Vector Squared -- Starbound Community News, Issue #29

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Hello, and welcome to Vector Squared's 29th issue. This issue we cover things such as the forum titles update to occur, more daily updates by Chucklefish, a cosplay contest, and another excellent Art Feature.

Take care where you tread, and so we grant you access to the innermost sanctums of holy relics.

Table of Contents

• Taking a Break
• Forum Titles - Update
• Daily Updates, Ahoy!
• Attention, Cosplayers!
• Art Feature
• It's All Fun and Games
• Closing Comments

Taking a Break
First of all, allow me to apologize, personally, for the gap of any information at all regarding Vector Squared. It was a rather lazy period of time for me, and I didn't take initiative to take care of the organization itself. That being said, allow me to introduce you to the plan.

It's been a good 29 weeks, in which we garnered quite a following (still thankful about that) and gave to our users happily. A wonderful time that I cannot forget enough -- you guys are awesome newspaper readers. Lots of things occurred during that time, not limited to having new members coming and going, certain things expanding, and the newspaper maturing to its current state.

However, the staff members, and myself, have started to get somewhat weary of the task. This may explain some of the slip-ups that have recently occurred. Simply put, we're losing the motivation to get this out to you guys. Certainly we wouldn't want to provide you a shoddy product thrown out the door every week, so we've decided to take a break until we've regained our strength. Perhaps at beta, or at release, depending on how the flow of time shifts, we'll return with further awesome news to give to you guys, complete and expanded.

That being said, thank you all for 29 weeks of awesomeness. We'll be seeing you guys later.

~Nababoo


Forum Titles - Update
Earlier this week Starbound developer OmnipotentEntity announced right here that he was considering increasing the current amount of forum titles. The idea would be for users to acquire a new title every 25 forum points instead of 50. This feature should kick in after roughly 350 points since the common titles before that figure already change every 25 points.

If such were to be implemented, it would actually pretty much ensure more variety within the domain. However, not much has been shared about these new ranks, though it should be reasonable to assume that the humourous space-themed approach, like the titles Space Penguin Leader and Scruffy Nerf-Herder, will be kept. Nevertheless, we never know and we might actually be surprised by something completely different.

Feel free to drop by the topic Forum titles and Trophy points and perhaps share some ideas, suggestions or even give some feedback on the matter.

By: Keeper


Daily Updates, Ahoy!

http://playstarbound.com/20th-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/21st-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/22nd-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/23rd-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/24th-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/25th-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/may-26th-update/

http://playstarbound.com/27th-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/28th-may-update/

http://playstarbound.com/29th-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/30th-may-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/31st-may-update/

http://playstarbound.com/1st-of-june-progress/

http://playstarbound.com/2nd-june-progress/

• Working on NPC behaviour and spawning.
• Ship upgrades have been made more seamless.

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• New ore-based weapons have been added.
• Work has begun on in-game options.
• Comic-style intro sequences will be added, with a different one for each race. Work on them is ongoing, but the Avian one was finished first.

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• Speech bubbles have been finished, and are shown in a way to make following a conversation easier.
• Characters lips move when talking. Emotes will cause their expression to change.
• Work is ongoing for vehicles and mechs. There will be at least 1 mech and 1 hoverbike per race.

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• Terrain features, such as natural bridges, are being added.
• The in-game options menu is being worked on, since it hasn’t been looked at in a while.
• New thunder-clap sound for entering hyperspace.
• The Big Physics Change has been made to allow flying NPCs to work properly, as well as improve player upgrades and vehicle handling.
• Emotes will be configurable and moddable.
• Different gravity levels and similar factors will affect player movement on a planet.
• Horsemasks (?!) have been added.
• More recipes for food (including race-specific ones) are being added. Cake is included, and is therefore not a lie. There will be different categories of food, such as entrees, sides, snacks, desserts and drinks.
• Food and other consumables can be placed as decorative objects.
• There will be an “Avian airship” dungeon.
• Each race will have at least 60 unique weapons, excluding randomly generated and non-craftable ones.

• Additional respawn animations are in the works, which will appear in future newsletter issues.
• Durability will apply only to tools (such as pickaxes, axes and hoes), and won’t “break” them but instead gradually reduce their effectiveness. Returning to the ship will automatically fix them, but they can be fixed in the field with ore.
• Kyren has apparently seen Omni naked.

By Jonesy


Attention, Cosplayers!
According to Tiy in the 27th of May update, there will be a cosplay competition soon. Ten lucky winners will receive a free copy of the game and an NPC named after them. Costumes must be either awesome or embarrassing. Details will be on the forums soon, so stay tuned!

By Jonesy



http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/barbound.22162/
Continuing last week’s tradition of desktop wallpapers, we’ll be presenting yet another one for those of you still eager to pimp out your digital fanfic machine! Coming to us live from well-known forum’er Bietol is an amazingly detailed wallpaper by the title of “BarBound”.

This wallpaper is basically the lovechild of Starbound and Pulp-Era-Fiction, and boy is it beautiful. All of our favorite races are represented in mafia-style clothing, with tight, well-pressed suits, to long, elegant dresses, and of course, no pulp-era scene is complete without at least two tommy guns and a molotov cocktail. Both of which have also been accounted for in Bietol’s picture.



The picture utilizes strong, light pastel colors which contrast with the crisp, dark outlines of the characters. The drawing style has some obvious inspirations from comic books. Shadows are portrayed with thicker lines, instead of darked coloring, a classic trait of comic books.
The lines of the characters also portray their personality. The Apex for example has sharper edges, more corners, while the Novakid is more fluid. This gives us an extra level of personality beyond the general drawing and coloring. This portrays the Apex as more of a brutal, blunt type of person, while the Novakid seems agile, fast, almost roguelike. Utilizing such methods gives a simple comicbook-ish image a lot more depth and feeling, something which Bietol pulls off very, very well.

Not only has Bietol provided us with a wonderful background featuring a wide variety of what seems to be rather eccentric characters, but he’s also given us various .PNGs of each individual character, making it easy to make a wallpaper featuring only your favorite!


“Say ‘ello to my little frien’!”

Personally, I’m totally loving that mysterious Floran. He looks like the kind of guy you’d pay to get rid of someone, make it look like an accident, and then pay him in moonshine.
“Aaah, yessss. I can make him...disssappear. I’ve not had lunch anywaysss, ssso it suitsss me well.”

If you’re interested in getting the background, or seeing the other character, go check out Bietol’s topic here. It’ll definitely be worth your time.

- WackyWocky


It’s All Fun and Games


Due to a family emergency, I have been unable to work on a puzzle this week. Next week I will release either two puzzles or one big one (probably the latter). The winner and the only one to submit a solution for last week’s puzzle is Segolia. Everyone congratulate him and give him many cookies.

~MahBucket


Closing Comments

• Good luck with the Starbound community, everyone! Let’s all look forward to a Beta-version VS when it comes out.
• Keeper is also leaving the team, so say farewell to him and thank him for his continued record of immeasurable assistance.

Staff
Nababoo -- Lord Bacon McHam Von Porkchop Meatstein de Sausagion’s Shadow
Keeper -- Jeepers Keepers
Strife -- ???
WackyWocky -- Space Banana
ReverseShadow -- Comic L0lcats
shardival -- Legend of the Brush
Jonesy -- He Never Asked For This.
harnackam -- All-Knowing Eye
MahBucket -- Puzzle Lord

Credits


Previous Issues:
Issue #1 [] Issue #2 [] Issue #3 [] Issue #4 [] Issue #5 [] Issue #6 [] Issue #7 [] Issue #8 [] Issue #9 [] Issue #10 [] Issue #11 [] Issue #12 [] Issue #13 [] Issue #14 [] Issue #15 [] Issue #16 [] Issue #17 [] Issue #18 [] Issue #19 [] Issue #20 [] Issue #22 [] Issue #23 [] Issue #24 [] Issue #25 [] Issue #26 [] Issue #27 [] Issue #28

Blue’s Fanmade Newspaper Archive

 

Great issue guys! (As always )

Sorry to hear that you're taking a break. However, would you mind if I did a little news-thingy of my own to pick up the slack while you guys take your well-deserved vacations? I mean, I love what you guys are doing, and I don't blame you for taking a break, but I think that it would still be nice to have some sort of weekly newsletter. If you don't want me to, that's fine. I was just wondering.

 

I have been waiting for this!
And great issue, more up-to-date then I thought.

Woot!

 

It's a real shame to see that you guys are closing the doors for a little while. I really did enjoy reading your pieces.

Ah well - to the future!

 

I must say, I love the Noire look the Nova kid in the art section.

Also, Hasta la vista, Jonesy.

 

no comic, *tear*

 

Great issue love the gangster art for the races, has a nice Baccano! vibe.

 

By all means, go ahead. Nothing's stopping you, and a bit of friendly competition is never out of place

 

IndentedHaven't read the paper in a while, so it was a nice surprise to see Bietol's art. Went on over to his thread and pretty much gushed pure love for the piece.
IndentedAnd it's understandable that the team would need a break, although you've all done a great job so far.
IndentedEnjoy the break. =)

 

You aren't? That sucks.........

............because I don't know how to turn this into a negative sentence with a good punchline in which it actually doesn't suck because it means that at some point the newsletter will e back as mentioned in the original post of the newsletter and the more I ramble the more this joke dies.

 

Way to ruin the surprise... but seriously that would be awesome!

 

To be honest, I totally forgot about that. Look like I just amnesia'd muself right into a small and awkward corner.

 

Darn, gonna miss the stuff you guys put up. Have a good break!

 

Thanks for the newsletter and for the feature, dudes!

 

Thanks for all the fish! It's been a pleasure reading the paper each monday!