This week's update adds a new damage mechanic with a massive impact on ship building and combat. Hull, glass, beams, and plating are now “blast resistant”. Blast resistant parts will split AoE damage amongst all blast resistant parts in the AoE instead of taking full damage. So 4 armor plates hit by a 100 damage AoE would each take 25 damage for 100 total. 4 armor plates and an engine hit by a 100 damage AoE would take 25 damage to the armor plates and 100 to the engine for 200 total.
This change is a massive increase to the durability of hull structures. Blast resistance shifts some power away from AoE weapons to piercing and single target weapons but also increases the power of hull over functional part ship frames. If the weakest part of your ship was the pilot seat it likely no longer is. These big changes will likely be followed up by balance changes in the future relative to the hitpoint balance between blast resistant and non-blast resistant parts.
Join us on Discord for public playtests Friday at 12pm ET, Saturday at 3pm ET, and Monday at 7pm ET.
1.20.2
Major Features
- Added blast resistance. Blast resistant parts split the damage of an AoE amongst themselves instead of each part taking full damage.
- Hull, plating, glass, beams, blast cannons and gatling cannons are now blast resistant.
Minor Features
- Reworked damage reduction to reduce a percent of damage instead of a flat amount.
- Reworked armor penetration to reduce a percent of damage reduction instead of a flat amount.
- Tweaked armor penetration values of all weapons to match the new percent reduction system.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed boarding charges not showing their indicator.
- Fixed allies not syncing properly when joining an expedition.