For all the captains brave enough to venture into the Beta branch, here are some new features:
Artifact ID is more friendly: you are no longer forced to choose!
Auto-explore will now pick up blood samples when you have the right skill.
The first time you enter a star temple or see a hypno-flower, you get a warning...
Repair skill can now fix holes in shipwreck floors, if they are surrounded by proper floors.
Each race now has its own shipwreck image.
Monsters now activate traps!
Killing Narcratu ships can make you more popular with other races in the sector.
Quests now show their XP rewards!
Artifact ID Changes
It's all on one screen now, you don't have to decide whether it's positive or negative, you get a better explanation of what's going on, and you're allowed to leave the screen without making a (possibly catastrophically wrong) choice.
Firaxughinian artifacts were always meant to be a highly sought after commodity, a joy to find, but a chore to identify. Sadly, because of the way *identification* was handled, they became something a lot of players would rather sell or even avoid than try to decipher.
After a lot of feedback, ideas, conversations, and previous failed attempts, we're going to try this new, very player-friendly method of ID'ing them. Let me know what you think!
Quest XP Displayed
How did a space exploration RPG exist for almost 8 years without displaying something so universal as how much XP you get for completing a quest?!
A very forgiving player base, I assume. And thank you. But it's no longer an issue:
These changes are only in the Beta Branch for now, which anyone can join from the Steam Library > Manage > Properties > Betas
Open World Sale
Greetings Captains! Approaching Infinity is proud to be a part of the Steam Open World sale and celebration! I know there's already a lot of universe to explore, but have you seen the Starmap? (It's like a roadmap, but in space.) It outlines where the game will go in the next major development cycle. And I can tell you, it's definitely new territory for this space roguelike.
Version 1.6 is winding down, but there is still some work to do, and I have one more new system planned so 1.6 goes out with a bang. What is it?
Monster Modifiers
Right now, a gnasher is always a gnasher. It always has the same hit point and damage curves, and the same powers. But really, shouldn't creatures that evolve in different environments have unique abilities, even if they fulfill the same ecological niche wherever they're found?
Of course.
That's why I'm developing monster modifiers. Long time players will remember planet monsters used to have randomly assigned "flavor" modifiers, like "grumpy", "purple", and "vicious". Well those didn't actually *do* anything.
From now on, they will!
Take for instance an "Ironhide Gnasher". It will have the same general abilities of the base creature. But "Ironhide" will grant resistance to piercing and +20% hit points. But it will also grant weakness to corrosion. Most modifiers will be simpler, like "hungry" might increase their aggression radius, or "sluggish" would decrease their speed.
But you get the idea. These sorts of things won't show up in the very early sectors (you've already got enough to deal with). I expect this, in addition to some other planned fixes and tweaks, will take about 2 weeks. And then we will well and truly wrap up this whole "1.6" thing :D
Recent Changes:
Fixed a bug where starter quests were not given after doing the tutorial.
Fixed several display errors when trying to identify an artifact with another menu open.
Increased the life of "movement particles" that show where an entity has been.
Added particle effect to "rock plow" removing asteroids.
Added particle effect when an officer is ready to level up.
Added description and image for the new "tradio" device.
Updated various device and skill descriptions to show that they "Allow asteroid mining."
Grenade boxes can now boost your total above your max ammo!
Fixed a crash when pressing "ALT" during key rebinding.
Fixed a repeating sound error on the new warp screen.
This interstellar journey still has a long way to go... Join me!
Starmap 1.7
As version 1.6 draws to a successful close, I'd like to look toward the future, and share with you my vision.
If I had to sum up version 1.6 in just 2 words, I'd say "away missions". The next major milestone's theme could be described as "non-violent play". And while I am about to describe some enormous additions to the fundamentals of the game, know that 1.7 will encompass more than what is presented here, just as 1.6 included features that had nothing to do with trees, guns, or monsters.
Please note that this is not chronological, but an overview of large systems that may be added in any order, and work synergistically to create a richer game universe.
And now, I present to you:
Asteroid Bases
Imagine a neutral spaceport where you can park your ship, stretch your legs, talk to people, take new quests, and purchase services you've never seen before...
(This is a quick image David made to help flesh out the idea.)
When visiting these hidden bases carved out of space-rocks, you might encounter a mixture of these services:
Cybernetic Upgrades: Improve the power, duration, and cool-down times of your cybernetic skills!
Artifact Dealer: A shop that allows you to exchange two artifacts for one. They might also sell clues to temple locations.
Cartographer: Someone who deals exclusively in planetary surveys.
Scrap Dealer: A merchant interested in salvaged shipwrecks...
Gadgeteer: More on gadgets later but buy and sell them here.
Advanced Crafting Lab: Fine-tune your crafting output to add specific powers to weapons and suits. Of course you'll need a variety of new items to accomplish this.
Weaponsmith: Take what you already have and make it better!
Alchemy Lab: Learn all about the special properties and uses of the 135 rare plants you can find, or just sell the ones you've collected.
Medlab: Cure diseases, heal injured officers, and maybe even get yourself a clone (?!)
Gambling: Have too much money? Throw it away here!
Zoologist: Sells cages, wants animals. Also interested in "bestiary" information you've collected.
What can you think of? What kinds of services have you been wishing for?
And the craziest part? No combat!
Depending on the reception, this system could be expanded to give you the option of exploring existing space stations on foot (instead of just using the current menu interface), or even WALKING AROUND YOUR OWN SHIP! Maybe you could even decorate it? We'll see...
Shipwreck Repair
What do you do with a shipwreck when you've killed all the monsters, scavenged the loot, and fully mapped it?
Salvage it yourself? Blow it up and see what else falls out?
Sell the rights to the scrap dealer?
Tow it to a space station for a salvage fee?
Repair it? Put in the work and turn it into your new home!
That last one is a much more involved process, but it would also be a lot more rewarding. Fix up the walls, patch the holes in the floors, restore power and atmosphere. You'll need special skills, tools, gadgets, and even some problem solving skills. But you'll end up with a brand new ship :O
Gadgets
These unassuming little boxes look a bit like crafting parts, but they have a wide variety of uses:
They'll be featured in the majority of the new game systems.
They're used to repair shipwrecks.
They're used to 'solve' puzzles.
They're used to power or activate certain machines.
They can be a reward for a quest...
...or the very thing a different quest-giver wants!
Could be necessary for alchemy (see below) or advanced crafting.
Buy or sell them if you can find a "gadgeteer" in an asteroid base.
As a major factor in the Barter system, each one is valued differently depending on your trading partner.
Puzzles
Ready to challenge your mind in a new way? Puzzles in Approaching Infinity are intended to give you new interactions and reward your ingenuity.
Search for clues in your environment.
Push an item into the proper slot.
Arrange a series of machines so that they function correctly.
Press the buttons in the right order.
Deduce the next number in a series (math, anyone?).
Choose the non-trapped chest on the first try.
Assemble pieces of a password.
Figure out how to bypass certain traps.
(Your ideas here!)
Machines
Here are some facts on these awesome-looking esoteric contraptions:
They're similar to "furniture" items that populate shipwrecks and underground bases.
Each one has an "on" state, which is animated, as well as "off" and "broken" states.
They're destructible, so watch where you throw those grenades!
You may have to push them around on the map.
You might have to fix them.
They might give you important information.
Turning all the machines on in an area could reveal something previously hidden.
You will see them during shipwreck repair missions.
They will also be featured in their own purpose-built new areas.
Certain puzzles will be designed around them.
(Ignore the slime-monsters, they were created in some evil genius's lab...)
Barter
One sentient's trash is another's treasure, so why not trade for what you need!
(Again, a quick mockup)
Meet with traders on stations and asteroid bases, surface colonies, underground hideouts, or just pull your ship up next to theirs and start exchanging.
Each side has only a few things that the other is interested in, and NPCs will have their own ideas about the value of your offerings. But if you give the glow stones to the Gruff, they might just hand over that Firax clue they're holding on to.
Alchemy
Remember when I asked for your help in naming all those rare plants? Remember when you found them on planets and tried to pick them up (but couldn't)? Soon you'll be able to *do* something with them!
Did you know there are 135 of them in total, and each one is found on only a handful of planet-types? Conchbud and Hive Bulb occur on 7 kinds of planets, while Withervane and Moldercurtain can be found on only 3 (toxic, irradiated, and dying planets).
Each plant can have multiple "properties": fire resistance, healing, cyber-gel component, hull salve, warp widener, sensor soother (ok, some of those names are silly and made up on the spot, but you get the point...) They can do a lot of things!
But the properties aren't useful by themselves; you've got to combine them with others that have the same effect to actually create something useful. And the results of this system could be:
Away team consumables (make you faster or give your bullets shock damage)
Spaceship consumables (heal your ship or make you a better negotiator)
Disease cures (or even vaccines to keep you from getting sick in the first place!)
Trade goods (other people need these things too you know!)
Crafting Ingredients (how else are you going to give your equipment the powers you want?)
Harvest their seeds and find a place to farm them?
WHAT ELSE?!
Bestiary
(Semi-non-violent...)
Monsters can have almost 100 different powers, as well as resistances and vulnerabilities to 22 types of damage! That's a lot to remember. You already get feedback about your weapon's effectiveness, and sometimes your crew will shout out hints. Why not keep track in some official way?
(An early iteration of the bestiary, showing all the details up front.)
But what if you didn't know it all up front? What if you had to learn it each time you started a new game? Of course, *you*, the player, would retain your knowledge... we haven't figured out how to erase your memory yet. But your character's knowledge would need to be built up in each new play-through.
And there can be weapon-testing quests, and merchants who buy and sell information on monster's abilities. Even notes found from previous runs that restore parts of your missing knowledge. The zoologist mentioned in the asteroid base section is certainly going to be interested in this kind of thing, might even sell you a cage trap to bring back a live specimen...
More Quests!
There is a *lot* more story to tell, and many more ways that conversations and inter-species dynamics can play out. Several weeks of this development supercycle will be dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what a quest can be in AI:
Meet new NPCs who want your help.
Obtain more diverse types of items and information.
Face new restrictions and challenges.
Visit previous sectors instead of always being forced onward.
Choose between branching paths that change the world!
Art Collection
Currently, when you find alien artworks, you see a picture and get some data and credits. That's it.
But where does it go?
Soon you'll have a browsable art collection. But it won't just be for show. You will meet art dealers looking to complete their collections. Maybe you can use art pieces in the barter system? Perhaps a quest to locate certain stolen or illegally released works that are embarrassing to a particular regime?
And maybe we can begin to see more details about each work? Who created it? Where and when? What's the title? Maybe not only could these things be shown, but they could be *written*... BY THE COMMUNITY!
Starting-Ship Overhaul
OK, this might not have much to do with "non-violent play", but...
Thanks to conversations (and members' hard work!) on Approaching Infinity's Discord, the ships you can start the game with will be getting lots of attention. The big idea behind this is to make each ship fill a specific role, and do something that no other ship can.
Of course some ships already do this: the Gruff ship has a melee attack! The Eaters ship "consumes" commodities instead of picking them up! The Star Skimmer gets a shield-and-damage bonus when close to stars (I bet you didn't know that) !
But the other ships need some love too. Starting supplies will most likely go up across the board, and the starting equipment of each ship will become much more specific. And to tie back in to 1.7's driving force, new interactions will be created to help these ships find their niche.
For example: The stealth runner is fast and sneaky, but easy to kill and not really suited to away missions. Maybe the new asteroid bases will need to hire you for smuggling or spying missions where not getting caught is key?
Conclusion
Approaching Infinity 1.7 is going to bring massive changes and rich depth to this already expansive game. It will also take 9 months to get all this stuff right.
Please join me on this incredible journey!
Bob / IBOL17 May 2021
Warp Screen Remodel
Greetings captains! You can now see every sector within range on the warp screen at once, with a lot more useful information than before. But first...
Monster HP Reduced
Based not so much on analytics, but on player feedback and personal experience, I have reduced planet-monster hit points and damage across the board. Like I said, even when "The Great Rebalancing" is over, it's never really *over*...
Control Menu
There are a few special actions that require holding down the control key: long rest and aimed shot, but also all your assigned activated skills. And since the skills don't always have the same shortcut keys, players need a more convenient way to be sure they're doing the right thing.
Enter the (first iteration of) the "control" menu. When you hold down the control key, a little menu pops up on the left quickly showing all your options. Let me know what you think.
Asteroid Mining Changes
For a long time now, I've felt that not all ships should be able to mine asteroids, especially the small stealth-based ones (which are unlockable, so maybe you don't know...).
So for now, to mine asteroids, you need to have at least one asteroid-mining-related skill or device. The asteroid miner ship is the only one that can mine asteroids from the start of the game, unless you take an engineering-class captain!
Rock Plow (device)
Asteroid Cracker (device)
Asteroid Sieve (device)
Consumption Engine (Eater device)
Mining Specialist (Engineering skill)
Asteroid Navigator (Transmutor skill)
Warp Screen Remodel
That's a pretty big change, huh?
All the sectors you can reach are now laid out on the screen at once, where your current sector is in the middle and higher sectors spiral out to the right (and sectors "behind you" are to the left). This might not be the final arrangement, but I do think it is better overall, and much more in line with expectations for a space game.
You also get more information arranged in a more predictable, readable format. In case you have quests regarding a certain type of space terrain, or you want to attack or avoid a certain alien race, or even if you just want to see the best place to sell your cargo, the warp screen will now help you decide where to go.
Other Changes
Reduced HP and Damage of gruff instigator and pirate raider.
Added "incubation period" to all diseases, meaning you don't have symptoms at first.
Left or right clicking will cancel auto-move / auto-explore.
Diseases will no longer cause the often-misunderstood "drunken walk" effect in the early sectors.
Planet scans now show the base "threat level" of any life-forms encountered there.
Version 1.7 Update:
I intend to release a more detailed look at the next major development cycle before the end of the week, so stay tuned...
The End of the Great Rebalancing
Hail space explorers! This week's update brings more balance analysis, active corrosion, and lots of fixes and micro-features. The End of the Great Rebalancing is upon us...
...of course balance changes will continue to be made, but the overall feel and result is very close to where it should be now, thanks to a month of analysis, feedback, and tweaking.
Grenade use is up 212%
Similar to the increase in away team skill use, people are now using grenades twice as often, thanks to the simple fact that they're ammo replenishes before each mission (and they're not destroyed when you use the last one). And from what I can tell, grenades are not being over-used either. I think they've fallen into their proper niche.
Overall tactical action use during missions has increased as well, though it's still lower than I'd like. I realize that at least half of those missions are just when you're really OP and well equipped, but still, you can't get off too easy...
Also of note: complete losses of away teams are down, both by size category and in total. Gnashers replaced squither larva as the #1 killer, thanks to a very small reduction in the squither hit points. I've raised it slightly, we'll see what happens. And thanks to recent crew size changes I'm now seeing missions with a total of up to 27 people (that's HUGE!)
Active corrosion
Yes, time for something new! From now on, weapons with the "corrosive" damage type can create a status effect on the target tile that will damage whatever entity or terrain is there. It'll go away eventually, but you probably shouldn't step in it...
Changes:
Fire burns even more on planets with higher oxygen content.
Lava terrain can now start fires nearby.
Acid terrain will sometimes spread the corrosion effect.
Planetary gravity now effects movement speed! <0.8G makes you faster, and >1.3 makes you slower. 3G+ will slow your movement to a crawl!
Fewer total primordial liquidators can breed (be summoned by others).
Updated the spawning of black hole data for a tentaculon quest.
Auto-explore now avoids "unstable asteroids" (which explode).
Cut down on the number of sigorn freighters that will spawn.
Macro-swarms can now move through damaged shipwreck sections.
If you are on fire (burning status effect) and you step on "hydrocarbon sludge" tile, it will burst into flames!
Fixes
Fixed: some monsters would not become hostile even when you attacked them
Fixed: when monsters dodged your launcher shot, it would not get cooldown or even explode!
Fixed: minesweeper no longer just ignores mines: there will be an outcome, bad or good.
Fixed a bug where "copy grenade" skill wouldn't work if your grenade ammo was zero.
The largest part of the Great Rebalance is concluded, thank you! So...
What's Next?
The major goals of version 1.6 have been accomplished, so it will be time to move to 1.7 soon. But what does that actually mean?
The focus of 1.6 has been away missions, and here are some of the additions over the past 7 months:
A complete visual and algorithmic overhaul of planets.
Added activated cool-down skills for away teams.
Reworked all the passive skills too :)
The discovery of fire (and poison gas, nano-swarms, corrosion, etc.)
The introduction of over 20 damage types for away team weapons, and their ability to alter the terrain.
Monster resistances and vulnerabilities
to* those damage types.
Your crew talks to you (in floating texts, and mostly when they die).
ADDED GRENADES!
Re-balanced the hit points and damage of every monster encountered on away missions.
Gave monsters powers too :D
Added a level editor?!
Made your away team members die one at a time instead of all at once.
So many changes!
Well let me tell you, 1.7 is going to be EVEN BIGGER.
More on that later... Enjoy 1.6M9 today.
Deathpops!
The secret feature is revealed!
But it's much more than just a crew member's ultimate utterance in this life... These floating texts can also give you valuable information:
Notifications that your current weapon isn't working.
Suggestions about which weapons might be more effective.
A warning that a particular monster might be extra dangerous.
Notifications that a monster might
leave you alone* if you don't poke it.
Lots of responses to environmental cues.
And yes, funny last words.
Of course I want feedback on this new system. Is it useful? Is the text too big or small? Too fast or slow? And what other situations do you think it would be good for?
The Great Rebalancing, Phase 5
Yes, this is still happening.
But from what I can tell, looking at the numbers, it's getting to be just about where I want it to be. Losses on the low end are decreasing, while larger away teams are facing more challenge.
And skill use is up 300%!
YES! I consider that a win on its own. And that leads nicely into the next subject...
Grenade Auto-Replenish
For now, the following changes have been made to grenades:
A grenade item is not "destroyed" when you use the last grenade in the bunch.
Grenades are now restocked at the
start* of an away mission.
Each grenade restored, up to the "max ammo", costs 75 supplies.
You can find a "hexa-box" in certain areas that will restore 1 ammo to your equipped grenade.
The newly-introduced "grenade replenisher" device still functions as advertised, for free.
The max ammo of most grenades has be (re-) reduced.
From a design standpoint, I want people to use grenades. I just don't want them to *only* use grenades. They are meant to be a powerful weapon of opportunity or last resort. Some are intended for other purposes, like deforestation (xenocide grenade) or digging in caves (seismic).
I'd really like to see an increase in grenade usage...
Retribution Changes
Retribution squads can be a powerful deterrent to senseless violence, but sometimes they seem to happen too frequently, or even unfairly. Changes have been made:
A race's "offendedness" decreases over time.
It takes about 50% more "offense" to initiate a retribution strike.
Completing a quest for a race now decreases their offense.
Races tend to get less offended over the killing of a single individual, especially if they shot first.
If you don't know what "retribution" is in Approaching Infinity, consider yourself lucky...
Xenocide and Scrambler Overhaul
Xenocide (a combination pesticide and military-strength weed-killer) and scrambler (like a focused EMP) are two damage types with narrow use-cases. But when they work, wow, do they work!
But many monsters had some weird numbers for their resistances and vulnerabilities, and I also found that even when the game was saying "scrambler is deadly", I still had to shoot something like 10 times.
Again, changes were made.
The vast majority of monsters are now completely immune to these damage types.
They do 500% damage against anything they are actually useful against.
The base damage of these modifications has been increased, since any large number multiplied by zero is still ZERO.
Xenocide is still great at removing sight-blocking trees.
Scrambler is useful because it can destroy short-circuits and remove nano-swarms.
Other Changes
Base monster damage has been increased by 5%.
The minimum damage of a melee strike-back has been increased to 33%.
The auto-explore now tries to picks up (almost) all items.
Auto-explore ignores the proximity damage of lava and cave-ins unless you set it to "terrified".
Good hunting, Captains!
1.6M7+ Hotfix (Silver Caves)
I just discovered a bug with the new cryo tube pickup found in silver caves that gave my away team 5 million HP! That's a little too big to just let go, so you get a hotfix.
And since I was able to review over 1600 away missions from the weekend, I've made *more* balance changes:
Further increased the low end of suit HP by 2.
Somewhat reduced the high end of suit hp.
Increased the possible random scaling of monsters against large away teams by about 2%
And then this happened:
Changes to the devices "crew toroid" and "life support", regarding away team size:
Away team size is calculated as your number of crew divided by 4, with a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 12. The officer skill "Personnel" increases this maximum by 1 per level, after the maximum. That means if you've got 100 crew, your away team maxes at 12, but personnel can bring that up to 13 or 14.
Now (not before), these two devices will increase the maximum, meaning you can start with 13 or 14 (or 15 with both), and then add your extra one or two, for some *really large away teams*!
What's the difference? For one thing, the skill reduces hiring costs while the device does not. And the skill benefits smaller crews by always having an effect, while the devices benefit larger crews, allowing them to field more of their available resources (aka redshirts / "people").
Bonus: away team size is now shown in parentheses on the "crew" readout of your ship.
The skill "Power-Leap" now has a range of 3. This may go back down, but there are some things to keep in mind about this skill: you still get to do something *else* after you use power leap (it doesn't end your turn) , and ... skills may be upgrade-able in the future, in a not-yet-introduced area of the game, so even if they start a bit weak, you may be able to put more resources into them for upgrading purposes.
Now let me get back to work :p
The Great Rebalancing, Phase 4
Greetings Captains! After reviewing your after-action reports and official communiques, more changes are incoming.
Crew losses are up!
Across all away missions with away team size less than 8, crew losses (and entire landing-party losses) have increased up to 20%! This was not intended, but thanks to modern game design techniques, it can be corrected!
Accordingly, the following changes are effective immediately:
Slightly increased hit points of suits, especially early ones.
Reduced the damage of ALL planet monsters by about 10%.
Smaller away teams will sometimes encounter slightly weaker enemies.
Slightly increased the upper limit for monsters to scale
up* for larger away teams.
Meanwhile, deaths are actually down somewhat for large away teams (also not intended). Some difficulty increase has been felt, because there has been a significant decrease in "missions where no one dies". Less has been done this week regarding larger away teams, so that the focus can remain on getting early game missions to feel "right".
Tactical Actions
For the sake of analysis, I refer to using grenades, activating skills, and swapping weapons as "tactical actions". I recently discovered that a majority of away missions don't use any tactical actions at all.
What's wrong with that? I want Approaching Infinity to present you with the right level of challenge, and I want you to feel like all the stuff you've collected and equipped is actually useful. I consider this a problem, and I intend to fix it.
I did get some very useful direct feedback here on Steam about this. It seems that in many cases, skills have excessive cooldowns, not enough power, or even not enough fuel (gel). And while grenades were always intended to be used sparingly, I don't think *never* using them is any fun...
To this end, the following changes have been made:
Reduced cooldowns on majority of (ALL?!) activated skills.
Increased potency of some skills.
Increased the spawn rate of cyber-gel from lockers.
All level-related limitations on cooldown skills have been removed! (That means a level one officer can equip 2 skills!)
Fixed an error in the early game where you would find skills that you couldn't use
Increased ammo for most (but not all) grenade types.
Created a new device, the "Grenade Replenisher", that slowly restores the ammunition of your grenades while you are in space (but
not* while on away missions)!
At this point, there's not much I can do to actively encourage weapon swaps, but the secret feature I've been working on might ;) I'll be very excited to see the results of these changes at the end of the week. I hope to see far more skills and grenades being used.
The great rebalaning isn't over yet, but I think I'll be able to reveal my "secret new feature" soon.
Other Changes
Added new cave level type : silver caves
Added "cryogenic freezer" pickup, which can contain crew members, sentient aliens, or zombies!
Added new weapon mod : "Needle", which can be applied to most physical-projectile weapons. Its damage type is still "piercing".
Added "Gyrojet" weapon modification for pistols, rifles, shotguns, and snipers. Slow-firing, with increased range and explosive damage.
Added more planet names in Resistance sectors.
Added lockers and furniture to former human colonies.
Music tracks will now fade out if you change areas and they're no longer appropriate.
Crash sites ("technology") should no longer destroy walls on loot stockades (or anywhere else).
Reduced the amount that "cave depth explored" adds to survey value.
Computer terminals now have 8 different animated versions (thanks David!)
Reduced the number of merc bases that will spawn on any given planet.
Fixed a bug where the captain's "10% HP bonus" was not always being taken into account.
Artifact-Identification Related:
Artifacts can no longer be destroyed during identification. (This may change!)
When identifying artifacts, the game now remembers your previous choices for you, and anything that has failed in the past will now be colored red.
Added a new "bad artifact ID" outcome that reduces the artifact's effectiveness by about 33%.
That's it for now, but there's so much more to come!
The Great Rebalancing (Phase 3)
Greetings Captains! The past week was spent working on a brand new feature (that you won't see yet), while passively collecting data on away missions.
From that data, I can make a few generalizations about version 1.6M5 :
The vast majority of away missions seem to make it back to the shuttle.
Away team size plays a huge part in mission survivability. (Having 15+ crew members seems to guarantee survival!)
A large percentage of missions don't involve using skills, grenades, or weapon swaps. (Is this due to lack of challenge, or players not understanding those options are available?)
Squither larva kill the most crew by far, followed by cyclopeans, gnashers, and zombies.
Certain common monsters are guaranteed to kill at least some of your crew: giant snails (surprise!), narcratu, gruff soldiers and the gorgonleaf.
Rare monsters to look out for are the vordalene mutant, hungry rock, and banker security droid.
Note that away missions to locations without monsters are not counted, and neither are any games played on easy difficulty.
"The Great Rebalancing", phase 3
The major change in this version is to increase mid- to late-game monster difficulty, while trying to keep the early game mostly the same. One notable change that will affect everyone (positively) is ... more oxygen!
I'll continue working on the new secret feature while the numbers keep rolling in. I plan for phase 4 (next week) to be the final segment of the great rebalancing, then we can all move on to other things!
Small changes:
Bandit machines spawn less often.
The "Energize" skill now reduces cooldowns by 75% (instead of 50%).
City walls can become infected with lichen spores.
On the mini-map, the player icon and any area transitions are now animated.
Until next time...
The Great Rebalancing (Phase 2)
Greetings, Captain! After weeks of analysis, testing, and tweaking, "The Great Rebalancing" is moved into the main branch, with version 1.6M5 (Star Trek reference definitely intended). The beta test was successful, and revealed a few issues that you'll never have to encounter.
The Great Rebalancing
Purpose: To modulate difficulty over time, creating both peaks ("challenge") as well as troughs ("feeling powerful"). Sometimes you need to feel like you're surviving by the skin of your teeth, solely by your sound tactical decisions. Other times you experience being so ripped and equipped that you can mow down hordes of enemies at your leisure.
Method: All creatures encountered on away missions have had their stats tweaked. This is mostly hit points and damage, but also some changes to speed and powers were made. Many monsters are designed with a specific counter weapon and/or damage type in mind, so it will really help to pay attention to whether your attacks are working (check those resistances and vulnerabilities!).
But adjusting monsters wasn't enough. The hit points of suits (and therefore your away team) were increased, and so was the damage done by your weapons. You should now see a more reliable power progression over time.
Result: Ground combat is now more in line with what it should be.
I THINK.
But let me know what *you* think, okay? Hailing frequencies are open...
Because there will be a
Phase 3
Where I take all your feedback, find out which monsters are too weak or too strong, etc. and make everything just right.
I'll spend next week analyzing the data, and preparing to transition to version 1.7 soon.
