DevBlog #29 - Space Haven Alpha 3 - The Resource Overhaul.

Greetings, Spacefarers.

How has your summer been? Ours has been a nice mix of hot and rainy. We enjoyed our 3 weeks of vacation immensely, and it brought us a whole lot of new energy to work more on Space Haven. We've been quietly working more on this next Alpha update for more than a few weeks already, wanting to announce our vacation ending and giving you a nice surprise in form of a new Alpha update at the same time =)

What is new? You might ask. Well, what is not new! Let's jump into it all, shall we.


NOTE! Some of the new facilities are still lacking coloring and texturing.

New Facilities and Resources

We've added 7 new resource production facilities, and modified the functions of the existing ones a little bit. The purpose of this resource overhaul was to give us a better base to expand on, and make it easier to continue adding some more depth to the game in the future. The underlying resource tree will enable a wider array of various resources and both low and high tech facilities, as well as production chains that make sense.

• Water Purifier - Transforms ice into purified water, essential for many life forms.
  
• Water Purifier - Transforms ice into purified water, essential for many life forms.
  
• Chemical Refinery - Used to produce various chemicals. Releases hazardous gas and is noisy.
  
• Metal Refinery - Transforms carbon and basic metals to steel plates. Releases heat and is noisy.
  
• Energy Refinery - Transforms energy crystal to energy rods and hyperium to hyperfuel. Releases hazardous gas and is noisy.
  
• Scrapper - Transforms scrap materials into a variety of usable resources. Releases heat and is noisy.
  
• Assembler - The assembler produces basic construction components, including Soft block, Hull blocks and Infrablocks.
  
• Micro-Weaver - The Micro-Weaver creates fabrics from fibers.
  
• Cell Fuser - The Cell Fuser uses electronic components and energy rods to create energy cells.
  
• Electronic Fabricator - Transforms noble metal and raw chemical to electronic parts.
  
• Optronics Fabricator - The high-tech Optronics Fabricator is capable of producing optronics components.
  
• Advanced Assembler - The advanced assembler facility is capable of producing high-tech construction components, such as tech blocks and energy blocks.
  

In addition to these we also added a battery module to the game, essential for sudden bursts of power consumption or power grid failures.


Added resources and new icons.

A resource overhaul wouldn't be an overhaul without new resources and of course new fantastic looking icons! Our graphics designer has been crafting the new facilities and icons for a long time.


You are now able to customize which resources you want to see in the top bar, and in which way.

This brings us to the next improvement. Ship settings now have a section where you can customize which resources you deem important and want to keep an extra eye on. You'll be able to customize the importance (in which order they are shown), if they are shown at all when you don't currently have any of the type and if you want to be notified if a certain resource is starting to run low.


You can now butcher aliens for meat and make a meal. If you hate one of your crew members...

Speaking of running low on resources. Malakai uses his butcher skills to make some nice monster meat out of an alien body. Become a notorious alien hunter and feed your crew with some greens (It's good for you! Or is it?). If one of the crew members vanishes and the others are having a nice meal filled with meat recipes, you might want to be a bit worried.



Sandbox Scenario

Some type of sandbox mode has been asked for a lot, so we decided to create a start scenario where resources are abundant! And you start with a crew of 8. This scenario will let you focus more on building your fleet without worrying about running out of resources, great for when you want to see how a ship design you have in mind works when brought alive in the game.


'Mobile Platform' built by Kenji

How to Update

If you're an Alpha backer or higher you can now update the game either through the in-game update mechanism or through the Bugbyte redeem site:

• Method 1: You can use the in-game update mechanism. Launch the game and go to main menu and click Update! (You need to be logged in to Cloud with your account you used to redeem your Reward Code)
  
• Method 2: Navigate to the Bugbyte redeem site and log-in with your account (Created when you redeemed the Reward Code) to grab the newest build: http://bugbyte.fi/redeem
  

We will most likely be Quick Patching the game in the coming days, so be sure to check out the in-game news section frequently.

If you're not an Alpha tier backer don't worry, we are once again one step closer to Steam Early Access, which is when we will send out access also to Crew Member backers!



We love to hear from you guys so don't hesitate to come have a chat with us =) You can connect with us from through the channels below:

• Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
  
• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceHavenGame
  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacehavengame/
  
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BugbyteGames/
  

We also have our mailing list which is great for keeping up to date with important news: http://bugbyte.fi/register

Need help with something? Send us an e-mail and we'll help you at: [email protected]



Wishlist on Steam!

Be sure to wishlist Space Haven on Steam and GOG, to be notified of release =)

Full list of patch notes

Alpha 3 - New Features Implemented (NOTE! Saved games are not supported from Alpha 2.)

• A new resource tree with new added resources and new facilities.
  
• Sandbox scenario added - Start in a sector with a ton of resources!
  
• Sandbox scenario added - Start in a sector with a ton of resources!
  
• Ability to haul dead bodies and turn dead humans into human meat. If times are desperate...
  
• Ability to haul dead alien bodies and turn dead aliens into monster meat. Time to become an alien hunter and sell that sweet monster meat for the best price on the market!
  
• Rename your own characters and ships (not NPC). This feature was asked for a lot! To keep all naming rewards value intact NPC characters or ships cannot be renamed. This also applies to shuttles and mining pods.
  
• First set of backer names imported to the game. We will import more soon =)
  
• General improvements to the UI, such as improved resource categories in storages and ship resource management menus and the ability to customize which resources are shown in the top bar (Added resource display settings in ship settings.)
  
  

Alpha 3 - Smaller improvements and changes.

• You can now choose to start a new game with or without tutorial objectives. Tutorial objectives window has been made more noticeable.
  
• Food values have changed and offer now more in hunger value.
  
• Trade statuses added to trade notification in top right corner.
  
• Power view mode now shows where power is being generated.
  
• Power nodes and cores has reduced power storage capacity.
  
• New Facility: Power capacity node. Stores more power but has smaller power radius.
  
• Toilets and kitchen show a bad environment icon if they can't be used.
  
• Toilets and kitchen show a bad environment icon if they can't be used.
  
• Resource categories changed in storage and ship resource management.
  
• Combined Fabrication and Refine jobs to Industry.
  
• Removed Engine job.
  
• Build costs for facilities have been changed.
  
• New music track added to the music pool.
  
• Fixed so many bugs that we ran out of them. Hah! Just kidding, we're sure you can still find some =)
  

Once again thank you for supporting us and your patience! See you again in the next update.

- Bugbyte