Greetings Commanders!

This is a major update, where one of the biggest changes (armor overhaul) deserves a bit of an explanation here, done by one of our collaborators ( twitch.tv/gottchar ):

Armor Overhaul

" ... The upcoming update (2.0.6) overhauls the damage reduction system in Star Valor. In short, items, talents and effects which used to state they give you damage reduction will now give you "armor", and depending on your armor value you receive damage reduction. In the game you will notice the new wording, You should also notice (in your old games), that:

• Ships that had zero damage reduction are unchanged
  
• Ships that had some (10-50%) damage reduction will take less damage, more change at the lower end
  
• Ships that used to be about capped (80%) are taking a tiny bit more damage, but the cap is gone.

In a new game you should see that getting some armor already early on will now have more impact and for example equipping green Zortrium armor at level 5 will make a huge difference, compared to pre-overhaul days.

In the old system, damage reduction (DR) values were simply added, due to this it was easy to understand but lead to worse balance. DR got better the more you already had, the jump from 0 to 5DR was tiny, but from 70 to 75DR was big. Due to this it also needed to have a cap.
With the new system adding a certain amount of armor will always reduce damage taken by the same (or similar) amount, compared to not adding it. ..."


In addition to the new Damage Resistance calculations, armor items now affect how your ship gets repaired, either by stations, repair equipment or active effects. So now we have many combinations of Hull, Armor (Damage Resistance) and Repair Efficiency. Not to mention the different effects on your ship's mass.

In general, you'll notice some enemies might be a bit more "tanky", however, you'll also see new weapon modifiers like Armor Penetration, which reduces the target armor before calculating DR, and Mass Disruptor, which increases damage dealt to heavy ships while dealing less on lighter ships.

So... With the addition of the Ranger and Fighter role, and many requested features being implemented, we are finishing 2022 with most mechanics in a pretty solid state, paving the road for what's coming next in story quests, economy patch, station building, and much more :)

As always, thank you all for supporting Star Valor! Special thanks to my collaborators and patreons!
Enjoy the game and Merry Christmas everyone! :)
- Laious

Patreon list as of Tuesday, December 13, 2022:

Commanders:

Ryan Schubert
Bancheis

Captains:

Courtney, 鹿目圆香, Rin, Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Aces:
Jean-Philippe Martel, BalaCanabis, Gary Scott, Zarinthal the Sleepy Dragon, kolby varner, Kevin Chote, Gio, ZipTieFun, Quickshadow, Scott Tjhia, Baduz, Severance Bane, Lamergaroth, David Scouten, Maxter1o2, semeku, Jeffrey Wheeler, Nicholas Taylor, Jiri Sluka, John Power, Ashven Scarpaw, Ysdom, Adrian Luna, chaussepied quentin

Pilots:
AJ Parker, Latheos, Casey Kelleher, Graeme Kent, Tigger, Dave Barreti, Jeremy Sandahl, Libo, Scott Frisius, Hawk, Elkan, SW9876, Boosted, Myoron, Aaron Meek, GamerForLife, Thraknar The Mighty, Logan Laramay, Matt Sharwarko, NAUTILUS11045, Ryyuka, Talonical, Michael Krämer, bluechipps, Elliot Louise, Stuart Bunn, Cainan Chambless, Ujvari Tibor, jin, lochinator, Justin Schultz, Derrick Southerland, Jordan Smith, Andreas Clemenz, Shinnjin, Evan Light, robert feldbacher, Peter Müller, Scott Woodie, robert keaton, ITEDVO, Nathaniel D, Maik Landgraf

Rookies:
Brian, James Ketola, Martin Nielsen, Kero7, Takuma Shimoyama, Christof Bruyland, Fedaygin, Grendug, Vladrynne, Christopher Boyd, Rojopappu, Jeffry Fleischer, Matthew DuPlanty, Thomas Ran, Gary, Josh Worden, Cpt Incorrigble, Banane007

Thank you all!!!

Patch Notes:

Armor Overhaul:

• Added 'Armor' stat, used to define Damage Resistance, which no longer has a cap (explained earlier in this post).
  
• 'Repair cost' modifiers now also affect active repairs like 'automated repair system' and repair beams, including those used by 'repair drones'.
  
• Added repair cost and repair systems efficiency modifiers to every armor equipment.
  
• Added heavy versions of armor items, as well as a few new ones. Most armor items were renamed to 'Plating' instead of 'armor'. Adamantium is now 'Nanomorph'.
  
  

Crafting and Weapon modifiers:

• 'Armor Piercing' crafting modifier no longer adds 25% crit chance. Now it adds 10% armor penetration for -7% damage and can be added up to 9 times, being compatible with any core component.
  
• Small warheads and missiles now have 20% Armor piercing and a bit less base damage to compensate.
  
• Added 'Mass Disruptor' weapon modifier, which causes more or less damage based on target's mass.
  
• Plasma Torpedoes now have 'Mass Disruptor' by default, but 20% critical chance instead of 25% (28% on crafted version).
  
  
  
• Mines, Large warheads and missiles now have 'Mass Disruptor' modifier (experimental).
  
• Added blueprints for Microchips and Robotics.
  
• Drone parts crafting now yields more items.
  
• Base, Fine, Superior and Ardonian Components now require 2 of each material instead of 3.

Spaceships:

• Added ship role: Fighter, which gains 10% AP and "Weapons without Point Defense suffer a Mass Disruptor effect against this ship."
  
• Fighter role was applied to ship models: Wolf, Speeder, Mauler, V2F, Fido, Defender 6-300, Fury, Mi-Iaoshu, Lacewing.
  
• Added ship model: 'Starbeam'. Tier 3 Independent Fighter, size 2 (yacht).
  
  
  
• Added ship role: Ranger, which gains cloaking near debris or asteroid fields, gets repaired and gains 'gear charges' after scavenging. Gear charges grant crew efficiency and can be expended to craft ship enhancements without material costs.
  
• Ranger role was applied to ship models: Space Ranger, Eagle, Beetle, Saw.
  
• Added ship model: 'Dragonfly'. Tier 3 Independent Ranger, size 3 (Corvette).
  
  
  
• Zeus Spinal mounts now converge better.
  
• Removed Zeus Armor (old Damage Resistance) bonus.
  
• Improved Taurus mining as a fleet ship
  
• Shark is now a Tier 2 Interceptor (role).
  
• Eagle now has 2 gimbal turrets.
  
• Juggernaut now has Destroyer role.

Equipment:

• Added predefined weapon: Railgun.
  
• Hull Reinforcements now adds flat mass to the ship, before the current armor mass modifier is applied.
  
• Changed Railgun core stats to fire twice as fast while keeping the same DPS, reducing the base damage in exchange.
  
• Reduced Railgun slug size by half.
  
• Reduced Inertial Stabilizer space from 2 to 1 and the stabilization from 40 to 25. This will make it a bit more useful on small ships, specially for fleet ships using the 'Hit and Run' tactic to avoid colliding with their targets.
  
• Increased Inertial Nullifier stabilization from 100 to 120.
  
• Energy Armor now requires 4 space instead of 5.

Crew:

• Added 'Dedicated' crew learning focus: Can only learn one skill and will either try to learn new bonus effects or improve an existing one. Gets +1 to max skill level and bonus effect.
  
• Increased chance for Crew members to spawn at level 1, both in stations and escape pods.

Perks:

• Changed 'Turning speed' perk to % instead of flat values. This affects pilot crew bonuses as well.
  
• Added Karma Perk: 'Self Reliant' which prevents you from buying equipment while improving crafting, specially early on.
  
• Added 2 new Experience perks: 'Wealthy' which starts with more money and attracts more enemies, and 'Poor' which makes less money from defeating enemies and attracts less enemies.
  
• Star Killer perk no longer grants 1000 Red Skull reputation when acquired in-game.
  
• All 3 Experience perk slots are now unlocked for new players to choose.

AI / Difficulty:

• Added chance for enemies to use more advanced armor like energy, ardonian, or the new types.
  
• Reduced Elite and Boss HP bonus to 1.5 (was 1.8) and 3.0 (was 3.5), respectively, to balance the overall armor increase.
  
• Reduced bonus armor silver and gold stars receive to 0.5% each level after 20, instead of 1%.
  
• Reduced bonus armor from hardcore difficulty to 50 and 20% instead of 60 and 25%, and bonus damage from 30% to 25%.
  
• Added base armor for stations, according to their level.
  
• Added a base 20% weapon damage bonus to stations.
  
• You can no longer extort the same target more than once.
  
• Hunter Fleets no longer follow you if you warp away right after they start spawning in OR when loading a save.
  
• Changed how reputation affects the amount of enemies in Hunter fleets. Their numbers should be similar until reputation reaches around -50k, where the extra ships per point starts to diminish considerably.
  
• The same explosion can no longer hit big ships (Frigate+) multiple times (by hitting multiple colliders). This mechanic is being replaced by 'Mass Disruptor' and 'Piercing' modifiers.

General:

• Auto save is now separate from normal save, to avoid eventually overwriting it.
  
  
  
• Added 'UI Scaling' option. It affects left panel, fleet control and tutorial. There is a separate scaling option for name labels as well.
  
• 'Show in Galaxy Map' button on quest log is no longer available before accepting one-time quests like 'The Exiled'.
  
• Changed category buttons on blueprint crafting to show the item type you click, or all of them if you click again.
  
• Targeting ships now also show their Armor and Damage Resistance.
  
• Becoming Allied with a faction now reveals all sectors controlled by it.
  
• Item tooltip now shows when it can be deposited in the global stash.
  
• Cloaking now properly hides thrusters and turrets. Non player fleet members now become completely invisible when cloaked, except for their radar icon (might change later).

BUG Fixes:

• Fixed a few targeting BUGs, which should improve both the player and fleet ships engaging enemies.
  
• Fixed Ancient Relic icon rotating.
  
• Fixed BUG on fleet ships not showing armor from 'Leadership', only the DR.
  
• Fixed 'Continuous' crafting modifier.
  
• Fixed selected equipment resetting in the ship setup after a fleet ship refines or collects loot.
  
• Fixed enemies not being properly considered hostile in the Arena Mode.
  
• Fixed flux charges carrying over when you swapped ships.