Alpha build 51 is live, and this one is a required update: the game and the server changed together, so Alpha build 50 can no longer connect. Exit Steam completely and start it again to get build 51. The game server restarted at 18:14 UTC. Nothing was wiped.
No more freeze at login
The game froze for a moment every time you logged in. It was building the Forge's whole list of modules in the background, whether or not you ever opened the Forge. That list is now built in one quick pass, and module pictures in the Forge and on the fitting screens load when you look at them.
If the game still freezes for you, at login or anywhere else, tell us the time it happened.
A lighter server
- Fitting or removing a module, upgrading a ship's Mark and repairing a ship: the server used to work every one of your ships out again each time one of them changed. It now keeps what has not changed. On a full hangar that is about seven times less work.
- Deploying, recalling and re-forming a fleet are lighter in the same way.
- A large base is gone over about five times faster whenever anything in it changes, and when you open it.
- Your ships, fleets, repairs, research and module stock now reach your game the way your base has since Alpha build 50: the server checks what really changed, sends nothing when nothing did, and tells your game which ship or stack it was. You will not see a difference today. It is the groundwork for screens that redraw only what changed.
Nothing about your ships, modules or base changed in what they are worth or what they do. These are speed changes only.
Good to know
- If you updated between 17:56 and 18:14 UTC and could not connect, that was us: the new game went out a few minutes before the new server. It connects now.
- A restart of the server brings every deployed fleet home to its bay, and a battle that was running when it stopped is called off: no damage, no report. Deploy again and carry on.
- If Steam does not offer the update, exit Steam completely (Steam, then Exit) and start it again.
- Alpha Round 11 on the playtest page is still open.
The changelog has the full list.