update 1.4.3 Brings about the culmination of many features we've been working on for quite some time!
Even though the changes from the Dev Team have few and far between, they are substantial!
The Short List of Changes:
Military units are in. your Planets can now train troops
Custom Ship Designs. Have changed. You can now pick the appearance of your custom design, from designs available for that size of ship.
A Big Bang is coming.
There’s plenty of small changes, bug fixes, and improvements in this version, and it’s all possible because of you, the players of Far Reaches. Thanks for all your input, and keep the reports coming!
Now. For The Details:
In the last update, we enabled the construction of military units for a planet, we now enabled you to load them up and cargo, and drop them off on a planet.
What if the planet is not yours?
Invasion. Combat.. somebody wins, somebody looses.
Key Points to remember?
Strength of an invading force is calculated by the following means:
Attacking:
Number of Troops * Tech Level of Troops X* 10;
Defending:
Number of Troops * Tech Level of Troops X* 15;
Defending troops receive a bonus for the home field advantage.
A percentage of a planets population will fight to defend the planet as a militia. They are scored basically the same as troops, without the 15 multiplier.
You can attack with population as an ad hoc militia. If the population comes from a planet you own, they act as militia as their native planet’s tech level. If you pick them up from a planet you do not own, they fight as tech level 4.
To attack a planet, load up troops, and go the planet. With the troop transport selected, right click the planet. One of the choices is “Invade”
Planetary Combat is not instantaneous! Although the effects of launching an invasion are immediate, the battle may rage for minutes, hours. .or even a day.
You (and your opponents) can land more troops on the planet at any time, provided of course the ship is not attacked and destroyed by opposing ships
More then one Faction may be present, and combating on a planet simultaneously.
In communications, you will receive regular updates on the progress of the battle. When it ends, you will be informed.. win or loose.
IN OTHER NEWS
The planetary appearance bug has been fixed. One of the planet textures was corrupted on the server
Ship and system Generated messages are back in the comms menu
Ship Movement, has been adjusted to reflect some important changes in combat, along with missle flight times.
Missile flight time has been significantly shortened.
Ships. Now accelerate at a much slower rate, and then jump to light speed. Jump times vary dependent upon the tech level of the engine.
Besides having an effect on some other fundamentals of the game, this combat scheme moves the ships up close and personal when they duke it out.
Select your own skin for custom ships!
Once your planet has a shipyard, you can design your own ships, within the tech limit of the planet. Each size/class of ship has multiple appearances.. you can pick the one that best suits your tastes!
THE BIG BANG IS COMING
In July we will Reset the Universe. The Current layout has been used to test and refine game play, ship types, and new features . With most of that work complete, we will be adding new features such as missions, trade zones, factions, and most importantly location specific bonuses. To accomplish this, its will be necessary to reset the universe, and player assets.
