Yes, Alpha 8 is now out on the Discord!
This is a pretty big milestone, as with the wide range of new features added, Relic Space is now more or less feature-complete, though plenty of incremental improvements are still expected. More importantly, the new content and other improvements take the game past am important complexity threshold, making it properly fun to play - though of course still in a limited way, as there's still masses more content to add.
As described in more detail in the last interim update the major new features include:
- Saving and Loading
- Shipyard module for buying new ships
- Overhauled tech tree
- Faction event timeline
- Resource Trading overhaul
- New main faction: the Circle
But that's not all - here's the new content added since that update was posted:
A new multi-part story/tutorial mission
The tutorial has been extended with an all-new multi-part mission to include interactions with other factions. In the course of this mission you'll come face to face with one of two brand new minor factions, the Naveen, who use neural interfaces to pilot living ships called the Kreen.
[img width=600]https://i.imgur.com/Vb62uvl.gif
In addition the NPC reputation mechanics have been improved so that randomised missions now help you progress with the main storyline too, resulting in a highly replayable mixture of missions.
New ships for each faction
All factions, including the new ones, now have new distinctive ship types, with a massive 14 new ship types added in total (though there's still a lot more to come!) This goes along with a major rebalancing of all ship stats to make for a challenging mix of combat situations.
Faction territory mechanics
Faction territories are a whole new game mechanic where factions claim ownership of particular parts of the map, based on the proximity and development levels of space stations. Since you are more likely to ambushed outside friendly territories, and enemy ships tend not to follow you inside your territory, this adds a welcome variety to the layout of each sector, as well as creating new tactical considerations.
New equipment and quality levels
While the new tech tree allows 7 new utility types to be unlocked through researching relics, there are also 3 new core (engine and generator) equipment types. Not to mention the fact that each equipment type now comes in 3 different 'quality' levels, all of which can be found in station equipment stores among other places.
New Trailer
..and there's also a brand new gameplay trailer that shows many of the new features in action, in case you prefer to learn more about the current state of the game in that way:
As usual, the full list of changes can be viewed on the website.
Join the community
To help test the new Alpha and be among the first to play Relic Space, join the Discord for access instructions, or sign-up to the newsletter for access to future releases.