Hey everybody. Before I get into the defailts of this new patch, I would like to take just a bit of time to explain where we are in the development process and where we are heading in the coming months.
As you may have noticed, we have recently released a new major update to the game. This update revamped the entire match loop, progression system and introduced asymmetry in the battles through battle staging. Each faction has to accomplish a number of objectives (attacking or protecting various structures around bases) to lead their team to victory. The feedback we have received from players on the new battle staging system has been overwhelmingly positive, but we are still fighting against a number of issues, mostly related to balance. The new update has introduced a lot of new factors to the equation and balancing has become much more difficult than before. We feel like we still have ways to go (probably until the whole 1.0 release, to be fair) before balance is in a good place, but we're doing progress every day, and that is why players feedback is very important.
We haven't posted a full patch note for the new 0.9 version, as there were too many changes to be listed. However, starting from today's patch we'll resume posting patch notes as usual. If you haven't played for a while and want to understand the big picture about what has been changed in 0.9, you can still read the update that we posted a few months ago:
So where does that lead us ? First of all, the 0.9 gameplay revamp version took a lot of effort (and continuous crunch for many months) so we're using summer to slow down the pace a little bit, recharge our batteries and finish various gameplay experiments (for example, in today's patch we're introducing shield crossing penalties).
In parallel we've been working on the Cruiser's spinal weapon canon, which should be available in a patch before september (we're also aiming at finishing the carrier revamp and AI coordination/improvements by september). Once september comes, we're going to shift our focus towards shipping the game. That means a lot of development related to the database systems/backend (the progression system working accross servers for example), more UI improvements, and starting the work on tutorials/sandbox/solo mode.In parallel, our artists will start working on progression-system related rewards (medals, skins, bobbleheads, statues etc..) and we'll integrate them into the game.
We are looking at a 1.0 release some time in the first half of 2023.
Pictures of props / ground details that were added to planets in 0.9:
Patch 0.9.3.0 (Wednesday 10 August 2022)
There are three big changes in this patch. The first one is a change in the targetting behavior of turrets, to increase their efficiency. They will now pre-rotate towards their target even if it's out of view (below the turret's view horizon, or slightly out of range) to be ready to fire at it the instant it becomes hitable. In practise, this means that turrets deal damage sooner than before. AMS were already powerful, but this change to turrets behavior made them even more overpowered, so we had to nerf AMS. As a consequence, we also nerfed a little bit torpedoes by reverting some experimental changes we did in earlier patches. Please provide feedback on the new balance of AMS versus torpedoes and whether the bomber is in a good place versus capital ships.
The second big change introduces a penalty for attackers crossing an enemy base (or carrier's) spherical shield. The penalty instantly drains shield points (more for bigger ships) as a function of shield status, and also causes the shield generate rate to go down while staying within the shield.
For example, if a station's shield is at full capacity (100%), an enemy interceptor crossing the shield will lose 20% of its shield points, while a cruiser will lose 100% of them. As the shield gets damaged, the penalty gets weaker as well. This will give an edge to the defenders in the early stage of the battle which might help to balance the victory odds between attackers and defenders. It is possible that attackers are still favored, so please let us know if the balance of attackers vs defenders during battles is going in the right direction or needs more drastic changes as we suspect.
Finally, the rewards system was rewritten. Objective points now get rewarded for accomplishing objectives, and the player will receive a credits bonus when the battle ends. Objective points are also given as a reward for protecting objectives (by destroying enemy ships that were previously attacking the base and damaging it) or as support for repairing/resupplying allies. Here again please let us know if it is too easy or hard to obtain objective points depending on your actions.
Gameplay changes
Multiple turrets targetting behavior changes that should make them more reliable, and prioritize more than primary target that was selected (also: turrets will pre-rotate towards their target even if it's out of view or slightly out of range. Previously, the turret was resetting its orientation to idle the moment the target become out of view or range, which made a lot of turrets ping-pong between idle orientation and a new target). Overall, turrets should now anticipate their rotation towards their target before they start firing at them.
Laser AMS turrets will now pre-oriente towards an enemy bomber before it has fired a torpedo, maximizing damage time on fired torpedoes as soon as they're launched
Repair field is no longer interrupted when target is using its weapons
Resupply field is no longer interrupted when target is being damaged
Note that these two last changes also apply to spawns/hangars. This change should make the repair/resupply fields more reliable as they tended to easily get interrupted. This also means that you can use your weapons while you're getting repaired
Missiles and torpedoes no longer detonate on death (only on direct impact or near their target) (Note: mines still detonate on death and cause splash damage). They simply explode, causing minimal damage, instead of causing massive splash damage as before
Implemented shield interference system (shield points and regen rate are reduced when crossing an enemy base's shield)
Revamped behavior of "G" key (select nearest threat) to priority ships attacking or targetting you (hopefully this time it'll be more in line with players feedback);
Rewards / Battle reports
Revamped reward system to give objective points when accomplishing objectives (and also a credits bonus when the battle ends)
Protecting objectives (killing enemies that have been attacking objectives) now provides objective points
Repairing/resuppling allies now provides objective points for support
Revamped battle reports graphs (now showing attack vs defense power momentum, but there's also a graph for objective points earned, and differen colors)
The battle reports dialog is now modal (takes priority over the rest of the UI)
Balance tweaks
Updated default cruiser hardpoints layout (especially the position and orientation of MK4 hardpoints);
Doubled HP of station core reactor (to make it more difficult to get destroyed by attackers)
Reduced HP on missiles
Torpedo changes: small reduction of thrust power; decreased activation time to 3s (from 4s)
Added Phalanx MK4 CIWS turret (high DPS but low range)
Reduced damage of Railgun MK4 turret to 6 (from 8); reduced its turn rate to 25°/s (from 30°/s); slightly increased its lifetime to match the range of the fixed railgun variant
Reduced bomber's default torpedo capacity to 10 (from 14)
Increased Repair crew's mass to 10% (from 5%) and added a negative effect on energy recharge rate (-10%)
Increased carrier's Heavy repair field's range to 2 Km (from 1.5 Km)
Increased Flak MK4 turret's DPS (fire rate and burst damage) and reduced its mass to 30t (from 50t)
Reduced Laser AMS MK3 turret's damage by half; incrreased its turn speed to 60°/s (from 45°/s) (Note: AMS became too powerful with the turrets targetting/behavior change)
Tweaks to Heracles MK7 Turret: reduced yaw range to 50° (from 60°) and increased its DPS (also reduced heat generation)-
Tweaks to Thunderbolt MK7 Turret: reduced yaw range to 50° (from 70°) and increased its DPS significantly
Bug fixes
Fixed chat box that could be opened through escape sequence conflict ctrl+m
Fix for respawn countdown with large value (hours of waiting) upon ship refund, after the match has restarted
HUD / UI / Controls
Added weapons descriptions to ship menu
Weapon DPS showed in ship menu now takes into account damage rate (for lasers/beams)
Counter-measures count is no longer displayed on HUD when CMs are not available (like on capital ships)
HUD now displays the amount of mines left below counter-measures (will also flash orange when under cooldown)
Misc
Added new Thunderbolt MK7 and Heracles MK7 projectiles effects
'Meet & Test' | Gameplay Re-Vamp | Event No.2
Gameplay Re-Vamp | Planetary Battles
Last month we published our “Gameplay design plans,” this month we’ve been rigorously implementing and testing them. The “June 4th “Meet & Test” event produced a lot of valuable feedback, so a big thank you to everyone that provided comment, critique and criticism.
Up next, the Planetary Base assault loop will be re-introduced to the game. (It was temporarily removed so we could focus on Station Assault). We’ll be looking to receive more player feedback on the new gameplay loop, and further, on the state of the game.
Community Event and Testing
We'll be hosting a livestream to cover the changes, and discuss the new gameplay. Including match progression, objectives for attacking / defending planetary bases, changes to player progression, unlocks, loadouts, missions and more.
Your feedback is important to us. We'll continue to track how the game plays, and how intuitive objectives are for new players. We're interested in hearing your thoughts on refining the Station Assault loop, Planetary Base assault loop, and team play mechanics. Let us know on the Discord Server #feedback channels - Discord Server Invite Link Here
Event Details
Participation in the test will require activating the "Beta Branch" on STEAM - See Below for Details
It will take place on our "Private Test Server" (PTR) "US East" Saturday, June 18th 2022 : Meet&Test 2 : Community Gameplay Re-Vamp, Public Event 19:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) ATTN: Exact start time may be delayed if we encounter last minute technical issues.
Switch to "Beta-Branch" for this Event
Participating in this test, will require the "Beta Branch" build on Steam. To Change, Right-click Battlescape in your Steam library > go to "Properties" > and in "Betas" select "beta". After the event, be sure to switch back to the default ("None") branch. Once updated, and in game, join us on the PTR test server.
If you require assistance, or encounter issues, we will be available on the Discord #Tech-Support channel.
See you in game!
'Meet & Test' | Gameplay Re-Vamp | Event
Gameplay Re-vamp
Last month we made our Gameplay design plans public. Dubbed the "Gameplay Re-vamp," intended to communicate our development direction, and receive some initial feedback from the community on those plans. Since then we've conducted multiple internal tests, implimented most of the new gameplay features, and are ready to begin testing on a larger public scale.
Community Event and Testing
We'll be hosting a livestream to cover the changes, and discuss the new gameplay. Including match progression, objectives for attacking / defending bases, changes to player progression, unlocks, loadouts, missions and more.
The Server will only be publicly available during the event weekend. From Event Start time on June 4th (Saturday), and closing on June 6th (Monday) end of day.
Your feedback will be important to us. We'll be tracking how the game plays, first look feedback, your thoughts on refining the game loops, base assault, and team play mechancis. Let us know on the Discord Server #feedback channels - Invite Link Here.
Following the event we will continue to collect your feedback and engage in discussion. Another public test event will be scheduled shortly thereafter.
Event Details
Participation in the test will require activating the "Beta Branch" on STEAM - See Below for Details
It will take place on our "Private Test Server" (PTR) "US East Location" Saturday, June 4th 2022 : Meet&Test : Community Gameplay Re-Vamp, Public Event 19:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
In game VOIP is available within squads, alternatively, Join Discord (link in game menu / in this post) for general comms.
Switch to "Beta-Branch" for this Event
Participating in this test, will require the "Beta Branch" build on Steam. To Change, Right-click Battlescape in your Steam library > go to "Properties" > and in "Betas" select "beta". After the event, be sure to switch back to the default ("None") branch. Once updated, and in game, join us on the PTR test server.
If you require assistancem, or encounter issues, we will be available on the Discord #Tech-Support channel.
See you in game!
Community 'Meet & Fleet' In-Game Event
Join us for some PvE and PvP gameplay on the USEast Server.
Event Details
Saturday, April 30th 2022 : Meet&Fleet Community Event 19:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) USEast Sever, unless otherwise posted prior to event
In game VOIP is available within squads, alternatively, Join Discord (link in game menu) for general comms.
Gameplay Revamp Plan
Introduction
Greetings everyone. We’ve previously mentioned that we’d start off 2022 with a major gameplay design revamp. In this update I'd like to provide some more details on what to expect, and what we’re planning for the revamp.
I'd like to start by saying that we're pretty happy with the core loop gameplay, our "30 seconds of fun". The feedback we've received from players is pretty unanimous: the huge chaotic battles involving hundreds of ships, exciting dogfights, and visual effects of explosions lighting up the battle smog have made some fairly unique experiences in gaming. This is clearly the strongest part of our game, so we don’t intend on changing the core experience much beyond balance tweaks.
However as we scale game systems up, the experience has tended to break down. This includes gameplay features that distract from our core combat experience. Our general conclusion is that we need to re-enforce what’s been working (build on our strengths) and clearly define the broader gameplay loops.
So, in January, we took a step back, and looked at Battlescape from an unbiased and broad perspective (as much as we could). In order to better understand what parts of the game work, and how to expand and improve its gameplay at a larger scale. As part of this “reflection” we looked at other games with similar concepts in scope, such as Planetside 2.
We still want the game to support hundreds of players per server, but the gameplay needs to be more engaging when the number of players on that server is low. All current game systems need to complement each other, and any extra complexity that does not bring value to that gameplay needs to be trimmed down. Reducing gameplay complexity and streamlining current game systems will have a direct impact on the development time required long term. This reduction in complexity will enable us to spend more time on improving game systems, and further refine the gameplay experience.
Please note that none of the following has been “set in stone” yet, and the gameplay revamp plan that we're presenting here is wholly hypothetical. We still need to implement new features, conduct internal tests, make revisions, and test some more until we’re satisfied enough to push the design to our game servers.
So, now is the best time to provide feedback, before we venture too far down the rabbit hole…
Full Match loop
Currently, matches are structured around the total destruction of your opponent's bases within a match. We plan on keeping the “destruction” condition for bases (no capture mechanics) but change the flow of battles as they move from base to base in the larger match.
Battle flow is currently directed by the AI Commander, and determines which team goes on offense based on the outcome of the previous battle. Battle wins keep an attacker on the offensive from battle to battle, whereas the loss of a battle places the losing team on the defensive. In this system, Team A could (and often does) snowball victory after victory on Team B, as each victory is rewarded with another battle on offense.
The new design is a turn based system that tracks team wins and losses. Instead of victory resulting in another offensive battle, the next battle’s offense / defense roles are reversed. In this proposed system, a battle begins with Team A on offense, and Team B on defense. Upon conclusion of the battle, Team A will go on defense, and it’s Team B’s turn on offense.
In the current game, multiple battles can spawn on the same base over time, so long as the base has not yet been destroyed. In the new design, battles will only happen once at each location. However, the outcome of those battles will contribute directly to team victory points.
Which brings us to “victory points”. We'll start by keeping things simple, with each base worth a point or two for a victorious attack. Larger bases may have more points than smaller bases (yet to be determined via testing). A successful defense will prevent the attacking team from achieving their primary objective (destroying the reactor) and prevent the attacker from gaining the “Victory points” associated with that objective.
Once either team has some # (10) of accumulated victory points, a “decisive” (sudden death) battle is triggered. If the attacking team wins that battle then they win the match. If the attacking team loses, then the defending team will have another opportunity to attack. This continues until a “decisive” battle is won by the attacking team.
Hypothesized outcomes:
The match will become more predictable in terms of progression, duration and how many bases are left to attack or defend.
Team objectives become more clearly defined
The game is more accessible to new players and everybody knows at any point in time what the current state of the match is
Economy and Progression
Addressing the economic side of the game has been a major challenge. Unfortunately, we've never really found the ideal balance. In terms of design, the major issue is the conflict we have between the nature of match progression (bases get destroyed so there are less and less active bases as the match progresses) and economy.
More specifically, team “credits” income is highest at the beginning of a match and dwindles towards the end. This means that the longer the match goes on and the more it snowballs in favor of one team. After the mid-game it becomes near impossible for the losing team to make a comeback and players have diminishing motivation to remain on the losing team.
The new design separates the team’s economies from in-game match progression. A way to think of this, is each corporation funds their military campaign from outside the battlescape (or star system). Instead of tying team resources and currency directly to the number of factories and successfully docked haulers within the match.
This means both teams' economies are fixed at the start of the match, and will maintain balance throughout the early, mid, and late game phases. We feel this could solve the match balance and “victory snowballing” issues, and provide the losing team a chance to reverse momentum.
For the player, we’ve decided to separate the in-game credits used to purchase new ships, and career “credits” which will be persistently tied to your personal account or pilot progression.
The in-game credits will be referred to as “ship points” or (SP temporary name):
Starting # of SP will be high enough to afford a capital ship
The SP will increase at a fixed rate over time
SP reset at the end of each match
SP are capped, at cost of the “most expensive ship” in game
Our expectation is that capital ships will become more accessible, while becoming more valuable. As the decision to spawn one depletes available SP, and the cost to re-spawn another one requires time to wait for SP to re-accumulate. Ideally, this will reduce “Cruiser Spam” wherein players amass massive quantities of in game credits, and produce a never-ending supply of buffed out cruisers spawn after spawn… snowballing along with team credits etc.
In addition to player rank, a player’s “career” will advance via the accumulation of “personal credits.” They will be earned in-game based on individual actions; collecting bounties, accomplishing battle objectives, maintaining kill streaks, etc.
These personal credits or (PC temporary name) will be used to permanently unlock weapons and upgrades. Once unlocked, the item will be available to mount on any ship it can be fitted to, without impacting SP cost to spawn that ship.
This will allow players to predictably unlock items, build custom loadouts, and consistently have those unlocked items available to them in future matches. Additional factors, such as rank, may also have an impact on which items are able to be unlocked.
We'll also be introducing a third personal “currency” cosmetic points (CP temporary name) which you'll receive as rewards for various achievements. CP will eventually be used to unlock cosmetics like ship skins, tags, bobbleheads and other in-game goodies.
Battle Staging: Base Assault
One of the core issues with the game is the chaotic, unstructured and primitive nature of the battles. We currently throw two fleets at each other in proximity to a ground base or space station, and “let it play out.” Ships fly chaotically toward each other, pick off targets, and without any clear objectives, wind up duking it out until the last ships have been ground down to spare parts…
Our new design will introduce asymmetrical team objectives. Once a battle starts, the attacking team's goal will be to destroy the core reactor of the enemy's base. The base is protected by a large base shield, which can be taken down by destroying the base’s shield generators. Shields also protect the base integrity, defenses and other modules from incoming capital ship's fire. Secondary optional objectives include base defenses (including strong AMS), hangars (that can be temporarily destroyed) or warp interdiction towers. Once the shields on the reactor go down it can be attacked directly and destroyed, marking a clear victory for the attacking team.
We’ll expand on the Base Assault “loop” as we further develop it through testing.
The defending team's objective will be to protect their base from the incoming assault, destroy the incoming fleet and target the enemy's carrier(s).
We'll rebalance the carrier around its deploy abilities (both for players and AI squads) to further define its role as “momentum maintenance” for the attacking team. After a great deal of discussion, we’ve decided to remove the “Take-Over-AI” feature. This should further increase the carrier's tactical value (as a forward spawn) for the attacking team; we can reintroduce it if needed.
This new battle staging plan will require major AI improvements. AIs will need to be able to attack tactical objectives just like players, and learn how to fly in squads, form up and regroup after an attack.
Ideally, battles should feel less chaotic and more structured with clear objectives. Players will see those objectives highlighted on the HUD, and will be rewarded for accomplishing those objectives through battle progression feedback, and career progression through in-game actions taken.
Simplifications
The changes made to our in-game economy has made factories, and the haulers, somewhat purposeless. We'll be able to re-use the factory assets for ground bases, by merging them with the existing military bases, and expanding military base layouts.
We aren't sure what to do with the hauler yet, though, as we had been considering it as a player-flyable ship. It is possible that we'll simply cut the hauler from the game entirely, we’re open to ideas here.
We are also removing the “tech levels” and the “scouting/scanning” mechanics. This was already handled by the AI Commander, and makes the early match a hide and seek nightmare, especially for new players.
What’s on the Horizon?
Despite some simplifications, and removing some features, we still have plans to add more content to the game. In particular, we’re continuing to work on new weapons systems, passive mines, spinal mounted weapons for the cruiser, and nukes for orbital bombardment.
From the beginning we’ve had plans to broaden the scale of the solar system to include multiple Battlescapes. This is still something we’d like to do, however it could re-introduce the same complexity problems, and extend match time. While we haven't decided to cut this feature completely, it may yet be. Especially if the new match loop works well. In this case, we'll still add more planets and environments to the game for match variation.
Feedback and Expectations
I’ll conclude, by restating the hypothetical nature of this new design direction. While nothing has been “set in stone” yet, we do have an established general direction. We regularly take player feedback into account when discussing new design elements / features, and will often spend time reflecting on proposed solutions offered by members of our active player base. So while this post is not complete in scope, or completely detailed, do let us know what you think.
We’ll be testing internal builds of the new design soon, and will have more information on public release timelines / schedules once we’ve tested the larger design elements, and game progression.
-Flavien Brebion
Patch 0.8.9.0 Notes
Patch 0.8.9.0 (Sunday 10 April 2022)
This patch contains improvements, bug fixes and tweaks mostly related to the damage model changes introduced in 0.8.8.0. It should also improve client and server stability as 3 important crash bugs were identified and fixed.
Please also note that we decided to shut down the US West and Australia servers to consolidate our player base as these two servers sometimes saw no players for entire days or weeks. We may reintroduce them for 1.0 if there is demand for it.
Gameplay / Balance
Fixed warp interruption that was getting triggered on environmental damage even if the shields were at 100%. It will now only trigger when shields are depleted
Fixed AMS laser not being affected by shields. Since they do no energy damage, AMS lasers will no longer affect any target that has shields up;
Fixed damage model's energy depletion that happens when energy damage hits depleted shields. It should now be coherent for all weapon/damage types
Fixed AI corvette kinetic/blaster turrets all firing at the same time, which players cannot do
AI rank/skill level will now be taken into account for the reactivity time to switch between weapon types (kinetic vs blasters) on smaller ships (previously it was a constant time no matter the AI skill level)
Added a reactivity/delay factor for taking the target's acceleration into consideration for turret's lead auto aim. This should make the turret's aiming less precise but still take their target's acceleration into account. The problem with not taking acceleration into account at all is that ships are constantly moving and adjusting their course, meaning that they're always under some form of acceleration. If turrets do not take acceleration into account, they basically have almost no change of hitting their target unless it's very close. That was the problem in the previous versions of the game. Now the turrets will try to estimate their target's acceleration, but with a delay, which should feel more human-like/natural, while still giving them the chance to hit a far-away target that moves in a predictable course
Updated battle rating calculation after a battle ends: the number of points gained/lost is no longer symmetrical. The higher your rating, the more difficult it will be to increase it further. The lower your rating, the more difficult it'll be to decrease it further. This means that players with a very high rating will not be able to increase it higher all that much, but will easily lose their points when they die/lose in a battle
Added 4 new propulsion loadout upgrades: lateral boost, forward boost, pitch boost and yaw boost
Reverted converging angle rotation speeds on converging weapons (halcyons and plasma cutters). Increased their spread a bit to be less binary at distance; Increased their projectile speeds and max range (now 5 Km)
Bug fixes
Introduced fall backs if crashes do not generate a minidump/log file, as many users had reported crashes that did not generate a dump file in their documents folder
Fixed a client crash related to a short desync between client and server information, which caused the HUD to look up for an icon that does not exist
Fixed two server crashes related to the squad system when a player is leaving a squad or disconnecting from the game while still being in a squad
Fixed "show input rotation forces" that could still get displayed on the tactical view screen, or in third-person camera. It will now only show up in first-person/cockpit view
Fixed ship debris spawned upon despawning at a hangar/docking bay
Fixed issues when loading obsolete/no longer coherent hardpoint layouts
Fixed energy weapons that were able to pierce/bounce off hulls like kinetics when they shouldn't
HUD / UI / Controls
Fixed target selection utilizing hidden navigation cursor in joystick control scheme. Now utilizes the screen center as the reference
Fixed dot reticle displayed at screen center when looking around with the camera or in TrackIR mode
In the ship loadout menu, the details stats will be the default tab (instead of the ship's general info) if the player is sufficiently experienced
Swapped social/squads and stats/leaderboard tabs in the main menu
Misc
Replaced repair beam impact sound effect with a new one
French localization file update thanks to Argopeilacos
Patch 0.8.8.0 Notes ( Damage model update )
Patch 0.8.8.0 (Saturday 12th March 2022)
This patch mostly focuses on gameplay balance changes, including a major damage model update. Meanwhile we've started our gameplay redesign/revamp phase to tighten the match loop and improve the battle experience. We're not ready to communicate on these yet (we need to implement the changes internally first and playtest them) but as soon as we do, we'll make a major announcement. This means that the next few months are probably going to slow down in terms of public patches: we'll mostly focus on balance updates (the damage model change in this update will probably mess up with the balance quite a bit, and need further adjustments), bug fixes and UI improvements.
Gameplay
Damage model
The most important gameplay change in this patch is an update to the damage model. All weapons now deal both kinetic (versus hull) and energy (versus shields) damage. Weapons that were previously considered kinetic (ex.: the machine gun) will deal a lot more kinetic than energy damage meaning that kinetics are no longer the most effective way to weaken shields. In the same way, blasters can now damage the target's hull and even finish it off. The weapons stats and DPS were rebalanced so that a mixed composition between kinetics and blasters is viable, versus all-kinetics configurations that we saw in previous versions of the game (ex.: 4 Halcyons on the interceptor). The most kinetic damage a weapon deals and the less effective it will be against shields, and vice-versa. The extreme example of this is with railguns and plasma cutters, which still have a high DPS assuming you're using them against the right type of target.
Updated damage model for missile/torpedoes/mines explosions and splash damage: distribution of damage is now proportional to shield percentage (Ex.: at 50% shields, 50% of the total damage will be dealt to the shields and the remaining 50% to the hull)
Updated ship loadout/info cards to show both kinetic and energy DPS. Revamped a bit the weapons info panel to be less cluttered and only show the significant stats (note: still a WIP, missing a description for each weapon)
Updated AI to be smarter about weapons selection. They will now properly switch to other weapons when on cooldowns, over-heating, damaged or low on energy; expect the bots to frequently switch between kinetics and energy weapons on offense
Collisions damage is now purely kinetic and will ignore shields
Auto-firing AI turrets on capital ships will no longer ignore low-damagable targets if they have no better targets (previously, a kinetic turret wouldn't fire on a target with high shields and a blaster turret wouldn't fire on a target with low shields)
Weapons balance
Increased precision of all auto-aiming weapons (note: this will make capital ships more dangerous, be careful)
Updated hardpoint class of some weapons (flaks are now MK4 and can no longer be mounted on MK5s; same for railgun turrets)
Capital ships can no longer mount normal missile/torpedo launchers (only the array variants)
Railguns have been rebalanced with a higher firing rate and the ability to hit targets from a higher distance (up to 8 Km) which could give it an edge over standard weapons (which typically have a max range of 4 Km)
Capital ships MK4 repeater guns/blasters have been improved and should now feel more useful against small targets
Capital ships MK5 turret guns/blasters were also previously in a bad spot. They now deal significant and almost continuous damage against capital ships
Fixed gimbal turn speed and radius for Halcyons and Plasma cutters which was set far too high. They are now similar to other gimbaled guns
Ships balance
These changes were done to further refine these ships into their respective roles:
Removed all MK7 turrets from carrier (carriers are supposed to stay on the defensive side, therefore MK7s are not fitting their role)
Significantly increased carrier's maneuverability (linear and rotational thrust) and small increase of speed cap (we felt the carrier was dragging the whole fleet behind in terms of movement)
Removed 8 MK4 turrets from cruiser (we felt it had too good defensive small ships capabilities, which is supposed to be done by destroyers)
Small updates to default loadouts for capital ships (due to refitting the hardpoint classes of some weapons)
Upgrades
New available upgrades for ship loadouts:
Shield regen II: Boosts the shield regen rate by +50% at the expense of reducing the shield capacity by -30%. While the shield capacity reduction seems a huge downside, the faster regen might be very interesting especially in combination of the damage model update that will make kinetic weapons far less effective against a quickly recharging shield
Piercing ammo: Reinforced ammunition for kinetic weapons, negating a certain amount of armor plating points. Has no effect on targets without armor plating (like the interceptor) or shields
Gyro boost: Boosts gyro thrusters rotational acceleration by +50%. Does not affect maximum turn speed, making turning your ship more reactive, not faster
Flight Model
Fixed flight model for roll in most control schemes: when going back to idle (you stop rolling the ship), the torque force did not go down to zero as fast as it could, taking slightly too long
Removed ramp up propulsion factor in the flight model that often acted quirky. Replaced it by a speed cap when flying inside hangars (60 m/s) and garages (20 m/s)
We adjusted rotational thrust on small ships to better match the max rotational speed and feel a bit more responsive. This will mostly affect the roll axis:
Slight increase (+27%) to Interceptor's roll acceleration and slight decrease (-15%) in max roll speed
Large increase (+60%) to Bomber's roll acceleration
Large increase (+50%) to Corvette's roll acceleration
Flight plan
Flight plans are now functional when you're in a squad. The squad leader's flight plan is automatically shared in real-time amongst the squad members. The squad members can still show or edit their local flight plan, by toggling a mode in the right-click context menu on the starmap.
They can toggle back any time this mode to display again the squad leader's flight plan.
HUD / UI / Menus
Fixed starmap's filter options window which duplicated after toggling an option on/off
Updated ship info panel (on the left side) in the ship tab menu. We cleaned the panel, split it into two tabs (one for general info, one for detailed stats) and revamped the way the stats show up as a bar (they will now all default to the middle, and show relative increases/decreases bonuses based on ship upgrades). We think this will make it easier to see at a glance what stats are affected by an upgrade
Chat box now shows up in ship info panel in the bottom-left corner. The chatbox utilized a lot of layout space in all the menu tabs. We're considering removing the chat box from all these menu tabs, and instead replacing it with an icon that can be explicitely opened when you want to chat. This might get implemented in a future patch unless we see feedback that having the chat box opened at all time in all menus is requested from players
Added options to show FPS, Tricount, Ping, Network stats and Input thrust in general settings
Input / Controls
Updates to input mapper and key detection: added new options for key combos in key bindings menu
Fix for square vs circular-shaped joysticks axes
Fix for paired axes when applying power curve
Fix for deadzone in square axes corners
Added a new Legacy control scheme specifically for mouse (was old Direct control scheme for mouse)
Introduced a new control scheme specifically for Joysticks/Gamepads/HOTAS (was old Direct control scheme for joysticks). The game should automatically upgrade the old "Direct control" into this one when you launch the game with this patch the first time
General / Misc
Fix for Chinese IMEs (mouse clicks no longer work, Win32 message loop does not receive mouse events anymore)
Tweaks to default input configuration for XBox controller
Community 'Meet & Fleet' In-Game Event & DevUpdate
Join us for some PvE and PvP gameplay on the USEast Server.
There will be a patch this week. We've fixed some input issues related to joystics / controllers, and have been adjusting our weapons balance. A full list of patch notes will be published, and reviewewed during the stream.
Check our public Trello board for a preview of what this next patch may include. https://trello.com/b/jNevKnfQ/infinity-battlescape
Streaming the event via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNEHBrhTUN4P_ZxIy29DNQw
Event Details
Saturday, March 12th 2022 : Meet&Fleet Community Event 20:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) USEast Sever, unless otherwise posted prior to event
In game VOIP is available within squads, Join the Discord (link in game) for general comms.
Patch 0.8.7.0 Notes ( Squad System & VOIP )
Patch 0.8.7.0 (Saturday 18th December 2021)
Hey everyone. This is the last big patch before the end of the year. This patch introduces the first iteration of the squad system (only as a flat list of squads for now, but in the future we want a full hierarchical system with wings and fleets).
This also includes voice-over-IP (VOIP). There are a lot of technical considerations behind VOIP, so make sure to report any audio issues you might encounter. Also of interest, this patch revamps the weapon projectiles effects (going from simple 2D billboards to 3D in most cases), an update to the bloom filter (there's also a slider to tone it down in the graphical options, if you don't like it), a new active ability for the corvette to repair targets at a range (the repair beam) and much more. One limitation is that due to lack of time, the waypoints system isn't squad-shared yet, but note that we've introduced a new squad-target mechanism (default: ctrl-T if you're the squad leader) that shares the leader's target with all the squad members.
As usual, please report any bug you've found and have fun. Most of the game systems have now been implemented into the game, so next year we'll be moving on to the major gameplay loop upgrade, introducing new shields mechanisms, rebalancing some weapons, adding orbital bombardment (nukes, already in WIP), the carrier revamp + new hauler, massive AI improvements (AI attacking bases, flying in squads..) and battles sub-objectives/staging. It will likely take the first half of the year, at least, to implement all of these. During the second half of the year we'll finally start the polishing phase, tutorials and mission editor, with a tentative release date in EOY 2022 or H1 2023.
-Flavien Brebion
Squad system
Added the squads menu to the in-game menu system (TAB)
Players can create their own private or public teams, or quickly auto-join any squad that has an open position
The first player to create a squad becomes its leader, and has leader-restricted management options over the squad
The leader can promote another member as the new leader
The leader can rename the squad, or write a new description that will show up in the squads list
The leader can kick/ban a member, but also clear all the bans. Note that this is persistent only until the server reboots
The leader can change the squad access rights (private/public)
Note that it will be possible to password-protect squads, but this is not implemented yet (option is disabled for now)
The player can mute/unmute any squad member. Note that this is persistent only until the server reboots
Implemented the squad MFD to show the list of squad members, including name, distance, rank, ship class (colored by health status)
It is possible to target a squad member's ship via hotkeys alt-1 (leader) to alt-8 (other squad members)
Added a key for the squad leader to share a target amongst all squad members (default: ctrl + T)
Squad members show up as icons + their name in the starmap
The waypoints system is not compatible with the squads implementation just yet (but this is coming..)
VOIP Implementation
Added a control to select the recording device in the audio settings menu (the game will default to Windows's default recording device)
Added a voice meter in the audio settings menu to see the recording volume level
Added a loopback option in the audio settings menu, to listen to yourself talking
Added the ability to mute players
Added the ability to toggle voice chat/VOIP in the audio settings menu
Added a push-to-talk option + a key binding. If left unused/unassigned, voice recording will be permanent. By default push-to-talk is enabled and the default hotkey is "C"
Due to moving the push-to-talk key to "C", we had to move around the other radial menu keys. "X" is now the voice commands menu (previously on "C"), "B" is now the flight menu (previously on "X") and the formations cycling mode was moved to the "N" key. Basically we shifted all the radial menus one key to the right to leave room for the push-to-talk key "C".
Added an audio slider for the sound effects volume, and another one for the voice playback volume
Balance / Gameplay
Reduced Flak canons generated heat by -20% when firing
Reduced Flak canons spread by -15% (this should improve their precision a little bit)
Note: some technical problems were detected with Flak detonation, which due to the physics step does not always explode at the accurate/predicted target location. This will be investigated and fixed in a later patch.
Introduced a new MK4 "weapon" ability for the corvette: the repair beam
This beam can repair the hull or turrets of a selected target at a pretty fast rate
Multiple beams can stack, however this will draw energy faster
The beam repairs weapons at a faster rate than the armor/hull
Added a "beam booster" weaponry upgrade that increases even more the repair rate, reduces the energy cost, at the expense of shields regeneration
Fixed typos in AMS laser damage upgrade (this was overheating way too quickly, making the upgrade useless)
HUD / UI / menu fixes or improvements
Fixed modal dialogs that could be clicked outside of window to get closed (note: contextual menus can still be clicked outside to close them)
Fixed quick mouse right-click (rotation) on starmap that caused waypoints context menu to open accidentally, it should now be more stable
Damaged weapons can now be sub-target selected again (this is needed for the corvette repair beams)
Visual effects
Remade all weapons projectiles. The new projectiles are no longer simple billboards, and most of them have some extra 3D geometry to better show their shape in the distance, making them more easily recognizable in battles. They also have extra animations, twitling tails and more details, making them have a higher visual impact during battles.
Improvements to HDR bloom filter: better fade off/range, better quality
Added a slider to control bloom intensity in the graphical settings menu
Revamped all
Fixed smog streaks (smog particles being strangely aligned) due to a floating-point precision issue
Fixed smog being sometimes rendered on top of other projectile/effects, hidding them despite them being closer
Fixed bouncing projectiles not having a proper offset off the hit surface, intersecting geometry
Added new Moon bobblehead (bobbleheads are currently randomized every time you spawn. Later they'll be tied to your account's persistent rewards)
Bug fixes
Fixed a server crash related to the mission system
Fixed issue with mapping of ground bases that was repeated multiple times per second, causing some slowdowns/framerate stuttering at spawn times
Fixed server crash bug if an admin tries to kill a planet/moon
Fixed ships that could still fire their weapons during their death sequence
Fixed collision issues happening between ships and geometry in the hangar/spawn locations
Other
Fixed localization issues in keybindings menu and weapons/loadout MFD
More localization/strings updates for 0.8.6.0
Community 'Meet & Fleet' In-Game Event & DevUpdate
Join us for some PvE and PvP gameplay on the USEast Server.
We are preparing a new patch for release this friday, Dec 17th, prior to the community event on the 18th. Flavien and Dan will review the patch notes at the beginning of the livestream.
Streaming the event via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNEHBrhTUN4P_ZxIy29DNQw
Event Details
Saturday, Dec 18th 2021 : Meet&Fleet Community Event 20:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) USEast Sever, unless otherwise posted
In game VOIP should be available for squad members, Join the Discord (link in game) for general comms.
