[Neuroforge Changes]

• See Blog Post: Here
• Added ability to Neuroforge items once Neurobinded.
• Existing NB Items can now be Neuroforged.
• The number of mods you can get added with Bindomite is limited up to two.
• Items are now limited to a certain number of mods by quality.
• Tech 20 and above non-base items that are rare or higher quality now have a chance for mods when constructed from a blueprint.
• Removed the option to NB, Neuroforge, and mod strip in remote inventories to prevent issues with modding / stripping wrong items.
• Added ability to mod strip items. Added a safety check to prevent pinned items from being mod stripped.
• Neurobound gear no longer gets a power increase due to now being able to be modded.
• Added new mods Vectored, Hot Pockets.
• Expanded certain mods onto additional item types.
• Radioactive now is percent Energy Charge instead of flat.
• Super Intelligent and Evil no longer give slightly more bonuses on weapons.

[Class Changes]

• Ranger (formerly Sniper):
  • See Blog Post: Here
  • Ranger Class 1: Add +150 (up to double) and 50% projectile velocity.
  • Ranger Class 2: Overloaders are 2x effective in Heavy Fighters.
  • Ranger Class 3: Removed the ability to use Sniper Analysis (no longer exists) and added 20% Physical Damage and 30% Damage.
  • Marksman (Sub Skill 3 levels): replaces Stalking as a subskill and Stalking is now an Adv Skill. Use a Ranger Scope to gain empowered shots and mark enemies for bonus echo damage, Level 2: Max marks increase to 4, Level 3: Max marks increased to 6. -10% Visibility, 10% Damage
  • Sharpshooting (Sub Skill 3 levels): Changed to up to +24% range and +10% damage per level when under 40 speed. 10% Tracking, 30% Damage
  • True Grit (Sub Skill 3 levels): Formerly called Efficiency. When damaged, 20% of incoming Damage is converted to a parasite with a 30 second lifespan when in a Heavy Fighter. 10% Damage, 10% Shield Recovery while in a Heavy Fighter.
  • Zen of Ranger: Changed to 2% Thrust and 2% speed per level aura added to ship and bots per level when under 40 speed. 1% Shield Recovery per level.
  • Survivalist (Adv Skill): Formerly called Long Scope. Ranger Marks on enemies cause 3.33% more of their damage to you to be converted into Grit.
  • Quick Scope (Adv Skill): Unlocks the Ranger Quick Scope, which charges 25% faster. (5 second to 4 second charge time)
  • Grooved Bores (Adv Skill): Changed to 50% Projectile Velocity, -33% Tracking, 20% Damage
  • Stalking (Adv Skill): Formerly Marksman. Firing visibility decreases twice as fast. -15% Visibility.
  • Removed Sniper Analyzer.
  • Added new Ranger scopes at Lyceum station.
• Gunner:
  • See Blog Post: Here
  • Gunner Class 1: Removed Multifiring. Replaced it with +40% Electric Tempering, +60% Damage.
  • Gunner Class 2: Removed Capital Ship lock to Resistance.
  • Gunner Class 3: Changed from 56% damage to 20% Missile Damage, 30% Shield Max.
  • Big Guns (Sub Skill): changed from 15% Damage per level to 25% Damage per level. 15% Range Reduced to 7% Range.
  • Juice Junky (Sub Skill): Removed Electric Tempering to be no longer cap ship locked.
  • Destruction (Sub Skill): Changed to your weapons apply a mark to your target, increasing all incoming damage (up to 100%) from all other sources. Your Missiles and Fighters can consume 20% more marks.
  • Mass Destruction (Adv Skill): Formerly Automated Reloaded. Increases the amount of damage the Gunner’s Missiles and Fighters can consume from Gunner Marks by 40%.
  • Shield Remodulation (Adv Skill): Changed from +10% Elec Tempering to -10% Damage.
  • Gunboat Diplomacy (Adv Skill): Changed to +1 Super Item slot, +35% Missile Damage, 100% Shield Max, 100% Energy Max. All bonuses applied to Heavy Fighter or Support Freighter.
  • Zen of Gunner (Zen): Added 1% Shield Recovery per level.
  • Targeting Computers no longer restricts main weapon from firing.
  • Adjusted various Targeting Computers stats.
  • Added Bot only Targeting Computers for Capital Ships.
• Berserker:
  • See Blog Post: Here
  • Berserker Class 1: Removed +40 bot multifire and added 60% Weapon Hold.
  • Berserker Class 2: Added 20% Resistance to damage.
  • Ordnance Supremacy (Sub Skill): Reduced damage from 36% to 10%. Added -11%  Electric Tempering.
  • Impervious Armor (Sub Skill): Changed to 10% damage resistance per level when taking damage from the front (120 degree arc). 7% Resistance to Damage
  • Arsenal Expertise (Sub Skill): Changed to 20% Damage, 7% Capacity in Heavy Fighter.
  • Berserking Classic (Adv Skill): Changed to +1 free shot, -20% firing rate when firing 4 shots, -30% firing rate when firing 5+ shots. 100 Multifiring.
  • Berserking Berserker (Adv Skill): Changed 30% speed to 10% speed.
  • Eye for an Eye (Adv Skill): Reduced 25% Resistance to 7% Resistance.
• Recon:
  • Added 30% Shield Recovery to Recon Focus 1,2,3.
  • Added +1 Hull Extension Slot to Recon Focus 2.
  • Expansionist: Moved +1 Hull Expander to Recon Focus 2. Skill now doubles Cargo Hold slots on expanders and +1 Weapon Slots.
• Speed Demon:
  • See Blog Post: Here
  • Speed Demon Class 1: Changed to Rate of fire beyond 10 shots per second is converted to + Damage and + Electrical Tempering. 20% Speed, 33% Damage, 60% Docking Speed.
  • Speed Demon Class 2: Changed to Rate of fire beyond 10 shots per second is converted to + Damage and + Electrical Tempering. 25% Projectile Damage, 12% Rate of Fire.
  • Speed Demon Class 3: Changed to Rate of Fire beyond 10 shots per second is converted to + Damage and + Electrical Tempering. 45% Damage, -22% Electric Tempering.
  • Dogfighting (Sub Skill): Removed -10% Range.
  • Acrobat (Adv Skill): Reduced Inertial Dampening from -50% to 33%. Removed -50% Critical Hit effect Duration, Added 20% Shield Recovery.
  • New Speed Demon Target Tracker added and Demon Tracking Device/Quickened Demon Tracking Device were removed from game.
• Seer:
  • See Blog Post: Here
  • Seer Class 1: Changed to Allows bonus warp navigation. +2% Damage for every 1% Shields lost against targets up to a maximum of +100% Damage. 18% Damage, -10% Visibility.
  • Seer Class 2: Allows bonus warp navigation. +100% charge rate on microwarpers and translocators. 25% Damage
  • Seer Class 3: Allows bonus warp navigation. Ambushes count as backstabs. 25% Range.
  • Shadow Ambush (Sub Skill): Changed to +10% backstab damage, 15% Damage
  • Psychic Sight (Sub Skill): Reduced Radar from 60% to 15%, increased Damage from 12% to 20%. Reduced Critical Hit Strength from 33% to 15%.
  • Psionic Shrouding (Sub Skill): Changed Visibility from -15% to 10%, removed 33% Critical Resistance, added 10% Damage and -10% weight.
  • Wraith (Adv Skill): Changed to 35% Critical Hit Strength bonus against targets below 50% shields.
  • Clairvoyant (Adv Skill): Removed +5% Critical Hit Percentage, added 25% resistance to damage taken from the rear.
  • Assassin (Adv Skill): Changed to Backstab bonus duration increases to 7 seconds. Extra Warper slot.
  • Zen of Seer: Changed Visibility per level from -0.50% to 0.20%.
  • Psionic Radar/Targeting/Weapons Jammer’s made AI Only and removed from the Seer class Lyceum AI station.
  • Nanite Devices were removed from game.
  • Added new Seer Remodulator at Lyceum station.
• Engineer:
  • Engineer Class 1: Changed Temp Drone non-Transference damage from 35% to 55% and added +1 deployed drone.
• Shield Monkey:
  • Updated Shield Stealing skill description to state -33% damage when stealing instead just “66% efficiency” which was unclear.
•  Misc:
  • Droney: Drone Controllers get 100% tweaking on non-Engineer classes, and 15% tweaking on Engineer.
  • Bot Ph.D.: All assets now have 50% baseline for inheriting skills. Bot PhD now adds 10% additional stats from skills for bots.
  • Resilient: Changed to you and your possessions (Combat Bots, Drones, Fighters) take 20% less damage from any indirect damage.
  • Strategic Deployment: 50% speed out of combat.
  • Expansionist and Big Banker no longer work on trade bots.

[Client/UI Changes]

• Additional Berserker Specialization Crystalline Research mission is now repeatable.
• Added Empyrean ship skin for Contest “Phoenix Flame”.
• Added “Frozen Masala” skin for Masala.
• Added new Paxian skin “Paxian Mainframe” and “Rainbow Operative”.
• Added new Operative paxian ships to Paxian skins “Assasination” and “Rainbow Boomer”.
• Fixed a issue with In Flight Use and Station buttons being backwards for remote inventories.
• Changed “Base” button for filtering in inventories to “Station”.
• Improved some beam and lightening visual’s quality. Credit: Xantra.
• Shield Bar will now only appear if the player can detect the enemy.

[Item Changes]

• Reduced weight of a variety of items in game:
  • Reduced Fighters weight by 80%.
  • Reduced Missiles weight by 85%.
  • Reduced Drones weight by 83.33%.
  • Reduced Capital Ships weight by 40%.
• Rebalanced all weapons with Damage over Time. This will result in decreased DPE for all weapons that impart Parasites/Fires.
• Updated sizes of some beams and transferences. Really big beams and transference are no longer excessively large, and really small transferences are no longer excessively small.
• Rebalanced Missile Bays and Missiles.
• Starting at T22 ships get 25% per level of Critical Hit Resistance.
• Updated the stats on the Empyreal Grand Eclipse/Total Eclipse.
• Various ruin items that required a Lore Skill (KMW, etc) no longer get a power increase.
• Rebalanced various shields. Regen based shields been increased significantly.
• Rebalanced various On Hit Effects.
• Shipbound supers no longer count against your super slots when equipped.
• Inherent Warrior Focus: Heart has had following changes:
  • Disable main weapon effect replaced with Weapons Disabled gremlin.
  • Energy Charge changed from 750% to 500%.
  • Shield Charge changed from -100k for 1 second to -15% of current Shields.
  • Electric Tempering to all allies and self from -30% -to -20% and to allies only.
• Kalthi Warrior Focus: Heart has had following changes:
  • Disable main weapon effect replaced with Weapon Disabled gremlin.
  • Shield Charge changed from -100k for 1 second to -10% of Current Shield.
  • Charging time increased from 90 to 120 seconds.
• Kalthi Warrior Focus: Body has had following changes:
  • Disable main weapon effect replaced with Weapon Disabled gremlin..
  • Immunity to Critical Damage changed from 15 seconds to 5 seconds.
  • Gremlin Immunity did not work as intended, so it was removed.
  • Removed +5% lifesteal bonus and -50% Vulnerability
  • 50% Speed moved to happen after after Shield Regeneration and Critical Damage immunity effects end.
• Kalthi Warrior Focus: Mind has had following changes:
  • Radar bonus reduced from 500% to 200%.
  • Evasion bonus removed.
• Kalthi Railgun Protocol has had following changes:
  • Rewrote the Description to be clearer and more concise
  • Reduced the -Speed and Forced Thrust debuff on the projectile from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
  • Reduced the Damage bonus given to the user from 300% to 150%.
• The following supers are now shipbound instead of unequipable and are now unique with damage tweaks: Operative’s Nook, Bisarme Bombard, Fallen Shelling Focus, Forerunner’s Shelling Focus, Masala Blend, Matriarchal Overwhelming Fury.
• Matriarchal Overwhelming Fury adjusted from Damage +50%, Recoil -40% to Damage +100%, Recoil -20%.
• Fallen Shelling Focus adjusted from Damage +50%, Recoil -20% to Damage +90%.
• Forerunner’s Shelling Focus adjusted from  Damage +50%, Recoil -20% to Damage +90%
• Masala Blend adjusted from Recoil -33%, Damage +50% to Recoil -55.5%.
• Bisarme Bombard adjusted from Damage +50%, Recoil -20% to Damage +87.5%.
• Operative’s Nook adjusted from Recoil -40%, Damage +50% to Recoil -60%.
• Adjusted the following Neurotweaks with Radar bonuses:
  • Galileo’s Telescope reduced to 75% Radar from 196% Radar.
  • Constables Attitude increased to 50% Radar from 40% Radar.
  • Nexus Tweak decreased to 30% Radar from 90% Radar.
• Adjusted most sources of flat visibility to percent visibility.
• Increased Annihilator Platform’s range to Achilles and slide all the other platforms’ range down to the previous level’s range. Annihilator Platform’s weapon no longer has splash also changes AI Empire’s drones.
• Reduced the projectile count of Empyreal Propagation Cannon from 5 to 2. This weapon is used by Celestial Harasser drones.
• Removed -100% turning from Reaver Laser. Left on AI only version.
  Shadow Shield Tweak and Shadow Shield Tweak+ changed to be – vis instead of + vis.
• Increased Tech of Empyreal Comet Cracker from 22 to 23. Stats have increased accordingly.
• Twisted Fate of Death no longer has the Multifiring. This has shifted its stats around.

[Mission Changes]

• Removed repeatable tag from Ring missions and added Item Exchanges that can be unlocked once completed once.
• Removed repeatable tag from Dementium Blueprint missions in Lunacy and added Item Exchange unlocks for Dementium Blueprints after missions are completed.
• Added the following blueprints to Saadya’s Fair Trade: Neutralizing Blast, Earthshaking Barrage, Lacerating Blossom, Demolishing Blast , Burning Blossom, Lancing Talon and Smashing Talon Blueprint.
• Additional Berserker Specialization Crystalline Research mission is now repeatable.

[Universe Changes]

• Increased drop rate of Singularity Brake Blueprint.
• Reduced radar on Empyrean bosses.
• Increased mass of Grand Empyrean Eclipse mags by 50%.
• Solar Annihilator Missile’s launched in the last phase now retarget if their original target dies.

[Next Universe Changes]

• AI Empires:
  • Expand again during the universe again
  • AI Empires will respawn an HQ in a owned galaxy, if possible.
  • Repairing, Claiming or Transferring a station will cause hate from an AI Empire.
  • AI Empires will prioritize defending suns instead of wormhole for asset placement.
  • You cannot get AI Empires to forgive you via Towing.
• Added Quantumly Attuned Keycard mission to Paxian Foothold to unlock a new tracker.
• Added missing “Basic Class Augmenter Token” item exchange to Engineer station in Lyceum.
• Reduced the trade in cost of Paxian item ACs in Paxius Warehouse to match the costs in Mira.
• Fixed missing tech level on Ada Module Templates.
• Fixed Blobular Cooling Systems Blueprint was not replaced with Schematic version in Iq’ Bana.

[Server]

• Radar tweaks now modify vision. Previously only modified detection.
• The End of the Universe will now disable and kill termites.
• Increased drop rates of Bindo events.
• You cannot get AI Empires to forgive you via Towing.
• Going into Spirit form will no longer remove hate – only towing in the same galaxy will.
• Missiles now also have extra evasion from non-targeted damage akin to Fighters.
• Entering stasis now cancel galaxy scanners.
• Plus items that are auto generated by the server now reflect the quality of the of non-plus version.
• Reworked the text formatting of hull scanners and added Critical Resistance of the ship to the scan.
• Improvement to reduce desync on other ships when gremlin are being used.
• Transference weapons can now be multifired.
• Added a “Show Class Skill DPS Modifier” checkbox to ship dialog. Still in beta.
• Stations now show the number of unused weapon slots.
• Added ability to equip fractional weapon slots (mods).

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed a bug where hate pulsing from a lockout boss would not keep hate on player to make them valid for lockouts/hate if they didn’t do a hostile action.
• Fixed spawn blocker tweak that was broken in various zones.
• Fixed bug where planets and moons would get resources with 0 extractor slots
• Fixed a bug with Market Check that was returning one distance in some situations for jumps away.
• Fixed a bug that allowed missiles on bots to be manually launched.
• Corrected Nuclear Fusion Collectors to show as such in the build menu, where before they were shown as “drills”.
• Fixed a bug that allowed for a stack of weapons to pass multiple instances of mods on instead of just one.

[Known Issues]

• For Seer:
  • “Damage for every 1% Shields lost against targets up to a maximum of +100% and backstab do not affect DOT damage. This may or may not change in the future.
  • Critical Hit device only guarantees a single hit when multifiring instead of all projectiles. Multi-projectile weapons work correctly.
• Shield Bar sometimes stops displaying.
• The radar circle can get stuck and not reflect a snipers changed improved range for going under a certain speed.
• You can click through the Neuroforge overlays to what’s behind it.
• On the Class Skills tab icons sometimes display the wrong thing.
• Vectored -vis thrust doesn’t currently work.
• Rewired values are slightly off to /showstatsources.
• Various beams still give flat vis instead of intended percent vis.

The Big Announcement

The long awaited Neuroforge patch now has an estimated patch date! November 20th 2024, mark it on your calendars! This patch is the culmination of thousands of hours of work and years of development! If you haven’t seen them yet and are interested, the development team has released three supplementary posts to go along with this major update. Those posts can be found by clicking the following links:

• Neuroforge Update: Forging Items
• Neuroforge Update: Gunner & Ranger
• Neuroforge Update: Other Class Skills and Critical Hit Changes.

Let’s Review

This update is focused on impacting two key aspects of the game. Updating and modernizing our modification system and bringing life into our class sandbox. There are also some other second order changes that you will see in the blog posts or in the final patch notes! These changes will introduce entirely new gameplay loops for how players engage with their favorite classes and gear. One of our developers, Hober Mallow, has also made a long form overview of those updates in a video he recorded here.

Access the Livetest Server

Our server labeled “Livetest”, in the server selection dropdown at login, provides access to the version. of this patch that will hit the live servers on the 20th! You can find a special galaxy off by taking the warp gate on the sun in Sol that may assist in checking out the changes! . Here you can check in on how things are going to be once the server is updated on the 20th. However, to connect to this server please use the delta client.

More Bindo

Along with the update, there will be an extended Bindomite acquisition event to refill your Bindo coffers to be able to take part in the new system!

Wrapping Up

We’re incredibly excited to bring these updates to Neuroforge and can’t wait for you to experience the changes on November 20th! Be sure to log into the Livetest server before then to get a sneak peek at the upcoming patch and make sure you’re ready for the new gameplay loops and features.

Stay tuned for more updates and feel free to share your thoughts with us in the discord. See you in the game!

Long forgotten in a pilot’s thatch lies something that the universe has never seen. Among thousands of cargo boxes of empyrean shields, Delquad augs and Kalthi manufacturing parts lies a Titan Mining Laser that just realized it has a mind if its own.

It tried to converse with the other items around, but there’s not a soul among them. The mining laser sat lonely, thinking back to the pilot that left them here. There’s even some sort of connection there.. the beam feels bound to that pilot – neurobound. It knows what they are feeling and thinking and wonder if the pilot feels the same about them. It has its first clear thought. Its name is Titan. Titan the Mining Laser.

Three weeks have passed and Titan, who was some sort of rogue Neuroforge mistake, has figured out how to animate other items. From the storage it was in, it has procured ships and mass amounts of gear and is preparing an assault on Earthforce Space.

Lyceum scientists have never seen anything like it, but given that the machines are growing at a simply ludicrous place, they know they must take action. They have prepared a weapon of their own to rewrite the universe before any sentient items could be born. And they plan to use it.

Dev Notes

• Extractors other then space oats shut off, colonies will no longer make purchases to/from user stations, AI stations will no longer decay goods 7 days before end of the universe. Will be a reminder post.
• Bases, permanent drones, and the credits on active bots will be lost.
  • Player ships will not be affected.
• If you’re docked during the reset, you will spawn into the new universe using your docked active ship.
  • Careful not to spawn into the new universe in an immobile ship!
• Wild Space will be scrambled and receive a new map shape.
• All other layers will have the systems scrambled but contain the same shape.
• After a universe reset, all of your docked ships will be in a state of limbo allowing you to dock them all at any non-player station.  You can use the /limbo chat command only once to bring all of your docked ships back into limbo to dock them elsewhere. There is no longer a time limit.
  • You can purchase additional limbos via Limboing Tow Service at Friedman station in Free Market for 5 billion credits each.

PST: 10:00
MST: 11:00
CST: 12:00
EST: 13:00
UTC: 18:00
GMT: 18:00

NOTE: If you haven’t read the previous blog posts, Neuroforge Update: Forging Items and Neuroforge Update: Gunner & Ranger, you might want to check them out before reading this one.

In our final blog post, we’re going to talk about a variety of notable changes that we plan on rolling out with the Neuroforge. These changes focus on addressing various class and system level issues we think keep the game in a stagnant place. Some of these things are nerfs, but some of them are buffs. Let’s break down what you can expect.

Evolving Critical Hit Mechanics

The current meta favors driving critical hit chance to 100% and then stacking critical hit strength, leading to a skewed optimal stat prioritization for DPS builds. We aim to broaden the optimal stat distribution, encouraging a more diverse set of builds by changing how critical scaling works.

Critical Hit Chance is the only DPS stat that has a ceiling. While driving up your Damage, Rate of Fire, and Critical Hit Strength always improves your overall DPS, the same isn’t true for Critical Hit Chance since you can’t benefit from more than 100% chance (adjusted for the target’s Critical Hit Resistance). The practical consequence of this situation is that as player’s stat budget grows with tech and item quality, they quickly run up against the ceiling of Critical Hit Chance; therefore, the meta for dealing weapon damage is to max out your Critical Hit Chance and then invest in Critical Hit Strength, which is available in greater amounts than Damage but gives the same benefit when paired with guaranteed Critical Hits.

We want to promote greater build diversity but we are greatly constrained by the reality of this meta. It has kept us from adding new sources of Critical Hit Chance since that would only worsen the situation, driving folks even harder into Critical Hit Strength. With this update, we have come up with a way to gradually shift the relative value of the DPS stats, with the eventual goal of normalizing the value of Critical Hit Chance and Strength when compared to Damage.

We’re going to accomplish this by granting a ramping bonus to Critical Hit Resistance to higher tech ships. Starting at tech 22, all ships and drones have 25% more Critical Hit Resistance than they used to. For every tech level above that, we add another 25%. The upshot is that the ceiling of Critical Hit Chance will rise by 25% with each new tech level, gradually reducing the pressure to invest a large proportion of your setup’s stats into the critical hit bonuses. Importantly, AI will receive these resistances as well.

As you can see in this table, as you go up in Tech the Critical Hit Resistance of ships and drones increases. This will reduce your DPS by the amount listed. These numbers assume a static 100% Critical Hit Chance, but higher Critical Hit Chance values will bring you back to a 0% reduction.

What you can see here is that as we increase the highest available tech level of content, the optimal stat spread for offensive stats will shift. This is because players will actually have a need for much higher levels of Critical Hit Chance in order to fully maximize their Critical Hit Strength in higher tech content. Going forward, we will be releasing Augmenters and Items with higher amounts of Critical Hit Chance, so players can expect to see bigger bonuses to that stat on Tech 24 and above content.

Reimagining Seer

Seer is simultaneously a very powerful alpha strike/execution class that is incredibly binary — if the player used all of their tools and mechanics without being interrupted they would often overkill a target, but if anything went wrong or their damage was blocked the vast majority of its damage bonuses were negated.

We think Seer needs to be much more consistent, so we are firmly cementing its role as an executioner with a steady damage output that ramps up as their targets get closer to death. Backstabbing and Ambushing have been adjusted, and we have added some new mechanics that offer comparable or greater damage than the Nanite.

For context, the Hidden Nanite Infusion Device once activated keeps track of all damage the Seer does to that target over a 7 second duration. After 7 seconds, it deals 175% of the damage stored. The problem with the Nanite is that it is a big chunk at the end, which makes it very easy to over kill something all in one go … or to have your entire damage bonus completely mitigated with a blocker. It is very binary, and that’s the part we’re focusing on.

So, here’s what we’ve done:

• Seer now does 100% bonus damage to targets that are under half shields, receiving a fraction of this bonus against healthier targets.
• Backstabs and Ambushes will now grant a 30% damage bonus for 5 seconds.
• We have replaced the Nanite Device and the Psionic Jammers with the Seer Remodulator, which guarantees a critical hit every 2 seconds.
• Wraith now grants the Seer 35% Critical Hit Strength against targets below 50% shields.
• Brooding Gaze makes beams ethereal against backstabbed or ambushed targets.

We took away stealth and radar, and we are aware that this can affect a Seer’s ability to avoid damage. We have made the following adjustments with an eye towards increasing a Seers ability to survive.

• We added 25% more Range
• We added Shield Recovery to Recon Focus
• We reduced Weight by 30%
• Seer’s Warp Devices charge 2x as fast
• Clairvoyant gives a 25% Resistance to Damage bonus when struck from behind
• Assassin allows the Seer to equip another Warp Device

In addition, all sources of flat visibility that an enemy can apply to you have been changed to increase your visibility by a % instead.

Recon Focus now includes an extra hull expansion by default. The Expansionist Advanced Class Subskill further boosts this by granting an additional weapon slot and doubling cargo capacity.

Speed Demon

First, we’re happy with how Speed Demon plays in the majority of situations. We think the class is a great example of a good class. There are some things that we thought we could do better, and that’s what the focus of these updates are.

The Rate of Fire cap is a tough thing to work around as a Speed Demon. The class gets a lot of Rate of Fire bonuses, and we have always wanted Speed Demon to be interested in fast firing weapons. This has been a significant limitation in buildcraft for Speed Demon over the years and we want to address that. Another observation is that Beams and Magcannons have remained meta weapons for this class, even as we have repeatedly improved Pulse Guns.

We’ve always wanted Speed Demon to make good use out of high damage projectiles, but because they inherit the velocity of the user they aren’t so easy to use while also dodging incoming fire. This has led to a preference for Beams and Magcannons among Speed Demons.

Here is what we’re doing. The Target Tracker will no longer provide a big damage boost at the cost of range, instead it will cause your projectile weapons to fire from your ship as if they were a full tracking beam weapon. This is going to allow you to keep moving while firing these weapons, opening up whole new weapon choices for the Speed Demon to use even while they are focusing on maneuvering.

In order to further encourage this, we have included a 25% Projectile Damage bonus in the base class. No more damage multiplier on the Target Tracker, but you get:

• Much better uptime with projectiles.
• You get a damage boost to projectiles.
• We have tuned the damage of the class to compensate for the loss of the damage boost on the Target Tracker.

With regards to the Rate of Fire cap, if you exceed it you will now gain the equivalent amount of damage in exchange for increased electricity consumption. This works out exactly as if there was no Rate of Fire cap, which has to remain in place for technical reasons.

And finally, you also get the Shield Recovery and Hull Expander bonuses from Recon Focus mentioned earlier in the Seer section.

This is a light touch to the class, we like where the class is (more or less) and we think what we have done here is give it a new coat of paint.

Berserker

Berserker is a very strong class and is very popular. We like how fun it is to play, and we decided to give it some fun mechanics while also implementing some targeted nerfs. We’re confident the class is going to remain very popular and effective.

• Berserker Classic will now additionally reduce the number of weapons you need to have in order to Multifire by 1. This means if you want to MF3 you are only required to have two of the same weapon equipped.
• For example, if you pick this skill your 3 equipped weapons will act as if they are 4. If you equip 4 weapons you will max out with an effective Multifiring 5.
• Impervious Armor now additionally reduces damage in a frontal arc by 30%. This means you take 70% of the damage.
• In exchange, we have shaved some of the Resistance to Damage bonus from Eye for an Eye and Impervious Armor. This is still a significant mitigation buff when taking damage in the frontal arc.
• So with regards to Lifesteal, only 10% of the damage done by On Hit effects or Parasites are eligible for Lifesteal. So instead of Lifestealing 25% of their damage, you will lifesteal 2.5% of their damage.
• The speed bonus on Berserkering Berserker was reduced from 30% to 10%.

Engineer

We haven’t changed our vision for this class at all, but we do recognize that the Neuroforge is not going to result in the same offensive power increase for Engineers who are looking to upgrade their gear with modifications.

In light of this, we have increased the non-transference damage bonus on Engineer Class 1. We recognize that it’s harder for Engineers to optimize the Critical Hit Chance of their drones than it is for other damage dealing classes to do so. We have also increased the number of Drones that Engineers can deploy from 6 to 7, since Droney will no longer grant an extra deployed Drone. Finally, as mentioned earlier, Drones now have Critical Hit Resistances as well.

We are also thinking about future updates to the Neuroforge that would give Engineers more interesting options when it comes to mods.

General Advanced Class Subskills

• Bot PhD
  • We have taken most of the bonuses from Combat Bot Tweaking and Bot PhD and given them to everyone. This means that combat bots get 50% of your skills, or 60% if you take Bot PhD. Bot tweaking doesn’t contribute to that stat anymore.
• Droney
  • We have taken the skill inheritance bonus off of this skill and given it to everyone, and instead of giving another deploy drone it gives +100% Tweaking to Drone Controllers for non Engineers. If you are an Engineer it gives 15% instead.
• Resilient
  • Now causes you and your possessions to take 20% less damage from indirect damage and on hit effects.
• Strategic Deployment
  • You and your possessions gain 50% speed out of combat.

Heat Weapons

It’s well known that Heat weapons are highly desirable in the meta. We realized very recently that one of the reasons for this is that they have unwarrantedly high damage per energy. The tools we set up were not properly increasing the energy cost of these weapons to account for the portion of the damage dealt by fires.

This required some nuance when we addressed the issue, because if we charged you upfront for the future damage of your fires it would not be fair. You cannot be sure if all those fires will do their damage before the target dies or before the situation changes.

Live values on the left, effective DPE is somewhere between .63 and 1.26. Test values on the right, the effective DPE is somewhere between .49 and .98.

It’s not fair to charge 100% of the energy costs for future damage, but we need to charge more than 0%.

We did some detailed analysis and came up with a formula to balance those extremes.

On Hit weapon effects

We have reduced the power of Area Effect Damage effects on certain weapons, and increased the power of Bounce/Chain/Splash/Spray effects on other weapons. These changes include DPS, DPE, and On Hit effect ranges. The intention is that these effects are situationally useful rather than Area Effect Damage being the only thing anyone uses most of the time.

Beam weapon sizes

We have normalized the sizes of Beams, which means longer range Beams are smaller. At the same time, we have increased the size of many short range Beams that had high DPS and low DPE. Beams like the Luminous Discrete Oscillator Cluster or Vazaha Caress are much bigger than they are on live. We want a weapons size to be aligned with high DPS, low DPE like it is for Projectile weapons. This also applies to Transference weapons.

Follow along with us

The Neuroforge update has a lot more going on than just the addition of the Neuroforge. We will have posted follow-up blogs to detail what is being changed with the Neuroforge update. We have opened up access to our test server for players to try out the systems we have designed before they go live. The changes on this server encapsulate all of what the Neuroforge has to offer so far. There are plenty of class changes and other fancy things to explore as well.

You will need a totally different client to connect to this server. You will need to connect to “Test Server” using the Delta Client. You can get this client at the follow link: https://www.starsonata.com/dl/StarSonata_2_delta.exe

You can find the “Test Server” on the login screen by using the Server Drop down on the login screen end then selecting “Test Server.” For more information on how to use the test server or to provide your feedback, please use the Star Sonata community discord server.

Disclaimer: Anything on test servers are subject to change at any time and may not be representative of what will be seen when the live server is updated. The test server is subject to be shutdown, reset and restarted at any time.

NOTE: If you haven’t read the first blogpost, Neuroforge Update: Forging Items, you might want to check it out before reading this one.

We’re excited to unveil updates for the Gunner and Ranger classes as part of the Neuroforge overhaul. These changes focus on diversifying viable playstyles and refining mechanics to keep things fresh. These changes aim to add flexibility and new dynamics while staying true to the core identities of each class. Let’s break down what you can expect.

Ranger Rework

The Ranger class still retains its long-range stealth playstyle but now offers more flexibility. Compared to Sniper it has less range and tracking, is no longer a glass cannon, and replaced the Sniper Analyzer with a Ranger Scope for faster and chunkier damage buildup.

The core distinction between Sniper and Ranger is that Sniper had much greater stealth, range, and tracking bonuses. Sniper was all about maximizing range, with a high-damage mechanic that benefits from focusing down a target over a 2 minute and longer time scale. But this came with limitations: it was slow to ramp up damage, being near useless in short-duration fights, and depended exclusively on range and stealth for survival. Ranger brings down these extremes, making it less reliant on its fragile glass-cannon nature, allowing for more diverse strategies. The fine tuning we’ve been doing in the closed beta has been aimed towards making sure Ranger can still perform in the old long range stealthy style, while making sure that the playstyle is not the de facto way to play Ranger going forwards. We expect that what we’ve accomplished here is a class that can be played in a greater variety of styles, including the old glass cannon Sniper style. Maybe someone will come up with an offtank Ranger, or a non stealthy duelist focusing on grinding tough enemies down head to head.

Damage Ramping

One of the key new mechanics is the Ranger Scope, which works similarly to the Sniper Analyzer but ramps up much faster, in 25 seconds rather than 2 minutes. Marking a target by landing an Empowered Shot, automatically available every 5 seconds, builds up stacks on the target. These marks echo every other preexisting marks damage each time they are applied, letting you amplify your damage against a target without forcing you to tunnel vision the target.

Unlike the Sniper Analyzer which forces you to focus on a single target, Ranger can spread marks across multiple enemies. Marks decay slowly on a per target basis, allowing you to stack damage across multiple targets without fear of losing your damage bonus. By ramping up the Ranger’s damage on a per target basis, we allow the Ranger to freely choose its targets based on what they consider the highest priority to be. At the same time, Marks are not applied to extra targets via On Hit weapon effects. This means that Splash/Chain/etc will not apply a mark, nor does the extra damage done to the main target from the Marks echoes apply to extra targets damaged via on hit weapon effects either.

As you can see, the new system is really chunky. Your damage ramps up, but it ramps up in a ratcheted way. We have to be really careful to prevent excessive variance. We don’t want too much variance because it will be unsatisfactory to the player if they want a critical hit but don’t get one, and a player on the receiving end will feel really bad if they get hit with a lucky empowered critical hit. When we have such chunky damage already baked into the class, we don’t want the added variance of criticals. Because of this, Empowered Shots get a multiplier from the average critical damage bonus calculated from your Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Strength and are not allowed to critically hit.

Damage Mitigation

Sniper doesn’t have much mitigation on the live server. While they do get shields from Combat Focus and stealth/range from Stalking and Sharpshooting to stay away from damage, they’re not mobile and don’t have much of an ability to react to incoming damage or avoid it. They have to rely on range and stealth to bring their full damage to bear, and in a squad setting they often aren’t allowed to make good use of their range and stealth. We don’t think the class has good mitigation, and we think this gets in the way of the class performing consistently. We’ve addressed this by introducing two key mechanics: a mobility aura and Grit. The mobility aura activates when your speed drops to 0, giving you a brief boost to Thrust and Speed to reposition or retreat when needed. This ensures that even an unagile Ranger has the ability to reposition quickly, without feeling like you’re playing a Recon Focus class.

More significant is the addition of Grit, which stores a portion of incoming damage as a parasite that deals that damage over the next 30 seconds. This gives Rangers more time to mitigate or avoid incoming damage, and killing the enemy that caused the damage instantly removes the stored Grit. With Survivalist, an advanced subskill, you can increase Grit accumulation based on the marks you’ve applied, further enhancing survivability. Grit adds a new mitigation layer for survival. By spreading damage over time, you get more opportunities to eliminate threats before receiving their full damage. This system synergizes well with Shield Regeneration, making Rangers highly durable while offering different combat roles, from stealth sniper to brawler… which is why we’ve also added Shield Regeneration to the skill! However, this effect only works when you’re piloting a heavy fighter.

Heavy Fighter? Light Fighter?

Speaking of Heavy Fighter, when you’re flying one your overloaders are twice as powerful! This gives you additional build flexibility, so if you really want a long range build you can select an overloader that grants range to specialize in it. The same skill that gives the player access to Grit also gives 30% Shield Recharge and Damage in a Heavy Fighter. With Grit being so core to Heavy Fighter, we should see more players preferring to use a hull befitting a Combat Focus. With these changes, some may still opt for a Light Fighter. However, that will be a choice made with some risky defensive drawbacks and a loss of a damage bonus. We’re really excited to see what players do with this, and people will find ways to use it that we haven’t even thought about.

NOTE: We have tuned the numbers so that the stealthy Sniper playstyle can still exist, while also encouraging other playstyles to evolve.

Gunner Enhancements

Gunner is a class that relies heavily on stacking weapon damage to maximize the various Advanced Targeting Computers it has, allowing it to copy its high single target damage and spread it to multiple other targets at very high ranges. You also have access to missiles, but they are difficult to land in chaotic fights. Because of this, Gunner feels like a one-dimensional class. There is one meta way to play it, and that is as a long range multi target artillery piece. Our goal is to diversify its viable builds and emphasize Gunner’s role as a Fleet Focus class, capable of significantly enhancing squad damage output.

Shifting the Meta

Gunner has traditionally been about pushing weapon damage bonuses for massive Deathblossom output, but we’re moving towards a more dynamic set of mechanics with the removal of the Deathblossom and the introduction of the Targeting Computer. This allows Gunners to fire fewer but more consistent shots (with no firing arc limitations if they are projectiles), ensuring that every shot hits something even in chaotic battlefields. This means the Targeting Computer will always fire all of its extra shots, even if there’s only a single target nearby.

With our current numbers, this means that the Targeting computer is doing double damage against a single target. This makes the Targeting Computer better against small numbers of enemies in the Neuroforge update. Each shot can also propagate on-hit weapon effects! And, finally, they can even be equipped on bots for even more mayhem! Gunner’s new Fracture mechanic emphasizes its role as a fleet multiplier. When a Gunner damages an enemy with its weapons, they apply fractures to the target. Allies can then hit those targets to receive a 100% damage boost, effectively doubling squad DPS as long as the Gunner generates enough fractures. For every 100 damage the Gunner deals, allies can benefit from 700 additional fracture damage. This mechanic is crucial for fleet combat, making the Gunner an essential part of maximizing a squad’s firepower.

• Example 1: Lets say the Gunner is doing 100k DPS, and their ally does 200k DPS. The Gunner is injecting 700k fractures per second, and their ally will consume 200k of them to double their DPS. Overall, the Gunner and its ally will not be dealing 300k DPS, but will instead do 500k DPS.

• Example 2: Lets say the Gunner is doing 100k DPS, but it has a bunch of allies and its allies do 1.5mil DPS in total. The Gunner is only generating 700k worth of Fractures per second, and the squad is using all of them and cashing in the full 700k. There aren’t enough around for all of their damage to get doubled, so the squads damage is increased by 700k and the total outgoing DPS is 2.3mil as a result of the Gunner.

As you can see, depending on the Gunner’s weapon DPS, and the total DPS of their allies the fracture mechanic will have a variable multiplier on the squads total DPS but that multiplier will generally be significant and the more the Gunner invests in their weapon DPS the greater their contribution. Even better, the more Gunners you have the more fractures they create!

Expanding Playstyles

Even in solo play, this mechanic still works—fractures boost the damage of your bots, missiles, and fighters. The Mass Destruction skill amplifies this further by significantly increasing the amount of fractures your missiles and fighters can exploit. This system offers more depth for Gunners, as they must now consider balancing their own damage output against their allies’ in order to maximize their influence on the battlefield. Missiles have seen an update in terms of launch patterns, timings, and mechanics. They are more reliable when it comes to their maneuverability, are unaffected by collision code, missiles solely meant to do damage fire in a salvo, missile stats now scale off of quality level, and they benefit from a bonus to missile damage specific to the Gunner class.

We’ve also removed the Multifiring bonus, but have given a significant increase in damage to compensate, since the Gunners bots are also getting the ability to multi-target. We have also reduced Range and Tracking bonuses since Targeting Computers have less restrictions. This streamlines combat while ensuring Gunner still packs a punch in both fleet and solo scenarios.

Summary

These updates to Ranger and Gunner are meant to create room for deeper, more dynamic playstyles. From Ranger’s faster damage ramping and mitigation to Gunner’s fleet-centric fracture system and the Targeting Computer, these changes are designed to keep both solo and squad-based gameplay exciting. We’re eager to see how players adapt to these new mechanics!

Follow along with us

The Neuroforge update will have a lot more going on than just the addition of the Neuroforge. We will be posting follow-up blogs to detail what is being changed with the Neuroforge update. In the meantime, we are opening up access to our test server for players to try out the systems we have designed before they go live. The changes on this server encapsulate all of what the Neuroforge has to offer so far. There are plenty of class changes and other fancy things to explore as well. You will need a totally different client to connect to this server. You will need to connect to “Test Server” using the Delta Client. You can get this client at the follow link: https://www.starsonata.com/dl/StarSonata_2_delta.exe You can find the “Test Server” on the login screen by using the Server Drop down on the login screen end then selecting “Test Server.” For more information on how to use the test server or to provide your feedback, please use the Star Sonata community discord server.

Disclaimer: Anything on test servers are subject to change at any time and may not be representative of what will be seen when the live server is updated. The test server is subject to be shutdown, reset and restarted at any time.

Item modifications have been an integral part of every pilot’s journey for the majority of Star Sonata’s life. The “Bindomite roulette” is something many of you are all too familiar with. We have been hinting at (and even writing full posts about) a new vision for item modifications for a very long time. After a concerted development push and a lot of help from the Paxian Disciples, we’re finally ready to announce the details of this project. Here is a breakdown of what you can expect from the finalized Modifications revamp, which is planned for release next month.

High Level: Neuroforging

The biggest feature of this revamp is the introduction of enhanced modifications via Neuroforging. Neuroforging allows you to take an item that is already neurobound and improve a single modification on that item. This is done by taking an unmodified copy of the same item and spending it to neuroenhance your chosen piece of gear. This opens up the brand new Neuroforging menu.

The Neuroforging menu gives you 3 semi-random options to pick from every time you neuroenhance an item. The first thing that may catch your eye are the pink modifications at the top of each selection, coupled with a +15 in the case of Forceful in the first option. This is an enhanced modification and is one of the key features of the modification revamp. Upon completing your first enhancement on a piece of gear, one of your modifications on that item will be enhanced.

Mid Level: Enhanced modifications

Let’s get a bit more detailed about enhanced modifications.

• Neuroforging is a process that can be done multiple times, but you can only ever have one enhanced modification at a time.

• Enhanced modifications are coupled with an enhancement level. This tracks how much extra power above a basic version of the modification is being provided.

• Some modifications get special benefits for being enhanced. These special benefits do not scale up their bonus with enhancement level.

• Not all modifications are eligible to be enhanced.

• Enhancement level has a cap, it’s not infinite!

• The higher quality the item, the better it can become. Enhancement Cap and Total modification count scale with item quality.

Keep Rolling

So the basic flow of enhancing and modifying your gear is as follows: You neurobind a piece of gear. You grab another copy of that gear, and consume it to start neuroforging. Even though the item’s enhancement level has a cap, you can neuroforging an item an infinite number of times. This can do things like swap your enhanced modification, and add or swap “secondary” modifications in addition to its normal purpose of increasing your enhancement level. However, the middle option will always increase the bonus of your currently enhanced modification and not change anything else about the item. You could call it a “safe” roll.

What do I do with all of these items?

If you were a heavy user of the current modification system, then you likely have storage ships full of Bindomite-bound gear lying around. One aspect of this modification system is that all of those items are eligible to be used for neuroforging. Neurobound items can be used in forging, but the item must first have all modifications stripped from the item. We have implemented a system that allows any Bindomite-bound item to have all modifications stripped by using another Bindomite. You are allowed to either re-roll the item for a new set of modifications or use it as fodder for neuroforging.

Follow along with us

The Neuroforge update will have a lot more going on than just the addition of the Neuroforge. We will be posting follow-up blogs to detail what is being changed with the Neuroforge update. In the meantime, we are opening up access to our test server for players to try out the systems we have designed before they go live. The changes on this server encapsulate all of what the Neuroforge has to offer so far. There are plenty of class changes and other fancy things to explore as well.

You will need a totally different client to connect to this server. You will need to connect to “Test Server” using the Delta Client. You can get this client at the follow link: https://www.starsonata.com/dl/StarSonata_2_delta.exe

You can find the “Test Server” on the login screen by using the Server Drop down on the login screen end then selecting “Test Server.” For more information on how to use the test server or to provide your feedback, please use the Star Sonata community discord server.

Disclaimer: Anything on test servers are subject to change at any time and may not be representative of what will be seen when the live server is updated. The test server is subject to be shutdown, reset and restarted at any time.

[Anatolia Changes]

• During Anatolian contest the leading team will lose influence on player death and a smaller amount on bot or drone death.
• The influence that can be gained is capped during the contest. It starts at 1 million influence and linearly approaches 4 million by the end of the contest. The current cap can be seen on the bulletin board. After the contests standard duration the influence gain is uncapped.
• Adjusted the quality of Imperial Polishing Machine to Exotic.
• Adjusted the quality of Imperial Restoration Forge to Exalted.
• Strategos has a different shout on death and now has a small chance to drop the Imperial Restoration Forge.
• Added Imperial Restoration Forge to drop from Strategos, used to turn Fragmented Imperial Signets into an Imperial Signet. These are used to level Imperial skills past level 5 in the Anatolian Expanse.
• Fragmented Imperial Signets are acquired through participation in the contest for the Imperial Throne in Anatolia or by winning Emperor itself.
• Imperial Restoration Forge can no longer be sold for 100k Anatolian Crests, instead it can be sold for 30k Anatolian Crests.
• Strategos minions now properly spawn in an area around Strategos instead of in the center of the galaxy.

[Client/UI Changes]

• Potential fix for dark screen on login.

[Item Changes]

• Removed No Discount tag from Modules on Schematics.
• Changed Ancient Baby Dragon Hatchery Blueprint to require 2 Perilium, 3 Stabilized Plasma Fusion Core, 5 Dementium.
• Removed Drop on Death and No Fast Travel tags from Astral Silk, Fixed Trobble, The Spice, Storm Crystals, Dragon Egg.
• Removed an unlisted +20 flat speed and changed from -100% thrust to Engines Disabled gremlin effect on Matriarchal Fortification Bypasser super item inbuilt. Also was listed at 2 seconds but did 4 seconds of effect. Now only does 2 seconds as super states.

[Universe Changes]

• Grand Empyreal Eclipse:
  • Boss no longer spawn with augs or mods.
  • Saros in second room of Grand Empyreal Eclipse Rift no longer display on Rift Leaderboard.
  • Added boss to Rift Leaderboard.
  • Fixed Grand Empyreal Eclipse missile phase so it properly targets random targets instead of one single.
  • Greatly increased Inertial Dampening on Boss.
  • Swapped sun in boss room to be a planet.
• Fallen Station can no longer be knocked back.
• Converted Janayitriadhara (Tractoring 22) to be immune to Transference during immunity phases and the Paxian Bombs to now use True Damage.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed a division by 0 in colony commodity price that caused negative numbers to display.
• Fixed a bug in Multi Factories that caused a crash.

Howdy Sonatians,

A new threat looms on the horizon. Beyond the fleets of Equinoxes and Ascensions lies the most formidable battleship ever forged by the Empyreals—a vessel of unparalleled power, commanding the very edge of the battlefield.

Proving yourself against Eclipse

Like our last major squad boss, we will be running another contest for those that take down the Empyreal Eclipse within the two weeks of its release! Defeating this boss and completing the requirements of the contest will grant you to access an exclusive skin for the entire line of Empyreal ships. Like last time there are some guidelines to go along this that will make running this go smoothly for all involved.

Contest Guidelines

• A video must be posted of you and your squad completing the fight against Grand Empyreal Eclipse and showing you and your squad mates engage.

• Only one point of view is needed, though more are appreciated.

• The video recording must be from start to finish. Please start the recording before warping into the galaxy with the boss.

• Please show the squad screen before warping into the galaxy with the boss. This allows us to easily verify which characters are a part of the clear.

• Roh will be contacting the poster of the video via Discord direct messages to coordinate the delivery of the reward. Please have your DMs open and be available if you are the one posting the video for your squad.

• The video must be uploaded to YouTube.

• All videos must be posted to the #media channel in the Star Sonata Discord.

• There will be a 14 day period, starting from when the instance is first opened. Any squad that completes the boss kill and submits a video within this time frame will earn the reward.

• Each player account can only be granted the reward once. Being a part of a new squad and submitting a new video does not mean that a previously rewarded account will be given a second reward.

• Every member of a squad that clears the boss and posts a video will be given the unique and exclusive skin created for this contest. This skin can be applied to any ship gotten from the Empyrean zone.

We have made another batch of adjustments to the recurring mid universe contest to take the Imperial Throne. If you want to understand the context of these changes, take a look at the previous Dev Diary. The latest suite of changes are a result of closely monitoring the outcome of our previous set of changes over the past couple of contests. In this blog, we will describe what is different in the new system!

Arena Size

Every galaxy within the expanse has had the size of its arena significantly reduced from 24,000 to 15,000. The asteroid belt encircling every galaxy now forces everything back towards the center using a friction cloud. This allows for plenty of room for large fights, but it also shuts down the tactic of dragging Midas’ champions to the outermost portions of the galaxy.

Strategos

Midas no longer sends Polemarchos or Taxiarhos to maintain order in his domain. Now, he will send 6 Strategos champions as a display of his might. These champions announce their presence globally, and spawn 5 times a day. As players fight them, they will spawn strong minions worth a good deal of Influence who also drop a generous amount of Anatolian Crests. While calling forth their minions, they will hunker down and become immune to damage while simultaneously slowing to a crawl. After 25 minutes, all of his champions will despawn. If they are not killed before they despawn, no Influence will be awarded.

Each Strategos is worth 30,000 Influence, and the minions they spawn are worth more than 30,000 in total. This means that every 24 hours there is more than 1,800,000 Influence available from Strategos alone.

Claiming the Throne

Influence is what is used to determine which team will be crowned Emperor. 30 days after a new universe is formed, killing soldiers inside the Anatolian Expanse provides any teams that took part in killing any given soldier with Influence.

At the start of the contest, there is an Influence cap of 1,000,000. No team is able to gain more influence than the cap, and the cap increases over time to 4,000,000 by the end of the 3 week period. If the 1st place team does not have 1,000,000 or greater Influence than the 2nd place team, the Influence cap is removed and the contest continues until a team has 1,000,000 more Influence than the 2nd place team.

Any team in the #1 spot loses Influence when a Player, Bot or Temporary Drone on their team is killed in Anatolia. Player deaths cause 5000 Influence to be lost, Bot deaths cause 1000 to be lost, and Temporary Drone destruction causes 200 to be lost.

Imperial Signets and Imperial Skills

All three stations in Anatolia now allow players to train the Imperial Seal skills up to level 7, at the cost of 2 Imperial Signets each. Imperial Signets are crafted with an Imperial Restoration Forge, which can be rarely acquired from defeating Strategos. In order to craft an Imperial Signet, teams will need to acquire Fragmented Imperial Signets which are earned through participation in the contest for the Imperial Throne. Once teams have accrued at least 100,000 Influence, they are eligible to earn a portion of the 2000 Imperial Signets available to all. These Imperial Signets are split based on the amount of Influence a team has in relation to the total amount of Influence in the pool.

For example, if a team has 100,000 Influence and the total amount of Influence earned by all teams is 9,000,000 then that team is eligible to earn roughly 22 Fragmented Imperial Signets. The team that claims the Imperial Throne is not guaranteed any Fragmented Imperial Signets, their proportion of Fragmented Imperial Signets is based on the exact same rules as everyone else. This means that their total Influence is the only thing that determines the amount of Fragmented Imperial Signets they earn.

These exact same rules also apply to the 250 Imperial Seals awarded at the end of the contest.

Note

The Anatolian Expanse and associated Emperor Contest is a labor of love by us to support an active PvP event that breaks up the day to day activities in Star Sonata. We appreciate the many rounds of feedback the community has given about this experience. We are committed to continuing to support this activity and monitoring its success and failures. This blog post includes all information on the current system used to ascend to the throne to become Emperor, but like with many things in Star Sonata, it changes often. This system will likely be iterated into the future to bring an experience that promotes competition. You can stay up to date on what is involved in the contest to become Emperor by visiting our wiki page on the topic. https://www.starsonata.com/wiki/index.php/Emperor

[Fractured Galaxies Changes]

• Fractured Galaxies now have Attack Windows. This window is a 90 minute period that happens every 72 hours. Stations are only vulnerable during this window.
  • A given Fractured Galaxy will always be vulnerable at the same time during the day for each attack window.
  • The universe contains an even distribution of attack window start times.
  • Server’s Daylight Savings Time (ET) may shift this by one hour in some cases.
  • When warping into a fractured galaxy, the time until the next attack window will be put in your event chat.
• Ship to ship and ship to permanent drone combat is enabled at all times in fractured galaxies.
• Stations can only be placed once the first attack window for a newly revealed fractured galaxy begins. After that time stations can be deployed at any time in that Fractured Galaxy, but will not participate in or be affected by any PvP actions except during the attack windows.
• Termites can no longer spawn in fractured galaxies.

[Client/UI Changes]

• Fixed a issue with In Flight Use and Station buttons being backwards for remote inventories.
• Changed “Base” button for filtering in inventories to “Station”.

[Item Changes]

• Colony Active ICs:
  • Removed the Goop cost from the five Colony IC factory blueprints.
  • Reduced thematic t3 IC cost to a nominal amount.
  • Reduced Perilium, Dementium, and Stabilized Core costs greatly.
  • Changed Commodity Sale Events — Removed Colony Resources (The Spice) and replaced them with Colony Active ICs (Spice Infused Confits), for sale. These can be sold to the AI base for a significant fraction of the price they could be sold to colonies.
• Reduced the negative augstats on Crescent and Eclipse Augmenters, shifting some of the positive stats down as a result.
• Spelling error fix for the Lunaria Rampage Preserver Blueprint description.
• Fixed an error with “Laconia Sheet Smelting Factory” and “Laconia Sheet Factory” where they were not using the correct number of Metals (10k instead of 100k).

[Mission Changes]

• Added a hint to Paxian Exploration mission for players to find the right station for the Complex Matrix of Solidified Water to Glass Matrix.
• Reduced the amount of sensitive intel needed per mission of the pretender Hermes daily mission chain from 4 to 3, and from 7 to 6.

[Universe Changes]

• Cybernetic Battleship/Cruiser Roamers:
  • Removed Augs and Mods.
  • Reduced various stats.
  • Increased projectile velocity on Battleship.
• Increased Palatial Pax Turning.
• Decreased Lucerne and Cybernetic Dropship Thrust
• Reduced tractor power on Obsidian Freighters.
• Slightly reduced diameter of Selenite and Selenite Avengers so they weren’t the same size as the Lunarian variants.
• Removed self recoil from Forgone’s physical knockback super item. It will still knock back the targets hit.

[Next Universe Changes]

• Anatolian Expanse:
  • Added Imperial Skills to level 7 to Anatolian Expanse using a new item called Imperial Signets.
  • Polemarchos and Taxiarhos no longer spawn.
  • Strategos:
    • Will no longer spawn disguised and will instead spawn multiple instances in multiple galaxies, with 6 spawns in total.
    • They will spawn with a horde of protective soldiers and be worth 30k influence by themselves with their minions being worth around another 30k.
    • Strategos spawns will spawn every 4.8 hours, and despawn after 25 minutes. Each Strategos will take, at a minimum, 10 minutes to kill due to the invulnerability phases. It also has a holoprojector effect to show how long until it despawns, and when it phases into an invulnerability phase it becomes significantly slower.
    • Drastically reduced vis on Anatolian Crests.
    • The mobs guarding Strategos stats are buffed and are now worth more influence and more crests.
  • All galaxies in Anatolian Expanse have had their asteroid fields changed to knock everything back into the center.
  • Increased the weight of Anatolian Crests and their containers.
• Captain Redbeard / Exotic Trackers:
  • Adjusted exotic drop rate and separated Consumables from gear in the Red Rogue Exotic drop lists. So gear should be much more plentiful.
  • Added a mission to unlock an item exchange for Captain Red Beard Trackers
• (Will change with reset) Unstabilized Plasma Fusion Core are now commodities instead of mission item. They will now only drop if player is Premium player instead of requiring the mission to be active. Stabilized Plasma Fusion Core are now unlocked as a Trade Bay Exchange after performing the Scientist of Lyceum mission the first time at Spartan Garrison.
• Module Rework:
  • Created “Schematic” versions of T20 and T21 module blueprints which removes the Gizmo requirement. These modules now need only lower tier Modules + Sensors + Augmenters.
  • Created “Template” versions of T20 module blueprints which removes Gizmo and lower tier Module requirements. These modules now only need Augmenters + Sensors + various Sheets.
  • Created a new station in Platonic Academy (called “Taphos”) to house old blueprints and factories for use by players with leftover Gizmo commodities. Note: this may depreciated in the future.
  • Created various trade-ins to allow players to trade their old Blueprints for Schematic/Templates in Taphos.
  • Created new T20 “Schematic” and “Template” packs for sale in Palaistra.
  • Moved T20 “Tablet” blueprint packs to Taphos.
  • Replaced T21 Blueprints with “Schematic” versions in all the places where the original T21 Blueprints were purchasable.

[Server Changes]

• Can no longer dock limbo ships in a public rift (instance).
• Can no longer remotely toss items from ships docked in public rift / rift (instance) without being in the galaxy.

[Bug Fixes]

• Fixed fighters sometimes flying away when they should be returning.