New version!
https://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stars_Beyond_Reach_Beta_Phase_3_Release_Notes#Version_0.912_.28Act_II.2C_Pollution.2C_Blueshirts_V2.29I'm going to be sending out the "blueshirt v2" beta invites momentarily.
So, let's see... the brief notes on this version from a big-picture standpoint:
1. First of all, pollution is revamped such that the pollution death spiral should no longer happen any longer. Not without a lot of other factors, anyhow (a death spiral from multiple systems failing at once is totally possible and cool with me -- but those tend to be limited to individual territories overall, so building with more than one territory becomes highly desirable for that reason).
2. A variety of balance and bugfix things based on player reports from the last wave of testers. There's plenty more that you guys have found that we just haven't gotten to you, but don't let that be any kind of discouragement; keep 'em coming!
3. Act 2 of the game is now in place, finally! It's not 100% complete in the sense that all the international abilities for the act 1 and 2 buildings are not yet in place, so you can't properly interact with the races (bricks or sandwiches) to get them to give you intel. I mean, you can, but only in some circumstances and with some races. More circumstances and more races are coming up. But beyond that, act 2 is done -- and that's just a data problem.
4. Act 3 is NOT available yet, but it is getting very close to being done. I actually got the tech tree redone for all 5 acts now, which I'm pleased about. A lot of the main work for act 3 is also based around international abilities, which are individually pretty quick to do now. Other parts revolve around things that the other races want that thus form your goals for act 3.
5. There are now per-territory building pop caps, which is a big deal in a way that I think is important. I view this as being rather like the per-ship-type unit caps in AI War, and they exist for precisely the same reason. And both can be increased excessively, too, if you go about things right.
6. In other news, the revised GUI is coming along well between Blue and I. It's all prototyping in photoshop thus far, but it's been an extreme amount of revision for the bottom and left parts of the screen (like we already did with the top part of the screen). I think you'll be really pleased with that when we get to it.
7. I am still hoping to have all 5 acts complete and ready for you to play in the next couple of days. There's been a bit more time than expected spent polishing act 1, but really that's polishing all the acts by extension, so I'm pleased. I vacillate between panic and excitement about the schedule. Release is supposedly in less than 3 weeks now. I can't stress enough just how important the testers and the writing team is during this last stretch: there is absolutely no freaking way we'd be able to pull this off without you guys at this point. So we're extremely grateful for the interest folks are taking.
Cheers!
Chris
