Demo 4 is Live

This update took slightly longer than initially planned, but more work was done too. Demo 4 is as usual, an alpha test round to hunt bugs and test new features. It will be available for the duration of the week-end.

Revised starting options

Starting...

• Spacecraft + the possibility to toggle as private property / allocated asset

• Wingmen (fleet)

• Cash (or debt)

• Influence in the organization

• Rank in the organization

• Allocated points are now computed differently and condition the possibility to get Steam achievements (although there are no achievements yet!)

Revised ship modules + designer + new modules

(Modules are weapons, cargo storage, thrusters, etc...)

• Characteristics are bound by modifiers rather than manual raw values. Variants for all sizes are generated as well.

• Every single module in the game has been balanced and granted new rules and characteristics.

• Added multiple modules and removed some.

Revised ship editor (dev/modder only)

• More robust and complete ship designer

• Preliminary work for an in-game ship designer available for organizations

Revised influence border

• Overhauled the border and territory rendering (more accurate and faster)

• Better evolution of system control and arbitration of ownership

Tweaked scenario

• Replicants faction extended

• Alpha Centauri is colonized by the SAE

• Something lurks in deep space...

Improved generation

General improvement to generating minor organizations.

Organization AI: Military

• Better theatre creation and allocation logic

• Much better fleet AI decision-making

• Improved police, operatives, and explorer AI and allocation

Organization AI: Economy

• Shipyard orders, with a simulated local (faction) and global market

• Better simulation of spacecraft demand

• Cargo, miners, and passenger transport target ship counts (AI and player)

• Value-added taxes, which replace profit taxes

Industry

(for outposts, colonies, and stations)

• Simplified how industries are built and capped for space-station-based industries

• Industry retooling: allows switching to a compatible industry type (currently free)

Revised diplomacy & war

• Improved most diplomacy and war logic

• Improved UI with sorting options, tooltips, and additional information

Improved fleet management

• Revised UI with many small features and QoL improvements

• Possibility to edit templates from the fleet screen

• Fleet formation

• Support for parasites

• Formation posture

Smart cursor & improved ship orders

When giving ship orders (tasks)

• Proposes a task given the context: Attack, Join Fleet, Dock/Land, Salvage wreck

• "Alt key" to switch the smart cursor to multiple options (context menu) instead of smart orders

• The player's ship can be given AI orders

• Extended AI order (task) options

• Possibility to queue tasks (hold Shift while giving orders)

• Better UI feedback for orders (barks, tooltips, descriptions, queued travel lines, etc...)

...Hundreds of fixes, tweaks, performance improvements, and small additions