VoidExpanse - Patch notes v0.8.0

[Lurler]

VoidExpanse v0.8.0 Update patch notes.

Please read the original blog post with information about the update first: https://atomictorch.com/Post/Id1063

New game launcher:
Now you don't need to bother with downloading each update, unpacking the archive, transferring the saves, etc. Just download one executable file on your desktop, run it and it will take care of everything for you. It will download each new version, patch the game for you and keep track of all new updates. You can also opt-in to receive early experimental versions to the game if you want to be the first to try out the new changes.

New features:

• Completely overhauled quest system. Added more than 20 quests into the game. These include quests to join different factions as well as randomly generated quests from different NPC.
• Different areas on the station instead of just the canteen. Now there may be different areas depending on the type of station.
• New station types have been added to the game. Now there are five station types: outpost, military, mining, business and science.
• New icons for stations on the system map and on the galaxy map. Now you can actually see what type the station is.
• Added mine slot to some ships and mines to equip. It is still work in progress, but you can now use mines to your advantage.
• New ship - Orca. A heavy cruiser with missiles, mine and energy hardpoints.
• New weapons: machinegun, particle discharger and several others. Whole lot of new misc items as well.
• Access level to different NPC on stations. Now you can't just go and barge in to a Faction leader without earning some respect first.
• Destruction of your ship now actually has consequences. You can choose the difficulty setting when you create a new world.
• Upon your ships destruction you will see a notification informing you as to what you have lost, if anything.
• Whole bunch of topics to discuss with different NPC's and depending on who you talk to the answers will be completely different.
• Persuade skill is now implemented and can be used in quests to make people more inclined to your demands.
• New icons for a whole lot of different items.
• Difficulty settings are now properly implemented. You can choose between: normal, semi-hardcore and hardcore modes.
• Fuel, speed, cruise and warp recharge indicators are added to the game.
• You actions now have consequences - killing a faction member or helping him in a fight will have a direct effect on the faction standing towards you.
• New model for heretic ship (properly optimized low poly model).
• A whole lot of other new features!

Changes:

• Rebalanced several ships including heretic, freighter and others.
• Drop/loot lists are changed for all ships and include many more items than before.
• Custom thread pool for background tasks. Should improve performance and loading time quite significantly for some people.
• Relationship change after killing or attacking someone.
• Improved ship overview control in the inventory.
• Changed color coding scheme for different items. It is much easier to understand and more consistent.
• Crates left in space will now disappear after some time to reduce the load on multiplayer server.
• You can now see the total price when buying more than one item.
• Rebalanced ships maneuvering bonuses. General rule now is as follows: Light frigates have full maneuverability, Heavy frigates -10%, Light cruisers -25%, Heavy cruisers -45%.
• Changes to object spawning in the game. It is more consistent now, for example; there will be less objects very close to the stars and more logical placement of space stations and other structures.
• You can now see the number of different utility slots in the ship information tooltip.
• Better presentation of action buttons, for example; pick up cargo, dock to station and others.
• Changes to internal structure of some game mechanics. It should make it less prone to bugs as well as allow us to extend it further with less effort.
• A whole lot of other changes!

Fixes:

• Improvements to local game server. Including fixes to freezing when quitting the game.
• Replaced unreliable multithreading library with custom solution which is much more reliable.
• Fixed: can't pick item in shop.
• Fixed: loading of icons while "Loading" splash screen present.
• Fixed: memory leak in the client.
• Fixed: tooltips positioning.
• Fixed: models loader bug.
• Fixed: long text overflow at some action buttons.
• Safeguard: the game now checks if it is run from archive and notifies user that it's not the way to do it.
• Safeguard: If the game cannot start singleplayer it gives a link a to a wiki page with troubleshooting information.
• A whole lot of other fixes and stability improvements!

Download the game in "My games & items" on the AtomicTorch (https://atomictorch.com/) website!

[kyokei]

Absolutely love the update, was really worth the wait!
Thanks so much for creating this amazing game!

Can't wait to see what your plans are for trading/trading ships

[Delcien]

Update sounds great, cant wait to try it out! 

[Lurler]

Thank you guys!

Also to these having problems with bugs: we will fix all reported bugs as soon as we are in the office on monday! And now thanks to the experimental branch we will be able to test the updates better before releasing them. But since this is the first release and there is simply no stable version yet we released the current version as is. It will not be the case in the future and we will make sure that it is properly tested before the release as stable!

[kyokei]

You are in alpha version so bugs are to be expected. I am happy for the quick support from today and don't worry about it.

[RutsDC]

I love everything with the patch. I haven't found a way to pick where I want it installed though.

That would be nice to have, since now I am playing it on my ssd, and I don't really want the game there.

[daft73]

Great to see the update...fresh and hot for the weekend!

[Turk]

I love everything with the patch. I haven't found a way to pick where I want it installed though.

That would be nice to have, since now I am playing it on my ssd, and I don't really want the game there.

Yeah I love the launcher. I'm with RutsDC. Any chance of getting an option to choosing where to install the game at?

[Lurler]

Yeah I love the launcher. I'm with RutsDC. Any chance of getting an option to choosing where to install the game at?

Thanks
And yes, we plan to add options to choose where the game files will be stored.