • (/delay_save 0 will turn the delay off immediately)
  • fixed possible server crash on invalid docking update
  • fixed object being declared as modified blueprint after it already has fully spawned (and then blocks where added afterwards)
  • fixed gravity bug where player would already be in velocity when activating the gravity block
  • fixed gravity (pointing somewhere other than downwards) warping the player to a seemingly random position
  • fixed glitching of active object when astronaut gets suddenly thrown out of an object(e.g. /destroy_entity was used on a ship with a player in it)
  • in case of emergency shutdown (forced termination from outside by an admin) the database will no longer attempt to compact itself (as that may under rare circumstances cause corruption)
  • fixed gravity bug where player would suddenly be put out of gravity. Also made some gravity blocks look like they weren't working at all (since it was instantly stopped). Gravity lifts should now finally be usable
  • added gradient to advanced build mode block preview
  • added extra alpha for block preview in advanced build mode, so that blocks that are completely transparent cans till be easily seen
  • improved lighting for back-shading being better handled with block light
  • fixed shadow not working in the last version
  • improved lighting for block light to illuminate shadowed areas better
  • fixed crash in sun sectors with shadows (light was at zero pos)
  • included tolerance for modified blueprints (server.cfg). New version blueprints should be more resilient against falsely triggering blueprint modification. Still, please make sure the object is fully loaded before saving a blueprint
  • kupu updated normal maps further
  • fixed build box flickering when trying to build in build mode on a moving object
  • fixed bug in recursive price calculation of blueprints+docked
  • fixed normal/bump mapping (some wrong vectors caused the lighting to change, and the bump look wrong)
  • improved self-illumination of light source blocks
  • fixed shaders for some graphics card (ATI (mostly mac ones))
  • fixed further 'vector-zero-length' exception
  • when GUI is disabled, indicators in build mode are no longer drawn
  • settings no longer reset to default if one setting is no longer valid
  • using bitwise operations on shader for graphics cards that support them (small fps boost for those cards)
  • fixed crash when more then one item is sold to a player shop at a price of 0 credits (divide by zero)
  • fixed crash when recording screenshot or give with frame-buffers and anti-aliasing activated (still minor bug with white background on screenshot)
  • improved error response when shadows are not supported on a graphics cards
  • fixed crash when in rotating cam mode and changing sectors
  • fixed occasional crash in cubatom panel when dragging from hotbar
  • put in some extra debug info to find the GL_INVALID_OPERATION that is happening on some cards
  • fixed one more GL_INVALID_OPERATION crash on 100% (on some graphics cards)
  • reduced memory consumption in several places
  • decreased consumption from lots of small groups of usable blocks
  • decreased consumption from control structure
  • improved control structure performance by using unified indexing data structure a lot better to handle in collections
  • fixed light shining through closed doors
  • implemented "lighten" mode for advanced build mode (makes blocks brighter)
  • fixed "NullPointerException: Exception: REQUESTED TYPE 0 IS NULL" client crash (happened when a block-connection came in too late after the source was already removed)
  • improved bulk-block-connection function to be more scalable and faster
  • (hopefully) fixed [KINEMATICCONTROLLER][UPDATEACTION] Exception possibly crashing the server on sector change in some situations
  • fixed faction protection from personal salvage beam
  • fixed NullPointer from AI trying to walk on object that no longer exists
  • fixed sudden change of background when changing systems (needs testing)
  • fixed huge video memory consumption when using high res procedural backgrounds with multi-sample (couldn't even start on powerful machines)
  • fixed mouse inversion when control is pressed
  • fixed crash when trying to talk to an NPC that has no affinity
  • fixed crash when using texture arrays
  • fixed server crash when update for a not existing network object comes in (after the object was deleted). It's normally already caught, but the debug message actually caused the crash in some situations
  • fixed server crash/freeze when a hacked old blueprint was uploaded to a server
  • added security that on other positions so the same method of getting the server to freeze can't be used there
  • fixed chunk error problem
  • added separate selling price and buying price for every shop
  • implemented abstract controller support
  • implemented controller custom axis support
  • implemented controller custom button support
  • implemented abstract system to apply the same system as for keyboard to any controller
  • implemented controller button duplication check
  • implemented controller saving
  • implemented controller loading
  • implemented individual controller axis sensivity
  • improved GUI a bit: no more moving when keys pressed in some menus; no more firing weapons when deactivating menus (might still be some menus missing to be included)
  • prevented OS from giving initial value for controllers (rotation when starting until controller touched)
  • integrated controller into camera system
  • implemented remote debug system to check on raw server positions
  • removed sector physics mirroring from sectors to a planet and vice versa (physics glitches possible, but will take care of possible heavy lag and random warps, until better solution found)
  • structure panel now available for any usable structure
  • fixed some missiles not showing up
  • fixed GUI texture compression (washed out GUI textures)
  • fixed a accuracy problem in segment sorting (small alpha errors on transparent blocks can still occur)
  • removed unaffected segments within missile blast radius from missile block update (missile performance)
  • missile damage now sends segment update directly instead of issuing re-requests on client (faster update when missile hits & better synchronization)
  • fixed possible bug in updating whole segments when missiles hit (collections (ship properties) not updating correctly)
  • implemented system in the pre-light calculation system to handle angles
  • fixed bug where on server restart an entry would reset to being enemy usable even it was turned off before
  • optimization in several areas (network protocol, group calculation, light calculation)
  • fixed another bug in segment sorting (distance was not calculated to the middle but the corner)
  • moved segment/chunk impact to synchronized chunk revalidating instead of doing it threaded (no gain in doing that except synch issues). This will hopefully take care of a lot sources of bug, like the mass being calculated wrong and several others that could happen absolutely randomly
  • fixed minor source of bugs: initially newly loaded objects had no way to know their sector for one update when the object was updated before the data was inserted as a network object. Bypassing that now for the server to check directly
  • right mouse click on docking beam now ignores activatable blocks (doors)
  • maxDrawnSegments can now be changed ingame without problems, and with correct cleaning up (problem was always to get all threads to either finish or stop at a point where they don't currently own mesh themselves)
  • categorized and reordered options GUI
  • fixed a cause of server disconnects (tried to change an object on server that no longer existed. Could happen when the server removed the object and the change didn't yet reach the client)
  • fixed crash when changing options
  • further optimized lighting calculations for faster segment(chunk) loading
  • fixed server crash when replacing only empty segment on a structure
  • fixed server NullPointer when projectiles fly in inactive sector
  • increased diffuse lighting
  • fixed data problem when generating new planets (discovered due to the synch update of earlier patch)
  • optimized block collection calculation to faster ditch requested updates from removed objects in the queue
  • new drawing optimization should improve display performance of blocks by ~10% (depending on graphics card/driver. Fallback available to switch and customize optimization) using bigger Vertex Buffer Objects and dynamically allocating and filling them reduces costly openGL calls since multiple chunks can be drawn from the same buffer context (drawback: more video RAM overhead due to fragmentation, but does not scale)
  • "file does not exist" should no longer spam log on multiplayer (skin files that cannot be sent will stop trying after the 5th time)
  • inventory slot merge may be fixed (synchronization issue)
  • fixed NPC-Command menu not working when exiting ship in build mode
  • fixed personal enemies of faction not working
  • personal shop buy/sell permission now working
  • fixed bug with collection not updating on block removal (e.g. weapons keep working even if all the weapon blocks got removed or shot off)
  • faction members can now salvage faction home in astronaut mode
  • fixed possible deadlock (server freeze) when writing universe data
  • fixed bug where both inventory stacks of the same type would vanish when trying to merge and the sum of both exceeds the maximum stack size
  • possible fix for frame-buffer error happening on some hardware when using shadows
  • fixed another inventory merge bug (when changing slots while server is still subtracting blocks from building)
  • personal shop permission should now cover all shopping transactions
  • fixed AI not shooting at objects
  • fixed serverAI transmission not being in synch (lead to heavy rubberbanding and server/client position differences of AI ships)
  • fixed permissions to edit AI config (admins can now edit objects by selecting them and open the AI control panel)
  • fixed possible source for segment(chunk) errors: server took re-requests of segments which hints at a synch error
  • fixed serious server bug, where in case a sector was loaded while saving (inactive sector becomes active again), there could be a several bugs (foremost docked ships undocking without reason)
  • fixed bug where docked object were not hittable by missiles
  • fixed eject from enterable block when block gets destroyed
  • fixed core overheating timer when core destroyed by missile
  • added another texture pack from kupu
  • added some character model fixes from omni
  • reactivated head tilting (only without helmet)
  • fixed bug in animation structure where deactivated animation would prevent other animations

New in StarMade 0.135 (Mar 14, 2014)

  • possible fix for framebuffer error happening on some hardware when using shadows
  • fixed another inventory merge bug (when changing slots while server is still subtracting blocks from building)
  • personal shop permission should now cover all shopping transactions
  • fixed AI not shooting at objects (especially turrets)
  • fixed serverAI transmission not being in synch (lead to heavy rubberbanding and server/client position differences of AI ships)
  • fixed permissions to edit AI config (admins can now edit objects by selecting them and open the AI control panel)
  • fixed possible source for segment(chunk) errors: server took re-requests of segments which hints at a synch error

New in StarMade 0.134 (Mar 11, 2014)

  • "skin file does not exist" should no longer spam log on multiplayer (skin files that cannot be sent will stop trying after the 5th time)
  • inventory slot merge bug should be fixed (synchronization issue)
  • fixed NPC-Command menu not working when exiting ship in build mode
  • fixed personal enemies of faction not working
  • personal shop buy/sell permission are now working
  • fixed bug with collection not updating on block removal (e.g. weapons keep working even if all the weapon blocks got removed or shot off)
  • faction members can now salvage faction home in astronaut mode
  • fixed possible deadlock (server freeze) when writing universe data
  • fixed bug where both inventory stacks of the same type would vanish when trying to merge and the sum of both exceeds the maximum stack size

New in StarMade 0.133 (Mar 10, 2014)

  • This update contains a new graphics system. The old system of course is still available (the systems are programmed as modules and can be switched out at will). The approach is basically using bigger buffers on the graphics card to minimize switching pointers between them, which can be costly. The drawback of that system is overhead in video memory, but that doesn't scale fortunately.
  • The gains for my system are pretty good. Depending on the situation I get +10-100% more fps. But it very much depends on the graphics card, its drivers, and the settings selected.
  • Please note: There are two more options in the advanced settings on start-up. VBO-Bulk-Mode, and VBO-Bulk-mode-size. If you have trouble with running the game (but last version was fine) please turn that option off. Otherwise you can play around with the size option. With this option "the more the better" is not true, even for high end cards. What gives the best performance solely depends on the graphics driver implementation, so you might have to try a bit to find your optimal setting. In the future default setting of 4MB can be replaced with a default setting if the graphics card used is known by the game.

New in StarMade 0.131 (Mar 8, 2014)

  • fixed minor source of bugs: initially newly loaded objects had no way to know their sector for one update when the object was updated before the data was inserted as a network object. Bypassing that now for the server to check directly
  • right mouse click on docking beam now igores activatable blocks (doors)
  • maxDrawnSegments can now be changed ingame without problems, and with correct cleaning up (problem was always to get all threads to either finish or stop at a point where they don't currently own mesh themselves)
  • categorized and reordered options GUI
  • fixed a cause of server disconnects (tried to change an object on server that no longer existed. Could happen when the server removed the object and the change didn't yet reach the client)
  • fixed crash when changing options

New in StarMade 0.13 (Mar 7, 2014)

  • Small performance and synchronization gains in the network system, as well as a better system to track the cause of disconnects
  • Faster block collection updates (calculating touching blocks in systems)
  • Faster segment generation pipeline as some structure updates have been moved to the back, so they don't have to be performed on every block update
  • Finally 100% synchronized structure updates from generation process
  • Also a problem where a ship would be reset to "enemy spawnable" after restart should be fixed now.

New in StarMade 0.12 (Mar 3, 2014)

  • implemented abstract controller support
  • implemented controller custom axis support
  • implemented controller custom button support
  • implemented abstract system to apply the same system as for keyboard to any controller
  • implemented controller button duplication check
  • implemented controller saving
  • implemented controller loading
  • implemented individual controller axis sensivity
  • improved GUI a bit: no more moving when keys pressed in some menus; no more fireing weapons when deactivating menus (might still be some menus missing to be included)
  • prevented OS from giving initial value for controllers (rotation when starting until controller touched)
  • integrated controller into camera system
  • implemented remote debug system to check on raw server positions
  • removed sector physics mirroring from sectors to a planet and vice versa (physics glitches possible, but will take care of possible heavy lag and random warps, until better solution found)
  • structure panel now available for any usable structure
  • fixed some missiles not showing up
  • fixed GUI texture compression (washed out GUI textures)
  • fixed a accuracy problem in segment sorting (small alpha errors on transparent blocks can still occur)
  • removed unaffected segments within missile blast radius from missile block update (missile performance)
  • missile damage now sends segment update directly instead of issuing re-requests on client (faster update when missile hits & better synchronization)
  • fixed possible bug in updating whole segments when missiles hit (collections (ship properties) not updating correctly)

New in StarMade 0.11 (Feb 27, 2014)

  • The server was unable to save/load ships because of a small optimization requiring less data to store and send weapon distributions. Also, 2 small additional fixes were made for some intel/ATI drivers.

New in StarMade 0.11 (Feb 25, 2014)

  • Fixed the chunk error
  • Also, a little new feature which will play an important role. Shops now have seperate buy and sell prices. That means what you have to pay when buying can be completely different from what you get when selling. Currently the NPC shops use an equal price, but player shops can already change both prices at will.

New in StarMade 0.109 (Feb 24, 2014)

  • fixed one more GL_INVALID_OPERATION crash on 100% (on some graphics cards)
  • reduced memory consumption in several places
  • decreased consumption from lots of small groups of usable blocks
  • decreased consumption from control structure
  • improved control structure performance by using unified indexing data structure a lot better to handle in collections
  • fixed light shining through closed doors
  • implemented "lighten" mode for advanced build mode (makes blocks brighter)
  • fixed "NullPointerException: Exception: REQUESTED TYPE 0 IS NULL" client crash (happened when a block-connection came in too late after the source was already removed)
  • improved bulk-block-connection function to be more scalable and faster
  • (hopefully) fixed [KINEMATICCONTROLLER][UPDATEACTION] Exception possibly crashing the server on sector change in some situations
  • fixed faction protection from personal salvage beam
  • fixed NullPointer from AI trying to walk on object that no longer exists
  • fixed sudden change of background when changing systems (needs testing)
  • fixed huge video memory consumption when using high res procedural backgrounds with multisample (couldn't even start on powerful machines)
  • fixed mouse inversion when control is pressed
  • fixed crash when trying to talk to an NPC that has no affinity
  • fixed crash when using texture arrays
  • fixed server crash when update for a not existing network object comes in (after the object was deleted). It's normally already caught, but the debug message actually caused the crash in some situations
  • fixed server crash/freeze when a hacked old blueprint was uploaded to a server
  • added security that on other positions so the same method of getting the server to freeze can't be used there

New in StarMade 0.108 (Feb 19, 2014)

  • when GUI is disabled, indicators in build mdoe are no longer drawn
  • settings no longer reset to default if one setting is no longer valid
  • using btwise operations on shader for graphics cards that support them (small fps boost for those cards)
  • fixed crash when more then one item is sold to a player shop at a price of 0 credits (divide by zero)
  • fixed crash when recording screenshot or give with framebuffers and anti-aliasing activated (still minor bug with white background on screenshot)
  • improved error response when shadows are not supported on a graphics cards
  • fixed crash when in rotating cam mode and changing sectors
  • fixed occasional crash in cubatom panel when dragging from hotbar
  • put in some extra debug info to find the GL_INVALID_OPERATION that is happening on some cards

New in StarMade 0.107 (Feb 17, 2014)

  • fixed normal/bump mapping (some wrong vectors caused the lighting to change, and the bump look wrong)
  • improved self-illumination of light source blocks
  • fixed shaders for some graphics card (ATI (mostly mac ones))
  • fixed further 'vector-zero-length' exception

New in StarMade 0.106 (Feb 13, 2014)

  • fixed possible server crash on invalid docking update
  • fixed object being declared as modified blueprint after it already has fully spawned (and then blocks where added afterwards)
  • fixed gravity bug where player would already be in velocity when activating the gravity block
  • fixed gravity (pointing somewhere other than downwards) warping the player to a seemingly random position
  • fixed glitching of active object when astronaut gets suddenly thrown out of an object(e.g. /destroy_entity was used on a ship with a player in it)
  • in case of emergency shutdown (forced termination from outside by an admin) the database will no longer attempt to compact itself (as that may under rare circumstances cause corruption)
  • fixed gravity bug where player would suddenly be put out of gravity. Also made some gravity blocks look like they weren't working at all (since it was instantly stopped). Gravity lifts should now finally be usable
  • added gradient to adv build mode block preview
  • added extra alpha for block preview in adv build mode, so that blocks that are completely transparent cans till be easily seen
  • improved lighting for back-shading being better handled with block light
  • fixed shadow not working in the last version
  • improved lighting for block light to illuminate shadowed areas better
  • fixed crash in sun sectors with shadows (light was at zero pos)
  • included tolerance for modified blueprints (server cfg). New version blueprints should be more resilient against falsely triggering blueprint modification. Still, please make sure the object is fully loaded before saving a blueprint
  • kupu updated normal maps
  • fixed build box flickering when trying to build in build mode on a moving object
  • fixed bug in recursive price calculation of blueprints+docked

New in StarMade 205725 (Feb 11, 2014)

  • fixed crash when system tries to draw floating item that doesn't exist
  • added (probably) final vertex component mask for cube shader
  • added correct normals for wedges
  • added correct normals for corners
  • added correct normals for penta
  • added correct normals for tetra
  • fixed GL_INVALID_OPERATION Error happening in build mode. Happened when using multi-sampled frame buffers and reading pixels from it (in advanced build mode to check for mouse position)
  • improved lighting
  • reduced green color in procedural backgrounds
  • implemented admin-command "/delay_save seconds" for server admins to create backups without being in danger of a writing process messing with it. Make sure to wait a bit after using this command since in case there are running write requests, they will continue to run and finish. (/delay_save 0 will turn the delay off immediately)

New in StarMade 163603 (Feb 8, 2014)

  • fixed crash from pressing tab on some dialog text entries
  • added playername autocomplete to text input panels that require player names
  • added advanced options to deal with possible graphics driver bugs (compression, and mipmap options)
  • improved synchronization of server segment requests to hopefully get rid of physical chunk errors (those that won't go away after restart and cache clear)
  • fixed migration crah when trying to migrate block type taht is not known in the block config (custom blocks)
  • compressed inventory-changed tranmission for factory blocks to be more scalable
  • fixed AI error (FSMException) on servers
  • fixed bug that would cause crash on starup (ResourceException)
  • improved segment sorter to be more thread safe
  • fixed bug where player character could be considered neutral for a short time. player character now set faction id to player's faction id before spawning
  • fixed bug where sector information would not be updated correctly in sql database (causing protection mode of sector not to save, respawning asteroids etc)
  • added mining effect
  • improved responsiveness of all beams
  • hopefully fixed crash from sorting factions by relation in teh faction hub panel
  • implemented proceduraly generated background (still a little slow, can be turned on in the ingame options)

New in StarMade 162011 (Feb 3, 2014)

  • improved character physics (hopefully no more gliding through lifts)
  • improved transformation pipeline in physics, so objects no longer fall out of other moving objects if bound (astronaut in gravity falling out of ship)
  • changed universe rotation system to local rotation of planet sectors
  • usernames now case insensitive (means, all variations of cases of the same name point to the same account [e.g. "Test", "test", "teSt" all point to the same player save-file, and have the same protection]. Same goes for white/black lists, as well as admins. It will be applied automatically, so admins won't have to rewrite any files) (needs further testing)
  • fixed crash on recipe (number overflow)
  • soft migration for block structure to allow for additional orientations. things get migrated as they are loaded, so no version compatibility issues will occur (unless a newly saved blueprint is loaded into an old starmade version). old->new: ok, new->old: not ok
  • added penta shape
  • added tetra shape
  • added additional corners front/back
  • added additional corners left/right
  • implemented fast threaded AStar pathfinding in an abstract way to be usable in various parts of the game
  • cleaned up orientation system (confusing bit of code) with migration
  • spawn_entity command now works from console
  • built system to automatically include all symmetry options for all new and old shapes
  • astronauts can now align themselves with a ship by pressing the jump button. the alignment works just like in gravity without actual gravity
  • improved block-orientation system to remember last selected for each block type
  • optimized character physics further (100 characters on the same planet from 10 to >200 fps)
  • fixed lighting not updating all surrounding segments when a block is added/removed
  • complete redesign of mid level segment data-structure into a dynamic octree structure (on top of the existing low level octree)
  • integrated new structure for more performance in memory, light calculation, physics, simple iteration, etc. (especially on structures with lots of empty space)
  • fixed ugly little graphical glitch in planet atmosphere (white parts)
  • fixed a memory leak that would fill up over a longer time (mostly on clients)
  • fixed occlusion bug that would cause areas to be brighter when there is non-opaque objects near (flora, glass, etc)
  • fixed bug that may have cause faction ids to be wrongly set on server restart
  • fixed bug where case of the names of members in a faction would cause bugs when logged in with a different case
  • implemented cascading shadow maps with zoom fitted frustum
  • improved shadow quality and fixed some bugs in the system
  • implemented shader preprocessor to efficiently handle options and backwards compatibility
  • fixed bug from new system where single blocks are not updated on server
  • fixed turrets not being controllable by players (in hotfix)
  • fixed received a player buys (coarse/refine) will now refund credits instead of blocks if the recipe cost credits
  • fixed command auto-complete
  • added player name auto-complete to all command parameter as well as /pm and /f
  • improved method to check on modified blueprints (hopefully won't misfire modification)
  • fixed turret movement in chain docking
  • turrets no longer reset rotation when entered (and flight mode is used)
  • made restricted camera (turrets) homogeneous to be much easier to use for any advanced application
  • turret rotation is now persistent (does not reset when turret get loaded after being unloaded)
  • chain docked objects are no longer excluded from faction home base protection
  • player movement speed in gravity now independent from look direction
  • added key for player slow-walking in gravity (default left shift)
  • implemented multiple texture packs chooser
  • fixed graphical glitch where stars/sun would be visible through glass/water (or through any other transparent object) even when there is a solid block somewhere in the background
  • fixed client turret glitching if rotation has been already modified by another client before the client enters a the sector containing the turret
  • fixed docked structures becoming physical on client when the docking process was not completed yet (major lag)
  • improved loading times of structures by setting initial sizes of maps from expected data (possible through new octree structure)
  • improved blueprint loading time using a faster method to transfer block connection data
  • improved general block-block physics collision performance
  • debug mode no longer stays active when joining a multiplayer game after activating it on single player
  • fixed faction offer/relation id's possibly colliding leading to random war/peace declarations (in hotfix)
  • added error handling for texture packs (to check if all files are there and if they have the right resolution), so modders get good feedback
  • added fixed helmet animation triggers
  • fixed character getting stuck on ceiling when jumping
  • implemented directional gravity blocks. Players can walk on walls/ceiling
  • fixed new-block-transmission not generating segments other then 0,0,0
  • further improved shadow quality (not quite there)
  • fixed bug that caused clients to have a 5-10 second delay when adding/removing/harvesting blocks or open/closing doors (in hotfix)
  • decreased network overhead by using pure primitives for buffers when applicable
  • fixed background when using framebuffer only
  • implemented signature fetching: clients request a map of what the server knows for sure at the time and the region file is going to be empty.
  • This decreases load times and network overhead because empty segments don't have to be processed in the segment-manager at all.
  • And thanks to the octree system, the update of empty segments takes 0 memory and is very fast
  • fixed out-of-direct-memory danger for 32bit java when using texture arrays
  • fished shadows of characters being falsely frustum culled
  • fixed method of saving virtual memory (memory outside the heap). Out-Of-Memory crashes on 32bit systems should now be eliminated
  • added auto-rotate camera (default key tilde)
  • added gif recorder (default key 'pause'). Press once for record, and again for stop and finish gif. Gif will be placed in the starmade folder
  • chain-docked objects now also in home-base protection (if origin is home-base)
  • fixed faction home not resetting when removing faction block
  • added info to track a faction home change (faction news) to track eventual bug causing faction home resets (made that already more robust already, also)
  • redesigned AI panel
  • added crew tab
  • added fleet tab
  • implemented crew AI control
  • implemented fabricator animation control
  • docking beam origin is now currently used cockpit
  • fixed 6 sided gravity
  • implemented fabricator to harvest blocks instead of being able to remove at once
  • added scaling to bone implementation
  • added rest of the new blocks to the config
  • fixed bug that would cause brightness on blocks when a ship is exited when using shadows
  • integrated Luaj libraries for full Lua support
  • implemented Lua interface
  • implemented new conversation system
  • implemented system to create conversations with Lua
  • implemented networked conversation
  • fixed block modding tool not to crash when reflection reports non accessible field
  • improved shadows to not "shine through" far away objects when close up to something else that normally should be shadowed from that far away object
  • fixed some shader issues for mac-graphics card drivers
  • added failsafe for path calculation to stop after a threshold is reached
  • implemented normal maps
  • fixed source of bugs: on unloading entities were triggered to save twice. one time for the sector unload, and one time on unload of the object itself. This was a source of various random bugs like Objects completely vanishing
  • fixed characters controlled by players falling of moving objects when in gravity (or in sector change)
  • implemented skin files
  • implemented transmission for full skins
  • removed lag from flying through open doors
  • further improved physics performance with advanced lookup tables
  • removed unnecessary non-scaling transformation from physics cube-cube collision process
  • improved performance of single block-updates by a lot (building, salvaging, opening doors)
  • reduced lag from load of missiles in one place by a lot
  • improved AStar path finding to avoid turning if possible
  • implemented basic path smoothing
  • implemented settings sliders
  • integrated sliders for advanced build mode
  • advanced build mode size now saved by ship entered
  • integrated sliders for weapon settings
  • implemented OAuth2 test communication
  • server config option for collision damage (damage and pyhsical response is not yet calculated perfectly, but fast block transmission to handle from physics works)
  • minor physics optimizations
  • fixed small synch problem with octrees (server didn't apply the data it sent to clients (marking a segment as empty), and since the clients had the data, empty segments where never requested and therefor checks if a segment has been loaded returned false on the server which sometimes lead to gravity not being applied
  • fixed several chunk error sources
  • fixed hidden flag not being updated correctly after docking process
  • implemented message log
  • implemented message log filters
  • implemented message log fast chat (system will place /f for faction chat or "/pm name" automatically if chat is used in message log panel with the according filter selected
  • fixed lag/bug on docked structures after the object has already loaded in, the server tells the client that the object is physics active
  • fixed extension error in skin transmission
  • implemented structure to handle unloaded AI entities for clients (in the future when a controlled entity e.g. fleet is not necessarily fully loaded and has to be simulated in the database)
  • fixed pirates attacking the NPC character in shops
  • redesigned AI crew Panel buttons and fixed functionality
  • added AI settings
  • implemented basic customizable AI behavior for NPC crew
  • fixed bug where gravity block cannot be turned off
  • explosion blocks (disintegrator) now cause chain reaction with each other
  • explosion blocks (disintegrator) now explode on damage
  • draw distance no longer an option (calculated over "max segments" now)
  • navigation filter setting is now saved on the client
  • fixed migration problem when a sprite style block was activated
  • fixed bug where an object would be displayed from cache after spawning if before an object with the same name was deleted
  • buying from catalog with blocks now includes value of docked ships
  • if not enough blocks to buy from catalog, a list of total blocks needed will be sent to the player (using new chat-log panel to view)
  • core can now be entered on the same ship if someone already is in the build block
  • now skipping docked structures that are already occupied when up/down was pressed in flight mode
  • fixed bug where would not be able to pick up core as astronaut
  • fixed docking beam not resetting to core when cockpit changed to core
  • auto-completion of player name not puts right case
  • auto-completion of player name now works outside of commands
  • docking on faction base with faction exception will no longer change faction of the docked ship
  • fix for AI not firing on turrets
  • fixed bug where cache would be considered newer even if object has been modified in absence
  • fixed mass calculation in docking situations
  • fixed build orientation arrow
  • fixed bug where docking zone is not drawn in buildmode when the ship itself is docked
  • fixed possible crash in shutdown
  • fixed shield hit effect
  • homebase protection now extends to all docked ships (e.g. if faction permission block was used)
  • ship indicators of docked ships are now again displayed in structure (in build mode)
  • fixed missile sector positioning for new system
  • immensely decreased lag from loading in big structures with a lot of usable blocks (weapons etc) by first eliminating an unnecessary network transmission, using a better data structure in the grouping algorithm, and removing an inefficient exception
  • changed faction_create to include name of initial member, and added faction_create_as to also include faction Id to create faction as (useful when importing sectors)
  • fixed several bugs that might cause a crash of the lighting threads
  • fixed synchronization bug that lead to crash or other glitches when re-requesting segments (missile battles)
  • Turret/ship AI no longer engages targets in invisibility mode
  • fixed freeze on faulty transformation orientation
  • fixed narrow-octree invalidation by repeatedly removing the same position
  • AI now shoots on turrets
  • improved AI engagement behavior
  • improved menu vs ingame activity behavior
  • reorganized initial items a bit and added helmet
  • fixed exploding block update not triggering
  • fixed stations, because faction members weren't able to pick up blocks
  • faction owned blocks can now be activated by docking beam of a ship without a faction signature, but being flown by the pilot of that faction
  • fixed missile head graphics
  • increased maximal number of missile trails
  • further decreased lag from missiles
  • improved long term performance of server by fixing a bug that could possibly prevent sector from unloading (even if players are no longer present)
  • fixed clustering of shops (for newly generated sectors)
  • implemented personal enemies of factions
  • made personal enemies of factions consistent
  • added GUI options for personal enemies of factions consistent. Editable if the rank of the faction member has permission to edit
  • attack on hostile action now will add a non-faction-player to the personal enemies, and no longer consider all neutrals enemies
  • fixed naming in AI dialog
  • added option to rehire/discharge AI by dialog
  • filled in some shop employee dialog
  • implemented buttons light up on mouse over (used in dialog options to make navigation easier on the eyes)
  • fixed AI exception (caused by another bugfix)
  • not checking if all textures use the same color depths for a texture array (prevent texture glitches)
  • used chance for migration to set all 3sided (e.g. grass patches) blocks as TOP orientation in preperation for them to be able to be rotated in any direction
  • fixed texure bug for some graphics cards (mac)
  • fixed possible server block service hang-up when placing autoconnected blocks like disintegrator (ty tominosama)

New in StarMade 043147 (Jan 21, 2014)

  • The first bug is a bug that causes faction relations to randomly change.
  • The second one is a bug that looks like lag when playing the game longer. After some time playing placing, removing, or harvesting blocks seem to have a 5-10 second delay to update. This is now fixed.

New in StarMade 180534 (Jan 14, 2014)

  • Schema has further optimized the performance of shadows, and been fixing many bugs related to it (bug fixing for our various hardware setups.)
  • Also included in the build now is a helmet, a new item you can wear/remove to actually affect your astronauts look (life support mechanics are not included with this, you still don't need to breath in space.)
  • A texture pack selection dropdown menu has been added to you options in the game launcher, you can now select your texture pack and detail size without manually replacing the folder in your game file.
  • Getting around has never been easier! New and improved "Gravity Blocks" can now be oriented to allow for a custom direction of falling. This means all you industrious builders can now design your ship with multiple directions of gravity. This particularly makes gravity elevators simple to create. (This is one of the new features opened up by the previous "camera optimizations" Schema mentioned.)

New in StarMade 0.09473 (Nov 15, 2013)

  • Fixed a security leak on older version that can be exploited.

New in StarMade 0.09471 (Nov 13, 2013)

  • Structure Panel:
  • The new panel enables players to have a total overview of the ship, and control every aspect of it. Especially usefully is the control all of the docked ships from the mother-ship at the same time.
  • Fast Inventory Switching:
  • Players can now manage the inventories of their ship from one panel

New in StarMade 205845 (Nov 11, 2013)

  • Fix for camera glitching on single core
  • Server-block-config-obfuscation

New in StarMade 0.09444 (Nov 8, 2013)

  • Fixed rare physics freeze

New in StarMade 0.09442 (Oct 31, 2013)

  • added server config REQUIRE_STARMADE_AUTHENTICATION, to only allow clients that do an authentication
  • removed possible source of lag when new players log in
  • added ban/whitelist-by-starmade-account
  • added admin commands to manage banning whitelisting by account
  • added login backlog for players with time, ip, name, and starmade account (if authenticated)
  • added server.cfg option to define the size of the player login histroy back log
  • added admin command /player_info to retrieve detailed information about a player (even if player is offline)
  • players may now protect multiple names on a server (amount cutomizable in server.cfg)
  • added admin commands /player_protect to manage playername protection from within the game
  • added admin commands /player_unprotect to manage playername protection from within the game
  • implemented asteroid using dynamic physics (in server.cfg default of for testing)

New in StarMade 0.0944 (Oct 28, 2013)

  • mineral recipes now 1:10. Recipes for hull -> wedge etc (thanks to starcitsura)
  • finally fixed long lasting bug that was cauing an astronaut to be at local position 0,0,0 for one frame. This for example caused the sudden planet-kill (even if only in orbit) was it to happen near a planet that had lava at the center
  • items in space are no longer picked up if inventory is full
  • added borderless windowed mode to advanced options in the startup
  • inventory management for building has been moved to server to combat duplication/loss due to lag
  • fixed transmission synchronization of point distribution. (damage, speed, etc not changing, or saving) (player were unable to set weapon percent settings, or they didn't save)
  • AMC balance (more damage causes more time to reload) (impact has been reduced since the pre build. Still not final of course)
  • fixed physics ray detection (optimization calculated bounding box too small)
  • fixed server freezing from running out of buffer pool
  • fixed chain docking position
  • fixed client being able to kill server by purposly sending malformed command
  • fixed connection map not working (hash code did not produce valid values): weapons/connecting did not work
  • fixed server crash when admin attempted to sector change player in a docked ship
  • fixed vulnerability where clients could cause the server to "pause"
  • fixed bug that forbid client to dock in some cases
  • fixed core duping bug exploit with using symmetry
  • added spam protection for spawning cores
  • weapon slot assignment is now saved by player+ship
  • fixed HUD display when switching from missile lock-on mode
  • controls gittering should be gone (only happened on lower fps)
  • fixed AI shooting at dead target (and doing no damage)
  • shield recharge not deactivated under fire, but only reduced (the less shields left, the less the nerf is (up to 25%)) (see here for more information)
  • secondary weapon more for AMC: right click now fires weapons without focusing on the same point when aiming
  • shift clicking on full box no longer eats the item (stashes where that happened in the previous version should be removed and reset)
  • private messages can now be sent from console
  • new admin command: /faction_set_entity (changes faction of any entity)
  • new admin command: /faction_set_all_relations ally/neutal/enemy (sets all non-NPC faction relations to neutral, ally or enemy)
  • fixed chain docking's wrong orientation
  • non turret local AI search range from 750 to 2500 (about what a player can target)
  • AI will now engage at a weapon range that is more sure to do damage
  • implemented chaindocking to work with the blueprint system
  • fixed physics duplication problem with chain docking when undocking the middle link
  • fixed crash when switching to wedge in adv build mode from upside down spike
  • fixed bug where AI simulation would spawn blueprints with a name longer then the limit in the SQL database (name gets truncated now)
  • optimized file management to not stall as much for header writing
  • fixed bug where writing/reding headers was not thread safe (causing NoHeaderException)
  • fixed bug where projectiles and beams seem to be shot from another position than the blocks that are firering are

New in StarMade 0.09438 RC1 Prebuild (Oct 28, 2013)

  • fixed physics duplication problem with chain docking when undocking the middle link
  • fixed crash when switching to wedge in adv build mode from upside down spike
  • fixed bug where AI simulation would spawn blueprints with a name longer then the limit in the SQL database (name gets truncated now)
  • optimized file management to not stall as much for header writing

New in StarMade 0.943 (Oct 16, 2013)

  • fixed crash on faulty sector loading
  • fixed crash when missile is trying to be updated in sector that gets unloaded
  • fixed crash when object tries to get added into sector that just unloaded
  • database set from table to lock to entry lock strategy
  • redesigned segment (chunk) request system to be more robust, and more efficient
  • fixed memory leak where segments would not be cleaned up on client
  • fixed explosion not refreshing all affected segments (causing ghost blocks)
  • fixed chasing missile target mode
  • fixed bug that would stop requesting segments
  • structures are now completely loaded on servers without having to move around
  • fixed crash when ships are loaded with metadata that exceed the buffer size
  • optimized ray test physics to be more scalable. Makes a difference from 1 to 130 fps in some situations (e.g. shooting a hole though a planet horizontally)
  • switched from synchronized to ReentrantReadWriteLock for raw block IO operations (multiple readers may acquire lock. all wait for writer)
  • increased max value for "draw distance" and "max segments" settings
  • optimized IO operations by using thread pools and a finer lock granularity
  • eliminated client lag (short freeze) when leaving areas with many objects loaded
  • fixed a source of segment(chunk) errors
  • better synchronization for file handle checking (exception on server: "Having to reopen closed file"). Possible fix for "too many files open"
  • fixed server local crash (causes freeze and spams exceptions) when player enters a ship directly from the gravity of another ship (physics cleanup wasn't done properly in some occasions)
  • optimized routine for simulation thread a little to not hog less database performance when triggered
  • mothership no longer stops when undocking an object
  • sector protection now includes shield hits
  • improved concurrency of segment generation (depending on type multiple segments(chunks) can be generated at once) -> better multicore usage -> faster object creation when generated (e.g. asteroids)
  • target chasing missiles will now fly in a straight line when the target no longer exists
  • slightly increased speed for target chasing missiles
  • fixed bug in target chasing missile that would cause the client not to have a reference for the target (glitches in flight path)
  • indicator of targeted entity now appears yellow when in missile target mode (to ensure right aiming with objects in the same line of sight)
  • re-enabled local segment caches and improved them with new request system (pooled requests from local disk)
  • fixed bug where entering a space station that reaches over in another sector from that other sector, the sector context would be wrong and the spawning points would get set wrong
  • Modified ships that have changed the type of the core to something else are now checked on spawn and destroyed should there be no block at the center, or if it's of the 'core' type
  • added admin command to destroy structures and all their docked objects at once (/destroy_entity_dock)
  • improved readability of log (consistent format) and scale (smaller timestamps and no unnecessary info)
  • blueprint/catalog transaction (buy/save) are now logged in serverlog
  • spawn/renaming of structures is now logged in serverlog
  • death/kills are now logged in serverlog
  • fixed bug in AI calculating missile range
  • AI will automatically switch to the according program now when docked/undocked
  • fixed bug where astronauts would be physically pushed on server by "no-contact-response" physics helper objects
  • fixed bug where astronauts cannot be hit by missiles
  • locked on missiles will now loose target when it gets unavailable (2 sector distance, killed, entered a block as astronaut)
  • death by missile is now displayed correctly
  • missile trail graphics will no longer glitch when changing sector
  • added server cfg option to deactivate skin distribution (for clients the upload will display but the server just throws away the data)
  • added upload logs to serverlog
  • fixed light-beacons spawning in space without the block
  • fixed bug where player would have to have the credits to buy a blueprint although it's set to buy-with-blocks
  • added advices for loading screen
  • fixed missiles not exploding (just stopping) but damage was done (last prebuild)
  • increased slowest turning speed by axis by 50%
  • increased basic value for shield recharge
  • fixed GUI for faction hub (player was able to click on things even with open dialog)
  • fixed a long existing bug that caused the game stop displaying new segments
  • fixed GUI bug where in some resolutions the "click-area" would be incorrect. Apparently LWJGL Display resolutions aren't always pixel perfect

New in StarMade 0.942 Prebuild (Oct 14, 2013)

  • fixed a source of segment(chunk) errors
  • better synchronization for file handle checking (exception on server: "Having to reopen closed file"). Possible fix for "too many files open"
  • fixed server crash (causes freeze and spams exceptions) when player enters a ship directly from the gravity of another ship (physics cleanup wasn't done properly in some occasions)
  • optimized routine for simulation thread a little to not hog less database performance when triggered
  • mothership no longer stops when undocking an object
  • sector protection now includes shield hits
  • improved concurrency of segment generation (depending on type multiple segments(chunks) can be generated at once) -> better multicore usage -> faster object creation when generated (e.g. asteroids)
  • target chasing missiles will now fly in a straight line when the target no longer exists
  • slightly increased speed for target chasing missiles
  • fixed bug in target chasing missile that would cause the client not to have a reference for the target (glitches in flight path)
  • indicator of targeted entity now appears yellow when in missile target mode (to ensure right aiming with objects in the same line of sight)
  • re-enabled local segment caches and improved them with new request system (pooled requests from local disk)

New in StarMade 0.9415 Prebuild (Oct 11, 2013)

  • optimizations to eliminate bottlenecks

New in StarMade 0.094 (Oct 4, 2013)

  • Turning speed now depends on ship dimension:
  • The turning speed per axis now depends on the dimensions of the Ship. This means if you build a long stick for example, you will have a good speed to roll, but less speed to look around. Mass does also still play a factor, but much much less than before
  • Pirate station difficulty:
  • newly spawned pirate stations are now fixed and also get a random difficulty level to be more challenging: Turrets will be more powerful, and or have shields (as well as shields for the station itself)
  • Quick search and quick switch for inventories:
  • inventories will now have a search bar. All blocks not containing the search term will blend out on the fly. Also you can now put an object in a chest and back when shift-clicking it.
  • Undocked objects now get velocity of mothership:
  • If you fly in a direction and undock, the undocked object will now continue to fly in that direction. This could be used to build your own torpedo with docked disintegrator filled ships.
  • Ship search and more navigation filters:
  • In the navigation filler, turrets and/or docked ships can now be filtered for the list. You can also now search for the last ship you have entered, making it a lot easier to find your ship if you die unexpected.
  • Notice for servers suffering from block chunk corruption:
  • There is now a server config entry called FORCE_DISK_WRITE_COMPLETION, which should help with the problem. It's adviced for servers to turn it on in any case, except for servers that have problems/lags with disk IO operations
  • fixed god and invisiblity mode admin command causing docking area ignore mode
  • added profiling for sector loading to find source of lag spike
  • fixed naming bug when saving blueprints locally
  • fixed loading of locally saved blueprints
  • turret data now also force written to disk before saving as blueprint
  • fixed source of ghost objects (with no collision and no indicator): error when docking target UID does not exist
  • possible fix against raw block file corruption (for specific operating systems that have the problem)
  • sped up initial loading (check if object has any blocks is done progressively, and not forced). Reduces sector loading lag if there are lots of objects in there
  • eliminated frame rate drop from drawing shield hits on large structures
  • disabling GUI will now be reset on startup (disabling the GUI was often mistaken for a bug)
  • implemented fast invetory switch for storage (hold left shift, changable in key mapping options)
  • added server cfg option to make player invulnerable after death for an amount of time (spawn camping protection)
  • fixed undocking position snap back (as well as probably a few other glitches, since the network transformation controller reset the position on control change)
  • undocked objects now inherit velocity of mothership
  • chat can now be done in spawn menu
  • added quick search for inventories
  • shield is now synchronized from the server at a certain amount of percent (modifiable in server.cfg) changed, as well as always on full/empty
  • power is now synchronized from the server at a certain amount of percent (modifiable in server.cfg) changed, as well as always on full/empty
  • fixed faction permission for blueprints not working
  • overheating core status is now saved and persistent
  • server.cfg option to change way to buy blueprints from credits to total blocks of the blueprints
  • players can now search for the last ship they entered (last entered value is also saved in player state)
  • added background for advanced build mode orientation to make it easier to distinguish
  • cockpits now respect the orientation they were placed in (still a little wonky)
  • ship turning speed now directly depends on ship dimension (build a stick: great roll, not so good yaw and pitch...) balanced to be a bonus.
  • debug mode restricted to admins
  • fixed docks of pirate station (fixed for new generated stations)
  • added random diffculty to pirate stations to increase turrets size, and add shilds
  • docked entities will now be cloaked/jammed if the mothership is cloaked/jammed
  • fixed shield hits not showing on bottom faces
  • turrets no longer target NPC shops directly (friendly fire could still happen)
  • AI will no longer try to target overheating ships (and being reset because of it later in the FSM. Caused inactive AI)
  • AI now includes all missile modules in the check of engagement range (missile ship without amc only had 50 range)
  • fixed targeting (fire and forget) missile for AI usage
  • fixed connection bug (came with new method of reading the stream)
  • fixed (older) bug where initial connection tranfer to client wasn't fully completed (structural bug)
  • fixed fast inventory switch with existing stacks
  • moved option to force write all open files after writing operation to server config (as it was only relevant for some OS)
  • implemented base of system to increase amount of different orinatations for corner blocks (in place but not active, as the orientations have to be added individually, and that takes some time to do)
  • server cfg option to drop credits on death into space
  • turning speed now displayed in build mode stats
  • refined new turning speed model
  • fixed buying blueprint with blocks option
  • server shutdown more gentle to the database (waiting for unfinished buisness of other threads)
  • fixed bug where docked objects (turrets) would stop flying with the mothership (looks like lag, but was the object stoping to transfer its position to the turrets after switching to lightweight physics objects when the object is in another sector than the player on the client)
  • fixed bug where owners of the ship could only take items if they had enough credits to theoretically buy it
  • setting 0 for a price in a personal shop will no longer crash when trying to buy
  • fixed a compile error for a shader for some graphics card (game would not load)
  • fixed bug that would add a bad physics object on client (and make the client being stuck)
  • fixed blueprints loading wrong types of wedge blocks
  • fixed game crashing when adjusting sound volume
  • sound volume of entities is now updated on the fly
  • scaling of tuning speed vs ship dimension is now exposed in server config

New in StarMade 0.09398 (Sep 19, 2013)

  • fixed server shutdown freeze on machines without graphics (linux servers)
  • added debug broadcast and log friendly entry when a sector is lagging (to be able to isolate the issue)
  • fixed crash when having used cubatom panel (and then someone uploads a texture which causes a graphics error check (GL_INVALID_OPERATION)
  • improved instantiation of new network objects (caching constructors)
  • added more saved information for each update to retrace network data that was sent in case of an error
  • improved segment signature encoding to be 20% of the size it was before (timestamp and info the server sends before client is requesting the real data)
  • added admin command to enable god mode for player (/god_mode playername true/false)
  • added admin command to enable invisibility mode for player (/invisibility_mode playername true/false) (only applied to astronaut)
  • added relative projectile and missile speed for default max speeds faster then 50km/h (percentage gained). Can be deactivated in server.cfg
  • AI is now able to shoot fire and forget missiles
  • server cfg option for AI aiming accuracy
  • AI will no longer target entities in sectors that have the protected or peace flag
  • Server cfg option to prohibit local blueprint uploading
  • Improved the regular expression for navpoint input. The folowing is now valid:
  • "input" -> (Result Sector)
  • "1 2 3" -> (1, 2, 3)
  • "-12 2 3" -> (-12, 2, 3)
  • "-12 2 -343" -> (-12, 2, -343)
  • "-012 2 -343" -> (-12, 2, -343)
  • "012 2 -343" -> (12, 2, -343)
  • "012, 2, -343" -> (12, 2, -343)
  • "012, 2, -0343" -> (12, 2, -343)
  • "012, . - 2, . -343" -> (12, -2, -343)
  • "1.-2.33" -> (1, -2, 33)
  • added faction docking
  • fixed physics lag
  • improved general physics scalability and performance
  • changed server config relative speed for projectiles to a general multiplier
  • For people that are getting a GLException sometimes when players join the game: The crash is triggered at that point but the error has happened already way before that probably. If you get the error, please report what menus you were in (shop, cubatom, inventory, etc, as well as advanced build mode).
  • If your server is still crashing (cor3y), please send in a report directly from the server (the report tool can be used without GUI). I'll try to fix it asap.

New in StarMade 0.09396 (Sep 16, 2013)

  • Docking:
  • As for problems that may relate to bugs that the initial update actually meant to fix, a select few docking configurations may not work and the players have to refit. But this is only because they violated the docking area anyway, but the bug let them dock.
  • For testing and to find out why your turret is not allow to be docked, I also included a new admin command and server config entry to make consistent. use /ignore_docking_area to switch it on and off. When on, the docking area indicator in build mode will be colored purple if that ship would not be a valid dock in normal circumstances.
  • Shooting Direction
  • A very old bug that finally got fixed. The bug messed with the direction lasers are shot on clients if fired from another sector. That made it look like players and AI were aiming at completely nothing while they are actually shooting at you. The bullets would still hit on server and players would lose blocks without them seeing getting actually shot.

New in StarMade 0.09395 (Sep 11, 2013)

  • fixed faction chat and pm
  • fixed cut off names in faction chat
  • fixed bug that caused larger docked ships to sink into the dock (the function that was in place didn't load the necessary value)
  • fixed docking size for fixed-docking
  • added docking dimension for docked ship build mode
  • docking should be more logical and robust now
  • empty region writing no longer mapped (hopefully helps with the saving bug)

New in StarMade 0.093941 (Sep 10, 2013)

  • Fixes:
  • fixed crash when switching to sprite style blocks from advanced orientation
  • inserted debug stuff for possible invalid operation somewhere in the pipeline
  • fixed damage texture on blocks (also fixes shader crash on some machines)
  • added serverlog for a more user friendly filtered log output
  • fix for docking area bug (dimension were not applied to the orientation)
  • fixed bug where bounding box was not updated on empty segment
  • fixed bug where client bounding box wouldn't update
  • fixed lag when placing first block or removing last block in a new segment. Directly enqueuing lighting/draw update
  • New since the last pre-build:
  • fixed bug where skin file would upload every time to a server that already has that file when the user visits another server or plays single player inbetween
  • fixed player character rotation under gravity
  • fixed synch issue where astronauts in gravity would be displaced by a lot and glitch for players that login when the other player already is in (activated) gravity
  • apparently the database closing routine didn't fire, which caused the database to always be in a "semi open" state, which could lead to missing ships (in rare cases). Furthermore, the start of a server will now be faster
  • added G_USE_TEXTURE_ARRAYS to settings.cfg to work around texture bug on some graphics drivers
  • avoiding server freeze/physics excpetion by catching it before it happens. Debug output to catch the source of the problem in place
  • new thread running that will check if the server is still updating, and if not put out a thread dump to improve the possibility to find the source bug by a lot

New in StarMade 0.093932 (Sep 6, 2013)

  • Fixes:
  • fixed crash in inventory iteration
  • fixed crash in sound iteration
  • improved sound handling
  • issue of server spam with unknown types of connection now intercepted on client to get to the root of the problem, and the server won't be influenced by it anymore
  • changed build mode preview box drawing to another draw method to hopefully fix invisible block bug
  • G_DRAW_ADV_BUILDMODE_BLOCK_PREVIEW in settings.cfg can now be used to disable advanced build mode to workaround invisible block bug
  • improved check if skin file differs from server version
  • indicator animation should no longer reset on sector change
  • reduced lock-on gui-glitches (needs tests)
  • fixed rolling ships with keys to be framerate independent
  • fixed looparound when rolling ships, which caused glitches especially on bigger ships
  • added server config line to modify how much credits are lost on death (default: lose 10%)
  • added server config line to apply an time interval after death, in which players are not punished should they die again (default 5 min)
  • added server config line to force the player to drop the entire inventory on death (default: off)
  • added server config line to enable projectiles gaining the relative speed from where they are shot from
  • added server config line to customize starting credits of a new found NPC shop
  • added server config line to customize NPC shop credit gain over time
  • New in this version only:
  • navigation waypoint is now absolute
  • fixed crash on placing blocks in some cases: A connection to an invalid block was tried
  • preventing crash when recipes are used that have block types (from modding) in them that do no longer exist
  • fixed lighting on planets

New in StarMade 0.09392 (Sep 3, 2013)

  • This update takes care of some exploits that some players were starting to use to grief.
  • Hotfix #1: fixed bug where new anti-exploit function would forbid to take control legitimately. Ghost players showing up in ships are now gone.
  • Hotfix #2: fixed bug from hotfix #1
  • Exploits:
  • There was a possibility to take control of ships from the client, and also discard a kick with a hacked client. Control is now double checked on server. Kicking now severs the direction even without the client answering.
  • Re-Naming and Spaces:
  • Structure names can now contain spaces. You can also no rename any structure by placing down a faction block, declare it as a faction object. Activating the block again will give the "rename" option.
  • Other fixes:
  • cleaned up death routine and control units
  • kicking now immediately disconnects client after kick command has been sent (fixes anti-kick exploit)
  • fixed bug that would cause lasers not to hit astronauts in certain situations (callback had wrong meta data)
  • fixed player directions
  • added admin command to issue debug routines to enhance log output (to specifically debug certain objects)
  • extra check on server to prevent players from using a hacked client to take control of structures
  • extra check when blocks are placed to prevent missuse
  • player object changes checks on server if the changes came from the right client, and will report otherwise (attempt to control another player)
  • improved memory scalability for bigger structures
  • structure names can now contain spaces
  • structure names can now be changed with the faction module
  • fixed texture array fallback (crash on startup for some graphics cards)
  • New fixes since the pre-release:
  • fixed crash on suicide
  • fixed lighting of block bottom face
  • fixed initial position of build mode to where the object was entered
  • fixed crash in build block build-mode
  • fixed "preview block" being used when it's off in the options
  • added frustum & distance culling to buildmode wobble boxes to increase performance in high numbers
  • advanced build mode mass placement will now check for each block if it has enough space to be placed
  • added debug mode to trace corruption (versioned backup of every raw file before writing)

New in StarMade 0.0939 (Aug 27, 2013)

  • Personal Shops:
  • The new Shop Module (buy it in the space station category in the normal shops) converts any space station or planet into a shop. Once you place it down the [SHOP] sign will appear in the top right like with normal shops.
  • Shops have their own ownership data, so the first thing you want to do is to open up the shop panel and press "Edit". Shops can only be edited if you either are an owner, or if there is currently no owner. You can put more owners if you like. Destroying the shop will get rid of all ownership, as well as all items and cash inside it so be sure to either use it on your home base, or have good protection. One good thing is that the position of the module does not matter, so you can hide it deep in your station.
  • Another new thing is, that prices now can be not only be credits, but also blocks themselves.
  • If you are the owner of a shop, you can edit the price for every single item: The "edit price" button will appear in the owned shop if you press on an item (under the buy quantity button).
  • Owner are excepted from the normal "buy/sell" procedure, they can put and take items from the shop 1:1.
  • Also, shops now have their own credits. While NPC shops will get more money over time to refill, player shops have to be filled with credits for them to be able to give credits for blocks.
  • Withdrawal/deposit of credits can also be done in the "edit shop" panel.
  • I hope there won't be too many bugs with this feature, but server admins should please hold on to their backups in case there is an exploit.
  • Other changes fixes, and features:
  • fixed crashing build mode with meta item selected
  • fixed change_sector_for command
  • changed scheduled spawning method to load sectors on spawn, which should be more robust. Also easier to spawn into unloaded sector.
  • added admin command to spawn a blueprint anywhere with more options
  • added admin command to set global spawn point (/set_global_spawn)
  • fixed bug where enemies would not be considered enemies by neutrals
  • fixed exporter error to not set initial position of astronaut mesh correctly
  • removed some redundant data being send around for each player
  • fixed head movement with more then one astronaut around
  • added server hit indication (also to debug)
  • changed player orientation setting that might fix some glitches
  • fixed vertex order of buffers
  • optimized cube shader (eliminated all branches in vertex and all but one in fragment shader)

New in StarMade 0.09387 (Aug 21, 2013)

  • Physics glitching:
  • Probably the best find in a while. I watched a youtube video recently, and the player said that he was experiencing odd control glitches when sliding on planets. In my first run of tests i didn't find anything until I pushed myself in the air with my own ship by tilting the mouse in one direction. Suddenly the ship became hard to control and was hovering in the air as if there is no gravity. But the gravity was still there.
  • Apparently there was a conflict with the so called "manifolds" used to hold continuous collision detection. The system created too many of them and and caused "ghost" collisions of manifolds that were already detached from the object itself. The other thing it was causing was a split up between compound object parts resulting in a poorer quality of collision especially with docked ships.
  • Having fixed that will hopefully get rid of a huge source of glitches. It even benefits the performance of the physics.
  • Fixed Recipes:
  • There is now a part in the config.xml where modders can put fixed recipes. The price and what they do can be defined. The default are what the mineral seperator did before the factory update: It will give a static conversion for leveling minerals up or down. Normal recipes for anything bigger then level one can no longer be bought.
  • Important: Left/Right block orientation fix
  • There was a bug placing the block with an orientation of "left" when the build arrow was pointing to the left (as well as the other way around). This fix will not affect much, but it does affect the docking blocks. Docking blocks with a left or right orientation have to placed again with the correct orientation. Warning: Ships already docked to those will undock when loaded in.
  • Other changed and fixes:
  • Multiple face textures. The face of the astronaut can be now changed on the fly with the left/right arrow keys. This is just a prototype. Please look at the default texture for where to put the extra faces
  • Astronaut head movement: The head of the astronaut will now be looking up and down depending on where the player is looking
  • Neutral AI: neutral AI will no longer fire on factions that consider neutrals enemies (not a perfect solution)
  • Gravity overriding: gravity can now be overwritten when activating another gravity module while still in gravity
  • Severely decreased the chance of high level mineral spawning in chests and loot (each base chance times 0.3 chance -> lvl 5 is less then 1% chance)
  • In case a weapons computer is orientated to something other then the front it will now always shoot straight in that direction
  • added option to turn off drawing of the thruster plum (for slower machines)
  • thruster plums now represents how much thrust is added instead of current speed of object
  • fixed bug where blocks would not disconnect correctly when deleting computer block
  • fixed sound bug where cockpit sound would turn into outer sound
  • core engine sound and cockpit sound decreased in volume

New in StarMade 0.093865 (Aug 16, 2013)

  • There was a huge bug in the client's calculating entities near them (in sectors). This caused random glitches of objects appearing/disappearing, physics glitches, laser beams out of nowhere, all the way to client's not being able to move (while still moving for other players).
  • In addition I also fixed docking blocks for the faction permission block. I'm aware that the "connect" system (like weapons) would make more sense, but there are a few scalability performance problems with that approach. I cannot describe them in detail right now.
  • Furthermore there are some minor fixes like space stations reappearing after being deleted.
  • The lag compensation correction has been increased a little to be more accurate.

New in StarMade 0.09386 (Aug 13, 2013)

  • Faction Public Permission Block:
  • This new block is to customize permission within the faction stations/ships. Players can now give public access to single blocks if they place the permission block next to it. It should work with pretty much any usable block. This also works with doors but is a little strange: only the door module next to the permission block can open the whole door for non-faction-members.
  • Other changes:
  • added countdown server message admin command
  • made buying/selling more robust against lag (hopefully)
  • fixed inability to change ownership of an object if faction doesn't exist anymore
  • fixed ArrayOutOfBounds in build mode with meta item selected
  • added possibility to change size of hit indication numbers (options)
  • increase base value for pulse to start at a higher radius (growth is same)
  • reduced max player health to 50
  • origin of personal weapons move up a little to be able to shoot over one block
  • fixed exploit in catalog where if the ship is expensive enough the price would flip over to negative

New in StarMade 0.09385 (Aug 12, 2013)

  • Personal Weapon:
  • The system is made for an endless amount of weapon types with variable stats. At the moment there is only a simple laser weapon to test things out. It's fairly easy to use. Just place it in a slot in the action bar and use the left mouse to shoot while that slot is selected.
  • With the world of StarMade always being consistent, and because the planned system for creating personal items is not complete yet, the distribution of weapons is a little more complicated. New players on a server or in single player will get a weapon by default in their inventory. For everybody else there is the "/give_laser_weapon playername" command.
  • Other fixes:
  • fixed thrust graphics
  • improved pulsator balance (better scaling radius & force values)
  • fixed pulsator output setting availability
  • fixed in-ship build GUI not to show "enter ship" etc
  • implemented block preview in-place (use options menu to turn on) For players that have the advanced build mode block invisibility issue: please test the option, and tell me if the blocks in build mode are still visible. The issue might be caused by the "single block renderer" which in contrast to the normal block renderer uses a slightly different class.
  • implemented fallback method if build area is not yet available on clients (hopefully fixes problem that advanced build mode rapid block setting would not work fully sometimes)
  • fixed startup GUI for smaller screens

New in StarMade 0.09384 (Aug 10, 2013)

  • Pulse weapons:
  • This weapon can be a very valuable asset in game. It's best to build in crosses, as only x,y,z dimension matters, and not the total amount of blocks in a group.
  • The weapon will create a pulse on use, disabling and pushing ships within reach. It's basically "force push" in all directions.
  • The power needed, and the reload times are quite high so use it wisely. Your own ship cannot be hit.
  • NOTICE: Existing shops will not automatically have new items in stock. You will have to find a new "untouched" shop, or use the /shop_restock command
  • Effect System
  • I took the long route to implement the push and the disabling, implementing a whole new effect system for structures, so more effects can be added very easily, should (and it will) become necessary.
  • Please notice that there hasn't been much testing on the new features. So I apologize for eventual bugs that are happening. I will be on standby hot-fixing eventual game breaking bugs of the new features.
  • Some other changes
  • Beside some crash fixes, the dumb missiles now do double damage. Also the power drain beam will only do one fifth drain damage on non power blocks (instead of half of the full damage). The disabling from the power beam was reduced to 3 seconds and can only be applied to a ship every 10 seconds (so the ship has a chance to free itself if it's hit by the power drain).

New in StarMade 0.09383 (Aug 6, 2013)

  • Missile Damage Update:
  • Since calculating missile hits is performance heavy I can't do full detailed calculations (yet). However I'm trying to simulate the effect of blocks absorbing damage. Missile hits will now happen in 4 stages. Each adding one quarter to the total radius calculated. Starting with the smallest. Damage to blocks from each stage is added to a total counter and subtracted (/16) from the damage the next stage will do. Armour is now not only calculated, but will absorb not only the full damage from the missile, but also additional damage by armor (e.g. 50% armor with a 100hp hit will do only 50hp damage but absorb 150hp). The system is still in testing and may still have some odd behaviours.
  • Bugs & other things:
  • fixed lag in catalog list when there are many entries
  • fixed bug where structures could be edited for clients that didn't load the faction block of that structure yet
  • overheating core will now reset the faction
  • powerdrain now works with half the power on every block (full power on power blocks).
  • if powerdrain causes power of another ship to go to zero, it will disable recharge on that ship for 5 seconds
  • lift will now deactivate if cluster has changed
  • fixed lift graphics remaining when changing sectors
  • fixed crash when shooting active lift

New in StarMade 0.09382 (Aug 1, 2013)

  • There are several optimizations and fixes to the system:
  • reverted sector switch function for now to style before update
  • cached segments are now loaded much faster as list of available cache files is cached itself
  • some optimization to the pipeline of requesting segments for clients
  • new segment (chunk) region signature optimization: this option is off by default as it needs testing. You can turn in on in the ingame options "use region signature". It will basically speed up requests for segments that are part of a saved structure (like ships, and anything else that has been generated already).

New in StarMade 0.09381 (Jul 24, 2013)

  • Recipe Levels:
  • Recipes will now record, how many blocks where produced with it. This value is stored on the server to make it save from modification.
  • The base value for a level can be customized in the server.cfg. Each level will add more percent of the total for the next to be reached.
  • A level basically means more output: e.g. a recipe that makes 4x Yhole nucleus into 1 hull, will produce 2 hulls at once at level 2 for the same ingredients (4x Yhole nucleus).
  • Other noteworthy changes and fixes:
  • fixed crash when trying to sell recipes
  • recipes can now be sold for half the amount of blocks it takes for it to be created (amount can be customized in server cfg)
  • introduced recipe levels
  • fixed crash when selecting a meta item in advanced build mode
  • fixed server crash due to integrity check request in invalid regions
  • improved integrity check method
  • improved octree memory access speed
  • fixed possibility for mouse activating items or GUI when in camera mode
  • implemented security algorithm to prevent data corruption and to eventually spot the root cause.
  • hopefully fixed invisibility in advanced build mode (does not replicate on my card, so I'm fixing into the blue)
  • fixed possible thread synchronization issue causing a buffer to not exist in rare instance. (buffer was created but not everybody knew of it at once)
  • fixed beacons staying after removing the beacon block (don't know about all cases of this bug though)
  • implemented icon bakery to output single block icons in any resolution
  • fixed issue that would change to a docked ship with control key
  • docked ship+mother ship can now be cycled through with up/down keys
  • anti stuck protection for astronaut mode now manual (can be activated within 8 seconds after being in astronaut mode)
  • fixed Yhole nucleus not being placeable
  • changed xml tag names for all blocks to "Block" to make it easier to parse for 3rd parties (the game itself doesn't care about the tag names)

New in StarMade 0.0938 (Jul 22, 2013)

  • Meta Items:
  • A structure for items that have a completely free set of data has been implemented. It was actually one of the most time consuming parts of the update to create an abstract system, where I can just define new types of items with just one class. The hard part was to abstract the system over the network, so the items will not only be consistent with the world (saved, and loaded/unloaded with the universe), and for it to be synched over the network, but also to implement a way that items are only sent on demand, so network overhead for items that a player is not even near of won't happen.
  • Log books:
  • Log books are the first class of items that have a very simple purpose: You write things in it and anybody else who opens it can read it. No more, and no less. This might be a good tool for RPG servers to get a customized lore across.
  • Log books will spawn in pirate bases and ruin chests only. They cannot be bought or sold (yet).
  • There is anew file in the /data/config/ directory that lets admins define the default messages that will randomly be assigned to a spawned logbook.
  • There is also an admin command "/give_logbook playername" for admins to create it.
  • Recipes:
  • The second meta item that is introduced in this version is the first one that will have impact on the game play. More about it below.
  • New Factory System:
  • I was planning for a long time to change the factory/block-crafting system. The root of my thoughts were always: in science-fiction games, recipes will never be completely natural. No matter what you do, the items in a game like that will be as natural as putting wood and iron together to make a pickaxe. And that's also not what this game should be about.
  • So with the current system it's unbelievably hard to learn and remember recipes.
  • Basically the basic system will stay the same.
  • Here is the short version of how it works now:
  • Only one factory remains (factory input)
  • No fixed recipes are bound to that block
  • put a recipe in the top left slot
  • it does exactly that
  • In the old system I originally wanted to make way longer production chains instead of having 4 factories doing everything. But that system requires to add a new block type for every single product there is. This is way to much cumbersome. So I "outsourced" what the factory does into the meta-item "recipe"
  • A recipe is basically just that: It takes some ingredients and outputs a block. Out the recipe and the ingredients into a factory and the factory will make that block if you also put in the ingredients. Since there is only one type of block produced by recipe, you will need to chain-connect factories together to create the desired outcome.
  • Recipes are pretty much unique and can't be sold. That's why they are a valuable trading asset with other players. The can be found in pirate bases and ruins. And they can also be bought in shops.
  • Unlike normal blocks recipes don't require credits to be bought. They require 10,000 (value can be changed by admins) block of the block you are creating a recipe for.
  • The ingredients however are random in amount and type, so there are "good" recipes and "bad" recipes. But this highly depents on the player. If you get a recipe that makes sand into hulls, and you don't have any sand, a player based on a sand planed might be very interested in that.
  • Higher level parts will prefer manufacturing items as their ingredients, and those are the only type of item-recipes that require minerals/etc to buy instead of the items itself (would be rather hard to gather 10k protein)
  • Notable optimizations:
  • On one side I managed to make lighting calculations faster.
  • On the other, saving and loading will now use a new threaded random access algorithm, that will write and read data much faster. So this will hopefully get rid of a lot of sources of lag on servers.
  • Please be sure to keep backups, since a change in this part of the engine is very delicate.
  • More bug fixes:
  • got rid of shutdown hooks: only used in absolute emergency (should never happen, even on crash)
  • server errors are now displayed instead of just shutting down
  • fixed false modified blueprint triggering when adding blocks afterwards
  • fixed "unknown faction" although faction exists
  • added check for ghost players
  • fixed bug where too many files could be deleted when a structure gets destroyed
  • fixed bug that left a invisible version of the mothership if it was removed with docked ships attached
  • fixed bug that turned docked ships into ghosts if mothership was removed
  • missiles now display and update shield hits correctly on the client
  • added notification to re-orientate if rotational system is entered
  • mouse check for GUI elements that are not drawn anymore but were flagged as "mouse inside" will now always deactivate the flag on the end of the frame. This should fix the permanent tooltip bug.
  • improved performance of wedges and spikes by not drawing faces that aren't visible (next to a solid block), in the same way the normal block algorithm already does
  • implemented server option to customize speed of rotating stellar systems (or to switch it off)
  • improved segment(chunk) reading performance by buffering the header for segmentRegions
  • improved segment(chunk) writing performance by also using buffered headers and switching to java NIO FileChannel MappedByteBuffer for random access
  • console&rcon(starNet) commands are now only interpreted as chat broadcast if they start with /chat
  • price of blueprint will now include price of all docked structures
  • shops now safe against missiles
  • blocks of other factions can no longer be activated with docking beam
  • shop spawning can now be customized by admins

New in StarMade 0.09378 (Jul 10, 2013)

  • Server Fixes:
  • Some servers had problems since apparently closing a socket does not imply flush() on some machines. That basically means the connection drops without sending the last packet. This is causing clients to get EOF exceptions. Please note that you will get EOF exceptions with this version if you try to connect to a server that is not yet update to this version!
  • Shield Balance:
  • I don't know yet if this works, but I have changed the balance of shields to be more powerful in smaller numbers and less overpowered in large numbers. The biggest change is an introduction of "shield recovery" on hit. This value is shown in build mode and determines the time in seconds the shields will start to recharge after a hit. This value depends on the amount of shild blocks placed on a structure.
  • Here is the technical data:
  • shield balance:
  • capacity: (shieldBlocks*3.5)^0.66666)*350
  • recharge: (shieldBlocks*4)^0.48)*50
  • introduced recovery when hit (by shield blocks used)
  • Admin Tools:
  • I developed a system using abstraction of the original system to enable admin commands from anywhere.
  • Console Commands:
  • console commands are now possible. Everything not starting with a forward slash is considered a broadcast message and will be posted in chat.
  • General fixes:
  • fixed shield shader
  • build in server check to check for spamming blueprint buy actions (10 sec)
  • fixed modified blueprint detector to only fire once and not on every block
  • fixed blueprint detector consequence system
  • fixed type setting method for block types over 256
  • fixed crash for ships with custom blocks with blocks over 256.
  • fixed crash for ships with blocks that exceed the max block type value of 2048

New in StarMade 0.09377 (Jul 8, 2013)

  • Modified blueprints:
  • I now took off the safety of the modified-blueprint-detector. Admins can now (configured in server.cfg) do one or more of the following automatically if a modified blueprint is detected:
  • Kick the user
  • Ban the user by name
  • Ban the user by IP
  • delete the blueprint (backup will be created)
  • Salvaging:
  • Due to salvage beams being used as a weapon, the following will now change:
  • Only overheating ships can be salvaged
  • Stations with active faction module cannot be salvaged (must be destroyed first)
  • Fallback:
  • I also put in an option in the settings.cfg (start once on the new update for it to appear), for players that got less render performance than before from the last update. the option G_USE_TWO_COMPENENT_SHADER has to be set to true to use it (but only use it if you are sure that the new rendering style is causing the problem)

New in StarMade 0.0937 (Jul 1, 2013)

  • New Ice, Earthlike, Marslike, Purple and Sand planet textures. I've also redone the minerals in a higher resolution ( 2x higher than last time ) and also to match the new master pattern designed for organic textures ( the planet textures ). I've also updated the lava with better coloring and a slightly less busy pattern/animation, check it out!

New in StarMade 0.0937 (Jun 18, 2013)

  • Physical objects sometimes seemed to randomly wiggle around to the point where players couldn't even enter their ships.
  • This bug could have been the reason to many other bugs too.
  • The ship-exit spawning algorithm has been slightly improved and will hopefully result in better exit locations.
  • Furthermore, common physics functions have been improved, improving overall physics performance.
  • The tutorial has been slightly improved, and the sector-map key default has been remapped not to overlap with the skip key.

New in StarMade 0.09362 (Jun 17, 2013)

  • improved method to calculate block grouping by a lot (big cause for server lag)
  • keyboard duplicate key assignment is now allowed (it can be switched back in the options)
  • slight NTprotocol performance optimization
  • slight physics performance optimization
  • fix for weapon info panel lazy update
  • fix for weapon info panel being updated from changed ships other the one the player is in

New in StarMade 0.09359 (Jun 15, 2013)

  • Just a little update to fix crashes happening on several servers.
  • Also, the method to exit/enter ships has been recoded, so that hopefully the teleporting bug will be finally gone.
  • Here are some small other additions:
  • Sound initialization failure now throws readable error message
  • Mouse buttons for building/removing can now be switched in the options menu
  • Tutorial now has "show next time" check box when closing

New in StarMade 0.09358 (Jun 14, 2013)

  • Customize physical damping:
  • Physics damping is the "resistance" a physical object gets by default. Normally in space there is no force slowing objects down (well, there could be particles etc). In my opinion have a little damping helps gameplay, since without it, ships will float away endlessly. But this is now an option for admins to decide. In the future there will be atmospheric damping also depending on where the object is.
  • PHYSICS_LINEAR_DAMPING and PHYSICS_ROTATIONAL_DAMPING are the options for that in the server.cfg. A value between 0 and 1 can be set. Setting both to 1 makes them behave like they would be in very thick fluid. A value of 0 makes objects not slow down.
  • New Breaks:
  • Breaking will now directly depend on thrusters, and also take power (if the speed is bigger then 0)
  • Loot customization:
  • Admins have now the option to decide how much loot spawns from destroyed AI ships and in generated chests (like in pirate bases).
  • The server.cfg options are:
  • AI_DESTRUCTION_LOOT_COUNT_MULTIPLYER
  • AI_DESTRUCTION_LOOT_STACK_MULTIPLYER
  • CHEST_LOOT_COUNT_MULTIPLYER
  • CHEST_LOOT_STACK_MULTIPLYER
  • values of 1 are what was default before this update. If you want no loot to spawn, just set the values to 0. Very small loot would be something like 0.05
  • Better item pickup method:
  • A bug where items would not spawn is fixed. You can now pick up items in space with the full size of the ship you are in.

New in StarMade 0.09356 (Jun 13, 2013)

  • Managed to spot the reason for the lags, the latest bigger update caused. This bug also caused a memory leak, crashing single & multiplayer over time.
  • Basically, the method to prevent ghost physics with sector overlapping objects caused sectors to never go inactive, leading to huge performance drops after a while.
  • I also did further optimization to up the server performance even more.

New in StarMade 0.09354 (Jun 11, 2013)

  • Importing of old blueprint files now finally works again. With this, uploading ships to servers will also work again (it uses the same system).
  • I also analyzed logs on NASS, and sent-in reports, and adjusted the code where it needed to be more stable. The sector overlap system works, but there were some bugs as expected. I hope to be able to fix them all soon.

New in StarMade 0.09353 (Jun 10, 2013)

  • This update contains a fix that hopefully make servers a little more stable. Unfortunately there might still be some bugs, which I couldn't yet identify because a bug (that is now fixed) spammed the logs.

New in StarMade 0.0931 (Jun 1, 2013)

  • Just a little hotfix to make the socket buffer sizes variable in case people have problems with the network in this version.
  • Also, I slightly buffed the base values of speed and distance of weapons.

New in StarMade 0.093 (Jun 1, 2013)

  • AI Simulation:
  • Despite spawning AI, the universe of StarMade still felt somewhat lifeless, especially in single player. While the AI was now a potent opponent, it lacked the ability to fly across the universe on its own. Also, multiplayer servers were cluttered with spawned ship files of enemies that were very rarely used.
  • After lots of hours of work, a new system has been implemented: AI Universe Simulation. This system is a new layer on top of the AI, that is already in place. It abstracts a ship to a name, and can move it across the universe whether it’s currently loaded because a player is near, or only an entry in the database. The whole database migration from the beginning of the year was targeted to do exactly that as performant as possible.
  • The system works in ticks and can handle thousands of ships at once.
  • One of the first example of this new system is that shooting a shop now actually has consequences. If a player repeatedly shoots a shop, the trading guild will send out a fleet against him.
  • Furthermore pirates now operate much more focused. They will randomly patrol the space, and try to raid enemy ships. They will also send out parties from their stations to nearby players, as long as that station is not destroyed. Patrolling pirates will avoid faction space stations, but pirate stations will still attack as long as they are not destroyed.
  • Not only the pirates but also the trading guild sends out ships across the universe (and those to NPC factions are just the beginning). If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you might get involved in a space battle between NPCs.
  • Pirate Space Stations:
  • A whole new type of station has been added to spawn in the universe. Most parts of this new station is randomly generated, and it’s planned to make it even more random.
  • One deciding feature of pirate stations is, that they use a new placement systems, that enables randomly generated structures to use advanced blocks like weapons or docking. The challenge was that, blocks had to be placed and connected either afterwards or right away to a controller block that may or may not have been placed yet.
  • Furthermore, the system is now able to spawn specific follow up structures, in this case, turrets.
  • This means a pirate base will spawn fully capable of defending itself. Also, as a bonus for defeating a pirate station, it has treasure inside.
  • Ruins:
  • The new system not only benefits the stations, but also any other structure. While this feature is just at the beginning, you can already find something mystical when you explore enough desert planets.
  • Sector exporting/importing:
  • As players build more and more creative structures, the was a demand for an easy and fast way to save and export specific parts of the universe.
  • With this new system, whole sectors can be exported and imported anywhere in any universe. It’s even possible to clone the same saved sector over and over.
  • This will make server-resets not as hard.
  • As an extra, bulk exporting and importing has been implemented, so admins can note all important sectors in a file and export or import them with only one command. So if a server reset is due, the players can tell the admins all sectors they want to have saved.
  • Synchronization redesign and Network performance:
  • A long lasting source of bugs were within the network code. Debugging on network is one of the most exhausting tasks in software development. After very head spinning hours, it has been finally managed to find a bottleneck that resulted in diminishing network performance, as well as a memory leak that was caused by exactly that.
  • Furthermore, the synchronization system has been redesigned, which laid open a few very serious bugs, that are now finally gone. Teleporting on clients has been reduced greatly, and object positions are now fully synchronized on both clients and server even for connections with 500+ pings.
  • Weapon balanche change:
  • This update is also the first to put a cap on weapon power: Weapon values now scale x^0.5 like. But don't worry, the shield capacity has also been nerved to the same curve. The goal is to balance it in a way that you need about as many weapon blocks with all points into damage to take out a shield with exactly the same amount of blocks.
  • Notable BugfixesL
  • fixed homebase being salvagable sometimes
  • increased performance to draw large structures
  • fixed crash due to language specific encoding (ParsingError)
  • fixed power capacity module (checkerboard scaling)
  • cloak & jamming now deactivates if there are no more blocks left
  • hopefully got rid of random re-building of visible objects
  • fixed bug where shops are vulnerable from missiles
  • fixed player not being hittable in astronaut mode
  • fixed bug that would corrupt in-memory blueprint data causing disconnected modules on spawn
  • thrusters can now be used even if the current total power is smaller then one unit of thrust consumption (-> thrust reduced by percent)
  • fixed docking area going red when blocks where placed outside
  • fixed docking area showing as not big enough when it should be
  • updated server/client transformation synchronization
  • increased network performance
  • network does no more stalling from high ping clients
  • implemented way better synchronization
  • fixed docking merge bug
  • added confirm dialog for suicide button
  • fixed turret power source (hopefully)

New in StarMade 0.092835 (May 15, 2013)

  • Building Stats:
  • The build mode now features a nice little stats panel on the left site. It's going to get embedded a lot better once the GUI is being redesigned.
  • Shields & Power:
  • Shields now have (like power) a consistency. That means: after a structure gets unloaded (e.g. on log out), the shields will no longer reset.
  • Also the shield recharge is now consistent with the actual values displayed.
  • The current power capacity seemed to have confused a lot of players: The fixed initial was 20k and you would only see that go up, when you reached that 20k with the capacity blocks. I changed the system to now just add both values (Fixed 20k + whatever power capacity blocks give)
  • Docking:
  • With this update, I hope that eventual misplaced docking positions are finally fixed. You may have to re-dock once for the fix to take effect
  • Bug fixes:
  • fixed huge bug that caused performance drain when traveling. A huge amount of irrelevant system data was loaded in. Also part of the reason why server startup could take so long, as well as a possible memory leak
  • fixed docking position bug for normal docks
  • improved server performance (especially after longer running time) by excluding unchanged star systems from the to-save query.
  • fixed shields to me consistent with its recharge rate
  • fixed server crash (IndexArrayOutOfBoundsException)

New in StarMade 0.09283 (May 14, 2013)

  • added functionality to query server info in a simple command
  • turrets don't shoot if the shoot direction is intersected by an ally or the mothership
  • AI with option "selected target" should now also aim at vacant ships
  • added server config option for player limit
  • hopefully the infinite planet fall is fixed
  • fixed possible state where controller structure would fail to load when the actual segment was not yet loaded
  • fixed bug in network transmission of keybord state and keybord events
  • should weapon output loading fail, the fallback make now a lot more sense (one of the formost blocks of the gun)
  • Power Updates:
  • capacity = sumOf(amountOfBlocksInTankCluster^1.3)
  • shields will no longer take power when fully loaded

New in StarMade 0.092821 (May 13, 2013)

  • Power Updates
  • decreased cost for thrusters (minus ~33%)
  • decreased cost for weapons (minus ~80%)
  • decreased cost for shields (minus ~50%)
  • decreased cost for cloaking (minus ~70%)
  • decreased cost for jamming (minus ~70%)
  • constant increase of recharge increased from 10 to 25 per power recharge block
  • fixed base power capacity increased from 5000 to 20000
  • capacity per any block calculation eliminated (now solely relys on power tanks)
  • Please also note that the power capacity blocks scale the same way, power recharge blocks did.
  • All variables are NOT final. This is a testing phase.

New in StarMade 0.09282 (May 11, 2013)

  • New power recharge calculation
  • The new system now uses a logarithmic function that will grow against 1 million.
  • This is how the system behaves (or should behave)
  • Fast grow at first
  • Slower grow the more recharge blocks are added
  • on the maximum, the grow will be constant (+10 per power recharge block)
  • These are all experimental values, and they will very likely change in the future.
  • I also plan to make all the static variables moddable by the server admins.
  • Other fixes:
  • improved beam drawing to be visible through windows. beams started in front of windows (by absolute pos) can now be seen
  • fixed sorting issue
  • fixed floating text in space
  • implemented default for mouse wheel to change the slot in the bottom bar (can be switched to old style in the options)
  • fixed texture flicker in some cases
  • selected object now always visible in the HUD
  • dedicated keyboard options for ship controls implemented
  • fixed bug where capacity from tanks wasn't provided
  • decreased (for the transferperiod) capacity per block
  • added fixed base capacity of 5000
  • keyboard option for rotation implemented
  • redesigned code for the weapon bottom bar (visible change: icons for weapons are now their computers)

New in StarMade 0.09281 (May 8, 2013)

  • The new beams:
  • Power supply beam:
  • This beam can be targeted anywhere on another structure. It will transfer power from your ship to the structure. Also, this beam is not stopped by shields. This can be very useful for support type ships.
  • Power drain beam:
  • This beam transfers power from the targeted structure to your ship. It ignores shields, but power blocks (recharge or capacity) have to be targeted. In the right hand this might be a powerful weapon against shields. You could also build your own supply depot from which you can take power if needed.
  • Power Consistency:
  • power will no longer need to recharge every time the object is loaded. Structures will now safe the power state when they get unloaded.
  • Improved Lighting:
  • The lighting has been improved to give sun/shadow contrasts a lot more intensity
  • Fixes:
  • fixed vanishing asteroids
  • fixed block icons
  • fixed cluster outage bug (thanks cal): there was a running condition where a segment could be re-loaded and reset before loaded again. the reset caused the cluster collector to notice all removed and then added blocks. The problem was that he didn't have the right order. So it would sometimes remove cluster members after they have been added, even if the add came after the remove logically causing patches of power blocks (or well, just usable blocks in general) not to be included in the calculation at all

New in StarMade 0.0928 (May 7, 2013)

  • New textures:
  • The new texture pack defines an all new color style for StarMade. Less "happy" colors for a darker more washed out look. It's hard to explain so check it out yourself
  • Separation of Power:
  • There is now a new module called "power tank", which will indicate the capacity. The existing power module will only define recharge now.
  • I'm doing a very soft switch to a new system, so you don't have to worry about your ship being suddenly powerless. As a first step, there is a base capacity (amount of blocks times 500), so that players can increase their stock of power tanks and put them on their ships, before they really become vital.
  • As a small hint on the future: Small ships won't really need tanks, as their base capacity will be enough. Large ships will need more tanks then recharge blocks, as the increment will represent an S-curve in the future. There will be options to instantly fill up your power tanks though.
  • Bug fixes:
  • fixed white line bug on darker textures
  • fixed sorting bug that would load segments in/out rapidly (thanks for the vid cal)
  • fixed graphics buffer underflow on factory connections causing artifacts etc on some graphics cards
  • fixed possible server crash when control structure was requested right when the entity on the server was deleted (thanks VA)
  • fixed bug where connection would not be drawn on initial update

New in StarMade 0.092764 (May 3, 2013)

  • fixed a serious bug in the compression of control structures which caused random crashes and glitches
  • redesigned controllerConnection data structure for better performance
  • redesigned Meta data structure for better performance
  • fixed memory leak and possible source for physics errors/glitches. CompoundAlgorithms in pool kept their child algos and retained their proxies
  • fixed client memory leaks with segmentControllers references not being cleaned up on remove on some objects
  • improved file I/O functions for more performance
  • fixed asteroids vanishing after leaving a sector
  • improved simplex noise function for faster asteroid generation
  • improved occlusion function to work faster (loading in segments)
  • improved some byte setting function to be faster
  • implemented save recovery when segment gets to a faulty state
  • slightly optimized segment provider
  • fixed database shudown not to close while there are still statements in the queue
  • preventing server from getting flooded by write requests and filling up the thread pool
  • max speed can now be customized in the server.cfg (the higher the value, the more possible load on the server)

New in StarMade 0.092763 (Apr 30, 2013)

  • engine fix: 24bit depth texture are now loadable
  • fixed projectiles not hitting
  • fixed projectile damage indication on ships used from cockpits
  • fixed jamming
  • fixed cloaking
  • cloaking can now be switched on/off indefinitely, but costs power in active state
  • jamming can now be switched on/off indefinitely, but costs power in active state (less then cloaking)
  • turret/normal AI will now respect cloaking (fully loose target)
  • turret/normal AI will now respect jamming (agro range is halved, shots fired are more likely to miss)

New in StarMade 0.09276 (Apr 29, 2013)

  • improved performance of network protocol by removing empty buffer updates on initial transform
  • redesigned backend of missiles to improve performance
  • controlStructure of SegmentControllers(Ships, etc) is not transmitted compressed at the one time synchronize
  • missiles now do extra damage (by radius) to shield (experimental)
  • doubled speed of dumb missiles
  • amount of pirate spawn per sector now random
  • missiles can now change sector. They will however still explode if they try to enter an unloaded sector
  • heatseeking missiles now also target ships in other sectors
  • Fire and forget missiles can now lock on target in another sector
  • fixed bug that would not fully remove physics object of missiles
  • fixed missile drawing for missiles of other sectors

New in StarMade 0.09275 (Apr 26, 2013)

  • Enemies without borders:
  • AI is now capable to aggro and pursue its enemies over the borders of sectors. Until a coming update that will specialize pirate spawning, please don't do trains to much
  • Projectiles without borders:
  • Laser projectiles can now be shot across borders to other sectors. Please not that it doesn't yet work with missiles, since I'm planning to redesign them for performance.
  • Turret AI fix:
  • turrets should now be responsive against enemies. They also use advanced aiming and are pretty capable to hit stuff.
  • Bulk connection:
  • you can now connect/disconnect a cluster of blocks to a controller/computer at once by holding right-shift when pressing v to connect.
  • More changes, fixes, and optimizations
  • increased raycast performance (e.g. salvage) by using fast acos
  • improved salvage performance by handling bounding box updates in a batch instead of doing it for each removed block individually
  • fixed server crash if missile is in an already unloaded sector (sectors are not kept alive for missiles (yet)). Another one of the old but hard-to-fix bugs finally fetched and fixed;
  • turret projectiles no longer hit turrts of the same mothership or the mothership itself
  • fixed projectile output position on AI ships
  • turret program "any" should be a lot more responsive now
  • AI now attacks across borders, and has a bigger aggro range
  • fixed memory leak (hopefully) where collision algorithms were kept in memory due to loop reference
  • projectiles can now be shot across sector borders
  • fixed targeting mechanism of AI turrets
  • bulk connection implemented
  • fixed bug that would cause salvage beams not to be used
  • further improved beam handling performance by removing redundant calls for threadLocal variables and JBullet stack operations

New in StarMade 0.092749 (Apr 24, 2013)

  • This update has a few tweaks to the behavior of AI, especially their targeting algorithm.
  • They are now a tiny little bit stronger than they used to be... This is a pretty low setting of difficulty.
  • Other changes:
  • fixed bug that would cause ship physics to jiggle around: collision manifold was not cleaned up correctly, causing the physics to think the object keeps getting hit when it's actually already far away
  • fixed bug that would significantly delay cluster updates when stuff is loading in (pre-fetching invalid ElementCollectionManager elements)
  • fixed jumping against ceiling
  • fixed bullets-appearing-out-of-nowhere
  • fixed bug that wouldn't spawn Mobs in surrounding sectors

New in StarMade 0.092748 (Apr 23, 2013)

  • removed RemoteSectors from update loop when inactive -> server performance and scalability
  • tweaked method to remove remote entites for performance (still more todo there)
  • improved network protocol performance by replacing runtime non-static cast method with a more compiler friendly version
  • improved cluster updating with more memory & cache friendly and also faster data structures
  • fixed server exception with factory inventory being null (happened on NASS 04/22)
  • fixed bug in removing old file handles. not the oldest one was removed but a random one -> performance hit in worst case
  • reduced basic load by only attempting to update the structure of clusters every so often (more todo here)
  • fixed server no-answer warning message with correct time since last response
  • fixed memory leak (causing ~50% of excess memory on server): half of CompoundCollision Algorithm instances have not been freed back to the pool after proxy was destroyed

New in StarMade 0.092746 (Apr 22, 2013)

  • This update contains some fixes to prevent a server from crashing, as well as a possible fix for the duplication bug.

New in StarMade 0.092744 (Apr 19, 2013)

  • The ghost bug should be fixed (some objects that were in a ghost state might be warped a sector or two but should be fine after that)
  • Serveral server fixes

New in StarMade 0.092742 (Apr 18, 2013)

  • fixed crash on illegal physics state
  • fixed bug that would cause factions relation with the same faction
  • fixed server crash on loading parts of ships that aren't available yet
  • fixed server crash on concurrent modification on control structure of blocks
  • starmode
  • console output now autoscrolls
  • clients are no longer kicked, when the admin list is emtpy

New in StarMade 0.09274 (Apr 17, 2013)

  • Faction Options:
  • Factions can now be set to "consider neutrals enemies": All neutrals will be considered enemies of the faction (and their AI)
  • Factions can now be set to "declare war on hostile action": Should a member of another faction attack your faction, and both factions have a neutral relation ship, your faction will automatically declare war. Should the attacker not be in any faction, the option "consider neutrals enemies" will be applied.
  • Credit Dropping:
  • credits can now be dropped into space from the inventory
  • items can now be sold to a shop from the inventory with an added drop zone
  • Bug Fixes:
  • fixed integer overflow on credits when selling or using give_credits admin command
  • fixed crash on dragging items
  • fixed crash when entering ships

New in StarMade 0.09273 (Apr 16, 2013)

  • Customizable docking area:
  • The docking area can now be shaped by aligning the docking-enhancer-blocks in the same way, the docking area should be shaped.
  • Please keep in mind that only one group connected to the docking block is counted. If there are multiple clusters of docking enhances for one docking block, the one with the overall biggest area will be counted.
  • Remote activation of doors & lights:
  • Blocks can now be activated remotely with the docking beam (there is still a conflict with the docking beam hitting open doors, but you want to target the docking block behind it).
  • Symmetry for all other shapes:
  • The wedge and spike shapes are now mirrored accordingly with the symmetry mode. Please report eventual wrong rotation with a screenshot making visible what the front is of the structure.
  • Minor features & updates:
  • updated lwjgl to version 2.8.5
  • items can now be dropped from the inventory when dragging them beside the panel
  • cloaking and jamming can now be deactivated by activating them again from the hotbar
  • jamming will no longer stop when own weapons are fired (still deactivates when being hit)
  • shift+Enter is now shortcut for faction chat
  • faction chat now colored for better distinction
  • Docking beam is now auto-assigned to key 0
  • Bug-Fixes:
  • fixed turret docking
  • game no longer blocks when receiving data (no more freeze lag) (0.092725)
  • fixed AI exception on server
  • fixed bug where blocks in symmetry mode would still be placed on all planes even if there isn't enough left for that in the inventory

New in StarMade 0.09272 (Apr 15, 2013)

  • fixed bug where huge lag could occur when entering/exiting a structure multiple times
  • Physics stability and performance increased by a huge amount. Fixed hardest physics-bug yet:
  • Symptoms:
  • Glitches like falling through planets, clipping into stations, etc
  • Huge performance decrease over time when using dock/undock enter exit ship, leaving/entering active sector
  • Reproduction:
  • Docking a single core multiple times on the same dock on a planet and exiting it near another ship, that was just set down normally caused both ships to fall through the planet when undocking and exiting the ship.
  • Further research confirmed that the error only happens when the undocked ship is in the radius of the player physics-activation
  • Search:
  • Complete physics library searched for inconsistency. Broadphase, Narrowphase, even collision-algorithms where taken apart one by one.
  • After 25 hours, finally first inconsistency spotted, when switching off player physics on the server so the bug persists to happen because the client object would be snapped back by the server:
  • The persistent manifolds for the broadphase pairs of the two ships were NOT delivered to the sequential impulse resolver of the CollisionIsland callback. Further narrowing down showed that the manifolds in question were in fact tried to be delivered, but got overwritten by manifolds from older instances, that seem to have occurred every time objects were added/removed on the physics (which also happens in case of dock).
  • There were manifold leftover from old bodies, that were never cleaned up, causing the physics to ignore the real ones randomly (since the order of manifolds not fixed). The piling up of manifold also impacted the performance immensely.
  • Solution:
  • Checking for leftover manifolds, pairs, and algorithms everytime a proxy was deleted from the physics resolved the issue
  • added security method that will automatically check for stuck objects and warp them out of collision if necessary

New in StarMade 0.0927 (Apr 13, 2013)

  • fixed bug that would exclude edited asteroids from being loaded in a sector
  • fixed output bug on repair beams
  • hint to connect blocks manually if controller block was placed in astronaut mode
  • removed unnecessary local segment requests from client cache (removes some lag on loading visited sectors)
  • fixed bug in control element handling when removing a controller block (Selection box lingers)
  • weapon entry in weaponManager panel is now updated when selected weapon is edited (distribution still resets though)

New in StarMade 0.09269 (Apr 11, 2013)

  • fixed local catalog saving Notice: Please re-save any ship you saved locally by using the "save local" button on a multiplayer server (blueprints saved on servers are not affected)
  • added function to prevent ships to fall through planets when it's not fully loaded (hopefully)
  • mass building no longer available for astronaut mode
  • increased light radius
  • improved spawning from exiting ships (hopefully fixes spawning-far-away bug)
  • fixed "Player location changes when exiting objects within a gravitational field."
  • increased light influx of ambient occlusion (more light from openings and through glass)
  • more accurate jumping in astronaut mode: height now depends on time the jump-button is pressed
  • symmetry mode now available for build-block (stations, planets, etc)

New in StarMade 0.09268 (Apr 10, 2013)

  • Added symmetric mode for odd block counts:
  • This can be turned on and off in the advanced build mode and will basically move the planes into the middle of a block, enabling players to use symmetry modes for odd counts.
  • Server could be overloaded when using 10x10x10 placement in symmetry mode
  • Fixed the error by spreading out the data over multiple packets so that server doesn't get flooded.
  • Client cache obfuscation:
  • Since players seem to have figured out how to pull ship data from the cache, the file names are now obfuscated. Ship designs can never be 100% protected (technically impossible without spending a huge amount of performance), but this will at least make it a lot harder to pull data.

New in StarMade 0.09266 (Apr 8, 2013)

  • left over tmp files are now deleted if needed (caused: e.g. not saved factions)
  • fixed navigation algorithm
  • fixed server memory leak: inactive sectors were not cleaned up
  • fixed entity permanent deletion
  • fixed two pesky NullPointerExceptions
  • added safeguard mechanism to prevent corrupted server saving (what happened on doom's server). The server will now attempt to repair the error immediately should it happen again. If that fails, a message will be broadcasted and teh server will shut down so more data-loss is minimized

New in StarMade 0.09265 (Apr 5, 2013)

  • Graphics Updates:
  • mag texture filter now nearest (no more near blur). Option is still in the game to switch: This will basically give pixel crisp textures when you are near blocks. You can still switch back if the texture blur is preferred
  • fixed and improved beacon drawing: random beacons will no longer be in sectors. Also bugs with higher count of beacons are fixed, and draw performance has been increased)
  • Logic updates:
  • fixed shield power draw overflow: switched to double precision
  • AI now uses full acceleration.
  • improved physics object management synchronization: may prevent ghost ships and other physics related bugs
  • Performance updates:
  • removed unnecessary client operations for objects that are not in the sector of the client: reduces lag
  • optimized segment-signature and segment requests by using schine's own network transfer buffer: reduced lag for others, faster processing, much less error prone
  • now preventing segments to be HD-cached on client when they are not fully loaded and verified: less bugs when crash occurs
  • fixed drawArray size (faster segment drawing): this should speed up overall segment drawing. It also might fix some display bugs
  • implemented fast billboard picking algorithm
  • improved performance and memory usage of network protocol for primitive variables
  • Memory usage updates:
  • Sectors now use much less memory by default, cutting down the size of sectors being loaded by about 99%, giving especially server a lot more scalability
  • decreased memory usage for all structures
  • Starmote:
  • fixed bug where the system would despawn some used entities even if the option was unused-only

New in StarMade 0.09263 (Mar 30, 2013)

  • fixed NullPointer on start with corrupted config
  • fixed drawing of active thrusters
  • improved info/error messaging to be more new-player friendly
  • added line from selected block in build mode to indicate what is going to be connected
  • fixed crash when using jamming or cloaking when the ship has not fully loaded (on client)
  • fixed crash when beams are drawing and a beam structure change is invoked
  • fixed muzzle flash position for custom output on weapons
  • fixed StackOverflowError when deselecting text
  • added better check for disconnected clients
  • added better information on client disconnect
  • fixed nullpointer in weapon GUI panel when empty element is selected

New in StarMade 0.0926 (Mar 25, 2013)

  • Database Transition Completed
  • Finally the last step of transitioning from a file-based database to a SQL database on top of the low level cube-database is completed.
  • Sectors and systems are now migrated into the database which is already keeping track of entities. This means about 75% of the files in "server-database" are no longer necessary. They will automatically be removed upon successful migration.
  • The completion of the transition means that systems like simulation (e.g. simulating large amount of AI (ships, critters, etc) flying from any sector to another sector far away with good performance), and of course for the galaxy map.
  • Additions and fixes for StarMote:
  • Fixed crash on servers with server message
  • Added graceful logout on exit
  • Server list entries can now be started by double-click or pressing Enter
  • Fixed faction relation panel display
  • Non-Admins are now instantly logged out server sided
  • implemented admin control for all players (offline & online)
  • implemented tool to delete edited/unedited ships/anything from a sector or the whole universe filtered by name
  • implemented tool to generate a sector again

New in StarMade 0.0921 (Mar 5, 2013)

  • Soft Borders
  • Other bugfixes:
  • fixed recycler exploit
  • fixed shop sell exploit (sell negative)
  • fixed credits overflow
  • fixed gravity block bug
  • fixed negative ship cost bug, when a saved ship gets too expensive
  • fixed overflow in shield and power
  • fixed that own explosion blocks are saved by shields
  • fixed bug that caused for docking not to be terminated when deleting the correspondent docking block
  • fixed 2 cores for 1 bug
  • implemented more scalable method to do inventory modifications