Stellar Warfare News

This small update features the beta version of the highly requested Fleet Loadout feature, minor bug fixes, and a new ship chassis.



[h2]Fleet loadout save/load[/h2]

I've got help from Kial, a developer enthusiast who was able to write a system allowing players to save, rename, and load different fleet loadouts in the Fleet editor menu. It may be rough around the edges at this moment, but it works.

Please feel free to share your feedback in discussions.

[h2]Fixes and Changes[/h2]

• Added a quick fix for the main menu BG scaling on non-16:9 monitors..
  
• Rebalanced difficulty in campaign mission 2 to make it easier for new players.
  
• Fixed pirate ships not giving rewards to non-host players in multiplayer game modes.
  
• Fixed some modules having errors in descriptions and missing icons.
  
• Fixed End of Days having a too slow turn rate.
  
• Storage facilities are now slightly cheaper.
  
• Updated various projectile visuals.
  
• Improved the natural projectiles.
  

[h2]What we are working on right now[/h2]

Now, allow me to share what is currently in active development. No promises on when these might be added since some changes are quite heavy and we will need to test them thoroughly.

Additional modding features and Steam Workshop integration are already being tested in the playtest game version. Project backers and active community members are the ones who have access to it.

The Fleet loadout selector will be polished for better user experience, tested with Linux-based systems, and potentially accessible in some places outside the Fleet Editor, such as match lobby menus.

The scenario difficulty selector will allow players to choose how challenging campaign missions will be for them. We are discussing the best way to implement this feature.

The save/load system for single-player game modes has been in development for a long time. Hopefully we can add this to a build soon. For now it requires further testing.

The new main menu didn't scale well with ultrawide monitors. This made the entire main menu look stretched. This now has a fix for it, but this also isn't ideal just yet. We're looking into various options to fix this. It should work well on all other screen sizes though :)

Next patch will also have a new ship in it that I have been designing. I will keep you guys posted!

This major update brings new armed neutral ships to the game, tweaks to some resource rewards achievement related bug fixes and minor rework to both ship and projectile velocities.



Pirates, like transport ships, will grant killing reward to a players who dealt a last damaging hit to them. Unlike transports heavy armored and armed pirate ships will fight back and may easily destroy minor fleets.
Both transports and pirates will now receive a reward boost that will depend on how time passed since the match started.
Floating text displaying amount of resources granted to player now also works for neutral ships.







In order to improve on how different ships and weapons 'feels' in the game we decided to globally reduce speed of every ship and projectile in the game by 10-50%. Maps now feel slightly bigger, heavy ships and weapons heavier and light ships less annoying ;)



* - some patch notes may be omitted for the sake of the post size. For more details, please join our discord, we post our dev logs there regularly

Additions

• Pirate ships now will be randomly spawned in most of SP and MP game modes
  
• Floating text now displays for transport and pirate ships rewards
  
• Cumulative pirate hunting achievements now available
  

Tweaks & changes

• Killing reward for transports and pirate ships now gets a bonus based on amount of time passed since the match started. 120 per 10 minutes for Transport ships and 300 per 10 minutes for Pirate ships.
  
• All ships and weapons slowed down by ~10-50%
  
• All projectiles 'lifetime' increased according to speed reduction they received
  
• Arteus enhancer module speed bonus reduced to 10% from 15%
  
• Engine booster module speed bonus reduced to 6 from 12
  
• Altered visuals on some projectiles
  
• Altered spawn logic for campaign mission 6 "Alone, together"
  
• Reduced amount of heavy ships spawned in campaign mission 6 "Alone, together" to balance out heavy ships being previously buffed
  

Fixes

• Applied additional logic that should prevent issue with weapons not switching a target when clicked target has a not optimal armor type
  
• Fixed some PvP and building achievements that previously were unobtainable
  
• Fixed Deep Space map not selectable in multiplayer lobbies
  

Based on user feedback I've made one of the campaign missions a bit easier. I've also increaesed the natural projectiles sizes.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Since the earliest days of this game some players didn't like the colorful projectiles. While there have been many changes and tweaks over time I can now finally announce that people can disable them. Just press the button in the bottom of the screen to toggle between colored and natural projectiles.



I have also worked on the following:

• The toggle buttons in the bottom of the screen now give feedback which of them are active
  
• Tried several variations of natural projectiles
  
• Added pirate ships (currently disabled until a bug is fixed)
  
• Disabled the halloween mod completely since it would sometimes turn on by itself
  
• Added a blue sun and black sun superweapon structure (currently disabled, coming soon)
  
• Added the Tari medium weapon
  
• Added FireDemon to the captain name list since he became a supporter of the project on Patreon.com/tensegames
  

A whole bunch of other things are happening on the backend of things. Hopefully I can give you guys an update on those things soon. I am also working out which things I still want to add before an official V1 release. There's a lot of feedback to go through, so I'm trying to be smart/wise in deciding what to add, in what order, and what priority each item gets. I will keep you guys posted!


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]