Greetings Commanders!

After so long, Ship Crew Update (part 1) is finally here!
There is a lot of changes in the game, not only on the ship crew but lots of little improvements and BUG fixes.
So let’s dive right in:


Most spaceships now require a Crew to function, especially bigger models that will hardly move without a pilot or generate energy without an engineer, for example. Smaller ships like shuttles and yachts, although not required, can benefit from Co-Pilots, which can improve any function of the ship, including it's weapons. You can hire crewmembers at stations or even rescue them around the galaxy.
Gunners can be assigned to turrets and will automatically fire. They will prioritize drones or missiles if they have a PD weapon installed.
Ship Crew will level up, slowly increasing their skills and eventually gaining new ones, and also improving (or gaining new) bonuses.

You’ll get more in-game instructions on how Ship Crew will work but that’s the basic info. So lets get to the features:

• Ship Crew added, with 6 different skills for now: Engineer, Pilot, Navigator, Supervisor, Gunner and Instructor.
  
• Added the missing Social skills with crew related bonuses.
  
• You can now Deposit/Load using Shift + middle mouse.
  
• 'Unequip all' (and other functions) now deposit everything in the bank instead of the ship cargo.
  
• Added Heavy and Capital Impulse Drives up to Mk.V, and a pirate version for both sizes.
  
• Reduced top speed on Heavy and Capital Impulse Drives plus other small changes.
  
• Speed Boosters now stack better and use less energy, but are less effective than before.
  
• Cloaking will now properly hide weapon turrets.
  
• You can now set weapon energy to zero, which will prevent you or gunners to fire.
  
• You can now order gunners and mercenaries to fire at the selected target by pressing 'F' (default).
  
• Basic Ship Crew will now be added to required positions when starting a new game.
  
• Added HP regeneration to Venghi ships (They can't have crew, except gunners for now).
  
• Fixed a BUG that would prevent weapons from being installed on some AI ships.
  
• Fixed BUG that allowed you to unlock ships in Arena mode.
  
• Fixed Mi'Iaoshu drop chance.
  
• Initial station on the Arena will start with a higher level.
  
• Fixed Marauders target aquisition.
  
• Added a 5 base energy storage to all ships to avoid certain issues.
  
• Higly increased distance relics will travel in the dead zone before disapearing.
  
• Pirate Impulse Drive now uses 2 spaces instead of 3, but had the acceleration power reduced to 19.
  
• Fixed crafted weapons losing their names after changing language.
  
• Fixed Jettisoned ship not keeping its loadout.
  
• Fixed weapon mounts appearing with the wrong orientation in the ship panel.
  
• Fixed message stating that a faction lost 2 billion percent reputation after a station is destroyed.

OBS: Part 2 will come next, with unique crew members, taxi missions and more. The ability to add pilots to your other ships and create your own fleet is coming soon too.

Be advise there may be more BUGs, as usual for a big update like this. So I'll probably be updating the game very soon and try to keep it more frequent from now on :)

Have fun everyone!

Greetings Commanders!

As most of you know, I am working hard on Ship Crew Update (this is why there was no update in the last 40 days, which is rare) and I wanted to let you all know: it’s coming!

This is a big change for the game, not only cause it will add an additional layer for customization, but also cause you’ll be able to assign gunners to your turrets, which will change a lot of things (for the best). Imagine being able to fire to any direction without the need to manual aim, and PD weapons hitting those annoying drones for you? Yeah, your gunners will do that, just make sure to hire the right crew for the job, and maybe avoid that one with ‘Danger’ as a nickname (spoilers?)…


Just a preview here. More stats will be added.

As I mentioned earlier on the forums, some old ship models will change to better fit the new design, which will be much more balanced. Are you thinking Titan? Corsair? Yeah, probably both… But I’m confident you’ll have more fun this way. Did I mention passengers? Yeah, I have some cool ideas for it, but that’s for later on... ːsvboxː

Anyway… This was just a “tease” and a reminder that I’m working hard at the game. Keep supporting it and we’ll make Star Valor awesome together! Don’t forgot to review the game if you love it

Oh and in case you might be wondering where is Faction Wars part 2? Don’t worry, It will come later on when I introduce Station management. One step at a time…

Have fun! I'll see you on the other side of the ːsvgateː
- Laious

• You can now sell items back to the station you purchased it from, but you will never get more than what you paid for in the first place.
  
• 'Indoctrinated' Perk now grants +5% shield.
  
• Fixed unintended repositioning of your ship after docking, when there was no other ship around.
  
• Fixed Lone Wolf being acquired without a quest prompt in some cases.
  
• Fixed jettison items not saving price paid and station it was bought from.
  
• Derelict ships will now have a movement "drag" of zero instead of 0.5, which means it will keep moving indefinitely if you push it.

• Cloaking Devices now retain a small percentage of energy generation while active, instead of negating it entirely. The energy cost is now only paid on activation.
  
• Added 2 items: Ardonian Cloaking Device and Terran Mantle.
  
• Fixed BUG that would prevent the acquisition of perks when starting a new game.

• Unlocking ships in Hardcore Mode will now happen just by purchasing it, which will be saved without the need to quit the game.
  
• Cloaking Device now has a lower base energy cost, but causes the ship to not produce energy while it's active.
  
• Fixed bosses not spawning as frequent as intended.
  
• Fixed getting 'Indoctrinated' and 'Rebel' perks without the quest to accept/reject it.
  
• Fixed message "You cannot have more *some ability* than your character level." showing up when you are level 50.

• Docking in a station will now hide your ship, preventing it from being targeted or colliding with other ships. It will slowly regenerate your shields and energy (10% max energy/shield each second) instead of instantly charging both.
  
• Added option to jettison cargo item.
  
• Spaceship tooltip will now show if you already unlocked it or not.
  
• Stations are now stronger in hardcore mode to match AI spaceships, and slightly weaker in Relaxed Mode.
  
• Hardcore mode now has a slightly higher chance of acquiring higher quality loot.
  
• Jumpgate label now also shows the level of destination sector.
  
• 'Indoctrinated', 'White Collar' and 'Lone Wolf' perks are no longer acquired automatically, it will now prompt a quest for you to accept or reject it.
  
• When collecting loot with the inventory open, it will now try to select the same item after sorting occur.
  
• The bottom right log will now properly disappear or resize to not overlap other panels. This is only optimized for 16:9 aspect ratio resolutions or wider.
  
• Red Skull bellow level 5 will no longer use 'Hit and run' tactic.
  
• Fixed certain Perks being acquired in Relaxed mode without being previously unlocked in other modes. Although you can acquire and use any perk in Relaxed mode, you have to unlock most of them in other modes first.
  
• Fixed BUG that would cause enemies to inflict multiple damage impacts with a single projectile, which could cause instant kill.
  
• Fixed Hardcore frame on unlocked ship perks.
  
• Fixed ammo not being consumed right after being created by ammo replicator.

• Unlocking perks in hardcore mode are now distinguished from normal mode. Later on I might also add special bonuses.
  
• The spaceship density in sectors now better reflect what it says in the sector description (Population: Low, High, etc).
  
• Fixed a BUG in old saves that would prevent battle fleets to spawn.
  
• Fixed station turrets sometimes using much lower quality weapons (old saves: This will affect new stations only).

Greetings Commanders!

I’m happy to announce two new difficulty modes for the game: a “relaxed” mode and the “hardcore” one, with permanent death. I’m also introducing the Red Skull dreadnought, which is the big boy in the image above (cortesy of CGPitbull).
Other than that, I implemented several player requests (The "Buy X" button is finally here! lol) and a much welcome fix for those who were experiencing crashes.

Enjoy!

• Added two new game modes: Relaxed, where enemies are weaker, you have more cargo space and you can save anywhere; and Hardcore, where enemies are stronger, there is no manual save and has permanent death (if you die you lose your save).
  
• Added Red Skull Dreadnought: Cerberus.
  
• Several ship models received special bonuses, including a 20 weapon range bonus on the Dominance.
  
• Trade: Added "X" button where you can type how many items you want to Buy/Sell/Deposit/Load.
  
• Tutorial messages now pause the game until you click the Ok button. You can choose to turn this feature off.
  
• Reduced Red Skull presence in the starter sector.
  
• Each station turret is now independent and may attack a specific target, instead of every turret attacking the same enemy.
  
• Increased size of jumpgates and the syndicate docking bay.
  
• Reduced % Damage Resistance of some perks and armors in general.
  
• Titan weapon space reduced to 30 from 38.
  
• Increased weapon range bonus from ship class.
  
• Fixed "trail render artifacts", which was causing crashes on some machines.

Some requested updates, as well as new joystick setup and support for Simplified Chinese! :)

• Added item compare tool-tip for unique items (which you can only have one equipped) and spaceships.
  
• Joystick support (partial) has been improved with additional options. You can find the changes in Menu - Setup - Control. Make sure to use 'Restore Default' to get updated joystick layout.
  
• Added controller selection screen when starting a new game.
  
• 'Load All' button will now fill ship cargo instead of trying to load everything.
  
• You can now equip/unequip items with shift + left click and sell with shift + right click.
  
• Added localization: Simplified Chinese, by Teh Eng Hee.
  
• Changed Lithium rarity to 3 (blue), Copper to 2 (green) and Platinum to 4 (purple).

• Fixed game not loading because of corrupted user files (caused by a system crash, cheating, etc).

• Added Partial Joystick Support. You can control the ship and use some commands only with the joystick, but you still need keyboard and mouse for some actions like galaxy map, selecting skill points, trading, ship setup, etc. Until I add a couple more features, this will not be officially supported and therefore not appear in the Store Page.
  
• Removed ship class restriction for Warp Drives.
  
• Fixed ship collision during "Warp In" animations.
  
• Improved spawn position calculations.
  
• Added button to change steering mode in the left panel.