This week’s update covers a few fixes to the towing system, some bug fixing and a lot of changes for the coming class rebalance.
First, the towing system. Recently we enabled a ‘tow-on-death’ feature so players can get out of sticky situations. When we did this we also updated Janitor’s Outpost in the Nexus to be a towing base so new players can utilize this feature (without getting sent to Sol which could be very confusing). However, this had a few unforeseen side effects. First, dying in certain places outside the Nexus would lead to a towing offer into the Nexus! This is due to how the server calculates the closest towing base. I’ve updated this bit of code so that Janitor’s Outpost will only be offered as a towing location if you are within the Nexus.
Secondly, towing bases. When we made Janitor’s Outpost a towing base it also removed the skills tab from the station dialog. I’ve updated the client to address this issue. As part of this, I added a new flag for AI bases to let the client know if they offer skill training. If they do, the skills tab will be shown, if they don’t, it won’t. Unfortunately neither of these were ready in time for the patch.
And patch we did. I spent a fair amount of time this weekend doing some post-patch support and bug fixing. We had two major issues that needed fixed, first, a line of code meant for the rebalance was in the wrong place: this lead to fighters being double-subtracted from your current count and allowed infinite launch. Secondly, with Fleet Commander Transwarps fixed, we inadvertently looked over the fact premium players could use them to bring non-premium players along for the ride to places they shouldn’t be. Both these issues were fixed immediately and they are already patched in. There are still a few more minor issues that are being fixed (including drones not equipping), expect another hotfix for them very soon.
This past week I also did a lot of work on the Class Rebalance; which is coming along nicely. We’ve done another round of analysis and I had a lot of skill stat changes to do. This latest round of changes is up on test and was meant to bring the damage and damage-per-energy bonuses of all class a bit more in line. It also contains a very big change to the Gunner subskill, Destruction.
Currently Destruction adds a +0.5% (+1% if Multifiring) per level vulnerability debuff to the target on weapon impact. This debuff is the same damage type as the weapon used to apply it. Going forward, this has been significantly changed. Instead of using normal weapons to apply the debuff, the debuff is applied via missile strikes. With this, the debuff has been increased to +2% per level (for a max for 40%) and now affects all damage types, not just the one used to apply it. I’ve also update the warhead splash effect to apply the debuff to all incidental targets hit as well. This will pair very well with the Gunner Deathblossom item and allow them to launch something like a Bunkerbuster to debuff a group of spawn and AoE them down very quickly.
That’s this week’s update! As always, feel free to sound off in the forum post with comments, questions and suggestions. Also, before I forget, I have been fixing permanent Warp Beacons. So if you or your team has one that’s still non-functional, let me know the owners name and I’ll reset it.
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