Frontiers Reach News

[p]Fixes coming this weekend[/p][p] - Fixed another crash instance on the planet Astraeus Slumber[/p][p] - Fixed another instance where lancer squadron could break a mission.[/p][p] - Lowered difficulty in mission 29 by removing the 2 carriers from above the town of Altai on the planet Tom Uul.[/p][p] - Re-ordered several missions scripts to keep Lancer Squadron from breaking those missions.[/p][p] - Modified timing on Mission 27 to spread out spawns a bit later in the mission.[/p][p] - Modified timing on gunboat spawns on ModerateDistrressSignal mission for Friendly nodes.[/p][p] - Modified respawning so that if the respawn point is too close to terrain or structure it will move the respawn point before the player respawns.[/p]

Fixes coming in next patch

- Modifed pitch for Hoplite
- Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong mission to load when trying to run Extraction missions.
- Fixed a bug that could cause AI to wonder WAY outside of the area of concern on the Atzend Map.
- Extended easy mode to reduce gravity by a factor one half across the entire game making flying and tunnel runs easier.
- Adjusted spawns in a few missions to affect better pacing.

This is a big update, and there may be some bugs that persist as it was a significant effort to undertake in terms of testing and hunting down bugs. Additionally several tweaks and adjustments have been made throughout a decent portion of the game and we've got more coming. Chief among those changes is an update respawning system. The current one is functional but needs a bit more work before it can considered complete. That will take time though as there are several problems to solved. All of this is in keeping with the commitment to curate games and not just develop a bunch of slop and dump it onto store fronts.

Before we dive too deep into patch notes, I want to share a video that was made to help new or returning players get more comfortable with the games controls. Even current players may benefit from this so I encourage everyone to check it out.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


With that aside, let's dive into the patch notes!


[h2]Additions[/h2]

- Added camera positions for weapons on the loadout screen.
- Added an additional gun hardpoint to the Mk.11 Shuriken Ultra.
- Added an objective to Mission 16 to create an objective update for respawning
- Added some additional tutorial hints to the first 4 missions.


[h2]Tweaks[/h2]

- Updated some mission descriptions for better explanation.
- Updated font on the loadout input box when saving loadouts.
- Updated some mission descriptions in the briefing.
- Modified drag for when fighter is at zero so that there is less drift.
- Modified camera look pitch so that it only pitches down to show cockpit instrumentation instead of an empty seat.
- Modified target markers on capital ships to affect better visibility at varying ranges.
- Modified target alignment checks to keep friendly NPCs from having a chance to target other friendly NPCs like capital ships and waste time shooting at things they can’t destroy.
- Made adjustments to UI elements to affect better visibility both in cockpit view and in third person.
- Modified Mission 08 script to allow for more leniency in the tunnel run (you should also be able to skip the tunnel run by flying close to the ground over the plateau along the same path).
- Adjusted spawns on mission 32 for better pacing.
- Adjustment waypoint marker on mission 32 for better player guidance during the mission.
- Modified targeting computer code for better acquisition of targets.
- Modified flight characteristics of the Mk.11 Shuriken Ultra.
- Modified identity tags for landing craft so they standout among a group of allies.
- Modified environment for mission 15 to avoid the Heliosiren getting its movement disrupted.
- Minor change to waypoint indicator behavior in Mission 19.
- Minor change to Mission 19 to affect an objective update for better respawning.


[h2]Fixes[/h2]

- Fixed several instance of crashes due to mis-configured lights. I think I got all of them, but there may be more.
- Fixed a bug that could cause paint jobs to not save properly.
- Fixed a bug that put the waypoint marker in the wrong location in Mission 01.
- Fixed a bug that could cause issues with the lava flickering on the Caldero maps.
- Fixed a graphical bug with an explosion of a capital ship.
- Fixed issues with some visual elements being culled when they were not supposed to be.
- Fixed towns that were missing vital components in their controller mechanisms.
- Fixed typos in mission descriptions
- Fixed a bug that could cause the ring course to break on the first tutorial mission.
- Fixed an instance of mission objectives and waypointer not resetting after respawn.
- Fixed a bug that could cause module cams to not behave properly.
- Fixed a bug that could keep the loadout save input field from closing when there is no loadout name in the text field.
- Fixed logos not loading into materials properly when swapping fighters.
- Fixed post effects rendering not working.
- Fixed a bug in Mission 32 that could cause the Hekaton Queen to float up into the air instead of traversing across the ground.
- Fixed an instance of a bug where Overdrive mode and the afterburner were not activating at all when you using HOTAS.
- Fixed a bug that could cause cockpit Rain FX to play when they were not supposed to.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the HOTAS throttle value override the afterburner and overdrive modes.
- Fixed a few instances of character portraits not showing up when prompted via the dialogue system.
- Fixed a few instances of kills not scoring at the end of missions.
- Fixed a collision mesh on the Utsukushi Ringu map inside the station.
- Fixed a waypointer bug in mission 20.
- Fixed a bug in the Mission 22 script that could allow AI to wander off.
- Fixed a missing line of dialogue in Mission 23
- Fixed a bug that could make it impossible for some capital ships to lock on to targets.
- Fixed some weapons in the hangar not being mounted correctly.

We are preparing for a significant push on the marketing front in the next week and need your help now more than ever to hunt down and fix as many bugs as possible.

As a solo dev I play the heck out of Frontiers Reach a lot (8000 hours dev and testing time so far) and there are things that I miss from time to time. Sometimes because I'm not paying attention to what is going on because I look at it nearly every day, and sometimes because I really only have my own perspective and way of experiencing things to lean on. So things that make sense to me, might not make sense to other people.

The best way to join the effort is through the Discord for which there should be a link below, but if you don't have access to Discord, then using the Steam Discussions is fine too, there is a bug reporting section already setup where you can drop a report.

If you don't already have access to the Experimental Branch you can access it through the Steam UI under the Betas section of the Properties. The password for the experimental branch for FR1 in case you need it is : TestBranchDoode

A number of bugs and some quality of life updates have already been added to the experimental build so you will notice some differences between it and the version of the game running on the main branch.

If you are unsure if something is actually a bug/issue, please report it anyways. I'd rather have a report on something that seems off to you, than have nothing at all. Especially since some issues may just be a matter of updating interfaces to better explain what is going on to players.

I'll see you starside pilots!