ALPHA 1 Patch 0:

The major milestone you've all been waiting a very long time for.

The first 2 missions involving "Bad Luck" Bart are now included. The long awaited and unexpectedly complex mission system is now in place.

Alpha 1 marks a major milestone - and at this point the ‘core gameplay loop’ is complete. The core gameplay loop for Smugglers of Cygnus is:

• Customize your ship
• Find and complete jobs
• Engage with NPCs and the environment to find and complete missions
• Earn money and faction by completing missions and jobs
• Explore the environment in 1st and 3rd person

This obviously is not to say the game is done, or even that these are in a fully finished implementation (far from it) - just that the core gameplay loop is complete for the first time. Now that Alpha 1 has landed on Itch and Steam, we’ll be switching to feature enhancement and content creation mode.

That means a LOT more missions, jobs, NPCs, etc. More customization options. In-game customization using credits, faction, collectibles, etc. Character creation. More voice work, etc. Heck, we haven’t even finished the Alpha System yet, let alone added the ability to travel between systems. A complete redo of the flight control/handling system. Joystick support.

So, THANK YOU to everyone who’s been a part of this game, regardless of if you were a backer or just a retweeter. Thank you for your help, your questions, your frustrations, your suggestions.

We’re getting there, and this feels huge even though it’s still just the first big step towards the release candidate. We’re now at Waypoint 0, and it took 3 years and so much work with your support to get here.
Patch video:

Fixes and improvements in this patch :

* Missions! Voice acting!

* Still working on balance for the view draw to make sure the cockpit doesn't clip but the station doesn't flicker. Still some flickering and depth issues to resolve, but we'll get there.

* Esc/back now exits menus if they're open before exiting the level.

* Distance figures now make more sense. Scale still needs tweaking.

* Part of the landing shaft for the full scene is now visible. Landing zone changed from yellow to green. 

* Improved the UI screens.

* Added collapsing to the current tasks menu.

* Asteroids! Some you can run into... and some have secrets. No destructibles yet. 

* You can land at the green sphere on the station module and it will put you inside, then run down the hallway to the Hangar Bay and it will put you back in the ship. It's a start, anyhow - this is *not* the final process. Same as last patch, this is just a reminder.

Known Bugs:

* For some reason if you click the green check as soon as the ship builder starts instead of going through to paint , it might crash. Still working on that one. This one is hard to reproduce, but the ship chooser is due a re-factor soon.

* Still some flickering on planet texture in some cockpits. Being tuned.

As always feedback on the forum is appreciated, you can go here: https://forum.longplay.games/t/alpha-1-feedback-thread/265?u=miguelb and drop bugs, opinions, screenshots and feedback. We really appreciate it!

Coming Next: More of everything. Improved handling and controls. Missions and more interaction. Poll to follow on forum.