Tabula Rasa – Interstellar rift development update 52

Mar 23, 2016

Since we started development of Interstellar rift we have had a bit of a problem with the game’s first impression. We spawn you on an unknown station and then we left you to your fate in the hopes that you’d figure out what you were supposed to do. With patch 0.1.19 we hope to start to remedy that. Today when you join a server or start a game, you will be asked what you would like your starting role to be.

We have given you 4 options that we feel would best represent what you will be doing. When picking one of these roles you will be given access to starting resources and the option of purchasing a starting ship at the Store-o-Tron.

The first of these options is to ally yourself with the galactic trade network. You have likely seen the trade kiosks on stations in the past. This organization prides itself on commerce. The acquisition of goods and commodities to trade and sell on one of the many galactic trade hubs. When joining the galactic trade network you will be given access to some resources and a cargo hauling vessel with which you can start on your mercantile journeys. Your journey will begin on a GT trade hub

The second option is to join the ranks of the Hurles co. miners. Hurles co is massive conglomerate whose many endeavours can’t have escaped your notice in the world of Interstellar Rift. By joining Hurles co. you will gain access to a small mining vessel as well as some starting resources and money. Your journey will begin on a Hurles co. Industrial complex.

The third option is to join the proud and mighty ranks of the Sentinel Security Systems Corporation. This weapons manufacturer and private military force provides security and local law enforcement in the vast reaches of space. By joining Sentinel Security Systems you will gain access to a small fighter some money and starting resources. Your journey will begin onboard Fort Bragg

And last but not least the fourth option is that of the Drifters. This lawless faction is not so much a faction as it is a collection of free spirited individuals that would rather do as they please than to be locked to a single role. Choosing this faction will give you a set of resources and access to a ship construction terminal. Your journey will begin onboard the Black Pit station.

In addition to the new starting locations we also made some changes to the ship movement system. We have completely overhauled the way we do ship movement in preparation for our upcoming ship AI. However that said we need your input. Because our new system is extremely physics driven there are going to be several iterations to get it to a point where the flight model feels enjoyable so please let us know what you think of this new ship movement and feel free to share any suggestions that you feel would improve the way ships handle.

An added bonus of this new system is that we can now display how fast a ship will go in the editor, as well as its turn rate. Allowing you greater control over fine tuning your ship designs.

Another feature we’ve added that has been a long time coming is the ability to respawn on nearby friendly ships and stations. Before you were only able to respawn on your own ship or the starter station. Now if you have friends nearby like someone in your crew or fleet you will be given the option to spawn there as well. Ofcourse these ships do need to have a molecular printer onboard in order to allow you to respawn.
Well that’s it for this week, we hope you enjoy this new update and as always please let us know what you think on our forums facebook or twitter. And we will be back in two weeks with another Interstellar Rift update. We’ve got some big things in the pipeline so stay tuned!

Hack your way through – Interstellar Rift development Update 051

Mar 09, 2016

Time for another Interstellar Rift update, This time we’ve included a highly requested feature, shared vaults. For a long time you guys have been requesting more co-op features when it comes to the collection of resources. Well from now on you will be able to share a vault inventory with your fleet and crew mates. You’ll notice a new button on the vault screen called “personal” If you’re in a fleet or crew you will be able to click this button and switch to the fleet/crew vault. Storing resources or items in here will make them available to everyone in your crew/fleet that has vault permissions. Vault permissions can be given by any member of the fleet which has the appropriate permissions to do so. With this functionality we also updated the ship construction terminal, on the top screen in the upper right you can now find a button that allows switching between which vault you want to construct your ship from.

Vaults now have modes

But wait there’s more, as mentioned above we’ve also added in the ability to form crews. These small crew groups will allow you to form a short co-op group with other players. You will also have access to the crew vault so you can easily gather resources together to build a ship.

In addition to the shared vaults we have also added in a new cyber warfare mechanic. In the ship editor you’ll find the new cyber warfare suite. This device is the centre of both your ship’s defensive and offensive capabilities.

A new hacking drone with several point defense drones

Using specialised chipsets which you will be able to find and craft you can assault ships and stations by reducing their engine output. Unlocking their teleporters and more. However you will also be able to sacrifice offensive capabilities to bolster your own firewall. This will make it more difficult for attackers to gain access to your ship’s systems and reduce or disable their effectiveness. However using these hacking chipsets will slowly consume them, and once the cartridge break you will no longer be able to use it.

The new hacking chipsets

We have also reworked a lot of the permission mechanics, you now need appropriate diplomatic standing with several factions to use their stations and facilities. This works within a station as well, where certain areas are no longer accessible unless you have a good reputation.

Teleporters now by default only grant access to the owner of a ship. If you want to give other people access to your ship you can either give them permission individually or have them join your crew or fleet for easy access. Onboard systems still require special permission to use however.

Additionally, we have reworked some of the GUI’s concerning power usage. You can now track the power usage of your ship in real time.

Reworked Power Graphs

Finally, we’ve also added a new weapon to our arsenal in the ongoing war on bugs. We now have the ability to log bugs and crashes automatically. This will allow us to track when there are crashes and it will hopefully make it easier for us to find their cause. This data is gathered anonymously but if you do not wish to be tracked you can turn this function off in the options menu.

We hope you enjoy this new patch and as always, if you would like to know more or would like sneak previews of upcoming features and patches please follow us on Twitter, Facebook and our own and Steam forums.