SpaceSimCentral

Seems to recall reading that the game is just being worked on now and again.

Just noticed that their was an update patch for the game so I decided to download it all 17 meg it's now updating with a time of 1 year to complete.
Think I might pause it.

Well re-added to the wishlist again looks like these updates were good and did a lot of fixing with the controls, core, leaderboards, trophy's, gfx .... only took almost 2yrs for these updates

Posted by: @pinback
it's now updating with a time of 1 year to complete.

<chuckles> Sounds like dial-up - or semaphore!

Steam can be like that sometimes with times given in hours, days and months but it's the first time I seen it say years, in the end it only took about 2 minutes to do.
Must give the game a go at some point.

Another update for the game and with more to come. ASTROKILL - Steam News Hub (steampowered.com)

This update brings ASTROKILL into the modern age with the latest UE4 version (upgraded 4 versions from 4.23 to 4.27). An upgrade to UE5 will happen in the next major update! In the meantime, this update leverages the latest atmospheric lighting features from UE4 to add planetary atmospheres and improved stellar (literally) effects. I've replaced all asteroids and fragments in the game with higher resolution geometry and textures suitable for 4k gaming rigs. There's also a new heavy fighter that's playable in the Snare level. This fighter comes equipped with 3 turrets of a new variety. It has more of a Star Wars-y visual style compared to the other fighters. More fighters and frigates matching this style are coming (unless it's not well received).
The next update will take full advantage of the Chaos physics system, Lumen, and Nanite in UE5. With Nanite, I'll be able to eliminate most LODs. And, with Chaos, dynamic destruction of asteroids and ships will finally be possible. That means you'll be able to turn ships into a hundred bits of hot metal or carve out holes in asteroids with continuous gunfire. Cool stuff. Anyways, happy Easter!
Environments

Nearby stars are now rendered using Unreal's atmospheric lighting system
Added planetary atmospheres to nearby planets and moons (realistic, dynamic atmospheric lighting not seen before in AK)
Planets now have more spherical geometry (higher resolution)
Performed a lighting pass on all levels resulting in a generally brighter environment more suitable for space
Replaced all asteroids and fragments with higher resolution geometry and textures
Color-balanced all skyboxes to achieve a more space-y look (blacks are black and whites are white)
Gameplay

Added a new Beltor fighter (called the Goliath) that comes equipped with 3 new turrets
Created a new double-barreled, fighter-mounted turret (internally named the Weasel)
Changed the playable fighter in the Snare level to the Goliath
Adjusted the placement of static asteroids in all levels
Graphics & UI

Brightened and adjusted HUD-colors to appear more emissive
Shading-quality can now be adjusted from the graphics-menu
Added a thin circle to the center of the reticle to assist with aiming
Prograde and retrograde reticles are now smaller and no longer look like targeting reticles
Reticles and billboards will now blend additively when they overlap and no longer fade in/out
Missile-reticles are now thinner and smaller
Motion-blur is now auto-disabled when the in-game menu is shown (prevents menu from smearing)

Controls

Created a special actor to visually preview and debug joystick-mappings - features a crosshair mapped to pitch/yaw (should be centered in the circle), a 'thrust' bar mapped to forward/backward movement, a 'strafe' bar mapped to left/right movement, a 'lift' bar mapped to up/down movement, and finally a 'roll' bar mapped to the roll-axis
Reduced adjustable deadzone-range to an overly large deadzone

Core

Upgraded the Unreal engine from 4.23 to 4.27 (4 versions!)
Reduced size of Windows build from 2.6GB to 1.8GB (almost a gig smaller for both Windows and Linux builds)
Global post-processing is now easier to adjust on a per-level basis
Cockpits are now auto-spawned without needing to be manually placed
Improved and expanded upon the random-number library
Eliminated many unnecessary BP-interfaces

Posted by: @pinback
Must give the game a go at some point.

Yes it definitely looks like its worth a play, I was just hoping the game was going to get to a 'finished' point so I can buy it.... I been burned a few times with games never making it out of early access so now I don't buy a game until its released.
But this last update did a lot of core stuff that should benefit this game for the future, and the developer mentions the next update will use Lumen, Nanite and the engine will be upgraded to UE5. So this should be one nice game to play once all these features are integrated.

And Astrokill get another update to the game, seem to getting regular.

This update modernizes all menus and UI-elements within them (buttons, text-boxes, drop-downs, etc.). The UI in Astrokill has largely remained unchanged for years, since gameplay has received the most attention. Previously, the UI was mostly implemented in Blueprints. I've nativized the UI (converted to C++) and added the ability to customize colors globally. Now, when you choose a different color-theme, the entire UI changes colors to match the in-game HUD!


HUD

Minimap now has double-lined border and a transparent inner region
Reduced saturation of blue-tinted cockpit/HUD-elements
Reverse "x" icon is now a "friendly" color instead of red




UI

Modernized menus by "ironing out" buttons and other widgets
Increased transparency on all UI-elements to improved readability
Buttons now support 3 different behaviors internally (normal, toggle, or slider)
Redesigned sliders to be more readable and easier to click-and-drag
Nativized key-selectors (found in controls-menu)
Nativized text-fields (found in joystick-menu)
Colors on drop-downs now match rest of UI (previously white and difficult to read)
FPS-display in graphics-menu now fades to red when low and always shows 1 fractional digit
Renamed color-themes to Classic, Fabulous, and Mono




Audio

Reduced default music-volume by ~30%
Added UI-sounds for combo-box-selections, slider-releases, and text-field-commits
Core

Changed capture-mode to 'Capture Permanently Including Initial Mouse Down'
Changed lock-mode to 'Lock on Capture'
Mouse is now always captured on launch (bCaptureMouseOnLaunch in DefaultInput.ini)
Eliminated the need for several UI-related interfaces to reduce architectural complexity
UI-elements now leverage delegates (instead of interfaces) to share information related to theme-changes, press-events, key-down events, etc.
Upgraded font-assets to eliminate all font-related warnings from build
Controls

Mouse-cursor can now click via the Space Bar (allows one-handed operation from the keyboard)
Bugs

Fixed issue with default camera-perspective not being saved if selected from main-menu

Nice update, glad to start seeing consistent progress, I will be definitely eyeing this one come the summer sale.