Greetings Commanders! Today we bring to you a lot of requested features and another round of post launch polish. As always, thank you to everyone for your feedback.
Patch Log:
Main Game:
- Added the ability to customize your win conditions in game setup after your first win
- Added a backup file of saved games and achievements, in case the original gets corrupted or deleted somehow
- Added a new "Ultimate" difficulty level
- Steam Cloud saving should now be enabled to sync your saves and achievements across platforms
Starting Out:
- Added a Quick Start image to help new players understand how to play
- Updated the tutorial from still images to videos
Carrier:
- Added lore descriptions to the carriers on mouse over on the main game screen and for enemy boss carriers
Combat:
- The carrier should no longer be able to spawn under the UI elements
- The shields should no longer show when they drop to zero
- Improved the Shield Matrix visual effect in battle
Balance Adjustments:
- Increased the damage for Ion weapons. Increased the range and accuracy of Ripper Guns. This should help the Pirates.
- Slightly increased the cost increase for Agriculture Station, Hanger and Outpost
- Increased the maximum number A.I. Industry buildings from 3 to 5
- Slightly increased the cost for Alliance, Outrigger and Heresy Empire abilities
- Heresy now need ship capacity to use their Drone conversion ability
- Slightly increased enemy damage and armor on Hard and Very Hard difficulties
Developer Thoughts:
We are now two weeks out from the exciting launch of the game. The often requested feature of changing your win conditions is now here. Go forth and face greater challenges. Be aware that the option to play from Turn 70 to 80 really pushes some of the algorithms beyond what they were intended. if it causes issues we may need to drop the 80 turn option and only allow a 70 turn max. We will keep an eye on it. But for now you have a lot more flexibility on how you are able to approach a game. To align with longer game options the maximum number of several buildings was increased.
The ability to customize win conditions appears when starting a new game after your first victory.
Many of you have been asking for cross-platform support and cloud saves. With today's patch this should also be enabled. We also put in secondary backups of all save files in case something becomes corrupted. This should address any achievement resetting issues people were experiencing. And you should now be able to port your progress from one machine to another.
A new "Ultimate" difficulty is now an option. This is only for the most dedicated players. We will probably tweak the difficulty of Ultimate further as we get more game data. Hard and Very Hard difficulties were tweaked slightly to be harder. We will keep an eye on this.
We have also tried to make learning how to play the game easier. The slideshow tutorial has been completely replaced with new videos and a topic menu. Also a Quick Start image has been put in for people that jumped in and had no idea where to look.
Some adjustments were made to several buildings and abilities based on game data. Most notably the Heresy Empire abilities had their cost adjusted, and the Heresy can no longer use Drone conversion to build ships they don't have capacity for. The Heresy Admiral is now useful again. The Heresy had by far the highest win percentage and needed a few tweaks to keep it in line with the other factions.
Looking Ahead:
We still have a lot planned going forward. We are going to take another look at the trade routes. We also have some updates to the map so that it is more than just a list of enemies. We are also seeing what our budget is to add new factions to the game.
Please continue to share your ideas and feedback in the forums. We are working hard to try and make this the best experience possible for everyone.
We hope you enjoy the changes. Good luck in your future games!
Fair Weather Studios