I'm still working through all the feedback and bug reports that came from the influx of demo players Splattercat Gaming sent my way. I haven't even got on to the feedback Splattercat gave himself during the review video yet!
Assembler Improvement
When you begin to modify an item all valid items that can be destroyed to improve it will now be highlighted in your cargo / storage to make them easier to see.
Parallax Changes
The movement (or lack) of background objects has come up a few times in the comments recently. Last update I vastly increased the movement but some people didn't like it. As such the movement is now quite minimal but there is a setting under Accessibility if you wish to increase it.
Discord Rich Presence
If you share your game activity on Discord then Star Vortex will now display to your friends when you're playing. It includes the sector you're in, difficulty and your current level when in game.
There are lots more requested changes and bug fixes below, be sure to check them out. Next update will be in a week or so. Have fun!
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
Gameplay details and activity can now sync to Discord when you're playing.
Balance Changes
Reduced number of squadrons in the final wave of rescue encounters from 3 down to 2.
Halved damage of the Arrow Launcher used by the Bull (Junker Elite).
Increased delay between Railgun shots by +50% and increased damage by +50%.
Doubled velocity and effective range of Fire Bolas / Shuriken Thrower / Boomerang.
Disabled debuff now has diminishing returns on the player. Duration goes 2s, 1s 0.5s 0.25s to immune.
Disabled debuff can no longer be triggered on the player more than once every 2 seconds.
Doubled weapon range of roaming drones but engagement range remains the same.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Items in the Assembler are now dimmed if they're not valid for the current modification.
Dialog on bosses / faction elites now only plays the first time the player arrives.
Vastly increased scroll sensitivity when scrolling panels with the mouse wheel.
Reverted change that increased parallax of background objects.
New setting 'Increase Background Movement' added to accessibility that is off by default.
Item version number now updates when it's level increases due to stats regenerating.
Railguns now have a bigger projectile, explosion and new muzzle flash animation.
Beacon weapons now require a 1 second key press to dismiss friendly ships.
File paths are no longer stored in save data so it can be shared more safely.
Auto Untarget Out Of Range setting is disabled by default again due to it causing issues.
Bug Fixes
Increasing item levels at the Assembler no longer slightly inflates some stats.
Background objects no longer move weirdly when zooming the camera in and out.
Swapping storage tabs in Assembler with a controller now closes all overlays.
Updated file browser addon used to import avatars that was causing some errors.
Fixed spam in the player log about error reporting being enabled.
Fixed horizontal navigation between items for sale when using a controller.
Fixed incorrect colored muzzle flashes on PDL beams.
Heat loss now has a 0.1s latency so rapidly clicking will no longer avoid heat build-up.
Fixed bug where alternate designs were not unlocking, will apply retroactively.
Friendly ships in the fleet now display their names for consistency.
Fixed bug where faction unlocks were not displaying on HUD when achieved.
Fixed bug where faction unlock notices were not translating faction names.
Fixed errors when typing really big numbers into the developer console.
Fixed null pointer in Thruster.PlayParticles().
Fixed null pointer in Activatable.FixedUpdate().
Fixed global modifiers not updating when replacing modifiers in the Assembler.
Hitting cancel when regenerating a sector now correctly closes the confirmation.
Fixed bindings displaying twice if a secondary keyboard binding is added for an action.
Fixed max speed of hornet drones displaying incorrectly.
Fixed Engineer Relios dialog popping up before he joins the fleet.
Splattercat's Nerd Castle Arrives (v0.9.14)
Wishlists are everything when you're an unreleased game on Steam. Without them, your game pretty much disappears into the void at launch. We’ve been doing well so far, with enough to get on Popular Upcoming, but progress has been slow.
Every day I log in and check the numbers. Wishlists, followers, demo downloads, etc. One day last week more people deleted Star Vortex from their wishlists than added it. It's hard not to be demotivated but that's all part of the journey.
Then, two days ago, a friend messaged me: "SplattercatGaming just posted a review of your game." Within a day I had over +1,500 wishlists, +200 followers and over 500 new players trying out the demo. Holy cow...
The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of feedback, bug reports and suggestions. This update is my first attempt to address some of them, more will follow. Thanks to Splattercat for the phenomenal review and to all the new players who saw it and are now here!
Parallax Changes
Some people evidently don't like the slow parallax background artwork. I attempted to address this last update with my new dust layer in the clouds, to give a greater sense of movement. With this update I've also increased the movement speed of all the background elements. I'm hoping this will go some way to addressing the feeling that you're not in motion.
Sell Price Doubled
Long ago players in Star Vortex had too many credits and nothing to spend them on. These days with the Assembler, players often find themselves running short. As such I've doubled the sell price of all items in the game. This means items now sell for 20% of their buy price instead of the old 10%. I'm hoping this gives a little more freedom to buy things and experiment.
Friendly Ships
I designed the friendly ships, I picked their colors and gave them names. Yet still, I try to shoot them when they arrive in Warzones! Clearly, there is still an issue with identifying friendly targets that adding temporary [Friendly] tags did not address. All friendly ships now permanently show their names above in blue text that I'm hoping will stop me from trying to kill them on sight.
PDL Color
It was mentioned briefly in a live stream that PDLs were hard to distinguish from incoming laser fire and I have to agree. There was no real reason for them to have colors as they're kinetic damage. Now they're white so they should be easier to distinguish.
Display Change
I don't normally highlight bugs but this one was game-breaking. The game now defaults to Borderless Fullscreen (because it's safer) and if you change this in any way you'll get 10 seconds to accept the changes before they auto-revert. Some setups allow players to pick refresh rates that their monitors do not support and this can make the game unplayable.
Lots of other bug fixes and quality of life changes below. We finally tracked down the last of the assembler storage errors and your drones should no longer go whizzing away like easily distracted children.
If you missed the review by Splattercat Gaming you can find it here:
[TAG-20] Enjoy! Another update should be out this weekend where I'll hopefully address some of Splattercat's feedback directly.
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
Resetting slots now includes your initial primary slot.
Balance Changes
Doubled sell price of all items as items now sell for 20% of their cost to buy.
Credits dropped by transports in intercept encounters have been doubled.
Increased drone range by +10% as they still feel a bit short range.
Infect waypoint mission is now correctly level 12.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Friendly ships now permanently have their names above them in bright blue text.
Increased parallaxing of background objects to improve sense of movement.
Background stars no longer remain static to improve sense of movement.
PDLs are now white as it made no sense to give them damage-type colors when they're kinetic.
Auto Untarget Out Of Range setting is now enabled by default.
Moved auto target settings out of gameplay and into the controls category.
Game now defaults to Fullscreen (Borderless) due to refresh rate issues on some devices.
Display changes are now followed by a 10s reversion countdown incase it doesn't work.
Rewrote some of the Admiral's dialog to make him ask more questions.
Adjusted ESA's dialog to make its personality more consistent.
Fixed random Dialog that called Echo 'she' instead of 'it'.
Skip cutscene button should no longer accidentally be clicked when reading dialog.
Added a pop-up tutorial to prompt new players about the navigation panel.
Shorter loading screens that don't run a 3s animation no longer display tips.
Bug Fixes
Friendly and enemy drones should no longer fly off in wild fast orbits.
Fixed bug where closing assembler panel with shared storage open could cause errors.
Fixed another issue where the global light would not reset in the Alpha Saxa.
Fixed a null pointer as the upgrade panel opens.
Fixed a null pointer in NavigationHighlight.Update().
Fixed a null pointer in DialogOverlay.OnDestroy().
Fixed bug where Phantom parts would not unlock at the end of Sector 2.
Enemies will now target the player even when they have boost immunity.
Fixed null pointer in NullSave.ReIconed.CompareIdentifierName().
Hotfix (v0.9.13-1)
Another small hotfix today to fix some bugs and issues.
What's with all these updates? I'm glad you asked! We're currently doing some influencer outreach and a Keymailer campaign. This means some streamers are starting to play the game.
I should probably mention that I hate this. Watching people play the game always makes me nervous, even when they're clearly having a good time. It's a necessary evil though. Sometimes they notice issues, sometimes I notice issues, these hotfixes are me trying to fix them as quickly as possible.
Difficulty Locks
Some players jump straight into Hardcore mode, a choice I personally wouldn't make, but to each their own. Then there are the truly insane ones who start on both Hardcore mode and Impossible difficulty. There is no way that’s ever going to be a positive experience.
From now if want to play on Formidable difficulty, you'll need to get a player to level 10 first. Impossible and Custom difficulties are locked until level 20.
Camera Motion
There was a complaint on our Steam Community that sometimes the movement would feel like objects were coming towards you instead of you moving towards them. It's one of those that once someone points it out it's hard to unsee.
As such I've added a new dust layer to backgrounds that should make movement a little clearer. Failing this you can enable a movement grid under the Accessibility settings if you still dislike it.
Global Lighting
If you noticed the game was really dark it's because there was a bug with the global lighting after watching the intro cinematic. This has now been fixed... but I kind of liked it, so global lighting has been reduced by 20% to make things a little darker than it used to be.
Enjoy, check our #coverage channel in Discord if you want to watch some of the Streams and reviews!
Patch Notes
Quality of Life / Accessibility New Features / Content
Formidable difficulty is now locked until you get a player to level 10.
Impossible and Custom difficulty is now locked until you get a player to level 20.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Backgrounds now include a dust layer in an attempt to make movement clearer.
New setting in Accessibility to Show Movement Grid if you still dislike the camera motion.
Reduced global light by 20% because I kind of liked the low-light bug.
Bug Fixes
Fixed bug where global light would be extremely dark after watching the intro cutscene.
Fixed bug where some HUD elements would display despite HUD being disabled.
Fixed null pointer if you manage to quit the game while a panel is open.
Getting multiple levels at once no longer desyncs achievements from the actual level.
Language Update! (v0.9.13)
We've now added human translations for over 1,100 language entries in French, German, Japanese, and Polish!
This includes Attributes, Control Bindings, HUD elements, Names, Settings, Tutorials, and all User Interface elements, making the game much more accessible in these languages.
For content that is constantly evolving, like descriptive text and dialog, we're still using machine translation. In many cases, it actually does a good job since this type of text is usually written in full sentences.
We're still aiming to add Italian, Korean, and Simplified Chinese before our Early Access launch!
Hotfix (v0.9.12-2)
Another quick hotfix. Nothing too exciting in this one, just fixing some reporting issues and clearing some things up that will hopefully help new players.
Patch Notes
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Item tooltip will now display modifiers when replacing modifiers in the Assembler.
Shared storage now includes a note to say it's shared between your player saves.
Bug Fixes
Pantheon pilot names now display correctly in dialog.
Pantheon dialog no longer repeats itself.
Fixed errors with multiple global lights that happen sometimes during loading.
Pasting multiple lines into console no longer breaks the display.
Fixed failed encounter messages saying intercept instead of rescue and vice versa.
Upgrading rarity in the Assembler now correctly enables new modify buttons.
Fixed display issue where debris clouds would overflow the sector map.
Hotfix (v0.9.12-1)
Just a quick fix for some issues we found with the last update. Full details below.
Patch Notes
Balance Changes
Orbs now stop emitting sub-projectiles when passing through enemy ships.
Increased phase cooldown of Species-XI ships from 5 to 8 seconds.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Reduced fade out time of projectiles so their range is clearer.
Bug Fixes
Upgrading items to legendary rarity will no longer wipe all modifiers.
Equipment removed due to slot / unlock resets will now be ejected correctly.
Fixed bug where some equipment would not be removed when upgrade unlock was reset.
Passive items upgraded to different rarity no longer get duplicate effectiveness modifiers.
Fixed bug where required level modifier could be changed during rarity upgrades.
Fixed bug where sub-projectiles from orbs would pass through enemies.
Species-XI will no longer invade their own encounters.
Sector 2 Rework (v0.9.12)
I'll start this update out by saying, most of the content in this one is in Sector 2 so is not available in the demo yet.
Having said that, we're always looking for testers on our Discord. So if you've completed the demo and like to discuss ideas and improvements come join us. You might be able to help out!
Pantheon Faction
Part of Sector 2 is now occupied by a new Conclave faction called the Pantheon. They have some strange ideas about democracy and a strong dislike for military dictatorships... like you!
They have a full set of unique ship designs and you can unlock the alternate designs for use yourself.
Shadow Redesign
Having the Shadow faction of Skeran in Sector 2 just be essentially a hue shift on the regular Skeran felt a little disappointing. Now they have their own unique ship designs and weapons.
Sector Generation
The procedural generation is now unique for each sector. This should give each a distinct and unique feel. Sector 1 has been made more chaotic with longer paths and more dead-ends (which are now guaranteed to have caches in them). Sector 2 has been engineered by the Phantoms over their lengthy time in the galaxy and has a more artificially constructed layout.
Sector 1 - Chaotic
Sector 2 - Engineered
Assembler Crafting
Now when you upgrade an item in the Assembler to a higher rarity you'll get additional random modifiers added for free, rather than empty new slots. This should make the experience slightly more satisfying during the early game.
New Trailer
We have a new trailer with some updated footage. It also has some new music that'll also greet you in the main menu of the game now!
Lots of additional changes are listed below. Echo is now hanging out in Sector 2 and up to her usual suspicious activity and the story-line is now fully in for that Sector.
A new roadmap is being designed before the next update but I'm hoping to get Sector 3 content in and balanced as soon as possible. Enjoy!
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
Pantheon enemies are now present in Sector 2 with missions, achievements, etc.
Shadow faction in Sector 2 now has its own unique ship designs.
Alternate Pantheon design added for Conclave ship parts.
Junkers now use new Static Shields, Molecular shields moved to Pantheon in Sector 2.
New weapon Impact Pulse added for use by Pantheon ships.
Sector 1 generation completely rewritten to create a more chaotic layout.
Sector 2 is now visually distinct from Sector 1 with an engineered layout.
Species-XI are now present in Sector 2 and have infected a few Pantheon / Phantom ships.
Echo now joins the player in Sector 2, doing her usual mysterious things.
Our new title theme music now plays on the main menu.
Balance Changes
Increasing item rarity now adds new modifiers to an item without replacing any that exist.
Increase rarity now unlocks before replacing modifiers due to being easier to understand.
Reduced average number of encounters per sector from 185 down to 155.
Total number of caches per sector halved but contents doubled.
Encounters in dead ends are now guaranteed to contain a cache.
Weapons with a damage type now increase debuff chance +1% every 4 levels.
Kinetic weapons now increase their critical chance +1% every 5 levels.
Astralis where you rescue the Assembler now only ever has common rewards.
Reduced amount of radioactive encounters in Sector 1.
Reduced amount of shadow encounters in Sector 2.
Hull leech weapons now increase their leech percentage +1% every 4 levels.
Reduced maximum debuff chance from modifiers from 50% down to 25%.
Reduced shield and hull of Skeran Hunter elite by 40%.
Reduced max speed bonus from radiation thrusters by 1.
Reduced damage and thruster speed slightly for enraged Hodr and Baldur bosses.
Radioactive encounters in Sector 1 now contain more enemy variety.
Reduced buy price of large consumables from 1,000c down to 800c.
Improved expansion rate of all pulse weapons.
Blast Wave Pulse no longer increases debuff chance with level.
Electromagnetic Pulse no longer increases debuff chance with level.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Alternate designs section in ship design now expands to fill available space.
Changed some faction colors to better match their ship designs.
Increased brightness of corrosive debris in navigation display.
Minibars under enemy ships no longer display for heat build-up alone.
Lights from glowing ship parts (like cockpits) now reduce intensity when stacked.
Moved 'run in background' setting out of the graphics section and into advanced.
Total played time is now tracked in real-time and will continue to increase when in panels.
Added unique sound effects when dialog opens and closes.
Added some additional dialog from Engineer Relios in Sector 2.
Drones in formation now stick closer and further forward so their range is more effective.
Drones in roaming mode now stick closer to their parent when not in combat.
Bug Fixes
Fixed null pointer in assembler panel when selecting increase level / rarity.
Fixed incorrect slot display when selecting empty slots.
Empty slots will no longer incorrectly appear in slot selection when modifying equipment.
Upgrade levels are now clamped to valid ranges on player load in case of any past errors.
Fixed item version data wrapping on item images.
Fixed some null pointers relating to destroyed game objects.
Neutral faction no longer shows in sandbox ship designer.
Fixed bug where multiple empty modifier slots could be selected when replacing modifiers.
Upgrading the rarity of an equipped item will now correctly update its display.
Fixed error when pooled objects are destroyed during scene loading.
Aiming enemies that are disabled by electric weapons will now cancel their aim.
Orchid encounters will no longer clone non-elite enemies.
Matriarch encounters will no longer count non-elite enemies towards HUD display.
Low pass filter on music no longer engages on main menu when opening settings panel.
Fixed null pointer when running 'editor' console command away from the main menu.
Species-XI ships destroyed by Echo during cutscene no longer drop loot.
Hyperdrive jump shader now renders correctly.
Player can now always hyperdrive jump to wherever the fleet is located.
Fixed bug where bosses would sometimes not target the player if out of range.
Fixed bug where enemies with displacement could boost the same frame they're destroyed.
Traders Arrive (v0.9.11)
That concludes the final part to the crafting system in the form of trader encounters.
Traders
You'll now meet some traders selling a variety of items you can either equip or disassemble. There are three of them in total each specializing in different slots although the third one may be a bit tricky to find.
Translation
I've reworked the language system slightly. Each language will now display how much of it is AI translated when selected with the only current (partly) human translated language being Polish.
In the coming month, I'll be getting the majority of the UI translated in German, Polish, French and Japanese (based on wishlist numbers). This should make the game far more playable in those languages.
Reality Break
Finally, our friends over at Reality Break have launched this week. So if you're impatiently waiting for a space-based Action-RPG I'd highly recommend you check it out. It's very fun!
The next update will be heavily focused on Sector 2 as we prepare to show the game to some streamers for first impressions. Enjoy!
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
Traders will now show up offering you the chance to purchase rare equipment.
Balance Changes
Increased amount of credits dropped from all sources by +20%.
Increased chance of rare equipment from black market from 20% up to 25%.
Item prices are now derived from required level not the base item level.
Increased hull of Junker Bull by +50%.
Increased hull of Outcast Griffin by +50%.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Dialog display speed increased, one click to skip and replaced typewriter sound.
Patch notes panel now includes dates in the top right for each update.
Re-mapped all language system behind the scenes, may result in some errors.
Bug Fixes
Fixed controller navigation highlight not showing on death overlay.
Removed news heading from menu that was not translated.
Fixed twin-stick control settings not translating.
Fixed bug where equipment could be equipped to the wrong slot from assembler panel.
Fixed bug where some equipment in cargo could think it was equipped in save data.
Reduced glow from some Skeran boss parts.
Fixed null pointer when loading into game with Griffin's mission incomplete.
Legendary! (v0.9.10)
This update feels quite overdue but it made sense to delay it until after item crafting was done. All legendary items in the game have been re-designed and 16 additional legendary items have been added.
All of these new legendary items can be found in the demo in Sector 1.
New Legendary Items
Not only are there new legendary items some can now be built from different base items and will retain their stats. For example, a Prism Ray used to come from a Freeze Ray but now it can be built from a Heat Rays, Freeze Ray, Caustic Laser or Skeran Laser.
The type of base item used will determine the Prism Rays stats and damage type. You can find these variants in your travels or intentionally build them using the Assembler. All legendary items now work in this way with lots of them having multiple possible bases.
Upcoming Translation
Just wanted to take the time to mention that although I cannot human translate the whole game before Early Access (due to the financial cost and constant changes) in the next few updates I'm going to be working on categorizing and prioritizing language entries.
This should allow me to at least get all the UI and interface human translated before we enter Early Access and hopefully make the game more playable in other languages.
Lots of other changes below, hope you enjoy. Trading encounters will be in the next update!
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
Some legendary items can now be built from different base items.
Added 1 new legendary shield.
Added 3 new legendary primary weapons.
Added 1 new legendary secondary weapon.
Added 4 new legendary specials.
Added 6 new legendary auto specials.
Added 1 new legendary utility.
New command added to consoles for spawning legendary items derived from new base items.
Balance Changes
Existing legendaries now all have a new selection of default modifiers.
Auto Tesla Coil and Auto Heat Ray can now have same modifiers as their primary versions.
Drone bays can now get rare on kill modifiers.
Gatling Gun legendary now comes from the machine gun, not acid gun.
Prism Rays can now be built from other lasers changing their stats and damage type.
Boomerangs can now be built from Shuriken Thrower changing their stats and damage type.
Assembler replace modifier now unlocks at level 6 and increase rarity at level 12.
Drones now despawn when parent ship phase shifts.
Increased hull of all drones by +50%.
Enemy drones now have the same aiming latency as other enemy ships.
Reduced Auto Stinger Launcher range from 350m down to 260m.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Rather than default to yellow unequipped items now default to their type color.
Legendary items now show the item base they were built from below their item image.
Projectiles receiving crits from PDLs will now display the critical hit effect.
Aim assist line now scales with HUD scale and camera zoom.
Increased default size of minibars by 50%.
New setting added to change scale of minibars independent from HUD scale.
Pulse weapons and stalker launcher now change color more from their slots.
Assembler UI now tells you why it rejects an item for destruction.
Bug Fixes
Drones will now keep up with and harass moving enemies that are being kited.
Playing an old version of the game will not reset save data from the newer version.
Fixed some spelling mistakes in item descriptions.
Fixed bug where unspent points notice below player avatar in HUD would vanish.
Fixed bug where Auto Stinger Launcher would activate when significantly out of range.
Fixed bug where enemy ships weren't being repulsed away from each other when stacked.
Auto Specials should no longer activate as ships are jumping into encounters.
Fixed null pointer when upgrading an item to legendary rarity.
Fixed circular trails remaining after Boomerangs return.
Fixed display issues with background artwork after invader transition.
Added fail-safe exception if equipment is ever equipped to the incorrect slot type.
Fixed arrival missions not being completed correctly when using developer auto-complete.
Fixed using backslash as escape character in input boxes.
Fixed bug where passive items could not roll increased effectiveness as a modifier.
Fixed typo in on kill cold surge modifiers.
Fixes and Improvements (v0.9.07)
Just a quick update this time mostly made up of changes and fixes that were delayed to make sure item crafting came out as quickly as possible. A lot of this is based off feedback and testing on our Discord so if you've not joined yet come join us and let us know your thoughts.
Parallel Fire
Primary weapons by default snap inward to hit a target if the weapon slots are spaced towards the outside of your ship. This can now be disabled in the equipment panel if you'd prefer a broader range of fire to hit multiple targets.
Navigation Progress
The sector summary that is displayed during sector generation is now also visible at the bottom of the navigation panel as it contains some useful information.
There is also lots of other improvements and bug fixes. Not least of which is the rebound launchers were instant destroying enemies when they applied debuffs due to an error in their damage calculations.
The next update should include the new trader encounters and host of new legendary weapons!
Patch Notes
Balance Changes
Reduced level requirements of Assembler options from 8 and 16 down to 6 and 12.
Increased number of intercept encounters in a sector by +66%.
Rescue ships will now fire back at enemies who come into range.
Small consumables now stop dropping at level 15.
Medium consumables now stop dropping at level 30.
Increased speed of grub launcher projectiles by 66%.
Rebound launcher projectiles increase speed when returning.
Reduced rate of fire and damage of Skeran Lice.
Reduced range of drones from 250m to 225m.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
Added latency to the camera's perceived ship velocity to make sudden velocity changes smoother.
Added ship summary to bottom left of Mothership panel to make ship editing more obvious.
New players will now be prompted to select between classic and twin-stick controls.
Alpha Saxa, Novus Prime, Asgard, Genesis and Eden are no longer Waypoints.
Destroying items in the assembler now has new animations and sound effects.
Patch notes panel now includes the most recent 3 versions separated by tabs.
Added glowing thruster to Big Blasta missiles to make them easier to see.
Screenshot mode in ship designer now has a button to toggle equipment visibility.
Navigation panel now includes a sector progress and contents summary.
Primary weapons can now be set to parallel fire instead of focused fire.
Bug Fixes
When fighting elite Orchids the one with the highest hull is now displayed below the radar.
Fixed bug where rescue ships would just sit idle and not fly around.
Engineer Relios dialog no longer pops up in sandbox mode.
Fixed bug where rebound launchers would give debuffs for infinite damage.
Fixed grub launcher incorrectly having 300% crit damage.
Fixed bug where some items in Assembler didn't include slot color.
