Attention Captains,

We are in a celebratory mood as Astra Protocol 2 has just turned three years old!

To celebrate this occasion, we have brought a gift - a new patch!

This patch makes some major changes to Astra Protocol 2 as we've brought in a new renderer and framework (those eagle eyed of you might recognise it as the one we've implemented on the Astra Protocol Remake). 

These changes mean that we can implement visuals that look more like the CRT monitor effect we intended for the original release of the game, allows us to implement some fancy effects, such as distortion from radiation, and run the game at a much smoother speed.

But don't just take our word for it, take a look at this trailer we made for the occasion:

A new renderer and framework aren't the only changes however, we've improved collisions, refreshed the user manual, and a whole host of other bits and pieces.

Here's the full breakdown of the changes:

GRAPHICS

• New rendering pipeline:
  • Improved performance at high resolutions.
  • New graphical effect: CRT blur.
  • New graphical effect: Radiation distortion.
  • New graphical effect: CRT vignette.
  • New graphical effect: CRT distortion.
  • New graphical effect: CRT / VHold wobble.
  • Ghosting doesn't destroy the framerate.
  • New collision animation.

AUDIO

• New audio pipeline:
  • Music, beeps, and voices to be played simultaneously without stuttering.
  • Music plays in sub-modules.
• Computer voice silences on the Mission Summary screen.
  
• Voice and audio volume can be adjusted.
  

GAMEPLAY & UI

• Settings can be changed in game - no longer need to quit out to make the changes.
• Settings can also be modified by editing the config file via a text editor.
• Efficiency improvements to the waveform and map UI elements.
• Minefields don't spawn on load - this sometimes triggered an overlap between multiple asteroids, causing lots of detonations and hammering the framerate.
• Scientific details have been tidied up in the UI.
• Shields can be repaired at a space station (this was intentionally prevented in previous releases).
• Space time anomalies show a random bearing in the scientific details.
  
• Collision detection made more efficient.
• Objects are knocked back slightly on collision, preventing objects getting stuck and orbiting.
• Science progress bar (scanning, target lock etc.) character changed.
  
• New command: ABORT RELOAD - unloads any reload operations in progress.
• Enable / disable readouts moved to the Enable Voice option in the settings menu.

OTHER

• New code framework.
• Refreshed, expanded, and more detailed user manual.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed issue where if a component was too badly damaged, it would never repair and prevent other components from being repaired.
  
• Fixed issue where too much white space could be displayed if there were problems with the RECHARGE SHIELDS command.

However, we've had to make a few removals:

• Voice recognition (previously the ENABLE VOICE command) has been removed.
• Some options, such as edit feature set and second screen have been removed (we can put these back if there's demand for it).
• BREAKING CHANGE - unfortunately the way save files were serialised is no longer supported in the new framework and existing saves will not work. Please contact us if you are particularly attached to an old save as we should be able to convert them.
• Due to the size of the new framework, the game no longer fits on a floppy disk!

We hope that you enjoy the changes we've implemented here, improving your missions within Astra Protocol 2 or even giving you the incentive to dive back in.

As usual, we encourage all feedback, so please let us know your thoughts on the changes.

Thank you for flying with Astra Protocol 2 for three years - here's to many more!

See you out there, Captains!