Matchmaking Improvement

Bugfix

• Fix a bug where friendship bonus are not granted when a friendship is auto renewed
• Fix a bug where SS Majestic's blueprint has disconnected modules
  

Several new ship blueprints have been added, and now each ship blueprint has a unique bonus.
- SS Voyager: +10% Extra XP/s
- SS Pioneer: +1 Friendship Slot
- SS Horizon: All autocannons get +1 XP Multiplier
- SS Intrepid: +10 Peace Treaty Score when negotiating war reparation
- SS Orion: 10% more modules for each ship class
- SS Majestic: Reset Warmonger Penalty and Backstabber Penalty to 0 when unlocking a new ship class


The following friendship bonus / directives have been added:
- -N Minimum Warmonger Penalty
- Reset Warmonger Penalty to 0
- Get N% of extra XP/s
- Get N Victory Point/h



Other changes:
- Star systems in the galaxy are now slightly bigger

Patch Notes: 0.6.117

Patch Notes: 0.6.118

Patch Notes: 0.6.119

• Matchmaking required is now fixed at 20 Quantum + 100K XP, regardless of ship class
• Add a friendship reward / directive that gives extra percentage of XP/s
• PvE ships has been rebalanced - they are now more challenging
• Minimum warmonger penalty can now be negative - add a friendship reward / directive reduces minimum warmonger penalty
• Add Warmonger Penalty Decrease countdown timer
• Max amount of time warp now starts at 8h, and can be upgraded by element Hydrogen (H). The limit only applies when offline time is converted to time warp
• Elements are rolled from current ship class (previously it was rolled from unlocked tech)
• Fix a bug where Conquest reward are not correctly awarded
• Improve UX of Reforge Add-on
• When exploring a new star system, expired friendships now count
  

• Add an XP reward when exploring a star system
• Add a conquest reward (1 element) after having battled all planets in a star system and have reached a battle score threshold
• Now directives require completing the ship blueprint and researching all tech previously only researching all tech is required
• XP granted by directives has been reduced
• Fuse add-ons is renamed to "Reforge add-ons"
• Weapons unlocked later in the tech tree within a ship class now have a slightly higher base stats
• Fix a bug where matchmaking battles can unlock undiscovered add-ons. Add-ons can only be discovered via galaxy battles. Matchmaking battle rewards only offer already discovered add-ons
• Fix a bug where backstabber penalty is not corrected added when backstabbing a friend
  

• When battle starts, the camera will zoom out to show both spaceships in the viewport
• Add a quick navigation on the Galaxy to show all star systems sorted by distance
• Add new visuals for star systems - they now have different visuals to tell them apart
• Fix a bug where Cat III catalysts are duplicated of Cat II
• Fix a bug where unlocking higher-class ships require a restart to take effect
• Fix a bug where exploring star systems farther than 3 light year will freeze the game
  

Hello,

I am happy to announce that Spaceship Idle Playtest 2 is now available on Steam - simply download the free demo from Steam page to join the playtest.


The game has been rewritten completely, and here's a brief introduction to the new version:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3454630/view/501709427825444567

This playtest has a simple tutorial for your first run - it should take less than an hour to complete. The whole playtest contains 6 ~ 8 hours of gameplay. If you have bug reports or suggestions, head over to our Discord Server (#spaceship-idle channels)

Finally, if you have joined the first playtest, the game should reset your old save. If you cannot launch the game, you can perform a manual reset by deleting the old save file: C:\\Users\\\\AppData\\Roaming\\SpaceshipIdleSaves\\\\SpaceshipIdle

Since my last post about the next gen rewrite, I am happy to report that I am making good progress - the game is now in a playable state (again!). I am now tying up the loose ends and prepare for a public build. I am taking the auto battler mechanism from the previous build, and adding more 4X/Grand Strategy flavors. In this post, I will briefly introduce all the new mechanisms.

Weapon Focus

• Resource management is removed. Now, weaponry is the single focus of building spaceships
• Production multiplier no longer exists. Instead, there are HP, damage and XP multiplier
• Batch operations still remain and have new QoL options
• Ship layout is now semi-fixed - and layout can be changed when prestige
  

Galaxy

• The galaxy has several star systems - you are in one of them
• Within each star system, there are neutral states and pirates
  

Make Friends

• You declare friendship with neutral states (consumes Victory Point and Friendship Slot) for rewards
• Friendship rewards are usually progression-related, rather than battle- related.
• Friendship lasts 4h and can be renewed
• Backstabbing a neutral state (declaring war on a past friend) will give you a backstabber penalty, which makes declaring further friendship more expensive.
  

...And War

• You can also declare war on neutral states and pirates (consumes Victory Point) and earn war reparation if you win
• Declaring war on neutral will give you a warmonger penalty, but declaring war on pirates will not
• Warmonger penalty makes declaring further war more expensive. Warmonger penalty decreases over time
  

Negotiate War Reparation

• War reparations can be negotiated if you win any type of spaceship battle: whether it's galaxy war (vs. AI spaceship) or matchmaking (vs. other player's ship)
• The reparations depends on your battle score: i.e. the percentage of your remaining HP after defeating your enemy
• Your first Victory Point and Add-on are free. The second one costs 50 battle score. Different types of add-ons have additional cost
• The remaining battle score is converted to XP
  

Linear Tech Tree

• Tech tree is now linear (like CivIdle), and is divided into different ship class
• Unlocking a tech still costs one quantum
• Unlocking a new ship class will give you bigger ship layout and higher tier weapons
• Unlocking a new ship class now have Element Shards requirement, which means prestige is now a requirement
  

Catalyst

• Catalysts are like "traits" in auto chess: they provide significant boosts if your weapon composition fulfill its requirement
• In auto chess, traits are fixed and your champions/heros are randomly rolled. Here's it's the opposite: all weapons are available (via research) but catalysts are randomly rolled: you choose one from three candidates, which are rolled from an even bigger pool
• Activating a catalyst (i.e. fulfill its requirement) will allow you to choose your next catalyst
  

Add-on

• Boosters are now called "add-ons" - they are now attached to a weapon module
• They provide significant boosts and require some layout planning (like wonders in CivIdle)
• Each ship class has its own set of add-ons. They are acquired from war reparations
• Multiple add-ons of the same kind provide diminishing returns
• Higher class add-ons can be crafted from lower class add-ons.
  

Directive

• After you've researched all techs in a ship class, you can issue a directive
• You choose one out of three candidates, which are rolled from an even bigger pool
• They provide progression related boost, like Friendship Rewards
• They last until the end of the run
  

Element

• The fundamentals of element remains unchanged
• You discover element at 15, 25, 35... quantum: you choose one from three candidates
• When you prestige, elements from this run become element shards
• You can assign your elements from this run to boost either HP or Damage multiplier
  

First of all, I want to say thank you to all the players who have tried out the current Spaceship Idle demo, especially during the Steam Next Fest. After receiving lots of feedback regarding the current demo, I have taken a holistic regarding the gameplay and have made plans regarding the next prototype:

Remove Resource Management

• Weapons fire based on cooldown (and generate XP)
• Production buildings are removed
• Permanent element shards boost HP/Damage/XP stats (no more Production Multiplier)
  

Linear Tech Tree

• Linear and divided by ship class: Skiff/Scout/Corvette/Frigate...
• New ship classes are unlocked by reaching permanent element shards (prestige)
  

Unified Progression

• Remove XP limit for Quantum level
• Remove Quantum limit for battle
• Battle is a mechanism to farm XP and resources
• You need to win a certain number of battles to prestige
• Quantum is still earned based on XP and can be used to build modules or unlock techs
  

More Boost Mechanism

• Trait-based synergy (like auto chess)
• Booster craft (based on resources from battle)
• Small tech trees to unlock boost (like tradition, religion and ideology in CivIdle)
• More...
  

• Completely different gameplay and strategy
• Very hard to balance
• Resource management is so simplified that it is almost meaningless
  

• It favors specialization: i.e. going deep. Going "wide" is penalized
• Higher tier has more techs
• Hard to balance
• Hard to indicate "progress" and design around that
  

• A completely "fair" match would severely limit prestige progression and randomness
• With an algorithm, about 70% fairness can be achieved with randomly two spaceships
• Using spaceship battle as a progression gate will discourage experimentation and encourage an optimized build only
• It's better to make spaceship battle less punishing, more rewarding and integrate it as part of the progression mechanism
  

A lot of you have played the game during the Steam Next Fest and provided valuable feedback. One of the most common feedback is that the game is too battle focused, and the prestige progression is lackluster, which I tend to agree. I've focused a lot on the battle experience because it's my first game that centers on the battle mechanism, but also making the battle fair requires lots of compromises - in a way, I have my hands tied with prestige progression. With the introduction of the new matchmaking algorithm introduced in Patch 0.4, now I have more flexibility in designing the prestige system and hopefully Patch 0.5 will make the game more "incremental".

No More "Two Strike" Prestige For Qualifier Battle

Quantum Are Immediately Available After Qualifier Battle

Permanent Element Shards Boost Production / XP Multiplier

Clean Up Weapon Module Names

Progression Reblance

Redesigned UI

Steam Next Fest has ended - during the event, quite a few new players have tried out the game and I received some valuable feedback. As to what's next, I will keep the free demo up and updated - think of it as an open playtest. if you want to be part of the development, you should join our Discord channel.

New Matchmaking Algorithm

• The game is too focused on ship battle and not "incremental" enough
• Permanent element boost is meh: XP multiplier doesn't feel significant enough
  

Cooldown Indicator

In-Battle Popover

Patch 0.3 introduces all Tier VI Tech weapons (12 in total). The balancing is preliminary and will be adjusted in the following patch.

Autocannon

• AC76D "Serval"
• AC130C "Jaguar"
  

Plasma Cannon

• PC1 Potoroo
  

Rail Cannons

• RC50P "Dhole"
• RC100L "Bushdog"
• RC100F "Redfox"
  

Laser Array

• LA1S "Danio"
• LA2 "Perch"
• LA2D "Pike"
  

Missiles

• MS2D "Dove"
• MS3 "Jay"
  

Drones

• FD1 "Eoraptor"
  

• Previously a weapon will not fire if it fails to produce its ammo. This has been changed so that the weapon will fire as long as there's enough ammo and power. Power consumption will no longer scale with production capacity
• Added a new Tier VI Missile MS2D "Dove"
  

This content update includes new content, new features and balancing changes. It will be the last content update before upcoming Steam Next Fest.

Balancing Changes

New Weapon Modules

Battle Reports

Weapon Wiki

I have made the game's demo public to prepare for the upcoming Steam Next Fest. After two playtests, the most nasty bugs have been ironed out. I am still working on bug fixing, balancing, QoL, and a new player tutorial.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3558750/

I have also recorded a video intro, if you prefer video format.


You can check out the demo already, or wait until the Steam Next Fest for a more polished build. Here are some changes in the past few days:

• All boosters now have "lifetime" in battle - they will disappear after reaching lifetime.
• After 5 min, the spaceship battle will enter "sudden death" mode, and each module will take damage every second. The battle UI will show relevant information,
• Reactive Regen is revamped: it now recovers 2x damage taken, instead of 10% of max HP,
• When damage is evaded, it will no longer trigger "On Taking Damage" status effect
• Added more info in the popup when entering a qualifier battle
• Added batch upgrade / downgrade and "distribute evenly" feature
• Added support for keyboard shortcut
• Revamp the algorithm for ship ranking. Currently, it pairs all eligible ships in a Swiss-tournament. This is much faster than the previous Round-Robin tournament. As there are more ships now, this is more scalable.
  

I continue to work on Spaceship Idle based on feedback from the previous playtest. My goal is to release a demo in June and participate in the upcoming Steam Next Fest. Most of the game mechanics are in place, and Ive now added two missing features: Boosters and Offline Time Warp

Boosters

• Boosters can only be built once,
• Once built, boosters cannot be recycled,
• Boosters can be moved,
• Boosters cost resources (not XP) to build and do not add to ship value,
• Boosters do not consume quantum
  

Offline Time Warp

Quantum Progress

Since the first playtest, I've received lots of valuable feedback, which helps me further improve the game. With this new patch, I will start to send out a new batch of playtest invites. [b]If you are interested, head over to Discord to sign up!
[/b]

Server is Online

Ship Gallery

Second Chance Qualifier

More Techs and Modules

I am opening up the very first playtest of Spaceship Idle! This is a very early build, and I am currently inviting experienced players of CivIdle and Industry Idle to help shape the foundation of the game.
Because the game is in very early development, this playtest is a bit different:

• Theres no server at this stage, so spaceship battles are handled manually youll export your ship file and exchange it on the Discord channel to battle other players. That means joining the Discord is required to participate in the playtest.
• This version is highly experimental. Progress will be wiped after the playtest and probably multiple times during as major gameplay changes are very likely based on your feedback.
• And speaking of feedback, everything is on the table: if youve got thoughts, I'd like to hear them
  

• ~ 20 Modules for now, more will be added during the playtest
• ~ 20 Tech, more will be added during the playtest
• Prestige, elements and shards
• Only one planet for prestige, more will be added during the playtest
• Qualifier battle and practice battle
  

Welcome to the official Spaceship Idle devlog! As the spiritual successor to CivIdle, this game takes the incremental automation series to the galaxy! The game is still months away from a playable build, but I'd like to engage with the community early on. So instead of listing the current progress, I'll write down some high level design goals that I have for Spaceship Idle. When making a sequel, I'd like to follow Sid Meier's "rule of thirds": one-third traditional gameplay, one-third is improved from the last version, and one-third is brand new. And I will organize my design goals into these "thirds".

One-Third Traditional Gameplay

• Automation & Resource Management: the very core mechanism remains relatively unchanged: you collect raw materials, use them to produce higher-tier goods. And I will take all the learnings from CivIdle. For example, the CivIdle's "new priority system", which is more straightforward, will be there on day one. Some mechanism will be renamed, for example, workers will be replaced by power, but they work very similar.
• Tech Tree: as one of CivIdle's biggest new feature, I think it works quite well, and it will also be part of Spaceship Idle. Currently, I am experimenting with a more "skill tree" like design but nothing is set in stone yet.
• Wonders: This is another CivIdle's new feature that brings lots of gameplay variations. The mechanism will be in Spaceship Idle as well, but obviously will be called something else.
• Great People & Prestige: again a CivIdle feature that brings strategic depth. Spaceship Idle will roughly follow the same mechanism but will have multiple level of prestige designed from the start. Great People will be renamed to something else
• Player Chat & Trade: these two features originate from Industry Idle! I plan to make some improvement to anti-cheat to avoid the "48h probation period" in CivIdle.
  

One-Third Improved

• Streamlined Transportation & Storage: in Spaceship Idle, all resources are stored in a central pool and modules can consume them without transportation. Compared to Industry Idle, CivIdle actually added a more detailed simulation of transportation and storage. However, Spaceship Idle will simplify this area. The important reason is the introduction of weapons and battles, which brings new complexity to the gameplay. I feel CivIdle has already reached the upper bound of complexity, so I need to cut complexity from somewhere. In addition, because you are building a spaceship, there's much less flexibility to optimize for locality, so I've decided to get rid of it completely from the equation. I've done some testing myself, and it plays surprisingly similar, minus the need to fiddle with stockpile, buffer, etc.
• Resource Collectors Can Be Placed Anywhere: the rationale behind this change is very similar to above. Plus, when building a spaceship, optimizing the placement of weapon modules is very important and this will allow more opportunities.
• Modules Can Be Freely Moved and Recycled at Full Value: Because building the spaceship will have two stages. In the early stage, you will focus on production and accumulate as many resources as possible for building and upgrading weapon modules. Before entering a battle, you will gradually reduce the production capacity and make sure you produce just enough power and ammo for your weapon modules, or maybe a bit more as a redundancy. Therefore, to make this transition easy, and to encourage experiments, I feel it makes sense to eliminate the penalty of moving, downgrading and recycling modules.
• Quantum: In Industry Idle, building permits limit the expansion and you pay resources to unlock a building. In CivIdle, happiness limits the expansion and you pay science to unlock a building. In Spaceship Idle, both are streamlined to use "quantum", which is generated when you reach certain spaceship value thresholds. You can use quantum to either unlock a tech tree item, or add a new module to your spaceship. This simply the resource management but brings more strategy: you have to carefully balance between a large but low-tech ship and a small but high-tech ship.
• Multiple Select: This QoL feature has been requested a lot in Industry Idle and CivIdle. However, because buildings have very different settings in those two games, it's very hard to implement. Now with more streamlined resource management, this becomes possible and will ship on day one to encourage ship layout.
  

One-Third Brand New

• Your spaceship is matched against ships with similar spaceship value: the goal is to validate that, given the same spaceship value, which ship is better at space warfare. Of course, there might be some rock paper scissor factors when it comes to the build, but that's part of the strategy - choosing between a specialist design and a generalist design.
• Winning a battle will enter your design into the matchmaking pool: if your design is matched against another player, you might get a notification or even a replay (replay might not be feasible), but your current progress will not be affected regardless of the result.
• Winning a battle will award you resources equivalent to your opponent's spaceship value, which will allow you to build an even greater ship.
• Losing a battle will force you to prestige, and you will take all your prestige bonus. Of course, you can prestige anytime.
• Battles are automatic: each weapon has its own unique stats, targeting and abilities. Existing storage will not be carried into the battle (same for your opponent) so the spaceship needs to be self-sustaining in battle.
• A "friendly battle" mode will be available that allows entering battle with another player's design without matchmaking, this won't affect progress in any way but can be very useful to test out the design.