Afterglow (v0.8.7)

Another batch of things checked off my list with this update. Some came from player suggestions and requests, while others have been sitting on my to-do list for far too long.

Enemies now have combat dialogue, Species-XI ships explode into glowing goo, and co-op has a proper Players tab. There are also plenty of performance improvements, quality-of-life changes, and bug fixes.

Afterglow

Species-XI ships now burst into glowing goo when destroyed, reflecting their biological nature. The goo splatters across nearby ships and asteroids, invaded encounters are now also full of this goo.

Dragonfly by NotABot87746 ( https://star-vortex.com/ships.php?view=354 )

I've optimized the effect as much as possible, but if you notice a drop in framerate, the new Dynamic Goo graphics setting lets you switch to a simpler version.

Enemy Chatter

Enemy squadron leaders now have something to say, occasionally. They'll announce their arrival, deliver their last words, or react when you destroy their wingmen. Mostly with threats and anger.

Each of the nine talking factions has its own personality, with some dialogue offering hints about the wider lore. Species-XI remain silent, and if you'd rather everyone else did too, you can disable Enemy Chatter in the gameplay settings.

Players Tab and Resurrection

Press F6 during multiplayer to open the new Players tab. From here, you can jump to another player's location, inspect their ship, or kick and ban players if necessary.

Dying in co-op now leaves a wreck behind that an ally can fly to and resurrect you from. Chat will also announce when someone picks up a legendary item.

Loot Filter Selling

The loot filter now has a Sell action, which marks matching equipment with [SELL]. Using Quick Sell will then sell all tagged items at once. The Common, Different, and Rare checkboxes in the trade panel now work independently, tagging items as you select them alongside any existing loot filter rules.

Beat Your Best Boss Times

Boss kills now display your fight time and personal best directly on the victory banner.

Each boss also tracks your three fastest kills, which you can view on its glossary page.

Holo Drive Nerf

I've been trying to tackle the performance issues caused by Holo Drive for some time now. The biggest problem is that Holo Drive clones can duplicate beacons, which then summon additional ships. With 12 beacons and a Holo Drive, you can quickly end up with more than 250 ships on screen.

Unfortunately, this means I've had to stop Holo Drive clones from copying beacons. If you enjoy this mechanic and have a CPU capable of surviving it, I'll be adding an option to re-enable it through the Classic Mechanics mod shortly.

Beacon Performance Improvements

Beacon ships now arrive one at a time rather than all at once, preventing the game from freezing when large numbers of beacons activate together. I've also reduced the CPU and memory usage of beams, damage numbers, and projectiles, which should help larger battles run more smoothly. Lammergeier by NotABot87746 ( https://star-vortex.com/ships.php?view=345 )

There are also lots of new tutorials covering the Assembler, Ship Design, and other panels to help explain some of the game's less obvious mechanics.

As usual, there's a long list of smaller improvements and fixes below. Enjoy!

Patch Notes

New Features / Content

• Enemy leaders speak on arrival, at death or when left alone (Enemy Chatter).

• Species-XI ships now burst into glowing goo that splats ships and rocks.

• Small red orbs in Species-XI asteroid fields are now harmless goo drops.

• Boss kills now show your fight time and personal best on the banner.

• Glossary boss pages now list your 3 fastest solo kills, with level and date.

• New Sell loot filter action tags matching equipment for Quick Sell.

• Thermal Lance has a new Species-XI skin, which Species-XI ships now use.

• Steam friends can now see your sector, level and current activity.

• Steam Game Recording now marks boss kills, legendary drops and deaths.

Multiplayer

• New Players tab (F6) lets you jump to, inspect, kick or ban co-op players.

• In co-op, players who die now leave a wreck allies can fly to and resurrect.

• In co-op, chat now tells everyone when a player picks up a legendary item.

• Co-op kills by a Holo Drive copy now feed its mutations instead of yours.

Balance Changes

• Holo Drive copies now share your items' mutations, so they fight like you.

• Holo Drive copies no longer bring your beacons, as their ships caused lag.

• Most Species-XI Rays and Embryos now fire Thermal Lances, so orbs are rarer.

• Symbiont now only comes from Splicing, so loot and shops no longer offer it.

• Dockable fleet ships now refill shields in 1.5 s, so repairs end sooner.

• Dockable fleet ships now regenerate hull 300% faster, so repairs end sooner.

• Gravity Cannon no longer pulls the goo drops in Species-XI asteroid fields.

• Dodging now pauses toggled and timed weapons, as it put them on cooldown.

Quality of Life / Accessibility

• Quick Sell now sells every item tagged [SELL], not one rarity and those below.

• Quick Sell's rarity checkboxes now work separately and tag items as you tick.

• Items tagged [SELL] now show a gray image tinted by their rarity color.

• New players now get a short tip on each Assembler section as they open it.

• New players now get a short guided tour of the Ship Builder's main controls.

• New players now get short Science Vessel, Black Market and Core Panel tips.

• New Reset Tutorials in Advanced settings shows every tip again.

• Traders, the Assembler and Science Vessel now mute combat and ship noise.

• Menu buttons, text links and input borders now light up around the mouse.

• The navigation highlight now flies to new selections so it's easy to track.

• The navigation highlight now pulses when it first appears to draw your eye.

• Controller and keyboard navigation now lights the selected control's border.

• Completed Waypoints now reveal nearby Starmap links to help you navigate.

• The Glossary Item Database can now filter items by damage type and by tag.

• Item and Legendary Database category headers now collapse when clicked.

• Mouse thumb buttons now go back and forward through Glossary pages.

• Overclock now takes several Primordial Seeds at once, and Auto Fill adds them.

• Global Modifiers now sorts by modifier type so matching bonuses are grouped.

• Beacon ship lists now show each ship's damage type icons.

Performance

• New Dynamic Goo graphics setting, off gives simpler goo that uses less CPU.

• Beacon ships now arrive one at a time, so many beacons don't freeze the game.

• Beams now work out their stats once per update, so big fights run faster.

• Damage numbers now reuse their objects, so big fights use less memory.

• Beams now find their target faster when they fire through allied ships.

• Firing projectiles now uses far less memory, so big fights stutter less.

Bug Fixes

• Shared Vault and settings are now kept, with a warning, if loading fails.

• Shared Vault no longer shows empty when one old stored item fails to update.

• Ship Builder no longer shows an error when Render Scale isn't set to 100%.

• Mission markers on the Starmap no longer show stray bits of other icons.

• Fleet ambushes now happen in Sector 4 Phase 2, as it had none.

• Twin Larva followers no longer draw under the Mothership and other ships.

• Auto weapons, Reflex Ganglion and allies now measure range to a boss's edge.

• New Game+ Motherships now sell Nanobots and Batteries that fit their level.

• Co-op no longer shares Earth's arrival story, as it played in other sectors.

• Releasing Vortex Array early now shortens its cooldown to match time used.

• Conduits attached to leech weapons no longer leech.

• Auto Tesla Coil reactions deal 80% less, as its hits seeded them at 5x.

• Consumable cards now show the full amount you get, as they showed half.

• Squadron ships now get the full consumable amount, as they got half.

• Reactions can now correctly chain further reactions.

• Heat Sink now correctly removes 20% of your heat capacity.

• Optimized Frame removal now ejects passives instead of losing them.

• Enemy and Holo Drive Auto Tesla Coils now deal correct damage.

• Striker's Damage Rate now speeds up Auto Tesla Coil hits.

• A Conduit linked to Auto Tesla Coil now deals full damage, as it dealt 20%.

• +25% Charges now adds a charge on 2 charge items.

• Commander's Construct Range now correctly extends beacon duration.

• Pulses now reach their full range, as their last stretch dealt no damage.

• Homing and braking strength no longer change with Physics Update Rate.

• Smog Exhaust clouds no longer stay shrunk for the rest of an encounter.

• On Kill Surge rings now match their damage area, as they drew 51% too wide.

• Gravity Cannon no longer errors after moving from a mirrored slot.

• Dodging no longer cancels Echo's upgrade delivery and loses the upgrade.

• Mind controlled squadron mates are now freed when the grabbed ship dies.

• Encounters no longer complete while half of a split Eel squadron lives.

• Allied mines and dropped turrets now show friendly colors.

• Typing in a text box no longer triggers item and Ship Builder hotkeys.

• Assembler changes to an equipped item now keep its link and aim snap.

• Credits above 10 million now show their exact amount.

• Co-op players now get the host left notice when the host closes the game.

• Co-op ships now update on other screens when their owner upgrades or levels.

• Co-op encounters now carry on correctly when the first player there leaves.

• Twitch ships no longer block co-op encounters after the first player leaves.

• Warzone faction bars now match for every co-op player.

• Opening a cache with Interact in co-op now drops its loot for everyone.

• Splicing an item now plays a sound, as it was silent.

• Glossary dropdowns now keep controller focus after you change their value.

• Global Modifiers no longer hides repeated lines from two copies of an item.

Modders

• New TutorialSpotlight component dims a panel around one feature with a tip.

• New Player.tutorialsSkipped and 19 Player.Tutorial values for the tips.

• Boss kills call HUDController.TriggerBossDestroyed, not TriggerComplete.

• Removed ShipBuilder.AskTutorial, AcceptTutorial and DeclineTutorial.

• Removed ShipBuilder.ShowTutorial and CloseTutorial (tour replaced them).

• Removed ShipBuilder fields askTutorial, showTutorialButton, tutorialOverlay.

• New CorePanel.Category.Players value and CorePanelPlayers Rewired action.

• CoreEquipment.GetSlotFor is now public static with the slot arrays as args.

• CoreEquipment.GetSlotOrder and FormatResistance are now public static.

• Removed ShipBuilder field tutorialCloseButton (the tour replaced it).

• Removed field WorldController.corePanelUpgradesDialog.

• Removed field WorldController.corePanelNavigationDialog.

• Removed field WorldController.assemblerPanelIncreaseLevelDialog.

• Removed field WorldController.assemblerPanelIncreaseRarityDialog.

• Removed field WorldController.assemblerPanelReplaceModifierDialog.

• Removed WorldController.GetCorePanelUpgradesDialog().

• Removed WorldController.GetCorePanelNavigationDialog().

• Removed WorldController.GetAssemblerPanelIncreaseLevelDialog().

• Removed WorldController.GetAssemblerPanelIncreaseRarityDialog().

• Removed WorldController.GetAssemblerPanelReplaceModifierDialog().

• Removed field Player.shipBuilderOpened.

• Removed field Player.corePanelUpgradesOpened.

• Removed field Player.corePanelNavigationOpened.

• Removed field Player.assemblerPanelIncreaseLevelOpened.

• Removed field Player.assemblerPanelIncreaseRarityOpened.

• Removed field Player.assemblerPanelReplaceModifierOpened.

• New NPCBase.shieldRegen and Ship.shieldRegen set shield recharge per second.

• New Core.SetWorldAudioMuted fades the SFX and Thrusters mixer buses.

• New SteamPresence owns Steam rich presence, so mods should avoid its keys.

• New BossStar.GetBossDisplayName and WorldController.IsShipBuilderOpen.

• Removed Player.quickSellRarity, use quickSellCommon, Different and Rare.

• New GooCloud, GooSplat and GooDropDebris classes run the Species-XI goo.

• New WorldController.gooCloudPrefab, gooWebPrefab, speciesXIExplosionPrefabs.

• New WorldController.GetSpeciesXIExplosionPrefab.

• New GameShip.speciesXI and Faction.speciesXIFaction.

• New WorldController.DynamicGoo holds the Dynamic Goo graphics setting.

• New ApplyGooSplat on GameShip, Shield, ShipPart and Debris lands goo.

• Debris.OnCollisionEnter2D is now virtual, so subclasses can override it.

• Invader Small and Mini Asteroid prefabs now use GooDropDebris.

• Lit-Default-HueShift copies need GooSplat.hlsl and _GooSplat properties.

• CargoDisplay.Init now takes a final Func<Item, bool> sellTagCheck.

• New LootFilterAction.Sell and WorldController.IsLootFilterSellTagged.

• New virtual CargoPanel.IsSellTagged, which TradePanel overrides.

• New CargoDisplay.RefreshSellTags, SlotDisplay.DisplayTags and sellTagCheck.

• New SlotDisplay.sellIndicator, sellIndicatorBorder and sellIndicatorText.

• New SlotDisplay.sellTaggedMaterial.

• New SlotDisplay.unscannedIndicatorBorder and unscannedIndicatorText.

• New SlotDisplay.unscannedIndicatorColor.

• New CorruptSaveException, Profile.FlushLoadReports and ShowLoadFailure.

• New GameShip.RunsMutations, isPlayerImage and lastLocalHitSource.

• New MutationEffects.OnImageKill and OnSessionKill.

• New const Projectile.clutchAiHold.

• New StarMap.waypointRevealRadius, GetWaypointStars, GetWaypointRevealSpans.

• New DottedCircle graphic and StarMapDisplay.waypointRevealCirclePrefab.

• New Customizer.Type.SetRecoilForce sets a spinal weapon's recoil force.

• New SpinalLaser.SetRecoilForce and SpinalLauncher.SetRecoilForce.

• Activatable.ReflexCanReach(Vector2) is now ReflexCanReach(GameShip).

• SpinalLaser and SpinalLauncher override the new ReflexCanReach(GameShip).

• Activatable.InReflexCone now takes a GameShip, not a Vector2 position.

• New GameShip.GetTargetRadius, GetTargetDistance and GetTargetDistanceSqr.

• New Profile.BossKill, RecordBossKill, GetBossKills and bossKillsKept.

• New ILanguage.DateFormat, so custom ILanguage classes must add it.

• New Core.DateFormat and the glossary Block.Table / BlockType.Table.

• Hull Nanobots and Shield Batteries now sell by level, not forSaleStarMaps.

• New ConsumableItemBase.IsHealingTier and IsHealingTierForSale.

• New StarMap.newGamePlus holds the New Game+ cycle a sector was built for.

• New Faction.barks, RollBark, GetBark and GetBarkLanguageKey for enemy lines.

• New HUDController.QueueBark and FloatingText.Message.MessageType.Bark.

• New FloatingText.Attach overload with an offset and releaseWhenEmpty flag.

• New GameShip.netBarkLine, MsgEntitySpawn.barkLine and EntityRecord.barkLine.

• New Faction.BarkKind, deathBarks and loneBarks, and bark calls take BarkKind.

• New Faction.GetBarkTable, HUDController.QueueWreckBark and FloatingText.Place.

• New GameShip.barkSpeaker, netLoneBarkSpoken and HasSpokenBark.

• New GameShip.netDeathBarkLine, netLoneBarkLine and netLoneBarkShip.

• New MsgEntityDeath.deathBarkLine, loneBarkLine and loneBarkNetId.

• New MsgEntitySpawn.barkSpeaker, EntityRecord.barkSpeaker and loneBarkSpoken.

• Consumable reads instant, effect and duration from its ConsumableItemBase.

• Consumables apply once to the user, so double asset instant and duration.

• New ILanguage.NumberFormat(long), so custom ILanguage classes must add it.

• Whole number calls to Core.NumberFormat now bind to the new long overload.

• GameShip.Threat.Degrade() is now Degrade(float decay).

• BeamWeapon and LaserSpinner now override Activatable.DurationRunning.

• Beams call GetDamageData(int, bool, bool) on BeamWeapon and LaserSpinner.

• Laser projectile beams call new Launcher.GetDamageData(int, bool, bool).

• TickDamageBeam hits now pass card DPS as DamageData.dps, not 5x.

• New DamageBeam.IsGrownIn, which TickDamageBeam overrides to always hit.

• Reaction hits must go through new StatusEffectReactions.DealReactionHit.

• GameShip.DamageCopy now returns true for a kill that leaves a husk.

• New Projectile.GetTurnTickScale and GetTurnStepScale scale per tick turns.

• Pulse.rotationRate is now degrees per 60 Hz tick at any physics rate.

• New Projectile.IsFriendlyToHud picks friendly or enemy projectile colors.

• New GameShip.ApplyShipModifiers and GameShip.ApplyCategoryModifier.

• New GameShip.ApplyCategoryModifierToPercentage.

• New GameShip.ReleaseMindControlGroup and static UndoDisableDurationBonus.

• New virtual Star.AddSplitSquadron, Star.IsFleetLocation and splitSquadrons.

• New WorldController.IsInvasionPending and TriggerSpreadInvasion.

• CargoPanel.ButtonClicked is now virtual, and TradePanel overrides it.

• GameShip.EjectItem now does nothing on a ship another machine simulates.

• Conduit.RelayHit and Activatable.NotifyConduits gained int depositTicks = 1.

• Core.AudioEvent.Splice replaces SpliceGlowIn, SpliceChurn and SpliceGlowOut.

• New TagItemStat.tag field holds the stat's TagItemStat.Tag value.

• New glossary Block.CollapsibleSection and GlossaryPanel.collapseArrowSprite.

• GlossaryPanel.Refresh now rebuilds the page in LateUpdate, not at once.

• Beam reads tick interval, range and chain count via new BeamWeapon.GetPass*.

• New FloatingText.Message.Get and Release pool messages after AddMessage.

• Never keep a FloatingText.Message after AddMessage, as it may be reused.

• Merged FloatingText.Message totals now rewrite their text in Update.

• ShipSpawner.SpawnShips now queues ships, and new SpawnShip builds one.

• New GameShip.ClearNameCache, call it after renaming a ship's GameObject.