Hello Galactic Survivalists! Welcome to Empyrion Galactic Survival version 1.10 Experimental! In this update for you to test, we've added locale missions for each starter playfield (5x5 = 25 in total) to offer more variation to the early gameplay experience. Although these missions are fully optional and do not (yet) relate to the main storyline they will be shedding some early light on a few important story backgrounds in the Empyrion universe. The introduction of the location missions is accompanied by a major maintenance of the main missions to make the final adjustment to the new game start environments. To achieve this, we have implemented numerous fixes for improved story progression and several bug fixes for reported issues (see full changelog below) In addition to the mission updates, we've expanded the game universe by updating the existing faction homeworlds and adding new ones. Thanks to our community contributors, these updates come with an impressive addition of over 300 new Points of Interest (POIs) and vessels, enhancing the scope of exploration and discovery.. On the technical side of things, we've worked on visual and auditory enhancements to provide a more immersive in-game environment. While the visuals of the suns got a general overhaul, the addition of ‘tessellation’ will significantly improve the planetary terrain quality. In the meantime, our sound department not only worked on the SFX themselves, but also added the long-wanted dynamic combat soundtrack feature! For our multiplayer and co-op players, we've incorporated a new role system, designed to expand cooperative possibilities within the game. You can now grant access to devices based on your player faction role! We also haven't forgotten our creative players, with improvements made to the Creative Scenario Building Helper Tools, adding several convenience features and even completely new functions to improve building and reduce friction. Last, but not least, there are two crucial infos you should be aware of: 1. The Mass/Volume + CPU + Blocklimits are now enabled by default. This setting can be adjusted in the game start menu if desired. 2. The Blueprint Factory can now only be used when all devices of a blueprint have been unlocked in the tech tree. There are new (colored) info & messages to indicate what is missing. Please refer to the full changelog for a comprehensive overview of all updates, adjustments, and fixes. We always appreciate your feedback on these changes. Report bugs over here: https://empyriononline.com/forums/bugs.34/ Feedback: https://empyriononline.com/forums/experimental-features-discussion.35/ Best regards, The Empyrion Team Changelog v1.10 B4201 2023-05-31 Default Scenario Update (WiP): POI & OPVs: Added/updated about 300 space & ground stations, wreckages, dungeons, small and large, weak and strong combat and civilian vessels - created, reworked and updated by various authors and community contributors (check details at: https://empyriononline.com/forums/showroom-submissions.108/). Thanks a lot to everyone building for Empyrion <3 Missions Added locale mission arcs (with 5 missions each) to all starter planets: Akua: Clear Skies Ningues: Andromeda Strain Masperon: Bad Wolf Skillon: Deserted Powers Ashon: To Good Business Note: To start the mission, find the main mission hub on the playfield (there are indications in PDAs and/or notifiers when approaching a mission relevant POI) Adjusted main storyline contents, mission structure and dialogues (eg. shortened amount of text and/or added more SKIP routes) Changed start location and context of main storyline (Prelude now starts when arriving on Omicron Sector!) Fixed several reported bugs and issues with the main storyline (please retest!). Most important changes: Updated: Story Mission 'Totally Overpowered' updated to new settings and faction references. Dialogues updated to reflect context changes. Updated: Story Mission 'Glacial Grave': Reduced Log content (amount of text) found on the system consoles down to 1-page logs and made several other refinements on procedures. Updated: Story Mission 'Ancient Revelations': fixed issues with opening doors too early, changed creatures to variants that better fit some room sizes. Staircase now cleared when using shortcut from main access to upper level; added some additional markers in some places. Updated: Story Mission 'Uncertain Outcomes': fixed several issues in mission progression; Set stations to civil + admin cores; removed Tier3 ores from mission asteroids. Updated: Story Mission Interlude 'Meet the GLaD': added some skip areas to Dialogues and streamlined text info for summaries Updated: Story Mission 'Sigma Fulcrum': Reduced clickcount on station console (each message now only shown once as long as player stays in the dialogue); Fixed a few inconsistencies with mission progress; Note the station is still set to Colonists faction you won't damage your reputation with. So first ask, then shoot. Updated: Story Mission 'Unexpected Allies': Fixed faction settings to not break mission progress. Updated some dialogues; updated info + added more SKIP routes in dialogues. Updated: Story Mission 'Wins and losses': Adjusted some text elements; Fixed progression issues. (Note, this is currently the LAST mission. Final mission might be added for 1.11 or 1.12) Deactivated 'Murky Christmas' mission (as this is seasonal content). General change on story mission factions & enemies: When there is no chance to proceed in a story mission other than to fight against a dynamic-RP faction, the opponents will be set to "Alien" to not forcefully ruin player reputation. If there is a choice, e.g. to trade, talk or fight, a dynamic faction might be used & the decision to ruin the Reputation towards them is up to the players themselves. Factions & Reputation & NPCs Set UCH to dynamic faction reputation Added a static player-friendly 'technical' faction 'PlayerAssistDefaultHostile' (PDH) to help with mission setups that require combat against default-hostile factions and RP is not spoiled by friendly-fire or the faction is already used in another context. The faction is not intended to have POI or territories but is a "technical" static faction only. Reworked faction reputation matrix: eg. added more crossover effects (pos and negative), removed too strong level-drop effects and added specific RP-loss amounts to some blocks (f.ex. Cores) Changed NPC groups (EclassConfig) and updated terrain-spawned patrol groups (Egroup) Telluropod now available from NPC Spawners Gameworld Updated home systems and home planets for all major and minor factions (1st iteration) Added home systems for community-submitted factions Sorted/changed blueprint groups of lots of POIs for the factions Sorted blueprint groups for all faction OPVs (space and planet) into tiers. Note: if your scenario uses default BP groups, their contents might have changed! Changed: Several story-mission-relevant POI did not have an admin core Changed: Enemy attack in story mission context is now mostly set to "alien" faction to avoid spoiling reputation unintentionally. Added a few battered, free-roaming cannon drones to Ningues, Skillon and Masperon (Alien faction; will attack player, but not other NPCs) Changed: Activated Base Attacks on Akua (Talon) and Masperon (Zirax/Abyssal) Changed: Akua SupplyDepot swapped Raptor02 with RaptorNight and interior AlienBug01v2 with Spider01 Updated Ocean planet (decoration, atmosphere, textures & biomes) Gameworld - Stars Space: Tweaked looks for star types O,B,F,A,G,K,M, LegacyNexusHub Space: Adjusted playfield lighting colours and brightness. (O: Much brighter; B: Bright) Galaxy map: Star types easier to tell apart in distance Increased size class for G, A type stars and SmBH Config Changes Global configs Important change: Mass/Volume/CPU/Blocklimit = default on (Can be changed in settings at gamestart!); Full changelog & feedback & known issues thread: < > Important change: Blueprints cannot be put into the Factory if the player hasn't unlocked the needed items in the techtree yet! New optional parameter "ignoreOtherTarget" is available for Pf-Ops SpawnDrone, SpawnOPV and SpawnTroopTransport Updated info in galaxyconfig.ecf about hiding a solar system Added information about AuxPoi setup to example playfield yaml Added new parameter 'DisableProximityLog' (true/false) for gameoptions.yaml to allow disabling the proximity log button in registry Dialogue System Added possibility to omit the cone for NPC with dialogues (class NPCDialogue) by adding the property OmitCone: true in BlocksConfig.ecf Added function string GetFaction(int entityId) that returns the faction name from the FactionConfig.ecf Added a property "DialogueState" to BlocksConfig.ecf to be used in blocks of class "NPCDialogue" to allow specifying a hard coded target dialog. If this is present, this block can be placed by users on player bases and be also triggered using "F". Added new function GetStructure(entityId) Multiplayer / Coop Added PlayerFaction Role dropdown UI to Control Panel's Devices page. To make use of this add a lock code for the device then check the “Private” box & select one of the roles from the drop down GUI Creative Mode / Scenario WIP: Added a new tool to manage blueprint part collections “Blueprint Parts Collection Tool”. To try this tool out in creative mode use 'di wdw' in the console to test it. See this video for tips on how to use it Creative mode improvement: if SHIFT (run key) is pressed the focus box now focuses inside the target block (pressing RMB will remove it and LMB will replace it). The removal was working before, but now the focus is also placed correctly. BuildSettingsMenu: Green pasted area can now also be mirrored "in place" BuildSettingsMenu: Green pasted area will now collide with its surrounding structure if pressing LEFT-SHIFT while moving (using the move handles) Default Creative scenario: Updated Temperate and Arid playfields to new decoration. Updated selection pictures. Visual Refinements & Controller upgrades Added Global Illumination, Dynamic Shadows & Terrain Tessellation & video options to toggle these on & off New force field VFX added to all blocks that have a forcefield visible New swimming animations added Sound / SFX: Added dynamic combat soundtrack change WIP: Adjusted device volume levels to be lower overall Guided Tutorial: EndSpace: Fix for broken dialog of Fleet Command Fixes: - Explorer Token for faction homeworlds should now work/be given again (also for the new dynamic factions!) - Explorer Token for first-pickup for ores did not work anymore or were given randomly - Falling animation is playing when you fly a vessel. - pf data not found if trying to respawn to it - 00858: Collision model for deco block - Antena 05 is missed - 00912: Collision model for block Deco SVDecoAeroblister01 is missed - 00910: Large thrusters are flickering in 1PV after resume the game - 00897: Retractable turrets can be invisible when they are turned off EAH: - https://eah.empyrion-homeworld.net/download/patch-notes-emp-admin-helper-full Known: - BattleSound will continue to play until the music slider has been lowered & raised again.
This all looks really good! I personally don't care about the default mission and scenario changes but the technical change have me very excited! Could you elaborate on this? Are you only tessellating the ground near the player to add more detail or are you also using it to get more accurate and dynamic LOD? Will I actually be able to see the bunker entrance I dug into a mountain for far away now?
Awesome stuff! Just one comment: In my opinion, this new restriction should absolutely be optional, much like Mass/Volume, CPU, and the other associated gameplay difficulty options.
I think this is a step in the right direction but its a little underwhelming in my opinion. Are there more changes planed for the factory in the near future? I would love to see the factory better integrated into the games building system. I kind of agree. I like the change but I also like having options to tailor my experience.
I can say with confidence that I would never turn the option off if given it. That said I do support having more features as options to toggle for their own games or servers. Especially if it's fairly simple to implement. (Which I suspect this might be.)
Best thing I can say is: the purpose of video games is to deliver an enjoyable experience to the user. Ergo the user should have as many options as possible to ensure they get the gaming experience they came for. I'm fine with it being on by default (frankly I wouldn't turn it off ever myself) but one should always be aware that in a video game, especially a sandbox like Empyrion, there will be a million different playstyles. And I would think it would behoove a game dev to accommodate as many playstyles as possible, within reason. A plethora of options, of both difficulty and mechanics, are vital to garnering a wide audience, especially in a sandbox game. To some players, I assume this change would be an exercise in tedium. But perhaps that tedium can be assuaged if we allow players to unlock multiple techs with one click, assuming they have enough unlock points to do so. Perhaps attempting to unlock a higher-tier technology would automatically unlock all techs below (assuming the player has enough unlock points for all the unlocked techs, of course). Best of all would be a single button on the BP itself that, if you have enough unlock points, unlocks all the techs required for that vehicle in one fell swoop (again assuming the player has enough unlock points to do so). I understand if there would be a bit of back-end work required to facilitate such an option, but I think it would help the non-builders of the game (of which I assume there are many) in being able to quickly and easily download and spawn blueprints from the workshop, without too much extra tedium taking up their time. I will see if I can mock up a screenshot to better show this idea.
Gonna be honest. The factory changes has made almost zero difference to me. I've had to do essentially nothing differently from before in my 1.10 survival save as a result of it. I started up a thread on this topic if anybody wants to compare notes/scars. https://empyriononline.com/threads/1-10-blueprint-factory-tech-requirements.101600/
And, in contrast, I would....I dunno. Maybe play with and without to to see which I prefer. Would def hamper me somewhat, as I am survival game hv/sv building stupid. (Yeah, I said it, but it's about me ) I support the idea to make it optional (default on, like cpu and volume/mass). I have given my opinion, and release the floor to the next person. Cheers!
So some thoughts in no particular order after doing some testing... Right off the bat on the Akua start I noticed that the grass, while very dense and lush, has an odd 'fuzzy' quality to it. I think this is a combination of color palate, grass motion, scene lighting/shadows and the resolution of the grass textures being used. The grass could also benefit form a way to control its render distance or have more LOD steps. Also the draw distance is very inconstant between biomes. In the crash site it looks like its about 30m but in a marsh it looks more like 50-60m. Some biomes have nice transitional grass LOD while others have a very jarring hard line. I'm seeing fairly high CPU usage just flying around Akua in an SV. For reference I have a i9 9820x running at 4.3 GHz. Most cores hover around 10% but two or three hover around 25% and one stay mostly stable around 35%. In space with nothing around the most utilized core caps out around 15% As stated the combat music does not stop and continues to play over top the normal music. Its a good idea but this feature needs more time in the oven. Lighting and glowing textures and their reflections look good. Would still be nice if glowing textures could be set to give off real light... The tessellation is completely unnoticeable. On one hand that's good because it means its doing its job. On the other hand I feel like it could be utilized more effectively somewhere else. The ground mesh doesn't really need to be that detailed, especially when its covered in grass and you could probably get the same effect in most cases just using parallax and it would probably be less performance intensive. Maybe its used better on other terrain then what Akua has... Its interesting how each of the starts seems to favor a faction. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet but it does add some verity to the starts.
