Naev 0.9.0-beta.1

BY BOBBENS, ON DECEMBER 1ST, 2021

It’s been a very productive year. With almost 8,500 commits from 0.8.2. For reference, this is roughly one third of all the commits in the entire Naev source code have been done this last year. As you can guess, with so many changes altering fundamental things including most of the core gameplay mechanics, there is a high chance that many things have been broken and things lack polish. For this reason, like with the 0.8.x releases, we are going to do several betas as we near the final 0.9.0 release, which we hope to be able to get out this year. Of course, this will depend on how many bugs and issues are found.

If you try it and find any issues, please report them at the issue tracker. Discussion about the game can be had on Discord (discord invite).

To get the new version you can: * Opt-in to the beta channel via steam * Download the new version from here.

Full Changelog

• New mechanics
  • Added new utility outfits with complex effects
  • Changed ship classification, removing rare classes while adding Interceptor and Battleship classes
  • Illegal cargo and ship-to-ship detection
  • Pilots can now go into stealth mode
  • Systems have “safe lanes” patrolled by the governing faction
  • Electronic warfare parameters are simplified and visible
  • Added escorts for hire
  • Some simple minigames have been added
  • Scramblers and jammers have fixed chance to mess up missiles depending on their resistance
  • Restricted systems where dominant faction will attack on sight
  • Some bulk freighter-class ships added
  • Systems can have different effects on all ships in them
  • Fake transponder replaces fake id
• Visual improvements
  • New fancy system rendering effects
  • Ships and rockets now have engine trails
  • Beam visuals have been made more flexible and pretty
  • Jumping visuals improved
  • Redid the shake visuals and added a small damage visual
  • Most special effects implemented as shaders
  • Most small visuals redone to be more visible and clean
  • Similar presences are now merged in map
  • Overhauled all the backgrounds
• Gameplay changes
  • Pirates split into multiple clans and marauders
  • Added discovery messages as you explore the universe
  • Overhauled NPC AI
  • Overhaul and rebalance of most outfits
  • Wanted ships no longer aggro defense forces (bounties)
  • Bribed pilots don’t become hostile again unless attacked
  • Stress now decreases based on ship mass
  • Merged the Independent and Civilian factions
  • Game now tracks meta-data like ships destroyed and time played
  • Trade lane routes made explicit
  • More common and useful derelict ships
  • Missiles have lock-on reduced and in-flight calibration added
  • Tutorial redone with Ship AI that is also accessible from the info menu
  • New ships including the Starbridge
• Quality of Life
  • Autonav supports landing and boarding
  • Comm window reworked and you can bribe multiple pilots at once
  • Possible to change or unequip ships with deployed fighters
  • More fine-grained autonav reset control by setting enemy distance
  • Added autoequip functionality
  • Able to filter equipable outfits
  • Minimal view mode for the map
  • More visible map markers
  • More in-game tutorial-ish explanations for new mechanics as you encounter them
  • You can now favourite your ships to help with sorting
  • Redid boarding window to be more intuitive and easier to loot what you want
  • Paste support for input stuff
  • Translation completion status is shown in the options
• New locations
  • Added gambling resort “Minerva Station”
  • Revamped and improved some existing locations
  • Several new planets and systems
• 40 New missions
  • Challenge adversaries in the Crimson Gauntlet
  • Follow happenings on “Minerva Station”
  • Invade the frontier with the Dvaered
  • Ship enthusiast quiz
  • Deliver fancy contraband all over the universe
  • Raid trader convoys
  • Rescue derelict crew
  • Small early game tutorial-ish campaign
  • Neutral campaign to transform the universe
  • Help the Za’lek do particle physics
  • Meow
• New translation(s) in progress: Czech, French, Korean, Portuguese, and Japanese
• Engine Changes
  • Added an optimizer to improve automatic outfitting choices
  • A ton of new ship stat attributes have been added
  • Support for Lua-based hooks in Outfits for complex behaviours
  • Support for post-processing shaders
  • Added rendering and update hooks in the Lua API
  • Added image format support beyond PNG (notably WebP)
  • Support for arbitrary ship display classes
  • Game data now handled by PhysicsFS, allowing for multiple sources and easier modding
  • Meson is now the only build system, and development builds can integrate all assets/translations without being installed
  • Fonts now use distance fields and much better in many cases
  • Improved how Lua was being loaded
  • Added library that supports lots of Love2D API in Naev
  • Added Visual Novel library
  • Added card games
  • Added dynamic factions
  • Added dynamic commodities
  • Lua support for advanced sound effects
  • Most markers and indicators use signed distance functions now
  • Internally using linear colourspace
  • Lots of optimization
  • Faction presence computed with base and bonus values
  • Virtual assets have been redone and are more flexible than before
  • Point value system for ships to help with presence and other things
  • Support for shipstats at a system level
  • Initial support for 3D models
  • Proper support for line breaks in most languages
  • Most objects (ships, planets, etc.) have tags that can be used from Lua
  • Lots of optimization