Far Haul 0.16.0

Far Haul 0.16.0 for Windows, in which everyone out there finally has a radio, and opinions to put on it.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.16.0.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and they don't take calls. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

The radio

• Press Y anywhere aboard: at the helm, walking the ship, out on the tether, or standing on a moon in a suit. You get everyone in range, nearest first, and what you can say to each. Click, or press the number.
• Every call comes through a bad radio: a chime, a squelch, hiss that gets worse with distance, and a voice. The voices aren't words yet. They're each species' own babble: Kesh low and slow, Ilyan high and clipped, Vey quick, Orun slow and warm. The words type out at the bottom of the screen as they speak. The same ship always sounds the same.
• The ship remote has a Comms card too, for answering from the sofa.

Clearance

• Call traffic control before you dock and they give you a berth, and the collar's lamps go green. Sometimes they tell you to hold while another ship comes out first. You'll see it go.
• Dock without clearance and the clamps still engage. So does the fine: 300 cr, a point of standing, and a lecture you can read at your leisure.
• Moon bases want a call before you land, and give you a pad. Mining camps want a call too, and point at the flat bit. The flatter bit.
• Letting traffic control bring you in (T) counts as clearance, and autopilot runs call in for you.
• Come in hot near the collar and traffic control will mention it. They don't fine you for that. Yet.

Other ships

• Buy fuel from a hauler parked by the port. Dearer than the port, but they come alongside. Hold still while they pump, or they'll tell you to.
• Ask for news. It comes from the live economy: who's short of what, whose prices are moving, whether there's a wreck nearby. Cheap, and sometimes worth more than the fuel.
• Out of fuel? The port tug still comes, by relay. A ship in range may offer a tow too, for less or for more. Out on a run, they know you have no choice.

Maydays

• Now and then on a run, a ship that ran dry or lost its drive calls for help, SOS beacon and all. It's tagged in red, and the braking autopilot (X) stops you alongside.
• Sell them fuel at a rescue rate, or take the crew aboard. They're survivors, with the rescue bounty at the next freight office, and some of them might sign on. No room? Report them and the port sends its own boat.
• Fly past without doing anything and word gets round.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, with a slight delay on the line.
• The voices are babble, not speech. Recorded lines for the regular calls are planned.
• Rival salvage crews, and claim beacons to settle who was first, come next in 0.16.1.

Far Haul 0.15.0

Far Haul 0.15.0 for Windows, in which you can carry more freight, and the passengers stop sleeping in the engineer's bunk.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.15.0.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and they travel steerage. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Bigger holds

• Cargo hold 2x2: 8 containers, 52 t, 11,000 cr. Cargo bay 2x3: 12 containers, 84 t, 15,000 cr. Both are cheaper and lighter per tonne than stacking the little 1x2 hold, and you can walk in both: containers two high along the walls, an open floor down the middle, and a gantry that has seen things.
• The catch is the footprint. Eighty tonnes in one place is hard to keep near the centre of mass, and the builder will mention it.

Passengers, riding along

• Passengers are no longer a job that takes over the whole trip. Take your freight contract, then fill the beds as well. Each party gets off where it's going, pays, and leaves the bunk smelling faintly of someone else.
• Local passengers still ask in person at the bar, the hab's dispatch desk and the camp foreman's. Long-haul passengers now ask at the freight office, for passage to other systems your ship can reach. They want a working FTL drive. Most people do.
• They pay on arrival. A hard landing on the way halves the fare. So does showing up late: local parties expect to arrive within a couple of days, long-haul ones by the due day on their booking. They notice.
• No contract on? The freight office will fly them there for you on autopilot, or let you fly a local hop by hand.

Cabins

• Three new rooms, apart from the crew's bunks:
  • Passenger cabin: 1x1, 2 beds, 7,000 cr. 1.3× the fare. The door locks.
  • Passenger quarters 2x2: 4 beds in curtained pods around a lounge with a sofa and a screen, 16,000 cr. 1.6× the fare.
  • Stateroom 2x2: 2 beds, a real double bed, armchairs, a long viewport and a plant that somebody waters. 26,000 cr. 2.5× the fare, for travellers who don't ask the price.
• A spare crew bunk still takes a passenger at the basic fare. Each party gets the best free beds and pays for the beds it gets, so a stateroom earns its keep even on people who'd have slept in a cupboard.
• Some passengers insist on a cabin, or the stateroom, and won't take a bunk. The board says who wants what, and what they'd pay in the beds you've got free.

Aboard

• Passengers are aboard when you walk the ship, in the rooms they paid for. They dress for travel, not work: long coats in colours no crew job uses, bright scarves, a hat now and then, and a bag they won't put down. Walk up and they'll tell you where they're going and what they think of the bed.
• A steward now looks after the passenger rooms first, and still earns better fares.

Elsewhere

• Rescued survivors take a spare crew bunk first, then whatever bed is free. Nobody gets left behind for want of a pillow.
• Saves from 0.14 with a passenger run on carry on: the passengers are now riding along.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, at a stately pace.
• Long-haul passengers only ride the autopilot, or a jump you fly with a contract. There's no hand-flown jump with only passengers aboard yet.
• Passengers stand rather than sit. They paid for chairs. They're not using them.

Far Haul 0.14.1

Far Haul 0.14.1 for Windows, in which the shipyard stops expecting you to memorise eight brochures.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.14.1.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and they compare poorly. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Telling parts apart

0.14.0 gave you eight makers and a list of names and prices, which is how most people buy engines and how most engines end up in the wrong ship. Now:

• Each make says how it differs. Under its price, every maker's version lists what it does differently from the standard part: "+20% thrust · −20% mass · hot · wears fast", "+50% mass · tough", "−10% thrust · cheap". Brochure honesty, at last.
• The comparison card. Pick any part and the whole family lines up side by side: thrust (or cooling, fuel, lift, braking, push), mass, heat, power, wear rate, the price at this yard, and which system makes it cheapest. The best in each column is in green, the one you've picked in yellow.
• What it does to your ship. The card ends with what fitting one would change, before you pay: "T/W 0.19 → 0.39", "Heat 148/149 → 190/149 kW over!" in red when it would cook you, and fuel, lift, braking, jump speed or hold size where they move. Works for every part, including corridors, which mostly make you slower.
• I hides the card when you'd rather look at the ship.

Known limits

• The projection assumes engines face aft and braking thrusters face the bow, which is where they go if you want to arrive.
• The card sits over the top of the view. On a small window it's I or squint.

Far Haul 0.14.0

Far Haul 0.14.0 for Windows, in which it turns out somebody else makes engines too, and they all have opinions.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.14.0.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and they're all one make. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Manufacturers

The parts you've been fitting all along are Northstar Commercial's: sold everywhere, at list price, with few surprises. Now seven other makers want a word, and each has habits:

• Ilyan Vector Works (Ilos): engines with a fifth more thrust for a fifth less mass, sharper thrusters and a faster FTL drive. They run hot, cost more and wear 30-40% faster if you don't look after them.
• Kesh Heavy Systems (Keshar): engines, lander legs and drives that weigh half again as much, cost more, and wear at well under half the rate. Notoriously difficult to kill.
• Gateworks Heavy Orbital (Iron Gate): the big engine. 60% more thrust, twice the mass, and a heat problem you'll need radiators for.
• Deep Junction Machine Cooperative (Foundry): cheap engines, tanks and thrusters. Ugly, a bit weaker, and mechanics love them.
• Orun Thermal Collective (Orun): radiators that shed 40% more heat and last longer.
• Aerial Massworks (Ilos): radiators and tanks at a fraction of the weight. Their radiators wear fast if you skimp on repairs, which you will.
• Roosevelt Modular (New Houston): a bigger bolt-on tank, and a cheaper frame.

Buying them

• Every yard sells every make. In the shipyard, each part now has its makers' versions listed under it. Hover for who makes it, what they claim, and how fast it wears.
• A maker's own system sells its parts 15% cheaper. Everywhere else adds 10% import duty. Starting at New Houston? Roosevelt's tank is a bargain. Vector Works engines are cheapest at Ilos, and so on. Shop accordingly.
• What you paid is what the part's worth on your books: remove it and that's what you get back.

Elsewhere

• Wrecks now carry other makers' parts too. A Kesh Heavy engine off a derelict is a find; a Vector Works drive off one stranded far out is a find with a story.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, wheezing slightly.
• Hull modules aren't branded yet: every corridor is the same corridor. Bigger holds and proper passenger cabins are next.
• Makers' versions look like their parts, in the maker's colours. Distinctive shapes are a job for an artist, which we don't have.

Far Haul 0.13.0

Far Haul 0.13.0 for Windows, in which you finally go inside, and wish you'd brought a better torch.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.13.0.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and nobody's left a log in them. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Going aboard

• Every derelict has an airlock door, outlined in white with amber corners. Space walk over, take the torch (2) and hold E for ten seconds. Then hold E again to go in.
• Inside there's no power, no air and no gravity. Your boots hold you to the deck, your suit lamp goes where you look, and the emergency lights do their best, which isn't much.
• Your suit air keeps running the whole time. Run out inside and the tether winch drags you home, which is undignified.
• E picks things up. L at the helm reads the log. E in their airlock takes you back out. You can carry one thing at a time, and the trip home is long.

What's in there

• The log: what went wrong, who took the pod, who didn't make it. A wreck stranded out on a route usually blames the jump drive. One near a station usually blames somebody.
• The flight recorder: in the cockpit. Hand it in at any port's freight office and the insurer pays a few thousand credits to find out what happened. More if it was a long way out.
• Loose crates in the holds and lockers of patch and spares kits, like the ones out of the cargo hatch.
• The crew who didn't make it. Carry them home. They take up a little hold space. At the next port's freight office, the port authority takes them back to their families and pays a recovery fee. Nobody makes a joke about it, and neither do we.
• Now and then, someone who did. Rare near the stations, less rare out on the routes. They get a free bunk if you have one, and the jump seat if you don't: every ship has one, for exactly this. Hand them over at a freight office for a 6,000 cr rescue bounty and some standing. After that they'll sign on with you, no hiring fee, or go their own way.
• No bunk and the jump seat's taken? Press E and report them. The port sends its own boat, and the freight office pays you a finder's fee (40% of the bounty) and a little standing. Nobody gets left behind for want of a bed.

Port authority

• A new PORT AUTHORITY section at the freight office handles recorders, remains and survivors. The phone's Repairs tab does too.
• Survivors aboard count against your bunks, so the bar won't sign anyone into a berth that's already taken.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, wheezing slightly.
• Derelicts are the same few layouts as everything else, so the floor plans will start to feel familiar.
• Survivors don't walk on their own. You clip them to your tether and lead them out.

Far Haul 0.12.0

Far Haul 0.12.0 for Windows, in which one captain's wreck becomes another captain's upgrade.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.12.0.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and nothing in them is second-hand. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Fitting salvaged parts

• Parts you've hauled off derelicts now show up first in the shipyard palette, under FROM YOUR HOLD, each with its condition and a fitting fee.
• Fitting one costs 15% of the part's price new (250 cr at least) instead of the full price. An engine off a wreck goes on for 3,000 cr instead of 20,000.
• It comes as worn as you found it. A 62% engine is a 62% engine; the space walk wrench and the yard's overhaul work on it like any other.
• It comes out of the hold when it goes on, which frees up the space. Undo puts it all back, fee included.
• Shift+click a salvaged part to unbolt it: it goes back in the hold at whatever condition it's in now, and you get the fitting fee back. It needs room in the hold, and the hold doesn't negotiate.
• The ship's value counts what you paid, not what it'd cost new. The bank was very clear on that.
• Would rather have the money? The shipyard desk still buys them.

The FTL drive wears now

• The jump drive is a working part like the engine: every jump wears it a little.
• A failed drive doesn't jump. The ship says so, and the interstellar boards close until it's fixed.
• That makes the drive you strip off a wreck stranded by a failed jump exactly as dead as it sounds. Fit it cheap, then bring it back with a spares kit on a space walk, or have a yard overhaul it. Cheaper than new. Considerably less shiny.

Also

• Removing or adding parts in the shipyard no longer shuffles their wear onto the wrong parts. The engine you serviced stays serviced.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, wheezing slightly.
• Clearing the ship or starting again from the starter ship in the shipyard throws away fitted salvage along with everything else. It's called Clear for a reason.
• Every engine is still the same engine. Manufacturers are on the list.

Far Haul 0.11.0

Far Haul 0.11.0 for Windows, in which the economy finally lets you see its books, and they're about as healthy as you'd expect.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.11.0.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and their accounts are none of your business. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

The trade report

Press N anywhere in a game. It's also in the pause menu and at the freight office. The game waits while you read, which is more than the bank does. 1 to 4 or Tab switch pages, and N or Esc closes it.

• Overview: freight paid, goods delivered and tonnes moved across known space this week, against last week, with a month of history behind each. How many ships are working, how many jobs are waiting, and who's running out of what, worst first. Every system's prices against the going rate, so you can see where things are dear before you've loaded anything.
• Flows: a map of known space with the week's freight on its lanes, cargo streaming along them, and every ship between systems where it is right now, loaded or empty. Systems are ringed for whether they send out more than they take in. The busiest lanes are listed beside it, with what they mostly carry.
• Companies: every carrier company ranked by what it earned this month, with its fleet, how much of it is working, and its cash. You're in there too. Probably near the bottom. For now.
• Your mark: what you've hauled and earned, your share of all the freight in known space, your rank, the deliveries that reached a shelf that was running short, salvage sold, your takings day by day, and who you've supplied.

The world has been keeping notes. A new game opens with two weeks of history from the economy's warm-up. An older save starts its notes the day you load it.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, wheezing slightly.
• The report keeps the last 30 days. The economy has a long memory, but a short filing cabinet.
• In-system runs count towards your takings and share, but they don't draw on the known-space map. They're very small lines.

Far Haul 0.10.2

Far Haul 0.10.2 for Windows, in which the dead finally share what they were carrying.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.10.2.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and they've already been picked clean. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Cracking the hold

• Every derelict now has a cargo hatch, outlined in yellow with a bar across it. Take the torch (2) and hold E. It takes longer than a panel. They didn't want anyone in there either.
• Once it's open, whatever they were carrying drifts out of the hold and tumbles there, waiting for somebody with no scruples and a tether.
• Hold E on something to take it. Any tool will do. One thing at a time, back to your own hatch.
• A wreck stranded out on a route by a jump that didn't finish carries a little more. Its jump drive is in there too. It's what failed.

What's in there

• Cargo crates: a tonne or two of something somebody was being paid to deliver. It goes in your hold, so it needs room, and it makes the ship heavier.
• Supplies: patch kits and spares kits, straight into the lockers. If the lockers are full, the rest goes back out of the hatch.
• Ship parts: engines, radiators, tanks, thrusters, legs, the odd jump drive. They're bulky and they take cargo space too. No room in the hold? The suit tells you before you've hauled it all the way back.

Selling it

• Cargo sells at the freight office to whoever at the port deals in those goods, at their going rate, less a little for the lack of paperwork. If nobody here wants it, the scrap dealer will take it, for less.
• Parts sell at the shipyard desk, priced on what they'd cost new and what state they're in. A failed jump drive is worth what you'd expect.
• The phone's Repairs tab sells both too.
• Salvage and contract freight are kept apart, so you'll never sell somebody's delivery by accident. On purpose is a different update.

Fixed

• Wrecks stranded out on routes no longer turn up on runs down to a moon or a landing site, and the sensors wait their turn rather than talking over the cockpit.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, wheezing slightly.
• Salvaged parts can only be sold, not bolted onto your own ship. Yet.
• You still can't go inside a derelict. The hold comes to you.

Far Haul 0.10.1

Far Haul 0.10.1 for Windows, in which space gets busier, and not everyone who set out made it.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.10.1.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and nobody's stranded in them. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Not everyone is hauling freight

• Station pods shuttle between the station and the ships parked behind it: a cockpit, an engine and a lot of optimism. Small, slow and solid, so don't park on one.
• Survey ships come and go from the busier ports, legs folded out and jump drive aboard, off to look at something nobody's paid them to look at.
• Ships in orbit: ore tugs, tenders, patrols and relay techs circle the planet a few hundred metres up, and the last of them goes round its moon. You can fly into those too. Please don't.

Stranded between systems

• On a run, now and then, there's a dead ship out along the route: somebody's jump drive gave up halfway and left them in the gap. The cockpit tells you when it's spotted, and it's tagged in orange, DERELICT · FTL FAILED, with its distance.
• Press X to brake while it's ahead and the autopilot stops you beside it rather than at your destination. Time compression eases off as you get close, so you don't blow past at x60.
• Its salvage panels come off with the torch like any other wreck's.
• Done with it? Brake off and on again and the autopilot carries on to where you were going.
• The same run keeps the same wreck in the same place, so it'll still be there when you've finished making up your mind.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, wheezing slightly.
• Derelicts still only give up their hull panels. Opening them up for the cargo, supplies and parts inside is next.
• Pods, survey ships and orbiters don't answer hails. They have their own problems.

Far Haul 0.10.0

Far Haul 0.10.0 for Windows, in which it turns out you were never alone out here. Some of the others are even alive.

Download FarHaul-windows-0.10.0.zip under Assets below. Not the Source code files: those are GitHub's, and there's nobody in them. Unzip it anywhere and run FarHaul\FarHaul.exe. Nothing is installed. Saves go in a Far Haul saves folder next to the exe, and saves from earlier versions still load.

On first run Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC", because the exe is not code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Other ships

• The other haulers in the economy now show up. Ships hold station behind every port, named for the companies trading there, with nav lights blinking and a name tag when you're close.
• A ship or two comes and goes: one burns out from the station into the dark, another comes back in.
• On a long run, now and then someone passes the other way along the route, a kilometre or two off.
• They're solid. Fly into one and you bounce off, the hull pays, and their insurer will be in touch.

Derelicts

• Most days there's a dead ship drifting a few kilometres from the station, tagged DERELICT with its distance, from anywhere.
• Fly over, stop alongside, close enough for the tether, and go outside.
• The orange outlines on its hull are salvage panels. Take the torch (2), hold E, and cut one free. A few seconds of sparks and it's in your hands.
• Haul it back to your hatch, one panel at a time, and it goes in the locker. Reeled in with it? It comes too. Drift off with it? It doesn't.
• Sell the salvage at any exchange. A cut panel stays cut; the wreck doesn't grow new ones, though another wreck usually turns up another day.
• The wreck's hull is solid. You can't drift through it, however much you'd like to.

Known limits

• 64-bit Windows (x86_64). ARM Surface devices run it through Windows' built-in emulation, wheezing slightly.
• Other ships don't talk to you, trade with you, or dock while you watch. They hold station, come and go, and pass.
• No boarding derelicts from the inside yet: salvage comes off the hull.
• Other ships are built from the same few layouts you can build. Variety is coming with the manufacturers.