Build 0.78 Released
The Full Release development is currently in full swing. While we want to release full release content as soon as they're available, we'll need sufficient contents before we can do it properly.
However, we understand some of you might have been waiting for a story mode or unlocking the Vanquisher which is locked away inside the Campaign (story) mode. Therefore, we're releasing some new features and new weapons that can help enrich your experience and make the game more replayable.
What's new?
- New Weapon: 96mm Rockets
- Additional improvements made to Advanced Target Computer.
- New automated Level Of Details adjustment option.
96mm Rockets
- Salvo-based
- Dumbfire (not guided)
- Higher damage than Phoenix Missiles
- Fires in a narrow dispersion angle
- Low level weapon comparable to 38mm Explosive Cannons
- Explosives - means it does a lot more damage to Slavic Sirerian ships.
Advanced Target Computer
Aimed weapons will now use the Advanced Targeting Computer to get a Lead on the target. This means weapons like Omni Mass Drivers benefits greatly, making it more lethal than before.
** Cost of upgrading your Target Computer isn't changed.
Automatic LOD adjustments
This has been changed from the original Custom LOD settings. The following has been changed/added:
- Turning various graphic options like bloom, shadows, etc will no longer automatically change the LOD option.
- No more Custom LOD
- Selecting Low, Medium or High LOD NO LONGER changes your existing graphic options like a preset.
- LOD levels will actually have an influence on performance from now on.
The Automatic LOD is an continuous assessment of your machine's performance regardless of specifications. If your machine fails to keep up with its target frame rate, it'll automatically turn off features. Naturally, if your machine performance improve, those features will be turned on again.
This new feature is built to allow players to have a more smoother gaming experience without the need to trial and error with graphic options. However, the game will still respect your settings and will not save settings that were automatically set along the way until you Apply graphic options.
This feature doesn't account for the following options though:
- Display Resolution
- MSAA settings
- V-Sync
These 3 options will still affect performance as well. We recommend going 1080p if you can but not 4k if your graphics card can't support the amount of fillrate and shader performance required. If you're using a Nvidia graphics adapter, you may want to switch off MSAA completely and turn on driver-based FXAA under your Nvidia Control Panel instead.
Lastly, for V-sync, if your machine can't keep up with your refresh frequency, usually, 60hz, please turn off V-sync for a better performance.
Changes
- 38mm Explosion Cannon has been improved slightly. Fires more smoothly and accelerates faster.
- Improvements made to shadows rendered onto 3D objects.
- Added a dynamic LOD for shadow filtering. This has caused the game to load a tad bit slower and in some cases freezes for 2-3 seconds. We'll work towards improving the performance in the near future.
- Improved the look and feel for 3D Asteroids and Phobos
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the problem where shadows flicker sometimes at certain angles for 3D objects
- Fixed a bug where players can milk custom fighter salvages for unlimited money and capsules.
- Fixed an issue where some player or enemy projectiles will disappear prematurely due to an incorrect estimation of maximum projectile range.
Conclusion
It's great to see the number of bugs so far is getting lesser. However, there're some things that are beyond us to fix.
We'll need to continue to collect more data especially from players using a Ryzen CPU. The symptom is such that when you drift, your fighter will only rotate once and it gets stuck there even when you move it around.
Also there's a limit on how we can help our Linux players playing via emulation. Please post on Discussion to explore ways on how we can help you out.
Lastly, we'll be fully focused on developing the rest of Full Release story mode and will be releasing new builds less. There's also a new array of weapons lined up to be added from time to time.
Thank you for your support! We look forward to hearing from you soon!
Thanks,
Jeremy