Solhex · The log
Solhex: the log
by Kraig Adams
Every entry, newest first: 171 in all. The summary and highlights are on the project page.
Devlog · October 24, 2026
Part One: an ending, and a better first few minutes
Solhex closes as Part One at chapter 10, so the ten chapters that exist are now a finished game. Reading the gate core leads into a short closing scene: Hope's farewell as before, then the camera pulls back along the route the core shows, a light running out along it past the edge of the field, and two last lines from Hope. Then an end card: End of Part One, to be continued, how long you played and what you built, and the choice to keep building or go back to the title, which now says Part One under the name. The website's recordings showed where newcomers stop: at the goal to gather loose ore, within a minute or so of the dock going down, often before clicking anything. So the first goals now point at the one thing to click next, the ship, then the nearest loose iron, then the dock, with a ring and a label after a few seconds of nothing happening, an arrow when it's off screen, and a hint from Hope after twenty. The goal card lists the steps and ticks them off, the ship's panel no longer covers the map when the dock goes down, and a few status lines say what is actually true. Nothing about how the game plays changed.
- Part One's ending: a closing scene along the gate-builders' route, two last lines from Hope, and an end card with what you built.
- Keep building after the end, or go back to the title, which says Part One.
- The first goals point at what to click next (the ship, the loose iron, the dock), with an arrow when it's off screen and Hope's hint after 20 seconds.
- The gather goal's card lists its steps and ticks them off as you go.
- The ship's panel closes when the dock goes down, so the map stays clear.
- "Pulling chunks in" only when the pull field really is.
Devlog · October 23, 2026
Drones that keep up, and one upgrade a tier
Kraig's evening playtest of v170 picked up at chapter 4 and got into chapter 6, where the first goal took him 24 minutes because the one drone couldn't keep up. The supply bug he hit three times turned out to be an X he had put on a supply job: the skip lasted until the request ended, and a starved module's request never ends. Now it comes back after half a minute. The drones work in four tiers (urgent mends, then supply to a starved module, then building, then the rest), take the shortest trip from where they are, chain the next job from there, run on batteries they charge at the dock or a drone bay, and come from bays you build from chapter 6, up to four drones and then six. The upgrades are six researches in all: Mark II, III and IV for the station and for the ship, each module bought up one at a time with parts. Belts can now run through empty cells. Enemies fly in from outside your sight, the nest is tougher and mends between attack runs, losing the ship costs half the dock's ore, and kills sometimes drop a power core. On a phone the game opens on a screen that says it's made for a computer.
- The drone supply bug: a skipped request comes back once the module has starved half a minute.
- The drone queue in four tiers, the nearest job first, the next chained from where the drone is, the queue shown whenever anything waits.
- Drone bays from chapter 6: each adds a drone, up to 4 until chapter 8, then 6.
- Drones run on batteries and charge at the dock or a bay.
- Mark II, III and IV station and ship replace the per-kind Mark researches; a module's one upgrade raises its speed and storage together.
- Relics give research cards toward the research you've picked.
- Belts can run through empty cells: drag a belt across them.
- Enemies spawn outside your sight and fly in.
- The nest is tougher, sends guards once attacked, and mends between runs.
- Losing the ship costs half the dock's ore and its rounds; the machines patch themselves up.
- Strikers and raiders sometimes drop a power core; no more fight cards, and auto-slow only for real danger.
- Tug runs only when an ore really runs low, "Need 4 more ore" on the goal card, trackpad panning, and a phone screen.
Devlog · October 22, 2026
Power that holds, enemies you can read
Kraig stopped his v166 playtest in chapter 5 because the station kept running out of power, and his recordings showed why: the generator gave a trickle and the power cores had to cover nearly everything, so the bigger the factory got, the faster they went. In this build the generator gives a steady base the early factory can run on, the cores are bigger and are the reserve, and when power does run low the heavy jobs (research, decoding, pings) pause with a clear label while the factory keeps going. Hope now warns before the tank would run dry out of reach of the next core. The test player got a human-paced run that waits before fetching cores and takes them in the worst order, and it never ran slow or stopped in chapters 1 to 5. The rest comes from his notes on v166 and v167 and from watching how he played: the store fills the whole hex, the Delete key works with an Undo, a module's job can be changed any time, the drone queue has just an X on each card, the dock keeps rounds so the ship reloads at once, tugged rocks get broken up by the turrets until the dock is full, a production panel shows the bottlenecks, and the game slows itself down for attacks and speeds back up after. The enemies got the look Kraig picked from three mockups, one red family with a distinct silhouette and true size for each role, and four changes to how fights play: you can see which enemies carry a power core, every attack has a countdown, scavengers retreat and come back with help, and before chapter 6 threats come one at a time, each ending with a short summary of the fight.
- The RTG gives a steady 4 power a second on its own, so the early factory runs on it; power cores hold half as much again and are the reserve the big jobs draw on. The third ring of wrecks shows from chapter 4.
- When power runs low, research, the decoding and pings wait with a "Waiting for power" label while the smelters, constructors and turrets keep going; they start again once the tank is back over 40%, or Run anyway on the panel.
- Hope warns when the tank would run dry before a round trip to the nearest core, and that core's marker pulses.
- A module's store fills the whole hex from the bottom up, amber when full; makers held by a full store say FULL and starved ones say what they wait for. Module names show on hover, when selected or close in.
- A production panel (O) shows what each item makes and uses a minute.
- Delete removes a belt or module at once, with an Undo; build mode ends after one module (Shift keeps it on); Change job any time, for the same refund as Remove, keeping the module.
- The drone queue's cards have only X, the job in hand too; a maker keeps what a drone is on its way to fetch.
- The dock holds a stock of rounds again, filled by the drone, so a docked ship reloads at once; the ship charges faster and its panel says what it is waiting for.
- A rock the tugs bring in for a low ore is broken up by every turret in reach until the dock is full, and its label always says why it waits; one held rock per ore.
- Auto-slow, on by default: the game drops to x1 for an attack, an arrival or a story beat and goes back to x4 afterwards.
- The enemies are one red family with a shape and true size for each role; their warnings flash white-yellow; names show on first sight and hover.
- Enemies carrying a power core or a relic show it; every attack has a countdown; Hope names each new kind of machine; scavengers pull back hurt and return with a friend; raiders go for the nearest turret; before chapter 6 threats come one at a time, and each fight ends with a short summary card.
Devlog · October 22, 2026
The nest the machines came from
Kraig wanted the early chapters' enemies to come from somewhere. In this build the machines have a nest: a young one grown out of a rock at the edge of the silicon field, about seven kilometres out, with three gun spires, a womb and a heart. From the first minutes it sends scavengers out one at a time to pick up loose chunks of ore, a different ore each run and a random distance away, and fly them home along a lane you can see; shoot one down and its chunk drops. Every attack in chapters 4 to 6 now comes from the nest's side, and Hope notices. The far ping that finds the silicon finds the nest too, and once the great storm has passed, the last goal of chapter 6 is to take it apart: a new Heavy PDC research outranges the spires, and when the heart goes, everything the scavengers brought home spills out with two power cores and a relic. The start changed too: the three shards by the pod sit together and lead to the next drift of ore, which leads to one more, and any loose ore you have seen leaves a faded shadow on the map where it was. Removing a module or changing its job now gives back its full cost. The test player plays every chapter on six seeds, at its own pace and a human one, and takes the nest out in two trips.
- A machine nest at the edge of the silicon field: a rock with three gun spires, a womb and a heart, found by the far ping or by flying close.
- Its scavengers collect loose ore one chunk at a time, a different ore each run, at a random distance, and fly it home along a visible lane; shoot one and its chunk drops. The start is out of their reach for about the first hour.
- Every attack in chapters 4 to 6 comes from the nest's side, with its warning on that side; Hope says so.
- Heavy PDC, a chapter 6 ship research: the point-defence gun reaches 220 m and hits harder, past the spires' 200 m.
- Chapter 6 ends with Take out the nest: the spires and the womb first, then the heart; it spills its hoard of ore, two power cores and a relic.
- A thin scatter of single ore chunks between the station and the far fields for the scavengers to hunt.
- The three shards at the start sit together and lead to the next drift of loose ore, which leads to one more.
- Loose ore you have seen keeps a faded shadow on the map where it was last seen.
- Remove and Change job give back a module's full cost and everything it holds.
Devlog · October 22, 2026
What the first stranger ran into
The first stranger to play for a long stretch stayed 2 hours 43 minutes and stopped in chapter 6 on Make 4 motors, 36 minutes in, with nothing on the station set to make motors. Kraig went through the session card by card, and this build is his answers. A "Make N X" goal with no module set to make X now says so after a minute and a half, on the goal card and in the status line, in the goal's own words ("Nothing makes motors yet: pick Motor on a constructor touching plates and wire"), and Hope says it once; an order or upgrade waiting on something nothing makes says so too. Goals with several parts show their steps as ticks. Side research is spread across the chapters, two or three in each, some opening only when they help (Tug drones when the near rocks run low, Mark II belts when a smelter starves), and the research the story needs is tagged on the list. Chapter 6 has two storms, a small one and then the great one, instead of one every couple of minutes. Auto ping is gone: the station tells you when a ping would find something. Chapter 5's far ping now also finds a small second copper field for players who build big, the copper guard drops less scrap, and a belt drawn from a module to the dock is turned round to run from the dock. The ore was measured chapter by chapter for the test player and for a new heavy-builder test player; the scattered chunks the nest's scavengers collect are now fewer and bigger, mostly copper, so the nest's hoard holds the ore that runs short.
- A goal asking for an item nothing makes says so after 90 seconds, on the card and in the status line, with how to make it; Hope says it once.
- Orders and upgrades waiting on an item nothing makes say so on their panel and map label.
- Multi-part goals show a checklist that ticks as each step is done.
- Side research is spread out, two or three a chapter, some opening only when they help; the research that moves the story is tagged.
- Chapter 6 has two storms: a small one, then the great storm.
- No more auto ping: the sensor, its button and Hope say when a ping would find something.
- A small second copper field, found by chapter 5's far ping.
- The copper guard drops 8 iron scrap instead of 25, so the first copper trip fills with copper.
- A belt dragged from a module to the dock runs from the dock, with an arrow showing the flow.
- The mid-map chunks the nest collects are fewer, bigger and mostly copper.
Devlog · October 21, 2026
The dock takes the ore, the machines keep what they make
The station is laid out the way Kraig described it late last night. The dock is the one place resources come in, and it now holds a lot of them: 500 of each ore to start, growing to 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000 as the storage research comes in. Storage bins are gone. Anything the station makes stays in the machine that made it, and belts or the drone carry it to wherever it's needed. Ore can leave the dock by any side, as many sides as you like, so a big station grows outward in chains rather than as one lump. Belts now double with each upgrade, from 1 item a second to 2, 4 and 8, and move faster each time, so a long chain off one side of the dock needs the top belts. Saves with storage bins still load: the bins are emptied and become empty modules, and what they cost is given back.
- The dock holds only ore: 500 of each to start, then 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000 with the storage research.
- No storage bins: made items wait in the machine that made them; belts and the drone move them.
- Ore leaves the dock by any side, as many as you want.
- Belts double with each Mark: 1, 2, 4 and 8 items a second, and faster on the belt.
- A fuel-cell maker keeps a full tank's worth for the engine, which draws from it directly.
- Old saves load: storage bins are emptied and become empty modules, their cost given back.
Devlog · October 21, 2026
A new look for the station
The station has a new look, the one Kraig picked from three prototypes. Every module is now a solid slab in the colour of its production chain, lit from the top and a little bigger, with a larger icon. Belts are the boldest line on the station, in the colour of what they carry: each item rides along as a small block, and when a belt backs up its items and arrows simply stop. Pipes are hollow tubes filled with their fluid. The support struts have almost faded away, and power is one thin yellow wire with pulses running along it. Each module keeps its two thin circles, the outer one for the item it's making and the inner one for how full it is. A dot shows only when something is wrong, at any zoom, so a healthy station looks calm and a stuck machine stands out. Names appear when you zoom in or point at a module. Zoomed out, the station becomes a simple map: flat coloured shapes, and each belt one line, solid when it's full and broken when it has gaps. The game itself plays exactly as before.
- Modules are solid slabs in their chain's colour, lit from the top, a little bigger, with bigger icons.
- Belts are the boldest line: items ride as blocks, and items and arrows stop when a belt backs up.
- Pipes are hollow tubes in their fluid's colour; the struts have nearly faded; power is a thin yellow wire with pulses.
- A dot only where something is wrong, at every zoom; batteries no longer show as stuck.
- Names show close in, or on the module you point at.
- Zoomed out, a simple map: flat shapes and one line per belt.
Devlog · October 21, 2026
Chapter 10: the heart of the wreck
Chapter 10 takes the station into the biggest wreck at the ruin's edge. The survey drones find a long passage winding into it, and the ship follows them in. Partway down sits a pod from home: its sleeper didn't make it, but its frozen seed vault did, and the ship brings it back to hold for a greenhouse later. At the end is a hollow chamber walled with alloy, with the gate core resting in a cradle at its centre and machines sleeping all around. Before the core can be lifted the drone bay learns to build attack drones: small, cheap and lightly armed, they fly with the ship and soak up fire so big fights last, and the bay rebuilds them when they're lost. Lifting the core wakes every machine in the wreck, and the ship has to run home through the gaps with them on its tail. Then they hit the station in three waves, raiders, missile strikers, a lancer and a carrier, and there are more of them the bigger the station is. Once the last wave breaks off, the ship strips what's left of the chamber and Hope reads the core: the gate-builders' route goes on, toward a star she has never seen. Hope has 17 new lines, recorded in her new voice.
- A winding passage into the biggest wreck, mapped by the survey drones, the ship following.
- A dead human pod: its seed vault salvaged and held in the dock for chapter 11.
- The heart: a chamber walled with an alloy seam, machines asleep round it, the gate core in its cradle.
- Attack drones from the drone bay: they fly with the ship and draw enemy fire; lost ones are rebuilt from stock.
- Lifting the core wakes everything: an escape through the gaps, then a three-wave siege at the station that grows with its size.
- The chapter ends with the core read and the gate-builders' route shown; 17 new lines for Hope.
Devlog · October 21, 2026
A clearer start: power cores, a mystery signal and a lighter opening
This build comes straight out of Kraig's playtest of chapter 10. Power is the big change. A power core used to burn down by the clock whether the station needed it or not, so a core fitted too early was partly wasted. Now a core is simply a full battery's worth of power that stacks into the station's one battery: fitting one makes the battery bigger and fills it, and the station only draws on it when it needs more than it makes, so it's always worth grabbing every core you find. The top bar shows this as two thin lines, what the station makes against what it wants and how full the battery is, plus how long it lasts while it drains; nearly every other number moved into the hover cards. The first wreck now shows up as an unknown signal with a question mark until the ship flies close, and Hope only links it to power once the old generator is clearly failing. The first ten minutes say much less at once: every early goal is a line or two, and each idea is explained when it first matters. Players who have never sped up time get one gentle tip pointing at the x4 button. The game has a new logo, the O drawn as a small hex with a sun inside it, and a new type pairing.
- Power cores are full batteries that stack into one battery and are only used when the station needs them: nothing is ever wasted.
- Two thin power lines in the top bar (made against wanted, and the battery) and a time left while it drains; the other numbers moved to the hover cards.
- The first wreck is an unknown "?" signal until the ship gets close; copper comes first, then Hope says power is failing and points at the signal.
- Chapter 1's goals cut to a line or two each, and power taught in plain words the moment it matters.
- A one-time tip shows new players the x4 time button the first time they're waiting.
- A new Solhex logo, the O a hairline hex with a small sun in it, a new type pairing, and a new line under the title.
- The playtest recorder now saves its regular snapshots and tells pauses from idle time.
Devlog · October 21, 2026
One tank of power, slower belts, a gun that aims, and the intro
Kraig stopped his last playtest after the first five chapters because the station's power made no sense: the bar sat in the warning colour for over an hour while nothing was actually short. This build makes power one tank. The battery and the power cores are a single bar that stays calm while there is power, only turns amber when it is getting low, and only says the station is slow when it really is empty; while it drains it shows how long it lasts. The dock's generator no longer fades on a hidden timer: it holds the cores, and on its own it gives just enough to keep an empty station crawling. The game starts with one core about a third full, so finding the next one matters, and the farther wrecks only show up later so cores don't pile up early. A few small shards of ore now float in sight right at the start, so a new player always has something to go and fetch. The turrets break up the rocks the tugs bring in, with a label when one is waiting and why. Belts carry less, so the smelters set the pace and upgrades are worth it. The ship's gun now reads as one snaking line of fire that hits more often against tougher targets. Its power bar shows the cost of a trip before it goes. Modules lost their rings: the store runs round the hex itself and the icon fills as the item is made. And the game finally opens with the cinematic intro, voiced in Hope's new calmer read.
- Station power is one tank and one bar: calm while it holds power, amber when low, red with "slow" only when it is empty, a time left while it drains and a soft shimmer while it fills.
- The RTG no longer fades on a hidden timer: it is where power cores go, and on its own it gives only a trickle. The game starts with one core in, about a third full.
- A few small shards of ore drift close by at the start, in sight, so there is something to go and get as soon as the dock is down.
- The station turrets break up a rock the tugs bring in whenever there is power; the tugs park it where a turret reaches, and its label says why it is waiting when it is.
- Belts are slower, so the smelter is the squeeze and the first upgrades matter; a full belt creeps along instead of sitting still.
- The ship's gun fires one rapid line of tracers that bends like a hose and hits far more often, against tougher targets, so fights last about as long.
- The ship's power bar greys out what an ordered trip will use, there and back, and turns red if it can't make it.
- Modules show their store on the hex's own outline and their progress in the icon itself, no more rings.
- The cinematic intro: a schematic of the pods going out and going dark, the long drift, and the wake. Hope speaks in a calmer, lower voice.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
The drone brings the rounds
When the ship is docked and short of rounds and the dock has none, the station's drone now flies a box of ten from the ammo constructor to the dock, and the ship loads them. A belt from the constructor to the dock still keeps it stocked without the trips.
- The drone ferries ammo from a constructor to the docked ship.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
Belts any length
After playing the free-form test, Kraig kept the hex grid but took its best idea: belts that reach any module, not only a neighbour. Drag from one building to another and a belt runs straight between them, up to 150 m, costing more ore and taking longer the further it goes. It can't run through a module, but it can cross another belt on a little bridge. The map is calmer too: labels that would overlap give way to the important ones, and a missile salvo shows as one warning. And the new systems teach themselves: the first time a Mark, a pipe, a tug or a long belt would help, a short hint says how.
- Dragged belts of any length on the hex grid, with bridges.
- Map labels no longer overlap; missile salvos share one label.
- First-time hints for Marks, storage, pipes, tugs and long belts.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
Chapter 8: the crossing
The station flies. Oxygen from chapter 7 is liquefied into LOX in a new, heat-hungry module; one engine goes on the station's edge with clear space behind its nozzle, fed fuel cells and liquid oxygen. Press Set out and the whole station slowly turns to point the engine back along the comet's trail, burns, coasts, turns end for end and brakes: about fifteen minutes with a full tank, longer and rougher on less. Everything keeps running on the way, and the old field falls behind. Machines follow: strikers and a carrier during the burn, raiders pacing the coast, the ship flying escort. At the far side a new ice field drifts into range, and past it, too big for the map, the sensors trace a vast dark shape. Hope is quiet for a moment, then names it: a gate-builder ruin.
- Chapter 8: the liquefier, the engine, the turning station, the flip and burn, the chase, the ruin at arrival.
- Hope's chapter 8 lines voiced on Eleven v4.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
No rounds in the dock
The dock no longer holds ammo. When the ship is docked and short, the station's drone flies a box of rounds straight from the ammo constructor into it; turrets are fed by a belt from the constructor or a storage, or by the drone, from the very start of the game, and a turret that sees something coming tops up first. Belting ammo toward the dock is refused, with the reason why. The ammo constructor itself now keeps a bigger store, standing in for the old dock stock.
- The dock holds no ammo: the drone ferries rounds to the ship; turrets fed by belt or drone.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
The swarm and the lancer
Two new machines from the roadmap. The swarm: eight to twelve tiny drones flying as one tight chevron, each killed by a single round, so turrets and the PDC rake them while they hold formation; hurt or close in, they scatter and nibble a module with short beams, much harder to catch. The lancer: a sniper that holds a kilometre out, past every ring, and charges a rail shot along a thin red line; the slug is instant, nothing can shoot it down, but a rock in the way takes it, and the ship closing in kills it. They appear from chapter 7, in chapter 8's chase, and in free play after.
- The swarm: formation flying, scatters when hurt.
- The lancer: a long-range rail sniper; cover or close in.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
Faster, and kinder on a phone
A polish pass. The station's struts and hexes are now drawn once and reused until something changes, glows are made once instead of every frame, and the huge range rings only draw the part on screen: a big late-game station draws in about a third less time, nearly half less on a phone. On a phone the panels use the full width, the alerts stop covering the top bar, and every close button is big enough for a thumb. A new controls card, opened with the ? key or from the menu, lists every key and touch. And the two stretches that dragged in Kraig's playthrough are lighter: the vanguard decode draws less power, so the card line keeps up, and motors are quicker to make.
- About a third faster to draw on a big station.
- Phone layout fixes.
- A controls card (?).
- The decode and the motors goal lightened.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
Hopewake
The game has a working name: Hopewake. You play Hope, the seed pod's AI, and the whole game is a long wake kept over one sleeper. The name may still change, so the saves and the code's stored names stay as they were; the website moves to kraigadams.com/hopewake, and every old /starhex and /driftworks link leads there. For this build smelters and constructors at Mark I run 40% slower, so Mark II is worth wanting; Kraig is playtesting whether that's too slow. The free-form building test is retired: belts that reach across the hex grid gave most of what it offered.
- Renamed Hopewake (a working name); the site moves to /hopewake.
- Mark I smelters and constructors 40% slower, for the playtest.
- The free-form test retired.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
The alloy field
Chapter 9 is in. The station parks at the edge of a huge field of wreckage, and nothing in it can be flown over: the frigate picks its way through the gaps on a planned path, slowly, and scrapes if it cuts a corner. The pieces block sight and shots both ways, so what you haven't seen stays dark. Gate-builder alloy sits on the pieces' faces; the chaingun cuts it off, tugs haul loose fragments home, and it buys three things: plating that doubles a module's hull, a drone bay with two survey drones that map the dark on their own, and alloy fittings for Mark III. Machines sleep in the wreck in three depths, and gunfire wakes them. The chapter ends when the drones find a hollow deep inside the biggest wreck, walled with alloy: chapter 10 goes in.
- Chapter 9, The alloy field: a wreck you fly through, never over.
- Gate-builder alloy, plating, the drone bay and survey drones.
- Sleeping machines that gunfire wakes.
- Eleven new lines from Hope.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
Playtest fixes: the dark start
A build from one long playtest. The game now opens nearly blind: until the sensor's first ping you scout with the ship to find the first ore, and chapter 1 ends on that ping. Iron plates wait until you've made ammo. Early machines run slower so they stay busy instead of filling up, and each maker now shows a thin ring and a Fed line saying how well it's supplied and what holds it up. Orders you give the ship leave at once; it fires while docked; scavengers outrange its gun, so they fight back. Chapter 4 gets a three-ship attack, and from then on loud pings can draw small raids. Drone logistics comes early, from the first relic. Tugs sit on the rock's edge, brake without overshooting, and only go out when ore runs low, and turrets break up a rock as it comes in. Plus a clearer pause screen, a simpler heat gauge, and a fix for Hope saying a line twice.
- The dark start: scout for ore until the first ping, which now ends chapter 1.
- Plates after ammo; slower early machines; a Fed ring and line on every maker.
- Ship orders leave at once; the docked ship fires; scavengers outrange it.
- A chapter 4 attack, and pings that draw raids.
- Drone logistics from the first relic; better tugs.
- A pause screen, a simpler heat gauge, Hope no longer repeats a line.
Devlog · October 20, 2026
Belts that back up, and a new voice for Hope
Belts now work like Factorio's: you can see each item ride along the belt, and when the module at the end is full they stop and queue up all the way back, until the module feeding them fills and stops too. So a jam shows exactly where the station is short. Each module has two rings: the outer one fills as it makes the next item, the inner one shows how full its store is. The top bar is calmer, with colour only when something needs you. A module with no job lists its jobs one to a row with their costs, and a job you can't pay for yet shows on the map as a faint ghost while it gathers its parts. The drone can now mend the docked ship with repair packs, and the free mend at the dock is slower, so packs are the quick way. Mark I belts are slower too. Hope has a new script and a new voice: every line rewritten to sound more like a ship's machine, short while you play and slower at the story's big moments. Under the hood the code is split into smaller files by system, with a test that proves a tidy-up changes nothing in play.
- Factorio-style belts: items ride them and back up when the end is full.
- Two rings on every module: making progress and store.
- A calmer top bar: colour only for trouble.
- Jobs one to a row; ordered jobs show as ghosts on the map.
- Repair packs mend the docked ship; the free mend is slower; Mark I belts are slower.
- Hope's new script and voice: more machine, more serious.
- The code split into smaller files, with a check that play stays the same.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A first test of the ship AI's voice
The AI now speaks the first three goals' lines as they appear: waking up to the loose iron, the full hold and the old dock, and the first module. The music dips under her and the words stay on the goal card. They're recorded ahead with Artlist's voiceover (Eleven v3, American accent), in two voices to compare, Insight and Hope; pick one, or turn her off, under Settings > AI voice. A third voice kept cutting a line short and was dropped.
- Pre-recorded lines for the first three goals, played as each goal appears (src/voice.js, vo/test/).
- Settings: AI voice, Insight, Hope or off; picking one plays a sample.
- The music dips while she speaks.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The ship's own cargo bar shows what's aboard
The little cargo bar drawn on the ship itself was always iron-coloured. Now it's in segments like the top bar's: green copper ore, rust iron ore, teal silicon, each as long as its share of the hold.
- The ship's on-map hold bar: one segment per item in its colour, in the top bar's order.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A cleaner research card
The research card now shows only what's being researched, its progress and the button. The list of what's already researched appears when you open Change research (or Pick research), and when there's nothing left to pick.
- The researched list shows only while picking research, or when nothing's left.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Auto mining doesn't get stuck on leftover cargo
Auto mining used to wait at the dock until the hold was empty, so copper the full dock couldn't take kept it there forever while the station ran out of iron. Now, when the dock is full of what's aboard and at least a quarter of the hold is free, it leaves with the leftovers and fetches the ore the station needs; it also never picks an ore the dock is already full of. The leftovers unload once there's room.
- Auto mining leaves with cargo the full dock can't take, when a quarter of the hold is free, for the ore the station needs.
- It never picks an ore the dock is full of while the hold has cargo.
- A test for the case.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
An alert when the ship is stuck at a full dock
When the ship sits docked holding something the dock is already full of, with too little room left to go mining (or Auto mining off), and the station is short of another ore, an amber alert appears at the top: "Ship stuck at the dock: the dock is full of copper ore, and the station needs iron ore." Its button drops just the stuck cargo, keeping anything else aboard. It goes away by itself once the ship can move again.
- A stuck-cargo alert with a warning sound, naming what's stuck and what's needed.
- Its Drop button drops only the stuck items (Drop cargo can now drop chosen items).
- A test for it.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Drifting rocks, short sight and the sensor's ping
Every rock now drifts slowly on its own small loop, and the ship matches a rock's motion while it mines it, for almost no battery. You only see live within 1.2 km of the station and 600 m of the ship; a rock you've seen that drifts out of sight stays on the map faded and dashed where you last saw it, "seen 4 min ago", until a visit or a ping updates it. Select the sensor and press Ping (or P): for 120 of the station's power it lights up everything within 3.6 km for 20 seconds, with a ring sweeping out. Its Auto switch pings every minute when the station can spare the power. Chapter 2 is now "Build a sensor and ping", and the ping finds the copper: one field, drifting together 1.5 to 2 km out. Auto mining and every trip estimate go by what you know, the last-seen marks, not where things secretly are.
- Rocks drift slowly on bounded loops; the copper and silicon fields move as one.
- The ship holds station on a drifting rock while it mines.
- Sight: 1.2 km round the station, 600 m round the ship; faded last-seen marks for the rest.
- Sensor Ping (120 power, 3.6 km, 20 s) and Auto ping every 60 s with a 25% reserve.
- Chapter 2: build a sensor and ping; the copper is one field.
- Saves load with nothing jumping.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Auto mining shows what it's going for next
In the ship's panel, the next ore's icon sits beside the Auto mine switch, marked "next", and the line under it names it.
- The next ore's icon beside Auto mine.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A new ship, on an electric drive
Three mock-ups, Kraig picked the first: long and lean like the Rocinante, a softly rounded wedge nose, a slim hull in segments, the cargo bay mid-hull where the coloured hold bar sits, the PDC on a dorsal blister and one flared drive bell. The chaingun's tracers now come from that PDC mount. And since the ship runs on its battery, the fiery plume is gone: the drive is a thin cyan-white beam with a white core, fading to violet, with a shimmer of ions, longer and brighter the harder it thrusts.
- The ship's new hull: rounded wedge nose, segmented body, drive bell, PDC blister, no antenna lines.
- Tracers fire from the PDC mount.
- An electric drive plume in place of the fire.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Fe ore
The rust-red ore is Fe ore now everywhere you read it, matching cu ore and si ore. The smelted bar is still called iron.
- Iron ore is named Fe ore (fe ore for short); iron, the bar, keeps its name.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Recipes that pick themselves, and construction first
Three fixes from one jam. A smelter with no recipe takes nothing in, so a belt of si ore just sat there: now a belt bringing an item that only one of a module's recipes uses picks that recipe by itself (si ore into a smelter means wafers), also when its job is picked later, and once for saves already stuck this way. The wafer recipe costs 4 plates and 2 wire, and a recipe you can't pay for yet looked disabled: it now reads "Order: Silicon wafer", and once ordered it lights up with what it has collected. And construction comes first: orders (a recipe's or job's cost, a ship upgrade) take the plates and wire they need before any belt does, so a busy line can't starve them; the dock already kept back the ore the drone's builds wait for.
- A belt's item picks the module's recipe when only one recipe uses it (on setting the belt, picking the job, and once for older saves).
- Unaffordable recipes read as "Order: …"; an ordered recipe shows its progress.
- Orders take items before belts (construction first).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A quieter toolbar
The bottom toolbar (home, pause, speed, build) sits dim until the cursor reaches a button, which then lights up fully; one that's on, like pause, stays a little brighter. On a phone they stay at full strength.
- Toolbar buttons dim to about a third until hovered.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
You can see when the station's power fails
Low power is hard to miss now. Every module browns out on the map, darker the lower the station's running speed, and flickers when it's nearly dark. The dock's rim pulses amber while browning out and red when it's out. The power chip in the top bar pulses red, and an alert at the top says how bad it is and what to do: "Station out of power: nothing runs. Feed the burners Fe ore", or "Low power: everything runs at 62%. Add another burner or more solar panels", noting when dust has the panels dark. Running out also sounds a warning.
- Modules brown out and flicker with low power.
- The dock pulses amber (low) or red (out).
- A power alert with the fix; the power chip pulses; a warning sound when it runs out.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Copied setups go onto new blueprints
Q over a module already made a ghost with its job and recipe. Now Q anywhere else uses the setup you copied with C, so you can copy once and lay out a row of the same module, and pasting (V) onto a blueprint the drone hasn't built yet gives it that setup for when it's built. A module whose recipe is still waiting on its cost is labelled "ordered" on the map, not "pick a recipe", so it doesn't look like the setup was lost.
- Q over empty space places the copied setup.
- Paste onto an unbuilt blueprint sets its plan.
- "Ordered" on the map label of a module whose recipe is on order.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Efficient drive: a research for chapter 5
Chapter 5 only had its two story researches, so the data centers sat idle. Efficient drive (15 cards) joins the list when chapter 5 begins: every burn costs a fifth less battery, so a 1.5 km trip needs about 51 battery instead of 63 and the long silicon run gets easier. More chapter 5 research and repeatable upgrades are planned, waiting on Kraig's call.
- Efficient drive: 15 cards, offered from chapter 5, every burn costs 20% less battery (trip estimates and the range outline follow).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A lighter storm that shows its strength
The dust veil is much lighter and greyer, and it now follows how much sunlight the storm is blocking at that moment: a faint haze as a front comes in, thicker at its darkest, and the great storm a touch heavier again. The blowing streaks thin out the same way, and the banner is quieter.
- The storm veil and streaks scale with how dark the storm makes it, and are lighter overall.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Shorter module panels
The list of every belt in and out, with how many items each had moved, is gone from the module and dock panels. Click a belt itself to see what it carries and its count.
- Module and dock panels no longer list their belts.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The power bar says how the station is doing
The station's power bar now shows supply against demand: green when more comes in than is wanted, yellow while it draws on storage at full speed, red when it's short and browning out. Once Station batteries are researched, a thin gold line under it shows the stored charge. The number beside it is still what's stored.
- The power bar: supply against demand, in green, yellow or red.
- A stored-charge line under it once Station batteries are researched.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Time stays at the bottom
Changing speed no longer pops up "Time x4" and "Time x1" at the top, where they covered the storm banner. The paused and x4 indicator now sits at the bottom, just above the status line, and the speed button in the toolbar still shows x1 or x4.
- No speed toasts; the paused / x4 indicator moved to the bottom.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Continue reads cleanly
The title screen's big buttons keep room on both sides, so the chapter and time played under Continue never run under the Enter key hint; the icon sits at the left and the text stays centred.
- The title's big buttons pad around their icon and key hint.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A full playthrough, read
Kraig played chapters 1 to 6 start to finish on the new chapter 1 (53 minutes of active play across the night's builds). Chapters 1 to 3 now run smoothly, with every goal inside its window. Chapter 4's one goal, decoding the vanguard signal, took 26 minutes of game time, far past its 15-minute window, so it now costs 20 data cards instead of 30 (about 3 minutes shorter for the test player). A rare click error the recording caught is fixed. The bigger finding, long stretches of watching while Auto mining does the work in chapters 4 to 6, is what the planned defence update is for.
- Vanguard signal: 20 cards, was 30.
- A rare pointer-capture error can't interrupt a click.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The copper guard: real combat, lasers and honest flight
Step 2. The test drone off to the side is gone; a dormant gate-builder guard now sleeps among the copper, invisible even to the ping. Come within 400 m and it wakes: a red flash, an alarm, a music sting, a shake, and the AI: "Contact. It was waiting." The ship's PDC, on its dorsal mount with a 270° arc and a 350 m ring, fires a tearing stream whose hit chance falls with distance and crossing speed (95% close and still, a few percent far and fast), misses flying past. Order an attack and it burns in, flips, brakes with its drive toward the target, drifts past and holds close. The guard's laser charges for a second, then a tracking pulse burns hull, then it recharges; a rock between you blocks it, both ways. The fight is always won (the hull never drops below 40, holding costs no battery, the last rounds always hit), and the wreck gives scrap. Arrive with almost no ammo and it shows itself, then runs off the map to raise the alarm, something Act 2 will remember. Mining is three heavy thudding taps now, twice the old pace, unmistakable from the combat rip. And flight is honest: the ship's systems draw a little battery while it's out, every trip flies at the best speed its battery allows, and a low battery means slower, not stuck.
- The copper guard: dormant, the wake-up scare, the always-won fight, the flee path (S.story).
- The PDC: range ring, 270° dorsal mount, hit chance by distance and speed, a tracer stream, misses visible.
- Attack runs: flip-and-burn, drift past, hold close.
- The guard's laser: charge, tracking pulse, recharge; blocked by rocks.
- Mining taps: 3 rounds every 3.6 s, twice the old rate; separate mining and combat sounds.
- Honest flight: a small drain while out (1.0/s past the relay), economical cruise speeds, slow-but-reachable trips in the range outline.
- Saves migrate (v11).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The defence update: rocks, turrets, repairs, relics and heat
Step 3, built overnight. Every module has a hull now: below half it slows, at zero it goes offline but is never lost. Repair packs (2 plates and a wire, 25 hull each) are made once something first gets hurt, and the station drone carries them to the damage, keeping a part-used pack aboard. From chapter 2 rocks drift onto collision courses, with a warning line, a countdown and an AI call, and the ship or a turret shoots them into collectable chunks. The station turret (4 plates, 2 wire, fed ammo from the dock) opens chapter 4. From chapter 3 scavenger drones sometimes turn up while the ship mines; it fights, then goes back to work. Gate-builder relics, from the copper guard and those fights, are read by a data center on spare power, and each one makes a new research appear: most research comes this way now, while the story's own never waits on one. Chapter 6's storms throw debris, outer modules hardest; a storm shield turns most of it aside while the stored power lasts. And the station has one heat level, from every unit of power used and a lot from data centers, shed by radiators anywhere and best on the edge: over 60% everything slows, over 85% modules start to take damage. When nothing happens for two minutes, the AI suggests something useful.
- Module hulls; repair packs and the drone's repairs.
- Incoming rocks from chapter 2; the station turret (chapter 4's first goal).
- Scavenger encounters from chapter 3.
- Relics: most non-story research now comes from them; five new relic researches.
- Storm debris and the storm shield (chapter 6).
- Station heat in one pool, with a top-bar chip and alerts; data centers' own heat and touching radiators retired.
- The idle hint.
- Saves migrate (v12).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Parts in the chain, upgrades in place, and a busier factory
Three parts now sit in the middle of the chain: steel plate (2 plates and an iron, in a smelter) from chapter 4, the circuit (a wafer and 2 wire) from chapter 5, and the motor (2 wire and a plate) from chapter 6, each with its own goal. Later builds use them: solar panels, station batteries and the storm shield. Upgrades never replace a module: a research upgrades every module of its kind where it stands, each one collecting its parts while it keeps working, the drone fitting them, and a rank numeral (II, III) appearing on the map. And the factory was rebalanced so the lines keep each other busy: plates, copper, wire and cards run at matched speeds, ammo is made at the pace it's used, burners need a third less ore for the same power, and the signal decode is 14 cards. For the test player, idle time across the line fell in every chapter (chapter 3 from 53% to 21%).
- Steel plate (ch4), circuit (ch5), motor (ch6), each with a goal; panels, batteries and the shield use them.
- Research upgrades in place with ranks, collected through orders and fitted by the drone; new Smelter speed, Constructor speed and Sun trackers.
- Balance: matched line speeds, slower ammo, thriftier burners, richer outer iron, a 14-card decode.
- Saves migrate (v13).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A bigger map, and a threat in every chapter
Step 5. The map is bigger: iron stays close, the copper field (and its guard) sits 2.5 to 3 km out, still inside the ping, and silicon is one cluster 6.4 to 7.4 km away. Batteries and drain were retuned so a full base charge does copper and back at a good speed and the Long-range battery (now 320) does silicon; you can zoom out until the station and both fields share one screen, each field ringed and named. Chapter 4's decode is loud: partway through, two raiders come to see what's broadcasting, and the turret and the ship silence them, for a relic. Chapter 5's silicon is guarded by a fixed sentinel whose laser outranges the PDC: close in behind the drifting rocks, or mine where it can't see you. And the great storm brings a raid: three waves of raiders from split directions while the panels are dark; the shield stops debris, not lasers. Beat them and the last one drops a relic that charts the way past the gate. No auto-speed, on Kraig's word. Saves keep their layout; new games get the big map.
- Copper 2.5-3 km, silicon 6.4-7.4 km; Long-range battery 320, relay drain 0.5/s; zoom out to 0.02 with field rings and markers.
- Chapter 4 patrol (two raiders, damage capped, a relic: Efficient drive).
- Chapter 5 sentinel (420 m laser, blocked by rocks, a relic: Tougher hulls).
- Chapter 6 storm raid (three waves; the gate relic, Act 2's hook).
- Saves keep their layout (v14).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The ship AI speaks through chapter 2
Of the two test voices, Hope (natural, clear and calm) is now the ship AI's voice. She reads every goal's line through chapters 1 and 2, and the copper guard's three moments: "Contact. It was waiting.", the flight if it escapes, and what it was once it's down. The music dips under her and the words stay on screen. Settings > AI voice turns her on or off. Later chapters' lines come once the voice is settled.
- Hope's voice on chapters 1-2's goal lines and the guard's three lines (21 recordings).
- Settings: AI voice on or off.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Music that comes and goes
The score has pieces now, the way Minecraft's music arrives: every few minutes a piece fades in for about two to three minutes, builds and resolves, then the drone has the room again for a while. Each piece is low and simple but moves: a soft muted pulse in eighths underneath, slow pads changing every two bars, a sparse piano-like line once it's settled, and in the warmer and darker pieces a far-off choir-like tone. The chapter sets its colour: cold and sparse at the start, warmer with copper and compute, darker through the storms. A long trip gives it a little more drive, and a chapter's own motif always takes the floor. It's all generated live, in the same key as the rest of the score, so there are no licences to worry about for Steam.
- Ambient pieces every few minutes (about 1.7-3 min each, 3-5 min apart), coloured by chapter and storms, a touch more drive on long trips; chapter motifs take precedence.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Smooth motion at x1
The simulation ticks ten times a second while the screen draws about sixty, so at x1 everything that moved visibly stepped ten times a second (x4 hid it with more ticks per frame). Now the ship, the drone, rocks, chunks, enemies and shots are drawn blended between where they were before the last tick and where they are now, by how far the clock is into the next one: smooth motion, at most a tenth of a second behind, with nothing about the game itself changed.
- Moving things are drawn blended between ticks; the simulation and its timing are unchanged.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The AI's voice fades instead of cutting off
Every line now fades in over 30 milliseconds and out over its last quarter second, a line interrupted by the next fades out over 0.3 s instead of stopping dead, and a faint short room tail lets her last word ring out rather than clip. The voice plays through the browser's audio engine now, the music still dipping under her.
- Voice lines fade in and out; interruptions fade; a faint room tail.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The goal card stays put
The goal card used to open its full text whenever the mouse passed over it, so reaching for its button made the card grow and the button jump away. Now it opens only when you click it (or More…), and each new goal starts folded.
- The goal card's full text opens on a click, not on hover.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The relic stays where it fell
A relic dropped by a beaten enemy used to shoot off with the wreck's speed. Now it drifts slowly where it fell and you fly over to pick it up. The PDC's ring also shows whenever the gun is on something, incoming rocks included, and labels at the screen's edge no longer pile on top of each other.
- A dropped relic drifts slowly where it fell; fly to it to bring it aboard.
- The PDC ring shows while it engages rocks too.
- Shots fired on your order hit more often (30%, was 15%).
- Overlapping edge labels stack instead of overlapping.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Close combat you can see
The PDC reached 350 m, well off screen when zoomed in, while the only circle you could see was the 60 m pull field. Now the PDC reaches 200 m and every enemy weapon shrank to match, so fights happen up close. The PDC ring shows whenever the ship is selected, warm and ticked like a gun sight and labelled "PDC 200 m". The blue pull field is labelled "Pull 60 m".
- PDC range 350 m to 200 m; the guard's laser 300 to 170 m, the sentinel's 420 to 250 m, scavengers' 250 to 145 m, the turret's 240 to 150 m; enemies hover closer.
- The PDC ring always shows while the ship is selected, in its own warm, ticked style with a label.
- The pull field is labelled.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Seeing the station's power
The dock holds the station's power, so power now visibly flows in from the burners and panels and out to every machine drawing it. It travels as small warm pulses along the support beams, more and faster where more power crosses, and slowed and flickering in a brownout. Machines using power get an amber rim as bright as their draw, and generators get a green rim. Select one to see its rate, and its panel says what share of the station's power it takes. A faint glow around the station grows with what it uses, and the top bar shows the total. The STATION and SHIP labels in the top bar are now buttons that select them and bring them into view, replacing the home button.
- Power pulses along the support beams, from what makes power to the dock and from the dock to what uses it.
- An amber rim on machines using power and a green rim on generators, each as bright as its rate; the rate shows when selected or zoomed in.
- The module panel's Power row: uses or makes so much a second, and its share of the station.
- A faint station glow and the top bar's "uses N/s" for the whole station.
- STATION and SHIP in the top bar are buttons; the home button is gone (H still looks home).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The PDC ring only when it matters
The PDC ring no longer appears just because the ship is selected. It fades in as an enemy or an incoming rock comes within twice its reach, reaches full strength once the threat is close, and stays while the gun is on something.
- The PDC ring fades in with nearby enemies and incoming rocks, and stays while firing.
- The top bar's station use hides while nothing draws power.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A rail and a power line
Each pair of touching modules is now joined by one thicker support rail, with its brackets, and one thin power line. The power pulses run only along the power line, smaller and fainter than before.
- One support rail (thicker) and one thin power line between touching modules.
- Power pulses on the power line only, about a third fainter and smaller.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The station's pull, a gun that fires, power in plain numbers
The station now has its own pull field, reaching 150 m past its outermost module. Chunks from a rock you shot down, or from a rock that hit the station, fall to the dock and go into its store, but only what the store has room for. Anything the dock is full of floats on, marked 'dock full', and comes in once there's room. Select the dock to see the ring. The ship's PDC skipped that rock for two reasons: it left incoming rocks to the station's turret, and it held fire until its chance to hit reached 45%. Now it fires at anything inside its ring. Every combat range is 20% shorter, so the PDC reaches 160 m. The power chip now reads made and used per second (+26.9 −24.6), adding the speed only when the station is short, and its card says the same in plain lines.
- The station's pull field: chunks within 150 m of the station fall to the dock, only what fits; the rest float on, marked.
- Removing a belt into a full dock floats the refunded ore beside it.
- The PDC fires at anything inside its ring, incoming rocks included even with a turret.
- Every combat range is 20% shorter: the PDC 160 m, the guard's laser 135 m, the sentinel's 200 m, scavengers' 115 m, the turret's 120 m.
- The power chip reads made and used per second, the speed only when short, and its card is plainer.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A research card that holds still
The research card now keeps the same rows whatever happens: the research, its bar, one line of cards (with the relic being read, if there is one) and a Change research button that's always there. The 'no data cards' warning is gone. Hovering over the name and bar shows that research's full card. Change research opens the list above it, with what's already researched behind a Researched drop-down.
- The research card keeps a fixed layout; the relic's progress sits in its cards line.
- Hover the current research for its full details.
- Change research is always there and opens the list upward, with a Researched drop-down.
- The no-data-cards warning is gone from the card.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Guns that turn before they fire
The station turret's barrel used to snap onto a target once it was in range. Now it turns smoothly toward the nearest threat it can see, from three times its reach, so it's already lined up when the threat comes in, and it only fires once it's on target. The ship's PDC gets a small barrel that does the same, tracking whatever is coming within twice its range.
- The turret turns toward threats from 3x its reach, at a set speed, and fires only once lined up.
- The ship's PDC has a visible barrel that tracks the next target.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Recipes at a glance
Each recipe in a module's panel is now one line, the Factorio way: what it makes and its name, then the recipe in icons (2 si ore → 1 wafer), then what switching to it costs, in icons and dimmed. An order is dashed and shows what it has collected. Hovering a recipe opens its card: what goes in and out, how long a batch takes, its power, and what switching costs. The long explanation under the list is gone.
- One-line recipe rows with icons: makes, the recipe, the switch cost.
- A hover card per recipe with the full details.
- The long note about unaffordable recipes moved into the hover card.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A calm repair drone
The drone pointed itself at the module it was working on. Parked right on top of the module, that direction came from tiny leftover distances and flipped wildly. Now it keeps the heading it arrived with and turns smoothly. Its mending line glows steadily instead of flickering.
- The drone holds its heading while it builds, mends or fits upgrades, and turns smoothly when flying.
- The mending line glows steadily.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A small battery, pings that charge, an array to find the silicon
The dock now holds just 60 power (it starts at 20), so whenever the station uses more than it makes it drains in seconds and browns out. Burners slow down when the battery is full instead of wasting ore, and a docked ship charges 4/s first and the rest from whatever the factory leaves. A ping now charges from the station's power, 6 a second like any machine (a gold ring fills around the sensor), then fires; you can cancel it. Auto ping only starts a charge when there's power to spare. The silicon no longer appears with Solar power: chapter 5 gains the Long-range array research and a sensor upgrade (plates, wire and a data card) that doubles a ping's reach to 9 km and its cost to 240, and that far ping finds the silicon. The station's pull field is now a research, Station gravity well (6 cards). The power chip is one bar for the battery's charge and one net number a second: green when gaining, dim when even, red when losing.
- The dock battery is 60 (starts at 20); burners slow when it's full; the ship charges 4/s first.
- Pings charge from station power (6/s) with a ring on the sensor and a Cancel; auto ping only with power to spare.
- Long-range array: a chapter 5 research and sensor upgrade; its 9 km ping finds the silicon (3 new chapter 5 goals).
- Station gravity well: the station's pull is a research (6 cards).
- The power chip: the battery's charge and one net number.
- Chapter 1's power goal is 30; chapter 6's reserve goal is 1000.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Sight from the dock
The dock alone now sees 400 m; a working sensor raises the station's sight to 1.2 km and the Long-range array to 1.5 km. Select the dock or the sensor to see the ring. Nothing outside the station's sight, the ship's 600 m or a ping shows live: rocks, chunks, rocks inbound and enemies. What's been seen leaves a still, faded mark ('Raider · seen 0:30 ago'). A rock inbound is only announced once it's seen, and rocks now start further out, so the dock alone gives about 50 s of warning, a sensor about 3 minutes and a ping up to 4. The turret and the PDC only track what's been seen. Chapter 1's loose iron now drifts inside the dock's sight.
- Station sight: the dock 400 m, a sensor 1.2 km, the array 1.5 km; rings when selected.
- Nothing live outside sight or a ping; faded last-seen marks for rocks inbound and enemies.
- Rocks inbound are announced when seen and start further out (4 min away).
- Guns track only what's seen; attacks need the enemy in sight.
- Chapter 1's loose iron sits within 340 m.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The dying RTG and isotope cores
Burners are gone; ore is for building only. The dock's RTG wakes with the first module at 10 power a second, holds for 4 minutes, then falls 1 a second every 55 s to a floor of 2 that it never goes below, and the power card counts it down. Isotope cores, the same fuel the gate-builders' machines run on, lift it by 10 (up to 18) and hold it 5 minutes: about 11 minutes of comfort before the brownouts come back. The copper guard, the chapter 4 patrol and the chapter 5 sentinel always drop one, scavengers sometimes do, and five derelict wrecks lie out in the fields, the first always within the sensor's sight. A core in the dock goes straight into the RTG. Chapter 2 gains 'Fit an isotope core', and modules get an on/off switch so a short station chooses what runs. The test player used 4-5 cores before solar on every map.
- Burners retired; the RTG is the station's power until solar (10/s, decaying to a floor of 2/s).
- Isotope cores from the guard, the patrol, the sentinel, some scavengers and five wrecks; each lifts the RTG 10/s for 5 minutes.
- A new chapter 2 goal: Fit an isotope core.
- An on/off switch on every module.
- The RTG's floor charges a flat docked ship first.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Drone logistics
A chapter 5 research, Drone logistics (12 cards). Once it's done, a module's panel has a Drone supply switch for each item input it uses; ores stay belt-only. A switched-on input asks when it's below half full, shown as a small bubble with the item's icon, and the drone fetches one item a trip from the dock, a storage or a maker's output store, flying at half speed and only after its builds, upgrades and repairs. Ammo goes as a box of 10. The test player used it to feed a circuit constructor's wire without a second wire line: 35-54 trips a game.
- Drone logistics research (chapter 5).
- Drone supply switches per item input; asking bubbles on the map.
- One item a trip at half speed, last in the drone's queue; ammo by the box of 10.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Strikers and their missiles
A new gate-builder machine, the striker. It holds 300 m off its target, outside the PDC's reach and a turret's best, locks on for 3 s, fires one homing missile and runs. The missile starts slow and speeds up to 22 m/s, turns slowly enough that a ship burning away can outrun it, and takes two hits from the PDC or a turret, which now shoot missiles before anything else. A hit costs the ship 25 hull (never below 5) or a module 30. 'MISSILE INBOUND' marks it with its path and a rising whine. One comes with the chapter 4 patrol, half of chapter 5's encounters bring one, and every chapter 6 raid wave has one. A killed striker drops scrap and sometimes an isotope core. In the test player's games 14 of 21 missiles were shot down.
- The striker: one missile, then it runs; two PDC hits kill it.
- Homing missiles the PDC and turrets shoot first; MISSILE INBOUND marker and a warning whine.
- Strikers in the chapter 4 patrol, chapter 5 encounters and every chapter 6 raid wave.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Honing: hints, missiles that run dry, Hope speaks every goal
From Kraig's lightning round. Chapters 1-3 now watch for someone stuck: a goal running far past its usual time, no progress, or a common mistake (a belt the wrong way, a module with no job, a machine with nothing coming in, the ship crawling on a low battery) brings a small hint and a ring on the exact thing to click; nothing shows when you're doing fine. Missiles launch cold, light their engine a second later and keep accelerating on a fuel budget shared with steering: run it dry by fleeing early and it coasts past, harmless. Each has a 28 m blast, when it hits or when it's shot down, so killing one near another takes both. Hope now speaks every goal's line in the same voice. The wafer goal is 6, the RTG's first fade comes sooner so the first brownout lands late in chapter 2, just before the guard's core.
- Adaptive hints in chapters 1-3, only when stuck.
- Missiles: cold launch, engine burst, acceleration on a fuel budget, 28 m blast, one hit to kill.
- Hope voices all 42 goals.
- Wafers 10 -> 6, quicker and lighter on power.
- The first brownout late in chapter 2.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Only what matters yet
Panel subtitles wrap instead of being cut off. The dock's panel only shows what matters yet: the power line once the RTG is awake, Drop all once the dock holds something, Fly home once the ship is really away, and the belt hint once there's a module to belt to.
- Panel subtitles wrap.
- The dock panel hides lines that don't apply yet.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Hope waits her turn
A new line no longer cuts off the one playing: it waits and plays after it, with a short breath between. The same line is never queued twice, and one that has waited more than 45 seconds is dropped, since what it was about has passed.
- Hope's lines queue instead of interrupting.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A pod, a sleeper, and the logs
The story starts. The title screen is a lone pod in the dark with one light stuttering on, and after New game a short opening: boot text, then Hope: home sent this pod out to find a way through, one sleeper and her. Every relic read, wreck salvaged or core recovered now opens the next of 17 log fragments, half Hope's own notes and half the gate-builders' machines translated, which Hope reads aloud and keeps in a Logs list (L): watch kept, site quiet; build, never open; the sky behind the gate was not our sky. Wrecks are salvaged now: stop beside one and the drone cuts the core free over 10 seconds, and the noise can wake what guards it. The docked ship loads rounds only from the dock (or a storage) until Drone logistics, so the ammo line has to be belted home. Make 5 iron plates is back in chapter 1.
- A title scene and a skippable opening after New game.
- 17 voiced log fragments plus the gate's, and a Logs list (L).
- Wreck salvage: a 10 s cut that can wake the guards.
- Ammo must be belted to the dock until Drone logistics.
- Make 5 iron plates is in chapter 1 again.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A queue of orders
Shift+right-click adds an order to a queue behind the one in hand: fly to a point, mine a rock, or go home (up to 8). The ship finishes each before the next: at a point it waits for the pull field to take what's near, at a rock it mines until the hold is full or the rock is out, and home it unloads. The chain shows on the map as numbered stops. A plain right-click clears the queue.
- Shift+right-click queues points, rocks and home; numbered stops on the map.
- A plain order clears the queue.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Salvaged wrecks go quiet
A salvaged wreck's 'SALVAGED' label shows for a minute after its core comes out, then fades away; the empty hull stays as scenery.
- The SALVAGED label fades a minute after salvage.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A rock to teach the turret
When the turret goal comes up in chapter 4, a rock is set coming at the station, caught early by the sensor about four minutes out, and Hope says so: build the point-defence mount before that rock does the building for us. The first turret now has something to shoot the moment it's up.
- The turret goal starts with a rock inbound, announced at once.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Hope's words on a terminal
Whenever Hope speaks, her words now type out in a small terminal in the top-left corner, timed to finish just before she does, with a blinking block cursor at the end. It's faint on purpose, more texture than text. When she reads one of the machines' logs, the terminal turns amber and says it's translating.
- Hope's lines type out as a terminal subtitle, top left, in time with her voice.
- Machine log fragments show in amber, marked as a translation.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Forty rounds, a turret that always fires, a gun that looks behind
Belts stop bringing ammo into the dock once it holds 40 rounds, so the ammo line idles instead of piling up. The test runs showed the new turret never firing at the rock it was built for: the factory drained the station to zero every moment, and each round needs a little power. Now a turret fires anyway and the power it used is paid back first from the next moment's power, so the factory takes the brownout, not the defence. And the ship's gun had a blind spot behind it, which is how two scavengers slipped past on the way to a wreck. It now turns all the way round and fires on anything in range, whatever the ship is doing.
- The dock stops taking ammo at 40.
- Station turrets fire even when the station's power is empty.
- The ship's gun covers all the way round.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Start as the ship
The game now begins with the seed pod alone, the dock folded inside it. The first goal is to pick a clear spot close by; the ship flies there and the dock unfolds, its panels opening into the hex and the RTG lighting. The sleeper moves into the dock, so the dock now has a hull, and if it reaches zero the run ends. A ship destroyed far out is rebuilt in the dock from plates and wire. The starting iron is spread further out too.
- Start as the ship; place the dock; the unfold.
- The sleeper lives in the dock: dock hull and game over.
- A destroyed ship is rebuilt in the dock.
- Starting iron spread further out.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Topped up before it goes
Docked, the ship now waits to finish charging and loading rounds before it sets off, whether the order is yours or auto mining's, as long as the charge is actually coming in. If it stalls, it goes with what it has. The status line says it's topping up. The off-screen "stuck" marker is gone: it counted any module not working, even an idle lab. Each module's status dot on the map still shows it.
- The ship tops up its battery and ammo before leaving the dock.
- The off-screen stuck marker is removed.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Research that weighs what it's worth
Research now costs about twice the data cards, in tiers. The story's two steps are the biggest: the vanguard signal at 30 cards and solar power at 40. The big station and ship steps sit in the middle, and the small helpers are cheapest. A full run of chapters 1 to 6 is now roughly an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters for the test player.
- Research card costs about doubled and tiered by importance.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A spray of tracers
The ship's gun and the station turrets now draw each round as a burst of eighteen fine tracers, spread across the time until the next round, each a hair off the line, misses fanning wider. A gun that's firing is now one unbroken spray. It's only the look: ammo, hits and fire rate are unchanged. The Ping button on the goal card works now too.
- Point-defence fire drawn as a continuous tracer spray.
- The goal card's Ping button works.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
An unknown contact
The machine in the silicon field is now just an unknown contact: red "Unknown" on the goal card, on the map and on its off-screen marker. You learn what it is by fighting it. The threat box on the goal card was replaying its fade-in every time any line on the card changed, which made it flicker; it now fades in once.
- The sentinel shows as a red Unknown contact.
- The goal card's threat box no longer flickers.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A turret that only just holds
The station turret now holds 10 rounds, not 30, and reloads from the dock at half a round a second, not two. Fed, one turret only just brings down a rock; a second turret, or the ship's gun, is what holds a wave. Rocks that get through hit about twice as hard, and take a bit more shooting to break. On the test maps about a quarter of incoming rocks now reach the station.
- Turret: 10 rounds, slower reload.
- Rock impacts about twice the damage; rocks a little tougher.
- The drone brings turret ammo 4 at a time.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
One log
Everything the game tells you now lands in one log in the top-left corner: Hope's lines typing out as she speaks them, the machine logs she translates in amber, research finished, rocks inbound, every alert and update. The last few lines show and fade. Hover over it, or tap on a phone, and the whole log opens with the time of each line, to scroll back through. The pop-ups in the middle of the screen are gone. With nothing to research, the research box shrinks to "Nothing picked" and the relic's progress, with no button.
- One log, top left, for Hope, alerts and updates; hover to scroll it.
- The middle-of-screen pop-ups moved into it.
- The research box shrinks when there's nothing to pick; finished research is in the log.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The gun was the bait
Killing the gun in the silicon field now springs a trap. A few seconds later two missile corvettes and a laser drone come out of the rocks, and Hope says what we were all thinking: the gun was the bait. The corvettes hang back outside the ship's gun range and fire a three-missile salvo each, so the gun is busy shooting missiles down while the drone closes in. A full load of rounds only just covers it; on some test runs the ship limps home with a quarter of its hull. Drone logistics is automatic now too: the switches are gone, and whatever a module uses that no belt brings, the drone fetches.
- The sentinel's ambush: two missile corvettes and a laser drone.
- Drone logistics is automatic: no switches.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The first dust
A couple of minutes into chapter 3, a short dust front blows through, warned first, the haze lighter than a real storm. Hope notices it and shrugs it off: on the RTG it can't touch us, but it's worth remembering if we ever run on sunlight. It changes nothing in play; it's a seed for chapters 5 and 6.
- A brief dust front in chapter 3.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A fair drone, a quieter panel, a cleaner log
Kraig's playtest recording explained the drone: fifteen repair packs made and none used, because the storms' dents were all small and the drone only mended a module once it was badly hurt. It now mends any dent (a part-used pack stays aboard for the next), and its jobs wait in a fair queue: each scores how long it has waited plus a head start for its kind, so nothing waits forever. Builds still come first. A module with a recipe picked now shows only that recipe, with a button to open the rest. The log lost its box: plain terminal type, the newest line on top and the one before it faint; hover, and older lines run on below to scroll through.
- The drone mends small dents and works a fair, aging queue.
- The recipe list folds once one is picked.
- The log: no box, newest on top, hover to scroll.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
The goal, and only the goal
The goal card is now just the goal: its title, what to do, how it stands. Hope's line lives in the log, typed as she says it, and lands there even with the sound off. With nothing left to research, the research box says None available instead of Nothing picked.
- Hope's line off the goal card; it's in the log.
- The research box says None available when there's nothing to research.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Something in the dust
Riding out a storm in chapter 6 now has company. Partway in, the sensors pick up contacts they can't resolve: red blips that won't hold still, out in the dust, and Hope says she can't see anything but her sensors are picking up something. Sixteen seconds later four raiders and a striker come out of the storm from that bearing, after the outer modules, while every round the turrets fire comes out of the batteries you're trying to ride it out on. From chapter 4 on, a rock that gets through takes out the module it hits. And the map is quieter: a turret's range ring only shows when it's selected or has something to shoot at.
- The storm attack in chapter 6's ride-out storm, sensor contacts first.
- A rock's direct hit knocks the module out, from chapter 4.
- Fewer range rings on the map.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Marks, a carrier, and rocks that bring what's short
Research no longer upgrades every smelter at once. It unlocks a Mark, and then you pick a module or a belt and buy its Mark II, III or IV yourself, on two tracks: speed, and storage, so a repair-pack maker that starts holding one pack can grow to hold twenty-five. Tougher hulls now just raises every module's hull, with no numbers across the station. Isotope cores are fuel that stacks: each one adds twelve minutes to the RTG, so fitting one early is never wasted, and the dock says how much is left. The great storm's raid gained a third class of ship, a carrier that hangs back out of turret range, launches drones and fires three missiles at once. Rocks coming in from chapter 4 on carry whichever ore the dock is short of. And a module a rock knocks out can always be patched back from ore, so losing the wire line never locks out the repair packs.
- Mark II-IV per module and belt: speed and storage.
- Tougher hulls raises hull only.
- Isotope cores stack as fuel; the dock shows fuel left.
- The carrier: drones and missile salvos in the great storm.
- Rocks inbound bring the ore that's short.
- A knocked-out module can be patched from ore.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Tugs
A chapter 5 research, Tug drones, gives the station two tugs of its own. When the dock runs low on an ore it has found, they fly out to the nearest rock of it, latch on side by side and burn it home: accelerate, flip at the halfway mark, brake, and hold it just off the station inside a turret's ring. The turrets chip it apart when nothing else needs shooting, and the chunks fall into the gravity well. Big rocks take both tugs; the biggest are too much for two. Raiders can shoot a tug, and a rock left without enough of them drifts at the station like any rock coming in. Mining on its own is the station's job now, which leaves the ship free to explore and fight.
- Tug drones: the station mines on its own, pushing rocks home with flip and burn.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
A side build to test free-form building
The hex grid runs deep in this game: belts between neighbours, struts, power, open sides, storm hits. Dropping it would mean rebuilding the station, so before deciding, Kraig asked for a throwaway side build he could feel for fifteen minutes. It was a separate page with its own save, chapters 1 and 2 only: modules placed anywhere and turned freely, overlaps shown in red, belts dragged any length and direction, priced by length, crossing each other on little bridges. Nothing in the real game changed. He played it through and picked neither extreme: keep the hex grid's clarity, and take the one thing the test proved, belts that reach across the station. That became v153. The free-form code is kept as a git tag, in case it's ever wanted again.
- A separate free-form building test, chapters 1-2, at its own link.
- Verdict: keep the hex grid, add dragged belts (built in v153).
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Chapter 7: the field runs dry
The game now goes past the great storm. Chapter 7 starts with a gauge on the goal card: the ore left in the field the tugs can reach, falling as they strip it, until they come back empty and Hope says what that means. Then a comet. She spots it four minutes out; it crosses the field fast, a couple of minutes in reach, and the ship has to match its speed and cut ice off it while it can, the tugs catching what breaks free. Its path, run backwards, becomes the course. The ice feeds a new chain: melted to water, split by an electrolyzer that vents its hydrogen, and the oxygen burned with iron into fuel cells. With forty stocked and the bearing known, the course is plotted, and chapter 8, the crossing, is next.
- Chapter 7: the field gauge, the comet, the ice, water, oxygen and fuel cell chain, the course plotted.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Pipes
Water and oxygen are fluids now. They move only by pipe, straight from the module that makes them to one that uses them: never through the dock, a storage, a merger or a splitter, and never by drone. A pipe is drawn filled with its fluid, a streak running along it while it flows, a flange at each end, so it reads apart from a belt. A module emptied by a job change lets its fluid off.
- Water and oxygen go by pipe only, module to module.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Liquids and gases
Fluids now come in two kinds that work the same way: water is a liquid, oxygen a gas, both by pipe only. A gas pipe is drawn thinner and paler, its flow in small puffs; a liquid's fills the bore with a long streak.
- Water a liquid, oxygen a gas: both by pipe, drawn apart.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Storage for anything
A storage can now hold any one item a belt or pipe carries, repair packs included, and liquids and gases too: a pipe can run into a storage and out of it, so water or oxygen can be banked between the module that makes it and the one that uses it.
- Storage holds any item, liquids and gases included; pipes run to and from it.
Devlog · October 19, 2026
Card tiers, a carrier to kill, a new voice
Research now climbs three data cards: the basic card, an advanced card made from a basic one plus a circuit and steel (from chapter 6), and a field card, an advanced one plus water (chapter 7). Each set of research takes its own tier. A data center's Mark is how far up it reads, and it holds only a few of each card. The great storm's carrier no longer leaves: it keeps firing salvos until the ship destroys it, and the chapter doesn't end until it's dead. Every one of Hope's lines was re-recorded on ElevenLabs' newest model, in the same voice, and the game file shrank from 11 MB to about 4 MB: the voice is stored as AAC and the code is minified.
- Three data card tiers; data center Marks read up to their tier.
- The carrier must be killed.
- Hope re-recorded on Eleven v4; the game is about 4 MB.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Chapter 4: decode the vanguard signal
Building the lab now finishes Chapter 3 with its toast and music, and Chapter 4 opens with one goal: decode a faint telemetry burst from the vanguard jump gate. Decoding is research at the lab, 400 compute, and it's heavy work: a lab decoding draws 10 power a second, so two burners can't carry it and the whole station slows. The fix is a third and a fourth burner chained through belts. Four burners eat ore faster than the frigate's 50-ore hold brings it, so the dock now offers a cargo refit: a 100-ore hold, bigger pieces off the rock and a faster drone. The dock holds 150 of each ore, and a new research, Station storage, adds a module that holds 100 of one item, fed and drawn by belts, which builds and upgrades can spend. Frigate upgrades can now be ordered like jobs and collect their plates as they're made. A ring of bigger iron rocks lies further out for when the near ones run dry. Past the tutorial, the goal card no longer says what to do step by step: only what's in the way. The test player finishes Chapter 4 in 15 to 19 minutes.
- Chapter 4 · Signal: one story goal, decode the vanguard signal (400 compute at a lab; a lab decoding draws 10 power a second).
- Station storage research: a Storage module holds up to 100 of one item; belts fill and draw it; builds, upgrades and blueprints can spend it.
- The cargo refit at the dock: 100-ore hold, 5-ore pieces, a faster drone. Frigate upgrades can be ordered.
- The dock holds 150 of each ore; an outer ring of bigger iron rocks, 750 to 1,100 m out.
- Fixed: the 'Build a constructor' goal card no longer shows an empty research bar.
- Open for Kraig: Chapter 5 (solar, silicon wafers and silicon mining) is designed and kept as notes.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
A new name: Starhex
Kraig asked for one made-up word tied to the story or the mechanics. Claude offered six: Cogitara, Ferrovox and Signara, then Oremind, Hexwake and Expergia (a seventh, Hexara, was already a puzzle game on Steam). Kraig picked his own instead, Starhex: a station out among the stars, built on a hex grid. A web search found no game by that name. Only the title changed: saves, settings and playtest recordings carry over, and the play link stays the same.
- The name: Starhex (was Driftworks).
- The same play link, save and playtest recordings.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Support beams
Drawn as two thin steel struts across each gap between touching buildings, near the ends of the shared side, with the belts running down the middle.
- Every built module and the dock it touches are joined by two thin support beams.
- Belts and heat links run between the beams, in the middle.
- A blueprint gets its beams once it's built.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
A sensor, and the frigate's reach
Rocks now show only once they've come within sight. Chapter 2 opens with a new goal, Build a sensor, and its first sweep rushes out and reveals the copper field. With the frigate selected, a faint outline shows how far it can go and still get home.
- Copper is hidden in chapter 1.
- Chapter 2 starts with Build a sensor: a module that sweeps out to 3.6 km and reveals every rock in range.
- Selecting the frigate shows its reach: a whole mining trip when docked, the way home when out.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Q makes a ghost
Q over a module picks up its job and recipe as a ghost under the cursor; each click lays a blueprint that takes that setup once the drone has built it.
- Q over a module: a ghost with its job and recipe follows the cursor.
- Each click lays a copy; Esc, a right-click or Q again puts it away.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Just enough battery
Sized from the trip estimate the game already uses for auto mode: one full charge is one copper trip.
- The frigate's battery is sized for exactly one copper round trip.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
A steady top bar
One chip per thing, always in the same order, each number in a fixed-width slot, so nothing shifts as values change. Hover (or tap) for a live detail card.
- Station power with a trend arrow, then each item, then the frigate's battery and hold.
- A chip stays once it has appeared, even at 0.
- Hover or tap a chip for its details.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Docking over the middle
The frigate now docks on the dock's centre, with small cradle brackets lit while it's in, and the side below the dock takes a module like the others.
- The frigate docks over the dock's middle.
- All six sides of the dock are free to build on.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Drop inventory
Two taps, like the frigate's: what a module holds goes out into space and is lost.
- Every module and the dock have Drop inventory.
- The frigate's Drop cargo is now Drop inventory too.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
A job is for good
Once a module has a job the job list is gone; to make it something else you remove it and place a new one. Extra smelters and constructors now cost a few plates, like extra burners.
- A module's job is fixed once picked.
- The second and later smelters and constructors cost 3 plates.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Ship upgrades are research
Chapter 2 lost its two upgrade goals; the starting frigate can reach the copper on one charge. Bigger hold, Bigger battery, Cargo refit and a new Auto mining switch all come from research now, fitted the moment they're done.
- Ship upgrades are research.
- The base frigate reaches copper on a full charge.
- Only the sensor reveals copper.
- Auto mining: the frigate keeps fetching the ore the station holds least of, nearest rock first.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Research eats data cards
One building and one resource fewer: you pick research at a data center and it reads cards straight into it, one at a time. Cards wait in the dock and storage until it wants them, so a stack of cards is research waiting to happen.
- Data centers read data cards into the research you pick.
- The lab and compute are gone.
- Chapter 3 ends with your first research.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Polish from ten questions
Claude asked ten questions one at a time; these are the answers that changed something. Kraig also handed the numbers over: "I wish there was some way that you could just analyze how I play so that you can make those adjustments yourself."
- Research waits for your pick, with a nudge when one finishes.
- A research chip in the top bar.
- Removing a module gives back half its cost.
- Shorter goal cards from chapter 2, the rest on hover.
- Drag from one building to its neighbour to lay a belt.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Mining keeps up
The game now measures how long the station's machines sit waiting for ore and how long the frigate sits idle, in every playtest and in the test player. The frigate was never idle while the smelters waited two thirds of the time, so mining got faster and the hold bigger. A round of small sounds and rings marks builds, research, goals and chapters.
- Pacing is measured in every playtest.
- Faster mining and a 42-ore hold: the smelters wait far less.
- New sounds and rings for builds, research done, goals and chapters.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
The chaingun and the pull field
The laser and the fetching drone are gone. The game opens with loose ore chunks drifting near the station, and a pull field draws anything within 60 m into the frigate. Big rocks need the chaingun: each burst uses a round and knocks off a chunk. Ammo is made from iron at a constructor and loads into the frigate while it's docked, like charging. The drone stays home as the station's builder.
- Loose ore chunks to gather from the start; the pull field collects them.
- The chaingun cracks big rocks, a round a burst; no battery to fire.
- Ammo from iron at a constructor, reloaded while docked.
- Chapter 1 ends with Make 20 ammo and Crack a big rock; plates open chapter 2.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Chapter 5: Sunlight
Designed one question at a time. By chapter 5 the near iron is nearly mined out, so every ore a burner eats is a long trip. Solar power reveals a silicon field four kilometres out; a long-range battery gets the frigate there and back. Silicon smelts into wafers on heavy power, wafers build solar panels, and the chapter ends when the station runs on sunlight alone, just as the first dust storm rolls in. Batteries are chapter 6.
- Research Solar power: a long-range scan reveals the silicon field.
- Research Long-range battery for the trip out.
- Silicon ore smelts into wafers, on heavy power.
- Solar panels: free power, no fuel.
- Run on solar alone, then the first dust storm.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Fixes from a full playtest
Kraig played the new chaingun build from a fresh start and sent notes as he went; each was fixed and live within minutes. Afterwards the recording showed where time went: the ammo goal ran long and, late in chapter 4, cards weren't reaching the data center, so the game now says what's in the way.
- The frigate reloads ammo from anywhere on the station, constructors included.
- The build drone lives at the station and builds while the frigate is out.
- The chaingun fires at its target rock while flying in.
- A dark station still charges a docked frigate enough to restart.
- The ammo store holds one ore run; the ammo goal is 10 rounds.
- A job with one recipe picks it; belts with one fitting item set themselves.
- Research lives on the bottom-right card, cheapest first, with what's done listed.
- Dragging empty space pans the view.
- A warning when research is picked but no cards reach the data center.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Chapter 6: Storm season
Designed one question at a time, a chapter after the first dust storm browned the station out. Station batteries is offered only once that storm has hit. A battery is a module anywhere on the station, paid in wire and wafers; it joins the station's power as one store. Fill a reserve, then ride out the storms, each longer and darker than the last, until the great storm: five minutes with the panels fully dark. Burners still help as a backup.
- Research Station batteries, offered after the first dust storm.
- Battery modules: wire and wafers, no belts, 500 more power stored each.
- Store a 1400 power reserve.
- Storms grow through the chapter: 110 s, then 140, 170 and 200, darker each time.
- Ride out a storm, then the great storm, with the lights never dropping.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
The visual pass: colours that follow the chains
A polish pass on the same thin-line look. Each production chain now keeps one colour family, getting lighter as it goes up. Iron runs from rust ore to blue-grey iron to bright steel plates; copper from green ore to copper orange to amber wire; silicon from deep teal ore to bright cyan wafers. Cards stay violet, ammo dull brass, power gold. Every module takes the colour of what it makes and has its own glyph: a flame, a crucible, a press, server racks, fins, crates, arrows. Working modules move, belts carry beads in their item's colour past sliding chevrons, and the frigate's drive burns a flickering plume. No game rules changed.
- Item colours by chain: iron rust, steel, bright steel; copper green, orange, amber; silicon teal, cyan; cards violet; ammo brass; power gold.
- Modules tinted by what they make: an iron smelter steel, a copper smelter copper, a wire constructor amber, a card constructor violet, a wafer smelter cyan.
- A glyph per job: burner flame, smelter crucible, constructor press, data center racks with blinking LEDs, radiator fins, storage crates, merger and splitter arrows.
- Working modules come alive: the flame flickers, the melt glows, the press strokes with each recipe, panels shimmer, batteries fill.
- Belts in their item's colour, with beads travelling and chevrons sliding the way they flow.
- The frigate's engine: a glow and a plume that flickers and lengthens with thrust; RCS puffs when it turns or corrects; the dock's clamps light softly.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
A combat test: one hostile drone off to the side
A small test of fighting, kept apart from the chapters. Every game now has one hostile drone about 1.5 km out, on the side away from the copper and silicon, marked in red from the start. Fly within 400 m and it fires slow red bolts that take the frigate's new hull (100, shown in the top bar). Select the frigate and right-click the drone to attack: the chaingun fires on it within 300 m, one round a burst, and eight bursts break it into iron scrap the pull field brings in. Docked, the hull mends for free; at 0 the frigate drifts home on life support like a flat battery, with no game over. Nothing in the chapters depends on it.
- One hostile drone a game, 1.5 km out away from the copper and silicon, clear of every rock; a red Hostile edge marker shows where it is.
- Within 400 m it fires a slow red bolt every 3.5 s, aimed where the frigate is: a stopped frigate gets hit, one passing fast can be missed.
- The frigate has a hull of 100: a shield chip in the top bar with a detail card, a row in its panel, a bar under the ship when damaged.
- Right-click the drone to attack: the frigate closes to 220 m, turns its nose to it and the chaingun fires within 300 m (1 round, 8 of its 60 hp a burst). A drone in reach is fired on by itself when the frigate isn't mining; with no ammo it can't fight.
- Destroyed: a flash and sparks, a crunch, a toast and 25 iron ore of scrap in five chunks for the pull field. A new game brings it back.
- Docked, the hull mends 2 a second for free. At 0 the frigate is disabled and drifts home on life support.
- New sounds: the drone's low zap, a thud on a hit, a crunch for the kill.
- Old saves get the drone and a full hull. The test player stays clear of it and plays chapters 1 to 6 exactly as before.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Ammo keeps coming when the frigate takes part of it
The constructor makes ammo ten rounds at a time and kept at most ten. With no belt out, the frigate loaded five from it and left, and the five left over meant the next ten-round job had no room, so the constructor sat idle with the smelter's iron piling up beside it. A module that makes several at a time now holds two jobs' worth (an ammo constructor 20 rounds), so it always tops itself back up.
- An ammo constructor keeps up to 20 rounds (two jobs), not 10, so a partial load by the frigate never stalls it.
- Modules that make one item at a time keep 10, as before (25 with Bigger module stores).
- A test for the case Kraig hit: a constructor left holding 5 rounds goes on making them.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
No more crumbs of ammo blocking a constructor
His constructor showed "Out: 0/10" and "Full" at the same time. The frigate loads ammo a sliver at a time, and taking slivers out of a store of 10 can leave a crumb like a trillionth of a round. The panel rounds it to 0, but the check for room saw 10 plus a crumb, over 10, and never started the next job. A store emptied this way now snaps to exactly 0, the room check allows for rounding, and a new test fails if any module is ever left holding a crumb.
- Taking from any store (the dock, a storage, a module's output) snaps a crumb under a billionth to 0.
- A module's room check for its next job allows for rounding.
- A test that a constructor holding a crumb of a round starts its next job, and a check in every test that no module is left holding a crumb.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Anyone can playtest now, and every playthrough comes back to me
Until now only Kraig's playthroughs were recorded, inside Claude. The public play page now records too: the same summary of each session (the goals reached and when, the quiet stretches, how the factory was paced, errors, screen size) goes to a small database in Kraig's own Cloudflare account, with no names, emails or IP addresses. Press C any time to send feedback, and finishing chapter 3, the end of the test, asks once what confused you and where you felt like stopping. The title screen says it's a test build that records, and #norec on the address turns it off. I read every recording with the same pacing report I use on Kraig's, so the first strangers' playtests (Gate 1 on the road to Steam) can start.
- The play page's recorder posts each session's summary, event log and notes to kraigadams.com, kept in a separate D1 database (starhex-playtests).
- Guards on it: the document's shape, a size cap, same-origin only, 30 posts a minute per visitor and 4,000 rows a day in all, and an off switch.
- On the play page, Note becomes Feedback, the title screen explains the recording, and finishing chapter 3 asks for feedback once.
- The site's privacy page says what the game records.
- A script pulls the public playtests into the same files as Kraig's, for the pacing report.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
A Build button you can always find
Placing a new module was only offered in the dock's panel and on some goal cards, from a list written before the sensor goal existed, so "Build a sensor" had no button. The toolbar at the bottom left now has a Build button (Q) that's always there: click it, then click a cell touching the station. It lights up while you're placing. The sensor and burner goals show the button on their cards too.
- A Build button (Q) in the bottom toolbar, lit while placing; click it again to stop.
- The sensor and burner goal cards offer Place module.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Each chapter opens with its own music and its name
When a chapter begins, its number and name fade in over the map, a thin line drawing out between them, and fade away about five seconds later. Nothing stops and clicks go straight through. Under it the score plays that chapter's own short phrase in the game's key: chapter 1 wakes on a bare fifth, 2 warms into C, 3 ticks like data, 4 calls three times and waits, 5 opens on the one bright chord, and 6 falls through the dust. Then the usual music carries on. A new game opens the same way, on chapter 1.
- A chapter's number and name fade in and out over the map as it begins (and at a new game); never blocking, and shown without motion when the system asks for reduced motion.
- A music phrase per chapter (music.js chapter()), in place of the one triumph stinger; finishing the last chapter still plays the triumph.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
The frigate's range shows where it can fly now
Out in space, the outline round a selected frigate used to show how far it could go and still get home, which shrinks to almost nothing right when you reach a far rock. Now it shows how far it can fly from where it is on the battery it has. If the dock is inside the outline it can make it home, and the label says so too: "Range on 45 battery · 3.6 km · enough to get home", amber when it isn't. Docked, it still shows the full mining round trip.
- Out, the selected frigate's outline is its range from here on its current battery; the label says whether that gets it home (amber when not).
- The battery chip's tip says the same.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
It's the ship now, and its hold shows its cargo in colour
The hold's chip in the top bar has a bar now, split by what's aboard, each part in its item's own colour: rust iron ore, green copper ore, teal silicon. Its tip lists them with their icons. And everywhere the game talks to the player it says ship, not frigate: the top bar, its panel, goals, tips and messages. Saves and the code keep their old names, so nothing breaks.
- The ship's hold chip: a bar in segments, one per item in its colour; its tip shows each item's icon.
- Frigate becomes ship in every word the player reads; the code and saves keep the old name.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
The station's top bar keeps just the ores
The station's half of the top bar had a chip for every item the station had ever seen, so it kept growing. Now it keeps power and the base ores (iron, copper and silicon ore, each once found), and one Items chip: a small dot per made item in its colour, dimmed when there's none. Hover it for the whole list: each item's icon, name, how many there are and the dock's limit, and where they are when some sit in modules. It goes amber when anything fills the dock.
- The station bar: power and the base ores only, plus one Items chip.
- The Items chip: a coloured dot per made item; its tip lists every item with counts and limits.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
The screen dims under a chapter's title
While a chapter's name is up, the whole screen (the map, the top bar and the goal card) dims a little, a touch less round the title, on the same five-second fade in and out. The game keeps running and clicks still go through.
- A full-screen dim under the chapter title, fading with it; never blocks a click.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Research cards on hover, and mergers and splitters apart
Hovering a research in the list now opens an info card beside it: what it does, what it costs in data cards and how far along it is, what it needs first and what it opens next, a note when it's a story research or a ship upgrade, and a warning when no data center is reading cards. And Mergers and splitters is two researches now, Mergers and Splitters, 20 data cards each. A save that already had the old research keeps both.
- A research's info card on hover, in the research card and the panel.
- Mergers (20 cards) and Splitters (20 cards) are separate researches; old saves with the combined one keep both.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Drag to select again, and Auto mining on its own
A left-drag across empty space draws a selection box again. If the ship is inside it, the box selects just the ship, even when the box also covers the station, so grabbing the docked ship is one sweep. Without the ship it selects the modules inside. The map pans with a right-drag or a middle-drag (a right-click that doesn't move still sends the ship), with WASD or the arrows, and with one finger on a phone. And Auto mining no longer waits for Bigger battery and Cargo refit: it's a research of its own, on the list from the start.
- Left-drag from empty space is a selection box; with the ship inside, only the ship.
- Right-drag or middle-drag pans; a right-click without a drag still sends the ship.
- Auto mining has no prerequisites.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Shorter research messages that stay longer
Finishing a research now says just "Researched: Mergers" and stays up for 9 seconds, not 4. The "Pick the next research" reminder after it is shorter too, and stays 7 seconds. What each research does is on its info card when you hover it.
- The research-done message: its name only, 9 s on screen.
- The pick-next reminder: shorter, 7 s.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Research moves a tenth of a card at a time
We kept research priced in data cards, the way Factorio prices it in packs, and showed the partial reading instead. Research progress now reads to a tenth of a card (Mergers 7.4/20) on the research card, its list, the hover card and the goal card, so it moves every second rather than jumping a card at a time. Each data center shows how far through its current card it is: a thin violet line over its meter on the map, and "this card 60% read" in its panel. A data unit, with cards worth different amounts, waits for tier-2 cards in Act 2.
- Research progress to a tenth of a card everywhere it's shown.
- A data center's current card: a violet line on the map and a percentage in its panel.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
No zoom buttons
The zoom buttons at the bottom right are gone. Zoom with the mouse wheel or a trackpad pinch, the + and − keys, or a pinch on a phone.
- The zoom in and out buttons are removed.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
The Items list shows totals only
Hovering the Items chip now lists each item's icon, name and total on the station, one tidy line each, with "dock full" only when the dock can't take more. Where the items sit, dock or modules, is gone.
- The Items tip: icon, name and total per item; "dock full" when it applies.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Mergers and Splitters wait for chapter 5
Mergers and Splitters now join the research list when chapter 5 (Sunlight) begins, the way the story researches wait for their goal, so the early chapters' list is shorter: the ship upgrades, Auto mining, Station storage and Bigger module stores. A save already researching Mergers carries on with it.
- Mergers and Splitters are offered from chapter 5.
Devlog · October 18, 2026
Modules show what they make
We planned it first, and Kraig picked a corner badge for the type. Now the middle of a smelter or constructor is the icon of what it makes, in that item's colour: iron, copper, a plate, wire, a data card, a wafer. A burner shows the fuel it burns and a storage the item it holds. The job's own drawing, the crucible or the press or the crates, shrinks into a small badge at the top left. A thin arc round the icon fills as each one is made, and the icon breathes while it works. Far out the badges drop away and the icons carry the map. The sensor, radiator, panels, batteries, data centers, mergers and splitters keep their own drawing in the middle.
- Smelters and constructors show their output's icon; burners their fuel, storages their item.
- The type's drawing is a corner badge, hidden far out.
- A progress arc round the icon while it works.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
One home that stays put, and a frigate that goes out
Midway through Jumpgate's second day, Kraig questioned its moving factory. Claude rewrote the plan around two bodies. A slow, drifting station is home, where the factory runs nonstop on power and does research with compute. A frigate with a hold, a battery and drones flies out for ore and ice and hauls it back. The loop: the factory hits a bottleneck, you pick where to go, mine, haul home, dock and recharge, and the factory runs on what you brought.
- A stationary station that drifts and never flies: the factory, its stores, power and research.
- A frigate you fly: a hauler with drones, a hold and a battery, so its range is limited.
- Every sortie is chosen by the factory's next bottleneck.
- Later the frigate also defends, attacks and investigates wrecks for the story.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Start small, and steer by questions
Claude switched to asking one question at a time. What was settled from this first message: start as a small ship, with someone aboard the frigate, which has to survive. You see and control everything from a god view through the AI. Mining shoots a rock apart into pieces small enough to grab.
- Start with the simplest version of everything.
- Someone is aboard the frigate, and the frigate must survive.
- A god view: you control everything through the AI.
- Mining breaks a rock into pieces small enough to grab.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
The first answers: tap to fly, a drone to fetch, a derelict to wake
Kraig's first answers in question mode. You fly by tapping where to go, and the frigate flies itself there. A little drone launches from the frigate from day one, grabs each broken piece and brings it to the hold. Home at the start is a derelict to restore, powered by burning ore, and the first goal is waking it.
- Tap where to go; the frigate turns, burns and brakes on its own.
- A small drone fetches each broken-off piece into the hold.
- Home is a derelict; its burner runs on ore; the first goal is waking it.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Eight more answers about the station and the frigate
The rest of question mode, one answer a minute. Items move between station modules on belts you lay, and layout and throughput are the puzzle. Modules go anywhere, with belts as free lines. The frigate's range is its battery alone, recharged from the station's power. Run it flat far out and it drifts home with nothing lost but time. The station keeps working while you're away. Ore lies in rings: iron close, copper farther, ice and silicon farther still. The derelict starts with a dead burner and a broken smelter. Research costs data cards the factory makes, plus compute.
- Belts between station modules, laid by you.
- Free placement for now, belts as free lines.
- Battery is the frigate's only limit; a flat battery means drifting home, not losing anything.
- The station runs on while you're out.
- Ore in rings outward from the station.
- Research needs data cards from the factory plus compute; later research needs every earlier card.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
A new game: Driftworks
V2 was set to be built fresh in its own folder with its own play link, borrowing Jumpgate's outline art, sound, playtest recorder and recipes, while Jumpgate stays playable as it is. Minutes later Kraig made it a separate game and picked the name Driftworks.
- A fresh build in its own folder, on its own play link.
- Jumpgate stays as it is.
- The name: Driftworks.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Build 1: wake the derelict
The first playable build, about ten minutes after the rename. The derelict sits at the centre, drifting very slowly, with a broken burner and a broken smelter on its hull. You fly the frigate out to the iron rocks close by. Its laser breaks off pieces and the drone carries them aboard. Back home it docks, unloads and recharges, and the ore repairs the burner and then the smelter. Six steps end with 10 iron made and the derelict awake. A test player runs the whole loop in about seven minutes.
- The station: stores, a battery and two broken modules.
- The frigate: a 30-ore hold, a 100 battery, a mining laser and one drone.
- Seven iron rocks close in, three copper rocks past 2 km.
- A six-step tutorial, from the first flight to 10 iron.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
A second chapter: spend iron, then go far
Iron now buys something. 10 iron fits a bigger hold, 15 iron a bigger battery, and the bigger battery is what reaches the copper field. The new goal is to bring home 10 copper ore. Nine objectives in about twelve minutes for the test player.
- A bigger hold for 10 iron (30 to 50 ore).
- A bigger battery for 15 iron (100 to 180), enough for copper.
- Bring home 10 copper ore from the far field.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
A free camera, like a god
From his first playtest on the Mac. The camera no longer follows anything: WASD or the arrow keys pan it at a steady speed, and scroll or pinch zooms. The Home and Frigate buttons are gone. You command the frigate from wherever you happen to be looking.
- WASD and arrows pan; the camera never follows.
- No Home or Frigate views.
- Orders work from anywhere on the map.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Controls like a real-time strategy game
Click the frigate, or drag a box round it, to select it, and a green ring shows. Right-click (two-finger click) a rock, the station or empty space to send it there, with a green ping where it's going. Clicking empty space deselects. On a phone, a finger drag still pans.
- Click or box-select the frigate.
- Right-click to send it.
- Click empty space to deselect.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
A harvester loop, like an RTS worker
Claude's own pass. Right-click a rock and the frigate keeps hauling that ore. When it's full, the rock runs out or the battery gets low, it flies home, unloads, charges and goes back. Any other order stops it, and Esc deselects.
- A rock order keeps the frigate hauling until another order.
- Esc deselects.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Pause, and four times speed
F toggles between normal speed and four times, Space pauses and resumes, and a badge shows PAUSED or x4. The camera still pans while paused. The key that jumped to the ship is gone.
- F: x1 or x4.
- Space: pause.
- No jump-to-ship key.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Start with nothing but the core
The derelict's broken modules are gone. You start with the core alone, and the frigate docks side-on against a clamp on its lower face. You place a burner and a smelter yourself, and the drone builds them from the stores while you're docked. Then you join them to the core with belts. Modules only work through their belts.
- Start with the core only.
- The frigate docks sideways.
- Build modules instead of repairing them, and link them with belts.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Auto-hauling becomes an upgrade, later
The harvester loop came out. A rock order mines until the hold is full and stops, and you fly every trip home yourself. The loop stays in the code for a future frigate upgrade.
- You fly every trip.
- Auto-hauling is saved for a later upgrade.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Move modules, and watch the belts stretch
A module's panel has Move. The module follows the mouse, and its belts redraw as it goes. Past 120 m they turn red and dashed, and when you drop it there they detach, sending what was on them back to where it came from.
- Move any module.
- Belts stretch live and detach past 120 m.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
A locked hex grid, and the core becomes the dock
Free placement gave way to a grid. Modules snap to hex cells around the dock, each a little smaller than its cell, leaving gaps for the belts. Free cells show as faint placeholder hexes. The core is called the dock everywhere, and the AI is now the frigate.
- A flat-top hex grid round the dock.
- Modules sit a little smaller than their cells, with room for belts.
- The core is the dock; you are the AI aboard the frigate.
- Later: shift whole sections out from the dock.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Belts as hexes, tried
Belts became hex cells of their own that you lay in lines, and buildings that touch hand items to each other. You can only build next to something already there. The grid only shows while you're building or moving. A third module arrived: the constructor, which turns 2 iron into an iron plate.
- Belts as hexes you lay in lines; touching buildings pass items.
- Build next to the station only.
- The grid shows only while building.
- The constructor: iron into iron plates.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Shuttle to one rock, then wait
A rock order shuttles: full, the frigate flies home, unloads, charges and goes back to that same rock. When the rock is mined out it comes home and waits, and it never picks a new rock by itself.
- A rock order shuttles to that one rock.
- Mined out, the frigate waits docked.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Belts between modules, and modules you give a job
Belt hexes came out about fifteen minutes after they went in. There is one kind of module now, built neutral, and you give it a job: burner, smelter or constructor. Belts join touching buildings across a shared side. You set each belt's direction and the item it carries, and nothing moves on a belt until both are set.
- Belt hexes removed.
- One kind of module; you pick its job.
- Belts across a shared side, set by hand.
- Items move only on belts.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
One belt per side, R to flip
A new belt points from the building you had selected to the one you right-clicked, and R flips it. Each side takes one belt. The eighth goal is now to make 10 iron, kept in the smelter's own store of 10. Upgrades cost plates.
- Belts start pointing one way; R flips them.
- One belt per side.
- Make 10 iron instead of bringing it to the dock; modules keep 10 of what they make.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Belts carry what their ends imply
No item picking: out of a module, a belt carries what that module makes, and out of the dock it carries what the receiving module uses. When nothing fits, the belt panel says why.
- Belts set their item from their ends.
- When nothing fits, the panel explains.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Chapter 1, refreshed, with tube belts
Chapter 1, Wake the station, is 14 goals now. Fly out, mine and unload. Build a burner and belt ore to it, then power the station. Build a smelter and make 10 iron, then a constructor and 5 plates. Fit the bigger hold and battery, and bring home copper. Nothing has to go back to the dock: upgrades take plates from any module's store. Belts are tubes across the middle of each side, with the items visible moving inside.
- A 14-goal Chapter 1 for the game as it is now.
- Upgrades take from any module's store.
- Belts drawn as tubes with the items inside.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Music and a design pass
Jumpgate's generative score came over. A low drone, pads and cold glass notes; a long sortie lifts it, docking resolves it, and finishing a chapter plays a small triumph. M mutes it. The design pass added a DRIFTWORKS wordmark and a glowing dock. Modules are tinted by job (burner amber, smelter steel, constructor blue) with a meter of what they hold. The goal card got a progress bar, and the panels got calmer.
- Background music, from Jumpgate's score.
- A wordmark, a glowing dock and modules tinted by job.
- A clearer goal card, panels and toasts.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
You always pick a belt's item
Every new belt carries nothing until you pick its item. The belt panel offers only what fits its ends, so there's often a single button, and you still click it. If nothing fits, it says why.
- New belts start empty.
- Only the items that fit are offered, even when that's one.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Belt blueprints that build themselves
A new belt is always a blueprint first, a faint dashed outline, and it can go to or from a module that is itself still a blueprint. It builds itself once both ends are built and the dock can spare the ore. Jobs and belt items can be picked ahead of time, so a whole layout can be planned before it exists.
- Belt blueprints, built when they can be.
- Jobs and items can be set before anything is built.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Modules start empty, and only real options show
After its job, a module needs a recipe you pick: what the burner burns, what the smelter makes, what the constructor builds. Nothing runs until then. A job or recipe is only offered once you've actually had its input, so the choices grow as you do.
- A recipe to pick after the job.
- Only options you can really use are shown.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Thrusters for the fine work
The main engine and the flip and burn are only for the long run now, and it brakes early enough to hand over smoothly. The last stretch, short hops and small corrections are on thrusters, light-grey puffs out the side opposite the push. On the way in the frigate turns to its arrival heading: side-on for the dock, nose to the rock for mining. No more overshooting and bouncing, and the trip to the first rock dropped from 46 seconds to about 30.
- Main engine for the long run, thrusters for the last 70 m and small moves.
- Light-grey thruster puffs.
- Turns to its arrival heading: side-on to dock, nose to the rock.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Chapter 2: copper and wire
Kraig finished Chapter 1. Chapter 2, Copper, follows the 10 copper ore you brought home. Build a copper smelter fed by a belt from the dock and make 10 copper. Then build a wire constructor fed from the copper smelter and make 10 copper wire, at two wire per copper. Finishing a chapter plays the small triumph. The test player gets through both chapters in 20 to 24 minutes.
- A copper smelting line and a wire line beside the iron ones.
- A chapter-complete moment.
- Both chapters in about 20 to 24 minutes for the test player.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Fixes from the Chapter 1 playtest
Kraig's playtest found a trap: with both batteries flat at the dock, nothing could be built and nothing could fly. The station now starts with more charge, and the drone's work while docked costs nothing, so the trap can't close. The 'unload at the dock' goal now completes on the first unload. A frigate hauling on its own now waits at the dock until it has charge for the whole round trip, and a manual order warns when the battery looks short. The starting battery reaches the iron field but not copper, so the bigger battery is what opens the copper run. The Rocinante-style frigate drawing also got simpler and smoother.
- No power stalemate: more starting charge, free docked drone work.
- Auto hauling waits for enough charge; manual orders warn.
- The starting battery reaches iron only; the bigger battery opens copper.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Sound follows the camera, and no last-second spin
Mining, pickups, docking and repairs now play at full volume while they're on screen and fade out over about one more screen beyond the edge, so the camera decides what you hear. The frigate keeps the heading it arrives on, at rocks and at the dock, and rests a little further out when it docks nose-first so the hull clears the core. A test checks it doesn't turn in the final stretch. This version also brought the first Chapter 3, with data cards and research.
- World sounds fade with distance from the camera.
- The frigate arrives and docks on its own heading, no final spin.
- A first Chapter 3 with data cards and a data center.
Devlog · October 16, 2026
Chapter 3: Compute
Chapter 3 became a chapter about compute. A constructor makes data cards from plates and wire, and a data center turns them into compute, which it stores up to a limit. When it's full it stops taking cards, so the card line backs up like any other. Converting makes heat. A radiator touching the data center connects itself with a short heat pipe and keeps it cool; without one, compute slows to a crawl. The data center draws so much power that one burner can't keep up and everything slows evenly, so the fix is a second burner fed with ore through the first. The chapter ends when you build a lab, which spends compute on research from anywhere on the station. Compute is stored by tier, ready for harder cards later. New modules now cost plates and wire, and modules show just an icon and a status light when you zoom out. A quiet factory hum plays when you look at the station.
- Data cards, compute stored in each data center, heat and automatic radiator links.
- Burners pass ore to each other; power shortages slow everything evenly.
- The lab and the research card; Chapter 3 ends at the lab.
- Modules cost what you make; zoomed-out icons and status lights; a factory hum.