Currently in the works for BTC 2.1.0: Armor/hull reworking! Doing a pass over all hulls to make sure proper skins are displaying, hardpoint sizes are correct, all the little things that can sometimes be missed. Along with this comes adjustment to the way armor will function in general in BTC. The new base values will be as follows: corvettes will have a base armor of 0, frigates of 20, cruisers of 50, and capital ships (when they return) of 100.

VE uses a flat reduction for armor, so this means that a capital ship will take literally 100 less damage from any weapon that strikes it (or 100 DPS less damage from beam weapons). What this ultimately means is that weapons with high rate of fire (ROF) but low damage per round (DPR) will be highly effective against lighter hulls but greatly reduced (or utterly ineffective) against larger ships. The reverse is true for low ROF but high DPR; they have much lower overall DPS but are the only weapons able to reliably punch through thicker armor.

To keep with this system, the 'armor' tech tree is being reworked and will no longer allow for passive armor boosts but will enhance max HP and other aspects of the craft; armor boosts will be available only as boosters, and only then on a hullsize level. (Don't expect to find a +100 armor module for a corvette, and armor modules will carry a substantial maneuver penalty as well.)

Along with the hull check and armor tweaking, NPCs are being changed to make use of this new armor system as well as BTC weapon systems. If you see a pirate base and want to take it on, better bring the heavy demo tools like mass drivers or plasma cannons. :D

Looks like I am on track for a Friday or Saturday release on 2.1. Hull pass done on my local machine already with the new armor system. All custom BTC skins should now be working (some of the Athena and Apollo skins were borked in the XML.) In general, as promised, basic ship handling is improved but skills will have less of an impact on turning and speed. In math terms, larger hulls have a much-reduced penalty to maneuver and speed and no penalty at all to acceleration. To match this, skills are about 60% as effective as previous with regards to handling. Cruiser pilots rejoice, you no longer need to max out every piloting skill.

The new Defenses tree will consist of a few cross-training options now (crystal alloys still helps shields, light alloys helps maneuver, ect) but at base the skills will give either flat HP boosts (good for smaller hulls!) or percentage HP boosts (great for people who like heavier ships!)

Tomorrow and beyond will be for NPC reworking to make use of the new systems and BTC weapons. Then it'll be on to BTC 2.2 which will be capital ships and a massive influx of booster modules for ship tweaking as well as new icon artwork.

v.2.0.9 is live. Changenotes are in the log, but the big ones to test are:

- Overhaul of the armor system. Corvettes now have zero armor, frigates have 20, cruisers have 50, most structures have 100. Be aware of the damage per round of the weapons you are firing, some of them may be ineffective against larger targets!

- NPC overhaul, Part 1. For right now only about 1/2 of the NPCs have been given the new treatment, the corvettes. Any frigates, cruisers, aliens or cargo ships you meet are liable to be very (and I mean very!) frail, but please test out the system against the corvettes. Also be very careful in systems with a danger level of 50+, even the corvettes that spawn in these areas will be packing major weaponry now. In general mobs will have more hitpoints as they are adjusted to the new system (expect endgame mobs to have 50-75% of the HP of a normal player hull and equal armor levels.)

Let me know how any testing people do turns up, I'm still adding in NPCs as I go along but I figured I'd let people play with what I have for now. Hopefully should have the remainder of the NPCs changed to the new system in a few days, and I'll also tweak values needed on existing at that point. Also, watch out for the shuttles with plasma ejectors, they like to hug you. :)

With the class rebalance (and the fact that you start with more SP and get a lot of skills free now) there's never been a better time to roll a new character.

Oh, and not mentioned in the changelog, I decided to test out new icons for the ship hulls in BTC. Feel free to let me know what you think, they should be more recognizable now as well as giving you the general ship role. Dots indicate hardpoints; red is energy, yellow ballistic, green missile/drone (I'll split these up in the future), and purple is omni of some sort.

Hoping to have a patch up by Monday for BTC. A few things coming:

1) Remainded of the NPCs fixed up to the new system, including traders and aliens.
2) A few more icon fixes, including revamping of some of the consumable icons and tradestuff icons.
3) Two new weapon additions, the Plasma Missile (fast-tracking anti-corvette energy weapon) and Cluster Cannon (larger-scale flak cannon, slower firing area-saturation with enough kick to hurt frigates and even do some damage to cruiser hulls)
4) Last thing that I'm working on right now, trying to add BTC skill requirements to the devices acquired via quests in vanilla.

Haven't had a post in here in a while, figured I'd give a peek into what was coming up systems-wise. In addition to finishing up small things from the most recent update (finishing balancing for NPCs), my main focus for the next patch will be the Modules system. Let me know if you think any stats in the game need to be added to the list!

Weapons - Energy has mods to increase damage or capacitor size, ballistic damage and rate of fire, missiles damage and tracking ability. There is also an omni-damage module that enhances all three damage types to a smaller degree.
Hull - Modules to enhance maneuver, speed, accel, turret rotation speed, projectile spread, and defensive stats (additional structure/shield and, if I find a way to work it, armoring)
Engineering - Modules to enhance repair, mining yield/speed, radar performance, and slow-trickling hull repair and fuel harvesting.