Patch 0.2.14 is live!
This patch focused almost entirely on polish, quality-of-life (QoL), and bug fixes. We also added a “new game” cutscene.
Full Patch Notes: Here
Pride Decorations
New cosmetics, including a new core, were added during June’s pride month.
They’re all available immediately from the start
Task Decluttering
We combined a few job tasks (because there are soooo many).
“Clean Blood” + “Clean Floor” -> “Clean Station”
“Fix Object” + “Object Maintenance” -> “Fix Object”
Pilot now defaults to assigned.
Soon you’ll be able to “assign to only this colonist” for any job task. Very useful when you want to have a dedicated doctor, pilot, or chef
Conditional Crafting
You can now order your colonists to “create item until we have at least X amount of that item stored”.
Order your colonists to always maintain 10 medkits, for example.
You’ll never be thirsty again
This is a very very nice gameplay change. Starmancer is a colony sim, after all, you should be able to “order” your colonists as you see fit
Comfort Changes
Comfort is a system in Starmancer where colonists receive “buffs” when in areas in high comfort. Ugly items, such as Biowaste, have a negative comfort score. Pretty objects, such as a Kat Statue, have a positive comfort score.
Taken together, a room will be more “comfortable” if it has nicer things in it.
Previously, the comfort score was an average, calculated with an algorithm like:
comfortScore = sumOfAllComfortScores / countOfAllComfortObjects
This patch, we changed the comfort algorithm so that less “comfortable” objects no longer reduce the total comfort score when near a more comfortable object.
The new algorithm is something like:
comfortScore = (sumOfAllNegativeScores + highestPositiveScore) / countOfAllScoresUsed
With this change, you can decorate a bit more freely, and you’re never penalized for placing a less “pretty” object near a more beautiful objects.
Also, colonists in high comfort rooms will now earn 10% / 25% more experience if they’re in a room with at least 25 / 50 comfort.
Note: Colonists must be in a liveable atmosphere to receive a positive comfort score
Intro Cutscene
There’s lots of lore and story in Starmancer, but most of it hasn’t made its way into the game yet.
Here’s some snippets from the cutscene that plays when you start a new game
Miscellaneous QoL Improvements
Colonists now eat anti-virals automatically when sick.
All colonists with a strength level of 5 can now “crudely detach” heads (from corpses). Removing a head in this manner generates blood and has a very high chance of skill loss in the recipient (the colonist without a head). Colonists with at least level 5 doctor skill will never cause skill loss (competency roll is still performed)
Mousing over a colonist will now display a variety of applicable statuses: Refuses to work, Organ Damage, Infected, Upset, etc
Hud Messages, such as “Dimple started fighting Space Zombie” can now be clicked to pan the camera to the event.
Up Next
This week, we’re focusing on:
Jetpacks, for flying to asteroids without walkways
Bioshrooms, an early-game crop that grows in darkness
Harpoonable Space Whales
Zombie, Slime, and Cuddler disease
Goolerium Tank
We might add a few weapons for the Starmancer to personally use soon. Starting with missiles that you can launch at nearby asteroids or stations.
So Long
That’s it.
Don’t forget to check out the weekly developer stream! Every Friday at 11:00 gmt-4 (New York City’s timezone).
And don’t forget to leave a review!
Thanks for reading!
