0.077

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!

0.077

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.

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

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.

The merchant sells:

• 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!

A note from Zabin Morbain regarding "quantum trans-locators" - "While the Halamis trans-locator is a prototype version and the first trans-locator ever developed in the known universe, future versions are likely to allow you trans-locate yourself back to your ship. I know for a fact that the Scientists at Halamis Lab's are already hard at work developing a two-way trans-locator. This amazing device will let you return to the original location where the trans-locator was last initialized. Certainly early adopters will pay an exorbitant price for this new device, so save up your faction tokens. Your exploration of the Halamis Research Facility is facilitating incredible discoveries in the areas of energy harmonics, quantum field theory and of course helping to keep the universe a safer place."

ADDED: Halamis faction merchant. You can find the merchant near Zabin Morbain in the Halamis Facility Staging area.
FIXED: A rare bug that was causing one enemy type to spawn incorrectly in the facility.
FIXED: Duplicate enemy groups in one of the facility locations
FIXED: Ammo is once again spawning as loot on the Dauntless.
ADDED: Add a ui component that displays your current faction token totals. Open any of the information UI's and rollover the available credits area of the screen. Halamis is the only faction with missions that reward faction tokens at this time.
UPDATED: Enemies with rocket launchers will now swap weapons if a combatant is too close instead of blowing themselves and their target up.
FIXED: Enemies with missile launchers that swap weapons will now correctly calculate damage from their newly equipped weapon.

ADJUSTED: Increased the value of equipment, both on vendors and as loot. Items that have already been looted have a lower value than items you will loot going forward. The cost of buying equipment from vendors is slightly higher than it was before.
ADJUSTED: The cost of standard ammo has been reduced.
ADJUSTED: The cost of heavy weapon ammo has been reduced significantly

ADDED: 3 new locations for the mission generator. If you find a place where you get stuck, or an enemy gets stuck, please do post a bug report. I'll also need your log file as described in the pinned topic in the bug forums to get it fixed.
ADDED: Added a label to indicate that team members can be selected by pressing F1-F4

UPDATED: A number of adjustments to enemy AI that make them more intelligent.

• 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.

UPDATED: Cleanup of enemy healing code
UPDATED: Various tweaks to animations and combat animation speed
UPDATED: If a grenade or medkit are activated, ending a team members turn automatically disables the active state.
UPDATED: Updated default space art for planetary bodies, suns and nebulae. This improves the default space visuals for the game. If you have a GPU with 2GB V-Ram you can, as always, check the HiRes Space option in the video options panel for ultra high resolution skyboxes and object materials.
UPDATED: Smoke and gas grenades clouds are much more visible in the environment.
UPDATED: A few small adjustments that may resolve ranged enemies occasionally firing through walls/corners.
UPDATED: Turn order indicator now removes enemies and KO'd team members immediately
UPDATED: When in single movement mode, you can now move multiple team members simultaneously while out of combat. Grouped movement functions the same as it always has.
UPDATED: When in single movement mode, the camera no longer centers on team members when you click them. While in combat and grouped movement, the camera functions as it always has.
UPDATED: When receiving faction tokens, a message is now displayed that tells you "You gain "faction name" Faction Tokens: +XX for a total of XX tokens. Will help keep track of how many tokens you have until the UI for this has been added.
UPDATE: Updated combat pain animations for smoother animation blending
UPDATED: Shield and armor wear disabled until crafting and repair go in
UPDATED: Vendors carry more ammo.
UPDATED: Balanced ammo drops between various ammo types - Dauntless ammo drops still restricted.
UPDATED: Increased loot drops in general.
UPDATED: Increased grenade drop rate.
UPDATED: Forcing the door to Phestus open for now until I can resolve a mission error where the open state is not being saved.
UPDATED: Rollover info delay removed in vendor ui
UPDATED: Med-Kits are no longer a persistent toggle. You will need to click the icon every time you want to use a med kit. If you click the icon and do not use the med-kit, you will need to click it again to disable the med-kit. Using a med kit automatically resets the state.
UPDATED: Combat movement path breadcrumb is now updated every frame, no delay.
UPDATED: Further adjustments to first aid and hacking experience gain.
UPDATED: The ABANDON mission button will now completely clear missions. If you ever find more than one mission from Zabin in the active mission list, just abandon all missions and speak with Zabin again. This will clear any progression issues. It's unlikely with the fix above that you will be able to get more than one mission in the future.
UPDATED: Removed auto-recovery for team members that have fallen through the world. Recovery can be accomplished manually by holding the F1-F4 key (depending on the team member you want to recover) for six seconds and releasing it
UPDATED: Spawn points have all been checked and adjusted as needed in the "Facility" map set.

FIXED: If auto-save was enabled and you immediately went into combat when transitioning between locations, save games were no longer possible after combat ended. The only solution was to end the game task. Thanks for reporting this chookahead!
FIXED: The camera is now correctly reset when loading games that were saved while in single movement mode.
FIXED: In the Aznari Ruins, Dr. Rhamus will no longer speak with you until Dr. Jensen gives you a mission.
FIXED: Fixed a few problems on the bridge when fighting Dr. Rhamus. The Dr. is less likely to gain first attack and do nothing when a specific set of circumstances takes place.
FIXED: Fixed a long standing bug that was setting non-hostile NPC's weapons invisible.
FIXED: If the last enemy combatant dies of a DOT (Bleeding or Poisoned), the default tool bars are restored correctly when combat ends
FIXED: A possible fix for phage pyros - reduced particles in fireball effect
FIXED: More adjustments to movement and enemy distance - melee are less likely to get right up in your face
FIXED: Camera once again centers on the currently selected team member in combat and out
FIXED: Blocked movement in one of the facility locations
FIXED: When entering combat, enemies no longer fade out and then fade back in. LOS for enemy visibility remains the same.
FIXED: Fixed a number of areas where it was possible to get stuck in the newly added facility locations.
FIXED: A possible fix to prevent rare lockups on some AMD CPU's
FIXED: CTH cursor was incorrectly displaying bonuses to hit on various body parts - including the head.
FIXED: HP when creating team members and when in game are exactly the same now.
FIXED: HP should no longer vary when equipping/un-equipping armor and weapons unless those items have stat modifiers
FIXED: Energy weapon projectiles are less likely to stay visible after impact
FIXED: Scaver Carnor now correctly named
FIXED: When looting grenades and med-kits that are currently selected, the number of items is updated in the UI
FIXED: Depleted asteroids now re-spawn correctly after 1 hour of game time and no longer take only one mining beam pulse to be destroyed.
FIXED: Enemies can only have a maximum of 1 stun grenade each
FIXED: Fixed an error with ammo mods that was keeping some modded weapons from gaining addition ammo
FIXED: Phage psionics no longer do double damage and/or damage and crit with fireballs.
FIXED: Ranged enemies no longer inflict double damage
FIXED: A very rare edge case where landing could generate incorrect landing location data
FIXED: Zabin no longer appears on the trade station after he gives you a mission to meet him on Achmedius VIII - unless he has a twin brother, which he doesn't - so I don't know how he could be at two places at once. Unless he has advanced teleportation technology - which he doesn't...yet...
FIXED: A very rare edge case that was causing the exits to the procedural mission areas to disapear. If you are in a mission that is bugged, you can now exit.
FIXED: An error in an updated beam rifle model that was causing enemies to mis-fire.
FIXED: More navigation mesh fixes.
FIXED: Ammo is once again rewarded for mission completions
FIXED: Enemies will no longer fire multiple rockets in one attack (annoying!)
FIXED: A rare edge case where when walking to an enemy with a melee weapon from distance for an attack, could cause attacking character to lock up the game. If blocked, the team member will stop out of range as close as possible to the enemy and return control to the player.
FIXED: If you are self stunned, your turn will be ended automatically now
FIXED: You can now scroll the stash list with the mouse wheel
FIXED: Fixed enemy miss message to use the enemies name correctly
FIXED: Mission completion when turning in missions to Zabin should now function without error. For now you will get no ammo when turning in missions until I have more time to look into this.
FIXED: Shots should register as either a hit or a miss now 100% of the time. No more phantom shots.
FIXED: Grenade targeting was not functioning correctly - now fixed
FIXED: The AP movement indicators is now working again.
FIXED: Random crash related to mission rewards and ammo.
FIXED: A few more navigation mesh errors fixed
FIXED: Fixed a problem with Zabin where you could take a mission, click again and then click a third time and the mission would reset, granting rewards.
FIXED: If you have your cargo bay selected, you can now get rollover info on the vendor side of the UI.
FIXED: A couple of navigation mesh errors in the facility level set.
FIXED: You can no longer waste AP reloading a weapon that is already at max ammo capacity.
FIXED: Icons for perks above tier 1 were not being displayed
FIXED: Double clicking a med-kit in your inventory to add it to your stash no longer destroys the med-kit
FIXED: Broken combat queue.
FIXED: Clear enemy missions now correctly update the map to indicate that the final area is cleared.
FIXED: A message is no longer sent to the screen every time a clear enemy mission npc is defeated.
FIXED: Rifle pain animation
FIXED: Requirements for first aid progression relaxed
FIXED: Requirements for hacking progression relaxed
FIXED: It was possible to have more than one mission from Zabin if your inventory was full and mission rewards were rejected. Zabin will no longer allow you to speak with him if your inventory is full and cannot accept rewards.
FIXED: If no missions were present in the active mission display, junk data would be displayed.
FIXED: While you were away, your Mercs came back to get their missing hair on the Achmedius Trade Station.
FIXED: Combat skills for some weapons were not contributing to the total number of skill points required to level up.
FIXED: Non combat skills (FirstAid and Hacking) when leveled up were not contributing to the total number of skills required for global leveling. A team member needs to have a full orange experience bar and a total of 5 skills leveled (displayed by the small purple bar at the bottom of the orange "Next level" bar) up before they have enough points to level up.
FIXED: Skipping the Dauntless then exiting to the main menu and starting a new game that does not skip the Dauntless no longer results in starting in the Ruins.
FIXED: All areas of the trade station are now exposed by default. Hidden areas were creating confusion when trying to find the mercs.
FIXED: An edge case where team member portraits were not be displayed correctly in the ship stations UI.
FIXED: If stash was open when closing the inventory window, the next time a vendor was acctivated, rollover info was incorrect.
FIXED: Fixed an issue where doors in Halamis Ore could be locked even if you have completed missions and opened the doors.
FIXED: Heavy weapons now gain experience
FIXED: In some instances, specifically when in hand 2 hand combat mode, that characters idle animation was not being restored. This also caused a problem where the combat cursor would no longer be displayed when you roll over an enemy target.
FIXED: Lots of navigation mesh fixes in numerous areas for the "Facility" map set.
FIXED: When Steam overlay was active, input was being registered. The game should no longer register input when the Steam overlay is activated
FIXED: Activating the Steam overlay while loading a game should no longer crash the game. This was only happening on some systems.
FIXED: Rollover info in vendor inventory was showing incorrect information.
FIXED: "V" key was not toggling crouch/stand in combat.
FIXED: When mining in space a large halo is no longer displayed over the ship
FIXED: Mining now works even if a team member is not positioned in the weapons ship station. Mining only gains bonuses and grants experience from/to the team member in the weapons slot.
FIXED: A trade exploit was fixed on the Trade Station. For anyone who has not been to the trade station a vendor has been reset.
FIXED: If initially in space, the new portraits were bugged if you entered the character info or inventory screens. New portraits are now initialized regardless of where you are when you start the game with the new patch.
FIXED: Weapon wear is once again disabled - at least until crafting and repair are in the game.
FIXED: The endurance description was incorrectly noting that Endurance contributes to AC. I moved AC bonuses to the perk lines some time ago. The description is corrected.
FIXED: Displayed number skill values in character information gui were being obscured by the progress bars.
FIXED: The mini-gun carried by one of the merc's you can recruit was bugged. You may need to discard it. On the trade station, in the merchant area, there is a vendor standing in the corner. He sells level 1 weapons. You can usually get a new mini-gun if you load and save a few times checking his inventory. Anyone who recruits this merc in the future should no longer have this problem. Let me know if there are still problems after replacing the minigun.

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

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.

The merchant sells:

• 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!

A note from Zabin Morbain regarding "quantum trans-locators" - "While the Halamis trans-locator is a prototype version and the first trans-locator ever developed in the known universe, future versions are likely to allow you trans-locate yourself back to your ship. I know for a fact that the Scientists at Halamis Lab's are already hard at work developing a two-way trans-locator. This amazing device will let you return to the original location where the trans-locator was last initialized. Certainly early adopters will pay an exorbitant price for this new device, so save up your faction tokens. Your exploration of the Halamis Research Facility is facilitating incredible discoveries in the areas of energy harmonics, quantum field theory and of course helping to keep the universe a safer place."

ADDED: Halamis faction merchant. You can find the merchant near Zabin Morbain in the Halamis Facility Staging area.
FIXED: A rare bug that was causing one enemy type to spawn incorrectly in the facility.
FIXED: Duplicate enemy groups in one of the facility locations
FIXED: Ammo is once again spawning as loot on the Dauntless.
ADDED: Add a ui component that displays your current faction token totals. Open any of the information UI's and rollover the available credits area of the screen. Halamis is the only faction with missions that reward faction tokens at this time.
UPDATED: Enemies with rocket launchers will now swap weapons if a combatant is too close instead of blowing themselves and their target up.
FIXED: Enemies with missile launchers that swap weapons will now correctly calculate damage from their newly equipped weapon.

ADJUSTED: Increased the value of equipment, both on vendors and as loot. Items that have already been looted have a lower value than items you will loot going forward. The cost of buying equipment from vendors is slightly higher than it was before.
ADJUSTED: The cost of standard ammo has been reduced.
ADJUSTED: The cost of heavy weapon ammo has been reduced significantly

ADDED: 3 new locations for the mission generator. If you find a place where you get stuck, or an enemy gets stuck, please do post a bug report. I'll also need your log file as described in the pinned topic in the bug forums to get it fixed.
ADDED: Added a label to indicate that team members can be selected by pressing F1-F4

UPDATED: A number of adjustments to enemy AI that make them more intelligent.

• 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.

UPDATED: Cleanup of enemy healing code
UPDATED: Various tweaks to animations and combat animation speed
UPDATED: If a grenade or medkit are activated, ending a team members turn automatically disables the active state.
UPDATED: Updated default space art for planetary bodies, suns and nebulae. This improves the default space visuals for the game. If you have a GPU with 2GB V-Ram you can, as always, check the HiRes Space option in the video options panel for ultra high resolution skyboxes and object materials.
UPDATED: Smoke and gas grenades clouds are much more visible in the environment.
UPDATED: A few small adjustments that may resolve ranged enemies occasionally firing through walls/corners.
UPDATED: Turn order indicator now removes enemies and KO'd team members immediately
UPDATED: When in single movement mode, you can now move multiple team members simultaneously while out of combat. Grouped movement functions the same as it always has.
UPDATED: When in single movement mode, the camera no longer centers on team members when you click them. While in combat and grouped movement, the camera functions as it always has.
UPDATED: When receiving faction tokens, a message is now displayed that tells you "You gain "faction name" Faction Tokens: +XX for a total of XX tokens. Will help keep track of how many tokens you have until the UI for this has been added.
UPDATE: Updated combat pain animations for smoother animation blending
UPDATED: Shield and armor wear disabled until crafting and repair go in
UPDATED: Vendors carry more ammo.
UPDATED: Balanced ammo drops between various ammo types - Dauntless ammo drops still restricted.
UPDATED: Increased loot drops in general.
UPDATED: Increased grenade drop rate.
UPDATED: Forcing the door to Phestus open for now until I can resolve a mission error where the open state is not being saved.
UPDATED: Rollover info delay removed in vendor ui
UPDATED: Med-Kits are no longer a persistent toggle. You will need to click the icon every time you want to use a med kit. If you click the icon and do not use the med-kit, you will need to click it again to disable the med-kit. Using a med kit automatically resets the state.
UPDATED: Combat movement path breadcrumb is now updated every frame, no delay.
UPDATED: Further adjustments to first aid and hacking experience gain.
UPDATED: The ABANDON mission button will now completely clear missions. If you ever find more than one mission from Zabin in the active mission list, just abandon all missions and speak with Zabin again. This will clear any progression issues. It's unlikely with the fix above that you will be able to get more than one mission in the future.
UPDATED: Removed auto-recovery for team members that have fallen through the world. Recovery can be accomplished manually by holding the F1-F4 key (depending on the team member you want to recover) for six seconds and releasing it
UPDATED: Spawn points have all been checked and adjusted as needed in the "Facility" map set.

FIXED: If auto-save was enabled and you immediately went into combat when transitioning between locations, save games were no longer possible after combat ended. The only solution was to end the game task. Thanks for reporting this chookahead!
FIXED: The camera is now correctly reset when loading games that were saved while in single movement mode.
FIXED: In the Aznari Ruins, Dr. Rhamus will no longer speak with you until Dr. Jensen gives you a mission.
FIXED: Fixed a few problems on the bridge when fighting Dr. Rhamus. The Dr. is less likely to gain first attack and do nothing when a specific set of circumstances takes place.
FIXED: Fixed a long standing bug that was setting non-hostile NPC's weapons invisible.
FIXED: If the last enemy combatant dies of a DOT (Bleeding or Poisoned), the default tool bars are restored correctly when combat ends
FIXED: A possible fix for phage pyros - reduced particles in fireball effect
FIXED: More adjustments to movement and enemy distance - melee are less likely to get right up in your face
FIXED: Camera once again centers on the currently selected team member in combat and out
FIXED: Blocked movement in one of the facility locations
FIXED: When entering combat, enemies no longer fade out and then fade back in. LOS for enemy visibility remains the same.
FIXED: Fixed a number of areas where it was possible to get stuck in the newly added facility locations.
FIXED: A possible fix to prevent rare lockups on some AMD CPU's
FIXED: CTH cursor was incorrectly displaying bonuses to hit on various body parts - including the head.
FIXED: HP when creating team members and when in game are exactly the same now.
FIXED: HP should no longer vary when equipping/un-equipping armor and weapons unless those items have stat modifiers
FIXED: Energy weapon projectiles are less likely to stay visible after impact
FIXED: Scaver Carnor now correctly named
FIXED: When looting grenades and med-kits that are currently selected, the number of items is updated in the UI
FIXED: Depleted asteroids now re-spawn correctly after 1 hour of game time and no longer take only one mining beam pulse to be destroyed.
FIXED: Enemies can only have a maximum of 1 stun grenade each
FIXED: Fixed an error with ammo mods that was keeping some modded weapons from gaining addition ammo
FIXED: Phage psionics no longer do double damage and/or damage and crit with fireballs.
FIXED: Ranged enemies no longer inflict double damage
FIXED: A very rare edge case where landing could generate incorrect landing location data
FIXED: Zabin no longer appears on the trade station after he gives you a mission to meet him on Achmedius VIII - unless he has a twin brother, which he doesn't - so I don't know how he could be at two places at once. Unless he has advanced teleportation technology - which he doesn't...yet...
FIXED: A very rare edge case that was causing the exits to the procedural mission areas to disapear. If you are in a mission that is bugged, you can now exit.
FIXED: An error in an updated beam rifle model that was causing enemies to mis-fire.
FIXED: More navigation mesh fixes.
FIXED: Ammo is once again rewarded for mission completions
FIXED: Enemies will no longer fire multiple rockets in one attack (annoying!)
FIXED: A rare edge case where when walking to an enemy with a melee weapon from distance for an attack, could cause attacking character to lock up the game. If blocked, the team member will stop out of range as close as possible to the enemy and return control to the player.
FIXED: If you are self stunned, your turn will be ended automatically now
FIXED: You can now scroll the stash list with the mouse wheel
FIXED: Fixed enemy miss message to use the enemies name correctly
FIXED: Mission completion when turning in missions to Zabin should now function without error. For now you will get no ammo when turning in missions until I have more time to look into this.
FIXED: Shots should register as either a hit or a miss now 100% of the time. No more phantom shots.
FIXED: Grenade targeting was not functioning correctly - now fixed
FIXED: The AP movement indicators is now working again.
FIXED: Random crash related to mission rewards and ammo.
FIXED: A few more navigation mesh errors fixed
FIXED: Fixed a problem with Zabin where you could take a mission, click again and then click a third time and the mission would reset, granting rewards.
FIXED: If you have your cargo bay selected, you can now get rollover info on the vendor side of the UI.
FIXED: A couple of navigation mesh errors in the facility level set.
FIXED: You can no longer waste AP reloading a weapon that is already at max ammo capacity.
FIXED: Icons for perks above tier 1 were not being displayed
FIXED: Double clicking a med-kit in your inventory to add it to your stash no longer destroys the med-kit
FIXED: Broken combat queue.
FIXED: Clear enemy missions now correctly update the map to indicate that the final area is cleared.
FIXED: A message is no longer sent to the screen every time a clear enemy mission npc is defeated.
FIXED: Rifle pain animation
FIXED: Requirements for first aid progression relaxed
FIXED: Requirements for hacking progression relaxed
FIXED: It was possible to have more than one mission from Zabin if your inventory was full and mission rewards were rejected. Zabin will no longer allow you to speak with him if your inventory is full and cannot accept rewards.
FIXED: If no missions were present in the active mission display, junk data would be displayed.
FIXED: While you were away, your Mercs came back to get their missing hair on the Achmedius Trade Station.
FIXED: Combat skills for some weapons were not contributing to the total number of skill points required to level up.
FIXED: Non combat skills (FirstAid and Hacking) when leveled up were not contributing to the total number of skills required for global leveling. A team member needs to have a full orange experience bar and a total of 5 skills leveled (displayed by the small purple bar at the bottom of the orange "Next level" bar) up before they have enough points to level up.
FIXED: Skipping the Dauntless then exiting to the main menu and starting a new game that does not skip the Dauntless no longer results in starting in the Ruins.
FIXED: All areas of the trade station are now exposed by default. Hidden areas were creating confusion when trying to find the mercs.
FIXED: An edge case where team member portraits were not be displayed correctly in the ship stations UI.
FIXED: If stash was open when closing the inventory window, the next time a vendor was acctivated, rollover info was incorrect.
FIXED: Fixed an issue where doors in Halamis Ore could be locked even if you have completed missions and opened the doors.
FIXED: Heavy weapons now gain experience
FIXED: In some instances, specifically when in hand 2 hand combat mode, that characters idle animation was not being restored. This also caused a problem where the combat cursor would no longer be displayed when you roll over an enemy target.
FIXED: Lots of navigation mesh fixes in numerous areas for the "Facility" map set.
FIXED: When Steam overlay was active, input was being registered. The game should no longer register input when the Steam overlay is activated
FIXED: Activating the Steam overlay while loading a game should no longer crash the game. This was only happening on some systems.
FIXED: Rollover info in vendor inventory was showing incorrect information.
FIXED: "V" key was not toggling crouch/stand in combat.
FIXED: When mining in space a large halo is no longer displayed over the ship
FIXED: Mining now works even if a team member is not positioned in the weapons ship station. Mining only gains bonuses and grants experience from/to the team member in the weapons slot.
FIXED: A trade exploit was fixed on the Trade Station. For anyone who has not been to the trade station a vendor has been reset.
FIXED: If initially in space, the new portraits were bugged if you entered the character info or inventory screens. New portraits are now initialized regardless of where you are when you start the game with the new patch.
FIXED: Weapon wear is once again disabled - at least until crafting and repair are in the game.
FIXED: The endurance description was incorrectly noting that Endurance contributes to AC. I moved AC bonuses to the perk lines some time ago. The description is corrected.
FIXED: Displayed number skill values in character information gui were being obscured by the progress bars.
FIXED: The mini-gun carried by one of the merc's you can recruit was bugged. You may need to discard it. On the trade station, in the merchant area, there is a vendor standing in the corner. He sells level 1 weapons. You can usually get a new mini-gun if you load and save a few times checking his inventory. Anyone who recruits this merc in the future should no longer have this problem. Let me know if there are still problems after replacing the minigun.

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:

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"
   
5. Open the "Log" folder and send the "S3DClient.log" file to support@stellartactics.com

With that, here is what you will find in 0.051!

Procedural missions have been added to the game. The abandoned Halamis Research Station has re-appeared on the surface of Achmedius VIII. You will find a new NPC near the entrance of the Trade Station in Achmedius who will recruit you. A few things about the procedural mission system.

• The level cap is set to 60 - this applies to global team member levels and skills
  
• There are three mission categories right now; eliminate boss, clear facility and gather. More are coming (destroy, activate and rescue).
  
• Missions are offered in short, medium and long variants - long missions take quite a while. The longer the mission, the better the rewards and tokens. You can reject a mission and another will be generated.
  
• You can abandon a procedural mission. Story missions cannot be abandoned. You must leave the facility to abandon missions. A button is displayed in the mission log area with red text that says "ABANDON" and is only displayed if you are not located in the mission area. Clicking the button will remove the mission from your active missions list. No rewards will be granted for the abandoned mission. You can only take one mission at a time from the Halamis agent, so, this frees you up to take further missions if you are having difficulty completing your currently assigned task.
  
• Tokens are granted for missions - more tokens for longer missions. Faction tokens can be spent at faction merchants for unique armor, devices and other goods. Faction merchants are not in the game yet. They will be going in very soon, so save those tokens! Besides a new armor set, there is at least one device that will be going on this vendor that every one of you is going to want - believe me!
  
• Every time you enter the facility the layout is randomly generated. That is, locations are assembled to create a unique facility layout. Enemy placement, enemy types, loot and the placement of objectives changes every time a mission is generated.
  
• Other than the basic background story of the facility, there is no story content in this update. This is the first pass at procedural mission content that will be persisted throughout the universe. Other "mission sets" and enemies will be developed in the future for variants on the system. Story content is different and non-procedural. I do plan to add flavor logs and other interesting mission variants in the future.
  
• The slice mines have been moved to another planet.

New portraits replaced the old portrait system. There are a total of 20 to choose from. If you load an existing game, I assign a portrait to your team members automatically (other than Rhamus and Jensen - NPC portraits are not changed).

• Auto-assignment of portraits may display duplicates.
  
• To change portraits, enter the character information screen ("C"), select the portrait from the portrait GUI in the upper left of the screen. Once the character you want to change is selected, left click the larger single portrait on the character information screen. A new window will pop up that lets you assign a new portrait, voice and name.
  
• You can change any team members portrait, name and voice at any time.

When starting a new game, you can now choose to skip the Dauntless. After the universe data is generated, you will create a single character, starting the game without a full team. You will be able to add new team members on the Trade station, where you will find several mercenaries willing to join you in your travels.
The mission information UI on the log screen now allows sorting by active and completed missions. Active missions are displayed by default.

NPC's can now join your team. There are several on the Achmedius Trade Station.

• The doctors will leave your team the next time you enter the trade station. If you are already on the trade station, walk near the entry and they will leave your team. This leaves you room to add three new and permanent team members by recruiting them on the station.
  
• Save before your recruit your merc's in case you want to make changes. The Mercenary manger is not yet in the game. It will go in at a later time allow you to add and remove merc's from your active party.
  
• Mercenaries have assigned combat skills. They will tell you which skills they are proficient with.
  
• Mercenaries set their level to your existing team’s average level.
  
• Even though the mercenaries skills may not exactly match what you are looking for, you can still progress that team member and customize them by equipping the appropriate weapon types of your choosing.
  
• Once a new NPC joins your team, you will be able to change their appearance, voice and name.
  
• The NPC's physical model appearance will change to match the selected portrait the next time you change locations or save and reload the game. I'll be doing some work in the future so the models match the portraits better!
  
• The new team member will have a number of stat points to assign depending on what level you are when you ask the mercenary to join your team.

The rollover info GUI now displays enemy difficult with a total of three icons next to the enemy name. If no icons are displayed the enemy is of normal difficulty. Enemy groups may have leaders, captains and in some cases bosses commanding them.

A stash has been added to the game. The stash is available anywhere while out of combat (for now). You can sort the stash by any inventory item type. Double clicking items in your inventory automatically moves them to the stash. You can also drag any inventory item to the stash graphic if it is open or to the stash crate.

Grenades have been moved to their own hot-bar slot.

• Right click the icon to select the current grenade
  
• Left click to activate/deactivate the grenade
  
• Activation is required in order to throw a grenade
  
• You must de-activate (click the icon again) or throw the grenade before continuing with combat actions.
  
• AP is displayed on the icon and is dependent on whether or not you are crippled
  
• Grenades are pulled from your shared inventory (backpack), not from your stash

Med-Kits have been moved to their own hot-bar slot.

• Right click the icon to select the current med-kit
  
• Left click to activate/deactivate the med-kit
  
• Activation is required in order to use the med-kit
  
• You must de-activate (click the icon again) or use the med-kit before continuing with other combat actions
  
• AP is displayed on the icon and is dependent on whether or not you are crippled
  
• -Med-kits are pulled from your shared inventory (backpack), not from your stash

While in a procedural mission area, a dynamic map is displayed. It gives "GENERAL" cues as to where you will find exits leading to other areas and where the main exit from mission location is located. As you explore the environment, the map fills in and eventually will indicate when the entire area is explored. I'll be implementing scanning devices in the future that provide additional information on the map depending on the quality of the device and your skill in electronics, intelligence and perception. The map also notifies you when areas of the mission are cleared by setting that room's background color to green. There are two cases where an area is considered clear:

• If you are in a kill mission where the entire base needs to be cleared, the map background for each area will be marked green if that area is cleared of enemies.
  
• If you are gathering data, samples and otherwise, an area is considered clear when all items for that area have been gathered.

The game now has a turn order indicator on the left side of the screen. Turn order is displayed with a series of portraits running from the bottom to top, where the top in the list is the currently active combatant. Combatants higher in the turn order indicator are likely to gain their turn sooner, though in some circumstances a re-roll of initiative can move combatants up or down in priority. Enemies are highlighted in red and team members in green. Rolling over any of the portraits displays the combatants name. The turn order shows a maximum of 8 combatants, thought there may be more in an encounter.

When working for a faction, mission rewards will include tokens. Tokens can be used to buy faction equipment. This includes faction armor and devices. For now, the tokens you are rewarded will accumulate until the faction equipment vendor is added. In the future, these faction merchants will be located in trade stations across the universe.

A global tuning pass that increases the pace of combat by adjusting a number of factors including enemy and player character hit points. Combat encounters in general take less time to resolve. This should increase the overall pace of game play. I see it as in improvement and I'm looking forward to everyone's feedback. Obviously more work to do on this as well as tuning skills and progression.

Things that did not make it in that will soon:
--Objective arrows
--Halamis faction vendor

GENERAL BUG FIXES
FIXED: Planets labels staying visible when loading to an exploration location from space.
FIXED: Personal Shield effects are less likely to occlude character model geometry
FIXED: Text entry fields work as intended now
FIXED: In rare cases, team member turns were skipped at the end of an enemies turn, if a team member was the next combatant in queue
FIXED: %hit chance displayed on cursor will never be above 100%
FIXED: A rare crash when fighting phage that would lock the game
FIXED: Mod's were not displaying correct icons when equipped. In some cases this may cause equipped mods in save games to not work correctly. The only solution is to discard the weapon. Not to worry, the Halamis Research labs have countless new (and better) weapons to loot.
FIXED: Further fixes for enemies healing from long distances
FIXED: Looting objects through walls
FIXED: If self stunned during a round by grenades, can no longer use remaining AP to move
FIXED: A rare killing blow combat lockup bug.
ADDED: "G" key toggles group/single movement while out of combat
ADDED: "V" key toggles crouching/standing for the currently selected team member
ADDED: Two bonus AP are granted to players and enemies at levels 40 and 80 (the level cap at this time is level 60)
ADDED: Bosses and enemies may be completely resistant to certain types of damage. If they resist damage, a message is displayed
UPDATED: Updated the help menu to reflect the new keys
UPDATED: Combat responsiveness improved.
UPDATED: All general vendors now carry a basic hacking tool.
UPDATED: Sound-FX updates for various menus
UPDATED: Added additional team member voice comments
UPDATED: When leaving the Dauntless, you retain your party members equipped items which are moved to your stash.
UPDATED: Vendor trash items re-worked to be a bit more Sci-Fi - these items will be useful once crafting goes live, though can be sold to vendors for cash.

KNOWN ISSUES:
--A possible very rare crash with Phage - I believe this is fixed, however, it may rear it's ugly head again!
--When looting or purchasing grenades and med-kits, the icons on the hud do not update quantity.
--Some nav-mesh errors - this are almost impossible to find by myself and they will likely show up with heavy gameplay. If you do get stuck, please send me the S3DClient.log file - it's the only way I can debug the issue.
--Heavy debug data is being pushed to the client log. I'll reduce debug data in a few weeks.

COMING SOON:
A few things that you can buy from the Halamis faction vendor with those tokens you are earning.
--Halamis Quantum Translocator - Tired of trudging back through the facility? Buy a Quantum Translocator from your friendly Halamis merchant! The Halamis Quantum Translocator is attuned to the staging area of the abandoned Halamis Research Facility.
--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!
Another pass at the combat AI to make enemy's more efficient.
Perks to level 60 for hacking and first aid.
More variants of the facility map set.
Bug fixes - of course.

THE NEXT MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE:
The next major update will be a first pass at space combat. This will include the ability to purchase ships and equip them with various weapons and equipment items.

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:

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"
   
5. Open the "Log" folder and send the "S3DClient.log" file to support@stellartactics.com

With that, here is what you will find in 0.051!

Procedural missions have been added to the game. The abandoned Halamis Research Station has re-appeared on the surface of Achmedius VIII. You will find a new NPC near the entrance of the Trade Station in Achmedius who will recruit you. A few things about the procedural mission system.

• The level cap is set to 60 - this applies to global team member levels and skills
  
• There are three mission categories right now; eliminate boss, clear facility and gather. More are coming (destroy, activate and rescue).
  
• Missions are offered in short, medium and long variants - long missions take quite a while. The longer the mission, the better the rewards and tokens. You can reject a mission and another will be generated.
  
• You can abandon a procedural mission. Story missions cannot be abandoned. You must leave the facility to abandon missions. A button is displayed in the mission log area with red text that says "ABANDON" and is only displayed if you are not located in the mission area. Clicking the button will remove the mission from your active missions list. No rewards will be granted for the abandoned mission. You can only take one mission at a time from the Halamis agent, so, this frees you up to take further missions if you are having difficulty completing your currently assigned task.
  
• Tokens are granted for missions - more tokens for longer missions. Faction tokens can be spent at faction merchants for unique armor, devices and other goods. Faction merchants are not in the game yet. They will be going in very soon, so save those tokens! Besides a new armor set, there is at least one device that will be going on this vendor that every one of you is going to want - believe me!
  
• Every time you enter the facility the layout is randomly generated. That is, locations are assembled to create a unique facility layout. Enemy placement, enemy types, loot and the placement of objectives changes every time a mission is generated.
  
• Other than the basic background story of the facility, there is no story content in this update. This is the first pass at procedural mission content that will be persisted throughout the universe. Other "mission sets" and enemies will be developed in the future for variants on the system. Story content is different and non-procedural. I do plan to add flavor logs and other interesting mission variants in the future.
  
• The slice mines have been moved to another planet.

New portraits replaced the old portrait system. There are a total of 20 to choose from. If you load an existing game, I assign a portrait to your team members automatically (other than Rhamus and Jensen - NPC portraits are not changed).

• Auto-assignment of portraits may display duplicates.
  
• To change portraits, enter the character information screen ("C"), select the portrait from the portrait GUI in the upper left of the screen. Once the character you want to change is selected, left click the larger single portrait on the character information screen. A new window will pop up that lets you assign a new portrait, voice and name.
  
• You can change any team members portrait, name and voice at any time.

When starting a new game, you can now choose to skip the Dauntless. After the universe data is generated, you will create a single character, starting the game without a full team. You will be able to add new team members on the Trade station, where you will find several mercenaries willing to join you in your travels.
The mission information UI on the log screen now allows sorting by active and completed missions. Active missions are displayed by default.

NPC's can now join your team. There are several on the Achmedius Trade Station.

• The doctors will leave your team the next time you enter the trade station. If you are already on the trade station, walk near the entry and they will leave your team. This leaves you room to add three new and permanent team members by recruiting them on the station.
  
• Save before your recruit your merc's in case you want to make changes. The Mercenary manger is not yet in the game. It will go in at a later time allow you to add and remove merc's from your active party.
  
• Mercenaries have assigned combat skills. They will tell you which skills they are proficient with.
  
• Mercenaries set their level to your existing team’s average level.
  
• Even though the mercenaries skills may not exactly match what you are looking for, you can still progress that team member and customize them by equipping the appropriate weapon types of your choosing.
  
• Once a new NPC joins your team, you will be able to change their appearance, voice and name.
  
• The NPC's physical model appearance will change to match the selected portrait the next time you change locations or save and reload the game. I'll be doing some work in the future so the models match the portraits better!
  
• The new team member will have a number of stat points to assign depending on what level you are when you ask the mercenary to join your team.

The rollover info GUI now displays enemy difficult with a total of three icons next to the enemy name. If no icons are displayed the enemy is of normal difficulty. Enemy groups may have leaders, captains and in some cases bosses commanding them.

A stash has been added to the game. The stash is available anywhere while out of combat (for now). You can sort the stash by any inventory item type. Double clicking items in your inventory automatically moves them to the stash. You can also drag any inventory item to the stash graphic if it is open or to the stash crate.

Grenades have been moved to their own hot-bar slot.

• Right click the icon to select the current grenade
  
• Left click to activate/deactivate the grenade
  
• Activation is required in order to throw a grenade
  
• You must de-activate (click the icon again) or throw the grenade before continuing with combat actions.
  
• AP is displayed on the icon and is dependent on whether or not you are crippled
  
• Grenades are pulled from your shared inventory (backpack), not from your stash

Med-Kits have been moved to their own hot-bar slot.

• Right click the icon to select the current med-kit
  
• Left click to activate/deactivate the med-kit
  
• Activation is required in order to use the med-kit
  
• You must de-activate (click the icon again) or use the med-kit before continuing with other combat actions
  
• AP is displayed on the icon and is dependent on whether or not you are crippled
  
• -Med-kits are pulled from your shared inventory (backpack), not from your stash

While in a procedural mission area, a dynamic map is displayed. It gives "GENERAL" cues as to where you will find exits leading to other areas and where the main exit from mission location is located. As you explore the environment, the map fills in and eventually will indicate when the entire area is explored. I'll be implementing scanning devices in the future that provide additional information on the map depending on the quality of the device and your skill in electronics, intelligence and perception. The map also notifies you when areas of the mission are cleared by setting that room's background color to green. There are two cases where an area is considered clear:

• If you are in a kill mission where the entire base needs to be cleared, the map background for each area will be marked green if that area is cleared of enemies.
  
• If you are gathering data, samples and otherwise, an area is considered clear when all items for that area have been gathered.

The game now has a turn order indicator on the left side of the screen. Turn order is displayed with a series of portraits running from the bottom to top, where the top in the list is the currently active combatant. Combatants higher in the turn order indicator are likely to gain their turn sooner, though in some circumstances a re-roll of initiative can move combatants up or down in priority. Enemies are highlighted in red and team members in green. Rolling over any of the portraits displays the combatants name. The turn order shows a maximum of 8 combatants, thought there may be more in an encounter.

When working for a faction, mission rewards will include tokens. Tokens can be used to buy faction equipment. This includes faction armor and devices. For now, the tokens you are rewarded will accumulate until the faction equipment vendor is added. In the future, these faction merchants will be located in trade stations across the universe.

A global tuning pass that increases the pace of combat by adjusting a number of factors including enemy and player character hit points. Combat encounters in general take less time to resolve. This should increase the overall pace of game play. I see it as in improvement and I'm looking forward to everyone's feedback. Obviously more work to do on this as well as tuning skills and progression.

Things that did not make it in that will soon:
--Objective arrows
--Halamis faction vendor

GENERAL BUG FIXES
FIXED: Planets labels staying visible when loading to an exploration location from space.
FIXED: Personal Shield effects are less likely to occlude character model geometry
FIXED: Text entry fields work as intended now
FIXED: In rare cases, team member turns were skipped at the end of an enemies turn, if a team member was the next combatant in queue
FIXED: %hit chance displayed on cursor will never be above 100%
FIXED: A rare crash when fighting phage that would lock the game
FIXED: Mod's were not displaying correct icons when equipped. In some cases this may cause equipped mods in save games to not work correctly. The only solution is to discard the weapon. Not to worry, the Halamis Research labs have countless new (and better) weapons to loot.
FIXED: Further fixes for enemies healing from long distances
FIXED: Looting objects through walls
FIXED: If self stunned during a round by grenades, can no longer use remaining AP to move
FIXED: A rare killing blow combat lockup bug.
ADDED: "G" key toggles group/single movement while out of combat
ADDED: "V" key toggles crouching/standing for the currently selected team member
ADDED: Two bonus AP are granted to players and enemies at levels 40 and 80 (the level cap at this time is level 60)
ADDED: Bosses and enemies may be completely resistant to certain types of damage. If they resist damage, a message is displayed
UPDATED: Updated the help menu to reflect the new keys
UPDATED: Combat responsiveness improved.
UPDATED: All general vendors now carry a basic hacking tool.
UPDATED: Sound-FX updates for various menus
UPDATED: Added additional team member voice comments
UPDATED: When leaving the Dauntless, you retain your party members equipped items which are moved to your stash.
UPDATED: Vendor trash items re-worked to be a bit more Sci-Fi - these items will be useful once crafting goes live, though can be sold to vendors for cash.

KNOWN ISSUES:
--A possible very rare crash with Phage - I believe this is fixed, however, it may rear it's ugly head again!
--When looting or purchasing grenades and med-kits, the icons on the hud do not update quantity.
--Some nav-mesh errors - this are almost impossible to find by myself and they will likely show up with heavy gameplay. If you do get stuck, please send me the S3DClient.log file - it's the only way I can debug the issue.
--Heavy debug data is being pushed to the client log. I'll reduce debug data in a few weeks.

COMING SOON:
A few things that you can buy from the Halamis faction vendor with those tokens you are earning.
--Halamis Quantum Translocator - Tired of trudging back through the facility? Buy a Quantum Translocator from your friendly Halamis merchant! The Halamis Quantum Translocator is attuned to the staging area of the abandoned Halamis Research Facility.
--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!
Another pass at the combat AI to make enemy's more efficient.
Perks to level 60 for hacking and first aid.
More variants of the facility map set.
Bug fixes - of course.

THE NEXT MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE:
The next major update will be a first pass at space combat. This will include the ability to purchase ships and equip them with various weapons and equipment items.

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...

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...