Development Update - January 2026

Dear Backers, I hope you all survived the winter storm. Hopefully the exciting news of all of our progress over the last month will keep you warm as you shovel out your driveways!

We started January by wrapping up the Squadron behaviors that began in December. Players now have a plethora of tactical options for commanding space battles that make them feel like a real Space Admiral. In addition to lines of battle, ships can also be ordered to screen the player, forming a defensive ring between the player’s flagship and the approaching enemy, break off and pursue specific targets, or ordered to retreat to escape combat if badly damaged or to protect precious cargo.

Ships which sustain heavy structural damage or significant crew casualties might break and flee on their own, and even stop responding to orders. Assigning officers with high leadership attributes increases the chance they will stay and fight to the end and continue following orders. AI controlled ships will now also attempt to avoid incoming torpedoes, which make them doubly useful for disrupting enemy formation as much as doing damage.

This month, Isaac also implemented our dialogue system, which is a pivotal component for much of the game’s storytelling, economy, missions, and crew management. Players can now walk up to other characters (or objects like interactive terminals) and begin a conversation. The player can choose how they wish to respond from different options, allowing them to craft the personality of their character. Their skills and experience will also unlock additional options, such as a high commerce skill allowing them to negotiate better prices, or high combat skills allowing them to intimidate someone for information.

We also increased the fidelity of ships encountered while sailing through the Cortesia system. When non-player fleets spawn, the types of ships and cargo in their hold is determined by their type. A civilian or corporate squadron might comprise many trade-focused ships full of cargo, where a pirate fleet would consist of more combat-oriented ships with the potential for rare and expensive items “acquired” from others.

On the level design side, in honor of the snowstorm we all endured, we’ve completed a new planetary destination for players to explore: the icy planet Nix. A remote, frozen ice world orbiting at the outer edge of the Cortesia System, shrouded in perpetual blizzards and beautiful auroras. Nix is home to secretive corporate research outposts that drill into its ancient ice sheets and cryovolcanic vents to extract rare Cryo-Crystals: exotic biotech materials used in advanced medicine, cryogenics, and wormhole stabilization technology. The planet’s domed habitats and geothermal tunnels cling to life amid sub-zero temperatures, but the extreme isolation and harsh conditions make supply runs lucrative. Despite its official UEG-backing, rumors persist of unauthorized experiments and black-market dealings beneath the ice.

Game designers can now individually specify the inventories of Cargo Stores, Equipment Shops, and Shipyards across the various planets of the Cortesia system, tailoring each to better reflect the unique offerings of each location

This month, we will be implementing the final piece of our core gameplay systems: Missions and Questing. Players will be able to take on missions from various quest-givers throughout the system, such as deliveries, escort missions, and even bounty contracts, and track their progress in their mission log. We will also continue our work to implement more planetary locations for players to explore. 

As always, check out the full change log below to see all the exciting work accomplished this month, and thank you all for your help in making this dream come to life.

Best Regards,

Vincent De Tommaso

Studio Director

Full Changelog

Space Combat

• Ship Squadron AI: Player Commands - Player can order squadron ships to break off an engage specific targets, return to formation with the rest of the fleet, or attempt to retreat from battle

• Leadership Check for Player Squadron Ships retreating - Squadron ships that sustain heavy structural damage have a chance of fleeing battle on their own, and ignoring orders issued by the player. Assigning officers with high leadership increases the chance they stay and obey orders

• Ship AI: Different behaviors - In addition to line of battle, we’ve added screen, aggressive, and retreat behaviors to AI captained ships. Screening ships will place themselves between the player and enemies in a defensive ring. Aggressive ships will leave formation to pursue specific targets, and retreating ships will try to avoid enemies and escape battle.

• Update Space Combat Commands: Players are able to order their squadron ships between the different AI behaviors mentioned above

• Squadron Management Screen: Players can set the initial behavior of ships in their squadron in the Squadron management Screen

• Ship AI: Avoid Torpedoes - AI controlled ships will attempt to avoid incoming torpedoes

• Adjust escape from space combat settings - All ships in the player squadron must be out of range of enemies to escape space combat

• Add crew loss retreat condition - In addition to structural damage, high crew casualties can also cause a ship to flee and stop responding to orders

• Boarding Scenes Categorization - game designers can categorize boarding scenes for use with specific ship sizes

• Re-balance Boarding Enemy Spawns - decreased the amount of boarding scenes and increased the amount of enemy groups that spawn per scene to compensate for better gameplay experience

Planetary Navigation

• Tie shipyard and store to fast travel locations: Added shipyards and Cargo Stores to the planetary fast-travel menu

• Choose spawn point when loading scene - game designers can specify which spawn points to use when returning to a scene from specific locations. For example, if the player enters the tavern and then leaves the tavern, they will spawn outside the tavern, rather than at the beginning of the level

• Transition Points that open Planet Menu - in addition to moving to another scene or returning to space, transition points (such as a taxi or other mode of transportation) can now also open the planetary map, allowing the player to go somewhere else on the planet without returning to their ship

RPG Mechanics

• Dialogue System Initial Implementation - Characters can now open conversations with other characters, and the player can select which lines of dialogue to say

• Dialogue Attributes Grant Additional Choices - Having certain attribute scores can unlock additional dialogue choices during conversations (reflecting your characters knowledge and experience)

• Shop Inventories - game designers can adjust which items different shops carry

• Dialogue and Shop Windows - shop windows can be accessed through conversing with store keepers or shopping terminals

• Only spawn player in shops - level spawn points can be adjusted to allow specifi numbers of characters to be present

• Fog of War Boolean - game designers can set whether fog-of-war affects a level. As a general rule, fog-of-war is not present in “safe” locations such as stores

• Overworld Dialogue - the dialogue system is supported while navigating space (for hailing other ships or investigating stellar anomalies, etc.)

• Dialogue Skill Checks - Some dialogue options will allow the player to perform a skill check based on their attributes, resulting in different outcomes if they pass or fail. For example, a commerce check might allow a player to negotiate a lower price, or an engineering check might allow a player to bypass a locked door.

• Dialogue can trigger scene transition - dialogue choices can trigger a scene transition

• Dialogue choice can add/remove items and/or money to player inventory - allows transactions and rewards to be handled through the dialogue system

• Defeating enemies awards XP - defeating enemies in ground combat or ships in space combat awards experience points to characters present

Space Navigation & Economy

• Store more information in spawned overworld ships - The amount and class of ships in a squadron is determined when the squadron is spawned into the overworld

• Spawn Tables for Overworld Ships - each faction (corporate, pirate, navy, etc.) has their own unique spawn tables for populating squadrons in the overworld

• Squadron Spawner Improvements - tuned the chances for multiple ships to spawn when squadrons are spawned in the overworld

• Overworld Ship Cargo Spawner - ships that spawn into the overworld also generate cargo in their holds

• Importing/Exporting/Contraband - Each planet has a number of commodities which they export, import, or consider contraband

• Cargo Prices in Cargo Stores - commodity prices depend on if the planet imports, exports, or considers the commodity in question contraband. This allows the player to discover profitable trade (and smuggling) routes between planets. Buy low, sell high.

Ship Management

• Engineering Upgrades - the engineering screen is now functional. Players can spend time and resources to upgrade rooms and systems in their ship, provide special benefits