- v0.173 - 27 September 2026
Startron v0.173 has been released! Tweaks & updates The 3D museum now has a few more things in it & some of the harder-to-see museum exhibits are now more visible You can heal your crew for free in the new 3D interior for hospital municipal building tiles You can recycle pollution and contaminated canisters into plating for free in the new 3D interior for sewage treatment plant municipal building tiles The municipal building bank tiles now have a 3D interior for completeness The NPCs in municipal building interiors now match the homeworld they're on Your other ships can also offload waste canisters at sewage treatment plant tiles to get the plating back Bugs fixed in this version Fixed the broken background colour on entities with atmospheres or after verse portal use Fixed the airlock prompt showing up at the wrong time Fixed NPCs on the minimap showing the wrong colours sometimes
- v0.172 - 26 September 2026
Startron v0.172 has been released! Tweaks & updates Improved the wormhole, black hole & white hole effect Improved the sun effect Improved performance on drawing planets, suns & other circles Improved building roads and conduits to show what they're connecting to You can now land at museum municipal building tiles and wander around Rivers and half lithrogen tiles now darken in the ship's reflection similar to full lithrogen tiles The sunlight cup icon got a minor tweak Teeth and tails are now tracked in guttelus history Colonisation events are now tracked on entities mentioned in crashed ship logs Messages and warnings now unfurl so they're less easy to miss The administration pay fine screen was updated Repairing in engineering & paying a fine at administration now says what happened Added a new TV headline Added apartments, aerials & satellite dish municipal buildings Improved render…
- v0.171 - 21 September 2026
Startron v0.171 has been released! Tweaks & updates Reduced CPU overhead Added some more inter-NPC dialog Tweaked the tutorial station to have 2 docking ports like the real one Bugs fixed in this version Fixed the "Set order here" key clashing with the "Search other ships" key on the bridge Fixed 2 avenues for possible automation desync Fixed multiple port manteaus Fixed smoke coming from lava while under a crater edge tile Fixed the production favour perk creating power & workers from nothing Fixed not untracking engineering component recipes when they get fixed Fixed rare plants sometimes spawning on top of grass, ferns or trees in new cosmoi Fixed the MazeBase sword not working diagonally between tiles Fixed holding T in the bar beep spamming Fixed a missing beep on toggling signs
- v0.170 - 19 September 2026
Startron v0.170 has been released!Tweaks & updatesOther lifeforms will now wander around stations and other 3D interiorsOther lifeforms will also make idle conversation with each other in the 3D interiorsThe interior 3D minimap is backInterior 3D navigation is now much more flexible (less getting stuck on things when moving yourself, and no more walking back on yourself when using auto-walk)The game is now 33% wider (4:3 aspect ratio instead of 1:1 - 160x60 characters over the old 120x60)Added an experimental ASCII 7-bit 3D render mode (does not affect any 2D interfaces or backgrounds)Improved the tracking controls to show what's being tracked clearerImproved the aurora effect when flying around in system viewPlasnon cannons can now target nearby tytopopsNegative crew conditions now flash red in the crew quartersAdded dedicated context messages within MazeBaseRemoved being able to buy r…
- v0.169 - 5 September 2026
Startron v0.169 has been released! Tweaks & updates Steam achievements! Buildings now show their required resources in the cosmic database too Multiple recipes can now be tracked at once Crashed ship logs will now actually have remnants of their actions (where applicable) The transmissions prompt now has an unfold animation at the top of the screen so it's less easy to miss Spruced up the intro a bit Gas giants can now have multiple rings, their rings now show the colour of their most abundant element & their ring axis is now permanent Bugs fixed in this version Fixed not having enough to pay a fine sometimes not letting the player leave stations with a warning Fixed smoke not moving on stations Fixed lingering ship particles when in 3D Fixed conference room unlock message appearing at the wrong times
- v0.168 - 30 August 2026
Startron v0.168 has been released! Tweaks & updates Pulsars are now visible in the backgrounds like nebulæ Pulsars now flash when viewed from within their system Destroying your ship above an entity has a chance that some of your cargo will make it down to the crash site Crew now start in random quarters positions (and are all shown on the bridge now too) Updated some miscellaneous database pages Gas giant lightning now jumps between clouds before striking the ground Added an experimental option for diagonal zigzags lines between entities/ships/systems Bugs fixed in this version Fixed nipgen's chemical symbol Fixed NPC ghosts blocking player movement in pirate stations Fixed Greemus system entities not being named correctly Fixed particles not resetting after ship is destroyed Fixed possible crash when using rail launchers Fixed the species choice showing incorrectly when returning to t…
- v0.167 - 23 August 2026
Startron v0.167 has been released! Tweaks & updates Added new aliens (Greemians) Added a new dumb arcade game (Super Tytopop Bop) Added rare cobron stars to new cosmoi Unified and neatened the yard manager and ship factory fitting interfaces Stock levels in shops now flash when they're out Corrected the guttelus composition readout when out of teeth Removed addons now return to your cargo bay Added a camera bump when hit or changing level in MazeBase New readers on alien homeworlds are now their species, not yours Recipe tracking difference now shows on cargo bay items and the tracked cargo prompt Your current fuel is now reflected in the bridge & engineering console textures Added coloured stars to the backgrounds (corresponding to the coloured bands of the cosmos) Adjacent nebulæ now show in the background Tweaked/corrected various database pages, wording and language differences Pira…
- v0.166 - 30 July 2026
Startron v0.166 has been released! Tweaks & updates Destroying sprouts now yields organics instead of nothing Sunlight absorbers are now shaded by more adjacent tile types Your zipship now shows over sign tiles so you can still see it when reading a sign The cosmic database & tile info now make it clear that yist, crot & umyum plants require sunlight The coloured metal texture in 3D areas has been redrawn Bugs fixed in this version Fixed the interface flashing and stuttering after destroying an entity Fixed inactive pickers disconnecting from their adjacent conduits Fixed chrosnic turning white in the sun
- v0.165 - 26 July 2026
Startron v0.165 has been released! Tweaks & updates Shrushmooms will grow on naturally occurring chrosnic and potron if planted now Entities that are too near to each other will naturally spread out around stars now Tidied up some bits around the UI & the codebase in general Bugs fixed in this version Fixed a missing beep when selecting entities in the tutorial Fixed shrushmooms, crayons and yist flowers cycling through colours when the camera moves Fixed being able to jam entities with a damaged communications array Fixed giant wobs spawning on inhabited worlds before the player does anything
- v0.164 - 30 June 2026
Startron v0.164 has been released! Tweaks & updates Faction favour rewards now pay grants into your Banko account Giant wobs may now appear if you upset an ecosystem Added spondelarians Added shrushmooms (they generate in new cosmoi or are available at the flora shop) Updated the graphics for Rock Blaster Rocks in Rock Blaster now wrap around neater at the edges Added tiny rocks and a powerup to Rock Blaster Tweaked some wording in places Bugs fixed in this version Fixed the FOV-zoom effect hiding the arcade machine when at a bar Fixed 3D cargo bay readouts always showing as "Miscellaneous Cargo" Fixed some transmissions duplicating at the start of a new game
- v0.163 - 13 June 2026
Startron v0.163 has been released! Tweaks & updates Added a new rail-launcher superstructure for propelling your zipship from an entity without petroop cost Unlocked the conference room so you can see your faction rating and any available expeditions (with perks for maxing out each of the 3 factions) Chits now count up or down on screen for visual appeal You can now drink at the bar if you really want to Gas giant rings and entity orbit rings are now drawn with a continuous line Hovering over a system while panning the cosmos is now much less fiddly The delete key is now supported in typing areas The home key will also now centre the cosmos pan as well as the camera while flying around an entity Tracked cargo and the flashing double-exclamation character from Startron Classic now show over their corresponding SDARS menu options UI prompt positions at the bottom are now dynamic based on…
- v0.162 - 1 June 2026
Startron v0.162 (Emergency Patch) has been released! Bugs fixed in this version Fixed loading into a cosmos crashing in regions that use different decimal separators Fixed navigating to numbered links on cosmic database pages sometimes not lining up with the numbers displayed
- v0.161 - 30 May 2026
Startron v0.161 has been released! Tweaks & updates All text fields now support cursor positioning with left-arrow, right-arrow, home & end The captain's log can now be cleared with F2 Added a pop-in camera animation for 3D interiors Added a zoom-in effect for entering a 2D interface from 3D When hailing other captains they'll sometimes tell you of a station nearby that they've recharged their petroop at (might come in handy) Yist flowers now have a few different colours for decorative purposes when beamed down Added palm trees to sandy beaches (they're pretty similar to normal trees except they don't degrade to ferns) Geysers are now more common on fault lines on ice planets Tidied up all the 3D airlocks Added 15 more SNN headlines for late-game events Added a terminal to the 3D engineering Showing all signs or not is now saved to your game Petroop costs more in pirate systems Aligned…
- v0.160 - 25 May 2026
Startron v0.160 has been released! Tweaks & updates Completely remade the 3D engine (it now functions less like Wolfenstein3D and more like DukeNukem3D) Completely remade all 3D maps for the new engine and included a few minor visual improvements here and there as a result Spacejack card backs can now be changed to suit your mood Spacejack card faces now rotate correctly Pressing Z will now go straight to your zipship interior Grog now have pictures in the cosmic database once unlocked The doctor insignia has been redrawn in the cosmic database Gutteli & drengeli now have fuzzy outlines in the cosmic database The current CRTI now shows on the bridge history panel The ` character has been redrawn in the Unity emulator font to be clearer Pirates in your crew now wear hats Cobwebs only show in the readyroom on your first ship (before any self-destructs) The prompt for manually mining now s…
- v0.159 - 12 April 2026
Startron v0.159 has been released! Tweaks & updates Overhauled the cosmos generation and selection interfaces Clouds now show around planets in the system view Solar corona ejections can now use █ as well as the original ■ (like engine particles) Made pulsars more obvious The options window is now split into tabs for easier comprehension Crots, umyum & yist plants now require sunlight Added additional info about industry catchment processing in a few places Tweaked the lithrogen planet colour in the entity list to be more distinct from ice planets at a glance Aligned the top down aurora colours with the side-on aurora colours Gave the pirate story-thread a more sensible ending Added something extra to the scrapyard story-thread ending Bugs fixed in this version Fixed being able to auto-walk through a wall on one of the planet port 3D maps Fixed the enter and grav keys in the Linux nativ…
- v0.158 - 3 April 2026
Startron v0.158 has been released! Tweaks & updates The aurora effect when zoomed into a planet has been redone Telepopping items now looks more fun in the UI Gas giant generation has been redone Added yard rollers (essentially tile blockers so materials accumulate where you want them) Islands generate less predictably on lithrogen planets now Station & salvage yard floor colour is now variable between entities Planet ports now show the correct soil colour in 3D Planet ports have had a few extra details sprinkled around More than doubled the number of things NPCs can say Space and enter can now be used to enter systems, entities & docks Reshuffled the municipal building placement a bit Futons are now restocked at stations Walls indicate which tiles they'll join to when building Soil colour logic for non-planets is now more consistent Various cosmic database updates Various texture updat…
- v0.157 - 10 March 2026
Startron v0.157 has been released! Tweaks & updates If a cosmos ever corrupts in future, a backup of the previous save is left behind Cosmoi should now not be able to corrupt if quitting during an autosave Outdated cosmoi display a warning in the cosmos list Nerfed the shog spawn rate Added your zipship being launched to your homeworld's history in new cosmoi MazeBase maps have been shifted 1 texel up the wall for better visibility The MazeBase HUD was tidied up a bit Prevented your homeworld from generating as an ice world in new cosmoi Reward payments are now sent to your bank instead Crashed ships create tiny craters in new cosmoi Added a crew update level option to the crew quarters menu Power jars now last about 10x longer Bugs fixed in this version Fixed 3 typos Fixed crash/buggy game if cosmos is missing systems Fixed generating duplicate system names Fixed still being charged wh…
- v0.156 - 4 March 2026
Startron v0.156 has been released! Tweaks & updates The crewmember information in the crew quarters has had a bit of a tidy up as all crew members now have names Lifeforms in the corridors of space stations and patrons at the bar also now get names too When visiting a new space station, your ship will start at the edge instead of the centre Elements and compounds now display their chemical symbols for easier identification in the cargo bay The available travel lanes on the cosmos overview now flash to distinguish them from player-marked blue-coloured lanes Bugs fixed in this version Fixed inconsistent element symbols in the database Fixed Spacejack still taking your chits in the betting round even if you've folded Fixed pirates being able to start in your home system
- v0.155 - 28 February 2026
Startron v0.155 has been released! Tweaks & updates Added shogs Prevented ships from crashing on civilised worlds Nerfed the speed the particles come out in comet trails Added your species portrait to the dead-screen in MazeBase Added some new wall decoration to MazeBase Bugs fixed in this version Fixed missing colour palette and 3D character swatches on options Fixed scrap being named "Unknown entity" in systems containing homeworlds Fixed inaccessible passages sometimes appearing next to open doors in MazeBase Fixed single lithrogen tiles displaying as a river Fixed inconsistent zoom controls when panning in system view Fixed background entities rendering absurdly large for how far away they are Fixed incorrect refinery character in the tutorial Fixed comets appearing where they shouldn't
- v0.154 - 27 February 2026
Startron v0.154 has been released! Tweaks & updates The cosmos and its systems are now made from a process of splattering the elements based on their abundance (numbers I'd decided even before v0.01 but never used) and congealing them into star systems, with the exact size and type of star based on the available mass and chemical makeup in the cosmic soup. (There's way more to it than this, but the key point is it's no longer just down to dice rolls.) As a result of this, systems can no longer generate on top of each other or within 1 tile of each other (as this is factored into the above algorithm instead of producing a messy cosmos map for the player) Once entities form in systems, depending on the proximity to other entities and the instability of the star they're around, they can be smashed apart or combine together - this also mixes up the elements available (comets are also pulled…
