A new weapon, the behemoth flak cannon is available this update. The behemoth flak is the second member of the new weapon class created with the magnetic beam cannon rework. The cannon rapidly fires high speed projectiles with an airburst AoE. The behemoth flak cannon is unlocked alongside regular flak cannons in the Flak Weaponry research.
Increased magnetic beam cannon damage per burst from 600 to 900.
Small torque reduction around the x-axis is disabled for ballasts when a tilt module is enabled.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the magnetic beam cannon consuming the wrong amount of pressure.
Fixed the obelisk missing on horizon.
Airmen 1.20.18: Mag Beam Rework
The magnetic beam cannon is reworked this update giving it and all new shape. The goal of this rework is not to buff the cannon but to instead redesign it to eliminate effectively meaningless qualities and enforce some limitations that were easily dodged.
The biggest change beyond its new massive shape is the removal of the focusers. It was always optimal to stack these directly next to each other since they were a massively liability as to the damage output of the cannon. The new larger size also prevent extreme packing of the beams, another building "trick" there was little reason to not do.
The damage of the mag beam has not been adjusted to first see how it handles its new shape. As an incentive for trying it out, a new carbine cosmetic has been added, unlockable by destroying 50 balloons with a mag beam.
Reworked the magnetic beam cannon. The new cannon is far larger, more durable, and has limited penetration but no longer uses focusers.
Minor Features
Added a new carbine cosmetic.
Bug Fixes
Fixed in-game descriptions not mentioning smuggling contract cargo can be in hidden caches.
Fixed the light carbine missing a texture.
Airmen 1.20.16: Listening Posts
Listening posts appear on the archipelago this update adding faction smuggling contracts. Faction smuggling contracts work similarly to normal smuggling contracts except enemy factions will be notified when one is started in or to their territory and influence will be rewarded upon completion.
Once a faction controls the territory of a listening post, a special option will appear in the faction facility menu. The new "Enemy Intelligence" option pings the heaviest rival faction ship's current location on the map for all members of your faction. If the rival faction controls a listening post of their own, they will be notified when this option is activated.
Listening posts will wrap up the long series of faction focused updates. Small features may arrive over time but for now faction gameplay supports a wide enough breadth of activities and PvP opportunities to go without constant attention.
Added a new faction facility, listening posts, across the archipelago.
Minor Features
Added a faction and influence tutorial.
Added faction smuggling contracts available at listening posts.
Added "Enemy Intelligence" option available at listening posts your faction controls. Enemy intelligence pings the largest rival faction ship on the map. If the other faction controls a listening post they will be notified they have been pinged.
Bug Fixes
Fixed map location details overflowing on the sidebar.
Fixed bone and winter wraps chest being white.
Airmen 1.20.15: Buried Treasure
New bonus influence integrations arrive this week adding bonus influence to sieges and buried treasure. Siege bonus influence works simply, awarding the affiliated faction with bonus influence for completing waves 2 and 3. Rival factions can also participate, earning bonus influence for destroying the siege fort without destroying the siege beacon.
The new side activity adds a new role for the spyglass adding over 300 treasure caches across the archipelago. Each cache contains parcels of either gold, aetherium, oil, or synthest along with new parcels that provide 5 gold and 25 bonus influence when extracted. Buried treasure appears as small mounds of dirt and can be opened like a normal cache of cargo.
Added buried treasure. Buried treasure will contain a few parcels of gold, aetherium, oil, or synthest in addition to new parcels that reward 5 gold and 25 bonus influence when extracted.
Minor Features
Added bonus influence rewards for completing siege waves. Wave 2 and 3 will reward 100 and 300 bonus influence to the team that starts the sieges.
Factions will receive bonus influence for dealing the finishing blow to a siege fort owned by a rival faction. If the siege node is destroyed by the attackers no influence will be rewarded. If the siege node is destroyed by the defenders the attackers will still be rewarded.
Bug Fixes
Fixed faction hunt quarries spawning in the contracted team's faction.
Airmen 1.20.12: Magnetic Repulsor
Factions take a back seat this update to a number of changes with large effects on combat. The first is a utility part intended to give ships a defense system against ultra close range combat. The magnetic repulsor is a high pressure cost utility part that projects a magnetic field around the ship while active. A single repulsor is just enough to stall a 5k mass ship at maximum thrust so to repulse large ships multiple repulsors will be needed. The repulsor is far less effective when a lighter ship attempts to repel a heavier ship.
Most turreted weapons receive a damage doubling buff on the balance side of this update's combat changes. All turrets, single autoturrets, and double autoturrets of the twin, needle, breach, volley and barrage variety will bring a far higher amount of damage to a fight.
Paired with this change is an adjustment to adjustables tweaking their role in combat. All adjustable weapons will now turn far slower when firing. This change makes it impossible for adjustables to track nearby targets without synchronized ship movements. Compensating for their ineffectiveness at close range all accuracy scaling weapons have had their accuracy tripled.
These changes combined should mean adjustables will hold their dominance at medium and long ranges where they can stay on target while autoturrets and their heightened damage will fill the gap at close range where a ships maneuverability is more relevant.
Double damage of twin, needle, breach, volley and barrage cannons.
Tripled the accuracy of all accuracy scaling weapons.
Adjustable weapons turn significantly slower while firing.
Bug Fixes
Fixed faction contract providers giving contracts to rival factions when their territory is controlled.
Airmen 1.20.11: Bonus Influence
This week's update integrates a handful of existing activities into the faction system through the new bonus influence system. Bonus influence is a new faction mechanic that allows activities at arbitrary map locations to provide meaningful influence to any participating faction.
Once your faction completes a designated bonus influence activity completing any contract will apply up to 400 points of bonus influence at the source and destination of the contract. When bonus influence is applied it is expended however bonus influence is not reduced by faction territory size unlike normal contract influence. Each faction can stockpile up to 1000 bonus influence.
Added bonus influence. Bonus influence can accrue up to 1000 points for each faction. When a faction completes a contract they will expend and apply up to 400 points of their bonus influence to each of the contract influence application locations. Bonus influence is not reduced by faction territory size.
Synthesizers (200), artifacts (600), installation caches (400) and transmutation loops (400) will provide bonus influence to winning factions if they are the current bonus influence activity. The bonus influence activity will remain until the designated activity is completed and reactivate after 5 minutes of there being no bonus influence activity.
Minor Features
Ship wheels and tracks will spawn automatically braking and unbrake at the first forward or reverse input.
Reworked smuggling contracts to require the pick up and return of valueless smuggling themed parcels. The new version of this contract will be integrated into faction contracts in a future update.
Airmen 1.20.9: Faction Bunkers
Hunt contracts return to faction relevance this update with the bunker, a new faction facility. The Faction Attack hunts provided by bunkers will spawn a powerful quarry from the faction of the target destination if the controlling faction has active members. Similarly to faction deliveries, the faction controlling the target territory will be notified when the contract is accepted. Factions can have one active faction hunt at a time.
The discretion of faction facilities has also changed this update. Faction factories will only do business with the faction that controls their territory or factions without control of any factories unless their territory is uncontrolled. The influence reward of faction contracts has been increased to compensate for the unlikelihood of a fruitful return journey.
Added faction bunkers across the map that provide special long distance hunts that spawn faction ships if within the territory of a faction with active members. Faction bunkers can only be used by a faction that controls the bunker. A faction can only accept one of these contracts at a time.
Minor Features
Reduced the distance that escaping quarries flee.
Increased the influence gain from delivery contracts.
A faction that controls at least one factory can only accept faction deliveries from factories they control.
Bug Fixes
Fixed hybrid landships being unable to deploy as non-landships.
Fixed faction delivery contracts costing gold for players on hard difficulty.
Airmen 1.20.8: Faction Factories
This update integrates a second faction facility and starts reworking existing mechanics to revolve around them. Vanilla influence increasing activities like contracts no longer normally provide influence. Special influence providing contracts can be accepted at the new faction factory. These deliveries are tuned to better involve rival factions in the activities by requiring further travel and pinging factions controlling the start or end point of the delivery. Future facilities will work similarly to the factory as a source of influence increasing activities.
Added faction factories. Faction factories provide a small set of long distance deliveries that apply 100 influence at the factory location and destination. Rival factions will receive a temporary ping of the route if they control the starting or end point of the delivery.
Minor Features
Removed influence gains from completing regular contracts.
Removed influence gains from collecting bounties.
Influence gained from destroying a faction ship in its own territory changed to a flat 200 instead of firepower divided by 100.
Influence gains for a faction are divided by the number of factories they control (minimum 1).
Increased radius of radar towers to 2.5km.
Reduced the close range damage of the Bunker II.
The quartermaster functions at outposts can be accessed with G when nearby the outpost.
Bug Fixes
Fixed resources sometimes being invisible but still mineable.
Fixed delivery contracts only choosing locations from a small subset of possibilities.
Airmen 1.20.7: Radar Towers
The first faction facility arrives this update with radar towers placed across the archipelago. Radar towers ping faction ships on the map that are within 2km of the tower, above sea level, and of 10k mass or greater. Only the faction controlling the territory the tower is in can gain its benefits. Future faction facilities will fill in gaps across the map to ensure as much territory as possible has an extra incentive to capture.
Added radar towers across the map capturable along with faction territory. A radar tower will show a map ping for all faction ships within 2000 meters, above sea level, and of 10k mass or greater.
Minor Features
Decreased influence gains from hunts.
Increased influence gains from harvests, deliveries, and rescues.
Bug Fixes
Fixed sieges never starting.
Fixed the magnet in Fairleaf Plains applying no force.
Fixed the roll corrector showing the wrong pressure draw stats in the hangar.
Airmen 1.20.5: Faction Balancing
This week's update focuses on leveling the playing field between factions with different numbers of players at their disposal. Having a ship count advantage massively tilts the balance of a fight towards the faction with more ships. Without a matchmaking service meticulously crafting every expedition lobby, factions of 1 or 6 need to be able to engage each other in competitive battles.
The faction damage multiplier is a new faction-only mechanic that reduces the damage dealt by factions with many ships to factions with few ships. The multiplier reduces damage less than the increase in damage from an additional ship in the fight and is only applied to reduce damage. An additional ship still adds fully to the durability of their fleet as there is no increase applied by the multiplier. The multiplier applies server-wide so large factions should operate together to avoid splitting damage between ships not participating in a combat. You can preview your faction's damage multiplier versus another faction's by mousing over their territory on the map or inspecting that faction's dossier from a member on the scoreboard.
The faction damage multiplier scales off of a number of factors beyond ship count to calculate a total "team power" for each participating party. Total team power is the sum off...
15k per player ship controlled by the faction.
Half the firepower of player ships controlled by the faction.
3k per member of the faction beyond the third.
Once the total team power of each party is calculated, damage is reduced according to the ratio between the two. This modifier is then applied at 75% strength and only begins scaling at a 10k difference in team power. A faction with 3 ships of 60k total firepower and 3 members would deal 60% damage to a faction with 1 ship of 20k firepower and 1 member for example.
If you'd like to explore the effects of the faction damage multiplier, make a copy of this spreadsheet.
Added faction damage multiplier. Faction damage multiplier reduces the damage factions with many ships deal to factions with few ships. The faction damage multiplier is proportional to the ratio of "team power" between either faction. Team power of a faction is a sum of 15k per player ship controlled, half of total controlled firepower, and 3k per faction member beyond 3. Scaling begins at a 10k team power difference, caps at a 3:1 ratio, and is applied at 75% strength.
Minor Features
It will now snow during sieges if the normal weather is snowy.
Added faction dossiers visible by mousing over a faction's territory or clicking on a faction player in the scoreboard.
Faction damage multiplier applied to projectiles is based on the ship it was fired from instead of the player that fired it.
Non-faction and rival faction players repair faction ships at a greatly reduced rate.
