Star Control: Origins V1.1 [ Released 10/25]

Hello,
We have prepared a substantial patch for you. While there's something for everyone, here are some of the highlights:

• Updated ship components As a rule, early game components are cheaper, whereas late game components are more expensive.  Late game components are generally more effective.  
• Planet mineral balance We want to reward you for exploring dangerous worlds and less compelled to visit low-value worlds.  
• Visual improvements We've improved the appearance of the leaders, planet props, and the planets. 
• Updated Fleet Battles Balance  We've made a fairly substantial improve ship balance in fleet battles.

Important: Due to the scope of these changes, this build may break any local mods that you have.  

Gameplay

• Added new Flee mechanic.  After winning your first round, you can flee the battle.  However, note that the enemy fleet will be fully healed when you fight them again.
• Added a new System Scanner component that highlights planets with "interesting" things.  
• Added mouseover info for planets
• Added mouseover to the "fleet picker" in Fleet battles for ships in your fleet
• Adjusted lander physics to feel more weighty
• Planet mineral balance pass.
• Ship AI changes:
• AI makes better use of wormholes
• Smarter about hunting for wrecks (e.g. powerups)
• Better at evading
• Improvements to how the AI interacts with incoming projectiles
• Improved AI behavior for Tywom turret placement
• Added new unique weapons: Flank Blasters, Rapid Laser Dual & Gauss Cannon
• Distributed new weapons among existing alien ships for better combat variety
• Added new race of minor aliens in the Fang Cluster
• Added new pheromones aliens encounter
• Added tough new alien interactions in 4 systems
• Changed the type of hyperdrive you get from Kzanti in Sirius A so that Star Control accepts it for Colony ships.
• After meeting Wymdoo on Triton, a beacon now points the player towards the training base
• Adding some Captain's Logs to the scared Tywom quest giver NPC.
• Fix for a hitch with the Mukay Ice World prank the Menkmack play on them. All Ice Worlds are despawned when the prank is caught.
• AI now taunts you in Fleet Battles
• Moving the planet Vrooms in Alpha Mensae much further into the system to stop some weird behavior when the player tried to land on it and went into hyperspace instead.
• Moving some planets in Arcturus a little closer to the star, so that players can actually land on them.
• Reduced cost and increased efficiency of lander components
• Increased the cost of powerful nuclear missile variants
• Reduced the selling price of some weapons that can be looted
• Increased the cost of late-game ship components
• Earthship energy regen rate increased from 7 to 9.
• Changed some ships to the human faction to allow healing.
• Default Lander Crew increased from 5 to 6.
• Deflector Mark II reduced from 20% to 15%.
• Reduced cost of overpriced lander components.
• Reduced the selling price of some of the "random" pick-up weapons.
• Fixed some ships having too small RU value.
• Increased cost powerful Nuke variants.
• Overmind Deflector reduced from 25% to 20%.
• Slight nerf to stacking deflectors.
• Planet mineral balance pass. In general, the higher the risk, the higher the reward!
• Minor balance changes to Norast ship and Battlecruiser since you can now heal them.
• The game now despawns mercenaries when you hire the Mercenary Captain.
• Measured/Phamysht/Boscan Transport won't bother the player after winning
• All ships can now be recrewed from Star Control base
• Urlon convoys now use the proper ship in combat.

Audio

• Added new voice for the Freed Trandals
• Fixed streaming settings for new Scryve music
• Adding Earthling Cruiser weapon variations
• Added canister bomb weapon fire variations
• Added Scryve space exploration 1 song.
• Added audio event for planetary investigation

Interface

• Improved remapping of keys and controller inputs
• MP Lobby no longer shows the wrong Fleet after ending a match
• Right-clicking on AI button in fleet battles setup now moves backward through the opponent types.
• Starbase Buy/Sell Panel no longer loses focus sometimes
• Fix the possibility of users being able to select options whilst "are you sure you want to surrender" prompt is up
• Resolved issue with pressing B button on controller causing popup dialogs to cancel but not call any button functions!

Graphics

• Improved some planet buildings and props that weren't set in the ground properly
• Improved appearance for many planet props
• Updated visuals for the bug and worm critters
• Optimized shaders to increase perf. on planets
• Added a configurable frame limiter in the settings file
• Fixed some very pixelated Red Stars in hyperspace
• Updated the Xraki, Greegrox, Trandal and Jeff leader screens visuals
• General animation polish/fixes for the Menkmack and  Mercenary Captain
• Added animation to the Trandal leader background
• Added a bigger explosion when you defeat the final boss
• Compressed planet models textures to save space on disk (and small perf. bonus to boot!)
• Slight performance improvements to stamps.

Foreign Languages

• Added Commander voice over for German, Russian and Chinese languages.
• Updated galaxy object names for non-English to improve translation and better match quests.
  
• Added translations for Portuguese-Brazil and Spanish (Spain).
• Updated translations for German, Russian and Simplified Chinese with lots of fixes/corrections.

Bugs

• In fleet battles, the enemy purple engine trail now matches the player trail's in length and size
• Fleet battles now have space backgrounds in hyperspace
• Pulsar weapon now has a description
• Fixed some transports not giving the right RU bounty when destroyed
• All misc salvageable ships now use the human pilot animation in combat
• Using the Observer cloak ability in MP will no longer cause the ship parts of the affected ship to sometimes have very bad transforms
• Ship acceleration indicator on inventory and starbase screens now use correct value rather
• Fixing some incorrect popup descriptions for Engine rewards
• Autonav to a starbase will not drain your fuel while you're there
• The Tywom will now properly deduct any superfluids from the player.
• Tywom Fuel Rescue guy will no constantly respawn further away when you enter combat (coward!)
• If your Vindicator is full, collecting an item no longer deletes it permanently
• The "sell conventionals" button is no longer disabled if you didn't have a common resource in your cargo.
• Fix for the alien who can't be ignored in Alpha Mus.
• Fixing an incongruous movie for a building on Iota Aspis B II.
• Fix escape when using surrender from escape menu in Fleet battle (campaign) causing the game to unpause.
• Fix for various bugs with strange Measured obelisks quests
• Modified marketplace to deal with an issue where you could lose fuel by selecting the same component in the list.
• If your main ship mysteriously disappears, we'll give you a new one
• Urlon ships no longer look huge in hyperspace
• Deleting a ship design will now correctly select the first design in the list afterward.
• Ships are no longer stuck on the edge of the Arcturus system.
• Maelnir trader in Arcturus is no longer stuck inside the star.
• You can longer get stuck running out of fuel during the final fight
• Fix for incorrect Game Over a few days later if you stop the Xraki from destroying Earth after they arrive.
• Removed collision from trees and small rocks because hitting trees wasn't fun
• Fixed a controller hang issue when dismissing auto nav dialogs quickly.
• Adjusted Controller UI dead zone value  as it was overly sensitive.
• Fixed difficulty checking boxes in gameplay tab of options
• Fixes issue with acceleration and recharge being identical in Melee config screen
• Fixes various problems with interacting with a planet after interacting with a ship
• Fixed floating rocks on Beta Wendigo I
• Fixed bad placement of village on Wastear in the Lacaille 8760 system."

Fleet Battles Balance changes 

Tywom

Despite being the first ship players get access to in the Adventure Mode, it’s incredibly powerful and one of the best. The incredibly rapid fire rate of the main gun made it too good at bursting enemy ships down. In particular, the Spawn Turret mechanic could be quite exploitative and anti-fun by encouraging the player to avoid the enemy spawning turrets and never engaging directly. These changes will make the Tywom play more actively and make it feel like more of a starter ship.

• Tywom Bolt cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25
• Turret duration reduced from 30 to 15
• Max turrets reduced from 5 to 3
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Greegrox Swarm

The Greegrox was far too difficult to hit with projectiles due to the tiny Collision box combined with instant direction changing. These changes will make the Greegrox easier to hit.

• Collision box increased from 0.25 to 0.30
• Acceleration reduced from 18 to 12
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Measured Response

The Measured Response could be very frustrating to play against due to the permanent slows and difficulty to hit due to high acceleration, small hitbox and instant direction changes. It will be easier to hit and its weapons are getting toned down to justify its 7 points cost.

• Red Tape now only temporarily slows instead of permanent slows
• Acceleration reduced from 20 to 14
• Invitation damage reduced from 10 to 8

Terran Cruiser

The Earthling Cruiser was too fragile and too clunky to control. These changes will make the Terran Cruiser stronger and more fun to play

• Health increased from 19 to 24
• Turn rate increased from 75 to 85

Lexite Interceptor

The Lexite Interceptor was far too strong to justify its low 9 point cost.

• Points increased from 9 to 11

Trandals Frigate

The raw power of the Trandal Weapon was too much, especially when combined with its massive mobility allowing it to flank enemy ships or pickup all the salvage easily.

• Laser Ribbon Bola damage per second reduced from 150 to 110

Scryve Probe

Like the Tywom Bolt, the Scout Shot was able to burst targets down far too quickly despite also having the dangerous self-destruct.

• Scout Shot damage reduced from 6 to 5
• Scout shot cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25

This is intended to also affect other ships using Scout Shot.

Drenkend Carrier

The Drenkend Carrier was too strong to justify 12 points. The De-energizer Bolt could be quite exploitative due to it’s rapid-fire and low energy cost, which could permanent chain stun targets.

• Points increased from 12 to 16
• De-energizer Bolt energy cost increased from 5 to 10
• De-energizer bolt cooldown increased from 0.4 to 0.8

Xraki Devourer

The Xraki Devourer was too strong at 12 points. The long range and massive energy pool encouraged the ship to avoid the enemy and fly away poking long range black holes, which also were deadly at close range. Lowering the range of the Black Hole projectile will force the Xraki ship to approach the enemy more.

• Points increased from 12 to 14
• Energy cost reduced from 100 to 85
• Black hole duration reduced from 5 to 2.5

Menkmack Negotiator

The Menkmack Negotiator was too weak for 12 points.

• Points cost reduced from 12 to 10

Phamyst Consumer

Invitation was far too spammable at only 10 energy as it practically had no drain on the Phamyst, given the huge range and lack of required aiming it was too powerful.

• Invitation Energy cost increased from 10 to 20

Kzanti Intimidator

The Kzanti ship was frustrating to verse as it was overly nimble and able to knock the enemy away with Repulsor. It will now be slightly less agile and not be able to spam Repulsor on top of planting mines. Especially important as this was one of the first ships the player would encounter in the Adventure Mode.

• Points cost reduced from 13 to 11
• Repulsor energy cost increased from 5 to 10
• Max speed reduced from 6.5 to 6
• Acceleration reduced from 6.75 to 6