Fixed the Server image loading not working sometimes

fixing sesrver issues

Added Backup Restore Functionality for broken savegames

Hotfix fixing certain tech tree items not being able to be researched

Hello Lunar Pioneers, it's been a while!

The past few months have been kind of crazy for me but now I'm finally able to launch the next major update for the game.

This time I've focused on the late game content, focusing on some big spaceships. But I've also improved the overall user experience and marking feedback.

Getting water for your homegrown food and plants has been pretty tedious so far as our station is located near the moons equator. As in real life, we suspect frozen water and gases to be found at the lunar poles. Why only there? Well, the sun is shining at such a steep angle that some craters are always in shadow reaching constant freezing cold temperatures which means liquid and gases freeze and... stay in place instead of evaporating.
You can build huge spaceships to travel to the polar regions and bring back water and frozen gases.

You can now launch spaceships from the Spaceport! Some real life future plans include using the moon as a proxy base to assemble and launch interplanetary spaceships. It's much easier to overcome the moons gravitational pull instead of earths. Plus: The moon does not have an atmosphere which gets in the way when you're traveling as fast as a spaceship.
These big spaceships can be built and launched collaboratively as a community (just as the other spaceport buildings) This time we keep track of the top 3 sponsors for each launched ship so you can show up in the hall of fame.

I finally got around to adding some achievements to the game. You can also add them to your profile picture in the community hub. (This also works on the mobile version of the game)
Additionally you can now change your profile picture and background to customize how you show up in the Friends List and Highscore.

Many of you were annoyed with the lack of feedback on unknown images as there pretty much isn't any. We can't give you a definitive answer whether you've marked correctly, as the unknown images are... well... unknown. But we are now showing you how other players have marked. This way you at least know if your markings are the same as the others.

In the marking panel there is now an image history view where you can see past markings and how you performed. Please note that for existing markings prior to the patch some information is missing as we did not track it yet. But for any future image you will be able to see which craters were correct and how others have marked the same picture.

Just like ingame, the real life NASA and ESA are trying to reach the lunar poles. As these are areas with high shadow coverage we do not show these regions to new players. But if you have been marking for a while, chances are you'll encounter images from the south pole. This way you contribute even more directly toward our planned real life moon landing.

Small change, big impact. You can now queue up plants in the greenhouses.

• There is now a max queue button in the production overlay allowing you to spend all available resources at once
  
• Resources in the Spaceport now have a score multiplier attached to them to make hard to obtain resources more valuable
  
• Some productions now give more output resources
  
• Astronaut Calculations have been improved
  
  • Buildings now only require astronauts when they are actually producing
    
  • As soon as a building is done producing the astronauts are available again
    
  • Productions will stay active with 0 iterations to go, so you can have buildings dedicated to a certain production without leaving your astronauts occupied

I know it's been a while and the updates have become less frequent. The reason for that is quite simple: We are a publicly funded project and as such our resources are spread thin. You might have noticed I started writing the blog posts in the "I" form rather than the "We" form and that is because the team size has been downscaled to just me (plus the professor overseeing the project) On top of that I'm on 50% part time since December.
All this has been planned beforehand and is fine for everyone. But I hope that explains why progress has slowed down.

Catch you on the moon,

The IMPACT Team

You madlads!

you actually did it! This weekend we've reached 1 Million Crater Annotations!

We just wanted to say thank you!

When launched the game back in August we never thought this goal would be reached so fast. The past months have been an amazing ride for us and we are so happy that so many of you joined us to help the European Space Agency.

Of course there are still billions of craters out there but this is a huge step to show ESA that games and gamers can do so much good when given the opportunity.

We are paving the way for a bright future of Gaming for Science!


Catch you on the moon,

The IMPACT Team



Austin Powers © Warner Bros. Pictures (New Line Cinema)

Dear Lunar Pioneers,

wow we are once again amazed by what you've achieved. Right now we are looking at 770000 markings since our launch at gamescom in August!

A lot of you gave feedback in the steam forum and on our Discord[discord.gg] that the marking experience could be improved and while we are still working on getting the more complex features in, we think we've been able to address the major painpoints.

Your He-3 Multiplier does not reset immediately when making a mistake. This was especially frustrating when encountering ambiguous or wrongly annotated craters. You now get 3 strikes per picture before we reduce the multiplier, so feel free to mark more boldly.

We've sat down and fixed up some of the craters in our database so there shouldn't be as many false negatives in the known images. This point caused a lot of confusion and was especially frustrating when it also reset your multiplier. So we hope these mistakes will be way less frequent going forward.

While we are still working on a way to show you previous markings after advancing, we've come up with a simple fix for the situations where you want to take a bit more time to evaluate the marking feedback. Instead of auto advancing, we wait for you to press the submit button again before advancing to the next image.

You can change to windowed mode by pressing alt+enter. Some of you requested this feature to play on a second screen.


As you know, this project is part of a scientific study and we've started the evaluation phase in October. This means we've collected all your marked craters and put them into a merging algorithm to stitch together all the images you've collectively marked. Just look at the awesome example results:

(Work in Progress: please note that the evaluation is not done yet, we are still working on the merging parameters)

With a database like this the ESA will be able to find safe landing spots, analyze the lunar surface and build autonomous landers and shuttles for the upcoming moon base.
All thanks to your contributions! Let's make it to 1 million craters!

Catch you on the moon,

The IMPACT Team

PS: We are working on new content as well but need a bit more time because we also need to do the science stuff now :D

Hey Pioneers!

We've got some exciting news for you - a major update for IMPACT is here, and it's packed with awesome new content and improvements to make your lunar adventure even better.

Community Milestone:

We're super excited to share that your combined effort has led to an incredible amount of 372,000 marked moon craters so far! Your dedication and effort in mapping the lunar surface have been amazing. Thanks a ton for your support and contributions to the IMPACT project.

New Content:

• New Spaceport:
  The Spaceport is now open! Join the Collaborative Project and team up with other players to build megastructures together and unlock new gameplay features.
• Build the Community Hub:
  The Community Hub will allow you to add friends and share your crater marking performance
• Build the Trophy Hall:
  The Trophy Hall will allow you to check global highscores and might unlock unique performance rewards in the future.

Harvest Water and Grow Plants:
Get ready for future expeditions by harvesting water and growing plants. This new feature will help you sustain your base and plan for upcoming long-term missions to the lunar poles and the depths of space.

Rearrange your Base
We got into touch with the lunar building authority and got permission to move buildings around. Simply select "Move Buildings" from the construction menu and improve your base layout!

New Buildings:

• Biochemical Plant:
  This new facility allows you to produce essential biochemical resources like water, soil and fuel.
• Greenhouses:
  Grow a variety of plants to support your base and future missions. These greenhouses will be essential for sustaining life on the moon.
• UnlockableDecorations:
  Personalize your base with new unlockable decorations. Showoff your style and make your lunar habitat truly unique. Keep an eye out - marking craters might just unlock some special structures!

We hope you enjoy these new features and keep building,exploring, and thriving on the moon. And don't forget to mark more craters!Every crater counts in ensuring the safety of future moon missions.

Thanks for being such an awesome community!

Catch you on the moon,

The IMPACT Team