This update aims to balance and refine Nova Drift's rough edges before we shift focus to the game's release, which features a final confrontation, ending, and full release.

Complete List of Changes

Important note: Menu control bindings have been separated from ship controls. If you have been using custom bindings, you may want to rebind the menu controls after updating.

https://blog.novadrift.io/patch-notes/

Major Overhaul: Burns and Ignites

A rework designed to clarify and simplify text and mechanics related to burn damage and ignites. Many burn and ignite powers have been buffed.

• All burn damage now implicitly ignites, and ignites now deal 120 damage /s for 3 seconds unless otherwise stated
• Adjusted the text for every upgrade that uses burn mechanics: All upgrade text referring to ignites have been removed unless they're special cases, cutting down on a lot of reading!
• The terminology for "burning", referring to an ignited target, is now "ignited"
• Ignite duration modifiers are no more. They have been replaced by ignite damage modifiers
• Dying Star's ignite damage has been doubled(!)
• Many burn powers have been buffed and/or adjusted, including: Deadly Wake, Corrosion, Incendiary Strike, Purification, Purge, and most "lightning bolt" powers. See the patch notes for the full changes.

Gear Rework: Viper Body

Previously, Viper's kit was wordy, convoluted, and the body wasn't very strong when compared to popular Body Gear. Now, it has been reworked to be simpler, stronger, and more cohesive. Caustic Barrier's offense has been merged with its Venom Strike ability, and it's defense has been moved into its base stats.

• When you take a hull hit, you disgorge Venom Strike projectiles toward the offender
• Venom Strike projectiles deal 90 burn damage /s
• When you crash head-on, you release up to 24 additional Venom Strike projectiles, increased by 2% per your level. This effect strengthens the longer you have not crashed head-on, up to 10 seconds, and has a 2-second cooldown
• +50% head-on crash damage resistance
• +50% total ignite damage
• Hull: 110
• Thrust: 110

Super Mod Rework: Sanctuary

Sanctuary's former design was neither very powerful, nor was particularly deserving of Super Mod status. The rework makes it truly transform your build. It is now the ultimate tank / point defense mod.

• While your shield protects you, create a large Sanctuary on the battlefield that slowly follows you. Your shield still protects you from damage, but shield effects originate from the Sanctuary instead of from you
• While you are inside the Sanctuary, you gain 10% shield damage resistance, +15% global damage, and recover 6 shields /s
• +40% crash knockback resistance
• -20% thrust
• Your shield effect radius becomes equal to the Sanctuary's radius, but it cannot be increased or decreased by other modifiers. Instead, your modifiers to shield effect radius apply at 40% effectiveness to your shield effect power
• While you are outside the Sanctuary, your shield effects are disabled, and your shield cooldown is doubled

Some other notable changes include:

• Added new background music to all modes: "Spectra" and "Fukura"
• Most text-heavy menus have received an aesthetic pass
• Added a lot more options for input binding
• Auto Firing can now be selected from the settings menu, allowing the "fire" input to turn it on and off during gameplay
• The maximum account rank is now 64, up from 60, and the Unlock order has been revised slightly
• Added support for moving the mouse with the gamepad right joystick

Complete List of Changes

https://blog.novadrift.io/patch-notes/

What's Next?

The full release of the game! We've been treating this game as if it were released for so long that it feels strange to recall it isn't technically "released" yet. No pressure, right? This update will finally introduce the game's final boss and an ending to the game. The game will end provided that you have the "Endless" Challenge Mode turned off, which will finally become possible with this update. That's right, should you choose, you shall no longer inexorably succumb to THE VOID.

Discord Upgraded! Come Hang

We've got quite an active discord with a very chill and inclusive community. The dev team is also pretty active there. We recently opened up some new channels like #weekly-discussion, #ask-the-devs, and #feedback. The latter allows you to submit feedback to a bot that lets players upvote or downvote the suggestion. I'm also quite proud of the #game-dev-help channel, which is a space for current and aspiring developers to learn and collaborate. So... come chat with us!