A lot of you have played the game during the Steam Next Fest and provided valuable feedback. One of the most common feedback is that the game is too battle focused, and the prestige progression is lackluster, which I tend to agree. I've focused a lot on the battle experience because it's my first game that centers on the battle mechanism, but also making the battle fair requires lots of compromises - in a way, I have my hands tied with prestige progression. With the introduction of the new matchmaking algorithm introduced in Patch 0.4, now I have more flexibility in designing the prestige system and hopefully Patch 0.5 will make the game more "incremental".
No More "Two Strike" Prestige For Qualifier Battle
Previously, if you lose two qualifier battles in a row, you are required to prestige. This is no more! After this patch, you get +10 Quantum (and some XP reward) if you win a qualifier battle and +5 Quantum if you lose. So even if your ship is less optimized in the early stage, you can still progress.
Quantum Are Immediately Available After Qualifier Battle
Previously, after a qualifier battle, you need to generate enough XP to "earn" your quantum to use them. After this patch, all qualified quanta (plural of quantum) are immediately available after the battle. You only need to satisfy quantum and XP requirement for the next qualifier battle.
The top panel has been redesigned to reflect this change and hopefully is more clear
Permanent Element Shards Boost Production / XP Multiplier
Previously, permanent element upgrades boost XP multiplier only. After this patch, you can invest your shards to either production multiplier or XP multiplier. You can also re-spec these two upgrades - all shards will be refunded.
Clean Up Weapon Module Names
The old naming convention for weapon modules are inspired by real life weapons: MS2R - MS = Missile, 2 = Series, R = Damage Reclaim.
However, using the last letter to denote weapon ability quickly gets out of hand and no one can remember them. Plus, The lineage among MS2R, MS2C and MS2S is hard to tell.
I've taken this chance to clean up the naming. Instead of using the last letter to denote the ability, it simply denotes its research lineage: MS2A, MS2B and MS2C. Their pet names remain unchanged.
Progression Reblance
Upgrade cost for modules are in general reduced - it should allow more flexible builds. And max Spaceship XP for each quantum level are also slightly reduced so that overall progression pacing is still reasonable.
Redesigned UI
Apart from the redesigned top panel, many UI elements have been redesigned to provide more clear information. There's a new resource flow indicator, a new target indicator and lots of minor improvements.
All your existing progress should be migrated automatically when you upgrade to Patch 0.5. However, in case the automated migration fails, you can get help on Discord.
Finally, I've made a short video to highlight some of these changes, if you prefer this format:
Cheers,
FishPond