Barring any major issues found in testing, Alpha 26 is going to contain some pretty significant changes to the way permadeath works in the game. Part of this is adding a new upgrade system to all weapons (and eventually aeros and specials) to give you something exciting to spend money on (more exciting than just re-buying existing items) and make later levels a bit more survivable. The new permadeath works this way: - None of your loadouts are lost when you die: you can immediately start the game again with the same loadout. This also means you can set up your favourite loadout for each aero once and never be forced to do it again. - No items are lost when you die - All money is lost when you die - You can use money to buy upgrades at the Aerolab - Upgrades are lost when you die - Tech choices are not limited to a random draw of 3: you can research anything you have the prerequisites for - Tech and tech points are unchanged: you keep all tech points you earn and all tech that gets researched. There are also some fun new weapons and the new DRAKON Heavy Fighter that are not completely finished, but are finished enough to include in the playtest. I'd really like it if people tried out this new system before we fully commit to it. People already on the "indev" branch will automatically update to this version and just need to play the game. Everyone else will need to switch branches if they're interested. You can play this branch by doing the following: - Right click on "Sky Rogue" in the games list - "Properties" - "Betas" tab - Choose the "indev" branch from the dropdown - Close the window - The game should auto-update to the latest version on indev Please note that the current indev version has not been thoroughly tested, so if you run into any major issues you can just switch to the main branch. Despite the way money works now, because of the way it's tracked and saved you should have all your old money if you switch back to the main branch.