Empyrion – Galactic Survival - Community Forums
Sep
17
Dear Galactic Survivalists!
Vacation time is over.
Working on a few things for the upcoming interversion patches (bugfixes and such .. but not only . Planning for the next major update has started as well.
Vacation time is over.
Working on a few things for the upcoming interversion patches (bugfixes and such .. but not only . Planning for the next major update has started as well.Aug
13
Aug
05
Dear Galactic Survivalists!
Today is the day: we are leaving Early Access, starting into the post-Alpha development phase.
This means:
Initial Announcement:
https://empyriononline.com/threads/empyrion-galactic-survival-leaving-alpha-early-access.94778/
Addressing often-read concerns:
https://empyriononline.com/threads/leaving-alpha-early-access-some-clarifications.94900/
To accompany this step forward, we also updated the trailer in some important details.
An all new trailer is planned for this year.
In terms of today's update, we have worked primarily on fixing and squashing a few more bugs. For example evergreens, like the bike launching you to space, turrets having a gentle pause instead of tracking their targets, your bases and ships missing whole areas (MP) and others now should be fixed.
Please have a look at the changelog below for more info.
As fixing bugs and issues is one thing that will be more in the focus now, the same procedure as for all the Alphas also applies for the new development stage:
Keep on having fun and HAPPY 5th ANNIVERSARY!
Yours,
Empyrion Dev Team
QA Team and Community Managers
Closed Alpha Group & Builders League
PS: You want to listen to the Empyrion soundtrack (by Alex Jordon) without running the game...
Today is the day: we are leaving Early Access, starting into the post-Alpha development phase.
This means:
- We have removed the Alpha-tag from the build number, as this term was tied to the Early Access phase.
- The version will now read 1.x instead of 13.x or 14.x etc. This had to happen as well to make a clear cut.
- Everything beyond that, development and refinement of features will stay pretty much the same. The development planning for v1.1 will start soon (after a little, annual summer break) and will also take the feedback and results of the Game Survey 2020 into account!
Initial Announcement:
https://empyriononline.com/threads/empyrion-galactic-survival-leaving-alpha-early-access.94778/
Addressing often-read concerns:
https://empyriononline.com/threads/leaving-alpha-early-access-some-clarifications.94900/
To accompany this step forward, we also updated the trailer in some important details.
An all new trailer is planned for this year.
In terms of today's update, we have worked primarily on fixing and squashing a few more bugs. For example evergreens, like the bike launching you to space, turrets having a gentle pause instead of tracking their targets, your bases and ships missing whole areas (MP) and others now should be fixed.
Please have a look at the changelog below for more info.
As fixing bugs and issues is one thing that will be more in the focus now, the same procedure as for all the Alphas also applies for the new development stage:
- Read first before reporting a bug: https://empyriononline.com/threads/...uirements-known-issues-troubleshooting.47082/
- Bug reports: https://empyriononline.com/forums/bugs.24/
Keep on having fun and HAPPY 5th ANNIVERSARY!
Yours,
Empyrion Dev Team
QA Team and Community Managers
Closed Alpha Group & Builders League
PS: You want to listen to the Empyrion soundtrack (by Alex Jordon) without running the game...
Jul
23
Hi Galactic Survivalists!
Today we are releasing Alpha 12.3. This will be the last 12.x version before we are leaving Early Access on 5th of august. Please read the sticky dev blog announcements over here for more info on that topic: https://empyriononline.com/forums/news-announcements.6/
Alpha 12.3 not only adds new content, like new drone models, new NPCs, turrets and T2 laser drills for Small Vessels and such. The new version also upgrades the game to Unity 2019.4, which means a lot of backend work had to happen in the meantime.
Of course the update includes several bug fixes, as well as optimizations and adjustments - for example on the Space AI. When a NPC drone, ship or station spot's you, they will send the information to the whole faction in the system, and the faction may send some ships from the system to deal with the threat.
For new and experienced players alike, the difficulty settings now define, if you will keep all your stuff (Easy), toolbar contents only (Medium) or everything drops as before (Hard) when you respawn after death.
We also added a dynamic warp sequence instead of the old loading screen.
And in case you need to have a rest from all the exploring, simply sit down at any bench, chair, sofa or other suitable furnishings.
As usual:
- Empyrion Dev team
CHANGELOG
Today we are releasing Alpha 12.3. This will be the last 12.x version before we are leaving Early Access on 5th of august. Please read the sticky dev blog announcements over here for more info on that topic: https://empyriononline.com/forums/news-announcements.6/
Alpha 12.3 not only adds new content, like new drone models, new NPCs, turrets and T2 laser drills for Small Vessels and such. The new version also upgrades the game to Unity 2019.4, which means a lot of backend work had to happen in the meantime.
Of course the update includes several bug fixes, as well as optimizations and adjustments - for example on the Space AI. When a NPC drone, ship or station spot's you, they will send the information to the whole faction in the system, and the faction may send some ships from the system to deal with the threat.
For new and experienced players alike, the difficulty settings now define, if you will keep all your stuff (Easy), toolbar contents only (Medium) or everything drops as before (Hard) when you respawn after death.
We also added a dynamic warp sequence instead of the old loading screen.
And in case you need to have a rest from all the exploring, simply sit down at any bench, chair, sofa or other suitable furnishings.
As usual:
- Read first before reporting a bug: https://empyriononline.com/threads/...uirements-known-issues-troubleshooting.47082/
- Bug reports: https://empyriononline.com/forums/bugs.24/
- Empyrion Dev team
CHANGELOG
- Built with Unity 2019.4 - please check for any unusual behavior
- Added new communication channel 4 for low prio client <-> dedi communication to get less player disconnects
- You can now sit down at most of the furnishings (except beds)
- Added updated variants of Human, Talon and Zirax Trader (Now using a styled 'Traders Guild member' garment)
- Added TraderKriel to Trader variants
- Updated Trading Station in Starter System with Admincore
- Exchanged static warp drive screen with dynamic warp drive effect
- Maxcount for Detectors set to 1
- On connect to a server: the server now waits for a client acknowledgement per config file to lessen the traffic that is sent to clients
- Changed CIVILIAN (static neutral) faction color to WHITE
- Space AI Manager - added configuration...
Jul
22
Dear Galactic Survivalists.
We would like to address some of the concerns we have seen in the comments on our initial ‘leaving Early Access/Alpha’ announcement.
The reasons?
Plain and simply: We want to leave Early Access on our 5th anniversary release, because we are confident that the game is now in a shape, where it no longer needs that supporting wheels tag. We are not running out of money (most read concern) and there are no dark entities that are forcing us to do that (lots of funny theories) .
On the contrary, we are sure the game is playable in quality, although not free of issues, that is simply not reflected anymore by how the meaning of an Early Access tag is understood or talked about even nowadays.
As a consequence, leaving Early Access also means to remove the “Alpha” tags, as they are somehow tied to this stage. But there needs to be some sort of new versioning. While we did not want to proceed with simply counting further up or adding fancy letters, the version counter had no other choice as to being reset to 1.
Why no Beta?
For us, the “Alpha” tag is THE visual statement of the Early Access stage of the game. So it has to go, because we are leaving Early Access. Simple as that.
Of course, in the classic software development, there is a definitive meaning for Alpha, Beta, Full Release, where you put in features in Alpha, fix bugs in Beta and do not change anything relevant (because it might again break your stuff) and then go to a full release. But this is not “classic software development” for cars, medical equipment, elevators or else. And even in the so called A+ Game development, there are literally only very, very few games that let all interested players play a “Game in development”. At least if it’s not 80-90% done already, although those stages are called Alpha or Beta often as well.
We also do not have an investor we need to “develop for” or which pushes us to a certain stage. Eleon Games has successfully bootstrapped the game 100% on its own up to this point, while working with and for the community that helped to actually shape the game a lot. And we possibly could go on like this for years.
That being said, and because we realized that putting in Beta or Dev or Post-Alpha or any other term would in no way have avoided any discussion on that, but also leading to the same expectation discussions, strange...
We would like to address some of the concerns we have seen in the comments on our initial ‘leaving Early Access/Alpha’ announcement.
The reasons?
Plain and simply: We want to leave Early Access on our 5th anniversary release, because we are confident that the game is now in a shape, where it no longer needs that supporting wheels tag. We are not running out of money (most read concern) and there are no dark entities that are forcing us to do that (lots of funny theories
) .On the contrary, we are sure the game is playable in quality, although not free of issues, that is simply not reflected anymore by how the meaning of an Early Access tag is understood or talked about even nowadays.
As a consequence, leaving Early Access also means to remove the “Alpha” tags, as they are somehow tied to this stage. But there needs to be some sort of new versioning. While we did not want to proceed with simply counting further up or adding fancy letters, the version counter had no other choice as to being reset to 1.
Why no Beta?
For us, the “Alpha” tag is THE visual statement of the Early Access stage of the game. So it has to go, because we are leaving Early Access. Simple as that.
Of course, in the classic software development, there is a definitive meaning for Alpha, Beta, Full Release, where you put in features in Alpha, fix bugs in Beta and do not change anything relevant (because it might again break your stuff) and then go to a full release. But this is not “classic software development” for cars, medical equipment, elevators or else. And even in the so called A+ Game development, there are literally only very, very few games that let all interested players play a “Game in development”. At least if it’s not 80-90% done already, although those stages are called Alpha or Beta often as well.
We also do not have an investor we need to “develop for” or which pushes us to a certain stage. Eleon Games has successfully bootstrapped the game 100% on its own up to this point, while working with and for the community that helped to actually shape the game a lot. And we possibly could go on like this for years.
That being said, and because we realized that putting in Beta or Dev or Post-Alpha or any other term would in no way have avoided any discussion on that, but also leading to the same expectation discussions, strange...
Jul
16
Dear Galactic Survivalists!
This is not the usual announcement of a main version update. The upcoming release will be something special.
Not only because we are looking forward to an anniversary release on 5th of August, but also because we will move forward and leave the ‘Alpha’ and 'Early Access' tags behind at this point.
With a small, but dedicated team (currently 5 programmers and 2 modellers), we think we have created something fun to play in the past years. But without you, our community, we would never have come so far. This is something we absolutely value and acknowledge!
But now it is time to move forward and take on the next level.
What does this mean?
First of all, the game development WILL NOT be stopped! We will continue to be working on refining features and fixing bugs. Subsequent releases will happen in the same frequency as before. No change here, except the version counter will not read ‘Alpha 13.x’ but simply ‘1.0’.
The only thing that might slightly change in future releases, is the focus on what will be working on.
The goal of the Alpha phase always was, to add in what we consider to be the base mechanics, the gamechangers and all the stuff that leads to major technical changes and an altered game experience - with the addition of the ‘galaxy’ being one of the final steps to achieve that milestone.
For all subsequent releases, bugfixes and optimization as well as feature refinements and the big topic of effect and sound reworks might be more on the foreground.
There are of course also a few larger features left and there is a long list of quality-of-life changes and additions that have piled up over the last years for Single- and Multiplayer.
We are looking forward to all of you being with us on this new development stage, with the same engagement and dedication you have shown in the recent Alpha phase.
Yours,
Eleon Game Studios
PS: More info on the contents of the Version 1 release will be following soon.
This is not the usual announcement of a main version update. The upcoming release will be something special.
Not only because we are looking forward to an anniversary release on 5th of August, but also because we will move forward and leave the ‘Alpha’ and 'Early Access' tags behind at this point.
With a small, but dedicated team (currently 5 programmers and 2 modellers), we think we have created something fun to play in the past years. But without you, our community, we would never have come so far. This is something we absolutely value and acknowledge!
But now it is time to move forward and take on the next level.
What does this mean?
First of all, the game development WILL NOT be stopped! We will continue to be working on refining features and fixing bugs. Subsequent releases will happen in the same frequency as before. No change here, except the version counter will not read ‘Alpha 13.x’ but simply ‘1.0’.
The only thing that might slightly change in future releases, is the focus on what will be working on.
The goal of the Alpha phase always was, to add in what we consider to be the base mechanics, the gamechangers and all the stuff that leads to major technical changes and an altered game experience - with the addition of the ‘galaxy’ being one of the final steps to achieve that milestone.
For all subsequent releases, bugfixes and optimization as well as feature refinements and the big topic of effect and sound reworks might be more on the foreground.
There are of course also a few larger features left and there is a long list of quality-of-life changes and additions that have piled up over the last years for Single- and Multiplayer.
We are looking forward to all of you being with us on this new development stage, with the same engagement and dedication you have shown in the recent Alpha phase.
Yours,
Eleon Game Studios
PS: More info on the contents of the Version 1 release will be following soon.
Jul
01
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