• Bug fixes
  

• Certain vessels can potentially get stuck on each other during collisions due to their concave geometry
  
• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected
  
• Turret gunners are trigger happy generally firing too early and very likely to miss their target at longer distances on the initial trigger press
  

• Skirmish: Unable to remember the 3rd ship or higher in the list of faction ships when entering into the Skirmish menu
  
• Skirmish: Removing a line breaks arrow key navigation
  
• Skirmish: Wing Id dropdown is not wired up for up/down arrow key navigation
  
• Skirmish: Keep the Add player button visible in the scroll windows when clicked
  
• Cockpit camera views for Opponent faction ships not being properly aligned
  

• Added a new Skirmish menu option (replacing Simulator). Choose which ships you'll fly with and which ships you will fly against in a Team Vs. Team battle. Assign wingmen and edit load-outs for all ships.
  
• New features and bug fixes
  

• Cockpit camera views for Opponent faction ships are not properly configured, best to use 3rd person view if flying these, for now
  
• Certain vessels can potentially get stuck on each other during collisions due to their concave geometry
  
• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected
  
• Turret gunners are trigger happy generally firing too early and very likely to miss their target at longer distances on the initial trigger press
  

• Skirmish: Create your own battles with team vs. team combat
  
• Added some new controller/joystick settings under Options > Interface.
  
• Wingmen monitoring for in-flight HUD
  
• Forward Thrust Override and Reverse Thrust Override keybindings (ignores any speed restrictions)
  
• Speed restrictions removed from Lateral thrusting, you can now thrust indefinitely to your own detriment
  
• New targeting keybindings: Target hostile attacking you, Target hostile attacking your target, Clear current target, Target next/prev subsystem, Target next/prev turret
  
• Auto-Targeting. When enabled the current target is destroyed or leaves the area the next closest hostile target will be selected
  

• Reduced maximum speed and thrust forces by 50% for all current ships
  

• Lens flare inconsistent in first-person view flight
  
• The Last Used View value was not being set when the player toggled between perspective views
  
• Options > Game > Camera Sway: is not being applied the first time entering a mission
  
• Zeroed out near zero translation/rotational velocities
  
• Mouse Flight Cursor appears in front of Controller Mapping screen
  
• FPS counter will remain if it's enabled in a mission and then the player restarts the mission
  
• AI Wingmen may not receive AI wingman orders when first spawned and will remain unresponsive
  
• Corvette debris now collide
  
• Player Wingman is not following the player when in Formation and there are enemies present
  
• 1st Person view unintentionally disconnected from the player when they are accelerating/decelerating
  
• Pressing the Target Tracking keybinding gives a null reference error when the player does not have a valid target
  
• 3rd person target tracking camera reverting to forward view before changing focus on to a new target.
  
• 3rd person target tracking not resetting back to forward view when the current target is lost
  
• Debris translation stuttering
  
• Improved performance during missions
  

• Certain vessels can potentially get stuck on each other during collisions due to their concave geometry
  
• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected
  
• Lens flare inconsistent in first-person view flight
  
• Turret gunners are trigger happy generally firing too early and very likely to miss their target at longer distances on the initial trigger press
  
• FPS counter will remain through menus if it is active when exiting a mission
  

• When entering into simulator gameplay and then exiting and returning to the refit screen, the player vessel is no longer equipped by default on entry
  
• Failing any main campaign mission will soft-lock the game
  
• Entering into the vessel selection screen will display a preview of the players currently equipped ship
  
• Vessel Configuration screen: Equipment Selection/Equipped List does not scroll when using directional keys/buttons (up/down)
  
• Vessel Configuration screen: "Not Enough Fitting Points" popup needs to be in focus as can use arrow keys to move around the equipment screen when it's active, and can only close the popup with the mouse
  
• Switching 3rd to 1st person view the first time (if starting in 3rd) after rotating the vessel from the starting direction will now have the camera in the correct position
  
• Fixed player wingman kills stat displayed in the mission debriefing for the Simulator Playtest 2 (1 v many) game mode is always 0
  
• Issue with pilots failing to evade other vessels (confiscated their mobile infotainment devices)
  
• Player and Target Health Quadrants and Arcs HUD not displaying the first time entering a mission.
  
• Turret loadouts not being instantiated correctly with empty mounts before fitted (based on mount numbering system)
  
• Vessel weaponry is no longer on immediate cooldown when vessels are instantiated
  
• Audio no longer glitches for SFX sources while the player is moving around the mission
  

• Removed Campaign button due to breaking changes and putting the Playtest focus on and around general combat
  
• Options > Video > Resolution: The resolution list is now reversed for the highest resolutions to be listed first
  
• Enemy faction ships now use the same weapons made available to the player (instead of using a weaker variant)
  
• Removed Zoom functionality due to unresolved graphical issues with the current implementation.
  
• Pitch shifting across a random range on each play of audio effects for menu, vessel button presses, and other gameplay effects.
  
• On the first run when version change has been detected a backup of the old profiles will be created in a backup folder before the update process runs, saved in the games data directory (\AppData\LocalLow\Digitum Software\A-SPEC First Assault)
  

• Targetable subsystems representing various vessel systems (i.e. Bridge, Reactor, Engine, etc.)
  
• Targeting and sub-targeting highlighting
  
• Vessels have damageable subsystems reducing the performance of vessel systems based on the damage taken (i.e. weapon fire rate, weapon reload time, weapon accuracy, maximum Speed, acceleration/deceleration/rotation, repair rate, etc)
  
• Subsystem Damage Control for repairing damaged subsystems
  
• Turret damage control for repairing damaged turrets
  
• Damage Control HUD report when player subsystems take damage
  
• Gimball primary weapons (your guns will now move to track your target)
  
• Gun lead indicator has been replaced with multiple point indicators representing where guns are pointing (gimbal guns will lead their targets) and where they would hit if they are over your currently selected target. A cross will appear over them if firing the guns will likely result in a miss
  
• Target overview display now shows the name of any targeted component
  
• Third-person views are constrained around the player (avoid the camera floating too far away/close to the player vessel)
  
• Flying long distances from the mission starting points should no longer exhibit strange behavior to object positioning (i.e. projectiles won't skitter around when firing your primary weapons)
  
• Projectiles have an impact force applied to the rigidbodies they hit
  
• A range of small and medium-sized primary weapons for Autocannon, Artillery, Railgun, and Blaster primary gun types
  
• A range of small and medium-sized turrets in 1-3 barrel versions for Autocannon, Artillery, Railgun, and Blaster gun types
  
• Railgun can pass through Shield, Armour, and Hull damage layers to subsystems with covered trait
  
• Vessel configuration screen: Missile launchers can be equipped to ships with available launcher ports (currently no launchers to equip as yet, sorry!)
  
• Equipped missile launchers are listed on the weapon HUD display
  
• Missile trail FX
  
• Explosions can cause shockwaves which can apply Newtonian forces to objects caught in their blast
  
• RCS Match Speed mode now uses set ranges for Long (10,000m), Medium (5,000m), and Close (3500m) options
  
• Vessel Selection/Configuration screen: Prestige Balance is now abbreviated for large numbers
  
• Created a versioning utility which, to maintain compatibility going forward, automatically backup the 'Profiles' directory on each major/minor version change to prevent data loss during updates
  

• Flight HUD re-work
  
• Many bug fixes
  

• Player wingman kills displayed in the mission debriefing for the Simulator Playtest 2 game mode is always 0
  
• 3rd to 1st person view perspective change can cause the camera to swivel on transition and vice versa the first time the player changes the perspective after rotating the ship from the starting direction
  
• Floating Origin implementation does not solve the lack of floating point precision at extreme distances
  
• Certain ships can get stuck on each other during collisions due to their concave geometry
  
• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected
  

• The Radar component no longer has an 'out of index range' error caused by reusing the attached parent object with the pooling system
  
• Ship AI controllers now use the correct behavior rules and will act differently than in previous playtest versions
  
• Disable the mouse steering cursor on player death
  
• Virtual Displays Manager no longer has a 'null reference exception' error on player death
  
• Gun Sight Display no longer has a 'null reference exception' error on player death
  
• Miscellaneous HUD assets no longer remain during player dying or autopilot animation sequences
  
• Prevented the player from being able to change camera views during player dying animation
  
• The 'Last Used Camera Perspective' under gameplay options now reflects correctly the player's last chosen camera perspective and no longer set itself to 3rd person on player death
  
• Some particles explosions were unintentionally affected by the player's velocity
  

• Heads Up Display (HUD) re-work for primary and turret weapons
  
• HUD position adjustments for all display elements to avoid taking up too much center space
  
• HUD player and target status displays have been switched around with each other
  
• HUD flight indicators no longer use images for the border graphics
  [
• }HUD speed and velocity indicators now using monospacing
  
• HUD velocity indicators (X, Y, Z) are now permanently displayed instead of only being visible when Flight Assist is disabled
  

• Pooled game assets were not being destroyed between mission instances
  

• Windows Operating systems with HDR enabled no longer cause the game to display dark and washed-out colors (Thank you nonplayer)
  

• Smoother gameplay motion and improved performance.
  
• The new Reticle Zoom only has the 1 zoom setting at the moment (more zoom multipliers are planned).
  
• New useabilitiy options for the gameplay camera
  

• Camera shake was not happening when firing main guns
  

• Reticle Zoom (key binding not set).
  
• Muzzle flash for all weapons
  
• Gunsight adjusts to show where main guns are likely to hit (most obvious when in close proximity to ships)
  
• Camera Shake (Options > Gameplay) toggle tied to impulse actions (firing guns, projectile hits, explosions, etc)
  
• Camera Sway (Options > Gameplay) toggle tied to player movement/momentum
  

• Frame Limit (Options > Video > Frame Limit) option 'FPS_15' is now replaced with a more useful option 'Monitor' to set Frame Limit to your monitor refresh rate
  
• Projectile hit effect for each projectile type
  
• Refactored AI for performance increase.
  

• The camera system now uses a single camera instead of multiple for internal and external views
  
• Physics update rate is now tied to framerate which can be controlled by Frame Limit (Options > Video > Frame Limit).
  
• Rigidbody center of mass now always zero (fixes rotation jitter evident to player turning their ship) where the model/collision data is slightly offset from zero position
  

• Menu not displaying when loading into the game (all you see is the camera spinning around the ship). Caused by duplicate controller input entries not being caught correctly. (Thank you nonplayer)
  
• Allowed mouse to be used in menus on computers with touchscreen-enabled devices. (Thank you nonplayer)
  

• Exiting and re-entering the campaign menu will reshuffle the available random missions
  

<*>Inflight:



• Artillery and Railgun projectiles now have a thickness used in checking for collisions
  
• The primary gun sight appears in the 3D world when using the Target Tracking view.
  
• The primary gun indicator will adjust its position to better show where the guns will hit when hovering over a collidable object (i.e. ship)
  
• Wingment will return to formation if there are no more enemies to attack
  
• 3rd person camera view has tighter view of the players ship
  
• Changed the color of certain HUD elements from white to green for improved visibility over bright areas of the skybox
  

<*>Inflight:



• Fixed an issue where AI won't disengage to evade under defined conditions
  
• Adjusted some values for AI collision avoidance checking and behavior actions.
  

• Removed all null reference checks from the Targeting Computer component (slight performance improvement)
  

Playtest 3 begins with Patch 0.3.0

I'm happy to announce the start of Playtest 3 which introduces the new campaign mode, bringing major changes to the ship equipment configuration with Prestige and Fitting costs, and new Passive Modules to buff the performance of various ship systems.

Join the ASPEC community on Discord, talk about the game, leave feedback and tell me about any bugs you encounter.


Check out the patch notes here:
0.3.0 Patch Notes

• Playtest 2 added to Simulator Menu providing waves based compact against multiple opponents while assisted by a wingman
  
• Wignman can be assigned orders with default bindings F1 Break and attack, F2 Attack my target, F4 Form on my wing
  
• Turrets can now be given orders (Default 'O' key)
  
• Autocannon, Blaster, Artillery, and Railgun weapons available to select for turret and Corvette main guns
  
• Engine and thrusters visually represent the Reaction Control System doing its thing keeping you flying forward
  
• Main engines now stop thrusting when the RCS no longer needs to apply any forward thrust
  
• Added 3 new enemies (Corvette, Frigate, and Cruiser) ,each with their own models, available to be destroyed in Playtest 2 scenario
  
• New follow target camera (default '/')
  
• Camera view bindings now set to the keyboard Numpad (8 1st/3rd Front,4 Left,6 Right,2 Back)
  
• Reset Controller configuration to avoid control binding issues with this update
  
• All ships now have Thruster effects for rotation, acceleration, and deceleration
  
• Ship death explosions now more appropriate for the size of each ship
  
• Minor changes to warship AI to try and feel/act less 'dogfighter' (still uses Fighter Pilot AI)
  
• All available turrets now have 3D models for Single, Double, and Triple barrel weapons
  
• All Corvette primary guns now have a 3D model and can be seen rotating with the gun-tracking
  
• Each type of projectile weapon has its own visual and audio effect
  
• Projectiles scale according to distance to be always visible (especially when at great distances from the camera view)
  
• Arillery projectiles now cause explosive damage
  
• New high-quality skybox added to replace the previous skybox
  
• Huge changes to the ship and weapon selection screen
  
• Massive refactoring of codebase related to ships, equipment, and weapons which makes little difference to the player but a huge difference on the development side
  
• Fixed numerous bugs (most probably caused by refactoring of the codebase and adding new features)
  
• Fixed an issue with beam weapons not scaling correctly when fired (but you won't notice because beam weapons have been removed for now)
  

• Muzzle flares missing from all weapons
  
• Irrelevant keybindings still listed in controller bindings (i.e. Power management)
  
• Primary weapons selection arrows wobble a bit when moving/rotating