Another update - this time the game movement system has been completely revised. The old system was written a long time ago and I've never been happy with it. I've been tinkering with this new system for a while now and decided to release it.

https://youtu.be/alpPmdKMa_g

The old system had quite a few problems:
--The team did not move as a squad and this caused problems when entering combat. Specifically you had to burn a lot of AP to get into position
--Squad facing was not available. You had to use additional AP to rotate them into position after arriving at your destination.
--In single movement mode you could not select another team member and move them while the last character was moving to a position.
--Single movement did not allow you to set a destination facing.

The new system:
--You can now move as a squad and arrive at your destination in formation.
--Team members no longer lag behind
--You can set the direction your squad will face when they reach their destination by dragging the mouse while the right mouse button is held down.
--In combat you can now set a facing when moving team members. When they arrive at their destination, they will rotate to face the selected direction set by the movement cursor.
--Team members can move independently when out of combat in single movement mode. You can select a destination for a team member and then select another team member and move them simultaneously.
--Single/Group mode can be toggled using the [SPACE BAR] when out of combat. In combat, the [SPACE BAR] ends the selected team members turn as it always has.
--Movement speed has been improved
--You can zoom out a bit further now

I think overall, this is a much better system and gives you flexibility, alleviating wasted AP when entering combat. I have future plans for additional quality of life improvements like box selection and formations.

A few additional bug fixes:
FIXED: A long standing bug where some armor would not display on your team members. Remove the armor and re-equip it to display the correct armor graphic.
FIXED: Phestus could end up in a state where he would not load his inventory when trading with him.
FIXED: Animation transitions into combat and from idle to attack.

I hope you will give the new system a try and post feedback on the forums. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Another update - this time the game movement system has been completely revised. The old system was written a long time ago and I've never been happy with it. I've been tinkering with this new system for a while now and decided to release it.

https://youtu.be/alpPmdKMa_g

The old system had quite a few problems:
--The team did not move as a squad and this caused problems when entering combat. Specifically you had to burn a lot of AP to get into position
--Squad facing was not available. You had to use additional AP to rotate them into position after arriving at your destination.
--In single movement mode you could not select another team member and move them while the last character was moving to a position.
--Single movement did not allow you to set a destination facing.

The new system:
--You can now move as a squad and arrive at your destination in formation.
--Team members no longer lag behind
--You can set the direction your squad will face when they reach their destination by dragging the mouse while the right mouse button is held down.
--In combat you can now set a facing when moving team members. When they arrive at their destination, they will rotate to face the selected direction set by the movement cursor.
--Team members can move independently when out of combat in single movement mode. You can select a destination for a team member and then select another team member and move them simultaneously.
--Single/Group mode can be toggled using the [SPACE BAR] when out of combat. In combat, the [SPACE BAR] ends the selected team members turn as it always has.
--Movement speed has been improved
--You can zoom out a bit further now

I think overall, this is a much better system and gives you flexibility, alleviating wasted AP when entering combat. I have future plans for additional quality of life improvements like box selection and formations.

A few additional bug fixes:
FIXED: A long standing bug where some armor would not display on your team members. Remove the armor and re-equip it to display the correct armor graphic.
FIXED: Phestus could end up in a state where he would not load his inventory when trading with him.
FIXED: Animation transitions into combat and from idle to attack.

I hope you will give the new system a try and post feedback on the forums. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

A new content patch today with skill perks for First Aid and Hacking to level 60. Included are a few fixes for the game, updates to damage mitigation closely tied to the perk lines and proofread text for the logs. Hope you enjoy the patch.

As always, if you find any issues, please post them on the bug forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

ADDED - Perks to level 60 for the First Aid skill line. You can select various perks at any time that give you bonuses to heal. All perks provide a chance to remove effects from yourself and team members. You have a chance to remove bleeding, poison, hobbled, crippled and stun.

ADDED - Perks to level 60 for the Hacking skill line. You can select various perks at any time that give bonuses to the amount of time you get to decode digits, bonuses to the number of looted items and loot quality of the hacked chest or locker, and bonuses for critical bypass of hacking.

ADDED - Added a new ship reset feature in space. If your ship is stuck for some reason, you can now press and hold the F1 key for six seconds to reset your ship to the nearest FTL point. I'll remove this when the FTL points open up in the future. This is a fairly rare occurrence, however, I thought I should add a way to recover if it happens.

UPDATED - Mitigation for status effects for all weapon perk lines adjusted to resist based on cumulative perk selections. In general:
--First, damage is mitigated by your shields for specific damage types as long as your shields are charged and the attack type does not bypass shields. Damage is reduced.
--Second, armor mitigates the remaining damage including additional AC from perks as long as the attack type does not bypass your armor. Damage is reduced.
--Finally weapon perks that provide effect resists stack and provide a chance to bypass secondary effects like stun, hobble, cripple, toxins and bleeding. These resists do not modify damage, so the damage after shields and armor are calculated and still applied. Grenade damage cannot be resisted at this time. The newly added First Aid skill perks allow you to remove secondary effects.

UPDATED: Shaved a few seconds off loading times.
UPDATED: When rolling over portraits in the turn-order bar during combat, the info bar is now displayed at the top center of the screen. This will give you access to combatant status and detrimental effects without needing to rollover combatants.
UPDATED: All log entries proofread.
FIXED - Fixed a typo in tips related to single/crouched which should have been single/grouped.
FIXED - Fixed signs on crew deck which should have been "Cryo" not "Crio"
FIXED - Gas grenades now reset the DOT timer if combatants are in the area of effect. If you have been cured of toxins, or the DOT effect timer runs out and a combatant is still in the area of effect, your timer will be reset and you will continue to take damage.
FIXED - Grenade explosion material blending.
FIXED - Duplicate combatant selection cursors.
FIXED - Saved shadow settings are now set correctly when loading a game.
REMOVED - Removed screen lock for dual monitors. It was causing problems in cases where multiple monitors were running different resolutions. I'll look into a permanent solution in the future. For now, there are third party applications (some free) that you can download that solve the problem.

A new content patch today with skill perks for First Aid and Hacking to level 60. Included are a few fixes for the game, updates to damage mitigation closely tied to the perk lines and proofread text for the logs. Hope you enjoy the patch.

As always, if you find any issues, please post them on the bug forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/7/

ADDED - Perks to level 60 for the First Aid skill line. You can select various perks at any time that give you bonuses to heal. All perks provide a chance to remove effects from yourself and team members. You have a chance to remove bleeding, poison, hobbled, crippled and stun.

ADDED - Perks to level 60 for the Hacking skill line. You can select various perks at any time that give bonuses to the amount of time you get to decode digits, bonuses to the number of looted items and loot quality of the hacked chest or locker, and bonuses for critical bypass of hacking.

ADDED - Added a new ship reset feature in space. If your ship is stuck for some reason, you can now press and hold the F1 key for six seconds to reset your ship to the nearest FTL point. I'll remove this when the FTL points open up in the future. This is a fairly rare occurrence, however, I thought I should add a way to recover if it happens.

UPDATED - Mitigation for status effects for all weapon perk lines adjusted to resist based on cumulative perk selections. In general:
--First, damage is mitigated by your shields for specific damage types as long as your shields are charged and the attack type does not bypass shields. Damage is reduced.
--Second, armor mitigates the remaining damage including additional AC from perks as long as the attack type does not bypass your armor. Damage is reduced.
--Finally weapon perks that provide effect resists stack and provide a chance to bypass secondary effects like stun, hobble, cripple, toxins and bleeding. These resists do not modify damage, so the damage after shields and armor are calculated and still applied. Grenade damage cannot be resisted at this time. The newly added First Aid skill perks allow you to remove secondary effects.

UPDATED: Shaved a few seconds off loading times.
UPDATED: When rolling over portraits in the turn-order bar during combat, the info bar is now displayed at the top center of the screen. This will give you access to combatant status and detrimental effects without needing to rollover combatants.
UPDATED: All log entries proofread.
FIXED - Fixed a typo in tips related to single/crouched which should have been single/grouped.
FIXED - Fixed signs on crew deck which should have been "Cryo" not "Crio"
FIXED - Gas grenades now reset the DOT timer if combatants are in the area of effect. If you have been cured of toxins, or the DOT effect timer runs out and a combatant is still in the area of effect, your timer will be reset and you will continue to take damage.
FIXED - Grenade explosion material blending.
FIXED - Duplicate combatant selection cursors.
FIXED - Saved shadow settings are now set correctly when loading a game.
REMOVED - Removed screen lock for dual monitors. It was causing problems in cases where multiple monitors were running different resolutions. I'll look into a permanent solution in the future. For now, there are third party applications (some free) that you can download that solve the problem.

I'm happy to release the Dauntless Remastered update. The Dauntless has been revised significantly. The story remains the same.

• The entire start of the game uses new level art.
  
• The Captains Quarters has been merged into the Crew Deck.
  
• The distance you need to travel for various missions has been reduced.
  
• The last boss fight is a bit easier.
  
• Mission objects in the game environment have been scaled up in size so they are easily seen and interacted with.
  
• The Dauntless is brighter overall. If it's still too dark for you, however, there is a new Gamma slider in the options menu that will allow you set the games brightness to your liking.
  
• All dialog, mission text and log's have been professionally proofread for errors.
  
• Several of the longer conversations now have shorter dialog options available.
  
• Better direction has been provided in the log for several of the missions.
  
• Many screens have been increased in size so their font's are more visible making reading easier on the eyes. I'll be addressing the space UI's when I work on space combat.

Overall the Dauntless is now in line with the rest of the game. These changes were all inspired by feedback from the community. I felt it was important to make the experience of the first hour or so as fun, intuitive and trouble free as possible.

IMPORTANT: If you have a save on the old Dauntless, that save game is no longer valid. If you are currently playing on the Dauntless, you must start a new game. Game's saved on the old Dauntless will now appear on the load screen as "SAVE INVALID - OLD DAUNTLESS!" and you will not be able to load the save game. You can delete these saves. Saves after the Dauntless are unaffected.

I'm hoping you will all give the new Dauntless a try and post feedback on the forums. I'm eager to hear what you think. Lots of content, bug fixes and community suggested enhancements have been added since the game released on Early Access.

Here are the notes:
When starting a new game you now have three options to choose from.



Tutorials have all been re-written and proofread. There is now a separate tutorial window with text and video that can be accessed from the help screen [H]. The tutorial window will pop up at various locations as you progress through the Dauntless. Tutorial pop-ups can be disabled in the Options->General menu.



General updates and bug fixes:
ADDED - Added a gamma slider to the video options menu. You can now set the level of brightness to your personal preference
ADDED - Added a movement icon to the team portraits on the explore UI
UPDATED - Dialog, mission text, perks, tutorial text and hints-tips have all been professionally proofread
UPDATED - You can now start the game with SMG's if you apply points in SMG as the starting skill for any team member
UPDATED - Increased the amount of default ammo that you start with on the Dauntless
UPDATED - Final battle on Dauntless made a little less difficult
UPDATED - Increased size of dialog UI so text is easier to read
UPDATED - Rollover info moved to a fixed position in the upper right corner so it does not obscure icons.
UPDATED - Rollover info scaled up so text is easier to read
UPDATED - Character info UI scaled up so text is easier to read. This includes all tabs for Inventory, Character Info, Log and Ship
UPDATED - Combat cursor body-part and chance to hit indicators have been made larger/more visible
UPDATED - All character materials adjusted to be brighter
UPDATED - Small objects like door locks and mission items have been made larger. They can be made brighter when you hold the CTRL key and by turning off subtle object highlights in the video options menu.
FIXED - Grenade projector issues resolved on several of the facility locations
FIXED - Rare lockup during fight with Dr. Rhamus on bridge
FIXED - Missile launcher explosion light fade
FIXED - Enemies with rocket launchers now correctly swap weapons if at close range
FIXED - Enemies with rocket launchers no longer try to fire a missile after swapping weapons to their sidearm
FIXED - Lockup related to enemies with rocket launchers swapping to SMG side-arms
FIXED - Major re-write of the combat initialization code
FIXED - Green keycard bug - should be gone - let me know if you see it again

As always, if bugs are found I'll address them quickly. A huge thanks to all of you for your feedback and support!!

I'm happy to release the Dauntless Remastered update. The Dauntless has been revised significantly. The story remains the same.

• The entire start of the game uses new level art.
  
• The Captains Quarters has been merged into the Crew Deck.
  
• The distance you need to travel for various missions has been reduced.
  
• The last boss fight is a bit easier.
  
• Mission objects in the game environment have been scaled up in size so they are easily seen and interacted with.
  
• The Dauntless is brighter overall. If it's still too dark for you, however, there is a new Gamma slider in the options menu that will allow you set the games brightness to your liking.
  
• All dialog, mission text and log's have been professionally proofread for errors.
  
• Several of the longer conversations now have shorter dialog options available.
  
• Better direction has been provided in the log for several of the missions.
  
• Many screens have been increased in size so their font's are more visible making reading easier on the eyes. I'll be addressing the space UI's when I work on space combat.

Overall the Dauntless is now in line with the rest of the game. These changes were all inspired by feedback from the community. I felt it was important to make the experience of the first hour or so as fun, intuitive and trouble free as possible.

IMPORTANT: If you have a save on the old Dauntless, that save game is no longer valid. If you are currently playing on the Dauntless, you must start a new game. Game's saved on the old Dauntless will now appear on the load screen as "SAVE INVALID - OLD DAUNTLESS!" and you will not be able to load the save game. You can delete these saves. Saves after the Dauntless are unaffected.

I'm hoping you will all give the new Dauntless a try and post feedback on the forums. I'm eager to hear what you think. Lots of content, bug fixes and community suggested enhancements have been added since the game released on Early Access.

Here are the notes:
When starting a new game you now have three options to choose from.



Tutorials have all been re-written and proofread. There is now a separate tutorial window with text and video that can be accessed from the help screen [H]. The tutorial window will pop up at various locations as you progress through the Dauntless. Tutorial pop-ups can be disabled in the Options->General menu.



General updates and bug fixes:
ADDED - Added a gamma slider to the video options menu. You can now set the level of brightness to your personal preference
ADDED - Added a movement icon to the team portraits on the explore UI
UPDATED - Dialog, mission text, perks, tutorial text and hints-tips have all been professionally proofread
UPDATED - You can now start the game with SMG's if you apply points in SMG as the starting skill for any team member
UPDATED - Increased the amount of default ammo that you start with on the Dauntless
UPDATED - Final battle on Dauntless made a little less difficult
UPDATED - Increased size of dialog UI so text is easier to read
UPDATED - Rollover info moved to a fixed position in the upper right corner so it does not obscure icons.
UPDATED - Rollover info scaled up so text is easier to read
UPDATED - Character info UI scaled up so text is easier to read. This includes all tabs for Inventory, Character Info, Log and Ship
UPDATED - Combat cursor body-part and chance to hit indicators have been made larger/more visible
UPDATED - All character materials adjusted to be brighter
UPDATED - Small objects like door locks and mission items have been made larger. They can be made brighter when you hold the CTRL key and by turning off subtle object highlights in the video options menu.
FIXED - Grenade projector issues resolved on several of the facility locations
FIXED - Rare lockup during fight with Dr. Rhamus on bridge
FIXED - Missile launcher explosion light fade
FIXED - Enemies with rocket launchers now correctly swap weapons if at close range
FIXED - Enemies with rocket launchers no longer try to fire a missile after swapping weapons to their sidearm
FIXED - Lockup related to enemies with rocket launchers swapping to SMG side-arms
FIXED - Major re-write of the combat initialization code
FIXED - Green keycard bug - should be gone - let me know if you see it again

As always, if bugs are found I'll address them quickly. A huge thanks to all of you for your feedback and support!!

Hi all! I thought I would post an update to show some of the progress I'm making on the updated Dauntless experience. Lot's of community feedback is being implemented and things are moving along quickly.

https://youtu.be/U7xTn1td_Gg

That's all I have for now.

Hi all! I thought I would post an update to show some of the progress I'm making on the updated Dauntless experience. Lot's of community feedback is being implemented and things are moving along quickly.

https://youtu.be/U7xTn1td_Gg

That's all I have for now.

This patch focuses on adding a grenade AOE indicator, updated line of sight visibility and a number of important fixes. Here are the notes:

FIXED: Credit values of 1,000,000 and above did not display correctly in the vendor and inventory UI.
FIXED: Inventory paper-dolls display the correct gender in the inventory UI.
FIXED: When gaining a level in healing or hacking, the correct team members name is added to the skill-up message
FIXED: Mission log data is displayed correctly in the completed mission list when items are selected.
FIXED: An error that was not correctly calculating critical chance bonuses from mods was fixed.
ADDED: Added a grenade AOE indicator. Originally this was going to be granted as either a device or a perk. I felt it should just be a default behavior since using grenades can be confusing. To do this, I removed grenade physics since there was no predictable way to provide an AOE indicator if the grenade bounced.
UPDATED: Updated the way NPC's check line of sight for attacks. They should be less likely to fire from the very edge of doorways.
UPDATED: A few updates and changes to the LOS visibility system:

• Line of sight now includes an auditory radius where enemies near team members (within 10 units) will be visible.
  
• Enemies now enter combat regardless of whether it was an enemy or a team member who initiated combat on first sight. This places enemies in the combat turn-order list immediately and starts processing their visibility at the start of combat instead of after the first shot is fired.
  
• Enemy visibility is updated more often.
  
• Enemies not in line of sight of any team members that attack from range no longer become visible for the duration of the round. You can of course use the CTRL key to see them and you will be able to tell what direction they are firing from by the angle of the projectile.

This patch focuses on adding a grenade AOE indicator, updated line of sight visibility and a number of important fixes. Here are the notes:

FIXED: Credit values of 1,000,000 and above did not display correctly in the vendor and inventory UI.
FIXED: Inventory paper-dolls display the correct gender in the inventory UI.
FIXED: When gaining a level in healing or hacking, the correct team members name is added to the skill-up message
FIXED: Mission log data is displayed correctly in the completed mission list when items are selected.
FIXED: An error that was not correctly calculating critical chance bonuses from mods was fixed.
ADDED: Added a grenade AOE indicator. Originally this was going to be granted as either a device or a perk. I felt it should just be a default behavior since using grenades can be confusing. To do this, I removed grenade physics since there was no predictable way to provide an AOE indicator if the grenade bounced.
UPDATED: Updated the way NPC's check line of sight for attacks. They should be less likely to fire from the very edge of doorways.
UPDATED: A few updates and changes to the LOS visibility system:

• Line of sight now includes an auditory radius where enemies near team members (within 10 units) will be visible.
  
• Enemies now enter combat regardless of whether it was an enemy or a team member who initiated combat on first sight. This places enemies in the combat turn-order list immediately and starts processing their visibility at the start of combat instead of after the first shot is fired.
  
• Enemy visibility is updated more often.
  
• Enemies not in line of sight of any team members that attack from range no longer become visible for the duration of the round. You can of course use the CTRL key to see them and you will be able to tell what direction they are firing from by the angle of the projectile.