Black Holes

We’ve been trying out some new effects for the black hole, and they’re coming together nicely. While not tied to any specific game mechanic as of yet, we’re planning to add various landmarks to the map to give it more life and make navigation easier.

Solar Flares

Another change to the map contains visual tweaks to celestial bodies. We've added a flare effect to the suns and adjusted their brightness levels when moving the camera up close. Screenshots should look much better now, especially with the adjusted camera angle.

Daily Challenges

Continuing on the note of reducing time requirements, Alpha 8 will see the introduction of daily challenges. These are objectives tailored to your playstyle, and will allow you to stay competitive with shorter, more focused play sessions. The goal was to give players most of the resources they need for the day in one or two play sessions instead of having efficiency scale linearly with time.

Challenges function similarly to events, in that you will receive the rewards if the timer runs out even if you did not complete the challenge. You won’t be able to receive all of the daily rewards this way, however. There’s also the option to swap out challenges if you feel you have a better chance completing another one.