We interrupt your daily flight to bring you a new patch. This patch redesigns the background walls and adds a lot of decorations all over the place. Additionally, a lot of Quality of Life changes have been implemented.

Text windows will type at a much faster pace, and Landing Pad Interfaces had their text optimized to go by quicker. Another neat change is being able to change your cursor color at will from the UI Settings options menu. The game will default to red, but now you can pick between 8 different colors. Choose whichever is easier for you to use.

The last major change is the addition of a voiced announcer for Hel's Fighters! He will comment on various actions during battles. In case the new voicelines are not quite to your liking, they can be turned off in the Audio Settings option menu.

Here is a full list of patch notes:

Balance:

• Increased the base rotation speed of the Aerostrike with gamepad from 6 degrees per second to 8.
• Standard weapon cooldown is no longer instant. Weapons cool down at a rate of 60 units per second.
  • For reference, a weapon's maximum heat capacity is 20 units.
  • Overheated weapons can reach up to 40 units maximum.
  • Does not affect lasers or charge weapons.

Visuals:

• Modified the look of the UI Health Bar.
• Pause Menu background inherits the coloring of the area you're currently in.
• Increased the typing speed of Text Windows.
• Increased the typing speed of Transmission Windows.
• Increased the typing speed of Landing Pad Interfaces.
• Multiple Game-wide Landing Pad Interface text modifications.
• Game-wide room modifications.
  • Some rooms had their architecture modified.
  • Some rooms had additional background doodads added.
  • Some rooms had door placement modified.

Audio:

• Direct rocket and missile impacts will have a lower pitch.
  • Only affects projectiles fired by the player.
• Added faint explosion sounds when enemy ships explode upon death.
  • This is separate from the faint explosion sounds when dying already in the game.

Campaign:

• Added a Docking Bay on the lower Gauntlet entrance in Area 1.
• Relocated a door blocker in Area 2 to Area 1.
  • This way it's located next to the new dock, preventing forced backtracking.
• Reduced the number of active Brawlers in the first Titan battle on Trial Run and Standard Test.
  • Stress Test and Trial by Fire remains unchanged.
• Added a couple of Shield Pickups to Area 3's West Storage.
• Added a couple of Shield Pickups to Area 3's East Storage.
• Changed the turrets in Area 7's lowest corridor from Flak Turrets to Plasma Turrets.

Rebel Ops:

• Renamed Act 1 to Against the Current.
  • Against the Wind clashed with Act 2's name, Second Wind.
• Modified the layout of a room in the Caves.
  • This was done after discovering that the AI patrol pathing prevented the intended stealth path from being taken.
  • Only affects Missions 3 and 9.

Hel's Fighters:

• Added a voiced announcer to the battles of Hel's Fighters.
  • He will make comments on various actions during combat.
• Slightly modified the "Last Chance" line by the Store Manager during day 1.
  • It now explicitly references the Gladiator offer.
• Added a unique ship model for the Store Owner.
• Added a unique ship model for the Manager.
• The Store Owner is now physically in the store.
  • No, you can't shoot him.

Options:

• Added a setting to toggle the Hel's Fighters Announcer on and off in Audio Settings.
• Removed the Shield Cooldown option from UI Settings.
  • Now it is always displayed on the UI and next to the cursor.
• Added a setting to change the color of the combat crosshairs in UI Settings.
  • There are 8 colors available, by default it will use Red.
• Renamed "Sensitivity" to "Rotation Speed" in the Analog Stick Settings menu.
  • The new name is more representative of how it works.
  • Its function remains the same, only the name was changed.
• Renamed "Location" to "Placement" in the Gamepad Crosshair Settings menu.
  • The new name is more representative of how it works.
  • Its function remains the same, only the name was changed.

Bugs:

• Fixed not being able to scroll back in the Screenshot Settings menu.
• Fixed the incorrect Heat Gauge offsets when using laser or charge weapons.
• Fixed the incorrect Protective Shield Cooldown indicator offset.
• Fixed an error that prevented swapping to Keyboard & Mouse by moving the mouse around.
  • If anyone wants this to be re-implemented, please let me know.
• Fixed an error in the Rebel Ops menu where Act tooltips had the wrong name for Acts 2 and 3.
• Fixed an error in the Rebel Ops menu where backing out of Act 4 would incorrectly select the Act 3 button.
• Fixed Notification Pop-ups appearing in screenshots with the UI disabled.
• Fixed the Inventory equipment title text being colored black instead of white.
• Fixed the Paintjob selection buttons changing sizes when interacted with.
• Fixed the Hel's Fighters displaying incorrectly the required currency for upgrades by a factor of 1,000.
  • Actual prices remain unchanged, we just added the ",000" at the end.

Techical Changes:

• Various minor lore and conversation text modifications throughout the game.
• Modified the cursor system to always use an in-game object.
  • This allows the cursor to dynamically scale with the resolution of the game.
• Weapon Heat and Protective Shield Cooldown indicators are now drawn on the GUI layer.
  • This allows it to properly stick to the cursor and not be obscured by other GUI elements.
  • As a bonus, it also doubles as a micro-optimization!

Hotfix 1.4.2.1:

• Fixed the first Titan battle changes working on the wrong difficulties.

How to update the game manually:

1. Download the new version.
2. Delete the old game folder. Aerostrike's save files are stored in a separate folder, so it is safe to delete the old game files.
3. Create a new Aerostrike folder.
4. Extract the game files inside the new folder.

If anyone is met with any sort of weird bug, or simply thinks that there are not enough cursor colors, feel free to leave a comment,  send an email to the support address, or contact me via twitter.

Stay safe pilots!