Dogs Of War Vu

Sim/Strategy/War => Games Discussion => Topic started by: Asid on August 16, 2017, 04:32:44 PM

Title: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 16, 2017, 04:32:44 PM
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/header.jpg?t=1502895559)

Build a galactic transportation empire and supply humanity with with everything it needs to colonize the stars.


Official forum: Here (http://steamcommunity.com/app/573490/discussions/)
Steam: Here (http://store.steampowered.com/app/573490/Interstellar_Transport_Company/)
Youtube Channeli: Here (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWrqCqk3OVXitVUfsh-ZIiA)


Single-player/Multi-player/CO-OP


Early Access Trailer
https://youtu.be/x5-jZVyt9_8



About

Build a galactic transportation empire! Help colonize the galaxy and dominate the competition in single player and online multiplayer. Use your business cunning to take your fledgling company from humble beginnings on Earth and it's neighboring planets and moons to the far reaches of the Galaxy. Buy ships, manage routes, conduct trade deals, build infrastructure, colonize new worlds, invest in local industry; All set in a procedurally generated galaxy with challenging AI, and Online Multiplayer. You will have a new experience every time you play. Help humankind spread throughout the galaxy by managing resource flows and the supply chains needed to sustain it's growth. Balance colony expansion against resource deliveries to ensure you never bring a planet to starvation. Using a highly sophisticated and complex simulation, every decision you make can have lasting consequences throughout the entire game.

Interstellar Transport Company has a scientifically grounded galaxy generator which produces challenging and believable maps. Play with 1 to 300 star systems in custom game mode or use predefined game settings and try to top the leaderboards. You can even play without our solar system (replaced by a randomly generated starting system) if you want to freshen things up even more! Manage cashflow, take loans and issue bonds, deal with the local authorities and maintain high reputation throughout the galaxy. Invest in developing markets and hedge your risks. Balance expenses against value to crush your competitors. Play single player custom games against AI or alone with many different galaxy and difficulty settings. Or play with the predefined settings and compete on the global leaderboards. Maybe competitive multiplayer is your thing? Play a shortened balanced game against players near your own skill level. You can even play a co-op multiplayer game, teaming up with friends against the AI.

Features
•   Manage a transportation company in space. Supply all of humanities needs as they spread throughout the galaxy.
•   Beautifully rendered, procedurally generated galaxy, a new experience every time you play.
•   Singleplayer, vs AI, online multiplayer, ranked, and custom game modes.
•   Complex economic simulation and business management models.

Help Colonize The Cosmos
Help humankind spread throughout the galaxy by managing resource flows and the supply chains needed to sustain it's growth. Balance colony expansion against resource deliveries to ensure you never bring a planet to starvation. Using a highly sophisticated and complex simulation, every decision you make can have lasting consequences throughout the entire game.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/extras/planets_612.png?t=1502895559)

Procedurally Generated Galaxy
Interstellar Transport Company has a scientifically grounded galaxy generator which produces challenging and believable maps. Play with 1 to 100 star systems in custom game mode or use predefined game settings and try to top the leaderboards. You can even play without our solar system (replaced by a randomly generated starting system) if you want to freshen things up!

Realistic Business Management
Manage cash flow, take loans and issue bonds, deal with the local authorities and maintain high reputation throughout the galaxy. Invest in developing markets and hedge your risks. Balance expenses against value to crush your competitors.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/extras/buildings_banner.png?t=1502895559)

Play Any Way You Want
Play single player custom games against AI or alone with many different galaxy and difficulty settings. Or play with the predefined settings and compete on the global leaderboards. Maybe competitive multiplayer is your thing? **coming soon** Play a shortened balanced game against players near your own skill level for ladder points. You can even play a co-op multiplayer game, teaming up with friends against the AI.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/extras/mp_612.png?t=1502895559)


(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/ss_9f58364c45ee387d22b1ff2ecda511d22041a52c.1920x1080.jpg?t=1502895559)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/ss_3e5a01b8c8737075ee0f8a2a807425ecd02c6112.1920x1080.jpg?t=1502895559)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/ss_2712e61547086d8385eee9beee6ba9c264302146.1920x1080.jpg?t=1502895559)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/ss_95b444f5561ee8fc3bb2816f59ac40429536c5d5.1920x1080.jpg?t=1502895559)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/ss_fb22c3535a404f1e9f6b4ead04f302400b47550e.1920x1080.jpg?t=1502895559)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/573490/ss_d7b056bccdc4ddb9a389ae7d0680c3201b6bcfcb.1920x1080.jpg?t=1502895559)
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 17, 2017, 02:07:23 AM
Interstellar Transport Company Devlog #1 First gameplay preview

https://youtu.be/GCBpPvPoGbM



Interstellar Transport Company development vlog 2

https://youtu.be/3NDxFVmH3wo



Interstellar Transport Company VLOG 3 (security, maintenance, and new ships)

https://youtu.be/CvoLm2kOLrc



Interstellar Transport Company VLOG 4

https://youtu.be/AglGv63q8tQ
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 17, 2017, 03:19:20 PM
August 17, 2017 PATCH NOTES


PATCH NOTES:
-Better ship reliability balance
-Loading a saved game no longer "revives" deleted routes
-Gate dialogs currency now formated
-Increased size and readability of dropdowns
-Non-interstellar ships are no longer assignable to interstellar routes
-The first interstellar system that is colonized will now always be within return range of the Gorman Starchaser
-Fixed a lot of multiplayer lobby issues
-Keyboard hot keys no longer break after using an input box and closing it with a carriage return

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Multiplayer saved games cannot be loaded
-Randomly Multiplayer clients become unstable (working hard on a fix!)
-News items don't get saved in save game file
-Sometimes "Wait for full load" doesn't work
-Screen judder / delay when ordering ships and other general ship screen performance issues.
-Hotjoining multiplayer games not working
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 18, 2017, 03:06:56 AM
New Update


-Better ship reliability balance
-Loading a saved game no longer "revives" deleted routes
-Gate dialogs currency now formated
-Increased size and readability of dropdowns
-Non-interstellar ships are no longer assignable to interstellar routes
-The first interstellar system that is colonized will now always be within return range of the Gorman Starchaser
-Fixed a lot of multiplayer lobby issues
-Keyboard hot keys no longer break after using an input box and closing it with a carriage return
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 20, 2017, 12:07:54 AM
August 19, 2017 4pm EST PATCH NOTES:

Update3
-Ship screen jitter fixed when there are lots of ships
-Improved AI Balance
-Improved AI gate buying and selling behaviour
-Improved AI buying, selling and upgrading ship behaviour
-Fixed AI over supplying machinery and other ai bugs
-Fixed and Improved hot join for multiplayer
-Added player list to above chat box and on connecting screen for multiplayer, includes icon for ping warning and kick button to resolve stuck games after player failing to connect
-Optimized multiplayer for large number of ships late game causing network lag
-planet view camera reverted to fix the "jumpy" planet in mid game
-Ship LODs adjusted to help improve framerate with lots of ships some.
-Fixed ship camera when in another system and you "center camera"
-Fixed company rep tooltip in multiplayer showing company names with "_gameobject" prefix

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Loaded dilithium fuel gets removed from ships
-Multiplayer saved games cannot be loaded
-Randomly Multiplayer clients become unstable (working hard on a fix!)
-News items don't get saved in save game file
-Sometimes "Wait for full load" doesn't work
-Screen judder / delay when ordering ships and other general ship screen performance issues
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 26, 2017, 03:42:23 AM
PATCH NOTES August 25, 2017

Just finished up a nice big patch for everyone tonight! Includes a lot of fixes to some very annoying things you all have been experiencing. We are now diving head-first into the Ships screen to completely rework that and make it much more user friendly in mid and late game. Thanks for everyone's suggestions on this subject, I think what we have planned will really help!

Saved games from previous versions are incompatible with this patch

-"wait for full load" issues are fixed, it now loads the ships that have been waiting the longest
-Loading a save game will no longer break ship icons
-Profit graph fixed to be accurate
-Added more financial graphs comparing you and the competition
-Removing the current stop on a route doesn't break the game with huge cash payments any more.
-Changing cargo rules should be more predictable, there were some cases where they weren't saving previously.
-Lots of multiplayer connectivity issues resolved.
-AI should now better prioritize reliability for long travel distance routes.
-AI should now consider larger ships more often
-Multiplayer chat window greatly improved
-In multiplayer, on client computers, moons of non-colonized planets should orbit better now.
-Planets and moons now orbit about half the speed they did previously
-Reduced spaceport size requirements for multiple ships
-Re-balanced multiple ships (cargo size, system speed, prices)
-Updated to Unity 2017
-Reduced the number of AI companies in predefined games to 3 for easy, 2 for normal and hard, and 1 for unfair
-Enabled loading a save game in multiplayer (still laggy for most clients after a reload however, we're working to correct this)
-Fixed lots of multiplayer bugs
-Improvements to AI companies
-Fixed news items not being saved

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companies. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 28, 2017, 02:21:31 PM
August 28, 2017 v0.1.3c PATCH NOTES

-AI company being liquidated will no longer liquidate all ships in the game
-Company being liquidated now also removes their loans
-10 year milestone will no longer be displayed for games loaded past the ten year mark.
-Ships should no longer turn around before even passing a planet in outer solar system.
-Ships should no longer leave empty on their first run
-Adding first class slots to a new ship won't break the slot UI anymore

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-When loading a save game with in-transit interstellar ships, odd behavior can be exhibited and you might lose the ships currently.
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companies. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on September 01, 2017, 04:11:34 PM
Localization for 8 languages; Mac & Linux support added in latest Update Full Patch Notes August 31st, 2017

We are very excited to announce that Interstellar Transport Company is now available in 9 languages with more to come soon. While the translations aren't 100% accurate or complete, it should be plenty playable for speakers of these languages. Thank you to the community members who have helped with these efforts thus far! As a side note, this was in parallel to the work we're doing to improve the ships and routes screens. More info will be available on that project in the coming days.

Also in today's patch we are releasing support for Mac and Linux systems! We look forward to seeing you all in the game! Please report any issues with Mac, Linux, or language localization to the game's Steam discussion boards.

August 31, 2017 v0.1.4 PATCH NOTES:
-When a taxi service is built on a planet, ships will no longer leave empty on their first launch
-Added Mac and Linux Support
-Fixed bugs for mac and linux support
-Add Localization and Translations:
-English
-French
-Spanish
-German
-Italian
-Korean
-Russian
-Dutch
-Portuguese
-Brazilian (Portuguese-Brazilian)
-Fixed more multiplayer bugs
-Added "Are you sure?" confim when leaving game
-Changed autosave naming formate to be sortable
-Fixed game save lists to sort descending

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companys. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
-Translations are not complete, if you would like to help with translations please see discord or steam discussions
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on September 08, 2017, 12:04:01 AM
Updated Development Roadmap and September 7th Patch Notes
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Now that all the launch craziness has finally settled down some and most of the launch bugs have been taken care of we're starting to transition back in to heavy development mode. Our internal roadmap has been reordered some and we have already begun work on our next projects. The first of these being a new ships interface. The old one is just not up to the task of managing hundreds of ships. Below is an early sneak-peek of the new ships screen in development!

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/e4483cf72e16313e42c5d16237808789c2271afb.jpg)

Expect the new ships screen to be done in a week or two!

In addition to the ships screen, we are also working on localizing the game. Currently we are up to 14 languages. While most of them use Google translations, about 95% of text in the game has been localized.

Current Development Road Map
Here is a short glimpse of some of our roadmap as it stands now:
-Localizations
-Interface usability improvements for large companies (ships / routes screens mainly)
-Notifications system rework including notification filters and clickable notifications to be taken to the event
-Initial modding support
-More cargo types including luxury cargoes and weaponry
-Map modes and reports to visualize supply / demand and other factors easier
-Politics and Factional relations (politics patch)
-Route waypoints, interstellar obstacles and very late game warp gates
-New play-through tutorial to explain game better
-Techtrees and research
-Stocks and IPO system
-VR Support
-Ranked multiplayer mode (we have moved this to the end of development to hopefully bring in a large influx of people at full launch for this feature)

And finally patch notes from today's patch which just went live!

September 7, 2017 v0.1.5 PATCH NOTES:
-Impored Localization and Translations
-Fixed main game not getting translated bug
-Add 6 more languages:
-Chinese
-Japanese
-Danish
-Finnish
-Norwegian
-Swedish
-Renamed 'Prev' button in MP lobby to 'Game Settings'
-Improved options flag dropdown look
-Fixed report line graphs y axis not centering on 0
-Fixed company name input fields to be the same length
-Fixed broken save game button
-Fixed broken down/repairing ships movement in MP
-Fixed tooltip not being disabled
-Fixed loans exploite
-Tweaked diffuclty starting cash and loans
-Buffed ai speeds and other ai balance tweeks
-Titan should now colonize earlier for better dilithium fuel supply
-Add a cargo maintenance ship type modifier
-Only the first few ships have an end manufacture date for the time being
-All ship prices have been rebalanced some

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companys. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
-Translations are not complete, if you would like to help with translations please see discord or steam discussions
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on September 19, 2017, 06:04:23 PM
14 Language translations now available! Some new ship screen elements 9-18-2017 PATCH NOTES v0.1.6
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Hey everyone! We're so happy to bring this patch to you. It is the beginning of a couple of very big projects that we think will do wonders for the game. First of all, the ships window has been changed drastically, you can now assign ships to groups and filter ships by type, route, group, and cargo bays. This will make managing fleets much simpler in mid and late game! However, this is only half of this project. Next we will be allowing you to sort the ships, providing you some graphs to view historical performance data for your ships, allow you to select and edit multiple ships at once, upgrade ships with a couple of clicks, and also hide your competitor ships. Expect to see this all in the next couple of weeks.

The next thing we're excited to bring you is localization for 14 languages. While most of the translations are simply translated through Google Translate currently, it should be playable and we will be improving the quality of the translations over the coming months.

Below is a list of the languages we currently support:
-English
-French
-Spanish
-German
-Italian
-Korean
-Russian
-Dutch
-Portuguese
-Chinese
-Japanese
-Danish
-Finnish
-Norwegian
-Swedish

September 18, 2017 v0.1.6 PATCH NOTES:
-New ships screen (more functionality to come)
-User defined ship groups
-Ship filtering
-Better background coloring on some scroll view elements for better readability
-AI improvements and bug fixing
-Fixed fonts not being all from the same set for some languages
-More Localization and Translations improvements
-Fixed delete save game not working
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Lusik on September 20, 2017, 12:12:11 AM
Thanks for posting all the updates. I'm watching the Expanse Season 2 now so anything related to space exploration easily catch my attention.  :)
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on September 20, 2017, 12:04:54 PM
Hi Lusik

The Expanse is one of the best SCi-fi productions ever made. Yes, I feel it is that good. It is very believable from the tech to the politics/factions.

I eagerly await the next series  :drool
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on October 07, 2017, 01:11:54 AM
v0.2.0 PATCH NOTES October 6th, 2017
6 OCTOBER   - MT_WORLDS

Hey all, a nice big patch incoming with lots of great new UI features and a new ship. Enjoy!!

October 6th, 2017 v0.2.0 PATCH NOTES:
-Added new ship, Farja KV3
-New map modes feature
-More ship screen improvements, added ship sorting, added option to hide competitor's ships
-More localization and translations improvements, better chinese font added
-UI improvements, new top menu bar
-Added upgrade ship feature
-Added hotkeys for game time 1-2-3-4, +/-
-Added hotkeys for ui windows F1 - F6
-Added option to filter finances screen by archived ships and routes
-Fixed bug when two companys tried to buy a gate at the same time
-Changed default ship naming convention to SHIPTYPE-NUMBER e.g D909-001
-Increase the dilithium fuel tank on the Byeolwamul from 70 to 95
-Ships now have to land first before they are sold
-Fixed not being able to start a custom game with no steam link
-Changed linux to default to windowed to fix full scren lanuch grey screen issue
-Fixed colour of colonist supply bar in planet supply/demand bar graph
-Fixed clone ship not building on correct planet

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companys. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
-Translations are not complete, if you would like to help with translations please see discord or steam discussions
-Multiplayer is fairly unstable currently in mid game
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on October 15, 2017, 02:26:44 PM
0.2.1 patch notes Oct 14th 2017 Change ship load-out and Improved readability
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

One of the most highly requested features since launch two months ago has been the ability to change a ship's cargo bay loadout after purchasing it. I'm pleased to say that today's patch allows this! We've also heard quite a few complaints about the legibility of text in the game. We've increased many font sizes in the game, normalized font sizes all over the place and fixed dozens of overlapping and other readability issues. This combined with a slight darkening of all UI windows should improve things a bunch in this department! Please leave comments and feedback on the changes, we love to hear them. Thanks for your continued support!


October 14, 2017 v0.2.1 PATCH NOTES:
-Ships can now be refitted with new cargo bay load-outs
-Font size increased and more normalized across the board
-UI windows all darkened slightly to improve readability
-Fixed dozens of text size and fit issues
-Fixed multiplayer text over floating heads being too large.
-Stars now have slightly more random positions in "height" from the galactic plane.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on October 22, 2017, 12:40:00 AM
v0.2.2 PATCH NOTES Oct. 21st, 2017 clickable notifications and lots of bugfixes
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds


October 21, 2017 v0.2.2 PATCH NOTES:
-Added Notification click events
-Ships no longer get stuck when in "sell at next stop" status
-Change loadout now always works as expected
-Tweaked AI to be more proactive late game
-Ships are now removed from a route when it's deleted.
-Clicking edit ship from a ship window now shows the proper ship selected in the ship screen.
-Farja KV3 now properly requires a level 3 spaceport
-Habability loss event is game breakingly op
Order ship screen now properly focuses when it's opened
-Fixed text sizes of values in order ship screen
-Zero cash no longer pops up non-stop when ships are waiting for dilithium fuel.
-Press ESC now works again
-Mapmodes now update each day
-Added "Press ESC to exit ship view" while in ship view

The patch will be live at about 2pm EST
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on October 26, 2017, 04:32:02 PM
October 25th, 2017 Patch notes, list of current buildings, new food water balance, and lots of MP fixes
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

October 25, 2017 v0.2.3 PATCH NOTES:
-Added list of surface buildings to planet screen
-Tweaked ai upgrading spaceports when they need to
-Added pressing 'DEL' closes all open windows
-Fixed in game menu not appearing on top of other windows
-Fixed game pausing in relation to opening and closing of the in game menu
-Fixed ships, with 'sell at next stop' status, positon not updating on remote clients in multiplayer
-Fixed issue with pressing F3 to open order ship screen while owning no gates
-Fixed ships list being empty on remote clients after multiplayer load game
-Fixed repair ship rotation on remote clients in multiplayer
-Optimized multiplayer packet sending to help with later game lag
-Added desync check auto pause to keep multiplayer in sync, grace period 5 days
-Fixed upgraded ships disappearing from ships list
-Rebalance of food and water production and galaxy generation
-Fixed issue with "Deliver and Store" for machinery.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on November 19, 2017, 04:42:59 PM
November 18th, 2017 Patch notes lots of small improvements, balance and bug fixes
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds


-Now possible to select multiple ships in the ships screen
-Random galaxy generation tweaks, now always starts with a moon
-Added jump to light-speed graphics when ship jumps out of system
-Made distance of jump out of a system much closer than it was before
-Custom game cash and loan sliders now round to 50k
-Balanced early game ship fuel costs
-Balanced gate prices
-Now get a free gate with upgrading of a spaceport
-AU orbit distance of planets now shown in planet hover panel
-Repair ships should now come from the closet planet
-Add notification for when ship is waiting for repair ship and when is waiting for free gate
-Tweaked AI to be more active on lower difficulties
-Fixed bug where number of ships in route screen would be wrong
-Fixed interstellar events not firing
-AI now name there routes to help analyse there actions
-Fixed bug where loading a game with ships on interstellar leg would adjust their current course
-Fixed bug where ship days to delivery would go negative while waiting for a gate
-Fixed machinery pickup next demand bug
-Other multiplayer bugs fixes and improvements
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on November 21, 2017, 03:56:46 PM
November 20th, 2017 Patch notes!
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

-Fixed spammy ship notification news events
-Reduced cost of dilithium fuel
-Added a count of orbiting ships in planet view
-Amount of passengers now scale with number of companies in the game
-Amount of machinery and rare resources on Earth now scale with number of companies in the game
-F2 now works exactly the same as closing the routes window with the close button.
-Various Multiplayer bug fixes
-Fixed a bug where an AI just randomly doesn't start
-There is now only 1 AI on each predefined game difficulty. This is just for testing purposes, please let us know if the AI is more competitive.
-Ship hover text now no longer overflows
-Fixed company name text boxes in multiplayer lobby eating letters
-Fixed game unpausing unexpectedly from in game menu
-Fixed remapping keys in control options bug
-Colony founded now shows who subsidized the colony
-Normalized text to "cash in hand"

MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES:
-Poor performance with ships screen open in mid-game
-Ships screen and UI in general is very unintuitive later in the game. We are working hard to make it simpler to manage large companys. Expect big changes to some UI windows over the coming weeks.
-Translations are not complete, if you would like to help with translations please see discord or steam discussions pinned post
-Multiplayer is fairly unstable currently in mid game
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on November 26, 2017, 01:54:35 AM
Interstellar Transport Company
Full Stories Headlines
25 Nov

v0.2.6 Incoming! Lots of Interstellar improvements!!

Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

We've really tried to spend a lot of time fixing up interstellar play some more so that it is more viable and fun. I think we're finally to a point where I can say that interstellar play is compelling and playable. With a few more ships and cargo types it will really shine!! This patch also includes significant AI improvements and many other quality of life fixes. Thanks so much for all your support and help in making ITC the best it can be!

November 25, 2017 v0.2.6 PATCH NOTES:

-AI will now save up for ships it wants instead of only focusing on the cash it has currently on hand.
-Improved random system generation to make them more scientifically accurate and more playable.
-Rebalanced dilithium fuel, crystals, mines, refineries, usage and cost to try and improve interstellar play
-Now checks interstellar distance when assigning ships to routes just like when you check gate sizes for ships
-Now only if there is a dilithium refinery in a system will ships demand enough fuel to make a return trip, otherwise enough fuel for a one way trip will suffice.
-Ships screen is no longer incredibly laggy when open. Needed to remove profit from owned ship panes.
-Now does a check to make sure there is a 85%+ hab planet in the game other than Earth, if there's not boost the 2nd highest planet to that level
-Nerfed Triton so that local governments no longer want to colonize it.
-Ship groups work again in singleplayer
-You now only receive ship notifications for your company ships
-AI will transport passengers more often
-Companies go bankrupt in custom games and multiplayer now.
-AI landing pads get blocked much less frequently now.
-Charts will no longer stop updating when a competitor goes bankrupt
-Reduced birthrate by 15%
-Exploit fixed allowing players to edit AI routes and ship status
-Can no longer view AI ship details by clicking on them, can only view the hover information now.
-Demand threshold amounts added to waiting cargo tooltips in planet view
-Ship selling works correctly in multiplayer now
-Ship count on a route has now been corrected when changing the route of a ship.
-Rebalanced water prices
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on December 16, 2017, 06:22:02 PM
Scalable UI and two new rockets! v0.2.7 PATCH NOTES:
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Hi everyone, excited to share this one with you. We finally came across a good method to scale our UI and we are very happy with the results so we are sharing this with you. This has been asked for many times and it's something I'm sure lots of you will appreciate! You can find the option in "Other Options".. Which we really should rename "UI Options".. hmmmm..

Anyhow! In addition to this we've also added two new rocket types. The Andromeda and Messier rockets. The Andromeda rocket becomes available in 2058 and can carry 15 units, the Messier is available in 2066 and can carry a full 40 units of cargo. At some point we will add one or two interstellar rockets, but these are good fast mid-game intra-system haulers! I expect to see them used a lot to quickly stave off famines and help kickstart new colonies quicker since they can land without a gate. These rockets use the old graphics from the Sparrow and Neptune rockets and these original rockets have gotten a facelift!

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/9b274660d590f1f6e7e7e05f0ac89cb0757346ae.jpg)

We've also replaced the models for the medium and large maintenance hangars, so they no longer reuse the small maintenance hangar graphics.

In addition to all this new stuff, some re-balancing has been done to alleviate some earlier-than-expected starvation on Earth. You should now have another few decades to help get more food to Earth or move more people off of Earth before the effects of overpopulation really kick in.

We will now begin work on overhauling the routes screen which hopefully won't be as large a project as the ships screen was! In case you were wondering, some graphs will be going in that big open space on the ships screen. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can get this feature in for you.

We hope everyone is enjoying the game and please continue to let us know your suggestions and any issues you experience while playing. And as promised, below are the new patch notes!

-UI is now scalable via the "Other settings" panel in options.
-Two new mid-game rockets added.
-Graphics for the Sparrow rocket and Neptune rocket replaced.
-Graphics for the medium and large Maintenance Hangars replaced.
-Increased prices of the Gorman Darter and Starchaser.
-Population at which a planet produces less food than it consumes increased
-Reduced starting population of Earth slightly.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on January 09, 2018, 07:20:01 PM
The performance patch! v0.2.8 PATCH NOTES
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Hey everyone, I hope your holidays were as awesome as ours! We're back with a really great patch. We weren't able to complete the new routes screen yet, mainly because we decided that adding in some new cargoes and redoing passengers a bit should be done first. That way we only have to change the routes screen around once instead of twice.

This patch mainly focuses on performance! It's been one of the biggest complaints from users. The game just starts performing really poorly in mid game. We combined some really aggressive LODs on the ships with some code tricks and cleanups on the route lines to SIGNIFICANTLY imrpove mid and late game fps. I'm talking like it should be night and day for many of you! Can't wait to hear some reports back on how it performs for you all. Please let us know! This DOES NOT fix the lag in the ships screen, that is a completely separate issue, but something that we hope to fix soon also.

This patch also includes a good number of bug fixes and small quality of life improvements. I really hope this, all put together, increases the play-ability of the game a lot! Thank you for your continued support and patience. And as promised... the patch notes! ːsteamhappyː

-Combined AI route lines resulting in huge performance gains mid and late game.
-Made more aggressive LODs for ships increasing performance by about 15% across the board.
-Increased performance by an additional ~3% and made the ship scaling effect work better and more efficiently.
-Increased performance by ~2% in system view by optimizing sunlight calculations.
-Fixed a ship size exploit when upgrading ships.
-Ships can no longer be sold while waiting for repairs in space.
-Rockets can no longer be built on planets not on their selected route.
-Ships can no longer be build on planets in systems they can't reach.
-The tool-tip for planet population now shows weekly net gains or losses for child births and deaths.
-If a planetoid goes into famine or dehydration, all passengers should cancel their travel plans there.
-Famine and dehydration notifications are now separate.
-The company name is color-coded when hovering over a ship now.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on January 27, 2018, 11:57:56 PM
Video Tutorial now available on youtube
24 JANUARY   - MT_WORLDS

It's been a frequent complaint of new players that the in-game tutorials are not sufficient to learn how to play the game. We agree with this sentiment and will eventually add / replace the tutorials in game. However, in the mean time we thought it would be helpful to create a video tutorial that goes into a little more detail.


https://youtu.be/901H8evO0H8


YouTube™ Video: Interstellar Transport Company - Tutorial - January 2018
Views: 87
While there are plenty of good videos available, I couldn't find an actual tutorial for how to play our game "Interstellar Transport Company".


While there are a ton of good Let's Play videos available for ITC, there were surprisingly no video tutorials available. Hopefully this gives new players a better idea of what they are supposed to be doing and how to do it. Please let us know if you have any problems with the video or have further questions, we would love to hear from you!

-Mike and the MT Worlds team
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on January 31, 2018, 12:27:04 PM
v0.2.9 PATCH NOTES
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

-Market prices are now shown for each cargo in the planet screen by hovering on the cargo name or icon.
-Fixed a bug preventing players from buying ships with no route created.
-You can now get more reasonably sized loans with more favorable interest rates.
-Slowed down the rate of spaceport upgrades by local authorities.
-Raised the amount of rare resources in random starting systems to Sol-like levels.
-Big ships screen performance increases, regular data refreshes should be much faster!
-Sorting by ship profits is now usable in ships screen with much less stuttering.
-Upgraded Unity version to 2017.3
-Two AIs are no longer created when AI is in the last slot in custom / MP game
-Ship orbiting count on planet screen now updates in MP
-Planets no longer spin for clients in multiplayer when they are in planet view.
-Changed the default UI scale to .85 since more people want a smaller UI than larger
-High demand food and water were a bit OP, lowered profit curve
-Units are now displayed for ship speed in the order ship screen.
-Galaxy dust now shows is correct position at game load.

Patch is live =)
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on February 26, 2018, 08:43:32 PM
v0.3.0 Preview, Lots of changes to cargoes coming soon!
21 FEBRUARY   - MT_WORLDS

I hope everyone's Wednesday is as exciting as ours is today, because we finally have all the details finalized for our new cargoes and can share all the details with you! We think you'll be just as excited after reading through all the changes we have planned.

Say hello to our revamped cargo flowchart!
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/434d031c47f0711353f652864f986ba15d41804f.png)

This might look daunting at first glance, but I will walk you through all of the changes. We have seven new cargoes, five new buildings, and a bunch of new cargo / simulation interactions that will really add a lot of interesting decisions to gameplay!

Firstly, two big changes we're making to existing systems, the first is that we are removing two seating types and leaving only a single seating type, passengers just weren't as interesting as we expected so we are simplifying that portion of the game significantly. We will be adding Goods storage (for Consumer Goods, Luxuries, and Medicine) along with Isolation storage (for weaponry, xenobiologics, and genetic material) The addition of these cargo slot types will result in much more interesting decisions than deciding between seating class type for passengers.

In addition to removing two passenger slots we are also making it so that raw materials, rare resources, dilithium crystals, and luxuries diminish as they are harvested. This will change the game in drastic ways and make the game even more dynamic then it is. For example, no longer will there be an ever-lasting source of rare resources on the moon to fuel your machinery production. After a few decades you may need to look elsewhere for rare resources.

The first new cargo type is Stellarium, this is an extremely rare element only found in very specific environments in the galaxy (will not spawn in your starting system / Sol) and is used in highly efficient fusion power generation which begins phasing out conventional power generation methods usually about 25-50 years into the game. Because of this, you will need to transport Stellarium to all high and medium population planets to satisfy their ever-growing demand for power. A Stellarium mine is required to extract this resource.

Luxuries is the next new cargo type, this is a moderately rare resource found in random locations throughout the galaxy that requires no building to harvest. All populations want luxuries so this is a good source of easy income (until the resource is depleted of course). In addition to populations directly wanting luxuries it is used in weaponry production. This will especially be important when (in a future version) wars rage between factions and no luxuries are flowing because the weaponry industry is using them all. In this way we hope to simulate the drag on civilian production during a large interstellar war.

Since we've already touched on Weaponry I should also mention that it requires a Factory produce along with rare resources. However, the really interesting thing about weaponry is that security forces require it to maintain their operations. If weaponry should ever run out on a planet, all security stations essentially "shut down" on that planet. You can imagine how detrimental this could be if it happened on a place like Earth that provides over half of the security of the Sol system. Shipping lanes would very quickly be heavily infested with Pirates. Therefore it will be very important to keep your security stations stocked with weaponry at all times!

Next on our list is Robotics. Robotics will give a boost in production to Food, Water, Raw Materials, and Luxuries. The ability to boost production of these cargoes has been requested many times, so this should be a welcome addition! This cargo is similar to Machinery in many respects, it has a maximum amount and is required for a planet to reach it's maximum possible production capacity. However, it's also quite different since the amount needed on a planet is variable based on the population of the planet and it also is "used up" over time. Robotics requires a Robotics Factory along with machinery and consumer goods to produce. It should open up some very interesting strategies!

Moving way over to the right in our picture above is Genetic Material, Xenobiologics, and Medicine. I will discuss these together since they are very interdependent. High habitability planets (besides Earth) will provide genetic material (alien lifeforms basically) which are not harvestable until the planet reaches 100% development, they will diminish rather quickly also. These need to be delivered to a planet with a Xeno lab built on it. Xenobiologics production is increased every time a unit of genetic material is delivered to the xeno lab, meaning you can create a truly massive xenobiologics facility if you wanted to. This is then used in the production of medicines (which also require a small bit of food to produce) at a Medical factory. The amount of Xenobiologics needed to produce one medicine increases with the amount of xenobiologics created galaxy-wide. Medicine is used on all planets to increase birth rates, but is especially useful on low-habitability planets where medicines will be in very high demand to fight off very high mortality rates.

To prevent Robotics and xenobiologics becoming weaponized, robotics factories are not allowed on the same planet as weaponry, nor are Xeno labs allowed on the same planet as weapons factories. Also, the interstellar governing agencies have also ruled that Xeno labs are not allowed on planets with habitability higher than 10% to prevent possible contamination of large populations or native species.

In addition to all these changes, there is BIG news on the multiplayer front... We have solved the stuttering that clients experience and expect this fix to be in patch 0.3.0 as well. There are also a number of other small bug fixes and improvements to come.

We are beginning to throw thousands of new lines of code at Unity so we can get this huge patch out to everyone as quickly as possible! That being said, don't expect it for at least another 3 weeks which puts us solidly at mid-March for a possible release timeframe. These are huge changes as we want to take our time with them and do it right. Thank you all so much for your patience!

Sorry for the huge amount of text, hopefully it was interesting to read of all the new features though =) Let us know what you think below! Thank you all for your continued support.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on March 31, 2018, 12:54:05 AM
Patch 0.3.0 released, our biggest patch yet!
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

It's been a couple months in the making and is finally ready for everyone! This patch is massive and makes the game a lot more polished and complete. The main feature here, of course, is the seven new cargo types and they are lots of fun to play with! You will now need to avoid epidemics by supplying colonies with medicine, increase food, water, and raw material production by supplying colonies with robotics, keep security stations operational by supplying weaponry, meet the power needs and keep development levels at 100% on highly developed colonies by supplying Stellarium, and supply medical factories with Xenobiologics refined from Genetic Material. Not to mention that raw materials and consumer goods are no longer useless to transport. They are now both profitable and interesting to play with.

Stellarium and Genetic Material are both late game additions that can only be found in interstellar locations and your starting planet's supply of luxuries will become depleted (along with many other resources) over time meaning that you will need to seek out interstellar sources of it. This all adds depth and interest to the late game and really gives you many more reasons to venture into interstellar space.

AI has been improved significantly, and while not perfect is very competitive for longer periods of time. Multiplayer has been improved a ton, enough so that we've removed the "buggy" warning that menaced our main menu. It is now judder free and much more stable. We've made huge improvements to the data available to you, the graphs and new data in the ships screen being an especially awesome addition. Important planets now get random names, you can now see at a glance when important cargoes are very low on colonies. Colony ships now travel to create new colonies so you have a bit of time to plan and anticipate new colonies coming online.

There are plenty of quality of life improvements also. Windows can now be individually resized by holding your right mouse button down over them and dragging them to size. In the planet view press A and D to cycle through the planets in a system. The route list is now sortable and filterable, the cargo rules are a ton easier to manage via a matrix of rules instead of the old drop-downs. Not to mention all the bug fixes of which there are dozens!

We still need to add in the new building models, update our tutorials, and do a little more fine tuning on late game balance, expect these things to be patched in over the coming week or two.

Please let us know any problems or feedback you have, we would love to hear it!! Thank you all so much for your continued support and for all of your suggestions that have gone in to making this patch so great! Can't wait to see everyone enjoying this, it really is a "game changer". ;)

Promised patch notes are below:

New Content
- Added 7 new cargo types:
- Stellarium
- Weaponry
- Robotics
- Xenobiologics
- Genetic Material
- Luxury Goods
- Medicine
- Added 5 new surface buildings:
- Stellarium Mine
- Weaponry Factory
- Robotics Factory
- Xenobiologics Lab
- Medicine Factory
- Updated ship cargo slots configuration:
- Slot 1 = Food, Rare Resources, Refugees
- Slot 2 = Machinery, Robotics
- Slot 3 = Raw Materials, Dilithium Crystals, Stellarium
- Slot 4 = Water, Dilithium Fuel
- Slot 5 = Consumer Goods, Luxury Goods, Medicine
- Slot 6 = Weaponry, Genetic Material, Xenobiologics
- Slot 7 = Colonists, Tourists, Business Passengers
- Added new events for new cargos and buildings
- Balance improvements to existing cargo types
- Added A,D hotkeys to cycle planets while in planet view
- Game now starts paused
- Randomly generated planets now get their own names
- Colony ship now goes out to colonize planets
- Raw Materials, Dilithium Crystals, Rare Resources, Luxuries, Genetic Material now all become depleted as they are harvested.
-Removed fuel capacity and distance cap of interstellar ships

UI Improvements
- Added low threshold icons to planets in system view, to highlight at a glance which planets are running low on food, water etc
- Improved Routes Screen:
- Added stop cargo rules grid
- Added route list sorting
- Screen now hides while adding stop
- Improved Ships Screen:
- Added graphs to show ship performance over time
- Added profit and cargo info to ship list entries
- Improved Finances Screen:
- Change to tables on summary page
- Added spaceport and ship type filters
- Improved Ship Order Screen:
- Added button to clear all cargo
- Now shows ship on sale dates range
- Launch immediately now ticked by defaut
- Improved Planet Screen:
- Added new cargos
- Added new buildings
- Waiting passengers are now a list of destinations
- Updated map modes with new cargo types
- All screens are now resizable with right mouse drag
- Updated ship hover details for new cargo
- Added icons and hover details to repair and colony ships

Bug Fixes
- Lots of multiplayer bug fixes - multiplayer no longer 'buggy'
- Lots of AI bug fixes and improvements
- Fixed autosave naming bug
- Fixed operating profit line graph being wrong
- Fixed other UI bugs
- Lots of other bug fixes and improvements

Known Issues
- Tutorials still need to be updated
- New buildings have placeholder models and images
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on April 05, 2018, 08:44:05 PM
v0.3.1 patch notes, fixing some issues from 0.3.0
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Thank you for the awesome response you've given us to 0.3.0! This really is game changing and we're so fortunate to have such an involved community around this game for all your feedback and bug reports. We've started to go through and correct some of these issues. The most common issues have been resolved with today's patch and we're making a lot of progress on balance. Though it may be a while until balance is back to where it was prior to 0.3.0 just because of the sheer amount of things that have changed. We're working as hard as we can to get this corrected. Thanks again everyone! Enjoy today's patch which also includes one new features: prices being permanently shown in the planet view.

April 5, 2018 v0.3.1 PATCH NOTES:
-Prices or supply levels are now always visible in planet view
-Fixed bugs in tutorials and made them available again
-Lowered the starting stockpile of Raw Materials and Rare resources on Earth
-Changed balance of Raw Materials and Consumer goods production / consumption.
-Weaponry usage and production was reduced and prices rebalanced
-Food, Water, and Medicine price calculations correctly use population + refugees now
-Fixed refitting of ships with new cargoes not clearing ship slots correctly
-Fixed new cargoes not loading when stop pickup rule set to 'pickup next hop demand'
-Fixed issue with upgrading spaceports to max level
-Fixed building list not updating after using a,d hotkeys
-Increased minimum scale size of scalable windows (right drag vertically to scale window)
-Fixed issue with loading an old save of incompatible version not returning to main menu correctly
-ESC hotkey now closes any open windows
-Increased repair and colony ship speeds
-Fixed issue where business passenger would not load
-Fixed issue with passengers not loading ships indirectly going to there final destination
-Fixed issue where auto route name would go to blank when removing 1st stop
-Added passenger price tooltip to destinations listing in planet screen
-Fixed NaN bug caused by population going negative when planet in famine and refugees transported away from planet
-Fixed save games not loading correctly into a multiplayer game

Known Issues
- Balance is still a work in progress
- New buildings have placeholder models and images
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on April 25, 2018, 12:14:51 AM
v0.3.2 PATCH NOTES
24 APRIL   - MT_WORLDS

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/caf88d27ca09382766058b40c57ef76175caab31.png)

-Models for all 5 new buildings added.
-When a ship arrives in a system it is now placed much closer to it's destination planet.
-Fixed ships not picking up dilithium fuel and going negative fuel at times.
-Fixed major price fluctuations.
-Most cargoes had some amount of rebalancing done to them.
-Duplicate star and planet names can no longer occur.
-New music track added.
-Reduced max galaxy size some to reduce float precision issues.
-Fixed destination scroll list bar.
-Fixed the discrepancy between ship group list and ship graphs.
-Route renaming text box no longer loses focus randomly.
-Deleted routes will no longer show up in the ship filter list after loading a save game.
-Colony ship has been sped up and will now jump to interstellar space like all other ships.
-Last ship built will "stick" when the window is closed.
-Selected ships will now clear from details pane when they are sold.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on June 06, 2018, 11:30:34 PM
Updated development roadmap cinco de mayo edition
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Hey all, we're currently taking a break from development for spring break. Spending time with family and vacations and such. Just thought I would take a moment to update our development roadmap.

We are scratching some items from our last roadmap and would love feedback if you have it.

-we will be working on redoing our reputation system next, we hope to make it simpler, more common sense and transparent to the players.
-we also will possibly be adding more incentive for players to subsidize industries (maybe giving them some percentage of goods directly to company storage)
-next we will be implementing our politics and factions system. This will introduce interstellar wars, nations and nation-wide reputations, embargoes etc..
-after that we will be putting in a tech tree system along with doubling the amount of ships we have in game.
-interstellar obstacles
-contacts from local governments
-buildable jump gates
-stock market system
-additional starting scenarios for predefined games
-ranked multiplayer game mode

After all these things are in game we will likely do our full launch and leave early access. We're hoping this is before the end of 2018!
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on June 06, 2018, 11:31:28 PM
v0.3.3 New reputation system!
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

As discussed briefly in our development roadmap, the reputation system in Interstellar Transport Company needed some love. It was just too confusing, too many variables at play, not transparent enough, and the 2.5% penalty when constructing a building was frustrating to players. All of this has changed!

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/fdc68687ef1eb1d5e008da52184cb0aa74b8b36d.png)

As shown in the screenshot above, you can now easily see exactly what modifies your reputation. The calculations have been simplified and modified, the 2.5% reputation penalty removed and reputation is slightly more impactful to fare prices etc... I think you will all really like these changes!

In addition we've changed the way colonization occurs. You will now notice faster colonization when there are more companies in the game and early game colonization has been guaranteed a little bit to provide a slightly more predictable early-game experience. We've also fixed a few other bugs and inconsistencies that should also help improve the game!

Enjoy and we look forward to hearing your feedback!

June 6, 2018 v0.3.3 PATCH NOTES:
-New reputation system and calculations.
-New reputation tooltip showing exactly why your reputation changes.
-Removed reputation penalty for constructing a building.
-Colonization rates now adjust based on how many companies there are in the game.
-Early colonization will now always occur.
-Upgraded to Unity 2018
-Slight rebalancing of fares.
-Security station tooltip fixed, no longer shows AU%
-ship name in "Not at least two stops" tooltip.
-Changed "taxi" to "shuttle"
-Renamed "operating profits" to "overall profits"
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 18, 2018, 01:25:21 AM
Lots of AI changes, better readability on tooltips, MP lobby changes and more! v0.3.4 PATCH NOTES


-AIs have a completely reworked ship selection method.
-AIs now will expand routes more aggressively.
-AI sends more passengers than before.
-AI will reduce ships and remove / buy gates more logically than before.
-AI no longer buys 2nd gate when expanding a spaceport.
-Tooltips are much more readable now.
-Planet development should get stuck at 99.9% much less often now.
-Added more AI companies to predefined games.
-Fixed building shuttle service step in tutorial 3 and other various tutorial issues
-Fixed supplemental video tutorial not playing.
-Slowed colonization rates a bit.
-Active MP games are shown but greyed out in the browse games list.
-Milestone text sized up.
-Lobby passwords now work.
-Search lobby no longer disappears.
-Updated Unity to 2018.2
-Fixed Linux double input bug

Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on August 24, 2018, 12:50:53 PM
Reworked UI visuals! 0.3.5 patch available now!
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/05ee3305770181d122d1aad766b210800a82bb52.jpg)

It's been a long time coming, but we finally reworked the UI visuals and boy does it look better!!! Not only has everything been reskinned we completely redid the window sizes, got rid of the borders around windows, fixed transparency issues, created new icons, made a new main toolbar etc... It really helps to be able to enjoy the game when you're not fighting against the user interface so much! I hope everyone enjoys and I would love to hear what you think. Plenty of other changes in this patch as well including a bug we missed for the AI from last week's patch.

0.3.5 PATCH NOTES:

-Completely reskinned the User Interface.
-New windows with less transparency, no borders.
-New fogged transparency on windows.
-New more modern menu bar and menu buttons
-Less words, more icons throughout interface.
-Started adding research elements, not functional yet.
-New spaceport menu, still a work in progress. This allows you to compare spaceports, buy gates and setup two stop routes from one location. Will expand on it's functionlity over coming months.
-Optimization of RAM usage. The game now uses ~25% the RAM as it did previously.
-Fixed the AI "loop" bug which stopped AI from functioning.
-Unity upgrade to 2018.2.4f1 to fix some Unity bugs.
-Fixed a couple NAN situations.
-Profit line graph loan issues corrected.
-Surface building buttons always appear so you can see requirements for building them now.
-Fixed cargo not loading correct amount with "next hop demand" pickup rule selected.
-Dilithium crystal price corrected in planet view.
-Machinery prices lowered.
-Food, water, Raw Materials, Rare Resources prices all raised slightly.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on December 25, 2018, 12:07:14 AM
1yr, 10k sales! A look at how far we've come and updated roadmap.
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a year since we first released Interstellar Transport Company to early access! It honestly seems like just a few months ago. We're also extremely happy to say we've made over 10,000 sales of our game with a very good 85% review rating on Steam. All of this is a magical feeling for us! Thank you so much to everyone for your support, encouragement, and appreciation of our game.

While it wasn't enough for us to quit our day jobs and focus all of our time on the game, we have been able to get a ton of content and systems added to ITC since launch. I just wanted to take a moment and go through some of what we added since August 16th, 2017.
•   We've fixed the major balance and performance issues found at launch.
•   Multiplayer is no longer a "stutterfest", it feels just like playing singleplayer but 10x better with human opponents. Give it a try if you haven't already!
•   You can lose the game in predefined games (BIG changes to this again coming in the next content patch, maybe a month away)
•   Added Mac & Linux support and some basic localization for ~15 different languages. It's not perfect by any means, mostly using Google translate, but it should allow people in those nations to play.
•   New Ships and routes screens with much more functionality and information.
•   3 new ships since launch, many more to come soon!
•   Hotkeys for game speed, pausing etc... many other quality of life changes like this.
•   Ship refitting & ship replacement with newer models.
•   List of current buildings on a planet and redesigned interface for constructing buildings.
•   Tons of interstellar re-balances and fixes to make this more playable.
•   Entire UI and individual windows are now scalable
•   Market prices now visible at each planet (even more easily accessible info coming soon with the new spaceports screen which is a WIP)
•   7 new cargoes and complete re-balance of existing cargoes. New cargo bays, buildings etc... to support these new cargoes.
•   New more fair reputation system with more visibility of information.
•   And most recently completely new UI graphics!


This isn't the end though, we still have quite a bit to complete from our roadmap! Here is what we plan on completing over the coming months before full launch which is very tentatively scheduled for February 2019:
•   We will be putting in a tech tree system along with adding many new ships to the game. This is already in production and we hope to have this patch out to you all in about a month's time.
•   Next we will be implementing some autonomous transportation using transport hubs. You'll see a lot of information about this after the tech tree system is in place!
•   We will possibly be adding more incentive for players to subsidize industries (maybe giving them some percentage of goods directly to company storage)
•   Interstellar obstacles
•   Contracts from local governments
•   Buildable jump gates
•   Additional starting scenarios for predefined games
•   Ranked multiplayer game mode


These next two items may possibly be pushed out until after full launch:
- We will be implementing our politics and factions system. This will introduce interstellar wars, nations and nation-wide reputations, embargoes etc.. We are considering pushing this out to gather even more information about how it will impact gameplay. During design brainstorming sessions it seems like a lot of work for very little impact on acutal gameplay. We are very open to feedback however!!
- Stock market system

Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on December 25, 2018, 12:07:55 AM
Updates on next patch
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds

Hi all, wanted to give a quick update with the status of our next patch. We are already more than a month behind schedule and honestly it will probably be another month before the patch is ready. It will include the following things:

-New tech tree system, ships, tech upgrades, industries, buildings etc... will now unlock via a research system.
-Research stations which generate research points. These will be orbital facilities that will only generate 100% of their potential output when placed around a planet class that doesn't already have a station. These are also upgradeable.
-New tutorial system based on "hints" during real gameplay instead of separate tutorials.
-Bankruptcy will now work differently.

We've actually finished most of this, however AI needs to know how to use the techtree system which is quite a big undertaking and we haven't yet started on the new tutorial system which we want to get right before releasing more complexity to the game.

We apologize for the slow patch time, full time work and full time school have been getting in the way for us big time recently.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on December 25, 2018, 12:10:07 AM
Merry Christmas! Research / Tech Tree patch 0.4.0 now live!
Interstellar Transport Company - mt_worlds


We hope everyone is having a great time with family and friends for the holidays! We would like to add to the cheer with a Christmas gift of our own. Patch 0.4.0 is now live!

This patch has a lot of great additions and changes. Including our research and tech tree systems which changes fundamentally how the game progresses and gives players another fun way to manage the development path of their companies. You must now construct research centers, which are orbiting facilities, and spend research points to gain access to new ships, efficiency upgrades to your ships, different buildings, and even a way for you to gain goods from newly subsidized industries.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/6b76aa3789d1c09fff06dd4c9e49feaaa1409729.jpg)

We've added three new ships from a new manufacturer "Cochin". All three of these ships are late-game heavy haulers. Two being intrasystem and one being a giant 160 slot interstellar ship.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29541510/1e085a68b4585e44b68be8e26c73e08cfdfc3b44.png)

Bankruptcy now functions quite differently and is more forgiving and easy to tell when it will hit you. We have made a new in-game popup tutorial system to help new players. There are also a TON of optimizations this patch! Should make things quite a bit smoother graphically. We didn't stop there however, there's a bunch of other small fixes and additions.

I hope everyone enjoys, and we look forward to hearing any feedback you have! We'll be working on a patch to fix some of the smaller issues with this release over the coming week or two, then we will be moving on to another big system which will add to the play-ability of the late game experience a ton!

-New Research system. You must now construct a research station to build up reseach points which can be spent on various technologies to advance your company.
-3 new large ships available from new manufacturer (Cochin)
-Bankruptcy now works differently. It now takes 3 straight months with negative cash to go bankrupt. Getting positive money at any point resets the timer. On easy and normal difficulty players will now get a one time grant from the government when cash goes negative.
-New in-game popup based tutorial system to help guide new players.
-Auto save game improvements. No more giant list of save games
-Big performance optimizations!
-New trail render based orbit lines (experimental)
-In game bug report system
-Government colonizing toggle in custom games
-More work on new spaceports menu to make it more functional (still a work in progress)
-Once editing a ship name, icon changes from "edit" to "save" symbol
-Leasing a gate now prompts for "Yes" or "No"
-Various new tooltips to assist players in game setup and play.
-Button in the routes screen to bring up ships screen with route filter applied.
-Limited system, galaxy scroll boundaries.
-New notification when a planet reaches it's max machinery level
-Fixed dilithium crystal price readout
-Some AI improvements to route expansion.
-Fixed spaceport passenger list width and scroll speed.
-Ship type drop down fixed in ledger
-Upgrading a ship no longer reset's it's name and group
-Tooltip on the ships screen to view exactly what a ship is carrying.
-AI will take a small loan to buy a gate if it has too many ships orbiting.
-Ability to rename and nickname planets.
-Last company name and color saved from previous games.
-Added button to reorder rockets on route in routes screen.
-Stopped some more hotkey inputs from triggering while typing in an input box.
Title: Re: Interstellar Transport Company
Post by: Asid on December 28, 2018, 12:47:43 AM
December 27, 2018 v0.4.1 PATCH NOTES:


-Medicine will now be given priority over other cargoes of same slot when its price is higher.
-New Cochin ships now have exhaust trails.
-Passenger icons are now white and much more visible in planet window.
-Added a few new tutorial popups
-Lowered brightness of class M4 planets
-Fixed problems with Cert research for B3, C4, WC2
-Pressing esc now properly unpauses the game when exiting the menu.
-research station text and tooltips corrected.
-Fixed a game crash having to do with Robotics production on Mars.
-Fixed a bug causing subsidizing industries to not always take your money.
-Fixed bug causing AI to not go bankrupt sometimes.
-Pickup next demand for machinery and robotics will now always work correctly.
-Increased max system scroll radius.
-Fixed machinery prices on Mars.
-Ship hover details no longer will stay visible when a ship has warped out of the system.


Known Issues
- New cargo Balance is still a work in progress
- AI is not competitive in interstellar play.