So a great Steam Next Fest is behind us, with over a thousand new players trying Relic Space! While there's been lot's of positive feedback, there's also been a number of reports of bugs and balance issues, as well as some really detailed discussion of game mechanics, particularly on the Discord. So since then (after a bit of a break!) I've jumped straight into fixing what I considered to be the highest priority bugs and balance issues. While not the most exciting of updates, it will make the Demo a more polished and well-balanced experience for those trying the Demo for the first time (still available for download from the Steam page). BALANCE CHANGES MOD: all mission types are now more evenly distributed in the system MOD: reduced frequency of stolen goods mission variants MOD: reduced frequency but increased difficulty of ambushes MOD: reduced frequency of ambushes further for adventure mode MOD: adventure mode now has a slower event clock MOD: increase loot from enemy ships MOD: voidfliers now have two random light weapons instead of medium laser OTHER IMPROVEMENTS MOD: improved character selection descriptions MOD: amended heat warning text display to clarify ability to disable weapons using 'X' MAP NEW: added pulses to sector map for additional clarity NEW: display indicating how many sectors have been explored compared to the maximum available (limited to 8 in the Demo) FIX: unexplored sectors are now correctly marked with a glowing outline in the system map, and this is noted in the map key section
FIXES FIX: too heavy for ship message incorrectly shown when selling equipment FIX: bug where pressing R activates equipment skills other than weapon skills FIX: bug where using power shot can lead to weapons being deactivated FIX: bug where incorrect skill level shown for techie trait skills in character selection screen FIX: bug where circle faction stats are initially not shown in faction stat spider chart FIX: bug where projectiles fired from platforms are too small to be visible FIX: some issues with explosion animation for certain ships FIX: incorrect chance of occurrence for certain faction event types FIX: bug causing soft-lock when loading a 'random missions only' game straight after launching the game. FIX: incorrect ship class icon for certain ship and platform types FIX: weight warning sometimes shown when jettisoning goods FIX: bug where cutscene audio is played at full volume irrespective of saved music volume preference FIX: bug where background music in splash screen does not initially load with saved music volume preference FIX: rare unexpected loud sound effect when returning to main view from system map Thanks for reading and watch this space for more news as we progress towards Early Access!