Interstellar War: Fleet Battles
Development log

Progress

What we've been working on, newest first. Development started on 1 August 2026. Each entry is dated by when the work happened, and its badge tells you whether we've played it in a development build yet.

Playable now flown in development builds In the works partly built or awaiting playtesting Planned designed, not built yet
In the works

A seventh round of playtesting

Day 65-75 ·

This one has run for over thirty sittings and isn't finished. It started on insurance, holdings and the influence map, then went back over the long-haul parts of the game: laying a course across the hyperspace plane, falling out of it in the wrong place, cutting a rock layer by layer and filing what you find in the Codex. The last few sittings walked the new career features the day they went in. For the first time we've had several sessions playing different parts of the game side by side. Every finding is logged and ruled on, and many were fixed the same day.

In the works

Fame, infamy and the law

Day 74 ·

Destroying a power's ship now earns you infamy with that power and fame with everyone at war with it, and both fade if you stop. Every system also has a law level, from Lawless through Frontier, Patrolled and Policed to Core, shown beside the system name. The busier a system gets the more lawful it becomes, and the more lawful it is, the fewer ships your guns will agree to fire on. NPCs answer to the same rule. The home systems never fall below a floor of their own. Both have had a first walk and want more.

In the works

Running a crew of strangers

Day 72-74 ·

A captain can now put somebody off the ship, and the booted player finds themselves ashore with a line on their tape saying the captain put them there. Your wingmates' shield and hull bars now come from their own ship, so the rail shows what's actually happening to them. Underneath, the crew list has been rebuilt so every desk agrees on who's aboard. We've walked part of this with two players; the rest needs a full crew.

In the works

The music grows up

Day 64-74 ·

The generated score now plays the same piece harder when a fight picks up, instead of only changing pieces. Its tunes are built from composed phrases rather than a free walk, a chorus comes back over the changes it had the first time, and new styles have arrived, space disco and a waltz among them. Under the music there's an engine hum, a station's background noise and a sound bed for every hazard. Ashore, each station plays its own playlist, set from the Facilities desk. We've heard the playlist working; the full listening checklist is still to do.

Playable now

Titles, experience and talents

Day 72-74 ·

Your career is counted as you play: what you've mined, sold, shot and said. Pass a milestone and you earn a title, from Prospector to Old Hand, which you can wear beside your name in comms and on the crew list. The same record earns experience in each line of work, on a curve that doesn't leave the once-a-week player behind, and you spend it on talents trained at your home station. Long Scope, for one, pushes out your sensor range while you sit at Communications.

In the works

Votes that reach the voters

Day 72 ·

Every kind of motion can now be put to a power's assembly, from a change of footing to deposing an officer, and the people entitled to vote on it hear about it in their inbox, along with the result. Who votes depends on the power: a democracy's voters are an elected council. A motion now ends carried, rejected, lapsed or withdrawn, and you can see which. The new motion forms still need a full playtest.

In the works

The host takes a restart

Day 72-74 ·

We stopped the game host under a player connected from another network. It came back by itself and the player was flying again within a few seconds, without reloading the page. A nightly job now backs everything up, checks the backup and clears out records past their retention date, as the privacy notice says. Scheduling it on the box and rehearsing a restore are still to do.

In the works

Practice mining, station signs and fitting limits

Day 68-69 ·

The practice flight now goes on past the panels: you launch, stop at a rock, scan it and mine your first refined units before you've signed in. A station's sign can flash, change colour, show icons and run live figures across the dock. And a hull can only carry so many of each kind of part, so a hauler can no longer be packed with more cutting heads than a dedicated miner. The practice flight hasn't been played through by a new player yet.

In the works

NPCs answer whoever shot first

Day 67 ·

A neutral patrol that takes a hit now turns on the ship that fired, and keeps after it while it stays in range. Grazers close on whatever hurt them and machine ships run from trouble until it hits back, so nothing out there is harmless. Traffic is thinner, too: unaffiliated ships travel alone or in pairs, swarms carry the numbers, and a captured working ship flying the Reaver flag waits at the edge of Sol, Castor and Proxima.

Playable now

Insurance and the real influence map

Day 65 ·

You can insure a hull for a fixed term, paid up front, and if it's destroyed the policy pays out against its book value. The politics desk's influence map now shows each power's real share of a system instead of placeholder figures, but only where your own power has a stake, so the rest of the galaxy stays in the dark. We insured a ship, lost it and collected during the playtest.

In the works

Everything you own, in one place

Day 65 ·

A Holdings panel lists your stockpiles, open orders and hulls across the galaxy, and you can read it from anywhere. A corporation can hand one of its ships to a member and call it back, and it names its own ranks, each with its own permissions and its share of what a corp hull brings in each day. The ranks have been walked; the panel and handing ships around have only been partly played.

In the works

Three more rounds of playtesting

Day 58-64 ·

We walked everything one player can reach from a station berth, then took two accounts through the shared surfaces, then spent two days on the new industry, refit and processing desks. Every finding has been ruled on, and most were fixed during the walk. Our checklist now holds only what's still waiting to be played.

In the works

Station signs and tidier panels

Day 64 ·

The ticker that scrolls along a station's dock can now be written from the Facilities desk, and it remembers who put each line up and who last changed it. The desks behind the tray fold away like an accordion, and the panels have a short walkthrough of their own. We've tried the sign by hand; the rest of the panel work still needs a full play.

Playable now

Turning ore into parts

Day 62-63 ·

What you haul home no longer has to go straight to market. Process raw pieces into refined material at a station, run refining recipes that turn one resource into another (the gemstones among them), and then fabricate a part or assemble a whole hull from what you've made. Jobs take time and finish while you're away. We built a hull from scratch during the playtest.

In the works

Buying, storing and fitting parts

Day 62-64 ·

Ship parts are things you own now. Buy them off a station's shelf or from another player's order, keep them as crates in your stockpile, and carry them in your hold. Refit a berthed hull for a fee: a part you fit replaces the one it covers, and you can pay a little more to pull the old one out intact. Holds and armour plating come in their own families. We've walked the shelf and the refit, and a few fixes from that walk still need playing again.

In the works

An order book you can trust

Day 62 ·

Player orders match the moment they cross, are paid exactly once, and can't be overfilled by two people trading at the same instant. An open trade desk refreshes when somebody else's order fills, so you see the book move without reopening it. Questions to other players arrive in one place, and ship names on the tactical view no longer jump from one side of the glyph to the other.

In the works

The Codex earns its keep

Day 58-61 ·

A survey you've filed now changes what you can see: a hull's full sheet, a world's surface resources, what a part actually does. Your maps draw only what your Codex knows, so a star you've never visited stays blank. Each record can be sold once to a station, for more where it's fresh news. Stations whose power is hostile to yours will refuse you a berth and a trade.

In the works

Safe at your home berth

Day 57 ·

Nothing hostile is allowed inside a station's space, and a guard answers if something tries. When you die, your clone wakes at your power's home station. You can also learn the controls in a practice flight before you sign in, and the Engineer desk shows how your ship will handle at its current load. The practice flight hasn't been played through yet.

In the works

A bigger fleet

Day 53-59 ·

Every power now has its own line of hulls up to tier three, each with weapon families named in its own style, and no two builders share the same reactor or drive. The galaxy's creatures run up to cruisers and capitals, and the unaffiliated have a line of their own. Every hull was resized against its mass, so a capital ship really is half the size of a station. Most of these hulls haven't been flown yet.

In the works

Nothing lost when things go wrong

Day 55-56 ·

A crash, a host restart or a database outage can now cost you time but never your items. Your client reconnects by itself after a host restart and tells you plainly when a service is down. Selling from your hold is a single transaction, a ship can never end up somewhere you can't reach it, and the server turns down new work rather than lose a record it has promised to keep.

In the works

NPCs recognise neutral ships

Day 50 ·

NPCs used to treat every other power as an enemy. Patrols and working ships now check where their faction stands with yours first, so a neutral ship can fly past a patrol without a fight breaking out. It's built, but we haven't worked through its playtest checklist yet.

In the works

Connecting to the right host

Day 50 ·

Signing in and travelling now use the same connection details to find the host running your system. We'd already tested session refresh and recovery. The new connection and ticket handling still needs trying by hand, including travel from one host to another.

In the works

Security tests and hosting preparation

Day 49 ·

Our latest security pass threw modified clients at the server and turned up two problems, both now fixed. The installer can also set up the credentials our services need. A host is up on real hardware, and we're still checking installation and access from outside.

Playable now

Choose your race before you fly

Day 48 ·

New players pick a callsign and a race before they enter the game, and start out in that race's home system. We've playtested this one.

In the works

Clearer ship panel states

Day 48 ·

Ship panels can now tell the difference between having no ship and sitting at a desk you aren't allowed to use. They also clear their old readings once the ship is destroyed. The fixes are in but haven't been playtested.

In the works

Three rounds of playtesting

Day 40-47 ·

We spent a week flying two accounts through flight, combat, mining, the social features and hyperspace. Along the way we found empty panels, wrong dates in the ledger, bad crew counts and problems in a few of the bigger features. It's all written down and we're working through the fixes.

In the works

Managing your ship in hyperspace

Day 44-47 ·

Your reactor, drives and repairs keep running during a crossing now, so there's still a ship to look after in hyperspace. If the field fails you fall towards the nearest star, and how fast you're going when you arrive decides the damage. We've played through parts of the journey and the recovery, with more checks to do.

In the works

Fixes to wrecks, weapons and contacts

Day 46 ·

You can cut wrecks up for salvage now, and torpedoes, drones and meteors can all be damaged. Meteors keep their momentum as they cross a system. There's also a creature out there that passes itself off as a rock; hold a sensor survey on it and you'll find out what it really is.

In the works

Ship destruction and jump feedback

Day 46 ·

When your ship is destroyed, you get a moment to see it happen before you're sent back to your home station. The jump controls show when the drive is spooling up, and passengers now come along when the ship jumps.

In the works

More room for busy systems

Day 43-44 ·

We cut down the work it takes to simulate ships, worlds and moons. Automated ships all make their decisions from the same consistent view of the world, and station patrols keep up with their station as it moves around its orbit.

In the works

Music responds to your surroundings

Day 41-42 ·

What you're doing picks the style of music, and what's moving or fighting nearby sets how intense it gets. Changes build and fade gradually rather than cutting in. Every generated piece has a track code, so you can play it again or pass it on to someone else.

In the works

Ship names and sensor ranges

Day 41 ·

You can name your ship in its bay, and other players will see that name on their scanners. Sensor range depends on the hull now: a scout will pick up contacts that a freighter right next to it can't see. Neither change has been playtested yet.

In the works

Sign-in and berth charges

Day 39-40 ·

You sign in before you reach the cockpit now. Berth charges are set by the bay and the station's rate, and the bill closes when you leave. Free bays no longer charge rent.

In the works

Returning after a dropped connection

Day 38 ·

Refreshing the page or losing your connection no longer ends your session. We've tested rejoining a ship, though refreshing mid-hyperspace still leaves a readout wrong. List panels also got a tree layout, which hasn't had its full playtest.

In the works

Influence, player orders and resources

Day 37-38 ·

A power's influence is now worked out on the server from what's being spent locally. Player orders let you trade directly with other players, within limits on the spread. We've posted and matched orders between two accounts, and a few expiry and display checks are left. Resources are also spread out so that every power has a reason to trade beyond its home system. The influence map is still a placeholder, and the resource and influence changes need playtesting.

In the works

Survey records and sightings

Day 36 ·

The Codex keeps completed surveys separate from contacts you've only glimpsed, and you can record rock bands and sections of wreck as well. Unread sightings don't carry over between sessions.

In the works

Safer sign-in

Day 36 ·

Sign-in limits repeated attempts and won't reveal whether an email address has an account. Verification emails go into a queue, error messages are short and give little away, and deployed games have their content-editing routes switched off.

In the works

Clearer messages during service outages

Day 35-36 ·

If chat or presence goes down, the social panels say so, and logs and presence recover once the service is back. Wings can't survive an outage yet, so anyone affected is told their wing has broken up.

In the works

Sound effects are in

Day 35 ·

Weapons, damage, reactors, docking and controls all have sound effects tied to what's happening in the game. You can choose whether positional sound is heard from your ship or from the screen. They still need a proper listen and some tuning.

In the works

Ships and mining fields across the galaxy

Day 34 ·

Every power has its own small craft, warships and working ships now. NPC ships, wildlife and hazards are spread through the systems, and mining fields have been reworked around what their resources are worth. One thing to know: Sagittarius has no station, so there's nowhere to dock when you get there.

Playable now

Testing automated opponents

Day 32-33 ·

We ran a lot more combat tests, putting matched hulls against each other in several sets of duels. Overall, players won about as often as we'd aimed for. That gives us a much better starting point for tuning automated opponents.

In the works

Hazards on the scanner

Day 29-31 ·

Mines, wrecks and hazardous fields show up on the scanner as named contacts. Some of them can be shot at, and flying into them can damage your ship. There are quite a few types, and we still need to playtest them properly.

In the works

Economy balancing

Day 24-30 ·

We went through prices, hauling income, mining yields and salvage. Destroyed ships now break up into their component parts, so a bigger wreck is worth more to cut.

In the works

Your survey record

Day 28 ·

Hold your sensors on a contact long enough and the finished survey goes into your Codex, which keeps track of the rocks, ships and worlds you've studied. It's built and waiting for a playtest.

In the works

A generated soundtrack

Day 25-28 ·

The game writes its own music while you fly, with different styles for docking, travel and combat. If you'd rather fly in silence, you can switch it off in the audio settings.

In the works

Support for multiple hosts

Day 23-24 ·

Star systems can run on separate machines and be handed from one host to another. That's how we'll add capacity as the galaxy fills up. The setup still needs testing at a larger scale.

Playable now

Jumping between systems

Day 22-23 ·

A jump costs fuel and takes time to prepare. Then you cross hyperspace and come out in another system. We've flown the whole loop in development builds.

In the works

Inviting a crew aboard

Day 20-22 ·

Captains can invite players aboard, hand out desks and open a docked ship to visitors. If the captain disconnects, the second they nominated takes command. It's all built, and it needs more testing.

In the works

Motions and voting

Day 22 ·

Each power has an assembly that takes motions and counts votes against a quorum. We've playtested diplomatic motions and voting. The server can also handle changes to budgets, voting thresholds and leadership, but the desk doesn't have the controls to propose them yet.

In the works

Typed comms and mail

Day 22 ·

Crew intercom, sector broadcasts, direct messages and mail are all built. Mail is kept between sessions, and wing invitations expire. We aren't planning voice chat, so if your crew wants to talk, use Discord.

In the works

Station services

Day 12-20 ·

Buying, selling, hangars, shipyards, cargo and the ledger all have panels, along with social panels for wings and corporations. We still need to test them together in play.

In the works

Stars, worlds and the system view

Day 13-18 ·

Stars, planets and moons show up in the system view, with flares, rings and shadows, and you can set a course for any of them.

Playable now

Automation for empty desks

Day 12-13 ·

The flight and combat automation has been tested in development, and hostile NPC ships run on it too. The controls for setting up rules on your own empty desks aren't built yet.

Playable now

The first flight and combat build

Day 1-8 ·

The first playable build had flight, power, combat, damage, repair and mining. The server checks the simulation, and your screen shows only what your ship's sensors can pick up.