The first major story update since the game released is now available. Over the last few years I have been primarily focused on all the core game systems - ground and space combat, salvaging, crafting, trade, special attacks, perks, progression, the ship boarding system and more. It's been great to spend the last few months actually working on the story...finally. This is the first of three major story content updates what will bring the game closer to final release. I hope you all enjoy the new content!
KEY FEATURES
Chapter 1 of the Stellar Tactics story. New missions, new encounters.
To trigger the story content you must:
1) Unlock the FTL drive (if you have not already)
2) Unlock smuggling (if not already unlocked). Speak with Forley Coresh on Achmedius trade station standing near the bar area of the station by the stairs and complete his mission. Everyone should be able to smuggle contraband...right? Doesn't mean you need to do it.
NOTE: You can check to see if smuggling is already unlocked by looking at your log - [L} -> Missions - > Completed tab. If "Speak with Rodger Crayson" is marked as completed, you are all set!
There are several places in the narrative where you will need to wait for a NPC to contact you. Just go about your business for a 1/2 hour or so, and eventually, when entering FTL space, you will receive a communication that moves the story forward. This includes the start of the new content where you will be contacted after a period of time.
You will be heading into deep space and there will be higher level ships in various areas you will travel through. Remember, you can always micro-warp to escape ship combat. So, not a big deal...really. You can complete all story content in the game at any level - even though you may be heading to a dangerous sector, it won't be a problem.
I highly recommend getting the best FTL drive you can afford. Slogging through FTL space with a low tier FTL drive is - well...slow. The piloting perk tree has ship speed perks and tiers that increase your speed.
Just my 2 credits - don't rush the content. Take time to place beacons, take missions if you can and build your crew.
Make sure to place beacons in the systems you will visit. You may need to return and translocating is the fastest way to get back when you need to.
PSIONICS
--Psionics are powered by a special device - the Psionic Amplifier - a reward granted when playing through the story. This device is equipped in the sidearm slot on any one crew member.
--There is only one Psionic Amplifier. There are no upgrades and they do not drop as loot.
--Instead of improved variants dropping, the player is given a lot of control over how the device works.
--The device cannot be sold or destroyed.
--The Psionic Amplifier requires at least 20 BASE INT to equip. That is a PURE 20 INT not modified by equipment bonuses. It does not have a skill type that levels like other weapons. It does not have perks or mod slots. Instead, the device has a rudimentary interface that lets you create and edit psionic amplifications - the Psionic Editor. The higher your INT/PER, the more power you have to overload and to add a secondary effect to amplifications.
--The power of psionic amplifications is governed by INT and partially by PER. Bonus INT and PER above your BASE INT does affect your amplifications.
--INT and PER are the key STATS for psionics. INT has the greatest effect and PER provides a lower bonus. So, respec to INT/PER and loot that +INT/+PER gear.
--The power of your amplifications related to INT/PER is expressed as available MIND. As your stats increase, the amount of available MIND increases. Through the use of the Psionic Editor, you will notice that INT/PER increase the power of amplifications and reduce the possibility of damaging your crew member.
--There is no limiting resource to Psionic amplifications. That is, you can use psionics indefinitely unless you are overloading and then Medkits are a resource you want available.
--Psionics cannot sprint. Instead, their specials for the sidearm slot are locked and used as reference and to access the Psionic Editor.
--For psionics, it's important to understand "Initiative" which is used to calculate turn order. Initiative is calculated primarily from DEX and AGI with a bonus from INT. So, you will likely want to pump some stat points into DEX or AGI depending on whether or not your primary weapon is ranged or melee.
PSIONIC EDITOR:
The editor can be accessed after equipping the amplifier in your sidearm slot. The amplifier needs to be selected as your active weapon. You will find an icon on the toolbar where special attacks are usually located. Your currently equipped amplification is displayed in the first of the two special attack slots. The editor icon is the second icon in the special attack area.
To edit an amplification:
--Open the editor by selecting the "cog" icon on the toolbar.
--Select the amplification you want to edit in the list and select "EDIT AMPLIFICATION".
--You can now select the attack type, effect type and a secondary effect from the lists on the left.
--You can edit the name of the amplification.
--You can edit the description of the amplification.
--You can overload the amplification by sliding the bar to the right. Note that you can actually harm your crew member if the mind cost enters the "HEALTH COST PER CAST" area.
--You can select a icon for the amplification by clicking the icon.
When you are done, select "SAVE AMPLIFICATION"
To create a amplification:
Same process as above. The only difference is that you will select "CREATE AMPLIFICATION" and save a new amplification by clicking "SAVE".
Ordering the amplification bar:
The amplification bar is displayed in and out of combat when the amplifier is equipped and your sidearm is selected. Damage amplifications cannot be used when out of combat.
You can change the order of amplifications in the bar by opening the Psionic Editor and dragging the icons from the list at the top of the editor to the bar at the bottom of the UI.
Amplifications toolbar:
Damage amplifications - Select a amplification from the bar (or use the hotkeys 1 - 8). Note that amplification is loaded into the toolbar below. Like any ranged weapon, just target the enemy and fire. You can queue multiple amplifications and targets using the combat queue (Shift-Click and then space bar to unleash).
Heals and cleanses.
Select a heal or cleanse from the hot bar. Note the icon is flashing. Like medkits, these amplifications require you to click a target or portrait. If you want to disable the amplification, you must select another amplification. Subsequent uses of the amplification can be triggered by clicking or using the hotkey for that amplification. Note that while a heal or cleanse amplification is selected and active, weapon swap, medkits and grenades cannot be used.
Psionic GROUP amplifications can target a single enemy and damage all enemies in that group, even if they are not visible. Heals, buffs and cleanses target your entire crew regardless of visibility.
Psionic PBAoE amplifications deal damage in a area around the targeted enemy. Heals, buffs and cleanses target crew in the area of the targeted crew member.
Overloading a psionic amplification can damage a crew member. In certain circumstances, this may be useful for additional negative or positive effects. I'm leaving it to you to decide.
Psionics can heal, remove status effects and buff stats. Buffs last through the entire area. When you transition between areas, the buff is lost.
For now, there is no indication that a buff is active. I'll be adding this in a future update. You can reference your base stats to see if a bonus is active.
An important note: This is the first pass of Psionics. I'll be making adjustments over time to the system. I will be looking at expanding on the system to add other effects and upgrades through Chapter 2 of the story.
FACTION AGENTS
Faction agents for Houses Conrair, Aralion and Cilivon are now active. You can spend your tokens on legendary ship equipment. Epic ship ship equipment must be crafted. Each faction specializes in various equipment types.
Faction agent vendors for Houses Halamis, Shikaru and Varadyne now also trade high tier weapons, shields and mods for faction tokens. They can occasionally carry high quality level 1 weapons if you are considering swapping your weapon spec. You can always find level 1 weapons on a vendor at Achmedius Trade Station.
RESPEC
You can now reset crew stats. For now, this is free and you can reset your STATS at any time for all crew members. You will find a new button on the character information panel in the upper left corner above the stat allocation area of the UI.
Some Phage and all Coven enemies use psionic attacks.
The Coven are now included in the main game story. They can also be found in various random mission locations and as targets for random missions assigned by faction agents.
SALVAGING WRECKS
Wrecks can now be found in star systems. These can be mined and offer higher quality ore and random ship repair components used to repair equipment on boarded ships. These are discovery locations. Scanning a planet or ship may show a green highlight briefly indicating the location of a wreck.
Salvaging wrecks completely will generate a loot crate.
AZNARI RUINS
Aznari ruins can be found after triggering a certain mission in the main story. These areas have new enemy types.
NEW LOOT
In ground combat, skull enemies may occasionally drop loot chests with high quality gear.
QOL CHANGES
SALVAGE UI QoL
- Schematics that are being learned through salvaging are now displayed on the salvaging UI with percent complete in the Schematics view on the right of the screen. Completed schematics show no % complete.
- Selecting an item to salvage now displays items that can be salvaged in the disassembly pane of the salvage UI.
- When selecting an item to salvage, pressing ESC will cancel that item rather than exiting the salvage UI allowing you to select another item to disassemble.
Right clicking an equip-able item other than mods in your inventory will equip it. Double click still works to equip items.
The stat allocation widget now allocates stats quickly when you click and hold the mouse over the allocation arrows.
Your ships now accelerate immediately when micro-warping.
When looting, if you do not have the room in inventory for all ammo, the loot container will close and a message will be sent to display that you do not have enough room in inventory for the ammo. Just a note that there is a ammo converter in the game that you can purchase from one of the faction vendors. I leave ammo in the containers in case you have an ammo converter and want to convert ammo in inventory to another ammo type to make room.
Sorting:
- Added sorting for the stash. You can now sort by quality, name, value, type and quantity.
- Added sorting to vendors. You can sort by quality, type, value and quantity.
- Added a compact inventory icon to the upper right of the shared inventory area. This organizes in the following order - med kits, grenades, devices, armor, melee weapons, ranged weapons and finally - vendor trash.
- I will be adding improved sorting to the cargo, cargo storage and other areas in the next update.
Removed the annoying vendor dialog. When you click a vendor, the vendor UI is displayed immediately.
When out of combat, pressing the reload hotkey [R] will reload all weapons for all crew members. Right click to reload all still works.
GENERAL NOTES
Translations for the new content will be rough for a while. I'll post updates over the next month as translations to German, Spanish, Russian and French languages progress.
Updated - When boarding a ship, space combat experience is rewarded when selling the ship to Arkus. You can still get experience by exiting the ship and not selling to Arkus, then blowing up the ship. Or, as usual, by destroying ships in space combat without boarding.
Updated - Difficulty setting modifications to NPC's now kick in at level 1. Previously, difficulty settings for hard and extreme had no effect on NPC's until your crews average level was level 5 or greater.
Updated - Ramped up Extreme difficulty mode.
Updated - Various enemy types have Psionic skills - especially Coven and Phage.
Updated - Dauntless - Removed grenades from "Captain".
Updated - Added cave areas to random missions at the Facility in Achmedius.
Updated - Devices can not be destroyed or sold. They are considered key items.
Updated - Replaced some of the Arach sound effects.
Updated - Grenade damage adjusted -> down.
Updated - Increased 2 hand melee CTH and damage.
Updated - You can now rollover status effects for descriptions (bleeding, defend, poisoned etc.) in the extended targeting UI.
Updated - Increased LOS visual angle for NPC's and PC's so they do not have tunnel vision.
Updated - Performance improvements in space. - LOD, distance clipping, UI performance related to NPC ship labels etc.
Updated - In space, when a target is selected and obstructed by a planet, the target reticle is faded to let you know the target is on the other side of the planet.
Updated - In space, if a ship is obstructed by a planetary object, the label is faded.
Updated - When rolling over repair material icons in the equipment repair UI, the name of the repair material is displayed.
Updated - Reduced chance of a random attack taking place when entering a star system from a station, ground location and FTL space.
Fixed - When a grenade is active, occasionally you would move instead of throw the grenade when you clicked.
Fixed - When gaining piloting skill in space combat, the log was displaying the incorrect string - WEAPONRY. Piloting skill gains were not affected - just the display string in the log.
Fixed - If armor was unequipped in combat, the player was invulnerable to damage. This was related to an error in the equipment wear system.
Fixed - Universe search now responds correctly to enter key - searching the existing list of systems with beacons first and if no result, entire universe database.
Fixed - Arach parts are now considered vendor trash and are sold when selling all junk.
Fixed - After clearing the slice mines for Scarby, the return location is selected when choosing the mission in the objectives tracker in space.
Fixed - The approach button is now displayed after scanning a planet. Previously a scan would hide the approach button until you selected the planet again.
Fixed - Cleaned up various sub faction agents that should not be giving missions at this time. They will return eventually and provide alternate mission types (The Syndicate, The Church etc...).
Fixed - When boarding the Frontier CG-1 several doors on this ship could not be hacked/opened.
Fixed - In some cases, when looting a ship equipment crate on boarded ships - not all equipment was being moved to the cargo hold.