Beta (MS)
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Microsoft did start beta testing in 1999. In January 2000 the open beta test phase began.
Open BETA changelog
New features in beta refresh 1.03 (build 1832a)
Balance changes:
Missile frigate has energy now.
Towers are now more accurate.
Probes/towers no longer invulnerable.
Adjusted the lengths of single player ships to compensate for hull shape (basically, the
skinny ships got bigger).
Reduced the damage done by the sky cap turret by 50%.
Adjusted the requirements to build stations. Garrisons, starbases, outposts & teleport
receivers can be built by any station. Other stations require either a garrison or a starbase.
Nanite Repair system Mk1 effectiveness improved 50%.
New features in beta refresh 1.02 (build 1832)
1. Gameplay changes:
All ships launch from base with full shields.
Constructors/layers never run until after they have taken hull damage.
Lifepods take & inflict damage when colliding with enemy ships.
2. Balance changes:
All weapons, except Galvonics, do absolutely no damage to any type of station.
Galvonics can only inflict damage on outposts and teleport receivers.
Sensor range of fighters is halved.
All stealth fighters get the advanced lead indicator (same as for turrets).
Both the Interceptor and Heavy Interceptor are 20 mps faster.
The interceptor has 100 more hitpoints (to 700).
The EMP missile has been added to the expansion path. This is a bomber only missile
that does 7000 damage to shields (ship or station), but no damage to hulls.
The signature penalty for carrying medium missiles has been reduced to 75%.
Disruptors & Galvonics have been made significantly less effective against
small ships.
The Chain Cannon has been made less effective against large ships, but now
does area damage. Range has been increased slightly, but projectile speed has
been reduced.
The new time to kill chart is:
Anti-utility Sniper MG Disruptor Galvoic Cannon Mini-gun
Adv Scout 12.1 14.3 13.8 23.2 11.6 8.3 7.5
Enh Fighter 15.2 17.9 16.3 30.4 15.2 10.4 9.1
Interceptor 42.5 25.0 23.3 33.3 16.7 29.2 15.5
Stealth 13.7 16.1 18.8 21.4 10.7 9.4 9.1
Bomber 57.7 39.3 41.7 48.8 24.4 39.6 24.3
Miner 21.3 39.3 55.0 125.0 62.5 39.6 33.2
Frigate 273.3 214.3 250.0 160.7 80.4 312.5 166.0
Cruiser 819.8 392.9 450.0 214.3 107.1 562.5 464.8
Outpost inf inf inf inf 83.3 inf inf
New features in beta refresh 1.01 (build 1829)
1. Gameplay changes:
Ships and eject pods may no self-destruct.
Eject pods neither take nor inflict damage in collisions. Eject pods can still be
killed by weapons and minefields.
Drones no longer try to dodge bullets. It didn't work and it prevented them from
getting away.
The number of special asteroids has been changed. Starting sectors get 0 or 1.
Neutral sectors get 1 or 2 (default is 1 & 1).
The number of He3 asteroids has been changed. Starting sectors get 0 - 2.
Neutral sectors get 2 or 4 (default is 2 & 4).
Starting money is increased to $12,000 by default (ranges from $9,000 to $18,000).
2. Balance changes:
Scouts start with a machine gun/disruptor/healing weapon instead of the
anti-utility/healing weapon.
Stealth cloaks always consume more energy than the stealth fighters/bombers generate.
The cloaks are still partially effective, however, even when the fighter is out of
energy.
Stealth fighters no longer have afterburners.
Range of LRM missiles reduced by about 25%.
Machine guns & disruptors are less effective against miners and constructors.
Enhanced miner & constructor are available from the start of the game. Advanced versions
still require the advanced expansion complex.
Interceptors & heavy interceptors have significantly more fuel.
The anti-rock missile is now a cruiser/destroyer weapon.
Prices for station upgrades increased to $25,000 ($10,000 for garrison).
Ship upgrade costs made more uniform: $7,500 for level 1 & $10,000 for level 2
($15,000 for the the cruiser).
No He3 regeneration.
Global advances 3-10 eliminated for all tech paths.
The size and signature of the teleport receiver station have been reduced.
Range of drone autocannons has been increased and their accuracy has been
reduced.
Sentry towers do more damage and are more accurate. Price has been reduced to
$1000. Lifepsan is now 20 minutes.
Calthrop minefields are now $1000.
The revised time to kill chart is the following:
Anti-utility Sniper MG Disruptor Galvoic Cannon Mini-gun
Adv Scout 12.1 14.3 13.8 16.3 8.1 9.4 7.5
Enh Fighter 15.2 17.9 16.3 21.3 10.6 11.5 9.1
Interceptor 36.4 21.4 20.0 20.0 10.0 12.5 13.3
Stealth 13.7 16.1 18.8 15.0 7.5 11.5 9.1
Bomber 57.7 39.3 41.7 34.2 17.1 25.0 24.3
Miner 21.3 39.3 55.0 87.5 43.8 41.7 33.2
Frigate 273.3 214.3 250.0 150.0 75.0 125.0 166.0
Cruiser 819.8 392.9 350.0 225.0 112.5 250.0 464.8
Outpost 2833.7 1190.4 833.3 666.6 76.4 1111.0 885.2
Garrison 7287.3 2857.1 2000.0 2500.0 208.3 2500.0 1992.0
3. Bug fixes:
Fixed obnoxious chat scrolling problem (woo hoo!!!).
Increased buffer for chat storage
Fixed the missing/wrong lines problem in sector map
Fixed the "experience for killing pods" problem. you ONLY get experience for killing ships.
Fixed training mission 5 assert
Fix authentication crash
New features in beta 1.0 (build 1827)
1. Balance changes:
Disruptors are no longer effective as anti-base weapons. They are stll effective against
capital ships.
Galvonic blaster 1 is eliminated.
Galvonic blaster 2 renamed to just the galvonic blaster. This weapon is still effective against
bases and capital ships (but, because the distruptors no longer work against bases, the time to
kill a base by a fighter has roughly doubled).
Drone autocannon duration is doubled to 20 minutes.
Sentry duration is increased to 30 minutes.
Calthrop minefield endurance is increased.
Doubled the size of the gigacorp stealth fighter to make it a bigger target.
The destroyer now has the same hitpoints/shield as the missile frigate.
New features in beta refresh 0.3 (build 1821)
1. Gameplay changes:
Two new game types:
Capture the flag. Every friendly starting station has a flag position well above it.
Steal the enemy's flag and return it to your base to get a flag point. The game ends
when enough flag points are earned.
Artifact hunt. All neutral sectors start with one artifact. Grab the artifact and
return it to your base to get an artifact point. The game ends when enough artifact
points are earned. You create games that have both flags and artifacts.
Special rules for flags and artifacts:
A ship can only carry a single flag or artifact (and can not carry both).
A ship carrying either a flag or an artifact is always visible to everyone
in the sector.
A ship carrying a flag or an artifact can not teleport.
When a ship carrying a flag or artifact is killed, the treasure drops
where they died.
You can not carry or move the flag belonging to your own side.
2. New toys:
Scientists have been working feverously to solve the endgame enigma and the research
labs have turned up three advances:
First: the teleport probe (researched at the tactical laboratory 2). It is dropped
by the scout and acts, briefly, as a teleport receiver. If the enemy has blockaded
the entrances to their territory too strongly, sneak a scout in and make a new
entrance. The downside is that they are expensive ($1000 each) and last for only a
minute.
If you did not know it, by the way, you can pick which teleport receiver you will
jump to. Press and hold the 'R' key and, while the timer is counting down, pick the
sector you wish to go to in the map. Red circles indicate sectors with teleport
receivers of either type. If you pick a sector without a red circle, the closest
teleport receiver will be used.
Second: cruise missiles (researched at shipyard 1 & 2). Missiles for both frigate,
destroyer and cruiser that trade power off for range. They do only a quarter of the
normal damage but have a range of over 3000 so they can attack stations immediately
on leaving the aleph.
Third: lots of general advancements (ship hull 1 - 10 at supremacy center 1 & 2,
ship shield at tactical laboratory 1 & 2, gun damage at expansion complex 1 & 2 and
missile damage at shipyard 1 & 2). Each advance improves an attribute by 10% (so
that buying all 10, for about $60,000, advancements is a 250% improvement). If you
can afford it and the other team can not, these advancements can be used to buy a
decisive edge.
Bombers and advanced stealth fighters now use the same missiles in the anti-fighter
role. This missile has a range over 2000. Happy plinking.
Heavy cloak which is usable by the stealth fighters, stealth bomber & heavy bomber.
Over twice as effective as the cloak 2, but has a significant energy drain (such that
no ship can use it for more than about 40 seconds before running out of energy).
General advancements 1 & 2 for top speed, acceleration, station hull, station shields,
turn rate, signature, sensor range, ship energy capacity, missile turn rates, He3
mining, particle weapon speed, and energy weapon range. Each advance is 10 or 20%.
Balance changes:
Scout changes: Missile capacity reduced to 2. Probe capacity reduced to 1. Energy
capacity reduced so that a scout can only fire its weapon continuously for 25 seconds
before running out of energy. Mass is reduced (which means that the scout will be more
heavily penalized for carrying missiles, mines & probes).
Advanced scout changes: as with scout plus top speed reduced to 180 and hitpoints
reduced to 225. Both types of scout can drop the teleport probe.
Stealth fighter change: reduced energy capacity to 30 seconds (though only 13 seconds
if using a cloak 1 or 2).
Advanced stealth fighter change: energy capacity is now 60 seconds (but only 17 seconds
if using a cloak 1 or 2).
Cruiser: gains the ability to teleport. If this doesn't seem sufficient, consider two
words: teleport probe.
The cruiser loses the ability to cloak.
Bombers and heavy bombers now cost $500.
Stealth bombers now cost $250.
Gunships are now significantly faster (100) so they can keep up with the fighters,
constructors and miners.
The range of turreted weapons has been significantly increased.
1500 for bomber & heavy bomber turrets.
2000 for gunship, frigate & cruiser turrets.
Troop transports are now free.
Missile ranges, accelerations and turn rates adjusted.
The dumbfire missiles have a shorter maximum range but should be more effective
within their range.
The seeker missiles should be more effective in general.
Seeker and anti-base missiles increase your signature more when mounted.
All missiles (and especially the seeker missiles) are more vulnerable to chaff.
Weapon damage/damage modifiers have been adjusted. The best way to describe the
changes is with the following table:
Anti-utility 2 Sniper 1 MG 2 Disruptor 2 Cannon 1 Mini-gun 2
Adv Scout 12.1 14.3 13.8 16.3 9.4 7.5
Enh Fighter 15.2 17.9 16.3 21.3 11.5 9.1
Interceptor 36.4 21.4 20.0 20.0 12.5 13.3
Stealth 13.7 16.1 18.8 15.0 11.5 9.1
Bomber 57.7 39.3 41.7 34.2 25.0 24.3
Miner 21.3 39.3 35.0 47.5 25.0 33.2
Frigate 273.3 214.3 250.0 150.0 114.6 166.0
The numbers are the number of seconds a single weapon to kill a target (so, for example, an enhanced
fighter with 3 MGs will take about 20/3 ~= 7 seconds to kill an interceptor). Take these numbers with a
grain of salt: they do not account for shield regeneration, assume you are hitting 100% of the time, and
that you will not run out of energy or ammo.
Most of the actual changes are small (under 10%). The largest change is that disruptors have been made
less effective against capital ships.
New features in beta refresh 0.2 (build 1813)
1. Balance/techtree changes:
Asteroids now regenerate He3 slowly.
The amount of money in the universe has been cut in half
The existing tower has been significantly weakened, and a new tower has been added
There are three versions of the booster now; the two new ones are in the supremacy path.
2. A new map type, HiLo, has been created.
3. Damage from collisions with "wimpy" objects has been reduced.
4. Fixed numerous server crashing bugs.
New features in beta refresh 0.1 (build 1808)
1. The game settings button flashes when mission settings are changed,
signaling other players to look at them again.
2. Sound performance improvements (primarily having to do with memory
usage).
3. Graphics performance memory usage and software rendering improvements.
4. Numerous changes to the tech tree and to ships and weapons.
5. Fixes to server crashes.
6. Better loadout and investment icons.
7. When you go to the team pane (F6) and click on the column heading to
sort by Pilot Callsign, non-human pilots are sorted to the bottom of
the list.
8. Slowed down message of the day scrolling.
9. Commands automatically rejected after 5 seconds if not accepted.
10. For ships that cost money to players who do not have money, an
automatic command is sent to the commander asking for money. If
the commander accepts within 5 seconds, the money is given and
the ship is purchased. Commander is defined as the person to
whom the player is auto-donating his paydays.
11. Added support for password-protected games.
12. Got rid of the annoying chat sounds for chat messages not send
only to an individual (MANY people asked for this!).
13. Added a "lock lobby" button, so team commanders can disallow any
new team members from joining.
