With this one we now have most of what had to cut from the initial release included! Sadly that means that, outside of bug fixes, this will probably be the last update to Ark Defender for a bit. We have a few things we might still add but no timeline for when. So until then, vent your problems away! -Mischief & Mayhem Studios
NEW -Added new upgrade tab (Ark) -Added The Hunger Faction -Added Void Wolves Boss -Added Void Drake Boss -Added Rouge Star Boss -Made it so Magno-Lock mines will detonate for projectiles and not just ships -Stored Goods can now be substituted for RM in a lot of infrastructure based encounters (e.g. transit systems, hospitals, schools, etc.) -Government Overhaul -Plasma Storms
GOVERNMENT CHANGES -New Policies for Laouylik Theocracy; At The Alter Of Ith (Pop->Ith) & Sacrifice Of Flesh (Pop->????) -New Policy for Laouylik Theocracy and Chosen Theocracy Prayer For Fertility (+Pop) -New Policies for Authoritarian government Science Free Of Morality(+ST) & Bread And Circuses (Food->Happy) -New Policy for Chosen Theocracy Prayer Can Move Arks (ST->Happiness & Health) -New Policy for Republic; Battle Hymn (100 Pop->+1 Gunship if no gunships stored or active) -New Policy for Union; Last Stand (+50 Missiles , - 100RM if Missiles < 50) -Authoritarian Governments now generate 10-50 ST per sector -Plutocracies now allow you to sell weapons (at a markdown for RM) and costs vary each sector from -70% to +50 from the baseline -Theocracy of Warp Space now has several changes to costs and resource gather rates; +25%RM gathered, +25% Damage Taken, +25% costs for Railguns, Megabombs, Magno-Lock Mines, Schwarzschild Warheads, Gunships, & VNTII Bombs, -25%ST gathered, -20 Cost for Missiles, Flak, Splitters, & Smart Missiles -An Ark run by the Order of the Righteous has a chance to not be destroyed when it takes damage that would destroy it. The chance goes down by 5% each time it takes damage that would destroy but it isn't destroyed, and increases by 5% at the end of each sector (but is capped to 20%). -An AI run Ark will take damage to System Integrity before population (at a 75% reduction rate) -A Monotheistic Theocracy now negates the negative health, happiness, & crime impacts of a high population (edited)
REBALANCES -Made the Battleship auto repair gunships 10% each sector -Added discount for gunships as Battleship -Increased Flotilla Discount for Cruise Ship from 20% to 40% -Increased manufacturing costs for Yacht, (by 25%) -Increased manufacturing costs for Cruise ship and Battlships (by 5%) -Increased manufacturing costs for Mega Keep (by 10%) -Decreased speed of Cruise ship, Mega Keep, and Battlships (by 12.5%) -Adjusted how ark speed affects sector length. Slowers ships no longer dramatically increase the time in a sector. However, they do still affect enemy and projectile movement speed. Faster ships such as they Yacht still decrease time in a sector. Let's keep sectors feeling snappy. -Reduced PD count for Experimental Ark -Increased max shield level for Experimental Ark from 35 to 50 -Reduced Energy weapon damage to population from Clan Bastion. -Made Dracahlun railguns more visible -Reduced Dracahlun railguns fired per attack
FIXED BUGS -Fixed bug with text display for Ark selection so correct values were shown -Fixed bug with gunship repair cost calculation -Fixed bug with Vereen Elder Psychic, Brains are now flagged as bosses and psychic grab and hurl back now works correctly -Fixed bug with Mega Keep, Hellspawn now actually spawn early when you pick the Megakeep (this was always intended but broken in previous builds) -Fixed bug with Hellspawn portal closing early -Fixed bug with Gunship damage visuals not loading -Fixed bug with Hellspawn ships being targeted by gunships while shielded
Project Icarus Update
The Project Icarus update is a small update focused on bug fixes and some UI revisions. And rounding out the collection of flotilla upgrades.
-Fixed UI Typos -Revised the start menu layout -Nerfed Carrier capacity (9 Gunships is too many, sorry) -Ark of the Faithful revisions -Fixed various trigger and conditional checks in encounters -Added new upgrades for Hydroponics, Nursery, and Carrier -Adjusted the order of effects for Crease Drive (works the same but ensures that sectors do not end while it is active) -Fixed bug in save code for various Hellspawn ships
Hippocratic Oath Breakers
Hippocratic Oath Breakers is live! And sadly, our final (planned) big update. It focuses on adding early and later game variety as well as new flotilla upgrades and an overhaul to the encounter trigger system to help keep runs feeling fresh.
So, what now? We still have a few things we want in the game which got cut for one reason or another (a faction, some upgrades, and a boss or three). So, these will probably make their way into the game at some point; but we do not have a set schedule for their release. Beyond that we plan to continue to address any bugs that are discovered. So… go forth and vent people in space. Or whatever you kinder Ark captains do.
NEW -90 New Encounters (Gormuu, Superheros, AI, Clones, & more) -4 New Tuluu'Daleth sub-factions (Bastion, Golden Pilots, Wisps, & Exiles) -New Hellspawn enemies (Rammer, Interceptor, & Rift Ripper) -New music track (with 3 variations) -Improved support for wider screens -Added windowed mode -Added (or reworked existing) Upgrades for flotilla ships -Low happiness (below 70) now negatively impacts Work Hours -Low health (below 70) now negatively impacts Work Hours -If population above 70% of max, chance to increase crime level
New Upgrades --Recreational Pharmaceuticals --Dark Energy Capacitors --Repair Drone Bays --Hippocratic Oathbreaker --Nightstrom Targeting Computer --Flora Aquatic RNA Modification Sectors --Prefabricated Work Camps --Residential Armaments --Production Line Diversification --Death Bloom
FIXED BUGS -Fixed a highlighting issue when hovering over upgrade options -Fixed railgun bug where railguns did damage while paused -Fixed error with Ark of the Faithful unlocking -Fixed bug where staug mines destroyed flak fields and gravity wells
REBALANCES -Made Network ships harder to track once cloaked (they will randomly adjust their speed) -Nerfed Drahcahlun tier 1 & 2 ships (slower projectile fire rates) -Made it so some Morradrin, Nashtu, and Order ships begin to phase out as new Hellspawn ships appear -Increased Gormuu Trigger rate in later sectors -Reduced threshold for government changes -Major overhaul to HOW encounters are chosen to encourage chains and encounter stories to occur.
Praise Laouylik Update
The Praise Laouylik Update is live! While new bosses for the factions from the Vent Them Update was a big piece of this update, the biggest change is an overhaul to the encounter system. Mostly, this just improves the distribution of the encounters. We also slipped in a few other things.
Our next update is still unnamed but will focus on early and late game content to improve variety across replays. We plan to add 4 sub-factions to the Tuluu’Daleth for the early game and several new Hellspawn enemy types that are introduced in later sectors. In addition, we plan to fill out the Flotilla Upgrade list with some more options and continue expanding the number of encounters in game. We currently expect to release it sometime around the beginning of November.
NEW -12 New Bosses -100 New Encounters -New Track (+multiple variants) -New Nashtu enemy
REBALANCES -Nightmare is much harder -Buffed several existing bosses -All bosses scale more with difficulty -Bosses now give much less RM, but more ST when destroyed -Increased boss spawn rate -Rebalanced Destroyer (cheaper weapons, fewer power bars, faster base speed) -Fixed lingering UI coloring issues
REWARDS AND SPAWN RATES -Slightly reduced the RM from asteroids on Hard -Reduced RM Reward from mines in mine fields -Increased spawn rates on difficulties Challenging and up for: Tuluu'Daleth Bomber, Tuluu'Daleth Fighter, Tuluu'Daleth Emplacement, Vereen Ships, Mulrum Meteroids, and Holarian Miners. -Increased spawn rate across all difficulties for: Mulrum Debris and Mulrum Meteor -Reduced the rate at which sector length increases
These were intended for this update but slipped into earlier bug related updates. The Mulrum are immune to gravity based weapons The Holarians have a charge based beam attack
Vent Them Update
Welcome to the Vent Them update.
It includes: - 70 new encounters - 9 new unlockable enemy factions - New UI elements, both functional and cosmetic - Assorted bug fixes - Revisions to the trigger chances for some of the original encounters
The Vent Them update is the first of three planned updates.
The next one, Praise Laouylik, is currently planned for the end of September/beginning of October. Praise Laouylik will focus on additional encounters (another 50-80) and new bosses.
The third planned update is currently slated for the end of October and is unnamed (Name Pending perhaps 😊). It will focus on adding variety to the early and late game content as well as additional upgrade options for flotilla ships.
Thanks for playing Ark Defender! And remember, venting your problems may not always be the best solution, but it should ALWAYS be an option!
Fixes, Buffs, and spell checks. Oh My!
Based on feedback and internal testing this is a quick update to fix some issues and balance some arks.
Buffed Destroyer Ark Buffed Megabomb Fixed bug in Point Defense Targeting systems Fixed bug in Repair of Defense Craft Fixed bug in Defense Craft upgrade Proof reading pass on Upgrade text
Note that when loading a save game from the previous version you may get the following error: "Could not find faction 11 to load spawn times for!" This is a product of background implementations for a future update and can be ignored.
Minor Fixes
Just pushed a quick update to fix a typo, an annoying audio glitch tied to the Point Defense systems (they kept triggering the firing sound with stuff at the edge of their range), and some clearer directions on how to deal with mine layers (for now just a quick notification pop up at the top).
