Combat
Don’t let that cargo hauler fool you; it is quite the ace in space combat. In June we stress-tested multi-party combat, and it was good chaotic fun. Due to the scale of destruction, actual records are hard to come by so may this paltry tale pique your curiosity. Ship damage from combat and accidents now persists beyond the combat screen (the training wheels are off!). This damage can now be repaired at planets for a small sum of credits. The action instantly takes effect after clicking the option which is far from ideal. We have plans to correct this soon. Mockup of repair screen below but your mileage may vary.
Economy
In more tangible matters, will take a moment to talk about bootstrapping economies. Smelting modules for buildings now come in regular and basic form. The latter is less efficient but can be constructed just out of ore and antimatter. Both commodities can be obtained from natural resources. Ore mined, and antimatter formed by collecting energy close to system star. Planets no longer sell metal, thus there is no effective requirements to make your initial economic hubs near planets. It is still advantageous to do so but no longer a must. This means that you can get a few things up and running with just some determination and mining lasers. Civilization be damned.
We feel this choice will offer more flexibility in the way pilots choose to settle the stars as they strike out from known sectors. While sectors with large or multiple planets will definitely be the best way to create a flourishing economy, we don’t want it to be the only way to make a few credits. Additionally, you have access to four building slots now, but with increasingly… interesting requirements to unlock them. The requirements also vary per species but all of them have four in total.
Miscellaneous changes
A couple other things happened that just make life a little nicer. In no particular order:
- Added ability to toggle colour desaturation. This is first of several accessibility changes planned.
- Fixed occasional freezing mid-wormhole jump bug.
- Added ability to change homeworld while docked at a planet. Now that you can get wrecked in combat and damage persists it may be convenient to choose at which planet you appear. There are no restrictions on planet choice at the moment.
(P.S. Discord permanent invite link: https://discord.gg/7zw76VQnPg )
