Build 1.0.20160612.3

As we enter our third month of early access, and look forward to Phase 2, there has been quite a bit happening behind the scenes in the Terran galaxy, both in and out of the game. We want to again thank all of you providing your feedback in phase 1 – this has lead to some great new game functionality and a better experience for all players. Keep your suggestions coming! This is expected to be the last major patch of the Phase 1 cycle with the next patch; aside from general maintenance; introducing Phase 2 content and shifting the focus into new areas of the game. We will be continuing to add new ship parts and simulation missions as we lead into Phase 2 and well beyond and of course continuing to polish the Ship Editor and its related functions. You can read more on the Early Access Phase approach on YouAreTerran.com. Be sure to follow Heathen Engineering’s Terran on Facebook and @HeathenEngineer on Twitter where the developers will be posting screen shots, videos and more as we continue to build a great game with the help of the gaming community. Engine Update We are in the process of updating the underlying engine and this patch includes a number of changes - in particular to rendering settings, which will ultimately improve performance and visual quality across the supported platforms. Players with saved settings from previous builds may notice visual errors. These errors tend to occur where the anisotropic textures setting is ‘Forced Enabled’. This can be corrected in game by sliding the graphics quality slider to ‘Good’ and returning it to the desired setting after. You may also notice the game is brighter and the bloom effects are stronger. You can adjust the strength of the bloom or ‘flare’ effect in the settings area of the game by turning up the ‘Glare Reduction’ setting. Introducing Programmable Parts Ship hull components can now be programmed to execute configuration changes on triggered events. Configurations adjust the position and rotation of a component and all the child components that are attached to it. This may change the silhouette of your ship, and can change the line of the sight of its turrets. Coupled with the new part parenting features you can trigger configuration changes to occur with the movement of your ship or on specific events such as stance change and locking or unlocking targets. You can also configure these changes to always loop for a simple bit of visual style. [img=http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/22/21496/20160612225503_1.jpg][/img] New general use Hull parts A new line of general use hull parts has been introduced, including new ‘cores’ which help shift your ships ‘core’ statistic in the desired direction. They are available in Armour, Shield, Structure, Thrust and Torque augmenting cores. ‘Core’ hull components function as standard hulls with average contributions across all ship features and an additional bonus to the cores specific function such as Armour. These parts are generally small low profile elements making for useful pivot points with the new programmable part functions. [img=http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/22/21496/20160622011023_1.jpg][/img] Hunter Missile Manufactory The Hunter missile weapon component has been added to the weapons parts list. This is a M mount seeking missile weapon turret with moderate complexity. Missile or ‘launched’ weapons have a substantially higher yield (damage per second) than cannon or beam weapons, however they are less effective against shields and have a notably slower fire rate and flight time. The "area of effect" nature of launched weapons coupled with target seeking functions means these weapons rarely miss, however they can be shot down in flight. [img=http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/22/21496/RemovedUI.jpg][/img] The History of Terran (Lore and Back story) Wondering how the Terran came to be? Heathen Course Technologies has begun to unveil the mystery of this formidable species and invites you to read up on its history to add to your gaming experience. Story parts will be added frequently and we encourage you to check back regularly for new updates to the story. YouAreTerran.com Story [img=http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/22/21496/LorePage.JPG][/img]

Patch Notes

Part parenting, programmable parts and ship stances have all been added with this patch along with a long list of bug fixes and general improvements to gameplay, rendering, physics and UI. For a full list of changes, bug fixes and all of the new features added please see the Terran Roadmap On Going Development list. Linux Platform The previous build presented several issues with the Linux 32 and Linux 64 builds which have since been corrected. Please note we are still working on performance issues and are aware of rendering errors on the Linux builds. These outstanding issues are an area of focus for the development team and will be addressed in future patches. Changes and Additions

• Notable engine update; this update is to a ‘beta’ build of the target engine in preparation for the target ‘live’ version of the engine reaching ‘stable’ build. Some stability issues are expected.
• Changes to screen effects in this patch are the first of wave of ongoing improvements to rendering performance and quality changes. Completion of this process is dependent on the stable release of Unity 3D 5.4.x or later.
• New feature: ‘Part Parenting’ or the ability to ‘link’ parts such that the movement of the parent translates to the movement of all children accordingly.
• New Feature: ‘Programmable Parts’ or the ability to define behaviours and the steps of the behaviours for parts to execute on triggered events. At current only ‘hull’ type parts can be ‘programmed’ to trigger a single behaviour ‘always’, on movement (speed, turn, etc.) or on a defined value for shield, armour or structure or with weapon groups or on ‘stance’ change (offensive, defensive, balanced).
• New Feature: ‘Stances’ – three defined cases ‘Balanced’, ‘Offensive’ and ‘Defensive’ have been defined and can be switched by pressing the default keys of ‘Z’ = Defensive, ‘X’ = Balanced and ‘C’ = Offensive. Defensive stance improves shield recharge rates and will augment defensive instrumentation once implemented at the cost of firepower. Offensive stance improves firepower notably but suspends inherent shield recharge rates and degrades the performance of defensive instruments (once implemented) Balanced stance is the default stance and offers no noted advantages or disadvantages. Note that the transition of each stance is a ‘trigger able’ event e.g. programmable parts can respond to the change of each stance.
• New Weapon: Hunter Missile Manufactory M mount class missile type weapon with moderate complexity requirements. Missiles are more effective against armour and structure than against shields.
• New Components: 11 new hull components added
  • T frame type A, B and C general hull component added
  • Shield, Armour and Structure core hull component added
  • TC1 and TC2 thrust and torque core hull components added

Known Issues

• With no parts in the ship editor you cannot save a template nor can you change the category of the template.
• Copying a part that has child parts incorrectly copies the child parts such that they are visible in editor but not included in the resulting ship template.
• Parenting parts does not update in the Undo/Redo history - subsequent ‘undo’ after a parenting operation can result in unexpected part placement.
• Some transitions out of programming mode back to editing mode can cause program steps to become orphaned.
• Latest engine update and shader updates have changed the lighting effect in some areas; more work is required to complete the transition to the new models.
• Part parenting options for the "At Speed", "At Turn" and "With Weapon Group" value options have an known issue with saving the trigger value.
• The pause menu ‘Return’ button does not return the player to menu.
• New fields are missing tooltips and multi-language support; this will be updated in the patches to follow.
• On player death the game may stutter as it returns to the previous menu.
• Initial load sequence and mission load sequence can stutter on some machines.

Upcoming Changes In addition to general bug fixes and solutions for known issues:

• Additional general use ship components are in design and testing now along with new Light, Mid and Heavy hull components. These will be released in smaller patches over the following weeks. These will be introduced to the ‘beta’ opt-in depot on Steam available to all players prior to release to the live game.
• Additional ‘launched’ weapons similar to the new Hunter Missile Manufactory and new dual cannon turrets are in testing and will be released in smaller patches over the following weeks. These will be introduced to the ‘beta’ opt-in depot on Steam available to all players prior to release to the live game.
• Ship Editor ‘Free Flight’ training mission simulation is being redesigned to help teach new pilots the basics of flight and combat. The new mission simulation will feature repeatable scored challenges focusing on manoeuvring, targeting and basic ship functions such as stance. The simulation will also include a central ‘gauntlet’ area offering a scored session of endless enemy waves to test yourself and your ship against. The initial changes to the ‘Free Flight’ simulation will be released to the beta branch with the next minor patch update and be further refined according to player feedback. Be sure to watch the announcements for all the latest information.

[ 2016-06-23 09:25:07 CET ] [ Original post ]