Relic Space recently participated in Steam Next Fest, with over a thousand new players trying the game! While there's been lot's of positive feedback, there's also been a number of reports of bugs and balance issues, as well as some really detailed discussion of game mechanics, particularly on the Discord.

So since then I've jumped straight into fixing what I considered to be the highest priority bugs and balance issues. While not the most exciting of updates, it will make the Demo a more polished and well-balanced experience for those trying the Demo for the first time (still available for download from the Steam page).

BALANCE CHANGES

MOD: all mission types are now more evenly distributed in the system
MOD: reduced frequency of ‘stolen goods’ mission variants
MOD: reduced frequency but increased difficulty of ambushes
MOD: reduced frequency of ambushes further for adventure mode
MOD: adventure mode now has a slower event clock
MOD: increase loot from enemy ships
MOD: voidfliers now have two random light weapons instead of medium laser

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

MOD: improved character selection descriptions
MOD: amended heat warning text display to clarify ability to disable weapons using 'X'

MAP

NEW: added pulses to sector map for additional clarity
NEW: display indicating how many sectors have been explored compared to the maximum available (limited to 8 in the Demo)
FIX: unexplored sectors are now correctly marked with a glowing outline in the system map, and this is noted in the map key section



FIXES

FIX: ‘too heavy for ship’ message incorrectly shown when selling equipment
FIX: bug where pressing R activates equipment skills other than weapon skills
FIX: bug where using power shot can lead to weapons being deactivated
FIX: bug where incorrect skill level shown for techie trait skills in character selection screen
FIX: bug where circle faction stats are initially not shown in faction stat spider chart
FIX: bug where projectiles fired from platforms are too small to be visible
FIX: some issues with explosion animation for certain ships
FIX: incorrect chance of occurrence for certain faction event types
FIX: bug causing soft-lock when loading a 'random missions only' game straight after launching the game.
FIX: incorrect ship class icon for certain ship and platform types
FIX: weight warning sometimes shown when jettisoning goods
FIX: bug where cutscene audio is played at full volume irrespective of saved music volume preference
FIX: bug where background music in splash screen does not initially load with saved music volume preference
FIX: rare unexpected loud sound effect when returning to main view from system map

Thanks for reading and watch this space for more news as we progress towards Early Access!