Heya! Long time no front page post.

After taking it easy over the holidays, we jumped straight into preparing the next patch. The reason it’s taking awhile? Bug fixes. Bug fixes everywhere. They can be a little slow-going and unpredictable, but I think you guys will find the improvements worth the wait!

We’re still working on a few things, so you can expect the patch in about a week’s time. Not all patches are going to take this long, of course. :)

Fixes:

.ds_store issue affecting OSX 9.1 users (A bug where Finder created an invisible file called .ds_store in the player folder which caused the game to crash).

A number of character creation/selection screen crashes related to loading corrupted save files

An issue that could prevent the launcher from starting (MSVCRT.dll)

DirectX crash bug (303 bug)

Several memory leaks, including the slow-but-significant server memory leak a lot of people were experiencing and GUI memory leak

Fixed a crash bug related to GUI controls

Reduced memory load of FTL animation

.abc files with comments no longer crash the game, plus various .abc fixes as far as key signatures/timing

A number of issues with players spawning underground

A bug where players spawned outside the ship if they’d previously saved the game while in the Captain’s Chair

Right shift key was not working as a shift key, now it is

An issue tech slots were unusable under certain conditions

Wiring system fixes– wires are rendered below UI elements, wires no longer break when crossed into an unloaded sector

Added image metadata caching, improved assets caching

Added a jeep mech that was supposed to have been in the last patch, but had mysteriously gone missing!

Object flipping issues

Sped up the crafting window

Fixed a sound issue that occurred after many concurrent weapon hits

Characters no longer blink while sleeping in beds

Assorted minor performance improvements

Additions:

New game modes! Permadeath and drop-everything-on-death modes.

Revolvers, pulse rifles, hand grenades, shivs, Floran needlers, Floran thorn hammer

Human guards now wear soldier uniforms

More decorative hats! Yay, hats!

More random encounters

Possibly more content, if it’s finished on time!

Of course, there’s also the highly anticipated/possibly feared final character wipe— this patch contains a fix for save files so after this, you won’t need to worry about our patches destroying your characters or ships. This patch will wipe everything– characters, ships and worlds. It will definitely be the last time we’ll need to wipe characters or ships, and will hopefully be the last time we’ll need to wipe worlds. This explanation from Kyren should help clarify things a little:

“The problem is that the organization of planets may change so if they go muck with a planet, how do we put it in the celestial map? Or if they build on a biome we remove, or something. So no promises, but we’ll try. But promises on the player / ship.”

I hope that clears up a lot of your questions and concerns about the upcoming patch and wipe– I’m just as excited as you guys are. :)