Skyrates/SR2.4

[ [ edit] ]

Changes
(Edited from a post by Lord Gilbert.)

Welcome to the next round of Skyrates. We appreciate you all's patience and support. A number of changes have gone into this round, but there's still quite a bit that needs to be done.

Additional content and features will continue to be developed and added in the coming weeks.

Do be aware that the current state of the game is about the most beta it has been for quite some time. We have added a lot of things that need to be tested and we're looking to you folks to help us with that. As such, there are definitely going to be bugs encountered.

It would probably be helpful to consider this a kind of 'alpha' beta round, where a number of changes may still occur during the first few weeks that it is open. Stats may be juggled a bit during this process, so be forewarned. We will do our best to ensure that changes don't happen *too* suddenly and that you are given a bit of forewarning.

Now, onto the changes!

Skills
The interface for the skills has changed quite a bit. A lot of the underlying structure for skills has also changed, which shall make new skills much easier to add.

Skills no longer need to be levels 0-5.

The 'Perception' skill now also reduces the amount of time that servicing takes on a queue.

The 'Negotiation' skill now also reduces the amount of time that trading takes on a queue.

The 'Leadership' skill now also gives your crew an experience boost.

Factions
Three new Factions have entered Skytopia, and one old one has retired from the Island Control game.

Flight School will no longer gain influence for the purposes of Island Control, although they still can become Governors.

Two of the new Factions, the Earthen Order and the Court of Violets, will play in the Island Control game.

The third new Faction, the Independents will not gain influence for Island Control, although they still can become Governors.

The Independents can be joined at Echo. The Court of Violets can be joined at Arcadia. The Earthen Order can be joined at Lhasa.

The existing factions have had their names made more flavorful.

Red Faction -> Crimson Armada Green Faction -> Jade Hand Blue Faction -> Azure League

Flight School & Independents will not have a private faction forum and radio channel.

The Flight School forum will be open to Skyrates of all factions.

The faction join page in the tavern has been tweaked a bit to have a bit more information.

Before a Skyrate can join any of the Island Control Factions (Crimson Armada, Jade Hand, Azure League, Earthen Order, Court of Violets), they must first be in the Independent Faction.

At any time, a Skyrate may drop from one of the Island Control Factions back to the Independent Faction. From there, they can join any other Faction. However, they can never rejoin the Faction they quit from.

There is no way to rejoin Flight School after leaving it.

Sky-Rating
Under the Skyrate->Community tab in game, you'll see that players now have the ability to Sky-rate one another. All players get a certain number of ratings they can make per day (this number does NOT carry over). They can rate various players as either 'Honorable' or 'Infamous.'

The ratings have no in-game effect, but the top ratings can be seen on the rankings page.

Website
Various cleanup and changes.

Discovery craft log now no longer shows arc information.

Notifications
E-mail notifications have been changed to sound more like diary entries than your Skyrate talking to his 'boss.'

Planes
Plane stats have been tweaked quite a bit. Planes now range from tier 0-9. The current typings are Combat, Performance, Trading, Upgrade, and Stock. For now, Upgrade & Stock do not have as much meaning as they may in the future. For now, consider them basic planes with Upgrade planes having more Crew Seats, and Stock less.

The disabled maneuvers of a plane now show up on the Craft page and on the Craft Sales page.

Sadly, the planes from the Legacy Contest winner(s) have not been integrated yet. These are one of the top priorities of our artist however. Do not fear, they will be in the game.

Upgrades
The old upgrade system has been removed.

The beginnings of a new upgrade system have been added. Instead of gun upgrades, your character now has the ability to 'Gunsmith.' As you fight combats in the world, you will occasionally run across Gun Mods. These are special upgrades that can be applied individually to each of your plane's firing arcs.

Gun Mods can be found any time you down a plane in combat, but you're much more likely to find them after won combats. Mechanics can also help you find them.

'Gunsmithing' can either be accessed under Craft->Gunsmith, or from Hangar->Gunsmith.

The system is still fairly raw and will be polished within the coming weeks. We also hope to add the ability to change what kind of gun/arc is installed at the various points of your plane to add further customizability.

We regret that a number of you 'gear heads' may not have as much to sink your teeth into initially, but we hope to be adding more (mods & upgrades to your cargo, engines, etc) in the next few weeks as the current systems are tested. Do stay tuned for them

Modifications to your cargo, engine, etc, these are all features that we hope to add in the coming weeks as the current systems are tested. Do stay tuned for them.

Combat
At long last, Combat 2.0!

The system still has some kinks in it, so be forewarned and do submit any bugs you encounter.

The Pause/Help screen has been redone quite a bit. Please consult it if you get confused.

Your optimal cornering speed is no longer your lowest speed. Now, each plane has a speed that it turns best at. Look for the white line on your speedometer, or when your speedometer bar turns bright red. That should be the speed that your plane turns best at.

Your Skyrate can also press and hold the ctrl-button while turning to exectute a sharper turn. Be forewarned that this will consume your Gumption.

Blackout has been renamed to Gumption. Your Skyrate has a certain amount of Gumption in combat. If they run out of that, they will start to black out.

There is now a small chance that you will earn Combat Points and Gun Mods when you get an auto-resolved win for combat. The chance is dependent on the overall level of the combat.

Instead of automatically fleeing when enemies are out of your range, there is now a 'flee' button that will appear when you've put some distance between you and your enemies. Pressing it will cause your Skyrate to attempt to flee combat. The current success rate of fleeing is 100%, but we will be tweaking that in the future.

Regrettably, for now legendary combats (like Koi Pond, the Phantom Junker, Captain Remy, etc), have been disabled. We hope to have them back soon, but they need to be reworked slightly to work with the new combat.

Skylands
A yellow flag has been erected on Echo to commemorate the unprecedented skill of the last class of Flight Schoolers.

A new type of Skyland has been added to the world. Fueling platforms. These platforms are a recent innovation hoping to shrink some of the ranges of Skytopia. However, their services are limited, and all you will be able to to do at them is fight some patrols and service your plane.

The base number of patrols available at Skylands can be numbers different than 3.

Basic User Interface
Almost all clickable objects in the game now have a roll-over tint effect, and will turn your mouse pointer into a 'hand.'

'Till Next' on the Action Queue is now 'Until Next'

On the avatar page, under Trading it will now tell you what Profit you need to reach to get your next trade point.

Small little notification popups have been added to the game. Now when you earn flight points, trade points, combat points, find Gun Mods, or are Sky-rated, a small pop-up will appear over your avatar/craft icons.

Missions & Influence
Mission Icons have now added.

The Skyland where you picked up the mission has been added to Mission name.

The Anti-Factional missions have been removed for now, as have been the Faction-Controlled Skyland missions.

The 'Transporting the Guardsmen,' 'Transporting the Duke,' and 'Transporting the Duchess' missions have had their loss penalties reduced.

'Transporting a Whale' quest now has had its cargo requirement raised to 250 (the whale got bigger). Its influence payout has been similarly increased.

Timed combat/transport missions have been reintroduced.

Overall cash payout for missions has been increased.

The upper ranges of the 'Eltsina's Boon' line of missions has been decreased.

A number of other missions have had their influence values decreased/increased.

When a Skyland switches factional flag, the controlling faction receive a boost of influence at that Skyland.

Radio
A better scroll bar has been added.

'World' changed to 'General'

'RP' changed to 'Roleplay'

'Help' channel added, that is viewable by all players.

Map
The base number of flight legs you can plot has been raised from 4 to 6.

Flags, a few based on player submitted designs, for the factions have been added to the map. The Crimson Armada and Azure League flags were based on the overall submissions of players, and the Jade Hand flag was designed by Josiah with feedback from the members of his faction. Thanks to everyone who submitted!

New layout to the Skylands.

Crew
Crew descriptions have been updated and should now fit properly.

Overall price of individual crew members has been reduced, but some of their overall effectiveness has gone down as individuals (now requiring multiple crewmates of a given job for maximum effect).

The old method of handling multiple crewmates of the same job type has been eliminated. Now, each job type has a maximum number that can be effective. In cases where you have more than that maximum number of crewmates of a given job, only the most skilled crewmates (up to that maximum number) will contribute.

The new crew descriptions:

Trader: Traders help find the best deals. They reduce the buy and sell tax of transactions and can salvage after a combat to increase your bounty. The maximum number of effective traders you can have is 2. Traders level up with trade points.

The experience requirement of the higher levels of traders has been increased.

Diplomat: Diplomats increase the payout of missions, reduce bribe costs, and can negotiate to prevent some cargo loss when raided by pirates. The maximum number of effective diplomats you can have is 2. Diplomats level a small amount with flight, combat, and trade points, and a large amount from reputation points.

As can be seen, diplomats now earn a significant amount of their experience from completing missions. For every 5000 points of reputation you earn, your Diplomat will gain a chunk of experience.

Navigator: Navigators can plot courses that either keep you out of trouble or throw you headfirst into it. While their risky/safe flights may initially take longer than a regular flight, they'll get faster as they level up. The maximum number of effective navigators you can have is 1. Navigators level up with flight points.

The experience requirement of the higher levels of navigators has been decreased.

Navigator spawn rate has been increased slightly.

Mechanic: Mechanics help repair your plane's armor between combats, and keep it together during combat. Mechanics can also help scavenge for gun mods after combat. The maximum number of effective mechanics you can have is 2. Mechanics level up with combat and flight points.

Diplomat smuggling and Trader salvaging should be more clearly shown in the Crew Logs.

Hits to crew morale have been raised.

Raises to crew morale have been reduced.

Crew now gain a morale boost when they land/take off from a Skyland. Crew will gain a higher morale raise when landing on their home skyland. They will take a morale hit when they take off from their home skyland.

A number of the old effects of crew personality have been changed. Personality will not affect experience gain, only morale hits/raises.

Calculating Has a higher morale raise from splitting profits. Has an lower morale raise when taking off from a skyland. Has an average morale raise when landing on a skyland. Receives an average morale hit for losing a combat.

Bold Has a higher morale raise from splitting booty Has a average morale raise when taking off from a skyland. Has a lower morale raise when landing on a skyland. Receives an average morale hit for losing a combat.

Mentors Has a lower morale raise from splitting profits. Has a lower morale raise when landing on a skyland. Has a higher morale raise when taking off from a skyland. Receives a smaller morale hit for losing a combat.

Eager Has a higher morale raise from splitting profits. Has a higher morale raise from splitting booty. Has a higher morale raise when taking off from a skyland. Has a higher morale raise when taking off from a skyland. Receives a much bigger morale hit for losing a combat.

Grizzled Has a lower morale raise from splitting profits. Has a lower morale raise from splitting booty. Has a lower morale raise when taking off from a skyland. Has a higher morale raise when landing on a skyland. Receives a much smaller morale hit for losing a combat.

Roleplay
Story reasons for this reset will be coming out within the next few weeks. These will include some of the wrap-up of the Legacy events.

For now, the overall story is that a large storm from the North came in decimating much of the layout of Skytopia. The storm seemed somewhat unnatural and is currently being investigated.

An area of the sea that had been bubbling since before the storm has ceased. However, before the storm reached it, an array of lights from beneath the surface shown out into the sky and then disappeared.

Since the storm, the Unknown Planes, Unknown Platforms, and Proximity Mines have vanished.

The plague of golden colored junkers (G01D-F15H) remains.

Skill Tree
The Devs have been fairly tight-lipped on specifically what players can expect from Skyrates version 2.4, but from the images, it seems at least the Skill Tree has been reworked.

Mechanic
Many skyrates have begged for the opportunity to customize their planes' arcs (as described beautifully at http://skyrates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4913 ). In SR2.4, they MAY have that opportunity.

Crew
Experience gains due to Crew Personality have been removed.

Sky-Rate
According to the Devs, this feature will have no in-game effect.

Task List
The following is the Devs' Task List of things "that must be done before [version 2.4] is released."
 * Finalized plane stats - Half-Complete
 * Integration of new skyland type - Complete!
 * Finalized world layout - Complete!
 * Economy testing. - Complete!
 * Combat testing.
 * Combat Information testing - Complete!
 * Craft Weapon screen UI - Complete!
 * Website Updates - Complete!
 * Crew Changes - Complete!
 * Internal testing Start.
 * Internal testing Finish.