Lost Fleet News

Hey everyone! With the autumn sale underway we wanted to make sure everyone is up to speed with the community forums. Update 6 is almost ready to go, let's take a look at what's already in the beta branch:

• New Targeting/Lockon System: Targets in the center of the screen are now automatically selected (box reticle), you can still use the target button to lock your current target (circle reticle) or long press to 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.
  
• Improved accuracy of AI turrets and target leading HUD when using autocannon weapons.
  
• New options and menu fixes: Fixed a number of gameplay sliders resetting when quitting the menu, added sensitivity options and relative mouse settings.
  
• Added Anti-Aliasing mode options to video settings.
  
• Added permanent world space tags to make defending Refinery's easier.
  
• Formatted lobby UI to be easier to read and prevent clipping in ultrawide.
  
• A bunch of smaller gameplay fixes.
  
• Added 'fire until empty' value to beam weapon modding.
  

Here's the roadmap moving forward:

• Update 6 should be ready in the next week or two, we're still working on a few bugs and a new carrier dedicated to providing repair ships.
  
• The current number of locations in the internal build is up to 24, so we're ready to start implementing infinite survival mode in Update 7 which will also be expanding the NPC roster and mission content. Right now we're shooting for late December.
  
• We're looking at replacing the refinery donate system with a fleet level up system. Earning money for the fleet would level up the Mothership, each level would provide a refinery, carrier, or other bonus that would respawn if destroyed.
  
• We've been working on a new flight system for fighters and an in HUD radar in the beta branch but both still have significant issues to work out. Depending on how these two wildcards shake out we may shuffle the update schedule around but both of these are important features we want to finish before we leave Early Access next year.
  

As always thanks for your support and we'll see you in the forums!

After an extended beta period we're proud to announce that Update 5 is now available, here are the highlights:

Mod Support
You can now modify the stats of every ship and weapon in the game, we will be expanding mod functionality in future updates but our hope is that many of you will take the opportunity to help shape the gameplay of Lost Fleet as we continue through Early Access.

To use mods there are 2 new buttons in the lobby menu, 'Generate Mod Files' will create text files in your Lost Fleet\Lost Fleet_Data\mods directory, 'Load Mods' will load any changes you make to those files into your current game session. if you're playing multiplayer make sure you both load the same mod files to ensure compatibility.

A complete AI overhaul: Strikecraft are much more effective individually and behave more like humans when in groups. Bomber spam should be less effective now, and much more easily countered.

Expanded Campaign
Stages 2-7 now have random alternate worlds with new side objectives. We'll be expanding on these in the future with the goal of making each campaign playthrough a unique experience.

Computer Player Slot Control: We've added the ability to add and remove computer players, income is split between players (AI or human) and the Mothership will auto balance team size with extra miners.

UI Updates: We've added help text for each Ship, Weapon and Ability in the game. Background work has also been done for mission scripting and in game dialogue that will enable us to do a proper tutorial and make it much more clear where to put your attention during battle.

Flight Improvements: Another iteration of the flight model for ships as well as weapon improvements to make fighters much more responsive.

Performance Improvements and more: Detailed update notes are over in the beta discussion thread

Once again we'd like to thank everyone that has supported us and provided feedback throughout Early Access, moving forward we'll be continuing the weekly back and forth format from the beta in the Feedback Megathread, enjoy!

Update 5 is now available in the Beta Branch, to access: right click on Lost Fleet in your Steam library and go to Properties-> Betas -> Beta Participation dropdown -> "testing update 5 test"

Apologies for taking longer than expected, the good news is we've managed to complete a few extra features as well as lay the groundwork for most of our future content. Going forward updates should come at a more even pace.

We've been gathering feedback over in the forums, if you want to help shape development be sure to drop by and offer your feedback!

Update Notes:

• 5 New Alternate Maps for Stages 2-7: We'll be expanding on these in the future with the goal of making each campaign playthrough a unique experience.
  
• Major update to Fighter AI: Strike craft are much more effective individually and behave more like humans when in groups. Bomber spam should be less effective now, and much more easily countered.
  
• Moddable Ship Stats: the lobby now 2 new buttons, "generate mod files" and "load mod files". .json files are imported and exported from steamapps>common>Lost Fleet>Lost Fleet_Data>mods
  
• Computer Player Slot Control: The Campaign is still balanced around 6 players for now, but we've added the ability to add and remove computer players.
  
• UI Updates: We've added help text for each Ship, Weapon and Ability in the game. Background work has also been done for mission scripting and in game dialogue that will enable us to do a proper tutorial and make it much more clear where to put your attention.
  
• Another iteration of the flight model for ships as well as weapon improvements to make fighters much more responsive, the Boxer and Dragon bomber especially get a lot of work on their primary weapons.
  
• New Pulse Laser for Hornet, Raven & Ranger: uses cursor to aim instead of auto aim
  
• Improved Autocannon for Freebee, Sabre and Capital Ship turrets, more responsive, higher rate of fire and more performant.
  
• New Mission System: Still a work in progress, stages now have side objectives that can provide bonuses or penalties. We'll be expanding these as we go with the goal of providing interesting challenges that make each run unique.
  
• New NPCs
  

Update 5 is almost here! We've spent the last three months laying the groundwork for a much more repayable campaign with new ships, worlds, side objectives and reworked weapons, lets take a look at what's inside:

• New Maps: Stages 2-5 now have random alternate worlds, a big part of our work the past two months has been making it easier to add new content. Expect the campaign to get much more variety in each run as we add new stages and missions throughout the year.
  
  
• Side Objectives: Each stage now has randomized events and side objectives. Some of these will grant bonuses, others may make your mission harder if they aren't completed. Our intention is to provide interesting challenges that make each run unique, getting the balance just right will be a challenge but we think they'll make a big difference in replayability.
  
  
• Ship Stat Modding: You can now mod the health and movement attributes of ships using .json files. We'll be working on moddable weapon, ability and world stats in the future, but the ability to mod in entirely new ships is probably out of scope.
  
  
• Computer Player Slot Control: Previously the game would fill with computer players on match start so that each team would have an even six. This helped with scaling the difficulty but there wasn't any UI feedback outside the tab/score screen. You can add or remove bots now, and we're working on more UI feedback so it doesn't just look like ships are randomly appearing in the campaign.
  
  
• Ship Improvements: Another iteration of the flight model for ships as well as improvements to weapons to make fighters much more responsive, the Boxer and Dragon bomber especially get a lot of work on their primary weapons.
  
  
• UI Improvements: We've added help text for each ship, weapon and ability in the game. Background work has also been done for mission scripting and in game dialogue that will enable us to do a proper tutorial and make it much more clear where to put your attention.
  

Update 5 will be hitting the beta branch next month, thanks again to everyone who's support in Early Access has made all this possible!

It's here! The long awaited ship command system is ready as well as a complete revamp of the input system. Here are the details:

New Input System
Rebindable keys and controller support is here with improvements to mouse steering as well. The new default setting adjusts the virtual stick size to your monitor's height and the flight model has been updated to increase angular drag when your stick is within the deadzone. We'll continue to make improvements to ship handling throughout early access from your feedback.

Command and Control
You can now give commands in the tactical map! Attack, Defend, and Mine orders will allow you to micro to your heart's content. Assemble strike teams of bombers and escort them with wings of fighters, split your miners for max efficiency, set a permanent guard to the mothership and its refinery's. We'll be adding extra functionality in the future to make selecting ships and giving orders easier with a controller.

Economy Changes
Resource Asteroids now give varying yields at different rates, this allows us to tweak the economy towards an income curve with a more gradual pace. Resource Asteroids will be getting updated art to reflect their new stats very soon. We're also experimenting with increasing the number of Mules spawned by each Refinery while increasing the respawn time to give miner raiding a greater payoff.

The Future
Our next big focus will be on content, the goal is to completely revamp the Campaign with replayability in mind. New objectives, roguelike elements, ships, enemies and new worlds to explore are all in the works. Expect some experimental builds to start appearing in the test branch late January/early February.

Smaller changes we're looking at include:

• Reworked target select
  
• New tutorial text, weapon/ability descriptions and icons
  
• Camera shortcuts to make jumping between ships easier
  
• Better warnings for when critical ships under attack
  
• Improved projectile collisions
  
• End of match stats
  
• Netcode improvements for smoother skirmish matches
  

Improvements

• Rewired Input System: Custom controls and controller support
  
• Improvements to mouse steering, virtual stick will now auto size based on screen height
  
• Added toggle option for flight assist under the Gameplay tab
  
• Ship Command System: Attack, Defend and Mining commands
  
• You can set RTS style control groups in the sensor screen
  
• Orders given to Refineries are now passed on to their Mules
  
• Removed personal income bonus to make piloting Mules less of an obligation
  
• Resource Asteroids now have varying collection rates and yields
  
• Increased number of Mules per Refinery from 2 to 4, increased respawn time to
  
• Added ship sell animation
  
• Improvements to AI decision making and target selection, ability use now factors in distance
  
• Reimplemented Leviathan Bio Missiles, fear them
  

Fixes

• AI will now empty their mules before upgrading to a new ship
  
• Fixed sensor screen camera losing alignment with spectate camera
  
• Improved Ultrawide UI formatting
  
• Fixed some projectiles culling when out of sight of the host
  
• Fixed Capital Ship AI collision avoidance false positive
  
• Fixed ship counter getting stuck on after map transition
  

Thanks to everyone on the forums who helped get this update out the door, enjoy the holidays!