Stellar Tactics
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Patch 0.126 – Combat Update #1

Hi all – Lots of changes in this patch – see the video for highlights and details below:

COMBAT CHANGES:

ADDED: End turn options. When ending your turn you will have several new options to choose from. This options menu is only displayed if you have 2 or more AP left over when ending your turn. If queuing attacks, your turn will end as usual if no AP is left over. You can cancel out of the end turn menu by pressing the escape key.

  • WAIT – Wait requires a full bar of AP and allows you to skip your turn, adjusting your position in the turn order. This is handy for cases where your team member may be blocked. When selecting this option, your position in the turn order is adjusted after the last team member in the turn order.
  • DEFEND – Defend requires 2 AP and has a small chance of avoiding a single attack while waiting for your next turn or mitigating a portion of the next attacks damage. The cost of 2AP is a choice balanced against reloading your weapon or setting your team members in a defensive posture while in combat. Defend is applied after armor, shields and any other damage mitigation. You can see which team members and enemy combatants are defending by rolling over them with your mouse. The status bar at the top of the screen will show a defend icon in cases where combatants are in defend mode.
  • END TURN – Ends your turn with no AP cost or further action. Any remaining AP up to 2 points will be rolled over into your next turn as it has been in the past.

ADDED: Attacks of opportunity:

  • Only combatants with a melee weapon equipped and selected can execute an attack of opportunity.
  • If a combatant is in range of a melee opponent and they move, the enemy will get a free attack.
  • Combatants get a single chance during any round of having an attack of opportunity applied.
  • Combatants get a single attack of opportunity per round of combat.
  • If the enemy misses you, you will continue to your selected destination.
  • If the enemy does damage, your move will be interrupted. You can choose to heal, attack or move as usual after the attack.
  • Combatants can only be attacked once in any round. That includes instances where the closest enemy combatant has already dealt an attack of opportunity.
  • Status effects have a chance to apply any status effects as normal.
  • Stunned combatants cannot make attacks of opportunity. However, they do remove the moving combatants chance to receive an attack of opportunity for that round.

Combat navigation and blocking has been overhauled. The goal was to improve the way blocking works so it is fair for both the player and the AI. Characters now have descreet blocking areas that work much better than they did previously. You should notice that AI can no longer move through characters when retreating or if blocked in areas by your team members. Enemies also do a much better job of keeping their distance from other characters with this update. You also now have the option to “Wait” in cases where your team members are blocked so you can make adjustments to positioning. I’ll be continuing to improve on this system over time.

GENERAL FIXES IN THIS PATCH:
FIXED: Adding and removing armor with stats (+STR – +END) now correctly update the display of HP in the character info and inventory screens.
FIXED: Bleed resist display in character info screen
FIXED: A number of rounding errors for weapon damage in rollover info, character information and inventory areas.
FIXED: Projectile impacts and damage display are now timed based on range to target
FIXED: Grenade throw animations from crouched position.
FIXED: When swapping weapons, border highlights now updated correctly.
FIXED: When mercs were recruited, they were given 4 less intial stat points than they were supposed to recieve. You are now credited 4 stat points the next time you attack in combat.
FIXED: An error in the trade in value for ships based on charisma.
FIXED: An error in the display of values displayed in trade menus when items had a value of 100,000 credits or more.

UPDATED: You can no longer select team members other than the selected active combatant with the F1-F4 keys and by clicking them while in combat. This was confusing players because they were unable to end their turns if they inadvertantly selected another team member.

UPDATED: Missile launcher damage toned down a bit.

UPDATED: Adjusted mini-gun damage up a bit.

UPDATED: Damage modifiers to burst and full auto – you should see a significant damage boost to both of these fire modes bringing them somewhat in line with the use of ammo and AP expenditure. Burst and full-auto do have a damage penalty to reflect accuracy when firing with these modes. You will deal and receive more peak damage now and will need to mitigate this with healing, especially at higher levels. Time to start using those med-kits. This will be balanced a bit more with the introduction of First-Aid related powers/devices. “Medic!”

UPDATED: Heavy weapon damage increased – should give you a reason to use heavy weapons a little more often now. You are going to want to focus fire on heavy weapon enemies and get them out of the way as a priority. A critical with a heavy weapon is devastating!

UPDATED: Reduced the amount of ammo used for full-auto attacks for rifles, smg’s and pistols from 12 to 8. Damage for this fire mode was just too high with the changes above and ammo use was excessive.

UPDATED: Removed level based attack bonuses which were skewing damage. Note that rollover info for weapons is just an estimate based on your currently equipped base weapon damage, equipped mods and a bunch of other factors. Breaking out a calculator is not likely to result in exact damage values. There is a lot of voodoo going on in the background of damage calculations including ranged falloff calculations, stat modifiers and more.

UPDATED: Floating fonts for combat and comments.

UPDATED: Melee received a boost in damage. With the addition of attacks of opportunity, melee team members also gain an additional boost to damage in cases where combatants try to leave the area of influence (see above).

PATCHES SINCE THE LAST ANNOUNCEMENT:

 

HOTFIX – 2/2/18 – 0.122

FIXED: 1 hand blunt weapons will apply Venom and other perk effects
FIXED: Nano’s now equip to melee weapons
FIXED: Haft mods now equip to melee weapons

1/28/18 – 0.122

UPDATED: Load times for all ground based area transitions are now greatly reduced.
UPDATED: Exiting the game and transitioning to the main menu are now much faster.
UPDATED: Minor stability fix.

1/27/18 – 0.121

FIXED: Ammo looted from space loot crates is now correctly displayed in cases where multiple crates are looted.
FIXED: Ammo looted from ship cargo crates now adds to your total inventory correctly
FIXED: A bug with skill gain from incursions
FIXED: Experience from space combat no longer increments the secondary skill counter
FIXED: Rounding errors in weapon rollover UI related to weapon damage
FIXED: Rounding errors in information UI’s related to weapon damage
FIXED: Frequency modulator mods for melee weapons can only be equipped to melee weapons
FIXED: Stuns once again work as intended both for ranged and melee weapons
FIXED: A material blending error with overhead grids in the facility
UPDATED: Bonus damage from damage mods is now applied to all attack types – single, burst and full-auto and applied after damage calculations
UPDATED: Increased the cash rewards for facility missions to bring earnings in line with space combat

1/20/18 – 0.119

FIXED: When queuing attacks, the attack cursor stays visible
FIXED: In some rare cases, a quicksave could be requested at the exact moment combat was being started. Loading that quicksave could lock the game up the next time you entered combat.
FIXED: Melee weapons no longer incorrectly display ammo info and fire-modes on rollover.
FIXED: Scavver enemy types occasionally disappeared in combat when they should be in LOS. I’m hoping this patch fixes the problem.
FIXED: Display of correct damage values related to damage scaling adjustments in the character info screen. There are still a few rounding errors that I’ll correct soon.
UPDATED: Shotgun range for newly looted or purchased weapons increased. This change is not retroactive and only affects new items that you loot.
REMOVED: Removed verbose debug log data.

4 Comments

Profugus
February 27, 2018
I don't know where to leave this info, but I ran into a bug. chances are u prolly already know of it, but id like to explain it just in caser u are unaware. while traveling at microwarp in Archemedes, sometimes by encountering a gravity well it drops u out of microwarp, but leaves u unable to thrust or boost out of it. the capacitor useage goes down as if u were boosting, but no motion occurs. if u save game at this point, then load it, immediately after, thrust is useable again. last night I found that if u used right click to change direction,( I chose down to break the plane I was heading on origionally) then thrust is useable again. it looks to be a really excellent game, and I hope u carry it forward. thanks for the hard work.
March 4, 2018
Profugus - Thank you, and thanks for reporting this. Yes, it's a known bug I'm trying to track down - should be fairly rare. Right clicking to move should clear the state. Thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics during Early Access.
Justin Hogue
March 3, 2018
Wow!! I'm late to the party, but I think this just might be one of the most amazing games ever made. I just stumbled upon this beauty and I need more playtime to say for sure, but you've got a product that's shaping up to be "the" game. Thank you so much for dedicating your time to such a cool project. The exploration, loot/crafting systems, space AND ground combat in the long list of other mechanics you've focused on are just what I've been looking for in a tactical science fiction space-based game! I love how you've worked with the community to create such an amazing experience that I can see such potential in. I really can't wait until I can get more hours under my belt and join in on the fun.! This patch looks quite cool, I'm a big fan of having a well worked combat system. Hopefully, these changes will make for a more balanced and tactical feel. I'm already thinking about the potential of how I can use the defend option with attacks of opportunity together to make for some mean defenders :-)
March 4, 2018
Thank you Justin! Lots of work left to do and I'm making regular progress thanks to the community!

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