The Last Starship News

[p][/p][p]After a phenomenal launch bringing 50,000 new players into the game, we've not taken our foot off the Metreon gas pedal!
  [/p][p]As well as the usual round of fixes and smaller improvements, enjoy mass-configuration of fabricators and other equipment in seconds with marquee and double tap smart select. [/p][p]
New crew animations breathe life into your ship, deepening that 'contraption satisfaction' as your facility whirrs into action.[/p][p]
Fighter bays introduce a brand new combat dynamic and logistical tail. Build and deploy a massive wing of screaming unmanned hell cats to open a whole can of whoop-ass on any ships that dare defy you![/p][p][/p][p]Here's the Mark & Chris video showing all of the new features:[/p][h3][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
Full Change List[/h3][p][/p][p]Fighters[/p][p]  - Fighters have been completely reworked and are now available to all ships without needing to edit saves.[/p][p]  - New Equipment: Fighter Bays[/p][p]    - Can be bought from the trade screen or produced at an assembly table[/p][p]    - Can be placed inside your ship, occupying a 3x3 area.[/p][p]    - 7x7 landing bay doors can be seen on the exterior of the ship, above where the equipment is placed.[/p][p]    - Supply fighter bays with frames, motors, and a processor to produce a fighter.[/p][p]    - If the fighter is destroyed in battle, a new one can be produced mid-battle.[/p][p]    - Activate battle stations when a hostile is present in the system to launch the fighters from the bay.[/p][p]  - Reworked Fighters:[/p][p]    - Fighters need to be supplied with bullets and fuel at their fighter bay before they can launch.[/p][p]    - Fighters will return to their bay when they run out of fuel or ammo or all hostiles have been eliminated.[/p][p]    - Fighter toughness and damage has been increased.[/p][p]    - Fighter turrets can penetrate armour, unlike gatling guns.[/p][p]    - New tech tree branches to upgrade survivability and agility of fighters.[/p][p]    - If a fighter is stranded from a bay it will explode some time after running out of fuel.[/p][p]    - Any old designs will keep their fighters (if they have any) and will behave the same as previous versions. [/p][p]    - New artwork[/p][p][/p][p]Drones:[/p][p]  - In rare cases drones would pick themselves up, which, of course, cannot be allowed.[/p][p][/p][p]Shuttles:[/p][p]  - Production Missions : shuttles will not collect from ships with no conscious crew.[/p][p]  - Dead body, trade collection : shuttles will leave if there are no conscious crew.[/p][p][/p][p]Crew Animation:[/p][p]    - New walk animations for all crew and civilians[/p][p]    - Small bobbing animation added to any item being carried[/p][p]    - Smoothed item drop-off and pickup to and from equipment (so you can see the item being loaded/unloaded)[/p][p]    - Entities now slow down when close to their destination[/p][p]    [/p][p]Translations:[/p][p]  - Some hardcoded strings added to language files[/p][p]  - Copy To Clipboard button in Translation Editor copies English to clipboard.[/p][p]  - Japanese font updated to support new characters, and to be more readable in general.[/p][p]  - Translations separated into manual and fallback files so that manual corrections will not be lost.[/p][p]  - The Translation Editor improved to show fallback translation as well as previous versions of language strings.[/p][p]  - Add vector font glyphs Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Turkish.[/p][p]  - New fonts for simplified and traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean[/p][p]  - New Danish translation (PCMS_DK)[/p][p]  - Many updates, thanks to:[/p][p]       Chinese (timercrack, Qionglu735), [/p][p]       Dutch (Loosecannon1983), [/p][p]       French (Resziak, Laurent SCOTTÉ, Bastien URBAIN, Vinoz),[/p][p]       German (Flauschküken), [/p][p]       Japanese (sakuyan#5658, raidhin, Kensuke Ichinohasama), [/p][p]       Russian (skoniks), [/p][p]       Spanish (astaroth198-gif, Snargleplax), [/p][p]       Swedish (Malkolmi, Svish), [/p][p]       Turkish (drokian, The Suxe)[/p][p]    If you contributed a change and we didn't credit you, please write us so that we credit you in the next release.[/p][p][/p][p]Equipment Multiselect:[/p][p]  - Allow to multiselect factory equipment and setting the recipe for the entier selection (cannot have different types of equipment in selection)[/p][p]  - LMB/RMB: select a single equipment[/p][p]  - SHIFT + LMB/RMB: to add or an equipment to selection[/p][p]  - LMB x2: select all nearby equipment[/p][p]  - LMB Drag: select all equipment in drag (type is decided by majority)[/p][p]  - Shift + LMB Drag: select all equipment in drag matching existing selection type[/p][p][/p][p]SMALL CHANGES[/p][p]    - Added option to adjust camera pan speed[/p][p]    - Added option to adjust character text speed during missions[/p][p]    - Small warning will appear in tactical mode when trying to dock without thrusters[/p][p]    - Ships rescued in distress calls can be seen inside before deciding to add them to the fleet or take cash reward[/p][p]    - When selecting item type in the equipment UI panel, focus the search box to allow keyboard input. [/p][p]    - Better layout for Equipment panel type selection.[/p][p]    - Improvements to ship editor layout[/p][p]    - Moved "Orders" window to be above the button and made a little wider[/p][p]    - When drawing walls in the editor, move objects under the wall to a free space. Prevent drawing walls over equipment.[/p][p]    - Software Mouse option to allow mouse cursor to be rendered by the game, useful in case of issues with disappearing hardware cursor.[/p][p]    - Render atmosphere level of rooms with a hull breach and auto close vents of connected doors. Remove open/close vents orders.[/p][p]    - Add "Open game folder" button to "Other" section in settings. The opened folder contains your saves, ships, etc. (but not cloud saves)[/p][p]    - Remove unsold stock from being included in stargate progress bar[/p][p]    - Crackable asteroids have their remaining health shown underneath them[/p][p]    - Reorganised settings menu for improved layout and readability[/p][p]    - Add tooltip for auto trade options triangle toggle[/p][p]    - The "Drone Assembly" technology is no longer needed to fabricate processors[/p][p][/p][p]BUG FIXES:[/p][p]    - Fix "BeginCall" appearing in mission summary when destroying all hostiles in a distress call mission[/p][p]    - Fix "Any Equipment" and "Any Cargo" text not fitting in their buttons in the storage window[/p][p]    - Fix Interstellar Logistics Buy/Sell orders interfering with shopping basket in the trade window.[/p][p]    - Fix cost overlap in editor[/p][p]    - Fix \[PASSED] and \[FAILED] overlap in contract requirements[/p][p]    - Fix jumpgate information sometimes not saving[/p][p]    - Fix meteor storms spawning in fortress systems[/p][p]    - Fix many drone related issues, particularly when leaving them behind in an FTL jump[/p][p][/p][p]    - #520: You can get stuck at a jump gate that's damaged and not be able to repair it.[/p][p]    - #643: It is possible to lose ships when sector jumping in FreeRoam mode.[/p][p]    - #681: Ships getting stuck docked together during interstellar logistics[/p][p]    - #668: Keybindings sometimes display incorrectly in the settings menu[/p][p]    - #687: Trouble with Tiddlets Part 1 - Artemis ship crew can run out of fuel and no longer dock with player[/p][p]    - #717: Survival fleet can still get separated[/p][p]    - #710: Robot arm is picking from a spot it should not be able to reach[/p][p][/p]

[p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]We want to send a huge thanks to everyone who has loved The Last Starship since the v1.0 launch - we have lots of plans for the game this year!

Chris has made a video detailing the nine years that led up to the launch of The Last Starship Version 1.0. It has taken us a long time to reach version this point - nine years and counting - and a lot of prototypes, difficult decisions, and burnout. On more than one occasion, we almost gave up entirely. So we're incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us with this game so far - thank you for your patience! [/p][p][/p][p]We couldn't be more happy with the success of the Version 1.0 launch, and we are busy making some big plans for upcoming updates. Thank you!
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[p][/p][p][/p][p]After five years of development and three years of Early Access, we are very happy to announce that we are exiting Early Access and launching v1.0 of The Last Starship TODAY!
[/p][p]It's been an incredible journey through Early Access, with 22 major updates from us and over 2200 ships now listed on the Steam Workshop, and over 750,000 hours of recorded player time.
[/p][p]We plan to continue supporting The Last Starship throughout 2026 with more updates and videos.[/p][p]We will see you in March for the first post v1.0 update![/p][p] [/p][p]In celebration of this epic moment in releasing our 7th videogame, Mark & Chris have made a video covering all the major features that have been added to the game over the last few months:[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Version 1.0 comes with a new update with some much requested changes and bug fixes.[/p][p][/p][p]SMALL CHANGES[/p][p]- Reduce UI clutter in ship editor[/p][p]- Recipe area in recipe window can be panned/zoomed slightly[/p][p]- Survival Mode: [/p][p]    - Player no longer gets paid immediately when taking on civilians from shipyards[/p][p]    - Civilians pay the player per sector jump, this value increases as the player progresses through sectors[/p][p]    - Allow dragging for installing and dismantling equipment, as well as for spawning and deleting in creative mode[/p][p]    - Make solar panels transparent when placing scaffolding[/p][p]    - Make it impossible to join pipes of differing resource types[/p][p]    - Storms and lightning rods:[/p][p]        - Changes to how lightning chooses a target, making it more likely to hit lightning rods instead of other equipment[/p][p]            - Ships become more likely to be struck as they produce more power or have more lightning rods installed[/p][p]            - If a strike hits a lightning rod, no damage is done to the ship[/p][p]            - If a strike hits equipment, it may be temporarily disabled or damaged[/p][p]        - Added energy storage to lightning rods, which can only be filled by lightning strikes[/p][p]        - Removed lightning rods taking damage from lightning strikes[/p][p]        - Only one lightning rod is produced per recipe, instead of two[/p][p]- Show message in missions window when a mission cannot be assigned to a ship from another episode (e.g. A.J.E Foundry)[/p][p]- Add label to Stargate system on the sector map[/p][p][/p][p]BUG FIXES:[/p][p]    - Fix misaligned sprites in trade and research windows[/p][p]    - Fix recipes titles overflowing[/p][p]    - Fix systems sometimes overlapping[/p][p]    - Fix symmetry tool sometimes getting stuck[/p][p]    - Fix symmetry tool shifting position on click[/p][p]    - Fix introduction tutorial highlights showing in the wrong areas[/p][p]    - Fix introduction tutorial not progressing past powering the starboard engine[/p][p]    - Fix interstellar logistics jumps resetting speed[/p][p]    - Fix an issue with accent-insensitive search not working in some languages[/p][p]    - Fix high memory use on older saves[/p][p]    - Fix repeatable researches sometimes having very high costs[/p][p]    - Fix many UI click-through issues[/p][p]    - Fix all guns sometimes retracting on import causing loud noise[/p][p]    - Remove interstellar logsitics stuck alert if interstellar logistics not running[/p][p]    - Fix a tutorial progress issue relating to turning in the Passenger Contract[/p][p]    - Fix red team hull being removed when taking damage (Arena Mode)[/p][p][/p][p]    - Issue #621: In the ship editor you are not able to zoom out to see your whole ship anymore. [/p][p]    - Issue #623: Hunger always shows as .1 even if it's a higher value[/p][p]    - Issue #628: Crew Taking Spacesuits off during assembly of Charge Crystals[/p][p]    - Issue #629: Second lightning rod not spawning. Make lightning rods be produced one at a time instead. [/p][p]    - Issue #630: No eligible short FTL jumps in Tiddlets 2[/p][p]    - Issue #634: Crash when starting repeatable research[/p][p][/p]

[p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h3]After three years of early access and 21 content updates, we are ready to launch The Last Starship on February 3rd 2026. Check out our 1.0 announcement trailer above!
[/h3][p]To celebrate the launch announcement we've also pushed Update 21 to Steam today with many bug fixes and improvements, but also Steam Achievements, ability to design larger ships in the Ship Editor as well as a new setting to reduce motion sickness for affected players.  

Don't forget to wishlist the game - you'll be notified when 1.0 blasts out of the space dock![/p][p][/p]

[h2]Update 21 has been released![/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We are rapidly approaching our v1.0 launch, but we've still had time to put together a new update for you to play. Our ship editor has come a long way since we started, as seen with DrX's incredible ship design above. We've now taken away the limits to the ship editor size so you can design and build much larger ships. We've also taken some steps to address the problem with motion sickness that some players have reported experiencing. And a ton of small changes and fixes as well. We hope you're enjoying the game, and we will be announcing the v1.0 release date soon. [/p][p][/p][h3]Ship Editor - grid limit removed[/h3][p]No more limited size grid, preventing you from designing larger ships[/p][p]You can now expand your ships in any direction as you wish, up to a (ridiculous) limit of 960x480[/p][p]The ship editor quietly expands and contracts the buildable area as required, without you having to think about it[/p][p]The ship is automatically re-centered as you build[/p][p]    [/p][h3]Steam Achievements[/h3][p]37 achievements have been added to the game, across all game modes.
Some are harder to achieve than others...[/p][p][/p][h3]Motion Sickness Mode[/h3][p]A new Motion Sickness Mode has been added, for those who suffer from motion sickness when playing.[/p][p]This mode removes all background graphics rotation - ie the starfield behind the ships.[/p][p]It can be enabled from the Appearance menu.[/p][p]    [/p][p]In addition, these options may help further:[/p][p]   - Added option to disable rotation + position transition when switching between layers.[/p][p]   - Allow to "unfocus" layer in tactical mode, so camera doesn't track layer's position and rotation.[/p][p][/p][h3]Small Changes[/h3][p]    - New quantity for interstellar logistics: "until storage", allowing to transfer/mine/collect until certain amount on board is reached.[/p][p]    - Beginning episodes show in the contracts screen after the tutorial is complete.[/p][p]    - Repeatable research increases in cost each time it is researched.[/p][p]    - Allow to choose whether to use "any cargo" storage zones in interstellar logistics orders.[/p][p]    - Allow interstellar logsitics in Free Roam mode[/p][p]    - Improvements to trade screen layout.[/p][p]    - Added power consumption to recipes window.[/p][p]    - In Creative mode, also erase objects when erasing hull[/p][p]    - Add icon in layer list for interstellar logistics controlled ships. Clicking opens ship's interstellar logistics window.[/p][p]    - Improved text layout of contracts screen - mission titles now wrap properly.[/p][p]    - VSync option added to Appearance settings menu.[/p][p]    - Scratch pipe network when a port resource changes.[/p][p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3][p]    - Fix Andromeda Journey not showing when no layer is selected[/p][p]    - Fix ships from DSI not being sellable after completing DSI[/p][p]    - Fix ships from DSI remaining invincible after completing DSI[/p][p]    - Fix neutral ships not being able to leave system and piling up[/p][p]    - Fix units for stored energy showing as MW instead of MJ[/p][p]    - Fix hostile ships targetting neutral ships outside of fortress systems[/p][p]    - Fix issue with validation of drones on layer (but not supported by hull) causing FTL drone warning.[/p][p]    - Allow a crewman to navigate off a radiation blocker[/p][p][/p][p]    - Issue #593: Prevent logistics between ships in different systems[/p][p]    - Issue #599: Empty FTL charges spawning as loot[/p][p]    - Issue #600: Tutorial stuck for FTL part[/p][p]    - Issue #607: Make layer list scrollable[/p][p]    - Issue #608: Tiddlets Part 3 optional objective fails without jumping the farm[/p][p]    - Issue #610: Crew pathfinding stuck on corner[/p][p]    - Issue #611: Crew not performing tasks if "Suits On" ordered and no spacesuits available[/p][p]    - Issue #612: Some equipment cannot be dismantled when powered down[/p][p]    - Issue #617: Enemy ships run away if you jump out and back in[/p][p]    - Issue #618: Episode ships dying in systems that are not generated yet[/p]