What's New

In terms of what's been released, last week was mostly a bunch of small things and new content.

The battle map has a new option for Novarus, the Hammerhead. The Hammerhead is a dedicated carrier, supporting 4 minisubs and relying on them to effectively fight. It does have torpedoes and two gun turrets of its own, but it doesn't have the armor or agility to effectively fight. It takes some getting used to but it's an interesting way to play. Two of it's subs are the already added Sparrow class, but two are the new Saber.

The Saber minisub is a dedicated bomber. It doesn't have any guns, instead relying on speed and it's four heavy rockets to destroy large targets and return home safely. The Saber can reload an unlimited amount of times, and so can be quite the damage dealer (as long as it doesn't get shot down). The saber is also available for purchase from Bastion in the Open World map.

The pirates have their own minisub as well, the Seahunter. The Seahunter is a modification to a utility minisub, fairly slow but mounting dual light cannons. It's now the standard minisub on pirate Junk subs and stations, and can be bought at either of the pirate stations.

In addition to the new content, the AI now knows how to use it's minisubs, and some smaller decorative changes were added.

Cargo Scanning

The bulk of the week was taken up working on cargo scanning and contraband. This is still a few days from completion, but a lot of it is already in place. Station security patrols will scan for illegal cargo, and demand that you drop it. If you refuse they'll attack. If you agree the cargo will be jettisoned in a cargo pod, which the security patrol will then destroy.

A new commodity has been added as the first contraband, Glitterweed is an illegal drug sold at the pirate stations and bought at the non-pirate stations (if you can sneak it past security).

Pirates will also scan you (but less often if your reputation is high with them), and demand any valuable goods they find. They'll fire upon you if you refuse, but if you accept they'll wait to salvage the cargo pod instead. You can also salvage cargo pods, and voluntarily drop cargo from the new Loadout menu.

The Loadout menu shows a breakdown of all the equipment and cargo on your sub, and is also the menu shown when you cargo scan another sub. Here you can also see the new target detail panel just above the contact list panel, which shows more detailed information on your current target.

Patch Notes

• Added a dying flicker to spotlights.
• Added decorative lights to hangars when open.
• Gave AI ability to use minisubs in combat.
• Gave pirate AI ability to salvage and sell loot.
• Added new seahunter and saber minisubs.
• Added new heavy rocket torpeo for saber.
• Pirate minisubs switched to seahunters.
• Improvements to AI torpedo aiming.
• Increased speed of Sparrow and Saber.
• Added Novarus Hammerhead carrier as battle spawn option.

What's Next

The cargo scanning feature is almost complete, but there needs to be a little UI work around showing what commodities are considered contraband. I'm also going to flesh out smuggling gameplay, adding some new factions and missions.

Once that's done I'll probably start work on being able to talk to other submarines.