Aground Zero News

The first interstellar planet - CaptAIn's Colony, is ready to visit! There's a short questline there, and several easter eggs, and I think it came out really cool in the end! While I might eventually allow landing on the surface of the planet, everything currently takes place in the space station in orbit around CaptAIn's Colony - let me know if you're interested in some sandbox building on the surface!



Changelog:

• Added colony world orbit - the planet's appearance will change as the colony grows too!
  
• Added transitions for moving between planets
  
• Added pomp hairstyle (we're planning more, as well as edits to the original hairstyles)
  
• Added transfer station, storage and gravity generator
  
• Added trash slot to inventory window - lets you quickly drop items. Shift+click auto-moves items to trash slot
  
• Allowed dismantling of moon lab debris
  
• Added alloyed steel (craft in assembler or factory)
  
• Jump must be pressed mid-air to fly (holding it will now do a normal jump, you have to hit jump twice to fly)
  
• Book of summoning now sorts objects
  
• Added place limits to orbit so that a ship never gets stuck on placed blocks immediately after entering orbit (existing blocks will remain and can be mined, but not replaced).
  

I hope you enjoy this update - there is only one planned major event/questline after this before the end of the science path, which is pretty exciting! I think I'll switch back to the magic path now for a bit though - it's time to add mars!

You can finally complete the Interstellar Drive quest! The first interstellar planet isn't done yet, but I'm getting close (hopefully next week), and this update includes a lot of other improvements as well!

Changelog:

• Interstellar Drive questline complete
  
• Kitchen and factory mounts added
  
• Added spellbook model+animation
  
• Allowed transfer directly between vehicles and storehouses - simply select a storehouse while riding vehicle,
  
• Added transfer all buttons - will transfer all items into/out of storehouses (excluding none priority items)
  
• Changed the default controller mapping, and allowed setting a separate menu select and in game select (so bumpers could be used to mine, while A is still used in menus).
  
• Added deadzone option - increase as needed to stop controller drift
  
• Added controller vibration - can be removed in settings
  
• Fixed oxygen bug
  

I hope you're looking forward to seeing the colony world - I think it turned out really cool!

Remember that Evolve Dragon button you couldn't press before? You now can and evolve your own dragon to follow you or ride it! I also added the Book of Summoning (the first spellbook) so you can move your dragons (and caught wyrms), as well as NPCs! To celebrate this update, I decided to make a video where I fly a dragon around the surface, and to space (because why not?):

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Changelog:

• Added dragon evolution
  
• Added book of summoning (plus paper and ink to craft it)
  
• Added ceiling lights (check blueprint printer)
  
• Painter can now paint numbers on walls
  
• Added glass ramps - old saves will have to buy the ramp blueprint again to obtain it
  
• Manned crafting structures will now collect items from belts even if NPC is away
  
• Added medium priority to storehouses
  
• Increased o2 generator to 330 blocks per unit
  
• Wyrms can now free captured wyrms if they attack wyrm traps
  
• Sorting items will now sort by item id if they are the same type
  

I think at this point, I'll switch back to the science path (and the interstellar upgrade) while I wait for more models to be made for the magic path. I have a sneak peek of something I've already been working on for it:

The magic path is underway, and while a pure-magic run will not be possible (you start the game with relatively high science), it adds a lot of abilities that compliment the science path nicely.

Changelog:

• Added the Anomaly - check the wyrms tunnels around the old bunker, this is where you'll get quests for the magic path.
  
• Added first few magic path quests and achievements.
  
• Wyrms now respawn in those tunnels.
  

I don't want to spoil too much, but the magic path ends currently once you've made the magic laboratory. The Alter and Blood gems have placeholder icons, and the evolve dragon button is intentionally disabled - if you're a modder and try to enable it, you do so at your own risk haha!

Online Multiplayer is now out of beta! You can now play with your friends, completing all quests together or just mess around, building a cool world or a large automated factory. You can even ride around in each other's spaceships - although it can be a bumpy ride!



The beta is still available, but no longer up to date - if you tried the beta and want to keep your beta saves, I'd recommend exporting them from the beta version and importing them in the default branch.



Multiplayer works by one player hosting a save, allowing other players to join that save. You do this by hitting Host Save and Join Game in the multiplayer menu. The name at the bottom of the menu determines what character you load the game as (or the name displayed in the games list if you are hosting), and defaults to your steam username. If you only want friends to be able to join the game, uncheck add to joinable games list when selecting a save to host.



The enter key opens the chat, which includes similar commands to the original Aground - including the ability to ban players if needed. Type /help in the chat window to see a list of commands.

Hosted games will autosave on the host's computer, and the host can choose to save the world to a specific slot - but players who join the game cannot save - so if they mess up your world, you can ban them and load without saving.

There are no restrictions on progression or completing quests for any player. Make sure to communicate with the players if you want to impose house rules!



There may not be a lot of public saves during Early Access - so I recommend setting up a game with someone among your friends or in our discord server!

In addition to online multiplayer, this update also includes the following quality of life changes:

• Added surface music track
  
• Added oxygen generator model
  
• Oxygen generators no longer animate if they can't produce enough oxygen (but they still light up if powered).
  
• Right clicking a structure when the fabricator is selected will select that blueprint (if not already selected).
  
• You can now enrage (enable) and befriend (disable) bots in the com station.
  
• Placing fuel in the generator will automatically switch the fuel type (if necessary).
  
• Doors now trap water/oxygen when closed (but, will let both through when open unless a forcefield is placed).
  
• Ores (when selected on the toolbar) can now be placed back into walls for decoration - be warned, if you place them on an unmineable block, the ore will not be retrievable!
  
• Worker bots now disable instead of die when they run out of power - you can then dismantle them or recharge them from your batteries.
  
• Raised worker bot cap to 30.
  
• Added low oxygen warning sfx.
  
• Added notification if flight is disabled.
  
• Increased torpedo damage.
  
• Removed bright frames from mining animation.
  

Up next is probably the magic path, and I hope you're looking forward to that!