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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #15 on: May 09, 2019, 12:07:34 AM »
Trade-Net, refining and mining perks
8 May @ 11:43pm - Stellar Tactics




Here are the notes for the latest content patch. This patch introduces the Trade-Net, refining and mining perks. Hope you enjoy the changes. If you do find any bugs or issues, please post on the bug sub-forum and I’ll look into it.

Trade-Net, refining and mining perks




Added the Trade Net:
The Trade-Net is a marketplace where goods are sold by various orbiting stations across the universe. Trade Stations issue buy and sell contracts for goods required by the population of that system. These goods are transferred between orbiting stations and planetary colonies.

The Trade-Net is not available until you leave Achmedius and place at least one beacon near a Jump Point in another system. Once you place a beacon in another star system, Achmedius will be added along with any other star systems where beacons are placed. If you have already placed beacons in an existing save, the entire available Trade-Net will be visible when you load that save.

Trade contracts are delivered through the cargo storage terminal on stations. Cargo storage has been revised so it opens immediately without the need to purchase storage. If you want to buy cargo storage at a station, just open the cargo storage terminal and select the option to purchase storage. Delivering or retrieving purchased Trade-Net items is as simple as traveling to the station where the trade contract was placed and retrieving or placing the cargo in storage. The contract(s) are completed when closing the cargo storage menu. Cargo storage has a new area at the bottom of the UI that displays delivery contract information.

A few notes related to the addition of the trade-net.
•   Over time, the number of trade goods in any available contract on the trade-net are reduced as AI merchants accept orders.
•   Trade goods and refined ore cannot be bought from or sold to vendors, only traded via the trade net. These items will not be displayed in the vendor interface.
•   Mining and mining drones now have a slightly lower chance of collecting rare earth minerals and rare ore to offset market pricing.
•   The amount of ore retrieved while mining, especially at higher levels has been adjusted.
•   Mining drones sell ore at a reduced price now that the Trade-Net is in the game to balance the economy. Retrieving ore, refining it and then selling it is the most profitable path - however, automated drones still generate significant income.
•   Commodity merchants and ore vendors have been removed from trade stations now that the Trade-Net is implemented. They may come back as something new when crafting goes in the game. Ore can still be sold to vendors, though using the trade net to find the best price is likely more profitable.
•   The ore vendor on Hurzog Mining is now a general merchant. Scarby's dialog has been revised to reflect that.
•   If a beacon is placed in a hostile system, trade data is not streamed to the Trade-Net for that system. You cannot trade with hostile factions.
•   You gain a small amount of mining experience for refining.
•   Gas nodes on planets have been removed and replaced with mineral nodes. I may look at gas mining again at some point in the future.

Added Refining:
You can purchase and equip a refinery on your ship. Refineries let you convert raw ore to refined ore – a more valuable commodity. Refined ore is used for crafting items and across the universe for building stations, colonies, and goods. You can purchase and equip a refinery at any ship equipment vendor. Like all ship equipment, refineries are ship specific so you cannot swap them between ships. Refineries equip to your ships “hardware mount point”.

You can refine anywhere - in mission areas, in space, it doesn't matter - as long as you have ore in your cargo hold. So, you could have a ship with a large cargo hold full of ore and go complete a ground mission while all that ore is being refined.

Mining perks:
Mining perks have been added to the game. There are three lines - Drones, Refining and Mining. Each gives you bonuses to various functions of each of these utilities. For example, selecting drone perks will give you bonuses to drone mining speed and the quality of ore mined by drones. If you already have high enough skill levels in mining, you can assign perks to the skill line as usual in the character information screen. Just select mining from the list on the right and the perk choices will be available.

An important note, mining queues off the crew member assigned to the weaponry station. So, bonuses are derived from this crew member and the perks assigned to them.

Also, bonuses to the speed of your mining turrets are derived from both the level of mining skill and the perks assigned to the crew member in the weaponry station. Those bonuses are applied to your turrets reload speed. A high mining skill and selections from the mining perk line will produce ore at very high rates at high skill levels.

Smuggling deserves more than just a simple on/off switch. I'll be adding a bit of storyline very soon that will allow you to unlock smuggling. Contraband items are in the game now for the trade-net, however, they are hidden until I do a bit more work on this system.

There is now a very small chance that you will be attacked by hostile ships when entering a star system. You will be warned if this is the case and have a few seconds to put your shields up or micro-warp away from that area. The chance of this happening is slightly higher if you have active delivery contracts.

Guide entries have been added to the in-game guide for the Trade-Net and Refining. You can find the guide by pressing “H” and selecting the “Guide” button at the top of that screen.

General fixes:
FIXED: In large open areas, a very long path was generated in some cases for the selected PC that would cause the framerate to drop.
FIXED: In some cases, loot dropped by enemies could not be selected if the loot dropped on a stairway near a door.
FIXED: A dupe exploit related to cargo storage.
FIXED: Incorrect info displayed in a few rollover labels.
FIXED: A bug related to recruiting a heavy weapons NPC that would overwrite the primary PC's ranged weapon ammo type. This fix is not retroactive.
FIXED: You can now eject cargo while in FTL space.
FIXED: The cargo volume label at the bottom of the center ship panel now updates correctly as ore/cargo are added.
FIXED: The beacon icon in the lower left of the screen while in space now disappears correctly when moving away from a jump point.
FIXED: Drone menu in space and in the log->map window now responds to the ESC key to close the menu.
FIXED: Opening and then closing the Steam overlay would break movement at ground locations until ESC or a menu was opened or closed.
UPDATED: The cargo list on the ship info screen now updates every second. The number of cargo items is also updated.
UPDATED: When rolling over systems on the star map, system names in the info popup with a "*" next to their name have a beacon placed.
UPDATED: Cargo storage terminals now have a unique icon on the radar.
UPDATED: Adjusted rollover info for ship equipment so it's clear that the equipment fits ship type, not ship class.

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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2019, 12:39:33 AM »
Progress update 5/24/19
24 May @ 11:56pm - Stellar Tactics



Hi all - lots of work being done. Some of my time has been spent adding a new mission that unlocks Smuggling. This mission gives you an option to unlock buying and selling contraband on the Trade-Net. Once you unlock contraband, these items will appear for trade as buy and sell contracts. Smuggling is a bit more dangerous than hauling trade goods between star systems and pays better overall in smaller ships as low volume – high-value transactions.

I'll be expanding on this system quite a bit during Alpha with timed trade missions, branching delivery missions that include ground and space combat and special equipment for your ships. Initially, when this patch is released, you will be attacked more often if you have contraband items in your cargo hold, so make sure you are well equipped for space combat if you take these contracts.

I’ve also been doing a bit of work on the faction system and when this next patch goes live, you should start to see small skirmishes in space between various factions. You can choose to join these skirmishes or fly in to pick up the loot when the shooting is over.

The next patch will also see an increase in the trade-in value of your current ship. CHA has always reduced the purchase price of ships and increased the trade in value of your ship. The next patch will boost this a bit more. I’ll also be including a number of bug fixes and stability improvements.

Once the next patch is live, I'll start working on the crafting system, implementing the updated animations, adding the ground combat special attacks and moving on to some other work as I quickly approach full Alpha.

As I start implementing these new features I'll begin posting builds to the public test branch for a week or two before setting them live for everyone. Some of the changes that are coming are fairly complex so I think it will be a good idea to start separating the stable builds from some of these more experimental updates. I'll post on the forums when I start publishing test builds with instructions on how you can access these updates.

That’s it for now. I hope to have this patch live in a week or so. Meanwhile, here are all the latest patch notes. Have a great weekend and thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

5/20/19
FIXED: Another edge case with older saves that could display trade contracts from stations that are no longer in certain systems.
FIXED: Cargo volume displayed incorrectly when using sorting options. Could allow you to add more cargo than your cargo hold could carry.
FIXED: Cargo volume was displayed incorrectly in the vendor UI when sorting cargo.
UPDATED: You can now sell refined ore to vendors at or below average market value. This should help starting players who want to mine and sell refined ore.
UPDATED: Adjustments to vendor ore sale values - ore values are always below the market average and best market purchase price. Mostly applies to low-value ore.

5/17/19
FIXED: Planets were displaying completed mission landing locations after completing a mission. You could land at these sites but no enemies were present and the location was bugged. These locations are no longer shown on planet surfaces. If you are in one of these locations, just exit to space. The landing location should disappear.
FIXED: Panning and rotation using the keyboard no longer cancel each other out.
FIXED: When overriding a key bind, the override pop up now correctly displays the key you are overriding in the text field.
UPDATED: A few adjustments to enemy movement related to the physics engine. Will see if that fixes a rare bug with enemies losing their way when traversing the navigation mesh.

5/15/19
FIXED: A bug that was transferring cargo expansions between ships. If you have this bug, you can either keep the current cargo expansion or buy new cargo expansion and drag that to the cargo expansion slot in your ship.
FIXED: An error that was not properly applying drone perk bonuses. Perk bonuses for speed now correctly apply to mining and travel speed.
FIXED: If self stunned in combat (stun grenade etc.), you can now use the end turn hotkeys. Previously required that you manually click end turn options.
FIXED: Cargo values displayed below the center ship UI. Let me know if you see numbers that do not match your current cargo hold. This display updates every few seconds.
UPDATED: You can now cancel trade contracts from the Trade-Net menu. Select the contract you want to cancel in the list and then select the "CANCEL CONTRACT" button.
UPDATED: Refinery button moved to the bottom of the refinery menu.
UPDATED: The storage transfer menu now allows you to specify the number of items to be transferred with an updated VALUE entry field (bottom center of the transfer popup).
UPDATED: The drone manager now displays the quality level of the node being mined for each drone in the list as QL-1 through QL-10.

5/10/19
FIXED: Over time, Trade-Net contracts were being removed and not regenerating.
FIXED: In some cases, the color coding and arrow display in the contracts area of the trade net was being displayed incorrectly.
FIXED: The stacked item slider is now fixed in cargo storage.
FIXED: Phosphate can no longer be purchased for zero credits.
FIXED: Skills that are capped at 100 skill level now correctly display a full bar of skill experience in the character info hud.
FIXED: If you had a max skill of 100 in mining, you can now select mining perks
FIXED: If you have the current maximum friendly status with a faction, the faction bars in the upper left character hud and the log->map now correctly display as full. I expect that I will be adding additional tiers of faction in the future. Faction continues to be accrued even when at maximum with any faction and that is intended.
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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #17 on: June 02, 2019, 12:07:18 AM »
Patch day - Smuggling, objective tracker and faction warfare
1 Jun @ 2:21pm - Stellar Tactics   



Patch day - a few updates and fixes this week.



You can now unlock Smuggling. Speak with Forley Coresh on the Achmedius Trade Station to start your career. Smuggling is a fairly dangerous career and you will be harassed by Raiders and Scavvers if you have active contraband contracts. I recommend a starship with decent weapons, shields and balanced power systems. This is a great career for those of you who want to make money from trading smuggled goods and of course from all that loot you are going to find by eliminating the enemy ships that attack you. For now, you do not need to worry about The Authority (not in the game yet). I have a few interesting plans for the smuggling system including a few ship enhancements, timed smuggling missions and extended story content related to The Syndicate. If you read the dialog carefully, you might notice an intro to future story content and a long-standing mystery surrounding the loss of your crew, depending on the options you choose.

Smuggling requires a large Trade-Net to be effective - so place beacons in every system you find with orbiting stations. Contraband goods are traded all over the universe, but not as often as normal commodities.

Ships may attack each other now. You can join in and help or ignore these skirmishes. In some cases, if you do decide to help, you have a good chance of finding loot from dropped cargo containers. Rarely, regardless of whether you engage or not, cargo containers are dropped from these ships and you may find them floating in space. This is the start of the faction warfare system (just the start) and these engagements are generally between the various factions and Scavvers and Raiders entering and leaving systems.

I've added a mission and contract tracker to the HUD when traveling in space. You can now see active missions or trade contracts on this list. While in FTL space, you can select any destination and the Star System the mission or contract is located in will automatically be selected in the info panel so you can click the approach icon and fly to that system. If you are in Star System that has a mission or contract, selecting an item in the tracker will select the planet or station where the mission or contract is located so you can easily approach that location without needing to open the log to reference mission information. The tracker is also useful for translocating as it displays contract destinations and commodities in the list.

And one last thing - a surprise for those of you playing the game...no spoilers. I'm sure you will notice immediately.

If you find any problems with this build, please post on the bug forums and I'll address the issues promptly.

Patch notes:
ADDED: A short mission that unlocks Smuggling. Speak with Forley Coresh on the Achmedius Trade Station. He will help you start your new career.
ADDED: The Objective Tracker. All missions and Trade-Net contracts (buy/sell) are now displayed in the objective tracker while in space. The tracker can be opened/closed using an icon on the right center of the space exploration UI. Selecting a tracker mission or contract entry will display the targeted star system, planet or station in the info panels so you can easily navigate to the destination. Selecting an item in the tracker will:
1) Target the destination planet or station if you are in the same Star System where the mission/contract is located
2) Target the destination Star System if you are in FTL space

UPDATED: Increased the min/max base margin values for the Trade-Net across the board. This means there will be lower sale prices and higher buy prices available depending on the size of your network. These adjustments will become available over time as trade contracts are refreshed.
UPDATED: When translocating using Jump Points, ship fusion cells are now used instead of ground weapon fusion cells. The cost is still the same - 5 fusion cells per jump.
UPDATED: Incursions now only provide a positive faction bonus for the faction that initiated the incursion.
UPDATED: Faction rewards in space combat adjusted:
--Incursions generate higher individual faction bonuses for the faction that assigned the incursion. Additional factions (factions other than the assigning faction ) no longer generate faction bonuses. It was too easy to gain alignment with other main powers in the Universe while doing work for a specific faction.
--Destroyed ships from non-incursion attacks in hostile systems will only generate negative faction based on that system.
--Destroying ships that are not part of an incursion and not direct attacks in hostile systems will generate single digit faction bonuses for all non-aligned factions and normal negative faction based on the ship destroyed
UPDATED: Trade in values when buying a new ship increased. Note that CHA applies to all ship purchases decreasing the price of buying a ship and increasing the value of your trade-in. This has always been the case.
UPDATED: You now have a much lower chance of being attacked when you have an active delivery contract if that contract is not contraband. A higher chance of being attacked by Raiders and Scavvers if you have an active contraband delivery contract.

FIXED: A lockup when docking at stations, planets and translocating if under enemy ship fire.
FIXED: A rare crash related to enemy ship beam weapons.
FIXED: Incursions will now reward faction for the system where the incursion is taking place, regardless of whether the system is a main or sub-faction.
FIXED: A very rare persistent yellow particle effect left in the scene after space combat.
FIXED: Old auto-saves - that is auto-saves created before the new auto-save system (rotating between 4 dedicated save files) are no longer displayed in the load/save menu. This will clean up save lists for players with games that were created all the way back to the start of Early Access.

Thank you all for supporting the development of Stellar Tactics. Have a great weekend!
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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #18 on: June 15, 2019, 08:56:11 PM »
The map, experience adjustments and bug fixes
14 Jun @ 11:10pm - Stellar Tactics   



I'm adding the ground exploration map today. This is likely the most requested feature from players since I first started gathering feedback. It includes fog of war, zoom, and scrolling. I hope you all enjoy the update.

I'm also including increased experience for space combat, first-aid and hacking skills. If you do find any issues with this patch, please post in the bug forums. Here are the patch notes:

ADDED: Added the map.
--The map includes fog of war so you can view where you have been.
--Zoom, scroll, center.
--You can see various icons like mission markers, vendors, faction agents, exits, mercenaries, etc. A "legend" for the various icons which match the radar is available on the map.
--Persistent data. Wherever you go in the universe, your tracked progress is saved.
--Your saved key binds have been replaced so I could remap "M" as the default key for the map. The crew manager has been moved to "J".
--The in-game help screen and guide have been updated to match the new default keys.

FIXED: When exploring ground locations with a single crew member, the game will no longer crash when manually entering or leaving combat.
FIXED: A bug that could generate ship equipment when turning in agent missions. This would place ship equipment in general inventory instead of the cargo bay - breaking rollover info and a few other things. NPC's now have a brief cooldown period before you can interact with them when an area loads. IMPORTANT - If you do find any ship equipment in your general inventory (not in your cargo bay), you should drag that item to the trash and delete it. These items cannot be sold or used.
FIXED: "Gadolinium" added to the commodities market. Trade contracts for this item will start to appear over time.
UPDATED: Reduced space skill experience requirements per level.
UPDATED: Mercenaries now display a bright yellow dot on the radar and map so they can be distinguished from other regular NPC's on stations around the universe.
UPDATED: Hacking and First aid skill progression will now continue even if you are at the level cap.
UPDATED: Reduced hacking and first-aid experience requirements per level.
UPDATED: Improved dynamic shadow resolution.

Other notes - 6/6/19
FIXED: The objective tracker now correctly targets the mission return location if an agent mission is completed.
FIXED: Agent mission return destinations in the objective tracker now correctly targets a planets surface or station depending on where the mission was originally accepted. This is not retroactive, so previous missions, if taken on a planet surface, will target stations.
FIXED: A error with default FTL drives that was calculating base FTL speed incorrectly. This fix is not retroactive so if you do have a "Stock" FTL drive that seems faster than other quality level FTL drives available for sale, you get to keep it. You will likely want to swap out that FTL drive eventually when sub-system damage goes in the game for a FTL drive with higher HP.
FIXED - Old autosaves are no longer displayed in the save game menu.
FIXED - When swapping crew members in and out of your active crew, it was possible that perks from the previous crew member would be assigned/enabled on a crew member that had not selected those perks.
FIXED - A bug that was not correctly displaying shield bonuses from the electronics station (perks etc.) unless the crew member was in the active ground crew.
FIXED - A bug related to recruiting NPC crew members gaining incorrect Hand2Hand skill for secondary weapon if that was their specialty.
FIXED - Closed out a number of bugs related to the Trade-Net displaying incorrect contract target system information. This rarely resulted in arriving in a system that was not the correct destination target.
ADDED - Added the old music into the music track list for space and ground exploration.
ADDED - you can now preview mercs before recruiting them. Mercs now cost an initial fee based on their level. High-level mercs can be very expensive, so fill out your crew early in the game.
UPDATED - An increase in the base number of trade goods vendors buy/sell.
UPDATED - The last audio track played in an area is saved and loaded the next time you load an area.
UPDATED - You can now place beacons on the FTL map. When you get close enough to a star system, the beacon icon will be displayed in the lower left of the screen. Target the system, open the beacon menu and you can place a beacon in the targeted system. You cannot destroy beacons or translocate using the beacon menu on the FTL map. This should help players quickly build a larger Trade-Net.
UPDATED - When in FTL space, star system labels now display a "*" next to their name if a beacon has already been placed in this system. It should make it easy to identify systems where you could place a beacon to expand your Trade-Net.
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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #19 on: July 13, 2019, 12:26:44 PM »
Progress update and Patch
12 Jul @ 6:27pm - Stellar Tactics



A few fixes and QoL requests addressed today. The patch should be posted shortly. As always, if you find any bugs/issues, please post on the bug forums. I'll address any critical issues promptly.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

Just a note about the crafting and salvaging system. The paper design is nearly complete. I should start implementing these systems next week starting with the base salvaging system related to inventory items (junk, weapons, armor, turrets, etc.). From there I'll start implementing the crafting system using those salvaged items. I'll provide more details in a post at some point as I get closer to finalizing the system. I don't want to make any promises until I have it fully working and have time to test and tweak things.

Crafting will not be just a matter of adding x + y + z to create a new finished item. There will be multiple stages of crafting similar to:

•   Setup - Setup the crafting table with salvaged components, and resources of varying qualities
•   Process - Process the components using various resources
•   Finish - Finish the crafting session enhancing the item and adding stats, bonuses, slots etc with remaining CP (crafting points)

I'll keep everyone posted as I make progress.

FIXED: Completed eliminate missions now display the green "cleared" state on the mission objective map if an area is cleared after the primary "eliminate" mission objective is completed.
FIXED: Hacking tool no longer displays stats. All hacking bonuses were moved to perks a while ago.
FIXED: If you were queuing up attacks and ran out of ammo when using the combat queue - the game would lock up and you would need to reload a save to continue. Bad bug - thanks for reporting it!
FIXED: A very rare case where some system configurations could not load required DLL's at the start of the game causing a forced exit when clicking past the EA display screen.
FIXED: A bug that would display "NONE" in the dialog field instead of Dr. Emily Jensen while in the Ruins.
FIXED: A number of typos.
UPDATED: Key binds would not allow binding of the up and down arrow keys. All key binds have been reset and you will need to re-map your keys. I am looking into key binds for grenades and med-kits for a future patch.
UPDATED: When a weapon is equipped, mod slots are now clearly labeled in the weapon mod slots menu as "Mod slot not available". This should make it less confusing when players try to identify equipped weapons that actually have mod slots.
UPDATED: Added arrows to the portraits on the character information and inventory screens so you can scroll through active crew members with the mouse rather than using the F1-F4 keys. The F1-F4 keys still work if you prefer to use them.
UPDATED: Adjusted ship materials so they load faster resulting in less hitching when NPC ships are loaded in star systems and the FTL map.
ADDED: "Steering" mode for ships. Holding the left and right mouse buttons will now place the camera behind and slighting above the ship. You can move your mouse in any direction to steer the ship in this mode. Additionally, the left and right turn keys used while in steering mode will accelerate turns. Releasing the mouse buttons will return control to the normal state.

Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #20 on: August 17, 2019, 12:21:43 PM »
Progress update - Crafting and ship interiors
16 Aug @ 9:29pm - Stellar Tactics



I’m posting a work in progress video today that shows the salvaging portion of the crafting system which is nearly complete. I still have a bit of work to do on the UI and balancing. The video also shows the first completed ship interior for the boarding system. More details below.

Progress Update 8/16/19




Crafting requires components and the salvaging system lets you mark items in your inventory, stash and cargo hold for disassembly. As you disassemble items, you will gather crafting components and the finishing items you will need to craft equipment for your ships and crew.

You can salvage items anywhere. That is, you do not need to travel to a salvaging station to break items into component parts. Initially, I was going to tie salvaging to a static salvaging station that would be on your ship and space stations. I felt it would be a lot more useful if you could do this at any time, clearing inventory of excess equipment and vendor junk items. Crafting material storage is infinite so you won’t need to worry about max inventory for these items.

Equipment – When disassembling equipment, you will gain salvaging experience, component parts, finishing items and progress towards learning a locked crafting schematic for that item type (based on the quality of the item).

Junk items – Junk items generate finishing materials. These will be used in the finishing stage of crafting to assign stats, weapon min/max damage values, and other bonuses to equipment. In general, crafting an item can result in a finished item with bonuses and stats that are better than any item you can buy or find in the game.

I’ll be starting on the crafting portion of the system next now that I can generate crafting components. This will take a while and I hope you all enjoy the system when it’s finished.


Ship interiors are being worked on. These interiors will be used for a number of purposes:

•   Boarding: Disable a ship and enter through the airlock. Various doors to be hacked, hostile enemies defending their ships and objects that need to be repaired – not to mention loot and the ability to sell these ships for profit.
•   Missions: There will be a number of missions that may pop up as a communication from a disabled ship, rescues and a few other scenarios that will require entering other ships.
•   Your home: Ships will serve as a place to store goods, interact with the crew and craft items.
That’s all I have for now. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #21 on: October 12, 2019, 03:38:46 PM »
Crafting preview
Fri, 11 October 2019



I’m posting a video first look at the crafting system today. There is still a good bit of cleanup, bugs to fix and balancing work to do. I’m hoping to have this patched into the game in a week or so.

Stellar Tactics - Crafting system preview




Crafting requires various components:

•   Crafting components are broken down from items you find in the world using the salvaging skill
•   Refined ore and rare earth minerals from mining or purchased from the Trade-Net
•   Finishing items salvaged from junk you find in your travels

Crafting requires schematics that are unlocked as you salvage items and learn more about them. Schematics can also be very rare drops from various enemies and in ship crates. Over time you will gather a large number of schematics that can be used to craft gear for your crew and parts for your ships.

Assuming you have a schematic and the required resources (components and refined ore) you can begin crafting by selecting a crafting station found on trade stations across the universe. I’ll also be adding crafting stations to ship interiors when I patch the boarding system into the game at a later time.

Once you find a crafting station, you can select a schematic and the table is automatically filled with the resources you need to craft the item. Refined ore and rare earth minerals are pulled from your cargo hold and from the station's storage when crafting, so, you can stockpile these items on stations if you want to. Components and refined ore are required. However, it is very important to also have a good stock of rare earth minerals and finishing items.

Some crafted items have additional options you can select. For example, beam pistols and rifles have options to select various damage types. Ship equipment requires you to select a ship type. Your current ship is always selected by default.

You can re-roll the base stats for most items. Ground weapons are the exception as they scale on the weapon skill of the crew member. When crafting a weapon, you can select crew portraits to preview the weapons stats on that particular character.

Rare earth minerals – At various stages in crafting negative and positive “conditions” may develop. If you do not have the appropriate rare earth mineral, it could cost you finishing points, increase your chance for a crafting process failure and decrease the number of actions you have resulting in a lower quality item. Having the correct rare earth minerals will also let you trigger bonus effects for additional finishing points and extra action points.

Finishing items – The last stage of crafting is finishing. At that point, you should have the correct finishing items from salvaging to take advantage of allocating finishing touches to the item. These additional points increase the effectiveness of the item you are crafting.

In general, high quality crafted items will always be better than item drops or equipment found on vendors. The exception to this will be some of the new bosses that will be coming to the game and perhaps faction gear which will see a re-balance in the near future. When crafting weapons, especially higher quality weapons with mod slots, those slots are unlocked based on the quality of the crafted item. In addition, higher quality items unlock more finishing options so you will need to keep an eye on conditions when they pop up.

That’s all I have to show for now. I hope you enjoy the first look at the crafting system!

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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2019, 11:47:57 PM »
Crafting and Salvaging patch
Fri, 25 October 2019


Salvage items and craft new high quality gear for your crew and ships

Today’s patch adds the first pass at the crafting and salvaging system. The crafting system lets you craft almost every item that can be equipped in the game other than faction armor, ammo, grenades, and devices.

Crafting requires the disassembly of items you find in your travels. When salvaging, you learn about the items you are disassembling and eventually, you earn a schematic so you can craft that item.

Salvaging – process items found in your travels into component parts for crafting.

•   You must mark items in your inventories (CTRL-Click - General/Stash/Cargo Hold).
•   Once items are marked, you can access the salvage toolbox from the inventory menu via a new icon above the general inventory.
•   Junk items generate finishing materials used in the crafting finish process.
•   Weapons, armor and other items that can be equipped generate primary crafting components.
•   Salvaged items are placed in a separate infinite inventory. This inventory feeds the crafting bench and parts are automatically placed on the crafting table.
•   As you salvage items, you will earn experience towards unlocking a schematic for that item. At times you may even gain experience towards the next tier schematic.


Crafting - Once you unlock a schematic, you can craft the item. All schematics come in various quality tiers that need to be unlocked. Schematics are also a very rare drop from loot crates, cargo containers, enemy packs, and lockers.

Crafting requires a number of items:

•   (Required) Base item components of the same quality tier salvaged from a similar item
•   (Required – In cargo hold or station storage) Refined ore. You can mine ore and refine the ore, or purchase from the Trade-Net
•   (Optional – In cargo hold or station storage) Rare earth minerals to clear conditions. You can mine ore or purchase from the Trade-Net
•   (Optional – In cargo hold or station storage) Finishing items salvaged from junk and rewarded during salvaging of equipment


Rare earth minerals and finishing items are optional, however, they are very important and you could end up with a sub-par item if you do not have any on hand when crafting.

To craft an item:

1.   Travel to any trade station and look for a crafting station. Crafting stations have a unique icon on the radar and map.
2.   Select the crew member you want to craft and select the crafting station. The crafting table will be shown.
3.   On the top left is a list of unlocked schematics (if any are unlocked). Choose one.
4.   You may need to adjust a few initial values before you start crafting. For example, when crafting a weapon, make sure to set the correct weapon skill level before selecting the begin crafting button. When crafting an item for your ship, make sure the correct ship is selected.
5.   All items except for weapons can be “re-rolled” That is, you can re-roll a number of base equipment stats.
6.   When you are ready, select the processing button and start crafting.


Processing:

1.   Each process step will expend AP
2.   If successful, the quality of the item will improve.
3.   At various stages, negative and positive “conditions” may arise. You can select a condition to expend a single unit of rare earth for that step to clear negative conditions and activate positive conditions.


Finishing:

1.   Once all AP is expended, the item is ready for finishing.
2.   Select your finishing options if any. The higher the quality, the more options.
3.   Select the “Finish Crafting” button and the item will be placed in your inventory or cargo hold.


About progression:

•   Primary crafting components cannot be purchased. They can only be gained by salvaging equipment.
•   Occasionally you are rewarded crafting components for next tier items when salvaging as a bonus
•   The higher your skill in salvaging, the more components you get when salvaging an item. In some cases, you may be able to salvage enough components to build several items of a similar type.
•   The value of crafted items of high quality exceeds the value of any similar items you might loot.
•   Occasionally you are rewarded experience towards the next tier schematic when salvaging a lower tier item
•   Higher tier schematics require more disassembly than lower-tier schematics. Bonus experience offsets the number of items you need to disassemble to unlock that next tier.
•   You can find schematics when looting ship containers and gear in ground missions. These are extremely rare.
•   You are rewarded experience regardless of failures when salvaging.
•   Schematic experience is rewarded for every component that is disassembled. It is best to use the third salvaging option initially that rewards additional schematic unlock EXP.


Grenades and ammo will have a separate utility device that will let you break down these objects and craft other ammo types. That will come in a future patch.

The patch includes entries in the in-game guide for salvaging and crafting for reference.

Armor visual types are random for now until I can get more sets in the game. I’ll also likely add an “appearance” slot in the future that lets you equip a visual appearance of your choice. The faction armor set appearances are reserved for faction armor.

Perks are not available for Salvaging and Crafting at this time. As usual, I’ll add those after I gather more feedback on the system.

Note: Salvaging has been moved to the general skill area. It is no longer a space specific skill.

There are a few other things I’d like to do with salvaging – salvaging enemy ship wreckage and various items found in ground exploration locations.

I hope you enjoy the crafting system. I’ll be reading feedback on the forums and will make adjustments over time.

So, what’s next? I’ll be updating the ground combat animations and adding weapon-specific special attacks. I’ve gathered a lot of feedback from the community and there will be a few new options for targeting enemies and displaying target information. In general, I’ll be taking a deep dive into the combat system and adding a new pass at polishing the ground combat system.

After that, boarding. I have everything I need for this now including all the ship interiors. I know many of you have been waiting for this and I’m eager to get started.

General patch notes and fixes:
FIXED: A rare case where ship cargo could not be looted
FIXED: A rare case where incursions would not trigger
FIXED: Duplicate stats on high-quality armor
FIXED: Map, load/save and cargo storage screens close with the ESC key
FIXED: A few UI font scale issues
FIXED: A few typos
FIXED: A bug related to the correct rollover info displayed for equipped devices
UPDATED: FTL Drives and refineries are now dropped as loot in ship containers
UPDATED: Stun grenade effect reduced from three to two combat rounds
UPDATED: Frag grenade damage increased
UPDATED: Gas grenade damage increased per round of damage

As always, thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics.

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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #23 on: November 29, 2019, 11:27:35 PM »
Stellar Tactics community wiki
Fri, 29 November 2019

The community wiki is live now
I've had a bunch of requests to start a wiki for Stellar Tactics and I'm happy to say that the wiki is live now!

https://stellartactics.gamepedia.com/Stellar_Tactics_Wiki

This is your wiki, so feel free to add content, edit, upload and otherwise make this a great resource for other players. I've seeded the site with a good amount of information. However, there is so much more that could be added and I would prefer to spend my time developing the game. I'll continue to add pages and information as I add the remaining features, content, and polish.

I'm excited to see where you all take this if you decide to get involved. Stellar Tactics has a great community of positive supporters and I'd like to thank you all for your contributions and support.

I've been very busy with the next content update that includes revised character animations, updated ground combat pacing, a number of new combat features and the weapon class special attacks system. But that's not all. I also have a few surprises that I think you are going to like. More on that in a few weeks when I'll be ready to show you some of the new things that are coming to the game.

Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #24 on: December 24, 2019, 11:49:44 PM »
The Kchor, Fabricants and updated animations
Tue, 24 December 2019


Public Test: This patch adds the Kchor, Fabricants and updated animations.
It's been an amazing year for Stellar Tactics. I'd like to thank all of you for your support and patience. It's not often that you see such a positive and supportive community. I owe you all a huge "Thank you!" for all you have done for the game, your feedback, and for making this game what it is and will be.

This year, we've seen the addition of updated ships, the ability to sell scan data, the drone mining system, Trade-Net, smuggling, faction warfare (first pass), the area map, crafting and salvaging. A large number of bugs have been fixed and many suggested QoL features have been implemented.

This patch introduces two "mutations" to the universe - The Kchor ( pronounced "Core" ) and the Fabricants. You can find them all over the universe on stations, in missions and they are recruitable as Mercs to join your crew on your journey.



I'm also releasing a large number of updated animations that improve combat pacing and provide a second pass of polish to the overall look and feel of the game. I'm still doing a good bit of work on combat pace for the next content patch which will introduce new special attacks and a few other features. Following that, the boarding system.

THIS PATCH IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE PUBLIC TEST BRANCH. For information on how to get public test builds, please see this link. It is very important to backup your saves and review at least the first few paragraphs at the following link if you decide to join this branch.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/12/2653115517067165548/
Please post any feedback/issues/bugs in this forum:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/12/

I'll move this build to the public branch once I'm sure everything is stable and working as intended.

A bit of back story about the Kchor and Fabricants. More information will come when I expand the game story.

The Kchor – Class “A” Mutation (Rational : Humanoid : Sanctioned)

On Arrival, a large number of the pods on the HSS Pharris contained the Kchor mutation. Overall, the new species was considered robust other than several anomalies – parthenogenesis, extreme musculature, and a blue/green skin tone. The medical engineers released them with no special conditions and The Kchor have flourished. The Kchor can be found in most star systems and are generally peaceful.

The Kchor have a special relationship with the Sovereignty, having saved their fleet in the notorious Blockade of Karsus 7. Were it not for their arrival, Maezus Karsari would have destroyed or captured the entire fleet and undoubtedly overthrown the Sovereignty. Instead, The Kchor delivered Maezus to the Council earning their autonomy as a reward for their actions. The Kchor interdiction is one of many turning points in recent history that mold the current political environment of the inner systems.

The Kchor are known for their great strength and intelligence. However, rather than using their influence and innate talents, The Kchor cherish their privacy and prefer to trade and explore peacefully. They are famous for their Kchor Brandy, a favorite indulgence across the known Universe.

Fabricants – Class “B” Mutation (Rational : Cybernetic : Sanctioned)

A number of mutations were discovered on the HSS Outland when the ships arrived. These Sleepers had a rare condition and were in a late state of mutagenic drift, having crossed genetic material with a parasitic species that flourished in their Vats. In their current stage of drift, they could not be exposed to the oxygen-rich atmosphere that Humans breath. It was hypothesized that their skin was transitioning toward a hardened exoskeleton.

Considered “unrecoverable”, Fabricants were initially scheduled for termination. A young scientist, Garrius Brons, fabricated a prototype Exo-Suit and AI module that sealed the Fabricants in a permanent outer skin. After a few trials, the suit was adapted and a modification of this suit is in use to this day.

Fabricants are incredibly talented engineers and were instrumental in FTL travel, having worked closely with Garrius Brons. Over time, they have adapted their suits and AI becoming more machine than human. They prefer to name themselves alphanumerically, and their ability to assimilate traits from common items is a closely held secret. Little is known about their culture and habits. When it comes to engineering, mathematics, and science, no other species in the known universe come close to the Fabricant.

A few things left to do - I'm working on these for the next content patch:

Fabricants

•   +Bonus to crafting/learning
•   +Bonus to scanning
•   Unique voice audio


Kchor

•   +CRIT bonus with melee weapons
•   +CRIT bonus with heavy weapons
•   A few animation transitions that need tuning


Here is a list of fixes/updates/additions in this patch.

ADDED: The Kchor and Fabricants. You will find these two mutations on stations throughout the universe. Fabricants and Kchor can now be recruited as Mercs and added to your party when exploring.
UPDATED: Several Shikaru armor materials updated
UPDATED: A number of weapon SFX for timing
UPDATED: Ranged weapon muzzle flash lighting
UPDATED: Weapon, armor, shields, and mods now display a colored border based on quality in the equipped slots for each crew member. The quality level of these items now has a dedicated display field in rollover info.
UPDATED: Hundreds of animations updated - including increasing overall speed of animations in combat.
--Animation timings on end walk in and out of combat for less delay when navigating.
--All human animations adjusted for less foot sliding, better hit animations and overall speed
--Fixed a large number of wonky animations that have been plaguing the game for a long time.
--A number of enemy animations updated
--Unique animations added for 2Hand Pierce weapons
--Mapped all animations to the KCHOR
--Mapped all animations to the Fabricants
--I have a number of animations that I am still working on and there are a few
transitions that need to be fixed.
FIXED: A bug that would cause music to stop playing in some cases.
FIXED: A bug related to sound volume settings not being correctly saved and loaded.
FIXED: In some cases, it was difficult to enter your first starship after exiting the Aznari Ruins.
FIXED: A number of broken weapons SFX.
FIXED: When loading to space, rarely the ship camera would rotate uncontrollably.
FIXED: A number of stability fixes.
FIXED: A bug with crafted epic tier "laser beam" turrets.
FIXED: A few typos.

Note that as with all new patches, shaders will need to compile causing a short period of "hitching" for each area with new materials that need to be processed. This goes away in a short time once the shaders are compiled.

Thank you as always for supporting Stellar Tactics, and happy holidays!


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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #25 on: January 17, 2020, 11:26:52 PM »
Performance, shaders and QoL
Fri, 17 January 2020

A few updates, bug fixes and new performance enhancements

Today's patch includes a number of performance enhancements, a pre-compiled shader system, and a few QoL updates.

Shaders are now pre-compiled when you launch the game.
--The majority of all shaders are now generated via a database at game launch. I would say 80% of all shaders are in the d-base now and more will be added over time.
--As you play the game, if a shader is not pre-compiled it is added to the database and saved so the shader does not need to be compiled on the fly ever again.
--Certain video drivers could crash - though this was very rare - when compiling complex shaders on the fly. This patch should address that.
--In some cases, when entering an area the first time after this patch, there may be a short period of stuttering as shaders are initially linked to materials.

You can now adjust mission length when speaking with a faction agent - Short - AVG 40 Min, Medium - AVG 1-2 Hrs, Long - AVG 2-4 Hrs.

You can now browse available missions while the mission window is open by selecting the "Next" button. A new mission will be offered.

You can now double click crew equipment (shields, armor, weapons) to equip them from inventory. Mods and devices need to be placed manually.

Active status effects are now displayed below each crew member's portrait along with their active duration.

Various code optimizations for performance.

A few changes to the way the physics engine handles movement.

A few changes to the animation system.

A few animation fixes/updates.

A few changes to idle and facing blend animations so they can be interrupted when moving characters. This makes movement more responsive.

The game now generates a backup "sav_dat.xml" file that is not stored on the Steam Cloud when saving the game - just in case there is a disk write error of some kind.

A possible fix for a rare lockup when healing.

FIXED: A bug that was causing random animation and physics slowdown.
FIXED: A bug that would leave idle states running at 1.5x normal speed in certain cases.
FIXED: Autosave when leaving the Dauntless.
FIXED: A bug that would leave equipment quality color border visible when unequipping an item.
UPDATED: When grenades and medkits are enabled, a reminder message is displayed when ending your turn to deselect these items from the toolbar. I think in some cases, this was causing confusion. I'll be looking into an automated solution for this.
UPDATED: Ship collision damage reduced. Collision damage now affects shields and armor.

I'm continuing to work on a few things:
--Weapon special attacks.
--Combat pace.
--Streamlining of perks so they are available earlier in the game with more frequent updates.
--Better inventory sorting.
And more...

I'll keep everyone posted as I make progress.


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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #26 on: March 07, 2020, 12:02:12 AM »
Progress Update - Combat tuning and more
Fri, 6 March 2020

Combat balance, navigation, pugilist weapons, new extended targeting UI and more.


I've been working hard on this next patch. My goal with this is to address a number of weapon class balance issues, weapon differentiation, navigation, blocking and more. Check out the video for a preview.





I'm hoping to get this patch out in the coming week for everyone. This will be part one of a major update to the combat system. The second part will include adjustments to the current perks and the addition of skill trees for the various combat skills including special attacks, passives and other ways to enhance combat performance and pace.

Here are a few notes for the upcoming patch. The overall goal of these changes is to:

1) Balance combat
2) Provide more weapon differentiation
3) Give the player more choices, more often to develop their crew
4) Improve the pace of the game and reward the player frequently

Once this work is done, I'll be moving on to the boarding system, a second pass at space combat, filling out the universe with more diversion missions, events, and long term goals and adding interesting and unique content to flesh out the overall experience. At that point, the game will finally be at full Alpha and I'll concentrate on adding the rest of the story to the game, which includes Psionics and a few other things that are part of the main storyline.

INCREASED CARGO VOLUME:
All smaller ships, including the starter ship, have higher base cargo volumes. Cargo expansions for these ships will also be larger (scaled from the base cargo volume of the ship). Adjustments to cargo expansions are not retroactive so you will need to buy new cargo expansions if you want the extra volume.

NEW: ROLLOVER INFO AND RIGHT CLICK EXTENDED INFO HUD
A new rollover info display. This display shows additional information at a glance - enemy difficulty, CTH, Remaining AP/Total AP, HP, shield points, and active debuffs. Right-clicking an enemy will display the extended info and targeting UI. I've had a number of comments that "hunting the pixel" is not fun - so, this revised hud lets you select individual body targets with the extended UI. When this UI is active, the targeted enemy is locked until you right-click again, press escape or the space bar. The extended information displays:

--Buttons that can be clicked to attack head, torso, legs, and arms
--You can reload your ranged weapon
--You can change ranged weapon fire modes
--Extended targeting information including min/max damage, range penalties if any and status effects that can be inflicted including the percent chance of inflicting the effects.
--Enemy resistance information (innate and shield totals) based on the active crew members' perception STAT. The currently selected weapon damage type highlights that particular resist icon.
Note that you can still attack without opening the extended info HUD, add attacks to the combat queue and even fine aim if you want to. None of that has changed.

RESISTS: Resists are now more important and can be reviewed by right-clicking enemies with the new popup extended info UI. Higher perception will display more resist information in the extended info popup when right-clicking enemies. Some second and third-tier enemies are immune to certain types of damage. Having an array of weapons that deal various types of damage can help you take your enemies down much faster. You now have options to change the base damage type of melee weapons (see below) to adjust your damage type strategy.

Resists have always been in the game, however, without a way to see them, it could seem at times that it took a long time to defeat a specific enemy. With the new display, you can now adjust your weapons to a enemy's weakness. An enemy that might take 10 attacks using kinetic weapons may only take 3-5 attacks using a weapon that does toxic damage. This is more important as your crew progresses.

Mitigation is now displayed in the combat log showing damage reduction from shields, armor/perks and defend.

PERSONAL SHIELDS REBALANCED
Personal shields were OP - they have been adjusted. Several things were done without modifying the loot tables so current shields are still viable without a reset.

--"The slow blade" - Melee weapons deplete shields faster than ranged weapons.
--The cost of recharging shields is now increased. The result is energy reserves for shields are depleted faster.

RIFLES AND HEAVY WEAPONS
--These weapon types now incur a ranged CTH penalty (unwieldy) when fired at close range. This promotes the use of sidearms and shotguns in close combat situations. You either need to move to range, or use your sidearms if you do not want to incur the penalty. There may be skill tree selections that adjust this penalty down when the skill tree's go in the game. A red rifle icon will display on the rollover info UI if you are incurring a penalty at your current range.

SHOTGUNS
--Range slightly reduced for any newly purchased, dropped or crafted shotguns going forward.


SHOTGUNS, SMG'S, AND FLAMETHROWERS
These weapons now have a chance to inflict spread damage in a cone in front of the firing combatant. This effect only applies to enemies within a certain range directly in front of the firing character and applies 5-10% of the initial base damage to enemies in the weapons field of view before mitigation. This value will be increased with future changes to weapon skill tree selections.
--SMG'S MUST BE IN BURST OR FULL AUTO MODES


MELEE WEAPONS
Frequency Modulators now allow you to add specific damage types to melee weapons ( thermal, electric, toxic and bleed). In addition to changing the base damage type of melee weapons from kinetic, these mods also have a chance to trigger an additional damage burst that bypasses all defenses, including Defend. The new secondary effect on this mod type replaces the critical modifier which was redundant and applied by other mods. Bleed and toxic augments also apply the bleed and poisoned status effects. Crafting adjusted for the changes above.

When a Frequency Modulator is equipped, melee weapons now display a unique particle effect associated with the various damage types.

The above changes also apply to NPC's in the universe.

Changes to Frequency Modulators are not retroactive, so older modulators will have the +CRIT secondary modifier.

PUGILIST WEAPONS
Pugilist weapons are in the game now. They are a way to augment to your melee skill with mods and damage bonuses, no special visual weapons are equipped at this time.
--While pugilist weapons to apply a small amount of base damage that scales by level and quality, primary damage derived from the characters skill level and stats.
--Mods - Melee mods and nano's can be applied to pugilist weapons bringing them in line with other melee weapons. Overall, pugilism is very effective.
--Crafting - You can craft pugilist weapons by deconstructing weapons you find. Schematics can be found by salvaging pugilist weapons or as rare random drops.
--You do not need to equip pugilist weapons to fight hand 2 hand, just unequip your current weapon as it has always been.
--Starting a new game and placing weapon points in the pugilism weapon skill will equip a starting pugilist weapon.
--Pugilist weapons can be equipped in primary and/or secondary slots.

UPDATED COMBAT BLOCKING/NAVIGATION
You can now move through your crew if they are blocking corridors or doorways. NPC's can still block you and you can block NPC's. IMO, this change is a huge improvement and I think a lot of new players were put off by being blocked by their own crew members. Being able to block an enemy is a tactic ("Paladins! To the doors!")

Crew members and NPC's now have discreet areas around them where movement is blocked. That is, you cannot click in a character's immediate area. This helps with pile-up and should help with missed combat clicks that move your crew when you intended to attack.
Missed clicks and crew members being left behind is now much less likely.

At level 80+ of melee skill, it is no longer possible to move small distances in combat (one node) for free.

Thats all I have for now. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!


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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #27 on: March 14, 2020, 01:21:49 AM »
Combat update patch released
Fri 13 March 2020


Lots of changes below. I'll keep an eye on the bug forums over the next few days for any problems and patch out any blockers or major bugs.

I'll be moving on to updates to the pace and timing of skill and perk rewards (more frequent rewards and useful skills) and the boarding system. This update will be quite a bit of work and will include some changes to the visuals in Star Systems, adjustments to space combat, and more. It will take a while and I'll keep you all posted as I make progress.

A few highlights in case you don’t want to read through all the notes:

•   Cargo volume increased across most ships in the game.
•   You no longer block your own crew members in combat. NPCs can still block you and you can block NPCs.
•   EXP increases for salvaging, crafting, first aid, hacking and space skills.
•   Kchor and Fabricants now have innate bonuses (crafting, CRIT, scanning).
•   New rollover info and right-click extended hud for combat.
•   A pass at resists in the game.
•   Personal shields re-balanced.
•   Adjustments to rifles and heavy weapons with near range penalties (unwieldy).
•   Shotguns, SMG’s and flame throwers now do spread damage in a cone that affects multiple enemies.
•   Melee weapons now do more damage overall, additional damage to enemy shields and allow mods to be equipped that change the base damage of these weapons.
•   Pugilist weapons added – mods can be equipped. The only weapon type that can be equipped in the primary and secondary weapon slots.
•   Adjustments to crafting conditions – they occur less often.
•   Lots of small tuning adjustments to make the pace of combat faster – more work to do including new skills – active and passive, special attacks, perk adjustments, pace etc.


INCREASED CARGO VOLUME:
All smaller ships, including the starter ship, have higher base cargo volumes. Cargo expansions for these ships will also be larger (scaled from the base cargo volume of the ship). Adjustments to cargo expansions are not retroactive so you will need to buy new cargo expansions if you want the extra volume.

KCHOR
+ CRIT innate bonus with all melee weapons.
+ CRIT innate bonus with all heavy weapons.

FABRICANTS
--Fabricants are less likely to generate negative conditions when crafting regardless of skill level.
--Fabricants get a bonus to scanning ships and planets.

NEW: ROLLOVER INFO AND RIGHT CLICK EXTENDED INFO HUD
A new rollover info display. This display shows additional information at a glance - enemy difficulty, CTH, Remaining AP/Total AP, HP, shield points, and active debuffs. Right-clicking an enemy will display the extended info and targeting UI. I've had several comments that "hunting the pixel" is not fun - so, this revised hud lets you select individual body targets with the extended UI. When this UI is active, the targeted enemy is locked until you right-click again, press escape or the space bar. The extended information displays:
--Buttons that can be clicked to attack head, torso, legs, and arms
--You can reload your ranged weapon
--You can change ranged weapon fire modes
--Extended targeting information including min/max damage, range penalties if any and status effects that can be inflicted including the percent chance of inflicting the effects.
--Enemy resistance information (innate and shield totals) based on the active crew members' perception STAT. The currently selected weapon damage type highlights that particular resist icon.
Note that you can still attack without opening the extended info HUD, add attacks to the combat queue and even fine aim if you want to. None of that has changed.

RESISTS: Resists are now more important and can be reviewed by right-clicking enemies with the new popup extended info UI. Higher perception will display more resist information in the extended info popup when right-clicking enemies. Some second and third-tier enemies are immune to certain types of damage. Having an array of weapons that deal various types of damage can help you take your enemies down much faster. You now have options to change the base damage type of melee weapons (see below) to adjust your damage type strategy.

Resists have always been in the game, however, without a way to see them, it could seem at times that it took a long time to defeat a specific enemy. With the new display, you can now adjust your weapons to an enemy's weakness. An enemy that might take 10 attacks using kinetic weapons may only take 3-5 attacks using a weapon that does toxic damage. This is more important as your crew progresses.

Mitigation is now displayed in the combat log showing damage reduction from shields, armor/perks and defend.

PERSONAL SHIELDS REBALANCED
Personal shields were OP - they have been adjusted. Several things were done without modifying the loot tables so current shields are still viable without a reset.
--"The slow blade" - Melee weapons deplete shields faster than ranged weapons.
--The cost of recharging shields is now increased. The result is energy reserves for shields are depleted faster.

RIFLES AND HEAVY WEAPONS
--These weapon types now incur a ranged CTH penalty (unwieldy) when fired at close range. This promotes the use of sidearms and shotguns in close combat situations. You either need to move to range, or use your sidearms if you do not want to incur the penalty. There may be skill tree selections that adjust this penalty down when the skill tree's go in the game. A red rifle icon will display on the rollover info UI if the penalty is being applied at your current range to target.

SHOTGUNS
--Range slightly reduced for any newly purchased, dropped or crafted shotguns going forward.

SHOTGUNS, SMG'S, AND FLAMETHROWERS
These weapons now have a chance to inflict spread damage in a cone in front of the firing combatant. This effect only applies to enemies within a certain range directly in front of the firing character and applies up to 20% of the initial base damage to enemies in the weapons field of view before mitigation. This value will be increased with future changes to weapon skill tree selections. Status effects have a chance of being applied to secondary targets.
--SMG'S MUST BE IN BURST OR FULL AUTO MODES


MELEE WEAPONS
Frequency Modulators now allow you to add specific damage types to melee weapons ( thermal, electric, toxic and bleed). In addition to changing the base damage type of melee weapons from kinetic, these mods also have a chance to trigger an additional damage burst that bypasses all defenses, including Defend. The new secondary effect on this mod type replaces the critical modifier which was redundant and applied by other mods. Bleed and toxic augments also apply the bleed and poisoned status effects. Crafting adjusted for the changes above.

When a Frequency Modulator is equipped, melee weapons now display a unique particle effect associated with the various damage types.

The above changes also apply to NPCs in the universe.
Changes to Frequency Modulators are not retroactive, so older modulators will have the +CRIT secondary modifier.

Attacks of opportunity always inflict kinetic damage regardless of the modded damage type - at least for now.

PUGILIST WEAPONS
Pugilist weapons are in the game now. They are a way to augment to your melee skill with mods and damage bonuses, no special visual weapons are equipped at this time.
--While pugilist weapons to apply a small amount of base damage that scales by level and quality, primary damage derived from the characters skill level and stats.
--Mods - Melee mods and nano's can be applied to pugilist weapons bringing them in line with other melee weapons. Overall, pugilism is very effective.
--Crafting - You can craft pugilist weapons by deconstructing weapons you find. Schematics can be found by salvaging pugilist weapons or as rare random drops.
--You do not need to equip pugilist weapons to fight hand 2 hand, just unequip your current weapon as it has always been.
--Starting a new game and placing weapon points in the pugilism weapon skill will equip a starting pugilist weapon.
--Pugilist weapons can be equipped in primary and/or secondary slots.

UPDATED COMBAT BLOCKING/NAVIGATION
You can now move through your crew if they are blocking corridors or doorways. NPCs can still block you and you can block NPCs. IMO, this change is a huge improvement and I think a lot of new players were put off by being blocked by their own crew members. Being able to block an enemy is a tactic.

Crew members and NPCs now have discreet areas around them where movement is blocked. That is, you cannot click in a character's immediate area. This helps with pile-up and should help with missed combat clicks that move your crew when you intended to attack.

Crafting
--Reduced the chance of positive and negative crafting conditions
--Increased EXP gain for salvaging and crafting


FIXES AND UPDATES
FIXED: A bug related to key binds for the Q and E keys between space and ground key configurations.
FIXED: Double-clicking area exits could lock the game up in some cases - especially on the Dauntless when leaving.
FIXED: If a PC is in defend mode and hit during a round of combat, the display of the defend icon is correctly removed from the display.
FIXED: Status effects (toxic, bleed) that were mitigated completely by "Defend" are no longer applied to display 0 damage per tick.
FIXED: A number of fixes for occasionally missed clicks in the environment.
FIXED: Help hud not displaying in some cases.
FIXED: Intelligent Phage now have shields.
FIXED: The stash list no longer resets to the top on various actions.
FIXED: It was possible to add more than 10 crew members to your crew roster.
FIXED: Stairs in a specific mission location where you could get stuck.
FIXED: Broken dynamic lighting in one of the stations.
FIXED: If KO with status effects - status effects are now removed when you stand back up after combat.
FIXED: A bug that was deriving scanning bonuses from the incorrect crew member.
FIXED: In combat, if crew members are blocked by enemies and have a very long alternate navigation route to the target, they will no longer take the long route and a message is displayed to the screen.
FIXED: At level 80+ of melee skill, it is no longer possible to move small distances in combat (one node) for free.

UPDATED: Enemies in combat with the player no longer highlight when pressing the highlight key and cannot be targeted. Use the facing button while in combat - there is no AP cost to use this option.
UPDATED: If a NPCs target is blocked, they now make a second check for a new target nearby. If not, they handle various "blocked" tasks, like healing, looking for cover, etc.
UPDATED: Global tuning of enemy mitigation and shields.
UPDATED: Increased EXP gain for hacking and first aid
UPDATED: CTH values for burst and full-auto modes reduced globally based on range simulating less control when using these fire-modes.
UPDATED: CTH Values reduction values for various body parts are now fixed regardless of skill level, with the torso always receiving full CTH at any range. Head, arms, and legs receive a CTH penalty and bonuses to various status effects and damage.
UPDATED: Increased damage from "Bleed" and "Poison" status effects
UPDATED: Increased base damage from frag grenades
UPDATED: Numerous changes to resistances across all enemy types
UPDATED: Modulators and barrel mods now drop as loot more often and are the primary +DMG mod type for ranged and melee weapons.

I'm looking forward to your feedback on this patch. As always, thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics!


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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #28 on: May 30, 2020, 01:25:04 AM »
Boarding - First Look
Fri, 29 May 2020

A quick look at the new boarding system scheduled for release in June.

Well, I’m code complete on the boarding system as of today. I’ll be fixing a number of bugs, play testing, balancing, and finalizing everything over the next few weeks.

Here is a short video that highlights some of the features:




Boarding is accomplished by:
1) Disabling a ship's shields. At this point, a new icon appears next to the ship's target menu.
2) Selecting the subsystem targeting icon lets you target various ship subsystems (engines, turrets, and ship systems).
3) Once those are destroyed, you can board the ship.

You are competing against the enemy crew who is trying to repair their shields. In most cases, with decent turrets, this should never be a problem.

Every ship in the game (40) has had its interior modeled, enemies placed and objectives scripted. When you board a ship, you will need to eliminate the crew, repair or salvage various systems for components and place a beacon on the ship's helm.

Once a beacon is placed, you can then contact Arkus, a salvager who will give you a fixed price based on the current state of the ship. Repairing a ship before selling it will get you the best possible price, however, Arkus pays well below the market average for ships for his services. The prices are fair for the effort and he handles translocation, dismantling, and distribution. So, boarding is relatively balanced with most other activities in the game. Scrapping components is critical as these components can only be obtained by scrapping boarded ships. As you gain skill in repair, and with a decent salvaging skill (and upcoming perks), repairing ships to full capacity for full bonus sale prices to Arkus becomes easier.

I had hoped to get the updated skill and perk system in for this next patch but will need to work on this more after the release of the boarding patch. This patch has had a massive amount of work put into it and it’s taken a bit more time than I anticipated.

I hope you are all well and safe. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

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Re: Stellar Tactics
« Reply #29 on: June 20, 2020, 01:43:29 AM »
Disable, board, capture and sell enemy ships
Fri, 19 June 2020



I'm releasing the boarding content patch today. Every ship in the game can be boarded and I'd like to hear your feedback on the new system. This is one of the last core systems that needed to be implemented. It will be important as I expand the current mission system adding more variety, branching missions, and of course for the game story where there will be a number of ships that need to be boarded for various reasons. If you find any issues, please post in the bug forums and I'll take a look. As with all updates, there are likely edge cases and bugs that will only show up when people start playing the new content. I'll keep an eye on the forums and patch out any issues.

As it is, boarding is a nice add-on for the game. Short scenarios that net good returns. You can choose the repair/salvage mechanic for better sale value when contacting Arkus, though it is entirely up to you if you want to take the extra time to do this. No matter what, you will at least need to identify all the broken systems on the ship. Repairing them will develop your repair skill which will be used in future content updates when I expand the mission system. Scrapping components will improve your salvaging skill. More on this below.

With the addition of boarding, sub-system targeting is now in the game. This adds a new tactical layer to space combat allowing you to disable enemy engines, weapons, and systems - giving you time to deal with other ships in multi-ship combat scenarios.

Some of you have expressed an interest in walking around on your own ships. I want to say that this is not off the table. I'll be looking into it and I have some ideas I think you will like.

Others have mentioned that they want to keep the ships. Again, not off the table. I'll be looking into ways to expand the boarding system so you can earn ships through Arkus over time.


So whats next?

•   I'll be wrapping up the new perk system, rewarding perks earlier and more often. The next patch will complete all perks for the game including crafting, salvaging, and repair.
•   I'll be adding the new special weapon attacks. These will be rewarded at various skill levels and include active skills that can be placed in the two empty combat bar slots. This will round out the ground combat system nicely.
•   The weapon and armor repair system.
•   Expanding the mission system. Now that all core requirements are in the game - I can start working on making missions more varied, adding missions with multiple objects, and more.


Here are the patch notes:

Boarding enemy ships:
To board an enemy ship, you need to first disable the target ship's shields. Once this happens a new icon (subsystem targeting icon) is displayed to the right of the ships targeting menu on the left side of the screen. Selecting this icon will bring up the subsystem targeting menu. At this point, you can choose to target subsystems (weapons, engines, systems). Once a subsystem is selected, your weapons will start targeting that subsystem until you click the subsystem targeting icon a second time to disable targeting for all turrets. Disabling all three subsystems will disable the ship completely and a new button will be displayed. Approach within range of the ship and you can then board.
1.   Disable a ship's shields.
2.   Select the subsystem targeting icon and disable all three main ship systems. NOTE: To turn off subsystem targeting, select the subsystem targeting icon a second time. This will turn off all turrets.
3.   Approach the ship and select the "BOARD SHIP" button.


You have a limited amount of time to disable a ship's systems before the crew will repair the ship's shields and subsystems. A yellow bar above the subsystem targeting buttons will fill over time displaying that crews progress toward repairing the ship's shields. Once their shields go back up they will start repairing subsystems and you must bring their shields back down before you can board the ship.
•   Ion weapons are ideal for disabling shields and subsystems - however, other weapons will work. You do need to be careful of strike through damage to the hull as damage to the ship's hull is calculated into the value of the ship when selling it to Arkus. The best weapon for boarding would be ION weapons as they no do little to no damage against ship armor. Beam weapons are preferable and more cost-effective, though they do require a better warp drive.
•   Explosive turrets should be toggled off when targeting ships you want to board to avoid excess damage (missiles and plasma turrets).
•   Strikethrough perks should not be selected if you choose to board ships.
•   When targeting subsystems, missiles, and plasma turrets will be turned off automatically.
•   You can only board a disabled ship when other ships are not in combat with you. In the case of incursions, all other enemy incursion ships must be destroyed before boarding.
•   When boarding an incursion ship, incursion rewards will be granted just before you board the targeted ship.
•   You can only board one ship at a time. If you have active boarding objectives and exit the ship, then board another ship - the previously boarded ship will fly away.
•   If you fly away from a disabled ship - then return, and the left targeting menu is hidden, fire a few shots at the ship, and the subsystem targeting button will appear again. In some cases, the crew may be so busy that they don't notice you.
•   Ships have a chance to spawn a unique loot chest/crate that stores ship equipment of varying quality. When you do find one of these chests, the loot will be placed directly in your cargo hold if you have room.


Captured ship repair, salvage, and sale:
To sell a boarded ship, the following objectives must be completed:
1.   Eliminate the entire crew
2.   Repair/scrap all damaged ship systems or at least examine the damaged systems.
3.   Place a beacon at the helm of the ship. YOU MUST HAVE BEACONS in your ship's inventory or you will not be able to complete this objective.


Repairing ship systems above their default state before selling to Arkus will net you a bonus on his final price for the ship.

As an example, scrapping all items could net you around 50,000 credits when selling the ship. Repairing all systems to full (requiring a good number of parts) could net you as much as 200,000 credits.

Leaving a ship un-repaired and not scrapping any components will leave the ship in a state with a wide variance of value depending on the state of the systems onboard.

You must eliminate all enemies on the ship and review all damaged systems before you can activate the beacon at the ship's helm.

You can continue to repair and salvage components on the ship at any time, in case you decide to repair or salvage components. Once you place a beacon and notify Arkus, you will no longer be able to activate any ship systems for salvage or repair.

In general, you can completely ignore the repair system other than reviewing all systems if you want to. However, as mentioned above, repairing a ship always has a net positive effect on the number of credits you earn over time. The best strategy is to salvage and repair components. Over time, as your salvaging skill improves, you will salvage more parts. As you gain repair experience, repairing ship components becomes easier.

SALVAGING BONUSES - These will get rolled into the perks for Salvaging when I release them. All perks will be released in the next content patch - including - Salvaging, Crafting, and Repair.
LVL 20 +20% CHANCE FOR EXTRA COMPONENTS
LVL 40 +30% CHANCE FOR EXTRA COMPONENTS
LVL 60 +40% CHANCE FOR EXTRA COMPONENTS
LVL 80 +50% CHANCE FOR EXTRA COMPONENTS

You do not need to sell the boarded ship to Arkus. You can always exit the ship and go on about your business. If you dock, land, board another ship or enter FTL space, the ship will be gone when you return. You can exit the ship and reboard as long as you do not dock, land, or FTL from the system. If a ship is in a state where it can be boarded. Over time, a ship will repair it's shields first, then engines, weapons, and systems if there are still crew remaining on the ship and eventually fly away.

ADDED EXTREME DIFFICULTY MODE for ground combat. In this mode, the difficulty of enemies of all types is increased (DAMAGE, CTH, CRITS, STATS, ARMOR, etc,) and enemies are raised by one tier of difficulty. In this mode, there is more risk and more reward as enemies, in general, will drop better loot. Crew members will be K.O. on a regular basis. I would not recommend extreme mode until you have decent armor and a good arsenal of weapons that deliver various damage types.
--Basic enemies have a chance of being raised a single tier to single skull Elites.
--Elites will always be a tier higher. That is a single skull Lieutenant will always be a tier higher etc.
--I would not even attempt this mode until you have some experience with the game and decent equipment.
--Bring a ton of medkits!
--A reasonable level of skill in first-aid is recommended!
--You are going to need an arsenal of weapons that do a variety of damage types to switch between. Pay very close attention to enemy resistances and use weapons of the appropriate type.
--Switching to or from Elite requires a save and reload to re-initialize all enemies in the area. Any transition between areas will scale the encounters to extreme mode.


FIXED - A bug with the area map that could leave characters immobile.
FIXED – Micro-warp hull visual effect being left on after exiting warp.
FIXED - A rounding error when NPC's heal themselves displayed in the floating text.
FIXED - A bug that displayed incorrect info for HP and Shields when rolling over KO crew members
FIXED - Stability fixes including a few rare lockups on enemy end turns.
FIXED - In some cases, combat UI elements could be left on the screen until next turn.
FIXED - Crew members are less likely to be left behind when navigating.
FIXED - Eliminated character rotation when running upstairs and ramps.
ADDED - Occasionally, when looting, an NPC or chest/locker will reward a large sum of credits.
ADDED - Progress indicator toward next skill level up is now displayed at bottom of character screen (right panel - bottom) when selecting individual skills as a thin red bar over the progress bar.
ADDED - Added a bit of center axis tilt to ships when turning.
UPDATED: ION turrets now do minimal damage to ship armor. They may do some minor strike-through damage and strike through perks still apply to ION turrets.
UPDATED: Some work done on gravity and physics so characters stay pegged to the ground when running up and down stairs.
UPDATED: Enemy ragdoll is more "definitive" with the changes to gravity.
UPDATED: Disabled NPC ship conflict in star systems temporarily until I can work out better LOD for this system. It was causing frame rate drops and other issues.
UPDATED: All stations in the universe now have recruitable crew members and more of them. This will greatly increase the chance of finding the recruit you are looking for whether that be a male, female, Kchor, or Fabricant. It also increases the odds of finding a crew member with the starting skills you are looking for. NOTE: This only applies to stations you have not yet visited - the change is not retroactive.

I hope you all enjoy the patch. As always, thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

   
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