Sometimes you just need to zero the hostiles completely; demolition, destruction, absolute tactical oblivion. That’s where the brand new Manta-class light cruiser comes in.
Four dedicated missile launch bays means the Manta can ruin your opponent’s day like nothing else in the fleet. Either let the guided payloads find four different targets, or focus fire on a single mark for scorched earth tactics.

Now the project has been revealed and the first ship of this kind is ready to launch!

Star Hammer has been updated and version 1.1.26 brings a brand new ship to the Coalition fleet: the Manta-class light cruiser, available both in campaign and skirmish mode.

Prepare the missile bays and witness the destructive capability of the Coalition Navy’s heavy-duty artillery cruiser!

Also featured in this update are a host of new balance updates to the campaign mode, various graphical improvements, new maps and hi-scores in skirmish mode and general bug fixes.

To better celebrate this great update the game will be 10% discounted for the entire duration of the week! On Steam the offer starts at 19 CEST / 13 EDT / 10 PDT!

Here is the change log:

• Manta light cruiser added to campaign and skirmish modes (the Manta is available as a reinforcement from the third chapter onward - the Hunted and The Shipbuilder’s Yard)
• Graphics update with improved ship textures and dynamic lighting
• Campaign mission War Scale has been balanced, and mission logs now show the War Scale bias awarded when the selected mission is completed
• Additional actions have been added to War Scale calculations, including successful ram commands and countermeasure use
• Completed campaign missions are tracked visually, and briefings can be viewed to review chapter progress
• Campaign chapter events have been visually updated
• Four new skirmish maps (The Scrapyard, The Gap, Buckyball and Spiderweb)
• Hi-score feature added to skirmish maps. Scores can be viewed on the map selection screen. Steam Leaderboards are also supported.
• Skirmish battles configurations can be saved and re-loaded, so same skirmish battle can be replayed.
• VSync added to Graphics Options menu
• General campaign difficulty balancing
• Various bug fixes

Grab the game here

Patch 1.0.9 for Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy is now available! This patch fixes a number of bugs reported and adds a couple of new features as requested by the community. Players will now be able to reconfigure their keyboard controls and improvements have been made to the UI and some graphical effects!

If you own the Steam version of Star Hammer, your game will be updated automatically.


Changelog version 1.0.9:

- Shortcut key remapping. Accessed from the Options during a battle.
- Added an option to disable scrolling when the mouse is at the edge of the screen
- Improve visuals of UI, especially for non-16:9 aspect ratios
- Added shortcut keys for energy setting presets and the shield balance UI
- Graphics effects improvements, such as improved shield effects when hit
- Performance improvements

We are happy to bring you the first patch for Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy. This patch will fix a number of issues as reported by the players, as well as a number of UI/control changes. In addition, the devs added higher ship textures into the game, as well as the option to rename your ships!

The update will be downloaded automatically via your Steam client.


Changelog:

- Added descriptions to each row of skills on the crew panel
- Increase detail level of ship textures
- Ships can be renamed from the fleet loadout screen
- Adjusted speed of keyboard camera rotation and zoom controls
- Added options to adjust sensitivity of camera rotation and zooming
- Added options to invert X & Y mouse axis
- Added a name label under character portrait in extended dialogue
 
- FIX : Dreadnought shields should now regenerate correctly
- FIX : Only one squadron of drones can be launched per round per dreadnought, to prevent partial second squadron launch
- FIX : When aspect ratio is 4:3, energy presets are positioned above the energy triangle to prevent being on top of the Selected Ship panel
- FIX : Some achievements that couldn't be unlocked now can be (Win Skirmish, Missiles Away)
- FIX : Tooltip for side camera icon no longer indicates TAB as a shortcut

Developer Black Lab Games focused on designing a unique sci-fi game with deep tactical mechanisms. Thanks to the simultaneous turn-based approach, not only do players have the time to think about their next moves, primary targets, and fleet positioning on the battlefield, but they also have the excitement to see the result of their choices during intense real-time sequences.

Human and Nautilid factions have very different assets and superior firepower will not be enough to seize decisive victory when the enemy benefits from more units and better positions. So daredevil commanders will have to keep a cool head if they want to see the end of the war…

And it’s not over!


Check it out on our official Twitch Channel![www.twitch.tv]

We are less than three weeks away from the release of this highly anticipated 3D tactical space combat game!

Developer Black Lab Games spent the last few months collecting all the precious feedback given by the huge community of beta testers out there.

We now wish to show you all the outcome of their efforts on a very special Twitch Stream today!

Join Surtur at 20:00 CEST / 18:00 UTC / 2:00 PM EDT on our Official Channel![www.twitch.tv]
Stay tuned! Further sneak peeks will follow! Wooohoooo!

If you’re a fan of lore and world building, then this week’s blogpost is for you! Lead Designer Anthony Sweet takes a look at crafting the world of Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy.

When we first started designing Star Hammer, there was very little in the way of a plot. Missions were likely going to be systemically generated, with procedural characters and ship names and a string of dissociated objectives to tackle through. The team quickly realised however that although this sounded fun, it didn’t help to convey much of the experience we want people to feel while playing through a Star Hammer game.

Much of Star Hammer is about balance and the choices made during conflict. Beyond these goals, we also wanted to tackle themes of environmental degradation and colonisation, among many other things. For these themes to resonate, we required consequences that mattered to the world where the player spends their time, even if the consequences don’t have an immediate gameplay impact.

Read the full article here[blacklabgames.tumblr.com]

We are working hard to make the Mac Version of Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy available in all our stores day and date with the PC Version.

We are ready to start beta phase and we need your help!

Sign up for the beta now, it’s your chance to be selected to be one of the lucky few who will be able experience Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy before release and help us with the final touches.

Sign for the beta here[www.slitherine.com]

As the release of Star Hammer: the Vanguard Prophecy is nearing, we wanted to share some more info you might enjoy. We have prepared a nice infographic, showing off some of the ships you will have to manage in-game and some of the opponents as well!

This is your chance to take a closer look to the 570 meter long Kraken Dreadnought, check out the weapons of the Disruptor and the Sprayer…and more!

In Star Hammer, you will be controlling six classes of assaults ships. Make precision strikes with the swift Swordfish Raiders, or lead from the bridge of a hulking Kraken Dreadnought: the choice is yours.

To discover the infographic follow this link[www.matrixgames.com]

Very early in the planning for Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy, it was decided that battles should take place in three dimensions. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, space is three dimensional. It’s vast and empty, and limiting space ships to a flat 2D plane felt needlessly artificial. Whilst Star Hammer is a strategy game, every other non-strategy space game I’ve ever played - whether it’s a combat sim, like Wing Commander or X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter, or a sandbox like Eve Online or Elite - all use 3 dimensions.

The second was a review on the App Store for the iPad version of Star Hammer Tactics. I forget the exact wording, but it was something like ‘2 stars for 2 dimensions’. Star Hammer Tactics’ limited movement to a flat plane (for the sake of simplicity), but this unhappy customer clearly wanted another dimension to their space combat. Well buddy, thanks for the 2-star review, and here you go!

Read the full article here[blacklabgames.tumblr.com]