Stellar Tactics
Patch notes - 0.599g
Here are the notes:
Updated - Reduced the value of crafted ship equipment when selling to vendors. Crafted ship equipment has a lower value than looted space equipment. Overall, selling crafted ship equipment was OP and still is. This will all be adjusted with a major pass at the overall economy. The value of these items is still high and a very good way to earn a lot of money in the game if you want to skill up crafting/salvaging and gather the resources. It's important to note that there are salvage perks you can enable that increase the chance to loot schematics by as much as 10% when you have a high level of salvage skill.
Updated - Increased reward values for boarded ships salvaged/repaired and sold to Arkus. I will be expanding your interactions with Arkus through the game story to allow players to earn a ship rather than paying for one.
Updated - Depleted planetary nodes now have an icon - drone with red "X".
Fixed - A rare case where incursions would stop spawning.
Fixed - Salvaging Helmets in languages other than English would not generate "strap" resources.
Fixed - Switching languages from the main menu in the same session would not correctly populate foreign language strings for crafting and salvaging.
Fixed - The ammo converter device was not working in languages other than English. Thanks for reporting this!
Fixed - When activating the taunt weapon skill and switching weapons, the range circle effect was not disappearing.
Localization:
Updated - Translations for French, Russian, Spanish and German.
Fixed - The stats of crafted items were extending over the numbers numbers in some cases.
Fixed - Adjusted fonts for lists in scanned data UI's (planets and ships)
Fixed - Adjusted font size of "Click to re-roll item's attributes[...]".
Fixed - The names of crafted items were partial untranslated.
Fixed - When crafting mods, e.g. trigger groups, "WEAPON TYPE" was not translated. and "PISTOL/SMG" was untranslated
Fixed - When crafting beam weapons, "BEAM TYPE" and "ELECTRON" was untranslated when first displayed.
Fixed - When crafting turrets, "TURRET MOUNT" and "TURRET TYPE" were not translated. When changing from "LIGHT" to "HEAVY" labels were untranslated.
Fixed - Log when mining was not translated
Fixed - When editing the portrait of a crew member, several UI elements were untranslated.
Fixed - "Objectives" in the objective tracker from the trade net were not translated ("pick up" and "deliver").
Fixed - When a beacon is placed in a boarded ship the button "Initialize beacon" was not translated.
Fixed - "Repairing Shields" was not translated.
Fixed - In the boarding objectives panel, the headline was not translated.
Fixed - "Repair Progress", "Repair", "Salvage" and "Exit Repairs" are now translated.
Fixed - Headline for "item name" in storage on bases was cut off.
Fixed - In the transfer screen for storage on stations/bases, "Quantity" and "Cancel" are now translated.
Fixed - Mouse overs of vendors were not translated.
Fixed - Vendor name label expanded for cases where text exceeds label limit.
Fixed - The right button when dismissing a crew member was not displaying the correct translated text.
Fixed - The cancel button when trading was displaying the incorrect translation string.
Fixed - Perk award popups were not displaying correct translated text.
Fixed - Reduced size of status effects below the portrait so foreign language strings are not cut off.
Fixed - On the salvage screen, "schematic" was not translated.
Fixed - When deleting items from the inventory, the "cancel" button was not translated.
Fixed - Mouse over of data cards was not translated. Going forward - data cards that swap will be correctly translated.
Fixed - "You find a basic XXX schematic" was not translated in the log and splash screen.
Fixed - Flash screen for "objectives completed" was only partly translated.
Fixed - Quality level of equipment in the description popups was not translated.
Patch 0.599
Updated: Localization updated for French, Russian, German and Spanish. A HUGE thank you to everyone working on the translation! This is an ongoing project.
Updated: Mining drones will launch with the most recent drone launch state set using a new button on the drone manager window.
Fixed: Drone retrieve button is now hidden if a drone is not in a state where it can be retrieved.
Fixed: A fix for dedicated hacking, craft, salvage and repair crew members that are removed from the party and/or no longer have active hacking devices equipped. The dedicated crew flag gets reset and the currently selected crew member initiates the hack (if they have a hacking device), repair, crafting etc. Thanks for reporting the issue.
Fixed: Humanoid NPC's were rarely if ever throwing grenades. Skull NPC's have a higher chance of having grenade inventory. The chance of a NPC throwing a grenade is based on the games difficulty level set in the options menu.
Fixed: A rare lockup related to attacks of opportunity.
FIXED: A lockup when selecting a friendly planetary starbase on a planet that is out of range - approaching and selecting the landing icon. Previously, a second selection was required when in range.
FIXED: Ship icons on screen are now cleared when loading a quicksave or autosave to a ground location from space.
Consolidated patch notes/hotfixes:
12/11/21 - 0.596b
HOTFIX - If a dedicated crew member has been removed from the party or no longer has a hacking tool, the dedicated hacker is reset. The first time you hack, the flag is cleared so you will see a blank hacking UI. The second time you hack you can set a new dedicated crew member - someone who has a hacking tool equipped. I'll look for a better solution for this.
12/10/21 - 0.596
Fixed - An issue with character creation when assigning skill points.
Fixed - A number of localization fixes.
12/9/21 - 0.595
Updated - Darkened background of weapon UI in ground exploration. Updated fonts so ammo count, AP Requirement and fire mode stand out better on the background.
Updated - Moved health kit and grenade count from over selected icons to field above grenades and health kits. Added AP cost to rollover info.
Updated - Text in hacking window over progress bar moved where it can be seen.
Updated - A few updates to new icons on main UI so icons stand out better.
Fixed - If you have a dedicated hacker and remove the hacking tool, a message is sent to your log letting you know who your dedicated hacker is and that the hacker does not have a hacking tool equipped. If you are in a situation where you cannot hack, you need to equip the dedicated hacker with a hacking tool
Fixed - Loot UI - 4th loot slot in upper row fixed when clicking to loot.
Fixed - Loot UI now only responds to "SPACE" when looting all instead of any key.
Fixed - Grenade blast radius is displayed correctly when using the keyboard shortcut [O]
Fixed - When out of combat and moving, weapons now swap correctly with the hotkey or weapon swap icon. You cannot swap weapons while moving in combat. You must be stationary.
Fixed - A large number of edits to UI elements that had issues with translated text.
12/4/21 - 0.593b
Fixed - Ship beam weapons now function as intended
Fixed - Russian translation progression when first arriving in Ruins
Updated UI, translations and bug fixes
Note that a lot of data was touched for this patch so the download will be fairly large.
Here is what you will find in the patch:
1) A major stability fix related to level load lockups
2) A number of other fixes listed below
3) The updated game UI.
4) A first pass at localization to Spanish, French, German and Russian languages.
5) A warning screen if compatibility issues related to drivers and 3D rendering support are discovered when the game loads.
LOCALIZATION -French, German, Spanish and Russian
Localization is VERY ROUGH right now. I'm sure there will be a number of embarrassing language issues and typos. If you want to join the localization process to clean up the rough edges, check the link below for more info and the pinned topic at the top of that forum. I'll post translation edits and fixes with future patches as they become available.
Join the community translation. I'm looking for a few people who are interested in editing and updating the Spanish, French and Russian translations. The German translation is in good shape.
Join the translation
- You can change the language in the "Gameplay" tab of the options screen.
- In some cases text in various languages may be too large for the UI and scroll past the boundaries of the UI area. If you notice these, please report them on the translation sub-forum here. A screenshot would really help.
Report translation issues here! - Old mission data is not localized. That data is saved in your current save and will continue to be displayed in English. New missions that you take will be localized.
- Some items in your inventory in existing saves may have descriptions and other information that are part of the save and will not be translated. New items of the same type found or purchased from vendors - like health packs - will be translated.
- Almost everything should be translated, however, I am still looking for places where English text is displayed in a field so expect that there will still be a small number of places where a fix is needed.
- Things that need to be translated or won't be translated for technical reasons: Crafting component suffixes, mod names, system names, character names, names of minerals, commodity names, and weapons names. There may also be a few other areas that are not translated that will get fixed over time.
Removed the HELP screen. Pressing "H" now opens the guide directly. The help screen is obsolete as all keys can be viewed and edited in the options menu and most of the information on that screen is available in the guide.
A warning interface is displayed at the main menu if your PC is not compatible with Stellar Tactics. This covers failed shader compilation and a review of all the core graphics requirements to run the game. If your system fails the check, an interface is displayed that provides a few suggestions like updating your drivers and making sure your system is utilizing your dedicated graphics GPU instead of the on-board low-power Intel GPU.
Optimizations in may areas
UPDATED: Load times improved.
UPDATED: After completing the Phestus mission, FTL drives are now available in Achmedius at ship equipment vendors.
UPDATED: Universe ship manager performance updates - especially for games that have hundreds of hours of stored ship, system and station data.
UPDATED: Reduced the size of the selected ship reticle. Added transparency to selection options.
UPDATED: New portraits for main story characters (Rhamus, Jensen etc.) to match future story content portraits.
UPDATED: Precaching of dynamically loaded assets in space to avoid hitches.
UPDATED: You can now loot all by pressing the space bar.
UPDATED: NPC ships attack each other once again. I'll keep an eye on the forums in case there are any issues. Keep an eye out for free loot chests from these battles.
UPDATED: The game UI has been revised with a new custom UI.
FIXED: A random lockup when transitioning between areas during the loading screen.
FIXED: A random lockup in space combat.
FIXED: A random crash when displaying the line of sight indicators in ground combat.
FIXED: A potential lock up in the early game when opening the ship screen before launching to space.
FIXED: The left arrow when selecting crew voices on the portrait/name/voice editing UI was not working.
FIXED: In some cases, incursions were not being triggered. If you are in a state where incursions will not trigger, travel to another star system and the issue should be resolved.
FIXED: When crafting, a message is displayed on the screen if your inventory is full. You can no longer start crafting a schematic if your inventory or cargo are full.
FIXED: The ship storage display is now closed when pressing ESC if in the ship UI.
FIXED: A bug related to initializing incursions after Rhamus/Jensen leave crew on trade station.
FIXED: Infinite experience when crafting (processing items by pressing the enter key).
FIXED: KO crew members could block movement in narrow passageways.
Progress update
The next update will be a big one and I’ll cover some of the details below. The biggest addition will be the introduction of Chapter 1 of the story. With Chapter 1, new characters will be introduced, primarily the introduction of the Coven and the Sovereignty. The story will continue with a communication from Dr. Jensen who needs your assistance as the doctors continue to look into ways to eliminate the Phage and further their knowledge related to the Jhemm.
The Coven is a specific mutation that presented itself on one of the four ships that made the transit with the remnants of the human race. The mutation applied itself to females while in cryonic suspension and resulted in uncontrolled Psionic powers. The Coven were immediately isolated and studied by scientists on arrival and eventually released to colonize, provided certain rules were followed. Specifically, anyone with the Coven mutation was subjected to surgical implants that subdued their powers. Psionic powers were outlawed and have been since the Arrival.
This did not go over well with The Coven and eventually they went into hiding and removed their implants, refining their powers. For hundreds of years, The Coven have not been seen and are nearly forgotten, though some still do business with them – smuggling goods for trade with the elusive and secretive faction.
In Chapter 1, you will be introduced to the Sovereignty – the ruling power. Taxes are paid, and for that, security and law are enforced by the Sovereignty . The six main Houses (Halamis, Aralion, Cilivon, Conrair, Shikaru and Varadyne) have control over their holdings and pay tribute to the Sovereignty who in turn provides special dispensation to the Houses. The Houses exert their power on the various sub-factions in the Stellar Tactics Universe.
Ayela will be your primary contact with the Sovereignty and will have missions that involve investigating the Phage, The Coven, Raiders, Scavvers as these are all ongoing threats to peace under the rule of the Sovereignty. Ayela has been looking for a crack squad of mercenaries for a few critical missions.
Chapter 1 will also introduce more of the story related to the Jhemm and the menace they warn about in the Prologue. With this, Rhamus is still obsessed with the Jhemm and you will explore several of these locations in Chapter 1 which will introduce the “Azimuth” system. In addition to specific locations related to the story where you acquire Azimuth, a new random mission set has been developed for the Aznari ruins and you will find these occasionally when you scan planet surfaces. 18 new "creature" enemy types have been added for cave and ruins locations to increase the variety of enemy types you will encounter in the universe.
All of the original characters have had a facelift so they will match the new content in Chapter 1.
Speaking of mission sets, 3 new random sets will be added to the game in addition to static locations for Chapter 1 of the story.
The first pass of localization is complete for French, Spanish, Russian and German. Note that as a first pass at localization, the French, Spanish, and Russian localizations are likely very rough. The German translation is in very good shape thanks to community members who joined the translation effort. The localizations will be included in the upcoming content patch. When the content patch launches, I will open up localization again for these languages for anyone who is interested in joining.
Oh, and did I mention that Stellar Tactics is getting it's final UI? Daniel did an amazing job with the UI and the implementation work is almost complete. There are still some rough edges here and there - overall, it's coming along nicely.
That’s it for now. No ETA on the release of this content patch. I do hope to get everything finished before the end of this year and I will keep you updated as I make progress.
Universe visual overhaul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWDjGWSW6e8
Meanwhile, a lot of work is being done for chapter one of the main story. There are also a number of other assets being developed that will provide points of interest in the universe. I'll explain more as I make progress on this work.
ADDED: The universal facelift. All new backgrounds and various other improvements for space. Make sure to enable the high-resolution skyboxes in the options menu if you have 2gb VRAM or higher. Enjoy!
UPDATED: The 5 point skill cap for weapon skills has been removed. Removing the skill cap will likely require some tuning over time so expect the amount of experience gain to go up/down as required as I gather more feedback.
--The skill cap will come back as an advanced gameplay feature for those of us who like it. By that I mean, it will be an option - off by default.
--The level cap remains at level 60 until the story content is ready.
--Skill gain remains unchanged. Even at the level cap, you can continue to gain skills for any weapon, support, or space skill to level 100.
UPDATED: Replaced a number of planet materials.
UPDATED: Improved performance.
UPDATED: On completion of an incursion, completion notification and reward delay are much shorter.
UPDATED: Reduced base resists for various enemies.
UPDATED: Reduced FTL FX timings for faster jumps to FTL space and between star systems.
UPDATED: Stability updates.
FIXED: Rollover compare info for pugilist weapons is now displayed if a single pugilist weapon is equipped in the primary or secondary slot. If you are dual-wielding pugilist weapons, you will need to compare manually.
FIXED: A number of typos.
FIXED: Duplicate sector data in systems 0,0 - 99,0. I doubt anyone is flying around taking missions in these sectors, however - if you are I recommend that you cancel and then re-take missions if they are active.
FIXED: A bug related to the display of active drone icons on the star map.
FIXED: A bug related to walking to and interacting with objects/NPCs.
Updated notes for 0.572
UPDATED: Updated the combat movement path marker to use a much faster system.
UPDATED: LOS lines are now displayed almost immediately when the combat movement cursor is moved to a position.
UPDATED: I did a lot of work on movement and pathing. Overhead objects, walls, and other objects no longer obstructed floor clicks. If you click the floor, your crew member should move to the location unless blocked. This includes how raycasts for movement interact with PC's, NPC's and the environment.
UPDATED: If a health kit is enabled, you can now click through overhead objects, etc to target crew members.
UPDATED: A few changes to the world map:
- You can now scroll the area map using the left mouse button and zoom in-out using the mouse wheel.
- World map uses a higher resolution map.
- You can now zoom in much further on the world map.
- World map now remembers your current zoom level and last position during the current game session. You can reset the map using the blue "+" icon on the map.
UPDATED: The star-map search feature loads much faster now. A few other new features:
- The star map now lets you search star systems where you have placed a beacon by entering only a few characters. So, for example, you can search for "Achmedius" by entering "a" and pressing enter in the search field and Achmedius will be displayed along with any other systems that start with an "A". For systems where you have not placed a beacon, you need to enter the entire system name and press search to center the map on that system.
- Entering "cargo" or "ship" in the search field and pressing enter will now display systems where you have cargo or ships.
- The search feature now includes the sector coordinates and sector level for systems where you have placed beacons.
UPDATED: The VSYNC option now enables VSYNC and the frame limiter for the 60FPS and 30FPS options. I'm still doing work on how various high refresh monitors interact with game events and area loading.
ADDED: Added new icons to the star map that show you if you have a drone, ship, or cargo storage in a system. If you have placed a beacon in a system, the system has a new icon overlay that shows you at a glance if a beacon is already deployed in the system.
ADDED: If a crew member is at the 5 point skill cap, a warning is displayed when entering the inventory or character info screens noting that the crew member will not receive weapon skill experience until they reach the next level.
FIXED: When clicking at a specific position in the game world, the navigation marker in combat was not being correctly set to the exact movement position.
FIXED: When first entering an area and engaging in combat, the LOS markers and cover icon was not being displayed until an enemy took a single turn.
FIXED: A bug in the display of various perk bonuses in the ship skill bonus area.
FIXED: Enemy AI equipped with grenades would occasionally throw two grenades during their combat round.
FIXED: A number of UI inconsistencies related to closing various menus with the ESC key (LOG - Search, Trade-Net, Faction window).
FIXED: A few perk tooltip errors.
FIXED: The game would lock up if a crew member dies at the same time as the last enemy in an encounter with a missile launcher, DOT, or grenade. Could also happen if you were in combat mode with no enemies around and you threw a grenade and killed yourself - oops.
FIXED: When selecting crew portraits, special attacks for that crew member are now updated correctly in the toolbar.
FIXED: A bug with melee movement introduced with the special attacks system that could cause melee crew members to stop before reaching their target causing a loss of AP.
New Horizons
So, what can you expect going forward? Well, I’m very excited about the next steps so I thought I would give everyone a glance into the future of the game. Until now I’ve been mostly focused on developing the core structure of the game. Things like combat, space exploration, the universe, inventory, crafting, salvaging, loot and all of the systems that make up the foundation of what Stellar Tactics will be. That is, the container – the universe.
Now it’s time to start filling the universe with meaningful content. Characters you will engage with in various ways. I’d like to expand on the lore of the universe, give you ways to define your place, build relationships with various factions, and expand on the core systems I’ve worked hard to implement.
What does that mean? First, I’ll be working on the story. With that, more of what is happening in the universe will become apparent. Who are the key players? Who were the Aznari? What are the Jhemm? What is this threat that is coming? Should you trust Jensen and Rhamus? And of course, what is your part in all of this? There are likely many questions after playing the Prologue and my goal going forward is to give the player places to go, things to see and do, and to expand on the core of the game with meaningful content and encounters.
I’ll be expanding on the mission system with branching missions that have multiple objectives. Missions may lead to new missions and I'll be looking into new and better completion rewards.
I’ll be expanding the storylines of characters you have already met – like Arkus, Rhamus, Phestus, Scarby, Rodger Crayson, and more. Some of these characters will introduce new mission types for mining, smuggling, salvaging, and ways to earn ships from Arkus through the boarding system.
I'll be adding new enemy types and epic bosses.
I'll be adding new armor sets and clothing for characters.
I’ll be adding Psionics. Psionics will use a new weapon type – the Psi Amp which is rewarded from a series of side encounters related to the Coven. I won’t spoil anything here, though I will say that Psi will be a very useful skill to have with the ability to buff, debuff, heal, and generate various other effects that enhance your team.
I'll be adding faction warfare and unique encounters in FTL space. These will be random locations with exploration, salvaging, and special faction warfare opportunities.
I’ve made an investment in new tools that will help me create unique and diverse characters for the story, new portraits, and in-game models. A few examples below.
Some of these characters you will love to hate.
Others you will learn to rely on.
And special crew members who have their own stories and backgrounds.
I’ll be revising and adding more variety to the universe with new high-resolution custom skyboxes made just for Stellar Tactics by Tim Barton – an amazing artist who specializes in space environments. You can check out Tim Bartons work at this link: Tim Barton on Artstation
I’ll also be knocking off some of the rough edges, improving the game visuals, and addressing QoL issues many of you have been asking for. I will be working on tuning, looking at all of the systems as a whole and how they work with each other, and making changes where they make sense.
I'm going to be patching out a number of small bugs and addressing a few other issues at the end of next week. From that point, I’ll be focusing exclusively on the content mentioned above. It will likely be the longest period of time you have had to wait for a content update and I’ll keep you all posted as I make progress.
Weapon special attacks, support skills and more
I expect I'll be spending a week or two tweaking a few things with the special attacks, addressing issues (if any), and clearing a backlog of small issues that need to be looked into.
What's next? Sometime in the next week, I'll post an update covering what you can expect going forward. There are a lot of changes coming to Stellar Tactics and I'm really excited to be at a point where I'll be implementing new story content, expanding the mission system, polishing various rough edges, adding psionics, and more.
ADDED SPECIAL WEAPON ATTACKS AND SUPPORT SKILLS:
Weapon special attacks and support skills are now in the game. Note that enemies start using special attacks at around level 5. Players get all weapon skills at the start of the game and they improve over time with five total tiers increasing at skill levels 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100. Weapon skills are specific to each weapon type and several are shared (1hand slash and 1hand blunt). Initially these attacks are fairly weak, however, over time they scale nicely and you will be using them regularly in combat.
- Special attacks and support skills use zero AP and can be triggered at any time if they are available as long as it is your turn in combat.
- Special attacks are guaranteed to hit, however, DEFEND can mitigate damage.
- Enemies start using special weapon attacks at level 5
- Weapon special attacks are on global cooldown timers.
- Support skills are reset at the beginning of combat. You can use sprint, taunt, and barrier at the start of each combat session.
- You can use special attacks and support skills from both equipped weapons ( primary and secondary ) in the same round if global timers are reset by swapping weapons.
- Special attacks, taunt, and barrier increase in power as you gain skill in that weapon class at levels 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100.
- Game difficulty affects how NPC's use special attacks by changing how often they are used. The frequency and power of these effects from NPC's vary by enemy difficulty. A regular NPC will use them less often, a single skull enemy more often and bosses will use them most of the time when their cooldowns expire. On easy mode, these attacks are less likely to trigger - on extreme difficulty the attacks will be triggered more often.
- Some enemies have special abilities. For example Phage vomit. Rather than triggering a special attack, they will use their special twice in one attack if they trigger a special. New enemies in future updates may have similar attacks that they use more than once in a combat round.
UPDATED - BOARDING:
- When boarding a ship, there will always be a loot container that contains ship equipment loot similar to what would have been dropped if you had destroyed the ship. NOTE: Ore and ship ammo is not included in the loot table.
- Enemy subsystem regeneration time increased by 30 seconds. It should now be easier to board ships with lower-tier ship equipment. Note that it has always been intended that boarding a ship with starter turrets would be difficult. Upgrading your turrets and systems will make boarding enemy ships much easier. While boarding, a ship may regenerate its shields, however, they go down faster after repaired by the enemy crew.
- General reward for selling ships to Arkus increased by 30%. Selling a ship with multiple decks increased by 70%. Note that repairing ships to full always rewards more and yes, it does take some time to gather the components - though, with higher salvage skill, more components are rewarded. I will be adding side missions for Arkus and he/she/it will have missions that will let you earn better rewards as you develop your relationship.
ADDED - REVIEW AND UPDATE CREW PERKS/STATS FROM THE CREW MANAGER:
You can now edit crew member perks, stats, portrait, voice, and name in the CREW MANAGER for any crew member by selecting the crew member you want to edit from the list on the left and then clicking the "EDIT CREW MEMBER" button. This is very useful when adjusting space crew perks for mining, space combat etc. Previously, you needed to add the crew member to your active crew to make adjustments.
ADDED - DEDICATED CREW MEMBERS FOR HACKING, SALVAGING, CRAFTING, AND REPAIR
When activating any of these skills, you can now select the active crew member as dedicated. This means that no matter which crew member activates the skill, the dedicated crew member will be the crew member who's skills and perks are used. This crew member also receives all experience from actively using these skills.
If you would prefer to not use a dedicated crew member anymore, just select the portrait to remove the "check mark" and the crew member that initiates the skill will be used.
The first time any of these skills is used a popup is displayed explaining how to select this crew member as the dedicated crew.
SELECT DEDICATED CREW MEMBER: When any of the skill UI's are displayed, click the portrait and a checkmark will be displayed indicating this crew member is not the dedicated crew member for that skill.
REMOVE DEDICATED CREW MEMBER: When any of the skill UI's are displayed, click the portrait and the checkmark will be removed indicated a dedicated crew member is not selected for that skill.
--NOTE: Removing or replacing a crew member from your ground team in the crew manager will reset your currently active dedicated crew. You will need to re-assign a new crew member to the various tasks.
UPDATED - VSYNC AND FRAMERATE CAP OPTIONS:
Uncapping the framerate in the video options has been changed to give players more options. You can find a new slider in the video options menu. Default is VSYNC ON. The slider lets you cap your framerate to 30 FPS, 60 FPS, VSYNC ON, VSYNC 1/2, VSYNC 1/4, and NO LIMIT (no cap at all!). VSYNC is highly dependant on your system, monitor, and video card settings. This should give players more options and hopefully address issues of animation slowdown. If you have any issues, you can always either uncap the framerate completely by dragging the slider to the far right or set the framerate cap to 60FPS or even 30FPS.
I'll keep an eye on the bug forums to see if any of the VSYNC and framerate adjustments mentioned above cause any issues. VSYNC ON should always provide the best performance.
GENERAL PATCH NOTES:
UPDATED: Increased base Micro-Warp speed of ships.
UPDATED: Reduced spam-click timer so there is less delay when interacting with objects and NPC's.
UPDATED: Skyboxes for the main menu and FTL space.
UPDATED: Doubled faction token and faction standing rewards for agent missions.
UPDATED: Doubled positive/negative faction reward values for clearing explore locations.
UPDATED: Increase the number of credits rewarded when completing a faction agent mission
UPDATED: Faction display in the log map area now displays your current faction values as positive/negative values ranging from -50,000 (worst) to +50,000 (best). Neutral ranges from -10,000 - +10,000.
UPDATED: Hacking and auto-hacking are now faster. When entering the correct key code, the next combination digit begins immediately instead of waiting for the cooldown timer to expire.
UPDATED: Repair and Salvage experience bars when repairing/salvaging ship components on boarded ships now show experience toward the next level instead of total skill experience.
UPDATED: Adjusted bleed damage down a little.
UPDATED: The FTL guide entry is displayed the first time you enter FTL space. A reminder to accelerate is displayed on the screen when entering FTL space. Additional information added to the FTL guide entry noting that piloting skill and FTL drive quality affect SHIP speed in FTL space. Guide entries/tutorials will eventually get an overhaul.
UPDATED: Added new key binds. Your current key binds have been reset.
Keybind for toggling grenades on/off [O]
Keybind for toggling med-kits on/off [P]
Keybind for scanning the selected target in space [DELETE]
Keybind for attacking the selected ship. When in space combat you can tab-target ships in combat with you, and press the attack key to switch all turrets to the new target. [RETURN]
FIXED: Neutral system stations would occasionally spawn faction agents that would give missions that could never be completed.
FIXED: It was possible to mount heavy turrets on light turret mount slots. I recommend replacing any heavy turrets mounted on light turret mount locations to avoid issues with space combat.
FIXED: Corrected ship info list below turrets on ship screen [K} so it correctly displays the mount point info for heavy/light turrets.
FIXED: If entering the Abandoned Facility and taking missions before completing the Slice Mines mission, it was possible you could not turn the Slice Mine mission in to Scarby Hurzog.
FIXED: Rollover highlights for a number of objects.
FIXED: When removing status effects using first-aid perkS, the status effect displayed under the crew portrait is updated immediately.
FIXED: A few minor visual glitches with projectiles.
FIXED: A few material errors with Kchor NPC's
FIXED: A skill rounding error when recruiting mercs that would round skills down one level occasionally.
Progress Update - Weapon special attacks and support skills
https://youtu.be/mA-WNiN7raU
For those of you who have been playing Stellar Tactics, I'm sure you have noticed the two empty slots on the combat tool-bar. Those have always been reserved for weapon special attacks and support skills. These will be available from level 1 and increase in power as you gain skill in the weapon class they are associated with.
Special attacks are zero-AP cost attacks on a global cooldown timer. They provide a number of effects like PBAoE, target-based AE, and burst single target damage. The goal of the attacks is to give you additional options. Save them for a tough fight, or use them any time. The attacks make a big difference to the pace of the game. Also, because NPC's can use these attacks, you will need to be on your toes making sure your crew's HP is topped off.
The new support skills give you additional mobility, the ability to charge your shields, reflect damage, and the possibility to taunt enemies off of crew members who need a round to regroup.
In addition to the new support and combat skills, a few QoL updates are coming:
Dedicated crew members - You can now assign dedicated crew members to hacking, salvage, crafting, and repair. That means regardless of who engages these skills, the dedicated crew member will always perform the action and gain the EXP. For repair, it means you no longer need to drag weapons and armor off crew members into general inventory.
Crew member review - You can now review any crew member from the crew manager. This makes it easy to assign perks to any crew member without needing to move them into your ground crew.
Hacking update - You can now enter combination keys when hacking before the cooldown expires. This makes hacking a lot faster.
Boarding ships - There will now always be a container with the loot that would have dropped from the ship if you had destroyed it. This should make boarding a bit more profitable. In addition, larger ships will pay out more than smaller ships. Overall, I'll be adjusting the amount you get from ships marginally. Of course, repairing ships completely before selling them always pays the most.
Happy Holidays to all of you! Stay safe and thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics.
Revised perk progression, equipment wear, repair system, and more
ADDED: REPAIR SYSTEM AND REPAIR PERKS
Rollover info now displays the current condition of items. As they degrade, they become less useful (less mitigation, weapon jams, lower damage, etc.).
Maintaining your weapons is easy. Just roll over the item you want to repair and press the [SPACE] key. Item repairs require finishing items that can be obtained by salvaging junk and gear that you find in your travels. Perks allow you to repair items above 100% to a maximum of +25 (125). Crafted items can gain up to +30 (130). Overall, any crafted item with the appropriate perks can have a maximum of 155 condition from crafting and repair bonuses. In addition - repair tier bonuses apply reduced item degradation as you progress to maximum skill level.
- Repair perks have been added
- I've provided 20 finishing items of every type as a one time grant for repair. These items will be added to your existing finishing items - or, when starting a new game, you will start with 20 finishing items of each type. This should cover repairs needed in the early game until players can salvage enough items for future repairs.
ADDED: EQUIPMENT WEAR
Equipment wear can be disabled in the options->gameplay menu.
Looted equipment will always be in some state of wear and will never be below 50%. This applies even if equipment wear is disabled.
- Equipment wear penalties apply when equipment degrades below 50%
- Below 25% - Additional penalties are applied.
- Below 5% - Items will barely function.
- At 0% Items are non-functional and must be repaired.
- Vendors always sell items that are at 100% condition.
- Electro damage does more wear to shields.
- Thermal and explosive damage do more damage to armor.
- Mods, devices, cargo expansions, and items equipped to a ship hardware mount point do not wear over time.
- Wear to ship equipment is minimal when shields are up. Once a shield is down and you start taking damage to your hull, damage is increased.
ADDED: NEW SHIP REPAIR STATION
You can now assign a crew member to the ship repair station. This crew member will prioritize repairs to your ship over time, prioritizing the hull, then shields, engines, systems, and weapons. This crew member can repair onboard equipment to the current maximum condition and will receive repair experience over time as they repair your ship. I recommend a dedicated repair crew member for the job.
Manually repairing ship systems can apply bonuses based on your current repair skill and perk selections.
- Ship repairs take place over time. Repair skill TIER bonuses improve the speed at which ship hull plating and components are repaired.
- When paying for ship repairs on stations, only the hull armor of the ship is repaired. Other components need to be repaired manually or over time when a crew member is assigned to the crew repair station. Hull plating is repaired over time by crew members in the crew repair station.
- If the crewmember assigned to the ship repair station is also in your ground crew, repairs will not take place while on stations or ground locations.
- Repairs by a crew member in the repair station slot do not consume resources.
ADDED: SALVAGING PERK LINE
- Additional components can be salvaged as you unlock skill TIER bonuses.
- Perks added that provide bonuses to base salvaging failure, learning, and schematic experience.
- Perk selections that allow for increased schematic discovery for weapons, mods, armor, shields, and ship schematics.
- SCHEMATIC DISCOVERY PERKS - BONUSES FOR SELECTED SCHEMATIC DISCOVERY PERKS STACK FROM MULTIPLE CREW MEMBERS. Each crew member can provide a +10% schematic discovery bonus for a total of a +40% bonus if all ACTIVE GROUND crew members have a skill level of 80 in salvaging and the correct discovery perks are selected.
ADDED: CRAFTING PERK LINE
Skill tier bonuses reward reduced chance of negative conditions, bonus finishing points at the start of crafting. Perk selections apply bonus action points, item durability, reduced negative condition duration, and positive condition bonuses for weapons, mods, armor, shields, and ship equipment.
ADDED: SCHEMATIC REVIEW IN SALVAGING DISPLAY
You can now view your unlocked schematics in the salvage display without needing to travel to a crafting table.
ADDED: NEW DEVICE - THE AMMO CONVERTER
A new device is available from Varadyn faction vendors that will allow you to convert any type of ammo into other types of ammo. The UI is simple to use and you will can convert standard and heavy weapon ammo at the following ratios:
- Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
- Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun = 4:1 ratio (4 for 1)
- Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
- Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell = 1:4 ratio (1 for 4)
- The device can be used in any ground location including missions.
- This device is fairly expensive and requires that you complete a number of missions to earn the needed tokens from a Varadyn faction agent.
UPDATED: Perks or skill tier bonuses will be rewarded every 5 levels. Perk selection and preview has been completely overhauled so you can preview all skill perk and tier bonuses through skill level 100 at any time. Perks are still situational and you can switch between selections in each group as you have in the past.
IMPORTANT: You may need to assign perks in your current save now that these changes are posted. In many cases you may have a few perks available that you did not have before.
UPDATED: First aid perks overhauled - Reduced perk bonuses to healing, they were OP. Max skill tier bonuses grant a +75% bonus to healing in addition to the base medkit healing values (small, medium, and large). Perks now focus on removing status effects.
UPDATED: Explosives perk line revised with a focus on improved damage and inflicting status effects. Tier bonuses focus on CRIT and accuracy. Perk bonuses can apply addition damage and status effects:
- Stun grenades can apply bleeding
- Frag grenades can apply hobble
- EMP grenades can apply cripple
UPDATED: Weapons, armor, shields, and ship equipment all degrade over time with use and damage. You can repair these items by hovering over equipped items, inventory, stash, cargo, and ship equipment in the various menu's and pressing [SPACE] on your keyboard.
UPDATED: Maximum weapon skill level when crafting weapons is now uncapped - max skill level is now 100.
UPDATED: The currently selected crew member is not reset when transitioning between ground locations.
UPDATED: Removed perception requirement in extended rollover UI for displaying target resist values. I'll likely tie the display of additional resist information to another system.
UPDATED: On the character information screen, when selecting a new crew member, the selected skill is not reset to rifles making it easier to compare perks and skill info between crew members.
UPDATED: New SFX for most ranged weapons.
UPDATED: FTL sound effect volume reduced.
UPDATED: Reduced amount of ammo dropped now that ammo converter is available. I'll likely adjust this over time with more playtesting.
UPDATED: In HARD and EXTREME ground difficulty modes, auto regeneration of HP after combat is disabled. You will need to heal crew members with medkits.
- Shield and energy points will regen as usual.
- Transitioning between areas will heal crew members to full health.
- I'll gather feedback on this change and make adjustments as needed.
UPDATED: Increased melee proc damage from frequency modulator mods.
FIXED: PC's now display the correct amount healed in-game log if healing exceeds maximum health.
FIXED: When gaining a skill level in crafting, salvaging, and repair, a notification is sent to the screen.
FIXED: When various menus are open, key input for ship control is blocked (E.G. afterburners, thrusters, etc).
FIXED: When crafting ship equipment, some of the items were displaying an incorrect finishing item in the last stages of crafting.
FIXED: A few calculation errors in the progress toward the next skill level display on the character information screen.
FIXED: A rare case where beacons and ship ammo could be moved into the player backpack and stash inventories.
FIXED: A rare case where a crew member could die from a DOT (bleed or poison) at the end of combat leaving the game in a state where combat does not end.
FIXED: If a crew member is not assigned to the ship electronics station, you cannot scan ships or planets. A message is displayed on the screen in cases where a crew member is not assigned.
FIXED: Ship vendors now display whether a turret is a general turret mount or a missile mount in the ship information display.
FIXED: Ship hull damage cannot be repaired using the repair button in the ship info UI [K] when boarding an enemy ship.
FIXED: Crafting and salvaging menus now ignore background click events while displayed.
FIXED: Numerous small UI fixes/updates.
There are a lot of changes in this patch. I'll keep an eye on the forums over the next few days and patch any issues that pop up. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics and have a great weekend!