v2026.10.18

🐳 Docker (dedicated server)

Run the dedicated server (game server + admin/portal/download UI, optional AI backend) on any OS with Docker:

docker pull ghcr.io/marceld23/blocks-beyond-the-stars-server:2026.10.18
# or the rolling tag:
docker pull ghcr.io/marceld23/blocks-beyond-the-stars-server:latest

Setup & configuration: SELF_HOSTING.md §10.

The pioneer release. Player-like pioneers now live in closed outposts out in the wild, with a pixel skin, a hidden
cellar and sometimes a rowboat at the shore. Broken old stations look like the classic stations from the beta again,
only wrecked, and there is no air aboard any more. Animals, villagers, machines and bandits move smoothly, your
painted look finally reaches the other players in multiplayer, residents climb the stairs to your upper floors,
and torches hang on the wall. And new worlds are more varied: planets of a system differ in size, sky colour and
gravity, and every world has its own mission boards. Behind most of it are Justus and Lorenzo: Justus reported
the missing body paint, the silent traders, the wrong station model and the residents who never came upstairs, and sent
the idea for the NPC bases; Lorenzo wanted torches on the wall. Thank you both! 🙏

ℹ️ Compatibility: the save version stays at 4. The terrain generation rises to 26: varied planet sizes,
colours and gravity only come to new worlds, your existing worlds keep every planet exactly as it was. Pioneer
outposts appear in new worlds and on planets you have never visited. Everything else also comes to your existing worlds.
The network protocol stays at version 11. Game and server should both be on 2026.10.18. The desktop game updates
itself on start, and the browser version is always current.

🧑‍🚀 Pioneer outposts (#2681, #2682)

• Player-like NPCs with their own bases, in new worlds and on planets you haven't visited yet, at most two per
  world: a closed house of stone, earth, iron or steel with a (decorative) base core, crates, a bed and a door.
• A cellar: a ladder leads down to a small cellar with a crate. Sometimes the shaft is in a closet, sometimes it is
  hidden under a planter. By the water, a rowboat lies at the shore.
• The pioneer looks like a player with a pixel skin, never attacks you, hunts, mines or gathers near the outpost
  and is off exploring about one day in three. Talk to them to learn who they are; once you are friends they give you a
  present from their crates. You may look into their crates, but not take from them, and the outpost is protected.
• The outpost shows on your map once you come close or a villager tells you about it. Admins: /tp outpost.

🛰️ Derelict stations in the beta shape (#2674–#2676)

• New wrecks look like the classic stations from the beta: a boxy hub, four arms with pods, two big blue solar wings
  and a mast. Only wrecked: one wing half torn off, the mast snapped, the beacon dead, holes, rust and loose debris.
• No air aboard and nobody lives there. Your suit tank is your air, VEGA warns you on your first visit, and your
  ship fills the tank up again. A wreck you have already boarded keeps its old shape. The story site The Long Quiet is
  unchanged.
• From outside, wrecks now spark, shed tumbling debris and flicker their dead beacon.

🐾 Smooth motion (#2664–#2670)

• Animals, villagers, machines and bandits move smoothly instead of in little jerks: the game now plays their
  movement back with a short delay and follows the server's speed, and animals far away get a gentle buffer.
• Smoother turns: animals turn round instead of snapping, take one-block ledges in a running jump and slow down when
  boxed in; villagers walk straight lines instead of zig-zags and turn their body toward what they look at.

🏠 Residents on every floor (#2677–#2680)

• Founding a base: one bed or three machines anywhere inside your base now bring the first settler (before, the
  machines had to stand right next to the base core).
• Residents climb your stairs — also a staircase with a tight hole in the ceiling — and reach beds up to 16 blocks
  above the core. They take stairs, not ladders.
• The game tells you about beds: placing one says whether it counts ("residents 3/5"), founds the base, is outside
  your base or whether the base is full. The base core readout shows your residents.
• A resident who gets stuck is moved to their goal when nobody can see them, even if you are close by on another
  floor.

🎭 Multiplayer and talking

• Your painted look reaches the others (#2672): in a LAN or hosted world the other players now see your whole body
  paint, not only your face. Your look also arrives while the host has paused the game.
• Traders talk to newcomers (#2673): traders and quartermasters greet you with a short conversation even before
  they know you, and Talk always gets an answer, also right after trading.

🔥 Torches and lanterns on the wall (#2683)

• Place a torch on a wall and it hangs on the wall, slightly tilted, on a small holder. A lantern hangs on a
  wall bracket or from the ceiling on a chain. A torch can't hang from the ceiling (the game suggests a lantern).
• If the wall or ceiling holding it is mined, the light falls. Torches and lanterns already in your world stay as they
  are.

🎲 More variety (#2686–#2698)

• New worlds (terrain generation 26): the planets of a system now differ in size, sky and water colour and
  gravity, and each world has its own sizes — before, all planets of a system were the same size and every world
  matched. Your starting planet always stays roomy.
• Mission boards no longer repeat in a four-step pattern and differ from world to world. Two villages with the same
  name on different planets now have their own board, missions, news and people who remember you. Jobs you already
  hold stay exactly as they are; big-order progress starts afresh on the new boards.
• Greenhouses grow a real mix of crops, and authored village buildings are no longer "all or nothing". Villages
  you have already visited stay as they are.
• Animals: a herd is no longer a set of clones — sizes vary, with the occasional runt or giant; pack hunters spread
  out around their prey; taming wishes, gait and machine timing are no longer predictable patterns.
• In new worlds, a village's trade and quest giver also depend on its planet and the world.
• On Titas, new research stations are no longer placed under the frozen sea, so their landing pads are open to the
  sky (#2696).

🌍 Texts

• All new and changed texts are available in all 14 languages.
• The "What's new?" notes of 2026.10.17 are now available in the twelve community languages too (#2663).

🛠️ For tinkerers

• StableHashing (Shared): a well-mixed deterministic hash (FNV-1a + SplitMix64 finaliser). WorldGenerator.StableHash
  stays bit-identical forever; StableHashing outputs are pinned as known answers. See docs/developer/WORLD_GENERATION.md
  §43.
• Terrain generation 26 (HashVarietyGeneration): world-seeded body sizes (WorldConstants.CircumferenceFor(…, seed, generation)), sent as the additive field NetBody.Circumference (0 = older server → classic formula, BodySize in
  Client.Core); start planet floor 9600; mixed tint families and gravity. Generation ≤ 25 is pinned bit-for-bit.
• Settlement place keys include the body (settle_ + 9 digits); old name-only keys, memory, wishes and news move on
  world entry, and held board jobs keep their old ids and definitions. Placement records carry HashRevision.
• Smooth motion: buffered interpolation (MotionInterpolator, ServerClockSync), a creature motion stream
  (CreatureMotionFrame, tag 301) and smoothed NPC routes. See docs/developer/ENTITY_MOTION.md.
• Derelicts: BetaStationGenerator, DerelictDecorPlan (Client.Core); stored derelicts keep their legacy layout.
• Pioneer outposts are a lodge variant (GameServerPioneers.cs, PioneerOutpostGenerator); the pixel-skin pool is
  data/pioneer_skins.json, generated by tools/gen_pioneer_skins.py (which also imports a skin painted in the game).
• Wall lights: PropOrientation.LightMount, geometry shared by mesher and ghost (LightMountGeometry).
• MessagePack 2.5.302 → 2.5.303 (advisory GHSA-qhrr-8q5h-9q3h).
• For hosters: the AI backend now knows the pioneer role; update the AI service with this release.

🙏 Thank you

• Justus (as Layex and Screelit) reported the body paint that never reached the other player, the traders who
  wouldn't talk, the wrong model of the old stations and the residents who never came up to his upper floor, and sent
  the idea for player-like NPCs with their own bases. Thank you, Justus 🙏
• Lorenzo sent his very first F1 report from a cave: torches should hang on the wall. Now they do — and he is in the
  game's credits. Thank you, Lorenzo 🙏

Full Changelog: v2026.10.17...v2026.10.18