Spaceship Idle Next-Gen Preview

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.

[h2]Weapon Focus[/h2]

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

[h2]Galaxy[/h2]

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

[h3]Make Friends[/h3]

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.

[h3]...And War[/h3]

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

[h2]Negotiate War Reparation[/h2]

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

[h2]Linear Tech Tree[/h2]

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

[h2]Catalyst[/h2]

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

[h2]Add-on[/h2]

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.

[h2]Directive[/h2]

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

[h2]Element[/h2]

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

That's a quick rundown of all new mechanisms in the next-gen build. Another change you can already see is a visual update. Instead of abstract art, now the game features pixel art. The main motivation is readability - as there are more weapons, they become hard to tell apart. The new pixel art hopefully can improve the readability of gameplay.

I am working hard to get a public build out. If you are interested to give it a try, stay tuned either on Steam or on Discord server. As this is an almost complete rewrite of the game, progress from the last playtest build will not carry over.

Cheers,
FishPond