Beta Update 0.7.7.1

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p][/p][p]Another week, another patch. :) This time adding some quests to explain the conquest mechanic better and help players on their way. And load of improvements and fixes. [/p][p][/p][h3]Update availability[/h3][p]This update is still under active development. As such, it is only available if you switch to the beta branch of Vanguard Galaxy to test out these new changes. Instruction on how to install the beta updates can be found at the bottom of this post.[/p][p][/p][p]Added/Changed[/p][p]- Added introduction missions to the conquest sector[/p][p]- Added a "next update" timer to the Conquest sector map view[/p][p]- Added a hard cap to bonus skill points gained from items and missions - up to 60 bonus skillpoints can be collected (for a total of 120 at level 60)[/p][p]- Conquest Shop now sells bonus skill points - at an ever increasing price[/p][p]- Added Conquest Ranks per faction giving a variety of bonuses when doing activities for that faction - Destroyers are tied to this rank[/p][p]- Added a new class of Mining Claim items that contain ores rich in a specific refined material. You can purchase these claims at Mindus stations.[/p][p]- Added docking tunnel animation when docking/undocking[/p][p]- Added a red indicator to your HUD to indicate the location of offscreen enemies[/p][p]- Added a mission in the first quadrant to unlock the newer (30+) skills in the skilltree (for (current) players who are already playing in the conquest zone these skills are already unlocked - You can still do the mission, it gives 2 skillpoints as a reward)[/p][p]- All stations are the newer modulair stations, if for some reason it gets destroyed.. it will repair itself after a while (1 hour of not visited). More variants and designs will be added.[/p][p]- Items in the Conquest Shop are now leveled up based on your current Conquest Rank[/p][p][/p][p]Balance[/p][p]- Reduced the production-per-tick of Economy items by about 25% (less items will be available to cap maximum profit)[/p][p]- Significantly increased the cargo volume of Economy items, to incentivize buying a proper cargo hauler if you want to do profitable cargo runs[/p][p]- Destroyers and most other large ships have their reputation requirement lowered to Respected (but you need Faction Conquest rank in order to purchase them)[/p][p]- Bounty, Patrol and Industrial Ops missions no longer take place in a neighboring system - to balance, Patrol and Bounty missions have an additional wave of enemies to fight[/p][p]- Destroyers and other large ships have their credit costs reduced by ~50%, but... they will cost additional Mars Commendations (which in total value will still account to a 30% discount compared to before)[/p][p]- High level missions give significantly more Mars Commendations (about a x5 multiplier at level 60 compared to level 30)[/p][p]- Increased the base Mars Commendation cost of skillpoints in the conquest shop, and reduced the scaling cost increase per point purchased[/p][p][/p][p]Fixes[/p][p]- Fixed edge case where loading the game got stuck on the loading screen.[/p][p]- Fixed reactor description[/p][p]- Conquest update timer no longer incorrectly resets during a save/load[/p][p]- Fixed some annoying "Remote access blocked" warnings while using the galaxy map around the Conquest sector[/p][p]- Factions that are not interested in galactic conquest no longer give missions with Fleet Strength rewards.[/p][p]- When filtering the inventory it will also refresh the scroll[/p][p]- Fix for changing a large item in the workshop increasing the energy costs by too much[/p][p]- Optimized shipyard/personal hangar slightly[/p][p]- Fix for failed mission throwing an error, causing ECHO to get stuck[/p][p]- Canisec gun platforms will no longer spawn in prologue area[/p][p]- Fixed "Escort Ship" and "Help Friendly Miner" missions that are started with a faction you're currently hostile with (you no longer attack their poor helpless ship)[/p][p][/p][p]And as always, if you find any annoying / interesting bugs or just want to give your opinion. Let us know on Discord or the Steam forums. Thank you all for enjoying Vanguard Galaxy. [/p][p][/p][p]Cheers, [/p][p]Bat Roost Games[/p][p][/p][h3]Enable the beta version[/h3][p]Make sure to keep an old save game when switching to the beta, just in case. We always make sure that your save games will keep working, but as long as the beta is ahead of the release, the beta save game won't work on the release version until it catches up.[/p][p]To take part go to Manage and select Properties for Vanguard Galaxy in Steam:[/p][p][/p][p]And select the open-beta under Game Versions & Betas as shown below. [/p][p][/p]