The Foundation

The Foundation Update

This one started small.

Subspace Reticulum began as a personal project in MonoGame. An excuse to poke at neural networks and see whether I could make an NPC that felt like it was actually playing rather than following a script. It was never meant to be a game. Over a lot of iterations it turned into one, and then into something bigger than that: an attempt to build an experience worthy of standing alongside what Subspace Continuum gave so many people.

Today's update is the foundation that everything after it gets built on.

The bots are the whole story

Neural networks are still the thing I care most about here, and I intend to keep chasing the best AI players I can make. But a network is only as good as what you teach it, and the bots needed a great deal of training data. Training them on captures of me worked decently. But I needed more. I had to build something worth learning from.

That is where the current heuristic bots come in. They are the mentor.

They plan routes through the map instead of flying at you in a straight line. They lead their shots. They take and bank flags, hold a base, break off when they are losing a fight, and call for backup when they need it. They read the fight and change how they fly because of it.

And they are now teaching the next generation of bots through a combination of imitation and evolution. Every match the heuristic bots play is groundwork for what replaces them.

What's in the update

Fly the fleet. All eight hulls: Warbird, Javelin, Spider, Leviathan, Terrier, Weasel, Lancaster and Shark. Each with their own weight, weapons and role. Bullets, bombs, mines and Thors; bursts, repels, rockets, bricks, decoys, portals and the rest of the prize kit. Everything you'd expect in your arsenal is at your disposal.

Two flag modes. Turf: capture the fixed poles and hold the territory.

Warzone: pick up loose flags, carry them home, secure the full set to win. Bases are authored directly on the map rather than guessed at, so the bots understand a flag room as a flag room. The mouths, the spine, the ground you have to hold.

Multiple map sizes are supported, allowing you to create smaller focused arenas, or expansive sprawling team fortresses.

Play online. A public zone directory, zones you can join from the menu, multiple arenas inside a single zone, maps streamed to you on connect so you never chase a download, and netcode built for Continuum-scale player counts.

Run your own zone. Host from your machine or a server, with staff roles, in-game admin commands and a real settings editor for the whole configuration. Not a text file and a prayer.

Challenge your friends. Direct duel invitations from the menu allow you to challenge anyone to prove their skill.

Play offline. Practice, solo matches and a bot playground, all running the exact same simulation the servers run.

And the rest of it. Spectator mode, a pilot roster for your callsigns, in-game reference panels on F1–F4.

There is so much more already, and so much more to come.

What this is, and what it isn't

Complete parity with Continuum hasn't been reached, and that was never the goal. I don't want to build a copy. I want to take what made Continuum so good and use it to make a Subspace universe for ships to engage their warp drive in and blast into the modern era.

This update is the solid base that future stands on.

Thank you

To the Discord community that has formed around this project: thank you. The encouragement and the excitement you've shown have meant a great deal, and what's here exists because of it.

I really hope I can give both veterans and new players something worth their time.

See you out there.