HIRED STARS - Major Voice Casting & Core Engine Refactoring

Evolution of the Core: Systems, Voices, and Personalization

First and foremost, thank you to everyone for your support and belief in this project. I am doing my absolute best to ensure the final experience exceeds your expectations.

This update represents an exhaustive overhaul of the game's backbone. While the focus wasn't on "new gameplay" loops, I’ve touched nearly every corner of the engine to improve and prepare for the future.

⚠️ CRITICAL: CLEAN REINSTALL REQUIRED

Due to the significant changes in directory structures and asset naming, Steam may not detect all file updates correctly. This can lead to missing sounds or corrupted content.

To ensure the update functions as intended, please UNINSTALL the game and then REINSTALL it again. I apologize for this inconvenience, but it is the only way to guarantee all new systems align correctly.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: SAVE GAME COMPATIBILITY

Due to a major restructuring of the data and database logic to prevent old data corruption, previous save games will no longer work. This was a necessary step to ensure long-term stability.

Imperial Voices & Narrative Progress

The experience has taken a massive leap forward.

• Major Voice Casting: Full voice-overs have been completed for The Emperor, Konrad, and Elliot.

• Campaign Expansion: While the main campaign is still being finalized, the narrative concept is now complete and all necessary lines are recorded. Expect the story to wrap up in one of upcoming updates!

• Audio Polishing: The Intro and Tutorial voice-overs have been further refined with filtering and optimization.

• AdjustedLocalization ReadyWhile currently in English, the entire voice and text system has been reworked to support future localizations.

Strategic Overhauls

• AddedNew Game Scene ReworkThe "New Game" menu has been rebuilt with rotating columns for settings. This allows for more granular control, including expanded sliders for Ambition frequency and the Doom Fleet .

• Advanced Captain Traits

  They are now moved beyond simple damage buffs. Traits now hook into every weapon stat independently (reload time, penetration, etc.), allowing for much deeper tactical customization.

  Note

  A full rebalance of the traits is coming in a future patch.

• Modding & Portability: The modding database has been restructured and assets renamed. This is a foundational step toward making the game compatible with other operating systems and environments.

Interface & Navigation Enhancements

• Tactical Focus: Tutorial arrows now blink to highlight critical UI elements during dialogue.

• Smart Tooltips: The Quest window now auto-adjusts to text size, and the strategic map includes a hint for camera-focusing on targets (cycling through multiple targets with repeated clicks).

• AddedUI PolishAdded resource bars to the Captain Details view and sleek new borders for the character "talking heads."
• AddedTraining PriorityNew players will now see a prompt to complete Training first, ensuring everyone masters basic tactics before diving into the sandbox.

Bug Suppression & Optimization

• Technical Refactoring: Optimized over 25 core classes. While the game was already performant, this "under-the-hood" cleanup ensures the engine remains lean.

• Seed Generation: The universe generator now uses intuitive string-based seeds (words) rather than random numbers, making your galaxy seeds more personal.

• Quest Immersion: Chapter 1 quest notices have been overhauled—specifically Konrad’s movements—to make the narrative feel more reactive.

• FixedBug FixResolved an issue where Captain recruitment beacons were not saving correctly.
• FixedBug FixFixed an interaction where Tashas "small talk" would block mouse-over info on beacons.

The Path Ahead

My current priority is the simultaneous replacement of all four Captain voices. Because of how these systems interconnect, I will be focusing on this major milestone next.

While the voice-over work takes center stage, I’ll be using the time in between to further refine the game’s backbone. Rest assured, once the voices are fully integrated, my focus will shift directly back to gameplay development.