tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7358280273729621522024-03-15T15:57:33.321-07:00Hades' Star Development blogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-67913530482638126602024-02-19T08:20:00.000-08:002024-02-19T08:20:44.233-08:00Changes to the Corporation Red Star event<p>The Corporation Red Star event will return in a shorter, more regular form. Each season will last 48 hours, taking place over a single weekend. Seasons will be held roughly once a month. Season 22 will start on Saturday, March 16 00:00 UTC.</p><p>There will also be tweaks to the amount of top Corporations that receive Crystal rewards, and to the Crystal amounts themselves. The actual numbers may keep getting tweaked each month. For the current values, see the event page in game.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-27315445424523124742024-02-07T10:07:00.000-08:002024-02-07T10:07:17.619-08:00Server update, February 7<p> This update fixes an issue where players were unable to send ships to a late joined Dark Red Star. It also fixes issues with the spawning of Rich Asteroids in Dark Red Stars, when the search was joined via a Corporation post. </p><p>This is a server-only update, there's no app update to download.</p><p>Note: If you are in a Dark Red Star and a player joins after the star was created (via Invite, or from the Corporation search entry), you will see an Out of Sync error. You can reload the game and proceed normally. This issue will be fixed on the next app update. Until then, if you need to work around this issue, make sure everyone joins the search before the star is found (from the Corporation search entry). </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-30821008607937704002024-01-17T08:36:00.000-08:002024-02-05T08:34:08.966-08:002024.1 Release Notes<p><br /></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>BARRIER: Enemy ships landing inside active Barrier area via any module that causes teleportation will receive damage at the moment the teleport is finalized.</li><li>TELEPORT: Activating inside an area covered by enemy BARRIER is now allowed</li><li>TELEPORT: Fix bug where Battleship would end up at slightly different location if the target asteroid was destroyed in the meantime</li><li>IMPULSE SHIELD: Fix bug where speed effect could stay active indefinitely while the ship was in motion</li><li>Corporation posted Red Star searches can be joined during a 1 minute search period</li><li>Corporation Red Star event re-enabled with additional support for Dark Red Stars</li><li>Public/Post To Corporation Red Star search toggle now persists (per device)</li><li>Added global UTC time display on top of Settings dialog</li><li>Shipments dialog no longer prefixes "Trade Station" before destination names</li><li>Fix common cases of visual effects not fading away and interfering in Time Machine</li><li>Interface fixes for consoles (Fix ping UI navigation, own ship indicator health now updates correctly on Blue Stars, other player ship indicators on the top highlight properly on Blue Stars when hovered over)</li><li>New in app purchase: Hydrogen Transmission (mobile and Steam only)</li></ul><div><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-69519074340218863992023-12-19T07:53:00.000-08:002023-12-19T07:53:09.622-08:00Server update, December 19 2023<p> • Fixes issue where the flagship's recoil drones could have their Recoil module manually re-activated in certain situations (until the next app update, such re-activation may still succeed in the Time Machine) </p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-56501510752367104092023-12-05T08:30:00.000-08:002023-12-05T08:30:53.570-08:00Server update, December 5 2023<p>Today's update contains the following tweaks:</p><p><br /></p><p>• Decrease ramp up times for LASER and DUAL LASER in Blue and White Stars</p><p>• Reduce planet upgrade prices for levels 13-15</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-51029974112135084032023-11-23T06:59:00.000-08:002023-11-23T06:59:01.711-08:00Server update, November 23 2023<p> Today's bug fixing update contains the following changes: </p><p>• Fix for random Leap behavior in White Stars (note that the fix applies only to new White Stars. For the next few days, ships that had jumped to the White Star before the server update may still incorrectly be picked as valid leap targets)</p><p>• Fix queued Artifacts not unloading back to certain higher level Red Star planets</p><p>• Fix issue where some Corporations could not update description or other Corporation settings</p><p>• Fixed wrong Motion Shield absorbed damage calculation. Note: The damage absorbed percentage shown in the info dialog for Motion shield will be temporarily incorrect. The actual percentage (as correctly applied by the game), will be 100 minus the displayed percentage. This is a display only issue and will be fixed on the next app update.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-74012808574606576912023-11-15T09:54:00.000-08:002023-11-15T09:54:02.118-08:00Server update, November 15 2023<p>Today's update includes economy tweaks, bug fixes and improvements to support the game's increasing player sizes.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>GENESIS: Hydrogen amount generated in Yellow Star increased for levels 7-13</li><li>Server support for manually flagging recommended Corporations. </li><li>Regular Corporation members can no longer view the Corporation's scheduled future Time Machine commands, unless they are participating in the White Star. Senior members and above will still see their Corporation's scheduled moves as before. </li><li>Empire Power thresholds reduced for regular (non Dark) Red Stars levels 5 and above.</li><li>Rocket Drone: Fixed unintentional unlimited launch range, now has similar launch range to other Drone modules.</li><li>Joining an abandoned Red Star will now fail (this is a temporary workaround for missing Artifacts in some Red Stars)</li><li>Fixed TEAM PLAYER achievement not increasing after White Star ends</li><li>Fixed wrong research Credit rewards for RS3 and RS4 artifacts.</li><li>Fixed Upgrade Shipyard objective getting stuck for some players.</li></ul><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com66tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-60645084424392857352023-11-07T05:56:00.000-08:002023-11-07T05:56:48.981-08:00Optional app update, November 7 2023<p>Today we are releasing an optional but recommended bug fixing app update. </p><p>Fixes: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fix out of sync errors related to fast Relay usage</li><li>Fix out of syncs in White Stars (and certain information in future time machine being out of date)</li><li>Fix for some visual fx lingering in Time Machine when the game is paused</li><li>Misc small tweaks to user interface, including removing obstructive star icons in White Star list</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Download from the following locations: </p><p><br /></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>iOS: Look for version 5.707.4, which will start to be deployed automatically over the next week. You should be able to update manually earlier by going to the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hades-star/id1058502954?ls=1&mt=8">App Store page</a>. </li><li>Android: Look for version 5.707.4 on the <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ParallelSpace.Cerberus">Play Store page</a>. The update will be released gradually over the next few days, so you may not see it yet on your account.</li><li>Steam: The update should be already available, you may need to restart Steam to see it.</li></ul><div><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-37767544484849403062023-11-06T12:23:00.000-08:002023-11-06T12:23:45.235-08:00Server update, November 6 2023<p>Today we will be deploying a bug fix and economy tweak server update. No app update is necessary, but the incoming optional app update coming later this week is highly recommended to avoid issues noted below and other out of sync issues affecting certain players.</p><p>Changes:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Additional Crystals awarded to all existing accounts, to help with the Dark Nebula transition. Check your Inbox message. Long time players will be awarded more Crystals. We recommend spending the Crystals towards economy upgrades described in the upgrade guide: <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/10/dark-nebula-upgrade-guide.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/10/dark-nebula-upgrade-guide.html</a></li><li>Economy tweaks</li><ul><li>Added additional free planet upgrades for certain accounts that were created pre-Dark Nebula</li><li> Reduce build price for Battleship level 4 and over</li><li>Shipment drone: Maximum capacity increased</li><li>Shipment relay: Hydrogen prices decreased for Relay level 6 and lower</li><li>Starter pack 2 shipment bonus increased slightly </li><li>Red Star level 11 Hydrogen costs decreased (scan & transport jump)</li></ul><li>Active modules are disabled after jump to White Star</li><li>Cargo Repair in White Stars will no longer consume Relics that are still loading. (Time machine in out of date clients will incorrectly show that a loading Relic can be used for Cargo Repair. Make sure to update to the latest version of the app when it becomes available later this week.) </li><li>Reduced requirements for Red Hydrogen achievement</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-1530429291726691042023-11-03T08:28:00.000-07:002023-11-03T08:28:21.641-07:00Server update, November 3 2023<p>Today we will be deploying a bug fixing update, no app update is necessary. There will be a short maintenance while the update is rolled out.</p><p>This update fixes gameplay and backend bugs, including: </p><p>- Fix startup crash that was affecting some iOS players</p><p>- Fix for issues jumping a Flagship in White Star</p><p>- Fix wrong range for Teleport level 4</p><p>- Reduced max influence requirements for most Red Star levels. New Empire Power leaderboard Distinctions will now start being awarded to players who have over 80000 Empire Power. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-79662849769487618532023-10-18T09:42:00.003-07:002023-10-29T18:57:29.545-07:00Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA changelog<p><b>Target update date for the existing Hades' Star app: October 30</b></p><p>This is a raw list of the biggest changes coming in the DARK NEBULA update. If you are looking for bigger picture information and advice for how your day to day gameplay will change, the <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/10/dark-nebula-upgrade-guide.html">Dark Nebula upgrade guide</a> may be a better starting point. </p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Modules</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>There are now 6 distinct module types (Transport, Miner, Weapon, Shield, Combat, Drone). Old Support modules are now Combat and can only be equipped on Battleships.</li><li>All combat-related modules (weapons, shields, combat types) had their numbers re-tweaked separately per star type.</li><li>Cargo Bay Extension: All numbers tweaked. Pay close attention to new Artifact sizes in Red Stars to better plan your runs.</li><li>Shipment computer: Bonuses greatly increased. Upgrade level now also affects Shipment Drone.</li><li>Mining Boost: Is now an RS2 module, numbers tweaked</li><li>Laser: Is now an RS2 module</li><li>Alpha Shield: Now provides temporary immunity, can be fully upgraded like other modules</li><li>EMP: Duration decreased, no longer affects allies</li><li>Rush: Primary benefit changed to be reduced Hydrogen usage in certain situations</li><li>Hydrogen Bay Extension: replaced by new Module (Hydrogen Replicator)</li><li>Mining Unity: replaced by new Module (Artifact Boost), is now RS3 </li><li>Mass Battery: Is now RS3 module</li><li>Delta Shield: Replaced by new Module (Impulse Shield), is now RS3</li><li>Sanctuary deleted. All ships return safely home when destroyed from Combat (unless they were lost in the new Dark Red Stars). Losing a ship to Supernova destroys it permanently (Blue Star supernovas don't count)</li><li>Trade Burst: Bonuses increased, upgrade level now also affects Shipment Drone</li><li>Stealth: Is now a Transport module</li><li>Unity: Replaced by new Module (Solitude)</li><li>Genesis: Is now RS4 module. Limited use in Yellow Star. </li><li>Remote Mining: Is now RS4 module, activated manually, upgrade levels increase the number of asteroids it is collecting from. Miner always collects when the module is activated, even when it is not stationed on an Asteroid.</li><li>Battery: Is now RS4 module.</li><li>Regenerating shield: Is now RS4 module, greatly reduced regeneration times.</li><li>Fortify: Now increases weapon damage while activated.</li><li>Shipment Drone: Drone will expire when it uses all onboard Hydrogen. Mechanics changed and bonuses increased, total bonus also depends on upgrade level of Shipment Computer and Trade Burst.</li><li>Enrich: Is now an RS5 module, can no longer be used in Yellow Star.</li><li>Dual Laser: Is now an RS5 module</li><li>Omega Shield: Is now an RS5 module</li><li>Time Warp: Replaced by new Module (Weapon Amplifier), is now RS5</li><li>Salvage: Replaced by new Drone Module (Decoy Drone)</li><li>Red Star Life Extender: Is now Transport module, moved to RS6</li><li>Crunch: Is now RS6 module</li><li>Barrage: Is now RS6 module</li><li>Blast Shield: Mechanics changed, now covers any hostile blast source in range immediately and independently of the numbers of friendly ships in range</li><li>Destiny: Teleport location is now more predictable</li><li>Remote Repair: Replaced by Repair Drone, moved to RS6</li><li>Hydrogen Upload: Can now only be used in White Stars for generating Relics remotely. Moved to RS7.</li><li>Mirror Shield: Moved to RS7</li><li>Alpha Rocket: Replaced by Rocket Drone, moved to RS7</li><li>Dispatch: Moved to RS8, does blast damage on landing</li><li>Dart Launcher: Moved to RS8</li><li>Area Shield: Renamed to Ally Shield, no longer covers the activating ship</li><li>Alpha Drone: Replaced by Chain Ray Drone, is now RS10</li><li>Mining Drone: Replaced by new Module (Blast Drone)</li><li>New Modules: Cargo Rocket (RS9), Chain Ray (RS9), Motion Shield (RS10), Rocket Launcher (RS11), Delta Drones (RS11), Pulse (RS12), Drone Squad (RS12)</li><li>The following modules were deleted: Impulse, Offload, Suppress, Entrust, Shipment Beam, Recall.</li><li>Maximum upgrade level for all modules increased to 15 (some late game modules start at higher levels when first discovered)</li><li>Added second Module Research slot (unlocks at around RS5) </li></ul><p></p><p>For historic information on module changes & motivations, also see this older post: <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/10/module-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/10/module-changes-in-dark-nebula.html</a></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Yellow Star & Economy</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Redesigned Credits economy</li><ul><li><a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/02/shipment-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/02/shipment-changes-in-dark-nebula.html</a></li></ul><li>Redesigned Hydrogen economy</li><ul><li><a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/09/hydrogen-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/09/hydrogen-changes-in-dark-nebula.html</a></li></ul><li>Ship movement greatly sped up in Yellow Stars</li><li>Removed ability to deliver shipments or mine Hydrogen on other player's Yellow Stars</li><li>Time Modulator replaced by new station (Star Harvester)</li><li>Research Station now holds 8 Artifacts, shows the exact time research will be over </li><li>Crystal economy tweaks (significantly less Crystals required for almost all conversions, especially with Credits, Hydrogen and Artifacts); planet crystal shipments removed and replaced by daily free item system</li><li>Premium appearances can be purchased for Crystals for Yellow Star system background and individual planets</li></ul><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Red Star changes</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/03/red-star-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">Pacing and gameplay changes, including new Dark Red Stars</a></li><li>Interceptor behavior changed to constant patrolling. Many other aspects of Cerberus ships (HP, damage etc) have been tweaked.</li><li>Influence renamed to Empire Power, retreated to make the leaderboards more dynamic</li><li>Hydrogen in Red Stars can no longer be transferred back home, is meant to only be used by Miners within that Star.</li><li>Added Red Star level 12</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Blue Star changes</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Match duration reduced to around 3 minutes</li><li>Gambling element removed, daily reward will be reached after a few matches even with no wins. Wins matter only for the leaderboard. Battleships can never be lost in a Blue Star.</li><li>For more details, see <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/01/blue-star-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/01/blue-star-changes-in-dark-nebula.html</a></li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">White Star changes</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Pacing tweaks to make the matches more asynchronous</li><li>5vs5 and 15vs15 slots removed to improve matchmaking and better focus overall design </li><li>Corporation XP replaces Corporation Relics. Initially all old Corporation's Relics are translated to XP 1:1, but going forward only the match result matters for XP (not the exact number of relics retrieved)</li><li>Underdog system allows gross mismatched teams to still have a goal in the White Star, and awarded higher XP if they achieve it</li><li>Reward system redesign to focus only on Corporation-wide benefits, including time-limited Artifact boost that needs a White Star win to refresh</li><li>White Star leaderboards changed to reflect number of victorious matches a player has per season</li><li>For more details, see <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/09/white-star-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/09/white-star-changes-in-dark-nebula.html</a></li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Other changes</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/06/visual-improvements-in-dark-nebula.html">Visual improvements</a></li><li>Audio improvements</li><li>Ships List window is now available on mobile portrait modes</li><li>Added planets list and other features in the Yellow Star window</li><li>Daily Objective system redone, no longer offers leveled up objectives</li><li>STARTER PACK 1 benefit increased, new STARTER PACK 2 added with additional permanent bonuses<br /></li><li>Friends system, including local Friends chat in the Yellow Star chat tab</li><li>Free Daily Item system</li><li>Achievement tweaks (some achievements were retired and new ones were added)</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com102tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-21164420432139133722023-10-11T07:04:00.005-07:002023-10-16T05:35:23.415-07:00Launch Rehearsal #2 - October 11-16<p><span face=""Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">Launch Rehearsals are short lived, focused Early Access builds that will only be available for a few days. Each launch rehearsal will be posted on this blog, along with what specific feedback we hope to gather from players. </span></p><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">Starting today and until October 16, you will be able to access the latest Dark Nebula build using a snapshot of your Hades' Star account taken on October 5. See the end of this post for download information per platform. <b><u>The Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA Early Access build on the Google Play is NOT suitable for accessing this test. </u></b></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">For this build, we are looking for all feedback related to account transitions and gameplay feedback. Please read the upgrade guide first (</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"><a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/10/dark-nebula-upgrade-guide.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/10/dark-nebula-upgrade-guide.html</a></span></span><span face=""Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">), and let us know if anything you experience in the launch rehearsal build is not compatible with the guide.</span></div><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">See our Discord server for more focused feedback questions to ensure a smooth launch next month. Thank you for your help to make Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA a truly unique strategy MMO on every platform it will be released on.</span></span></div><div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">The Launch Rehearsal #1 build is available through the following channels: </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">- Android: *MAKE SURE TO DELETE ANY OLD DARK NEBULA APPS ON YOUR DEVICE FIRST*. Install directly from this link (you may need to edit device settings to allow untrusted apks): *link has expired*</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">- iOS: *MAKE SURE TO DELETE THE OLD EARLY ACCESS APP FIRST*. The updated build should be available on Testflight (version 5.803.0). Testflight signup link: <a href="https://testflight.apple.com/join/8ChcDlgK" style="background-color: transparent; color: #f53e3e; text-decoration-line: none;">https://testflight.apple.com/join/8ChcDlgK</a></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">- Steam: The updated build is in the Dark Nebula Early Access branch (Branch code: 34cg8frej93d) for Windows only. OSX is not available for Launch Rehearsal.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></p><h3 style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Changes since last build: </span></span></h3><p style="background-color: white;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Red Stars: Hydrogen cost tweaks, including Transport jump and move costs reduction (especially on higher Red Star levels). After RS9, 4 transports can jump in before the Hydrogen price increases.</span></span></li><li>Cooldowns for Star harvester and Yellow Star Genesis reduced to 23h. Scanned asteroids are now easier to distinguish next to regular asteroids.</li><li>Many Module's early levels were tweaked to make them weaker and easier/cheaper to uprade</li><li>Red Star Life Extender: additional lifetime and unlock times reduced for early and mid levels </li><li>Shipments: Blueprints for all bonus generating modules have been tweaked so those modules can be upgraded to max by end of RS10. RS11 players should now have all blueprints required to upgrade these modules to level 15 immediately after the Dark Nebula upgrade.</li><li>Fixed bug with shipment drone bonus calculation at high levels</li><li>Tweaks to Crystal economy</li><li>Starter Pack 1 discount for building new ships was increased</li><li>Increased ALL SHIPS dialog maximum vertical size</li><li>Misc bug fixes and improvements with account upgrades</li></ul><p></p><p style="background-color: white;"><span face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-29938030385507837792023-10-04T08:34:00.003-07:002023-10-24T09:03:01.865-07:00Dark Nebula upgrade guide<p>Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA is the next update to Hades' Star. It will release later this year, completely replacing the current live version of Hades' Star. Your existing Hades' Star account will be transferred over to DARK NEBULA.</p><p>Depending who you ask, DARK NEBULA is an identical clone of Hades' Star with slightly different graphics, a radically different game, or somewhere in between. All these viewpoints, coming from players who have experienced the original game with different patterns and over different timeframes, are correct. </p><p>If you are worried that things have changed too much, or the changes you saw or heard about in the Early Access builds are too overwhelming, this post is a good place to get started with Dark Nebula when it releases.</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Shipments and Yellow Star Economy</h3><p>Dark Nebula redesigns the shipment progression using the following principles: </p><p>1. With so many other diverse activities in the game, doing Shipments should be optional, especially at the early game. The new Relay reflects that, allowing players to deliver all their shipments in less than a minute, with selectable bonus levels, and without requiring any other star types to be played first. Manual shipments have still been re-designed to offer a resource management challenge to players who want better bonuses and lower Hydrogen usage than the Relay.</p><p>2. Hydrogen should be the primary constraint for delivering shipments efficiently. In the original Hades' Star, Hydrogen was practically unlimited for players who had a lot of free time and the ability to run alt accounts.</p><p>3. Shipment volume (the total number of shipments generated in the star system per day) should be a properly balanced parameter that grows in a slow and controlled manner as players progress through the game, in line with expected upgrades for the ships and technology used to manage that volume. In original Hades' Star, the sudden jumps in shipment volume at the moment players colonized a new planet was a key reason shipments became frustrating for many players, very early in the game.</p><p>4. Shipment bonuses (awarded via shipping modules and the Shipment Relay) should be much more impactful in daily income, encouraging players to upgrade their technology and infrastructure as they progress throughout the game. </p><p>Delivering Shipments in Dark Nebula is an exercise in maximizing delivery bonus, without completely blowing out Hydrogen usage. You need to pay close attention to Hydrogen, especially if you weren't before. See the next section on Hydrogen changes, and how to ensure you are maximizing your daily Hydrogen income.</p><p></p><p>When it comes to delivering your Shipments, the Shipment Relay is super easy to use, and at higher levels, also super easy to instantly eliminate your entire daily supply of Hydrogen. This is the reason why you're able to select bonus level when using the Relay - if you do not have enough Hydrogen and still want to deliver shipments instantly, you'll have to pick a lower bonus level when activating the Relay. For better control of bonuses and Hydrogen costs, you can focus on upgrading and using the relevant Transport modules (Trade Burst, Shipment Computer, Shipment Drone, Rush). Make sure to read the new Module descriptions carefully and start with small experiments that show a strategy's credits per hydrogen ratio, before scaling that strategy to the entire star system. With the Relay bonuses becoming very expensive (in terms of Hydrogen) on higher levels, you will need to do at least partial Shipments towards the late game if you want your Credit bonuses to remain high. The game has been designed so the vast majority of players will need to do a combination between Relay and manual shipping after RS6.</p><p>Yellow Star economy has also changed in respect to Planets. Instead of artificially limiting some planets to very low maximum levels, Dark Nebula allows all planets to be upgraded to the same maximum level (you'll notice that those planets were automatically brought to a higher upgrade level after your account was upgraded to Dark Nebula). Use the new Planet list UI (in the Star info page on your Yellow Star) to easily see all current planet levels and what planet you need to focus on next. The same UI will also emphasize building and upgrading Trade Stations (something that could easily be overlooked or ignored previously, because of very high up-front costs). </p><p>You will notice that daily Credits income and expenses have changed. These changes put a proper control to the progression rate for all players, and fix serious issues in the previous Hades' Star game, like extremely slow early progression to RS6 and inconsistent times to reach very high Red Star levels. If you feel like it takes longer to start start planet upgrades in the new environment, go through the following checklist to ensure you are maximizing your Credit income: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Transport modules that give bonuses (Shipment Computer, Trade Burst and Shipment Drone) should be upgraded at least to the same level your Red Star Scanner is at, and used daily to increase bonuses. <b><u>If you are late RS10 or RS11, those modules should be upgraded to the maximum level.</u></b> You can not ignore bonuses if you want to progress reasonably fast in the game.</li><li>You are completing your daily Objective</li><li>You are collecting a Rich Asteroid Field in Red Stars every day</li><li>You are running enough Blue Stars each day to fill your Credits reward bar</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Hydrogen management</h3><p>In Dark Nebula, Hydrogen has been completely redesigned with the following principles in mind: </p><p>1. The only reason Hydrogen exists is to give a resource management challenge when doing Red Stars and Shipments. Game systems that effectively give unlimited Hydrogen are broken mechanics that should be eliminated from the game.</p><p>2. Hydrogen production and collection should feel like a growing process that scales as your Empire becomes bigger;</p><p>3. Hydrogen should never be putting limits on what Modules are upgraded, or how Battleships are maneuvered.</p><p>When your account is upgraded to Dark Nebula, you may notice that your Hydrogen cap has been reduced, and Hydrogen costs for certain things are very different. Here's the key points to keep in mind to navigate these changes:</p><p>- Your Hydrogen cap represents *roughly* the amount of Hydrogen you are expected to produce in about 1.5-2 days, assuming you are playing trying to maximize your progress (40-50 minutes per day). In the previous Hades' Star version, Hydrogen Cap was an arbitrary number that didn't mean anything. </p><p>- Hydrogen Costs for jumping ships to Red Stars are no longer negligible, they're one of the key costs of running a Red Star. You can no longer jump unlimited ships for the same tiny Hydrogen cost. Keep an eye on the number of ships you've already jumped - they will increase the cost for the next ship of that same type jumping in. This cost also intentionally addresses previous undesirable "strategies" like bringing in new ships with refreshed modules to work around cooldowns.</p><p>- Your yellow star system will always produce 100% of the Hydrogen you can collect. Hydrogen in Red Stars now serves a different purpose, and can not be brought back to the Yellow Star. It is no longer possible to mine other player's yellow star systems.</p><p>- Many Hydrogen costs have been removed, such as most Modules (excluding modules directly related to running Shipments or Red Stars), moving Battleships in any star type or moving Transports in White Stars.</p><p>In Dark Nebula, the sources of Hydrogen have been redesigned so they are predictable and consistent for all players. You will no longer be able to get unlimited Hydrogen by mining inactive player systems or running Red Stars indefinitely. The hydrogen generation modules have changed or are no longer usable in Yellow Stars. To maximize your daily Hydrogen income in this new environment, go through the following checklist: </p><p></p><ul><li>Try to maximize the base amount of Hydrogen stored in your base asteroids by unlocking as many sectors as possible</li><li>The HYDROGEN REPLICATOR module generates additional Hydrogen every time you deliver in your Yellow Star system. Make sure you have it upgraded as high as you can, and equipped on all the miners tasked with collecting Hydrogen in your Yellow Star.</li><li>GENESIS can generate a fixed amount of Hydrogen per day in your system - make sure it is unlocked at the highest possible level, equipped in one of your Yellow Star miners, and used daily. </li><li><b><u>If you do not have enough blueprints for GENESIS or HYDROGEN REPLICATOR to take them at least to the same level as your Red Star scanner, researching MINING artifacts should be your highest priority.</u></b></li><li>The RUSH module affects your Transport's fuel usage and should be upgraded as much as possible.</li><li>The Star Harvester building should be upgraded as high as possible and used daily.</li><li>Blue Stars offer significant Hydrogen income, especially in the early game, at no risk to other resources even if you never win a game.</li></ul><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Red Stars</h3><p>Red Stars have been intentionally balanced around a player clearing one max level planet sector near their gate, and retrieving all 4 Artifacts from it. A single player taking 10+ Artifacts from a single Red Star is now more difficult. Even when possible, taking a lot of Artifacts from a single Red Star will appropriately increase the total Hydrogen expenses for that star.</p><p>The difficulty in Red Stars has been affected by numerous tweaks to map layout, time to supernova, Cerberus strength, and player module stats. The goal is that the overall difficulty in Dark Nebula should stay similar to the previous same level Red Stars, but with important caveats. Using all available Modules will be more important now, and with cooldowns globally reduced, Modules are now expected to be used far more frequently in Red Stars. Loading Artifacts has been intentionally made harder, requiring management of important resources (battleship HP, modules and time until supernova) throughout the Red Star's lifetime. Previously the Red Star gameplay was more or less over the moment the planet sector was clear, with little incentive to keep using most modules. This is no longer the case - starting at RS4, your Transport ships will be under constant threat until they leave the Star, and you need to plan on protecting them. Time management is a new variable to consider in Red Stars, that wasn't really there before. In higher level Red Stars, upgrading and using the Red Star Life Extender module has been designed to be mandatory. </p><p><b><u>The end result of all this is that if you approach Red Stars with the same tactics and modules you used in Hades' Star, they will likely feel much harder or impossible until you adjust.</u></b> Here are some hints for adjusting faster: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>In Dark Nebula, module slot numbers and all the available modules have been carefully designed to enable interesting strategic choices in every Red Star level. This also means that many lazy "3x" loadouts (i.e. equipping the same module on all 3 Battleships) no longer work and will make your job in a Red Star harder. If you are having trouble in Red Stars, the first thing to look for is for Modules that don't really help you during the match (i.e. are you equipping 3x Teleport on all your Battleships because it actually helps you with a tactic, or because that's how you had it in Hades' Star?). Removing and re-installing Modules is now free, and with Battleships not getting destroyed from Combat you can afford to experiment more. (Note that ships will still get lost if they get caught in Supernova).</li><li>The Sanctuary module has been removed from the game. If you are like the vast majority of Hades' Star players, this frees up a slot from all your ships. If you are struggling to clear a planet in your Red Star level, think carefully about how to maximize utility from this free module slot.</li><li>Teaming up with other players is still your best shot at getting artifacts easier. As in the original Hades' Star, we have designed the regular Red Stars to be much easier when there's more than one participants. You can also use new features such as the Friends system and Red Stars in progress to ensure you're not running a Red Star alone. </li><li>Do not ignore the Transport modules that work in Red Stars. Some of them require a loaded Artifact to activate, so consider looting a lower level planet first.</li><li>The original Hades' Star game did a very poor job of making all modules useful in Red Stars. This led many players to completely ignore unlocking or upgrading certain modules. With the way Dark Nebula carries over progress, this will lead to those players having certain modules under-developed for their Red Star level. They will have less options when deciding module loadouts, and may need to work on their module upgrades before they're comfortable doing a Red Star at their current level (especially if they're on a high Red Star level). <b><u>Because of the way Dark Nebula artifacts award Blueprints, running lower level Red Stars is not as punishing any more.</u></b> While you do lose out on Blueprints for the higher level Red Star modules, you are still gaining Blueprints for all other Modules at the maximum rate. <b><u>If you are struggling with Red Stars at your current level, running lower level Red Stars until your technology is more upgraded is now a perfectly reasonable strategy.</u></b></li></ul><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Blue Stars</h3><div><br /></div><div>Dark Nebula builds upon the gameplay of Blue Stars by removing barriers and improving incentives to play, which should increase the matchmaking pool and the quality of matchmaking. We have also made a years-long effort to make all modules viable, and their combinations interesting (both when playing with the modules, and against them). </div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>Blue Stars now have guaranteed daily income for Credits and Hydrogen, even for players who do not win any match during the day.</u></b> Winning matches will stay important for leaderboards.</div><div><br /></div><div>Blue Stars are intentionally made important for Hydrogen income in the early game, with a big chunk of daily income coming from them. They become less important for Hydrogen income as the game progresses, especially after RS8. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">White Stars</h3><div>If you are one of the many people who quit White Stars because of unbalanced Modules and mechanics, including the extreme pressure to stay available 24/7 for 5 days, you should give them a second try in Dark Nebula. All modules have been re-designed and separately tweaked for White Stars. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>If you have been affected by bad matchmaking in the past, this should also be improved in Dark Nebula. By removing the 15vs15 and 5vs5 slots, the volume of Corporations the matchmaker has to work with should be improved (this is the biggest constraint in giving everyone good matches). When a gross mismatch inevitably happens, the new Underdog system will allow you to gain Corporation XP (previously Corporation Relics) at improved rate even if you lose the match, provided you still do a team effort to retrieve at least one Relic.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>White Stars no longer give Credits and Hydrogen rewards. If you are one of the many people who used to begrudgingly participate only because of these rewards, you can now safely ignore them. <u style="font-weight: bold;">However, joining a Corporation that is active and successful in White Stars is still very important for your overall progression. </u>These Corporations will give you a boost to passive income and module blueprint yield. Some of these rewards are time-limited and will go away if the Corporation has not won a White Star recently. Whether they personally like White Stars or not, Corporation Leaders will need to recruit two good teams of 10 players and run White Stars weekly at both slots if they want their Corporation to be competitive and desirable to new recruits. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><h3>Modules</h3><p>Every Module in the game has been rethought from scratch, in order to make all game modes live up to their true potential. In the original Hades' Star game, some Modules were disguised game systems and were either not upgradeable at all (Recall, Sanctuary) or punished the player by making basic game functionality harder to access until they were upgraded to some minimum level (Time Warp, Teleport, Barrier, Remote Mining). </p><p>Instead of piling on this unstable foundation, Dark Nebula has done all the hard work of extracting game systems out of the modules and into the base game itself. This new foundation is a much better starting point for eventually making all modules equally desirable, and for making all module upgrades desirable as well. With Dark Nebula's module lineup, this can now be achieved via much simpler number updates in the years ahead. This new environment also makes it possible to introduce new modules that don't break when combined with older modules. It is a vital change to ensure the game's longevity. </p><p>After upgrading to Dark Nebula, you will find an Inbox message detailing which Modules were converted to new ones, and which ones were deleted.</p><p>Here are some key examples of how and why some modules have changed. This list does not include everything. <b><u>Make sure to carefully check in game descriptions for ALL modules, even ones that at first glance seem unchanged.</u></b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Time Warp has replaced by Weapon Amplifier, a module that amplifies *ALL* weapons in range. Previously, Time Warp was responsible for severely breaking both PvP modes, and for making Yellow and Red Star gameplay slightly less frustrating by speeding things up (this speed up has been baked into the core game where needed). </li><li>Sanctuary is deleted from the game and its effects mostly baked into every game mode, excluding Dark Red Stars and supernova on any star type. Losing ships to supernova (or Dark Red Stars) is intentionally much cheaper in the early game and more expensive in the late game. Previously, this mechanic was unavailable to early players, who were the ones who needed it the most. </li><li>Teleport is now a Battleship-only Module, restoring the importance of route clearing and planning in Red Stars, and making time management as important as it should have originally been.</li><li>Barrier is no longer the mandatory "pause" button, without which nobody could find success in RS10 and over. It's a now a useful, but not mandatory, module that can help manage waves of enemies and projectiles in higher level Red Stars.</li></ul><div><br /></div><p>There are now 6 types of Artifacts, up from 3 in original Hades' Star. Each type of Artifact awards Blueprints for one specific type of Module (TRANSPORT, MINER, WEAPON, SHIELD, COMBAT and the new DRONE type). COMBAT modules (previously SUPPORT) can now only be equipped on Battleships. </p><p>Doubling the number of Artifact types, along with making modules more desirable across all types, aims to make player Trading a more vital part of the game. Players who are only looking for a specific type of module to research for the month are less likely to keep finding enough supply of that module type in their Red Star runs.</p><p>After the very early game, Artifacts now award Blueprints at a fixed rate, regardless of their level. For example, a Level 6 WEAPON Artifact retrieved in RS6 will yield the same amount of DUAL LASER Blueprints as the RS5 WEAPON Artifact. The difference is that the Level 6 Artifact will also yield blueprints for the BARRAGE module, whereas the Level 5 won't. You can focus your research towards the modules you want and engage with horizontal trading with other players (meaning trading of Artifacts of the same level but different types), without feeling forced to run high level Red Stars unless you want the higher level Modules.</p><p>Blueprints are now the main constraint for upgrading Modules. The maximum module level has been increased to 15. For most modules, it will take a lot of effort to collect all the required Blueprints for the later levels. There are new game systems that provide bonus to Blueprint yield, such as the White Star Corporation bonuses and the ARTIFACT BOOST module. You should not overlook their importance. </p><p>Artifacts found in Dark Red Stars also provide significantly more blueprints, but come with risk of Credit loss for ship replacements. Endgame players who no longer have much to spend Credits on can consider that route for reaching the level 15 Blueprints requirements faster.</p><p><br /></p></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com253tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-31442170290341092742023-10-02T09:10:00.000-07:002023-10-02T09:10:08.917-07:00Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA release information<p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The last Launch Rehearsal test will be from October 14 until October 16.</li><li>The existing Hades' Star apps (iOS, Android, Steam and Google Play Games PC) will be the first to be updated to Dark Nebula, on October 30 at the earliest. Unforeseen issues can delay this for many weeks.</li><li>The separate Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA app on Android and iOS will be released 2 or more days after the existing app is updated. There are only small visual differences between the old and new apps, including window borders and loading screen. Valid reasons to change to the new app include liking the UI or loading screens better, or having pre-ordered the new app on Google Play (launching your account from the new Dark Nebula app will be the only way to claim the 500 Pre-registration Crystals). If the above doesn't apply to you, you can keep using the existing Hades' Star app.</li><li>Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA will launch on Xbox and PlayStation on November 15, 2023 at the earliest.</li><li>In preparation for the DARK NEBULA update, you will see the following changes to Hades' Star during October: </li><ul><li>Season 59 will be the last Blue Star season before Dark Nebula release. Leaderboards will be disabled between the time Season 59 ends and the time Dark Nebula launches.</li><li>Season 50 will be the last White Star season before Dark Nebula release. Leaderboards will be disabled between the time Season 50 ends and the time Dark Nebula launches.</li><li>New White Star searches will be disabled starting October 20 and until Dark Nebula release.</li></ul></ul><div><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-59424564834566110542023-09-01T05:10:00.006-07:002023-09-04T08:48:34.291-07:00Dark Nebula Launch Rehearsal weekend #1 - September 1 to 3<p> Launch Rehearsals will be short lived, focused Early Access builds that will only be available during a single weekend. Each launch rehearsal will be posted on this blog, along with what specific feedback we hope to gather from players. </p><p>Launch Rehearsals operate on a past snapshot of the live Hades' Star game. That means you should be able to access your live Hades' Star game, as it was a few days before the rehearsal weekend. If you see the New Game screen, you can try signing in with the same GameCenter or Google account you use in the live Hades' Star game. From Steam, make sure you are signed in with the same Steam account you use in Hades' Star.</p><p><b><u>The focus of the first launch rehearsal is to hear your initial reaction and thoughts after the update, both immediate, and after playing for a couple of hours trying to do the regular activities you do in the main game</u></b>. When posting feedback, assume what you see in this build would be exactly what would happen to your live account after Dark Nebula releases. You can post your feedback in the comments here or in the special section of our Discord server. </p><p>This test will end early on Monday September 4. There will be more launch rehearsals in the weeks and months ahead. As usual, the question to the answer "When will it release" is "When it is ready". Because at this moment nobody knows when it will be ready, nobody knows the actual date, including us.</p><p>The Launch Rehearsal #1 build is available through the following channels: </p><p>- Android: *MAKE SURE TO DELETE THE OLD EARLY ACCESS APP FIRST*. Install directly from this link (you may need to edit device settings to allow untrusted apks): *LINK HAS EXPIRED*</p><p>- iOS: *MAKE SURE TO DELETE THE OLD EARLY ACCESS APP FIRST*. The updated build will show on Testflight when and if it passes App review. If App review is delayed for any reason, the launch rehearsal may not be available during the entire weekend window, or at all. Testflight signup link: <a href="https://testflight.apple.com/join/8ChcDlgK">https://testflight.apple.com/join/8ChcDlgK</a></p><p>- Steam: The updated build is in the Dark Nebula Early Access branch (Branch code: 34cg8frej93d) for Windows only. OSX is not available for Launch Rehearsal.</p><p><br /></p><p>Partial list of changes since the last Early Access build: </p><p><br /></p><p>• Stealth auto-activates if possible, just before the Transport is fired on (can be disabled from the Transport's info page)</p><p>• Vengeance auto-activates any available Shield, if possible (can be disabled from the Battleship's info page)</p><p>• Solitude boost increased significantly (Red Stars)</p><p>• Rocket Drone damage increased significantly (Red Stars)</p><p>• Teleport - upgrades decrease cooldown time in Red and Blue stars</p><p>• All Drone modules now have maximum launch range, increases with upgrade level</p><p>• Improvements to the ALL SHIPS window (ships are sorted alphabetically; in Red Stars, Battleships show on top)</p><p>• In active Red Stars, next/previous selection buttons no longer focus the camera to newly selected ship</p><p>• Shipments: Tweaks to Relay, bonuses, planet shipment capacity per level</p><p>• Artifacts stored on Yellow Star planets now occupy their actual size on the planet's storage capacity</p><p>• Tweaks to time/credit/blueprint requirements to upgrade Modules</p><p>• Tweaks to how Empire Power is scored in Red Stars, including much higher weight to total number of retrieved Artifacts</p><p>• Hydrogen capacity increased for all planet levels</p><p>• Achievements now show progress number even when fully unlocked</p><p>• In game sound effects and audio re-design</p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-38919550353016109642023-08-14T06:22:00.000-07:002023-08-14T06:22:00.884-07:00Early Access Update and Dark Nebula Pioneer Distinction<p> Your feedback during Hades' Star: Dark Nebula Early Access has helped improve and shape the game tremendously - thank you! As we are getting closer to the release of the Dark Nebula update, we will be changing the format of Early Access testing to allow you to offer feedback that is more focused and relevant at this late stage. </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>The current Early Access build will expire on August 30. After that date, you will not be able to play Dark Nebula Early Access daily. It will only be possible to participate in time limited tests that will be announced on this blog at a later date. Most likely, each test will happen over a single weekend. We will try to give you access to a snapshot of your main Hades' Star account, to test the full experience of how that account would port over to Dark Nebula. During each test, our Discord server will feature multiple focused questions where you can offer critical feedback from your experience. Continuing to share your thoughts during this final part of testing will help ensure a smooth launch.</p><p>Everyone who signed in the Early Access build with the same GameCenter, Google Play or Steam account they use in the main Hades' Star game will receive the Dark Nebula Pioneer Distinction, when Dark Nebula launches later this year. Make sure you sign in to the Early Access build on or before August 30. After that date, it will no longer be possible for anyone to claim the Distinction.</p><p>Early Access Build links: </p><p>Android: <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ParallelSpace.Cerberus2&hl=en&gl=US">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ParallelSpace.Cerberus2&hl=en&gl=US</a></p><p>iOS: <a href="https://testflight.apple.com/join/8ChcDlgK">https://testflight.apple.com/join/8ChcDlgK</a></p><p>Steam: Unlock beta using code 34cg8frej93d</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-87588217385064175122023-06-16T16:49:00.002-07:002023-06-16T16:49:39.401-07:00Visual improvements in DARK NEBULA<p>The next update to Hades' Star is bringing numerous visual (and audio) improvements, focusing on providing better clarity of mechanics and immediate feedback on what each player is doing in all star types. Here are some key areas of this effort:</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><h3>USER INTERFACE</h3><div>We are making hundreds of big and small big tweaks to Hades' Star interface, focusing on usability and clearer display of relevant information. </div><div><br /></div><div>We are enriching many windows with detailed 3D objects that help associate interface elements with in game objects. Some examples include the all new Planet list, and the Production page: </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEzg9_d0DPqbunRMsT61ltPjVQ9wq_dobQNF3chw91F8xaN4b9U4kHOSqc0MFtu1ORsIJ8J-9CQlItGf6XhDcjRcBlTbDehiCP7tOzJwiEdkq8dOC12eaxj8Omf7HdFLSZ1oe84aYdffAh7Xpiwu7pb02FP2I8Je9b1Hpq1b0DRjPYVNhmBAqTv2v/s1921/UI.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1921" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEzg9_d0DPqbunRMsT61ltPjVQ9wq_dobQNF3chw91F8xaN4b9U4kHOSqc0MFtu1ORsIJ8J-9CQlItGf6XhDcjRcBlTbDehiCP7tOzJwiEdkq8dOC12eaxj8Omf7HdFLSZ1oe84aYdffAh7Xpiwu7pb02FP2I8Je9b1Hpq1b0DRjPYVNhmBAqTv2v/w640-h360/UI.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>We are also fixing many usability issues, such as old HUD buttons getting mixed up with the game world because of low opacity, and moving the chat toggle button under the object selection bar (a common complaint from mobile users). The improved Ships List will be available for the first time to the majority of players who play on a phone.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><h3>PLANETS AND YELLOW STAR SYSTEM</h3><div>Hades' Star planets are already doing a great job of visualizing a distant, mysterious part of space. In addition to the existing planets, we will also be adding premium designs: </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY-nbckvzBXNjmPs9Ezf81yZJmIrC4ilZJdoUlObK7XJ0CT8iih1BvQdmdiZH1WHJejsxGddxyEqoPzt5WR4l44rm9qgIium3zwINn6zlZAzdeLaQc-be3KRJHgDF8bp-bpY2HQXzGgsPYiadlHC3MY47M3ZMyry7kJKOMSOwNd6ihG3OjiTA9XKFu/s1074/planet4.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1074" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY-nbckvzBXNjmPs9Ezf81yZJmIrC4ilZJdoUlObK7XJ0CT8iih1BvQdmdiZH1WHJejsxGddxyEqoPzt5WR4l44rm9qgIium3zwINn6zlZAzdeLaQc-be3KRJHgDF8bp-bpY2HQXzGgsPYiadlHC3MY47M3ZMyry7kJKOMSOwNd6ihG3OjiTA9XKFu/w400-h278/planet4.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of many premium planet designs coming to Hades' Star</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The increased overall brightness of the Yellow Star is likely the first visual change you will notice when your account is upgraded after the update. This change brings a lot of detail that was previously washed out (i.e. shadows from asteroids that weren't very close to the star). It also makes it easier on the eyes to play the game for prolonged period of times, and helps with the commonly mentioned problem that it's too hard to play Hades' Star on a mobile device when outdoors.</div></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">SHIPS</h3><div><div>We are keeping the 2D icon look of ships but enhancing it with better defined edges, making them easier to distinguish when clumped together, and giving them more depth and character. Other tweaks allow the game to better display the status of each ship. Transports and Miners will clearly show at a glance what type of cargo they are carrying, and how close to full they are:</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitK4MJeWunHh1_Utq4ngZMXJHxNsYH1Tq-r-qwJgU_lYSBfmIapXR80ukdADVcJYZ7TCoi_CV1vG1bztcu74E2I5kOS6KkBE080ms20S7i-NKlevQxgfzAbvk5rIF_Bf9M9VyMW56BOBDtFYM4sCuAhwrichCV2WzY-ZgaGn1uGavM32AodlHgKZ-A/s803/ships.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="191" data-original-width="803" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitK4MJeWunHh1_Utq4ngZMXJHxNsYH1Tq-r-qwJgU_lYSBfmIapXR80ukdADVcJYZ7TCoi_CV1vG1bztcu74E2I5kOS6KkBE080ms20S7i-NKlevQxgfzAbvk5rIF_Bf9M9VyMW56BOBDtFYM4sCuAhwrichCV2WzY-ZgaGn1uGavM32AodlHgKZ-A/w540-h128/ships.jpg" width="540" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Dark Nebula Ship visuals are shown to the right</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>All ships will get a clearly defined center point (seen as a distinct black dot in the new ship graphics). This center point is used for all combat targeting, fixing numerous problems with targeting order and module range.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">SPACE STATIONS </h3><div>Stations are moving away from icon visuals and into more clear, detailed representation of their functionality. The Star Scanners will now be very easy to distinguish at any zoom level by their color, and many buildings will have special animations to show they are busy (i.e. the Research Station will light up when it's working on Artifacts). </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUK0eXFdEM3wTqFmqt-wHkiIAABxyb_jfoN9zte57QTxkwm6aZy86vWhUCJYl9GjJ63OpbGaNKNdSlNhRDRqc-0eQTUm9E44yn7DqYD69BrsHC3KseHHm1jtX4vyqlCG62X1CphBvAO7Yl3hISfPhA2jNlakDHkaFkcQc0IRSGBVd7Vc3rXAptxA7u/s808/Untitled-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="808" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUK0eXFdEM3wTqFmqt-wHkiIAABxyb_jfoN9zte57QTxkwm6aZy86vWhUCJYl9GjJ63OpbGaNKNdSlNhRDRqc-0eQTUm9E44yn7DqYD69BrsHC3KseHHm1jtX4vyqlCG62X1CphBvAO7Yl3hISfPhA2jNlakDHkaFkcQc0IRSGBVd7Vc3rXAptxA7u/w640-h326/Untitled-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Dark Nebula Ship visuals are shown to the right</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">MODULES</h3><div>Many modules will be accompanied by brand new visual effects and (for the first time) sound effects, helping the game better show cause and effect. These changes are synced with all the other changes to gameplay in Red, White and Blue Stars, and have been designed to make each star type more exciting to play every single day.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9wR51l1QZZ10AEe6DBhiHNDw7aRshSlZbvKykhVHHQ8yPzIaSe8jBrHYACaz8nmBRGAAloTpHMbQGHaB8ZF8zCy9xd_E43q9aIssTx02mSECAT-SYpP0Lb3DAFaOAaHiWyZuyKW1K4h9wreiyUX71IOutOdeAEyKl1GzfvgPvMbcrInXQ-lVbIMf/s439/vfx.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="439" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9wR51l1QZZ10AEe6DBhiHNDw7aRshSlZbvKykhVHHQ8yPzIaSe8jBrHYACaz8nmBRGAAloTpHMbQGHaB8ZF8zCy9xd_E43q9aIssTx02mSECAT-SYpP0Lb3DAFaOAaHiWyZuyKW1K4h9wreiyUX71IOutOdeAEyKl1GzfvgPvMbcrInXQ-lVbIMf/s320/vfx.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New effect for the Crunch module</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-33916094181103158472023-05-10T08:57:00.006-07:002023-05-10T08:57:57.892-07:00Incoming Early Access update, May 10<p> A new update is currently being deployed to the Early Access servers. It will take up to 48 hours for Android, iOS and Steam versions to be deployed. Until the update is available for your platform, you will not be able to connect. </p><p>This update brings balancing tweaks to many Weapon and Shield modules for Red Stars. This includes different Shield values for Red Stars, compared to PvP. The goal is for all Weapons and Shields at the same level to feel like they have a use at every Red Star level after they're unlocked. The main difference and the factor that will affect what Weapon and Shield to bring will be each module's risk/reward profile, and the player's own play style. For example, Battery should be a good weapon for all around use, for players who don't want to micromanage weapons or risk getting stuck in situations where their ships don't do any damage. More skilled players who want to do extreme damage under the right circumstances will pick Barrage, fully knowing the risk that if they do not utilize the map correctly, or if they equip barrage on all 3 battleships, at some points during the Red Star they will end up with ships that do almost zero damage.</p><p>Modules like Barrage and Battery, which were clearly not as useful as other weapons before this update, have been significantly improved. Dart Launcher, clearly overpowered compared to alternatives, has damage reduced. Similarly, Area Shield has its strength reduced to move it towards its goal of a specialized shield to protect weak ships. Before this update, Area Shield was a clearly superior Shield that further encouraged all 3 Battleships to move in lockstep in Red Stars. </p><p>Level layouts including Cerberus spawn patterns for both regular and Dark Red Stars have been tweaked in this update, and will continued to be tweaked in the weeks ahead. With the pace of balancing changes increasing, it's very important to give the star name or at least the date and time you played the Red Star you're giving feedback on.</p><p>During the next few weeks, we will move into targeted testing of higher Red Star levels, from level 9 to 11. Each high Red Star level will be tested for a limited time. Keep an eye out here and on our Discord server for more updates, and the opportunity to give targeted feedback on how modules feel on each Red Star level that's being tested. </p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-14981259783842945462023-04-24T06:22:00.000-07:002023-04-24T06:22:04.179-07:00Dark Nebula: New Early Access Build Release Notes and Development Update<p> </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Global Module changes</h3><p><br /></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Solitude now only considers Battleships in all star types</li><li>Rocket damages tweaked separately for PvP vs PvE modes</li><li>Leap: The friendly ship's current destination takes precedence when picking the Leap landing object. Can now be used in Red Stars, where it only consider Drones as move targets. </li></ul><p></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">White Stars</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Removed Corporation Artifact Bonus cooldown after joining a new Corporation. All players will get the Red Star Artifact bonus from the Corporation they are currently in when the Red star is joined.</li><li>Testing moved to lower level modules and ships. Old Early Access ships should be disbanded.</li><li>Flagship cooldown from death increased to 48h. </li><li>Module number tweaks for Genesis, Blast Drone</li><li>Flagship level capped to 5 for Early Access.</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Blue Stars</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Testing moved to lower level modules and ships. Old Early Access ships should be disbanded.</li><li>Final standings and replay option show automatically when the match ends</li><li>Visual improvements and better visual feedback for the center star sector</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Yellow Stars</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Relay dialog now remembers the most recent activation level</li><li>Fixed Shipment Drone objective not updating properly</li><li>Removed limitation preventing building placement too close to sector edges</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Red stars</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Red Star 8 and Dark Red Star 8 testing enabled. Increased weapon range for Dark Phoenix.</li><li>Remote Repair heal amount increased</li><li>Regular Sentinel DPS slightly reduced</li><li>Regular and Dark Guardian DPS reduced</li><li>Regular and Dark Colossus Laser DPS at stage 1 reduced</li><li>Mining Boost and Crunch tweaks</li><li>Layout and Cerberus tweaks</li><li>Teleport cooldown increased to 30s </li></ul><div><br /></div><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Misc</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Starter pack 1 benefit increased for new ship construction. Construction prices increased for high level ships</li><li>Delete Chat message function (useable by Yellow Star owners and Corporation officers)</li><li>Added currency animation toggle</li><li>Bug fixes and interface improvements</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA is very close to being content complete. Over the next several months we will be focusing on balancing passes over all game modes, Modules, progression rates and the overall economy for all 3 currencies, along with general polish, bug fixes and additional device support. Most of the remaining balancing will be number tweaks, and there will be no major new features or content. We will still be looking for interface improvements and other smaller features based on extensive playtesting. The types of changes on today's build that you can see above are indicative of the changes you can expect in the months ahead, leading up to Dark Nebula release.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can still help us make Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA the best long term space strategy game on every platform it releases on, and the major update that will enable Hades' Star to live for decades in the future. Keep participating in the playtests via the Early Access app, and posting your experience in any game mode here or on our Discord server.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-66915071977300263492023-03-27T07:49:00.001-07:002023-03-27T07:49:41.670-07:00Red Star changes in DARK NEBULA<p>Red Stars are the foundation of Hades' Star. As the first activity star type to be implemented in the game, they entire game revolves around them. They are crucial for establishing a daily routine, providing daily gameplay challenges, for progressing technology that can help in any star type, and for meeting and interacting with other players.</p><p>The current Hades' Star game has found success because it showed how Red Stars can be a fun, cooperative, cooperative social, consistent daily activity. It has found success despite some fundamental problems with Red Stars, as described below. A big part of the development effort in Dark Nebula is going towards fixing these problems so Red Stars can fulfil their true potential and open up to more diverse types of strategy players. </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Problem 1. The Red Star scaling experience is terrible</h4><p>Starting at Red Star 8, the current way Red Star levels scale can be summarized as: "Make the play area bigger and mindlessly populate the map with more and more Cerberus ships on each level". This naïve scaling method completely breaks down at higher levels. What players see in those high level stars is a giant clump of Cerberus ships. There's so many of them that they can't be distinguished from each other. There can be no meaningful analysis or strategy against the Clump, other than "equip the 2 modules in the game that neutralize the Clump for enough time until we've hopefully destroyed most of it". The entire combat against the Clump lasts for a couple of minutes, after which the Red Star is mostly over and a boring long process begins for collecting the Artifacts. </p><p>This situation is one of many great examples for why Hades' Star can no longer get meaningful updates, not without a more radical re-design. We cannot have Red Star level 15 down the road just by exponentially increasing the size and number of enemy ships each time. It simply doesn't work. </p><p>Hades' Star can also never be a long term sustainable game if there's only 3-4 Modules that really mean anything in Red Stars. The game was badly hurt by the coincidental fact that Barrier is a godly module that just by accident happens to be the only reason Red Star level 9+ is playable at all . If the module didn't exist, then obviously higher Red Stars, their layout and the enemy composition would need to be rethought. In the current Hades' Star game, Barrier isn't even a module, it's a game system that allows players to pause the action in a beneficial to them way, so they can try to understand what's happening. Without this pausing, regular players cannot follow the chaotic action that comes after the first minute of entering a planet sector. </p><p>The end result of the above problem is most of the players who reach a higher level Red Star can't make any sense of how to proceed unless they're lucky enough to have the right module at the right level, and know that's the one module that is needed for success in that red star level. Naturally, most players in this situation quit playing Red Stars, declaring "red stars are not for them". Players who quit red stars are very unlikely to continue playing the game at all. </p><p>The ones who don't quit quickly find there's only one way to have successful runs: Pause the game (via a series of Barriers) and hope to clear with the other few modules that are relevant in Red Stars. Combined with the static Red Star layouts, this makes for an extremely boring game. The only fun players consistently see in Red Stars is taking loot and working with their friends. </p><p>The Dark Nebula update addresses this issue head on, by redesigning Red Star layouts from scratch, bringing Cerberus ships in gradually in waves, and with other rebalancing so that all modules can be useful. Red Stars have the potential to become a fun playground for all the modules players unlock in their journey. We can do much, much better than the current Red Stars in Hades' Star, without affecting the things that already work about them. </p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Problem 2: Poorly designed Cerberus ships</h4><p>What should be an exciting time of discovering the Interceptor (the first new Cerberus in the early game), players are greeted with a problematic ship that does not offer any intelligently designed challenge but is instead there to punish tiny mistakes in the worst way possible. On top of that, it also makes it possible for players to indirectly attack other player's ships. </p><p>Instead of the half measures Hades' Star previously took in order to make the Interceptor less threatening to other players and even more boring, Dark Nebula redesigns the ship so it offers a proper, predictable challenge and removes its potential to be abused.</p><p>There are more examples of bad behavior, boring design or missed opportunities in other Cerberus ships in higher levels. Both Red Stars and the new Dark Red Stars will fix problems and explore new opportunities in Red Star Cerberus behavior.</p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Problem 3. Red Stars can bring out the worst types of online interactions</h4><p>Social gameplay is the undisputed high point of Red Stars, with most players enjoying cooperation and even helping others for no benefit to them. However, there are exceptions with malicious players finding fun in destroying other player's ships and progress. Bad design such as the already mentioned Interceptor ships and the Bond module support this behavior. </p><p>There is nothing that makes a player quit faster than a living, breathing psychopath laughing at them after having intentionally destroyed their ship. Dark Nebula cannot fix psychopaths, but it can fix the broken systems they abuse. This problem is very high priority for Dark Nebula to fix.</p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Problem 4. Red Stars fail to appeal to people who like a challenge</h4><p>Clearing a Red Star at your current level was supposed to be a skill based accomplishment. Instead, thanks mostly to the Salvage module, clearing a Red Star is instead a walk in the park. Because of Salvage, players see most Cerberus filled sectors in a Red Star as free healing, instead of the challenge they were originally meant to be.</p><p>The current Influence leaderboard is another example of the failure of Red Stars to offer a challenge, or recognize any kind of skill. A bunch of players are always tied for the first spot with the exact same score. Skill has absolutely nothing to do with how they got there. </p><p>Adding some challenge to Red Stars does not necessarily mean making them any more difficult than they are. But the current situation where many players don't even feel they need to activate any of their modules is a huge problem. The design intention is that regular (non-Dark) Red Stars should stay as easy or even a little easier compared to the live Hades' Star game, but with players now needing to semi-intelligently activate all the modules they bring in to the star. </p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Red Star changes coming to Early Access build </h3><p>The following solutions for the above problems will be deployed and evaluated in the Early Access build, and further refined in the months ahead. Feel free to suggest additional potential solutions for the above problems, or to let us know how these solutions are working so far:</p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Cerberus Waves </h4><p>Starting at a mid Red Star level (around RS6), players will start seeing Cerberus ships spawning later throughout the map. How specifically that will happen, where they will spawn, what ship types they will be, etc, will be tweaked heavily in the months ahead during Early Access, depending on playtesting needs and results. The design goals for this system are: </p><p>- To properly pace the entire 10+ minute duration of the match. While Red Stars are reducing in length, players will now be expected to pay attention for most of that duration. Mining and Transport operations will have a much larger combat component in Dark Nebula. </p><p>- To allow players to quickly evaluate the threat they are facing at each stage of the match, without having to decipher overwhelming Clumps of enemy ships.</p><p>- To give meaning to all activated modules, which now will be useable multiple times during the Red Star match. Module cooldowns will also be tweaked, to properly match the pacing the Cerberus waves will bring.</p><p>- Players will be expected to do proper HP management during the entire duration of the star, using all modules in their Battleships and Transports, including the new healing modules. HP management will be critical in the hard Dark Red Star mode.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Introducing Dark Red Stars</h4><p>The new Dark Red Stars (DRS) provide an alternate choice in place of regular Red Stars, for a minority of skilled players who want to risk Credits for faster Module progress.</p><p>Dark Red Stars will be intentionally hard, and they will put all ships sent in at risk of permanent loss. The design intent is that over 80% of players should ignore DRS at their current level (this does not include players who choose to do DRS at lower levels than their scanner allows). There should also not be any reason to play both RS and DRS for most players. Dark Red Stars will be available for players who have been playing for at least one or two months, likely unlocking at Red Star Scanner level 7.</p><p>Dark Red Stars will be playable solo or with 1 or 2 people joining. Regardless of how many are participating, the upper limit of 3 Battleships will always be enforced. We expect the most skilled players who want to have success in Dark Red Stars will team together, with each player controlling a single Battleship.</p><p>Why would we intentionally design for most players to avoid Dark Red Stars? Because a lot of work is going into both regular Red Stars and Dark Red Stars, and they should both become very good at addressing different kinds of players: </p><p>- Casual players who want to progress predictably, do not care about variety, and want to reduce risk (especially if they play multiplayer) should pick regular Red Stars. This is the vast majority of current Hades' Star players.</p><p>- Skilled players who think the risk is part of the fun, want to push modules and strategy to their limits, have other skilled friends they want play a challenging match with, and want increased module progression rate as a reward, should pick Dark Red Stars.</p><p>Of course it's not all binary, many players will try a mix of both modes at different stages of the game. But if most people think they need to play both daily to progress, that's a design fail. </p><p>If Dark Nebula released and 100% of people started playing DRS at their unlocked level every day, that would be a disaster. It means the design has completely failed and it would have to go through painful adjustment of making DRS much harder. This would lead to 100% of players having a really strong reason to quit, after the game tricked them into thinking they could get very high module progression rate for zero risk.</p><p>If Dark Nebula released and 0% of people played DRS every day, that's a far better situation to be in. It would still be possible through careful, incremental updates to slowly bring that percent up to the goal of 10-15%, by tweaking difficulty and rewards. </p><p>Wherever between these two extreme cases we fall on release, Dark Red Star difficulty will keep getting tweaked from playtesting and from live data, so that they are always positioned as the premium, risky, hard mode that most of the players know to stay clear from. </p><p>Any feedback on Dark Red Star difficulty in Early Access won't be relevant unless it's fully aware of these goals. If you are like most current players in Hades' Star, there's a very high chance Dark Red Stars are not for you. Your DRS feedback would only be useful if you see yourself becoming a risky player who would not mind gambling some credits and daily progress in exchange for faster module progress and/or leaderboard placement. If you think the Red Stars in the current Hades' Star game are fine/interesting as they are, please direct your feedback to the regular Early Access Red Stars instead.</p><p>Additional design goals for Dark Red Stars (consistent with only a small minority of players using them regularly):</p><p>- To break the monotony for very high level players who no longer have a good use for Credits. It's possible someone could be playing for years ignoring DRS, then find fresh meaning very late in the game.</p><p>- To make the Empire Power (previously Influence) leaderboard involve some form of excitement and skill, instead of the ridiculous activity it currently is.</p><p>- To give value to niche modules that should otherwise be deleted (i.e. Red Star Extender and many other combat modules that cannot become desirable in Red Stars, unless regular red star layouts become far more dynamic and challenging, something we don't want to do as it would be too disruptive to existing players).</p><div><br /></div><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Design goals related to difficulty in RS and DRS</h3><p>- In Regular Red Stars, a player who has the right tech level for the Red Star level should have little trouble clearing a single high level planet. This assumes the player will use all the modules equipped on their Battleships. Easily clearing a planet without using modules is not desirable. However, it doesn't matter *what* the module equipped is. All modules that are available for Red Stars should have value, and unless players are coming in with very poorly thought out module combinations, they should be able to clear the first planet on their own. Obviously this varies according to Red Star level. Clearing an RS3 planet on your own will be much easier compared to RS10.</p><p>- Regular Red Stars should become very easy when there are more than 1 players entering the same planet sector together. This is an intentional design goal - the slight challenge should only be there for solo players, and only for mid to high Red Star levels.</p><p>- Dark Red Stars should always be difficult, whether it's 1 or 3 players participating. </p><p>- In Dark Red Stars, using game mechanics and modules in a 100% predictable, repetitive, risk-free and "boring" way to clear a planet sector should not be possible. Some of this repetition, within reason, is acceptable in regular Red Stars and is also found in the existing Hades' Star game. But in Dark Red Stars, any such 100% consistent strategy that results in getting artifacts with minimal effort and strategy should be reported as a bug. Such examples from previous Early Access builds include: </p><p>- Completely destroying or significantly weakening hard Cerberus with a very large number of Rockets equipped on Transports and Miners</p><p>- Manipulating combat when overwhelmed by Dark Interceptors by jumping ships out of the system and then back in after their Shields have recharged, repeating as many times as needed</p><p>- Pinning the Colossus down in a corner while Transports are loading Artifacts from the planet.</p><p>- Loading Artifacts from a planet while the Dark Destroyer is destroying the planet. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-71687878106111601342023-02-27T06:41:00.000-08:002023-02-27T06:41:09.961-08:00Shipment changes in DARK NEBULA<p><a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/12/credits-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">We previously covered overall Credit changes </a>coming to Dark Nebula, including potential changes to shipments. </p><p>This post goes into more detail for high level changes around Shipments. </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>Shipments was the first gameplay system to be implemented in Hades' Star. When the game first launched 6 years ago, Shipments made up at least 50% of all gameplay the game had to offer. Today, things are very different. There are many more game modes and activities that appeal to different kinds of players, yet the game still presents Shipments as the first and most important activity. The attempts made over the years to automate shipments have been inefficient and awkward at best. The Shipment Relay currently requires an unrelated activity (Blue Stars) to even work. The fact that manual shipping gives significant bonuses makes the Relay completely irrelevant for serious players. </p><p>In Dark Nebula, we recognize and design around two conflicting facts: </p><p>1) Excluding a tiny minority that actively searches for the answer "can shipments be automated later in the game", virtually every new player who finds the game these days is turned away when they see the Shipments tutorial.</p><p>2) Manual shipping can be a fun activity for part of the player base, especially it is balanced properly around maximizing Credits and minimizing Hydrogen. Some existing players have made significant progress with their Transport technology and don't want to see that progress wiped out. Shipping or a similar activity needs to exist in the game, otherwise Transport ships, almost their entire Tech tree, and the Hydrogen economy would have to be deleted as well.</p><p>The Dark Nebula update will focus on addressing these two conflicting needs in the following ways: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> Shipments stored on Planets remain a key source of daily Credit income. As players progress, more of that daily income will shift to *bonuses* from shipments, to encourage upgrading structures and technology.</li><li>Shipment Relay will become a viable, full alternative to manual shipments. It will have competitive bonuses, it will deliver the shipments instantly, it will not require playing other game modes, but it will also consume the most Hydrogen. The Relay will be built at the tutorial's prompt during the first 15 minutes in the game.</li><li>Manual shipments will remain an option. Many of the existing modules that help with manual Shipments will stay in the game. These modules will no longer compete with each other (i.e. people who want to focus on manual shipping will have to upgrade *both* Shipment Computer and Shipment Drone).</li></ul><p></p><p>In this system, players who want to completely opt out of manual shipments will need to focus on upgrading their Relay (instead of certain shipment modules) and solidify their Hydrogen economy. Players who choose to always micromanage shipments and upgrade their Transport technology will do so because they already find the process fun and/or want full control over bonuses and costs. Many players will fall somewhere in between, mixing the two methods while optimizing their Hydrogen use and daily Credit bonuses.</p><p>As mentioned previously, Credit and Hydrogen economy is work in progress in Dark Nebula. Expect major changes during Early Access in daily income, upgrade prices for Planets and Stations, and other Credit and Hydrogen costs. The main thing we will try to keep constant from Hades' Star (where possible) is existing storage capacity for Credits (not Hydrogen). </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-58805632980265358302023-01-26T07:45:00.002-08:002023-01-26T07:48:45.698-08:00Blue Star changes in DARK NEBULA<p>The DARK NEBULA update will bring significant changes to how Blue Stars are played. These changes are designed to address the following problems: </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Problem 1. Highly inconsistent rewards</h4><p>Currently, Blue Star Credit rewards are based on the value of the ship being jumped in. The reward is only given on the first win of the day, while players still pay a cost every time they lose a match until then. This system is extremely confusing, unfair and puts a huge barrier for new players that may otherwise be interested in Blue Stars. It makes no sense to have people who have an unlucky first match against stronger opponents to receive less credits as a reward. It makes no sense to incentivize certain modules over others, because they cost more to install (and therefore contribute more to final reward).</p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Problem 2. Most of the Blue Star match is boring </h4><p>The way the Blue Star map and Modules are currently designed, the vast majority of the match is a boring "move and avoid other ships" minigame. Experienced players avoid any early combat with other players because they know that even if they survive, they'll have a huge disadvantage later against the remaining players. This is a wasted opportunity to make the map more tactical, by allowing and encouraging players to strategically pick off enemies before the final stage. Having all combat happen in the last minute means only a few Modules are meaningful in Blue Stars, further leading to matches that are repetitive and uninteresting.</p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Problem 3. Overall engagement in Blue Stars is low, leading to low numbers of active players and matchmaking problems</h4><p>The number of players searching for a Blue Star at any given moment is the main factor that affects matchmaking quality. The current version of the game makes this problem way worse by creating all kinds of obstacles for people who want to play a lot of Blue Stars daily just for fun, after they've gotten all their rewards. The current Blue Star reward system also makes matchmaking mismatches far more frustrating than they need to be, by reducing rewards for players who happen to match against someone much stronger.</p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">DARK NEBULA changes for Blue Stars</h4><p>To address the above problems, we're making the following changes to Blue Stars: </p><p>- Daily rewards will be fixed and guaranteed to be achieved by anyone participating in Blue Stars, even if they do not win a single match during the day. Winning a match will mean daily rewards will be achieved in less matches overall, but we will still ensure all the rewards can be achieved in a reasonable number of matches. Winning matches will now only matter for people who want to place high on the monthly leaderboard.</p><p>- In line with the SANCTUARY removal, losing Battleships in Blue Stars will safely return them to the home star for repairs. There is no way to lose a Battleship in a Blue Star in Dark Nebula. This removes the current element of gambling with your ships.</p><p>- In line with the Hydrogen rebalance, Battleships will not use any Hydrogen in Blue Stars. Combined with other changes, this means that anyone will be able to play Blue Stars all day if they want, just for fun, even after they've gotten all their daily rewards.</p><p>- Overall match duration will be reduced to under 4 minutes.</p><p>- All modules are being tweaked separately for Blue Stars. The numbers many modules were using were based on Red Star gameplay, which has almost nothing in common with Blue Stars. The idea will be for all Modules to be powerful in Blue Stars, and/or serve as powerful counters. The long term goal will be to have the right number of powerful attack modules and the right number of counters that make the task of choosing modules for Blue Stars interesting in itself. Achieving this goal fully means that emerging metas will not last forever (i.e. if too many people start equipping module X, smart players will start equipping module Y that completely counters X, tipping the meta balance). Implementing this goal will take years, and the DARK NEBULA update will only be the first step towards getting there. Future updates after DARK NEBULA will further refine existing Modules and introduce new Modules toward that goal. </p><p>- Module cooldowns will be reduced so that most Modules can be used more than once in the Blue Star, and further encourage early combat. In the current Hades' Star version, the broken Time Warp module shows a glimpse (comically unbalanced as it may be) of what additional strategies could be enabled if Modules were reusable more than once in a Blue Star. By removing Time Warp and baking its systemic benefits into the core game, Dark Nebula will make Blue Star matches far more fair and tactical.</p><p>- Pacing will be tweaked constantly during Early Access, with the goal being for all stages of the match (early game, final ring, final sector) to have the potential for meaningful combat and excitement. Module loadouts will be balanced to encourage players to consider picking off the right enemy players earlier in the match. The act of attacking players early will be highly strategic and depending on full knowledge of each player's loadouts. We will design some Modules to be more useful and relevant in the beginning than the end of the match, and vice versa. The goal is that players who choose i.e. to only equip Modules useful for the final stage should be very vulnerable to early attacks. </p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Blue Star Early Access in progress now</h4><p>The current version of the Hades' Star: DARK NEBULA Early Access build has a special mode that allows you to equip almost all Dark Nebula modules and test them on Blue Stars (if you are starting from a brand new account, you will need to follow the tutorial for 20 minutes until you unlock Blue Stars). This is a great opportunity to get involved and offer feedback on all Blue Star changes, while everything is still under development and subject to change.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-52939474328778595482022-12-02T08:37:00.002-08:002022-12-02T08:39:56.301-08:00CREDITS changes in DARK NEBULA<p>As explained in a <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/09/hydrogen-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">previous blog post about Hydrogen</a>, the DARK NEBULA update will rework many aspects of the currency economy to address fundamental core problems in the game. While not as far reaching as the Hydrogen changes, the Credit changes will also affect many systems and will be quite visible in daily play.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>These are the key problems that mandate a rebalancing (and in some cases, redesign) of Credit sources and consumers in Hades' Star:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><u style="font-weight: bold;">Income is not properly balanced across all available activities.</u> In the early Hades' Star game, doing Shipments was the *only* way to earn Credits. Things have changed a lot since then, and there was never an effort to properly balance income so that all activities are incentivized properly. New players are given a ultimatum pretty quickly: Do your shipments or leave the game. In Dark Nebula, we will be changing the early game to make it obvious there is more to the game than Shipments. </li><li><b><u>Progressing through Red Star levels over time is very inconsistent and frustrating</u></b>. There was never a proper balance of planet upgrade prices vs total Empire credit cap. As a result, most Red Star levels are very slow to reach, and some are inconsistent with how long it took to reach the previous Red Star level. This chaotic, uncontrollable progress is seriously hurting the player experience, causing many more players to quit early. Dark Nebula will focus on making the process of reaching a new Red Star level more predictable and more rewarding. This includes significantly speeding up the progress at least for the first 6-7 red stars. </li><li><u style="font-weight: bold;">Module upgrade prices are inconsistent as they try to control two very different things.</u> They try to control regular module progress, and also trying to prevent unlocking modules too early from trading higher level Artifacts. So regular players are being punished with prices that should be much lower i.e. to upgrade an RS7 module to level 2.</li><li><b><u>Consuming Credits is not properly balanced.</u></b> In an ideal world, players would have interesting choices every day into whether to put their daily income towards planet upgrades, module upgrades, ship upgrades, or whether to risk any Credits in dangerous star types. This does not currently happen in the live version of Hades' Star, because the values were never properly balanced with this in mind over years of gameplay. An example is many players who never get into any form of routine with planet upgrades, because they don't have the Credits to upgrade planets all the time, or when they do have the Credits, all available planets are already upgrading. With Dark Nebula, we will be taking the time to balance the daily experience properly. The effect will be seen not only in things like Credit and Module prices, but also the time it takes for planets and modules to upgrade.</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Over the next months in Early Access, we will be moving to address the problems above via targeted and carefully monitored changes. Here's what some of these changes may look like. As always, keep in mind that while the problems above are not changing, the proposed solutions below will be tweaked and may change significantly or be abandoned based on how they work out in actual playtesting.</p><div>Daily Credit income in the game will be re-distributed among the major sources (Shipments, Objectives, Blue Stars, Red Stars). The actual redistribution will keep getting tweaked, but in general expect the following: </div><div><br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><u>Proper participation in Blue Stars will become crucial for maximizing daily income.</u></b> Proper participation does not mean winning, and it also does not mean showing up without trying. If you completely ignore Blue stars, your daily income will be hurt. This is a very intentional design decision, and is supported by other changes such as giving guaranteed daily rewards in Blue Stars, removing the previous feeling of gambling with your daily income. Combined with other upcoming changes such as rebalanced and much more meaningful combat modules, Blue Stars will become far more exciting to play, even for casual players who never expect to win.</li><li><b><u>Shipments will stay vital to maximizing daily income, but perhaps slightly toned down compared to the other sources.</u></b> The base Credit values stored in shipments will be reduced, especially at higher levels. The potential for generating very high Bonus values on the shipments via Modules will be increased, especially at higher levels. This way, keeping all Transport modules upgraded will become much more important for getting the maximum daily rewards from shipments. </li><li><b><u>White Stars will no longer offer any Credit income.</u></b> Credits is not the right incentive for people to participate in White Stars, especially because White Stars is by far the least accessible mode in the game and clearly not for everyone. Removing Credits from White Stars allows us to properly and fairly rebalance Credit income for everyone, whether they play White Stars or not. The new White Star rewards we are designing separately will allow everyone in the Corporation to get some benefit when the Corporation is doing well in White Stars, without at the same time requiring everyone to participate in White Stars. </li><li><b><u>All planets will now be upgradeable to the same maximum level.</u></b> The system where most planets are arbitrarily capped to low maximum levels does not really serve any gameplay reason, and is creating bottlenecks that make it more likely for players to have frustrating dead periods where nothing is upgrading. </li><li><b><u>Installing Modules on ships will no longer cost Credits.</u></b> Instead, the base value of constructing a ship in the first place will increase, greatly so for higher ship levels. With the changes in ship destruction rules, this will allow players to optionally risk Credits in the new Dark Red Stars for higher rewards, without having to worry and compare about the cost of individual loadouts. Creating loadouts should be 100% focused on functionality, not cost. </li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-46778577163781213292022-10-12T07:14:00.001-07:002022-10-12T07:14:51.942-07:00Module changes in DARK NEBULA<p>Equipping ships with Modules is the most important gameplay system in Hades' Star. All combat and economic activities on all star types heavily depend on Modules. The exact same activities can range from mind numbingly boring to extremely fun, depending on how well tweaked the involved Modules are. Without properly designed Modules, there's no progression, no strategy, no gameplay, and no Hades' Star. </p><p>Given the importance of Modules, the Dark Nebula update will take the time to carefully review the role and place of every single module in the game. The goal will be to fix the current Module problems described in detail below. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>Before presenting the problems, a reminder on problems and solutions (if you've already read this section from a previous blog post, skip to Problem 1 below). </p><p><b><u>The problems described here are set in stone. </u></b>You may think that these are not problems worth fixing, or that they are not a problem at all. That's ok, but if you want to understand what changes are happening in the game, it's important to also understand what problems the changes are fixing, whether you agree with the problems or not. Being honest with what problems we are fixing up front allows the community to see where we are going and what we deem as valuable. It allows feedback to be focused, as feedback can now be framed towards whether a problem still exists or not, whether it became better than in live Hades' Star or worse. Having the problems we are fixing be non-negotiable also allows you to see early if the new game we are creating is for you, and save you frustration down the road. </p><p>If you see a problem described in this or an upcoming blog post, it means we will be making an effort to fix it in Dark Nebula. That doesn't mean the problem list is complete. By identifying more problems via your feedback, you could allow us to expand the list of problems we are fixing. So if your feedback is "You said X is a problem, I don't think so", it will be ignored. If your feedback is "I also think Y is a big problem too", it will be considered.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><u>The solutions described here are NOT set in stone.</u></b> The solutions you see here (or the ones implemented so far in the Early Access build) are meant to address the identified problems. Most of them are not final, and will keep getting tweaked throughout Early Access. Your feedback here is extremely important: Are the changes addressing the problem effectively? If not, why not? What is the part of the problem that still remains, or what new problem has been created as a result of these changes? Your feedback will be far more useful if you focus on *problems* you see (ideally by playing the Early Access build), instead of proposing solutions. If you must propose a solution, please mention the exact problem it is fixing as well.</p><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Problem 1. Many Modules break game functionality and/or are inefficient solutions to poorly balanced game systems</h3><div>When Hades' Star was first released, there were just Yellow Stars and 5 Red Star levels. Over the years, very frequent, quickly made and careless updates introduced both new game systems and new Modules, with little regard for how those new systems interact with the old Modules. Not surprisingly, the end result is the current mess Hades' Star finds itself in. The Dark Nebula update intentionally takes all the time required to properly fix the problems, not just for its initial release, but for many many years of updates down the line. Simply put, until these problems are fixed, Hades' Star can get no more updates. Pushing updates ignoring the problems would compound the issues, making existing modes even more unplayable, and creating a completely nonsensical game that cannot sustain itself. </div><div><br /></div><div>A few key examples with problems in current Hades' Star modules: </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Time Warp </h4><div>Time Warp has single-handedly destroyed all intended gameplay in two major game modes: White Stars and Blue Stars. In White Stars, it is the biggest reason matches feel synchronous, and competitive players feel like they can't get a full night's sleep when they participate. In Blue Stars, the combination of Time Warp with many modules creates broken dominating techniques that don't give the other player any chance of counter. The ability of Time Warp to also affect Module cooldowns is also breaking a lot of things in Blue Stars, as it was never carefully balanced for all module types. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition to breaking two entire game modes, Time Warp is terrible because it's also *required* for all ships, to make unbearable and badly designed underlying systems more manageable. Some of those badly designed systems include ship movement speed, combat resolution times, and Battleship repair times. To make those times more bearable, players naturally turn to installing Time Warp on all their ships, and also naturally freak out when they hear Time Warp is being removed. But the correct fix to a badly designed game system is to fix the game system itself, not introduce a module that is mandatory for all ships to make the game system slightly more bearable. This is exactly the approach Dark Nebula will be taking with this and other similar modules. When you see a Module being removed, it's always because the underlying system is being fixed so the module is no longer needed, or because the module had very limited use, was ignored by most players, and is being replaced by something more useful. </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Red Star Life Extender</h4><div>This one has single-handedly destroyed a lot of the intended experience in Red Stars, allowing teams of players to easily play as long as they like and turning what was intended to be a 10 minute experience into hours. The fact that it *literally* once also broke the game servers is just bonus. </div><div><br /></div><div>*If* there is a proper place for a module like Red Star Extender in Hades' Star, it needs to be in a completely new environment where a relatively short life increase gives a clear, well-designed and balanced benefit. Its use also needs to be properly limited - simply jumping in as many ships as you want and activating the module repeatedly from the gate, seeing the time going up with each click, could fit well in an clicker game but it does not belong in Hades' Star.</div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Sanctuary </h4><div>The addition of Sanctuary has eliminated a very promising (if balanced correctly) mechanic of risk/reward in Red Stars, but only for the players who need it the least (it's not available in the early game). Like many other crutch solutions, it was the wrong fix to early players complaining about a problem (in this case, ship replacement costs being too high). </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Genesis / Enrich</h4><div>The Genesis/Enrich combo had a big part in breaking the Hydrogen economy, making it impossible to properly balance between casual and dedicated players. These Modules were created as a result of the early player community complaining there's not enough Hydrogen. Instead of taking the time to properly understand the problem and available solutions, these two unbalanced Modules allowed players to create almost unlimited Hydrogen over time, something that was never an intentional design decision. <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2022/09/hydrogen-changes-in-dark-nebula.html">Dark Nebula takes extra time to address the monumental task of fixing the Hydrogen economy.</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Problem 2. Most Modules are poorly balanced, making players avoid them completely</h3><div>Many Modules in Hades' Star are so broken, that quite a few players think this is a puzzle game where you somehow have to guess the useless modules and avoid them. The symptoms of this very serious problem are clearly visible whenever a new player asks "Should I upgrade X?" and the community can usually answer correctly with an unconditional "Yes" or "No". If Modules were properly balanced, the correct answer would be "It depends (on your play style, on your tactics, on what star types you play most, on what other modules you can upgrade at that stage, etc)". The longevity and sustainability of Hades' Star depends on *all* modules being desirable by all players, and this is why we're putting a lot of effort in this area.</div><div><br /></div><div>The wasted opportunity to make Hades' Star a game about creating interesting Module Loadouts is another symptom of this problem. The current live version of Hades' Star has found success *despite* its failure to offer compelling gameplay and interesting choices in module loadouts. Every Red Star level, especially high levels, has at most 3-4 viable loadouts (and even those are not really unique as they share many modules). The vast majority of players only uses those modules, because they are simply better than the alternatives. This makes for extremely boring and repetitive matches - both to play and to watch. </div><div><p>The goal with the Dark Nebula update, and all updates after it, will be to introduce compelling gameplay and meaningful choices in module loadouts for all star types, in a careful way that does not interfere with the other elements of Hades' Star that make players come back daily. In practice, this means that regular Red Stars will still be quite repetitive and therefore accessible to players who do not like or want to bother with tactical choices and with giving too much thought to their loadouts. (For those players, an adjustment period where they learn the changes to their preferred modules will still be required). All other star types, including the new Dark Red Stars, will encourage and reward experimentation with different module loadouts. </p><p><br /></p></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Problem 3. The early game Module experience is terrible </h3><div>The first hour, day and week in a player's experience in the game is obviously very important. Those timeframes are the game's opportunity to show a new player what lies ahead if they stick around for months and years. </div><div><br /></div><div>As far as Modules are concerned, Hades' Star does a very bad job of showing early players any potential. The tutorial encourages players to equip a new Weapon, which would be exciting if it wasn't the exact same weapon the Battleship already had, but with barely bigger numbers. It also asks them to equip a shield that becomes obsolete in exactly 3 days, basically telling players that this is a puzzle game where you have to somehow guess the useless Modules and avoid them. In early Red Star levels, a lot of new Modules become available, but most of them are completely useless at that stage (nobody needs Red Star Extender or Teleport in RS2). One of the early modules disables your own ship when activated (among other things), and that's actually one of the useful ones. For some reason, you are allowed to equip that module on your Miner. </div><div><br /></div><div>What a hugely wasted opportunity to show new players what the game can become, and encourage them to stay and find out. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Module Tweaks during Early Access</h3><div><br /></div><div>A big focus of the ongoing Dark Nebula Early Access is to fix the above problems, and make Modules feel more powerful and rewarding. There are many changes already in the Early Access build. The thing to keep in mind is that these changes are not final - we are experimenting with a lot of new modules and not all of these new modules will make it into the game. The Module tweaks will take a lot of time, and will happen in parallel with major game modes also being redesigned and tweaked. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here are some changes we will be doing in Early Access that are more likely to make it into the final game: </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Time Warp deleted</h4><div>As described above, the removal of Time Warp will allow us to properly re-design all game modes and have complete control of player experience. For example, ship speeds are greatly increased on many game modes for all players, without the need to have a separate module installed. </div><div><br /></div><div>Our goal with deleted modules such as Time Warp will be to have a replacement Module in similar category/functionality, so that player progress in the old module can be directly transferred to the new one. </div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br />Sanctuary deleted</h4><div>The Dark Nebula update will remove Sanctuary completely, without replacing it with any other module, since the cost to unlock and equip it was minimal, and its functionality is largely replaced with other gameplay features (i.e. ships jump away before being destroyed in most star types, not counting Supernovas). </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Support Modules Renamed to Combat, can only be equipped on Battleships</h4><div>The Support Module slot is being removed from Miners and Transports. Those ship types will only be able to equip modules specifically designed for them. Support Modules will be renamed to Combat, and can only be installed on Battleships.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many of the Support Modules didn't make sense to ever be on a Transport or Miner anyway. This is a serious problem. The game is tricking players into wasting mental and actual resources to see i.e. if Fortify could ever make sense on a Miner for tricking Cerberus ships, when in fact such a scenario was never properly designed, tested or balanced. This change instantly fixes this, and clearly communicates to players what Modules are truly useful for creating loadouts for each particular ship.</div><div><br /></div><div>Players relied on the Support slot on Miners/Transports for very specific modules. Some of them (like Time Warp/Sanctuary) are no longer applicable in Dark Nebula. Other previously useful support Modules such as Teleport, Stealth, Rockets/Drones etc. are either not needed (because the environment in which they are operating is changing), not suitable (because certain combat modules will only be balanced for Battleship use), or will be replaced with similar functionality Transport/Miner-specific modules. This will allow us to better control the experience in all star types, and properly balance desirable loadouts per ship type. </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Many modules will be changing the Red Star level they are awarded at</h4><div>This is to ensure a consistent module experience, especially in the early Red Star levels. Every Module should be exciting to unlock and provide some value in at least one game mode immediately, even at level 1.</div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br />New modules being added </h4><p>We will be experimenting with a lot of new Modules in Dark Nebula, some of which will make it into the final version. The high level goals for these Modules are the following: </p><p>- To better support diverse loadouts and interesting gameplay in all star types. Especially for PvP modes, having more Weapon/Shield/Combat loadout options would make those star types far more exciting to play. We want to make Modules that are fun both to play with, and against other players (i.e. powerful Modules that also have powerful counters). </p><p>- To provide a more exciting progression through all the available Red Star levels. We want to avoid the current situation where certain Red Star levels unlock mostly useless modules, or even no modules at all. Reaching a new Red Star level should always be an exciting time, and the new Modules at that level should be a big part of this. </p><p>- To support the evolving economy, including Hydrogen (there will be a lot of experimentation with Yellow and Red star mining modules) and Credits (base shipment payouts and different shipment bonus modules will be re-evaluated, with potential for new modules as well). </p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Providing Module Feedback</h4><p>The simplest and most useful feedback you can give while playing Dark Nebula, for any available module, is this: <b><u>Would you want to upgrade this Module to the maximum level? If not, why? </u></b></p><p>After you identify that module, the best thing to do is move on and test the next module, assuming you want to give the best feedback possible. The vast majority of players are stuck in the "single loadout" mindset and never change modules or really test anything. Extremely valuable modules such as Alpha Shield were never touched in the first week of Early Access, until the values came up artificially to force people to notice the module. Increasing the values to unreasonable levels to force people to test a module is one way to get the module noticed and tested, but it's also very time consuming and will invalidate a lot of the testing when values come back to reasonable values. So if you can, try to take initiative in testing modules nobody else is testing. It will help the update and is your best chance to personally affect the update. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com67tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-735828027372962152.post-17719827218748867282022-10-11T00:00:00.004-07:002024-02-07T10:07:50.850-08:00About Maintenance<div>We are currently deploying a server update. For more information, see here: <a href="http://blog.hadesstar.com/2024/02/server-update-february-7.html">http://blog.hadesstar.com/2024/02/server-update-february-7.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Expected downtime is 5 minutes. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<b>General information on maintenance: </b><br />
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We regularly maintain the game's servers to improve performance, fix issues and increase capacity for more players.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwC2dif0CxQQzWXvQ9IN3XmK66eegR69fs6uBaCIQKwWl68C2rFFUnMleLWzvLtVpT_Xy_Ox6rKm55qPJrt5SIgFltmvZWls9C6mncsW_qeN_YfFk28-fRiXPxLZoCEjh-5yBQxOrZGQY/s1600/Capture.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="817" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwC2dif0CxQQzWXvQ9IN3XmK66eegR69fs6uBaCIQKwWl68C2rFFUnMleLWzvLtVpT_Xy_Ox6rKm55qPJrt5SIgFltmvZWls9C6mncsW_qeN_YfFk28-fRiXPxLZoCEjh-5yBQxOrZGQY/s320/Capture.PNG" width="272" /></a></div>
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Here's what to expect during such a maintenance period:<br />
<ul>
<li>16 minutes before maintenance starts, you will start seeing an in-game message and countdown timer.</li>
<li>The countdown timer is meant to help you avoid situations where you could lose ships while the servers are offline. Make sure you retreat your ships from combat before the timer expires. </li>
<li>During the countdown period, you cannot start new Red Stars. You should also be careful with existing Red Stars - if using a lot of Red Star extenders, it's possible the maintenance could start with some of your ships still in the Red Star. </li>
<li>During the last 8 minutes of the countdown, you will also be unable to start searching for a new Blue star.</li>
<li>The actual maintenance will usually only bring the game offline for less than 5 minutes. An exception is when doing maintenance during an app update - those maintenances will usually take 10 minutes to an hour.</li>
</ul>
There is no pre-set maintenance schedule, they are done as needed. Historically we've done about 1-2 maintenances per month.<br />
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When a maintenance is underway, we will always post more info on the top of this post, including estimated downtime. A link to this post will be available from within the game during the maintenance window (click the maintenance message, then More Info to see the cause of the maintenance and expected downtime).<br />
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