Alpha 12 Experimental - Phase 5

The public release of Alpha 12 is coming closer. For those that asked: Expect it to happen around mid of june! No liability assumed, of course :D



That being said, Experimental Phase 5 is adding one of the last features, related to the new galaxy: the Station Services.

Station Services will allow you to refill fuel and pentaxid, restock your ammo, repair your vessel or fast-charge your shields in exchange for credits. For testing how this will work, visit the Polaris Trading Station on the Temperate starter planet. When in range, open the Control Panel (P) and find the new tab ‘Station Services’.

Keep in mind this is a new feature addition. The pricing will change. We also plan to add the Station Services to more planetary and orbital structures until the next phase.

For now, let us know what you think: https://empyriononline.com/threads/a12-exp-station-services.93655/ :)

We have of course also worked on the galaxy, the stars, nebula - which are now part of the orbital skybox as well! - and bugfixes. ;)

Please find the full changelog added below.

As usual:

• Report bugs and issues right over here[empyriononline.com]
  
• Any bug fixed for A12 can be found here[empyriononline.com]
  
• Known Issues List[empyriononline.com]
  
• Fixed Experimental version bugs can be found here[empyriononline.com]

While the Experimental phases last, we will continue to update this post[empyriononline.com] with the latest Experimental version changelogs for hotfixes and intermediate bugfix patches.

For discussing the new and updated features, please head over to the pinned threads in our Experimental Feedback forum[empyriononline.com]

Have fun! :)


== CHANGELOG ==

New Feature 'STATION SERVICES'

When in range of a station (300m) which has the station services enabled, open the control panel of your vessel (P) and find the new tab 'Station Services'. You can buy and refill fuel, ammo and pentaxid, as well as repair your ship (repair-2-template!) and quick-load your shield - in case you have the required credits. The availability of station services (and which services are offered) can be set individually for an orbital or planetary POI in the playfield_static.yaml PROPERTIES entry. The pricing is taken from a new parameter, set in the ItemsConfig.ecf. This base pricing can then be further modified by factors in the playfield_static.yaml file.

The station services can be tested at the Polaris Trading Station on the Temperate starter planet. You can also find a setup example in its playfield file!

Feedback thread: https://empyriononline.com/threads/a12-exp-station-services.93655/



GALAXY

• Now supporting 20 starter planets (old: 10)
  
• Space: fading out now nebulas if they are farther away than 50 LY until they fully disappear in 250 LY distance
  
• Galaxy nebulas: changed from single billboard to 'billboard cloud' to allow star systems to be within a nebula and show it 'around' the star system playfields. More to come!
  
• Moved Legacy NPC territory closer to galaxy ( should now be in range of the warpdrive )
  
• Space and distant stars: adjusted brightness and color (less bright and less saturated)

GAME WORLD

• StarterMoon now a bit more 'forgiving' + reduced enemy drone presence
  
• Swamp Starter: Added back 1 Anti Radiation Ointment to MEDIUM difficulty start escape pod equipment

GAMEPLAY

• Item grid auto-sorting now combines stacks of same item type and meta and saves the selected mode in the savegame
  
• Increased Shield-Damage of NPC Faction Plasma Turrets (Green/Red)
  
• Add label to identify unmarked column for Loot Id in Devices page for spawner pad setup
  
• Ventilator Blocks now also available in Small Constructor

PDA / MISSIONS / POI

• Offworld Grave: Found logs can now be re-read on the token console (intermediate workaround for now)
  
• Offworld Grave: Added some 'gifts' near some of the story-relevant consoles (mainly directed to new players)
  
• Tales of the Past: Prison should now spawn more reliably (please retest your seeds and report back if it does not!)
  
• Replaced story-POI cores with NPC Admin Cores: Control Station (Minefield), Com Array (Moon), Mainframe (Moon), Ilmarinen (slight updates as well), Pirates Hidden Base
  
• Added: Trader Defense outposts HQ-version (thx to sulusdacor)
  
• Added/Updated: Trader/Polaris Gas Refineries (orbital station; thx to Kaeser)
  
• Added more Progenitor Artifacts (thx to Fractalite)
  
• Added new Pirates Main base variant (creator: Twibras: modified: Fractalite)
  
• Added new Pirates CV for SpaceBaseDefense ( Reworked by sulusdacor)
  
• Updated: Polaris Asteroid Mining station (Story; thx to vermillion)
  
• Added: New version of the Tales of the Past Alien Tower (thx to vermillion)

BUGFIXES

• Fixed: PDA NearDeposit returns CoQ
  
• Fixed: Old/legacy scenarios: added another fix for solar systems not showing up on first connect to a dedicated server
  
• Fixed: CoQ on start when selecting the orbit start for creative mode
  
• Fixed: Shared markers when copied to another players private list no longer persist after server restart
  
• Fixed: The "Remove" button in the "Add a map marker" window isn't working
  
• Fixed: Ship controller torque generated by thrusters leads to zero rotation ability when adding thrusters in some cases
  
• Fixed: 'wipe poi' removing structures instead of regenerating them.
  
• Fixed: 'wipe player' not removing player structures
  
• Fixed: Infinite fuel/CP access exploit with faction "none" POIs
  
• Fixed: Planet Info shows always the 0 Origin and not working properly
  
• Fixed: Shared markers still appearing after being expired.
  
• Fixed: offline chat messages not displayed if only quit to main menu
  
• Fixed: faction messages not displayed in chat log until player first opened chat window
  
• Fixed: AIPV's once spawned do not move or "Patrol"
  
• Fixed: Remove button for bookmark dialog doesn't work
  
• Fixed: loot drops on NPC Spawner for a LOT of POIs (thx vermillion!)
  
• Fixed: several issues and exceptions when starting the Base Attack scenario.
  
• Fixed: double occurrence of structures that were taken over by players.
  
• Fixed: wrong selection on reopening.
  
• Fixed: wrong distance calculation sometimes