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Anacreon Beta 1

Beta 1 Is Ready for Testing!

I'm proud to announce that Anacreon Beta 1 is running on the server. Beta 1 implements all the major game mechanics planned for the 1.0 release, and although it lacks much polish and balance, it is largely feature-complete.

The major feature of Beta 1 is nebulae, along with the worlds and ships unique to that environment. But there are also many bug fixes related to revolution, production, and combat.

In Beta 1 I've also started a new game, called Fallen Worlds Beta I. The original game, Fallen Worlds Alpha I will continue to run and will get all of the new fixes except for nebulae.

Nebulae

Nebulae affect visibility and movement, but also provide safety from starships. There are three kinds of nebula in the game: dark nebulae, bright nebulae, and rift zones.

Dark Nebulae

Dark nebulae are impenetrable to starships, and as their name implies, they restrict visibility. Explorer ships scanning a dark nebulae will only see half as far.

Dark nebulae also harbor a few new world classes. For example, chthonic worlds are primitive worlds with no atmosphere (thus requiring life support). They are a primary source of chtholon, a rare mineral used for certain ship classes.

Bright Nebulae

Like other nebulae, bright nebulae are impenetrable to starships, but their density is somewhat lower, allowing scanners some visibility.

Bright nebulae are the birthplace of aethereal worlds, which contain large amounts of aetherium, a substance used for certain ship classes.

Rift Zones

Rift zones are the dark matter backbones of nebulae. Rift zones block all travel, including jumpships and trade routes. Fortunately, rift zones are generally small, allowing experience pilots to navigate around them.

Ramjets

Jumpships spend almost no time in realspace and can jump through nebulae as easily as empty space. But nebulae prevent massive starships from building up the speed required to enter transpace. Ramjets solve this problem by using the nebula itself for propulsion.

Ramjets have been used for thousands of years. They suck in nebular gas and use it as fuel to propel themselves. Once they reach the transpace threshold they can engage their FTL drives.

Ramjets are as large and powerful as starships. They are built only on worlds inside nebulae, and their construction often requires aetherium and chtholon.

Naturally, ramjets cannot function outside of nebulae.

Gameplay Changes

I've made several gameplay changes to Beta 1 to address prior feedback.

  • I've rebalanced many of the original ships. For example, Stinger-class jumpships are now level 5 while Adamant-class jumpcruisers are bumped up to level 7 (with a commensurate power increase). (I've also removed the requirement for neural processors, which served no useful purpose.)
  • In general, high-tech ships are now more powerful than before. This should compensate for the difficulty of having high-tech worlds. I've also increased the rate of chronimium production.
  • Rebellion and revolution have been tweaked. I've increased the safety margins for importing, which will cause worlds to build up some reserves. This should lessen (but no eliminate) the probability of worlds instantly running out of resources if trade is disrupted.
  • I've also change the rebellion algorithms so the rebels never win if they are outnumbered more than 4 to 1. In addition, the rebels will never win in less than a cycle (one day realtime), hopefully giving the player a chance to react. Of course, the empire won't win either unless popular sentiment turns against the rebels. (To ensure the latter, make sure the world does not run out of anything.)
  • I've also fixed a few bugs which, in some cases, caused worlds to not produce needed resources.
  • Earth-like, ocean, desert, and empyreal worlds now produce more organic food than before. Previously, all worlds produced food equally, which didn't make sense.
  • I've fixed the problem in which missiles had problems hitting fast-moving satellites. I've also fixed a bug in which defenses did not target all enemy groups.

See Also

Thanks

I offer a huge thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the Alpha releases—Anacreon has improved immensely because of it. But there's still lots of work to do, so please keep the feedback coming!

Future Plans

The beta series of releases will concentrate on three things: usability, game-balance, and polish.

Usability

Anacreon is too hard to learn right now. I need to add both tutorials and clearer in-game instructions.

Similarly, there are lots of UI improvements that would help beginner and experienced players alike.

Game-Balance

There is much room to improve the game mechanics. For example, penalties for attacking smaller empires might need to be increased.

Polish

Finally, there is lots of opportunity for polish. Beyond basic bug fixes, the game could use more graphics enhancements and special effects.

Got feedback on Anacreon? Share in the Facebook Group or post in the Forums.