Development Update March 2025

2025-03-18

New blog about development in the past month: ammo, metagame changes, ship AI and encounter improvements, and more.

Ammo

I added ammo to the game!
Missile and torpedo launchers now require ammo to fire, while most other weapons continue to use energy. To balance this, these weapons are now significantly more powerful, making their use much more interesting. Ammo can be purchased from traders, dropped by enemies, or occasionally acquired through encounters.

Bounty Hunter Organization

Instead of choosing from one or more "factions" to join, you now create your own bounty hunter organization, complete with a custom logo, color, and name.

Your new organization starts with a low reputation and can initially only accept the easiest assignments. By completing assignments (i.e., taking out targets), your reputation increases, unlocking more difficult assignments.

Each assignment is now repeatable and offers greater replayability. You can use your previously unlocked modules in new assignments, though Corespace rules impose a maximum starting budget for your ship.

Ship AI Improvements

Previously, the (future moddable) AI scripts for ships used an intermediate layer to control movement, issuing commands like "move to x, y," which the game then translated into steering controls such as "turn left" or "increase thrust." This limited AI script moddability, so I changed the system to allow AI scripts direct control over the ships.

Now, based on data such as available clockwise or counterclockwise steering thrust, ship mass, angular velocity, and more, AI scripts can precisely control steering and flight.

UI Improvements

The UI has been updated with a new font and improved styling. The new font includes both uppercase and lowercase letters, making many texts easier to read.

The UI for test ship selection has been reworked for better usability. It now also includes a "Surprise Me" option, which pits your ship against a random, similar opponent.

Additionally:

• Controls for combat and the ship editor are now fully customizable in the settings. Rejoice, future DVORAK users! 🙂
• Input hints have been added to several screens, displaying the relevant controls for different actions.
• A custom cursor has been introduced.
• Dutch language support has been added (mainly to test localization functionality).

Encounter Changes

• Out-of-fuel encounters are now less frustrating: you start with more fuel, and the chances of encountering something nasty when out of fuel have been reduced.
• Encounter difficulty scaling: Instead of each encounter type spawning a fixed set of enemy ships, the number and strength of ships now scale with your distance from the starting point, making the journey progressively more challenging.
• Enemies can now spawn in multiple waves during encounters.
• Returning to previously visited areas now restores them to their previous state (e.g., asteroids and bases will reappear).
• New encounters added:
  • Traders where you can buy fuel, ammo, module blueprints, and more—each with a randomly generated inventory.
  • An abandoned stash with valuable loot (though it may not be as abandoned as it seems).
  • Asteroid fields that can be empty or contain abandoned stashes, Reaver bases, and more.

Smaller Changes and Bug Fixes

• In-flight repairs: Ships now automatically repair themselves after avoiding damage for a period of time.
• Added a "Feedback" button, allowing players to easily submit feedback to help improve the game.
• Many weapon modules have received graphical improvements.
• First version of the hyperjump animation: Ships now visibly jump in and out of an area.
• Added three new music tracks:
  • One for the opening menu.
  • One for combat.
  • One for boss fights.
• Hyperjump now aborts when opening the ship designer or star map.
• Various encounter fixes have been implemented.

With these updates, I’m finally ready for the first playtest! I've added a sign-up button for the playtest on the Steam page, so check it out!