Welcome Sonatians. The upcoming patch contains a considerable adjustment to shield-stealing. Here’s what you need to know.

Stealing vs. Healing

Something we’ve struggled with since we released the new Shield Monkey class is the balance between stealing shields and healing. We envisioned shield-stealing as something that healers would do to supplement their regeneration, but this hasn’t proven to be very popular. On the flip side, “draintank” Shield Monkeys who use stealing as an all-in-one tank-healer-DPS mode proved to be much more powerful than we had envisioned. Eventually, we realized that it all comes down to resource use. Healing an ally or stealing shields with the main focus of healing yourself are just not as valuable as “draintanking,” which allows the player to deal substantial damage while tanking and healing themselves all at once. This realization led us to the following two concrete positions:

1. Shield-stealing should cost more energy than healing with the same weapon.

2. Shield-stealing should heal the user considerably, even if they aren’t specialized for DPS.

After playtesting with a few helpful Paxian Disciples, we arrived at the following implementation. Shield Monkeys now receive 3 units of healing for every 1 unit of shield-stealing damage they deal. Shield stealing now costs 2.75x the firing energy of healing.

This change may end up buffing or nerfing your Shield Monkey setup, depending on how you play. Here’s the breakdown on that:

• If you play a Shield Monkey who focuses on shield regeneration, this change won’t affect your setup at all. You may even find it useful to steal shields now and then.

• If you play a Shield Monkey who sometimes steals shields to stay alive, this change is a buff to your setup. You may be able to re-gear toward more HPS since you’ll receive more healing whenever you steal shields.

• If you play a Shield Monkey who focuses on dealing damage with shield-stealing, this change is a nerf to your setup. You will probably experience lower uptime on stealing since it costs a lot more energy to do so. Moreover, you will receive more healing when you do steal, making it harder to keep some empty space in your shield bank.

If you’re anything like me, you are probably curious to know a few more details behind this change to mechanics. Here’s how we’ve implemented the increased firing energy.

• Transference weapons now operate at around 36% DPE when used for stealing shields.

• The extra energy cost is extracted in a single chunk whenever you steal shields.

• If your shield bank is near full or if your target is near death, the server automatically adjusts the amount of stealing damage and extracted energy to keep DPE constant, giving you a smooth gameplay experience.

• If your energy bank is near empty, the server automatically reduces your stealing damage and extracted energy to keep DPE constant. Your rate of fire on an empty energy bank will be the same as it always was.

Weapon Stat Tweaks

There’s one other adjustment we want to make to healing, but it didn’t make the cutoff for this patch. Here’s what you can expect with the next patch (which will still hit before Universe Reset on June 26).

When it comes to transference weapons, we have tried our best to create a sandbox scenario with lots of interesting options. However, players have helped us realize that some of the options we’ve offered are a bit too wild and niche to provide competitive alternatives to the current meta. We believe the following stat tweaks should address the majority of these issues.

• Low-tracking transference weapons have had their tracking increased (20º to 30º) and firing energy reduced in exchange for some weapon range.

• Transference weapons with 45º tracking have also received reduced firing energy in exchange for weapon range.

• All transference weapons have gained a little range (100-150) and reduced recoil time (3 seconds per shot at most).

• Many Tech 22 transference weapons have been adjusted to offer more competitive alternatives to the Vaidaya Bhisajamzu.

We thank the players who have offered feedback on the balance of transference weapons and hope to hear your opinions on these changes!

Lyceum Bulletin:

We have just received word of a major disruption within the fabric of the Universe.  Reports are coming in from wild space that an interdimensional traveler has phased in and out of our universe creating vast distortions of our reality.  It is said that this traveler has impressed upon our reality a cataclysm of change due to a contract he has made with the Trans-Dimensional Bean Counters. Our top researchers have discovered a haiku communique left behind in the wake of the traveler:

“New I shall create

A hat I shall never eat

Please save my stomach”

 After carefully examining this haiku we expect a tremendous upheaval within our universe leaving behind a resonance of something new. Top scientists predict the collapse of the universe to be on June 26th, 2021. Citizens are asked to ensure all personal assets and fleets are properly stored.

Dev Note:  Credits on active bots and bases will be lost as well as permanent drones. Player ships will not be affected.

[AI Changes]

• Reduced the random augmenter slots on Twisted Fate of Death boss from 2 to 0.
• Reduced DPS of Pressure Beams the Twisted bosses use.
• Increased Demented Delquad’s supers damage and charge time slightly.
• Reduced Demented Delquad’s Beam resists slightly.

[AI Changes]

• UrQa’qa Vazuk Vo’kii boss encounter has had the following changes made to it:
  • No longer has full tracking beams during the final stage.
  • Vacuum lowers thrust for .2 seconds instead of 2 seconds.
  • Changed the speed of the fire wave projectiles from 230 to 75.
  • Urqa Vacuum Device fires off once instead of 4 times.
  • There is now a 4 second delay on the UrQa Clusterbomb Device.
  • Reduced the range of the UrQa Clusterbomb projectiles.
  • Weakened the second speed aura of BK to match the first aura for the speed effect.

Welcome to a new developer diary series that will be running over the next several weeks in anticipation for the next major release of Star Sonata!

Today, however, we wanted to share some updates to a mundane yet striking visual element that will be part of the next universe reset – celestial rings!

The previous ring system for celestial bodies was originally designed for Saturn during the conversion from C1 to C2, and was later expanded to be added to random celestial bodies during universe generation. They were essentially a textured plane bisecting the planet, with the texture depicting the full ring. It worked well for smaller objects, but any larger bodies stretched the limits of the system, as seen in the image below. Additionally, they looked pixelated and objectively horrible on lower graphics settings because of the severely reduced texture resolution (more than any other game object.)

The old style of rings scaled up to mega rings poorly, even on high settings.

Ryan and Zynoa have devised a new way to render these rings, with a focus on making them both more consistent across graphics settings as well as scaling better to larger sizes. Instead of a full ring texture slapped on a plane with a ton of dead space used for transparent bits (like the hole for the planet), the new method utilizes some special made models for the rings and the entire texture is dedicated to just the ring itself. Because this increases the effective resolution of the rings (without increasing the technical resolution), the new rings maintain their appearance well across graphics settings and sizes.

Additionally, we’ve departed from some of the more organic and earthly palettes and went for a more vibrant color pattern that we feel strikes a balance between grounded and cartoony visuals for the Star Sonata world.

We hope this and other upcoming graphical changes will make for a more vibrant and engaging universe.

*Note: rings are shown on every celestial body in images for demonstration purposes. In the actual universe, rings will still appear at the same rates they currently do.

[AI Changes]

• UrQa’qa Vazuk Vo’kii boss encounter has had the following changes made to it:
  • Reduced the number of Qi’ukas (drone envelopments) by one. Made the two Qi’ukas in the finale behave a bit differently.
  • Adjusted the trans resist effect to be a shorter duration.
  • Fixed issue with super laser not causing boss to stop turning correctly.
  • Enrage will now properly wipe players and reset afterwards.
  • Fixed an issue with enrage timer starting early.

[Universe Changes]

• Twisted bosses, Demented Delquad and UrQa’qa Vazuk Vo’kii boss rooms will now prevent players from leaving the room via wormholes while the boss is alive.
• Re-added wormhole blocking stations in Akuq’ba DG rooms that must be killed to proceed.
• Reduced Baniq Qokuji’bakoqi’Qa from 6 to 3 and added other spawn in the room before boss in the Akuq’ba dungeon.

[Bugs]

• Fixed issue with Parasites/Fires server idle time. They no longer do more DPS then expected.

[AI Changes]

• UrQa’qa Vazuk Vo’kii boss encounter has had the following changes made to it:
  • Damage done by the primary heat beams has been greatly increased.
  • Fighters launched by the boss no longer have splashing lasers.
  • The purple clusterbombs (the ones that zap nearby targets with lightning) have had their total damage greatly reduced, the range of the zap has been reduced, and the projectiles themselves now move significantly slower.
  • The missiles launched by the boss do significantly less damage and have a smaller splash range. They also have a weaker negative shield regeneration tweak (The damage players were taking from the missiles was often mistakenly attributed to fires, it was actually from a degenerative shield effect), and their shields have been greatly reduced.
  • The primary laser barrage fired by the boss now takes twice as long to ramp up to full damage, giving players more time to get out of the way before dying.
  • Added an out of combat only Fire Extinguisher to the boss.
  • The boss should no longer run out of electricity.
  • The final phase now utilizes mechanics from earlier in the fight more frequently.
  • Added 15 minute Enrage timer much like the current Prejudice bosses. Gives timer warnings via Galaxy chat.

[AI Changes]

• Drastically reduced Qokujiii Qa’ik shields.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fix for radiation death not recording in Instance Scores list.
• Fixed error in the drop list that prevented some items from dropping from Mad Scientist.
• Fixed weekly mission no longer “locking down” for a week and instead just instant resetting. (Ex. Subspace Weekly Kill Missions)

[AI Changes]

• Reduced the damage of Hermes.
• Increased the damage of beam type weapons the Twisted bosses use.
• UrQa’qa Vazuk Vo’kii boss encounter has had most of its area of effect, avoidable damage weapons and purple bouncing projectiles have had their damage drastically reduced.

[Bugs]

• Fixed exploit with auras and rate of fire with switching weapons.

Dear Pilots,

There have been a lot of changes in the Universe of Star Sonata and the finalization of the Healing Revamp is here! The development team has been hard at work updating damage mitigation, adding a new cargo system, and a plethora of other changes to improve balance and game dynamics.

We have also overhauled the endgame bosses in Prejudice, Dragon’s Lair, and Akuq’ba for a more dynamic and challenging experience!

Star Sonata understands the importance of progression and our duty to ensure players get a head start on these redesigned bosses, so we are having a Boss Lockout Event! These bosses will be available every 24 hours to challenge as well as the weekly missions that complement Prejudice, Dragon’s Lair, and Akuq’ba.

Just to throw a bit more juice in your flux capacitor, every boss and mission that falls within a weekly lockout cycle will also be reset every 24 hours during this event!

The event will run April 23rd – 25th and April 30th – May 2nd.  That is two weekends jam-packed with bosses and missions so don’t miss out! Reclaim your place in the Universe and get ready for the Boss Lockout Event!

Star Sonata Dev Team