With only a few weeks remaining in the Early Access cycle, we've mixed a cargo crate of new content with a giant pile of polish for this update. We've introduced new faction-specific ship hulls, rebuilt your new game Contact selection in Templates to make ordering and contact seeding clear, improved Contact linking simulation actions and added 14 story achievements.
Contact Template Choices
Ordering has always mattered when you select Contacts in your new game Templates, but it has never been visible. We have rebuilt the Contacts selection screen and now made the order of selection visible as well as indicating whether or not a Contact will start in your local quad. As the first 3 Contacts do, you can change your selection order to decide exactly which Contacts are in your local quad.
Perhaps even more important for high priority Contact starts -- those Contacts that are not local are no longer spread wide across the galaxy, they are now all generated within 3 hyperwarp jumps of your starting quad. This gives a new captain a powerful starting base with some room to move and grow. High Contact priority builds just got a big boost today!
All 6 Contacts are very accessible
Faction-Specific Ships
Update #84 includes the first two faction specific ships. Sold only be De Valtos and Thulun, these unique hulls are reserved for faction loyalists and only appear in the new ship list when at that faction's starport.
The Syndicate Corsair Interceptor is a sleek hunting craft built by De Valtos shipyards to protect valuable shipments within their trading network. A specialist at cutting down pirates the Corsair Interceptor is popular with Military Officers and Bounty Hunters alike and carries 24 Crew.
The House Thulun Royale Gladius hull is constructed to provide clan VIP a safe and reliable transport. In it's default configuration, this long-haul liner provides comfortable transport for up to three luxury passengers and is popular with both Merchants and Smugglers and carries 30 Crew.
New Achievements
With this update, we've added 14 new achievements covering many of the major story arcs and branches and the largest story vignettes. We wish we could have released these earlier, but we are working as fast as our team of 2 can to get these available. That means any previous runs through these stories will not retroactively score the achievements.
We've also exposed new scores -- how many enemy crew you've killed, how many crew have deserted you, as well as adding a full set of stats about xeno crew and ship combats won, lost and drawn.
There are no unlock rewards yet associated with these achievements. Since they are late to the party, we needed to add them as quickly as possible.
Contact Linking
As the years grind along in the simulation, Contacts die and new ones are created. We've adjusted the rules for Contact linking to create more new links as Contacts come and go, and to encourage Contacts with Traits like Well-Connected or Born to Royalty to make new allies at a faster rate than their less chatty counter-parts. Conflicts can also send ripples through these, create new enemies and allies in the great struggle of the factions.
v2.3.17 - 7/18/2018
- New Ship: Corsair Interceptor (De Valtos Syndicate only; anti-pirate cruiser)
- New Ship: Royale Gladius (House Thulun only; passenger transport)
- Improved Template Contact selection to show importance of ordering Contacts and which ones will be in the local quad or not
- Improved New Game Contact placement -- non-local Contacts are now placed within 3 jumps of starting quad
- Improved the generation of new Contact Links following Contact death
- Added new Contact action "Establish new Ally" for Well Connected, Born to Royalty and high Influence contacts
- Increased the impact Conflict victory and defeat has on Link Density and Link Ratings
- Added 14 new Achievements, covering major storylines, story vignettes and fighting xeno in crew combat
- More Captain Scores now displayed in score screens: Enemy Crew killed in battle, Crew deserted
- New Captain Scores recorded: Xeno Crew Battles won and lost, Xeno Ship battles won, lost or drawn
- Fixed bugs with personal objectives hanging in story missions
- Fixed bugs with Talents related to trading into Conflicts like Trade Bans or Wars
- Increased the Influence loss effects of 'Plague Outbreak' rumors on Contacts
- Fixed missing ship descriptions and tag lines in new game and starport
- Rebalanced Vrax Hauler