Sandstorm v1.15 Release Notes: New Sand-Cruisers & Attack Drones | Forums

[AlexRocaSanchez]

Attention all Captains: you spoke and we heard! V1.15 introduces new Sand-Cruisers with paralyzing and cloaking abilities, advanced Attack Drones that pierce shields and burn and, of course, a huge number of exciting additions and fixes highly requested by you!

Improvements and additions

• New Sand-Cruiser: Chimera. Traditional Raider faction ship, with a Paralyzing Sting Booster which stuns all enemy Systems.
• New Sand-Cruiser: Mamba. Crafted with top notch technology from the mysterious and elite Avalon faction, the Mamba’s Cloak Booster avoids targeting by the enemy.
• New System: Bullet-R, attack drone equipped with Minigun firing Shield Piercing ammo.
• New System: Firespitter, attack drone that shoots burning balls of fire with the special Burn skill.
• Ship level cap has been increased from 10 to 15 for all Sand-Cruisers.
• Price and time for Sand-Cruiser upgrades has been reviewed.
• Now you can examine enemy System details after battle.
• View battle replays after losing (when Everyplay video replays are supported on your device).
• When you purchase a ship now it’s already fully equipped.
• Reworked overly-attached push notifications: now we won’t spam you at night!
• System levels now shown in Hangars.
• When sharing on Facebook different images are now used for each Sand-Cruiser.
• Added Weibo friendlist support (only for China, in place of Facebook).
• Taverns now show the Map button on the right and the City button on the left.
• Other minor or internal changes and tweaks.

Fixes

• New permission system flow (Android Marshmallow/6.0+ only) to avoid seeing a black screen if permissions are not accepted when installing the game.
• Fixed a memory leak after battles that may help to reduce crashes under some circumstances and on some devices.
• Reviewed map choke points to avoid trapping players there under certain circumstances.
• Solved an issue where Stunners didn’t properly stop Flares.
• Fixed a bug that “resurrected” destroyed enemy Systems under certain circumstances.
• Fixed crashes on mission 3 and the Customization screen.
• Other minor or internal fixes.

Extra Improvements & Fixes (added 19/05/16)

• Solved an issue where ships would be invisible in the Hangar under certain circumstances. Accidental cloaking device.
• Tweaked some content which previously resulted in incorrect stats for some Systems.

Additions & Fixes (added 31/05/16)

• Resolved a Google issue where game progress could be lost on Android devices after re-installation/device transfer.
• Fixed Android issues changing game nickname via the Google Play Games app.
• Implemented optional video adverts which can be viewed to instantly repair your ship or receive high-level plunder!
• Made some general tweaks to improve stability.

More Tweaks! (10/06/16)

• Tweaked PvP battle rewards.
• Added Starter packs.
• Modified video advertisement pacing.

[AlexRocaSanchez]

Thanks for your feedback, Mark! We really appreciate it!

Yesterday Ubi-Deb and me had our weekly meeting with the dev team about player feedback, so your ideas were mentioned there. So as always, they may be considered for possible future new ships, skins or customization ship parts!

This time we wanted to try something different with the new ships in order to differentiate two factions that still aren't too present in the game: a slightly steampunk touch of the Raider pirates, who craft their ships trying to find a closer look to the ones made by their ancestors. And the advanced technology of Avalon. Rumors say Avalon is a secret elite hidden somewhere that wasn't affected by the apocalypse that devastated the planet Earth.

[AlexRocaSanchez]

Thanks for your feedback, Mark.

As always we'll take note of everything. Regarding a PC version, it would be difficult because we're focused on mobile devices.

But who knows...

[AlexRocaSanchez]

Yes, Mark.

As you mention, in Sandstorm we have a devastated, arid planet Earth, without forests or big industries at least in the known portion of the game.

Steampunk devices are mostly run by steam engines, and it isn't the case of the Chimera. When I said "slightly steampunk touch", I was thinking in the steampunk art style. The classic Chimera model is brown, but it doesn't mean they are made with wood. They have been crafted by skilled Raider artists who are influenced by mimic the aesthetics of the ancient pirate ships, but obviously they are made with available materials and technology.

Sand-Cruisers are made out mainly of scrap and remains of old ships, with the exception of the Mamba ships. Mambas are made with high-end technology from Avalon, that according to the rumors are a secret elite hidden somewhere (who knows, they may even have loads of water and trees), in a place that wasn't affected by the apocalypse that devastated the planet Earth.

In any case, even if there aren't trees, in the world of Sandstorm you may find ancient wooden structures (so people may reuse it if needed), because it's supposed to happen in the 24th century.