We have a new ship coming in UPDATE 5! The PLC Algenib Heavy Cruiser.

http://shallow.space/pleiades-heavy-cruiser-algenib/

“Although some critiques call the design into question noting that it’s peak fire coverage points are the same as the Matar’s, the craft sports far stronger generators making the Algenib a more capable energy weapons platform. The Algenib is noted as having a higher armour rating than any other Cruiser of it’s size in production”

http://shallow.space/pleiades-heavy-cruiser-algenib/

Come over to the blog to view the 3D turntable.

We have a new ship coming in UPDATE 5! The PLC Algenib Heavy Cruiser.

http://shallow.space/pleiades-heavy-cruiser-algenib/

“Although some critiques call the design into question noting that it’s peak fire coverage points are the same as the Matar’s, the craft sports far stronger generators making the Algenib a more capable energy weapons platform. The Algenib is noted as having a higher armour rating than any other Cruiser of it’s size in production”

http://shallow.space/pleiades-heavy-cruiser-algenib/

Come over to the blog to view the 3D turntable.

Let us take the opportunity to say thanks for the very warm welcome we received here as we opened the doors, from the outset you came forward smiling with praise and bug reports which has allowed us to get on with filling in the cracks in the first playable.

From the blog:
"In addition we have all the stuff that was resolved thanks to community feedback! Actually we had a huddle round to discuss our opening week and we are so flattered by the reception we’ve received."

So a jumbo update for you folks on the face of it; delivering fixes and building on that scaffolding as we set things up for more maps, more abilities, basically more everything!



"The main change in this update which directly affects gameplay is the requirement to scan a piece of sector furniture to know its contents. Any ship in the game can use the ‘Deep Scan’ ability to advance the scanning of an asteroid cluster or gas cloud..."

A cool new mechanic meaning you'll have to think about your approach to those cozy looking asteroid clusters else you'll be in for a surprise! (Quite literally in fact.) Read up more on what UPDATE 4 brings, over on the blog.

Let us take the opportunity to say thanks for the very warm welcome we received here as we opened the doors, from the outset you came forward smiling with praise and bug reports which has allowed us to get on with filling in the cracks in the first playable.

From the blog:
"In addition we have all the stuff that was resolved thanks to community feedback! Actually we had a huddle round to discuss our opening week and we are so flattered by the reception we’ve received."

So a jumbo update for you folks on the face of it; delivering fixes and building on that scaffolding as we set things up for more maps, more abilities, basically more everything!



"The main change in this update which directly affects gameplay is the requirement to scan a piece of sector furniture to know its contents. Any ship in the game can use the ‘Deep Scan’ ability to advance the scanning of an asteroid cluster or gas cloud..."

A cool new mechanic meaning you'll have to think about your approach to those cozy looking asteroid clusters else you'll be in for a surprise! (Quite literally in fact.) Read up more on what UPDATE 4 brings, over on the blog.

0.8.06 Update 4 Change log (29.10.2015)

Over 65 modifications in this update; 30 feature additions, 30 fixes (thank you community!) & 6 tweaks. Blog article up shortly to talk about the changes.

• Added: Sorting for hull and ships in the Ship Config screen
  
• Added: smooth value change and negative burn effects to energy bar in Ship Config screen
  
• Added: mouse over compatible module previews energy usage in Ship Config screen
  
• Added: mouse over installed module previews energy freed in Ship Config screen
  
• Added: Apply button to Options menu
  
• Added: Bevel to officer slots in the fleet screen to make them easier to see
  
• Added: Shortcut to name configuration when save clicked in ship config screen
  
• Added: Sorting for officer ranks
  
• Added: Sexy AI voice for a number of tactical actions and abilities
  
• Added: Sound effects to Objectives UI
  
• Added: Railgun L and XL turrets animations
  
• Added: Tooltips for minimap buttons
  
• Added: Tooltips for filter buttons on ship/fleet config screens
  
• Added: other keypress shortcuts to the tooltips
  
• Added: PlayerShipDB upgrade system helping prevent DB wipes (wipe required #eyeroll)
  
• Added: Asteroids scanning objective to scout map
  
• Added: Objectives tracker shown when battlegrid is up
  
• Added: Collapsable objectives (click on the title to expand/collapse them)
  
• Added: Minimap objective icon for furniture
  
• Added: 3D Objectives tracking icon (mouse over objective tracker or click icon next to objective title)
  
• Added: Targetbox for selected furniture (unused)
  
• Added: Scan completion status to sector furniture (fly close to furniture and use 'Deep Scan' ability to scan it)
  
• Added: Sharing of sector furniture scans between allied forces (gonna be so cool in multiplayer!)
  
• Added: Tooltips for sector furniture icons on minimap (shows information like scan progress, status effects and yeild)
  
• Added: 'Surprised' status on target ship if attacking ship is not visible (20 second penalty, no jump, no weapons)
  
• Added: Range delimiting spheres now on by default in move mode to aid depth perception
  
• Added: Ability tooltips autoupdate themselves on mouseover
  
• Added: Blue range delimiting sphere for support abilities
  
• Added: Mouseover ability icon with range based effect will temporarily show Blue range
  
• Added: 'Deep Scan' ability for all ships (30 seconds scanning of furniture, 90 second recharge, stacks with scan sector)
  
• Added: 'Scan Sector' ability for all scanner modules (10 seconds double range, 240 second recharge)
  
  
• Fixed: Emblem socket disappearing when double clicking to remove emblem in Fleet Config screen
  
• Fixed: Issue with fleet icon showing as selected when Corvette docked
  
• Fixed: Pause time button mapping fixed in tactical
  
• Fixed: All UI sounds now controllable in options
  
• Fixed: Corvette wings that have been docked can now be launched again
  
• Fixed: Issue with turrets and fixed weapons despawning leaving invalid references
  
• Fixed: Issue with storing valid support module references in PlayerShipDB
  
• Fixed: Issue with ships still moving when reached target position
  
• Fixed: When you switch between saved designs, the module sfx is played 2 times.
  
• Fixed: Feedback when hovering over ability button
  
• Fixed: Hold fire button in tactical
  
• Fixed: Refactoring of core game controller
  
• Fixed: Intermittant crash involving tooltips at start-up
  
• Fixed: Intermittant crash involving having lots of configured ships in PlayerShipDB
  
• Fixed: Intermittant crash entering Ship config screen from fleet config
  
• Fixed: Changed UI to scale by screen height instead of screen width (should help with multiple displays and non-standard aspect ratios)delimiting sphere if battlegrid is shown.
  
• Fixed: Incorrect range shown on minimap if scanner support module fitted
  
• Fixed: Scaling issues with range circles on minimap
  
• Fixed: Appearance of ability buttons in tactical
  
• Fixed: Context issue with ability buttons
  
• Fixed: Issue with negative values in ship SP/HP stats
  
• Fixed: Issue with shields recharging due to timer class rewrite
  
• Fixed: Rare crash reported with flashing fleet icon
  
• Fixed: Oversized turret socket on Heavy Corvette
  
• Fixed: Reports of game controllers locking the camera in movement (needs testing)
  
• Fixed: Corrected pivots for buttons in Ship Config screen (it's a UI scaling thing)
  
• Fixed: icons being dragged over are ignored in the Ship and Fleet Config screens
  
• Fixed: predictive energy calculation for module icons being dragged onto already installed modules now correctly take into account removal of installed module.
  
• Fixed: Rare crash in Ship Config screen when configured player ship stats are compared with unconfigured hull stats
  
• Fixed: Delete button now correctly enabled in Ship Config screen when configured player ship is selected.
  
  
• Update: Changed formatting of Tooltips and tweaked descriptions
  
• Update: Removed support and weapon platforms filter icons from fleet config (mistake)
  
• Update: to options menu; moved close button to opposite side, apply button locked when changes to config made
  
• Update: Matar base MP rating increased from 210MP to 320MP
  
• Update: Sped up Corvette docking proceedure
  
• Update: Removed Brightness and Contrast bars (placeholders removed to avoid confusion, colour correction on todo list)
  

0.8.06 Update 4 Change log (29.10.2015)

Over 65 modifications in this update; 30 feature additions, 30 fixes (thank you community!) & 6 tweaks. Blog article up shortly to talk about the changes.

• Added: Sorting for hull and ships in the Ship Config screen
  
• Added: smooth value change and negative burn effects to energy bar in Ship Config screen
  
• Added: mouse over compatible module previews energy usage in Ship Config screen
  
• Added: mouse over installed module previews energy freed in Ship Config screen
  
• Added: Apply button to Options menu
  
• Added: Bevel to officer slots in the fleet screen to make them easier to see
  
• Added: Shortcut to name configuration when save clicked in ship config screen
  
• Added: Sorting for officer ranks
  
• Added: Sexy AI voice for a number of tactical actions and abilities
  
• Added: Sound effects to Objectives UI
  
• Added: Railgun L and XL turrets animations
  
• Added: Tooltips for minimap buttons
  
• Added: Tooltips for filter buttons on ship/fleet config screens
  
• Added: other keypress shortcuts to the tooltips
  
• Added: PlayerShipDB upgrade system helping prevent DB wipes (wipe required #eyeroll)
  
• Added: Asteroids scanning objective to scout map
  
• Added: Objectives tracker shown when battlegrid is up
  
• Added: Collapsable objectives (click on the title to expand/collapse them)
  
• Added: Minimap objective icon for furniture
  
• Added: 3D Objectives tracking icon (mouse over objective tracker or click icon next to objective title)
  
• Added: Targetbox for selected furniture (unused)
  
• Added: Scan completion status to sector furniture (fly close to furniture and use 'Deep Scan' ability to scan it)
  
• Added: Sharing of sector furniture scans between allied forces (gonna be so cool in multiplayer!)
  
• Added: Tooltips for sector furniture icons on minimap (shows information like scan progress, status effects and yeild)
  
• Added: 'Surprised' status on target ship if attacking ship is not visible (20 second penalty, no jump, no weapons)
  
• Added: Range delimiting spheres now on by default in move mode to aid depth perception
  
• Added: Ability tooltips autoupdate themselves on mouseover
  
• Added: Blue range delimiting sphere for support abilities
  
• Added: Mouseover ability icon with range based effect will temporarily show Blue range
  
• Added: 'Deep Scan' ability for all ships (30 seconds scanning of furniture, 90 second recharge, stacks with scan sector)
  
• Added: 'Scan Sector' ability for all scanner modules (10 seconds double range, 240 second recharge)
  
  
• Fixed: Emblem socket disappearing when double clicking to remove emblem in Fleet Config screen
  
• Fixed: Issue with fleet icon showing as selected when Corvette docked
  
• Fixed: Pause time button mapping fixed in tactical
  
• Fixed: All UI sounds now controllable in options
  
• Fixed: Corvette wings that have been docked can now be launched again
  
• Fixed: Issue with turrets and fixed weapons despawning leaving invalid references
  
• Fixed: Issue with storing valid support module references in PlayerShipDB
  
• Fixed: Issue with ships still moving when reached target position
  
• Fixed: When you switch between saved designs, the module sfx is played 2 times.
  
• Fixed: Feedback when hovering over ability button
  
• Fixed: Hold fire button in tactical
  
• Fixed: Refactoring of core game controller
  
• Fixed: Intermittant crash involving tooltips at start-up
  
• Fixed: Intermittant crash involving having lots of configured ships in PlayerShipDB
  
• Fixed: Intermittant crash entering Ship config screen from fleet config
  
• Fixed: Changed UI to scale by screen height instead of screen width (should help with multiple displays and non-standard aspect ratios)delimiting sphere if battlegrid is shown.
  
• Fixed: Incorrect range shown on minimap if scanner support module fitted
  
• Fixed: Scaling issues with range circles on minimap
  
• Fixed: Appearance of ability buttons in tactical
  
• Fixed: Context issue with ability buttons
  
• Fixed: Issue with negative values in ship SP/HP stats
  
• Fixed: Issue with shields recharging due to timer class rewrite
  
• Fixed: Rare crash reported with flashing fleet icon
  
• Fixed: Oversized turret socket on Heavy Corvette
  
• Fixed: Reports of game controllers locking the camera in movement (needs testing)
  
• Fixed: Corrected pivots for buttons in Ship Config screen (it's a UI scaling thing)
  
• Fixed: icons being dragged over are ignored in the Ship and Fleet Config screens
  
• Fixed: predictive energy calculation for module icons being dragged onto already installed modules now correctly take into account removal of installed module.
  
• Fixed: Rare crash in Ship Config screen when configured player ship stats are compared with unconfigured hull stats
  
• Fixed: Delete button now correctly enabled in Ship Config screen when configured player ship is selected.
  
  
• Update: Changed formatting of Tooltips and tweaked descriptions
  
• Update: Removed support and weapon platforms filter icons from fleet config (mistake)
  
• Update: to options menu; moved close button to opposite side, apply button locked when changes to config made
  
• Update: Matar base MP rating increased from 210MP to 320MP
  
• Update: Sped up Corvette docking proceedure
  
• Update: Removed Brightness and Contrast bars (placeholders removed to avoid confusion, colour correction on todo list)
  

There are 8 human factions in the Shallow Space universe:

• The 3 core empire factions with overall control of the majority of humanity.
  
• The 3 mighty corporations, nipping at the emperors heels for dominance
  
• The 2 subversive authorities living outside of the core worlds of Shallow Space in the fringe colonies nibbling at the edges of the Imperium.

Some of the factions are further split into subordinate authorities or companies, some with Elite units and/or special abilities. Find out about the next revealed corporate faction 'Incorporated' over on the blog...

"[Abbreviated: ICN] INC runs the Corporate Staryards (CSY), the largest ship building facility in Shallow Space. CSY leads the field in artificial intelligence, negative space research and combat computing. Their modular design philosophy allows quick production and turn around between their various designs however this necessitates"

Click on the image for more shots of the INC Armstrong modular cruiser front heavy, centre and rear heavy modules.

There are 8 human factions in the Shallow Space universe:

• The 3 core empire factions with overall control of the majority of humanity.
  
• The 3 mighty corporations, nipping at the emperors heels for dominance
  
• The 2 subversive authorities living outside of the core worlds of Shallow Space in the fringe colonies nibbling at the edges of the Imperium.

Some of the factions are further split into subordinate authorities or companies, some with Elite units and/or special abilities. Find out about the next revealed corporate faction 'Incorporated' over on the blog...

"[Abbreviated: ICN] INC runs the Corporate Staryards (CSY), the largest ship building facility in Shallow Space. CSY leads the field in artificial intelligence, negative space research and combat computing. Their modular design philosophy allows quick production and turn around between their various designs however this necessitates"

Click on the image for more shots of the INC Armstrong modular cruiser front heavy, centre and rear heavy modules.

That day is finally here folks! But we haven't used it as an excuse to let progress slip, we have a lot of work to do. We bounce straight into the arena with UPDATE 3 which adds a sprinkling of new features most notably the ability to customize your ships appearance.

"The major feature added in this update is the ability for the player to skin their ships in many different ways. You can choose primary and secondary colours and even the texture of the material. The themes are applied to ship configurations themselves, so you could have scout ship configurations coloured differently to attack ships."

Head over to the website and see what else is new!



Also we get a helping hand from the General Manager of another popular project 'StarMade' who is currently hard at work skinning the forums and will soon be helping with support and growing the community for Shallow Space. Lets have a round of applause for DukeofRealms!

Did you check out the game forums yet? Go and take a look!



So this current version is merely a preview of what is to come. The game will expand massively in both scope and content as we head towards final release. We intend to update frequently and will be adding serious amounts of content over the coming months.

As we hope you will see, what we have here is a very solid foundation, a good amount of the core mechanics are present and the ways to interact with them are quite refined. It's a platform on which we will now keep building and iterating on.

I want to express a huge thanks from the guys at Special Circumstances, we really appreciate your interest and support and we hope you will enjoy playing Shallow Space as it develops!

That day is finally here folks! But we haven't used it as an excuse to let progress slip, we have a lot of work to do. We bounce straight into the arena with UPDATE 3 which adds a sprinkling of new features most notably the ability to customize your ships appearance.

"The major feature added in this update is the ability for the player to skin their ships in many different ways. You can choose primary and secondary colours and even the texture of the material. The themes are applied to ship configurations themselves, so you could have scout ship configurations coloured differently to attack ships."

Head over to the website and see what else is new!



Also we get a helping hand from the General Manager of another popular project 'StarMade' who is currently hard at work skinning the forums and will soon be helping with support and growing the community for Shallow Space. Lets have a round of applause for DukeofRealms!

Did you check out the game forums yet? Go and take a look!



So this current version is merely a preview of what is to come. The game will expand massively in both scope and content as we head towards final release. We intend to update frequently and will be adding serious amounts of content over the coming months.

As we hope you will see, what we have here is a very solid foundation, a good amount of the core mechanics are present and the ways to interact with them are quite refined. It's a platform on which we will now keep building and iterating on.

I want to express a huge thanks from the guys at Special Circumstances, we really appreciate your interest and support and we hope you will enjoy playing Shallow Space as it develops!