Hello Colonists!

Today I am going to stream Astro Colony, showcasing the newest update about Transport & Locomotion!
Please come and say hello and share your feedback during the stream. I will answer all of your questions!

• 20:00 CET
  
• 18:00 UTC
  
• 14:00 EST

• STEAM
  
• TWITCH

It may happen that we will get interrupted by my newborn son crying (obviously due to bugs) :D

For people who have Steam broadcasting issues, I am also streaming on Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/Tefel


The game also yesterday received the hotfix update, which fixed all remaining reported issues.

• Fixed crash when picking up (MMB) twice the same thruster
  
• Improved loading and cleanup when quitting the game. It's now faster and more reliable.
  
• Fixed markers of Wagons to save their state
  
  
• Starting cinematic is no longer showing HUD
  
• Fixed issue where snap elements coulnd't be selected after loading planet of another universe
  
• Fixed issue of rotating and moving snap elements in blueprint designer
  
• Fixed issue of creating snap objects for walls
  
• Improved construction of docking stations on the planet
  
  
• Wagons that travel between stations have now correctly calculated relative coordinates
  
• Loaded wagons are correctly loaded by finding a valid reference grid
  
• Fixed issue with planet losing collisions due to using invalid voxel invoker
  
• Fixed shader movement glitches such as jumping of space carrier when bringing astronauts to
• station
  
• Navigation points are now correctly calculated after using a hand drill
  
• Barrier merging is improved to increase merge distance
  
• Shader visuals have improved, and water is now more visible

Please don't forget to join Our Discord community to let me know about your Astro Colony wishes ;)
[discord.com]Thank you for your support!
Tefel (Terad Games)

Hey Astro Colonists!
The game just received the Major Update about transport and locomotion!
There are new systems in the game which improves astronauts, robots and resources movement.

Cable car is the new advanced way to transport resources, water and gas between stations and planets. Its purpose is to cover great distances as you build a big space station docked together with other entities. This can replace the docking station's system of inside conveyor belts.

The system is composed of wagons (three typologies according to the resource to transport), depot (where wagons are built), ports (load-unload of resources), and poles in cases where the distance to cover is huge.

Elevator is an architectural addition to create faster vertical movement for astronauts and robots.
Build it next to the floor to make the entrance appears.
Two segments above the floor are enough to let astronaut to walk.
In addition to many other changes, long awaited barriers are now merged properly. Build as many barriers as you want, and they will be all merged into one big oxygen area.

🎵 Our composer Casper was recently busy working on Astro Colony music, there are already 2 more tracks composed. This update adds one of them to the game!
This update was originally planned to introduce new human needs and ways to refill them. Some work was already begun. This means that you should expect another major update soon.
"Life of a Colonist" will come before Christmas.

In the meantime, you can also expect smaller patches improving stability and adding some missing elements like rotations of depots or the possibility for the player to use elevators as well!

Please share your feedback with me on Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/EFzAA3w


Thanks guys so much for support!
Tefel (Terad Games)

Hello Colonists!

The next Major Update is just around the corner, it should come out next month.
In the meantime, I would love to invite you to celebrate Astro Colony
during the Steam Space Exploration Fest!

What makes Astro Colony a bit different from other automation / colony sim games is the exploration of the endless universe!


You can get Astro Colony with a 50% discount during the Space Exploration Fest, until September 9th.

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/1614550/Astro_Colony/

Please share your feedback with me on Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/EFzAA3w

Thanks guys so much for your support!
Tefel (Terad Games)

Hello Colonists!
As You know, the game is coming OUT next year!

The development of the game is not slowing down. The first part of the year brought 5 Major updates, and 2 more are coming in 2024.

The first part of the year brought

• ARCHITECTURE - hundreds of architectural elements and themes to customize them
  
• PERFORMANCE - huge performance boost together with shader movement system for stations
  
• TERRAFORMING - animals and plants collected on planets, new environments in universes II, III, IV
  
• SANDBOX - new game modes giving freedom of construction
  
• MULTIPLAYER 3.0 - with more reliable experience and solutions for default engine problems

We are not stopping there! On the way to release 1.0 I foresee additional updates, as illustrated in the current roadmap.

Speaking of content, here is a brief description of what they consist of:

To make astronauts more "human" and less NPC, the idea is to require more effort to provide for them. Together with the already-existing needs, oxygen consumption and fulfilling comfort are required.
Besides, new devices are introduced, such as elevators to allow vertical movement of astronauts and robots, and cable cars to transport goods over long distances and multiple stations.

Along with having some new cosmic events happen more often, you will need to use a defense shield to defend your colony. You will also train astronauts to control it, making it automated.

As the last news, I want to share my personal joy with you! I just became a father, so there is a new member of the crew ;)

Please stay tuned and have faith in Astro Colony!

Hey Astro Colonists!

The new build with more improvements is here! It changes object collisions and eliminates hitches! Thanks to the M4D_4LI3N report, I was able to change physics and remove game stuttering.

Since many physical collisions are now gone, the game needs to rely on optical (query) physics.
There is a new system in place to prevent the rover from clipping, going through planes and flipping over.

Spacecraft is no longer using physical movement and default replication but instead custom movement similar to character movement with collision detection. I could turn spacecraft into another "character" type, but I preferred keeping it as a simple Pawn and making use of Smooth Sync technology, which precisely synchronizes positions between clients and a server.

Reducing the number of physical collisions allowed for a great reduction in the number of hitches caused by physics when moving the station. Before the change, it was taking up the entire frame CPU budget (33ms). Right now, it's not even noticeable.

"Hold" interactions got improved and accurate. Arrows of box selections are no longer "jumping" and are very precise thanks to better collision plane tracking drag.

There are new levels of transferring electricity, water and gas. Expert docking is now capable of sending 5k electricity!

• Fixed crash related to picking parking bot
  
• Fixed construction rotation for walls - is now possible to rotate objects and change camera rotation
  
• Fixed multiple hitches caused by physics calculations
  
• Gas, water, and electricity now have different values for each docking level 1,2,3
  
• Improved drag interactions
  
• Fixed single player Colony Origin construction position
  
• New, easier-to-construct drills and giant drills
  
• Fixed scaling of animated decorations like FAN
  
• Fixed scaling of snap elements like lamps
  
• Changing decal colors is now supported in multiplayer
  
• Copy/pasting of objects, snap, and decals are now previewing the correct rotation and scale

It was a very busy week, so I hope you will like the changes.
Please let me know if you encounter any issues on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/EFzAA3w

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/1614550/Astro_Colony/

Thanks guys so much for your support!
Tefel (Terad Games)

Hello Colonists!
The game just received more improvements!

Before the update, the construction menu had a simple "filter" which was just filtering the currently selected category. This update improves the system by allowing users to search items in all categories and showing a preview of the categories found.

Players asked for faster conveyor belts for docking, since it was slowing down resource transfer.
Currently, there are 3 docking levels available:
- default - can transfer electricity only
- advanced - can transfer electricity and water; has faster conveyor belts
- expert - can transfer electricity, water, and gas; provides the fastest conveyor belts

The tutorial bot got improved with better interactions and new tutorials.

• Expert docking station added to the game
  
• Construction SEARCH is now providing results for all categories
  
• Camera for interactions can now move, this should make selection for logic blocks (sensors, deciders) easier
  
• Tutorial bot screen interaction + swap
  
• Hotbar start with 3 elements, allowing players to configure their hotbars easier
  I believe this change will help to understand that items from the construction menu can be dragged
  
• A new tutorial about recycling
  
• New hotkeys in the settings - next item, previous item, next category
  
• Resource quantity shows a million symbol if the number gets large M+ 25M+

• Fixed shared technologies syncing when the player is joining
  
• Decider only updates the ON/OFF state when it has a signal; it fixes the issue where no signal would disable the logic blocker
  
• The upgraded smelter is now checking the iron bar recipe and activating iron bar+; the same is true for copper bar and copper bar+
  
• Upgraded device keeps inventory sensor link
  
• Fixed issue where radial menu would not turn on animal capture
  
• Fixed multiplayer issue where client would not have voxel collision after station undocking
  
• Construction of the blueprint (imported) requires all items to be unlocked to construct
  
• Fixed an issue where the blueprint designer would not allow removing locked objects.
  
• Fixed issue where Player Host would have wrong Tech Tree assigned after client join (invalid universe ID)
  
• Fixed issue where some first generated planets for clients in another universe would appear empty

It's finally time for another live stream!
Please check it tomorrow (Saturday) 20 CET on Steam or Twitch
https://www.twitch.tv/tefel/


Thank you guys so much for your support!
Tefel (Terad Games)

Hey Astro Colonists!

In preparation of a major content update "Life of a Colonist", I just published another improvement and stability update. Below, you can check what actually changed in the game.

Thank you guys, for reporting bugs and cases with lower than expected performance.

• Improved rendering for UI, so scaled elements are sharper, especially text
  
• Increased chances to spawn amethyst (violet planet)
  
• When starting the game, random buttons cannot lock the game anymore
  
• Gamepad is now active in the cinematic, can rotate the camera and skip the cinematic
  
• Gamepad camera improvements make it's possible to control the cameras of devices
  
• Client interactions in blueprints are now possible
  
• Client copy-paste settings is now correct
  
• New efficient rendering of many instances (thanks Dylan Hunt)
  
• Voxel system improvements to make it more efficient and use less memory
  
• Improved hotbar UI order, so it can be used with a 130% UI scale

UI HUD elements are reordered. For example, the hotbar appears on top of every interaction window. This allows a player who uses 130% UI to be able to drag construction items to the hotbar.

• Fixed crash related to invalid client interactions for blueprints
  
• Fixed crash when theme was pasted to an invalid cell
  
• Fixed hotkeys where scaling UI / saving empty settings could remove some hotkeys
  
• Fixed multiplayer issues to preserve player state and station movement when player joins

The demo is now updated to benefit from recent fixes and improvements.

Astro Colony is currently partnering with the developers of Desynced and Techtonica.

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/bundle/42762/Astro_Colony__Desynced/

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/bundle/43157/Techtonica__Astro_Colony/

Thanks guys so much for your support!
Tefel (Terad Games)

Hey Colonists!

It's time for another major improvement to the game. Maybe I'm slowly becoming obsessed with optimization, I hope not 😅

What exactly is Async planet generation, and why is it so important?

Before the update, only the planet surface was calculated in the background (async).
When elements of the planets (resources, rocks, and plants) were generated, it caused a hitch (lag).

Right now, all planet objects are generated seamlessly (async). Player cannot even notice when a planet is generated.

This change makes the experience pleasant, reduces the load on the CPU, allows older PCs to run the game, and makes Multiplayer syncing and joining quicker!

It was a frequently requested feature to show more types of resources, like geysers, directly on the map.
There is no need to visit each planet to find gas anymore!

Spawning multiple vehicles was causing a huge performance drop. After the latest improvements, this is no longer the case. It's now possible to spawn 10–20 vehicles and keep 60 fps+.

• new async system to generate planets
  
• snap objects have the correct visuals when placing
  
• snap objects when picked → constructed are replicated correctly to clients - keeping pasted size
  
• map improvements showing new types of resources like gas
  
• remaining multiplayer shader objects are fixed when moving (tools and some devices)
  
• sounds have now corrected attenuation, fixing the problem that other players in multiplayer can hear distant sounds
  
• asteroids should now look sharper
  
• new improved algorithm for anti-aliasing, making it less blurry
  
• vehicles are optimized (performance 10x)

The game is currently discounted, so please use this opportunity if you still haven't played it!
https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/1614550/Astro_Colony/

Despite all the effort and many improvements, the game is getting less visibility and fewer reviews than usually. It is quite concerning that the number of reviews dropped drastically, from 60 last month to only 20 this month.

Soon Steam Summer Fest will start, and I will stream the game and make the demo available once again, so I hope that will help spread the word about the game!

Thank you, guys, for supporting the project!
Kind regards,
Tefel (Terad Games)

Hey Astro Colonists!

The game just received the big multiplayer update, which addresses default engine replication issues. I took time to investigate the position of replicated actors, the movement system, what is going on behind the scenes, and why sometimes positions sent from the server to the client can vary.

What I found:

It turns out that all types of compression have limitations and can't fit large values.
The replication distance limit was just about 10 million units (about 100 LY).
When crossing the limit, unexpected things could start happening, such as the engine trying to teleport both players and planets.

With some custom engine changes to the compression, I managed to increase the distance to 1000 LY. This should be enough to consider it reliable.

In a game where the world is generated indefinitely, like Minecraft, it is important to keep precision in every calculation. The game uses various methods to update the origin (center of the universe) to keep it precise, showing shadows and smooth animations.

When the game is loading, it's taking time to update World Origin.
This was always a huge problem in multiplayer, causing my headache more than hundreds of times. I managed to get two new rebasing systems for the dedicated server and the Player Host server. Right now, the server decides exactly when rebasing can happen for clients.

To keep client movement smooth. My previous approach was to let the client apply its own position. This was causing corrections from time to time from the server if positions changed too often. Right now, the server always applies the location, and all shader data is adjusted for the client.

• new replication system using compressed data suitable for long distances
  
• new docking system avoiding rebasing origin problems
  
• new client shader movement position updates, reliable to not cause teleporting issues
  
• new player host rebase system, 100% controlled by the server host
  
• transmitter energy power is now copy pasted
  
• preventing the rover from falling down when loading games on the server
  
• Capturing animals is now fixed for clients
  
• Parallel universe, some visuals fixed for the client - invisible asteroids
  
• client now shows the proper effect of capturing animals
  
• increased number of max selected elements, so box selection keeps working for maximum box selections
  
• 3d object optimizations for shader movement
  
• particle optimization for shader movement (combining many into one)
  
• fixed icons (hologram objects) to rotate towards the camera
  
• fixed shader offset when changing space station as a client
  
• fixed camera rotation for walls when first time enabled
  
• fixed various dedicated server warnings
  
• fixed issues with blueprint designer - entering grid on server and shader movement
  
• fixed client properly leaving grid, so planet particles are removed
  
• sky shader movement is working for all possessed modes

Thanks guys so much for your support!
Tefel (Terad Games)