This is actually TWO giant releases in one.  Release notes here for the current one, and here for "Break the Sky." It's a whole new game now, as well it ought to be after such a huge amount of time (almost a month!) since the last release.  We've entered an entirely new phase of development now, which I'm referring to as "The Era of Discovery," and which is based around the thoughts from that giant essay from two releases ago.  Things are coming along really well, although it's taking a lot longer than I had expected. Sooo... how on earth do I summarize this?  The release notes just for the last two versions are about 12,000 words (39 pages).  Well, let's give it a sh0t:

• All the savegames are broken, and we're going to break them again and again in the next couple of weeks.  Please excuse our dust.
• The UI is still not done, but is in a vastly superior state now compared to what it was.
• However, the tooltips in the UI are in what is a potentially-final state, pending feedback.
• Tooltips actually tell you everything now, without giving the same sort of information overload as AIWC.
• There are a ton of minor faction changes, big and small, thanks to Badger.
• There are a ton of new notifications, and there is also a new objectives tab on the sidebar, with actual data.  (Though not ALL the data, yet).
• All of the ship balance from before has been stripped away and replaced with something new, simpler, and way more powerful based around the new units of measurement.
• The way we store the xml for ships and their systems and related data has been overhauled to an incredible degree, and is now a lot easier to work with.
• We have a guide for those who want to help out with balance suggestions, or try tweaks, or do their own mods.
• There's a whole new minor faction, the Instigators.  These aren't something you have to enable, it's just something that is a part of every game now and provides some interesting new twists midgame.
• Bunch of new planet names, and map type refinements.
• The tutorial is back!
• Most of the game mechanics, ranging from cloaking to engine damage to ion damage and gravity fields have been completely reworked.
• A whole bunch of new game mechanics, ranging from metabolization to incoming and outgoing damage multipliers, have been added.
• Hacking works again, although it's mainly used for minor factions in the super short term.
• A ton of units have been completely reimagined, such as Fighters becoming V-Wings, Bombers becoming Fusion Bombers, Infiltrators becoming Agravic Pods, etc.
• Even more is coming in terms of unit transformations, hence some of the savegame breakages that you'll see.
• The ship icon gimbals have a bunch of new updates to show shields more prominently, and flair in general more attractively.
• Megatons of bugfixes and structural improvements.
• Vastly smaller savegames, now.
• Much better ship targeting logic, although there's still more to go on that.
• And a whole lot of untested things that we hope you'll tell us about if they're broken. ;)

And... yeah.  This isn't quite the point where we want to say "come jump in if you're waiting for a near-EA release build," but we're getting there.  We're headed through the process of cleaning this up and finishing this pretty tectonic set of changes that make this feel like the sequel that we were wanting it to be from the start (while still honoring the original game, which was something that The Pivot -- the last phase of the development prior to this one -- accomplished). Lots more to come next week.  Thanks for your support! The Usual Reminders Quick reminder of our new Steam Developer Page.  If you follow us there, you'll be notified about any game releases we do. Also: Would you mind leaving a Steam review for some/any of our games?  It doesn't have to be much more detailed than a thumbs up, but if you like a game we made and want more people to find it, that's how you make it happen.  Reviews make a material difference, and like most indies, we could really use the support. Enjoy! Chris

[ 2018-08-24 21:11:50 CET ] [ Original post ]