FINALLY a new version: beta 0.800 arrives.

[x4000]

For you redshirts: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stars_Beyond_Reach_Beta_Release_Notes#Version_0.800

To force an update, restart steam.

This resolves the worst of the new wave of issues that you guys were finding -- most notably the fact that diseases were pretty much a death sentence, and you couldn't see enough about them to understand them or even effectively fight them.  Plus there just were not enough tools for fighting them in general.  Anyway, so this should be great news, and actually it plays back into the trash/pollution issue as well, because that was related.

The new HUD for the game took FOREVER to code, much longer than I expected.  It's been almost a stinking week since the last release!?!  I did have some personal life stuff come up as well that was somewhat of an interruption, but in general just getting the new HUD in there and polished and fully functional and as usable as possible took quite a bit of doing.

Redshirts are going to have some major initial shock in terms of your eyes searching the upper left and not finding what you want, making you then have to search the top bar in a way that feels uncomfortable at first.  Ah, adaptation.  It's been a transition for me as well, and I've been staring at this for days.  This is way more usable all around, though, and already it feels a lifetime since the old HUD for me, heh.


So when are blueshirts going to come into play?  Well, I want to give it a couple of days and see what the most pressing issues are with this version, then get those resolved.  Then we'll get the blueshirts in here.  It will be really interesting to see how they fare in terms of what spikes they run face-first into versus what the redshirts have had to endure with their cities prematurely filling with death and miasma and demise.

[Captain Jack]

Oh that's nice. I really like the new HUD. The fledgling city management options will go a long way to improving QOL as well. Thanks Chris!

[TheVampire100]

Finally! I'm downloading it right now. Seeing the changes already I'm sure the game will become a much more pleasant experience.
It's funny, I really like the game to play just for what it is even if I never had any chance to win. I didn't care a lot for this unbalanced thing but I thought this should be fixed until the final version because it is the most frustating part in the game.
Quarantine will take this frustating stuff away aince you get more control over diseases and you don't have to see how things get out of your hands.

[x4000]

Oh that's nice. I really like the new HUD. The fledgling city management options will go a long way to improving QOL as well. Thanks Chris!

You bet!  And glad you like the new HUD.

Finally! I'm downloading it right now. Seeing the changes already I'm sure the game will become a much more pleasant experience.
It's funny, I really like the game to play just for what it is even if I never had any chance to win. I didn't care a lot for this unbalanced thing but I thought this should be fixed until the final version because it is the most frustating part in the game.
Quarantine will take this frustating stuff away aince you get more control over diseases and you don't have to see how things get out of your hands.

The fact that it was fun even when unbalanced is a really good sign in my opinion.  The AIs are still not really "speaking up" like they should, heh, but now at least you won't be stabbed from within.  The quarantine is something I've really liked because it just gets more and more powerful every turn that it's on with a disease.  With an early quarantine, you can stamp out a new infection really fast, depending on its infectuousness.  And of course, if it has a low infection rate but high mortality and you quarantine it, that works itself out REALLY fast.

[TheVampire100]

Hm, the new HUD is definitaly different. But I like that you can now see the progress of each social level directly on the screen and don't have to go into the menu all the time.
Is this wanted that terraform options appear in the building menu but are empty and not usable. I think it is because the game tells me I don't have this tech now. But it is a little confusing on first sight.

What I like the most is the new little menu in the bottom. It is small but efficient just the way I like my HUDs. And Overlay menu looks a lot more pleasant.

The city grid is helpful but maybe a little op. You can already see all the stats of races that you havent's even encountered yet. I think this should be changed (but probably is planned because it is still work in progress). Otherwise this gives you a huge advanatage. This race is short on food? Destroy some farms and put them into misery. High birth rate? Let's shut down somebreeders and see how you like that. Stuff like this is strategic very meaningful and you should have to reveal it with spies (and I guess that's what they are later for).

[ptarth]

The new interface is much snazzier than the last. Readability has increased significantly. The only things that I don't know if I like yet are the placement for the end of turn warning and the end turn clickable. Other than those I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

Also, terraforming is back. I can't wait to cover the world in floating rocks and get rid of the creepy Burlust Tentacles.

[crazyroosterman]

awesome sauce ill get to trying this out as soon as I get a chance on my laptop hate to be a pest but when you've rested your brain cells will you be resuming bug murdering?.

[Captain Jack]

One thing that's bugging me: the font and color on the end turn (and similar) text doesn't match the new HUD. It's just this side of jarring. Same for the headers on the other windows as well, doesn't match the current theme.

[Hyfrydle]

Loving the new interface no issues adapting so far. One slight annoyance is the way the end turn button overlaps the info bar it would be better slightly below and to the right.

[x4000]

Random notes!

1. The city grid is indeed entirely OP, I forget not everyone reads the list backlog of upcoming stuff.  It's just showing everything right now, but you'll need your spies for that in the future.  It's really useful info, but you shouldn't be getting that free, haha.

2. The terraforming options showing up before you can terraform is an oversight I'll fix for sure.

3. Bear in mind that this has to work on screens as small as 1024x720, so we're somewhat limited with where we can put the end turn clickable without it really getting in the way of stuff or getting overlapps by tooltips or what have you.  It also kind of has to overlap a bit on the main interface there unless I suppose we slide it over when the screen is wider than 1024.

4. Interesting note on the font on the end turn button not matching the rest of the interface; we had some of the same thoughts, but basically the plating for the new interface is going to be brought up somewhat in detail to match that more, not the other way around.  At least that's the current intent.  If you look at the Tech Tree screen, that's a good example of a completely finished screen.  All of the other ones are partially complete at best.  Actually I think that is literally the only one with no substantial tweaks remaining to be done.

5. Absolutely back to bug slaying and various other things of that nature.

[TheVampire100]

Okay, thanks for the info. I find the backlog a little confusing and overwhelming so I don't look very often into it.

At least for one thing it is useful: It helps to put a lot of racial information into the wiki, helping future players. For example I can see at turn 64 already that the Acutians and the Evucks are both big polluters. Okay, Acutians is not a big surprise but I have thought that a telepathically advanced species stands above stuff like this. Then again, it is the same race that drains planets or self destuct in order to kill other races.

Thoraxians seem to have the best birth rate. I will keep my eyes open for other significant values.

[crazyroosterman]

well the evuks are to be honest barely below the acutions when it comes amorality generally  speaking they just do things to help them self at the expense of other species.

[TheVampire100]

Yes, this seems correct.

Also I noticed that Spire, Neinzul and Zenith don't need any food at all and Acutians and Andors generate Meals out of nothing (because they are robots I suspect that they transform energy or other resources into meals but don't use crops/water).
Thoraxians have no planet rage.
And Yali don't generate pollution.
I will add race specific pages for the wiki later this day or week.

[Captain Jack]

The Thoraxians are the Hand of the Planet. They're probably given favorable treatment, but I don't know if the lack of planet rage is the reason they're the Hand or the result of it.

The Yali are going to have some interesting terraforming behaviors before long, I know for a fact.

[Mick]

Any screenshots of the new HUD?