Nicou-CIG@Nicou-CIG

Alpha 4.7 - Patch Watch | System... Check!pinned

Hello everyone,

Welcome to another Patch Watch! These posts shine a light on upcoming features, improvements, and fixes that may not appear on the Public Roadmap but are updates we believe you will find valuable. You can also read the recent PTU Patch Notes for Alpha 4.7.

This time, we are focusing on several gameplay and balance updates coming to Alpha 4.7. From engineering tweaks to radar behavior, armor & shield balance, salvage variety, and missile balance, these changes aim to improve combat readability, ship survivability, and overall gameplay consistency.

Let's dive in!

Engineering Gameplay Updates

Alpha 4.7 brings a new round of balancing to shields and armor, aimed at improving combat pacing and ship durability.

Shield Balance Update
These changes should make shield combat feel more consistent while reinforcing the intended strengths of energy-based loadouts when targeting shielded opponents.

• Increased overall shield health across ships
• Reduced the gap between shield variants to make their performance differences less extreme
• Energy weapons will now deal increased damage to shields

Armor Balance Update
This creates a clearer combat progression where heavier weapons or sustained damage are required to break through strong armor before lighter weapons can become effective.

• We are introducing minimum damage requirements for armor
• When armor is at full health, certain smaller projectiles will no longer damage the armor, ship hull, or internal components
• Once armor has been weakened and reaches a lower health state, smaller caliber weapons will begin to penetrate and deal damage
• On top of these, armor will get a general balance pass to take these new changes into account.

For example, a Perseus has heavy armor, so a small ship weapon won’t be able to penetrate it or deal damage. However, once the armor has been weakened, a small ship weapon could then be able to affect the ship. You’ll need bigger guns to crack that tough shell first.

Life Support Adjustments

Life Support systems are receiving tuning to better reflect the effort required to maintain ship atmospheres.

• Increased Life Support cost to maintain the atmosphere
• Reduced the exchange rate between Life Support systems and rooms
• Reduced exchange rates between connected rooms
• Life Support generators will now also take longer to refill rooms and perform heat exchange

In practice, this means atmosphere management becomes slightly more deliberate, especially on larger ships where room-to-room air exchange plays a bigger role.

Radar and Detection Changes

The type of installed radar and the amount of assigned power now have a direct effect on the range at which aim assists and ESP come into effect. This is reflected by the lack of PIPs outside the effective range and by appropriate UI elements during precision targeting.

Power and Aim Assist
Assigned power now directly affects aim assist range; this applies to both weapon aim assist and ESP. For example, assigning 2 points to your S1 Radar would set aim assist at 910 meters, while assigning 5 points would increase it to 1,105 meters.

This range is reflected on your HUD by the distance at which target pips appear, and it changes based on both the radar installed on your ship and the amount of power assigned to it.

• Radars now require more sustained power to operate
• Activation power requirements remain similar or slightly lower

Weapon aim assist and ESP are available when a target is within your effective assist range. Increasing power to your radar extends that range, while reducing power shortens it. This adds another layer to power management decisions during combat.


Precision Targeting
Precision targeting is also affected by radar power and assist range.

• Subtargets are now visible during precision targeting when you are within a meaningful assist range
• Stronger radar power helps maintain that range, making precision targeting more reliable during combat

Cross-Section Detection

• Cross-section signatures are no longer passively detected
• They are now only detected through active pinging with your scanner

This change opens the door for fully stealth-focused builds.

New Radar Items

• New radar components have been created and are planned to become available through in-game shops, missions, and potentially crafting
• The manufacturers Basilisk, CHCO, Garuda/Gorenberg, Navegante, and Wilon offer new ship radars

Cave Scanning Reliability

The cave scanning setup has been reworked to make cave locations more reliable when scanning planets from your ship.

This should make it easier to locate caves for exploration, missions, or resource hunting without relying on inconsistent scan results.

Salvage Contract Improvements

The salvage contract pool has been expanded to include additional ships.

Many of these ships are now Gold Standard and feature physicalized components, which means salvagers will encounter a wider range of recoverable materials and parts.

What this means for you:

• Greater variety in salvage targets
• More meaningful component recovery opportunities
• More dynamic salvage runs instead of repeatedly encountering the same ships

Missile Balance and Ship Access Points

A balance pass has been made for missiles and ship access points such as doors, ramps, and lifts.

Missile Changes
Missile explosions will no longer damage internal components inside a ship.

Previously, anything within the explosion radius could take damage, including modules and internal systems located inside the hull. Because of this, explosion radii had to remain very small to prevent ships from being destroyed by a single hit.

With internal damage removed, missiles can now be balanced more naturally around their explosion radius.

The new balance gives players a clearer choice in how they want their missiles to behave:

• Direct: higher damage with a smaller explosion radius
• Area: lower damage with a larger explosion radius

Damage values are also being adjusted, but overall balance should remain familiar. Specific values will shift slightly along the existing curve.

These adjustments also apply to ground vehicles.


Doors, Ramps, and Lifts
Because missile explosion radii are changing, we also reviewed the durability of ship access points.

Many doors, ramps, and lifts currently have very low health values and were never properly tuned. Without adjustments, the new missile explosions could blow open a ship with a single hit, which would look odd and break immersion.

To address this, we are increasing their health to better match overall ship durability.

This should result in more believable damage behavior while still allowing access points to be destroyed under sustained fire.