Patch Notes: July 1
A focused polish pass on top of last week's economy and galaxy rebuild. Sharper fights, a galaxy map you can read at a glance, and an Empire screen that stops fudging its own numbers.
Changes to the combat AI and Galaxy Map UI are works in progress. They are not complete, but I wanted to get some intermediary quality of life updates out this morning while work continues; the more complete set of updates I'm working on should hopefully hit Friday or Saturday.
⚔️ Combat Feel
No more "doughnut" orbits. Ships that circle you now keep their guns trained on you, crabbing sideways with the battery on target, and re-aim if you shoot their forward guns off.
Fights open with breathing room. Combatants spawn outside weapons range and close the distance, so nobody eats a full salvo before the battle starts. Spacing scales to the longest gun in the match.
🗺️ A Readable Galaxy
New map overlays. Tap B to cycle Off, Economic, Scout. Economic shows each system's net income and main resource; Scout flags untapped deposits and open build slots.
Fleets get off the planet. Parked ships fan onto an orbit ring around each system instead of piling on top of it. Your own ship sits in its own reserved slot at rest.
System defense now reads as a rim gauge that fills with strength, instead of a number stamped over the map. The exact figure still lives in the hover.
🏛️ An Honest Empire
The numbers match reality now: themed resource yields are labeled as feeding Research, with the split spelled out on the Territory tab.
Hostile outposts cost you. The 30% income penalty they always applied now shows as a red line item, so you know exactly what that outpost is bleeding.
Manage a sector from anywhere during integration, with a live rush cost that updates every tick.
Fixed a salvage double-count so each wreckage site pays its real rate, and unified player-facing "Wreckage" to "Salvage" to match the research currency.
🛠️ Builder
Mount footprints match what you see. Modules stop clipping into each other's plates, and a live green/red overlay shows clearance while you place or drag.
Clicking a weapon group just inspects it now. No more accidental reassigns. Assign explicitly with Ctrl+1-4, Shift+click, or LB+A on a gamepad.
Crisp ability loadout popup (no more blurry fallback font), and the Builder opens noticeably faster.
⚙️ Settings
Audio and VFX still apply live; display, health, and gameplay settings buffer behind a "pending Apply" hint, with a new Cancel button that reverts everything you touched.
Labels no longer get cut off at any UI scale.
🛰️ Sol Defense
The Sol System map fits now: no clipped nodes, stacks vertically when the window is narrow, and stops reverting to cut-off after a save or load.
Hovering a build previews what it will spend and what you will have left.
🐛 Fixes
Finishing or failing a mission now pops a reward banner when you return to the map.
Defend a besieged system instantly, no confirmation prompt. Opportunistic raids stay on your border systems, and a red alert warns you when your fleet is too weak to hold.
Sector Detail auto-refreshes on economy ticks, Sol Defense build buttons stopped jittering on hover, and the last stale "E" and "Energy" labels are now "Supplies".