Tau Station Status Report: February 2018

February is over. Besides new features, a lot of improvements and fixes have been implemented. Time to look at some of the tasks that were performed last month, and in addition, this status report also provides a glimpse at the future! Around six weeks ago, the second wave of Closed Alpha Testers fastened their seat belts to join Tau Station. For March, it is planned to invite all remaining fans who signed up to our newsletter. Read on to learn what happens next …

The status reports contain major aspects of the work done on Tau Station during the according month. As we’ve started to provide changelogs for every game update, you can find way more details, including also all smaller changes, in these dedicated posts. Links to all updates/changelogs that happened this month are listed up at the bottom of this article.

Gameplay

  • Balancing – Several balancing changes
  • Bar – Drinks in the bar now give slightly better benefits
  • Character Creation – Now allows you to select your genotype
  • Combat – Much higher XP rewards for PVP and PVE combat
  • Game Start – The first 3 trips to Brig and Sick Bay have a reduced confinement time and a warning that the duration is lower than usual
  • Level Cap – The (current) max. level has been increased to 15
  • Level-Ups – Improved feedback, plus rewards and stats refill on level-ups

UI & Art

  • Game Feedback – Action messages moved closer to actions so that it’s easier to see the results of what you’ve done & first iteration of a new style of feedback messages
  • Items – “Rarity” (common, uncommon, etc.) is now indicated correctly by frames
  • Pictures – Quality improvements for a variety of images

Frontend & Accessibility

  • Bank – Input enhancement, especially for screen reader and keyboard usage
  • Chat – Various improvements (e.g. improved scrolling behavior)
  • iOS devices – Several improvements for Apple users (e.g. scrolling, slider)
  • Reports – Added a reporting feature directly into the game
  • Scrolling – Won’t close inventory item details on mobile anymore
  • Shop – The shop for bonds and VIP packages is live
  • Sidebar – It is easier now to see rewards from missions as mission steps update amounts of credits, bonds and the encumbrance level of your inventory in the sidebar instantly (without page reload)

Backend

  • Blog – You can now reply to blog posts of other players
  • Chat – Various chat backend improvements
  • Forums – You can now modify your posts
  • Login – Improvement on login server stability
  • Menu – Fixed an issue where some menus would not stay minimized
  • Missions – More work to ensure mission system creates valid missions
  • Reports – Backend work done for the in-game reporting feature

Narrative

  • 6 new missions:
    • “From the Ashes” (level 4) on Daedalus
    • “One’s Own Hands” (level 6) on Sol Jump Gate
    • “Possessed” (level 6) on Nouveau Limoges
    • “She Sells Spaceshells” (level 6) on Sol Jump Gate
    • “Smoke and Mirrors” (level 5) on Taungoo
    • “X Marks Our Shot” (level 2) on København
  • Motivational messages are now displayed while training
  • Several fixes and improvements on many missions (thanks testers!)

Planned for March 2018

  • Art – More art to be added
  • Invitations – Invite the “Final Alpha” players to join us
  • Market – Implementing the player market (non-NPC trading)
  • Missions – Finish initial missions for Alpha Centauri
  • Open Registration – Shortly after the “Final Alpha” wave, open the game for all
  • Ruins – Finish first version of “Ruins Campaigns” for PvE campaigns on stations
  • Shuttles – Offering first small, personal shuttles
  • Story – Outline Barnard’s Star backstory
  • Tutorial – Integration of the tutorial mission for new players

Thank you!

World Compliment Day was on March, 1st, and we’d like to repeat what we said on Facebook and Twitter: You’re an Out-Of-This-World Community! Thanks a lot for your support, suggestions, reports, and passion. Keep up the good work and let’s give a warm welcome to everyone joining the game soon!

You're an Out-Of-This-World Community!

Changelogs

You can find a short detail summary of every single update in the according changelog we have been publishing on an a regular basis since we started the Closed Alpha Test. Here are all changelogs of February 2018.