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[io3 creations]

I'd like to say that I saw the missiles speeding up when you missed the enemy ship and the rockets had more time on screen ... but can't say for sure.  However, most of the missiles hit their target very quickly and the effect may not be visible.  At least not consciously, but subconsciously.  I just wonder, would it be more perceptible if the initial speed was half of the regular speed?

Much like the now great looking orange explosion, the white circle explosions could also be updated to somewhat irregular shapes.

I just noticed that when the rockets hit enemy ships, sometimes there's debris flying around but other times there's only the explosion.  Seeing those debris flying away from the ship gives it a little "extra touch".  If the missiles hit their target and explode then you can have smaller debris but if part of the enemy ship's shield is destroyed then add somewhat larger and/or more debris.  And the same goes when the ship is destroyed.  That could be an issue if there are lots of enemy ships on screen and it becomes hard to see what is what.  In the video (just above) that didn't seem to be an issue but if there are situations with lots of ship then the debris can fade out quickly.   Similarly with the laser, it could create some debris when a ship (less than a missile's hit) and more if it damages the other ship.  Same goes for the player's ship.

[Zuurix]

I just wonder, would it be more perceptible if the initial speed was half of the regular speed?

It would, but I can't do that with most of the projectiles, they would be too slow.

...the white circle explosions...

If you're talking about those white explosions, well, I'm not going to add them. (Unless I'll need them in some cutscene)
They look good, but they take a lot of time to disappear. I want loot to appear after the explosion is done, so players would be forced to wait until the explosion is over and that is annoying.

I wanted to add circles to new explosions, but it didn't look good.

I just noticed that when the rockets hit enemy ships, sometimes there's debris flying around but other times there's only the explosion.

If the missiles hit their target and explode then you can have smaller debris but if part of the enemy ship's shield is destroyed then add somewhat larger and/or more debris.

Hmm, yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

That could be an issue if there are lots of enemy ships on screen and it becomes hard to see what is what.

That's not an issue because debris disappears very quickly.

[Zuurix]

Echo #74: Waves, phases, and explosions

Last week I have implemented wave part properties, started working on advanced part management and did few graphical improvements.

Item update is almost done.
I only need to finish part management which will take 1 or 2 days, add the last part properties and fix all those glitches that have crawled into the game with recent changes.

After that is done, I'll make few graphical changes and then update will be released.
The update should happen on the next weekend!

I've already written about white, red and black waves, so now I want to write a bit about phase chance and phase damage properties.

Phase chance will dictate how often your spaceship will enter the phase of increased power.
During the phase, you will deal more damage. The phase will last 5 seconds.
Phase damage will increase damage dealt during the phase.
For example, if your phase damage is equal to 200%, all of your abilities will deal 200% more damage during the phase.
Simple and effective!

Phase chance should replace unleash chance, which I have removed two weeks ago.

Anyway, next week I will also continue working on graphics.

I wasn't planning on doing that, but I've got some feedback and... started working graphics =P
Check video bellow to see what's improved.

TIGForums edit: You guys have been here, you know it all =P

So, that's all for this echo, I hope next time I'll have more news!

[Zuurix]

Sector Six is 40% off at Chrono.gg!

Click here to go to Chrono.gg >>

[Zuurix]

Echo #75: Sector Six is too hard!

'Ello all! I've just watched a streamer play Sector Six.
I didn't watch the whole stream, but I got the important message. Sector Six is too hard!

What happened during the stream probably happened a lot of times before.
I've got comments and reviews saying that Sector Six is challenging, but that is good and so I didn't do anything about it.

If you played Sector Six and it seemed too hard/grindy/slow, I am very sorry!

BECAUSE SECTOR SIX IS NOT CHALLENGING.
It was never meant to be grindy or challenging unless the player really wanted it to be.
On the surface, it's a very easy and basic game.

THEN WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
...

What happens when players get Sector Six and start playing it?

They build an imbalanced ship, that doesn't have enough weapons and go to destroy some minions.
It's not that bad at first.
But they eventually level up, enemies get stronger.

Players add more parts that don't really help them.
Spaceship building mistakes start stacking up and turn fast, explosion filled combat into a slow nightmare.

Enemies take minutes to kill, the player loses several times, loses an alloy container, not even an easy mode helps at this point.

If I had to guess, this happens most of the time.

I've put a lot of warnings, there are ability descriptions and item tooltips.
And yet it keeps happening.

Players seem to understand how combat works.
They are able - even if not that well - to use shields, dodge bullets, activate abilities, repair armour with alloy container.

Why?

Players handle combat pretty well. There's a combat tutorial that quickly explains how to fight.
Players don't understand how to build a good spaceship. There's spaceship building tutorial-

Oh, right.
There's no spaceship building tutorial.

I mean, why would there be a tutorial, if to build a basic, good spaceship player just needs to add a lot of weapons to it?
Right?

Apparently, I was wrong and Sector Six needs an extended tutorial to also cover spaceship building.

I believe that right now Sector Six scares away most of the players and they never get the awesome experience that I spent years to create.

That needs to be fixed as soon as possible!

The UX team will have to work overtime to-

Oh.
...

Anyway, since I'm already writing the echo...

The last item update is almost here!

New properties and their effects have been implemented, advanced part management is working perfectly, set effect are ready to change gameplay forever...

The new spaceship building tutorial will be the next update, right after the item update.

Until next time!

PS.: I made a new trailer.

[Zireael]

The new trailer is awesome! And good call on the spaceship building tutorial.

[Fat Pug Studio]

It's starting to look a lot better mate, gg

[Zuurix]

The new trailer is awesome!

Thanks =]
It took me three days to do it.

It's starting to look a lot better mate, gg

I will continue improving graphics based on your feedback =]

[Zuurix]

Watch me playtest Sector Six live on Twitch!

Click here to go to Twitch >>

[AdamAlake]

Echo #75: Sector Six is too hard!

'Ello all! I've just watched a streamer play Sector Six.
I didn't watch the whole stream, but I got the important message. Sector Six is too hard!

What happened during the stream probably happened a lot of times before.
I've got comments and reviews saying that Sector Six is challenging, but that is good and so I didn't do anything about it.

If you played Sector Six and it seemed too hard/grindy/slow, I am very sorry!

BECAUSE SECTOR SIX IS NOT CHALLENGING.
It was never meant to be grindy or challenging unless the player really wanted it to be.
On the surface, it's a very easy and basic game.

THEN WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
...

What happens when players get Sector Six and start playing it?

They build an imbalanced ship, that doesn't have enough weapons and go to destroy some minions.
It's not that bad at first.
But they eventually level up, enemies get stronger.

Players add more parts that don't really help them.
Spaceship building mistakes start stacking up and turn fast, explosion filled combat into a slow nightmare.

Enemies take minutes to kill, the player loses several times, loses an alloy container, not even an easy mode helps at this point.

If I had to guess, this happens most of the time.

I've put a lot of warnings, there are ability descriptions and item tooltips.
And yet it keeps happening.

Players seem to understand how combat works.
They are able - even if not that well - to use shields, dodge bullets, activate abilities, repair armour with alloy container.

Why?

Players handle combat pretty well. There's a combat tutorial that quickly explains how to fight.
Players don't understand how to build a good spaceship. There's spaceship building tutorial-

Oh, right.
There's no spaceship building tutorial.

I mean, why would there be a tutorial, if to build a basic, good spaceship player just needs to add a lot of weapons to it?
Right?

Apparently, I was wrong and Sector Six needs an extended tutorial to also cover spaceship building.

I believe that right now Sector Six scares away most of the players and they never get the awesome experience that I spent years to create.

That needs to be fixed as soon as possible!

The UX team will have to work overtime to-

Oh.
...

Anyway, since I'm already writing the echo...

The last item update is almost here!

New properties and their effects have been implemented, advanced part management is working perfectly, set effect are ready to change gameplay forever...

The new spaceship building tutorial will be the next update, right after the item update.

Until next time!

PS.: I made a new trailer.

Great job, but why is the trailer not full 1080p?

[Zuurix]

Because game resolution is 960x640.

But I have a stretched version.

[Zuurix]

Update! Part sets, new part properties, and advanced part management

This update implements the last item and spaceship building features!

Part sets

Now you will have a chance to find parts that belong to a set.
If you will equip 12 parts of the same set, you will be able to activate a powerful set effect!

There are 7 part sets:

• Etherion's Clash:

+400% damage.
Damage boost is applied only if your spaceship has equal amount of relays, pylons, and nodes.

• Cor's Voidshape:

Enemy projectiles go through your spaceship.
Enemy projectiles damage your spaceship only if they hit the Elder Mechanism.
Shield duration is reduced to 2 seconds.
Maximum armour is reduced by 90%.
Reflect chance is reduced to 0%.
Taken damage reduction is reduced to 0%.

• Ultranid's Torment:

Cooldowns of all abilities are reduced to 0.5 seconds.
Activating an ability deals damage to your spaceship.
Damage dealt is equal to 10% of maximum armour.

• Oesa's Radiance:

Your spaceship gets +1% damage for every 5 ether.
Base maximum armour of your spaceship is equal to maximum ether multiplied by 50.

• Kithalia's Blight:

Your spaceship has +4% damage for every 1% of missing ether.
Your spaceship is destroyed if ether reaches 100.

• Azimar's Killframe:

Weapon limit is equal to part limit.
Ether is removed.

• Lodeon's Ultimatum:

Relay, pylon and node damage is equal to maximum armour of your spaceship.
Every 1 seconds damage is dealt to your spaceship.
Damage dealt is equal to 2% of maximum armour.

Only extant, mythical and etalon parts can belong to a set.

Part sets are a massive change and your feedback is needed more than ever!
If you think that they need some improvements, please let me know.

New part properties

Now items may have these properties:

• +x% chance to upgrade part
• +x% chance to cause white wave
• +x% chance to cause red wave
• +x% chance to cause black wave
• +x levels to EMP Grenade ability
• +x levels to Assemble Obelisk ability
• +x levels to Resurrect Armour ability
• +x levels to Shards of Chaos ability
• Reduces phase break cooldown by x seconds
• +x phase break damage

Some of the properties can only be found on higher grade parts.

Advanced part management

Part management interface has been updated with the new options!
Now you can highlight, dismantle or unequip:

• Low-level parts.
• Parts that have not been upgraded with amplifiers.
• Amplifiers.
• Alloy containers.
• Relays.
• Nodes.
• Pylons.
• Non-weapon parts.
• Engines

These options are also available in cities!

Miscellaneous improvements and changes

• Etalons and mythicals can now be upgraded twice.
• Returned cannons to game.
• Renamed cannons to pylons.
• Nerfed Sustained Barrage.
• Abilities cannot be unleashed anymore.
• Removed nomad abilities.
• Improved enemy explosions.
• Improved missile impacts.
• Improved toggle buttons.
• Improved backgrounds.
• The Elder Mechanism now has a tooltip.
• You can now use controller buttons to manage parts.
• Changed Eternal Obelisk and Full Potential achievements.
• Achievement lore and lore buttons removed.

Have fun! =]









PS: 10000 topic views! =]

[Zireael]

What was the reasoning behind removing the unleashings? I felt that was a quite unique feature...

[Zuurix]

What was the reasoning behind removing the unleashings? I felt that was a quite unique feature...

Making unleashed version for every ability was too difficult. I have underestimated how much design space it needs.
Also, it wasn't satisfying to use them.

[Zuurix]

Echo #76: Better experience and big questions

If you don't have time to read the whole post, scroll down to BIG QUESTIONS.
(The big questions part is dedicated to active, high-level Steam users)

The new tutorial is nearly finished!
I'm almost done with one of the hardest development phases.

Here's the list of previous tough phases:

1. Tutorial 1
2. Interface rework
3. Tutorial 2
4. Graphical update
5. Controller support
6. Tutorial 5?

There were many tutorials. Too many =P

These things aren't that hard, but they are very boring.
Reworking entire combat was a much more difficult task, but it was fun.

When I have to work on boring stuff, I have to force myself and I don't always succeed, and then the boring thing takes even longer to make.
Vicious cycle!

But I've dealt with this tutorial pretty well.
I'm going to polish it a bit, adapt it to controller/carrier class and then I'll update the game with the new tutorial.
That should happen in 2-3 days.

And yes, I need to have different tutorial versions for each starter spaceship and then different versions of those for controller users.

With the upcoming update, I'll also make mission 1, 2 and 3 shorter.
I'll just reduce filler space between things happening.

After the tutorial update, I'm going to adjust level systems and...

This needs a dramatic pause.
...

And I'll add Titan class!

Titan class will be absolutely amazing - except at removing shields - but more about it in next post.

Now, the new level systems...

When I get player feedback about things, I still don't do anything, until I start seeing patterns in feedback.
For example, when I start seeing more comments about level up system.

So yeah, I've got enough feedback about level up system to consider changing it.

First, I'll make sure that it takes more kills to level up in higher levels.
To be more proportional to how many parts the spaceship needs in higher levels.

Then I'll change the way enemies level up.

Every 10 missions completed, the Machines move.
It is when enemies will scale to player level, instead of automatically leveling up when the player does.

This will make leveling up very advantageous to the player, even if temporary.

To make this work, I'm going to need to change several things about leveling.
I think I'll nerf The Decision modifier and make it impossible to level up quickly by killing low-level enemies.
I don't want players to be more than 4 levels higher than enemies.

THE BIG QUESTIONS:

There are a few very important questions I want to ask my small community:

1) Should I decrease maximum part limit from 80 to 70?

80 parts are difficult to stuff into building field. It feels limiting, so I thought maybe I could reduce a size of spaceship a little.
Fewer parts also mean less time spent managing ship.
The better solution would be to increase building field, but I can't do that.

2) Should I nerf The Decision difficulty modifier? If yes, how much?

The safest option would be just let it have 1 level, that increase mission length just by 100%.
When I implemented it, I thought it was a good, heh, decision to make modifier that modifies mission length.
Now I'm not so sure.
I still want to keep it, but I don't want to force players to spend so much time on just one mission.
It would also allow exploiting enemy leveling after the upcoming changes.
Although new enemy leveling might not come.

3) Should I delete all saves and reset leaderboards when the game will leave Early Access?

Ships built in old version are a constant headache.
Update button helps a little, but with upcoming changes, old ships will become completely alien to the game.
Possibly different maximum part limit, part sets, new part properties, new experience formula - and old spaceships are build with different rules.

I'm NOT GOING TO DELETE PLAYER SAVES WITHOUT MAJORITY OF PLAYERS ACCEPTING IT, so I'm just asking to consider it.

I know many of you spent really a lot of hours playing Early Access versions, so if a fresh start doesn't sound good, I will respect that.

The question could be rephrased to:
When the game will leave Early Access, will you continue playing with an old spaceship OR will you start the new game?

Another thing, there will be some serious changes to save system.
It would be a lot easier for me to make these changes if I didn't have to port old saves to new save system.

4) Should I release all story missions in one update, or should I release a mission, whenever I'm done with it?

Once I'm done with everything else, I'll be working on new story missions.
There will be 9-10 more missions.

Finishing story might take several months and I don't know if anyone wants to wait that long.

The good thing about the mass release:
I might pull the game out of Early Access with the same update, so you can complete story in final game version.

5) How is the part sets?

How difficult is to obtain and maintain them?
Are there problems with them?

That's something to think about, eh?

So, that's all for this echo.

Until next time!

[Fat Pug Studio]

1) Should I decrease maximum part limit from 80 to 70?

80 parts are difficult to stuff into building field. It feels limiting, so I thought maybe I could reduce a size of spaceship a little.
Fewer parts also mean less time spent managing ship.
The better solution would be to increase building field, but I can't do that.

Well, with so many parts management i think you should aim at niche audiences, with higher price and lower copies sold. I can't imagine a casual player micromanaging that much. So i thin 80 is fine for those who will really play and love the game.

2) Should I nerf The Decision difficulty modifier? If yes, how much?

The safest option would be just let it have 1 level, that increase mission length just by 100%.
When I implemented it, I thought it was a good, heh, decision to make modifier that modifies mission length.
Now I'm not so sure.
I still want to keep it, but I don't want to force players to spend so much time on just one mission.
It would also allow exploiting enemy leveling after the upcoming changes.
Although new enemy leveling might not come.

Can you explain this feature a bit more?

3) Should I delete all saves and reset leaderboards when the game will leave Early Access?

Ships built in old version are a constant headache.
Update button helps a little, but with upcoming changes, old ships will become completely alien to the game.
Possibly different maximum part limit, part sets, new part properties, new experience formula - and old spaceships are build with different rules.

I'm NOT GOING TO DELETE PLAYER SAVES WITHOUT MAJORITY OF PLAYERS ACCEPTING IT, so I'm just asking to consider it.

I know many of you spent really a lot of hours playing Early Access versions, so if a fresh start doesn't sound good, I will respect that.

The question could be rephrased to:
When the game will leave Early Access, will you continue playing with an old spaceship OR will you start the new game?

Another thing, there will be some serious changes to save system.
It would be a lot easier for me to make these changes if I didn't have to port old saves to new save system.

I think you should ask that question on steam. Personally, it would be tedious to start over again.

4) Should I release all story missions in one update, or should I release a mission, whenever I'm done with it?

Once I'm done with everything else, I'll be working on new story missions.
There will be 9-10 more missions.

Depends how much time passes between the updates. If you can one per week, i think that would be the best.

5) How is the part sets?

How difficult is to obtain and maintain them?
Are there problems with them?

Since i see those have quite the bonuses for collecting all, they should be pretty hard to obtain and maintain.

[Zuurix]

Well, with so many parts management i think you should aim at niche audiences, with higher price and lower copies sold. I can't imagine a casual player micromanaging that much. So i thin 80 is fine for those who will really play and love the game.

Casual players can still play.
If you don't care about being able to complete high difficulty missions, you don't need to manage ship that much.
Also, I'll add an option to choose level cap.
It will be possible to set maximum level to level 10 and play small ship the whole time.

I myself would like to have no level cap and have slightly more manageable ship.

Can you explain this feature a bit more?

You can increase the number of enemies needed to kill to complete the mission. Well, it's different for different missions.
Basically, you can make missions longer.
Longer mission - better rewards.

Now mission length can be increased by 200%/400%/600%/800%/1000%, which is not very good for the game.

Depends how much time passes between the updates. If you can one per week, i think that would be the best.

1 per week... Hmm... That is possible. If I keep them smaller and manageable.
Longest it took for me to make a story mission was 6 weeks. But that was 8 small missions in one.

So 9 weeks for 9 out of 10 remaining missions and 1-2 months for final story mission + final game update that finishes the game up.

And I still need to add 2 region bosses, a certain amount of region enemies, more region mission, 14 combat abilities...
Guess game will be finished in January. So much for finishing game in 2017 =P
But at least the game will be as good as I want it to be.

I think you should ask that question on steam. Personally, it would be tedious to start over again.

Yep, I asked on Steam.
Depending on when you last played, it could be like playing a different game.
There will be a new class, so you can keep that for restart (if it will end up happening).

Since i see those have quite the bonuses for collecting all, they should be pretty hard to obtain and maintain.

Yes, but I'm just asking players who played if it's not too hard.

[Zuurix]

Update! New tutorial and options

The game should be less confusing for new players because the tutorial has been extended to include explanations for spaceship building, ability equipping, alloy container maintaining, and mission map.

There are also new options for map screen.
It is now possible to skip a turn - which generates new missions - and to check in how many turns the Machines will move.

The big thing is the option to set level cap.
That can be done on the class select screen before starting a new game.
Level cap be set to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and unlimited.
Level cap only works for that save and it cannot be changed.

Other changes:

• Improved class select interface.
• Fixed Almadi anode glitch.
• Demolisher achievement can now be achieved again.
• Shield generators now release mines.
• Shield generators can now be encountered outside tutorial.
• Fixed various phase break glitches.
• EMP Grenade now costs 5 ether to activate.
• Now it's possible to pause tutorial.
• Possibly fixed invisible shield glitch.

Next update: Titan class!

[Zuurix]

Echo #77: Titan class

Last week I have started working on Titan class!
5 abilities implemented, 4 abilities to go!

Titan class is a class that is not very good at dealing damage and removing shields but has powerful defensive abilities.

Titan class spaceships evolved from heavy support spaceships.
When the Machine invasion began, support spaceships were keeping shields up while Apocalypse and Carrier class spaceships were dealing damage.
After support spaceships won several battles because of their superior survivability, they were given even more powerful shields and weapons to become Titan class spaceships.

I've been saving up ideas for Titan abilities, so it's going really well, I expect for Titan class to be out in two weeks.
It would be possible to release Titan class next weekend, but I want to have extra time for testing and various combat improvements, such as Death From Above ability rework.
I will also need to make starter ship for Titan class and adapt tutorial to it.

Anyway, this and previous week I have added these Titan class abilities:

Concentrated Fire
This is main attack ability.
It's the fastest ability in the game, it's cooldown can be as low as 0.2 seconds, because every activation of ability decreases cooldown.
It has a downside - every 100 times this ability is activated, the ability has a long 15-second cooldown.
This gap will be a time for other abilities (including those from other classes) to shine.

Swarm Control
This ability is unique to the game, there was nothing like it before.
It creates a seeking missile for every minion seen on screen and those missiles go through shields, armour and even other minions until they reach their target.
It has a 4-second cooldown, so it's basically Titan class Death From Above.

Searing Beam
This ability creates a piercing beam that lashes minions.
It has a low cooldown and 15 ether cost, so if your ship generates ether quickly, it can be repeated often, unlike laser abilities of Apocalypse class.

Stable Shield
It's the strongest shielding ability in the game.
It's duration increases with ability level and at maximum ability level, it reaches 8 seconds!
With 14 second cooldown, it covers your spaceship more often and longer than other shielding abilities.

Creation of Energy
The ability that generates ether is finally here!
Break fundamentals of the Universe by downright creating ether out of nothing!
This is the first of many abilities that will encourage the use of giant spaceships.
When upgraded to max level, Creation of Energy creates 1 ether per part attached to your spaceship.
It has a 30-second cooldown, so you won't be able to completely rely on it to get ether. Unless your spaceship is like, really big.
Creation of Energy is immune to Flow Stagnation.

You can check out full ability descriptions and testing video below.

I hope you're as hyped as I am about Titan class!
Until next time!

[Zuurix]

Echo #78: Titan class, part 2

Week two of Titan class development!
Two abilities to go!

Last week I have implemented two more abilities:

Entropic Missile

It's a very simple ability.
It creates a single missile that deals really a lot of damage.
It breaks through minion armour.
And that's it.

Channel

This one is also very simple but this one has a very interesting effect.
Activating this ability will reduce ether cost of the next ability.
It's not just a nice discount - it allows to use more expensive abilities with Flow Stagnation difficulty modifier enabled.
It's also the only way to use abilities that cost ether while Azimar's Killframe set effect is active.
So many possibilities!
Channel decreases ether cost by 20 at a maximum level.

With 10 Titan class abilities implemented, I only need to implement 2 more!

Here are they:

Black Rain

This ability will cause black rain, which is when shards of metal are falling from the sky!
Well, when you're in that weird, cloudy outer space of Sector Six, it's a bit different, but the result is the same - lots of damage!

Falling metal shards will deal a certain amount of pylon damage.
To minions AND your spaceship, because rain is rain, it doesn't choose targets.

Black rain will fill the screen with damaging shards for 8 seconds, so only way to prevent damage to your spaceship is to put a Super Shield on your ship.
That's how Stable Shield is called now.

So ideally you'll be safely staying under the shield while everything else will be obliterated by the black rain!

Guardian Of A Thousand Worlds

It's the ultimate Titan class ability!
It turns your spaceship into Guardian, that regenerates armour at a ridiculous rate, deals increased damage and has 1000 ether.
Unconditionally. Must be exploiting some glitch.
But I'm not brave enough to question Guardian's ways!

Anyway, I wasn't only just adding new abilities, I have also done some changes to old abilities.

Projectiles created by Shards Of Chaos ability now break through enemy armour pieces, so this ability is guaranteed to deal damage now.

Death From Above now releases missiles after a short delay.
During the delay you can see where the missiles will go, so you have time to aim.

Carrier class mines no longer bounce off shields and ruins.
They also deal damage even if they weren't detonated.

There are few more changes, but I'm not going to write about them because you will be able to see them in the game soon!

Until then!