Just a heads up to let everyone know what's been going on behind the scenes here. We're getting really close now with the last three remaining large tasks being to complete the IAP/Subscription code, Push notifications and a collection of video tutorials to help ease everyone into the game. Once these items are done we'll do a limited region launch in January followed by a full international launch.

You can see the first seven video tutorials at the link below.
Map Navigation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV9RryJtilI
Moving Ships
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-wSNX2Aw98
Local Planet Menu and Ship Building
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAOwR9ASm0w
Resource Collection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUr3gC5Jgb0
Global Planet Menu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N_FssyWVw4
Global Fleet Menu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SuAtOJM2KI
Research and Specialties
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F3yi6Tsezo

Hi Everyone!

So we're finally ready to start round 2 of the Empire of the Eclipse Beta! The beta test will go live on Sept.3 but sign ups start today using the link below.

http://bit.ly/hgpm3E

There's been a ton of changes in this build which you can read about below.

Empire of the Eclipse Beta 2 change list

• Battle reports are now sent to a players in game email after a battle has been completed.
  
• Planet resource / unit cost rebalance
  
• Build times have been adjusted
  
• Terraformers now work properly.
  
• An animation is now played over the planet during combat. (Full combat display is still pending.)
  
• Combat has been completely revamped
• planet defenses work properly.
• stealth skills now affect combat.
• fleet combat now works properly
  
• Items that can't be built are now highlighted
  
• Chat indicator animates when messages are waiting
  
• The Number of unread emails is now displayed over the mail icon.
  
• There is a separate tab for the tech you have currently qued to research.
  
• You can now post screenshots to facebook / twitter by touching the screen with three or more fingers.
  
• Client side optimization so detailed sector information is only sent when a player is specifically viewing a sector. (this should fix the lag problems Spart was having.)
  
• Lots of small graphical fixes.
  
• General texture memory optimizations.
  
• The Planet Killers planet busting ability now works.
  
• The technology Bio weapons now works properly.
  
• Solar Core Taps are now functioning and behave as ships instead of orbitals.
  
• Black holes now destroy ships when they enter their system if they do not posses hyper space physics.
  
• There is now a limit of 1 Shipyard per planet. The build time of shipyards has also been increased to 24 hours.
  
• Players who posses tech to build cruisers/battleships -and- orbital platforms / minefields will be able to perform a one way conversion to convert a cruiser to an orbital defense platform / minefield.
  
• Non Capital class ships now do 1/4 damage to planets in addition to an increase in mining colonies base defenses being increased so to take a base mining colony you'll need either 1 Dreadnaught, 15 Battle ships, or 25 Battle cruisers.
  
• A new tech, dubbed Advanced Materials Collection, will be required to gather / process Rare Ore. Players can still get Rare Ore by trading with other players.
  
• Trade now works properly. The option to trade with other players will show up when you place a trade vessel in the orbit of another player's planet.
  
• Ship / Orbital build costs have been adjusted so that lower end ships will not require Rare Ore but many of the high end ships / orbitals will.
  
• We're introducing the concept of specialties. When the player starts the game they'll choose a specialty relating to one of the four tech trees. Players will still be able research technologies from any of the trees but each specialty has certain technologies and innate bonuses that only they will have access to. You'll notice that that Trade players have a significant advantage in their potential to collect Rare Ore which is in turn needed by every other specialty to complete their high end structures / ships so that forming partnerships with other players becomes a critical component to the mid and late game.

Specialties

Combat

• Combat specialists gain access to Super Capital Construction.
• Combat specialists gain access to Planet Busting.

Trade

• Trade specialist gain a 10% increase in rare ore collection per rank of Advanced Materials Collection vs. the standard 3%
• Trade specialists build ships and orbitals 10% faster.

Science

• Science specialists research technologies 25% faster.
• Science specialists gain access to Graviton physics.

We have also made a number of changes to the tech tree itself with the Fleet and Combat lines receiving the most changes.

Tech Tree changes
(if a tech is unlisted / unmentioned nothing has changed.)

Fleet Control
Tier 1

• Fleet Maneuvering : +4% warp speed per rank for fleets. (was a T2 tech and is now replacing Basic Ship Handling)

Tier 2

• Forward Fleet: Allows the creation of Cruisers. +2% damage to Cruisers and Battleships per rank.
  
• Advanced Ship Handling : Improved ship agility. +4% defense to all ships per rank. (changed since a non warp speed bonus wasn't useful and +2% bonus to ships that aren't in fleets seemed a little weak / too limited in utility.)

Tier 3

• Armed Command : Allows the creation of Battleships. + 4% per rank defense for Battleships, Cruisers, and Carriers.

Tier 4

• Advanced Fleet Command: Allows the creation of Fleet HQ. A Fleet HQ allows all of a players ships within the same system to defend any other ships, planets, or orbitals in that system even if they're not in orbit of the same planet. Fleet HQ's give +5% defense, +5% defense, +2% attack to all ships in the same system as the fleet HQ per rank . (replaces shrapnel resistant shielding)

(Bonuses for Fleet HQ are currently working but ship grouping is not.)

• Evasive Maneuvers: Fighters gain +10% chance to avoid damage from mines and +5% general defense per rank. (buffed to be more useful in general.)

Combat
Tier 1

• Orbital Defenses: Only allows the construction of Energy Array platforms.
  
• Offensive Initiative: No longer grants the ability to build Cruisers or bonuses to cruisers / battleships.

Tier 2

• Advanced Orbital Defenses: Allows the construction of Missile defense platforms. +2% reduction orbital build time per rank +2% dmg increase time per rank (replaces mine emplacement.) note: These two changes go along with the change that that Energy Platforms be strong against light units and Missile Platforms are strong against capital class ships.
  
• Strike fleet construction: No longer grants the ability to build Battleships / provides bonuses to battleships / cruisers.

Tier 6

• Engines of Destruction - gives bonuses to capital class ships as well as super capital capital class ships. (this is so there's still a useful T6 Combat skill for non combat specialists since combat specialists are the only ones that get super caps.)

Trade Skills
Tier 1

• Advanced Materials Collection : Allows mining colonies to process and refine Rare Ore. +3% production capacity per rank.

Tier 2

• Mine Emplacement : Allows the creation of mine deployment drones. +5% damage per rank. Mine deployment drones are defenseless mine carriers that can be converted into a mine field.

Hi Everyone,

If you signed up for beta -and- registered your device (you can do this by checking the email you received from test flight on that device) you should be receiving a build of the game on Saturday (4/9) at 6pm EST.

We're looking forward to seeing you all in the game soon.

Part 2 of the Tech Tree Dev Diary is now up. We introduce the areas of Science, which grants players the ability to cloak ships and even collapse stars, and Fleet Control which opens up the use of deadly carriers and jump drives.

http://www.zarksoft.com/cms/content....v-Diary-Part-2

In part 2 of the tech tree break down we introduce the areas of Science, which grants players the ability to cloak ships and even collapse stars, and Fleet Control which opens up the use of deadly carriers and jump drives.

Science Skills

Tier 1
Planetology : Makes home more like home. Allows the creation of orbital laboratories. +2% Increased population growth per rank.

Power Generation : Allows the creation of refineries. +2% to resource production and factory efficiency per rank.

Tier 2
Advanced Metallurgy : Improved material handling skills. +2% per rank base defence all ships

Astrophysics : Improved stellar identification. +2% per rank reduction in warp travel time

Tier 3
Terraforming : Allows the building of terraformers. Improved Terraformer efficiency. +2%/rank increase in transformation rates

Genetic Manipulation : Every colonist needs a hurricane-proof dog. +4% per rank population growth.

Tier 4
Stealth Orbitals : High energy hide-and-seek. +10% per rank increase in orbitals avoiding detection

Hyperspace Physics : Ships are not affected by black holes. +5% rank reduction in warp travel time.

Tier 5
Cloaking: Ships/Fleets are invisible to other players/AI. Togglable active skill. Players cannot attack while cloaked and move at -50% speed. Speed penalty reduced -10% per rank..

Jumpgate Construction : Enables the construction of JGs. - 5% production cost of jump gates / jump beacons per rank.

Tier 6
Graviton Physics: Allows the player to convert stars to black holes. Allows the creation of solar core taps. +1 star per rank. (Requires a solar core tap to be built at the star and 24 hours to convert. If the solar core tap is destroyed during the process the conversion is cancelled.)

Xion Particle Properties : +5% rank damage increase to all ships.

Fleet Control

Tier 1
Fleet Management : Increases maximum number of fleets that can be built. Allows construction of Fleet Headquarters. +n max fleets per rank.

Basic Ship Handling : +2% rank reduction in normal space travel times.

Tier 2
Fleet Maneuvering : +4% warp speed per rank for fleets.

Advanced Ship Handling : Improved ship agility. +2% defense in non-fleet combats. +2% normal speed per rank.

Tier 3
Planetary Deployment : Increase ability of ground side defences. +5% per rank defence for non-Homeworld planets

Evasive Maneuvers : +5% per rank Chance to evade damage from mine fields.

Tier 4
Fleet Tactics : Better fleet handling. +5% per rank in fleet damage output, 2% per rank damage reduction when in fleet combat.

Shrapnel Resistant Shielding : Reduced damage from mine explosions. +5% defense per rank.
(renamed Tactical Orbital Maneuvering)

Tier 5
Carrier Control: Allows the construction of carriers. +5% fighter capacity and +5% Carrier defense per rank.

Advanced Fighter Command : Increases fighter attack rates. +5% rank fighter damage increase.

Tier 6
Jump Drive Operation: Permits Carriers, Dreadnaughts, Super Dreadnaughts, Monitors, and Planet Killers to jump without using a gate. +5 non capital ships can accompany the capital ship in a fleet per rank.

Precision Targeting : Pinpoint those defence weak points. +10% damage to all ships per rank.

Over in the Dev Diary section of the site we've begun a series discussing the different areas of technology that players can research in the game starting with the fields of Combat and Trade.

http://www.zarksoft.com/cms/content.php?5-News