TUTORIALS
We added 6 tutorial puzzles to the game. These are relatively loose and build in complexity. They start by teaching one concept at a time and are completed in a single turn. This was the easiest and quickest way for us to teach core concepts in the game without spending the hundreds of hours otherwise needed for a more scripted experience.
We have 6 right now but we plan on extending and refining these to be at least 12 in the future. If people like puzzles we can also further extend these with harder and more complex 2-turn puzzles.
SCENARIOS
We added one new Scenario: Deltoid Arm and we also improved the Androme Escalation mission with easier alternate wins and a tougher end-game from the AI (watch out!). Players will need to stabilize their home area before moving out aggressively now.
MULTI-PLAYER
We added 3 new multi-player maps to the game:
- Divided: Small two front aggressive map
- Gem Quad: Large map with "quick start", you start with two colonies.
- Chaotica: Highly connected map with non-reflected sectors. This is more for casual play.
PLUS - The following maps got changed:
- Nebula Hunt - Players start 1 further from each other nestled behind sectors that always have development slots. This should make the map more friendly to Coalition.
- Devil's Rock - We added a loop around the asteroids, this makes the map larger but also more friendly to players who do not wish to plow through the central asteroid clusters.
Random maps: We changed the frequency of asteroids/nebula to be a bit lower.
SHIP-INFORMATION
Several players asked us to put more information on the cards, so we did. Ships now display on the artwork numbers that represent their size/command cost, the number of Jumps they can make and the cost to move them a Jump.
CARD NAMES
Players also asked us to display card names over the art. We added an option in the settings to turn this off and all cards now show their names otherwise as a band over the artwork.
We plan on adding code in the next patch or so that will HIDE this name band when you view a card (cause it is redundant) but for now it always displays it unless you turn it off.
DISCARD PILE VIEWER
You can now click on the discard pile to view the contents of the Discard pile. Use the WASD and Arrow keys to move left/right through the list of cards.
CLICK-TO-DRAW COST RAMPS
The cost to draw a card now slowly increases every-other click from 2 up. At the start of your next turn it goes back to 2. This basically just makes it cost-prohibitive to hit the "draw card" button multiple times in a single turn.
We plan on adding a visual indicator when you are in the half-clicks between the cost going up, hopefully in the next patch or two.
For those wanting to see the pattern written out, the cost to draw is now: 2,2,3,3,4,4,5... and so on.
SECTOR REBALANCING
In patch 0.7.1.4 we did a huge refactor on all the sectors. In doing so we made the resources per sector be a bit too low. In this patch we raised the average Resource value of a sector to be much closer to 2 when it is a planet and 1 when it is a nebula or asteroid field with no planet embedded within it.
UNDO BUTTON (goes bye-bye)
Undo button is gone, for now? Or maybe forever. We want to focus on fixing other bugs and getting other features in place before we deal with undo bugs and possible exploits.
UI and 2D MAP
We made some further tweaks to the UI and 2D map mode. The "max zoom" slider now impacts both 2D and 3D map modes.
We also added another mouse mode called "Delta mode" which changes the mouse to respond to variations in the mouse wheel instead of just registering single clicks of the wheel. We are hoping this helps us solve some of the mice-wheel issues some players have been having.
BUGS
This build includes various bug fixes, including:
- Failed draws blocks up your hand.
- Multi shots at two retaliation ships would freeze the game
- Tech pool slots would get badly refilled if you bought the 2nd slot on a re-loaded game
- Hull values of your Commander are correctly stored and loaded now
- Obscure doesn't show "just built" effects anymore.
- Some or all issues around replay resources / stars not adding up has been addressed (but some issues here might still happen)
As of this post, the game is still more bug-free when played in a single session than when loading and playing a saved game. So if you want a relatively low-bug experience, please play the game head-to-head (you can use our Discord to find opponents)
BALANCE CHANGES
Craft Complex is going from cost 4 to 5 to play.
Ti Chamber has its hull lowered to 2 and its infantry point swapped instead for a Star.
Arion Dreadnaught has its attack raised from 4 to 5.
WHAT IS NEXT??
Well we want feedback on the tutorials and new scenarios. Do they help you learn the game? Are the single player missions more fun? We will be making edits to them based on your input.
We have more UI / UX improvements to make. We will be adding a lot more roll-overs in the game, especially to the Sectors themselves on the map to make it easier to understand what all the icons and numbers mean. Once you know it all well, you can then turn them off in the settings.
In addition to adding more maps and missions, we will also be releasing a new pack in the store relatively soon. Could be as early as the next: 0.7.1.6 patch. This pack will be mini and just add two new commanders to the game - one for each side. The new commanders will have new abilities for you to build around.
We also plan on still addressing more bugs that we know exist in the reloading system, and adding more information in-game like the ability to view which tech pool cards still exist to be drawn, or seeing (in random order) which cards are still in your deck.
A little further out we will be adding in-game chat, profile information, finalizing the missing cards from the core set and then releasing a 3rd 30 card pack to round it all off. (exact order here TBD).
On the single-player front we want to add missions where you can bring any deck you make, and we also want to make further improvements to the AI model used for your bot-ponent.
We hope you will enjoy 0.7.1.5! Let us know all your thoughts, we're here and actively working on the game every day.