Cheevos!

The first seven achievements are now in Steam and are all fully implemented. More are coming in future versions.

Difficulty Rebalance

Further testing of the scenarios and difficulties showed that there was still too large of a gap between the difficulty levels. Normal had too many credits available especially early while painful proved to be too difficult on later scenarios. This was especially an issue with The Cradle.

One problem was the hard modifier given to all deliveries. The long term effects of this were problematic due to how profits decline as it would become difficult to get enough initial profits to get a network rolling. These penalties have been reduced and have been shifted into a per turn penalty onto each profit source. This reduces the harsh penalties on early game profits for harder difficulties while still ensuring that less money is available during each scenario overall.

Further balancing will happen in the future. The goal is to create difficulty levels that will appeal to all players. The intent is that normal will be an easy-ish mode where skilled play can complete diamond level victories a round or two early. Hard is meant to be fairly tight in the full round limit with a few mistakes made along the way. Painful is meant to be winnable only with highly skilled play. Earlier scenarios, Paul's Fork especially, are meant to be easier than later ones.

The Cradle Economic Change

The economics of The Cradle were a bit too tight on painful difficulty. To mitigate this the profit per lane used have been slightly increased while profits decrease slightly faster. This allows more profits to be immediately available on the next round but for this to not stick.

Scenario #6 - Anomalous Dig

This is a rough terrain scenario about connecting to and developing mining stations. Though there is a cheap area available to build in initially most of the economic centers are in the dense asteroid region of the map. Build costs end up being quite high and careful planning is needed. It is on a smaller map with one AI company that will quickly cramp the region.

Anomalous Dig also features economic fluctuations. This can dramatically affect the profits available and does include economic crashes. Plan accordingly.

AI Updates

Minor changes have been made to the personalities of all of the AI companies. In particular they are significantly more likely to upgrade their ships and their technologies. Previously they were not doing so often enough which restricted their delivery range.

Currently in the Works

Another AI company to play against.

Scenario #7.

Further balance improvements.

UI improvements.