Greetings everyone!
We're happy to announce that after what feels like an eternity, the Cold & Dark update is now live across the board for all players, including the public Demo. It's been a long road with many moving goalposts, but we're finally there!
COLD & DARK
New games can now be launched in either a Flight Ready or Cold & Dark configuration, with the Cold Start tutorial now being available to play. The tutorial has over 12 minutes of spoken dialogue and takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.
ENGINEERING
In addition to many visual improvements, the engineering systems have been completely overhauled, with a more robust electrical system and an all-new fluid transport system. All of the ship's engineering systems now work properly in multiplayer, so crews can work together to make a dark ship flight-ready.
MULTIPLAYER
We've added password protection for servers and a new Host Controls menu, enabling server hosts to kick or mute unruly guests, in addition to being able to send them to the brig. An individual player's brig status is saved between sessions, so if you send someone to your brig, they will always appear in your brig even if they log off and return weeks later.
PROP SYSTEM
The physical prop manipulation system is now greatly improved, with better collisions, new audio, and more intuitive mouse control. This also now works properly in multiplayer, so you can chuck your crewmates a beer and they'll be able to catch it. The props on the ship now also have proper object permanence, so once you move an object it will remain where you left it between sessions.
ENGINE UPGRADE
We have now updated the game to Unreal Engine 5.3.2, which brings with it many engine improvements and allows us to utilise next-gen features such as Nanite, for a practically unlimited poly count budget. These additional capabilities do come with a cost, however, because it means as of now we are ending support for DirectX 11. The latest UE features require DirectX 12, so sadly this is unavoidable. We are however looking to enable GeForce Now as soon as possible, which should make the game playable on older systems, in addition to Mac and Linux.
Now that we've drawn a line under this update, the next step will be to focus on completing the exterior ship model for the Magellan Class, along with laying the groundwork for planetary scanning and a much more fleshed-out galaxy. Stay tuned for an updated roadmap soon.
Ok, that's it from us, have fun out there!
