Greetings commanders!
This is a special update! Not only because it has a ton of features, but also because I'm launching my Patreon! If you don't know what Patreon is, it's a platform where you can subscribe to support my work in exchange for exclusive benefits, according to how much you want to contribute. Benefits vary from becoming a Beta Tester, and in higher tiers, designing your own NPC crewman, which will appear in-game for all players to use!
As a solo indie developer, every bit of financial support is much appreciated, so we can focus on what we love the most: making games. And I want to make Star Valor one of the best Space ARPGs!
So, if you like my work and where I'm going with the game, you can find my Patreon link in the game main menu.
Ok, Now to the update:
One of the main changes here is the introduction of Carriers, the first of many ship "roles" that will be added to the game. Besides being frequently requested, it adds a lot of fun to fleet building. Another very cool feature is the special stats on weapon mounts, like multi-barrel shots or specific bonuses that can boost certain ship models.
For those who like to fly smaller ships, now you have the option to use Plasma Torpedoes, which are very slow but can benefit greatly from your fast ship's momentum. Just be careful with self-murder ;)
Renaming ships and crafted weapons was also very requested and is finally in the game.
Another big change that you will immediately notice is on the AI. They now choose their weapons better and are bit smarter when using it. Be extra careful with those missile boats! I'd advise having good Point Defenses.
Oh and the game should save and load a bit faster now :)
There is a lot more features and changes, but I'll let you read below.
Please note that, in such a big update (and also Early Access), many things will probably need balancing, which will be done in the upcoming updates. So don't worry, backup your save files if you want to make sure, and go have fun!
Carriers:
- Added ship stat: Hangar, which can be of 2 types. Drone Hangars, which are, currently, just free space for any type of drone. Ship Hangars, which serves as a docking bay for your fleet ships to repair, as long as they are the appropriate size class. Hangar space works like 'fleet space' (2 for shuttle, 3 for yacht, 5 for corvette, and so on). The Hangar space also adds to your current 'Fleet Commander' points.
- Added ship 'roles' to identify its main uses, starting with Carrier. Carriers usually have big hangar space and give certain bonuses to your fleet ships.
- Several ship models were defined as Carriers, like the Horizon, Dominance and Scourge. Others just received Hangar space for ships, like the Titan or the Beetle.
- Added Venghi Size 5 - Cruiser / Carrier, the V5C-A.
Weapon mounts:
- Weapon Mounts may now have special bonuses, which will show up on their tooltip. A 'Star' icon indicates special (positive) bonuses.
- Added multi-barrel weapon mounts. The extra barrels will fire simultaneously or in sequence with the main barrel, but for no cost in ammo, energy or heat. To compensate, however, they usually come with a damage penalty.
- Several ship models had their weapon mounts altered/upgraded.
Crew / Fleet:
- You can now add a nickname to crew members/ship captains, to be used instead of their names in the UI and most log entries.
- The "Order Fire" action (F or the fleet panel button) will now tell fleet ships to focus on that target if possible. The "Hold Fire" action (H or the fleet panel button) will cancel all focus target orders.
- Added a customizable "Launch / Attack" key for each fleet ship. It will launch the ship if docked and set your current target as its "focus target". If the fleet ship is already active, it will only set the focus target.
- You can now see the weapons, armor and shields of mercenaries before hiring them.
- Fleet ships emergency warp threshold no longer resets to 20% and is now 30% by default.
- The level of mercenaries in Arena Mode are now closer to player level.
- Crew members are assigned automatically when there is only one seat option.
Equipment:
- Added weapon: Plasma Torpedo. Very slow energy "projectile" with heavy damage. It's mostly intended to be used by smaller ships while "jousting", which adds momentum to the projectile, increasing its range and speed.
- You can now rename crafted weapons.
- Added equipment: Large Miners Reactor and Weapon Stabilizer.
- Weapon Tooltip now show its main type (plasma, energy, etc) for bonus purposes.
- Venghi Light Blaster received +10 speed and can now hit projectiles and drones.
- Venghi Heavy Blaster received +10 speed, +3 base damage and slightly reduced heat generation.
- Venghi Missile Launcher received +6 base damage, +10% critical chance and now uses 2 missile ammo instead of 3.
- Increased HP of missiles (specially Venghi), drones and mines.
- Several other weapons had their Tech Level requisites changed, as well as some stats.
- Weapons now also stack in the inventory.
- Drone bays no longer have ship size requirement.
AI:
- Reworked AI weapon choice and management. They will now make better use of turrets and PD weapons (gunners will also aim better at projectiles). This can make enemies significantly more dangerous.
- AI ships may now randomly repair nearby allies, if they can.
- Slightly improved "hit and run" combat tactic for AI.
- Increased amount of ammo stored by the AI.
Gameplay / Difficulty
- Random marauder attacks now happen less frequently, especially on controlled sectors. The number of active marauder hideouts in the sector, plus player “bounty” (attract more powerful enemies perk) also affects the attack chance.
- Added 'Bounty' (you attract more powerful enemies) to all station-destroying perks (Genocidal, Star Killer and Traitor).
- Minimum damage needed for 'The Last Starfighter' perk/achievement reduced from 90% to 80%.
- Stations now have increased chance of dropping faction items.
- Drastically increased chance of faction items as 'boss' quest rewards. Chance of orange items are also higher.
- Defeating Hunter Fleet ships over level 20 will always affect reputation.
Other:
- Random Asteroids now spawn in small clusters instead of being scattered anywhere. This will make mineral rich/poor systems more meaningful and should improve saving/loading times. It will also improve navigation on big ships and mining outside proper asteroid fields.
- Save game routine got updated, which should considerably reduce the loss of games due to corrupted files.
- The ship image shown in the Heat Panel now matches your actual ship model.
- The T4 skills that grant +10% equipment space and +10% cargo space are now rounded to nearest integer, instead of rounded down.
- Reduced friction between objects, which should prevent most "ship stuck" situations.
- Sell modifier for ship models increased from 10% to 30% of base price.
- Decreased volume of Drone weapons.
- Added button 'Set Control All', which changes control mode on all gunners at once.
- Reduced 'White Collar' background perk starting credits from 6000 to 3000.
- Updated ship model portraits.
BUG Fixes:
- Fixed BUG that caused "Burst light laser" still being used by high level AI.
- Fixed BUG that would make Sam Holo keep coming back instead of really leaving.
- Fixed weapon tooltip not closing properly after selling an item with shift + right click
- Fixed 'Destroy' button appearing as 'Dismiss' for items.
- Fixed "weird turning" on dreadnoughts (specially the Sanctuary).