Spaceship Idle News

I continue to work on Spaceship Idle based on feedback from the previous playtest. My goal is to release a demo in June and participate in the upcoming Steam Next Fest. Most of the game mechanics are in place, and I’ve now added two missing features: Boosters and Offline Time Warp

[h3]Boosters[/h3]

Boosters are the "wonder" equivalent in CivIdle:

• Boosters can only be built once,
  
• Once built, boosters cannot be recycled,
  
• Boosters can be moved,
  
• Boosters cost resources (not XP) to build and do not add to ship value,
  
• Boosters do not consume quantum
  

[h3]Offline Time Warp[/h3]

It wouldn’t be an idle game without offline earnings. However, implementing offline progress can be tricky. In CivIdle, I initially planned to simulate production while offline, but for large bases this can take hours. Instead, I’ve introduced “Time Warp”—you accumulate time warp while offline, which can be used to accelerate production.


This concept works well, and I’m bringing it to Spaceship Idle. I’ve also used this opportunity to fix a long-standing issue with time warp consumption. In CivIdle, one game cycle cost one warp, meaning higher-speed production had a slight advantage. In Spaceship Idle, this has been adjusted so that warp cost remains constant regardless of production speed.

[h3]Quantum Progress[/h3]
Progress in Spaceship Idle can be complex — there’s quantum, which is based on total XP, and it limits the max spaceship value. Qualifier and second chance battles restrict usable quantum. These mechanics ensure that battles are “fair” between ships of the same quantum, but they can feel overwhelming. To help, I’ve added a new “Quantum Progress” view that clearly shows your progress. Even if players don’t fully understand the relationships between these systems, this view should serve as a useful guide.

Since the first playtest, I've received lots of valuable feedback, which helps me further improve the game. With this new patch, I will start to send out a new batch of playtest invites. If you are interested, head over to Discord to sign up!

[h3]Server is Online[/h3]
The server is now available in the playtest, bringing the experience closer to the real game. Matchmaking is now handled via the server. If your ship performs well enough, it will be added to the matchmaking pool.



[h3]Ship Gallery[/h3]
You can now browse all ships in the matchmaking pool, including your own. Each ship is assigned a rating (S/A/B/C/D) based on its performance against a benchmark ship.



[h3]Second Chance Qualifier[/h3]
If you fail a Quantum Qualifier (e.g., Quantum 30), you'll get a second chance at a higher level—Quantum 35.

[h3]More Techs and Modules[/h3]
Technologies up to Tier V have been added, along with weapon modules. Four major weapon types are now available: auto cannons, rail cannons, missiles, and laser arrays. Each weapon type has unique abilities that support different builds and combos.

I am opening up the very first playtest of Spaceship Idle! This is a very early build, and I am currently inviting experienced players of CivIdle and Industry Idle to help shape the foundation of the game.
Because the game is in very early development, this playtest is a bit different:

• There’s no server at this stage, so spaceship battles are handled manually — you’ll export your ship file and exchange it on the Discord channel to battle other players. That means joining the Discord is required to participate in the playtest.
  
• This version is highly experimental. Progress will be wiped after the playtest — and probably multiple times during — as major gameplay changes are very likely based on your feedback.
  
• And speaking of feedback, everything is on the table: if you’ve got thoughts, I'd like to hear them
  

What's in the build now:

• ~ 20 Modules for now, more will be added during the playtest
  
• ~ 20 Tech, more will be added during the playtest
  
• Prestige, elements and shards
  
• Only one planet for prestige, more will be added during the playtest
  
• Qualifier battle and practice battle
  

If you are interested in joining this playtest, head over to Discord and sign up in this post. I will DM you on Discord once the paperwork is done (e.g. getting Steam beta keys). If this playtest feels too early for you, you can follow Spaceship Idle on Steam as there will be a bigger playtest once the game is a bit more developed.


Cheers,
FishPond

Welcome to the official Spaceship Idle devlog! As the spiritual successor to CivIdle, this game takes the incremental automation series to the galaxy! The game is still months away from a playable build, but I'd like to engage with the community early on. So instead of listing the current progress, I'll write down some high level design goals that I have for Spaceship Idle. When making a sequel, I'd like to follow Sid Meier's "rule of thirds": one-third traditional gameplay, one-third is improved from the last version, and one-third is brand new. And I will organize my design goals into these "thirds".

[h2]One-Third Traditional Gameplay[/h2]

• Automation & Resource Management: the very core mechanism remains relatively unchanged: you collect raw materials, use them to produce higher-tier goods. And I will take all the learnings from CivIdle. For example, the CivIdle's "new priority system", which is more straightforward, will be there on day one. Some mechanism will be renamed, for example, workers will be replaced by power, but they work very similar.
  
• Tech Tree: as one of CivIdle's biggest new feature, I think it works quite well, and it will also be part of Spaceship Idle. Currently, I am experimenting with a more "skill tree" like design but nothing is set in stone yet.
  
• Wonders: This is another CivIdle's new feature that brings lots of gameplay variations. The mechanism will be in Spaceship Idle as well, but obviously will be called something else.
  
• Great People & Prestige: again a CivIdle feature that brings strategic depth. Spaceship Idle will roughly follow the same mechanism but will have multiple level of prestige designed from the start. Great People will be renamed to something else
  
• Player Chat & Trade: these two features originate from Industry Idle! I plan to make some improvement to anti-cheat to avoid the "48h probation period" in CivIdle.
  

[h2]One-Third Improved[/h2]

• Streamlined Transportation & Storage: in Spaceship Idle, all resources are stored in a central pool and modules can consume them without transportation. Compared to Industry Idle, CivIdle actually added a more detailed simulation of transportation and storage. However, Spaceship Idle will simplify this area. The important reason is the introduction of weapons and battles, which brings new complexity to the gameplay. I feel CivIdle has already reached the upper bound of complexity, so I need to cut complexity from somewhere. In addition, because you are building a spaceship, there's much less flexibility to optimize for locality, so I've decided to get rid of it completely from the equation. I've done some testing myself, and it plays surprisingly similar, minus the need to fiddle with stockpile, buffer, etc.
  
• Resource Collectors Can Be Placed Anywhere: the rationale behind this change is very similar to above. Plus, when building a spaceship, optimizing the placement of weapon modules is very important and this will allow more opportunities.
  
• Modules Can Be Freely Moved and Recycled at Full Value: Because building the spaceship will have two stages. In the early stage, you will focus on production and accumulate as many resources as possible for building and upgrading weapon modules. Before entering a battle, you will gradually reduce the production capacity and make sure you produce just enough power and ammo for your weapon modules, or maybe a bit more as a redundancy. Therefore, to make this transition easy, and to encourage experiments, I feel it makes sense to eliminate the penalty of moving, downgrading and recycling modules.
  
• Quantum: In Industry Idle, building permits limit the expansion and you pay resources to unlock a building. In CivIdle, happiness limits the expansion and you pay science to unlock a building. In Spaceship Idle, both are streamlined to use "quantum", which is generated when you reach certain spaceship value thresholds. You can use quantum to either unlock a tech tree item, or add a new module to your spaceship. This simply the resource management but brings more strategy: you have to carefully balance between a large but low-tech ship and a small but high-tech ship.
  
• Multiple Select: This QoL feature has been requested a lot in Industry Idle and CivIdle. However, because buildings have very different settings in those two games, it's very hard to implement. Now with more streamlined resource management, this becomes possible and will ship on day one to encourage ship layout.
  

[h2]One-Third Brand New[/h2]
Now let's address the elephant in the room: how battle works. Before I go into details, I will write down some high level design goals. Spaceship Idle at its core is still an incremental strategy game. It's not designed to be a space shooter, not an action game, not a PvP fighting game. The ultimate goal of CivIdle is to build the most efficient empire. Similarly, the ultimate goal of Spaceship Idle is to build the most efficient space warship - and battle is an important part of this.

• Your spaceship is matched against ships with similar spaceship value: the goal is to validate that, given the same spaceship value, which ship is better at space warfare. Of course, there might be some rock paper scissor factors when it comes to the build, but that's part of the strategy - choosing between a specialist design and a generalist design.
  
• Winning a battle will enter your design into the matchmaking pool: if your design is matched against another player, you might get a notification or even a replay (replay might not be feasible), but your current progress will not be affected regardless of the result.
  
• Winning a battle will award you resources equivalent to your opponent's spaceship value, which will allow you to build an even greater ship.
  
• Losing a battle will force you to prestige, and you will take all your prestige bonus. Of course, you can prestige anytime.
  
• Battles are automatic: each weapon has its own unique stats, targeting and abilities. Existing storage will not be carried into the battle (same for your opponent) so the spaceship needs to be self-sustaining in battle.
  
• A "friendly battle" mode will be available that allows entering battle with another player's design without matchmaking, this won't affect progress in any way but can be very useful to test out the design.
  

That's all for this very first devlog. If you have feedback, join the discussion on our Discord server (#spaceship-idle-general). If this game is something you are interested in playing, please wishlist on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3454630/Spaceship_Idle/

Until next time!