Not going to be released BTC 0.11 until after the coming VE patch, but I figured I'd give some teasers here on what to expect.
First, Joe is much nicer to you now; upon finishing his intro quest he'll offer you a choice as to what ship you want to suit the role you want to play in the game: fighter, interceptor or industrial.
Gauss cannon finished, added and tested.
Kinetic missiles finished, added and tested.
New engine, power, shield and RCS options added!Engines follow the general path of speed or maneuverability being stressed. RCS units are the same, with a military RCS for better maneuver or thruster rerouting systems to channel the RCS system into better speed.
Power plants come in three varieties:
-Fusion, good power output
-Fission, good fuel efficiency
-Tritium, excellent max capacitor
Shields come in four varieties:
-Standard
-Barriers that have a high capacity but recharge slowly
-Integrity fields that never go down but have a very low deflection rating (think of them as a secondary armor that is percentage-based)
-Adaptive shields that have a low capacity but can regenerate in combat (they reset almost instantly but with no reestablishment value, giving them a slow trickle of recharge)
Hulls renamed to stick with some new theming and adjusted! They also have four ranks: Civilian, Mk I, Mk I, Experimental.The Athena replaces the Banshee as the standard fighter archetype. Still an energy/ballistic user.
The Apollo replaces the Avalanche as the standard interceptor type, reworked for full missile use.
The Hephaestus replaces the mining vessel, reworked for additional bonuses to miner-y stuff.
The Ares replaces the Orca, multirole mid-sized ship.
The Artemis replaces the Fang as a bomber, same basic concept of being a glass cannon missile sled. The experimental version upgrades two of the launchers.
The Poseidon replaces the Crab, reworked slightly into a brawler with an outstanding ability to take and deal with damage. The experimental version, even moreso.
The Hades will use the new Deathbringer hull as a heavy cruiser. Decent hull but no innate armor, fair maneuver, lots of damage from those large mounts. The experimental version trades the large energy along the centerline along with some agility for linked large missiles, turning the craft into a siege machine.
The Zeus replaces the Hammer, reworked into a battlecruiser. Larger, slower-turning guns, also exceptionally durable. The experimental version upgrades the bore on the ballistic mounts.
On the horizon:Mine weapons. I'll totally get around to adding my version of them. One of them will obviously have to be the B.U.T.T. (Backward Utilized Tracking Torpedo), to score points with anyone who has played any of the Star Control games. Spathi FTW.
NewTech (tm) versions of the rest of the gear, including radars, grapplers, modules and boosters. Boosters in particular will have a lot of variations given the sheer number of new adjustable variables coming with the next patch.
The Dionysus hull, a refit of the Artemis. Still testing out this concept but it plays like a very high-skill-required dogfighter. It sports ballistic weapons instead of missiles, exceptionally limited tracking arcs with all four firing into the front arc, but gains maneuver bonuses (especially to strafe). The key skill for this ship is to be able to strafe around targets and keep them to your nose while dodging fire, specially designed to help counter some of the heavier vessels.
The Cronus hull, brand new design (assuming my friend with actual modelling skills comes through for me.
The first true battleship concept, I'm looking to introduce the Cronus titan as the first 'boss encounter' or unique quest mob put out. Large amounts of structure and armor as well as four large weapon mounts will make him a monster, but a monster with weaknesses (and a unique playstyle, as a playable ship, if ever.) The basic gist will be two weapons that fire with a fairly wide (about 210 degrees) but slow-tracking arc into the front (one above the hull, one below) with a duplicated style in the back facing to the aft. It gives the hull some teeth in any direction but makes it uniquely suited to broadside attacks where it can bring all four weapon mounts to bear. Really looking forward to this one.
Mysterious Tech! (Oooh, so mysterious!) This will just be a stopgap measure until full crafting is put into the game, at which point I will revise it. Starting at level 50, the NPCs that spawn have a chance of dropping Mysterious Tech that you can snatch up and collect. (It will also drop more frequently from quest-related NPCs such as bounty quests.) 'But Hammish', you might ask, 'What does it do, other than being mysterious?' Well, each faction will have a named NPC who desires to have these mysterious bits (don't ask, they have -REASONS-). These NPCs will also have question options corresponding to each of the Experimental Gear bits in the game... and one of the requirements will be bringing them X pieces of Mysterious Tech in addition to a base item and plenty of cash. TL;DR, if you want the highest-tier stuff you'll have to do some work as they'll no longer be shop-purchasable but only available via these quests if you have the tech fragments.
