Void Salvage - Space Hazards Update

Version 1.0.0.0

The void just became far more dangerous.

This update delivers a major pass across exploration, combat, progression, story, the Flagship encounter, and interface performance. Space Hazards now reshape travel and encounters, Points of Interest offer more varied risks and rewards, weapon timing has been reworked, the endgame has been expanded with new story outcomes and permanent boons, and 60 Steam achievements are now fully integrated with the Milestones system.

Space Hazards and exploration

Your surroundings can now change the rhythm of a journey, complicate an encounter, and force you to adapt before committing to your next move. Each hazard has its own visual identity and dedicated sound effects.

Some locations contain rich salvage fields, others offer leaner rewards, and not every Point of Interest is guarded. Derelicts now fade into view as they enter scanner range, making exploration feel more connected to the ship’s detection systems.

• Introduced Space Hazards as a major exploration and combat feature.

• Added dedicated visual and sound effects for hazards.

• Points of Interest now vary in the amount of available salvage.

• Some Points of Interest may contain no enemies.

• Derelicts fade into view when entering scanner range.

• Added opportunities to repair systems at Points of Interest.

• Black Holes can move the ship backward by five sectors, stopping at Sector 1.

• Black Holes can move the ship forward by five sectors, up to the highest previously reached sector.

• Story logs now advance through Main Quests instead of triggering at specific sector levels.

• Standardized “Point of Interest” and “POI” terminology across languages.

Weapons and combat

• All weapons fire 25% faster.

• All weapon reloads take 75% longer.

• Weapon reloads now take time instead of completing instantly.

• Weapons fully reload after leaving combat.

• Reload Speed and magazine size now have a more noticeable effect on combat.

• Player and enemy ships display a circular reload indicator.

• The HUD ammo bar refills in fuchsia during reloads.

• Burst weapons now fire multiple three-round volleys before reloading.

• Fire Rate controls the delay between Burst volleys.

• Reload Speed controls the full reload after the magazine is emptied.

• Burst ammo now represents complete volleys instead of individual rounds.

• Existing Burst weapons have been updated to use the new firing pattern.

• Non-standard weapons may lose effectiveness when fired.

• Rebalanced the Weapon Stabilizer.

• Improved projectile homing behavior.

• Enemy missiles now exclusively target the player.

• Fixed missiles stopping mid-flight, orbiting their target, or becoming stuck after their source left the screen.

• Missiles now explode with a 40-radius area-of-effect blast.

• Enemy projectiles now use lifetime and off-screen cleanup.

• Enemy damage now increases with sector progression.

• Enemy drones can now be selected and targeted correctly.

• Debuff effects now appear in relevant descriptions.

• Improved the reliability of the Comms Disruptor.

• Updated ship sound effects.

Flagship encounter

• Reworked the Flagship encounter, component behavior, and battle flow.

• Only the Flagship’s Ballistic Turrets and Laser Turrets can launch missiles.

• Flagship components now rotate correctly relative to the Flagship.

• Corrected the positions of the Flagship cores and drone systems.

• Added separate health bars for both core shields and exposed cores.

• Fixed the second core health bar disappearing.

• Added tooltips to Flagship drones.

• Flagship component health, weapon damage, and repair strength now scale with the number of Flagships previously destroyed.

• Reduced every Flagship component’s base health by 500.

• Added escalating hazards to later Flagship encounters.

• The player now untargets the Flagship when it leaves the screen.

• Fixed the Flagship battle music not playing.

• The ending and boon-selection sequence now uses the main-menu music.

• Added a dramatic delay and explosion sequence before the ending begins.

• Reduced excessive particles generated by Flagship components.

• Flagship particles and hit effects now respect a pool cap.

• Dying during the Flagship battle leaves the encounter available for another attempt.

• Fixed return attempts freezing without reopening the pre-Flagship prompt.

• Added lifetime Flagship-kill tracking.

Story, endings, and Prestige

• Rewritten and reorganized the main story and endings.

• Endings now use a dedicated scrolling presentation with condensed text wrapping.

• Ending text automatically advances after reaching the end.

• Removed the mechanical bonuses from the three pre-Flagship choices.

• Defeating the Flagship now leads into the proper ending sequence.

• Added permanent unlockable boons as ending rewards.

• Three random locked boons are offered after an eligible ending.

• Only one unlocked boon can be active at a time.

• Boons can be changed from the Statistics menu.

• When every boon has been unlocked, ending rewards fall back to 100 Credits or 50 XP.

• The death report can display “Revive” after unlocking the related story outcome.

• Prestige now fully resets main-story choices and objectives.

• The “Die 3 times” objective now counts deaths during the current Prestige cycle instead of lifetime deaths.

• Continuum remains permanently owned but must be reactivated for free during each Prestige story.

• Tutorial saves are blocked until the tutorial is complete, preventing broken saves with locked interfaces or missing POIs.

• Fixed the full HUD remaining hidden after returning through a Black Hole.

Achievements and progression

• Added 60 fully tracked Steam achievements, unified with the in-game Milestones system.

• Centralized achievement definitions, conditions, goals, rewards, localization, and Steam synchronization.

• Every achievement now has an assigned XP reward.

• Added achievement unlock notifications with sound and slide animation.

• Achievement notices display the achievement name, unlock condition, and XP reward.

• The Milestones page now shows completed progress as [c]n/60[/c].

• Added a filter to hide or show completed achievements.

• Corrected Milestone scrolling so the complete list remains accessible.

• Renamed First Cut to On the Clock, requiring 15 completed jobs.

• Stripped Clean now requires fully salvaging 100 derelicts.

• Deep Burn now requires travelling 40 light-years in one jump.

• Untouchable now requires completing 20 eligible Points of Interest without taking damage.

• Removed the old 5,000-Credit Converter milestone.

• Lifetime statistics now survive Prestige while remaining separate for each save slot.

• Added safe migration support for older saves.

• Added offline earnings so progress continues while away.

Upgrades, systems, drawbacks, and sockets

• Reworked upgrade descriptions to explain their effects more precisely.

• Sorting Matrix now explains which Points of Interest can provide higher-tier systems.

• Hull Jump Repair now has its own description.

• Removed the obsolete duplicate Hull Repair Speed description.

• Clarified that Shield Absorption reduces damage taken by active shields.

• The system unlock progress bar now uses the correct XP requirement for the current unlock level.

• Unlock progression now handles the maximum level correctly.

• Socket Bonus, Replace/Meld, and Drawback choices now share a consistent interface.

• Picker headers resize to accommodate optional secondary information.

• Choice panels align directly beneath their headers.

• Socket choices use the correct icons and colors.

• Socket bonuses display in the correct order on equipped systems.

• System bonus names and socket eligibility are communicated more clearly.

• Removing an item’s only drawback no longer opens an unnecessary picker.

• Items with multiple drawbacks still allow the player to choose which one to remove.

• Removed unused system effects that could cause misleading behavior.

• The equipped-system display now has two clear states: hidden and fully displayed.

Travel and fuel

• Added a persistent Jump Speed Boost toggle.

• Jump Speed Boost travels three times faster at 1.5 times the normal fuel cost.

• Jump Speed Boost remains enabled between jumps until manually switched off.

• Repositioned the Jump Boost and Distress Beacon controls.

• Added the Rangekeeper Drone, which reduces normal jump, boosted jump, and Tactical Escape fuel costs.

• Rangekeeper efficiency uses diminishing returns at higher tiers.

• POI distances now grow with sector and jump progression using diminishing scaling.

• Fuel capacity and efficiency upgrades are now more valuable during long-distance progression.

• Skip and boosted travel now consume their intended fuel costs.

Markets, ships, Charity, and quests

• Purchased market items are grayed out and cannot be purchased again.

• Locked ships are displayed in gray inside the Ship Bay.

• Locked ships now show their unlock requirements.

• The remote Ship Bay unlocks at Prestige Level 2.

• Ships can be selected or purchased directly from the remote Ship Bay at standard price.

• Physical Shipyards offer a 75% ship discount.

• Remote Charity access unlocks at Prestige Level 1.

• Added a Charity Outpost button to the right-side panel.

• Remote Charity exchanges return 25% less.

• Space Station Charity exchanges use the normal rate.

• Unknown Charity Outposts return 25% more.

• Added a forced prompt explaining remote Charity access.

• Added Charity-related achievements and exchange tracking.

• Main Quest text now includes a clearer objective indicator.

HUD and interface

• POI nodes and the radar are hidden while the player is dead.

• Combat controls are now anchored consistently around the central Fast Travel/Pause control.

• Locked control buttons retain their frames, while unlocked buttons use their normal presentation.

• Added pursuit, disruption, reinforcement, and hazard alerts around the radar.

• Pursuit and reinforcement alerts now include progress bars and expanded tooltips.

• Disruption status replaces reinforcement progress while communications are disrupted.

• Reinforcement information is now displayed on the right-side radar interface.

• Moved the Identify button to the outer side of its interface.

• Moved the boss health bar lower on the screen.

• Added a confirmation prompt before exiting from the menu.

• Desktop Mode switching is blocked during boss and Flagship encounters.

• Added F11 fullscreen support for the web build.

• Removed unnecessary shortcut keys.

• Picker hover sounds now play once instead of looping.

• Buttons with identical labels no longer continually restart their hover sounds.

• Improved visual and audio feedback across system-selection interfaces.

• Weapon statistics and comparison cards now reflect the updated fire and reload timings.

• Reload indicators remain accurate throughout the full reload sequence.

• Loot tooltips now consistently display On-Hit, Triggered, and Projectile effect descriptions.

• Standardized tooltip checks for notices, sockets, bonuses, and alert icons.

Performance, saving, and stability

• Removed development and debug processing from the camera system.

• Added dynamic scaling to the global afterimage cap.

• Afterimages are reduced automatically when performance drops.

• Cached frequently calculated upgrade and HUD values.

• Reduced repeated processing in the control panel, logs, and achievement checks.

• Capped pooled hit particles to prevent large battles from continually increasing effect counts.

• Added safer save migration for older save data.

• Added general localization, interface, saving, and stability improvements.