Quick update based on recent player feedback. Work on Sector 4 (Phase 1) is ongoing, with a progress update below.
Boost Invulnerability Change
Originally, boosting disabled weapons while you were immune to damage. That made sense as it stopped you from abusing the mechanic. Since then, heat generation was added to boosting which adds a limit to how long it can be used.
Because of that, weapon disabling and freezing of consumable cooldowns have been removed.
This should make combat feel nicer, especially for drones and automated weapons, which no longer de-activate when you boost around enemies.
Steam Community Post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2098160/discussions/0/685241653181707684/
Aim Improvements / Worsening
Yes, both.
Enemy AI using lasers will now often miss their initial shot, even if you are flying directly away from them or stationary. This makes laser fire easier to read and dodge, which is especially important on higher difficulties.
Conversely, friendly AI (drones, turrets, automatic weapons, and beacon ships) has become more accurate. They now account for target acceleration when leading projectile shots, resulting in more reliable hits.
Welcome Back, Commander
This one is straight from the Steam Community: the Carrier class has been renamed to Commander, and all applicable upgrades now also apply to summoned Beacon ships.
Steam Community Post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2098160/discussions/0/685240979008013682/
Loot Changes
The loot table slightly favours weapons you already have equipped. For example, if you are using Skeran Lasers, you are more likely to find additional Skeran Lasers. This system works well for weapons, but it has been disabled for passives. Since passives are unique, repeatedly finding the same ones serves no purpose and was annoying me during some of my balance tests.
Balance Changes
This update focuses heavily on balance. I've played through most of the early game and adjusted values to smooth it out. I'm still a little worried it may be too easy overall, but I want to let the changes settle before gathering feedback.
A major item change is a reduction to resistors across the board. Players were reaching maximum resistances too easily, so the values have been pulled back to better align with the effective hull provided by Armor Plating, Bio Network and Hull Reinforcement.
These reductions are not retroactively applied. Be warned, if you upgrade an existing resistor, you may notice its values decrease instead of increase.
Sector 4 Progress
Sector 4 will be released in three phases, matching how you will play through it. Each phase ends with charging the weapon Echo is building, and enemies will increase in strength with each phase.
Phase 1 will cover levels 45 to 50 and will release as soon as all content and story elements are complete.
Sector 4 also features a unique layout with a partial ring structures expanding outward from Earth itself.
I will continue sharing progress shots alongside future updates I'm hoping it'll be done in the coming months, but getting it right is more important than rushing it.
There are 4 days left on the 15% discount, so if you know anyone who's on the fence, now's the time. Hope you're all enjoying the holidays and having fun!
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
• Carrier class renamed to Commander and now also improves Beacons.
Balance Changes
• Boost Invulnerability no longer disables weapons.
• Laser enemies now miss on their initial aim and are more thrown off by dodging.
• Passives no longer benefit from the equipped item drop chance bonus.
• Increased all enemy hull/shields by +15% across the game.
• Increased all enemy damage by +10% across the game.
• Reduced Behemoth Plasma Gun damage by -25%.
• Increased hull slider to match shields for all difficulties above normal.
• Increased the amount of item salvage you get from increasing difficulty.
• Maximum slider values in custom difficulty increased from 500% to 700%.
• Increased damage of Hunter (Skeran Elite) by +25%.
• Increased damage of Matriarch (Skeran Elite) by +25%.
• Reduced damage of Orchid (Skeran Elite) by -33%.
• Increased Behemoth (Skeran Boss) shields by +40%.
• Increased Behemoth (Skeran Boss) hull by +25%.
• Different passives are now guaranteed to have 1 global modifier.
• Rare passives are now guaranteed to have 2 global modifiers.
• Primary weapon lasers no longer increase DPS when rapidly moved between targets.
• Reduced resistance of all resistors to bring them in line with other passives.
• Reduced resistance of the Infinity Stones legendary resistor significantly.
• Damage reflection now reflects damage before armor and resistance calculations.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
• Radar icons now scale with the size of the ships they represent.
• New developer setting added for immutable items when testing crafting.
• Equipped items are now excluded from selection when choosing items to destroy.
• Item selection in Assembler now only includes the current page of storage.
• Turn speed modifier now specifies that it applies to projectiles.
• Speed modifier now specifies that it applies to pulses.
• Velocity modifier now specifies that it applies to weapons.
• Duration modifier now specifies that it applies to temporary effects.
• Improved modifier tooltips for 'On Crit' to explain stack size does not increase.
• Drones and Auto Launchers now calculate enemy acceleration when aiming.
Bug Fixes
• Displacement will no longer remove temporary effects from specials.
• Player can no longer be destroyed after a boss encounter is complete.
• Fixed floating point rounding errors in modifier tooltips.
• Unequipped items from slot removal are now ejected if cargo is full.
• Sandbox difficulties now correctly reflect those in the actual game.
• Enemy lasers no longer flicker on and off when you're at the edge of range.
• Fixed spacing of some asteroid clusters overlapping due to bigger asteroids.
• Fixed issue where drones would not correctly retarget when target was destroyed.
• Fixed issue where some AI would stop firing at Vipers.