Alpha build 62 is live: every ship has an Overdrive to press in battle, and the active modules you can research now switch on.
This is a required update: the server refuses older copies. Exit Steam completely and start it again to get the new build. The server restarted once at 13:29 UTC, after a five-minute notice, and nothing was wiped.
Overdrive
Every ship has it. It charges by itself during a fight, in about 17 to 25 seconds on a Fighter and 13 to 17 on a Dreadnought. When the dial is full, press it or press Space: for 8 seconds the ship's weapons do 20% or 25% more damage, it is 25% or 30% faster, and its shield takes 15% or 20% less from every hit.
Active modules
The timed special modules of the Tech Tree work now. Research one, build it in the Forge, fit it, and the ship that carries it gets a tile in battle. Press the tile, or Z, X, C for the first three: the module runs, then the tile counts down until it is ready again.
| Kind | While it runs |
|---|---|
| Booster | Speed +35% to +125%, and the ship is harder to hit by 8% to 25% |
| Weapon surge | Weapon damage +35% to +125% |
| Cloak | Harder to hit by 20% to 55% |
| Countermeasure | Harder to hit by 28% or 45% |
| Dampener | +20% to +40% resistance to energy damage, or to void damage |
| Scrambler | Enemies within 1,800 or 2,800 shoot wider by 50% or 95% |
| Interdictor | Enemies within 2,000 or 3,000 lose 50% or 95% of their speed |
Those are the numbers of an unmarked module. Each runs for 6 to 14 seconds and is ready again 16 to 24 seconds after it stops; a module's Mark makes it do more, run longer and come back sooner.
- A new panel at the bottom right of the battle screen holds the OVERDRIVE dial, the tiles of the ship you have picked, and FREE CAMERA, FLEET AUTO and LEAVE.
- Several ships picked: one press serves every picked ship that is ready.
- Ships on AUTO use their Overdrive and their modules by themselves, the Tide's ships too. A ship you fly by hand uses them only when you press, and pressing does not take a ship off AUTO.
- On the field a ship in Overdrive burns brighter, a running module is named under its ship with the seconds it has left, a Scrambler or an Interdictor draws its reach as a dashed ring, and an enemy inside reads SCRAMBLED or SLOWED. Anybody watching a battle sees it.
- Sounds: Overdrive lighting, a chime when one of your ships has it full, and one sound for each kind of module.
Also new
- A volume for battle sounds. Settings (Esc) has a new AUDIO tab with one slider, Battle sounds, from 0 to 100%. Move it and you hear a shot at that level.
- Narrow screens. At 16:10, 4:3 and 5:4 the battle screen's rows are drawn a little smaller, so the panels no longer stand on each other.
- The faction screen says what stands in the way. A faction cannot be joined, your first one included, while something is in your base's construction queue, a ship is being built or refitted, a ship research is running, a ship is damaged or a fleet is out. The screen now tells you which, before you press and when you press JOIN FACTION.
Fixed
- Cargo modules make a ship's hold bigger. They did nothing before. Each one adds its percentage of the hull's own cargo bay, a Mark makes it add more, and a hold can be at most three times its hull's. You do not need to refit: fitted modules count from your first login after the update. A bigger hold also mines faster.
- Training that was put away can be brought back. Whenever the training card is not on your screen there is a training button at the bottom right, the gold wings left of the Sector Briefing button. If you put training away, one press brings it back with the mission you were on; if no mission is waiting, it opens your Licence.
- Training's Add to a weekly order can be done in a week your alliance has already finished its orders.
- Joining a faction that the server refused could look like nothing had happened.
Good to know
- Harder to hit means a shot that would have hit has that chance to miss. Nothing makes a ship more than 75% harder to hit, and no Interdictor slows a ship by more than 95%.
- Two modules of the same kind on one ship do not add up. While both run the stronger one counts, so run them one after the other.
- Timed modules exist today for Crimson Fleet, Nomad Clans, Shadow Brokerage, Technocrat Union and Void Syndicate (five each), Freelancer and Solar Empire (two each) and Miner Rebellion (one). Celestial Order, Deep Space Explorers, Iron Vanguard and Unaligned have none yet: their ships have Overdrive and no tiles.
- The Tide's ships use Overdrive. The Tide fits no active modules.
- Not changed: an always-on field module (Aegis Field, Bastion Field) still protects only the ship that carries it.
- Not in this build: carrier squadrons, and the largest hulls coming back into a fight once.
The Player's Guide has every number, and the changelog has the full list.