Attention Captains,

Patch 2.1 of Astra Protocol 2 is now live. This patch brings in a mix of new features and improvements alongside the usual bug fixes. We've added some new exploration options and a few ways of dealing with some tricky situations.

Here's all the changes:

New Features

Speed Limiter

New option to limit the max speed when under the autopilot. Once the ship reaches the desired speed, the engines will stop providing thrust until required to slow down. Controlled via the SET LIMITER, ENABLE LIMITER, and DISABLE LIMITER commands.

EMPs

The ship comes equipped with a small amount of EMP projectiles which explode either on impact or after a short period of time. If a ship or missile is caught in the explosion, systems may be temporarily deactivated and target locks lost. Controlled via the LAUNCH EMP command.

Warp Drive

A new way to travel. Allows the player's ship to make a near instantaneous jump to another position within range. Don't over use this function though as it will rapidly increase the load on your reactor, and folding space-time may have negative effects on your ship. Controlled via the WARP and ABORT WARP commands.

Escape Pods

New objects may be found in the void of space. What you do with this information is up to you.

Safe Havens

A player requested setting. When enabled, will prevent new ships from spawning if close to a space station. This will not prevent ships following the player or finding them through other means...

Textbox Beep

A new setting has been added for textboxes to produce an audio signal when displaying text on screen.

Improvements

Space Station Repairs

Space stations are now able to replace destroyed torpedo tubes and fighter bays. Unlike repairing other components, they need to have a replacement in their cargo to be able to conduct the repairs.

Resupplying Fighters

Space stations may also stock some replacement star-fighters. Fighters will be resupplied if the ship has lost a fighter, there's a free fighter bay, and the space station contains a fighter in their cargo.

Ship Spawning

Another player suggested feature. The spawning logic for ships has been adjusted so that they will no longer spawn within the ship's front facing. This should prevent situations where a ship spawns in before the player has a chance to react. Won't prevent all ship-to-ship collisions however...

Ship Confidence

Ships without weaponry will have reduced confidence, preventing them from approaching the player's ship.

Adjusted Heliosaur Logic

Heliosaurs are now more likely to hunt down smaller ships or shield mites.

Transmission Clean Up

Space stations will not attempt to clean Up transmissions from known sources, such as space stations, science division, or headquarters. Should make deciphering those periodic signals a little easier...

Crystalline Entity Science Mission

The mission associated with crystalline entities has been tweaked a little to make it more achievable.

Game Seed

You can specify a seed value for when the game launches. This should ensure that the player's starting setup is always the same. Useful if attempting a speed run, challenging other captains, or trying to overcome a tricky situation. 

String Fixes

A few strings and transmissions have been adjusted to fit on the screen a bit better.

Bug Fixes

• Command line will no longer try to process input (such as TAB) when it is not in focus.
• Fixed rendering issues with large objects.
• Fixed crystalline entity spawning logic.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when a ship was dealing with enemy fighters.
• Fixed a crash that could occur with the ship scaling logic at higher levels.
• Fixed some logical issues affecting the story completion conditions.

And we've updated the user manual to fit all this in.

As you can see, we've packed a lot into this patch. Hopefully you'll be able to grab some achievements and let us know what you think of the new features - feedback is important to us, as it helps us steer the direction of Astra Protocol 2 and future games.

Until next time, captain.