Every now and again, an absolutely massive update comes off the assembly line. A certain alignment of timing of features coming out of testing, balance updates and community feedback converge and you get ... Update #220. This one is big with a ton of exciting changes -- from new hotkeys to play combat exclusively with the keyboard, to previewing ship's component build before you buy, to new Scout Bridge 5 options, repriced ships, better Behemoth Engines, upgraded Cauleta Titan and just more, more, more.
If you enjoy the pace of updates, the constant improvements and our dedication to our games, please leave a review and tell a friend!
Combat Keyboard Exclusive
With Update #220, you can now play crew combat entirely with the keyboard. With hotkeys to pick a Talent and new hotkeys to select your enemy or friendly target, you can whir through battles as never before. The default hotkeys are Z, X, C, and V and are laid out so that they overlap the friendly and enemy slots. Therefore, Z is the 4th slot of your own crew but the 1st slot of the enemy crew.
As with any high speed option, you'll need to be sure not to enter a trance mode and get your crew killed :D But, combined with the recently added high speed combat option and toggle, crew combats have never been smoother.
New Ship: Previews and Bases
Update #220 delivers on the top request from all quadrants about the ship buying experience -- the ability to fully preview the ship and all of its default components as if you were flying it *before* you purchase! This full preview power enables you to check on absolutely any detail of interest -- would my crew fit, what size bridge is installed, how many mass reducers are in use, what would my skill pools look like, do I like the color? In short, it prevents dedicated shoppers from having to drop off and look at the wiki before making a ship decision.
We've also modified the display during ship purchase to separate the ship hull's intrinsic base values for Armor, Shield and Fuel from its summed values that take the component build into account. With these base values exposed, you can now be sure what you're getting out of your new hull specifically.
Scout Bridge 5's
Three new Scout Bridge 5 options have arrived with Update #220, each from a separate faction and each with their own custom-built purpose. The Rychart Scout-Stealth Bridge 5 is the first cloaking bridge to arrive on the scene, reducing enemy encounters by 10% and bumping defense against craft. The Alta-Mesa Scout-Skirmisher Bridge 5 is perfect for combat-ready small ships and also bumps defense against craft. Finally, the Zenrin Scout-Hauler Bridge 5 is for captains looking to extend their options in other components slots and provides the value of reducing Mass and Jump Cost.
Ship Reprice
All ship's in the 7000, 8000 and 9000 Mass classes have had their prices increased with the levy of a new "component tax". Base on their Mass and component slot setup, these high value hulls have all seen a bump in price. Jumping into a Sword Battlecruiser or Cauleta Titan is going to be a bit more difficult as they are now both priced over $2,000,000 credits for the default setup and most of the rest of the 7000+ Mass hulls are hitting above the $1,000,000 mark.
In addition to this re-price, we've adjusted the component build out of the 9000 Mass Cauleta Titan to make it more of a competitive option against the Sword Battlecruiser. By gaining +1 Medium slot, it becomes a much more viable option for certain types of builds that are looking for variety of pure combat versatility of 14 Small slots of the Sword Battlecruiser.
In the repricing, we've also pulled the expensive and end-game Behemoth Engines off of all 3400 Mass ships to ensure their default patterns are still viable for purchase.
Component Upgrades
The Behemoth Void Engines are even more worthy of their names now with some updates that increase some of their Speed values, increase Safety Rating across the pack and hit an all new high of 11 Reactor Points for the Mass 8000 and Mass 9000 engines. In addition, their prices have been trimmed slightly, from 10% to 20% across the board.
We have also retuned Dual Field Engines a bit for the M2400 and M3400 variations, further trimming Mass off of these critically useful Void Engine variations.
Finally, we've improved Interlocking Sensor Matrix 2 through 4 with more Damage and more Critical bonuses. Going aggressive? Check out these powerful Matrix components and slot them today.
Card Game Expirations
The rules for all of the card game expiration dates have been improved with card hands dealt now usually expiring anytime between 1 to 2 years after they were drawn. While this extended timeline will most often force you off the dime if you can't overcome a risk in the hands, it does mean that triple-Xeno draw you got in 214 AE won't be sitting there smiling at your in 220 AE.
Thrown Wrench
A long-time OP ability of Mechanics arriving in boarding combat or boarding from range 1, Thrown Wrench has had a 3rd of its power knocked off. The mighty -3 Reactor Point debuff has been knocked down to a -2 Reactor Point debuff. The core value of the Talent is still the same -- and still extremely powerful and unique -- but it will take a little more work for your mechanics to slip onto the enemy ship and *completely* disable their capabilities.
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint
For 10 years, we've honed our craft creating turn-based tactics and simulation games, and we are extremely excited to be coming back around to the world and story of our second game, Cyber Knights. Our next title is Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and its waiting for your Wishlist on Steam. Get hype!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/
And More!
As we mentioned at the top, this one was huge. There is more to check out in the change notes below that covers all the bugs we fixed as well.
v3.0.83 - 8/3/2020
- Added new hotkeys for crew combat targeting, now play crew combat only with keyboard (default Z, X, C, V to target friend/enemy crew)
- Now preview all stock installed components on a new ship before purchase with "Preview" button
- New Ship screen includes base ship scores for Fuel, Armor, Shield as well as final scores with components calculated
- Added 3 new Scout Bridge 5 variations: Scout-Stealth 5 (Rychart only, reduces ship encounters), Scout-Skirmish 5 (Alta Mesa Only, most battle ready!), Scout-Hauler 5 (Zenrin only, mass reducer)
- Applied "component tax" to ship hulls over 7000 Mass, increasing price from +10% to +50%
- Sword Battle Cruiser and Cauleta Titan now cost over $2m to lift off the starport in their default configuration
- Upgraded Cauleta Titan to gain +1 Medium Slot bring it to 12 Small, 13 Medium, 6 Large
- Increased the Mass Reducing power of Dual Field Engines for M2400 (-40 Mass) and M3600 (-100 Mass)
- 10-20% Behemoth Engine price reduction, improved stats -- better Engine Speed, higher safety ratings, and M8K and M9K variations now boast 11 RP
- Rim Exocruiser and Wolf Vector M3400 ships are sold with Warhammer Engines, priced in the half million range
- Improved Interlocking Sensor Matrix 2-4 (more Damage, more Critical)
- New game template contact list now includes mission type (Diplomatic Missions, Espionage Missions, etc)
- Improved rule and timers for expiration of all card game hands, ranging from 40 weeks to 2 years depending on zone
- Reduced "Thrown Wrench" Boarding Talent's -3 Reactor Points to -2, increased damage to components/turn by +10
- Fixed issue where Talents learning Traits when paying the crew were not firing as often as they should
- Fixed issue in galactic map opening multiple quadrant dialogs
- Fixed ship combat scaling with ultrawide monitors (5120x1440)
- Fixed 2 Buried Demons Era story missions that started "Overdue"
- Fixed occasional mismatch with Patrol "Bounty Hunters" card driven by Conflict mismatches
- Fixed issue with Wolfheart Gene gear showing Stealth sometimes
- Fixed swapped label in Star Atlas when using multi-jump filter
- Fixed some issues where HUD warnings would not updated after paying / spicing crew raised low Morale