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Spaceship Idle News

Patch 0.4: Post Steam Next Fest Update

Steam Next Fest has ended - during the event, quite a few new players have tried out the game and I received some valuable feedback. As to what's next, I will keep the free demo up and updated - think of it as an open playtest. if you want to be part of the development, you should join our Discord channel.

[h2]New Matchmaking Algorithm[/h2]

Among all the feedback I've received, two of them stand out:
  • The game is too focused on ship battle and not "incremental" enough
  • Permanent element boost is meh: XP multiplier doesn't feel significant enough

Both are very fair, and I kind of agree as well. I am very concerned about making the ship battle "fair" - therefore, prestige boosts (Permanent Elements) cannot affect in-battle balance, which severely limits the type of boost they can provide. And a fair matchmaking will result in a 50% win rate, which kind of goes against the spirit of incremental games. That's probably why there are almost no incremental games with PvP mechanism.

After some thoughts, I have figured out a potential solution. To start, I've made a completely rewritten matchmaking algorithm. Matchmaking used to be based on Quantum, which works okay but results in the above limitation. The new matchmaking is based on a calculated ship rating, which is derived from defense rating (total HP) and attack rating (DPS). This will allow ships from different quantum levels to be matched against each other, while still keep the match more or less even. From my testing, this rating is about 80% accurate.



The new matchmaking algorithm is live with Patch 0.4. And it will allow me to make Permanent Element boost more "powerful" in the future (for example, they might provide Production Multiplier, just like in CivIdle).

And with this new matchmaking algorithm, I am also thinking removing the two-strikes rule for ship battle. So instead of being forced to prestige after losing two qualifier battles, you simply get 5 quantum if you lose a qualifier battle, compared to getting 10 quantum if you win. This will make sure even if your current ship is less optimized, you can still progress, which is the spirit of "incremental" games.

As you can see, the new matchmaking algorithm is very important to the next evolution of the game. So let me know if you have any feedback.

[h2]Cooldown Indicator[/h2]

A cooldown indicator has been added - now you can clearly see the cooldown of each individual weapon module.



[h2]In-Battle Popover[/h2]

Now you can inspect the detail info about each individual modules (include your enemy's) during battle, which makes it easier to gather more intel and further optimize your ship.



Free Demo Update: 0.3 Tier VI Tech

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"

Free Demo Patch: 0.2.93

  • Previously a weapon will not fire if it fails to produce its ammo. This has been changed so that the weapon will fire as long as there's enough ammo and power. Power consumption will no longer scale with production capacity
  • Added a new Tier VI Missile MS2D "Dove"

Free Demo Update: 0.2

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.

Free Demo is Available Now!

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.