In The Black (Main) - Minor Patch - 1696

Greetings, Pilots!

Here's an overview of our Early Access hotfixes and stability updates:

New BloodSport Location

Open Space - 5 v 5 - Pure dogfighting. No asteroids. No stations. Just the vacuum.

Gameplay & Game Mode Logic

We've overhauled the logic that governs round transitions and bot behavior. The previous systems had some...exploitable loopholes. Those have been closed.

• FixedTeam Deathmatch Round-End EvaluationAddressed a lingering issue where TDM rounds could end prematurely, even with active players in their ships. The evaluation logic is now more robust and correctly assesses the state of all pilots before calling the match.

• BloodSport Bot & Team Refactor: The bot management system for BloodSport has been completely rewritten. Bots are now handled by a unified rebalancing model that ensures teams are filled, trimmed, and balanced more intelligently. This also addresses an issue where squads joining a match couldn't displace bots correctly.

• FixedNo-Respawn Mode InitializationA subtle but significant bug in 'No-Respawn' modes meant the player elimination checks never armed properly for the first round. This has been corrected. Round 1 now behaves with the same unforgiving logic as all subsequent rounds.

• AI "Danger Rating" System: To provide a more consistent challenge, we've implemented a ship danger rating system for AI selection. The system calculates the median combat effectiveness of all human players in a match and spawns AI ships within a similar rating bracket. This should lead to fewer encounters where fresh pilots are matched against veteran death machines, and vice-versa.

Ship & Module Systems

The ship loadout and economic systems received some much-needed attention. An oversight in vehicle pricing was corrected, and the entire buy-and-equip flow has been hardened against state corruption.

• AddedModule Slot & Loadout Editor OverhaulThis was a big one. We tore down and rebuilt the logic governing module slot editability. A regression was causing default modules to mask the player's actual owned equipment, leading to corrupted save data and an unreliable editing experience. The new system is significantly more resilient.

• Vehicle Economy Exploit Fixed: We closed a loophole that allowed players to generate credits by buying ships and selling their default gimbals and modules individually. Vehicle buy/sell calculations now correctly account for all attached components, ensuring the market reflects intended values.

UI / HUD / MFD

Clarity is life. We've continued to refine the in-cockpit experience, replacing legacy systems with more performant and visually informative ones.

• AddedNew MFD Status Display PipelineThe old hologram system for displaying ship status on Multifunction Displays has been completely replaced. We now use a new off-screen rendering pipeline that captures your ship's integrity and thermal state to dedicated render targets. This provides a massive improvement in both performance and visual fidelity.
• AdjustedDirectional Vector & HUD Indicator ImprovementsPrograde, retrograde, and other fighter indicators have been updated for better readability. They now scale dynamically based on distance and your angle relative to the vector, reducing screen clutter while providing clearer information when you need it most.
• AddedMessage of the Day (MOTD) SystemThe backend for news and MOTD handling has been migrated to a new, centralized [c]AnnouncementSubsystem[/c]. This makes delivery more reliable and paves the way for future improvements.

• General UI Fixes: A host of smaller UI bugs have been squashed. The feedback form now clears its cache after submission.

Client/Server & Networking

Stability in the void is non-negotiable. This patch addresses several issues that were affecting the multiplayer experience, from camera bugs to spectator mode failures.

• Client Cockpit Camera Reliability: We've implemented a more robust recovery path for the client-side cockpit camera. This should eliminate frustrating instances where players would spawn in and find their view locked to the floor of their cockpit.

• FixedSpectator Mode HardenedThe spectator death cam has seen significant improvements. We've fixed an issue that could cause duplicate spectator pawns to be spawned, and resolved a series of bugs that would prevent input from being processed correctly, effectively locking the player out.

• Multiplayer Travel Reliability: The process for leaving a mission and returning to the hangar has been made more reliable for clients. Stale network and session state is now properly torn down, preventing a variety of connection and travel-related bugs.

Known Issues:

• ShipFrame Editor (SFE)

  • Hardpoint Editor - When attempting to assign an owned weapon to a gimbal. The weapon will replace the gimbal and not the weapon or empty weapon slot on the gimbal.

    • Workaround : Upon removing the weapon, re-select the weapon slot to properly assign the weapon.

  • Paint Customizer - Paint Schema keeps resetting

    • Fix : In the Paint Customizer select a schema and apply changes. This happens because default schema is 'unset'

• Ship Manager - When all slots are filled and a vehicle is sold to free a slot for a new one, the purchase is rejected until the hangar is reloaded.

In The Black has always been a passion project for our team. Our goal was never to create a simple arcade shooter, but a deep and immersive military science-fiction combat simulator built around strategy, teamwork, and emergent gameplay. Thank you for being part of this journey with us.

-Impeller Studios