Hi everyone!
Just one more day before you get access to Update 3 - the Riftborn Update. Let's cover the changes surrounding the Space Battle, mostly adding feedback and signs to help players understand what goes on in a battle, its resolution, and how to improve your strategy. There's quite a bit of ground to cover, so saddle up!
SHIP DESIGN
Our main objective here was to display information that was either not displayed or opaque altogether (DPS totals per range and weapon, shield absorption, range compatibility, etc.). You'll get a tooltip if you mouse over these icons. We've added a ratio of energy weapons/projectile weapons for weapons and defenses. This feedback will be on ship & fleet tooltips, as well as on the enemy so you can select the optimal strategy. Moreover, you can open the ship screen from anywhere double clicking a ship icon, a welcome time saver!
This screen's UI has been overhauled to stay streamlined while offering all this information (along with toggles to hide some). Note that you can now slide modules from slot to slot.
Module icons have been redone to be more consistent with the rest of the game, and to improve the feeling of progression. Protip: weapons and defenses are facing different directions according to type.
From a gameplay side, we leveled multipliers and costs. All modules are now double on Medium ships, and quadrupled on Large ships. "Symmetrical" modules only shoot from one side at a time to reduce disparity during fights (that players couldn't control), but their price has been halved. These changes simplify slot display.
We added a Ship auto upgrade button in the Military Screen, just under the Ship Designs frame where the other ship design buttons are located. When you select a ship design a click on the Auto Upgrade button, all the modules contained in the design will be upgraded to their latest version. This will not fill empty slots in your design, nor will it remove any module or replace them with another kind of module.
No more checking every module and replacing them manually to load your latest toys on board!
DECK NAME CHANGE
As you suggested, we renamed cards/plays and the deck to terms more fitting with the battle theme, namely tactics & tactics set. Tactics have received tooltips so as to specify their effects and offer some strategic advice. You may now open the tactics set panel in the military screen even when a battle is underway.
ADVANCED BATTLE SCREEN
We polished this screen by displaying trajectories and stats to avoid any confusion. We have specified the amount of Command Points necessary to unlock a flotilla. To draw the player's attention to the possibility of redistributing ships among flotillas, we increased visual feedback on mouseover: don't forget you can manually select a ship's flotilla, but also double click on a ship to lock/unlock in on a flotilla. Finally, when moving a ship, you will see a feedback appear on flotilla ranges to show their compatibility.
DURING BATTLE
We improved display of information given by the scan view, in particular when it comes to trajectories and damage templates: a pulsating visual feedback will ensure you are aware of the direction damage is going in!
We've also added a new camera mode that will give you a bird's eye view above the battle theater (birds in space?). We adapted feedback to this view by making important information more visible, and masking the rest to avoid noise. A particularly important piece of data is easily visible from up high: actual range between flotilla pairs.
In free cam, we are now displaying when a ship is locked (allowing you to follow the ship and move the camera around) and added the possibility of zooming with mouse wheel, even if no ship is locked.
BATTLE REPORT
In order to improve understanding of what goes on during a battle, to understand the result and how to improve one's strategy against an opponent, we have added an advanced post-battle report. It is accessible through the battle result notification. Don't be afraid now: it does come with quite a lot of detail...
On that screen, you'll be able to see each side's flotillas, their range intention and the ships, destroyed or not. For each flotilla pair, you will get the battle's effective ranges, divided in 3 phases. For each phase, you will get the damage ratio for each flotilla.
Each side has a gauge showing the damage done to the opponent. The total gauge indicates theoretical damage you should have inflicted. Inside are displayed missed shots (because evasion or range incompatibility), and damage absorbed by the opponent. The remaining gauge, the same color as the player, shows effective damage. They are divided to show weapon type. Mousing over these various gauge parts, you obtain details and strategic info (for instance to counter a particular damage type).
BATTLE SYSTEM
Critical hits are back! The principle is simple: a critical hit bypasses enemy defense without being absorbed. It is therefore very interesting to use weapons prone to critical hits, such as energy weapons and using strategic resources, against an enemy prone to stopping your damage.
Ship crew has been overhauled: you now get a damage bonus when you fill your ship's crew to capacity. Specific weapons are particularly effective at killing off crew members, whereas certain crew modules reduce damage taken by the crew.
We have also added battle theater effects: make sure to check in the tooltip or the battle notification which effect is active on this node. This can really turn the tide of battle! For the moment, we have added these effects on special nodes, easy to spot in the galaxy.
CONTENT
Balancing has been done on weapons and defenses. Global progression has been lowered to avoid creating too big of a gap. Costs have been reduced to encourage shipbuilding. We have specified and improved the flak effect of Kinetic modules. We have made strategic weapons more interesting by increasing their power but also by adding specific effects, such as the possibility of affecting ship crew (for beams and missiles), and for release we're preparing different effects per strategic resource type!
The big news when it comes to Battle content is in the 15 new modules, with several versions, some of which have special effects granted by strategic resources. We'll let you discover them and how to get them (hint: curiosities and around the tech tree!). Among the effects, you'll find targeting, resource gain, repair or ship/flotilla synergy... Many of these modules are especially made for support ships and/or have an effect on an entire flotilla, so as to make them more interesting, but also to make flotilla distribution more important!
This covers the biggest changes around the Space Battle. The Riftborn Update drops tomorrow at about 6PM CET.
We hope you're excited!
