Main features
- ship combat is now possible across sector borders making sector transitions feel much more seamless
- you can now see ships in nearby sectors
- ships can now be targeted from other sectors
- bullets can hit ships in nearby sectors
- missiles can track across sector boundaries
- added a new module: artifact activator tier 2
- added a new gameplay mechanic: Artifacts. They are a new procedural form of loot with random attribute enhancements for your ship. They must be placed into an artifact activator and powered in order to function
- added a new dialogue as part of the process for unlocking the artifact activator module research
- we overhauled ship active systems with a new back-end framework which allows more data to be synchronized between the interior and exterior of your ship and allows control schemes for active ship systems to be more complex. This means the GUI for all active systems now allows individual systems to render their status in unique ways instead of requiring every system type to use a single progress bar for status
- added large set of new active modules:
- added a new active module which can create a remote temporary mine field
- added a pair of new active modules which will remove heat from reactors exactly the way radiators do, but which must be manually activated in order to dump the heat into space. These can help with active cooling of you ship and will be important in the future when we add stealth mechancis
- added a new active module which creates a delayed detonation at a location in front of your ship
- added two new active modules that entangle target in graviton web, slowing it down and preventing it from entering travel drive
- rewrote drone system logic to make use of the benefits of the new framework. Drones can now defend ships and the status display tracks individual drones.
- added a new active module which produces an inhibitor pulse disabling travel drive of nearby ships
- we trained the AI to use many of our newly added active modules against the player
- added a new active module which can be used to disrupt ship sensors for a limited duration
- added a new active module which fires a volley of slow but devastating torpedos that will deal massive damage if not dodged
- three new charged railgun turrets with delayed fire but small penetration effect
QoL, balance and other features
- added a new optional control scheme to make the game less difficult for keyboard turning players. It seems shaming them was not sufficient.
- added ability to allow extra interior zoom (can be turned on in settings)
- completely redid the loading screen
- beams now scale with beam damage rate modifier again
- overhauled ship system save data so that changes to ship system binary data can't damage save file formats
- changed ship system binary data for drone launchers, this will probably break any workshop items that include drone bays
- added new framework for highlighting quest ships on sensor overlay, this is currently mainly used for quest requiring to obtain shards for Pirate cove, we will implement it for more quests in the future
- new icons
- new framework for rendering fancy shockwaves, used for some of new modules
- more new icons
- turret code base was extended to allow dynamic behavior such as changing firerate or projectile spread over time. Game now also support turrets required to charge before firing.
- extended debuff system to allow automatic follow up states and improved several buffs/debuffs, for instance after ECM debuff expires, sensor fortification buff is applied to prevent infinite jamming.
- we modified loot tables in addition to blueprints related to new active modules
- all T3 reactors were assigned values to reflect their intended power level
- two sets of high end T3 turrets were added, they are accessible to modders, but will go through balance pass once they are integrated into campaign
- added animations for T3 engines
- decreased Interdict pulse distortion effect
- we messed with the procedural worldgen some but it shouldn't make any difference for Zero Falls story
Major bug fix
- fixed multi-threaded random number generation to actually support being multi-threaded. This was a source of some random freezing.
Note: for long time we had problem reproducing this freeze on our systems, however we know that this is 100% related to freeze occurring when switching from Interior to Exterior and when Visiting Tavern, also causing crash during saving. We further believe that this might be related to several quest bugs causing target ships to spawn on incorrect coordinates (0,0). We will appreciate feedback if you encounter any of these issue again.
Bug fixes
- fixed a bug where the game could crash if you delete the world saves folder
- fixed a bug where shady dealers had a loitering duration of 0 and would be gone as soon as you left the bar
- fixed display of credits in shops
- fixed display of credits in red floaty text
- warp gates are now saved in the database with the character profile instead of being part of world data
- the trigger that offers you research to increase your station capacity for credits will no longer repeat if you already have the research items in your queue
- fixed a bug with powered modules which could in rare cases allow them to try and take power from themselves
- fixed a bug with large shield boosters which prevented them for repairing any shields in cases where there were not enough damaged shield tiles to use all of the available energy
- fixed windowed mode screen centering on some systems
We also give you new opportunity to play again by killing your world saves, sorry, it couldn't be avoided. However your profiles will be fine and you will keep all your shiny stuff. Also worth noting: Artifacts won't exist in your old worldsave so you will want to make a new one either way.
Furthermore we are almost done with new Ion Beam controller, it will be very likely included in obligatory hotfix. We will also try to roll out some new ships using new modules as soon as possible into the world to provide new challenge.
There are few more things that had been added aren't going to be visible yet, for instance rendering was extended to allow cloaking buffs which will be used for T3 stealth modules later on.