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Okay, maybe the nickname for this release doesn't sound like a good thing, but it so totally is. Like "The Sledge Hammer" before it, this release absolutely rips apart some old parts of the game, and it builds something much better in its place. This is the last such rip-things-apart release we're going to have before 4.0 hits: it's all rebuilding, fine-tuning, and adding on new stuff from here on out (guardians are coming, I promise!).
The thing that's been ripped apart this time, though, is the combat model. It's a lot of long-requested changes, actually, but we finally figured out a way to do them in a way that would keep the essence of the game while making us and players happy.
This new combat model in the game will possibly feel identical to the old one for novice players, but for advanced players is worlds different. Specifically:
* The old notion of shields (not to be confused with force fields) has been removed. Most novice players didn't even know they existed at all, but they had an immense effect on the game and the way that targeting worked. Now targeting is: a) simpler; b) not range-dependent; c) not including a random miss-chance component.
* However, there was a bit of interest in parts of the concept of shields. We've now formalized that into a new Armor concept, which is way simpler than the old shields model, but provides some of the same benefits for ships like Heavy Bombers, etc.
* The game used to have a massive number (over 2,200, actually) of ship-against-ship-type internal bonuses. You know: rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock. And about 40 other elements, literally. There had been great forums debates about this back in 2009, and possibly even stretching into early 2010, but... well, the short answer is that the time wasn't right and there wasn't a cogent model that met all my criteria. But now there is! So these are gone.
* In place of the old ship-vs-ship-type internal bonuses, there is now a set of the following hull types: Scout, Light, Medium, Heavy, Artillery, Neutron, Swarmer, Ulra-Light, Close-Combat, Command-Grade, Refractive, Composite, Turret, Ultra-Heavy, Structural, or Polycrystal. All ships belong to one of these hull types, and combat ships have some bonuses against approximately 0-5 of these hull types.
* Going along with these changes, the old Strong/Weak Vs display has been removed from the game, for a variety of reasons. In their place is a new Attack Multipliers display, which shows the bonuses against other hull types. This is more brief, more effective, and again something a number of players had asked for.
Want more details on all those changes, and the reasoning behind many of them, etc? See the lengthy release notes, linked above, for all that sort of thing.
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