Star Sonata 2 News

Note: + means a new universe (reset) is required for the change to come into effect.
[h2][Client][/h2]

• Now displays trade skills on the Character select screen.
• Added subscription status and number of space points message to top of the character selection screen.
• F10 (Ship Details) now factors Electric Tempering into DPE display.
• Copy button added to copy blackbox/showstatsources/showsquaddamage/mc to clipboard.
• Deleting a bot order no longer jumps back to the beginning of the order list, moves up one position instead.
• Moved bot tow option to the bottom of the target options list.
• Distance for RTS clicking yourself is increased 1.5-4x scaled with ship size.
• Fixed ‘View Team Web Page’ button in target menu.
• Right clicking an instance wormhole will no longer AP to somewhere else.
• Fixed issue with holes in the Indestructible Deployer skin.
• New Tortoise, Astodust and Goblin model and texture.
• Updated EarthForce Capital ship textures and models.
• Added Neon Red Skins to their Hybrid versions for Zebra, Lion, Panther, Rhino and Mastodon.
• Fixed issue with preventing new Red Neon skin on Mastodon.
• Avatar tab was rearranged under Character menu and added SP/SPEX to it.
• Bot order list now shows current and max orders.
• New Mark and Mark Team key bindings created.
• Squad leader can now right click and transfer leadership to another squad member. (Note: Requires another patch to work but button is listed)
• Fixed issue with not being able to resize the chat window properly when RTS-able assets were present.

[h2][Skill Changes][/h2]

• Discovered a hidden 3% rate of fire bonus per level was hidden in the Speed Demon class skill, Speedy Firing. Speed Firing has been adjusted from 20% to 25% to factor this in. Resulting in 0.344% more RoF.
• Adjusted Shield Stealing on Shield Monkey (See: Dev Diary – Shield Monkey/Shield Transference Adjustments)

[h2][Item Changes][/h2]

• Split “Ship Scanner” tag into “Ship Item Scanner” and “Ship Hull Scanner” for better searching.
• Bots can no longer use Seer Nanite Devices.

[h2][AI Changes][/h2]

• Added Jelly Skin and Swordfish Skin to Kraken and Poseidon’s drop tables.
• Reduced the shield bank and regen of Swordfish ships in Kraken and Poseidon.
• Reduced spawn of Swordfish in Poseidon.
• Reduced spawn rate of Swordfish and Jelly in Kraken.

[h2][Universe Changes][/h2]

• Removed Jelly’s Acidic Remains and Jelly’s Blood from Grog missions in Handels’ Cove. Reduced Requirements for Heated Metals from 10 to 3 in the respective Grog mission.
• Changed mission “What happened here?” Hyperion mission requirement from “Urqa’Qii” to “Fused UrQa Energy Modulator”.
• +Fixed issue with some of the Leopards in Undergrowth using Rhino/Elephant names.

[h2][System][/h2]

• Optimized universe save and improved other systems to reduce lag issues.
• Show bot stats correctly displays “Bot Research” now.
• Marketcheck (/mc) will no longer display scrap price for items which can not be scrapped.
• Made it so you can’t deploy a temporary, non-superitem, scoopable drone without having a drone-capable scoop equipped.
• Change radiation critical hit effect to -75% tracking for 2 seconds.
• Transwarping and being kicked out of dungeons causes ships to stop firing.
• The Serengeti Mini Bosses are no longer tracked on the Instance Scores board.

• Fix percentage speed aura display being off by a factor of 1000 in the F10 (ship details) window.
• Fixed a bug where the F10 (ship details) window didn’t correctly calculate your critical hit DPS (was still taking the base chance as 2%, not 5%).
• Made the Twisted “station” drones non-scoopable.
• Fixed missing space in ‘report back to’ text for all missions.
• Fixed tracking auras not applying to beam weapons.
• Tracking auras are now actually multiplicative like other aura effects.

Welcome Sonatians. The upcoming patch contains a considerable adjustment to shield-stealing. Here’s what you need to know.
[h2]Stealing vs. Healing[/h2]
Something we’ve struggled with since we released the new Shield Monkey class is the balance between stealing shields and healing. We envisioned shield-stealing as something that healers would do to supplement their regeneration, but this hasn’t proven to be very popular. On the flip side, “draintank” Shield Monkeys who use stealing as an all-in-one tank-healer-DPS mode proved to be much more powerful than we had envisioned. Eventually, we realized that it all comes down to resource use. Healing an ally or stealing shields with the main focus of healing yourself are just not as valuable as “draintanking,” which allows the player to deal substantial damage while tanking and healing themselves all at once. This realization led us to the following two concrete positions:

1. 
   Shield-stealing should cost more energy than healing with the same weapon.
   
2. 
   Shield-stealing should heal the user considerably, even if they aren’t specialized for DPS.
   

After playtesting with a few helpful Paxian Disciples, we arrived at the following implementation. Shield Monkeys now receive 3 units of healing for every 1 unit of shield-stealing damage they deal. Shield stealing now costs 2.75x the firing energy of healing.

This change may end up buffing or nerfing your Shield Monkey setup, depending on how you play. Here’s the breakdown on that:

• 
  If you play a Shield Monkey who focuses on shield regeneration, this change won’t affect your setup at all. You may even find it useful to steal shields now and then.
  
• 
  If you play a Shield Monkey who sometimes steals shields to stay alive, this change is a buff to your setup. You may be able to re-gear toward more HPS since you’ll receive more healing whenever you steal shields.
  
• 
  If you play a Shield Monkey who focuses on dealing damage with shield-stealing, this change is a nerf to your setup. You will probably experience lower uptime on stealing since it costs a lot more energy to do so. Moreover, you will receive more healing when you do steal, making it harder to keep some empty space in your shield bank.
  

If you’re anything like me, you are probably curious to know a few more details behind this change to mechanics. Here’s how we’ve implemented the increased firing energy.

• 
  Transference weapons now operate at around 36% DPE when used for stealing shields.
  
• 
  The extra energy cost is extracted in a single chunk whenever you steal shields.
  
• 
  If your shield bank is near full or if your target is near death, the server automatically adjusts the amount of stealing damage and extracted energy to keep DPE constant, giving you a smooth gameplay experience.
  
• 
  If your energy bank is near empty, the server automatically reduces your stealing damage and extracted energy to keep DPE constant. Your rate of fire on an empty energy bank will be the same as it always was.
  

[h2]Weapon Stat Tweaks[/h2]
There’s one other adjustment we want to make to healing, but it didn’t make the cutoff for this patch. Here’s what you can expect with the next patch (which will still hit before Universe Reset on June 26).

When it comes to transference weapons, we have tried our best to create a sandbox scenario with lots of interesting options. However, players have helped us realize that some of the options we’ve offered are a bit too wild and niche to provide competitive alternatives to the current meta. We believe the following stat tweaks should address the majority of these issues.

• 
  Low-tracking transference weapons have had their tracking increased (20º to 30º) and firing energy reduced in exchange for some weapon range.
  
• 
  Transference weapons with 45º tracking have also received reduced firing energy in exchange for weapon range.
  
• 
  All transference weapons have gained a little range (100-150) and reduced recoil time (3 seconds per shot at most).
  
• 
  Many Tech 22 transference weapons have been adjusted to offer more competitive alternatives to the Vaidaya Bhisajamzu.
  

We thank the players who have offered feedback on the balance of transference weapons and hope to hear your opinions on these changes!

[h2]Lyceum Bulletin[/h2]

We have just received word of a major disruption within the fabric of the Universe.  Reports are coming in from wild space that an interdimensional traveler has phased in and out of our universe creating vast distortions of our reality.  It is said that this traveler has impressed upon our reality a cataclysm of change due to a contract he has made with the Trans-Dimensional Bean Counters. Our top researchers have discovered a haiku communique left behind in the wake of the traveler:

“New I shall create
A hat I shall never eat
Please save my stomach”

After carefully examining this haiku we expect a tremendous upheaval within our universe leaving behind a resonance of something new. Top scientists predict the collapse of the universe to be on June 26th, 2021. Citizens are asked to ensure all personal assets and fleets are properly stored.

[h2]What are Universe Resets?[/h2]

When the universe resets roughly every 4 months, all non-permanent star systems are regenerated and a fresh (and empty) universe replaces the old one. All player progression (levels, skills, items, etc) is preserved, but any deployed bases or claimed territory is lost. Players must re-explore the universe, and have the opportunity to participate in a new land-rush if they choose.

[h3]Reset Time[/h3]
BST: 18:00
EDT: 13:00
CDT: 12:00
MDT: 11:00
PDT: 10:00
UTC: 17:00

View the original post on our blog

[h2][AI Changes][/h2]

• Reduced the random augmenter slots on Twisted Fate of Death boss from 2 to 0.
• Reduced DPS of Pressure Beams the Twisted bosses use.
• Increased Demented Delquad’s supers damage and charge time slightly.
• Reduced Demented Delquad’s Beam resists slightly.

[h2][AI Changes][/h2]

• UrQa’qa Vazuk Vo’kii boss encounter has had the following changes made to it:
  • No longer has full tracking beams during the final stage.
  • Vacuum lowers thrust for .2 seconds instead of 2 seconds.
  • Changed the speed of the fire wave projectiles from 230 to 75.
  • Urqa Vacuum Device fires off once instead of 4 times.
  • There is now a 4 second delay on the UrQa Clusterbomb Device.
  • Reduced the range of the UrQa Clusterbomb projectiles.
  • Weakened the second speed aura of BK to match the first aura for the speed effect.