What’s this about a revamp?
As many of you know, the dev team has been working hard on a revamp centering on the two support classes: Shield Monkey and Engineer. The main goal is to give these classes more interesting and pronounced combat roles. For Engineer, this comes through a redesigned Drone Ops stat that lets the class directly customize their drones, and new energy distribution systems such as the Tesla Coil. For Shield Monkey, we’ve removed the “free shields” granted by Transference Efficiency but replaced it with a new system that allows healers to steal shields from enemies to replenish themselves in a zero-sum way.
As part of the changes to healing, we have made additional changes to ships and shields that make constant healing less necessary. All players receive a substantial bonus to shield bank and regeneration to help them survive longer without heals when they come under fire. Also, higher tech hulls no longer receive higher resistance levels, and resistances are mostly standardized with a few thematic strengths and weaknesses at most. Of course, the shielding and damage output of bosses and adds have also been reviewed to align with these changes (but if you encounter anything that seems off, just let us know!)
When can I test this revamp?
You can test the revamp right now! We’ve just begun Community Testing Event 3, which can be accessed by pointing your client to the Test server (make sure to select Test, not Test 2).
A special galaxy is avialable off of Sol during the testing event. 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.
What exactly is changing?
A full list of the current changes to items can be found here. If you want more of an outline, check here instead.
Tips on testing
This is a big project and it may be hard to know where to start when you first log in. Here are some suggestions.
- Shield Monkey: Don’t forget to equip a second shield! Also check out the Shield Monkey Laboratories in Lyceum for some new class-locked items, and consider picking up a new Advanced Subskill. You may find it helpful to replace one of your augmenters with a damage-oriented augmenter.
- Engineer: Don’t forget to equip a second energy AND an extra augmenter. You may also find it helpful to replace one of your existing augmenters with something the grants Transference Power or Shield Regeneration. Also check out Engineer’s Workshop in Lyceum for some new class-locked items, and consider picking up a new Advanced Subskill.
- Everyone: Diffusers are now limited to one per ship and can’t be swapped during flight. Think about what damage type you’d like extra resistance toward, or try out one of the new omni-resistance options.
We want your feedback!
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.
