Dev Blog #018 July 08, 2024

Hey everyone, an update on the beta progress is due. It's been an interesting month (and a bit), with a lot of changes happening.

Trade enabled

The Corporation building and trade systems have undergone a lot of changes since the last development blog. The trading system now uses your Corporation bank account and will freely use any funds to purchase required products and deposit any profits back. It will also take sector wages, so making sure you have a decent flow of trade setup is key.
The trade system will prioritize trade with your own sectors before trading with anyone else, making sure that any required resources are shipped around before selling any. After trade between your owned sectors is complete, allied sectors are traded with, ensuring you ship any required products to allies before anyone else. The final step of the trade system will be to export any resources left over to other sectors, as long as you are not at war with their owners.

New Modifications

I've added over 300 new weapon modifications to the game, allowing you to customize the stats of your turrets. I will be putting out new ammo and modifications for the other turrets in a couple of weeks.
The new modification allows you to change most turret stats; they come with benefits and drawbacks, such as increasing damage at the expense of much greater energy use. Or increasing range but decreasing damage.

New Missions

I've recently enabled two new global mission types that you can find at any station that advertises mission services.
Ore Mining: These missions require you to head to a nearby asteroid field and collect a specific type of Ore, You then need to deliver the Ore to the mission contact. If your ship doesn't have enough cargo space, you can always deliver it in batches.
Delivery: These missions require you to deliver the requested items directly to the contact; they can be trade goods or items looted from shipwrecks.
I will be adding more variations to these missions as well as new mission types as the beta progresses.

New Raid

Raids are instanced areas that everyone in the same wing can enter; they are designed for groups of players to complete together. The first raid I am testing is the Orion Raid. [RDSUN] have set up a warp gate and several defense platforms, and it's your job to destroy them. To help you, [AQSEC] have warped in beacons that allow you to call in reinforcements.
The Orion raid contains a few unique mechanics, and it's looking really good. I'm hoping to have quite a few raids in the future that are even more expansive.

Physics

I've completed the line of sight system; now you can use buildings and asteroids as cover. If you don't have a line of sight to your target, then your weapons will pause until they do. This makes fighting in asteroid fields much harder as smaller ships can easily use asteroids as cover while attacking miners, although this also works in the miners favor as well, allowing them to escape incoming attacks by moving into the asteroid field

Mobile, Mac, and Linux.

Although not released yet, I have completed setting up my build pipeline for iOS, Android, Mac, and Linux builds.
I've had a few requests for the Mac and Linux versions, so they will be available on the website soon, although for now I am putting them out as not officially supported, so I won't be able to address any bugs that are specific to Mac or Linux.
I am still trying to figure out what a beta for Android and iOS would look like, and the game is not really ready for release on mobile. The mobile version currently uses the same screens as the PC version, so it's hard to use at the moment.

Launcher

There is a new launcher for the Windows version of the game, this launcher will download and patch the game automatically, meaning you don't have to go to the website to download a new version each time I release a patch. Many of you already have this version, and it's been working well, so I will be removing the standard download soon and exclusively using the launcher going forward.
You can find the launcher download link on your account page.

Upgrading Packs

I've had requests about upgrading packs, so I am happy to announce you can now upgrade your packs; you only pay the difference in the pack prices. If you already have a pack, you can upgrade on the store at https://www.aq2expanse.com/store.