Droning on! – Interstellar Rift Development Update 092

Update time! This week we are pushing the new Sentinel Security Systems security drones into the live servers!

These new drones will be patrolling all faction stations except those of the drifters. The security drones will from now on be enforcing the no fire zones, which means that your weapons will no longer be locked when you are near one of the starter stations. Which brings us to the wanted level, when a player violates a no fire zone, attacks a protected station or player the player will receive a wanted level which determines how the security drones will respond to you.

Your wanted level ranges from 0 stars to 5 stars and will decay slowly over time. If you fight back against the security drones your wanted level will increase, however if you stop attacking or damaging the drones your wanted level will decrease. When you’re at max wanted level it will take roughly 5 minutes to completely decay. Oh and these drones can chase you through warp so good luck 🙂

The security drones can also be hired to protect your ships and stations, on the major faction stations you will find a new sentinel security systems service desk manned by Geoff the droid.
Here you can hire a up to 9 drones to come and protect you for up to 72 hours for a nominal fee.

When you are attacked these drones will warp in and destroy any threat that was made against you.

In addition we have fired a new volley in the fight against desyncs. While it is not a true fix but more a stopgap to prevent major issues which result from desyncs. The game will now automatically reconnect you when you’re desyncing, however this should not take nearly as long as when you’re connecting to a server normally. And when the entire server is desyncing and a reconnect doesn’t fix it. It will automatically reload the server save and reconnect everyone.

As always, we’d appreciate any feedback you’re willing to provide, it will only help us make the game better.

Thank you all for playing and see you starside!

-The Split Polygon Team

Captains of Industry! – Interstellar Rift Development Update 090

Today we introduce the first section of industry automation! With this update the extractor, refinery, salvager, 3d printer, and the assembling machine will all have a new cartridge slot which can be found at their control console. Players will be able to insert an automation cartridge into these machines which will let them function autonomously until the cartridge is expended.

These cartridges can be crafted in the 3d printer. Automation cartridges work in a similar way to the upgrade cartridges in that they decay after a period of time, in this case 12 hours. Once they are completely spent players will have to replace them.

These cartridges come in 3 types:
Processing cartridges – these are meant to be used with the assembler and refinery
Extraction cartridges – These are meant to be used with the salvager and the regular resource extractor (strip miner also has a built in automation function and does not need a cartridge)
Printing cartridges – This one is meant to be used with the 3d printer.

Note that these devices will stop their function if their hopper is full. Therefore in order to keep these devices functioning at peak efficiency players will have to keep up and clear the exit hoppers whenever necessary.

The next part of industry automation will focus on moving cargo from one device to another or onto cargo pads. This will be done through new devices called the Automated Cargo Teleportation Relays (ACTR). This device will use two heatsinks and can be programmed to move a cargo crate from one device to another automatically. Combined with the automation cartridges players will be able to set up their own assembly lines for whatever materials and items they require.
This part of automation will be coming soon.

In addition we have also made several quality of life changes. Hydrogen fuel is now 4 times more efficient and thus will last 4 times longer. The salvager has had its range increased to 1000 meters which should make salvaging easier. We’ve also added in some more diagnostic tools that should make it easier for us to find desyncs!

As always, we’d appreciate any feedback you’re willing to provide, it will only help us make the game better.

Thank you all for playing and see you starside!

-The Split Polygon Team