4.95.0 Patch 9

[Alex.]

Discovery 4.95.0 Patch 9

Gameplay Balance

This patch's balance changes are focused on Freighters and, to a lesser extent, Bombers and Super Heavy Fighters.

Freighters

Freighters have received a balance pass. Although our changes don't significantly change the dynamics of the class, we've tried to make each individual freighter worth flying and capable of holding its own. Ship stats have been redone from the ground up, using their models and "lore origin" to give each freighter a - hopefully - unique identity.

Our focus with these changes was to make freighters less aggressive and more defensive, fitting their identity as mini-transports. Powercore recharge has been significantly reduced, particularly for the largest cores. On the flipside, all freighters now have dual mine dropper mounts, making chasing one potentially more dangerous than before. In addition, freighters can no longer mount light fighter guns, as attempting to balance those weapons for ships varying so wildly in size and stats has proven to be a bit of a nightmare.

On the economy side of things, all freighters now have cargo hold sizes in a much narrower range, ranging from 600 to 650 cargo space. This should allow all of them to profitably run freighter-focused trade runs.
Freighter engines have been changed, too, now coming in two variations: regular engines and "Interceptor" engines. Standard freighter engines now cruise at 350 m/s. Interceptor engines, instead, cruise at 400 m/s. Their drawback, however, is that they occupy 100 cargo space, making them less viable for trading. This allows players to continue flying freighters for interception purposes -- like an LPI Grizzly -- while making actual trading freighters more vulnerable to being caught.

While we've done closed balance testing of all freighters, odds are we'll have missed the mark on some of them. If necessary, we'll do a follow-up balance pass addressing outliers in the future.

Super Heavy Fighters

SHF balance has been a wild ride. We've tried approaching the problem from different angles, and ultimately, failed. The class almost always ends up overperforming in duels while still failing to have the survivability required to be flown in groupfights. Rather than continuing to beat our heads against a wall, we've begun migrating ships in the SHF class to a new, hopefully less problematic (sub-)class: Fighter-Bombers, that will be discussed later in these patch notes.

Also, let's be real: Super Heavy Fighter is a stupid class name.

The Claymore, Dragoon, Recycler and Taurus have been moved into this new subclass. The remaining SHFs have received somewhat of a band-aid balance pass, hopefully making them slightly less rough around the edges until they, too, can get a rework.

Fighters-Bombers (New)

Fighter-Bombers are a new subclass of bombers. They are what you'd expect: bombers with fighter traits. Their powercores are a little less generous than those of full-blown bombers, but their agility is superior to any other ship in the class. They trade the ability to mount class 4 bomber heavies for the ability to mount a full rack of six class 8 and 9 fighter guns.

While they have neither the agility of fighters nor the full anti-capital DPS output of a bomber, the fighter-bomber class makes up for this with loadout variety. We're looking forward to seeing how players end up using these ships.

In addition to the before-mentioned SHFs, two new ships are joining the fighter-bomber roster: the Civilian "Vulture" and the Corsair "Evocatus".

Bombers

While we're on the subject of loadout variety, bombers have received some extra equipment, and the Corona Beam Cannon has received some buffs.

Five House-specific weapons are being added: the Bretonian "Carver", the Gallic "Vanquisher", the Kusari "Redeemer", the Liberty "Thunderbolt" and the Rheinland "Firestorm". These are similar in function to the existing "Render" Bomber Energy Cannons. One more open-use weapon is being added: the "Sunderer". Enjoy.

The Corona Beam Cannon now has a small, 2.5 degree firing arc. This greatly increases its usefulness against smaller targets, like other bombers, fighters and even freighters. We quickly learned that this makes the weapon extremely strong against these ships, however, and increased its energy consumption from 426 to 852 energy per shot. To make the weapon better against larger targets, where it also needed some help, we've raised the weapon's large ship multipliers:

Code:

Transports: 1.5 -> 3.5
Gunboats: 2.5 -> 6.0
Capitals: 3.5 -> 8.0

The end result is a high-damage, high-energy-use burst damage weapon that doubles as a viable anti-snub weapon.

Story Progression

Vespucci -- The Liberty Navy succeeds in its ultimate goal of uprooting the Insurgency and breaking their attempts at forming a breakaway state, reducing the system's once grand ambitions to that of a graveyard and a monument to the price Liberty was willing to pay in order to maintain its image. The Delaware joins the fallen, which consequently sends shockwaves through the media, giving the public an unprecedented wakeup call which cements the fact that Liberty is not invincible. But more than her own people, this is something Liberty's neighbors are paying close attention to.

Kansas -- Having been trampled over, Kansas is restored to its former state of being entirely unpopulated and without any substantial population centers. It's unclear what the system's future holds in store for it, but hidden mysteries remain and prove alluring to the all-seeing eye.

Independence On The Rise

When the Liberty Forces destroyed Freeport 2 in an already impoverished Bering, the system seemed to be abandoned for good and forgotten. But in the wreckage and failure of the big, the small found success and opportunity. The small independent Bristol Constructions and Manufacturing took advantage of the situation and freed itself from its Separatist heritage in a virtually empty Bering and while the others were busy with their conflicts elsewhere, the company slowly grew from processing and reselling wrecks and by profitable deals secured the ground for its promising future.

By the time the economic interest of Rheinland and Liberty came to Bering once more, and a new corridor for trade between these great Houses began to be reopened, the Bristol company was ready to rise to the occasion and take over the function of the once-destroyed Freeport 2.

Gendarmerie Offices Reopen

With rising tensions in Gallic border worlds and increased criminal activity along the main commercial routes of its systems, Gallic Union leadership have announced their decision to reopen offices of the previously-defunct Gendarmerie to resume its activity as the primary law enforcement unit for the inner systems of the house, allowing for reallocation of Navy resources toward better ensuring the safety and security of the border worlds. Due to lack of public trust in an autonomous police force as a result of a history of corruption and inefficiency among previous leaderships of the faction, the Union has opted to reinstate the Gendarmerie under direct supervision of the Navy and with a far more strict screening process for their potential recruits.

NEW SHIPS

• Gammu AI Bomber
  
• Edgeworlds "Ghoul" Fighter
  
• Edgeworlds "Reaper" Bomber
  
• Gaians "Leatherback" Freighter
  
• Civilian "Vulture" Fighter-Bomber
  
• Scanner, Miner and Repair Drones
  
• Corsairs "Evocatus" Fighter-Bomber
  
• Civilian "Arrow" Fighter (New model)
  

Zurich Rediscovered

Our original attempt to redesign Zurich failed, but thanks to feedback from our community we were able to redesign and repair Zurich in a new form with a new local story illuminating the happenings in this independent system in an effort to give it a unique, one-of-a-kind character.

The new look of Zurich thus better captures its originally intended anomalous qualities and the dynamics of the factions vying for influence in this star system on the border between Gallia and Rheinland.

Detailed Patch Notes

ART
- Added: Pennsylvania scene in Main Menu.
- Added: Gammu AI bomber by @Felsvar
- Added: New Civilian fighter-bomber by @Kuze
- Added: New Edgeworld bomber by @Kuze
- Added: New Edgeworld fighter by @Chronicron
- Added: Gaian freighter by @Lucas
- Added: New Arrow model by @Lucas
- Added: Scanner, Miner and Repair Drones
- Added: The old Praetorian design by @AngelofMercy has been remade by @aerelm, and returns as the Corsairs' main bomber. The new model by @Kuze introduced in Patch 8 has been repurposed as the "Evocatus" Fighter-Bomber.
- Added: A Custom POB model by @Capt. Henry Morgan and @Goddess Astra, available for Core 1 and 2.
- Added: New models for generic fighter guns that were using Bretonian models before (Dulzian, Phoenix, PG, etc).
- Added: Generic Gunboat turrets by @Swallow
- Added: Generic Capital Ship turrets by @Kuze
- Added: AI Snac effect
- Added: AI Bomber Engine effect
- Added: Core Gunboat and Transport engine effects
- Added: White Variety of TPR engines, available at the Barrier Gate.
- Changed: Order Gunboat/Transport cruise effect contrail lasts a bit longer now
- Changed: Updated STORMBREAKER weapon effect.
- Changed: Large rework of Cities shown in landing scenes for Planets to be original and not copies.

Updated Cityscapes (Detailed)

- Nauru.
- Planet New Paris.
- Planet Orleans.
- Planet Marne.
- Planet Sprague.
- Planet Carlisle.
- Planet Amiens.
- Planet Metz.
- Akabat.

- Changed: Related to the above, Planet Sprague and Denver now show the landing pad.
- Changed: Niobium ore model changed.
- Changed: Pristine Ice model made a little more modest in size.
- Fixed: Some animation issues on certain TPR engines

BALANCE
- Changed: Freighter stats have been redone.
- Changed: The "Fighter Gun Efficiency Formula" has been applied to Class 2 Bomber guns. Generally makes them slightly more efficient, as their muzzle velocity tends to be low.
- Changed: ACROBATIC fighter codename gun: velocity reduced from 900 to 800. Dispersion removed.
- Changed: AHRIMAN bomber codename gun: velocity reduced from 550 to 450. Dispersion reduced from 2.25 to 0.4.
- Changed: Longsword strafe force reduced from 17500 to 17000.
- Changed: Piranha, Barracuda & Hammerhead rolling speed reduced.
- Changed: Loki Mk. II strafe force and mass corrected (strafe force: 20,000 -> 17,500; mass: 150 -> 125).
- Changed: Aggressor & Rebel response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): from 0.6205s to 0.6511s and from 0.4767s to 0.5453s respectively.
- Changed: Anaconda response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): 0.4782s to 0.5373s.
- Changed: Marauder response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): 0.5225s to 0.5661s.
- Changed: Centurion response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): 0.6000s to 0.6382s; rolling speed changed.
- Changed: Legionnaire response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): from 0.6507s to 0.7133s.
- Changed: Locust response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): from 0.4504s to 0.5037s. Nanobots/Shield Batteries increased from 66/66 to 68/68. Powercore increased from 12400/1240 to 13400/1300.
- Changed: Beetle response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): from 0.5453s to 0.6059s. Powercore increased from 8825/1230 to 9750/1285.
- Changed: Arrow model updated. Response time increased (read: turning acceleration reduced): from 0.5833s to 0.7368s. Armor increased from 3750 to 8380. Gun count from 3 to 4.
- Changed: Crusader rebalanced: Maximum turn rate increased from 62.82° to 66.10°. Response time increased from 0.4717s to 0.5267s. Armor reduced from 14000 to 13200. Nanobots/Shield Batteries reduced from 76/76 to 72/72. Powercore increased from 12400/1240 to 13400/1300.
- Changed: Cutlass, Sichel and Bloodhound cameras improved.
- Changed: Barge handling and mobility.

Barge Changes (Detailed)

- Barge now has a short-burst thruster similar to cruisers, increasing its max non-cruise speed to 45ms.
- Updated acceleration rates for impulse and strafe, to make smaller corrections and lining up with solars easier.
- Faster cruise charge time and max speed, but in comparison to the old one the acceleration to full speed is slower.
- Some hitbox and dockpoint adjustments to make it have an easier time with dockables and going through (lower density) asteroid/debris.

The aim of these changes was to keep the general mobility and "feel" of that ship the same, but makes it easier to recover whenever things don't go quite as planned (getting bumped, stuck, etc). As a side-effect of these, the 'speeddock' point of the ship has moved a bit again, so when using trade lanes, making sure (1) the ship's heading lines up with the lane, (2) the ship has forward momentum, and (3) initiating the dock at this point is recommended.

These changes are not final, so expect more tweaks and fine-tuning in future patches, and if you're a barge owner, feel free to share your feedback.

CODING
- Added: Adoxa's Wheel Scroll plugin, enabling mouse wheel scrolling in most menus.
- Changed: Options menu to include more settings.
- Fixed: Change to the client to fix the map displayed empty on too many visited objects. (Fix originally found by adoxa)

INFOCARDS
- Changed: Cardamine & Stabiline infocards fleshed out.
- Changed: Pristine Ice infocard.
- Changed: Regional Passengers Infocard Updates.
- Changed: Bristol Mining Facility (Cambridge) to Peterborough Mining Facility.

SYSTEMS
- Added: Fighter/Freighter only dock point to Manhattan with custom citysphere.
- Added: Bristol Constructions & Manufacturing has been added as an npc faction with a solars(Bristol Bay Station, Bering), npcs etc. Npc traders go from Bristol Bay to Pennsylvania
- Added: Corvo solar in Tau-23 within the Anomaly field to serve as a marker.
- Added: Nebula trade lane effect on every first trade lane ring in every nebula.
- Changed: Insurgency Campaign Progression

Campaign Progression (Detailed)

- Carrier Ohio moved to Vespucci
- Battleship Delaware destroyed
- Marshall Station damaged
- Warzone moved to Vespucci
- Removed Insurgency patrols from Kansas and Pennsylvania

- Changed: Pennsylvania tweaks

Pennsylvania tweaks (Detailed)

- Shuffled lane positions around restoring original layout with Erie center, Philadelphia front and Bethlehem alone near the (moved) star.
- Slight tweak to lane alignment for Erie
- Moved mining zone slightly closer to Erie, buoys once more leading from planet spawn to the mining zone

- Changed: Bering and Hudson rework

Bering and Hudson (Detailed)

Bering:
- Asteroid field changed to be traversable by everything but keeping it visually similar.
- Tweak to layout, consistent with the sector map and now slightly longer than Hudson
- Added Bristol Bay Station and npc patrols
- Details and npcs

Hudson:
- Layout changed to be not merely a pass through
- Shorter lanes than Bering
- Chance of dangerous lane encounter

- More details in Skorak's Dev Blog

- Added: Fighter and transport only dockpoint to Ouray for Outcasts only - Cardamine smuggling
- Changed: Localized faction NPC voicelines changed back to English.
- Changed: Moved Battleship Thebes to Minor.
- Changed: Moved Battleship Mars to Kappa.
- Changed: Moved Battleship Fes to Theta.
- Changed: Moved Battleship Basilica to Theta.
- Changed: Battleship Rio Grande moved near Denver, news references in the game.
- Changed: Various full field systems to play region music instead.
- Changed: Zurich has been reworked considering player feedback regarding recent changes. New rumours, infocards and wrecks have been applied.
- Changed: Omega-48 jump hole connections heavily reworked, removing Stuttgart and Omega-3 connections to reduce bloat, other holes moved closer to one another to create chokepoints.
- Changed: Poole jump hole connections reworked, removing Omega-5 and Omega-52 to reduce bloat, distances reduced slightly.
- Changed: Fighter only jump holes removed in Puerto Rico (Baffin & Galileo).
- Changed: Ontario is now an Independent World.
- Changed: Custom warzone encounter for Zeta and Edinburgh tweaked to be less deadly.
- Changed: Tau-53 lanes disabled, gates locked. Corresponding gates in Hokkaido and Lorraine also locked.
- Changed: Misaki Station in Tau-53 abandoned, facilities being relocated.
- Changed: Tau-23 gate connection restored to Languedoc & Tau-31 with news article added related.
- Changed: Lanes near New London adjusted slightly for more room.
- Changed: NPC Gas Miner loadout.
- Changed: NPC Transports and Trains are proper transports again, using ship names and the transport symbol.
- Fixed: /autobuy on Battlecruiser Triton.
- Fixed: Various unique pobs (Nichols, NSE, Isle of Skye) parts now select the pob correctly - Makes them kind of wonky in singleplayer for the sake of multiplayer.
- Fixed: Misaligned Cortez lane. Still no loops available.
- Fixed: Fort Monach IFF
- Fixed: Toronto Station infocard
- Fixed: Moved Liberty Rose out of a rock
- Fixed: Fort Riley infocard
- Fixed: Brandenburg junction
- Fixed: One stray mooring fixture on New Berlin undocking people wrongly, destroying every Barge.
- Fixed: Aomori Station (Honshu) Exclusion Zone.
- Fixed: Spawn chance of the stationary battleship encounter
- Fixed: Name display bug in Omega-7 fixed.
- Fixed: Fixed Caernarvon CTD.
- Fixed: Fixed some Alaska bugs.

ECONOMY
- Added: Added Kidnapped VIPs sold from new Manhattan atmo point (freighter/ferry smuggling routes)
- Added: Routes to Manhattan atmo added
- Added: Robotic Hardware salepoint added to new Bristol Bay
- Added: Refugees fleeing Veracruz (routes added to relevant areas)
- Added: Introducing Prisoner Transfer Convoys (experimental freighter/liner):

Prisoner Convoys (Detailed)

Designed to give Police and/or local Lawfuls a thematic route and encourage convoying/piracy.
- Liberty Transfers from San Diego Border Station to LPI Sugarland (fence points in place)
- Kusari Transfers from Fukuoka Border Station to Fuchu Prison (fence points in place)
- Gallic Transfers from Battlecruiser Aubagne to both IDF Prison and Montbrison Prison (fence points in place)
- Gallic Transfers from Borneo to Montbrison Prison
(Something different coming for Rhein. Bret.)

- Changed: Biostability Monitors Reworked - Origin moved to P. Quillan, volume changed
- Changed: Increased risk to Cardamine hauling
- Changed: BHG Criminals route profit boosted
- Changed: Attempts at surging selected prices due to blockades and crises
- Changed: Pilot prices increased at Bounty Hunter stations
- Changed: Rebalance from systems changes
- Fixed: Some focus on reviving the Gallic Economy, somewhat neglected after many systems changes

CREDITS

Dev Leads: @Alex., @Reeves, @Haste, @Markam, @Treewyrm, @Zentor
Developers: @bakugone, @Groshyr, @pillow. @TheShooter36. @Skorak, @Val, @Kauket, @Widow, @Erremnart
Contributors: @Kuze, @Swallow, @Lucas, @Felsvar, @Chronicron, @AngelofMercy, @Capt. Henry Morgan, @Goddess Astra, @aerelm, @Toaster, @Eagle-Vulture, @Solo Wing Sagume, @Lord Helmchen, @Buka, @Goliath

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FLHook suggestions
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[Chronicron]

- Added: New Edgeworld fighter by @Chronicron

a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

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[Spectre]

Ah, good. Exactly what we needed.

More f--king bombers.

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#BringBackTheCommonwealth

=CR=-----IN|G
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A plurality is not a majority, and a majority is not everybody.

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Spec's RP Consortium
V-3X | CV-Montu | Fort Murray
Unum pro Omnibus, Omnes pro Uno

Your signature grew too big, I helped downscale it. ~Vex
Your adjustment grew too big, I helped downscale it. ~Spectre

[Goddess Astra]

Does the scanner drone have any particular little perk like the repair and mining drones, or is that one literally just a little zoomy friend? Either way, I love the drones, fantastic idea, can't wait to have a billion for RP.

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Freelancer Reimagined: Complete Music Overhaul

[Commandantt]

You make a 052 dead-end system, and make it a 100% Guard system as I see for now. Placed JH to it in one sector with Poole near Molly's base. And done same with o41 o55

I have no words for it.

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[Oprixy]

The Evocatus isnt able to fire a ASURAS interesting.

[Cælumaresh]

Already spotted 1 missed SHF to the new fighter bomber role:

Poltergeist Rheinland SHF is still ye aulde SHF


I also have a feeling these fighter-bombers are going to be ridiculous, but time will tell!

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This Galaxy is vast; its wonders and beauty are almost unfathomable. But the galaxy also hides dark secrets, some of which have lain dormant since the beginning of time itself. There is a danger in secrets, both in seeking and in knowing. Some things are meant to be hidden from view. Some mysteries defy understanding, and sometimes even the things we think we know are untrue. Some secrets should remain untouched.

Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum

[BobMacaroni]

Nice update, freighters and bombers really needed an update, and the unique house bomber class 2's are a nice touch. Fighter-bombers are a bit of an odd idea, but who knows, maybe they will be a good ship class!

[Haste]

Already spotted 1 missed SHF to the new fighter bomber role:

All of the SHFs not listed have been "missed". It's still a concept that should likely be tested on "live" rather than in a more limited testing environment. Plus the remaining ones still need model changes to accommodate torpedoes.

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[Binski]

20 mil to rebuy the same freighter engine? Could have set the fast one as the default!

With all respect I like the idea, I just wish this had been done for transports instead, even all ships. It would be interesting to see that ability to sacrifice a couple hundred cargo spaces to upgrade a 3600 - 5000 transport by 25 - 50 m/s. That would make it a worthy moneysink. It's kinda not so needed with freighters, I like the cargo bump, but freighters were always the fastest ships, the go-to for couriers and rescuers, etc. Definitely if you apply that system to other ships it will make things quite interesting.

Perhaps you would consider making the fast freighter engine 450, and the slow one 400. With the low cargo of freighters at 650 it's not that worth it. But 20 million to get a 50 m/s bump on my normal freighter speed would be much better and worth the cargo loss.

Not only that, but personally I would get actual use out of my freighter if I could sacrifice that second mine slot to mount both a missile and CD at the same time again! I'd rather lose both mine slots for one more missile slot.

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