Update: Hotfix for crashes from picking up a ship in your fleet under some circumstances and from showing the tooltip for an over-capacity crew bar is up. Please re-download the game using the links below – make sure the file you get ends with RC4.

Let’s take a look at what’s new in this release:

• Hyperspace, a new star system, and a new faction
• Complete combat sound overhaul
• New campaign battle mechanics – use of travel drive to enter the battle space, a new battle type for chasing down escaping ships
• Reworked logistics system
  • “Combat readiness” used to deploy ships into combat
  • “Logistics rating” combines fleet points and other supply-consuming expenses

• New logistical support ships – Construction Rig, Ox-class Tug
• Campaign UI overhaul – takes advantage of higher screen resolutions, displays more pertinent information while traveling
• Improved fighter mechanics
• Adjustable battle size
• A ton of modability improvements

The above is a rough outline; if you’re interested, the full list of changes is here, and it’s… sizable.

I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about why 0.6a took until now to get out the door. It’s been a little over 8 months, certainly much longer than I’d like a release cycle to take. The reason for this is that almost all of the features in this release are interrelated, and so 1) are difficult to separate and 2) are dependent on each other to work well.

Except for the addition of hyperspace and a new star system, this release is dedicated to reworking how the combat and the campaign layers interact. Combat readiness is central to that, as discussed in a prior post.  The new battle mechanics are inseparable from it. The logistics rating and the new fighter mechanics are, if you will, its tendrils, reaching both into the combat and the campaign.

Would it have been possible to separate out some of these? Sure. But, I don’t think introducing a feature without related mechanics that actually make it work is a good idea. Given that, the best approach was to wait until enough features were ready to make a coherent whole, which is where we are now. On the bright side, this makes the development process more efficient – the amount of placeholders, temporary UI elements, and the like is reduced significantly.  So, yes, it did take a while to get here – but would have actually taken a good bit longer if I tried to force out a couple of releases along the way.

With that said, thank you for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy this release!

Comment thread here.