Evochron Legacy
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0418...
- Jump gate, jump caster, and wormhole event horizon spheres now smoothly fade upon approach.
- Autopilot expanded to incorporate basic collision avoidance in addition to automated docking with stations, cities, and carriers.
- 'View Hangar Details' changed to 'View Station Details' and now also includes license and profit factor information.
- Station license system expanded to support a shared ownership approach for repeating payments to owning players.
- Create and Modify Pilot menu revised to accommodate new station license payment settings and improve layout.
- Added customizing options for landing gear effect to support hiding structures or rendering energy effects.
- HUD Configuration menu updated to a shader based system for immediate changes to RGB color settings.
- Added ability to retrieve list of local (in sector) inventory items at planet, station, and carrier.
- Detail mapping and shaders updated to provide improved smooth appearance for external cockpit glass.
- Local prices on quadrant map market display now reflect regional rather than global baselines.
- Autopilot also updated to fly level with terrain over planets and moons rather than ecliptic.
- LinkApp updated to highlight active Autopilot, Formation, and Match Speed modes in green.
- Added next, nearest, and gunsight object targeting controls and module faction to LinkApp.
- 'Other Controls' mode (right side) added to LinkApp to include additional control options.
- Added ability to adjust the X and Z angles of holographic cockpit displays (gauges.txt).
- Optimized resolution mode automatically activates if best setting is manually selected.
- Single device sequential 'All' axis mapping option removed to eliminate confusion.
- AI ships can now change approach hangars if player approaches first or is docked.
- Jump effect now casts light on player cockpit and ship structures.
- Added 'Medium' anti-aliasing mode.
- Minor improvements and fixes.
Notes:
Medium Anti-Aliasing Mode
A new 'Medium' setting has been added to the Options > Anti-Aliasing menu. This mode applies some of the parameters of the 'Low' and 'High' modes by providing the 2X rendering level of the 'Low' setting with the shader-based filter sampling of the 'High' mode. As a result, some players may find this mode offers better performance than the 'High' mode while still offering image quality that is fairly close. A lot will depend on the resolution the game is being run at, other settings, and the GPU/rendering capabilities of the system being used.
Sequential 'All' Axis Mapping Option Removed
Due to repeated inquiries and reported confusion over the years with the option to bind all axis inputs to a single device sequentially, the option has been removed in favor of the default standard individual axis mapping selection method. The instructions for the game have been updated to account for this change and expand on some of the new capabilities recently added. If a player still wants to map all axis controls to a single device sequentially by prompt, they can now press and hold the Alt key to have the option appear in the Axis Configuration menu.
Station License Residual Payment System
The station license option has been expanded to include an element of shared ownership for profit, so players can now earn credits from stations they build (which automatically apply licenses) as well as from those they choose to purchase licenses at. Licensed stations now provide residual payments to the owning player over time. For stations you have already built and/or have acquired a license from manually, payments will start after updating to this version of the game (by default, payments are calculated and applied roughly every 15 minutes of gameplay time as indicated by the flight timer). Going forward, stations you build will have an added bonus payment amount per cycle in addition to the license share. The payment framework applies to the gameplay mode you are in. So payments will only be received for stations in single player that you have built and/or have purchased licenses from in that mode. Likewise for multiplayer and the server you play on. Payments will also only apply for licensed stations of the same faction you are affiliated with. If a station is destroyed, then payments from that station will eventually stop (some may already be queued temporarily). In order to resume payments, the station will need to be rebuilt. If you cancel a license, payments for that station will also stop. You can view the total number of licenses currently being credited for residual payments in the News/Information console ('View Station Details' button). The baseline potential profitability of such payments will be based on the tech/econ rating of the region a station is in. So building and/or licensing stations in higher tech/econ rated regions will generally result in higher overall payments. There are also some random elements applied in calculations to simulate variable profitability. So you may be paid more or less each time, even if you still own the same number of licenses in the same locations. The potential profit baseline is divided into 10 levels. Level 1 is the lowest and provides the minimum payment baseline while 10 is the highest. These levels roughly correlate with the regional tech/econ ratings in 1/10 values (so 0-9 is around 1, 10-19 2, and so on). The factor shown is a rounded figure, so there can be decimal values in between that are considered in the calculations as well as variability. When payments are received, the amount will be displayed in the message log and also recorded in the flight log. The application and frequency of the payments can be adjusted with setting options in the Create/Modify profile menu and the amount will be pro-rated for any offset so the amount will remain consistent. This system has been added as part of the effort to implement some of the final planned features and options for the game. It has been left out in the past due to automated gameplay concerns, but has been included with some limitations designed around feedback and discussions over the years. The option to disable the system entirely is also available for players preferring to stick with the original mechanisms of station building and licensing.
View Local Inventories
A new option has been added to the Inventory > News/Information > System Information menu to view the local planet, station, and carrier inventories. The System Information mode needs to be available (via the network data link) in the inventory console in order to view such items remotely. Simply click on the 'View Local Inventories' button and the description, quantity (for commodities), and current price will be displayed in the message log (scroll up and down to view each inventory list in its entirety). The lists will also follow the selected Text or Price sorting format. If a current inventory list is not available, then 'None' will appear under its respective category heading. It should be noted that inventories can easily change by the time you arrive at one of the in-sector locations, but the option can still be used to gauge general pricing and potential availability of specific items within the sector you are in.
Enhanced Autopilot
The autopilot has been heavily revised in this update to incorporate automatic docking systems and collision avoidance. The autopilot will also still attempt to fly at the maximum IDS X9 speed your ship is capable of in open space, slowing only for docking maneuvers. Exceptions to this include planetary atmospheres and asteroid fields, where speed will be reduced for safe travel and more manageable maneuvering. As an optional partial control configuration, you can disengage the IDS to control all strafe and engine thrusters manually to adjust course and speed, leaving roll, pitch, and yaw up to the autopilot. If the nav point is set precisely at a station, city, or carrier, the autopilot will automatically disengage once you arrive at the destination and dock. If the nav point is set to a city and the autopilot is on, it will automatically keep the nav point locked to the city's docking location for you. While a new level of flight automation and safety is included, elements of manual control and risk are still part of the equation. To keep an intended element of player involvement, you can still overspeed the autopilot and collide with objects, so it's still important to maintain situational awareness to avoid such impacts. By design, the new system will not be 100% full-proof. It will merely help reduce potential collisions and lower the chance of damage if an impact does occur. So clear lines of sight to nav points, possible manual control adjustments at times, and careful route planning are still important and recommended.
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0408...
- Added support for binding dual axis inputs to individual controls (see notes).
- Added option to copy coordinates to nav console for all inter-sector contracts.
- Added indicators to contract list to distinguish between local and inter-sector contracts.
- Added deep space item recovery objective added (multi-sector distance from reporting station).
- Added contract objective to scan a remote uncharted sector near a planet as an area of interest.
- Quests can now be loaded, played, and linked between multiple players in multiplayer (see notes).
- Vonari incursions can now occur in ALC/FDN space and utilize inter-sector distress calls (see notes).
- Brighter brackets added to HUD ship direction indicators for improved visibility and target distinction.
- Added automatic throttle axis input suspension when a percentage, trim, or absolute key/button is pressed.
- Added ability to set missile lock retention mode for retargeting in-flight or fire-and-forget (see notes).
- Added ability to change Vonari territory control in war zones through combat (as well as ALC/FDN, see notes).
- Local market inventories are now synchronized in multiplayer by default, contract lists optional (see notes).
- Disruptor weapon enhanced to include gravity burst effect, proximity detonation, and increased speed (see notes).
- Added ability to apply a custom scaling level to certain independent HUD alert and readout indicators (hudtext.txt).
- Console image indexes converted to shader based coloring system for improved loading times and lower memory overhead.
- Cockpit holographic display textures doubled in resolution for improved appearance at higher screen resolutions.
- Capital ship textures updated for more selective reflections as well as a brighter and smoother appearance.
- Shield build module effective support range expanded to a more block shaped network pattern link (~500 CU).
- Shadow background and bar graph indicator added to HUD distance readout (meteor intercept and ship escort).
- Quadrant map texture redrawn and doubled in resolution for improved appearance in enlarged nav map mode.
- Terrain walker and rover cockpit textures updated to increase resolution and revise emissive layer.
- Upper HUD menu and compass bar revised to provide individual buttons and a cleaner appearance.
- Added options to import custom mesh structures for the hangar docking area banner and shadow.
- Many sound effects redone or remastered for higher quality and to rebalance volume levels.
- New ambient environment sounds added for proximity to ships and entering/exiting stations.
- Message log notifications added for civilian rating increases and military rank credit.
- Military rank credit is now awarded for combat contract objectives in ALC/FDN regions.
- New fading effect when passing through station and carrier hangar atmosphere shields.
- Improvements to ship threat level changes after territory control shifts (see notes).
- Improved automatic reconnect attempt handling when UDP signal with server is lost.
- Engineer crew member can now shorten jump drive delays (up to 200% for high skill).
- Engineer crew member can now swap equipment to/from cargo bay in open space.
- Reduced collective array damage level applied for shield-on-shield impacts.
- HUD pitch ladder now smoothly fades at top and bottom rather than clipping.
- Resistor pack scaling in shipyard standardized for consistent alignment.
- 3D radar globe texture updated for finer lines and reduced obstruction.
- Blackhole gravity fields expanded by about 250% and strength increased.
- New shield effect for energy weapon impacts (particle and beam cannons).
- Sound effect and sparks now apply for particle cannon hull impacts.
- Detail textures updated for some improved lighting/surface effects.
- Chimera cockpit updated for structural and alignment improvements.
- Added new sub-sector cruise jump drive equipment item (see notes).
- Revised explosion blast wave effect (new energy/distortion look).
- Font updated for wider characters and more visible appearance.
- Station name hologram given threat level color banner.
- Several small performance improvements/tweaks.
- Minor improvements and fixes.
Notes:
Dual Axis Inputs
The control input system has been expanded to support binding dual axis inputs to individual control functions. This has been done primarily to accommodate rudder pedal and game controller devices that provide multiple mono-directional axis signals rather than one individual bi-directional axis signal. Changes involved have also removed the conflict alert prompt if you bind more than one axis input to the same control function. To utilize this new option, simply bind the first axis you want to use for the right, up, or forward direction of a given control function. So for example using rudder control for yaw, bind the right pedal to the 'Yaw Left/Right' control first. Next, bind the second axis to the left, down, or reverse direction of the control function. So for rudder control for yaw again, you'd bind the left pedal to the 'Yaw Left/Right' control. The game will detect the dual mapping and automatically apply the bi-directional function split between the two axis inputs. It will set the center of each axis input signal to lowest value of each respective range with one adding positive input and the other negative input. You will then be able to control left/right, up/down, or forward/reverse directions with both axis inputs mapped to the one control function. You can optionally reverse the input with the checkbox next to the primary axis input channel (the one mapped to right, up, or forward) and the game will automatically invert the values for both axis inputs. You can optionally clear the secondary axis input (the one mapped to left, down, or reverse) to restore bi-directional control input or clear the primary axis input to unbind both axis inputs.
Missile Lock Modes
A new missile lock retention mode has been added that lets you manually control the tracking mode for each locking missile you fire. Previously, all locking missiles followed the live guidance principle in that you retained control of all launched missiles and could switch targets to redirect such missiles to track a new threat while in flight. This came in handy if you decided there was a greater threat and wanted to redirect a missile to a new target. But it also meant that you could only hold a missile lock on one threat at a time until any missiles being directed impacted the target or self-detonated. It also meant that the auto-targeting could increase the chance of friendly fire with a fighter suppression weapon like the Excalibur. With the new system, you can set the current missile being fired to either the default live guidance mode or a new target retention mode that continues to track only the ship being fired at, even if you switch targets to a different ship. When the retention mode is active (default Alt-L key combination), the missile will stay focused on the one target until it is destroyed or the missile itself explodes. If the ship being tracked is destroyed before the missile reaches the target, then the missile will fly off and self-detonate once it reaches its range limit. This way, you can optionally restrict the Excalibur to only strike one ship without the risk of potentially hitting other ships nearby (and with careful timing, you can even split the Excalibur firing sequence between multiple targets). This also means you can now fire missiles at separate targets when a situation might call for it. To accommodate the new missile lock retention mode (primarily for facilitating multiple target engagements) and to increase range viability, all locking missiles have had their range increased by 200%. When the live guidance mode is active, a solid dot will appear next to the missile in slot one on the lower left cockpit display. When the target retention mode is active, a hollow circle with brackets will appear next to the missile in slot one.
Ship Threat Levels
Ship threat levels now retain existing states more consistently even after a regional shift from one control level to another. Previously, there could be an immediate global change of ships from one threat level to another and from one faction affiliation to another as soon as the territory control level transferred from one category to the next (disputed to ALC or disputed to FDN for example). This process is now tapered so that some opposing forces can remain behind for a while and continue more limited attacks until all opposing forces are eventually eliminated.
Disruptor Weapon Type Modifications
The disruptor weapon has been modified to better justify its cost and accommodate some player requests by providing a gravity burst effect to better slow down a target for cargo demands and increase speed to better distance the weapon from the firing player and be more effective against high speed targets. For an attacking ship demanding the player drop their cargo, the trajectory is also now more direct to make escape a bit more difficult. Additionally, a proximity detonation system has been implemented where the disruptor will automatically explode once within a range of 500 of any hostile ship (relative to the ship firing the disruptor). Combined with the range and speed increases, this allows for some more strategic use of the weapon that can now be fired at a longer range while not requiring an excessive level of precision to be effective for detonating at just the right time. It maintains some of its unpredictability/impractically while being a little bit more controllable depending on conditions and timing.
Classic HUD Removal
As the new HUD and cockpit display systems have been expanded significantly in recent updates, it has become less practical for the 'classic' HUD mode to remain compatible. So this build removes the classic mode and sets the default mode to the latest images and parameters. The cockpit viewing program has also been updated to reflect this change. Most of the elements can still be manually added back in via the customizing options. But going forward, the new HUD and display system has been made the new default baseline to free up modifications for some of the enhanced capabilities and new textures.
Cruise Jump Drive
A new sub-sector cruise jump drive equipment item has been added. This new device takes the place of a fulcrum jump drive and provides a new method of travel. The item has been added to accommodate a few requests over the years for a short range, in-sector high speed travel mechanism. While not really providing a benefit or advantage over the fulcrum drives, it is available for those interested in controlled high speed flight within a sector for options like exploring small sections of space more comprehensively and/or having more manual control over arrival time and placement. Instead of the point-to-point space folding travel mechanism of the fulcrum jump drives, the cruise jump drive will travel within a sector at a high sustained cruise speed. The drive works by generating a persistent event horizon ahead of the ship that is able to sustain high speed travel. When activated, the ship will be very limited in rotation ability until the cruise drive is deactivated. So it is best used by pointing at a specified heading, then engaging the drive and timing deactivation with arriving at or near a destination. Cruise drives are also impacted by gravity fields and will lose their effectiveness as a gravity field gets stronger. So speed will slow down significantly if you get too close to planets, moons, or stars. The cruise drive depends on constant energy from the ship's reserves, so they can only sustain travel for as long as the ship can provide power. Once the ship's energy reserves are depleted, the cruise drive will disengage. However, a cruise drive will generally be able to cover most of the distance inside an entire sector in a given direction before running out of energy. And you can also extend its range with charge packs mounted on secondary hardpoints. Cruise speed is not only a more limited method of jump drive travel in terms of range, but also a far more dangerous approach. It is very easy to crash into an asteroid or even a capital ship and be destroyed. So a cruise drive should be managed carefully and the user aware of the inherent risks and dangers associated with travelling at speeds in a sector above 70K. Only one type of jump drive can be installed at a time, either cruise or fulcrum. However, one jump drive type can be held in a cargo bay while the other is installed, then swapped at a station or city when a different jump system is desired. Additionally, if there is an engineer crew member onboard with a skill rating above 70 and enough cargo space (2 bays), swapping can be done in open space.
Military Rank Credit Expanded
Military rank credit is now awarded in ALC and FDN space for successfully completing combat contract objectives against the opposing faction. Awarded points are the same as in war zones, including additional points for each waypoint for patrols. Docking with carriers is still required for acquisition of military ship frames.
Vonari Incursions
Vonari incursions can now occur inside ALC and FDN space. When an incursion happens, a distress call is sent from the station detecting the attack and can be picked up remotely while the player is in a different system (it will appear in the contract list like other distress calls and contracts). If accepted, the player must travel to the location indicated by a waypoint. Once they arrive in the sector, they have the option of docking at the nearby station to resupply/prepare, or immediately travel to the waypoint to intercept the incursion. The exact location of the incursion isn't available until the player arrives, so the waypoint stays with the nearest station until the player arrives in the sector at which point the waypoint is moved to the current incursion point. This objective is a little more dynamic, so the exact number of enemy ships won't be available and isn't displayed as part of the distress call description. The ultimate goal is to simply keep destroying Vonari ships until the objective is complete. However, even after the requirements of the contract are completed, there can still be some residual Vonari presence left behind that may jump in to attack or otherwise be encountered while travelling in the sector. On top of this main objective, there may also be some additional hostile ships in the area from the opposing faction if the objective takes place in a disputed system. So the player may have to contend with multiple threats from different forces. For an added challenge, players can take on the new intercept incursion objective as an independent aligned pilot to eliminate faction reinforcement support. Vonari forces aren't feasibly able to conquer a region strongly under ALC/FDN control, but will still periodically try and the player now has an option to join in the defense. As with all inter-sector objectives, only the player that accepts the contract is automatically paid while in multiplayer. However, other players can still join the accepting player to help defend and then they can arrange to divide the payment upon completion via the trade console.
Distant Item Recovery Objective
Long range item recovery objectives have been added and also share the new inter-sector framework system. These work a little differently than the in-sector recovery option. First, the station sending out the recovery request will be listed in the contract description along with its sector location. This will be the location where the item needs to be returned. Once the contract is accepted, a waypoint will automatically be placed at the search area, which will generally be within about 50 sectors of the station. The player can travel to the location to begin the search. Unlike the in-sector recovery objective, the item in this contract will generally be out of radar range and deploying a sensor station will be needed to pinpoint its location. So these contracts should only be accepted if a player has a deploy constructor and at least 5 units of metal ore on board to place a sensor station once they arrive. The item will appear as a purple dot on the nav map if it is detected. The item simply needs to be tractored aboard and returned to the station mentioned in the contract. Another waypoint will be automatically applied at the station as soon as the item is recovered.
Remote Scanning in Uncharted Space Objective
Scanning of remote uncharted space near a planet has been added as a contract objective. This objective typically takes place in an area of the quadrant not linked by the gate network, making it more difficult to access but also potentially providing guidance to new unexplored and unpopulated areas that you haven't visited before. For the explorer and those interested in building new stations and cities outside of charted systems, this can be a way to venture into such regions of space and get paid for it. Simply accept the contract, travel to the designated location, then stay within 5K of the waypoint to complete the scan. Some locations may be very remote and will benefit from building jump casters through the build console with a deploy constructor installed and metal ore. That way, the trip can be made much shorter if the distance is significantly far away from a charted system connected by a gate.
Copy Contract Coordinates to Nav Console and Contract List Indicators
A new option has been added to the 'Current Contract' display that lets the player copy coordinates for an out-of-sector contract over to the navigation console. Simply click on the 'Set Nav to Coordinates' button when available to copy the sector and in-sector coordinates over the navigation console. Also, remember that you can click on the 'Center' button to pan the nav map over to a currently selected nav point that is in another sector. This way, you can preview the destination before travelling there. You can click on 'Center' again to pan the map back over to your current location or keep clicking on it to toggle back and forth.
Additionally, new indicators have been added to the contract list to distinguish between local contracts and inter-sector contracts. Contracts that are local to the sector will have a single '>' character displayed next to them while long range inter-sector contracts will have a double '>>' character. This way, you can quickly gauge at a glance the distance type of each contract without having to preview each or rely on title descriptions only.
Engineer Crew Member Expanded Capabilities
The engineer crew member has been given additional abilities to shorten jump drive delays and transfer equipment items to or from a cargo bay in open space. The rate at which the jump drive delay counter will accelerate is directly linked to the skill rating and can increase by up to 200% (for 100 skill level). In order for an engineer to be able to swap equipment items to/from a cargo bay, they will need a skill rating above 70.
New Sound Effects
New ambient sound effects and systems have been added for ship proximity and station gates. These sounds loop and can change pitch for a doppler effect based on rate of approach/departure, fades left/right based on relative position in space, and change volume based on distance. As the result, the original 'flyby.wav' sound effect has been replaced and now uses this new format. Likewise, a separate dedicated sound system is available for capital ships and uses the filename 'flyby-capital.wav'. For station gates, the filename is 'ambient-base.wav'.
Multiplayer Quest System
The new multiplayer quest system shares its resources, location triggers, event systems, timers, object entity systems, audio system, and file management system with the single player quest framework. This means that it has nearly the same functional capabilities as the single player system and can load/play existing single player quests in multiplayer while also being able to link players together to progress cooperatively. The player that activates a quest has the option of linking other players in. This is done after activating a quest and then forming a trade link with another interested player. Once the trade link is active, a new 'Initiate Quest Link' button will appear in the trade console on the lower right side. The player with the activated quest can then click on that button to begin the linking process and quest data will then be synchronized between the two players. The length of time it takes for a link to be finished depends on the size of the quest. The largest quests might take somewhere around 20-30 seconds to fully transfer. A progress meter will appear on the trade console when the process starts and the trade link needs to be maintained until the data transfer is complete. Once the process is finished, the joining player will then be linked to the quest at its current stage and the latest instructions displayed in their message log. From there, both players can then join in the quest. If either of them completes an objective in the same sector, it will advance the quest stage for both players automatically. If an objective is completed in a different sector, then any player(s) left behind will not advance until they either enter the sector and/or complete the objective (depending on the location trigger and pending objective). For players and script writers, there are several additional conditions and limitations associated with the new multiplayer quest system that are available at this page: https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/development-mpquests.htm
War Zone Territory Control System
A new dedicated territory control system has been implemented for war zones to support shifting control levels related to combat results. It operates as a secondary system linked to the main territory control framework and enables both ALC/FDN combat successes to influence regional territory control as well as Vonari combat successes. Like the main territory control system, the war zone system bases its level adjustments on raw presence, so the more ships that are destroyed on one side or the other, the more the territory control shifts if favor of the victor. The rate of shifting is much more limited with this system (about 1/10 the rate), providing plenty of room for players to advance their military rank before an entire war zone region might be under a human faction's control. Victories by Vonari will also obviously slow the rate of conquest over time. With the secondary territory control system, Vonari presence is considered an initial determining factor for what level of control to show on the quadrant map. Then as Vonari control level may decrease, the system will transition over to considering human faction control as the main factor. So once Vonari control falls far enough, the map will switch over to displaying what human faction has primary control, whether ALC or FDN. As a result, when you hold the mouse pointer over a displayed war zone, you'll see a primary region number displayed first and a 'WZ' number in parenthesis after it. The primary region number is what both of the territory control systems use for tracking human faction control levels while the war zone region number monitors Vonari control. This way, all regions of charted space in the game can now have territory control level changes, including consideration of Vonari as a third entity for war zones.
Shield Effect for Energy Weapon Impacts
A new dedicated shield effect has been added specific to energy weapon impacts, both beam cannons and particle cannons. The original impact effect remains for collisions while the new system renders energy ring bursts at points of impact. The effect is persistent so multiple impacts can produce multiple bursts at different angles. Like the collision impact effect, the brightness is reduced when the player is in cockpit view to minimize visual obstruction. The effect is also color coded, providing blue for human ships and red for Vonari. As a result of the new systems, there are now two types of shield effects along with the new hull effect to help visually distinguish the type of impact that occurs (and when direct hull damage starts applying to a target). The new directional effect will stop once an array is low enough and the direct hull impact effects will then occur.
Server Program Updates
The server programs have been updated to accommodate the new gameplay systems/options that affect multiplayer. Also, on some system configurations, the No-GUI version of the server program could previously operate at a rate that may cause some timing mechanisms to be misaligned. The solution is to provide a CPU wait level value in line 810 of the 'text8.dat' file which allows various internal timing operations to run at a more predictable and fixed rate. A default value of 10 has now been added to the included settings file for the No-GUI version of the program.
Local Market Inventories Synchronized in Multiplayer
After a few instances of local market inventory behavior being reported as a 'bug' or something missing and requests over the years, such items are now synchronized between players in multiplayer by default. Previously, individualized vendors were provided where local market inventories would vary between players as though each were interacting with a unique vendor and what one player was offered might not be the same as another. Each vendor could have a certain collection of items they wanted to offer a player they knew so each could have unique opportunities with the items available to them. After gauging feedback and handling technical support on the subject, local inventory items are now synchronized between players on a common marketplace. This will mean that when a player buys something from a market where other players are present, that item will be removed from the inventory list for everyone. To keep a requested element in place, existing inventory pool shifting after changing sector location remains for easier restocking/shuffling options. Likewise, in-sector inventory changes also continue to function as before (affected by AI ship docking and simulated trade behavior). Price variations will also still apply depending on individual player reputation/rating and license conditions. Additionally, carrier inventories will continue to be individualized since those inventory pools are generated by player weapon selection/configuration rather than any kind of shared market conditions. If a server operator wants to restore the original individualized vendor functionality, add/edit line 958 in the 'text8.dat' settings file and include a value of 10 in that line.
On a similar note, contract lists can now optionally be synchronized between players to limit the available contracts to one set for all players, rather than individualized job offers based on player track records. Unlike local inventory markets however, this option is disabled by default, allowing players to continue to have unique job offers based on their track record. This has been retained to keep the incentive of joining with other players who might be offered better contracts with higher pay, helping to increase the potential pay of lower ranked/rated players by joining with higher rated players to cooperatively complete higher level contracts. However, for players interested in only a static set of contracts common to all players in the same sector, synchronized contract lists can be enabled by entering a value of 20 (with synchronized inventory items enabled) or 30 (with synchronized inventory items disabled) in line 958 (further details provided in the 'text8.dat' file itself). Pay will also be synchronized to the flight lead player in the sector depending on that player's earned rank/rating level. Also, passenger and patient transport offers remain unique to each player based on availability/track record, so those will be player-specific while other objectives and their parameters are synchronized when the option is enabled.
Font Appearance and Options
The default font has been modified to be larger by default with wider characters and improved visibility across a wider range of screen resolutions. In conjunction with this change are further modifications to internal spacing and placement parameters to accommodate a wider array of possible custom fonts. If you are using either the 'Medium' or 'Large' font size setting, some spacing may be slightly miscalibrated after updating to this build, potentially causing some characters to overlap slightly. Simple click on the font size setting again and the game will automatically adjust the internal settings to better align the text placement with the new font.
Update Details
This update is an effort to collectively implement some of the last remaining feature requests and development goals that have been pending for a while. Since the game is likely reaching a more finalized state, I've wanted to explore a few remaining options that have been requested over the years or were things I've been interest in. Several such options/features have been left out of the game for a while due to uncertain gameplay balance implications, bug risks, technical issues, and/or time constraints. But with more available time recently, I've been able to prototype and evaluate them to select the ones that are the least risk/error prone, have been the most popular, and/or add positive qualities to the game's intended design. Some of the additions in this update have changed and/or added large sections of code in addition to altering the way certain existing systems operate. This required some additional weeks of testing and fixing until the game reached a stable level so that the new options could now be incorporated into this update. I plan to continue working on Evochron and Arvoch (including a pending update for the latter) for the time being with potential future updates likely focusing more on fixes, tuning/tweaking, and/or finishing touches. On a related note, I am considering a new project, something I've wanted to create for decades as a concept more similar to my earliest work back in the 80's and 90's (simpler in gameplay scope, but with elements of more advanced combat and configuration options). I don't know yet if it will pan out to an actual game, but I plan on devoting some more time to it over the next year or so to explore what might be possible.
Customizing Kit
The customizing kit has been updated to add new options for the hangar docking area banner, custom scaling levels for certain HUD readout indicators, new shield effects, and custom texture options for the missile locking mode indicator: https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/customkitse/readme.htm
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0388...
- Added holographic banners (five directional projections) to cities.
- Added ability to apply custom names to player-built cities (see notes).
- Added city specific save state parameters to enable respawning at any city.
- Upper HUD image index updated to reduce vertical size and video memory consumption.
- Updated asteroid icon on nav map to reduce obstruction and scale better with zoom levels.
- Added 'City' label to highlight details on nav map to better distinguish city names from planets.
- Added ability to require minimum hull damage level and minimum fuel level to quest event directives.
- Added options to specify damage levels to subsystems and hull in quest event directives 12-14 and 99.
- VR system updated to better align viewpoint position alignment with head movement and rotation for all scaling levels.
- Updated hangar inventory and ship item lists with left-justified numbers to align with other lists.
- Message log lines now always crop when console is open (preventing layering issues with buttons).
- ILS guidance ranging for secondary cities expanded to 100K from 10K (primary still prioritized).
- Quest direction indicators now show on HUD and radar when destination is outside current sector.
- Quest destination indicator on nav map now also displayed in quadrant mode.
- Added text file option to adjust rate of movement for cockpit structures.
- Reduced shield recharger energy consumption and increased charge rate.
- Reduced afterburner drive energy consumption by about 300%.
- Font changes for improved legibility and clarity.
- Minor improvements and fixes.
Notes:
The ability to apply custom names has been added to player-built cities and works much like the space station command module naming system. When creating a city command module, the naming option appears and you can type in a desired name for the city you are building. Then when the city is highlighted on the nav map, its name and faction affiliation will appear. When the cities were originally established for the game over 10 years ago, this capability was not in place, but cities were given their host planet's name for the same field now used for this new option. So all default cities will carry the matching planet's name, but will also now use numerical sequencing along with a new 'City' label to help distinguish them from the planet they are on. The main trade city on a planet (the '+' indicator on the nav map) will have just its name displayed. All additional cities will have a sequential number after their name. So for example, the main trade city on Pearl will be displayed as 'Pearl (ALC) City' while the second city will be displayed as 'Pearl-2 (ALC) City' and so on. If you give two or more cities on a planet the same name, this same numerical distinction will apply while unique custom names will be displayed on their own. All faction link mechanisms remain in place, the displayed name can now simply be unique to each built city.
City specific save state parameters have now been integrated into the profile template, which enables the ability to respawn at different cities. Previously, the player's ship would be migrated to the local main trade city on a planet at each respawn, rather than a specific city the player may have saved at. It was originally set up this way to better account for cities that might not exist between servers or between single player and multiplayer. This new system keeps track of specific city placements relative to planet rotation and existance states upon startup, which allows for respawning at the same city you save at. If you respawn at a city that doesn't exist in a new universe you start in, the game will either default to the main trade city as before, or place you near the planet out in space at a safe distance if no cities exist at all on the planet.
The same holographic banners on stations have been added to cities as well and will update with sector control conditions. So any time you take over a sector with a new command module, the city banners will be updated to match the station's. This helps to visually distinguish which faction a city is linked to without requiring the player to hold the pointer over a city icon on the nav map.
The asteroid field icon has been updated to reduce obstruction of other icons on the nav map and to provide a more complete indication of coverage area. The texture is also now looped/tiled at different levels to better align with various zoom settings and there is now a slight 3D shape to the icon (more visible in VR).
The shield recharger has been updated to operate differently by request. First, the device now uses significantly less energy while also applying a higher level of array recharging. Additionally, the device now operates smoothly rather than in pulses, so it transfers energy in much smaller consistent increments without the staged application nor chirping sound of the earlier system. And it also now displays an indicator on the HUD when active (much like the anti-missile system).
You can now adjust the level of movement for cockpit structures with a text file named 'ccpitmove.txt' in either the save data folder ('\Documents\EvochronLegacySE') or the '\media' folder inside the game's installation folder and in the first line, enter a value for the level of movement. The default value is 1.0 and you can set it to 0.0 for no movement or a higher value for more movement.
The VR system has been updated to more precisely align viewpoint changes that occur when the player rotates and moves their head. The new system should provide consistent behavior across the entire range of optional scaling parameters. These changes will likely affect one existing parameter, which may need adjustment to accommodate the offset corrections applied in this version. The 'HeadHeight' value may need to be changed if not left at the default -1.25 value. So for VR users, adjusting this value in the 'media\vrsetup.txt' file may be needed after installing this update.
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0378...
- Contract preview list mode added to provide a summary of all available contracts.
- IDS scale factor and control mode are now also displayed on the gunsight indicator in HUD mode 2.
- Added key and button binding options to open/close each fleet menu mode and select fleet ships for orders.
- Added support for exporting certain control and physics values via UDP for use with motion tracking devices.
- Increased frequency of eliminate enemy ace and contraband smuggler contracts (bounty hunting) in disputed regions.
- Added key/button mapping options to access quest, system information, and regional news sub-menus as well as viewing hangar details.
- Holographic layer added above station command modules to display station names and faction affiliations.
- Holographic banner system added to display images between hangar entrances for station command modules.
- Missile indicators now display red when targeting the player, yellow when targeting other ships/objects.
- Added new textures/indexes for green level direction indicators to more clearly indicate fleet ships.
- Territory control boxes on nav map now properly inversed when player is affiliated with Federation.
- Indicator symbol added to HUD indicators and target range list/detail display to mark fleet ships.
- Added customizing options to set launch HUD mode, HUD cycle direction, and mode restrictions.
- Added icons to 'Items for Sale' menu list for various commodity, equipment, and weapon items.
- Music systems (both default and custom) added to station lobby, hangar, labs, and shipyard.
- Added ability to specify custom music tracks for particular regions or sector locations.
- Font system updated to standardize color levels between button edges and center bars.
- Pathway lighting added to station gate entrances and other select module sections.
- Added buttons to activate Territory or Econ/Tech overlays in quadrant map mode.
- Maneuvering thrusters (both nozzles and exhaust) reduced in size (see notes).
- Redesigned commodity value display in Econ/Tech quadrant map mode (see notes).
- Added Alt key shortcut to open Econ/Tech quadrant map mode in nav console.
- Added single key/button mapping option for Econ/Tech quadrant nav map mode.
- Added option to enable/disable listing available weapons for sale by type.
- Added options to sort 'Items for Sale' list alphabetically or by price.
- Added ability to load media files from quests in save data folder.
- Added ability to require minimum number of credits in quests.
- Added ability to require specific ship frame type in quests.
- Added ability to spawn cargo containers in quests.
- Minor improvements and fixes.
Notes:
A new contract preview list mode is available in the inventory console which allows the player to view a summary of all available contracts (or missions if in a war zone) with a brief description of each along with the price being offered. The player can then select one from the list to view more details about it. Clicking on 'Contract List' will return to the preview list mode (as will switching between items for sale and contracts). This way, the player doesn't have to toggle through all contracts to see what's available.
The IDS scale factor and control input mode are now displayed on the gunsight indicator in HUD mode 2. New image indexes have been added to support the X1-X9 scale levels along with the 'Off' mode. A dedicated character index has also been added for the control input mode and can be modified to optionally display the scale value. Details available in the revised customizing kit: https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/customkitse/readme.htm#305
A new option for exporting certain control and physics values has been added to the main Options menu, adding to the previous '3D Head Tracking' setting that is now named 'Head/Motion Tracking'. The new button allows you to activate both the head tracking (TrackIR) mode as well as a new 'Motion' option that enables broadcasting values over a UDP port. Motion tracking devices can then receive this data and process it for simulating motion effects. Details on exported values and custom configuration options are available in the customizing kit: https://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/customkitse/readme.htm#507
A new customizing option has been added to specify the HUD mode upon launching, the direction HUD modes cycle, and restrictions on available HUD modes. To apply such options, create a text file named 'hudcyclesettings.txt' in either the save data folder (\Documents\EvochronLegacySE) or the '\media' folder within the game's installation folder. You can then enter these lines to set values:
HUDLaunch=2
HUDCycleD=1
HUDActive=0
The 'HUDLaunch' parameter will set the HUD mode when the game starts or when respawning. Set to either 1 for mode 1 or 2 for mode 2. The 'HUDCycleD' parameter will set the direction the HUD modes are cycled in. Set to 1 for increasing increments or -1 for decreasing increments. The 'HUDActive' parameter will select which HUD modes will be available/active in the range. Set to 0 to allow the full range of HUD modes that includes off, mode 1, and mode 2. Set to 1 to not allow turning off the HUD entirely, leaving only mode 1 and mode 2 available. Set to 2 to restrict the modes to off and mode 1. Set to 3 to restrict the modes to off and mode 2.
The font system has been updated to standardize color levels between button edges and center bars. This allows for more consistent color matching (no more trying to guess between the different color levels, they are now 1:1) and provides more available variety for brightness when holding the mouse over buttons in the game. The included default font images (in the '\media' folder) has been updated for this new alignment and can be used as a reference for how to change any existing custom font images that may be in place.
Maneuvering thrusters have been reduced in size by about 2/3 for a more subtle appearance (based on feedback/requests over the last few years). The game will automatically update any custom thruster placements and scaling for the new layout, so changes can be made later if larger thruster nozzles are desired. Otherwise, both the nozzles and exhaust effects have been reduced to give the frames a little more of an aerodynamic appearance with less hull surface disruption. The thruster placement utility for the customizing kit has also been updated to accommodate these changes.
The custom music system has been updated to support specifying music tracks for particular regions or sector locations. This way, you can have the game play specific music that takes location into account in addition to threat level. To implement this option, first place the maximum number of global music files you want added to the '\music' folder. This tells the game what the maximum number of tracks is to search for. Next, if you want to specify tracks for sectors, create one or more folders inside the '\music' folder with sector locations in their names using underscores to separate the values. For example, to add music files to the sector specific to the planet Pearl, the folder name would be '3500_0_-1800'. Then copy the tracks you want over to that folder starting with 'musiclevel1-1.ogg'. Remember to keep music files in sets of three for each threat level (1-1, 1-2, and 1-3). The game will allow an existing track to finish before selecting a new one, either sector/region based or just baseline random, unless a new threat level condition triggers a new load event as per normal operation. To specify music files by region, use the word 'region' in the folder name along with the region number. For example, to add music files to the region that contains the entire Pearl system, you would use the folder name 'region179'. You don't need to include the total number of music file sets located in the base '\music' folder, the maximum number of tracks specific to a sector or region folder simply needs to be the same or less than the music file sets in the '\music' folder.
The commodity value display in the navigation console's quadrant map mode has been redesigned to show both the price variation bar graphs as well as the specific values for all commodities at the same time. So highlighting a region will now provide a more comprehensive and detailed overview of market conditions. The Econ/Tech quadrant map mode can also now be quickly accessed with the default Alt-F1 key combination, making the mode accessible with one input rather than requiring three. Additionally, an optional single key/button binding option has been added to page 4 of the Key/Button Controls menu.
Key and button mapping options have been added to access inventory console sub-menu options that generally require two or more layers of selecting. With the new key/button options, they can now be optionally accessed with one selection input. For the the Quest Menu, System Information, and Regional News options, pressing a key or button mapped to one of those options when the inventory console is closed will immediately open the console in the selected mode. Pressing the same key or button again will close the console (just like the default F3 key). That is, if the inventory console is already open and is in the specified mode, then it will simply close (or not respond if inside station lobbies). If the inventory console is open and not in the specified mode, then the sub-menu mode will simply activate. So these options are designed for quick access to their respective modes. Since the View Hangar Details option reports information in the message log and doesn't involve a separate sub-menu mode, it can be accessed any time.
Fleet ships now have new indicators for their descriptions and HUD elements. For ship descriptions, a filled circle character has been added to the target and non-target direction indicators to mark them as fleet ships. The filled circle character has also been added to the target detail and range cockpit display modes. You can optionally specify custom characters by creating a text file in either the save data folder or '\media' folder named 'fleetshipcharacters.txt' and in the first two lines, enter the left and right characters you'd like to apply. You can enter just a left character to leave an extra character for ship descriptions or you can also enter blank lines to remove the characters entirely. As an added measure of visual distinction, new dedicated texture indexes and images have been added to the HUD direction indicators. The default indicators will display 'Fleet' above their targeting circles and can be replaced by different images, if desired. Details are available in the revised customizing kit (target3green-fleet.png, target7-fleet.png, targetshadow-fleet.png, and targetshadow2-fleet.png).
A holographic banner has been added above station command module to display the name of the station and its faction affiliation. If a station is part of the same faction as the player, its affiliation text will appear green on the banner. If its neutral (IND relative to ALC or FDN player), it will appear yellow. If it's hostile and blocked for docking, it will appear red. Options to hide or change this banner and the other holograms below are available in the revised customizing kit.
Holographic images have also been added between station entrances. This system can also import custom images, including sector specific and animated (up to 10 frames each). To import custom images, simply replace the images in the '\media\stationbanners' folder. Images with the prefix 'alc' will be displayed for ALC affiliated stations, 'fdn' for FDN affiliated, and 'ind' for IND affiliated. You can have up to 5 still images (filenames ending in 'banner#.png' where '#' is a number between 1 and 5). Still images will cycle after a few seconds. Importing left/right seamless images can support scrolling (for caution banners, waveforms, etc). To enable the scrolling mode, a 'bannerscroll.txt' (with faction and dash prefix characters) can be used to set the scrolling speed. The 'ind-bannerscroll.txt' text file that is included with the game in the '\stationbanners' folder can be used for reference. A positive value will scroll in one direction, negative value in the other. Alternatively (and using a little more video memory), you can import a series of images for each holographic surface for an animated effect (limited for memory and best used for effects like spinning logos, sparkling effects, and/or moving letters). Filenames for animated indexes include a dash and a number at the end, so 'banner1-1.png' (again with faction and dash prefix characters, ie 'alc-banner1-1.png') would apply a first image for an animated set and additional images added up through 'banner1-10.png' for a complete group. Missing images in a set will be skipped, so you can use gaps for short pauses, but the first 'banner#-1.png' filename need to be included as a baseline. In addition to importing images globally by faction, custom images can also be applied to specific sectors by placing them inside a folder with the sector location separate by underscores. For example, placing image files inside a folder named '3500_0_-1800' within the '\stationbanners' folder will apply those images for a station built in that sector (so you can use this to apply custom images to a station you build in single player).
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0348...
- Carrier catapult launch system implemented (see notes).
- Training mode updated to accommodate recent changes to MDTS indicator system (persistent display and 'Off' label) and custom waypoints.
- Targeting system now automatically cycles to the next nearest object when a currently targeted object is destroyed or exceeds tracking range.
- Tighter restrictions applied to hostile reinforcement support during most active combat contracts (better conforming to stated numbers at waypoints).
- Added 'Set Nav' button on left side of navigation console (under 'Add New') to set nav point to sequential waypoints.
- Added improved support for the 'clinklinkcolors.txt' file option for specifying custom button frame and text colors.
- Texture improvements for capital ships, including docking hangar and illuminated runway/catapult path for carriers.
- Lock tractor beam key/button control changed to allow for more time to tap to disengage once at full strength.
- Fix for excessively frequent updates to contract and inventory lists when territory control shifted slightly.
- Fix for carrier HUD direction indicator potentially remaining visible after jumps.
- Fix for gunsight occasionally not enabling properly after starting from carrier.
- Collision system updated to have more sliding behavior based on angle of impact.
- 'Load' buttons now only appear next to compatible items in hangar menu list.
- Items are now color coded by category type in the hangar menu lists.
- Capital ship anti-shield torpedo range increased (roughly doubled).
- Minor fixes and improvements (UI alignments, low light mode depth).
Notes:
You can now quickly toggle the nav point through all available plotted sequential waypoints with the new 'Set Nav' button located below the 'Add New' and above the 'Delete' button on the left side of the navigations console. As you plot new waypoints, the button will automatically update to the latest waypoint. Then once you are finished plotting the waypoints you want, you can click on the 'Set Nav' button once and it will set the current nav point to waypoint 1. You can optionally continue to click on the button to toggle through all available waypoints. Left click to select waypoints in increasing increments, right click to select waypoints in decreasing increments. This way, you can quickly set the nav point back to waypoint one after you have plotted waypoints in a group.
The ship's targeting system will now automatically switch to the next nearest object (rather than the next ship) if an object you currently have targeted is destroyed or exceeds radar range. So when you have a ship targeted, the system will target a ship next. When you have an object targeted, the system will target an object next. This will help keep targeting more manageable for objectives such as meteor intercepts where targeting the next meteor is the priority, rather than switching to a nearby ship. If no other object is nearby, then the system will automatically switch over to targeting ships again.
A catapult launching system has been added to carriers. This method of launching from a carrier provides an automatic takeoff sequence up to near maximum speed with no fuel cost. While mostly designed for Arvoch Alliance SE, this system has now been implemented in Evochron as well as an option. To activate the sequence, simply park inside the blue indicator and stop. The carrier's tractor beam system will automatically align your ship to the required position, heading, and pitch. Then when ready, increase throttle to maximum and the carrier will engage the catapult launching system. Your ship will then accelerate at a rapid speed until it reaches the end of the catapult and you reach open space. You can turn off the IDS to maintain the launch speed or allow your engines to slow your ship down after the takeoff. You can skip the catapult sequence and leave the carrier yourself by just flying through or around the blue position indicator located at the beginning of the catapult. New lines added to the 'text8.dat' file are in the 2912-2918 range and can be removed to no longer display the notices and instructions for the catapult system.
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0328...
- Added ability to plot multiple sequential waypoints (see notes).
- Added new passenger transport objective - medical patient (see notes).
- Added passenger and patient transport objectives to multiplayer mode (see notes).
- Passenger and new patient transport objectives are now integrated into the contract system.
- Autopilot now aligns with jump gates via flight controls when linked to an active sequential waypoint.
- Autopilot now reduces speed as needed to recover from high levels of horizontal and/or vertical drift.
- Autopilot now waits until jump cycle completes before applying flight control inputs to reduce unnecessary fuel consumption and to provide time for sequential waypoint updates.
- Improved planetary atmospheric effects and related water shader reflection elements (including more distinction for sunrise/sunset sequences).
- Jump drive now automatically disengages main engine to no longer require manual control to minimize fuel consumption.
- Jump drive arrival distance placed about 1K further back to give more time for docking directives to be broadcasted.
- Added ability to specify multiple joined objects as well as transparency/energy effects in quest event type 4.
- Added ability to specify multiple ships in quest event types 3, 29, 30, 31, and 32 (comma delimiter).
- Cargo bay menu when tractor beam is active now has highlight buttons for mouse over and discarding.
- Distance to nearest planet (estimate to minimum surface level) added to System Information console.
- Non-target direction indicators updated to be a little more distinct from the target indicator.
- Shield arrays now sustain damage upon general impacts (level based on direction and velocity).
- Snap zoom sequences removed from cinematic view mode for a more consistent viewing distance.
- Main gunsight textures doubled in resolution for improved appearance at higher resolutions.
- Added ability to view multiplayer player/stats list while inside main station lobbies.
- Missile fuel reserves increased by about 70% and lock ranges increased to accommodate.
- Improved support for 0.1875-0.28125 ratio display resolutions (ie 5760X1080/5120X1440).
- Inventory database menu updated to better accommodate Large font size setting.
- Tiling detail texture layer added to ship and station/city module shaders.
- Line 146 in the savedata value set expanded to indicate docked location.
- Crew wage cycles and passenger delivery timers standardized to seconds.
- Payment alert notification sound added to player-to-player contracts.
- Civilian rating credit now awarded for building station modules.
- Smooth scrolling added to mouse-over of entries in maplog menu.
- Gunsight shield indicators now also shown in HUD mode 1.
- Most radar indicator textures doubled in resolution.
- Nebula cloud added to Deneb system.
- Minor fixes and improvements.
Notes:
You can now set multiple sequential waypoints for the ship's navigation system to follow. Two new buttons have been added to the navigation console for this system 'Add New #' will add a new waypoint at the currently selected nav point. You can then change the nav point to a new location and click on 'Add New #' again to add a second waypoint and so on. The number of the waypoint being added in the sequence is displayed in place of the '#' symbol on the button. Up to 10 waypoints can be set this way and you can optionally enable the autopilot to follow the course you plot. You can pick up a course in the middle of a waypoint set or start from the beginning. When you're ready for the autopilot to follow a course you plot, simply right click on the waypoint you want the autopilot to fly to and engage the autopilot. The ship's autopilot will use the currently selected radar range as the distance to detect when a waypoint has been reached. It will do this by calculating 1/5 of the current radar range setting. So if you have the radar set to a range of 25K, the waypoint activation distance will be 5K. This way, you can decrease the range of activation for slower and closer approaches by reducing the radar range setting. Once the autopilot reaches the selected waypoint at the specified range, it will automatically toggle to the next waypoint in sequence. Once it reaches the limit, it will hold at the last waypoint. You can swap back to previous waypoint or skip waypoints by right clicking on their icons on the nav map. You can also manually fly to a waypoint to activate each one in sequence, rather than use the autopilot. To repeat a course of sequential waypoints, simply plot the last waypoint in range of the first waypoint and the system will automatically advance back to the first waypoint and then the second when you arrive at the last waypoint.
The 'Delete #' button will remove the last sequential waypoint from the current set. The '#' will indicate which waypoint will be deleted. You can optionally right click on the button to clear all waypoints.
Plotting a waypoint to a jump gate will suspend the automated advancement to the next waypoint until you pass through the gate, preventing the system from trying to jump to the next location that may be many sectors away and allowing the jump gate to activate for its destination instead. When active, the autopilot will apply horizontal and vertical thruster inputs to align your ship with the selected jumpgate linked to a current sequential waypoint. You can assist the autopilot by applying thruster controls manually as may be needed for certain environmental conditions or approach angles.
The new sequential waypoint system operates independently from contract waypoints. So you can use this new system in conjunction with contracts or on its own. Sequential waypoints will display a number above their indicators to distinguish them from contract waypoints, if both are active on the HUD at the same time. And only the currently selected/active sequential waypoint is displayed to prevent clutter/visibility issues.
Planetary atmosphere effects have been updated, including the addition of several new shaders and changes to the water reflection system to accommodate varying color changes and horizon blending. Previously, planet background haze, reflection, and lighting effects were limited to merely dimming toward the night side of planets and during sunrise/sunset cycles. Planets can now have more pronounced sunrise and sunset phases where atmospheric coloring and lighting shifts to orange/red hues based on angles and range from the nearby star.
A new objective has been added to the passenger transport system, requiring the safe delivery of a medical patient to a specific station. This new objective works much like the passenger transport, except that the payment is fixed and does not decay over time. So what is offered is paid in full if the player is able to deliver the patient before the timer runs out. The time offered is based on the distance required to deliver the patient. Before accepting the agreement, the player can analyze the destination and decide if they think they can make it in time. Like passenger transport, patient delivery also requires an available crew slot.
Passenger and patient transport objectives are now integrated into the main contract system for improved discovery and accessibility. This way, such objectives are much easier to find and don't require activating a separate inventory console mode to view. A description of each objective is provided along with the option to accept the agreement directly in the contract menu. Such objectives, if/when available, will be added near the end of the current contract list for the sector in the last few indexes. Unlike other local sector objectives, these objectives span multiple sectors and will generally need to be completed by travelling through system gates to reach a destination quickly. Any passenger/patient transport objectives available in the sector will be added to the end of the available contract pool for the location the player docks at (either the station or planet). Once a passenger or patient has boarded the ship, the agreement can't be cancelled like regular contracts can. The passenger or patient must be dismissed from the crew management console to terminate the agreement.
Both the original passenger transport and new patient transport objectives have been added to the multiplayer mode. To accommodate this addition, the server programs needed to be updated in order to broadcast the additional required data to clients. As a result, server operators will need to update to the new server builds (2.0408) for the new objectives to work. Older server builds will continue to work with newer client builds, but clients won't receive the data needed for the new transport objectives, so they just won't be available.
Long range passenger and patient transport objectives are considered multi-sector contracts, even though they are now displayed among other available local contracts. Multi-sector transport contracts do not impact local sector contracts, so you can accept and manage them separately. And since they involve transporting only one passenger, they aren't included among the contracts that can be shared. So other players can still link into a local contract together without impacting a player accepting a passenger transport objective and vice versa.
Civilian rating credit is now awarded for building station modules. 1 point is awarded for smaller modules, 2 for production and storage modules, 3 for city docking modules, and 5 for space station command modules.
Shaders used for ships, carriers, stations, and cities have been updated to incorporate a tiling detail texture. This helps provide a much higher detailed appearance to the surface of these objects in the game (anywhere from around 300% up to 1800% depending on type and size). This additional texture layer adds more panels and surface contours to help fill in some of the empty/blank areas of the base texture layers and applies details to the diffuse, specular, and reflective elements. Details on custom options are available in the updated customizing kit.
All locking missile types have had their fuel reserves increased by about 70%. This means that the flight time before missiles self-detonate due to running out of fuel (and hence, no longer being able to maneuver or track a target) has been extended. To accommodate this change, the locking ranges of missiles have also been increased significantly.
By request, shield arrays can now be damaged by impacts with other objects/structures in space. The severity of damage is dependent on the overall velocity and type of impact. Collisions with small/low mass objects such as debris from an exploding ship or bits of asteroid will not inflict damage while impacts with most other larger objects will, if the overall velocity is high enough. The direction of the impact will determine which array is affected and faster impacts will deplete the array level at a greater level.
New/changed lines for the 'text.dat' file are 975, 1262, 1516 (< Passenger boarded - ), and 2890-2910.
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0318...
- Added faction affiliation for station and city modules to target status display.
- Drop down menu added for available ship item category lists in hangar storage menu.
- Added options to map VR controller buttons to energy bias control in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Added options to map VR controller buttons to shield augment control in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Added option to swap the strafe thruster and roll/yaw axis input controls between VR controllers in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Added options to assign different axis inputs for roll, pitch, yaw, strafe, and inertial forward/reverse thrusters on VR controllers in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Expanded IDS scale up and down inputs to either joystick or throttle flight control mode in VR (existing mappings may need adjustment).
- Added option to retain last axis input values from VR controllers when a flight mode is disengaged in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Added options to map VR controller buttons to target nearest hostile ship and target ship in gunsight controls in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Added options to set the flight control mode to listen to button input from for each button control option/set in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Added ability to paste values from clipboard into nav console coordinates, command module name, and fuel entry fields with Control-V.
- Added options to map touchpad/thumbstick axis inputs to button control options in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Added options to apply custom roll, pitch, and yaw alignment levels to VR controller orientation in the 'vrsetup.txt' file.
- Asteroids in Federation quest (2) modified to show 'High' level of metal ore with new science ops reporting system.
- Hovering over a carrier's docking pad inside the hangar will now automatically open the inventory console.
- Planetary imaging objective updated to require a 'grid pattern' scanning course and pay increased by 20%.
- Atmospheric burn effect now better aligns with ship movement direction and overall velocity factors.
- Asteroids with trace levels of materials could display the type twice in science ops report, fixed.
- Added support for right/left arrow, home, end, and delete keys to in-game multiplayer text chat.
- Quest systems updated to account for changes since original quest scripts were written.
- Visual beam effect added for mining probes on the surfaces of moons to match asteroids.
- Production rate for deployable fuel stations increased by 400%.
- Minor fixes and improvements.
Notes:
The faction affiliation for station and city modules is now displayed on the target status display. City modules are controlled when a station command module is built in the same sector, so they will display the controlling faction of the local station, if one is present. If no station command module is present, city modules will display 'IND' for independent.
Several new options are available for the VR controller system. You can now set custom axis input channels for each flight control and set the default input response when a controller is disengaged from a flight mode. During the course of working on these systems, additional button index details were explored and tested for Oculus Rift S devices. In addition to the lower values (some of which may overlap), these optional indexes can be used for additional dedicated button inputs:
Triggers - Button Index 33
Grips - Button Index 34
Thumbsticks - Button Index 32
Left X - Button Index 7
Right A - Button Index 7
These values can be used in place of existing values for any button input option in the 'vrsetup.txt' file. Due to expanding the IDS scale button option for both flight control modes, some existing configurations may need adjustment to ignore a controller you don't want to use for these controls. To do that, simply enter the number 99 for any button input control you don't want to map input to. This will direct the game to ignore input for those controls and only listen to values between -2 and 63, preventing any button duplication. You can also now specify which flight control mode to listen to input from for each button control (or set of buttons for a common control group, such as shield augment control). To retain compatibility with existing configurations, some button mappings (IDS On/Off, cannons, missiles, and afterburner) have been kept to their respective flight control modes to listen to input from. A revised 'vrsetup-bak.txt' file is included with the game in the '\media' folder with revised default and new lines as well as new instructions for reference.
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0308...
- Added ability to store and retrieve secondary weapons directly to/from station hangars.
- Items stored in stations hangars now automatically shift to higher list positions when loaded onto ship.
- Items in cargo bay list now automatically shift to higher list positions when transferred to station hangars.
- Cargo bay list is now displayed on HUD when tractor beam is at full strength for easier reference when mining.
- Added ability to discard and consolidate cargo with the tractor beam list without having to open the inventory console.
- Combat contract waypoint arrival spacing increased to provide more energy recovery time and expand distance further with capital ships.
- Most combat contract waypoints involving capital ships now placed in between or next to larger ships to reduce arrival course interference and for more evenly divided spacing between opposing forces.
- Plus symbol ('+') added to related capital ship description on target detail display and direction indicator for spy, escort, delivery, and strike objectives.
- Space station ship launch system now automatically aligns player's ship with nearest exit gate when launching or exiting station.
- Space station tractor beam system now also aligns player's ship with nearest exit gate while inventory console is open.
- Full docking animation sequence added for entering/exiting space station (can be optionally disabled in exit/pause menu).
- AI independent mining system (non-fleet) improved to display recovered material with cargo scanners in real time.
- AI independent mining duration extended to recover more material per cycle (before switching asteroids or flying away).
- Added checkbox option to pause/exit menu to enable or disable the new auto-aligning system for docking with stations.
- Radar contact blips for cargo and other objects updated to retain alignment when using panning view controls.
- New cockpits added to expand the number of available designs for improved variety among different ship types.
- Science ops crew member now provides more details on nearby asteroid contents, planets, and nebula clouds.
- By request, higher availability bias given to commodities in markets with lower global baseline values.
- 'View Hangar Details' operation made much faster and visual side effects (due to disk access) removed.
- Successfully defending stations against Vonari attack in war zones now awards 5 military rank points.
- Capital ship repair support (available on contract) for subsystems and equipment increased by 200%.
- Repair system efficiency for subsystems and equipment increased by 200% for all three classes.
- Pitch control input indicators on upper HUD display inverted for correction.
- Military ship frames are now equipped with 5 resistor packs by default.
- Expanded explosion sequence for destroyed capital ships.
- Minor fixes and improvements.
Notes:
This update introduces new cockpits that vary based on ship class. Previously, there were only two cockpits, one for civilian and one for military. There are now several designs linked to frame type with some sharing the same basic cockpit layout based on a common design/manufacturer.
If you would prefer to use the original two default cockpits only, create a text file in either the '\media' folder within the game's install folder or in the save data folder (default location is '\Documents\EvochronLegacySE') named 'ccpitmode.txt' and in the first line enter a number 0. That will limit the available cockpits to just the two original designs, one for civilian and the other for military. Remove the file or change the number to 1 to enable the full range of designs.
A new cargo bay list is now available whenever the tractor beam is at full power. It will appear in the upper right corner of the HUD and provides a list of all cargo bay contents that makes it easier to view and manage material recovered while mining. This way, you don't have to keep opening the inventory console to view what you've recovered and then close it again to return to full visibility for mining. The new list will provide an immediate visual reference of your ship's cargo bays during mining. The tractor beam cargo list also supports sorting and discarding in open space, just like the inventory console list.
The server programs have been updated to correct an issue that would display an incorrect attacking faction in one area during a station attack.
Repair options, both repair devices installed on ships and on contract repairs provided by capital ships, have been increased by 200%. This has the net effect of reducing the time a subsystem may be down by about half, leaving such systems less vulnerable over time to the effects of subsystem weapons and high energy lightning from nebula clouds.
New and revised lines for the 'text.dat' file are 1313 (Current Secondary Weapons), 1774 (Auto-Align with Station Tractor Beam), 1913 (Full station docking sequence), 879-882, and 2848.
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0298...
- By request, added ability to order AI ships to drop their cargo (see notes).
- Beam effect added for deployed mining probes for visual reference of location.
- Beam effect also added for cargo containers produced by deployed mining probes.
- Local coordinates of deployed mining probes are now displayed with countdown timer on HUD.
- Ping marker on nav map now displayed when a mining probe is deployed (visible only to activating player).
- Currency symbol (line 173 in 'text.dat') and commas added to flight log prices for buying and selling events.
- Regional pricing level bar graph colors on market ticker updated to reflect +/-20% margins (increased from 10%).
- Cargo bays now automatically shift to higher list positions after each sell, discard, destroy, and delivery event.
- Paint system revised to stage updates in memory to prevent pausing when players join or repaint their ship in multiplayer.
- Improvements in movement prediction calculation behavior when client falls back to TCP mode due to loss of UDP signal from server.
- For delivery contracts, added ability to automatically transfer cargo through trade link request in addition to previous jettison and manual inventory console cargo selection options.
- Corrected issue with nav map system that could prevent right clicking on hidden storage container contacts detected by sensor stations.
- Added text color coding for storage container, cargo container, shipwreck/data drive, and deployable structure sensor station contacts.
- Added threat level labels and text color coding to sensor station contacts for ships on nav map when highlighting with pointer.
- Jump drive arrival position moved back slightly to better accommodate docking directive system with rapid docking maneuvers.
- Startup labels during loading phase renamed and structured to align centrally and work better with new font options.
- Added ability to adjust spacing between characters on HUD and cockpit displays to 'hudtext.txt' customizing options.
- Burn effect added for gas giant planets if player flies fast enough closer to the denser central region of planet.
- Dynamic ranging added to shadow rendering system to reduce close range rapid appearing of longer range shadows.
- Highlight description priority now given to sensor and ping dots on nav map when near/over larger object icons.
- By request, docking directive violation fines now variable based on player wealth and can apply at any level.
- Flight control mode now automatically switches to 'Joystick/Controller' whenever an axis input is mapped.
- Variable damage caused by collisions with unshielded objects at speeds over 2500 reduced by 50%.
- Faster range updates when direction indicators are tracking dozens of asteroids simultaneously.
- Added ability to right click on a ping indicator on the nav map to lock nav point to location.
- Secondary weapon list on ship status display expanded to provide more complete weapon names.
- Estimated distance value added to container location messages from science ops crew member.
- Number of resistor packs, hull plating type, and module type added to savedata value set.
- Price for stealth fields (devices mounted on secondary hardpoints) reduced by about 80%.
- MDTS status indicator now persistently visible on HUD and displays 'Off' when disabled.
- Added cockpit illumination effects for soft glow from cockpit lights and displays.
- Overall wind reduction for both initial burst rate and maximum turbulence impact.
- Revised lighting and shadow effects added to main menu hangar scene.
- Added font size setting option to Resolution menu (see notes).
- Improved energy effect for deployable shield arrays.
- Shipyard: Larger checkboxes added to Frame Configuration menu.
- Shipyard: Bars and underlining added to Frame Configuration menu.
- Shipyard: Current ship configuration values added to Frame Configuration menu.
- Shipyard: Performance spec indicators changed to larger single horizontal line structure.
- Shipyard: 'Current Ship' and 'Ship to Build' headers added to each side of their respective specification list.
- Shipyard: Specific engine and wing system names added to components list for easier reference.
- Shipyard: Adjusted text spacing for better category distinctions.
- Minor fixes.
Notes:
The cockpit viewing program ( https://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12540 ) has been updated to support the custom options for the new glow effect, display character spacing, and now shows more indicators.
To support a request for players to be able to 'pirate' AI ships without always requiring them to be destroyed, the option to issue an order to AI ships to drop their cargo has been added. There are two ways to utilize the new option. First, if an AI ship accepts a trade request, a new button in the lower right corner of the trade menu reading 'Order Ship to Drop Cargo' will appear, providing the option to send the order through an active trade link via the console. The second method is to issue a trade link request a second time if an AI ship rejects the request the first time. If an AI ship rejects an initial trade request, an additional line will now be displayed in the message log indicating the order can be sent by sending the request again.
AI ships can handle the order to drop their cargo in one of three ways. They can ignore the order and if they choose this route, their threat level won't change and they'll simply keep flying along. They may also choose to jump away shortly after ignoring the order. They can also decide to turn and attack you rather give up their cargo. If they decide to attack, their threat level will immediately change to hostile. Lastly, they can choose to give up their cargo to avoid a risky combat engagement. AI ships have been given the ability to analyze situations when making their decisions. They'll consider how your ship compares with their own, what they may or may not have in cargo, and will apply a random element of decision making emulating what kind of 'mood' they might be in at the time. So if your ship frame is more powerful (moderate bias is given to more combat capable military spacecraft, but they can't store/carry as much) and the targeted ships are carrying cargo, you'll likely be more successful overall. If the AI ships have more powerful frames and/or they aren't carrying cargo, you'll tend to be ignored or attacked more often.
This new additional gameplay option will have a net effect of increasing the value of cargo scanners by allowing you to analyze a ship's cargo bay before deciding to send a drop order. You can perform such scans and also consider ship comparisons to gauge the risk-reward factor as part of your decision before sending an order. Players can also issue this order to each other in multiplayer using the same two options. A text message will appear in the log when an order from another player is received. For those who might want a custom voice effect to play when they send an order in single player, the customizing kit has also been updated with instructions on adding a sound file.
A new font size setting is now available in the Options > Resolution menu. Three settings are available that offer the default smaller font along with new medium and large options. Changing the font size in the main menu will apply the changes globally to all text layer characters as well as cockpit and HUD displays as they are created during the launch/loading phase. Changing the font size in the game will affect all text layer characters, but cockpit and HUD displays won't update until the next time they are reloaded. The larger font sizes can help with legibility on smaller monitors and lower resolutions.
For those working on translations, new/revised lines for the 'text.dat' file are 497-500, 601, 610-612, 776, 1166, 1196, 1314, 1406, 1736, 1761, 1762, 1769, and 2490.
Evochron Legacy SE Update 2.0288...
- Added ability to apply custom red, green, and blue color levels to ship frames (including military frames) via new paint option in shipyard.
- By request, added customizing option to keep jump drive effects continually active at a specified minimum level between jump cycles during long distance trips with the autopilot on.
- Changes to commodity selection system for market inventories to allow for a greater chance of type duplications, particularly in specific economy types to increase potential profitability.
- In VR during training, the player must now click in the message log area to advance stages (preserving the functionality of the holographic VR menu without unwanted training stage advancement).
- For VR, the in-game holographic menus can now be accessed with either VR controller (left inputs will override right if both controllers are in point mode, best to use each individually for menu selection when needed).
- For VR, new bypass options added for VR controller flight modes to ignore axis inputs whenever a controller is set to point mode.
- Improved water shader effect when dynamic cube mapping is disabled and/or effect detail is set to 'Low' or 'Medium'.
- Improvements to axis input mapping system in Key/Button Configuration menu to better support upper range channels.
- Improvements to axis flight control system for better responsiveness and quicker access to rotational limits.
- For VR, new optional mode cap settings added to limit each controller to one specified flight control mode.
- Cargo scanning list on target detail display expanded by another character to include cargo bay numbers.
- Local Market Conditions list can now display price variations between local planet and station markets.
- Frame Configuration menu revised to increase spacing between options and icons added for categories.
- Added ability to bulk consolidate matching commodities in three or more slots with Alt-Left Click.
- Gunsight shield indicators updated to reduce clutter and provide more distinct status indication.
- Overall runtime performance improvements (roughly 5-10% on some systems, more or less on others).
- Solar cell cleaning cycle narrowed for easier contract completion and more apparent visual cues.
- Added number of cities on the surface of a local planet to savedata value set (line 158).
- Increased overall energy reserves for primary weapon system for all ships by about 15%.
- Several UI improvements including revised button frames and click range alignments.
- Smoother transitions/softer fading through clouds and atmospheric layers.
- Icons added to console menus (aligning with upper menu bar on main HUD).
- Missile lock brackets updated to fade in as a lock is secured.
- Vertical structures added to black hole accretion disks.
- OBJ format added to supported custom object mesh files.
Notes:
New lines have been added to the 'vrsetup.txt' file option for the new flight axis input bypass and control mode settings. The file is bundled with the game (in the '\media' folder under the filename 'vrsetup-bak.txt' as a backup copy, remove the '-bak' to install or copy the new lines from the backup file over to the file you are using in the same folder to add or modify options). On a related note, you can optionally double click the grip or button input mapped to enable flight control and hold it after the second click to enable a 'hold' mode, then release the grip/button to disable flight control.
You can now bulk consolidate commodities of matching types in three or more cargo bays. Previously, you'd need to use alt-right click to transfer one unit at a time over to an available bay with less than 25 units of the same material. The new added option now lets you use alt-left click to transfer the maximum possible number of units over to the next available cargo bay in sequential order. You can do this while docked or in open space.
The market commodity system has been updated to allow for the potential of more duplicate selections in inventories, both planetary and station. This means you can find more groups of a particular commodity at one location. In specific economy types (where more of a particular commodity might be available), this can result in a much higher profit potential where you might be able to buy a lot more of a commodity at a reduced price at one location to later sell (if your ship has enough cargo capacity to hold the material). Regular market fluctuations and variable availability still apply, so there can still be times of lean availability. But the previous limitations placed on duplications no longer applies. Also, the 'Local Market Conditions' list (Inventory Console > News/Information) now accounts for the planetary pricing offset values. Previously, this list would only display the baseline price levels and economy type offsets for the local sector as a whole. The list can now also display any additional planetary pricing variations in the sector. Both the displayed per unit price and the percentage offset value in the list will adjust for the differences in the planet's local market. Simply click on 'Station' or 'Planet' next to the 'Local Market Conditions' header at the top of the list to toggle between either mode.
By request, a new customizing option has been added to enable the jump drive effects to continue to remain active between jump cycles while on long distance trips using the autopilot. By default, the jump drive effects fade out during the cool down phase between jump cycles with speed remaining at the maximum X9 IDS level. With the new option enabled, the jump drive effects will continue to be rendered until the next jump cycle begins. The visibility of the effect can be adjusted with the new option. To enable it, create a text file named 'jumpdriveeffect.txt' in either the '\media' folder or an '\environment' folder and in the first line, enter the value to specify the minimum visibility level of the effects (range can be 1-199, 0 for disable). Setting a value of around 50 will keep the effects fairly dim while higher values will provide a brighter effect that obscures visibility more significantly.
The original paint option for ships has been removed and replaced. Ships can now be painted in a variety of colors using the new paint option in the shipyard. The new menu lets you add or subtract red, green, and blue color levels to both the primary surfaces of a ship's hull and/or its trim sections. This way, you can apply unique two-tone paint schemes to any ship frame, including military.