Release Notes 1.47
This release is packed with a lot of core changes and updates. I will list the more important ones here and leave you to find the extra bits yourself. After all, what's the fun If I tell you where everyone is :)
Seriously though. This build allows me to plan for some major storyline changes come in the next release. At that time we will be asking players to do their first Early Access 'Restart'. It was inevitable that we would have to ask players top do this at some stage and I've don't my very best to not force this on you just yet.
Please continue to play and test out Hannon until the next release. Your feedback and suggestions are more than gratefully received so keep them up.
Changes to the Inventory
I have added a 'Parts' tab to the inventory. Now modules that are crafted will go to this section. Also, the weapon parts will be stored here.
I also took this opportunity to add an 'Organic' tab to the inventory. Now modules that are animal/food-related will go to this tab.
Please feel free to contact me and let me know if I have missed categorising an item that you think should be in one of these two new categories. Hopefully, this will go a long way to making inventory control a little easier over time.
Mining & Harvesting
Because it just didn't sound right and to be honest I figured it would eventually need changing I have renamed the Mining Rig (Flora) to Harvester Rig (Flora). This should indicate that the item whilst being a 'Rig' is designed to 'harvest' resources, flora to you and me.
Leading on from this, both Habitats Nina and Loki can now be farmed using the Flora Harvester. Two new Flora based resources have been added. These are safe for human consumption after all you wouldn't want to go harvesting flora from an alien world now, would you?
Those clever boffin's have created safe flora that can be used in your crafting food schematics.
New Food Crafting Vendor
Another Schematic Vendor added to Daedalus Port - carries various food-based crafting schematics. As we move further into the game and storyline you'll be crafting more than just 'Engineered'; items so the crafting system can now be used for all kinds of builds.
Commercial Store
Commercial Storage now also covers Parts and Organics, this correlates to the addition of those two categories in your inventory. Also, the system has been overhauled and stores items in stacks, each stack now counts off as 1 against the overall volume. So now you can have 5000 stacks of 9,999 items... errr that's a LOT of storage :)
The Commercial Storage also now follows the sorting of the main inventory and is now set to display alphabetically :) Was driving me as nuts as probably you...
Terminal Animation
I have been (in my off time) animating as many of the terminals as I can. It adds some flavour and feeling to the game. I will continue to do this as we roll further on. If you spot instances of a terminal that should be animated let me know (Discord please).
Weapons Shuffle
I have taken some time to reshuffle the current hand-held weapons. There are now currently 17 different types. Most of these you need to hand craft or assemble.
Everything except the early hand pistol has a level requirement. So if you currently have a different laser/hand weapon fitted check its Level requirement BEFORE removing it. If its higher than your current level I'd suggest not removing it.
I have re-jigged, damage, range, speed, mag size and visuals. I also have added a Crit % value to certain weapons. So whilst some weapons may appear close to their counterparts you may find the difference in speed, damage and mag size alters your perspective.
I have added weapon levels to the 'Weapons Build' Terminal. This now displays the weapon captain requirement level Before building. Saving you building lower-level weapons just to see what they do.
Galactic Database
I have updated the Galactic Database. Including adding three new Alien Races for the Foreen Alliance. I have made numerous updates and changed to the Database in the effort to keep it in alignment with the current game status.
Mining & Harvest Screen
Besides a 'Name Change' for this screen it also now scrolls should you deploy more than can be displayed on a single screen. I suspect over time we may fiddle with this screen a little but for now, it's functional and does exactly what we need it to do.
Player Bounty
I have added a system to the game that allows Pirates to begin to place a bounty on YOUR head. After all, you're killing them without any kind of real consequence other than standing with them. So from now on as you kill them your personal bounty will begin to climb.
This will be used later on for both ''retribution' and storyline triggers. In both cases, you will have the opportunity to clear the bounty. The bounty shows in the Factions screen.
Vendors
Added Mining Rigs to the Purchase Vendors, in case you want to sell any for quick cash. Keep in mind Vendors will only pay you up to 50% of an items NPC sales value. Items like crafted tech are based on the resources used in the total build.
Personal Teleporter
Planet exploration can sometimes take you a LONG way from the shuttle landing place. In fact, I've been getting lost myself on some fo the new planets. Or perhaps you simply don't want to jog all the way back.
Well, we have now added a Personal Teleport to the game. You will need to complete the project to create one working for Kelly Winters over on Port Vanling in Clarke.
Once done you will have both the Personal Teleporter and also the schematics to create charges for it :) The Teleporter can only be used on Exploration planets and not from inside buildings. It will transport you back to the Shuttle, using a charge in the process.
More Exploration Planets
I have been busy creating more Bios for exploring and opening up more of the planets in-game. This release opens up Zanith in Feris (sector 4) and New Europa in Arcadius.
These planets have creatures, resource spawns for Mining and also collections for NPC's. You will also find certain NPC contacts when you land or reach certain points.
Exploration Crates
I have reviewed these use of 'crates' on planets and decided that they will now 'respawn' when you revisit a location. They have a 60/40 chance of having items in them and an 80/20 chance of being planet related resources. + small amounts of ammo. This will aid you in exploring planets and also help with the collection of planetary resources over time.
Hannon HP Reshuffle
When I first laid out the HP / Energy levelling curve for Hannon it was very much a finger in the air. But I monitored it and due to feedback have decided to take this opportunity to have a downscale reshuffle.
So I have remapped HP and Energy. Reset the growth curve on Hannon. The ship remains untouched. This will affect your toon as soon as you load up your next save.
Heal Mechanics Changed
After reviewing some of the combat tactics being used by players and assessing how easy/hard certain elements were I have decided to alter the heal and regen mechanics. You will now heal less per tick and slower than before. Making you more reliant on Hel Kits than just finding a corner to stand in for a few minutes.
Medkits have also changed to a specific Heal amount rather than a percentage. This makes more sense overall and means again you need to pay attention to your medkits and health status.
More NPC's
I have added some new mechanics for certain NPC's. These will contact you via comms (through ZED) and don't need to be in front of you to pass on missions or requests.
These have been dotted around the galaxy so you will only find them by 'going to locations'. I have also added more collection and repeat NPC's.
The later does not form a 'Mission NPC' but can be visited to trade certain items they want. These will give not only credits (much better than vendors) but also XP and Faction XP. Faction XP is based on the location and their Race.
I have also added new Engineering Mission-based NPC's. These NPC's will give you Schematics to build items, or may simply want the end products of crafts that you need to locate the schematics for.
These now start to add missions to your 'Engineering section' of the Mission Log. Expect a LOT more of these as we progress.
Fixes
Fixed an issue with the characters name labels and the overlays. In certain instances, this was causing some major graphical issues.
Fixed Lucious on New Orion so that after visiting him the last time he still talks to you.
Edited messages from Nolan on New Orion to flow better.
All stations and planets have been given yet another 'going over' fixing small graphical issues and location pathing errors.
Reporting
I'm very much looking for feedback from YOU the player. After all, this game is being built for you to play. I'm happy to receive suggestions and bug reports through our discord channel. We have various sections in there from general chat to bug reporting etc.
I'm very interested in any 'slow down or sluggish behaviours'. When creating new scenarios, planets etc I always test them in a low spec I5 which was clas as the bottom end for Hannon due to the large overhead of JS the game has to process. I never release a new section unless it's playable on our base test system. So if you have issues I want to know.
Of course, I'll need certain info and not just a one-liner if we are to resolve anything but I'm more than happy to hear about any issues.
Finally...
Remember the next release from us here to Steam will require you to start a new game. We are altering the initial storyline and sadly this will impact on any save games you have. Please continue to play and test the current build though, the more feedback the better.
Coops