Build 26380472

1.3.8 is live on Steam (Windows and macOS), and comes to Google Play and the App Store as soon as they approve it. It bundles two updates: 1.3.7, planned for October 31, and 1.3.8, which takes in a good part of your feedback from the last few days. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to write.

Legendary ships

Four legendary ships are hidden in the Frontier. Follow a rumour, find the wreck, bring the blueprint to the Laboratory.

The front comes alive

• Offensives, Defences that grow, and missions behind the line: sabotage, rescuing a downed pilot.

• The front pays off: a station retaken opens a Front arsenal with a unique military part, and the front convoy pays in ore, scrap and research.

On the ground

• Ruins and pirate outposts to explore with the rover.

• Laboratory › Rover: the amphibious hull, and the sunken city finally opens.

• New station contracts that send you to a planet: Prospecting and Black box.

• Caches vary with the planet and the site: credits, ore, scrap or a part.

• Rover with a gamepad: two driving modes in Options › Controls (Direction, like the ship, or Car with the triggers), reverse in both, and the rover fires with your own fire button.

• Rover on touch screens: pull the stick back when stopped to reverse, a finger on the ground aims and fires, and the Fire button alone aims at the nearest enemy.

Weapons and balance

• Missile launchers get their own reserve: a salvo no longer drains your guns' energy. From Hornet on they hit much harder.

• Ion cannons really pierce shields, the railgun hits elites, stations and heavy hulls harder, and the fan of the triple lasers is tighter.

• Late game is tougher: the end of Orionis and Kepler hold out longer, and Tiger gear makes the difference.

• Promotions pay more: a rank's pay is worth one and a half missions, and each titled rank gives its own system part, found nowhere else.

• Hard modes rebalanced: contract pay, a fourth Laboratory upgrade tier, more orange gear in Kepler.

Crew and expeditions

• Each crew member's effect shows on their tile, with a status dot.

• Expeditions: a crew member only dies on a critical failure, and the first success of a marked choice always brings a blueprint.

• If Halo falls, her student Suture takes over as ship's doctor.

Trade and travel

• Better stocked spaceports, a pirate hideout market that restocks, and one smuggler's back room per galaxy, announced over the radio.

• Ferrum's shipyard sells the hulls of acts III and IV.

• Map: up to five numbered waypoints per galaxy (Shift+click), kept in the save.

• Escorts talk more during the trip.

Voices and interface

• Whispered lines from Admiral Voss and ARIA re-recorded in English and French, voice levels evened out (Voice slider up to 200 %).

• Wider zoom-out by default on PC, and the tutorial shows where to set it.

• The title button now reads Play and opens your games. Five save slots instead of three.

• Interface size now also applies to the Research, Laboratory, Posts, Hangar, Ship and Trade tabs. Dragging a part no longer turns the 3D ship.

• A What's new panel on the title screen, with links to the Steam news, the Discord server and my other games.

Mobile

• Android: on many phones the ground of living worlds (temperate, jungle, ocean, toxic, primordial) dropped to a few frames per second. It now runs six to seven times faster.

• Purchases say they went to "Your side", and "Buy and equip" works even with a single ship.

• Title screen tidied up on phones and tablets.

Fixes

• Act IV: Kepler's call now comes at any docking while it is due, even after reloading a save. In "The lists", the consortium convoy is really there behind its escort leader.

• Engine trails sit on their nozzles again (Vulture and 20 other hulls, 13 wingmen).

• The pause menu could shake non-stop on some screens, the shipyard looked garbled on some Android phones, and the minimap kept a ghost icon on the ground.

Thanks for all your feedback on the forum, in reviews and on Discord.

Guillaume