Wait, what? Yep, you read it right. For Business Reasons, we’re changing the name of the game to Starsector. All I can say about it is this will not have any impact on how things proceed around here – these things happen to projects from time to time, and I hope that everyone will be on board with the change. (If you’re not, my apologies. If you are, thank you for your continued support!) Personally, I’m looking forward to moving ahead with the new name, and am very excited about the future.

Onward to what’s new in 0.54.1a. It’s a bugfix and polish release, much like the other .1 releases that follow up a major one. Unlike those, though, it’s taken over a month to put out. That’s the case for two reasons. One, the name change took some extra doing. Two, the 0.54a release was stable enough that there was no urgency in putting this version out – so, we’ve been able to work on the campaign design and do some prototyping along the way, laying down some groundwork for the next major release.

The major items in 0.54.1a are:

• Redesigned character screen (screenshot)
• New “emp arc” mechanic for the Tachyon Lance and the Ion Cannon, improvements to the High Energy Focus ship system
• Lots and lots of bug fixes and modability improvements

You can find the full patch notes here. Please download the new version using the links below.

Alternate download links: Windows Mac Linux

Update: … and that’s what I get for talking about hotfixes. New version is up – there was a bug having to do with built-in weapons – using “strip” from the refit screen or loading a variant would permanently remove them. This is now fixed, please re-download the new version if you got it already (links below updated, new build is RC5).

Original post below.

This release is essentially a hotfix for 0.53a, though a couple of new features have also snuck in. Not exactly a “hotfix” because there’s nothing urgent, but nonetheless, lots of things merited short-term improvement. Ah, terminology – the bane of every developer.

What’s new:

• Lots of AI improvements (in particular, phase cloak use, and overall AI aggressiveness)
• Built-in weapons on the Onslaught (“Thermal Pulse Cannon”), new system (“Terminator Drone”) for the Tempest
• Balance changes and bugfixes
• Various modability improvements
• Fixed issue where the game wouldn’t run on OS X 10.8 with certain Gatekeeper settings (thanks to everyone that helped get this resolved!)

The full patch notes are here.

Download the new version using the buttons below – you’ll need to reinstall the game, but shouldn’t have to enter the activation code again.

I’m very happy to announce the release of the 0.35a preview version of Starfarer!

At a high level, here are the new features of this release:

• New fleet command scheme, as discussed here
• Fleet command tutorial to show you the ropes
• The Codex interface, packed with useful information about the ships, fighters, and weapons. Includes lore for most of the weapons and a few of the ships.
• Mods need to be updated to show up on the list, as a few changes are incompatible with the previous version

You can read the full patch notes here. Notably, ship refitting and custom battles are not in this version and are planned for the final 0.35a release.

While I’ve got you here, I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support and feedback. A number of changes in this build have been inspired by the community in one way or another, and I can honestly say Starfarer wouldn’t be where it is now without your help and support!

Update: uploaded a new version fixing a crash if you click on a disabled ship on the map. So, if you picked up the first release (starfarer_xxx-0.35a-pre-RC1), may want to grab this one (starfarer_xxx-0.35a-pre-RC2).

As a bonus, two missions have a new hand-painted nebula background that just missed the initial release.

I’m very happy to announce that the 0.34a release is finally here!

What’s in this release?

• Four new missions and several new ships
• Customizable  key bindings
• Official mod support – you can find mods in our forum
• Gameplay and balance changes
• Colorblind mode (edit data/config/settings.json to toggle)
• Assorted bug fixes
• General polish & improvements

For a detailed list of changes, check out the patch notes. The manual is also worth a look – especially for the bits that the current in-game tutorial doesn’t cover.

You can download 0.34a here:

What’s not in this release?

There are no big war room changes.  The current implementation is very RTS-like, which, as it’s turning out, isn’t particularly suited to Starfarer. We’re planning to move away from that and focus on letting you make strategic-level decisions, without having to worry about minor details. It didn’t make sense to make incremental changes to the current system now, since we’ll be extensively revamping it soon.

What’s next?

The big-ticket items for 0.35a are:

• Ship refit screen
• Ability to outfit your flagship for missions
• War room revamp
• “Custom Battle” option

The idea is to dig into the customization elements of the game, with custom battles providing a good testing ground for your freshly-assembled  ships and fleets – and more replay value than you can shake a stick at. Well, at least, more than regular missions.

In the meantime, once 0.35a is out, we’ll start working feverishly on 0.36a, which will provide a first look at the campaign layer.