Star Traders RPG v.3.8 Feature Release

[Cory Trese]

I am very excited to announce the newest edition of Star Traders RPG!

Version 3.8.0 has been uploaded to the Android Market. This new release represents the largest set of changes to the game's main map since the initial development in September.

• Start Navigation To Waypoint Button
  
• New Captain HUD Graphic
  
• Fly-With-Ship Scrolling (Optional)
  
• Auto-Center After Navigation (Optional)
  
• Consistent Navigation Abort Button (Stop!)
  
• Player Can Scroll While Flying
  
• Brand New Path Finding Algorithm
  
• Fuel Aware Route Finder
  

You may not notice any major immediate visual differences to the star map, but hopefully you will quickly notice several substantial behavior improvements.

The map system has changed significantly, but remains highly configurable. If you prefer the old Star Traders RPG play (with lots of player directed scrolling) you can achieve this by disabling both Auto-Scroll and Fly Scroll.

As with any new Star Traders RPG feature we will be working over the next week or two to polish, improve and cycle in your suggestions.

Personally, I find that this new release makes the game much more playable. From a technical standpoint, re-writing the map system has opened a number of doors for future releases, including zooming and showing rumors/flags on the main map. Stay tuned for new features!

[hashassin]

You mean I don't have to find my destination using the x,y coordinates now? Joy.

[Cory Trese]

No just get a waypoint on Zoom Map or any other screen and press "Start [Engines]" and the ship (and your view) will fly to the destination.

Watch your fuel and press Stop if you need to take control again.

[Cory Trese]

here is the new UI on a test device

Attachments:

[hashassin]

Sounds good. I'm just hesitating to click update cuz I'm afraid you got around to rebalancing the ships and my royal class won't be so smexy anymore, haha.

[hashassin]

Seems to be working nicely. I am noticing a bit of a slowdown on movement, but not a problematic one.....and let's be fair, any slight increase in travel time will be compensated for by NOT looking around the map so much.

[Cory Trese]

I have linked the movement to a timer instead of CPU speed. If your CPU was previously running faster than the current draw rate for scrolling you may experience what appears to be a slower running map. However, on the flip side your battery consumption should be much lower as your CPU will down-clock due to the smaller load.

[Cory Trese]

Also, to anyone who is delaying upgrades because of ships or something: I am sorry you don't trust us!

The one thing I ask is that you PLEASE do not report bugs if you stick with old versions. I fix many many defects every release that I leave off of the change log because they are minor, internal or balance related. So, if you are not updating, please do not report issues -- I can only support the current version! With a limited budget and time chasing invalid defects can delay future releases and generally slow down the entire works.

* * *

Here is how ships and upgrades work, for the record:

1. Ships already captured, dry docked or owned are never changed by updates.
2. Ships for sale, rank ships and ships controlled by NPC are subject to change

[rudeboy]

That's some nice map engine work - I see how some cool additions could be thrown in... Once I played around with it a bit I got comfortable quickly.

[hashassin]

Hahaha! Cory I was just kidding about delaying the update. I was downloading it as I typed. Now to the map speed, I'm stoked to hear that explained. Battery life is a major concern of mine. One of the reasons I play strpg so much is its light battery drain. Making it even less is an improvement I'm delighted to hear about. The other reason I play so much is that it's a fantastic and addicting game. Still.....if it was the coolest game I own, but kills my battery in an hour or two I won't be using it much, so kudos! Just another reason its one of the best on the market!

[Cory Trese]

I am very open to suggestions on how to make it a better system for players! The map engine is brand new so, like all new software, it has room to grow.

Hopefully as I bring the rest of the features (fuel-cost calculator, smooth zooming, etc) we'll have more ideas and discussion on how to make it better for you, Captain.

[absimiliard]

I've only lost one captain to the new release yet, but I'm liking what I'm seeing ago far.

I do have a question though.

Did you reverse the definitions of X and Y, or am I misrembering when I keep thinking X should be my horizontal and Y my vertical.

(It took me a second or two to figure or why my mental map of some contracts and courses that I was trying to juggle weren't coming out right. But if you've changed axes that would handily explain it.)

-abs

[sebastian]

I like it!

[phantum]

I like it. I was confused at first could not find the new buttons, or my ship, but eventually I realised I had disabled the map buttons in options... Having a start engines button when you click on the ship which would be nice, for when buttons switched off. I experimented with disabling the map buttons and each time when you load a game without map buttons the map is about one screen North East of the ships location, I guess that is a bug.

Anyhow congratulations on a nice update, it really improved playability for me, and I look forward to seeing the potential future developments you mentioned.

[four1475]

I love the update, but when you long press on a point on the map or on the zoom map, the , coordinates are reversed, although they are correctly displayed at the top of the HUD.