Greetinds Commanders!

1.4 is finally here!

First, if you haven't watched it yet, I made a devlog video with a preview of this update, here ->
Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to support my work.

Second, I want to thank all my supporters for making Star Valor possible, especially my patreons! ːsteamthumbsupː

Check out my patreon page at /laious You can have your own special crew member in the game!

Here is the Patreon list for April 2022:

Commanders:
- Ryan Schubert (crewman: Ralo of the Sea's Age)

Captains:
- Jean-Philippe Martel (crewman: Jean)
- BalaCanabis
- Gary Scott
- Punkoala
- Zarinthal the Sleepy Dragon (crewman of the same name)
- kolby varner
- Kevin Chote
- Gio
- ZipTieFun
- Aaron Cook
- Corrupted Variant
- llamasmurf
- Kothar Harroc
- Scott Tjhia

Pilots:
- AJ Parker (crewman: Miles Prower)
- Latheos
- Casey Kelleher
- Graeme Kent
- Tigger (crewman: The Dread Pirate Tigger)
- HansP3ter
- Libo
- Scott Frisius
- stratometal
- Hawk
- Nessus
- Elkan
- SW9876
- Boosted

Rookies:
- Brian
- Herbert Monni
- Andrew
- James Ketola
- Martin Nielsen
- Kero7
- Dave Barretti
- Jeremy Sandahl

Now, to 1.4 features:

Crafting

• Added blueprint crafting, for equipment and items (later on for ships as well). You'll find/loot blueprints or learn it by scrapping items. For now it takes 2 scraps per item IF you have the Tech Level to use it.
  
  
  
  
• Added 'Tinhead Workshops', which are rare stations where you can buy crafting blueprints and some materials, as well as a restricted choice of epic (purple) equipment. Workshops appear more frequently in bigger sectors, specially dark ones.
  Note: Workshops will only appear in new games or freshly generated sectors.
  
  
  
  
• Added items: Base Component, Fine Component, Superior Component, Ardonian Component. Along with 'Scrap Metal' they will be obtained through many actions and will be base requirement for crafting.
  
• Added item: Upgrade Kit, which upgrades equipment up to green tier and an improved version, which goes up to blue tier.
  
• When upgrading an equipment, the lowest possible upgrade item is used and a tooltip will show it when mouse over the 'Upgrade' button.
  
• Added item 'Refined Metal' (name might chance), which is used in "elite" and "boss" grade item crafting.
  
• Refineries now have a chance to produce 'Scrap Metal' and at much lower chance 'Refined Metal'. The drop chance is higher with better refinery geology range and the type of ore consumed. This drop chance is in addition to the normal refining process.
  
• Now you learn Tech Level through Crafting.
  
• Weapon Crafting: For each Core component added you can add one Booster Component for no space cost (Nano Boosters skill will change).
  
• Added Booster Component: Damage Booster.
  
• Added Booster Component: Nodolo's Mod.
  
  
  
  
• Added 'Slow Fire' crafting modifier.
  
• 'Burst' crafting modifier is now limited to 2 instances (max 3 shot burst).
  
• Now you can use 'Rapid Fire' crafting modifier with 'cannon core' components.
  
• Scavenging now has a chance of dropping 'Refined Metal' instead of 'Scrap Metal'.
  
• Enemies now sometimes drop crafting related items instead of equipment.
  
• Pirate Hideouts no longer drop equipment, instead they now drop all sorts of items, crafting materials, upgrade kits, scrap and refined metal.
  
• Changed Tier 1 Scavenging skill to: "20% faster scavenging and +20% Scrap Metal loot / point"
  
• Changed Tier 2 Scavenging skill to: "+2% chance to find Refined Metal when scavenging and +16% chance to obtain special items. Special items can be equipment, trade goods or crafting materials / point"
  

Items

• Added new weapon type: Quantum Pulse.
  [ Quantum Pulse Teaser Video ]
  
  
• Added new weapon type: Railgun
  [ Railgun Teaser Video ]
  
  
• Added 'Energy Barrier', a temporary shield which requires Flux, in 4 variations.
  [ Energy Barrier on previous devlog ]
  
  
• Added weapon: 'Charging Laser', a 2 space variation for charging mechanics.
  
• Reduced Basic Mobile Refinery ship size requirements to Yacht (2).
  
• Added Flux powered refinery, which uses 1 flux to refine 10 ores in half the time of a normal refinery.
  
• Replaced item 'Indium' with 'Silicon'.
  
• PMC Ammo Replicator now uses Scrap Metal instead of Iron and produces 4 times more per use. so you get 1 cargo space worth of ammo for each 0,5 space of a scrap metal consumed. Yes it may overflow.
  
• Picking up loot now always display as a floating text, regardless of the option.
  

Spaceships

• Added ship: Terror, Red Skull Battleship, size 5 (Cruiser).
  
  
  [ Terror Gameplay Video ]
  
  
• Added 'Interceptor' ship role. Interceptors get +25% to max speed and +50% critical damage bonus when they have active Flux.
  
• Added ship: 'Isilo', the first Interceptor in the game, size 2 (yacht).
  
  
  [ Isilo Gameplay Video ]
  [ Interceptor Role on previous devlog ]
  
  
• The V2F ship model now has 2 dual barrel guns instead of 3 normal fixed ones.
  

Player Fleet and Crew Members

• Added 'Bonus Space Pilot' as a 'Pilot' crew member bonus.
  
• Added special crew member: 'Ralo of the Sea’s Age' (From our patreon 'Seasage').
  
• Fleet Ship Captains now prioritize learning Pilot or Gunner as a new skill (in that order), if they don't have it yet. This will improve their accuracy and survivability as a wingman.
  
• Increased rate at which crew members learn a new skill. For Ship Captains the bonus is even higher and also apply to evolving (gaining +1 rarity).
  
• Blue tier crew members may now learn a third skill, not only when purple.
  
• Gunners will no longer learn 'Max Weapon Heat' (flat) as a skill bonus. They may still learn the % version, which got boosted from 5% base to 6% per Tier.
  
• Improved several Tactician bonuses for Fleet Ships.
  

General

• Perks will now keep your record time (time played on that save when at the time) when unlocking or acquiring it. Only works for Feat and Karma perks acquired AFTER this update.
  
• Added Space Pilot bonus for level 55: "Critical chance +15% with active Flux, Damage Resistance +10% with NO active Flux."
  
• Added Space Pilot bonus for level 60: "Extra copilot seat" (Extra engineer if it's a Frigate or bigger size ship).
  
• Damage Bonus (and some Damage Resistance) from perks and crew members were slightly reduced (this also affects NPCs).
  
• Damage Bonus from equipment (like battle computer or nodolo's mod) now have diminishing returns, especially on bigger ships.
  
• Stations now refresh quests and crew for hire from time to time.
  
• Station markets are now seed based and therefore no longer prone to "save scum". Reduced overall equipment sold by around 30% (weapons, goods and ships are unaffected). This change only has full effect on new saves.
  
• Reduced HP bonus on Elite and Gold star enemies from 2x and 4x to 1.8x and 3.5x, respectively.
  
• Buying higher rarity items from stations is now more expensive. Specially blue and purple tier.
  
• Added 'Polish' language.
  
• Increased Crosshair (Cursor) size.
  
• Sector level scaling (based on distance to starter sector) is a bit smoother now, and game difficulty no longer has influence on it.
  
• Changed melee weapon calculations (not general ramming damage), resulting in an overall damage increase, specially on damage cap. Heavier (higher mass) ships now deal more damage, but also have a higher cap on the receiving end. Lighter ships need to be faster to deal damage, but also receive less impact damage (they get pushed away instead of crushed).
  
• Added minimap icons for missiles and torpedoes.
  
• Increased Venghi ships energy weapon bonus from 20% to 25%.
  
• Reduced Hunter Fleet chance to spawn gold star enemies from 4% to 3% for each "bounty point" after 10. Also, slightly reduced Marauder Hunter Fleets spawn chance for each Active hideout.
  

BUG fixes

• Fixed fleet ship turning speed not returning to normal after firing more than one charging weapons.
  
• Fixed charging weapon cooldown not applying on turrets.
  
• Fixed Buff icon position in ultrawide screen.
  
• Fixed fleet ships causing damage on the carrier when docking.
  
• Fixed BUG when gunners try to fire Torpedoes.
  
• Fixed BUG that would cause double loot of ship derelict.
  
• Fixed BUG on quest target ship that would freeze the game.
  
• Fixed BUG on 'The Exiled' quest, after picking up Ziggy.
  
• Fixed unlocking ships in permadeath mode.
  
• Fixed ESC not closing Quest Log.