A-Spec First Assault News

Welcome pilots, the 0.17.0 update is here.

This latest update was intended to include the campaign's Chapter 4, which will be released in the next planned milestone release. With this features update out of the way I will be focussing on the story campaign. In an effort to get more content out of the space dock, new features will be limited to allowing progression through the campaign missions.

Patch Notes 0.17.0 Overview

• New cruiser and battlecruiser ships available to fly in Skirmish, along with existing weapon variants for their slot sizes
  
• New and improved Multiple Launch Missiles (MLMS-CTAT, MLMS-POXY)
  
• Performance and visual improvements
  
• Lots of other additions, bug fixes and improvements
  

Added

• Missing descriptions for certain guns and turrets
  
• Reinforced Armour Plating module L and XL sizes
  
• Engine Optimiser XL modules
  
• Engine Tuning XL size modules
  
• Explosive Armour Protection XL size modules
  
• Frictionless Coils XL modules
  
• Kinetic Armour Protection XL modules
  
• Kinetic Damage Enhancer L and XL modules
  
• Magnetic Callibrations XL size modules
  
• Nanite Repair Optimisation XL size modules
  
• Thruster Optimiser XL size modules
  
• Thruster Tuning XL size modules
  
• XLarge Artillery Main Gun
  
• Large Artillery Main Gun
  
• Hardpoint and Launcher mounting sizes
  
• Battlecruiser for enemy military faction
  
• Cruiser for player military faction
  
• Mining Outpost model
  
• Science Vessel model (functions like all Transports)
  
• Rocket S, M, L and XL
  
• Multiple Launch Missiles (MLMS) S, M, L, XL sizes (replacing previous MLMS secondary weapon)
  
• Multiple Launch Missiles with Proximity detonator (MLMS-POXY) S size
  
• Added scripting logic for defining Wingleader/Wingmen behaviours
  
• Distinct debris for enemy faction transport
  

Changed

• Added MLMS-POXY/02 secondary weapon to player starting ship default loadout in the main campaign
  
• Reduced disk size requirements by using texture packing techniques (on going)
  
• Changed Autogun muzzle flare VFX
  
• Changed Autogun projectile VFX
  
• Changed Autocannon muzzle flare VFX
  
• Changed Autocannon projectile VFX
  
• Changed Artillery muzzle flare VFX
  
• Changed Artillery projectile VFX
  
• Changed Railgun muzzle flare VFX
  
• Primary weapons will target the center of a turret rather than the turret pivot point
  
• Engine Optimiser S, M and L size modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with rulest
  
• Engine Tuning L size modules modifier, prestige and cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Explosive Armour Protection L size modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Frictionless Coils S, M, L size modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Kinetic Armour Protection L modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Magnetic Callibrations L size modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Nanite Repair Optimisation L size modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Thruster Optimiser L size modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Thruster Tuning L size modules modifier, prestige and fitting cost values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Allowed Substructures to be protected by the damageable layer of the parent on a per substructure basis
  
• Update the dying throes of all enemy faction ships
  
• Reduced number of particle explosions called for death explosions across all ships from prologue to campaign, by using fewer more appropriate sized particle explosions
  
• Blaster 4/8/16 direct and subsystem damage along with Fitting and Prestige costs
  
• Torpedo model and VFX
  
• Rocket model and VFX
  
• Multiple Launch Missiles model and VFX
  
• Improved raycasting times for AI actor collision avoidance checks
  

Fixed

• Medium and Large turrets now use correct size projectiles and muzzle flares for their sizes
  
• Null Reference error in Subsystem Repair
  
• When a substructure is destroyed any attached turrets are destroyed resulting in null reference exceptions
  
• Using the "Target turret under reticule" targets turrets which are offline and under repair and therefore invisible
  
• Engine subsystems will stop being repaired when 2 or more engine subsystems exist but at least 1 engine subsystem is attached to a substructure which has been destroyed
  
• Reinforced Armour Plating modules missing Thruster Max Velocity modifier
  
• Reinforced Armour Plating modules modifier values adjusted in line with ruleset
  
• Calculations for DPS and RPS for guns with multiple rounds per shot (Blaster & Burst Cannons)
  
• Turret highlights become disconnected from F2 Cruiser when targeted
  
• Explosion VFX on ships are included in the target highlight
  
• Sub-targeting turrets will use the wrong turret mesh for the highlight (and other weird highlight behaviour)
  
• When a ship is fitted with the Kinetic Damage Protection module and a substructure (i.e. Turret) takes direct damage, the damage feeds down to the ships hull even though if the ship has enough armour to absorb the full amount of damage
  
• Group spawning without a wing leader will clump spawn at same location (spawning inside each other)
  
• Equipment Screen: Equipped Turret slots arcs display issue
  
• Invalid Operation Exception when disabling an active AI Actor by script
  

Patch Notes 0.16.1 Fixed

• Bug: Radar blips no longer appearing skewed on the radar panel (introduced from last patch)
  

Patch Notes 0.16.0 Overview

• Improved lighting/shadows and made better use of engine graphics options for game graphics quality settings from Medium to Ultra
  
• More targeting actions for Monitored, Wingmen, and who's talking
  
• The Command Panel has visual improvements and additional actions
  

Known Issues

• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected (but won't soft lock progress when required, and may require a little patience when used in scripting for Chapter 03 Mission 03 if you feel otherwise)
  
• Mesh fitting detailed (ship vs weapon collisions) and simple colliders (ship vs ship collisions) required for opponent faction ships (Fighter, Gunship, Carrier)
  
• Jump-out animations are not scaled correctly for ships bigger than a gunship
  

Added

• Keybindings for targeting monitored structures in Flight controls
  
• Keybindings for targeting wingmen in Flight controls
  
• Keybinding for targeting the current talker in Flight controls
  
• Added new actions to the Command Panel "Targeting > General" category: Next/Prev Monitored, Next/prev Wingmen and Current Talker
  
• Added new category to Command Panel: Flight Controls
  
• Added new actions to the Command Panel Flight Controls category: Reverse Speed toggle, Match Speed toggle, Match Speed Range Modes Slide cycle, Flight Control toggle, Activate Autopilot
  
• Command Panel control fallback when a flight control action referenced by help glyphs not assigned to gamepad button (tutorial stuff)
  
• Command Panel control fallback will breadcrumb to the desired control not mapped to a gamepad button (if it exists as a Command Panel action)
  
• Command Panel context sensitive text panel based on category and/or action button highlighted
  
• Help glyphs are shown next to the Command Panel for its navigation controls
  

Changed

• Adjusted the font sizes on the flight HUD text assets to meet Steam Deck font size recommendations/preferences
  
• New rendering quality settings applied to video quality settings from Medium upwards, improving visual fidelity on higher settings
  
• Adjusted the shadow rendering settings for improved shadow effects when projected shadows are further away from the camera
  
• Changed default gamepad binding for Full Primary in Flight Group 1 category
  
• Changed default gamepad binding for Auto Targeting in Flight Group 1
  
• Gamepad Start button can be now mapped in Flight Group 1-3 categories
  

Fixed

• Closing the Options popup screen will no longer lose button focus on the Option button on the campaign menu, forcing gamepad users to use the mouse
  
• Menu "Options > Video > Graphics Quality > Shadow Type" setting is no longer ignored
  
• The mouse cursor refused to hide until mouse first moved after a scene load (affected gamepad users)
  

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September 16 - September 23, Steam is hosting Steam Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Fest, with discounts for automobile sim, flight, and trains simulator games, including A-Spec First Assault and Absolute Territory.

And before I forget, here are the latest patch notes for A-Spec First Assault...

Patch Notes 0.15.0 Overview

• Added Chapter 3 to the main campaign
  
• New Point Defence mode (PDC Mode) for turrets to shoot down incoming missiles (not all turrets are PDC capable)
  
• A new Command Menu panel pauses the gameplay while you leisurely send orders, change targets, instead of mapping every control to a gamepad
  

Known Issues

• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected (but won't soft lock progress when required, and may require a little patience when used in scripting for Chapter 03 Mission 03 if you feel otherwise)
  
• Mesh fitting detailed (ship vs weapon collisions) and simple colliders (ship vs ship collisions) required for opponent faction ships (Fighter, Gunship, Carrier)
  
• Jump-out animations are not scaled correctly for ships bigger than a gunship
  

Added

• Chapter 3 main missions
  
• When the players ship turret is taken out, the weapon display for the turret will change to shows it's repair status until its back online
  
• Quick Actions Panel popup to allow control selection from a menu interface (not yet bound to a default key, recommend manual assign to 'F8' for QWERTY layout. See Flight - Other - Quick Actions Menu)
  
• Wingmen status panel also shows each wingman's current order being actioned
  
• Small Turret Guns can be put into Point Defence (PDC) mode (not yet bound to a default key, recommend manual assign to '#' for QWERTY layout. See Flight - Weaponry - Cycle PDC Modes)
  
• Turrets now prioritize targets based on a target order list based on target size (i.e. fighter > gunship > corvette > ...) and weapon suitability
  
• Primary gun slots now have and are restricted by mounting size restrictions
  
• Side mission weights are adjusted during play (less likely to repeat mission variant if you played it --- doesn't mean you won't get another variant with the same type)
  
• Player ship regenerative systems are fully restored during autopilot transitions
  
• Turret specification text now includes "[PDC]" marker to highlight Point Defence Capable turrets
  
• Missing default bindings (Custom bindings will be reset to avoid conflicts)
  
• Tug, Frigate and Large Transport ships for Civilian faction
  
• Event Log added to the Pause menu during flight gameplay (default: Esc) to re-view previously received transmissions during a mission
  

Changed

• The loading screen is now animated, to show the game is loading
  
• Starting the game will show the first loading screen longer than usual. This is the new normal. It's important work towards keeping memory footprint down and keep loading in to missions quick
  
• The training button will be hidden until the prologue has been completed at least once (as the prologue acts as a story based tutorial, as the dedicated tutorials are more for a refresher and/or deeper mechanics for veteran players)
  
• Campaign: Changed starting ship loadout (after the prologue) to be equipped with Autogun(S) for primary and turret slots to be more effective against fighter craft
  
• Primary weapon Autogun (S) max range and muzzle velocity increased
  
• Turreted Autogun (S) X1-3 muzzle velocity increased
  
• FPS is now defaulted to 30 for first time players, to ensure a smooth and consistent gameplay experience during large skirmishes due to physics being linked to frame rate. Experiment/adjust with the FPS video setting to your preference/machine
  
• Several code refactorings for improved frame rate stability
  
• Adjusted the size of the Controller and Keybindings Screen to use more of the width of the screen for binding the three controller types
  
• Large Transport and Mining Barges (found in the Prologue) are now have optimized and better fitting colliders
  
• Adjustments to fighter AI behaviours for better avoiding other structures
  
• Increased Unity Engine Max Virual Voices and Max Real Voices to eliminate audio cutting out when too many sources are playing at default values
  

Fixed

• Slow loading with Skybox and HUD assets which only became apparent after adding modular backgrounds as Addressable Assets
  
• Full speed button is not enabled with other speed settings in Prologue Mission 1 & 2
  
• Yaw was incorrectly disabled during first mining task in Prologue Mission 2
  
• Corrected grammar in Xenia dialogue re afterburning during Prologue Mission 3
  
• Player Received Transmission override source name was not being applied under certain conditions
  
• Turrets performance were not being affected by the of the Gun Control subsystem health
  
• Subsystem pips for health of the player ship and targeted ships
  
• "Full throttle" the t in throttle should be uppercase for consistency in Control Mappings
  
• Enemy Cruiser encountered in chapter 2 was missing Engine and Thruster Particle Effects
  
• Thruster and Engine FX will no longer continue to play when the ship is in Slide mode
  
• Afterburner audio for the player ship only plays through the right audio channel in 1st/3rd person view
  
• Main Gun weapons now have use slot size requirements
  
• Turrets firing prematurely
  
• When in a mission, pausing the game then pressing the escape key will resume the mission while with pause screen is open
  
• Vessel Fitting: Launcher list is not indented correctly in the Specification Panel
  
• Vessel Fitting: Turret list is not indented correctly in the Specification Panel
  
• Vessel Fitting: Turret slots are missing mounting size labels
  
• Vessel Fitting: Modules are not being filtered by selected mounting sizes
  
• Nanite Repair Optimization I (S) module has wrong price (extra digit added)
  
• When using External Camera Tracking the HUD will eventually vibrate while player travels away from the position the camera view was engaged at
  
• Prologue Mission 7: Transports jumping out where not being counted correctly causing incorrect dialogue to be triggered
  
• Afterburn visual effect will continue and consume fuel during the autopilot cutscene, if afterburning when engaging the autopilot
  
• Adjusting ships armour current health values via mission scripting can prevent repairs of regenerative armour
  
• Added missing thruster effects to Large Transport and Mining Barges (found in the Prologue)
  
• Improved performance during flight gameplay (identified through performance analytics)
  

Hey pilots,

A quick progress update. Chapter 3 is essentially complete and playable. This chapter has taken much longer than any other chapter, and the results may not be immediately obvious once released but tries something I have not done before, leading to longer development time.

There's been a fair amount of backend changes affecting mission scripting and skyboxes (the pretty stars), and many minor changes , all of which needs to be fully tested. Essentially I need to go through all the missions, campaign and side missions, as part of a campaign playthrough and catch less obvious issues not identified from individual mission testing.

There are no major hurdles to over come for this update, it's just a whole lot of testing and re-testing required across the entire campaign, skirmish and tutorials to ensure all is still working and no gameplay blockers preventing players progressing through the campaign.

I'll be using the full month of August for playtesting, bug fixing. What time I have left will be put into making manageable improvements. All going well, I'll be in a good position for providing a release date for this update.

Fly safe!