Space Clouds

Support Revamp Testing Event

Support Revamp Testing

Testing of the Shield and Healing Revamp will begin on July 1st! Starting on that day, players can experiment with the upcoming release on test.starsonata.com which can be easily accessed by clicking the dropdown on your client and going to Test.

Test Server

A full list of the current changes for this revamp can be found here.

During the event a new galaxy will be available off of Sol. This system, Community Testing Event, will contain a large selection of gear Tech 15 and above along with Hogg’s Map Revealer! All of these items will be obtainable for 1 credit and available only during community testing events.

Community_Test_Gal

Any and all feedback you have can be posted to the feedback channels in Discord under the Healing Feedback category. We are committed to collecting and acting on community feedback until the project is fully polished for release on the live server.

Great Success! A retrospective on the last 2 weeks.

Things are going to get a little self congratulatory here, but I just wanted to start of with a big thank you to the community. We wouldn’t be here without you, and your support has made the past 2 weeks since we launched on Steam a highlight of my 10 years of involvement on the development team! You guys did everything we asked, and we made it to the Popular New Releases section of Steam for most of the last 2 weeks! We’ve had an incredible amount of new players pouring in, and you’ve all been incredible in welcoming them and helping them learn the game.

We’ve been on and off the front page since launch, but here is a screenshot from just a couple days ago when we were:
Steam Popular New Releases
Star Sonata is a niche game, but all of us here (both developers, and players) have a deep passion for the game which is what has allowed the game to carry on for the over 16 years since the original alpha. It’s been an incredible experience, seeing us listed alongside such heavy hitters.

Now, the numbers

These numbers are constantly going up, and will almost certainly be out of date by the time I hit publish on the post, but this is where we currently stand:

  • Just this morning, we broke 20,000 “owners” on Steam (with the game now showing in their library), currently sitting at 20,485
  • So far, 9,133 of them have downloaded the game.
  • 7,068 new accounts have been created since the Steam launch.
  • Average concurrent online player numbers are over 200% of their pre-Steam launch numbers.
  • Coupled with the boost from the stay at home pvp server we’re undergoing the largest growth in subscribers since the original launch from alpha. Subscriber numbers are up 92% in the last 2 months!
  • The highest current subscriber count of the last 9 years, and over double the lowest point in that time-frame.

It’s impossible to say how many new people we’ll have sticking around, but things are certainly looking good! Hundreds of those accounts already have a substantial time investment in the game (at least 10 in-game hours logged, showing serious interest), and our returning player rate is looking good so more will surely follow. In addition to new players, we’ve also been constantly welcoming back old friends.

We’d like to give an extra special shout out to those of you who have been extra diligent in Help chat. Helping to guide new players in learning the game is incredibly important, and a few of you really went the extra mile in helping out!

There have been constant questions since June 12th of “how did Steam launch go?” and such, so I hope this answers them to everyone’s satisfaction. While the sale on the Starter Pack is over, the rest of our steam launch event is still active. You still receive 10 bonus spacepoints for every purchase of space points through the Steam wallet until July 12 as well as 50% increase XP while playing through Steam. We’ll be retiring the acquisition of the Raging Steam holoprojector at the same time, so be sure to grab it while it’s still available! We look forward to continuing to improve the game, and we’ll have more to share on new additions to the game soon.

Server/Client Patch Nexus Edition – 6/14/2020

This Nexus-specific patch fixes various balance issues and mission bugs concerning the beloved Nexus zone, which recently received a rework.

Spawner changes:

  • Target Dummies have received some recoil increases:
    • Target Dummy Mk.II recoil increased from 2s to 2.75s
    • Target Dummy Mk.III recoil increased from 2s to 3.5s.
  • Some Rat variants have had shield regen reductions:
    • Huge Rat shield regen reduced from 25/s to 20/s.
    • King Rat shield regen reduced from 35/s to 25/s.
    • Queen Rat shield regen reduced from 45/s to 30/s.
  • Reduced knockback on allied Cadet catapults by 50%.
  • Volcom Pirates have had some shielding and regen reductions:
    • Low-tier Volcom shield reduced from 650 to 350 shielding and 50/s regen down to 25/s.
    • Mid-tier Volcom shield reduced from 750 to 700 shielding and 50/s regen down to 40/s.
    • High-tier Volcom shield reduced from 1500 to 1000 shielding and 75/s regen down to 55/s.
    • High-tier Volcom Wingship shield reduced from 1125 to 750 shielding.
  • Reduced the number of Volcom in Mutara Scrapyard.
  • Reduced the number of Volcom Wingships guarding the Delta Fuel Platform in Deep Space from 2 to 1.
  • All Flyswatter types have had their shield strength reduced by 25%:
    • Flyswatter Embryo shield reduced from 200 to 150 shielding.
    • Flyswatter Larva shield reduced from 400 to 300 shielding.
    • Flyswatter Maggot shield reduced from 600 to 450 shielding.
    • Flyswatter Flylet shield reduced from 1000 to 750 shielding.
  • Koto Research has received tankiness reductions:
    • Koto Micro Zebu shield reduced from 500 to 250 shielding and 40/s regen down to 25/s.
    • Koto Zebucart shield reduced from 800 to 400 shielding and 40/s regen down to 25/s.
    • Koto Research Platform shield reduced from 3500 to 2500.
    • Koto Research Complex shield reduced from 10,000 to 7500 and 50/s regen down to 25/s.
  • Space Jelly “Wave” attack recoil increased from 3s to 4s and “Sting” attack recoil increased from 1s to 2s.
  • Removed the allied Cadets from Deep Space.
  • Reduced the number of Black Hole Brigands in Deep Space.
  • Black Hole Brigands have received some strength reductions:
    • Brigand shield reduced from 1500 to 1000 shielding and 50/s regen down to 10/s.
    • Brigand Wingship shield reduced from 1125 to 750 shielding and 50/s regen down to 10/s.
    • Brigand and Brigand Wingship damage reduced by 25% and recoil on all weaponry increased from 2s to 3s (except the Brigand Wingship’s Sebastapol, which went from 0.5s to 0.75s).
  • Fixed the Brigands and Brigand Wingships to correctly drop the Black Hole Gravitas tweak.

Mission changes:

  • Added new more-powerful versions of the Cadet’s Beam, Old Man Block, Cadet Catapult, and Stapleton’s Acid Shooter to replace the old ones. Existing versions will not be renamed into the new ones, due to behind-the-scenes issues with some of the player gear balance sheets.
  • Added the ‘Mission Interface’ mission explaining the mission interface with an indicator pointing to the ‘Combat Practice’ mission.
  • Added three new upgrade-focused missions to various Nexus stations, going over Augmenters, Ship Upgrades, and Radars.
  • Added two new skill-focused missions to various Nexus stations, reminding players to train skills up.
  • Tweaked summary text of ‘Skill Training’ mission and added an indicator pointing to the skills tab and the skills to choose from within that tab.
  • Changed the instance missions that auto-began in the instance lobbies (Tunnels and Droppings, Whiskey Approach, and Hangfire) to no longer require exploration of that lobby system, as those versions of the missions are given to players within that lobby.
  • Changed the ‘Volcom Raiders’ mission to require a Volcom and Volcom Wingship kill.
  • Fixed the ‘Two Steps Back’ mission for Whiskey Outpost not conflicting with the ‘Attack on Whiskey Outpost’ mission.
  • Changed the “Oats Captain” mission to only require 3 Space Oats instead of 10.
  • Changed the ‘Business Rivals’ mission to only require Luigi Salmano to be eliminated.
  • Fixed ‘Twin Pillars Run’ mission to be completed before ‘Twin Pillars Run II’ is available.
  • Corrected the ‘Twin Pillars Run II’ mission summary from 150 to 165 seconds.
  • Fixed the ‘Hidden Refuge’ mission.

Miscellaneous changes:

  • Fixed instance wormholes to state minimum level requirement to enter instead of an error message.
  • Updated the Nexus neurotweaks. This includes updated charge times, and altered effects for the Leaking Fuel Cell and Jelly’s Acidic Blood tweaks.
  • Added additional “guideplates” (floating text in space) with helpful advice in Cadet Academy and other areas of Nexus.
  • Added Janitor’s Special Cleaner to Earth Central in Sol for use in planetary projects.
  • Moved Not Too Badly Damaged Positronic Brain drop away from Rattie Moe and to Space Rat Broodmother in Sol.

Star Sonata 2 is now Available On Steam!

Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for! Star Sonata 2 is available on Steam!

As we’ve already highlighted in previous posts, it is super crucial for us to get as many of our existing players to play with the Steam version of the game during the Launch Event (June 12-July 12). By playing the game through Steam, and buying any Space Points through Steam, you are directly helping the game increase in visibility and standings which allow us to grow the game and share it with more people!

Don’t forget to check out the details of our Launch Event and the Starter Pack.

If you are a new player to Star Sonata, welcome! We are so excited to have you here. Check out our Quick Start Guide, or pop on over to our Discord server for more information to help you get started in the universe.

If you are an existing player to Star Sonata, you probably have a ton of questions about this Steam launch. Here are some questions we’ve heard that we’d like to answer.

  • Will I still be able to download the client through the website?
    Yes! If you don’t want to use Steam at all, you don’t have to!
  • Can I use my existing account on Steam?
    Yes! When you launch Star Sonata 2 through Steam and you come to the login screen, there is a button to switch to a non-Steam login, then you can log in with your existing account. Currently, there is no way to actually link your account with Steam, but you can still use your pre-existing account.
  • How do I get the bonus of the Launch Event? 
    Launch the game through Steam and log in either with a Steam Account or a pre-existing account. When you log in you will get the bonus Raging Steam holoprojector, and the EXP bonus will activate. You will only get the EXP bonus while you are on the Steam version of the client.

Kilando has put together a video for existing players that shows how to access the game launch the game through Steam. Check it out below!

Server/Client Patch – 6/11/2020

Greetings Pilots!

Here are the next set of patch notes for the Liberty server!

If you have any concerns or feedback on any of these changes please report them in the #feedback channel on the Star Sonata Discord!

(+changes require a new uni)

 

[Nexus Rework]

  • The Nexus has been reworked, there will be a blog post soon.

 

[Skill Changes]

  • New skill, Zen of Devices, increases the charge rate of certain super items by 3% per level up to level 100. Super items will say in their description if they are affected by this skill.

 

[Item Changes]

  • Removing Attached Drones.
    • Converted All Attached Drone items to their non-attached variants. Attached Warp Beacon will be unchanged.
    • Converted Attached Drone Blueprints to their non-attached versions.
    • Removed Attached Magic Attach requirement from Attached Warp Beacon.
    • Converted Armada Ambrosia Drone to an unattached drone.
    • Player owned attached drones are no longer allowed to exist in Earthforce layer. They will be removed when the server restarts.
  • Envelopments will now always attach to the object that used them. Envelopments generally have been strengthened, but their active time reduced. Envelopments can now look like different things, such as a chunk of ice.
  • Ice block super items will now have a much lower bonus resistance buff, but create an envelopment around the ship that looks like ice with a fixed hit point pool.
  • Increased the tech level of many built in super items that were artificially low.
  • Common shield tweaks have had their stats increased.
  • Fixed a bug where Enveloping Monkey, Seer Backstab, and Sniper Marksman were affecting super item damage.
  • New Roscap Mining Punch Super Item.
  • All tweaks used by Super Items will automatically get the NoTweak tag and not use the Neurotweaking skill.
  • All the Common tweak super items can charge faster with Zen of Devices skill.
  • Changed Krill Fighter device and Alien Krill Fighter device to only launch one Krill fighter, but that fighter will do about 3x the DPS as before.
  • Claw Missile Device will now charge much faster, Alien Claw Missile Device will charge a little faster, but do a lot more damage.
  • Updated visuals on the Zebucart Mark 2 skin, the Volcom and its variants, the Brigand’s Volcom and its variants, the Phunka.dll, and the Helga.
  • Added an unremovable “Tracking Beacon” item to a new player’s starter Zebucart ship.
  • Reduced the tech level of the “Cadet Missile Launch Device”, the Cadet and Reconditioned Cadet’s missile generator, to tech 0 to fix issues with it.

 

[AI Changes]

  • Fixed Kalthi Minion Fighter Hull engine mount locations.
  • +Forgones will now take 20 seconds between firing their super item instead of 10.

 

[Universe Changes]

  • +Changed “Earthforce Sanctuary: East Wild Space” and “Earthforce Sanctuary: West Wild Space” galaxy names to “Earthforce Sanctuary Alpha” and “Earthforce Sanctuary Beta” respectively.
  • +The AC exchange for Primal Zebra / Panther Ship Remains have had their Zaphragi Research Diploma turn-in values normalized to two per.

 

[System]

  • Fixed a bug that allowed selling items to stations without a trade bay.
  • Made shops which are not public or trading have their entries removed from market check.
  • Fixed bug which only allowed base owners to use items on the base. It now depends on Management permission.
  • The ship window will now only show the effects of damage and rof buffs on your most recent fired weapon, and no longer show incorrect numbers for the other weapons.
  • Damage tweak / aura is now a DPS tweak / aura. For the percent based ones, this won’t change anything, but the few non-percent ones will be a change in DPS now instead of damage per shot.
  • Added separate smaller resets to the skill resets in stations. Can now reset classes, hostility skills, adv subskills, or control skills separately alongside the full skill reset.
  • Can now search for “nb” or “neurobound” in inventory or TSL to see all NB items.
  • Can now search for “*” in inventory or TSL to see all modded items.
  • TSL will now display an asterisk after the names of any modded items inside
  • Fixed a bug where drones on the hotbar would sometimes default back to the unequipped version.

Steam Starter Pack

As part of our launch on Steam, we are excited to announce the contents of our brand new Starter Pack that is exclusive to Steam! Whether you’re new to the universe, launching into your first Zebucart, or an experienced pilot traversing the stars, the Starter Pack has something for you!

Included in the Starter Pack are 5 unique ship skins, a unique Steam exclusive holoprojector named the Cosmic Shimmer, and 3 months of premium subscription time. This starter pack is a one-time purchase option for all players for $19.99! Normally a three-month subscription is $24.95, so that’s a 20% savings on a premium subscription.

Now if that isn’t enticing enough for you, during our Launch Event Window, the Starter Pack is going to be discounted even MORE. From June 12 through June 19 the Starter Pack will be 25% off the base price. So that’s 5 skins, a holoprojector, 3 months of sub time for $14.99! This deal won’t be coming back anytime soon so jump on it while you have the chance!

Here’s a preview of the Cosmic Shimmer and skins in the Starter Pack!

Don’t forget that the more you play on Steam during our Launch Event, the more it helps us to grow and gain visibility. Even better, if you purchase the Starter Pack, or any Space Points through Steam, it also really improves our rankings and visibility! If you want to support us so we can keep on making Star Sonata an epic game, here is your chance. We definitely wouldn’t be where we are today without your support, so join us on Steam!

Steam Launch Event

It has been a long time coming, but we’ll be going live on Steam at roughly at 10:00am PT this Friday. We’ve already made a huge post about how you can help make our Steam Launch a success, so if you haven’t checked that out yet give it a read. In a post coming later today, we will be outlining what is included in our Starter Pack.

Today, we wanted to take a moment to highlight what our launch event is going to look like and why you should definitely play on Steam during the event! Playing through Steam helps us, so here’s what we’re offering you in return:

  • Just by logging into Star Sonata through Steam, you will get a Steam exclusive holoprojector named Raging Steam. This is the only way to get this holoprojector, and it’ll be unobtainable in the future.

  • Additionally, we’ll be offering 50% extra experience for characters logged in through Steam for the entire duration of the launch event.
  • Finally, we’ll be offering a bonus 10 space points on top of every space point purchase through Steam. We’ve never offered a special on space points ever before and I’m not sure if we’ll ever do it again, so its a good time to stock up!

These bonuses will only apply if you are logged into the game through Steam during the launch event window, which runs from June 12th to July 12th. Make sure to log on through Steam at least once to grab the exclusive holoprojector, but we hope you’ll keep using it through July 12th to get the 50% bonus experience.  As we mentioned in our previous posts, every purchase and play through Steam during the launch event really helps us to grow our visibility and rankings within Steam, so we really hope that you participate to help make this a success! Thank you for your support, and stay tuned for the next blog post coming later today outlining the Steam Starter Pack. It’s a really good deal, so keep an eye out!


Note: Just to correct a common misconception, linking your existing account through Steam is not currently possible and not required for any of the above bonuses. You can login via your normal username and password through the Steam downloaded game client.

Earthforce Layer Attached Drones

An issue has been identified where players have been placing low tech attached drones throughout the Earthforce Layer to intentionally use up base slots on planets and moons.

Attached

To fix this issue, the upcoming patch will be removing any attached drones in Earthforce Layer.

Any attached drones in storage will be converted from attached drones to unattached drones. The only drones that will be removed from space will be the ones in the Earthforce Layer.
Any currently attached drones in Wild Space will not be affected.

Expanded Search Function Overview

The item search functionality has been greatly expanded recently, allowing you to narrow down the item you are looking for in your storage much more effectively.

This post will highlight some useful tags that can be searched for at the bottom of your inventory window. This functionality also works for searching in your bases and TSL!

A complete list of the available tags to be searched can be found on the Star Sonata Wiki.

Here is a video that gives a quick overview of the search function, or you can scroll to see a visual breakdown below.

You can search for any item type by the tag shown at the top of the item in question. The entire tag must be entered with no abbreviations, though it is not case sensitive:

 sortingpic4

Modifications, like Evil, Sleek and Reinforced can be searched for by typing in the name of the relevant mod:

sortingpic1

A list of all gear with modifications on them can be searched for by entering an asterisk. (*)

Neurobound equipment can be searched for by entering ‘Neurobound’ or ‘NB’.

sortingpic5

Augmenters can be searched for with ‘Augmenter’ — handy for searching for those augmenters that might not have ‘augmenter’ in their name:

sortingpic2

It’s worth mentioning that the original search functionality is unchanged, so if you’re looking for ‘Ore’, you will also search for items that contain the word ‘ore’, such as Powercore:

 sortingpic3You can even combine tags with ‘&’, as shown below:

sortingpic6

We hope this added functionality will be of use when searching for specific items.

LTS Patch Notes – 6/7/2020

Greetings Pilots!

Here is the next set of LiveTest Server patch notes, the goal of these is to give you a heads up on changes before they’re pushed to Liberty and allow you to test and experiment with these changes!
If you have any concerns or feedback on any of these changes please report them in the #feedback channel on the Star Sonata Discord!

The LTS updates are only applicable to the LiveTest Server and may be changed before being pushed to Liberty.

You will need the newest Beta Client to check out these changes.
(+changes require a new uni)

 

[Nexus Rework]

  • The Nexus has been reworked, there will be a blog post soon.

 

[Skill Changes]

  • New skill, Zen of Devices, increases the charge rate of certain super items by 3% per level up to level 100. Super items will say in their description if they are affected by this skill.

 

[Item Changes]

  • Removing Attached Drones.
    • Converted All Attached Drone items to their non-attached variants. Attached Warp Beacon will be unchanged.
    • Converted Attached Drone Blueprints to their non-attached versions.
    • Removed Attached Magic Attach requirement from Attached Warp Beacon.
    • Converted Armada Ambrosia Drone to an unattached drone.
    • Player owned attached drones are no longer allowed to exist in Earthforce layer. They will be removed when the server restarts.
  • Envelopments will now always attach to the object that used them. Envelopments generally have been strengthened, but their active time reduced. Envelopments can now look like different things, such as a chunk of ice.
  • Ice block super items will now have a much lower bonus resistance buff, but create an envelopment around the ship that looks like ice with a fixed hit point pool.
  • Increased the tech level of many built in super items that were artificially low.
  • Common shield tweaks have had their stats increased.
  • Fixed a bug where Enveloping Monkey, Seer Backstab, and Sniper Marksman were affecting super item damage.
  • New Roscap Mining Punch Super Item.
  • All tweaks used by Super Items will automatically get the NoTweak tag and not use the Neurotweaking skill.
  • All the Common tweak super items can charge faster with Zen of Devices skill.
  • Changed Krill Fighter device and Alien Krill Fighter device to only launch one Krill fighter, but that fighter will do about 3x the DPS as before.
  • Claw Missile Device will now charge much faster, Alien Claw Missile Device will charge a little faster, but do a lot more damage.
  • Updated visuals on the Zebucart Mark 2 skin, the Volcom and its variants, the Brigand’s Volcom and its variants, the Phunka.dll, and the Helga.
  • Added an unremovable “Tracking Beacon” item to a new player’s starter Zebucart ship.
  • Reduced the tech level of the “Cadet Missile Launch Device”, the Cadet and Reconditioned Cadet’s missile generator, to tech 0 to fix issues with it.

 

[AI Changes]

  • Fixed Kalthi Minion Fighter Hull engine mount locations.
  • +Forgones will now take 20 seconds between firing their super item instead of 10.

 

[Universe Changes]

  • +Changed “Earthforce Sanctuary: East Wild Space” and “Earthforce Sanctuary: West Wild Space” galaxy names to “Earthforce Sanctuary Alpha” and “Earthforce Sanctuary Beta” respectively.
  • +The AC exchange for Primal Zebra / Panther Ship Remains have had their Zaphragi Research Diploma turn-in values normalized to two per.

 

[System]

  • Fixed a bug that allowed selling items to stations without a trade bay.
  • Made shops which are not public or trading have their entries removed from market check.
  • Fixed bug which only allowed base owners to use items on the base. It now depends on Management permission.
  • The ship window will now only show the effects of damage and rof buffs on your most recent fired weapon, and no longer show incorrect numbers for the other weapons.
  • Damage tweak / aura is now a DPS tweak / aura. For the percent based ones, this won’t change anything, but the few non-percent ones will be a change in DPS now instead of damage per shot.
  • Added separate smaller resets to the skill resets in stations. Can now reset classes, hostility skills, adv subskills, or control skills separately alongside the full skill reset.
  • Can now search for “nb” or “neurobound” in inventory or TSL to see all NB items.
  • Can now search for “*” in inventory or TSL to see all modded items.
  • TSL will now display an asterisk after the names of any modded items inside
  • Fixed a bug where drones on the hotbar would sometimes default back to the unequipped version.