Clean Cut (v0.6.17)

This update took a bit of an unexpected turn. While working on the new spinal weapons for Sector 4, it became obvious that ship explosions just weren’t as satisfying as they should be. That’s now been fixed.

Ship Destruction

Previously, ship destruction simply ejected parts from a central point, added a few smoke trails, and played an explosion animation.

The new system pushes parts outward from the actual impact point, or along the beam path in the case of lasers. Parts intersecting a laser are now sliced in half. Explosions also feature fractal glowing cracks at the blast point, gradual burn effects, and glowing particles.

The result is significantly more satisfying enemy destruction, I hope.

Twitch Votes

Two new Twitch voting options have been added: CRT Mode and Pixel Art Mode.

These aren’t meant to be serious gameplay modes. They exist purely so viewers can torment their favourite (or least favourite) streamers.

Sector 4 Progress

Sector 4 will introduce the heavily requested spinal weapons. These are large, fixed-mount weapons that don’t rotate and hit extremely hard.

For now, I’ve added the Cryo Lance and Howitzer. Although Sector 4 isn’t accessible yet, these weapons are part of the global loot table, so you may come across them if you’re lucky.

Spinal weapons generate significant recoil when mounted on smaller ships, and their firing angle can be manually adjusted when equipped. Both pierce through enemies with the Howitzer also causing large explosions with each impact.

Other Changes

• Encounter rewards are now fully random rather than seed-based, preventing abuse.

• Drone aiming has been improved, so Roach and Hornet drones should miss less.

• Fixed several bugs affecting Beacon weapons.

Full details below. Enjoy.

Patch Notes

New Features / Content

• Destroyed ships now explode realistically with some parts clustering together.

• Added sparks, glow, fractures and charring to ship parts as they explode.

• Lasers now visually cut ships in half when they destroy ships.

• Added support for piercing lasers that hit through multiple targets.

• Howitzer spinal weapon can now drop from the global loot table.

• Cryo Lance spinal weapon can now drop from the global loot table.

• Added a new developer setting and Twitch vote for old school CRT mode.

• Added a new developer setting and Twitch vote for old school pixel art mode.

Balance Changes

• Beacon ships now scale damage and toughness more with increased level.

• Beacons that are cancelled early now only take a partial cooldown.

• Increased range of drones from 300m to 400m.

• Inferno cannon projectiles no longer explode before impact.

Quality of Life / Accessibility

• Encounter reward type/rarity remains seed-based, but items are now random.

• New game+ pop-up now mentions that the choice cannot be reversed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where the player's laser weapons would not hit enemy drones.

• Fixed bug where beacon ships would not jump away at the end of their duration.

• Fixed bug where low-level beacons had significantly lower duration than intended.

• Fixed bug where friendly drones would miss with weapons on purpose.

• Fixed issue with loading v0.6.07 saves when they contained old items.

• Fixed some bugs with credit animations setting the value incorrectly.

• Fixed bug where Novus Prime, Asgard and Eden were granting XP on arrival.

• Fixed null reference in CameraController.UpdateCameraPosition().

• Fixed null reference in AssemblerPanel.ShowIncreaseLevel().

• Dust layer no longer renders on top of ships.

• Fixed bug when using drones in Sandbox with enemies set to inactive.