Hi!
Another update is here and this time it's mostly focused on the new HUD elements. While not completely done yet, it's the first part of the HUD and GUI overhaul we're currently working on. There are other things too of course, see for yourself:
16"/50 Mark 7 Nuclear Gun Battery
The old naval guns from Iowa and Montana class battleships have been salvaged and heavily modified for use in space, complete with material synthesis reloading that allows it to create nuclear ammo from energy generated on the ship.
Ever felt like your large ships lacked firepower? If you're willing to put up with slow rotation, reload and the restricted angle of fire it just may be the gun for you.
Triple 16'' guns fire high explosive nuclear warheads that have a large area effect on the target.
Unlike the other turrets which can rotate a full 360 degrees, this one is limited to 240 degrees (120 on each side) - which allows it to be mounted a lot closer to any other modules on the rear side.
Be sure to attach a ton of reactors to go along with it however.
The New HUD (Part 1)
The main feature of this update are the new parts of the HUD however. The conversion from the old system is about 50% done with the quest/conversation and energy system coming up next.
The Lockon
And now the much requested lockon ability. If you press the middle mouse button (or the alternate key defined in the controls menu) while your mouse is close to an object it'll start the lockon process. When that's done you can use that target with various abilities.
The tractor beams have also been converted to use the lockon target instead of the T key target (which has been removed).
Abilities and the Hotbar
With the old pull down menu gone, its place is now taken by the brand new ability hotbar.
While the speed indicator is still here, the fuel bar has been moved to the top and the bank account is now on the bottom right.
The hotbar's abilities can be moved around using the Configurator (explained below)
You can also reassign the buttons to any ludicrous key you want and it will display its name on the hotbar.
The first parts of the command limit are here as well. Now each command pod has an amount of modules it can support while still being capable of warping:
At the moment the game economy hasn't yet been updated to an "expensive command pod" model so you can take all your old ships and refit them with more command pods if they require them.
The Configurator
To fully customize your loadout and keep your hotbar free from clutter there is an inventory made specifically for these programs.
Here you can also read a short description about each ability and learn about it's uses, requirements and reload times.
Weapon Firing Groups
Another very highly requested feature, this selection menu (that you can fire up from the ability configurator's [Weapon Firing Groups] button) allows you to select a group for each weapon.
These three groups then define how the weapon behaves and when it's activated and are shown on the hotbar by default.
And these are the current firegroups as represented on the hotbar:
Primary Group #1 - Your usual old manual mouse controlled weapons.
Primary Group #2 - Same as group #1 and useful if you want to have some guns separately activatable from others.
Secondary Battery- The autofire group that can be assigned to all turret-based weaponry. These guns will shoot at the locked on target if the group is active.
The New Info Panel
Instead of the center top pulldown menu which has been removed, there is now a side info panel on the very right of the screen.
It can be opened only by clicking the [<] button at the moment, and it features various ship stats and also a new control feature: the demagenetize button.
At first the button is disabled so you need to press the "ARM" button to turn it on, then it's active and will detach every single one of the modules currently on your ship.
It should allow you to quickly restart building your ship from scratch without starting a new game or taking off the modules one by one.
Changelog:
Additions:
- abilities and a hotbar/configurator system to manage and use them
- lockon
- command pods now have a maximum amount of modules that they can support while still being capable of doing warp calculations
- the 16''/50 Mark 7 Nuclear Gun Battery
- two new acheivements
- sound effects to most menu buttons
- the Demagnetize Ship button which detaches all modules from your command pod
Changes:
- the plasma turret now fires more slowly to balance it for autofire
- removed old bindings for shields, tractor beams and reactors as they are now abilities and toggleable through the hotbar
- replaced most of the old hud
Fixes:
- fixed mouse wheel not registering on some scrollbars
Known issues as of 1.07:
- The music slider does not update the volume until the options menu is closed.
- Larger ships are rather intensive on performance right now
- Task and chat windows can appear off-screen on large resolutions (2560x1440 and above)
Now I know there must be some of you slightly disappointed at the lack of rocket and torpedo launchers but well, the time constraints didn't cut it so you'll likely see it in the next update.
Thanks for reading!