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You should now be able to successfully erase old saved games and start a new game with the same name. Sorry for not getting to this sooner, it was totally broken for a while. But it always flew under my radar for some reason...
This very small update addresses an issue when players pressed the "take all" button. Previously, it would play a sound for each item being taken, which could produce a very loud sound when many items were taken. Now it will only play the sound once, restoring the volume to normal levels.
I am pleased to announce that Version 6.0 is up and running! It is now the default version of Star Explorers.
If you are still playing an exiting game in the default 5.0 version, scroll to the bottom to see how to access that. 6.0 will require starting a new game. Sorry about that, but I am a bad programmer and that's what happens some times.
So I have been able to update a lot of the things planned for the 6.0 release into this version. There are three main ones, and a few minor fixes.
I have alien fruits working in this version. I still have to tweak them a bit, but the basic functionality is there. You can watch them jump around and display their unusual behavior, or capture them and see what they taste like.
The new inventory system is also implemented. This was a major overhaul of the whole way inventory works, but it is much more efficient now. It also has new, nifty graphics to enjoy. Inventory is actually the main reason this version is incompatible with the previous. Not due to the graphics, but the underlying system works totally differently.
I have also incorporated these graphics into the quests system, to keep it looking consistent.
I've also incorporated these new kinds of random creatures I call smoke beasts. In the current default game, they are all just white smoke, but now they come in different colors and a number of unusual patterns.
As mentioned before, in the process of updating, I have found a lot of little bugs to fix along the way. Missing files, weird crashes that happened under very specific conditions, and things like the costs of items appearing inconsistently, have all been addressed.
I was able to identify and address several memory leaks, so I am hoping this makes the game more stable than ever.
When I started working on this version of the game, I had a lot of other ideas. Gas giants, water planets, mountain ranges and other things like a wider variety of aliens and plan life, did not make it into the game (yet). Once I added fruits and these other above features, so many bugs appeared I had to spend all my energy working on those. I was able to add a nice dithering effect to the game, which was there earlier, but never looked very good. I think it looks nice now, have a look!
I have no intention of ever stopping work on this game. I think it's in a much better state now then it ever has been, and I am hoping that translates to adding new features without triggering all sorts of unexpected bugs. We'll see what happens. I expect there are lots of new bugs I have not encountered yet, so I will wait and see how players react to the new version.
I am in the middle of working on another new game too, so I do plan to step away from Star Explorers for at least a few months, at least in terms of adding new things. I am definitely interested in hearing bug reports and any ideas players may have.
If you are still playing a 5.0 game, fear not, you can reactivate that version by going to: "Star Explorers > Properties > Game Versions and Betas" Pick "Version5.4.4d" from the list.
I had to roll back the new color palette. I really liked it, and thought it added a cool retro charm to the game, but the limited palette made it very difficult to navigate the game. I have reverted to the original posterizing shader which supports a much larger set of colors, but I have tweaked it a little bit to make the dithering effect more appealing.
Here you can see the subtle dithering with the posterize effect, you may have to click on the image to see the full screen effect. You can still turn this off, as in the previous versions of the game.
I was also able to track down quite a few memory leaks and fix an issue with the "fruit" entities (shown above) falling into the terrain. I think I will be putting 6.0 up as the default version this weekend.
Most of the new features are described in my previous post here:
In addition to these new features the game has a new look as well, with a limited color palette and retro looking dither effect. I am still working on getting the game to revert to the original look for those who are not interested in this effect. Once that is done, I will be making 6.0 the default version.
Compared the current default game (version 5.4.4d) there are a ton of major changes, and it will require starting a new game. Once again, as in any previous major updates, I will be providing the older version of the game in the betas section on Steam, so existing players can continue their current games. It's not ideal, but that's what it is.
If you are interested in taking version 6.0 for a spin, you can activate the "testing branch" right now. Under "Star Explorers > Properties > Game Versions and Betas" and select "testing" from the list. This should prompt Steam to update the game.
I have spent a lot of time testing and tweaking the game, and I am hoping that some of the stability issues have been resolved. Despite this, I imagine there are bugs I missed. In many cases, players have reported bug that I was never able to reproduce. So if you notice any bugs, please let me know.
UPDATE: Star Explorers Version 6.0 is up and running! Here is the new announcement:
The new inventory system strikes again! (Again!) This time we (and by me I am referring to play-testers who have suffered the consequences) have encountered a bug where inventory slots could get disabled when picking up certain items.
It turns out that if you entered a cave or some other structure, and left some of the ore or crystals there, and left the cave. If you came back to that cave and picked up those items, they would not function properly and just mess up your inventory. I believe this issue is resolved. At least in this particular situation, it no longer messes up inventory slots.
It's possible there is some other situation that might cause a similar problem, so please let me know if you find the issue again.
If your inventory got messed up, let me know. I can repair the file if you'd like.
The new inventory system strikes again! This time I realized too late that I had updated the way the ancient oxygenator works, but failed to update all the relevant files to reflect that. Previously, when you had the ancient oxygenator, you could use it to refill your suits oxygen any time you wanted. But in this old system, you could still run out of oxygen if you did not manually refill it with the oxygenator.
The new systems makes more sense. You use the ancient oxygenator once, and from then on, you will no longer lose oxygen. It is constantly replenishing your suit's oxygen, and you don't have to worry about it any more. It also removes the oxygenator from your inventory, and adds a small icon to the bottom right corner of the inventory panel, so you know you have it.
So far so good!
The problem is that after adding this update, I forgot to write the new variable (letting the game know that you have installed the oxygenator) to the saved game file. So after going through all the trouble of finding and building the oxygenator, and installing it, that player (who once again is not hypothetical) would reload their saved game to find the oxygenator gone, and no longer working.
This update addresses the issue so no one else should ever have to suffer through my personal failings (at least this particular one) ever again.
I recently updated the whole inventory system, which included a different way of calculating damage based on your space suit's stats. I also updated how environmental things like acid, mercury and ammonia effect your suit and health, to match how the suit stats work. However I forgot to update the way radiation damage was determined, and it did not match the way the space suit stats worked, so it was basically multiplying the amount of damage you would take based on how much your suit was supposed to be protecting you! So a player who had 100% radiation protection would actually be taking 100x more damage from radiation. (Note: this is not hypothetical ... this player exists and was not happy) Sorry! So it should be working as designed now.
I was able to fix the problem where the tractor beam would show the wrong object name if you clicked on more than one at a time. Also, to hopefully make the process of collecting ore a bit more streamlined, you can now right click on space ore while in combat mode.
When updating the whole inventory system, I forgot to include the variable that activates treasure caches on planets. So for the previous builds, no treasure caches will have appeared. Now the game will once again produce treasure caches on some planets.
There is one setback from this update. Planets which have been visited before will have to be re-generated. It should happen automatically when you land on them. Once they are newly regenerated they should then behave and reload as normal.
The sonic cannon should be working (again). I think I have this issue resolved now. I've been learning a lot about how to code more correctly with all the more recent games I've been making, and it's helping me spot some of the older, obvious mistakes in the Star Explorers code base. I am hoping this will help me eventually make Star Explorers more stable
A weird bug was making the target sector cubes in the final mission show up as solid blocks, instead of vector outlines. I believe this is resolved. It was not any kind of game breaking bug, but it should be more consistent now.
I forgot to include a file in the 5.5.22 upload so it was not running. Somehow it worked on my computer, but I have figured it out and now I have a better way to test my games after major changes like this. Sorry for any inconvenience!
Space mining just got a little more interesting. The basic functionality is the same, but now you can interact with space debris and use a kind of tractor beam to pull it into your ship's storage container.
I also made it so the game music no longer freezes when the game is paused.
You can now set the amount of the items you are dropping. It's just to be consistent with the other item moving mechanics. Maybe you will find it useful.
The inventory menus and scanning functions now make nifty, computerized sound effects.
Also, I thought I would just re-share this little movie of a battle between aliens, because it's awesome! It's not a new feature or anything, it's been around for a while, but it was not really working properly.
I managed to fix the shooting function for bipedal aliens, allowing these battles to take place in a more consistent manner. Sometimes you would land on a planet, and they would not react the right way, either not shooting or even not moving sometimes. Now they should behave correctly. They will also shoot at you if they are hostile :)
I have resumed work on the latest version of Star Explorers. Thanks to the success of Cyclopean: The Great Abyss, I have been able to set aside the next two weeks to focus on Star Explorers.
I have abandoned the Pre-release version 6.0 that I was working on because it acquired too many bugs to deal with.
Now I have taken up the default version and have been re-applying the changes in a more slow and methodical manner. I scrapped the new database and mapping system for now. It proved too complex and was somehow not able to remain compatible with the main code base ... all my fault.
So I have been able to update a lot of the things planned for the 6.0 release into this version. There are three main ones, and a few minor fixes.
I have alien fruits working in this version. I still have to tweak them a bit, but the basic functionality is there. You can watch them jump around and display their unusual behavior, or capture them and see what they taste like.
The new inventory system is also implemented. This was a major overhaul of the whole way inventory works, but it is much more efficient now. It also has new, nifty graphics to enjoy.
I have also incorporated these graphics into the quests system, to keep it looking consistent.
I've also incorporated these new kinds of random creatures I call smoke beasts. In the current default game, they are all just white smoke, but now they come in different colors and a number if unusual patterns.
As mentioned before, in the process of updating, I have found a lot of little bugs to fix along the way. Missing files, weird crashes that happened under very specific conditions, and things like the costs of items appearing inconsistently, have all been addressed.
I will continue to add new stuff that has been in the works, and fix bugs along the way. In about two weeks I plan to set this as the "real" Version 6.0, and make it the default.
I was testing out the game to see if achievements were still working. So I only had two unfinished, so I tried the "Die by suffocation and acid simultaneously" achievement. I noticed that the planet with liquid sulphuric acid had an ozone atmosphere, so I saved the game, restarted in normal mode, and tested it out. But then I saw that my oxygen meter was not running out, and I left the planet only to see that the atmosphere was not ozone, but oxygen! So some ozone planets were getting re-loaded as oxygen for some reason. I seem to remember this being pointed out some time ago, and I was sure I fixed it ... but I guess I was wrong.Well I was able to fix it, test the achievement and succeed to die in acid, while simultaneously suffocating to death. Yay!
It's really great news, but it does not explain why some players are not seeing the achievements pop up. Maybe something about this latest build has fixed the issue, but I don't think so. Can anyone else confirm that achievements are working? It may be something I did wrong, but I can't seem to reproduce the problem. Maybe I can help the player troubleshoot the issue from their end. Any feedback would be great.
I added a small variable that allows players to disable/enable the mouse scroll wheel. A player was experiencing trouble when playing with a trackpad, and my hope is that this will allow the game to be played without causing said trouble.
If you are not having trouble with the weapons swapping at random, there is nothing for you in this update, move along...
Right now you can only change the setting in the configuration file. Before you can edit the file, you need to update it by opening the game, going to Options > Video Options change any setting, then click "Restart." Now the new thing will be added to the configuration file.
Go to "C:\\Users\\-Your_Username-\\AppData\\Local\\Star_Explorers" Open the "options_1.cfg" file. The last line will have the following text: enable/disable scroll wheel,1 Change the 1 to -1 (NOT ZERO) Save the file and restart Star Explorers.
Now you broke your scroll wheel, congratulations!
The scroll wheel does two things in the game. First it allows you to zoom in and out of your star chart. I've tested this and it's still perfectly usable without zooming manually. The other thing it does is swap weapons when you are away from your ship. Instead of manually scrolling through weapons, just use the number keys 1-4 to choose the weapon (1 for the scanning device, 2-4 for equipped weapons).
Hopefully this will prevent the weapon swapping bug and allow the game's myriad other bugs to come back to the forefront!
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This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for Star Explorers, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main Star Explorers statistics page.
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