After taking it easy over the holidays, we jumped straight into preparing the next patch. The reason it’s taking awhile? Bug fixes. Bug fixes everywhere. They can be a little slow-going and unpredictable, but I think you guys will find the improvements worth the wait!
 
We’re still working on a few things, so you can expect the patch in about a week’s time. Not all patches are going to take this long, of course.
 
Fixes:
 
    .ds_store issue affecting OSX 9.1 users (A bug where Finder created an invisible file called
    .ds_store in the player folder which caused the game to crash).
    A number of character creation/selection screen crashes related to loading corrupted save files
    An issue that could prevent the launcher from starting (MSVCRT.dll)
    DirectX crash bug (303 bug)
    Several memory leaks, including the slow-but-significant server memory leak a lot of people were experiencing and GUI memory leak
    Fixed a crash bug related to GUI controls
    Reduced memory load of FTL animation
    .abc files with comments no longer crash the game, plus various .abc fixes as far as key signatures/timing
    A number of issues with players spawning underground
    A bug where players spawned outside the ship if they’d previously saved the game while in the *Captain’s Chair
    Right shift key was not working as a shift key, now it is
    An issue tech slots were unusable under certain conditions
    Wiring system fixes– wires are rendered below UI elements, wires no longer break when crossed into an unloaded sector
    Added image metadata caching, improved assets caching
    Added a jeep mech that was supposed to have been in the last patch, but had mysteriously gone missing!
    Object flipping issues
    Sped up the crafting window
    Fixed a sound issue that occurred after many concurrent weapon hits
    Characters no longer blink while sleeping in beds
    Assorted minor performance improvements
 
Additions:
 
    New game modes! Permadeath and drop-everything-on-death modes.
    Revolvers, pulse rifles, hand grenades, shivs, Floran needlers, Floran thorn hammer
    Human guards now wear soldier uniforms
    More decorative hats! Yay, hats!
    More random encounters
    Possibly more content, if it’s finished on time!
 
Of course, there’s also the highly anticipated/possibly feared final character wipe– this patch contains a fix for save files so after this, you won’t need to worry about our patches destroying your characters or ships. This patch will wipe everything– characters, ships and worlds. It will definitely be the last time we’ll need to wipe characters or ships, and will hopefully be the last time we’ll need to wipe worlds. This explanation from Kyren should help clarify things a little:
 
“The problem is that the organization of planets may change so if they go muck with a planet, how do we put it in the celestial map? Or if they build on a biome we remove, or something. So no promises, but we’ll try. But promises on the player / ship.”
 
I hope that clears up a lot of your questions and concerns about the upcoming patch and wipe– I’m just as excited as you guys are.

Tiy ‏@Tiyuri 21 h
 
Patch is done, we're just internally testing it for a day or two because the engine changes were so huge.

Code Changes:
 
     Absolutely massive changes to disk serialization (sorry reversers), which will allow us to never need to wipe players or ships again, and hopefully never need to wipe worlds again.
    Related, we now have a proper versioning system for save files.
    Added difficulty levels and permadeath characters to the game.
    Packed assets into databases (speeds up startup significantly), and included asset packing and unpacking utilities with the distribution.
    This should also allow for easier distribution of mods, and easier construction and management of slimmed down distributions for dedicated servers (official server paks coming soon.)
    Fix some graphical glitches with the wire nodes.
    Fixed some pretty nasty deadlocking bugs with networking.
    Fixed some very strange memory leak bugs stemming from a gcc lambda capture bug.
    Fixed various crash bugs related to a number of different issues (more specifics listed in “Info About the Upcoming Patch“– thanks for the bug reports, keep em coming)
    Speed up improvements with falling sand and other projectiles.
    More efficient databases storage layout.
    Documentation for lua functions have been written, and we’re going to release them soonish.
    Removed NaN floats from the code for performance reasons (reenabled -ffinite-math-only), we had been using them to signal that the float is disabled or in an invalid state, but we have a system for that now.
    Some internal changes that make maintaining code much happier for us, including better enum to string handling and much faster compiles.
    Other minor things, too numerous to list here (see “Info About the Upcoming Patch“).
 
Fun Changes:
 
    It’s no longer the holiday, so we’ve removed the holiday stuff for now, we’ll put them back when we have a better way of enabling it for holiday time.
    PVP is now forced enabled within Sector X.  If you’re in a party there’s no team damage though.
    All player drops are persistent now.  So if you accidentally throw your diamond drill down a mineshaft, you don’t have to suicide trying to get it back before it disappears.
    New Monster attacks (gravity slam! gust attacks! other stuff!)
    Fixed Legendary Weapons damage (adjusted up to be more… well… Legendary.)
    We’ve put in new Techs (such as a Glitch Mech).
    New biome type enabled.  Savannah.
    Boss Lore!
    No more eating bandages and stims, they have their own thing now.
    Better, more featureful .abc file support, and we have Wanderlust music in the game now.  (Thanks Leth and D2!)
    Made NPC chatter more configurable and slightly more varied.
    Added new objects (such as lava biome treasure chests).
    Added new items (like nightsticks and bonesaws).
    Sword swooshes are only active for 0.6 seconds instead of 0.9 seconds.
    Making cooldown times actually matter without slowing down combat.  Also fine tuned their hitboxes.
    Viking helmet?  Viking helmet.
    Watch out for landmines.
    Various changes to treasure drop pools (like Avian Guards actually dropping their guns…)
    Minor tweaks to existing armors to make them look better.
    Medieval Furnace now actually acts like a Furnace. (Rejoice).
    Graphical upgrades to some existing plants, and new plants.
    Lots more secret stuff! OO
 
We look forward to hearing what you think about the patch.  It was a very big one this time around.

[...]
 
So I wanted to go into detail on what we consider the finished Starbound experience to be (subject to change! as always). As well as where Chucklefish is going in the future.
 
 
The future of Starbound
 
The following is a collection of some of the broad changes coming to Starbound in terms of progression. Not included are smaller self contained features like ship upgrades, vehicles and so on.
 
Progression
 
As it stands, almost the entirety of the progression in Starbound is temporary. Built quickly to enable some basic gameplay during beta.
 
The final game will be structured differently.
 
The current 10 tiers of gameplay will all play out on the same Starmap, with each tier introducing hazards that can only be overcome by progressing through the previous tier and completing a mission at the end of each tier.
 
To access a mission at the end of each tier you need to obtain a certain number of pixels.
 
An example of this progression would be:
 
Play through tier 1 and gain enough pixels too.. > access the tier 1 mission > fight tier 1 boss > gain oxygen tank tech > now able to access tier 2 planets with non breathable atmosphere
 
[...]
 
End game
 
So eventually you’re going to get through all of the missions, you’ll have the best gear and you’ll be looking for a new challenge. This is where sector X comes in. Sector X is a collection of planets in which PVP is enabled by default and players battle over controlling various planets. To take part in the battle you first have to form an organisation (in game), which gives you access to a space station shared by other members of your organisation. The space station doubles as a ship that any captain in the organisation can control and is constructed from blocks and objects for full customization.
 
The PVP in this sector is entirely optional, players choose whether or not to attack each other or work together. Monsters, quests and events will be strong enough to be challenging even with the best tools in the game. And in game events, invasions and so on will keep the experience fresh.
 
[...]