Hi everyone,
As I write this we’re all busy pushing to get the Horizons Beta released – we’ve announced that it will be released Monday 30th November.
There are a huge amount of changes for this release which always complicates testing and development. As I’m sure you’re aware we’re switching to a 64 bit-only client for Horizons (season 1 will remain available as a 32 bit client as well as 64 bit) which allows us to simulate the planet surfaces to the fidelity we want. This is obviously a big change and we’ll need you guys to help hammer through the game to shake out any issues once the beta is released.
I’d like to thank everyone who chipped in and organised sending us pizzas over the weekend and beyond – your generosity is much appreciated!
While Horizons Planetary Landings beta is available, access to the 1.5 beta will continue and will operate on the test servers. This required us to shut down and update the test servers, which is now complete. The 1.5 update will go live for Xbox One, PC and Mac at the same time as the Horizons store release. Issues addressed applicable to the 1.5 update that are found during the Horizons beta will be included in the 1.5 release.
One such change coming to both will be the increased speed of shield recharging while you are docked to complement the changes we’ve already applied to Shield Cell Banks. We’ve also fixed a number of issues raised during the 1.5 beta.
One of the big tasks for the Horizons Planetary Landings release is to populate the various settlements and ports throughout habited space and beyond. We’re using a different system to do this than we used for the star ports in orbit which gives us more flexibility with them. This means that we can more easily add new ones or upgrade existing ones, so this will feature in community goals moving forwards. We’ll take care to balance the community goals overall so season one only players can still participate in some of them.
Placement of star ports in orbit involves interaction with Stellar Forge, so offering the same flexibility to change as with surface bases is a lot more complicated to do. We do plan on allowing the same level of changes in future, though. Note that this doesn’t mean the automatic creation of new facilities right away, but it’s a necessary part of that direction which is very much in our long range plan.
As well as the 1.5 release for Xbox One we’re working on the First Discovered By, Private Groups, DLC (such as paint jobs) features, as well as Horizons of course! We’ll provide more details on all these as we approach their release.
We’re also continuing to further improve the VR experience. HTC Vive and Steam VR support will be added to both the 1.5 and Horizons Beta as well as various bug fixes and tweaks. We’re continuing to work with Occulus, and will let you know as soon as there is any conclusion.
Thanks!
Michael
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