Continuous Build

Triggered on 2025/01/08, 20:54 UTC by commit f1f185d (@Zitchas)

This is an automated build of the latest source. It may be unstable or even crash, corrupt your save or eat your kitten. Use with caution!

https://github.com/endless-sky/Endless-Sky-Delta/actions/runs/12678677349

Endless Sky Delta v0.10.10 parallel release

Greetings everyone! Another major release!

This time, the biggest and most anticipated addition is the Korath intro. This has an initial encounter with the Korath, as well as setting up the circumstances for the pilot to start earning the trust of a small group of people who know a bit more about the Korath than they first appear... It is great to finally see this available to everyone instead of being locked away in an upstream PR going nowhere.

On the technical side, a major change is the addition of pylons. These are, to put it simply, a hardpoint for missile type weapons. As is probably obvious to everyone, guns are not the same thing as missiles. This has caused a lot of problems in the past because balancing an infinitely fireable gun against a finite and relatively small number of missiles is hard. There are a lot of factors at play. One of the major drivers of this chance is removing the hardpoint opportunity cost. Gun are the primary weapons for a reason. They are the defaults, the trusty go-to. As such, I am of the opinion that at least at the hardpoint level we should not be replacing primary weapons with secondary ones. At least the possibility of both coexisting should be there. Of course, this has not added any additional outfit or weapon space. So there are still plenty of hard limits on how many weapons a ship can have, but now rockets, missiles, and torpedoes will have their own hardpoints to go on instead of forcibly taking up gun ports. Please note that while pilots from previous versions will continue to be compatible, old ships will not be. It is strongly recommended to sell and re-buy any ships in your fleet so that they will have pylons now.

In this picture one can see a firebird showing the Hardpoint Info Panel with guns, missiles, and turrets. Each one has a different color for the indicator line.

The pylons are by no means fully balanced, so I expect there to be some changes to them going forward as people figure out what works and how the landscape has changed with their addition. Some of the factions have already been adjusted thanks to the input from people who are writing or developing them, which was much appreciated.

One of the major intents behind pylons is to allow greater differentiation between ships. Currently, if a ship has 6 gunports, then maybe that ship has six guns, maybe it has six sidewinder launchers, maybe something else. There's a pretty big difference in character of a ship with guns and one with missiles. Some factions do not have missiles or do not value them, and thus would not build their ships with the intention of supporting them. Others might be all about the missiles and support many of them, but not support much, if any, guns. This is yet another tradeoff that can be implemented by content creators to make ships more unique and more flavorful going forward.

On the visual side, the addition of the Starry Map adds a control to the map that enables or disables the display of stars. Aside from the sheer aesthetic appeal, this also makes it easier to see at a glance what stars are in the systems along the routes the pilot will be flying. This is particularly useful for those relying on solar panels for power or ramscoops for fuel; as now the player can both learn how each star generates each of those resources (via the in-flight GUI change from a while back that provides numerical feedback), and see those stars on the map to facilitate route planning. Many thanks to @Azure3141 for all the hard work that went into creating what is probably the biggest visual improvement to the map since MZ got it to its current state so many years ago.

One relatively minor change that I feel will be impactful for many: I adjusted the starting date earlier by six months. This is intended to give players enough time to actually learn about the world they are flying around in, maybe visit some of the key sites, so that when the civil war starts, it has the potential to viscerally affect them. Whether it is them mourning the loss of a city or base they have frequented; or sympathizing that it's about time the South stood up for itself in the face of burdonsome regulations and a lack of anti-piracy support; these events are much more meaningful if the player has had the chance to get a taste for them and isn't just something they are being told is a problem. (On that note, content that makes these complaints more visible, be it missions or support for location-based purchase restrictions, would be much appreciated)

What's Changed

• Update Marauder engine slots by @TheGiraffe3 in #89
• More slots for the Kestrel (Engines) by @TheGiraffe3 in #91
• feat(UI): Display Stars on the Galaxy Map by @Azure3141 in #93
• Add engine slots for the Incipias/Successors by @TheGiraffe3 in #94
• Korath campaign: first contact, establish lore, side story, and Korath-protected smuggler's haven by @UnorderedSigh in #85
• Re-PR of the Thermal Scanner missions by @TheGiraffe3 in #100
• Two typo fixes in the new Korath missions by @TheGiraffe3 in #105
• feat(content): Add a defense fleet to planets in Sol that are missing one by @TheGiraffe3 in #101
• Feat(code): Creating Weapon Pylons (new hardpoint for missiles and other projectiles) by @Zitchas in #106
• feat(data): Move the starting date back by six months by @Zitchas in #112

Full Changelog: v0.10.9-Delta...v0.10.10-Delta

Endless Sky Delta v0.10.9 parallel release

Greetings! Welcome to another release of Endless Sky Delta. Aside from the upstream changes, the major change of interest to content creators is probably the addition of support for limiting fleets and spawn numbers. This code provides the tools to enable a lot more control over how fleets spawn. A quick example is being able to set a fleet to a very fast rate of spawn to ensure it's always present. Previously (and in upstream) this would result in the fleet spamming very quickly and generating a lot of ships. With this code, however, it can also be given a limit to ensure that it does not exceed specific amounts. UnorderedSigh provided a demo file with working examples in the PR that I highly recommend content creators check out.

For players, I would just like to note that the number of previous saves has been bumped up slightly as the galaxy has gotten a bit bigger, and thus the risk of getting stranded is a little higher than it used to be. This should provide a bit more margin of safety.

One major change that everyone should be aware of is that as of this release, Endless Sky Delta now uses it's own folder for storing preferences, save files, etc. Depending on your operating system, this is referring to the folder located in AppData or its equivalents. Given the number of changes in the preference file between Delta and Upstream, we felt it made sense to actually separate the two so that people can switch back and forth without erasing settings for things like lateral thrust. Personally, I recommend copying over your preference file from the old Endless Sky folder just to save some work in setting up your preferences again. While preference files, plug-ins, and pilots are largely cross-compatible, as more changes happen the more it will be like switching between a present day version of ES and a much older version of ES. It will work, but risks losing some data and having some odd results here and there. Everything in upstream will be in Delta, but not everything in Delta will be in Upstream.

On the interesting side of things, Quantumshark revised Alpha Centauri to closely match the real-world equivalent system. This is particularly noteworthy since Alpha Centauri has three stars that orbit each other, and thus replicating that in Endless Sky means that the stars each appear to orbit an invisible central point instead of all orbiting one entity like Sol and other uni-stellar systems. Since some of the planets circle one star, and some another, it results in having two clusters of things in the system that are generally separated from each other. While only one can be landed on currently, it opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities for future content and entertainment.

What's Changed

• Scanning for the Electronic Warfare System by @TheGiraffe3 in #71
• feat(data) Add Writers and Special Thanks sections to the credits. (also fixed folderization error from upstream) by @Zitchas in #76
• Use a new directory for saves, and bump the "previous saves" number to five by @TheGiraffe3 in #78
• feat(data): Expanding Alpha Centauri, and rearranging to be circumstellar rather than circumbinary by @Quantumshark in #73
• Limit number of fleets & spawn specified number when entering system by @UnorderedSigh in #24

New Contributors

• @TheGiraffe3 made their first contribution in #71
• @Quantumshark made their first contribution in #73

Full Changelog: v0.10.8-Delta...v0.10.9-Delta

Endless Sky Delta v0.10.8 parallel release

As I intend to be the practice going forward, this is the parallel release to upstream's v0.10.8 release.

The two major changes for this release are the implementation of all the new scanner information types. Human space now has a variety of passive scanners that provide different sorts of information, and allow the player to customize what they want to see and what they would prefer to not have. As such, the tactical scanner now only provides two information types, but has been shrunk down to 2 space to allow for other passive scanners to be installed alongside it. One, the thermal scanner, is mission locked and is added to the same outfitters that carry the flamethrower at the same time. Prior to this, there wasn't much push for tactical thermal tracking. Please note that all the new scanners use the tactical scanner outfit image as Delta currently does not have any active graphics designers. Outfit designs for those would be welcome.

The more subtle change includes some navigational aides in the form of greater zooming capability, as well as a yellow arrow on the minimap that will always point towards the center of the system. This is primarily useful for large systems such as Sol.

While they didn't contribute directly in PRs, I just wanted to thank @arkhne , @Arachi-Lover, @Hurleveur , @ravenshining , @UnorderedSigh , @MasterOfGrey , @vitalchip, @petervdmeer , @TheGiraffe3, among others for their assistance in working out some of the details and updates. Your assistance is appreciated.

What's Changed

• feat(update): Upstream 0.10.8 update and conflict resolution by @Zitchas in #63
• feat(update): 2024 07 15 delta updating by @Zitchas in #67
• feat(test): The Greyshrike doesn't have slots, and thus causes an error. by @Zitchas in #68
• Feat(test): continuing to fix greyshrike(peregrine) by @Zitchas in #69
• feat(code): Navigation Enhancements by @Zitchas in #59
• feat(data): Making use of the new scanner info types by @Zitchas in #70

Full Changelog: Experimental-Development...v0.10.8-Delta

For those who are new to Delta, just a note that this does contain all the enhancements and experiments from the previous release, so you can expect to find lateral thrust, a reduced drag environment (spaceships act more like ships moving in a vacuum and less like boats on water), and integration and access to Hai Reveal as some of the major highlights.

Endless Sky Delta v0.10.7 parallel release

Greetings to everyone following Delta, all 5 of you.

For those who aren't aware, the purpose of the Delta fork is to be a rapid development environment to experiment with Endless Sky, with the current focus being primarily combat. For the first while this was mostly focused on code enhancements, and in particular mechanisms for allowing the player to access quite a bit more information about what is going on and how things are performing. As of right now, the scanner side of it is available, but not implemented. Players will need to either edit those attributes onto outfits or ships, or use a plug-in to do so. But they are there, and they work. The player's HUD side, though, is fully available via preferences.

While the information might be the things that you see first, the big changes are twofold: The implementation of lateral thrust; and the significant reduction of drag. And by drag, in this case, I'm not talking about the thing that caps max speed, but rather drag, the mysterious force that fills space and causes spaceships in Endless Sky to act like ships on water. That has been mostly removed from the game. It's still present in a few corners to help with coming to a complete stop and the like, but it is largely gone. This means it is much easier to circle, strafe, and slide around the system. This goes hand in hand with lateral thrust, which is what ships now use to control that lateral motion.

It's been fun to work on, and I look forward to doing more. This is just getting started, and there is a lot to do. After all, rebuilding key systems of the game from the ground up takes some time...

What's Changed

• Code(feat): Additional Scan Information and modular access by @Zitchas in #2
• Feat(code): Lateral Thrust and Drag Reduction by @Zitchas in #10
• Code(feat): Adding Player in-flight information by @Zitchas in #11
• feat(code/data): Implementing varied Lateral Thrusts by @Zitchas in #14
• Limited turret arc by @1010todd in #18
• Feat(code): Giving players a preference to allow them to disable automatic stability while under player control by @Zitchas in #19
• Fix turret arc limit being flipped when reloading save. by @1010todd in #20
• feat(balance): Adjusting mass, thrust, and turning across all ships by @Zitchas in #34
• feat(data) Completing the Station Keeping capabilities by adding reverse thrust to all thrusters by @Zitchas in #48
• feat(code): Ability to limit turret firing arc (endless-sky#7094) by @Zitchas in #51
• Feat(data): Implement Engine Slot system in Delta by @Zitchas in #46
• feat(Data): Hai Reveal Intro Bridge by @Zitchas in #53
• feat(data): Scaling Sol (and potentially other interesting things) by @Zitchas in #52
• Feat(Data): Navigational Enhancements by @Zitchas in #54
• feat(data): Cloaking Differentiation by @Zitchas in #61

New Contributors

• @1010todd made their first contribution in #18
• @UnorderedSigh made their first contribution in #28
• @warp-core made their first contribution in #37

Full Changelog: https://github.com/endless-sky/Endless-Sky-Delta/commits/Experimental-Development