* Made it so that you must be docked to equip or unequip a super item
* new feature: Made untanglers that can break gremlins remove all your current ones as well as stop new ones from being added
* Moved all the lyceum galaxies to the new map layer.
* Updated lyceum galaxies with new coordinates.
* Updated spawner times on all color empire galaxies.
* AoE weapon effect can now do percent damage.
* Fixed stat string for elect temp tweaks
* rebalanced Color Empire cloaks.
* Replaced “Satanic” energy tweaks with “Sacrificial” energy tweaks in the drop lists
* Fixed a bug with drones/bases not launching missiles/fighters
* Fix so Sniper Analysis properly works with beam weapons.
* Sniper Analysis critical bonus no longer scaled by level of Sniper (always get full 100% regardless of sniper level)
* Scruples in Hyper now have enough energy to fire their missiles.
* fixed mission sob floaty issue for spawners that don’t give credit
* fixes on the team score display.
* Fixed a typo on the GOUQE
* Added Plague Device and Hidden Plague Device super items
* Added AI tags for most class super items so that your slaves can use them
* Added the ability for missiles/fighters to have 360 degree launch aiming with some missile launchers/fighter bays, or when launched from bases or drones
* Made salvos of multiple missiles launch in a spread pattern, instead of randomly
* Made bases/drone only launch 1 salvo of missiles at a time, and only attempt to launch a missile when the missile bay is fully ready, so they don’t queue up wasted missiles
* Marked the Locution as non-captureable
* Shield Redistribution device laser no longer is affected by NT

and most importantly
* CRUCIBLE is added to arena lobby

This week’s update is going to focus entirely on some new content that I’ve been working on as well as some long term goals for the early to mid-game!

For a while we have heard complaints that the game is lacking in the low to mid-game. Last year, after our all team meeting, we went ahead and did an analysis on low to mid game missions and ultimately ended up restructured the existing missions in game to ensure there is a clear leveling path up to 500 (if you do pretty much everything). That however didn’t do very much to introduce new content; new content is something that is definitely needed and ultimately what I think players really wanted. With T22 and the class rebalance out of the way, I have some time to actually start working on some new content for the lower levels! So, for the past two weeks I’ve spent nearly all of my time between bugfixing working on a new content zone known as Arctia. Arctia is a custom dungeon for players levels 20 to 50. It’s comprised of seven new galaxies, a bunch of new AI and items and contains two new bosses with unique loot tables.

I’m very excited about Arctia, and that’s because Arctia is a kind of prototype for new low level content zones going forward. Instead of being heavily mission based like most of the low level content (like Nexus), this zone is more about running the custom dungeon and getting loot and XP, in the vein of Blue Outpost or Protoplasmica. I think ultimately, for the new player, the concept of dungeon, boss, loot, is a very easy one to digest. There are still some missions, but the missions don’t overwhelm the experience. It also has pretty wide level range so you can stay there for a while if you want to level up off AI instead of doing missions elsewhere.

Arctia is also just the beginning. Going forward I’m going to be spending a fair amount of time working on more low to mid-level zones to fill content gaps. I’ll also be revamping some existing ones so they are more manageable for the single player by reducing teamed AI swarm (I’m looking at you Infernal Tempest and Bonnet). The end goal is to have a full series of custom zones that newer players can do for XP and useful loot if they don’t feel like running around for the Paxians or trawling Earthforce Space for AI.  The end goal is to also have enough of these that there is overlap between the level ranges on each one so players have multiple options on where they choose to level. For example, Arctia overlaps with Blue Outpost for the levels 20 to 50 range. Players can bounce between the two if they get bored. Ultimately, what I’d love to see is a lot of choice in the lower levels. Players need to be able to progress however they see fit. If they want to do exploration or missions or just hunt AI, there will be places they can do any of that.

So you can get a better idea of just what this zone offers, I’ve gone ahead and made a short preview video!

So that’s it for this week’s update. I’ll be back again next with with another update on what I’ve been up to. As always, feel free to post questions, comments and suggestions in the forums!

Since micropatches arent worth a single post everytime, and i been doing quite a few lately. Ill keep this blog post updated with micropatch notes.

February 26
* Server crash fixes
* removed event code generation from instances
* Seer mines are no longer scoopable.
* Fixed a bug that caused repair attempt to error with impossibly long time.
* Fixed a bug causing drones to not fire at ai drones.

February 28
* Fixed High Priest Chamber not giving a lockout
* Fixed a server crash

March 03
* High Priest’s Blessing is now Neurobound.
* Fixed lockout issues on High Prophet boss fight.
* Reduced spawn time for the High Priest’s Blessing in the Key Chamber.
* Fixed spawn time on Weapons 22 Boss adds.

March 04
* Slave Ph.D. is now properly accounted for when transferring a slave.
* Skill Resetting now checks slave slots used, etc, and will deny the reset if you would exceed limits after the reset.
* RP Warship uses weaker missiles.
* Using a demo kit on a destroyed base will kill you if you couldn’t normally undock in that ship.

March 07
* Fixed a bug causing drones repairs to eat away money if you did not have enough credits to repair it all at once.
* Made it so client specify if an item can be partial repaired or not in the repair widget tooltip (in the top bar) (drones are the only item that can’t).
* Fixed repair cost display for drones.
* Fixed a bug with drones/bases not launching missiles/fighters
* New sounds and textures in the client for future content (not in use on live yet)
* Increased delay before tooltips show up (from 0.7 to 2 sec) and the deadzone allowed for the mouse to be considered paused (from 15 to 40 pixels).
* Gremlin now interrupt autopilot (was not a problem in c1 because the autopilot was too stupid to adapt to a grem, but since the c2 autopilot is quite a bit more aggressive it tend to completely counter gremlins and as such, gremlins will disable it.

This week’s post is going to primarily focus on some post-reset bug fixes — of which there were some, but nearly as many as there could have been thanks to the class rebalance testing phase! Keep reading to find out more.

Primarily this past week I dealt with some of the issues that weren’t found and fixed during the class rebalance testing phase. I figured I would go into a few of them in a bit more detail.But first, map issues!

There were definitely a few map issues this reset. First, Iq’ Bana this universe ended up spawning in Emphatic Biology! Which meant to get there you needed to go through an engineless galaxy. Hardly ideal. So a new wormhole to the area was added in Anomu. Secondly, there was an issue with Lyceum. Splitting up the galaxies left the Earthforce Space layer map a little cluttered. So I took a bit of time and rearranged the galaxies on the map and move them all to the Serengeti layer. Instead of a jumble of crossing links, you now have what you see below.

I think everyone will agree it’s much neater! I’ve also updated the galaxy files so the map should stay that way for future universes as well.

There were a few bugs missed during the testing phase, mainly there have been a few issues with drones and missiles. First, drones and bases were healing friendly destroyed drones, this is obviously a problem since healing a destroyed drone over an active drone makes the healing pointless (and the destroyed drone can’t even get hit by the heal). When I added the destroyed drone feature, I accidentally overlooked adding a check to ignore destroyed drones in the drone and base attack code. It was a simple fix to add a check in to make sure destroyed and inactive drones were ignored. Secondly, destroyed and inactive drones weren’t properly evaporating when players logged off. This was leaving a mess in some galaxies. This issues is due to the fact that destroyed and inactive drones skipped their idle (so they didn’t attack enemies, heal friends, follow, etc). I’ve added some additional code to make sure they’ll evaporate even if they are destroyed or inactive! Both these drone fixes should go live sometime soon.

And then there were the missile issues. It was discovered that missiles were inheriting some damage bonuses they weren’t supposed to and that is detailed here. There was also an issue with missile bays. They would sometimes think they had a full queue even when the queue was empty. This was a tricky bug that ended up being a bit beyond my reach to do in a reasonable amount of time, so I passed it off to the code wizard, Jey. It’s since been fixed and we have a new queuing system for missiles!

That’s it for this week’s update. This is a short update, and that’s because besides bugs, I spent a large amount of time this week working on a special project that I am continuing to work on this week. Expect an announcement next week on exactly what this is! Until then, feel free to post questions, comments and suggestions in the forums!

We’ve been getting reports that missile damage is a bit too high. On further inspection, it’s been discovered that missiles are getting unintended bonuses from both the Gunner Class Skill and the Big Guns subskill.

What we designed missiles around :
damage = damage * missile mastery (1.5) =  damage * 1.5

What is actually happening :
damage = damage * missile mastery (1.5) * gunner (1.2) * big guns (1.2) = damage * 2.16

This is a very significant increase in damage that was not taken into account when we redesigned missiles and destruction further amplifies this issue. As such, we will be shortly inhibiting missiles from inheriting half of their owner’s Gunner Class skill and Big Guns subskill to bring missile damage back down to where it was originally intended to be.

This is mostly a bug fixes patch, Crucible is coming very soon.

* Rajanicar’ayu got a new super item and adjusted resistances.
* Vacohar’ayu got a new super item and adjusted resistances.
* Stede’s Basil is no longer capturable.
* Fixed a bug with missions costing money over 32 bit limit
* Fix for squad transwarp bringing along targets out of range.
* Fix for squad transwarp graphic being the wrong size.
* Fix for Higher Remote Control mission.
* Attempted fix for the missile bug preventing some people from launching any. (unable to reproduce but this should fix it in theory).
* Bases and Drones will no longer heal destroyed or inactive drones.
* Fix for Eye for an Eye skill mission taking Sniper instead of Berserker.
* Deathblossoms already equipped to bases will now force unequip
* Deathblossom can no longer be used on bases.
* Evasive Manuvers Neurotweak depreciated.
* Fixed a bug where hull locked items could be equipped on the wrong ship type.
* Fixed mobile drones synchronisation bug.
* Fixed a bug where drones would not launch fighters (still broken)
* Increased range on the Alien Nest Drone tagging laser.
* Fix for 2 bug with the wildman subskill (Slots are now properly calculated, and resist is now applied)

This week’s update is going to detail a pair of new skills that will offer some much requested bonuses to Transwarp devices, some updates to the Weapon Effect system as well as a new Fleet Commander class super item! Keep reading to find out more.

Transwarp devices were added with our last universe reset and they offer players a very convenient way to traverse the vast distances between galaxies. Based on the feedback so far, I think it is safe to say they are very appreciated means of travel. The only complaint I’ve really heard is that some people feel the cooldown is too long! To those of you who feel that way, I am introducing some new Transwarp specialty skills! Very soon I will be adding two new skills to Beta Antares; Transwarp Turbocharging and Advanced Transwarp Nagivation.

Transwarp Turbocharging will increase the charge rate for transwarp devices by 20% per level. This skill has a maximum of five. That means maxed out, this skill will reduce your transwarp cooldown to five minutes! Advanced Transwarp Navigation will increase the jump distance of your transwarp devices by 5 per level, up to a maximum of 25 extra jumps. Both these skills will require a new commodity called a “Transwarp Coil” that can be built from a blueprint in Beta Antares. Like the Bar Skills, these specialty skills are rather pricey, but for the added convenience, I am sure some players will find them worth it.

This past week I also made a few changes to some of the effects in the weapons effect system, notably the Ricochet and Chain Bullet effects.

Currently the Ricochet effect works by ‘bouncing’ a projectile off your target at a random angle in a 180 degree arc towards your ship. This means that unless you are threading the needle between two ships to hit one behind it, the device is largely useless. Using a little trigonometry and some physics, I’ve changed the way they work to be a little more natural and predictable. Now the bullet will ricochet at an angle based on where you shoot the target (it reflects the bullet’s velocity across a vector drawn from the center of the object hit to the impact point). This means if you shoot the target dead on, the ricochet will come back towards your ship; but if you hit the target at an angle, it will bounce at an angle. This will allow ‘trick shooting’ with these devices which I think is extremely cool.

The Chain Bullet effect has been updated as well. There were a few bugs in the implementation. Firstly, it wasn’t properly inheriting the auto-aim (or tracking) from it’s weapon. Secondly, a slow moving projectile with the effect did some interesting and unintended things if you fired it and warped into another galaxy. This has also been fixed. Finally, there has been a slight mechanic change. Currently when you fire a chain bullet weapon at a target, if it can’t locate other available targets, it won’t bounce at all. It’s been updated to bounce at a random angle away from the target hit regardless of if it finds a target or not. This is a pretty useful change since it means the effect isn’t dead, it can still hit something that might wander into it’s path and get another bounce.

Finally, the new Fleet Commander class super item! The original design for class super items called for the Fleet Commander Squad Transwarps to be one of the special items obtained by doing the Crucible. However, they were way too cool an item to hold until the class rebalance was finished. Instead of that item, the Fleet Commander’s third super item is the Dirty Bomb.

The Dirty Bomb item is a low cooldown radiation damage explosion that will hit all targets within its range. It can be used to finish off larger enemies or completely destroy a group of smaller enemies. The idea behind this item is that with the newest changes to irradiation (irradiated AI will now activate their space break) a medium damage, AoE radiation device could make it a lot easier to get a large group of wild slaves quickly!

So that’s it for this week’s update. I’ll be back again with another update next week, until then, feel free to post your questions, comments and suggestions in the forums!

We’re approximating one hour downtime for some minor fixes and tweaks. We estimate the server will be up at 2PM EST.

Some people are experiencing disconnection issues. If you are getting dc’d from liberty.starsonata.com please use  23.23.172.169 instead!

Want to get live updates? Head to my stream at twitch.tv/bageese!

New Universe Required: +
Available Now: *

These patch notes may be adjusted. A post will be made if changes are made to the patch notes.

Additions:
* Added two new augmenter stats: Evasion and Transference Resistance.
+ New MIRV Rockets (these will replace MIRV Torpedos)
+ New MIRV Rocket Factories located in Beta Antares to convert MIRV Torpedo crates into MIRV Rocket crates at no cost.
+ Added new MIRV factories to Lyceum and Hyperion
+ New T22 Subspace Missiles and Missile Crates
+ New T22 Subspace Missile Factories
+ New T22 Subspace Missile missions.
+ Added Phoenixes and Glaucopennia to DGs/PSpace
* Added the ability for items to charge using shields in addition to energy
* Added stat string for Chain Projectile weapon effect.
* Added a new Barrel Roll animation for evaded attacks.
+ Added Prototype Deathblossom, Deathblossom and Mighty Deathblossom.
+ Added Sniper Analyser & New Seer Jammers
+ Added new subskills to skill reset system
+ Added new subskills to Lyceum.
+ Added T22 Focus and Class Skills.
+ Added new echo to Free Market detailing the T22 Focus and Class Skills.
+ Added Platinum level Strontium missions
* Added Divine Behemoth blueprint
+ Added T5 Capital Ship, Pax Lyrae
* Added Evasion tweak type.
* NoTweak flag for Neurotweaks is now properly applied.
+ New Slave Deathblossom.
+ Lyceum Revamp – Lyceum has relocated to the sectors surrounding the wormhole leading to the Serengeti. They have spread out their university from a single galaxy to a four galaxy sector.
* Enabled new repair cost formula for drone repairs.
* Added a check for missile ranges on launch.
* New chat commands /droneslots and /teamslots
* New dialog for books
* New galaxy flag to disable prospecting node spawn
Rebalance from previous patches
+ Added Surgical Strike Missiles.
+ Gatling Platform, Burst, Disruptor, Decoy, and Interference missiles factory blueprints removed from Hyperion.
+ Missions for AP, Kinetic, Surgical Strike and Incendiary MK III factories depreciated.
+ AP, Kinetic, Surgical Strike and Incendiary MK III factories for sale in Hyperion.
+ MIRV Rocket Upgrade Factories for sale in Hyperion, Lyceum and Beta Antares.
Skill Changes
General
+ New Advanced Skill Point system.
+ Added Tech 22 Focus and Class Skills.
+ Class Subskills no longer grant bonuses or can be trained beyond level 20.
+ New General Advanced Subskills, Shake it Off, Strategic Deployment, Centered, Droney, Resilient and Slave Ph.D.

Remote Control
+ Remote Control 19 mission added to Beta Antares.
+ Remote Control 20 mission added to Lyceum Subspace Research Concourse.

Fleet Focus
* Increased Fleet Focus Hull Space bonus from +1% to +1.5%
+ New Recon Focus Advanced Subskill, Expansionist (+1 Hull Expansion slot)

Recon Focus
* Changed Recon Focus from +1% Capacity to +1.5% Capacity per level.

Speed Demon
* Added -1% Electric Tempering bonus to Speed Demon Skill.
* Reduced Speed Demon Speedy Firing subskill from +4% Rate of Fire to +3% Rate of Fire.
* Increased Speed Demon Speedy Firing subskill from +1% Damage to +2% Damage.
* Speed Demon Speedy Firing subskill is no longer scaled by speed.

Seer
* Psionic Shrouding now gives up to a 50% chance to evade damage while cloaked and unseen.
* Added +2% Damage to Seer Psychic Sight subskill.
* Added +1% Critical Hit Chance to Shadow Ambush subskill.
* Reduced Shadow Ambush subskill Backstab passive from +3% Critical Hit Chance to +2% Critical Hit Chance.
* Reduced Shadow Ambush subskill Backstab passive from +3% Damage to +2% Damage.
+ New Seer Advanced subskills, Wraith, Clairvoyant, Assassin and Brooding Gaze
+ New Seer Jammer items for sale in Lyceum.

Combat Focus
+ New Combat Focus Advanced Subskill, Big Banker (+1 Capacitor Slot)

Berserker
* Removed Electric Tempering from Ordnance Supremacy subskill.
* Added +3% Damage to Berserker Class skill.
* Added -1% Space on Equipped Weapons to Berserker Class skill.
* Removed -1% Space on Equipped Weapons from Arsenal Expertise subskill.
* Added +1% Damage to Arsenal Expertise subskill.
+ New Berserker Advanced Subskills, Berserker Classic, Weapons Master, Berserking Berserker and Eye for an Eye

Sniper
* Reduced Sniper Class skill from +3% Physical Damage to +0.5% Physical Damage.
* Changed Sniper Class passive, Sniper Analysis to +10% Critical Hit Strength, +3.75% Damage (+200% Critical Hit Strength, +75% Damage after 5 minutes)
* Sniper Analysis now requires the use of a Sniper Analyzer
* Added +2% Damage to Stalking subskill.
+ New Sniper Analyzer item for sale in Lyceum.
+ New Sniper Advanced Subskills, Quick Scope, Long Scope, Grooved Bores and Marksman

Support Focus
+ New Support Focus Advanced Subskill, Really Super (+25% charge rate on Super Items)

Shield Monkey
+ New Shield Monkey Advanced Subskills, Funky Monkey, Tank Monkey, Flying Monkey and Enveloping Monkey

Engineer
* Temporary drones that are scoopable no longer explode on death or disappear when they expire. Instead they enter a destroyed or an expired state. Destroy drones can be repaired like normal items.
+ New Engineer Advanced Subskills, Mechanical Engineer, Computer Engineer, Electrical Engineer and Civil Engineer

Fleet Focus
+ New Fleet Focus Advanced Subskill, Extra Tweaked (+20% (+40% for slaves) Augmenter Tweaking scaled by the number of equipped augs)

Gunner
* Added +2% Damage to Gunner Class skill.
* Increased Big Guns subskill from +3% Mining Damage to +3% Damage, +1% Mining Damage.
* Destruction subskill now only triggers on missile attacks.
* Destruction subskill now grants vulnerability to all damage types.
* Increased Destruction subskill from +0.5% (1 Weapon) / +1% (2 Weapons) to +2% (Missile Strike).
* Destruction can now be applied by splash damage from missiles.
* Missile Mastery changed from +5% to most missile stats to +2.5% missile damage.
+ New Gunner Deathblossom items for sale in Lyceum.
+ New Gunner Advanced Subskills, Advanced Targeting Computers, Automated Reloading, Gunboat Diplomat and Mass Destruction

Fleet Commander
* Wild Slaves have their own slot pool.
+ New Fleet Commander Advanced Subskills, Advanced Flight Controller, Wild Man, Fleet Admiral and Fleet Protector
Advanced Subskills:
More on these can be found in this blog post: http://www.starsonata.com/blog/calypso-update-1-27-14/

+ Engineer Advanced Subskill Mechanic Engineer (+3 Drone Equip slot, +15% Energy)
+ Engineer Advanced Subskill Computer Engineer (Single Target Transference Beams Splash heal)
+ Engineer Advanced Subskill Electrical Engineer (Equipped Drones charge 10% faster, +5% Energy Charge)
+ Engineer Advanced Subskill Civil Engineer (+20% Transference Resistance, -15% Energy used for Tractor Beams)

+ New Gunner Advanced Subskill Advanced Targeting Computers (+2 Targets to Deathblossom)
+ New Gunner Advanced Subskill Automated Reloading (Missile Launchers recharge 20% faster, +2 missile queue slots)
+ New Gunner Advanced Subskill Mass Destruction (+100% Range on Weapon Effects)
+ New Gunner Advanced Subskill Gunboat Diplomat (+100% Shield and Energy and +1 Super Item Slot while in Heavy Fighters)

+ New Fleet Commander Advanced Subskill Advanced Flight Controller (+75% Evasion on fighters, +2 Fighter Slots)
+ New Fleet Commander Advanced Subskill Fleet Admiral (Field Generators affect allied Capital Ships)
+ Fleet Commander Advanced Subskill Wild Man (+100% Wild Slave Slots, +50% Resistances on Wild Slaves)
+ Fleet Commander Advanced Subskill Fleet Protector (+100% Transference when healing your own possessions)
+ Shield Monkey Advanced Subskill Funky Monkey (+100% Shield Regen while in stasis, +100% Transference to targets in stasis, Critical Hits with transference proc a -10% transference resist buff on the target for 2s)
+ Shield Monkey Advanced Subskill Flying Monkey (+50% Hull Space in Light Fighters, -25% Hostility)
+ Shield Monkey Advanced Subskill Tank Monkey (50% of damage to slaves is transferred back to the shield monkey, +5% Resistance)
+ Shield Monkey Advanced Subskill Enveloping Monkey (+30% damage when not healing scaled by the targets shields)
+ New Berserker Advanced Class Subskill Berserker Classic (+200% Multifire, -30% Rate of Fire)
+ New Berserker Advanced Class Subskill Weapons Master (+20% Hostility, +3 Weapons Slots)
+ New Berserker Advanced Class Subskill Berserking Berserker (+30% Speed, +10% Rate of Fire)
+ New Berserker Advanced Class Subskill Eye for an Eye (+33% bonus to damage-to-shield transference effects, +10% resistance)
+ New Sniper Advanced Class Subskill Long Scope (Analysis builds for 10% longer)
+ New Sniper Advanced Class Subskill Quick Scope (Analysis builds 20% faster)
+ New Sniper Advanced Class Subskill Grooved Bore (+25% Projectile Speed, +10% Physical Damage, +25% Tracking)
+ New Sniper Advanced Class Subskill Marksman (+10% Damage if over 2k distance from target, -15% Visibility)
+ New Seer Advanced Class Subskill Wraith (-15% Visibility, +8% Ethereal Damage)
+ New Seer Advanced Class Subskill Clairvoyant (+20% Radar, +5% Critical Hit Percentage)
+ New Seer Advanced Class Subskill Assassin (+15% Backstab Damage, -25% Charge Time on Microwarps and Translocators)
+ New Seer Advanced Class Skill Brooding Gaze (+10% Energy and Shield Recharge when cloaked if you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds)
+ New Speed Demon Advanced Class Subskill Fighter Ace (+15% Rate of Fire, -25% Range)
+ New Speed Demon Advanced Class Subskill Acrobat (+25% Thrust, 50% reduced critical hit debuff duration, -50% Inertial Dampening)
+ New Speed Demon Advanced Class Subskill Lucky Devil (+10% Evasion, +5% Critical Hit Percentage)
+ New Speed Demon Advanced Subskills, Fighter Ace, Master Scout, Lucky Devil and Acrobat
+ New Advanced Subskill Shake it Off (+500 shield and energy regen while in stasis)
+ New Advanced Subskill Strategic Deployment (+50 speed if no hostile actions within the last 30s)
+ New Advanced Subskill Centered (+500 shield and energy regen if no hostile actions in the last 15s)
+ New Advanced Subskill Slave Ph.D. (+4 Combat Slave slots)
+ New Advanced Subskill Droney (+1 temp drone slot)
+ New Advanced Subskill Resilient (100% chance to get +50% resistance (+90% resistance for slave) for 1s. effect can only happen once per 30 seconds)

+ New Advanced Focus Subskill Expansionist (+1 Hull Expansion slot)
+ New Advanced Focus Subskill Big Banker (+1 Capacitor slot)
+ New Advanced Focus Subskill Really Special (+25% charge speed on super items)
+ New Advanced Focus Subskill Extra Tweaked (+20% divided by the number of equipped augmenters extra augmenter tweaking)

Due to the enormous patch size we’re breaking this up into a few patches. These major content additions will be implemented approximately two weeks after the reset. Some pieces of these additions may be included at the reset, and locked until the two week patch. The reasoning behind it is that these new additions may not have been fully tested prior to the reset, and we don’t want broken additions added to the universe.

+ Temple Grounds – A two-part tech 22 instance featuring the Trials of adum, a single player puzzle instance and the High Priest’s Chamber, a new and exciting boss fight.
+ Color Empires – A large, lower level instance featuring content ranging from level 40 to 120.
+ Crucible – A new single player instance to fight off waves of enemies. Awesome new class superitems are rewards.
+ New Class Locked Super items! Three new super items for each class are will be available as rewards for the Crucible.
Tweaks:
* Most missiles no longer locked to Gunner. (Decoy, Burst, Interference, and Blockbuster are Gunner locked)
* Most missiles no longer locked to Capital Ship. (Vor, Flare are Gunner Capital locked)
* Most missiles are now size 1.
* Berserker travel fields no longer work on slaves.
* New slave only berserker travel fields. These equip when you equip yours on your main ship automatically.
* Lifesteal aura now blocks incoming transference damage but not outgoing transference damage.
* Missiles now get range and radar bonuses.
* Freighter split into 2 hull types Support Freighter and Industrial Freighters, see details on the blog  http://www.starsonata.com/?p=829
* Changed team slots to be account based, instead of character based. Teams now start with 50 account slots which is increased by the Roster skill by 5 per level.
* Made new tweaks that affect shield regen show up on the client immediately, rather than being delayed up to 2 seconds
* Changed summary text of ‘Resistance, not so futile’ mission to make it more clear where players have to finish the mission.
* Converted Nightfury Focus, Nightfury Rage and Red Photon Remote Weapon Augmentation into superitems
* AI will no longer attack destroyed drones.
* Destroyed drones can no longer be hit by collision code.
* Alien Shields now take Shield Lattice Intensifiers instead of Harmonic Shield Focusers.
* Nanite Blueprint now produces 1000 Nanites instead of 500.
* Super Items can now be charged from damage taken.
* Lifespan on most missiles reduced.
+ Increased the number of Reaver dg spawns a bit
+ Sniper Analysis doesn’t scale by Sniper Class level anymore.
* Entanglement Missile now does a Sludge parasite
* Fighters and Missiles launched by super items no longer check the tech of the equipped launcher, just that it exists.
* Splash healing now costs shields for all targets hit.
+ Added Strategic Deployment and Centered advanced subskills to slaves
* Damage Fields in Piloting 22 now affect all players regardless of aggro.
+ Updated Copper to use the automatic gate locking system.
* Lifesteal now only applies to positive damage.
* Weaponry to 8 can now be trained in Blue Outpost for 1 Blue Aether.
* Critical Aug stats now apply to bases.
* Merchant Fleet Master now also gives +1 slave order.
* Slave Ph.D. is now properly accounted for when transferring a slave.
* Skill Resetting now checks slave slots used, etc, and will deny the reset if you would exceed limits after the reset.
* RP Warship uses weaker missiles.
* Using a demo kit on a destroyed base will kill you if you couldn’t normally undock in that ship.
* Drone Operations augmenters now take Engineer skill instead of Drone Mastery.
* Tweaked Activity score to penalize large teams less.
* AI Ghostships will no longer use their torpedo superitem.
+ Mighty Deathblossom and Ultimate Deathblossom now Capital Ship only.
* Hotkey for missile / fighter launchers now displays queue count.
* New cost for many missiles and missile factories.
* Launching a missile or fighter is now properly considered a hostile action.
* Slaves now only queue one missile at most.
+ Shake it Off and Centered now apply to slaves.
Transwarp Tweaks:
* Transwarp Missions now have an Equipment skill requirement.
* Transwarp Devices no longer warp slaves in stasis.
* Transwarping now destroys die on jump items.
* Transwarps that don’t immediately find the destination beacon from their list will now search the galaxy for a beacon and jump to it.

Subspace Assault:
* Janayitrideva no longer despawns the miniboss adds when players warp into and back out of Devalaya Deva.
* Zarkara Adhara no longer despawns the miniboss adds when players warp into and back out of Bila Zarkara.
* Subhatt’ayu inbuilt reduced from -33% recoil to -20% recoil
* Praheti, Praheti Sahistha, Prahetivijarjara now give Praheti DNA when the Basic DNA Extraction beam is used on them.
* Increased lifespan on T22 instance entrance galaxy spawn.
* increased the spawn time on the dead end guard in the Akhara maze.
+ Removed Distruptor, Decoy, Interference, Burst and Gatling missile blueprints from Hyperion. With the class rebalance these missiles will be depreciated.
* Reworked the Great Open Uu Quu Excommunicator, giving it a surgical parasite, better range, speed and less self damage
Fixes:
* Fixed prospecting scanners displaying a blank message.
* Fixed super item stat strings having extra ‘,’ characters when hiding items in the description.
* Fixed a crash bug with Fighter and Missile Bays.
* Fixed Dampening Buff giving players full dampening when they didn’t have it.
* Fixed Warhead Effects using the wrong range attribute.
* Fixed Zarkara Adhara guard spawners.
* Fixed cost on the repeatable 4000 series transwarp mission.
* Fixed ‘Higher Remote Control’ mission to request remote control instead of warp navigation.
* Fixed a bug where parasites created by missile warhead explosions were not doing the proper amount of damage.
* Fixed a bug where ships would do a barrel roll animation when entering galaxies or leaving space bases.
* Fixed a bug where the timer for new players joining teams attempting Emperor would report incorrect times.
* Fixed a bug where Crown Ships could be transwarped.
* Fixed some typos in the skill reset messages.
* Fixed Superintelligent mod giving too much Critical Hit Percentage
+ Fixes for Seer Psionic Shrouding evasion ability.
* Fixed a bug involving bosses equipping/unequipping stuff
* Fixed the Red Photon Oversized Turret not always using it’s super weapons correctly.

This week’s update is going to focus primarily on a restructure of Lyceum and some UI changes for holobook (storybox, echo, etc) items! Keep reading to find out more.

Lyceum is one of the most important galaxies in the game and because of this, over the years it’s gotten increasingly cluttered. It now houses infinite knowledge training, class skill training, module factories, Guardian of the Lyceum and the Serengeti. There is a lot of stuff all tossed in a really small space. It might make sense to older players who are used to it, but honestly, I can’t imagine how confusing it would be for a new player when they first arrive there.

A few weeks ago I hit on the idea of splitting it up; going from a custom galaxy to a custom zone. Each aspect of Lyceum would be broken off into its own, separate galaxy, essentially uncluttering the mess Lyceum has currently become. Also, it would allow us to move The Acropolis, a Lyceum affiliated zone, closer to Lyceum. This would make Augmenter Tweaking easier for new players to find, as well as making Aug Tweaking more convenient for older players to train. Overall, it would make Lyceum a lot less confusing.

With the new design the new Lyceum would be a four galaxy zone. There would be Lyecum, reserved for Class Skill training, Reboot Modules and the Lyceum Library. We’d also have the Platonic Academy, where all module factories, blueprints, mention and diploma turn-in missions and Infinite Knowledge training would go. The Acropolis would be moved in and could be made a bigger hub for Augmenters and tweaking training in general. Finally, there would be the Serengeti Blockade, a PvP enabled zone housing all the missions for and the entrance to the Serengeti UZ. The Guardian of the Lyceum would roam this entire area looking for trouble makers!

Other than splitting the galaxy up into this new zone, there are some additional notable changes being made, mainly the addition of the Lyceum Library. The main base in Lyceum will sell guide books to help players with various aspects of the game from inside the game. To better facilitate this idea. I’ve also revamped the way echos (or holocubes, whatever) look and function.

I changed the dialog they use from a small box with a scroll bar to a taller, more readable box. I’ve also added the ability to make multi-page echos. Now content developers, when making echo items, can create versions that collect a series of echos together or create books. The first use will be a set of three echo items containing explanations for what core skills do, and where you can train them, to supplement the progression missions Blue Dwarf recently added. In the future the Lyceum Library will contain quite a few of these books, ranging from topics like mining and prospecting, to building their first station and even to the rules regarding claiming the universe as Emperor. This will transform Lyceum into an ideal place for newer players to go if they need in game help and give us a way to get some of the excellent guides players have posted on the forums into the game.

As a bonus, I’ve added a fly through of the work in progress Lyceum Restructure. Each of the galaxies is getting it’s own unique theme and I think it’s turning out extremely well.

That’s it for this week’s update. As always, feel free to post questions, comments or suggestions in the forums! I’ll be back again next Monday with another update!