Greetins Commanders!

After a long time, the first part of Faction Wars is finally here! :)

This part brings the basics to a faction resource based economy, which will be important later on specially for station management and the economy update.
This part works fine with old saves (although battles may take some time to appear), but will be optimized if you start a new game because the procedural galaxy generation is a bit different now.
Be advised this is only the first part of a big update, so expect bugs and fixes very soon. Also be sure to post your feedback here.

Enjoy!
- Laious




Individual Stations will often "create pressure" to attack nearby enemy sectors. Once enough pressure is made, the faction can decide to do so, if it has enough resources. This resources are like taxes paid by stations from time to time to its faction. Therefore, each station destroyed will slowly reduce the battle strength of that faction.
Once a battle starts, it will be shown as animated explosions in the Galaxy Map and will last for 20 (real life) minutes. If the player doesn't intervene, the outcome is simulated (for part 1 it will mostly ends in a "tie"). If the player gets in the sector, the battle will last until one side is victorious or the attackers withdraw its forces. The battle results can have an impact on each faction resources and in the player reputation, if he decides to take part in it (reputation for destroying a ship from a fleet is doubled).
Wars only occur in sectors level 10 or higher and different factions may attack the same sector at the same time.
For this part, the amount of wars going on is unclear, since it depends on the disposition of the galaxy, which is random.

• Factions will occasionally send ships to hunt you. The more negative your reputation with them, more powerful the ships will be.
  
• Added Perk/Achievements: 'The Last Starfighter', 'Defender' and 'Legionary'
  
• Changed bonuses on 'Aggressive', 'Marauder' and 'Guardian Angel' perks.
  
• Dark Sectors (Pitch Black) are now only detected when in sensor range, but once it is spotted, its location is saved.
  
• Fixed labels and floating text being too small on 4K resolutions.
  
• Fixed 'Weaponry' skill bonus on burst weapons. It was being applied 'burst' times to each shot, instead of once. The skill bonus is now limited to 50% of weapon base damage, avoiding insanely high damage increases, which was very unbalanced. This only applies to weapons with more than 10 base damage.
  
• Fully exploring Asteroid Rush and Nebula sectors now give bonus XP.
  
• Reduced item drop chance from Elites to 50% instead of 100%, but increased base credit gained from all enemies.
  
• Enemy ships will now alternate fire between beam and projectile weapons when they have both types equipped. This will improve their aiming considerably, specially for heavy lasers on fixed hard points.
  
• Mercenaries from the same hideout will help each other when attacked.
  
• Faction ships in combat will ask for help from nearby allies.
  
• Ships will now spawn with green or red icon and label colors if they are from a friendly or hostile faction.
  
• Top speed reduced a bit overall, especially on bigger models.

• Fixed random crashes caused by a Unity bug.
  
• Fixed (hopefully) other crashes.
  
• Fixed a bug that would prevent new fleets to spawn in the current sector, and then after a reload it would appear on top of the station. Now all fleets will spawn away from any station, giving the faction time to build defenses.
  
• Added option to turn on/off AI ship names, divided by relation.

1.1.9d

• The defending faction in a war will spawn a few more ships to help, as soon as a fleet warps in.
  
• Attack fleets will move faster towards the target the farther they are from it.
  
• Fleets will move in attack formation and the minimap icon will properly point towards the target station.
  
• The explosion animations will properly disappear from a sector tile after the battle ends.
  
• Fixed BUG when activating attack drones without a target selected.
  
• Fixed quests from a station not being removed after it get destroyed.
  
• Quests to assault pirate hideouts are back available on most stations.

1.1.9e

• Speed Boost Toggle option added (Caps Lock as default)
  
• Added new Steering Mode with A and D instead of mouse cursor (you can swap to it with CTRL at any time).
  
• Reduced strength of random enemy fleets spawned to hunt the player.
  
• Fixed sectors that would remain under control of a faction even after all stations getting destroyed.

1.1.9f

• Updated help screen (F1) with keys for changing steering mode and toggle speed boost.
  
• 'Steering Mode' (CTRL) and 'Speed Booster Toggle' (CAPS LOCK) states are now saved.
  
• Max reputation gain from a quest is now 250 points.
  
• Fixed reputation gains from 'Keeping the Peace' quest. This quest will no longer be available in stations after the hideout has being destroyed.
  
• Fixed extra quests showing up when not intended.

1.1.9f

• Complete Key rebinding solution in-game (gamepad support is only partial at the moment).

Just a quick announcement to keep you guys up to date.
The Alpha version of Faction Wars - Phase 1 - has started. So expect new content soon :)

Greetings Commanders!

Just a small update before Faction Wars comes out. Enjoy the new Venghi ship and a few new items!

• Sensor system remade. Now you can see the entire galaxy (or currently generated galaxy in the unlimited mode) from anywhere and explored sectors show full information. Unexplored sectors in sensor range are marked as "spotted" and show basic information like size, population, mineral and level. Sectors which are connected through jumpgates are no longer marked as "spotted". The Galaxy Map zoom-out has also been increased.
  
• Added fixed size galaxy options. Auto-expand (infinite) will still be an option.
  
• If every station from the controlling faction gets destroyed, that sector becomes neutral (no control).
  
• Added spaceship: V4G-A (Venghi Frigate)
  
• Added 4 new items: Sensor Amplifiers (Mk 1 to 4).
  
• Ardonian Armor had it's damage reduction reduced to 30% from 35%
  
• Damage reduction from 'Improved Plating' skill reduced to 12% from 15%.
  
• Damage reduction from 'Armor Plating' Perk reduced to 10% from 12%.
  
• Added 1 new tutorial entries.

• Added more appropriate basic equipment when you buy or start with a ship bigger than a yacht.
  
• Fixed a BUG that hid some of your equipment when you had too much items in the bank.
  
• Fixed Venghi Frigate name in German and some others in Portuguese.

Hey everyone! It has been some time since the last update, which is not common for me, so I felt I needed to let you guys know what is going on.
Note: I wrote this on the forums and copy pasted here, so if you read it there you can skip this announcement :)

First of all, I am still working on the game and will keep doing so for a long time, at least until the game is out of early access and a bit beyond that, probably with some DLCs (lots of ideas).
Secondly, there hasn't been an update for some time mainly because of 2 reasons:

1 - I'm working on Faction Wars, which is a feature for end game, and kind of a big update, so I'm taking it slow. But I intend to add a minor update real soon, cause I don't like to keep it "too quiet" :)

2 - I recently had nose surgery and took some time off to recover (it takes such a long time..) AND to play some WoW Classic (which I love), but things are slowly getting back to normal now.

Working on Star Valor has always been a lot of fun for me, and the community makes it even better. This has really been a dream coming true, to work with what I love, making a game I really enjoy playing, with great people helping out and earning enough to make a living.

So... Considering what the game already is, and with your awesome support, we have all the reasons to make Star Valor a really great game.

Cheers!

Hello everyone!

Different announcement this time: Star Valor now has Trading Cards!
It has been asked before and I finally decided to sit down and make them. I hope you guys like it and enjoy the new “feature”!



Play the game to collect some of the cards, trade the remaining to finish the set, craft badges and earn emoticons and special backgrounds!



Good luck!

Greetings Commanders!

Some important fixes and requested features were added, I hope you all enjoy.
Oh and a big update is coming soon (Faction Wars), so prepare yourselves!

• Various items had it's Tech Level requirement changed.
  
• Added items: Heavy Energy Armor, Ardonian Armor, Gyroscopes (normal and large) up to Mark 4, Lateral Thrusters (normal and large) up to Mark 4.
  
• Slightly increased credit loot from spaceships.
  
• Slightly increased credit gained when clearing pirate hideouts.
  
• Ship repair cost has been increased.
  
• Slightly improved low level refineries.
  
• Added minimum movement speed to avoid situations when you get stuck.
  
• Sector Tiles now shows how much of it has been explored.
  
• Experience gained when fully exploring a sector has been increased.
  
• Now a check mark (✓) will appear before the quest name, when it is completed or ready to be turned in.
  
• You can no longer unequip items from your ship if it's damaged.
  
• Now you can see turret hard points of a spaceship by holding 'Shift' when displaying it's tooltip.
  
• Fixed turret slots BUG (Finally =) )

• Added option to set a target framerate (default: 120 FPS).
  
• Fixed bug when upgrading items with Ancient Relic. The item is now properly selected after being upgraded.

Greetings Commanders!

It took a bit longer for this update, but there is a lot of little things you all asked for. The main change is the introduction of ‘Sensor Power’, which determines how far you can detect other sectors in the Galaxy Map and later will be used for other actions as well.
Also, as announced last month, the game has a new price now, with a slight increase.

Enjoy!

• Added stat: 'Sensor Power' which determines how far in the Galaxy Map you can detect Sector details. In higher levels it will later discover nearby sectors automatically.
  
• Some items had Sensor Power added to its stats.
  
• Some equipment (mainly computers) had it's energy cost increased.
  
• Added Item: D. O. Sweeper Drive.
  
• Added weapon: Heavy Vulcan.
  
• Experience Perk 'Navigation' now only gives +1 Warp Range but also has +2 Sensor Power.
  
• 'Anaximander' Perk now has +10% Scanner Power instead of +20%, and has +20% Sensor Power.
  
• 'Galactic Lore' skill now also gives +50% Sensor Power.
  
• Second exploration skill name changed to 'Scanners'.
  
• Marauders are now attacked by Civilian Stations and Sentinels. Civilian Sentinels now also attack players with 'Marauder' Perk.
  
• Mercenaries and followers are now better at keeping a distance from you when travelling.
  
• Sector traffic/AI ship spawning has been optimized, now it uses less CPU and there will be a bit more ships flying around.
  
• The game will now keep a backup save file and update it from time to time. This is only done after a successful loading to make sure the file is valid.
  
• Reduced the chance to find Mi'Iaoshu spaceship.
  
• The Syndicate Dreadnought (Sanctuary) can now be acquired at stations, although it is not fully usable until Ship Crew update.
  
• Damage Resistance now has a limit of 90%. High level Arena ships will no longer heal because of absurd DR.
  
• Jump gate icon now shows it's orientation with 2 small arrows on the scanner.
  
• UI Transparency no longer fades minimap objects unless it's over 75%.
  
• Slightly reduced equipment drop chance from small ships and highly increased on large ones.
  
• Slightly increased chance for purple and orange loot from Elites and Bosses.
  
• Increased weapon range bonus for big ships.
  
• Increased Camera Zoom distance on the 2 farthest levels.
  
• Reduced chance to find drifting cruisers or dreadnoughts.
  
• Reduced global game volume.
  
• Added scroll bar on Load screen.
  
• Added confirmation dialog before unequipping all ship items.
  
• Weapons in inventory are now sorted by type and higher rarity first.
  
• Fixed Spotlight position BUG.
  
• Fixed Scrap/Upgrade item BUG.
  
• Fixed Drones not respawning properly after being destroyed. Now they are fully repaired when returning to the ship.
  
• Fixed acquiring White Collar Perk being Indoctrinated.
  
• Fixed game not running under 32bit operational systems.

• Fixed old save games not loading (prior to 1.1.0).
  
• Fixed Drones not dying.

• Improved the stats on Hull Reinforcements.
  
• Fixed item replace BUG when equipping.
  
• Fixed damage BUG on High level enemies (Arena).

Greetings Commanders!

We are approaching one year of Early Access! This period was great for developing the game with community feedback, not to mention the financial return much needed as an independent developer with no other funding. The game has grown a lot this past year and I managed to release around one update per month, with new features (a good amount of them being player suggestions) and of course BUG fixes.

After receiving feedback about pricing and putting some thoughts on the matter, it is clear now that the current price does not represent the game value. A price increase was in fact already planned for when the game leaves Early Access, but I decided to do part of it now, as I think it’s only fair to value my own work :)

What is also fair is to let everyone knows about it in advance, so that they have the chance to buy the game now, with 45% OFF on Steam Sale, before the increase. The actual price change will occur around mid July, So, if you haven’t bought the game yet, or you have friends “on the fence”, this is the time to do it.

I hope I can count on the community support, just as it has been for the past year. Thank you!
- Laious

Greetings commanders!

The Arena mode is here, for those who love to fight and test different builds. You will battle waves of enemies of all kinds and sizes, with different compositions, and a boss for every 10 waves. For each wave defeated you´ll earn some cash to repair and upgrade your ship, and if you do it without taking damage and/or before the timer runs out, you´ll get a generous bonus.

This is the first Arena version so there might be changes/fixes soon, let me know your feedback here : )

NOTE 1: A Hardcore mode (with permadeath) will be added later on, for the Arena and Normal game mode, for those who like real challenges.
NOTE 2: This is a separate mode, so you can't use your characters from main game.

Enjoy!

• Added Arena Mode that can be selected when starting a new game
  
• Increased Bloom image effect and added option to customize it's intensity.
  
• Fixed minor issues with the UI.

• Arena: Station market will change every 2 levels, even after level 50 and will always have all materials for crafting.
  
• Arena: Destroying neutral mercenaries no longer give XP or Loot.
  
• You can no longer unlock spaceship models in Arena mode, although you can buy and use them normally.
  
• Arena size increased to better fit cruisers and dreadnoughts.

• You no longer have to manually unequip an unique item (like a scanner or warp drive) before installing a new one, it is automatically replaced.
  
• Added station level on quest objective description.
  
• Disabled Galaxy and Sector Maps on Arena mode.
  
• Fixed an issue with limited arch turrets firing over targets.
  
• Fixed objects showing 0 damage.

Hey guys!

Just one last patch before the Arena Mode comes LIVE. I had to fix the Sam Holo BUG as soon as I heard about it.
The Arena update got delayed a bit because I was sick for the last 5 days, where I did virtually no work, but it is coming before next weekend!

• Fixed Sam Holo not attacking anyone, EVER.
  
• Elite Mercenaries now charge double upfront cost and +25% cut percentage.
  
• Fixed visual BUG on equipment icons.