We have new info regarding Starbound's upcoming patch, including new weapons, aesthetics, and games modes! But look out, for another wipe of hard earned player content and game saves is sure to come. Don't worry though: it's well worth it.
Developer Chucklefish took some much needed time off this past holiday season, now back in full swing with an incoming Starbound patch. Bugs took a lot of their time to clear out from the latest version, but they did manage to get some new features added in with this patch (such as that cool pixel revolver)! They wanted everyone to know that they will be putting on the finishing touches very shortly and can expect it to be out by next week. In the future, other patches won't take as long as this one did.
Fixes:
- .ds_store issue affecting OSX 9.1 users (A bug where Finder created an invisible file called .ds_store in the player folder which caused the game to crash).
- A number of character creation/selection screen crashes related to loading corrupted save files
- An issue that could prevent the launcher from starting (MSVCRT.dll)
- DirectX crash bug (303 bug)
- Several memory leaks, including the slow-but-significant server memory leak a lot of people were experiencing and GUI memory leak
- Fixed a crash bug related to GUI controls
- Reduced memory load of FTL animation
- .abc files with comments no longer crash the game, plus various .abc fixes as far as key signatures/timing
- A number of issues with players spawning underground
- A bug where players spawned outside the ship if they’d previously saved the game while in the Captain’s Chair
- Right shift key was not working as a shift key, now it is
- An issue tech slots were unusable under certain conditions
- Wiring system fixes– wires are rendered below UI elements, wires no longer break when crossed into an unloaded sector
- Added image metadata caching, improved assets caching
- Added a jeep mech that was supposed to have been in the last patch, but had mysteriously gone missing!
- Object flipping issues
- Sped up the crafting window
- Fixed a sound issue that occurred after many concurrent weapon hits
- Characters no longer blink while sleeping in beds
- Assorted minor performance improvements
Additions:
- New game modes! Permadeath and drop-everything-on-death modes.
- Revolvers, pulse rifles, hand grenades, shivs, Floran needlers, Floran thorn hammer
- Human guards now wear soldier uniforms
- More decorative hats! Yay, hats!
- More random encounters
- Possibly more content, if it’s finished on time!
Chucklefish is well aware of the number of times people had to wipe their characters, ships, and saves when doing this, but they want to assure us that this will be the last time we'll need to wipe characters and ships (worlds might still be a potential wipe area in the future, however). Why this is the case is explained by Kyren of the dev team:
“The problem is that the organization of planets may change so if they go muck with a planet, how do we put it in the celestial map? Or if they build on a biome we remove, or something. So no promises, but we’ll try. But promises on the player / ship.”
Still, if players out there are willing to stomach another wipe, they'll be pretty pleased with the results. Starbound reached only a week ago, so we certainly have little doubt that this game will continue to succeed well into 2014 and beyond. The game currently in early access beta form, available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Source: Playstarbound.com