Playtest 4: Patch Notes 0.4.0
Overview
The focus of Playtest 4 is on gun gameplay. Guns (primaries and turrets) have been rebalanced. with distinguishing features along with the introduction of Prestige Cost and Fitting Point mechanics for ships and equipment.
In addition, subsystems have been added, which when damaged, can affect the performance of a ship across various areas. Subsystems are either exposed (can be damaged by non-penetrating weapons) or covered (damaged only by penetrating weapons).
Campaign access has been removed and will be re-introduced at a later date.
Known Issues
- Certain vessels can potentially get stuck on each other during collisions due to their concave geometry
- Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected
- Lens flare inconsistent in first-person view flight
- Turret gunners are trigger happy generally firing too early and very likely to miss their target at longer distances on the initial trigger press
- FPS counter will remain through menus if it is active when exiting a mission
Fixed
- When entering into simulator gameplay and then exiting and returning to the refit screen, the player vessel is no longer equipped by default on entry
- Failing any main campaign mission will soft-lock the game
- Entering into the vessel selection screen will display a preview of the players currently equipped ship
- Vessel Configuration screen: Equipment Selection/Equipped List does not scroll when using directional keys/buttons (up/down)
- Vessel Configuration screen: "Not Enough Fitting Points" popup needs to be in focus as can use arrow keys to move around the equipment screen when it's active, and can only close the popup with the mouse
- Switching 3rd to 1st person view the first time (if starting in 3rd) after rotating the vessel from the starting direction will now have the camera in the correct position
- Fixed player wingman kills stat displayed in the mission debriefing for the Simulator Playtest 2 (1 v many) game mode is always 0
- Issue with pilots failing to evade other vessels (confiscated their mobile infotainment devices)
- Player and Target Health Quadrants and Arcs HUD not displaying the first time entering a mission.
- Turret loadouts not being instantiated correctly with empty mounts before fitted (based on mount numbering system)
- Vessel weaponry is no longer on immediate cooldown when vessels are instantiated
- Audio no longer glitches for SFX sources while the player is moving around the mission
Changed
- Removed Campaign button due to breaking changes and putting the Playtest focus on and around general combat
- Options > Video > Resolution: The resolution list is now reversed for the highest resolutions to be listed first
- Enemy faction ships now use the same weapons made available to the player (instead of using a weaker variant)
- Removed Zoom functionality due to unresolved graphical issues with the current implementation.
- Pitch shifting across a random range on each play of audio effects for menu, vessel button presses, and other gameplay effects.
- On the first run when version change has been detected a backup of the old profiles will be created in a backup folder before the update process runs, saved in the games data directory (\AppData\LocalLow\Digitum Software\A-SPEC First Assault)
Added
- Targetable subsystems representing various vessel systems (i.e. Bridge, Reactor, Engine, etc.)
- Targeting and sub-targeting highlighting
- Vessels have damageable subsystems reducing the performance of vessel systems based on the damage taken (i.e. weapon fire rate, weapon reload time, weapon accuracy, maximum Speed, acceleration/deceleration/rotation, repair rate, etc)
- Subsystem Damage Control for repairing damaged subsystems
- Turret damage control for repairing damaged turrets
- Damage Control HUD report when player subsystems take damage
- Gimball primary weapons (your guns will now move to track your target)
- Gun lead indicator has been replaced with multiple point indicators representing where guns are pointing (gimbal guns will lead their targets) and where they would hit if they are over your currently selected target. A cross will appear over them if firing the guns will likely result in a miss
- Target overview display now shows the name of any targeted component
- Third-person views are constrained around the player (avoid the camera floating too far away/close to the player vessel)
- Flying long distances from the mission starting points should no longer exhibit strange behavior to object positioning (i.e. projectiles won't skitter around when firing your primary weapons)
- Projectiles have an impact force applied to the rigidbodies they hit
- A range of small and medium-sized primary weapons for Autocannon, Artillery, Railgun, and Blaster primary gun types
- A range of small and medium-sized turrets in 1-3 barrel versions for Autocannon, Artillery, Railgun, and Blaster gun types
- Railgun can pass through Shield, Armour, and Hull damage layers to subsystems with covered trait
- Vessel configuration screen: Missile launchers can be equipped to ships with available launcher ports (currently no launchers to equip as yet, sorry!)
- Equipped missile launchers are listed on the weapon HUD display
- Missile trail FX
- Explosions can cause shockwaves which can apply Newtonian forces to objects caught in their blast
- RCS Match Speed mode now uses set ranges for Long (10,000m), Medium (5,000m), and Close (3500m) options
- Vessel Selection/Configuration screen: Prestige Balance is now abbreviated for large numbers
- Created a versioning utility which, to maintain compatibility going forward, automatically backup the 'Profiles' directory on each major/minor version change to prevent data loss during updates