30 Sep 2023
Unstable release 0.10.3
The newest version of Endless Sky, v0.10.3, is now live on both Steam and Github. The full list of changes is available in the changelog.
For all you plugin creators out there, you can now create a “plugin.txt” file in your plugin’s root folder that contains metadata information about the plugin thanks to Beed-git. At the moment this only includes the plugin’s name (allowing the displayed name in the plugin menu in game to be something other than the name of the plugin’s folder) and its description (replacing the use of about.txt), but we plan to add more to this file, and more features around plugins in general, in the future. Stay tuned.
We also have a wide collection of UI improvements and additions this release. This includes the ability to only swizzle part of a ship using a “swizzle mask” from @RisingLeaf, changes to how non-hyperdrive jumps and wormholes are drawn on the map from flowers9 and @RisingLeaf, the ability to open the map and toggle fullscreen from any location in the game from @TomGoodIdea (as previously there were some locations, like in the outfitter or shipyard, where opening the map was disabled), the net change in energy and heat when all a ship’s systems are active is now listed in the energy/heat table for a ship in the shipyard and outfitter thanks to @Erun Em-Oc-Ti-Ave of the Humans (meaning you no longer need to do the math yourself), and much, much more.
And last but certainly not least, this release we bring to you not one, but TWO whole storylines in Coalition space, an introductory chapter for both the Heliarchs and the underground resistance faction known as the Lunarium, courtesy of @Arachi.
Note that while these storylines can be started and finished prior to the main campaign being completed, there will be more in store for you if you finish the main campaign first. I’d say more, but I want you all to experience these new, long awaited stories for yourself.
Some honorable mentions also include changes to the balance of thrusters across the entire game from @DoomKorath that result in smaller ships being a decent bit quicker with larger ships being untouched or slightly slower, buffs to the Hai Ion Cannon and Ka’het Nullifier from @Hurleveur and @beccab , a new string of missions from @Delvin Anaris that should help those wayward souls who get lost in the early game and can’t find the Free Worlds campaign, and changes to the way that scanning behaves from UnorderedSigh that should make it less difficult to scan other ships. Again, a full list of changes is available in the changelog linked above.
Friendly reminder that in order to play unstable updates on Steam you need to opt into the beta branch. To do that, go to your Steam library, right click Endless Sky, go to Properties, go to Betas, and select the beta in the drop down box. (You don’t need any sort of beta code, just select beta in the drop down box and close the menu.) The next release, v0.10.4, will be a stable release that focuses on bug fixes for the past major release. You will not need to opt into the beta branch on Steam when it is made available. The plan is to have this bug fix release finished by the end of October.