In our most recent vote, we received a remarkable total of 1800 votes, marking a significant increase of over 600% compared to the previous vote. This surge in participation is primarily attributed to the inclusion of the Steam community, and we are truly grateful for the enthusiastic response from all our players.
What's particularly fascinating is that despite this substantial increase in the number of votes and the expansion to the Steam platform, the choices made by you, the players, remain remarkably consistent. Your collective voice has spoken, and it's clear that certain aspects of the game resonate strongly with the entire community.
Based on the results, we've organized the development priorities into three groups:

High Priority

The top three results from the vote will be our primary development focus for the upcoming months. These areas received the highest number of votes and have been designated as top priorities. They are as follows:

• Gameplay and Mechanics (1150 votes): Enhancing and expanding the core gameplay and mechanics.
• More Hardware (1052 votes): Introducing new in-game hardware and equipment options to provide you with additional tools and customization choices.
• New Ships (1041 votes): Adding new spacecraft options, including ship variants - and associated HUD improvements.

Medium Priority

The following results will be integrated into our development roadmap as secondary priorities. These areas will receive attention whenever there is available development time to spare:

• Mod Support (858 votes): Enhancing modding capabilities, including Steam Workshop integration, a modding API, and improved mod compatibility checks.
• More Events (854 votes): Expanding in-game events, such as crew agendas, ring encounters, and rare mineable resources, to enrich the gameplay experience.

Low Priority

The areas beyond the top six will be treated as conditional priorities. They will only receive priority attention if critical issues arise during the next development phase that necessitates immediate attention in these categories. The specific results in this category include:

• Immersion Features (710 votes): Deepening the immersion within the game world through additional details, dialogue options, and quest-solving methods.
• Story Arc 2.0 (624 votes): The next chapter of the game's story arc, focusing on the future of AI in the rings.
• Quality of Life (506 votes): UI and interface improvements to enhance the overall user experience.
• NPC AI (461 votes): Enhancements to NPC ship behavior to make them smarter and more unpredictable.
• Performance (237 votes): Optimization efforts to ensure a smoother gaming experience.

It's worth noting that the preferences expressed in the vote results may differ from the distribution of opinions observed in the comments section. It's not uncommon for the vast majority of players to prefer not voicing their opinions in individual posts or comments but rather participating in the structured voting process. This divergence in communication styles reinforces the importance of the voting system as a comprehensive and representative method for gauging the collective desires of the player community.
Voting patterns on both our Discord community and the Steam forums exhibited striking similarity. Despite the different platforms and player communities, the preferences expressed in the votes closely aligned.