Huge winter update!

The huge winter update is here! After many months of work the winter update has finally been released. It contains more changes than we can list but below are some of the most obvious updates.

• *** Universe and Worlds ***

• Sectors have been removed, so all stars are part of the same map

• Star and planet types correspond to difficulty levels, giving players access to progressively more extreme environments as they advance through the game

• Added oceanic world types including tropical and arctic oceans, toxic and magma planets

• Added rare Barren and Asteroid worlds with no monsters for large scale building

• New biomes

• New surface and underground mini biomes

• Many changes to surface and underground terrain generation

• Improvements to background parallaxes and sky coloration

• *** Ships and Navigation ***

• Player ships now include an AI avatar specific to each race that gives access to the player’s techs, missions, 3D printer, and a variety of ship-related commands

• Each race’s ship has its own unique set of upgrades, giving players much more room to expand as they progress

• Fuel costs for travel have been reworked. Moving between planets within a system is now free, while jumps to other systems require fuel in proportion to the distance traveled.

• Coal no longer powers spaceships! Instead, they can use either radioactive ores or the new Liquid Erchius Fuel that now appears in Moon biomes

• Many improvements to the Cockpit interface, which now indicates more detailed planet information including weather and environmental hazards

• *** Outpost ***

• The universe now has a civilized hub containing shops, quests, and other services. This is where players will find quests, missions, and ship upgrades which allow them to advance through the game

• Includes a Sign Store based on the popular custom signs mod, where players can design and print their own signage for use in game

• *** Missions ***

• At key points in the progression, players will unlock special Missions

• Missions take place in unique instanced dungeons containing special monsters, bosses, and rewards not available anywhere else

• Some missions can be quite difficult, so you’ll want to prepare carefully - or bring friends!

• *** Novakids ***

• New playable race!

• Unique progression of craftable guns

• Unique progression of armor sets

• Unique progression of ship upgrades

• *** Tech ***

• Techs are now split into head, body, legs and suit slots, so you can equip up to four at once!

• Head techs provide various activated effects triggered using the tech hotkeys

• Body techs provide lateral movement abilities triggered by double tapping direction keys

• Leg techs provide vertical movement abilities triggered with the jump key

• Suit techs provide passive protection from specific environmental hazards

• New tech unlocking system makes a variety of techs visible each time the player upgrades their ship. The player can then use Blank Tech Cards to unlock and equip these techs

• Many new techs

• *** Mining ***

• Matter Manipulator can now be upgraded over the course of the game to increase its mining power, area of effect, and allow it to collect liquids as well as blocks

• Pickaxes and drills are more powerful, but have lowered durability and cannot be repaired, making them a consumable alternative to the Matter Manipulator

• Smashable rocks found rarely underground contain richer deposits of certain ores

• *** Combat ***

• Energy regeneration has been changed. Rather than continuously regenerating energy at a slow rate, energy rapidly regenerates when not being used

• Using energy that exceeds your maximum pool will disable energy usage for a few seconds until your energy has fully recharged

• New weapon type staves!

• Use a staff by holding the fire