Beta Version history

The following is the Version History of Helium Rain.

Early Access 17/08/17[ | ]

New features & content[ | ]

The player fleet can now be renamed
Add basic mouse emulation for joysticks
Add option to invert Y-axis

Gameplay changes[ | ]

Add reputation penalty when shooting incapacited ships
Balance pirates
Balance station cost
Reduce ship construction time

Bugs fixed[ | ]

Fix "Request peace" button wording if other company want peace
Fix docking bug where the docking state seemed corrupted
Fix z-fighting on Outpost stations
Fix strange dock layout on farms
Fix artifacts on Fuji exhaust

Graphics & UI[ | ]

Upgrade design of the Anubis cruiser
Upgrade metal rendering
Add "move" buttons to sectors in the trade route editor
Add warning when abandoning a contract
Add info that military contracts require military ships

Early Access 03/08/17[ | ]

Gameplay changes[ | ]

Make light cockpits more resistant to have a chance to survive Hammer hits
Balance trade contracts to allow multiple contracts
Make AI take prisoners after battle and guard them

Bugs fixed[ | ]

Fix auto-docking technology not unlocking auto-docking option in menus
Fix crash and game state corruption on game over while docked
Remove debugging shortcut
Wording and translation fixes

Early Access 30/07/17[ | ]

New features & content[ | ]

New manual docking gameplay and tutorial
New music for some sectors
New high-resolution screenshots shortcut on R key

Gameplay changes[ | ]

Move Hub station to end-game because it's a common mistake to buy one early
Remove support for "no-cockpit" HUD because it's too much work to maintain

Graphics & UI[ | ]

Improve farming stations
Improve manual docking HUD
Make docking rings blink every second
New hotkeys for spacecraft actions
Input bindings duplicates can be automatically replaced
Scrapping of ships is now confirmed
Disable button to add trade routes if no fleet is available
Remove default binding for "face backward"

Bugs fixed[ | ]

Fix fast forward button state when canceling confirmation popup
Fix transaction quantity limited by its money even for trade with its ours stations
Fix station destruction bug leading to corrupted save

Beta-230717[ | ]

New features & content[ | ]

Add Steam achievements
Add new scanner mini-game for inspection in Pendulum contract

Gameplay changes[ | ]

No more enable pilot in fire director mode for heavy ships
Allow docking with menu during navigation tutorial

Graphics & UI[ | ]

Improve all planet and moon render
Use progress bar instead of percentages in cockpits
Make fleet to travel selection more persistent
Update game icon
Rework ship info buttons layout
Disable no-cockpit mode
Use company customization pattern as background pattern in UI
Improve quality of weapon impacts
Make the sky slightly brighter
A lot of small UI and wording improvements

Bugs fixed[ | ]

UI: fix too long joystick button and names
UI: fix dragging issues in menus causing unexpected rotation on background assets
UI: fix HUD distance rounding issue
UI: fix selection of ships with light during piloting
UI: fix wrong warning when targeting the tracked station
General : a lot of french translation fixes

Beta-100717[ | ]

New features & content[ | ]

Add a meteorites intercept contract
Add trade route statistics
Add experimental French translation (some layout issues)

Gameplay changes[ | ]

Don't generate military contracts if the player doesn't have military ships
Use interception time instead of distance to show aim indicators at a more accurate range

Graphics[ | ]

Upgrade shadowing quality to reduce artifacts
Upgrade resolution of shadows on Nema's rings
Reduce performance cost of Eradicator impact effects
Update splash screen

Bugs fixed[ | ]

General: fix ships ejected from trade route if not all ship were trading
General: fix research station upgrade effect
General: fix telescope station upgrade effect
General: make the player ship not fully destructible instead of the last alive ship to avoir recovery bug
UI: fix funny key change warning when removing a key assignment
UI: fix trade slider init with sell to a station for a contract
UI: fix lock trade checkbox that stop the production

Beta-300617[ | ]

Additions/changes[ | ]

General[ | ]

pass the game to qwerty by default
move default binding of 'lock direction' to capslock and 'combat zoom' to space

Gameplay[ | ]

no more allow station construction in a sector in danger

AI[ | ]

make AI able to declare join war againt enemy more powerful than every company induvidialy
make AI able to setup attack from multiple company to allow multiple company to win against one powerful ennemy

UI[ | ]

rename "Travel and Order" in "Incoming Events"
enable notification masking
show again trade routes in orbital map
add current battle in incoming events list
show warning in settings menu when trying to assign an already assigned key
set default quantity for trade to the right value when the tracked contract have a sell condition

Graphics[ | ]

add iridescence effect to metals
improve reflection quality

Balance[ | ]

move default ship count in sector to 30

Bug fix[ | ]

general: fix Boneyard collision mode
general: fix crash if trying to upgrade a ship with weapon that are not unlock by technology (after ship capture)
ui: fix external camera and menu camera for Windows
ui: fix trading status text
ui: fix fly interdiction text
contract: fix duplicate fail condition when a trade contract have 2 stations owned by the same company
contract: various contract text fixes

Beta-190617[ | ]

Modifications since beta-120617.

General improvement of game clarity.

Additions/changes[ | ]

General[ | ]

switch to Unreal Engine 4.16
add Deimos Games logo and info

Gameplay[ | ]

new more understandable recovery system: you don't have a new free ship but the old one is partially repair and you have a fine.
don't generate trade contracts with stations being captured

Tutorials[ | ]

add fleet management tutorials
add remote fleet tutorial
add trade route tutorial
force to buy a freigther in "buy ship" tutorial

UI[ | ]

rework EULA and credit menu
auto track the last contract (instead of the first) by defaut when a contract is finished to allow chained quest to be smooth

Graphics[ | ]

assure that planet texture quality is always good
add boneyard icons to its substations

Balance[ | ]

make stations a lot more affordable for the player in early game
- the price now depend only of the player station count in its company and in the sector
Increase trade contract reward :
- trade contracts:
  - from 1000 + 500 * sqrt(travel_duration) + 50 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
  - to 1000 + 1000 * sqrt(travel_duration) + 100 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
- buy and sell contracts:
  - from 500 + 50 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
  - to 500 + 100 * sqrt(resource_quantity)
make trade contract volume more variable if capacity transport of the player vary
make axis reputation very stable as they are neutral

Bug fix[ | ]

ui: multiple wording fixes
contracts: fix contract unicity
contracts: avoid contract to fail at acceptation making them not available as soon as the failed conditions are reached

Beta-120617[ | ]

Modifications since beta-090617.

Quick patch to fix risk of economy collapse that a lock a game, with others fixes and improvements.

Additions/changes[ | ]

Gameplay[ | ]

increase anticollision system precision and make it adaptative to ships breaking capabilities

UI[ | ]

show repair and refill deadline in travel sector
make player confirm fast forward if the is no incoming events
make notification slower to disappear (7s → 10s)

Balance[ | ]

tutorial: reduce research needs for technology tutorial from 50 to 30, to match with the new technology base price

Bug fix[ | ]

economy: avoid economy collapse due to people not spending enough money
autopilot: fix exit avoidance system using incoherent center of sector
ui: fix sector menu for travel sectors
graphics: fix planetarium for travel sectors after sector exit

Beta-090617[ | ]

Modifications since beta-020617.

A lot of improvements, thanks to all beta-tester feedbacks !

Additions/changes[ | ]

General[ | ]

Update legals informations

Gameplay[ | ]

make bombs and missiles destructible by the player
no more make ships assigned to a trade route travel automatically to a dangerous sector

UI[ | ]

move trade route selection to company menu to make more space to incoming events
refactor incoming attack list and notifications
make new contracts notifications no more stop fast forward
add more details about shipyard state in the shipyard details
make harder to accidentally dump precious resources
better texts when trade operation is not possible
add notification when fleet repair or refill end
add information about station under construction in trade menu
rename "World prices" menu to "Economy"

Graphics[ | ]

move planetarium to follow travel progress
improve engine render
improve flight effects
improve asteroid rendering quality

Balance[ | ]

reduce technology base cost from 50 to 30
refactor station technologies:
- the new level 1 "science" technology allow to build research station and telescope
- the pumping technology move from level 1 to level 3
- the foundry is now unlock with advanced stations
change the Solen to give it a cargo bay of 2x50 instead of 1x100
make Hammer gun more precise but a lot more expensive
reduce Omen mass from 32t to 16t
force the player to manually make peace after an AI declare war to him
make pacifism move more slowly:
- pacifism increase base rate: 2.0 → 0.8
- pacifism decrease base rate: 1.0 → 0.6
give reputation when ordering a ship to a company (ship price / 1000)
increase inter company UBI contribution from 0.001 to 0.002

Bug fix[ | ]

ui: fix crash when editing a trade route operation if no fleet was assigned
ui: fix tool-tip for when the "Remove ship" button in edit fleet menu was disabled
ui: make failed contracts due to expiration date not display "1 day left"
ui: fix minor interface glitch in not visited sectors
ui: fix rotation of HR logo in menus
ui: fix The Forge sector description
graphics: fix AA settings bug
graphics: adapt resolution when enabling full screen
graphics: remove tesselation from Colossus to ensure Linux support
general: fix repair not correctly ending bug
general: check recovery at the end of each day and not only at the end of fast forward

Beta-020617[ | ]

Modifications since beta-290517.

A small patch as response to feedback of the previous build.

Additions/changes[ | ]

General[ | ]

add support of unidirectional joystick thrust
add support for joystick dead zones

UI[ | ]

show "missing resources" when a ship construction is lock because of a resource outage
show incoming threats in red in the travel list
ensure long joystick names can be shown
hide precise light ratio as it's not used for now
make transport fee a lot more visible
allow to set trade route quantity limit precisely

Graphics[ | ]

reduce sun intensity
minor change on dust effects

Balance[ | ]

allow shipyard owners to be in dept to build ships order by others companies

Bug fix[ | ]

contract: fix combat tutorial
ui: fix menu looping bug
ui: fix multiple typo in contracts
ui: fix highlight box not updated in HUD
graphics: fix Nema rings LOD
economy: fix crash when canceling ship construction
general: fix bad file name Windows firewall

Beta-290517[ | ]

Modifications since beta-220517.

Additions/changes[ | ]

Gameplay[ | ]

never destroy a ship completely because of a collision
allow control of ship rotation in addition to ship translation from the external camera (space bar by default)
make large ships unafraid of hostile small ships to avoid destabilizing turrets

Contracts[ | ]

add lots of VIP names and avoid reusing the same names for multiple contracts
add a 30 days delay in the Pendulum contract after the pirate step
improve wording in contract tutorial

Tutorials[ | ]

add combat tutorial
add ships repair tutorial
add ships refilling tutorial

UI[ | ]

aggregate all secondary contract notifications in one
hide expiration conditions : they were misleading and taken as failed conditions
show more details about ship state in ship lists
don't notify pointless "battle lost" notification, and don't lock fast forward in these cases
give detailed infos about abandoned ships when traveling
treat ships in paused trade route as regular ships
show trade routes status everywhere
forbid abandon of tutorial and story contracts

Graphics[ | ]

change the look of pumping stations, research stations and outposts to differentiate them
improve dust effects
improve firing effects
improve visualization of damage on destroyed ship parts
move Orca camera
add very small chromatic aberration
fix planetary texture LOD

Balance[ | ]

technology: increase research point reward by 60%
diplomacy: divide rank based reputation loose by 30
military: divide large ship reparation speed by 5
military: slightly improve Artemis

Bug fix[ | ]

ui: fix trade quantity when the company has debt
ui: fix line wrapping bug in trade menu
ui: fix "No objects" misleading in sector menu
combat: fix AI ship and turret pilot aim precision
combat: fix Kami turret angles and collision mesh
combat: fix collision issue in The Spire
general: fix AA quality settings not modifiable
general: fix sector defense contract not loaded correctly
general: fix crash if a station collide something different from a ship

Beta-220517[ | ]

Modifications since beta-070517.

Additions/changes[ | ]

Gameplay[ | ]

revamp diplomacy system

Contracts[ | ]

add Pendulum history contract

Tutorials[ | ]

add technology and research station tutorial
add buy ship tutorial
add station construction and upgrade tutorial
add targeting tutorial

UI[ | ]

allow T key to select the contract objectif if not in battle
show contract fail conditions in contracts menu
add needs columns in ecomomy menu
show sector population

Graphics[ | ]

redesign boneyard sector
better metal, exhaust and bloom effects

Balance[ | ]

economy: increase the "nerf ratio" but apply it only to level 1 cargo bay size of station
economy: increase arsenal production
economy: increase plastic factory production
economy: increase station cargo bay size
economy: balance Kami ship cost
economy: limit high end consumer resource consumption if they are expensive
contracts: generate hunt contract only on travel end
contracts: add duration fail condition for VIP contracts
technology: move shipyard construction unlock in a specific technology
technology: now, only one technology is need to increase its technology level (2 before)
technology: reduce research point production cost
world: a lot of balance in the game creation setup

Bug fix[ | ]

flying: fix station bad placement if they are capture before being in an active sector
flying: fix ship disappearing randomly if stopped
flying: fix weapon firing empty weapon first on load game
economy: fix fleet supply consumption bug
economy:fix shipyard consumption estimation
contract: fix missing diplomatic fail and expiration conditions in generated quests
ui: fix trading permission display
ui: fix external and menu camera control
ui: station list order in sector menu
ai: fix a lot of AI bug
general: various performance improvements