Greetings everyone! Another major release!
This time, the biggest and most anticipated addition is the Korath intro. This has an initial encounter with the Korath, as well as setting up the circumstances for the pilot to start earning the trust of a small group of people who know a bit more about the Korath than they first appear... It is great to finally see this available to everyone instead of being locked away in an upstream PR going nowhere.
On the technical side, a major change is the addition of pylons. These are, to put it simply, a hardpoint for missile type weapons. As is probably obvious to everyone, guns are not the same thing as missiles. This has caused a lot of problems in the past because balancing an infinitely fireable gun against a finite and relatively small number of missiles is hard. There are a lot of factors at play. One of the major drivers of this chance is removing the hardpoint opportunity cost. Gun are the primary weapons for a reason. They are the defaults, the trusty go-to. As such, I am of the opinion that at least at the hardpoint level we should not be replacing primary weapons with secondary ones. At least the possibility of both coexisting should be there. Of course, this has not added any additional outfit or weapon space. So there are still plenty of hard limits on how many weapons a ship can have, but now rockets, missiles, and torpedoes will have their own hardpoints to go on instead of forcibly taking up gun ports. Please note that while pilots from previous versions will continue to be compatible, old ships will not be. It is strongly recommended to sell and re-buy any ships in your fleet so that they will have pylons now.
In this picture one can see a firebird showing the Hardpoint Info Panel with guns, missiles, and turrets. Each one has a different color for the indicator line.
The pylons are by no means fully balanced, so I expect there to be some changes to them going forward as people figure out what works and how the landscape has changed with their addition. Some of the factions have already been adjusted thanks to the input from people who are writing or developing them, which was much appreciated.
One of the major intents behind pylons is to allow greater differentiation between ships. Currently, if a ship has 6 gunports, then maybe that ship has six guns, maybe it has six sidewinder launchers, maybe something else. There's a pretty big difference in character of a ship with guns and one with missiles. Some factions do not have missiles or do not value them, and thus would not build their ships with the intention of supporting them. Others might be all about the missiles and support many of them, but not support much, if any, guns. This is yet another tradeoff that can be implemented by content creators to make ships more unique and more flavorful going forward.
On the visual side, the addition of the Starry Map adds a control to the map that enables or disables the display of stars. Aside from the sheer aesthetic appeal, this also makes it easier to see at a glance what stars are in the systems along the routes the pilot will be flying. This is particularly useful for those relying on solar panels for power or ramscoops for fuel; as now the player can both learn how each star generates each of those resources (via the in-flight GUI change from a while back that provides numerical feedback), and see those stars on the map to facilitate route planning. Many thanks to @Azure3141 for all the hard work that went into creating what is probably the biggest visual improvement to the map since MZ got it to its current state so many years ago.
One relatively minor change that I feel will be impactful for many: I adjusted the starting date earlier by six months. This is intended to give players enough time to actually learn about the world they are flying around in, maybe visit some of the key sites, so that when the civil war starts, it has the potential to viscerally affect them. Whether it is them mourning the loss of a city or base they have frequented; or sympathizing that it's about time the South stood up for itself in the face of burdonsome regulations and a lack of anti-piracy support; these events are much more meaningful if the player has had the chance to get a taste for them and isn't just something they are being told is a problem. (On that note, content that makes these complaints more visible, be it missions or support for location-based purchase restrictions, would be much appreciated)
What's Changed
- Update Marauder engine slots by @TheGiraffe3 in #89
- More slots for the Kestrel (Engines) by @TheGiraffe3 in #91
- feat(UI): Display Stars on the Galaxy Map by @Azure3141 in #93
- Add engine slots for the Incipias/Successors by @TheGiraffe3 in #94
- Korath campaign: first contact, establish lore, side story, and Korath-protected smuggler's haven by @UnorderedSigh in #85
- Re-PR of the Thermal Scanner missions by @TheGiraffe3 in #100
- Two typo fixes in the new Korath missions by @TheGiraffe3 in #105
- feat(content): Add a defense fleet to planets in Sol that are missing one by @TheGiraffe3 in #101
- Feat(code): Creating Weapon Pylons (new hardpoint for missiles and other projectiles) by @Zitchas in #106
- feat(data): Move the starting date back by six months by @Zitchas in #112
Full Changelog: v0.10.9-Delta...v0.10.10-Delta
