Hi everyone. First, I'd like to thank all of you who reported bugs big and small over the last few weeks. I'm posting a new build and cumulative patch notes since the release of the last major content update September 21st when I opened the universe.
It's been a very busy time since the release of the patch and we've had a lot of new additions to the Stellar Tactics community providing a ship load of great feedback and suggestions. I read everything I can posted on the forums and many of you know that I'm actively engaged in the conversations there. Please do continue to post and comment. Your feedback is much appreciated!
Here is what I'll be working on next, in no particular order. I'll start rolling out these features one at a time for the most part.
In no particular order:
- Perks to level 100
- A few additional devices that can be used in combat.
- Repair system for both space and ground. The space repair system will allow you to assign crew members to ship repairs. You will of course still be able to pay for repairs on stations.
- Addition of weapons for pugilism along with some adjustments. Currently there are no weapon types for this combat skill. I've compensated by making this skill more powerful, however, it's time to get these weapons in with mod slots etc.
- Implement new animations - these are done and have been waiting until I had time to get them in the game
- Space trading and the Trade-Net
- Cargo transfer on stations
- Special weapon attacks
- Ground mining drone system
- Sneaking, traps and environment security systems (including turrets)
- Sorting for vendors, inventory, stash and cargo
- Space station turret defense systems
- Crafting
- Patrolling enemies and NPC's
- Faction Agents will buy scan data
- Implement the updated ship models you saw in the last announcement
Notes for patch 0.151
FIXED: Rollover compare info when using F1-F4 keys was not displaying the correct team member when reviewing inventory in space.
FIXED: Mining skill was capped at level 60. You can now level this skill to level 100.
FIXED: You can no longer move team members while translocating out of a mission area.
FIXED: Stacked items like grenades and med-kits placed in your stash now stack. If you have unstacked items, drag them to your backpack and then back to the stash to free up slots.
FIXED: Mining ships and other ships launched from hostile systems are now hostile. You will still see other factions that may be friendly, neutral or wary entering these systems. That is intended.
FIXED: At times the docking icon was displayed and would not work until you were closer to the trade station. If docking icon is displayed, you will always dock.
FIXED: A rare crash when tab-targeting in space combat when in combat. Please let me know if you see this by posting on the bug forums. I've added additional debug info to help me locate the issue if it turns up again.
FIXED: Explore planetary locations now correctly display the "CLEARED" flag when selected if that location was actually completed. I'll be adding this to cleared hostile sector stations soon.
FIXED: Fixed a bug that would leave sold item icons (healthkits etc.) in the inventory even though they were not valid.
FIXED: A few typos
UPDATED: You can now shift-click to move items from your stash to your inventory.
UPDATED: Increased the amount of experience received at lower levels when mining. There is a leveling curve applied to EXP gain that more closely follows skill and equipment progression.
UPDATED: Reduced EXP required to gain skill in hacking by 20%. This will change when more hacking devices of various quality go in the game.
UPDATED: Increased the value of all dropped items found in ground combat including vendor junk items, armor, weapons and mods. Ground missions now generate more income overall from loot.
UPDATED: Added debuff timers to the rollover status icons for bleeding, hobbled, crippled, poisoned, stunned and EMP status effects. These show the duration in turns of any active status effect that is on a timer.
ADDED: In addition to the LOS line indicators, I've added a cover icon to the movement destination cursor. It should help you identify areas where cover is available.
ADDED: Added a beacon guide entry to the in-game guide.
Cumulative patch notes since the last announcement
10/5/18 - 0.150
FIXED: Station names in loading screen were incorrect.
FIXED: An exploit related to equipped armor. Thanks for pointing this out.
FIXED: Selecting a planet with a mission location and then selecting a planet with no data will clear the mission data information from the planet UI.
UPDATED: Crouch/Stand animations are more responsive.
UPDATED: Crouched swap weapon and leave combat animations more responsive.
UPDATED: Help menu can only be opened if other UI's are closed like inventory, crew manager etc. The help menu cannot be opened over the main menu.
UPDATED: Hacking success or failure is displayed on the screen when a hacking attempt is completed.
UPDATED: Enemy loot packs now have a larger hit box. Should help on stairs and near doorways.
UPDATED: Better handling of tooltip info so it doesn't refresh with minor mouse moves in stash, vendor lists and inventory.
UPDATED: When in vendor UI, you can now press F1-F4 to compare the rolled over item to any active team member.
UPDATED: When in your inventory and stash, pressing F1-F4 updates the compared item in the tool-tip to the active team member.
10/2/18 - 0.149
FIXED: When selecting stellar objects in the upper left space hud, you can no longer click though that UI and accidentally select planets and other objects.
FIXED: When on surface after leaving ruins, clicking an enemy target could move the character instead of firing a weapon or walk-to and melee.
FIXED: One of the cave systems had a number of linked enemies - added LOS blocking
FIXED: A few floating enemies in one of the cave scenario sets.
FIXED: Healthkit and grenade bars are hidden when transitioning between areas
FIXED: When looting ammo the weapon display ammo count is updated immediately
FIXED: A display error in the inventory ammo area that could concatenate the number of ammo you actually had in some cases.
FIXED: Pharris Mace AK-7 number of turrets corrected in merchant and ship displays.
FIXED: The approach button on the selected ship popup UI now works as intended.
FIXED: A bug with the planet scanner that could add incorrect nodes to planets that were already scanned.
FIXED: A bug with the planet scanner that was resetting the new "SCANNED: NO SURFACE LOCATIONS FOUND" message.
FIXED: Lockup if you opened the crew manager during combat. Crew manager is now disabled when in combat.
FIXED: A rare lockup when boarding stations.
UPDATED: Adjusted the information displayed for the return location when a mission is completed. It now gives you the system name, the planet (e.g. Angos IV) and whether the return location is an orbiting station around that planet or a planet based station. You can always select a finished (not yet turned in) mission to center the star map on that system and select that star system in the upper left system UI panel. From there, you can approach that system while in FTL space. I'll be adding better information handling for missions in the future.
UPDATED: Expanded the range for station docking. Some stations are large and in some cases you had to fly above or below the station to get the docking icon.
UPDATED: Better targeting handling in combat. If your cursor is over an enemy, and the cursor is a targeting reticle and you click, you will not move. Should resolve unintended movement. You can also always use the combat queue or hold down the TAB key to avoid unwanted movement when targeting enemies.
UPDATED: Increased the maximum number of loot drop crates from ships from two to three per ship.
--Maximum drops from ships will only take place in systems that are 9 levels below your current average ship crew level. Fighting ships in lower level systems results in less loot dropped.
NOTE: Rare and Legendary loot will only show up as loot from destroyed ships and on vendors if you are over a certain average level (average ship skills - piloting, weaponry, targeting and electronics) - likely the reason some of you aren't seeing these items drop from ships and on vendors. This is not a change, it's been this way for a long time.
Legendary - average level 15+
Rare and exceptional - average level 5+
UPDATED: Updated the faction agent guide entry to add information about the Halamis Translocator (for teleporting out of mission locations) and a description of how to return to the mission faction agent when missions are completed.
HOTFIX 9/30/18 - 0.148
FIXED: In some cases when recruiting a mercenary, the game could lock up.
9/28/18 - 0.148
FIXED: A error where if you removed a crew member using the crew manager leaving an empty slot between other crew members, movement would break and a team member or team members would not move correctly.
FIXED: Selecting an object in the system object list in the upper left of the screen, then selecting a ship and then again selecting the selected object in the list would not display the targeted list item.
FIXED: If mining with a full cargo hold, mining ore containers will time out after 60 seconds and despawn. If you were mining for a long time and not scooping ore, you could end up with thousands of them which over time could crash the game.
I've adjusted EXP a little for ground combat. Not really a tuning pass just a mild tweak.
--Increased melee damage EXP a little.
--Decreased ranged weapon EXP a little.
Adjusted the drop rates for rare and exceptional items. Vendors are also affected. It's still way better than it was before, but that last patch was over the top. I'll be doing more work on this over time.
9/27/18 - 0.147
UPDATED: Updated messages for powering up turrets and a warning if you are trying to mine asteroids without a mining turret.
UPDATED: When in Achmedius in your starter ship (only the starter ship), only one enemy ship will be launched during incursions. If you leave Achmedius, the incursion system works as it always has - launching a random number of enemy ships. The enemy ships spawned in this case are always weaker than the starter ship. This is to give new players a chance to learn space combat without getting fragged - that is as long as their ship shields are up.
UPDATED: Wherever you are in the universe, if you do not have a beacon placed in the Achmedius system, I've placed one there for you automatcially. Should help those of you who may get lost in space. Just approach any FTL point (jump point in the upper left object list while in space) in any system and as long as you have 5 fusion cells in your inventory, you can translocate back to Achmedius instantly.
UPDATED: Added additional information that tracks tasks during character creation and displays remaining tasks to complete before starting the game.
UPDATED: Ship equipment vendors now have a better assortment of rare and exceptional equipment. Legendary equipment should be more common on vendors.
UPDATED: If you select single movement mode (SPACE when not in combat), that team member will walk to and interact with objects and NPC's in the environment. In group movement mode, the closest teammember will interact with the object.
UPDATED: Selected team member portrait is now highlighted in and out of combat.
UPDATED: Camera FOV indicator on radar is brighter now. You can use this indicator to set a frame of reference in the location you are exploring. For example, rotating the camera FOV so it points north will help give you an idea of where you are and where you have been.
UPDATED: When scanning a planet, the NO DATA message has been replaced with a new message letting you know that you scanned the planet. The NO DATA message appears if you have never scanned a planet. There are a few remaining bugs with scanning that I'm looking into - nothing game breaking.
FIXED: Ship warp engines on merchants now provide correct power values for various quality tiers. Ship engines for some ships, especially some of the trading vessels like the Talon, were being generated with very low power output. Warp drives for fighters and interceptors were generating too much power.
FIXED: An edge case with key input for camera panning that could cause camera movement to stick when edge scrolling.
FIXED: When exiting the Abandoned Research Facility via the exit door, you will transition to the staging area of the facility instead of space.
FIXED: You can no longer quicksave the game before speaking with Dr. Rhamus on the Dauntless the first time.
FIXED: You can no longer quicksave the second you enter combat.
FIXED: Visible line of sight indicators are now hidden when selecting end turn options.
FIXED: An edge case that reset the currently selected team members voice when editing team members by clicking their portraits in the character information and equipment screens.
FIXED: Rolling over portrait icons in the left combat order queue UI now displays the correct rollover information at the top center of the screen. When rolling over the icons, enemies are highlighted so you can distinguish their position against the order in the queue.
9/23/18 - 0.146
FIXED - An edge case where when taking missions from Zabin Morbain, garbage text was displayed in the mission window.
FIXED: An edge case that was keeping ore from spawning when mining asteroids.
IMPORTANT:
Left click on enemies can occasionally be finicky. I'm working on a right click menu popup that lets you select the body part you want to target. It will display CTH values for each of the attack positions and you can just select your choice. I'm hoping to get this in and tested by the end of next week. High perception stats will also display additional information like enemy resists. I'll need to test the resists display a good bit so, this may not make it in when I patch the new targeting UI.
Meanwhile, holding down the highlight key (TAB by default) while aiming/attacking will block movement of any kind so you can avoid unwanted movement.
If you use the combat queue, when holding the SHIFT key while attacking, movement is now blocked. Shift is the default key for the combat queue. You can read more about the combat queue by pressing the "H" key while exploring ground locations. It is important to know that when holding the shift key, you can click multiple times to queue up attacks. When ready, press the space bar and all attacks will be made at once. When queuing combat attacks, you can press the "BACKSPACE" key to clear the attacks in the queue. The combat queue can speed up combat when making multiple attacks.
9/22/18 - 0.145
FIXED: When trying to shoot Full Auto, the game required 12 ammo to be loaded - this was recently reduced to 8 shots from full auto weapons and the game now only requires 8 ammo loaded into the weapon.
FIXED: When mining asteroids that are not in the asteroid field, no loot cans were being generated. Asteroid fields were working as intended.
FIXED: Dismissing a crew member causes the remaining crew members you may select in the list to not be correctly selected, displaying incorrect stat data for that character. This did not affect the actual crew member selected and dragged and your saves and mercs are fine. It was just a display error.
FIXED: Better handling for opening and closing the crew manager which could get stuck in a state where it would not close and accept unintended click and keyboard events when open.