Hey everyone!

Devlog #80:

Beta 23 is now live! It’s mainly focused on adding end game content for the Alliance of Gentlemen faction. In these new missions, your crew will be stealing cargo from a W.D. transport ship, breaking a prisoner out of a secure prison, and gathering equipment in order to pull off a heist in the mansion of the notorious businessman Torsten Rowe.

In addition to the new content, we also added penalties and bonuses to player death. Your maximum health will now degrade each time you respawn. Conversely, each jump you make will increase your maximum health and can even surpass what you started with.

We made an additional pass on a few of the currently implemented Sector Commanders. The two that received the biggest changes were the Grim Cutlass and the Ancient Sentry. You can read more about the changes below!

This update concludes the faction-specific end game content that we have planned. There will be a handful of other non-faction related ways in which you’ll be able to gain Lost Colony Data fragments, which we’ll be adding in the near future. We’re excited to hear feedback on the new content as well as the other additions. Thank you for any reports!

Faction Specific Additions (potential spoiler warning!)
-New Sector: WD Transport - A W.D. ship holding cargo and flanked by armored security drones
-New Sector: Hollow Rock - Secret CU prison sector for especially dangerous prisoners
-New Sector: Old Factory - Abandoned robot factory
-New Sector: Torsten Rowe’s Estate - The Madman’s Mansion
-New Area: The Captain’s Quarters on the Estate
-New Planetside Enemy: Downed Protector - A massive creation, luckily it’s already defeated...
-New Planetside Enemy: Guard Drone - Teleporters guards to its location if it spots intruders
-New Planetside Enemy: Assassin Bot - This entity can be slowed, but not stopped entirely.
-New Item: The P.U.N.T. Chip - A missioned related item
-New Item: Estate Access Card - Grants access to the Captain’s Quarters on the Estate
-New Mission: “Open Call” - Given through long range comms (requires AOG faction, crew level 3 minimum)
-New Mission: “Break Out Conrad” - Given by NPC the Caretaker in the Captain’s Quarters of the Estate (requires mission “Open Call” completed and related quest component in cargo)
-New Mission: “Investigate Prison Cell” - Given by NPC Saliki in the Captain’s Quarters of the Estate (requires mission “Break Out Conrad” to be in progress)
-New Mission: “Retrieve Robot Head” - Given by NPC Conrad in the Captain’s Quarters of the Estate (requires mission “Break Out Conrad” completed)
-New Mission: “The Madman’s Mansion” - Given by the Caretaker in the Captain’s Quarters of the Estate (requires mission “Retrieve Robot Head” completed)
-Added 4 New Mission NPCs

Additions
-New System: Fluctuating Health - Each time your character dies, their maximum health decreases. If you character does not die in the current sector, their maximum health can increase in small increments upon warping.
-New System: Pin Screens - Screens near security checkpoints. These screens require the correct pin to be entered before they can be unlocked. The pin numbers can be found somewhere within the sector on data pads or memos.
-New System: Limited Teleportation Dock - You can teleport into certain restricted stations only if your ship is located within a specific area.
-New System: Mission Status Toggle - Allows us to show or hide different elements in a level based on the status of a specific mission
-New Item: Revitalizing Syringe - Using this consumable item will not only fully heal you, but will also increase your maximum HP to its highest possible state.
-New Sound Effects: Robot and Sylvassi will sound appropriate when damaged
-Captains can now target destroyable space objects. They appear on the top-right corner as condensed versions of normal ship targets.
-New Ship Component: CU Long Range (tweaked) - The Grim Cutlass has modified this main turret.

Changes
-Captains can move cargo to other cargo slots (including hidden cargo slots) without having to be near a repair depot.
-Enemy AI Aiming has been tweaked. They are slightly less accurate and sometimes take longer before shooting / in between shots.
-Enemy AI weapon distribution has been altered. They are less likely to be equipped with the really powerful weapon varieties.
-AI behavior for Repel Invaders and Defend Self (Ship) has been improved. AI will now begin to search for potential intruders.
-Enemy AI crews will now have talents randomly applied to them.
-AI movement has been tweaked
-Updated default AI priorities regarding the Defend Self (Ship) behavior. This is a slight tweak and won’t give a prompt to players to reset to default AI priorities.
-The Grim Cutlass now has improved shields and upgraded cyberdefense. Its crew has also been given upgrades.
-The Grim Cutlass’s crew now starts with better weapons.
-The Caustic Corsair has had its toxic interior effect removed.
-The Ancient Sentry’s EMP ability has been replaced with an overcharge generator in its core.
-The Ancient Sentry now has two destroyable systems embedded in its hull. The first system allows the Ancient Sentry to repair itself over time. The second system allows it to fire missiles. Destroying each system will prevent the Ancient Sentry from performing that specific ability.
-The jump count restriction for the W.D. mission “Weapon Demonstration” has been removed. This allows crews to leave and revisit once they are a higher level / better equipped without the mission failing.
-Targeting drop-down option in the TAB menu for captains has been changed to two options: Auto-target and clear target. You can still click on the ships directly in the upper right to target them individually.
-Tweaked the current ship target visuals
-Decreased likelihood of cargo inspections. They should no longer be assigned until chaos level 3, and they should also be rarer.
-Heavy Pistol has been tweaked, it fires slower and does a bit less damage
-Elite versions of humanoid enemies have had a few tweaks

Fixes
-Fixed an issue with extracting special components, now preventing them from also dropping when the same ship is destroyed
-Fixed a naming issue with the I.M.P.A.C.T. prototype.
-Fixed a few issues occuring on BSOs (boardable space objects - stations with windows)
-Improved the networking on missiles exploding in space
-Fixed animation issue that could result in characters repeatedly playing the death animation based on where they died.
-The language filter should produce fewer false positives.
-Improved visuals for Burst Rifle
-Automated Trading Station shopkeepers should now be easier to talk to in certain situations
-Fixed a lighting issue on the W.D. Cruiser
-Fixed crew bot issue that broke their ability to navigate the ship after they play Liar’s Dice
-Fixed a sound issue on the Ant Colony Planet

Beta 23.1 Release Notes

Beta 23.1 is now out! It should hopefully help with alleviate a crash issue that was introduced in Beta 23. Thanks for sending in those reports!

Additions
-Piloting and Captain’s Chair UI for enemy ships now shows when shields are fully offline by hiding the shield integrity bar.

Fixes
-Fixed an issue that could cause a crash on certain computers
-Fixed a networking/timing issue found on the Downed Protector in one of the new AOG missions

Thanks for your time!

Best,
The Leafy Games Team