https://youtu.be/rcefnXSyVk0

Welcome to the 2nd annual Masters of Halloween Wargames! You are invited once again into the eerie bowels of Hell with plenty of spooks and scares awaiting you. This year we’re bringing back the Hell Week game mode (no respawns after the grace period) and introducing some thematic changes to spice up the event!

The event will take place on October 30 at 6:00 pm UTC[www.tickcounter.com].

Join us on Discord[discord.gg] to chat with other players and find teammates. Participants are welcome to record or live stream the event and share it afterwards using #interstellarmarines.

Note: There is no sign-up. The server has room for 64 players total, so join the server quickly to ensure your spot!

• Form a team of up to four players, or go at it alone if you don't fear the Hellbots!
  
• Join the designated Wargames server at the time of the event
  
• Enter Hell and exit out of Docking Bay at least once
  
• Be the first team with 30,000 Combat Points at once to win

• Team names on a screen in Hell
  
• Masters of Halloween Wargames 2019 Discord role

We will be streaming to YouTube and Twitch[www.twitch.tv] when the event goes live, so make sure to follow!

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME,
Your team at Zero Point Software

We’ve decided on a 4 month development period, with a tentative deadline for each update and new priority system for WIP content/features.

The priority system will sort tasks into “need, want, bonus” categories. The Game Director will designate what needs to be done, what he'd prefer volunteers do, and bonus items that can be chosen by the volunteers themselves.

Anything that is not ready will be pushed to release in a later update rather than delaying the current update. Progress will be updated on our Trello page and social media, so be sure to check them out to see what is being worked on.


The priority system will allow our Game Director Kim (ZPSHicks) to have more time to interact with the team and community, as he no longer needs to plan every little task and detail.

The team will also have more freedom with what they are allowed to work on, so you might end up with some cool random content or features.

The 4 month cycle means more frequent updates, and our current tentative deadline for Update 29 is September 1st.


ITO Testing will continue as usual, and will take place before the deadlines with multiple builds including changes/additions according to player feedback. Once we feel we’re ready to release we’ll lock an ITO Test Build as a release candidate.

To become an ITO tester join our official Discord server[discord.gg] and post “!rank ITO Tester” in the role-requests channel. Then you'll receive access to the ITO testing announcements where you’ll find the code to unlock the beta branch in Steam.

During this process we will add reported bugs and include what is being worked on via our Trello page[trello.com].

We’re very excited to see where this will take us and we will continue to make updates as more progress is made on our social media.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME,
Your Team at Zero Point Software

Join our official social media and community groups to stay connected and chat:

• Discord Server[discord.gg]

• Steam Group

• Twitter

• Facebook[www.facebook.com]

• YouTube

• Twitch[www.twitch.tv]

• Trello[trello.com]

Hello Marines, we’re very excited to announce Update 28!

First, we want to thank everyone who participated in ITO Testing - you’re the best!

Update 28 has finally been wrapped up and released. In this update we’ve upgraded Interstellar Marines from Unity 5.1.3 (released August 2015) to 5.6.7 (released March 2019). This much needed upgrade allows us to utilize awesome new features and improvements, which includes increased performance/optimization, lighting improvements, shader upgrades, GPU instancing, PBR materials, API changes, deferred rendering, DirectX 11 support for Windows, and more.

These improvements will allow for Interstellar Marines to continue to be more immersive, enhance visuals, and set us up to begin adding new features and content.

Below is our brand new Update video which showcases the potential of the Unity upgrade and other cool features/content we’ve added to U28.

https://youtu.be/wtiOpE2LAYY

We haven't discussed and decided what we're going to do for U29 yet, so we'll post another announcement in the coming weeks with what we have planned.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME,
Your Team at Zero Point Software

Join our official social media and community groups to stay connected and chat:

• Discord Server[discord.gg]

• Steam Group

• Twitter

• Facebook[www.facebook.com]

• YouTube

• Twitch[www.twitch.tv]

• Trello[trello.com]

(0.5.28 - Revision 1497)
Platforms available, 32-bit & 64-bit
Windows, Linux, OSX



ADDED Basic lean mechanics with audio by Eduard
ADDED Unity's new Post Processing v1 stack to all cameras
ADDED Motion blur settings
ADDED Reflection probe intensity is linked to weather state
ADDED Reflection probes are eased in on forced weather system
ADDED Screen Space Reflections setting
ADDED Exhaustion and damage post-processing effects (Chromatic Aberration and Tonemapping)
ADDED Jump penalty added to exhaustion
ADDED Performance optimizations
ADDED ECSChat server host defined in command line arguments
ADDED [REDACTED] to Resort (first iteration)


UPDATED Unity 5.1.3 (released August 2015) to 5.6.7 (released March 2019)
UPDATED Deferred renderer from legacy deferred renderer
UPDATED DirectX 9 to DirectX 11
UPDATED Metal on MacOS
UPDATED GUIDamageWarning made WARN flash 10x faster for better HUD immersion
UPDATED Settings on all audio clips to use "Compress on Load" and now only 2 large mp3 are still using "compress in memory"
UPDATED Operations Wargames so lights occlude correctly and reflection probes with adjusted values
UPDATED Intro Cinematic scene so IM logo is more lit and MEG spotlight shadows are adjusted correctly
UPDATED Option to LightHandler with be able to set emissive boot (glow output) on lights
UPDATED Sandbox added vending machine as emissive reference
UPDATED Starcrown and NGI with foliage fixes and adjusted location of door buttons
UPDATED General emissive materials
UPDATED Hell Guardians to be a bit faster and easier to kill
UPDATED Hell geysers to glow with orange lava
UPDATED Weapon sounds and sway
UPDATED Stamina recovery rate


FIXED Players may sometimes fall through the floor of a map (Unity 5 bug) FINALLY!!
FIXED CP counter bug when player has more than 15 mill. points
FIXED Fire button exploit
FIXED AR being able to shoot through walls

• The game will stop updating when switching out of fullscreen in Windows. If you are on a moving elevator or platform, this will cause you to fall through it. If you are in a Party, this will disconnect you from the Party
  
• View jittering may occur when jumping on lossy networks
  
• Other players will seem to float above or interpenetrate while standing on a moving dynamic platforms (network smoothing will exaggerate this effect)
  
• The gamepad implementation is early and experimental, so may cause issues (Disable Gamepad in menu if mouse/keyboard controls does work as intended)
  
• Standing in a doorway when the door closes may result in the player being pushed vertically
  
• The HUD names and kill messages will be clipped on aspect ratios that are less wide than 16:10

We will continue utilizing the ITO tester program to test progress on upcoming updates.

To become an ITO tester join our official Discord server[discord.gg] and post “!Enlist ITO Tester” in the role-requests channel. Then you'll receive access to the ITO testing announcements where you’ll find the code to unlock the beta branch in Steam.

There really is nothing we'd rather make than COOP missions and especially unique and exciting ones; but without more advanced AI, options for scripting and more advanced gameplay setup towards tactical sandbox gameplay with a story, we can’t do that.

We want the next COOP mission to feel more immersive and unique than the previous missions. The Cooperative mode was built for Interstellar Marines from the ground-up to be a multiplayer gamemode where you could play unique and exciting missions with three of your friends.

However, if we decide to commit and go through the development process it would require to make another COOP mission like the Neurogen Incident, it would take months to do. With these COOP missions you play through them a few times and then wait for new content to release. It simply takes too much time and resources to create each new mission, make sure most of the substantial bugs are taken care of, then release it within a decent amount of time at the moment. The cost versus pay off just simply wouldn’t be worth it, unfortunately.

If we decided to release new missions it'd simply be more of the same kinds of missions we've done in the past, and we don’t want that. We want missions with a heavy emphasis on replayability, with each playthrough feeling like a new and unique mission.

For this to happen, the focus on adding/improving core gameplay mechanics, tweaking current content, patching bugs and glitches, and adding other content in the meantime will need to continue. For that very reason it makes much more sense to continue to focus on Wargames, using it as a testing ground for new features/content, improving AI, and eventually even possibly having the maps be used for new COOP missions.


Our game director Kim (ZPSHicks, and lone survivor of the original Zero Point Software team) currently works two jobs and has a limited amount of time being able to work on Interstellar Marines.

Currently we have two of our volunteer developers working on upgrading Interstellar Marines’ game engine (Unity) to the latest available version. This will take time, but will hopefully remove a lot of substantial bugs/glitches (for example, the infamous “falling through the ground” bug) and increase optimization.

For now, we are focusing on making small improvements to Interstellar Marines in general and the Wargames multiplayer gamemode.

We’re not giving up hope on this, but development will continue at a slow pace until we can attract a publisher or somehow raise money for development. We have possible leads for publishers, but nothing is confirmed at the moment, so please don’t get your hopes up.

Lastly, I’d like to announce that I will be your latest community manager for Zero Point Software. Expect posts to occur much more frequently, and for communication to improve significantly. I will be keeping you all updated ;)

/CinemaBane

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME,
Your team at Zero Point Software

Join our official social media and community groups to stay connected and chat:

• Discord server: discord.gg/interstellarmarines

• Steam group: https://gtm.you1.cn/groups/interstellarmarines

• Twitter page: www.twitter.com/zeropointsoft

• YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/zeropointsoftware

• Twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/zeropointsoftware

• Instagram page: www.instagram.com/zeropointsoftware

Good news everyone!

Thanks to our wonderful crew of community volunteer developers, Update 27 has been wrapped and released! Going into the volunteer program we weren’t sure what to expect, but we knew development was much too slow and something had to be done, and we sure are glad we took a chance and accepted some help.

Now that we have a better idea what the volunteers are capable of and how to manage volunteers rather than regular employees, we plan on more frequent updates in the future.

We’ll need to upgrade the Unity engine sooner rather than later. Our current engine version is the 2 year old 5.1.3 released August 2015, and by upgrading we’ll be able to utilize all the new and improved features, graphical and performance benefits of an up-to-date version of Unity.

We’re also very focused on getting more weapons and tactical features into the game and we also really want to expand the AI of our enemy Combat Training Robots, to make them much more intelligent and challenging; with the AI teaming up playing SP/COOP/Wargames with strategy and tactics.

We’ll update Trello[trello.com] the second we know what we’ll focus on for Update 28.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME,
Your small team and awesome volunteer army at Zero Point Software

(0.5.27 - Revision 1354)
Platforms available, 32-bit & 64-bit
Windows, Linux, OSX



ADDED 64 Bit support for all platforms.
ADDED Tactical Reload.
ADDED 2 light modes (dark/light) to GKBB controlled by a power box & other changes.
ADDED New AR03 Firing sound.
ADDED New OS-1 Pistol Firing sound.
ADDED Support for arrow keys bindings and quality of life changes to the skin menu!
ADDED 10 random Bullet Whiz sounds from Running Man into Marine 1P impact sound list, until we get a proper bullet whiz system implemented
ADDED CheckIfMinAndMaxValuesMatch to IntelligenceBase to eliminate unnecessary calculations
ADDED New Suppressor_2_A model iteration 1, added materials and created Suppressor_2_A.prefab
ADDED Support for CTR's spotting targets with their flashlights.


UPDATED CTR defective, SMG and AR with changes made by Tanner, they're much more reactive and precise now
UPDATED HP for defective (melee) decreased so all CTR's will die if hit in the head, and done some general normalization of the HP on the body parts
UPDATED Movements speed of CTR SMG and AR, so SMG is faster in patrol (walk) and assault (run) and the AR is a bit slower in patrol and assault
UPDATED Get Killed By Bots map with more accurate Navigation mesh and CTR teams 1 and 2 is now White vs Black (no political agenda intended), it was just the two CTR skins most different to each other ;)
UPDATED InputManager.cs to fix the controller firing bug
UPDATED AR Aiming noise time increased from 0.75 to 0.8, equal with SMG
UPDATED SMG Recoil Aim scale reduced from 0.9 to 0.75, equal with AR
UPDATED SMG Breath/noise bob aim ratio lowered from 1 to 0.5, equal with AR
UPDATED Welcome Mission scene with adjusted suppressor pickup prefab and change so you only get one (to share between weapons)
UPDATED Sandbox scene with Arsenal locker + 3 suppressor pickup prefabs.
UPDATED All weapon prefabs to accept new Suppressor prefab
UPDATED Suppressor Pickup to present the Suppressor_2_A model
UPDATED CTR AR/SMG Accuracy values changed
UPDATED Fixed values related to spinning CTR, fixed reaction time
UPDATED Increased pistol ADS recoil scale
UPDATED Reduced AR reload speed to be more consistent with SMG
UPDATED AR and SMG prefab lurch values
UPDATED Made CTR's identification of targets less random and more consistent.
UPDATED CTR SMG/AR accuracy values making them more accurate.
UPDATED increased SMG ammo capacity to 32 and SMG ammo pickups to 32.
UPDATED increased SMG burst mode to 4 rounds.
UPDATED Get Killed By Bots with two different light settings to test CTR’s new ability to “detect/see” players with their flashlight. (Cycle the light switch to re-illuminate red lights that get shot out).
UPDATED Skin menu with new quick select option (Select and stay in the menu or HOLD CTRL to exit as soon as you select a skin).
UPDATED SMG, AR and Pistol with slightly less FOV change for added realism (until we can simulate sight magnification)
UPDATED Recoil lurch V3 system.
UPDATED CTR's spotting targets with their flashlights.UPDATED SMG ammo capacity to 32, ammo pickups to 32.
UPDATED Minor tweaks in lens flare distance. (visible from a bit further away and close up)
UPDATED Lighter ammo and weapon crate interiors.
UPDATED Defective and Guard CTR damage values updated to correspond to player's.
UPDATED Defective CTR body and limb damage values halved, head shot now 1 hit kill.
UPDATED Weapon recoil values adjusted.
UPDATED Smaller camo patterns for purchasable ZPS created camo skins.
UPDATED Increased the length of the mouse setting scroll reticle so all options fit in all resolutions.
UPDATED NGI CTR medical cross to green, resolving a Geneva Convention compliance issue.
UPDATED Reload mechanics with CTR animation controller.
UPDATED Ammo counter sights optimization.
UPDATED Supply crate Pre-fab updated for more exact placement and new aligned pickup locations.
UPDATED Suit Systems to properly work with reload sound.


OPTIMIZED recoil view rotation calculations by disabling them unless weapon is being fired.(except in semi-auto mode it always calculates when fire button is hold down)
OPTIMIZED exhaustion view rotation calculations by disabling them when not needed


FIXED canceling suppressor attach, when quickly hitting the key multiple times.
FIXED Ammo counter visible through everything.
FIXED Client not knowing it had suppressors.
FIXED Multiplayer suppressor bug when equipping and unequipping super-fast.
FIXED Revive attachment poof bug.
FIXED Semi-auto aim slow rise.
FIXED Random no recoil bug on burst mode.
FIXED Weapon swap with alpha keys.
FIXED Weapon swap using d-pad on gamepad.
FIXED UI not showing at certain resolution.

We will continue utilizing the ITO tester program to test progress on upcoming updates.

To become an ITO tester join our official Discord server[discord.gg] and post “!Enlist ITO Tester” in the role-requests channel. Then you'll receive access to the ITO testing announcements where you’ll find the code to unlock the beta branch in Steam.

Are you a competitive Interstellar Marines player who’s found themselves hungering to return to the battlefields we all know and love? Or perhaps you’re a new player, ready to prove themselves among the elites?

Whatever your motives are, long-time community member Five5staR is giving everyone the chance to compete in his standalone competitive league, the FIVESTAR Championship Series!

Join the action at their discord; [discord.gg]Signups are free and going on right now for the 2018 New Year Blind Pick Tournament (16+ players required). Message an admin at the FCS Discord for more information.

We've been hard at work on Update 27 and have made significant progress. This includes tactical reload, a fix for falling through the map in need of testing, and weapon changes for you to provide feedback on.

X-Mayhem Status
Right now there is a bug which spawns the present over and over again in the same space up to millions of times in an attempt to maximize holiday cheer, making the game mode unplayable. One of our programmers is looking at it though, and with his help Santa might be able to save Christmas after all!

Development Status
Several of our volunteer programmers attend university; Understandably, they’re occupied with end of semester projects and studying for finals. Unfortunately, this means development has slowed down and we’re not sure exactly when U27 will be ready.

(0.5.27 - Revision 1280)

Platforms available
Windows, Linux, OSX

Servers available
Co-op, Multiplayer


ADDED Tactical Reload.
ADDED 2 light modes (dark/light) to GKBB controlled by a power box & other changes.
ADDED New AR03 Firing sound.
ADDED New OS-1 Pistol Firing sound.

UPDATED SMG, AR and Pistol with slightly less FOV change for added realism (until we can simulate sight magnification)
UPDATED Recoil lurch V2 system.
UPDATED CTR's spotting targets with their flashlights. (Test if CTRs can see you through the wall with flashlights)
UPDATED SMG ammo capacity to 32, ammo pickups to 32.
UPDATED Minor tweaks in lens flare distance. (visible from a bit further away and close up)
UPDATED Lighter ammo and weapon crate interiors.
UPDATED Defective and Guard CTR damage values updated to correspond to player's.
UPDATED Defective CTR body and limb damage values halved, head shot now 1 hit kill.
UPDATED Weapon recoil values adjusted. (How does it feel?)
UPDATED Smaller camo patterns for purchasable ZPS created camo skins.
UPDATED Increased the length of the mouse setting scroll reticle so all options fit in all resolutions. (Does it fit in yours?)
UPDATED NGI CTR medical cross to green, resolving a Geneva Convention compliance issue.
UPDATED Reload mechanics with CTR animation controller.
UPDATED Ammo counter sights optimization.
UPDATED Supply crate Pre-fab updated for more exact placement and new aligned pickup locations.
UPDATED Suit Systems to properly work with reload sound.

FIXED Ammo counter visible through everything.
FIXED Client not knowing it had suppressors.
FIXED Multiplayer suppressor bug when equipping and unequipping super-fast.
FIXED Players falling through the map.
FIXED Revive attachment poof bug. (Does suppressor stay on weapons after revival?)
FIXED Semi-auto aim slow rise (Does it go up slowly after you’re done shooting?)
FIXED Random no recoil bug on burst mode.
FIXED Weapon swap with alpha keys.
FIXED Weapon swap using d-pad on gamepad.
FIXED UI not showing at certain resolution.

To become an ITO tester join our official Discord server[discord.gg] and post “!Enlist ITO Tester” in the role-requests channel. Then you'll receive access to the ITO testing announcements where you’ll find the code to unlock the beta branch in Steam.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME,
Your small team and awesome volunteer army at Zero Point Software

First off we'd like to thank all our friends in the Interstellar Marines community who have given us your support and confidence! We are humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response and are very pleased to announce


Our ITO Testing program allows us to post game changes on a beta branch in Steam for ITO players to test, without breaking things for the casual player on the main build. Up until now it's been an exclusive group that requires a signed non-disclosure agreement on file at Zero Point Software to participate but NOT ANYMORE!

We have opened enrollment to anyone who is interested, with no NDA required. Not only is there no NDA, but we encourage our testers to discuss things with other players outside of testing to keep them in the loop.

To become an ITO tester join our Discord Server[discord.gg] and post in the roll-requests channel. Then you'll receive access to the testing announcements and the code to unlock the beta branch.

We won't make a public announcement for every iteration of a test build (we could have 10 a day) But we will announce major changes. If you want to follow progress on the game you can also visit our Trello Page[trello.com] we'll be keeping it updated with what we're working on better than we have been previously.


We've added several new volunteer developers to the team and are VERY excited about our potential new capabilities, some of which have already begun to be realized. We'll be discussing this in more detail once everyone has gotten settled and we see where we're at.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME,
Tanner (ZPSSpectre), Zero Point Software

I, Kim Haar Jørgensen (the primary creative force behind Interstellar Marines), am currently the only official developer working on the game. I can do almost everything, except programming, which I'm learning.

To be able to pay the bills at home, I'm currently working a full time job as "Respiratory Handicap Helper", which is both day and night shifts, allowing a fair amount of "free" time to work on Interstellar Marines.

At the moment there is not a lot of light at the end of the tunnel for Interstellar Marines, except the ultra clear ambitious vision of what Interstellar Marines will be once fully realized, some day.

I'll keep working on Interstellar Marines, until I go crazy or die trying or preferably manage to recreate, pickup, maintain traction, and conclude the game(s) envisioned.

The next short term goal is to finally get Update 27 out. Update 27 is centered mostly around expanding our combat sandbox arena called Wargames and fixing as many of our bugs as possible. (You can check our Trello page[trello.com] for progress and more details).

In the long term the goals will be to get the game upgraded to Unity 5.6+ and make everything run smoother, be much more bug free, and prettier. This will allow us to expand in more interesting directions to chum players in.

It's also a clear goal to make sure future updates, although small, will release more frequently.

Lack of substantial progress in Early Access has resulted in a steady increase of negative reviews (understandably), which in turn have had a very serious effect on sales; creating a nasty downward spiral to the bottom of the foodchain.

With the current negative review scores it will be much more difficult to attract publishers/investors to our game; although we will certainly still try. What’s more important is moving forward (even if slowly) and when things become more positive, more options will become available.

I'll keep working on Interstellar Marines with awesome people interested in helping out, that's for sure. I've been very fortunate to get this small handful of awesome volunteer community members on board to help out from time to time. I’m also blessed to have my brother-in-arms (ZPSSpectre) helping out with game design, military advisory, and community interaction. Only time will tell how this "crowd sourcing" adventure will turn out.

I can totally respect if you could not care less about me or this game anymore, it really has been too long a wait with way too little progress.

If, on the other hand, you feel a sense of hope and power inside to keep fighting; I'll be honored and proud!

Show don't tell is what I'm judging myself on, and this is just text. Back to work!

Kim (ZPSHicks), last original survivor of Zero Point Software