Hi all - It's time for another progress update. I've included a video that shows some of the work I've been doing. Details below.

https://youtu.be/_RI0zEmb9Y0

The last few months have been pretty crazy around here. Since the last major patch, I've been focused on opening the FTL gates and there is still a lot of work to do. Most of this time has been spent wrapping up all the procedural mission sets needed to make sure the universe is populated with locations to explore. This has been thousands of hours of work over the last year between me and a talented modeler/ level designer I work with. I'm happy to say that work is now done - I'm finished with the level sets for the next content patch.

Another large block of work that is finished is generating the interiors for the various stations found in the universe. That means the interiors are in the game, loading based on where you are in the universe, vendors are placed and faction mission contacts are available. You can now dock at trade stations across the universe in the development build - if you have the proper level of faction needed. In a future patch you will be able to hack station security remotely and board the stations of hostile factions. Doing that will place a station on alert and you will need to fight your way through the station to disable various systems like external station turrets and interior defense systems. Should be interesting.

All the space stations that were completed some time ago have been added to the universe. Later I'll be adding external turret systems to the stations for faction warfare.

The incursion system is now working in all systems that have stations or a faction presence. I'll expand on this in the future with faction warfare and more.

I've also added volumetric effects to all systems as well as LUT Color Grading. They add a lot to the visual appearance and diversity of star systems.

For the last week I've been focused on performance on the Star Map. The game processes tens of thousands of independent AI vessels. The Star Map uses LOD algorithms to display ships and systems that are nearby and places them into a secondary processing queue when they are out of range. Every ship has a task or set of tasks and when they are out of visual range, they switch to a secondary process that uses universe time to determine arrival, task completion and assign new tasks. It's a fairly complex system and seems to be running well. I'm going to give myself another week with this to make sure everything is performing and running as expected.

And finally, the revised animations are finished, including special attacks for all weapon types. You might notice that "stealth" will be going in the game. I'll add these animations into the game when I get through a longer list of tasks I'm working on right now.

So, what's next?

Performance on the Star Map, tying the mission generator into the rest of the universe, finishing the crew manager, adding commodities and refining the trade system and a good number of other things that need to be done like data buoy's, the mission tracker and more. These should move along pretty fast. It does take time though, so I hope you will all be patient. It's going to be a huge update when it's finished and I need to make sure everything is in and working well.

I'd like to thank all of you for supporting the game and hope you all have a great weekend!

Hi everyone - here is the latest patch with a number of improvements and fixes. Hope you all enjoy the update.

Added a new top down radar system for ground exploration. The radar system is designed to be expanded on and tied to your electronics skill. As you gain more skill in electronics, perks will be available for exposing other object types on the map like loot, mission objects and at a very high skill, enemy positions (assuming they are not using stealth). I'll be adding perks for this skill soon.

For now, the radar displays default information - vendors, NPC's and enemies if in line of site.

--Exits are shown as door icons on the radar. You can click door icons to move the camera to that location. This is handy for moving your team to the exit.
--In mission areas that display the progression map, rolling over exit icons on the radar will highlight the room the exit leads to on the mission map.
--NPC's are displayed as orange dots
--Vendors are displayed as green dots
--Enemies are displayed as red dots - enemies are only displayed if they are in line of sight during combat. When perks for electronics go in the game, you will be able to select a perk that reveals all enemies in a certain radius regardless of LOS based on your skill in electronics.
--Team members are displayed as white dots.
--The radar is centered on the currently selected team member.
--There are two FOV indicators on the radar. The large FOV indicator displays the direction your camera is facing. The smaller indicator displays the direction your selected team member is facing.
--I'll be expanding on the system in the future.

Weapon mods - You can swap/upgrade mods now anytime/anywhere. The currently equipped mod gets moved to your inventory. Mods are never destroyed even when overwriting an existing mod in a weapon slot. You can only have a single mod of any one type equipped in any weapon

--Drag mods from your shared inventory to any mod slot. The dragged mod will be equipped in a free mod slot or replace any similar mod. If the mod is replaced, the old mod will be moved to your inventory.
--Shift-click any equipped mod to un-equip the mod to your inventory, clearing the mod slot.

IMPORTANT: If you have weapons that have more than one of any type of mod (e.g. Two scope mods) it will be important for you to un-equip the extra mod from your weapon. Mods were never meant to be stacked on any one weapon.

ADDED - Added a target indicator for currently selected targets in space.
ADDED - When you near planets, moons and stations, a new gravity well indicator is displayed that shows the general radius of the gravity well. This should make it easier to navigate around gravity wells when traveling in star systems.
ADDED - A new set of tutorial videos are now displayed when you first enter space. If you have already recieved your starter ship, you can review the video tutorials from the help menu by selecting the tutorial button.

UPDATED - Gravity wells no longer bring your ship to a full stop.
UPDATED - Updated the character creation screen so the instruction text and steps needed to create your character are clear.
UPDATED - When changing resolution a message is displayed confirming that the resolution change took place.
UPDATED - You can now enter hacking codes with the numeric keypad.
UPDATED: Ship capacitor recharge when out of combat is now faster.

FIXED - Default heavy weapons merc's mini-gun now reloads correctly
FIXED - A bug that allows players to equip more than one mod type per weapon
FIXED - Unarmed team members could not throw grenades
FIXED - Adjusted grenade damage for all grenade types
FIXED - A bug where throwing a grenade could reset a SMG (and other weapon types) to single fire mode even if that weapon only had burst and full auto enabled.
FIXED - Fine aiming was not working as intended. You now correctly receive up to a 7% bonus
FIXED - A number of typo's in the log entries and tutorials and item descriptions
FIXED - A bug that would require you to press the Enter key when generating your characters name during character creation
FIXED - On certain systems with very fast CPU/GPU when launching to space you could rarely enter a state that would require you to restart the game
FIXED - A bug that could break the ragdoll physics causing characters that were KO'd to stand up "broken" after the very first combat scenario on the bridge of the Dauntless
FIXED - An area in the Vats that could not be clicked for movement
FIXED - A few rollover objects that had incorrect border highlights
FIXED - Cargo and stash now allow mouse wheel scrolling without clicking first
FIXED - Fixed a few errors with the rollover info at the top of the screen when rolling over characters
FIXED - Occasionally, it was possible to click at a location in combat and use more AP than the preview indicated

Note that I've been working on a second pass on some of the minor UI's - they are not final and are work in progress.

Whats next? I'll be finalizing the crew manager. I hope to have that patch out in a few weeks.

As always, if you find any issues/bugs, please report them in the "Submit bugs" sub-forum. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hi everyone - here is the latest patch with a number of improvements and fixes. Hope you all enjoy the update.

Added a new top down radar system for ground exploration. The radar system is designed to be expanded on and tied to your electronics skill. As you gain more skill in electronics, perks will be available for exposing other object types on the map like loot, mission objects and at a very high skill, enemy positions (assuming they are not using stealth). I'll be adding perks for this skill soon.

For now, the radar displays default information - vendors, NPC's and enemies if in line of site.

--Exits are shown as door icons on the radar. You can click door icons to move the camera to that location. This is handy for moving your team to the exit.
--In mission areas that display the progression map, rolling over exit icons on the radar will highlight the room the exit leads to on the mission map.
--NPC's are displayed as orange dots
--Vendors are displayed as green dots
--Enemies are displayed as red dots - enemies are only displayed if they are in line of sight during combat. When perks for electronics go in the game, you will be able to select a perk that reveals all enemies in a certain radius regardless of LOS based on your skill in electronics.
--Team members are displayed as white dots.
--The radar is centered on the currently selected team member.
--There are two FOV indicators on the radar. The large FOV indicator displays the direction your camera is facing. The smaller indicator displays the direction your selected team member is facing.
--I'll be expanding on the system in the future.

Weapon mods - You can swap/upgrade mods now anytime/anywhere. The currently equipped mod gets moved to your inventory. Mods are never destroyed even when overwriting an existing mod in a weapon slot. You can only have a single mod of any one type equipped in any weapon

--Drag mods from your shared inventory to any mod slot. The dragged mod will be equipped in a free mod slot or replace any similar mod. If the mod is replaced, the old mod will be moved to your inventory.
--Shift-click any equipped mod to un-equip the mod to your inventory, clearing the mod slot.

IMPORTANT: If you have weapons that have more than one of any type of mod (e.g. Two scope mods) it will be important for you to un-equip the extra mod from your weapon. Mods were never meant to be stacked on any one weapon.

ADDED - Added a target indicator for currently selected targets in space.
ADDED - When you near planets, moons and stations, a new gravity well indicator is displayed that shows the general radius of the gravity well. This should make it easier to navigate around gravity wells when traveling in star systems.
ADDED - A new set of tutorial videos are now displayed when you first enter space. If you have already recieved your starter ship, you can review the video tutorials from the help menu by selecting the tutorial button.

UPDATED - Gravity wells no longer bring your ship to a full stop.
UPDATED - Updated the character creation screen so the instruction text and steps needed to create your character are clear.
UPDATED - When changing resolution a message is displayed confirming that the resolution change took place.
UPDATED - You can now enter hacking codes with the numeric keypad.
UPDATED: Ship capacitor recharge when out of combat is now faster.

FIXED - Default heavy weapons merc's mini-gun now reloads correctly
FIXED - A bug that allows players to equip more than one mod type per weapon
FIXED - Unarmed team members could not throw grenades
FIXED - Adjusted grenade damage for all grenade types
FIXED - A bug where throwing a grenade could reset a SMG (and other weapon types) to single fire mode even if that weapon only had burst and full auto enabled.
FIXED - Fine aiming was not working as intended. You now correctly receive up to a 7% bonus
FIXED - A number of typo's in the log entries and tutorials and item descriptions
FIXED - A bug that would require you to press the Enter key when generating your characters name during character creation
FIXED - On certain systems with very fast CPU/GPU when launching to space you could rarely enter a state that would require you to restart the game
FIXED - A bug that could break the ragdoll physics causing characters that were KO'd to stand up "broken" after the very first combat scenario on the bridge of the Dauntless
FIXED - An area in the Vats that could not be clicked for movement
FIXED - A few rollover objects that had incorrect border highlights
FIXED - Cargo and stash now allow mouse wheel scrolling without clicking first
FIXED - Fixed a few errors with the rollover info at the top of the screen when rolling over characters
FIXED - Occasionally, it was possible to click at a location in combat and use more AP than the preview indicated

Note that I've been working on a second pass on some of the minor UI's - they are not final and are work in progress.

Whats next? I'll be finalizing the crew manager. I hope to have that patch out in a few weeks.

As always, if you find any issues/bugs, please report them in the "Submit bugs" sub-forum. Hope you all have a great weekend!

https://youtu.be/Aq15t9IuH1g

Hi everyone. I thought I would post an update that covers what I've been up to for the last month since the ground combat patch. Check out the video above for details.

-New top down radar system for ground exploration. The radar system is designed to be expanded on and tied to your electronics skill. As you gain more skill in electronics, perks will be available for exposing other object types on the map like loot, mission objects and at a very high skill, enemy positions (assuming they are not using stealth).
-Completed modeling and lighting for all procedural ground based locations for the universe
-Work in progress for object placement in the procedural mission locations
-Crushed a number of bugs
-All character animations are now being adjusted and polished

I'll be working my way through the items on the "What's next" list posted on the forums. Next up, is the crew management system.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1318836262672874191/

Have a great weekend and thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

https://youtu.be/Aq15t9IuH1g

Hi everyone. I thought I would post an update that covers what I've been up to for the last month since the ground combat patch. Check out the video above for details.

-New top down radar system for ground exploration. The radar system is designed to be expanded on and tied to your electronics skill. As you gain more skill in electronics, perks will be available for exposing other object types on the map like loot, mission objects and at a very high skill, enemy positions (assuming they are not using stealth).
-Completed modeling and lighting for all procedural ground based locations for the universe
-Work in progress for object placement in the procedural mission locations
-Crushed a number of bugs
-All character animations are now being adjusted and polished

I'll be working my way through the items on the "What's next" list posted on the forums. Next up, is the crew management system.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1318836262672874191/

Have a great weekend and thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Hi all - Lots of changes in this patch - see the video for highlights and details below:

https://youtu.be/cmxnT7162K4

ADDED: End turn options. When ending your turn you will have several new options to choose from. This options menu is only displayed if you have 2 or more AP left over when ending your turn. If queuing attacks, your turn will end as usual if no AP is left over. You can cancel out of the end turn menu by pressing the escape key.

• WAIT - Wait requires a full bar of AP and allows you to skip your turn, adjusting your position in the turn order. This is handy for cases where your team member may be blocked. When selecting this option, your position in the turn order is adjusted after the last team member in the turn order.
  
• DEFEND - Defend requires 2 AP and has a small chance of avoiding a single attack while waiting for your next turn or mitigating a portion of the next attacks damage. The cost of 2AP is a choice balanced against reloading your weapon or setting your team members in a defensive posture while in combat. Defend is applied after armor, shields and any other damage mitigation. You can see which team members and enemy combatants are defending by rolling over them with your mouse. The status bar at the top of the screen will show a defend icon in cases where combatants are in defend mode.
  
• END TURN - Ends your turn with no AP cost or further action. Any remaining AP up to 2 points will be rolled over into your next turn as it has been in the past.

ADDED: Attacks of opportunity:

• Only combatants with a melee weapon equipped and selected can execute an attack of opportunity.
  
• If a combatant is in range of a melee opponent and they move, the enemy will get a free attack.
  
• Combatants get a single chance during any round of having an attack of opportunity applied.
  
• Combatants get a single attack of opportunity per round of combat.
  
• If the enemy misses you, you will continue to your selected destination.
  
• If the enemy does damage, your move will be interrupted. You can choose to heal, attack or move as usual after the attack.
  
• Combatants can only be attacked once in any round. That includes instances where the closest enemy combatant has already dealt an attack of opportunity.
  
• Status effects have a chance to apply any status effects as normal.
  
• Stunned combatants cannot make attacks of opportunity. However, they do remove the moving combatants chance to receive an attack of opportunity for that round.

Combat navigation and blocking has been overhauled. The goal was to improve the way blocking works so it is fair for both the player and the AI. Characters now have descreet blocking areas that work much better than they did previously. You should notice that AI can no longer move through characters when retreating or if blocked in areas by your team members. Enemies also do a much better job of keeping their distance from other characters with this update. You also now have the option to "Wait" in cases where your team members are blocked so you can make adjustments to positioning. I'll be continuing to improve on this system over time.

GENERAL FIXES IN THIS PATCH:
FIXED: Adding and removing armor with stats (+STR - +END) now correctly update the display of HP in the character info and inventory screens.
FIXED: Bleed resist display in character info screen
FIXED: A number of rounding errors for weapon damage in rollover info, character information and inventory areas.
FIXED: Projectile impacts and damage display are now timed based on range to target
FIXED: Grenade throw animations from crouched position.
FIXED: When swapping weapons, border highlights now updated correctly.
FIXED: When mercs were recruited, they were given 4 less intial stat points than they were supposed to recieve. You are now credited 4 stat points the next time you attack in combat.
FIXED: An error in the trade in value for ships based on charisma.
FIXED: An error in the display of values displayed in trade menus when items had a value of 100,000 credits or more.

UPDATED: You can no longer select team members other than the selected active combatant with the F1-F4 keys and by clicking them while in combat. This was confusing players because they were unable to end their turns if they inadvertantly selected another team member.

UPDATED: Missile launcher damage toned down a bit.

UPDATED: Adjusted mini-gun damage up a bit.

UPDATED: Damage modifiers to burst and full auto - you should see a significant damage boost to both of these fire modes bringing them somewhat in line with the use of ammo and AP expenditure. Burst and full-auto do have a damage penalty to reflect accuracy when firing with these modes. You will deal and receive more peak damage now and will need to mitigate this with healing, especially at higher levels. Time to start using those med-kits. This will be balanced a bit more with the introduction of First-Aid related powers/devices. "Medic!"

UPDATED: Heavy weapon damage increased - should give you a reason to use heavy weapons a little more often now. You are going to want to focus fire on heavy weapon enemies and get them out of the way as a priority. A critical with a heavy weapon is devastating!

UPDATED: Reduced the amount of ammo used for full-auto attacks for rifles, smg's and pistols from 12 to 8. Damage for this fire mode was just too high with the changes above and ammo use was excessive.

UPDATED: Removed level based attack bonuses which were skewing damage. Note that rollover info for weapons is just an estimate based on your currently equipped base weapon damage, equipped mods and a bunch of other factors. Breaking out a calculator is not likely to result in exact damage values. There is a lot of voodoo going on in the background of damage calculations including ranged falloff calculations, stat modifiers and more.

UPDATED: Floating fonts for combat and comments.

UPDATED: Melee received a boost in damage. With the addition of attacks of opportunity, melee team members also gain an additional boost to damage in cases where combatants try to leave the area of influence (see above).


FIXED: 1 hand blunt weapons will apply Venom and other perk effects
FIXED: Nano's now equip to melee weapons
FIXED: Haft mods now equip to melee weapons

UPDATED: Load times for all ground based area transitions are now greatly reduced.
UPDATED: Exiting the game and transitioning to the main menu are now much faster.
UPDATED: Minor stability fix.

FIXED: Ammo looted from space loot crates is now correctly displayed in cases where multiple crates are looted.
FIXED: Ammo looted from ship cargo crates now adds to your total inventory correctly
FIXED: A bug with skill gain from incursions
FIXED: Experience from space combat no longer increments the secondary skill counter
FIXED: Rounding errors in weapon rollover UI related to weapon damage
FIXED: Rounding errors in information UI's related to weapon damage
FIXED: Frequency modulator mods for melee weapons can only be equipped to melee weapons
FIXED: Stuns once again work as intended both for ranged and melee weapons
FIXED: A material blending error with overhead grids in the facility
UPDATED: Bonus damage from damage mods is now applied to all attack types - single, burst and full-auto and applied after damage calculations
UPDATED: Increased the cash rewards for facility missions to bring earnings in line with space combat

FIXED: When queuing attacks, the attack cursor stays visible
FIXED: In some rare cases, a quicksave could be requested at the exact moment combat was being started. Loading that quicksave could lock the game up the next time you entered combat.
FIXED: Melee weapons no longer incorrectly display ammo info and fire-modes on rollover.
FIXED: Scavver enemy types occasionally disappeared in combat when they should be in LOS. I'm hoping this patch fixes the problem.
FIXED: Display of correct damage values related to damage scaling adjustments in the character info screen. There are still a few rounding errors that I'll correct soon.
UPDATED: Shotgun range for newly looted or purchased weapons increased. This change is not retroactive and only affects new items that you loot.
REMOVED: Removed verbose debug log data.

Hi all - Lots of changes in this patch - see the video for highlights and details below:

https://youtu.be/cmxnT7162K4

ADDED: End turn options. When ending your turn you will have several new options to choose from. This options menu is only displayed if you have 2 or more AP left over when ending your turn. If queuing attacks, your turn will end as usual if no AP is left over. You can cancel out of the end turn menu by pressing the escape key.

• WAIT - Wait requires a full bar of AP and allows you to skip your turn, adjusting your position in the turn order. This is handy for cases where your team member may be blocked. When selecting this option, your position in the turn order is adjusted after the last team member in the turn order.
  
• DEFEND - Defend requires 2 AP and has a small chance of avoiding a single attack while waiting for your next turn or mitigating a portion of the next attacks damage. The cost of 2AP is a choice balanced against reloading your weapon or setting your team members in a defensive posture while in combat. Defend is applied after armor, shields and any other damage mitigation. You can see which team members and enemy combatants are defending by rolling over them with your mouse. The status bar at the top of the screen will show a defend icon in cases where combatants are in defend mode.
  
• END TURN - Ends your turn with no AP cost or further action. Any remaining AP up to 2 points will be rolled over into your next turn as it has been in the past.

ADDED: Attacks of opportunity:

• Only combatants with a melee weapon equipped and selected can execute an attack of opportunity.
  
• If a combatant is in range of a melee opponent and they move, the enemy will get a free attack.
  
• Combatants get a single chance during any round of having an attack of opportunity applied.
  
• Combatants get a single attack of opportunity per round of combat.
  
• If the enemy misses you, you will continue to your selected destination.
  
• If the enemy does damage, your move will be interrupted. You can choose to heal, attack or move as usual after the attack.
  
• Combatants can only be attacked once in any round. That includes instances where the closest enemy combatant has already dealt an attack of opportunity.
  
• Status effects have a chance to apply any status effects as normal.
  
• Stunned combatants cannot make attacks of opportunity. However, they do remove the moving combatants chance to receive an attack of opportunity for that round.

Combat navigation and blocking has been overhauled. The goal was to improve the way blocking works so it is fair for both the player and the AI. Characters now have descreet blocking areas that work much better than they did previously. You should notice that AI can no longer move through characters when retreating or if blocked in areas by your team members. Enemies also do a much better job of keeping their distance from other characters with this update. You also now have the option to "Wait" in cases where your team members are blocked so you can make adjustments to positioning. I'll be continuing to improve on this system over time.

GENERAL FIXES IN THIS PATCH:
FIXED: Adding and removing armor with stats (+STR - +END) now correctly update the display of HP in the character info and inventory screens.
FIXED: Bleed resist display in character info screen
FIXED: A number of rounding errors for weapon damage in rollover info, character information and inventory areas.
FIXED: Projectile impacts and damage display are now timed based on range to target
FIXED: Grenade throw animations from crouched position.
FIXED: When swapping weapons, border highlights now updated correctly.
FIXED: When mercs were recruited, they were given 4 less intial stat points than they were supposed to recieve. You are now credited 4 stat points the next time you attack in combat.
FIXED: An error in the trade in value for ships based on charisma.
FIXED: An error in the display of values displayed in trade menus when items had a value of 100,000 credits or more.

UPDATED: You can no longer select team members other than the selected active combatant with the F1-F4 keys and by clicking them while in combat. This was confusing players because they were unable to end their turns if they inadvertantly selected another team member.

UPDATED: Missile launcher damage toned down a bit.

UPDATED: Adjusted mini-gun damage up a bit.

UPDATED: Damage modifiers to burst and full auto - you should see a significant damage boost to both of these fire modes bringing them somewhat in line with the use of ammo and AP expenditure. Burst and full-auto do have a damage penalty to reflect accuracy when firing with these modes. You will deal and receive more peak damage now and will need to mitigate this with healing, especially at higher levels. Time to start using those med-kits. This will be balanced a bit more with the introduction of First-Aid related powers/devices. "Medic!"

UPDATED: Heavy weapon damage increased - should give you a reason to use heavy weapons a little more often now. You are going to want to focus fire on heavy weapon enemies and get them out of the way as a priority. A critical with a heavy weapon is devastating!

UPDATED: Reduced the amount of ammo used for full-auto attacks for rifles, smg's and pistols from 12 to 8. Damage for this fire mode was just too high with the changes above and ammo use was excessive.

UPDATED: Removed level based attack bonuses which were skewing damage. Note that rollover info for weapons is just an estimate based on your currently equipped base weapon damage, equipped mods and a bunch of other factors. Breaking out a calculator is not likely to result in exact damage values. There is a lot of voodoo going on in the background of damage calculations including ranged falloff calculations, stat modifiers and more.

UPDATED: Floating fonts for combat and comments.

UPDATED: Melee received a boost in damage. With the addition of attacks of opportunity, melee team members also gain an additional boost to damage in cases where combatants try to leave the area of influence (see above).


FIXED: 1 hand blunt weapons will apply Venom and other perk effects
FIXED: Nano's now equip to melee weapons
FIXED: Haft mods now equip to melee weapons

UPDATED: Load times for all ground based area transitions are now greatly reduced.
UPDATED: Exiting the game and transitioning to the main menu are now much faster.
UPDATED: Minor stability fix.

FIXED: Ammo looted from space loot crates is now correctly displayed in cases where multiple crates are looted.
FIXED: Ammo looted from ship cargo crates now adds to your total inventory correctly
FIXED: A bug with skill gain from incursions
FIXED: Experience from space combat no longer increments the secondary skill counter
FIXED: Rounding errors in weapon rollover UI related to weapon damage
FIXED: Rounding errors in information UI's related to weapon damage
FIXED: Frequency modulator mods for melee weapons can only be equipped to melee weapons
FIXED: Stuns once again work as intended both for ranged and melee weapons
FIXED: A material blending error with overhead grids in the facility
UPDATED: Bonus damage from damage mods is now applied to all attack types - single, burst and full-auto and applied after damage calculations
UPDATED: Increased the cash rewards for facility missions to bring earnings in line with space combat

FIXED: When queuing attacks, the attack cursor stays visible
FIXED: In some rare cases, a quicksave could be requested at the exact moment combat was being started. Loading that quicksave could lock the game up the next time you entered combat.
FIXED: Melee weapons no longer incorrectly display ammo info and fire-modes on rollover.
FIXED: Scavver enemy types occasionally disappeared in combat when they should be in LOS. I'm hoping this patch fixes the problem.
FIXED: Display of correct damage values related to damage scaling adjustments in the character info screen. There are still a few rounding errors that I'll correct soon.
UPDATED: Shotgun range for newly looted or purchased weapons increased. This change is not retroactive and only affects new items that you loot.
REMOVED: Removed verbose debug log data.

Hi everyone! You can find the latest patch notes since the last patch announcement below. I'd also like to give you a little preview of some of the work I'll be doing. This will be the last patch for a while unless there is a blocker or some other major problem that comes up so I can branch off and focus exclusively on the ground combat system for a while.

Here are the things I'm hoping to get into the combat update

Movement and blocking system overhaul - I'll be refining this system so blocking mechanics and movement in combat are much improved. The goal is to provide consistent blocking mechanics for both the enemies and the player characters going forward and to remove various annoyances with the current system.

Attacks of opportunity - (PC's and NPC's) If characters are adjacent to an enemies position and move out of range, the closest combatant will get a free single attack. That is a single melee attack or a single shot from ranged weapons.

Defend - (selected when ending your turn - PC's and NPC's) - Can be selected if you have 2 AP left over - gain immunity to one attack in the next round of combat.

Guard - (selected when ending your turn - PC's and NPC's) - I'll be looking into the ability to guard areas of visibility, gaining an opportunity to fire on enemies coming into the characters line of sight. This selection when ending your turn will likely take all your AP, can only be used once in any combat scenario. I find this mechanic overpowering so I want to make sure it is used sparingly. I'll scrap it if it's abusive.

Better display of LOS visibility when targeting enemies.

I'll be removing the cursor based targeting functionality. The current active cursor will be removed completely. Instead you will have a improved information and targeting UI for rollover info and selected targets that includes dedicated targeting for head, torso, arms and legs.

I'll also be tightening up delays in all combat animations, ranged weapon delays and generally polishing a number of areas related to the ground combat system.

I'll be adding combat specific powers that allow you to perform a variety weapon attacks and effects. These have always been a part of the plan and it's time to implement them. Examples are sniping, backstabs, teleportation, PBAoE attacks, weapon overloads, spread damage for shotguns and smg's as well as shared melee and ranged effects. First-aid will get AE heals, HoT, buffs and debuffs.

• These will all come as Neural Devices that interface with your team members neural implants. Powers are knowledge gained through the use of these devices greatly enhancing your performance and skill.
  
  
• Each team can have 3 active devices equipped at any time that must be equipped before the start of combat.
  
  
• These devices will have level requirements and you will find upgrades that can be equipped at various skill levels.
  
  
• They will drop off enemies and can be found as loot.
  
  
• All powers will have an AP cost
  
  
• All powers have cool downs.
  
  
• These neural powers will also gain bonuses from your perks where it makes sense.

The above is not related to "Azimuth" which is something that will go in the game at a later time.

I'll make sure to post regular updates and share videos when it makes sense. Thanks again for your support!


FIXED: Trigger group mods for pistols that have burst and full auto modifications now work as intended.
FIXED: Merc stat assignments now display correct HP when assigning STR/END in character information UI.
FIXED: Assigning points to stats no longer adjust your HP to max while in combat.
FIXED: Alpha blending errors in some areas corrected.
FIXED: Alpha blending errors when using multiple gas grenades corrected.
FIXED: Bright green weapon on or near ground when swapping weapons removed.
FIXED: Door to Phestus now works as intended. I had disabled it a while ago so it was always open.
FIXED: A bug that could cause the enemy to stop responding if healing inside a gas cloud.
FIXED: A bug that would cause toxic gas clouds to continously stack dot damage on combatants.
FIXED: When attacking with melee weapons from a crouched position and using the combat queue, it was possible to get an additional attack.
FIXED: The crouch/stand icon on the toolbar is now correctly updated when attacking from a crouched position.
UPDATED: The 1AP cost to turn your team members while in combat via the tool bar has been removed. You now have unlimited visibility from your position at no AP cost.
UPDATED: Double clicking inventory items no longer moves them to your stash. You must shift click or drag and drop items from you inventory to the stash icon.
UPDATED: While in combat you can no longer select other team members by left clicking with the mouse. This was confusing because you could have unintentionally selected another team member who's turn was not active and tried to end your turn. If you have another team member selected when it is your turn, you cannot end your turn. You can still select other team members using the F1-F4 keys while in combat or by clicking on their portraits.
UPDATED: After rotating the camera using the left mouse button, the cursor is restored without needing to move your mouse.
ADDED: If you have the mission "Speak with Scarby" in your active log after you have already finished the mission, you can now return to Hurzog Mining, walk towards the vendor and the mission will auto-complete.

UPDATED: Labels in space for incursion ships are now orange instead of red so they can easily be recognized and separated from other hostile ships (red labels).

UPDATED: Space incursions can be canceled when not in combat while in space. No need to dock anymore. Just click the small cancel icon on the incursion label at the top of the screen.

UPDATED: Armor, weapon, mod and shield vendors now offer more items when they generate their inventory. This leads to more options available on the vendors.

ADDED: Border highlights for all enemies and player characters in combat - this work is part of the combat revamp - many more changes to come to the core systems.

FIXED: One of the mutant types was always hidden when not in direct view, even when using the [TAB] key (default for highlight objects). Could make it difficult to identify the enemy during combat.
FIXED: You can once again micro-warp from incursions (assuming your turrets are off) at full speed.
FIXED: Ship loot crate labels no longer disappear if you travel far away from the crate.
FIXED: Ship loot crate labels no longer appear on screen when the crate is behind you or not visible in the camera view.
FIXED: A bug that would allow ship vendors to occasionally sell turrets that would not fit on ships.
FIXED: Assigned merc weapons when recruiting them now generate with the correct range and max ammo values.
FIXED: Starting ranged weapons for your generated character and team members are now corretly assigned with default range, ammo and damage values based on the adjustments I made a while ago (increased base range for rifles and side-arms, increased base ammo capacity for weapons).
FIXED: Mining skill level cap adjusted to level 60 like other skills.
FIXED: A bug with stun grenades permanently stunning enemies.
FIXED: It was possible for enemies to heal themselves beyond their maximum HP
FIXED: Turrets now fire even if you don't have a team member in the weaponry station slot.

FIXED: A few starter weapons needed ammo and range updates.
FIXED: A navigation error in the Vats.
FIXED: Another possible fix for the keyboard not responding when micro-warping to a station.
UPDATED: UI information lists in space can now be scrolled when dragged and with the mouse wheel.

FIXED: A crash when launching from the surface near the Aznari Ruins the first time you enter space. Thanks for reporting this!
UPDATED: Loading a save game while already in the game world is now much faster
UPDATED: Returning to the main menu while in the game world is now much faster - that includes Game Over...
UPDATED: Loading screen display updated so it functions like it did before displaying tips, progress etc.
UPDATED: When customizing character portraits/names/voices in the popup window after clicking character portraits in the character info window, the arrows to the left and right of the portraits can now be clearly seen. Before they could have been overlooked.

Hi everyone! You can find the latest patch notes since the last patch announcement below. I'd also like to give you a little preview of some of the work I'll be doing. This will be the last patch for a while unless there is a blocker or some other major problem that comes up so I can branch off and focus exclusively on the ground combat system for a while.

Here are the things I'm hoping to get into the combat update

Movement and blocking system overhaul - I'll be refining this system so blocking mechanics and movement in combat are much improved. The goal is to provide consistent blocking mechanics for both the enemies and the player characters going forward and to remove various annoyances with the current system.

Attacks of opportunity - (PC's and NPC's) If characters are adjacent to an enemies position and move out of range, the closest combatant will get a free single attack. That is a single melee attack or a single shot from ranged weapons.

Defend - (selected when ending your turn - PC's and NPC's) - Can be selected if you have 2 AP left over - gain immunity to one attack in the next round of combat.

Guard - (selected when ending your turn - PC's and NPC's) - I'll be looking into the ability to guard areas of visibility, gaining an opportunity to fire on enemies coming into the characters line of sight. This selection when ending your turn will likely take all your AP, can only be used once in any combat scenario. I find this mechanic overpowering so I want to make sure it is used sparingly. I'll scrap it if it's abusive.

Better display of LOS visibility when targeting enemies.

I'll be removing the cursor based targeting functionality. The current active cursor will be removed completely. Instead you will have a improved information and targeting UI for rollover info and selected targets that includes dedicated targeting for head, torso, arms and legs.

I'll also be tightening up delays in all combat animations, ranged weapon delays and generally polishing a number of areas related to the ground combat system.

I'll be adding combat specific powers that allow you to perform a variety weapon attacks and effects. These have always been a part of the plan and it's time to implement them. Examples are sniping, backstabs, teleportation, PBAoE attacks, weapon overloads, spread damage for shotguns and smg's as well as shared melee and ranged effects. First-aid will get AE heals, HoT, buffs and debuffs.

• These will all come as Neural Devices that interface with your team members neural implants. Powers are knowledge gained through the use of these devices greatly enhancing your performance and skill.
  
  
• Each team can have 3 active devices equipped at any time that must be equipped before the start of combat.
  
  
• These devices will have level requirements and you will find upgrades that can be equipped at various skill levels.
  
  
• They will drop off enemies and can be found as loot.
  
  
• All powers will have an AP cost
  
  
• All powers have cool downs.
  
  
• These neural powers will also gain bonuses from your perks where it makes sense.

The above is not related to "Azimuth" which is something that will go in the game at a later time.

I'll make sure to post regular updates and share videos when it makes sense. Thanks again for your support!


FIXED: Trigger group mods for pistols that have burst and full auto modifications now work as intended.
FIXED: Merc stat assignments now display correct HP when assigning STR/END in character information UI.
FIXED: Assigning points to stats no longer adjust your HP to max while in combat.
FIXED: Alpha blending errors in some areas corrected.
FIXED: Alpha blending errors when using multiple gas grenades corrected.
FIXED: Bright green weapon on or near ground when swapping weapons removed.
FIXED: Door to Phestus now works as intended. I had disabled it a while ago so it was always open.
FIXED: A bug that could cause the enemy to stop responding if healing inside a gas cloud.
FIXED: A bug that would cause toxic gas clouds to continously stack dot damage on combatants.
FIXED: When attacking with melee weapons from a crouched position and using the combat queue, it was possible to get an additional attack.
FIXED: The crouch/stand icon on the toolbar is now correctly updated when attacking from a crouched position.
UPDATED: The 1AP cost to turn your team members while in combat via the tool bar has been removed. You now have unlimited visibility from your position at no AP cost.
UPDATED: Double clicking inventory items no longer moves them to your stash. You must shift click or drag and drop items from you inventory to the stash icon.
UPDATED: While in combat you can no longer select other team members by left clicking with the mouse. This was confusing because you could have unintentionally selected another team member who's turn was not active and tried to end your turn. If you have another team member selected when it is your turn, you cannot end your turn. You can still select other team members using the F1-F4 keys while in combat or by clicking on their portraits.
UPDATED: After rotating the camera using the left mouse button, the cursor is restored without needing to move your mouse.
ADDED: If you have the mission "Speak with Scarby" in your active log after you have already finished the mission, you can now return to Hurzog Mining, walk towards the vendor and the mission will auto-complete.

UPDATED: Labels in space for incursion ships are now orange instead of red so they can easily be recognized and separated from other hostile ships (red labels).

UPDATED: Space incursions can be canceled when not in combat while in space. No need to dock anymore. Just click the small cancel icon on the incursion label at the top of the screen.

UPDATED: Armor, weapon, mod and shield vendors now offer more items when they generate their inventory. This leads to more options available on the vendors.

ADDED: Border highlights for all enemies and player characters in combat - this work is part of the combat revamp - many more changes to come to the core systems.

FIXED: One of the mutant types was always hidden when not in direct view, even when using the [TAB] key (default for highlight objects). Could make it difficult to identify the enemy during combat.
FIXED: You can once again micro-warp from incursions (assuming your turrets are off) at full speed.
FIXED: Ship loot crate labels no longer disappear if you travel far away from the crate.
FIXED: Ship loot crate labels no longer appear on screen when the crate is behind you or not visible in the camera view.
FIXED: A bug that would allow ship vendors to occasionally sell turrets that would not fit on ships.
FIXED: Assigned merc weapons when recruiting them now generate with the correct range and max ammo values.
FIXED: Starting ranged weapons for your generated character and team members are now corretly assigned with default range, ammo and damage values based on the adjustments I made a while ago (increased base range for rifles and side-arms, increased base ammo capacity for weapons).
FIXED: Mining skill level cap adjusted to level 60 like other skills.
FIXED: A bug with stun grenades permanently stunning enemies.
FIXED: It was possible for enemies to heal themselves beyond their maximum HP
FIXED: Turrets now fire even if you don't have a team member in the weaponry station slot.

FIXED: A few starter weapons needed ammo and range updates.
FIXED: A navigation error in the Vats.
FIXED: Another possible fix for the keyboard not responding when micro-warping to a station.
UPDATED: UI information lists in space can now be scrolled when dragged and with the mouse wheel.

FIXED: A crash when launching from the surface near the Aznari Ruins the first time you enter space. Thanks for reporting this!
UPDATED: Loading a save game while already in the game world is now much faster
UPDATED: Returning to the main menu while in the game world is now much faster - that includes Game Over...
UPDATED: Loading screen display updated so it functions like it did before displaying tips, progress etc.
UPDATED: When customizing character portraits/names/voices in the popup window after clicking character portraits in the character info window, the arrows to the left and right of the portraits can now be clearly seen. Before they could have been overlooked.

Well, I'm back at it after the holidays. Hope you have all had a great start to your New Year.

First - load times between levels have improved in all areas - about double what they were before on average. Areas like the trade station have improved but need more work. Load times are of course dependent on your system specs. I still have work to do in this area including loading from saves and a few other optimizations.

I've added new border highlights throughout the game for objects in the world environment.

I've consolidated a lot of the game data so patch sizes can be much smaller going forward.

Here are the notes:

FIXED - You can no longer equip a heavy turret to a light turret slot. If you currently have a heavy turret equipped to a light turret slot, you will only be able to equip a light turret to that slot going forward.
FIXED: Typo on new game creation screen.
FIXED: A crash when creating a new game - caused when clicking or dragging the mouse while the starting in-game cinematic was loading.
FIXED: Universe generation random seed can no longer exceed 8 digits in the entry field.
FIXED: When exiting video tutorials from the help menu, the game is no longer left in a paused state.
FIXED: Heavy turrets and missiles can no longer be placed in light turret slots. If you have a ship where you have equipped a heavy turret in a light turret mount point, it will still be there, however, you will only be able to equip a light turret there going forward.
FIXED: Hacking exploit fixed.
FIXED: Speak to Scarby mission now completes and is removed when speaking with Scarby.
FIXED: Travel to Achmedius Trade Port mission now completes. Just head towards the Cantina area on the trade port to auto-complete the mission.
FIXED: Capped afterburner speed while in combat so ships equipped with high quality warp drives cannot exceed the speed of combat projectiles.
FIXED: If a team member is blocked when walking towards or trying to use a object, they will no longer stop and then perform the action on next move or action.
FIXED: When entering a gravity well from micro-warp, occasionally you would lose keyboard control for thrust and rotatation - you would need to click in space to restore keyboard control of your ship.
UPDATED: The Pharris Mace AK-7 is now available on the ship merchant.
UPDATED: Updated the way characters interact with objects in the environment so animations do not delay interaction and block clicks.
UPDATED: Ship missile speed increased
UPDATED: The game now uses border highlights for interactive objects in world exploration mode. Old highlighting methods have been removed.
UPDATED: Ranged weapons (Pistols, SMG's and Rifles) that drop from enemies or purchased from vendors have had their maximum ammo capacity increased. This change is not retroactive and does not affect equipment you currently have in your inventory.
UPDATED: Nano's can now be equipped to all weapon types. There are a total of three ranged and three melee specific mods. Nano's are now global.
UPDATED: Tutorial videos are now higher resolution - some will be revised in future updates.

A note about sidearm range. The average range of sidarms was doubled in the last patch (Space Combat Patch). This bonus is applied when starting a new game to all starter weapons and to any new weapons you find. The change is not retroactive - so sidearms looted before the space combat patch still have the lower range - I won't be modifying them. Any loot drops or weapons found on merchants going forward will have the new range adjustments applied to them.

This patch adjusts maximum ammo up for rifles and sidearms. This can of course be adjusted by applying mods to higher quality items.

In Stellar Tactics, your ranged weapons have a falloff factor to chance to hit (accuracy) and bonuses applied based on your skill, stats and other factors with that weapon class. Here is how CTH and range penalties are calculated:

1) Your base CTH is calculated based on the weapons maximum range and the range to your target - a range penalty
2) A crouch bonus is calculated if you are crouched
3) A weapon skill bonus is calculated and applied. The higher your skill the more accuracy bonus is applied to the weapon. When you start the game, you have only a few points of skill in whatever your weapon choice was when you created your character. As you increase in skill, you will noticed that your CTH goes up - at higher levels you will rarely miss.
4) A STAT bonus is calculated (PER, DEX etc)
5) A weapon tier bonus is calculated ( Basic, Exceptional, Rare etc)
6) A weapon wear panalty is calculated (this is disabled for now until crafting and repair go in the game)
7) Your adjusted BASE CTH is calculated based on the information above.
8) A penalty for Burst and Full-Auto fire modes are applied if applicable (these will be adjusted when I work on the ground combat system)
9) A body target penalty is applied to the CTH calculation - smaller body parts are harder to hit - like a head shots.
10) And finally an equipped mod bonus is applied to the calculation if applicable
11) Some weapons recieve a CTH bonus factored by range applied to the final calculation.

As I mentioned, sidearms have seen a bit of attention doubling their range. I am listening to the feedback your are posting and I'll start working on a good number of changes and additions to the combat system starting next week. These include the addition of a few new options in combat, adjustments to the movement and blocking system, burst and full-auto damage and effects and the removal of a number of general gameplay annoyances that are on my list to fix. I'll keep you all posted as I make progress on this.

Thank you all for the feedback.