Creepy Features and Spooky Ads – Interstellar Rift Development Update 042

Oct 28, 2015

This week’s update contains a number of quality of life improvements while we work on some bigger features, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a bunch of new stuff to share.

We have updated the ship editor to have an extra mode called “device edit mode.” This mode will allow you to set up your devices before you construct a ship in the game world. What this means, is that you can click on devices and set stuff like permissions, shield levels and more, and the game will transfer these settings to your ship when you actually built it. This will also allow you to set up your signage around the ship once, instead of having to do this again every time you construct your ship.

Editing a sign’s properties

We have also added strobe lights that you can place on the outside of your ship, these blinky lights will make you more visible against the dark backdrop of space!

Blinking strobe lights on a station

There are currently six different colours to choose from, just note that they don’t show up in the editor yet, only in the game world. There are more lights though, the ammo loader that got introduced last update will now have working sound and indicator lights. These lights will indicate the status of your ammo storage, and alert you if you’re running low. You might also find some new stations in space, as we have added a couple extra which have functionalities that were lacking in the stations already available. A new apparition next to the starting station is something you will see more of as we fill space, ads. No real ads, but ads for ingame companies. These will update with coming updates to show you, for example, new devices added to the game, or special features that might be introduced.

Billboard in space

We also got multiple requests to add in more admin options, and although they are far from finished, we have added a couple more. Admins now have the option to teleport to any ship, any player, and teleport any player to them. They can also toggle ships to be invulnerable to damage.

It will be Halloween soon and even space becomes extra scary around this time of the earthly year. Watch out for some spooky pumpkins that you can find in the universe, maybe you’ll find some on the various stations, or is there a pumpkin stuck in your extractor? No one knows for sure! These pumpkins will be in the game for a short time only, but hold on to them if you come across some.

Like always thank you for playing Interstellar Rift, and we hope you enjoy these new features. As always if you’d like to keep up to date with the latest Interstellar Rift news and previews of upcoming updates please follow us on Twitter, Facebook or drop by our Steam forums.

and happy halloween!

Blow em up! – Interstellar rift development update 041

Oct 13, 2015

Welcome to patch 0.1.8, The first incarnation of combat is introduced today!

In the editor you will find a new category in exterior mode called weapons. Here you will find the first projectile based weapon in Interstellar Rift. In order to fire it you will require an ammo loader onboard as well as ammo crates.

With the Introduction of combat we are also adding the ability to build ammo, and it marks the first multi-stage tech tree in Interstellar Rift. In order to create ammunition you will need to go out into the universe and explore to find new raw materials like zinc and nitrogen. These new resources together with some of the ones already found in the game will allow you to create ammo. You will need to combine oxygen and nitrogen to create nitrous oxide. Combine zinc and copper to create brass, combine brass and Iron to create shells in the assembler and then combine nitrous oxide and shells to create ammunition. In the future we will be adding different kinds of ammo which behave differently from these standard rounds.

New Ammo crates with Shells and Nitrous Oxide

When in the editor, you also have the option to create weapon groups. These groups can contain multiple weapons and ammo loaders. You can switch between the first 10 weapon groups by pressing the number keys whilst sitting in a cockpit. In this update we can only allow you to make changes to these groups in the ship editor. But in the near future you will be able to do this on the fly when piloting a ship.

Now that you’ve built ammo, there is one more step which is needed for your ship to be combat ready. In order to use your ammo you will need to put it in the new ammo loader which you can find in the editor under prop edit mode. When you’ve added your ammo loader to your ship you can continue to the exterior editor and put the mounted turret on your ship. This is the first weapon available and it only fires in the direction it was placed in. Gimbaled and manned turrets are coming in future updates, together with missiles and energy weapons.

A close-up of the new Ammunition Loader

We have also made several new additions to the cockpits to allow for a more expanded combat UI. As with combat itself expect to see many more additions to these GUI’s in the coming weeks and months.

This is the first iteration of combat that we are ready to show to you guys but this is by no means finished. We need your feedback and suggestions as we attempt to balance weapons while maintaining your creative freedom in the construction of your ships.

A ship, firing it’s weapons

We are already looking at new weapons and weapon convergence as well as turrets. But every bit of feedback is welcome. We have our own ideas on how to improve, but ultimately we answer to you guys. So please don’t hesitate to let us know what you think of the new changes.