Prerelease 3.019 (Bugfixes and Balance Tweaks)

[x4000]

The latest beta is available via the Updates window in version 3.000 or greater of the game.  Just open the game and you can quickly download the prerelease through the updates tab.  If you don't yet have 3.000 or greater, you can download 3.000 here.  This prerelease version is compatible with any vendor's version of the game -- Steam, Impulse, whatever.

Note:  If you have bug reports related to this release, please log them in the bug reports subforum with one bug per topic.  It makes things infinitely easier for us.  Thanks!

What's new since 3.018:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.000 are attached at the bottom)

-------------------

-Experimental starships (warbirds, beams) were not being treated as starships, fixed (this also fixes the cannot-put-them-in-low-power-mode problem).

-Planetary shield inhibitors (and similar) were having full effect even while still under construction, fixed to not "activate" until construction is complete.

-AI combat ship tactics are now much less likely to switch between high-priority (irreplaceable) targets when they have a significant advantage on a planet.

-Warheads, Ion Cannons, Orbital Mass Drivers, and Core Warhead Interceptors can no longer be munitions boosted.

-Dyson Gatlings are now immune to reclamation.

-Z key (i.e. Z+X hotkey) now only checks for drawing ship ranges if planet has normal visibility.

-On spokes maps only AI planets with >= 5 wormholes get Core Forcefields (previously every single AI planet got one on those maps).

-Planetary shield boosters, planetary shield inhibitors, radar jammers, and radar jammer IIs can now be scrapped.

-Mines no longer have engine damage strength (used to have 300, though it didn't seem to be working, and it was decided they shouldn't do engine damage anyway).

-Fixed a bug where starting a second instance of the game on a single-screen system caused a crash instead of just displaying an error message and exiting the second instance (as it behaved before).

-Transports were still evading after exiting a wormhole (like scouts), despite the change where a dying transport's passengers are safely dumped rather than destroyed immediately.  Fixed to not use the scout behavior.

-Electric shuttle attack power lowered 30% (I: 400 -> 280, II: 1200 -> 840, III: 2000 -> 1400, IV: 3000 -> 2100)

-added player-planet-wide delay between electric shuttle attacks (so each player can have a shuttle fire every 15 turns or whatever it is)

-The issue with the music playback in 3.018 should also now be fixed.

[carlosjuero]

More great changes

[x4000]

You have Keith LaMothe, Arcen's new part-time programmer, to thank for all of these!  He's sweeping through a lot of this stuff I have not had time to address myself, and I'm excited to see where we go with this into the suggestions forum as the bugs die down, since now there will be more programmer throughput for that sort of thing.

(edit by Keith to restore the "e" to the end of his last name )

[akronia]

Thanks for fixing the Dyson Gatlings!

I was wondering, whats going to happen in our current game with the massive reclamation?

I guess this will only affect newly spawned Gatlings?

[x4000]

I guess this will only affect newly spawned Gatlings?

Yup!

[Doddler]

Are there any fixes for the music?  It's in a sad state since I patched to 3.0.1.8.

[x4000]

Yeah, I meant to mention that -- music should be fixed.

[Lancefighter]

Nooo! My gatlings... :p

Does the lightning shuttle 'effect' timer work for lightning turrets as well? Because.. well.. the turrets get annoying too..

[x4000]

Just shuttles at the moment, but let's see what people think after looking at this.  We can make this also apply to lightning turrets (all as part of the same one queue together) if that seems desirable in practice.

[HitmanN]

The electric shuttle changes sound good. Shall be testing them out. 

[raptor331]

Any plans on adding more music in the future? I love the style of the game, but couldn't we add more metal/rock themed songs?

[Oewyn]

Comments:

1) The attack power of electric shuttles hasn't been reduced.
2) I like the delay between electric shuttles firing.  Ironically though, they are more powerful now because all electric shuttles don't blow their load to kill 1-2 ships.  The delay probably needs to be significantly increased for it to effectively decrease the alpha strike effect.
3) It still seems that I can click and attack remains.

[Lancefighter]

it just seems to me that lightning turrets, even only 5 of them, can wipe out too much too quickly. Granted, a quarter second(?) delay on 4 of them might not even be enough time to be useful in paper-ship cases.

[Goekhan]

Just shuttles at the moment, but let's see what people think after looking at this.  We can make this also apply to lightning turrets (all as part of the same one queue together) if that seems desirable in practice.

They're still OP

[Goekhan]

I don't think delays to lightning shuttle will do any good. If you increase that amount to 1 seconds lets say, than that means no more than 20 of them can fire - rest will be useless. And AI will have some -difficulty- to understand this right away I assume.

You can always make their attack like Teleport Battle Stations, but then, their focus-fire will be OP

Maybe making their attacks like Teleport Battle Stations, but also giving a cluster penalty, then it can be solved, but for now, they're kinda a doomsday device (2k wave pops in, all shuttles with 5x boost attack, well, calculate the damage)