Star Vortex News

[p]This update is here a little earlier than planned. Once the performance gains started stacking up and the visual upgrades came together, it felt wrong to delay it though.[/p][p][/p][h2]Nebulas[/h2][p]They’ve been on the roadmap for a long time and you'll now occasionally encounter them while exploring. They’re not common, but when you do find one, visibility drops hard hopefully giving a very different feel to combat. It may be tweaked in future updates but I want to see what you guys think first.[/p][p][/p][h2]Bloom + Gateways[/h2][p]I’ve upgraded the bloom system with proper tonemapping. Glows now keep their colour instead of blowing out into flat white. At the same time, Gateways have been reworked with proper portal shaders and new entry animations.[/p][p][/p][p]This ended up being a much bigger visual improvement than expected. In hindsight, I should have done it sooner but it's here now![/p][p][/p][h2]Brightness[/h2][p]The overall game brightness has been increased slightly. If you dislike this there's now a Brightness slider in the settings. Background Darkness is still adjustable separately under Accessibility.[/p][p][/p][p]To keep ships readable against brighter environments, they now have a subtle black shadow.[/p][p][/p][p]Fox-2 Ship Design by Yo (https://star-vortex.com/ships.php?view=152)[/p][p][/p][h2]Performance[/h2][p]This update includes a major performance pass across the entire game.[/p][p]Large fights with heavy projectile and drone counts should feel noticeably smoother. Drone weapon pools are now preloaded before combat, so you won’t get that initial stutter when a swarm fires for the first time.[/p][p]A lot of invisible per-frame allocations have been removed from targeting, clean-up, and patrol systems. That means fewer garbage collection spikes and fewer random hitches.[/p][p]Steam Deck performance in particular should now feel much more stable.[/p][p][/p][h2]Sector 4 - Phase 1 Progress[/h2][p]Work on Sector 4 continues behind the scenes. You'll start seeing new Species-XI enemies appearing in the next update, and boss development for this phase is about to begin.[/p][p][/p][p]Full details are listed below. Enjoy![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Features / Content[/h3][p]• Some encounters are now shrouded in thick nebula fog, limiting visibility.[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance Changes[/h3][p]• Smaller factions in sectors now have a minimum number of spawns.[/p][p]• Increased cooldown on Phantom Demon's invulnerability from 5s to 10s.[/p][p][/p][h3]Quality of Life / Accessibility[/h3][p]• New animated effects for gateway and sector portals.[/p][p]• Added brightness slider to graphics category in settings.[/p][p]• Improved bloom with smoother, more saturated highlights using Neutral tone mapping.[/p][p]• Added Split Toning option under Graphics for a subtle cinematic color grade.[/p][p]• Added Film Grain setting under Graphics for a subtle cinematic texture overlay.[/p][p]• Increased the default brightness of background artwork by 15%.[/p][p]• Ships now have a small shadow around them to improve visibility.[/p][p]• Added button to ship design that re-opens the tutorial if you missed it.[/p][p][/p][h3]Performance[/h3][p]• Removed normal maps for improved performance, as visual impact was minor.[/p][p]• Improved drone targeting performance, especially with multiple drone bays.[/p][p]• Reduced drone CPU overhead per frame.[/p][p]• Eliminated FPS drop when drones first enter combat.[/p][p]• Reduced per-shot overhead for all projectile weapons.[/p][p]• Improved performance for multi-shot weapons (e.g. Scatter Gun).[/p][p]• Faster projectile clean-up when projectiles expire or hit targets.[/p][p]• Reduced memory allocations from frequently running clean-up checks.[/p][p]• Improved generation speed for sectors.[/p][p]• Multiple improvements to player list loading when there are multiple saves.[/p][p]• Fixed excessive garbage collection in AI controller during battles.[/p][p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3][p]• Updated pop-up tutorial about linking slots with correct UI artwork.[/p][p]• Fixed bindings not correctly displaying in ship design for keyboards.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where Gunner upgrades were not correctly applied to missile weapons.[/p][p]• Fixed an error when a black hole dealt damage after its parent ship was destroyed.[/p][p]• Fixed key bindings not displaying when the ship designer first opens.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where some templates would display as level 999.[/p][p]• Fixed an error when using older beacons to summon friendly ships.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where enemy cooldowns were being incorrectly reduced.[/p]

[p]Nothing massive this time, but this build includes some visual upgrades, meaningful performance improvements, and a handful of quality of life features.[/p][p][/p][h2]Thermal Lance[/h2][p]A new spinal weapon has entered the loot tables: the Thermal Lance.[/p][p][/p][p]It functions similarly to the Cryo Lance, but deals Thermal damage instead. Like all spinal weapons, it can be equipped with a fixed firing direction.[/p][p][/p][h2]Navigation Improvement[/h2][p]The navigation panel now features a proper territory shader. Factions are clearly highlighted, and debris types are displayed separately around encounters that include them. This should make the map easier to read and help you understand what you’re flying into.[/p][p][/p][p]Faction territories are visible even before you reveal specific areas, so you can still plan your route.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Shield Shaders[/h2][p]Shield visuals have been completely reworked. The new shaders better reflect hit locations, animate in more dynamic ways, and gradually turn red as shield power drops, giving you an earlier visual warning in combat. Overall, shield feedback should now feel clearer and more responsive.[/p][p][/p][h2]Friendly Ship Outlines[/h2][p]Arriving friendly ships now receive a temporary blue outline on arrival, making them much easier to identify during busy encounters.[/p][p][/p][h2]Ship Hit Effects[/h2][p]Ships now physically show where they’ve been hit. Hull damage appears directly on the surface and glows based on the damage type that caused it, layering on top of parts already breaking away long before the ship is fully torn apart. Combat should now feel more destructive.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Ship Design Improvements[/h2][p]Several long requested features have been added to the ship designer. You can now repeatedly click the same area to cycle down through overlapping parts, press Ctrl + A to quickly select everything, and use the new copy and paste functions.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Alongside these changes are significant performance improvements and a large number of bug fixes. Full details are listed below. Enjoy![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Features / Content[/h3][p]• Added new spinal weapon, Thermal Lance.[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance Changes[/h3][p]• Ion thruster dodge factor increased from 140 to 180m/s.[/p][p]• Encounter rewards from invasions are now higher rarity.[/p][p]• Phase shift, Shield Ward and Disabled status effects now block hull regeneration.[/p][p]• Species-XI ships no longer Phase Shift for longer than 5s with a 12s cooldown.[/p][p][/p][h3]Quality of Life / Accessibility[/h3][p]• Friendly ships now get a blue outline on arrival, which can be disabled in settings.[/p][p]• Debris and faction territory are now rendered more nicely in navigation.[/p][p]• New shield artwork and shaders for all external shields.[/p][p]• Shield color now slowly shifts to red as it gets weaker.[/p][p]• Ships now get 33% transparency when dodging and are immune to damage.[/p][p]• Ship now shows damage temporarily as a visual effect when taking hull damage.[/p][p]• Clouds now appear volumetric under lighting instead of flat.[/p][p]• Clicking an already selected part in the ship designer now selects the part under it.[/p][p]• Ctrl + A now selects all parts in the ship designer when using a keyboard.[/p][p]• Added copy and paste buttons to the ship designer.[/p][p]• Ctrl + C and V can now be used to copy and paste in the ship designer.[/p][p]• Tweaked settings on bloom slightly for cleaner glows.[/p][p]• Reduced the size of ship explosions slightly.[/p][p]• Piercing projectiles now cut ships in half like lasers.[/p][p][/p][h3]Performance[/h3][p]• Vastly improved the performance of dodging and temporal drive after images.[/p][p]• Object pool returns are now instant instead of scanning the entire pool.[/p][p]• Death surge effects use a shared lookup table instead of rebuilding one per kill.[/p][p]• Projectile hits resolve with one component lookup instead of three.[/p][p]• Seeking missiles reuse already-found targets instead of re-searching each candidate.[/p][p]• Explosions reuse cached physics data instead of re-fetching per object in blast radius.[/p][p]• Spawned ships notify the spawner on death instead of checking every frame.[/p][p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3][p]• Fixed snake enemies moving far more rigidly than intended.[/p][p]• Dragging UI sliders in ship design no longer deselects parts.[/p][p]• Renamed Caustic Laser to Corrosion Beam.[/p][p]• Fixed a crash that could occur when rapidly clicking in the ship select dialog.[/p][p]• Fixed RenderTexture errors on Linux multi-monitor setups.[/p][p]• Fixed tiny Inferno Cannon item image.[/p][p]• Fixed two bugs that allowed Sector Keystones to be placed in storage.[/p]

[p]This update took a bit of an unexpected turn. While working on the new spinal weapons for Sector 4, it became obvious that ship explosions just weren’t as satisfying as they should be. That’s now been fixed.[/p][p][/p][h2]Ship Destruction[/h2][p]Previously, ship destruction simply ejected parts from a central point, added a few smoke trails, and played an explosion animation.[/p][p][/p][p]The new system pushes parts outward from the actual impact point, or along the beam path in the case of lasers. Parts intersecting a laser are now sliced in half. Explosions also feature fractal glowing cracks at the blast point, gradual burn effects, and glowing particles.[/p][p]The result is significantly more satisfying enemy destruction, I hope.[/p][p][/p][h2]Twitch Votes[/h2][p]Two new Twitch voting options have been added: CRT Mode and Pixel Art Mode.[/p][p][/p][p]These aren’t meant to be serious gameplay modes. They exist purely so viewers can torment their favourite (or least favourite) streamers.[/p][p][/p][h2]Sector 4 Progress[/h2][p]Sector 4 will introduce the heavily requested spinal weapons. These are large, fixed-mount weapons that don’t rotate and hit extremely hard.[/p][p]For now, I’ve added the Cryo Lance and Howitzer. Although Sector 4 isn’t accessible yet, these weapons are part of the global loot table, so you may come across them if you’re lucky.[/p][p][/p][p]Spinal weapons generate significant recoil when mounted on smaller ships, and their firing angle can be manually adjusted when equipped. Both pierce through enemies with the Howitzer also causing large explosions with each impact.[/p][p][/p][h2]Other Changes[/h2][p]• Encounter rewards are now fully random rather than seed-based, preventing abuse.[/p][p]• Drone aiming has been improved, so Roach and Hornet drones should miss less.[/p][p]• Fixed several bugs affecting Beacon weapons.[/p][p][/p][p]Full details below. Enjoy.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Features / Content[/h3][p]• Destroyed ships now explode realistically with some parts clustering together.[/p][p]• Added sparks, glow, fractures and charring to ship parts as they explode.[/p][p]• Lasers now visually cut ships in half when they destroy ships.[/p][p]• Added support for piercing lasers that hit through multiple targets.[/p][p]• Howitzer spinal weapon can now drop from the global loot table.[/p][p]• Cryo Lance spinal weapon can now drop from the global loot table.[/p][p]• Added a new developer setting and Twitch vote for old school CRT mode.[/p][p]• Added a new developer setting and Twitch vote for old school pixel art mode.[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance Changes[/h3][p]• Beacon ships now scale damage and toughness more with increased level.[/p][p]• Beacons that are cancelled early now only take a partial cooldown.[/p][p]• Increased range of drones from 300m to 400m.[/p][p]• Inferno cannon projectiles no longer explode before impact.[/p][p][/p][h3]Quality of Life / Accessibility[/h3][p]• Encounter reward type/rarity remains seed-based, but items are now random.[/p][p]• New game+ pop-up now mentions that the choice cannot be reversed.[/p][p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3][p]• Fixed bug where the player's laser weapons would not hit enemy drones.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where beacon ships would not jump away at the end of their duration.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where low-level beacons had significantly lower duration than intended.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where friendly drones would miss with weapons on purpose.[/p][p]• Fixed issue with loading v0.6.07 saves when they contained old items.[/p][p]• Fixed some bugs with credit animations setting the value incorrectly.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where Novus Prime, Asgard and Eden were granting XP on arrival.[/p][p]• Fixed null reference in CameraController.UpdateCameraPosition().[/p][p]• Fixed null reference in AssemblerPanel.ShowIncreaseLevel().[/p][p]• Dust layer no longer renders on top of ships.[/p][p]• Fixed bug when using drones in Sandbox with enemies set to inactive.[/p]

[p]Star Vortex is currently 15% off for the next two weeks.[/p][p]New Game+ has also landed, so you can keep progressing and playing indefinitely once you reach the current end of content.[/p][p][/p][h3]Sector 4: Work In Progress[/h3][p]Development on Sector 4 is underway. I’m currently working on Spinal Weapons: extra-large fixed-mount weapons used by certain enemies and sold by the Admiral’s flagship in Sector 4. They don’t rotate, but you can manually set their firing angle, with significant recoil on smaller ships.[/p][p][/p][p]The Howitzer shown above combines piercing and explosive projectiles, making it especially effective against large groups once you line it up.[/p][p]More news to come. Enjoy![/p]

[p]This is a quick hotfix for some recent bugs. The experience bars have been displaying incorrectly above level 80 since a couple of updates ago. They should now always show correct numbers as it was using an old equation.[/p][p]It jumps two versions because the brief v0.6.15 update dropped some players levels incorrectly but that has now been resolved.[/p][p]Also, there is a fix for players with lots and lots of weapons being unable to activate them.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Balance Changes[/h3][p]• Reduced cooldown of Impact/Toxic/Blast Wave/Frost Nova pulses from 8 to 5 seconds.[/p][p][/p][h3]Performance[/h3][p]• Leech Particles and Particle Quality are now two separate settings.[/p][p]• Reduced the number of Leech Particles per enemy at higher particle settings.[/p][p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3][p]• Fixed display of experience bars above level 80.[/p][p]• Fixed bug where weapons above slot 8 could not be activated.[/p]