Greetings citizens, ~ As a lot of you probably know, we are in the process of refining and testing the power update. Dev builds are released almost daily and things are coming together nicely. We have no intention to rush the release as a large amount of existing systems need to be tested multiple times. While waiting on test results, development can already continue on parts of the future weapon update. Most of its mechanics will already be done by the time the power update is out and should make it likely to release both updates within this year. We definitely want to start to work on the universe update in 2017 still, and we are excited to share the details with you right after the weapon update release. Within all of those updates, we will also continue working on stability and performance, especially further work to remove lag spikes or loading issues, including improvements to planet sectors. For now, we’ve reduced the default planet size further to decrease their impact on servers as an interim solution till they get replaced. The new power system will be able to run alongside the old power. This means that ships spawned from blueprints will still be usable. However, the old power blocks cannot be crafted or bought in shops unless the server owner reactivates them, building new ships with old power is therefore discouraged, but of course not disabled. As both old and new power can co-exist, we’ve altered the config system to support multiple styles of the same value for system balancing. This should help to make the transition as smooth as possible. A ship will be considered new power by default until an old power block is placed, in which case it would revert to the old power system, including structure hp and shields. Having the old system run alongside the new one of course added a bit of workload, but we think it is worth it to be able to compare both types in-game, showcasing the differences for any player. In addition to a new power system, several other features and changes were made along the way, which will, along with all the nuances of the new power system, be described in more detail in the coming pre-release news. A quick outline of those features besides the power system, and the chambers is: ~ Config manager system: Can be used to attach properties to any entities (e.g. sector with more damage) ~ Repulse Block: can be used to construct hover structures ~ Reactor GUI with graph view ~ Normal map tangent space fix ~ Updated HP system ~ Block ID cleanup ~ Some updates and fixes for the Block Editor UI ~ Multiple values per blockbehavior config value ~ Turret aim mode: manually aim turrets from your mothership ~ Rewritten structure information in build mode with quick access to a lot of functions (faction, renaming, docking, AI) ~ Local shields: rewritten shield system to cover a radius rather than global to balance shield coverage between multiple docked entities ~ Stealth/Recon: New system for players to hide or gain information about their opponent ~ New warp interdiction system ~ New ship jumping system ~ Highlighting feature of any system (for recon) ~ Stability update: completely rewritten design for usable systems in entities ~ New undocking behavior ~ New dock sharing behavior ~ General GUI improvements and fixes ~ GUI updates in preparation of a scaling system ~ Refined debris creation to not be laggy in hotspots ~ Extra safety checks for block removal (storage block, shipyard, faction module,...) ~ Updated context help, ability to filter (all, most, crucial only, none) ~ Beam shader change and fix for beam sprite rotation. ~ Ability to save and load inventory hotbar layouts ~ Several fixes for bugs and bottlenecks If you want to check out our latest dev build. Make sure to do so on a fresh installation, or make sure you’ve got a backup of your worlds to fall back on. Thanks for playing StarMade, - The Schine Team