What's New

I released the procedural station rework this week, paving the way for adding new content, and laying the groundwork for eventually letting the world grow and change during gameplay. Along with the stations I reworked the entire economy, with all stations getting larger. Overall there should be more trade missions and more agents (other submarines) in the world.

Patch Notes

• Procedural station rework.
• Rebalance of economy and agents.
• Fix double entries in submarine module vendor.
• Fix campaign intro not playing correctly the second time in a session.
• Fix torpedoes not being available in hudson stations.
• Fix Northburg supporting pirate stalwarts instead of trade stalwarts.
• Fix subs able to put minisubs in hangar slots without hangars.
• Hide hanger widget if no hangars with minisubs are present.
• Fix module vendor crash related to station rework.

What's Next

After finishing up the procedural stations I dove into work on Novarus. This has come long quickly, and I expect to be fully finished by next Friday.

In total, this update will include:

• Five new stations in this update, belonging to 3 different factions
  • Novarus itself has 3 stations, including the largest station in the world set in a massive cave
  • The NDF (a local rebel group) has a station hidden far to the north
  • The Red Reef Pirates have a station on the eastern border.
• 7 newly available subs
  • The Valiant, previously available (before the station rework) from Hudson pirates has now been given to the NDF as a home grown sub design.
  • The Czar, Hammerhead, and Frigate were previously only available in the battle modes. Now they form the core of the Imperial Navy.
  • Three fully new submarines.
    • Mule - a light transport
    • Patriot - an escort sub based on the mule, and now found among many pirate groups
    • Ox - a heavy transport featuring fore and aft turrets for defense, currently the largest cargo capacity in game
• 4 new turrets
  • Two turrets firing jetshells in three round bursts
  • Two new railgun turrets. They are slow to turn, but hit instantly. Damage reduces with range.
• 3 new torpedoes
  • 1 new conventional torpedo
  • 2 new rocket torpedoes. These are blisteringly fast, but have limited turning ability.
• A new style of station architecture.

The Novarus region occupies the area northeast of Hudson, sandwiched between the Barrier in the south, and a large basin to the north. In addition to the new submarines and weapons, Novarus offers new gameplay opportunities as well. Crimes committed against Novarus targets wont hurt your standing in Hudson, and vice versa. I also plan on adding missions for Novarus and Hudson to commit piracy against their rival (effectively becoming an Age of Sail style privateer).