Greetings executives, today you are getting some really cool features.
Thanks to all the feedback I have been getting through the game and on the Discord channel I have implemented the following changes, if you familiar with the game please pay close attention to the concept changes.
New tech levels
A lot of feedback I was getting was that the tech tree was a bit confusing and also despite its size was very much unused. Generally people would go for the laser weapons, a few key buildings and that was it, the new tech level system should help rebalance this and also give a better understanding to how to progress down the tree, this will also stop people reaching higher tier weapons very quickly
In order to upgrade to the next level you need to build and upgrade a research outpost costing money, this important change makes manufacturing goods and trading so much more vital to the game now and also makes it important to defend such a key structure, loosing a research outpost will not lower your tech rating, however if it is captured it will upgrade the tech rating of who ever gets it.
New faction system
Factions were always a bit confusing as to what exactly they did so this has now been streamlined. A faction will now blow up a deployed outpost if you don’t pay them rent for use of their space with either a planetary defence laser or another type of weapon, so make sure you keep them happy.
New crate system
All robots, Executrons and CEOs can now pick up and carry crates around, these crates contain either goods such as Ironite and coolant or a deployable object such as a turret. This new content will now give Executrons more to do such as setting up kill zones with traps and turrets, installing new efficiency modules and I’m sure in the future many more things.
To deploy crates you now have a multi tool which when fired at a deployable crate will unpack it, using the right mouse button you can repack it again, the multi tool will also scan crates to show its contents.
Crates can either be found in space floating around, on derelict space stations or processed out of your goods factory in the new packing machine which will turn anything in your cargo hold into a crate, crates can also be inserted back into the cargo hold too from the same factory.
New delivery system
Can now order placeables directly from a delivery company at a much higher price than the trader.
New upgrades
You can now upgrade the efficiency of buildings like the robot factory by buying an upgrade module from a trader and manually inserting it into a slot in the building.
This does the same thing as over charging the reactor but on a permanent basis.
New units
Dauntless class ship - This is a new fast attack starship is great for initially expanding your empire with 4 weapon points and overcharged engines for quick turns and zooming around the cosmos.
Battlecruiser class ship - Not quite as big as the battleship but an excellent cheaper alternative to it.
Z12 Bot - Z11 bots not quite cutting it? Try the new and improved Z12 with extra armour.
New weapons
Starship machine guns weapons have been adjusted and re balanced as well as graphically altered to look more exciting.
Robot now have Oulsator guns and super heated laser beams which can vaporise robots.
New corridors
You can now build long glass corridors to help with base design and also for simply enjoying the view, there is a limit to how many you can make to help with game mechanics
New formation system
By holding down the right mouse button when telling ships to move you can now make them move into formation, also telling a group of ships to move somewhere will now keep them in that formation
New encounter
Make sure you have defences in your home star system as you never know when you might be hit by a giant asteroid.
Fixes and changes
Along with these new features there are the usual fixes and changes including:
- New graphics for the raider ships.
- Overview screen has been replaced with building controls screen
- Can now self destruct segments to help with base design
- RTS camera now zooms to the mouse pointer correctly
- New music has been added included winning/loosing music
- You can now simply click on an outposts roof to bring up its options.
- Ships and turrets will no longer try and shoot through shields or your own ships to try and attack another target.
- Beam weapons now correctly damage shields over multiplayer correctly.
- Level 3 machine guns on spaceships now only launch 3 shots instead of 5
- The number of audio sources in the game has been reduced which should help it randomly cutting out
- The Ion cloud no longer causes damage to ships but simply drains shields and coolant reserves.
- Can now press and hold on certain plus and negative buttons on console to help with manufacturing
- Lights on derelict outposts now start off.
- You can now stop a ship attacking a derelict
- Pressing ‘ when typing will no longer bring up the bug submission form
- Improved accuracy on turrets a little.
- The unit fabrication screen will now remember your last layout
- Health bars are now under the building UI
- Can no longer build ships/robots on other people stations
- Collisions with other robots is now removed, should help stability.
- Ironite now added to unit fabrication screen
- Tooltip shouldn’t get stuck any more
- Can now bring up main menu when in fighter as CEO or execution
- Fixed shields and railings in repair facility
- Outpost ships now have a fleet cost of 1
- Control panels now update when the research is done
- Function keys now work for Executrons when in Excecudisplay
- Ships now move fire at structures from a distance
- Dragging a box over units will no longer select civilian ships unless they are the only thing in the box
- Auto buy Ironite and coolant now off by default
- Ships come out of the warp tunnel at the correct y axis
- Bribing factions as now been removed as no longer needed
- Lighting weapon now works better against shielded units
- Feedback from factions no longer needs 2 separate windows
- Notification system is now colour coded to help with priority
- Mining ships now group up in sensors
- Monolith now fires correctly over multiplayer
- Ships no longer attack other ships when their health is 0
- Health bar graphics now scale according to the zoom
- System information bars are now easier to understand
- Defence platforms now remember their state after loading
- No longer inundated with diplomatic messages after loading
- Can now see dropped cargo in the RTS screen easier
- Key mapping has been updated
As you would expect with some big changes to the game there will be some balancing issues so please let me know your thoughts on this. Also the new crate system is fairly new so expect even more exciting additions to it.
Thank you all again for your continued support and help in the development of the game, as always please submit bugs through the game.
Cheers,
Rob