Content Update - Shipbuilders, Auxiliary Ships & more!

New Faction - Shipbuilders

• The Shipbuilder faction specializes in capital ships and brings a unique approach to fleet management.

• Auxiliary Ships serve as fully mobile infrastructure, replacing Space Stations, Capital Shipyards, and Space Elevators.

• Shipbuilder Bombers specialize in anti-ship combat, dealing bonus damage to enemy vessels.

• Shipbuilder Bombardment Ships are capable of landing critical hits, regardless of formation position.

Shipbuilder Lore

When people think of space ships, they think of 'ACM Shipbuilders'. They built the largest, most advanced, and, sometimes, luxurious ships in the Cradle Stars. Based in the Sirius system (also known as Alpha Canis Majoris, from which the ACM comes), they grew a proud history of building the finest ships humanity had ever seen. Of course, that pride is not without blemish. Building ships for both sides during the 'Centauri War of Liberation' and an attempted cover up after a fault in one of their pioneering nuclear engines irradiated colony planet, 'Gliese 65 c', stand out amongst other controversies. However, staying nonpartisan has had it's benefits. When they received orders from 'HEPOC' and the newly formed 'Synthetic Republic' for one of their long-distance, colony, concept ships, they inadvertently stumbled on the secretive 'New Stars' - humanity's only chance of survival.

Their fame for building the most prestigious ships was such that they eventually became known simply as the 'Shipbuilders'. To maintain their reputation, it was an obvious decision for them to build mobile orbital platforms, rather than space stations stuck in a single orbit. These ships could be moved between planets as projects required. Their new 'Auxiliary Ships', which other factions will later try to copy, also include their advanced shipyards needed to build up their fleets. Additionally, a few trade secrets give their Bombardment Ships the ability to target ships and their Bomber Squadrons are better at targeting weak spots.

New Ship Type - Auxiliary Ships

• Non-combat ships that support fleets by repairing allied ships and providing fleet-wide buffs.

• Designed to sustain combat fleets, particularly in uncontrolled Star Systems.

• When the fleet is stationary, they repair other ships at a reduced rate, up to 50% hitpoints.

• During battle, they repair ships in the same formation line at a much slower rate.

• While in an orbit controlled by their team, they repair all friendly ships in the same orbit at a 50% rate.

• When stationary in deep space, they repair all ships in the same fleet at a 50% rate.

• AdjustedAll ships in the same fleet receive buffs+10% speed, 25% reduced formation movement cooldown and delay, 2× fuel burn duration, and 2× refueling speed.

Additional Updates

• Combat Scale

  • Added a match setting that reduces time of combat from in-game years to hours. Based on some player’s feedback for wanting quicker resolutions to occupation campaigns, rather than reinforcement logistics.

• Balance

  • Made some of the larger ships slower.

• Revised Tech Tree

  • Removed some dependencies to give more options.

• UI

  • Fleet icons now show a model, instead of just an icon. For non-Scout Fleets, this is a Generic Ship model.

  • Updated the layout and appearance of the HUD.

  • Added new graphical elements to the UI to indicate under-cursor and selected options.

  • Made clearer what planet Defensibility does.

  • Made some more text bigger.

• Performance

  • Various optimisations, mostly graphical.

• Linux & Steam Deck

  • Note: Stellar Reach is currently running fine on Steam Deck in Steam’s experimental Proton mode.

  • Made some changes to make the game run better on Linux. There are still some graphical issues, but the game is now playable.