Stellar Tactics

[Asid]

Progress update
Fri, 25 September 2020

Revised perk progression, equipment wear, repair system, and more.
Here is a summary of the things you can expect for the next content patch. I hope to have this update ready for everyone by the end of next week.


Perks
The next patch will introduce the perks and skill tier bonuses for salvaging, crafting, and repair. All perks will be in the game. Some perks and tier bonuses have been revised to be more useful.


Perk and tier bonus progression adjustments

Perks or skill tier bonuses will be rewarded every 5 levels with the next patch. Perk selection and preview has been completely overhauled so you can preview all skill perk and tier bonuses through skill level 100 at any time. Perks are still situational and you can switch between selections in each group as you have in the past.

The repair system and equipment wear



Weapons, armor, and ship equipment will all degrade over time. The repair skill will allow you to repair gear through your inventory by pressing the spacebar when hovering over an item. Perk bonuses will allow you to apply additional durability bonuses to repaired items (max 125% condition) and repair tier bonuses will apply reduced item degradation to items, slowing the wear of items based on your current repair skill level. Wear progresses at a relatively slow pace so, you won't need to worry about repairing items every few missions.

The crafting perk line will allow you to apply permanent base durability bonuses to crafted equipment, assuming those perks are selected when crafting. The base durability for weapons, armor, shields, and ship equipment can be increased to 130% at the maximum crafting skill level.

Items that do degrade below 50% will have reduced functionality. Ranged weapons will misfire and jam, melee weapons will do less damage, armor will mitigate less damage, turrets will misfire, ship systems will have additional negative penalties.

•   Below 25% - Additional penalties are applied.
•   Below 5% - Items will barely function.
•   At 0% Items are non-functional and must be repaired.

A new slot in the crew manager will let you assign a crew member to a repair station. Repair experience is granted to the crew member in the ship repair slot. Ship damage and ship equipment will be repaired over time as you travel the universe, reducing the need to dock and repair. This will be automated as long as a crew member is assigned to maintenance. Of course, there are some situations where if you do take heavy damage, you may want to manually repair your ship equipment.

Ammo converter


 
A new device will be available from Varadyn faction vendors that will allow you to convert any type of ammo into other types of ammo. The UI will be simple to use and you will be able to directly convert standard and heavy weapon ammo at the following ratios:

•   Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
•   Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun = 3:1 ratio (3 for 1)
•   Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
•   Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun and E-Cell = 1:3 ratio (1 for 3)

The device can be used in any ground location including missions.

New ranged weapon sound effects - Most of the ranged weapons in the game have new sound effects. I think they sound much better overall and they pack a lot of punch.

Schematics can be reviewed in the salvage UI so you can see what you have unlocked at any time.



And of course, a number of bug fixes and issues that were on my list.

As with all patches, there will be no save game reset – you can just pick up the game and move forward from where you left off.

Once this patch is released, I’ll be finalizing the new weapon special attacks. I had hoped they would be finished at this time, but they need a lot more work. I expect these to be done in December along with a number of other smaller enhancements and QoL adjustments.

It will be great to finally be in a place where I will be working on the expanded mission system, more story content/locations, lore, new enemies, more armor sets, faction agents/merchants for the rest of the main factions, and of course - polish. It's been a long road getting to this point. I'm sure a lot of you are looking forward to the continuation of the game story and some of the features that will be unlocked through the story and side missions.

As always, thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics! I hope you all have a great weekend.

[Asid]

Revised perk progression, equipment wear, repair system, and more
Fri, 2 October 2020



This patch updates the perk progression system, adds the last of the game perk/tier bonuses and the new repair system.
It's patch time again. Here are the details for the patch released today.

ADDED: REPAIR SYSTEM AND REPAIR PERKS
Rollover info now displays the current condition of items. As they degrade, they become less useful (less mitigation, weapon jams, lower damage, etc.).

Maintaining your weapons is easy. Just roll over the item you want to repair and press the [SPACE] key. Item repairs require finishing items that can be obtained by salvaging junk and gear that you find in your travels. Perks allow you to repair items above 100% to a maximum of +25 (125). Crafted items can gain up to +30 (130). Overall, any crafted item with the appropriate perks can have a maximum of 155 condition from crafting and repair bonuses. In addition - repair tier bonuses apply reduced item degradation as you progress to maximum skill level.

•   Repair perks have been added
•   I've provided 20 finishing items of every type as a one time grant for repair. These items will be added to your existing finishing items - or, when starting a new game, you will start with 20 finishing items of each type. This should cover repairs needed in the early game until players can salvage enough items for future repairs.


ADDED: EQUIPMENT WEAR
Equipment wear can be disabled in the options->gameplay menu.

Looted equipment will always be in some state of wear and will never be below 50%. This applies even if equipment wear is disabled.
•   Equipment wear penalties apply when equipment degrades below 50%
•   Below 25% - Additional penalties are applied.
•   Below 5% - Items will barely function.
•   At 0% Items are non-functional and must be repaired.
•   Vendors always sell items that are at 100% condition.
•   Electro damage does more wear to shields.
•   Thermal and explosive damage do more damage to armor.
•   Mods, devices, cargo expansions, and items equipped to a ship hardware mount point do not wear over time.
•   Wear to ship equipment is minimal when shields are up. Once a shield is down and you start taking damage to your hull, damage is increased.


ADDED: NEW SHIP REPAIR STATION
You can now assign a crew member to the ship repair station. This crew member will prioritize repairs to your ship over time, prioritizing the hull, then shields, engines, systems, and weapons. This crew member can repair onboard equipment to the current maximum condition and will receive repair experience over time as they repair your ship. I recommend a dedicated repair crew member for the job.

Manually repairing ship systems can apply bonuses based on your current repair skill and perk selections.
•   Ship repairs take place over time. Repair skill TIER bonuses improve the speed at which ship hull plating and components are repaired.
•   When paying for ship repairs on stations, only the hull armor of the ship is repaired. Other components need to be repaired manually or over time when a crew member is assigned to the crew repair station. Hull plating is repaired over time by crew members in the crew repair station.
•   If the crewmember assigned to the ship repair station is also in your ground crew, repairs will not take place while on stations or ground locations.
•   Repairs by a crew member in the repair station slot do not consume resources.


ADDED: SALVAGING PERK LINE
•   Additional components can be salvaged as you unlock skill TIER bonuses.
•   Perks added that provide bonuses to base salvaging failure, learning, and schematic experience.
•   Perk selections that allow for increased schematic discovery for weapons, mods, armor, shields, and ship schematics.
•   SCHEMATIC DISCOVERY PERKS - BONUSES FOR SELECTED SCHEMATIC DISCOVERY PERKS STACK FROM MULTIPLE CREW MEMBERS.
Each crew member can provide a +10% schematic discovery bonus for a total of a +40% bonus if all ACTIVE GROUND crew members have a skill level of 80 in salvaging and the correct discovery perks are selected.


ADDED: CRAFTING PERK LINE
Skill tier bonuses reward reduced chance of negative conditions, bonus finishing points at the start of crafting. Perk selections apply bonus action points, item durability, reduced negative condition duration, and positive condition bonuses for weapons, mods, armor, shields, and ship equipment.

ADDED: SCHEMATIC REVIEW IN SALVAGING DISPLAY
You can now view your unlocked schematics in the salvage display without needing to travel to a crafting table.

ADDED: NEW DEVICE - THE AMMO CONVERTER
A new device is available from Varadyn faction vendors that will allow you to convert any type of ammo into other types of ammo. The UI is simple to use and you will can convert standard and heavy weapon ammo at the following ratios:
•   Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
•   Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun = 4:1 ratio (4 for 1)
•   Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
•   Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell = 1:4 ratio (1 for 4)
•   The device can be used in any ground location including missions.
•   This device is fairly expensive and requires that you complete a number of missions to earn the needed tokens from a Varadyn faction agent.


UPDATED: Perks or skill tier bonuses will be rewarded every 5 levels. Perk selection and preview has been completely overhauled so you can preview all skill perk and tier bonuses through skill level 100 at any time. Perks are still situational and you can switch between selections in each group as you have in the past.
IMPORTANT: You may need to assign perks in your current save now that these changes are posted. In many cases you may have a few perks available that you did not have before.

UPDATED: First aid perks overhauled - Reduced perk bonuses to healing, they were OP. Max skill tier bonuses grant a +75% bonus to healing in addition to the base medkit healing values (small, medium, and large). Perks now focus on removing status effects.

UPDATED: Explosives perk line revised with a focus on improved damage and inflicting status effects. Tier bonuses focus on CRIT and accuracy. Perk bonuses can apply addition damage and status effects:
•   Stun grenades can apply bleeding
•   Frag grenades can apply hobble
•   EMP grenades can apply cripple


UPDATED: Weapons, armor, shields, and ship equipment all degrade over time with use and damage. You can repair these items by hovering over equipped items, inventory, stash, cargo, and ship equipment in the various menu's and pressing [SPACE] on your keyboard.
UPDATED: Maximum weapon skill level when crafting weapons is now uncapped - max skill level is now 100.
UPDATED: The currently selected crew member is not reset when transitioning between ground locations.
UPDATED: Removed perception requirement in extended rollover UI for displaying target resist values. I'll likely tie the display of additional resist information to another system.
UPDATED: On the character information screen, when selecting a new crew member, the selected skill is not reset to rifles making it easier to compare perks and skill info between crew members.
UPDATED: New SFX for most ranged weapons.
UPDATED: FTL sound effect volume reduced.
UPDATED: Reduced amount of ammo dropped now that ammo converter is available. I'll likely adjust this over time with more playtesting.
UPDATED: In HARD and EXTREME ground difficulty modes, auto regeneration of HP after combat is disabled. You will need to heal crew members with medkits.
•   Shield and energy points will regen as usual.
•   Transitioning between areas will heal crew members to full health.
•   I'll gather feedback on this change and make adjustments as needed.

UPDATED: Increased melee proc damage from frequency modulator mods.

FIXED: PC's now display the correct amount healed in-game log if healing exceeds maximum health.
FIXED: When gaining a skill level in crafting, salvaging, and repair, a notification is sent to the screen.
FIXED: When various menus are open, key input for ship control is blocked (E.G. afterburners, thrusters, etc).
FIXED: When crafting ship equipment, some of the items were displaying an incorrect finishing item in the last stages of crafting.
FIXED: A few calculation errors in the progress toward the next skill level display on the character information screen.
FIXED: A rare case where beacons and ship ammo could be moved into the player backpack and stash inventories.
FIXED: A rare case where a crew member could die from a DOT (bleed or poison) at the end of combat leaving the game in a state where combat does not end.
FIXED: If a crew member is not assigned to the ship electronics station, you cannot scan ships or planets. A message is displayed on the screen in cases where a crew member is not assigned.
FIXED: Ship vendors now display whether a turret is a general turret mount or a missile mount in the ship information display.
FIXED: Ship hull damage cannot be repaired using the repair button in the ship info UI [K] when boarding an enemy ship.
FIXED: Crafting and salvaging menus now ignore background click events while displayed.
FIXED: Numerous small UI fixes/updates.

There are a lot of changes in this patch. I'll keep an eye on the forums over the next few days and patch any issues that pop up. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics and have a great weekend!

[Asid]

Progress Update - Weapon special attacks and support skills
Mon, 21 December



New weapon attacks, support skills and QoL updates.

I'm posting a short WIP video today showing some of the new weapon special attacks and support skills. I'm also showing a few QoL changes that are coming in the next content patch. I expect the next content patch to be ready on January 8th.

Video: Progress Update - Weapon special attacks and support skills




For those of you who have been playing Stellar Tactics, I'm sure you have noticed the two empty slots on the combat tool-bar. Those have always been reserved for weapon special attacks and support skills. These will be available from level 1 and increase in power as you gain skill in the weapon class they are associated with.

Special attacks are zero-AP cost attacks on a global cooldown timer. They provide a number of effects like PBAoE, target-based AE, and burst single target damage. The goal of the attacks is to give you additional options. Save them for a tough fight, or use them any time. The attacks make a big difference to the pace of the game. Also, because NPC's can use these attacks, you will need to be on your toes making sure your crew's HP is topped off.

The new support skills give you additional mobility, the ability to charge your shields, reflect damage, and the possibility to taunt enemies off of crew members who need a round to regroup.

In addition to the new support and combat skills, a few QoL updates are coming:

Dedicated crew members - You can now assign dedicated crew members to hacking, salvage, crafting, and repair. That means regardless of who engages these skills, the dedicated crew member will always perform the action and gain the EXP. For repair, it means you no longer need to drag weapons and armor off crew members into general inventory.

Crew member review - You can now review any crew member from the crew manager. This makes it easy to assign perks to any crew member without needing to move them into your ground crew.

Hacking update - You can now enter combination keys when hacking before the cooldown expires. This makes hacking a lot faster.

Boarding ships - There will now always be a container with the loot that would have dropped from the ship if you had destroyed it. This should make boarding a bit more profitable. In addition, larger ships will pay out more than smaller ships. Overall, I'll be adjusting the amount you get from ships marginally. Of course, repairing ships completely before selling them always pays the most.

Happy Holidays to all of you! Stay safe and thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics.

[Asid]

Weapon special attacks, support skills and more
Fri, 8 January 2021



Hi all - I am happy to release the latest content patch for Stellar Tactics today. There are a lot of changes in this build so please read the patch notes below. I'll be monitoring the bug forums closely over the next few days and patching out any issues you might find. While I've done a lot of testing on this build, as you know, things happen. I hope you enjoy the changes.

I expect I'll be spending a week or two tweaking a few things with the special attacks, addressing issues (if any), and clearing a backlog of small issues that need to be looked into.

What's next? Sometime in the next week, I'll post an update covering what you can expect going forward. There are a lot of changes coming to Stellar Tactics and I'm really excited to be at a point where I'll be implementing new story content, expanding the mission system, polishing various rough edges, adding psionics, and more.

ADDED SPECIAL WEAPON ATTACKS AND SUPPORT SKILLS:
Weapon special attacks and support skills are now in the game. Note that enemies start using special attacks at around level 5. Players get all weapon skills at the start of the game and they improve over time with five total tiers increasing at skill levels 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100. Weapon skills are specific to each weapon type and several are shared (1hand slash and 1hand blunt). Initially these attacks are fairly weak, however, over time they scale nicely and you will be using them regularly in combat.

•   Special attacks and support skills use zero AP and can be triggered at any time if they are available as long as it is your turn in combat.
•   Special attacks are guaranteed to hit, however, DEFEND can mitigate damage.
•   Enemies start using special weapon attacks at level 5
•   Weapon special attacks are on global cooldown timers.
•   Support skills are reset at the beginning of combat. You can use sprint, taunt, and barrier at the start of each combat session.
•   You can use special attacks and support skills from both equipped weapons ( primary and secondary ) in the same round if global timers are reset by swapping weapons.
•   Special attacks, taunt, and barrier increase in power as you gain skill in that weapon class at levels 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100.
•   Game difficulty affects how NPC's use special attacks by changing how often they are used. The frequency and power of these effects from NPC's vary by enemy difficulty. A regular NPC will use them less often, a single skull enemy more often and bosses will use them most of the time when their cooldowns expire. On easy mode, these attacks are less likely to trigger - on extreme difficulty the attacks will be triggered more often.
•   Some enemies have special abilities. For example Phage vomit. Rather than triggering a special attack, they will use their special twice in one attack if they trigger a special. New enemies in future updates may have similar attacks that they use more than once in a combat round.


UPDATED - BOARDING:

•   When boarding a ship, there will always be a loot container that contains ship equipment loot similar to what would have been dropped if you had destroyed the ship. NOTE: Ore and ship ammo is not included in the loot table.
•   Enemy subsystem regeneration time increased by 30 seconds. It should now be easier to board ships with lower-tier ship equipment. Note that it has always been intended that boarding a ship with starter turrets would be difficult. Upgrading your turrets and systems will make boarding enemy ships much easier. While boarding, a ship may regenerate its shields, however, they go down faster after repaired by the enemy crew.
•   General reward for selling ships to Arkus increased by 30%. Selling a ship with multiple decks increased by 70%. Note that repairing ships to full always rewards more and yes, it does take some time to gather the components - though, with higher salvage skill, more components are rewarded. I will be adding side missions for Arkus and he/she/it will have missions that will let you earn better rewards as you develop your relationship.


ADDED - REVIEW AND UPDATE CREW PERKS/STATS FROM THE CREW MANAGER:
You can now edit crew member perks, stats, portrait, voice, and name in the CREW MANAGER for any crew member by selecting the crew member you want to edit from the list on the left and then clicking the "EDIT CREW MEMBER" button. This is very useful when adjusting space crew perks for mining, space combat etc. Previously, you needed to add the crew member to your active crew to make adjustments.

ADDED - DEDICATED CREW MEMBERS FOR HACKING, SALVAGING, CRAFTING, AND REPAIR
When activating any of these skills, you can now select the active crew member as dedicated. This means that no matter which crew member activates the skill, the dedicated crew member will be the crew member who's skills and perks are used. This crew member also receives all experience from actively using these skills.
If you would prefer to not use a dedicated crew member anymore, just select the portrait to remove the "check mark" and the crew member that initiates the skill will be used.
The first time any of these skills is used a popup is displayed explaining how to select this crew member as the dedicated crew.
SELECT DEDICATED CREW MEMBER: When any of the skill UI's are displayed, click the portrait and a checkmark will be displayed indicating this crew member is not the dedicated crew member for that skill.
REMOVE DEDICATED CREW MEMBER: When any of the skill UI's are displayed, click the portrait and the checkmark will be removed indicated a dedicated crew member is not selected for that skill.
--NOTE: Removing or replacing a crew member from your ground team in the crew manager will reset your currently active dedicated crew. You will need to re-assign a new crew member to the various tasks.

UPDATED - VSYNC AND FRAMERATE CAP OPTIONS:
Uncapping the framerate in the video options has been changed to give players more options. You can find a new slider in the video options menu. Default is VSYNC ON. The slider lets you cap your framerate to 30 FPS, 60 FPS, VSYNC ON, VSYNC 1/2, VSYNC 1/4, and NO LIMIT (no cap at all!). VSYNC is highly dependant on your system, monitor, and video card settings. This should give players more options and hopefully address issues of animation slowdown. If you have any issues, you can always either uncap the framerate completely by dragging the slider to the far right or set the framerate cap to 60FPS or even 30FPS.

I'll keep an eye on the bug forums to see if any of the VSYNC and framerate adjustments mentioned above cause any issues. VSYNC ON should always provide the best performance.

GENERAL PATCH NOTES:
UPDATED: Increased base Micro-Warp speed of ships.
UPDATED: Reduced spam-click timer so there is less delay when interacting with objects and NPC's.
UPDATED: Skyboxes for the main menu and FTL space.
UPDATED: Doubled faction token and faction standing rewards for agent missions.
UPDATED: Doubled positive/negative faction reward values for clearing explore locations.
UPDATED: Increase the number of credits rewarded when completing a faction agent mission
UPDATED: Faction display in the log map area now displays your current faction values as positive/negative values ranging from -50,000 (worst) to +50,000 (best). Neutral ranges from -10,000 - +10,000.
UPDATED: Hacking and auto-hacking are now faster. When entering the correct key code, the next combination digit begins immediately instead of waiting for the cooldown timer to expire.
UPDATED: Repair and Salvage experience bars when repairing/salvaging ship components on boarded ships now show experience toward the next level instead of total skill experience.
UPDATED: Adjusted bleed damage down a little.
UPDATED: The FTL guide entry is displayed the first time you enter FTL space. A reminder to accelerate is displayed on the screen when entering FTL space. Additional information added to the FTL guide entry noting that piloting skill and FTL drive quality affect SHIP speed in FTL space. Guide entries/tutorials will eventually get an overhaul.
UPDATED: Added new key binds. Your current key binds have been reset.
Keybind for toggling grenades on/off

Keybind for toggling med-kits on/off [P]
Keybind for scanning the selected target in space [DELETE]
Keybind for attacking the selected ship. When in space combat you can tab-target ships in combat with you, and press the attack key to switch all turrets to the new target. [RETURN]
FIXED: Neutral system stations would occasionally spawn faction agents that would give missions that could never be completed.
FIXED: It was possible to mount heavy turrets on light turret mount slots. I recommend replacing any heavy turrets mounted on light turret mount locations to avoid issues with space combat.
FIXED: Corrected ship info list below turrets on ship screen [K} so it correctly displays the mount point info for heavy/light turrets.
FIXED: If entering the Abandoned Facility and taking missions before completing the Slice Mines mission, it was possible you could not turn the Slice Mine mission in to Scarby Hurzog.
FIXED: Rollover highlights for a number of objects.
FIXED: When removing status effects using first-aid perkS, the status effect displayed under the crew portrait is updated immediately.
FIXED: A few minor visual glitches with projectiles.
FIXED: A few material errors with Kchor NPC's
FIXED: A skill rounding error when recruiting mercs that would round skills down one level occasionally.

[Asid]

New Horizons
Sat, January 16, 2021


What's next for Stellar Tactics
With the addition of the combat special attacks and support skills, the majority of all the core game systems are now in the game. While 2020 was difficult for everyone with the pandemic, I was still able to get a large amount of work done on the game with 19 total updates to the game and several sizeable additions including the boarding system. I’d like to thank all of you for your continued support. Stellar Tactics would not be possible without your generosity and feedback.

So, what can you expect going forward? Well, I’m very excited about the next steps so I thought I would give everyone a glance into the future of the game. Until now I’ve been mostly focused on developing the core structure of the game. Things like combat, space exploration, the universe, inventory, crafting, salvaging, loot and all of the systems that make up the foundation of what Stellar Tactics will be. That is, the container – the universe.

Now it’s time to start filling the universe with meaningful content. Characters you will engage with in various ways. I’d like to expand on the lore of the universe, give you ways to define your place, build relationships with various factions, and expand on the core systems I’ve worked hard to implement.

What does that mean? First, I’ll be working on the story. With that, more of what is happening in the universe will become apparent. Who are the key players? Who were the Aznari? What are the Jhemm? What is this threat that is coming? Should you trust Jensen and Rhamus? And of course, what is your part in all of this? There are likely many questions after playing the Prologue and my goal going forward is to give the player places to go, things to see and do, and to expand on the core of the game with meaningful content and encounters.

I’ll be expanding on the mission system with branching missions that have multiple objectives. Missions may lead to new missions and I'll be looking into new and better completion rewards.

I’ll be expanding the storylines of characters you have already met – like Arkus, Rhamus, Phestus, Scarby, Rodger Crayson, and more. Some of these characters will introduce new mission types for mining, smuggling, salvaging, and ways to earn ships from Arkus through the boarding system.

I'll be adding new enemy types and epic bosses.

I'll be adding new armor sets and clothing for characters.

I’ll be adding Psionics. Psionics will use a new weapon type – the Psi Amp which is rewarded from a series of side encounters related to the Coven. I won’t spoil anything here, though I will say that Psi will be a very useful skill to have with the ability to buff, debuff, heal, and generate various other effects that enhance your team.

I'll be adding faction warfare and unique encounters in FTL space. These will be random locations with exploration, salvaging, and special faction warfare opportunities.

I’ve made an investment in new tools that will help me create unique and diverse characters for the story, new portraits, and in-game models. A few examples below.

Some of these characters you will love to hate.


Others you will learn to rely on.


And special crew members who have their own stories and backgrounds.




I’ll be revising and adding more variety to the universe with new high-resolution custom skyboxes made just for Stellar Tactics by Tim Barton – an amazing artist who specializes in space environments. You can check out Tim Bartons work at this link: Tim Barton on Artstation https://www.artstation.com/cosmicspark


I’ll also be knocking off some of the rough edges, improving the game visuals, and addressing QoL issues many of you have been asking for. I will be working on tuning, looking at all of the systems as a whole and how they work with each other, and making changes where they make sense.

I'm going to be patching out a number of small bugs and addressing a few other issues at the end of next week. From that point, I’ll be focusing exclusively on the content mentioned above. It will likely be the longest period of time you have had to wait for a content update and I’ll keep you all posted as I make progress.

[Asid]

Updated notes for 0.572
Sat, 30 January 2021



UPDATED: If you have no weapons or a pugilist weapon in your sidearm slot, the secondary support skill has been changed to sprint. If the primary weapon slot is empty (fists) or a pugilist weapon is equipped, the support skill is taunt.
UPDATED: Updated the combat movement path marker to use a much faster system.
UPDATED: LOS lines are now displayed almost immediately when the combat movement cursor is moved to a position.
UPDATED: I did a lot of work on movement and pathing. Overhead objects, walls, and other objects no longer obstructed floor clicks. If you click the floor, your crew member should move to the location unless blocked. This includes how raycasts for movement interact with PC's, NPC's and the environment.
UPDATED: If a health kit is enabled, you can now click through overhead objects, etc to target crew members.

UPDATED: A few changes to the world map:
•   You can now scroll the area map using the left mouse button and zoom in-out using the mouse wheel.
•   World map uses a higher resolution map.
•   You can now zoom in much further on the world map.
•   World map now remembers your current zoom level and last position during the current game session. You can reset the map using the blue "+" icon on the map.

UPDATED: The star-map search feature loads much faster now. A few other new features:
•   The star map now lets you search star systems where you have placed a beacon by entering only a few characters. So, for example, you can search for "Achmedius" by entering "a" and pressing enter in the search field and Achmedius will be displayed along with any other systems that start with an "A". For systems where you have not placed a beacon, you need to enter the entire system name and press search to center the map on that system.
•   Entering "cargo" or "ship" in the search field and pressing enter will now display systems where you have cargo or ships.
•   The search feature now includes the sector coordinates and sector level for systems where you have placed beacons.

UPDATED: The VSYNC option now enables VSYNC and the frame limiter for the 60FPS and 30FPS options. I'm still doing work on how various high refresh monitors interact with game events and area loading.
ADDED: Added new icons to the star map that show you if you have a drone, ship, or cargo storage in a system. If you have placed a beacon in a system, the system has a new icon overlay that shows you at a glance if a beacon is already deployed in the system.
ADDED: If a crew member is at the 5 point skill cap, a warning is displayed when entering the inventory or character info screens noting that the crew member will not receive weapon skill experience until they reach the next level.
FIXED: When clicking at a specific position in the game world, the navigation marker in combat was not being correctly set to the exact movement position.
FIXED: When first entering an area and engaging in combat, the LOS markers and cover icon was not being displayed until an enemy took a single turn.
FIXED: A bug in the display of various perk bonuses in the ship skill bonus area.
FIXED: Enemy AI equipped with grenades would occasionally throw two grenades during their combat round.
FIXED: A number of UI inconsistencies related to closing various menus with the ESC key (LOG - Search, Trade-Net, Faction window).
FIXED: A few perk tooltip errors.
FIXED: The game would lock up if a crew member dies at the same time as the last enemy in an encounter with a missile launcher, DOT, or grenade. Could also happen if you were in combat mode with no enemies around and you threw a grenade and killed yourself - oops.
FIXED: When selecting crew portraits, special attacks for that crew member are now updated correctly in the toolbar.
FIXED: A bug with melee movement introduced with the special attacks system that could cause melee crew members to stop before reaching their target causing a loss of AP.

[Asid]

Progress update
Fri, 22 October 2021



The Coven, Sovereignty, localization and more...

It’s been a very busy summer with me and my family moving across the country and a lot of time has been dedicated to preparing our old home, selling it, packing, and moving in to our new home. None the less, progress has been made. Now that I am settled in, I am working on Stellar Tactics at my usual pace.

The next update will be a big one and I’ll cover some of the details below. The biggest addition will be the introduction of Chapter 1 of the story. With Chapter 1, new characters will be introduced, primarily the introduction of the Coven and the Sovereignty. The story will continue with a communication from Dr. Jensen who needs your assistance as the doctors continue to look into ways to eliminate the Phage and further their knowledge related to the Jhemm.

The Coven is a specific mutation that presented itself on one of the four ships that made the transit with the remnants of the human race. The mutation applied itself to females while in cryonic suspension and resulted in uncontrolled Psionic powers. The Coven were immediately isolated and studied by scientists on arrival and eventually released to colonize, provided certain rules were followed. Specifically, anyone with the Coven mutation was subjected to surgical implants that subdued their powers. Psionic powers were outlawed and have been since the Arrival.

This did not go over well with The Coven and eventually they went into hiding and removed their implants, refining their powers. For hundreds of years, The Coven have not been seen and are nearly forgotten, though some still do business with them – smuggling goods for trade with the elusive and secretive faction.



In Chapter 1, you will be introduced to the Sovereignty – the ruling power. Taxes are paid, and for that, security and law are enforced by the Sovereignty . The six main Houses (Halamis, Aralion, Cilivon, Conrair, Shikaru and Varadyne) have control over their holdings and pay tribute to the Sovereignty who in turn provides special dispensation to the Houses. The Houses exert their power on the various sub-factions in the Stellar Tactics Universe.

Ayela will be your primary contact with the Sovereignty and will have missions that involve investigating the Phage, The Coven, Raiders, Scavvers as these are all ongoing threats to peace under the rule of the Sovereignty. Ayela has been looking for a crack squad of mercenaries for a few critical missions.



Chapter 1 will also introduce more of the story related to the Jhemm and the menace they warn about in the Prologue. With this, Rhamus is still obsessed with the Jhemm and you will explore several of these locations in Chapter 1 which will introduce the “Azimuth” system. In addition to specific locations related to the story where you acquire Azimuth, a new random mission set has been developed for the Aznari ruins and you will find these occasionally when you scan planet surfaces. 18 new "creature" enemy types have been added for cave and ruins locations to increase the variety of enemy types you will encounter in the universe.

All of the original characters have had a facelift so they will match the new content in Chapter 1.



Speaking of mission sets, 3 new random sets will be added to the game in addition to static locations for Chapter 1 of the story.







The first pass of localization is complete for French, Spanish, Russian and German. Note that as a first pass at localization, the French, Spanish, and Russian localizations are likely very rough. The German translation is in very good shape thanks to community members who joined the translation effort. The localizations will be included in the upcoming content patch. When the content patch launches, I will open up localization again for these languages for anyone who is interested in joining.

Oh, and did I mention that Stellar Tactics is getting it's final UI? Daniel did an amazing job with the UI and the implementation work is almost complete. There are still some rough edges here and there - overall, it's coming along nicely.



That’s it for now. No ETA on the release of this content patch. I do hope to get everything finished before the end of this year and I will keep you updated as I make progress.

[Asid]

Updated UI, translations and bug fixes
Fri, 3 December 2021



Updated UI, translations to German, French, Spanish, Russian and various fixes

Hello all! I’m posting a patch today that fixes a number of issues. This is primarily a stability and bug fix patch with a few other bells and whistles. It’s important to note that this is not the Chapter 1 patch. I am busy working on that and will post progress updates as things move along.

Note that a lot of data was touched for this patch so the download will be fairly large.

Here is what you will find in the patch:
1) A major stability fix related to level load lockups
2) A number of other fixes listed below
3) The updated game UI.
4) A first pass at localization to Spanish, French, German and Russian languages.
5) A warning screen if compatibility issues related to drivers and 3D rendering support are discovered when the game loads.

LOCALIZATION -French, German, Spanish and Russian
Localization is VERY ROUGH right now. I'm sure there will be a number of embarrassing language issues and typos. If you want to join the localization process to clean up the rough edges, check the link below for more info and the pinned topic at the top of that forum. I'll post translation edits and fixes with future patches as they become available.

Join the community translation. I'm looking for a few people who are interested in editing and updating the Spanish, French and Russian translations. The German translation is in good shape.

Join the translation

    You can change the language in the "Gameplay" tab of the options screen.
    In some cases text in various languages may be too large for the UI and scroll past the boundaries of the UI area. If you notice these, please report them on the translation sub-forum here. A screenshot would really help.
    Report translation issues here! https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/13/?snr=2_groupannouncements_detail_
    Old mission data is not localized. That data is saved in your current save and will continue to be displayed in English. New missions that you take will be localized.
    Some items in your inventory in existing saves may have descriptions and other information that are part of the save and will not be translated. New items of the same type found or purchased from vendors - like health packs - will be translated.
    Almost everything should be translated, however, I am still looking for places where English text is displayed in a field so expect that there will still be a small number of places where a fix is needed.
    Things that need to be translated or won't be translated for technical reasons: Crafting component suffixes, mod names, system names, character names, names of minerals, commodity names, and weapons names. There may also be a few other areas that are not translated that will get fixed over time.



Removed the HELP screen. Pressing "H" now opens the guide directly. The help screen is obsolete as all keys can be viewed and edited in the options menu and most of the information on that screen is available in the guide.

A warning interface is displayed at the main menu if your PC is not compatible with Stellar Tactics. This covers failed shader compilation and a review of all the core graphics requirements to run the game. If your system fails the check, an interface is displayed that provides a few suggestions like updating your drivers and making sure your system is utilizing your dedicated graphics GPU instead of the on-board low-power Intel GPU.

Optimizations in may areas
UPDATED: Load times improved.
UPDATED: After completing the Phestus mission, FTL drives are now available in Achmedius at ship equipment vendors.
UPDATED: Universe ship manager performance updates - especially for games that have hundreds of hours of stored ship, system and station data.
UPDATED: Reduced the size of the selected ship reticle. Added transparency to selection options.
UPDATED: New portraits for main story characters (Rhamus, Jensen etc.) to match future story content portraits.
UPDATED: Precaching of dynamically loaded assets in space to avoid hitches.
UPDATED: You can now loot all by pressing the space bar.
UPDATED: NPC ships attack each other once again. I'll keep an eye on the forums in case there are any issues. Keep an eye out for free loot chests from these battles.
UPDATED: The game UI has been revised with a new custom UI.
FIXED: A random lockup when transitioning between areas during the loading screen.
FIXED: A random lockup in space combat.
FIXED: A random crash when displaying the line of sight indicators in ground combat.
FIXED: A potential lock up in the early game when opening the ship screen before launching to space.
FIXED: The left arrow when selecting crew voices on the portrait/name/voice editing UI was not working.
FIXED: In some cases, incursions were not being triggered. If you are in a state where incursions will not trigger, travel to another star system and the issue should be resolved.
FIXED: When crafting, a message is displayed on the screen if your inventory is full. You can no longer start crafting a schematic if your inventory or cargo are full.
FIXED: The ship storage display is now closed when pressing ESC if in the ship UI.
FIXED: A bug related to initializing incursions after Rhamus/Jensen leave crew on trade station.
FIXED: Infinite experience when crafting (processing items by pressing the enter key).
FIXED: KO crew members could block movement in narrow passageways.

[Asid]

Patch 0.599
Wed, 22 December



Patch Notes 0.599
12/20/21 - 0.599

Updated: Localization updated for French, Russian, German and Spanish. A HUGE thank you to everyone working on the translation! This is an ongoing project.

Updated: Mining drones will launch with the most recent drone launch state set using a new button on the drone manager window.

Fixed: Drone retrieve button is now hidden if a drone is not in a state where it can be retrieved.
Fixed: A fix for dedicated hacking, craft, salvage and repair crew members that are removed from the party and/or no longer have active hacking devices equipped. The dedicated crew flag gets reset and the currently selected crew member initiates the hack (if they have a hacking device), repair, crafting etc. Thanks for reporting the issue.
Fixed: Humanoid NPC's were rarely if ever throwing grenades. Skull NPC's have a higher chance of having grenade inventory. The chance of a NPC throwing a grenade is based on the games difficulty level set in the options menu.
Fixed: A rare lockup related to attacks of opportunity.
FIXED: A lockup when selecting a friendly planetary starbase on a planet that is out of range - approaching and selecting the landing icon. Previously, a second selection was required when in range.
FIXED: Ship icons on screen are now cleared when loading a quicksave or autosave to a ground location from space.

Consolidated patch notes/hotfixes:

12/11/21 - 0.596b

HOTFIX - If a dedicated crew member has been removed from the party or no longer has a hacking tool, the dedicated hacker is reset. The first time you hack, the flag is cleared so you will see a blank hacking UI. The second time you hack you can set a new dedicated crew member - someone who has a hacking tool equipped. I'll look for a better solution for this.

12/10/21 - 0.596

Fixed - An issue with character creation when assigning skill points.
Fixed - A number of localization fixes.

12/9/21 - 0.595

Updated - Darkened background of weapon UI in ground exploration. Updated fonts so ammo count, AP Requirement and fire mode stand out better on the background.
Updated - Moved health kit and grenade count from over selected icons to field above grenades and health kits. Added AP cost to rollover info.
Updated - Text in hacking window over progress bar moved where it can be seen.
Updated - A few updates to new icons on main UI so icons stand out better.

Fixed - If you have a dedicated hacker and remove the hacking tool, a message is sent to your log letting you know who your dedicated hacker is and that the hacker does not have a hacking tool equipped. If you are in a situation where you cannot hack, you need to equip the dedicated hacker with a hacking tool
Fixed - Loot UI - 4th loot slot in upper row fixed when clicking to loot.
Fixed - Loot UI now only responds to "SPACE" when looting all instead of any key.
Fixed - Grenade blast radius is displayed correctly when using the keyboard shortcut

Fixed - When out of combat and moving, weapons now swap correctly with the hotkey or weapon swap icon. You cannot swap weapons while moving in combat. You must be stationary.
Fixed - A large number of edits to UI elements that had issues with translated text.

12/4/21 - 0.593b

Fixed - Ship beam weapons now function as intended
Fixed - Russian translation progression when first arriving in Ruins

[Asid]

Progress update
Tue, 7 June 2022



Story content, Psionics and more...

Chapter 1 has been a long time coming. A lot of work went into this and I'm finally at a point where everything is in the game and I'm testing and cleaning things up.

The video below is work in progress so expect a few typos and issues. I'm still cleaning up some of the Psionic UI, dialogue and various text used.




Lets talk about what you can expect.

First, new story content. The game story previously ended in Achmedius. The story now continues as things start to ramp up in the Universe. Old acquaintances, new friends and a continuation of the Phage and Jhemm story lines - among other things.

Psionics can be unlocked through the main story of The Coven. The Psionic Amplifier is a weapon of sorts that gets equipped in your sidearm slot. Holding the device allows a crew member with appropriate stats (minimum 20 INT) cast amplifications.

Beyond that, you can edit and create your own amplifications in the Psionic Editor. The device has several already loaded. Intelligence and Perception are the primary stats for the amplifier and as you apply points to these stats, you are able to overload the amplifier without damaging yourself. This gives you access to secondary effects like status effects and buffs that can be applied to crew members. Buffs remain on crew members until you transition to a new area. The editor also lets you arrange your effects on the toolbar.

Psionics include:
Single Target, Point Blank Area, Group - Note that the Group type effect will target all enemies, even enemies that are not in line of sight.

Effect:
Heal - Heals damage and can buff all stats (STR, AGI etc.)
Cleanse - Chance to remove negative status effects. Buffs various resistances.
Damage - Kinetic, electro, bleed, explosive, thermal and toxic. Applies various status effects.

You can overload any amplification, just be aware that doing this could harm your crewmember and even knock them out. That said, it may be useful to set up a few "Hail Mary" amplifications for those critical moments.

A few other things you can expect:
Aznari Ruins have been added to the Universe. These locations can be found as part of the main story where you receive a device that lets you pinpoint these ruins on planet surfaces. Eventually these will lead you to Aznari Hubs where the Jhemm are located. One thing that will not make it into this build is Azimuth system. That will come in the Chapter 2 update.

A simple re-spec has been added to the character information screen. I'll eventually add a side mission and a cost to re-specs. For now, I thought it was appropriate to add this so you can tinker with various builds.

Salvaging wrecks has been added. These are somewhat hard to find as you cannot scan for them, so look for them as you travel through Star Systems. If you do find one, you can mine the wreckage for high quality ore, rare earth minerals and bonus ship repair materials (used to repair boarded ships). Most systems will have wreckage floating around.

Many new enemies - specifically in the Aznari Ruins and caves.

The Coven have arrived and will show up in mission areas where Scavvers are found.

Some Phage are Psionic now. Beware...

Of course, there will be a myriad of fixes and updates to various systems in the game including the highly requested Arach screech fix, immediate movement on Micro-Warp and a few other things people have requested.

That's all I have for now. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

[Asid]

First Chapter, Psionics and more!
Fri, 22 July 2022



Meet new friends...and enemies! Build your Psionic specialist and enjoy all the new QoL improvements.

The first major story update since the game released is now available. Over the last few years I have been primarily focused on all the core game systems - ground and space combat, salvaging, crafting, trade, special attacks, perks, progression, the ship boarding system and more. It's been great to spend the last few months actually working on the story...finally. This is the first of three major story content updates what will bring the game closer to final release. I hope you all enjoy the new content!


KEY FEATURES

Chapter 1 of the Stellar Tactics story. New missions, new encounters.
To trigger the story content you must:
1) Unlock the FTL drive
2) Unlock smuggling. Speak with Forley Coresh on Achmedius trade station standing near the bar area of the station by the stairs and complete his mission. Everyone should be able to smuggle contraband...right? Doesn't mean you need to do it.

There are several places in the narrative where you will need to wait for a NPC to contact you. Just go about your business for a 1/2 hour or so, and eventually, when entering FTL space, you will receive a communication that moves the story forward. This includes the start of the new content where you will be contacted after a period of time.

You will be heading into deep space and there will be higher level ships in various areas you will travel through. Remember, you can always micro-warp to escape ship combat. So, not a big deal...really.

I highly recommend getting the best FTL drive you can afford. Slogging through FTL space with a low tier FTL drive is - well...slow. The piloting perk tree has ship speed perks and tiers that increase your speed.

Just my 2 credits - don't rush the content. Take time to place beacons, take missions if you can and build your crew.

Make sure to place beacons in the systems you will visit. You may need to return and translocating is the fastest way to get back when you need to.


PSIONICS
--Psionics are powered by a special device - the Psionic Amplifier - a reward granted when playing through the story. This device is equipped in the sidearm slot on any one crew member.
--There is only one Psionic Amplifier. There are no upgrades and they do not drop as loot.
--Instead of improved variants dropping, the player is given a lot of control over how the device works.
--The device cannot be sold or destroyed.
--The Psionic Amplifier requires at least 20 BASE INT to equip. That is a PURE 20 INT not modified by equipment bonuses. It does not have a skill type that levels like other weapons. It does not have perks or mod slots. Instead, the device has a rudimentary interface that lets you create and edit psionic amplifications - the Psionic Editor. The higher your INT/PER, the more power you have to overload and to add a secondary effect to amplifications.
--The power of psionic amplifications is governed by INT and partially by PER. Bonus INT and PER above your BASE INT does affect your amplifications.
--INT and PER are the key STATS for psionics. INT has the greatest effect and PER provides a lower bonus. So, respec to INT/PER and loot that +INT/+PER gear.
--The power of your amplifications related to INT/PER is expressed as available MIND. As your stats increase, the amount of available MIND increases. Through the use of the Psionic Editor, you will notice that INT/PER increase the power of amplifications and reduce the possibility of damaging your crew member.
--There is no limiting resource to Psionic amplifications. That is, you can use psionics indefinitely unless you are overloading and then Medkits are a resource you want available.
--Psionics cannot sprint. Instead, their specials for the sidearm slot are locked and used as reference and to access the Psionic Editor.
--For psionics, it's important to understand "Initiative" which is used to calculate turn order. Initiative is calculated primarily from DEX and AGI with a bonus from INT. So, you will likely want to pump some stat points into DEX or AGI depending on whether or not your primary weapon is ranged or melee.


PSIONIC EDITOR:
The editor can be accessed after equipping the amplifier in your sidearm slot. The amplifier needs to be selected as your active weapon. You will find an icon on the toolbar where special attacks are usually located. Your currently equipped amplification is displayed in the first of the two special attack slots. The editor icon is the second icon in the special attack area.
To edit an amplification:
--Open the editor by selecting the "cog" icon on the toolbar.
--Select the amplification you want to edit in the list and select "EDIT AMPLIFICATION".
--You can now select the attack type, effect type and a secondary effect from the lists on the left.
--You can edit the name of the amplification.
--You can edit the description of the amplification.
--You can overload the amplification by sliding the bar to the right. Note that you can actually harm your crew member if the mind cost enters the "HEALTH COST PER CAST" area.
--You can select a icon for the amplification by clicking the icon.
When you are done, select "SAVE AMPLIFICATION"

To create a amplification:
Same process as above. The only difference is that you will select "CREATE AMPLIFICATION" and save a new amplification by clicking "SAVE".

Ordering the amplification bar:
The amplification bar is displayed in and out of combat when the amplifier is equipped and your sidearm is selected. Damage amplifications cannot be used when out of combat.
You can change the order of amplifications in the bar by opening the Psionic Editor and dragging the icons from the list at the top of the editor to the bar at the bottom of the UI.

Amplifications toolbar:
Damage amplifications - Select a amplification from the bar (or use the hotkeys 1 - . Note that amplification is loaded into the toolbar below. Like any ranged weapon, just target the enemy and fire. You can queue multiple amplifications and targets using the combat queue (Shift-Click and then space bar to unleash).

Heals and cleanses.
Select a heal or cleanse from the hot bar. Note the icon is flashing. Like medkits, these amplifications require you to click a target or portrait. If you want to disable the amplification, you must select another amplification. Subsequent uses of the amplification can be triggered by clicking or using the hotkey for that amplification. Note that while a heal or cleanse amplification is selected and active, weapon swap, medkits and grenades cannot be used.

Psionic GROUP amplifications can target a single enemy and damage all enemies in that group, even if they are not visible. Heals, buffs and cleanses target your entire crew regardless of visibility.

Psionic PBAoE amplifications deal damage in a area around the targeted enemy. Heals, buffs and cleanses target crew in the area of the targeted crew member.
Overloading a psionic amplification can damage a crew member. In certain circumstances, this may be useful for additional negative or positive effects. I'm leaving it to you to decide.

Psionics can heal, remove status effects and buff stats. Buffs last through the entire area. When you transition between areas, the buff is lost.

For now, there is no indication that a buff is active. I'll be adding this in a future update. You can reference your base stats to see if a bonus is active.

An important note: This is the first pass of Psionics. I'll be making adjustments over time to the system. I will be looking at expanding on the system to add other effects and upgrades through Chapter 2 of the story.


FACTION AGENTS
Faction agents for Houses Conrair, Aralion and Cilivon are now active. You can spend your tokens on legendary ship equipment. Epic ship ship equipment must be crafted. Each faction specializes in various equipment types.

Faction agent vendors for Houses Halamis, Shikaru and Varadyne now also trade high tier weapons, shields and mods for faction tokens. They can occasionally carry high quality level 1 weapons if you are considering swapping your weapon spec. You can always find level 1 weapons on a vendor at Achmedius Trade Station.

RESPEC
You can now reset crew stats. For now, this is free and you can reset your STATS at any time for all crew members. You will find a new button on the character information panel [C] in the upper left corner above the stat allocation area of the UI.

Some Phage and all Coven enemies use psionic attacks.

The Coven are now included in the main game story. They can also be found in various random mission locations and as targets for random missions assigned by faction agents.

SALVAGING WRECKS
Wrecks can now be found in star systems. These can be mined and offer higher quality ore and random ship repair components used to repair equipment on boarded ships. These are discovery locations. Scanning a planet or ship may show a green highlight briefly indicating the location of a wreck.
Salvaging wrecks completely will generate a loot crate.

AZNARI RUINS
Aznari ruins can be found after triggering a certain mission in the main story. These areas have new enemy types.

NEW LOOT
In ground combat, skull enemies may occasionally drop loot chests with high quality gear.


QOL CHANGES

SALVAGE UI QoL
•   Schematics that are being learned through salvaging are now displayed on the salvaging UI with percent complete in the Schematics view on the right of the screen. Completed schematics show no % complete.
•   Selecting an item to salvage now displays items that can be salvaged in the disassembly pane of the salvage UI.
•   When selecting an item to salvage, pressing ESC will cancel that item rather than exiting the salvage UI allowing you to select another item to disassemble.


Right clicking an equip-able item other than mods in your inventory will equip it. Double click still works to equip items.

The stat allocation widget now allocates stats quickly when you click and hold the mouse over the allocation arrows.

Your ships now accelerate immediately when micro-warping.

When looting, if you do not have the room in inventory for all ammo, the loot container will close and a message will be sent to display that you do not have enough room in inventory for the ammo. Just a note that there is a ammo converter in the game that you can purchase from one of the faction vendors. I leave ammo in the containers in case you have an ammo converter and want to convert ammo in inventory to another ammo type to make room.

Sorting:
•   Added sorting for the stash. You can now sort by quality, name, value, type and quantity.
•   Added sorting to vendors. You can sort by quality, type, value and quantity.
•   Added a compact inventory icon to the upper right of the shared inventory area. This organizes in the following order - med kits, grenades, devices, armor, melee weapons, ranged weapons and finally - vendor trash.
•   I will be adding improved sorting to the cargo, cargo storage and other areas in the next update.


Removed the annoying vendor dialog. When you click a vendor, the vendor UI is displayed immediately.

When out of combat, pressing the reload hotkey [R] will reload all weapons for all crew members. Right click to reload all still works.


GENERAL NOTES

Translations for the new content will be rough for a while. I'll post updates over the next month as translations to German, Spanish, Russian and French languages progress.

Updated - When boarding a ship, space combat experience is rewarded when selling the ship to Arkus. You can still get experience by exiting the ship and not selling to Arkus, then blowing up the ship. Or, as usual, by destroying ships in space combat without boarding.
Updated - Difficulty setting modifications to NPC's now kick in at level 1. Previously, difficulty settings for hard and extreme had no effect on NPC's until your crews average level was level 5 or greater.
Updated - Ramped up Extreme difficulty mode.
Updated - Various enemy types have Psionic skills - especially Coven and Phage.
Updated - You will no longer be able to swap weapons from inventory during combat. Weapons, armor and shields cannot be unequipped during combat. You can swap mods and devices while in combat. For example, swapping a damage type mod to adjust melee weapon damage types based on enemy weaknesses. Swapping heavy weapons to avoid reload penalties was OP. Also, with special attacks added, this could in some cases lead to triggering multiple special attacks in a single combat scenario making content trivial.
Updated - Dauntless - Removed grenades from "Captain".
Updated - Added cave areas to random missions at the Facility in Achmedius.
Updated - Devices can not be destroyed or sold. They are considered key items.
Updated - Replaced some of the Arach sound effects.
Updated - Grenade damage adjusted -> down.
Updated - Increased 2 hand melee CTH and damage.
Updated - You can now rollover status effects for descriptions (bleeding, defend, poisoned etc.) in the extended targeting UI.
Updated - Increased LOS visual angle for NPC's and PC's so they do not have tunnel vision.
Updated - Performance improvements in space. - LOD, distance clipping, UI performance related to NPC ship labels etc.
Updated - In space, when a target is selected and obstructed by a planet, the target reticle is faded to let you know the target is on the other side of the planet.
Updated - In space, if a ship is obstructed by a planetary object, the label is faded.
Updated - When rolling over repair material icons in the equipment repair UI, the name of the repair material is displayed.
Updated - Reduced chance of a random attack taking place when entering a star system from a station, ground location and FTL space.

Fixed - When a grenade is active, occasionally you would move instead of throw the grenade when you clicked.
Fixed - When gaining piloting skill in space combat, the log was displaying the incorrect string - WEAPONRY. Piloting skill gains were not affected - just the display string in the log.
Fixed - If armor was unequipped in combat, the player was invulnerable to damage. This was related to an error in the equipment wear system.
Fixed - Universe search now responds correctly to enter key - searching the existing list of systems with beacons first and if no result, entire universe database.
Fixed - Arach parts are now considered vendor trash and are sold when selling all junk.
Fixed - After clearing the slice mines for Scarby, the return location is selected when choosing the mission in the objectives tracker in space.
Fixed - The approach button is now displayed after scanning a planet. Previously a scan would hide the approach button until you selected the planet again.
Fixed - Cleaned up various sub faction agents that should not be giving missions at this time. They will return eventually and provide alternate mission types (The Syndicate, The Church etc...).
Fixed - When boarding the Frontier CG-1 several doors on this ship could not be hacked/opened.
Fixed - In some cases, when looting a ship equipment crate on boarded ships - not all equipment was being moved to the cargo hold.
Fixed - You can now craft "Rare" weapons with up to 3 mod slots.

[Asid]

Chapter 2 released!
Fri, 19 May 2023



The story continues with Chapter 2. Introducing Azimuth, new missions and more!


I'm pleased to release Chapter 2 today. It's been a long road and I do hope everyone enjoys the new content. As always, it is likely a few bugs will surface over the next few days so I will keep an eye on the forums for any issues. If you do find any issues, please post on the bug forums here. Any details and screenshots you can provide will help: https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

Localization - The English and German versions of the game are in good shape at this time. French, Spanish and Russian translations will be very rough. If you are interested in translating any of these three languages, send a note to support@stellartactics.com and I'll get back to you.

CHAPTER 2
- Pick up where you left off after completing chapter 1 with a message when entering space. Note that there are some very tough battles in this chapter so, grenades, Azimuth (when you get it) and Psionics will really help.

AZIMUTH
- The final ground combat system to be implemented. Azimuth is a reward received during the chapter 2 story. It provides you with a variety of powerful effects that can be mixed and matched to both benefit your crew during combat and to debuff enemies. Effects last through an entire combat area so they are best used either at the start of an area or when you have tough enemies to defeat. Azimuth uses energy gathered over time through combat, space travel and by charging Azimuth with Aznari Shards. Chapter 3 (the final chapter) will introduce Azimuth which can be used in space combat.

MISSION NPCs
- Mission NPC's can now be found on stations. When pressing the highlight key (TAB by default), mission NPC's are highlighted in BLUE. These missions offer cash rewards, loot, faction tokens and general faction. All of these missions have several stages/locations that need to be visited with different objectives and pay out rewards based on the number of stages required to complete the mission for the NPC. This is the first pass at NPC missions. I expect that I will be expanding on and refining the NPC mission system over time.


TRADE AND SMUGGLING MISSIONS
- Trade and smuggling missions will be offered occasionally when entering a star system that has orbiting stations. These missions are only offered if a star system does not have an ACCEPTED buy or sell order registered in your Trade Net. Expand your trade network using beacons to take advantage of these missions.

    These missions always pay out bonuses that are above market value so it is always worthwhile taking the missions when offered.
    There is no timer so you can have as many as 20 of these missions available at any time. 20 is the maximum number of active trades allowed via the Trade-Net.
    Note that you can fulfil ore and refined ore missions by mining and refining ore yourself. Or, you can just buy the goods on the Trade Net. Of course, mining and refining ore will offer the most profit from these contracts.
    The volume required by these missions - that is the number of items needed to fulfil a contract, is based on your current cargo capacity. Ships with more cargo will be offered larger batches of commodities to trade.
    Trade contracts scale based on the amount of credits you have available when the contract is offered.
    There are special contracts that reward a very high return. These are offered by NPCs you have met through the games story content.
    Trade contracts can be canceled in the Trade-Net with no penalty.


BOARDING MISSIONS
- Phestus will offer simple boarding missions - so he can retire, you know. He will start giving you missions once you have a FTL Drive after you complete his story mission in Achmedius.

    Only one boarding mission is offered at a time.
    To receive the reward, board any ship of the type that Phestus needs parts for. When selling the ship to Arkus, Arkus will route the parts to Phestus and Phestus will reward you.
    These missions cannot be abandoned. To get another mission, you should complete the current mission provided by Phestus.
    These missions are basically a bonus to the payout you receive and give players specific ships to target.
    Pick your targets carefully. Boarding ships will reduce your standing with the owners main faction.



A NEW MISSION TYPE
related to the chapter 2 story line. This is a ongoing permanent mission in your log. You will know what it is when you you get it.

ACCESS STATION CARGO FROM SPACE:
You can now approach any non-hostile station and access the stations cargo terminal without boarding. This makes it a lot easier to store ore you are mining and deliver trade goods between stations. To display the cargo icon, click the station itself in space when you are close enough to board. A new icon will be displayed allowing you access to the cargo interface.

ADDED NOTES ON THE STAR MAP:
You can now add notes to star systems on the star map. Selecting any star system will display a notes area above the lower-center detail console. Star systems that have notes will display a green box around the star system.

YOU CAN NOW VIEW SHIP REPAIR COMPONENTS:
Harvested ship repair components used for boarding can now be viewed on the ship menu [K] by selecting the new button under the ore refinery. Note that ship repair components used to repair boarded ships can be harvested from other ships, or, ideally by salvaging wreckage in Star Systems. Salvaging wreckages is the best way to gather these materials.


GENERAL PATCH NOTES:

UPDATED - Additional checks are now in place to avoid bad enemy target clicks that lead to movement instead of attacks. In addition, when rolling over an enemy in combat, the enemy will pause animation so you can get a very "clean" target selection. Previously, some enemies animations could lead to bad information at the moment a player would click, leading to an unintended move. Hopefully this reduces or eliminates these annoyances. Let me know what you think on the forums. Is this better, worse?
UPDATED - Fog of war data on the ground area map [M] now persists between areas and saves.
UPDATED - Phestus will now give you a mission to meet with Forley Coresh in Achmedius after you purchase the FTL drive from him when exiting his station. This fixes the missing quest link that would lead players to the start of Chapter 1. Regardless of when you got your FTL drive, the next time you enter a star system, the new mission will be triggered if you have not already spoken with Forley Coresh.
UPDATED - Added directional indicators to the mini-map/radar for N,S,E and W. The "camera" FOV indicator now has a arrow tick mark for identifying the direction your camera is facing.
UPDATED - Reduced INT bonuses to initiative for player and NPC's. This still needs work as INT is generating too much initiative.
UPDATED - When pressing the highlight key bind, NPC's that can be recruited are now highlighted in green. NPC's that have procedural missions are highlighted in blue. Faction agents are highlighted in blue.
UPDATED - Ship loot containers now display distance to the players ship.
UPDATED - Moved star system player spawn point and jump points away from planetary orbits to avoid possibly intersecting with a planets on spawn.
UPDATED - No random attacks when entering Achmedius - this is to smooth out the starting experience in the game. This also applies to attacks related to carrying contraband.
UPDATED - Added more responses when selecting NPCs.
FIXED - Removed shields from creature type enemies.
FIXED - A number of typos in the English language files.
FIXED - Multiple clicks on exits and during loading could lead to a level lockup or misaligned camera.
FIXED - Corrected feedback text to log when delivering trade contracts.
FIXED - Several localization errors.
FIXED - Various areas - map and mini-map did not correctly display the map background.
FIXED - A non-critical bug related to experience when selling ships to Arkus.
FIXED - Visual error with Psionic bleed projectiles.
FIXED - Mission objectives UI under radar/map for boarded areas and new areas that use the UI is now correctly displayed when entering or re-entering these areas.


AND FINALLY, A SUPPORTER DLC

I am also releasing a supporter pack for Stellar Tactics today. I've been asked many times to add a way to help support the game. I finally decided to put together a few things that I think people would like. It contains a unique ship not found elsewhere in the universe, poster art, 3D printer models for those of you who have 3D printers and a few other things. For those of you who do decide to purchase the DLC, many thanks. And as always, regardless of whether you purchase the DLC, thank you for supporting the game.


WHATS NEXT:

Well, Chapter 3 of course! Here is a list of things I'll be looking at. Some of these may be released between now and the Chapter 3 content.

    With Azimuth in the game, I'll be able to make final adjustments to the combat system.
    Adjusting the initiative system and exposing more information when rolling initiative.
    Better STAT descriptions that are in line with any changes I make above.
    Mining system changes. The current mining system is fairly basic. I'd like to make this a bit more interesting.
    Adjustments to various effects in the game.
    Tweaks to space combat.
    Knocking off rough edges everywhere. That includes final passes at the various game systems.
    Expanded faction warfare system and FTL map events.
    Advanced game settings.



Two answer two common questions I see:
[Q] When will achievements be added.
[A] After chapter 3 is complete so I can tie achievements into all the game content.

[Q] When will custom portrait support be added.
[A] With chapter 3.

Many will ask - when? When will chapter 3 be finished? December. Of course, I may need more time - we will see. I'll keep everyone posted as I make progress.