Alpha build 55 is live. It is not a required update: Alpha build 54 still connects. Exit Steam completely and start it again to get it. The game server restarted at 12:53 UTC for the shield change below. Nothing was wiped.
Shields stop at most 90% of a hit
Shields were too strong: while a ship's shield stood, the ship took no other damage at all. Now a shield stops at most nine tenths of a hit, and at least a tenth always goes past it to the armor and the hull, however strong the shield is.
- A weapon with a shield bypass of its own still uses it when it is more than that tenth. The two are not added together.
- Expect battles to end a little sooner, and your ships to come home with more to repair: a shielded ship now loses armor and hull from the first hit. The same is true of the Tide's ships.
- The Tide's fleets were not re-tuned for this. Tell us how the fights against them feel now, tier by tier if you can.
See more of the battle
- The mouse wheel zooms a battle again. It had stopped working in a battle: for a commander since build 53, and for anyone watching since build 54. Both are fixed.
- The view pulls back twice as far, for a commander and for anyone watching, so much more of the battlefield fits on the screen at once.
- Watching a battle, hold the pointer on any ship of either fleet to see its firing arcs, how far its guns reach and how close they can fire. The attacker's ships show in blue and the defender's in red.
Every battle control is in the Player's Guide: Controls and Combat.
Good to know
- A restart of the server brings every deployed fleet home to its bay, and a battle that was running when it stopped is called off: no damage, no report. Deploy again and carry on.
- If Steam does not offer the update, exit Steam completely (Steam, then Exit) and start it again.
The changelog has the full list.