Entropy Release Notes - 12 Mar 2014

[76561198117629946]

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ability System revision - Abilities now treated as 'software' for ships, new System Map versions of several Abilities
  
• Emplacement testing - help us test and balance Station defences for the Faction Conflict system, coming in our next Update
  
• Market updates and fixes - Tax changes and Order matching
  
• HUD improvements - improved visibility of shields, energy visible on System Map
  
• Ship models resized - the relative sizes of different ships now better match their mass

GENERAL

• The Station Sector in Arenev has been renamed 'Arenev Station', to be consistent with other Station Sectors
  
• The supply of Salvage Beams at Corporate HQ Stations has been increased
  
• The colours of Ice and Crystalloid asteroids have been changed - the 'spiky' Crystalloid asteroids are now purple, and the 'lumpy' Ice asteroids are now blue-white
  
• The amount of energy transferred with each 'Shield Transfer' action has been increased
  
• For clarity and simplicity, weapons are now classified as Weapon Modules (rather than Active Offence Modules) and have their own Weapon Slots
  
• Optimisations have been performed that should improve the performance of railguns
  
• Optimisations have been performed that should further reduce loading times (the days of the loading screens are definitely numbered)

ABILITY SYSTEM

• The Ability System has undergone a major revision, and Abilities are now treated as 'software' for a ship's Command subsystem
  
• This revision affects several aspects of the game:

SHIPS

• Active Module slots have been removed from all ships
  
• Ships now have an Ability Slots stat that defines how many Ability Slots are available for use on the ship's Ability Bar (in general, Explorers have the most Ability Slots and Patrols have the least)
  
• Ships now have two Ability Bars - one for Sectors and one for the System Map

ABILITY WINDOW

• Abilities are now managed via the new Ability Window
  
• The Ability Window is available when in a Sector or on the System Map, and while docked at Stations
  
• The Ability Window lists all Abilities that are available to the current ship and displays the ship's Ability Bars - pressing the Sector button displays the ship's Sector Ability Bar and all available Sector Abilities, while pressing the System button displays the ship's System Ability Bar and all available System Abilities
  
• Click on an Ability to read its description and see details about its effects
  
• The list of Abilities is split into two sections - the Pilot section lists Abilities that your character has 'learned' and are available to any ship the character uses, while the Ship section lists any Abilities available to the ship via installed Modules or Consumables in the cargo hold
  
• In order to use an Ability, it must be 'loaded' into an Ability Slot - this is achieved by dragging the Ability from the list to a slot on the Ability Bar in the Ability Window
  
• Abilities take several seconds to load, and cannot be used until this process is complete
  
• A loaded Ability that is not in use or on Cooldown can be removed from a slot by right-clicking it and selecting 'Clear Ability', or by dragging another Ability into the slot, which will automatically clear the existing Ability and start to load the new one (note that it is not possible to clear or replace an Ability that is in use or on Cooldown after being used)
  
• A loading Ability can be removed from a slot by right-clicking it and selecting 'Cancel Loading', or by dragging another Ability into the slot, which will automatically cancel the loading of the Ability and start to load the new one
  
• Only one Ability can load at a time, but multiple abilities can be 'queued' by dragging them to different slots, and they will automatically load one after another
  
• A given Ability can only be loaded into one slot on the same Ability Bar at the same time
  
• Loaded Abilities can be activated from the Ability Bar on the Sector and System HUDs by left-clicking them or using the appropriate binding (defaults [1]...[8], as before

MODULES

• All Active Modules have been removed from the game, and should no longer be supplied by any Stations
  
• When this Update was applied, all characters who owned at least one copy of an Active Module should have the appropriate Abilities added to their Ability Window, as if they had used an Ability CHIP to learn them (see below)
  
• All Decoy Deployer, Mine Deployer and Support Drone Launcher Modules have been removed from the game, and should no longer be supplied by any Stations
  
• All Munitions for Decoy Deployer, Mine Deployer and Support Drone Launcher Modules have been removed from the game, and should no longer be supplied by any Stations
  
• When this Update was applied, all copies of these Munitions owned by player characters should have been replaced with the appropriate new Consumable items (see below)
  
• A new Command Module has been added, the Processor Core - installing a Processor Core Module will increase a ship's Ability Slots stat by +1

ABILITY CHIPS

• The Abilities that were previously granted by installing Active Modules on a ship can now be purchased in the form of Ability CHIPs
  
• An Ability CHIP contains all the software required to perform one or more Abilities
  
• Using an Ability CHIP (by right-clicking it and selecting Use) will transfer the Abilities it contains to your character's personal memory core, permanently 'learning' the Abilities, which can then be loaded into any ship the character owns via the Ability Window
  
• A character cannot use an Ability CHIP if they already 'know' all the Abilities it contains
  
• Corporate HQ and Shipyard Stations supply Ability CHIPs, which can be found in the new Programs/Data category in the Market window
  
• The Cargo Scan Abilities are of dubious legality, and CHIP: Cargo Scan is only supplied by the Independent Stations

ABILITIES

• The following Abilities now have System Map versions: Cargo Scan, Gyro Field, Plasma Ignition, Sensor Jammer, Target Designator and System Reboot (additional System Abilities will be introduced in future Updates)
  
• The CHIPs for these abilities contain both the Sector and System version of the Abilities
  
• The Cooldowns and Energy Costs of many Abilities have been adjusted (additional balancing will occur in future Updates)
  
• The Shield Pulse Sector Ability no longer drains the shields of the ship using it
  
• A new Ability has been added, Sensor Pulse, which has both Sector and System versions

CONSUMABLES

• All Mines, Decoys and Support Drones are now treated as Consumable items, and all ships are assumed to be able to release them from their cargo holds while in flight without requiring a specialised Module to do so
  
• Placing a Consumable item into a ship's hold will add the Ability to use it to the Ability Window, where it can be loaded into a slot on the Ability Bar like any other ability
  
• All Stations that previously supplied Mine, Decoy or Support Drone Munitions should now supply the appropriate new Consumable versions
  
• All Stations should now supply Repair Pack and Shield Battery Consumables

EMPLACEMENT TESTING

• 'Emplacements' will form the core static defences for Stations in the upcoming Faction Conflict system
  
• In this update, we have added 'Emplacement Testing' Sectors to the following star systems: Arenev, Ichetic, Borra and System G-680
  
• Each Emplacement Testing Sector contains several early versions of Emplacements for testing and we encourage our Early Access players to try to take them out
  
• For testing, defeated Emplacements will automatically respawn a few minutes later
  
• Please let us know how you get on, how tough you find the emplacements, how many people you needed to take them out and any tricks or tactics you found to be the most effective

SECTOR & SYSTEM HUD

• The Energy Bank display has been moved from the right side of the Targeting Reticule in the centre of the Sector HUD to beneath the Ability Bar
  
• The right side of the Targeting Reticule now displays the ship's shield status as two bars - Fore Shields at the top and Aft shields at the bottom
  
• Mousing over the percentage readouts next to the Hull and Shield bars will open a tooltip with detailed info
  
• Left-clicking on the percentage readout next to a Shield bar will reinforce that shield with energy from other other, or you can use a binding (by default [] will transfer energy from Aft > Fore Shields, and [] ] will transfer energy from Fore > Aft Shields)
  
• The previous Shield and Hull panel GUI has been removed from the lower-right of the HUD
  
• The Cargo and Module window icons that were placed on either side of this panel have been moved to the main Icon Bar in the upper-right of the HUD

MARKET

• Station Tax is no longer charged 'in advance' for new Sell Orders - instead, tax at the appropriate rate is deducted from the income when a Sell Order is fulfilled
  
• Order matching (the process by which a new Order is checked against all existing Orders to see if any 'match' and will fulfil the new Order) has been revised and should now function correctly, as follows:
  
• When a new Sell Order is created (or a Station Sell Order is updated as supply increases), it is automatically compared to all existing Buy Orders for the same item on the same Market
  
• If there is a Buy Order offering a price equal to or greater than the price of the new Sell Order, the orders will be matched and the existing Buy Order will automatically purchase as much of the new Sell Order as it can, according to the quantity of both Orders, at the price of the existing Buy Order
  
• If there is more than one Buy Order offering a price equal to or greater than the new Sell Order, the Buy Order offering the highest price will be matched first (in the case of a tie, the oldest Buy Order is matched first)
  
• When a new Buy Order is created (or a Station Buy Order is updated as demand increases), it is automatically compared to all existing Sell Orders for the same item on the same Market
  
• If there is a Sell Order offering a price equal to or less than the price of the new Buy Order, the orders will be matched and the new Buy Order will automatically purchase as much of the existing Sell Order as it can, according to the quantity of both Orders, at the price of the new Buy Order
  
• If there is more than one Sell Order offering a price equal to or less than the new Buy Order, the Sell Order offering the lowest price will be matched first (in the case of a tie, the oldest Sell Order is matched first)

SHIPS

• Ship models have been resized to more closely relate to their tonnages (for example, the 100t Raven Class is now roughly half the size of the 200t Kulullu Class, and the 150t Fury Class is about the same size as the 150t Auger REV2 Class)
  
• In general, this revision involved the lighter ship models being increased in size and the heavier ship models being reduced in size

CHAT

• New faction-specific chat channels have been added - characters should automatically have access to the appropriate channel for their faction status (Independent, Pirate, Renon, Transgate or Shoten)

BUGS

• Fixed a bug with the Category and Subcategory filters in the Market window - filters should no longer get 'stuck' and require the Market window to be closed and reopened to clear them
  
• Fixed an issue with the Group GUI on the HUD when entering or leaving Sectors

[ursa]

thank you sounds wonderfull keep it comming

[snowglobe]

Yay something new to shoot at!

[Inquisitor Zalinto]

You moved all the factions around! Shoten is Transgate! Fix it quick xD

[Shotgun]

Fair warning: patch deletes all settings, including controls, etc.

[ursa]

just did a freight mission from rebbigha to rebbigha left station retuerned mission completed
and was late
so no bonus
all missions are to and from same station
accepted freight miss in borra to borra and already late!
will try
logged out and in still same prob at borra

[76561198117629946]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rahz Zalinto:

You moved all the factions around! Shoten is Transgate! Fix it quick xD

Sorry about that - it should be fixed now (you may need to logout and back in again).

Please let us know if we missed anything.

[Thyriel]

That thing ruined a lot :/
- Cartel Window broken: i see 2 members in it that i never saw before (with some alt chars and with the cartel leader too) - but no other members (and they are still in the cartel as they see themself in it)
- Cartel Chat broken -> another member sees me writing, but i cannot see what he writes
- I have a new chat "Shoten" but being transgate

Please fix as soon as possible

edit: to be clear i see 2 people in cartel window:
"Olik" owner - in System 100XYEB lvl 86
"Tolik" officer - in 200XYEB lvl85
what happend here ? Devs overtook my cartel ? ;)

[Thyriel]

Feedback on Abilites (Sector):
The Auger (rookie mining ship) as 4 slots while even a stormbow and every other bought ship has only 3.
I really loved my 5 mining beams on stormbow :(

[Thyriel]

Photon bugged now:
It has only 1 command slot (was 3 before patch) - i had modules in there
I put all modules out of it, and the module mass is now at 1/12.5
So the 2 missing modules in the old command slots do still count against module mass

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=237547710

[76561198117629946]

Thanks for letting us know about the slotting problem, we're looking into it now.

On the Ability Slots, Explorers having more powerful and flexible Command subsystems, allowing them to manage more Mining and Salvage Beams at once than other ship types, is one of the reasons why Explorers make good mining and salvage ships.

[Thyriel]

Thanks for clearing that Bridger ;)

next bug i came across:
I can't see my group members on minimap anymore. After i found them i can see them on the 2D Map, but they vanish again when i go to far away.
edit: just seen the pointers in 2D map work again, and i at least see group members with that

[Inquisitor Zalinto]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Thyriel:

Thanks for clearing that Bridger ;)

next bug i came across:
I can't see my group members on minimap anymore. After i found them i can see them on the 2D Map, but they vanish again when i go to far away.

I had that occasionally last patch as well. Sometimes it worked, soemtimes it didn't :P

[76561198117629946]

We're abut to apply a hotfix (no server downtime) that should sort out the 'missing' Command modules (they should be placed in the ship's cargo hold), the Cartels and also move the Emplacement Testing Sector in Borra (it was overlapping an existing Sector).

All this should happen automatically, but you may need to log out and back in again.

[Randall]

all modules removed from my bulkherder, but it still shows 5/30 Modules mass ?

[Volkira]

Have they introduced yet the ability for someone who just wants to play a merchant to gain skills as a merchant rather than having to stay level 1 the entire game?

Or are they forced to be a combat fighter to earn skills to then use to level merchant?

I haven't played since I realised the game didn't allow me to play as just a merchant.