Moderation Team

The Star Sonata Moderation Team is recruiting! Moderation in Star Sonata exists to make sure that all of the chats provide a welcoming place and positive experience. If you are passionate about the game and want to give back to the community, please consider joining the Moderation Team!

Mission and Goal Statement

If you’re thinking about becoming a Moderator, here are some more details about the mission and goals of the team.

• Keep the chats clean of anything considered offensive or inappropriate.
• Strictly moderate anything that makes people feel unwelcome, including but not limited to: racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other form of bigotry.
• Keep discussion civil, and ensure that they stay on topic. Those who seek to start fights should be cleanly excised from conversations so that the discussion can continue.

To ensure that we keep community support for moderation, we must:

• Lead by example by following the chat rules ourselves at all times.
  • We cannot enforce rules that we don’t follow ourselves.
• Make sure players follow the community guidelines.
• Strive to eliminate any bias or perception of bias in moderation.
• Avoid disrupting normal conversation whenever possible.
• Our chat rules are consolidated into one master set of rules here, and they will apply to all public chat in-game, on discord, and private messages in-game if they are reported.
  • Ideally, moderation should apply to the individual behind the computer as much as possible, but in the cases of account-sharing, punishments should be considered to apply both to the person behind the screen as well as anyone using that account.

For more moderation information please contact Kilando#9002 or Demi#0609 on Discord!

Paxian Disciple

If you’re interested in the design and development process of Star Sonata, there is another community role that you can apply for. The *Paxian Disciples* are community members who are invited to attend weekly dev meetings and provide a player perspective on the ongoing work. If you’re interested to learn more about becoming a Paxian Disciple, here is what is expected of the role:

• Regularly attending and participating in our weekly meetings.
• Representing the interests of your subgroup in the community.
• Providing feedback on how our work in progress may impact the game.
• Relaying information from the meetings in a factual manner to the community at large.

Worried about not having anything to add during the meetings? That is perfectly OK. We’re happy to just have you in attendance!

For more information on becoming a Paxian Disciple contact enk#3571 over Discord!

[Wild Space Changes]

• While a galaxy is unowned or turns unowned – destroyed attached bases will detach themselves from planets and moons.
• Can no longer mine asteroids in galaxies owned by team that is not your own.
• Termites now take much longer to mature and won’t spawn attackers right way but will spawn guards.
• AI Empires will no longer spawn with HPS stations.
• Adjusted Corrupted Cyborg Adamantiumized Extended Beam that was previously missed.
• Made Nullification Generator always equipped so it can’t be removed.
• Fixed issue with basebound items not being added with you preform a station upgrade with a new kit.
• Removed missed XYZ augmenter blueprints.
• Adjusted new resource distribution so the number of resources distributed to large galaxies (high solarbody counts) scale up.

[Item Changes]

• Renamed Twisted Honey Striker factory on the Twisted Honey to Twisted Honeycomb Fabrication.
• Ksaravisa parasite (From Visphotakapad Ksaravis’ayu missile) is now Unique, and will not impart multiple -Resistiance to Damage when fired by multiple players.
• Marked the Plague Virus as Unique as well, since it comes from a Seer only super item and was stronger than the Ksaravisa.
• Electrified Defense Matrix changed from +33% Shield Bank, +25% Electric Tempering, +50% Hostility for 5 minutes to +66% Shield Bank, +50% Electric Tempering, +100% Hostility for 5 minutes to match what its stats were when super item neuro tweaks were allowed to benefit from Neurotweaking. The Super Item’s charge time was decreased so that you can continuously benefit from the buff effect.
• Removed the Mining Vulnerability tweak effect from the Kalthi Capital Planetary Demolisher and change its description to fit. Its stats increased with this change.
• Reduced the magnitude of the Kalthi Elucidator Beam +Vis tweak effect.
• Removed the Experience bonus on the seer capital ship aura Psychic Foresight.
• Kalthi Coordinator Solar Array reduced from 75 flat Energy Regen to 50.
• Kalthi Capital Solar Matrix reduced from 25% Radar to 10% Radar. Reduced 25k flat Energy Bank to 20k.
• Kalthi Visionary Stealth Infuser reduced from -10% Visibility to -5% Visibility.
• Reduced blueprint costs for Kalthi Capital Planetary Demolisher, Kalthi Elucidator Beam, Kalthi Deployer Solar Panel, Kalthi Visionary Stealth Infuser, Kalthi Capital Solar Matrix.

[AI Changes]

• Subspace AI no longer have additional XP modifiers outside of the Invasion spawned AI.
• Changed the team of Kalthi Visionaries and Coordinators spawning in DF500+ back to Kalthi Armada.
• Subspace Outposts now deploy AI with scripting instead of as fighters.

[Universe Changes]

• Arctia bosses are now instanced and adjusted the galaxy layout of the zone to make it easier to understand where to go.

[Server Changes]

• Background changes to fuel check on energies so fuel costs are more accurate.
• Infrastructure for drone mobilization to help reduce desync.
• Unique tag on Parasites only allows one source to exist instead of allowing one per source. (e.g., Core Dumps with their parasite, doesn’t matter how many people use it, you can only ever have a max of one stack.)

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed a case where bots would fire at a stasis ship.
• Fixed issue with tractors being stuck on if the player has a DNA extraction beam on their ship.
• Fixed several cases where bots could fire at other players in no PvP areas.
• Fixed several issues that caused issues with “return” wormholes within instances (Serengeti, Infernal Darkness) and with wormholes within the same galaxy (Micron, Labyrinth).
• Fixed a bug where stations could do massive extractor/factory ticks when being repaired.
• Fixed a bug where constant DPS incorrectly applied to parasites from super item.
• Fixed a bug where constant DPS could make superweapons do healing/damage when they should do damage/healing.

[Wild Space Changes]

• See Dev Post - Wild Space Conflict: The Nitty-Gritty for a lot of details.
• New Wild Space system gradually reveals more galaxies over the course of the universe.
• Unidyne Core Dumps (and all lower tech versions) changed to a tech 20 super item. Blueprints also renamed to the T20 version.
• Readjustment of Base Weapons stats, notably with significant range reductions.
• All station gear with Transference Efficiency changed to Resistance to Damage
• All station gear with Transference Power changed to Damage.
• XYZ Station Gear and researches are now galaxy bound and given proper sizes and weights. Industrial Station Research: Y, Industrial Station Research: Z can only be built one at time now.
• X Gear that starts inbuilt on bases is now base bound and will not drop on death.
• Placement of bases or Permanent Drones causes aggression from AI Empires within the same galaxy.
• Removed Range bonus from Station Mastery skill.
• Repair kits are no longer used to repair bases and converted back to the station kit used to build them. Repairs are now done using actual station kits via the station upgrade system.
  • Must be docked and owner be online.
  • Must be an equivalent or greater station kit in tech and augslots.
  • If the kit is the same kit as the current base is – it’ll only repair it.
  • Repairs and Upgrades are now tracked in base logs.
  • HQ, Outpost and Command & Control Kits can only upgrade/repair their own types.
• Metals and Silicon will now decay on reset.
• Wormholes no longer block shots.
• Added new Advanced Extractors to Ring for most T1-T3 extractable commodities. T1 are tech 9, T2 are Tech 12 and T3 are Tech 16.
• Permanent Drones now follow the 1:1 healing system.
• Adjusted the base supers to new stats.
• Station Tech Upgrades have had their acquisition methods removed due to the new station upgrade system. The artifact ruin Station Tech upgrades items will no longer appear in colonies. Items will be fully removed in a future universe.
• IC Station Kits are no longer obtainable (outside of the temp universe).
• IC Augmenters can be obtained at Advanced Base in Building Academy via exchange for augmenters.
• Termites have been buffed and had their spawn rate increased.
• Industrial Commodities can no longer be transwarped and item teleported.
• Items with the following tags can no longer be Item-Teleported: decay on universe reset, cannot leave the galaxy, drop on death or can’t be transwarped.
• Changed the initial base placement vulnerability aura to be 100% until building is complete instead of starting at 500% and going down every 75 seconds.
• Construction bonuses do not affect Nullification Generator’s construction time.
• Base capacitors can no longer be scrapped for credits.
• Rename Shield Harmonization Overcharger to Energy Harmonization Overcharger.
• Added new colony terraforming items that decay on universe reset that raise the max suitability of a colony in Blue Photon Processing.

[UI/ Client Changes]

• Improved all the Zaphragi models and skins.
• Improved Guardian of the Lyceum model and texture.

[Skill Changes]

• Drone Research skill description updated to more clearly reflect all benefits to gives. Previously Drone Research gave one equipped slot per level and level 5 would give 2. Now it only gives one per level.
  • Increased the baseline number of drones each hull class can equip by one. Light Fighters: 10, Heavy Fighters: 13, Industrial Freighters: 19, Support Freighter: 19, Capital Ship: 16.
• Removed the ability to get Ancient Lore skills due to no functions relating to them.

[Item Changes]

• Deathblossom item descriptions now say “Multiplies” instead of your “Overloads” and no longer categorized as an Overloader item type.
• Reworked the Faranji Paragon Devices.
• Calypso’s Presence and Ismail’s Presence Field Generators changed from affecting everyone to only allies and self.
• Dementium is now labeled Rare instead of Exotic.
• Paxian Battle Frigate Wave Motion Laser Device is no longer automatically used by combat bots.
• Adjusted Particles for CDTDs, Polarized Catapult & Imperiled Polarized Catapult to try and improve visual clarity and improve FPS.
• Adjusted a bunch of low level drones to have proper energies and could can power now.
• Adjusted the energybank that the Celestial Drones use.
• Reduced quality of BFD 9000′s gear from Exotic to Rare.
• Gatling and Point Defense Transferences weapons now have .5 recoil instead of .2 recoil.
• Adjusted quality of Zebu Master Fighter to rare.
• Adjusted Fighter Inbuilts of Kalthi Commander Ships to the new fighter system.
• Reduced uptime of the Voulge Charge Drone and Flamberge Charge Drone from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Reduced Zeus Charger from 15% Critical Resistance to 9% Critical Resistance and 5% Resistance to Damage to 4% Resistance to Damage.
• Updated descriptions for Envelope Device super items. Added shields, duration and if the envelopes are effected by friendly fire or not.
• Modified all obtainable fighter crates to break into 2 fighters each.
• Expanders now cannot be tossed unless unequipped first to prevent overhulling issues.
• Updated description of Celestial Defiler Blueprint to properly reflect the item is a long range torpedo, not a short range one.
• Red Photon Prototype Weapon Augmentation reduced from 25k range to 2.5 range.
• Adjustments to Fighter Overdrive Blitz to prevent mega stacking with other fighter super items.
• Native Warp Beacons are now identical to Warp Beacons other then being galaxy bound.
• Decays on Universe Reset additionally lists “Can’t Be put into Storage” automatically on items.
• Twisted Fate of Death Blueprint’s Twisted Token cost now matches the other ships.
• Fixed Nanotech Enhancing Beam effects actually lasting 5 seconds instead of 24 seconds.

[AI Changes]

• Adjusted bosses of high DF DGs to have better distribution.
• Removed Random Augs and Mods from the following zone’s Bosses and Minis: T20 skill zones, Red Photon, Olympus, Infernal Darkness, Brute Force, Black Nightfury, Subspace, Demented Delquad, UrQa’qa Vazuk Vo’kii, Twisted, Empyrean, Serengeti and Fallen Delquad.
• AI in dungeons will no longer attempt to scoop items.
• AI outside of dungeons will only scoop commodities excluding crates.
• Lowered damage of the space jellies in The Nexus, they will do half of their current damage so that they don’t one shot players who may be passing through in un-upgraded zebus. Also Increased the drop rate of the Jelly’s Acidic Blood item from space jellies.
• Reduced the number of weapons on DG guard Wattages.
• Removed the superitems on DG guards of Ghostships, Zebucarts, and Zebu Masutas.
• Made Termites within Emphatic Biology and Biologique be on teams now so there’s not a chance of fighting other mounds within the same galaxy.
• Increased the visibility of Tears.
• Slightly Reduced the Shield Bank of Mad Scientist.
• Moved the tweak effect descriptions on all Fleet Commander fighter aura superitems from the item description to the Actions on the item.

[Universe Changes]

• Empathy Field is now based around mining instead of planet extraction. Increased the size of the AI Station. Moved to Earthforce layer.
  • Carbon Hearts and Diamond Hearts are now galaxy bound.
• Moved Remote Control and Station Tweaking from Biologique to Vervaardiger Processing.
• Station Tweaking and Station Research from Emphatic Biology are moved to Lunacy.
• Equipment, Radar and Nanotech Plating moved from XYZ to Bonnet Hideout in Bonnet.
• Station Tweaking and Station Research moved from XYZ moved to Ruby Steppes.
• Added way to exchange class augmenters in The Acropolis back to Tokens.  Tokens can be exchanged for the previous scrap credit value of these augmenters.
• Lady Kelvin was removed.
• Added Prototype Prismatic conversion as an AC trade in in Arctia after the mission “Solar Prisms” is completed. Added a note to the mission “Getting Ready” to alert the player that they can get the Prototype Prismatic Conversion from the trade bay.
• Fixed AI Empire HQ’s to properly be set to Tech 20.
• Colored Empires renamed to Prism Empires.

[Mission Changes]

• Trader Signet, Insignia, Badge missions changed from flat XP to level based.

[Server]

• Missions and Epiphanies no longer get bonus XP from events, XP augmods or other external sources.
• Councilor XP from team mates has been removed.
• Updated grammar on error if you’ve never seen an item in or it’s not on the public market.
• When item is not on the public market place, the error will now clarify that it is not found in your ship’s inventory either.
• Base logs for AI docking and or trading now fall under the Bot category to not drown out player transitions and docking.
• Global MarketPlace representative now falls under Bot/AI docking logs to also not drown out player logs.
• Changed the level prevention to undock without a shield, energy or engine from level 10 to level 40.
• Adjusted Star Sonata discord link to be a shorter version the All Chat login message.
• Added a new bot action to More Bot Settings: Set Ship Name Alias. Allows to rename the ship alias when the ship is already deployed for combat, wild and trade bots.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed an issue that caused base to unequip items when attempting to equip a normal item.
• Moved a check so an already equipped item isn’t unequipped on a ship before checking if there’s enough space to remove the cargo tag.
• Fixed a display bug where weapons would list their self damage multiplied by the number of projectiles.
• Fixed a spacing issue in error when attempting to sell items that are “Can’t Remove” or “Can’t Unequip”.
• Cargo slot bonus from expanders now properly apply if you have more than 1 in a stack equipped.
• Made the visible sun Targetable in Celestial Encampment so players can get affected by Out of Combat.
• Fixed a bug where DNA extractors would not deactivate after successfully extracting a piece of DNA.
• Fixed issue with several AI Only Drones that had extremely low lifespans.

[UI/ Client Changes]

• Removed Ownership and Protection options from the Team options. Ownership will return under a new system next universe.

[Item Changes]

• Capital Ship Shield and Energy Bank Adjustments – Read here - the following ships stats have been adjusted and gets a /freeaugreset. Does not stack with existing /freeaugresets the ship may have:
  • Auroral’s Glacial Shard’s Energy Max from 250% to 190% and Shield Max from 233% to 183%.
  • Roscap’s Shield Max from 224% to 190%.
  • Bear’s Energy Max from 332% to 255% and Shield Max from 284% to 240%.
  • Primal Bear’s Energy Max from 359% to 275% and Shield Max from 308% to 260%
  • Gareth’s Energy Max from 395% to 280%.
  • Gawain’s Energy Max from 440% to 310%.
  • Mordred’s Energy Max from 470% to 330%.
  • Green Battleship’s Energy Max reduced from 460% to 340%.
  • Greenish Battleship’s Energy Max reduced from 515% to 360% and Shield Max from 372% to 325%.
  • Earthforce Frigate’s Energy Max from 463% to 288%.
  • Earthforce Destroyer’s Energy Max from 519% to 318%.
  • Earthforce Cruiser’s Energy Max from 575% to 348%.
  • Earthforce Battlecruiser’s Energy Max from 594% to 358%.
  • Earthforce Battleship’s Energy Max from 631% to 378%.
  • Earthforce Dreadnought Energy Max from 650% to 388%.
  • Hybridized Frigate’s Energy Max from 481% to 298%.
  • Hybridized Destroyer’s Energy Max from 538% to 328%.
  • Hybridized Cruiser’s Energy Max from 594% to 358%.
  • Hybridized Battlecruiser’s Energy Max from 613% to 368%.
  • Hybridized Battleship’s Energy Max from 650% to 388%.
  • Hybridized Dreadnought Energy Max from 669% to 398%.
  • Recon Frigate’s Energy Max from 288% to 235%.
  • Interdiction Frigate Energy Max from 288% to 235%.
  • Earthforce Overload Prototype’s Energy Max from 388% to 315%.
  • Lyceum Exploration Cruiser’s Shield Max from 419% to 323%.
  • Kikale Mzungu Frigate X’s Energy Max from 1400% to 575% and Shield Max from 432% to 333%.
  • Mastodon’s Energy Max from 1250% to 538% and Shield Max from 380% to 320%.
  • Hybridized Mastodon’s Energy Max from 1284% to 548% and Shield Max from 392% to 330%.
  • Anise’s Energy Max from 460% to 340%.
  • Swordfish Energy Max from 470% to 330%.
  • Zeus Throne and Zeus Throne+’s Energy Max from 515% to 360%
  • Hive’s Shield Max from 372% to 325%.
  • Honey Comb’s Energy Max from 1438% to 585% and Shield Max from 372%.
  • Red Photon Carrier’s Energy Max from 515% to 360%.
  • Red Photon Support Crusier’s Shield Max from 490% to 354%.
  • Red Photon Logistics Cruiser’s Energy Max from 823% to 435%
  • Sutaatiguruayu’s Energy Max from 530% to 370%.
  • Antuayu’s Energy Max from 530% to 370% and Shield Max from 459% to 353%.
  • Vaziayu’s Shield Max from 671% to 404%.
  • UrQa’qa Qu’ishi Qa’s Energy Max from 950% to 470%.
  • Twisted Fate of Death’s Energy Max from 530% to 370% and Shield Max from 404% to 340%.
  • Twisted Honey’s Energy Max from 1475% to 595% and Shield Max from 459% to 353%.
  • Empyreal Eclipse and Empyreal Noctis’s Energy Max from 481% to 365% and Shield Max from 459% to 360%.
  • Emperor’s Behemoth’s Thrust from 252% to 213%.
  • Divine Behemoth’s Thrust from 840% to 413%.
  • Massif IV’s Thrust from 299% to 237%.

[Server]

• Changed so trade bots can no longer mine in premium/semi-premium areas if not subbed.

[Bug Fixes]

• Added multiple checks and automated correction for edge cases where ships end up stuck after towing.
• Fixed bug causing bots to constantly open missile crates.
• Fixed several client crashes.
• Fixed a glitch that sometime cause your own docked ship to be visible on top of the base.

Greetings! I’m excited to share some more details on the Wild Space Conflict project that will go live along with the 2-week temporary universe on April 30. A working version of this project is available on the Test server for those who are curious to get an early look–just be advised that we’re still putting the finishing touches on a few minor components. Fair warning: this is a long post that dives into some really detailed design and stats. For a lighter overview of the project, you can check out this post from February.

Controlling Territory

Back in February, I shared the following details about controlling Wild Space territory in the new system.

• Instead of merely controlling a galaxy for ten minutes, you must deploy a new type of base and complete a resource-intensive construction project in order to establish ownership. This process may take a couple hours.

• Once ownership is established, a steady stream of resources will be consumed to maintain it.

Figure 1: The equipment you’ll use to own galaxies.

I’d like to follow up on this with some details so you know what to expect well in advance of Universe Reset.

• You need a Command and Control Station Kit. It’s a tech 16 base that cannot be attached to planets and moons. You’ll be able to purchase this base kit in Building Academy.

• Your team can deploy just one single Command and Control Station in each galaxy. Once it’s deployed, you can start the Nullification Generator construction project. This takes two hours at standard build speed and carries a periodic cost of 10,000 Steel Girders and 10,000 Sentient Chatbots. For reference, this resource cost roughly equates to seven ideal tech 9 Extraction Expert bases for Metals, and half that for Silicon. Of course, it’s also possible to build the Nullification Generator over a longer period of time if your resources are spread thin at the start of the universe. Just make sure to actively monitor your space and rebuff any hostile players who try to steal your territory!

• The Nullification Generator is the device that actually establishes and maintains your team’s ownership of the galaxy. It is a base-bound factory that consumes 100 Fusion Cells every ten minutes. This cost roughly equates to one ideal tech 9 Extraction Expert base for Nuclear Waste. Every time the Nullification Generator consumes a batch of Fusion Cells, it establishes or re-establishes your team’s ownership of the galaxy. If the Nullification Generator fails to re-establish ownership for any reason (e.g. if the Command and Control Station is destroyed or abandoned), there is a grace period of up to 24 hours before ownership is lost (the grace period is shorter for galaxies that have been owned for less than a day). During the grace period, the owning team’s chat channel receives warning messages. To resolve the problem, simply feed the Nullification Generator enough Fusion Cells to catch up with the deficit (it will consume however much it’s owed).

Contesting Territory

Once a galaxy is owned, no one is allowed to take any PvP actions there. This includes hostile actions by the team that owns the galaxy! It’s no longer possible to manually toggle ownership status, so there is no practical way for the owning team to temporarily cede ownership status in order to PvP. From now on, ownership essentially means that the territory has been successfully claimed and fighting can move on to another theater.

This change means that fighting in Wild Space is much more straightforward with very few hidden or counterintuitive mechanics to get in the way of gameplay. If you want to contest another team’s ownership attempt, you need to stop them from building and activating a Nullification Generator before you. Here are some strategies you can try:

1. Interrupt enemy shipments of Steel Girders and Sentient Chatbots to their Command and Control Station.

2. Find and destroy the enemy’s extraction bases that are sourcing these Industrial Commodities.

3. Destroy the enemy’s Command and Control Station outright (but these are pretty tanky!)

Don’t forget that you’ll also need to complete a Nullification Generator on your own Command and Control Station while you’re busy slowing down your enemy’s attempts to do the same! As soon as any Nullification Generator activates, all unaffiliated bases and permanent drones are immediately destroyed and any such bases that were attached to planets or moons become unattached as well. This puts an end to the contest and awards the galaxy to the winning side.

Figure 2: Three enemy bases enter destroyed state as a different team establishes ownership. Note: the bases also detach from the planet but our tester needed an updated client to show this.

The only non-intuitive rule in the system is that unattached bases are not allowed until the galaxy is owned (with the exception of the Command and Control Station, of course). Allowing unattached bases in territory contest instantly necessitates a huge number of hidden rules and mechanics, as anyone with experience in BvB knows all too well. It’s best if we avoid the problem entirely by ruling out their use in PvP.

AI Empires will continue to exist in the new system, but the method for contesting their territory is slightly different. Since you can’t deploy bases directly in their galaxies anymore, we’ve introduced the following behaviors:

• A galaxy owned by an AI Empire will automatically lose ownership if a different team owns an adjacent galaxy.

• Deploying a base in the presence of an AI Empire will turn the AI hostile toward you.

Simply put, if you want to take territory away from an AI Empire, you must first own a neighboring galaxy (disabling the AI Empire’s ownership next door), then take over the freshly unowned galaxy by whatever means you choose. Remember that you won’t be able to use unattached bases for this task, though.

Figure 3: A player team establishes ownership in Tuscany Verge, causing the neighboring AI Empire galaxy Tyro to lose ownership.

Changes to Base Combat

Aside from the restriction on the use of unattached bases, we’ve made some other changes that will greatly affect the mechanics of base combat.

Bases no longer use healing weapons and any base augmenters the used to grant healing-related stats have been repurposed (check out Spirit of the Rhino!).

Figure 4: Spirit of the Rhino has been repurposed.

We realized that the main purpose of base healing has always been to keep your galaxy safe–particularly from enemy players–while you’re away. With the new ownership mechanic, this insurance is no longer necessary. To keep your galaxy safe from players, you only need to be on high alert during the few hours it takes to establish ownership. Granted, base healing was also helpful to protect against termites; more on this below.

Bases have a lot less range than before. When I announced this back in February, some people assumed we were reducing the base weapon range cap from 10k down to 3k. This is not correct. Instead, we’ve compressed the range stat spread on base weapons, reduced the magnitude of the Range augmod on base augmenters, removed the range bonus from Station Mastery, and reduced the strength of the Volatile Projectile Overcharger. Putting everything together, your pulse gun bases will probably hit between 1,500 and 3,000 range, while some specialized long-range magcannon bases can probably reach around 6,000 range. As with the removal of base healing, we make this change with the idea that you no longer need 10,000-range bases to keep your galaxy safe from players since ownership will do that job for you. And yes, this change impacts termite defense too. So let’s talk about termites.

Termites are being made to spawn a lot more frequently and pose a bigger threat than before. Also, it’s no longer possible to enable a protected galaxy state and thereby keep the termites out. Coupling this with the removal of base healing and the reduction in practical base weapon range, how exactly are you expected to keep your bases safe from termites? Here are some key points to know:

• In our testing, three tech 20 non-Station-Mastery bases were narrowly defeated by the strongest possible swarm of termites. We used competitive setups for the bases but I’m sure our expert community theorycrafters can do better than we did.

• In lowish danger factors, the termites have their damage reduced by half. With resources being more equitably distributed across danger factor (more on this below), this is a pretty valuable consideration.

• One new termite infestation spawns every hour, meaning that the average galaxy can expect to experience around six infestations over the course of four months. Some will get unlucky, though!

• Termite nests mature over a period of 24 hours and can be destroyed by handful of properly equipped bases (and maybe also by a player squad).

Figure 5: A maximum-strength wave of Termites assaults three tech 20 Adamantium industry bases.

One thing I’m confident about is that it will no longer be safe to use low tech industry bases on outlying planets and moons. Even if chaperoned by a “fully operational” Station Mastery base, low tech bases will probably die before the termites get cleaned up. This means that to fully exploit the resources of a galaxy, you will most likely need to use more industry base slots than you’re used to. Here is what we’re doing to make that more palatable. Just as powerful, high tech extractors make high tech bases viable for extracting tier-0 commodities, we’re introducing new content that will make high tech bases advantageous in other aspects of industry as well:

1. Every tier 1-3 commodity extractor is getting a new higher-tech upgraded version that grants a substantial extraction power boost. The tech and power of each new version depends on the tier of the commodity. Tier-1 commodities get a tech 9 extractor with 50% more power; for tier 2 it’s a tech 12 extractor with 100% more power; and for tier 3 it’s a tech 16 extractor with 150% more power. You can pick up the new extractors in exchange for a regular one plus some credits.

2. Higher-tech Colonial Administrator bases can now grant extra benefits to suitability in the following way. We are introducing new base-specific items that increase suitability and max suitability when equipped, as long as the base owner has the Colonial Administrator skill. For example, a tech 20 Colonial Administrator base can build and equip an item that grants +10% suitability and raises the maximum suitability of the colony to 140%. Be warned: the first iteration of this new item type will decay upon universe reset! If it’s well received, we may release reusable alternatives down the road.

These buffs to industry bases certainly improve the value proposition of using higher tech bases (possibly with augmenters) for your outlying industry. We want you to experiment and decide for yourself how to build optimally in the new system. One thing to remember: it is fully possible that some planets are just not worth industrializing. For example, a low-gravity planet with no moons that orbits 15,000 away from your main operations would be difficult to defend due to the lack of base slots. Depending on its industrial value, you will have to decide whether it’s worth spending the resources to exploit that planet and keep your operations safe. This is intentional design. We want the game to pose complex problems and we don’t want the designers to solve them all in advance.

Another point about base combat: base weapons have been made a lot more interesting. Beams have been redesigned for medium-damage AoE with the same range stat spread as pulse guns. Magcannons keep their long range profile but have received a variety of impactful  on-hit effects. I’m really looking forward to seeing what cool new strategies emerge from the greatly increased base weapon diversity.

Lastly, we’re making some changes to the “IC” base content that’s currently obtained through Industrial Commodities.

1. During the 2-week temporary universe, “IC” base kits and augmenters will be available for purchase at the cost of 1 credit. Remember that these items will decay at the end of the temporary universe.

2. After the temporary universe, “IC” base kits will no longer be obtainable, while “IC” base augmenters will have a new cost and acquisition method: the Z-tier versions will be available for direct purchase in exchange for 4 theme-and-tech appropriate augmenters and a credit cost comparable to the price of a normal Z base augmenter. Be mindful that these augmenters will still decay on reset for the time being.

3. “IC” base gear (e.g. Annihilator Shield Z) will continue to exist but with an added “can’t-jump” tag to prevent players from moving it between galaxies. The associated research projects will also have to be conducted anew in every galaxy where “IC” base gear is desired.

4. “IC” permanent drones will continue to exist in their current form.

Resource and Territory Abundance

In February, I explained the basics of mid-universe galaxy reveals. To recap:

1. Every 9 days and 17 hours, a fresh batch of galaxies will appear in Wild Space, connected in some way to the existing map.

2. These galaxies will have higher average resource abundance to make up for lost time.

3. Since ownership is a time- and resource-intensive process, it no longer requires a connection to your team’s HQ. Anyone with spare base slots will be able to compete for the newly revealed galaxies no matter where they appear on the map.

Figure 6: Time lapse of galaxy reveals.

For convenience, Jeff has coded it so that whenever a new galaxy appears, it automatically appears on the map for anyone who’s online at the time.

I also want to tell you about some changes we’ve made to the code that distributes resources across the universe. In the current system, we have a drastic resource imbalance between the lowest and highest danger factors. I’ve worked closely with our code dev Bobbo to design a completely new process for distributing resources. The new process uses principles from probability to apply various distribution rules, ensuring that the correct amount of each resource is apportioned and that the resource value of galaxies in the highest danger factor should only be 2-3x that of galaxies in the lowest danger factor. There is still a fair bit of variance in the process, but the upshot is that it won’t feel as bad if you get stuck with suboptimal territory for a universe. Keep in mind that termites in the lower danger factors have their damage reduced by half, meaning that you might be able to find some real sweet spots to maximize your income per defense budget.

Upcoming Changes to Capital Ship Shield and Energy bank bonuses

Shield and energy bank augmod bonuses on some Capital Ships are being significantly reduced. Here is a sampling of commonly used Capital Ships so you can see the effect this will have on you.

Capital Ship Shield and Energy Bank Adjustments – April 2, 2022

Note: the % difference may be different depending on the amount of shield or energy bank augmods you have from augmenters and Items. The values in the table assume no augmod bonuses.

Due to the significant nature of the changes, we will be giving augmenter resets to every Capital Ship significantly affected by the changes. In order to receive your augmenter reset, all you have to do is open the ship while docked and use the /FreeAugReset command in the chat.

The Changes Explained

One of the main ways we give “flavor” to a ship is to assign some modest negative stats that are then counterbalanced with extra bonuses in other areas. The Kalthi Wrathful Warrior is an example of this.

If I assign a tradeoff of -20% capacity for +50% energy bank to a Light Fighter, Heavy Fighter, and Support Freighter then these ships will end up with -20% capacity, 50% energy bank.

However, if I assign that same trade off to a Capital Ship then the Capital Ship would receive -20% capacity and +200% energy bank.

Note: This also affects the Thrust augmod bonuses on a few Industrial Freighters, since they were given scaling thrust based on their tech level. 

This was not what we had in mind when coming up with the tradeoff, and these tradeoffs can stack in ways that quickly become distorting.

This all happened because of a single Excel formula that has a * instead of a +. Capital Ships that had more bank than others will still have more bank, but it won’t be as drastic. For example, instead of the Vaziayu having 2.1x more Shield augmods than the UrQa’qa Qu’ishi Qa it will have 1.26x more.

While this resulted in very “flavorful” capital ships, the magnification of the stat spread is so high compared to other ships that it makes it very hard for us to balance around. We made this change because the native bank bonuses on Capital Ships were synergizing with the bonuses from the tradeoff which led to extreme stat spreads that were further compounded by gear, skill, and consumable choices.

Timing and Next Steps

We have been discussing the best way of handling this interaction for a very long time (more than a year) before deciding to pull the trigger. We’ve wanted to address this from the moment we realized what was going on, but it didn’t seem appropriate to make changes to them due to a variety of dependencies (For example, Fighters were a significant consumer of energy for both Players and Bots). We wanted to wait until some of those dependencies were addressed before making these changes, and since we’ve already taken significant steps towards addressing them in the previous patch we are taking the opportunity to get this fixed.

Some players will choose to stick with a bank setup on the ships that have a larger shield or energy bank bonus than others. Other players may choose to move to a more regenerative based setup. We are open to both setups, and are not doing this to drive players away from bank setups. We want them to be appropriate based on the content you’re doing, with clear upsides and downsides.

Lyceum Bulletin:

The Blue Pirates have stumbled upon a temporal wormhole and unloaded munitions into it. Lyceum scientists have inspected the wormhole and discovered that it is destabilizing rapidly and will rupture into a temporary unstable universe on April 30th.

This unstable universe will collapse on May 14th giving way to a stable one. Scans indicate that there are many changes to these universes that can be examined in a coming message.

However, preliminary scans indicate that the temporary universe goes through daily changes to its structure that increase varying fields of exploration, combat, and production.

Radiation is flooding into our universe from the rift and will cause alterations to the foundations of our universe as the end of our current universe approaches. Earthforce has stated that the radiation will halt all purchasing and extraction of material on April 23rd, followed by a reduction of all weekly lockouts on April 28th!

After extensive examination of the radiation leaking from the explosion site, top scientists predict the collapse of the universe to be on April 30, 2022. Citizens are asked to ensure all personal assets and fleets are properly stored.

Schedule

• April 23rd: All AI base consumption and player extractors stop functioning
• April 28th: All weekly lockouts now reset with the daily timer
• April 30th: Temporary Universe Reset, Daily Events begin, Weekly Lockouts restarted
• May 14th: Universe Reset, Daily Events end

Event Schedule

• Saturday (30th April and 7th May): 500% Augmenter Drop Rate Increase
• Sunday (1st and 8th May): 500% increase to Bindomite Drop Rate
• Monday (2nd and 9th May): 300% Increase to Mod Chances on Dropped Gear
• Tuesday (3rd and 10th May): 500% Increase to Prospecting Extraction
• Wednesday (4th and 11th May): 2000% increase to comet drops
• Thursday (5th and 12th May): 1600% Increase to prospecting node respawns
• Friday (6th and 13th May): 500% Increase to XP

Along with a daily event, there will be two week long events occurring throughout the temporary universe as well.

• April 30th – May 7th: AI will drop Halloween drops
• May 7th – May 14th: AI will drop Christmas drops

The AI that spawn normally during these events will not spawn. Normal AI will drop the event items.

Dev Notes

• Bases, 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. For the first 72 hours of the new universe, you can use the /limbo chat command only once to bring all of your docked ships back into limbo to dock them elsewhere.
  • For those familiar with the limbo command, going forward the timer has been extended from 24 hours to 72.

Second Ship Skin Contest

The contest will be held on our Discord in the #skin_competition channel, and will be available for anyone who wants to participate. The contest will be held in 3 rounds and will end with 2 winners. The winners of the contest will be given a free copy of the ship skin after it is implemented into the game.

You do not need to make the skin for the competition, only have an idea you think you’d enjoy!

If you have a fully developed skin that you are interested in getting into the game, feel free to message Kilando#9002 on Discord to submit it! You don’t have to go through the skin contest for a chance.

The first round of the contest will be open submissions for skin ideas from the following list of ships. Each player may have two submissions.

Rules for Submission

• Each player may have two submissions
• Submissions must follow all in-game rules
• Skins can’t change models

This Skin contest will feature the following ships:

• Empyreal Equinox
• Empyreal Perihelion
• Empyreal Aphelion
• Empyreal Estelle
• Empyreal Aelia
• Empyreal Saros
• Empyreal Ascension
• Empyreal Apex
• Empyreal Zenith
• Empyreal Eclipse
• Empyreal Noctis
• Empyreal Analemma
• Divine Behemoth

The second round of the contest will be an open vote on all of the eligible submitted ideas. Voting will happen on Discord and be handled with reactions on the submissions!

The third and final round will take the top 5 ideas from the previous round and run another open vote to decide the final 2 winners!

Schedule of the Contest

Start of the Contest: March 21st at 7pm PDT
End of Round 1: March 28th
End of Round 2: April 4th
End of Round 3: April 11th

Rewards will be distributed by May 31st.

[FIGHTER AND DEATHBLOSSOM CHANGES]

• Item form Fighters now provide information about their weapons, shield, speed and resistances.
• Bots can no longer use Fighters or Deathblossom.
• Deathblossom will no longer target fighters.
• Fighters no longer have evasion to direct shots but have 90% evasion to non-targeted damage (splash, collision code, warhead effects from missiles, ect.)
• Removed fighter auras from Death of the First Born and Panther Kitten.
• Removed the debuff effect from Death of the First Born.
• Chihuahua Fighters no longer give a mining damage debuff.
• Fighter Bay slots: Capital Ships have 2 slots, Freighters have 1 slot.
• Capital Ship fighter bays now have 2x the aug stat budget of Support Freighters.
• Adjusted the Quality, Damage, Ship Diameter, and Launch Energy of all fighters. All fighters now take 1 slot to launch.
• Inbuilt Fighter Bays on Capital Ships and Support Freighters are now ship bound instead of sticky.
• Projectiles that are fired by fighters will not inherit velocity.

[Skill Changes]

• Changed Advanced Flight Controller to grant +15% damage to fighters instead of granting 2 fighter slots.
• Increased bonuses granted by Flight Controller from 15% to 20% for listed stats.
• Updated Bot Mastery and Radiation Expert skill descriptions to reflect the previously unlisted damage bonus.
• Radiation Expert provides 15% Radiation Damage and 25% Damage per level instead of 50% Radiation Damage. No longer passes to fighters.
• Zen of Support Freighter, Zen of Light Fighter, Zen of Heavy Fighter, Equipment, and Flying Monkey now pass on to bots.
• Bot Mastery no longer gives capacity bonus for bots.
• Bots now get 100% of capacity bonuses all skills (except for augmenter tweaking) but will not fire when overhulled.
• Zen of Engineer now states that it gives 1% of Resistance to Damage per level to Temp Drones. These bonuses were added in a previous patch, but were not listed on the skill.
• Shield Monkey level 1 now grants +30% Shield Bank on Support Freighters.

[UI/Client Changes]

• Added glowmaps for the Steam Gold Zebucart.
• Added Normal maps for a bunch of low level ships.
• Added red lightning to center hole of Dogeage model.
• Extended Battle Sphere skins to Zaphragi Ark.
• Added tech, description, weight and size to base construction preview window.
• Inventories can now be sorted to only show cargo items via button at the top of the window.
• “copy ap link” now copies “/ap” as well, making the copied result a directly usable command.
• Possessions menu now lists bots as either “Combat Bot” or “Trading Bot”.

[Item Changes]

• All weapons, except for Torpedoes, have had their recoil clamped. The highest recoil sits at around 5 seconds for beam weapons.
• Transferences weapons now have double the HPE. But Stealing also takes 100% more electricity then before.
• Surgical weapons have had their DPS increased but their DPE reduced slightly.
• Tripled the time it takes for Fires/Parasites to ramp up to max damage.
• Removed the Neurobound Tag from the class locked super items sold in lyceum.
• Spiced up the descriptions of various Kalthi gear.
• Increased the mobility factor of Empyreal Piercer Drone from 1.0 to 1.75.
• Hephaestus Research Module Blueprint has had its Copper requirement reduced from 2000 to 1000.
• Hermes Research Module Blueprint has had its Mercury requirement reduced from 1000 to 300.
• Semi-Blackhole Pulse Generator no longer is affected by Zen of Devices and charge time increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Aphelion’s Overwhelming Darkness super item has had its Beam resistance granted to allies and self reduced from 50% to 25% and for enemies reduced from -33% to -15%.
• Added tags to Demented Delquad, Spice Pirates and Nightfury loot.
• Fix the description on the `Coordinator Gemini Support Platform` super item inbuilt to Kalthi Armored Deployer to correctly reflect the tweak effects granted.
• Empyreal Experimental Drone Controller no longer is Neurobound.
• Updated wording on Field Generators to clarify if it works when “equipped” on bots.
• No longer shows “works when equipped on bot” messages on base Field Generators.
• Demented Modules are now set to the Rare Quality.
• Imperial Seals, Unclean Seals, Tarnished Imperial Chests and their variants are now labeled as Exalted.
• Added Scyonara Pod to Kalthi Depths Exotic drop pool.
• Zeus Engine now has proper particle effects.

[AI Changes]

• Made Empyreal Fleet Leaders have constant names to prevent instance board havoc.
• Added a large number of new generic AI names.
• AI should no longer wander out to inspect comets.
• Normalized the drop rate of the Olympus boss fragments to 2 100% drops each instead of having random rates.
• Powerful Alien Deathblossom (On Antu minibosses, and Space Anomalies from RNF/BNF) now has 9 targets instead of 20.
• Increased Kalthi Armored Commander and Kalthi Wrathful Commander roaming AI bosses’ shields to 60 mil and 50 mil, respectively.
• Increased Kalthi Armada Commander shields to 20 mil.
• Increased the protection of the Envelopement used by the Kalthi Commander bosses during phase transitions to 1.5mil.
• Added an upgrade to the Kalthi Planetary Demolisher sourced from Kalthi Armored and Wrathful Commanders.
• Changed aura effects of Kalthi Armored Commander and Kalthi Wrathful Commander AI bosses’ invincibility auras not allowing the player to run away and leave a galaxy effectively (now buffs the radar on spawn so they can chase you down anywhere).
• Increase shield drain of Kalthi Armored Commander’s radiation field.
• Buff Kalthi Commander fighter super to allow its use more frequently like regular fighters.
• Nerfed Kalthi AI only drones’ damage and range significantly.

[Next Universe Changes]

• Reduce the quantity of Kalthi to make them more manageable to fight in the field.
• Fixed issue with Imperiled Shield Revitalizer being unlocked with the wrong mission.
• Electrified Georg Ohm no longer gives a global shout on spawn.
• Entering Protoplasmica will now pop-up the mission chain.
• Fixed issue with Merchant Navy in Kalthi Depths not attacking or fighting back sometimes.
• Imperial Polishing Machine will be available for purchase at Earth Central in Sol.
• Adjusted Dark Sun in Blue Outpost to allow easier detection of Space Blue Alpha AI close to sun.

[Mission  Changes]

• Added a second start point for the “Finding Mommy” intro mission for the Protoplasmica mission chain to the base in Biopsy.
• Converted Strontium missions from 21 days from completed date to the standard Monthly reset cycle. Will now appear in lockout tab.
• Fixed a spelling error in the mission “A Strange Sun?”.

[System]

• Cargo items are now capped at a weight of 1 mil.
• Ships no longer weigh x10 when in item form.
• Abandoning Temporary Drones now put them in a destroyed state.
• Can tractor your own and team assets in Wild Space now.
• RTS Command for your bot to follow you was updated to state “them” instead of “him”.
• Damage on tweaks/auras affect Transference Weapons again.
• Added new line to All Chat login message stating the Star Sonata Discord invite link.
• Possessions tab now lists bots as “Combat Bot” or “Trading Bot”.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed bug with unable to tractor your own bases/perma drones if the player or the base is unteamed.
• Fixed a bug where anything unteamed would always be considered visible to anything else unteamed.
• Celestial Destabilizing Beam and Celestial Protection Beam now work on ships and drones, instead of just drones.
• Squad menu will now update properly when you switch to an unsquadded character
• Fixed issues with Bila and Akhara instances.
• Fixed issue with the Kalos Anthos instance.(will be unlocked within 48 hours of patch.)

Welcome to another Star Sonata Dev Diary!

Today we’re going to talk about the Merchant Navy! Most players are going to associate this group to either the Merchant Navy Contriver or Merchant Navy Seal Commander. We hope to expand this association to be a presence within Terran space and a notable player contact for various missions and storylines.

The Merchant Navy, the future administrators of Strontium-90, pay most of their bills by hunting pirates and defending trade routes in the Terran heart worlds. Visually identified by their Paxian-like but not quite boomerang ships, the Merchant Navy maintains peace while Earthforce itself deals with more universal threats. This means that the Merchant Navy will take over from Earthforce as the primary player contact for missions in the lower levels while Earthforce interactions pick up later in progression. Orca and Porpoise will now be retextured to be Merchant Navy variants and will visually move away from the Paxian look but we will keep original look as a free skin for those that prefer that style.

Outside of Strontium-90, this will be slow transition as we move through the early game and readjust our protagonist allies in various missions, zones and content. Earthforce will still have player interactions but Merchant Navy will provide another key mission vendor.