Stella Nova - Major Patch 2! v0.2.0

Good afternoon from Mountain View, California :) Today I'm really excited to be releasing the second major bug patch and feature update for Stella Nova. Atop listening to community feedback to drive the development of the project for major quality-of-life fixes, I managed to add in some cool features. Here are the patch notes for v0.2.0!

Major Fixes

1. Linux Support Workaround

   1. @TPlays in our Discord Server was kind enough to test out the most recent build through Proton on SteamOS. Initially, there was a bug which caused the game to be openable on Linux, but default to a black screen on load. We found that if you go to your library, and right click Stella Nova Demo->Properties->Launch Options, paste this code:

      1. WGPU_BACKEND=vulkan %command% 2>&1 | tee ./stellalog.txt

   2. and relaunch the game. It should be runnable through Proton. I've included a new update to the engine which will enable this by default and should make it compatible with most Linux distros. I would love further community feedback on getting this perfectly right.

2. "Request New Visitors" Crash Fix

   1. There was a considerable bug with a fallback option for one of the tutorial objectives. If you run out of time for a visitor during the tutorial section, eventually the visitor will depart. When this happens, an option will come up in the journal which gives you a button to "Request New Visitors" as a fallback. In the last build, clicking this button would instantly crash the program, hard lock. I diagnosed it over a couple days, turns out this was due to a softlock on a mutex variable controlling the creation and distribution of new players. It should now be resolved :)

3. Building Thruster not triggering tutorial

   1. Building the thruster block now correctly triggers the tutorial section on building.

4. Crew Panel Scroll Fix

   1. The community has asked, over and over again, so here it finally is. You can now use the scroll wheel to move through your list of citizens in the Colony Management panel! Steam post image

5. Audio Rebalance

   1. I've reduced the overall music volume in the build significantly by default.

Tutorial & Starter Experience

1. Wreckage Layout Redesign

   1. I've redesigned the starter station to give you a bit more of an intuitive starter experience with more room for error. There's a much roomier overall design, more easy-to-enclose rooms, and an abundance of materials to start with.

      

2. Fuel Processor integration

   1. Originally, the fuel processor was placed in such a way that it did not have a dedicated room to itself. This is now resolved with the new layout design.

3. Rare earth collection priorities & default zone assignments

   1. With the redesign of the tutorial/starter station, I've updated the default zone filters, which were excluding rare earth ore by default. They now include rare earth by default.

[FEATURE] Citizen Conversations

1. Citizen Conversations

   1. Citizens can now chat with one another! I found that it was a bit boring watching the citizens float around the map aimlessly during idle time, so now they have a new ability. If two citizens are idle at the same time, they can fly over to one another and initiate a conversation!! Steam post image

2. Citizen Conversation Flow

   1. Two citizens will go into an idle state (e.g. Builders with nothing to build, Collectors with nothing to collect)

   2. During a tick of the simulation loop, the a citizen will recognize that another citizen is also idle.

   3. They will choose a meeting point in the asteroid field equidistant from both of them

   4. They will fly there and initiate a conversation! They waggle back and forth and have text indicators as they talk.

3. 3-person conversations

   1. If there are two citizens already having a conversation, there is a low chance (weighted by social network standing) that a third citizen will join the conversation.

4. conversation clustering and gathering

   1. If many citizens are idle at the same time, they will form little "conversation clusters". There's a much higher likelihood that two players will initiate a conversation nearby two citizens who are already having a conversation, so there's a natural "gaggle" of conversation that builds up over time if too many citizens are idling! Steam post image

Citizen AI & State Machine Behavior

1. Relationship Dynamics Update

   1. There was a bug in the social network which was only applying a very small delta to the citizens' relationship status after every social encounter. This would mean it would take many years of in-game time for players to develop social relationships with one another. I've modified these deltas so they're much higher.

2. First-impression affinity seeding

   1. The first time that a player meets another player, there is a "first impression" bonus that applies to their interaction.

3. Collector players now must collect only around the planet of their current station

   1. In the previous update, there was a bug where players would attempt to continue collection behavior at their original planet following interplanetary travel. If there were discovered resources at the planet of origin, and no discovered resources at the new planet, then players would try to run an interplanetary mission for the resources. This is no longer allowed! Players will only ever collect around their assigned stations' current planet.

Stations & Physics Engine (WarpCore)

1. Station Rotation Physics

   1. Stations now rotate to face the tangent to their velocity vector. In other words, stations have a "front side" which will now always face the planet as they orbit. The station rotates back into its original equirectangular layout if you open the colony management tab! Steam post image

2. Stations now orbit at 1.5x their original default radius for more breathing room and better visual design. I wanted to really convey a sense of scale of the universe. Steam post image

3. Interplanetary Orbital Velocity fix

   1. When players arrived at new interplanetary travel targets, they ended up initializing their orbital velocity relative to the planet of origin (which by Kepler's Laws is practically zero) rather than the new planet. This has now been updated.

User Interface

1. Citizen Selection Panel Redesign

   1. I've redesigned the selection panel for individual citizens and groups of citizens. The individual citizen layout is much more compact, and shows their recent activity as a list.

2. Live Activity Badges on Citizen Bar w/ Idle and conversation indicators

   1. The citizen bar now shows live activity badges when the player is working, and indicates whether the player is idle or engaged in conversation. Three-citizen conversations are indicated by a green conversation bubble, and two-citizen conversations are indicated by a blue conversation bubble.

3. Event Reporting

   1. Considerable changes have been made to the event reporter at the top of the screen. More words are color coded, and the citizens individual conversations are sometimes logged.

4. Davescript console

   1. The help message has been updated. Press ~/` while in-game to learn more.

5. Language picker overlaps

   1. There were issues with languages near the bottom of the list being obscured due to overlap. This has since been resolved.

Localization

1. Hungarian language support

   1. big shout out to @GenX George for all your amazing help :)

That's all for now. I can't wait to keep bringing you more updates! dave :)