Star Sonata 2 News

[h2][Wild Space Changes][/h2]

• See Dev Post - Wild Space Conflict: The Nitty-Gritty for a lot of details.
• New Wild Space system gradually reveals more galaxies over the course of the universe.
• Unidyne Core Dumps (and all lower tech versions) changed to a tech 20 super item. Blueprints also renamed to the T20 version.
• Readjustment of Base Weapons stats, notably with significant range reductions.
• All station gear with Transference Efficiency changed to Resistance to Damage
• All station gear with Transference Power changed to Damage.
• XYZ Station Gear and researches are now galaxy bound and given proper sizes and weights. Industrial Station Research: Y, Industrial Station Research: Z can only be built one at time now.
• X Gear that starts inbuilt on bases is now base bound and will not drop on death.
• Placement of bases or Permanent Drones causes aggression from AI Empires within the same galaxy.
• Removed Range bonus from Station Mastery skill.
• Repair kits are no longer used to repair bases and converted back to the station kit used to build them. Repairs are now done using actual station kits via the station upgrade system.
  • Must be docked and owner be online.
  • Must be an equivalent or greater station kit in tech and augslots.
  • If the kit is the same kit as the current base is - it'll only repair it.
  • Repairs and Upgrades are now tracked in base logs.
  • HQ, Outpost and Command & Control Kits can only upgrade/repair their own types.
• Metals and Silicon will now decay on reset.
• Wormholes no longer block shots.
• Added new Advanced Extractors to Ring for most T1-T3 extractable commodities. T1 are tech 9, T2 are Tech 12 and T3 are Tech 16.
• Permanent Drones now follow the 1:1 healing system.
• Adjusted the base supers to new stats.
• Station Tech Upgrades have had their acquisition methods removed due to the new station upgrade system. The artifact ruin Station Tech upgrades items will no longer appear in colonies. Items will be fully removed in a future universe.
• IC Station Kits are no longer obtainable (outside of the temp universe).
• IC Augmenters can be obtained at Advanced Base in Building Academy via exchange for augmenters.
• Termites have been buffed and had their spawn rate increased.
• Industrial Commodities can no longer be transwarped and item teleported.
• Items with the following tags can no longer be Item-Teleported: decay on universe reset, cannot leave the galaxy, drop on death or can't be transwarped.
• Changed the initial base placement vulnerability aura to be 100% until building is complete instead of starting at 500% and going down every 75 seconds.
• Construction bonuses do not affect Nullification Generator's construction time.
• Base capacitors can no longer be scrapped for credits.
• Rename Shield Harmonization Overcharger to Energy Harmonization Overcharger.

[h2][UI/ Client Changes][/h2]

• Improved all the Zaphragi models and skins.
• Improved Guardian of the Lyceum model and texture.

[h2][Skill Changes][/h2]

• Drone Research skill description updated to more clearly reflect all benefits to gives. Previously Drone Research gave one equipped slot per level and level 5 would give 2. Now it only gives one per level.
  • Increased the baseline number of drones each hull class can equip by one. Light Fighters: 10, Heavy Fighters: 13, Industrial Freighters: 19, Support Freighter: 19, Capital Ship: 16.
• Removed the ability to get Ancient Lore skills due to no functions relating to them.

[h2][Item Changes][/h2]

• Deathblossom item descriptions now say "Multiplies" instead of your "Overloads" and no longer categorized as an Overloader item type.
• Reworked the Faranji Paragon Devices.
• Calypso's Presence and Ismail's Presence Field Generators changed from affecting everyone to only allies and self.
• Dementium is now labeled Rare instead of Exotic.
• Paxian Battle Frigate Wave Motion Laser Device is no longer automatically used by combat bots.
• Adjusted Particles for CDTDs, Polarized Catapult & Imperiled Polarized Catapult to try and improve visual clarity and improve FPS.
• Adjusted a bunch of low level drones to have proper energies and could can power now.
• Adjusted the energybank that the Celestial Drones use.
• Reduced quality of BFD 9000's gear from Exotic to Rare.
• Gatling and Point Defense Transferences weapons now have .5 recoil instead of .2 recoil.
• Adjusted quality of Zebu Master Fighter to rare.
• Adjusted Fighter Inbuilts of Kalthi Commander Ships to the new fighter system.
• Reduced uptime of the Voulge Charge Drone and Flamberge Charge Drone from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Reduced Zeus Charger from 15% Critical Resistance to 9% Critical Resistance and 5% Resistance to Damage to 4% Resistance to Damage.
• Updated descriptions for Envelope Device super items. Added shields, duration and if the envelopes are effected by friendly fire or not.
• Modified all obtainable fighter crates to break into 2 fighters each.
• Expanders now cannot be tossed unless unequipped first to prevent overhulling issues.
• Updated description of Celestial Defiler Blueprint to properly reflect the item is a long range torpedo, not a short range one.
• Red Photon Prototype Weapon Augmentation reduced from 25k range to 2.5 range.
• Adjustments to Fighter Overdrive Blitz to prevent mega stacking with other fighter super items.
• Native Warp Beacons are now identical to Warp Beacons other then being galaxy bound.
• Decays on Universe Reset additionally lists "Can't Be put into Storage" automatically on items.
• Twisted Fate of Death Blueprint's Twisted Token cost now matches the other ships.
• Fixed Nanotech Enhancing Beam effects actually lasting 5 seconds instead of 24 seconds.

[h2][AI Changes][/h2]

• Adjusted bosses of high DF DGs to have better distribution.
• Removed Random Augs and Mods from the following zone's Bosses and Minis: T20 skill zones, Red Photon, Olympus, Infernal Darkness, Brute Force, Black Nightfury, Subspace, Demented Delquad, UrQa'qa Vazuk Vo'kii, Twisted, Empyrean, Serengeti and Fallen Delquad.
• AI in dungeons will no longer attempt to scoop items.
• AI outside of dungeons will only scoop commodities excluding crates.
• Lowered damage of the space jellies in The Nexus, they will do half of their current damage so that they don't one shot players who may be passing through in un-upgraded zebus. Also Increased the drop rate of the Jelly's Acidic Blood item from space jellies.
• Reduced the number of weapons on DG guard Wattages.
• Removed the superitems on DG guards of Ghostships, Zebucarts, and Zebu Masutas.
• Made Termites within Emphatic Biology and Biologique be on teams now so there's not a chance of fighting other mounds within the same galaxy.
• Increased the visibility of Tears.
• Slightly Reduced the Shield Bank of Mad Scientist.
• Moved the tweak effect descriptions on all Fleet Commander fighter aura superitems from the item description to the Actions on the item.

[h2][Universe Changes][/h2]

• Empathy Field is now based around mining instead of planet extraction. Increased the size of the AI Station. Moved to Earthforce layer.
  • Carbon Hearts and Diamond Hearts are now galaxy bound.
• Moved Remote Control and Station Tweaking from Biologique to Vervaardiger Processing.
• Station Tweaking and Station Research from Emphatic Biology are moved to Lunacy.
• Equipment, Radar and Nanotech Plating moved from XYZ to Bonnet Hideout in Bonnet.
• Station Tweaking and Station Research moved from XYZ moved to Ruby Steppes.
• Added way to exchange class augmenters in The Acropolis back to Tokens.  Tokens can be exchanged for the previous scrap credit value of these augmenters.
• Lady Kelvin was removed.
• Added Prototype Prismatic conversion as an AC trade in in Arctia after the mission "Solar Prisms" is completed. Added a note to the mission "Getting Ready" to alert the player that they can get the Prototype Prismatic Conversion from the trade bay.
• Fixed AI Empire HQ's to properly be set to Tech 20.
• Colored Empires renamed to Prism Empires.

[h2][Mission Changes][/h2]

• Trader Signet, Insignia, Badge missions changed from flat XP to level based.

[h2][Server][/h2]

• Missions and Epiphanies no longer get bonus XP from events, XP augmods or other external sources.
• Councilor XP from team mates has been removed.
• Updated grammar on error if you've never seen an item in or it's not on the public market.
• When item is not on the public market place, the error will now clarify that it is not found in your ship's inventory either.
• Base logs for AI docking and or trading now fall under the Bot category to not drown out player transitions and docking.
• Global MarketPlace representative now falls under Bot/AI docking logs to also not drown out player logs.
• Changed the level prevention to undock without a shield, energy or engine from level 10 to level 40.
• Adjusted Star Sonata discord link to be a shorter version the All Chat login message.
• Added a new bot action to More Bot Settings: Set Ship Name Alias. Allows to rename the ship alias when the ship is already deployed for combat, wild and trade bots.

[h2][Bug Fixes][/h2]

• Fixed an issue that caused base to unequip items when attempting to equip a normal item.
• Moved a check so an already equipped item isn't unequipped on a ship before checking if there's enough space to remove the cargo tag.
• Fixed a display bug where weapons would list their self damage multiplied by the number of projectiles.
• Fixed a spacing issue in error when attempting to sell items that are "Can't Remove" or "Can't Unequip".
• Cargo slot bonus from expanders now properly apply if you have more than 1 in a stack equipped.
• Made the visible sun Targetable in Celestial Encampment so players can get affected by Out of Combat.
• Fixed a bug where DNA extractors would not deactivate after successfully extracting a piece of DNA.
• Fixed issue with several AI Only Drones that had extremely low lifespans.

[h2][UI/ Client Changes][/h2]

• Removed Ownership and Protection options from the Team options. (Won't be able to own/protect until the end of the universe.

[h2][Item Changes][/h2]

• Capital Ship Shield and Energy Bank Adjustments - Read here - the following ships stats have been adjusted and gets a /freeaugreset. Does not stack with existing /freeaugresets the ship may have:
  • Auroral's Glacial Shard's Energy Max from 250% to 190% and Shield Max from 233% to 183%.
  • Roscap's Shield Max from 224% to 190%.
  • Bear's Energy Max from 332% to 255% and Shield Max from 284% to 240%.
  • Primal Bear's Energy Max from 359% to 275% and Shield Max from 308% to 260%
  • Gareth's Energy Max from 395% to 280%.
  • Gawain's Energy Max from 440% to 310%.
  • Mordred's Energy Max from 470% to 330%.
  • Green Battleship's Energy Max reduced from 460% to 340%.
  • Greenish Battleship's Energy Max reduced from 515% to 360% and Shield Max from 372% to 325%.
  • Earthforce Frigate's Energy Max from 463% to 288%.
  • Earthforce Destroyer's Energy Max from 519% to 318%.
  • Earthforce Cruiser's Energy Max from 575% to 348%.
  • Earthforce Battlecruiser's Energy Max from 594% to 358%.
  • Earthforce Battleship's Energy Max from 631% to 378%.
  • Earthforce Dreadnought Energy Max from 650% to 388%.
  • Hybridized Frigate's Energy Max from 481% to 298%.
  • Hybridized Destroyer's Energy Max from 538% to 328%.
  • Hybridized Cruiser's Energy Max from 594% to 358%.
  • Hybridized Battlecruiser's Energy Max from 613% to 368%.
  • Hybridized Battleship's Energy Max from 650% to 388%.
  • Hybridized Dreadnought Energy Max from 669% to 398%.
  • Recon Frigate's Energy Max from 288% to 235%.
  • Interdiction Frigate Energy Max from 288% to 235%.
  • Earthforce Overload Prototype's Energy Max from 388% to 315%.
  • Lyceum Exploration Cruiser's Shield Max from 419% to 323%.
  • Kikale Mzungu Frigate X's Energy Max from 1400% to 575% and Shield Max from 432% to 333%.
  • Mastodon's Energy Max from 1250% to 538% and Shield Max from 380% to 320%.
  • Hybridized Mastodon's Energy Max from 1284% to 548% and Shield Max from 392% to 330%.
  • Anise's Energy Max from 460% to 340%.
  • Swordfish Energy Max from 470% to 330%.
  • Zeus Throne and Zeus Throne+'s Energy Max from 515% to 360%
  • Hive's Shield Max from 372% to 325%.
  • Honey Comb's Energy Max from 1438% to 585% and Shield Max from 372%.
  • Red Photon Carrier's Energy Max from 515% to 360%.
  • Red Photon Support Crusier's Shield Max from 490% to 354%.
  • Red Photon Logistics Cruiser's Energy Max from 823% to 435%
  • Sutaatiguruayu's Energy Max from 530% to 370%.
  • Antuayu's Energy Max from 530% to 370% and Shield Max from 459% to 353%.
  • Vaziayu's Shield Max from 671% to 404%.
  • UrQa'qa Qu'ishi Qa's Energy Max from 950% to 470%.
  • Twisted Fate of Death's Energy Max from 530% to 370% and Shield Max from 404% to 340%.
  • Twisted Honey's Energy Max from 1475% to 595% and Shield Max from 459% to 353%.
  • Empyreal Eclipse and Empyreal Noctis's Energy Max from 481% to 365% and Shield Max from 459% to 360%.
  • Emperor's Behemoth's Thrust from 252% to 213%.
  • Divine Behemoth's Thrust from 840% to 413%.
  • Massif IV's Thrust from 299% to 237%.

[h2][Server][/h2]

• Changed so trade bots can no longer mine in premium/semi-premium areas if not subbed.

[h2][Bug Fixes][/h2]

• Added multiple checks and automated correction for edge cases where ships end up stuck after towing.
• Fixed bug causing bots to constantly open missile crates.
• Fixed several client crashes.
• Fixed a glitch that sometime cause your own docked ship to be visible on top of the base.

Lyceum Bulletin:

The Blue Pirates have stumbled upon a temporal wormhole and unloaded munitions into it. Lyceum scientists have inspected the wormhole and discovered that it is destabilizing rapidly and will rupture into a temporary unstable universe on April 30th.

This unstable universe will collapse on May 14th giving way to a stable one. Scans indicate that there are many changes to these universes that can be examined in a coming message.


However, preliminary scans indicate that the temporary universe goes through daily changes to its structure that increase varying fields of exploration, combat, and production.

Radiation is flooding into our universe from the rift and will cause alterations to the foundations of our universe as the end of our current universe approaches. Earthforce has stated that the radiation will halt all purchasing and extraction of material on April 23rd, followed by a reduction of all weekly lockouts on April 28th!

After extensive examination of the radiation leaking from the explosion site, top scientists predict the collapse of the universe to be on April 30, 2022. Citizens are asked to ensure all personal assets and fleets are properly stored.

Schedule

• April 23rd: All AI base consumption and player extractors stop functioning
• April 28th: All weekly lockouts now reset with the daily timer
• April 30th: Temporary Universe Reset, Daily Events begin, Weekly Lockouts restarted
• May 14th: Universe Reset, Daily Events end

Event Schedule

• Saturday: 500% Augmenter Drop Rate Increase
• Sunday: 500% increase to Bindomite Drop Rate
• Monday: 300% Increase to Mod Chances on Dropped Gear
• Tuesday: 500% Increase to Prospecting Extraction
• Wednesday: 2000% increase to comet drops
• Thursday: 1600% Increase to prospecting node respawns
• Friday: 500% Increase to XP

Along with a daily event, there will be two weeklong events occurring throughout the temporary universe as well.

• April 30th – May 7th: AI will drop Halloween drops
• May 7th – May 14th: AI will drop Christmas drops

The ai that spawn normally during these events will not spawn. Normal AI will drop the event items.

 

Dev Notes

• Bases, permanent drones, and the credits on active bots will be lost.
  • Player ships will not be affected.
• If you’re docked during the reset, you will spawn into the new universe using your docked active ship.
  • Careful not to spawn into the new universe in an immobile ship!
• Wild Space will be scrambled and receive a new map shape.
• All other layers will have the systems scrambled but contain the same shape.
• After a universe reset, all of your docked ships will be in a state of limbo allowing you to dock them all at any non-player station. For the first 72 hours of the new universe, you can use the /limbo chat command only once to bring all of your docked ships back into limbo to dock them elsewhere.
  • For those familiar with the limbo command, going forward the timer has been extended from 24 hours to 72.

Reset Times
PDT: 10:00
MDT: 11:00
CDT: 12:00
EDT: 13:00
UTC: 17:00
BST: 18:00

[h2][FIGHTER AND DEATHBLOSSOM CHANGES][/h2]

• Item form Fighters now provide information about their weapons, shield, speed and resistances.
• Bots can no longer use Fighters or Deathblossom.
• Deathblossom will no longer target fighters.
• Fighters no longer have evasion to direct shots but have 90% evasion to non-targeted damage (splash, collision code, warhead effects from missiles, ect.)
• Removed fighter auras from Death of the First Born and Panther Kitten.
• Removed the debuff effect from Death of the First Born.
• Chihuahua Fighters no longer give a mining damage debuff.
• Fighter Bay slots: Capital Ships have 2 slots, Freighters have 1 slot.
• Capital Ship fighter bays now have 2x the aug stat budget of Support Freighters.
• Adjusted the Quality, Damage, Ship Diameter, and Launch Energy of all fighters. All fighters now take 1 slot to launch.
• Inbuilt Fighter Bays on Capital Ships and Support Freighters are now ship bound instead of sticky.
• Projectiles that are fired by fighters will not inherit velocity.

[h2][Skill Changes][/h2]

• Changed Advanced Flight Controller to grant +15% damage to fighters instead of granting 2 fighter slots.
• Increased bonuses granted by Flight Controller from 15% to 20% for listed stats.
• Updated Bot Mastery and Radiation Expert skill descriptions to reflect the previously unlisted damage bonus.
• Radiation Expert provides 15% Radiation Damage and 25% Damage per level instead of 50% Radiation Damage. No longer passes to fighters.
• Zen of Support Freighter, Zen of Light Fighter, Zen of Heavy Fighter, Equipment, and Flying Monkey now pass on to bots.
• Bot Mastery no longer gives capacity bonus for bots.
• Bots now get 100% of capacity bonuses all skills (except for augmenter tweaking) but will not fire when overhulled.
• Zen of Engineer now states that it gives 1% of Resistance to Damage per level to Temp Drones. These bonuses were added in a previous patch, but were not listed on the skill.
• Shield Monkey level 1 now grants +30% Shield Bank on Support Freighters.

[h2][UI/Client Changes][/h2]

• Added glowmaps for the Steam Gold Zebucart.
• Added Normal maps for a bunch of low level ships.
• Added red lightning to center hole of Dogeage model.
• Extended Battle Sphere skins to Zaphragi Ark.
• Added tech, description, weight and size to base construction preview window.
• Inventories can now be sorted to only show cargo items via button at the top of the window.
• “copy ap link” now copies “/ap” as well, making the copied result a directly usable command.
• Possessions menu now lists bots as either “Combat Bot” or “Trading Bot”.

[h2][Item Changes][/h2]

• All weapons, except for Torpedoes, have had their recoil clamped. The highest recoil sits at around 5 seconds for beam weapons.
• Transferences weapons now have double the HPE. But Stealing also takes 100% more electricity then before.
• Surgical weapons have had their DPS increased but their DPE reduced slightly.
• Tripled the time it takes for Fires/Parasites to ramp up to max damage.
• Removed the Neurobound Tag from the class locked super items sold in lyceum.
• Spiced up the descriptions of various Kalthi gear.
• Increased the mobility factor of Empyreal Piercer Drone from 1.0 to 1.75.
• Hephaestus Research Module Blueprint has had its Copper requirement reduced from 2000 to 1000.
• Hermes Research Module Blueprint has had its Mercury requirement reduced from 1000 to 300.
• Semi-Blackhole Pulse Generator no longer is affected by Zen of Devices and charge time increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Aphelion’s Overwhelming Darkness super item has had its Beam resistance granted to allies and self reduced from 50% to 25% and for enemies reduced from -33% to -15%.
• Added tags to Demented Delquad, Spice Pirates and Nightfury loot.
• Fix the description on the `Coordinator Gemini Support Platform` super item inbuilt to Kalthi Armored Deployer to correctly reflect the tweak effects granted.
• Empyreal Experimental Drone Controller no longer is Neurobound.
• Updated wording on Field Generators to clarify if it works when “equipped” on bots.
• No longer shows “works when equipped on bot” messages on base Field Generators.
• Demented Modules are now set to the Rare Quality.
• Imperial Seals, Unclean Seals, Tarnished Imperial Chests and their variants are now labeled as Exalted.
• Added Scyonara Pod to Kalthi Depths Exotic drop pool.
• Zeus Engine now has proper particle effects.

[h2][AI Changes][/h2]

• Made Empyreal Fleet Leaders have constant names to prevent instance board havoc.
• Added a large number of new generic AI names.
• AI should no longer wander out to inspect comets.
• Normalized the drop rate of the Olympus boss fragments to 2 100% drops each instead of having random rates.
• Powerful Alien Deathblossom (On Antu minibosses, and Space Anomalies from RNF/BNF) now has 9 targets instead of 20.
• Increased Kalthi Armored Commander and Kalthi Wrathful Commander roaming AI bosses’ shields to 60 mil and 50 mil, respectively.
• Increased Kalthi Armada Commander shields to 20 mil.
• Increased the protection of the Envelopement used by the Kalthi Commander bosses during phase transitions to 1.5mil.
• Added an upgrade to the Kalthi Planetary Demolisher sourced from Kalthi Armored and Wrathful Commanders.
• Changed aura effects of Kalthi Armored Commander and Kalthi Wrathful Commander AI bosses’ invincibility auras not allowing the player to run away and leave a galaxy effectively (now buffs the radar on spawn so they can chase you down anywhere).
• Increase shield drain of Kalthi Armored Commander’s radiation field.
• Buff Kalthi Commander fighter super to allow its use more frequently like regular fighters.
• Nerfed Kalthi AI only drones’ damage and range significantly.

[h2][Next Universe Changes][/h2]

• Reduce the quantity of Kalthi to make them more manageable to fight in the field.
• Fixed issue with Imperiled Shield Revitalizer being unlocked with the wrong mission.
• Electrified Georg Ohm no longer gives a global shout on spawn.
• Entering Protoplasmica will now pop-up the mission chain.
• Fixed issue with Merchant Navy in Kalthi Depths not attacking or fighting back sometimes.
• Imperial Polishing Machine will be available for purchase at Earth Central in Sol.
• Adjusted Dark Sun in Blue Outpost to allow easier detection of Space Blue Alpha AI close to sun.

[h2][Mission  Changes][/h2]

• Added a second start point for the “Finding Mommy” intro mission for the Protoplasmica mission chain to the base in Biopsy.
• Converted Strontium missions from 21 days from completed date to the standard Monthly reset cycle. Will now appear in lockout tab.
• Fixed a spelling error in the mission “A Strange Sun?”.

[h2][System][/h2]

• Cargo items are now capped at a weight of 1 mil.
• Ships no longer weigh x10 when in item form.
• Abandoning Temporary Drones now put them in a destroyed state.
• Can tractor your own and team assets in Wild Space now.
• RTS Command for your bot to follow you was updated to state “them” instead of “him”.
• Damage on tweaks/auras affect Transference Weapons again.
• Added new line to All Chat login message stating the Star Sonata Discord invite link.
• Possessions tab now lists bots as “Combat Bot” or “Trading Bot”.

[h2][Bug Fixes][/h2]

• Fixed bug with unable to tractor your own bases/perma drones if the player or the base is unteamed.
• Fixed a bug where anything unteamed would always be considered visible to anything else unteamed.
• Celestial Destabilizing Beam and Celestial Protection Beam now work on ships and drones, instead of just drones.
• Squad menu will now update properly when you switch to an unsquadded character
• Fixed issues with Bila and Akhara instances.
• Fixed issue with the Kalos Anthos instance.(will be unlocked within 48 hours of patch.)

Greetings! I’m reaching out to update you all on the release schedule for the next universe cycle and the upcoming changes to PvP in Wild Space. My aim here is to provide high-level information on the planned changes and communicate when you may expect more detailed information and a concrete universe reset announcement. If you’re just here for the basic information, here it is:

1. 
   The next universe reset will occur in April at the earliest.
   
2. 
   Once decided, the reset date will be announced with four weeks’ notice.
   
3. 
   Upon universe reset, there will be a two-week temporary universe so that players can get accustomed to the new ownership mechanics in Wild Space.
   
4. 
   After the two-week temporary universe, another reset will occur and we will have a full 4-month universe.
   

If you have any questions or clarifications, you can feel free to send me a DM on Discord at enk#3571.

While contesting territory is an iconic part of Star Sonata, too often it takes place in a cynical manner where the actual value of the territory is irrelevant and the true aim of the conflict is to inconvenience one’s opponent. To make matters worse, the rules and restrictions surrounding galaxy assault are impossibly complicated to the point that even the devs are not always certain of every detail of the system. It is clear that we need to drastically simplify the process of contesting territory, and do so in a way that prioritizes genuine conflict over resources.

One of the greatest obstacles to this vision is the current ownership system. Simply put, it’s too quick and easy. In a short ten minutes, you are capable of greatly reducing your opponent’s ability to assault your territory, and any assault they would make would be subject to the arcane rules of BvB. We are going to have to make some big changes to galaxy ownership if we are going to realize our vision for Wild Space conflict.

We have prepared two major changes to the process of claiming and contesting territory in Wild Space:

1. 
   Establishing ownership will take longer than before, and carry an initial and periodic resource cost. Instead of merely controlling a galaxy for ten minutes, you must deploy a new type of base and complete a resource-intensive construction project in order to establish ownership. This process may take a couple hours. Once ownership is established, a steady stream of resources will be consumed to maintain it.
   
2. There is no PvP possible whatsoever in owned galaxies.

Note that these changes work together to focus all territory conflict on the first few hours after an initial claim, as this is the time when it’s most typical to see genuine conflict over resources. The rules of engagement are also drastically simplified since all fighting takes place in an unowned galaxy state.

Focusing all territory conflict into the unowned galaxy state means that we need to make some changes to how base combat works. Otherwise, it would be too easy for people to deploy effectively unlimited numbers of bases (especially unattached bases) and cause the same kind of lag and frustration that led us to take this project on in the first place. We have prepared a couple changes to base combat that will address this concern:

1. 
   Unattached bases can’t be deployed in unowned galaxies.
   
2. 
   Base weapon ranges are greatly reduced (maxing out around 3k overall).
   
3. 
   Bases no longer use healing weapons.
   

The reason base weapon ranges are so long is to allow bases to effectively defend against players while the base owners are offline. This is no longer necessary since ownership confers absolute defense against PvP. In the new system, base combat (against other players) only takes place in a window of a few hours, during which time the base owners are online and actively working to establish ownership. Therefore, it’s no longer necessary for bases to be able to “take care of themselves” to the same extent as they do on Liberty. A similar explanation holds for the removal of base healing: this is something that helps bases stay alive while their owners are offline, but that won’t be a concern anymore in the new system.

These changes mean that contesting territory is all about surgical PvB against your opponent’s isolated industry bases, all the while fending off PvP from that opponent and potential PvB incursions against your own growing territory. The best thing about this is that the time scale of each fight is on the order of an hour or two, not a 12-hour BvB slog or a universe-long war of attrition. I’ll never forget the time my EU friends made me get up at 2 AM Eastern to organize a BvB and then teased me six hours later for wanting to take a break for breakfast.

Changing the ownership mechanics as detailed above has some serious knock-on effects to other aspects of Wild Space. By ruling out any PvP in owned galaxies, we could be making Wild Space too safe and boring. Not only that, but someone who had an unlucky reset or joined mid-universe would not have any way of taking territory away from those who got there first. It turns out that these two concerns share a common solution: mid-universe galaxy reveals.

1. 
   Every 9 days and 17 hours*, a fresh batch of galaxies will appear in Wild Space, connected in some way to the existing map.
   
2. 
   These galaxies will have higher average resource abundance to make up for lost time.
   
3. 
   Since ownership is a time- and resource-intensive process, it no longer requires a connection to your team’s HQ. Anyone with spare base slots will be able to compete for the newly revealed galaxies no matter where they appear on the map.
   

*Bonus points if you can figure out the logic behind this timing!

We will continue the precedent of giving four weeks’ notice of universe resets. This means that April is the earliest that the current universe can end. You can expect detailed information on the Wild Space Conflict project to be released along with the universe reset notice. In order to give players time to familiarize themselves with the new ownership mechanics, the next universe reset will enter a 2-week temporary universe after which we’ll reset into a full 4-month universe.

I’m sure that many of you have questions and concerns about the information I’ve shared here. That is completely natural and expected since I’ve glossed over the details and left out a lot of nitty-gritty considerations and adjustments we’ve got planned. Rest assured: you’ll get your hands on all that information when we make the 4-week universe reset notice. However, if you are fired up about this and can’t wait until then, you are more than welcome to reach out to me via Discord DM and share your comments, questions, and concerns.