Update (12/05/15, 2:10pm EST): another hotfix up! A few more assorted issues. Update (12/04/15, 10:40pm EST): another hotfix is up; more fixes related to procurement missions. Update: a hotfix for the mission destination issue is now up. Please re-download using the links below.
Starsector version 0.7.1a is now out! This is mostly a bugfixing and polish release, but there are some new features making their way in as well.
Faction commissions – align with a faction to fight their enemies and gain access to their technology
Faction hostilities – take advantage of opportunities presented by temporary hostilities between major factions
A much easier easy difficulty
Higher sensor ranges during the early game
Lots of bugfixes and a few balance adjustments
The full patch notes are here. You can download the new version here:
As with other point releases, this is a followup to 0.6a. The main features in this one are:
Adjustments to combat readiness (more ship longevity and more choices, details below)
Four new ships!
Campaign help – dialogs that explain various game mechanics – how to split cargo stacks, how CR works, etc
Choice of starting difficulty – Easy and Normal. “Easy” gives you a choice of better starting ships and a Mule combat freighter, does not affect the rest of the campaign
Updated to use Java 7 and the latest version of LWJGL (2.9.2). Improved performance, OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) is no longer supported
Reduced memory usage (mostly affects larger mods)
Lots and lots of assorted bugfixes/improvements etc
A note about OS X: if you’re using 10.6, you should be able to upgrade to OS X Mavericks (for free) and run Starsector from there. Not all machines running 10.6 are able to run Mavericks, but the great majority should be able to. I’d have liked to keep supporting 10.6, but Java 7 doesn’t run there, and the machines that can’t be updated to Mavericks likely have a rough time with Starsector to begin with. All in all, it seemed like a worthwhile trade-off for improved performance and access to additional Java features for development.
As usual with OS X, if you’ve got Gatekeeper enabled, right-click on Starsector and click “Open” when running it for the first time. Otherwise, you won’t get the option to run it anyway when it complains that the app is from an “unidentified developer” (that’d be yours truly).
A bit more about the changes to CR: the deployment cost has been cut in half, but so has the recovery rate. This means that the time to recover from a single deployment and the supply cost per deployment both remain the same, but ships can be deployed more times before exhausting their CR.
In addition, low combat readiness no longer prevents a ship from being deployed. Instead, ships will suffer progressively more damaging and debilitating malfunctions – allowing for a desperate last stand rather than a helpless retreat, if it comes to that.
