Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Dev Version Update with Massey QD and ship tanking is out for builders and other people that have access.
This one will become another Epic Games Store update for the retail version. After that, I will go for the Steam release, which has been pushed back by a month to allow for a bit more time. To make it right. I don't want to rush this again, or at least not as much.
Last days have been a bit busy for me, so that's why this post is delayed a little.
I'm also thinking about making more changes to supporting again. I'm getting tired of role management in Discord. I never liked the separate supporter only section much, and my main income is now coming from the store anyway.
So my current idea is to get rid of supporter only stuff for monthly and one-off payments and remove the section on Discord, so everyone sees everything right away.
There would be only one Discord channel wich has limited write permission, which is just for builders and other people that have access to the dev version. But everyone could read that channel. So everyone knows what's up with the dev version and there is no more secrecy around it. I want to have it all in the open.
So the only extra thing you could get is access to the dev version when you become a builder.
I still need to think more about the details of these changes, but something like this might happen very soon. This supporter management stuff has gotten too much. It's not even that it is too much work, it's just too annoying and I rather spend any little time that I can gain on updates for the store now, and of course - the steam release.
Thank you for the support! :)
Changelog:
"2024-12-06-dev:":
"added Massey's QD including bridge",
"added ship frost and more venting effects",
"added feature to show cause of explosion on control panel",
"added ship tank physics and panel",
"added first version of Pad A deluge and plumes",
"added day slider to sky panel",
"added Ability to move tracked point in tracking mode up and down",
"Added more despawn buttons to new 'other' panel and option to spawn with empty map",
"control panel has dedicated Massey panel now and reorganized some stuff into a new other panel and LS/BS panels",
"Script steps can now be time, altitude or velocity dependent",
"fixed Massey's plumes don't switch off when switching off deluge while flames are still impacting",
"fixed zoom fov resets when changing fov or quitting game",
"fixed Timing of script execution not being frame rate independent"
36 - 11
StarbaseSim is coming soon to Steam! π
As soon as this year. But you know how it is with these things: the more you ask about a release date, the longer it will take until release. So don't even start asking, instead wishlist now: store.steampowered.com/app/3333060/StarbaseSim/
More details later. There is a roadmap now btw: starbasesim.com/tracking/roadmap_page.php
It's very preliminary. But it gives a rough idea of what to expect, and you can add your own ideas as suggestions!
27 - 2
btw, the 1000 subs have been reached. You might have missed the short video that I released on that occasion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEmGC...
Here is the description again:
1000 subs reached! This is just a quick clip to celebrate this milestone.
Thanks for subbing everyone! :)
With that, the free Itch version finally got its update after half a year:
ashtorak.itch.io/starbase-simulator
For lack of something better and time, I re-used this one year old video from when I reached 1k followers on XTwitter, just with some audio added.
This is using the standard Lyra character model and bot. It's not exactly made for hundreds at once. For the 10k subs video I need to find something better :D
Important for Itch app users: I had to replace the Unity version with the Unreal one so that I can use patching with it. So when you update the "Unity version" in the App, you actually get the latest Unreal version now. But in the future you can just download patches for this then via the app. The Unity is version is not getting updated anymore, so it doesn't need to be patchable. If you want to play this, you have to re-install it. Also, it's probably better to de-install Unity version first instead of updating to not confuse the Itch app too much.
6 - 0
Just 33 subs away to 1000 on the youtube channel!
Join to unlock the update of the FREE Itch version upon reaching that milestone!
In all honesty though, without the watch hours it isn't much of use for me directly as I still won't be eligible neither for Ads, nor for the membership stuff, which needs 3k watch hours.
It's still a big milestone though, so thank you all for subbing! :)
Also, tomorrow a long video about scripting will be released. Maybe that helps with watch hours :D
btw, there will also be a small patch as I noticed that the error messages were missing that should appear when you try to load a script that has a comma missing for example. It's pretty helpful to see that when messing around with the scripts, so it's worth a patch.
17 - 2
I have set up a new system to have Bug, Feature and Known Issues Tracking in one place:
starbasesim.com/wordpress/2024/11/02/devlog-new-syβ¦
It also has an automatic road map feature - pretty neat!
Just note, that something being on there doesn't necessarily mean that it actually will be in that release or that not something else might be in a release instead. This will continue to be very fluid. But you will be able to see, when I have actually added something to the game, then it will be marked as resolved by me so that it goes into the changelog.
For the moment, I have just added the bare minimum. So this should be in the next releases as it is there. Just dates are tentatively of course. So don't get too excited over these. In the end it will always be soonβ’
10 - 0
Important announcement: I'm working towards a Steam release now for the next update!
I'm still collecting the required fee. Chip in to help me with that: ko-fi.com/ashtorak
UPDATE: Goal reached! πππ
That was fast! Thanks to Apmub and BonaFortuna, the latter coming in with a big one :)
I probably won't do another small update before, or it will be just in the dev version as I have lined it out in the roadmap (see other post).
I am going for Steam now since interest and sales have picked up quite a bit in the wake of Flight 5. So I want to continue trying to go full time on this. See this report for more:
starbasesim.com/wordpress/2024/11/01/report-2024-oβ¦
Monthly reports will also be there from now on.
13 - 0
People have waited long for it: The time has come to update the Itch version!
As promised, I will now put the prior store version on Itch (without multiplayer). Let me explain my reasoning below.
But first please subscribe to my YouTube, if you haven't already, so that I finally reach the 1000 subs here.
We are almost there anyway and I also said, that I would release an Itch update at 1k YouTube subs. So maybe we can get both goals at once π
When the sub goal is reached, I will put up a short video and when that is live, also the update on Itch will be up.
Here is my reasoning to bring basically the full version to Itch for free:
Because it's not for free actually - it's pay what you want! Pay what you think it's worth it. If you had some fun, if you learned something, throw in a couple of bucks, or more, if you really liked it and want to see it developed further.
Because that's the other reason it's not free: it's not free to make. It's a (more than) full time job for me to develop this and has been for three years now and I can't live forever from my savings. In fact, I don't have any anymore. That's also why I will go for a Steam release now with (probably) the next update. More about that later.
Of course, the pay what you want model doesn't bring in enough money to support me full time. Typically only one person in a hundred actually pays something on Itch, while the others are freeloaders. That's fine, if the user base is large enough and maybe it will be some day. Until then, I will use the traditional model of selling the game for a fixed price as early access and early access here means not just that the game is available before it's done (it'll never be done anyway), it means that the latest update is available before everyone can download it for free on Itch.
There isn't any fixed schedule though for updating the Itch version. So update intervals will be a bit longer, so that I can bundle smaller updates together (and of course provide longer early access period for the store version).
So what that all means is, if you buy the store version you not only support ongoing development of StarbaseSim, you also make it available, over time, to everyone.
So thank you all very much for the support! :)
p.s.: I am a big fan of the pay-what-you-want model and started with it and maybe will go back to it fully some day. I am not in this to make big money and there is no big corporation behind me. If people keep up the support, I will always continue developing. If I have to stop completely for some reason, I will open source as much as possible.
22 - 4
Massey's update is almost done! Still a few things missing, but the current state will go live on the dev branch on the Epic Games Store tomorrow. I'll make another post when it's up.
Builders and early supporters got an email about how to access the dev version at end of August. Please check, if you got one, before contacting me about that.
Else, currently the only way to get access is to become a builder via the Ko-Fi commission.
The update should be on the dev branch only for a short time like a week or so, hopefully, until the main issues are ironed out and a few small things are added. Then it moves on to the normal store version, and then after that, the current store version will move on to Itch to get the free demo version finally updated as well :)
https://youtu.be/v_1j7kQ3ROw
2 - 0
Next update with first version of Massey's is coming along nicely and should be out soon as dev version. More about that later.
If you are wondering, why Massey's when the launch site is looking like a wasteland: because I promised it long time ago to a producer, so I better get it out of the way now, before working on the launch site again, which I will do after this update.
41 - 7
Update on the sales number on Epic Games Store
wth is this charting though?? These are daily sales numbers. But if there are no sales, they don't add a 0 value and the line gets broken.
Also, why would you even make the effort to interpolate like this between integer values. That makes no sense. As if there could be 3/4 of a sale or what π
I understand that there is probably just one person doing all the coding on the store. So I don't judge them. After all, it's apparently really just an alibi store to not have to pay other companies app store fees for their Fortnite stuff π
I think, I have to bring StarbaseSim to Steam soon now. I'm pretty disappointed with EGS and can not recommend anyone to use this to release their game first, let alone exclusively.
I'm happy, that at least one to two people every day on average put up with this and still buy the game here. Thank you very much! :)
I'll try to find a way to give people who bought it on EGS a Steam key as well, if they want. It's not that many anyway. So maybe we can just do it through multiplayer sessions.
19 - 11
Get most recent version with multiplayer on store.epicgames.com/en/p/starbasesim-f7c528
Coming soon also to Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3333060/StarbaseSim/
Get older version without multiplayer on ashtorak.itch.io/starbase-simulator
Latest developments about the game: x.com/StarbaseSim