Update #142 introduces a new lighter carrier build and a very exciting and very powerful enhancement to the Era and story system -- story events of all kinds are now capable of unleashing new ship component upgrades and craft into the galaxy. And with that, grade 6 Craft can become available in all captain's games with the new "Triple Alliance" story event. We've also made some more balance changes to craft, started adjusting more standard ship component prices and stats for the new post-craft era.
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Without further delay, lets look in detail!
The Story Behind Grade 6 Craft
We've been working toward this exciting breaking point for a long time. With Update #142, any story event can now impact the availability of ship components and craft. With this update, we've only linked a single story to a single set of new craft, but the possibilities here are clearly very exciting and near endless. New Eras can usher in new advanced components, new story arcs can result in Faction's being able to sell advanced weaponry and more. The ability for the Era and Story system to push the dynamics of the galaxy, as well as your captains ability to have a hand in that, have never been stronger.
For Update #142, the Triple Alliance story event is a quick and interest event that will take place sometime after the Second Founding. It's presents potential for profit for some types of captains as well as the arrival of grade 6 Craft with one new Interdictor, Bomber and Shuttle.
You'll be hearing a lot more about these types of Era and Story driven availability types in releases to come!
Strikecarrier
The Strikecarrier is a fast attack craft optimized for deploying boarding shuttles. Minimally appointed for trading and non-combat patrols, the Strikecarrier is popular with Pirates and Bounty Hunters who want to bring the fight directly to the enemy, often and early. While it lacks Armor to support long engagements and trading pounding barrages of ship weapons, the Strikecarrier is suited for quick wins, devastating boarding runs, and keeping the enemy heavily debuffed.
Combat and Craft Balance
With Update #142, we've made a few other big changes to the combat and craft meta. To help players who are launching multiple Shuttles a round, we've changed the rules so that only one Shuttle will attempt to board a round. This prevents multiple Shuttles from jamming and resulting in a single boarding, and instead lets you stack Shuttles who will board turn-after-turn.
With all the changes to Electronics place in the ship combat meta, it was only a matter of time before we rebalanced the pricing for Electronics heavy components, including Signature Damper and Sensor Array.
In preparation for the AI's carriers and to help the AI better fight off your carriers, we've improved components like Targeting Matrix to include a bonus to hitting craft.
We've also rebuilt the rules around the cost to repair craft, ensuring that hte cost never exceeds the base cost of purchasing the craft itself.
v2.5.7 - 4/18/2019
- New Ship: Strikecarrier (Mass 5000, Fast Attack Carrier)
- Enhanced story and era system to be able to release new technology, ship components and craft based on story events
- Added new story event, the "Triple Alliance" which releases craft grade 6
- Added 3 new grade 6 craft - the Faulker D5 (De Valtos), Red Lion Mk2 (Thulun) and Whiteknife Ultra (Rychart)
- Improved handling of turns where multiple Shuttle craft are waiting to board, now the second Shuttle will wait and board on next turn
- Rebalanced Ship Component Pricing for Electronics heavy components, including Sig Damper, Sensor Array
- Rebalanced some Ship Components to include bonuses to hit enemy craft, including Targeting Matrix set
- Rebalanced and reduce repair cost for all craft
- Added New Rule: Craft Repair cost cannot exceed Craft Cost
- Fixed bug with Combat Medic "Flatline" Talent which removed characters' Buffs
- Improved card rendering for a number of Salvage and Spy cards
- Fixed reported crashes, text issues, typos and minor bugs (thanks, Steam Discussion Forum!)