Hey Sonatians,

Your infiltration of the Red Rogue is going well. After showing your worth in the Fighting Pits, Crim Sonova has deemed you fit to begin contributing to their plans to pillage the multiverse. Your first assignment is to help acquire a piece of Zaphragi research from another place and time. You’ll need to overcome some significant obstacles, and figure out how to get what you came for. If you succeed, the Red Rogue will trust you with even more dangerous missions… and maybe you can figure out what they are really after.

Proving yourself against the Outback Armada

It’s been a while, but we’re back with another contest! Anyone who posts a video of themselves attempting to complete the dungeon with a full squad within the two three weeks of its release will be entered into a drawing to receive a special skin! Any squad that fully completes the dungeon, and beats the final boss, will earn access to that same exclusive skin. Like last time, there are some guidelines to go along this that will make running this go smoothly for all involved.

Contest Guidelines

• A video must be posted of you and your squad trying to complete the Zaphragi Heist instance, after you have beaten the mini boss. You should show you and your squad mates entering the instance and fighting the enemy.

• Only one point of view is needed, though more are appreciated.

• The video recording must be from start to finish. Please start the recording before warping into the galaxy with the boss, you may end the recording anytime after you have scooped the loot.

• Please show the squad screen before warping into the galaxy with the boss. This allows us to easily verify which characters are a part of the clear.

• Roh will be contacting the poster of the video via Discord direct messages to coordinate the delivery of the reward. Please have your DMs open and be available if you are the one posting the video for your squad.

• The video must be uploaded to YouTube.

• All videos must be posted to the #media channel in the Star Sonata Discord.

• There will be a 14 21 day period, starting from when the instance is first opened. Any squad that completes the mini boss kill and submits a video within this time frame will earn the reward. Any squad that fails to fully complete the instance, but still posts a video, will be entered into a drawing for the reward.

• Each player account can only be granted the reward once. Being a part of a new squad and submitting a new video does not mean that a previously rewarded account will be given a second reward.

[Zaphragi Heist]

The Red Rogue have seen it fit to include you in their next operation, infiltrating a Zaphragi sector and stealing something for them. At the direction of Crim Sonova, you and your group will work together to reach through space and time to swipe an important Zaphragi invention and bring it back to him. This high-stakes operation introduces a new instanced six-player dungeon where coordination and firepower are both essential to come away successful. In addition, something else lies within this sector of temporal Zaphragi controlled space… for those willing to risk it.

Coming soon.

[Client/UI Changes]

• Fixed an issue that prevented one of the skins for Empyrean Total Eclipse.
• Fixed Stop Ship was lowercase in KEY options.
• Renamed to ENTER STASIS for self destructing.
• Integrated Zevior’s ResizeableGenericList (Market Check) mod directly into the game.

[Item Changes]

• Thalaron Radiation no longer has a decay rate but instead decays on universe reset.
• Made all Torches do 0 damage to prevent issues with Speed Demon and Shield Monkey mechanics.
• Added space in between secondsand for Paxian Bubblenator description.
• Added Olympus tag to Olympus fragments (Hermes Fragment, Ares Fragment, etc).
• Untanglers now also apply to all your drones, fighters and missiles in the galaxy.
• Red Tweak had a backend change to prevent bots consuming the tweak. Can only be manually used now.

[Universe Changes]

• Removed Dark Kobaldstein’s Offensive Injector and Dark Kobaldstein’s Defensive Injector as eligible drops from Dark Kobaldstein. Their blueprints have also been removed.
• Added new and improved shouts to the Grand Empyreal Eclipse boss.

[Next Universe Changes]

• Light Nuzzle and Aqua Nuzzle drones in Deflector and Reflector galaxies will respawn faster.

[Server Changes]

• Item Exchanges no longer will take equipped items as materials for the exchange.
• Item Exchanges will now prefer unmodded items over modded items.
• Added a Tweak Effects section to /showstatsources, displaying all tweak-modified effects — including weaker ones that are not currently active.
• Weapons that do zero damage should no longer get Constant DPS added to them.
• Added support for Station, Prospecting, and Capture ship achievements and added new T23 Skill Achievement.
• Speed Demon Rof and Electric Temp scaling no longer works on weapons with 0 damage.
• Shield Monkey Enveloper visual effect will no longer display when the weapon’s listed damage is 0.
• Untanglers (items like Graviton Disruptor) when activated now also activate for all drones, missiles and fighters within the same galaxy as the player.
• Changes to drone movement
  • Greatly lowered drone slide speed.
  • Greatly lowered drone max speed. This impacts situations like tractoring drones and deploying drones while moving.
  • Mobile drones now brake 10 times as fast as stationary drones.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed a bug with Microwarpers that prevented No Neurotweaking tag from working. Some Microwarpers effects will be reduced.
• Fixes for drones that were not meant to move that were created during galaxy generation were able to move for various reasons.

[Neuroforge Changes]

• Fixed a display bug that wasn’t showing the stats of some enhanced mods correctly scaled by item quality.
• Fixed a bug where items that only have 1 possible other secondary wouldn’t offer a secondary swap.
• Added a “No change” text to the default option when Neuroforging when the enhancement is at max rather than no text at all in the diff box.
• Changed it so that it would still offer the option to lose a secondary in exchange for a bonus roll at max enhancement, even though it wouldn’t benefit from the normal bonus to enhancement with that option.
• Fixed a bug where bonus rolls on unchosen roll options were not getting properly loaded from the XML.

[Client/UI Changes]

• Revamped the Add Trade Good / Modify Trade Good inputs. Now only accepts number inputs, auto displays commas while typing.
• Scaled muzzle effect for beams and on hit effects on the size of the ship.
• Added the following Content Guide entries:
  • Activity: Bonus Weekend Events
  • Activity: Dungeon Galaxies
  • Activity: Map Exploration
  • Activity: Merchant Guild Missions
  • Activity: Prospecting
• Added Dread Doubloon (Gold) skin for Space Blues and Red Rogue ships.
• Right Click Context menu in inventory now appears on Right Mouse Release instead of Right Mouse Click Down/Hold to feel more natural.
• Team Tab:
  • Added “Add to Friends” to the Member List Context Menu.
  • Fixed a bug creating a blank option on the context menu.
  • Added Separators to prevent accidental clicks (eyes Boot).
• Fixed Cute Drive / RDX-7000 Engine particles to no longer move faster forward than the user.
• Added various new flags for AI Teams.
• Added Separators for Trade Bay for shop owners for Modify and Remove to prevent misclicks.

[Item Changes]

• Reduced the size, energy regen, energy bank, and weight of Warlord’s Bank.
• Changed Dark Maelstom’s Closet from 3% Critical Resist to 3% Turning.
• Updated most Hermes radar descriptions.
• Added a visual to the Capital Ship Traveling Field items, reminding you they’re still equipped when going into combat.
• Bule Wormhole and Celestial Wormhole temporary warp beacon drones have been given a new shield and a stronger shield capacitor to increase their survivability.
• All temporary warp beacons will now have standard drone resistances.
• Transwarp Devices by default can warp to Temporary Beacons now. In the future, there may be additional Transwarp devices that cannot but it won’t be a feature of a specific class but instead just a nuance of the device.
• The Reconditioned Massif, Reconditioned Massif II, Reconditioned Leviathan, and Reconditioned Behemoth ships have had their diameters updated to match the original ship’s diameters.
• Scarra’s Modifications changed from Tech 22 to 23. Resistance to Damage augmod changed from -12% to -5%.
• Separated the Prospecting Scanner item group into Planet Prospecting Scanner and Galaxy Prospecting Scanner, matching the two Extraction Scanner item groups.
• Reduced the Fusion Cell costs from 1.5 mil to 500k on Empyreal Total Eclipse Upgrade Blueprint and Empyreal Total Eclipse Upgrade Blueprints.
• Removed Lunaria Protection Array and Empyreal Launch Assembly from of Empyreal Total Eclipse Upgrade Blueprint.

[Mission Changes]

• Added new mission in Vulcan for acquiring the newly-added Vulcan Mining Blaster Drone. (Next Universe)
• Added new mission target and wreckage field to Crater Entrance in the Vulcan zone. (Next Universe)
• Fixed Bonze instead of Bronze, and Silver Bar instead of Silver Bars in mission text for Perpetual Motion drone unlock missions.
• Downgrade the Flux Encasement+ to regular Flux encasement and Gigantic Tesslator to Oversized Tesslator for the Arson Drone unlock mission.
• Downgraded many other + items to regular versions on other unlock missions.
• Ahab’s Recurring Nightmare is now a weekly instead of a monthly.

[Universe Changes]

• Grand Empyreal Eclipse:
  • Increased the loot drop rate.
    • Unique eclipse loot now uses quality and neuroforgability as paramters when determine what items to drop.
  • Added a new knockback mechanic if the player goes on top of the boss.
• Added visible vulnerability effect to Terror Frigates Alpha and Beta in the Bonnet Drake boss fight.
• Hermes’ miniboss Pan will now start in the center of the arena and deploy Hermes Quicksilver Claymore mines as originally intended.
• Added player presence check to Poseidon in Olympus. This will prevent him from deploying Whorl Drones prior to the player’s arrival to that part of the rift.
• All Ares’ areas and Hermes’ boss room in Olympus now have friction clouds, which will strongly push things back towards the center.
• Hephaestus boss in Olympus will now teleport to the center of the arena upon engaging. This will prevent him from equipping his superweapon, used when outside the asteroid belt of the arena, before players can enter the arena.
• Corrected Critical Resists on Mega Moe and its minnons to what’s appropriate for T22.
• The Guardian Ambushers during the Olympus Messenger Quarters mission chain will now hate the player that spawned them.
• A new Friction Cloud will push ships off of the central sun until Pretender Hermes is killed.
• The Subspace skill bosses’ wormhole exits will now be locked until the bosses are eliminated. Janayitriadhara (Tractoring) and Rajanicaravizvadrz (Cloaking) will only lock their arena exits midway through the boss fights.

[Next Universe Changes]

• The following locations now offer Remote Control skill training:
  • Blue Outpost to 3, for 3 Blue Whisper per level.
  • Vulcan to 5, for 3 Heated Metals per level.
  • Mira to 7, for 3 Paxian Medallion per level.
  • Jungle to 10, for 3 Primal Jungle Powercore per level.
• The following locations now offer Drone Deployment skill training:
  • Vulcan to 7, for 1 Heated Metals per level.
  • Mira to 9, for 1 Paxian Medallion per level.
  • Jungle to 12, for 1 Primal Jungle Powercore per level.
• Changed several Subspace custom galaxies’ and roid Aveksaka spawner teams to use the correct team for that region.
• Added Capital Ship Traveling Field to Beta Antares and Blue Photon Subspace Facility. Removed Capital Ship Traveling Field from dungeon drop tables.
• The Temporal Rifts in Enigmatic Sector will now respawn much quicker. This only affects the three spawned by the relevant mission, and does not affect the two that ambush regardless of mission progress.
• The Debris (named AI) in Enigmatic Sector have been renamed to Capsule Casing to reduce confusion and they respawn much quicker. Their appearance will now send an event chat message in addition to their existing galaxy chat message.
• AI mobs in Arctia no longer spawn all at once and instead trickle spawn in.
• AI mobs in Vulcan no longer spawn all at once and instead trickle spawn in.
• Custom Empyreal teams will now use a custom flag.
• Prejudice (Twisted) zone is now owned by Twisted teams.
• Corrected the drop rate on Kalthi Coordinator Nebula and Kalthi Visionary Nebula making them ten times more likely to drop than before.
• Corrected the drop rate of Kalthi Armored Cuirass Blueprint and Kalthi Coordinator Solar Array Blueprint on half of the 500 DF Coordinators to match the other half’s intended higher drop rate.
• Added a mission for new players to have a handful of starter Bindomite that are neurobound after the main Vulcan mission chain is completed.
• Increased rate of Golden Augmenter drop from Goldenboy Statues.
• Increased the number of Roaming Serenity in EarthForce Space.
• Large Eggbox AI will now roam throughout Perilous Space, previously being unable to roam past Danger Factor 300.
• Easter Huge Rat AI will now roam throughout Perilous Space, previously being unable to roam past Danger Factor 350.
• Holiday AI will no longer spawn in Wild Space.
• The Friar’s Lantern, Jack O Lantern, Ignis Fatuus, New Blood Vampyre, and Count Vampyre AI will no longer appear in Earthforce Space. A bug caused them to previously spawn there.
• Added the following new permanent holiday holoprojectors available for purchase using their existing temporary holoprojectors and Space Points from Friedman station in Free Market:
  • Christmas Ghost Facade
  • Halloween Ghost Facade
  • Witch’s Decoction Facade
  • Witch’s Drink Facade
  • Witch’s Elixer Facade
  • Witch’s Hat Facade
  • Witch’s Potation Facade
  • Witch’s Remedy Facade
  • Witch’s Tincture Facade
• Timotheus the Red, Angre, and Cybernetic Gonzales will now include autopilot links in their location shouts.
• The Feline Familiars from Halloween in late Earthforce Space / Perilous Space have had their shielding reduced by 50%.
• The Feline Familiars from Halloween in Kalthi Depths have had their shield reduced by 50% and their shield regeneration reduced by 75%.
• The Halloween Ghosts and Christmas Ghosts in late Earthforce Space / Perilous Space have had their shielding reduced by 50%.
• The Halloween Ghosts and Christmas Ghosts in Kalthi Depths have had their shielding reduced by 60% and their shield regeneration reduced by 77%.
• Added custom name to one of the high danger factor Kalthi Coordinator Roamers. They will use the name Vicious01 to commemorate Vic01, a veteran player who unfortunately passed away recently.

[Server Changes]

• AI may now take more pot shots if they can’t hit their primary target.
• New slide off mechanic for Drones and Stations:
  • Player Stations will now slowly slide off other Player Stations and AI Stations if they get placed or tractored on top of another.
  • Drones will now somewhat quickly slide off AI Stations, Player Stations, planets, moons and other drones if they are deployed on or tractored on top of them. If a Station is dragged on top of a drone, the drone will slide away to make room.
  • Drones will not have their deployment blocked by AI Stations, Player Stations, suns, planets, moons or drones. You can deploy your stack of drones all on top of each other and they will slide apart.
• New behavior for tractoring and knocking back stations and drones.
  • Allows for smooth of tractoring drones and Player Stations
  • Strong friction is applied after an asset is no longer moving
  • Drones have a weight modifier that makes them heavier then their item form so that they are not tractored as easily or knocked around as easily.
• Updated Resonating mod description on energies concerning fuel usage.
• Clarified Amorphous and Sleek mod descriptions to affect ‘Total Weight’ instead of just ‘Weight’.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed spelling error for Resonating mod description.
• Fixed a bug where tractored drones where jumping all over because of client desync issues.
• Fixed a bug where user bases were jumping while being tractored because of client desync issues.
• Fixed a bug where hotbar is blank upon joining the universe the first time.
• Fixed a bug where NB mission rewards would NB all of an existing stack. Made it so cargo and non-cargo items won’t stack in certain stuations.
• The Guardian Ambushers during the Olympus Messenger Quarters mission chain will no longer be able to dock at the local stations.
• Fixed a bug where rewired mod on stacked shields and energies wasn’t mathing right.

Lyceum scientists regret to inform you that one of their colleagues, while innocently researching chaos theory, has accidentally synchronized a mass of butterflies into flapping their wings in perfect unison.

The resulting resonance has superimposed into a cascading wave now sweeping across the solar system. Like a great solar avalanche, these waves are building in strength, and calculations predict they will reach their final crescendo soon.

At that moment, the destructive force will overwhelm all known spacetime structures—shattering colonies, scattering fleets, and unraveling the very fabric of the cosmos itself.

But as with all things in chaos theory, destruction breeds new patterns. This great collapse will trigger a rebirth of the universe, paving the way for new empires, new discoveries, and new chaos to come.

Prepare yourselves, Earthforce citizens. Secure what you can, say farewell to the old order, and ready your ships for the reborn expanse.

Dev Notes

• Extractors other then space oats shut off, colonies will no longer make purchases to/from user stations, AI stations will no longer decay goods 7 days before end of the universe. Will be a reminder post.
• Player stations, permanent drones, and the credits on active bots will be lost.
  • Player ships will not be affected.
• If you’re docked during the reset, you will spawn into the new universe using your docked active ship.
  • Careful not to spawn into the new universe in an immobile ship!
• Wild Space will be scrambled and receive a new map shape.
• All other layers will have the systems scrambled but contain the same shape.
• After a universe reset, all of your docked ships will be in a state of limbo allowing you to dock them all at any non-player station.  You can use the /limbo chat command only once to bring all of your docked ships back into limbo to dock them elsewhere. There is no longer a time limit.
  • You can purchase additional limbos via Limboing Tow Service at Friedman station in Free Market for 5 billion credits each.

PDT: 10:00
MDT: 11:00
CDT: 12:00
EDT: 13:00
UTC: 17:00
BST: 18:00

[Neuroforge Changes]

• Adjusted the Neuroforge such that it would still offer the option to lose a non-enhanced mod in exchange for a bonus roll at max enhancement, even though it wouldn’t benefit from the normal bonus to enhancement with that option.

[Red Rogue Changes]

• Added two daily missions to Red Outpost that provide a single guaranteed loot item/Blueprint associated with Scarra the Crimson or Carmine Cutter.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed a bug where bonus rolls on unchosen roll options were not getting properly loaded.
• Fixed a bug where items that only have 1 possible other Non-enhanced mod option wouldn’t offer a Non-enhanced mod swap.
• Fixed a bug where multiple choices of enhancement swap could be offered when Neuroforging.

[Neuroforge Changes]

• Fixed a bug where items that only have 1 possible other secondary wouldn’t offer a secondary swap
• Added a “No change” text to the default option when Neuroforging when the enhancement is at max rather than no text at all in the diff box.
• Changed it so that it would still offer the option to lose a secondary in exchange for a bonus roll at max enhancement, even though it wouldn’t benefit from the normal bonus to enhancement with that option.
• Fixed a bug where bonus rolls on unchosen roll options were not getting properly loaded from the XML
• Fixed a bug where multiple choices of enhancement swap could be offered when Neuroforging

[Anatolia Changes]

• Added protection where you wont be kicked out of Anatolia and lose PvP items after a server restart or a crash.

[Neuroforge Changes]

Click here for blog post.

• Uncommon quality and up now can have 8 mods. Junk and Common are limited to 3 mods.
• Mods power scale on quality with Rare quality being the previous baseline.
• Consuming an item to Neuroforge on a Legendary or an Exalted item gives bonus rolls to that item rather than compound rolls.
• Made it so the left and right choices in the Neuroforge will be different category types and no longer will provide duplicate choices.
• Super Conducting mod renamed to Superconducting.

[Anatolia Changes]

Click here for blog post.

[Red Rogue Changes]

• All of The Fighting Pits missions now lead to separate instances.
• Carmine Cutter has had the following changes:
  • Minions can no longer spawn with modifications on their items.
  • Carmine’s Confounder has been changed to Carmine’s Prototype Confounder, which has a much less debilitating debuff effect on the shockwave.
• Scarra the Crimson has had the following changes:
  • Boss now has ~40% less shields.
  • Minions no longer spawn with augmenters or modifications, their damage has been increased to compensate.
  • Boss has had her own version of a bullet spray added to her super rotation.
  • Scarra’s drones last 10x as long and are 60% less resistant to damage.
• Scarra and Carmine no longer drop uncommon items when killed, they now drop Obscure Doubloons.
• Blueprints from Scarra the Crimson and Carmine Cutter have had their Obscure Doubloon requirements reduced to 1/10 their values.

[Client/UI Changes]

• The Cybernetic Zebucart can now use the Steam Zebucart and Steam Zebucart Mark 2 skins.
• Empyrean Total Eclipse now uses Grand Empyrean Eclipse bosses’ model with extra spikes.
• Easter and Halloween Rats will now wiggle around like normal Space Rats.
• EarthForce Space layer has been renamed to Earthforce Space.
• Added new Content Guide entries related to Player Station building:
  • Building: Station Management Skill
  • Building: Station Deployment and Solarbody Scanning
  • Building: Feeding Workers
  • Building: Trade Skills
  • Building: Extraction and Industry
  • Building: Mining Bots and Asteroids
  • Building: Upgrading and Demolishing Stations
  • Building: Permanent Drones
  • Building: Planetary Colonies
  • Building: Skill Training
  • Building: Team HQ and Outposts
  • Building: Wild Space Ownership

[Class Changes]

• Adjusted various skill spacing, spelling and description issues.

[Item Changes]

• Removed Trepidation Frigate Reformation Blueprint exchange.
• Honey Badger Drone Blueprint no longer costs Adamanturized Rage Augmenter and reduced Prawn Pieces from 32 to 16, Zebra Armada Crests reduced from 25 to 12.
• Hybrid Kidd Drone Blueprint and Mad Kidd Drone Blueprint had Prawn Pieces reduced from 24 to 16, Zebra Armada Crests reduced from 25 to 12.
• Heavy Kidd Drone Blueprint had Prawn Pieces increased from 5 to 16, Towels increased from 1 to 3, and added a cost of 12 Zebra Armada Crests .
• Honey Badger Incinerator was improperly set to T22 on a Honey Badger Drone that was T21. The weapon stats have been lowered accordingly.
• Fixed the quality of the Mercury cloaks to Exotic and increased the -Weight augmod slightly to make them attractive upgrades.
• Removed UrQa tag from Apollo Augmenter.
• Fixed the quality of the Singular Jupiter Thruster from Rare to Exotic.
• Junkyard Neurotweaks are no longer neurobound. Will only affect new purchases.
• Fixed tech level of Junkyard Light Feet Pill from 10 to 5.
• Removed Fertile from most of the Subspace parasites.
• Small Warp Beacon has been given a stronger shield and a new shield capacitor to increase its survivability.
• Removed repeatable Transwarp Device missions from Beta Antares and put them for sale in the trade bay. The initial missions for half-priced Transwarp Devices are still available.
• Fixed Bule Abadi Spectre X’s inbuilt Bule Systems Jammer: updated its weapon debuffs and visuals including new victim injection visual.
• Removed Advanced HQ Defense Field from the Advanced Demented Team HQ and Advanced Adamantium Team HQ, as the buffs they provided were already present on the improved field generators found on these station kits.
• Removed Royal Rat Gland commodity, obtained from Halloween Plaguespace. They are no longer needed to access Broodmother’s Lair.

[Mission Changes]

• Reduced the cost of DWO Drone Research mission from 3 Gigantic Halved Antimatter to 1.
• The mission “Shipment of Armageddon Laser+” now gives experience like all other trader missions.
• Improved summaries on the Making Improvements mission chain in Beta Antares, including informing of the Danger Factor roaming range for Earthforce patrol ships.
• Blue Empire missions requiring various essences will now also require a radiation kill and capture on the relevant targets. This should help make it more obvious that one of the objectives isn’t simply to capture but also turn in a special commodity from the captured ship.

[Universe Changes]

• Nullifier Shield is now locked in position in front of Matriarch Aurora.
• Gurujana Ekam’s three minions (Hantr, Raurava, and Zarkara) will now properly fight and can be killed. They will now despawn after several minutes of inactivity. They will now have spawn and despawn visual/audio effects. As before, they cannot drop their respective augmenters. The augmenters only drop from the Equipment 22 fight against Zarkara Adhara in the Bila Dvarata rift.
• Reduced the number of fighters roaming EarthForce capital ships, Massifs and Hives can launch down 2-4 and adjusted ship stats.
• Changed the drops of Perilium in Empyrean bosses to Perilium Pieces.
• Dark Diablo’s Gremmer Minion’s weapon now has a special visual with increased range and reduced rate of fire.
• The Captive Green Battleship and Captive Wattage in Arena 1 of Olympus should now focus on attacking each other instead of Ares Spectators.
• The wreckages in Zeus’s area of Olympus have had their visuals and sizes updated to conform to their modern values.
• The Alien Defense Alliance team will now use the Earthforce flag.
• Roaming and boss Aveksaka teams will all use the correct flag now.
• Roaming Kalthi teams will use the correct flag now.
• Roaming Olympus teams will use the correct flag now.
• Bonnet Bulk Traders can no longer drop Blue Interceptor Augmenters. They will now spawn with a random augmenter in place of it.
• Added player presence check to Samgrahaka Saahistha minibosses in the Subspace boss rifts. This will prevent them from deploying drones prior to the player’s arrival to that part of the rift.
• The following changes were made to Mother:
  • Mother’s projectile weaponry is now much more visible.
  • Mother’s aura will no longer disable possession’s engines. They will now receive a -90% Thrust penalty instead. Main ships continue to have engines disabled.
  • Mother’s room now has a friction cloud, which will strongly push things back towards the center.
• Added Amethyst Panel and Pyrite Panel to drop from Purple/Orange Emperor in Prism Empires.
• Remove inbuilts from the Imperiled Scutelogica to prevent it spaming its All Hands on Deck superitem in Paxian Stronghold and annoy players with the Hyper Beam Charge sound it makes.
• Omega Platform and Super Omega Platform AI have had their station radiation fields removed. This will fix their energy issues as well.
• Super Omega Battlestation, Loyal Hive, Branding Claw, and Undomesticated Sahvitra have had their station radiation fields removed. Kalthi Depths DG Bosses with station radiation fields will still have them.
• Significantly increased the trigger radius of the Paxian Expedition spawner in Prism.
• The Bhisaj Sahistha in Vihara Sas (Shielding 22 miniboss) will no longer repeat shield remodulation damage types, until all three available damage types have been picked once and has galaxy chat shouts for when its shield remodulation occurs, similar to Vaidya (Shielding 22 boss).
• Janayitri Sahistha (Piloting 22) will only become killable after Janayitri Antu Catur is killed, now requiring all four to be destroyed.
• Changed Angre and Gonzales shouts for too many players to be every 10 minutes instead of every 1 minute.
• Subspace boss rifts will now be owned by the relevant Aveksaka teams.

[Next Universe Changes]

• Transwarp Beacon in Kumari is now teamless (hopefully to address missing on transwarp menu bug) and doubled its size.
• The Jungle boss rifts now have standard rift visuals in place of their old wormhole visuals.
• Jungle wormholes have had their sizes increased to match typical wormholes.
• Wolf 359 is now properly owned by Earthforce.
• Added spawn/despawn effects to various AI throughout the game.
• Removed target name from Barbe Bleu’s shout on fight start. This was causing the shout to become blank.
• Lowered the suns throughout Prism Empires, to prevent ships from flying underneath them.
• Changed suns in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity from M class to be K class to improve player vision in these areas.
• Holiday Hub’s wormholes will now use typical names, including a fixed name for Easter Warren.
• Moved Mega Moe item exchanges from The Junkyard to Graveyard.
• Nexus AI Stations have had their vending lists fixed, offering a wide selection of ships and equipment once more.
• Plasma Vents weapon now available for purchase throughout Nexus.
• Flamlite added to Arctia AI Station.
• Fixed Swirlation item exchange in Lyceum to no longer require itself and the materials required on the blueprint.
• Removed Plasma Capacitor mission item drops from Arctia and Vulcan AI, used for an Engineer mission and intended only to drop from Blue Pirates.
• The ambush spawners used during the Siege of Mzungu Angani mission have had their trigger distance increased greatly.
• The ambush spawners used during the Siege of Mzungu Angani will now announce their spawn in Galaxy chat in addition to Event chat.
• The ‘Giant Asteroid!’ mission’s repeatable version now requires the original mission to be completed before becoming accessible.
• The ‘Vazaha Defense’ mission changed from 4 to 3 Iq’ UrQa Guard kills to complete.
• Increased shields on the Earthforce capital ship roamers, minus the Interdiction Frigate which will receive a reduction.

[Server Changes]

• Tractoring hate is now based off the power of the tractor instead of being always a flat 25 hate.
• Trade bots can no longer use galaxy scanners.
• Added a check that prevents skills from passing on to Fighters/Missiles launched from Stations.
• End of the Universe event now correctly delays the ownership buffer and extraction modifiers until one week is left

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed a crash when using an item while a ship isn’t in a galaxy.
• Dark Kobaldstein’s mechanics have been fixed. He will now properly cycle through different attack modes with associated shouts and actions.
• The Alien Defense Alliance has sourced new bomb triggers for the Paxian Bombs used against Janayitriadhara (Tractoring 22). They will now detonate properly as before.
• Fixed broken Fallen Mine spawner in Fallen Minelayer fight in Ruined Sanctuary.
• Removed target name from Earthforce Captive from Infernal Tempest’ Infernal Confinement shout upon being attacked. This was causing the shout to become blank.

The Neuroforge is one of the most impactful sources of power we’ve added to the game. But, for many, it has also been a source of immense frustration. With the Neuroforge 2.0 update, we’re delivering a wide ranging set of changes designed to make modding and enhancing your gear feel smooth at every step. Whether you’re just starting out on your journey or hunting for the perfectly modded item to fine tune your loadout, this update brings consistency to the modding process.

No More Chaotic Rolls

Prior to this update, Exalted and Legendary items received a combined double roll whenever you Neuroforged them. While this sounds like a bonus on paper, and in our heads, in practice it created unpredictable results and made it harder for players to land on a desirable mod combination.

With the update, that feature is gone.

Instead, you’ll now receive back to back individual rolls for each Exalted or Legendary item you throw into the forge. This change gives you an extra chance to land on what you’re looking for, without the volatility that came with mashed together rolls. Getting more rolls also means you’ll need fewer duplicates of those rare items to chase your ideal build.

Simplifying the Mod Cap

Another pain point in the old system was the interaction between item quality and mod caps. Players had to navigate strange mechanics and edge cases to push items past their limits. It wasn’t intuitive, and it certainly wasn’t intended to be this way.

We’re changing that by making the following adjustments:

• Junk and Common items are now capped at 3 mods.

• Uncommon and above can have up to 8 mods.

Mod Removal

The “Remove a Mod + Gain Enhancement Level” option used to be one of the least popular choices in the Neuroforge. In some cases, it actively made your items worse! Especially when it prevented you from ever getting a new mod again due to mod cap limitations on lower quality items.

This option has been reworked.

Now, choosing to remove a secondary mod grants you an additional roll. This makes it far more valuable. And critically, on items that are Uncommon quality or higher, removing a mod no longer blocks you from gaining another mod in the future.

Free Rerolls

A brand-new roll type has entered the pool: the Bonus Forge!

This ultra-rare option gives you another shot at modding without consuming any items. It won’t show up often but when it does, it just might be a welcome gift.

No More Duplicate Roll Types

We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear: seeing the same Neuroforge roll on both sides of the dialog box feels bad.

With Neuroforge 2.0, this should almost never happen.

Behind the scenes, we’ve added logic to ensure the left and right options in the neuroforge UI are almost always different.

Scaling with Quality

To help distinguish item quality levels even further, mods that scale with tech level now also scale with quality level (with the exception of Transcendental mods). Each quality level has a unique modifier to the Tech level that the modification is multiplied by.

This means that, for a Tech 22 item:

• Common: Secondary mods act as if the item were Tech 12.

• Uncommon: Secondary mods act as if the item were Tech 17.

• Rare: no change to Secondary mods.

• Exotic: Secondary mods act as if the item were Tech 27.

• Exalted: Secondary mods act as if the item were Tech 29.

This gives you more incentive to use well modded higher quality gear across your entire loadout.

A Cleaner Forging Experience

Neuroforge 2.0 is all about giving you more control, clarity, and meaningful progression. Whether you’re Neuroforging an item from scratch or pushing an old favorite to new heights, these changes aim to make the entire experience feel more intuitive and rewarding. We can’t wait to see what you do with it.

The thrill of the Emperor Contest lies in its mix of tactical combat, team coordination, and high-stakes decision-making. But one piece of the puzzle has long felt like it lagged behind: depositing Influence. Until now, delivering Influence to your team’s tally was as simple as docking. That simplicity undercut the layered gameplay players experienced while gathering it. So we’re shaking things up.

Depositing Influence

Influence is no longer deposited through docking. It must be delivered to special planets that have had the will of Midas directly imposed on them via Rizokastros. In order to gain Influence, you must free these planets from Midas’ grip. A single Rizokastro will spawn somewhere in the layer at all times, creating a temporary opportunity to make your deposit.

Each Rizokastro comes with strict processing limits. It can only hold a certain amount of Influence at a time, and it processes that Influence slowly. Once a Rizokastro starts accepting Influence, it locks itself to that batch until it’s done. Only after it finishes processing any influence delivered will it accept more. If multiple teams are holding Influence nearby, it will refuse to accept any Influence at all. This creates an opportunity for disruption and conflict.

Only planets are eligible for Rizokastro deployments. To deposit Influence, players must be within a defined range of the Rizokastro planet while carrying an Influence item in their ship’s hull. Once a Rizokastro has reached its maximum capacity, it vanishes and another will spawn somewhere else after a delay.

Surge Behavior

During Surges, more Rizokastro spawn to accommodate the increased activity and higher volumes of Influence. As long as the Surge is active, they’ll continue to respawn.

New Rules

because Influence is no longer meant to be deposited or stored in large quantities we have added some functionality changes:

• Influence items now have a half-life of 2 hours.
• Docking at an AI base while holding Influence causes it to drop.

We have also adjusted the victory margin for the Emperor Contest’s tiebreaker phase. Teams must now earn a 2 million point lead (up from 1 million) to claim the Throne once the contest enters overtime.

Note

The Anatolian Expanse and associated Emperor Contest is a labor of love by us to support an active PvP event that breaks up the day to day activities in Star Sonata. We appreciate the many rounds of feedback the community has given about this experience. We are committed to continuing to support this activity and monitoring its success and failures. This blog post includes all information on the current system used to ascend to the throne to become Emperor, but like with many things in Star Sonata, it changes often. This system will likely be iterated into the future to bring an experience that promotes competition. You can stay up to date on what is involved in the contest to become Emperor by visiting our wiki page on the topic. https://www.starsonata.com/wiki/index.php/Emperor

[Red Outpost]

Stage 2 of the Fighting Pits has arrived, and the stakes have never been higher. Survive the chaos and you might just earn the attention of some of the Red Rogues’ most infamous champions. Rumor has it they’ve been itching for a real fight… and they’re not picky about who they pulverize to get it! Think you’ve got what it takes to climb the ranks? Step into the arena and find out… if you dare.

• Added new missions, loot and instances for Red Outpost.
• Added new mission to Paxian Foothold to allow alts to skip the Peacemaking grind, requires Paxian Peacekeeper Signaculum’s that the player can obtain from turning in Obscure Doubloons in Paxian Foothold.

[Client/UI Changes]

• 20th Anniversary Zebucart skin added to game.
• Added new skin for ships that drop from Matriarch Aurora.
• Fixed a bug that prevented middle mouse click to work on tables.
• Added new context menu with Autopilot, Avoid Galaxy and Avoid Team to the Galaxy map for right clicking on a galaxy. The previous functionality of centering on a galaxy is now double right click.
• Added the ability to search items by Hull Restrictions, “Station” (type and station locked gear), “Industry” (station type items outside of blueprints and kits)
• Rift Difficulty now displays on main Squad dialog directly above Set Rift Difficulty button. Currently this only shows the correct difficulty for the squad leader.

[Item Changes]

• Added 20th Anniversary holos to the game.