After many months of development, Airships dev 8 is finally complete. Because it's been so long, I'm going to release it in two phases, as an opt-in beta now and then as a full release in a few days' time. A lot of the internals have been rewritten, and so it's likely that this version is more buggy than dev 7.4. If you'd like to help me iron out these bugs, or if you want to get started with modding, or just really want to see dev 8, you can opt in. Go into the game's properties on Steam, select the "Betas" tab, and select "Beta" from the drop-down.
Once you're in the beta, do let me know about any and all problems you encounter, from crashes all the way down to balance issues, minor graphical glitches, and typos. In particular, if anything goes wrong, I'd very much like the game's log. On Windows, this is at %APPDATA%AirshipsGamelog.txt, on Mac at ~/Documents/AirshipsGame/log.txt, and on Linux at ~/.airshipsgame/log.txt. So what's new in dev 8?

• Data-driven modding system: you can add new modules and other content, and change existing information. Mods are compatible with conquest mode and multiplayer.
• Steam workshop integration: share ship designs and mods.
• Multiplayer chat overlay that's available everywhere in-game.
• Automatic adjustment of landscape when placing buildings.
• Unit groups: press ctrl and a number to store the currently selected set of units, press the number to select them again.
• Russian translation
• Robot spiders!
• Engine pods
• Deck guns
• Rifles consume much less ammunition.
• Rockets are a bit more accurate.
• Ships break up more epically.
• Boarders are better at jumping.
• Adjusted relative speeds of ship movement, construction and income in conquest mode.
• Various other minor UI and performance fixes.