Star Explorers Updated to Version 6.0

I am pleased to announce that Version 6.0 is up and running! It is now the default version of Star Explorers.

Note to Version 5.0 Players

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.

New Features

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.

Fruits

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.

New Inventory

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.

Smoke Beasts

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. Steam post image

Other Fixes

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.

Other ideas

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! Steam post image

Future Ideas

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.

!!! Version 5.0 Players !!!

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.