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[Relampago]

Hello guys!

We are Snowforged Entertainment, a small team of 9 independent developers working on our first game for PC - Starfall Tactics. It is a mix of RTS and wargame genres with a multiplayer battles and a fully explorable Galaxy.

Starfall Tactics allows you to build a fleet from a variety of blueprints and lead it into battle against other players in quick and ranked matches and discover a huge Galaxy you can conquer.

The game features tactical combat along with in-depth fleet customization - every ship is created from hull and lots of different modules (blueprints).

Here is a small feature list:

• Projectile impact - Unlike most games, projectile impact is calculated in real time here. Instead of doing all the calculations beforehand and simply playing an animation for an incoming enemy missile, Starfall Tactics gives you an opportunity to move your unit out of the way and dodge it.
• Every shot counts - When a spaceship takes damage to its structure, there is a chance that one of its components may fail or be destroyed. The closer the component/ship section is to the point of impact, the higher the chance it will fail.
• Special Modules - In Starfall Tactics, every vessel can be equipped with a module that grants a certain skill or utility - from warp-jumps and stealth modules, to EMP and self-destruction module.
• Line of fire - you can equip ships with front, left and right side weapons, and in most cases they will shoot only in appropriate directions. Besides, every object standing on the line of fire of most weapons will block it or take the whole damage instead of a target, even if it's a friendly unit.
• Ship collision - Ships can ram each other, dealing massive damage and even exploding at the end.
• Galaxy Map - There is a big galaxy map, with thousands of stars and planets, pirates, rivals, clans, precious resources and other interesting stuff.

And a couple of latest screenshots:

At the moment we already have a lot of stuff for the game ready - players can assemble a fleet, battle each other in quick matches, travel across the Galaxy, attack each other, meet pirates and do many other things. As we hope to start Closed Alpha testing soon, alpha applications are now open for everybody

Feel free to ask away if you have any questions We will be sure to post updates here soon.

[Relampago]

The time is running fast and so we keep adding new interesting features and improving Starfall Tactics' Galaxy with every day. In fact, we moved so far that you might not recognise the game now if you watched our early trailers and screenshots - and we are sure that those changes are only for the good.

So, in our latest WIP article we showed Ichaival - Red Vanguard battleship with a taste of retrofuturistic design and a strange hole in the middle. We will keep adding more ships to give players more space for imagination and creating unique tactics.

Every vessel in Starfall Tactics can be equipped with a module that grants a certain skill or utility - and we keep adding these special modules to give players more tactical opportunities. Scouting and getting tactical data about your opponent is a very important part of a gameplay in Starfall Tactics and that makes us think about adding more special equipment for scouting - we've just created Long Range Scanner and Spy Drone.

Long Range Scanner reveals target area of your choice on the map and lets you see all what's going on there for 10 seconds.
Another tactical module for your fleet, spy drone almost insendibly attaches to enemy ships and follows them; it also has a very useful option of giving you the vision of this ship wherever it is.

And that's not all. We'll be sure to tell about other special modules soon

[Relampago]

In our latest WIP article we told about threee another special modules: Point Defense, Antiradar system and decoy module which will confuse your enemies' minds, giving a burn to new evil tactics.


Point Defense module - a system which helps to defend your fleet. This module is an active skill which destroys 25 projectiles (including bullets and missiles), within a certain range on activation, not depending on their size and speed. It's very effective if enemy shoots you with heavy rockects which have a long cooldown and heavy damage - eliminating even four or five of these projectiles prevents a ship loss. At the same time, you must avoid weapons with high fire rate, launching dozens of bullets and rockets - it shuts down Point Defense in seconds.

Antiradar system - By adding this module to the engineering bay you guarantee that enemies won't see this unit on the minimap, missing some of your tactical movements and getting confused with what's going on everywhere. However, Antiradar system is a very special tool which can't fit into every fleet - so think through your great strategy when taking it!

Decoy module Decoy module is another great tool to fool your enemies. This module produces a holographic copy of the ship where it is installed - it can't be destroyed, does not deal any damage and all projectiles always fly through it. It's not so easy to use, but you will understand the true value of it as soon as enemy fleet will try to focus on it instead of your precious battleships and dreadnoughts.

[Relampago]

The more modules with active and passive abilities Starfall Tactics gets, the more interesting and unique fleet everyone can build. This time we contine introducing new special equipment - there are a lot of cool things to show.

• Engine Disruptor has a unique ability to switch off engines of target ships, making your opponents lose control of the ship. It's hard to underestimate the value of such ability in your arsenal - everybody loves disables, which give you extra time and an important advantage.
  
• Scanner is a tiny tool created as a help for your army - and it does exactly the thing it's named for: scans ships and shows what you can find inside of it - precious modules and abilities captains want to hide from you.
  
• Shield Disable module grants an ability to temporarily shut down shields of a target ship: it doesn't destroy it, but for a short period of time you have an ability to directly damage next layers of defense.
  

[chrilley]

Looks cool! I especially like that red battleship, it comes off great. Very nice detail work!

[Relampago]

Looks cool! I especially like that red battleship, it comes off great. Very nice detail work!

Thank you! You can look at other ship models here

[wizered67]

Looks really good! Following! 

[Relampago]

Looks really good! Following!  

Thanks!

And here is our latest update - we've just created mines, cards and new logo for Starfall Tactics!

Don't miss it and watch the evolution of logo in this new video, showing all versions of it - from the first and the one you got used to, to the new logo you will see from now on!

We hope you liked it - anyway, feel free to write about your impressions!

Mines


No, that's not the place where you get coal - it's a real mine which explodes when you step on it or, in our case - flies too close to it.

There are four mine types for now:

• Flack mine - works as a usual mine - activates and deals damage when you get close to it;
• Stalker Mine - if you get a ship close enough, Stalker Mine rushes to you, explodes and damages armor and structure;
• EMP mine - deals damage to shields, activates when you fly close to it.
• Heavy Plasma Mine - unlike other mines, it has a friend or foe recognition system. Activates and deals damage when you get close to it.
• They are very small, so you will need to watch the battlefield carefully in order to not get cought by mines - remember that three of those will not distinguish between friendly and enemy ships.

Cards

At the moment we have 4 types of rarity of blueprints: Basic, Refined, Advanced and Prototype. All of them you can get while opening booster packs or, if you are lucky enough, buy from the Black Market, or get it by destroying fleets of other players on the Galaxy map.
 

http://starfalltactics.com/news/wip-new-logo-mines-and-rarity-system

[Relampago]

Great news:
We are running a special Galaxy Explorers event from 9th June 18:00 CET to 12th June 23:55 CET in Starfall Tactics. You will be able to create and customize fleets, play quick matches and discover an MMO part - a huge open world to explore with thousands of planets available to name, pirates and rivals! This is a pre-alpha event, available to a limited amount of players. You are not just going to help us crush the game and find a few new bugs (hey, we are counting on you!) but there is also a chance to earn special rewards and just have a lot of fun exploring Starfall Tactics as one of the pioneers
 

Want to participate?

Apply for the test here!
 
http://starfalltactics.com/news/galaxy-explorers-event-play-starfall-tactics-during-pre-alpha-test-and-earn-rewards

[Relampago]

As we promised before, we are here to tell more about Starfall Tactics, important changes and present something new. Today you can read about:

• Clarent, new Vanguard Frigate
• Ship classification
• Engines rework
• Boarding Mechanics

And here is a fresh in-game shot:

[Relampago]

We are happy to welcome everyone to the next test phase!

New maps, modules, ships, 2x2 quick matches, co-op, tutorial and many other interesting things are waiting for you to be played and tested from 14th July 18:00 CET to 17th July 23:55 CET.

This is the second pre-alpha event, available to a limited amount of players. So, everyone who wants to join will need to apply for the Closed Alpha here. We will try to grant access and invite everybody who sent an application before 16th of July!

And it's also the last opportunity to try Starfall Tactics before a short break, which we'll take to have a couple weeks of vacation and start doing Faction Wars feature, a massive MMO content expansion!
More info: http://starfalltactics.com/news/pre-alpha-test-let-battle-begin

[Relampago]

Hey, Snowforged Team is back again and ready to conquer the peaks of game development! We've already done some important changes which will improve your next experience with Starfall Tactics - most of them we will show you in our upcoming news articles.

Now, let us show you some new ships - since it's one of the most important things in Starfall Tactics for you, we always make sure that everybody can find good allies among all fleets.

Faust Deprived Battlecruiser

New Deprived battlecruiser is something you will definitely love if you prefer laser ships - 3 of 4 Faust modifications are going to have weapon bays which can fit Large Lasers! In exchange it will have a not-so-huge engineering bay, which basically means that you can't make it too special with special modules.
 

Skullstar Eclipse Battlecruiser

Skullstar is a long awaited Eclipse ship which name describes it the best. It is designed only for active participation in battles and will not have a SpecOps modification - just consider it as a good strike force which needs some support ships.
 
 

Gwydion Deprived Frigate

This ship confused us a lot of times and still has a lot of surprises inside. We are not going to spoil the surprise for you this time - let it be something interesting you will find while playing Starfall Tactics. There is only one thing we will tell you about - Gwydion is going to have assymetrical structure inside.
 
 

And that's not all - even more ships are coming next week! Stay tuned to read about them, a dozen new modules, new health bars and an important rework in quick matches.
 

http://starfalltactics.com/news/wip-we-are-back-more-ships-you

[Relampago]

Well, It's definitely not even half of what we have already done, as there is simply too much for one news article, but here it is in a couple words:

• We reworked Control points and health bars

Control Points will give players more "come back" possibility and depend on upgrades a lot. Health bars now clearly represent the difference between dreadnought hit points and frigate hit points.

Another dozen of new modules will give a better choice then ever, and here are four of them:

• Engine Boost is an activatable module which increases all ship movement characteristics, including maximum speed, angular speed, accelaration speed and deceleration speed. It has a 2x2 size - a very convinient form for most ships in Starfall Tactics.
• Weapon Overload module deals damage to your own structure on activation, but in exchange reduces cooldown time for all weapons installed on the ships. This thing has a usual 4x2 form making it available for many different ships.
• Another passive module, a 2x4 Warp Homer, is a very good tactical feature allowing you to warp-in ships in a small zone near the ship with this module - just as your Mothership does. Perfectly fits support (SpecOps) ships.
• Sensor Disabler module has a pretty self-descriptive name - on activation it disables all sensors of a target ship. So, it can make a single ship lose it's vision, but since it's a 2х4 module, it fits better on SpecOps ships.

And we also created a new Eclipse frigate - Halley! It's going to be a very heavy ship with a good defence level, but in exchange its firepower will be average.

[Relampago]

The Summer is almost over and the winter is coming - a period of nine cold months has just begun in Siberia, a home to Snowforged studio, creating a space wargame.

As an addition to changes described in previous articles, we decided to rework Mothership abilities to improve quick match experience, make Mothership more helpful in terms of defence and give a small advantage when you fight against enemy forces close to it.

• So, repairing is now a passive Mothership ability - just fly close enough to it and it will send a drone.
• Mothership will also have new defensive active ability - on activation it deals a sufficient amount of damage to ships in the target area. It has a long cooldown, so use it only as an emergency ability to gain temporary advantage.

There is another minor change: now you will have more WP at the start of the battle - 9000 instead of 3000. This will help you make a good start in terms of Control Points - a rebalance we talked about in previous news.

And another set of modules is ready! Note that most modules here and the ones we told you about in a previous article will be available only after leveling up your fleet.

• Mass Shield module is a special defensive feature, allowing you to create a supporting tank ship. It's an active ability, which temporarily increases area which covers shield of a ship with this module, allowing to share this shield with other units standing close to it. Has a 3х4 size.
• Mass Stealth module gives you an opportunity to make all nearby ships invisible. It's a 2х4 sized, active special equipment, using the same principles as a normal Stealth module.
• Ammo Dispenser module is an extremly helpful thing for all fleets using weapons which require ammo - it's a 2х3 module which passively gives ammo to nearby ships - just as your Mothership does.
• Aiming hack system is an active 2x3 module which hacks a ship's guidance system, making it count ally ships as enemies. Affected ship starts attacking allies if auto fire is on.

We also created two new ships: Ancile Vanguard frigate and Libra, the first Vanguard cruiser.

[reverso13]

I love the spaceships designs, it looks great overall! I'll keep an eye on this 

[Relampago]

I love the spaceships designs, it looks great overall! I'll keep an eye on this 

Thank you We will post an update today.

[Relampago]

Hey guys! Starfall Tactics development is going full speed ahead - there is a lot of stuff we need to prepare to fully implement Faction Wars, and we are pretty sure that you will like it.

Due to new features we are implementing, there will be important changes in the interface. But we couldn't imagine that our 2D artist, D.Van, would give a totally new look to it.

It is still in progress and this could be not the final look.

And we are ready to present another three modules, which are going to help you develop new great tactics - just read it and imagine how much you can do only with that!

• Warp Interference is a 3x3 module. Generates space distortion on activation in a certain radius around itself, has an ulimited duration. If any ship tries to warp within this radius, it will warp to another random location instead.
• Stasis module is a 2х4 sized activatable special equipment. Temporarily puts enemy's ship into a stasis field - in this field a ship can't perform any actions, can't be attacked, won't take any damage, even if you ram it, and all ability cooldowns will freeze.
• Nebula Generator is a 2x2 module which creates a small nebula on activation. Nebula will stay where you created it for a few minutes and will work as a usual nebula - hides your ship once it gets inside, but reduces its vision.

This always happens to older characters and units - one day you understand that they are not as good as ones you've just created, not as detailed and just look too different to leave it as it is. So we've just given a new life to Advisor - Deprived Dreadnought which loves ramming your ships in survival mode.

In case you haven't seen it before or just don't remember every detail of this huge dreadnought - here is a screenshot of an older model.

[Relampago]

Hey, today we are going to tell about Warp Points Income Changes, two new modules and the first Deprived cruiser - Abaris!

Current WP cost of your fleet can be seen on the top left of your screen.

We changed some WP income rules: Each ship you summon not only spends a certain amount of WP, but also requires some resource for staying on the battlefield or, in other words, has a maintenance cost, which reduces your WP income and depends on the ship cost. And, if you spend all you WP on warping in ships, you will have a low income which allow your enemy (let's think he summoned only a couple defensive ships) to collect more points, summon more ships, and become a real problem for you. That's where you decide: will you go full in (rush) on the first minutes, or will warp only a few ships to capture points and collect more resource, or go full defense, or will do something else. In this case, scouting is a very important thing since it's very important to know what your opponent is going to do and counter his tactics.

New modules:

• Shield Overload module overloads shield on activation, making it able to consume not only energy damage, but also damage dealt by physical projectiles. But in exchange it continuosly consumes shield hit points and every shot deals twice damage to it. When Shield Overload is activated, all shields become visible.
• Kinetic Wall module - 2х4 special equipment. Creates a kinetic wall, which doesn't let any physical objects, including projectiles and ships, pass through it. Energy weapons can still bypass this wall, but if a ship bumps into this wall, it takes a lot of damage like if he tried to ram an asteroid.

Deprived faction gets the first cruiser-class (400m) ship - Abaris. This is a light ship with a good turn speed and side weapons in several modifications - a good scouting ship with ability to trick and shoot frigates. At the same time, ramming on this ship or fighting with other cruisers can be no easy task, except of some specific modifications, perhaps.

[Relampago]

Another week of Starfall Tactics development is over - and we are one step closer to getting the game ready for the next test! Colonies, wars for faction territories, new ships and modules, reputation, progression and many other things we might even haven't announced yet - all in progress and waiting for its moment of glory. So read fresh news and get ready for something great

Aaand the first Eclipse cruiser is ready! Arco is a small Eclipse hammer, which will crash enemy frigates by ramming them and killing with its deadly weaponry.
 

Let us introduce new system we created for making your journey through open space more interesting - well, at least without meeting a fleet of 20 super heavy dreadnoughts - Detachment system!

Now, to enter Galaxy map (discovery mode, MMO part of the game) your fleet will have to send a detachment to a mission. Each detachment has a certain use and, depending on it, it can contain different number of ships of each class. For example, player could be able to choose 2 different ship sets by ship class: 1) 2 battlecruisers, 3 cruisers and 3 light frigates. 2) 1 heavy dreadnought, 1 battleship, 3 battlecruisers and 2 light frigates. Players fill these entire slots with ships he has in the fleet, and they will be available during Discovery session. Note that while smaller slots can't be filled with bigger ships, huge slots can have frigates and other smaller ships inside: this helps you keep all slots filled even if you don't have heavy ships in your fleet at all.
 

Note: this could be not the final look of detachment menu. WIP.

How do I get detachments?

• From the very start you will have some basic detachments you can use.
• As a reward for gaining reputation levels with chosen faction.

Most detachments also can have a small bonus: +10% speed, for example - it depends on the function of the detachment. In exchange, there will be a sort of penalty - like -10% cargo which you basically don't need a lot of if you have a scouting detachment.

We've just created ping commands which you can use by holding the Alt button and clicking on the map! This option is frequently used in MOBA games, where you don't have time to stop and say something. In Starfall Tactics you have to control several units at a time, so you might have even less time.

[Relampago]

Giant dreadnought, faction planets, ability to name a ship and get some other rewards for progression - this week is filled with epic things - and here are some of them:
 
New Eclipse dreadnought, giant brutal ship - Nomad!
 

Deprived, Vanguard and Eclipse factions - all of them have their homelands. And if you are curious enough, you could notice planet concepts while reading faction descriptions on our website. Earth, Ancora and Odysseus - they are so different, but each is a home for billions of humans. And here are two of them in all their evil beauty:

Earth, home for the Deprived, and a shameful past for the rest of humanity. That's what can happen to a single planet if you don't take care of it - ruins, radioactive wasteland, unbreathable air. But even abandoned by everybody, destined to die, smaller groups of people who were left there managed to survive and overcome it all. This disastrous world changed their appearance and lifestyle drastically, while the Black Blizzard only made some finishing touches.
 

Ancora became a new home for those who achieved moving from Earth. This planet was the nearest one, suitable for terraforming and, obviously, was set as a place where people hoped to start a new life for all of the humanity. While not everybody agreed with the will of Vanguard to establish a Far Left regime, there were not so many problems until Eclipse Inc. eventually separated from them.

Each ship, and even each copy of that ship, regardless of the modules you insert into it, will have a separate progression. And it's obvious, that for leveling up you will need to get a certain amount of XP, received for different actions on the battlefield: capturing points, dealing damage, taking damage, etc.

For unloсking new levels you will receive the following rewards:

• Ability to paint your ship
• Master skin for your ship
• Ability to name your ship
• Ship Tech level increase (Ship Tech level defines modules you can equip onto this ship. You can equip modules only of the same or lower Tech level).
• Achievements (Once achievement system will be implemented).