New missiles

[Adam Parra]

Beta Test (2.6.204) after action report.
Probes: are long distance/short radius scanner. You’ll either get a 1st scan or 2nd scan data depending upon how close probe flies to enemy ships. Current travel distance is about 50,000.
Beacon: a mine type device you can set frequency and strength used to attract/repel organic life forms (Biomech, Monsters, whales) the stronger (larger radius) the beacon the faster it burns out.
Tag: like tagging wildlife, it’ll give you data and let you track tagged item. Tags might also interfere with Skarran special ability. I did not directly see any bugs except one where Artemis started on a server and opened really tiny, there is a work around.

[Charles Beaumont]

I like the idea of those. Gives weapons something to do during non-combat scenarios, and some nice toys for recon/infiltration missions

[Adam Parra]

Sorry, I guess I should explain:
I went to Mike’s playtest/pot luck party. It was a lot of fun. He made a cheat sheet for the Beacons. But he wanted people to see if he could figure them out. Also, all missiles look like drones now. If is solid, its a drone. If it flashing, its a missile. You can not shoot down missiles. I am pretty sure all three will make it into the game. He wanted these missiles for mainly for scripted missions. There are not a lot of use for them in siege mode. I think in border war and deep strike the probes will be useful. I would like to see what the gm’s in this community can do with these new missiles.

Also, I got to play 2 new scripted missions. I really liked the tournament one, it tracks the amount of ship you destroy and penalizes you for loosing ships and bases.

[Nhaima]

How easy was it to distinguish the difference between drones and missiles with the new UI elements? Are all player/station projectile weapons ‘missiles’ still, or are they now ‘drones’? Also for siege type games, I could see the beacons being useful to prevent rogue packs of pirhana from messing up your bases while you’re punching Skaraans to death.

[Adam Parra]

It pretty ez, at least to me. That is one of the first things I noticed when I started playing, next to the on WEA the missiles have a drop down. So now WEA has to take an extra step when selecting a new type of missile.

Missile and drones are two different things. On the screens, they look similar. Drones look like they always have. Solid floating orange triangles. Missile however look different while traveling through space. They are flashing floating orange triangles. You cannot select the missiles like you can drones, nor can you shoot you down.

I am pretty sure all three will make it into the next update.

[Nhaima]

Do you remember if the ordnance hotkeys worked while the menu was collapsed?

[Adam Parra]

I don’t. I am sure a good WEA officer will learn those. I only played 4 games that night. I played WEA twice.

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