The second quarter of 2019 has seen a host of enhancements for our game features. Feedback and messaging have been optimized with the new pop-up feature. We continued to bring more elements into full-screen mode, and introduced the Archive 2.0. Side Jobs, Career Tasks, and Discreet work have been polished, adding new UI, branching choices, and NPC pictures. There are also new university courses, 2 new missions, vendor logos, new item artwork, technical improvements and the new “/me” command for chat, as well as a number of important changes for Syndicates. Read on for all the details about what is new in Q2/2019!

The recent updates contained a lot of improvements that we are summarizing for you below! Please check the corresponding changelogs for a full list of details which also contain all textual improvements. You will find all the links at the end of this article.

Archive 2.0

As a first big step of the review and polishing work, the Archive in your CORETECHS has been reworked.

Content – Content improvements and additions (text and pictures)

Layout – Brand new layout of the Archive (full page design)

Structure – Updated, more comfortable structure

Side Jobs Revamp

The blog “Side Job Revamp” previewed the many feature changes which are now in place. Below are some major changes. For the detailed list, please check the changelogs (listed at the bottom).

Avatars (NPCs) – On Tau Station, all employer NPCs have a unique look.

Narrative Review & Occasional Choices – The narrative team has already rewritten most of all Side Jobs, improved the texts, but also reviewed the difficulty. Sometimes you will experience narrative choices, similar to what you know from missions.

New Side Job – ‘Encyclopedia Editor’ has been added on Tau Station as a special Community Spotlight reward for the Wiki team.

UI Updates – Side Job Tasks have a new and more convenient layout. It is closer to what you know from missions, including environment art. The layout for scenarios when talking to NPCs has been improved as well, and the final reward gets displayed in more prominent way.

Career Changes

Credits (success) – You earn more credits than before.

Living World (tasks) – The list of available tasks now reflects the current situation at your local station, following the dynamics of a living world (see blog post), including changes in payment. You now see all tasks you can currently perform. In case you run out of focus, the page informs you accordingly.

Messages (clean-up) – Messages have been streamlined.

Pages (structure) – Career tasks and career ranks for current career have been split into separate pages for a better overview with links from the Employment Center.

Payment (illegal) – As requested from the Community, illegal actions now pay into the wallet instead of your bank account.

Tasks (amount) – There are up to 7 tasks presented in each area with improved balancing regarding your chance to succeed. Several new tasks have been added as well.

Tasks (difficulty) – The tasks page now groups by current difficulty.

Discreet Work

Active Work (NPC) – Having an active task is better reflected by the discreet work page now: there is no longer any speech bubble shown.

Local Task (location) – The location information is shown when it’s relevant.

Messages (various) – Feedback texts have been checked and optimized.

No Work (NPC) – The ‘aborted’ cooldown is now shown in the speech bubble.

2 New Missions in system L 726-8

‘Family Matters’ (level 13) at the Jump Gate.

‘The Curious Incident’ (level 13) at the Market on Orwell Stronghold.

Syndicates

Campaigns (blueprints, VIP) – Drop chances have been increased. Furthermore, the system now ensures your team will be rewarded should you complete a number of campaigns which result in zero drops.

Campaigns (bonds) – Due to some technical issues, campaigns no longer drop bond certificates. All bond items have been converted (ensuring that nobody loses anything). We will revisit this point in the future.

Campaigns (epic items) – Epic items can now drop in all difficulty levels, including easy ones with (much) smaller chances, though still only when a campaign includes the max tier of syndicate members.

Campaigns (extreme difficulty) – Rewards for finishing extreme campaigns are now significantly better than those for hard campaigns.

Responsiveness (faster) – Syndicate actions should be faster now.

New Artwork

Feedback Improvements & Messaging Rework

New Feedback Pop-Ups – More than 30 (important) actions and events now result in a prominent pop-up message. They can be dismissed by using the close button in the popup, the escape key, or by clicking on the background.

New Status Icons – The information panel has been expanded with icons that indicate your VIP status, being well-fed, having a valid VISA, or active Bodyguard protection.

Bank (withdrawals) – Withdrawal fees are displayed at the bank and differ for non-Consortium affiliations. The messages are shorter now.

Gym (bonus) – We tweaked the feedback messages when you hired a personal trainer to better explain the bonuses you receive.

Gym (requirements) – The texts about potential training injury risks have been improved to better address stats which are close to the minimum requirements of the local station.

Market (selling price) – The final price and all price modifiers are now shown before you sell items to Vendors, similar to what you already know when buying from NPCs.

Career Salary (silenced) – Event notifications and text messages about career salary have been silenced as it has become part of the credit (and bond) logs.

Messages have generally become more compact and more precise, e.g. the destination name is shown via the shuttle ticket countdown timer. Additionally, obvious or redundant information has been dropped.

Chat

AV Software – Some technical changes now avoid false-alarm issues with certain anti-virus software that previously blocking chat.

Command (/me) – The new command “/me” has been added to the chat.

Connection – It stays alive much longer in case you are inactive for an extended period.

Performance – The technical changes lead to a better performance, as browsers can process requests faster now.

New Features

University Courses – A “Manufacturing” degree program has been added.

Local Shuttles (tickets) – You can now purchase a ticket when you’ve already purchased a ticket. The previous ticket can be discarded in a feedback message with a dialogue that will pop up.

Public Travel (tickets) – If you purchase an Express Shuttle ticket after you bought a Local Shuttle ticket, you will keep your Local Shuttle ticket. You can still get on the appropriate vessel if you make it back in time for lift-off.

Further Improvements & Changes

Character Page (ordering) – The ordering of skills and ships in your character details page has been optimized.

Cinema (UI) – The cinema moved to the CORETECHS (full screen mode) and a new design has been applied.

Citizen Council (various) -The CORETECHS page shows the Council board with a new layout and options for getting in touch. There is a new dedicated forum.

Clone Respawn (layout) – The layout of respawning has been improved to use all space, also adding a new image.

Forum (latest post) – The forum post page now shows GCT of recent activity (reply).

Forum (replies) – Quotation marks in the subject are not an issue for your answer’s title anymore.

Help Page (discord) – The Community Discord channel is now part of “list of useful fan sites“.

Logs (various) – The bond log properly refers to “tier-up” bonds, the credit logs list credits lost by dying, and level-up credits are now listed.

Private Ships (deportation) – If your Visa expires while you’re on ship and have no fuel, you now get deported as intended which resolves the risk of getting stuck.

Stats (rounding) – The stat percentage values in the sidebar are now always rounded down instead of to the nearest percent. This resolves some threshold irritations, ensuring that you have at least the stat value which is displayed.

Stim Packs (toxicity) – The toxicity value of stims now always displays in percentages as in your information panel.

Some Update Impressions

Changelogs

You can find a short, precise summary of every single update in the corresponding changelog. Here are all of the single update details for Q2/2019:

About status reports

The status reports contain major aspects of the recent work done on Tau Station. We also provide changelogs for every game update where you can find a more comprehensive list of details, including all smaller changes. Links to all updates/changelogs that were implemented during the quarter of this status report are listed above.