Powerplay Beta 4 Incoming

[Flip]

From https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=149347

Hi everyone,

we will be shutting down the servers at midday (BST) to update to Beta 4. The servers will be down for an hour and we should be live again at 1pm BST.

Client Changes:

- Fix for shut down crash
- Network stability fix
- Fix error opening system map
- Bounty timers are proportional to the size of the bounty
- NPC Ships in a wing stop moving after the biggest ship is destroyed fixed
- fix for suicide-sideys making people wanted and add some extra logging in case more cases appear
- Show by Population "Min" slider is not having any effect - min value is no longer clamped and now systems below the min population are hidden
- Fixed off by 1 error in the defect popup
- Fixed undermined upkeep cost calculation
- Unable to recentre display using DK2 fixed
- Upping the rewards given on civil war scenarios
- When NPCs are given a "local bounty", there's a chance it'll be with the major faction rather than the minor faction
- Upped the interdiction chance on powerplay assassins and pirates to 60%
- Upped security ships chance to 40% (as they are not so much about interceptions)
- Stop gimbaled weapons being eager little beavers wiggling around when they've no target
- Do not draw motion lines when the location rendering is suppressed (such as in Powerplay screen)
- Fix some odd shield behaviour where it wouldn't change its "is broken" flag in supercruise
- Powerplay details screen fixes
- Missions now using correct Hitman profile
- Capital ships now engage hostile AI ships or the player if the player has chosen a hostile faction
- Changed hand-in contracts to Cargo Required so they check you have the cargo
- Mining mission template fixes - Improved tests in Smuggle delivery (Slaves are no longer food)
- Added graphic for Imperial Courier on the contacts panel
- Control details page now displays base upkeep instead of current upkeep
- Wing UI now shows shields when the wingship is in Supercruise or Hyperspace
- Audio: Add bubble expand audio events for power play galaxy view to the tree different modes
- Audio: Make sure we only send ship voice events about drones attaching to ships if the drone is our own or the drone is clamping to our ship
- Audio: Only send through "Under Attack" and temperature warning ship voice events through to player cockpit and suppress all others if they are in the Galactic Network screen
- Audoo: Fixed power play details audio when transitioning back from galaxy map
- Diamondback is now the Diamondback Scout
- Fixed holes in loading screen model and shipyard model - Diamondback
- Preparation value cannot be seen due to system name being too long fixed
- Added schematics for Diamondback ship
- Fixed holes in loading screen model and shipyard model - Empire_courier
- Stop Powerplay screens being available in tutorials
- Fix overlapping icon/rating on outfitting ship loadout item UI
- Translations for missions added (French, German, Russian)
- Mission text fixes
- UI text fixes

Server Changes:

- Always award powerplay vouchers when destroying NPC trade ships, regardless of any difference in combat skills
- Some neutral systems are now excluded from powerplay
- Fix clearing save games
- Grant more powerplay vouchers when destroying powerplay NPCs outside of a conflict zone

There is a change to the bounty system in this build:

Another new change is coming to the Powerplay beta to how the bounties system works. The length of time bounties are active will scale according to the level of the bounty. So at the bottom end – an assault charge, for example – you would receive a bounty, but the time it remains active will be quite low, say 15 minutes. For more serious crimes the time will increase according to the value of the bounty, so at 1,000 credits it’s a day and up to a cap of seven days for bounties of 7,000 credits or higher. The active time will increase if you commit further crimes, so committing numerous assault crimes will increase the bounty value and the time that it is active. We think this will provide better proportionality for crimes that are committed

Thanks!

Michael

[smartroad]

I've been thinking about the fines/bounties issue, because I still don't like the way it is being done.

If you graze a ships shields because they fly into your LOF it should start with a fine. After all you haven't done any real damage or killed/injured anyone. If you have sustained fire on them (say more then 2 seconds to give long enough to stop firing) then it is a bounty as it is more likely you are trying to kill them.

[Loriath]

At least now you can boost away, jump out, wait for 15, grab a coffee/beer/tea/whatever, think about what you have done while you take a pee break, they go pay it off and continue. Much better solution.

Now get the bugs out so you can release it so my clipper can have a baby brother!

[stummies]

This bounty nonsense really is bugging me. I've been playing about a 1 1/2 months and maybe a dozen times for one reason or another I made a mistake and got a bounty. It never was more than a few volleys at most, up to 900cr, I being tired from my work day or whatever had a brain fart and didn't wait for scan or mistargeted in the heat of battle. It truly is a rare event.

Well, a 900cr bounty is pretty much a days wait until it can be paid... so now, me just getting home from work to spend an hour or two blowing up ships, zipping about in my ship and having fun and now I'm being forced to leave my home system otherwise risk being blow up. That isn't fun. Whether I fly a FDL or a combat fitted Python, combat fitted ships don't have much jump range, so now I'm wasting time jumping about to another system instead of doing what I wanted to do. This all because of people griefing in open. Depending on the day now it's possible I just log out for the night instead of play and have fun like I day dreamed about all day.

I admit I haven't played the game long, and maybe I'm just unfamiliar with how these developers perform a patch. I just get nervous because there are quite a few changes that impact my playstyle as is today. A playstyle that many appear to have also picked up. I can't help but be a little upset that many of the changes, well restrictions, being put in place are to address player behavior I've never seen nor participated in.

Anyways, TLDR... grr.

[UnmarkedBoxcar]

Over the past few months I've grown extra careful with my bounty hunting, as the friendly fire system is a little wonky. Things like retracting hardpoints immediately after every kill, and drilling turret control keystrokes into my muscle memory.

I've also been a little concerned with the changes being made, though the number of times I've received assault charges can be numbered in the single digits. Is there any word on whether the monetary values of friendly fire bounties have changed?