PhoenixGames

I have improved the player server and master server build process on the backend, it is now much more automated than it was before, which makes updating the server builds much faster and less error prone.

I added Custom/LAN support to the game. It is now possible to host and connect to not only LAN games but games on remote computers too. This allows players to setup their own private multiplayer servers, etc.

I fixed some bugs and made some improvements to the game, including, hopefully, fixing the “clipping” issue that a player mentioned in a review.

Most of my time this week, however, was spent working on a fully-featured and in-depth tutorial campaign for the game.

Spiritus Astrum is a very complex game, and it really needs a tutorial, it should have been in the game when it launched!

The tutorial is going well, and I should, hopefully, have it done in a week or so. This should help explain the game to new players.

I have added some new items to the game: A Revolver, A Scoped Revolver, and Revolver Ammo.

The Scoped Revolver uses the scope as its secondary fire ability.

I have also made some improvements to how zoom works across the game itself.

I have added some minor quality of life improvements and bug fixes to the game, as well as added a “Message in a bottle” feature, that allows players to drop a marker beacon that can be used to leave messages. This beacon works both in single and multiplayer.

The GUI/Loading screen has been substantially improved. There are both client side and server side improvements that mean that logging in to both single and multiplayer servers is much faster and more reliable.

I have also added a “recent logins” list that stores the last 5 single and multiplayer logins, making it quicker and easier for players to switch characters.

I have also fixed some minor bugs within the game, including some bugs with the AI system.

The inventory systems has been slightly improved too, as well as the main in-game UI.

I am now working on some new artwork for the game, I want to try to add some new art items every month if I can.

Spiritus Astrum has now transitioned to free.

My goal is to keep the game free throughout the Early Access period, and then consider whethe or not I want to make the release period free or paid when I get to that point.

This week was mostly focused on bug fixes and improvements.

I added support for OpenAI API access to the in game LLM frontend, and I added a standalone Server Admin program for server administration.

I have made improvements to the server to provide more feedback to the user, and I have added a directional damage indicator to tell players where they are being hit from during combat.

Spiritus Astrum should be transiting to Free early next week, so I have been working on improvements and bug fixes for the game so that it will hopefully be more stable and bug-free when the price change occurs.

I have added a full-featured bug reporter to the game that allows players to submit log files (If they choose to) automatically.

I have also made several improvements, mostly to the single-player survival modes, such as allowing the valkyrie fighter to spawn at random in the world, and improving the docking/undocking system.

I have improved the LLM frontend in the game, and added very preliminary support for remote access to OpenAI’s API. This feature is still in beta however.

I have fixed an issue with players saves breaking after some updates. This was caused by steam replacing the local server database with a blank version when the server-side database file was modified. I have fixed this by storing all databases and player saves in the persistent data path directory, which is where they should have been.

There have also been a lot of minor improvements and fixes to the UI, and other systems, as well as improvements to the multiplayer server code.

Players can leave marker beacons in multiplayer mode now too.

I have been mostly focusing on bug fixes, optimisations, and adding tutorial/helm menus, etc, to the game.

The learning curve in Spiritus Astrum is very steep. This is partly by design, but also partly due to lack of tutorials, etc.

I have temporarily disabled Ansel and VR support. These features were working, but not fully, and were causing issues for people who activated them accidentally.

I have fixed some optimisation issues with the game, and added some tutorials and help screens to the main UI and the startup sequence. I have also added navigation aids to the game to help guide players

Hopefully this will reduce the learning curve for new players.

I have spent the week improving the Early Access build of Spiritus Astrum.

The community has discovered several bugs and issues which I have been working to fix.

Some of the more serious issues, involving players being unable to log in to the game and players having their saves corrupted, should now be fixed.

I have also added an additional “Quality” slider to the main menu graphics options to allow players more control over their graphical quality. This should help players playing the game on older hardware.

I have made improvemnts to the UI to make it more intuitive and reliable.

Probably the biggest quality of life change that I made was to improve the movement system for players. The old system was quite clunky, and resulted in a noticeable “sliding” effect, the new system is substantially better.

There is still some work to be done, but I am making good progress!

Spiritus Astrum has now been in Early Access for a week.

The launch was somewhat rocky, to say the least. There were substantially more bugs in the game than I realised, and I picked up some negative reviews and comments because of that.

Once I discovered the issues that players were having with the game, I decided that I would make the Early Access period free, rather than paid, and I made an announcement to this effect on steam.

Unfortunately, Steam support has told me that I cannot change the price of a newly released game for at least 30 days, and so the game will remain paid until then.

On the plus side, the community response has been extremely supportive, with a large number of people buying the game even after I announced that it would become free just because they wanted to support me! I find this very encouraging, and I am very grateful for this support.

The focus now is to continue to work on the game, and fix the bugs that have been reported.

The most common issues reported seem to be issues with logging in. These were caused by a combination of confusing UI design and the game server being blocked by users firewall and network security settings.

There were also some issues with saving and loading not working correctly.

I am confident that most of these issues have been fixed.

There is still quite a lot of work to do, but the game is in Early Access, and I am confident that if the community continues to report bugs and issues then I can solve them quickly.