The long-awaited Power/FTL revamp coming in 0.5.0 has finally gotten a little bit closer. (Hopefully; see below.)
As with its predecessor, 0.5.0 is not something to simply release without any prior thought. In fact, this time the stakes are higher, as instead of simply adding a new game mechanic on top of what's already there, the revamp throws a lot of existing balancing out the window - some avoidably, some less so - in order to substitute its own.
It's not quite complete yet - my main reason for pushing it into alpha when 0.4.0 only had an open beta is to hopefully provoke a balancing pass or two from Alar, with or without further changes to the underlying system - and between the lack of balance and the fact that the default designs haven't been fully overhauled yet, I expect the eternally-broken AI has been even more thoroughly wrecked than it already was back in 0.4.0. (Unbelievable, right?) PvP and extensive sandbox usage may be required for testing until we can at least slightly unwreck that one.
Here's an outline of what's currently in:
- Starships now have local reserves of Power (not related to Energy!) and FTL Energy. They generate FTL Energy from a supply of FTL Crystals taken from the imperial reserves.
- With a Hyperdrive, when jumping several fleets at once, the game will tell you which fleet(s) don't have enough FTL, and how much FTL you need on average to perform the jump.
- Ships without Power will be unable to fire Power-dependent weapons such as railguns... or, as these poor, doomed Void Rays show, lasers! (Protoss shipset not included. :P)
- New icons here and there add a little extra variety to the repetitive overuse of 'Supply Storage', 'Antimatter Generator', 'Control Computer', 'Crew Quarters'.... (Icons converted from Space Empires 5 assets.) Also not shown here, the old 'Artifact' icon is no longer in use. All the artifacts that were still using it now have their own thematically appropriate icons, just like all the others did since the mod's earliest days.
If the lack of testers during 0.4.0's overly long (5 months, to be exact) beta is any indication, I must be less than optimistic about the odds of 0.5.0 coming out this year, so... better start testing, right, guys? ;)
