Welcome back everyone! It’s been a while since our last post and the last 10 days have been very busy preparing and testing the features coming in our next update. That’s right, the next patch to land will be the 0.2 content update and you can expect it sometime mid June! So today to keep the ball rolling, we are going to explain another feature that was only hinted at so far: Spawning mechanics and loot distribution rework!
We were never really content with the current spawning system. Starting locations, outposts, even modules and derelicts have been a “tad too random” for our taste. So we’ve decided to change them in a meaningful way. To start off we will talk about “zones and item tiers”. Zones are large areas typically corresponding to planets and moons that are all specific in a certain way and they will usually have one or two unique points of interest that are always visible to all players. Zones are broken down into several categories according to the events that can occur, difficulty and type of loot players can expect to find. Type of loot corresponds with the zone type, while the quality is determined by “Item tier”. As is customary, the greater the risk, the greater the reward.
The goal is to provide players with a general idea where they should go if they are looking for a specific item, or a group of items. One does not usually go to the pharmacy when looking for an assault rifle, or to a residential district to find some mining gear. In total there are four item tiers and five types of zones: starting, civilian, industrial, military and special.
The Starting zone is, as you might expect, a region where all new players will begin their adventure. This is mainly to cluster players together and make it easier to find and connect with others. So, no more flying across half the system to meet up with your friends. However since these are starting areas, the loot you can find is of the lowest tier.
Civilian zones are former residential areas, locations that at some point during Hellion’s colonization held a large civilian population, before whatever happened turned Hellion into a wasteland. Aside from upgrades for your living quarters this is also not a bad place to look for some spare parts, excess corridors new crew quarters, etc.
Industrial zones are places where most of Hellion’s infrastructure was once located. If you need some mining gear or a new EVA suit this is a place to visit. It is also a go to place if you need to refine some fuel or look for a cargo module.
Military zones are former troop staging locations. Running into weapons and ammo is quite common in these areas, but supplies and resources might be a bit scarce. So if you are looking for a new rifle, or just want a new handgun for your collection, visit one of these locations.
Finally, Special zones follow the same above pattern being divided into civilian, industrial and military, but have a few key distinctions. These are the only places where players can hope to find equipment of the highest tier. They are by far the most dangerous of all the zones and these are also the places where “Doomed outposts” will be making their inevitable descent, along with the best items in the game.
In addition to zones and item tiers, module spawning was also reworked. Up until now modules were spawned individually at random locations around planets and moons. In 0.2.0 update, modules and derelicts will often spawn in “clusters”, sometimes docked and sometimes free. These clusters will also appear as single locations on your nav panel for easier navigation and identification.
To top it off, all of these settings will be made easy to access and change, allowing players who host their own servers to easily adjust zones settings and loot distribution patterns.
So to recap, there will be no further patches until the 0.2 content update, and that also means no more server wipes until then. With the exception of one last wipe tomorrow May 27 at 10:00 CEST that is 08:00 UTC, or 1AM PST.
That is all from us today, until next time fly safe.