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Congrats on getting everything ready for the steam release! Everything is looking good.    Any plans on adding Steam Workshop support for the mods? I have no idea what that entails (and I'm sure it'd a be good bit of work), but it would be such a boon for the modding community on this game.

I definitely agree that the crates are an issue, but I'd like to see it fixed with the ai. Pirates should retreat if they are under attack by turrets and have little health (say 50%). This would also eliminate the cheesy tactic of kiting pirates to a station and then letting the turrets do most of the damage while getting in a last shot (this makes the game too easy). You could also have npc's (pirates and traders) pick up crates floating around (this could be cheated by just deleting the crate after the the grappling animation rather than adding the items to the npc's inventory).

Yup! I spent sometime with a voice synthesizer typing out the phrases and doing some minor editing to make it sound good. Is it possible to add additional voice prompts through mod scripting? It'd be cool if some of the actions had multiple voice prompts (e.g. "Jumping", "Jump drive engaged", or"System jump initiated" for when you jump through a gate)

I could've sworn that was already on the wiki. I'm just a big dummy and didnt realize when I tell windows to zip a folder, it puts the folder in the zip rather than make the folder the root of the zip. It was late last night and despite triple checking i still must have missed it lol

Hey guys, I created a simple mod to change the default voice to a more computer synthesized female voice

Title: Female Computer voice pack
Author(s): djs4000
Description: changes the default voice
Mod version: 1.0.0
Game version: i tested it with 0.16.0 (steam version)
Game mode: should be completely client side, so it should work in sp and mp
Link: http://www.nexusmods.com/voidexpanse/mods/7/?

Looking good!

So I started trying to play with mods and doing some simple edits, but the game seems to break no matter what I do. Just having an empty mpk (with the header file of course) breaks the game even if I don't have it loaded in the ModsConfig.xml... Im sure it's something I'm doing wrong, but I cant wrap my head around it...

Here's what I get instead of the main menu: http://i.imgur.com/ljSZAx7.jpg (an asteroid occasionally flies by, but thats it)
Here's the log file: http://pastebin.com/WKQ77626
Here's the mod: http://expirebox.com/download/95bc9c8765d4c45101d681a2884a9ab9.html

this happened on the steam version 0.15 and .016. The modfile is just a zip containg a modified header.xml i got from core.cpk that was renamed to mod.mpk and placed in the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\AtomicTorchStudio\VoidExpanse\Mods\

Awesome! Can't wait to try this out tonight.

[Whatever you decide to do, thank you for making this game, and thank you for being so good to your community.]

I hope it doesn't discourage you guys, but my short answer is no. Not Gold. Early access? yeah! RavenFellBlade and Jeeplaw have given you some great advice, and you guys do have a good product, that just needs a little bit more content.

My 2 cents is that you guys are sitting on what could be a fantastic multiplayer game, but seem a bit confused. As it stands, you have have created what is a fun little single player game. Content isn't huge, but for the price it's acceptable. You've added dedicated server support, which I think means you want this game to be multiplayer, but that's where the majority of features are missing. If you were going to make a coop game, peer to peer multiplayer would've been fine. At the moment there seems to be little reason to join a mp server just to play the story. MP should have crafting, and trading, and some sort of grouping mechanic, and any other mechanic that drives player interaction.

You guys have a beautiful looking game, with a solid engine, and a ton of great features. I think now you have to decide: do you make a deeper single player game, with more missions, more items and dynamic npc interactions, or do you focus on the multiplayer and add all the features that would drive a healthy online community? Either answer is fine, and you could even work towards both. You guys are a great team, and I think the game would do well as an early access title. Communities tend to respond well to EA games that have active devs who communicate regularly. You guys are exceptional at that. Whatever you decide to do, thank you for making this game, and thank you for being so good to your community.

I'll second this request. And an option to allow sounds to play even when the game is not in focus would be nice too. I frequently run the game in windowed mode (borderless fullscreen window would be highly appreciated) and would love to multi task while the autopilot flies me around. Having the option to have the sound still play if the game is not in focus would allow me still switch back if i hear an attack.

So the current autopilot is pretty great, and I am thankful for it, but I think it makes the game a bit too easy, specially at the beginning. I was thinking it would be a cool idea to buy autopilot for the ship and use it as a booster. You could have different levels of autopilots that way: AP w/o cruise (cheapest), AP w/ cruise , AP with automatic docking (click on station in the map and will automatically go there and dock). The current booster system is a bit boring, because all they really do is give you a passive boost to stats, which doesn't really translate to a huge difference in gameplay. You already have the skill system for passive boosts, so the current boost seem redundant.

Which brings my next idea to make boosts more fun: Make them semi permanent. I'm thinking they could work like gems in Diablo. If you're not familiar with that system, let me explain. Boosts could be upgrades that are permanent and not removable (at least not freely), which makes considering which upgrades to take something to really think about. It would sort of create different specs for the same ship and make owning more than one of a ship type useful. You could use the boosts system to create ships with random stats at the shop. It would create interesting scenarios like do I buy a ship that has most of the upgrades I want, but no room left for new ones, or do you buy a ship with no boosts, and then pay more installing each boost separately. Since you already have devices to add active abilities, and you have the skill trees to add passive stat bonuses, boosts should add semi-passive abilities. You should be able to pay to remove a boost, but if you do, that boost is destroyed (again, like diablo 2 gems).

Lastly, and this is just cosmetic, I was thinking adding more objects to the background and foreground would be neat. Adding asteroids under the player layer in asteroid feels would create a sense density and depth. Adding asteroids and other objects on top of the player layer could create cool hiding places for hiding pirates and setting up pvp ganks. Perhaps add a slight out of focus effect to not confuse the player would be helpful.

Went to launch the steam copy and got prompted to agree to a EULA, but all it displayed in the window was the steam homepage.

This was on windows, I'll be testing the linux version shortly to if it does the same.

Lurler edit: fixed the image for you.

If you need examples of games that do it well, take a look a Counter-Strike and TF2. Both have a file called motd.txt in their dedicated server folders that parses html and displays whatever is written on in when player joins the game (for tf2, its the "chalkboard before team select). DayZ (arma mod at least) does this also by allowing a custom load image that the client downloads while joining the server.

On server side it would be easy to just have a file in the root folder (say, motd.html or motd.png). The client would check upon connection if a motd file exists, and then check to see if has already been download (checksum check?) and download it if needed. Once the client connects it dislplays the server's file before spawning the player in.

I know you guys are busy getting the game ready for the steam launch, but I had an idea that would allow for server customization. I was thinking a custom image that loads when the game does, much like the existing dialog you guys have that shows the keyboard mapping, would be a great way for admins to add server info, rules, etc. It'd be even better if you guys could code it to display an html file!