Build 0.12.13

Version 0.12.13 brings several weeks of work: War Machines in multiplayer, two new maps, the No Attack Period, engines on moving parts and turbo engine wear, a reworked settings menu, better cockpits, defence against long range missiles and nuclear bombs, many multiplayer stability fixes and a large balance pass.

Maps & Game Modes

• New maps: Iron Veins and Duel, both available in multiplayer, and Training Waves.

• Frontline War map is now symmetrical and has more resources for multiplayer matches.

• Challenges are now available on Deathmatch maps.

• Deathmatch maps are available in Sandbox mode.

• New No Attack Time match setting (5, 10 or 20 minutes), available in Deathmatch and multiplayer. During the period every player stays inside their starting area, and nobody can attack, AI included.

• War Machines: the victory condition is now customizable (best of 3, 5, 7 or 9); the enemy starting area can no longer be seen; added "skip build phase" button for multiplayer mode.

Multiplayer

• War Machines can now be played in multiplayer.

• Fixed several causes of desync.

• Fixed the minimap in multiplayer mode.

• The match start countdown is now five seconds in the multiplayer lobby panel.

• The Synchronization Error window explains more clearly what is happening.

• Double-click a server in the list to join it.

Modules and Stations

• Engines and thrusters can be built at any angle and on moving parts (hinges, rotators, pistons and rails); their thrust follows the part as it moves.

• Turbo now wears engines: each engine has a chance of losing health during turbo.

• Engines with lower health will provide less thrust.

• Engines stop pushing the station as soon as they start being recycled.

• The Rotate and Pose commands are now called Motion and Form. Stations with moving parts can save up to three forms: left click saves an empty slot or activates a saved form, right click deletes it.

• Solar Panels now have adjacency bonuses.

• Defence against incoming long range missiles and nuclear bombs: ships will shoot the missile down instead of flying to the launcher, station turrets fire at it as well.

• Missile Facility and Nuclear Bomb Facility no longer require line of sight.

• The Steel Plate Emblem shows the colour chosen by its player.

• Light Facility and Heavy Facility have an extra mount point on their back.

• Construction volumes adjusted for more building combinations: Warp Drive Disruptor, Crew Quarter, Warehouse, Power Accumulator, Nuclear Power Reactor, Quantum Power Reactor, Sensor Tower, Space Sonar, Ram Drill, Plasma Cannon, Deflector Plate, Loxodonta, Mammoth, Command Bridge, Single and Dual Converger, Ascending and Descending Wing, Angled Stabilizer.

• The forward arrows of a Station are also shown while you build on it.

• Engine flames follow the actual thrust and fade out smoothly when the engine stops.

Units & Formations

• Formations no longer override the attack orientation of their units.

• Shot-down Nuclear Bombs, Perforation Mines, Self-Destruct Rangers and long range missiles now explode with reduced damage instead of being defused.

• Missiles, homing projectiles and mines no longer hit the turrets that fired them.

• The Skirmisher model has a side bridge like the other warships.

Cockpits

• The Assault Warship has a new interior cockpit.

• New cockpits on the Missile Facility, Nuclear Bomb Facility, Heavy Artillery Turret, Rotating Heavy Ion Cannon, Plasma Turret and Plasma Cannon.

• Command Center: new view from its turret. With a Command Bridge, the views of the Command Center and of the bridge cycle together.

• Skirmisher and Strike Warship get external views, and Platform A, Sentry, Combat Dummy and Drone can be piloted from external views.

• Steadier shadows inside ship cockpits.

User Interface and Settings

• Settings menu reworked: changes wait until you apply them and stay pending when you switch tabs; tabs with unapplied changes are marked.

• Control group keys (1-9), Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Esc, Enter and the console keys are reserved, and control group keys lost to an older rebind come back.

• Resetting a key no longer leaves it on two actions, and a game key changed from the pause menu no longer works while paused.

• Changing the cockpit key also changes the key that cycles the cockpit views.

• Shift+click no longer removes a key: use the delete icon, which describes what it does.

• Minimap: Command Units have the command icon, unit icons are more visible, and fired long range missiles and nuclear bombs are shown.

• Battle area markers in the tactical view turn off correctly after the fighting stops.

• Command Priority in area selection now also works on allied and enemy stations.

• Clicking a facility or the Command Center in the world selects it in the Ships panel. The panel also picks better defaults when you switch facility or category.

• Fixed interface clicks sometimes not registering.

• Camera focus: large asteroids and blueprints are framed from outside, groups are framed around their centre, and following moving ships is smooth.

• Movement and turbo buttons lock only with a double click, no longer with right click or Shift+click.

• The Soundtrack Player Visibility setting offers Always Visible, Auto Hide and Always Hidden.

• When your Command Center falls, announcements stop and only the final message plays.

• The Missions and Communications panels refresh when their content changes.

• Buttons no longer stay highlighted when a click is dragged off them.

• Saves and loading: no autosave after the match is over or while the map is loading.

Performance and Optimization

• Game-wide reduction of the work spent tracking object positions, with less main-thread work.

• Rewritten turret aim math code to drastically reduce the cost of large fleets and stations.

• Engine effects are now much cheaper when they are off-screen.

• Floating numbers overhead reduced.

• The minimap refresh is about 80% cheaper.

• Faster collision checks for rotating modules.

Balance Changes

Scenario Difficulty

• Spawn rate on Very Easy: 0.25 -> 0.20 (-20%)

• Spawn rate on Easy: 0.55 -> 0.50 (-9%)

• Spawn rate with the Passive AI personality: 0.9 -> 0.8 (-11%)

Research

• Remote Energy Transfer: cost 300 -> 500; resources* (+66%);* time 27 -> 90s (+233%); research points 2 -> 4 (+100%)

• Drill Systems: cost 750 -> 1.000 resources (+33%); time 135 -> 180s (+33%); research points 7 -> 9 (+28%)

Units and Modules

• Radiation Shield Generator radiation resistance: 2 -> 6 (+200%)

• Sensor Tower range bonus: 18 (Command Center) and 12 (Command Unit) -> 13.5 for both

• Recycling modules is 25% faster

• Recycling in combat is now 70% slower

• Engines Turbo max speed bonus reduced from 140% -> 100%

• Engines Turbo acceleration bonus reduced from 180% -> 140%

• Command Unit construction time: 10 -> 15s (+50%)

• Striker health: 200 -> 250 (+25%)

• Ranger hitbox size increased by 5%

• Bomber health: 300 -> 350 (+16%)

• Scavenger armor: 4 -> 5 (+25%)

• Light Mechgun: health 500 -> 550 (+10%); armor 2 -> 3 (+50%)

• Heavy Mechgun: health 550 -> 600 (+9%); armor 3 -> 4 (+33%)

• Ammunition health:  Micro Nuke 360 -> 450 (+25%); Long Range Missile 2.500 -> 2.250 (-10%); Mortar cluster 400 -> 450 (+12%)

Weapons

• Mechgun weapons damage: Autocannon 2 -> 2.4* (+20%);* Laser 3.27 -> 3.76 (+15%); Rocket 4.2 -> 4.62 (+10%)

• Striker Autocannon damage: 2.65 -> 2.9 (+9%)

• Ion damage (damage per tick): Warship/Vessel Ion 5.5 -> 8 (+45%); Ion Turret** 5.5 -> 8.5** (+54%); Heavy Ion Turret 14 -> 18 (+28%); Rotating Heavy Ion Cannon **66 -> 75 **(+13%)

• Ion multipliers vs Fighters and Mechguns: Warship/Vessel Ion 0.8 -> 0.5 *(-37%); *Ion Turret 0.8 -> 0.5 *(-37%); *Heavy Ion 0.7 -> 0.5 *(-28%); *Rotating Heavy Ion Cannon 0.7 -> 0.5 (-28%)

• Plasma damage: Warship Plasma 42.75 -> 39 (-8%); Plasma Turret** 42.75 -> 40** (-6%)

Resources

• Small asteroids (only A variants) now have 2 docking points instead of 3.

• Small Carbon ("A" variant): 15k -> 10k (-33%)

• Small Metal ("A" variant): 30k -> 20k (-33%)

• Small Silica ("A" variant): 30k -> 15k (-50%)

• Small Silica ("B" variant): **20 -> 15k **(-25%)

• Small Silica ("C" variant): 30k -> 22.5k (-25%)

• All Medium Silica: 60k -> 45k (-25%)

• All Big Silica: 180k -> 135k (-25%)

• All Huge Silica: 360k -> 270k (-25%)

• Small Uranium ("A" and "C" variant): 3k -> 6k (+100%)

• Small Uranium ("B" variant): 2k -> 4k (+100%)

• Medium Uranium: 5k -> 10k (+100%)