I guess the game really wants me to see how viable the Invictus is in extended mode, hmm. I can't quite afford 4000 crew right now, and 40 fuel/ly is a LOT especially given reduced fuel capacities across the board, but maybe, just maybe...

10 cycles into the run, first month with positive income! Feels weird.

Finally got a Nova - my first capital ship, ~10 cycles into the campaign! Spent a while tinkering with this build; surprised by how tanky it is and how well it does in straight-up fights. About to go use it to welcome a Hegemony AI inspection - which, yeah, that checks out.

Been making do with this fleet so far; bunch of Vanguards which are great for lower supply costs and not so great for bleeding crew if deployed injudiciously. The automated ships are great for *not* losing crew, or paying them. (The flagship: overfluxed but deals a ton of damage fast)

Finally got my 2nd colony started, in cycle 215! Now to pick up the wormhole anchors and link them up, though braving the abyss is going to be... interesting. Might have to set up a fuel cache along the way and do it in stages. (Also pictured: some of the expenses in setting up the colony)

Fairly normal state of affairs fuel-wise, for this playthrough. Should be fine because 1) heading to Domain-era mothership and 2) there's a Pather base along the slipstream on the way back where I can pick up a but of fuel if need be. Been really enjoying how much slipstreams matter here!

Survival mode fuel-saving shenanigans

Reinforced Bulkheads now give the ship some hull/CR if it's lost and then recovered! This should help with the too-high recovery cost of especially low tech ships, which are the ships that hullmod is most likely to already be useful on. (Pictured: a Venture from my current playthrough!)

Just going through a few random notes before diving back into playtesting. This feels like a fun bonus for the Tactical Laser, giving it more of a support niche by having it increase hull/armor damage taken by the target, like the Graviton Beam does for shields!

Changing how crew salaries work to be based on the ships being crewed, plus a fixed rate for "extra" crew. It's nice to have this as a balance lever, e.g. the Onslaught might - and now does - have a lower crew salary (lots of low-skilled positions!) to compensate for its fuel use.

New Starsector blog post: Extended Mode fractalsoftworks.com/2026/06/14/e... A new game mode that's a lot more challenging without being a new difficulty level. Rather, it aims to change the pacing and focus of a playthrough!

Working on a new blog post - at a bit over 5k words, so definitely on the long side, but doesn't feel like it would make sense to split it. Hoping to put it out tomorrow or Monday! (Random screenshot from recent playtesting, just for fun.)

The adventure continues, with a somewhat more respectable fleet! Neural Link has been surprisingly good, been trading off between the Scarab and the Fury, and for pursuits etc a Hermes with Neural Interface just to be able to reset Temporal Shell on the Scarab real quick.

I gotta say, I'm having SO much fun playtesting some of the recent additions! This is ~6 hours into a fresh playthrough, trying hard to grow the fleet and get ahead - make of that what you will :) Going to talk about this in a new blog post, just need to get more testing done first!

A work in progress - removing individual d-mods from ships using "Domain-grade Parts". Makes more sense in the context of a much larger set of changes; not 100% set on it but it's feeling pretty good so far. Also: this may end up replacing the normal "Restore" functionality entirely!

Starsector 0.98.5a in-development patch notes: fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.... A conclusion to the Sindrian Diktat storyline, alongside a number of smaller features and QoL changes. (Not yet available for download; this is just a preview of what will be in the next release!)

Changed the Carrier Group skill to substantially reduce damage to fighters. This feels pretty good so far, you really get a sense of how much it contributes and some fighter/bomber support that *really* sticks around!

How playtesting is going:

Changed up how the basic personal bounties work - there's more of them with a spread of difficulties, and their average difficulty follows which ones you're completing, rather than just going up as you do them. So, just naturally, you'll keep getting more of the kind of bounties you do!

Working through a list of assorted notes I've got; currently: buffing/changing up the Polarized Armor skill. The top speed bonus is flat (rather than a percentage), meaning it'll be especially impactful for larger ships when they need to back off.

New Starsector blog post: Support Fleets! Calling in friendly fleets to help resupply or for combat support, and: a side bonus of pawning off all that useless metal to a scavenger. fractalsoftworks.com/2025/12/08/s...

Pictured: a planet used to be here, until a bug let me "break it for salvage". Backing out of a menu made the game think the planet was a comm relay, and, well. At least I got some scrap out of it!

The console commands mod just got one heck of an update, courtesy of @lukas04.bsky.social. Super impressive stuff! fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index....

New Starsector blog post: Officer Flexibility fractalsoftworks.com/2025/08/18/o... Talking about some changes that make officers easier to work with, as well as some changes to s-mods, and a quick update about the plan for the next release!

Added the ability to change the s-mods on a ship for a LOT of credits, at a player-owned colony with heavy industry. The original s-mods still require story points to add, but this should make it easier to revamp an endgame fleet.

Oh, you can definitely do that by just spacing out a few Defend orders! Just place them a bit back from where you want the line to be, something like this:

For reference, that's what it looks like with one point, you just get a denser concentration of firepower

Reduced the leash range on the "Defend" (and similar) commands by a third. Seems to be working well so far - the actual performance of the fleet in battle is *much* better with the new leash range!

Starsector 0.98a is out! Fight new enemies, acquire new ships and weapons, and much more, featuring new story missions, autosave, a revamped combat simulator and Codex, and other UI improvements! fractalsoftworks.com/2025/03/27/s... Please repost!

Did you know you can change the aggression of your un-officered ships? It's a bit of a hidden feature; hopefully this'll make it easier to figure out!