Interplanetary Update #5: Loads of Data

Featuring a cameo appearance by everyone's favorite blue sun.

Once again, it's time to send a new update out into the big world. Good luck out there, try not to break down immediately! Like that ever happens, heh...

Features

This time we've updated in a couple of small features that serve as a base for something a bit bigger that's coming in the future.

First we have a new window for interacting with buildings. When clicking on a building, you'll now be greeted with a lot more info than previously. The functionality remains the same currently, but you can now easily see the numerical values of building health, visibility and production, for example. Makes it a bit easier to utilize advanced strategies.

If that's not enough data for you, we're now introducing the Interplanetary Codex. It's an ever-growing in-game database of all things Interplanetary. You'll be able to use it to dig deep into building stats, for example, or just read about the real life functionality of railguns. More entries will be coming with time, so stay on the lookout!

Since we're opening the hood a little bit and letting you in on the number crunching, feel free to comment on any values that you feel should be different. We obviously appreciate outside opinions; why be in Early Access otherwise?
                       

Aah, more reasons to showcase the awesome 2D art.

These are the main features introduced in the update, but there are still plenty of smaller things and tweaks in there. Check out the changelog for more!

Interplanetary Version 0.5.4183_EAC_6

• Codex
• New Building Window
• Misleading city lights removed from planet surface
• Balance changes
• Railgun damage increased
• Asteroid Diversion damage increased
• Weapon targeting angles decreased
• Projectile minimum targeting velocity decreased
• Planet speeds increased
• Non-player planet sizes increased
• Solar Laser distance from the sun decreased and standardized
• Missile homing range decreased
• Kinetic Defense range decreased
• Shield Defense range slightly decreased
• Mine visibility decreased
• Defense visibility decreased
• Science requirement for some technologies increased
• Build Energy costs increased for Mines, Defenses and Intel buildings

In Other News

You remember Whack-a-Dev, right? That's the event where members of Team Jolly Roger host games of Interplanetary and duke it out against the players. This Saturday we're changing it up a little bit with a surprise guest: the Interplanetary AI! We're letting the players to have a little sneak peek, by letting the AI do the battling for us, under our supervision.

Do note that the AI is still early in development and this is its first time in real action. The final implementation of the feature is still far away. Check out the Steam Announcement for more info!

Interplanetary is available on Steam Early Access

Interplanetary Update: In-Game Chat

Here it is, the first proper feature update to Interplanetary! The main feature this time is something that's been requested a lot.

Update #1: In-Game Chat

As you may have guessed already, that feature is the much requested in-game chat. Now you can also bash your enemies verbally! Do try to behave, though.

An example of friendly, proper behavior.

Here's the full changelog for the update:

Interplanetary Version 0.1.3960

• In-game chat
• Indicators to show which players have ended their turns
• Building unlocks in Techtree now have simple descriptions
• Added a simple reminder when trying to end turn with no active research
• New player planet texture: Jungle
• Small changes to UI graphics
• Changed the version number scheme

Have fun cursing your opponents to oblivion (but seriously, avoid nasty words, there could be kids playing!) Also, don't forget to take part in our first "Whack-a-Dev" this Saturday. It'll be the true baptism by fire for the chat system!

Interplanetary Whack-a-Dev Days and Update Info

Hey, everyone! Having fun with Interplanetary?

Since the game is currently multiplayer only, it needs a strong community to stay alive and well. To help bring all the players together, we've planned something we hope everyone is happy to take part in.

Interplanetary Whack-a-Dev Day!

Fanfare! Starting this Saturday at 3:00pm GMT, we're kicking off the first Interplanetary Whack-a-Dev Day. We're planning on making this a semi-regular event, timing it with new updates to the game. Here's what we have planned for this Saturday:

• Whack the devs!
• Team Jolly Roger will be hosting games of Interplanetary! If you have a beef with any of the devs, now's the time to get out there and break their planets!
• Steam Key giveaways!
• We'll be tweeting Steam Keys for Interplanetary every time someone manages to beat one of us!
• Screenshot Competition!
• Share screenshots to Interplanetary's community hub, with the text "Whack-a-Dev" in their description. The one with the highest voted screenshot at the end of the day wins a little prize.
• Streaming!
• Enter Elysium and Rushlock will be joining us this Saturday to stream some of their matches. You can either join the streams to spectate or play the game and get the chance to appear there yourself.

With screenshots like this, we have high hopes for the competition!

In Other News: Patches and Updates

As you may have noticed, we released an online connectivity patch for Interplanetary this Tuesday. If you previously had some problems connecting to other players, they should hopefully be fixed now. Here's a proper changelog of the major things in the patch:

Interplanetary Version 0.0.3922

• Online connections more stable 
• UPnP settings added 
• Port selection option added
• Passwords added to online games 
• Defeated players' orbits are now greyed out 
• Minor fixes to the tutorial

We're also planning on giving Interplanetary a proper feature update this Friday. Among the features we're hoping to add is in-game chat, a popular request by the players. 

Hopefully, we can finish implementing the chat until Friday so you can also bash us devs verbally, if you want! Hopefully, you don't want to.