Star Valor News

• Improved Tractor beam mechanics when towing objects and stacking is now fixed. Increased max range for bigger ships and the line becomes red when the distance is over 80% max.
  
• Tutor Perk now also shows skill progression %.
  
• Fixed drones having silver or gold stars.
  
• Updated Korean translations.
  
• Unity Logo was removed from the splash screen.

[h3]2.1.1c:[/h3]

• Fixed minor item drop issues.
  

Regarding recent news about Unity and their new Runtime pricing.

Star Valor and I will be fine. Considering last year revenue (Star Valor launch), I was going to change to Unity 'Pro' subscription anyway... So I won't meet the revenue threshold (1M USD in 12 months) and won't have to pay the new fees. That's my optimistic and practical view of the situation, as Unity has been changing in all sorts of obscure ways, to say the least. I won't go into other shady details, like their install detection or whatever, as it's just confusing right now... The worst part is the uncertainty in what they are doing next and how will that affect me and other devs. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Overall I'm pretty sad about it... It was with Unity that I changed my life and was able to live my game dev dream. I love the engine itself, but I most likely won't be using it for my next projects and I won't recommend it anymore. For the next game patch, I also removed the Unity logo, which was in the splash screen as a homage since Early Access, even though it wasn't mandatory for the most part.

I won't change the engine for Star Valor, though, as it's a 7 years project and it would be a huge set back, not to mention expensive... So the game development will not be affected. I will probably be making less money for having to pay the ‘Pro’ subscription where the 'Plus' (which is now gone) would've been enough, but I'll deliver everything I promised (including DLCs) as I have the resources for it, thanks to the game sales and all my supporters: collaborators, donators and patrons. If it ever comes to a point where I can't keep the game on Unity, I'll just have to change engines anyway and move on, I guess.

So overall... Star Valor and I will be fine, and so will your space adventures.
- Laious

Thank you all for the support! Special thanks to all my collaborators and Patreons:

[h2]Commanders[/h2]Ryan Schubert
Bancheis

[h3]Captains[/h3]Rin
Zarinthal the Sleepy Dragon
鹿目圆香
Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Aces
Jean-Philippe Martel, Gary Scott, kolby varner, Kevin Chote, Gio, Quickshadow, Scott Tjhia, Baduz, Maxter1o2, Severance Bane, Lamergaroth, semeku, Mort, Matouš Otta, Jiri Sluka, Ashven Scarpaw, chaussepied quentin, Lance Borchardt

Pilots
AJ Parker, Latheos, Jeremy Sandahl, Libo, Hawk, SW9876, Boosted, Myoron, Aaron Meek, GamerForLife, Logan Laramay, NAUTILUS11045, Ryyuka, Elliot Louise, Stuart Bunn, Ujvari Tibor, jin, lochinator, Justin Schultz, Derrick Southerland, Shinnjin, Peter Müller, Scott Woodie, ITEDVO, Maik Landgraf, Zachary Johnson, Kuba Vildomec, Mathew Beane, Michael Van Camp, Legend Kriptor, Nick Evans, Nes27, Nicholas E. Zonenberg, a62443166, Robert Prehn, Juan Valencia Escobar

Rookies
Brian, James Ketola, Martin Nielsen, Kero7, ZipTieFun, Fedaygin, Takuma Shimoyama, Grendug, Vladrynne, Christopher Boyd, Jeffry Fleischer, Matthew DuPlanty, Gary, Thomas Ran, Josh Worden, Cpt Incorrigble, Thy Ruos, Adam E Burks, Billy Radis, -Nova-

[h3]2.1.1 Patch Notes:[/h3]

• Warp Drive equipment can now be activated to warp to the currently selected sector on the galaxy map. Some drives also received an emergency warp function, which can be used by activating it while holding shift (default), and will send you to the closest sector.
  
• Added a
• mark on items on station markets, when they are needed for quests.
  
• Added 'Melee' combat tactic for fleet ships. Red Skull pilots also use it when over level 15 (or level 10+ elites).
  
• Unarmed ships equipped with attack drones or integrated ramming weapons will now engage enemies.
  
• Added lights to drones, making them much more visible. You can customize the colors for both repair and attack/mining drones, and its intensity. Defaults are green and red, respectively.
  
• You can now customize the color for name labels and icons based on reputation (defaults are green, yellow, red and blue).
  
• Using Pirate Impulse Drives or ships now change the color of thruster and trail effects.
  
• Pirate stations now use red/orange colored lights instead of blue.
  
• The game received some performance improvements on big fleet battles.
  
• Added option to choose Anti-Aliasing quality from 5 different levels.
  
• Added option to choose full-screen mode between Windowed (default, multi-task friendlier) and Exclusive (a bit more performance). Using 'exclusive' mode can also fix occasional full screen stuttering issues.
  
• Added a tooltip scale option in general settings.
  
• Item tooltips no longer cover the buttons on the inventory and should no longer overflow vertically, being scaled when needed.
  
• Added delay before showing tooltip, ranging from 0 to 2000 ms (2 seconds). Default is 0.
  
• Radar ship icons now update when you swap ships or change the option in settings.
  
• Fixed target info still being visible on sector and galaxy maps.
  
• Fixed loot names becoming invisible when opening game settings.
  
• Fixed weapon turret with the wrong angle on weapons tab.
  
• Fixed BUG that would cause crew tooltip to show up over the quest panel.
  
• Fixed Bancheis crewman trait bonuses not working on 'staff' seat.
  
• Fixed Juggernaut playing an engine sound at the wrong time and volume.
  
• Fixed radar zoom buttons still being visible on the Galaxy Map.
  
• Fixed crew member tooltip overflowing.
  
• Fixed BUG that enabled installing weapons on ships with no weapon slots, corrupting the save.
  

[h3]Follow up fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed Fullscreen BUG
  
• Updated Russian and Chinese translations.
  

[h3]Greetings Commanders![/h3]

Update 2.1 is here! If you haven't watched my last video, check it out here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Big thanks to all my Patreons:

[h3]Commanders[/h3]
Ryan Schubert
Bancheis

[h3]Captains[/h3]
Rin
Zarinthal the Sleepy Dragon
鹿目圆香
Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Aces
Jean-Philippe Martel, Gary Scott, kolby varner, Kevin Chote, Gio, Quickshadow, Scott Tjhia, Baduz, Maxter1o2, Severance Bane, Lamergaroth, semeku, Mort, Matouš Otta, Jiri Sluka, Ashven Scarpaw, chaussepied quentin, Orrion Boudinot

Pilots
AJ Parker, Latheos, Jeremy Sandahl, Libo, Hawk, SW9876, Boosted, Myoron, GamerForLife, Logan Laramay, NAUTILUS11045, Ryyuka, Elliot Louise, Stuart Bunn, Ujvari Tibor, jin, lochinator, Justin Schultz, Derrick Southerland, Shinnjin, Peter Müller, Scott Woodie, ITEDVO, Maik Landgraf, Zachary Johnson, Kuba Vildomec, Mathew Beane, Michael Van Camp, Legend Kriptor, Nick Evans, Nes27, Nicholas E. Zonenberg, a62443166

Rookies
Brian, James Ketola, Martin Nielsen, ZipTieFun, Fedaygin, Takuma Shimoyama, Grendug, Vladrynne, Christopher Boyd, Jeffry Fleischer, Matthew DuPlanty, Gary, Thomas Ran, Josh Worden, Cpt Incorrigble, Thy Ruos, Adam E Burks, Billy Radis, -Nova-

[h3]Patch Notes:[/h3]

• Added radar (minimap) zoom. In Nebulas it always shows full size. Clicking the + and - zoom button while holding shift goes directly to max and minimum zoom level, respectively.
  
• The radar now shows the actual ship image as icon, instead of a generic image. This is optional.
  
• Ancient Relics and Escape Pods now always show an actual image instead of the generic blue dot.
  
• Added a quest to Tinhead Workshops that rewards junk in exchange for crafting components.
  
• 'Drone detonators' now set drones on "suicide mode", where they collide with their target and explode on impact.
  
• Added T2 Ship Enhancement: Drones gain: +15% weapon damage and automatic targeting.
  
• Increased ship enhancement slots for better visibility.
  
• Drone weapon damage bonus from tacticians reduced from 8% to 7% base per tier.
  
• Loot from enemies which are not special NPC characters, therefore including Hunter Fleets, is now defined by the sector level instead of the enemy level.
  
• Added 'blueprint known' on ship tooltip when you already learned it.
  
• Reduced the turret angle on the 'Rokkuita' from 60 to 10 degrees. Now it has -10% weapon heat generated.
  
• increased chance to find fine and superior components from scavenging.
  
• While in a sector controlled by an enemy('hated' doesn't count) faction, destroying one of their ships or being hostile to a station will speed up Hunter Fleet spawning by that faction. This mechanic enters a cooldown of 3 minutes after a hunter fleet spawns.
  
• Improved gunners aiming when shooting at moving targets and trying to "lead shots".
  
• Fixed scavenging giving blueprints you already have maxed and never dropping ammo blueprints.
  
• Fixed 'bloom' setting resetting to a minimum of 15% instead of 10%.
  
• Fixed 'Cargo Optimization' Skill affecting fleet ships, causing their loot to be launched into space.
  
• Fixed fleet control panel opening for no reason (example: when you rename crew).
  
• Fixed main menu panels (Load game, credits, perks, etc) not closing when ESC is pressed.
  
• Fixed items not stacking: drone parts dropped from drones and scrap metal obtained from destroying junk.
  
• Fixed BUG that would cause gunners to occasionally stop shooting at missiles or drones.
  
• Fixed 'Born Leader' not applying to seats without assigned crewman.
  
• Fixed Weapon crafting exploit when importing recipe from clipboard.
  
• Fixed negative critical chance (and anything over 100%) affecting DPS calculation on weapon tooltip (this is only visual and wasn't affecting the actual weapon damage).
  
• Fixed floating turrets on the Juggernaut and Claymore.
  
• Fixed short range drones not hitting big ship targets. Now they constantly adjust their distancing.
  

Anniversary Livestream / Devlog, where Laious talks about the 1st year after launch, the main changes and feedback, as well as what's coming on update 2.1 and later on!
Oh yes, also chatting with players and answering questions :)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]