Mining with my spacecraft – Interstellar Rift development update 015

Sep 30, 2014

In this patch, we’re adding the beginnings of space mining!

Since there is essentially no gameplay in waiting while you point a mining laser at an asteroid and it is not generally considered “fun”, we have done some thinking about other ways to implement this feature. As such, we have implemented the extractor unit.

Instead of using mining lasers to harvest resources from asteroids, the extractor unit will let you teleport asteroids and chunks of asteroids onboard your ship, straight into your extractor unit. It will then automatically start harvesting. As the resource extractor fills up, boxes will appear on the hopper pad. Once the hopper is full, these boxes will need to be transferred to a cargo pad before the resource extractor can continue its work.

Once the asteroid is mined out, it will disappear and you will be able to teleport another asteroid aboard and begin the process anew. This will allow players to harvest resources while performing other tasks and exploring the universe.

This introduces another new addition to the game; the inventory system and the ability to pick up storage crates. Storage crates can hold one type of resource and a player can carry a couple of them at a time. Players can collect storage crates from the extractor’s hopper and place them on standard cargo pads. Each cargo pad can hold up to 8 storage crates.

Further down the line, we will continue to explore other options of mining. We are not saying mining lasers will never be in the game. As a matter of fact, considering multiplayer and asteroid scouting, it can definitely have be a very fun and interesting mechanic. Every feature in Interstellar Rift is an iterative process and we aim to actively search for the implementation of every mechanic that feels the best for the game.

We hope you enjoy these new additions and let us know what you think. What would you like to see added or changed. Your feedback is very valuable in these early stages, so don’t hesitate to voice your opinion on our forums.

There are only a couple more steps left on the road to alpha! So stay tuned and, as always, follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest info and screenshots!

Interstellar Rift Pre Alpha Teaser Trailer

Sep 23, 2014

Because we are going to present our game at the INDIGO event in Utrecht, we made a teaser trailer, check it out below.

The Road Ahead – Interstellar Rift development update 014

Sep 15, 2014

Last week, we released a fix for the teleportation bug and in the process caused a few new ones. This is the reality of a game this early in development, fix one thing and break seven more. We’ve spent most of this past week fixing bugs and improving a few of the existing systems.

We have also added some new assets to the ship editor. Among these are a new wall, floor and the new cargo racks. We have also re-added the biodome to the editor. These new cargo racks are just for looks at the moment, but will become functional over the coming months.

Also, we figured you might enjoy a change of scenery, so we’ve changed the space environment a little. We’ve made the asteroids a little bigger, and added a very basic and early sun. Of course these are far from finished but we felt like changing things up and the new lighting will make it a little easier to see.

We’ve received quite a few questions about what’s in store since we gave you a sneak peek a month ago. Instead of answering each individual question we’ve made a roadmap that we want to share with you. This is what we’re planning to release in the coming months leading up to the alpha release. This map only displays the major milestones, of course we will be releasing general stability, performance and content updates along the way.

We hope you’re looking forward to the upcoming features as much as we are.

For more info please visit our forums or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The great shining – Interstellar Rift development update 013

Sep 02, 2014

It’s that time again, two weeks sure fly by quick. This time we’ve spilled a rather large bottle of polishing agent all over our wonderful matte construction blocks. We’ve added support for specular maps, which means that the game will be 100% shinier.

Over the next several weeks you can expect us to keep adding more graphical features to the game now that our shader system and particle engine are coming online. But don’t worry, we havent just spent the last two weeks “polishing” the game. To celebrate our fancy new specular maps we’re adding new prop blocks for your ships or stations medical bay. As well as a series of cargo elevators that will let you move between two floors.

It’s not all content and polished floors this week. We’ve done a lot of bugfixing under the hood as well. we’ve made some changes to the ship storage code which should make your old ship compatible with newer versions of the game. Which means, no more crashes when pressing the power connection tool. This does however mean that you will need to re-connect the power on all your ships. but if we did this right, this will be the last time that is required.

Additionally, the next time you try to teleport to another ship you’ll notice that the teleporter interface is different. this is because you are now able to select to which teleporter on the target ship you go to. The teleporter will be named after the room it is placed in, to make it easier to identify where you wish to go. so don’t forget to name the rooms on your ship or station in the editor. With this new teleporter system you can also teleport within ships.

Exciting things are on the horizon, so stay tuned and, as always, see you in space!