DevBlog #32 - Space Haven Alpha 5 - The Cool UI Update.

Greetings, Spacefarers.

Christmas is closing in and so is the Yogscast Jingle Jam! We have decided to join the Jingle Jam Bundle this year, with one of our older games Battlevoid: Harbinger. All the proceeds of the bundle go to charity! We try to do something charitable every year, even if it something small. Part of the fun of having some success is the ability to give back! =)

Additionally, the Yogscast crew has promised to play Space Haven in their stream, and we're really excited to see that. This will be a great opportunity for you to see the current state of Space Haven, and do check out their Jingle Jam streams throughout the whole of December!

We've been working on improving the user-interface the past month, to support you on your journey through space. Step-by-step the UI is improving, making everything more intuitive and valuable information more accessible.

The Yogscast plan on covering Space Haven on the 14th sometime between 11am-2pm GMT, be sure to tune in and watch them play then!



Moving things around, improving and adding some stuff and sprinkling it with some new features. Above is a screenshot of how the UI looks now. We've rearranged things a bit to allow for the possibility to show more resources in the top bar with a customizable window. Crew members are also shown at the top and how many are shown can be customized. We've added a development progress bar to the main menu, giving a very rough estimate of when a next update could arrive.



Customizable resource window in the top bar of the user interface. You can play with your own desired setting. If you want to see a lot of resources on the screen at all times you can keep the resource window large. If you don't, just keep it small =)



Crew members are now shown at the top part of the user interface. You can also customize how many crew members you want to see at a time with a drop-down list. Various elements, such as mineable asteroids, derelict ships and spaceships belonging to other factions are shown in their own part of the UI.



Spaceships and stations now have roofs! And you can see them. This is the beginnings for being able to add cool stuff on the roof, like turrets, shields and solar panels.

Some other cool new UI features:

• Big notifications for important events.
  
• A much requested even faster game speed option.
  
• The game clock has also been refined.
  
• The game clock has also been refined.
  
• Bind objects to groups using ctrl+(0-9).
  

Furthermore, we added a log to the game, giving that nice little touch to creating a story. Want to know that Pete got the "shat pants" condition? No? Well, you will know anyway.



We have also started working on ship-to-ship combat, which is also why the UI needed some redesigning to be able to support and show valuable information related to ship-to-ship battles. Christmas is closing in fast, we're not sure if we can manage a beginnings of ship-to-ship combat update before it but we will try. We will see how it goes =)

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

• User interface updated.
  
• Spaceships now have roofs! And you can see them.
  
• Tweaked default surrender rate from 10% to 0%.
  
• Improved notification texts.
  
• New upcoming version feature in main menu.
  
• Names in credits are now alphabetical.
  
• Improved construct job placement, builders will no longer wall themselves in a corner so easily.
  
• Removed "set default trade" on airlocks and added "allow trade" instead. You can now have many airlocks and do multiple trades if possible (npc needs multiple airlocks or different ships).
  
• A new community section in the main menu of the game.
  
• Start resources increased for the sandbox scenario.
  
• Derelict ships are now less populated by the big alien creature, relieving the frustration which was caused by them spawning too frequently.
  
• You can now bind to groups using ctrl+(0-9).
  
• There is now an even faster speed setting. Shortcut keys for speed renamed to accommodate for this change.
  
• Fixed a bug with saving sectors.
  
• Fixed a crash when a trait had a missing text.
  
• Fixed bugs.