You haven't heard from us in a few weeks, but don't worry. We just kept our head down and worked hard on Roadmap update No 2. Along with the planned update elements, we managed to complete a few more things in advance, so a couple of surprises await you!
No more easy pickings dear space captains. Your ship is loaded with missiles? Fine, your adversaries have plenty of decoys and they are not afraid to use them! You're proficient with cut engines maneuvers? Won't help you – enemies will have tricks of their own with new AI and behavior routines. But you're not helpless – to give you a fighting chance, newly introduced crafting system enables you to be creative and engineer a plethora of items and equipment to enhance your survivability.
Your feedback was also noted, and some improvements have been made to existing features as well. Anyway, without further delay – what's in store for our finest captains this time?
Space-craft-beer-pong
One of the pivotal new systems is crafting. You acquired a dirty amount of credits, but you simply aren't happy with any of the items available at the drydock? Wait no more! Now you can gather blueprints and materials to craft those hard to acquire equipment and weapons.
- Collect blueprints from destroyed ships (will be further improved with updates to open up additional ways to gain blueprints)
- All items in the game (with some exceptions) are in some form linked into the crafting system, either as an ingredient or as a craftable item on its own
- Create anything from better (more complex) items to equipment and weapons
Radiation mechanics
Some of the above mentioned additional gear could come in handy when traveling through dangerous areas, because this update also introduces the radiation mechanics. That’s right! A nanoscrubber a day, keeps death away, as my mechanic used to say.
- rather important visual warnings will scream at you
- gameplay effects come in the form of lighter or heavier critical system failures before your hull starts to crumble on a molecular level (yeah… stay radiated long enough and you’ll be a deader)
- added radiation areas in all sectors
- added VFX & SFX to complement the gameplay effect
- added in a bonus of Nanoscrubber equipment to clean that radiation right off. Like a hot shower that removes residual radiation without actually cleaning you… so… yeah… not really like a hot shower. *scours away to find a better-suiting analogy*
AI, behavior and the untold story of the Terminator mindset
To keep a perfectly balanced equilibrium, as all things should be, we've also „equipped“ your adversaries too! AI, both friendly and hostile, received a fresh batch of AI routines. Don’t be surprised if the enemy suddenly drops a mine in your face to ward off any of those nasty ideas you had about destroying him. As far as the untold story in the subtitle goes, it will remain untold :P.
- Besides coming in all types of ships, the NPCs now also come with a whole range of different behaviors. Some are more aggressive, some lean more on the defensive side. Some like to keep close to you, like an over-clinging ex, while others will keep their distance like you have the plague.
- AI will now utilize a bunch of different flight maneuvers to gain the upper hand when attacking or to get away when they’re in your sights.
- AI becomes increasingly more complex as you progress through the game.
- NPCs will now use decoys to avoid getting hit by missiles. Of course, not all and not all the time
- NPCs can now drop mines when their ships or egos are threatened
Moving on…
The previously implemented portion of the campaign also got a fresh coat of paint (and then some) in its upgrade process, but most of the changes in this update will be visible in the freeroam portion. The focus of this update is enriching the gameplay, giving You, the players more to do and ways to do it. Many elements of this update are also a prerequisite for some of the upcoming gameplay mechanics, planned to be rolled out with next update!
Almost forgot about how we…
…rebalanced the hell out of a lot of things
- different wings now have a different number of turret slots.
- player ship hull module HP increased significantly
- player ship shield module HP increased significantly
- player weapon energy cost increased somewhat (in some cases significantly)
- overall weapon damage increased (smaller increase with scatterguns as they were OP to begin with)
- Player shield recharge increased
- Player shield reboot time reduced
- higher tier NPCs deal significantly more damage
- higher tier NPCs have significantly stronger hulls and shields
- Freelance jobs are paid a lot better. A number of changes and a major rebalance overhaul are coming in the next few updates!
- Loot drop value is increased across the board.
- boost speed decreased and now varies depending on the engine installed
- cruise speed decreased to 300 for all ships
- player ship modules prices
…oh and also how we…
…overhauled the entire flight model
- A number of booster and cut engines tweaks and upgrades
- Completely rebalanced flight-related stats (much faster lateral and backwards movement for example)
- Added a few missing controls and made a lot of overall quality-of-life improvements
In the end, we leave you with our mandatory long list of the other stuff we made for this update. The honorable mentions if you wish. Feel free to pick your favorites!
CHANGES
- ADDED: new equipment and additional equipment tiers
- the already mentioned Nanoscrubbers take that accumulated radiation edge off
- Higher tier decoys lure angry missiles away
- Booster injection gets some of that juicy fuel back into your booster to keep going
- Mines of all shapes, sizes and damage types will knock your enemies flat to the other side
- ADDED: a whole lot of additional missiles (specifically higher tier missiles)
- ADDED: 4 completely new weapons to purchase and use
- ADDED: more weapons of the higher tier persuasion
- ADDED: Missiles can now be found in loot drops
- ADDED: new ship modules in drydocks
- ADDED: new difficulty settings – easy, normal, hard, insane
- ADDED: VFX on NPC ships when damaged. Effects increases progressively as hull drops. It also makes very damaged NPCs easier to spot.
- ADDED: In-game HUD now shows the names of equipped and swapped weapons
- ADDED: In-game HUD now shows live stats of weapons/shields/missiles
- ADDED: NPC ships can now move and shoot following a specific path, if need be
- ADDED: SFX when upgrading skills
- ADDED: SFX for incoming enemy missiles and launched missiles
- ADDED: a HUD warning if some action cannot be executed
- ADDED: Steam controller support
- ADDED: new equipment items
- ADDED: Equipment now has short text info
- ADDED: In-game panels can now be toggled via keyboard shortcuts
- ADDED: camera shake effect when hitting an asteroid
- ADDED: Encounters now have an ease-in period. they get more difficult as you progress further
- ADDED: huge hollow asteroids that ships can fly through and use as cover
- ADDED: enemy ships now spawn with different tiers depending on map difficulty
- ADDED: new event when player enters the range of specific object
- ADDED: outlaw faction ships now have appropriate trails
- ADDED: player engine/trails change color depending on speed and currently used flight mode
- ADDED: explosions on asteroid destruction
- ADDED: title cards in campaign missions
- ADDED: several types of enemy behavior templates
- UPDATED: the way how missile damage is dealt. ALL damage is handled as blast damage. The further away from the detonation epicenter you are, the less damage you receive, as it should be.
- UPDATED: controller software keyboard
- UPDATED: color schemes of HUD waypoint and info icons
- UPDATED: default reputation with certain in-game factions
- UPDATED: balanced NPC vs NPC damage variables
- UPDATED: collect all option works properly, players can remove items from cargo
- UPDATED: NPC ships have different, more realistic firing arcs
- UPDATED: HUD reticle more visible and has variations depending on equipped weapon
- UPDATED: campaign missions in chapter 1 reworked and polished
- UPDATED: cutscenes in campaign chapter 1 have been upgraded
- UPDATED: improved visuals in nebulas
- UPDATED: faction reputation alignment system has been reworked
- FIXED: text alignment in station/bar dialogues
- FIXED: all barman dialogues are now skippable
- FIXED: shortcut for buy/sell trader buttons work properly now
- FIXED: resolution setting in launcher will be properly saved now
- FIXED: freelance mission ships are properly marked now
- FIXED: impact explosions on ship hull work properly now
- FIXED: player ship shield regeneration variable works properly on load
- FIXED: scripts for freelance mission ending now work properly
- FIXED: in-game dialogues work properly when paused
- FIXED: possible resolution problem when automatically choosing setting in launcher
- FIXED: launcher will no longer crash if Steam isn't running in the background
- FIXED: NPC ships will target and hit player properly in all situations
- FIXED: When changing control settings in launcher, resolution won't abruptly change with it
- FIXED: Player is no longer stuck in photo mode when using it
- FIXED: camera works properly when using the controller and holding down LT to follow target
- FIXED: menu footer is changed correctly when using HOTAS
- FIXED: key binding in controls cannot be duplicated anymore
- FIXED: target locks will appear in correct positions now
- FIXED: numerous HUD errors when playing the Spanish language version
- FIXED: branching dialogues won't break anymore if using HOTAS/controller
- FIXED: various controls binding issues with HOTAS and controller
- TWEAKED: visual controls input when using HOTAS
Cheers!
LGM Games team
