I'm posting a few fixes and updates in todays patch before I lock everything down and start integrating the chapter 3 content. I've completed all assets for the new content update and it's time to put everything together.

This update adds pre-caching for all space content. You will notice that resources are being loaded when the game launches. This means a longer load to the main menu of the game, however, load times to space while in the game with be much faster. I also did a bit of work on load times for transitions between ground locations and will continue to work on this.

You will also find a new "Dark Space" option on the video options screen. This will set a single high resolution sky throughout the game. I felt this was a good option for players who would prefer a more realistic experience when flying through space. If you enable this at the main menu, loading a save will apply the new setting. If already in the game and in space, you will need to save and reload to see the changes.



Join Bumpy McSquigums as he streams Stellar Tactics live on the store page over the holidays. Here is the full schedule:

All streams will start at 1 PM EST and last 2 hours assuming no technical issues.
December 21
December 22
December 23
December 27
December 28

As always, thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics.

Notes for this patch:
UPDATED: The game now pre-caches content when first loading the game. This results in transitions from ground to space loading much faster than before. Your mileage may vary.
UPDATED: Improvements in loading speed between ground mission areas.
UPDATED: Using the character info, inventory, log, and ship UI now pauses the game while in space.
UPDATED: Asteroid fields indicated by [AF] in the star system object list on the star map and in space are now named "Asteroid Field [AF]". [AF] wasn't good enough.
ADDED: The video options screen now has an option for "Dark Space". This will set a single space material taken from public domain imagery of the Milky Way galaxy. I'm adding this for those of you who would prefer a more realistic space background. When enabling this option, you will need to exit and launch the game again for the option to take effect.
FIXED - Raider base story location - lighting and transition from last level to previous level location.
FIXED - Crew members would occasionally spawn above floor level in some areas.
FIXED - Map zoom in/out now matches the environment zoom mouse wheel settings. In - mouse wheel forward. Out - mouse wheel back.
FIXED - Disabling autosaves from the options menu was not functioning as expected.
FIXED - In a few instances, NPC's turned hostile could end up invisible. For example, Lazlo Eklund.
FIXED - Crew members equipped with armor, weapons, devices, and shields cannot be dismissed. You must remove all gear from a crew member before dismissing them in the crew manager. This resolves a problem where the crew could be dismissed, destroying story-critical devices like the Aznari Scanner and Psionic Amplifier.
FIXED - Missing planetary description info when targeting Coven base during story content mission.
FIXED - Ship pitch control would invert when flying in certain directions while using the keyboard controls. Tuned keyboard controls so they are more responsive.
FIXED - A bug that would fail to display planetary mining node scan data.

Other recent patches:
11/14/23 - 0.722b
Fixed: Cargo volume on the "Ship" screen was not displayed correctly when various sorting filters were applied.
Fixed: Ship equipment on the "Ship" screen did not display the correct quality indicators in the cargo list.
Fixed: If you had very high skill in mining, and perks selected (+Mining speed), it was possible that you could depleted an asteroid before fully heating the asteroid. I adjusted the minimum bracket scaling to compensate for this.

11/3/23 - 0.722
Fixed - Ship repair components should not be rewarded from asteroids - really - I really hope so this time :)
Fixed - When mining, the asteroid "heat" bar would flash and disappear when mining.
A bit of tuning on the new mining system:

--The "Lower" indicator of the "sweet spot" when mining is decreased further with mining skill. At higher levels of mining skill, it was possible that an asteroid could be depleted before it even warmed enough to enter the "ideal heated" state.

--Increased the amount of ore generated overall when mining. The new system feels a bit slower because asteroids are being depleted at a slower rate - however, the amount of ore mined is greater than before over the same amount of time. Increasing the amount of heat (changed above) and increasing the amount of ore generated should bring things back to where they were before - if not better.

--Increased the amount of heat generated during a pulse.

--I should mention, some asteroids are "clunkers". This is by design. You can usually tell when you crank the energy on a turret to max and after a few pulses, it has not heated significantly. It's best to stop mining that asteroid and move on...

11/1/23 - 0.721
Fixed - Cargo inventory was not being displayed correctly. This was a display only issue and did not affect the items in your cargo. Let me know if you see any further issues related to ship cargo not being displayed.
Fixed - If an asteroid was clicked rather than actually targeted by first selecting a turret, the asteroid would incorrectly think it was already targeted and could not be mined.
Fixed - In some cases, stopping mining could leave an asteroid in a state where it could not be targeted by other mining turrets.
Fixed - Asteroids were rewarding ship repair components - ooops!

This update brings the updated mining system, fixes, advanced options and QOL changes.

Updated mining system:

The old mining systems was pretty much click and forget. That's still the case with wrecks, however, asteroid mining has changed. The new system uses "heat". As the turret pulses, the asteroid is heated. You have control over how much power you allocate to your turrets, which in turn controls the ideal temperature of the asteroid.

• You can only target asteroids with a single turret. Attempting to target an asteroid that is being mined will generate an error message in the log.
  
• Increase power to your turret to quickly heat the asteroid.
  
• As you approach the ideal temperature, back off a bit on the power until turret pulses remain between the "sweet spot" brackets. The bottom bracket will extend downward as you gain more mining experience making it easier to keep asteroid heat under control.
  
• Some asteroids are bit more unstable than others and the amount of energy required to maintain ideal temperatures will vary.
  
• Overheating asteroids will quickly deplete the asteroid and result in lower yields.
  
• If the asteroid is too cool (temperature below the bottom bracket) less ore is produced.
  
• You can see the remaining amount of ore left in the asteroid in the circular progress bar. The bar is also color coded - red=too hot, yellow=ideal, blue=temperature too low.
  

• Reduced the amount of ore produced by wreckage.
  
• Increased the number of ship repair components harvested.
  
• Changed the color of the mining turret beam when mining wreckage.
  

There is a maximum range for fast travel.

To fast travel, enter FTL space. Choose a target star system by either selecting the star system on the Universe Map, or if a story/mission location, select the mission in the objective tracker.
The upper left panel will display the targeted star system. There will be a new icon that can be selected that will move your ship near the selected system. There is a short delay while universe data is generated when traveling between star systems using the fast travel icon.

Advanced gameplay options

I've added advanced gameplay options to the options menu. These options are only visible when in a loaded game - not at the main menu. These are not global settings and only apply to the save game they are set in. You can reset these advanced settings at any time. All gameplay options now have rollover help.

Adjustments to the advanced options modify the currently selected difficulty. In some cases, you may need to save and reload and/or exit the current mission area and re-enter to see the changes take place.

If any of these options are enabled, the game will stop tracking Achievement progress. Resetting the advanced options to default will re-enable achievement tracking Currently the game is tracking a number of things like enemy deaths, ships destroyed etc. Any progress in existing saves will reward achievements when achievements are enabled later in the roadmap.

GROUND COMBAT:

• Increase/Decrease enemy damage
  
• Increase/Decrease enemy health
  
• Enable/Disable enemy missile launchers
  
• Enable/Disable enemy grenades
  

SPACE COMBAT:

• Increase/Decrease enemy ship damage
  
• Increase/Decrease enemy ship shields
  
• Increase/Decrease enemy ship armor
  
• Increase/Decrease enemy ship systems (boarding systems)
  

EXPERIENCE MODIFIERS:

• Increase/Decrease general experience rewarded
  
• Increase/Decrease space skill experience rewarded
  
• Increase/Decrease support skill experience rewarded
  

VENDOR PRICES- Note that any modifiers adjusted are applied after faction and charisma bonuses.

• Increase/Decrease vendor prices for items sold by vendors
  
• Increase/Decrease vendor purchase prices for loot and gear
  
• Increase/Decrease ship prices at vendors
  

QOL Items

• You are now warned if you enter a star system or a ground combat location that is well above your crews average level.
  
• Date and time have been added to save games. This is not retroactive and only new saves will register the date and time.
  
• Sorting options have been added to the cargo hold column headers.
  
• Repairing equipment only requires a single click now and will repair items as long as repair components are in your inventory.
  
• Increased ship repair components rewarded when mining wreckage. The number of components harvested are not displayed in the log.
  

Things that didn't make it
Crew missions did not make it into this build. This system needs more time in the oven before I can release it. I'll get this done as soon as I can and release a patch when it's ready.

Added: When on the FTL map, you can now fast travel to star systems within a certain range. If fast travel is available for the selected star system, a new icon is displayed to the right of the "APPROACH/ENTER SYSTEM" icon under the selected star system panel in the upper left of the screen. This allows players to move quickly through FTL space to story mission locations and other star systems. Whether or not you use it is up to you. Azimuth does not recharge in FTL space when fast traveling. Piloting experience is not granted when fast traveling. (See piloting EXP below)
Added: Date and time added to load/save interface. This is not a retroactive fix. Saves that have no date/time data associated will display the date as "---".
Added: You can now sort alphabetically, by value and quantity on the ship cargo screen [K] by selecting the column headings.
Added: If you unintentionally stray into a star system that is above your average crew level, a message is displayed to the screen and your log letting you know you will be annihilated forthwith.

Updated: Repairing equipment now requires a single click and will automatically complete the repair process for the selected item if enough materials are available for the repair.
Updated: Jump point models.
Updated: NPC ship navigation updated for better collision avoidance with planets and other objects. They will now prioritize avoidance with planets adjusting course as necessary.
Updated: NPC ships are less likely to ram you in space combat.
Updated: Piloting EXP is no longer earned by entering or leaving FTL space. Instead it is calculated by distance traveled over time both in star systems and on the FTL map. Piloting EXP rewarded from space combat has not changed.
Updated: Increased overall ship repair components when mining ship wreckage.
Updated: Asteroid mining now uses "heat" to determine yield of asteroids. Keeping the asteroids heat levels within acceptable tolerances increases the yield of asteroids. If the asteroid is cool (below the bottom bracket) less ore is generated. If the asteroid is too hot (above the upper bracket), the yield is lowered and the asteroid is destroyed faster.
Updated: Only one turret can be targeted to an asteroid now with the changes to the heat system. You can mine multiple asteroids at the same type by selecting the turret and targeting asteroids. If an asteroid is already being mined by a turret, a message is displayed to the screen that the asteroid cannot be mined by more than one mining turret.
--If you are too aggressive with heating, asteroids can get in a state where they are very hard to cool. You may need to stop mining the asteroid and let it cool down.
Updated: Reduced overall ore yield when mining ship wreckage. Note that you can target all mining turrets to wreckage.
Updated: Changed beam color to blue when mining ship wreckage.
Updated: When awarded ship repair components, the number of components rewarded is now displayed in the log.
Updated: If your ship is not moving, you will take additional damage in space combat. Some ships may be able to tank this additional damage if they have excellent shields and armor equipped.
Updated: Reduced general EXP gain from space combat applied to crew in ship station slots.

Fixed: The in-game guide is now accessible in the middle of space combat and will pause the game. This also applies if space combat is currently paused with the [P} key.
Fixed: Collisions with objects in FTL space and in star systems now return control to player much faster.
Fixed: When loading a save game in a star system, NPC ships could spawn in the center of the sun.
Fixed: In some cases, mining beams were not displayed when mining ship wrecks.
Fixed: In some rare cases, it was possible to spawn in the wrong universe position when first launching your ship from the planets surface.
Fixed: If stun immunity through Azimuth was active, and NPC's used stun grenades, crew members were partially stunned leading to various UI elements not working as intended.
Fixed: Initial ground exploration camera rotation values could be set to zero, locking the camera from rotating in new playthroughs. This required players manually set the camera rotation value in the gameplay options menu.
Fixed: Incorrect display of pooled experience toggle in options menu selection box.
Fixed: Crew member in ship repair slot was not receiving general experience from space combat.
Fixed: Crew member combat state was not completely cleared after combat in rare cases resulting in various errors. Most visible was that crew member was stuck in combat idle stance with no weapon in hands.

There will be bugs. Please, if you see anything - post a bug report here - > https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/


Thats all I have for now. I'll keep an eye on the forums and address any issues that pop up. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Well, Fall is here in the Northern hemisphere and I'm excited to post the remaining development tasks for Stellar Tactics over the next few months. There has been an absolute flurry of activity here on my part preparing content for Chapter 3, delivering on promises I made for a crew mission system and a bunch of QOL adjustments based on player feedback.

Stellar Tactics has been in EA for a long time. I realize for some, this has been annoying. People want to play a final game - right? Others don't mind contributing to the game with ideas, feedback and bug reports. I have a lot to be thankful for in that the community has been incredibly helpful in so many ways.

However, I need to be realistic. By that I mean, development needs a clear and final end point. There are so many great ideas from players and of course I have ideas myself. Unfortunately, not all of these can be realized or I would spend the rest of my life in Early Access. Up to this point, I've been very clear about what I wanted to accomplish, I've had fixed goals, an end point in mind and we are closing in on that vision - finally.

What does this mean? It means I'm going to be focused on the last chapter of the game, final features, a lot of cleanup, stability, tuning and various other bits that should polish the game up nicely in coming months. Here is the roadmap:



As you can see, I have a patch coming in October with a few new features, quality of life improvements and a good number of bug fixes.

The mining system update changes the mining system from a passive to an active process. A few notes and of course more details will come when the patch is released.

--You manage the energy of each turret to keep the asteroids temperature in a "sweet spot"
--This "sweet spot" is initially small and expands as you gain levels in the mining skill.
--Below the ideal temperature, you mine less ore.
--Above the ideal temperature, you mine less ore and the asteroid is depleted much faster.
--Asteroids at an ideal mining temperature provide bonus ore.
--Your perks will work as they always have.
--Asteroids can only be targeted by a single turret. You can target multiple turrets to separate asteroids.
--Salvaging derelict ships works as it always has - you can target all turrets at one time



The crew mission system will allow players to assign inactive crew members (crew members not assigned to ground crew or ship stations) to various mission types. Crew members will always receive EXP even if they fail the mission, however, failed missions will reward fewer credits and less experience. An example would be to send a inactive crew member on a rescue mission where they have a chance to gain combat experience in the weapon types they currently have equipped. Over time, crew members rank up and harder missions become available that reward better rewards.

I think the "Advanced settings" will be a welcome addition. Players will be able to tweak many things in their game, including the cost of ships, how much experience you gain for various activities, combat difficulty, and much more. In a sandbox, I believe there is no perfect default setting for everyone. More options are always better. You will be able to reset to defaults at any time.

Fast travel - Really, for me, it cannot be space if there is no time spent...well...traveling. However, so many players have commented that it takes too long to travel in FTL space. So, I've added a way to target a star system, within a certain range of course, and immediately travel to that location. This can only be done in FTL space from point to point. Notice the new icon below the Star System info screen in the upper left. Whether or not you use it is up to you.



That's all I have for now. I'll keep you posted as I get closer to releasing the October update.

/15/23 - 0.715
UPDATED: Pooled experience. Pooled experience will even out general experience gain between dedicated ground crew members so they level at an equivalent pace.
--General experience is now rewarded at the end of each combat session and the pooled total experience will be divided equally between each crew member regardless of KO.
--Leveling will progress a bit faster with pooled experience.
--Crew members who are behind will slowly catch up to the rest of the team.
--Skill gain will remain as it is now.
--Pooled experience is enabled by DEFAULT.
--You can switch to the original method of gaining ground combat experience by turning of "POOL COMBAT EXP BETWEEN CREW" option in the options->gameplay menu if you prefer to micro-manage EXP.

UPDATED: Crew members in ship station slots will now recieve a small amount of general level experience along with the usual skill experience when a ship is destroyed.
UPDATED: Any mission that gives a reward (loot) will now also reward a small amount of general level experience when completed/turned in.
UPDATED: A few changes to the option settings being saved and loaded. I've also added debug info to help track options not being saved correctly on some systems. If you do have any problems with settings, please send your log from that game session to support@stellartactics.com. You can find the log in the game install folder->"Log" folder.
UPDATED: Enemies no long fade when they die, and remain until you leave the area.
FIXED: A bug related to the combat queue when initializing the combat queue with an attack requiring more ammo than the weapon has loaded.
FIXED: Crew member Azimuth AP bonuses were not being applied when reloading the area from a save where the Azimuth effect was triggered.
FIXED: When ending a turn quickly, it was possible that the UI would end in a state where the end turn hotkeys would not respond and you had to manually click a end turn option.

6/2/23 - 0.714
UPDATED: Raised level cap from 60 to 80
UPDATED: Adjustments to initiative to level out how INT affects turn order.
FIXED: Shields and mods once again display item quality borders in the shared inventory.
FIXED: Various pressed key inputs will not activate ship functions while in inventory, log, ship and character info screens.
FIXED: Azimuth screen can no longer be opened while hacking.
FIXED: Ship component wear was not being copied from and to ship storage correctly. Note, in some cases the game may reset a ships equipment wear values when tranferred to/from storage if needed to 100% the first time this is done.
FIXED: Possible fix for rare state where a player character could be unable to move after transitioning to a new ground location.
FIXED: A bug related to universe data load on 32bit systems.
FIXED: A fix for a case where speaking with Rhamus and then Rodger Crayson during the main campaign could block progression.
FIXED: A few translation errors.

5/25/23 - 0.713
UPDATED - Increased the number of bonus equipment repair components received from salvaging.
UPDATED - Some work done on shotgun AOE related to enemy position above or below player position. I'm still looking at this closely.
FIXED - Grenades not damaging or applying effects to enemies. This bug applied to all grenade types - frag, stun, etc.
FIXED - Missiles not damaging or applying effects to enemies.
FIXED - Missiles could get caught on world geometry and explode prematurely when you had clear LOS to the enemy target.
FIXED - Aznari shards had no rollover info and were not displayed in the stash.
FIXED - Aznari shards are now visible in inventory after using the sort option and are sortable in stash.
FIXED - Aznari shards that were sold to vendors did not show in vendor inventory immediately after selling the shard.

5/22/23 - 0.712
FIXED - The game would lock up when boarding incursion ships.
FIXED - Phestus was not delivering boarding mission rewards when when you sold a ship to Arkus.
FIXED - The game would lock up if you opened the crew manager [J] and then opened the inventory, log, character info or ship UI.

HOTFIX 5/21/23 - 0.710
NPC's were issuing new procedural missions at the Achmedius Trade station. While that was not intended (and is now fixed) and generally would not break anything - a procedural mission from Forley Coresh would break the dialog needed to progress with the chapter 1 story.

If you took a procedural mission from Forley Coresh and he now responds with a "." in the dialog window, just save your game next to him, reload that save and all should proceed as normal.

If you have taken procedural missions from NPC's on Achmedius Trade Port, I recommend opening the log, selecting these missions (missions with a persons name followed by a x/x where x is a number, and then abandon the missions. Missions will not be issued by NPC's on that particular trade station any more.

I'm pleased to release Chapter 2 today. It's been a long road and I do hope everyone enjoys the new content. As always, it is likely a few bugs will surface over the next few days so I will keep an eye on the forums for any issues. If you do find any issues, please post on the bug forums here. Any details and screenshots you can provide will help: https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/


Localization - The English and German versions of the game are in good shape at this time. French, Spanish and Russian translations will be very rough. If you are interested in translating any of these three languages, send a note to support@stellartactics.com and I'll get back to you.

CHAPTER 2 - Pick up where you left off after completing chapter 1 with a message when entering space. Note that there are some very tough battles in this chapter so, grenades, Azimuth (when you get it) and Psionics will really help.

AZIMUTH - The final ground combat system to be implemented. Azimuth is a reward received during the chapter 2 story. It provides you with a variety of powerful effects that can be mixed and matched to both benefit your crew during combat and to debuff enemies. Effects last through an entire combat area so they are best used either at the start of an area or when you have tough enemies to defeat. Azimuth uses energy gathered over time through combat, space travel and by charging Azimuth with Aznari Shards. Chapter 3 (the final chapter) will introduce Azimuth which can be used in space combat.

MISSION NPCs - Mission NPC's can now be found on stations. When pressing the highlight key (TAB by default), mission NPC's are highlighted in BLUE. These missions offer cash rewards, loot, faction tokens and general faction. All of these missions have several stages/locations that need to be visited with different objectives and pay out rewards based on the number of stages required to complete the mission for the NPC. This is the first pass at NPC missions. I expect that I will be expanding on and refining the NPC mission system over time.

TRADE AND SMUGGLING MISSIONS - Trade and smuggling missions will be offered occasionally when entering a star system that has orbiting stations. These missions are only offered if a star system does not have an ACCEPTED buy or sell order registered in your Trade Net. Expand your trade network using beacons to take advantage of these missions.

• These missions always pay out bonuses that are above market value so it is always worthwhile taking the missions when offered.
  
• There is no timer so you can have as many as 20 of these missions available at any time. 20 is the maximum number of active trades allowed via the Trade-Net.
  
• Note that you can fulfil ore and refined ore missions by mining and refining ore yourself. Or, you can just buy the goods on the Trade Net. Of course, mining and refining ore will offer the most profit from these contracts.
  
• The volume required by these missions - that is the number of items needed to fulfil a contract, is based on your current cargo capacity. Ships with more cargo will be offered larger batches of commodities to trade.
  
• Trade contracts scale based on the amount of credits you have available when the contract is offered.
  
• There are special contracts that reward a very high return. These are offered by NPCs you have met through the games story content.
  
• Trade contracts can be canceled in the Trade-Net with no penalty.
  

• Only one boarding mission is offered at a time.
  
• To receive the reward, board any ship of the type that Phestus needs parts for. When selling the ship to Arkus, Arkus will route the parts to Phestus and Phestus will reward you.
  
• These missions cannot be abandoned. To get another mission, you should complete the current mission provided by Phestus.
  
• These missions are basically a bonus to the payout you receive and give players specific ships to target.
  
• Pick your targets carefully. Boarding ships will reduce your standing with the owners main faction.
  

• With Azimuth in the game, I'll be able to make final adjustments to the combat system.
  
• Adjusting the initiative system and exposing more information when rolling initiative.
  
• Better STAT descriptions that are in line with any changes I make above.
  
• Mining system changes. The current mining system is fairly basic. I'd like to make this a bit more interesting.
  
• Adjustments to various effects in the game.
  
• Tweaks to space combat.
  
• Knocking off rough edges everywhere. That includes final passes at the various game systems.
  
• Expanded faction warfare system and FTL map events.
  
• Advanced game settings.
  

Chapter 2 is in the works and I'm putting the finishing touches on everything. A large part of this will be the new procedural mission system which is taking longer than expected. Here is a quick overview of current progress:

100% - Chapter 2 content (locations, characters, etc.)
100% - Chapter 2 story integrated - can play through Chapter 2
100% - Azimuth The last major ground combat system completed.
30% - Procedural mission system
0% - Testing, adjustments and cleanup

Chapter 2 will focus on the Aznari, the Jhemm and fleshing out the story around your place in the Universe. Eventually, you will acquire Azimuth the very last combat system to go in the game. There will be a few surprises in this chapter and I really hope everyone enjoys the story as it sets the premise for the end game.



What is Azimuth? Well, without spoiling the story, it is a form of Ultimate. You charge energy by traveling through FTL space, fighting enemies or using Aznari Shards. When the gauge is filled, you can build a series of effects including heals and immunities, AP bonuses for your crew, AP penalties for enemies or, just unleash all your power to annihilate an enemy squad. Some bonus effects persist through the entire area until you leave to a new section of the map.



Chapter 3 will include Azimuth for space combat with a number of effects you can use against enemy ships. Once this is introduced, space combat will receive a major tuning pass.

Chapter 2 also introduces several new characters, additional locations to explore, and various activities related to the core game story.




A very large part of Chapter 2 will be introducing branching procedural missions. This has been very challenging and one of the main reasons for delaying Chapter 2. My goal is to provide a number of mission trigger types (looting, exploration etc. ) that will initiate missions with multiple objectives. Once these missions are completed, the payoff needs to be worthwhile as you will be traveling to a variety of locations to complete various tasks.

For those of you with existing saves, you will be able to pick the game up where you left off and continue your journey.

Thats all I have for now. Thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics! I'll keep everyone updated as I finalize Chapter 2.

Lots of changes today and a few bug fixes. Meanwhile, I am working on the Chapter 2 content which should be released late December or January. Notes below.

GAME ENGINE UPDATED:
Much smoother gameplay even with saves that have hundreds of hours played. In general, the updated core engine will provide better visual fidelity and smoother camera movement

Camera smoothing updated.

The game engine now requests the highest power GPU for laptops and systems that have both Intel and NVidia/ATI GPU's. In the past, this was a problem. In many cases the default settings on Laptops were trying to render the game on the Intel GPU which was much slower and in some cases did not fully support the shaders required to render game effects, causing crashes on these systems. The work around was to manually force high power rendering through the control panels.
NOTE: The new engine only supports 64bit OS. For 32bit OS, the game will fall back to the older renderer/engine.

RADAR MINI-MAP:
The radar now includes a mini-map of the area.


CHARACTER CREATION UPDATED:

When starting a new game, you are now presented with three options that set both a starting ship and career bonuses. When exiting the Aznari ruins, your career choice will set the ship type you find waiting for you on the planets surface. Career bonuses can be found below:

BOUNTY HUNTER - INTERCEPTOR: PHARRIS MACE AK-7
EXPLORER - Pharris Starhawk EXG-3
MERCHANT - Tarsus MRCH-2

NOTES:
The Tarsus MRCH-2 has had it's turrets adjusted. When a Tarsus MRCH-2 is reviewed at a ship vendor, when purchased, or as the starter ship, the turret configuration will be 4 light turret and 2 light missile hard points. The missile turrets have been downgraded to light mount points from heavy hardpoints. If you have already purchased a Tarsus MRCH-2, the heavy mountpoints will remain as they were before the patch until you swap them for another turret. This was done to balance the starting ships and bring the ship in line with the cost/value.

The Pharris Starhawk EXG-3 has had its default cargo increased from 850 to 1170 cargo so drone ore cargo can be retrieved. Though really, if you want to retrieve ore instead of auto-sell, you are better off with more cargo space.

CAREER BONUSES:
When loading an existing save, you will be given the option to select a CAREER BONUS. These are the same bonuses applied by selecting your starting career in character creation - less the choice of your starting ship. These bonuses are permanent:

BOUNTY HUNTER
GUNNERY: +5% DAMAGE BONUS SPACE COMBAT (ACTIVE SHIP)
MORALE: +5% DAMAGE BONUS GROUND COMBAT (ALL CREW MEMBERS)

EXPLORER
SCAN MASTERY: FACTION AGENTS PAY DOUBLE FOR YOUR SCAN DATA.
KEEN EYE: YOU TEND TO FIND BETTER EQUIPMENT WHEN LOOTING CHESTS AND LOCKERS

MERCHANT
NEGOTIATOR: +10% PROFIT WHEN DELIVERING TRADE ORDERS FOUND ON THE TRADE-NET.
CHARISMATIC: VENDORS CHARGE 10% LESS FOR EVERYTHING EVEN SHIPS

SHIP CLASS BONUSES:
All ships now have ship class bonuses:
INTERCEPTOR, LIGHT FIGHTER, MEDIUM FIGHTER, HEAVY FIGHTER:
AFTERBURNERS DO NOT DEPLETE CAPACITOR (This was always the case with Interceptors and Light Fighters).
+10% BONUS TO SPEED IN STAR SYSTEMS.

EXPLORER
+10% SPEED BONUS IN FTL SPACE
+50% SCAN RANGE

LIGHT MERCHANT, MEDIUM, HEAVY MERCHANT AND CARGO CARRIER:
+10% MINING TURRET SPEED.
+10% DRONE MINING SPEED.

QUICK TUTORIALS:
New mini tutorials that quickly walk players through basic systems. - extended information is still available in the in-game guide and on the Wiki https://stellartactics.fandom.com/wiki/Stellar_Tactics_Wiki. You can disable tutorials in the options menu.

• When first entering space. Basic ship systems and navigation.
  
• First entering space combat. Basic ship combat and combat systems.
  
• When entering a star system once your FTL drive is equipped. How to enter FTL space and basic information about travel, faction agents and Star System recommended levels.
  
• A tutorial when first entering FTL space. Basic FTL navigation.
  
• A tutorial for beacons. Information related to placing and using beacons for fast travel and initializing the Trade-Net.
  
• Additional tutorials will be available in future patches for ground exploration, ground combat, hacking, salvaging, crew management, crafting, Trade-Net, boarding, mining and drones.
  

The first major story update since the game released is now available. Over the last few years I have been primarily focused on all the core game systems - ground and space combat, salvaging, crafting, trade, special attacks, perks, progression, the ship boarding system and more. It's been great to spend the last few months actually working on the story...finally. This is the first of three major story content updates what will bring the game closer to final release. I hope you all enjoy the new content!

KEY FEATURES
Chapter 1 of the Stellar Tactics story. New missions, new encounters.
To trigger the story content you must:
1) Unlock the FTL drive
2) Unlock smuggling. Speak with Forley Coresh on Achmedius trade station standing near the bar area of the station by the stairs and complete his mission. Everyone should be able to smuggle contraband...right? Doesn't mean you need to do it.

There are several places in the narrative where you will need to wait for a NPC to contact you. Just go about your business for a 1/2 hour or so, and eventually, when entering FTL space, you will receive a communication that moves the story forward. This includes the start of the new content where you will be contacted after a period of time.

You will be heading into deep space and there will be higher level ships in various areas you will travel through. Remember, you can always micro-warp to escape ship combat. So, not a big deal...really.

I highly recommend getting the best FTL drive you can afford. Slogging through FTL space with a low tier FTL drive is - well...slow. The piloting perk tree has ship speed perks and tiers that increase your speed.

Just my 2 credits - don't rush the content. Take time to place beacons, take missions if you can and build your crew.

Make sure to place beacons in the systems you will visit. You may need to return and translocating is the fastest way to get back when you need to.


PSIONICS
--Psionics are powered by a special device - the Psionic Amplifier - a reward granted when playing through the story. This device is equipped in the sidearm slot on any one crew member.
--There is only one Psionic Amplifier. There are no upgrades and they do not drop as loot.
--Instead of improved variants dropping, the player is given a lot of control over how the device works.
--The device cannot be sold or destroyed.
--The Psionic Amplifier requires at least 20 BASE INT to equip. That is a PURE 20 INT not modified by equipment bonuses. It does not have a skill type that levels like other weapons. It does not have perks or mod slots. Instead, the device has a rudimentary interface that lets you create and edit psionic amplifications - the Psionic Editor. The higher your INT/PER, the more power you have to overload and to add a secondary effect to amplifications.
--The power of psionic amplifications is governed by INT and partially by PER. Bonus INT and PER above your BASE INT does affect your amplifications.
--INT and PER are the key STATS for psionics. INT has the greatest effect and PER provides a lower bonus. So, respec to INT/PER and loot that +INT/+PER gear.
--The power of your amplifications related to INT/PER is expressed as available MIND. As your stats increase, the amount of available MIND increases. Through the use of the Psionic Editor, you will notice that INT/PER increase the power of amplifications and reduce the possibility of damaging your crew member.
--There is no limiting resource to Psionic amplifications. That is, you can use psionics indefinitely unless you are overloading and then Medkits are a resource you want available.
--Psionics cannot sprint. Instead, their specials for the sidearm slot are locked and used as reference and to access the Psionic Editor.
--For psionics, it's important to understand "Initiative" which is used to calculate turn order. Initiative is calculated primarily from DEX and AGI with a bonus from INT. So, you will likely want to pump some stat points into DEX or AGI depending on whether or not your primary weapon is ranged or melee.


PSIONIC EDITOR:
The editor can be accessed after equipping the amplifier in your sidearm slot. The amplifier needs to be selected as your active weapon. You will find an icon on the toolbar where special attacks are usually located. Your currently equipped amplification is displayed in the first of the two special attack slots. The editor icon is the second icon in the special attack area.
To edit an amplification:
--Open the editor by selecting the "cog" icon on the toolbar.
--Select the amplification you want to edit in the list and select "EDIT AMPLIFICATION".
--You can now select the attack type, effect type and a secondary effect from the lists on the left.
--You can edit the name of the amplification.
--You can edit the description of the amplification.
--You can overload the amplification by sliding the bar to the right. Note that you can actually harm your crew member if the mind cost enters the "HEALTH COST PER CAST" area.
--You can select a icon for the amplification by clicking the icon.
When you are done, select "SAVE AMPLIFICATION"

To create a amplification:
Same process as above. The only difference is that you will select "CREATE AMPLIFICATION" and save a new amplification by clicking "SAVE".

Ordering the amplification bar:
The amplification bar is displayed in and out of combat when the amplifier is equipped and your sidearm is selected. Damage amplifications cannot be used when out of combat.
You can change the order of amplifications in the bar by opening the Psionic Editor and dragging the icons from the list at the top of the editor to the bar at the bottom of the UI.

Amplifications toolbar:
Damage amplifications - Select a amplification from the bar (or use the hotkeys 1 - 8). Note that amplification is loaded into the toolbar below. Like any ranged weapon, just target the enemy and fire. You can queue multiple amplifications and targets using the combat queue (Shift-Click and then space bar to unleash).

Heals and cleanses.
Select a heal or cleanse from the hot bar. Note the icon is flashing. Like medkits, these amplifications require you to click a target or portrait. If you want to disable the amplification, you must select another amplification. Subsequent uses of the amplification can be triggered by clicking or using the hotkey for that amplification. Note that while a heal or cleanse amplification is selected and active, weapon swap, medkits and grenades cannot be used.

Psionic GROUP amplifications can target a single enemy and damage all enemies in that group, even if they are not visible. Heals, buffs and cleanses target your entire crew regardless of visibility.

Psionic PBAoE amplifications deal damage in a area around the targeted enemy. Heals, buffs and cleanses target crew in the area of the targeted crew member.
Overloading a psionic amplification can damage a crew member. In certain circumstances, this may be useful for additional negative or positive effects. I'm leaving it to you to decide.

Psionics can heal, remove status effects and buff stats. Buffs last through the entire area. When you transition between areas, the buff is lost.

For now, there is no indication that a buff is active. I'll be adding this in a future update. You can reference your base stats to see if a bonus is active.

An important note: This is the first pass of Psionics. I'll be making adjustments over time to the system. I will be looking at expanding on the system to add other effects and upgrades through Chapter 2 of the story.


FACTION AGENTS
Faction agents for Houses Conrair, Aralion and Cilivon are now active. You can spend your tokens on legendary ship equipment. Epic ship ship equipment must be crafted. Each faction specializes in various equipment types.

Faction agent vendors for Houses Halamis, Shikaru and Varadyne now also trade high tier weapons, shields and mods for faction tokens. They can occasionally carry high quality level 1 weapons if you are considering swapping your weapon spec. You can always find level 1 weapons on a vendor at Achmedius Trade Station.

RESPEC
You can now reset crew stats. For now, this is free and you can reset your STATS at any time for all crew members. You will find a new button on the character information panel [C] in the upper left corner above the stat allocation area of the UI.

Some Phage and all Coven enemies use psionic attacks.

The Coven are now included in the main game story. They can also be found in various random mission locations and as targets for random missions assigned by faction agents.

SALVAGING WRECKS
Wrecks can now be found in star systems. These can be mined and offer higher quality ore and random ship repair components used to repair equipment on boarded ships. These are discovery locations. Scanning a planet or ship may show a green highlight briefly indicating the location of a wreck.
Salvaging wrecks completely will generate a loot crate.

AZNARI RUINS
Aznari ruins can be found after triggering a certain mission in the main story. These areas have new enemy types.

NEW LOOT
In ground combat, skull enemies may occasionally drop loot chests with high quality gear.

QOL CHANGES

SALVAGE UI QoL

• Schematics that are being learned through salvaging are now displayed on the salvaging UI with percent complete in the Schematics view on the right of the screen. Completed schematics show no % complete.
  
• Selecting an item to salvage now displays items that can be salvaged in the disassembly pane of the salvage UI.
  
• When selecting an item to salvage, pressing ESC will cancel that item rather than exiting the salvage UI allowing you to select another item to disassemble.
  

• Added sorting for the stash. You can now sort by quality, name, value, type and quantity.
  
• Added sorting to vendors. You can sort by quality, type, value and quantity.
  
• Added a compact inventory icon to the upper right of the shared inventory area. This organizes in the following order - med kits, grenades, devices, armor, melee weapons, ranged weapons and finally - vendor trash.
  
• I will be adding improved sorting to the cargo, cargo storage and other areas in the next update.
  

Chapter 1 has been a long time coming. A lot of work went into this and I'm finally at a point where everything is in the game and I'm testing and cleaning things up.

The video below is work in progress so expect a few typos and issues. I'm still cleaning up some of the Psionic UI, dialogue and various text used.

[previewyoutube=Y3pp-70DgC4;full][/previewyoutube]

Lets talk about what you can expect.

First, new story content. The game story previously ended in Achmedius. The story now continues as things start to ramp up in the Universe. Old acquaintances, new friends and a continuation of the Phage and Jhemm story lines - among other things.

Psionics can be unlocked through the main story of The Coven. The Psionic Amplifier is a weapon of sorts that gets equipped in your sidearm slot. Holding the device allows a crew member with appropriate stats (minimum 20 INT) cast amplifications.

Beyond that, you can edit and create your own amplifications in the Psionic Editor. The device has several already loaded. Intelligence and Perception are the primary stats for the amplifier and as you apply points to these stats, you are able to overload the amplifier without damaging yourself. This gives you access to secondary effects like status effects and buffs that can be applied to crew members. Buffs remain on crew members until you transition to a new area. The editor also lets you arrange your effects on the toolbar.

Psionics include:
Single Target, Point Blank Area, Group - Note that the Group type effect will target all enemies, even enemies that are not in line of sight.

Effect:
Heal - Heals damage and can buff all stats (STR, AGI etc.)
Cleanse - Chance to remove negative status effects. Buffs various resistances.
Damage - Kinetic, electro, bleed, explosive, thermal and toxic. Applies various status effects.

You can overload any amplification, just be aware that doing this could harm your crewmember and even knock them out. That said, it may be useful to set up a few "Hail Mary" amplifications for those critical moments.

A few other things you can expect:
Aznari Ruins have been added to the Universe. These locations can be found as part of the main story where you receive a device that lets you pinpoint these ruins on planet surfaces. Eventually these will lead you to Aznari Hubs where the Jhemm are located. One thing that will not make it into this build is Azimuth system. That will come in the Chapter 2 update.

A simple re-spec has been added to the character information screen. I'll eventually add a side mission and a cost to re-specs. For now, I thought it was appropriate to add this so you can tinker with various builds.

Salvaging wrecks has been added. These are somewhat hard to find as you cannot scan for them, so look for them as you travel through Star Systems. If you do find one, you can mine the wreckage for high quality ore, rare earth minerals and bonus ship repair materials (used to repair boarded ships). Most systems will have wreckage floating around.

Many new enemies - specifically in the Aznari Ruins and caves.

The Coven have arrived and will show up in mission areas where Scavvers are found.

Some Phage are Psionic now. Beware...

Of course, there will be a myriad of fixes and updates to various systems in the game including the highly requested Arach screech fix, immediate movement on Micro-Warp and a few other things people have requested.

That's all I have for now. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

A good number of fixes posted today while I continue working on the Chapter 1 content patch.

Here are the notes:
Updated - Reduced the value of crafted ship equipment when selling to vendors. Crafted ship equipment has a lower value than looted space equipment. Overall, selling crafted ship equipment was OP and still is. This will all be adjusted with a major pass at the overall economy. The value of these items is still high and a very good way to earn a lot of money in the game if you want to skill up crafting/salvaging and gather the resources. It's important to note that there are salvage perks you can enable that increase the chance to loot schematics by as much as 10% when you have a high level of salvage skill.
Updated - Increased reward values for boarded ships salvaged/repaired and sold to Arkus. I will be expanding your interactions with Arkus through the game story to allow players to earn a ship rather than paying for one.
Updated - Depleted planetary nodes now have an icon - drone with red "X".
Fixed - A rare case where incursions would stop spawning.
Fixed - Salvaging Helmets in languages other than English would not generate "strap" resources.
Fixed - Switching languages from the main menu in the same session would not correctly populate foreign language strings for crafting and salvaging.
Fixed - The ammo converter device was not working in languages other than English. Thanks for reporting this!
Fixed - When activating the taunt weapon skill and switching weapons, the range circle effect was not disappearing.

Localization:
Updated - Translations for French, Russian, Spanish and German.
Fixed - The stats of crafted items were extending over the numbers numbers in some cases.
Fixed - Adjusted fonts for lists in scanned data UI's (planets and ships)
Fixed - Adjusted font size of "Click to re-roll item's attributes[...]".
Fixed - The names of crafted items were partial untranslated.
Fixed - When crafting mods, e.g. trigger groups, "WEAPON TYPE" was not translated. and "PISTOL/SMG" was untranslated
Fixed - When crafting beam weapons, "BEAM TYPE" and "ELECTRON" was untranslated when first displayed.
Fixed - When crafting turrets, "TURRET MOUNT" and "TURRET TYPE" were not translated. When changing from "LIGHT" to "HEAVY" labels were untranslated.
Fixed - Log when mining was not translated
Fixed - When editing the portrait of a crew member, several UI elements were untranslated.
Fixed - "Objectives" in the objective tracker from the trade net were not translated ("pick up" and "deliver").
Fixed - When a beacon is placed in a boarded ship the button "Initialize beacon" was not translated.
Fixed - "Repairing Shields" was not translated.
Fixed - In the boarding objectives panel, the headline was not translated.
Fixed - "Repair Progress", "Repair", "Salvage" and "Exit Repairs" are now translated.
Fixed - Headline for "item name" in storage on bases was cut off.
Fixed - In the transfer screen for storage on stations/bases, "Quantity" and "Cancel" are now translated.
Fixed - Mouse overs of vendors were not translated.
Fixed - Vendor name label expanded for cases where text exceeds label limit.
Fixed - The right button when dismissing a crew member was not displaying the correct translated text.
Fixed - The cancel button when trading was displaying the incorrect translation string.
Fixed - Perk award popups were not displaying correct translated text.
Fixed - Reduced size of status effects below the portrait so foreign language strings are not cut off.
Fixed - On the salvage screen, "schematic" was not translated.
Fixed - When deleting items from the inventory, the "cancel" button was not translated.
Fixed - Mouse over of data cards was not translated. Going forward - data cards that swap will be correctly translated.
Fixed - "You find a basic XXX schematic" was not translated in the log and splash screen.
Fixed - Flash screen for "objectives completed" was only partly translated.
Fixed - Quality level of equipment in the description popups was not translated.

12/20/21 - 0.599
Updated: Localization updated for French, Russian, German and Spanish. A HUGE thank you to everyone working on the translation! This is an ongoing project.

Updated: Mining drones will launch with the most recent drone launch state set using a new button on the drone manager window.

Fixed: Drone retrieve button is now hidden if a drone is not in a state where it can be retrieved.
Fixed: A fix for dedicated hacking, craft, salvage and repair crew members that are removed from the party and/or no longer have active hacking devices equipped. The dedicated crew flag gets reset and the currently selected crew member initiates the hack (if they have a hacking device), repair, crafting etc. Thanks for reporting the issue.
Fixed: Humanoid NPC's were rarely if ever throwing grenades. Skull NPC's have a higher chance of having grenade inventory. The chance of a NPC throwing a grenade is based on the games difficulty level set in the options menu.
Fixed: A rare lockup related to attacks of opportunity.
FIXED: A lockup when selecting a friendly planetary starbase on a planet that is out of range - approaching and selecting the landing icon. Previously, a second selection was required when in range.
FIXED: Ship icons on screen are now cleared when loading a quicksave or autosave to a ground location from space.

Consolidated patch notes/hotfixes:

12/11/21 - 0.596b
HOTFIX - If a dedicated crew member has been removed from the party or no longer has a hacking tool, the dedicated hacker is reset. The first time you hack, the flag is cleared so you will see a blank hacking UI. The second time you hack you can set a new dedicated crew member - someone who has a hacking tool equipped. I'll look for a better solution for this.

12/10/21 - 0.596
Fixed - An issue with character creation when assigning skill points.
Fixed - A number of localization fixes.

12/9/21 - 0.595
Updated - Darkened background of weapon UI in ground exploration. Updated fonts so ammo count, AP Requirement and fire mode stand out better on the background.
Updated - Moved health kit and grenade count from over selected icons to field above grenades and health kits. Added AP cost to rollover info.
Updated - Text in hacking window over progress bar moved where it can be seen.
Updated - A few updates to new icons on main UI so icons stand out better.

Fixed - If you have a dedicated hacker and remove the hacking tool, a message is sent to your log letting you know who your dedicated hacker is and that the hacker does not have a hacking tool equipped. If you are in a situation where you cannot hack, you need to equip the dedicated hacker with a hacking tool
Fixed - Loot UI - 4th loot slot in upper row fixed when clicking to loot.
Fixed - Loot UI now only responds to "SPACE" when looting all instead of any key.
Fixed - Grenade blast radius is displayed correctly when using the keyboard shortcut [O]
Fixed - When out of combat and moving, weapons now swap correctly with the hotkey or weapon swap icon. You cannot swap weapons while moving in combat. You must be stationary.
Fixed - A large number of edits to UI elements that had issues with translated text.

12/4/21 - 0.593b
Fixed - Ship beam weapons now function as intended
Fixed - Russian translation progression when first arriving in Ruins

Hello all! Im posting a patch today that fixes a number of issues. This is primarily a stability and bug fix patch with a few other bells and whistles. Its important to note that this is not the Chapter 1 patch. I am busy working on that and will post progress updates as things move along.

Note that a lot of data was touched for this patch so the download will be fairly large.

Here is what you will find in the patch:
1)A major stability fix related to level load lockups
2)A number of other fixes listed below
3)The updated game UI.
4)A first pass at localization to Spanish, French, German and Russian languages.
5)A warning screen if compatibility issues related to drivers and 3D rendering support are discovered when the game loads.

LOCALIZATION -French, German, Spanish and Russian
Localization is VERY ROUGH right now. I'm sure there will be a number of embarrassing language issues and typos. If you want to join the localization process to clean up the rough edges, check the link below for more info and the pinned topic at the top of that forum. I'll post translation edits and fixes with future patches as they become available.

Join the community translation. I'm looking for a few people who are interested in editing and updating the Spanish, French and Russian translations. The German translation is in good shape.
Join the translation

• You can change the language in the "Gameplay" tab of the options screen.
  
• In some cases text in various languages may be too large for the UI and scroll past the boundaries of the UI area. If you notice these, please report them on the translation sub-forum here. A screenshot would really help.
  Report translation issues here!
  
• Old mission data is not localized. That data is saved in your current save and will continue to be displayed in English. New missions that you take will be localized.
  
• Some items in your inventory in existing saves may have descriptions and other information that are part of the save and will not be translated. New items of the same type found or purchased from vendors - like health packs - will be translated.
  
• Almost everything should be translated, however, I am still looking for places where English text is displayed in a field so expect that there will still be a small number of places where a fix is needed.
  
• Things that need to be translated or won't be translated for technical reasons: Crafting component suffixes, mod names, system names, character names, names of minerals, commodity names, and weapons names. There may also be a few other areas that are not translated that will get fixed over time.
  

Its been a very busy summer with me and my family moving across the country and a lot of time has been dedicated to preparing our old home, selling it, packing, and moving in to our new home. None the less, progress has been made. Now that I am settled in, I am working on Stellar Tactics at my usual pace.

The next update will be a big one and Ill cover some of the details below. The biggest addition will be the introduction of Chapter 1 of the story. With Chapter 1, new characters will be introduced, primarily the introduction of the Coven and the Sovereignty. The story will continue with a communication from Dr. Jensen who needs your assistance as the doctors continue to look into ways to eliminate the Phage and further their knowledge related to the Jhemm.

The Coven is a specific mutation that presented itself on one of the four ships that made the transit with the remnants of the human race. The mutation applied itself to females while in cryonic suspension and resulted in uncontrolled Psionic powers. The Coven were immediately isolated and studied by scientists on arrival and eventually released to colonize, provided certain rules were followed. Specifically, anyone with the Coven mutation was subjected to surgical implants that subdued their powers. Psionic powers were outlawed and have been since the Arrival.

This did not go over well with The Coven and eventually they went into hiding and removed their implants, refining their powers. For hundreds of years, The Coven have not been seen and are nearly forgotten, though some still do business with them smuggling goods for trade with the elusive and secretive faction.



In Chapter 1, you will be introduced to the Sovereignty the ruling power. Taxes are paid, and for that, security and law are enforced by the Sovereignty . The six main Houses (Halamis, Aralion, Cilivon, Conrair, Shikaru and Varadyne) have control over their holdings and pay tribute to the Sovereignty who in turn provides special dispensation to the Houses. The Houses exert their power on the various sub-factions in the Stellar Tactics Universe.

Ayela will be your primary contact with the Sovereignty and will have missions that involve investigating the Phage, The Coven, Raiders, Scavvers as these are all ongoing threats to peace under the rule of the Sovereignty. Ayela has been looking for a crack squad of mercenaries for a few critical missions.



Chapter 1 will also introduce more of the story related to the Jhemm and the menace they warn about in the Prologue. With this, Rhamus is still obsessed with the Jhemm and you will explore several of these locations in Chapter 1 which will introduce the Azimuth system. In addition to specific locations related to the story where you acquire Azimuth, a new random mission set has been developed for the Aznari ruins and you will find these occasionally when you scan planet surfaces. 18 new "creature" enemy types have been added for cave and ruins locations to increase the variety of enemy types you will encounter in the universe.

All of the original characters have had a facelift so they will match the new content in Chapter 1.


Speaking of mission sets, 3 new random sets will be added to the game in addition to static locations for Chapter 1 of the story.





The first pass of localization is complete for French, Spanish, Russian and German. Note that as a first pass at localization, the French, Spanish, and Russian localizations are likely very rough. The German translation is in very good shape thanks to community members who joined the translation effort. The localizations will be included in the upcoming content patch. When the content patch launches, I will open up localization again for these languages for anyone who is interested in joining.

Oh, and did I mention that Stellar Tactics is getting it's final UI? Daniel did an amazing job with the UI and the implementation work is almost complete. There are still some rough edges here and there - overall, it's coming along nicely.



Thats it for now. No ETA on the release of this content patch. I do hope to get everything finished before the end of this year and I will keep you updated as I make progress.

Today's patch updates space backgrounds and effects throughout the Universe. I have also removed the 5 point weapon skill cap. I'd like to gather feedback from players on the removal of the cap. In my opinion, the skill cap has caused a lot of confusion and some just don't like it at all. For now, the cap is removed. It will come back as a hardcore option at some point for those who enjoy micro-managing progression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWDjGWSW6e8

Meanwhile, a lot of work is being done for chapter one of the main story. There are also a number of other assets being developed that will provide points of interest in the universe. I'll explain more as I make progress on this work.



ADDED: The universal facelift. All new backgrounds and various other improvements for space. Make sure to enable the high-resolution skyboxes in the options menu if you have 2gb VRAM or higher. Enjoy!

UPDATED: The 5 point skill cap for weapon skills has been removed. Removing the skill cap will likely require some tuning over time so expect the amount of experience gain to go up/down as required as I gather more feedback.
--The skill cap will come back as an advanced gameplay feature for those of us who like it. By that I mean, it will be an option - off by default.
--The level cap remains at level 60 until the story content is ready.
--Skill gain remains unchanged. Even at the level cap, you can continue to gain skills for any weapon, support, or space skill to level 100.

UPDATED: Replaced a number of planet materials.
UPDATED: Improved performance.
UPDATED: On completion of an incursion, completion notification and reward delay are much shorter.
UPDATED: Reduced base resists for various enemies.
UPDATED: Reduced FTL FX timings for faster jumps to FTL space and between star systems.
UPDATED: Stability updates.
FIXED: Rollover compare info for pugilist weapons is now displayed if a single pugilist weapon is equipped in the primary or secondary slot. If you are dual-wielding pugilist weapons, you will need to compare manually.
FIXED: A number of typos.
FIXED: Duplicate sector data in systems 0,0 - 99,0. I doubt anyone is flying around taking missions in these sectors, however - if you are I recommend that you cancel and then re-take missions if they are active.
FIXED: A bug related to the display of active drone icons on the star map.
FIXED: A bug related to walking to and interacting with objects/NPCs.

UPDATED: If you have no weapons or a pugilist weapon in your sidearm slot, the secondary support skill has been changed to sprint. If the primary weapon slot is empty (fists) or a pugilist weapon is equipped, the support skill is taunt.
UPDATED: Updated the combat movement path marker to use a much faster system.
UPDATED: LOS lines are now displayed almost immediately when the combat movement cursor is moved to a position.
UPDATED: I did a lot of work on movement and pathing. Overhead objects, walls, and other objects no longer obstructed floor clicks. If you click the floor, your crew member should move to the location unless blocked. This includes how raycasts for movement interact with PC's, NPC's and the environment.
UPDATED: If a health kit is enabled, you can now click through overhead objects, etc to target crew members.
UPDATED: A few changes to the world map:

• You can now scroll the area map using the left mouse button and zoom in-out using the mouse wheel.
  
• World map uses a higher resolution map.
  
• You can now zoom in much further on the world map.
  
• World map now remembers your current zoom level and last position during the current game session. You can reset the map using the blue "+" icon on the map.
  

• The star map now lets you search star systems where you have placed a beacon by entering only a few characters. So, for example, you can search for "Achmedius" by entering "a" and pressing enter in the search field and Achmedius will be displayed along with any other systems that start with an "A". For systems where you have not placed a beacon, you need to enter the entire system name and press search to center the map on that system.
  
• Entering "cargo" or "ship" in the search field and pressing enter will now display systems where you have cargo or ships.
  
• The search feature now includes the sector coordinates and sector level for systems where you have placed beacons.
  

With the addition of the combat special attacks and support skills, the majority of all the core game systems are now in the game. While 2020 was difficult for everyone with the pandemic, I was still able to get a large amount of work done on the game with 19 total updates to the game and several sizeable additions including the boarding system. Id like to thank all of you for your continued support. Stellar Tactics would not be possible without your generosity and feedback.

So, what can you expect going forward? Well, Im very excited about the next steps so I thought I would give everyone a glance into the future of the game. Until now Ive been mostly focused on developing the core structure of the game. Things like combat, space exploration, the universe, inventory, crafting, salvaging, loot and all of the systems that make up the foundation of what Stellar Tactics will be. That is, the container the universe.

Now its time to start filling the universe with meaningful content. Characters you will engage with in various ways. Id like to expand on the lore of the universe, give you ways to define your place, build relationships with various factions, and expand on the core systems Ive worked hard to implement.

What does that mean? First, Ill be working on the story. With that, more of what is happening in the universe will become apparent. Who are the key players? Who were the Aznari? What are the Jhemm? What is this threat that is coming? Should you trust Jensen and Rhamus? And of course, what is your part in all of this? There are likely many questions after playing the Prologue and my goal going forward is to give the player places to go, things to see and do, and to expand on the core of the game with meaningful content and encounters.

Ill be expanding on the mission system with branching missions that have multiple objectives. Missions may lead to new missions and I'll be looking into new and better completion rewards.

Ill be expanding the storylines of characters you have already met like Arkus, Rhamus, Phestus, Scarby, Rodger Crayson, and more. Some of these characters will introduce new mission types for mining, smuggling, salvaging, and ways to earn ships from Arkus through the boarding system.

I'll be adding new enemy types and epic bosses.

I'll be adding new armor sets and clothing for characters.

Ill be adding Psionics. Psionics will use a new weapon type the Psi Amp which is rewarded from a series of side encounters related to the Coven. I wont spoil anything here, though I will say that Psi will be a very useful skill to have with the ability to buff, debuff, heal, and generate various other effects that enhance your team.

I'll be adding faction warfare and unique encounters in FTL space. These will be random locations with exploration, salvaging, and special faction warfare opportunities.

Ive made an investment in new tools that will help me create unique and diverse characters for the story, new portraits, and in-game models. A few examples below.

Some of these characters you will love to hate.


Others you will learn to rely on.


And special crew members who have their own stories and backgrounds.



Ill be revising and adding more variety to the universe with new high-resolution custom skyboxes made just for Stellar Tactics by Tim Barton an amazing artist who specializes in space environments. You can check out Tim Bartons work at this link: Tim Barton on Artstation


Ill also be knocking off some of the rough edges, improving the game visuals, and addressing QoL issues many of you have been asking for. I will be working on tuning, looking at all of the systems as a whole and how they work with each other, and making changes where they make sense.

I'm going to be patching out a number of small bugs and addressing a few other issues at the end of next week. From that point, Ill be focusing exclusively on the content mentioned above. It will likely be the longest period of time you have had to wait for a content update and Ill keep you all posted as I make progress.

Hi all - I am happy to release the latest content patch for Stellar Tactics today. There are a lot of changes in this build so please read the patch notes below. I'll be monitoring the bug forums closely over the next few days and patching out any issues you might find. While I've done a lot of testing on this build, as you know, things happen. I hope you enjoy the changes.

I expect I'll be spending a week or two tweaking a few things with the special attacks, addressing issues (if any), and clearing a backlog of small issues that need to be looked into.

What's next? Sometime in the next week, I'll post an update covering what you can expect going forward. There are a lot of changes coming to Stellar Tactics and I'm really excited to be at a point where I'll be implementing new story content, expanding the mission system, polishing various rough edges, adding psionics, and more.

ADDED SPECIAL WEAPON ATTACKS AND SUPPORT SKILLS:
Weapon special attacks and support skills are now in the game. Note that enemies start using special attacks at around level 5. Players get all weapon skills at the start of the game and they improve over time with five total tiers increasing at skill levels 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100. Weapon skills are specific to each weapon type and several are shared (1hand slash and 1hand blunt). Initially these attacks are fairly weak, however, over time they scale nicely and you will be using them regularly in combat.

• Special attacks and support skills use zero AP and can be triggered at any time if they are available as long as it is your turn in combat.
  
• Special attacks are guaranteed to hit, however, DEFEND can mitigate damage.
  
• Enemies start using special weapon attacks at level 5
  
• Weapon special attacks are on global cooldown timers.
  
• Support skills are reset at the beginning of combat. You can use sprint, taunt, and barrier at the start of each combat session.
  
• You can use special attacks and support skills from both equipped weapons ( primary and secondary ) in the same round if global timers are reset by swapping weapons.
  
• Special attacks, taunt, and barrier increase in power as you gain skill in that weapon class at levels 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100.
  
• Game difficulty affects how NPC's use special attacks by changing how often they are used. The frequency and power of these effects from NPC's vary by enemy difficulty. A regular NPC will use them less often, a single skull enemy more often and bosses will use them most of the time when their cooldowns expire. On easy mode, these attacks are less likely to trigger - on extreme difficulty the attacks will be triggered more often.
  
• Some enemies have special abilities. For example Phage vomit. Rather than triggering a special attack, they will use their special twice in one attack if they trigger a special. New enemies in future updates may have similar attacks that they use more than once in a combat round.
  

• When boarding a ship, there will always be a loot container that contains ship equipment loot similar to what would have been dropped if you had destroyed the ship. NOTE: Ore and ship ammo is not included in the loot table.
  
• Enemy subsystem regeneration time increased by 30 seconds. It should now be easier to board ships with lower-tier ship equipment. Note that it has always been intended that boarding a ship with starter turrets would be difficult. Upgrading your turrets and systems will make boarding enemy ships much easier. While boarding, a ship may regenerate its shields, however, they go down faster after repaired by the enemy crew.
  
• General reward for selling ships to Arkus increased by 30%. Selling a ship with multiple decks increased by 70%. Note that repairing ships to full always rewards more and yes, it does take some time to gather the components - though, with higher salvage skill, more components are rewarded. I will be adding side missions for Arkus and he/she/it will have missions that will let you earn better rewards as you develop your relationship.
  

I'm posting a short WIP video today showing some of the new weapon special attacks and support skills. I'm also showing a few QoL changes that are coming in the next content patch. I expect the next content patch to be ready on January 8th.

https://youtu.be/mA-WNiN7raU

For those of you who have been playing Stellar Tactics, I'm sure you have noticed the two empty slots on the combat tool-bar. Those have always been reserved for weapon special attacks and support skills. These will be available from level 1 and increase in power as you gain skill in the weapon class they are associated with.

Special attacks are zero-AP cost attacks on a global cooldown timer. They provide a number of effects like PBAoE, target-based AE, and burst single target damage. The goal of the attacks is to give you additional options. Save them for a tough fight, or use them any time. The attacks make a big difference to the pace of the game. Also, because NPC's can use these attacks, you will need to be on your toes making sure your crew's HP is topped off.

The new support skills give you additional mobility, the ability to charge your shields, reflect damage, and the possibility to taunt enemies off of crew members who need a round to regroup.

In addition to the new support and combat skills, a few QoL updates are coming:

Dedicated crew members - You can now assign dedicated crew members to hacking, salvage, crafting, and repair. That means regardless of who engages these skills, the dedicated crew member will always perform the action and gain the EXP. For repair, it means you no longer need to drag weapons and armor off crew members into general inventory.

Crew member review - You can now review any crew member from the crew manager. This makes it easy to assign perks to any crew member without needing to move them into your ground crew.

Hacking update - You can now enter combination keys when hacking before the cooldown expires. This makes hacking a lot faster.

Boarding ships - There will now always be a container with the loot that would have dropped from the ship if you had destroyed it. This should make boarding a bit more profitable. In addition, larger ships will pay out more than smaller ships. Overall, I'll be adjusting the amount you get from ships marginally. Of course, repairing ships completely before selling them always pays the most.

Happy Holidays to all of you! Stay safe and thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics.

It's patch time again. Here are the details for the patch released today.

ADDED: REPAIR SYSTEM AND REPAIR PERKS
Rollover info now displays the current condition of items. As they degrade, they become less useful (less mitigation, weapon jams, lower damage, etc.).

Maintaining your weapons is easy. Just roll over the item you want to repair and press the [SPACE] key. Item repairs require finishing items that can be obtained by salvaging junk and gear that you find in your travels. Perks allow you to repair items above 100% to a maximum of +25 (125). Crafted items can gain up to +30 (130). Overall, any crafted item with the appropriate perks can have a maximum of 155 condition from crafting and repair bonuses. In addition - repair tier bonuses apply reduced item degradation as you progress to maximum skill level.

• Repair perks have been added
  
• I've provided 20 finishing items of every type as a one time grant for repair. These items will be added to your existing finishing items - or, when starting a new game, you will start with 20 finishing items of each type. This should cover repairs needed in the early game until players can salvage enough items for future repairs.
  

• Equipment wear penalties apply when equipment degrades below 50%
  
• Below 25% - Additional penalties are applied.
  
• Below 5% - Items will barely function.
  
• At 0% Items are non-functional and must be repaired.
  
• Vendors always sell items that are at 100% condition.
  
• Electro damage does more wear to shields.
  
• Thermal and explosive damage do more damage to armor.
  
• Mods, devices, cargo expansions, and items equipped to a ship hardware mount point do not wear over time.
  
• Wear to ship equipment is minimal when shields are up. Once a shield is down and you start taking damage to your hull, damage is increased.
  

• Ship repairs take place over time. Repair skill TIER bonuses improve the speed at which ship hull plating and components are repaired.
  
• When paying for ship repairs on stations, only the hull armor of the ship is repaired. Other components need to be repaired manually or over time when a crew member is assigned to the crew repair station. Hull plating is repaired over time by crew members in the crew repair station.
  
• If the crewmember assigned to the ship repair station is also in your ground crew, repairs will not take place while on stations or ground locations.
  
• Repairs by a crew member in the repair station slot do not consume resources.
  

• Additional components can be salvaged as you unlock skill TIER bonuses.
  
• Perks added that provide bonuses to base salvaging failure, learning, and schematic experience.
  
• Perk selections that allow for increased schematic discovery for weapons, mods, armor, shields, and ship schematics.
  
• SCHEMATIC DISCOVERY PERKS - BONUSES FOR SELECTED SCHEMATIC DISCOVERY PERKS STACK FROM MULTIPLE CREW MEMBERS. Each crew member can provide a +10% schematic discovery bonus for a total of a +40% bonus if all ACTIVE GROUND crew members have a skill level of 80 in salvaging and the correct discovery perks are selected.
  

• Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
  
• Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun = 4:1 ratio (4 for 1)
  
• Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
  
• Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell = 1:4 ratio (1 for 4)
  
• The device can be used in any ground location including missions.
  
• This device is fairly expensive and requires that you complete a number of missions to earn the needed tokens from a Varadyn faction agent.
  

• Stun grenades can apply bleeding
  
• Frag grenades can apply hobble
  
• EMP grenades can apply cripple
  

• Shield and energy points will regen as usual.
  
• Transitioning between areas will heal crew members to full health.
  
• I'll gather feedback on this change and make adjustments as needed.
  

Here is a summary of the things you can expect for the next content patch. I hope to have this update ready for everyone by the end of next week.


Perks
The next patch will introduce the perks and skill tier bonuses for salvaging, crafting, and repair. All perks will be in the game. Some perks and tier bonuses have been revised to be more useful.

Perk and tier bonus progression adjustments

Perks or skill tier bonuses will be rewarded every 5 levels with the next patch. Perk selection and preview has been completely overhauled so you can preview all skill perk and tier bonuses through skill level 100 at any time. Perks are still situational and you can switch between selections in each group as you have in the past.

The repair system and equipment wear

Weapons, armor, and ship equipment will all degrade over time. The repair skill will allow you to repair gear through your inventory by pressing the spacebar when hovering over an item. Perk bonuses will allow you to apply additional durability bonuses to repaired items (max 125% condition) and repair tier bonuses will apply reduced item degradation to items, slowing the wear of items based on your current repair skill level. Wear progresses at a relatively slow pace so, you won't need to worry about repairing items every few missions.

The crafting perk line will allow you to apply permanent base durability bonuses to crafted equipment, assuming those perks are selected when crafting. The base durability for weapons, armor, shields, and ship equipment can be increased to 130% at the maximum crafting skill level.

Items that do degrade below 50% will have reduced functionality. Ranged weapons will misfire and jam, melee weapons will do less damage, armor will mitigate less damage, turrets will misfire, ship systems will have additional negative penalties.

• Below 25% - Additional penalties are applied.
  
• Below 5% - Items will barely function.
  
• At 0% Items are non-functional and must be repaired.
  

• Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
  
• Pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun, and E-Cell to missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun = 3:1 ratio (3 for 1)
  
• Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to any other ammo type in this category = 1:1 ratio (1 for 1)
  
• Missile, fusion cell, flamer fuel, minigun to pistol, SMG, rifle, shotgun and E-Cell = 1:3 ratio (1 for 3)
  

I'm releasing the boarding content patch today. Every ship in the game can be boarded and I'd like to hear your feedback on the new system. This is one of the last core systems that needed to be implemented. It will be important as I expand the current mission system adding more variety, branching missions, and of course for the game story where there will be a number of ships that need to be boarded for various reasons. If you find any issues, please post in the bug forums and I'll take a look. As with all updates, there are likely edge cases and bugs that will only show up when people start playing the new content. I'll keep an eye on the forums and patch out any issues.

As it is, boarding is a nice add-on for the game. Short scenarios that net good returns. You can choose the repair/salvage mechanic for better sale value when contacting Arkus, though it is entirely up to you if you want to take the extra time to do this. No matter what, you will at least need to identify all the broken systems on the ship. Repairing them will develop your repair skill which will be used in future content updates when I expand the mission system. Scrapping components will improve your salvaging skill. More on this below.

With the addition of boarding, sub-system targeting is now in the game. This adds a new tactical layer to space combat allowing you to disable enemy engines, weapons, and systems - giving you time to deal with other ships in multi-ship combat scenarios.

Some of you have expressed an interest in walking around on your own ships. I want to say that this is not off the table. I'll be looking into it and I have some ideas I think you will like.

Others have mentioned that they want to keep the ships. Again, not off the table. I'll be looking into ways to expand the boarding system so you can earn ships through Arkus over time.

So whats next?

• I'll be wrapping up the new perk system, rewarding perks earlier and more often. The next patch will complete all perks for the game including crafting, salvaging, and repair.
  
• I'll be adding the new special weapon attacks. These will be rewarded at various skill levels and include active skills that can be placed in the two empty combat bar slots. This will round out the ground combat system nicely.
  
• The weapon and armor repair system.
  
• Expanding the mission system. Now that all core requirements are in the game - I can start working on making missions more varied, adding missions with multiple objects, and more.
  

Well, Im code complete on the boarding system as of today. Ill be fixing a number of bugs, play testing, balancing, and finalizing everything over the next few weeks.

Here is a short video that highlights some of the features:
https://youtu.be/1tuFrImTx-Y

Boarding is accomplished by:
1)Disabling a ship's shields. At this point, a new icon appears next to the ship's target menu.
2)Selecting the subsystem targeting icon lets you target various ship subsystems (engines, turrets, and ship systems).
3)Once those are destroyed, you can board the ship.

You are competing against the enemy crew who is trying to repair their shields. In most cases, with decent turrets, this should never be a problem.

Every ship in the game (40) has had its interior modeled, enemies placed and objectives scripted. When you board a ship, you will need to eliminate the crew, repair or salvage various systems for components and place a beacon on the ship's helm.

Once a beacon is placed, you can then contact Arkus, a salvager who will give you a fixed price based on the current state of the ship. Repairing a ship before selling it will get you the best possible price, however, Arkus pays well below the market average for ships for his services. The prices are fair for the effort and he handles translocation, dismantling, and distribution. So, boarding is relatively balanced with most other activities in the game. Scrapping components is critical as these components can only be obtained by scrapping boarded ships. As you gain skill in repair, and with a decent salvaging skill (and upcoming perks), repairing ships to full capacity for full bonus sale prices to Arkus becomes easier.

I had hoped to get the updated skill and perk system in for this next patch but will need to work on this more after the release of the boarding patch. This patch has had a massive amount of work put into it and its taken a bit more time than I anticipated.

I hope you are all well and safe. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Lots of changes below. I'll keep an eye on the bug forums over the next few days for any problems and patch out any blockers or major bugs.

I'll be moving on to updates to the pace and timing of skill and perk rewards (more frequent rewards and useful skills) and the boarding system. This update will be quite a bit of work and will include some changes to the visuals in Star Systems, adjustments to space combat, and more. It will take a while and I'll keep you all posted as I make progress.

A few highlights in case you dont want to read through all the notes:

• Cargo volume increased across most ships in the game.
  
• You no longer block your own crew members in combat. NPCs can still block you and you can block NPCs.
  
• EXP increases for salvaging, crafting, first aid, hacking and space skills.
  
• Kchor and Fabricants now have innate bonuses (crafting, CRIT, scanning).
  
• New rollover info and right-click extended hud for combat.
  
• A pass at resists in the game.
  
• Personal shields re-balanced.
  
• Adjustments to rifles and heavy weapons with near range penalties (unwieldy).
  
• Shotguns, SMGs and flame throwers now do spread damage in a cone that affects multiple enemies.
  
• Melee weapons now do more damage overall, additional damage to enemy shields and allow mods to be equipped that change the base damage of these weapons.
  
• Pugilist weapons added mods can be equipped. The only weapon type that can be equipped in the primary and secondary weapon slots.
  
• Adjustments to crafting conditions they occur less often.
  
• Lots of small tuning adjustments to make the pace of combat faster more work to do including new skills active and passive, special attacks, perk adjustments, pace etc.
  

I've been working hard on this next patch. My goal with this is to address a number of weapon class balance issues, weapon differentiation, navigation, blocking and more. Check out the video for a preview.

https://youtu.be/LCGxJ_Duc8M

I'm hoping to get this patch out in the coming week for everyone. This will be part one of a major update to the combat system. The second part will include adjustments to the current perks and the addition of skill trees for the various combat skills including special attacks, passives and other ways to enhance combat performance and pace. Here are a few notes for the upcoming patch. The overall goal of these changes is to:

1) Balance combat
2) Provide more weapon differentiation
3) Give the player more choices, more often to develop their crew
4) Improve the pace of the game and reward the player frequently

Once this work is done, I'll be moving on to the boarding system, a second pass at space combat, filling out the universe with more diversion missions, events, and long term goals and adding interesting and unique content to flesh out the overall experience. At that point, the game will finally be at full Alpha and I'll concentrate on adding the rest of the story to the game, which includes Psionics and a few other things that are part of the main storyline.

INCREASED CARGO VOLUME:
All smaller ships, including the starter ship, have higher base cargo volumes. Cargo expansions for these ships will also be larger (scaled from the base cargo volume of the ship). Adjustments to cargo expansions are not retroactive so you will need to buy new cargo expansions if you want the extra volume.

NEW: ROLLOVER INFO AND RIGHT CLICK EXTENDED INFO HUD
A new rollover info display. This display shows additional information at a glance - enemy difficulty, CTH, Remaining AP/Total AP, HP, shield points, and active debuffs. Right-clicking an enemy will display the extended info and targeting UI. I've had a number of comments that "hunting the pixel" is not fun - so, this revised hud lets you select individual body targets with the extended UI. When this UI is active, the targeted enemy is locked until you right-click again, press escape or the space bar. The extended information displays:
--Buttons that can be clicked to attack head, torso, legs, and arms
--You can reload your ranged weapon
--You can change ranged weapon fire modes
--Extended targeting information including min/max damage, range penalties if any and status effects that can be inflicted including the percent chance of inflicting the effects.
--Enemy resistance information (innate and shield totals) based on the active crew members' perception STAT. The currently selected weapon damage type highlights that particular resist icon.
Note that you can still attack without opening the extended info HUD, add attacks to the combat queue and even fine aim if you want to. None of that has changed.

RESISTS: Resists are now more important and can be reviewed by right-clicking enemies with the new popup extended info UI. Higher perception will display more resist information in the extended info popup when right-clicking enemies. Some second and third-tier enemies are immune to certain types of damage. Having an array of weapons that deal various types of damage can help you take your enemies down much faster. You now have options to change the base damage type of melee weapons (see below) to adjust your damage type strategy.

Resists have always been in the game, however, without a way to see them, it could seem at times that it took a long time to defeat a specific enemy. With the new display, you can now adjust your weapons to a enemy's weakness. An enemy that might take 10 attacks using kinetic weapons may only take 3-5 attacks using a weapon that does toxic damage. This is more important as your crew progresses.

Mitigation is now displayed in the combat log showing damage reduction from shields, armor/perks and defend.

PERSONAL SHIELDS REBALANCED
Personal shields were OP - they have been adjusted. Several things were done without modifying the loot tables so current shields are still viable without a reset.
--"The slow blade" - Melee weapons deplete shields faster than ranged weapons.
--The cost of recharging shields is now increased. The result is energy reserves for shields are depleted faster.

RIFLES AND HEAVY WEAPONS
--These weapon types now incur a ranged CTH penalty (unwieldy) when fired at close range. This promotes the use of sidearms and shotguns in close combat situations. You either need to move to range, or use your sidearms if you do not want to incur the penalty. There may be skill tree selections that adjust this penalty down when the skill tree's go in the game. A red rifle icon will display on the rollover info UI if you are incurring a penalty at your current range.

SHOTGUNS
--Range slightly reduced for any newly purchased, dropped or crafted shotguns going forward.


SHOTGUNS, SMG'S, AND FLAMETHROWERS
These weapons now have a chance to inflict spread damage in a cone in front of the firing combatant. This effect only applies to enemies within a certain range directly in front of the firing character and applies 5-10% of the initial base damage to enemies in the weapons field of view before mitigation. This value will be increased with future changes to weapon skill tree selections.
--SMG'S MUST BE IN BURST OR FULL AUTO MODES


MELEE WEAPONS
Frequency Modulators now allow you to add specific damage types to melee weapons ( thermal, electric, toxic and bleed). In addition to changing the base damage type of melee weapons from kinetic, these mods also have a chance to trigger an additional damage burst that bypasses all defenses, including Defend. The new secondary effect on this mod type replaces the critical modifier which was redundant and applied by other mods. Bleed and toxic augments also apply the bleed and poisoned status effects. Crafting adjusted for the changes above.
When a Frequency Modulator is equipped, melee weapons now display a unique particle effect associated with the various damage types.
The above changes also apply to NPC's in the universe.
Changes to Frequency Modulators are not retroactive, so older modulators will have the +CRIT secondary modifier.

PUGILIST WEAPONS
Pugilist weapons are in the game now. They are a way to augment to your melee skill with mods and damage bonuses, no special visual weapons are equipped at this time.
--While pugilist weapons to apply a small amount of base damage that scales by level and quality, primary damage derived from the characters skill level and stats.
--Mods - Melee mods and nano's can be applied to pugilist weapons bringing them in line with other melee weapons. Overall, pugilism is very effective.
--Crafting - You can craft pugilist weapons by deconstructing weapons you find. Schematics can be found by salvaging pugilist weapons or as rare random drops.
--You do not need to equip pugilist weapons to fight hand 2 hand, just unequip your current weapon as it has always been.
--Starting a new game and placing weapon points in the pugilism weapon skill will equip a starting pugilist weapon.
--Pugilist weapons can be equipped in primary and/or secondary slots.

UPDATED COMBAT BLOCKING/NAVIGATION
You can now move through your crew if they are blocking corridors or doorways. NPC's can still block you and you can block NPC's. IMO, this change is a huge improvement and I think a lot of new players were put off by being blocked by their own crew members. Being able to block an enemy is a tactic ("Paladins! To the doors!")
Crew members and NPC's now have discreet areas around them where movement is blocked. That is, you cannot click in a character's immediate area. This helps with pile-up and should help with missed combat clicks that move your crew when you intended to attack.
Missed clicks and crew members being left behind is now much less likely.
At level 80+ of melee skill, it is no longer possible to move small distances in combat (one node) for free.

Thats all I have for now. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Today's patch includes a number of performance enhancements, a pre-compiled shader system, and a few QoL updates.

Shaders are now pre-compiled when you launch the game.
--The majority of all shaders are now generated via a database at game launch. I would say 80% of all shaders are in the d-base now and more will be added over time.
--As you play the game, if a shader is not pre-compiled it is added to the database and saved so the shader does not need to be compiled on the fly ever again.
--Certain video drivers could crash - though this was very rare - when compiling complex shaders on the fly. This patch should address that.
--In some cases, when entering an area the first time after this patch, there may be a short period of stuttering as shaders are initially linked to materials.

You can now adjust mission length when speaking with a faction agent - Short - AVG 40 Min, Medium - AVG 1-2 Hrs, Long - AVG 2-4 Hrs.

You can now browse available missions while the mission window is open by selecting the "Next" button. A new mission will be offered.

You can now double click crew equipment (shields, armor, weapons) to equip them from inventory. Mods and devices need to be placed manually.

Active status effects are now displayed below each crew member's portrait along with their active duration.

Various code optimizations for performance.

A few changes to the way the physics engine handles movement.

A few changes to the animation system.

A few animation fixes/updates.

A few changes to idle and facing blend animations so they can be interrupted when moving characters. This makes movement more responsive.

The game now generates a backup "sav_dat.xml" file that is not stored on the Steam Cloud when saving the game - just in case there is a disk write error of some kind.

A possible fix for a rare lockup when healing.

FIXED: A bug that was causing random animation and physics slowdown.
FIXED: A bug that would leave idle states running at 1.5x normal speed in certain cases.
FIXED: Autosave when leaving the Dauntless.
FIXED: A bug that would leave equipment quality color border visible when unequipping an item.
UPDATED: When grenades and medkits are enabled, a reminder message is displayed when ending your turn to deselect these items from the toolbar. I think in some cases, this was causing confusion. I'll be looking into an automated solution for this.
UPDATED: Ship collision damage reduced. Collision damage now affects shields and armor.

I'm continuing to work on a few things:
--Weapon special attacks.
--Combat pace.
--Streamlining of perks so they are available earlier in the game with more frequent updates.
--Better inventory sorting.
And more...

I'll keep everyone posted as I make progress.

It's been an amazing year for Stellar Tactics. I'd like to thank all of you for your support and patience. It's not often that you see such a positive and supportive community. I owe you all a huge "Thank you!" for all you have done for the game, your feedback, and for making this game what it is and will be.

This year, we've seen the addition of updated ships, the ability to sell scan data, the drone mining system, Trade-Net, smuggling, faction warfare (first pass), the area map, crafting and salvaging. A large number of bugs have been fixed and many suggested QoL features have been implemented.

This patch introduces two "mutations" to the universe - The Kchor ( pronounced "Core" ) and the Fabricants. You can find them all over the universe on stations, in missions and they are recruitable as Mercs to join your crew on your journey.



I'm also releasing a large number of updated animations that improve combat pacing and provide a second pass of polish to the overall look and feel of the game. I'm still doing a good bit of work on combat pace for the next content patch which will introduce new special attacks and a few other features. Following that, the boarding system.

THIS PATCH IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE PUBLIC TEST BRANCH. For information on how to get public test builds, please see this link. It is very important to backup your saves and review at least the first few paragraphs at the following link if you decide to join this branch.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/12/2653115517067165548/
Please post any feedback/issues/bugs in this forum:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/12/

I'll move this build to the public branch once I'm sure everything is stable and working as intended.

A bit of back story about the Kchor and Fabricants. More information will come when I expand the game story.

[h3]The Kchor Class A Mutation (Rational : Humanoid : Sanctioned)[/h3]
On Arrival, a large number of the pods on the HSS Pharris contained the Kchor mutation. Overall, the new species was considered robust other than several anomalies parthenogenesis, extreme musculature, and a blue/green skin tone. The medical engineers released them with no special conditions and The Kchor have flourished. The Kchor can be found in most star systems and are generally peaceful.

The Kchor have a special relationship with the Sovereignty, having saved their fleet in the notorious Blockade of Karsus 7. Were it not for their arrival, Maezus Karsari would have destroyed or captured the entire fleet and undoubtedly overthrown the Sovereignty. Instead, The Kchor delivered Maezus to the Council earning their autonomy as a reward for their actions. The Kchor interdiction is one of many turning points in recent history that mold the current political environment of the inner systems.

The Kchor are known for their great strength and intelligence. However, rather than using their influence and innate talents, The Kchor cherish their privacy and prefer to trade and explore peacefully. They are famous for their Kchor Brandy, a favorite indulgence across the known Universe.

[h3]Fabricants Class B Mutation (Rational : Cybernetic : Sanctioned)[/h3]
A number of mutations were discovered on the HSS Outland when the ships arrived. These Sleepers had a rare condition and were in a late state of mutagenic drift, having crossed genetic material with a parasitic species that flourished in their Vats. In their current stage of drift, they could not be exposed to the oxygen-rich atmosphere that Humans breath. It was hypothesized that their skin was transitioning toward a hardened exoskeleton.

Considered unrecoverable, Fabricants were initially scheduled for termination. A young scientist, Garrius Brons, fabricated a prototype Exo-Suit and AI module that sealed the Fabricants in a permanent outer skin. After a few trials, the suit was adapted and a modification of this suit is in use to this day.

Fabricants are incredibly talented engineers and were instrumental in FTL travel, having worked closely with Garrius Brons. Over time, they have adapted their suits and AI becoming more machine than human. They prefer to name themselves alphanumerically, and their ability to assimilate traits from common items is a closely held secret. Little is known about their culture and habits. When it comes to engineering, mathematics, and science, no other species in the known universe come close to the Fabricant.

A few things left to do - I'm working on these for the next content patch:

Fabricants

• +Bonus to crafting/learning
  
• +Bonus to scanning
  
• Unique voice audio
  

• +CRIT bonus with melee weapons
  
• +CRIT bonus with heavy weapons
  
• A few animation transitions that need tuning
  

I've had a bunch of requests to start a wiki for Stellar Tactics and I'm happy to say that the wiki is live now!

https://stellartactics.gamepedia.com/Stellar_Tactics_Wiki

This is your wiki, so feel free to add content, edit, upload and otherwise make this a great resource for other players. I've seeded the site with a good amount of information. However, there is so much more that could be added and I would prefer to spend my time developing the game. I'll continue to add pages and information as I add the remaining features, content, and polish.

I'm excited to see where you all take this if you decide to get involved. Stellar Tactics has a great community of positive supporters and I'd like to thank you all for your contributions and support.

I've been very busy with the next content update that includes revised character animations, updated ground combat pacing, a number of new combat features and the weapon class special attacks system. But that's not all. I also have a few surprises that I think you are going to like. More on that in a few weeks when I'll be ready to show you some of the new things that are coming to the game.

Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Todays patch adds the first pass at the crafting and salvaging system. The crafting system lets you craft almost every item that can be equipped in the game other than faction armor, ammo, grenades, and devices.

Crafting requires the disassembly of items you find in your travels. When salvaging, you learn about the items you are disassembling and eventually, you earn a schematic so you can craft that item.

Salvaging process items found in your travels into component parts for crafting.

• You must mark items in your inventories (CTRL-Click - General/Stash/Cargo Hold).
  
• Once items are marked, you can access the salvage toolbox from the inventory menu via a new icon above the general inventory.
  
• Junk items generate finishing materials used in the crafting finish process.
  
• Weapons, armor and other items that can be equipped generate primary crafting components.
  
• Salvaged items are placed in a separate infinite inventory. This inventory feeds the crafting bench and parts are automatically placed on the crafting table.
  
• As you salvage items, you will earn experience towards unlocking a schematic for that item. At times you may even gain experience towards the next tier schematic.
  

• (Required) Base item components of the same quality tier salvaged from a similar item
  
• (Required In cargo hold or station storage) Refined ore. You can mine ore and refine the ore, or purchase from the Trade-Net
  
• (Optional In cargo hold or station storage) Rare earth minerals to clear conditions. You can mine ore or purchase from the Trade-Net
  
• (Optional In cargo hold or station storage) Finishing items salvaged from junk and rewarded during salvaging of equipment
  

Im posting a video first look at the crafting system today. There is still a good bit of cleanup, bugs to fix and balancing work to do. Im hoping to have this patched into the game in a week or so.

https://youtu.be/f7ZLqCSHYLM

Crafting requires various components:

• Crafting components are broken down from items you find in the world using the salvaging skill
  
• Refined ore and rare earth minerals from mining or purchased from the Trade-Net
  
• Finishing items salvaged from junk you find in your travels
  

Im posting a work in progress video today that shows the salvaging portion of the crafting system which is nearly complete. I still have a bit of work to do on the UI and balancing. The video also shows the first completed ship interior for the boarding system. More details below.

https://youtu.be/Dy3GbDkl2Vg
Crafting requires components and the salvaging system lets you mark items in your inventory, stash and cargo hold for disassembly. As you disassemble items, you will gather crafting components and the finishing items you will need to craft equipment for your ships and crew.

You can salvage items anywhere. That is, you do not need to travel to a salvaging station to break items into component parts. Initially, I was going to tie salvaging to a static salvaging station that would be on your ship and space stations. I felt it would be a lot more useful if you could do this at any time, clearing inventory of excess equipment and vendor junk items. Crafting material storage is infinite so you wont need to worry about max inventory for these items.

Equipment When disassembling equipment, you will gain salvaging experience, component parts, finishing items and progress towards learning a locked crafting schematic for that item type (based on the quality of the item).

Junk items Junk items generate finishing materials. These will be used in the finishing stage of crafting to assign stats, weapon min/max damage values, and other bonuses to equipment. In general, crafting an item can result in a finished item with bonuses and stats that are better than any item you can buy or find in the game.

Ill be starting on the crafting portion of the system next now that I can generate crafting components. This will take a while and I hope you all enjoy the system when its finished.


Ship interiors are being worked on. These interiors will be used for a number of purposes:

• Boarding: Disable a ship and enter through the airlock. Various doors to be hacked, hostile enemies defending their ships and objects that need to be repaired not to mention loot and the ability to sell these ships for profit.
  
  
• Missions: There will be a number of missions that may pop up as a communication from a disabled ship, rescues and a few other scenarios that will require entering other ships.
  
  
• Your home: Ships will serve as a place to store goods, interact with the crew and craft items.
  

A few fixes and QoL requests addressed today. The patch should be posted shortly. As always, if you find any bugs/issues, please post on the bug forums. I'll address any critical issues promptly.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

Just a note about the crafting and salvaging system. The paper design is nearly complete. I should start implementing these systems next week starting with the base salvaging system related to inventory items (junk, weapons, armor, turrets, etc.). From there I'll start implementing the crafting system using those salvaged items. I'll provide more details in a post at some point as I get closer to finalizing the system. I don't want to make any promises until I have it fully working and have time to test and tweak things.

Crafting will not be just a matter of adding x + y + z to create a new finished item. There will be multiple stages of crafting similar to:

• Setup - Setup the crafting table with salvaged components, and resources of varying qualities
  
• Process - Process the components using various resources
  
• Finish - Finish the crafting session enhancing the item and adding stats, bonuses, slots etc with remaining CP (crafting points)
  

I'm adding the ground exploration map today. This is likely the most requested feature from players since I first started gathering feedback. It includes fog of war, zoom, and scrolling. I hope you all enjoy the update.

I'm also including increased experience for space combat, first-aid and hacking skills. If you do find any issues with this patch, please post in the bug forums. Here are the patch notes:

ADDED: Added the map.
--The map includes fog of war so you can view where you have been.
--Zoom, scroll, center.
--You can see various icons like mission markers, vendors, faction agents, exits, mercenaries, etc. A "legend" for the various icons which match the radar is available on the map.
--Persistent data. Wherever you go in the universe, your tracked progress is saved.
--Your saved key binds have been replaced so I could remap "M" as the default key for the map. The crew manager has been moved to "J".
--The in-game help screen and guide have been updated to match the new default keys.

FIXED: When exploring ground locations with a single crew member, the game will no longer crash when manually entering or leaving combat.
FIXED: A bug that could generate ship equipment when turning in agent missions. This would place ship equipment in general inventory instead of the cargo bay - breaking rollover info and a few other things. NPC's now have a brief cooldown period before you can interact with them when an area loads. IMPORTANT - If you do find any ship equipment in your general inventory (not in your cargo bay), you should drag that item to the trash and delete it. These items cannot be sold or used.
FIXED: "Gadolinium" added to the commodities market. Trade contracts for this item will start to appear over time.
UPDATED: Reduced space skill experience requirements per level.
UPDATED: Mercenaries now display a bright yellow dot on the radar and map so they can be distinguished from other regular NPC's on stations around the universe.
UPDATED: Hacking and First aid skill progression will now continue even if you are at the level cap.
UPDATED: Reduced hacking and first-aid experience requirements per level.
UPDATED: Improved dynamic shadow resolution.

Other notes - 6/6/19
FIXED: The objective tracker now correctly targets the mission return location if an agent mission is completed.
FIXED: Agent mission return destinations in the objective tracker now correctly targets a planets surface or station depending on where the mission was originally accepted. This is not retroactive, so previous missions, if taken on a planet surface, will target stations.
FIXED: A error with default FTL drives that was calculating base FTL speed incorrectly. This fix is not retroactive so if you do have a "Stock" FTL drive that seems faster than other quality level FTL drives available for sale, you get to keep it. You will likely want to swap out that FTL drive eventually when sub-system damage goes in the game for a FTL drive with higher HP.
FIXED - Old autosaves are no longer displayed in the save game menu.
FIXED - When swapping crew members in and out of your active crew, it was possible that perks from the previous crew member would be assigned/enabled on a crew member that had not selected those perks.
FIXED - A bug that was not correctly displaying shield bonuses from the electronics station (perks etc.) unless the crew member was in the active ground crew.
FIXED - A bug related to recruiting NPC crew members gaining incorrect Hand2Hand skill for secondary weapon if that was their specialty.
FIXED - Closed out a number of bugs related to the Trade-Net displaying incorrect contract target system information. This rarely resulted in arriving in a system that was not the correct destination target.
ADDED - Added the old music into the music track list for space and ground exploration.
ADDED - you can now preview mercs before recruiting them. Mercs now cost an initial fee based on their level. High-level mercs can be very expensive, so fill out your crew early in the game.
UPDATED - An increase in the base number of trade goods vendors buy/sell.
UPDATED - The last audio track played in an area is saved and loaded the next time you load an area.
UPDATED - You can now place beacons on the FTL map. When you get close enough to a star system, the beacon icon will be displayed in the lower left of the screen. Target the system, open the beacon menu and you can place a beacon in the targeted system. You cannot destroy beacons or translocate using the beacon menu on the FTL map. This should help players quickly build a larger Trade-Net.
UPDATED - When in FTL space, star system labels now display a "*" next to their name if a beacon has already been placed in this system. It should make it easy to identify systems where you could place a beacon to expand your Trade-Net.

Patch day - a few updates and fixes this week.


You can now unlock Smuggling. Speak with Forley Coresh on the Achmedius Trade Station to start your career. Smuggling is a fairly dangerous career and you will be harassed by Raiders and Scavvers if you have active contraband contracts. I recommend a starship with decent weapons, shields and balanced power systems. This is a great career for those of you who want to make money from trading smuggled goods and of course from all that loot you are going to find by eliminating the enemy ships that attack you. For now, you do not need to worry about The Authority (not in the game yet). I have a few interesting plans for the smuggling system including a few ship enhancements, timed smuggling missions and extended story content related to The Syndicate. If you read the dialog carefully, you might notice an intro to future story content and a long-standing mystery surrounding the loss of your crew, depending on the options you choose.

Smuggling requires a large Trade-Net to be effective - so place beacons in every system you find with orbiting stations. Contraband goods are traded all over the universe, but not as often as normal commodities.

Ships may attack each other now. You can join in and help or ignore these skirmishes. In some cases, if you do decide to help, you have a good chance of finding loot from dropped cargo containers. Rarely, regardless of whether you engage or not, cargo containers are dropped from these ships and you may find them floating in space. This is the start of the faction warfare system (just the start) and these engagements are generally between the various factions and Scavvers and Raiders entering and leaving systems.

I've added a mission and contract tracker to the HUD when traveling in space. You can now see active missions or trade contracts on this list. While in FTL space, you can select any destination and the Star System the mission or contract is located in will automatically be selected in the info panel so you can click the approach icon and fly to that system. If you are in Star System that has a mission or contract, selecting an item in the tracker will select the planet or station where the mission or contract is located so you can easily approach that location without needing to open the log to reference mission information. The tracker is also useful for translocating as it displays contract destinations and commodities in the list.

And one last thing - a surprise for those of you playing the game...no spoilers. I'm sure you will notice immediately.

If you find any problems with this build, please post on the bug forums and I'll address the issues promptly.

Patch notes:
ADDED: A short mission that unlocks Smuggling. Speak with Forley Coresh on the Achmedius Trade Station. He will help you start your new career.
ADDED: The Objective Tracker. All missions and Trade-Net contracts (buy/sell) are now displayed in the objective tracker while in space. The tracker can be opened/closed using an icon on the right center of the space exploration UI. Selecting a tracker mission or contract entry will display the targeted star system, planet or station in the info panels so you can easily navigate to the destination. Selecting an item in the tracker will:
1) Target the destination planet or station if you are in the same Star System where the mission/contract is located
2) Target the destination Star System if you are in FTL space

UPDATED: Increased the min/max base margin values for the Trade-Net across the board. This means there will be lower sale prices and higher buy prices available depending on the size of your network. These adjustments will become available over time as trade contracts are refreshed.
UPDATED: When translocating using Jump Points, ship fusion cells are now used instead of ground weapon fusion cells. The cost is still the same - 5 fusion cells per jump.
UPDATED: Incursions now only provide a positive faction bonus for the faction that initiated the incursion.
UPDATED: Faction rewards in space combat adjusted:
--Incursions generate higher individual faction bonuses for the faction that assigned the incursion. Additional factions (factions other than the assigning faction ) no longer generate faction bonuses. It was too easy to gain alignment with other main powers in the Universe while doing work for a specific faction.
--Destroyed ships from non-incursion attacks in hostile systems will only generate negative faction based on that system.
--Destroying ships that are not part of an incursion and not direct attacks in hostile systems will generate single digit faction bonuses for all non-aligned factions and normal negative faction based on the ship destroyed
UPDATED: Trade in values when buying a new ship increased. Note that CHA applies to all ship purchases decreasing the price of buying a ship and increasing the value of your trade-in. This has always been the case.
UPDATED: You now have a much lower chance of being attacked when you have an active delivery contract if that contract is not contraband. A higher chance of being attacked by Raiders and Scavvers if you have an active contraband delivery contract.

FIXED: A lockup when docking at stations, planets and translocating if under enemy ship fire.
FIXED: A rare crash related to enemy ship beam weapons.
FIXED: Incursions will now reward faction for the system where the incursion is taking place, regardless of whether the system is a main or sub-faction.
FIXED: A very rare persistent yellow particle effect left in the scene after space combat.
FIXED: Old auto-saves - that is auto-saves created before the new auto-save system (rotating between 4 dedicated save files) are no longer displayed in the load/save menu. This will clean up save lists for players with games that were created all the way back to the start of Early Access.

Thank you all for supporting the development of Stellar Tactics. Have a great weekend!

Hi all - lots of work being done. Some of my time has been spent adding a new mission that unlocks Smuggling. This mission gives you an option to unlock buying and selling contraband on the Trade-Net. Once you unlock contraband, these items will appear for trade as buy and sell contracts. Smuggling is a bit more dangerous than hauling trade goods between star systems and pays better overall in smaller ships as low volume high-value transactions.

I'll be expanding on this system quite a bit during Alpha with timed trade missions, branching delivery missions that include ground and space combat and special equipment for your ships. Initially, when this patch is released, you will be attacked more often if you have contraband items in your cargo hold, so make sure you are well equipped for space combat if you take these contracts.

Ive also been doing a bit of work on the faction system and when this next patch goes live, you should start to see small skirmishes in space between various factions. You can choose to join these skirmishes or fly in to pick up the loot when the shooting is over.

The next patch will also see an increase in the trade-in value of your current ship. CHA has always reduced the purchase price of ships and increased the trade in value of your ship. The next patch will boost this a bit more. Ill also be including a number of bug fixes and stability improvements.

Once the next patch is live, I'll start working on the crafting system, implementing the updated animations, adding the ground combat special attacks and moving on to some other work as I quickly approach full Alpha.

As I start implementing these new features I'll begin posting builds to the public test branch for a week or two before setting them live for everyone. Some of the changes that are coming are fairly complex so I think it will be a good idea to start separating the stable builds from some of these more experimental updates. I'll post on the forums when I start publishing test builds with instructions on how you can access these updates.

Thats it for now. I hope to have this patch live in a week or so. Meanwhile, here are all the latest patch notes. Have a great weekend and thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

5/20/19
FIXED: Another edge case with older saves that could display trade contracts from stations that are no longer in certain systems.
FIXED: Cargo volume displayed incorrectly when using sorting options. Could allow you to add more cargo than your cargo hold could carry.
FIXED: Cargo volume was displayed incorrectly in the vendor UI when sorting cargo.
UPDATED: You can now sell refined ore to vendors at or below average market value. This should help starting players who want to mine and sell refined ore.
UPDATED: Adjustments to vendor ore sale values - ore values are always below the market average and best market purchase price. Mostly applies to low-value ore.

5/17/19
FIXED: Planets were displaying completed mission landing locations after completing a mission. You could land at these sites but no enemies were present and the location was bugged. These locations are no longer shown on planet surfaces. If you are in one of these locations, just exit to space. The landing location should disappear.
FIXED: Panning and rotation using the keyboard no longer cancel each other out.
FIXED: When overriding a key bind, the override pop up now correctly displays the key you are overriding in the text field.
UPDATED: A few adjustments to enemy movement related to the physics engine. Will see if that fixes a rare bug with enemies losing their way when traversing the navigation mesh.

5/15/19
FIXED: A bug that was transferring cargo expansions between ships. If you have this bug, you can either keep the current cargo expansion or buy new cargo expansion and drag that to the cargo expansion slot in your ship.
FIXED: An error that was not properly applying drone perk bonuses. Perk bonuses for speed now correctly apply to mining and travel speed.
FIXED: If self stunned in combat (stun grenade etc.), you can now use the end turn hotkeys. Previously required that you manually click end turn options.
FIXED: Cargo values displayed below the center ship UI. Let me know if you see numbers that do not match your current cargo hold. This display updates every few seconds.
UPDATED: You can now cancel trade contracts from the Trade-Net menu. Select the contract you want to cancel in the list and then select the "CANCEL CONTRACT" button.
UPDATED: Refinery button moved to the bottom of the refinery menu.
UPDATED: The storage transfer menu now allows you to specify the number of items to be transferred with an updated VALUE entry field (bottom center of the transfer popup).
UPDATED: The drone manager now displays the quality level of the node being mined for each drone in the list as QL-1 through QL-10.

5/10/19
FIXED: Over time, Trade-Net contracts were being removed and not regenerating.
FIXED: In some cases, the color coding and arrow display in the contracts area of the trade net was being displayed incorrectly.
FIXED: The stacked item slider is now fixed in cargo storage.
FIXED: Phosphate can no longer be purchased for zero credits.
FIXED: Skills that are capped at 100 skill level now correctly display a full bar of skill experience in the character info hud.
FIXED: If you had a max skill of 100 in mining, you can now select mining perks
FIXED: If you have the current maximum friendly status with a faction, the faction bars in the upper left character hud and the log->map now correctly display as full. I expect that I will be adding additional tiers of faction in the future. Faction continues to be accrued even when at maximum with any faction and that is intended.

Here are the notes for the latest content patch. This patch introduces the Trade-Net, refining and mining perks. Hope you enjoy the changes. If you do find any bugs or issues, please post on the bug sub-forum and Ill look into it.
https://youtu.be/NBTXbRg3iu8
Added the Trade Net:
The Trade-Net is a marketplace where goods are sold by various orbiting stations across the universe. Trade Stations issue buy and sell contracts for goods required by the population of that system. These goods are transferred between orbiting stations and planetary colonies.

The Trade-Net is not available until you leave Achmedius and place at least one beacon near a Jump Point in another system. Once you place a beacon in another star system, Achmedius will be added along with any other star systems where beacons are placed. If you have already placed beacons in an existing save, the entire available Trade-Net will be visible when you load that save.

Trade contracts are delivered through the cargo storage terminal on stations. Cargo storage has been revised so it opens immediately without the need to purchase storage. If you want to buy cargo storage at a station, just open the cargo storage terminal and select the option to purchase storage. Delivering or retrieving purchased Trade-Net items is as simple as traveling to the station where the trade contract was placed and retrieving or placing the cargo in storage. The contract(s) are completed when closing the cargo storage menu. Cargo storage has a new area at the bottom of the UI that displays delivery contract information.

A few notes related to the addition of the trade-net.

• Over time, the number of trade goods in any available contract on the trade-net are reduced as AI merchants accept orders.
  
• Trade goods and refined ore cannot be bought from or sold to vendors, only traded via the trade net. These items will not be displayed in the vendor interface.
  
• Mining and mining drones now have a slightly lower chance of collecting rare earth minerals and rare ore to offset market pricing.
  
• The amount of ore retrieved while mining, especially at higher levels has been adjusted.
  
• Mining drones sell ore at a reduced price now that the Trade-Net is in the game to balance the economy. Retrieving ore, refining it and then selling it is the most profitable path - however, automated drones still generate significant income.
  
• Commodity merchants and ore vendors have been removed from trade stations now that the Trade-Net is implemented. They may come back as something new when crafting goes in the game. Ore can still be sold to vendors, though using the trade net to find the best price is likely more profitable.
  
• The ore vendor on Hurzog Mining is now a general merchant. Scarby's dialog has been revised to reflect that.
  
• If a beacon is placed in a hostile system, trade data is not streamed to the Trade-Net for that system. You cannot trade with hostile factions.
  
• You gain a small amount of mining experience for refining.
  
• Gas nodes on planets have been removed and replaced with mineral nodes. I may look at gas mining again at some point in the future.
  

A progress update on the Trade-Net today. Things are moving along nicely and the universe-side code is completed. I'm wrapping up the UI and will start working on handling accepted contracts and deliver/retrieving contract trade goods this week. Here is a short video showing some of the work that has been done:

https://youtu.be/H3nHqWRliVc

The trade net uses a network of placed beacons. Beacons have been in the game for a while now and many of you may have fairly large networks of these devices. The larger the network, the more options you have to find the best deals.

Initially, these could only be used for fast travel between systems. You likely use them to travel back and forth between mission locations or to your favorite home system where you store goods and ships. With the trade-net update, these beacons will start sending data to the trade-net so you find the best places to buy and sell trade goods, ore, and refined ore. A ship with a good-sized cargo hold can make excellent money traveling between systems trading all kinds of goods.

For those of you interested in smuggling, there will be an option to have your Trade-Net "hacked" so it will show contraband items (like the Kchor Brandy shown above). Traveling with these items in your cargo hold is risky. Raiders may spawn and scan your cargo, trade stations may force you to pay a fine if you have these goods in your cargo hold and will seize the items. A high electronics skill can help avoid detection. There may also be a few ship upgrades just for smugglers.

I'll keep you posted as I make progress. I'm hoping to get this out for everyone sometime in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, here is a list of the latest patch notes since the last announcement. Thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics!

4/5/19
Stability fixes:
--Capped framerate at 60fps - I'll look into uncapping FPS during late alpha. In general, capping the framerate at 60 keeps the physics engine (and overall framerate) stable on higher-end systems with fast CPU's/GPU's and high refresh monitors. The game actually plays much smoother for me running at a 144hz.
--Clearing some dynamic data before level loads.
--Integrated the latest Steam API for stability, upcoming achievements and other plans I have for the game.
--Removed a few files that that game does not need (may have been causing conflicts on some systems).

FIXED: A bug related to autosaves on the Dauntless.
FIXED: A bug related to volumetric effect coloration in certain star systems.
FIXED: Rollover info labels are now displayed correctly when hovering over docking and landing icons.
UPDATED: Added additional info to the star system object list in the upper left HUD that displays the [NEAREST] jump point.

3/25/19
FIXED: When exiting Dauntless the game was generating two autosaves.
FIXED: When leaving the Dauntless, items equipped on characters other than the main character are correctly moved to the stash.
FIXED: The number of items in ship cargo holds could be displayed incorrectly in rare cases. Cargo volume is now correctly displayed in the vendor UI, when viewed in the ship cargo UI and in purchased cargo storage. If you have a current save that displays incorrect cargo volume, this patch should resolve the problem.

3/24/19
FIXED: A display error for perk bonuses to the weaponry skill. Specifically bonuses applied to reload speed and efficiency displayed on the ship screen under "Skill Bonus"
FIXED: Targeting a planet and traveling to FTL space then clicking the upper right info panel even if it displayed "No Target" would display the info panel with bad info.
FIXED: Placing a beacon and then deleting another beacon would cause the beacons list to not display the most recently placed beacon.
FIXED: Display of number of drones deployed and in inventory in the log->drone UI
FIXED: The game would lock up while hacking if you had perks selected from the auto-hack line at higher levels (Mystic Keycard, Master Key etc.) when those perks were triggered.

3/18/19
FIXED: Rare random lockup when entering or leaving combat.
FIXED: A bug related to populating the star map search data based on your location in the universe. This could have made it hard to find purchased ships located at remote stations.
FIXED: A bug that would add an empty character between the save name and time played values in the save UI when overwriting an existing save.
FIXED: Deleting saves while in the save game UI could cause a bad entry in the save list.

3/13/19
Resolved issues with several instances where opening a menu and not closing it would cause the game to lock up. Specifically:
--Opening the Drone Manager from the log screen and then pressing the ESC key or any other key that would navigate you to inventory, character information etc. would lock up the game. Thanks again for the reports.
--Opening the "Reputation" menu from the log screen and then pressing the ESC key or any other key that would navigate you to inventory, character information etc. would lock up the game.
--A change to the core AI architecture

Ten more ships updated!
Aries LATK-2
Vagabond EX-4
Wanderer EX-2
Arden LM-2
Revenant ATK-5
Corsair HATK-2
Ashaton MATK-3
Kraken HATK-7
Traveler EXP-2
Trident MATK-7

https://youtu.be/3cq99khcXo0

The new drone mining system is in the game. Here is how it works.
You can now purchase mining drones at any ship equipment vendor. The total maximum number of drones you can have active and on your ship is 20. Drones on your ship are transferred to any ship you are actively flying so, if you transfer to another ship, any drones aboard your current ship get transferred along with your cargo. Drones are fairly expensive, however, they pay for themselves in a few runs and are a great way to make money while exploring the universe.

Drones have a maximum capacity of 1000 units. When they are deployed, the drones fly to the targeted planetary resource node and mine until full. You can use the drone manager to manage your drones, check their status and set their AI (more on the drone manager below).

Drones have two AI states:
Automatic Drones will mine a node until full and then fly to the nearest station and unload and sell their cargo. You will get a notification when cargo is sold and credits will be added to your account when the transaction is complete. Drones sell cargo at the base universal average for any resource type. This option is ideal for players who want to earn extra income in a semi-automated fashion to pay for ship and equipment upgrades. If a drone sells a full cargo hold of ore, you will receive mining experience on the crew member assigned to the weaponry station.

Manual Drones will mine a node until full and then set their status to IDLE. The drone will wait on the planets surface until you enter the star system the drone is located at and retrieve the drone. The drone will fly to your ship (assuming you have enough cargo space) and unload the drone to your cargo hold and return itself to storage. This option is designed for players who want to engage in the future trading and crafting features. They can then refine the ore and/or trade crafted items, raw and refined ore. This option will require a ship with a fairly high cargo capacity. If the drone fills its cargo bay, you will receive mining experience on the crew member assigned to the weaponry station.

Deploying a drone:
To deploy a drone you will first need to scan a planet. If that planet has any resources they will be displayed on the planet map in the upper right corner of the screen. Higher skill in scanning will display more nodes if there are any and provide higher quality scan results. The higher the quality of the resource node, the more resources it has available to mine. Higher quality resource nodes also provide higher returns as they are usually rich in valuable resources.

Select the node on the planets surface and the deploy drone icon will be displayed below the planet info panel along with the number of available drones you have to deploy. Select the icon and a drone will be launched. The drone will fly to the surface of the planet, the node icon on the planet map will change to let you know a drone is assigned and the drone will be added to the drone manager list.

Retrieving a drone:
Eventually, drones will deplete the resource. A drone with a depleted resource (or a drone that was set to manual that has a full cargo bay) will be displayed in the Drone Manager as IDLE.

To retrieve the drone, fly your ship to the system where the drone was deployed, select the drone in the list and click the Retrieve button at the bottom of the drone manager. The drone will return to your ship, unload if it has any cargo and set itself to storage. The drone will be removed from the drone manager.

Drone Manager
The drone manager can be accessed while in space via a new icon in the lower left of the screen. You can see how many drones you have and how many are deployed. Every deployed drone is listed and selecting any drone will show you its current status ( mining, traveling, idle etc.).

You can also access the drone manager from the Log->Map in space or when at stations or mission locations. Selecting a drone will center the map on the system where the drone is deployed.

If you select a drone while in FTL space, the system the drone is located at will be selected in the upper left system panel making it easy for you to target and approach that system for drone retrieval.

NOTE: Currently Gas nodes retrieve ore. Ill make the changes needed to harvest various gas nodes when I get the trading system in the game.

There is a new in-game guide entry for the drone mining system.

Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics and have a great weekend!

Hi all! I decided to set this week aside for a major update to the loading code, QoL improvements suggested by the community and a number of urgent fixes. No screenshots this week, just a bunch of things you've asked for that I needed to "get done". Here are the updates and fixes. Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

UPDATED: Improved loading speed when moving between areas.
UPDATED: Autosaves now take place before transitioning between areas.
UPDATED: Autosaves are now displayed at the top of the load/save menu under the quick-save slot. You can no longer overwrite or delete autosaves.
UPDATED: When saving over an existing save game, that save games current name is displayed by default with a new time stamp in the save confirm dialog.
UPDATED: Increased the animation speed when swapping weapons.
UPDATED: Ship equipment merchants will always carry at least one mining laser.
UPDATED: NPC ships can now be intercepted when micro-warping.

UPDATED: Added new logic for approaching NPC ships so you follow at a distance once in range. This should make intercepting ships in star systems much easier.
--Reduced the speed of NPC ships that are micro-warping to destinations so you can intercept.
--When you are micro-warping and you target a ship and press the "Approach" icon, you will now approach that ship and match that ships speed once you are in attack range.
--If you target another ship or stellar object, you will accelerate back to full micro-warp speed.
--If the targeted ship arrives at it's destination while you are following the ship, you will drop out of micro-warp in range of that ship.

UPDATED: Increased the frequence of drops for several rare mods (Frequency Modulators and Projectile Weapon Barrels).

UPDATED: End turn options now have dedicated key binds:
[1] - Delay Turn - If you have a full bar of AP, this option will let you delay your turn in the turn order.
[2] - Defend - A chance to reduce or completely mitigate the next attack on this character.
[3] - End combat turn

UPDATED - When you are ready to end your turn, you can now press [SPACE] a second time to end your turn so you do not need to manually select a end turn option. This is the same as selecting the new keybind [3].

UPDATED: Another tweak to the number of ships traveling to/from systems.

FIXED: Fixed a rare random lockup when transitioning between areas. This includes a major overhaul of the loading code when transitioning between areas. If you have any issues moving between areas, please post on the bug forums. I've tested this heavily and everything seems to be working as intended. I'll keep an eye on the bug forums over the next few days to make sure the new system is working as expected for everyone.
FIXED: A rare bug related to high faction levels not populating the system object list (upper left menu when in space) correctly.
FIXED: A rare bug related to high faction levels not displaying correct faction information in faction UI on the star map.
FIXED: The names of equipped devices are now correctly displayed when rolling over the icons on the tool bar.
FIXED: Particle systems were not triggered when launching to space when you first recieve your ship.
FIXED: If a rollover tooltip is visible and you leave a menu using the ESC key, that tooltip is hidden correctly.
FIXED: A visual glitch in the new game cinematic when exiting the crio-chambers.
FIXED: When starting a new game, after the intial cinematic, you will not be able to edge scroll until your implants are activated. You can also recenter the camera on your crew with the "Q" key and access the help menu "H".
FIXED: You can no longer select the end turn option "Delay Turn" if you do not have a full bar of AP.

Another patch today. I'm updating 10 more ships and posting a few updates and fixes. Patch notes are fairly short as I spent most of my time getting the updated ship models in the game this week.

Sol EX-2
Starfox EX-4
Pike ATK-2
Mace AK-7
Starhawk EXG-3
Shrike ATK-2
Starnova EXG-2
Hammer ATKG-1
Crate MRCH-2
Crate MRCH-4

I have one more set of 10 ships ready to implement and will get those in for the next patch, likely a week or two before that's ready. The next patch will also include the new planetary resource mining system.

Here are the notes for fixes and updates:

UPDATED: Another 10 ships have had their models replaced with final ship models
UPDATED: A higher chance for rare and legendary items from elite ships
UPDATED: Drops from elite ships are more likely to be items you can use on your current ship
UPDATED - Better handling of AI ship traffic between systems - still working on this
FIXED - Turret mount points are now hidden correctly when a ship explodes
FIXED - Ship engine lights now scale correctly with the power to engines
FIXED - A bug related to ships spawning into star systems

Hope you all have a great weekend and as always, thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Hi all - another patch is ready for release. Today I'm adding a few things - specifically a first pass at improving the pace of combat, new elite ship crews, the ability to sell all the scan data you've been accumulating and a new search feature for the star map. Here are the notes and I hope you enjoy the changes!

ADDED: You will now find elite crews flying around the universe. They are marked with a skull icon. These ships are a bit more difficult than regular ships, however, they are not so overpowered as to be impossible. I recommend that your ship have balanced energy levels as displayed in the ship ship screen so your turrets and shields are charging at the highest possible levels.
--These ships have a much higher chance of dropping legendary and rare gear - double the normal drop rate for these items.
--They never drop basic gear - exceptional is the lowest quality tier.
--Loot from these ships is usually usable on the ship you are flying.
--Check the ships faction before attacking non-hostile elite ships. You will take a faction hit for destroying them.

ADDED: The starmap search feature is in the game now. When you open the search menu in the log->starmap UI, you can enter the name of any system and press search to center the map on that star system and set it as your target in the upper left target HUD (if you are in FTL space). You will also get a list of any systems that have stored ships, cargo storage and beacons. Selecting a system from that list and pressing search will center the star map on that system. I'll be doing more work on the log->starmap and on the star map itself so you can better identify systems that have active missions, stored ships cargo, and active beacons.
--IMPORTANT - The search database is populated once you leave Achmedius and start traveling across the map. Search data when first entering Achmedius at the start of the game is limited.



ADDED: You can now sell all that scan data you have been collecting. All faction agents now have an additional option available when you speak with them - "Sell scan data". Faction agents are only interested in scan data in a 6x6 sector grid around them. If any scan data is available they will pay you a one time fee for that information. The price paid for scan data is based on the quality of the scan. When you scan planets, the quality of the scan is based on the level of your electronics skill. That quality value has been recorded since the launch of the game in Early Access, so, if you have scanned hundreds of planets you should see a nice reward. As your electronics skill improves, planetary scan quality is increased. You also gain a small faction bonus with the agents faction when you sell scan data based on the amount of data sold.

SPACE:
UPDATED: Balanced ship shield regeneration and charge levels so they are a bit more in line with what I would expect. Still working on this especially with some of the larger cargo ships.

UPDATED: Increased afterburner speed while in combat. As always, this is a tradeoff. Capacitors are depleted at an accelerated rate if you are flying a ship that is not an interceptor or light fighter.

UPDATED: When you loot cargo from destroyed enemy ships, you now get a small power boost to your shields in addition to any loot you tractor to your cargo hold.

UPDATED: If you are mining, you have a decreased chance of being detected in all systems by scavvers and raiders. Eventually this will be moved to a device you can purchase and equip on your ship (Signature Suppressor). These devices will be of varying qualities and suppress your electronics signature. Your turrets must be actively mining for the effect to be active. For now, the effect is set at a moderate level. There is always some degree of risk when mining. I'm still working on this system and will make changes over time based on player feedback.
--HOSTILE SYSTEM WITH STATION - Moderate chance of attack if turrets engaged. Ships mining in these systems will likely attack you after a period of time.
--HOSTILE SYSTEM NO STATIONS - Low chance of attack if turrets engaged
--WARY, NEUTRAL OR FRIENDLY SYSTEM WITH OR WITHOUT STATIONS - Low chance of attack if turrets engaged

UPDATED: The universe should feel a bit more alive. Adjustments made to AI ship destination and task processing. Still more work to do on this and I'll be adding a few interesting things over time.

GROUND:
UPDATED: Movement and combat animation speed. These are not the new animations - just a quick first pass at improving the pace of combat before the new animations go in the game.
--General movement speed increased while out of combat.
--Movement speed significantly increased while in combat
--Combat animation speed increased
--Weapon reload speed increased
--NOTE: A few attack types are still a bit slow - this is related to the SFX assigned to that weapon. I'll be cleaning this up with the new animations. There are also a few SFX like full auto and burst on some weapons that have a small sound bug that needs to be fixed

FIXED: Changing weapon fire modes while using the combat queue works again.
FIXED: Improved performance when scrolling star map
FIXED: When the fine aiming key is pressed ( [E] by default ) you will no longer move when clicking an enemy.
FIXED: Heavy weapon mercs will now be assigned the correct weapon type when spawning in the game environment and when initially assigned to your crew.
FIXED: A rare combat lockup related to opening inventory at the exact moment a team members turn was being switched.
FIXED: A combat lockup related to movement while items are in your combat queue. Movement is no longer allowed if you have queued combat attacks. You will need to clear your queue [BACKSPACE] before moving. A message is sent to the log if you are trying to move when a queue is active. I'll be adding a queue indicator to the screen in a future patch.
FIXED: Display of navigation path information is now disabled if you have attacks in your combat queue.
FIXED: Status effects in top rollover info bar while in ground combat are now updated immediately.

Whats coming next?
Passive ground based mining - You will be able to purchase and launch drones to resource nodes on planets where they will mine until full and then notify you so you can retrieve them and sell the ore.


10 more of the ship replacement models will be going in the game:
Pharris Sol EX-2
Pharris Starfox EX-4
Pharris Pike ATK-2
Pharris Mace AK-7
Pharris Starhawk EXG-3
Pharris Shrike ATK-2
Pharris Starnova EXG-2
Pharris Hammer ATKG-1
Pharris Crate MRCH-2
Pharris Crate MRCH-4

And one last screenshot of more ships being worked on.

Hi all - hope you enjoy the patch. New ship models, cargo storage and a number of bug fixes.

UPDATED SHIPS: 10 of the 40 ships have been updated with final ship models. I'll continue adding the final models as they are completed. If you have any of the following ships, the next time you enter space you will be flying the new-shiny-updated version of the ship. There have been no changes to your equipment - just load and go. Hope you like them...
Victory FT-2 - Light Fighter
Arrow FT-1 - Light Fighter
Triumph ITC-4 - Interceptor
Rovah MK-1 - Explorer
Talon ATKR-2 - Medium Fighter
Khaal ATKR-4 - Heavy Fighter
Tarsus MRCH-2 - Light Merchant
Severin MRCH-2 - Light Merchant
Heron MRCH-3 - Light Merchant
Exetor ATKR-7 - Heavy Fighter

CARGO STORAGE: The cargo storage system is included in this patch. It is a pre-requisite for some of the work I need to do next and had to go in now. On most stations in the universe and at the Achmedius trade station, you can now purchase cargo storage space. Once you purchase storage space, it is yours forever - there are no upkeep costs and you will have 200 "slots" to store cargo items on that station.

Cargo storage is accessed via a "terminal" near the entrance of any non-hostile station that offers trade services, merchants and faction agents. You can press "TAB" to highlight the new terminals. Selecting the terminal will give you an option to purchase storage on that station. Once purchased, you can move cargo from your cargo hold to storage and back.



You can place ore, ship equipment (turrets, shields etc.) and in the future commodities and refined ore. You cannot store regular gear in cargo storage (ground weapons, armor etc.). You have a stash for all of that.

Cargo storage differs from ship cargo space. That is, a "slot" can hold unlimited stacked items. For example, lets say you have 200,000 units of raw iron ore. Placing that ore in your cargo storage will only take one of the 200 slots - a slot is just that, an item of any single type takes up a single slot. Every ship component you place in storage takes a slot because each ship component is unique. On a ship, storage is calculated in cubic meters. So, if your ship has 1000 cargo, you will only be able to move 1000 units of iron ore from your stations cargo storage container to your ship assuming your cargo hold on your ship is empty. Cargo storage is only available on any station where you purchase it.

I'll be adding a way for you to track where your storage (and ships) are located in the universe in a future patch. For now, just make a note of where you purchased storage or set it up in Achmedius. You can always jump there from other systems.

So, why cargo storage?
--You may want to store ore or commodities until you can find the best sell price in the Universe.
--You may find a shiny Legendary warp drive for a ship you don't have yet and do not want to clutter up your cargo hold.
--Refining storage (a future feature) - You will be able to refine raw ore and store it in station storage until you can bring your massive cargo ship and haul it to your favorite sell point.

And a few bug fixes:
FIXED: Tab targeting when in space combat would occasionally cause a crash to desktop.
FIXED: A very rare bug that could leave characters in a state where they could not move.
FIXED: Mercs with heavy weapons now apply the correct default heavy weapon settings when recruited so their default weapons function correctly. Any default merc heavy weapons can be removed and then equipped again to reset the weapon so it functions.
FIXED: A bug that could occasionally initiate a combat attack when using the rotate key.
FIXED: When in combat and moving, you can no longer select the rotate function which could have locked up the game in rare cases.
FIXED: You can no longer switch fire modes on your weapon once a combat attack has been started.
FIXED: It was possible after initially hacking a chest or locker to click that chest or locker after a successful hack, displaying the hacking interface. This is no longer possible. There is a now a small delay before you can attempt to hack a chest or locker gain (2 seconds).
FIXED: After hacking a locker, there was a delay before loot was displayed. Loot is now displayed immediately.
FIXED: When the entire stack of items was sold to a vendor (ore), a "phantom" cargo item could be left in the inventory. This could happen multiple times resulting in an incorrect display of the number of cargo items in your cargo hold.

And a glimpse of several of the second set of ship model replacements that will come in a future patch. Next up, some enhancements to the star map in the log to allow for system searches, display of cargo storage locations and ships stored on stations. I'll also be working on the passive drone mining system, a pass at space combat balance and more. I'll keep you all posted as I make progress. Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday! I thought I would share a quick progress update. The last few weeks I've spent most of my time getting the first set of 10 new ship models in the game. I'll release these with the next patch.

https://youtu.be/jyjRrjWqXuI

Meanwhile, the second set of ships model replacements are in development and I'll get those in the game when they are ready. A few screenshots below - work in progress.


And finally, I've been working on the cargo transfer feature. When this is finished, you will be able to purchase cargo storage space on trade stations. Once you own cargo storage, you will be able to move items from your ship cargo hold to storage, swap ships and move those items to your currently equipped starship from storage. I know a lot of you have wanted a way to store all that shiny legendary gear and move it to another ship. This is also a requirement for future work on trading and crafting so needs to be done now. As you can see, you will be able to sort both your current ships cargo and the contents of the station cargo storage.

Cargo storage is only for ship equipment, ore and commodities.

When buying new ships, the current cargo transfer feature will still work - so, you will need to make sure the contents of your current ship cargo bay will fit in the new ship you are purchasing.


That's all I have for now. I'll keep you all posted as I make progress. I'm hoping to get the updated ships, cargo transfer and a number of bug fixes out in patch next Friday. As always, thank you for supporting Stellar Tactics!

First, I'd like to wish all of you a very Happy Holiday Season and thank you for a great year! This is the second patch as promised that provides additional bonuses to end mission loot, a new device that lets you scan for lifeforms in mission areas, a cleanup pass on the movement/interaction system and more. This is the last patch this year, and it has been a very busy year indeed. I have big plans for 2019 and I hope you enjoy the content and updates to come.

Here are the patch notes:

UPDATED: At the end of missions and when you clear hostile facilities and explore locations, you are now awarded better bonus equipment. Originally this was going to be a crate. I'm going to reserve that for major bosses that will reward epic items, and now grant these reward items as described below.
All granted items are now useful - no more health kits or junk items.
All granted items are of exceptional quality or higher.
You now get three guaranteed items at the end of missions.
Other rewards remain the same - Faction, cash rewards, and ammo are still granted depending on whether the location is a faction mission or a explore location.
--Short missions and explore locations - A chance for a legendary - a total of three granted equipment items (weapon, armor, shield or mod)
--Medium missions and explore locations - A high chance for a legendary - a total of three granted equipment items (weapon, armor, shield or mod)
--Long missions and explore locations - A guaranteed legendary - a total of three granted equipment items (weapon, armor, shield or mod)

UPDATED: A cleanup pass to the movement and interaction system. Overall this brings a few things in line with where they should be as far as object interaction and movement is concerned. Still more work to do on this.
--When moving to a location, if you click a chest, object or NPC, the closest team member will branch off and interact with that item instead of ignoring the object and continuing to move to the destination.
--If a PC is moving towards an object to interact, other team members will stop and wait.
--If a PC is moving towards an object to interact, another click to move will interrupt the interaction and clear the interaction queue.

UPDATED: The help screen while in space has been updated.
UPDATED: When rolling over grenades and health kits popups, descriptions are now displayed on the screen so you can see what kind of grenade or health kit you are selecting.
UPDATED: The high-resolution space option now also displays higher resolution materials for planets.
UPDATED: In higher level encounters, enemy groups are less likely to be generated with multiple missile launchers. Sure, that was fun, but it can also be overwhelming.
UPDATED: New color coding icons for equipment tiers in all menus.
UPDATED: You can now translocate directly to your ship from anywhere on a trade station if you have the Halamis Translocator equipped.

ADDED: A new device exclusive to the Shikaru faction. Shikaru faction vendors now sell the Lifesign Tracker. This device exposes all lifeforms in the current mission area on the radar for 10 seconds. Enemies out of range of the scanner are displayed at the edge of the radar display. You can use this in any mission area to help you track down those elusive enemies hiding in small rooms or in the larger mission areas like caverns and stations. The device has a 2-minute cooldown. The device cannot be used to reveal ethereal creatures. The device uses a global cooldown so other team members that also have the device equipped will need to wait until the cooldown expires. The cooldown persists between saves. There will be many more useful devices coming to the game - cloaking devices, resource node scanners for salvaging, drones for scouting areas and destroying upcoming turret placements in missions etc.

ADDED: Bloom filter setting in the video options screen.

FIXED: A bug that would display the wrong number of available faction tokens when purchasing an item from a faction vendor.
FIXED: When purchasing an item from a faction vendor, the text sent to the log now correctly indicates that you used tokens to purchase the item.
FIXED: The beacon icon now disappears if active when you FTL out of a star system.
FIXED: Blending issues with nebula effects. Overall, nebula effects now better match the star system sky and are more subtle.
FIXED: Removed duplicate log entry when turning in faction missions.
FIXED: A floating container in one of the mission areas and a number of other visual glitches in various mission areas.
FIXED: A mission enemy that was linked to a group on the other side of the mission map in one of the mission areas.


A little of what you can expect for the NEXT content patch:



The first set of final models for some of the ships (10 total)
Victory FT-2 - Light Fighter
Arrow FT-1 - Light Fighter
Triumph ITC-4 - Interceptor
Rovah MK-1 - Explorer
Talon ATKR-2 - Medium Fighter
Khaal ATKR-4 - Heavy Fighter
Tarsus MRCH-2 - Light Merchant
Severin MRCH-2 - Light Merchant
Heron MRCH-3 - Light Merchant
Exetor ATKR-7 - Heavy Fighter

Cargo transfer on stations
Ground mining drone system
Commodities and trading tied to the beacon system currently in the game
Updated animations
Improvements to the pace of combat (tied to the new animations)
Faction Agents will buy scan data

That's not all of course and I'll be working my way through the "What's Next" and "Roadmap" posts on the forums as I move towards Alpha.

As promised, here are a few of the items I mentioned I would get in before X-Mas. This patch adds new options for sorting and marking inventory items. Stellar Tactics has tons of loot and inventory management was a hassle. You can now mark items for sale, sort items in the vendor UI's and bulk sell marked items and vendor trash. You should also see a large increase in the cash rewards from incursions and a large increase in the credits earned from selling loot to friendly factions. Hope you enjoy the update:

UPDATED: You can now mark items for sale in your shared inventory, stash and cargo hold. Just Alt-Click items to mark them for sale.
--A check mark will appear over the item in your shared inventory.
--A check mark will appear next to the item in the cargo and stash lists.
--Alt-Click again to remove the marked state.
--You cannot mark stacked items for sale (health packs, grenades etc.)
--You can also mark ore - however, see below - I've added a special "SELL ALL ORE" button to the vendor inventory.


UPDATED: Vendors now have new options that let you sell all marked items from your inventories and all junk items in your inventories. Make sure you really want all of these items sold before you select these options. Of course, you can always buy them back if you made a mistake.
--When selling to a vendor, you can sell all marked items from your shared inventory, stash and cargo bay with one click. Each item sold will be displayed in the game log and a total for the transaction will be displayed in your log.
--When selling to a vendor, you can sell all junk items with one click. Each item sold will be displayed in the game log and a total for the transaction will be displayed in your log. Selling all junk sells all vendor trash items in both your shared inventory and stash.
--If you have your cargo bay selected, a special option to sell all ore with one click replaces the "SELL ALL JUNK" option. Again, items sold and total credits earned will be displayed in the log.

UPDATED: You can now easily see the quality of items in your shared inventory, stash and cargo hold:
--In your shared inventory, items now have a color-coded border that displays if the items are exceptional, rare, legendary or epic.
--In your stash and cargo hold, there are new icons in the lists that are displayed if the items are exceptional, rare, legendary or epic.

UPDATED: The vendor UI now displays the quality of items with new color-coded icons in both the player's list area on the right of the screen and the vendor's area on the left. This should help you quickly identify items that are of value when trading. This also applies to ship equipment vendors. Marked items are also displayed when trading with vendors. You cannot mark items for sale in the vendor UI.



UPDATED: You now have sorting options in the vendor menu for all item types on both the vendor and the player sides of the vendor UI.
--Ground-based sorting options are white icons.
--Ship equipment and ore sorting options are blue icons.
--One icon is for consumables - the white health kit icon displays both health kits and ammo. This also applies to ammo and data beacons in the ship equipment vendor UI.

UPDATED: Other than ore, all prices at vendors are now modified by your faction. Ore prices will be worked on when I get the trading system in the game. These bonuses and penalties also apply to the price of ships and ship equipment and the trade in value of your current ship. These bonuses and penalties are applied after your CHA bonus is applied to the cost of items.
--FRIENDLY: +15% bonus to the value of all items sold/ -15% to the price of items purchased
--NEUTRAL: Prices for items bought and sold are the same as they have always been
--WARY: -15% applied to the value of all items sold / +15% to the price of items purchased
--HOSTILE: You are KOS and cannot buy and sell to hostile merchants

UPDATED - Mods equipped on weapons now display mod adjustment values instead of the mod name in the rollover info.

UPDATED - The number of beacons you have in inventory is now displayed in the ammunition area of the ship UI.

UPDATED - Cash rewards for space combat incursions increased significantly.

FIXED: Ore is now listed in alphabetical order on ore traders
FIXED: Removed duplicate ore vendor entry for "Silica"

Patch day! - All perks for combat skills are now in the game to level 100. FIRST AID and HACKING perks have also been added to level 100. Space-specific skill perk lines for PILOTING, WEAPONRY, ELECTRONICS and TARGETING perks are all in the game for an additional 60 perks. I'll be adjusting all perks over time as other game systems are implemented.

The middle perk line in ELECTRONICS is related to security and will be used at a later time. For now, selecting perks in this line will have no effect.

Mining perks can be selected, however, they are not fully implemented for now. I'll be adding these when I get the ground mining drone system in the game. You do get bonuses from the WEAPONRY skill perks from reload speed and energy efficiency when mining so you should see a boost from those perks.

Perks are useful in a number of ways. For ground combat, they can give you bonuses towards applying various status effects and mitigating different damages types. They are most useful for customizing your team for offensive, balanced or defensive roles. They apply secondary bonuses for applying additional damage, bleeding, hobbled, stunned, crippled, poison and shield strike-through effects. The defensive line provides additional AC and bonus mitigation against status effects.

Healing perks provide additional healing effects and the ability to remove status effects when applying med-kits. At higher levels they can remove stun, poison, bleeding, hobbled and crippled states.

Hacking perks provide bonuses to the length of time you have to select a key when hacking a chest or locker, bonus loot quality, and even auto-completing hacking.

Space perks affect all crew station bonuses displayed on the ship screen [K] - Ship speed, turn rate and evasion - Damage bonuses, reload speed and energy efficiency - scan range, security (not active yet) and shield bonuses - turret lock speed, chance to hit and shield bypass.

Perks can be changed at any time - an unusual design decision. I did not want to lock players into any specific perk decisions. In Stellar Tactics perks are situational and as development continues that will be much more important at higher levels.

As I roll out crafting, repair, salvaging and adjustments to mining, I'll also add perks for those skills. They are all interrelated and each of those skills will need to be worked on at the same time.

The total number of perks currently in the game:
Combat - 135
General - 30
Space - 60
Total - 225 perks

A few additional fixes and updates for this patch:

ADDED - Combat, first aid and hacking perks to level 100.
ADDED - Space combat perks for all space skills to level 100.
UPDATED - You can now rotate the camera with the mouse (right mouse button) while panning with the keyboard (WASD) during ground exploration.
FIXED - If an incursion spawned at your exact location, some ships would enter combat but not fire at you.
FIXED - If an incursion spawned at your exact location, tab targeting could crash the game in some cases.
FIXED - A message - "Press [P] to pause space combat at any time!" would continuously display even after docking or landing at a ground location.
FIXED - Ship shield strike through bonuses are now working correctly.
FIXED - A damage display error in the character info screen.
FIXED - A rare lockup when accepting missions from faction agents.
FIXED - Missile launchers now respect the friendly fire player settings.
FIXED - A bug that caused the action bar background to disappear when characters died, were KO'd or when the last enemy died of bleeding or poison damage.
FIXED: A bug that could place you at an incorrect initial entry point for missions.

Hi all - new patch today that fixes a number of issues.

I'm nearly finished with the perks for ground combat, space and several of the general skills. There will be an additional 66 perks to complete the combat, first-aid and hacking perk lines. I'm also adding all the space combat perks for an additional 60. That's a total of 126 new perks added to the game and a grand total of 225 perks! I hope to have these tested and ready to release soon. I'll be adding the additional perks for salvaging, repair and crafting as those systems get released. Mining perks are dependent on the drone mining system, so those will go in when I release that feature.

There is quite a bit of other work going on. This includes the drone mining system, updated animations including the new special weapon attacks, and more. Here are the notes:

FIXED: Duplicate display of team position in some missions. There was a display error in the mission completion map next to the radar that would display your location in mission areas more than once in some cases.
FIXED - Removed duplicate eliminate mission targets from mission areas.
FIXED - A bug related to applying armor strike through at high levels of melee skill. This changes things for melee at higher levels both for enemies and team members. Overall higher damage output from melee.
FIXED - Delayed damage and visual effects when using flamethrowers.
FIXED - A display error related to mods applied to weapons with critical chance modifiers.
FIXED - A game lockup when using the toggle combat toolbar icon or other toolbar icons while transitioning in and out of combat.
FIXED - Enemies and the player no longer scan the environment for each other while transitioning in and out of combat. In some cases, this could result in a game lockup.
FIXED - A number of data issues with some of the mission sets.
FIXED - Line of sight lines now disappear immediately when an enemy dies. Previously, the could remain visible until the enemy disappeared.
FIXED - When completing a mission, the entire message is now displayed on the screen. Previously, the text was being cut off.
FIXED - A number of general stability fixes.
UPDATED - If you have a healthkit enabled, you can now click character portraits to heal in and out of combat.
UPDATED - All ships drop at least one loot crate, even in systems that are -10 levels of your average space combat skills.
UPDATED - Your ship will tractor dropped enemy ship crates from a much larger distance now. Should help in cases where an enemy ship is too close to a planet when destroyed.
UPDATED - Improved load speeds by a few seconds
UPDATED - Reduced the amount of information sent to the log. In some cases, when playing very long sessions, this may lead to problems.
UPDATED - Voice comments adjusted:
--Team members now comment on critical hits less often.
--Team members will only comment on loot if the item looted is armor or a weapon and of rare quality and above.

Hi everyone. First, I'd like to thank all of you who reported bugs big and small over the last few weeks. I'm posting a new build and cumulative patch notes since the release of the last major content update September 21st when I opened the universe.

It's been a very busy time since the release of the patch and we've had a lot of new additions to the Stellar Tactics community providing a ship load of great feedback and suggestions. I read everything I can posted on the forums and many of you know that I'm actively engaged in the conversations there. Please do continue to post and comment. Your feedback is much appreciated!

Here is what I'll be working on next, in no particular order. I'll start rolling out these features one at a time for the most part.

In no particular order:

• Perks to level 100
  
• A few additional devices that can be used in combat.
  
• Repair system for both space and ground. The space repair system will allow you to assign crew members to ship repairs. You will of course still be able to pay for repairs on stations.
  
• Addition of weapons for pugilism along with some adjustments. Currently there are no weapon types for this combat skill. I've compensated by making this skill more powerful, however, it's time to get these weapons in with mod slots etc.
  
• Implement new animations - these are done and have been waiting until I had time to get them in the game
  
• Space trading and the Trade-Net
  
• Cargo transfer on stations
  
• Special weapon attacks
  
• Ground mining drone system
  
• Sneaking, traps and environment security systems (including turrets)
  
• Sorting for vendors, inventory, stash and cargo
  
• Space station turret defense systems
  
• Crafting
  
• Patrolling enemies and NPC's
  
• Faction Agents will buy scan data
  
• Implement the updated ship models you saw in the last announcement
  

The Universe IS Yours!

I'm very happy to announce that the Stellar Tactics universe is now open - from one system to 160,000+ systems. I'm very happy with the progress and this is a major milestone for the game. I hope you enjoy it.

Prepare for a wall of text...

I want to set some expectations. This is the first pass of the universe sandbox. There are likely to be bugs, though we've done some heavy testing over the last three weeks and things seem stable. That doesn't mean there won't be edge cases that cause problems. If you do find any bugs, please post them on the bug forums and I'll address them as soon as I can. https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

So, what is this patch?
--This is the first pass at the sandbox universe. Over time I'll be adding a lot of content including discovery missions from logs, distress transmissions and much, much more. Think of this as the beginning of something much larger.

--There is no new story content, just missions everywhere, places to explore, mine, engage in exploration discovery encounters on planets and stations against various factions. Plenty to do and explore.

--What will I be doing after the patch releases - a lot. The goal is to get to Alpha as soon as possible. to get there I need to finish a few more of the games core systems. I'll list all of that in the "What's next" and "Roadmap" posts on the forums.

--Tuning - the game needs to be tuned, both for ground and space combat. First, perks need to be in place, special attacks need to be finished and itemization and the economy needs to be addressed.

It's important that I point out that I do have plans to add (soon) a way for you to right click enemies and choose the target body part, review enemy information (resists and possibly more information) based on your perception stat. One thing I've never liked about the current system is that it does not give you an alternative method for targeting enemies - this will be addressed.

And now for the patch notes:

IMPORTANT: MOUSE INTERACTION HAS BEEN CHANGED. The mouse now uses left click to interact with objects, NPC's, combat attacks, movement and movement cursor rotation. Right click is reserved for camera rotation. I've adjusted this so it conforms with the standard. I find a lot of new players are confused by the old system which felt out of place. I think it works much better so thank you everyone who suggested this change.

You can now travel through the entire Stellar Tactics Universe. Traveling between systems is done in FTL Space - a 3D representation of the entire Stellar Tactics universe.

To travel to FTL space, you no longer need to approach a jump point. You can enter FTL space anywhere in a star system as long as you are not in combat. Jump points are now used for translocating between systems where you have placed a data beacons. More on that below. When you can FTL to the Star Map, an icon will be displayed in the upper left System Info UI if that UI is opened.



Once in FTL Space, approach any system and a new icon will be displayed in the upper left of the screen under the System Information menu. Pressing that icon will drop you from FTL Space into the selected Star System.

To enter FTL space, you need to have a FTL drive equipped on your ship. These are the requirements to enter FTL space:
1) If you are in your starter ship, you must have completed the "Speak with Scarby Hurzog" mission line through completion of the mission given to you by "Phestus". You can then buy a FTL drive from Phestus that you will need to equip on your ship.
2) You can purchase a new ship. All new ships are equipped with FTL drives.
3) You must return Dr. Rhamus and Dr. Jensen to the "Achmedius Trade Station" or you will not be able to enter FTL space

I've blocked entry to some systems for story content that will come during ALPHA and BETA. When trying to enter these systems a message is displayed letting you know that you cannot enter. Considering the overall number of systems (between 160,000 - 200,000 + depending on your random seed) you won't come across these often.

Level cap raised to level 60 - Skill cap raised to level 100

A new user interface for ground exploration and general information UI's. The space UI has not been changed other than some minor edits. I still have some cleanup to do on the UI and I'm looking through everything to make small adjustments.

Line of sight indicators that are displayed when hovering over movement locations. They indicate visible enemies from that position and provide you with an idea of whether or not that location provides cover. More work to do on this including displaying the indicators when you press TAB.

Closest team member interaction: When interacting with objects in the environment, the closest team member to that object, NPC, chest, loot object etc. will always interact. This resolves situations where you may be blocked getting to the object and need to move your team members around. There are a couple of important notes here:
1) When interacting with vendors, regardless of who selects the vendor, the team member in your active team with the highest CHA will be used in vendor price calculations.
3) When hacking you will need to select the team member with the hacking tool. The closest team member will interact, however, the selected team member with the tool will actually hack the item, provide skill bonuses and receive the experience.

All ships are now available to purchase. Vendor inventory is random so check vendors for new ships.

Your key-binds have been reset.

The farther you travel out into the universe, the more difficult enemies become. Faction mission agents can be found on stations in primary faction systems - that is Halamis, Varadyn, Cilivon, Conrair, Shikaru and Aralion.

You can see which faction is controlling a Star System on the Star Map in the log by rolling over or clicking on a system. You can gather missions from agents that will send you to nearby systems. Returning for your reward will net faction, tokens and rewards. If you enter a station with a faction agent and that system is way above your level/capability, the faction agent will not issue missions. There are also agents in sub-faction systems like The Kchor, The Coven etc. Neutral systems do not have faction agents, these systems are reserved for faction warfare. I'll be expanding on these missions, the mission descriptions and more over time.

The difficulty of a particular Star System is indicated in the Log->Star Map area. When you roll over a system, information will be displayed in the lower right of the Star Map displaying:
--The name of the system
--Reputation (hostile, wary, neutral, etc.)
--The primary Faction for that system
--The sector X,Y coordinates
--The difficulty of that system displayed my minimum level requirement
--If the system has station services

I'll be doing much more work on the map for an upcoming update.

In FTL Space, combat is disabled. I'll be adding various discovery locations, skirmishes and faction warfare in the future.

System labels in FTL Space are color coded as follows:

• Green Border: System has leveled content if there are landing locations and faction mission agents.
  
  
• Yellow Border: A challenge. The content in these systems is slightly above your level. With good gear and a skilled team you will survive. Faction agents are likely to have missions for you in these systems.
  
  
• Red Border: Likely impossible - but who knows? Give it a try and see. Faction agents will not offer missions in these systems.
  
  
• Purple borer with solid dark blue background: You have a agent mission to complete in this system.
  
  
• Yellow border with solid green background: You completed a mission and an agent is waiting for you to return for your reward in this system.
  

• The crew manager can be accessed when in space or on the ground.
  
• The left side of the crew manager window displays all of your crew members. A total of 10 crew members can be in your crew at any time. Crew members can be recruited on friendly stations across the universe.
  
• You cannot move crew in or out of your ground crew while on the ground. You can only assign new crew to your ground team in the crew manager while in space.
  
• Selecting a crew member in the left list displays important stat and skill information for review in the center pane of the crew manager.
  
• You can assign, replace and remove crew members by dragging them from the left crew list to the right team rosters.
  
• You can remove crew members by dragging them from the active roster to the crew list on the left. This allows you to solo ground missions or limit the number of crew members you have in your active ground team.
  
• Your ship and ground crew members can be separate. That is, you can have dedicated ground and space crew or you can mix and match team members from both rosters.
  
• You cannot replace your main character. He/she is dedicated to the first slot in the ground team roster and will always be a member of your ground team.
  
• You must have at least one crew member assigned to your space crew roster.
  
• You can dismiss a crew member by selecting the crew member in the left crew list. Dismissing a crew member is permanent (at least for now). You will prompted when dismissing a crew member and notified that dismissal is permanent.
  
• Setting station assignments in the ship UI [K] will re-arrange your ship crew. It does not affect your current ground team roster. Those changes will be reflected in the crew manager.
  

• To place beacons or translocate, you must be in the vicinity of a FTL point.
  
• Once you place a beacon, the system the beacon is placed in will be listed in the beacons UI.
  
• You must have at least 5 Fusion Cells (ground type ammo) to translocate
  
• You can delete beacons using the beacons UI
  
• Beacons will eventually also feed trading data into the Trade-Net
  

The next major content update will be on September 21st. Enjoy the video.

https://youtu.be/w2MK7hgOVb8

Hi everyone. No video this time, but I wanted to post a quick update to let you know what I've been up to.

Lots of work completed over the last month and a half since the last progress update. Star map performance is finished, the mission generator is placing explore missions on planets, faction agents are issuing faction missions to other systems in the area and rewarding tokens and rewards. I've also completed mission indicators so you know where to go when a mission is assigned and I've extended the system so I can add other mission types at a later time. I've spent a lot of time testing and making sure that when you arrive at mission destinations, the missions play through, complete and send you back to the originator for your reward. So, that was a big part of the work that needed to be done out of the way.

Faction was another big task. I've added two more armor sets to the faction merchants. Shikaru and Varadyn. The sets can be purchased with mission tokens. They come in three color variants.


There are many different types of locations you can discover in Stellar Tactics. Many different stations types, ground based facilities and cave systems. When exploring you may come across planets that have ground locations that need help. Some may be invaded by Phage, Scavvers, Raiders, hostile factions, mutants etc. By clearing one of these locations you end up with rewards from the dominant faction of that system. Regardless of the current faction in that system, you will get a generous faction reward. Landing at sites like this is a great way to adjust your standing with the various organizations in the universe.

Normally when you enter a system, if your faction is "Wary" or better, you can dock and land at stations and ground based locations to buy supplies, trade and repair. However, if a faction is hostile and you enter the entire station becomes a combat zone. Right now in the development build you can dock at any station. That's going to change in the next few weeks when I add station turret buoys. If you approach within a certain range, hostile stations will start firing on your ship. You will need to destroy the turrets before you can dock at a hostile station. In the future I'll add ways to bypass security, override these turrets and dock. I'll also be setting stations up so they launch ships that will hunt you down unless you FTL out of the system.

Speaking of the FTL system, after playing the current development build, I've set up the FTL drives so you can warp from anywhere. That means you can leave a station and immediately FTL. I've increased movement speed with the micro-warp drives and speed in FTL space. I spent a few days making sure travel times are significantly reduced. Jump points will still be used for translocating. To translocate you will need to place a data buoy in another system. Once that's done you end up with a translocation bookmark. As long as you are in a certain range of a jump point you can instantly teleport between systems, bypassing the FTL space completely.

I've also added a few things for combat that I think you will appreciate. The first is line of sight indicators. When in combat, if you hover your cursor over a movement destination, line indicators will be displayed showing you if that position has direct line of sight to an enemy. Ideal for finding cover and deciding where to move your team member. They are also useful for letting you know when a team member is in the way so you don't shoot them in the back.

Second, I want to talk about the random number generator. This seems to come up fairly often, not just in Stellar Tactics but in most any game that uses RNG in combat. Here is the deal, and I agree - it's just not fun to have a shot lined up with a 90% chance to hit and you "whiff" - nothing. So, I've changed the system so "YOU ALWAYS HIT" if above 75% chance to hit. Your damage will scale down if you're initial roll fails and you will only graze your enemies, but you will still hit. Below 50% CTH you will still get a second roll that may do limited damage. You will only apply status modifiers (poison, stun, bleed etc) if your initial roll succeeds. Let's give that a try for a while and see if everyone likes the new system in the next patch.

Another thing that I've finished was adjusting the way looting works. You can now choose to auto-loot objects as a setting in options. The nearest team member now interacts with loot, characters and objects in the scene. These changes were much needed and I'm glad I was able to get them in.

And finally, a few screenshots of the new UI (work in progress). These look a little empty until I get them finished and in the game. I thought I'd share them anyway.


Lots of work to do yet, though I am well past the half way point for the next patch. Thanks again for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Hi all - It's time for another progress update. I've included a video that shows some of the work I've been doing. Details below.

https://youtu.be/_RI0zEmb9Y0

The last few months have been pretty crazy around here. Since the last major patch, I've been focused on opening the FTL gates and there is still a lot of work to do. Most of this time has been spent wrapping up all the procedural mission sets needed to make sure the universe is populated with locations to explore. This has been thousands of hours of work over the last year between me and a talented modeler/ level designer I work with. I'm happy to say that work is now done - I'm finished with the level sets for the next content patch.

Another large block of work that is finished is generating the interiors for the various stations found in the universe. That means the interiors are in the game, loading based on where you are in the universe, vendors are placed and faction mission contacts are available. You can now dock at trade stations across the universe in the development build - if you have the proper level of faction needed. In a future patch you will be able to hack station security remotely and board the stations of hostile factions. Doing that will place a station on alert and you will need to fight your way through the station to disable various systems like external station turrets and interior defense systems. Should be interesting.

All the space stations that were completed some time ago have been added to the universe. Later I'll be adding external turret systems to the stations for faction warfare.

The incursion system is now working in all systems that have stations or a faction presence. I'll expand on this in the future with faction warfare and more.

I've also added volumetric effects to all systems as well as LUT Color Grading. They add a lot to the visual appearance and diversity of star systems.

For the last week I've been focused on performance on the Star Map. The game processes tens of thousands of independent AI vessels. The Star Map uses LOD algorithms to display ships and systems that are nearby and places them into a secondary processing queue when they are out of range. Every ship has a task or set of tasks and when they are out of visual range, they switch to a secondary process that uses universe time to determine arrival, task completion and assign new tasks. It's a fairly complex system and seems to be running well. I'm going to give myself another week with this to make sure everything is performing and running as expected.

And finally, the revised animations are finished, including special attacks for all weapon types. You might notice that "stealth" will be going in the game. I'll add these animations into the game when I get through a longer list of tasks I'm working on right now.

So, what's next?

Performance on the Star Map, tying the mission generator into the rest of the universe, finishing the crew manager, adding commodities and refining the trade system and a good number of other things that need to be done like data buoy's, the mission tracker and more. These should move along pretty fast. It does take time though, so I hope you will all be patient. It's going to be a huge update when it's finished and I need to make sure everything is in and working well.

I'd like to thank all of you for supporting the game and hope you all have a great weekend!

Hi everyone - here is the latest patch with a number of improvements and fixes. Hope you all enjoy the update.

Added a new top down radar system for ground exploration. The radar system is designed to be expanded on and tied to your electronics skill. As you gain more skill in electronics, perks will be available for exposing other object types on the map like loot, mission objects and at a very high skill, enemy positions (assuming they are not using stealth). I'll be adding perks for this skill soon.

For now, the radar displays default information - vendors, NPC's and enemies if in line of site.

--Exits are shown as door icons on the radar. You can click door icons to move the camera to that location. This is handy for moving your team to the exit.
--In mission areas that display the progression map, rolling over exit icons on the radar will highlight the room the exit leads to on the mission map.
--NPC's are displayed as orange dots
--Vendors are displayed as green dots
--Enemies are displayed as red dots - enemies are only displayed if they are in line of sight during combat. When perks for electronics go in the game, you will be able to select a perk that reveals all enemies in a certain radius regardless of LOS based on your skill in electronics.
--Team members are displayed as white dots.
--The radar is centered on the currently selected team member.
--There are two FOV indicators on the radar. The large FOV indicator displays the direction your camera is facing. The smaller indicator displays the direction your selected team member is facing.
--I'll be expanding on the system in the future.

Weapon mods - You can swap/upgrade mods now anytime/anywhere. The currently equipped mod gets moved to your inventory. Mods are never destroyed even when overwriting an existing mod in a weapon slot. You can only have a single mod of any one type equipped in any weapon

--Drag mods from your shared inventory to any mod slot. The dragged mod will be equipped in a free mod slot or replace any similar mod. If the mod is replaced, the old mod will be moved to your inventory.
--Shift-click any equipped mod to un-equip the mod to your inventory, clearing the mod slot.

IMPORTANT: If you have weapons that have more than one of any type of mod (e.g. Two scope mods) it will be important for you to un-equip the extra mod from your weapon. Mods were never meant to be stacked on any one weapon.

ADDED - Added a target indicator for currently selected targets in space.
ADDED - When you near planets, moons and stations, a new gravity well indicator is displayed that shows the general radius of the gravity well. This should make it easier to navigate around gravity wells when traveling in star systems.
ADDED - A new set of tutorial videos are now displayed when you first enter space. If you have already recieved your starter ship, you can review the video tutorials from the help menu by selecting the tutorial button.

UPDATED - Gravity wells no longer bring your ship to a full stop.
UPDATED - Updated the character creation screen so the instruction text and steps needed to create your character are clear.
UPDATED - When changing resolution a message is displayed confirming that the resolution change took place.
UPDATED - You can now enter hacking codes with the numeric keypad.
UPDATED: Ship capacitor recharge when out of combat is now faster.

FIXED - Default heavy weapons merc's mini-gun now reloads correctly
FIXED - A bug that allows players to equip more than one mod type per weapon
FIXED - Unarmed team members could not throw grenades
FIXED - Adjusted grenade damage for all grenade types
FIXED - A bug where throwing a grenade could reset a SMG (and other weapon types) to single fire mode even if that weapon only had burst and full auto enabled.
FIXED - Fine aiming was not working as intended. You now correctly receive up to a 7% bonus
FIXED - A number of typo's in the log entries and tutorials and item descriptions
FIXED - A bug that would require you to press the Enter key when generating your characters name during character creation
FIXED - On certain systems with very fast CPU/GPU when launching to space you could rarely enter a state that would require you to restart the game
FIXED - A bug that could break the ragdoll physics causing characters that were KO'd to stand up "broken" after the very first combat scenario on the bridge of the Dauntless
FIXED - An area in the Vats that could not be clicked for movement
FIXED - A few rollover objects that had incorrect border highlights
FIXED - Cargo and stash now allow mouse wheel scrolling without clicking first
FIXED - Fixed a few errors with the rollover info at the top of the screen when rolling over characters
FIXED - Occasionally, it was possible to click at a location in combat and use more AP than the preview indicated

Note that I've been working on a second pass on some of the minor UI's - they are not final and are work in progress.

Whats next? I'll be finalizing the crew manager. I hope to have that patch out in a few weeks.

As always, if you find any issues/bugs, please report them in the "Submit bugs" sub-forum. Hope you all have a great weekend!

https://youtu.be/Aq15t9IuH1g

Hi everyone. I thought I would post an update that covers what I've been up to for the last month since the ground combat patch. Check out the video above for details.

-New top down radar system for ground exploration. The radar system is designed to be expanded on and tied to your electronics skill. As you gain more skill in electronics, perks will be available for exposing other object types on the map like loot, mission objects and at a very high skill, enemy positions (assuming they are not using stealth).
-Completed modeling and lighting for all procedural ground based locations for the universe
-Work in progress for object placement in the procedural mission locations
-Crushed a number of bugs
-All character animations are now being adjusted and polished

I'll be working my way through the items on the "What's next" list posted on the forums. Next up, is the crew management system.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1318836262672874191/

Have a great weekend and thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Hi all - Lots of changes in this patch - see the video for highlights and details below:

https://youtu.be/cmxnT7162K4

COMBAT CHANGES:
ADDED: End turn options. When ending your turn you will have several new options to choose from. This options menu is only displayed if you have 2 or more AP left over when ending your turn. If queuing attacks, your turn will end as usual if no AP is left over. You can cancel out of the end turn menu by pressing the escape key.

• WAIT - Wait requires a full bar of AP and allows you to skip your turn, adjusting your position in the turn order. This is handy for cases where your team member may be blocked. When selecting this option, your position in the turn order is adjusted after the last team member in the turn order.
  
• DEFEND - Defend requires 2 AP and has a small chance of avoiding a single attack while waiting for your next turn or mitigating a portion of the next attacks damage. The cost of 2AP is a choice balanced against reloading your weapon or setting your team members in a defensive posture while in combat. Defend is applied after armor, shields and any other damage mitigation. You can see which team members and enemy combatants are defending by rolling over them with your mouse. The status bar at the top of the screen will show a defend icon in cases where combatants are in defend mode.
  
• END TURN - Ends your turn with no AP cost or further action. Any remaining AP up to 2 points will be rolled over into your next turn as it has been in the past.
  

• Only combatants with a melee weapon equipped and selected can execute an attack of opportunity.
  
• If a combatant is in range of a melee opponent and they move, the enemy will get a free attack.
  
• Combatants get a single chance during any round of having an attack of opportunity applied.
  
• Combatants get a single attack of opportunity per round of combat.
  
• If the enemy misses you, you will continue to your selected destination.
  
• If the enemy does damage, your move will be interrupted. You can choose to heal, attack or move as usual after the attack.
  
• Combatants can only be attacked once in any round. That includes instances where the closest enemy combatant has already dealt an attack of opportunity.
  
• Status effects have a chance to apply any status effects as normal.
  
• Stunned combatants cannot make attacks of opportunity. However, they do remove the moving combatants chance to receive an attack of opportunity for that round.
  

Hi everyone! You can find the latest patch notes since the last patch announcement below. I'd also like to give you a little preview of some of the work I'll be doing. This will be the last patch for a while unless there is a blocker or some other major problem that comes up so I can branch off and focus exclusively on the ground combat system for a while.

Here are the things I'm hoping to get into the combat update

Movement and blocking system overhaul - I'll be refining this system so blocking mechanics and movement in combat are much improved. The goal is to provide consistent blocking mechanics for both the enemies and the player characters going forward and to remove various annoyances with the current system.

Attacks of opportunity - (PC's and NPC's) If characters are adjacent to an enemies position and move out of range, the closest combatant will get a free single attack. That is a single melee attack or a single shot from ranged weapons.

Defend - (selected when ending your turn - PC's and NPC's) - Can be selected if you have 2 AP left over - gain immunity to one attack in the next round of combat.

Guard - (selected when ending your turn - PC's and NPC's) - I'll be looking into the ability to guard areas of visibility, gaining an opportunity to fire on enemies coming into the characters line of sight. This selection when ending your turn will likely take all your AP, can only be used once in any combat scenario. I find this mechanic overpowering so I want to make sure it is used sparingly. I'll scrap it if it's abusive.

Better display of LOS visibility when targeting enemies.

I'll be removing the cursor based targeting functionality. The current active cursor will be removed completely. Instead you will have a improved information and targeting UI for rollover info and selected targets that includes dedicated targeting for head, torso, arms and legs.

I'll also be tightening up delays in all combat animations, ranged weapon delays and generally polishing a number of areas related to the ground combat system.

I'll be adding combat specific powers that allow you to perform a variety weapon attacks and effects. These have always been a part of the plan and it's time to implement them. Examples are sniping, backstabs, teleportation, PBAoE attacks, weapon overloads, spread damage for shotguns and smg's as well as shared melee and ranged effects. First-aid will get AE heals, HoT, buffs and debuffs.

• These will all come as Neural Devices that interface with your team members neural implants. Powers are knowledge gained through the use of these devices greatly enhancing your performance and skill.
  
  
• Each team can have 3 active devices equipped at any time that must be equipped before the start of combat.
  
  
• These devices will have level requirements and you will find upgrades that can be equipped at various skill levels.
  
  
• They will drop off enemies and can be found as loot.
  
  
• All powers will have an AP cost
  
  
• All powers have cool downs.
  
  
• These neural powers will also gain bonuses from your perks where it makes sense.
  

Well, I'm back at it after the holidays. Hope you have all had a great start to your New Year.

First - load times between levels have improved in all areas - about double what they were before on average. Areas like the trade station have improved but need more work. Load times are of course dependent on your system specs. I still have work to do in this area including loading from saves and a few other optimizations.

I've added new border highlights throughout the game for objects in the world environment.

I've consolidated a lot of the game data so patch sizes can be much smaller going forward.

Here are the notes:

FIXED - You can no longer equip a heavy turret to a light turret slot. If you currently have a heavy turret equipped to a light turret slot, you will only be able to equip a light turret to that slot going forward.
FIXED: Typo on new game creation screen.
FIXED: A crash when creating a new game - caused when clicking or dragging the mouse while the starting in-game cinematic was loading.
FIXED: Universe generation random seed can no longer exceed 8 digits in the entry field.
FIXED: When exiting video tutorials from the help menu, the game is no longer left in a paused state.
FIXED: Heavy turrets and missiles can no longer be placed in light turret slots. If you have a ship where you have equipped a heavy turret in a light turret mount point, it will still be there, however, you will only be able to equip a light turret there going forward.
FIXED: Hacking exploit fixed.
FIXED: Speak to Scarby mission now completes and is removed when speaking with Scarby.
FIXED: Travel to Achmedius Trade Port mission now completes. Just head towards the Cantina area on the trade port to auto-complete the mission.
FIXED: Capped afterburner speed while in combat so ships equipped with high quality warp drives cannot exceed the speed of combat projectiles.
FIXED: If a team member is blocked when walking towards or trying to use a object, they will no longer stop and then perform the action on next move or action.
FIXED: When entering a gravity well from micro-warp, occasionally you would lose keyboard control for thrust and rotatation - you would need to click in space to restore keyboard control of your ship.
UPDATED: The Pharris Mace AK-7 is now available on the ship merchant.
UPDATED: Updated the way characters interact with objects in the environment so animations do not delay interaction and block clicks.
UPDATED: Ship missile speed increased
UPDATED: The game now uses border highlights for interactive objects in world exploration mode. Old highlighting methods have been removed.
UPDATED: Ranged weapons (Pistols, SMG's and Rifles) that drop from enemies or purchased from vendors have had their maximum ammo capacity increased. This change is not retroactive and does not affect equipment you currently have in your inventory.
UPDATED: Nano's can now be equipped to all weapon types. There are a total of three ranged and three melee specific mods. Nano's are now global.
UPDATED: Tutorial videos are now higher resolution - some will be revised in future updates.

A note about sidearm range. The average range of sidarms was doubled in the last patch (Space Combat Patch). This bonus is applied when starting a new game to all starter weapons and to any new weapons you find. The change is not retroactive - so sidearms looted before the space combat patch still have the lower range - I won't be modifying them. Any loot drops or weapons found on merchants going forward will have the new range adjustments applied to them.

This patch adjusts maximum ammo up for rifles and sidearms. This can of course be adjusted by applying mods to higher quality items.

In Stellar Tactics, your ranged weapons have a falloff factor to chance to hit (accuracy) and bonuses applied based on your skill, stats and other factors with that weapon class. Here is how CTH and range penalties are calculated:

1) Your base CTH is calculated based on the weapons maximum range and the range to your target - a range penalty
2) A crouch bonus is calculated if you are crouched
3) A weapon skill bonus is calculated and applied. The higher your skill the more accuracy bonus is applied to the weapon. When you start the game, you have only a few points of skill in whatever your weapon choice was when you created your character. As you increase in skill, you will noticed that your CTH goes up - at higher levels you will rarely miss.
4) A STAT bonus is calculated (PER, DEX etc)
5) A weapon tier bonus is calculated ( Basic, Exceptional, Rare etc)
6) A weapon wear panalty is calculated (this is disabled for now until crafting and repair go in the game)
7) Your adjusted BASE CTH is calculated based on the information above.
8) A penalty for Burst and Full-Auto fire modes are applied if applicable (these will be adjusted when I work on the ground combat system)
9) A body target penalty is applied to the CTH calculation - smaller body parts are harder to hit - like a head shots.
10) And finally an equipped mod bonus is applied to the calculation if applicable
11) Some weapons recieve a CTH bonus factored by range applied to the final calculation.

As I mentioned, sidearms have seen a bit of attention doubling their range. I am listening to the feedback your are posting and I'll start working on a good number of changes and additions to the combat system starting next week. These include the addition of a few new options in combat, adjustments to the movement and blocking system, burst and full-auto damage and effects and the removal of a number of general gameplay annoyances that are on my list to fix. I'll keep you all posted as I make progress on this.

Thank you all for the feedback.

I'm happy to announce the release of the Space Combat patch.

First, I just want to say - "I'm not finished with space combat!"

That's right. The goal here was to get all the base systems in. The turrets, effects, ships, ship and equipment vendors, stats and skills, loot and all the rest of the core systems that make up space combat in Stellar Tactics. What do I have planned for the future?

The video says it all. Thanks for being patient everyone!

https://youtu.be/rK08QMs7iWE

Need to rotate my ship so the other shields are facing fire. A hole in your shields is not good!

Not much progress to report this week, and no fancy videos because...well...space combat is feature complete. That doesn't mean it's bug free and balanced right now. Nope, not yet. Play testing has shown that space combat may be really difficult - really. So, I need to get that fixed. That and a list of bugs. Meanwhile, I thought I would share my TL~DR Space Combat Survival Guide. Here you go:

TL~DR Space Combat Survival Guide

In the immortal words of Admiral Harnsteaad - "Dammit man! Their shields, destroy their shields or we all die!"

Power is everything. If you find that your capacitor is getting below 1/3 in combat, then you likely have a power problem. If this is the case, you will never break through enemy shields because your turrets will misfire reducing your DPS to the point where enemy shields are recharging at a higher rate than you can tear them down. What can you do?

1) Try adjusting your speed down first and see if that brings your capacitor back up.
2) If you shields are doing well, try lowering the power to your shields
3) If neither of these work, you likely have a bad power ratio meaning your power plant cannot keep up with your weapons.
4) If #3 - run!

What can you do about your power?
1) Find a better warp drive
2) Buy turrets that draw less power or, use light turrets and projectile weapons instead of beam weapons. A heavy beam turret is worthless if you don't have enough power to keep it firing.
3) Find more efficient shields

Ok - let's assume you have enough power to power your turrets now. This is a survival checklist for entering combat:
1) Turn your combat shields on and power them up
2) Set your directional shields forward
3) Approach the enemy with micro-warp (you will be kicked out of micro-warp when close enough for combat)
4) Once engaged - hit the pause key [P]
5) Scan your enemies and find the most powerful - usually the one with the most missiles - and target them.
6) Un-pause and keep an eye on your capacitor - it should never get far below 1/3 - if it does adjust your power to speed and shields so your capacitor recharges at a higher rate.
7) Never-ever-ever-ever let a depleted shield face the majority of fire. Keep rotating your ship to bring charged shields in line with the majority of the fire.
8) If you have a burnt shield, rotate another shield in the direction of fire and set your directional shields to the depleted shield to quickly recharge it - once it's far enough along, rotate that shield in the direction of fire.
9) Never use afterburners unless you are above 3/4 capacitor

Cargo carriers, Merchant ships and some Explorers are not really combat fighters. They need to "turtle" - that means speed is not important - reduce power to thrust to almost zero, center power to your shields and make sure you have enough power to your capacitor to maintain it. If your capacitor is maintaining, raise power to your shields a bit until you are balanced. Never use afterburners unless you have enough power.

One last word of advice - if your capacitor is guttering out, you will not win a fight, ever. You could sit there in a shield standoff forever!

Well, some of you did.

Many of you have asked that I remove the constraint of flying only on a 2D plane in space. For a long time I didn't want commit to this until I had combat in and started play testing the system. I'm happy to say I woke up this morning at 5 AM with an idea that fixed a few problems I had with vector math related to space combat and decided to implement it. The combat patch will include full 3D flight for space exploration and combat.

https://youtu.be/lsVGo2-QXO4

Thank you all for your feedback. As always, I'm listening!

This week I am finally feature, code and content complete for the Space Combat update. Now it's just play testing, bug fixing and once everything is stable and bug free, I'll get the update posted for everyone.

https://youtu.be/dY1fwJGRbrM

This week I worked on the Incursion mission system. Incursion missions take place randomly when you are exploring in space. Stations and AI ships in the system will offer you a reward if you can defeat hostile ships in a specific area. You get a cash reward, faction and of course loot when you defeat the incursion. These missions are temporary and if you dock or land on a planet, the incursion will not be there the next time you enter space. They do persist between save games - so if you have an active incursion and save your game while in space, they will be active the next time you load your save.

Of course, there will be more mission types for Alpha. Once Alpha is released the plan is to add more detailed mission types - an example would be:

You receive a distress signal from a ship orbiting a planet in the current system. You accept the mission and travel to the ship and defeat a group of ships attacking the AI that contacted you. You could then be given another mission to rescue the remaining crew on a nearby planet. Once that mission is resolved, the AI may send you to another sector to take another task.

The mission system is quite powerful and procedural missions like this will keep the game alive long after the main story is completed. In sandbox mode, these missions will be the backbone of exploration.

The other big task this week was Station AI. Stations now launch local ships that mine local asteroid fields. It's just the first of several AI tasks local systems will be performing that will make systems feel alive and populated.

That's all I have for this week. Now it's just a matter of crushing a list of bugs, play testing and making sure everything is stable for the update. Thanks for being patient everyone!

Hi everyone. Another weekly progress update.

This week I spent a lot of time on Ship AI including enemy AI collisions, faction through the universe and cleaning up a few long standing bugs in space. Asteroids now have collision and enemy ships avoid stars, planets, space stations and asteroids. See the video below for a few highlights.

https://youtu.be/0atTvLZTUf8

A big chunk of code that had to be written was the faction system. While the basics were already in, they weren't exposed to the enemy ship AI. Here is how faction works in Stellar Tactics:
--When you start a new game, the universe is generated. Every system gets a certain main faction with Achmedius, the starting system, being a Halamis system.
--The AI starts to launch ships with various jobs based on that faction - patrol, anarchy, trade, explore, faction warfare and a few other tasks.
--Ships are launched from stations and begin their various roles, traveling between systems or staying within systems depending on their role.
--You can engage any ship in combat, hostile or friendly. The act of initiating combat causes a minor faction hit with that faction. Destroying the ship generates a higher faction hit to that particular faction. Destroying a ship aligned with a faction generates negative faction with all aligned factions and generates positive faction with factions that are not aligned.

So, there are consequences. This lets you explore the universe and shift your alignment by targeting enemy ships and taking ground based missions that target a specific faction so you can begin to move your faction in a direction where a certain faction you are interested in will do business with you. You could conceivably become aligned with Phage, Scavvers and Raiders if you wanted to. Just know that eventually (not in the space combat build) some stations will not allow you to dock to do business with them if you end up an enemy of that faction.

Hostile factions, Raiders, Scavvers, Phage start out as hostile. All other factions, including the various Houses (Halamis, Aralion, Conrair, Cilivon, Shikaru and Varadyn) start out neutral or wary. If you have been gaining faction in the Abandoned Research Facility, you should have a slightly higher faction with Halamis depending on how many missions you've taken.

There are other factions that are tied closely to the story:

--The Syndicate - Outlaws tolerated by the powers that be. Need something? No problem. Want someone eliminated? Of course! Smuggling? Oh yeah! Masters of stealth, on the ground and in Space.

--Kchor - Blue skinned mutants, wise and secretive. The Kchor are one of several mutations that arrived after the long trip through space. No much is known about the Kchor though they have been called on by The Sovereignty to keep the peace in the various wars that have taken place since the Arrival. Their reward? Autonomy.

--The Fabricants - Purveyors of the finest augmentations and equipment upgrades, the Fabricants also dabble in the darker arts of melding machine with flesh. Some call them Necromancers, others shun them outright.

--The Coven - Outcasts from the time of the Arrival, not much is known about The Coven. It is said that when they arrived, they woke from sleep with incredible Psionic powers. With no understanding of their immediate powers, they nearly destroyed themselves and anyone who contacted them. They were given an ultimatum - leave or be incinerated. They left to the far ends of known space and only have dealings with the Syndicate who smuggle supplies to them on a regular basis.

--The Traders Guild - One of the most powerful guilds, the Traders Guild controls commerce between systems. They will need your help and your alignment with them could make you a smuggler or a wealthy merchant. Your choice of course.

--The Order - A radical religious order that believe in the Old Gods. They are tolerated by The Church and the Sovereignty and actually align on the side of good throughout the Universe. They are the Paladins of Stellar Tactics and merge powerful ancient rituals with melee and ranged combat. They are fierce opponents.

--The Church - The primary religious order of Stellar Tactics Universe. They are primarily political as church and state are one. They are also aligned closely with the Sovereignty and have vast holdings across the known universe - however, something is amiss and you will need to make difficult decisions as the story progresses.

--The Jhemm - You encountered them in the Ruins in Achmedius - You are the only known contact and the Jhemm chose you for reasons you do not yet fully understand.

--The Sovereignty - The Sovereignty are the reigning power in the Universe. One of the first Houses to arrive, they quickly gathered power and subjugated the rest of the Houses as they arrived. Several wars have been fought, however, The Sovereignty has maintained power. A Republic, The Sovereignty imposes limited laws and an iron fist when needed. They are aligned with The Church and share power with them. The Church is the law and The Sovereignty enforces the law.

I'm now down to one major feature that needs to be finished for the space combat update. That is, random missions. It wouldn't be much fun to hope an enemy ship wandered into Achmedius so, this next week I'll be focusing on adding missions that can be taken to defend certain points in space like asteroid fields, stations and planets. Some of these will be random events and others missions that you pick up on the trade station.

Once that's in I'll be testing and cleaning up any bugs and then I think I'll be ready to release the space combat update. I don't have an exact date, but soon.

Have a great weekend!

Lots of progress this week, primarily on the chaff system, directional shields and planetary effects.

https://youtu.be/qHi5nfcJuBg

Chaff system - The chaff system is complete. You can purchase chaff from any ship equipment vendor. Your ship holds a total of 50 chaff modules which can be deployed in combat to confuse enemy missiles.

Directional shields - This system is complete now and includes some changes to the way shields work. Your combat shields take damage until a directional shield is depleted of energy. At that point, you start taking damage to your secondary shields. If your secondary shields are depleted, any combat hits making it through depleted directional shield apply damage to your hull armor. You can select a facing shield to receive extra recharge energy. See the video for details.

Target micro menu - The target micro-menu is finished for now. You can select any ship and a popup menu will allow you to scan or approach that target. I'll likely be adding other features to this menu in the future.

Planet visual update - I've been wanting to do this for a while so I took a break from AI and other coding to update all the procedural planet atmospheres - I think they look a lot better (larger image below). It's hard to tell in the screenshot though in the game it makes a big difference.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1203708864

That's it for this week. Thanks everyone!

Hi all! I've been posting regular updates to the forums over the last few weeks. I thought I would post a consolidated progress update to the news area.

This week was primarily focused on finalizing the ship storage management code, ship repair systems on stations and the space combat loot system. That wraps up most of the work. Here's where I am right now:

Done:
--Turret systems for missiles, projectiles and mining,
--Space combat fully functional - turret based combat as shown below in a previous update.
--All 40 ships playable - Light, medium and heavy variants of fighters, merchant ships, explorers, interceptors and massive cargo vessels.
--Skills are all tied into the ship combat system in the game. Team members at stations gain skill and apply bonuses from their skills to your ships systems.
--Ship equipment system and all loot tables tied into the combat system.
--Ship merchants - trade in or purchase a new ship.
--Ship equipment merchants offer millions (really!) of ship specific variants for components like warp drives, turrets, missile launchers, ship armor, electronics systems, ammunition, targeting computers and shields.
--Cargo management.
--Simple ship repair. When I add the final skill based repair system, you will be able to repair ships in space. For now you can simply purchase repairs on the station.
--Ship storage so you can have multiple ships stored around the universe.
--First pass enemy ship AI system.
--Space exploration HUD update.
--Ship scanning.
--Combat loot system - destroyed ships drop ammunition, ship equipment and ore.

To do:
--Chaff and missile avoidance system.
--An update to the mission system to allow for space combat specific mission types.
--Some additional AI work.
--A few quality of life features.
--A few testing, bug fixing and tuning passes.
--Additional polish.

Things are coming along nicely and I should have everything wrapped up soon. I'll continue to post weekly updates and give you a release date for the space combat patch when I get a bit closer to completion. I should mention that this is not all the work being done, another mission set is nearly completed and be implemented along with two other new mission sets after the space combat patch is released.

Thanks for your patience everyone!

I'm going to post all previous weekly updates below.

Progress update - 11/3/17
This week was all about ship vendors. Still have a little work to do on swapping ships and a bit of cleanup work on the UI. See the video below for details. Please excuse my monotone - I need to catch up on some sleep - coffee and Red Bull's aren't doing it anymore...

https://youtu.be/MkPl3R9sZg0

Ship vendors can be found throughout the universe and they all carry fixed sets of ships that they sell. Purchasing a new ship requires that you either store your current ship or trade in your current ship for a cash credit towards the price of your new ship.

One issue is that your equipment, because it is ship specific, cannot be swapped between different ships. To make things easier, the merchant gives you credit for each item currently equipped on your ship during the trade in. The value generated is the current market value of your equipment + the current trade in value of your ship which is credited towards your purchase. Your charisma affects the trade in value of all items.

If you choose to store your current ship, it will remain on the station until with all of it's current equipment until you come back for it. I'll make sure there is an easy way to see where all your current ships are stored. The ship storage menu in the video is still a work in progress. There will be more information available that is visible anywhere, anytime. For example, the ship list will provide two lists - the first is a list of all ships and their locations in the universe and a second list displaying the ships currently on the station you are visiting.

Regarding cargo - if you have more cargo in your cargo hold than the new ship will fit, you will need to sell your cargo before purchasing the new ship. The hamsters in the cargo bays will go on strike and the ship vendor will reject the purchase. The rule is that the cargo in the cargo bay of your current ship needs to be less than or equal to the maximum available cargo on your new ship.

As you explore, you will loot ship specific equipment. If you plan in advance, you can horde items for that future ship upgrade and after purchasing your new ship, slot those items into your ship.

One last note: On the ship info screen you can see an area for "MISSILE MANAGEMENT". This will eventually bring up a menu that lets you fit various payloads on your missiles and tweak their subsystems for range, avoidance and a few other things. Missiles come in one main variant and you can adjust them for various purposes and damage types.

That's it for this week. Thanks everyone!

Progress update - 10/27/17
Hi everyone - nothing terribly exciting to report this week though lots of progress was made. The focus was primarily on ship equipment vendors, equipping ship equipment, the ship information UI and tying all equipment stats into the combat and ship systems. This was a ton of work and I'm glad it's behind me.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1182538737

What I have now is a fully functional ship equipment system that allows for the purchase and sale of all ship equipment types. This includes changes to the NPC AI systems, the ship vendor UI, managing the moving data around between the vendors, cargo and the ship itself and displaying that information in the UI. When ship equipment is looted or purchased, it's placed in your cargo hold. From there you can drag and drop the equipment to the equipment slots on the right or the ship UI assuming you are docked at a station.

One item of interest is what I'm calling the "Power Bias". This is rainbow colored bar in the ship UI that displays the combat power state based on your currently equipped engines, shields and turrets. The display calculates the amount of power required to sustain all firing turrets in combat assuming default power settings. A reading to the left of center means that your power balance based on equipped hardware will be effective. Anything to the right of center means that the power draw from your equipment will lead to mis-fires and you will not be able to maintain your maximum fire-power. I'm still doing a bit of work in the screenshot below, tying the correct numbers into several of the fields and moving things around.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1182540036

I mentioned this before - shields and turrets have a base power cost which reduces your capacitor charge rate. Turrets draw from your capacitor. Your warp engines provide your overall power rating. All equipment displays this information, however, I needed a way to display this so you won't need to break out a calculator every time you are equipping items. The power bias gauge will help by displaying the current power sustain based on the equipment currently slotted to your ship. I may actually add this to equipment rollover info so you can easily see the effect a shield, turret or engine might have on your power bias. There will be lot's of equipment variants to choose from and you will always be looking for the best performance at the lowest power cost.

I can say that I am now weeks away from the space combat update, so that should be good news to everyone. No specific date yet as I have quite a bit of coding and testing to do yet.

Have a great weekend and thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Progress update 10/20/17
The ship loot system is nearly finished - just need a few days to clean things up and get the rest of the rollover information data coded and this task will be finished. There is a lot of code tied to the system including vendors, rollover information, ship attributes and more. I won't go into all the details and will just say this was a productive week with lots of coding, spreadsheet work and many cups of coffee...

A few things about ship equipment and loot. Let's take a look at a ship shield and turret. This is the same equipment at level 10 and again at level 40. Your skills in weaponry and electronics modify the effectiveness of these components as you gain skill. You can see in the screenshots below how bonuses from your skills scale the attributes of the equipment. Green attributes are modified by your skill while yellow attributes are unaffected. Turrets display minimum and maximum DPS scaled to your skill level and the adjustments to their base damage values.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1175021819

Turrets gain additional damage, reload speed and more efficiency in their use of the capacitors as the team member at the weaponry station becomes more skilled in combat.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1175020521

Shields gain additional HP from your skill level - this is based on the premise that someone assigned to the Electronics station gains bonuses to shield efficiency from their skill level. Shield resistances are static and scale with the quality of your equipment. Resistances directly remove a fixed percentage of damage from incoming weapon damage before that damage is applied to your shields.

Ship equipment comes in various tiers of quality from Basic to Epic. Legendary equipment can only be looted from vessels/enemies that are high risk or rewarded from missions - it cannot be purchased. Epic ship equipment can only be purchased using faction tokens or looted from bosses.

All equipment is generated by ship type. So, turrets, shields etc are clearly called out for fitting and will only work on that specific ship type. This is because equipment is scaled based on ship attributes like mass, number of hard points and available energy. All equipment has a minimum skill requirement which is also called out in the equipment information UI.

As always your charisma stat will adjust the value of equipment when buying or selling.

The available equipment for ships include turrets, shields, electronics systems, targeting computers, hull armor plating, cargo expansions, warp and FTL drives.

In other news a fourth procedural mission set has been started, the third is being lit as I write this.

That's all I have for this week. I'll be focusing on ship merchants and the ship merchant UI next week.

Thanks again for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Progress update 10/13/17
Hi everyone - another progress update this Friday. First, a video that covers ship skills and how they change the space exploration portion of the game.

https://youtu.be/yZJidlU29C4
Please excuse the bands at the top and bottom of the screen. This video was captured in the debugger and is running at 1/2 FPS and a non standard resolution.

Stellar Tactics takes a bit of a different approach from most other games. Your crew contributes to the performance of the ship over time based on their experience in four key skill categories - Piloting, Weaponry, Electronics and Targeting. Each of these categories is represented by a dedicated station on your ship.

Piloting affects:
--Ship speed - your base ship speed is calculated based on the mass of your ship. Piloting increases your base speed, afterburner speed and micro-warp speed.
--Ship turn rate - massive ships turn slower than small interceptors. Piloting skill adjusts this.
--Evasion - the ability to evade incoming fire as a bonus

Weaponry affects:
--Weapon damage bonuses - as you gain experience, your skill with weapons increases the weapons base damage
--Turret reload speed - How fast your turrets recharge and reload
--Weaponry capacitor drain (Efficiency) - the amount of charge taken from the capacitor each time the turret fires

Electronics affects:
--Scanning range and the quality of scanning data. Higher quality scanning data will sell for more credits to various factions
--Security - the stability of your ships systems against hacking - this is for the boarding module - you may be boarded if the enemy ship is trying to capture your cargo/ship or if they have a mission to capture you.
--Shield bonuses to your shields maximum durability and recharge rate

Targeting affects:
--Sub-system targeting (The UI in the video needs to be updated) - for the boarding module
--Overall chance to hit scaled by range for turret projectiles
--Shield bypass - your ability to bypass shields by attuning your weapons - this bonus applies damage directly to the enemy ships hull armor.

As you gain skill your bonuses are applied to each of the above. At various tiers you will also get perk selections similar to ground combat that allow you to fine tune your ships systems to adjust for different scenarios - Larger or smaller ships, the number of ships you are attacking/being attacked by and their weapon types based on scans. You can pause combat and scan ships and make perk adjustments at any time in addition to adjusting your power, turrets and targeting.

So, space combat, experience and skill bonuses are code complete - that's the majority of the work. I'll be moving on to the loot system next. Following that ship and ship equipment merchants, some faction work, simple space combat mission systems and testing. I'll be sure to post another update for you next Friday.

Have a great weekend and thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Progress update - 10/6/17
Hi everyone. Here is the update for this week. Hope you all have a great weekend.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1159889900

Added experience system for piloting, weaponry, electronics and targeting skills. You gain experience at the end of combat for each skill assuming you have a team member assigned to the appropriate station on your ship.

Completed key bindings for turrets - Keys 1-6 - press for individual targeting - hold and release to toggle turrets on/off.

Mining lasers moved to turret system. Can individually target each mining laser to multiple asteroids.
--Combat while mining possible. Mining is a bit less peaceful now as it is possible to be attacked by hostile ships while mining.
--Mining turrets come in light and heavy variants.
--Mining turrets will come in various quality tiers similar to combat turrets and can be purchased or found as loot drops. Higher quality mining lasers will generate bonuses to the yield of rare minerals.
--Mining lasers draw energy from your capacitor and have no ammunition requirements
--Mining turrets use the same energy management system as combat turrets. You can balance energy to engines and shields against your capacitor charge. You need to power up your turrets to mine asteroids.
--You can mine while in combat with enemy ships. Larger ships have more turret mount points and you can balance mining with defensive turrets
--Heavy mining turrets generate twice the yield and consume twice the capacitor charge of light turrets. Yield is modified by your skill in mining. When perks for mining go in you will be able to fine tune mining in a number of ways based on your selections.
--Mining turrets can be brought on and offline for energy management as needed
--Mining can be quite profitable and you're going to need the money to purchase new ships and equipment - ships are expensive. As an example the Pharris Crate MRCH-4 has six turrets total, 3 laser turrets and 3 missile turrets for defense. Filling the cargo bay (1700 cubic meters without a cargo expansion ) and not being picky about the mineral yield can net you around 34,000 Credits per trip. Imagine what you could do with a Behemoth CRG-2 which has 4 heavy turrets that will fit heavy mining lasers and 180,000 cubic meters of cargo space!
--I'll be adding asteroid and asteroid field scanning during alpha so you can evaluate the quality of the mineral yields for various asteroid fields. Rich asteroid fields will be guarded and you may need to purchase mining rights from the local faction authority or face resistance.
--I'll be adding the ability to eject cargo for the space combat update.

Moved all new effects (impacts, beams and explosions) to ground combat.

That's it for this week - back to work...

Progress update - 9/29/17
Hi everyone - hope you had a great week. I'm going to post these every Friday so you know how things are coming along with space combat and other content.

This week:
--All 40 ships are now combat ready and playable by both the AI and the player.
--The combat pause system is in. When you pause combat the entire universe stops allowing you to pan your camera to get a better sense of the environment around you, turn turrets on and off, target enemies and turrets individually, review scanning data and manage your energy. While combat is paused you can also review inventory, character info, log data, the universe map and all ship data including swapping team members to various ship stations in the ship UI.
--Combat damage tables are complete and balanced as far as I'm going to take them for now - I'll tweak things once you get a chance to play with space combat and I gather feedback.
--Shield damage mitigation is in and working. Shields mitigate different types of damage based on the quality of the shield you have equipped. You can buy and loot varying quality tiers of ship equipment so as you explore, your ship's equipment will improve (and so will the AI).
--I'm working on the ship scanning system today which is nearly finished. The team member assigned to the electronics station of the ship UI gains experience from scanning and as they improve in skill will gain perks that you can customize. Scan data will provide you with more/better information. Some of the info you won't get at lower levels of scanning skill are enemy turret damage ratings and shield mitigation bonuses.

A few things about space combat and shields:

• Ion weapons can turn the tide of battle and are very important. This weapon type is a shield killer and comes in three varieties - projectile, beam and missile. You can of course choose to equip any type of weapon you like, however, if you scan a ship and it has multiple Ion weapons and you do not, you should run or make sure your ship can handle the damage.
  
• Ion weapons do increased damage against shields which is then mitigated by the shields ion resistance ratings.
  
• Ion weapons do very little damage against ship armor.
  
• Non Ion "beam" weapons do 1/2 damage against combat shields and are then mitigated by the shield resistance rating for that damage type.
  

• Setting the missile for longer range adjusts damage values down and conversely shorter range increases missile damage
  
• Setting missiles to evade ECM and chaff will reduce damage output, however, they are more likely to evade active countermeasures.
  
• Splash damage reduces damage and affects more sub-systems (Shields/Turrets/Engines etc)
  
• Targeting specific systems increases damage to that system and reduces damage the hull of the enemy ship once the shields are down.
  

It's been one year today since Stellar Tactics first released on Steam Early Access and it's been a great year for the game. With the help of the community I've crushed hundreds of bugs, implemented community suggested feedback and the game is very stable with over 100 hours of content with the addition of the Abandoned Research Facility.

Looking back I'm really proud of the progress I've been able to make and I hope you can all see the passion and dedication I have for the game. I couldn't have done it without your feedback and support. Stellar Tactics has always been intended to be a Sci-Fi sandbox that I could fill with content and story for years to come. I expect the game to expand quite a bit over the next year and I hope you all will join me as I work towards releasing space combat and add the other systems that need to go into the game before the FTL gates open at Alpha.

Speaking of which, a little progress update here in areas other than space combat. Since my last update all of the space stations for the game have been completed and are now ready to populate out into the void:









Procedural cave systems have all been modeled and laid out and are currently being lit and populated. When they are done they will be ready to be added to the random mission generator and distributed out into the universe.

https://youtu.be/4LOr15gHcns

And finally, a new procedural set for station mission interiors is being worked on as I type this. So, there is a lot of progress being made and I'm working to get everything in the game so even more content is ready for all of you.

I'd like to thank you all for your support and patience as I continue to expand the Stellar Tactics universe. As always I'll keep you updated, answer any questions you have and work hard to make sure the game is fun and stable.

-Don Wilkins

Space combat is moving along at a good pace. I thought I would share a quick video to show how the basic systems work.

https://youtu.be/boRWbkSvQ2o

The combat system is turret based. All ships have a limited number of turret mount points and beam, projectile or missile turrets can be looted or purchased. Turrets come in light and heavy variants and each of the 40 ships have specific mount specifications. Heavy weapon mount points can take light turrets if you choose to equip them.

In combat you will be managing range, power, shields and your current ship speed as well as turret targeting.

Power is critical in combat. Your turrets, shields and systems take a base amount of power to spool up and maintain. Available power feeds your ship capacitor and weapons draw from the capacitor so if your capacitor is depleted your turrets will fail to charge and fire and will wait for an available charge. Each turret draws a certain amount of power from the capacitor every time it fires with beam weapons depleting the capacitor at the highest rate. If your energy balance is off, your capacitor will not maintain its charge.

Energy balance is maintained by the number of active turrets, power to your shields, number of activated devices and power to your engines. You can balance the power to these systems by deactivating turrets and devices during combat and setting the active power charge to your engines and shields. Reducing power used by your shields, systems, turrets and engines diverts that power to your capacitor.

Each turret has a range meter - keeping your active turrets range meter green is important because turrets have range accuracy falloffs. If you're outside a turrets optimal range, your weapons may not connect. The same goes for enemy ships. Smaller faster vessels with missiles and beam weapons can go up against much larger ships that have weapons with shorter range and less maneuverability by staying outside the range of the larger ship. You will want to optimize your equipment for maximum charge rate, range, strategy and damage.

Turrets target independently so you can have a unique target for each turret. This allows strategies like utilizing certain turret types that do more damage to shields, then switching those turrets to the next ship once the current targets shields are down. An example would be using your ion turrets on enemy shields to deplete them and then kinetic, plasma or explosive weapons once that targets shields are down.

Ship loot drops will be similar to the ground based loot drops with various quality tiers and different stats to choose from. Ships also drop cargo so if you want to be a pirate, or are not aligned with a certain faction, you can harass them as much as you want. There will be missions like the mission system in KZ-MR7 with various objectives that can be taken on stations, from other ships in space or from faction agents. Space combat can be profitable and dangerous. Scanning targets will be important because it may not be immediately obvious just how dangerous a ship or group of ships are.

I'm still working on things - elements of the UI may change and I'm balancing systems so what you see here is work in progress.

If you have any questions about combat or what you see in the video, please do post here or on the forums. I'll be happy to answer them. No ETA on the release of space combat at this time though you can see it's fairly far along. I'll be working on loot, vendors and ship merchants next week which need to be in place before the space combat release. I'm also considering adding a first pass mission system for the release of space combat so you have tasks to complete in Achmedius.

Another update - this time the game movement system has been completely revised. The old system was written a long time ago and I've never been happy with it. I've been tinkering with this new system for a while now and decided to release it.

https://youtu.be/alpPmdKMa_g

The old system had quite a few problems:
--The team did not move as a squad and this caused problems when entering combat. Specifically you had to burn a lot of AP to get into position
--Squad facing was not available. You had to use additional AP to rotate them into position after arriving at your destination.
--In single movement mode you could not select another team member and move them while the last character was moving to a position.
--Single movement did not allow you to set a destination facing.

The new system:
--You can now move as a squad and arrive at your destination in formation.
--Team members no longer lag behind
--You can set the direction your squad will face when they reach their destination by dragging the mouse while the right mouse button is held down.
--In combat you can now set a facing when moving team members. When they arrive at their destination, they will rotate to face the selected direction set by the movement cursor.
--Team members can move independently when out of combat in single movement mode. You can select a destination for a team member and then select another team member and move them simultaneously.
--Single/Group mode can be toggled using the [SPACE BAR] when out of combat. In combat, the [SPACE BAR] ends the selected team members turn as it always has.
--Movement speed has been improved
--You can zoom out a bit further now

I think overall, this is a much better system and gives you flexibility, alleviating wasted AP when entering combat. I have future plans for additional quality of life improvements like box selection and formations.

A few additional bug fixes:
FIXED: A long standing bug where some armor would not display on your team members. Remove the armor and re-equip it to display the correct armor graphic.
FIXED: Phestus could end up in a state where he would not load his inventory when trading with him.
FIXED: Animation transitions into combat and from idle to attack.

I hope you will give the new system a try and post feedback on the forums. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

A new content patch today with skill perks for First Aid and Hacking to level 60. Included are a few fixes for the game, updates to damage mitigation closely tied to the perk lines and proofread text for the logs. Hope you enjoy the patch.

As always, if you find any issues, please post them on the bug forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

ADDED - Perks to level 60 for the First Aid skill line. You can select various perks at any time that give you bonuses to heal. All perks provide a chance to remove effects from yourself and team members. You have a chance to remove bleeding, poison, hobbled, crippled and stun.

ADDED - Perks to level 60 for the Hacking skill line. You can select various perks at any time that give bonuses to the amount of time you get to decode digits, bonuses to the number of looted items and loot quality of the hacked chest or locker, and bonuses for critical bypass of hacking.

ADDED - Added a new ship reset feature in space. If your ship is stuck for some reason, you can now press and hold the F1 key for six seconds to reset your ship to the nearest FTL point. I'll remove this when the FTL points open up in the future. This is a fairly rare occurrence, however, I thought I should add a way to recover if it happens.

UPDATED - Mitigation for status effects for all weapon perk lines adjusted to resist based on cumulative perk selections. In general:
--First, damage is mitigated by your shields for specific damage types as long as your shields are charged and the attack type does not bypass shields. Damage is reduced.
--Second, armor mitigates the remaining damage including additional AC from perks as long as the attack type does not bypass your armor. Damage is reduced.
--Finally weapon perks that provide effect resists stack and provide a chance to bypass secondary effects like stun, hobble, cripple, toxins and bleeding. These resists do not modify damage, so the damage after shields and armor are calculated and still applied. Grenade damage cannot be resisted at this time. The newly added First Aid skill perks allow you to remove secondary effects.

UPDATED: Shaved a few seconds off loading times.
UPDATED: When rolling over portraits in the turn-order bar during combat, the info bar is now displayed at the top center of the screen. This will give you access to combatant status and detrimental effects without needing to rollover combatants.
UPDATED: All log entries proofread.
FIXED - Fixed a typo in tips related to single/crouched which should have been single/grouped.
FIXED - Fixed signs on crew deck which should have been "Cryo" not "Crio"
FIXED - Gas grenades now reset the DOT timer if combatants are in the area of effect. If you have been cured of toxins, or the DOT effect timer runs out and a combatant is still in the area of effect, your timer will be reset and you will continue to take damage.
FIXED - Grenade explosion material blending.
FIXED - Duplicate combatant selection cursors.
FIXED - Saved shadow settings are now set correctly when loading a game.
REMOVED - Removed screen lock for dual monitors. It was causing problems in cases where multiple monitors were running different resolutions. I'll look into a permanent solution in the future. For now, there are third party applications (some free) that you can download that solve the problem.

I'm happy to release the Dauntless Remastered update. The Dauntless has been revised significantly. The story remains the same.

• The entire start of the game uses new level art.
  
• The Captains Quarters has been merged into the Crew Deck.
  
• The distance you need to travel for various missions has been reduced.
  
• The last boss fight is a bit easier.
  
• Mission objects in the game environment have been scaled up in size so they are easily seen and interacted with.
  
• The Dauntless is brighter overall. If it's still too dark for you, however, there is a new Gamma slider in the options menu that will allow you set the games brightness to your liking.
  
• All dialog, mission text and log's have been professionally proofread for errors.
  
• Several of the longer conversations now have shorter dialog options available.
  
• Better direction has been provided in the log for several of the missions.
  
• Many screens have been increased in size so their font's are more visible making reading easier on the eyes. I'll be addressing the space UI's when I work on space combat.
  

Hi all! I thought I would post an update to show some of the progress I'm making on the updated Dauntless experience. Lot's of community feedback is being implemented and things are moving along quickly.

https://youtu.be/U7xTn1td_Gg

That's all I have for now.

This patch focuses on adding a grenade AOE indicator, updated line of sight visibility and a number of important fixes. Here are the notes:

FIXED: Credit values of 1,000,000 and above did not display correctly in the vendor and inventory UI.
FIXED: Inventory paper-dolls display the correct gender in the inventory UI.
FIXED: When gaining a level in healing or hacking, the correct team members name is added to the skill-up message
FIXED: Mission log data is displayed correctly in the completed mission list when items are selected.
FIXED: An error that was not correctly calculating critical chance bonuses from mods was fixed.
ADDED: Added a grenade AOE indicator. Originally this was going to be granted as either a device or a perk. I felt it should just be a default behavior since using grenades can be confusing. To do this, I removed grenade physics since there was no predictable way to provide an AOE indicator if the grenade bounced.
UPDATED: Updated the way NPC's check line of sight for attacks. They should be less likely to fire from the very edge of doorways.
UPDATED: A few updates and changes to the LOS visibility system:

• Line of sight now includes an auditory radius where enemies near team members (within 10 units) will be visible.
  
• Enemies now enter combat regardless of whether it was an enemy or a team member who initiated combat on first sight. This places enemies in the combat turn-order list immediately and starts processing their visibility at the start of combat instead of after the first shot is fired.
  
• Enemy visibility is updated more often.
  
• Enemies not in line of sight of any team members that attack from range no longer become visible for the duration of the round. You can of course use the CTRL key to see them and you will be able to tell what direction they are firing from by the angle of the projectile.
  

.077

This week was all about tuning combat, stability and general fixes. Combat scales nicely now and is a challenge at the default difficulty. Scaling kicks in when your team is on average level 5 and continues to ramp up in difficulty. I'll be adjusting this more as time goes by. Here are the notes:

FIXED: Resolved a rare team member movement lockup.
FIXED: Movement breadcrumb was disappearing while in combat - specifically when attacking occasionally with melee weapons.
FIXED: When loading a save game while not at the main menu, load times are faster.
FIXED: Enemies with rocket launchers now correctly switch to secondary weapons in all cases
FIXED: In some cases enemies could not be attacked if in close proximity to walls and other objects with melee and ranged weapons.
FIXED: Left clicking the reload icon when out of combat now reloads the selected team members active weapon, not the entire team. Right clicking the icon reloads all weapons for your entire team.
FIXED: When an enemy or team member dies of poison or bleeding and ends their turn, the next combatant no longer skips their turn.
ADDED: Added ambient audio to all facility mission locations.
ADJUSTED: Micro-Warp space travel is now faster.
ADJUSTED: Adjust damage scaling up a bit more at higher levels.
ADJUSTED: Enemy melee damage scaled up.
ADJUSTED: Shield mitigation scaled down.
ADJUSTED: Phage vomit attack is a bit more dangerous.
ADJUSTED: Several combat animations adjusted to improve the pace of combat.
OPTIMIZED: Optimized the movement breadcrumb path display.
OPTIMIZED: Enemy AI target scanning is now staggered across frames.
OPTIMIZED: AI Ship processing queue optimized.

KNOWN ISSUE: In some cases when scrolling around in the scene, the camera is a little jerky. I'm looking into this problem.

IMPORTANT:
The next time you load a saved game and change areas, the game will clear unused save data. Depending on how long you have been playing the game, it could take from less than 1 second up to a minute or two before the data cleanup is completed. This takes place right after the loading bar fills and before the area you are transitioning to is displayed. A message will be displayed on the screen while this is taking place. This is a one-time cleanup for each save game. After the same game is cleaned, you should create a new save game and go from there.
1) Loot packs will no longer persist after you change areas - if you are in a mission area, and you leave, loot will be removed.
2) Loot packs in any areas you have previously visited will be removed.
3) If packs are on the ground and you save a game, when you reload, those loot packs will still be there, until you leave the area.
4) Chests and lockers, if not looted, can be looted by returning to the area. If you leave items in a looted locker, they won't be there when you come back.

As always, if you find any bugs or issues, please post then in the bug forums. Thanks again for supporting Stellar Tactics!

A few important fixes and adjustments in this patch. Thanks again everyone for your feedback. The main features are combat tuning, an team weapon reload feature while out of combat and the addition of equipment rollover info that compares currently equipped items to the items in your backpack, stash or items int he loot UI.

ADDED: Team weapon reload - When out of combat, you can reload your entire teams currently equipped primary and secondary weapons by right-clicking the reload button on the UI.

ADDED: Rollover info will now compare your equipped item to the item you are examining. The highlighted inventory or vendor item will be at the top of the rollover pane and your currently equipped item will be displayed at the bottom. I may revise this when I next work on the UI during Alpha so the comparison is side by side.

FIXED: Asteroids should re-spawn correctly now, really - no more one-shot asteroids.
FIXED: Double clicking an enemy no longer results in a single attack with double AP expenditure.
FIXED: Fixed a problem with the movement breadcrumbs not displaying after melee movement when out of range.
FIXED: A number of navigation errors.
FIXED: Hobbled effect now correctly affects team members reducing movement range.
FIXED: Fixed a number of perk related status effect bugs. Status effects based on perks should now be applied correctly at all levels and from all weapons within that skill class.
FIXED: Pugilism perk not adding bonus damage in some instances.
FIXED: Charisma bonuses from equipment now affect vendor pricing
FIXED: Fixed an error with vendor trash items. If you have an old item in your inventory that includes the word "wiring", just sell it. The icons and text are mismatched.
FIXED: A random game lockup that would occur during movement or when initiating combat.

ADJUSTED: Adjusted the amount of time it takes to display rollover info in the stash.

ADJUSTED: Adjusted damage and CTH up for 2-hand weapons- not a tuning pass, just a tweak to bring things more in line with where they should be. 2 hand melee weapons receive a new bonus from STR to both damage and CTH.

ADJUSTED: Cumulative stun effects for Pugilism perks reduced - the bonus stun effects at higher levels were OP. Pugilism has the highest stacked stun perk bonus in the game.

ADJUSTED: Adjusted the effect that the intelligence stat has on initiative.

ADJUSTED: Adjusted initiative overall so enemies compete for initiative on a more even playfield. Initiative events that re-order initiative are less common at lower levels and increase as your team progresses at higher levels.

ADJUSTED: Small arms (Pistols, SMG's and 1hand melee) drop in equal proportions to Heavy arms (Rifles, Heavy weapons and 2hand melee) - Note that SMG's other than Rhamus' sub-machine gun should by default only have burst and full-auto modes though they can be modified to have all three fire modes.

ADJUSTED: Applied a damage scalar for enemies across all difficulty levels. I still think enemy damage is not high enough at higher levels, though this is a good first step. Enemy damage now slowly ramps up based on the average level of your team. This is to compensate for the quality of gear you find as you progress through the game. Some shields can absorb as much as 30-50% of the damage type being inflicted by your enemies. The damage scalar also compensates for perk bonuses that include added damage bonuses and DOT's that can be applied to enemies. These perk based bonuses for DOT's, poison and bleeding, now apply correctly as per the patch notes above. Before this patch, if you were approaching level 20 with average gear, you could end combat with hardly any damage on normal difficulty settings, even against higher tiered enemies.
Stellar Tactics has many strategies for compensating for enemy damage:
--Perks allow you to choose bonuses to AC, Balanced bonuses or Damage bonuses on the fly. If you are facing a tough enemy at higher levels, try changing your perks to compensate. If you are only applying damage bonuses through perks, you may be challenged at higher levels.
--Shields - Shields provide amazing benefits. Check your current shield against the damage type the enemy is inflicting. Carry around several shields that allow you to mitigate different types of damage. Apply shields that mitigate the damage type of enemies carrying heavy weapons.
--Choose gear with Endurance for your tanks, equip them with the best possible shields and use them to keep the enemies away from you. Send them in first.
--Look for the most dangerous enemies and use stunning attacks and grenades (stun and smoke) to keep them either under control or using their AP to move.
--Use med kits
--And of course, use tactics to your advantage

I'll be gathering feedback over the coming weeks to see how everyone feels the new damage modifiers are working. You may need to adjust the difficulty settings up or down depending on your play style after this patch.

I'd like to thank everyone who reported bugs and made suggestions since the last content update. Your feedback is making a real difference.

Many fixes and adjustments have been made to Stellar Tactics in the past month since the release of the last major content patch. A cumulative list can be found below and pinned to the general forums Patch Notes

Halamis Faction Merchant
This update adds the Halamis faction merchant and the underlying code and systems for faction merchants in general. You can find the merchant near Zabin Morbain in the Halamis Facility Staging area. Faction merchants offer faction equipment and unique armor sets for tokens earned by completing missions throughout the universe. Faction armor is high quality armor and as such requires a good deal of effort to generate enough tokens to outfit your entire team. The Abandoned Research Facility is a great place to run missions and gain faction and tokens to outfit your crew. I'll be adding more equipment and faction armor to the faction merchants across the universe during Alpha. As the story evolves, you may or may not want to be seen wearing the armor of certain factions around the known universe.

• Items are expensive and quite powerful. The merchant evaluates your current team makeup and presents you with armor tailored for your current level. Check in regularly as your team progresses for better armor with higher AC and stat modifiers.
  
• Stat bonuses on the armor are set to your team's current level at the time of purchase. I'll eventually add armor set bonuses that provide special effects if you are wearing an entire matching set of the current armor type. Every few levels you should go back and see if you can improve your equipment.
  
• Even when you outgrow your faction armor set, it has high value at regular merchants and can be sold for a nice profit. You may choose to purchase faction items to use your tokens and convert faction items to credits. When crafting goes in, faction armor can also be disassembled for high quality components.
  

• Halamis Quantum Trans-locator - Tired of trudging back through the facility or just weighed down by loot? Buy a Quantum Trans-locator from your friendly Halamis merchant! The Halamis Quantum Trans-locator is attuned to the staging area of the abandoned Halamis Research Facility and will relocate your entire team in the blink of an eye! You only need one...
  
• Halamis Faction Armor - Buy the entire set and get a shiny new look! The merchant knows what you need and the armor offered scales to your level, offering the finest protection available - at least from Halamis!
  

• Ranged enemies will attempt to keep their distance, backing away from melee attackers in most cases
  
• Blocking adjusted - enemies now have a number of activities including communicating with team members, healing, reloading and running for cover when they are blocked.
  
• AI are less likely to waste AP during movement and combat
  
• AI are less likely to bunch up leaving them open to AE grenade attacks
  
• AI environment evaluation algorithms optimized. The time it takes for an AI to act once it is their turn is significantly reduced.
  

Unlimited procedural missions, equipment stash, streamlined game start, mercenaries, new enemies, tons of gear to loot, updated space stations, new character portraits, turn order bar, grenades and med-kits moved out of the secondary weapon slot and much more...this is a big patch!

I'd like to thank everyone one of you for supporting the development of Stellar Tactics and for your patience. There has been an enormous amount of work put into the game over the last few months. I don't want to overhype this build, though I do think you are going to like what you find (I hope). The game just took a very big leap forward towards Alpha.

There will be bugs - no way around it. I've done everything I can to test this build, however, with many new people playing it, there are bound to be some issues I've missed. With that in mind I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU ENABLE AUTOSAVES for now. Open the options menu and highlight the "Auto Save on level transition” menu item. It is well worth it and save times are fairly fast. If you do find a bug - please post in the bug forums. I would also like to ask that you send me the game log:

I thought I would share these with you since there has been quite a bit of progress. The new portraits will replace the existing portraits when the next content update goes live. When creating a new game, you will be able to select from any of these portraits during character creation.

If you have an existing game, your current portraits will be replaced automatically. I will be adding a way for you to go into the character screen and select from any of the available portraits and replace them with your own choices. The old portraits will go away completely and will no longer be available in the game.

In the future I'll also add a way for you to replace any portrait in the game with your own - likely during beta.

The next content addition is coming along nicely. I am actually playing through the random mission scenarios now. There is still quite a bit of work with the mission generator and random enemy spawner which is working nicely now but needs work on placement and mission variety. I need to be happy with everything before I release the update. So, no ETA, but every day I get closer.

That's all I have for now. Back to work...

Welcome to the February Update!

A lot of progress has been made over the last few months. You may have seen the core engine upgrade and a lot of recent patches for stability based on that upgrade, enhancements and quality of life improvements. All of that is documented in the other update I just posted.
I really haven't talked about other things that have been going on in the background while all of the coding work has been going on. While I've been working on game systems, I've also been working on KZ-MR7. This includes collaborating with artists who have been developing armor sets and other content. I would not have been able to do this without those of you willing to take a chance on me as a developer and Stellar Tactics as a game. My most sincere thanks to every one of you who has taken a leap of faith to support me and the game. Your game dollars are going towards the development of the game. Stellar Tactics is getting better with almost every patch! A huge thank you to everyone providing feedback on the game. As always, I'm reading your comments and responding when I can.

Enemies and Armor sets: Enemies for KZ-MR7 have been in development now for several months. I'm showing a few below. There are a number of material variants that are not shown. The armor these enemies are wearing can be looted and worn by your team members. When fighting bosses in KZ-MR7 (and throughout the universe), occasional rare armor set pieces will drop. Combining all pieces of an armor set will unlock special bonuses. These sets come in both melee and ranged variants and, some augmented for skill based specialization. You will see at least one of these sets in KZ-MR7. Major factions in the game have their own armor types and specialize in different forms of combat. There is more, but I need to leave something for a surprise.

House Halamis - Know for ore production, refineries and the manufacture of mining equipment and automated surface mining drones, House Halamis holds a monopoly on mining production across the known universe. Halamis enforces it's hold with a military presence wherever it feels the need. Primarily focused on ranged tactical combat, Halamis Defenders are known for their exceptional training and discipline.

House Shikaru - An ancient society steeped in tradition and secrecy, House Shikaru Initiates are conscripted into service at a young age. Mercenaries for hire, House Shikaru is known for its martial prowess and is widely regarded as deadly and reliable. Throughout history The Shikaru have rarely inserted themselves in politics and wars, preferring to stay neutral, and available for hire. Adults are rarely ever admitted into their service and must prove themselves through a martial gauntlet.


Space Stations: The new space stations are ready to be put in the game. These were quite a bit of work and I'd like to thank Colin, an amazing 3D modeler, for putting these together for me. The stations are built from modular components and can be assembled in countless variations. I have future plans for these besides just populating the universe with diverse locations to explore, but I won't get into that now. Every single one of the stations in the Stellar Tactics universe can be landed on and explored. Some of these locations are mission/combat locations, others are trade stations. Eventually all of them will be driven economically and by faction. I'll populate Achmedius with these stations in the near future, likely with the KZ-MR7 update.


An update on KZ-MR7: The locations are moving along quickly. All locations have been modeled and I'm now working through each of them adding navigation mesh, doors, props and lighting. There is quite a bit of work left to do, and things are moving along quickly. I expect I'll be populating these locations with enemies in the next few weeks and then writing supporting code. KZ-MR7 will be a endless dungeon that allows players to progress to level 60 and the tier 3 perk lines.
Every time you enter KZ-MR7 the layout is randomly generated from a set of scenes. A rough calculation tells me that there are 144,000 variants of this level set alone, taking into account current enemy variants and positioning, level permutations and other random factors. This procedural "set" will be populated across the universe during Alpha. And this is just the first procedural level set! And the loot...oh the loot!
Every scene requires quite a bit of work - lighting, navigation mesh, doors, interactive objects, enemy placement, loot locations, entry and exit points...


There is more posted about KZ-MR7 on steam here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/465490/announcements/detail/566719912011654863

And one last thing: These are very early rough portraits from a very talented illustrator I'm working with. There is quite a bit of detail work left to do on the color illustrations but I thought I would share them with you. This is just the beginning...


That's all I have for now. Thank you all for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Like me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter !

Hi all. This is a consolidated update of all bugs fixed since the engine upgrade patch. Lots of fixes, additions and tweaks. Thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

If you find any issues while playing the game, please post them in the Bug forums. I check them daily.

ADDED: Loading progress bar added.
ADDED: Menu's are now accessible via a micro-menu in the lower left of the game screen. A help icon has been added. I wanted to get this done for reasons of accessibility for players that may have disabilities. You should now be able to play the entire ground game with only mouse clicks. Please let me know if I missed anything. NOTE: I'll be working on space keys and menu items soon. For now, the Micro-Warp ( R ) and Afterburner ( Spacebar ) are not mapped to the in-game UI.
ADDED: VSync is now on by default - this may help with some rare physics issues.
ADDED: When exiting the game, the screen fades to black and a message that the game is exiting is displayed. You can run other applications/games while Stellar Tactics in this state.
ADDED: Per player requests in the forums - mouse edge panning has been added.

REMOVED: When starting a new game, the help screen is no longer immediately displayed. The help "reminder" message is still displayed at the start of each new play session. A new icon is available on the micro-menu in the lower left corner (question mark) for key reference and general game-play information.

CHANGED: 64Bit and 32Bit version of the game are installed based on the users system. It is no longer necessary to select the 64Bit version of the game by launching the game from inside Steam.
CHANGED: Combatants within a certain range of team members (any team member) are now visible. The rationale is that you would hear them if they were that close. This does not work if in a smoke grenade field.
CHANGED: On the ship UI, "Energy" has been changed to "Capacitor" in preparation for work on space combat. Note: I'll be adding a ship micro-menu icon to the UI in the future. I'll also be adding the CTRL key during space travel which will display gravity wells and other useful info.
CHANGED: Space "Initiate combat", "Raise shields" and "Mining laser" have been combined into a single bar that includes ship hard points in preparation for work on space combat.


FIXED: If your lead team member initiated combat and rolled initiative to become the first combatant, that team member could be left in a state where they could not attack.
FIXED: If a med-pack was equipped and selected as the active weapon, selecting team members using the character portrait UI in the main combat UI and inside the Inventory and Character Info screens would not work.
FIXED: Screen edge scrolling requires mouse at very edge of screen now.
FIXED: Incorrect level scaling in the case of Dr. Jensen and Dr. Rhamus in the Aznari Ruins.
FIXED: Further fixes to blocked enemies and rare cases where they could be blocked and not pass their turn to the next combatant. Additional debug data added.
FIXED: New game universe generation/save is fast once again.
FIXED: Micro-menu is no longer visible during the initial cinematic.
FIXED: Auto-save when exiting dauntless now functions correctly, letting you load the game state prior to entering the escape pod - just in case you want to change something...
FIXED: Options settings persist between play sessions and are now separated from save games.
FIXED: Ambient sound volume now functions as expected.
FIXED: When leaving The Dauntless, the escape pod mission is now marked as complete.
FIXED: A bug that would display inventory objects occasionally when rolling over ship components and the mining laser.
FIXED - When exiting the crio-pods, the console was not highlighting on rollover or when holding CTRL - could be confusing new players.
FIXED: Hit percentages stay fixed when hovering over body parts and returning. Switching enemies will reset the CTH values on the cursor, calculating new values the next time you hover over an enemy. Holding the ALT key while hovering allows fine aiming as always.
FIXED: When selling items from the backpack to a vendor, inventory space field is now updated.
FIXED: Missing engineering skill description is now visible. Most of these are going to go through a tuning pass in the future.
FIXED - Characters will engage in combat correctly the next time if KO'd in previous combat engagement
FIXED - Team members who are not KO'd will not be able to move until their KO'd team members stand up again.
FIXED - Dead enemies in pit on Halamis Ore will now stay dead. They will no longer die every time you load a save game in this area after they've been defeated.
FIXED - Combat on stairs adjusted to fix a rare lockup
FIXED - Characters are much less likely to get stuck in a walking animation loop when stopping them on stairs
FIXED - A few typos in dialog with Rhamus.
FIXED - Cannot get stuck in hand rail in trade station.
FIXED - A fix that should address the issue of being soft locked when combat ends occasionally. This should also resolve the issue of having characters immobilized until selecting another team member.
FIXED: Fix so input is not registered when leaving combat. May fix rare lockup.
FIXED: Additional support for a small number of systems that are having problems launching the game.
FIXED: Fix for broken armor durability display
FIXED: Major fix for initiative and turn order. Enemies and player team members will no longer receive consecutive turns
FIXED: Fixed a bug that was occasionally locking up team members at the end of their turn, not allowing them to pass turn order. This was a blocker in cases where it showed up requiring a save game reload! ( Thanks rebelwolf75! )

UPDATED: Mouse edge panning and keyboard camera scrolling speeds adjusted
UPDATED: More stability fixes related to new engine update.
UPDATED: Looting crates, packs etc is now much faster.

The engine upgrade is now posted to to all depots! I'll be keeping an eye on the forums over the course of the next few days to patch any major issues that come up.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped test over the last week!

Please report any issues you find with the update in this forum post.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/142261352650917432/

Note: This update will wipe your save games! See the section below to recover your saves if you must have them. If you have been testing on the "Publictest" depot, your saves should be fine assuming you've been playing over the last few days.

If you have any problems running the game after patching, try the following:
1) In steam, go to your library
2) Right click the game and select properties
3) in the properties window go to the "Local files" tab
4) Select "Browse local files"

In the "_CommonRedist" folder run the following:

-DXSETUP.EXE in the DirectX folder
-Run the OpenAL installer
-Run either the x86 or x64 installers in the vcredist folder depending on your OS

General fixes

• UPDATED: Option to raise FPS cap from 30fps to 60fps
  
• FIXED: Major fix for enemies skipping their turns
  
• FIXED: Fix for missed movement clicks. Much more responsive overall.
  
• FIXED: Healing icon no longer appears when rolling over KO'd team members when a med kit is equipped.
  
• FIXED: Ghost projectiles - bullets always provide feedback now.
  
• FIXED: Fixed long standing bug that allowed team members wielding ranged weapons to use the melee movement bonus.
  
• FIXED: Equipment display bug that would show wear as a negative value
  
• ADJUSTED: Enemies that do not have weapons equipped no longer gain a large H2H melee bonus.
  
• ADJUSTED: Spiders are a little less likely to poison
  
• ADJUSTED: Weapon and armor wear is now 1/2 of what it was before until crafting and repair go in.
  
• ADJUSTED: Better loot from bosses on Dauntless.
  
• ADJUSTED: The game now auto-saves when leaving the Dauntless.
  

• Reworked Load/Save folders for accessibility and future Steam Cloud Saves
  
• 64 Bit support - steam will automatically choose between 32bit and 64bit depending on your systems capabilities
  
• Better support for Windows screen resolutions and tabbing
  
• 4k support (Experimental)
  
• Better performance overall
  
• Stability fixes
  
• Better support for zoomed state in Windows 10
  
• Faster execution of scripts
  
• Lower memory overhead
  
• Better support for lower end video cards (Yeah Intel - that's you, though I still cannot officially support you!)
  
• Updated Steam Libraries
  
• Load/Save games are now much faster
  
• By default, space graphics are set to low resolution (for those with limited VRAM]. For those of you with 2GB or more VRAM, just open the options menu and under video select "HiRes Space" and apply settings. The next time you enter space, you will be using the high resolution graphics
  

The survey results are in. I'm going to post them here and let you know what I plan to do about each of these. Many of you provided a lot of commentary and suggestions which I am still reading through. Thank you all for participating. There will be more survey's in the future.

First, Blocking: The majority of all players felt they would enjoy blocking as a game mechanic more if there were more visual indicators in the game environment. This will be a good sized block of work for me to do, so it won't go in soon. Likely during Alpha or even Beta - by it will go in!


Second was character movement: As you can see, a majority of people felt that movement could be increased slightly. I'll make sure to increase movement speed a bit - perhaps 10-15% so the animations do not look comical and the feet don't appear to be sliding. This will go in during Alpha.


And finally, the pace of combat: As you can see, the majority felt the pace of combat was fine as it is. I have already promised to do some work to optimize enemy combat animations and merge attacks so enemies do not return to idle before making their next attack if multiple attacks are made. That should increase the pace of combat a bit. The results were really close so I think upping the pace a little won't hurt.

This build is only available on the "Publictest" depot for now - see instructions below to opt in.

I have good news and bad news!

The bad news first!

There is no good way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. Better now than later.

THE ENGINE UPGRADE WILL WIPE YOUR SAVE GAMES (sort of)

In order to prepare the game for Steam Cloud Saves, I had to move the save game folders and data. I don't expect that I'll need to do this again, however, I cannot guarantee that there won't be save game wipes in the future while in EA. I'll always provide a way for you to recover you're old saves if possible (see below). NOTE: Cloud saves will go live when this build is ready to be released. There will be no cloud saves while testing on the "Public test branch".

This engine upgrade was crucial for KZ-MR7 and moving forward towards alpha.

I am providing a way for you to manually recover your save's if you must. See the section below.

The good news!

I am posting a major engine upgrade to the "Publictest" depot! Instructions for accessing the updated version are noted below for anyone willing to test the new build. Please read below, opt-in and give me feedback on the new engine. I'll be providing a pinned thread in the general forums for feedback.

Post feedback here!

Features

There are too many fixes/changes to list here. I'm just going to list the major updates for you.

• Reworked Load/Save folders for accessibility and future Steam Cloud Saves
  
• 64 Bit support - steam will automatically choose between 32bit and 64bit depending on your systems capabilities
  
• Better support for Windows screen resolutions and tabbing
  
• 4k support (Experimental)
  
• Better performance overall
  
• Stability fixes
  
• Better support for zoomed state in Windows 10
  
• Faster execution of scripts
  
• Lower memory overhead
  
• Better support for lower end video cards (Yeah Intel - that's you, though I still cannot officially support you!)
  
• Updated Steam Libraries
  
• Load/Save games are now much faster
  
• By default, space graphics are set to low resolution (for those with limited VRAM]. For those of you with 2GB or more VRAM, just open the options menu and under video select "HiRes Space" and apply settings. The next time you enter space, you will be using the high resolution graphics
  

Close the properties window, exit Steam and log back in. The updated build should start downloading.


For now, when you launch the public test build, you must launch the game from within Steam - do not use your desktop icon. A popup window will appear - select either the default or 64bit versions. When this build goes to the default depot, Steam will choose the appropriate version for you. If for any reason you have a problem with the 64bit version, please report a bug in the forums and then choose the default version (32bit version) of the game.


Fixes etc. released with this build

• UPDATED: FPS cap raised from 30fps to 60fps - nice and smooth on fast systems.
  
• UPDATED: Physics now automatically scales to your systems performance.
  
• FIXED: Major fix for enemies skipping their turns
  
• FIXED: Fix for missed movement clicks. Much more responsive overall.
  
• FIXED: Healing icon no longer appears when rolling over KO'd team members when a med kit is equipped.
  
• ADJUSTED: Enemies that do not have weapons equipped no longer gain a large H2H melee bonus.
  
• ADJUSTED: Spiders are a little less likely to poison
  
• ADJUSTED: Better loot from bosses on Dauntless.
  
• ADJUSTED: Weapon and armor wear is now 1/2 of what it was before until crafting and repair go in.
  

MANUALLY RECOVERING YOUR OLD SAVE GAMES

NOTE: Do not attempt this if you do not feel technically competent with the Windows file system!

This update will NOT delete your old save games. If you must have them, you can manually move them to the new save folder. I recommend starting again from scratch, but if you absolutely must have your old saves, then you will need to take these steps.

https://youtu.be/BpzydEPHmhM

I thought I would record a video that demonstrated how FTL travel works. I didn't take time to edit out loading screens or anything else. Kind of just a straight run through travel, docking, combat etc. Hope you like it.

***********************************************************************************************************************
IMPORTANT - EXPLORING BEYOND THE FTL GATES IS NOT YET UNLOCKED IN THE GAME!
Note: This functionality is locked right now. Check the forums for the game development roadmap.
*********************************************************************************************************************

I should say there is still no ETA on alpha. KZ-MR7 will come first and we are making good progress.

A few things I didn't mention in the video.

• The entire ST universe is available in FTL space - you can fly from one side to the other and star systems, ships, events and objects stream into view dynamically. Loading is only when transitioning from FTL space to systems and from systems to ground exploration areas (stations, bases, ruins, cave systems etc).
  
• Different areas of space look different. Visual differences are based on the area of space, the type of star, nebula's and a few other factors. I just happened to choose a system with a similar sun in the same area of space.
  
• New space stations are being build. The stations are modular and should be much better than the stations currently in the game.
  
• While exploring you will encounter events. They may be distress signals from aligned factions, stations and ground locations.
  
• You will be able to mark trade routes on your map for future reference. Systems are classified by Industrial, Agricultural, Mining and Consumer goods. Pricing and commodity values will be based on availability and demand.
  
• Disabling and boarding is a long term goal. It will go in, but not initially. There are over 40 ship types that need interiors modeled.
  
• Missions can be granted while in space via communication from other ships, remotely as mentioned above via Distress Signals and when on stations - usually in Cantina's and Bars. Most stations also have faction contacts that can send you on missions that award faction rewards and experience.
  
• Most locations can be explored. However, some stations and locations may be locked. If you are denied docking you will know that a location is reserved for missions or other story content.
  
• Scanning data can be sold. It has a value. So, while exploring, scan every planetary body in the systems. You get a bonus for complete system scans. You can turn in you scanned data to an agent on most stations.
  
• Enemy ships that have targeted you will generate a warning. You can choose to outrun your enemies or confront them. If you are flying a slower ship (a trade vessel), it's likely you will be intercepted. Make sure you are armed. The same goes for enemies. If you scan and then target them, they will take that as a hostile action and act accordingly.
  

Long though lost, KZ-MR7, a Halamis research facility, was re-discovered several hundred years ago when Martin Varis crash landed on Achmedius VIII. Rumors and reports describe the facility as an advanced energy research station built on planetary ley-lines.

The facility, run by Professor Garrius Brons, developer of the FTL Drive, was funded through Halamis Corporation by House Shikaru shortly after the "Arrival". Years of secretive research ended when rumors that a powerful energy rift was generated, destroying the facility and everyone in it. Subsequently, the planet was flagged as "Off-Limits", however, illegal mining on the planet continues to this day.

Martin Varis explored the facility for years with a small team of mercenaries, scrapping parts and gathering information. He swore that every time he entered KZ-MR7, the very structure of the facility changed, as though he was stepping into a parallel universe. He told stories of horrible mutations, hellish creatures and squads of elite military personnel infesting the facilities permutations.

Several years later, Martin and his team re-entered KZ-MR7 one last time. They were never heard from again. A rescue party was assembled, however, the mysterious facility could not be found. It was as if KZ-MR7 disappeared off the face of the planet, leaving nothing behind...

Details
First, I'd like to once again thank every one of you for buying Stellar Tactics and supporting the development of the game with feedback and commentary.

KZ-MR7 is the next major feature addition to Stellar Tactics. It is the next step towards the Alpha build and will give everyone a chance to progress further in the game and test the random mission and location generator.

When I release KZ-MR7, you will be able to accept missions from NPC's on the Achmedius Trade Station. These NPCs will send you to the surface of Achmedius VIII to explore the facility. Missions will be randomly generated and the facility will change when a mission is provided. This includes enemy placement, loot, objectives and the global layout of the facility.

A few details related to KZ-MR7 when it's released:

• I'll be fixing any bugs that are found and making sure the system is 100% stable before moving on when the build is released.
  
• I will be tuning objectives and loot over time.
  
• I will be adding Perk tiers over time.
  
• Progression will be limited to a maximum level of 60.
  
• I'll be performing a combat tuning pass.
  
• I'll be gathering community feedback.
  

Thanks again Matt - it was a pleasure speaking with you!

https://youtu.be/YXYL6jH-3hk

I'm posting the latest patch. I'll monitor this closely over the next few days while I move forward with NEW CONTENT! (Finally!) I'll be posting an update in the near future that covers just what that is.

GRAPHICS OPTIONS RESET - Your graphics options will be reset on launching the game. Current options remain the same as they were before. I'm doing this to provide a better initial user experience.
--Your video resolution will be set to your current screen resolution as long as that resolution is not higher than 1920x1080. If your resolution is higher than 1920x1080 - it will be set to Full-Screen 1920x1080 when you enter the game. You can adjust your resolution in the optios menu.
--Resolutions above 1920x1080 are no longer available in the options menu. I'll change this later - perhaps during BETA.
--SSAO is set to off by default
--Shadows are set to medium resolution by default instead of high. Shadows are the number one reason for poor performance on older hardware.
--Anisotropic filtering is set medium resolution by default instead of high
--The game will default to full screen instead of windowed mode

And now for something completely different...
If you enable the FPS meter, you will get a message if your system is not performing at minimum game requirements. This happens if your frame-rate dips below 25 FPS for 60 seconds. The message will make suggestions for optimizing settings in the options menu. These are usually related to shadows and SSAO.

GENERAL PATCH NOTES
FIXED - If a pilot was not in the pilot slot when launching from a station or other location, the game would stop responding.
FIXED - An NPC in the vats would occasionally cause a combat lockup.
FIXED - Female PC's firing beam or some heavy weapons while crouched could lock up the game
FIXED - Using a healing kit during combat when crippled now takes the appropriate AP penalty
FIXED - If a grenade is primed and you switch to your primary weapon, grenades are now de-activated
FIXED - Weapons with equipped mods would lose their mod info in the rollover info hud if moved to inventory and then back to the equipment slot
FIXED - If mining asteroids and you micro-warp, mining laser is not left in mining state
FIXED - Perk critical chance bonus now applied to Critical Chance values displayed in GUI.
FIXED - Perk bonus damage now applied to AC values displayed in GUI
FIXED - AC values were not correctly displayed when changing armor in GUI.
FIXED - Mods to endurance were not correctly displayed in the GUI.
FIXED - Planets name labels would disappear after docking and then launching.
FIXED - When micro-warping to an asteroid field, your ship will now stop when you arrive.
ADDED - A FPS meter. The Meter is color coded. Anything below 30FPS will cause issues with the physics system and performance issues overall. Green = Good! - Yellow = Borderline! - Red = You need to reduce your graphic settings (Most likely shadows)
ADJUSTED - Click response in the environment is faster now.
ADJUSTED - Looting and using objects in the environment is now 100% faster. Looting objects with many items may take up to 1 second to generate loot.
ADJUSTED: Adjusted PUGILISM damage - down slightly from before
REVIEWED: Shotgun damage - Shotguns receive a range bonus of up to +25% based on distance to target - perhaps OP - no adjustments made. They have a chance to STUN and a chance to BLEED. Certainly shotguns are OP if you find a shotgun full-auto trigger modification. Get-em now before they are gone!

I'll be monitoring this patch closely over the next few days for any data related issues. Though thoroughly tested, there may be a few lingering edge cases. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the Public Test Branch to test this.

Completed a major re-write of the resource object code - this should reduce patch sizes significantly going forward. There is still some work to do to reduce patch size, but that will come later.

Removed AI debug data from the log - this should speed up the game on lower end systems a bit. I left this in initially to help with any blockers or issues.

New highlight system. By default, objects that can be interacted with now use a much brighter glow so it is very obvious which items can be interacted with. The glow is color coded (green for loot, yellow for mission/log objects and purple for non-lootable inter-actives). This should also fix invisible highlights for systems that are using Intel chipsets without the latest drivers. Many issues with glow, screen resolution issues, crashes and other problems have been related to on-board Intel GPU chip sets using default manufacturer drivers that have never been updated.

The original, more subtle highlight shader system is still available. Now the glow is static so it does not pulse and is set to maximum highlight until you release the CTRL key or move your mouse cursor off the object. If you want the alternate (original) shader highlight, you can open the video options screen and select "Subtle object highlight".

Other fixes
---Fixed a major error in the right-click movement system - missed clicks when moving should be way less frequent now. Thank you "axed1nce", You're comment led to a fix that may help everyone!
---When leaving an area and returning to that area, you are no longer able to hack and loot chests that were previously hacked and/or looted
---If you left an area that had a chest and did not loot it, you may have lost that loot. This is fixed now.
---Pressing escape during cinematics works as expected now.
---Fixed a problem with NPC team members that was causing them to not load using the new data system, locking up the game.
---Fixed a problem with keypads and equipped hacking tools
---Fixed a problem that may have caused down-scaling of rendering resulting in low resolution graphics at high resolution screen settings on some systems.
---Reversed Q/E rotation - eventually this will be user configurable when key-mapping goes in.
---Reversed mouse wheel zoom to better match the default behavior in other games. Again, this will eventually be user configurable.