Long time no see, gals and guys! We come bearing good news! Yeah, we know we haven’t been updating for a while. We’re deeply sorry about all this radio silence. We’ve been working hard and experiencing a lot of difficulties — but pretty soon we’ll release a major update for our game and we’re here to tell you about it. BACK FROM THE BLACK HOLE For some time we had problems. Big companies have development hell. Small indie teams funded hand-to-mouth have their own hell — it’s a lot more tiny, a lot more cluttered and without that much central heating, but it’s hell nonetheless. You probably know how it goes — us handful of dudes hunched over keyboards day and night, toiling away on the code, and the models, and the mechanics. Eating junk food, losing sleep over work and seeing work in our sleep... Not the best way to spend a winter or a spring — or both of them. We’re actually still working very hard — but we’re proud to say that some things are finished and others are gonna be finished very soon. There was also a lot of figuring out to do — we don’t want to make «just another game». We want to be fresh exciting and cool. We want a game that works and plays not just like every other MOBA — as there are many decent but only a few good ones — but that is fun in a simple and engaging way. So we did A LOT of figuring out and we came up with a bunch of good stuff. We rethought some areas of the game from the ground up. All that stuff will be in the next version of the game, but we want to tell you all about it now and hear what you have to say. So while keeping the pew-pew and the ba-da-boom parts of the gameplay mostly the same (at least for the time being) – have a good time, blow each other up a handful of times and then start again – the whole «experience and levels» thing is going to become different. For beginners the fights will become more balanced, for experienced players — more challenging. The game will always try and find an equal and worthy opponent for you. LET’S SPEAK ABOUT CLASS So this is how the new system works. Every players account has a Grade. Grade goes up as you collect Reputation points. Your Reputation — as it should — grows with every combat you participate in. You Grade determines how many battleships you can buy and how big and cool those ships can be. Which ships are cooler? Those of the higher Class, of course. So ships now have Class. Higher-Class ships are more effective in combat, they have tougher armor and scarier guns. Yet every Class will have enough ships for every taste — whatever your preferred playstyle is, in every Class there will be a ship for you. And in the near future, more than one or two. We hope it goes without saying that you buy ships with Credits which you earn in combat. Every combat, mind you — no matter if you win or lose, you get more Credits and Reputation. So whatever you do, just fly out a few times and that shiny new ship of a better Class will be yours. How soon will that be? Well, a fresh green rookie with a Grade 1 gets three hangar slots for Class I ships. You fly each of those ships just once — that’s three skirmishes — and you go up to Grade 2, which gives you access to Class II ships. And guess what, you’ll already have enough Credits to buy that new ship. Higher-Class ships bring in more Credits with every combat, so getting new ships as you go up the Grades will never be a slog. We don’t want you to grind, we want you to blow stuff up and laugh joyfully as it happens! FIGHT. DIE. REPEAT. Which brings us to combat. Combat Level, which grows with experience and resets after the battle is done, stays pretty much the same. You fight, you get Experience, you go up some levels, you then can upgrade your armaments and systems — get new human (and alien) technologies — and then go fight some more. You fight, you miss a shot, you get blown up — and then it’s over, back to the hangar, right? Of course not! What fun would that be?! You get to be blown up several time in one combat round. Once you’re destroyed, you come back and fight again. Cool, huh? So the smartest among you are already wondering — will this «die, come back, repeat» approach turn every combat into a series of suicide runs? After all, why care about the ship if you just come back? Well, for that we have repair costs. The more you die in combat, the more Credits you need to pay to fix the ship and get it ready for combat again. The costs are still modest even you die, like, A LOT — we don’t want to keep you away from space battles, that’s what you’re here for! FAIR AND BALANCED Remember what we said before about balance and proper challenge? Since we now have ships of different Classes, we obviously need a way to pit only more-or-less equal ships against each other. So we now have a Balancing Machine. Well, it’s not actually called that and it’s pretty standard-fare as online games go, but we thought — why not add a cool name when you can add a cool name? The Balancing Machine makes sure only ships of a comparable Class get into the same combat. So if you’re, say, tiding a Class IV ship, you’ll meet only Class III to Class V ships in a combat round. Yeah, not only Class IV, but trust us, you will always be able to deal with a higher-class ship if you handle your guns and engines competently. Besides, who doesn’t like to be a dark horse, an underdog who wins through good fighting and sheer force of will? We want you to feel challenged — but challenged fairly and for fun. The Balancing Machine will make sure no odds are insurmountable. Every player will also get a last-second strategy move. You’ll be able to swap the ship you’re riding right before entering combat. Why? So that you can pick up a ship best suited for the specific match-up you’re facing. Of course, you can only swap for a ship of the same Class, so there’d be no mismatched combat. You see your team, you see your opponent, you decide if you want a different ship — and only then you go through the Star Gate and start blasting. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE We also have some more minor things you’ll like. First of all, there’s a new map coming — it’s almost finished, just in a need of a few finishing touches. It’s as beautiful and fun as the old one. And it’s always better to have several maps than just the one, right? Second, we’ve made some changes to the player interface, it’s now more intuitive, accessible and responsive. Third, we now give players ability to change graphic settings of the game. Yeah, probably should’ve done that sooner, we know. Still, better late than never. And this is all for today. Now we gotta return to our keyboards — which we never actually left — and do some more coding, drawing and designing. Tell us if you like the news in the comments or anywhere on social media. Thank you for staying with us — you were here for the seed, pretty soon you’ll watch the flower bloom. See you soon. Transmission over.