The last two months have seen a sustained development push adding lots of new features and content to the game. Along with the further additions to come over the next few weeks, these will take the Relic Space Alpha from being a 'promising' tech demo to being a real, complex and properly fun game! New features since Alpha 7 include: SAVING AND LOADING This is of course quite a big deal from a technical point of view, and also really significant from a gameplay perspective, allowing more lengthy and in depth runs. [img width=600]https://i.imgur.com/Yal2Prk.gif[/img] SHIPYARD MODULE A big new area in terms of both game mechanics and content is the new shipyard module, which allows you to unlock and board completely new ship classes (which have also been added). The UI also clearly displays the key stats differentiating each ship so you can assess their strengths and weaknesses. [img width=600]http://i.imgur.com/lcyWh5q.gif[/img] TECH TREE The tech tree was due for an overhaul, and is now both more visually appealing and contains a lot more actual techs. In Relic Space you first need to acquire relics which unlocks research options, and the layout reflects that. [img width=600]https://i.imgur.com/4p4xr59.gif[/img] EVENT TIMELINE Faction events now have a whole new UI panel to themselves, to allow the player to keep track of, and check information about, events that have occurred. You can now look back to see which sector a faction contructed a station module in, and then travel there to see it for yourself. [img width=600]https://i.imgur.com/YzIlFzj.gif[/img] RESOURCE TRADING Resource trading has been overhauled. While the underlying economics model is not yet complete, random variation in prices has been added meaning trading is now a viable way of earning some much-needed extra credits. Along with this the interface has been improved to more easily allow selection of the amount of goods you wish to buy or sell. [img width=600]https://i.imgur.com/g1ySnm0.gif[/img] NEW FACTION: CIRCLE There's a whole new faction in the game: the Circle consists of posthumans whose enhancements are primarily mental, including implants that allow forms of telepathy and telekinesis. It's a neutral faction and work is in progress to allow interesting player interactions with them, including new missions. [img width=300]https://i.imgur.com/hz7Xpeo.gif[/img]