PhaigeX: Hyperspace Survivors News

Greetings, PhaigeX employees!

We are bringing new updates about the current Roadmap Milestone: The second Player Ship and Support Craft Banner, which we will now call "PIONEER", following the first "ORIGIN" banner. Another two ships have been successfully developed and customized for combat, that's now four out of the five player ship target. Only one more ship... and 2 Support Crafts remaining.

The people at Engineering and Development got to inject more of their personal quirks into the design and mechanics of these two units, probably as a result of brainstorming while drunk, but they were able to make the concepts work into interesting weapons of mass destruction. Let's see what they have in store for us this time.

[h2]PHGX-008 "RAVE-N"[/h2]
Someone seem to have had been high on night parties recently, and constructed such a lightshow of a ship. This seemingly fragile-looking ship has the equipment to emit powerful Radiation Waves, or Raves as the young ones call it, to burn and melt down enemy hardware. Too much radiation is bad after all... for the opposition, that is.

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The Rave Gamma Blaster SP Tech is very simple to use, a straightforward "turn-on, point and shoot" cone of intense radiation can even make the toughest ships explode from inside just with seconds of exposure. However, maintaining it active as a weapon rapidly drains the Tech Meter, so it should be used smartly. Gotta conserve energy.

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Apparently, there's more to the use of Raves other than just direct exposure. The Diffraction Prism unique weapon serves as a conduit for spreading the Raves even further when the Rave Gamma Blaster is fired at it. Not only that, on higher levels, the prism can also absorb certain energy emission weapons to scatter around as lasers. The spectacle when both happens is quite the sight.

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To further strengthen the equipment, the optional unique passive Unstable Overdrive, delves deep on the varying Rave wavelengths (Ravelengths?) and making Raves more powerful and colorful at the same time. It also synergizes with increasing output size for energy emission weapons, making the lightshows even bigger.

[h2]PHGX-009 "SLEDGENAUT"[/h2]
Going onto the opposite spectrum from the previous ship, the concept of this unit doesn't get any simpler: "Just ram the enemies, head-on.". As a result, a highly-armored, yet surprisingly fast ship has been conceptualized. For the issues that surfaced from the ship being "too heavy to move fast", the solution also became its weapon: "Explosive Momentum". Both its SP Tech and Unique Weapon causes the ship to boost forward, gaining enough momentum to ram enemies. This ship is built to become an unstoppable force that breaks through anything that stands in its way.

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The built-in Strike Anchor SP Tech does the "striking" part well against drones and missiles, but the real value comes from the "anchor" part hooking onto enemy ships. Grab one with the anchor, and in the next moment, the ship winds itself towards the hooked enemy at ramming speed.

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Weaponizing the ship's massive thrusters, the Explosive Boost unique weapon acts both as a close-range explosive blast and a tool to propel the ship forward at ramming speeds. Use this to compensate for the natural slow speed this unit has, for evasion or for offense.

Lastly, a ramming ship deserves to have a good armor protection, so the Composite Armor unique passive grants the ship a chance to ignore incoming damage, while improving efficiency on other passives that activate when the ship gets hit. Keep on charging forward!

...and that end our small peek into these new ships. Almost done here, just finish one more ship and two Support Crafts, and this update will be released before September ends. We are excited to have you handle these babies soon, the wait won't be any longer!

Towards a brighter future,

The PhaigeX MegaCorp.

To all the PhaigeX employees, we at Management are delivering the news in regards to the current Roadmap Progress Milestone: Player Ship and Support Banner#2.

The busy people here at Development have completed two out of the targeted five player ship count. Conceptualizing ship designs proved to be quite the rewarding undertaking, and they have given their word that piloting these beauties will provide quite the refreshing and enjoyable experience, not to mention the firepower they bring once upgraded to the limit. For now, we are excited to introduce these two newly-developed ships you will get a hold of once the the Roadmap Milestone is finished.

[h2]PHGX-006 "PLUVIA"[/h2]
Showering the opposition with massive firepower is the Pluvia, which is a word for "rain" if you look up the definition. What this unit excels at is guided homing weaponry, as reflected by its starting equipment.

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Its SP Tech is the Homing Laser, which seems very straightforward. Use all the remaining tech meter to fire multiple lasers at once, automatically seeking enemies to destroy. The lasers might not be powerful individually, but it makes up with the sheer amount fired. Just keep an eye on the tech meter levels to keep firing in huge bursts!

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The "guided" homing weaponry part is handled by its unique passive equipment, the T.A.G System, short for "Target-Anchored Guidance". Holding the SP Tech will show a detection circle, tagging all enemy ships and ship sectors within the circle's range. Releasing the SP Tech will still fire the Homing Lasers, but this time the focus of the lasers are the units that were tagged! Upgrading this passive will allow guided control over homing weapons as well, so the potential for focused firepower is high.

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Its optional unique weapon, the Photon Shower, might look like it's just scattering energy mines that damages enemies on hit, and seems unwieldy. The key to using this properly is to have an appropriately-upgraded T.A.G System. Just from looking at the demonstration, the names for these are very much well-earned.

[h2]PHGX-007 "ARBALEST"[/h2]
Next on the line is an attempt to create a "transformable" ship that can shift roles as the situation demands. Trying to incorporate multiple roles into a ship will cause some pros and cons to its performance and handling, but the Arbalest has both of its forms' specifications balanced to the roles it need to serve. As a bonus, all its unique equipment transforms with it.

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The SP Tech allows the ship to "Mode Shift" between two forms:

• The default Agile Mode, boasting good movement speed at the expense of slow turning speed. Tech meter fills up in this form over time.
  
• Breach Mode, used for long-range sniping, slows the ship's movement speed and fire rate but grants increased damage. In this form, there is zero tech meter gain, even from passive and mod bonuses. The view even goes a bit forward to show what's beyond the screen.
  

Transforming together with the ship, is its unique weapon, the Burst Shell:

• In Agile Mode, it rapid-fires flak shots that explode to an area on hit or a set distance. This is useful for intercepting small objects like drones and missiles.
  
• In Breach Mode, it shoots a single large shot that burst into smaller bullets on hit, perfect for damaging larger units.
  

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Lastly, its unique passive, Mode Expansion, add more features to both of the ship's forms:

• Breach Mode gains directional shields that protect the ship while sniping. Damages to the shields drains the tech meter.
  
• Agile Mode scatter bombs with all the remaining tech meter as form of both offense (bombing run through enemies) and defense (screens out chasing enemies and missiles)
  

...and those were just TWO ships, but there is a lot of uniqueness and personality imbued to these to suit specific play styles. Here's hoping the remaining three ships, and two additional Support Crafts, can also have their unique specifications that will breathe new life to the never-ending fight towards eradicating the AI menace. Ideas and concepts from you are welcome, just send them over to us!

Towards a brighter future,

The PhaigeX MegaCorp.

Greetings, PhaigeX employees!

After that major Fleet Assault update, the folks here at Development took a small detour before moving on up the roadmap. After resolving some issues that came up after the update, the team literally took a business trip and expanded their horizons upon the diversity of working environments in space. As a result:

[h2]Workspace Improvements[/h2]

• [h3]Randomly-Generated Space Backgrounds for All Game Modes[/h3]
  Expect the workplace scenery to change up a bit, because for every game mode session you start, the space background will be randomly generated to contain bits and pieces of heavenly bodies and other space stuff.
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  Encounter different planets, asteroid fields, space debris and other objects floating in space while fighting against the AI-powered enemies. No need to worry about the threat of these things, as these mostly stay at the background, providing no benefit nor harm to the player and the enemies alike.
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  It really feels like the warp technology both sides were using was able to reach out to these otherworldly sectors, and the more reason to clean up the AI incursion once and for all.
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[h2]Resolved Issues[/h2]

• [h3]Bugs from old version save data resetting control settings[/h3]
  
• [h3]Erratic behavior of multiple [Singularity Bombs] affecting enemy ships[/h3]
  
• [h3][Warp Call x 8] showing increments on already maxed stats[/h3]
  
• [h3]UI Gamepad control bugs[/h3]
  
• [h3][Sonic Deflector] output size corrections per upgrade level[/h3]
  
• [h3][Monarch] drones not following focus fire on aiming cursor style gamepad controls[/h3]
  

Rest assured that our people here are not slacking off, we always have been invested on improving the work experience for all our employees, so we take time updating even the smallest of things. As proof of our continuing development progress, here's a sneak peek of what to look forward to at the next roadmap milestone.
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Towards a brighter future,

The PhaigeX MegaCorp.

To all the esteemed employees of PhaigeX, we are excited to announce that...
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[h2]Fleet Assault Game Mode has been Completed![/h2]
This milestone also means that the game mode is finally out of Beta Test. Let's see what the AI fleet has in store for us, and it seems that strength in upgrades alone is not enough to combat their strategically-positioned fleet formations.
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[h2]How Different is this from Survival?[/h2]
That's right. Instead of the power trip Survival Mode has given you, you have to deal with the 20 fleet waves (plus an end boss that shows up from time to time) smartly this time, like unraveling a complicated puzzle. A head-on rush will just get you bombarded by the fleet's full firepower, so assess the situation and pick out which units to take out first, and eventually weaken the fleet one step at a time.
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[h2]Transportal Update[/h2]
On a side note, an option for 8x Warp Calls is now available at the Transportal for employees with excess Warp Cores to spare. Now is a good time to upgrade and customize your ships and take on this new challenge.
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Come on and take on the Fleet Assault, and help us collect more combat data. Feedback and suggestions are appreciated, and will contribute towards the development of our next stage in the Roadmap!

Towards a brighter future,

The PhaigeX MegaCorp.

Greetings, PhaigeX employees, and thank you for the good work as always!

Finally, the Fleet Assault game mode is getting its long-due update, containing the reported new units and more! We still cannot say that this is entirely completed, as more combat data and player feedback are needed to make adjustments to the game balance. And so... feel free to challenge the more challenging Fleet Assault mode, and give us your impressions afterward!


[h2]Fleet Assault Changes[/h2]

• Expanded from the initial 10 waves to a total of 20 waves of Fleet-Destroying action!
  
• New enemy types that will try to stop the player from completing the objective
  
• Two boss-type units made for this game mode, but can only encounter one per session
  
• New incursion events to be aware of, some are helpful, but mostly bad news
  
• Bug fixes that are too many to mention
  

Fleet Assault is nearing completion, just some finalizations after more testing and feedback gathered. After that, we can formally announce that Fleet Assault is completed, and move forward along our roadmap.

Towards a brighter future,

The PhaigeX MegaCorp.