V1.09a patch has been released and it fixes a few important bugs that were previously unknown to us.
New Implementations
In the multiplayer/single battle menu, there's now a new drop down list in which you can select the type of game mode you wish to filter out again. While the functionality is working; there're no maps from other game modes available just yet.
For a start, we'll be providing at least 1 map per game mode for everyone to enjoy for free of course. If the feedback is good, we might consider doing more maps as a DLC (possibly along with a map editor though unlikely).
P.S. This is done as groundwork for V1.10 in the near future.
Modifications
- Changed the way officers arrive. Now, every officer will arrive in the faction's equivalent of the ship they were originally designated. For example, if you're a NSAU player and you recruit Candace Umara, you'll normally get a UNC Carrier. Now you'll get her arriving in a NSAU Deck Cruiser instead. If you're a SS player, she'll arrive in a SS Mothership.
The purpose of this change is to smoothen the experience when using cross-faction commanders in terms of requesting for fighters/bombers. As you know it's IMPOSSIBLE to do so if ships from different factions mix.
- More officers have been made cross-faction recruitable during single battles.
- All textures and lightmaps have been slightly modified. Thus your ships might look a little different. Again, this is done in preparation for V1.10 patch.
- Added a "(max)" behind the second number of fighters and bombers in the fleet view so that you'll get a clearer indication of what the 2nd number actually meant.
As both fighters and bombers share the same capacity, it's hard to tell how many more of each other can you add into the fleet/hangar. Thus the second number tells you exactly how many.
Fighters: 0/22 (max)
Bombers: 2/22 (max)
Don't add anything - it's simply - you have 2 bombers and you can still have 20 more.
However, if I request for 4 fighters the numbers will become:
Fighters: 4/22 (max)
Bombers: 2/18 (max)
because 4 spaces have been reserved, you'll now have 22-4 = 18 spaces left for bombers.
- Changed the amount of XP you'll gain in single battles from 2.5x to 6.0x. This is to help faciliate rise of rank which will enable you to have more ships more quickly.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where the game will crash without reason during in-game notification.
- Fixed a small bug in the introduction where the Slavic Federation escape ship suddenly turns around or away.
- Fixed a small bug where recruitment ships that appear on the "left" - relative to the default view of the camera, seems to be facing left when it's supposed to be facing right. As a results officers arriving from the left takes a little longer than usual.
- Fixed a bug - likely to be an ancient bug where in a very specific case, the fleet view doesn't reflect the fighter/bomber numbers properly. The specific case occurs with the following:
1) You create a fleet
2) You add a ship with an empty hangar into the fleet
3) Instead of choosing the entire fleet, you only hand pick that new ship
4) You request for fighters and/or bombers for that ship
5) The fleet view doesn't reflect the true number of fighters/bombers in your fleet.
This has caused confusion and now has been fixed.
Conclusion
This patch was expedited because of a small but critical crash bug that we'd like to resolve before going on a summer break.
V1.10 is still currently on its way; we're still populating the maps with doodads that will create the environment and atmosphere so that space doesn't feel or look too sterile to you.
In any case, have a great weekend ahead!
P.S. Do not hesitate to report any bugs or complaints on the forum; I'll be more than happy to hear them!
Regards,
Jeremy
This week's FAQ
Dear all,
We've come up with a FAQ based on the new build and hope that it'll help resolve some issues here and there...
Q: How is it that I'm able to recruit officers like Candace Umara or Thomas Lock in a single battle playing as NSAU?
Ans: Some characters are allowed to crossover to other factions to be commanders. As such they will come with their originally designated ships of a faction.
Q: I recruited Candace Umara and put some NSAU ships under her. Why can't I request for fighters anymore?
Ans: The short answer to this is - UNC ships and NSAU ships share the same button racks for requests. As a UI rule, button racks occupied by more than 1 type of buttons will not be shown. We'd recommend against doing it this way. Instead, move Candace to a NSAU ship and create a fleet with them without her original UNC Carrier.
Q: How come I can request for UNC fighters and bombers from a NSAU/SS shipyard?
Ans: This is allowed as a matter of in-game convenience. Canonically, this is not allowed since each of the factions do not have the plans or materials required to build the fighters from other factions.
Of course, we could have excluded faction-based shipyards completely but that'll probably piss you off to no end because there's no way to CAPTURE shipyards.
Q: Why did my NSAU commander appear on a UNC ship?
Ans: This is not possible. All officers come with designated ships of their faction. The only possibility is as follow:
1) You recruit a NSAU commander
2) You recruit Candace Umara / Thomas Lock ,etc and they came with a UNC Carrier / Frigate.
3) You select all ships and create a fleet with the NSAU commander.
Officers when given an appointment in the game, will be aided by its personal AI that calculates requests such as ship request, order request, as well as taking care of the officer's well-being by upgrading automatically to a better ship OR evacuating from a dying ship to another ship just to survive. So don't be surprised to see an officer onboard another ship - this works as long as the ship has better hit points.
Conclusion
Thus we conclude this week's FAQ. More FAQs to come every week!
Regards,
Jeremy
Reminder: You CAN speed up the game and HIDE the bottom UI panels.
Dear all,
This is a routine reminder of certain features that seemed somewhat hard to locate or utilize.
Speeding up the game
You could speed up the game by pressing '\' (default). Speeds are 1x, 1.5x and 2x. When in 2x, everything happens 2x faster, enemies also come 2x faster as well.
Why did we want to make the game appear to be slow? Well, think of this - you've come up with an amazing interception/flank counter-offensive against the enemy. He's approaching with his fleet, large destroyers and numerous frigates. You can attack him from the flanks or rear but you need to time your attack well lest they discover your fleet first.
Now, you're right behind them, your gunships open fire on their rear. They start to turn around to face you. Then suddenly, you bring in another fleet from their rear (which was their front) and they're caught in a pincer attack.
At 2X, this strategem is much harder to pull off unless you have superhuman reflexes which kinda defeats the purpose of this game - which is strategy first, number of actions second.
Hiding the UI
The bottom set of panels can be hidden. The feature was added in V1.08b-4 as a "bonus" to resolve the issue of people finding it too clunky. I cannot change the design of the UI without going through a proper process either.
Thus, to hide the UI, press Ctrl+Page Down. That'll bring the UI down to a certain level. It'll still show the most important information such as power, credits, command points and upgrades researched. But it'll hide details like ship HP, hangar details and fleet views and so on...
Press Ctrl+Page Up to bring back the UI.
Conclusion
These features to be honest, were added much later AFTER the game was released. That's why they seemed to be out of place. But nevertheless, we'll remind everyone from time to time that they're actually there.
Have a nice day!
Jeremy
Announcement of V1.10 Patch
Dear all,
We're currently planning to work on a few sub-systems to open up the gameplay and replayability more as well as to add more substance to the otherwise seemingly sterile environment.
2 things will come in the patch.
1) Environment
2) New game modes
Game modes are based on new maps and gameplay such as Survival, Survival Co-op and Siege modes.
Survival
Single player, number of opponents based on map design.
Basis is that a wave enters the fray based on a certain time span. Each wave gets progressively harder to just defend from the base. Depending on difficulty, the waves can consist of different ships and attack patterns.
Survival co-op
Requires multiplayer. In configurations of 1 to 4 players, you and your friends will start in the SAME sector right in the center, each having your own starting command centers. The same applies, the enemy will spawn in waves and attack you and your allies relentlessly.
Siege
Siege is a "reverse" mode where you'll rush extremely well-fortified enemy bases. In some cases, the enemy will come and rush you as well. In a way, this is like a challenge map.
In co-op mode, you'll be able to coordinate with your friends to take down the enemy bases.
Timings may be included to add some sort of a leaderboard or/and achievements.
Flight (not confirmed)
This is unconfirmed mode in which you can take over a figher or bomber and dogfight with enemy fighters the same way as you would in 3rd person view shooters.
Conclusion
More comments from you will help us decide which mode should come first. We believe this will help enrich your experience with Foresight.
