2017.1 Update - Release Notes

Today we are releasing the first update to the live version of the game, available in Canada. Soon we'll have more details to share on our plans to launch in more countries - stay tuned!

Here's what's new in this update:

Combat

• New Cerberus ship: Interceptor (encountered in level 4+ Red Stars, faster than any other ship, can fire simultaneously on up to 4 ships in range, will cross sector boundaries once triggered)
• Added more detailed descriptions on the info page for all Cerberus ships, to better explain AI and movement modes
• The position of a ship can now always be used to predict who will be attacked first. Previously, when multiple ships where docked at the same point, an incoming ship would not always fire at the closest target.
• Cerberus ships can now dock on different sides of objects, in order to strategically protect weaker Cerberus ships, and to prevent clustering that make combat harder to read
• Reduced battleship limit to 2 for level 4 red stars 
• Increased requirements to gain influence on higher level red stars 

Modules

• New Module: Impulse (provides a short speed boost to the ship, moving it faster across its current route)
• New Module: Barrier (prevents enemy ships within the area of effect from moving while the effect is active)
• Teleport & Time warp: Reduce cooldown to 5 min, increase activation price
• EMP: Reduce cooldown to 2 min, decrease duration on lv2+, increase activation price
• Mass battery - max targets depends on upgrade level (now starts at 3 targets instead of 5), also damage reduced on all levels
• Dual laser: increased initial damage and maximum ramp up damage on all levels
• Red star life extender: decreased duration, increased hydrogen cost on all levels

Economy and Progression tweaks

• Hydrogen: Passive income from planets has doubled
• More artifacts will be available in red stars, when more than one player has been matched to that star
• Higher level artifacts now take up to 3 hours to research
• Increased blueprint requirements to upgrade for most modules  
• Salvaging artifacts also gives a Hydrogen reward (in addition to the credits reward)
• Planet upgrade times increased for level 12+ planets
• Warp Lane can now be built from level 12 planets
• Trade station cost increased, now requires level 13 planet to build

User Interface

• Show notification on the Technology button when there are one or more modules available to unlock/upgrade, and the player has enough money to start the upgrade
• When a module is being unlocked or upgraded, the Technology button will show a radial bar that indicates overall progress
• Shipment sort mode will be remembered during the session
• Miners that need orders will glow (both in Yellow and in Red stars)
• Show on screen indicator when shipment computer picks up shipments automatically from an intermediate waypoint
• Camera improvements (i.e. when returning to the home star, the camera will remember its last position)

Miscellaneous changes

• Corporations: Officers now have the option to send a message to all Corporation members (access it from the Corporation info page)
• Added confirmation before kicking someone out of the Corporation
• Remove one time restriction from naming planets and ships
• Can no longer drop artifacts on other player's planets (a diplomacy partner can still pick up artifacts stored on your planets)

Bug fixes

• Artifact Research will no longer stall if the artifact under research is salvaged
• Fixed an issue where Laser would start in a ramped up state after having lost its target
• Fix issue that could cause some planets in the yellow star to have the same auto-generated name
• New inbox messages should now be sorted correctly
• A very small amount of players experienced an "empty sector" bug, where a newly discovered sector had no objects and spawned no asteroids. On the first login after the update, those sectors should now be fixed and will contain new asteroid fields, Cerberus ships, and possibly new planets
• (Android) Fix issue with external audio lowering volume when the app became active 
• (iOS) Game should be more stable on older iOS devices, such as iPad mini 1st generation