Patch V1.10 has been RELEASED!

Dear all, We're proud to announce that patch V1.10 has been released! This is a major patch that we foresee will require further patches to "harden" or stablize whatever changes we've made. But first, here're the highlights!

New Implementations

1. Celestial Disasters have been implemented. These are random celestial events that spawns on both single and multiplayer modes. Their purpose is to randomly tip the balance of battle OR be used as a kill zone by capable strategists. Disasters cannot be prevented. Needless to say there're more than 1-2 types of disasters and by default, they spawn with relative rarity. However, on some maps their spawn chance might be bumped up.

2. New Damage Indicator / Reduction Indicator Based on feedback gathered during our recent exhibition Game Start Asia 2016 We were told that IF there's a numeric health indicator (other than the health bar) then there should be a numeric damage indicator. Naturally, the thought of a numeric damage indicator did cross our minds way back before. However, since each ship has their own unique arrangement of weaponry, it'll be hard to paint an accurate picture. Hence, nevertheless, we've decided to implement a reasonably accurate estimation of damage. (p.s the image below is considered outdated and non-canon) Numeric damage is shown in Damage Per Second. Some ships fire longer than 1 second, while others may be shorter. The damage doesn't take armour type into account and thus might not reflect true damage in all situations. Irradiation damage is shown as a % in purple color. It's impossible to indicate the final true damage because irradiation is based on the victim's maximum hit points. Unarmed vessels will from now on, be clearly indicated. This is taken from the fact that some folks that were trying out Foresight built a large group of scouts without knowing that they can't deal ANY sort of damage.

3. New AI Path algorithm. This endeavour delayed us by at least 3 days. The purpose of the new algorithm is to fix the limitation of the original algorithm which can sometimes lead to errenous paths. This has also in the past, caused new fighters and bombers to be built and upon completion, only to self-destruct because it couldn't find a way to the parent ship. The new AI Path algorithm is far more resilient and performs better.

4. New Survival Co-Op map! Apart from the Single Survival map we've provided in V1.09, now there's a 4 player co-op map where you can co-op with your friends to survive against an enemy onslaught of waves. Each wave is randomized by race so every replay is different. You can also play in 3 difficulty levels Easy, Normal and Hard - each having a different number of waves. Hard is REALLY hard.

5. New Siege map! Siege is the new co-op game mode that focus on siege battles mostly. The enemy will present itself as a puzzle in which you must device a strategy to overcome. This new map is a small map with 2 co-op players and 4 stages. To add to the spice, we've created an Ultra version of the Encephalos. To those who already know what the Encephalos is, this version is FAR more lethal. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, we're not able to create different difficulty levels for the siege map. We'll be looking into it very soon.

6. New Camera capabilities Many players have complained about the apparent lack of camera flexibility when viewing the battlefield. Thus, we've added 2 features into the existing camera. - While rotating the camera, you can now move your cursor up/down to actually bring the camera higher/lower respectively. The rotation is no longer confined to just a simple rotation around a flat plane. - Certain parts of the camera features are now interpolated to reduce confusion between switches. Ie, rotation and reset. Before V1.10, the camera snaps into orientation and position which can sometimes be confusing. To alleviate that, the transitions are now mostly interpolated. It means you'll be able to better know where you're and what you're looking at.

7. Game is further optimized! Internal changes made to our emitters have made it much more easier and smoother to spawn emitters as required without a huge performance penalty. This means older machines can now experience a smoother gameplay, and newer and powerful machine will look even better.

Modifications

• Ships in dormant mode already will no longer be push-able. They'll have a much higher push priority at the expense of being next to totally vulnerable. - Added updates to ship navigator to take into account the distance the ship has been pushed. This will then allow the ship to travel its intended destination instead of stopping prematurely. - "Survival" mode - which is a Single Player mode shall no longer be available during Multiplayer map selection. - Fleets are now able to recall bombers from remote locations. This feature is only available to fleets only; not ships without a fleet. By default, pressing 'E' will recall bombers within the area of the fleet commander. Now, if you press 'E' twice, you'll force all bombers in the fleet to be recalled. Useful if you intend to salvage your bombers. - As much as possible, your player name or Steam name will be used in single/multiplayer battles as much as possible. - AI players (skirmish or co-op allies) will now adapt itself to the speed you've chosen so as to react as fast as it's supposed to be. - Particles in Foresight is now more varied, giving it a more unqiue and individual feel.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in multiplayer where the server sets a slot to AI player, thereby reducing the number of available slots and this information isn't updated to the lobby. - Fixed a bug where in certain cases, drag and drop select does NOT work. This is due to a bug caused when a UNC player opens the repair tool and doesn't close it in a certain way. - Fixed a bug where the fleet commander remains on the fleet even when all ships on the fleet has been destroyed. - Fixed a reporting bug where special abilities like Shield Overdrive and Blood Burst can report [0/0] ships affected. - Fixed a bug where Shield Overdrive for AI players keep turning itself on/off all the time. - Fixed a bug where Single Battles does not restart properly. - Fixed a bug where Fleets being orchestrated by the script to attack, doesn't do so. This reduces immersiveness and breaks the momentum of the game events. - Fixed a bug where AI fleets that are idling do not go help out when their base is under attack. That means, AI is now more reactive. - Fixed a bug where in certain cases, the server doesn't share player information as required to new clients. - Fixed a bug where fixed alliance in a Single Battle go missing when the game starts. - Fixed a bug where certain cross-faction characters such as Thomas Lock comes in their own faction ship. That means a NSAU player recruiting Thomas Lock can end up having a UNC Frigate. This is undesirable since it'll be impossible to request for fighters/bombers when the request buttons on the left clash. - Fixed a bug where the AI player continues to work even when the game has declared victory/defeat. The complication is such that the AI actually continues playing and gaining statistics, ie, harvested and thus in a way, is cheating. - Fixed a bug in multiplayer where ships can sometimes hijack the command of another ship due to a corruption in ship index. This is a mismanagement between client and server. The server will now control indexing completely. - Fixed a bug where the bloom (light flood) levels aren't properly reset when the player chooses to go from the mission briefing room to the main menu. - Fixed a bug where SS ships do not regenerate after a game is loaded. - Fixed a bug where rank and command icons appears out of thin air especially when the UI has been kept downwards. - Fixed a bug where the unit's portrait appears out of nowhere when a ship is being built. If the UI has been kept below, the portrait must appear below as well. (which is out of sight) - Fixed a bug where AI player escapes to a ship in the defense force (a group of ships used by the player AI to defend against enemy attacks) and then the AI sends that ship to go and die. This causes the player to die way too early and in unexpected ways. The solution is therefore, wherever the player is onboard, that ship can no longer be regarded as fleet of the defense fleet. - Fixed a timer issue that causes games to be buggy as the game went on. Loading of saved game causes a huge variety of problems such as * Not being able to build anything * Units ignore your orders - Fixed a bug where reset camera resets the camera without releasing from any ships being followed. (ie, Chase Cam) - Fixed a bug where a UNC player cannot give orders to a fleet when it's under repair tool mode. - Fixed a bug where AI crafts a path and got its own paths rendered on the player's own sector map. - Fixed a bug where a saved game is loaded and the player's colors are totally off. - Fixed a bug where NSAU runners do not set itself to be no longer under construction. Because of this flag, it caused a few issues when the game is loaded. - Fixed a bug where the resource gas cloud growth timer isn't saved as part of the saved game, causing it later to not grow any further. - Fixed a bug where you press a key and then press another while holding down the 1st key, a screeching sound is heard. - Fixed a bug where disconnected clients (from server) end up having the OST jukebox playing the wrong music in the mian menu, - In multiplayer, if a structure under construction takes damage, the client doesn't properly reflect its true health status on the client. - Fixed a bug in multiplayer where power down due to a lack of mobile power units isn't properly shown on the clients' machine. Shields aren't taken down and EVA plays the wrong voice for the client. - Fixed tool tips explanation. - Fixed a bug where recruited commanders in a SS player configuration doesn't draw any blood. - Fixed a bug where if you load your saved game too many times, almost everything will stop functioning. You'll still get your game but you won't be able to build, harvest or manage your fighters. This is due to a timer bug which is introduced when we first wanted to use an alternative to getting tick count. It has since been fixed and may require you to restart your mission should the problem persist. We're sorry about that since we try our very best not to cause a problem to your playing experience whenever we update the game. Sometimes it's just simply unavoidable. :(

Outstanding issues and features

• Dormant short-cuts are no longer working. We'\ll need to add 2 more shortcuts instead of using 'D' as the only dormant point. P.S. We might change it to simply using a single key as the point of trigger. By default it'll be 'D'. The variations will be double-tap to turn on, and holding the D key for a period of time to turn off. - Doodads are not all placed yet. - Siege maps doesn't have difficulty level as of this writing.

Conclusion

Finally, after 2 months of non-stop work, we've finished the patch of the final set of features we had plan to implement on Foresight. Of course, along the way we had to fix existing bugs and in some cases, being forced further to remodel or redesign the entire module. This patch should be relatively stable but only time will tell. While that is that, you can rest assured that we'll be listening to your feedback while we do our own testing. Time to have a Co-Op match some time!! Have a great weekend and to all our Hindu friends, Happy Diwali! Regards, Jeremy