NSAU is unique for a few things. One of which is their shields. NSAU shields are pretty powerful though they have a double-edged effect. Because the shields are generated in a spherical manner; like a bubble around a structure or ship, it's highly exposed to stray fire.
However, at the same time, multiple bubbles can then come together and act as different shield layers. This simple trick of condensing units can create a very powerful layered shield which will certainly take an equally powerful amount of firepower to break through.
Shields are immune to Bacterial Infestation. This means the effects from the Bacteria Turret, Liquidator and any other biological weapons are nullified immediately upon contact with shields.
Shields charge to 100% from 0% in 2 minutes. This applies to all ships and structures - meaning that the largest ships do have an advantage.
Shield Overdrive
This ability isn't shown in the video but is present as a NSAU ability. Only ships with energy weapons can activate shield overdrive.
When Shield Overdrive is active, all energy weapons will be disabled. All their energies will be redirected to their shield generator to improve charge rates. This means, the missiles on a NSAU Lens Cruiser will still be able to fire even in shield overdrive mode.
Dormant effects
Unlike UNC and SS, dormant has a greater side-effect on NSAU ships. Upon dormant, the shields are completely lowered but not eliminated. That means if you have had 70% shields at the time of doing dormant, you'll get 70% shields back when you awake from it.
During this period your ships are extremely vulnerable to enemy fire. NSAU hull cannot be repaired and is fragile at best. It can take some punishment but nowhere near UNC or even SS ships.
Localized power grid
All NSAU structures have a core. The core is heated whenever it's near a source of gravity. The heat energy is then converted into energy for the ship engines and weapons as well as shields.
Basically a NSAU Gravity Power Unit is what powers most NSAU structures. Some structures are self-contained, ie, the Stronghold and the Mobile Refinery... and it's also mobile. It can be transferred to another location if need be.
NSAU Turrets
Alike UNC and SS, there're 3 grades of NSAU turrets. Out of which, 2 of them - the NSAU Micro Laser Turret and the Heavy Laser Turret are mobile structures. the NSAU Stream Laser Turret isn't.
Do NOT allow them to be unpowered. They may be mobile even when unpowered but their shields will be down, leaving them extremely vulnerable.
The mobile power units can suffer from starvation too since they try their best to power all structures around the area... their performance can actually degrade when nearing capacity.
Conclusion
All in all, NSAU is another unique faction to try out! The only similarity is the way structures are built. They're the same as UNC with the exception of power requirements.
Hope you'll enjoy the game!
Regards,
Jeremy
Second video to explain how to play as Slavic Sirerians
to explain how Slavic Sirerian should be played. The SS faction is very aggressive and pays little attention to their defenses. As a result for defensive gameplay modes like Survival, it may be a little harder than usual to just sit back and relax.
Though in this video, it's proven that one can survive by basically blockading the wormholes, it should be noted that this is only for NORMAL difficulty. It may not be sufficient for HARD difficulty which has a totally different set of waves and has 10 waves instead of 8 waves for normal.
Blood Mechanics
Blood mechanics is a rather new and innovated mechanic away from most RTSes where almost everything consumes blood. So the deal is, Slavic Sirerian units will always operate regardless of blood levels. However if you have insufficient blood, all your units will start to bleed HP.
The worst case? 1 hp. No units will die from starvation but they'll be severely weakened till a point where other players can just steamroll the SS player.
On top of that, the Blood Burst ability will require more blood to operate properly.
What's Blood Burst?
Blood Burst is the special ability of the Slavic Sirerians. It gives units that draw blood the ability to draw even more blood to regenerate 3x faster. Ie, if a unit uses 4 units of blood, blood burst will draw another 4, making it a total of 8 units of blood.
Some units will not have the ability as they themselves are blood producers.
1) SS Citadel (command center)
2) SS Bastion (outpost)
3) SS Blood Pool (primary source of blood)
On top of that, fighters and bombers do not enjoy blood burst benefits since they do not draw signifiant amounts of blood.
Sirerian Units by default cannot heal on the move; you have to STOP completely for regeneration to take place. Blood Burst eliminates the need to stop and heal when it is in effect.
To use, select the units, press the angled bracket key to activate (toggle). Holding CTRL will force everyone to activate. Holding ALT will force everyone to deactivate.
Multi-Build Capabilities
As you can see, SS faction is more than capable of building multiple structures and especially for SS, it's important to note the range to destination. Foresight will always automatically pick the nearest Salvager to morph into the structure you've designated.
Preemptive Strike Fleet
A highlight of this video is the use of a preemptive strike fleet. The player can build a fleet that moves into position in between waves and lay in wait for the enemy so as to execute a flank/rear attack or ambush.
It's a great example to demonstrate that having the largest ships do not always win the battle; positioning, facing and using the right ship at the right time all play a part in winning.
The game is balanced enough to tip the scales the other way in the face of extreme odds as well.
Bullet Sponging
This is a popular term used in gaming to indicate that bullets or projectiles are being wasted on dead enemies blocking the projectile's path. This is exceptionally true when it comes to Liquidators.
Liquidators fire a very potent toxin but is highly susceptile to bullet sponging.
Some units carry firepower that can penentrate dead ships, ie, UNC Destroyer's tactical railguns. This makes it a deadly counter against the seemingly powerful liquidators.
Conclusion
A lot of things can be done in Foresight quickly and efficiently. Yes, it's different from other games, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. We'll try to get the NSAU gameplay video out as soon as possible to demonstrate the faction's advantage in defence.
Have a nice weekend!
Regards,
Jeremy
New Gameplay Video Explains New Mechanics
Dear all,
We've released a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf1yAK4CylE to explain some of the new mechanics introduced into Foresight as well as a reiteration of some old mechanics.l
Mass Repairs
This is a new UNC feature using the Repair tool.
Previous Problem
In the past, you can only repair structures by clicking on individual damaged structures to start repairs. In the heat of battle, you might misclick, pick the wrong structure to turn on/off, or totally miss the structure completely due to its size.
Solution
The solution is to allow some sort of smart selection to select a large area to be repaired.
Thus, once in Repair mode, you can drag and drop to toggle repairs for an area of structures. No ships will be involved; only structures.
By default, the mode toggles. If you want to ONLY repair, hold CTRL and drag and select an area. All damaged structures will start to repair.
Conversely, if you want to turn off repairs, hold ALT and drag and select an area. All repairs within the selected area will stop. This is included to prevent a case where you've decided to reallocate your credits to building a fleet but too many structures under repairs are taking too much credits; it'd have taken too long to stop repairs 1 by 1. Thus this mode will be useful in this scenario.
Multi-Build AI
This has been an existing feature for quite some time since a few players have asked for it to be implemented.
Foresight has a thin build tree. That means you don't need to build in depth to be able to build something like a UNC Railgun Turret. Therefore, the focus is now on where and when to build these structures.
Multiple structure builders can be selected to build or morph/convert into other structures. For builders that are mobile, such as UNC Harvester and SS Salvager, distance is considered. Having multiple units allows the game to decide which builder is closest to the desired location for the structure.
Structure Build Queues
Why we do not have it?
The answer is simple - our structure build tree is very thin and economy can easily limit the queue from working. It's a different play style for a different scale of RTS While Foresight is huge in terms of battles, ie, you can actually have a massive battle of thousands of ships all at one, we have means to quickly construct structures concurrently without the need for a queue.
Besides, Foresight can be fast-paced from mid-game onwards; build queues have to be monitored mentally to ensure that they do not take up too much power or blood and thus it wasn't included as a feature in the game design.
If a build queue causes a low power situation, how would you react? Is it the queue's fault or yours? (ie, if your other power plants were destroyed by enemy fire)
Besides, SS faction doesn't build by placing structures; it does by spawning a SS Salvager and then morphing into the structure of choice.
NSAU is alike UNC with the exception that some of their structures are actually mobile. Even so, it takes no more than 3 structures to get things started.
Conclusion
We hope that you understand that Foresight isn't a long term grand scale RTS. Yes you can have large armadas of thousands of ships but you can have it without an overly complicated infrastructure.
Survival Mode is a single player mode survival for your own pleasure. It too helps with achievements as well.
Survival co-op and Siege co-op will be coming up next concurrently with V1.10, our final patch version.
We hope you've enjoyed the game so far. Any feedback will be welcomed! Please too, report any defects so that we can fix it. Trust us, we will if we can. If not we'll find a workaround if the problem is specific to your machine!
Have a great weekend!
Jeremy
V1.09d patch released!
Dear all,
A major bug fix patch has been released along with some new features.
New Implementations
- NEW SURVIVAL MAP! We've included our new single player survival map for your pleasure. There's only 1 player and 1 AI player. You can select the difficulty but the faction is irrelevant; they'll always send whatever they want against you. Try to survive that 10 waves in HARD mode!
Go to Single Battle, select "Survival" on the drop down list and you'll see the map being listed. Select your faction and color and AI difficulty and you're good to go!
- Added feature to allow multiple UNC structures to be repaired all at once. The way to do it is simple - turn on Repair mode (UNC ability), drag and select structures. Yes I know some structures like turrets are small and was really hard to pick for repairs. Now you can do it easily.
The default mode is toggle. That means those who were repairing will stop, those who were damaged and not under repairs will begin.
You can change the mode by holding CTRL to always repair if required, or holding ALT to always stop repairs.
- Added the doodad system but not fully implemented into campaign missions and skirmish maps yet.
Adjustments
- Some text were adjusted for better readability
Bug Fixes
1) Fixed a bug where UNC Command Centers cannot be repaired WHILE upgrading a technology.
2) Fixed a bug where games do not behave properly after being loaded from a saved game. This is a timing bug and has affected almost all saved games. If there's any anomaly, we'd strongly suggest that you restart the mission. We apologise for that. This problem came about as we added a time multiplier into the game which is a separate time zone compared to the main underlying engine functions. Thus only the game elements were sped up, not the game engine's scripts.
3) Fixed a bug in the options menu when you save a game, you can press ESC and the game goes out and you'll see a "Game Saved" dialog that cannot be switched off only until you go back to the Options menu.
4) Fixed a bug where camera orientation isn't based on the saved orientation when a game is loaded; leading to some irritation on how the camera is looking at nowhere.
5) Fixed a bug where upgrade icons continue to appear after you return to main menu.
6) Fixed a bug in campaign mode where storytelling and unit displays sometimes overlap each other.
7) Fixed a bug where repair icon doesn't always appear indicating repairs.
8) Fixed a bug where Foresight can sometimes crash while loading up. This is due to some multi-threaded issue where performance can actually cause a mis-sync.
9) Fixed some of the camera angle issues at the start of mission for several missions.
10) Adjusted the codes so that if you use CHEAT codes it won't break parts of the game and cutscene.
Conclusion
More maps will be coming soon. The next will be co-op Survival, followed by co-op Siege. Whether we'll have Flight mode or not is subjective. We'll need to see which type of game mode is more popular with you guys before we move on.
Plus, V1.10 will be the final bit of Foresight we'll implement as promised long ago with the rest of the doodads in place in campaign and skirmish missions. After that, there'll be no more new contents planned other than bug fixes.
Regards,
Jeremy
Found a bug in loading saved games
Dear all,
This is to announce that we've found a bug when you load the same game multiple times, ships don't seem to be pulled into the wormhole.
This is a timing bug and due to the way it was loaded. The resolution is likely to require a start of the mission if there're any ships stuck at the wormhole.
We apologize for this and will deploy a patch as soon as possible.
P.S. This does not apply if you play normally, save as many times as you want ... and load just once when you first play.
Regards,
Jeremy
Lousy graphics on your laptop? You might be using the wrong card.
Dear all,
This is a gentle reminder to all who are using a laptop to play Foresight. If your GFX card isn't set to use your dedicated card by default, which is nowadays, like GT820M, GT840M, etc etc... these are good cards but not necessarily set the default card.
Default Graphics Card
You can set default card by simply right-clicking on one of the exe files that uses graphics. For Foresight, you can do the following:
1) Browse local files
2) Find Foresight.exe
3) Right-click > Run with graphics processor > Change default graphic processor
OR for some reasons you want to default to your onboard video card,
4) Right-click > Run with graphics processor > High-performance (NVIDIA/ATI) processor
Why am I saying this? Can't the game support Intel HD video cards? Yes we can but we've experienced some weird flickering problems with those who used it UNKNOWNINGLY.
On top of that you're not using your powerful hardware to run Foresight, possibly causing it to lag faster than it should.
Other Graphics-related issues
1 - Foresight uses DirectX9 June 2006 which is included during installation. Other than a minor update, your DirectX10 and DirectX11 will not be modified.
2 - If Foresight crashes constantly, please update your video card drivers.
3 - We strongly recommend to use a GFX card supports Shader 3.0. This is however unlikely to be a concern since most if not all GFX cards supports it unless you're using some REALLY old cards.
Conclusion
Please do not hesitate to report (or vent your frustrations) any errors to our community. We'll always be here to listen to your problems and will find a solution to your issue.
P.S. We do advocate a refund if the game isn't suitable for you, doesn't work for you or is buggy beyond our assistance. If you aren't enjoying, we don't want your money either.
Regards,
Jeremy
Summer Sale - Big Steal!
Greetings Everyone,
Wonderful news - Foresight is currently in Steam's Summer Sale 2016 and is 66% off it's retail price. Don't forget to grab a copy now during this period, it's a great steal!
Meanwhile, Our OST (Official SoundTrack) is going for a 50% discount. Do consider getting yourself a copy if you're planning to buy the game, OR If you already own the product in your library.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/409060/
Don't forget to drop us your reviews, suggestions & bug reports! We're striving our best to improve the game so it can be something to the community's liking
We hope you enjoy this year's Summer Sale. Looking forward to you ideas!
V1.09c patch released!
Dear all,
We've released a new patch that deals with a few issues here. A significant part of V1.10 has been included but not fully deployed in this version. Rest assured that they will NOT affect your game.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug with upgrading using multiple UNC command centers or NSAU strongholds. The bug occurs when one of the builders are building something and an upgrade order is incorrectly set, causing the build order to go into a limbo.
- Fixed a feature where dead pieces fly an incorrect and unnatural manner. This is now fixed and will look a lot more natural.
- Fixed a bug where if you select a UNC Command Center, click on Build Power Plant (or any structure), all the upgrade buttons will suddenly be enabled. This bug bypasses any tech limit imposed on the button and causes weird graphical glitch in the structure placement preview. Buttons will now remain enabled and visible as specified.
- Fixed a bug where right after a screen resolution change, by means of random clicking, the option menu disappears and the load game menu appears instead. This could be due to a temporarry existence of the widgets while the game is sorting itself out and that the mouse isn't disabled during this period, allowing new (resized) widgets to be clicked upon.
- Fixed a curious case of bombers not returning to their respectively motherships after a successful bombing run. The bombers linger around a certain point and doesn't respond to calls to return to hangar. The only way out is to reassign them to another target. However, this has since been fixed.
- Fixed a potential timing issue with the game engine. As we do not have older machines (most if not all have "died" from old age) to test the lower requirements of Foresight, there might have been cases where the in-game scripts (such as tutorials) are either skipped or left in a limbo despite the player following instructions. This fix doesn't directly address the limbo issue, but rather addresses the engine's render-time based timer where certain cases, the timer will actually report a very high elapsed time for no apparent reason.
- Fixed a bunch of minor bugs that are not worth mentioning here. But it's fixed yeah.
Conclusion and Updates
Our first survival single battle is READY! However, it's only available for EASY mode. We've yet to include NORMAL and HARD modes. These levels require more playtesting to ensure that the map doesn't cross the line from challenging to being just punishing, if not worse, impossible to complete.
Confirm modes in V1.10:
1) Survival (single player only)
2) Survival co-op (multiplayer only)
3) Siege mode (both single and multiplayer)
More details will appear in the campaign missions as well.
Have a great week ahead!
Regards,
Jeremy
V1.09b patch released! (edited announcement)
Dear all,
V1.09b patch has been released. The patch deals with a few issues and largely is a bug fixing patch.
Bug Fixes
1) When you load a game, the upgraded buttons do not appear properly or even if they do, they do not allow itself to show the hints. Fixed.
2) Fixed a bug where officers that has been set to ANY faction appears at the wrong time during different times in the campaign. Multiple missions have since been modified to correct the issue. If you've recruited the officers prior, then it'll still remain alive.
3) Fixed a regression bug with dead ship pieces where multiple projectiles can suddenly knock it out of the way before being grapsed by an invisible force. This is a result of in-game consequences conflicting with the scripts. We've temporarily disabled this "feature" until a proper solution can be implemented.
4) Fixed a bug for SS Citadels where you can first queue a bunch of SS Salvagers and then start an upgrade. This is by design incorrect and has been corrected since. Yes, there's a significant price to pay to upgrade without disruption. Upgrades do upset the initial balance of the game unless everybody upgrade at the same time.
Conclusion
I'm looking forward to creating the new game mode maps. Hopefully we'll be able to provide more maps for replayability soon!
Regards,
Jeremy
V1.09b patch to be released by tonight
Dear all,
V1.09b patch will be released tonight that contains a few bug fixes. Details to come upon release.
