To celebrate the Lunar New Year, the release of our new game Space Bob vs. The Replicons next week, and the two year anniversary for NeonXSZ, we are happy to announce a 75% off sale for NeonXSZ. Happy hunting cybernauts.

To celebrate the Lunar New Year, the release of our new game Space Bob vs. The Replicons next week, and the two year anniversary for NeonXSZ, we are happy to announce a 75% off sale for NeonXSZ. Happy hunting cybernauts.

Good news everyone. NeonXSZ is now permanently 25% off. Actually, we reduced the price by $5 but you say tomato and we say tomato.
___________ To accompany the new price, the latest patch (build 1.15) has been pushed live on the main branch today. Details below.

1.14 and 1.15 Changelog:

• Fix for rare issue with saved games on Linux We recently had a report from one Linux user who was unable to load saves. This was caused by the Linux OS writing periods as commas in the save file when the OS was set to specific culture/regions that use this format. This issue is now resolved.
• Changes to the 'Damage Flash' when taking damage. Previously, whenever the player took damage, the world would flash deep red. Changes were made to reduce this effect based on current shield levels. When shields are above 65%, the world will flash light orange. When shields are above 40%, the world will flash deep orange. When shields are below 40%, the world with flash deep red as before. This should give improved visual feedback on your current shield levels when taking damage.
• The 'Damage Flash' effect can now also be disabled in Options/Video. A toggle option has been added to the bottom of the list.
• Station 4 Speed Arena Tweaks Feedback suggested that some of the speed-based challenge arenas in Station 4 were proving to be too challenging for some players. This was causing unnecessary frustration. The timings on many of the hardest speed related challenges has been relaxed to make things easier without becoming trivial.
• Station 7 Speed Challenge Tweaks A similar situation was occurring with the Station 7 speed related challenges. Most of the 'secret' speed related challenges are designed to be extraordinarily hard to complete but there were a handful of non-secret challenges that were harder than originally intended. The timings on these have been extended to ease their difficulty.
• Rebinding weapon switching to the mouse-wheel no longer causes weapon switching to occur while using the mouse-wheel to control scrollbars in the interface.
• The video option to disable Fire Patches would previously, incorrectly, only disable visible fire patches. It will now disable all fire patches. NOTE: This requires a soft restart to take effect (return to the Main Menu and reload your save).
• The DP1 hull's description has been corrected to read DP1 instead of DP0.

Good news everyone. The highest rated new 6DoF shooter game in years is now permanently 25% off. Actually, we reduced the price by $5 but you say tomato and we say tomato. ___________ To accompany the new price, the latest patch (build 1.15) has been pushed live on the main branch today. Details below.

1.14 and 1.15 Changelog:

• Fix for rare issue with saved games on Linux We recently had a report from one Linux user who was unable to load saves. This was caused by the Linux OS writing periods as commas in the save file when the OS was set to specific culture/regions that use this format. This issue is now resolved.
• Changes to the 'Damage Flash' when taking damage. Previously, whenever the player took damage, the world would flash deep red. Changes were made to reduce this effect based on current shield levels. When shields are above 65%, the world will flash light orange. When shields are above 40%, the world will flash deep orange. When shields are below 40%, the world with flash deep red as before. This should give improved visual feedback on your current shield levels when taking damage.
• The 'Damage Flash' effect can now also be disabled in Options/Video. A toggle option has been added to the bottom of the list.
• Station 4 Speed Arena Tweaks Feedback suggested that some of the speed-based challenge arenas in Station 4 were proving to be too challenging for some players. This was causing unnecessary frustration. The timings on many of the hardest speed related challenges has been relaxed to make things easier without becoming trivial.
• Station 7 Speed Challenge Tweaks A similar situation was occurring with the Station 7 speed related challenges. Most of the 'secret' speed related challenges are designed to be extraordinarily hard to complete but there were a handful of non-secret challenges that were harder than originally intended. The timings on these have been extended to ease their difficulty.
• Rebinding weapon switching to the mouse-wheel no longer causes weapon switching to occur while using the mouse-wheel to control scrollbars in the interface.
• The video option to disable Fire Patches would previously, incorrectly, only disable visible fire patches. It will now disable all fire patches. NOTE: This requires a soft restart to take effect (return to the Main Menu and reload your save).
• The DP1 hull's description has been corrected to read DP1 instead of DP0.

SUMMER SALE WARNING: Please, don't buy NeonXSZ as an impulse buy if you are expecting to fully enjoy it with a gamepad or joystick. Seriously. Don't. Yes, we recently added joystick support and gamepad support has been available for a couple of years, but neither control method suits this game. Although, NeonXSZ might look like a spaceship sim, it isn't. It's a high speed mouse-look twitch shooter to it's very core. Mouse and keyboard is the only recommended control scheme and the only way to experience the gameplay as intended. After a couple of rare negative reviews popped up from disgruntled joystick players I wanted to be sure that this information is very clear to everyone browsing for impulse buys during the summer sale. I would prefer to not disappoint anyone else rather than make an additional sale to someone expecting a different type of game. With that said, if you are looking for a stupidly deep mouse-look twitch shooter then you are in the right place.

Although we recently added joystick support, and gamepad support has been available for over two years, we feel it's important to inform potential buyers that neither of these control methods are optimal for playing NeonXSZ. NeonXSZ was designed around the ability to turn and aim instantly. It's a high speed mouse-look shooter to it's very core where mouse/keyboard is by far the best control scheme and the only recommended way to experience the gameplay as intended. If you would still like to try the game with a gamepad or joystick we recommend tweaking the gamespeed slider to slow things down. This can be found in the gameplay options. With all that said, if you are familiar with using mouse and keyboard and would like to experience something new, then you are in the right place.

Feedback suggested that the very early game could benefit from additional combat variety so build 1.13 adds two completely new gadgets and significantly improves the Blink gadget to make it far more responsive and versatile.

Improved Blink

• Left Strafe + Blink = Blink Left
• Right Strafe + Forward + Blink = Blink diagonally forwards and to the right.
• Reverse + Blink = Blink backwards

New Gadget added - Rebound

• Rebound is a level 1 gadget and can be unlocked soon after starting the game.
• Weapons affected : Main Guns, Inferno Gun, Flak Cannon
• Various versions of this upgrade unlock as you progress through the game.
• Version 1 allows one bounce, V2 allows two bounces, etc.
• Rebound is also stackable. Eg. Install two Version 1 upgrades and bullets will bounce twice.

New Gadget : Time Warp

• The first version should be available to loot or buy at around level 5.
• Does not slow down turn/aiming speed.
• Stackable: Activating one Time Warp gadget, will activate all Time Warp gadgets currently installed with their time durations stacked together.
• With two high level versions of Time Warp installed, it's possible for the duration of the effect to last for more than 10 seconds.

Other Changes

• Fixed a new issue that caused 'visual' stutter (not framerate related stutter) when running the game significantly below 100% gamespeed.
• Added negative audio sound effect if trying to activate any gadget without sufficient energy.

Feedback suggested that the very early game could benefit from additional combat variety so build 1.13 adds two completely new gadgets and significantly improves the Blink gadget to make it far more responsive and versatile.

Improved Blink

• Left Strafe + Blink = Blink Left
• Right Strafe + Forward + Blink = Blink diagonally forwards and to the right.
• Reverse + Blink = Blink backwards

New Gadget added - Rebound

• Rebound is a level 1 gadget and can be unlocked soon after starting the game.
• Weapons affected : Main Guns, Inferno Gun, Flak Cannon
• Various versions of this upgrade unlock as you progress through the game.
• Version 1 allows one bounce, V2 allows two bounces, etc.
• Rebound is also stackable. Eg. Install two Version 1 upgrades and bullets will bounce twice.

New Gadget : Time Warp

• The first version should be available to loot or buy at around level 5.
• Does not slow down turn/aiming speed.
• Stackable: Activating one Time Warp gadget, will activate all Time Warp gadgets currently installed with their time durations stacked together.
• With two high level versions of Time Warp installed, it's possible for the duration of the effect to last for more than 10 seconds.

Other Changes

• Fixed a new issue that caused 'visual' stutter (not framerate related stutter) when running the game significantly below 100% gamespeed.
• Added negative audio sound effect if trying to activate any gadget without sufficient energy.

Since the 1.1 release, where Joystick support was added, it was discovered that high precision flight sticks suffered slightly with an overly large deadzone. This hotfix adds a 'Controller Deadzone' slider to the Controls window to allow for precise control of this setting. It is advised that you don't alter this setting for Xbox Controllers. The default 0.19 deadzone setting is ideal for less sensitive gamepads. Lower values are best suited for precision flight sticks only. We also took this opportunity to slightly increase the dodge ability for all enemies. Each enemy has unique AI and the dodge ability varies from one enemy to the next. For example, some enemies may never dodge. However, you should see many enemies jinking and jiving much more aggressively during heavy combat than in previous builds. If you run into any problems with this hotfix, such as phantom movement due to the new deadzone settings, ensure that the new deadzone slider is not set too low. If the deadzone is too small, it can pick up unwanted movement from connected gamepads and joysticks.

Since the 1.1 release, where Joystick support was added, it was discovered that high precision flight sticks suffered slightly with an overly large deadzone. This hotfix adds a 'Controller Deadzone' slider to the Controls window to allow for precise control of this setting. It is advised that you don't alter this setting for Xbox Controllers. The default 0.19 deadzone setting is ideal for less sensitive gamepads. Lower values are best suited for precision flight sticks only. We also took this opportunity to slightly increase the dodge ability for all enemies. Each enemy has unique AI and the dodge ability varies from one enemy to the next. For example, some enemies may never dodge. However, you should see many enemies jinking and jiving much more aggressively during heavy combat than in previous builds. If you run into any problems with this hotfix, such as phantom movement due to the new deadzone settings, ensure that the new deadzone slider is not set too low. If the deadzone is too small, it can pick up unwanted movement from connected gamepads and joysticks.

Flight Stick Support Added.

Improvements

• Joysticks are now recognized by the game and can be configured in the Controls menu
• Default Secondary Keybindings have been reworked to match Xbox Controllers
• Ambient Occlussion video option added. This will be on by default when using the High, and Ultra graphics presets. It will need to be enabled manually if you are using custom video settings.
• New Bloom added. This new bloom effect adds additional contrast to bright effects and smoother bloom around bright objects. It replaces the old bloom effect.
• While the player is below Tech Level 4, the maximum tech level of hostiles spawning in the highways directly connected to the players start position has been reduced to Tech Level 3. This should make life much easier and more intuitive for new players. This change also massively reduces the chance that lethal enemies will fly into these areas.
• Weapon sound effects significantly improved.
• New button added to the upgrade panel to toggle between displaying upgrades in ascending or descending order. This allows the highest level upgrades to be displayed first.
• Newly discovered upgrades and hulls (those which have been recently looted to 100%) are now marked with a yellow star in the upgrade and hull windows respectively.
• Yellow stars now also appear over the various slot type buttons in the upgrade panel if any upgrade for that slot type is marked as newly discovered.
• By using the "-force-d3d9" command line argument, the game will now run in Fullscreen Exclusive mode on Windows. This resolves issues with Gsync monitors.

Balance Tweaks

• After the player has used Blind on a target, that target now has a 70% chance to instantly target and attack the player once the Blind debuff clears.
• Railgun base damage reduced from 61 to 55, and range reduced from 250m to 200m
• MagnaBeam damage increased by 7% from base 3 to 3.21
• Laser Cannon base damage increased from 48 to 54
• Flak Cannon base damage per projectile increased from 6.9 to 8 per projectile. Each shot has 8 projectiles.
• Reputation loss for killing friendlies capped at 225 points. (Previously 10% of total reputation with no cap)
• Uranium loot drop size and task rewards increased by 25-40%.
• Homing missiles will now only begin homing once they have reached 25% of their maximum range. This allows the player to fire missiles around corners, and also makes dodging missiles a little easier especially in close quarters combat.
• Firefly missile turn speed reduced from 9 to 7. Missile speed reduced to 100 from 120
• Lancer missile turn speed reduced from 5.2 to 4. Missile speed reduced to 55 from 70
• Disarmer missile turn speed reduced from 5 to 3. Missile speed reduced to 45 from 70
• Maverick missile turn speed reduced from 4.4 to 4. Missile speed reduced from 100 to 70
• Crippler missile turn speed reduced from 9 to 6. Missile speed reduced from 100 to 70
• Thunder missiles have been buffed to make them a much more viable choice
• Thunder missile damage increased from 85 to 145.

Other changes

• Delete key is no longer reserved and is bindable
• To clear a keybinding, press Escape (rather than Delete) while binding a key
• Instances of the word 'gamepad' have now been replaced with 'controller', in the controls menu, to cover both gamepads and joysticks.
• 'Invert Y-Axis' Controls label renamed to 'Invert Mouse Y-Axis". For controllers simply rebind the controller axis at the bottom of the list of Controls.
• Motion Blur disabled by default in all graphics presets. This can still be enabled/disabled manually via the 'Manual Setup' video preset.
• Upgrade incompatibility warning messages updated for improved clarity.
• The Energy Efficiency statistic is artificially inflated before calculating Overall Efficiency for the Statistics panel. The Energy Efficiency panel now shows the real value rather than the inflated value.
• 'Press Spacebar to fire missiles" added to level 1 main tutorial messages to better ensure new players know that they exist
• 'Mouse1' keycode reworded to 'Right Mouse Button' during level 1 main tutorial messages (if this key hasn't been rebound to something else)
• New 'Missiles' page added to the help manual to ensure players know that missiles regenerate and should be used freely
• Intermediate guide title page altered in the help manual to encourage further reading
• Weapon hit notification sound volume reduced by 30%
• New Xbox Controller 'Default Secondary Controls' page added to the in-game help system.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some particles would receive a black border while using the 'Edge Effect' video option.
• Fixed an issue where the 'show installed upgrade' button could remain greyed out after installing an upgrade into an empty slot.
• Fixed an issue that would create two weapon amplifier upgrades with the same version number.

Flight Stick Support Added.

Improvements

• Joysticks are now recognized by the game and can be configured in the Controls menu
• Default Secondary Keybindings have been reworked to match Xbox Controllers
• Ambient Occlussion video option added. This will be on by default when using the High, and Ultra graphics presets. It will need to be enabled manually if you are using custom video settings.
• New Bloom added. This new bloom effect adds additional contrast to bright effects and smoother bloom around bright objects. It replaces the old bloom effect.
• While the player is below Tech Level 4, the maximum tech level of hostiles spawning in the highways directly connected to the players start position has been reduced to Tech Level 3. This should make life much easier and more intuitive for new players. This change also massively reduces the chance that lethal enemies will fly into these areas.
• Weapon sound effects significantly improved.
• New button added to the upgrade panel to toggle between displaying upgrades in ascending or descending order. This allows the highest level upgrades to be displayed first.
• Newly discovered upgrades and hulls (those which have been recently looted to 100%) are now marked with a yellow star in the upgrade and hull windows respectively.
• Yellow stars now also appear over the various slot type buttons in the upgrade panel if any upgrade for that slot type is marked as newly discovered.
• By using the "-force-d3d9" command line argument, the game will now run in Fullscreen Exclusive mode on Windows. This resolves issues with Gsync monitors.

Balance Tweaks

• After the player has used Blind on a target, that target now has a 70% chance to instantly target and attack the player once the Blind debuff clears.
• Railgun base damage reduced from 61 to 55, and range reduced from 250m to 200m
• MagnaBeam damage increased by 7% from base 3 to 3.21
• Laser Cannon base damage increased from 48 to 54
• Flak Cannon base damage per projectile increased from 6.9 to 8 per projectile. Each shot has 8 projectiles.
• Reputation loss for killing friendlies capped at 225 points. (Previously 10% of total reputation with no cap)
• Uranium loot drop size and task rewards increased by 25-40%.
• Homing missiles will now only begin homing once they have reached 25% of their maximum range. This allows the player to fire missiles around corners, and also makes dodging missiles a little easier especially in close quarters combat.
• Firefly missile turn speed reduced from 9 to 7. Missile speed reduced to 100 from 120
• Lancer missile turn speed reduced from 5.2 to 4. Missile speed reduced to 55 from 70
• Disarmer missile turn speed reduced from 5 to 3. Missile speed reduced to 45 from 70
• Maverick missile turn speed reduced from 4.4 to 4. Missile speed reduced from 100 to 70
• Crippler missile turn speed reduced from 9 to 6. Missile speed reduced from 100 to 70
• Thunder missiles have been buffed to make them a much more viable choice
• Thunder missile damage increased from 85 to 145.

Other changes

• Delete key is no longer reserved and is bindable
• To clear a keybinding, press Escape (rather than Delete) while binding a key
• Instances of the word 'gamepad' have now been replaced with 'controller', in the controls menu, to cover both gamepads and joysticks.
• 'Invert Y-Axis' Controls label renamed to 'Invert Mouse Y-Axis". For controllers simply rebind the controller axis at the bottom of the list of Controls.
• Motion Blur disabled by default in all graphics presets. This can still be enabled/disabled manually via the 'Manual Setup' video preset.
• Upgrade incompatibility warning messages updated for improved clarity.
• The Energy Efficiency statistic is artificially inflated before calculating Overall Efficiency for the Statistics panel. The Energy Efficiency panel now shows the real value rather than the inflated value.
• 'Press Spacebar to fire missiles" added to level 1 main tutorial messages to better ensure new players know that they exist
• 'Mouse1' keycode reworded to 'Right Mouse Button' during level 1 main tutorial messages (if this key hasn't been rebound to something else)
• New 'Missiles' page added to the help manual to ensure players know that missiles regenerate and should be used freely
• Intermediate guide title page altered in the help manual to encourage further reading
• Weapon hit notification sound volume reduced by 30%
• New Xbox Controller 'Default Secondary Controls' page added to the in-game help system.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some particles would receive a black border while using the 'Edge Effect' video option.
• Fixed an issue where the 'show installed upgrade' button could remain greyed out after installing an upgrade into an empty slot.
• Fixed an issue that would create two weapon amplifier upgrades with the same version number.

Ground launch sequencer is go for Main engine start Solid Rocket Boosters ignite Explosive bolts release the boosters Lift Off!

• Ground launch sequencer is go for Main engine start • Solid Rocket Boosters ignite • Explosive bolts release the boosters • Lift Off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnblLgqPmpg

Let's do this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnblLgqPmpg

Let's do this!

For reasons we are not able to discuss at this time, we have moved the official 1.0 release date for NeonXSZ back from Feb 16th to Feb 22nd. It's not all bad news, though. The currently released build on Steam is likely to be identical to the 1.0 release in everything but name. If you are considering grabbing the game early then there is no need to worry about playing an incomplete or buggy version. The currently live early access build (version 0.98) is our final release candidate. This build has had no reported bugs or problems on any platform. We can't guarantee it, but we have no reason to expect this situation to change. Sorry for the delay. We'll update this announcement as soon as we can talk about things in more detail.

Update:

For reasons we are not able to discuss at this time, we have moved the official 1.0 release date for NeonXSZ back from Feb 16th to Feb 22nd. It's not all bad news, though. The currently released build on Steam is likely to be identical to the 1.0 release in everything but name. If you are considering grabbing the game early then there is no need to worry about playing an incomplete or buggy version. The currently live early access build (version 0.98) is our final release candidate. This build has had no reported bugs or problems on any platform. We can't guarantee it, but we have no reason to expect this situation to change. Sorry for the delay. We'll update this announcement as soon as we can talk about things in more detail.

Update:

With your help we've done it. It's ready. NeonXSZ is complete! https://youtu.be/bnblLgqPmpg It's been a long journey, and a mammoth undertaking, but we couldn't be happier than to announce that the finished game will officially launch for PC, Mac and Linux on February 16th 2016. In preparation for the release, the Steam page has had a complete overhaul. There's a brand new trailer, all new screenshots, updated game description and new branding\logo images. Here's a handy link to our Steam page if you're interested in checking out the changes (click the logo to link through): http://store.steampowered.com/app/296010 Thanks to everyone who believed in us and supported the game during development. Your reviews have been both amazing and humbling. We hope we did you proud. It wouldn't have been possible without you. Seriously! Over the coming weeks we'll be doing our best to spread the word to the gaming media. If you have a favourite YouTuber/Streamer, who you think might like the game, please let them know. Here's a link to the trailer on YouTube if you would like to help by sharing it on social media. Don't forget to give it a thumbs up and leave a comment to help promote the launch. Cheers. Edit: A member of the Shacknews chatty (pulsedrive) meme'd the release news. Awesome - http://i.imgur.com/FX5D8Bc.jpg

With your help we've done it. It's ready. NeonXSZ is complete! https://youtu.be/bnblLgqPmpg It's been a long journey, and a mammoth undertaking, but we couldn't be happier than to announce that the finished game will officially launch for PC, Mac and Linux on February 16th 2016. In preparation for the release, the Steam page has had a complete overhaul. There's a brand new trailer, all new screenshots, updated game description and new brandinglogo images. Here's a handy link to our Steam page if you're interested in checking out the changes (click the logo to link through): http://store.steampowered.com/app/296010 Thanks to everyone who believed in us and supported the game during development. Your reviews have been both amazing and humbling. We hope we did you proud. It wouldn't have been possible without you. Seriously! Over the coming weeks we'll be doing our best to spread the word to the gaming media. If you have a favourite YouTuber/Streamer, who you think might like the game, please let them know. Here's a link to the trailer on YouTube if you would like to help by sharing it on social media. Don't forget to give it a thumbs up and leave a comment to help promote the launch. Cheers. Edit: A member of the Shacknews chatty (pulsedrive) meme'd the release news. Awesome - http://i.imgur.com/FX5D8Bc.jpg

After four intense years of constant development, the alpha stage is now finished and it's nearly time to release this bad boy officially. The 1.0 release is just around the corner (planned for February) so it's time for the final beta test. In our eyes, beta means that all major bug fixing and balancing is already complete and that the game is finished with only final testing required. Beta build 0.98 is now live. For those that haven't been following recent development the last few months have been spent on behind the scenes stuff in preparation for the 1.0 release. For example, two months alone were spent preparing a new trailer. This means that the Beta release doesn't bring with it a host of new features like previous updates. That's not a bad thing though because the last build released was already feature and content complete and that build proved to be rock solid across all three platforms. During the development of the new trailer a few things did however get some minor visual tweaks and some developer only systems were added into the game to make capturing the new trailer footage possible. Whenever we add in new systems, there is always the possibility that something else gets broken. There's also been a couple of recent bugs discovered that have also been fixed. The main purpose of the Beta release then is to ensure that we have a rock solid stable game before the final review code version of the game goes out in January next year. That gives us a month of testing to iron out any last minute glitches that may have appeared due to recent changes while hopefully being able to relax and unwind a little over the holiday season. It's unlikely that we introduced any major new bugs but it's always a possibility so if you can help to put the game through it's paces one final time it would be much appreciated and help to create a flawless 1.0 release. Another change that is coming soon is the new game branding. This is already designed but it's not planned to go live until the new trailer is released early next year. This Beta build does give a sneak peak at the new branding though. The loading screen when booting up the game has been replaced with the new branding image. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported, playtested and given feedback on the game over the last few years. It's been both a stressful and amazing experience but we are so proud of the final result. The game is beautifully balanced and plays better than we ever imagined it would and that's all we ever strived for. Soon enough we'll be handing over our baby to you guys to share with the world. We couldn't have done it without you. <3 you guys and we wish you all an amazing 2016.

With the game now content and feature complete and a couple of months having passed since the last update, we wanted to let you guys know that everything is going great behind the scenes in preparation for the 1.0 release. After the last update, the first job was to take a step back and decompress. After a couple of weeks away from development it became clear how stressed and wired I'd become from pushing so hard for nearly 4 years to get the game finished. Doubts and tension faded and I was soon refreshed and ready to start work on the final release trailer.

The New Trailer

So What's Next?

We did it! After nearly 4 years, NeonXSZ is now both content and feature complete.
Build 0.95 adds the last major new feature: Objectives/Achievements. We don't like to do anything the normal way around these parts so in NeonXSZ the achievements award in-game currency (uranium) rather than some e-peen points. They also don't expect the player to jump through some crazy tedious hoops to complete them. A typical objective may be something as simple as 'Kill 10 ships in the F1 hull'. They are designed to encourage the player to try out all the different hulls, gadgets, upgrades and play styles that are possible and in turn help the player to get the most out of the game. The reward sizes have been balanced so that these new objectives are also entirely optional. For a sandbox game this is obviously important. We want you guys to play NeonXSZ however you damn well please, but if the totally open ended game structure doesn't suit your taste you can now follow a list of objectives throughout the game and be rewarded for completing them.

New and improved Gadget FX:

So is the game finished?

Build 0.95 Changelog

• 68 new Objectives/Achievements added. Can be found in Options/Objectives.
• New Advanced Gadget FX toggle option added to Options/Video
• GyroShield visuals dramatically improved with new shaders, and other improvements
• Ship spawn effect tweaked
• Ship spawn effect added when launching drones
• New sound effect added to the Barrier gadget when activated
• Barrier brightness increased for better visibility
• Barrier outline added
• New animation effect added as Barrier reaches max size.
• Black Hole gadget particle effects now only appear when Advanced Gadget FX is enabled.
• New effects added to Blink Gadget. Psychedelic rings appear along the length of the Blink path. Blur reworked during Blink when used by the player. Dynamic environmental recoloring effect added while Blink is used by the player.
• New blinding flash effect added around the target when hit by CorruptAI : Blind gadget
• Impunity now has a new, additional, shield visual effect
• New, simple, but high performance, Leech visual effect added. Advanced Gadget FX must now be enabled to see the previous fancy bezier curve based leech effect.
• Neutonic Shield shader tweaked with subtle kaleidoscopic effect.
• Slight rework of the Shockwave visual effect.
• Electrocute gadget's visual effect transparency increased for better visibility while installed.
• New positional marker effect added around all floating turrets to make them more visible.
• WarpPipe shaders tweaked
• Docking ports with upgrade shops are now guaranteed to also have garage services
• Docking ports with dealerships are now guaranteed to also have Quantum Teleporter services
• New Introduction page added to the beginning of the in-game help system
• New Objectives page added to the Beginners section of the in-game help system
• Non-player ships can no longer be pushed around during docking procedures. This prevents a number of potential issues with docking bays.
• New toggle option added to Options/Video to enable/disable the Vignetting effect. This setting is automated when using the game's video presets. Disabling this should improve GPU performance for very low end systems.
• Tooltip popup delay reduced to 0.3 from 0.5 seconds.
• Fixed missing loot pedestals and teleporter frames from Station 7 Arena 4.

Where did the sun go? That didn't last long. It must be gaming time again! It's been less than three weeks since the last main update but that doesn't stop this one from having some significant changes. First up we have an all new color scheme, 'Inversion', that brings a dramatically different look to the entire game. Seen here and above....
All the arenas have also been updated with additional lightning making them much more visually appealing. This improved lighting also helps to guide the player through the arenas by marking exits or points of interest. Based on player feedback, the huge maze-like Station 7 arenas have had a big overhaul to make them easier to navigate, more appealing and more accessible. New cryptic guide symbols have been added to the walls combined with a number of other tweaks and improvements that can be seen below. If you're deep into the game you will also be able to take advantage of a big change to the Upgrade Anywhere gadget. Combined with it's previous ability to allow the installation of upgrades and hulls anywhere at any time, it is now activatable. This means we can click it's cockpit button or use a hotkey to swap back and forth from our previously used hull with a single click. This opens up a whole new world of build possibilites. We can fly a super fast scout and instantly swap to a combat ship when needed, or come up with radical new builds that combine the upgrades. gadgets, and firepower of two different ship designs at once. We're really excited to see what crazy builds you guys come up with. Have fun with the new changes and be sure to let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions in the Discussion Area here on Steam.

Patch 0.942 Changelog

• New color scheme - 'Inversion' - added
• All arenas updated with new and improved lighting
• Arena 001 in Station 1 remodeled and retextured
• All Station 7 Arenas significantly updated. New arrows and other environmental symbols added to ease navigation.
• On screen timers for Station 7 event pulse effects doubled. Pulse effects are now yellow for better contrast.
• Pulse effect after shooting bullet chambers limited to once per second. Prevents FX spam.
• Station 7 arena blocks, that move on timers, have had their timers extended.
• Docking bay energy beams now turn orange during initial docking phase for additional visual feedback.
• Upgrade Anywhere gadget is now activatable. Activating this gadget will automatically swap to the last used hull.
• It is no longer possible to swap hulls using Upgrade Anywhere if any gadget is on cooldown. This prevents exploiting gadgets like Impunity to become infinitely invulnerable.
• Uninstalling an upgrade while it's on cooldown while also using the Upgrade Anywhere gadget is no longer possible.
• Fixed a bug that could cause CorruptAI gadgets to have their effect light stuck on when using Upgrade Anywhere to swap hulls.
• Pressing the Esc key now closes the Station Teleporter interface.
• Missile debuff sound effects reworked to be more distinct and recogniseable.
• When swapping hulls, the previously installed weapon for that hull is retained. Applies to current game session only.
• Fixed another instance of virus cubes poking into the highway
• Fixed typo on 'Overall Rating' help page
• Fixed mislabeled buttons on 'Controls' help page.
• 7th Miscellaneous slot added to D3+
• Fixed issue that caused splash damage to fail if 'Impact Sparks' option is disabled in Video options.
• Weapon FX, when reaching max distance, disabled if 'Impact Sparks' also disabled
• Lightning Gun impact sparks effect replaced and improved with animated version.
• Reworked all upgrade icon textures with outlines and glow for better visibility and visual impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3NFwnmX2zU The latest patch is live and has so many updates that after including the patch notes there's not enough space left in a Steam announcement for us to say much else. A brand new in-game help manual is included which can be seen in the above video. Originally we wanted to leave the player to discover the depths of the game by themselves, and experience 'eureka moments' as they did so, but too many players had no idea that there was depth to discover or simply became overwhelmed and confused.The new manual solves this without holding the players hand while simultaneously giving new players a much better introduction to the game. Two new hulls were added which replace the old M1 and F1 hulls. They can be seen below:

...and a whole slew of other updates and changes. Build 0.935 Changelog:

• Massively improved and totally new Help/Guide/Manual added in-game. Broken up into Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced it acts like both a getting started guide and a mini wiki.
• New hull models for the F1 and M1.
• Missiles now have new 3D sound effects allowing the player to determine their direction and distance more intuitively.
• Missiles now have new launch sound effects
• Missiles now explode at max distance rather than simply vanishing.
• Missiles now create reverse force against the firing ship in the same way that weapons do. Heavy hulls suffer from this less.
• Crippler and Disarmer missiles now have unique inflight sounds with sonar like beeps.
• Back end sound system improved to allow multiple notification and weapon launch effects simultaneously
• New sound effects added when entering/exiting interrupt mode
• All weapon sound effects have been improved.
• Plasma gun projectiles now grow in size during flight
• Plasma Gun and Inferno Gun projectiles now burst at max distance rather than disappear.
• Cockpit camera shake added when firing weapons.
• Shield Hit sound effect increased slightly and tweaked.
• Fan volumes increased slightly
• Inferno Gun projectiles redesigned and improved
• Inferno Gun impact effect replaced and upgraded.
• Fire patch effect improved
• Each missile debuff effect now has a unique sound effect while in flight.
• Player hit-notification sound replaced with improved clearer ping sound.
• Multiple upgrades added to the sound subsystem to better balance load during heavy firefights. This should help performance and reduce occassional popping audio artifacts on lower end sound systems
• Audio sub system improved to prevent most audio popping artifacts related to the player taking hits or damage.
• Camera shake added when firing missiles
• Fixed incorrectly positioned Kill Streak messages
• Kill Streak award threshold reduced to TL+1 from TL+1.5
• 'Experienced' difficulty is now called 'Normal' and is also the new default difficulty setting ('Recruit' difficulty soon became too easy for most players and they could lose interest). This change is not retro-active. You will need to change this manually if desired.
• Difficulty descriptions changed to reflect these changes
• Tweaks made to initial tutorial system for new players that tie seemlessly into the new help manual.
• Significant improvements made to the 'is a ship outside the station' detection code. This should dramatically reduce the frequency of seeing ships outside and those that still manage it will usually be teleported back inside much more quickly
• Added invulnerability for 3 seconds after spawning at a homebase in friendly space to allow players to escape respawn kills.
• Fixed bug that caused Docking Bay Service Buttons to fire twice when pressed (This caused the Teleport Home button to cost double)
• Camera orbit control disabled after death while Metrics panel is on screen.
• Fixed camera clipping into hull at high FOV when using D3 or D3+
• Improved GUI to allow for energy displays up to 9999 petawatts (Yes, terawatts were not enough in the late game!) This solves missing data in the stats screen.
• Tweaked Barrier shader to be more easily visible when pressed up against a Barrier
• Additional miscellaneous slot added to C3+ Corvette
• Gadget compatibilities tweaked for C3 and C3+ Corvettes
• Fixed exploit that allowed some gadgets to be activated without triggering their cooldowns.
• Fixed issues when unchecking 'Copy Current Upgrades When Swapping Hulls' on the hull panel. Incorrect code in compatibility testing would cause this setting to be ignored and would overwrite upgrades accidentally. You should now be able to swap to a different hull without causing upgrades to be copied over when this checkbox is unticked. Only core upgrades will now be copied over if any core upgrade on the target hull is no longer 100% complete.
• Fixed issue in Station7 Arenas where blocks could move to incorrect positions if they were colliding with the player when an arena event was completed
• New technique for dealing with loot pickup audio, and shield hit audio, to prevent audio popping artifacts when these sound effects are requested in quick succession.
• Fixed various minor issues with Ship AI that could cause them to fail to accept new orders.
• Invert Ship Colors is automatically enabled when choosing 'Yellow Hostiles' from the Customize panel.
• Fixed issue that caused some upgrade names to not fit the hover window while inspecting them
• Rotation limits removed from orbit cam at ship config screen. The camera can now rotate infinitely in any rotation direction.
• Combat Loot Multiplier cockpit display now pulses in size whenever a kill is made to draw new players attention to it.
• Tech Levels for enemy distribution tightened. This should make finding appropriate hostiles a little easier later in each station. As always, if you are unlucky and can't find an appropriate area, return the main menu and the station will regenerate with a new distribution.
• MouseSensitivity setting in Options/Controls now affects the orbit camera seen at Ship Config screen and death screen.
• Sensitivity slider minimum settings clamped to prevent zero.
• HUD elemental shield markers fade to lower transparency with lower elemental shield levels.
• Respawn button is now greyed out on the Metrics Panel (after death) until the system is ready to respawn correctly. Previously caused a camera glitch if pressed earlier than expected.
• FR1+ Frigate mass increased by 2, and it's description changed to reflect this and other recent changes.
• Maximum Field of View increased from 130 to 160.
• Fixed a couple of mesh errors that caused 'virus cubes' to poke out into the highway.
• Upgrade images now appear greyed out in the upgrade panel as soon as some code is discovered. They become full color once unlocked at 100% known.
• Blind gadget mass reduced. Blind no longer causes the target to become instantly hostile when the Blind effect wears off.
• Lightning gun energy requirement increased to 3.8 from 2.45. This makes the lightning gun the least energy efficient weapon in the game by quite a margin to help counter balance it's high damage output.
• Difficulty Rating added to Statistics/Metrics panel for increased pose factor ;)
• Added numerical sensitivity value to tooltips for all Sensitivity sliders in Options/Controls.
• Effectiveness of all elemental shield modifier upgrades increased.
• Effectiveness of omnishield upgrade decreased by 10%
• Orbit cam at Ship Config screen now automatically reorients to match the player's ship orientation.

It's been one hell of a journey but we are proud to announce that NeonXSZ is now content complete!

New Content:

• New central sphere design for station 7.
• New arena tech used in....
• 4 Massive new arenas with over 100 new combat events. Each arena is larger than all 4 arenas in any previous station.
• 3 New Hulls - 1 Destroyer, 1 Frigate, 1 Corvette - All hull designs are now complete.
• End game scenario and game complete sequence.
• Super late-game - Once the game is complete players can continue to discover secrets to reach level 80.

Miscellaneous update and changes:

• Reworked task rewards for better balance in the late game.
• Various hulls and upgrades are no longer available at shops and must be aquired inside of the arenas.
• Various hulls no longer used by enemies.
• Bug fixed that caused Betty to stack immediate messages.
• Black Hole gadget strength reduced
• Tooltips now appear after a slight delay rather than instantly.
• Various hull stats tweaked for improved balance.
• Cockpit text overflow fixed for late game data.
• Fixed timer bar stretching across the screen during Game Initialization stage 1.
• Railgun shot delay increased from 0.75 to 0.9 seconds.
• Turning on/off the video panel on the cockpit will now reset your ships systems.

Notes:

Price Increase in July

Content complete? WTF! Serious bro? Aye. You read that right. It's taken 3.5 years of full time work but the next patch will make NeonXSZ content complete. That doesn't mean that the game is entirely finished, we still have a few months of tweaks and improvements ahead, but the May update adds the final hull models, the final station and the final four challenge arenas. Not only that, you can now complete the game and the new content is packed full of secrets that will allow the truly dedicated to reach level 80. Will you be the first?

So what's in store?

Station 7 Rework + 4 HUGE new arenas

So when can I get my mitts on it?

Thanks

To celebrate the success of the Descent Underground kickstarter campaign, and the return of 6DoF gaming to the limelight, we'll be running a NeonXSZ promotion starting tomorrow. Congrats to all the guys at Descendent Studios. It was a close one but you scraped over the line and that's all that matters. I'm sure the whole NeonXSZ community wishes you the best of luck bringing the daddy of 6DoF back to life. Unfortunately we've all got a long wait before we can play Descent Underground. For those itching for some 6DoF action right now you'll be hard pressed to find anything better than NeonXSZ. With dozens of ships, 900+ upgrades, and close to 100 hours of content already there's never been a better time to jump on board. The NeonXSZ promotion is scheduled to begin at 10am on April 12th.

The major March 2015 content patch is now live. Click to see full patch notes. For a more detailed overview of the new patch (with screenshots and gifs) you can see the patch preview announcement HERE

New Content:

• 3 New Hulls - 1 Corvette, 1 Frigate, 1 Missile Fighter
• 4 Totally new arenas in station 6.
• 2 New Gadget Types- Black Hole & Upgrade Anywhere
• 2 New Upgrades Types - Retribution & Code Analyser

Main Features:

Patch 0.9 is just around the corner folks. Bringing with it a bevy of new ships, upgrades, gadgets and environments, the next content patch should be touching down within the next couple of weeks. Here's a preview of what's in store.

Overview:

Four new arenas:

Two new gadgets

Two new Miscellaneous Upgrades:

Squadrons:

New Target Direction Indicator:

Reworked leveling speed

New Arena Labels:

New Audio Options:

..and more...

When will this patch will be released?

It's been less than two weeks since the last major content update and we've already got new stuff to show. Above we have an all new hull for the FR2 - Malefactor. Unlocking at around level 30 this beast packs a serious punch. It looks great from the cockpit too....
Next up we have the new C2 - Assiduous corvette:
Like the FR2 it's foward gun turrets look awesome from the cockpit:
Last up is a new missile class ship the M3 - Stalker:
This next update will also be adding bags of new content for levels 50-60. If you're not already level 50 then get busy.

The latest major content patch is now live. Click to see full patch notes.

Introduction

Four New Challenge Arenas (Tech Levels 40-50)

Two new hull models

New Task - Claim Arena

Two New Gadgets

New Weapon - MagnaBeam (Tech Level 45)

New Missile - Maverick Missiles (Tech Level 44)

Miscellaneous Updates

• All Hull icons have been updated and replaced
• Energy returned from known loot multiplier increased to 3 from 1.7
• Reblanced the default overclocking on many hulls.
• Reworked gadget compatibility of many hulls.
• Clicking on the difficulty data panel at the main menu now opens the difficulty window.
• Fixed an issue that allowed AI ships to use high level hulls too early in the game.
• Various upgrade descriptions tweaked.
• Improved message system at ship config screen.
• Missile HUD marking system tweaked.
• Fixed issue that caused the lightning gun effects to appear in the wrong place for the first frame.
• Fixed issue where the gadget compatibility window would have it's text incorrectly aligned if the Basic Stats panel was hidden.
• Fixed issue that caused the combat music to stay active after combat if the Energy Coupler upgrade was installed.

Upgrade Rebalancing

• Energy Coupler Mass reduced to 2.8 from 3.8
• Energy Recovery Mass reduced to 3 from 4.2
• All 80 Engine upgrades increased in power to allow for more flexible upgrade loadouts.
• Core Energy Regeneration units increased by ~70%
• Core Shield Regeneration units increased in power by ~95%
• Misc Energy Regen Boosters increased by ~40%
• Misc Shield Regen Boosters increased by ~20%
• Impunity Gadget cooldown reduced to 30 seconds from 45 seconds.
• Railgun damage increased by ~25%.
• Laser Cannon damage increased by ~ 25%.
• Flak Cannon damage increased by ~40%

New Hull - The 'M2 Predator'

New Task - Claim Arena

New Weapon - Magna Beam New Gadget - Warp Pipe

New Hull - 'D2 Executioner'

Four New Arenas - Strap yourselves in for some mayhem.

What is it like to play?

FEATURES:

• Highly customizable:
  Manually tweak everything from enemy intelligence, skill, and damage through to the look of your ship and even the look of the world around you.
  Slow everything down with a game-speed slider that allows players of every skill level to enjoy the game. It's like permanent bullet time for those that need it.

• Real Loot:
  Kill a hostile and it will drop parts for every piece of equipment it has installed, not random loot. This means that defeating a higher level enemy guarantees it will drop higher level predictable loot.
  
  If you see it, you can loot it, fly it, and use it.

• OS: Ubuntu 10.10 or later (see below)
• Processor: 1.8GhzMemory: 1 GB RAM
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: Geforce 210. 9600GT or better. Radeon HD 3670 or better.
• Storage: 450 MB available spaceAdditional Notes: Mouse and Keyboard (Ubuntu is recommended but so far there has been no issues reported with other Distros)

• OS: Ubuntu 10.10 or later (see below)
• Processor: 3GhzMemory: 2 GB RAM
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: Geforce 9800GTX+ / GTS 240. Radeon HD 4830 / HD 6800M. Intel HD4000
• Storage: 450 MB available space