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!
Changed files in this update