In the past few days, we have been made aware of a bug that could cause incorrect PvP battle outcomes. We understand the severity of the issue and related gameplay issues previously reported. The accuracy of multiplayer battles is paramount to the Tournament system, and the game's integrity. We have been working on fixing this as our top priority over the past two days.
We have carried out analytics on the problem and found about 1.7% of battles could be affected by the bug. Some players have reported the details of this issue to us and we really appreciate the help. A small number of users have also taken the opportunity to abuse this bug. We will be reaching out to abusers with a warning and/or account suspension notice depending on the severity of abuse.
Our engineering team has already made a fix to the issue and we will be deploying this after the current Tournament. Unfortunately due to the technical nature of the bug, the fix will require additional time to test and deploy and we likely won’t have the fix in place for this Tournament.
For the current tournament, we have decided the best course of action is to let the tournament run and continue to issue prizes. Where specific users have been found to carry out abuse – we will be suspending their accounts until the end of this month’s Tournament.
There has also been voiced concern over preferential treatment. We take these concerns seriously – upholding a fair gameplay environment is our top priority. As in the past, we are working to address the issue in a timely manner that is both fair and consistent for all players and fleets.
Thank you for reviewing this update.
-SavySoda Team
Community Q&A – Hosted By Apex
Hi Captains!
Our studio director here at SavySoda, Xin, recently participated in a short Q&A session to cover some of the most upvoted questions from the Discord Community.
This session was held in a live video chat format and was generously hosted by Apex – our lead Moderator from the Official PSS Discord. You may have even spotted Apex in-game!
Players are being faction locked into a Captain/Superweapon with no foreknowledge of the meta and possible avenues to min/max their ship strategy, yet this is heavily constricted by the Captain/Superweapon they chose at beginning of the game. Because of this players are feeling confined at endgame due to an unchangeable ‘poor’ choice they made many months ago. Which has fostered discontent in the game. Now knowing this, what is your reasoning for not entertaining avenues for players to alter these elements?
This is because we want the strategies to be more dynamic. If we have different factions with different weapons and technology then we are going to have more variants in gameplay. So I think that part is going to stick around. We are probably going to be doubling down on that at some stage, with more faction-specific weapons. But there is definitely a problem with communicating that with the player early in the game. So, we are going to work on something to make that clearer.
We will probably introduce another faction-specific weapon at an early stage in the game because we don’t want to put all this information in tutorials. Nobody wants to read more tutorials or descriptions when they are trying to pick a player. But if we do it in a natural way it is not going to be a big surprise when people get to level 12.
We are continuously reviewing different ways for players to change their Superweapons, players to have an alternate version of the superweapons, and players to have different pathways to be able to adopt strategies that are locked in a 4-week minimum of having to change accounts. It is something we are very aware of and we consider it important.
How do you feel about the current balance of superweapons?
Since we started adding the superweapons, pretty much in the first week there have been concerns about one being more overpowered than the other. In the back end, we have data analytics in play, since each weapon behaves differently it is very hard to say which one works better or worse. What we do is analyze win and lose rates for those weapons, then use that data to average out all their other differences in the game and group it by the type of weapons the top-level players are using.
We always monitor their win/loss rates and they have been kept pretty close to each other. Whenever they are far apart that is when we do a rebalance. We check this proactively, every 2-3 months we have a look at it. So far it has been pretty close. We can’t just look at that data, because when one weapon gets unpopular, fewer people use it.
It’s gotten to the point where people are now openly boasting about their ad bot farms in public discords, from a player perspective nothing whatsoever has been done about the rampant bot abuse. As a result, the economy is in a sorry state and these same players have been advertising in-game selling Starbux for a while without any consequences. What do you intend to do to resolve the ad bot abuse? & Does Savy even consider 3rd party Bux buying an issue? If not, why?
This has been a long-term headache for us. It is something we want to address. There are a number of ways we can address this. Botting and being able to create Starbux out of the thin air is one of the biggest issues for us. We have spent heaps of time creating detection tools, preventing the Starbux from being transferred. We have added many layers of verification before you can use the market or even chat. Early this week I did additional optimization.
I think a lot of those bots are again unable to generate any more Starbux. We have to do this in waves because these bots are run by really smart players. So every time we make a countermeasure, they get around it in a couple of weeks or months. We don’t want to make the game less enjoyable to play because other players are abusing the system.
We are doing everything we can to eliminate this abuse. Whenever these are reported, if we can verify their bots we obviously ban those accounts. This has been happening for the last five years, on a monthly basis. We definitely consider this an issue that affects sales; it affects the perspective of players on the game. There are probably not as many illicit Starbux as players make it out to seem, because we look into these reports but we also detect these early to close any loopholes.
The bot farms will think of some other ways around it. What we could do is turn off ad blimps but that would affect normal players. We are going to work more towards making it harder for bot farmers or make it not worthwhile for a bot farm.
We can not detail too much because it can be used to avoid detection. We do review the data weekly. With the rise of bot activity, we have been working with newer machine learning tools to make sure we are not engaging in an arms race. The biggest goal/concern is that we do not want it to affect normal players’ gameplay experience.
Possible statement about 3rd party Starbux?
The problems we discuss usually land on where all these funds end up (after Market trades), the actual player accounts that get them, and how we don’t want any negative action against that player. At the end of the day, they are not the ones providing the service, advertised automatically, from funds earned via automation.
We will make an official statement soon. As far as we stand our TOS is that automation is not allowed, so that is where we take action. As you have noted, we are aware that a couple of users have been using this service. Obviously, we do not want this, but this is mostly because it brings on account security risks.
We have had a lot of issues with players losing their accounts when they engage in these services. Realistically we will be continuing to do our best to stop them. We just need to let the community know where we stand officially.
Any comments on editable seniority and its timeline in terms of implementation? If it is not in the timeline for implementation, why is that the case?
We are aware that this is an issue, but we have not come up with an elegant solution. We are working on it.
As a new player, I find testing layouts and AI very frustrating and annoying. Sometimes I dream about a way to save and quickly load different layouts in-game, or some kind of testing environment to fight against AI opponents that we can customize. Will there ever be a way to save layouts in-game?
Yes.
When is the next Kickstarter?
Next year.
Do you plan on hiring more developers for Pixel Starships? Do you have any plans to expand the PSS team in the future?
As a studio, we are always running at full capacity. We spend most of our income on expanding our team of developers and artists, and we have grown into a bigger team. We will have more information to share later on about this.
Do you believe the current rate of development/bug fixing is satisfactory?
The development is something we have been quick on and getting new features out. Every 3 months there is something interesting and new. Bug fixing and stability have always been weak points for us, ones that we are working to improve. We have introduced dedicated bug days to try to tackle this issue, with very positive results so far.
Where do you see Pixel Starships in the next 5 years?
The goal is to make it the best mobile strategy game. I think we are pretty lucky to be succeeding in a lot of areas. Hopefully, we will be a much bigger, more popular mobile strategy game in five years, with deeper gameplay still.
When can we expect smaller Fleets?
You know it is pretty easy for us to make that switch, we have talked about it. We have debated on when to do it. We have some changes to announce and in 2023 we’ll have the capabilities to do something about fleet sizes.
When will the 2021 annual prize for the top 100 players be awarded?
They’re in the office, they just need to be shipped out. We recently began gathering player information, so they can be dispatched. We have had a lot of issues with shipping both during and after Covid. Since we are based in Australia, it is quite expensive and problematic to ship to certain places. As an unfortunate result, we have had to ask that players wishing to receive these goods cover shipping costs.
Will there ever be a rework of the “old” Legends like SCV, Reaper, Pinkzilla & Silver Paladin?
We are always able to adjust those and Toma has been looking into this already.
LLPvP is now a month-long tournament where you can’t miss a day, and if you do, there’s no point in bothering to try to place. This has led to a situation where people simply exist within the league and don’t remotely try or care about it. We (the player base) have been told LL has increased engagement across the game, what metrics do you have to support this, and are they conducive to the long-term health of the game?
We have tweaked LL quite a bit, since its introduction. Kildare has a plan for this since there is a concern that LLPVP is more like a role call/attendance list for each day. We are aware of this and are investigating – but we cannot comment too much since the changes may or may not happen in a timely fashion.
(Mobile) Are there any plans to add a proper daily Starbux source aside from ads? Ads are the root of many issues, from player retention to alt/bot abuse; toning down their importance would likely increase both player engagement and reduce alt abuse.
I agree, we do care about our free-to-play players but there are a lot of ways to add those additions and they will still get botted. The biggest issue for us is ads that don’t work correctly, we just want to make sure that ad providers we use don’t have players experience an app crash or some type of crazy ad they should not be shown.
(Mobile) Reason for the current rate limiting on ads?
2 reasons why it is occurring: 1) It is being rate limited on Android at this stage, which has to do with their network causing crashes on the app. So to make it less of a problem – they are being rate capped. 2) To address this ad farming and abuse.
We are going to change the way that the ad blimps are shown and controlled to address these 2 issues.
Will there ever be an additional teleport room added to the game?
Pixel Starship is designed to be a very dynamic strategy game, so there should be a lot of viable strategies, especially toward the mid and late game. Single teleport is not viable to have as a strong late-game strategy; because you’re technically bottlenecked compared to other late-game options. Same as the hangar at this stage. So yeah, for both the hangar and teleport room we plan to add second support for both versions. That has been conceptualized and worked on for release as soon as possible. We have a lot of changes to address the meta. Not just at the end game but as players progress – without there being a massive gearing requirement or time/resource investment.
How close is Savy to being out of beta?
About a year and a half.
Thanks again to Apex for organizing this session for the players! Thank you – to all of our moderators – for the amazing job they do for players on both Discord and reddit.
We hope to have more opportunities to work with the community in the near future.
-SavySoda Team
Fair Play and Automation
Hi Captains!
We would like to take a moment to touch on the current state of Fair Play in the game.
We have recently banned a large number of accounts for breaching our EULA, underlining our firm standing when dealing with these cases.
Using automation tools to interact with the market, gather Starbux or transfer items is a banned offense under Section 11 – Account Suspension.
We take Market Integrity very seriously, continually expanding our systems to detect and respond to the use of automation tools.
To be clear: Any tool that performs more than one in-game action per button press, or controls multiple accounts at once, will classify as automation. The use of these tools can quickly snowball to undermine the efforts of legitimate users.
We will continue to take strong action against the use of automated tools and their potential effect on the player base.
Additional thanks to everyone who has taken the time to submit a report or provide feedback on this issue, helping to uphold fair play for all players.
-SavySoda Team
Galaxy Patch Notes V0.991.3
Hi Captains!
We hope you have been enjoying this year’s Moon Festival! With so many New Events, Galaxy Map Encounters, Features, and balance changes in the works – we haven’t had a chance to review our last Tournament Prize!
August’s Prize featured a Special Hand Slot Item, the Lernaean Blade! An alternate version, Summit’s Edge, is now available in the Dove Store.
Please find the latest Patch Notes below. This update is now available on Android, iOS, and Steam.
Please contact our Support Team if you experience any problems updating the game.
V0.991.3 Changelogs:
Added a Location Timer to Spice Trade Merchants
Added display constraints for Set Power Room AI
Fixed a bug preventing Spice Trader Merchants from refreshing Stock
Fixed a bug preventing Room Sprites from being downloaded for preview in the Room Shop
Fixed a bug preventing Travel Requirements checks when Traveling to a Star System
Fixed a bug preventing NPC Ship Marker recreation
Fixed a bug preventing Encounter Battles from applying Crew XP
Fixes a bug preventing completion of the Explorer and Sales Achievements
Fixed a bug preventing the Combine Item function
Fixed a bug causing a New User to get Stuck in Tutorial
Fixed a bug causing a Black Screen when losing Internet Connection
Fixed a bug causing incorrect ordering of Crew Stats in Crew Profile Menu
Fixed a bug causing the Mission List progress bar to display inversely
Fixed a bug causing PvE battles to be displayed in the Starlog
The Spice Trade will continue to expand with new encounters, enemy fleets and a number of surprises yet to be announced.
Heads up! Our seventh Season, Cosmic Carnival, will start on the 18th of September with a bang!
Players can also expect a new and refreshed Halloween Spooktacular experience in October, with new surprises, encounters, and collectible Items.
Thank you for all of your provided feedback, leading to many of the fixes noted above. You can join these discussions in the Feedback section of our Official PSS Discord and subreddit.
Good Hunting, Captains!
-SavySoda Team
Introducing: The Spice Trade!
Hi Captains!
Experience a re-energized Galaxy Map, lively with activity. The Spice Trade establishes regular Ship Battles, separated into 3 level tiers, with a steadily increasing difficulty and set of rewards.
Boss Battles, Rare Events like Stardust Comets and Treasure Fleets, Traveling NPC Merchants and a host of new challenges are also waiting for players of all levels.
Encounters will have a wide variety of travel behaviors. Intercepting a ship will require you to travel to the marker’s next destination System, or its current docked location.
If an Encounter travels outside of your explored Galaxy Map, it will become unavailable until it returns to an explored sector.
Factions of Spice Traders offer access to rare and exotic Items for your hard-earned Void Particles and Stardust. These Traders will partially restock as they visit each system location.
The Spice trade will continue to expand over the coming days as players familiarize themselves with the new system, with many surprises to be unveiled!
Please find the latest Patch Notes below. This update is now available on Android, iOS, and Steam.
Please contact our Support Team if you experience any problems updating the game.
V0.991.1 Changelogs:
Spice Trade Encounters are now available in the Galaxy Map!
Announcements Menu now displays a Countdown for Special Events
Void Particles no longer occupy Inventory Slots
Items that cannot be Traded are now labeled as Contraband
New Heroic Item Crafting Recipes – Starburst Bulwark and Immensity Gauntlet
New “Ship Shield” AI Conditions
New “Ship Has Crew” AI Conditions
Updated Crew Donation Menu Panel
Captain Crews can no longer be donated to Fleet
Added filter for Galaxy Map Mission List UI
Disabled the Galaxy Map Asteroid Minigame
Improved Fleet Gift Collection
Improved Account Verification process
Improved Server Performance and Stability
Supported display of Unavailable Rooms in Shop Menu
Fixed Galaxy Map Zoom Scroll speeds
Fixed several UI issues in the Crew Training Menu
Fixed a bug preventing Reward Messages from displaying Item Quantity
Fixed a bug preventing UI Buttons from functioning during Tutorial
Fixed a bug preventing Donation Messages from being Muted
Fixed a bug causing Battle Chat input blocking Camera Controls
Fixed a bug causing Room Targeting animations to run when selecting a Room
Fixed a bug causing Chat Messages to be recycled when a new Message can’t be displayed
Fixed a bug preventing LLPvP Opponents from repopulating correctly
Fixed a bug causing Mining Missions to trigger a Low HP Warning
The Galactic Moon Festival begins in September! This year’s celebration expands the variety of Lunar-themed items available, and will introduce a new member of the Moon Mariner super-team.
Thank you for all of your provided feedback, leading to many of the fixes noted above. You can join these discussions in the Feedback section of our Official PSS Discord and subreddit.
Good Hunting, Captains!
-SavySoda Team
The Spice Trade!
Introducing - The Spice Trade!
An updated Galaxy UI packed with Roaming Stardust Traders, Enemy Challenges, Faction Bosses, Treasure Ships, and other Secret Encounters!
Prepare yourselves, Captains. The Galaxy will soon be bustling with the chance for marvelous rewards... at your own peril!
-SavySoda Team
Summer Splash!
Red Sun's Out, Space Guns out! Summer Splash is now LIVE.
LIMITED EDITION Items, Crew, and free-to-grind rewards!
-SavySoda Team
Galaxy Patch Notes V0.990.4
Hi Captains!
We hope everyone enjoyed this year’s Interstellar Independence event. There’s still a couple of days left to teach those dastardly Brito-Bots a lesson!
But it’s no time to relax, Captain. Keep an eye out for returning weekend Live AI and Lore-based events, with some serious summer spoils to follow…
Please find the latest Patch Notes below. This update is now available on Android, iOS, and Steam.
Please contact our Support Team if you experience any problems updating the game.
V0.990.4 Changelogs:
New Research added: Vacuum Packing I, II, and III
New Starlog Icons to indicate Battle Type
Scratchy Items now always provide a Reward
Multiple XP Book Items can now be used at once
Crew XP can now overflow past Current Level when using an XP Book Item
Crews can now Level continuously (if available) without closing the Panel
Crews can now Level when accessed in the Crew Inventory Panel
Disabled Camera Zoom on Crew Level Up animation
Research: Python Requirements for several AI Commands lowered
Reduced Level Requirements for Auto Machine Gun/HMG Turret Modules
Minigun Ammo Capacity and Manufacture Rate increased
Hwacha Drone Launcher Volley increased by 5
BFR Projectile Flight Speed increased by 5
New AI Conditions List:
Current Room Has No Enemy Crew
Current Room Has No Friendly Crew
Origin Room Has No Enemy Crew
Origin Room Has No Friendly Crew
Enemy Room Has No Friendly Crew
Friendly Room Has No Enemy Crew
Friendly Room Has Friendly Crew
Friendly Room Has No Friendly Crew
New AI Actions List:
Set Power to 3
Set Power to 4
Set Power to 5
Set Power to 6
Accounts must be Verified to participate in Public Chat
Increased Mineral/Gas Market Price limits based on Ship Level
In-App-Purchase Rewards are now Auto-Collected
In-App-Purchase number of Bonus Fleet Gifts now scales appropriately
Room Controls in Battle will now Highlight the Selected Room
Borrowing a Crew from the Fleet will no longer close the Donated Crew panel
Added Ship Camera Panning keyboard shortcut keys
Updated several Default keyboard shortcut keys
LLPVP Matchups can no longer be Scanned or Skipped
LLPVP Draws and Escapes Rewards rescaled
LLPVP Daily Battle Limit reduced to 12
Regular PvP is now enabled after reaching the LLPVP Daily Battle Limit
Fixed several Live AI bugs
Fixed invalid Trophy Loss and Result displays in Starlog
Fixed a bug preventing correct Ship Shaking animations/effects
Fixed a bug with Friend Replay Sharing when either Target is not in a Fleet
Fixed a bug causing an invalid display of Bank VIP Status
Fixed a bug preventing the Bank Menu from refreshing after purchase
Fixed a bug with Room Skins not displaying correctly in Inventory
Crew Prestige options have changed! Please make sure to triple-check any changes before starting a Prestige combination after the 1st of July.
Thank you for all of your provided feedback, leading to many of the fixes noted above. You can join these discussions in the Feedback section of our Official PSS Discord and subreddit.
Good Hunting, Captains!
-SavySoda Team
Interstellar Independence!
Warning, Captain! We are entering the final week of Interstellar Independence!
Don't miss your chance to gain LIMITED EDITION Items, Crew, and other free-to-grind rewards!
-SavySoda Team
Galaxy Patch Notes V0.990
Hi Captains!
Today’s update includes a number of exciting changes, including the return of Live AI Battles and Crafting Ingredients. In particular, we will begin the first wave of live feedback and community design for the new Legendary PVP League.
Please Note: We will be closely reviewing and improving this system over the coming weeks based on players’ experiences, and we would really appreciate your thoughts and feedback (Links are available below). Thanks!
The latest Patch Notes are detailed below. This update is now available on Android, iOS, Steam and MacOS.
Please contact our Support Team if you experience any problems updating the game.
V0.990 Changelogs:
New PvP Trophy Rank: Legend! Ranking players can now earn daily Dove Points
Legend League Dove Point Rewards:
2 Points for ending the day with a higher Trophy Count than the previous day
1 Point for ending a day with at least 1 Battle and at least the same Trophy Count of the previous day
New Dove Sticker available in the Dove Store
New Live AI Battle Achievement
Reworked Crafting Ingredients for over 50 in-game Items
Fleet Gifts are now supported for Bank Purchases
Season Information Panel will not appear in the Ship Scene
Improved Data Version check at Login
Improved handling of Crew UI Resizing
Improved handling of Skinned Projectiles
Added and improved Steam Key Shortcuts
Fixed a bug causing Crew Profiles to show incorrect Collection Information
Fixed a bug causing Missile Ammo types to go missing if Rushed via Boost Gauge
Fixed a bug preventing the purchase of Items on the Merchant Ship
Fixed a bug preventing Special Animations and Effects on Room Skins
Fixed a bug preventing Localized Title when first changing Language
Fixed a bug preventing Items with Bonus Stats from being Upgraded
Fixed several minor UI related issues
We are particularly excited to see the return of Live AI Battle Events for players to test their skills and AI setups. The first Event will increase all Crew levels to 40 instead of replacing their Crew Type, allowing players to go head to head and test their builds against one another.
Players can also expect the anticipated return of the Galactic Independence Event! This year sees the struggle continue to new frontiers, with plenty of new rewards!
Thank you for all of your provided feedback, leading to many of the fixes noted above. You can join these discussions in the Feedback section of our Official PSS Discord and subreddit.
