Patch notes for tomorrow's (April 14) update

[Tsagoth]

Accounts

- You should no longer be able to create an account with either a blank
username or a blank password field.

Game Updates

Skill training times were -not- reduced as previously announced.

- When renaming an object, the minimum name length is now 4 characters.
- Names longer than 20 characters should no longer be possible.
- Starting resources have been severely reduced.
- Star/Planet rotation speeds have been reduced.
- All ships warp speeds reduced -significantly-. Subspace speeds unchanged.
- Resource regeneration modified such that resources spawn more frequently but in lesser amounts.
- Harvester load/unload base time increased to 60 seconds.
- Capital ships (Dreadnaught and larger) now have the innate ability to Jump.

Maximum ships per player remains capped at 1000. However players now are also limited
by the number of owned shipyards. If a shipyard is destroyed, no ships are destroyed, but no new
ships may be built until there are again sufficient shipyards. Players may have up to 10 ships
without a shipyard.

The skill Basic Ship Handling has been changed. It now increases a shipyard's ability to handle ships by
+10 ships/rank.

The skill Jump Drive Operation now grants Battleships and Carriers the ability to Jump. The remainder
of the skill is the same.

The FleetHQ no longer controls the number of fleets which may be formed. The FHQ has no purpose at the
moment, while we consider for what it might be used in the future.

Two new ships are introduced: Mining Colony and the Small Harvester. The MC carries no colonists.


Planet claiming mechanics

- Only the mining colony ship or a regular colony ship can claim planets now. Both are destroyed on use.
- Unused homeworld systems can no longer be claimed.
- It should no longer be possible to claim planets with ships orbiting the star.
- Colonists deposited on Gas/Jovian planets will now be asphyxiated after planting the flag.

Combat

Players should now be able to harvest attack each other.
- Fleet combat is disabled.


Comments

The speed changes are quite drastic. We look forward to seeing how well (or not) this update
changes the gameplay. Speeds may well be further revised.

Due to the major changes to internal structures the server loading mechanism is
broken. In the event of a server failure, this means the universe will reset. We decided it
was preferable to put the server back in service and play, rather than wait for the extensive code updates.


This codebase has only had limited testing, so issues or server failure are a possibility.

[Cheerio]

So we still won't be able to attack each other for the moment?

[adam__moore]

Combat

Players should now be able to harvest each other.

Game mechanic-wise, what does this mean?
Do we need to declare war to harvest a planet owned by another player?
What about trade agreements?
Is there a combat phase before harvesting or is this a non-aggressive act (mechanics wise)?
Are there implications for planet ownership?
Will I be notified that another player is harvesting my planets?

This codebase has only had limited testing, so issues or server failure are a possibility.

Release early, release often!

A

[Tsagoth]

Sorry, I guess I'm not as funny as I think. Players will be able to attack each. Only individual ships will fight, fleets will not take part for the moment. The combat AI is brand new and rather than just slam it all at once, I want to bring it along slowly to make sure all the bits are working correctly.

[adam__moore]

Sorry, I guess I'm not as funny as I think.

Ah, it's not that - I'm in the middle of some kind of virus thing - hence forum during work time! My bad brain, more probably!

Players will be able to attack each. Only individual ships will fight, fleets will not take part for the moment. The combat AI is brand new and rather than just slam it all at once, I want to bring it along slowly to make sure all the bits are working correctly.

Good - that means I can shelve the 'how do fleets work' question for the mo and concentrate on building lots of little ships for probe-hunting

[ksib]

Haha. One, I laughed at harvesting people. Two, I like these changes. I'm going to love to see how it actually plays, and peoples reactions.

[Cheerio]

So would a carrier with a max fighter load count as a fleet or a single ship?

[Tsagoth]

So would a carrier with a max fighter load count as a fleet or a single ship?

Single ship

[Tsagoth]

A clarification: Orbital structures are counted as ships when determining if the hardcap has been reached. However while a Shipyard counts as a ship, it is not affected by the hardcap, it has its own limit. Even if you have 1000 ships, you can always build Shipyards until you have 100 of them. This enables players who decide not to rank up in BSH to still have the maximum number of ships. In effect this means a player could actually have 1100 ships total.

[Tsagoth]

The patch is complete on the internal dev servers. Testing is continuing, and I expect that Nergal will return to service at 2pm, barring any unexpected incidents.