Sky sailors awwaaaay.

Update 0.5 is finally out and with it brings some major changes to gameplay and some more subtle changes. Nations can now claim Systems for themselves. Once a System is claimed it's marked the on the in-game map as your Nations and becomes protected. Protection prevents players from outside of your Nation placing, editing or interacting with blocks in the System owned by you. However they can still be damaged by weapons such as Cannons. A claimed System has a Nation Beacon created in the middle when it's claimed. This is a largish structure that unusually has it's own health bar, which you simply need to hover your mouse over to view. Attacking this and destroying it will lose the claim on the System and it's protection will be nullified. The beacons have quite a lot of health and will regenerate it's health during downtime.

To go with the above changes, Ships have also received similar protection. To protect your ship you need to grab a Ship Protection Field block which can be purchased currently from Merchant Cat. Once placed these will protect your ship from placing, editing and block interactions(most blocks) by players not in your Nation. However if the SPF is destroyed then this protection will be lost.

The last thing you need to know about the new protection is that Copper Defense Guns have been remade into Copper Missile Pods. These essentially work the same but fire slow removing projectiles with trails so you can pro-actively seek out their origins and destroy them when attacking a System. Instead of the previous situation of them being very hard to locate. They can also only be placed in claimed Systems, pods that currently in exist in non-claimed areas will be inactive. They do a lot more damage to players now and are subject to future balancing.

Borders preventing you from sailing too far out from the Systems have also implemented. They are fairly far out so they don't limit your movement during combat. For a full list of all changes check out the Change Log below.


The client updates are already deployed for the Launcher and Steam. Unusually the server files are out right away. You can grab them on the download page:
http://skynations.net/?page=download

If you're hosting a server check my twitter for updates on fixes that we may come across during first day of the update so you can stay up to date with fixes.

Update 0.5
Changes

• Added a border to systems. When you fly out so far you will see a border appear as you get close to it and you cannot pass it with a ship.
  
• Added System Status to top right of screen.
  
• Added claiming systems. Each Nation has a minimum of 1 claim. For every 5 members they can claim a new system. A player not in the Nation that claimed a system cannot mine, place or interact with most blocks in that system. However they can damage them with weapons. You can claim the system you’re in via the Nation window Territory tab. Once claimed it will create a Nation beacon between 0 to the ceiling vertically depending on space. If this Nation beacon is destroyed your claim is lost. Mousing over it will tell you it’s health. To damage it you must fire weapons at it from a ship.
  Claimed areas will appear on the World map so you can tell if you’re flying into someone else's territory. Their names are also colored red.
  
• Added ClaimRange to setting to Settings.xml that allows you to choose how far away players can claim Systems from the spawn. The default is 6.
  
• Added Ship Protection Field(SPF). Placing this on your ship will protect it to your Nation. Only your Nation members can place blocks, interact with the majority of blocks and use tools on the ship. However the ship can still be damaged from offensive weapons. If the block is destroyed then the ship loses it’s protection. Ship fields can be purchased from Merchant Cat.
  
• Altered Max speed to 20. Ships over 200 weight can still only max out at 10 though.
  
• Defense Turrets can only be placed in Claimed systems now.
  
• Defense Turrets have been changed to Missile pods and are now called Copper Missile Pods. This is so they are easier to spot the firing position when being attacked by them. The projectiles are slowish and provide a trail so you have more time to escape. They do however do more damage, pending balancing.
  
• Defense Turrets left over from before this update that are in unclaimed areas will become deactivated.
  
• Removed System status icon from System title when entering a System.

• Fixed System title/status being wrong if you enter it before it’s loaded.
  
• Fixed lighting not always correctly effecting Defense Turrets.
  
• Fixed individual particle fading.
  
• Fixed achievements causing a crash on Steam version if the game is unable to query the achievement list from steam fast enough.