[2020] Alpha 12: Part II - CPU and Flight Model

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/383120/announcements/detail/1697232491894890376]here[/url].

Hi Galactic Survivalists! Welcome back to Part II of our Alpha 12 feature update dev blog!

While you have read through the first part of this blog, you might have wondered what's added to the game besides the galaxy feature.

Of course there is a lot of code work going on on other elements as well, ranging from adding new features to the ModAPI, the Terrain Editor Settings, down to refactoring code elements and fixing and streamlining settings.

One of those topics has been CPU in conjunction with the new Flight model. The following might be interesting for a lot of players and all the forum discussions on that topic.



To start with, we will aim for a few balancing changes.

Examples:

• Cut CPU cost on SV and HV RCS by 40% to make it more workable for small builds and on game start
  
• Tier 4 for HV will be increased (planned from 70k to 100k)
  
• Thruster CPU Cost rebalancing: Larger thrusters are planned to be more CPU-efficient than their smaller versions.
  
• Materials/Items/Devices in containers will get a storage bonus, in terms of a 50% mass reduction when computing max speed of the ship (the mass of the vessel will remain the same)

Further improvements of the flight model ( fixing issues with drag and lift calculations ) and smaller, additional up- and down balancing of CPU cost aside, we also plan to make a few more in-depth changes on these feature(s) themselves.

• Per-Axis Torque setting
  With Alpha 12 you will get three sliders in the Control Panel > Statistics tab to adjust the Torque of your vessel. One slider for each axis.
  
  
• CPU Tier Buffs
  Unlocking a CPU Tier will add benefits. The same way overshooting the CPU count is penalized, we might give you certain buffs or bonuses when reaching a new tier. For example we already internally added a 5% speed up on the booster reload time for every new CPU tier level. We are of course open to your suggestions on this topic!
  
  
• CPU Tier 5
  We currently discuss an expansion of the Tier System - starting with Capital Vessels. The approach is currently not yet decided, but will be referred to as “Tier 5” (whether it is a real CPU Tier or something different)

We are looking forward to your thoughts! :)

This has been a little bit more condensed on only one topic. Expect more dev blogs about the other topics later this week!

Until then, take care. Read you soon.
Empyrion Dev Team

PS: Do not forget to participate in our GAME SURVEY 2020![survey.empyriongame.com]