Lost Fleet News

Hey everyone quick bugfix update this week, the next major update in early March will be focused on more improvements to the Campaign and Infinite modes, notes below:

• Increased capital ship turn thrust to compensate for the angular drag fix in Update 7.
  
• Fixed capital ship afterburner not recharging until boost button released.
  
• Fixed warp effect playing for clients when mothership was still charging in Infinite mode.
  
• Enemy waves will now increment while undiscovered during scout missions to help prevent snowballing in the campaign.
  
• Removed stray aiming reticle for Artemis, planning on making the frigate heal beams controllable later.
  
• Fixed some missing/old ship tooltips.
  

Hey everyone! Update 7 is up on the main branch, here are the notes:

Improvements:

• Complete overhaul of Strikecraft camera system, collisions should feel less jarring and flying fighters should feel much more dynamic. Holding the camera swap button (default 'z') now lets you look around.
  
• Removed Drift Mode and overhauled flight values for most ships. Consolidating flight models helps us focus on creating a single well balanced feel for each ship and frees up a button to give ships a second ability.
  
• New HUD Radar and Target tracker.
  
• Added Firing Range game mode for testing out ships.
  
• Added First Pass end-of-match stats screen.
  
• Audio and visual effect improvements.
  
• Many ship changes effecting weapons, abilities and movement. Highlights include:
  
• Increased Mule capacity 25%, increased boost duration.
  
• Torpedoes now decrease thrust in proportion to remaining fuel and factor target distance when the aim point returns a position in empty space, also improved torpedo hitbox.
  
• Freebee is now armed with a Pulse Laser and Armor Boost ability.
  
• Reworked Hornet as an Autocannon fighter to better match its ability.
  
• Primary weapon for Ranger is now a Plasma Bomb launcher.
  
• Boxer now has the self-repair ability
  
• New Guided Missiles.
  

Fixes:

• Fixed Music and Post Processing Volume/Skybox not syncing with clients in Infinite Mode.
  
• Fixed client aiming reticles getting stuck on death.
  
• Fixed AI ships getting stuck after rallying on the Mothership.
  
• Fixed nearest minable asteroid UI for clients.
  
• Removed excessive collision sounds(no more bonging or ricochet noise).
  
• Fixed Capital Ships getting incorrect angular drag values that were too low.
  
• Fixed Armor Boost.
  
• Filled in missing Capital Ship thruster particle effects, boost effects.
  
• Fixed a number of ability cooldowns not updating the HUD.
  
• A number of client fixes for guided missiles.
  
• Client fixes for a number of HUD elements.
  
• Fixed map obstacles marked as resource asteroids on HUD radar.
  
• Lowered Carrier AI optimal guard range (Paragon sometimes try to leave the map).
  
• Slingshot now alternates between upper and lower launchers.
  
• Fixed Small Shark using the wrong weapon.
  
• Added version text to lobby menu.
  

A big thanks to everyone that supported us through the holiday sale! We'll be focusing on Infinite Mode and quality of life improvements for the next major update. General list of improvements to Infinite Mode we're working on include:

• Stat tracking such as elapsed time, kills, resources mined, spent, etc.
  
• Implementing side objectives.
  
• Better markers for enemies, the tags marking incoming waves were a bit confusing and spawned enemies currently have no marker until you lock onto them.
  
• Refine the map size, improve object spawning and spacing.
  
• Improve AI large obstacle navigation.
  
• Improve enemy variety, in late game npc enemy types will make an appearance.
  
• Still working out the feasibility of deeper roguelike elements such as unlockable ships, player or team wide buffs and debuffs, named boss enemies/unique friendly ships, etc.
  

If you'd like to keep up with our progress a new test build is up on the Beta Branch and we're taking week to week feedback in the Gameplay Megathread. We'll be uploading new builds at roughly weekly intervals with the goal of a main branch update at the end of the month.

To access the test version of the game: right click on Lost Fleet in your Steam library and go to Properties-> Betas -> Beta Participation dropdown -> "testing - beta branch"


Beta Build Update 7 Test 1 Notes:

• Decreased size of Infinite Mode maps by ~10%
  
• Added Firing Range game mode. Test out any of the ships without mining and blow away target enemies.
  

We wanted to do a quick update before we break for the holidays. Here are the notes:

• Infinite mode is now available in the game mode dropdown; Still very much a work in progress but I'm hoping that as the mode expands this will be the primary way to play the game. Added new skyboxes and map objects for over 100 environmental combinations.
  
• Fixed warp effects playing outside of the jump countdown.
  
• Re-enabled velocity limits for ships.
  
• Paragon turrets are now more powerful and controllable.
  
• Reset Paragon and Pegasus camera controls to capital ship default.
  
• Added glow effect to Pegasus hangar.
  
• Improved command selection icon sprite and sizing.
  
• Fixed command selection icons displaying when selected units were behind the camera.
  
• Fixed orders remaining visible on the command when deselecting units using group binds.
  
• Fixed carriers getting stuck selling if missing ships
  
• Repair units will now reject commands to heal enemies
  
• Increased target finding distance when holding the target button to find nearest enemy
  

After New Years we'll be working on expanding Infinite mode, special thanks to everyone who provided feedback in the megathread and to Splattercatgaming for the recent coverage. Take care everyone!

Thanks for your patience everyone, detailed update notes are below and as always hit us up the forums with your feedback:

• New Targeting System: Targets in the center of the screen are now automatically selected (box reticle), the target button will lock your current target (circle reticle) and a long press will target lock the nearest preferred enemy for your current ship.
  
• New Turret Aiming System: We replaced the old world space reticles with a single center screen aim point. Your turrets will set their range to the distance of your current target so you can focus on blasting.
  
• New carrier dedicated to supplying repair drones, the Artemis.
  
• A number of balance changes: Doubled damage and a new ability for the Freebee, area damage for the Paladin, tougher Rangers, tons of smaller changes.
  
• Added Anti-Aliasing mode options to video settings.
  
• New options and menu fixes: Fixed a number of gameplay sliders resetting when quitting the gameplay menu, added sensitivity options and relative mouse settings.
  
• Updated visual effects for a number of ships and weapons.
  
• Improved accuracy of AI turrets and target leading HUD when using autocannon weapons.
  
• Added world space markers to make it easier to keep track of your important ships.
  
• Reformatted lobby UI to be easier to read and prevent clipping in ultrawide.
  
• Added 'fire until empty' value to beam weapon modding.
  
• Most of the work in progress environments have been added to the skirmish selection
  
• A bunch of smaller gameplay fixes.
  

The next update will be focused on introducing infinite mode, which will essentially be a more freeform version of the campaign mode. The idea is to create a more roguelike experience where any enemy, environment, or side mission can appear on any stage. You'll be able to keep racking up the score and completing stages as long as your fleet can hold out. Infinite mode will be fleshed out over a number of updates but we plan the initial release with Update 7 to hit before new years.

Thanks again! Have a good week.