Hi all - another patch is ready for release. Today I'm adding a few things - specifically a first pass at improving the pace of combat, new elite ship crews, the ability to sell all the scan data you've been accumulating and a new search feature for the star map. Here are the notes and I hope you enjoy the changes!
ADDED: You will now find elite crews flying around the universe. They are marked with a skull icon. These ships are a bit more difficult than regular ships, however, they are not so overpowered as to be impossible. I recommend that your ship have balanced energy levels as displayed in the ship ship screen so your turrets and shields are charging at the highest possible levels.
--These ships have a much higher chance of dropping legendary and rare gear - double the normal drop rate for these items.
--They never drop basic gear - exceptional is the lowest quality tier.
--Loot from these ships is usually usable on the ship you are flying.
--Check the ships faction before attacking non-hostile elite ships. You will take a faction hit for destroying them.
ADDED: The starmap search feature is in the game now. When you open the search menu in the log->starmap UI, you can enter the name of any system and press search to center the map on that star system and set it as your target in the upper left target HUD (if you are in FTL space). You will also get a list of any systems that have stored ships, cargo storage and beacons. Selecting a system from that list and pressing search will center the star map on that system. I'll be doing more work on the log->starmap and on the star map itself so you can better identify systems that have active missions, stored ships cargo, and active beacons.
--IMPORTANT - The search database is populated once you leave Achmedius and start traveling across the map. Search data when first entering Achmedius at the start of the game is limited.
ADDED: You can now sell all that scan data you have been collecting. All faction agents now have an additional option available when you speak with them - "Sell scan data". Faction agents are only interested in scan data in a 6x6 sector grid around them. If any scan data is available they will pay you a one time fee for that information. The price paid for scan data is based on the quality of the scan. When you scan planets, the quality of the scan is based on the level of your electronics skill. That quality value has been recorded since the launch of the game in Early Access, so, if you have scanned hundreds of planets you should see a nice reward. As your electronics skill improves, planetary scan quality is increased. You also gain a small faction bonus with the agents faction when you sell scan data based on the amount of data sold.
SPACE:
UPDATED: Balanced ship shield regeneration and charge levels so they are a bit more in line with what I would expect. Still working on this especially with some of the larger cargo ships.
UPDATED: Increased afterburner speed while in combat. As always, this is a tradeoff. Capacitors are depleted at an accelerated rate if you are flying a ship that is not an interceptor or light fighter.
UPDATED: When you loot cargo from destroyed enemy ships, you now get a small power boost to your shields in addition to any loot you tractor to your cargo hold.
UPDATED: If you are mining, you have a decreased chance of being detected in all systems by scavvers and raiders. Eventually this will be moved to a device you can purchase and equip on your ship (Signature Suppressor). These devices will be of varying qualities and suppress your electronics signature. Your turrets must be actively mining for the effect to be active. For now, the effect is set at a moderate level. There is always some degree of risk when mining. I'm still working on this system and will make changes over time based on player feedback.
--HOSTILE SYSTEM WITH STATION - Moderate chance of attack if turrets engaged. Ships mining in these systems will likely attack you after a period of time.
--HOSTILE SYSTEM NO STATIONS - Low chance of attack if turrets engaged
--WARY, NEUTRAL OR FRIENDLY SYSTEM WITH OR WITHOUT STATIONS - Low chance of attack if turrets engaged
UPDATED: The universe should feel a bit more alive. Adjustments made to AI ship destination and task processing. Still more work to do on this and I'll be adding a few interesting things over time.
GROUND:
UPDATED: Movement and combat animation speed. These are not the new animations - just a quick first pass at improving the pace of combat before the new animations go in the game.
--General movement speed increased while out of combat.
--Movement speed significantly increased while in combat
--Combat animation speed increased
--Weapon reload speed increased
--NOTE: A few attack types are still a bit slow - this is related to the SFX assigned to that weapon. I'll be cleaning this up with the new animations. There are also a few SFX like full auto and burst on some weapons that have a small sound bug that needs to be fixed
FIXED: Changing weapon fire modes while using the combat queue works again.
FIXED: Improved performance when scrolling star map
FIXED: When the fine aiming key is pressed ( [E] by default ) you will no longer move when clicking an enemy.
FIXED: Heavy weapon mercs will now be assigned the correct weapon type when spawning in the game environment and when initially assigned to your crew.
FIXED: A rare combat lockup related to opening inventory at the exact moment a team members turn was being switched.
FIXED: A combat lockup related to movement while items are in your combat queue. Movement is no longer allowed if you have queued combat attacks. You will need to clear your queue [BACKSPACE] before moving. A message is sent to the log if you are trying to move when a queue is active. I'll be adding a queue indicator to the screen in a future patch.
FIXED: Display of navigation path information is now disabled if you have attacks in your combat queue.
FIXED: Status effects in top rollover info bar while in ground combat are now updated immediately.
Whats coming next?
Passive ground based mining - You will be able to purchase and launch drones to resource nodes on planets where they will mine until full and then notify you so you can retrieve them and sell the ore.
10 more of the ship replacement models will be going in the game:
Pharris Sol EX-2
Pharris Starfox EX-4
Pharris Pike ATK-2
Pharris Mace AK-7
Pharris Starhawk EXG-3
Pharris Shrike ATK-2
Pharris Starnova EXG-2
Pharris Hammer ATKG-1
Pharris Crate MRCH-2
Pharris Crate MRCH-4
And one last screenshot of more ships being worked on.
