I'm pleased to release Chapter 2 today. It's been a long road and I do hope everyone enjoys the new content. As always, it is likely a few bugs will surface over the next few days so I will keep an eye on the forums for any issues. If you do find any issues, please post on the bug forums here. Any details and screenshots you can provide will help: https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/
Localization - The English and German versions of the game are in good shape at this time. French, Spanish and Russian translations will be very rough. If you are interested in translating any of these three languages, send a note to [email protected] and I'll get back to you.
You will not need to start a new game if you have an existing save. I do not wipe saves between content updates.
CHAPTER 2 - Pick up where you left off after completing chapter 1 with a message when entering space. Note that there are some very tough battles in this chapter so, grenades, Azimuth (when you get it) and Psionics will really help.
AZIMUTH - The final ground combat system to be implemented. Azimuth is a reward received during the chapter 2 story. It provides you with a variety of powerful effects that can be mixed and matched to both benefit your crew during combat and to debuff enemies. Effects last through an entire combat area so they are best used either at the start of an area or when you have tough enemies to defeat. Azimuth uses energy gathered over time through combat, space travel and by charging Azimuth with Aznari Shards. Chapter 3 (the final chapter) will introduce Azimuth which can be used in space combat.
MISSION NPCs - Mission NPC's can now be found on stations. When pressing the highlight key (TAB by default), mission NPC's are highlighted in BLUE. These missions offer cash rewards, loot, faction tokens and general faction. All of these missions have several stages/locations that need to be visited with different objectives and pay out rewards based on the number of stages required to complete the mission for the NPC. This is the first pass at NPC missions. I expect that I will be expanding on and refining the NPC mission system over time.
TRADE AND SMUGGLING MISSIONS - Trade and smuggling missions will be offered occasionally when entering a star system that has orbiting stations. These missions are only offered if a star system does not have an ACCEPTED buy or sell order registered in your Trade Net. Expand your trade network using beacons to take advantage of these missions.
- These missions always pay out bonuses that are above market value so it is always worthwhile taking the missions when offered.
- There is no timer so you can have as many as 20 of these missions available at any time. 20 is the maximum number of active trades allowed via the Trade-Net.
- Note that you can fulfil ore and refined ore missions by mining and refining ore yourself. Or, you can just buy the goods on the Trade Net. Of course, mining and refining ore will offer the most profit from these contracts.
- The volume required by these missions - that is the number of items needed to fulfil a contract, is based on your current cargo capacity. Ships with more cargo will be offered larger batches of commodities to trade.
- Trade contracts scale based on the amount of credits you have available when the contract is offered.
- There are special contracts that reward a very high return. These are offered by NPCs you have met through the games story content.
- Trade contracts can be canceled in the Trade-Net with no penalty.
BOARDING MISSIONS - Phestus will offer simple boarding missions - so he can retire, you know. He will start giving you missions once you have a FTL Drive after you complete his story mission in Achmedius.
- Only one boarding mission is offered at a time.
- To receive the reward, board any ship of the type that Phestus needs parts for. When selling the ship to Arkus, Arkus will route the parts to Phestus and Phestus will reward you.
- These missions cannot be abandoned. To get another mission, you should complete the current mission provided by Phestus.
- These missions are basically a bonus to the payout you receive and give players specific ships to target.
- Pick your targets carefully. Boarding ships will reduce your standing with the owners main faction.
A NEW MISSION TYPE related to the chapter 2 story line. This is a ongoing permanent mission in your log. You will know what it is when you you get it.
ACCESS STATION CARGO FROM SPACE: You can now approach any non-hostile station and access the stations cargo terminal without boarding. This makes it a lot easier to store ore you are mining and deliver trade goods between stations. To display the cargo icon, click the station itself in space when you are close enough to board. A new icon will be displayed allowing you access to the cargo interface.
ADDED NOTES ON THE STAR MAP: You can now add notes to star systems on the star map. Selecting any star system will display a notes area above the lower-center detail console. Star systems that have notes will display a green box around the star system.
YOU CAN NOW VIEW SHIP REPAIR COMPONENTS: Harvested ship repair components used for boarding can now be viewed on the ship menu [K] by selecting the new button under the ore refinery. Note that ship repair components used to repair boarded ships can be harvested from other ships, or, ideally by salvaging wreckage in Star Systems. Salvaging wreckages is the best way to gather these materials.
GENERAL PATCH NOTES:
UPDATED - Additional checks are now in place to avoid bad enemy target clicks that lead to movement instead of attacks. In addition, when rolling over an enemy in combat, the enemy will pause animation so you can get a very "clean" target selection. Previously, some enemies animations could lead to bad information at the moment a player would click, leading to an unintended move. Hopefully this reduces or eliminates these annoyances. Let me know what you think on the forums. Is this better, worse?
UPDATED - Fog of war data on the ground area map [M] now persists between areas and saves.
UPDATED - Phestus will now give you a mission to meet with Forley Coresh in Achmedius after you purchase the FTL drive from him when exiting his station. This fixes the missing quest link that would lead players to the start of Chapter 1. Regardless of when you got your FTL drive, the next time you enter a star system, the new mission will be triggered if you have not already spoken with Forley Coresh.
UPDATED - Added directional indicators to the mini-map/radar for N,S,E and W. The "camera" FOV indicator now has a arrow tick mark for identifying the direction your camera is facing.
UPDATED - Reduced INT bonuses to initiative for player and NPC's. This still needs work as INT is generating too much initiative.
UPDATED - When pressing the highlight key bind, NPC's that can be recruited are now highlighted in green. NPC's that have procedural missions are highlighted in blue. Faction agents are highlighted in blue.
UPDATED - Ship loot containers now display distance to the players ship.
UPDATED - Moved star system player spawn point and jump points away from planetary orbits to avoid possibly intersecting with a planets on spawn.
UPDATED - No random attacks when entering Achmedius - this is to smooth out the starting experience in the game. This also applies to attacks related to carrying contraband.
UPDATED - Added more responses when selecting NPCs.
FIXED - Removed shields from creature type enemies.
FIXED - A number of typos in the English language files.
FIXED - Multiple clicks on exits and during loading could lead to a level lockup or misaligned camera.
FIXED - Corrected feedback text to log when delivering trade contracts.
FIXED - Several localization errors.
FIXED - Various areas - map and mini-map did not correctly display the map background.
FIXED - A non-critical bug related to experience when selling ships to Arkus.
FIXED - Visual error with Psionic bleed projectiles.
FIXED - Mission objectives UI under radar/map for boarded areas and new areas that use the UI is now correctly displayed when entering or re-entering these areas.
AND FINALLY, A SUPPORTER DLC
I am also releasing a supporter pack for Stellar Tactics today. I've been asked many times to add a way to help support the game. I finally decided to put together a few things that I think people would like. It contains a unique ship not found elsewhere in the universe, poster art, 3D printer models for those of you who have 3D printers and a few other things. For those of you who do decide to purchase the DLC, many thanks. And as always, regardless of whether you purchase the DLC, thank you for supporting the game.
WHATS NEXT:
Well, Chapter 3 of course! Here is a list of things I'll be looking at. Some of these may be released between now and the Chapter 3 content.
- With Azimuth in the game, I'll be able to make final adjustments to the combat system.
- Adjusting the initiative system and exposing more information when rolling initiative.
- Better STAT descriptions that are in line with any changes I make above.
- Mining system changes. The current mining system is fairly basic. I'd like to make this a bit more interesting.
- Adjustments to various effects in the game.
- Tweaks to space combat.
- Knocking off rough edges everywhere. That includes final passes at the various game systems.
- Expanded faction warfare system and FTL map events.
- Advanced game settings.
Answers to two common questions I see:
[Q] When will achievements be added.
[A] After chapter 3 is complete so I can tie achievements into all the game content.
[Q] When will custom portrait support be added.
[A] With chapter 3.
Many will ask - when? When will chapter 3 be finished? December. Of course, I may need more time - we will see. I'll keep everyone posted as I make progress.