And here is the final preview before release. This time I would like to talk about the skill system which was finally implemented.

Funny thing is - this feature is exactly the reason why this update is taking more time than we initially anticipated. The skill system was supposed to be the last addition to the game in the current iteration but when we started working on it it turned out more or less like this. But it is finally complete and only a round of polish and some final fixes are left!

Anyway, here is a small preview of the new combat skill tree.

You may notice right away that there are now two types of skills. Essential and non essential. The essential ones are highlighted by special border and in the example above these are the ballistic weapons skills which will give you access to use higher level of ballistic weapons. All major skills such as ship piloting, weapons, and a few others will be highlighted in this manner giving you a clear picture of what skills are the most important.

Aside from that we have also implemented more than a hundred different effects that can affect your ship or your enemies in some way. These effects are already used for the new skills and could be used for items as well. For example a booster that will give you some bonus to damage of energy weapons or such.

Overal the game has more than a hundred skills now separated into four major categories (piloting, combat, engineering and social). This will give you plenty of opportunies to specialize your character the way you want to play.

We have also finally implemented different character classes so now your choice when you start the game will matter!