Pirate Encounter Frequency
It seems like pirates are pretty rare.

Pirate encounters should occur more often now.

Pirate Plunder Bug
Pirates showed up. I ordered my crew to stand down. The pirates parked in a nice line out in front of my ship but they never plundered my ship. They kept calling out to wait until they arrived.

Fixed several problems with this whole encounter.

Sensor Screen Bug
When the info pane is displayed for an object on the sensor screen, sometimes I can't scroll it back up to the topmost line.

Fixed obob (off by one bug).

Sensor Contact Long Lat
It would be nice if contacts on the sensor screen showed their longitude and latitude.

Sensor screen contacts now show their longitude and latitude on the info pane if the object is inside the atmosphere of a world.

Christen Ship Vehicles
After I christen my ship, its vehicles still identify themselves using the id only.

When a ship is christened, it now updates the mothership name info on all of its vehicles in the solar system.

TEU Containers
Deantwo suggested that exploding spacecraft should leave cargo containers behind.

When spacecraft explode their cargo is now disbursed in cargo containers. The algorithm for this insures that no ship will ever leave more than 100 containers behind when it explodes.

Access Containers
A TEU containers sitting on the ground begs for a way to access its contents.

A UI was added to access the contents of any container you are looking at. A Content button appears on the screen to do this.

TEU Containers on Sensors
TEU containers should show up on sensors.

Done.

TEU Containers on Helmet HUD Radar
TEU containers should show up on the radar display of my EV helmet.

Done.

Transport TEU Containers
Transporter should be able to beam up a TEU container.

Done. When beaming up a TEU container, the contents are placed directly into the hold. If the entire contents cannot fit, nothing happens. Messages report the various results.

When beaming to a TEU, nothing special happens. You just beam down somewhere near the container.

Salvage Order
A mission order is needed to salvage cargo from nearby TEUs.

Done. A Salvage Cargo order was added. Every TEU in range is collected one-by-one until no more will fit into the hold. Range is 500m. If the ship has a transporter, the range is the transporter range.

Messages report progress. This order is reported by the officer if there is one but the ship actually carries out the order; no officer or crew are required.

Pirate Crash
A crash happened when a pirate was encountered.

Fixed.

Pins at Site Vertices
Sites drawn in a building design respond to red glow at the vertices, to decide how much influence each vertex has on the terrain. This is impossible to see.

Added "pins" at the vertices that have a non-zero red glow. If a vertex has red glow, a cap is placed 1m above the vertex. A line is drawn from the vertex to the cap. The length of the line, from the vertex to the pin, is modulated by the amount of glow. A vertex with .75 red glow will have a line that is .75m tall, then there is .25m gap before the cap at 1m, to assist in visualizing the amount of red glow.

This revealed errors in the default coastal and agricultural sites. Those were fixed.

Buildings that used those sites were also fixed. This will not affect buildings that were already built.

Paths in Preview
There is a way in the code to show the paths in a design. Could this be useful in the designer preview?

Done, whether or not it is useful. Preview settings now has a check box to show the paths through the buildings or spacecraft.

Designer Repeat Command
It would be nice if there was an easy way to repeat the last command that was used in the designer.

Done. Esc key kills the current command. When there is no current command, Esc key now restarts the last command.

Designer Esc Key
Esc key in the designer kills all running commands. Could this step down by one command when they are stacked?

Done. For example, if you start drawing a mesh extrusion, then use the command to reposition the grid, the Esc key will kill only the grid movement command and fall back to where you were in the mesh extrusion command. Previously one hit on the Esc key would kill both commands.

Map Orbit Bug
Right-click menu on the world map shows two options to orbit low and no option to orbit high.

Fixed a copy constructor bug in the orbit at coordinates order.

Orbit Altitude on Every Order
The mission order UI shows the combo box to select orbit altitude on the options for every order, even those where it is not relevant.

Fixed control visibility bug.

2 players have reported that the game crashes when they try to load saves.

One of them reported in discord that for him it happens about 50-75% of time.

the other one reported it on Steam and attached a savefile:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2239520/d...469478782/

When attempting to renounce your citizenship with an empire, the avatar is stuck in a weird half part of the empire state.

Units still show as part of the same empire when aiming at them.

You can still see all the empire's Governance windows, but they are grayed out. The avatar doesn't appear on the Citizens tab's list anymore, but you can still see the list.

Could not create a new empire while in this with state.

Restarting the client did not help.

Please make "Cities and Bases"'s right click menu more usable. So far this screen is one of the few that stays open 24/7 for me.

Specific suggestions:
- Add 'travel to' options when not in the system as selected city. There should be no need to open any other screens to do something so basic as travel
- Add System survey report
- Add Land/Hover/Orbit options
- Add Transporter options

Example in the attachments.

Best regards
Andrey.

Attached Files

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Hi,

When I go to create a second character after already having one, the UI does not update and I'm unable to finish creating the new character. Some of the errors include the character name box appearing blank when I enter a new name, it doesn't even show the text cursor icon like I can't interact with it. The scenario selector also stays frozen, I can select another scenario like Citizen of the Galaxy but the UI is stuck at the asteroid scenario. Also, when i click the return to character selection button from my main character the entire UI seems frozen  and un-interactible.

There has also been additional UI errors, for example: if you expand the f8 bio menu you can't switch between the tabs without them freezing, you have to go back to the first tab to see any other tab. This problem also affects the empire menu and the spacecraft menu. I have not experienced these errors in previous versions of Hazeron Starship earlier this year, these problems are new.

This bug isn't related to the UI delays in the previous post, I don't notice anything like that. I am willing to take screenshots and videos if you need me to, please let me know. Thanks.

Runways
Space Vehicle Recovery System. Hmm. That's a mouthful.

Changed this to Runway everywhere.

Recover Vehicles
Drop pods are fun but they can be impossible to get back aboard without a runway.

Any vehicle can now request recovery by a spacecraft if they are close enough. A Recover button appears among the on-screen buttons while you are in a vehicle.

"Close enough" is inside the shield bubble ellipse, regardless if the ship has shields.

Vehicle must also keep pace with the ship.

The ship must have a parking spot for the vehicle. As with runway landings, the vehicle will be placed in 1) an empty spot, 2) replace a new vehicle of the same kind, 3) replace a used empty vehicle of the same kind, 4) replace a used vehicle of the same kind containing items, in that order of preference.

There is some communication from the ship to help you succeed. This has some intentional delays so it's not faster than using a runway, if the ship is so equipped.

Orbit Altitude
It would be nice to specify the altitude when issuing an orbit order. This became more important with the drop pod launch direction, as discussed below.

Orbit orders now offer a Low or High altitude orbit option. Low altitude is the altitude that space stations orbit and new spacecraft are launched. High altitude is the altitude that NPCs orbit a world when flying around it. In the past, all orbit orders resulted in a low orbit.

Preview Bug
When previewing a spacecraft in the designer, the 'Empty Space' option is weird. It's like I am floating inside the ship model but I'm not "in" the ship.

Fixed.

Drop Pod Launch Direction
Launch direction of drop pod could be smarter.

Done. 

In low orbit, drop pod launches in orbit, perpendicular to the path to the world.

In high orbit, drop pod launches toward the world.

If the ship is moving fast enough, drop pod launch direction is adjusted to be perpendicular to the path of the ship.

Eden Story Bug
Eden story started while I was in orbit.

Fixed. You must be on the ground in the atmosphere for the Eden story to start.

Lost Atlantis Lights
In the Lost Atlantis scenario, all the interior lights on the ship are dim instead of the brightness in the blueprint.

Fixed. This was also true in the ship in the Stowaway scenario.

Drop Pod Death
Launched a drop pod from Atlantis at 58k m/s and the drop pod was instantly destroyed.

Fixed.

Drop Pod Life Boats
Drop pods should act like life boats when the ship is destroyed.

Done. Each person and NPC aboard locates the nearest drop pod to them, by straight line distance. A dice roll is made to see if they made it to the pod, modified by distance. If they make it they are placed into the pod and launched.

It is possible for drop pods to go unused if people aren't lucky or they are too far away.

Human players are checked before NPCs.

Opening a door of a spacecraft or building inside an unbreathable atmosphere does not turn air unbreatable, not even in roomvoids with the same name as a roomvoid next to a hull void or the outside.

In space the loss of pressure still works fine however, in the same ship design. The helmet indicator turns red a while after you open the door, as it should.

And yes I'm sure the planet has unbreathable atmosphere, because as soon as I leave the exposed room, the helmet indicator does turn red.

I noticed this quite a while ago for buildings, but didn't notice it happening in spacecraft until today (haven't payed attention to it), so no idea which update might have caused it.

Like many of you, I feel that the empire is quite empty of life, and I'd love to see more activity, especially with spaceships.

There's nothing like gazing at your space station and seeing dozens of spaceships coming in and out, right?

Right now, this isn't really possible, though.

Sure, you can do that manually with actual starships and crews, but you can't get enough ships to make that scenario happen unless you've fully colonized a ringworld (which is kinda tedious). Besides, even if you've got like 20 trading ships, considering the size of it all, you could maybe have 3 or 5 at the same place and time?


We have brokers with automatic shipments. 

We have a system to trade.

We also have blueprint models for ships. 

Why not have the broker act as a kind of special "spacecraft factory" and generate a small, low-poly cargo ship, taken from a select list of blueprints, spawned with an AI crew that follows a simple trade route loop?

To make it even more "bustling", it could also be done for any interplanetary trading (if it's not too taxing on the CPU/GPU)



Here would be my suggested changes:

- Brokers now require a cargo ship to run their shipments between systems (+ planets?). The ship can be selected from any valid "trade ship" blueprint. The ship will spawn at the broker once the shipment is ready, along with an automated crew.

- The ship's roster is not changeable, nor its mission (set based on the shipment orders). The ship will follow the trade route as a normal ai-run ship would. Every ship has a simple "travel-to X -> move to space station/airport -> deliver cargo -> refit & refuel -> despawn or return to destination with or without goods" mission it will complete without interruption unless attacked or the shipment cancelled.

- A new type of ship is now available: cargo ships. These ships require a considerably lower poly count and have their size limited. They also require a certain storage mass/total mass threshold to be passed. They require resources to build just like any other ship. The ships' speed is based on the design.


Other cool gameplay benefits:

- Shipment arrival will be a lot clearer now, and each successful shipment will have a satisfaction to it (instead of being just a numbers refresh)
- Pirate attacks can finally be more meaningful (once they are reworked I guess). With smaller, weaker ships, it will make pirate-cleansing a worthwhile activity for the bored player.
- There will be a true meaning to overextending empires, protection, guerilla warfare, economic war, sieges and blockades. Players will have to expand their military fleets to patrol precious shipment lines, giving a natural expansion difficulty to counter gigantic yet "empty" empires.
- Distance can be more of a serious factor in expansion, instead of just hunting for the highest quality of resources possible, even if it's over 100 parsecs away.


Problems/criticism I thought of:

-It would put too much pressure on the hardware, resulting in lags and stuttering.
With a very low poly count and lowest-Q textures, this might be ok? Since they are not meant to be interacted with up close unless in cases of attacks, this should minimize system load.


-It makes the game unnecessarily more difficult or complex.
I would say that the gain in "aliveness" would be worth the complexity here. Any system feels dead until you acquire a massive fleet, which is endgame stuff. How many players who RQ the game due to all the bugs and unnecessary difficulties would keep playing if they saw a few little shuttles going back and forth between their early colonies? I know this feeling is what has kept me coming back to SoH like a relapsing crack addict for years!

-Furthermore, it wouldn't require any extra work from the players, since it would all be automated. It would only require the selection of a cargo ship blueprint at shipment setup, that's it.


It will only add frustration as shipments run out of fuel, get attacked, atmodive or sundive. We have enough frustrations!

For sundive and atmodive, nothing to do here but improve the code. Should be fixed at some point.
For fuel and attacks, I see this as part of the gameplay. As in "game" and "play", not "work". Trade routes are essential to any empire. I see this as a critical part of the whole experience that most players are looking for.
Well-managed shipment lines with the right designs should never run out of fuel. As mentioned earlier, attacks on shipments will add an interesting aspect to all kinds of expansion and warfare.


-It's too complex to implement.
As I see it in my mind, it would only require:
- creating a new spaceship category with a few criteria for eligibility
- tweaking the broker to add a spacecraft factory tab, only allows construction of cargo ships, make it require a small spacecraft spot, as the ship spawns automatically load a crew with a looped mission, despawn on mission end.
Add a few custom lines like "deliver to a space station first if there's one, if not then airport", basic defense/surrender script against attackers (I think that's already in the code anyway) and voila - should be on!



-It's good, but it's low prio, will probably never get considered
IMO it's one of these low-hanging fruits that have a lot of potential to uplift the game experience at very little cost. Honestly I only see fixing common bugs and finalizing proper AI empires as having a higher prio. I think this would make a great next step afterwards.

Oh, and making the designer simpler/working with presets more easily. That too.




Let me know your thoughts! Do you think it would work and should be next in line?

So I finished scanning my 3x3x3 area around April the 6th (10days ago). I remember having found about 3 to 4 Q250+ Oil sources, when i still had to scan 3 more sectors. Then played another game for a while. Now playing hazeron again for a few days.
When I searched for Q250+ Oil, at first not a single one is shown. I manually search a few systems and even find a Q255 Oil source I hadn't previously found. It only showed up in the search tool after traveling to the system.

Of the multiple Q250+ Ore I had also found, only the one in the system I had colonised still showed up.

It seems to me that you have to revisit systems to make their resources show up in the search tool. I understand system decay is needed to keep the save small.

But since all scan reports are still available, is it possible that there is some code from system decay that causes this information not to be available to the search tool unless the system was recently visited?