This release candidate adds a brand new multiplayer PvP mode called "Build & Battle" which combines ship building with ship battles. Played over several rounds, competitors build or upgrade their ship using a randomly limited selection of parts and then battle against the other players. At the beginning of every new round, players receive credits with which they can build or upgrade their ship and unlock new parts. (Ships are repaired for free.) Then they fight against their opponent(s), and the winner earns a "victory point". The first player or team to (by default) 3 victory points wins the game!
This release candidate also adds Medium and Large Hyperdrives. The larger drives store more hyperium and boost jump efficiency within a larger radius. As such, they will likely be more cost-effective and convenient for larger ships than the existing Small Hyperdrive.
Have fun, and thanks for testing!
RC1:
- New PvP multiplayer game mode: "Build & Battle". Played over several rounds, competitors build or upgrade their ship using a randomly limited selection of parts and then battle against the other players.
- Added Medium and Large Hyperdrives that can store more hyperium and boost jump efficiency in a larger radius.
- Split the Launcher blueprint technology into four, one for each type of munition (H.E., E.M.P., Nuke, Mine). Existing saves that have already unlocked the Missile Launcher will now receive all four munition blueprint techs for free.
- Modding: Career mode techs now support multiple techs unlocking the same part.
- Modding: Career mode techs now support unlocking doors and individual UIToggle choices.
- Modding: Rules files now support the old Mac OS style of line endings.
RC2:
- RC Bugfix: The logic that was supposed to detect when ships should become junk was extremely broken.
- RC Bugfix: The Hyperium U.I. tile for the Large Hyperdrive was in the wrong location.
RC3:
- The first round of Build & Battle now has an extra random part offering.
- Updates to the official Build & Battle rulesets. They all now give different credit amounts in each round.
- Loading of saved ship designs is now disabled by default in Build & Battle but can be re-enabled by the host.
- New icon for Build & Battle mode.
- It is no longer possible to abandon or self-destruct your ship in the build phase of Build & Battle, which could cause crashes and other issues.
- The scoreboard will now have a scrollbar if it is too long to fit on the screen.
- Modding: Using mods that had blueprints techs with the Missile Launcher as a prerequisite will no longer crash. Those specific blueprint techs will now require all four of the launcher munition techs as their new prerequisite. It is recommended that mod authors update their mods to use the new techs as prerequisites if different behavior is desired.
- Modding: Build & Battle now has an explicit whitelist of parts that don't require tech purchases to unlock. This will prevent modded parts from being automatically buildable; those parts must now be added to the whitelist or be given purchasable techs by the mod.
