In this major update:
New game mode: Capture Wars! This persistent mode allows only players with an
upgraded account to participate. That means you
MUST have acquired either the Basic upgrade or the Trio upgrade on your account in order to launch
or join a ship in CW. You pick a race, kill off the enemies defending the sectors, and then fly through the Artifact object to capture it for your race. Sector strength increases as you defend the area from threats. Eventually, we'll add in a "Status of the war" section to the main lobby, so players can see which race is dominating the map!
So why did we make CW require a paid account to even join a ship? We can't make
everything free, and we have bills to pay. The Basic upgrade is $5 USD, and it's a lifetime purchase, for any platform that supports the game. We also provide a large amount of content for free, provided the player launching a ship has upgraded, and anyone else can then potentially join them. Please bear that in mind.
Weapons Changes:
- Lasers for the playable non-Human races have all been changed. The beam durations and cooldowns have been altered.
- We've modified some ships, so they fire "Light" and/or "Heavy" cannon shots. Functionally, these work exactly the same as the previous torpedo and LC on these ships, although they are cosmetically different. The Human, Davul, and Udu Duets and Quartets have this change.
- Some ships still have their Torpedo launcher(s), since the name change to the Light vs. Heavy cannon is mainly to differentiate which ones are fired from a turret.
- Zurna and Santoor ships now have access to Missile and/or Rocket weapons, which replace the old Torpedo launchers and Large Cannons, respectively. These weapons have new visual and sound effects as well, but function in the same way as the weapons they replace. Missiles have homing capabilities, while the dumbfire Rockets do more damage, but have no homing capabilities beyond the initial lock. Once Rockets lock on, they fire in a straight line toward the target.
- The other Tactical changes previewed in the
July 1st announcement have also gone live. Follow that link for details about the new race-specific special torpedos, and the changes to Quartets!
Other changes:
- The Captain now has the option to Lock specific stations, so if they want to be the only one who controls the Helm, they can hit the Lock button next to it, and prevent anyone else from taking over that station. This is helpful, if say you want to run your ship without a password, but you also want to make sure you're the only one at the Helm. Then Tactical/Engineering/Science can be filled by other players as needed.
- The mod formerly known as Project Quintet has been renamed to Project Elpis. It still requires an upgraded account to access it.
- Bug fixes. LOTS of bug fixes. :B1:
This has been one of the largest updates we've had in the last two years. A new persistent mode; major changes to Quartets and Duets to make them even more dangerous; and Tactical upgrades for almost every ship!
