Alpha build 104 is live. Space has a whole new look, and your fleets now defend your base only when you tell them to.
Ships up close
- Zoom in on a fleet on the sector map and you see its ships, flying in formation with engine trails behind them.
- A fleet that warps in arrives with a flash.
- Fleet names sit on glass plates in their colours (yours cyan, the Tide orange), and step aside so they never cover a star.
Stars that light their systems
- Every star now lights its own planets: a day side facing it, a night side away from it, and a glow around the sun.
- Black holes, dead systems and asteroid fields give no light: their planets stay dark.
- The black hole, pulsar, nebula and anomaly systems have been redone.
- Each kind of system has its own mood: drifting gas in its own colours, and a gentle colour shift as you zoom in on it. Binary systems burn amber, dead systems are cold grey-blue.
Depth
- Distant starfields and dust drift behind the map as you pan, asteroid belts circle between the orbits, and now and then a comet crosses far below.
- Orbit rings are thinner and brighten behind their planet.
- Planets and suns turn at half their old speed.
The planet view
- Planets have clouds, a glowing atmosphere and city lights on their night side.
- Every base has a blinking beacon on top.
DEFEND BASE
- Each fleet card in the Fleets panel has a DEFEND BASE chip at the right end of its crew line. Press it to switch the fleet ON or OFF.
- Only fleets with DEFEND BASE on join the fight when your base is raided while you are online. Your base's guns fire either way.
- Every fleet starts OFF after this update, including fleets that used to defend. Switch on the ones you want at home.
- The crew line is shorter too: the captain's name and the crew count, like LENA OKAFOR · 3/3.
Fixed
- Buildings no longer come out of a raid damaged when they were not hit, and you are no longer charged to repair them (#188).
- The Bridge Crew screen's Below Deck cards no longer cover the line that says the fleet is out (#184).
- The Tide commander's card no longer stays on screen over a battle (#187).
- Collecting resources in a fully built base now shows up much faster.
Good to know
- The new looks are off on the LOW graphics preset, so slower PCs keep the old look.
- This is a required update: build 103 cannot connect. Steam brings in build 104 on its own; if it does not appear, exit Steam completely and start it again.
- The changelog lists every change.
Questions or bugs: #tester-chat and #bug-reports on Discord. Ideas: #feedback.