- Alpha 5.1.1: Ancient tracking weapons, torpedo delivery, Sol defence - 18 September 2026
Weapons - The Ancient line carries two tracking weapons. The Ancient Seeker is a mid-tier missile, and the Ancient Dissolution Torpedo is a high-tier heavy warhead. - Both travel slowly as plasma globes and carry enough structure to cross point-defense fire. Each leaves a crackling field on the hull it strikes, scouring that hull for several seconds. - A torpedo's blast triggers at the first part of the hull that still has structure, so a torpedo fired into an open breach reaches the ship behind it. - A torpedo that breaks through a shield delivers the same blast as one that strikes bare hull. Galaxy - A raid that has reached Sol can be fought from your ship while you are there. - The Sol panel counts inbound raids and raids inside the system on separate lines. Builder - The Builder opens on a vertical mirror axis, including when a saved design carries a different axis. Stability - Comb…
- Alpha 5.1.0: Builder QoL, Power Control Hotkeys, Stuffs - 17 September 2026
Builder got some things built. Shapes can slope into a ridge or swell into a dome. It's kinda janky sometimes other than the default plate so I will continue to iterate. The Appearance tool paints textures more consistently for edge cases, and you can have depth shapes with different textures right next to each other, even the open shapes, without it getting weird. The right-hand panel keeps tool settings, selection actions, and skin swatches in one place, the Blueprint Library has tabs plus rename / duplicate / delete, and Assign Ability stays open so you can swap the loadout without closing and reopening. Nodes have been improved visually so they're easier to see. I'm getting pretty old, so this was more for me than anything. Photo Booth (the old preview tab) has a light slider to adjust shadows with a reset button (thanks, Mr. Kill!). On the tactical side, F1–F5 set a power balance m…
- Alpha 5.0.0: Tactical HUD, power distribution, and captain relationships - 11 September 2026
Combat runs from a dock of cards along the bottom of the screen. The center column is Power, Weapons, Operations, and Abilities, with Ship Status and Hostile Intel on the sides. Damage pips are real-time and reactive to fresh damage, and healing. Free game key to the first ten people to DM me why it relates to The Wrath of Khan at roughly these timestamps :PTheatrical cut (113 min): about 49:47Director’s Cut (116 min): about 51:25Off-screen contacts carry an edge pip labelled with range and a new reinforcements UI shows who's still alive and who's about to 'give them something else to shoot at'.Target Subsystem is bound to Semicolon and cycles Core, Weapons, Engines, and Reactors and you can also target subsystems by clicking your target's paper doll. Scan gives a temporary targeting boost to the caster’s now, and no longer boosts other ships on a team. Operations shows speed, turn, pow…
- 4.6.2: UI and Text Scaling - 1 September 2026
Added UI Scale and Text Size. A few updates to other UI stuff to make that work better; scrolling available in areas it wasn't before, and helper text does some word rapping. Not as good as Snoop or Eminem though. But decent.
- 4.6.1: New player quality of life - 30 August 2026
Special thanks to Clécio for his live playtest during his Godot educational livestream. His testing gave me some excellent ideas for new player quality of life improvements. If you enjoy indie game development or Godot, check him out. Clécio, obrigado! -Updated the controller helper (H key by default) to be more useful.The tutorial now forces the control helper open for your first fight, but you can hide it at any time. Also added as a button upper right by the Codex, and a hint in the tactical pause menu.-Updated intro text in the tutorial to explain some core mechanics of the "Age of Sail" genre.Clarified that default controls are W/S (Forward, reverse), A/D (Rotate left, right), and Q/E (Strafe left, right).-Added weapon arc visuals to the V key toggle, in addition to the aim lines. This is also forced on for the first tutorial mission, and can be toggled at any time.Added a new keyb…
- Alpha 4.6.0: Lights, tooltips, and more brutal fights - 29 August 2026
You can mount up to four real lights on a ship, with full color blending, and the local star isn’t always fixed at high noon anymore so you get soft light fights and harsh angled shadows on others. The last shader pass let me finally tune that, and it’s also why this patch spends time on glitter and jaggies from all the hull gridlines. That’s still a work in progress and might look a bit flat at middle zoom. It's a tough problem. I put tooltips on everything. Every. Thing. Delay is in settings, and Show Me tutorials are more reliable. Esc opens the menu in the builder, test flight is unlimited, non-QWERTY rebinds are in (I’m a long way from real localization, but this should help), and Auto Aim is called Auto Aim now instead of Aim. Combat encounters got a pass so they stop being a one-bad-guy-at-a-time-martial-arts movie. Line Breaker had a theoretical max of 14 ships sent in one by on…
- Alpha 4.5: The Pit - 24 August 2026
Builder got a pit for staging fights. Modules were retuned so the five factions are more unique. NPC hulls were rebuilt with a per-faction silhouette language. Encounters stage and reinforce ships by measured power. Ability VFX have all been updated. Hull lighting has improved depth, and Codex pages are rebuilt. Arena Pit and the new ability visuals are both unfinished. Expect bugs. Both get major updates over the next two weeks. WARNING: Nothing stops you from adding fifty ships to the arena and melting your GPU. Arena Pit - New Builder mode (Shift+F8, or the Arena Pit chip). Pick hulls, pick the other side, launch. Does not write campaign progress. - Fly the ship or Watch. - Presets: Mirror, Swarm, Titan, Skirmish, Last fight. - Roster is your ships plus curated ones. Assign teams. Generated pool hulls are optional. Curated ships show their authored names. - Spacing Near / Standard /…
- FIX: Combat stuck - 16 August 2026
This patches an issue where multi-wave combat would sometimes fail to complete and declare you the victor when the last enemy was crushed by your terrifying brutality. I can only assume the spirit of the machine in some of your computers was frozen in horror, aghast at what you'd wrought.
- INFINITE EMPIRE: Steam Workshop! (and other stuff) - 9 August 2026
Steam Workshop, Auto-Framing Camera, and Reinforcement WavesShare your ships on the Workshop. The camera frames your fight for you. Enemy reinforcement director adds variety to tactical battles, and the Sol tutorial runs through to a living galaxy. Not available in the Demo version, sorry! Steam Workshop - Publish any ship you have built straight to the Workshop from the Builder Blueprint button. - Browse what other players have shared and bring their ships into your own game. - Editing a published ship and publishing again updates the original entry. - Preview images are captured from your ship automatically. https://steamcommunity.com/app/4513600/workshop/ Tactical Camera - The camera picks the closest zoom that keeps your ship and your target on screen, clear of the HUD. - Zooming with the wheel sticks. The camera holds the closeness you chose for as long as the fight stays where it…
- Alpha 0.4 RELEASED! - 2 August 2026
I'm very excited about this update for the game because it's basically nothing but polish on the player-facing side. The game looks better, plays better, feels better, and I have about 190 tracked changes (I call them tickets) in this build. At the bottom are the obvious ones compared to Alpha 0.3, but here's my favorites:I have ~550 ship designs built-in, and they've gone from placeholder blobs and triangles to architected designs with faction aesthetics, and the current batch actually looks damned cool, especially when they're bleeding atmosphere, on fire, and drifting after a core breach.The self destruct/scuttle mechanic is badass and the nerdiest thing I've ever built. If you disarm an enemy they usually try to run. If you take their engines out, they'll usually try to scuttle their ship, and the countdown/destruct process is chef's kiss. It even has some SFX paying homage to Wrath…
- baby patch - 24 July 2026
waaaaaa
- Minor balance patch - 24 July 2026
-Buffed tracking projectiles (missiles, torpedoes, and mortars) vs point defense. -Nerfed how some healing abilities stack because you could build a Bio-focused captain that was more or less unkillable. Now there's a slight delay before regen kicks so at least you've gotta hide behind a rock or something to recover. :)
- Minor-ish-Medium-ish Patch: This and That - 23 July 2026
-Added missile launcher variants (I just copied torpedo sprites for this build and I'll build them unique models soon) and gave the weapon class a unique firing, travel, and terminal attack pattern. Whooshhh-whoooshh-whooshhhh!-Grouped weapons by type in Builder for easier, uh, grouping.-Footprint of existing modules will pop when placing or moving modules to help with getting things juuuuust right.-Added a next-turn resource estimator in the Galaxy map, so you can see if you're going to drain your fuel or supplies.-Added a new ability selection UI to replace the disgusting old one I made a year ago. Ew.-Added hull texture swatches to the Appearance tool. Mix and match to make a hideous abomination!-Changed default camera drag in tactical to MMB so now Builder, Galaxy Map, and Tactical all share the same button for camera drag.-Updated the Incubation Acid Trail VFX to something that doe…
- Now with 5% less jank! - 21 July 2026
-More improvements to snap-to-grid -Fixed issue with the mouse override hint box being limited to 320px wide, which cut off all the helpful shortcuts in place I worked so hard to build. *captainpicardfacepalmgifiwontputherebecauseidontknowifthatslegal*
- Now with 3% less jank! - 20 July 2026
-Improvements to snap-to-grid -Improvements to symmetry behavior -Module stats and power stats more reliable at all resolutions (issue with text trimming)
- Alpha 0.3: The Builder Rebuild - 19 July 2026
The Builder Rebuilt: Ship Design V2, Decals, and a Fighter OverhaulThe ship Builder has been rebuilt from the ground up, a full appearance and decal system is in, and fighter pathfinding and balance has been reworked.Builder V2: A Complete Rewrite- The ship Builder is brand new, rebuilt from scratch. The old Builder is fully retired. - One unified shape system: freeform paths, prebuilt parts, grab and warp outlines, and curved segments all work the same way, with per-corner rounding and smoothing. - Consistent controls everywhere: left-click always selects, right-click always creates. Every edit is undoable. Able to be undoed. Undoned.Undoneded. - Symmetry by default: mirrored twins stay linked through moves, rotates, copy-paste, and saves, and the mirror axis is draggable. - Cut tool: Make doughnuts in your hull! - Sketch mode: draw a reference underlay (or import an image) and build y…
- Minor patch - 12 July 2026
Fixed issue with tracking projectile weapons timing out too early.
- Alpha 0.2 Released! - 12 July 2026
The biggest build yet. A full armor system, every enemy ship redesigned from the ground up, combat repairs, and a complete visual pass on the galaxy map.🛡️ The Armor SystemPaint armor directly onto your hull in the Builder, under Edit Hull Structure alongside Struts and Shapes.Five faction materials with distinct looks and stats: titanium, brass, chitin (it regrows in combat), bone, and ceramic. New materials unlock through Tendrils.Armor has mass. Thicker plating slows your acceleration, top speed, and turning, and your armor budget grows with the size of your frame.Armor visibly erodes and tears as it takes hits, and the new Scan ability finds the gaps in any ship's coverage. ⚔️ Every Ship RedesignedThe entire enemy ship pool has been regenerated from the ground up.Each faction plates its ships in its own armor belts, with real gaps to find and exploit.Ships are built on proper struc…
- Early Build: Crash Reporting Is In (plus a WIP pile of good stuff) - 5 July 2026
Note up front: this update shipped earlier than planned. I built a crash reporting system and wanted it in your hands immediately, so the rest of this patch rides along in a work-in-progress state. It all works and is tested (as much as I can), but tuning is ongoing and a follow-up is coming fast. 🚨 Crash Reporting: Help Us HuntThe game now notices when it did not shut down cleanly. On your next launch you may see a small "Unexpected Exit" notice telling you where it happened, with an Open Logs Folder button (also available in Settings). If you ever get kicked to desktop with no error: hit that button and send the newest log file to me in our Discord, along with what the notice said. That turns "it just closed" into something I can actually fix (maybe). One silent Empire-screen crash is already dead thanks to exactly one player report, and I want the rest. 🧪 The Research Tree Is Fully…
- Alpha 0.1.1666 - The Big Combat Visuals & Damage Overhaul - 3 July 2026
This update focused on establishing a new baseline for projectiles so I can more easily add VFX going forward and prep for a weapon design pass. Hull Damage: Back to Pre-Alpha, But Gooder!Modules now have their health pools tied to their footprint on the hull. This is how it worked pre-alpha, but since then I've learned how to make it functional, so it's back! Shots drill real channels through plating, and the scars you see ARE the damage state.Overkill carries through: heavy slugs bore deep, light guns chew.Bisected modules die. Because module health is tied to hull segment health, you could technically cut a module in half and it might still live if your weapons were very accurate. That seems silly, so it's tuned to avoid that. I hope.Ships Die With VarietyCore kills roll one of three deaths: a molten crater, a fountain of fire and sparks, or the whole core section blown clean through…
