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 stuff in beta refresh 1.14 (build 2011): 3/16/00
Balance changes:
Bomber development cost increased by 33%.
New stuff in beta refresh 1.13 (build 2010): 3/15/00
Balance changes:
Cost of Belter stations is reduced 20%.
Cost of Belter station upgrades is reduced 50% (but upgrades still take 4 minutes to complete).
Cost of Belter miners is reduced 20%.
Income of Gigacorp special refineries is increased 50% (to $750/minute).
All special rock research centers generate an income of $200/minute.
Damage inflicted by mines and towers vs. capital ships reduced by 50%.
Bios lifepods take 25 seconds to ripcord.
New stuff in beta refresh 1.12 (build 2006): 3/13/00
Balance changes:
Belter "fixed" income reduced 25% (to $450/minute). Starting money is unchanged.
Belters are able to build advanced ships after then have been researched even if the
corresponding station is destroyed.
Gameplay change:
Drone pilots have been imported from NYC. They will not try to dodge enemy ships.
New stuff in beta refresh 1.11 (build 2004): 3/10/00
Balance changes:
Afterburners on interceptors provide increased acceleration.
Belter faction changes:
Speeds increased overall by 15%.
Fuel increased on most ships by around 20%.
Mining yield increased by 25%, but mining speed & capacity are reduced by 20%. The net
effect is that Belter miners get the same money per trip as other factions, but their
miners can make more trips to the same rock before depleting it.
Ship developments costs reduced by 50%.
Old stuff (this was accidentally left out of the readme when we added the belters):
Belters are the most adaptable of all the factions. Given duct tape and a big enough hammer and
they can pretty much mount anything anywhere. The downside is the lack of standardization makes
research harder and more expensive, though they can reverse engineer almost anything. Their
ships generally lack shields but make up for it with better armor.
In particular:
Ship weapon mounts are, ah, confused:
Stealth get one mount that can use stealth or fighter weapons, the other can mount
stealth or repair weapons.
Fighters get one mount that can use interceptor or fighter weapons, one mount that
can use fighter or stealth weapons & one for fighter or repair weapons.
Interceptors get one mount that can use interceptor or fighter weapons & one mount
that can carry the repair weapon.
Interceptors can carry small non-tracking missiles.
Fighters, scouts & stealth can not use shields.
Stealths & scouts get boosters (limited endurance for both).
Fighters can carry medium, non-tracking missiles.
Technology is more expensive and has a longer lead time but they can freely copy captured
technology.
New stuff in beta refresh 1.1 (build 2002): 3/7/00
Game changes:
New map type added: EastWest. 2 teams, 26 sectors, 'nuff said.
Teams no longer get money from completed stations, instead they get a fixed income
($525/minute for Iron Coalition, $750/minute for Gigacorp, $600/minute for everyone else).
Gigacorp special refineries still generate income (but only $500/minute instead of $750/minute).
Balance changes:
Stealth fighters, advanced stealth fighter, stealth bomber carry small shields.
Small shield research moved to tactical laboratory.
Medium shield research moved to garrison.
Signature penalty for medium shield increased to 75% (from 25%).
Made small changes to the anti-utility, disruptor and mini-guns. All of these changes are small
(less than 10% change) but the net effect has been to make the anti-utilities less effective and
the other weapons more effective.
Seismic missiles damage vs. everything except rocks reduced by 50%. Damage vs. rocks reduced
by 25%.
Pulse probe can be researched by starting expansion center.
Interceptors & heavy interceptors can carry (& drop) one pulse probe/slot.
Scouts can carry 2 pulse probes/slot.
Hit points for belter ships increased.
Nanite repair weapons take energy to fire.
Energy costs/amounts for ships have been rebalanced. Combat capability is more or less
unchanged but Bios non-stealths will not be able to use the heavy cloaks as effectively.
Heavy cloak removed from all heavy bombers (except Bios).
Bios bomber and gunship can use heavy cloaks.
Damage from XRM cruise missiles increased by 50%.
All factions except Iron Coalition must research XRM cruise missile 1 (at ship yard).
XRM cruise missile 2 is now researched at advanced shipyard, and the XRM cruise missile 3 is
no longer available.
Fixed several data bugs with respect to belter and gigacorp research.
Fixed data bug with teleport probe: you no longer need to have a tactical lab to build one.
New stuff in beta refresh 1.09a (build 1878a): 2/15/00
Balance changes:
Agility of stealth fighters has been reduced by 40%.
Models have been resized slightly. In general, interceptors are smaller than fighters or
scouts, which are smaller than stealth fighters.
Iron Coalition military outpost is 50% tougher.
Iron coalition starts with a light interceptor instead of a fighter.
Iron coalition bombers & capital ships are 20% less expensive.
Gigacorp starts with the option to research a "patroller" instead of a fighter.
The patroller is a slightly modified fighter (major changes: better scan range, no
afterburner, the ability to drop mines and probes).
Gigacorp can research the enhanced fighter without researching the patroller.
The patroller can be bought even after the enhanced fighter is researched.
Gigacorp outposts/refineries/teleport recievers are 30-40% weaker.
New stuff in beta refresh 1.09 (build 1878): 2/5/00
Balance changes:
Bios start with a starbase instead of a garrison.
Bios buildings take 2 minutes to build, same as other factions.
Turret Autocannons reduced in power by approximately 33%.
The return of the sector support ship, with a couple of changes:
Requires an advanced supremacy center and a shipyard in order to research.
Pilot is armed with 0 - 2 autocannons/healing weapons (depending on the faction).
Has two capital turrets.
Cost is $5,000 each.
Scan range reduced to from 7,200 to 3,600.
They can no longer ripcord.
Top speed is reduced to 100 from 120.
Can not use the heavy healing weapon (which is no longer in the game in any form).
They act as mobile teleport recievers (bonus points to anyone who reads this far).
New stuff in beta refresh 1.10 (build 1876): 2/5/00
new stuff:
added squad list to player profile screen; clicking on a squad button while a squad is
selected takes you to the squadscreen with that squad selected there too.
(part of someone else's bug) increased squads shown to 21; ascend/descend still goes by 20.
Bring up game state pane by default when the game starts. Tear down game state pane when the
player launches goes to the command view, or loadout.
Changed the behavior of the investment pane so that if you hover over a space station, it will
hilight the sectors in which the station can be built.
Ship can no longer fire missiles while ripcording.
Giving commands points:
Added code to award points to the commander. Actual algorithm is as follows: Pick a commander
(which, currently, is the commander at the end of the game).
Calculate the total score earned by all players on the team (including those who have left
the team).
Calculate the total time played by all players on the team (including those who have left
the team).
alternate score points =
(commander's total time played) * (team score) / (team total time played)
If alternate score points > points earned by the commander, the commander gets the alternate
score instead of his normal score.
Balance changes for all players:
Stealth fighter missile capacity reduced to 4 (from 6).
Advanced stealth fighter missile capacity reduced to 6 (from 8).
Size of LRM killers increased to 3 (so that stealth/advanced stealth can carry 1 & 2)
Amount of chaff carried by ships significantly reduced.
Cruiser top speed is 90.
Balance changes for beta testers & zone club only (people loggin into the free zone servers will be
using a slightly modified version of the 1.08c data):
We are adding changes that differentiate between factions. This is, as you can imagine, a difficult
balance challenge and one for which we need your help. To minimize the variables, please play games
in which everyone plays the same faction and games in which people play different factions but
persue the same tech path.
Your feedback is very important and this will help us isolate and fix problems as quickly as possible.
Global changes:
Shipyards cost $15,000 (from $10,000).
Development cost of capital ships is now double the price.
Price of destroyer ships reduced to $4,000.
Price of enhanced miner/constructor reduced to $5,000 each.
Towers made more effective when attacking capital ships.
Sector support ship removed from the game.
Effectiveness of healing weapons increased by 50%.
All research/station purchase/drone purchase takes 2 minutes to complete.
Increased signature of all stations (in keeping with their size). Teleport recievers have a
signature of 50%, outposts have a signature of 100% and all other stations have a signature
of 250%.
Move hunter-killer missiles entirely into the shipyard path.
Heavy cloak is now in the starbase path.
Faction specific changes:
Iron League:
In general, this is the "pure" military path and is the closest to the earlier versions.
Its stations are tougher, its ships are more deadly and it can rush earlier than any other
faction. But its economy is weaker so a failed rush will probably lose the game early.
No restrictions on building shipyards.
A level 1 research station is required to upgrade the shipyard.
No refinery.
Outpost costs $7.5k and is immune to galvonics/emp cannon.
Miners mine 25% slower.
Building upgrades are 20% more expensive.
Stations have 25% more shields and armor.
Guns and missiles do 15% more damage.
Signatures are 15% higher.
Ships carry more ammo and have larger energy reserves.
Tower is the most accurate, but has limited ammo.
Income from stations is reduced about 30%.
Three capital ships available:
Frigate - as before
Devastator - replaces the destroyer, available at shipyard 1. 4 turrets and a
nasty gun that can kill stations (and ships and anything else that wanders in
front of it).
Cruiser - as before
Gigacorp:
An economic powerhouse. More ways to make and spend money, but their infrastructure is
considerably more fragile. The investor's role in deciding when and what to buy is more
critical for this faction than any other.
Has 3 new buildings: silicon, uranium & carbon refineries. These buildings cost
$10,000 each and must be build on the appropriate type of asteroid buy they produce
an income of $750 per minute. These refineries do not function as He3 refineries and
players can not land at or launch from them.
Normal refineries cost only $1,000.
Teleport recievers cost $2,000.
Outposts cost $2,500. But ... all of the above buildings are lightly armored
and can be destroyed by weapons carried by small craft.
All other income generating buildings generate 50% more income/minute.
No shipyard until they get a level 2 research building.
No upgraded shipyard.
Turrets have no ammo limit, but accuracy is reduced.
All ships are 15% faster.
Miners are 10% faster and get 10% more money for He3 mined.
Turning is a little sloppier.
Get an extra $6k to start the game.
Do not get most of the starting techs (no fighter, no cloak, no disruptor,
no booster, no skycap turret, no tactical nuke 1, no).
Starts the game with enhanced miners and constructors.
Has "luxury" versions of the fighter, interceptor & stealth fighter. These
are slightly better than the corresponding advanced versions (which are a
prerequisite) but cost $500 @.
Three capital ships available:
Light cruiser - essentially a missile frigate that can ripcord.
Destroyer - as before.
Devastator - same as Iron League devastator.
Bios:
A scientific wonder. Technology is less expensive for them to develop, although
it takes them more time to complete their developments. Planning ahead is crtical.
All research buildings cost $15,000 each, but do not need to be upgraded.
All research buildings take 5 mintes to build.
The garrison can still be upgraded to a starbase.
All developments are half price, but take 10 minutes to complete.
All ships have 15% higher turn rates.
All stations have 25% less armor and shields, but repair 25% more
quickly.
All ships have 10% less armor and shields, but shields regenerate 25%
more quickly.
All ships have 15% more scan range.
All ships have 15% lower signature.
All fighters, scouts & interceptors can carry the heavy cloak (note that
they generally will not want to: it will reduce their maneuverability).
Lifepods can ripcord, but have a top speed of 40.
Three capital ships available:
Cruiser - as before (but they do not need to research the frigate).
Destroyer - as before.
Devastator - same as Iron League devastator.
New features in beta refresh 1.08c (build 1870): 2/2/00
1. Balance changes:
LRM Killer missiles modified to do far less damage to anything except capital ships.
Their range has also been reduced slightly.
New features in beta refresh 1.08 (build 1868): 1/28/00
1. stuff to know:
dplay protocol still doesn't play nicely with all NAT's yet. we're working on it.
you should download the sound patch to get all the new sound stuff. not necessary to
play the game, though. - http://zone.com/allegiance/downloads.asp
squads are in. give them a try. they're easier to use now. create a squad and get some
members on it. then create a game and click SQUAD game. your game will now show up in
the zone as a squad game and other squads can join.
standalone servers are not available yet and probably will not be in the beta.
always check known issues page on http://zone.com/allegiance.
2. Balance changes:
Sector support repair weapon reduced to 128/second (from 300/second).
Building a shipyard 1 requires having a level 1 research station.
Researching shipyard 2 requires having a level 2 research station.
Teleport probe moved to starbase
Cruisers can not fire hunter killer missiles (only the destroyer can)
New hunter killer 2 & 3 avail at shipyard 1 & 2 (hk 2 was available at electronics 2)
HK missiles more effective in general.
All civs get cloak 1 by default
Cloak 2 & heavy cloak 1 avail at electronics 1
Cloak 3 & heavy cloak 2 avail at electronics 2
Lower energy cost on heavy cloaks.
Reduced maximum energy for heavy bomber, frigate & sector support.
Stealth fighter can fire LRM missiles
LRM hunter 1 avail from start (as before)
LRM hunter 2 & LRM killer 1 avail at electronics 1
LRM hunter 3 & LRM killer 2 avail at electronics 2
Missile capacity of advanced stealth fighter & stealth bomber increased.
Mini gun reduced in effect 50% vs. shields and utility.
PW cannon changed to EMP cannon:
Range is 600
Affects only ship and outpost, refinery, teleport reciever shields,
no hull damage.
Damage increased.
LRM Killer missile. Basically a big dumbfire for either adv tac fighter or bombers.
Does 3-4 times the damage plus is not as heavily penalized vs. cap ships.
Lowered lifepod signature to 50% and changed the DB constraint on ship signature to
be >= 10%
Lowered lifepod scan range to 200 (the previous value, 500, was rather silly: it was
longer than a fighter's).
Interceptor signatures are 0.75 (vs. 0.5)
Moved bomber anti-rock missile to tac 2.
removed the fake teleport probe
reduced the cost of the real teleport probe to $500
Increased speed of destroyer to 75, and agility to 15 deg/sec
Decreased speed of gunship to 80, increased dev cost to $10,000
Increased cloaking of cloak 1 to 60%
New features in beta refresh 1.06 (build 1850): 1/13/00
1. Balance changes:
Cruiser ripcord now takes 20 seconds.
Cap ships/gunships can mount the bomber turrets.
Gunship, bomber/heavy bomber ammo reduced 25%.
Heavy interceptor top speed reduced to 90 (from 100).
Interceptor & heavy interceptor afterburner speeds reduced 25% or so.
Frigate can use the heavy cloak (it always could carry it ... just didn't have it as
default equipment or with enough energy).
Sector support & destroyer can ripcord.
Removed afterburner from sector support.
Heavy troop transport can fire the emp missile but loses the ability to drop a
station's shield.
Interceptor/heavy interceptor booster fuel reduced to 15 (from 20 & 25)
Missile agility, damage & scan range GAs moved to supremacy center.
Ammo capacity of the drone autocannon has been trippled. It can now fire continuously
for 2 minutes.
2. New toys:
Mine 2 & 3 (expansion 1 & 2) Slightly deadlier, slightly longer lifespan
Minepack 1 & 2 (supremacy 1 & 2) Deadlier, smaller radius, 5 second lifespan but you
can carry twice as many
Probe 2 & 3 (supremacy 1 & 2) Slightly longer scan range, harder to spot
Pulse probe (expansion 2) 5000 scan range, 5 second lifespan
SRM anti-rock (tactical 2) Anti rock missile that fits on a bomber. Very short range.
and ... because I'm in a evil mood ...
Teleport probe (tactical 2) It looks just like a teleport probe to the enemy but it
doesn't do anything or cost anything. Did he bring a tac fighter in or not? Only your
miners know for sure.
3. New ranks:
Number Points Rank
BIOS 0 35 0 Recruit
1 35 500 Novice
2 35 2000 Soldier
3 35 5000 Veteran
4 35 9000 Elite
5 35 14000 Lancer
6 35 20000 Lance Leader
7 35 26000 Centurion
8 35 34000 High Centurion
9 35 43000 Legionnaire
10 35 54000 High Legionnaire
11 35 65000 Optio
12 35 77000 General
13 35 90000 Praetor
14 35 105000 High Praetor
GIGACORP 0 18 0 Airman
1 18 500 Corporal
2 18 2000 Sergeant
3 18 5000 Warrant Officer
4 18 9000 Mstr Warrant Office
5 18 14000 Pilot
6 18 20000 Flight Lieutenant
7 18 26000 Squadron Leader
8 18 34000 Wing Commander
9 18 43000 Star Commodore
10 18 54000 Star Vice Marshal
11 18 65000 Star Marshal
12 18 77000 Star Chief Marshal
13 18 90000 Star Vice Admiral
14 18 105000 Star Admiral
IRON COALITION 0 25 0 Private
1 25 500 Corporal
2 25 2000 Sergeant
3 25 5000 Sgt. Major
4 25 9000 Sgt. Major (Marine)
5 25 14000 2nd Lieutenant
6 25 20000 1st Lieutenant
7 25 26000 Captain
8 25 34000 Major
9 25 43000 Lt. Colonel
10 25 54000 Colonel
11 25 65000 Brigadier General
12 25 77000 Major General
13 25 90000 Lieutenant General
14 25 105000 General
4. Balance changes:
MRM Seeker missiles 2 & 3 researched at garrison and starbase, not tactical laboratory.
New shields: small shields 2 & 3 (supremacy center), medium shields 2 & 3 (tactical
laboratory) & large shields 2 & 3 (shipyard).
Outposts now cost $5000.
Teleport Receivers now cost $4000.
A new station type has been defined: refineries. No one can land there but miners will
be able to offload He3 if they pass nearby. These cost $2000 and, like outposts and
teleport receivers, can be damaged by Galvonic blasters.
Skycap 3 turret rate of fire reduced to match Skycap 2.
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.
