Lots of changes today and a few bug fixes. Meanwhile, I am working on the Chapter 2 content which should be released late December or January soon. Notes below.
GAME ENGINE UPDATED:
Much smoother gameplay even with saves that have hundreds of hours played. In general, the updated core engine will provide better visual fidelity and smoother camera movement
Camera smoothing updated.
The game engine now requests the highest power GPU for laptops and systems that have both Intel and NVidia/ATI GPU's. In the past, this was a problem. In many cases the default settings on Laptops were trying to render the game on the Intel GPU which was much slower and in some cases did not fully support the shaders required to render game effects, causing crashes on these systems. The work around was to manually force high power rendering through the control panels.
NOTE: The new engine only supports 64bit OS. For 32bit OS, the game will fall back to the older renderer/engine.
RADAR MINI-MAP:
The radar now includes a mini-map of the area.
CHARACTER CREATION UPDATED:
When starting a new game, you are now presented with three options that set both a starting ship and career bonuses. When exiting the Aznari ruins, your career choice will set the ship type you find waiting for you on the planets surface. Career bonuses can be found below:
BOUNTY HUNTER - INTERCEPTOR: PHARRIS MACE AK-7
EXPLORER - Pharris Starhawk EXG-3
MERCHANT - Tarsus MRCH-2
NOTES:
The Tarsus MRCH-2 has had it's turrets adjusted. When a Tarsus MRCH-2 is reviewed at a ship vendor, when purchased, or as the starter ship, the turret configuration will be 4 light turret and 2 light missile hard points. The missile turrets have been downgraded to light mount points from heavy hardpoints. If you have already purchased a Tarsus MRCH-2, the heavy mountpoints will remain as they were before the patch until you swap them for another turret. This was done to balance the starting ships and bring the ship in line with the cost/value.
The Pharris Starhawk EXG-3 has had its default cargo increased from 850 to 1170 cargo so drone ore cargo can be retrieved. Though really, if you want to retrieve ore instead of auto-sell, you are better off with more cargo space.
CAREER BONUSES:
When loading an existing save, you will be given the option to select a CAREER BONUS. These are the same bonuses applied by selecting your starting career in character creation - less the choice of your starting ship. These bonuses are permanent:
BOUNTY HUNTER
GUNNERY: +5% DAMAGE BONUS SPACE COMBAT (ACTIVE SHIP)
MORALE: +5% DAMAGE BONUS GROUND COMBAT (ALL CREW MEMBERS)
EXPLORER
SCAN MASTERY: FACTION AGENTS PAY DOUBLE FOR YOUR SCAN DATA.
KEEN EYE: YOU TEND TO FIND BETTER EQUIPMENT WHEN LOOTING CHESTS AND LOCKERS
MERCHANT
NEGOTIATOR: +10% PROFIT WHEN DELIVERING TRADE ORDERS FOUND ON THE TRADE-NET.
CHARISMATIC: VENDORS CHARGE 10% LESS FOR EVERYTHING – EVEN SHIPS
SHIP CLASS BONUSES:
All ships now have ship class bonuses:
INTERCEPTOR, LIGHT FIGHTER, MEDIUM FIGHTER, HEAVY FIGHTER:
AFTERBURNERS DO NOT DEPLETE CAPACITOR (This was always the case with Interceptors and Light Fighters).
+10% BONUS TO SPEED IN STAR SYSTEMS.
EXPLORER
+10% SPEED BONUS IN FTL SPACE
+50% SCAN RANGE
LIGHT MERCHANT, MEDIUM, HEAVY MERCHANT AND CARGO CARRIER:
+10% MINING TURRET SPEED.
+10% DRONE MINING SPEED.
QUICK TUTORIALS:
New mini tutorials that quickly walk players through basic systems. - extended information is still available in the in-game guide and on the Wiki https://stellartactics.fandom.com/wiki/Stellar_Tactics_Wiki. You can disable tutorials in the options menu.
- When first entering space. Basic ship systems and navigation.
- First entering space combat. Basic ship combat and combat systems.
- When entering a star system once your FTL drive is equipped. How to enter FTL space and basic information about travel, faction agents and Star System recommended levels.
- A tutorial when first entering FTL space. Basic FTL navigation.
- A tutorial for beacons. Information related to placing and using beacons for fast travel and initializing the Trade-Net.
- Additional tutorials will be available in future patches for ground exploration, ground combat, hacking, salvaging, crew management, crafting, Trade-Net, boarding, mining and drones.
WANDERING NPC'S:
Mercs for hire now wander around stations.
Mercs have a YELLOW dot on radar - other NPC's that are not merchants or faction agents have a BLUE dot. These NPC's will issue random missions in a future update.
UPDATED - Improved load times.
UPDATED - NPC ships regardless of faction are no longer hostile to the player until Dr. Rhamus and Dr. Jensen leave your crew. Note that incursions will also not be generated until the Dr's leave your crew. You can still attack ships at which point ships will become hostile.
UPDATED - The game radar was overhauled. It now includes a map of the area in the background.
UPDATED - Cursor lock for multiple monitors is enabled again.
UPDATED - Excess weapon ammo will not be generated as loot.
FIXED - After collecting the scanner from Dr. Rhamus, you could return to Crayson's Depot and Dr. Rhamus would still be at this location.
FIXED - Rolling over the Aznari scanner would not display the mission percent complete.
FIXED - An exploit when buying faction equipment and selling to merchants.
LOCALIZATION NOTE: New strings in languages other than English and German will be rough until a new round of localization is completed.