Version History

This article contains changelog information for the Early Access period of The Last Starship, which followed the closed playtest.

Alpha 13Edit

Alpha 13

Update video
Release date 18 December 2024
GitHub Bugs Milestone 10

We have added a new high-tech defensive weapon system - The Deflector Beam - that can deflect incoming cannon shells, a total game changer in serious engagements. But use them carefully because they will drain your power reserves quickly without a proper reactor setup behind them.

New Storage Crates can be used to tidy your ships and factories, and to facilitate better automation of production lines for the Stargate Project. And we've expanded the Research tree with tons of new options to speed up drones, mining lasers, tracks, smelters, and robot arms.


NEW STORY EPISODES

Work continues on a series of hand-crafted story episodes, designed to pull new players into the game and provide some excellent adventures for existing players.

  • The trouble with Tiddlets, Part 4
The final part of the Tiddlets saga is ready to play.
  • Deep Space Industrialists (continued)
    • Stations in DSI are no longer taken away from the player when the episode is completed successfully.
    • The contract with Alexander Elistar can now be terminated by the player, ending the episode. (The button is in the contracts screen.)
    • The Stargate Project can now be independently unlocked in the Research screen, bypassing the DSI episodes entirely.
  • Black Hole Sun - Part 3
New sound and music added for the climactic rescue in BHS Part 3.


Storage Crates

Two new pieces of equipment to facilitate better organization of products in your ships.
The Storage Crate is 4x3 and has a storage capacity of 70 items or stacks.
The Small Storage Crate is 3x2 and has a storage capacity of 36 items or stacks.
Storage Crates can be accessed by crew or by robot arms.

Right-click on a Storage Crate to set its properties:

  • Choose the product to store inside. Note: Storage Crates can only store one type of item.
  • You can use the plus and minus controls to set a limit on items to be stored inside.
  • There is a tickbox for 'Crew Loading', which permits crew members to load items in. (Otherwise only robot arms can.)
  • There is a tickbox for 'Crew Unloading,' which permits crew to take items from the crate. (Otherwise only robot arms can.)
  • There is a toggle for controlling priority:
    • Prioritize Zones: Your crew will store items in storage zones until they are full before using this crate.
    • Prioritize Crate: Your crew will store items in this crate in priority to storage zones.
  • The recipe for storage crates can be unlocked from the Research Tree, meaning you can fabricate your own.


Deflector Beams

A new defensive technology that deflects incoming cannon shells using an energy beam.
They have a maximum range and angle as with any turret. The nearest incoming cannon shell within that cone will be diverted.
Deflector beams use a great deal of power when they are deflecting and can be easily overloaded with too many incoming rockets.
Deflector beams cannot be purchased. They must first be unlocked in the Research Tree, then fabricated on an assembly table.


NEW RESEARCH

The research tech tree has been heavily overhauled, with many new research items added.

  • Drone batch gathering - drones will gather up entire stacks of a resource before returning to a drone bay.
  • Drone top speed (1.5x/2x).
  • Drone Assembly recipe (build your own drones!).
  • Track Speed (2x/3x).
  • Robot Arm Speed (2x).
  • Mining Laser Accuracy - each blast releases twice as many minerals.
  • Increased Metallurgy bonus to +50% and +100% (Smelters produce more output from the same input).
  • Reactor Efficiency (1.1x) - increases the power output of all reactors.
  • Fixed bug with researched performance boosts not reloading properly.
  • New component: Processor (Copper + Precious Metals).
  • You can now fabricate your own Logistics Drones! Requires Frame, Motor, Coil, Lens, Processor.
  • Fabricating batteries now requires precious metals.
  • Stargate phases are now locked behind three tiers of research (or can be auto-unlocked by completing the DSI episodes).
  • Older saves will automatically have all 3 tiers of the Stargate research unlocked.
  • Storage Crate assembly is now found under Logistics.
  • Deflector assembly.


SMALL CHANGES:

  • When losing control of a ship (e.g., selling a ship, getting it destroyed), all non-episode missions assigned to it are failed.
  • Episodes can no longer be assigned to ships from other episodes (e.g., A.J.E Foundry).
  • FTL toolbar icon now shows alignment progress for jump.
  • Jumps that are ready can be performed by right-clicking the FTL icon.
  • Research toolbar icon now shows progress towards current research.
  • After completing the tutorial and making your first FTL Jump, Cmdr Harken will call you with a request for help.
  • All mineral patches now contain 100x as many minerals as before.
(Note: 'Boldly Go' mode already had this setting, so this only affects Creative/Survival/Free Roam modes.)
  • The recipe for Deuterium now produces twice as much Deuterium as before.
  • Stable Isotopes are now faster to produce (4 secs instead of 6).
  • Some additional items will now be found at derelicts: Ingots, Deuterium, Components.
  • In the Trade Window, if you search, the list shows ALL items that match that search filter, ignoring any category you have selected.
  • You can now right-click on any item moving on a Track to remove it from that track. The crew will then store it appropriately.
  • The Fuel Loader can now be rotated.
  • Track now takes 3 seconds to assemble, down from 10 seconds previously.
  • The range of weapons is now shown as a light circle when highlighting that weapon.
  • You can no longer use the REPAIR option at a shipyard if there is active combat underway in that system.
  • Hostile ships will now launch fighters quicker.


BUG FIXES:

  • Fix wrong mission being accepted when more than one can be accepted in the mission summary window.
  • Fix inability to enable battle-stations when a non-friendly ship is selected.
  • Fix incorrect tutorial highlights during FTL stage of the introduction tutorial.
  • Fix passengers getting stuck before being collected by shuttle on passenger missions.
  • Fixed issue with Flight Recorders sometimes being completely unsalvageable, blocking the Wolf mission chain.
  • Fixed issue with hostile ships unable to fire their weapons (ship exported with auto-target disabled on those weapons).
  • Improved performance for AMD GPUs.
  • Fix issue where an abandoned drone would drop unsalvageable cargo in free space.

New community ships added to the base game - thank you!
JOHNNY STRUGGLES - Mini Beast


Alpha 13dEdit

Alpha 13d
Release date 30 January 2025

Alpha 13d was released as a hotfix to Alpha 13:

Please note that for episode fixes, it is necessary to play from before the bug occurs (the save game isn't automatically fixed once the bug has occurred).

  • Crash in Tiddlets Part 3 if Short Hopper runs out of charges or the FTL Drive is dismantled.
  • Crash in Introduction Tutorial
  • Fix negative quantities sometimes appearing in containers taken from crates.
  • Fix "Drones Deployed" warning in FTL tooltip showing *X instead of the number of drones.
  • Issue #344: Can't turn in trouble with tiddlets part 3
  • Issue #350: Storage crates do not work with mission cargo. As a temporary fix, storage crates no longer store mission cargo to avoid cargo getting mixed up between different delivery missions. Old cargo will also get cleared.
  • Issue #361: Can't pay X, no option given
  • Issue #366: Can't progress past Stargate Phase 4 if Andromeda Project Part 3 is unlocked before starting DSI part 2.
  • Issue #372: Crash when trying to load a storage crate but no slots are available
  • Issue #375: Resin/Isotope objectives in DSI part 2 sometimes don't update.
  • Issue #377: Storage crate shows wrong spacesuit sprite.
  • Issue #382: Memory Leak in Vertex Arrays
  • Storage crates should be cleared when Fabricating/Importing a ship


DEMO2Edit

DEMO2
Release date 26 November 2024

The demo received an update.

  • Save/Load is now supported.
Note you cannot load saves from the full game, or autosaves from Demo1 - sorry about that.
  • Modified the galaxy map to draw more attention to the special (gold) episodes
  • A few small fixes

Alpha 12Edit

Alpha 12
Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones

Update video
Release date 19 November 2024
GitHub Bugs Milestone 9

Alpha 12 is a huge update, with new story episodes, new massive combat zones, new parallax effects, and a ton of bug fixes, balance changes and small updates. We hope you love it!

NEW FREE DEMO

We now have a brand new playable demo which you can find on our Steam Store page. If you haven't tried the game yet, please give it a go!

NEW STORY EPISODES

Work continues on a series of hand-crafted story episodes, designed to pull new players into the game and provide some excellent adventures for existing players.

  • The trouble with Tiddlets, Part 2
  • The trouble with Tiddlets, Part 3
  • Professor Toppingbury continues his experiments on the newly discovered and adorable lifeform.
  • Deep Space Industrialists, Part 1
  • Deep Space Industrialists, Part 2
This is the return of the Stargate Project, now driven by its own story episodes.
Along with this new story episode, several Stargate changes have occurred:
    • Stargate phases heavily rebalanced
    • Existing progress in the Stargate Project has been reset
    • The episode will ensure there is a 'safe' nebula and asteroid belt - i.e., free from Hostiles and Meteors
    • The Stargate project is now unlocked by completing part 1.
    • Survival mode is now unlocked after completing Stargate Phase 2
    • NB Stargate phases 4 onward are likely to be changed and reset in future alphas.


SHIP EDITOR IMPROVEMENTS

  • You can now switch the ship editor into ERASE mode, allowing you to easily remove habitation, armor, scaffold, and hull.
  • When you erase the hull, the editor will now rebuild the walls around the erased area so that your ship is never open to space.
  • Editing the Habitation deck now shows the correct exterior preview of your work (rather than showing the interior of the Habitation deck).
  • Other ships are now silent when in the ship editor. No more being disturbed by a massive behemoth of a ship slowly flying past at full engine burn.
  • Placing docking ports (in game mode) and spawning equipment (in creative mode) now obeys the rules of equipment placement and will show a red placement box when the position is invalid.
  • Placing a docking port in the editor now shows a preview of the docking port sprite.
  • Added sounds to the editor (mouse moving on the grid, selection, cancel).


PARALLAX DEPTH

  • There is now a subtle depth/parallax effect on all objects floating in space.
  • Ships are in the middle depth. Asteroids and derelict ships sit under, while minerals/containers/loot, etc., sit above.
  • Drones sit slightly above ships in the middle depth.
  • This effect can be toggled on and off from the Options menu.
  • Improved the parallax effect on background planets (they move in the right direction now, lol).
  • Added slight parallax effect to the Stargate.


COMBAT AND HOSTILE FORCES

There have been lots of improvements to combat in the game.

  • SHIP COMBAT RATING
    • Ships are now assessed by a new 'Combat Rating,' rather than their Trade Value, when spawning enemy ships or fleets of combat vessels.
    • The Combat Rating of a vessel is almost entirely down to the number and type of weapon systems installed.
    • Armor affects the combat rating as a multiplier, based on the percentage of armor coverage. 100% armor coverage will double a combat rating.
    • Hostile ships will show their combat rating under their name in Tactical mode. (Written as 'CLASS 3').
    • You will now be awarded points based on the combat rating of the ships destroyed, rather than their trade value.
  • Existing 'HOSTILE' systems have been extended to provide a more permanent combat zone.
    • The player is free to visit a HOSTILE zone at any time if they wish and will come under immediate attack.
    • Destroying all enemy ships will grant an award of combat points at the end of battle.
    • The zone will no longer clear its HOSTILE status. It will remain permanently hostile.
    • After a short break, new hostile ships will warp into the hostile zone.
    • You will receive an alert when hostile forces are about a minute away from arrival.
    • Hostile forces will arrive together via an FTL jump, in formation.
    • Civilian/neutral ships will no longer jump into a hostile zone.
    • New hostile ships will have their difficulty scaled based on two factors:
      • The combined Combat Rating of all the player ships in the system.
      • The player's Rank in Combat. This rank slowly increases as you are victorious in more and more battles.


  • Hostile ship AI (flight model) has been much improved:
    • AI-driven ships now constantly assess their weapon systems, taking into account damage, ammo shortages, etc., and pick a flight plan accordingly.
    • Hostile ships will always try to bring the most firepower to bear on their target, turning the ship as required, and picking a range that is most effective.
    • (E.g., strafing runs if their best weapons face forward, or presenting the most dangerous side of the ship to the target, and picking the ideal range to circle the target).
    • Hostile ships will sometimes switch targets to the most threatening and damaging of your ships as the battle progresses.
  • All active weapons are now shown much more clearly in Tactical mode, as a solid-colored box with the turret clearly visible. This should make it much easier to determine which parts of an enemy ship are dangerous and to target your own weapons on theirs more effectively.
  • Fixed issues with cannons and railguns not firing when set to AUTO, even though the enemy is within their field of fire.
  • Enemy ships will now sometimes drop valuable loot in the form of Precious Metals.
  • Drones have been upgraded. They now fly 33% faster, repair 33% faster, and repair hull damage more completely.
  • Drones will now prioritize repair work so long as BATTLE STATIONS is enabled. Otherwise, they will prioritize gathering and logistics.
  • In the Tactical overlay, there is now an overall ammo counter for all three ammo types in the bottom left of the screen.
  • Railguns will no longer target fighters.
  • The Gatling Gun no longer has any 'Penetration,' meaning it will not cause hull breaches nor damage any internal equipment protected by the hull.
  • Gatling Guns are virtually useless against armored hulls.
  • The 'Destroy all hostiles' sector mission is no longer created, as hostile zones can no longer be cleared.
  • Increased the general availability of cannon shells at trading posts.
  • Mining Lasers will no longer acquire new targets when "Battle Stations" is ordered.
  • Hostile NPC ships will no longer bother mining asteroids during battle.


HUMAN RESOURCES

  • You can now sack crew from the trade screen, under the "sell" tab
  • Sacked crew will leave on the next available shuttle
  • You don't receive any "sale price" for sacking crew


FLEET ORDERS

  • The Orders popup has been rebuilt
  • Most orders are now ship-specific, meaning different ships can set different orders
  • 'Fleet Logistics' and 'Battle Stations' are system-wide orders affecting all your ships in the system.


SMALL CHANGES

  • The sounds of other ships will now fall silent in a few select places:
    • The ship editor
    • The sector map
    • Schematic mode
  • Added DARK MODE for the galaxy map due to popular request, enabled from the Settings menu
  • Doubled the amount of food harvested from Hydroponics per cycle
  • The battery/power indicator bar at the top left of the screen now blinks with the message "POWER SHORTAGE" when your ship cannot power its equipment to 100% and has run out of battery charge
  • We now un-pause the game when you change the game speed with keyboard shortcuts
  • You can now double-click to select all text in a text input field
  • Removed ability to rotate camera with ',' and '.' (useless)
  • Changed the colour of mission summary text to stand apart from the objectives
  • Fabricating a new Ship at a shipyard will no longer spawn resources or crew on the ship. You will have to provide those after fabrication is complete.
  • Added a toggle to hide ships the player cannot afford in the fabricate window
  • Drones will now collect Precious Metals found in space even if 'gather reagents' is disabled
  • There is now sometimes some light space dust and fog around asteroid belts and combat zones
  • Entities will now use their 'dead' sprite when unconscious
  • When placing equipment that requires a human operator (e.g., gun turrets, science stations, weapons consoles, etc.), the operator location is now shown as a green square and must remain clear of obstructions
  • Cancelling installation/dismantle jobs with RMB when paused will now work correctly
  • NPC ships will now order drones at a trading post if they are short (aiming for at least 2 drones per drone bay)
  • Mineral patch labels are now correctly rotated in tactical view
  • Ship labels in tactical view are now rendered more clearly


BUG FIXES:

  • Issue #204: Game doesn't launch when Steam is offline
  • Issue #244: Fusion Reactor consumes fuel when off
  • Issue #278: FTL not found, even though I have an FTL
  • Issue #318: Drones flying off on big detours before delivering cargo.
  • Issue #326: If trying to install an object and then turning your view into Schematic mode, you will need to re-select the object
  • Issue #328: With the "Stargate" System now being renamed to NG0, there are inconsistencies in the contracts menu
  • Issue #329: Tutorial - Opening scene
  • Issue #331: NPC ships still dying off
  • Fix saving and loading whilst in the opening shuttle flight cutscene turns the UI back on
  • Fix A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing Part 1 Objective 'Recover the Flight Recorder from Scavenger Vessel' by adding the missing location link
  • Fix typo in Mining Tutorial: Travel to [an] asteroid belt with Tilium deposits.
  • Fix typo in play mode: 'BOLDY GO' -> 'BOLDLY GO'
  • Fix performance issues with tactical mode affecting AMD GPUs
  • Fix full containers displaying the incorrect quantity in the hover tooltip
  • Fix game not recognising caps lock
  • Stop keyboard input being detected during the new game intro cutscene
  • Fix keyboard input falling through to the game world when the map is open
  • Fix being able to interact with the toolbar when you cannot see it because you have no layer selected
  • Fix Black Hole Sun 1 Hyperspace Isotope count being incorrect
  • Fix reward points earned for gameplay (e.g., logistics, combat, logistics...) being lost on save/load
  • Fix awards given from missions being lost if you save/load before you have finished receiving them
  • Fix "Upload To Steam" being available if we don't have a friendly ship selected
  • Fix industry score increasing from industry performed on unfriendly ships
  • Fix Exterior Jobs being attempted even if there are no available spacesuits
  • Fix spurious No Storage warnings after unloading an item
  • The bong sound from a Flight Recorder will no longer be audible if you are not focused on that system
  • Introduction Tutorial: If you install the reactor before the tutorial instructs you to, the tutorial will recognise this and catch up
  • Stargate Window: Show correct recipe for Stable Isotopes
  • Fixed abandoned drones from enemy ships showing up as green in tactical view if the enemy ship was gone
  • Mouse and Keyboard can now be used when the HUD is hidden


New community ships added to the base game - thank you!

  • JOHNNY STRUGGLES: Acadia, Aberration of Light, Hesperia, Apophis
  • RADKNITHAT: RnD Casus

Alpha 11Edit

Alpha 11
Burke and Vasquez

Update video
Release date 30 August 2024
GitHub Bugs Milestone 8

NEW HUD

The placeholder HUD has been revamped and almost completely replaced with a new design.

  • Critical resources are now shown bottom left of the screen.
  • The toolbar is replaced with a set of icons.
  • The different views are now a vertical stack of buttons in the bottom right of the screen.
  • A new indicator top left shows the ship name, author, Hull status, Atmosphere status, and Power status.
  • Shipyard services now appear at the top of the screen. (Repair ship, Buy ship, Sell ship, Fabricate ship)

Note: The old HUD is still used temporarily in two areas that are unfinished:

  • Construction popup
  • Fleet orders popup


Story Episodes changes

  • Completely revamped introduction (much shorter), with a new ship and a new tutorial.
  • The Stargate industry introduction has been removed. It will return as a story episode soon.
  • All story episodes are now "discovered" on the sector map, rather than the Contracts screen.
  • New gold highlights and tooltips for all special episode locations on the sector map.
  • "Black Hole Sun"
    • Part 3 Hidden until Julian calls you when he is ready to rescue his brother. The episode is then automatically accepted.
    • The Black Hole Sun 3 'Short Hop' system is no longer a large distance away across the map.
    • Fix Julian's ship from Black Hole Sun 3 being able to jump to any system.
    • Fix any ship being able to rescue Marcus in Black Hole Sun 3, and not just Julian.
  • "The trouble with Tiddlets" has returned, and is now a playable episode (Part 1 only, for now).


SMALL CHANGES

  • NPC ships will now order critical supplies when in a trading location (Fuel, Oxygen, Water, Crew, Spacesuits) when required.
  • When highlighting any piece of equipment, the extra tooltip information will only show when the ship is one of your fleet.
  • Allow to transfer/cancel transfer entire stack by ctrl clicking.
  • You can now freely select text in an input field by holding 'SHIFT'.
  • You can now select all text in an input field by pressing 'CTRL+A'.
  • Selected text is preserved when the input field is deselected.
  • Ship Editor: Destroying cells now destroys any equipment in those cells.
  • FTL drives on the selected ship are now preferred when choosing a drive for a hyperspace jump.
  • The camera is now attached to the ship when in TACTICAL view, the same as normal view.
  • Clicking a Location Link in the Missions Window or Missions Summary now also sets that system as an FTL destination.
  • Location Links for mission objectives will no longer appear in the Missions Summary after that objective has been completed.
  • You can now collapse mission summaries the same way as rating, by right-clicking to close and left-clicking to open.
  • You can now filter search in all tabs of the trade window.
  • The trade window now defaults to 'all items' instead of being blank.
  • Change the end of the introduction tutorial to fit with new episode discovery.
  • Galaxy map now has special indicators for episodes:
    • Episode starting systems are now gold.
    • Regular systems you need to visit as part of an episode have a gold outline.
    • Any system with a Location Link to it as part of an episode now has a tooltip on the map to see what you need to do there.
  • The 'STARGATE' location now has a normal location name - NG0.
  • Drones now treat actual salvage as higher priority over raw materials.
  • When you start a New Game your ship is now 'inside' a shipyard.
  • Save files are now filtered when saving a game.


BUG FIXES

  • Issue #217: Fleet Logistics still makes drones faff when preparing to jump.
  • Issue #283: Short Robot Arm won't unload Black Box Recorder from Drone Bay onto Track.
  • Issue #293: Hydroponic garden won't grow.
  • Issue #292: Cargo items stacking to silly sizes.
  • Crash when removing a piece of track that was in a loop.
  • Fix crash in Main Menu when viewing long file lists.
  • Fix crash in Tiddlet fire.
  • Fix cargo being moved around unnecessarily. If a job exists to move cargo to a storage zone, and you place a new storage zone that is at least as good under it, the job to move it is now cancelled.
  • Fix storage window not placing any storage when it is first opened.
  • Fix A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing Part 3 not being playable after completing Part 2.
  • Fix A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing Part 3 pirate attacking you in another mission's system.
  • Fix shuttle leaving on reload.
  • Only the FTL drive responsible for jumping will light up during a jump.
  • Only the FTL drive responsible for jumping will consume the contents of its FTL charge.
    • This caused the FTL resource counter to be off-by-one when you have multiple FTL drives on a ship.
  • Fix Audio bug after the opening text when starting a new game.
  • Fix objects remaining silent when you switch system and should hear them again.
  • Fix some objects, such as engines, not pausing correctly when the main menu is open.
  • You can no longer sell Julian's ship from Black Hole Sun at a Shipyard.
  • Fix FTL window saying 'NO FTL FOUND' when you have no ship selected to travel.
  • Fix Trade window telling you you cannot afford a trade when it is for the exact amount of cash you have.
  • Fix Black Hole Sun 3 game crash when trying to take control of Julian's ship outside of the Black Hole system.
  • Fix Mouse clicks from game world being detected on the sector map.
  • Fix ships undocking from each other when they are all FTL jumping in survival and creative mode.
  • Fix the tutorial window blocking input to the game world after the tutorial is over.
  • Fix it looking like you have placed a storage zone in the output of a docking port. Instead, the visual is cancelled immediately.
  • Fix bug where you cannot interact with the tutorial window while the map is open.
  • Fix bug where the tutorial window highlight for the FTL button is the wrong color.

New community ships added to the base game - thank you!

  • JOHNNY STRUGGLES - Improved Industrious
  • Omega Naval Station
  • Belfast Shipyard

Alpha 11dEdit

Alpha 11d
Release date 6 September 2024

Alpha 11d was released to make the game playable offline and fix some performance issues on AMD graphics cards:

  • Game can now be played in offline mode.
  • Improved performance with particles in tactical mode on certain AMD graphics cards

Alpha 11d hotfixEdit

Alpha 11d
Release date 9 September 2024

Alpha 11d hotfix was released to make the game playable offline and fix some performance issues on AMD graphics cards:

  • The game can now be launched and played when offline.
  • Performance improvement when lots of particles on screen in tactical mode (relevant to AMD graphics cards).

Alpha 10Edit

Alpha 10
Release date 24 June 2024
GitHub Bugs Milestone 7

New Episodes

Work continues on a series of hand crafted story episodes, designed to pull new players into the game and provide some excellent adventures for existing players.

  • Black Hole Sun - Part 1
  • Black Hole Sun - Part 2
  • Black Hole Sun - Part 3
  • A wolf in Sheeps Clothing - Part 3

New Tutorials

These are short tutorials and are generally incorporated into the story episodes. But will pop up whenever you are trying to do these things for the first time:

  • Docking Tutorial
  • Mining Tutorial
  • Combat Tutorial
  • Crew transfer Tutorial

Performance

  • Large improvement to drones when searching for repair works.
  • Reduced the particle density on ships arriving and departing, to help with performance
  • Make FindNearby only look at given layer and given object type if object type given. Helps with drone performance.
  • Calculate incoming quantities of each container only once in TryStoreCargo, improves WorkQueue Update performance.

Text Input

  • You can now filter any long list of files/saves/ships etc by typing a short word
  • You can now freely move the cursor in a text field and delete characters in any position.
    • 'LEFT' or 'RIGHT' to move the cursor backwards or forwards one character.
    • 'HOME' or 'DOWN' to move the cursor to the beginning of the input.
    • 'END' or 'UP' to move the cursor to the end of the input.
    • 'DEL' now forward deletes text in a text input field.

SMALL CHANGES

  • The game mode 'Survival' is now locked until the player completes phase 1 of the stargate
  • The game mode 'Free Roam' is now locked until the player completes the 'Flight Ready' mission in Creative or Survival mode
  • Nb. Both modes can be easily unlocked by editing the preferences.txt file:
   UnlockSurvival    true
   UnlockFreeRoam    true
  • Battle Stations button is now available in Tactical mode
  • Changed drone behaviour to look to use any available Drone Bays
  • FTL user interface improved. You can now include other ships after clicking the Prepare Jump button
  • Clicking Prepare Jump from the System Map will now prepare a jump with just that ship, even if another jump is in progress.
  • The OPPOSITION system that sends hostiles to attack the Stargate on a timer has been completely disabled (it sucked)
  • Mining Laser now require to be installed either in a wall (like the guns) or on a piece of scaffold.
  • When installing Mining Lasers they will now auto-rotate to fit the wall/scaffold.
  • Allow to buy/sell entire stack by ctrl clicking.

BUG FIXES:

  • Issue #258: In creative mode, when entering ship name / author name the key strokes execute in the background
  • Issue #259: If you outgun the pirate you can kill the ship leading to a hardlock and game CTD.
  • Issue #260: Docking Tutorial window doesn't go away when you click skip.
  • Issue #261: The Wolf in sheep clothing mission is available to start from the beginning after completing it.
  • Issue #267: Only selected ship rotates to align for jump in creative / survival / free roam.
  • Issue #241: Orders not saved correctly in stargate mode because not copying system id when copying orders.
  • Issue #243: Meteor shower during resin collection phase of tutorial.
  • Issue #277: Scavenger still hails you even if destroyed.
  • Issue #247: Some imported/bought ships will have the crew dying of suffocation.
  • Issue #161: Install order disappearing when closest box of desired item to install is on a track.
  • Issue #233: Netural fighters attacking player when in meteor shower.
  • Issue #229: Turning with thrusters uses engines when another ship is preparing a jump.
  • Issue #231: If a window is open (eg: FTL jump) and you go to tatical mode, tactical mode stops tracking cursor.
  • Issue #279: Docking Port flipped on reloading ship, if placed at top of grid in edit mode.
  • Issue #288: Rescue mission does not fail and disappear if the ship is destroyed.
  • Issue #225: Weapons consoles not activating connected weapons
  • Issue #221: Hostile ship not attacking after some ships jump away
  • Issue #198: Can jump ship when docked with other ship that isn't jumping but ships stay docked.
  • Issue #234: Stargate progress is incorrect.
  • Issue #153: Money duplication glitch when buying ship at shipyard.
  • Fix spelling mistake in the title of the Tech Tree Window: 'RESERACH' -> 'RESEARCH'.
  • Fix window not closing when window close button is pressed.
  • Performance slow down with ships arriving / leaving. Should be better with improvements to particle and layer rendering.
  • Fix flightready mission causing crash when selling original ship and FTL jumping with another ship.
  • Fix camera moving to wrong place when switching out of tactical if ship moved while in tactical.
  • Fix tutorial coming back after skipping tutorial.
  • Preserve ids of layers and objects when restoring a system archive, but still rebase time.
  • Fix crash on loading a rescue mission on a ship that has been archived.
  • Docking tutorial now dismisses itself if the target ship is derelict or non-existent.
  • Track performance in certain situations improved.
  • Fix install FTL objective not completing in flightready mission.

Alpha 10cEdit

Alpha 10c
Release date 16 July 2024

Alpha 10c was released slightly later to Alpha 10 and fixed some critical bugs relating to missions:

  • Fix crash when removing a piece of track in a loop.
  • Fix crash in Main Menu when viewing long file lists.
  • Fix crash in Tiddle particle creation when they catch fire
  • Fix crash in Drone rendering.
  • Fix Wolf 3 episode not showing up in contracts selection when loading older save games.
  • Fix analytics not reporting for Wolf 3.
  • Fix Blackhole 2 issues (repeating phone call, impossible to complete in some circumstances)

Alpha 9Edit

Alpha 9
Atreides and Harkonnen

Update video
Release date 13 March 2024
GitHub Bugs Milestone 6

New mission interface

  • We have substantially upgraded and improved the mission system and all associated screens.
  • We can now create rich, detailed missions with multiple stages and multiple objectives.
  • The Communicator has also been upgraded and better integrated with the mission screen.
  • Characters can now call you with information and instructions, and a log of those calls will be added to your mission screen.

Quality of Life improvements for the Mission Summary (top left of the screen):

  • You can now 'Turn In' any completed mission directly from the mission summary
  • A new diamond shaped location icon has been added to any objective that specifies a destination. Clicking the diamond will immediately bring up the sector map and highlight that location. This makes it very easy to navigate to the required locations for a mission.
  • There is now a 'Prepare to jump' button in the Sector Map, for quick and easy alignment
  • All mission types updated to take advantage of these new buttons.


New Story Episodes

  • We have begun work on a series of story-based episodes.
  • The general idea is to tell short stories with a rich cast of characters, and each story episode will be broken down into 2 or 3 parts.
  • This involved the creation of a new Episode Manager system and a substantial upgrade of the Mission system.
  • Story Episodes will automatically become available in the Mission Interface at the appropriate time.
  • We have plans to add many more story episodes, now that this system is complete.
  • Nb. Story episodes are available in Stargate mode, and in Free-roam mode. They are not available in survival mode. The Tiddlets mission remains available in Survival mode only.
  • New Episodes:
    • A Wolf in sheep's clothing - part 1
    • A Wolf in sheep's clothing - part 2


Docking Tutorial

  • A new Docking tutorial has been created, and is used directly in the episode Wolf Part 2.
  • The tutorial will also show whenever a player is attempting a rescue mission.


SMALL CHANGES

  • The time between waves of hostile forces attacking the Stargate has been tripled
  • New graphics for crew in a space suit when they are outside the ship
  • Reduced the radius at which a system blocks your FTL flight path (from 15 down to 4)
  • The star background now shifts into an angry red when 'Battle Stations' is enabled
  • Crew now walk 33% faster, and are slowed down less when carrying cargo
  • New graphics for dead crew
  • After loading a saved game, any ships where the crew are all dead due to suffocation will be recalled automatically under autopilot, and will leave the system


NEW AUDIO WORK

  • Battle stations!
  • Gun Turrets extending, retracting
  • Mission Interface
  • Music for the new story episodes


New community ships added to the base game - thank you!

  • DOCTORX - DRX Helican Omicron
DRX Helican
DRX Psychopath
DRX Abyss
DRX Scarab
  • JOHNNY STRUGGLES - The Altair Citadel


BUG FIXES

  • You can no longer pause the game during the introductory flyby
  • Fixed: Weapons Consoles are now correctly powered as part of the Weapons power category, not the Science power category
  • Fix for drones incorrectly returning home when another ship in the local fleet is planning to jump to hyperspace
  • Fixed: Fleet logistics transfers of the same item in opposite directions now cancel each other.
  • Fix crash caused by invalid Researching Node.

Alpha 9cEdit

Alpha 9c
Release date 14 March 2024

Alpha 9c is a hotfix build for Alpha 9 fixing UI issues with the Tactical screen.

Another build of Alpha 9c was released for Windows on 7 May 2024, but it is unclear what changed.

Alpha 8Edit

Alpha 8

Update video
Release date 18 December 2023
GitHub Bugs Milestone 5

New Equipment & Items

  • Fusion Reactor
    • Uses Deuterium fuel pods and requires at least 500Mw for about 10 seconds to activate.
    • Produces a power output of 50-500Mw.
    • Deuterium (fuel pod)
    • Deuterium Recipe (Chemical Lab)
  • Solar Panels
    • Must be installed on the outside of the ship, built onto scaffold beams.
    • Produces 10Mw normally.
    • This reduces to 5Mw in a nebula, and 0Mw in Hyperspace.
    • Solar Panel recipe (Assembly Table)
  • Tutorial (continued)
    • Work continues on the in-game tutorial for new players.


New audio work

  • Suit radio chatter for crew when they are wearing spacesuits
  • New UI sounds for construction, pipes, cables, installation, deconstruction
  • New ambiences for common equipment: reactors, fabricators, smelters, assembly tables
  • Delivery shuttle engine sounds


New 'Exterior' graphics

  • New graphics for all gun turrets when viewed from exterior
  • Docking port exterior view improved
  • Thrusters now more visible in exterior view and tactical view
  • New exterior graphics for Small Tank, Medium Tank, Large Tank, Battery
  • Gun Turrets can now be distinguished in Tactical View
    • Railgun - a long single line
    • Cannon - two medium-length parallel lines
    • Gatling gun - three short parallel lines


New community ships added to the base game - thank you!

  • ZORBANE
    • DragonFly-A
  • RUSH
    • Andromeda's Fury
  • R0NALXD
    • Chakrali Corvetter
    • Chakrali Frigate
    • Chakrali Miner
    • Chakrali Starbase
  • JOHNNY STRUGGLES
    • Big Martha
    • Defense Platform MK1/MK2/MK3
    • The Gas Man
    • The Wild Goose
    • Fat Duck Fighter
    • The Leviathan
    • Scavenger JS
    • Florence Bulk Hauler
    • Angry Frog Mining Rig
  • ORION INDUSTRIES
    • Bellatrix Frigate
    • Hawk Light Fighter Mk1/Mk2
    • Krait Mk2 Fuel Rat
    • Mighty Miner
    • Minor-Miner Mk1/Mk2
    • Orthrus
    • Procyon Cruiser
    • Rescue Shuttle
    • Rigel Heavy Corvette Mk2
    • Roadrunner Corvette
    • Starhopper
    • Trident Heavy Fighter


SMALL CHANGES

  • The PAUSED and SLOWMO messages will now flash, to minimize players not realizing why the game has stopped
  • New STARGATE games will no longer generate a distress call in the starting map. This is because new players would often get very confused trying to do the rescue - without thrusters and without any skills in docking. Nb. Rescue Missions are still generated in the mission board
  • Fleet orders for gathering salvage, gathering minerals, and repairing hull now default to ON
  • Drones will now automatically return to their home ship if that ship is preparing to jump to FTL, regardless of Fleet Orders
  • Hostile forces in stargate mode will now correctly attack the player, and not random NPC vessels
  • Deconstruction UI effects improved
  • If the player destroys a Neutral ship, all other neutral ships in the system will immediately turn hostile to the player
  • Added a new Fleet Order: 'Mining'. This enables and disables all active mining from Mining Lasers within the current system.
  • Schematic view has been made more tidy and clear.
  • Improved the visuals when laying pipes and cables - removed unnecessary distracting visuals
  • Weapons Officers now wear a RED uniform, to distinguish them from regular crew
  • Weapons Consoles now support up to four guns, without requiring any research. Removed the research tree for Weapons Console Additional Slots.
  • Player-owned ships will now always render on top of other ships, derelicts, etc
  • Derelicts will be removed from the list of all ships after 3 minutes
  • Derelicts now slowly erode away to nothing over time
  • Damaged and Destroyed engines now belch flames


BUG FIXES

  • FIXED: The equipment panel will now close if you select another ship or another location
  • FIXED: issues with the Equipment Panel not popping up when you right-clicked because it was 'blocked' by the open construction menu
  • FIXED: Missing pickup and drop sounds when crew is working
  • FIXED: The tick sound effect when installing equipment was wrong when the equipment had an even width or height
  • FIXED: Issue with Delivery Missions with a difficulty of 84 and 890 boxes!
  • FIXED: Main Menu ambience continued to play after clicking Import Friendly or Import Hostile
  • Issue #175 - After an FTL-jump, the suits are turned off. Orders are now carried through from system to system when FTL jumping unless you already have a fleet at the destination.
  • Issue #179 - (Survival) Cross-sector passenger missions can never be delivered
  • Issue #183 - Tutorial text modal not advancing correctly. Fix overlap problem and tutorial loop.
  • Issue #188 - Derelict ships will now automatically remove themselves from the layer list after some time.
  • Issue #190 - Fighters can attack a ship in another system
  • Issue #195 - Fuel canisters aren't getting loaded. Validate existing fleet transfers to ensure that they are still satisfying requests.
  • Issue #194 - A full "circular" track gets jammed and doesn't move. Allow tracks to move more freely.
  • Issue #196 - Can't see all ships in logistics screen. Fix a bug where the ships were overflowing the window. Present ships in the same order as the ship list on the right.

Undocumented changes (not shown in original changelog

  • Max zoom level is now 5000 (rather than unlimited)
  • Percentages removed from tanks in schematic view (only absolute values displayed)
  • Hyperspace isotopes can be refined into stable isotopes, which can be turned into deuterium in the chemistry lab
  • Stranded Ships from Rescue contracts are NeutralShips instead of Derelicts

Alpha 7Edit

Alpha 7
Release date 17 November 2023

Alpha 7 is an interim build with no update video, GitHub milestone, or nickname. Changes are covered in the update video for Alpha 8.

Multi-system Simulation

Multiple locations within a sector are now simulated all at once.
This means you can split up your fleet, have ships in one system mining an asteroid belt, while your combat vessels in another system do battle.
You can freely and instantly move focus between different ships of yours within all active systems.
Different collections of ships can be in FTL at the same time, travelling to different destinations.
You can (for example) create mining and gathering ships and leave them in a nebula or asteroid belt, and they will continue to mine and operate while you attend to other locations.

  • NPC ships updated. Star systems are now much more busy, as NPC ships come and go. NPC ships will also engage in mining and salvage where appropriate.
  • All NPC ships are now based on either official ship designs or community ships, or ships you have subscribed to on Steam Workshop.
  • NPC ship system 'faking' has been largely removed. You can now see inside any NPC neutral ship, and observe the crew and equipment operating normally.
  • NPC ships will turn hostile if you attack them, but will generally try to escape rather than fight to the death.
  • Subscribe to more ships via the Steam Workshop, and these ships will appear in your game world.


Tutorial / on-boarding

The tutorial continues to be updated, with the aim to provide a complete introduction to the game and the STARGATE PROJECT.
It is still a work in progress, but takes the player all the way up to receiving a second ship.
The primary aim is to bring entirely new players into the STARGATE industry mode.
You can now skip the entire tutorial by clicking the X in the top right of the tutorial window.


Stargate Project

The stargate project now has six working phases that must be completed, each building on the last.
All phases have been redesigned and rebalanced.
All production times for Fabricators and Assembly tables have been shortened and balanced.
Multiple phases of the stargate project now require research unlocks to progress.
Enemy forces will now attack any ships engaged in the stargate project, starting around phase 3. Each subsequent attack will be more dangerous than the last.

  • The game now automatically starts in STARGATE mode on first playthrough
  • Introductory flyby sequence updated
  • The TRADE screen now shows sellable Stargate parts highlighted in GOLD
  • Fabricator buildings no longer produce outputs endlessly, filling up your cargo space (eg frames, coils).
Instead they will produce an item and then wait until that item has been taken to be used somewhere before producing another.
  • The stargate sector now contains hostile fleets (difficult!), distress calls, derelict ships, asteroid belts, gas clouds, as well as colonies and shipyards.


Mission System - New missions are now continuously generated at all locations in the sector - Old missions are removed after some time, if nobody claims them. - All mission types scale in response to your ratings within the appropriate category. - STARGATE industry mode now has all mission types available: delivery, passenger, combat, rescue, production, mining - Completed Missions are now removed from the contract board after 60 seconds


Game controls

  • Spacebar now pauses the game.
This is to allow for more consideration and precision during space battles.
  • You can hold SHIFT for dramatic slow-mo. You can toggle slow-mo with Caps-Lock
  • Tactical mode camera no longer tracks position or rotation of any ship. You can freely pan around.
  • Normal view mode automatically tracks position and rotation of the current ship, aligning automatically so you can see the interior.
  • The compass / toggle tracking button has been removed
  • Tactical mode: Weapons list now scales when there are lots of weapons, to ensure they all fit on screen


BUG FIXES

  • Issue #164 - Cargo Space not recognising new zoning
  • You can no longer try to install boxed equipment on a ship that the box isn't on
  • Thousands more bug fixes but honestly we lost track somewhere along the way

Alpha 7cEdit

Alpha 7c
Release date 18 November 2023

Alpha 7c is a hotfix build for Alpha 7 fixing some FTL issues.

  • Loading an older save game (pre-alpha 7) will now automatically enable multi-system simulation. This fixes an issue where loading an older save game didn't enable multisystem simulation, preventing you from making FTL jumps with more than one ship at a time.
  • This enables multiple ships to do an FTL jump together in industry mode. Click on the STAY/JUMP button to toggle which ships are included in the jump. At least one ship in the group must have an enabled FTL drive.
  • Multi-system simulation is not yet enabled for the other game modes - SURVIVAL, FREE ROAM and CREATIVE. In those modes all ships will now jump together, as used to happen. This fixes the issue of only a single ship jumping.

Alpha 6Edit

Alpha 6
Frodo & Sam

Update video
Release date 13 September 2023
GitHub Bugs Milestone 4

Buying ships at a shipyard

  • Any ship from the ship library can be bought in a system with a station or shipyard


Tutorial

  • Beginnings of a Tutorial for Industry Mode.


NEW EQUIPMENT

  • Weapons Control Centre => Can connect to up to 4 weapons remotely and be controlled by a weapons officer, so that the connected weapons no longer require crew
  • New Crew Type - Weapons Officer needed to crew the Weapons Control Centre


SMALL CHANGES

  • Robot Arms now use Jobs to Move, Load, and Combine objects. This allows robot arms and crew to communicate, so they no longer compete to complete the same jobs at the same time.
  • Robot Arms now stop moving an object if the destination can’t receive it anymore. If arm gets stuck like this, you can now cancel the arm in the right-click menu. Arms are now only stuck when an item is on the floor of the target cell.
  • Missions that are in progress when you Hyperspace Jump are now returned to the open missions list so that you can return to the destination and finish them at a later date.
  • Robot Arms now unload objects from factories that are not needed by the current recipe.
  • When the current research project finishes a popup notification appears
  • The atmospheric pressure is now shown as a percentage in a tooltip when hovering the mouse
  • New Storage Zone UI
  • Better job allocation/assignment to ensure that jobs can be completed by the entities that they are assigned to. This is noticeable when there a ship is divided into isolated areas.


BUG FIXES

  • Mission Cargo/Passengers/Refuges and Trade Deals that are in progress when you hyperspace jump are now cancelled correctly and not taken to the Docking Port
  • Crew and Scientists take off spacesuits when doing longer jobs in a breathable atmosphere
  • Factories will cancel jobs when the recipe changes and the jobs object is no longer required
  • Changing/Removing a storage zone will now cancel any job coming to it if the new storage at the location is no longer compatible with what is coming to it.
  • Equipment installation jobs will stop any movement jobs to storage zones in the same location. When/if the equipment gets fully installed, the storage zones are removed.
  • Equipment installation will highlight the closest accessible box that will be used to install the equipment.
  • You can no longer place a storage zone in the location of an in-progress equipment installation
  • Research stations only draw power when required for the current research project (1MW standby draw otherwise)
  • Research station blue light now blinks
  • For exterior jobs crew no longer pick up and drop the item before acquiring a space suit
  • For exterior dismantling jobs, the box is now brought inside by the crew after dismantling
  • Visual fix to adjacent tracks connecting incorrectly. Tracks now only connect if they interact with each other.
  • Issue #108: Fixes transferring crew when requesting to transfer a spacesuit and all spacesuits are worn
  • Issue #109: Fixes logistics window scaling with the number of layers, rather than the number of friendly layers
  • Issue #10: Integer overflow with cash and ship value
  • Issue #95 and #95: Friendly ships added to fleet for free when flying to a shipyard
  • Issue #114: Powergrid settings are saved
  • Issue #104: Logistics screen now updates when the selected layer is switched
  • Issue #81: Mouse click and drag in the research window can no longer move the game camera
  • Issue #92: Objects can no longer be stored in non-exact cell positions
  • Issue #122: Robot Arms can now combine containers when they are on tracks
  • Issue #72: Robot Arms now indicate when they are stuck, and can be canceled.
  • Issue #16: Difficulty installing equipment in walls.
  • Issue #66: Jobs get created in inaccessible locations and get “stuck”
  • Issue #53: Crew try to store objects in a place they can’t access

Alpha 5Edit

Alpha 5
Schwarzenegger & Stallone

Update video
Release date 28 July 2023
GitHub Bugs Milestone 3

SCIENCE / RESEARCH SYSTEM
There is a research & development system allowing you to unlock advanced technologies.
All R&D is performed by Scientists (a new entity type) and uses Science Stations and Supercomputers.
You can unlock equipment blueprints, performance enhancements, and Stargate Updates.

NEW EQUIPMENT : Science station
NEW EQUIPMENT : Super computer
NEW EQUIPMENT : Energy Transmitter
NEW CREW: Scientists

A new research screen allows you to direct your science team efforts.


INDUSTRY MODE AND STARGATE PROJECT, CONTINUED
Phases 3 and 4 of the Stargate project are now available for completion.

Phase 3 requires science research to complete.
Phase 4 requires an energy test, with your ships providing sufficient energy to the stargate for a fixed period.

Opposition - There are now hostile forces within the sector who oppose the construction of the stargate. Their threat level will slowly increase as you make progress.

The central stargate system will now 're-stock' periodically on critical equipment and resources
Asteroid minerals will now be merged into larger stacks when there are so many in space that it begins to affect performance (>1000 minerals close together)

NEW EQUIPMENT: Small Robot Arm - A Robot Arm variant with an arm length of 1
NEW EQUIPMENT: Smart Robot Arm => A Robot Arm that only picks up specified objects


SMALL CHANGES
Robot Arms now require 1MW of power each
Robot Arms now combine containers of the same type like Entities
New & Improved FTL window


BUG FIXES
Issue #24: Battle stations button missing
Issue #29: Mission cargo not unloading (partially fixed in Alpha 4, but not with tiddlets)
Issue #39: Destroyed spacesuit remaining on entity
Issue #30: Fusion reactor rendering weird effects on ship
Issue #60: Crew no longer invisible when deleting spacesuit
Issue #51: Robot Arms can now add and remove fuel cannisters from fuel loaders. Robot Arms can now add and remove Compost and Seeds from Hydroponic Garden. Robot arms can now add and remove FTL Charges from FTL Drives. Robot Arms can now add drones to and remove Cargo from Drone Bays.
Issue #52: Crew in Spacesuits can no longer be picked up by Robot Arms or carried by Tracks
Issue #61: Robot Arms picking up each other's items
Issue #73: Robot Arms can no longer pick up items through walls
Issue #54: Fixes Drones picking up Entities Issue
Issue #65: Tracks no longer get stuck and unable to move an item into an 'empty' space
Issue #67: Fixes Storage Areas not persisting in save games if there is a track on top of them
Issue #56: Craftable equipment no longer thinks it's a factory and is no longer right clickable
Multiple jobs can no longer have the same Id

Alpha 4Edit

Alpha 4
Cash Integer Overflow and Northern Pennies

Update video
Release date 22 June 2023
GitHub Bugs Milestone 2

Industry mode
An entirely new game mode with new starting conditions and new objectives.
You are joining a mega-project to construct a Stargate to the Andromeda Galaxy.
Industry, production and automation take centre stage.

  • New 'Industry' game mode selector in New Game screen
  • New starting ship, which is more of a ruined space station
  • Starting ship contains 'Ruined Equipment' which can be dismantled for Scrap Metal.
  • There is only one Sector in industry mode
  • Stargate Project in the main menu. Shows what parts require manufacture to advance.
  • Currently only Phase 1 and 2 of the Stargate have been created
  • Sell your Stargate Parts at any trade station to earn money and progress the project.
  • NEW EQUIPMENT:
  • Fabricator => Makes components out of raw materials: Frame, Motor, Coil
  • Assembler => Makes Boxed equipment out of components (Eg Battery, or Stargate parts)
  • Robot Arm => Automatically lifts components and resources into and out of equipment
  • Track => Automatically moves components and resources along the direction of travel
  • Gas clouds and asteroid mineral nodes contain 100x as much raw material in Industry mode


Balance / Small changes

  • Gas Clouds now contain 10x as much gas in non-industry game modes
  • Hydroponics now uses half as much water
  • Hydroponics now loses 25% of compost per harvest. Previously 50% of compost was lost
  • Gatling Guns are now unmanned, and will automatically extend and fire when 'Battle Stations' is called
  • Munitions Factory has been renamed to Munitions Bench, as it is operated by a crew member
  • The 'Battle Stations' button will no longer show until you have at least one weapon system installed
  • Added "--safe-mode" command line argument to start game in windowed mode
  • The Install menu now auto-selects the next identical type of equipment,
    and groups all identical equipment into a single row


You can now begin a new game straight from within Creative Mode.
As soon as you perform your first FTL jump, creative mode ends
and you are placed into 'Free Roam' mode with $150k credits


Steam Workshop
Updated subscribed and published items kick off updating local corresponding preview images
All previously-updated subscribed and published items, prior to the above feature, will have their preview images also updated


Bug fixes

Alpha 3Edit

Alpha 3
Will and Harry[1]

Update video recorded on 7 May 2023
Release date 11 May 2023

FULL CHANGE LIST

Hydroponics
New 'Hydroponics Garden' equipment is now available to buy.
Requires power, piped water, compost (from Waste Processing), and Seeds (also available to buy).
If all of these ingredients are provided, vegetables will be grown in the individual plots.
If water or power is cut during growth, the crop will suffer.
Eventually the vegetables will be harvested, producing Food and more Seeds.


Crew stations
Some pieces of equipment now require crew to operate.
The crew station can be seen in schematic view as a green circle, and must be clear from obstructions
These include:

  • Gatling Guns
  • Cannons
  • Railguns
  • Munitions table

More will be added in future.


Battle Stations
All weapon systems in your fleet now default to 'inactive', and will appear retracted into the ship.
To activate your weapons, click the 'Battle Stations' button in the bottom right of the screen.
Each weapon system requires one crew member to operate, before it can fire.
Nb. The order to Battle Stations is fleet wide.
As soon as you disable Battle Stations, crew will return to normal duties and all weapon systems will retract.


Small Changes

  • You can now sell any of your ships at a Shipyard.
Just click the SELL button next to the layer name, top right of the screen.
Nb. You cannot sell your final ship - ie you always need one ship in the fleet.
  • Added Vertical Symmetry to Ship Editor
  • Ship Editor state saved/restored between sessions
  • Docked ships can now be included when exporting a ship
  • Fixed crash with docking cycles (they can also no longer be created)
  • Settings menu now has options for Windowed/Fullscreen/Resolution


Steam Workshop

  • Published items are cached locally
  • Published items and preview images get downloaded if not already cached locally (such as on a reinstall of the game or using the game on another computer)
  • Remotely updated published items get updated locally
  • Remotely updated subscribed items get updated locally

Alpha 2Edit

Alpha 2
Fred & Barny[2]

Update video
Release date 30 March 2023

NEW CONTENT

Industry

New industrial equipment has been added to the game, permitting self-sufficient creation of many critical resources. New resources have also been added, with new methods of gathering those resources

  • New Resource : Metreon Gas Clouds - found randomly across a sector, and visible from the map
  • New Resource : Metallic Minerals - found in asteroid belts
  • New Resource : Hyperspace Isotopes - gathered when in Hyperspace
  • New Equipment : Gas Collector => Metreon Gas
  • New Equipment : Hyperspace Scoop => Hyperspace Isotopes
  • New Equipment : Refinery
Metreon Gas => Refined Metreon
  • New Equipment : Chemical Lab
Refined Metreon => Fuel
Refined Metreon => Explosives
Hyperspace Isotopes + Refined Tilium => FTL Charge
  • New Equipment : Munitions Factory
Metal Ingots + Explosives => Cannon Shells
Metal Ingots + Explosives => Bullets
Metal Ingots => Railgun slugs
  • Smelter
Metallic Minerals => Metal Ingots
Scrap Metal => Metal Ingots
Tilium Ore => Refined Tilium
Precious Ore => Precious Metals
  • New popup panel for all Industrial equipment. Right click to access.
Shows the process underway and the status of inputs and outputs.
Allows for changing the Recipe if the equipment supports multiple recipes.
  • All trade prices rebalanced to ensure the market is sensible.
(Roughly 100% markup for each stage of production)
  • New Production Mission
You will be asked to produce X stacks of a specific resource.
You are free to buy or gather or refine the resource through any means.
The buyers will pay a premium of around 30-50% over the market price.


Intership Logistics

You can now transfer resources, crew, drones & equipment between your ships
Click on the 'Logistics' button in the main toolbar (Available once you have two or more ships)

  • Drones will perform the requested transfers, if both ships have functioning Drone Bays
  • Can be enabled / disabled in the Fleet Orders list
  • Ship Docking : You can now dock your ships together by aligning their docking ports in Tactical View.
Once docked, you can use the same Logistics menu to transfer items and crew between docked ships
  • Loaders can now be configured to run in three possible modes. This allows you to extract resources stored in tanks into carryable containers, then use the Logistics System to transfer those containers to other ships.
LOAD : The contents of the container are pumped into the pipes (previous default)
UNLOAD : Containers are filled from the connected pipes
STOP : Don't do anything


Game Modes and starting conditions

You can now select the game mode when creating a new game from the main menu.

SURVIVAL - The previous game mode - stay ahead of the Anomaly

FREE ROAM [NEW] - There is no Anomaly to run from - a more chilled experience

CREATIVE - Unlimited budget and instant construction

  • You now start the game with $150k cash
  • You automatically receive a delivery of equipment worth $450k :
Engines x 2, Reactor, FTL drive, Fuel x 2, FTL charges x 2
  • You can start in any saved ship (community, steam workshop, or your own creation) with a value up to $1M
  • The game will also let you start in any ship hull, so long as the hull value is less than $1M.
All equipment and cargo will be removed from the ship when starting a game this way.
In this scenario you will also start with $150k cash and $450k equipment delivered.


Performance

Lots of big rendering performance wins - the game will now render much smoother when in a busy system.
Fixed serious frame drop when loading in a big ship for the first time (generating exterior panels)
Large improvements to rendering performance of ships


SMALL CHANGES

  • Creative Mode: When using the SPAWN tool to create equipment and items, you can now Right-Click on any equipment or item to instantly destroy it
  • Creative Mode: You can now 'Import Friendly' to add a saved ship directly into your fleet
  • Trade screen now shows 'out of stock' items (greyed out) at the bottom of the list
  • Rescue Mission removed from the Mission lists, and changed to a 'Distress Call' visible in the sector map
  • New graphics for Comets, Asteroids, Minerals, all new Industrial equipment
  • New exterior view graphics for engines, drone bays, thrusters, docking ports
  • You will now receive an alert when there is no available storage for an item that is blocking equipment
  • Damaged armour is now automatically added to your ship editor plan, so you can easily repair it at the next shipyard
  • Volume settings in the Main Menu are now saved
  • Equipment will now power down and stop working if its position is invalid. For example if a Gun Turret becomes blocked by a wall.
  • In the Tactical View, the maneuvering controls widget now allows for finer grained control of the thrusters (no longer just on or off)
  • Armour made more resilient against Gatling Guns, but less effective against Railguns and Cannons
  • Fuel usage has been roughly halfed across the board:
Reactors now use half as much fuel (1 fuel/sec for 100Mw max output)
Reactors can now idle at a low of 2MW, wasting much less fuel (previously 10MW minimum)
Engines now use half as much fuel (2 fuel/sec at max thrust)
Engines now require half as much power when idling (2MW)
(Nb. Engines still require 40MW at max thrust)
  • New community ships:
Tokelvian Starbase - Johnny Struggles
Starbase Callisto - Johnny Struggles
Elara Shipyard - Johnny Struggles
Inverse Mk1 - Ed the Loon
Meteor - Ed The Loon
Vork Maraug - Brot Groggers
Goteque Imperial Luxline - Brot Groggers


BUG FIXES

FIXED: Empty ship layers (created in the Ship Editor) will no longer prevent your fleet from doing an FTL jump

FIXED: You can no longer apply modifications to your ship using the Ship Editor when in Hyperspace

FIXED: Using the Destroy tool in the editor would cause equipment in the removed area to become broken and bugged

FIXED: The Nomad special mission was paying out 10x the desired amount. You will now received a $10k bonus for the first 10 crew.

FIXED: Crash bug in the Mission List if you had no ship selected

Alpha 1DEdit

Alpha 1D
Release date 27 January 2023

Alpha 1D was the first Early Access build and was released on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store. This marked the end of the playtest and rejoined the game modes from Alpha1C and Demo Alpha1C. No other changes were made.