Sector Six News

This update adds much-needed challenge for players with really high power level spaceships, improved vendors, many quality of life changes based on player feedback, and important fixes.

New endgame activity: Absolute Deterioration

This is the end of your invincibility. All of the worst instances collapsed to form absolute deterioration.
In this vortex of nightmare incarnations, your enemies will become more and more powerful, until your strongest weapons and best tactics are worthless. Until you have no choice but to flee or be destroyed.
If you're lucky, you will escape with treasures born in twisted realities of deterioration.

Absolute Deterioration is a mission in which you will have to fight waves of enemies.
Enemies will enter your range as fast you destroy them, and with each wave, their power will increase.
Fight as long as you can, then extract - the more waves you will defeat, the more decayed fragments you will get.
Decayed fragments fuse into absolute deterioration relics:

New relic: Stolen, Hidden, Forgotten, Lost

This relic increases relic limit by 2.

Flame Tower, Redirection Hub

With this relic installed, projectiles your ship will deflect transform into seeking missiles that deal 100% weapon damage to enemies.

New relic: Physical Linking System

This relic gives +1% weapon damage per three projectiles, meaning that you will deal more damage the more projectiles there are.

New relic: Radiance And Blight, Aberrant Alliance

This truly unique relic will allow you to have both Oesa's Radiance and Kithalia's Blight set effects active at the same time.

New relic: Frailsphere, Pearl of Deterioration

Frailsphere will restore your armor 50% when it drops 0 once per a mission.

New relic: Horrorcradle, Darkspindle

Horrorcradle will become more powerful based on the highest number of waves survived in absolute deterioration.

Vendor rework:

A recent breakthrough in quantum logistics have allowed improving long-distance part distribution systems: You no longer need to enter secured regions!
This leap in technology has also led to the fusion of spaceship building and vendor interfaces: All building functions are now available during trading.

• Improved vendor interface and accessibility.
  
• Connecting/disconnecting to/from the vendor now is much faster.
  
• Now it's possible to uninstall/install/compare/dismantle parts and containers while connected to the vendor.
  
• Sell all/dismantle all/uninstall all/disconnect buttons now give proper confirmations.
  
• Vendors are now limited to one connection per mission completed.

Locking items:

• You can now lock/unlock items by moving the cursor over them and pressing L or - for controller users - Start.
  
• Locked items cannot be sold and dismantled.

Guardian of a Thousand Worlds:

This ability will now increase deflect chance and deflect chance cap by 20% instead of giving total invincibility.
It means that ships with 80% deflect chance will be boosted to having 100% deflect chance.
The ability also no longer restores armor.
This brings an end to Ultranid + Guardian exploit, but should still keep the ability relevant.

Planar rework:

Planars have been replaced with guillotines.
Guillotines have improved versions of planar's attacks, and it activates shield later than planars used to, making them less annoying to fight.

Other changes:

• Moving cursor over filtered item now will make it visible.
  
• You can now filter/highlight/dismantle/uninstall/sell set components and parts with certain properties.
  
• Improved item selection in item management.
  
• Surge Accelerator, Exothermic Focus relic effect now works with Power Shield, Channel, and Creation of Energy abilities.
  
• Resurrection mission revenant phase now takes 10 seconds instead of 60.
  
• Black Rain shards now deal 25% weapon damage instead of 100% at max level.
  
• You no longer need advanced access to view sets, manage inventory, toggle map key, and jump to a region.
  
• Overload ability cooldown has been increased to 75 seconds to make it less exploitable.
  
• Gatherers and scions now stop shifting after firing 5 projectiles, instead of 10.
  
• Abilities 1, 2, and 3 can now be activated with the mouse: Ability 1 - left button, Ability 2 - right button, Ability 3 - middle button.
  
• Ancient container now gives 100 alloy when you pass dust cloud, making it more useful for certain mission types.

Fixes:

• Fixed: "Sell all" button sells crafting items.
  
• Fixed: Mass Detonate achievement description is wrong.
  
• Fixed: Level 13 region non-story mission crash.
  
• Fixed: Nemezium Plating sprite.
  
• Fixed: Relic limit boost exploit.
  
• Fixed: Retrieval mission + The Rain of Fire problem.
  
• Fixed: Siege cannon ammo is not picked up when behind player's ship.
  
• Fixed: "Unbreakable" achievement doesn't work with apex and the Machines.
  
• Fixed: You can use alloy container during dialogues and cutscenes.
  
• Fixed: Average difficulty in Broken Infinity is not saved.
  
• Fixed: Cathode stacks disappear when using cathodes in vendor interface.
  
• Fixed: Black Rain shards hit the player with full weapon damage during shield duration end animation.
  
• Fixed: Mission II sequence break glitch.
  
• Fixed: Malasmar's damage zones deal no damage.
  
• Fixed: Risk For Reward + loot box graphical glitch.
  
• Fixed: Several grammar and spelling errors.
  
• Fixed: Crash occurs in Broken Infinity after failing a mission.
  
• Fixed: You can get negative loot quality during time attack missions.

Restoration War glitch fix:

This one deserves to be mentioned separately.
Ever since it has been added, Restoration War activity have been glitched.
The mission 12 regions fail to update for some reason, and it makes Restoration War reward impossible to get.
I've tried to fix it with every update post-launch, but it's still here.
So, I got really tired of fixing this glitch, and this time I'll use brute force to fix it - no matter what, mission 12 regions will not be stuck in their post-mission 12 states.
Like last several updates, the regions will be restored upon loading the old version saves, and it shouldn't occur for the new players, so this should be the last time I mention mission 12 region glitch.

Localization:

• It's now possible to choose Chinese and German languages - the game isn't fully translated to these languages, this is just for testing purposes.
  
• Make some changes to the code for localization features, such as different fonts for different languages.
  
• Now you can use the controller to select the language in language select screen.

Credits:

ZeroAfflex, Karodde, Ayalan, and Winterchild - thank you for your feedback and welcome to the credits!

Have fun!

2018 was a difficult year for me, but it was another year of growth, especially the second half of it.

I got flu two times, went to hackathon which was an unpleasant experience, I worked more than ever this year and had a hard time after Sector Six was released - glitches, stress, constant inner conflicts.

But this was also the year when I got close to my goal of living from making games - thanks to Sector Six's success in December.
I also did some of my best work during this year - I think I'm most proud of relics, the Machines, mission 11, and Broken Infinity.

I'm better now - more experienced, more confident - than I was before 2018 and I'm happy about that.

My plans for 2019:

In early 2019, possibly January, I'll release Sector Six update, that will add things that it currently really misses - better vendors, better highlighting, and brutally difficult challenge for top players to push themselves.
After that update, I might be doing a balance update to trim the absurd power levels, if that proves to be necessary.
I'll also try to repeat December's success and if I'll succeed - maybe I'll make another big update. If not - I'll just a make a few small updates, mostly support ones to fix glitches and implement small quality of life improvements.

2019 is meant to be a year for Light of the Locked World, my ambitious RPG project.

Once Sector Six's update is out of the way, I'll be working on Light - that's how I ended up calling it for short. The promised alpha demo will probably not come out in January.

After I'll release Light's alpha demo, I'll keep making updates to, just like I did during Sector Six alpha/beta.

So, to summarize, in 2019 I'll release the alpha demo for Light of the Locked World, then I'll update it, at the same time working on small updates for Sector Six.

I hope this year will be great.

Until next time!

Today Sector Six got its 100th review!

Thank you all for complaints, suggestions, compliments - it's very helpful and inspiring.

I'll keep developing the game as much as I can =]

Currently working on reward relics for the new endgame activity, later going to finish up the activity itself and start working small feedback-based improvements. After that the update will ready for release I guess.

So until then!

Recent discounts have increased player count by a lot of and I've got a lot of feedback.
Because all of that, I decided to do one more big update - with so many sales and positive reviews, I think Sector Six earned it =]

The development of this update has begun with proper sell all/dismantle all/uninstall all button confirmations.
This should prevent accidental selling/dismantling of valuable items, and is possibly faster than previous system - no need to wait for "Cancel" time to run out.



The next thing I did was a vendor rework.

Clicking on a secured region instantly opens vendor interface, and the interface was merged with spaceship building interface - now it's possible to dismantle/install/uninstall/compare parts and alloy containers while trading.



The other change is that now it's not possible to visit the same vendor again until you complete a mission.
This was done because it would very easy to connect and disconnect to vendors to generate new stock for free - and the game needs that unit sink.
Also, it makes having multiple secured regions with the same vendor type useful.



Overall, I think it's a large improvement to the whole trading experience, and I can't wait to release it.

Now I will be working on a new endgame activity - Absolute Deterioration.

The feedback I got about this, suggests that players who make it to max level are so powerful, that no current content is challenging to them.

Absolute Deterioration will change that.

This endgame activity will have players to do an endless mission, in which enemies keep getting stronger.
The current plan is to make enemies spawn every time there's no more of them left.

E.g.: You destroy heavy and veteran spawn in its place immediately - there are no pauses, combat is constant.

After you destroy a certain amount of enemy groups, a new wave begins and enemy power increases.

E.g.:

• Wave 1 - Enemy armor and damage is multiplied by 2
  
• Wave 2 - Enemy armor and damage is multiplied by 3
  
• Wave 3 - Enemy armor and damage is multiplied by 4.5
  
• Wave 4 - Enemy armor and damage is multiplied by 6.7
  
• Wave 5 - Enemy armor and damage is multiplied by 10.1
  
• ...

This goes on forever until you are destroyed or extract.
Not sure about how extracting will work right now, but probably you'll be able to press R anytime during the mission and it will end.

The more waves you survive, the higher chance you'll have of getting one of Absolute Deterioration relics after you extract.

E.g.:

• Waves survived: 1 - 2% relic chance
  
• Waves survived: 2 - 3% relic chance
  
• Waves survived: 3 - 5% relic chance
  
• Waves survived: 4 - 7% relic chance
  
• Waves survived: 5 - 11% relic chance
  
• Waves survived: 6 - 17% relic chance
  
• Waves survived: 7 - 25% relic chance
  
• ...

There will be 6 Absolute Deterioration exclusive relics, with the possibility of more being added in future.

Oesa's Fallback, Auxiliary Core:
After armor drops to 0, Core will give you 3 seconds to restore it, before spaceship is destroyed.

Stolen, Hidden, Forgotten, Lost:
This relic will increase relic limit by 2, so +1 extra relic, besides itself.

Flame Network, Redirection Sockets:
Flame Network will turn deflected enemy projectiles into seeking missiles that deal 100% weapon damage.

Physical Correlation System:
This relic increases weapon damage based on how many projectiles there are on screen - making certain abilities stronger, and certain enemies weaker.

Radiance And Blight, Aberrant Alliance:
This relic will allow you to have both Oesa's Radiance and Kithalia's Blight set effects active.

Circle of Cruelty, Magnetar Chain:
-40% damage reduction, -10% armor from all minions in the mission.

One more thing about Absolute Deterioration: To start it, you'll need to max out all difficulty modifiers.

So yeah, that will be the most brutal content I ever created.

I'll also address smaller things based on feedback:

• Add language select button controller support.
  
• Make Flurry and Unload abilities benefit from Rapid Fire Mode ability.
  
• Extend highlight options.
  
• Add an option to "favorite" parts, making them impossible to sell.
  
• Reduce the time it takes to fail the mission.
  
• Reduce the time it takes to resurrect during resurrection missions.
  
• Speed up evolving.
  
• Make highlighting easier to use.
  
• Allow inverting LS with DPAD.
  
• Allow mouse binding for ability slots 1 and 2.

I'm also investigating other issues, such as repetitiveness or story mission difficulty, so keep feedback going =]

Hope this looks good, until next time!

The biggest update since the release!
It makes all weapons useful, adds new relics and enemies for more variety, improves time attack missions, and more!

New enemy: Planar

Planar is an alternative version of sentinel.
It's a medium - threat level 2 - enemy.
Currently, it's the only enemy that releases projectiles from the left of the player ship.
Like a sentinel, planar uses a shield but activates it earlier.
Planars can be encountered in regions 20, 23, 27, 29, Broken Infinity, and arena missions.

New enemy: Launcher

Launcher attacks player by launching missiles, that fall on the player from the top of the screen.
The launcher is another medium, threat level 2 enemy, it also uses a shield.
I want to increase the number of shielded enemies to keep shield removal abilities relevant - weapon rework adds two attacks that ignore shields.
It's why I changed Breach ability as well.
Launchers can be encountered in regions 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 22, 25, 28, Broken Infinity, and arena missions.

New enemy: Wasp

Wasp is a threat level 0 enemy, comparable to swarmling.
Unlike swarmlings, wasps have high damage for a threat level 0 enemy.
Wasp's only attack ability is telegraphed, giving you more than enough time to move out of the way of attack.
Wasps can be encountered in regions 7, 9, 12, 16, 22, 24, 28, and Broken Infinity.

New relics:

Weapon rework removes ether efficiency and cooling rate, making it impossible to change ability ether costs and cooldowns by installing nodes and pylons.
Instead, I have added new relics that have those effects.
I have also added two relics that are not related to weapon rework, but also expand the possibilities.
As usual, new relics come with unique animations.

Suun's Loom, Atomic Library:

This relic halves ability ether costs and maximum armor, which is a small price to pay for cheaper abilities.

Zero Spire, Coolant Injector:

This relic halves ability cooldowns and doubles ability ether costs.
It's supposed to synergize with Suun's Loom, Atomic Library.
Zero Spire, Coolant Injector is a less extreme version of Tempoquake, Cryostasis.

Tempoquake, Cryostasis:

Tempoquake, Cryostasis reduces ability cooldowns and weapon damage by 90%.
This game-changing relic makes some of the faster damage abilities as fast as attack abilities.
Combined with Zero Spire, Coolant Injector, it can reduce ability cooldowns by insane 95%.
Still, its downside is massive and might require ridiculous amounts of weapon damage or ether generation to be useable.

House of Hate, Isotope Equalizer:

House of Hate, Isotope Equalizer might be the most powerful relic of the six added with this update.
It doubles weapon damage, ability ether costs, and ability cooldowns.
Because ability ether cost and cooldown modifiers do not affect attack, shield, and shield removal abilities, House of Hate gives you more than it takes away.

Crippled Vault, Broken Reality:

This incredible relic increases the part limit by 10 and reduces core attributes - maximum armor, maximum ether, and weapon damage - by 25%.
It also doesn't increase the weapon limit.

Surge Accelerator, Exothermic Focus:

It's a simple, but useful relic - it generates ether amount equal to 5% of maximum ether when an enemy is destroyed.

Weapon rework:

• Attack abilities now release projectiles from all weapons.
  
• Projectiles released are based on weapons and attacks that released them.
  
• All weapons now have base weapon damage.
  
• Weapons now have more skins - they are unlocked every 10 levels until level 80.
  
• You can no longer use weapon damage amplifiers on sections and engines.
  
• Removed cooling rate and ether efficiency properties.
  
• Missile Strike ability has been renamed to Strike.
  
• Concentrated Fire ability has been renamed to Flurry.
  
• Spread Mines ability has been renamed to Unload.

Time attack mission rework:

• Time attack missions now support all modular difficulty system modifiers except The Decision and Hivind's Army.
  
• Different regions now spawn different minions for time attack missions.
  
• Instead of scaling reward, now you get +150% loot quality in the beginning of the mission, that decreases by 1% every second.
  
• Time attack missions now give standard rewards.

Other changes:

• Mythical parts now cost about 2 times more than fractal parts.
  
• Etalons now cost about 3 times more than fractal parts.
  
• Reduced amount of alloy received from dismantling mythical parts and etalons.
  
• Compressed parts no longer have higher prices than normal parts.
  
• Oesa's Radiance set effect nerfed: Now ether amount required to get a damage boost starts at 10 and increases by 10% every level.
  
• Etherion's Clash set effect nerfed: It only increases weapon damage by 120%, because installing different weapons no longer has a downside.
  
• You can now extract engine skins with cathodes.
  
• Changed how skins work: Engine skins can only be applied to engines, weapon skins - to weapons, and section skins - to sections.
  
• You can no longer use skins on installed parts.
  
• Added etalon engine.
  
• Slightly increased spaceship speed and acceleration.
  
• You can now check experience in spaceship building interface by going to spaceship stat page 5.
  
• Trism of Glory now increases weapon damage instead of cooling rate.
  
• Changed base ether cost of Piercing Laser ability to 5 and base cooldown to 45.
  
• Dropped parts are now picked up automatically if they are behind player's ship.

Fixes:

• Fixed: Game does not appear on the taskbar.
  
• Fixed: Mission 12 "Start mission" button in new game+ takes the player to a non-existent region.
  
• Fixed: Apex's lasers do not disappear when the apex is destroyed.
  
• Fixed: Black Rain ability effect remains active during story cutscenes.
  
• Fixed: Story spoiler: Broken Infinity level during mission 14 is wrong in the new game+.
  
• Fixed: Story spoiler: Mission 12 regions remain to be destroyed after the story is completed.
  
• Fixed: Achievement spoiler: Life rune spawns in Etender, Labyrinth, instead of Bloom.
  
• Fixed: Pyramids never appear in Broken Infinity.
  
• Fixed: Relic animation graphical glitch in start interface.
  
• Fixed: Relic level can go above level cap.
  
• Fixed: Volume bars doesn't work with a controller.
  
• Potentially fixed: Linux + language select problem.

Controller support:

I have made changes to how controllers work with Sector Six and now the game should support more controllers.

Old save update:

To fix new Restoration War glitches, old saves will generate new missions upon loading the game and will set contested region to region 25.
Ether efficiency and cooling rate properties have been removed, so items will be updated to have weapon damage properties instead.
Sections with weapon skins will have their skins changed to plating skin.
Level 91+ relics will be scaled down to level 90.

Have fun!