Spaceship Idle News

Patch 0.3 introduces all Tier VI Tech weapons (12 in total). The balancing is preliminary and will be adjusted in the following patch.

[h2]Autocannon[/h2]

• AC76D "Serval"
  
• AC130C "Jaguar"
  

[h2]Plasma Cannon[/h2]

• PC1 Potoroo
  

[h2]Rail Cannons[/h2]

• RC50P "Dhole"
  
• RC100L "Bushdog"
  
• RC100F "Redfox"
  

[h2]Laser Array[/h2]

• LA1S "Danio"
  
• LA2 "Perch"
  
• LA2D "Pike"
  

[h2]Missiles[/h2]

• MS2D "Dove"
  
• MS3 "Jay"
  

[h2]Drones[/h2]

• FD1 "Eoraptor"
  

This content update includes new content, new features and balancing changes. It will be the last content update before upcoming Steam Next Fest.

[h2]Balancing Changes[/h2]
This patch increases the spaceship XP limit for quantum level. This means you can build a much more powerful ship given a quantum level. It also means the XP requirement to reach a quantum level is much higher as well. I have cleared the matchmaking pool and re-seeded all "benchmark" ships.



[h2]New Weapon Modules[/h2]
There are five new weapon modules (unlocked by Tier IV techs), each with a unique ability.



[h2]Battle Reports[/h2]
Now after a battle, you can see a more detailed battle report. This will let you further optimize your setup.



[h2]Weapon Wiki[/h2]
As new weapons are introduced, it can be hard to see and compare their stats. A new "Weapon Wiki" is introduced to make this easy. You can access it in the hamburger menu.

I have made the game's demo public to prepare for the upcoming Steam Next Fest. After two playtests, the most nasty bugs have been ironed out. I am still working on bug fixing, balancing, QoL, and a new player tutorial.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3558750/

I have also recorded a video intro, if you prefer video format.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can check out the demo already, or wait until the Steam Next Fest for a more polished build. Here are some changes in the past few days:

• All boosters now have "lifetime" in battle - they will disappear after reaching lifetime.
  
• After 5 min, the spaceship battle will enter "sudden death" mode, and each module will take damage every second. The battle UI will show relevant information,
  
• Reactive Regen is revamped: it now recovers 2x damage taken, instead of 10% of max HP,
  
• When damage is evaded, it will no longer trigger "On Taking Damage" status effect
  
• Added more info in the popup when entering a qualifier battle
  
• Added batch upgrade / downgrade and "distribute evenly" feature
  
• Added support for keyboard shortcut
  
• Revamp the algorithm for ship ranking. Currently, it pairs all eligible ships in a Swiss-tournament. This is much faster than the previous Round-Robin tournament. As there are more ships now, this is more scalable.
  

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.