Beta Version history

The following is the Version History of Helium Rain.

New features & content

 * The player fleet can now be renamed
 * Add basic mouse emulation for joysticks
 * Add option to invert Y-axis

Gameplay changes

 * Add reputation penalty when shooting incapacited ships
 * Balance pirates
 * Balance station cost
 * Reduce ship construction time

Bugs fixed

 * Fix "Request peace" button wording if other company want peace
 * Fix docking bug where the docking state seemed corrupted
 * Fix z-fighting on Outpost stations
 * Fix strange dock layout on farms
 * Fix artifacts on Fuji exhaust

Graphics & UI

 * Upgrade design of the Anubis cruiser
 * Upgrade metal rendering
 * Add "move" buttons to sectors in the trade route editor
 * Add warning when abandoning a contract
 * Add info that military contracts require military ships

Gameplay changes

 * Make light cockpits more resistant to have a chance to survive Hammer hits
 * Balance trade contracts to allow multiple contracts
 * Make AI take prisoners after battle and guard them

Bugs fixed

 * Fix auto-docking technology not unlocking auto-docking option in menus
 * Fix crash and game state corruption on game over while docked
 * Remove debugging shortcut
 * Wording and translation fixes

New features & content

 * New manual docking gameplay and tutorial
 * New music for some sectors
 * New high-resolution screenshots shortcut on R key

Gameplay changes

 * Move Hub station to end-game because it's a common mistake to buy one early
 * Remove support for "no-cockpit" HUD because it's too much work to maintain

Graphics & UI

 * Improve farming stations
 * Improve manual docking HUD
 * Make docking rings blink every second
 * New hotkeys for spacecraft actions
 * Input bindings duplicates can be automatically replaced
 * Scrapping of ships is now confirmed
 * Disable button to add trade routes if no fleet is available
 * Remove default binding for "face backward"

Bugs fixed

 * Fix fast forward button state when canceling confirmation popup
 * Fix transaction quantity limited by its money even for trade with its ours stations
 * Fix station destruction bug leading to corrupted save

New features & content

 * Add Steam achievements
 * Add new scanner mini-game for inspection in Pendulum contract

Gameplay changes

 * No more enable pilot in fire director mode for heavy ships
 * Allow docking with menu during navigation tutorial

Graphics & UI

 * Improve all planet and moon render
 * Use progress bar instead of percentages in cockpits
 * Make fleet to travel selection more persistent
 * Update game icon
 * Rework ship info buttons layout
 * Disable no-cockpit mode
 * Use company customization pattern as background pattern in UI
 * Improve quality of weapon impacts
 * Make the sky slightly brighter
 * A lot of small UI and wording improvements

Bugs fixed

 * UI: fix too long joystick button and names
 * UI: fix dragging issues in menus causing unexpected rotation on background assets
 * UI: fix HUD distance rounding issue
 * UI: fix selection of ships with light during piloting
 * UI: fix wrong warning when targeting the tracked station
 * General : a lot of french translation fixes

New features & content

 * Add a meteorites intercept contract
 * Add trade route statistics
 * Add experimental French translation (some layout issues)

Gameplay changes

 * Don't generate military contracts if the player doesn't have military ships
 * Use interception time instead of distance to show aim indicators at a more accurate range

Graphics

 * Upgrade shadowing quality to reduce artifacts
 * Upgrade resolution of shadows on Nema's rings
 * Reduce performance cost of Eradicator impact effects
 * Update splash screen

Bugs fixed

 * General: fix ships ejected from trade route if not all ship were trading
 * General: fix research station upgrade effect
 * General: fix telescope station upgrade effect
 * General: make the player ship not fully destructible instead of the last alive ship to avoir recovery bug
 * UI: fix funny key change warning when removing a key assignment
 * UI: fix trade slider init with sell to a station for a contract
 * UI: fix lock trade checkbox that stop the production

General

 * pass the game to qwerty by default
 * move default binding of 'lock direction' to capslock and 'combat zoom' to space

Gameplay

 * no more allow station construction in a sector in danger

AI

 * make AI able to declare join war againt enemy more powerful than every company induvidialy
 * make AI able to setup attack from multiple company to allow multiple company to win against one powerful ennemy

UI

 * rename "Travel and Order" in "Incoming Events"
 * enable notification masking
 * show again trade routes in orbital map
 * add current battle in incoming events list
 * show warning in settings menu when trying to assign an already assigned key
 * set default quantity for trade to the right value when the tracked contract have a sell condition

Graphics

 * add iridescence effect to metals
 * improve reflection quality

Balance

 * move default ship count in sector to 30

Bug fix

 * general: fix Boneyard collision mode
 * general: fix crash if trying to upgrade a ship with weapon that are not unlock by technology (after ship capture)
 * ui: fix external camera and menu camera for Windows
 * ui: fix trading status text
 * ui: fix fly interdiction text
 * contract: fix duplicate fail condition when a trade contract have 2 stations owned by the same company
 * contract: various contract text fixes

Beta-190617
Modifications since beta-120617.

General improvement of game clarity.

General

 * switch to Unreal Engine 4.16
 * add Deimos Games logo and info

Gameplay

 * new more understandable recovery system: you don't have a new free ship but the old one is partially repair and you have a fine.
 * don't generate trade contracts with stations being captured

Tutorials

 * add fleet management tutorials
 * add remote fleet tutorial
 * add trade route tutorial
 * force to buy a freigther in "buy ship" tutorial

UI

 * rework EULA and credit menu
 * auto track the last contract (instead of the first) by defaut when a contract is finished to allow chained quest to be smooth

Graphics

 * assure that planet texture quality is always good
 * add boneyard icons to its substations

Balance

 * make stations a lot more affordable for the player in early game
 * the price now depend only of the player station count in its company and in the sector
 * Increase trade contract reward :
 * trade contracts:
 * from 1000 + 500 * sqrt(travel_duration) + 50 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
 * to   1000 + 1000 * sqrt(travel_duration) + 100 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
 * buy and sell contracts:
 * from 500 + 50 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
 * to   500 + 100 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
 * make trade contract volume more variable if capacity transport of the player vary
 * make axis reputation very stable as they are neutral

Bug fix

 * ui: multiple wording fixes
 * contracts: fix contract unicity
 * contracts: avoid contract to fail at acceptation making them not available as soon as the failed conditions are reached

Beta-120617
Modifications since beta-090617.

Quick patch to fix risk of economy collapse that a lock a game, with others fixes and improvements.

Gameplay

 * increase anticollision system precision and make it adaptative to ships breaking capabilities

UI

 * show repair and refill deadline in travel sector
 * make player confirm fast forward if the is no incoming events
 * make notification slower to disappear (7s → 10s)

Balance

 * tutorial: reduce research needs for technology tutorial from 50 to 30, to match with the new technology base price

Bug fix

 * economy: avoid economy collapse due to people not spending enough money
 * autopilot: fix exit avoidance system using incoherent center of sector
 * ui: fix sector menu for travel sectors
 * graphics: fix planetarium for travel sectors after sector exit

Beta-090617
Modifications since beta-020617.

A lot of improvements, thanks to all beta-tester feedbacks !

General

 * Update legals informations

Gameplay

 * make bombs and missiles destructible by the player
 * no more make ships assigned to a trade route travel automatically to a dangerous sector

UI

 * move trade route selection to company menu to make more space to incoming events
 * refactor incoming attack list and notifications
 * make new contracts notifications no more stop fast forward
 * add more details about shipyard state in the shipyard details
 * make harder to accidentally dump precious resources
 * better texts when trade operation is not possible
 * add notification when fleet repair or refill end
 * add information about station under construction in trade menu
 * rename "World prices" menu to "Economy"

Graphics

 * move planetarium to follow travel progress
 * improve engine render
 * improve flight effects
 * improve asteroid rendering quality

Balance

 * reduce technology base cost from 50 to 30
 * refactor station technologies:
 * the new level 1 "science" technology allow to build research station and telescope
 * the pumping technology move from level 1 to level 3
 * the foundry is now unlock with advanced stations
 * change the Solen to give it a cargo bay of 2x50 instead of 1x100
 * make Hammer gun more precise but a lot more expensive
 * reduce Omen mass from 32t to 16t
 * force the player to manually make peace after an AI declare war to him
 * make pacifism move more slowly:
 * pacifism increase base rate: 2.0 → 0.8
 * pacifism decrease base rate: 1.0 → 0.6
 * give reputation when ordering a ship to a company (ship price / 1000)
 * increase inter company UBI contribution from 0.001 to 0.002

Bug fix

 * ui: fix crash when editing a trade route operation if no fleet was assigned
 * ui: fix tool-tip for when the "Remove ship" button in edit fleet menu was disabled
 * ui: make failed contracts due to expiration date not display "1 day left"
 * ui: fix minor interface glitch in not visited sectors
 * ui: fix rotation of HR logo in menus
 * ui: fix The Forge sector description
 * graphics: fix AA settings bug
 * graphics: adapt resolution when enabling full screen
 * graphics: remove tesselation from Colossus to ensure Linux support
 * general: fix repair not correctly ending bug
 * general: check recovery at the end of each day and not only at the end of fast forward

Beta-020617
Modifications since beta-290517.

A small patch as response to feedback of the previous build.

General

 * add support of unidirectional joystick thrust
 * add support for joystick dead zones

UI

 * show "missing resources" when a ship construction is lock because of a resource outage
 * show incoming threats in red in the travel list
 * ensure long joystick names can be shown
 * hide precise light ratio as it's not used for now
 * make transport fee a lot more visible
 * allow to set trade route quantity limit precisely

Graphics

 * reduce sun intensity
 * minor change on dust effects

Balance

 * allow shipyard owners to be in dept to build ships order by others companies

Bug fix

 * contract: fix combat tutorial
 * ui: fix menu looping bug
 * ui: fix multiple typo in contracts
 * ui: fix highlight box not updated in HUD
 * graphics: fix Nema rings LOD
 * economy: fix crash when canceling ship construction
 * general: fix bad file name Windows firewall

Beta-290517
Modifications since beta-220517.

Gameplay

 * never destroy a ship completely because of a collision
 * allow control of ship rotation in addition to ship translation from the external camera (space bar by default)
 * make large ships unafraid of hostile small ships to avoid destabilizing turrets

Contracts

 * add lots of VIP names and avoid reusing the same names for multiple contracts
 * add a 30 days delay in the Pendulum contract after the pirate step
 * improve wording in contract tutorial

Tutorials

 * add combat tutorial
 * add ships repair tutorial
 * add ships refilling tutorial

UI

 * aggregate all secondary contract notifications in one
 * hide expiration conditions : they were misleading and taken as failed conditions
 * show more details about ship state in ship lists
 * don't notify pointless "battle lost" notification, and don't lock fast forward in these cases
 * give detailed infos about abandoned ships when traveling
 * treat ships in paused trade route as regular ships
 * show trade routes status everywhere
 * forbid abandon of tutorial and story contracts

Graphics

 * change the look of pumping stations, research stations and outposts to differentiate them
 * improve dust effects
 * improve firing effects
 * improve visualization of damage on destroyed ship parts
 * move Orca camera
 * add very small chromatic aberration
 * fix planetary texture LOD

Balance

 * technology: increase research point reward by 60%
 * diplomacy: divide rank based reputation loose by 30
 * military: divide large ship reparation speed by 5
 * military: slightly improve Artemis

Bug fix

 * ui: fix trade quantity when the company has debt
 * ui: fix line wrapping bug in trade menu
 * ui: fix "No objects" misleading in sector menu
 * combat: fix AI ship and turret pilot aim precision
 * combat: fix Kami turret angles and collision mesh
 * combat: fix collision issue in The Spire
 * general: fix AA quality settings not modifiable
 * general: fix sector defense contract not loaded correctly
 * general: fix crash if a station collide something different from a ship

Beta-220517
Modifications since beta-070517.

Gameplay

 * revamp diplomacy system

Contracts

 * add Pendulum history contract

Tutorials

 * add technology and research station tutorial
 * add buy ship tutorial
 * add station construction and upgrade tutorial
 * add targeting tutorial

UI

 * allow T key to select the contract objectif if not in battle
 * show contract fail conditions in contracts menu
 * add needs columns in ecomomy menu
 * show sector population

Graphics

 * redesign boneyard sector
 * better metal, exhaust and bloom effects

Balance

 * economy: increase the "nerf ratio" but apply it only to level 1 cargo bay size of station
 * economy: increase arsenal production
 * economy: increase plastic factory production
 * economy: increase station cargo bay size
 * economy: balance Kami ship cost
 * economy: limit high end consumer resource consumption if they are expensive
 * contracts: generate hunt contract only on travel end
 * contracts: add duration fail condition for VIP contracts
 * technology: move shipyard construction unlock in a specific technology
 * technology: now, only one technology is need to increase its technology level (2 before)
 * technology: reduce research point production cost
 * world: a lot of balance in the game creation setup

Bug fix

 * flying: fix station bad placement if they are capture before being in an active sector
 * flying: fix ship disappearing randomly if stopped
 * flying: fix weapon firing empty weapon first on load game
 * economy: fix fleet supply consumption bug
 * economy:fix shipyard consumption estimation
 * contract: fix missing diplomatic fail and expiration conditions in generated quests
 * ui: fix trading permission display
 * ui: fix external and menu camera control
 * ui: station list order in sector menu
 * ai: fix a lot of AI bug
 * general: various performance improvements