Greetings, Spacefarer!
The upcoming Alpha 14 features a mix of features wished by you, our players, and improvements and additions to the existing systems in the game. Let's take a look at all the new upcoming goodies!
Crew Members Leveling Up in Skills
Crew members now have skills ranging from 0 to 10. You can also customize the attributes and skills of your starting crew!
We've modified the crew member max skill levels from 3 to 10 and implemented crew members leveling up in skills. We also added a skill potential bonus to some traits, these traits give a bonus point to some max skill level. Many of the traits were simply mostly negative, this gives a new way to add something extra to them. The idea was a suggestion by one of our players:
"Something that makes certain characters worth the investment because they have a higher skill ceiling. It would be an interesting game decision to weigh a crew members long term strengths versus short term inadequacy."
Preserving Uniqueness
Our thought is that crew members should still have their strengths and weaknesses, otherwise they will all be the same and be good at everything. Nobody would be unique and this would detract from the joy of finding someone great in the medical or weapons skill, as it would no longer carry a meaning if everyone is great at everything.
Crew members will have a natural ability to become great in one or a few skills, but they will also have their limitations. While the crew member you find on your journey will be random in their skills and ability to learn, you will be able to customize these for your start crew if you so desire.
Ability to Customize Your Start Crew
Another highly requested feature was the ability to customize start crew attributes and skills. This will now be possible for the start crew members, while the crew members you find on your journey will still be their own individuals and cannot be customized.
We often also include more settings to our own game customization screen. So we implemented a way to customize if one can customize crew members, in the game customization menu. =)
The default settings in the crew member priority system takes the learning potential into account, as we often want someone who can learn up to a high skill level to execute certain tasks.
Based on the changes mentioned above we have modified the default crew member priority system to take the learning potential into account, as we often want someone who can learn up to a high skill level to execute certain tasks. Graphically, we modified the crew management menu priority section to show both the current skill level and how many levels the crew member can learn. We also added some minimum skill requirements to production tasks and other tasks, this will help make individuals matter and have value.
Reworked the Comfort System
The comfort map has now been divided into three different categories: Work, Leisure and Sleep. All facilites have their own values in all three categories.
We have divided the comfort map into three categories: Work, Leisure and Sleep. All of these now have their own view modes, which can be accessed from the same comfort menu as before.
We felt there was a need to separate these, to allow more possibilities to customize how different facilities impact a crew member and their mood. A facility can be great in terms of having fun on leisure time, but still affect sleep negatively, such as the noise from an Arcade Machine.
Furthermore, we added comfort categories for objects to allow determining comfort values from a category instead of values from individual objects. All tables are now in the tables category, and all beds in the beds category. There are many other categories such as gaming and music. This eliminates the need to build multiple different tables close to each other to optimize comfort. Each table is still a table, and now they all belong to the same category and the comfort value will be based on the
category instead of individual objects.
We also modified bonus comfort to not have a radius fall-off. This prevents the need to build multiple objects next to each other to optimize comfort. Negative comfort still has a fall-off. We also rebalanced comfort values for some objects.
Reworked the Power System
The power network has been separated into two different networks, the Basic and the Advanced power networks. Additionally, the needs for links have been removed.
The power system has been a bit hard to understand. We wanted to make it more clear and straight-forward, and also solve the problem of being completely dead in the water when energium is depleted.
Our next iteration is to divide the power network into two separate networks. One network being the integral basic power network, which is low capacity power distributed into the hull. This network is capable of keeping basic facilities with low power needs functional. The other network is the advanced power network, which is needed for facilities with higher power needs such as industry facilities, ship turrets and shields.
The first network will be easy to manage and can keep the ship alive, while the other network will be more resource intensive and is needed for production and ship-to-ship combat.
The need for links is also removed as the hull is seen capable to distribute the basic integral power. However, power nodes are still needed to expand/distribute advanced power. We are reworking the power nodes to make all the new changes possible.
Power Distribution Controls
The power control sliders gives you the possibility to redirect power according to need, possibly giving a boost to turrets, shields or the hyperdrives.
We're looking into making it possible to redirect power according to need, hoping to bring some more strategy in ship-to-ship combat also from managing power. The new power system supports this, as the wireless Advanced Power can easily be redirected to certain facilities, like turrets, shields or the hyperdrives.
We're also exploring the ability to give a power boost to ship-to-ship combat facilities using the power control sliders, and have them gain a bonus from it but with a possible down side, like the risk of parts breaking. Our goal is to also have power play a role in ship-to-ship combat. Overall, we're making new changes and additions to expand on ship-to-ship combat.
More Strategy in Ship-to-Ship Combat
The hyperdrives of the enemy ship can now be targeted to prevent the ship from escaping.
We've spent some time making changes and balancing ship-to-ship combat. Hyperdrives can now be targeted in ship-to-ship combat and it is possible to stop a ship from escaping. Additionally, we plan to have new smaller versions of a turret and shield, as well as making some changes to the existing ones.
Turret Modifications
Turrets are getting new modifications to make ship-to-ship combat more strategic.
Turrets and their projectiles can have a chance at penetrating the shields. This penetration rate depends on multiple factors, the strength of the shield, the skill of the defending shield operator, the skill of the ship gunner and the penetration chance of the turrets themselves.
A New Smaller Turret
A new 1 System Point Turret is being added to the turret collection.
We're adding a smaller turret, which will be good for continuous fire and chipping away the enemy shields and hull, while giving larger turrets good moments to strike once the shields on the enemy ship are down.
A New Smaller Shield
A new 1 System Point Shield is being added to the Shield collection.
We're adding a new smaller version shield unit to the collection of shields in the game. This shield can be placed for only 1 System Point and gives some protection against enemy fire and micrometeoroids.
Modified the Behavior of Shields
Shields now take the size of the ship into account. When the size of the ship grows the strength of the shield is reduced to a degree, as the shield needs to cover a larger area compared to a smaller ship.
Hull Stabilizers Now Give System Points
Hull Stabilizers now give System Points, instead of the points being tied to the ship canvas size. However, there is a limitation on Hull Stabilizers and thus also on System Points. We also have a thought of making them smaller, to make them easier to fit in the design.
We have tied system points to the Hull Stabilizer, and added a minimum distance radius to the Hull Stabilizer, meaning two Hull Stabilizers must be a certain distance from each other.
The goal of this change was to remove the System Points from being tied to the ship canvas, and instead make System Points tied to the actual ship size. As two Hull Stabilizers must be a certain distance from each others it means System Points are added as the ship grows in size.
Improved AI
We have improved the AI behavior in ship-to-ship combat and made it take the set difficulty into account. The AI will be more lenient with targeting on easier difficulties while trying to disable and destroy more effectively on higher difficulties.
Battlestations
Crew members can be assigned to a battlestation, which is essentially an area the crew member manages in ship-to-ship combat situations.
We've implemented a new mode for crew members where they seek out their assigned battlestation post in ship-to-ship combat situations. This can be assigned manually or let the crew members do it automatically.
Facilities need to be repaired and restocked during ship-to-ship combat situations, battlestations gives the player a tool to make sure that an area has a worker nearby when it is needed.
When Will the Alpha 14 Update be Released?
Our goal is in the early months of 2022. Meanwhile, come chat with us and others playing Space Haven:
Join Space Haven Discord: http://discord.gg/spacehaven
Space Haven subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceHaven/
Report bugs here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/4/
Discuss Space Haven here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/0/
Technical Support: https://steamcommunity.com/app/979110/discussions/1/
We wish you Happy Holidays and a happy New Year! Stay tuned for more news and enjoy the end of 2021!