Patch Notes Update Server Update Incoming - 19.06.2015

[Arsen Cross]

Very positive update. While we are on the topic of module damage, any word on when armor will be fixed so it actually imparts protection to modules? See the below youtube link as an example of what I'm talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxydm-dWS-o&feature=youtu.be

 

[Distance]

.... possibly with a credit cost - after all ships don't connect to shore power for free.

Normally I'd agree but the game shouldn't give you the choice of "spend in game credits or sit staring at a recharge meter for ten minutes".

- - - Updated - - -

Turn off shield boosters wait the 30 or 40 seconds for shields to come back online, turn boosters on and hit all four shield cell banks in one go.. Full shields
No need to thank me for pointing out the glaringly obvious.

So wait in station to recharge, leave station, use shield cell banks, return to station, buy more shield cell banks, leave and continue on your way?

What if you don't have room for scb on your ship? Does that mean a trip to outfitting every time you want to recharge your shields?

 

[Abudda]

@Distance
If you spend ten minutes waiting for your shields to recharge my advice will absolutely help you out your welcome.
As for your next statement.. No not at all, unless your changing shields or generators I have not noticed my shields going offline in a station and if you are doing this then it should take time for them to come back since the description of the shield is a continuous energy field, if its been disabled then its not continuing so must restart... If your shield goes offline in a fight then you should have either used your SCB earlier or learn not to fly into oncoming fire and in that instance my advise is exactly what needs to be done.
Thank you for your time and input

 

[Schmack]

Turn off shield boosters wait the 30 or 40 seconds for shields to come back online, turn boosters on and hit all four shield cell banks in one go.. Full shields
No need to thank me for pointing out the glaringly obvious.

If NPCs can have insta-shields, all vessels should. Recovery after expending them is one thing, but you have the charge available right away (just like in SCBs) to charge them rapidly. Having them count down at the dock from changing modules is just poor coding.

 

[Schmack]

@Distance
If you spend ten minutes waiting for your shields to recharge my advice will absolutely help you out your welcome.
As for your next statement.. No not at all, unless your changing shields or generators I have not noticed my shields going offline in a station and if you are doing this then it should take time for them to come back since the description of the shield is a continuous energy field, if its been disabled then its not continuing so must restart... If your shield goes offline in a fight then you should have either used your SCB earlier or learn not to fly into oncoming fire and in that instance my advise is exactly what needs to be done.
Thank you for your time and input

The physics of this aspect of the game come down to the ability to rapidly recharge a system. Since you've not discharged the system when you turn off shields, you should not need to recharge, just activate shields. Shields should be discharged as they are attacked. There's simply no gameplay reason to have recharge time at a station. Again, NPCs have instant shields, target one and you'll see the shields pop up, even the anaconda. Like a flashlight, you can turn it on or off as you wish (the USS Enterprise could raise or lower shields, didn't have to recharge after lowering). Once discharged, like a flashlight, you need to replace batteries (SCB) or recharge them (wait time with pips to system). Even with the SCB, you have to reload them, so you're getting a charged bank but then they use power from your reactor so that's a double whammy which doesn't make sense. I get the gamplay aspect of it, but it's not due to IRL limitations.

 

[EdzUp]

Hi everyone,

a server update is incoming at 3.30pm BST. They will be down fore up to 30 minutes.

There are two changes for this update. The first addresses the server stability issues encountered last night and the second tackles the repair cost issue.

The fix should bring repair costs into line according with a module’s cost and current integrity; at zero health the maximum repair cost should be one percent of a module’s base value.

The net result should be fewer trivial repair costs and fewer costs that are crazy high. Overall, repair costs will be higher, but importantly, they will be consistently in accordance with module worth; coupled with the following change for ship integrity, on average overall repair costs should be lower.

We’re bringing ship integrity repair costs into line. Maximum integrity repair costs will be one percent of the ship’s hull cost, down from 5%; still potentially significant, but no longer so high as to tempt Commanders into trashing a ship and paying the insurance premium over fixing it back up.

Thanks

Michael

Bloody awesome update, the repair costs are right down now making it easier to fix the ships up.

 

[Rapster]

If NPCs can have insta-shields, all vessels should. Recovery after expending them is one thing, but you have the charge available right away (just like in SCBs) to charge them rapidly. Having them count down at the dock from changing modules is just poor coding.

How is it poor coding if it's by design?

Your post is insulting.

What's wrong with people? The Internet wasn't invented for incessant vitriol!

 

[Robert Maynard]

Normally I'd agree but the game shouldn't give you the choice of "spend in game credits or sit staring at a recharge meter for ten minutes".

It's already in-game with SCB ammunition - they can be bought to speed up the recharging of shields. Asking the station to provide an energy dump into the ship's shields is not really any different - which is why I think that it should be charged for.

 

[Ari Ben Zayn]

Doesn't selling and rebuying the shield instantly charge it? ;-) ;-)

 

[Distance]

@Distance
If you spend ten minutes waiting for your shields to recharge my advice will absolutely help you out your welcome.
As for your next statement.. No not at all, unless your changing shields or generators I have not noticed my shields going offline in a station and if you are doing this then it should take time for them to come back since the description of the shield is a continuous energy field, if its been disabled then its not continuing so must restart... If your shield goes offline in a fight then you should have either used your SCB earlier or learn not to fly into oncoming fire and in that instance my advise is exactly what needs to be done.
Thank you for your time and input

I've played for over 1000hrs so I'm well versed in the game mechanics. Messing around with things in outfitting can randomly shut your shields off because sometimes when outfitting a new ship you buy all your modules and then change the priorities after you leave outfitting and by that time your shield could be down. All you're suggesting are work arounds with the current mechanics.

The whole problem with shields is another case of a half implemented mechanic. We needed the shields to recharge in normal space for ages but they didn't finish it and implement it properly. Whilst the current mechanic and work arounds may help it doesn't reduce the need for a properly implemented way to recharge shields at a station. If I'm flying my trading conda with 8 boosters and get interdicted then I'm punished in the long run if I lose shields. If I then have to hope the station I'm landing at has scb to buy so I can recharge my shields something is wrong with the game.

It's already in-game with SCB ammunition - they can be bought to speed up the recharging of shields. Asking the station to provide an energy dump into the ship's shields is not really any different - which is why I think that it should be charged for.

As above it's a half implemented mechanic. I'm not completely opposed to paying for shield recharge but I think the game doesn't respect a player's time enough as it is and adding another money sink in to an already grind filled game doesn't sound like a good game mechanic. I'm sure FD would rather have players flying around than sitting at a station watching a recharge bar. Asking players to pay every time they lose shields is unnecessary imo.

If I'm paying to recharge shields then it might be better to pay for hull damage rather than shield recharge and fly without boosters making another module obsolete.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I've played for over 1000hrs so I'm well versed in the game mechanics. Messing around with things in outfitting can randomly shut your shields off because sometimes when outfitting a new ship you buy all your modules and then change the priorities after you leave outfitting and by that time your shield could be down. All you're suggesting are work arounds with the current mechanics.

The whole problem with shields is another case of a half implemented mechanic. We needed the shields to recharge in normal space for ages but they didn't finish it and implement it properly. Whilst the current mechanic and work arounds may help it doesn't reduce the need for a properly implemented way to recharge shields at a station. If I'm flying my trading conda with 8 boosters and get interdicted then I'm punished in the long run if I lose shields. If I then have to hope the station I'm landing at has scb to buy so I can recharge my shields something is wrong with the game.



As above it's a half implemented mechanic. I'm not completely opposed to paying for shield recharge but I think the game doesn't respect a player's time enough as it is and adding another money sink in to an already grind filled game doesn't sound like a good game mechanic. I'm sure FD would rather have players flying around than sitting at a station watching a recharge bar. Asking players to pay every time they lose shields is unnecessary imo.

It's not really any different from paying to refuel or using a fuel scoop. We can choose to spend time scooping or pay for an instant refill.

 

[Mephane]

It's not really any different from paying to refuel or using a fuel scoop. We can choose to spend time scooping or pay for an instant refill.

Except we can buy better fuel scoops to fill the bigger tanks of bigger ships as fast as the smaller tanks of smaller ships with smaller scoops. Imagine if there were only class 1 fuel scoops in the game; that is the situation with shield regeneration.

 

[Distance]

It's not really any different from paying to refuel or using a fuel scoop. We can choose to spend time scooping or pay for an instant refill.

Except we can buy better fuel scoops to fill the bigger tanks of bigger ships as fast as the smaller tanks of smaller ships with smaller scoops. Imagine if there were only class 1 fuel scoops in the game; that is the situation with shield regeneration.

Pretty much this. Like I say it's only at stations where it's a problem and it's another problem that's only been introduced by 1.3.

 

[Cmdr Korvus]

This is great to hear. Stability.

 

[woodhouse]

Except we can buy better fuel scoops to fill the bigger tanks of bigger ships as fast as the smaller tanks of smaller ships with smaller scoops. Imagine if there were only class 1 fuel scoops in the game; that is the situation with shield regeneration.

So maybe by analogy to fuel scoops, the Shield Cell Banks should be replaced with Shield Regenerators. Units you can install, that require internal compartment space and cost credits, which will provide a certain recharge rate.
(And while we're at it, fix the use of double chaff by making the cooloff periode global for all chaff launchers so that gimbals can be used in Open again.)

 

[KellyR]

So maybe by analogy to fuel scoops, the Shield Cell Banks should be replaced with Shield Regenerators. Units you can install, that require internal compartment space and cost credits, which will provide a certain recharge rate.
(And while we're at it, fix the use of double chaff by making the cooloff periode global for all chaff launchers so that gimbals can be used in Open again.)

Someone wants to spam chaff, I'll just unlock him and use my weapons as fixed. It does take more accuracy and marksmanship, of course, but gimbals should be to give you an edge, not because you can't aim properly. I always recommend learning how to shoot with fixed before upgrading to gimbals.

 

[Morlock5K]

There are three separate double-scan problems:

- surface scanning: it scans,reports success in text, but not in the scanner, KEEPS ON SCANNING, reports success
- discovery scanning: you ping the system, it reports nothing (except the one you get for being close); you do it again: it finds 25 bodies
- discovery scanning: you ping the system, it reports finding 25 bodies, but nothing appears on your scanner or navigation window; you scan again: they appear

All three happen ... basically all the time. As in, 1 in 5 systems I visit will have at least one of these 3 issues.

Edit: the first happened 4:23 BST, Boson Higgs, scanning HYPOE FLYI VI-T C6-326 1

If you want an example of the other two... well, any system I've visited in the last 2 days where I haven't (according to the system) discovered all of the bodies ;p

Can confirm I have encounted all 3 of the above issues but not with as much regularity as stated above. I always assumed it was server side and considered it a minor inconvenience

 

[Schattenbogen]

The fix should bring repair costs into line according with a module’s cost and current integrity; at zero health the maximum repair cost should be one percent of a module’s base value.

The net result should be fewer trivial repair costs and fewer costs that are crazy high. Overall, repair costs will be higher, but importantly, they will be consistently in accordance with module worth; coupled with the following change for ship integrity, on average overall repair costs should be lower.

We’re bringing ship integrity repair costs into line. Maximum integrity repair costs will be one percent of the ship’s hull cost, down from 5%; still potentially significant, but no longer so high as to tempt Commanders into trashing a ship and paying the insurance premium over fixing it back up.

Could you please explain me what a module with 0% health mean from the pilot point of view, knowing the difference between 0% health and 100% health is 1% of the module cost ?

 

[LOSBOT]

Can you guys PLEASE fix the launcher?!?!
Every time we have to update, part of your update process is to wipe out the AppConfig.xml file, which changes any settings we put in there, while also turning on UPnP, which not all of us use. I have Sonicwall firewall which DOES not support that UPnP junk. Every time I hit the UPGRADE button, I see the file being replaced with a fresh copy and my setting disappear.

With every update, I feel like dropping this game altogether because I'm having to hit UPGRADE like 3 dozen times, watching it fail, until by some miracle it works and manages to download the update.

This is getting old.

 

[GG7]

It's not really any different from paying to refuel or using a fuel scoop. We can choose to spend time scooping or pay for an instant refill.

Is there any ETA on the next Xbox One version build?

As I am sure you guys are already aware, the current build is plagued with terrible frame rate issues as well as significant audio distortion and drop outs. Would be nice to get a smoother more optimized version for the console. Something more along the lines of what XB1 owners are accustomed to, as in a solid and LOCKED 30fps or higher.

Is this the correct forum area to ask these XB1 specific update release questions?

Thanks in advance.