Starship Simulator Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

Back in February, I covered an amazing game, still in active development called Starship Simulator. I branding it, as one of my most anticipated upcoming games (you can find this article here). Well, I have been keeping up with the progress of the game and watching the development teams progress for this incredible game for a few months now! Well, we have finally had a 3rd Developer update release, and the devs for this game are making incredible progress at amazing speeds. If you don’t know anything about this game I urge you to go and learn more about it from my first article where you can watch the first Developer Update, which tells you what Starship Simulator will be about!

1. Developer Update #1: Introduction to Starship Simulator

2. Developer Update #2: The Progress of Building a Starship

Optimisation and Performance

Lead Developer Dan Govier explains in the above video that the game is constantly being optimised aiming to run at 50-60fps on general gaming rigs. The testing rig which is being used to keep track of this actually boasts an old Intel i5 Processor with an Nvidia 1050 Ti graphics card. For those unaware of PC gaming specs, if you buy yourself a medium-priced laptop in the current landscape, or even when this game launches, chances are it will run on those at 30-40fps, making it accessible to a lot of people!

Additionally, the devs have added 196 chickens to the game, which hold the same output power needed as if these were humans. These have been added to simulate how the game performs when there is an active crew abroad this ship. The devs have confirmed that the hit that this has on performances is minor, meaning that the ship will be easily filled to the brim with life, without taking a huge hit on performance.

In our opinion, this is a brilliant concept, as this means more people can play this game at its launch but more importantly this sets it up with room to grow. For example, with this as a benchmark, running a game like this on the currently available consoles, there is a good chance it would run well on those, which is something I hope happens!

Gameplay Mechanics

In this Diary Update, Govier has also discussed in more detail the gameplay mechanics for a couple of the roles in the game. Informing us of what players on this ship will be doing when taking control of this vessel.

The Scientist:

The laboratories of C-Deck have been shaped out, in which the Scientist will need to jump from laboratory to laboratory checking up on all the different projects that are underway. These projects will in some way affect the performance of the ship and open up new opportunities in the way in which the ship will travel. Remember, this is an ecosystem. Whilst the pilots are up on the deck flying this ship and doing the “doing”, the science team are here looking for opportunities for new fuel, or even technology to help to navigate this ship through space easier and safer.

The Engineer:

The ship has now had damage added to it and general wear and tear. Meaning that the engineer’s job will be to inspect all areas of the ship to ensure that everything is up and running. Lighting or electronics will need to be replaced, re-wired or generally fixed or power will need to be re-routed. It’s the engineer’s job to keep this ship flying safely in the vacuum of space, and to ensure that the power stays on!

What’s interesting is, it seems there are different levels of damage that can be done, to warrant the type of fix. The example used in the Dev update is lighting. If it's “hit” once, the lighting will flicker and appear only partly broken. In this, the engineer simply can fix this with a little tinker. Hover, if it sustains a bigger hit or a second hit, then this will require a little more work to get back in working order. This will be a feature of most of the technology on the ship!

The Ships Functionality

Govier then takes us into the Reactor of the ship, where he talks through the structure of the core, batteries, and maintenance shafts. This ship is going run exactly how we see them run in sci-fi films and series, but with real-world science applied. This area acts as the heart of the ship, without it, nothing can be done and the power goes down. If the power goes down, everyone aboard the ship will die. Not only that, it needs to be fuelled, which can be done by harvesting gasses from gas planets! There’s so much to talk about here in just one article but ultimately you can simply see how deep and complex this game will be! But here are some key highlights:

• Planet Textures and Atmospheres Have been Improved

• Armoury being added next to the Bridge

• The ship is so intricate that you can see wield lines

• Terminals will give real-time updates to the states of the Reactor and its systems

• Fuelling is real-time and requires physical management

• Maintenance tunnels will be how you manage the utilities of the ship like power and aircon

Summary

What this article covers only scratches the surface of this game, so please go check out all of the dev updates if you haven’t caught them already, and just to re-highlight, this game is going to be F2P for the multiplayer component of the game! With the devs opting to sell the single-player/campaign/story elements as Expansion packs in the future! This feels like a categorically fair and awesome direction to take the game into in terms of retailing. For more updates on Starship Simulator, be sure to keep an eye on our social media channels linked below and feel free to jump into our Discord channel to join our community of gamers and devs, where we talk everything gaming!