Istrolid news & patch notes

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/3a31eea09c946ee60fa7574f89f6b8aacfdad559.png

The 1.0.0

It’s finally here: 1.0.0. I don’t know what I expected this would be, but here we are! When I was a kid I was captivated by computer games. I had no clue how computers worked. I created a paper box to be “the screen” and cut out stuff to move inside “the screen” with little handles. Istrolid started out as a game out of LEGO where one would build fleets of ships and have them fight. It's been quite a journey getting from there to this point. Learning programming to make games. Making 100s of other game prototypes. Going to college, getting a job programming. An entire lifetime has passed. Then finally I realized my dream. I released Istrolid. Don’t let your dreams be dreams. At first I showed the alpha prototype to Saktoth, he convinced me to add part building mechanics to make this a more interesting game rather than “a regular RTS”. He brought RyMarq on board to help with the balancing of the game. This game would have been nowhere without Saktoth and RyMarq. Other members of the community Rio6, PurpleGhost, JWDE volunteer to add some features and provide bug fixes. Thank you very much! It's been fun watching the community discover new ship types and new strategies. It’s been interesting to watch how the player base evolves over time. After the initial launch, Istrolid somehow managed to carve out a niche for itself. Some people have spent 1000s hours playing this game - this is amazing! This is only possible because of you - the istrolid players. I hope I can be there for you when you were there for me.

Balance Adjustments

We talked with the more experienced members of the community, and did some refinement off the first Community Balance Council Changes

Shaped Charge

• 100d → 90d Damage, 100m → 110m AoE, improved reliability
• 20t → 25t Mass

Shaped Charge has been in testing for the last week or two at a new 100 damage level. It\s proving slightly too strong with jump-nukes, and is being brought down a bit.

Jump Drive

• 12% More jump power
• 16% Faster recharge

Jump Changes have been overall positive, but slightly too extreme with the higher minimum range.

Autocannon

• 12 HP → 15 HP

Sidewinder

• 10 HP → 15 HP
• +5 Range
• -2.5% Energy Use
• +5% Bullet Speed

Both weapons were a hair weak at the new 10$ price point, and have gone to 15HP to help compensate for the structural implications. Sidewinder is very nearly where its stats want to be and got a broad set of very minor buffs.

AI Fixes

AI Recharging behaviors with carriers should be much better. We went through a number of the older AIs, fixing up some broken behaviors and updating them a bit for the modern game. This will mostly affect the campaign, where many lesser used AIs dwell.

• Alpha Striker
• Beam Man
• Fireshower
• Liberty
• Mastermind
• Nayenne
• Razorback
• Battlestar

Bug fixes

• Fixed AI rule bug where charging fighter would not follow carrier ships.
• Fixed an issue where ships could go into a “special dimension”, disappear and shoot anywhere on the map.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/8bb878d20455d4700952fcca78803c93224dfe6c.png

Community Balance Council

We ran the (https://www.reddit.com/r/istrolid/comments/lxp3i3/community_balance_council_1/) reddit thread where you voted on the balance changes. We took the highest upvoted balance changes with slight tweaks and here they are:

Ranged Group Rework

by Owlfeathers (with influence from No-Personality 4982) These changes are a large rework to the range increments of the current game. They improve range mods for low-range use, diminish them for high range use, and generally increase some of the nuance in the range game. Generally speaking this is a broad normalization of range based effects. I look forward to seeing what options this opens up for classically ‘mid-range’ weapons.

Spinal Mount

• Range +600m → +500m
• Energy use +50% → +25%

Demispinal Mount:

• Cost $5 → $7
• Energy use +25% → +10%
• Weight 10T → 15T

Micro 360 Mount:

• Range penalty -34% → -25%

Targeting Subsystem:

• Range +25% → +20%
• Flat range N/A → +80m

Heavy Cloak Rework

by Zango This one is going to be one of the larger changes to the game, despite only affecting one part. It represents a dramatic rebalance in what is viable cloaked and why. Light cloaked ships, especially Bombers that were only sometimes cloaked, they now have to pay a very real price in additional Weight to use the cloaking device. Short-Range Cruisers, especially more armored ones, should now be able to sustainable be cloaked, nullifying ranged attacks. There is some irony here that it comes at the same time as the range normalization, as this would indeed allow super-high range weaponry with less degeneracy, but I am sure it will find a powerful place enabling slower cloaked vessels that are still able to close on longer range targets.

Cloak

• Weight 10T → 60T
• ‘Cloaking Power’ 165T → 420T

Jump Engine Rebalance

inspired by Owlfeathers A special note to the Dreamlight proposal. It indeed scored higher in the voting, but neither jump change was tremendously popular, but Owl’s represented something that could be altered to deal with the Heavy Cloak changes and the Game Engine changes that are making low-range jump turn more difficult.

Jump Drive

• Jump power 100% → 250%
• Cost $25 → $50
• Weight 6T → 15T
• Min Jump Range 50 → 200

The proposed change got a moderate amount of votes, but was not wildly popular enough for us to break open the code to implement a possibly buggy change. Instead the proposal has been trimmed to its core aspects, weightier jump drive to diminish cheap bombs, implicitly lower energy cost, and a more concentrated jump strength. There is some additional Jump Drive strength and a large increase to min jump range to help compensate for the very real problems with microing jump-turns on tiny jump circles. This was really never the point of Jump Drive, even if it was an interesting byproduct, and is not being protected now that it’s somewhat problematic.

Sidewinder Changes

by Blazeroflasher and Dreamlight Two significant sidewinder buffs were proposed with near identical votes. To reconcile them and keep it reasonable, sidewinder was increased to 10$, along with autocannon (it seemed lonely). Both weapons get a 20% DPS increase from the change, along with mass reductions. This should help make them both interesting fighter weapons and keep them

Autocannon and Sidewinder

• 5 → 10$
• 10t → 7.5t
• Reload Time 6.00 → 5.00
• Sidewinder Range 780 → 795

Tesla Changes

by Owlfeathers Tesla change did not receive the most votes, but nerfs were brought up in a couple places. We are therefore going with a somewhat reduced Tesla nerf, a sort of weighted-average of the Tesla changes.

Tesla

• Tesla Damage from 13 → 11
• Tesla Energy 1600 → 1375
• Tesla Bounce Distance 540 → 400

Mount Cost Reduction:

by Zango and Kyuriam

200 Turret

• Cost $15 → $12

270 Turret

• Cost $27 → $21

There wasn't broad consensus on the specific changes, so the most mild reductions to these mounts was taken.

Ultralight armor Buff

by ProfessorUlf.

Ultralight Armor

• HP 8 → 9

Galaxy Puzzles

In order to prepare player coming from galaxy single player we are adding new design challenges to some of the early missions: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/bacb96efa4d3cd722bd796d64310a97a54c40d70.png

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug with getting a new design in Galaxy Camping mode.

I would like to get some bug fixes out for you as we make our way to 1.0.0.

Area Centering

We are now going to do area-center instead of mass-center: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/d035add6a0c171ec670d539f83edb8aa0539978c.png This makes ships way more centered but it takes away this mass centering puzzle. It’s true some people did like, but mostly was a kind of chore that did not do much to balance anyways. It ended up not mattering that much after we made the weapon ranges in game longer and longer.

Units with Stasis Field will ram

Your ships with stasis fields will now ram targets when you order them with the F follow/focus order. This will make stasis equipped ships much easier and fun to use as they will just chase down their prey and kill it. Just like you designed them to! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/a9d227b6d7ff5ff5e9466c6b13bdb66aa1a232a0.png

Weapon Sounds

Artillery no longer sounds like it came from WW1. I made it sound more sci-fi. That arty sound always stood out to me as not fitting. I hope you like the new one. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/e05095371213033a1b03b4491cbb7621e597471a.png I also made ship explosions to be deeper. You still get that same short explosion for fighters, but for bigger ships there are medium for medium HP ships and super deep explosion for high HP ships.

Ambient Sounds

I removed all of the annoying drones. I don’t know what I was thinking when I added them. They were pretty annoying. I added two new action tracks though and deleted that one annoying action track. Music has never been strong in Istrolid - I hope it just makes it a little bit better. Who am I kidding, you have disalbed all music long ago!

Galaxy Update

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/da1c0ada1b6aef84e6b680850880263a6870350d.png The earlier tutorial levels did not prepare players sufficiently. We have added a design checklist, to guide players to better designs. We hope the new ship-building tutorials will better guide players to design sound and useful ships, highlighting the aspects that will be important to them as they grow and develop their fleet in the future.

Community Balance Council

We still have not made significant balance changes for 1.0.0. That is still ongoing please vote for your changes here: (https://www.reddit.com/r/istrolid/comments/lxp3i3/community_balance_council_1/). There is still time to vote for the changes you want to see!

Bug fixes

• Fixed chat links not opening.
• Fixed Escape doing odd things with full screen.
• Fixed “Quit Game” button disappearing (you can never leave).

I know, some of you had trouble running the game. This is mostly due to aging underlying technology called Electron. Well good news I have updated it to the newest version to enable the biggest compatibility for you across Windows, Mac, and Linux. Wow… so exciting… well not really… what is exciting… is: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/8bd534f2ec0a3e504e26433f4a8a4c41cdcd2c5c.png

Community Balance Council

I want to try something new, something radical. Many of you have expressed your frustration with balance. But it’s very hard for me to know what the general community wants… Go to this reddit thread and make a top level comment with your balance change, please follow this format: Heavy Beam: Damage 38d -> 36d Energy Use 4000e -> 4500e It's going to make heavy beam less dominant in the meta. Right now every game has to have one. If balance change gets enough votes it will get approved and make it into 1.0.0! That’s right 1.0.0 is right around the corner.

The 1.0.0 release!

I want for Istrolid to continue to evolve, it refuses to die no matter how much you say that in the discord channels. Istrolid is part of me as much as it is a part of you.

Fleet Tabs

We are excited to introduce fleet tabs! Our fleets have been getting a little too full lately. With players having hundreds of ships its been getting pretty crowded. With fleet tabs you can organize your fleets in the way that works for you. Even more ships now! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/37634b76a67eb0e62cae029619ecf6d9531e592a.png

Rework of the Jump Drive

Jump drive is being changed to be more dynamic and varied in its usage. Since its inception, Jump drive has been used primarily to bomb targets, or engage very rarely. The “burst” turning for larger ships has also been interesting, but it doesn’t really fulfill the fantasy of a Jump Drive here. Jump drive now doesn’t cost energy to jump and can recharge much faster for short range jumps. A new indicator also means you can control and understand the new Jump Drive a bit better. The hope here is that ships that make many smaller jumps will become more valid. We will keep an eye on how designs progress after the patch, and may continue to buff it to keep things in mind. Jump drive now has dotted-black markers showing its range when you select a specific unit. The range is now also 25% larger. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/f9de80080aaa97ab14d79a9561b1d59514698821.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/9380842340fa1c62d0f48a0df1cfb72e5e19fa3e.png Importantly a unit’s jump range now grows gradually as it recharges. After just a few moments, the fighter can already jump again here. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/b680eb8258e5f8cc316f7626490c3699c26fa616.png This enables smaller ships that can engage and then retreat more quickly, making jump engine more powerful for dynamic hit and run. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/e61c2851d33c6135b45698a5079ff733d66ed4d2.png Beware, Jump Drive now costs energy and some cloak energy constantly in exchange for its “free” jumps. You will want to be using it on ships that Jump often and meaningfully, or you will be paying a bit of a tax from the extra energy costs.

Unit Info Panel

Pressing I will now toggle a unit stat menu on the upper left. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/eabdc9dfb5e08a3b355065990ef4f4109e350511.png All units selected will be added up together, making it easier to calculate just how big a swarm of units is, and what it can do. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/12295276/8607e45a1968831edccd222b39eb2d623f7a57f1.png The stat panel also make it much easier to determine health or range of specific enemy units, no longer will players need to copy a unit to see its information.

Patch Notes

This patch introduces a slew of quality of life updates in addition to a set of balance updates to hopefully increase ship variety a bit by emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of Spinal and Artillery weapons.

Spinal: 40t → 50t , 450 → 600 range, +50% energy costs.

Demispinal: 7→ 5$, 15 → 10T, 2 → 1hp +25% energy costs. Reasoning: Give more real and substantial trade-offs for spinal use, especially compared to 30/90 mounts. Should increase variety of spinal weapons, in theory, and diminish the potency of the strongest ones.

Light Point Defence: 20→ 18 damage. Reasoning: Changes are going to improve the general power of PD by upscaling arty and shields that are weaker against burst. This might be necessary to ensure PD is kept in line.

Artillery: 220 → 210 AoE, 500 → 675 min range, 112 → 144 velocity, min range scales with projectile speed at half-rate, weight reduced by 5T. Reasoning: Current arty hit goals, but needed too many speed mods to be valid. Now starts off nearly as good as 2 speed mods, but will increase in min-range with speed, to stop squads from being deleted with no reaction time.

Flak: 17.5 → 18 dps, half damage, twice fire rate.

Orb: 3.8 → 4 dps, 15 → 8 dmg, 4 → 2s reload, 2000 → 1400E, 624 → 704 m/s.

Missile: 5% energy cost decrease.

Flame: 2→3 damage, 24→21 burn, fire burns 33% faster (3-4% per second). Reasoning: Flame doesn’t seem to be fighter’s problem these days, and it feels a bit weak generally, but doesn’t need to have its ability to delete large ships enhanced. Newer shields are also sufficiently better against fire that a small buff here seems reasonable.

Reloader: 20$ → 25$ cost, 10 → 15hp. Reasoning: Widely viewed as too strong, mostly changed to change the feel of the meta.

Dampener: -25 → -26.5% energy reduction. Reasoning: Self-sustained ships using dampeners will see a bit of weakening from the changes, this was the largest buff to them that wouldn’t disrupt anything else.

Volumetric Armor: 1.3t → 1.5t.

Scout Thruster: 144 E/s → 160 E/s, 5% thrust increase.

Cruiser thruster: Now has turn rate, roughly equivalent to 4$ of wing added to it.

Jump Engine: 20$ → 25$ cost, 160 e/sec, +25% Jump distance and recharge rate. Now jump range scales over time as it recharges. Drains 2% current cloak at all times. Reasoning: These Jump changes have been done to hopefully increase the power level of ships that want to jump frequently, while weakening units that are just kept in ‘the pocket’ until they are needed.

Stasis Field: 10 → 25$, 50 → 60% slow, 15 → 30hp, now decloaks and de-jumps targets gradually. Does NOT conflict with your own cloak, but instantly decloaks you on triggering. Drains 2% current cloak at all times. Reasoning: Stasis drones were inexpensive defense units, now they are stronger, but it’s easier to make cost by picking them off (increasing their power on large rushdown units where they were interesting, and decreasing it on random drones to defend against bombers).

Heavy Shield Generator: 25t → 40t, 2160 → 1760 e/s.

Advanced Shield Generator: 2t → 1t, 3.2 → 1.6 sh/s, 15 → 20 sh, 288 → 144e/s.

Shield Capacitor: 0 → 6hp, 15 → 12sh Reasoning: Shields are being reworked to be a bit weaker to burst, but stronger against light harass. We may move onto more extreme changes in the future, but for now they are just being differentiated a bit more strongly.

Explosive Warhead: 5 → 6$, 20 → 16 dmg, 325 → 390 AoE. Reasoning: Part of general rebalance discouraging instant delete of fighters, and helping fill out shield role.

EMP Warhead: 10 → 15$, 360 → 300 AoE, 4000 → 6000 EMP. Reasoning: Emp warhead doesn’t need a full hit to ruin a fighter. This means that emp-warheads are much better vs swarms than they would appear. Decreasing AoE while keeping emp/$ consistent should improve it against single targets where it is weaker and slightly decrease how oppressive it is against fighters.

Survival Mode

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/651289bd079c5ef8c677fbbf116abc038dec9f75.png Introducing survival mode: battle waves and waves of enemy ships as you try to stay alive and hold the control points. You can fight either single player or multiplayer. You can add any AI or AIs you would like to survive against. The waves increase in their number and their ferocity, there is no end.

Better Fleet Screen

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/40cf0e3af1c9562ffa223713d7253ca0b5b44139.png You can now drag and drop fleets. If you have a ton of ships in your fleet screen this will greatly help you sift and sort them.

Balances Changes

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/6a3620494097e026cca7be019eb6b8a758068430.png Some slight tweaks to a variety of weapons. Overall balance seems very good generally, Tesla is overperforming slightly, Artillery is a bit weak but coming into its new role, and Flamethrower and Sidewinder are having their weaknesses covered just a bit more. Overall this should open up more variety in weapon selection among the less used weapons.

• Torpedo Shot Energy 1300 → 1250
• Tesla Shot Energy 1500 → 1600
• Artillery: Shot Energy Cost 4500 → 4100 and Mass 70 → 65
• Flamethrower Range 350 → 360
• Sidewinder base speed 272 → 304
• Push/Pull Wave Push/Pull Effect 10% stronger

Demi-spinal was overperforming a bit on fighters, this is to help keep both demi-spinal and standard fighters as valid while minimizing the impact elsewhere.

• Demispinal Health 5 → 2

2x1 (and 1x2) Reactors had a supposed niche, but failed to shine at it as a real choice. This will bump up their space-efficiency as a battery to be higher than, well, batteries and might make them a more real choice among heavy-fighter style craft. Incidentally it helps spamming 2x1 reactors be a bit more correct of a choice for newbies.

• 2x1 Reactors:Energy: 10k → 20k and Output: 400 → 250

Adv shield rarely saw use, this is a fairly significant buff that will hopefully help its role as light shielding.

• Adv Shield Gen Energy Threshold 75% → 40%

Energy Transfer was fine, but was a hair weak for smaller carrier choices, this should help those very slightly.

• Energy Transfer Health 0 → 10

AI Edits

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/e4c35980e03f4f454b2681d7457d7b1885ff24ef.png

• Prevented wiggling while capturing command points.
• Return to spawn charging command now causes the ship to wait at spawn until charged, preventing it from expending energy with conflicting commands.
• Better prioritize resting in AI commands that require it, improving some interactions with commands like follow player orders.

Bug Fixes

• Remove most offensive map colors from the game.
• Fixed a bug where players could lag the game by editing their ships.
• Fixed one of the Zyro AI’s broken commands.
• Tweaked the formula that determines the distance ships use to follow such that they should more accurately stop one capable of shooting.
• Improved performance on handling large ships.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/6ae6c2e98c65c6ff3054fc4b282b860991f7c3db.png In this patch we are simply tuning previous changes. Sidewinder and Artillery are being brought a bit more in line, Push/Pull wave as well were underperforming, and should be easier to justify damage or reload modding. Overall goals are a continuation of the previous, to ensure Artillery is used in a balanced fleet, and to decrease the power of single-weapon spam.

Balance Changes

• Artillery: Reload Time 6 → 5.5, Speed 104 → 112, Energy 5000 → 4500
• Sidewinder: Range 740 → 780 Speed 256 → 272
• Heavy Beam: Damage: 37 → 38 Energy 5200 → 5000
• Push Wave: Range 750 → 775 Damage: 4 → 5
• Pull Wave: Range 825 → 850
• 1x1 Reactor: Energy 1800 → 2000
• Advanced Shied: Mass: 10 → 8
• No Overkill: Cost: 5 → 1 Health: 5 → 4

Fixes

• Jump Drive now uses Mass x 15 for both energy cost and indicator check. Functionally a balance change as well, though was intended long ago.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/53874983628bd203cae2a3289b2a08adbb123dae.png Artillery has long been a source of fairly swingy behaviors in the game. This is in large part because of its small, but technically AoE hit location. Rather than trying to minimize that, these changes seek to accept the area of effect, making artillery shots more rare and dramatic, therefore more dodgeable, but still very potentially powerful. PD and missiles are both rebalanced to reduce the impact on artillery from this change. Additionally, shields and range are being changed to allow more long range spam as an option while also making it more counterable, increasing maximum range, reducing DPS at that range, and improving regeneration options. Finally, components that are traditionally used on more expandable craft have had their price increased, as well as their health, in order to reduce the power of the most expendable versions, and increase the power of potentially re-usable options. These three things form the core of this set of balance changes.

Balance Changes

• Micro 360 Mount: Cost 10 → 15, Health 5 → 20
• Demispinal Turret: Cost 8 → 7
• Stasis Generator: Health 1 → 10, Mass 5 → 6
• Heavy Shield Gen: Generation Rate 12 → 16
• Adv Shield Gen: Generation Rate; 2.4 → 3.2
• Shield Cap: Mass 8 → 10
• Cloak Gen: Cost 20 → 25 Energy Use 440 → 400
• Jump Engine: Cost: 15 → 20 Health 10 → 25
• Fighter Thruster: Thrust 2080 → 2160
• Weapons
• Light PD: Reload Time 2.0 → 2.5 Energy Cost 1000 → 1100 Damage 16 → 20
• Heavy PD: AoE: 6 → 12
• Torpedo: Reload Time 3.0 → 3.25 Energy Cost 1200 → 1300 Damage 22 → 24
• Missile: Reload Time 1.87 → 2.06 Damage 25 → 27
• Artillery: Reload Time 3 → 6, Speed 192 → 104, Energy 2000 → 5000, Damage 60 → 120, AoE 75 → 220, Mass 100 → 70T, Leads from outside of Range
• Sidewinder: Range 700 → 740 Energy Cost 1500 → 2000 Damage 34 → 35
• Plasma: Reload Time: 3s → 3.25
• Heavy Beam: Damage: 35 → 37
• Emp: Range 610 → 620
• Orb: Range 1300 → 1400. Min Range 400 → 450. Reload Time 3.81 → 4
• Phase Bomb: Damage: 150 → 160
• Flame: Energy Cost: 200 → 400. Burn Damage: 20 → 24
• EMP Warhead: EMP Damage: 5000 → 4000. AoE 325 → 360
• Targeting Mod: Range Boost 20 → 25%. Reload Reduce: 25 → 30%
• Dampener: Cost 10 → 5. Energy Reduction 30 → 25%

Fixes

• Fixed AI Rally Point Interaction
• Fixed a bug where decals could effect ship size
• Improved Safari compatibility
• Fix the sound setting bug
• Fix challenge best time not saving
• Patched exploit where a player could disconnect other players
• Fixed the issue where too many ships or projectiles on screen could cause things to flicker./

AI Updates

• FireShower

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/395d40572a2bd08975270ab1dffd5d7411cc3494.png

Balance Changes

• Sidewinder Damage 30 -> 34
• Orb range 1400m -> 1300m, minimum range is now 1/3rd of max range, instead of depending on speed (an overall increase)
• Tesla damage 10 -> 12, energy cost 1300e -> 1500e, energy drain removed
• Heavy Point Defense projectile speed 560m/s -> 880m/s, energy cost 4400e -> 4000e, reload time 3s -> 3.25s, radius 18m -> 5m
• Overshoot of all projectiles except Sidewinder and Missile changed 50% -> 30%

Bug Fixes

• Artillery/Phase target indicators better fit their AoE
• Carriers now transfer to targets that have run completely out of energy
• Unit names are now limited to 50 characters
• AI will no longer have a chance of stalling when its targets are destroyed
• AI DPS conditions are now evaluated correctly
• Following an enemy ship will now get close enough to shoot even when that ship is running away
• Game rooms will now change modes correctly
• Weapons can no longer be placed between spinal mounts
• Build queue numbers update faster
• Ships can no longer be deleted if a player is in the fleet screen when a game starts

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/fa7eb6e14bd614a4daec39c66007e99c41364451.png

Visual Updates:

• New wide variant 2x1 Scout and Fighter thrusters for symmetrical fighters.
• Bulk Thrusters back to 1x2 visually.
• New decals and inner diagonal stripe.
• More statistics are displayed in the info pane for parts
• Artillery and Phase bombs have a new visual indicator
• Minimum range is now displayed as inward facing triangles.

Balances Changes:

• Dampener from -25% to -30% Energy cost
• Emp Warhead from 4000 to 5000 Energy Damage
• Added ‘armed’ and ‘unarmed’ categories to relative AI commands
• Fire damage is now displayed correctly in info pane
• Fixes to AI facing
• Fixes to orders.

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/fa7eb6e14bd614a4daec39c66007e99c41364451.png

Visual Updates:

• New wide variant 2x1 Scout and Fighter thrusters for symmetrical fighters.
• Bulk Thrusters back to 1x2 visually.
• New decals and inner diagonal stripe.
• More statistics are displayed in the info pane for parts
• Artillery and Phase bombs have a new visual indicator
• Minimum range is now displayed as inward facing triangles.

Balances Changes:

• Dampener from -25% to -30% Energy cost
• Emp Warhead from 4000 to 5000 Energy Damage
• Added ‘armed’ and ‘unarmed’ categories to relative AI commands
• Fire damage is now displayed correctly in info pane
• Fixes to AI facing
• Fixes to orders.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/064276cb435700b0d323486da00f24d09eabd3e8.png

AI Fixes.

• Fixed AIs getting stuck somehow for no reason.
• Fixes issue in the AI editor, when moving rules up and down.
• Updated Mini Charger
• Kick AIs Upon Changing Game Mode. Previously AIs clogged up the player count, potentially locking a server if a player repeatedly added them and swapped modes. Now that they are kicked this is no longer possible.

New Shadow Parts (for DLC owners only) Added curved and front amor heavyweight shadowed pieces.

Part Changes

• 180 Turret Mount, arc increased to 200, cost decreased from 18 to 15
• Sidewinder tracks further, moves faster, and does 25% less damage.
• Demispinal Turret Mount cost reduced from 10 to 8
• Dampener Mod hp increased from 5 to 10
• Heavy Flak hp increased from 5 to 10

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/064276cb435700b0d323486da00f24d09eabd3e8.png

AI Fixes.

• Fixed AIs getting stuck somehow for no reason.
• Fixes issue in the AI editor, when moving rules up and down.
• Updated Mini Charger
• Kick AIs Upon Changing Game Mode. Previously AIs clogged up the player count, potentially locking a server if a player repeatedly added them and swapped modes. Now that they are kicked this is no longer possible.

New Shadow Parts (for DLC owners only) Added curved and front amor heavyweight shadowed pieces.

Part Changes

• 180 Turret Mount, arc increased to 200, cost decreased from 18 to 15
• Sidewinder tracks further, moves faster, and does 25% less damage.
• Demispinal Turret Mount cost reduced from 10 to 8
• Dampener Mod hp increased from 5 to 10
• Heavy Flak hp increased from 5 to 10

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/345b3aa0cbfa248b8e90124c71e343016dca9440.png A bunch of visual, balance, AI and order giving fixes.

Balance Changes

Stasis Field: Price from 15 to 10 This should allow stasis to be more easily placed on fighters and other small craft without making a serious impact on their cost effectiveness. Spinal: -50 Range The base range of spinal was quite strong, this should bring that power down a little while we think about the role of spinal versus rangemods in the long time. Flamethrower: 1 normal dps to 2. Flamethrower really only works as a niche anti-heavy weapon, a bit more base damage should help it kill units it would otherwise struggle to kill with it’s DoT, such as fighters, while not necessarily making it too strong in those cases.

Visual Updates

Thrusters have got an overhaul, typing together the visuals of the two variants of bulk and cruiser so they are more clearly the same thruster type. Ultralight armour is now fully rotationally symetrical. A range of other small tweaks and cleanups.

AIs updated to work with rebalanced parts:

• FireShower
• PushForce

Bunch of order giving fixes.

• Stop, Self-D, Hold orders can no longer be shift-q'ed.
• You can now Hold with the Z key and issue many orders, after you let go they all will be executed.
• Follow Units renamed to Focus Fire/Follow (Many people did not realize that this command lets you focus fire on enemies)
• Orders are no longer sent to all observers (they are private now).
• Only the last order id is sent (which means a lot less network traffic from orders)
• Order shift-q increased from 8 orders to 50.
• Units during selection are sorted so that during line move they end up in the same place and don't switch positions.
• Line move positions are now interpolated better, drawing line fast or slow produces the same line.
• Orders no longer flicker when player issues orders and get them back from the server (player never gets them back now)

Design warnings are more descriptive

Design warnings now give instructions. For example: to add more wings if you cannot turn fast, to reduce weight if you are too slow, to reduce thrusters if they draw too much energy. This should help with player responses to these design problems.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/345b3aa0cbfa248b8e90124c71e343016dca9440.png A bunch of visual, balance, AI and order giving fixes.

Balance Changes

Stasis Field: Price from 15 to 10 This should allow stasis to be more easily placed on fighters and other small craft without making a serious impact on their cost effectiveness. Spinal: -50 Range The base range of spinal was quite strong, this should bring that power down a little while we think about the role of spinal versus rangemods in the long time. Flamethrower: 1 normal dps to 2. Flamethrower really only works as a niche anti-heavy weapon, a bit more base damage should help it kill units it would otherwise struggle to kill with it’s DoT, such as fighters, while not necessarily making it too strong in those cases.

Visual Updates

Thrusters have got an overhaul, typing together the visuals of the two variants of bulk and cruiser so they are more clearly the same thruster type. Ultralight armour is now fully rotationally symetrical. A range of other small tweaks and cleanups.

AIs updated to work with rebalanced parts:

• FireShower
• PushForce

Bunch of order giving fixes.

• Stop, Self-D, Hold orders can no longer be shift-q'ed.
• You can now Hold with the Z key and issue many orders, after you let go they all will be executed.
• Follow Units renamed to Focus Fire/Follow (Many people did not realize that this command lets you focus fire on enemies)
• Orders are no longer sent to all observers (they are private now).
• Only the last order id is sent (which means a lot less network traffic from orders)
• Order shift-q increased from 8 orders to 50.
• Units during selection are sorted so that during line move they end up in the same place and don't switch positions.
• Line move positions are now interpolated better, drawing line fast or slow produces the same line.
• Orders no longer flicker when player issues orders and get them back from the server (player never gets them back now)

Design warnings are more descriptive

Design warnings now give instructions. For example: to add more wings if you cannot turn fast, to reduce weight if you are too slow, to reduce thrusters if they draw too much energy. This should help with player responses to these design problems.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/78e1ee469e6507da5d21417997b69ef55d666d00.png

Speed Coil down to +50% from +60% bonus

Single speed coils were giving a lot of velocity, and less than 6x speed coil has quickly become common, so preserving the same extremes at 6 coils is less important. This also lowers the max velocities achievable with things like artillery stacks.

Waves now scale their power based on damage mods

With damage mods, you can now create a 'push/pull wave bomber', previously wave push/pull was unaffected by damage mods.

Quickscore displays current money, rather than earned money

Quickscore now displays the current available cash on hand, rather than the total earned over this game. This allows players to see if their enemies are saving up for a surprise rush and be confident in taking the last point and ending the game.

New effects and explosions

EMP warhead now has a zap effect so you can distinguish it from other warheads. Orb has a hit effect, and hit effects have been scaled up to be more visible.

Bug Fixes

• Joining games no longer takes so long.
• Sending more info than needed on game start.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/78e1ee469e6507da5d21417997b69ef55d666d00.png

Speed Coil down to +50% from +60% bonus

Single speed coils were giving a lot of velocity, and less than 6x speed coil has quickly become common, so preserving the same extremes at 6 coils is less important. This also lowers the max velocities achievable with things like artillery stacks.

Waves now scale their power based on damage mods

With damage mods, you can now create a 'push/pull wave bomber', previously wave push/pull was unaffected by damage mods.

Quickscore displays current money, rather than earned money

Quickscore now displays the current available cash on hand, rather than the total earned over this game. This allows players to see if their enemies are saving up for a surprise rush and be confident in taking the last point and ending the game.

New effects and explosions

EMP warhead now has a zap effect so you can distinguish it from other warheads. Orb has a hit effect, and hit effects have been scaled up to be more visible.

Bug Fixes

• Joining games no longer takes so long.
• Sending more info than needed on game start.

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/cf1fb51ba258832b8f38ac46c7921ba48106b96e.png https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36TJ2mM63BM

Dampener

A weapon mod that reduces the speed of a projectile by 8% and the energy consumption by 25%

Orb Launcher

A light, long range projectile with an arming phase. Useful for bombardment against slow enemies. Able to strike heavily point-defended enemies, as it is not a missile.

Demispinal and Spinal Changes

A lighter spinal that gives +250m range, for $10 and 15T. Spinal now gives +500m range for $20 and 40T. Spinal range bonus now applies after the % bonus from weapon mods, reducing max ranges with range mods.

Emp Warhead

An EMP Warhead and nerfs to current explosive warhead

Speed Coils

Changed effect scale. Has linear increase. Increases speed by 60%.

Sidewinder

Now circles in place when it has no target, rather then flying off away from the enemy.

New Engine Sizes

Larger Bulk Thruster(47$), Small Cruiser Thruster (44$)

Bulk Thruster Nerf

Below 60 m/s, bulk speeds should generally be faster. Above, they and bulk turn speed should be slower.

AI

• Now preserves hold position.
• Can skip the rally point.
• Evaluates the less range criteria correctly.
• Micor Changed

Bugs fixed

• Several order dropping bugs fixed
• AI bubbles are not shown in single player
• Units now turn if they have any non 360 arc
• Spelling fixes
• Can’t mute server
• Fixed Surrender Spamming
• Friend list is now ordered

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/cf1fb51ba258832b8f38ac46c7921ba48106b96e.png https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36TJ2mM63BM

Dampener

A weapon mod that reduces the speed of a projectile by 8% and the energy consumption by 25%

Orb Launcher

A light, long range projectile with an arming phase. Useful for bombardment against slow enemies. Able to strike heavily point-defended enemies, as it is not a missile.

Demispinal and Spinal Changes

A lighter spinal that gives +250m range, for $10 and 15T. Spinal now gives +500m range for $20 and 40T. Spinal range bonus now applies after the % bonus from weapon mods, reducing max ranges with range mods.

Emp Warhead

An EMP Warhead and nerfs to current explosive warhead

Speed Coils

Changed effect scale. Has linear increase. Increases speed by 60%.

Sidewinder

Now circles in place when it has no target, rather then flying off away from the enemy.

New Engine Sizes

Larger Bulk Thruster(47$), Small Cruiser Thruster (44$)

Bulk Thruster Nerf

Below 60 m/s, bulk speeds should generally be faster. Above, they and bulk turn speed should be slower.

AI

• Now preserves hold position.
• Can skip the rally point.
• Evaluates the less range criteria correctly.
• Micor Changed

Bugs fixed

• Several order dropping bugs fixed
• AI bubbles are not shown in single player
• Units now turn if they have any non 360 arc
• Spelling fixes
• Can’t mute server
• Fixed Surrender Spamming
• Friend list is now ordered

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/6c9200cd69ea2ddf8c9dc68b686ef5c3e6c44227.png

Game Mode Changes

• 1v1t now has a 30 minute timer like all game modes.

Balance Changes

• Speed Coils: Cost 10 to 5. Speed boost 50% to 30%. Reload Penalty 1.25x to 1.15x.
• Jump Drive: Now removes half of Max Cloak on jump.
• Missile Launcher: Fire Rate Improved by 13%
• Flamethrower: Range, 330 to 350.
• No Overkill Mod: 1 HP to 5 HP.
• Made Sidewinder retarget on target death/cloak only.

Updated Several AIs

• LongPoint
• Orbiter
• Bulldog
• Yarki
• Sidewinder
• Furia
• Ficon

Bug fixes

• Fixed spectators editing ships not syncing with servers.
• Fixed sound sliders being hard to use.
• Fixed stop command not clearing hold position command.

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/6c9200cd69ea2ddf8c9dc68b686ef5c3e6c44227.png

Game Mode Changes

• 1v1t now has a 30 minute timer like all game modes.

Balance Changes

• Speed Coils: Cost 10 to 5. Speed boost 50% to 30%. Reload Penalty 1.25x to 1.15x.
• Jump Drive: Now removes half of Max Cloak on jump.
• Missile Launcher: Fire Rate Improved by 13%
• Flamethrower: Range, 330 to 350.
• No Overkill Mod: 1 HP to 5 HP.
• Made Sidewinder retarget on target death/cloak only.

Updated Several AIs

• LongPoint
• Orbiter
• Bulldog
• Yarki
• Sidewinder
• Furia
• Ficon

Bug fixes

• Fixed spectators editing ships not syncing with servers.
• Fixed sound sliders being hard to use.
• Fixed stop command not clearing hold position command.

Some rebalancing and bug fixes. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/083fe026d7586c9111f415cd2d9333cd53d6a0f5.png Balance Changes:

• Mid-Range Weapon Mounts have more HP, from 90/180/270 HP to 10/20/20 HP.
• Advanced Shield Generator Mass from 10 to 2.
• Jump Drive: Cost 10 to 15. Weight 5 to 6. HP 0 to 10.

Fixes:

• Jump Drive energy use works correctly now. Is 250/drive on jump.
• Sidewinder AI uses and gives Sidewinder.
• Fixed fleet design menu issue that could delete ships.

Some rebalancing and bug fixes. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/083fe026d7586c9111f415cd2d9333cd53d6a0f5.png Balance Changes:

• Mid-Range Weapon Mounts have more HP, from 90/180/270 HP to 10/20/20 HP.
• Advanced Shield Generator Mass from 10 to 2.
• Jump Drive: Cost 10 to 15. Weight 5 to 6. HP 0 to 10.

Fixes:

• Jump Drive energy use works correctly now. Is 250/drive on jump.
• Sidewinder AI uses and gives Sidewinder.
• Fixed fleet design menu issue that could delete ships.

Symmetry mode, better logic if you click really fast, and more bug fixes! http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/d5f04cdf383dd8d92b99f4d17287329bf0fa2808.png In this update I have added Symmetry mode. I think this is a good feature to add as it allows you to design symmetrical ships faster and easier, you can toggle it on and off at any time if you want part of your design to be asymmetrical.

• Added Symmetry mode.
• When drawing a line order for ships to follow, left clicking now issues the order instead of clearing the order.
• Brought back the 1x1 No Overkill AI Module that was removed by accident.
• Shaped Charge HP +5.
• Shields were tweaked.
• Fixed some bugs related to old style ships not loading.
• Fixed Shadow Armor parts did not flip properly, might break some ships, to fix this just flip the parts correct way.
• Fixed Sidewinder Damage readouts.

Symmetry mode, better logic if you click really fast, and more bug fixes! http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/d5f04cdf383dd8d92b99f4d17287329bf0fa2808.png In this update I have added Symmetry mode. I think this is a good feature to add as it allows you to design symmetrical ships faster and easier, you can toggle it on and off at any time if you want part of your design to be asymmetrical.

• Added Symmetry mode.
• When drawing a line order for ships to follow, left clicking now issues the order instead of clearing the order.
• Brought back the 1x1 No Overkill AI Module that was removed by accident.
• Shaped Charge HP +5.
• Shields were tweaked.
• Fixed some bugs related to old style ships not loading.
• Fixed Shadow Armor parts did not flip properly, might break some ships, to fix this just flip the parts correct way.
• Fixed Sidewinder Damage readouts.

This version has some small fixes and the new addition of a share feature where you can share units by copy-pasting a string into a unit slot. The sharing string copies ship parts, names, stripes, DLC and even AI. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/d8129eeacb90bb2afed30fd62721b9b2ca9dc54b.png

• Added new share box where you can get a string of your ship and post it anywhere.
• Spectators can now edit their designs in 1v1t
• You can now copy your owns ships without ghosting in multiplayer.
• New tips were added based on feedback.
• Fixed a bug with adding AIs that contained old style ships without AI rules.
• Fixed a bug on startup for some people.
• Fixed prioritization between cloaked and non-cloaked ships, cloaked ships will be targeted last if there are uncloaked ships nearby.
• Fixed stats on two shadow armor piece from the DLC being off.

This version has some small fixes and the new addition of a share feature where you can share units by copy-pasting a string into a unit slot. The sharing string copies ship parts, names, stripes, DLC and even AI. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/12295276/d8129eeacb90bb2afed30fd62721b9b2ca9dc54b.png

• Added new share box where you can get a string of your ship and post it anywhere.
• Spectators can now edit their designs in 1v1t
• You can now copy your owns ships without ghosting in multiplayer.
• New tips were added based on feedback.
• Fixed a bug with adding AIs that contained old style ships without AI rules.
• Fixed a bug on startup for some people.
• Fixed prioritization between cloaked and non-cloaked ships, cloaked ships will be targeted last if there are uncloaked ships nearby.
• Fixed stats on two shadow armor piece from the DLC being off.

We’ve been working on this patch for a while and as a result there are a lot of cool new features. This patch releases the Curves and Shadows DLC. This entirely new DLC comes with a suite of curved armour, new shadowed heavyweight armour, new corner pieces for Ultralight, diagonal striping and 1x1 decals. Equipped with this DLC, you can compete with your friends to make the best looking ships ever.. https://www.youtube.com/embed/g4jWiTtYDrM Along with a huge number of quality of life and under the hood changes, this patch also comes with a host of new and reworked parts, including new weapons and energy generation options, and a new play mode. UI Improvements

• Right click on a players name to mute them or add them to your friends
• Hold down shift to give multiple linked orders in sequence

Tournament Mode

• In 1v1t the fleet bar is locked to its starting 10 ships, with no mid-game redesign or fleet swapping.
• AI’s are disabled, meaning it is a contest of pure skill.

Sidewinder

• A short range missile with a twin arcing behaviour
• Re-targets closest enemies mid flight
• Light and energy efficient.

Jump Drive

• Allows a ship to jump up to 500m when given a movement order
• Excellent on bombers and warheads to close in on an enemy

Solar Panels

• Lighter than Reactors, but do not add any HP or storage
• Take up more space, but come in smaller increments to tweak energy generation

Stasis

• Displaced 100m forward, gaining more forward distance and less rear distance, making it better in pursuit than in retreat
• The slow is now a flat 50%, rather than effecting slower ships more and faster ships less

Flamethrower

• Has a much reduced AoE and a cool new colourful effect
• Does 3% of the burnt HP per second, and burns to 100% of a ships HP
• The DoT always leaves a unit with 4 HP remaining, meaning the burn cannot finish off a target on it’s own

Shields

• The large/medium/small shields regenerate at 50%, 75% and 99% of storage, letting you use battery to charge shields
• Varying energy usage, but faster regeneration

Tesla and Heavy Beam

• Rate of fire Swapped, Heavy Beam is now a burst weapon, Tesla is a constant stream
• This makes Heavy Beam better for sniping, while Tesla is for dealing with packs

Many smaller changes including

• +100 base range for almost all weapons, giving extra reach to fighters and more maneuvering room
• +5t to the cloaking device, making very light cloaked units a little slower

We’ve been working on this patch for a while and as a result there are a lot of cool new features. This patch releases the Curves and Shadows DLC. This entirely new DLC comes with a suite of curved armour, new shadowed heavyweight armour, new corner pieces for Ultralight, diagonal striping and 1x1 decals. Equipped with this DLC, you can compete with your friends to make the best looking ships ever.. https://www.youtube.com/embed/g4jWiTtYDrM Along with a huge number of quality of life and under the hood changes, this patch also comes with a host of new and reworked parts, including new weapons and energy generation options, and a new play mode. UI Improvements

• Right click on a players name to mute them or add them to your friends
• Hold down shift to give multiple linked orders in sequence

Tournament Mode

• In 1v1t the fleet bar is locked to its starting 10 ships, with no mid-game redesign or fleet swapping.
• AI’s are disabled, meaning it is a contest of pure skill.

Sidewinder

• A short range missile with a twin arcing behaviour
• Re-targets closest enemies mid flight
• Light and energy efficient.

Jump Drive

• Allows a ship to jump up to 500m when given a movement order
• Excellent on bombers and warheads to close in on an enemy

Solar Panels

• Lighter than Reactors, but do not add any HP or storage
• Take up more space, but come in smaller increments to tweak energy generation

Stasis

• Displaced 100m forward, gaining more forward distance and less rear distance, making it better in pursuit than in retreat
• The slow is now a flat 50%, rather than effecting slower ships more and faster ships less

Flamethrower

• Has a much reduced AoE and a cool new colourful effect
• Does 3% of the burnt HP per second, and burns to 100% of a ships HP
• The DoT always leaves a unit with 4 HP remaining, meaning the burn cannot finish off a target on it’s own

Shields

• The large/medium/small shields regenerate at 50%, 75% and 99% of storage, letting you use battery to charge shields
• Varying energy usage, but faster regeneration

Tesla and Heavy Beam

• Rate of fire Swapped, Heavy Beam is now a burst weapon, Tesla is a constant stream
• This makes Heavy Beam better for sniping, while Tesla is for dealing with packs

Many smaller changes including

• +100 base range for almost all weapons, giving extra reach to fighters and more maneuvering room
• +5t to the cloaking device, making very light cloaked units a little slower