Greetings, Captains! It's time for the first actual update, some things that you asked for, some that you did not (he-he).
Current HUD with all the elements active for reference.
So let's dive in — first changes to the Main Thrust control (e. g. W and S keys): - thrust level no longer progresses linearly, instead it rises faster when low but slower when high. When reducing thrust it goes down faster when high and slower when low. It should allow for better responsiveness and feel
- total time to reduce thrust from 100-0 is slightly lower than increasing it from 0-100, again improving handling especially in high G moments
- each ship now has it's own multiplier of how fast Main Thrust can be increased or reduced, with smaller ships being more responsive
Reverse Thrust auto and additional triggers: - double pressing reduce Main Thrust (e.g. S key) will now additionally fire reverse thrusters
- when Main Thrust is at minimum holding reduce key (e.g. S) will fire reverse thrusters.
- when reduce Main Thrust (e.g. S key) is being pressed down during emergency G-force conditions reverse thrusters will also automatically fire
Emergency G-force conditions:
- emergency state can no longer be exploited by going in and off and resetting it's timer. It now uses it's own... let's call it stamina — that depletes quickly before engaging emergency jump and regenerates in lower G conditions. Give your crews some rest!
- it is shown as the bar on the HUD just under the text warning
Feel free to lemme know if you like this change. Technically emergency G moment was supposed to be <oh snap gotta reduce thrust ASAP> but now with visible indicator it kind of can be pushed to it's limits. Still I think it strikes balance between realistic approach and playability.
Ship auto repair:
- auto repair speed now scales with G conditions. The higher the G the slower the repair speed. In turn it is now fairly boosted at low G
- repair speed upgrade during mission is now based both on flat value and percent of ship max durability,
- all ships have been given a small base repair speed buff to reduce runs that were dependant on rushing repair speed upgrades
UI, HUD and QoL:
- ship system upgrades now show their exact values and combined total value (e.g. repair speed, collection range)
- upgrading to BREAKTHROUGH weapons now correctly compares them with previous weapon
- red rarity color is now red, instead of orange-ish
- weapon upgrades now show required mount (e.g. Turret, Tactical; btw. the only tactical systems currently available in the game are guided missile launchers)
- empty weapon mounts now display their type, e.g. Turret rather than None[]
- total damage done by weapons now uses actual damage dealt (enemy durability reduced) instead of base ammo damage that could've resulted in high overkill values
- added missing auto fire toggle HUD indicator
- added another fix for 4K screens (slowly getting there). This one should fix main menu, pause menu and end screen spacing. As always thanks in advance for confirmation or screens of how it does look now. Greatly appreciated!
Bunch of other fixes:
- EXPART collection range upgrade during mission is now based both on flat value and percent of ship collection range (so it's easier for larger and less agile ships to pick up EXPART with few upgrades)
- game will now pause automatically when it's window is not focused (e.g. alt tabbed)
- player laser based weapons now trigger hit SFX once per 0.2 sec rather than on every dmg tick
- added small boosters to Starchanter C so now it can boost albeit with little efficiency. Dromeder is the only ship without boost thrusters. This might change in the future as I revise boost mechanics
- Basic laser-based enemies received +25% laser duration buff. It's still not much but should help them remain relevant
Phew, that's it for today.
Fly safe! o7
Posted by the game’s developer or publisher to its Steam community hub and published by Valve through Steam’s public news API. Sifter reproduces it unedited and writes none of it.