Posts by Relampago

Today's the great day as we've decided to create the first video devlog where we will tell about all the changes to the Starfall Tactics project for the past month, and, what's more important - show them all in one short video. From now on, each month we’ll be rounding up news, updates and other curious changes regarding Starfall Tactics and its development process in one short YouTube video. A lot of these may not come as a surprise if you read the weekly work-in-progress posts on our news blog, but we feel that for a lot of users, this format will be much more convenient.

Quote from General Vivi

On 5/11/2018 at 4:55 AM, General Vivi said: looking great so far!

Thank you!

The month has past, and we are back here with a bunch of news:)

- Patrolmans in 3D

Vanguard and Deprived Patrolman models are finally ready:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…atrolmanres.jpg][Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…atrolmanres.jpg]

More than a year ago, we've announced three new neutral NPC factions - Traders, Miners, and Smugglers. And as Miners are already available in Starfall Tactics, the time has come to add another faction - Traders.

- Traders NPC Faction

More than a year ago, we've announced three new neutral NPC factions - Traders, Miners, and Smugglers. And as Miners are already available in Starfall Tactics, the time has come to add another faction - Traders.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/tradersres.jpg]

Traders Ships

In general, Traders are not the faction in common sense - they are just some guys from colonies on neutral planets who's primary occupation is buying and selling all types of goods across the known Galaxy. So their bases are far from faction or pirate stations as their primary goal is to be a safe marketplace for all types of peaceful traders and customers. Traders stations can be found across the Galaxy - where you can buy goods and complete special tasks. Their fleets consist mostly of big freighters (including Charon) with huge cargo bays and some effective weapons to defend against pirates.

Traders are busy with transporting resources from one inhabited planet to another and selling various goods - you can meet them both inside the Inner Circle, on faction territories, and in Outer Regions. You will probably want to destroy their fleets and get all the cargo for yourself...but don't hurry too much: there is a huge chance to earn great rewards for saving traders from pirates.

- Gateways

Among these changes, there is one very important thing we must mention here: we are getting back our smaller warp gates which were previously used as warp beacons. Now they are called Gateways and take all functions of checkpoints and let you warp between existing gateways.

- Docking

Docking to objects became more comfortable for you: To escape unwanted situations and make docking procedure more logical, we've implemented important changes: Now, when you dock to an object, you fleet really gets inside it, disappears from the star system map and therefore can't be attacked. Hooray!:)

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- Strike Back

We've implemented a new system, which allows pirates to strike back the most active and bold pirate hunters.

How does it all work?

When you destroy too many pirate fleets from the same base, a special punishing fleet is sent to eliminate you. There are three threat levels and three fleets - the strongest one has a powerful Boss, which can become a real trouble for you.

- Pirate Bosses

We plan to add some faction-specific bosses with time, give them new abilities and, in general, make them an interesting challenge for you. And while our game designers and programmer are busy with preparing things and working on other features, our 3D modelers create skins for already existing pirate bosses:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…rsbossesres.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…midboss2res.jpg][Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…midboss1res.jpg][Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…dsbossesres.jpg] - New Pirate Fleet type & quest type

Great news for ones who love completing various missions in Starfall Tactics: we are increasing their numbers and adding new types of quests. There are certainly a couple of nice things to be added, and the first one is quests for killing specific pirates. Heavy bounties are often put on the heads of the most annoying pirate Commanders and give you a chance to earn some nice rewards for taking down a concrete pirate. As "customers" usually have approximate coordinates of these fleet - you just need to find the system, catch the pirate and destroy it.

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A lot of great things are about to appear in the Starfall Tactics with the help of Snowforged Team. And we are here, just as usual, to lift the veil and tell you about several upcoming changes:

- Eclipse patrolman

Back then, in one of our weekly articles, we've presented several character portraits and their sketches. Now, as it was planned, our artists are going to create their animated 3D models which you will see in the game while contacting with certain types of fleets, completing story missions or doing other interesting things.

And here is the first animated character - Eclipse patrolman in his, of course very high-tech, special uniform:

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[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/eclipsepatrolmanres.jpg]

- Advanced renegade system

We are implementing an advanced renegade system which allows you to make a final decision on declaring someone a renegade.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/renegaderes.jpg]

This system still automatically detects player who dealt sufficient damage to your ships, but now also lets a player who has been attacked to choose what exactly you want to do in this situation. You have three ways of reaction: Declare player as a renegade if he's really trying to destroy all your ships and get all your cargo; Ignore it and don't give him renegade state; Or even choose an option "Always Ignore" for this player in case that's your trusted friend.

- Trackers

Here are also several improvements which will soon be in the game:

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WIP. Trackers interface will be changed.

• Quests which require you to deliver items now let you know if you already have it in your cargo or inventory in the shipyard. Woohoo!:)
• If there is something you want to craft but don't yet have enough resources, you can mark this project and the list of required resources will be shown while you are on the Galaxy Map.
• Warp Stabilizer Project (it is required to get access to the next set of star systems) is a really important thing, which, obviously, must be tracked. So, now you will always be able to see the list of required resources for the Warp Stabilizer.

And, well, that's all for today. See you soon

The test is over and it's been a while since we posted previous portion of updates. So todays post will be a bit longer than usual And, well, here is the short list of changes:

1) Extended Character Progression system - New Frontiers test has brought a great feature - special fleet skills for the MMO mode. And it was just the first step to the extended character progression: Now we are going to bring more awesome abilities along with the new system - players will get new "talents" with each level - active or passive abilities, which give certain advantages during the game in the MMO mode.

Players start without action slots at all, but with time they get more of them until they reach a maximum number. Action slots are used to equip special fleet abilities.[/i]

New Frontiers test has brought you a great feature - special fleet skills for the MMO mode. And it was just the first step to the extended character progression! Now we are going to bring more awesome abilities along with the new system: you will get new "talents" with each level - active or passive abilities, which give certain advantages during the game in the MMO mode.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/levelupres.jpg]

The first level up. You start without action slots at all, but with time you get more of them until you reach a maximum number. Action slots are used to equip special fleet abilities.

There will be a wide variety of different abilities available, which gives you a great option for fleet customization. However, the maximum number of abilities you can use at the same time is limited to 6 (can be changed).

And here are a couple of upcoming passive skills:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…n_visionres.jpg] Ability, which passively increases your vision radius on the star system map. It won't give such a bonus as active analog (Advanced Sensor), however, it is greatly compensated as you have no need to wait for a cooldown and just permanently have increased vision. However, nothing stops you from using both abilities - it's a good choice if you are going to explore a lot of new systems.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…on_speedres.jpg] This ability passively increases your speed while you travel across the Galaxy in Starfall Tactics. Just as passive vision boost, it won't give as much speed as active analogue, but can definitely make it all more comfortable: you can run away from pirates much faster, while also having a nice advantage if you chase someone.

2) Getting detachments

Detachment system has already made a long way through reworks and improvements in Starfall Tactics and, as we hope, became even better than before. Still, as character progression system gets significant update and extension we've described above, detachments can't find a place as a reward on level up anymore.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/keysres.jpg]

In exchange, new detachments become available once you create the next Warp Stabilizer and get new access level.

3) Other improvements

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• Repair all button is now available in the Shipyard - now you won't need to manually push this button on each ship if you want to get all of them back.
• Filters for Mothership inventory - we've decided to add the same equipment filters as in the ship editor in Shipyard, so now you won't get lost in hundreds of different things you have.
• Weapon groups - this improvement will make your ship panel take less space by hiding weapon icons when you select ships if there are too much of them. For example, instead of 10 auto gun icons, it will only show one icon with the number of guns installed.
• Disabling cargo boxes and mining resources on minimap - now you can hide cargo box and resource icons from the minimap.
• Ability to see layouts of unavailable ships - now you can check the layout of all faction ships which you don't have yet.
• Move a full stack of items by pressing a single combination of buttons - with SHIFT+Right Click.
• And more.

4) Galaxy Map

Galaxy Map has always been a very important subject of various changes and improvements as that's a very important part of the game which helps you navigate in the Starfall Tactics Galaxy. And now we are working on making the whole map and territory borders, in particular, look better - here is a work in progress screenshot of how it all looks now:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/galaxymapfres.jpg]

5) Domination mode adjustment

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/dompointssmall.jpg]

After past Domination Tournament it was decided to keep the new mode mostly without global changes, but still, we wanted to somehow reward players for destroying enemy ships there. So, we've implemented a special reward for destroying ships: now you get 10% of the Warp Point cost of the enemy ship as winning points.

6) Plasma Arc Module

Along with all the great improvements and content we will tell you about in the next articles, we've decided to create just a couple of modules to help you destroy ship swarms you are likely to meet when engaging certain pirate fleets:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/plasma_arc.gif]

Plasma Arc Module is an activatable special module. By activating it, you can choose a target within a certain radius which will immediately get plasma damage. After hitting the first target, Plasma Arc module automatically chooses the next target which must be close enough and deals damage to it, then gets to the next one. It can't hit the same ship twice and deactivates when there are no eligible ships in range.

7)B.H.S. Launcher

The second module is a close friend of the Plasma Arc as it also jumps from one ship to another - however, there are several important differences:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/bhs.gif]

B.H.S. Launcher creates a projectile on activation, which immediately goes to the target ship and deals damage to it. After that, it chooses the next enemy ship within range, gets to it and also deals damage. This effect stops if there are no ships in range or if it reaches the maximum number of "jumps". Unlike Plasma Arc, it can hit the same ship twice, so it can be effective against smaller swarms.

Binary Stars

If you start exploring the real Universe, you will be surprised how many interesting things and unsolved mysteries there are in the world. For example, while we usually think of a star system as of a single star with some planets around it, in fact, there can be more than one star in the system. Did you know, that about half of the stars visible in the night sky are binary stars? Yes, that's true and we decided to pay respect to this fact and add some binary stars to the Starfall Tactics galaxy:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/two_star.gif]

Wow, looks like that's all for now:) Check out news section on starfalltactics.com in case you need more info on these updates.

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The New Frontiers Open Test has just started! Hurry up to be the first who checks out all the great things Snowforged Team has prepared for you: new NPC faction, Rings system, PvP mode, ships, weapons, mining system, tasks, pirate fleets, detachments, recall system, ship model progression and more - read the full list of changes [email=''][email protected][/email]!

So, what's new?

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/screenshot5.jpg]

What's new? Well, there are a lot of things to check:

• New PvP mode - Domination
• Custom games
• New recipes
• New tasks
• New ships - battlecruisers
• Weapons
• Party system for the MMO mode
• Recall system which allows you to warp in additional ships on the Galaxy map
• The first neutral faction - Mineworkers
• Ship model progression
• Rebalance for special modules, shields, armor, weapons, layouts and hull characteristics.
• Reworked pirate fleets
• Rings system
• Equipment quality system
• Reworked detachments
• Cool quest rewards
• Special fleet abilities for the global map (to be announced in the next WIP!)
• New visual ship customization abilities
• And various improvements, designed to make your playtime even more enjoyable!

And that's not the full list of all the great things we've prepared for you - full patch notes will be available later.

See you in Starfall Tactics!

We know that you've been waiting for this since previous test and here we are with the greatest news of the day, answering your main question and revealing the next test date: Starfall Tactics NPC Factions test starts 26th October and ends 5th November!

This time you are going to see a lot of changes and new content in the MMO part of Starfall Tactics: new factions, resource system, crafting and basic quests are going to bring you completely new feelings along with all other changes we've been working on during these long summer and autumn days.

Don't forget to apply for the test and join a House (guild)

And that's not all the good news: As we already mentioned, along with this test, we are holding another important event on 3th and 4th November: the second test Tournament!

This Tournament is a really important event for the game as it helps us see the game from another, player side, get possible problems, balance issues and, of course, gives some inspiration to us and a lot of fun to players

So, at the moment we are preparing the game for the test - adding new content, fixing critical bugs and just make all new features work together well, and there is definitely some other news about new stuff we would love to share here:

New Faction Modules:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/gravity_magnet_blueprintres.jpg][Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/additional_antenna_blueprintres.jpg][Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/shield_repression_blueprintres.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/perfect_sensor_blueprintres.jpg][Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/nebula_jump_module_blueprintres.jpg][Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/robber_gang_blueprintres.jpg]

• Perfect Sensor, P.Y.R.A.M.Y.D., activatable - On activation shows all enemy ships on the map for a short period of time.
• Nebula Jump Module, Nebulords, activatable - Allows warping your ship into any nebula on the map.
• Robber Gang, Nebulords, activatable - Allows robbing enemy ships: takes away enemy cargo.

• Screechers Mothership uses special Self Destruction module with a bigger explosion range - this explosion is able to easily destroy your frigates.
• P.Y.R.A.M.Y.D. launches a strong gravity impulse, which pushes all ships away, even if they are really far from the Mothership.
• Nebulord technologies allow their Mothership to warp away from you in certain situations.

Other updates

Outer regions of the space in Starfall Tactics are not just a bunch of systems with pirates, their bases and rare resources. There are also some planets inhabited by neutral people who just want to live a normal life on their own, outside of this massive faction conflict.

As they live very close to pirate-owned systems, they often require your help in protection from pirate bands and sometimes can order resource delivery - get ready to complete a couple tasks for a great reward. At the same time neutral planets often have Trading posts, offering you various equipment and ship projects - there is only a limited amount of them, but product range of Trading posts is periodically updated, so you can get back there with time.[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/tradingpost.jpg]

New resources already were announced in previous updates, and now we are just showing three of them which will be used for crafting and can be mined in asteroid fields:

• Arkonite - common resource. Can be found in any rich asteroid field.
• Adamantane - common resources, which are more rare and more valuable than Arkonite, but still can be found in every rich asteroid field.
• Neitherium - rare resource for high-level crafting. Can be found only in rich asteroid fields in Outer Regions. Very expensive.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/newshipcrafting.jpg]

In a previous post we haven't mentioned one important fact about faction equipment and ships: although they depend on different resources, they are connected in a certain way. All ships and equipment designed so that the first income level of each resource, for example, allows you to assemble a certain ship build - Blazing Fist modification with Stingray laser and Scouting drone module. In other words, each faction ship modification constructed to easiliy fit modules and weapons you get for the same income levels of other resources. We hope that this system is going to motivate you to maintain the same income level of each resource and look for new territories you can conquer.

Now let's come back to our faction equipment lists:

Deprived weapon

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/dweaponres.jpg]

• Lvl.1"Storm Rocket Launcher", Kinetic, size 1x2 - weapon, designed to hit small and maneuverable targets. Launches several rockets at a time, has average firing rate, good burst damage but lower DPS (damage per second).
• Lvl.2 "Reconstruction Beam", Energy, size 2x2 - equipment for remote (up to 6000m) repairservices. Uses laser ray focus to connect damaged coating elements, delivers subatomic gel to the damaged.
• Lvl.3 "Eradicate Cannon", Kinetic, size 4x2 - battery, which shoots with exploding shells and permanently damages target ships so they can never be fully repaired.Shoots with several projectiles, just like a usual shotgun. Lowers maximum ship armor.
• Lvl.4 "Plasma Dissolver", Energy, size 2x4 - Heavy Plasma Cannon modification with increased range.
• Lvl.5 "Valkyrie", Kinetic, size 3x3- rocket tower, which guides rocket flight and immediately launches another rocket once it hits target ship. It means that at closer distances it has higher firing rate.

Here are all new weapons for Vanguard, Eclipse and Deprived:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/allweaponsres.jpg]

Faction special modules

• "Scouting Drone" - Vanguard, lvl.1, activatable - Drone scout. Moves in a straight line and reveals everything on its way.
• "Omicron Generator" - Deprived, lvl.1, activatable - Creates a special area which deals damage to enemies and heals friendly ships for the same amount. Has limited duration.
• "Force Weapon Reload" - Eclipse lvl.3, activatable - Forced reload. As a matter of urgency, makes all weapons ready to fire. Deals damage to ship structure on activation.
• "Selfstasis module" - Deprived, lvl.3, activatable - Module, which puts an initial ship into special stasis for a limited amount of time: it drastically increases recovery rate for structure, armor and shields.
• "Sabotage Squad" - Vanguard, lvl.4, activatable - Boarding module which has a sabotage squad instead of usual troopers. Turns off ship functional systems (modules).

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/sabotagerres.jpg]

"Sabotage Squad" module Vanguard ships

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• Lvl.1 - battlecruiser "Blazing Fist", Curtana modification
• Lvl.2 - battlecruiser "Iron Guard", Tarnhelm modification
• Lvl.3 - battleship "Esprit de corps", Tizona modification
• Lvl.4 - battleship "Spirit of Rage", Ichaival modification
• Lvl.5 - dreadnought "God of War", Mjolnir modification

Another thing we would love to add into the game is a faction progression. Basically, it gives a real goal and a reason to actually participate in wars for territories not just for the fact of dominance, but also to get profits for your fleet and the whole faction you belong to. Faction progression is directly connected with Strategic Resources feature we talked about in June: "A certain level of income of each of the Strategic Resources opens access to some kind of factional equipment or ship."

There are three types of Strategic Resources you can find on planets in Inner Regions (a contested space where you can meet pirates and other rivals):

• Radioactive metals - higher income levels of this resource make new weapons available for purchase on your home planet.
• Superconductors - give you access to unique special modules.
• Noble gases - allow you to get new ship modifications on new income levels.

The higher income level of a resource faction has for the past several hours, the greater things you can acquire: there are 5 income levels in total, each of them gives exclusive rewards you won’t be able to find anywhere else. They are also different for every faction. All these rewards can be purchased on home planets by spending a certain amount of reputation points which you, as a faithful faction member, earned while helping your faction.

For example, Noble gases income levels give you access to the following ships:

• Lvl.1 - battlecruiser "Glow Reflection", Regent modification
• Lvl.2 - battlecruiser "Dazzling Spark", Eureka modification
• Lvl.3 - battleship "Solar Winds", Sunrise modification
• Lvl.4 - battleship "Aureola", Paragon modification
• Lvl.5 - dreadnought "Halo", Premier modification

All ship modifications are going to have special skins, so you will surely recognize them:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/eshipsres.jpg] Each Commander can get unlimited number of each reward, unless he or she runs out of reputation points. These items might be or might not be included into ranked mode - it highly depends on balance issues and current set of equipment available for Ranked Mode.

We already started preparing all the necessary equipment, and here is a short list of Vanguard weapons, which they can get for higher Radioactive metals income:

• Lvl.1 "Stingray", Kinetic, size 1x4 - Electromagnetic kinetic weapon, accelerating the projectile to ultra-high speeds along 2 rails. Pierces through ships.
• Lvl.2 "Large CQC Laser", Energy, size3x2 - CQC laser modification of bigger size.
• Lvl.3 "Tornado Rocket Launcher", Kinetic, size 3x2 - Rocket Launcher modification with 8000m range and average rate of fire comparable to Hurricane Rocket Launcher.
• Lvl.4 "Frag cannon", Kinetic, size 3х3 - Middle range cannon with increased crew damage. Has low firing rate, fires with single shells.
• Lvl.5 "Volcano", Energy, size 3х2 - Blaster machine gun. Weapon dispersion increases with time, while cooldown - decreases.

• Lvl.1 "Assault Laser", Energy, size 2x2 - Medium Laser analogue - has less range and more DPS.
• Lvl.2 "Thunderbolt", Energy, size 1x3 - Plasma Missile Launcher, has 9000 range.
• Lvl.3 "Lancet", Kinetic, size 1x3 - Small Gauss Cannon analogue.
• Lvl.4 "Assault Plasma Cannon", Energy, size 2x2 - Plasma Cannon with lower range and decreased cooldown.
• Lvl.5 "Evaporator", Energy, size 1x4 - Large Heat laser with a very long range.

Until that moment, Starfall Tactics had just some characters, which presented their faction to give you a general vision and understanding. Now, as the time has come to start creating quest lines - at least for introductions and tutorials - the need to implement new characters arises. And today we are lifting the veil from new faces you will see while playing the game.

First of all, let's look at another set of faction portraits - this time for pirate factions. All of them - P.Y.R.A.M.I.D., Screechers and Nebulords were presented as ships and abstract guys - you could only guess how they look like from their ship designs and descriptions. You could say that knowing them in face is not that important for the game where everything you see on the screen is your fleet consisting from ships...But if you know the personality and see the face of the enemy, everything becomes just a little bit more real and personal. All in all, we fight not against ships but against a whole faction which consists from humans (at least in this case), right?

So let's have a look at typical representants of three pirate bands - P.Y.R.A.M.I.D., Screechers and Nebulords:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/…atebandsres.jpg]

Early concepts. Can be changed further Since we started creating portraits, patrolman of Eclipse, Deprived and Vanguard also got pictured:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/patrolsres.jpg]

Early concepts. Can be changed further And that's not all: Starfall Tactics Universe does have more personalities to present: today we are glad to introduce you the first three Eclipse and Deprived characters along with their short bios!

These characters are going to help you learn game basics and will tell you different stories in missions once we implement quest system which already stands on the doorstep: we already started preparing technical basis for them, giving it soem time between other important tasks.

In addition to portraits, we are going to create animated 3D models for each of these new characters - they will talk with you during various missions, encounters, events and just anywhere we need them speaking. Although Starfall Tactics is not a very story oriented game, we strive to make all game aspects both qualitative and interesting for you to try: that's where our game designers, programmers and artists will unite to make all the best quests and characters for you.

Making and animating a set of characters along with writing quest scenarios is not an easy task, so expect it to fully arrive into the game not earlier when Starfall Tactics comes to early access. But when it does arrive - expect it to be great

And here are they:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/characters3res.jpg]Sketches, not actual in-game models

• Assistant Alan Lee, Eclipse

Many implants allow Alan Lee to aggregate and analyze tons of information in real time, so he successfully combines roles of secretary and first assistant while staying effective and observant. He always has his own opinion and does not hesitate to share it, but don't really like getting into direct confrontation. Alan is also a very faithful person and it's definitely not a typical quality for members of Eclipse corp., where everything has a certain price.

• Huntmaster Ollaya, Deprived

Ollaya is 40 y.o. huntress who has repeatedly proved her talent as a leader and a strategist. She clearly understands Vanguard and Eclipse psychological behavior models, which directly affects her success on the battlefield and makes her indispensable. Refuses to take the post of the Sachem as she prefers the Hunt itself with its incomparable sense of danger, challenge and triumph.

• Businessman Mr. Evan Van der Hallen, Eclipse

Mr. Evans is a great businessman with an extremely extensive field of interests and dozens of expensive high-quality implants, carefully hidden all over his body. This exemplary family man, who already has several great-grandchildren over 12 years old, made his fortune on fraud with securities.

The autumn has come and we are happy to meet the new season

Sunrise, Eclipse Battleship

The third Battleship which belongs to Eclipse faction is already here! Classic eclipse design of Sunrise brings you another ship to admire, use it as an effective assault force and a part of you great fleet.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/lootbox.jpg]

And Cheers to you from the Snowforged Team and thanks once again for staying with us! With hope that our happy faces will make you smile a little more this week

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We continue working on important game aspects, and this week we also have some news to share:

- Vanguard Battleship - Tizona

The next Battleship is joining Vanguard faction - Tizona. This ship looks just as great as you could imagine and sometimes can remind one famous enough spacecraft:

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/tizonares.jpg]

Eclipse Battleship is also joining us next week - check out for updates on our Sketchfab page!

- Hexagonal Maps

A small, but nice improvement which is going to make your life in MMO mode more comfortable and logical: Hexagonal Maps.

[Blocked Image: http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/hexmapres.jpg]

In addition to their special form, they have a couple of other features: place, where you enter the hex on the Galaxy Map, directly affects on the place, where you can appear on the map. For example, if you chase your enemy and attack him from the top right side, you will enter your fleet from this top right side on the battlefield.

There are other changes which affect the way you leave the battle: Once the first ship of yours reaches the rim of the map and crosses it, other edges become inactive - red - and all remaining ships in your fleet can leave the battle only by crossing the same edge.

We hope that all these changes can help you clearly imagine the battlefield and understand it better.

- Ship Repairing

In the MMO mode, even if you lose the whole fleet, you have no penalties except of lost cargo. So, the loss of the single ship is not that painful here. Moreover, sometimes you can meet situations when after being defeated you can almost immediately jump into another battle, just spamming enemies in your system. And this situation doesn't look really great at all - your ships with hundreds and thousands of people on them become just a junk, a consumable with no limit you can sacrifice without any significant loss. Of course, a permanent loss of the ship would be too much here, so we decided to change our repairing system a little bit.

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Until that moment, you could repair your ships on special Repair Stations in Open Space for IGC and repair & get back your destroyed ships for free - on Mothership. Now, if you get your ships destroyed on Galaxy Map, they can't be immediately returned into your Detachment. Instead, they'll have a repair time - don't worry, it's not going to last for ages - just a short period to make you value them a little more. Their repair time also depends on the class and construction complexity for each ship. At the same time, we are thinking about removing Repair Stations from the map, reworking them or just leave it as an additional way to repair your ship.

Value every ship in your fleet - and you will see how it can turn the tide

Snowforged Team is back here to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary and continue Starfall Tactics development along with short updates here

This past year appeared to be very eventful: we had a lot of fun with having the first Starfall Tactics Winter Cup which we, also for the first time, live-streamed on our Twitch Channel. And we certainly have some plans on making another tournament along with the next test - and that's really good news for all who love pvp in Starfall Tactics here Besides, there were four important tests: two Faction Wars tests where we tested many features for the MMO part, including ability to capture territories; a One-Week test to check new Ranked matches system and make a tournament; and a Character Test where we tested a huge update for the MMO mode.

That was a very exciting and productive year as the project got a lot of updates and meaningful changes: dozens of new ships and modules, new ranked matches system, new interface, ship progression, huge space structures, House (guild) system, carrier, new races, mining, Challenges, Personal Space structures, strategic resources and much, much more. We hope that upcoming year will bring even greater events, tests and updates as we come closer to the open stage.

And of course we have some news:

Crafting is a huge and important part of the game: it was implemented previously in the most basic form, for crafting ships. Now, as more resource types and ways to get them are to be added, we extend this system to something greater.

To build something you need a project - which is a single disposable thing you can get through many ways: acquire by leveling up, find as loot from NPC ships and bosses, get from research stations or black markets, buy from various space markets for IGC or just get by any other way.

The same way is going to be used to craft equipment. Equipment crafting also requires some time to be completed, depending on the complexity of the certain construction - you will see a timer saying how much time left until your equipment will be assembled and ready to be used.

There are other important things we should mention here:

• To craft faction equipment like special Nebulord lasers you will need, for example, a couple copies of usual laser, some resources and special parts which can be salvaged only from Nebulrod ships. That works for all equipment from NPC factions.
• There is an equipment you can get only or mainly by crafting it.
• Some projects can allow you to craft a pack of equipment - 10 Screechers autoguns, as an example.
• To craft something you will always need a project. Project is a thing of a single use only, so if you want to craft two Screechers Helskors, you need two projects.
• Projects are not account-wide items: each character should get them by their own.
• In addition to ship equipment, you will be also able to craft other stuff: for example - special consumables which are used to establish Personal Space Structures.

If you played some other MMO games, this crafting system should be familiar for you - it's pretty usual for many games and yet enough comfortable along with being entertaining - at least, you don't need to spend hours sitting and watching at grass. Instead, you just enjoy your playtime while collecting all the necessary resources, fight NPC factions in different events, explore the Galaxy or engage into battles with rivals who has a cargo full of precious resources.

We've also added a 750 long ship for Deprived faction, battleship Kolgrim:

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Another week is over, so we are showing how the work goes on the features we announced and described in previous updates. Also, we have something new to tell you about: salvaging. That's a small part of our resource system, but still an important thing you should know about.

- More resources and resource types mean more ways to get them in the game. Right now there are several ways to obtain them in Starfall Tactics: Mining, Colonies on planets, enemy freighters and personal Mining Stations in Outer Regions. Besides, there is also a chance to find something in a cargo of defeated enemy and NPC fleets.

And here should come another common method of getting resources - salvaging. Salvaging means disassembling the scraps of ships you destroyed in an attempt to get any precious materials from it.

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Salvaging module icon

So, what do you need to salvage in Starfall Tactics and what you get from that?

• First of all, you need to equip special module to one of your ships. This module can be found in boosters, or obtained as loot from enemy fleets.
• After destroying a ship, you have a chance to see salvageable parts.
• Activate salvage module to start salvaging.
• By salvaging scraps you have a slight chance to get materials.

Materials you salvage can be used, for example, for crafting ships - earlier you could get Screechers ship project, spend some IGC and build it - now it also requires some Screechers ship parts to be built. This way it becomes a really important thing if you plan to fill your ShipYard with dozens of great battlecruisers, battleships, dreadnoughts and even carriers.

Another personal space structure you will be able to build in the Outer Regions - Warp Beacon.

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Warp Beacon helps reach remote space regions without a need to make a long way to your favorite star systems as it allows warping on your Warp Beacon from the Mothership. Still, it doesn't have enough power as a Mothership to initiate your warp back to home systems. As other personal structures, it follows the same common rules: a number of Warp Beacons to build is limited; to stay functional it requires some resources; It is destructible by any hostile forces, but also can perform self-defense.

That's a thing we already got pretty far with, although there are still a lot to do about it. So, now you can see eight challenges which you will be able to complete in Starfall Tactics:

• Cargo Protection - Helps you master hardpoint control as here you need to protect a cargo from small ships with a dreadnought, having several powerful weapons with a long cooldown by pointing a target for every single weapon separately.
• Mine Defense - The one we previously talked about: here you defend your mothership against enemies using only mines.
• Rockets - Here you should defeat enemies using rocket ships by escaping from their attacks and outmaneuvering them.
• Espionage - Stealth mission where you should get past enemies with a small invisible scout and steal as much data as you can.
• Boarding - This mission you can complete only by carefully boarding ships one by one: the actual goal is to capture several prototype ships.
• Damage Types - Destroy as much ships as you can, but be careful as you success highly depends on how well you chose counter-tactics.
• Vision - Teaches you about ship vision and vision mechanics in general. Here you should get out of enemy lines, without any stealth modules or so.
• Asteroids - A well-known encounter on Galaxy Map also becomes a challenge to help you feel more comfortable with avoiding collisions (although that doesn't mean that we stopped working on this aspect).

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There might be added other challenges later, of course, but that's the basic set we will have.

Have a nice week

Aaand as we are getting ready for the next big game update and huge test dedicated to MMO part of the game (Starfall Tactics is separated for 2 main modes: ranked quick matches and MMO mode (Galaxy Conquest)) - we add features mostly for this mode and also extend existing content with new ship modules, structures, ships and so on. I'll try to describe most of them as briefely as I can and not bore you with unnecesary details.

- Galaxy Map Regions is another thing we had in our minds long ago - this thing should be very familiar for you, especially if you know games like EVE. Now we come back to the concept of the Galaxy divided into several huge zones as the time has finally come to make it real and there are some things on the way to the game which require its realization. For example, quests and tutorial missions require a set of safe zones or at least some fixed objects which will remain under control of your faction or neutral, while each faction also should have a minimum unconquerable zone to survive even under high pressure. And here it comes - there will be two main regions in Starfall Tactics: Inner Region and Outer Region, and, additionally, special Home Regions which are located inside Inner Region and dedicated to the specific faction.

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- Resources: in all previous tests we used only usual things like ore and supplies to, obviously, just test the whole resource system. To be honest, we had a plan that could turn our MMO part into a kind of 4X - and it all sounded really great, with plenty of resources, factories, colonies, precise managment and so on. A really deep and interesting system. That's what you think before it comes to implemeting it into the game and thinking through players behavior which, actually, can't be as perfect as you imagine in your dreams. In other words, it appeared that a group of players taking control over a solid portion of resources and making bad decisions can ruin all the system for their faction. And that's here where we restricted resources control, decreased their number (cause really, why would you need 22 different resources here?).

- Personal Space Structures: as long as Outer Region can't be conquered in Starfall Tactics, its' exploration becomes more dangerous and hard, while remaining more profitable. Also, the closer you go to the center of the Galaxy, to the more secure Inner Region or even Home Regions, the more chance that somebody has already got all precious resources from there. That's why we are adding auxiliary sctructures each player can build in Outer Region: they are not as huge as other Stations because of being designed for the profit of a single Commander and will help them by mining some resources or allowing to warp on them directly from the base. Of cause, they cost some resources, can be destroyed and have a maintenance cost.

- Message Beacon: Along with mentioned structures, another idea came into our minds: we thought about creating a special one with an ability to leave messages on the Galaxy Map. Just because it's fun - to leave messages which can contain all kind of tips, threatenings or even may be your House advertisement.

Later we decided to do not include it as exactly the same structure type and instead make a separate fun thing, a message beacon. This is not a hard structure to construct, but also is not a permanent as this way one day Galaxy becomes a message board. It can't be destroyed manually as you don't usually look for messages in the bottles to burn them, right? So It's life time is limited and directly depends on how much likes or dislikes it receives - in this case, if everybody loves your message, it stays in the space longer with each like. And if your message is not that nice, each dislike decreases a time it stays in the space.

- You probably met a situation when you want to add something into the game, but it really looks too OP to be there. It could be a pain unless you realise why it is so op: in our case, we wanted to add a Support Station you can build in a quick match survival mode, in pvp ranked battles or while destroying/defending enemy base on a Galaxy Map. Long story short, we couldn't actually do it unless we finally made repairng a passive thing generally for these types of structures. Now it works just fine. So, here are all the main changes for the past couple of weeks, not including other lesser improvements, visual ship rework, tones of work with interfaces and, of course, all stuff we needed to implemet this changes and so on. If you need more information on a certain feature from this post - you can find some in a news section on our website. See you!

Aaaand another update for Starfall Tactics

- The third pirate Mothership for Screechers faction, which was already used as a general pirate base, is here again. We modified it a little to fit the Screechers concept and make it as great as others, so now you can see a full 3D model on our Sketchfab page.

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- we continue the never-ending interface improvement work, partly changing it to fit the needs of new features and make you feel more comfortable. These changes even included battle interface and many other important aspects of the game.

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- Besides, as we moved to the latest Unreal Engine version which finally included a built-in ability to use hardware cursor, we now use this hardware cursor which will let players feel more comfortable than ever and don't suffer a lag if overall game performance is not very good for them.

- we presented the full list of resources, which appeared to be pretty long - so there will be some changes to resource system later.

Aaand we are back after the test with some updates on Starfall Tactics development, new content and features.

- First of all, we designed special missions which are more fun than simple tutorials players are usually bored to complete (although we already have and will add some fast tutorials for game basics). It's especially helpfull in our case because of many different and deep mechanics you will normally miss and won't understand from the first try. So, here come Challenges - a special set of missions with rewards which depends on the medal you earned for completing it. It helps players master the game and explains many things deeper than usual, along with being a very fun experience: for example, there is a stealth mission, or a mission where you have to defend against enemies using only mines, or a mission where you have to defeat hige ships by fooling them with small maneuverable vessels and etc.

- After detailed analysis and discussion, our Team decided to go with a more traditional way for unit progression: skill tree with various passive bonuses. Still, we found a way to make it exciting: each and every ship has its' own talent tree with bonuses not only to simple characteristics, but to special modules, certain weapons or types of damage which logically can fit it, engines and even things like cargo. And all together it gives so much variety in building each ship, and a lot of lovely hours to our game designer who is currently busy making 180 skill trees.

- We also designed a couple of new modules: Plasma Engines (increses maximum ship speeed) and a three shield modules which allow to drain, transfer and distribute shield.

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- We also added two models for pirate bases:

Starfall Tactics test starts 24th April 14:00 CET and lasts until 1st May 23:59 CET. To play the game during this period, simply [email=''][email protected][/email]!

See you in Starfall Tactics!

Another week has come to bring great news: we are moving forward swiftly and soon you will be able to check out several features we announced before by playing Starfall Tactics. And right now we are ready to tell about very important changes in battle mechanics, new feature for the MMO part of the game and show a new freighter model:

Shields rework

Shields have always been a cause of disputes and many minor changes, while we tried to make them a really valuable layer of defense. After a long discussion we decided to try a completely new way of using shields to make this layer of defense really valuable and worthy of your attention. And here is a short list of changes:

• Shields now consume all types of damage (except for damage caused by ramming), including damage received from kinetic weapons.
• Shields require more capacity, while shield regenerators - less.
• Shield cells now have default regeneration. Average shield regeneration a usual ships can have has grown.
• Shields can't regenerate during active battle. They start regenerating 5 seconds after they stop receiving damage.

So, now all ships have less shield hit points in total (not more than 1000-2000 for bigger ships), better regeneration and better defense in general. This gives Commanders a chance for a mistake, ability to retreat and come back quickly: for example, you can reposition ships with low shield hit points to hide them behind other units with a high shield level, and then swap them back, or temporarily remove a couple of ships from the battle and come back with another 1000 hit points you've just regenerated.

You can hardly imagine a space game like Starfall Tactics without any ability to mine resources, and we couldn't miss this opportunity to add it. Basically, mining mechanics is something we planned to add long ago as it's closely connected with crafting systems by allowing you to get necessary resources. In Starfall Tactics, to start mining you don't need any special "qualifications" or skills - just do the following:

• Get designated equipment for the task
• Find a place full of desired resources (usually - certain types of asteroid fields)
• Get into special instance, fly closer to the asteroid with you ship which has mining equipment and start mining.

Freighter is a common spaceship for transporting goods - slow, poorly protected, but with a really huge cargo bay, which allows them to carry impressive amounts of resources. The first universal freighter, Charon, was previously used by all three factions to provide a good level of resource distribution. Now we are adding separate freighters for each faction and the first one is a Vanguard Freighter:

Hope you love how Starfall Tactics changes with time - see you soon

Pirate Bands - ship design

Three new bands - Screechers, Nebulords and P.Y.R.A.M.I.D. - are mostly going to use usual faction ships from frigates to dreadnoughts, as pirates did before, with only a few additions like Cerera, Pilgrim and other ships we might add later. So, in order to let you recognize Bands from the first sight, we designed a new look for each of them - it also visually reflects their essence.

Screechers, as we mentioned before, are real madmen, and generally look like typical pirate band which attacks every moving object to get any sort of profit - resources, IGC, ship parts, modules or just anything else valuable enough. These guys deserve a brutal skin with spikes, dark colors and red lights, while Nebulords with their "own code of honor" prefer showing off their excellence by painting ships with appropriate colors. P.Y.R.A.M.I.D., a band of ideological descendants of scientists whose researches were declared inhumane, tend to hide their technologies inside ship hulls - still, some technologies they use put off their mark on the appearance of ships P.Y.R.A.M.I.D. uses.

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Screechers, Nebulords and P.Y.R.A.M.I.D. ships. Eclipse Carrier - Centenary

Centenary, the first Eclipse carrier, is finally ready and will soon join faction fleets to take an active part in intense battles! This carrier is incredibly detailed and is a real fruit of painstaking work of Eclipse engineers (*our artists) - so make sure you pay it enough attention and add to your list of the most favorite & grandiose creations.

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Not only ships trouble our minds these days, but also, there are a lot of work on the interface, effects, other content and hidden parts of the game which make it all work. We are very excited to show you the result of this intensive development and play Starfall Tactics with you once it all comes to the test stage - so, don't forget to check out news section and your inbox from time to time!