Hi
Sorry for the long delay. At the end of this article I'll explain why this took so long but if you only care about what comes in this patch here it is:
The Cluster Map:
This big feature changes the linear format of the game for an open galaxy map that represents the star sector (or cluster) where the story of the game happens.
You'll be able to pick a starting system and decide where to move based on the difficulty and wealth of the system (or if you have a pending quest in a specific system).
New Main Quest:
Other big change is the new main quest that expands the story and worldbuilding of the game. This campaign has several combat missions (boardings and space combat) where the player will learn more about The Omen, its purpose and value to the powers of the galaxy.
The missions of the campaign are spread randomly across the new map. I won't spoil much but there's a good deal of new maps, dialogue lines, mini bosses, enemy ships and the last mission has changed a lot.
Adding to that, now the game has 3 endings depending of what you decide to do in the last mission.
New Content and Features:
Modified the camera behaviour so it uses a center point in the screen as pivot (basically I changed it so it works more like other games of the genre).
Added new map: a spaceport in a populated planet.
New Faction Reputation mechanic that changes prices of items in certain systems and affects some encounters (it might replace the Infamy mechanic later).
Added new voice lines for the soldiers on misses, kills and revealing enemies.
Added new voice sets for the soldiers, 2 new males, 3 new females (they can be changed in customization).
Added random nicknames to soldier generation.
Added new map: hunting Krell'Sha Warchief in Jungle planet.
Added 2 new achievements related to the endings of the main quest.
Added a UI panel to keep track of quests.
Added a UI panel to see an overview of your campaign (number of missions, cargo and reputation with factions).
Added new enemy scav ship in space encounters.
Added option to bribe CDF space patrols.
Added more vegetation to jungle maps.
Added an alien station to Alien Diaspora systems:
Added a way to convert old saves to the new format (saves made before this patch are not compatible with the sandbox map so they need conversion if you want to recover your soldiers and inventory, that said it's strongly recommended to start a new game with this patch).
Fixes and Minor Changes:
Changed Retaliation action so it works only once per turn.
Fix to retaliation not aiming properly to target.
Fix to AI freezing sometimes after retaliations.
Fix to rockets flying way beyond their targets or going in other direction.
Changed pistol shot animation for Krell'Sha Warchief.
Added GPU Instancing to deal with performance hot of too much vegetation in jungle maps.
Fix to bug where bullets of "Spray and Pray" and "Suppressive Fire" action go in the direction of the last rocket launched.
Fix to text scrolling during intro and endings.
Why this took so long?
Like I said, I'm really sorry about the delay and while the typical issues of burnout and scope creep (this patch really went out of control) are always present, this delay was mostly due to a simple reason: I was broke so I had to divide my time between the project and some freelance work. The game just doesn't make enough.
Why I didn't say it before? because I figured that some players would assume I abandoned the project if they knew I was working in something else so I wanted to avoid that drama (or at least postpone it until I had something to show). Luckily now my financial situation is better so I can go back to giving my full time to the project and finish it once and for all.
We are in the last stretch after all, the remaining patches are definitelly not as big as this one and while I still have some content to add, the priority right now is fixes so the game's launch is as smooth as possible.
Thanks for reading and please feel free to share any feedback (or berate me for the delay, I kinda deserve it haha).
Regards,
Jorge