New Mining System
We now have a new Mining system in Hannon. As each planet, biome is expanded and created it also gets new Mining Spawn locations. These can be utilised to Mine resources out of the ground using a real-time Mining Rig system. In game or out of game, once deployed a Mining Rig will keep mining till its hopper is full!
ORSA License
Each Planet will require you to locate and purchase an ORSA mining license. There are new NPC's that have been added to the game to sell these licenses.
For the initial starting locations I'm going to list them and their locations, after that you will need to find the rest yourself as they are added.
Jonas Hawk - ORSA Agent. Located on George Town
Alby Patterson - ORSA Agent. Located on New Orion
Nelis Strand - ORSA Agent. Located on Starbase-51
Harlen Potter - ORSA Agent. Located on Oesabi Landing
You will generally find the ORSA Agents nearby or on the planet in question.
Mining Rigs
Once you have a License and locate a Spawn ZED will tell you what type of Mining Rig is required. You can also check this in advance via the Galactic Database. I have updated it to display the new resources and their Mining requirements.
There are FIVE distinct Mining Rigs
Mining Rig (Mineral)
Mining Rig (Metal)
Mining Rig (Liquid)
Mining Rig (Flora)
Mining Rig (Gas)
These are player crafted using schematics. We added the base schematics in the last update and this one sees the FULL FIVE Mining Rigs added.
Again to not make you search the entire Galaxy looking for these schematic vendors below is a list and where to find them. Each mining rig needs to be crafted and you're likely to need more than one of each type.
Tislar Pulot on Habitat Nina (Flora)
Ramna Artoli on New Orion (Metal)
Sammi Krell on Eden (Liquid)
Carra Dira On Galfed Hub 1 (Mineral)
Kimi Sander George Town (Gas)
These are basic Mining Rigs, they come with a 500 Unit Hopper and will as stated earlier mine in Real-Time. This means you can deploy a collection of Mining Rigs, log out and come back later and they will continue to mine whilst you're away or even offline!
Generally speaking, these basic ones take approximately 24 hours to fill the hopper but you can pull the Rig and empty its hopper at any time.
New Exploration
Because we now have the O2 and space suit mechanic working as we had hoped and have sorted out a couple of issues that were reported, we can now start to expand all the ground locations and 'begin' to open up the planets ZED has been telling you are 'Exploration Planets'.
When you now dock on an Exploring Planet ZED will inform you if it needs a Space Suit or if it's got a breathable atmosphere. You'll then be able to explore and see what you can find :)
Those that require Spacesuits will like the Derelicts require O2 Bottles. We have added O2 Bottles to all the relevant vendors in-game. Not to mention give you a major discount on their purchase price.
Zabreeshen
This planet in Arlington is now explorable. Watch out for the Patrols and your old friends the Rippers. There appears to be a Gang hanging out on the planet so keep your firearm fully loaded!
New Jerusalem
This planet has been expanded so you can 'Explore' (needs a spacesuit and O2). There are droids on patrol there so a good place to go farm for Droid parts etc. We have also added a second docking location on New Jerusalem allowing you to all complete the delivery mission on the planet.
Dual Landing
This addition also brings in Dual Landing options on planets. (those with them added). This means when you come to dock rather than just 'Docking' you get an option of where you'd like to dock. At this time the ones we have added you CAN dock / land at.
Later you may find options but no access due to Factio or Mission parameters not being met. But this means you will have even more places to visit and explore over time.
New Orion
This planet now has a new location due West from the landing Port. You will find the Ice Fields populated with woolly and vicious critters so beware. New loots and new Mission NPC's have been added to New Orion so recanvas the locals!
U.A Compounds
We have added a new Crafted resource. These are called U.A Compounds and are crafted (using schematics) from planetary mined resources. You will need to purchase the schematics from Emo Ruli on Starbase-47 in Danar.
The new Compounds will begin to form part of large scale builds for you, the ship and also NPC's who will begin to require these and many of the crafted items in-game as we proceed.
More NPC's
Alongside the NPC's mentioned above in this release. We have also added a slew of new NPC's. These have been placed in key locations in the Galaxy and you will locate them on your travels. Some of these have repeatable missions, some are the normal type. I'll leave you to find them.
Fixes & Updates
Added Stock column to the Schematics and Craft view. This enables you to see how many of a crafted type you have on the fly. (Player Suggestion)
We have listened to a few players and decided to 'try' an increased item count. For most items now the limit has been raised to 9,999. The weapon terminals for personal and ship ammo will max out at 500. Personal ammo can be over maxed if you pick up more than 500, up to the max value of 9999.
Personal Weapons Terminal will now charge based on per unit of ammo up to 500.
Starbase-51 - Training Area: Not sure quite when but it appears the training drones were not respawning as intended. I have fixed this and added one more as well. I also reran the early sections of the game to ensure they were now working as intended.
Changed respawn times in Badlands. Having played the section again and recently been back to deploy mining rigs on ORSA spawns, I felt these needed slowing down somewhat. They are now up to 3 X slower to respawn, depending on enemy type.
Added a Combat check when docking or entering any main landing zone that does not have a combat component. Should resolve the issue reported BR-010. (See Discord Bug Reports)
Tooley on Starbase-51 was waking through containers and terminals. He has now been fixed and now knows what's solid and what's not :)
Removed screen flash from player made weapons. It was interesting that no one spotted this till Ram2000 came forward and asked about it. Once we spotted it, it was hard to miss lol. Now the player made weapons will not make the screen flash when shooting the bad guys.
Removed screen flash from Player ship weapons excluding Missile Launch. Same issue but with Ship-based weapons. Was harder to see on the backdrop of space. The only one we left it on is the Missile Launcher for effect.
Your inventory will now sort alphabetically. With over 400 items now in the Database, its time to begin to think about sorting :) Each Tab of the Captain's main inventory should now list A-Z.
Finally, Starbase-51 and your main ship the Belanzano, have had their images replaced. I figured it was time to make them a little more 'inline' with the rest of the image sets. The Belanzano is now also created from the same art style as the Combat Shuttle.
Early Access Possible Change
With Hannon being in Early Access it's bound to have some changes. One of those we are working towards is making the game a linear save so doing away with the Multiple saves. We are waiting on Online Server Connectivity before making that change.
But one we are looking at closely at the moment, ii changing the starting mission path. At the moment you have to complete All of Starbase-51, then Eden and Finally NMew Orion main storyline before your given 'Free reign' to go where ever you and your Combat Shuttle might like to go.
I'm looking at loosening that lockdown and allowing players to access the wider Galaxy after completing Starbase 51. You still will be given the missions in the same order but you will have the flexibility of doing them when you're ready.
It has some complications from the plotline and code side but I'm looking at it. Essentially it means you won't have to play 4-6 hours of gameplay to be Free to take part in the true Sandbox gameplay. Again feedback and thoughts on this are always welcome. Hannon is as much your game as ours :)
Come on into Discord Chat say hi and let us know what you think!
Next up - Lots more Planets to Explore, lots more NPC's, Lots more Missions and stage 2 of the main central plot...
Coops