Not the most exciting of updates this time but Valve had some things they wanted fixed for the Steam Deck so I've been mostly working through that.
As the owner of a Steam Deck I'd very much like the game to be listed as fully supported. These changes will also help if you're playing on a more distant display with a controller!
Steam Deck Changes
The majority of the Steam Deck changes are increases to text size. There was a lot of quite small text around the UI and HUD that has been moved about and enlarged. I've also done a quick pass over all the language so nothing should be getting cropped / cut off / overflowing anymore. If you find anything I missed please let me know!
Demo Updated
Shortly after this update is live I'll be updating and bringing our Steam demo back online. So if you're still on the fence about Early Access you'll get a chance to try out Sector 1 as it currently stands!
Next Update...
The next update will be the big one in terms of feedback. If all goes well it should have the following:
Big friendly ship in final sector boss fights will hyperdrive jump away rather than get destroyed.
Level difference modifiers will be reduced, so fighting a few levels higher wont be so hard and fighting a few levels below wont be a cake walk.
All damage is going to be scaled back a bit, but to balance this consumable will be nerfed as well. This should go some way to stop the game being so punishing when you mess up in later sectors.
Storage space is going to be increased in the Assembler, vastly.
Brightness sliders are going to be added for ship parts so you can make darker ships if you want.
There will also be a host of balance changes from feedback across all three sectors.
As for this update the rest is mostly bug fixes, full details below. Enjoy!
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
• Beams now hit immediately on contact before ticking as they did before.
• Chinese human translations have been updated.
Balance Changes
• Temporary effect weapons now share cooldowns with matching types.
• Reduced ticking damage from impaled projectiles by 33%.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
• Auto targeting will now retarget when a target ship phase shifts.
• Removed stat breakdown from equipment panel as stats now have tooltips.
• Comparison tooltips no longer scale with UI scale as they're already too big.
• Slot selection no longer shows comparisons, as it was confusing.
• Items are now limited to displaying a maximum of 12 item stats.
• Increased text size of tooltips and setting names.
• Increased text size of roadmap.
• Increased text size of player details in player select.
• Increased text size of ship select at player creation.
• Increased text size of item comparison tooltips.
• Increased text size of difficulty selection.
• Increased text size of sector generation summary.
• Increased text size of dialog overlay text.
• Increased text size of tutorial HUD pop-ups.
• Increased text size of some upgrade panel text.
• Increased text size of mission descriptions.
• Increased text size of stats panel text.
• Increased text size of level on items.
• Increased text size of ship stats in equipment panel.
• Increased text size of various elements within item stats.
• Increased text size of HUD sensor arrow distances.
• Increased text size of HUD radar.
• Increased text size of HUD encounter details.
• Increased text size of HUD mission helper.
• Increased text size of HUD player section.
• Increased text size of HUD consumable counts.
• Increased text size of HUD floating text.
• Increased text size in various parts of the ship designer.
• Decreased brightness of rare backgrounds to improve readability.
Performance
• Launchers and pulses now pre-populate their pooled objects during load.
Bug Fixes
• Enemy ships now also take 50% more damage from the damage type of debris they are in.
• Static fleet ships no longer move when impacted by debris.
• Indestructible modifier can now be transferred in the Assembler to any item.
• Fixed some odd broken characters from AI translation of Spanish.
• Debris can no longer be critically hit triggering on crit effects.
• Controller navigation now works for credits panel.
• Scan animation now correctly reveals the item stats.
• Tooltips now display above items that are near the bottom of the screen.
• Flamethrower-style weapons now correctly render their effect on top of ships.
• Fixed numerous tooltips that were not correctly being translated.
• Fixed issue where comparison tooltip could pop up on top of other activities.
• Enemies should no longer spawn on top of obstructions, causing low FPS.
• Comparison tooltip now closes when a ship is selected during player creation.
• Fixed issue where some beam weapons would hit regardless of target immunity.
• Repair cost of an item can no longer go below zero.
• Shift-clicking to move items to and from storage will now attempt to stack them.
• Reduced excessive camera shake from debris on lower FPS.
• Avatar select now closes when create new player is clicked.
• Phase shift, shield ward and displacement boost will now remove impaled objects.
• Fixed null reference in Pilot.AddXp().
• Fixed null reference in KeyboardCanvas.OnCancel().
• Fixed string input errors in ShipBuilderFocus.ManualEntryChanged().