The last time I wrote about a Starbound patch , its developers had added a grappling hook. Amazingly, though, that wasn't the moment they decided to jump into a slo-mo high five, freeze-frame at the apex, and call the whole game finished. Instead they're planning another update; this time adding a new permadeath mode, more guns, and, perhaps more significantly, more hats. In addition, there's a reassuringly big list of bug fixes to look forward to.
Let's first take a look at the upcoming fixes. Careful, though, this list comprises around 73% of your recommended daily bullet point allowance.
- ".ds_store issue affecting OSX 9.1 users (A bug where Finder created an invisible file called .ds_store in the player folder which caused the game to crash).
- "A number of character creation/selection screen crashes related to loading corrupted save files
- "An issue that could prevent the launcher from starting (MSVCRT.dll)
- "DirectX crash bug (303 bug)
- "Several memory leaks, including the slow-but-significant server memory leak a lot of people were experiencing and GUI memory leak
- "Fixed a crash bug related to GUI controls
- "Reduced memory load of FTL animation
- ".abc files with comments no longer crash the game, plus various .abc fixes as far as key signatures/timing
- "A number of issues with players spawning underground
- "A bug where players spawned outside the ship if they'd previously saved the game while in the Captain's Chair
- "Right shift key was not working as a shift key, now it is
- "An issue tech slots were unusable under certain conditions
- "Wiring system fixes– wires are rendered below UI elements, wires no longer break when crossed into an unloaded sector
- "Added image metadata caching, improved assets caching
- "Added a jeep mech that was supposed to have been in the last patch, but had mysteriously gone missing!
- "Object flipping issues
- "Sped up the crafting window
- "Fixed a sound issue that occurred after many concurrent weapon hits
- "Characters no longer blink while sleeping in beds
- "Assorted minor performance improvements"
Now for the fun part. Here's what new stuff Chucklefish have planned:
- "New game modes! Permadeath and drop-everything-on-death modes.
- "Revolvers, pulse rifles, hand grenades, shivs, Floran needlers, Floran thorn hammer
- "Human guards now wear soldier uniforms
- "More decorative hats! Yay, hats!
- "More random encounters
- "Possibly more content, if it's finished on time!"
It's not all happiness, hats and dancing, however. "There's also the highly anticipated/possibly feared final character wipe," explains a new post on the Starbound blog . "This patch contains a fix for save files so after this, you won't need to worry about our patches destroying your characters or ships. This patch will wipe everything – characters, ships and worlds. It will definitely be the last time we'll need to wipe characters or ships, and will hopefully be the last time we'll need to wipe worlds."
The update is due out in "about a week's time".
