This Update brings a lot of fixes, quality of life additions, new content and community requests - Basically stuff across the board, and without doubt our biggest update to date!
Here’s a recap of what’s new:
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More Upgrade Steps!
Ectypes need all the help they can get to fight off the HOLLOW! The Ship System Upgrader was lacking upgrade steps for a handful of Ship Systems - these have now been added, allowing you to push the offensive power of your ship even higher. Upgrade steps were added for these system:
- Gravity Scoop Mk II and Mk III
- Recuser Beamcaster Mk II and Mk III
- Shuriken cannon Mk III
- Litany Minigun Mk III
- Orison Orison Mk II
- Energy Shuriken Gatlin Mk III
- B.R.A.I.N. turret now has 3 Marks
* The tech controlling the Gravity Scoop's attraction beam has also been updated to be more stable and reliable.
[Community] New Ship Loadout: “Freedom”
A recurring Community Request, this Update also introduces the Freedom Loadout for the Destroyer and Frigate, taking the place of the CQB II loadout. This new (experimental) option starts you off with a blank ship and a handful of Animus Crates!
Note: To unlock this loadout, you need at least one crew member at Ectype Rank 24* or higher. With the Ship System Upgrader addition, we're shifting from Tiered Loadouts to instead relying on acquiring the System Upgrader during Pilgrimages.
[spoiler]* Rank, Progression and Perks are being redesigned for an upcoming update ????[/spoiler]
[Community] Reward Overhaul
We've improved control on how we hand out rewards to Players - and how the rarity of the Loot Boxes is tied to the aggressiveness of the built-in duplicate protection. The standard Common Loot Box come with "pretty good" duplicate protection, but doesn't have improved chances to drop higher rarities. Higher rarity boxes will guarantee higher rarity loot and more aggressive duplicate protection. Seasonal Loot Boxes are so aggressively guarding against duplicates, that once you've collected all common items, they'll start handing out rares. This means that the Seasonal Boxes can be trusted to reward you all the items from their designated Reward Pool, as long as you keep collecting them. We call the "new" Loot Boxes Gifts of METEM, and are continuing to tweak the experience.
Gifts of METEM are earned and tallied during Pilgrimages, but must be opened from the new Rewards tab on the Personal Loadout Terminal. This means the End-of-Pilgrimage flow has been shortened significantly, but also allows us to do more interesting things with handing out Rewards in the future.
In addition to the new Rewards Tab, the Personal Loadout Terminal now also shows both Name as well as Rarity for items you've collected.
The Update also contains three new Armor Pieces, as well as a handful of Projections.
[Community] Uncapped FPS
We've rewritten how the character interacts with the ship physics, uncapping their movement from the tick-rate of the physics engine. In simple terms, this should smooth out the camera movement. This is of course part of a larger overhaul, so expect more improvements to this in upcoming updates. Read more about the topic here.
Secrets from the Past…
Vestiges of a bygone age, the derelict wrecks of the Void abound with valuable secrets and stories untold. Lore scholars and inquisitive souls should be on the lookout for Data Terminals. These troves of ancient knowledge dispense special Data Shards stuffed with ship reports, combat logs, and other invaluable snippets of narrative intel. Bring the Shards back to the Astral Map for decryption and unlock new Codex Entries. Only then may we begin to glimpse the greater picture…
Simply put: Collectable story chapters found on Space Bases and Wrecks, each unlocking entries in the Codex about the Void Crew universe.
Topic of Love
A new time limited enemy has been added: The Lovelorn Collector - this lovesick enemy is hoarding unique Data Shards, pilfered from METEM's devotees. Bring these special Data Shards back to the Astral Map, and you're rewarded a Devotional Gift of METEM!
Open your Devotional Gift of METEM in the Personal Loadout Terminal, and earn season-appropriate rewards, including a new special helmet, or even a set of heartfelt shoulder pads.
Community - QoL
- Run: Toggle / Hold Option (expected to be relatively easy)
- Pinging Void Jump Markers
- “Hide Keybinds UI” toggle added to Settings
- Allow Target Locking of Neutral & Attackable Targets
- Ability to upgrade already activated Enhancements if you’ll make ‘em better
- EVA: Players stuck if EVA without Jetpack
- EVA: Hud to warn player, when going EVA without Jetpack
- EVA: Red blinking in player hud
- EVA: Hint - Make sure to put on Jetpack when EVA
- EVA: Warning sound (when trying to EVA without Jetpack)
- Loot probabilities/ reward system (see above)
- Toggle player name keybind (“N” - To toggle names)
- Streamline view-change keybind (Pilot and Gunners toggle view-point using “V”)
- Gravity scoop rework - Better scooping, coloring (when about to break), disconnecting beam based on distance.
Enemy changes
- Hollow Sniper Elite added (fires 3 times in a row)
- Hollow Bomber Elite added (fires 2 sets of 4)
- Hollow Invulnerability Generator and Shield generator now show up in random compositions
- Normal and invulnerable Shield shader improved
- New enemy spawn group balanced
- Improved visibility of normal and invulnerability shields
Balancing (Ranks)
- Veteran unlock moved from 9 to 8
- Expert unlock moved from 19 to 12
- Insane unlock moved from 29 to 19
- Benediction II moved to Rank 9
- Energy Shuriken Gatlin Mk II moved to Rank 23 (mk I & II unlocked at same time)
- New modules added to rank unlocks (excluding B.R.A.I.N. and Energy Gatlin Mark III)
Other
- Void Jump signatures/markers can now be pinged
- Vivox - Improvements and stability
- Weapon barrel can now have overheating red-emissive barrels (primarily Benediction)
- Modules now showcase their rarity on the ground or part of the visuals (see Scoop/Brain etc)
- Gravity scoop reworked
- Mines will no longer target invulnerable enemies
- Tally screen updated (ported to new UI tech)
- New “Power Optimizer” mod for modules
- Alloys and biomass no longer reward XP
- Fixed the Proctorship Helmet being disconnected from the body
- A lot of fixes to Fabricator in multiplayer, should no longer get stuck in processing state
- Fixed the items from previous sessions appearing in space in new sessions, causing the game to break if interacted with
- Fixed the Thrusters getting activated by pressing shift to run outside of helm
- Fixed the weapons getting multiplied if upgraded/deconstructed while someone sits in them
- Fixed an issue where the players could get target locked by enemies while inside of buildings
- Fixed the buildboxes not moving with the ship after getting deconstructed – they should no longer end up in space
- Fixed an issue where player ship would get suddenly one shot during Ambush mission
- Fixed an issue where rejoining a session after disconnect would result in the player appearing as Banana Pants
- Fixed the self mute getting removed after applying settings or fixing defects
- Fixed the self pinging breaking when seated in helm
- Fixed the self pinging not showing the ping wheel
- Fixed the crosshair not being visible while using Litany Minigun
- Fixed the weapon mods effects not applying for players that join the session after the mods are inserted
- Fixed Gravity scoop: Won’t fling items far away from the ship
- Fixed Gravity scoop: Won’t attempt to pull items out of buildings
- Fixed Gravity scoop: When using two gravity scoops, they won’t try to scoop the same item
- Fixed Gravity scoop: The scooped items now follow the trajectory represented by their attraction curve
- Fixed the ship health showing 100% in tutorial
- Fixed the Charging Station enhancement giving the same results on different "Stronger enhancement" perk levels
- Fixed the "Stronger enhancement" perk not working with Life Support
- Fixed the default shoulders icon on personal terminal
- Fixed an issue with Kinetic Point Defense, where the Ammo Crate could be taken out of it, which would break the module functionality
- Fixed the “Attempt Repair” prompt getting stuck on screen after repairing a defect
- Fixed the B.R.A.I.N. auto turrets shooting at enemies that have already escaped the sector
- Fixed the B.R.A.I.N. auto turrets breaking after they destroy a component on an enemy that was not target locked
- Fixed the issue where only one type of rare Weapon Mod would appear as loot throughout the entire mission
- Fixed the available loot resetting when Host changes
- Fixed the weapon range display not updating if mods or perks are applied
- Fixed the Cold Field warning not displaying the speed debuff
- Fixed objective markers sometimes appearing as Unscanned Signatures
- Fixed the Galaxy Map getting stuck on screen if it’s exited too fast
- Fixed an issue where joining the session at the end of a Void Jump would result in getting stuck in the Void Jump animation
- Fixed the “Choose destination” objective not completing when Exit Sector is chosen
- Fixed the Prism getting duplicated if Host changes
- Fixed the Assembler enemies teleporting around for guest players
- Fixed an issue where throwing items could result in the player not being able to pick up any new items
- Fixed an issue where the guest player could get stuck while interacting with Fabricator during a Void Jump
- Fixed the Biomass port outline sometimes being misplaced for guest players
- Fixed the multiplayer HUD dropdowns being hard to interact with
- Fixed an issue where if multiple people in the party shared the same name, muting one of them would mute all that share the name
- Fixed an issue where two player could sit in the same chair if Host left
- Fixed the Reload Speed mods decreasing the reload speed instead of increasing it
- Fixed weapon mods visual issues when the weapons get powered on and off
- Fixed the Christmas projections appearing blurry when playing on Low graphic settings
- Fixed the Raid Bases not being attached correctly to the asteroids
- Miscellaneous art and collision fixes
- Miscellaneous audio fixes
- Fixed majority of UI issues when using languages other than English
- Fixed the objective names overlapping each other on the Galaxy Map
- Added a lot of missing localization - still work in progress
Another round of thanks goes to our community for their patience and feedback that allows us to keep making the game better! Jump on to our Discord and join the fun!
We are already now looking forward to the next update, and can only say we are VERY excited about the next steps. In not too long we’ll update our living Roadmap. We just wish we could share our plans, but that would cause an endless discussion of company perks…
