Stars Beyond Reach Beta Phase 3 Release Notes

Version 0.910

(This isn't done yet, we're still working on it.)

• The game now actually explains what EXP and levels do in tooltips on those stats, AND it explains how the starting levels on them are increased, and by extension how market items work.
  • Thanks to kasnavada for reminding us of this oversight.

• The precondition/goal suffixes no longer say "current: x, target: y" at the end of them. Now it just tells you what the current value is, because the actual other text already told you the target (and in a few cases it was telling you the wrong target anyhow).
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Fixed a "Unlogged death from source: None" message that was showing up from event-based deaths.

• Fixed an issue where the amount of littered trash was not properly being shown in the top bar for problems, thus making it look like a teeny problem when really it was huuuuge.
  • Thanks to nas1m and ptarth for reporting.

• Fixed a Missing Localization:Reports_Inventory error.
  • Thanks to Aklyon and ptarth for reporting.

• Fixed a variety of formatting errors on the monster events on the map, as well as making the formatting of a lot of on-map events/afflictions clearer.
  • Thanks to Cinth and ptarth for reporting.

• Changed the logic for getting a textual summary of a persisting event effect to just saving the result string from when the generating command was executed, rather than trying to recompute the string whenever it was requested.
  • This was causing fatal errors because the string formats had been changed last night to include references to the race affected and the execute logic had been updated to provide those extra format parameters, but the persisting-effect case had not been thus updated.
  • Thanks to Cinth and ptarth for the reports and saves.

• Fixed a bug where the logic for parsing out command and precondition parameters did not actually assign the results of parsing an enum value (like a building type), leading to things like "you must have 5 rural farms" saying "you must have 5 (blank)", and those commands/preconditions thus not actually functioning since they just referred to the None building type.
  • Old saves with these should probably just be discarded as they won't work if these preconditions were for finishing out an Act, etc, and we can't update the data of events in old saves due to how it's stored with the save rather than linked up with the current spreadsheet state on load.
  • Thanks to Watashiwa and ptarth for the reports and saves.

• The building details window now repopulates when it detects that the turn has changed since it last populated.
  • Thanks to Watashiwa for suggesting.

• During building placement mode, the building construction number and health bar is never obscured by the building you're trying to place, or by the little green building placement icon.
  • Thanks to Watashiwa for reporting.

• You can now click on the service shortage icons on the top bar and have it show a version of the services window that is just for the service in question.
  • Thanks to Vinco for suggesting.

• The notifications sidebar no longer blinks on and off between turns.

• When new notifications are added to the sidebar, it does a little halo sort of effect around them to draw your eye. Different types of additions have different colors for making you notice more or less.
  • This was what we had in mind instead of the large obtrusive center-screen messages that we used to use. Those were TOO distracting.

• Fixed up a number of images not showing up for the tile types on the tile type details page.
  • Thanks to Watashiwa for reporting.

Balance

• The costs of fire and police and parks have been adjusted downwards substantially. On the flip side, the costs of the higher-tier housing has gone up.
  • Thanks to kasnavada for suggesting.

• The service needs on hazmat have gone down dramatically, and the rest of the waste category stuff. Same with the hospital. It's just a lot clearer this way.
  • Thanks to nas1m for and kasnavada for inspiring this change.

• Planet worship is no longer something your Fenyn need until act 3, when the shrine actually becomes available.
  • Thanks to crazyroosterman for reporting.

• Fixed a number of issues where the effectiveness of buildings was really being over-applied when above 1.
  • In a few cases it should not have been applied at all (negative things like needs or trash production going up when efficiency is better, oops).
  • In other cases it was too unbalanced to have that be applied (EXP gains -- that was really not balanced around that).
  • And in other cases it does need to be applied when above 1, but it needs to tone things down a bit (like the bonuses to market item production, crown production, and power production -- from resources, etc).
  • Thanks to ptarth for reporting.

• Scout stations now use about half as much power; it was excessive before.
  • Thanks to ptarth for reporting.

• Fixed a bug where Small Shops were not producing any crowns!! They now produce 400, and shopping malls produce 600 rather than 1200.
  • Thanks to ptarth for inspiring this discovery.

Pollution

• Chemical plants now provide a territory-wide buff to hazmat, making them an excellent combo rather than a required service.
  • Thanks to nas1m for and kasnavada for inspiring this change.

• Hazmat strength is now over 3x what it previously was.
  • Thanks to nas1m for and kasnavada and ptarth for reporting.

• The amount of extra pollution that gets output from buildings in a territory based on littered trash and dead bodies is now scaled down linearly for buildings with a base output less than 100.
  • Thanks to nas1m and ptarth for inspiring this change.

• The more polluters you stack in one territory, the more of a (very small) multiplier they now get on themselves.
  • This helps to combat the ultra-strong hazmat squads now. Basically you eventually do need to build up your hazmat more, but it's not something that you have to build so much of in the early game.
  • So far balance on this feels pretty natural, but we shall see.

Prior Beta Notes

It's unusual that we'd split a beta period into THREE sets of release notes, but this has gone on far longer than expected. In particular after the last release in the prior release notes, it's a whole new game. So it was time to start with a fresh release notes page, too.

Stars Beyond Reach Beta Phase 2 Release Notes