Today's entry is dedicated to our new mode ‘Invasion’, which is now running in test mode on the game servers. As already noted by our pilots, the ‘Invasion’ turned out to be not that small at all — more than 40 maps (and we plan to add more in the process) new enemies, new rules! We have applied ​​every effort to make sure the early access version of the mode is as polished as possible for our players, but given its size, some errors might still remain. Therefore, first of all, we want to thank all the pilots who now travel through the ‘Invasion’ in search of adventures and share their opinion and notes with us!

And of course, we would like to reassure all players, even not granted access to the mode — we are planning to distribute additional access keys in the future (the exact date we will let you know a little later — watch for news and announcements in our social networks). Of course, in addition to the keys, all those wishing to join the newmode have the opportunity to do it now, thanks to two achievements:

 

• Galaxy Conqueror

 

This achievement is given to all experienced pilots who were able to score more than 1000 achievement points — we very much hope that our ‘veterans’ will continue to provide us with wonderful and structured feedback, thanks to which we can improve this mode!

 

• ‘Prometheus’ Squad

 

Issued to all devoted fans of the game that supported its development along all its way by purchasing at least 6000 Galactic Standards.

As for those who just got access to the mode, we would like them to remember that ‘Invasion’ is in early access mode, we are now preparing various improvements (such as expanded opportunities for craft, balance changes, new maps, assignments, and so on) and its final version will be much more complete and rich! Please leave your ideas, bug reports and general suggestions in a separate section, created specifically for this purpose — this will help us quickly process all incoming information from you!

Along with this, we’d like to note that, since our whole team is working very hard on fixing and refining the test version of the mode, the frequency of game updates produced once a week, maybe not be so smooth now. Of course, if we find critical mistakes we will be sure to release hot fixes, but larger updates may be installed on Star Conflict servers every one to two weeks.
 
Flags

Speaking of which, let's move on to the question that we have often heard (seen) on the game forums. The ‘Friend or Foe’ or ‘Flags’ system as we call it.

As you know, in the new mode, players can not only travel, fight treacherous pirates and mysterious biomorphs but also interact with other players — mercenaries don’t always adhere to a strict code of honour! Some mercenaries are ready to attack for profit. Yes, you understood correctly — after the destruction of a mercenary ship, all of its loot fall out from the cargo compartment of the ship and it can be picked up. And as always in such cases, there may be all sorts of scenarios. What will happen with the player in different situations?

So let's start with the first situation ‘under the protection’ — in protected areas, mercenary ships are under the influence of station shields. This can be visually tracked by looking at the central upper part of the screen: if you have not activated protection (settings-game-enable station protectio), you will see the message ‘Under station protection’.
 

 

If the ship is in a zone with station protection, the on-board computer will not allow players harm others ships and take damage from them, besides you can not receive damage from collisions.

ATTENTION: if the ‘Protection’ is enabled, you can not deal damage in a safe area, as well as receive damage! (But not from pirates and biomorphs)

How can one understand, in which zone the player will be protected, and were he will not?
Of course, by using the same indicator ‘Under station protection’. Once you get into the danger zone, this message is no longer displayed. Furthermore, the location of dangerous zones with no protection may be determined by the map — in all areas designated with a skull, protection is not valid. A tooltip that appears when you hover over these locations will also indicate whether there is station protection or not.

The second situation is conventionally called ‘Aggression’ (no protection). If the pilot disables the setting ‘Station protection’ even in safe sectors, he can attack any player and destroy his ship, provided that this setting is disabled for both pilots. This pilot himself will also be exposed to the danger of attack.

In case of an attack on a friendly NPC or pilot, the pilot receives the ‘Aggressor’ flag which helps solve all sorts of controversies: say, when a neutral player is attacked by another, aggressive pilot, but the neutral one wins, he doesn't get the status ‘Criminal’ (below) and his karma is not reduced. If the attacker wins, he gets the status ‘Criminal’ and loses karma.

The ‘Aggressor’ status is valid for 30 seconds, may be renewed and leads to the following:

 

 

• 'Aggressors' can’t dock to stations. Also, ‘Aggressors’ can not pass through jump gates.
• The player, who is attacked can retaliate without receiving the ‘Criminal’ or ‘Aggressor’ status.

 

Remember: if ‘Protection’ is disabled, you can deal damage to other players who have also turned off this setting. Even in protected locations.

And the third situation, which is called ‘Criminal’.This flag can only be applied if the player killed another pilot ship with positive / neutral karma or a friendly NPC.

 

• All defence forces will attack the ‘Criminal’ to restore order in their respective locations.
• You won’t be able to dock to stations, but you will be able to jump through gates. Any player can destroy the ‘Criminal’ without receiving the flag ‘Aggressor’.

 

As you noticed, certain ‘Karma’ has been mentioned several times. This entity, along with flags, serves to regulate how the Universe reacts to the Pilot. More details about karma will be shared in the next blog entry!
 
Corporate Recruitment

Of course, apart from the work of the regime "Invasion" and we continue to improve other aspects of the game! In the immediate update of all our pilots playing corporations awaits great extension of a functional set of new mercenaries. You can see a more detailed description below!

Now, each player not in a corporation will see the following after clicking on the corresponding icon (or by pressing the G key in hangar): 
 

 

As you can see, the player will be able to glean a lot of information from the recruitment announcement:

 

 

• Name of the corporation
• Corporate logo
• Number of players in the corporation
• The corporation’s side of conflict
• Corporation CEO callsign (a message to the CEO can also be sent through the in-game mail).

 

Additionally, players will be able to obtain additional information about the corporation thanks to the corporation description option, which can only be edited by the corporation’s leaders. 
If the corporation officers feel that personal selection of players and glorious traditions are more important, they will simply need to uncheck the ‘Recruitment open’ section in corp. menu and the open recruitment announcement will not appear. Corporation officers can reject applications as well as approve them.

This change will help all corporations easily and clearly explain their purpose during recruitment and find players who have the same interests!

That’s it for today, see you in the next entry!

Sincerely,
Star Conflict Team