SLOWLIGHT

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Release v0.3.0

v0.3.0 — Hangars and captains

Stations get one to four hangars run by a tower, you create your own captain from four origins, and the game finally has sound and music.

Inside a hangar after docking: the safety lane, a crew member in a pressure suit, a cargo robot carrying crates, and the catwalks on the far wall.

Until now a station was a box you flew into alone. In v0.3.0 stations have hangars, hangars have a tower that decides who lands next, and inside the hangar people are at work. You also get a face: before your first flight you create your captain.

What is in v0.3.0

Docking at Delen: the tower clears hangar 1, the docking computer flies the approach through the narrow mouth, the clamps close and the lift takes the ship down to the parking deck.
  • Hangars and the tower. Every station now has between one and four hangars, each in its own oval pod with a small mouth that widens inside, joined to the hull by bridges. Press F near a station and you ask the tower for clearance. If a hangar is free you get it; if not, you are told your place in the queue. Only one ship lands in a hangar at a time. After touchdown the clamps close and a lift takes your ship down to the parking deck, so the hangar is free for the next captain. To leave, the tower brings your ship back up and clears you out. In multiplayer the server runs the tower, so every captain sees the same queue.
A station with four hangar pods. Each pod's mouth is lit; the green posts mark the approach lane.
A station with four hangar pods. Each pod's mouth is lit; the green posts mark the approach lane.
  • A hangar with people in it. The hangar is no longer a smooth tube. On one side there are two levels of grated catwalks with stairs, machinery, pipe runs and a gantry crane; on the other a control cabin with slanted glass, narrow viewing slits, portholes and a workshop shutter. A red and yellow safety lane marks where ships fly. Outside the lane the ground crew work in pressure suits, and cargo robots hover a hand's width above the deck.
Inside a hangar after docking: the safety lane, a crew member in a pressure suit, a cargo robot carrying crates, and the catwalks on the far wall.
Inside a hangar after docking: the safety lane, a crew member in a pressure suit, a cargo robot carrying crates, and the catwalks on the far wall.
  • Your captain. When you first log in, you create your captain. First pick an origin: Core-born, Belter, Nomad or Exile. Your origin decides where in the galaxy you start and what you wear, and it cannot be changed later. Then shape the body and face with sliders: sex, age, muscle, weight, height and ancestry, plus almost two hundred details for the head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, jaw and body. Choose skin, eye colour, eyebrows, eyelashes and hair. The preview stands and breathes while you work; drag it to turn it, scroll to come closer.
The captain creation screen.
The captain creation screen.
The four origins and their clothing: Core-born, Belter, Nomad and Exile.
The four origins and their clothing: Core-born, Belter, Nomad and Exile.
  • Sound and music. The game has sound for the first time: an engine that rises with the throttle, thrusters when you strafe, metal when you hit something, the tower's beeps, the clamps and the lift. There is music in the menus and in flight.
  • Smaller download. The frozen cities are now stored in a much more compact form, so the game is smaller even though it has more in it.
  • Gamepad. The sticks have a dead zone and a softer curve, so small corrections are easy and flying straight is no longer a fight.

You need to update

v0.3.0 changes the network protocol. The v0.2.0 client cannot connect any more; download v0.3.0 from the download page. If you already have a captain, the game asks you to create your character the first time you log in, and your ship then starts again in your origin's home system. Your ship and credits stay the same.

Known issues

  • You cannot yet leave the ship and walk in the station. The parking deck still opens straight to the market screen.
  • The hangar crew and robots are only on your screen; other captains see their own.
  • Crew members and robots can walk through each other.
  • Other captains do not see your character yet. They will when you meet them on foot.

What comes next

Walking in the station: a lift from the parking deck up to the hangar floor, then the gallery, the exchange, the tavern and the job office. The market moves to a terminal in the exchange, and you will see other captains there in person.

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