There have been two updates since I last posted. The developers, Isolated Games, appears to have abandoned those of us who fund their development here. I would encourage everyone here to
contact them to voice your disapproval that they can't be bothered to make a post here.
The two updates are 0.4.6 and 0.4.7. Here is 0.4.6, 0.4.7 is a separate post.
Greetings, Spacefarers!
Today we're glad to announce a major update for Between the Stars.
These are the main features of this new update:
Chinese Localization
The new update adds the official Chinese translation made by WhysperGames. Chinese players will be able to play the whole game in their own language.
New Ability Systems
This update also adds the 12 systems with new abilities listed bellow (see attached photo for this list)
New Weapon Groups
There is now a new way to group weapons in order to be more effective in battle. Now you'll be able to group weapons and enable or disable them during a battle.
You can take a look at the complete change log below:
Change Log Version 0.4.6
Official Simplified Chinese translation has been added.
12 new systems have been added, each granting a new skill.
A new system has been added that allows you to create groups of weapons.
Now, by pressing the TAB key, the player can activate and deactivate groups of weapons in the middle of battle to save energy and be more effective.
Weapons now have an internal rarity index, some weapons will be harder to get than others.
Enemies will now equip the most common weapons and it will be less frequent to find enemies with rare weapons.
Weapon prices are now automatically calculated based on their material cost, rarity, and quality.
Now weapons that appear when looting ships can only be weapons that the destroyed ship had equipped.
Until now the Quantum Core material was not used, from this update it will be used. Quantum Cores can only be obtained by scrapping weapons, from each weapon you get a Quantum Core.
Now the nuclear missile and the hacking drone are launched by pressing only the key of the ability. You no longer have to press the fire button.
We fixed a bug that prevented the hacking drone from staying anchored to the target after hitting it.
The color of the hacking drone and electromagnetic pulse effects have been adjusted.
The appearance of the nuclear missile has been modified so that it can be seen more easily on the screen.
Circular weapon menu style has been modified to match weapon groups.
Now pressing TAB no longer stops time, but it slows it down.
A bug that made the NPC ship's engines not make any sound has been corrected.
Multiple glitches that caused flashing in the lasers have been corrected.
What is coming
We are working on Chapter V. Now we are testing its missions and working on the voice-overs that you'll find in this new Chapter. We plan to release it at the end of December. After that we'll work on new secondary events and story lines, new weapons, fixing bugs, etc. to get the game ready for the 1.0 release next year.
Also, the 0.4.7 change log:
Damage Sampling and New Events - v0.4.7
Greetings, Spacefarers!
Today we're releasing a new update for Between the Stars!
These are the main features you'll find:
New Secondary Storylines
The new update adds twenty new events and four secondary storylines. They will add more variety and fun outside the main storyline.
Damage Sampling
In order to give the game a more "RPG" feel, we have added a system in place that will show damage numbers. If you don't like it, you can always disable and configure it in Settings > Game.
New Hard Mode
If Between the Stars is too easy for you, now you can start a new campaign in Hard Mode. In this mode, ships have 50% more health and shields, dice rolls are more difficult, enemies in dice battles are more dangerous, there is less loot, and interceptions are more frequent.
Repair Kits and three new weapons
In this version we're adding Repair Kits. They allow you to repair the ship without returning to the stations. Kits can be purchased from system shops or found as a reward on enemies. Also we're introducing Repeating Cannons, they will allow you to overwhelm the objective with a lethal shower of projectiles. (See attached photo)
New Save System
We've updated the save system of Between the Stars to solve the issues some players found in the past. With this update, the corruption data issues will be resolved. Now the game is saved in a single file instead of using a large number of files. Due this change, the Bug Reports are now sent much faster.
You can take a look at the complete change log below:
Change Log Version 0.4.7
20 new secondary events have been added. These events set up 4 new secondary storylines.
3 new weapons have been added.
4 new secondary event items have been added.
RG-210 Repeating Cannon
RG-420 Repeating Cannon
RG-840 Repeating Cannon
Repair kits have been added that allow the ship to be repaired without returning to the stations. Kits can be purchased from system shops or found as a reward on enemies.
A system has been added to show the damage done. This system can be disabled and configured in Settings > Game.
Hard difficulty mode has been added. In this mode, ships have 50% more health and shields, dice rolls are more difficult, enemies in dice battles are more dangerous, there is less loot, and interceptions are more frequent.
An additional step has been added at the start of the campaign, where you can select the basic settings of the game.
Illustrations have been added to the events in Xeah, The Living Bay and Sharp Hill.
Now you can abandon the contracts that are obtained in the stations.
Now weapon groups can be activated or deactivated using keys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the weapon group activation menu.
Now when a weapon is dragged from the store, the inventory will automatically show the weapon section.
Now when an object is dragged from the store, the inventory will automatically show the object section.
A system has been created to adjust the difficulty of dice rolls in side missions.
A system has been created to adjust the difficulty of dice battles in side missions.
The amount of credits that are obtained in loot has been increased.
Now you get more credits when selling weapons.
The projectile speed of Plasma cannons has been increased to have the same projectile speed of the Cannons of the Republic.
A large update has been made to the save system.
Now all game data is saved in a single file.
When the new version is run for the first time, it will back up the game and go through the process to transfer all data to the new save system.
The new save system avoids the corruption errors that occasionally occurred to some players.
The bug reporting system has been improved, now they are sent much faster.
A bug that did not allow to deactivate the VI weapon group has been fixed.
The lighting in the reverse engines of the Genesis has been fixed.
A bug in the systems ability WS-100 Energy Converter that bugged the shields when used at when they were full has been resolved.
What is coming
As you know, in the latest update we mention that Chapter V would be ready by the end of December. Unfortunately this won't be possible. We need more time to do a good job so the Chapter V update has been delayed. We plan to release it in February. We are doing our best to have a great update, so please be patient. :)
Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone!
