This... is a big update.
The main feature is Close Combat, a completely new playstyle built around giant space swords, energy torches and aura weapons that reward diving in to groups of enemies. To support it, there's a brand new Gladiator secondary class, 13 new close-combat weapons, new legendary variants, a new starting ship, major drone and beacon improvements, and a much better radar/navigation system.
Behind the scenes, this update also contains a huge number of performance optimisations, bug fixes and code improvements. The amount of work that went into this has been a little daunting, so if anything is broken expect hotfixes in the next few days.
I've tested it extensively though, including a full playthrough using my own Close Combat build while tweaking the balance to make sure it stays fun and viable throughout the game.
The purpose of this new Secondary Class is simple... stop you exploding the moment you charge into a pack of enemies.
Gladiator provides a range of defensive bonuses that scale based on nearby enemies, allowing you to survive in situations that would normally get you killed. The close-combat weapons themselves are then enhanced through Warden (Assault), Striker (Torch) and Interceptor (Halo).
Someone requested this feature a while ago, but sadly I can't find the suggestion to give proper credit.
Once an encounter is complete and you're out of combat, the radar now switches into a sector navigation display. You can see nearby encounters at a glance and click them to jump there.
Close Combat adds 13 new weapons across the Torch, Halo and Assault categories, along with several new special weapons, a new Drone Bay, and a couple of new legendary variants to discover.
Galactic Design by Medved (https://star-vortex.com/ships.php?view=198)
I've also improved legendary hunting. The glossary now shows where undiscovered legendaries can be found, making it much easier to track down the ones you're still missing.
Drone Bays and Beacons had started to fall behind the damage curve somewhat, so they've received some significant buffs in this update.
Drone damage has been increased across the board, several drone types have received additional boosts, and summoned allies from Beacons now remain active much longer. If you already have Drone Bays equipped, you'll need to upgrade them in the Assembler to see the new stats.
The rest of the update is largely focused on performance improvements, quality-of-life features and bug fixes.
A huge amount of optimisation work has gone into reducing stutter, improving loading times, lowering memory usage and making large battles run more smoothly. Alongside that are dozens of bug fixes covering everything from combat mechanics and loot systems to UI, controllers, missions and mod support.
Next up is Sector 4 - Phase 2. Until then... Enjoy!
Oh, and if you like giant space swords, be sure to check out Nova Drift. We're bundled together, so if you already own Star Vortex you can pick it up at a nice discount.
• Added a new 'Glacius' starting ship.
• Added new 'Gladiator' secondary class.
• Added 4 new Torch weapons (Primary).
• Added 5 new Halo weapons (Auto Special).
• Added 4 new Assault weapons (Utility).
• Added a new Holo Drive special weapon.
• Added a new Leech Pulse special weapon.
• Added a new Wisp Drone Bay (Leech).
• Added 2 new Legendary weapon variants.
• Striker laser/bolt upgrades now also boost Torch weapons.
• Interceptor pulse upgrades now also boost Halo weapons.
• Guardian utility upgrades now also boost Assault weapons.
• Each starting ship now comes with one secondary class unlocked.
• Many enemies have been re-equipped with new weapons.
• Radar now shows navigation map once encounter is complete.
• All drone bay damage increased by 50% to keep pace with weapons.
• Hornet, Maggot and Roach drones get 25% more to match lasers.
• Beacons now keep summoned allies active for 20 seconds at base.
• Laser primary weapons now drop 20% more often as loot.
• Auto laser specials now drop 20% more often as loot.
• Drone burns and radiation now scale from the Drone Bay's full DPS.
• Global loot drops are now weighted per item to control how often gear appears.
• Grapple guns now drop 50% less often than other utility weapons.
• Ships 10+ levels above you now correctly resist 75% of debuff attempts.
• Escort ships now correctly respect their intended damage received cap.
• Smog Exhaust and Pollen Spreader now add their full base damage.
• Kinetic pulse Knockback now applies its intended force.
• Boost timer now resets on short taps, so taps cannot bank invulnerability.
• Invader attacks no longer wait until you reach a waypoint in Sector 1.
• Drone and turret bays can now use [On Crit] modifiers balanced across drones.
• AI ships now cycle weapons with a 1s minimum delay.
• Halved the amount of projectile-based weapons that drop from global loot.
• Thruster sounds now have their own volume slider.
• Target reticle now retains its thickness regardless of zoom level.
• Added new setting to control Target Reticle size in Accessibility.
• Legendary database pages now show which enemies drop each legendary.
• Hover an undiscovered legendary to see its weapon type and where it drops.
• UI and HUD elements now update only when their values change.
• Combat text and beam effects are reused to reduce stutter in busy fights.
• Ship designs and weapon previews are cached to speed menus and spawning.
• Targeting and pathfinding reuse scan data to reduce combat stutter.
• Redundant shader work was removed to improve loading and rendering.
• Image caching and scene cleanup now reduce memory use in long sessions.
• Smog Exhaust and Pollen Spreader damage now scales correctly with level.
• Loading screens now wait for scene cleanup before advancing.
• XP and credit pickup particles are pooled at scene load.
• Glowing weapons and effects no longer lose bloom in poor lighting.
• Fixed losing left-stick UI navigation after closing the ship editor.
• Fixed the controller navigation highlight rarely vanishing forever.
• Dodging in your travel direction no longer slows your ship.
• Drone debuffs now scale off the drone weapon's full DPS, not one drone.
• Leech Ray item stats now show its Hull Leech value like the Leech Gun.
• Unreadable profiles now retry and create a backup instead of being reset.
• Storage items from disabled mods now return when those mods are re-enabled.
• Missions now finish safely if your ship is destroyed at the same time.
• Destroy-all encounters now mark each remaining ship with a sensor arrow.
• Quickly pressing boost button no longer grants longer invulnerability.
• Rebound projectiles now recall without jamming or exploding when caught.
• Mines now spend one charge and explode once when replaced or expired.
• Scatter Missiles turn correctly and homing shots keep their launch delay.
• Point Defense targets now always correctly target the nearest missile.
• Seeking shots now detect targets correctly when fired away from the origin.
• Enemy auto lasers now reset their aim correctly when switching targets.
• Overlapping disables and regen blocks now last until every effect ends.
• Tooltips now open and close correctly and stay readable at screen edges.
• Loot showcases now close normally if a new item interrupts their animation.
• Storage items on the last page are now reachable at smaller UI scales.
• Assembler now charges credits only after the sacrifice item is destroyed.
• Equipped items that cannot be unequipped can no longer be picked to destroy.
• Fixed a drag swap that could move mission items into storage.
• Hiding or re-equipping a part no longer leaves a stuck leftover copy.
• Fixed lighting not resetting between areas, causing screen darkening.
• Fixed an error loading player avatars when mods were active.
• Fixed an error caused by impale projectiles stuck in despawned ships.
• Black hole kills now name the attacker in the death recap.
• AI ships fighting each other now stay near you instead of drifting off.
• Fixed double-clicking an already-selected encounter not jumping to it.
• Mod builds now save enum fields correctly.
• Mod builds now include only assets assigned to an AssetBundle.
• Added SettingsData.FireSettingsUpdated() to notify without saving.
• Projectile.TimedDestroy now unregisters before destruction.
• Projectile.suppressExplosion can skip one impact explosion.
• MineLauncher.RemoveProjectile only spends charges for tracked mines.
• LeechLauncherItemBase.legendaries is now LauncherLegendary[].
• GetLegendaryItem and SelectLegendary now ignore null slots.
• PoolController.RemovePoolableObject now purges available objects.
• PhasePlaceholderItemBase.UpdateStats no longer compounds updates.
• GameShip.SetDisabled and ToggleRegen are ref-counted; pair every call.
• SoundEffectPlayer.Attach now moves its AudioSource to the new host.
• SetCurrentPlayerShip now rewires damage tracking and ship audio.
• Failed mods remain listed with errors and leave no content active.
• Removed Fast2DBlur and three redundant UniversalForwardOnly passes.
• Added NoiseHelpers.hlsl and OutlineComposite.cginc shader includes.
• Muzzle flash updates now use UpdateMuzzleFlash(list).
• ItemBase legendary methods are virtual and expose GetLegendaries().
• Added DebrisStatusEffect and ResistanceStatusEffect base classes.
• SpawnReactionNotice now accepts Reaction and translates its name.
• Removed Utils.RandomEnum and Utils.CamelcaseToSpaces.
• Removed IsEnabled, SetPixelSize, and SetColorReduction helpers.
• GameShip.SellItem now returns bool indicating sale success (was void).
• New Item.CanStackWith(Item) identity check; CanMerge now builds on it.
• GameShip.MergeItem validates CanStackWith and honors its quantity parameter.
• GameShip.MoveItemStorage now ignores immutable items.
• Equippable.ValidForModify rejects destroy targets that cannot be unequipped.
• ModContent.Load returns null on empty asset names instead of erroring.