Fleet Battles Beta 3 v0.90 (Released 7/26)

from StarControl Forums


Hello,
What a better way to beat the Venusian heat outside than with a major update to Fleet Battles? We've added a new game mechanic (wrecks), new ships (the Arilou Observer and Kzanti Intimidator), weapons, arena maps, ship parts, and more. Please read below for the complete changes.

Important: Previously saved "fleets" are no longer compatible due to a data change.

New ships

  • Arilou Observer: Green skinned aliens have been using this cloaked ship to watch us from afar for quite some time.
  • Kzanti Intimidator: Space pirates / low-level predators that like keeping their distance from you so they can blow you up with mines. They'll use your scrap to sell on the black market.

New Maps

  • Callum's Deep: Battle around a mysterious dark star with a negative mass
  • Maelstrom: A large map with lots of planets and massive asteroids.
  • Athara: A distance star system with exotic worlds

New Weapons

  • Cloak -- this weapon makes your ship invisible for a short time (Arilou only)
  • Octomator-- Short range blaster that fires in eight directions all at once.
  • Repulsor -- pushes other ships away from you.
  • Proximity Mines -- lay down these explosives that damage enemy ships that get too close
  • Salvage -- allows you to quickly collect nearby wrecks

Gameplay

  • Wrecks: Battle Arenas now are littered with wrecks from destroyed ships.
    • Scavenge these wrecks for bonuses:
      • Yellow: Acceleration
      • Green: Crew (Health)
      • Red: Battery (Energy Regeneration)
      • Blue: Speed
    • Bonuses accumulate between rounds
    • Destroyed ships leave new wrecks for the next round
  • AI vs AI: In single player matches, you can set the AI to fight against itself
  • The Camera is more dynamic
  • Hit TAB now to highlight your ship
  • Changed planet pitches a bit in order to make them look better in Fleet Battles.
  • Renamed the "Dannath Trickster" to the"Xraki Devourer"

Balance

  • Xraki Trickster: increased battery regeneration
  • AI is better at using the Point Defense Laser
  • Point cost balance update for ship crafting (lowering costs in general)
  • Adjusted arena sizes a bit
  • Minor AI tweak to better use certain special secondary weapons.
  • AI difficulty updated
  • Minor changes to the AI weapon list files to discourage the AI from wanting to get in so close with ranged weapons.
  • Tweaks to the AI super melee difficulty levels (generally to make it a bit tougher).
  • Enemy view increased to make it more sensitive to being aimed at by guided weapons.
  • AOE attacks no longer blow up projectiles of the same team.

Crafting

Added more ship parts

UI

  • Added detailed end match screens
  • Added support for Chinese and Russian characters
  • Improved fonts and text layout

Multiplayer

  • Reduced the amount of data sent over the wire to reduce lag
  • Fixed numerous crashes especially on match start
  • Reduced jitters on the peer
19,454 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

You spelled "Kzinti" wrong... both The Usurper and Larry Niven are spinning in their graves;-)

 

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting Kavik_Kang, reply 1

You spelled "Kzinti" wrong... both The Usurper and Larry Niven are spinning in their graves;-)

 

Every time I write out Kzanti (yes that's our spelling), I feel like I'm sneezing.  The actual pronunciation, of course, is much cooler sounding.  I can't wait until you hear the VO in game.   

CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

Arilou causes the game to crash to desktop any time I click the right mouse button to use the secondary weapon.

This has happened on both my SC17 laptop with GTX1070 and my Alienware Aurora R4 w/dual GTX780 in SLI.

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting Justreich, reply 3

Arilou causes the game to crash to desktop any time I click the right mouse button to use the secondary weapon.

This has happened on both my SC17 laptop with GTX1070 and my Alienware Aurora R4 w/dual GTX780 in SLI.

Have you verified your steam files?

Reply #5 from StarControl Forums Top

I have verified/repaired my GOG installations - it happens on both of my systems (desktop & laptop).

It even happens when I play against the Arilou CPU and when I suspect the CPU attempts to use the secondary weapon.

I attempted to find the secondary weapon and it doesn't show up as an available module when building a custom ship.

(I looked for the original dis-dev and for a cloak as specified in reviews, but no dice)

I even did a full uninstall and reinstall, but same results.

Reply #6 from StarControl Forums Top

Any updates on this Arilou crashing problem?  Is this just a problem with the GOG version?  Is someone working on fixing this?

Just FYI... I've now reached a point where I uninstall and reinstall before I try this again - quite annoying to keep downloading 4GB.

Reply #7 from StarControl Forums Top

The same thing has been happening to me as is with Justreich. I am also GOG. I've also tried every possible fix I can, short of diving into the code of the game and fixing it myself, which I of course can't do.

Also, apparently the download section on GOG for Origins for installing the game without GOG Galaxy is still only just Fleet Battles Beta 2. As is the entire store page for Origins on GOG seemingly quite outdated as well.

Why is the GOG side of things looking so neglected? Genuinely curious here.

Anyway, would really love and appreciate a fix for this :)

Reply #8 from StarControl Forums Top

I would like to see ship information when you are selecting a new ship during a battle.  When starting out, you have no idea what the ship can do. Offering a summary of each ship as its highlighted on the selection screen would be helpful.