House cleaning! – Interstellar Rift Development Update 029

We’ve had some small features which were gathering dust so we decided to dedicate this patch to implement them and polish up some others.

First up when the oxygen in a room drops below 10%, an indicator on the hud will now alert you that you are in a low oxygen environment. In addition, we’ve increased the amount of oxygen in your suit. It now gives you more of a fighting chance to escape low oxygen situations.

For a while now we’ve been aware that the upgrade button on the ship construction terminal has been malfunctioning and is confusing. So instead we’ve removed the upgrade button and replaced it with salvage. Using the salvage button will destroy your ship and refund all resources of a ship along with the cargo on board. You can only salvage ships that you built yourself. Resources will go into the vault or onto available cargo pads aboard the salvaging ship or station. If no space for cargo and no vault is available, resources will be lost.

We also found that some screens were confusing, especially on larger devices which could be activated by clicking anywhere on the device. Screens now work on proximity, meaning they will automatically activate when they are approached.

Lastly, we have upgraded the exterior a bit, windows now have a blue-ish colour and reflect outer space.

A word about the future.

Over the past several months we’ve received a lot of questions about what’s coming up in Interstellar Rift. It’s time to peel back the curtain a little and tell you about some of our upcoming features.

Space physics

This is a big and much requested feature, sadly it is also a very complicated one. Although we have been working on this very hard and there is a lot of progress, we are not ready to show anything to the public just yet, so please be a little more patient.

Combat

This is the big one. Yes we are going to have it, and it may be coming sooner than you think. The first thing we are going to implement is first person combat. Soon players will be able to use our upcoming item crafting system to construct a plasma pistol and ammo cartridges. More weapons are planned in future patches.

As always we hope you’ll enjoy this new patch and we hope you’ll let us know what you think. You can do so via our Forums, or Twitter and Facebook.

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Take a Deep Breath – Interstellar Rift Development Update 028

Today we’re adding the first of many survival mechanics to Interstellar Rift. That’s right folks, as the title suggests, take a deep breath because from now on ships and stations will require a functioning life support system in order for players to remain alive on board your vessel.

In order to make a ship habitable, players will need to install at least one life support system aboard the ship and put at least one air vent inside each room. Life support systems require a supply of oxygen to function, which can be refined along with hydrogen from Water in a refinery. Oxygen will only be consumed if a player is inside the room, and the more players inhabit that room the faster the oxygen will be consumed. The Player’s suit provides a limited supply of oxygen, however this will deplete rapidly. This supply will be replenished if the player enters a room filled with oxygen. When the suit’s oxygen supply runs out, the player will take damage.

Player death is currently in a very early state and if you die you’ll immediately respawn at the starter station. In a future patch players will respawn inside the respawner vats.

Life support will also require maintenance. the life support system will distribute oxygen throughout the ship, but it will also filter out waste. This waste will be collected in a separate crate which will have to be removed from the life support system periodically. This carbon container will have to be collected and either stored or ejected from the ship. In a future patch we plan to make the carbon waste useful as a crafting material.

In addition to the life support system we’ve also updated the small single seater helm to a small double seater helm. with an updated design to be more in line with our other helm modules.

As always we hope you’ll enjoy this new patch and we hope you’ll let us know what you think. You can do so via our Forums, or Twitter and Facebook.

 

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