First, I would like to thank everyone who has taken a leap of faith to give Stellar Tactics a try. It has been crazy since the release and I've done my best to provide support, bug fixes and answer as many questions as possible with the time I've had. There has been so much positive feedback and it's really been an incredible experience.
Thank you for backing Stellar Tactics!
Over the last two weeks, as I anticipated, many issues cropped up. These were mostly related to play style and oversight. As a solo developer with a few people helping to test the game, it was inevitable that various play styles would surface new bugs. I know for some this was frustrating. I'm happy to say many of these have been addressed as you will see in the list of fixes below. I do realize there are more usability issues, and there are likely a few major issues not yet found. However, I do think the game should be relatively stable now with no major blockers that I'm aware of! So a HUGE thank you to everyone who reported issues and those who have played through the game multiple times and provided feedback on the forums.
I'm looking for any crashes, blockers and new issues that make the game unpleasant. I'll prioritize those issues and get them fixed as soon as I can. Meanwhile, I will be working on a list of lower priority issues that came up. Usability issues and minor annoyances.
Once those are out of the way, I'll move on to more content, much of which is already in progress. I won't give dates, and it won't be really soon before the next major content drop. I do have some ideas I'm working on to get more content into Achmedius that would be beneficial for testing purposes (and player progression). More on that sometime in the next week.
Going forward, I'll be dropping patches less often unless there is something that is game breaking. Likely once a week. I do have at least one patch I would like to get out this weekend and then on to smaller issues and larger patches. I'll post those patches as announcements as many have requested.
If you like the game, I'd like to ask that you help me out with a nice review. It really does help.
Here are the patch notes for the last few weeks!
Auto saves are in! When you switch levels, the game will auto-save with a time stamp. I'll add this as an optional feature when the "Game" options menu goes in.
Camera rotation is now handled with the left mouse button. Some had issues with movement and rotation being on the same mouse button and there were conflicting input issues (this applies to ground and space exploration). Also, Q and E keys now rotate the camera (I'll add these to the help screen in the next update.)
UPDATED: Enemies with low hit points that are running for cover now take an AP penalty so they cannot run as far. Makes sense because they are usually heavily damaged. Should make runners less annoying!
UPDATED: When generating new universe data, the progress bar is now hidden during the generation portion of the process and a new message is displayed. This should be less confusing for folks who are waiting for the data to generate before being saved.
FIXED: Could drag mods to slots and they would not equip. also added better descriptions.
FIXED: Pressing escape while in the ship info GUI would not close. Had to use the exit button.
FIXED: Numerous typos - thanks Kaldari and others for your reports
FIXED: Turns being skipped when using the "Space" key and "End turn" icon
FIXED: Rare physics bug - PC's ejecting into the nether when trying to move them if blocked
FIXED: Weapon attachments can no longer be equipped to weapons that do not have mod slots
FIXED: Mining lasers could fire at any range - not any more!
FIXED: Soft-lock when enemies die of poison or bleeding
FIXED: Exploit where you could just click the "ASSIGN" button in the character information GUI and get full health immediately
FIXED: Base Endurance was not being applied to new characters correctly at the beginning of the game. This is fixed now. If you generate a tank and apply all stats to Endurance, this character should have significantly more HP than the rest of the team members.
FIXED: Apply stat points to Intelligence produced strange behavior (loss and gain of intelligence points) - this is fixed now.
FIXED: If auto-hacking, and exiting the hacking interface, hacking could continue - this is fixed.
FIXED: Clear the Crew Deck mission could not be completed if mission given after all enemies defeated.
FIXED: Vendors would occasionally not display their wares. This patch should fix that so it doesn't happen in the future and should also fix any existing saved games that have the issue.
FIXED: A number of typos
FIXED: Several chests that were difficult to open - further tweaks needed
FIXED: Mining skill exp is now awarded - you gain exp for every pulse of the mining laser
Fixed: Found another possible level transition mission breaker. Posted and ready for download. If for any reason, you started a mission and left the level and returned - prior to this patch, you were likely to have broken the mission system (not your fault of course, mine). Hoping this one is truly fixed because 80% of all reported bugs were related to this in one way or another. You MUST start a save game prior to taking a mission from either Dr. Jensen or any other main character if you left that level while the mission was active in order for this fix to work. Either that or start a new game (new team, new gear).
FIXED: Leaving Halamis Ore after receiving mission no longer resets the mission. This is a global fix. All missions could reset and stop progression if you left the level you received the mission on.
FIXED: Can speak to Scarby twice after returning from mines, breaking the mission.
FIXED: DOT's (Poison and Bleeding) were causing a lockup in combat. This could have caused many of the games combat lockup problems.
FIXED: Pathing error in the Mines.
FIXED: Mine mission auto-complete bug fixed - a mission would complete itself immediately after being given.
FIXED: Fix for the Mine mission all clear but Scarby wont talk to you bug. You may need to restart from a previous save if Scarby doesn't recognize the mission as complete.
FIXED: You can no longer heal KO team members - this was an oversight that could have caused a lot of big problems with game stability. Thanks for finding this!
FIXED: It was possible that mission items, if not looted and left in backpacks or chests between save games, could be lost, blocking progress. This is fixed. No one reported it, but I noticed the problem while investigating other issues.
ADJUSTED: Log and mission hud description text is white now (easier on the eyes)
ADJUSTED: Weapons can no longer be purchased with full ammo. Heavy weapons have no ammo when purchased.
ADJUSTED: Ranged weapon ammo price reduced by 50% on average. Heavy weapon ammo remains the same.
ADJUSTED: Maximum shotgun ammo you can carry increased from 70 rounds to 200 rounds
ADJUSTED: Maximum rifle ammo you can carry increased from 300 rounds to 500 rounds
ADJUSTED: Maximum Power cells you can carry reduced from 800 to 500
ADJUSTED: Maximum SMG rounds you can carry reduced from 800 to 500
RARE CRASH FIX: For a very small number of people, the game would crash on launch. I think I've had 4-5 reports total. That should be fixed now.