Any captain traveling through space encounters plenty of small milestones: an asteroid, a distant comet or the sight of a familiar star. But there are also bigger milestones, like passing through the dense, perilous Asteroid Belt and finally emerging from the other side to reveal the vast depths of the outer Solar System.

Our 1.6.0 PC game update is about ramping up for this type of major milestone. It’s about taking the first steps toward breaking through. Specifically, that means a brand-new battlefield, new perspectives on existing battlefields and the beginnings of a major UI overhaul—and that’s just getting started.









WHAT'S NEW

NEW MAP: IXION

Welcome to Ixion: a battlefield between land and space. This sky-piercing map towers 60,000 kilometers above the equator of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Ixion’s massive structure takes its name from the Greek god who, after angering other gods and getting cast out of Olympus, was punished by being tied to a fiery, ever-spinning wheel.

In addition to its unique location, Ixion is also the biggest map in the game so far. Massive space elevators, called Beanstalks, transport goods between its central orbital ring and the surface. There are a few places to hide within and around Ixion’s main ring, but this map is mostly about keeping a strong position within its towering vertical space. Are you ready for battle around this outpost in the sky?

Dev Note: Ixion offers a different type of space battleground. While Rings of Saturn is a wide-open area with a lot of room to move around, Ixion confines ships to a central vertical space. Its towering infrastructure creates more barriers and causes ships to move in slightly more predictable routes, which opens up a lot of strategic options.

MAP VARIATIONS

Update 1.6.0 includes new variations of two maps: Rings of Saturn and Red Sands. Check them out in-game to get a first-hand look at their darker, more shadowy atmospheres!



Rings of Saturn cloaked in a mix of copper-tinted light and shadows.



Captains venture into battlefields like Red Sands in broad daylight—and under the cover of darkness.

Dev Note: The idea behind our map variations is simple: to create new and interesting takes on existing maps, without impacting performance. To overcome technical limitations, we created a system that’s embedded into our maps that allows us to achieve this more easily and efficiently.

These map variations are designed to be purely cosmetic and allow players to experience the same maps from a new perspective—or maybe as a different place altogether. However, these visual changes may influence gameplay in some ways, such as making a map darker and a better place for ships to hide.

Some of the things that we can change for our map variations include the intensity and color of directional light (i.e. tinting warm sunlight to a colder, bluish moon light) as well as the intensity and color of the skylight and fog. In addition, we can switch out certain background elements that are not part of the playable area, like the sun, moons and planets—and alter them so that they fit the new lighting scheme.

CHANGES

UNLOCKED SHIP CUSTOMIZATION

We’ve received a lot of community feedback about the desire for more flexibility when customizing ships. To address this, we’ve unlocked the hull vanity slots of all ships. This allows you to attach parts from a Hero Ship that you own to any standard ship of the same subclass that you’ve unlocked with Credits. For example, you can take the hull, forecastle, bridge and stern pieces from the Kali and add them to any other heavy Tactical Cruiser in your hangar.

UI TOP BAR UPDATE

In our Community Hot Topics #2 forum post, we gave you a preview of our plan for changing the top bar of the UI—and we’re proud to say that this update is the first step in rolling it out. Stay tuned for more updates in future patches!

Dev Note: We wanted to clearly differentiate the parts of the game, while also placing the right amount of emphasis on each one. Since most languages read from left to right, we tend to give the most attention to things on the left, which is why you can find the most commonly used buttons in the top-left. In the top-right, you can find the different currencies. The center of the bar shows your player profile and is where you focus your attention when you want to start a match. The buttons that were previously on the right-hand side of the hangar have been moved to the center where they are more visible. Overall, the new UI top bar design is a solid visual improvement and makes essential game elements easier to find.

NUMERICAL SHIP STATS

Many of you wanted to be able to see the health values for each ship. Well, we heard you loud and clear! We changed each ship’s tooltip information to display additional stats, including health and weapon damage.

Dev Note: You’ll notice that many ships display slightly different information. This was a conscious choice. For example, it makes more sense to show the “optimum weapon range” for a Corvette instead of its maximum range (its weapon effectiveness drops off very quickly with distance). Similarly, a Corvette’s tooltip shows the ship’s “max DPS” instead of “average DPS,” which is highlighted in the stats for a Destroyer.









We’re still actively monitoring the balance changes that we introduced in Hotfix 1.5.0b. This will lead to future changes that are based on your feedback and the data we’re collecting from the live performance of the ships and modules. In addition, we made some new small changes to Tactical Cruiser modules for 1.6.0:

Tactical Cruiser

Artillery Pods

Placing a second turret will no longer despawn the first one

Artillery Pod IV

Increased damage from 2000 to 3000 per shot



Increased range from 4 km to 7 km



Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 30 seconds

Artillery Pod V

Increased damage from 2000 to 3000 per shot



Increased range from 4 km to 7 km

Repair Pods

All repair pod healing intervals increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds



All repair pod radii set to 800 m

Repair Pod 0

Healing per interval increased from 200 to 400

Repair Pod I

Healing per interval increased from 240 to 480

Repair Pod II

Healing per interval increased from 260 to 520

Repair Pod III

Healing per interval increased from 320 to 640

Repair Pod IV

Healing per interval increased from 400 to 800

Repair Pod V

Healing per interval increased from 480 to 960

Dev Note: Our overall goal is to provide more meaningful choices in each ship’s Tech Tree. Currently, we feel that the pods do not provide enough combat value as compared to other choices for the same module slots. Our aim is to make sure that pods allow players to spread their “area of influence” and control a bit more of the battlefield. We also want to look at other modules and module types through the same lens. Ideally, we want all the choices that we offer in the Tech Trees to be valuable tactical choices for a variety of loadouts.

MATCHMAKING ALGORITHM



We have adjusted the matchmaking algorithm to more heavily weight a player’s Fleet Rating and MMR when creating matches and finding opponents. A player’s Fleet Rating is determined by the tier level and abilities of the ships within their fleet. This change is intended to create more evenly matched teams as well as a better overall matchmaking experience.







NEW HERO SHIP: THE AKKORO

A new Hero Ship has arrived! Unlike many of the battleships famous among mercenaries, this sleek, radically advanced vessel was built entirely by the Transhumans.



Salvaged in 2358 near Callisto, this Transhuman-made Tactical Cruiser was initially unusable in battle. PCF engineers had to crack the code of its advanced tech just to make it fly again.



Upon its discovery by the PCF in 2358 CE, this Transhuman-made ship was a complete mystery. The task of understanding it fell into the hands of Tomasz Ryuu, the PCF’s chief engineer at Setekh, Callisto’s main outpost. However, days after its unearthing, the Transhumans attacked the base at Setekh. As the last line of defense was about to fail, Ryuu was finally able to activate the ship and charge into battle. Although Setekh eventually fell, the support prowess of the Akkoro allowed many inhabitants of the outpost to escape to Ganymede.





Once the smoke cleared, the PCF attempted to confiscate the Akkoro, claiming that it was a Transhuman “Trojan horse” that had led to invasion. Preferring exile over losing his ship, Ryuu went AWOL and sought refuge at Sinley Bay.

SHIP VANITY ITEMS

Do you thrive under pressure? Check out these new renegade-inspired items—and the stories behind them. To view them in-game, go to your hangar, click on one of your ships and select “appearance.”

TYR COATING

Tyr is a god from the Norse mythology who’s commonly associated with justice and glory. Tyr is best-known for sacrificing his right hand when he deceived and bound Fenrir, a monstrous wolf too dangerous and powerful to roam the world.

Captains display imagery of Fenrir carrying the hand of Tyr on their ships as a symbol of courage and loyalty to their ship and crew—and their willingness to forego their own safety in pursuit of a lawless lifestyle.

TYR EMBLEM

DEAD MAN’S HAND DECAL COLLECTION

No mercenary wears the Dead Man’s Hand decal better than Captain Louie Enbarr. A renegade ex-officer of the Enyoan Navy, Enbarr is notorious for taking wagers on the craziest of odds—and winning (most of the time). This thrill-seeker has been known to bet his entire fleet and lose it several times. He nearly bet his crew once, but his wager wasn't accepted. When he does lose a game of cards, flip-coin or 4D chess, his charm and charisma always allow him to talk his opponent into a best out of two. When you see a ship stamped with the Dead Man’s Hand, think of this lucky, fearless rebel.

ITEMS LEAVING THE MARKET

The limited-time items from the Breaking Free update are no longer available. These limited-time items were the Portal Blue coating, Portal Green coating, Silver Ram emblem as well as the black and white Ram decals. With this update, the Mad King coating is also no longer available.









GENERAL

Onslaught Mode has been re-enabled!

Fixed an issue that would cause the client to not remember a resolution setting higher than 1920x1080.



Fixed some spelling issues in the developer credits.

Fixed an issue that would cause a player’s keybindings not to save.



Fixed an issue that would allow a female head be put on a male body and vice versa.



GAMEPLAY

Fixed an issue that would allow a player to circumvent the fleet separation between Recruit - Legendary by using squads. Squads will only be able to queue for a game with fleets that are unlocked for all members.



Fixed an issue that could cause enemy ships to be invisible.



Fixed missing secondary weapons in Tech Tree for Dover and Furia.



Fixed an Onslaught issue that would allow players to join a game in progress where more than 3500 points have already been obtained by one team.



Fixed an issue that would cause the AI to map a course through map geometry.



Fixed an issue with the Auto Repair module that would grant short term invulnerability.



Fixed an issue that would cause the Fighter/Interceptor module on Dreadnoughts to not deal any damage.

Fixed an issue that would cause the energy to regenerate while Energy to Weapons was active.

Fixed an issue with Purge Beam that would cause the hit ship’s health to regenerate when it had the Feedback Loop officer briefing active.



Fixed an issue that would cause the Machine Gun turret secondary weapon on the Tier II PCF Silesia not to do any damage.



Fixed an issue that would prevent a player from joining a Team Elimination match in progress.



Fixed an incorrectly sized blocking volume on Ryugu Haven around the central column.



Fixed an issue that could cause problems when amplifying weapons of Artillery Cruisers.

PROGRESSION

Fixed an issue that would prevent the Reboot Module on the Dola from being purchased.



Fixed an issue that would prevent players from re-rolling received contracts.



Fixed an issue with the XP cost of the Blud’s Purge Ram IV being too low.



Fixed an issue that would prevent the Repeater Guns on the Simargl from being purchased.

STABILITY

Fixed multiple causes for game freezes and crashes



Tentatively fixed an issue that would cause a player to be kicked back to the hangar after finding a match and transitioning to the loading screen. - If you are still experiencing this issue, please message our customer support and submit your logs, if necessary.



Fixed an issue that would cause a player to get stuck in the loading screen when entering a match on Red Sands.



Fixed a crash issue that occurred when a player loaded into Red Sands.



Fixed an issue with the Heavy Torpedo V that would cause other modules and weapons to become unresponsive.



Fixed a very rare issue that would cause the game to crash when the winning team in Team Elimination is leaving the game as the last ship explodes.



Fixed a rare issue that would cause the game to crash when alt-tabbing out of it.



Fixed an issue with ships in orbit that would display the ship’s frame before it actually spawns in.



Fixed an issue with Onslaught Mode that would cause ship during respawn to become unresponsive/invisible, or unable to spawn completely with resetting timer.



Improved performance of spawning projectiles.



UI

Fixed an issue that caused an icon to not appear for the Surge Drone Bay module.



Fixed some cases of misaligned information on the in-game scoreboard.



Fixed an issue in Team Elimination that could prevent the energy wheel from indicating which option was active.



Fixed an issue that would cause the minimap to freeze temporarily.



Fixed an issue with the End of Match screen that would only display 4 ships and not show the one with the highest XP earning.



Fixed an issue that would prevent the XP on a fully researched ship to update when it was converted into free XP.



Fixed an issue that would cause allied ships to not be displayed on mini-map.



Fixed an issue that when customizing the Nevis would make its standard coating (Aquatech Corporation) inaccessible.



Fixed an issue that would cause a new friend not to show up in the friends list until the player logged off and on again.



Fixed an issue that would make it impossible to check ship loadouts in orbit after Warp Into Battle countdown.



Fixed an issue that would cause the energy wheel getting stuck on screen during the tutorial.



Fixed an issue that would cause a floating X to appear when changing ships in orbit.



Fixed an issue that would cause some hangar menus to be displayed over the ESC menu.



Fixed issue with cut off text for the Zaratan forecastle in hangar.



SHOP

Fixed an issue that would cause “Your item has arrived” instead of “Credits received” after purchasing Credits.



Fixed an issue that would prevent players from converting a custom amount of GP into Credits.



Fixed an issue that would cause items that were refunded by customer support to not be removed from the account.



Fixed an issue on new accounts that would allow to purchase customization parts for Hero Ships.



Tentatively fixed an issue with the Vanguard Bundle that would upon purchase grant the player certain officer briefings. - Please let us know if you are still experiencing this issue.



Fixed an issue that would cause an error message when trying to buy the Zaratan Hero Ship.



Fixed the description of the Jupiter Arms Atlantian Coating that would display Jupiter Arms Terran Coating.



Fixed an issue with the Svarog that would cause multiple of each Hellborne pieces to be available.



Fixed an issue that would display a blank page when trying to purchase a GP pack.



Fixed an issue that would allow for the Oberon Coating to be purchased for the Nox although this is the Nox’ standard coating.



VFX

Fixed an issue with missing VFX for Purge Ram on medium and low settings.

AUDIO/SFX

Fixed an issue with the voice over cue “reloading” looping when being targeted by a Purge Beam.

Fixed an issue that would cause weapon SFX to be continuously playing in hangar after returning from a match.

Let us know what you think of the new patch on our forums!