Hello Captains! We’re very excited to share with you our plans for Jumplight Odyssey’s first content update, A Dangerous Galaxy. This is the first major update since our Early Access launch. Thanks to the incredible guidance from you, the community (which you can get into the nitty-gritty of in “What We Learned From Early Access”), we’re focusing on three things: Improved Player Agency (More Captain Controls!) 🧑‍✈️ Effective Communication on Game State Information 📊 Game Stability ⚓ In order to best identify issues that we feel address your feedback relating to these points, we’ll be adding these little emojis throughout the Build Notes that will go live alongside the update. We’d love to thank you again for the commitment, love and drive that you early believers (Stargazers, shoutout!) have had in our team. The fact that you have all rallied around us has stoked the burning desire to polish JLO into its best version – one that we’ll continue to iterate on together! With that in mind, here is an updated Starmap for you to examine… [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43221983/6bcd51ccadc472a9fda08a2d7969d0a0c6cf129c.png[/img] You can see that certain stars have been illuminated for A Dangerous Galaxy. These are the elements we have planned for the update, which is planned to land in your Steam update queue on October 10. What exactly makes up A Dangerous Galaxy? As discussed in previous posts, for the next few updates we are mostly focusing on the findings and learnings we’ve shared with you all. So we wanted to take the time to share a deeper dive than we usually would this early on. Hopefully that way you can get a better idea of how we’re addressing the three pain points mentioned above with this content update. [h2]1. Improved Player Agency (More Captain Controls) 🧑‍✈️[/h2] [h3]Smarter Crew AI [/h3] We are aware that a lot of players jumping into the game had frustrations with their crew’s AI - yeah, us too! The good news is that while the crew AI will naturally be constantly improving all the way through v1.0 and beyond. We’re already seeing improvements across the board with just the work from previous patches, and we’ve got even more this update. Our major AI task for this update is [b]Dynamic Queueing. [/b]What is that, you ask? Well, with your help it quickly became clear to us that a huge part of why crew were not looking after their own needs is because of the way in which crew members would go about resolving those needs (or more often than not, be blocked from doing so). Say a crew member would find themselves critically thirsty, they would “reserve” a vending machine. This meant that every other crew member aboard wouldn’t even be able to consider getting a drink until that first crew member had quenched their thirst, and released that buildable’s availability. Initially, this seemed a reasonable system, but when a desperate crew member is three decks away, injured, and desperately dodging Chatterboxes on their way to the vending machine, it literally slowed the entire ship’s production down and – even worse – actually put everyone’s lives at risk (you know what they say… The start of a grim Death Loop begins with a single vending machine). With our updated dynamic queuing system, your crew will start to behave in a more reasonable way. All Crew members will now be able to go and seek a solution to their critical needs the moment they surface. And if they find the vending machine (or relevant buildable) is in use, they’ll simply stand nearby and tap their feet passive aggressively until their turn comes around. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43221983/5bb782108840555716740aae78b0fd777769f29e.gif[/img] In addition to the dynamic queuing AI system, we’ve also made a suite of other small, but significantly impactful tweaks to crew AI: Pathfinding has seen improvements, with the AI decision making of where crew work and why being adjusted. We’ve continued to refine how crew handle resources (or do and don’t attempt to). We’ve also made some adjustments to how your crew work. Specifically getting them to make smarter decisions for both their personal needs and also how they interact with supplies and critical buildables. The epitome of work smarter, not harder. The impact that all of these changes in concert will have on your ship’s productivity as well as your crew’s health and resilience is pretty remarkable already, but is something that we’re actively iterating on as Early Access continues.. As always, we’re especially keen to hear your feedback here. So do let us know if you experience any quirks and where you would like to see future AI improvements. [h3]New Crew Orders[/h3] We’ve also added brand new orders to your captain’s arsenal for when you really need to pull rank and just Get Shit Done. [b]Go Off-Duty: [/b]You’ll be able to Stand Down any crew member from active duty, and they will remain off-duty, tending to their needs and recovery until their next shift rolls around. [b]Repair Objects: [/b]You will now be able to flag specific objects to your Engineering Officer as a priority for repair. [b]Report to Medbay: [/b]Got an infuriating loved one who just won’t see a doctor? Not on Princess Euphora’s watch! Order crew members direct to the Medbay for treatment as a priority. We’ll be adding more orders with every update, so please do be sure to let us know if there’s something aboard your ship that you just wish your officers would make happen. [h3]Away Missions Improvements[/h3] You’ll be happy to hear that we’ve done a huge pass on Away Mission balancing to be more generous, far less punishing and with fewer chances of successive failures. Additionally, now when a shuttle is full, the ‘Auto-assign Crew’ button will be replaced with a ‘Cycle Crew’ button to ensure you can easily freshen up your rostered pilots whenever you see the need. And you will indeed see the need now, because we’re surfacing Crew Needs in Away Mission Selection!. More on that a little further on. Little note on the [b]‘Cycle Crew’[/b] button, it’s coming in real hot, so while we currently have confidence it’ll come in for this update, we’ve gotta make sure QA and Design are happy with its final implementation before we can make any promises. [h3]Easier Resource Management[/h3] We know this is a big one for a lot of folks - and that you’re all looking for ways to manage that resource spiral of doom and avoid getting trapped in a slowly sinking (star)ship. Water is now easier to get and easier to store. Water recovery missions are more generous and storage capacity is greater - we’ve done a general balance pass here. Power Stations will now remain online the longest out of all other rooms on the ship in the case of a Power outage - they will keep running until your entire ship is offline. Perhaps most excitingly, you’ll now have more control over what resources are stored where on your ship. Yay! We bumped this right up in our priorities because of how much y’all wanted this! Let it be known: Configurable storage is here. You will be able to designate certain storage containers for specific resources only. You’ll no longer find someone’s lunch sitting in the medigel fridge. And, you can also choose what you want each storage buildable to service. Perfect for ensuring your crew don’t travel four decks for materials that should’ve been in the storage room you just built next door. Naturally, we will continue to make adjustments to resource management, as it is one of those multifaceted areas that cannot be addressed with a single adjustment or update. [h2]2. Better Communication of Game State Information 📊[/h2] We absolutely understand the frustration of not having the information required to make the right calls as a Captain for your mission at hand, so this one is a super high priority for us. However, to set expectations correctly it’s not something that we’ll see some major headway or large features in likely for a couple of updates. You will however, see constant, meaningful improvements, even in our smaller patches. It’s something we’re pouring a lot of time, focus and energy into here in the studio. It’s just that UI/UX always has a lot of moving parts and won’t be fixed overnight. BUT, as you can see we are chipping away at it. And on that note, here are some of the major ways you can expect JLO’s in-game feedback and UX to improve with A Dangerous Galaxy. [h3]Manifest & Pilot Select Screen [/h3] Perhaps the most impactful feedback improvement is in the manifest with more ways to see more information about your crew’s status at a glance, with Health, Morale and Needs being flagged right there on the Manifest in a Traffic light style system. And, as teased further up, the great news is that these improvements will also make their way to the Away Mission crew select screen, ensuring you have all the info a discerning Captain needs to select their pilots. [h3]Officer Advice[/h3] We know players have experienced that not enough information is getting surfaced to be able to effectively Captain your crew. So, with this update, you’ll now get more advice from your officers when threats are incoming, when your water is running low, and when your crew’s needs are getting too low, etc, etc - and advice for how to handle them. These additions will also be able to provide players with direction (should they need it) in the form of objectives that will assist them in solving those issues before they get out of control. [h3]A Little Sneak Peek of Something Special… [/h3] Now because we know we’ve got a long way to go to achieve a perfect scenario where Captains can see all the information they need at a glance in order to captain their ship and crew effectively But we wanted to share a little something with you that is *very early* in development and although it won’t be coming in this update it will be hitting JLO this side of Christmas. This is a sneak peek of what we’re currently calling the Ship Resources Panel. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43221983/ea102a74f9fdd860867a93b4d8e162b61eb3a518.png[/img] It is still very much a work in progress, and still requires a lot of design, engineering and back end work in order for it to be functional, but we wanted to share an early concept with players so you can see where our current thinking lies. So just be prepared for it to change a lot (even entirely) between now and when it’s (eventually) ready and in your hands. There’s plenty more that we’re currently working on to make the game’s UX a lot smoother and clearer for players - including a Crew Resources Panel ;) - and we wish we could show you all of it, but hopefully you can at least see just how much of a priority this is for us. [h2]3. Optimisation & Stability ⚓[/h2] With the numerous patches and hotfixes deployed so far, most players will have experienced a distinct improvement on the stability of the game since launch. Even though it’s Early Access, we’re not done yet though. There are more improvements that we are rapidly implementing. [h3]Performance Optimisation[/h3] With this next update, we have made significant changes to underlying systems in a hope to see far less crashes - specifically reducing performance overloads in build mode and particular biomes. [h3]New Graphics Settings[/h3] You will also be pleased to hear that we’ll be adding a few new graphics settings. We’ll confirm the full list in the build notes alongside the update. [h3]Save/Load Game System[/h3] As you’ve all seen, we’re doing a tonne of serialisation and save game work and you’ll be happy to hear that’s continuing in earnest, addressing issues both as they arise and before they get a chance to. With A Dangerous Galaxy, you can expect loading into games to be a whole lot less dangerous, with another significant improvement in the reliability of save/load functionality. We do also know that save game issues are still popping up for some folks, so please do keep reporting any issues you encounter. We need that data to direct our prioritisation. [b]Two important notes on save games: [/b] As we continue to build out the game through Early Access and improve save game serialisation, there may come times where we need to update the game in a way that will make your save files incompatible from one update to another. When that eventually does happen, we’ll be sure to give you all PLENTY of notice. We just wanted to flag it now so that it’s on everyone’s radar. We are aware that many of you are very keen for us to ensure any Orders you’ve given on your ship carry across when you load a game in progress. Whilst it’s on our roadmap and is a high priority for us too, unfortunately it is a significantly complex task and will be coming in a future patch or content update. Sorry folks, would’ve loved to have gotten it into this one. Lastly, as we get closer to a stable and reliable save/load ecosystem in JLO, we’re keen to hear of any user experience or quality of life improvements that you would like to see with the save/load game functionality. Let us know here or via the in-game bug sender. See you on October 10, folks! That’s it for today! Thanks for sticking with us. We’ll naturally have more (all the) info when the build notes for A Dangerous Galaxy drop alongside the content update’s launch on October 10. Once again, we have to thank you all for your support and enthusiasm for this crazy little game of ours. We’re so stoked that so many of you believe in what we’re making. We just hope that while this first content update naturally won’t have everything you ever wanted or could dream of for this game, it does demonstrate our commitment to you, our players, and a willingness to make the right calls for what the game needs. Keeping your Hope bars full, <3 LoG