Hey @everyone,
Here is the final teaser with even more stuff to get excited about.
We hope you’re looking forward to as much as we are and we really REALLY hope that HWS 7 will banish the memories of 6 into oblivion, even though once again time is short and the final jobs are many!
Anyways let’s jump straight into it. The mysterious new HWS 7 universe … REVEALED!
HWS 7 Universe
(click for high resolution) - Graphic Design by @DeeExpus!
For those of you who don’t know, building a universe is complex. On one hand it is awesome; playing god, tinkering around, etc., but on the other hand it is one of the most difficult and time consuming things ever. For every one thing that goes right, multiple things undoubtedly go wrong.
After our seventh attempt, we know that making everyone happy in this “sandbox”, “survival” game is just an impossible task. With the universe in past “seasons”, we’ve tried large and we’ve tried small. Whilst small was good for performance it lacked the scope to be great fun which is what we want your time on HWS to be. Theres no point in having great performance on an empty server …
I can’t explain everything in minute detail since there have been weeks of thought put into it but here’s what we have for you in HWS7.
As you can see, we’ve introduced a scaling system traversing from PvE to PvP which begins with SV warp possibilities, and later progressing to CV only jumps.
Your start should however be quite fluent since ECC can be visited with your SV straight away and going back and forth to your Home / Origin system should create a high trading volume from the outset. Further into the universe we have various kinds of “story” systems for you to discover and explore (Zirax Home / Nomad Galaxy for example …)
At the top we welcome our Donators back on to the main servers though with a reasonable journey to ECC if they refuse to use the EGS Star station or need to claim their beloved interest …
Penthouses, however, along with the RP reward planets are quite centralized and should prove a popular choice for some of the smaller factions.
There are also lots of planets within one sector so you will have a lot to discover but you’ll realise soon enough that there are certain “Hot Spots” in the universe which should attract many more visitors than others.
Either way, with the OP, EGS Stealth and other features nobody should be homeless now.
New HWS Feature: Dynamic Supply Packages
An old idea but kind of a forgotten one, was dynamic supply packages. Now, to provide further incentive for the super late game and to put value on playing for / trading / buying Reputation Points, you get different supply packages depending on your level of RP.
(Click on the images to reveal the whole image)
Alliance Supply Package Tiers
Freelancer Supply Package Tiers
Lawless Supply Package Tiers
So how does it work?
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If you have 1-499 RP you will get the Tier I package with fa:supply
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If you have 500-999 RP you will get the Tier II package
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If you have 1000+ RP you will get the Tier III package
Even though I have intentionally made some balancing decisions in these packages, I am interested in your feedback for each of them!
New HWS Feature: Set a Bounty on someones head!
Finally we’ve made the Hunter Board complete! You can now put a Bounty on someones head and let others do the dirty work for you!
Check out the facts:
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new EGS command. To put a bounty to someone (IngameName) type:
egs:bounty:IngameName:CreditAmount -
The bounty you place will be subracted from your bank as soon as you place the Advert and automatically transferred to the Killer when the job is done.
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A bounty with 1-10m credits results in just the name and the bounty amount of the guy on the Hunterboard
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A bounty with 1m - 50m credits results in the name, bounty and the playfield he is in on the Hunterboard
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A bounty with 50+m credits results in the name, bounty, playfield and coordinates of him / her on the Hunterboard
So the higher the bounty, the better the fun!
And the best thing is: as soon as release stress is over, I will code the web version to also feature in HWS Connect!
Click on a button, say the name and bounty and boom - let the hunt begin!
We hope to see some nice Bounty hunts with it!
HWS Garage 7 & DX Space-Craft
For Season 7 HWS are introducing a new concept for the Garage. Aimed at Elite ship designers in the game, we’re introducing a branded range of vessels to showcase every aspect of ship design in Empyrion. The Space-Craft range will run along side our legacy range of ships (which as always remains open for submissions) and is available to all designers but attention to detail is the primary goal. To qualify the ship should consider the following qualities:
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A Unique / Specialist Purpose - The ship should have a purpose in the game, whether it’s a nimble fighter, a service shuttle, troop carrier. The more specialist and unique, the more appealing it should be to all.
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PVP/PVE Appeal - The design should endeavour to appeal to both PVE and PVP players. Always a debatable and difficult subject, but no one said it was going to be easy …
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Design & Detail - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and what appeals to one my not appeal to another. Still, that is no excuse to skimp on your texturing and painting. Default textures are obviously permitted but there needs to be a reason to fit in with the ship’s concept. With the new painting tools which have cut time drastically there’s no excuse!
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Functionality - Great and innovative use of Signal logic is absolutely encouraged …
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Class Consideration - Obviously you need to consider in the design where this ship will be used on HWS. Some planets are class and/or type restricted so a class 5 tank isn’t going to be very appealing to some of the heavy PVP area’s perhaps.
Above all, we are looking for outstanding ships for the Space-Craft brand, something that will turn heads and something that will stand up to a good fight, we want the Cream of the HWS Crop. There will be IN GAME financial gain in it for ships accepted into the DX Space-Craft range and possibly an Operation manual produced for the really nice ones …
Finally, the Hot Topic of the moment … blueprint spawning / physical shipyard implementation on HWS.
We are implementing this, and here’s why:
- this “spawn everywhere” mod-hack was never intended by Eleon.
- it will greatly benefit PvP fights, OP, and Performance since you wont be able to just drop junk infinitely and everywhere, from nowhere.
- it gives great incentive to prepare and plan your moves carefully and strategically.
We will of course implement some landing pads here and there and also the restrictions for building stuff will be adjusted because of this, but overall it is absolutely the right move.
The final push of information such as Tax changes, more planet information, etc. coming tomorrow, but until then let’s finish HWS and see you tomorrow!
Thanks for reading, your constructive feedback and hopefully 177/177 again 
Your HWS Team
I feel like you tortured me intentionaly. Lovely, looking awsome! All of that. Speechless.
