Zharkov: The Vortex

Zharkov: The Vortex
Release Date	August 3, 2021
Full Patch Notes	Steam
Previous	v0.5.18385
Next	v0.6.20667

Zharkov: The Vortex was a major update to Everspace 2 that released on August 3, 2021, after initially being available on the experimental branch of the game starting July 23rd. It added the Zharkov system, rebalanced several items/systems, and fixes multiple issues.

Corresponding Kickstarter update.

Developer notes

We're happy to announce that the big "Zharkov: The Vortex" update has just been released!

Look forward to an all-new star system, a new spaceship class, companion, main and side missions, activities, challenges, and more than 100 improvements and fixes.

Please see the complete list of changes below (note that a few bugfixes are tagged with "(Exp)" - these are only relevant if you have been playing a preview of this update on the experimental branch - for all others these bugs never existed in the first place).

A big shoutout and many thanks to all test pilots who have already been playtesting this update on the experimental branch and helped us tremendously in ironing out some kinks!

Patchnotes

Features

• Added new main and side missions
• Added new star system: Zharkov
• Added new player ship class: Vanguard
• Added new companion: Tareen
• Added new device: Fusion Hook
• Added new missile weapon types: Corrosion, Armorbreaker, Shieldbreaker, Destabilizer
• Added Bloodstar items set bonuses
• Added new item affix "Swift" (reduces ramp up and charge time by 30%)
• Added "Union Explorer" challenges + challenge reward for "Explorer" challenges, allowing to fast-forward in supralight
• Tier 2 ships are now available at ship dealers
• Added English voice acting for all dialogs that were added since the previous Contracts/Hinterlands update
• Cinematics now feature improved animation and professional voice-overs (but are still WIP)
• Added new music tracks
• Increased max level to 18
• Added 10 new ship colors to collect
• UI: Added "new" and "invest" indicators to the perks tab
• UI: Item crafting and modification rework including item preview and materials overview

Tweaks

• Game assets are now compressed to save disk space
• Distributed game assets among several .pak files to speed up patch installation via Steam
• Optimized texture memory usage
• Improved Thermo Gun projectile performance
• Overhauled enemy damage and hitpoint balancing
• Balanced difficulty when fighting against multiple enemies at the same time
• Fewer Outlaws in Siren's Sea and Palaemon's Wound
• Cargo space will now increase with higher ship tiers
• Slightly reduced Scout agility
• Increased ship acceleration while not boosting
• Outlaw Ravager and Bloodstar Overseer now have fewer and more prominent weak points
• Outlaw Vipers now leave behind a corrosion field when destroyed
• Creatures and cruisers can no longer be targeted by the Magnetic Repulsor
• Nanobots and Nano Injector will now repair a percentage of hull HP, not a fixed value
• Improved Teleporter collision detection to prevent getting stuck in geometry
• Corrosion will now first damage the armor before damaging the hull
• Annihilator Virus: reduced explosion delay and doubled infect interval
• Annihilator Virus: reduced kinetic damage from 150 to 90
• Annihilator Virus: limited maximum number of infected targets to 6
• Annihilator Virus: increased range from 400m to 600m
• Annihilator Virus "Symptomatic" mode: increased target damage reduction from 20% to 50%
• Annihilator Virus "Incubation" mode: renamed to "R-Naught" - now increases the maximum number of targets by 2
• Corrosion Injector, Annihilator Virus, Quantum Entangler and Quantum Tether (Striker ULT) can now be used on capital ships
• Doubled Quantum Tether (Striker ULT) effect range
• Rail Gun: Reduced energy consumption
• Rail Gun: Added zoom when charging
• Rail Gun: Increased full charge damage by 50%
• Baron Executioner: Increased max spread angle from 0.5 to 1.5 degrees
• Beam Laser: Increased energy consumption by 20%
• Elek will only jump in if the player is in a fight with more than 2 enemies
• Reduced "Play It Safe" perk effect duration from 12s to 5s
• NPCs will now gain EMP resistance immediately after receiving the EMP debuff to prevent stun locking
• EMP resistance duration is now scaled with the duration of the EMP itself
• Increased hull hitpoints of G&B and Freelancer freighters
• Decreased probability of Interceptor passive perk that recharges Weapon Overdrive with critical hits from 50% to 20%
• Increased global elite enemy probability
• Signal Decoders will now reveal a high-risk area inside the current region of the system
• Signal Decoders will now always have a higher rarity (no more common signal decoders)
• The first boss now gives more and better loot
• Improved support for mixed input methods like joystick + mouse (added option to specify input method or use auto-detect)
• Prevented crafting exploits via reloading
• Fully mine ore deposit when using Flak or Missile Launcher
• Portable debris can now be picked up from a further distance
• Only play detonator drone warning sound when it is flying towards a target
• The pinging sound and icon-effect of invisible containers continue until the container is emptied
• Added options to quickly invert camera pitch/yaw (in addition to the already present invert option in the "customize controls" screen)
• Force fields now have two distinct textures representing their access state
• Flying Dutchess will now spawn-kill enemies when jumping in
• Post effects produced by conditions, devices and damage are now hidden in Photo Mode
• UI: Added dedicated HUD marker icons for different drone types
• UI: Improved speed when first opening the map
• UI: Joystick keybindings are now displayed in HUD when a joystick binding is assigned
• UI: Tractor Beam Range is now shown in "Ship" screen
• UI: Master rewards for challenges are now instantly revealed
• UI: Added implicit cargo sorting for M&K in case sorting was active on the last menu visit
• UI: Repair and device hold actions trigger an error on the start of hold action in case of insufficient credits/points
• UI: Clickable action buttons in crafting result screen
• UI: (Batch) marked items now feature an animation
• UI: Added ingame menu tab pre-loading for Inventory, Ship, Perks, Mission, Data and Map
• UI: Better explanation of locked player perks when in space
• UI: "Crafting XP" is now called "Crafting Data"
• UI: Opening ingame menu with gamepad implicitly sorts inventory and selects the first slot
• UI: Dismantling and destroying while using a controller now implicitly sorts inventory (removes empty slots in-between)
• UI: Enabled "Expand Cargo View" / batch actions in loot container view
• UI: Enabled "Send To Homebase" action in loot container view
• UI: Added navigation SFX to mission item inventory
• UI: Hovering one of the six main attributes will now show the items that contribute to the respective value
• UI: Added descriptions for condition tooltips in ship screen
• UI: Added storage slot ratio to inventory headline
• UI: When activating a high-risk area and choosing to show it on the map it's now highlighted and centered

Bugfixes

• Fixed ship selector sometimes not being displayed in Homebase despite owning multiple ships
• Fixed floating-point precision issues related to weapon aim
• Fixed already destroyed Bomb Thrower Turrets sometimes still throwing bombs
• Fixed energy orbs not restoring armor
• Fixed not being able to activate buttons using a flak cannon
• Fixed a potential blocker and a wrong dialog being played in "I Heart Scrap" side mission
• Fixed dialogs related to fights being played when colliding with level geometry
• Fixed destroying Okkar units not yielding correct XP
• Fixed Okkar being spawned by the Wanted System giving loot and XP after re-entering a location.
• Fixed player stats not being updated immediately after re-entering stats screen
• Fixed highlight effect on some structures being visible from far away
• Fixed "Data Fishing" side mission briefing dialog being played again when docking before leaving the location
• Fixed mission item "Drone Debris" not getting removed from inventory after becoming obsolete
• Fixed Gauss Cannon and Rail Gun having improper affixes
• Fixed Baron Executioner weapon receiving energy damage modifiers
• Fixed item bonus attributes that grant extra damage not working properly
• Fixed bounty not increasing when defeating an enemy with a device like the Corrosion Injector
• Fixed problems with axis inversions also affecting other logical axes that were bound to the same physical axis
• Fixed that Elek could appear multiple times in a location
• Fixed that Elek sometimes left too soon
• Fixed that Elek and Dax could die when acting as wingmen
• Fixed enqueued hull repairs being lost when docking to a station
• Fixed faction rewards not being displayed for accepted jobs in the missions tab
• Fixed being able to use warfare devices on allies
• Fixed timestamps of items accidentally being renewed after having been moved to a different inventory slot
• Fixed device inventory did not update after changing ships under some circumstances
• Fixed quick equip with right mouse button in loot container screen might send an item to Homebase instead of equipping it
• Fixed that some item attribute bonus values (like Resistance) would not spawn
• Fixed Sentinel ULT (Static Overload) not scaling with Utility attribute
• Fixed Sentinel passive "20% reduced cooldowns for warfare devices." falsely stacking until cooldown was zero
• Fixed that missiles could not be destroyed after the ship or turret that fired them died
• Fixed additionally spawned Okkars not leaving location after having paid bounty
• Fixed "ULT ready" not being triggered by Interceptor passive perk
• Prevent being able to switch camera while in "1st person no cockpit" view and having activated auto-pilot
• Fixed that retractable turrets could be destroyed by very high damage, e.g. Annihilator Virus
• UI: Fixed that only one missing attribute was shown when comparing items
• UI: Fixed item actions for Aeterna Bypasses and Signal Decoders being visible in multi-select mode
• UI: Fixed equip action being visible in multi-select mode
• UI: Fixed focus and hud visibility problems after very quickly opening and closing ingame menu
• UI: Fixed wrong device slot length in item selection
• UI: Fixed wrong implicit cargo sorting when using a gamepad and first opening the menu
• UI: Fixed inventory items clipping through scroll indicators
• UI: Fixed icons for companion perk upgrade requirements sometimes being wrong
• UI: Fixed that when using mouse+keyboard, gamepad icons were displayed on a device icon and consumable slots in the menu
• UI: Fixed stats and condition tooltips sometimes still being shown on screen after changing ships
• UI: Using dedicated icon for ship special in the stats panel
• UI: Fixed that log sometimes displayed items with the wrong affix
• UI: Fixed that pressing Tab while "Press Tab to Show" was shown for completed or new challenges not opening the challenges screen
• UI: Fixed slot focus being lost after clicking on various regions in ingame menu header
• UI: Fixed item sorting type 'Latest' (newest item first) not working properly
• UI: Fixed "Quick equip" action of selected equipment in storage inventory being broken after changing ships on Homebase
• UI: Fixed icon scale for devices that can't be used not being reset after being replaced by another device
• UI: Fixed damage numbers not shown for damage-over-time conditions like Corrosion
• UI: Fixed shop icon not being shown on map for Flying Dutchess beacons
• UI: Fixed Ben's speaker image not showing implants after his operation
• UI: Fixed "Outdated Equipment" message appearing at a bad time
• (Exp) Fixed a bug that resulted in inadvertently easy fights against large numbers of enemies
• (Exp) Fixed that energy spheres would show resist marker in radiation fields
• (Exp) Fixed false unlock of random system regions when entering supralight which leads to Union Explorer Challenge unlock banner not being shown
• (Exp) Fixed being able to activate gas harvester boss from the outside
• (Exp) Fixed invisible forcefield spawning right above shield generators after beating gas harvester boss and loading checkpoint save
• (Exp) Fixed being able to damage the Okkar Corvette during "Tipping The Scales" Side Mission
• (Exp) Fail "The Vortex" main mission when attacking G&B at Vesna Mining Colony
• (Exp) Fixed colliding with invisible ships on ship dealer platforms
• (Exp) Fixed that fast-forwarding in travel mode affected playtime
• (Exp) Fixed faction standing not increasing after completing a job
• (Exp) Fixed fast-forwarding not pausing when opening menu
• (Exp) Fixed camera being inside remote drone occasionally
• (Exp) Fixed that the Raid Booster's "Boost After Kill" bonus was stackable