Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), IndieHalcyon 6: Starbase Commander
DEV LOG: v1.0.0.8 is here!
Yep, it's time for v1.0.0.8! While this is a smaller housekeeping/quality of life-type update, it DOES include one of your much-requested changes: Starbase rooms can now be scrapped!
General Bug Fixes and Enhancements:
- Starbase rooms can now be scrapped, freeing up space to build new and different rooms!
- Fixed a bug where an under-construction satellite drone could be deployed for use.
- Corrected event timers to show the earliest possible destruction time when multiple fleets were present at a sector.
- Introducing Suki Sissoko and her all new legendary officer quest.
- Fixed bug with missions not clearing after being raided.
Art & Animation & UI:
- General animation timing tweaks and fixes.
Ships/Officers & Powers:
- Corrected available skills/power list for Genevieve Nguyen.
Short and sweet, folks! But this paves the way for the larger Combat and Customization update that is coming up really, really soon. We're trying something a little different with this next update, so be sure to check in here for all the details.
As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts and have fun out there!
UPDATE: we have a hot fix, v1.0.0.9, that corrects an issue with the New Terra quest. Be sure to update, folks. Thanks again for your reports on this one.
DEV LOG: Update v1.0.0.6 has landed!
Fresh on the heels of v1.0.0.4 and v1.0.0.5, make room for the appropriately numbered v1.0.0.6! We've been deep in the forums and your reviews, gathering feedback about those little quality of life changes and tweaks you'd like to see. While we can't incorporate every suggestion we receive, we have tried to find and address the common themes or points of confusion we've seen. Be sure to let us know what you think. We're listening!
General Bug Fixes and Enhancements:
- Starbase rooms now give a more clear indication that they are under attack.
- Fixed a bug that would occasionally crash combat when the player's ship was destroyed.
- Fixed duplicate officers from being offered in the same playthrough.
- Fixed a bug with Corbain Lau missing some combat skills.
- Fixed a bug displaying multiple notifications when an Officer levelled up.
Art/Animation & UI:
- Room construction screen now displays current number of rooms already built of that type.
- An alert is displayed on Starbase rooms, while zoomed out, to indicate rooms under attack.
- Difficulty setting now displayed on the in-game menu.
- Tweaks to the turn-order indicator.
- Tightened up a number of space and ground combat animations.
Ships/Officers & Powers:
- Optional Inneborg Xiao rescue mission now has an expiry date on the 2nd part.
- Alien faction officers now have biographies.
If you've shared something with us and you don't see it here, don't fret. We've got one - maybe two - more updates planned before the end of October. Most notably, these updates will include a) the ability to scrap rooms in the base and b) some pretty significant changes to combat on a number of levels: tactics, balance, powers, ships, you name it. Our goal is to keep the best of Halcyon 6 intact but address concerns about combat feeling repetitive or too grindy.
As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts and have fun out there!
UPDATE: v1.0.0.7 is live! It corrects a looping animation for Targeting Allies power that was causing problems.
DEV LOG: The one about automated resource collection! v1.0.0.4 is LIVE!
As we mentioned in our recent Dev Transmission and the v.1.0.0.2 patch notes, we've been one part amazed and excited about Halcyon 6's reception and one part nose to the grindstone. In case you missed it, v1.0.0.3 was released last week, with some quick changes to the end-game.
That makes this update v1.0.0.4! Let's get to the goodies: SPACE CHORES NO MORE! While resource automation was always part of the mid-game, we hear you. It was a little later than some of you would have liked. We'd like you to meet Satellite Drones...
What's New + Important Changes:
- Introducing New Satellite Drones that can be researched, built, and deployed to automate resource gathering. (NOTE: you'll see these for saved games in Act 1 and new games only. Existing games in Act 2 will have the "old" version of automation.)
- Act 2 no longer automates resource generation, it must be established using Satellite Drones (games in Act 1 and new games only).
- You can now Upgrade a Facility's storage capacity and resource generation (new games only).
General Bug Fixes and Enhancements:
- Fixed bug with Acolyte Predator Ship Upgrade not registering after research.
- Random aliens no longer attack colonies too early in Act 1.
- Pirate Mining Fleet disappears correctly when returning to Grus.
- Alien colony rescue missions are still clearable after the Mothership appears or the faction is killed.
- Pirate base assault can no longer fire at the same time as the Admirax battle.
- If a colony is destroyed by the pirates or the Voraash instead of the Chruul, any pending rescue missions are now removed from that sector.
- Lt. Starstabber's arrival is now hinted to after killing all three pirate commanders.
- Added additional check to prevent unresponsive colony edge case if a raider fleet is destroyed at the same time as a colony rescue mission expires.
- Fixed a bug with ruined colonies not stopping time when first discovered.
- Fixed an improper event dialogue type on the way to fighting the Admirax.
UI, Art & Animation:
- Created new animation for the tactical cloaking power.
- Fixed ground combat background that had foreground asset overlapping officers during combat.
- Fixing the speed and status effect timing of various animations (currently 39 animations affected)!
- Added new tab hot key to allow players to cycle through their fleets on the starmap.
- Quitting the game now prompts for a save.
- Upon entering ground combat, squadmates are prepopulated for convenience. #GreenShirtWorldProblems
- You can now cancel ship constructions for a full refund.
- Quick Save (F8) and Quick Load (F9)
- Fixed an issue where the artifact rooms had light peeking out above their room frame.
Quests/Missions & Economy::
- Prevented Spire from interrupting fleets passing through the sector.
- Chruul Portal Defense fleets now scale in strength.
- Expired missions clear immediately from the mission list.
Ships/Officers & Powers:
- Saving Cmdr Xiao - fixed bug with retreating from first contact, and she now gets the proper level as given by Officer Academy Upgrades.
- No more Empowered Systems effects in ground combat.
- Fixed a bug where max levelled powers would sometimes not appear in combat.
- Status effects that add up to over 100% damage reduction are now capped at 100%.
- Lowered costs for T1 and T2 Ship Upgrades.
There are some much requested features in this one, folks and there is still more to come. Be sure to let us know your thoughts! Good luck out there, commanders.
DEV TRANSMISSION: v1.0.0.2 patch notes!
As we mentioned in our recent Dev Transmission, it's been an amazing week for us and we're humbled by the reception that Halcyon 6 has received! Our whole team has been SO excited watching all the feedback and vids and tweets and streams pop up.
But, amidst all of that, we've been working on this v1.0.0.2 patch! Let's get to the details...
What's New + Important Changes:
- Material, Dark Matter, and Crew generation activities on the starbase are now easily repeatable from the completion dialog.
- New "Lock Frame Rate" toggle in the Graphics Options.
- Chruul Mothership is now resistant to certain statuses. Mwuahaha.
- Sped up duration and resolution times for a number of animations in general, all over the place.
- Reduced the required officer rank for starbase rooms at the outer edge (**new games only).
- Added a tutorial step that clearly defines station bombardment = crew loss and crew loss = very bad news for the station.
General Bug Fixes and Enhancements:
- Fixed a bug where identically-named star systems were being generated and would remain invisible.
- Fixed an overlap bug where two star systems had the same coordinates.
- Fixed a typo in the tutorial that referenced the Construct Ship button as Build Ship.
- Fixed bug with Inneborg Xiao not having any skills on arrival (**can only fix for new rescues of Xiao).
- Fixed bug with multiple Material and Dark Matter Multiplier activities conflicting with each other (*can only fix newly created multiplier rooms).
- No more Bucky Rogers clones (but that was fun while it lasted).
- Fixed a bug where ships could travel without required fuel (also fun while it lasted).
- Fixed an issue where retreating from the Mothership triggered a black screen.
- Fixed bug with random Chruul raids insta-destroying colonies on arrival or before their deadline.
- Fixed bugs with Expand The Fleet mission not resolving properly (**this fix will correct existing saves).
- Added rewards to some missions that were missing them.
- Fixed an issue where the Chruul Tac Tier 5s didn't have the right initial pre-damage sprite.
- Fixed an issue where the Zirordiax Reactor had a duplicate background.
- Fixed music de-sync'ing issues. Finally. We're pretty sure.
- Some minor text changes for clarity, along with some typo fixes.
- Faction delegations no longer turn away if a Terran fleet is stationed at Starbase.
- Sector 'Cnidus' no longer shows up before it should be revealed (being that early is just rude).
Art & Animation:
- Resolved animation issue that caused ships to (rarely but sometimes) get stuck in the middle of the screen.
- Updated/altered some animations: mostly tightening up positioning and adjusting single target and AOE animations.
- Fixed an issue where ship contruction animation was displaying the wrong ships, or not displaying them at all.
Ships/Officers & Powers:
- Increased the starting rerolls for second Officer to 2.
- End game ally faction ships have been upgraded significantly.
- Engineering Ship powers have increased Threat.
- End game ally officers can now only pilot their own faction ships.
Folks, thanks again for sharing these with us and thanks for your patience while we worked through them. Now get back out there and kick some Chruul butt!
Dev Transmission: Live long and schedule updates
So, what's next?
v1.0.0.2 drops this week: We'll be pushing out an update to fix the bugs you've told us about and we've squeezed in just a couple of those much requested enhancements. Expect the update today or tomorrow along with full patch notes. And yes, you will be able to properly complete the Expand Your Fleet quest and bump the game up to 60fps. Thanks for letting us know about these folks, and thanks for your patience while we worked through them.
In the next couple weeks, we'll be addressing some of the most requested Quality of Life fixes. There's a whole bunch of stuff on the list, but most notably:
- We will introduce an improved resource collection process in the early game (spoiler: resource collection was always automated in the mid game, but we've heard you loud and clear - running your officers from sector to sector isn't very fun for very long)
- You'll be able to scrap rooms (in some fashion) so you won't run out of expansion space
- You'll be able to cancel activities in progress, like ships being built (with some amount of resource loss that we'll figure out soon)
- A bunch of other cool stuff!
Just a little further out on the horizon, we're planning a properly interesting content and feature update. Along with some of our Kickstarter promises, this is the update where we'll tackle one of the chief complaints we've heard about Halcyon 6: combat can feel a little boring or repetitive. We've heard you, and we've already hammering away at changes that will still ring true with the spirit of the game, but hopefully add a bit more intrigue and decision making to combat.
We are a small but ferocious team that prefers to leave our development doors wide open, so to speak. You'll be hearing from us about our progress and how all these changes and new ideas are shaping up. We welcome your feedback along the way!
Thanks again for all your support. Remain ever vigilant, commrades: The federation needs you.
Halcyon 6 launched and our work is just beginning!
Hey everyone,
After two years of development, we're super excited to finally launch our game today! First off, a big THANK YOU to all our Kickstarter backers and Early Access players who supported us early on and truly helped to improve the game throughout our development cycle!
Our first priority over the next little while is squashing bugs and fine tuning our balance. For those on Linux, please bear with us as we're sorta noobs to that platform, we're in the process of getting some help from knowledgeable people to fix any of the issues you might be facing.
After the dust settles from our launch, we'll be prioritizing the stretch goals that were promised in the Kickstarter. Yes, there's plenty of more stuff coming down the pipe!
By the way, our soundtrack is now available for purchase.. our composer Steve London truly outdid himself and laid down over 55 minutes of sweet syth+chiptune+orchestra rich tracks to enjoy!
Thanks from all of us at Massive Damage!
IMPORTANT: Early Access saves will not be supported after tomorrow's update (1pm ET, Sept 6th, 2016)
Hey everyone,
I just wanted to give you all a heads up regarding tomorrow afternoon's deployment of our Pre-Release Update.. this will be the full game available for Early Access players to try out (and give us feedback in the forums, please!).
And yes, this update will invalidate your old saves since developing Act 2 and 3 have greatly changed the game systems. Going forward, we will try very hard to avoid save stomping.
As of tomorrow, you are free to record videos and stream the full game but we do have a review embargo that lasts until Sept 8th.
As mentioned in our previous update, after launch, we still intend to continue creating a ton of content to fulfill our Kickstarter stretch goals and Backer Rewards. A more detailed schedule will be published once we prioritize things post-launch.
Thanks so much for your love, patience and support! We wouldn't be here without it!
Ken and the Halcyon 6 team
Halcyon 6 Launch Update #2: Almost there!
Hey everyone, we've got a quick update on the release date as it's been pushed back a bit but we're locked into this new date:
Halcyon 6 Release Date: Sept 9, 2016
We know a lot of you are anxious to play the full game and we're just as anxious to get it into your hands but we need the extra time to give it a bit more love and polish.
We've also hired the wonderful people at EvolvePR to help us with our launch as this is our first PC game release and we don't want to completely mess it up haha.
After our Sept 9 launch, we'll continue to keep working hard on all those stretch goals and Kickstarter backer rewards. Once those have been prioritized, we will post an estimated schedule for their release.
Thanks for your patience and your support!
Halcyon 6 Team
Dev Update: Road to Launch!
We're leaving Early Access and launching Halcyon 6 on August 26th!
About a week before that, we'll have an early build including Act 2 and Act 3 for everyone to play. We'll likely be patching fast and furiously during that week so if you want to wait until the dust settles and play after launch, we totally understand that.
Mostly, we wanted to give our Early Access players an opportunity to try the full game a bit earlier.
As you recall, the Act 2 + 3 update will not support older saves. Our apologies but enough stuff was changed that it was simply not possible to keep the old save file structure intact.
Right now, we're working like crazy to get all of this ready for launch. Thanks to all of you who joined in our Kickstarter and/or Early Access, we really the support and encouragement the last year and a half!
Thanks,
Halcyon 6 Team
DEV TRANSMISSION: UI Overhaul Update v0.2.1.0
First a quick but hearty shoutout to all the new Starbase Commanders that joined us during the Steam Summer Sale!
Welcome to Halcyon sector, don’t let the Chruul get you down, we got your back!
This update is all about UI and gameplay tweaks. And there’s a TON of them. Instead of babbling on, let’s get right to the patch notes!
New Features and Big Changes
- We've introduced a brand new turn order indicator, to help you plan out your attack strategies!
- We've also introduced a new targeting menu, which gives you a breakdown on the hit chances, effect chances, expected damage, etc. of using the power.
- Fleet configurations now save on the fleet launch screen, so you don't have to assemble them from scratch each time anymore.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where "Disabled" units might still be able to get an attack in if it was already queued up by the combat clock
- Fixed a bug where certain starbase activities wouldn't be properly resolved on completion.
- Fixed a rounding display error in fuel resource levels that caused confusion whereby you confusingly couldn't travel to a location that you had the exact fuel for.
Art, Animation, Music & UI
- Ship Construction UI Improvements
- New targeting display support for Space and Ground Combat
- New Alerts System allowing players to view their Missions, Notifications and Events from an Alerts Menu Bar
- The officers and enemies involved in starbase pop-up events now appear on the left and right side of the screen, respectively.
- Ground combat backgrounds now animate!
This update is deceptively big.. some of these changes may change the way you play your game (we hope for the better!)
As always, please use the Steam Discussions or our forums to report any bugs or feedback regarding this update. We want to hear from you!
What’s Next?
Here’s a roadmap to launch:
Patch - UI Overhaul Update (today)
Patch - Quality of Life & Bug Fixes (late July)
Update - Act 2 and 3 (early August, may invalidate saves)
Patch - Quality of Life & Bug Fixes (mid August)
Final Release (August 18th)
The reason we don’t have exact dates is that we simply don’t want to release patches that don’t pass muster. The only hard date we want to stick to is our Final Release launch date.
Post-Release Schedule
We’ll post a bug fix patch or two after the Final Release then start right away on completing the Kickstarter stretch goals and start gearing up to deliver on the Kickstarter customization and physical rewards.
Some stuff may still have to wait until stretch goal content is fully complete. For example, the soundtrack album wouldn’t be complete without the Voraash music. Neither would the art book be complete without them.
We’ll post a proper post-release schedule once we get the game out the door and out of Early Access.
Thank you again Kickstarter backers for supporting us so early and helping us to get project off the ground! We can’t wait to cross the finish line with you and get going on delivering all the stuff we promised you!
And thanks to all of our Early Access supporters for your early gameplay testing and feedback.. we wouldn’t have as good of a game without your help!
- The Halcyon 6 Team