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[Alex]

Blog post/download links here.

Changes as of February 16, 2015 (Hotfix/balance update)

Balance:

• Reduced non-EMP Salamander damage (500 -> 100)
• Pilum: reduced top speed by 50%
• Fast Missile Racks now has a maximum of 3 charges, regenerating one per 10 seconds
• Plasma Cannon: shots no longer stopped by missiles or fighters (but still deal damage to them)
• Plasma Cannon: increased per-shot damage a bit
• Ballistic weapons: removed ammo/clips; mechanic still exists for modding/possible future use
• Gauss Cannon: increased flux cost (from 800 to 1200)
• Storm Needler: increased flux cost (from 50 to 75)
• Phase Lance: doubled burst damage, increased delay between bursts from 3 to 4 seconds
• Added peak performance times for capitals, in the 10-12 minute range

Miscellaneous:
Ship system charge indicator now shows progress towards regenerating new charge when charges are at 0
"Your ship approaches <entity>" now always printed before the entity description.
"Campaign help" -> "Help popups" during new game creation

Modding:

• Added CombatEngineAPI.Map<String, Object> getCustomData()
• Added CombatEngineAPI.setSideDeploymentOverrideSide()
• Added "enableShipExplosionWhiteout" to settings.json

Bugfixing:

• Fixed issue with clip-using point-defense weapons not autofiring on ships unless at max ammo
• Fixed invalid characters in license agreement
• Fixed issue with High Energy Focus that made it greatly increase beam flux use during battle
• Fixed bug that could cause some hullmods not to show up while filtering the hullmod picker dialog

Changes as of February 09, 2015

Combat:

• "Stand down" option after combat now restores a maximum of 50% of the combat readiness used if any meaningful combat took place
• Can once again issue ship commands while paused. Tried it, didn't work out, moving on.
• Ship and weapon AI now more aware of target ship's overall shape (i.e. handles wide + short or long + narrow targets better)
• Civilian ships and carriers will now engage the enemy at close range if ordered to "engage" or "intercept"
• Weapon changes:
  • Ballistic weapons now automatically reload ammo in "clips", i.e. the Vulcan Cannon automatically reloads a clip of 20 rounds every 5 seconds, and has a maximum of 200 ammo
  • Different clip sizes and reload rates for different weapons
  • Mjolnir Cannon flux cost reduced by 33%, from 600 to 400 per shot. Has relatively poor reload stats instead.
  • Phase Beam renamed to Phase Lance; behaves similarly to Tachyon Lance, but short range and relatively heavy damage (especially good vs lighter armor)
  • Updated some weapon descriptions (Pilum, Salamander, Phase Lance, a couple of others)
• "Peak performance" time now only ticks down when the enemy forces around the ship at least match its strength (e.g. for a cruiser, it'll tick down when there's an enemy cruiser, 2 destroyers, or 4 frigates nearby)

Miscellaneous:

• Started using custom "credit" symbol ("c" with a vertical line through it) where appropriate
• "Hide hullmods that can't be installed" no longer hides hullmods that only can't be installed because they cost too many ordnance points
• Added projected deployment recovery cost (in supplies) to deployment dialog
• Overselling food to a market with a shortage now carries much higher reputation penalties if the amount oversold is excessive
• Added tips to savegame loading screen
• Added more tips
• Decivilized markets will no longer start investigations
• Fixed price issue with black market fuel and supplies on markets with no native demand for either

Modding:

• Added new column to hullmods_csv - "hidden". If set to true, hullmod will not show up in mod picker dialog in refit screen
• Added "reload size" column to weapon_data.csv, controls "clip size", default of 1 if unspecified
• Added to OptionPanelAPI:
  • List getSavedOptionList();
  • void restoreSavedOptions(List list);
• Added to SoundPlayerAPI:
  • void restartCurrentMusic()
  • String getCurrentMusicId()
• Added some extra devmode commands to interaction dialogs
• getBeamWeaponFluxCostMult() actually affect beam weapon flux cost now
• Added "music" section to .faction files (see pirates.faction for an example)
  • Can configure different music for market and fleet encounters
• Fixed bug where burst damage for "fire only on full charge" beams was not calculated correctly
• Added "scaleIconWithZoom" key to custom_entities.json
• Added to FactionAPI:
  • JSONObject getCustom(); // used to retrieve "custom" json object from .faction file
• Added to "custom" section in pirates.faction:
  • "exemptFromFoodShortages":true,
  • "willTradeWhenHostile":true,
  • "noPatrols":true,
  • "ignoreTradeWithEnemiesForReputation":true,
  • "postsNoBounties":true,
• Added $sourceMarket to fleet memory
• Added CampaignEventListener.reportPlayerOpenedMarketAndCargoUpdated
• Added CampaignEventListener.reportEncounterLootGenerated
• Updated to Janino 2.7.8
• Ship system can now be set per-skin using "systemId" key in .skin file
• FleetInteractionDialogPluginImpl, FleetEncounterContext: changed private methods to protected for easier modding (i.e. don't have to copy entire class, can derive from it and override select methods)

Bugfixing:

• Fixed rare crash bug caused by loading a saved game from the title screen, the load failing, and then opening the mission refit screen
• Fixed another "deleted variant" run simulation crash bug
• Should now properly open in low resolution mode on OS X with retina. Should.
• Fixed bug with teleporter ship system that could cause the ship to face the wrong way when coming out of teleport
• Fixed bug where having a mothballed carrier in the fleet would make the tooltip/fighter chassis display incorrectly show that replacement fighters were available
• Fixed issue where the buy price of ships was not correctly calculated

Changes as of December 04, 2014

Miscellaneous:

• Added Conquest battlecruiser to Sindrian Diktat fleet composition
• Optimized save files (~50% smaller); should be compatible with 0.65a saves and will convert them over on next save
• Added information about recently seen commodity prices to commodity tooltips
• Cargo/fuel/etc capacity in the trade screen will update while drag-selecting quantity
• Added new mission: "A Fistful of Credits"
• If starting the game at full screen resolution in windowed mode, will automatically use an undecorated window

Combat balance pass:

• Removed energy weapon bonus damage from high flux level
• Increased damage values for non-beam energy weapons by roughly 25% to compensate
• Beam weapons:
  • Standardized range to 1000 for most non-PD, from Tactical Laser to HIL
  • Increased range for PD Laser and LR PD Laser
  • Slightly reduced OP cost for all beam weapons
  • Tactical Laser, Graviton Beam, and Phase Beam are no longer interrupted by missiles (they damage missiles, but pass through them and can hit other things)
  • Greatly reduced fade in/out time for most beams
• Missiles:
  • Salamander: both versions have unlimited ammo and require 20 seconds to reload
  • Hurricane MIRV: regenerates 1 ammo every 20 seconds
  • Pilum LRM: regenerates 1 ammo every 10 seconds
• Ballistic weapons:
  • Now have unlimited ammo, except for Bomb Bay
  • Reduced OP cost of Light Dual MG
• Ships
  • Destroyers and cruisers now have a peak effectiveness timer like frigates
    • Roughly 5-7 minutes for destroyers and 7-9 for cruisers
    • High-tech/faster ships have shorter timers
  • Sunder: increased top speed, acceleration, and flux capacity. Reduced shield efficiency.
  • Brawler/Shepherd: increased burn level by 1 (to 6)
  • Condor: reduced supplies/day by 1 (to 4)

Modding:

• get/setHitpoints() now works for in-combat asteroids
• Fixed bug where non-compressed saves would not load
• "Edit variants" run simulation now allows deployment of allied ships (same list as enemies)

Bugfixing:

• The ostensibly-removed logistics priority button no longer shows up on the fleet screen while docked
• High Intensity Laser will no longer spawn multiple beams if the fire button is clicked multiple times
• Making unconfirmed changes to the character skills/aptitudes now properly disables the power button in the top right corner
• Fixed "run simulation" crash bug having to do with exporting ship variants
• Mothballed ships no longer contribute
• Fixed bug where repeatedly buy/selling a stack of Volturnian Lobster on the black market could yield infinite profits
• Fixed bug where some space station mouseover descriptions would revert to the default text on game load
• Fixed "secure comm access channel revoked" report spam bug, really this time
• "Food shortage prevented", "food shortage likely" etc reports won't hang around past the date in the filter
• Fixed issue where losses suffered by elite crew during boarding weren't being applied properly
• Fixed issue where ships put into storage would occasionally get duped
• Player gender is now properly set on new game creation
• Fixed bug where switching flagships in a simulation with allied ships would leave your original flagship without AI control
• Fixed issue where captured ships would sometimes spawn as hostile in the simulator
• Fixed issue with burst beam weapons rapidly consuming charges if fired while the phase cloak or teleporter was activating

[NikolaiLev]

Not sure I approve of the removed flux bonus.  It added an interesting layer of brinksmanship to energy weapons.  Perhaps this should change to being a per-weapon setting.

And I definitely don't approve of removing ballistic weapon ammo.  Besides the flux bonus, ammo management is what separates ballistic weapons from energy ones.

Now, there's not much of a difference.  It's a step towards homogenization and I'm almost always against that.

[Alex]

Not sure I approve of the removed flux bonus.  It added an interesting layer of brinksmanship to energy weapons.  Perhaps this should change to being a per-weapon setting.

I feel like that was more in theory than in practice, and more often than not was just a side effect of the state of your ship than something that was aimed for. In the cases that it *is* aimed for, it has the potential to be gamey (firing weapons at nothing to build up flux, etc).

And I definitely don't approve of removing ballistic weapon ammo.  Besides the flux bonus, ammo management is what separates ballistic weapons from energy ones.

Ammo was cosmetic for many weapons, except for very long battles, and the mechanics of running out of ammo there weren't good. What separates energy and ballistic slots - and always did - are specialization through damage types and weapon mechanics (i.e. flak).

[Tartiflette]

Wow, I'm extremely puzzled about all the combat changes, to say the least. Ballistic, Energy and missiles are now the same thing with different sprites (ie, spam them all we can)? Only beam slightly work differently? I'll keep my judgement for when I play it, but I'm definitively not overjoyed right now.

[736b]

I for one am perfectly fine with removing ammo, never really liked it anyway.

[ValkyriaL]

Honestly, i dont agree with...any of these weapon changes, none.. what possibly made you cook these together?

[Alex]

You guys are going to have to be more specific


If it's about ammo: like I said, in my view, it was not a meaningful balance tool or differentiator, except for extra-long battles, where it basically just means low-tech ships can't do those.

For Salamanders, the goal of the change is so you can no longer bait all of them out before the "real" fight starts. It's not something that could be fixed with AI, due to the nature of Salamanders requiring them to be fired at medium range, where the targeted ship can then decide to back off and rinse/repeat. For Harpoons and Sabots, for example, AI improvements were sufficient to make baiting them out unattractive. Not so for Salamanders.

Similarly for Plium and Hurricane, except here the ammo regen rate is lower than the rate of fire, so there's still some consideration as to whether firing makes sense or not.

For beams, it's mostly usability changes and relative balance compared to other energy weapons. Slightly lower OP costs make sense given that beams aren't "primary" type weapons.

[SafariJohn]

Dang it! I can't try it yet!

I don't know exactly how these changes will affect things, but I do know that it will make my fleet more powerful.

How will Pilums regenerating 1 ammo per 10 seconds work, since it fires three at a time? Will it wait 30 seconds till it has 3 missiles ready before firing, or will it fire the single missile?

[Alex]

It'll fire however many it has at the time.

[SafariJohn]

The strength of Pilums are in their numbers though. I would think it would work better if the launcher waited for a full barrage to be loaded.

[Mattk50]

This is... why... why would you do this. I thought removing the flux bonus was a bit silly but then i kept reading. I don't know what to say that could convince you not to take this game down the road of other similar shallow games with the interesting bits ripped out to make things more "accessible". Maybe i'll try later but im just surprised right now.

[HELMUT]

Personally i'm not against those changes. The energy weapon buff depending on the flux was very gimmicky and i pretty much never build my ships and fought with this in mind. The HIL however seems to have been hurt pretty badly, 250 less range is big deal. Then again it will be less expensive to mount so maybe it's not that bad of a nerf.

I find the Salamander change interesting. Rather than being the annoying early game missile in frigate knife fight, it could now fill an interesting fire support role in fleets. Same for the Hurricane, the Pilum however... I always found the Pilum to be one of the most potentially game-breaking weapon, it was always absolutely murderous when fielded in number. They regenerate relatively slowly though, so maybe they won't annihilate everything despite this buff.

For the removal of the ammo count on ballistic weapons... It doesn't seems like a problem because you rarely run out of ammo. Only very large battles required expanded magazines mainly for your flagship so i don't think this change will have any radical consequence on the vanilla experience.

Condor was buffed, good, at least it's now a viable choice against the Gemini.

In the end it feel like a simplification patch, which isn't that bad given that Starsector isn't exactly noob-friendly. The only thing that scare me a bit is the Pilum missile regeneration but we'll see...

[Alex]

The strength of Pilums are in their numbers though. I would think it would work better if the launcher waited for a full barrage to be loaded.

IIRC the AI will do that, but the weapon doesn't force it.

This is... why... why would you do this. I thought removing the flux bonus was a bit silly but then i kept reading. I don't know what to say that could convince you not to take this game down the road of other similar shallow games with the interesting bits ripped out to make things more "accessible". Maybe i'll try later but im just surprised right now.

From where I'm at, per my previous response in this thread (if you haven't read it) the weapon changes amount to removing some mechanics that were nearly meaningless and had some negative side effects/were awkward when they weren't. What am I missing here?



@HELMUT: That pretty much lines up with how I'm thinking about it. Interesting point about the Pilum; there's a fine line to walk there - the thing I really don't like is if the player is facing, say, a Buffalo, then waiting until it's out of Pilums is a good tactic, and that's bad. 10 seconds per 1 ammo is half the rate of fire, hopefully that's enough, but, yeah, we'll see.

[Gothars]

Very interesting changes, I'm looking forward to trying them out. Most seem to make sense, although scratching ammo seems a bit... mh, anticlimactic. Sensible, from a game design perspective, but not an exiting solution.


Potential issue with the cruiser CR timer: Isn't it a viable option now to "siege" them with worthless shuttles or the like? Stay just out of range until shuttle CP runs out, retreat (the shuttle) and repeat until 7-9 minutes are over. One of this "efficient but boring" things. (I feel like this is said so often it could use its own term. Boricient? Bofficient?)

Potential fix: For frigates CP only runs down while an enemy is within the sight radius. What if for cruisers (could be all classes, effectively) that enemy had to be of equivalent strength to trigger CR loss? So it had to be another cruiser or two destroyers or four frigates/wings nearby (or however the system that decides about auto assignment calculates that).

[Midnight Kitsune]

I have to ask, what is the point of having balli and energy weapons now if there really isn't any difference between the two?