The Sector K72 preview build is available on the Beta Opt-In now!
March proved to be a challenging month for the Heathen Engineering team with a force majeure event impacting the tech side of the team and consequently delaying the planned launch of the Sector K72 patch. As part of the process of getting our feet back under the tech team we are releasing a preview build of the Sector K72 patch to the Beta branch accessible to all gamers that own the game by simply opting in to Beta through your Steam client. Frequent small updates will occur to the preview build with little fan-fair till the Sector K72 patch is complete and ready for the main branch.

Whats in the preview?

With Sector K72 we made major changes across the board. With the first instalment of the preview, you’ll notice an all new look and feel to the UI. Several elements of the UI are ‘work in progress’ with secondary functions such as the media player not currently having a UI representation, have no fear it’s all still there and will be getting UI controls directly. Quite a few new gameplay features are coming with Sector K72, the following is a quick summary of key additions you can preview now.

Galaxy Map

A preview of the galaxy Map is available allowing you to browse parts of Faction space and the J40 system of Sector K72. Over the next few updates to the preview build on Beta, additional functionality will be enabled allowing players who have formed an organization to scan and claim worlds, build new improvements and develop a population. Coming soon you will be able to upgrade the planetary station of your controlled worlds and expand your worlds capabilities via ‘Asset Improvements’. The cultural mix of each world is unique influenced by your organization, allies and enemies as well as by the types of improvements you choose to deploy. The demographics of your controlled worlds will have a notable impact on a planets output, your own political influence and of course population stability.

Organizations

A preview of the organization view is available allowing you to form a corporation or government organization. Once you have created an organization you will be presented with the organization management view which is still under construction. Over the next few updates the ability to organize your controlled worlds into sectors, install leaders to handle the day to day tasks, assign fleet groups to facilitate security and defence and controls for your organization’s ‘official’ culture will all be added. As the build progresses we will enable the ability to search and join NPC controlled organizations along with the tools you’ll need to rise in the ranks and make your mark. Additional organization types are also coming later in this phase of Early Access.

Pilot Enhancements

A preview of pilot enhancements is available now via the Profile view and will be fully enabled in subsequent updates. Once enabled you will be able to ‘install’ pilot enhancements by spending research. Pilot enhancements improve your core stats such as concentration but can also unlock additional ship parts, ship abilities and asset improvements. Later in this phase we will be introducing companions, these are NPC Terran pilots who you will have formed a relationship with. Companions like your self can install enhancements and will be managed from the profile view.

Contacts

Contacts are an important concept particularly when starting out. Rena Borsch has been made available in an early preview state and will be quickly expanded over next few patches to serve as an introduction to the galaxy and its many opportunities. As development progresses new contacts will be added including contacts for all NPC organizations. By working with a contact and building your reputation you may be introduced to new contacts and gain access to more challenging and rewarding tasks.

Alpha One Station preview

You can access Alpha One by talking with Rena Borsch. The Alpha One station is still early in its implementation and will be quickly expanded with local tasks, new NPCs to meet and opportunities to learn more about the galaxy and the history of the Terran.

Fleet Management

The Ship Editor has received a lot of attention regarding its interface meant to simplify its use without reducing its functionality. In addition, Ship Editor has been expanded and rebranded as the Fleet Management tool, we will be introducing all new functionality such as assigning and organizing your fleet into flotilla, divisions and wings in later updates.

How frequently will new patches come?

While Sector K72 is in the beta branch it will be updated weekly with the latest stable build. The Windows build is first in build order though we expect the Mac and Linux builds to also follow this weekly update pattern until the intended functionality of Sector K72 is complete.

When will Sector K72 be ‘complete’?

The dev team is still working to get its feet back under it and can’t make an accurate prediction at this time. The rate of progress since the force majeure impact has been exceptionally fast, though we still have plenty of ground to cover to bring the project back on schedule. We are also working to catch the roadmap, web site and social outlets up with the current state. The roadmap in particular, is the best view of what we know at any given time.

What comes after Sector K72?

Sector K72 marks the formal start of Early Access Phase 2. In this phase, Heathen Engineering will be implementing the remaining gameplay features of the game and expanded the content such as available ship parts, pilot enhancements, contacts and so forth until the game is ‘feature complete’ and nearly ‘content complete’. The end of Phase 2 does not mark the end of Early Access in that we will be holding back in particular the narrative aspects of the game for the last phase of Early Access (Phase 3), Phase 3 is planned to be the shortest phase and more akin to a traditional beta just prior to a full release serving the function of final testing and polish.

Need to know more?

Phase 1 was deliberately running quitter than some might expect for an Early Access game. Terran was not launched into Early Access to ‘pay the bills’ rather we launched early access to build a better game. Phase 1 was focused on a minimal set of core functionality being ships e.g. the ship editor, flight control and combat. Similarly marketing efforts where understated, perhaps too much so, with Sector K72 we are looking to improve our community management, marketing and general information sharing efforts.

[ 2017-04-14 21:52:00 CET ] [ Original post ]