Here's an initial list of some of the minor fixes and updates that have been added to the game over the past few months..

• Loads of World Editor improvements : New Screens: GamePlay -> Player Start controls and Global Weapons Settings, Vehicle Setup, Weapons Setup. New layout to make it easier and clearer when you're assigning and uploading models & textures to a world. Lots of work on the asset browser and asset upload screens, including the asset scale and orientation control which means you can adjust per-instance model sizes without having to change the model file - very useful!. Eraser options for removing walls, bg models etc (which now are reflected immediately on client), landscape editing - you can now paint terrain and have it uploaded to the server -, better drag and drop controls for buildings, etc, etc. The World Editor is getting really quite useful now.
  
• New Weapon Systems : Lots of rearranging weapon settings - tieing in new per-vehicle weapon slots and making global settings like 'energy-damage-link' mode configurable, etc, etc
  
• Linux World Servers & cloud hosting - World servers now running on Linux again, along with new options to allow automated cloud hosting at the click of a button.
  
• Lots of Space Stuff - New galaxy map, tactical map, Orbit cam, Mining systems, Drives, Trade, tracking of star systems visited - all that kinda stuff. Also a whole new backend. Not finished, not particularly playable, but it exists again.
  
• Collision & Replication - The player replication and collision systems got a lot of attention which should make remote player positioning more accurate and reliable.
  
• Script improvements & trace functions - New scripted hiscores system, *scripttrace commands let you dig into what the serverside script is doing, and a whole pile of general script-language additions, some of which are listed below.
  
• Controller/SteamDeck Support - WIP but various parts of the game should now be playable with a controller. (needs a bit of effort on the controller configs)
  
• Various world limits increased - 60 vehicles instead of 24, 16 robocrow types instead of 8, 24 tiled surfaces instead of 12, 64 texmaps instead of 32, etc. etc.
  
• Model Converter updates - Better FBX support, thumbnail export, animation fixes, turret controls, ability to drag & drop atm and image files into the MC.

• Fixed pickup buildings
  
• Fix for spaceship textures not always appearing if ships were loaded before the DLC archive was mounted
  
• Fix for occasional crash if rapidly downloading and removing lots of assets
  
• Fix for not being able to lay new surfaces and texmaps in the world ed
  
• Debug tracking of render targets so we can easily track down a rogue one, Fixed some device reset issues that would cause errors when resizing (etc)
  
• Some fixes for reliability of the network connection.
  
• Fix for remote model selector screen just being a feckwit sometimes
  
• Vehicle setup screen shows that vehicle 1 graphic can not be added (and shows the correct texture in the preview window)
  
• Fix for asteroid graphics not loading if they appear in view before the DLC pack has been mounted
  
• Fix for weapon sys not being initialised on the client when theres no weapons.txt on the server
  
• Fix for shadows sometimes not displaying when in spec or RC
  
• Fix for profiler not always showing everything that was going on. (And related FPS improvements once we found out what was going on)
  
• Fixed an annoying little graphical flicker that sometimes happened when particles were about to expire
  
• Some fixes to the replication of turreted vehicles and weapons
  
• Fix for certain PC setups not being able to access secure URLs
  
• Fix for the static flags not showing blue when they're controlled by the opposing team
  
• Fix for *settings keyboard controls not working when in world editor

• Changed the 'you can't go home when in a vehicle' logic to work off an Extras flag rather than being determined by the vehicle type
  
• Made the big yellow arrow above buildings respect the building's 'Dont show targeting popup' flag
  
• *savemap with no name now just triggers a save of the main map
  
• Moved the sun slightly to the south
  
• Added *buildingspecialevent mode 9 to temporarily hide a building (e.g. *buildingspecialevent [building_num] 9 [hide_for_seconds] )
  
• Added the movie camera on to the main/escape menu (Esc -> M) fix for weapons UI not being hidden when movie camera turns off the UI
  
• Added close 'x' button to top right of all world ed dialogs
  
• Improved dust effects and added settings controls for various colour and dust speed options
  
• When sea level is set to 0, dont draw the sea at all. (rather than pointlessly watching it z-fighting with the ground)
  
• You can now copy & paste text into the chat window & edit boxes! COPY AND PASTE! Whatever will they think of next :).
  
• Added osd text types for gold, silver and bronze text
  
• Added an optional extra parameter to *onscreentimer to include a text message that is displayed above the timer (i.e. *onscreentimer [playername],[mode],[seconds],[text_msg] )
  
• Spec Mode Limits = 1 means a player cannot access spectator mode unless they're in a safe zone
  
• Result of *renamebuilding command is now immediately reflected client-side
  
• Added *resetallstaticflags command to, um, reset all the static flag
  
• Safe zones are now recognised on the server so that the script 'am I in safe zone?' and delete safe zones commands can work
  
• Delete Building, Rename and Edit Message buttons in world ed now working
  
• Added mouseover tooltip showing current value for world-editor sliders
  
• Increased the amount of dynamic objects / particles that can be onscreen at any one time
  
• Improved the bullet <-> wall collision positioning
  
• Fairly major rewrite of the main server download system that should allow faster downloads, better compression and (hopefully) be more reliable and less likely to affect the behaviour of the rest of the game.
  
• Graphics -> Robocrow effects = 2 adds the mode 1 trails and thrust indicators to vehicles
  
• Unified the lighting calculations for the standard landscape and ground shaders

• Iridis : As well as making use of the new hiscore system and scripting up a fun little single-player challenge there (a proper challenge which is well worth a go if you've got any old-school gaming skills), I've added new features for controlling spectator mode and safe zones, new static flag graphics, a new energy bar display (incl. some programmer-pixel-art I'm quite pleased with :] ), improved particle effects, improved wall collisions and a bunch of stuff to improve the 'subspace' control mode that's used there.
  
• Lovelace : Have done a bit of rebalancing on this world, reducing a bit of the early stage grind and removing any remnants of the stuff that was pay-for (e.g. fishing is now an in-game-currency item). Still has its worth, but needs some more work to make it better balanced and improve the tail.
  
• Mechzone : Mechzone got a complete rebuild with new effects, new collision systems (mechs standing on buildings, you'd be amazed how much work is involved in doing that 'properly', probably worth it :] ), and a new design for a 'board-game' style mini-econ using an auction mechanic. Also needs finishing tho :)

To version 0.76.1.5 :

• Ship previews and stats on the station trade screen
  
• Improvements to the collision system and replication of remote players
  
• Options to increase shadow resolution
  
• Improvements to the gal radio and streaming audio support
  
• UI/UX improvements on building screens and world editor
  
• Many graphics bugfixes (Shaders, animations, particles, cutscenes, landscape textures, etc etc)
  
• Lots and lots more bugfixes

Outside of the client and server releases there has also been lots of work done on Lovelace (economy balancing and bugfixing) and some new worlds that'll be opening in the coming months.

Apologies for the brief delay (ok, 3 years. Fine. Be like that then).

A tractor v0.76.0 is now available. In this version:
- A new universe
- New worlds (mostly work-in-progress) ; Lovelace reset.
- Too much other stuff to list. (Ask a patron).

'Season X' has now officially started with a reset of all galactic players. If we're lucky I wont need to officially start it again before the weekend :] . Many things still need finishing, space stuff is limited but hopefully you'll have a few things to explore. Lots more to come over the next few months.

(I'm calling this next phase of the game's existence 'Season X' just to suggest that its a defined phase we'll be going through.. it won't stay like this indefinitely.. There will be a reset at the end of it.. And I suppose its X because its, experimental? - But really just because i've completely lost track of what phase we're in :] Anyway..)

The main goal of this season is to support players to build your own worlds (and explore those created by other players). Secondarily, there will be space exploration & a galactic economy, but in a slightly different (and more limited) form than previous. We'll also be building some 'staff' worlds and trying out new (and old) ideas there.

• The 'season' should run at least 3 months, possibly longer.
  
• Anyone will be able to make worlds and make them publicly available in the galaxy if they wish.
  
• Everyone will start in space (Initially. A new-player world may be added during the season)
  
• You'll need Gal credits to buy autopilots, infimp, stardrives, space weapons, new ships etc
  
• Gal credits can be gained through:
  
  • Playing on worlds & exchanging world wealth/kudos/etc at a planet’s starport. (Like the old galactic prestige system, different worlds will have different exchange rates and monthly exchange limits. i.e. Each world will have a different maximum number of credits you can earn there each month).
    
  • Mining in space
    
  • (Possibly) By attacking players who either are carrying mined materials or have a bounty.
• Initially there'll be no space trade system, though something may get added later. (Last time we did space trade people used bots to gain wealth and im not sure its worth running it again for that reason.)
  
• There will be a few different 'staff worlds' to try, including an economy world that will be based on Lovelace but with some changes to balance & progression. It won't be quite so harsh. :)
  
• One or two 'staff worlds' will be for Patreon subscribers only. Patreon subscribers will also get a free infimp for the season (as well as joining the private discord and having to hear Fooli and I whittering on for ages about random nonsense in our podcast. Did i mention the podcast?? :) Check it out here[patreon.com])

At some point (probably :] ), Season X will end, we'll take the learnings from what happened during the season, the universe will be reset and we'll start again with something that will hopefully be a bit more structured and balanced.

The game will remain closed for a while longer until we're ready to start this new season. It is unlikely to be ready to go before the end of April, probably later. If you can't wait, subscribe to the Patreon[patreon.com] and you'll be able to join the alpha universe and help test and build the work-in-progress version.

With the game now being over 20 years old and having just spent the last 3 years closed - and with all the other things to do in the world - it'd be foolish to expect many people will want to play.
But who knows.. if we make some good worlds and keep improving things, maybe we'll develop something that people might want to get into again.

Did I mention we have a patreon page[patreon.com] now? :) Sign up to hear our podcast, join our private discord and all the other good stuff.

Over 50 now though, which is like, proper old.

Nothing much to announce here, sorry, but figured I ought to at least finish the steam group pages I was supposed to have set up 4 years ago. I believe there is now an 'official' Steam group to follow or something. ( https://steamproxy.net/groups/games-for-may
and https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/developer/GamesForMay/ )

I'm going to be having some time off work soon, mostly so i can make a few lil games in Unity... There's a fair chance that something I make will get posted here but it's unlikely to be anything decent or interesting, promise.

I'm not yet sure about spending any significant time on the a-tractor-defibrilator as the code is all rather old and needs much more care and attention than I can afford, but I do have a vague notion of probably using a few hours to at least make it basically usable again. Probably.

Offers of huge amounts of money to do it properly will always be welcome as usual, of course.

The server machine the game has been running on failed yesterday and is now refusing to start up. Unfortunately due to work commitments I'm not going to be able to look into this much for the next few days, so the game will be offline for a lil while - I don't expect it to be back up before the weekend.

A new game-client is now available on steam with a few fixes and improvements:
- Fix for some of the items on the first world joined being incorrectly named and unusable
- New 'large chat text' option on the in-games options menu
- New 'World Builder' option on the frontend options to activate the world 'Create' section
- Possible fixes for some login problems
I've also fixed up the interfaces to support the basic 'Bank' building - bank accounts will be added to the main world in the near future.

Apologies for the downtime; the game server has been offline for a short while but is available again now. Anyone who was online and outside when the server went offline will have had their health frozen.

Good morning :).
There's a new client update active now (0.75.4) - In addition to a some minor fixes and extra info to help track down the problems with post-processing, this version includes a few extra features and changes for people working on creating new worlds. Full release notes can be found here[theuniversal.net].

In other news, big congratulations to Swarthington who has managed to confound all expectations by surviving to over 100 on Lovelace. I've also upped the Lovelace skill limit to 4 to help the tiny population currently struggling to stay alive there :]