Devlog 107 covers the new additions of the Drone grouping panel and the Quickbar. The new drone grouping system will allow you to select all drones of a given type. This makes for easy access to the drones you want without the use of drone groups. If you decide to create a drone group, Drones from the group will no longer be displayed under their respective category, but under a new group header instead. I have also made a number of changes to the drone code and how they are handled when docking and undocking.

The new Quickbar (or bottom bar) can now be modified using the new Quickbar Options panel. This panel will allow you to select what buttons will be displayed on the Quickbar. The new addition of the spacer button will allow you to visually group buttons together making them easier to access.

All 6 of the main factions have received updates to the warpgate models. The warp animations an alignments have also been reworked a bit. A lot of time was spent tweaking the UI to prevent unwanted actions when dragging items around the UI as well as clicking through UI panels to the objects displayed behind them.

There is now a standardized tooltip system that has been implemented making it easier to read the tooltips. Nearly all the panels with the old tooltip code have been replaced with the new system. There were also a number of panels themselves that required updating to better match the layout of the other UI panels.

I added a few new progress meters to the station mercs overview panel. These progress bars give you a visual presentation of your current faction rating and the required rating. The mission panel will also show some new progress meters representing the Qualification level of your pilot. This level controls what level of missions are available to you at the stations. The bottom meter show the current progress towards the next qualification level.

The next update will focus on the audio additions and responsive command stuff for the mercs and npc ships.

This fall will focus on the sandbox revamp and the character creation in both the sandbox and the campaign.

Build 0.0143
– Fixed gps link button on mission panel. Was not properly aligned when dragging and resizing the missions panel.
– Fixed text in mission database for raider kill missions. Removed the double (Raiders raiders) in the mission descriptions.
– Fixed issue with npc and law enforcement kill off mission raiders before the pilot can reach the targets causing mission complete without firing a shot.
– Fixed bug while activating warp and attempting to dock at a station while warpgate is charging.
– Fixed bug while attempting to dock at a structure while active warpgate is charging.
– Fixed bug on stats panel that prevented clicking area to the right of SHIP STATS title text. This area will now toggle the STATS panel properly.
– Fixed bug with sandbox harvest ratio parameter. No longer will low sandbox harvest ratio values prevent harvest missions from being completed.
– Fixed bug with sandbox starting cargo script. Cargo will now be properly placed in the starting ship when generating a new sandbox game.
– Fixed text display on cargo item when dragging items to ship cargo or ship storage panel.
– Fixed text overflow on mission logs for Expired missions and Aborted missions. The text will now be cut to 25 characters on the mission log display.
– Fixed input field on Comms box in station Offices to prevent triggering of hotkeys when entering data.
– Fixed bug preventing double click on tactical objects allowing the autopilot to engage properly. Bad overlapping hitboxes between tactical and targeting hud objects.
– Fixed bug blocking merc from sending dock command from right click command box on fleet panel. Merc will now dock properly when command is sent.
– Fixed bug in pilot panel causing null reference to the remote merc indicator.
– Fixed death panel bug not resetting the panels properly after clicking continue after death when open merc panel is being closed.
– Fixed right click radial menu to respond to alternate right click set via keybindings.
– Fixed right click radial menu bug that allowed for right clicking objects thru the UI and opening the radial menu.
– Fixed and adjusted layout and drag code for bookmark panel.
– Adjusted fleet command panel to remember the current view (Fleet / Drones) when docking and undocking. No longer will it refresh the Fleet mercs list if drone list was open when docking.
– Adjusted ship position when leaving warp mode to align the ship and exit trajectory with the exiting gate.
– Adjusted NPC damage modifiers for mission NPCs interacting with regular local NPCs. Locals will no longer wipe your mission targets for you.
– Adjusted layout on life support panel to prevent text overflow for sector data when using a high UI scale factor.
– Adjusted code and UI elements for radial right click menus on all intractable map objects.
– Adjusted and removed old command that may be causing issues with corrupted font in search input fields.
– Adjusted mission level unlock formula to ease the introduction of more difficult missions when progressing thru mission levels.
– Adjusted code that controls the harvest_ratio when harvesting mission generated resources. This only affected sandbox games with adjustments to the harvest ratio.
– Adjusted warpgate map code to allow for warpgate faction parameter to adjust default faction for the gate when generated. Now overrides sector faction ID when gate Faction ID is present.
– Adjusted player ship warpgate alignment during pre-warp activation sequence.
– Adjusted faction database colors, mainly the Alpha, Civil, and Science as well as Labor, Excavators, and Contractors.
– Adjusted skill effect values in the skill database.
– Adjusted mission panel in stations to display mission qualification levels and their progress.
– Adjusted how the mission levels are calculated when generating missions for your pilot.
– Adjusted Active scanner panel layout.
– Adjusted the garage live data to match the numeric format of the ship details panel live data. No longer does the rounding of numbers cause differences in the numbers displayed.
– Added new drone category headers to the active drone list. Click these headers to select on drones of that type.
– Added new warpgate models for all 6 main factions.
– Added new warpgate animated light runway effect for static and active warpgates.
– Added new warp tunnel that uses lighting colors of the sectors to generate the warp tunnel.
– Added new range indicator onto the module HUD component. This indicator will show red when the module is out of range, and green when the module is in range.
– Added new display option for the Stats Panel. You can now switch between actual ship values or percentages.
– Added new tactical sensors panel layout to match other UI panels.
– Added new standardized tooltip for the general UI buttons. This new tooltip will replace existing panel tooltip text. (This will take time to get them all).
Replaced tooltips system for Ship Stats panel replacing old panel specific tooltips.
Replaced tooltips system for Active Missions panel replacing old panel specific tooltips.
Replaced tooltips for Cargo panel and Storage view, replacing old tooltips.
Replaced tooltips for the System Nav panel.
Replaced tooltips for the Autopilot panel.
Replaced tooltips for the Targeting panel.
Replaced tooltips for the Fleet Command panel.
Replaced tooltips for the Drone Command panel.
Replaced tooltips for the NPC command panel.
Replaced tooltips for the NPC cargo panel.
Replaced tooltips for the Bottom slide-in QuickBar menu.
Replaced tooltips for the tactical sensors filter icons menu.
Replaced tooltips for quickbar icons menu.
– Added tooltip text to all Radial right click menus for all interactable map objects.
– Added new QUICKBAR system that replaced old static bottom bar.
– Added QUICKBAR settings panel that allows you to adjust and modify the QUICKBAR buttons.
– Added QUICKBAR save data into the player_data.txt file format. Old saves will not have this parameter, and will not save your quickbar settings. (it can be added manually)
– Added ability to open right click radial menus on tactical icons in tactical mode, as well as targeted items on the HUD. No longer are you forced to click the actual 3d object to open the right click menu.
– Added new icons for all mission types. The new icons are less cluttered and easier to identify with eeach mission type.
– Added new help page for the quickbar and linked the help button on the quickbar to the new page.
– Added player ship icon to tactical sensors (not for override mode). Your ship will now show up on tactical sensors making it easier to see your location when camera is focus on other sector objects.
– Added module mouse over details to the ship details panel. Now will display live data like the garage.

Build 0.0142
– Fixed sort order bug caused by null target data when sorting targeting panel list.
– Fixed issue with sector map loading of npc faction id. sector map now references actual faction id and not array element id (id-1).
– Fixed bug when changing sort order of the mission list at the station. No longer will the filter be replaced with mission code title, will now display properly.
– Fixed pricing bug when selling multiple types of special items in the multi-sell window. Special items will now sell at their baseprice instead of zero.
– Fixed bug when mission title is less than 25 characters causing a soft error on substring length.
– Fixed alignment text bug on all log display areas. No longer is the left size cut off when sized to various UI scales.
– Fixed issue with faction tax, base tax and discount on market mouse over not showing proper values after 141 update.
– Fixed alignment issue with module mouse over panel header bar allowing for background to show through the gap.
– Fixed bug where text on cargo icons still show when option is set to remove text when first loading the player save file.
– Fixed alignment issues with text cut-off on mission contract list item in the station mission panel.
– Adjusted market pricing system for better balancing of pricing from the market events generator.
– Adjusted Skybox nebula cloud rotation to accept x,y,z parameters instead of a single Z axis rotation value. Both types on sector maps are supported.
– Adjusted Skybox editor to handle new x,y,z parameters allowing for better nebula rotation. Replaced the slicer with Input text field with validation.
– Adjusted skybox generator to use new nebula rotation system when generating sectors for the sandbox.
– Adjusted mission database titles for all kill raider missions. This will allow the code to determine proper text for singular or plural number of raiders.
– Adjusted a number of (s) tags in the missions database to allow for the code to handle quantity and other text formatting for mission titles and descriptions.
– Adjusted the mission database text for all recover missions. Now shows quantity and name of items to recover.
– Adjusted fog particle system for station interiors to better optimize.
– Adjusted market code for supply and demand items to limit quantities based on class and type of item. This prevents run away quantities for valuable items.
– Added new Help panel that is accessible from a number of other panels. This panel will display help information about various elements of the game.
I hope to build out this Help panel to make it the goto place for all Astrox Imperium data. Obviously this will take some time, so if you would like to assist, head over to Astrox Discord.
– Added code for new HELP browser panel that will parse and display plain text files using a basic html style formatting for displaying images, text and buttons in the help browser.
These help files are located in the MOD / documents / help folder. With images stored in the / images folder.
The help panel itself has a file to explain the html syle formatting that is used to style the information.
– Added markup language to the help panel for Text, Images, And Buttons.
– Added markup language to the help panel for horizontal table alignments, allowing for content to be displayed in columns.
– Added markup language to allow INCLUDED files within the help pages using the <INCLUDE=”my_header_file”> tag. This can be used for headers and footers on the page.
– Added new planet 3d mesh to replace the old chunky one. Planets now have a smoother surface when scaled.
– Added default button that will launch the help menu from the options panel home page.
– Added new data into the save game format to save all adjustments to the tactical sensors. New games will retain the options you have selected between saves.
– Added new data to the save file that will retain all optional settings for the ship cargo panel. Filter, sort, order by and icon size.
– Added new data to the save game file that will retain the sorting options for the targeting panel. sort by and order by.
– Added new data to the save game file that will retain the sorting options for the Market panel in the station. Filter, sort , order by and items per page count.
– Added new data to the save game file that will retain the sorting options for the University panel in the station. Filter, sort , order by and items per page count.
– Added new data to the save game file that will retain the sorting options for the Mission panel in the station. Filter, sort , order by and items per page count.
– Added faction coloring to the pilot panel Factions tab.
– Added color formatting to the pilot mission panel. Important target information, and locations are marked accordingly.
– Added color formatting to the station mission panel. The main list as well as the mission overview panel now have coloring to indicate target information and location.
– Added color formatting to the pilot panel missions tab. The format follows that of the mission panel and station mission directory.
– Added new GPS button to the Mission HUD panel. If the mission is Incomplete, the GPS button will activate your GPS and take you to the target location.
If the mission is complete, the GPS button will take you to the return location if the mission requires one.
– Added new icon size mode tot eh cargo panel that allows for largest icon with no text label. This mode shows only icon and quantity.
– Added new ship parameter that will prevent the events system from propagating the ship throughout the save game universe. (SHIP_prototype;True) will block the ship from the events generator.
– Added SHIP_prototype stat to the ship stats panel in the ship editor. The default is set to False, and will only effect ship files that have the SHIP_prototype parameter.

This winter will be the quest update along with the new campaign map.