This time the biggest change is the start of a new game: you now create your empire and galaxy in a setup wizard. Your ships also fire on their own in combat, and ultrawide monitors are supported much better. Also new is language selection: you can switch the game between German and English.
🖥️ UI & Controls:
- A new game now starts with a wizard. You pick one of four peoples or build your own, roll names, choose a crest, color and ship style, and distribute strengths and weaknesses with sliders. There is an overview page before you start.
- The galaxy now comes in eight shapes: spiral, barred spiral, ring, elliptical, star cluster, twin galaxy, grid, or classic random. There is also a live preview with a seed dice and adjustable warp connections.
- You can now choose empire color and ship color separately, and there are eight new, vivid colors. The new portraits and trait icons are placeholders for now (magenta frames) and will be replaced by hand-drawn art later.
- If you want to jump right in, use "Quick Start" in the main menu, which is now at the very top. The main menu has been tidied up, and the logo is fully visible on all screen formats.
- A new game begins with a short greeting from your ruler. Then the camera zooms straight to your home world.
- ⚠️ Controls: You now pan the system map with the middle mouse button (like in combat). The right mouse button only issues movement orders.
- ⚠️ Controls: Mouse wheel up now zooms in and down zooms out, on the system map and in combat. On the system map you zoom around the mouse cursor, and the first zoom step no longer jumps to the minimum.
- You can now select specific ships on a tile with Ctrl + click, Shift + click, or the new "Select" button (with its own icon). The selected ships move together, and the rest of the stack stays behind.
- The selection window now shows a colored cargo bar for what your freighters and supply drones carry: ore, organics, radioactives, ordnance and supply. The tooltip lists exact amounts, and the bar updates instantly when loading and unloading.
- You can now switch the game between German and English: in the main menu and the Esc menu under Settings → Game. The change applies immediately, and your choice is saved.
- Settings now have the tabs "General", "Audio" and "Game". "Game" holds ship speed and language.
- Ship designer: Requirements now show what is mandatory ("min.") and where the upper limit is ("max."). Engines are no longer red as long as you stay below the maximum, and once you reach it you can't add more. Freighters show their mandatory cargo bay, and drones no longer show a bridge. Blueprints without a bridge, crew or life support can no longer be saved.
- The pause menu is now centered and dims the whole screen, including the edges.
- You can now turn music on and off in the main menu too. Volume changes in clean 10% steps, and 100% matches the original level.
⚙️ Gameplay:
- You no longer have to click every weapon individually: in combat, your ships now fire automatically as soon as an enemy is in range.
- With "Focus", all selected ships concentrate their fire on the marked target. Right-click sets the target, and Shift+right-click adds more. With "Split", each weapon picks the nearest enemy in its range.
- In the ship panel at the bottom left you switch the fire mode. The weapon rows show what each weapon is doing: firing, reloading, no target in range, or out of ammo.
- Freighter balancing: The freighter now needs only 50 crew and 50 life support and carries at most 5 engines, leaving more room for cargo bays. Existing freighter blueprints with more than 5 engines need to be adjusted in the designer. Freighters you've already built keep flying unchanged.
🎨 Graphics:
- New graphics options: in the settings tab, the Esc menu and the main menu, you can switch between fullscreen and windowed mode and choose a resolution from Steam Deck (1280×800) up to 32:9 (5120×1440). The setting is saved, and the UI stays readable in very small windows.
- Ultrawide (21:9, 32:9) is supported much better:
- The main menu fills the whole screen, with no gray strip on the right.
- The starry background on the strategy and combat maps no longer has gray edges.
- The system map is centered.
- The system panel sits at the right edge and no longer covers the tile contents window.
- The command bar docks at the bottom right next to the sidebar and no longer covers the center of the map.
- The empire generator window is centered on every screen, and its background is no longer tiled.
- Ships now glide smoothly across the map, turn in arcs, and point in their direction of flight.
- Windows now visibly float above the game: shadow, outline and a light glass effect set them apart from the background. The new glass window frames are fully drawn.
🐛 Bug Fixes:
- Ships kept moving while the game was paused. This is fixed.
- An unreachable target erased the previous route. The route is now kept.
- Ships destroyed in combat now disappear from the strategy map even if you confirm the combat result with OK.
- Destroying the pirate base now also stops the supply of new pirate ships. Ending the turn no longer crashes afterwards.
- Modding: New weapons from mods now fire in combat. You set the projectile type (rocket or bullet) in the module definition.
-Bradley