Space Defender: Frontier Squadron · published · build 26380472
1.3.8 is live on Steam (Windows and macOS), and comes to Google Play and the App Store as soon as they approve it. It bundles two updates: 1.3.7, planned for October 31, and 1.3.8, which takes in a good part of your feedback from the last few days. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to write.
Four legendary ships are hidden in the Frontier. Follow a rumour, find the wreck, bring the blueprint to the Laboratory.
Offensives, Defences that grow, and missions behind the line: sabotage, rescuing a downed pilot.
The front pays off: a station retaken opens a Front arsenal with a unique military part, and the front convoy pays in ore, scrap and research.
Ruins and pirate outposts to explore with the rover.
Laboratory › Rover: the amphibious hull, and the sunken city finally opens.
New station contracts that send you to a planet: Prospecting and Black box.
Caches vary with the planet and the site: credits, ore, scrap or a part.
Rover with a gamepad: two driving modes in Options › Controls (Direction, like the ship, or Car with the triggers), reverse in both, and the rover fires with your own fire button.
Rover on touch screens: pull the stick back when stopped to reverse, a finger on the ground aims and fires, and the Fire button alone aims at the nearest enemy.
Missile launchers get their own reserve: a salvo no longer drains your guns' energy. From Hornet on they hit much harder.
Ion cannons really pierce shields, the railgun hits elites, stations and heavy hulls harder, and the fan of the triple lasers is tighter.
Late game is tougher: the end of Orionis and Kepler hold out longer, and Tiger gear makes the difference.
Promotions pay more: a rank's pay is worth one and a half missions, and each titled rank gives its own system part, found nowhere else.
Hard modes rebalanced: contract pay, a fourth Laboratory upgrade tier, more orange gear in Kepler.
Each crew member's effect shows on their tile, with a status dot.
Expeditions: a crew member only dies on a critical failure, and the first success of a marked choice always brings a blueprint.
If Halo falls, her student Suture takes over as ship's doctor.
Better stocked spaceports, a pirate hideout market that restocks, and one smuggler's back room per galaxy, announced over the radio.
Ferrum's shipyard sells the hulls of acts III and IV.
Map: up to five numbered waypoints per galaxy (Shift+click), kept in the save.
Escorts talk more during the trip.
Whispered lines from Admiral Voss and ARIA re-recorded in English and French, voice levels evened out (Voice slider up to 200 %).
Wider zoom-out by default on PC, and the tutorial shows where to set it.
The title button now reads Play and opens your games. Five save slots instead of three.
Interface size now also applies to the Research, Laboratory, Posts, Hangar, Ship and Trade tabs. Dragging a part no longer turns the 3D ship.
A What's new panel on the title screen, with links to the Steam news, the Discord server and my other games.
Android: on many phones the ground of living worlds (temperate, jungle, ocean, toxic, primordial) dropped to a few frames per second. It now runs six to seven times faster.
Purchases say they went to "Your side", and "Buy and equip" works even with a single ship.
Title screen tidied up on phones and tablets.
Act IV: Kepler's call now comes at any docking while it is due, even after reloading a save. In "The lists", the consortium convoy is really there behind its escort leader.
Engine trails sit on their nozzles again (Vulture and 20 other hulls, 13 wingmen).
The pause menu could shake non-stop on some screens, the shipyard looked garbled on some Android phones, and the minimap kept a ghost icon on the ground.
Thanks for all your feedback on the forum, in reviews and on Discord.
Guillaume