Dust Fleet News

Hello, commanders! Thanks for your great feedback on the recent Fleet Management update. This update squishes the bugs that were spotted.

• FIX: Remapped controls are not applied until the game is restarted. Remapped controls will now apply immediately.
  
• FIX: "Equip all" button makes module slots vanish in some circumstances.
  
• FIX: If settings.cfg is not present (eg new install) and if language was auto-set to a non-English language, English is still shown as selected in the menu.
  
• FIX: Non-native resolutions (eg using 1366×768 on a 1920x1080 display) cause the movement cursor to move to an incorrect position when applying a vertical move during a move order.
  
• FIX: Captured ships continue getting orders from the mission script. For example, in mission 5, captured cruisers would attack Franklin's APC at the end of the mission.
  
• CHANGE: APCs should have a slightly easier time docking with ships, with less circular dancing involved for smaller ships.
  
• CHANGE: Orca has gained a combat module slot.
  
• CHANGE: Wolf now has a medium weapon slot, to match it's default loadout.
  
• CHANGE: Tokara default loadout now uses medium lasers, to match the available weapon slots.
  

Hello Commanders!

If you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so as we are part of the Steam Winter Sale through our publisher Freedom Games! From December 21st until January 4th, the game will be on sale for 20% off! Make sure to check out Freedom Games' Winter Sale 2023 page to pick up some great games to play over the holiday season.

I’m excited to unveil the patch notes for Update #2, a milestone we have named The Fleet Management Update. Let’s explore the changes and enhancements that this update brings!

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[h3]NEW[/h3]

Fleet Management screen:
View and manage details of all the ships in your fleets, with several new options to give you greater control.

• Promote: if you don't want to wait for ships to earn promotion in battle, you can now pay to train the crew up to the next rank.
  
• Refit: change already-built ships to a different loadout.
  
• Scrap: no longer need a ship? Scrap it to gain back a portion of it's value.
  
• Upgrade: one of your ships stuck on the old version of a loadout? "Upgrade" will get it back up-to-date.
  
• Reverse engineering: also available in fleet management, you can now dismantle a captured ship to learn about it. Once you've done this with enough ships, you'll be able to build it yourself.

• Rally points: you can now set a rally point for each station. Any ships you build will be sent to the rally point and consolidated into one fleet.

Starmap side bar:

• Fleet multi-select: You can now select more than one fleet in a location, to make giving move orders easier.
  
• Remove station module: Station module slots can now be set back to empty.
  
• Combine fleets: a new, easy way to combine ships into one fleet - just select the fleets you want to merge and press the "Combine Fleets" button.
  
• Expand/collapse: click the name of any fleet to collapse it.

Starmap:

• Edge scroll: move the mouse to the edge of the screen to scroll the starmap
  
• Direction arrow: if you scroll away from your territory, and arrow will now guide you back.

Loadout editor:

• An "equip all" button to add a turret to every compatible slot.
  
• Improved UI: cleaner and clearer.
  
• Damage Stats: Weapon damage has now been added to turret stats.
  
• Enhanced ship stats panel: Ship stats popups have been expanded to show more loadout and stats details, along with any bonuses from ranks.

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[h3]CHANGES[/h3]

• Combat stations no longer come equipped with bombers by default. When you select a location with a combat station, there is now a hangar assignment button on the sidebar to add fighters. You must have researched the fighters in order to add them. (Does not apply to existing saved games).
  
• Selecting research now shows a confirmation box.
  
• Fleets can now be renamed in the Fleet Management screen instead of the side bar.
  
• Pathfinding overhaul: ships are now a little better at navigating around each other and using space.
  
• Ships now give a little more room to ships they're guarding.
  
• To build a ship, you must now have unlocked all the tech in it's loadout, or create an alternative loadout with unlocked tech. As a result of this change, default loadouts have been altered for some ships. These default loadout changes do not apply to existing saved games.

Default loadout changes:

• The Ocelot and Refinery no longer have repair beams in their default loadout.
  
• The Copenhagen now has light plasma turrets in it's default loadout instead of medium.
  
• The Rekjavik now starts with twin medium lasers instead of heavy. The medium laser still needs to be researched to build the default loadout, or you can change the default loadout. The Rekjaviks you get early in the campaign have kept their heavy lasers, however.

Balance changes and corrections

• The Lance now builds quicker (8 turns -> 6 turns)
  
• Rekjavik now builds slower (6 turns -> 8 turns)
  
• Rekjavik now costs a little more (4550 -> 5250)
  
• Plasma bolt range increased (900 -> 1100)
  
• Abandoned proton bolt range increased (600 -> 800)
  
• Ocelot has gained a support module slot.
  
• Copenhagen has gained a support module slot.
  
• Rekjavik has gain a combat module slot.

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[h3]FIXES[/h3]

• Resources don't reset when a mission is restarted more than once.
  
• Build menu doesn't work properly during tactical pause.
  
• Tactical pause ends when escape menu is toggled.
  
• Tactical pause doesn't work after escape menu is used during tactical pause.
  
• Can give tactical orders if tactical pause is enabled before opening escape menu.
  
• Building a ship with an unpopulated turret slot causes the turn update to run endlessly.
  
• Can capture Braddock's ship on last mission.
  
• Tokaras unable to move after being captured on some missions.
  
• Repair ships can keep a ship alive even if the hull reaches zero.
  
• Ship loadout name persists in shipyard even after changed in loadout editor.
  
• Ships continue being attacked after being captured.
  
• Capturing a station that has fighters can cause errors on subsequent turns.
  
• Some mission-provided ships show incorrect loadout information during battles.
  
• Fighters sometimes cancel their orders when the lead fighter in a squadron is destroyed.
  
• Braddock's fighters do not fire on Antilia in the final mission.
  
• Camera position judder when following fast-moving ships such as fighters.
  
• Flak-equipped ships close distance to the range of their flak guns when attacking capital ships, which is closer than necessary.
  
• Some ships temporarily stop moving during a battle if an order is given with an exploding ship selected.

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As always, I am excited to see what suggestions come out of these updates, and will use them to continue to improve the plan and direction of Dust Fleet. Don't forget to join our community Discord and share your experiences!

That’s all for now, Commander - see you in space!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/406160/Dust_Fleet/

Hi everyone!

We're excited to announce that Dust Fleet is part of the Turn-Based Carnival event on Steam!

Turn-Based Carnival will be live from November 14th to the 21st to bring together a bunch of exciting games for a delightful experience. Check out the event page here to discover some other amazing games!

Don't forget to join our Discord community! 😀



https://store.steampowered.com/app/406160/Dust_Fleet/

Greetings, commanders. This is a bugfix release to correct some small space bugs that crept into the recent Command Update.
[h2]FIXED[/h2]

• Station ability targets (eg bomber strike, nuclear strike) not being correctly set. Some commanders may have noticed that these abilities were firing on targets other than the ones being selected, or occasionally launching before a target had even been selected.
  
• Wormhole opening/closing constantly while bomber strike fighters were attempting to return home.
  
• Incorrect cooldown value for nuclear strike.
  

Hello Commanders!

I am still deeply humbled by your support, and invaluable feedback you’ve given. It’s been a thrilling journey since our last announcement and we have made significant strides towards delivering on the promises laid out. I’m excited to unveil the patch notes for Update #1, a milestone we have named The Command Update. Let’s explore the changes and enhancements that this update brings.

[h3]NEW[/h3]

Tactical Pause: The PAUSE key now starts tactical pause mode, where you can issue orders while the game is frozen. Hit PAUSE again to resume.

[h3]Tactical UI improvements[/h3]

• Overall visual improvements: The UI in battles has been improved to take up less space, reduce visual clutter and improve readability.
  
• Stacked ship buttons: Ships of the same loadout are stacked onto a single button. Double click the stack, or the arrow on the stack, to expand.
  
• Carrier manager: A new SELECT ALL button selects all fighters for the current carrier selection. If you have multiple carriers selected the SELECT ALL button will select all the launched fighters for every selected carrier.
  

Keep what you capture: Any non-station ships you capture during a battle can now be retained after the battle instead of being scrapped.

Scrappage Display Improvements

• During battle, scrappage counts can now be seen directly on the build buttons.
  
• If you have less ships than you started with, this is now also displayed as a green number on the relevant build buttons.
  
• If you have more ships than you started with, this is displayed as an amber number on the relevant build buttons.
  

Tactical Overlay Toggle: The green icon overlay during a battle can now be toggled with the O key.

Tactical Overlay Colors: Allied non-player ships are now colored cyan in the tactical overlay to distinguish them from player controlled ships.

Graphics Options

• Motion blur toggle
  
• Bloom toggle
  

Starmap Scrolling: The strategic starmap can now be scrolled with the in-game camera controls - WASD and the cursor keys by default.

Rebalance to make frigates more viable, and slow down fights a little:

• Some ships have been made slightly tougher, more notably frigates and the UEN cruiser-class ships, by around 10%, except the Ocelot which has had its hull strength doubled.
  
• Light and medium plasma turrets are now much tougher, by around 350%. Much less chance of getting your Knight's turret blown off, but still relatively easy to destroy with fighters or sustained fire.
  
• Plasma projectiles fired by the light and medium plasma turrets do about 70% of the damage they did previously, generally increasing time-to-kill across most engagements
  
• Laser damage modifiers have been reduced by around 9%.
  

Save files are now compressed, so they take up approximately 5% of the disk space they did before.

Middle mouse button changes: The middle mouse button is no longer required - a key bind has been added for moving the camera vertically ([). This is now displayed in the tutorial.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Fighter loadouts resetting on stations and ships after restarting a mission.
  
• In battle, stations are sometimes repositioned when loading a saved game.
  
• On the starmap, player fleet icons may appear at some locations where there are no player fleets. The fix prevents the issue occurring in future, but icons may remain in existing games.
  
• One ship lagging behind when an order is issued.
  
• Custom loadout not displayed correctly during ship building.
  
• Deleting a loadout does not refresh the loadout editor.
  
• Jumping ships out of battle and then back in could cause unexpected behavior.
  
• Transposed dialogue on the "Spare Parts" mission.
  
• General ordering system improvements - the queuing system has been completely rewritten to eliminate a number of persistent smaller bugs.
  

[h3]NOTES FOR EXISTING SAVED GAMES[/h3]

• The balance changes may mean that some of your ships may now show as slightly damaged, due to the maximum hull value being increased. The ships themselves have not taken any damage, and this will clear the next time the ships are repaired.
  
• The rewrite for the ordering system means that for any in-battle saved games in-progress orders will need to be re-issued.
  

As always, I am excited to see what suggestions come out of these updates, and will use them to continue to improve the plan and direction of Dust Fleet.

That’s all for now, Commander - see you in space!