Oh dear, apparently I’m doing the progress update today.  This should be interesting :D

So, most of the mob spawning bugs are worked out, finally.  NPCs spawn in clusters that are far apart, and don’t tend to spawn in undesirable spots anymore or on top of each other.  Mobs are de-spawned properly if no players are nearby, and mobs are spawned only if there is enough room in a given region to place them all.  There were some bugs left that caused NPCs to be de-spawned in certain cases while still on screen, and those have been fixed.  So that’s good!

The next stage for NPCs at this point, which I’m working on at the moment, is fixing some of the behavioral problems they have.  They tend to be a little too determined to try and reach their goal (to attack a player), and they need to have way better detection for when this is just not possible and they need to get bored and wander off a little faster.  There are also plenty of general navigation bugs and limitations that remain, and hopefully a good chunk of these can be fixed by tomorrow.  I’m hopeful!

Omni and Rho are working on a fun little UI animation  for ship travel that will give UI feedback for when the ship is currently flying and can’t be controlled, but more importantly looks really cool!  Hopefully we can post a video of it tomorrow, but for now here’s a pretty terrible screenshot of it:

Bart has finished some lighting changes for nametags and object highlighting that makes them a bit smarter about the surrounding light level, and it looks really nice now!

Another change we’re working on right now is putting the actual mod loading mechanics in!   This is the part of the code that will scan additional asset directories and handle the load order for them, and load assets from them instead of the base assets directory.  This also includes the addition of “packed” asset files, which should make startup times on real distributed versions of the game much much faster than the in-dev versions, because packing the assets folder means a whole lot less filesystem access, and we can add indexes that make everything much easier to load.  Also it’s a lot simpler for people to manage.

In non-starbound related news, I have just recently recovered from what I can only assume to be the flu, and I do not recommend it.  However, good news is that I finally have new glasses to replace my broken ones!   I can see the text on my monitor again!  BEHOLD:

Now that I can see again, coding should be slightly less challenging!

Kyren Out.

Hello, George V here!

We’ve decided to show you how you’ll be navigating the cosmos in Starbound. You’ll be going from planet to planet, system to system, and sector to sector. You’ll discover odd new worlds and species as you bravely travel where someone may or may not have gone before!

Accessed from your ship’s console you’ll be able to open the Navigation Menu.

Currently in this example you’re in orbit around a gas giant named Delta Aura IV which you cannot land on. You may scan the gas giant for resources and other treats and then be on your way.

You click on one of the gas giant’s moons. It is called DAIVS-II, a scientific name you can change on a whim. Revealed is some basic information about the moon including the fact that you may walk on it. Initiate the FTL to go into orbit if you want but for now we’re zooming out!

With a right click our view becomes a view of the local planetary system. You may click on any of those celestial objects to get basic information on them or even visit them. Make sure you have enough fuel!

With another right click you’ll zoom out further revealing a much larger area. Each of those is a dynamically generated planetary system with suns, worlds, and even more to discover! Walk on planets, moons and much more as it’s not only planets and moons that you may walk on and visit. Click on them to view their info (there’s no fuel cost to simply look) and travel the stars!

I think with this brief glimpse you can see how BIG this universe will be and hopefully how fun it will be to explore, share discoveries with friends via seed coordinates, and do so much more.

Now, this is all subject to change as we continue to develop the game and test it out. Everything is a work in progress. Nothing is set in stone but we thought we’d give you a look into what we’re currently doing with the development of the game.

Until next time…

In Starbound there will be many NPCs.  Something unique about some of these NPCs is that they have many different dynamic appearances so they will rarely look the same twice.  Lets take a look at my penguin as an example.

Penguins can be found throughout the galaxy.  They can be of different species, have different modifications and be different colors.  Some might be rarer than others.  Others might give you special rewards.  The combinations are quite numerous.

These are just a few of the possible combinations.  Enjoy!