While we’re busy cooking up the sandbox we thought it might be an idea to put in a skirmish mode of sorts. Similar to the ‘Tactical Simulator’ in the older alpha, Quick Battle mode allows you to dive in and get to grips with any of the ships and get used to the controls.
Behind the scenes, Quick Battle mode will help to iron out the wrinkles, particularly with combat and already it’s sparked a bit of a rethink with regards to combat AI.
It might please you to note that there are no caps on the number of ships in the arena.
One of the things that makes Shallow Space unique against other similar titles is the detail of the combat, in particular the simulated projectiles and unpredictable nature of the ship movements. But it became clear to us when simulating larger battles that there needs to be some degree of predictability otherwise you’re effectively watching the AI battle it out – this update goes a long way to resolving that woe.
An example of the fixes this update introduces is the AI attacking from roughly the same direction each time meaning that combat can now be ‘anchored’ making it easier to flank them and making small but immersive mechanics such as shield rebalancing not only a reality, but extremely useful.
Look forward to the inclusion of shield balancing very shortly (literally coding it as we speak.)
Once more we appreciate all the support and feedback as we edge ever closer to our immediate goals. Keep those bug reports coming and remember to post screenshots of your new escapades Commander!
- Added hull customisation to Options menu (primary/secondary colours)
- Fixes to crash on Hard Group setup
- Added 'Quick Battle Mode'
- Fixed rare issue with orders being wiped on ship jump
- Fixed issue with selection box ignoring units
- Fixed rare crash allocating initial SFX channel
- Fixed issue with fleet icon not appearing when construction complete
- Fixed issue building Sadalbari Command Carrier
- Fixed crash updating rolling selector if ship changes groups
- Fixed issue with Combat AI 'eternal chasing'
- Update major tweaks to ship Combat AI
- Update 3D ship text no longer affect by time scaling