FIXES AND TWEAKS - Made several tweaks to the tunnel on Caldero to make it easier to fly through. - Tweaked the environmentals control so that city lights are always active on some maps. - Tweaks to Hoban's Run mission to fix spawn points for ship wreck and cargo. - Modified rada
FIXES AND TWEAKS
- Made several tweaks to the tunnel on Caldero to make it easier to fly through.
- Tweaked the environmentals control so that city lights are always active on some maps.
- Tweaks to Hoban's Run mission to fix spawn points for ship wreck and cargo.
- Modified radar scaling on the Hoplite
- Added a toggle to turn off the altitude warning voice over
- Fixed a bug on the PoseidonsThrone_Sector_81M map that could cause the AI to bug out and player redirect to kick in inappropriately.
- Added the ability to delete player profiles from the main menu.
Fixed a bug on the Frontiers Reach Sector 72X map that could break NPC targeting. Tweaks to targeting computer behavior when player tries to lock on to enemies.
Fixed a bug on the Frontiers Reach Sector 72X map that could break NPC targeting.
Tweaks to targeting computer behavior when player tries to lock on to enemies.
THIS IS A WINDOWS UPDATE ONLY. I am still working on the Linux version. It's taking longer than I expect but progress is still on going. Fixed a bug in Mission 8 that could cause enemies to not target the mission area. Fixed a bug in Mission 6 that could cause the fuel rods to sp
THIS IS A WINDOWS UPDATE ONLY.
I am still working on the Linux version. It's taking longer than I expect but progress is still on going.
Fixed a bug in Mission 8 that could cause enemies to not target the mission area.
Fixed a bug in Mission 6 that could cause the fuel rods to spawn in the wrong spot.
Fixed a bug that could cause enemies to lose track on the player after the player died despite being configured to not lose track on the player **(Still testing this!!)**
Fixed a bug in the Mission 16 script that could break the mission and stop players from progressing.
Reduced the cost of all modules, fighters, and weapons by half.
Potential fix for a crash that could make the game unplayable on some systems. crashing on startup.
Fixed a bug that could cause spawns to not appear in the right spots on the Hoban's Run Mission.
Fixed a bug in Mission 6 that cause enemies spawned at the Depot to retarget to an environment path on spawn.
This update is being released specifically to address a security concern in the Unity Engine. The security patch has been applied and the game has been rebuilt with this security patch in place. Additionally I have some small updates. -- Added the ability to clear targets. (Had t
This update is being released specifically to address a security concern in the Unity Engine. The security patch has been applied and the game has been rebuilt with this security patch in place.
Additionally I have some small updates.
-- Added the ability to clear targets. (Had to push through the security update ASAP, testing in progress) -- Tweaks to numerous lights to affect better performance across the entire experience.
As some of you may already be aware, I have been working on other games. One such game is called Frontiers Reach : Battlespace and is intended to be a companion to FR1. But there is a third game I've been working on called Frontiers Reach : Mercenaries and it's a title I've had i
As some of you may already be aware, I have been working on other games. One such game is called Frontiers Reach : Battlespace and is intended to be a companion to FR1. But there is a third game I've been working on called Frontiers Reach : Mercenaries and it's a title I've had in my head since 2015. In fact, some of the technology developed in FR1 was specifically developed with FR:M in mind.
This past month of September 2025 I spent an extraordinary amount of time grinding on the Frontiers Reach : Mercenaries Tech Demo. My original intention behind this was to submit the game to Epic Mega Grants and see if I could get secure funds to migrate my tools to UE5. However after seeing large AAA studios struggle, and doing some personal research into feasibility of migrating to the engine, I became convinced that migrating to UE5 at this time is not a task worth undertaking, even if I could get Epic Games to fund much of the work required to do so.
That said, I don't want to let the work I've done go to waste, so today I want to announce that October 1st, the Frontiers Reach : Mercenaries Tech Demo will be available for everyone to download and try. This tech demo is currently only available through the Patreon I've setup to help fund the game. But you do NOT need to be a subscriber after October 1st. Subscribers will get access to unique perks, but you can play for free if you are interested in just checking it out.
Below is a video showing some of the work that has been done this past month of September.
Additionally I would like to invite everyone to join the Blind Alien Productions Steam Group. I intend to post more frequently there in the coming months and use that group for those who are die-hards of the Frontiers Reach Universe and want to get regular updates through Steam.
Major announcement for Frontiers Reach : Mercenaries! Also, a couple of bug fixes are coming for Frontiers Reach 1. First week of September is the target launch date.
Major announcement for Frontiers Reach : Mercenaries!
A number of quality of life tweaks and bug fixes have been made. - volume on cockpit notifications Cockpit notifications have been partitioned out to their own audio mixer so that the volume can be changed independent of all other volume settings. - stereo effects on incoming bee
A number of quality of life tweaks and bug fixes have been made.
- volume on cockpit notifications
Cockpit notifications have been partitioned out to their own audio mixer so that the volume can be changed independent of all other volume settings.
- stereo effects on incoming beeps.
Some slight stereo effects have been added to incoming missile notifications for those missiles that are close enough to be an immediate threat, this is still be tweaked but it's functional.
- Setup wings default for the warmap.
When playing on the warmap which ever wing you select before starting a warmap mission will be stored and recalled later when you go to run another warmap mission immediately after completing or abandoning a warmap mission.
- Fix placespace boundary not deactivating RCS mode.
Hitting the playspace boundary should now deactivate the RCS thrusters.
- Tone down sparks emissive
Reduced emissive value on sparks in the cockpit.
- Rename vent target tags for fuel station on Katedralli
- Check collisions on cargo crate stacks
Modified collision boxes on a stack of cargo containers for greater accuracy.
- Typo in mission for getting Prince Edmund alliance
- rename train target tags
- check waypointer on Brigade Carrier Assault scenario.
Modified the Brigade Carrier Assault warmap scenario to better guide the player through the scenario at the beginning.
- Add an objective step to the Brigade Carrier Assault to better track and describe what is going on.
Modified objective description to better explain how to complete the scenario.
- make some tweaks to flight saving and loading.
Fixed a bug that could make saved flights break warmap scenarios.
Fixes coming this weekend - Fixed another crash instance on the planet Astraeus Slumber - Fixed another instance where lancer squadron could break a mission. - Lowered difficulty in mission 29 by removing the 2 carriers from above the town of Altai on the planet Tom Uul. - Re-ord
Fixes coming this weekend
- Fixed another crash instance on the planet Astraeus Slumber
- Fixed another instance where lancer squadron could break a mission.
- Lowered difficulty in mission 29 by removing the 2 carriers from above the town of Altai on the planet Tom Uul.
- Re-ordered several missions scripts to keep Lancer Squadron from breaking those missions.
- Modified timing on Mission 27 to spread out spawns a bit later in the mission.
- Modified timing on gunboat spawns on ModerateDistrressSignal mission for Friendly nodes.
- Modified respawning so that if the respawn point is too close to terrain or structure it will move the respawn point before the player respawns.
Fixes coming in next patch - Modifed pitch for Hoplite - Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong mission to load when trying to run Extraction missions. - Fixed a bug that could cause AI to wonder WAY outside of the area of concern on the Atzend Map. - Extended easy mode to reduce
Fixes coming in next patch
- Modifed pitch for Hoplite - Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong mission to load when trying to run Extraction missions. - Fixed a bug that could cause AI to wonder WAY outside of the area of concern on the Atzend Map. - Extended easy mode to reduce gravity by a factor one half across the entire game making flying and tunnel runs easier. - Adjusted spawns in a few missions to affect better pacing.
Welcome to the Frontier, running on Unity 6! This is a big update, and there may be some bugs that persist as it was a significant effort to undertake in terms of testing and hunting down bugs. Additionally several tweaks and adjustments have been made throughout a decent portion
Welcome to the Frontier, running on Unity 6!
This is a big update, and there may be some bugs that persist as it was a significant effort to undertake in terms of testing and hunting down bugs. Additionally several tweaks and adjustments have been made throughout a decent portion of the game and we've got more coming. Chief among those changes is an update respawning system. The current one is functional but needs a bit more work before it can considered complete. That will take time though as there are several problems to solved. All of this is in keeping with the commitment to curate games and not just develop a bunch of slop and dump it onto store fronts.
Before we dive too deep into patch notes, I want to share a video that was made to help new or returning players get more comfortable with the games controls. Even current players may benefit from this so I encourage everyone to check it out.
- Added camera positions for weapons on the loadout screen. - Added an additional gun hardpoint to the Mk.11 Shuriken Ultra. - Added an objective to Mission 16 to create an objective update for respawning - Added some additional tutorial hints to the first 4 missions.
Tweaks
- Updated some mission descriptions for better explanation. - Updated font on the loadout input box when saving loadouts. - Updated some mission descriptions in the briefing. - Modified drag for when fighter is at zero so that there is less drift. - Modified camera look pitch so that it only pitches down to show cockpit instrumentation instead of an empty seat. - Modified target markers on capital ships to affect better visibility at varying ranges. - Modified target alignment checks to keep friendly NPCs from having a chance to target other friendly NPCs like capital ships and waste time shooting at things they can’t destroy. - Made adjustments to UI elements to affect better visibility both in cockpit view and in third person. - Modified Mission 08 script to allow for more leniency in the tunnel run (you should also be able to skip the tunnel run by flying close to the ground over the plateau along the same path). - Adjusted spawns on mission 32 for better pacing. - Adjustment waypoint marker on mission 32 for better player guidance during the mission. - Modified targeting computer code for better acquisition of targets. - Modified flight characteristics of the Mk.11 Shuriken Ultra. - Modified identity tags for landing craft so they standout among a group of allies. - Modified environment for mission 15 to avoid the Heliosiren getting its movement disrupted. - Minor change to waypoint indicator behavior in Mission 19. - Minor change to Mission 19 to affect an objective update for better respawning.
Fixes
- Fixed several instance of crashes due to mis-configured lights. I think I got all of them, but there may be more. - Fixed a bug that could cause paint jobs to not save properly. - Fixed a bug that put the waypoint marker in the wrong location in Mission 01. - Fixed a bug that could cause issues with the lava flickering on the Caldero maps. - Fixed a graphical bug with an explosion of a capital ship. - Fixed issues with some visual elements being culled when they were not supposed to be. - Fixed towns that were missing vital components in their controller mechanisms. - Fixed typos in mission descriptions - Fixed a bug that could cause the ring course to break on the first tutorial mission. - Fixed an instance of mission objectives and waypointer not resetting after respawn. - Fixed a bug that could cause module cams to not behave properly. - Fixed a bug that could keep the loadout save input field from closing when there is no loadout name in the text field. - Fixed logos not loading into materials properly when swapping fighters. - Fixed post effects rendering not working. - Fixed a bug in Mission 32 that could cause the Hekaton Queen to float up into the air instead of traversing across the ground. - Fixed an instance of a bug where Overdrive mode and the afterburner were not activating at all when you using HOTAS. - Fixed a bug that could cause cockpit Rain FX to play when they were not supposed to. - Fixed a bug that could cause the HOTAS throttle value override the afterburner and overdrive modes. - Fixed a few instances of character portraits not showing up when prompted via the dialogue system. - Fixed a few instances of kills not scoring at the end of missions. - Fixed a collision mesh on the Utsukushi Ringu map inside the station. - Fixed a waypointer bug in mission 20. - Fixed a bug in the Mission 22 script that could allow AI to wander off. - Fixed a missing line of dialogue in Mission 23 - Fixed a bug that could make it impossible for some capital ships to lock on to targets. - Fixed some weapons in the hangar not being mounted correctly.
We are preparing for a significant push on the marketing front in the next week and need your help now more than ever to hunt down and fix as many bugs as possible. As a solo dev I play the heck out of Frontiers Reach a lot (8000 hours dev and testing time so far) and there are t
We are preparing for a significant push on the marketing front in the next week and need your help now more than ever to hunt down and fix as many bugs as possible.
As a solo dev I play the heck out of Frontiers Reach a lot (8000 hours dev and testing time so far) and there are things that I miss from time to time. Sometimes because I'm not paying attention to what is going on because I look at it nearly every day, and sometimes because I really only have my own perspective and way of experiencing things to lean on. So things that make sense to me, might not make sense to other people.
The best way to join the effort is through the Discord for which there should be a link below, but if you don't have access to Discord, then using the Steam Discussions is fine too, there is a bug reporting section already setup where you can drop a report.
If you don't already have access to the Experimental Branch you can access it through the Steam UI under the Betas section of the Properties. The password for the experimental branch for FR1 in case you need it is : TestBranchDoode
A number of bugs and some quality of life updates have already been added to the experimental build so you will notice some differences between it and the version of the game running on the main branch.
If you are unsure if something is actually a bug/issue, please report it anyways. I'd rather have a report on something that seems off to you, than have nothing at all. Especially since some issues may just be a matter of updating interfaces to better explain what is going on to players.
In keeping with the promise of curating Frontiers Reach, I have an announcement to make in this regard. Currently, sitting up on the experimental branch, a version of Frontiers Reach is running in Unity 6. The performance increase from migrating to Unity 6 is noticeable but there
In keeping with the promise of curating Frontiers Reach, I have an announcement to make in this regard.
Currently, sitting up on the experimental branch, a version of Frontiers Reach is running in Unity 6.
The performance increase from migrating to Unity 6 is noticeable but there is some work to do before I can finally deploy the Unity 6 version to the main branch. Additionally there will be some balance changes and... a new uncharted world to explore for those of you who have gotten to the uncharted worlds content. Trailer for that to come later.
For now I want to share with you a vision I've had for almost 10 years finally made manifest in limited form.
This is all footage from the tech demo that I've been putting together for FR:M and this isn't even everything that is in the tech demo. This 9 minute and 19 second sizzle reel only covers about 65% of what is in the current iteration of the tech demo.
Below is a list explaining what you can expect to find.
A new large map with several biomes and unique land features as well as points of interest to visit. This whole new setup has the current iteration of the tech demo feeling a bit like an extraction shooter. It will not stay this way though.
- Biomes have been tweaked to be as visually unique as possible given some limitations with the current toolset, however a new update to my terrain shader plugin from the dev working on it has made greater variety in biomes possible for future updates. Expect to see a regeneration of the map in the future.
- Unimproved roadways have been added to some areas i.e. dirt roads.
Story elements have been pulled for the time being. Will make it back in when the scenario manager is finally tied into the project.
- For those who don't know there were light story telling elements in the first few iterations of the tech demo, those have been removed for the time being. I want to focus on getting the foundational mechanics in first.
There is now a Map of the entire sector complete with player position and icons showing the currently available points of interest.
- This in combination with the compass have proven to be a big help in navigating the level and having the points of interest labeled on the map is especially a big help in finding them. This is actually a critical piece of infrastructure that is scalable for the future.
There is a total of 12 points of interest to visit. 3 hostile, 2 friendly, and 7 creature.
- Hostile points of interest have destructible buildings that you can earn currency for destroying. Destroying all destructible buildings will force the point of interest into cooldown and then reset.
- Friendly points of interest also have destructible buildings but will cause you to lose currency if you blow them up.
- Creature based points of interest will enter cooldown when they have no more spawns to put out, they also have a chance to spawn raiders.
- One of the points of interest is a cave system built to test out cave exploration and combat along with free-climbing.
Item and Weapon shops have been added along with loot drops which can be sold for currency.
- The towns of Sedonia and Vicker's Refuge both have item and weapon shops you can visit.
3 new weapons have been added to the game for players to use while on foot.
- OA AP-30 : An auto pistol made by Oshiro Armaments. - Radiant Star Cannon : An old mining laser retro-fitted during the Frontier War for use as a weapon. Can destroy buildings in a single shot. - Lazerov Longreach Sniper Rifle : A sniper rifle capable of taking down soft targets in a single shot.
VTOL rig with engineering art is now available for use and you will likely want to use it as it can land just about anywhere.
- This is a very basic implementation and the artwork is very rough on the eyes. Will update it later when I have artwork to slot in there.
Day/Night Cycle
- There is now a day/night cycle that will progress over time using a real time lighting setup, this includes a night time lighting setup that calculates bounce lighting from the gas giant.
If you would like to be a part of the development of Frontiers Reach : Mercenaries I highly recommend joining the Discord.
This is a small issue that is aimed at addressing a few key concerns. - Modified Third Person Perspective enemy markers to always be on when tracking a target. Previously they would toggle off once their tracked target was in camera view. Also added a few more to increase the num
This is a small issue that is aimed at addressing a few key concerns.
- Modified Third Person Perspective enemy markers to always be on when tracking a target. Previously they would toggle off once their tracked target was in camera view. Also added a few more to increase the number of trackable targets in this perspective.
- Fixed an issue with look controls on joystick/HOTAS. Should now be bound to the correct axis.
- Fixed an issue where the throttle readout would show decimals up to 8 places on some machines.
- Added Baked Occlusion Culling to all planetary maps as a temporary performance fix. Still waiting on some critical pieces of technology to fall into place before converting all planetary terrain from built in Unity Terrain to standard Mesh Objects.
- Added LODs to Cockpit Instruments so that they will not render when in Third Person Perspective.
- Added a toggle to allow users to change the throttle axis mode from -1 to 1, to 0 - 1 throttle calibration. I have no 0 -1 throttle in house to test this so I have no idea if this is going to work but everything seems fine on my end.
This is a patch update to accompany the Uncharted World Release - Fixed a bug that could erase data packages retrieved from Uncharted Worlds - Potential fix for screen resolution not loading properly and causing an error on some monitors. (I have not been able to recreate this er
This is a patch update to accompany the Uncharted World Release
- Fixed a bug that could erase data packages retrieved from Uncharted Worlds
- Potential fix for screen resolution not loading properly and causing an error on some monitors. (I have not been able to recreate this error on my work machine or my test machine so fingers crossed.)
The first Uncharted World is now live for Frontiers Reach! HD163573 is a remote world that was abruptly cutoff from contact with the rest of humanity. Being that you're out here on the frontier though you have just barely managed to pick up the very faint distress signal that was
The first Uncharted World is now live for Frontiers Reach!
HD163573 is a remote world that was abruptly cutoff from contact with the rest of humanity. Being that you're out here on the frontier though you have just barely managed to pick up the very faint distress signal that was sent out from it.
To access this new location you must have completed Mission 10 of the first act and have access to the Nav Computer via the helm. From there you can enter to coordinates found in the video and gain access to HD163573.
On this new location the focus is more about exploration and as you explore you'll find data packets that be decrypted at the RECON panel on the bridge of the Siren. Each data packet you decrypt will give you a clue about what happened to cause the outpost on this world to go dark.
But know that you will not be alone on the new world.
The Frontiers Reach Interactive Galactic Map is now live on itch.io! This is the first pass at the galactic map so it's pretty bare bones right now but future updates will add more lore, new features, better planet rendering and so on. Additionally, there is now a Ko-Fi page avai
The Frontiers Reach Interactive Galactic Map is now live on itch.io!
This is the first pass at the galactic map so it's pretty bare bones right now but future updates will add more lore, new features, better planet rendering and so on.
Additionally, there is now a Ko-Fi page available for the next major title in the Frontiers Reach Universe. $1 a month is all you need to become a part of the effort to make Frontiers Reach 2 bigger, better, and more detailed. But all of our updates right now are free to everyone on Ko-Fi so even if all you want is to stay up to date with development efforts it's a great place to do that.
One of our first releases on Ko-Fi was a terrain exploration demo for Frontiers Reach 2. Where you can run around on a map and through some ancient alien structures to get an idea of how Frontiers Reach 2 will feel.
