Hello Engineers! At last, I am excited to release the 0.17 content update to the experimental branch for playtesting. If you are not a playtester yet and would like to help out development, join the discord and get a key for full access to the game. 0.17 will largely be the release version of the game, which is right around the corner, and we need lots of playtesting! Let's get into some of the big changes: [h3]Abduction[/h3] A new t3 gameplay loop has been added for creating Dark Matter Structures. Dark Matter Structures are now an essential ingredient in making Singularity Engines at the end of the game. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/ebb0533998d12f268a776e3bbf91c3a7251b7ae1.png[/img] To make Dark Matter, you must abduct the local inhabitants of the planets, and use their extracted consciousness in a new Dark Matter recipe. Not to worry, no Urso (the new name for the Vek) are harmed in this process, they are merely assimilated into the great Machine. This automation loop will require you to design a mobile station that hovers over planets so that you can use the Abduction Machine. [h3]Organics[/h3] The original recipe to make organic compounds was too simple. A new item has been added, the Biological Substrate, which are created from organic compounds. This substrate is required by greenhouses, in addition to organic compounds and ice, to generate more organic compounds. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/b54c59f69ab183ab0fabc2583b9a918e0bfd01a5.png[/img] This change will now require players to design a looping factory, to pipe substrates back into the greenhouses. This makes the organics puzzle feel much more complete, and satisfying to figure out. A t2 organics chain is planned for later in the .17 release cycle to create more advanced organic products. [h3]Oracles[/h3] Previously the player had to find specific obelisks to upgrade parts of their ship. I've implemented a much more robust and expandable upgrade system that should also enhance the exploration aspects of the game. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/92671909a3e01a680be55a653564408d08fa50fb.png[/img] Around the map, players will find ancient Celestara Oracles, which, when activated, will allow players to purchase upgrades. A new currency has been added: the Lumen Orbs. When activating Obelisks, they will now drop 2-4 Lumen Orbs, which can then be exchanged at Oracles for upgrades. This should allow us greater freedom in adding more upgrades, without having to add a new Obelisk type for each upgrade as before. [h3]Multiplayer[/h3] Perhaps the most important aspect of this update is one that players will not yet visibly see. We've overhauled huge parts of the underlying data in the game to support the multiplayer effort. Most notably, we have removed nearly all floating points from the game state, as floating points introduce non-determinism across people's different computers, which is unworkable for multiplayer. Because of how wide ranging this change was, .16 saves will not be compatible with .17. Multiplayer is currently behind a feature flag, and will be available for testing as soon as we think we have a MVP ready, hopefully within the next couple months. [h3]Coming Soon[/h3] 0.17 development will continue with additional features: [list] [*] New artifacts [*] An artifact recycler [*] A new ancient structure in deep space that lets you exchange recycled artifacts for artifacts of your choosing [*] Ongoing multiplayer work [/list] [h2]Full 0.17.0 Patch Notes[/h2] [h3]Abduction[/h3] [list] [*] Added Abduction Machine, which produces Urso Citizens when hovering over a planet [*] Renamed Vek to Urso [*] Added Urso Citizen item [*] Added Mind Extractor, which produced Discretized Consciousness from Urso Citizens [*] Added Discretized Consciousness item [*] Added Dark Matter Structure item [*] Singularity Engines now require Dark Matter Structures [/list] [h3]Organics[/h3] [list] [*] Added Biological Substrate item [*] Greenhouses now require Biological Substrates to generate Organic Compounds [*] Added animations and sounds to Greenhouse [/list] [h3]Oracles[/h3] [list] [*] Added Celestara Oracles to map generation [*] Added voice lines to Oracles [*] Obelisks now drop a new currency: Lumen Orbs [*] Removed Warp and Indomintable Obelisks from the game, only 1 type of Obelisks now generates [*] Added upgrades for Speed, Health, Afterburner Charges, and Plasma Bolt weapon damage upgrade [/list] [h3]Multiplayer[/h3] [list] [*] Removed floating points from game state logic [*] Replaced floats with fixed points [*] Enhanced multiplayer framework to support clients leaving and joining games better [/list] [h3]Mobile Stations[/h3] [list] [*] Fixed bugs related to floating point errors, which should eliminate problems with the mobile stations becoming all messed up and ultimately crashing the game [/list] [h3]Enemy Camp Generation[/h3] [list] [*] Enemy camps now spawn with a larger number of enemy ships [*] Enemy camps will regenerate their ship count when loading games, so that camps aren't empty when loading games [/list] [h3]Dyson Spheres[/h3] [list] [*] Changed the logic of how Dyson Bots organize themselves around a star. They will now pick a point and orbit the star in a random direction, making for a more chaotic and interesting visual effect [/list] [h3]Balance[/h3] [list] [*] Increased the damage that player ships do by about 30%. [/list]