Spaceship Idle News

Hello,

I am happy to announce that Spaceship Idle Playtest 2 is now available on Steam - simply download the free demo from Steam page to join the playtest.



The game has been rewritten completely, and here's a brief introduction to the new version:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3454630/view/501709427825444567

This playtest has a simple tutorial for your first run - it should take less than an hour to complete. The whole playtest contains 6 ~ 8 hours of gameplay. If you have bug reports or suggestions, head over to our Discord Server (#spaceship-idle channels)

Finally, if you have joined the first playtest, the game should reset your old save. If you cannot launch the game, you can perform a manual reset by deleting the old save file: C:\\Users\\\\AppData\\Roaming\\SpaceshipIdleSaves\\\\SpaceshipIdle

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

First of all, I want to say thank you to all the players who have tried out the current Spaceship Idle demo, especially during the Steam Next Fest. After receiving lots of feedback regarding the current demo, I have taken a holistic regarding the gameplay and have made plans regarding the next prototype:

[h3]Remove Resource Management[/h3]

• Weapons fire based on cooldown (and generate XP)
  
• Production buildings are removed
  
• Permanent element shards boost HP/Damage/XP stats (no more Production Multiplier)
  

[h3]Linear Tech Tree[/h3]

• Linear and divided by ship class: Skiff/Scout/Corvette/Frigate...
  
• New ship classes are unlocked by reaching permanent element shards (prestige)
  

[h3]Unified Progression[/h3]

• Remove XP limit for Quantum level
  
• Remove Quantum limit for battle
  
• Battle is a mechanism to farm XP and resources
  
• You need to win a certain number of battles to prestige
  
• Quantum is still earned based on XP and can be used to build modules or unlock techs
  

[h3]More Boost Mechanism[/h3]

• Trait-based synergy (like auto chess)
  
• Booster craft (based on resources from battle)
  
• Small tech trees to unlock boost (like tradition, religion and ideology in CivIdle)
  
• More...
  

To sum up, I am making the game more of an incremental auto battler, rather than resource management. And my rationale is:

It's hard to get resource management and spaceship battle to work well with each other

• Completely different gameplay and strategy
  
• Very hard to balance
  
• Resource management is so simplified that it is almost meaningless
  

Radial tech tree looks cool but has several problems

• It favors specialization: i.e. going deep. Going "wide" is penalized
  
• Higher tier has more techs
  
• Hard to balance
  
• Hard to indicate "progress" and design around that
  

It's very hard to match make fairly with prestige progression

• A completely "fair" match would severely limit prestige progression and randomness
  
• With an algorithm, about 70% fairness can be achieved with randomly two spaceships
  
• Using spaceship battle as a progression gate will discourage experimentation and encourage an optimized build only
  
• It's better to make spaceship battle less punishing, more rewarding and integrate it as part of the progression mechanism
  

I'd like to hear your thoughts, whether you agree with my conclusion or not. I've already started to work on implementing these changes and you are welcome to join the discussion either in comments or on Discord.

Cheers,
FishPond

A lot of you have played the game during the Steam Next Fest and provided valuable feedback. One of the most common feedback is that the game is too battle focused, and the prestige progression is lackluster, which I tend to agree. I've focused a lot on the battle experience because it's my first game that centers on the battle mechanism, but also making the battle fair requires lots of compromises - in a way, I have my hands tied with prestige progression. With the introduction of the new matchmaking algorithm introduced in Patch 0.4, now I have more flexibility in designing the prestige system and hopefully Patch 0.5 will make the game more "incremental".

[h2]No More "Two Strike" Prestige For Qualifier Battle[/h2]

Previously, if you lose two qualifier battles in a row, you are required to prestige. This is no more! After this patch, you get +10 Quantum (and some XP reward) if you win a qualifier battle and +5 Quantum if you lose. So even if your ship is less optimized in the early stage, you can still progress.



[h2]Quantum Are Immediately Available After Qualifier Battle[/h2]

Previously, after a qualifier battle, you need to generate enough XP to "earn" your quantum to use them. After this patch, all qualified quanta (plural of quantum) are immediately available after the battle. You only need to satisfy quantum and XP requirement for the next qualifier battle.

The top panel has been redesigned to reflect this change and hopefully is more clear



[h2]Permanent Element Shards Boost Production / XP Multiplier[/h2]

Previously, permanent element upgrades boost XP multiplier only. After this patch, you can invest your shards to either production multiplier or XP multiplier. You can also re-spec these two upgrades - all shards will be refunded.



[h2]Clean Up Weapon Module Names[/h2]

The old naming convention for weapon modules are inspired by real life weapons: MS2R - MS = Missile, 2 = Series, R = Damage Reclaim.

However, using the last letter to denote weapon ability quickly gets out of hand and no one can remember them. Plus, The lineage among MS2R, MS2C and MS2S is hard to tell.

I've taken this chance to clean up the naming. Instead of using the last letter to denote the ability, it simply denotes its research lineage: MS2A, MS2B and MS2C. Their pet names remain unchanged.



[h2]Progression Reblance[/h2]

Upgrade cost for modules are in general reduced - it should allow more flexible builds. And max Spaceship XP for each quantum level are also slightly reduced so that overall progression pacing is still reasonable.

[h2]Redesigned UI[/h2]

Apart from the redesigned top panel, many UI elements have been redesigned to provide more clear information. There's a new resource flow indicator, a new target indicator and lots of minor improvements.



All your existing progress should be migrated automatically when you upgrade to Patch 0.5. However, in case the automated migration fails, you can get help on Discord.

Finally, I've made a short video to highlight some of these changes, if you prefer this format:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Cheers,
FishPond

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.