It’s been exactly one week since the release of Frontier: Path of Shadows, and we’ve spent that week carefully reading your feedback and bug reports. Now we’ve finally released a hotfix! The new build is already live on Steam.
This update mainly focuses on balance, enemy AI, scanning, the interface, and making several game systems easier to understand. Here’s what changed.
Smoother Balance
We found that combat was generally a bit too punishing, especially early in the game, so we’ve eased the balance in several areas.
Equipment now wears out more slowly, characters gain experience faster, and losing a random encounter is less costly. Some enemies have also been toned down, and the toughest random encounters should be less brutal.
In addition, all player screens are now available from the very beginning of the game, including the character progression screen. This means you can start developing your characters and spending earned experience much earlier.
Overall, progression and combat should feel more manageable now. The challenge, of course, isn’t going anywhere.
Smarter Enemy AI
We’ve improved enemy AI and introduced several different behavior strategies. Enemies can now evaluate their available actions based on survival, supporting allies, preparing for an attack, attacking directly, or advancing toward the player.
For example, a wounded enemy with access to healing will be more likely to restore their health, support characters will make better use of abilities that help their allies, and enemies equipped with grenades, shotguns, jetpacks, and other special abilities will use them more actively when the situation calls for it.
We’ve also adjusted the priorities of different abilities. Some actions are now used whenever there’s a good opportunity, while more situational abilities are saved for circumstances where they actually make sense.
As a result, enemies should make fewer strange decisions, use their abilities more effectively, and generally behave in a more consistent way within the rules of combat.
Clearer and Cheaper Scanning
We received quite a bit of feedback that scanning wasn’t always intuitive. Even when the graph showed the strongest possible signal, sending out a drone could sometimes still fail to reveal the location.
We’ve changed that. Now, if the scan shows a maximum signal, the drone is guaranteed to reveal the location.
We’ve also significantly reduced the cost of scanning and updated the tutorial hints to make the mechanic and its results easier to understand.
And if a planet has no locations to discover, the game will now tell you with a dedicated pop-up.
Interface and Other Fixes
We’ve also improved how the game explains the properties of combat positions. Previously, pop-ups could show things like “Ranged Attack Bonus 1,” which exposed the underlying stat without really explaining what it meant for the player.
The descriptions are now much more explicit about what a position actually does. For example, they can tell you that full healing is available, that you can use a weapon or terminal, or that the position provides a bonus to ranged or melee attacks, defense, Action Points, or Initiative. Penalties are now described just as clearly instead of being shown as little more than a stat name and a number.
On top of that:
we added support for 4K resolutions;
you can now pay off pirates and avoid combat during random encounters in space, provided you have enough credits;
side quest markers in space are now smaller than main quest markers, making the two easier to tell apart at a glance;
we fixed zooming in space, which now also zooms toward the cursor;
fixed the prices of several abilities;
improved a number of quest log entries to make objectives and quest states easier to understand;
fixed several localization issues, including cases where text could appear in the wrong language;
fixed an issue that could prevent the game from launching while analytics were being initialized;
and made a number of other small interface, control, and technical fixes.
And this, of course, won’t be the last update. We’re continuing to read your messages and collect feedback after launch.
Thank you to everyone who’s playing, leaving reviews, and reporting issues. It genuinely helps us find the areas that need attention and improve them faster.