Release notes:
http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=The_Last_Federation_Alpha_Release_Notes#Alpha_Version_.817Restart steam to force a quicker update if you like.
Combat is definitely even better in this version, as is the solar map. You guys were right, waypoints really rock. Also, the balance is better on both parts of the game, and I'm really enjoying combat even more because of that.
The new escape pods for pilots are something where you can collect them, but not yet use them. The purpose behind them is to give you another tactical consideration: do you go in and rescue the pilots and then later cash them in in some way for a benefit? There are three overall ways planned, but not yet implemented (tomorrow, likely). Or do you keep a safer distance, since there is likely lots of hostile fire near those pilots? Similarly, your shots can hit the pilot escape pods, but enemy shots do not. So if you want to go up near those pods, you either need to anticipate what autoaim will do, or use a different firing mode, to make sure you don't accidentally pop the pod yourself.
This is actually super important to me in terms of adding to the tactical depth, because it gives you conflicting goals. On the one hand, you want the cheddar, so you want to get in close. On the other hand, that's dangerous. It's not a huge overarching goal of the game, but collecting a bunch of pilots really can add up for you in terms of gaining a lot of Credit or Influence or otherwise. It's also by far the easiest way to gain Leverage on the Burlusts, or Voting Proxies with the Peltians, which I know is always a big desire. This is the first way you can do that without directly doing missions for those races. Well, anyway it will be once we add the functionality of actually using the pilots you capture.
There are a bunch of hotkey changes this release, so experienced players are going to have confused fingers tonight. Mine are only now catching up, too. Why the changes? Well, I moved some less-important stuff out of the center of the keyboard (the speed controls used to be something you had to reach easily when this was realtime, but that is no longer true). Additionally, WASD in battle now pans the viewport, in addition to the arrow keys doing that. That was just something that I (and apparently others of you) would naturally try to do after being trained to do that from so many games. And it's also way easier for the fingers to reach than the arrow keys, to boot. And that meant that the existing things on WASD had to move, even though I didn't really want to. The thing that was on W just went away, so that was easy. And then ASD became FGT. F and G being the two you use a lot, so easily accessible. And then T instead of H, since H centers the view on your ship, and displacing that isn't a great idea since that is a standard key for the genre.
On the solar map side, you should find that things happen at a MUCH more reasonable pace, so that dispatch missions aren't hosing you over. But if you still feel like something is off with the pacing there, please let us know, of course.
Also, there's going to be a new batch of testers tonight!
Caveats (Same as last time):1. All of the Operational abilities are still having their ships slaved to your attacks, and I don't intend for that to remain the case.
2. If you are running into specific mission types that are un-fun slow in the new combat model, then please send us saves. I tested (for instance) dropping off spacefaring tech, and it was a tense 60-second excursion or so.
Enjoy!
