Matrix Games

At the end of June we published 'Space Station Designer' version 0.5.60. We have continued making progress since then, and today we're proud to share 'Space Station Designer' version 0.5.72 with all of you. This new version comes with a lot of cool stuff that we're sure you'll enjoy. As usual, this post will cover the main highlights. If you're interested in the full overview, you can always go through our detailed release notes here.

Graphics Improvements

We continue finding ways to revamp the overall quality of the visuals. As part of this update, we've tweaked the lighting, improved the atmospheric halo around the Earth, tweaked the camera post-processing effects, and completely revamped the details of the Moon.

In parallel, we continue working on an experimental branch featuring various techniques that we are planning to include in a future update. Once this branch is complete, we'll be able to include a proper "day/night" cycle, a variable orbit inclination, and a more realistic relationship between the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, the orbit of the Moon around the Earth, and the orbits of the various stations around the Earth/Moon. We still need to figure out a few technical issues, but we're hopeful we'll be able to share all this very soon.

Revised Interactive Tutorials

Back in 2021, we released 'Space Station Designer' version 0.3.6, which included a series of interactive tutorials that introduced the various concepts behind the game as a series of bite-sized lessons. The game has changed significantly since then, and at some point last year we made the decision to temporarily disable these tutorials, as many of them were really outdated and not very enlightening.

Now that the mechanics behind 'Space Station Designer' are starting to settle, we decided that it was a good time to go through all the tutorials and bring them up to date. The end result is seven tutorial categories: 'Basic Concepts', 'Astronauts', 'Resupply Spacecraft', 'Above and Below the LEO station', 'Currencies', 'Revenue Generation', and 'Station Upkeep', featuring a grand total of 25 tutorials.

The tutorials can be accessed from the main menu:

Each category features its own progress tracker:

And if you don't recall when was the last time you revised a tutorial, you can always reference the date when it was completed:

The tutorials present the information with pop-up dialogs, and many of them feature a series of 'tasks' to complete, which are similar to the 'Campaign Objectives' from the Campaign mode.

One piece of feedback we received in the past was the fact that some tutorials required players to repeat a series of steps that they had already done in previous lessons. As part of this revision, we made sure that all tutorials remain focused, and don't ask you to retread the same concepts over and over. Depending on their complexity, completing a tutorial can take anywhere between 3 to 10 minutes.

The full list of tutorials is as follows:

Category 1: Basic Concepts

I. The User Interface (Phase I)

II. Buying & installing modules (Phase I)

III. Acquiring Technologies from the Research Tree (Phase I)

IV. Cooling & Electricity (Phase I)

V. Storage space & waste (Phase I)

VI. Orbit Control (Phase I)

VII. Attitude Control (Phase I)

Category 2: Astronauts

I. Hiring Astronauts (Phase I)

II. Onboarding And Training Astronauts (Phase I)

III. Astronauts Autonomy and Morale (Phase I)

Category 3: Resupply Spacecraft

I. Bringing Resupply Spacecraft To The Station (Phase I)

II. Dispatching & Transferring Resupply Spacecraft (Phases I & III)

Category 4: Above and below the LEO station

I. Earth Facilities (Phase I)

II. Orbital Outposts In Higher Orbits (Phase III)

Category 5: Currencies

I. Research Points (Phase I)

II. Public Reputation Points (Phase I)

III. Industrial R&D Points (Phase III)

Category 6: Revenue Generation:

I. Production Lines And Goods Manufacturing (Phase I)

II. Modules Leasing (Phase II)

III. Commercial Services (Phase II)

IV. Space Tourism (Phase II)

V. Commercializing Industrial R&D Technologies (Phase III)

Category 7: Station Upkeep

I. Maintenance And Modules Failures (Phase I)

II. The Debris Avoidance Maneuver (DAM) (Phase I)

III. Service Life and MTBF Of Space Station Modules (Phase I)

Note that the Campaign provides a large range of objectives that progressively introduce you to the various game mechanics. The tutorials aren't meant to be a replacement for these objectives. Instead, they complement them, and they are a great mechanism to learn the nuance of the various mechanics and ensure that the concepts stick.

Overhaul of the 'orbit control' system

As part of this new update, we made significant changes to the 'orbit control' system. More specifically:

• The LEO station needs to be kept at an altitude of 460 km by maintaining an 'orbit control' score equal or greater than 100%. Failing to maintain the minimum score will cause the altitude to drop. If the altitude goes below 160 km, it will burn up on re-entry and the game will end.

• The GSO and L2 stations have no need for 'orbit control'.

• The Lunar Orbit station also requires 'orbit control'. Unlike the LEO station, the Lunar Orbit station doesn't need to maintain a certain altitude. Instead, the 'orbit control' is used to keep the station fixed at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point 1, or 'L1'. Failing to provide adequate 'orbit control' will cause the Lunar Orbit station to 'drift'.

We'll be providing more details regarding the Lunar Orbit station in the upcoming Dev Diaries #12 and #13.

In addition to all these changes, we introduced some improvements to the way the propulsion-related information is displayed in the spacecraft filters panel, including more descriptive messages, more variety of font colors, and code to ensure that the various 3D widgets are shown in front of the modules. These changes, coupled with the revised interactive tutorial on 'Orbit Control', should make this mechanic a lot easier to understand.

Conversion of subsystems from turn-based to real-time

One of the most noticeable changes in version 0.5.72 is the fact that several subsystems have been converted from turn-based to real-time. In practice, this means that instead of seeing abrupt changes at the end of the month/turn, you'll see smaller incremental changes throughout it.

These changes include: maintenance trend adjustments, research points and Industrial R&D points generation, supplies consumption/waste generation, and altitude decay (for the LEO station) and distance to L1 drift (for the Lunar orbit station). The game world feels a lot more dynamic after these changes, and we're confident you'll love them!

Fixes and QoL improvements

As part of this update, we're including a series of fixes and Quality of Life (QoL) improvements. Some of the most notable ones include:

• Fixed the geometry of the 'NEXUS Module' used in the Lunar Space Elevator megaproject.

• Fixed the representation of the GSO station in the Global screen. Now the station's rotation speed matches the Earth's.

• The filters dialog can now be opened directly using the F keys (e.g., F1 for 'Cooling', F2 for 'Electricity', F3 for 'Orbit Control', etc).

As always, you can find the full list in our public release notes here.

Closing thoughts

We hope you enjoy this new update. We're currently running a closed beta, so if you want to try out all these changes, please consider applying by using the following link. We're specially interested in getting your feedback regarding the newly revised interactive tutorials, so let us know your thoughts.

As always, we'll be monitoring our Discord server and the forums, so don't hesitate to let us know if you have any feedback or comments.

--Ignacio, Mauricio, and Nicolas (Polar Motion)