Produno Games Studios

Hey everyone,

Today marks the first major update for SpaceSlog since it’s Steam early access release, in which I have tried to focus on QoL, balance and reported issues. You can see the full changelog below.

I hope you have all been enjoying yourselves out there in the Slog! And for those that have not, I hope this update makes it a little easier for you.

As usual please continue to report any issues or suggestions you may have. I will continue to try and release an update every 3(ish) months depending on the amount and complexity of the content being worked on.

We are also part of best indie games summer showcase for the next week over on Steam, where we are currently running a 10% discount.

New items

• Added an animal sleeping spot.
• Added a refinery.
  • Turn Uranium into Fuel Cells.
• Added an electric cooker.
  • Cook various packaged meals.
  • Turn raw meat into cooked meat.
• Added tasty packaged meals.
• Add Uranium asteroids. These will start to show after travelling a certain distance.

Improvements

• Improved orders UI.
  • Added ‘forever‘ and ‘until you have‘ options.
  • Added the ability to set priorities.
  • Change the amount directly on the orders ticket.
• Changed the ore colours for ice asteroids.
• Pressing ESC on the start menus will now take you to the previous menu rather than close them all.
• The game will now detect if you are using a controller or mouse and keyboard and react accordingly.
• Added a hint alert that will show if your ships temperature is too high.
• Added a hint alert for when your ship has no oxygen.
• Notifications for points of interest when travelling will now make a sound to alert the player.
• Doubled the time all notifications will show within the menu.
• Add ate raw food negative thought.
• Add ate tasty meal thought.
• Make the rats a little larger visually so they are easier to spot.
• Ship mass is now affected by resources again.
• Updates to various texts.
• Update/improve trade price display text.
• Localised more text.
• Add support for multiple recipe outputs.
• Alloys are now used for various equipment.
• Updated textures of alloys.
• Update all dyes where used as a secondary material.
• Add a crew bar at the bottom of the screen to show all crew.
• Add a toggle in the options menu to show/hide the crew bar.
• Noted in the pawn randomise popup that you cannot randomise your captain.
• Switched around adulthood options when creating a captain so loner is no longer the default.
• Expose more data to JSON.
• Implement pawn carry capacity.
• Various optimisations/improvements to pawn behaviours.
  • They will be less likely to get stuck on walls or box themselves in.
  • They will now gather as many materials as they can carry and supply multiple prefabs.
  • They will also do the same when hauling and sowing.
  • If your pawn is commanded, you can now override certain situations, like not being able to go where they cannot breath.
• Adjust the sound of the speed buttons to be less obnoxious.
• Transfer ventilators can now work externally (venting to space).
• Improvements to atmosphere (gas and temperature) equalisations between rooms and to space.
• Gasses will now correctly leak through closed internal doors depending on the materials they are made out of.
• Add any new custom pawns.
• Fires no longer cast shadows (optimisation).
• Adjust/improve how lighting works.
• Update various menus to display other language text better.
• Removed error spam when using an unfinished language.
• Show more information about each item on the items information menu.
• Split nutrition into hydration and nutrition to make it clearer what the item replenishes. (Shown on the info menu)
• Added options to change the temperature display to Celsius, Fahrenheit or Kelvins.
• Improve camera centering onto planets from the planet menu.

Balance

• Increased the amount of starting med kits when choosing Resourcefulness option.
• Added some starting med kits when choosing Wastefulness option.
• Slaughtering now increases animal skill.
• Brewing speed is now affected by cooking skill.
• Slightly reduced hours to sleep for humans.
• Added a minimum amount to bribes so it can never be 0.
• Failed bribe attempts will reduce your relations with that faction. (Note: Diplomacy will be revamped in a future update)
• Bruises no longer cause bleeding.
• Rats now also drop leather.
• Increased the amount of leather that drops overall.
• Increased leather requirements for some buildings.
• Rebalanced mass for various resources.
• Adjusted mass of various other items.
• Adjust weapon cooldown calculations to account for the extra mass.
• Various equipment updates.
• All pawns will now suffocate much more quickly.
• Split up passing star incidents so you are less likely to pass extremely hot stars near the start of the game.
• Reduce Debris Titanium drop by 1.

Mods

• The workshop uploader will now check a mod folder with the same name as the mod named in mod_info, if it doesn’t find it, it will find any folder containing the correct mod_id.
• Update module descriptions to use BBCode.
• Mods version code has been updated to show orange if within the same alpha – for caution.

Community Localisation

• Add Brazilian Portuguese language – Thanks Lucas559-noob
• Updated French translation – Thanks Daneel53

Fixes

• Fixed: Saving then reloading would reset some incident timers.
• Fixed: Saved games were not showing local times. (Note: This fix will take effect after resaving)
• Fixed: Issue with pawn age when reloading a saved game.
• Fixed: Planets and stars could change positions after loading a game.
• Fixed: Some sounds could incorrectly carry on playing when loading into a new game.
• Fixed: Pawns would not always stay aggrod after loading a game.
• Fixed: A rare race condition could cause the game to crash when loading a save.
• Fixed: Materials would not preserve colour when loading a game.
• Fixed: Pressing ESC at the crew selection menu would cause crew to stack up/not reset.
• Fixed: Could not force a pawn to sleep in a bed if they already own that room.
• Fixed: Various issues when assigning your crew to rooms.
• Fixed: Various issues with temperature logic.
• Fixed: Text input on the trade menu did not work.
• Fixed: You could not trade if your only crew member had 0 skill in social.
• Fixed: The trade menu would show even if you have no crew with the required skill.
• Fixed: You could still bribe even if you had no crew with the required skill.
• Fixed: An error could show when demolishing something that doesn’t contain component classes.
• Fixed: Incorrect species information.
• Fixed: You could force your crew to eat/drink consumables that are not part of their diet.
• Fixed: Pawn inventory weight would keep drastically rising.
• Fixed: Encumbrance on the pawn equipment menu would not update correctly.
• Fixed: Incorrect colour for orange dye.
• Fixed: Pawns could construct buildings even if they do not have the correct skill requirements.
• Fixed: Pawns could sometimes finish off a creature without it being collapsed.
• Fixed: A characters hair would not update on the character panel when selected and removing their helmet.
• Fixed: Issues with rotating prefabs of a certain size.
• Fixed: Transfer vents could transfer into walls.
• Fixed: Error when loading a language with no tips translated.
• Fixed: Gas display was incorrect on the ship systems menu.
• Fixed: Showing two forced options for drink and eat for items that satisfy both.
• Fixed: Text would not start at the bottom of the screen on the credits menu.
• Fixed: Regression with power circuits where disconnected items would not always turn off correctly.
• Fixed: Would not correctly show the no power indicator if the building was not connected to the grid.
• Fixed: Some sounds would incorrectly play when the game is paused.
• Fixed: A pawn on rare occasions could teleport to a bed.
• Fixed: Facing issues when sitting at chairs.
• Fixed: Equipment menu would not update carried item amount when open.
• Fixed: Spawned custom pawns would not persist through saves.
• Fixed: Custom pawns could sometimes get random facial hair.
• Fixed: Not all Pawn GUI visuals would update when a pawns equipment had changed.
• Fixed: Various issues with resolution when starting the game.
• Fixed: Commanded button state would not always update if the pawn was selected and the command option had changed externally.

Unfortunately our Steam Next Fest demo was supposed to be up for another week or so after the event, but I ended up having to remove it due to too many negative reviews. The majority of these reviews were from people that said they had no idea how to play, or various other reasons related to that.
So it was pretty obvious we needed a more robust and guided tutorial, which is what I have been working on.

This updates includes the start of that, guiding people through stockpiles, basic resource gathering and building. I will continue to expand and improve upon this as we go through Early Access. I have also re-released the demo and I will monitor its feedback.

I also added a new menu which includes all the current lessons in the game which you can read whenever you like. Keep in mind this is not yet a comprehensive list as things are still subject to change.

You can see the full changelog below.

Changes

• Moved leather to the front of material selection for some furniture.
• Started adding an interactive tutorial.
• Skipping the tutorial is disabled when playing the demo.
• Ensure build menu does not open empty.
• Streamlined some lessons.
• Added a new Operations Handbook menu that shows all the current lessons in the game for quick reference.
• Some GUI improvements.
• Show a hint alert whenever black alert is activated.
• Ensure all buildable items start either open or switched on.
• Change cable highlight colour.

Fixes

• Fixed: Controller left and right triggers were not working when not using Steam input.
• Fixed: Hull was not being placed correctly, causing save/load issues.
• Fixed: Only one oxygen tank was being filled.