2020-03-03
2020 Update
Hi everyone, just another update on the v1.5 update. I am aiming to have it feature complete and ready for solid testing by the end of this month with a release soon after.
There are so many new features and tweaks but here are some of the highlights of things I have already completed for it. There are many more features to come that are not listed here!
100% from scratch rewrite of all sector code, allowing for massive sectors with freeform building, mining, hacking, events and many more improvements.
These huge areas allow you to fly between your corporation outposts in a single section of space.
Warp gates allow you to jump to different parts of the same area.
Asteroid belts, Debris fields, Nebulas and Gas clouds can all be found and flown through. You will find different pirates and resources in each.
When you own an outpost you can build auxiliary buildings around it that boost productivity or give other benefits. Building a shield generator will massively boost the bombardment shields of your outpost allowing you more time to defend. An auxiliary asteroid mine will generate more rewards, or maybe add a fleet bay to spawn defensive fleets around your outpost.
Asteroid mining! You can now mine asteroids for Ore and Pyrite while in space, this allows you to gather resources without fighting. You will find asteroids inside the asteroids fields, just fly into one and start mining. You can also mine Helium3 from Nebulas.
Shields are no longer timers on outposts, they are physical shields that recharge and can be destroyed to allow access to the buildings it is protecting.
This new feature has many benefits, working with your allies you can take down shields faster but the regeneration of shields also stops small fleets from harassing outposts with attacks as they will not be able to break the shield without help.
Shields also give advance notice of attacks to corporations to allow more time to intercept and defend.
Some areas of space should be avoided. While flying in the new regions you will find Suns, Storms and other nasty areas that will damage your fleet.
Debris can sometimes contain tech or other items, they can be hacked into and collected. Much like mining this new feature allows you to gather items and research tech without fighting.
Attach mining rigs, bombardment arrays, hacking probes etc to your fleets to allow unique functions in space.
Areas in space containing events, some timed, some requiring certain actions. e.g. xeno warp gate opening requires bombardment to close.
Xeno invasions have been replaced with new invasion areas in the new regions. Warp gates will open and xeno will spawn and attack everything nearby, bombarding the xeno gates will close them and give rewards.
Some new regions of space restrict what class of ships can enter. The Xeno Homeworld region is so distant that only Battleships and Titans are capable of warping to it.
The frontier region is new and while AQ Security have not setup permanent warp gates only Corvettes and Destroyers are able to navigate the temporary warps.
These restrictions allow some regions of space to be tailored to newer or older players looking for challenges around their strengths.
Bounties and Missions have been reworked and no longer require you to take a fleet into an empty sector before attacking your target. You will not be taken directly into battle from the dispatch screen!
Another completely new feature for v1.5, you can challenge another player to a 1 on 1 battle, you set the battle restrictions such as what ship classes you allow and send the challenge directly to them.
If they accept you are sent into battle right away. You can even set a bet on the battle, allowing you to challenge people for rewards!
In v1.5 you can place a bounty on another player. Players with bounties on them will be highlighted in space and be shown on the new bounty leaderboard. Destroying a players fleet will collect their bounty for yourself.
The old game feed has been removed and redone completely, it now shows much more information such as pvp challenge results, outpost attacks, rewards given, bounties set as well as global information about news and events.
Other minor updates have been added such as more player awards for your profile, as well as more stats.
- Designs have been updated on many screens, making them clearer.
- Bugs have been fixed, things have been improved.
- Your fleet status and ship damage is now updated in real time, even if you are not viewing the battle!
As mentioned above this is not a complete list, there are other improvements being added, some of this may also change depending on testing.
I am really looking forward to this release, it is by far the biggest update to the game ever.