Greetings Commanders,

The Caspian Explorer Update is now live. Embrace the depths of space with a large new exploration ship from Zorgon Peterson built to seek the stars. Available now via ARX early access, alongside a number of changes to on-foot weapons and NPC behaviours as well as bug fixes.

Features of Note:

• Added Zorgon Peterson Caspian Explorer:

  • In world holo-screen adverts now present for Caspian Explorer.

  • Mk II Ablative Armour - Armour that allows for faster and steeper planetary entries. These include lightweight alloy, reinforced alloy, military grade composite, reactive surface composite and mirrored surface composite variants. *

  • Mk II Gravity Optimised Thrusters - Size 7 thrusters that reduce the most severe effects of gravity on High-G worlds.

  • Mk II Supercharge Optimised Frame Shift Drive (SCO) - Size 8 FSD that enhances the effect of supercharging your FSD when using a fuel scoop at a neutron or white dwarf star.

*We are aware of an issue with the Mk II Ablative mirrored surface composite and as a result it has been removed from the game temporarily. The team are working on a balancing fix has which shall be implemented next week. Once this fix is in place the module will be available for purchase and use.

• Added Pre-Built Ships:

  • Caspian Explorer Galactic (69,000 Arx).

  • Caspian Explorer Stellar (38,000 Arx).

  • Caspian Explorer Standard (19,020 Arx).

• Adjustments Made to On-Foot NPC Combat Behaviours:

  • General Movement Speed:

    • Introduced a haste system which controls NPCs movement speed. Maximum haste values make NPCs run faster than current speeds.

    • NPCs will be more combat efficient, more decisive, and have better threat detection.

  • Dodging Improvements:

    • NPC will now prioritise dodging into cover if possible.

  • Crouching Improvements:

    • NPCs will crouch more often including behind cover, reloading, or to evade.

  • Retreating/Cover Movement:

    • Improved reaction time when an NPC needs to take cover.

    • NPCs will make better use of cover and be less likely to stand in the open.

  • Under Threat Behaviour Improvements:

    • If the NPC is shot at or has low shield or health, they will attempt to take cover.

    • Once their shield has returned, they will resume usual behaviours.

    • This behaviour replaces the old "fleeing" behaviour entirely.

  • Advance Towards Threat Behaviour:

    • Strikers and Scouts may decide to advance under fire until they lose their shields entirely.

    • Other NPCs are more likely to retreat under threat.

  • Crime Scan Adjustments:

    • Security will now crime scan from a longer range. This removes the short walk to the target.

    • Security NPC will turn to face the target before starting.

  • Grenade Behaviour Adjustments:

    • Grenades are more often used against groups.

    • Grenades are used to flush targets out from cover.

    • NPCs will now use memorised and reported positions to better identify large groups of targets.

    • Ensured that NPCs will no longer throw EMP grenades at targets with low shield proportion.

• Rebalanced suits & weapons

  • Rebalanced NPCs suit and shield resistances to reduce the disparity between damage types vs shields and armour for suits/shields (this does not affect the player they are using the old resistances)

  • Weapon changes:

    • Improved stow and draw times for all weapons

    • Adjusted weapon handling modification to account for new stow and draw times

    • Decreased flight time on projectiles for:

      • Manticore Executioner

      • Manticore Tormentor

      • Manticore Oppressor

    • Increased ammo for:

      • Karma AR-50

      • TK Eclipse

    • Decreased ammo for:

      • Karma C-44

    • Decreased reload speed for:

      • Karma L-6

• Powerplay:

  • Markers will now be placed on the galaxy map over rival systems, indicating targets for undermining and reinforcement efforts

• A maximum of 3 markers will be placed per Power

  • The system targets of these markers is determined entirely by player undermining efforts - the top 3 undermined system by players in a power will have an undermining marker placed over them.

  • Similarly, the top 3 attacked systems by players in a power will have a reinforcement marker placed over them.

  • A system may not be marked for undermining if it has already been undermined to 10% beyond the threshold to drop a state (e.g. from Fortified to Exploited).

    • Note this may result in minimal markers being active whilst this system is active within the enclave only.

  • Marker placement will update once per day.

  • Within these marked systems, Power Conflict Zones will generate, fully enabling combat as a viable means of undermining.

  • An additional +25% merit bonus will be awarded for all undermining actions taken within a marked system.

  • An additional +35% merit bonus will be awarded for all reinforcement actions taken within a reinforcement marked system.

  • A system must be undermined to unoccupied and then acquired within 1 cycle for the bonus to be issued.

  • Only the agents within power that acquires the system will be issued bonuses, and that power must have actively taken part in undermining the system to the unoccupied state.

  • Merit bonuses will be issued on a tier system, so agents with a higher undermining contribution will receive a higher bonus:

    • 25th Percentile - 20,000 Merits

    • 50th Percentile - 10,000 Merits

    • 75th Percentile - 5,000 Merits

  • Bonuses will be issued on a weekly basis over the maintenance period.

  • Markers will now be placed on the galaxy map over rival systems, indicating targets for undermining efforts.

  • Merit Bonuses will now be awarded for undermining and subsequently occupying another power's system.

  • Initially, both new mechanics will only be active for the Powerplay systems surrounding HIP 87621.

  • The 4 Opening Campaign Community Goals will now count reinforcement actions as contribution. Note that this will not function if you are acting as a traitor (e.g. signed up to the federal CG whilst pledged to an independent power).

  • Power Conflict Zones will now be visible across the entire system - previously they could only been seen on the navigation panel if within 1000ls.

• Bug Fixes

  • Resolved trade powerplay activities rewarding significantly less merits than intended.

  • Resolved further instances of fleet carrier cargo transfers failing and erroneous stock errors.

  • Resolved Dodec interiors not changing with economy type.

  • Resolved settlements within the enclave being of Horizons type instead of Odyssey types.

  • Resolved instances of a crash that could occur when a player dies in an active on-foot Conflict Zone whilst another player is doing through the respawn flow.

  • Resolved an issue when selecting a facility in the System Map, then selecting another facility it would incorrectly display the demolish options of the first selected facility.

  • Resolved the loading spinner on the "Cancel Construction" panel taking longer than the timer states to become interactable with.

  • Improved player feedback when a request to rename a System Colonisation facility fails.

  • Resolved an issue where the System Colonisation Ship will display a Cancel Construction option after completing the primary construction.

  • Resolved instances where the Brewer Corp. fanfare audio could repeat after closing the construction effort screen.

  • Resolved the Powerplay Care Package expiry timer not displaying on the Care Package UI.

  • Resolved instances where the Powerplay Care Package UI screen would state that on-foot materials space was full when the player has adequate space.

  • Resolved broken strings being displayed in the Info panel when converting Powerplay Care Packages.

  • Resolved a couple of issues with text being truncated or cut off in Community Goal UI.

  • Resolved the warning text being missing for armour modules when storing multiple modules, this now highlights that the module will be replaced by factory default.

  • Resolved the weapon detailing cosmetic only applying to the projectile and not its trail when firing the Mining Volley Repeater module on the Type-11 Prospector.

  • Resolved various minor clipping issues with the Type-11 Prospector geo

  • Resolved instances where some buildings in the High Tech & Factory star port interior barrel were not correctly being avoided by auto-dock.

  • Resolved instances of being able to skip the glide phase of planetary landing.

  • Resolved instances of backfaced culling on doors at Tourism settlements.

Greetings Commanders,

An update is now available to resolve a disconnection issue. Please restart the game and launcher to download the update.

Issue Tracker Fixes:

• Resolved increased Scarlet Krait disconnects being encountered. (Issue ID: 80761[issues.frontierstore.net])

• Resolved fleet carriers overfilling cargo transfers resulting in error messages. (Issue ID: 80701[issues.frontierstore.net])

Bug Fixes:

• Resolved instances where System Colonisation facilities are failing to finish construction.