LGM are starting right where they left off – with an update. Starpoint Gemini 3 is rushing to reach the first half of planned major updates, and this update marks another step towards that goal.
This time, as already mentioned in earlier announcements, unexpected paths of game development took a little bit of a different direction, and in order to avoid wasting any valuable time, they modified previously planned elements for this update. Few things which were planned for Update 4 will be delayed until Update 5, while several features from Update 5 is moved ahead for this Update. After the next milestone, the feature list from both Updates should be back in sync. LGM apologises for any confusion, but when the tasks were executed for this update, they realised some features simply needed to be forced to a more complete stage immediately as they can cause a chain reaction later. Following the next milestone, everything should be back in pre-planned order as stated on Roadmap.
So, what is the cornerstone of this update? There are three pillars – first infusion of extra life into our Universe, then the new Starchart to give you much better tool when understanding where the heck you’re going and what this Universe looks like, and finally pretty extensive batch of improvements and fixes to existing features based on what players reported and suggested in forum discussions. Those of you that participated in them and threw in ideas, will certainly recognise what they’re talking about.
Once you boot up the game, how will these changes spice up your life? It’s simple really – open a Starchart and notice you have a proper map that shows much more details and area objects. Each object has a pop-up a window describing in short what a specific location is, where it’s located and its purpose. Starchart also has 2 layers – local sectors and overall Universe map. The second layer allows you to cycle through all distant Star systems and see what local maps are available. The best thing is – you can access and browse sector maps within a specific system map even if you’re not physically located in that system at all. Ladies and gentleman, you can now snoop around and determine your next target for pirating even if you’re sitting half a galaxy away!
When your spying of global maps is over, and you finally hit the road in any given direction, be careful of traffic – it’s gotten a helluva lot more dense. Trade convoys, individual ships going about their business, everybody using T Gates, Starpoints and Nav Buoys… you’ll see much more stuff happening around. All these events are to be considered as a welcome opportunity or simply as a greater variety of targets to plunder. But beware of unintended consequences – AI got the first batch of updates, so trade ships and convoys will have armed escorts that won’t sit idly by while you plunder the hell out of them.
Oh, and, when you start cruising around, little surprise can be found – double-tap forward key for max throttle.
Here’s the entire changelog:
STARPOINT GEMINI 3 ROADMAP UPDATE 4 CHANGES
- ADDED: New Starchart system, both visually and functionally
- ADDED: Added info notes on Starchart locations
- ADDED: Dynamic map system with overview of all systems and sectors
- ADDED: New locations and objects markers are now added to Starchart
- ADDED: New cut scenes when using fast travel via Nav Buoys
- ADDED: Nav Buoys now have visual effects showing direction and destination point
- ADDED: New game starting scenario – Outlaw
- ADDED: Seed in random generator, adding more variety when starting new game
- ADDED: NPC ships now use Fast travel objects and follow various behaviours
- ADDED: Convoy system, meaning existence and behaviour of convoys and escorts
- ADDED: Ship convoys near space stations
- ADDED: Ship convoys near space structure clusters
- ADDED: Ship traffic entering and exiting Starpoint
- ADDED: Ship traffic entering and exiting T Gates
- ADDED: Ship traffic entering and exiting Nav Buoy structures
- ADDED: New ship model from Outlaw faction – Guerrilla fighter
- ADDED: New ship model from Outlaw faction – Stalker scout ship
- ADDED: Hotkey to enable constant speed without need to hold forward movement button
- ADDED: Ambient sound in bar on Delta station
- UPDATED: Decreased number of spawned enemies near stations when player is low level
- UPDATED: Map locations and objects near planets Extera, Earth, Caterton and Sora
- UPDATED: Jeepers Creepers boss fight now works properly in any situation
- FIXED: Missiles don’t occasionally disappear and now have normal blast effects
- FIXED: NPC ships now follow intended profession behaviour
- FIXED: Errors with loading when jumping to distant sectors
- FIXED: Objects for fast travel (Starpoint, T Gate, Nav Buoy) are now of correct, civilian faction
- FIXED: Targeting of gas collector ships now works correctly
- FIXED: After dock, player marker on Starchart will now resume normal behaviour
- FIXED: Loading sequence allows ship collisions to work as intended
- FIXED: Encounters will now spawn on correct positions
- FIXED: Encounters will now use correct faction alignment
- FIXED: Proximity trigger on stations now has correct values and doesn’t interrupt level loading
The largest portion of this update is aimed at creating a more vibrant and alive universe. And everything added this time for this purpose is just the beginning of creating a very vivid and lively feeling. Also, many features are only just a foundation for massive chunks of the game that are yet to come.
This time LGM also announce that before the next major update, they will be pushing out another not planned upgrade with some neat features that are nearly done but need a little bit more testing.
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