Greetings Commanders,

We will be releasing The Trailblazers Update 3 on Wednesday April 30. This update features a number of improvements to Colonisation economies and Powerplay merits, alongside a range of other fixes and improvements.

Colonisation

• The operation of economies and population growth within player colonised systems have been extensively reworked following player feedback. These changes are designed to allow significantly more flexibility in building out systems to create any desired economy, and to significantly boost the economic output of colonised systems.

Economic changes

• Links will now automatically be created between completed constructions within systems. Links enable supporting facilities to supply a proportion of their economy to ports across the entire system, increasing the supply, demand and types of commodities available and altering shipyard and outfitting stock.
  • All constructions are divided into two types for the purpose of creating links: Ports and Supporting Facilities
    • Ports includes Outposts, Coriolis/Orbis/Ocellus Stations, Asteroid bases, Planetary Ports and Planetary Port Outposts
    • Supporting Facilities includes Settlements, Installations and Hubs
  • Two types of link are available: Strong and Weak. A strong link provides a higher economic boost than a weak link
    • Strong links are created between a port and any facility located on or around the same local planetary body. They may also be created between ports if there are multiple of this type on or around the same body
      • In the event multiple ports are present, the highest tier port will be linked to. If both ports are of the same tier, the port which was built first will be selected
      • In the event both a planetary and space-based ports are present, planetary facilities will create strong links with the planetary port, which will pass these strong links on to the orbital port following the same prioritisation rules regarding tier and build order
    • Weak links are created between ports and supporting facilities located on different bodies within the same system
    • Both types of link can be present, enabling a supporting facility to supply the economies of multiple ports
    • Links can only be created between facilities and ports, or between ports. Facilities cannot link to each other
    • Multiple economy types can be present in a port. If additional economy types are present at a port via links, this will proportionally introduce trade of commodities represented by these additional economy types.

  • The below infographic details these links in action:

    

    • Body 1 has a facility on the ground and in orbit, with a tier 1 and tier 2 port also in orbit
      • Strong links are created to the tier 2 port, as this is the highest tier port around this body
        • Weak links are created to the port on Body 2
      • Body 2 has a ground port and a facility in orbit
        • The ground port receives weak links from the body 1 facilities and lower tier port
        • A weak link is created supplying the tier 2 port at body 1
  • These links will be retrospectively created for all existing colonised systems during the patch downtime
  • Alternations have been made to the construction user interface flow to expose links that have already been created, and will be created on completing a construction
  • Additionally, strong links are subject to boosts or decreases in economic supply performance by the characteristics of the host system or body. Weak links are unaffected by this mechanic. Potential boosts/decreases are listed below:
    • Agriculture economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • Orbiting an Earth like world
        • On or orbiting a terraformable body
        • On or orbiting a body with organics
      • Decreased by:
        • On or orbiting an icy body
        • On or orbiting a planet that is tidally locked to its star
        • On or orbiting a moon that is tidally locked to its planet and its subsequent parent planet(s) are tidally locked to the star
    • Extraction Economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • In a system with major or pristine resources
        • On or orbiting a body with volcanism
      • Decreased by:
        • In a system with low or depleted resources
    • High Tech Economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • Orbiting an ammonia world
        • Orbiting an earth like world
        • On or orbiting a body with geologicals
        • On or orbiting a body with organics
      • Decreased by:
        • Nil
    • Industrial and Refinery Economies:
      • Boosted by:
        • In a system with major or pristine resources
      • Decreased by:
        • In a system with low or depleted resources
    • Tourism Economy:
      • Boosted by:
        • Orbiting an ammonia world
        • In a system with a black hole
        • Orbiting an earth like world
        • On or orbiting a body with geologicals
        • On or orbiting a body with organics
        • Orbiting a water world
        • In a system with a white dwarf
        • In a system with a neutron star
      • Decreased by:
      • Nil
    • As an example – Body 1 is a world with volcanism which has a port in orbit and an agricultural facility and extraction facility on the surface. The strong link from the extraction facility to the port will be strengthened while the strong link from the agricultural facility will not.
  • Constructions which have a Colony economy listed in the construction options will now have this overridden depending on the body the construction is on or orbiting.
    • These overrides are as follows:
      • Black holes, Neutron Stars, White Dwarves
        • HighTech
        • Tourism
      • Brown Dwarves and all other star types
        • Military
      • Earth like worlds
        • Agriculture
        • Hightech
        • Military
        • Tourism
        • Water world
        • Agriculture
        • Tourism
      • Ammonia world
        • HighTech
        • Tourism
      • Gas giant
        • HighTech
        • Industrial
      • High metal content and metal rich world
        • Extraction
        • Rocky ice
        • Industrial
        • Refinery
      • Rocky
        • Refinery
      • Icy
        • Industrial
      • Has rings (includes stars with asteroid belts)
        • Extraction
      • Has organics
        • Agriculture
        • Terraforming
      • Has geologicals
        • Extraction
        • Industrial
    • These overrides may stack. As an example – for a high metal content world with organics, its overrides will be Extraction, in addition to Agriculture and Terraforming.

Population Growth Changes

• The overall level of facility output is determined by the population associated with that facility - a higher population results in greater output of commodities. With the colonisation beta release, this population number was at a reduced level for balancing purposes.
• With this update, populations will now be significantly increased, enabling commanders to build fully operational economies and supply chains for self-sustaining colonisation efforts.
• Populations within colonised systems will now grow at a significantly faster rate with a significantly higher population limit. Overall population capacity remains determined by the port and facility types built within a system.
• Populations will grow on each weekly maintenance tick. Populations growth is based on a curve and will grow quickly for the first month before slowing to a more gradual pace, enabling quick establishment of strong economies.

Additional Changes

• Law and order around system colonisation ships and construction sites is now enforced by Brewer Corporation.
• Brewer Corporation has elected to begin naming it's system colonisation ships.

Port Customisation

• Added "Facility Customisation" button within Station Services for architects when docked at their orbital facilities. This allows architects to apply paintjobs to the following:
  • Coriolis Stations
  • Ocellus Stations
  • Orbis Stations
  • Asteroid Bases
  • Outposts

Powerplay

• Offensive and Defensive multipliers to merit gains have been implemented across all Powerplay systems.
  • Offensive actions (taking unoccupied systems, undermining etc) will receive +5% bonus merits
  • Defensive actions (Reinforcing) will result in -35% merits gained.
    • This is the first in a number of planned changes which are intended encourage and reward offensive actions within Powerplay. We will continue to monitor feedback and impact and adjust accordingly.
    • Updated powerplay galaxy map panel to include this multiplier
• Re-enabled rare good merit rewards
• Replaced Escape Pods as ethos activities for Powers that used them.
  • Arissa Lavigny-Duval
    • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Sell commodities for large profit
  • Aisling Duval:
    • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Transfer "Employee Data" & "Political Data"
    • Reinforcement: Collect Escape Pods → Reboot mission completion
    • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
  • Edmund Mahon
    • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
  • Felicia Winters
    • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Sell mined resources
    • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Complete aid and humanitarian missions
  • Yuri Grom
    • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Scan ships & wakes (contested systems)
  • Nakato Kaine
    • Reinforcement: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
    • Undermining: Collect Escape Pods → Hand in salvage
  • Pranav Antal
    • Acquisition: Collect Escape Pods → Sell rare goods
• Rebalanced cartographic and exobiology merit rewards
  • Both have received an increase to merit reward rate
• Added Undermining/Reinforcement multipliers to Merit notifications
• Added reference to Undermining/Reinforcement multipliers in help screens
• Improvements to PowerPlay 2 galaxy data transfer between servers and client
• Powerplay system Local Ethos activities are now server driven, allowing for more dynamic changes

Issue Tracker Fixes

• Fixed instances of stutter during general gameplay - Issue ID: 70049
• Fixed instances of disconnects when jumping to supercruise or hyperspace - Issue ID: 68250
  • We will continue to monitor data and reports following these fixes to ensure both issues are now fully resolved. Please continue to report any further instances where this occurs.
• Fixed the Corsair Mass Lock Factor, changed it from 7 to 17 - Issue ID: 74598
• Fixed Crash to Desktop when plotting route near permit locked systems - Issue ID: 74605
• Fixed issue where the concord cannon could not be reloaded - Issue ID: 67390
• Fixed the Gamma settings window getting stuck on screen - Issue ID: 74606
• Adjusted the Corsair heat dissipation - Issue ID: 75069

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the hitcheck on the Corsair's side engines
• Fixed Corsair multiplayer audio. UI Panels in second chair now go beep as expected
• Fixed Corsair engine sounds being too loud when rolling at maximum speed
• Fixed instances of colonisation contact missing from list of contacts
• Fixed instances of missing construction points
• Fixed Alastor Military not counting towards the facility requirement of Military Hubs
• Fixed Planet ports not selling more than 3 commodity types
• Fixed on foot settlements not having correct max commodities supplied. They will now have approximately 3 for small, 5 for medium and 7 for large
• Fixed instances where constructions could not be renamed
• Fixed incorrect images being shown in facility construction selector
• Reduced the orbital speed of ports constructed around Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs and Blackholes
• Fixed many construction depot and beacon launch locations around stars to more closely respect their heat output, their stellar rings and any binary partners they might share an orbit with.
• This is the cause of most failures to claim starsystems. This may still occur in some instances, and the team are working to resolve these.
• Fixed a bug that caused constructions to be placed near the final asteroid cluster of a stellar ring instead of around the requested star. We have relocated most of those constructions to their own spaces in the system.
• Known issue: In some instances, space positions for construction depots and constructed assets are in the incorrect frame of reference, causing them to be impossible to dock a ship at as they fly away. Thank you to everybody who has reported instances of those to help with our investigation.