stationmaster posts
Posts: 270
Files: 267
Version 0.13.3 Released! Research and Another Station Overhaul
Thanks for waiting! This ended up being another huge patch, but research touches almost everything in the game, and I wanted to take the time to make sure it was worth the time you have to invest in it. The short version is that this patch adds tons of new structures to build, and social and science trees to unlock them as the game progresses. It also makes system policies more relevant, and implements a lot of quality of life tweaks that have been requested since the last patch.As always, special thanks to the beta test group, who saved you fr...
Draft Design: Research
This was a real nail-biter for a while, but it looks like research has pulled ahead to victory!The goal of this update will be to make progression and building more interesting. That means adding more flexibility in the station view, more options to unlock over time, and more benefit from conquest. To that end, it will add a ton of new structures and tools, and restrict most behind research. Research will be acquired both by having slaves assigned to it on your station, and by having developed planets in your empire. These will multiply with ea...
Stationmaster 2 0.12.4: Human Resources (Available for Brothel Owners+)
This is a quality-of-life update mostly focused on the management gameplay and bug fixes. The slave list and economic report are much more useful now, and there are several new features (like custom tagging, hair changes, and assignment multi-select) for the rules assistant. It also adds a new concubine, just because.No two-week lead time on this one, because I'd much rather people just play this instead of 0.11.3.Thanks to everyone here for your support, and to the beta test group, who put in a ton of work helping me polish it.DownloadWind...
Vote for the Next Content Update
I'm going to spend some time on the backlog of tweaks and bugfixes, which gives us enough for another vote! Now that breeding is done, these seem to be the most important content updates:ResearchThis would add a new research assignment, a tech tree, and a bunch of new things to build as you advance through the game (ranging from nuts and bolts like upgraded apartments to new assignments like fighting pits). It would also add a bunch of other content centering on progression, and tweaks to the decks.WarCombat mechanics are still placeholder....
Stationmaster 2 0.11.4: Breeding (and a hotfix)
As always, very excited to release another patch. This one adds growth vats, expands concubine options, and fixes a ton of bugs/quality-of-life issues.Small hotfix: Some implants were broken in 0.11.3, and fixed in 0.11.4.Thanks so much to all of the awesome people who support this project, and to the excellent beta test group, who, as always, saved you from a lot of annoyances.Download:WindowsChangelog:Growth Vats:Growth vats rapidly age people born on your station to adulthood. You can turn them on and off in the Policies window, as well as s...
Stationmaster 2 0.11 Draft Design: The Factory
I did the fast part of this for 0.10.3, but the time-consuming part still needs to get done, so that's the focus for 0.11.Draft DesignNew structure: Growth VatGrowth vats rapidly age infants born on your station to adulthood, with full simulated lives.Content:Re-renders of clothing items to make them show pregnancy.Concubine sequences will conclude with the option for them to become regular characters, so they can work normal jobs, get pregnant, etc.This will be reversible on the inspection screen, if you want them back in their old posts.E...
Stationmaster 2 0.10.3: Knocked Up - Now available for Citizens
This was supposed to be a quality-of-life and balance rework, but I got really wasted, one thing led to another, and...Well, it seems to have the right number of toes, so I'm going to call it a happy accident.I still need to do the more time-consuming parts (like growth vats, clothing changes, event writing, and concubine integration), but the basic framework works as is, so I'll leave all that for 0.11.Download (Windows)Changelog:Pregnancy:Characters can now get pregnant, if they have sex without a sterilization implant (or have a fact...
Voting Options for 0.11
I'm currently working on a patch that reworks tributes and markets into something more cohesive, but that should be done quickly, which gives us just enough time for an election.As far as I can tell, there are three critical areas for improvement, and all are pretty big patches that have to be done in one shot to make sense.WarThe story elements of the galaxy map are more or less where I want them, but the combat mechanics are still placeholder. This update would reduce the number of stars, add enemy fleets and events for their soldiers, an...
Stationmaster 2 v0.10.1 Released: Better Characters & Clothing - Now available for Citizens
It's finally ready! This completely reworks the characters, and I think they're in a much better place now.As always, thanks to everyone who helped, including everyone on the Patreon, and the excellent beta team. This game would not exist without you.DownloadMod ToolsChangelogCharacter Improvements:Faces and bodies have been reworked from the ground-up. They look much better now.People now react if you touch them with your cursor, or click on them. Reactions depend on the person, and where and how you touch.Improved jiggle physics signi...
Stationmaster 2 0.10 Draft Design: The Rest of the Character Engine
Now that 0.9 is stable, it's time to announce the next patch. I wasn't happy with the characters, but I needed a lot more time to think and research. Thankfully, the (very long) last patch gave me plenty. It's already a massive improvement, and I think this is going to bring the whole system up to what I had hoped it could be. This should be faster than the last two patches, because it's mainly tweaks to what was already there.DesignNew FacesFaces have been redesigned from the ground up. Gone is Ms. Potato Head. There are now hu...
Stationmaster 2 0.9.8: Quality of Life, Bugfixes, and Balance Now Available for Citizens
This update addresses most of bug reports and feedback from the last one (particularly around the rules assistant, balance, and slave list). It's save-compatible, but the early game has been re-balanced quite a bit.DownloadWindowsChangelogQuality of lifePainkillers no longer reduce obedience over time.Breast size is now visible in the station view.Made the slave list easier to read.The slave list now shows devoted, mindbroken, or insane.Tweaked the thresholds for the same being applied.Space now unpauses the game if it's already paused....
Download Stationmaster 2 0.9: The Update too Big to Title
Thanks all for your patience. This was a really long time coming, but sometimes you have to break everything at once to get things into a good state. I had to re-architect pretty much everything, but it's set now. This is definitely the most complex single update I've ever done for a game. I hope it's worth the wait.TL;DR: A complete rewrite and redesign of almost everything on the station.A ton of fixes and improvements to the galaxy map.A new main quest.So much optimization. You can now have several thousand people, not just a few...
Servitor's Deck NSFW
Here you can see most of the new structures in the servitor's deck, along with how they're used (with hairless mannequins, but only temporarily).
Progress Update: Servitor's Deck (SFW)
Such a gentle euphemism. It sounds like somewhere one might choose to live. A respectable district for the working class.It is none of those things.It is a machine made to cut wild trees into subservient planks. Whose prisons will push you to the brink, but never further. Whose drugs and schools will give you health and knowledge, but warp what it is to be healthy and knowledgeable. Whose laws are enforced by machines as cold and inevitable as gravity. A system so perfect that resistance isn't just impossible; it is incomprehensible.And in ...
Sneak Peek: The Industrial Deck
You will hear the industrial deck before you see it. As the elevator descends into the depths of the station, no feat of engineering could mask the sound of the Imperial Fleet being birthed from its pools.It is here that the heart of the Empire is laid bare. There is no reason for edifice or propaganda. Nobody in this place is worth indoctrinating. Here, there is only the brutal pragmatism of war and industry. Machines making machines to make money and corpses.Nestled between them are the few unfortunate enough to dream of the arcade: the deniz...
Progress Update: Administration Deck
I've been playing around with a lot of looks for this one, but finally settled on something I'm happy with.The administration deck is where your citizens will live and work. It contains updated versions of the apartments, as well as the Ministry of Thought and Ministry of Freedom offices. It starts as a single small block, and can be expanded to a cavernous city encased in a concrete shell.A central promenade between the two wings will give your people the open space they need to stay sane, as well as another much-needed reminder that y...
Poll: New Event Types
I'm probably going to be adding at least a few more events to each patch going forward, and want to get a sense of which types I should be focusing on.What do y'all want to see more of?
0.8.2: Hotfix Release
This update fixes a couple annoyances reported by early players. A special thanks to everyone who reports bugs in the Discord channel.DownloadWindowsChangelogAdded a new storyline and concubine.The concubine button should no longer glow for repeated events.Fixed a bug that caused the rules assistant to give drugs to everyone (It wasn't supposed to apply drugs at all, and I have confiscated its stash).Fixed a bug that could cause the game to half-crash on load (it now cleans up the bad files and kicks you back to the main menu instead).Fixed...
0.9 Draft Design: Rethinking the Station
Now that the character engine is working, it's time to take another look at the mechanics. I've never been happy with how station construction worked, but only recently came up with what I think is the answer:This update will replace most of the construction system. The new one will start with less space, reduce micromanagement, and make your station important after the early game. It will also do away with the entire concept of "rooms," replacing them with "decks," which will have to be built out over time to accommodat...
Stationmaster 0.8.2: New Character Engine, Event Remakes Now available for Citizens
It's finally ready! Like I mentioned in the last progress post, I ended up reworking most of the "visual novel" side of the game in addition to adding the new character engine. I'm finally happy with it (for the time being).It also adds a bunch of quality of life stuff, because this is still ostensibly a strategy game. The next patch will focus on the station-building gameplay. I promise.Special thanks to the alpha testers, who found some bugs so you don't have to.And to all of you, for supporting this project. It means the ...
Another Progress Update
Thanks for your patience on this update. Things are going well! I got a bit carried away with the writing, which has delayed the patch some, but there is a pretty big silver lining:In addition to the half-a-novel's worth of new events for people on your station (tied to both training status and the new backgrounds system), I've also rewritten most of the random events to be more dialog-focused like the faction leader dates. Many of them also use the new character engine, and I'm working on getting those that don't to have matchi...
Progress Update: New Character Engine
Thanks for your patience all! This update has a lot of AI techniques that I haven't seen anywhere else, which means it has involved a ton of trips back to the drawing board. It's coming together now though, enough that these screenshots should be pretty close to what goes into the final game. Part combination, character animation, and facial expressions are working the way they will in the final build (though my task list still has something like thirty tweaks to images and rigging that need to happen). It's now mostly a matter of c...
Progress Update: New Character Engine
The research since the last patch has paid off!I finally have the approach for the new AI-based character engine figured out (though there is still some cleanup to do). You can swap face parts (with expressions), body parts, clothing, and hairstyles, all while using seamless sliders for skin and hair color. That means that diversity should be as good or better than before, but with characters that look like this instead of my laughable attempts at 3D.I'll be posting a NSFW patron-only post soonish. My first tests with the animation setup we...
New Free Build and Next Steps
There is a new free build available! It is exactly like the patron build, but without some of the new faction leader events. That means that it has all of the quality-of-life features, optimizations, and of the new events from the last patch, plus a peek at the new diplomacy and concubine systems. You can get it through the Discord (Patreon won't let me link NSFW content directly in a public post).Now that the faction leaders are set, I'm going to jump right into the next AI art patch. It's time to stop filling the niche of "adu...
Stationmaster 0.7.3: Bugfixes, Optimizations, and More Quality of Life: Now available for Citizens
Thanks everyone who reported their issues with the last build (and once again to the beta testers for their patience with my 10GB spam files). I made a hotfix that should take care of the important stuff.Download:Windows (Pixeldrain)Mega MirrorChangelog:Quality of Life: A ton of optimization (My 2500-resident torture test save with the full galaxy conquered is now playable). Increased speed of all scrollbars. Made holograms when placing furniture more visible. Added numbers to stat chart on inspection screen. Added numbers to the assignments br...
Stationmaster 0.7.1: Faction Leaders and Quality of Life
This is the most significant patch so far. It adds so much that it's hard to sum up quickly, but it's meant to bring Stationmaster 2 from "proof of concept" to "truly playable game." There's always more to do, of course, but this covers a lot more of the basics.Special thanks to the QA volunteers, including Arkan Ascantii, Twisted Metal (and others who prefer to be anonymous), who agreed to play through an early build of this. They saved everyone else from some pretty major bugs, and had some great ideas for tweaks t...
Progress Update: Faction Leaders
The faction leader stories are mostly written and art-ed, though I still have a few more to wrap up. This is shaping up to be the biggest patch in a while, both in terms of content (something like 80 new events), and code (whole new systems like the harem screen, implants, planets, and civilian upgrades, as well as a lot of smaller tweaks).I'm nearing the finish line, but still have more to do.There are still seven factions in all, and each leader has at least two ways they can develop after their defeat. This update somehow has even more a...
Call for Feedback on the Galaxy Map
I've heard the results loud and clear, and am working on making the new map more like the old one (and generally improving the design). The big changes so far are: A new button sets all of your armies to rally at a given system so that you don't have to micromanage them. This will make all of your factories work together to build the death ball you know and love from SM1. Rebalanced the difficulty so you don't have to wait for so long before attacking. Brought back the "civilian" upgrades (like Universal Healthcare) and more...
Galaxy Map Thoughts
This patch is going to be about conquest, which means that the mechanics of the galaxy map are going to be a lot more important.Which did you like better? The old one or the new one? That'll help me figure out which way to develop this.
Next Patch: Faction Leaders
It's time for a new patch, and I'm making an executive decision again, because I'm feeling mad with power. 0.8 is going to add the new Faction Leaders!SM2 is is a whole separate galaxy from SM1, which means all new factions. Each will have diplomatic and post-conquest event chains in the style of the new 2D events.The Eden CoalitionIvy Sun leads her people in harmony with the environment. Her carefully-crafted charm masks the Machiavellian instincts necessary to protect the simple lives of her citizens from a hostile galaxy.The Rust...
