Star Nomad 2
Updates: December 2015 #4
Update 20/12/2015 (v1.06):
* Rebalanced the final siege for an enemy Homeworld. Your ally will devote an extra vessel for the siege and may send extra ships on the reinforcement wave if they are not being hammered on the other front. It is still very challenging, so come prepared for an EPIC battle!
* Fix a small bug with Re-Arm function all.
* Improved tooltip on Shield Skills to clarify that they also apply to Omni ship hull resists & regeneration.
* Improved the Combat (Hunter & Raptor) Drone calculations & interactions with the Carrier's Drone Bay, recall, launch, auto-return to repair and active drones being shot down by enemies should be accurately reflected in the stats & counter.
* Improved Corsair's Repair Drone AI, it will behave better and obey the priority list of damaged targets, in order: Player, Corsair, Grace, Talon.
* Thanks @MikeDH for testing the drones!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small Update, v1.061
* Talon's Mission on failure will now reset your faction standing with the Free Union back to it's value before you embarked on the mission.
* Fix a bug with hired mercenaries sometimes not being able to combat Pirates well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, I welcome suggestions & feedback so that I can improve the game.
If you enjoy the game, please leave a positive review. Every bit helps for small time dev like me! :)
Regards,
-Huy
Updates: December 2015 #3
* In my quest to improve "clicking efficiency", I've added mechanic to loot ores you've mined with mouse-over directly, no clicking is required!
* Buff Player Skill Armor & Drone Penetration from 1/2/3 to 1/3/5. If you already have it, open & close the skill UI will reset to the new values.
* Fix an economic Destitute event (skull icon) on some worlds, they should recover over time.
* Remove faction recruiter on their Homeworld if its lost.
* Fixed Grace's mission if you are an Ally with the Starborn Federation, it will restore your Ally status correctly.
* Improved Ambulance Drone flying skill, hopefully it will no longer leave some Lifepods stranded..
* Increased the Gravonite & Elypsium ore production on many mining colonies. It should be a viable way for players who have a lot of credits who dislike mining to acquire them in larger quantities.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, I welcome suggestions & feedback so that I can improve the game.
If you enjoy the game, please leave a positive review. Every bit helps for small time dev like me! :)
Regards,
-Huy
Updates: December 2015 #2
http://steamcommunity.com/app/414950/discussions/0/494631967666248183/
Update 18/12/2015 (v1.02):
* Added a cool feature, thanks to user suggestion. The Ambulance Drone! How it works is the Drone will detect the presence of Lifepods on the sensor map and fly to scoop it up, flying back to your ship and dropping it straight into your hold. It'll keep on doing it until there's no more Lifepods.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=577843432
How to obtain it? I hear there's a Drone dealer somewhere in the Free Union systems.
* Added a message on the Star Map to better reflect systems which players smuggle in too much Drugs.
* Increased the negative effects of "substance addictions" on non-Homeworld systems.
* Make turret targeting sight less transparent for easier viewing.
* Fixed the Re-Arm All to actually charge you credits...
* Lower the Friendly Fire threshold & standing loss for the Pirate Syndicate (sorry I had forgotten about all the player Pirates in the last FF update!).
* Fixed the hotkey [4] to fire all missiles, to not trigger when CTRL is held down (for manual turret toggling).
* Increased the availability of Gravonite & Elypsium on some mining colonies! For those with lots of creds who wish to get more of those rare ores via less risky means.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 18/12/2015 (v1.03):
Due to common feedback regarding the Friendly Fire system, I decided to re-work it, hoping to achieve a balance where it still promotes careful aiming but not being too punitive. Please understand, I do not want a playstyle where there's no consequences for friendly firing (it utterly detracts from immersion as NPCs ignore your fire).
How it now works:
For Factions which you can Ally with (Empire/Federation/Collective):
Not recruited to join them yet (not an Ally):
Friendly fire threshold raised so they can tolerate more stray shot. After many consecutive shots in a row, the penalty is halved.
Each friendly fire kill lowers standing by 10%. The 3rd consecutive kill in a short time-span, will flag you as their enemy.
Recruited to join them (Ally):
Friendly fire will only be warning, NO faction standing is lost.
Friendly kill, NO faction loss, but the 3rd consecutive kill will cancel the ally-status and flag you as their enemy.
For every other factions:
They will warn you over coms for FF, if you push it a lot (threshold raised), the penalty has been reduced by 50%.
Friendly kills will lose 10% standing, the 3rd one in a short time-span will flag you as their enemy.
* Changed the Omni Plasma Launcher weapon to behave like Missiles. It will now ONLY hit ships which you have targeted & others belonging to the targeted faction. This should make them no longer able to FF unless you specifically target friendlies, in which case, it's your fault.
* Fixed a bug for Flare turrets (Beam Weapons) when striking Zerker ships, it will now have the damage text correctly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 19/12/2015 (v1.04):
This update focuses on improving the Conquest AI to make late-game conquest more dynamic, balanced and prevents some potential stalemate situations.
* A major feature was added for the faction conquest AI. If the player has joined a faction and raised their standing above 800 points, the player can spearhead invasions IF the ally faction is currently not invading a hostile system. This can override their priority for defense, so make it count if you intend to use it, ie. diverting their forces on a strike. If they lose, it will be a major blow.
How to initiate the Strike Fleet? Just go to an enemy system (non-Homeworld or adjacent to Homeworld), attack them and defeat their forces, if you deal lots of damage to their enemies, your Ally will be inspired to launch an attack, together with your help, to take over the system!
There's a cooldown to how often you can initiate the Strike Fleet, it's ~10 minutes to let them recover their forces (because they could have been hammered on the defense). This feature is intended to be used to solve a stalemate situation where player inputs can tip the balance.
* Change the AI conquest behavior: once a faction have you as an ally, they will devote less ships to defend. This results in them launching counter-invasions more frequently, but they will need your help on the offense as it's a small strike-group! If you do not assist, they will retreat if the odds are poor. This should prevent the AI from being pushed by enemies into only defending.
* Hugely speed up calculations for siege resolve if player participated in the conquest. You should no longer need to wait around after the battles are over, it should resolve within ~1 second.
* Improved the balance of the conquest mechanic for active Allies assistance on offense or defense. It is based on the economic conditions of the factions involved, but it skews to give players a challenge.
* On Conquest Offense, if your ally fleet is destroyed, you can still fight to the bitter end, if you defeat the defenders, your ally will send a small reinforcement to capture that system.
* On Conquest Defense, if your ally fleet is destroyed, they cannot send a reinforcement fleet to keep on contesting it.
* Extended the Quadrant Prices tooltip to show potential profits! Thank you for the suggestion!
* Sometimes Pirates want to run & Jump out but they couldn't power up their Jump-Drive... now they should be able to do it most of the time.
* Fix negative storage hold bug.
* Added a red background to illegal goods. Again, thank you for the suggestion!
* Rebalance the Mass Addiction mechanics, it will now last twice as long, so make sure you smuggle drugs to your enemy's systems!
* Fix a mining bug where Asteroids can fall below 0 density.
* Fix some Starports which sell Pleasure Sims demanding Pleasure Sims.
* Fix a rare bug with the Sensor Drone not auto-resupplying on landing.
* Fix an encounter.
* Block the usage of the Emergency Warp while paused as it leads to a lock-out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, I welcome suggestions & feedback so that I can improve the game. The next feature I would like to add would be a player Hangar access on ports to switch out ships, either this or Port News service to show current events & tracking of some missions. Or both. :)
If you enjoy the game, please leave a positive review. Every bit helps for small time dev like me! :)
Regards,
-Huy
Updates: December 2015 #1
The notes will also be in the forum thread:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/414950/discussions/0/494631967666248183/
Update 15/12/2015:
* Due to some feedback that the starting trade UI doesn't have any info on where to go for profits, I've changed a game mechanic. Prior, you had to join the Merchant Guild on Liberty to access two very nice trading features: The Global Real-Time Price Database & a Quadrant Real-Time Database. I've changed it so the quadrant database can be accessed by everyone, but the global sector-wide database requires joining the Merchant Guild. It should help starting merchants a lot.
* Added a new bounty hunting mechanic, on Normal Mode. Authorities will reward nearby friendly ships when a Pirate Blockade is successfully cleared. This is intended to assist starting players to earn some credits, XP and reputation as they practice to get killing blows. Hopefully it removes some frustration whilst learning the game early on. This mechanic only applies to Pilots of rank 3 or below. Picking up lifepods to sell as well, should alleviate early game concerns of failing to get kills.
* Added Hunter Guild reputation in mouse-over pilot info panel, for those curious why Hunters are attacking them.
* Changed icon of the exe on the desktop, hopefully its better!
* Fixed a bug, on Pirate ports, the black market will now no longer check for faction standing for the purchases of modules or ships, as intended.
* Disabled the Windows hotkey Ctrl + W from exiting the game.
* Fixed the Nebula Cruiser having 0 storage space.
* In the Equip or Ship menu, mouse-over on your current ship will show it's stats.
* In the Equip Menu, mouse-over of modules in the shop or storage will briefly flash the compatible module slot on your ship. This should help early players figure out which mods go where without reading the tooltips.
* Fixed manual turrets firing (when it should not) when clicking on lifepods or ejected cargo cans. Also when clicking on the jump icon.
* Added an option to talk to an NPC (where mercs usually hang out at), to fix Hunter Guild reputation for a small fee.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 16/12/2015:
* Systems which are "degenerate" or have "mass drug addictions" due to Player Smuggler activity will now have a HIGHER chance to attract MORE Pirates to the area. This is a useful thing for Player Pirates, as they can "seed" these Pirate Raids or Blockades all over the Sector, giving them better access to places (because local defenses are busy dealing with the Pirates!), to buy and sell and smuggle even more drugs!
Just note that if a faction is afflicted with many "degenerate" colonies, it's production & fleet strength is severely reduced and may cause them to lose the war.
* Ensure the new "rookie Bounty" system for those Rank 3 or below works for all civilized factions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 17/12/2015:
* Due to common feedback regarding the Friendly Fire mechanic, I've done an overhaul of the entire system. The changes are:
1. Normal FF, such as stray gunfire, on a non-allied target will have a higher threshold before you incur a penalty for faction loss. If you incur the penalty, the loss is also reduced.
2. Normal FF like above, against an allied-target (the major factions, once you've accepted their recruitment), they will almost ignore unless you push your luck. If you do push your luck and spam FF, you will lose some standing, but the loss is also reduced.
3. FF Kills vs non-Allies will have a reduced loss in standing. But after consecutive FF Kills, they will respond with force.
4. FF Kills vs Allies will NOT have a faction standing loss. But do not repeat it for awhile. There's a timer when they cool their heads.
With this change, I hope that bigger fleet battles, stray fire will be ignored for your allies, but constant deliberate FF they will not ignore.
* Fixed a bug with Allies of the Human Empire. They were not recognizing your kills of their enemies on foreign hostile territory (& sometimes their own, because they are Humans.. so illogical). Now they will.
* Increase size of dots on sensor map, lower transparency of it slightly.
* Fixed a bug where you dock and spam the Map or F1 too fast before the scene loads will cause a lock-out.
* Fixed a FF bug with NPC Hunters who are contracted to kill you, some missiles were flagging FF when it should not (because you are allowed to defend yourself against hostile aggressors!). Hunters with a red Hull Bar are hired to end you, other Hunters are minding their own business, so don't provoke them.
Also note, sometimes "friendly" Hunters seem to randomly FF you on purpose. It is them being jealous you are stealing all their bounties and they want you gone, scram, away from where they operate. They are picking a fight, provoking you to respond and get you into trouble... if you are badass enough, feel free to school them (Target, TAB to activate coms, provoke them into fighting you first!!).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 17/12/2015 #2 (v1.01): Some nice Features from user suggestions!
* Added a Re-Arm all Launchers & Drones feature, re-dock to see it show up next to the Lifepod Exchange!
* Extended the feature of Right-Click on loot to take the stack instantly. It would not do it if your cargo could not hold the stack. Now it will auto-check for cargo reserve space, and take up to the maximum, instant, no need to use the slider & confirm.
* Extended the tooltip on the Star Map for Ports with a Trade Crisis event. It will now also show which goods are in high demand, for players to ship there to resolve the crisis to claim the bonus XP, Reputation & Faction Standing. It should help new merchant players a lot.
* Added a new hotkey for firing all Launchers at once, default to number [4]. So [1],[2],[3] will fire the Launchers individually and [4] will fire them all (if cooldown & ammo conditions are met).
* Added keybinds for Zoom, it is normally done using the mouse-wheel, but for those without access to that, you can Zoom in & out with the keys [-] & [+]!
* Improved the port docking icon to stand out better!
* Bugfix for drones, very rarely, they can die and do not free up the active slot.
* Reduced the Faction Standing loss for FF on Free Union ships.
Thanks for all the great suggestions & feedback so far, keep them coming and I'll try my best to implement them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Working on some content updates as these bugs are resolved. New ships, more weapons, missiles, encounters etc are on the block right now. I hope to do further UI tweaks soon too.
If you enjoy the game, please leave a positive review. Every bit helps for small time devs like me! :)
Regards,
-Huy
Releasing on the 14th of December!
It is best described as a real-time squad-tactical combat game, with a deep economic & dynamic faction conquest system, a strong RPG focus and Rogue-like-esque gameplay.
As such, the first "games similar to this" that comes to mind are top-down spacesims like Escape Velocity (or Space Rangers, SPAZ, Starsector) crossed with Mount & Blade + FTL hybrid.
It was designed to be accessible and not overwhelming, but there's plenty of depth underneath, with complex simulations that are unbeknownst to players while offering a dynamic sandbox that responds to player actions or in-actions.
Selected access to beta testing is currently underway to help me fine tune balance & progression along with bug hunting.
I would like to invite streamers or content makers, if you are interested, please contact me for early access.
Email: halfgeekstudios@gmail.com
Twitter: @AH_Phan
See you in space, Pilots!
ps. More info @ http://steamcommunity.com/app/414950/discussions/0/492379159716050661/