Last week I've been working on item update.

I've done really a lot!

First of, now mythical and etalon parts are better!

They can be upgraded with amplifiers two times, unlike lower grade parts.

Speaking of lower grade parts, I have added a new part property that adds a chance to upgrade parts to a higher grade.

If you have at least one of parts with this properly, there's a chance that a lower grade part you've just picked up will turn to higher grade part.

For example, a generic part will turn into optimized and advanced part will turn into extant.

And after item update, you'll want to get as many extant parts as possible!

Extant, mythical and etalon parts will have a chance to be a component of a part set!

Part sets are simple: Add a certain amount of parts that are set components and you will get a special effect of that set.

For example, adding 10 Ultranid's parts will unlock Ultranid's Corruption set effect.

I'm planning to add 5 part sets with the upcoming update, while other part sets will be added in future, maybe even after the full release of the game.

Here's current set effects:

Cor's Voidshape

Enemy projectiles go through your spaceship

Enemy projectiles damage your spaceship only if they hit the Elder Mechanism

Shield duration is reduced to 2 seconds

Maximum armour is reduced by 90%

Etherion's Clash

+400% damage

Damage boost is applied only if your spaceship has equal amount of relays, pylons, elements and nodes

Ultranid's Corruption

Cooldowns of all abilities are reduced to 0 seconds

Activating an ability deals damage to your spaceship

Damage dealt is equal to 10% of maximum armour

Kithalia's Blight

Your spaceship has +4% damage for every 1% of missing ether

Your spaceship is destroyed if ether reaches 100%

Oesa's Radiance

Your spaceship has +1% damage for every 10 ether

Base maximum armour of your spaceship is equal to maximum ether multiplied by 50

Cor's Voidshape is probably my favorite part set, because of how game changing it is!

It basically enables classic shoot 'em up gameplay by reducing hitbox size and maximum armour.

Dodge or die!

I'm very proud of Etherion's Clash set.

It's perfect for people who like to use abilities from all available classes, because it covers the loss of damage, that you get for using multiple weapon types.

Ultranid's Corruption set effect is a mini Overload after you use an ability!

Extremely risky, but rewarding!

High-level players usually keep a lot of unused ether.

Kithalia's Blight should change that, by rewarding for NOT having ether and severely punishing if you don't dump ether!

I've also noticed that maximum ether property is not very useful.

Oesa's Radiance will make it more than useful!

I think it is possible to get up to +5000% damage through Oesa's Radiance effect.

You'll regret dismantling all those ether parts =]

Anyway, I've spent most of the time last week preparing for part sets.

I improved procedural item generator, part tooltips, added an interface for checking the status of part sets and so on.

Next week I will start implementing set effects.

I have also unlocked mortars and cannons because they will be required for Etherion's Clash set.

I promise to add abilities for those weapons soon!

There's one more thing.

I am going to remove ability unleashing.

Unleashing just simply didn't work out.

Without unleashed effects, I'll have more design space and I will be able to make more interesting abilities.

Considering how quickly I am progressing with this update, I think it will come out in the first half of June, so get ready!

Well, that's all for this echo.

Until next time!