EarthX 0.9.0

I'm a little sick now (again), but I thought I would release this medium-sized update today, as promised.

This update is special because it's the last content update for EarthX before we will be fully releasing the game next year. Before we go to this update's changelog, let's see what's next for the game.

1. I do not plan to add any new features to the game. This update should be the last content update.

2. Improvements and bug fixes will still be released as needed.

3. I noticed that the in-game tutorial needs a little rework. This will be done before full release. I will also add a few new achievements to the game.

4. This update doesn't have a trailer, instead, I will spend more time on the full release trailer.

5. The full release will take next year as we iron out the rest of the bugs and Pineapple Work makes the Nintendo Switch port.

That's it for now, the team is excited as f**k to release our first game!!!

What's new in 0.9.0?

Moon

The most noticeable change is being able to visit the Moon and build on it. The Moon gameplay is driven by Artemis contracts and only Moonship can be used to get there.

You can build 3 types of buildings on the Moon: Solar panels, Landing zones, and Habitats. Sending humans to the Moon is needed to unlock the Crew Spaceship. Sending Cargo Spaceships to Mars is still allowed without going to the Moon. Let me know if I should change anything about this.

New Spaceship Models

Just like the other rockets in previous updates, rykllan worked on refreshed models for the spaceship. All rockets have now been brought to the same level of detail.

New Mega LaunchPad Model

With new Spaceship models, we had to rework the LaunchPad and its animation to reflect the current one at Starbase. Lucas worked on the LaunchPad model and the catching arm and I did a nice little catching animation.

New Special Missions

A lot of new special missions have been added. Adrian worked hard on writing news articles for some of them.

Reworked Special Missions

When adding new special missions I thought that they spawned too randomly and with far too many at once. To change this, I distributed all of them across the gameplay. This means that you will now gradually get them as you play.

Some of the existing and new special missions got new educational descriptions and payload banners.

Launch Profiles when building LaunchPads

When placing a LaunchPad, you will now see in which direction the rocket will launch.

Added Satellite Models to Fairings

In 0.3.3 I removed satellite models because the models were not near the current level of detail. After rykllan and lucas created a few, I added them back. Lucas also made a nice Roadster model with Raptor engine attached to it, because why not xD.

New Droneship/Plane Models

And finally, the last major changes; a new Droneship and Plane model have been added, both made by rykllan.

Improvements

• Some contracts now spawn instantly

• Added Mars resources net change statistic to Mars details panel

• Display more detailed Mars resources stat only in a tooltip

• Improved Assistant and Scrap Engineer managers

• Get full building cost if its destroyed right after its placed

• Allow removing default landing zone on Mars and Moon if there is a different landing zone

• Added confirmation before canceling a contract

• Added a setting for mission reports

• Allow canceling special offers (except gameplay-depending ones)

• Deactivate building panels when you can't buy them

• Remade Spaceship renders

• Added "Requires new booster" indicator to payload list

• Made Large Rocket be able to send payloads to Moon Orbit

• Added "First Moon Landing" milestone

• Remove building construction time from sandbox mode

• Replaced landing upgrade icons with grid fin icons

• Replaced capsule support icons with parachute icons

• Allow free building repair on sandbox

• Remove building tracker from solar farm

• Rebalanced Managers Unlock requirements

• Rebalanced Mars buildings

• Added "Saving game..." in the corner instead of a notification

• Changed save file naming scheme

• Upped booster landing failure rate

• Reordered milestones for them to actually make sense

• Added Roadster Payload model

• Added different sounds for money income and expenses

• Added "Without Interest" achievement back

• Decreased sandstorms amount

• Improved currently built vehicles amount color

• Improved random company names list

• Changed "Earth-like planet" to "Unlimited"

• Recalibrated Spaceship landing sphere

• Up contract spawning amount

• Add pictures to credits

• Removed Earth to Earth feature

• Removed Managers Speed Setting

• Removed some incomplete languages

• Updated SPATE logo

• Added Dimosha to credits

• Added eastereggs...

Bugfixes

• BUG: Main Menu buttons weren't centered... :c

• BUG: The camera sometimes froze

• BUG: Sandstorms appeared when loading a game with terraformed Mars

• BUG: You could refurbish non-reusable rockets when saving the game during its flight and then loading it again

• AddedBUGPayloads that require a new booster could be invisibly launched on a capsule or spaceship using an already flown booster

• BUG: Managers sometimes didn't launch player's own payloads

• BUG: "Own" payloads check box didn't work

• BUG: Spaceship landed on Mars after delivering its payload to Mars Orbit. It now parks on Parking Orbit and returns to Earth

• BUG: When deleting a launchpad, it still appeared as an option in the Mission Setup window

• BUG: News duplicated themselves

• BUG: Assistant Manager sometimes didn't work

• BUG: You couldn't remove a landing zone after a Spaceship that landed on it was scrapped

• BUG: You could cancel the time cooldown of the Droneships after landing if you start another flight and abort it

• BUG: Rockets were launched in the wrong direction when launching from Medium LaunchPad

• BUG: Parking Orbit tracker on Mars was offset

• BUG: Farm Field didn't have its own building banner

• BUG: Special news didn't appear when accepting or declining a contract/offer

• BUG: Right shift didn't work when holding it down to build multiple buildings or to take action without confirmation

• BUG: "Fairing lost" showed when you launch a capsule or a spaceship

• BUG: Tutorial is English in the Polish language

• BUG: Typo "Buisness"

That's it for now, have fun playing, and thank you for a nice journey that took 3 years :)

Denis

(and rewriting-man Lucas)