Deep Space Battle Simulator News

Additionally to the most recent changes to the Captain role, Captains that do not want that role anymore can just walk to another crew member and promote them to Captain, losing the role themselves. Captains now also get correctly displayed on the map.

One of the biggest issue with the AI got fixed, they no longer get stuck when trying to exit the bridge near the elevators, before more and more AI units would get stuck in that spot. The Barsk Security Guard also received an update, it now will have equipment in their team color, making it easier to understand for newer players that it's a friendly crew member.

The scoreboard also received some visual improvements and now will display the class of each player. There are also some fixes for the game modes of player-hosted servers not displaying correctly in the server browser, key-locked doors closing again after being shot open, the intruder alert system and a few minor bugfixes for the in-game map.


Full changelog:
-ADDED: Captain can now give his rank to other teammates
-ADDED: class info to the scoreboard
-ADDED: Barsk Security Guard now has different colors, depending on the team he is in
-CHANGED: Barsk Security Guard now has unique sounds instead of making the same sounds as the B1 Droid
-IMPROVED: scoreboard UI looks a bit cleaner now
-FIXED: Military Shuttle map icon having 2 shuttles instead of one
-FIXED: some intruder alert bugs
-FIXED: player hosted server not displaying the correct game mode in the server browser sometimes
-FIXED: key-locked doors sometimes closing again after being shot open
-FIXED: Captains name not showing on the map
-FIXED: AI getting stuck in some places

While most of the newly released class system seems to work fine, the "Officer" class feels a bit weak, and the system that chooses the Captain of a ship was a bit inconsistent, so this update tackles these issues by buffing the "Officer" class, giving it 30% damage resistance while on their own bridge, and by making it clearer who will become Captain. Now every ship will be guaranteed to have a Captain, the "Officer" class will still be preferred when selecting the Captain, but if there are no players with that class, another player will be chosen. The Captain now also has a unique icon and color on the map, as well as a unique model in-game.

There were also a few bugs like showing the wrong map or having incorrect UI popups that you need to repair your engine even if it wasn't damaged, these resulted in an issue where the game would get confused about which capital ship you were on in that moment, these issues are all fixed now. Additionally, a few other minor bugs were fixed like fireo droids not showing on the map.


Full changelog:
-ADDED: Captain now has his own map icon and color
-ADDED: Captain now has a unique model with golden shoulder plates so he is easier to identify
-BUFFED: Officer class now takes 30% less damage while on his bridge
-BUFFED: Captain now takes 20% less damage while on his bridge
-IMPROVED: if there are no Officers in a team, a random other player will become the Captain, so every team always has a Captain
-IMPROVED: if a Captain quits the game, another player of his team will be assigned Captain
-IMPROVED: if a player joins a team that has no Captain, he will become the Captain
-FIXED: fixed fireo droids not showing on the map
-FIXED: map staying the map for the enemy ship after dying and respawning on your own ship
-FIXED: sometimes getting "Generator/Engine repair" UI on-screen if the enemy generator/engine was destroyed and not yours

The biggest new feature in this update is a much-requested class system. You can choose between Crew Member, Engineer, Ranger, Pilot, and Officer in the main menu. Each class has unique advantages, boosted stats or abilities, the most unique one is the Officer class. Each team now has a Captain, the Captain gets chosen from one of the Officers. The Captain can kick players out of their bridge stations and is the only one who can un-purchase upgrades in the upgrade selection menu, to prevent chaos in the selection phase with players selling the upgrades other players chose to add their own. Currently, you can only select a new class from the main menu, to prevent players from switching classes mid-round to get an advantage, expect a better system for in-game class-changing soon.

Repairs now take 4 seconds instead of being instant, the Crew and Engineer class can repair much faster, taking 3 or only 1 second respectively. There are also some improvements to the server browser, server hosting, the new in-game map and lots of improvements for the AI.



Full changelog:
-ADDED: class system with 5 different classes, each with unique perks and abilities
-ADDED: random Officer becomes Captain at the start of each round, or if he joined and there is no Captain yet
-ADDED: panel, engine, and generator repairs now take 4 seconds instead of being instant
-ADDED: floor above the engine room to the map
-ADDED: true offline mode to the game host options (no one can join you, not listed in the server browser, works even if Steam is down)
-ADDED: server browser now displays if the server is a PvP or PvE/coop server, and displays the AI difficulty
-IMPROVED: interact UI now shows an icon of the key you need to press
-IMPROVED: lots of map improvements
-FIXED: B2/Barsk spawning in the ceiling if spawning lots of them at once
-FIXED: some bridge stations bugs
-FIXED: some AI pathfinding issues
-FIXED: sweepo droids not showing on the map

This update adds a ship interior map to the game, that you can open with the "M" key by default. It will display the location of yourself, your teammates, your droids, enemy droids, fighters in your hangars and things that need repairs as well as possible targets if you are in the enemy ship. Every teammate will have a unique color, so you can easily see where each one of your teammates is currently located.



There are also lots of AI improvements, a Sweepo droid joined the crew of the Tactical Droid, which can now also shoot Fireo pods at your ship! The Barsk Security Guard upgrade also received much-needed fixes regarding its movement which did not work well before, and can now also repair generators and engines to make it more useful.

A few bugs with the radar table have been fixed, and the fighter models on the radar table now have class-specific models, so you can distinguish a "Bomber" from an "Interceptor" fighter for example. There will now be logs again that get created inside your games folder to assist with tracking down bugs and fixing player-specific issues. A few issues with the hangar numbers have been fixed, and the engine will now have smoke coming out of it when disabled, so it's easier to understand when it is broken and when it's still working.


Full changelog:
- ADDED: ship interior map (default key: "M") that displays the location of yourself, your teammates, your droids, enemy droids, fighters in your hangars and things that need repairs
- ADDED: smoke effect for a disabled engine (so it is clearer it is disabled)
- ADDED: AI Tactical Droid now has a Sweepo Droid in his crew
- ADDED: AI Tactical Droid now will spawn Fireo Pods as well (does not increase its launch frequency, just replaces some torpedo/B2 pod launches)
- ADDED: fighter models at the radar table now have fighter class-specific looks (bomber looks different to stealth fighter for example)
- ADDED: game logs system for players
- ADDED: fighter models at the radar table now have fighter class-specific looks (bomber looks different to stealth fighter for example)
- ADDED: game logs system for players
- CHANGED: quick callouts menu default key from "M" to "N"
- BUFFED: Barsk Security Guard can now repair generators and engines like the B1 droid
- FIXED: Barsk Security Guard not walking correctly
- FIXED: potential fix for fire extinguisher foam sometimes being invisible for other players
- FIXED: tutorial telling you to go to "Hangar 1" instead of "Hangar 3"
- FIXED: multiple radar table bugs
- FIXED: hangar numbers making no sense

This update introduces a new upgrade, the Fireo droid. Costing 200$ each, they look similar to their less aggressive predecessor, the Sweepo droid. Unlike the fire-fighting Sweepo droids, the new Fireo droid will set the interiors of enemy ships on fire, if it survives the flight to it.

There are multiple fixes for fire and fire extinguisher in this update as well, and you can now get a bit closer to fires before being damaged, allowing you to extinguish them without hurting yourself if you are careful, of course. The AI-controlled units like droids now will try to avoid each other, preventing them from gettings stuck in each other, and there are some collision improvements for smaller props that the AI got stuck in before.

I also fixed some issues with dedicated server configs, and added a new "aidifficulty" config variable, that can be set to a value between 1 and 6, with 1 setting the difficulty to "Easy", while 6 sets it to "Impossible".

Full changelog:
-ADDED: "Fireo" upgrade, gets shot at the enemy ship and will try to start fires inside their ship
-ADDED: "aidifficulty" option for server configs, sets difficulty (1=easy to 6=impossible)
-IMPROVED: AI collision avoidance
-IMPROVED: AI/players no longer get stuck on smaller props
-IMPROVED: bridge screen quality
-IMPROVED: fire damage system now is a lot more accurate for players and has a smaller damage zone
-FIXED: being able to use the fire extinguisher without having it pulled out
-FIXED: server always having the bot disabled if "disablebot" was added to config, even when false
-FIXED: multiple other fire/extinguisher bugs