I like pie.
Me too.

Inc, the point I was trying to make is that the rate limit isn't even applying, even though that was supposedly fixed. Sure, the NPCs will only fire their swarm turrets once every 45 seconds, but a player can pump them out as fast as they can switch turrets.

Basically this part of the update...
- Turret fire delay now persists between leaving and entering turrets.
... doesn't work.

10 volleys of swarms is a lot, but if you've got 10 military Tridents attacking you, there kind of should be a lot of missiles. That's an entire fleet of missile frigates!

On another matter, when is the update?

Point One:
- Fixed a crashing bug with the Offline Flight Simulator

That's just a bugfix, I meant the new ships and stuff.

That's just a bugfix, I meant the new ships and stuff.

The new ships are in process. The best I can say is that there's a lot of "training" in any new area of art-development that we approach. I've worked with Curt on a lot of 2D stuff, like logos and nebula and so on (which was an easier learning curve), but not a lot of "complete engine assets". So, while he's very familiar with a lot of the standard game-art skills, there's still a lot of custom "and here's how our engine works" information to be passed across. Plus just other knowledge that comes from doing game-art stuff for 15 years, vs just starting out.

We hoped to have a ship ready this week, and didn't make that, but as of Fri it looked pretty cool. There's more shader and other work to be done yet.

The other upside.. once Curt is pretty familiar with this aspect of the art-pipeline, we'll be a lot faster to create, update and add new ship content.

Incarnate do you have a plan regarding what some people call 'ship balance' or how to work in the stats of the new ships and who will be responsible for tweaking or deciding what the stats of any new added ships would be?

For right now, the main focus is to update and potentially replace some existing assets, in cases where we have alternatives that are already partially-completed.

But, yes, in general I play-test the ship and then expose it to the player base for further debate, various nerfing and buffing happens, and then it settles somewhere. This hasn't happened in a long time, but we've done it before. There's generally a "role" in mind for ships, but I try to keep it flexible and see how people use it. The only time it's really gone awry was with the Raptor, whose intended role required other gameplay changes that are still incomplete.

The other major example I would suggest is the elite heavy ship monopoly by the serco and the elite light ship monopoly by the itani with the valkryie/prometheus.

Are there any plans to allow competitive top tier alternatives to the valkryie/prometheus for serco/itani respectively either with new models or existing variants?

We're all dieing to know!

There are plans to drastically re-vamp the way that damage is assessed in the game, along with available sensors, to give me a lot more "knobs" to turn, as opposed to just "mass, engine, ports, ship-geometry". But that's not an immediate thing (not like.. "next week", as opposed to a potential new ship).

A lot of what will guide my thinking in terms of factional vessels, will be the evolution of the battles and dynamic warfare in general (PvP, etc). There's a line to be walked, in terms of making a given side have some unique aspects that make them "feel" different and factionally unique, while also allowing relative balance and parity between opposing forces. We haven't had much other than "light" and "heavy", to date, and the definition and context of those roles has been pretty limited. I expect some of those roles to change, as we roll out new weaponry, defenses and other.. gameplay factors.

So, my answer kind of goes back to how I have to respond to a lot of broader design questions: my goals aren't purely to expand within what we have today. It's kind of like if I've been showing you B&W photos for a long time, and you ask if the next photo will have a lot of great dark or light tones, and I say "actually, it'll be in color". I'm not aiming to just add more of what we have today, I think a zillion ships with trivial differences in mass, geometry and handling would be.. boring, and stupid. I want to add new dimensions to what ship-performance actually means, and make the variety give more depth and meaning to gameplay.

At least, that's the high-level three-paragraph "I'm tired and want to go to sleep" version of the explanation :).

CS: Now slave, obey us!

Anyone who works on a single project for over fifteen years, producing tangible results, is an artist.

That's all. Looking forward to the new ship designs and "color photo" features.

Err, well that's all lovely and such and it's news to most of us that you had an expansion planned for the combat system.

I was just thinking about the interim it would be a very simple thing to fix the perceived faction imbalances if you just put in two new variants of existing ships. It wouldn't take too long and I'd be willing to bet you could even get most people to agree with the additions.

"It wouldn't take too long"

Everything takes a long time, especially new ships. Just be happy that Inc has a new ship just coming out of the factory imminently.

That said, I will say that if it is just a new paint job for an existing ship it's safe to say we all won't be too overjoyed.

Dates so I know when to facepalm when you're late Inc :P

It's very nice to read that, Inc. :)

Got any plans to tweak ones that seem like they've been in need of a "balance" for years and years? (Hornets, Raptors, etc)

Regarding the claim that the turret reload timeout isn't working properly, are you referring to a player going from turret to turret firing swarms or leaving and entering the same turret quickly?
Also, in that screenshot, where did all the swarms originate from? The trident or the constellation?

Referring to both situations. But in that particular case the player was leaving and entering the same turret repeatedly as fast as his fingers could click. Hard to say if all of the swarms in the picture were form the same turret, but easily 90% of them were.

Constellations don't have swarm turrets. <.<

Huh, ok, that's odd. Missile turrets aren't persisting their delay time, but other types are.

Fixed in update 1.8.261