From 06904f8debc3fcf464af20ed6e55558b8b6eb384 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: marceld23 Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2026 02:00:46 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] chore(release): v2026.8.3 changelog + What's new feed Changelog entry for the wonders release (terrain wonders #698-#709/#712, continents, combat #692-#694, biome shuffle #696, NPC fixes #711) and the exported data/whatsnew.json (21 posts, now incl. 2026.8.3). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 --- CHANGELOG.md | 99 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- data/whatsnew.json | 8 ++++ 2 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md index 592bce7d..990d11f5 100644 --- a/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/CHANGELOG.md @@ -13,6 +13,102 @@ the richer, screenshot-laden versions live there. `(#123)` references the pull r ## [Unreleased] +## [2026.8.3] — 2026-08-04 + +The wonders release: planets stopped playing it safe. Terrain generation learned a whole +catalogue of spectacular landforms — a canyon that girdles the globe, crater chains with ejecta +rays, stone arches and sea stacks, tiered sky islands with endless waterfalls, cenotes, lava +tubes and caves that finally open to the surface — and about half of all new worlds now form +true continents with real oceans between them. Combat grew up alongside: enemies show health +bars, the crosshair does real aiming (with auto-aim as a world rule you can switch off), and +ship weapons finally respect their own cooldown and energy budget. Rounding it off: multi-biome +worlds draw from their whole biome pool instead of always the same entries, and NPCs stand on +the ground, step into the light and stopped being clones. + +### 🏜️ Terrain wonders — the surface gets spectacular (#698–#703) + +- **A world-girdling mega-rift**: a rare planet carries one canyon system that wraps the entire + globe — a genuine "Valles Marineris" you can follow around the world. +- **Craters became events**: complex craters with central peaks and terraced walls, crater + chains, and bright ejecta rays streaking away from young impacts. +- **Per-world terrain grain**: dune seas and mountain ranges now run in a consistent per-world + direction instead of isotropic noise — deserts read as wind-swept, ranges as ranges. +- **Geological set pieces**: hexagonal basalt-column fields, travertine terrace pools, + penitente ice-blade fields, salt polygons, ring-mountain calderas and whole-planet + escarpments. +- **Hybrid worlds**: landform styles and archetypes can mix on one planet now, so a world can + be canyon country on one face and dune sea on another. +- This is a **one-time reshape**: terrain you have not yet explored regenerates with the new + formulas — already-built and explored chunks keep their exact shape. + +### 🌊 Continents and true oceans — new worlds only (#704) + +- Large planets (roughly half of them, the start world included) now split into **continental + platforms and ocean basins**: domain-warped coastlines, a shelf falling away into deep sea, + and the sea level flooding the basins — so beaches, rivers and landmarks react for free + (a massif offshore becomes a volcanic island, a rift becomes an ocean trench). +- Lava-ocean worlds roll **basalt continents** in their magma seas. +- **Existing worlds are untouched** — continents apply only to newly created worlds (server + flag `continents=off` opts a new world out). + +### 🪨 Real overhangs: arches, sky islands, cenotes (#705–#707) + +- The engine's strict one-surface heightfield learned **multi-band columns** — and the first + tenants are **natural arches**, **sea stacks** off rocky coasts and **hoodoo** rock spires. +- **Multi-tier sky islands** stack floating layers with stalactite undersides and **endless rim + waterfalls** pouring into the landscape below. +- **Cenotes** — sinkholes with overhanging lips and a pool at the bottom — and vast + **underground mega-caverns** with their own lakes. + +### 🕳️ The tunnel carver: caves finally reach the surface (#708, #709) + +- A new deterministic **tunnel carver** threads worm-like passages through the rock — until now + every cave was a sealed bubble; **cave mouths and skylight shafts** now genuinely open to the + sky, so you can walk (or fall) into the underground. +- **Lava tubes** wind under volcanic terrain, waterfalls carve **plunge pools** where they + land, and glacier worlds crack into **crevasse fields**. + +### ⚡ …and generation stayed fast (#712) + +- All of the above initially made every chunk pay for every wonder — a per-world wonder + profile, per-cell tunnel caching and distance-first feature probes brought generation back + near its old speed, with **bit-identical terrain** (verified by a hash sweep over every + planet type). + +### ⚔️ Enemy health bars, real aiming, honest ship weapons (#692–#694) + +- **Every damageable enemy shows a health bar** — bandits, creatures, space hostiles, planet + machines — green fading through amber to red (companions cyan), visible while in combat or + under your crosshair, with distance fades matching the nameplates. A **hit marker** flashes + when your shot lands. Client toggle in Settings. +- **The crosshair aims now**: whatever is genuinely under your crosshair is the target; the old + magnetic lock — which could kill an enemy *behind your back* — only assists within a forward + cone. **AutoAim is a world rule** (default on, so nothing changes unless you want it to): + switch it off and only real crosshair hits (on foot) or boresight shots (in space) land, + misses visibly striking the terrain. +- **Ship weapons play by their stats**: the server now enforces weapon cooldown and a + reactor-fed energy pool — no more fire-rate cheating — and weapon range/cadence come from + the fitted module (the tier-2 laser finally gets its longer range). + +### 🌿 Multi-biome worlds use their whole biome pool (#696) + +- Worlds rolled how *many* biomes they get but always took the *first* entries of their type's + pool — so the pool's tail biomes never appeared anywhere, and the first one appeared + everywhere. A seeded per-world shuffle now also decides *which* biomes make the cut + (newly generated chunks only). + +### 🧑‍🚀 NPCs: feet on the ground, faces in the light (#711) + +- **No more hovering**: settlement folk, camp NPCs, bandits and enemies stand on the actual + blocks (a leftover +0.5 offset from the worldgen overhaul), and settlement NPCs re-ground + as they stroll — dig the floor out from under one and it drops. +- **Brighter**: avatar tint textures rendered at ~40 % of their authored brightness — they are + normalised at load now, outfit palettes widened and lifted, and bandit/Guardian materials + get the standard lighting lift. +- **No more clones**: per-NPC size variation, independent trouser colours, varied android + chassis tones (only ~60 % of researchers are robotic now), and each NPC rolls a stable + face and hair of their own. + ## [2026.8.2] — 2026-08-03 The prospector release: space became worth mining. Asteroids gather in real belts you can see @@ -1535,7 +1631,8 @@ A graphics-quality pass and a licensing/foundation cleanup. - Initial public release. -[Unreleased]: https://github.com/marceld23/BlocksBeyondTheStars/compare/v2026.8.2...HEAD +[Unreleased]: https://github.com/marceld23/BlocksBeyondTheStars/compare/v2026.8.3...HEAD +[2026.8.3]: https://github.com/marceld23/BlocksBeyondTheStars/compare/v2026.8.2...v2026.8.3 [2026.8.2]: https://github.com/marceld23/BlocksBeyondTheStars/compare/v2026.8.1...v2026.8.2 [2026.8.1]: https://github.com/marceld23/BlocksBeyondTheStars/compare/v2026.7.24...v2026.8.1 [2026.7.24]: https://github.com/marceld23/BlocksBeyondTheStars/compare/v2026.7.23...v2026.7.24 diff --git a/data/whatsnew.json b/data/whatsnew.json index cdaeb69f..fde8a089 100644 --- a/data/whatsnew.json +++ b/data/whatsnew.json @@ -1,5 +1,13 @@ { "entries": [ + { + "version": "2026.8.3", + "date": "", + "title_de": "Schluchten, Kontinente und schwebende Inseln 🏔️", + "title_en": "Canyons, continents and floating islands 🏔️", + "body_de": "Dieses Update gehört den Planeten. Die Terrain-Generierung hat einen ganzen Katalog spektakulärer Landformen gelernt — von der Schlucht, die einmal um den Globus läuft, bis zur Höhle, die endlich einen Eingang hat — und ungefähr jede zweite neue Welt formt jetzt echte Kontinente mit richtigen Ozeanen dazwischen. Und weil man all das auch verteidigen will: Gegner zeigen Lebensbalken, und euer Fadenkreuz zielt jetzt wirklich. 🌍\n\n**Die Oberfläche traut sich was.** Ein seltener Planet trägt jetzt einen **Mega-Riss** — ein Schluchtensystem, das sich einmal komplett um die Welt zieht, ein echtes Valles Marineris zum Abfliegen. Krater sind Ereignisse geworden: Zentralberge, terrassierte Wände, Kraterketten und helle Strahlenkränze junger Einschläge. Dünenmeere und Gebirgszüge laufen pro Welt in eine Richtung, statt richtungslos zu rauschen — Wüsten sehen windgekämmt aus. Dazu kommen sechseckige Basaltsäulenfelder, Sinterterrassen mit Wasserbecken, Büßereis-Felder, Salzpolygone, Ringgebirgs-Calderen und planetenweite Steilstufen. Das alles ist eine **einmalige Umformung**: Nur Terrain, das ihr noch nicht erkundet habt, entsteht neu — alles Gebaute und Erkundete behält exakt seine Form. 🏜️\n\n**Der Himmel hängt voller Inseln — und der Fels macht Bögen.** Die Engine kann jetzt echte Überhänge: **natürliche Felsbögen**, Brandungspfeiler vor felsigen Küsten, Hoodoo-Felsnadeln. **Mehrstöckige Himmelsinseln** stapeln schwebende Ebenen mit Stalaktiten an der Unterseite und **endlosen Wasserfällen**, die von der Kante in die Landschaft stürzen. Und wer nach unten schaut: **Cenoten** — Einsturzlöcher mit überhängender Lippe und einem Pool am Grund — und riesige unterirdische **Kavernen** mit eigenen Seen. 🏝️\n\n**Höhlen haben endlich einen Eingang.** Bisher war jede Höhle eine versiegelte Blase im Fels. Ein neuer Tunnelgräber zieht jetzt wurmartige Gänge durchs Gestein — mit **Höhlenmündern und Lichtschächten, die wirklich an die Oberfläche führen**. Ihr könnt in den Untergrund hineinlaufen (oder hineinfallen 😅). Unter Vulkanlandschaften winden sich **Lavaröhren**, Wasserfälle graben Sturzbecken, und Gletscherwelten reißen in Spaltenfelder auf. 🕳️\n\n**Und neue Welten bekommen Kontinente.** Ungefähr die Hälfte aller neuen großen Planeten — Startwelt inklusive — teilt sich jetzt in **Kontinentalplatten und Ozeanbecken**: geschwungene Küstenlinien, ein Schelf, das in die Tiefsee abfällt, und Meere, die die Becken fluten. Strände, Flüsse und Landmarken reagieren von selbst — ein Massiv vor der Küste wird zur Vulkaninsel, ein Riss zum Tiefseegraben. Lava-Ozeanwelten rollen Basaltkontinente im Magmameer. **Bestehende Welten bleiben unberührt** — Kontinente gibt es nur auf neu erstellten. Und keine Sorge um die Ladezeiten: Ein Performance-Pass sorgt dafür, dass die Weltgenerierung trotz des ganzen Katalogs praktisch so schnell ist wie vorher. 🌊\n\n**Im Kampf seht ihr jetzt, wen ihr trefft.** Jeder angreifbare Gegner — Banditen, Kreaturen, Weltraum-Feinde — zeigt einen **Lebensbalken** von Grün über Bernstein nach Rot (Begleiter in Cyan), sichtbar im Kampf oder unter dem Fadenkreuz, dazu blitzt ein Treffermarker, wenn euer Schuss sitzt. Und das Fadenkreuz **zielt jetzt wirklich**: Was ihr anvisiert, wird getroffen — die alte Zielhilfe, die notfalls auch den Gegner *hinter* euch erledigte, hilft nur noch in einem Kegel nach vorn. Wer es sportlich mag: **AutoAim ist eine Weltregel** (standardmäßig an, es ändert sich also nichts, wenn ihr nichts wollt) — ausgeschaltet zählen nur echte Fadenkreuz-Treffer, und Fehlschüsse schlagen sichtbar im Gelände ein. Schiffswaffen halten sich jetzt außerdem an ihre eigenen Werte: Der Server erzwingt Abklingzeit und Reaktor-Energie, und die Tier-2-Laserkanone bekommt endlich ihre größere Reichweite. ⚔️\n\n**Die NPCs stehen jetzt auf dem Boden.** Wortwörtlich: Siedler, Lagerbewohner und Banditen schwebten seit dem Weltgenerierungs-Umbau einen halben Block über dem Boden — jetzt stehen sie auf echten Blöcken, und wer einem Siedler den Boden unter den Füßen weggräbt, sieht ihn fallen. Sie sind auch **deutlich heller** (die Avatar-Texturen liefen auf 40 % ihrer Helligkeit) und endlich keine Klone mehr: eigene Größe, eigene Hosenfarbe, eigenes Gesicht und Haar — und nur noch gut die Hälfte der Forscher sind Androiden. 🧑‍🚀\n\n**Nebenbei:** Mehr-Biom-Welten schöpfen jetzt aus ihrem ganzen Biom-Pool — bisher fehlten die hinteren Einträge auf jeder Welt, während der erste überall auftauchte. Ab sofort entscheidet ein Würfelwurf pro Welt auch, *welche* Biome mitspielen (in neu generierten Chunks). 🌿\n\nViel Spaß beim Erkunden — und wer die erste Himmelsinsel mit Wasserfall findet oder von seiner Kontinentalküste aus in See sticht: Screenshots her! ✨", + "body_en": "This update belongs to the planets. Terrain generation learned a whole catalogue of spectacular landforms — from a canyon that runs all the way around the globe to caves that finally have an entrance — and about every second new world now forms true continents with real oceans in between. And since you'll want to defend all that: enemies show health bars, and your crosshair actually aims now. 🌍\n\n**The surface got bold.** A rare planet now carries a **mega-rift** — one canyon system wrapping the entire world, a genuine Valles Marineris you can follow around the globe. Craters became events: central peaks, terraced walls, crater chains and bright ejecta rays around young impacts. Dune seas and mountain ranges run in one consistent direction per world instead of directionless noise — deserts finally look wind-swept. On top: hexagonal basalt-column fields, travertine terrace pools, penitente ice-blade fields, salt polygons, ring-mountain calderas and whole-planet escarpments. All of this is a **one-time reshape**: only terrain you haven't explored yet regenerates — everything built and explored keeps its exact shape. 🏜️\n\n**The sky is full of islands — and the rock makes arches.** The engine can do real overhangs now: **natural arches**, sea stacks off rocky coasts, hoodoo rock spires. **Multi-tier sky islands** stack floating layers with stalactite undersides and **endless rim waterfalls** pouring off the edge into the landscape below. And looking down: **cenotes** — sinkholes with overhanging lips and a pool at the bottom — plus vast underground **caverns** with lakes of their own. 🏝️\n\n**Caves finally have an entrance.** Until now every cave was a sealed bubble in the rock. A new tunnel carver threads worm-like passages through the stone — with **cave mouths and skylight shafts that genuinely open to the surface**. You can walk into the underground now (or fall into it 😅). **Lava tubes** wind beneath volcanic terrain, waterfalls carve plunge pools where they land, and glacier worlds crack into crevasse fields. 🕳️\n\n**And new worlds get continents.** Roughly half of all new large planets — start world included — now split into **continental platforms and ocean basins**: sweeping coastlines, a shelf falling away into deep sea, and oceans flooding the basins. Beaches, rivers and landmarks react on their own — a massif offshore becomes a volcanic island, a rift becomes an ocean trench. Lava-ocean worlds roll basalt continents in their magma seas. **Existing worlds are untouched** — continents only appear on newly created ones. And don't worry about loading times: a performance pass keeps world generation practically as fast as before, despite the whole catalogue. 🌊\n\n**In combat you can now see who you're hitting.** Every attackable enemy — bandits, creatures, space hostiles — shows a **health bar** fading from green through amber to red (companions in cyan), visible in combat or under your crosshair, plus a hit marker flashes when your shot lands. And the crosshair **actually aims**: whatever you point at is what gets hit — the old aim assist, which would happily kill the enemy *behind* you, now only helps within a forward cone. If you like it sporty: **AutoAim is a world rule** (on by default, so nothing changes unless you want it to) — switch it off and only genuine crosshair hits count, with misses visibly striking the terrain. Ship weapons also play by their own stats now: the server enforces cooldown and reactor energy, and the tier-2 laser cannon finally gets its longer range. ⚔️\n\n**NPCs stand on the ground now.** Literally: settlers, camp folk and bandits had been hovering half a block above the ground since the worldgen overhaul — now they stand on real blocks, and if you dig the floor out from under a settler, they drop. They're also **noticeably brighter** (the avatar textures ran at 40 % of their authored brightness) and finally no longer clones: individual size, trouser colour, face and hair — and only about half of the researchers are androids now. 🧑‍🚀\n\n**Also in this one:** multi-biome worlds now draw from their whole biome pool — the tail entries never appeared on any world before, while the first one appeared everywhere. From now on a per-world roll also decides *which* biomes make the cut (in newly generated chunks). 🌿\n\nHave fun exploring — and if you find the first sky island with a waterfall, or set sail from your own continental coast: we want screenshots! ✨" + }, { "version": "2026.8.2", "date": "2026-08-03",