Patch 0.7.5.0 ( Wednesday August 5th 2020 )
This new patch introduces the new revamped mission screen, which should make objectives more clear to new players. The mission screen now acts in a similar way to the star map, with a 3D viewport showing the stellar system, the planets and the objectives.
The missions are now listed on the right side of the screen and can be selected to get more information about the current status or objectives in the bottom-right info panel. Note that each mission also has an eye icon (to set the camera on it) and an "i"nformation icon, which opens a panel with mission details.
We still have to clean up the 3D viewport itself (make it interactive, improved the text and icons, make it more clear where the objectives and missions are), which will probably be the focus for the next patch, currently scheduled around mid/end august. After that, we'll be refocusing back on gameplay (and particularly, match/battles/missions progression).
Gameplay
- Warp charge duration and warp cooldown is now set per ship instead of being the same for all ships. Interceptors and bombers still need 5 seconds to charge the warp drive, but corvettes and above now charge a bit slower. Large capital ships (cruiser, carrier) charge much slower (10 seconds for the cruiser, 12 seconds for the carrier). The warp cooldown after exiting warp also behaves in the same way: higher cooldown for the bigger ships..
HUD
- Aiming direction dot indicators are now displayed on HUD for gimbal weapons (Note: the HUD was already showing these small dot indicators for turrets, but not gimbal guns. Since the gimbal guns kind of behave like turrets, just with a smaller angle, it made sense to also display the dot indicators for them. It'll also help players to understand why they're sometimes missing ships quickly traversing their view due to the gimbal gun's rotation latency)
- Selected target indicator no longer fades out when too close (Note: the selected target indicator was disappearing when you were getting close to a station or a capital ship, making it impossible to know that you had it selected.. )
UI / Menus improvements
- Revamped the mission tab menu screen. It now has a visual style / layout similar to the star map
- Mission menu is now the first tab, and is also the new default when launching the game, to emphasize its importance for new players
- Destroyed bases are now dimmer in star map's targets list
- Implemented under threat/under attack status (orange or red dots in the right column) in starmap's targets list. Orange dots notify under threat, where a limited number of enemies are gathering around an objective. Red dots notify that the objective is under attack by a large force
- Star map's search filter now updates targets list dynamically based on what's being typed
- Star map target's list now auto-refreshes every 10 seconds while in-game (previously: it only auto-refreshed during respawn, not in game)
- Buttons and various UI text blocks that don't allow multi lines now auto-rescale their text content down when it's too long. This should particularly be helpful to fit some localized strings within their UI block
- Buttons border brightness is now reduced compared to content color (small visual tweak)
Bugs fixes
- Fixed a bug that caused some sounds with a non-standard pitch to get cut short
- Tooltips no longer appears on top of a UI control that has keyboard focus (like an edit text area)
Misc
- Tobii Eye tracking library upgrade to the latest version. Please let us know if you encounter new issues