Greetings Commanders!
So this patch brings a couple of pretty big changes and a host of minor tweaks and bug fixes. We continue to work behind the scenes to make the game as enjoyable as possible for as many people as possible. With that said, on to the changes:
Manual Saving
So with Patch 1.0.4 we are introducing the ability to turn off the autosaving that the game shipped with. Go to the Options menu from the Title Screen (or in any mission) if you want to turn Autosaving off.
If Autosaving is off your game will ONLY save when you manually save. You can manually save by pressing 'F5' or by pressing the new 'Save Game' button that appears in the Fleet Management portion of the game.
Games still only get one save slot, and when you load from the Title Screen you will always be taken to the Fleet Management area, even if you saved in a mission. You cannot load a game into the middle of a mission.
Hopefully this change will allow more people to enjoy the game. The Autosave option can be toggled at any time, so if you have a game in progress you can switch it off and continue your game.
Memory Management
Thank you to everyone that sent us error logs related to the game crashing.
After investigation the vast majority of issues was that the game ran out of memory while loading a level.
We have been working very hard to find ways to lower the memory usage for the game so it can play on a wider range of systems. Todays patch brings some pretty wide ranging behind the scenes memory management tweaks.
If the game is still crashing due to not enough memory we have enabled an additional user-controlled option to reduce memory usage. We have changed the lowest quality setting to reduce texture quality.
If you can start up the game, but it crashes when you try to play or load a mission, changing your quality to 'Low' will reduce the texture quality and may allow you to now run the game.
New Gear
Fighter Shield Network
We are still working on some new artwork for this item but we just couldn't wait to share it with you. A Fighter Shield Network combines the abilities of a Fighter Generator and a Fighter Shield Matrix.... giving a one slot equipment solution to buff your fighters. A Fighter Shield Network is an especially powerful item, and you can only equip one on an individual fighter.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where firing Heavy Torpedoes would crash the game.
- Fixed a terrain bug that had the terrain in the wrong place for several Externus bounty missions.
- Fixed wrong objective description displaying in two Externus bounty missions.
- Fixed a bug where the Rhondo could be permanently lost. However this fix will only apply to new games started after this patch.
Quality of Life Enhancements
- Added warning for time limit based missions in the starting sector of both campaigns.
Balance Tweaks
- Increased the number of resources needed to collect in several missions.
- Added Fighter Shield Network to drop tables as item rewards at the end of missions.
Known Issues
Several people have reported that saves were corrupted during the patching process. We are still looking into this situation, but we want to warn you now that the saves might not be recoverable.
That's all for now. Thank you to everyone for playing our game!