Hello! We come to you today with a whole new set of updates and improvements all wrapped into a nice package that we have decided to call the Combat Update. Ever since the Pirates moved onto bases sprinkled through your mining claim we've heard a lot of feedback about them so we have taken some time to clean some of those interactions up. Some spring cleaning just in time for the Steam Spring Sale. Let's dive into it!
The Defensive Emplacement
This one has gathered a whole list of feedback from players primarily the complaint about its accuracy and ability to hit moving targets. It has been polished up (check for the new build animation) and now fires from both barrels (It always had two barrels but only fired from one) but most importantly it has improved aim and tracking letting it snipe incoming threats very effectively. It has been known to take out pirates on pods before they even land. Hope you enjoy those!
Pirate Landings
Speaking of Pirates landing. You probably already know that pirates will land on the sides of the asteroid specifically coming from the direction of a Pirate Base so you can open up your Asteroid Minimap (default M key) and plan your defense based on the positions of those bases. We have also made the pirate waves focus their landing to centralize the threat. They can still land anywhere along the edge of the asteroid but if 3-4 pods are landing all of them will now land in the same general area rather than spreading their attack out causing a very disconnected and spread out battlefield.
The Pirate Turret
The Pirate Turret has been polished up and now has a new modular design. The three armoured pillars of the turret are now independent elements shielding the armed pirate within, so you will now have to break through the defenses before you can proceed to eliminate the threat. Be careful not to get too close. The turret has been armed with a taser to defend against those that would get too close in the past to avoid its firepower. You will also notice that the pirate inside the turret looks around and does have some radius line of sight detection so you may sneak past the turret unnoticed if you plan your moves.
Improved Pirate Behaviour
Pirates will now get a little indicative flash in their eye when they spot you. They've been equipped with a cone of vision so you can also avoid being spotted if you stay out of sight. They will immediately respond if attacked from a distance or if nearby Pirates are attacked. When in their "alerted" state Pirates are more aggressive, stop what they are doing to search for threats and have heightened awareness. Their pathfinding has also been improved so we should expect to see improved performance.
The Pirate Miners
These little guys used to be very practical. Leaving them around only had benefits. They were basically an autonomous Mining Turret. Well they have been reprogrammed to now target both your Commandbot and equipment. This doesn't mean you can't make use of them for mining anymore. You absolutely can, you just have to be a little more careful about where you leave them and how you get them there.
The Forcefield
In the past mining lasers would penetrate this shield with ease but now that the Pirate mining bots are a threat to your structures we've made the Forcefield deflect laser beams as well so you can keep your equipment shielded while you deal with Pirate Threats.
Pirate Threat
Speaking of Pirate Threat - a reminder. You can set the Maximum Pirate threat level in the gameplay settings so if you aren't a fan of Pirates you can keep them at Level 1 forever. We've been trying to balance things out so if you have Pirates turned off maybe you'll consider giving them a try now.
Blaster Level 2
Especially since we have for you the level 2 Blaster which has a new auto-fire feature so you can save your fingers from spamming that trigger and just comfortably hold to unleash a barrage. Look for a neat little knock-back effect when firing blasters in the air. Also the Level 2 Blaster has improved cooling so you won't be overheating as much in a firefight. Also worth noting that the Level 1 Blaster has been corrected as it was allowing users with high framerate to fire faster. This is now standardized so you may notice it have a lower rate of fire. Both blasters also have improved targeting when Locked-On (Default key Left Shift). Also bullet collision audio is improved and you'll hear the correct sounds when your bullet hits the shuttle vs hitting a rock!
Improved Overheating / Low Power Warnings
Since we're on the topic of overheating we have improved the warnings for overheating so that the warning flashes just before you are about to overheat. There's also some audio queues that improve the feeling of heat building up as well as a nice particle animation to show you when your Commandbot has overheated and began venting. Similarly to the heat indicator triangle we have taken the low power indicator triangle and moved it to display closer to the center of the screen so that you no longer get caught at 0% battery by surprise.
Notches on the Health Bars
You will also notice that the Equipment Health Bars now have notches on them. Each section represents 50 HP points, so you'll see more notches on stronger structures like the Defensive Emplacement which has a higher HP than most.
Shuttle Jettison Improvements
We have heard many stories about emptying the cargo hold for takeoff only to find the Workerbots have again overloaded the cargo blocking you from taking off. We have made a fix that now locks the cargo hold when you engage a takeoff procedure and enter the Jettison screen. Also once you have corrected the shuttle's weight and exit the storage UI takeoff will automatically proceed. So no more fighting the Workerbots? Combat update!
The Liquid Pump
This update also welcomes an overhaul to our Liquid Pump. The jiggly hose has been replaced with a solid pipe. Wait wasn't this the Combat Update? Yes and now you will no longer be fighting with this hose to get it into the liquid. This also means you will no longer need to wait for the pump to finish building and you will no longer need to carry a Gravity Tether just to complete a Pump setup. The Pump now also has a two step construction process meaning you first pick the position and rotation then you position the hose into the liquid. Some of you reported that the hose was unable to reach liquid pools that spawned inside deeper craters as it was too short. The new pipe will now reach deeper and allow you to extract liquids from higher ground.
Resource Physics
This specific fix already shipped in a hotfix after the Transit Update but it is a really nice one so worth mentioning here - Resources no longer freeze in the air and remain physically active and affected by gravity until the reach the ground. This means you will no longer have chunks floating around because they landed on a pile or on some rocks and stayed there after the pile was removed.
Overall Performance Improvements
We have been working on improving the game's performance though we still have some items we are working on we hope you see a noticeable improvement especially at the higher resolutions above 1080p.
Cube Corp wishes you a safe, secure, well defended and prosperous day.
-hube
Full list of changes in bullet form
Equipment/Constructions
Health bars on Equipment/Constructions now have notches, indicating relative durability
Improved Build View & Data View for ejection - Pump, Drill and Catapult now have better visuals for output trajectory
Forcefields now block Mining Lasers
Forcefield rotation no longer results in incorrect impact points
Scanner no longer making data pickup requests after the asteroid has left the claim or if the Workerbots are under emergency recall
Improved Liquid Pump
Hose removed in favor of more reliable pipe system
Gains 2-step construction guaranteeing good placement before build completes
New pipe system able to reach down into basins far below the pump’s position
Improved Defense Emplacement
Predictive aiming added; will now hit moving targets more reliably
Less spread
Corrected visual to fire bullets from both barrels
Tools
Blaster now more accurate, but loses accuracy if fired rapidly
Blaster Lock-on gained predictive aiming for moving targets
Firing blaster while airborne now causes recoil
Fixed Blaster bug that tied firing rate to frame rate; previously, it could be fired far faster than intended if a player had a high frame rate
No longer possible to shoot self when firing straight down
Bullet collisions are now more accurate & reliable
Level 2 Blaster upgrade now available; with fully automatic fire and improved heat dispersion
Multiple mining lasers targeting the same rock now correctly add their damages together
Being hit by lasers causes the command bot to gain heat
Fixed laser damage bug that would make some targets resistant to damage
Pirates
Overhauled pirate behavior
Pirates now have a distinct ‘Alert’ state, when engaging either the player, or defenses
During Alert, pirates are more aggressive, gain heightened awareness, and stop what they’re doing to look for active threats
A distinct visor ‘flash’ has been added when pirates are Alerted
Pirates will be alerted when a nearby ally is attacked
A cone of vision has been incorporated into pirates awareness
Pirate Miner now targets player and equipment (but can still be used for mining if placed in safe area)
Pirate Turret redesigned
Now features protective barriers that can be individually destroyed
Turret will now call for reinforcements after the first of its barriers has been destroyed
Turret also gained a Shock Defense System to keep attackers away
Improved pirate wave arrivals - All pirate pods now land in the same general area rather than spreading pods along the entire available area they can reach from their base
Updated path-finding system for pirates (as well as creatures); should result in better performance
Effects & Audio
Dust clouds added to various impacts - you will see the Command Bot, Resources and Pirates kick up some dust as they hit the ground
Improved effect when pirates destroyed
Improved bullet visuals & impact effects
Audio improvements for bullet collisions (shoot a rock vs the ship vs equipment and you’ll hear it)
Visual effect added when bot is in Overheating state
Audio cues added to heat generating tools, to help indicate relative danger of overheating
More types of Footstep sounds added
Added enter/exit audio to monorail
Many new audio effects added to pirates
Lightning effects adjusted to prevent excessive bloom near liquids
Music system reworked, allowing for better transitions between tracks
Music added to stations
UI / UX
Battery Indicator moved to be next to the Command Bot making it clearer when battery is low
Heat Indicator now displays prior to overheat, giving you a chance to prevent it
Fix Sell Resources Contract Req. UI indicator to show that a resource is needed for a contract on another station
Shuttle Storage now locked when users are trying to take off with overloaded shuttle and force to Jettison
Exiting Storage View from takeoff jettison requirement when weight has been corrected now automatically triggers desired takeoff
Fixed a bug where taking off from the shuttle with workerbots onboard the shuttle that were assigned to pickup orders on the surface would cause an index out of bounds as the list of workerbots on the celestial object would get reduced on departure
Fixed Equipment Ejection on Shuttle Takeoff blocking equipment door and losing Datacube entirely
Fixed new-line error in Pirate Level Gameplay Menu setting