Welcome again Captain's to our weekly update about what is happening in Fractured Space.
Last week we detailed the Quick Play PvP element that will be joining the update to help newer players transitioning from the standard Quick Play option to PvP. We also showed off a sneak peek of our new Hangar which I think you'll agree, looks very, very slick.
This week we'll be showing off some more of what will be coming in the next update and explaining more about that ominous image above.
4-4-2 Drafting
In our upcoming update, we will see the introduction of 4-4-2 drafting. Gone will be the days of knowing your opponents lineup of ships only after you have all picked on your side. With this new drafting system, you will now get to see in different stages what your enemies are picking and have the chance of countering their picks or leaving a sneaky deciding ship until your last pick.
With this change, we hope to reduce the frustration that has been exhibited previously of seeing a certain ship on the enemy team that your team can not easily counter and hope to increase team cohesion, with your team working together before the match to decide what would be the better choice to take into the fight.
The 4-4-2 drafting phases will proceed like this:
Phase 1: The first two players from each team will select their ships.
Phase 2: The third and fourth players from each team will select their ships
Phase 3: The fifth player from each team will select their ships
Another intention of this new drafting system is to not needlessly increase the amount of time spent on the drafting screen, to help this we have included a border around each player to notify you when they have readied up and they are ready to play. With 4-4-2 also comes a new rule to Fractured Space, the 1 Ship Rule. You will no longer be able to run duplicate ships on a composition, you can still have the same type of ship but no longer will you see a double Ghost or double Equalizer setup.
Drafting Tips
Another addition coming on the Drafting screen are the Drafting Tips. These can help guide your team into spotting what you may be missing from your composition but also allow you to see what weakness your opposition has that you can use to your advantage.
It will be interesting to get your feedback on how useful this becomes or alternative messages you would like to see.
KP's Revenge
After the latest Kill Count Weekend, it was fairly obvious I was not entirely pleased how easily you had accomplished the result. After much brooding and using Lefronge's analytical mind, I devised a plan to make things a bit more challenging this time around...by not telling you what you had to do until the day of each event. Three days. Three separate events. Three prizes. Click the video below to see how I concocted this evil scheme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rXXy2x3KEI
I can feel your anger, it gives you focus.
Day 1: 1 Implant Pod
Day 2: 1 Robot Crew Pod
Day 3: 2 Gold Pods
You'll have to work together to tackle these challenges and gain your rewards.
Test The New Build
On Friday we will be releasing a Beta build of the new Update that will release soon. This update will require you to download a replacement build over your existing install of Fractured Space, it is advised that if you wish to participate in this weekend's event and play the new build that you have an unlimited allowance for your internet usage at a reasonable speed as switching between both builds will require you to download them in their entirety. It is also possible that some players may need to complete the Tutorial levels again and you won't have access to your current inventories. No efforts made in the Beta build will count towards KP's Revenge.
Our aim with this is to get your early feedback on the Long Range Ship reworks plus any bug reports of game breaking issues which we can address before the Update goes live. We'll be letting you know more information on how to access this Beta build tomorrow on our Steam forums. Bear in mind that everything in the Beta build is subject to change and is not final.
That's it for this week, as always let us know your thoughts below.
Darth Pidgeon, out!
Captain's Log 003 - 1st June 2017
Greetings Captains,
Welcome to this week's Captain's Log where we'll be going over new features that we will be introducing to Fractured Space soon, plus a look at the brand new Hangar scene that will be coming in the next update.
Quick Play PvP
Since the inclusion of Quick Play we have seen a lot of behavior that we anticipated to see with its release, but with that came some shortcomings which we hope to address with the upcoming Quick Play PvP.
Now that it's possible to get a game in a shorter span of time we have seen a substantial increase in the average session per user since Quick Play's release, this is good news as it indicates that people are playing more and for longer, this could also be attributed to the fact that AI Captains have been taking a little longer than expected to properly calibrate, therefore being an easier opponent to win against which has decreased the average match length quite significantly leading to a "just one more" mentality.
Seeing more people sticking with Fractured Space for longer and playing more is a great sign for us and we want to continue that momentum. A behavior we've noticed since Quick Play was implemented is that at some point, players have been migrating from the Quick Play queue into the PvP queue, though once they get there they are hit in the face with a sub-optimal queue time. Coming head to head with such a drastic change then forces these players back into the Quick Play queue. With the upcoming Quick Play PvP we hope to reduce this impact to newer players trying to take their first steps into the challenging world of PvP combat.
Quick Play PvP won't be replacing or the renaming of any current mode offered in Fractured Space. If your MMR is below 600 at the time of searching for a PvP game you will be searching in the Quick Play PvP criteria, this will search for other players around your skill level and after an amount of time, any unoccupied slots will be filled with AI Captains. This means that you will be facing off against real players and AI Captains within a match. Once your MMR increases beyond 600 the matchmaker will look for full player matches as at that point you will be ready to face the challenge. With this change, we hope to improve the initial hurdles that players are currently facing when transitioning from Quick Play to PvP - long queue times and a sudden increase in game difficulty.
We'll be talking about Quick Play PvP more as we get closer to its release, please do give us your feedback in the forums or in the comments below.
New Hangar
Coming in our next update, we will be unveiling our new Hangar that our Art team has been working on to help improve the scale of the ships and bring some much-needed life to the expanse of Fractured Space.
I'll let this teaser video do the talking.
https://youtu.be/aExV_DOeW-I
Caesar's Garage Sale
Caesar Morgan has been rummaging through his storage bays in an attempt to free up some space for his crews next excursion, and strangely out of character he's looking to make you a deal.
From 1st June to 5th June, each day there will be a different item from the Fractured Space store going on a 20% sale, so grab 'em while you can.
Day 1: Credit Boosters - 20% off
Day 2: Crew Pods - 20% off
Day 3: Implant Pods - 20% off
Day 4: Ultimate Skins - 20% off
That's all for this week's Captain's Log. Be sure to continue giving us your feedback on the forums, and we'll see you on the battlefield.
Trident Challenge Weekend - Ending Tuesday May 30th
This weekend hails the debut of our multi-challenge events. The Trident Challenge gives you three options you can choose to complete. We’ve even added an extra day to the event to give you a better opportunity to do all three.
10 Wins earns a Captain Crew Pod (when opened you will receive a random non-Legendary Captain)
15 Mine Captures earns you 3 random Attack implants
25 Heal Support points earns you 3 random Utility implants. Only Heal Support points count towards this rather than other support points you see in game (buff and debuff points), so get that first aid into action!
The event runs from 5pm UTC on Thursday May 25th to 5pm UTC on Tuesday May 30th.
You can earn one, two or three of the rewards, all of which will be awarded at the end of the event.
-Removed the step to apply a booster after your first Tutorial game.
Bug Fixes
-Improved AI Captain intelligence so they are more active and maneuverable during combat.
-Added the Endeavor ship guide to videos list.
-Fixed an inconsistency in text on the Quick Play button.
-When attempting to change a keybinding to one that is already in use, the Cancel button will appear at full opacity.
Captain's Log 002 - 22nd May 2017
Greetings Captains to this week's Captain's Log - your look at what is coming up in the galaxy of Fractured Space and what you can expect to see.
This Week
After the release of our Quick Play update last week, we've been keeping a close eye on your feedback about the update through your forum posts, comments and on our Discord server..
This feedback is very important to us and as stated before the update, we will be keeping a close eye on matchmaking times and match quality to further improve the experience of Quick Play. Your personal feedback also helps us get an idea from your perspective of what you want to see happen in the continuing development of Fractured Space.
We are certainly aware that the AI Captains since the release of the Quick Play update haven't been particularly up to snuff (perhaps there was some space flu going around, keeping them from being at 100% of their game), this week we plan on taking a closer look at their ratings to ensure that you are more likely to encounter more suitable opponents that help challenge your skills.
On top of that, we are also going to be investigating the option for higher MMR players to be paired up with four other high MMR combatants in Quick Play to ensure you will be facing off against some battle-hardened and ruthless AI Captains, though at the expense of slightly increased matchmaking times.
On the release of Quick Play, the chances of getting a Conquest mode versus Frontline were weighted 60% to 40%. After some initial feedback from players who ended up in unexpected Frontline matches, we changed this weighting to 80% in favor of Conquest and a 20% chance of Frontline, as time goes on and we gather more of your feedback and match data there is the possibility that we remove Frontline from the Quick Play equation entirely and have it solely available in Solo, Custom Games and as an option in PvP queues. This isn't guaranteed but certainly an option we are debating internally, as always, your feedback is very important, so if you do have an opinion please leave a comment below or on our forums.
Hatman On Deck!
Last Thursday, Community Manager Steggs hosted our most recent "What's On Deck" stream on Twitch, in this stream, we highlight the upcoming features we hope to be bringing to Fractured Space over the next few months rather than the weekly updates you receive here in the Captain's Log. After the On Deck segment, Steggs was joined by resident hatman and Senior Designer, Willus who was detailing our plans for the highly anticipated Ranked Mode.
If you'd like to watch over the archive, please head here.
Trident Challenge Weekend
Congratulations to all Captain's who played five games in a Zarek ship this weekend, you shall be receiving your three Gold Pods after the event completion.
This weekend will hail the debut of our multi-challenge events. The Trident Challenge will cover three pillars of Fractured Space which you can choose to complete (or complete all three if you wish) and you've got an extra day to do so compared to previous events.
From 25th May 5pm UTC to 30th May 5pm UTC, complete the following challenges and you will gain these rewards:
10 Wins - a Captain Crew Pod (excluding The Mighty Jingles)
15 Mine Captures - 3 Random Attack Implants
25 Heal Support Points - 3 Random Utility Implants
Keep in mind you do not have to complete all three pillars to gain your rewards.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGSSSS!
Our top priority bugs for investigation this week are:
Severity A
[CodeIssue] If a player crashes post drafting, they are never replaced by a bot, stalling games from starting.
Severity B
[Key Bindings] Quick keys F10 and F12 are bound to two different things.
[Lobbies] Users will receive an error if they leave a game and then try and invite someone to that same lobby.
[Freighters] Freighters can be invulnerable/out of sync during games.
[UI] The Boost purchase dialogue box appears behind the results screen.
[Medals] Progress isn't being recorded for the "Titan Takedown", "USR Wrecker" and "Zarek Smasher" medals.
[UI] Upgrade notifications are not appearing in solo games.
[Bots] The Watchman bot with the charge cannon equipped does not fire its main gun.
That's our Captain's Log for this week. Please do keep your feedback coming on our Steam Forums or comment below.
Reverted Support point calculation to the old system.
Fixed New User Feedback form so data is correctly being sent to us.
Removed offensive bot names
Hotfix 3.4.01
Fixed AI Captain levels not increasing after successful matches. AI rating is now set based on your MMR on the first login.
Corrected the Match Rewards scaling in Quick Play.
Takedown point requirement reduced from 20% damage to 10% damage - players will be more likely to score takedowns for small contributions.
Support point requirement adjusted, healed players no longer need to live for 20 seconds after being healed for the SP to be awarded – healers, particularly on losing teams, will find their SPs are more representative of their contribution.
Phase 3.4 - Quick Play - 18th May 2017
New Features
Quick Play
In today's update, we are bringing Quick Play into the mix. Quick Play will be replacing Co-op vs AI.
When selecting the Quick Play option, our matchmaker will look to see how many players within your skill level are online when you search, and determine how many (if any at all) A.I Captains to place on your team. At peak times, it is likely that you will have a full team of five players against a team of AI Captains, and at off-peak times, it will be more likely for you to have some of your team slots filled with AI Captains. With these changes, we hope to improve queue times for those just joining Fractured Space and for those who wish to get a quick game to finish those daily missions.
MMR in Quick Play will be a separate entity to the PvP MMR and will not be displayed anywhere in the game. However, players with an already high MMR in PvP will be given a higher MMR in Quick Play to avoid them being matched with new players. We know that more experienced players use co-op mode for their own reasons, but as the previous co-op mode did not have MMR restrictions, this meant newer players were having a hard time as they would be teamed up with experienced players; making the AI Captain level too high for them to deal with. The new Quick Play feature will ensure newer players do not meet experienced players, so they can learn the game at their own pace. When a player returns from a quick play game, the Results Screen now hides the player's levels, level badges, and MMR values.
With the release of Quick Play, we will be keeping a close eye on the matchmaking times and match quality to further improve the experience.
Feedback Form
When exiting the game, new players will receive a prompt to leave feedback on the game with a question “Would you recommend this game to your friends” with an option to leave detailed feedback. Completing this form is entirely optional and can also be accessed by any player when exiting the game. With these responses we can continue working towards creating an experience you want to play and share with your friends.
Updated Features
Rebalanced bot difficulty for new players: Low-level bots are no longer going as aggressively for the enemy base. The minimum ally bot level that you can get in Solo and Co-op is now 6. Changed the weighting for choosing the difficulty in Co-op to be massively weighted towards new players. All bot ratings have been reset.
Added HUD sound and world sound hook ups for turret control ability activations. Added sounds for Endeavor turret missile activation.
Raider Detection Buoy VFX updated, is now clearer where the buoy itself is located in 3D space.
Updated medal descriptions to specify they do not include Co-op or Custom games.
Bug Fixes
Added a warning underneath the bundle when a player clicks purchase on a ship in the hangar.
Fixed dates not appearing correctly in Live Events.
When a player clicks “Quit To Desktop” from the options menu in the front end, the options menu will now hide and the quit overlay will display instead of the quit overlay displaying underneath the options menu.
Fixed an issue where sometimes the arrows on the hangar Events widget wouldn't work.
When an event is over, the hangar event widget now displays “Event Ended” like it does in the profile.
Removed Personal Progress text from the events page, during Community Events.
Preloading the profile page on launch to reduce the lag between clicking more info on the hangar Events widget and arriving at the events page.
Fixed an issue where the message shown when being invited before finishing the Tutorial was incorrect.
Fixed displaying of medals after showing boosters.
Raider
Raider Primary weapon loadouts are now correct when using the Akula skin.
Raven
Raven Overcharge beam will hit for the intended 5 pulses instead of 6
Captain's Log 001 - 16th May 2017
Welcome Captains to a new weekly installment from the ECG Dev team,
In our Captain's Logs, we'll be aiming to keep you up to date each week with our current progress in our sprints, what to expect and which bugs are causing us the most grief.
Next Update
First up, this week we should be releasing a new update containing the new "Quick Play" option. If you are unaware of what Quick Play will be, this new option will be replacing our current Co-op vs AI selection with some new changes.
When selecting the Quick Play option, our matchmaker will look to see how many players within your skill level are online when you search, and determine how many (if any at all) A.I Captains to place on your team. At peak times, it is likely that you will have a full team of five players against a team of AI Captains, and at off-peak times, it will be more likely for you to have some of your team slots filled with AI Captains. With these changes, we hope to improve queue times for those just joining Fractured Space and for those who wish to get a quick game to finish those daily missions.
MMR in Quick Play will be a separate entity to the PvP MMR and will not be displayed anywhere in the game. However, players with an already high MMR in PvP will be given a higher MMR in Quick Play to avoid them being matched with new players. We know that more experienced players use co-op mode for their own reasons, but as the previous co-op mode did not have MMR restrictions, this meant newer players were having a hard time as they would be teamed up with experienced players; making the AI Captain level too high for them to deal with. The new Quick Play feature will ensure newer players do not meet experienced players, so they can learn the game at their own pace.
With the release of Quick Play, we will be keeping a close eye on the matchmaking times and match quality to further improve the experience.
Pushing Back Upgrades
As some of you may have known, we've been busy working on a new Upgrade System to replace the current Attack, Defense and Utility (B,N and M) system we currently have in place. Though after receiving your feedback on our weekly discussion "What big change do you want to see in Fractured Space?" it was clear that there are other areas of the game we should be focusing on. One area in particular that we regularly hear back on is the position of Snipers and where they stand in the game, especially the Overseer.
We have retasked our Ship Designer, Ludologist, with a priority mission to rework the Overseer and sniper ships in general. We understand how frustrating it can be to unlock a new ship to then find it doesn't play exactly as you thought, leading to a feeling of buyers remorse, we want to remove that aspect from snipers completely and hope you find it to be a welcome improvement. While the new Upgrade system has been pushed back in favor of the Sniper rework, we hope to see it in the future.
Kill Count Weekend Results
Congratulations Captains, you successfully worked together to achieve the 250,000 takedowns tasked upon you to unlock six brand new skins within Fractured Space. In fact, you breezed through it so quickly, you surprised our Community Managers who believed you weren't going to make the final milestone.
They were kind of furious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=276zk60tXrI
Upcoming Event: Zarek Weekend
We've had a USR and TDS Weekend before, now it's time For Zarek Industrial to have the spotlight. If you play five Co-op or PvP matches in any Zarek ship between 5pm UTC Thursday 18th May and 5pm UTC Thursday 22nd May you will earn yourselves three Gold Drop Pods.
On top of that, all skins for Zarek ships (except Ultimates) will also be on sale over the weekend, with 20% off.
BUUUUUGGGGSSSS!
There is nothing more frustrating when you are having a great match for an issue to then disrupt everything. One of our goals at ECG is to squash as many bugs as we can with each update to provide you, the players, with as smooth an experience as possible. It may take time, but we'll get there in the end. These are our most important bugs to try and squash at the moment:
Severity A
[Quickplay] If a match fails to start during drafting, the clients in a lobby cannot start a new matchmaking search
[CodeIssue] If a player crashes post drafting, they are never replaced by a bot, stalling games from starting
[Drafting] The server will crash if a user quits during drafting
Severity B
[UI] Health bar animates as if you've taken damage when you level up
[Lobby] A lobby will fail to search if there are more than two people in the lobby and the host quits
[CustomLobby] If the server drops during Drafting players are kicked back to the frontend, the host will have ghost lobby members who are all placed in solo lobbies
[Lobby] If the host starts searching while players in their group are still in game, they will never get a match
[CodeIssue] Players are reporting their mice/keyboards are losing focus during gameplay
[UI] Medal/mastery UI is not being shown on the results screen at the end of games
[UI] Activating missiles right as they become available will break the cooldown functionality
[Bombers] Bombers won't fire if they can't reach a set distance away from the target ship
[Implants] Drones are benefiting from both Squad Cooldown and Utility Cooldown implants
[Endeavor] Sentry Turrets will continue to fire at the dead Enemy Homebase Turret Generators
[UI] Ending the game with the HUD off will cause the disconnect button to not appear
[UI] Top and bottom armor will show as broken on the UI widget if the player upgrades in jump space
As you can see, some of our most prominent issues revolve around Lobbies since players are given no messaging that something is wrong with the lobby if it does break in some way.
While we fix these issues it is always a good rule to remake a lobby if you and your party seem to be taking a while to find a match or for you all to restart the game and recreate a new lobby. No, not ideal, but we hope to extinguish these types of issues soon to improve the experience for everyone.
As always, it is very much appreciated when you help us notice these issues as soon as possible so we can work on fixing them. If you notice an issue within Fractured Space, please let us know in our Technical Support Forum
That's it for this week, keep an eye out on the General Discussions Forum tomorrow for our next Weekly Discussion Point and keep sharing your experiences with us.
You breezed through the 250,000 takedowns necessary to unlock all six of the brand new skins. Your Community Managers didn't think you were going to make it, and here is their response:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=276zk60tXrI
Now they'll have to think of something more devious.
