Hello Builders! I hope you've been enjoying your summer and early fall. Over the past few months, I've faced various challenges related to health, work, and hardware issues, which temporarily slowed down my work on Gate Builders. However, I'm back on track now, and I'm thrilled to present this feature-packed update for you.

Gameplay and UI

Steam achievements

I'm excited to announce that all the achievements are now available on Steam! It's time to catch 'em all!

Updated station shield and weapons

Previously, station shields and weapons were using an older system. Now, they have been updated and will fire phasers and drones. Building a drone hub or a shield projector within your Station will finally make a difference!

Updated invasion interface

I've introduced an updated invasion interface to make it easier to follow combat.
Additionally, you can now access the fighting stats of citizens through the citizen info panel within your stations. Just right-click any citizen to learn more about them.

Organized ship construction interface

Previously, as you unlocked more ship hulls during a game, ship construction could become messy. Now, the newly organized ship construction interface should help you find the best ship for your needs.

Additional outliner ship information

The outliner is now better than ever with two new information highlights! Ships that cannot move during this turn are shown in gray, and the currently selected ship is highlighted in teal.

Improved "split cargo"

Splitting cargo between your ship's cargo and your homeworld to buy or sell a small quantity of products now calculates the total cost of your transaction.

Configurable hotseat

At the start of a new game, you can now specifically select a two-player hotseat. This feature used to require enabling an experimental feature in the game settings. The new hotseat game creation interface allows each player to select their name, investor, and flag. Please note that this is still an untested feature, so it should work, but you may encounter some visual issues. If you come across any issues while playing hotseat, please report them, as it will be immensely helpful.
Hotseat with more than two players is technically possible and will be activated once I'm sure the feature is stable. I'm also investigating PBEM (play by email) and hope to have it working for the final game release.

Trade route visualization

Ever found yourself thinking, "So, this is turn 512, I have 12 automated trade routes between my stations, and I haven't played in three days... I have no idea what does what!"? You're not alone! Now, you can visualize the trade route path of trading ships.

Game balance

New project to boost freedom sentiment

If you need a boost in patriotism for your growing nation, the best way is to provide free food to your citizens and host a party.

Experimental option to prevent production overflow

Not every player enjoys micromanaging production lines. A new option, available as a toggle on top of each station (and globally in the options screen), allows you to prevent stations from overflowing with the production of any products. This is a working solution, and it will reduce your stations' efficiency. Once this setting is active, if there is no storage space available in a station for a building's production, the building will not attempt to produce goods. The same principle applies to asteroid production.

Investor-specific sponsors

Choosing one investor over another doesn't have a significant gameplay advantage or disadvantage after the initial phase of the game. To make the investor choice more important, new game-changing sponsors will be available only to players with specific investors.

• IGC will allow you to have a very powerful pantheon production, even unlocking a third level of Belt HQ.
• Sahara can improve the maximum quantity of product transported in each cargo of a ship by 10% and can unlock an advanced warehouse with a 1000-max stock and auto trade.
• Luninc focuses on android and human 2.0.
• Olympus Heights give you early access to laser cannons and allow the production of missile batteries in stations.

Small feature changes:

• Fixed a small bug related to spawning new anomalies in the Belt.
• Prevented pirates from spawning too close to the right side of the map.
• Dragging a hero citizen into a station now shows the correct sprite.
• Conscripted citizens now gain experience when stationed at a station gate.
• Skipping to the next turn when entering subspace was duplicating ships.
• In the Gate View, changed "%" to "x/x" for components.
• Conscripting a citizen at a station now properly consumes laser.
• Conscripting a citizen now properly updates its visuals.
• Newly spawned asteroids in the range of a station are now captured properly.
• Prevented click-through on notification buttons.
• Prevented camera movement and zoom when the map is not visible.
• Added additional alternate hero sprites.
• Added new anomalies.
• Introduced a new academy lesson: Invade Station & Conscript Citizens.
• Freedom sentiment now drops on citizen starvation.
• Added new achievements.
• Double-clicking a building in the construction list now selects the building as the current station project.

Conclusion:

As always, your feedback is invaluable to me. Please let me know if you have any comments on the game. Your input greatly helps me improve it. To engage with our community and participate in discussions, feel free to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/eqxF58uqjC. Lastly, if you've been waiting for a sign to add the game to your Wishlist, this is it! :)
Visit our Steam store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955200/Gate_Builders/