New Tutorial
The focus of update 0.13 is on improving the player onboarding experience. This includes a completely reworked tutorial. Previously, the tutorial was just a regular procedurally generated game, which made it nearly impossible to provide consistent guidance as maps, techs, anomalies, and opponents were always different, creating endless number of corner cases.
We’ve now switched to a static tutorial where the starting conditions are always the same. This lets us add clear instructions, visual indicators, and more guided steps. The tutorial now walks players through colonization, terraforming, upkeep, and victory points. We’ve also lowered the difficulty, no more raiders showing up with three ships on turn five! Next, we’ll be playtesting further and refining the tutorial to make it even smoother.
User Interface Improvements
We redesigned several menus: scoreboard, minor factions, and terraforming giving them a fresh look, clearer tooltips, and better feedback when you take actions. Tooltips in general have also been overhauled to be easier to read and understand. This work is ongoing, and we’ll continue adding new tooltips and refining the existing ones.
Graphics Improvements
We’ve made a number of visual upgrades aimed at clarity and readability:
Ship idle animations and faction logos above ships make it easier to spot fleets and threats.
Placement indicators for ships, stations, techs, and artifacts are now animated for better visibility.
Animations for building, terraforming, and colonization make these actions easier to notice.
Gameplay Improvements
We’ve added small but impactful changes to improve the flow of the game:
Pan and pinch gestures are now supported, making touchpad play much smoother.
The Bulwark ship has been rebalanced, it can no longer move and attack during the same turn.
Star systems, asteroid fields, and gas giants appear a little less often, improving navigation and station placement.
Simultaneous unit movement is now enabled, so the game plays faster even if you keep normal animation speeds.
AI Improvements
The AI now has seven difficulty levels, scaling resource production. On “Normal” difficulty the AI players receive the same amount of resources as humans.
We’ve also improved AI station building and energy management. Many of these improvements come from Xilmi, known for his AI work on OpenXcom and Remnants of the Precursors. He's been providing valuable feedback and bug reports, and we’re excited to continue collaborating with him.
Release Schedule
Our initial plan was to release by the end of 2025. However, as the year closes in, we’ve decided to postpone launch to Q1 2026. This extra time will let us:
Add remaining mechanics and content (ships, anomalies, technologies, upgrades).
Polish the game experience across the board.
We also believe this new timing avoids the crowded holiday release window and gives Astro Protocol a stronger launch opportunity.
Please let us know what you think about the changes and if you haven't tried out the game, now is a good time because the tutorial is better than ever.
Thanks for playing and supporting Astro Protocol. See you among the stars!