April 6th, 2007

• Right click for descriptions - Right clicking on modules, components, and experiments in either Station View or Cut Away View plays a Capcom description of that item.
  
• Station View camera centers on the last module - Previously when zooming back from a Cut Away View, the camera would return with the end hatch of Zvezda centered every time. This was a bit disorienting when working on a big station and forced then player to make extra camera moves to return to where they came from. Now the camera does a very elegant zoom back, with the module that was just left in the center of the Station View.
• Music defaults to 50% volume for new game installations - 50% music level is a better starting point for adjusting the music, voice and effects.
• Cross-fading in Station View - Now when you zoom in to a module from Station View, the music will gently fade up and the engine noise will fade out, giving a better impression of moving inside the module.
• Menu sizes scaled down - The menus are more attractive at the smaller size.
• Tip-of-the-day button - A Tips button has been added in Station View and Cut Away View to give in-game advice. Experienced players won’t need this, but newbies may find it very valuable.
• More time to react to a red alert - Previously a red flashing HUD alert would give the player 30 seconds to respond to an astronaut revolt and a variable amount of time to respond to low altitude, depending on the size of the station. Big stations fall faster. Now, you will have three minutes before losing the game to a crew revolt and at least one minute and forty seconds for a low altitude issue. Smaller stations will have even more time than that for altitude alerts.
• Tourist comes after 4 modules instead of 2 - Clyde Carryon’s entry has been delayed until you have a more established life support system. This actually brings a load of new options for the player and makes the initial stages of the game more relaxed.
• Initial station atmosphere less sensitive - Zvezda now has a greater atmospheric volume that responds to astronaut influences more slowly, making initial entry into the game a bit easier. However, if you add too many astronauts without beefing up your life support, look out!
• Vozdukh reduces humidity faster - This has the same effect as the atmosphere adjustments, making Zvezda more atmospherically stable.

While these effects seem subtle, the overall effect is to make the game more accessible initially, to provide continued feedback and tips during game play and to make the game more responsive under lose conditions.

January 25th, 2007

Features

• Reflectivity and lighting - The lighting and reflections on the station modules have been altered; you can now see the Earth moving by on the bottom of the modules.
• CEV escape vehicle - The CEV module can now act as an escape vehicle, meaning that it will allow you to add more astronauts to your station in the same manner as the Soyuz and X-38 modules.

Bug fixes

• Lens flare incompatibility - The incompatibility problems on some machines with the lens flare effect have been resolved, and the lens flare has been re-enabled by default.

January 15th, 2007

Features

• Experiment particles - Smoke and fire have been added to the MSRF and Robotics experiments for effect.
• More sparks - Breaking, failing, and failed components now produce a much larger shower of sparks.
• Astronaut navigation - The astronaut navigation has been improved; idle astronauts will move out of the way more quickly to make room for other astronauts that need to perform a task at that location.

Game balancing changes

• Contaminant levels - Contaminant output levels for breaking, failing, and failed components have been increased.
• Micrometeor strikes - The negative effects of micrometeor strikes have been reduced.

Bug fixes

• Lens flare incompatibility - Due to an incompatiblity of the lens flare on certain machines, an option has been added to the game launcher to disable the lens flare effect, and the lens flare has been disabled by default.
• Tent rack - The sleeping animation for the tent rack has been fixed.

December 23rd, 2006

Features

• Astronaut clicking - You can now right-click on an astronaut in order to select that astronaut in your HUD. This makes it much easier to give new orders to any astronaut that you can see in cut-away mode. You can also left-click on an astronaut to open the task list for that astronaut (for compliments, insults, talking, and taking a break).
• Astronaut agency flags - The astronaut panel in the HUD now displays the current astronaut's corresponding agency flag next to their name.
• Astronaut clothes - More clothing choices for astronauts have been added to Astro Builder.
• More airlocks - You can now launch up to 3 Quest Airlock modules to your station.
• Micrometeor strikes - The station can now suffer from micrometeor strikes, which require an EVA from the Quest Airlock in order to recover.
• Sunlight - Dramatic day/night cycle lighting! The station now darkens and lightens according to the position of the Sun in the sky.
• Other lights - Some of the lighting in various parts of the game has been adjusted.
• Zvezda thrusters - The thrusters on the back of the initial Zvezda module now fire during operation of the TORU.
• Update notification - The game launcher now has the ability to automatically check for updates rather than requiring you to click the "Scan for Updates" button. Automatic checks can be shut off in the configuration.
• TransHab modules* - An initial version of the TransHab module has been added to the game.
• Solar panel colors* - The station solar panels have been changed to a gold color.

Game balancing changes

• Social calculations - The calculation of an astronaut's Social stat has been adjusted for better play.

Fixes

• Module Builder modules - Several of the modules in Module Builder did not properly show up on the launch screen. Fixed.
• Module Builder text colors - Fixed a bug in which some of the prices in Module Builder would occasionally show up red even when enough flags were available.
• Component Builder vehicle lights - Fixed a bug that caused the vehicle availability lights in Component Builder to not show up.
• Tutorial fixes - The tutorial now properly blocks out certain actions that the player has not yet learned how to deal with.

September 15th, 2006

Features

• Completely new Earth model - The old, patched-together, in-game Earth has been replaced with an ultra high-quality 32-bit textured Earth derived from the images of NASA's "Blue Marble" project. Blue Marble provides incredibly detailed images of the Earth's surface in 2D projected form. We have pre-processed the Earth surface image into a form suitable for 3D rendering without excessive resource usage or in-game processing that follows a true ISS flight path. The cloud layer on the Earth is also taken from Blue Marble, but the motion runs independently from the surface for better visual effect. A halo effect has also been added.
• Completely new star map - To match the new Earth, the old star layer has also been replaced with images generated from the Tycho star map from NASA's JPL Solar System Simulator. The Tycho star map contains over 1 million stars of all different colors and intensities. This star layer now rotates along with the Earth to give the effect that the station is indeed orbiting at 17,500 mph.
• Completely new Sun and Moon - Along with the stars, the Sun and Moon have been replaced and positioned to match the lighting on the Earth. A lens flare effect has been added to the Sun, as well as a color blowout if the camera is positioned to look directly at the Sun. The Sun and Moon also now move along with the rest of the celestial scene.
• Station altitude - The position of the Earth now moves in relation to the station's current altitude. This gives a subtle visual indication of how high up the station is, and is most apparent when boosting the station from a very low altitude.
• HUD improvements - The HUD has been moved downward to provide more visual space for the main game and reduce distraction on player experience.
• Power calculations - The game now calculates power generation and usage. Solar panels generate power, large modules and nodes use power, and a few other components like the Soyuz are self-contained but do not generate power for other modules. In Module Builder, an array of icons tell the player if they can or cannot launch. Power capability is now a factor in approving launch requests. If you have enough existing power generation capacity, the icon is green. If you need more to launch a particular module, it will be red. In that case, you will need to launch a solar array before launching the module. In the past, there was not a specific need to have solar panels on a winning station; a complete station now requires a full complement of Russian and US solar panel arrays.
• Maximum module count - A new icon for maximum allowable modules has been added to the Module Builder launch approval icon list. It is an icon of the Unity module. When a maximum number of allowable modules has been reached, this icon turns from green to red. Clicking on the INFO button next to these icons will elicit a verbal response from Capcom (with the temporary exception of power).
• Save file recovery - The game launcher has been improved so that it will attempt to recover old save files that are found in the main game directory. This is useful if your computer reboots while playing the game.
• Skip movies - An option has been added to the game launcher to skip all movies in the game, should you have problems playing them.
• Spontaneous fires - To add some more unpredictability to the game, components can now randomly (but rarely) catch fire, even if they are in perfect working order.
• Fire alarm - An alarm will sound and the HUD will flash if there is a fire anywhere on board the station.

Bug fixes

• Flickering HUD - The flickering of the HUD in Station View when the camera moves has been eliminated.
• Missing hatch - Fixed a bug involving a missing hatch cover on certain modules.
• Transparent astronauts - Fixed a problem with certain astronauts being transparent or flickering.
• Flag sound effects - Fixed a bug in which the "Booo!" and "Yaaay!" sound effects would both trigger if an experiment was completed after the player already had 999 flags.
• Module Builder slowdown - A slow-down in Module Builder when attempting to add modules to a complex station has been corrected.
• Trash compactor stats - Some bad stats on the trash compactor component have been fixed.