Dev Video - Unit cap, upkeep, credits and logs.

• Unit cap added for trade ships (soft cap)

• Upkeep added for ships

• Upkeep/income interface added

• Log added

Longer explanation: There is now an upkeep cost to ships, this upkeep is paid per "cycle." To help keep track of cycles a cycle timer has been added, you can see the timer in Overworld mode. Right now a cycle lasts 1000 seconds - but this will most likely change. Combat and miscellaneous ships - currently cost 1% of their buy cost as upkeep. This is also likely to change in the future. Trade ships (transport, mining, shuttles) are handled differently. For one there is now a "unit cap" on these ships. The primary way of raising this cap is via gaining levels in trading and mining. The secondary way of raising this cap is via owning bases. What does the cap affect? It mostly affects upkeep and the ability to buy trade ships. You can buy pass the cap via capturing ships and building ships in owned bases. Trade ship upkeep is designed to discourage massive spam of trade ships. The upkeep cost rises dramatically as you go over the cap. If there is an upkeep shortage, some of your owned ships might go on strike and refuse to execute your orders, though they will still defend themselves. -- To help keep track of upkeep, I've added two new interfaces to Overworld mode. The first one is the "Credits" interface that will show you ship upkeep cost as well as income. The second is the "Log" interface that keeps track of many events - including upkeep. Hope you enjoy! What's the goal of all this? The goal is to slow down the rate of income generated by trade ships and balance the income generated by trade ships. While I don't want the game to be a grind, trade ship income is way better than any other income, less risky and worst of all much more boring. What's next? I'm going to take a look at adding some dynamic elements to the economy and most likely re-balancing resource costs. Adding price fluxuations via supply and demand should further balance trade ships. I will also look into making trade ships more likely to be attacked, especially if they are carrying valuable cargo. After that? The goal is to add some scripted missions to the game (versus the auto generated current missions). Most likely these missions will be faction missions, versus story missions. Once again - thank you for all the great feedback and support! Paul