This update is a collection of changes to game balance across all the current content. [h2]Enemy Scaling[/h2] Due to players getting more upgrades, more rare weapons and better synergy at higher levels, the linear increase in difficulty was insufficient. Especially in regard to damage as players get more armor, resistances, etc. The base scaling applied to enemies is shown below, it may need to be adjusted as we reach higher and higher levels of content, but for now I believe it provides an adequate challenge for the content we have. [list] [*] Level 1 = 104% Damage - 140% Hull / Shield [*] Level 5 = 138% Damage - 149% Hull / Shield [*] Level 10 = 200% Damage - 167% Hull / Shield [*] Level 15 = 277% Damage - 193% Hull / Shield [*] Level 20 = 365% Damage - 224% Hull / Shield [*] Level 25 = 462% Damage - 260% Hull / Shield [*] Level 30 = 567% Damage - 301% Hull / Shield [/list] Bonuses to hull for higher ship classes have been reduced, and damage vs lower level enemies has been increased in both directions. In addition, encounters with different / rare rewards now modify damage more than hull and shields as this feels nicer. This is a full balance pass, so there are obviously a host of additional more specific changes based on player feedback. All the special weapons should now feel more viable, along with drones and auto stinger launchers. Every elite and boss has been individually tuned to what we think feels right. As always, weapon changes aren't retroactive so I'd recommend a new play through to try out the changes in full. Enjoy! [h1]Patch Notes[/h1] [b]Balance Changes[/b] [list] [*] Vastly increased difficulty scale of enemies at higher levels. [*] Encounters with different rewards now increase damage by 150% only. [*] Encounters with rare rewards now increase damage by 200% and hull / shield by 150%. [*] Reduced health increase of higher ship classes from 1000 down to 500. [*] Increased min level of rare drops from level 3 to 6. (Excluding boss / rare enemies) [*] Increased min level of different drops from level 2 to 4. (Excluding boss / rare enemies) [*] Reduced level requirement no longer counts towards modifier count on weapons. [*] Internal Shield now grants some hull regen (Retroactively Applied). [*] Increased range of Basilisk Laser boss weapon by 50%. [*] Basilisk Tornado Launcher now fires 16 (up from 4) projectiles that are faster with 80% damage. [*] Increased Behemoth rate of fire, projectile speed and seeking to make it more threatening. [*] Doubled damage of Behemoth Smog Exhaust. [*] Increased speed of Mjölnir's lightning orb by 33%. [*] Doubled speed of Leech Gun projectiles but kept range the same. [*] Increased damage of Auto Stinger Launcher by +20%. [*] Auto Stinger Launcher now fires in faster volleys of 2 missiles at a time. [*] Lasers now tick 5x per second instead of 10x per second to slow effects on crit. [*] Increased damage of beacon ships (player only) by 200%. [*] Increased damage of all pulse weapons by 100%. [*] Increased damage of Tornado Launcher by 60%. [*] Increased damage of all mine weapons by 50%. [*] Increased damage of smog launcher by 50%. [*] Increased speed of Heron Drones by 100%. [*] Increased speed of Hornet Drones by 50%. [*] Heron / Hornet Drones now also gain a charge every 10 levels, like Roach Drones. [*] Javelin Launcher now has double charges, half recharge / reload time but half damage. [*] Drones / turrets now spawn at the level of their parent not the weapon. [*] Species-XI skirmish encounters now spawn 4 squadrons instead of 5. [*] Slightly increased aim speed of bosses turnable weapons. [*] Reduced hull leech on crit modifier from 5% down to 1% per stack. [*] Reduced armor from on crit modifier from 5% down to 2.5% per stack. [*] Enemies 3 - 4 levels higher will now do 2x damage (up from 1.5x). [*] Enemies 5 or more levels higher will now do 4x damage (up from 2x). [*] Experience earned from mission collection no longer includes bonus XP modifier. [*] Increased difficulty of Hodr and Baldur. [*] Increased max speed of Hodr and Baldur by +50%. [*] Increased difficulty of Crystal Prism. [*] Reduced starting hull regen of internal shields from 2.5% down to 0.5%. [*] Increased Stalker Launcher charges from 3 to 4. [*] Increased Stalker Launcher damage from 90 to 135. [*] Increased Stalker Launcher projectile hull from 100 to 200. [*] Increased Stalker Launcher explosive radius from 30m to 40m. [*] Reduced Stalker Launcher reload time from 0.5s to 0.33s. [*] Reduced number of Louse in squadron from 4 to 3. [*] A maximum of 1 x Locust will use the Stalker Launcher per squadron. [*] Added new Locust variant equipped with Plasmathrower. [*] Doubled projectile hull of Auto Stinger Launcher projectiles. [*] Harmonized heat generation of weapons by type and reduced all values. [*] Missile Launchers can now get bonus projectile hull as a modifier (25% to 50%). [*] Increased damage of Frost Nova Pulse from 170 to 200. [*] Increased damage of Blast Wave Pulse from 150 to 250. [*] Increased hull of friendly ships by +50%. [*] Reduced XP required per level to approx 75% of previous value. [*] Increased heat capacity of Frigates from 30 to 40. [*] Reduced heat capacity of Cruiser from 70 to 60. [*] Reduced heat capacity of Cruiser from 90 to 80. [*] All loot table rolls now include a 20% chance to drop mothership sale items. [*] Doubled repair rate of friendly Spark ships. [*] Increased range at which AI will use weapons. [*] Beacons will now summon ships at the parent ships level instead of the weapons. [*] Reduced heat capacity of Prism Ray from 25 - 50% to 5 - 10%. [/list] [b]Quality of Life / Accessibility[/b] [list] [*] Seeking projectiles now only seek out ships so they don't veer off in debris. [*] Added a new custom death overlay when the mothership dies to explain what happened. [*] Players on hardcore mode are now permitted to respawn if the Mothership dies. [*] Non-orbitting static drones will now position themselves behind their parent ship. [*] Non-orbitting static drones now face their parent ship's direction when not firing. [*] Drones and turrets now have a much more modest explosion when destroyed. [*] Rescue ship in encounters no longer spawns directly on top of player. [*] Default volume for overheat warning sound is now set to 50% instead of 25%. [*] Reduced length of boost trails by 25%. [/list] [b]Bug Fixes[/b] [list] [*] Fixed issue where Basilisk lasers weapon not fire during primary phase. [*] Fixed issue where aim assist would throw Proton Torpedoes off target. [*] Fixed enemies with projectile weapons shooting through friendly ships with shields. [*] Mine launchers no longer get velocity modifiers that do nothing. [*] Fixed issue where turrets would stop firing when parent was far away. [*] Fixed Invisible Thruster not showing in thruster list in sandbox. [*] Fixed issue where Orb Launchers would do far too much damage to large targets. [*] Citadel layers will no longer twist slightly out of sync when it turns. [*] Developer complete path button now spreads invaders and adds missions. [*] Item repair cost can no longer be 0 credits when durability isn't full. [*] Scatter gun enemies will no longer aim the weapon ahead of their target. [*] Fixed discard confirmation appearing under other parts of the panel. [*] Music from elite waves will now reset if you respawn and return to an encounter. [*] Returning to the final encounter after respawn no longer triggers instant failure. [*] Ship design will no longer permit you to use faction parts you have not unlocked. [*] Knockback no longer applied to drones or attached / orbitting AI ships. [*] Fixed bug where all layers of Citadel could take damage. [*] Fixed boss name not displaying on HUD for final boss of each sector. [*] Fixed +2 levels showing as hard colour when it should have been +3. [*] Fixed issue with Species-XI not always dropping rewards. [*] Fixed issue where credit/item caches would not init properly. [*] Players can no longer remove upgrade points, invalidating upgrades further down the tree. [*] Lines connecting upgrades no longer stay white when removing points. [/list]