Star Sonata 2 News

[p][/p][p]Help us celebrate twenty years of Star Sonata! With our little game completing its second decade, we feel it’s only right to run an equally spectacular event to commemorate the occasion! We’ve done so many events over the years but the most storied and popular was the “PvP Server” event of 2020. So, we would like to formally announce Star Sonata’s 20th Anniversary Event: A ten-day fresh start server on temporary characters with the rate of progression turned up to 11. This event will run from June 13th to June 23rd. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]The Rundown[/h2][p]Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming celebration (more details to follow as the event gets closer):[/p]

• [p]The event will run from June 13th to June 23rd 2025.[/p]
• [p]You will log in to your regular account, but on a separate server labeled “Event” in the server drop down. The Live server will continue as normal.[/p]
• [p]On the Event server, your account starts with no characters. Any characters you create will be completely fresh at level zero. These characters will only exist on the Event server and won’t migrate to the Live server afterwards. You don’t have to worry about overwriting anything on Live.[/p]
• [p]You can create as many characters on the Event server as your account normally allows.[/p]
• [p]Pay to Play and Free to Play statuses will be copied from Live. If you would like to subscribe, do so in the usual way and your subscription status will immediately copy over to the Event server.[/p]
• [p]Standard restrictions for Pay to Play and Free to Play will apply on the Event server.[/p]
• [p]All character and team names will be available and are first come first serve![/p]
• [p]Remember that any characters you create on the Event server will not be saved once the event ends. Any items you collect, stations you built, and skills you trained will be lost.[/p]
• [p]There will be no web based features for characters on the Event server.[/p]
• [p]Experience gain, item drop rates, lockout rates, construction rate and colony tick speeds will all be greatly increased![/p]
• [p]The server will be a full-featured universe with all skills, zones and bosses accessible. However, Warp Navigation skill levels will be time gated to set the pace during the early part of the event.[/p]
• [p]There will be individual, teamwide and server-wide goals to complete, with various rewards on the Live server for completing them! These will be detailed later. Any individual awards will be cosmetic in nature.[/p]
• [p]To get into the retro spirit of the event, the Earthforce layer will be PvP enabled (except for the protected galaxies around Sol).[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]The follow on post will give specifics on the timeline of the event as well details on the goals and rewards.[/p][p] [/p][p]I hope you are excited as we are to celebrate twenty years of Star Sonata![/p][p] [/p]

[h2][Neuroforge Changes][/h2]

• Fixed description of Resonating mod on energy to state the usual shield/radar effect in addition to the half chance to use fuel.
• The rate at which you are offered the option to swap your Enhanced mod goes down as the Enhancement level of the mod goes up.
• Options to swap secondary mods, remove secondary mods, or add a new secondary mod, will be offered more as you are at higher levels of enhancement.

[h2][Anatolia Changes][/h2]

• See Link
  • Not noted in the blog post: Influence is no longer lost upon joining a team.

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

• Added new Squad Link feature in Squad menu for creating an clickable invite link in chat.
• Added 8 skins to the Cybernetic Zebucart, 2 of which are exclusive to it.
• Added new skin for Ruined ships called Neon Nightmares.

[h2][Class Changes][/h2]

• Ranger:
  • Sniper empowered shot changes:
    • Critical Hit Chance used in damage calculation is now reduced by targets Critical Hit Resistance.
    • No longer benefits from Critical Hit Chance greater than 100% (after the reduction from Critical Hit Resistance)
    • Beam hits do empowered damage to collision code targets, like projectiles already did
  • Re-added 10% Damage per level for Heavy Fighters on True Grit skill.
    • Ranger still retains the 7 total marks
  • Ranger marks now decay every 5s after the first decay at 40s (while no new ones are being applied), instead of 40 seconds per mark.
• Speed Demon:
  • Overdrive energy charge no longer dissipates on jump.
• Shield Monkey:
  • When a Shield Monkey deals transference damage to a target, the shields they gain via stealing are not mitigated by the resistances of that target.
    • The damage dealt is mitigated by both the target’s shield stealing resistance and beam resistance.
    • Both damage dealt and shields gained are still mitigated by class based mitigation mechanics, Like  Speed Demon’s glance and Berserker’s frontal shield.
  • In the last patch we adjusted the rate at which shield stealing does damage and restores shields. These values were reverted to what they were before they were changed. You can see these values on the Shield Monkey Class 3 skill.
  • Made it so Transference Power auras will affect how much damage is done with a Shield Monkey Enveloper
  • Shield stealing self healing is no longer reduced by stealing resists.
  • The Shield Monkey Enveloper can only give up to 10% of the Shield Monkey’s current shield bank as bonus damage per shot.
  • Shield stealing resistance mechanic has been refactored. Resistances should now be consistent in both effect and how they are displayed to players.
• Berserker:
  • 33% of On-Hit effect damage is used for Lifesteal from the Berserker Shield Redistribution Device.
  • 0% of Damage Over Time effect damage is used for Lifesteal from the Berserker Shield Redistribution Device.

[h2][Item Changes][/h2]

• Faranji Flower Power, Empyreal Extracting Cannon, Empyreal Solar Pulse, Celestial Heavy Autopiercer, Celestial Particle Cannon, Luminous Destabilizing Implosion Rigidifier, Operative's Blaster, Korbolko's Quantum Breath, Grand Eclipse Extracting Bombard, Angre's Demolisher changed to 2 bounces from 6.Their DPS, DPE, bounce range, and damage multiplier on bounces have been adjusted as well.
• Mini Madness has been changed from an aura generator to a super item, and requires a super item slot. Its effect remains unchanged.
• Angre's Garam Masala has had the following changes:
  • Changed the -Recoil buff from -20% to -40%, this makes the tweak about ~10% better used on cooldown than Perilous Burst with neurotweaking, instead of being ~7% worse.
• Various Scanners now list the Max Speed Difference for scanning on the item description now.
• The following Fighters have had their radar stats increased: Bulker Guard Fighter, Bulker Light Fighter, Bulldog Light Fighter, Dachshund Light Fighter, Dolius Hermes, Domesticated Killer Wasp, Greenish Fighter, Panther Kitten Fighter, Tamed Wasp, Terrier Light Fighter, Whippet Light Fighter, Vulture Hatchling, Condor Hatchling, Hawk Hatchling, Roc Hatchling, Harrier Hatchling, Caracara Hatchling, Kalthi Redeemer, Blue Photon Shrike, Blue Photon Raptor, Death Winger, Leopard's Kitten, Kidd's Henchman, Nightfury Hatchling, Crystal Shard Fighter, Red Fighter.
• Red Cell has had the following changes:
  • Shield Recharge increased from 2% to 5%. Increased Radar from 5% to 7.5%.
• Red Drone, Red Phaser, Red Fighter, Red Displacer have been adjusted.
• Cybernetic Zebu has had the following changed to its super items:
  • Temporal Dipole no longer randomly deducts shields twice. Only deducts 10% current shields instead of 20% when cycling.
  • Causal Domain Device has 10 second debuff duration increased from 5 second. Transference vulnerability and shield recharge debuff increased from -33.3% to -50%. Electricity needed increased by 100%.
• Outpost drone is no longer able to be acquired and has been made a temporary drone.
• Operative's Escorting Field has had its Critical Immunity effect removed (Effect did not work as expected).
• Several Ship Scanners with 'Ship Scanner' labels have been updated to 'Ship Item Scanner' and 'Ship Hull Scanner'.
• Matriarchal Overwhelming Fury no longer consumes current shields when used.
• Nightfury's Burst tweak has had its stats cut in half, its Unique With Damage Tweak status removed, and its quality level changed to Uncommon.
• Red Loop Pill had its Recoil increased from -20% to -25%.
• Red Glow Pill had Energy Charge Increased from +120 to +240, added -5% Beam Vulnerability for 5 minutes.
• Pax Scutum's All Hands on Deck superitem is now Unique With Damage Tweaks, and can be unequipped.
• Cybernetic Nullifier Shell's Matriarchal Blessing superitem is now Unique With Damage Tweaks, and can be unequipped.
• Bhisaj'ayu Shield Overcharger superitem is now Unique With Damage Tweaks, and can be unequipped.
• Cybernetic Nullifier Shell's Matriarchal Blessing superitem description reflects how actually works in it only affects self.

[h2][Mission Changes][/h2]

• Improved summary on 'Making Improvements' mission line in Beta Antares.
• Added additional clarifying text to some low level missions that unlock Item Exchanges.

[h2][Universe Changes][/h2]

• Reduced the shields of most AI in the Nexus.
• Added Celestial Blueprint Cache - Primary/Secondary/Tertiary to Celestial Encampment trade in via AC to acquire rare blueprints in exchange for Primordial Tokens.
• Jungle Crests for Mentions are now a one time mission and now are an item exchange in the AI Station.
• Cybernetic Gonzales has been reworked.
• Fixed trade in for "The Fast and the Pulsius" incorrectly taking "Xeno Energy" instead of "Xeno Energy Remains".

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

• Paxian Foothold is marked as a Special galaxy on the galaxy map.

[h2][Server Changes][/h2]

• Made the stated Shield Stealing resistance in the ship scanner reflect diffusers and auras, but not beam resist.
• Made Resistance to Damage aug stat not give Transference Resistance.
• Shield Stealing resist will now be sent to your ship window as your Transference Resistance(resist towards healing is still a separate line item).
• Added message for how many shields a ShM stole if you have /showdamage on.

[h2][Bug Fixes][/h2]

• Rounding calculated weapon slots down to the nearest 0.1 to address the error where the client and the error messages think you have enough weapon slots for another half weapon, but you don't actually.
• Universe shortcuts should no longer be able to randomly choose the same from/to gal twice.
• Fixed a bug with torpedo tracking when moving while shooting.
• Fixed range restriction on Targeting Computer not being enforced.

[h2]

[Red Outpost Changes][/h2]

• New Red Outpost bosses and loot next universe.

The Red Rogues have grown bolder, their reach extending ever deeper through spacetime. The Paxian Operative's need you to do more to fight this menace. In the upcoming update, you’ll be given the opportunity to once and for all prove to Director Rorrim that you have what it takes to deal with this threat. There will be new items, new enemies, and new locations to explore over time.


[h2][Anatolia Changes for Next Universe][/h2]

• Moved AI Stations to new galaxies away from the entrance.
• Added Fragmented Imperial Signet turn in for 1000 Imperial Strand.
• Imperial Strands acquirement method will be explained closer to the Emperor contest.

[h2][New Shop Items][/h2]

• Added 3 new skill unlocks:
  • Galaxy Builder Neural Boost (100 SP): Increase Station Management to 20, Combat Bot Tweaking to 30, Station Tweaking to 18, Programming to 60, and Drone Research, Bot Research and Station Research to 5. Your character needs to be at least level 1000 to unlock this.
  • Sonata Degree Neural Boost (50 SP):  Increase Infinite Knowledge to 20, Advanced Transwarp Navigation and Transwarp Turbocharging to 5, Astral Injection to 10, Nanotech Plating to 25, and Piracy to 20. Your character needs to be at least level 1000 to unlock this.
  • Master Neural Boost (180 SP): Level your character up to level 1000 and gain all the skills from the Core Skills Neural Boost, Galaxy Builder Boost, and Sonata Degree Boost. Your need a character of at least level 1000 on your account to unlock this.

[h2][Client/UX Changes][/h2]

• Added support to Colony screen for right click context menu with "Add to Trade Bay" and "Market Check".
• Added "?" icon to the transwarp menu to highlight hotkeys and a close window box.
• Previous Modifier (defaulted to Shift) + double click now selects all of the same type within the galaxy. (Drones, Stations, Combat Bots, Trade Bots, Wild Bots)
• Previous Modifier (defaulted to Shift) + triple click now select all assets within the galaxy.
• Fix for right click -> transfer being incorrect order due to a bug.
• Added toggle to Display section of options to disable Mouse Wheel Zoom.
• Adjusted Ship Stats window's spacing.

[Class Changes]

• Shield Monkey:
  • Shield Monkey Enveloper and Advanced Shield Monkey Enveloper: Shield Monkey enveloping shot is now from ShM class skill 2, with a more advanced version of it as the advanced subskill.
  • Swapped Shield Monkey skills 2 and 3 stats.
  • Added your flashing shield bar when you do a ShM enveloping shot.
  • Added an effect when you start shooting with ShM enveloping effect
  • Enveloping Monkey advanced subskill allows for a better ShM enveloper and allows your deployed temp drones to get the effect of your equipped enveloper.
  • Shield stealing will use most vulnerable of the targets resists, rather than having no resists, but will not gain vulnerability for extra damage.
  • Shield Stealing now does 50% less damage but self heals for the same amount as before.
• Gunner:
  • Gunner Targeting Computer takes 33% electricity instead of 20% for every extra shot, and has a 15 second cooldown instead of a 60 second cooldown.
• Ranger:
  • Removed the 10% damage from each level of True Grit. Gave Marksman an extra mark on each level instead.
  • Updated the skill description with the new amount of mitigation per mark now that the ranger has 7 marks.3.33% mitigation per mark -> 2.85% mitigation per mark. There is no change in mitigation when at total marks.
  • Empowered shots on Beams now use the proper formula instead of the old critical hit way.
• Speed Demon:
  • Speed Demon Target Tracker has had its Duration increased to 10 seconds, and its Charging Time reduced to 20 seconds. It has also gained a 10 second evasion bonus on activation/refresh
  • Note: The Target Tracker will now cause Torpedoes to launch towards the target when active.
  • Removed the Speed Demon Escort Device.
  • Speed Demon Overdrive Device has been changed, it is now an equipable item with 2 modes that can be toggled via using the item. It will also automatically enter Discharge Mode when full, and Charge Mode when empty. In Charge Mode, it stores 40% of the firing energy of your active weapon when that weapon hits a target. In Discharge Mode it offsets a portion of the energy costs that would come from your energy bank from the device's capacitance instead, scaling up as your current energy bank decreases. While Discharge Mode is active, your weapons will gain 35% more damage.
  • Speed Demon Class 3 now Mitigates up to 50% of the damage taken when traveling close to perpendicular to the impact angle. Moving slower than the speed of the impact lessens the effect. Note: If the impact is from a projectile the speed of the projectile is used, if the impact is from a beam the speed of the firer of the beam is used.

[Skill Changes]

• Updated Transference Control's description to reflect that it doesn't do anything at this time.

[h2][Item Changes][/h2]

• Increased Damage Multiplier of On Hit weapon effects by 1.25x.
• Quantumly Attuned Temporal Tracker's for Angre the Spice Baron and Cybernetic Gonzales will decay after 15 minutes.
• Reduced Angre's Garam Blend's rate of fire bonus from -50% to -22.48%.
• Jungle Spirit augmenters now cost 1 Honorary Mentions instead of 2 Jungle Armada Crests.
• Zauron's Mask and Heart of Sol are now size 0 and shipbound, instead of unequipable. Zauron's Mask now grants 2000 visibility when equipped just like Heart of Sol.
• Fleet Commander locked fighter super items (Commander's, Captain's, Admiral's, Chelonic Call) only effect fighters launched by the user.
• Bunkered Offense Protocol super item on Kalthi Armored Deployer only effects drones deployed by the user.
• Empyreal Zenith's Coalition Regenerative Field Emitter now only effects drones deployed by the user.
• Chelonic Call can no longer be equipped with another Aggressive Protocol.
• Colony Industrial Commodity value increased by 100%.
• Commodities used to make T0 Active IC's have had their Half-lives' increased to 168 hours.
• Matriarchal Overwhelming Fury now has a 40 second cooldown, its bonuses last 7 seconds, and it removes 30% of current shields instead of 35%
• Torpedoes
  • The damage, speed, DPE, burn time and range of regular Torpedoes (ex. Titan Torpedo) has been adjusted. They should be much more reliable to use now, and some may have less DPS.
  • Thoraxes and Clenches have a 1 second shorter Engine delay.
  • Rockets have increased DPS and tracking.
  • Bombs have increased projectile speed and tracking.

[h2][Mission Changes][/h2]

• Removed erroneous mission lock on [Tier 1 Silver Bounty] Aveksaka that required killing Ruby Carriers.

[h2][Universe Changes][/h2]

• Blue Photon Test Range will no longer give a PvP warning upon entering the rift.
• Angre, Gonzales and their minions no longer will spawn with augmenters or mods.
• And Angre’s minions had diffusers removed and the Chai fighters had their shield bank and shield regen reduced.
• Removed Energy / Laser Diffuser drops from Basils.

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

• Cybernetic Gonzales and Angre the Spice Baron's mobs now despawn if they do.
• Buffed KD DG Minions (Lots of minions were adjusted, some in small ways others in bigger ways)
• Nerfed KD DG Bosses (Most of these were made to have less shield regeneration but more bank, there should be more variety in the bosses and difference between banky bosses and regenerative bosses).
• Increased the drop rate of Slumber Augmenters from roaming Slumberchrome variants by a factor of 5-10 and removed them dropping from DG versions.
• Increased the drop rate of Slumber Augmenter to guaranteed on Slumber Muncher.
• Increased the drop rate of Herbal Sensor Blueprint from roaming Basils by a factor of ten.

[h2][Server Changes][/h2]

• Augmenter drops are now the same category as other debris for targeting.
• Added new dev support for more advanced scripting for future bosses.
• Using a fighter bay to recall fighters now returns 75% of the launch energy scaled with the remaining flight time.
• Removed the mechanic where drones would recharge their shields in your inventory. They just get set back to full shields.
• Upgraded the ship window to make the ship stats more legible.
• Adjusted Boss reset logic when players are using stealth to prevent a reset.
• Ai/bots now dock at 80% of the player max docking distance (based on ship/base sizes), instead of a static 50 distance.
• Pinned item can no longer be consumed by Neuroforging.
• Added "Shield stealing resist" to ship scanner output for Shield Monkeys.
• Added "Resist All" info to ship scanner output.

[h2][Bug Fixes][/h2]

• Potential fix for major desynchs for both player and AI caused by grem effects.
  • These could have been caused from anything from AI super items to player grem weapons.
• Empowered shot with large negative crit chance can no longer cause negative damage
• Fixed several spelling errors in various places of "neccessary".
• Wormhole check for PvP entering a safe area now checks for Public Instances.
• Fixed missing space typo in the 'Report back to' mission message.
• Fixed an issue with Matriarch Aurora's phase 2 weapon disable not working during one of the phases.
• Fixed the Galactic Control team skill's description, the number of gals ownable with lvl 0 is 30 not 20.
• A mission that reward a skill the player already has will no longer fail to complete and instead will skip the skill reward with an event error message about it.

We are currently experiencing unexpected technical difficulties and are performing necessary maintenance to restore service as quickly as possible.

Join our Discord for updates as soon as information becomes available. Thank you for your understanding and support.

EDIT (2025/02/18 11:00AM EST) : Game server is operational, most services should back up yet.

[h2]

[/h2][h2][Gonzales the Cyber Demon][/h2]

• Gonzales the Cyber Demon has been added as a Kalthi Depths roamer.

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

• The shield bar no longer flickers when looking at something being damaged that you have never targeted.
• Added search bars to Ships tab when docked at a station and the Possessions tab under the Character menu.
• Adjusted the right click -> transfer context menu order of ships to reflect the sorting of the ships tab.

[Skill Changes]

• Updated the description for Seer’s Shadow Ambush and Brooding Gaze to be more descriptive
• Trade bots no longer get the Zen of Ranger bonus.
• Removed several unlisted instances of Ranger retaining old Sniper projectile impact and projectile speed modifiers.

[h2][Item Changes][/h2]

• Adjusted the Grand Empyreal Destabilizer, it now disables weapons of enemies for 3 seconds and then increases their weapon recoil by 50% for 7 seconds.

[h2][Mission Changes][/h2]

• Updated “It’s a Trap” mission to be clear that the player needs to go near the E.F.V. Sovereign to cause the waves of mobs to spawn. Fixed misnamed ambush mobs that caused them to not count as kills for the mission.
• Temporal Trackers are now offered via missions when progressing through the Red Rogue storyline in Paxian Foothold.
• "Optional: Angre the Spice Baron" mission has been changed to "Temporal Hijinks". This mission requires players to gather Damaged Peacekeeper Equipment, and kill 1 of each of the Kalthi Depths DG bosses.

[h2][Universe Changes][/h2]

• Angre the Spice Baron has significantly more shields and does more damage, is immune to damage when his minibosses spawn, and Manuel de Castro and James Plantain must both be dead for Angre to start taking damage again. Angre now begins despawning as soon as he is engaged, instead of starting to despawn when 5+ players are present.
• Added Soul Beam to DG/Uber drop list.
• Only Arsonist now gives a lockout when fighting in Rumble Colosseum. Mobs in the instance now longer spawn with augmenters.
• Several Spice Pirate ships no longer spawn with diffusers.
• Increased the cooldown on the Empyreal Equinox's warp device.
• Removed Speed Demon skill from Handmaidens and replaced with appropriate augmods to prevent extreme damage when multiple tweaks are used.
• Infernal Tempest and Infernal Darkness will no longer give PvP warnings upon entering the rifts.

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

• Reduced range and damage of Slumberchromes and MF Slumberchromes.

[h2][Server][/h2]

• Bindomite Changes:
  • Made DG Bindomite drops scale from 10% to 40% depending on DF.
  • Reduced the Bonus Weekend Bindomite bonuses back down to 25% and 100%
• Bots will now value the attack power of DOT (damage over time) weapons higher.
• Seer Remodulator now works against stations and drones.
• The notification showing the start of the Emperor Contest will now be visible three days prior to the start instead of one day.
• Sun vulnerability auras no longer apply to attached bases.

[h2][Bug Fixes][/h2]

• Fixed several typos in mods.
• Splendid Trove information now correctly indicates it gives Honorary Diplomas in a quantity of 5 per cache.
• Fixed acceleration/turning stats on fighters showing as 0.
• Fixed issue with Temporary Drones not firing at objects with envelopments.
• Fixed a bug where influence could be accrued outside of a emperor contest.
• Targeting computer will no longer fire when the ship is in stasis.