Patch 1.0.4 is out. Thanks again to everyone who reported bugs and shared feedback, on Steam, on Discord and by mail: several changes below come straight from you.
Voice acting
- The key moments of the story are now voiced: ARIA, Admiral Voss, Ilse, the station operators, galaxy arrivals, the tutorial, alerts, the ending, and mission radio (convoy leads, VIP passengers, rescued captains).
- Voices are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.
- New Voice slider in Options > Sound.
A new intro
- New games open on a narrated intro, from the frontier planets to a Drone squadron and the stations, until your ship jumps in.
New languages
- Russian and Simplified Chinese are now available (AI translation, with an in-game notice asking native speakers for corrections).
A tighter start
- The Falcon now starts with a basic Standard Shield and no turret: your first upgrades matter more. Zone 1 stations always sell the Dolphin Shield.
- ARIA speaks the combat training briefing as it opens, and the tutorial's last line plays over the mission board.
Progression
- Hulls are now sold by act: Swift, Fighter, Delta and Vulture first, then Harrier, Hammer, Triton and Spear, then the Condor, and the capital ships after Radio Silence. Ships you already own stay flyable.
- While the story waits, the objective line, the journal and the Nexus show how many missions are left before the next order.
- Hard difficulty from Perseus on: one more enemy at once and twice as many elites. Orionis missions hold more enemies, and the Leviathan shows up more often.
Balance
- Enemy health and damage in zones 2 and 3 retuned for a smoother difficulty curve.
- Enemy shots can now be dodged, and enemy shields only recharge after 3 s without a hit.
- Touch: aim assistance now leads targets with your cannons' real shot speed.
Weapons and audio
- A tapped torpedo now flies on to the aimed point and detonates there (it went off right in front of you, dealing no damage).
- New sounds for the Railgun, Flak, Pulse and Scatter cannons, a launch clank for mines and decoys, slightly quieter turrets.
- Sounds are now heard from the centre of the view, with a cleaner mix. Missing or cut sounds on Android fixed.
- The engines keep humming while the docking autopilot lands you.
- Out of combat, the hyperboost works even on an empty energy tank, and bumping into rocks no longer cuts it.
Visuals and menus
- Planet scans are easier to see, with a progress ring around your ship.
- Galaxies redrawn, the mission board is now a list with a briefing, research tabs redone.
- Stars fade behind the space mist, and a sparse mid-distance star layer adds depth on Low and Medium.
- Redesigned Hammer and Sphinx.
- Phones: adaptive quality keeps the frame rate steady under load.
Fixes
- Rescue missions: the rescued ship now waits for you, and its ambush no longer vanishes.
- Turret bases are drawn under their turrets.
- The world map no longer freezes the game when a level loads, and the game pauses while it is open.
- Voices and music could play slower and lower on some audio setups. Fixed.
- Pilots: Nova leaves the recruiting pool (existing hires keep her), and Rook becomes the Prospector.
Help wanted: translations and voices
- The German, Spanish, Russian and Chinese translations and all the character voices were made with AI tools, then checked as well as a solo developer can. If you speak one of these languages and a line reads wrong, a word is mispronounced or a voice sounds off, please tell me on the forum or on Discord (with the language and, if you can, a screenshot). Every report gets fixed in a following patch.
The update downloads automatically through Steam, and the demo gets the same changes. Tell us what you think on the forum or on Discord. Good hunting, pilots!