With the launch of the Command the Colossal update imminent, here's some answers to common questions we anticipate regarding Dreadnought's upcoming maintenance and release.



> Why is my Dreadnought launcher black/not working?
The non-Steam version of Dreadnought will no longer be usable once the game comes to Steam. Players with the "old" version of the launcher from our time in Beta will need to delete the game and download the Steam version once Dreadnought is available.

> Will I be able to play Dreadnought without a Steam account once the Command The Colossal update is live?
No. Once Dreadnought is released on Steam, PC players will be unable to play without a connected Steam account. PS4 players do not need a Steam account to continue enjoying Dreadnought.

> Do I need to download the game all over again when it comes out on Steam?
Yes you will. Many of our back-end services and tools have been updated in such a way that the previous version of Dreadnought is incompatible with these improvements. By being on Steam however, we are able to greatly reduces the initial download file of the game and increase the download speed of updates!

> Why are you taking the game down for multiple days?
In order to provide the best possible experience for our players, and to bring both the PC and PS4 platforms to feature parity, we are deploying new back-end systems and tools. In order to transition to this new and improved environment, Dreadnought servers will be offline for multiple days prior to the release of the Command The Colossal update. For the most up-to-date info on how this extended maintenance is progressing, follow us on Twitter or check our forums!

> What happens to my elite status time when the game is down?
We will be re-granting elite status time equal to the number of days we are offline a few days after Dreadnought servers come back online. We expect some launch day jitters and may experience minor service instability during the first few days. Once all services appear stable, all players who have logged in to Dreadnought during the two months prior to launch will get a special "thank you" reward of 7-Days Elite Status time. This 7 Days is on top of any lost Elite Status time re-granted as a result of our extended maintenance.


> My Facebook log-in credentials don't work anymore!
Facebook log-in integration is no longer present in Dreadnought. Don't worry, your account is safe! You can reset your password here using the email address associated with your Facebook account. After that you will be able to log into your Dreadnought account using that new password. If you have any issues with this or need assistance, reach out to our Customer Support team for help!

> How do I link my existing Dreadnought account?
If you played the PC version of Dreadnought BEFORE its release on Steam, simply install the Steam client and download Dreadnought here, once the game is available. Launch the game through Steam and log in using your same Grey Box account info on the 'LINK EXISTING ACCOUNT' half of the new Dreadnought launcher. That's it! Any time you launch the game again your Grey Box account will be already signed in and linked to the Steam account you were signed into at the time.

You can unlink your Steam account from your Grey Box account at any time by visiting this Account Settings page.

>I created a new account on Steam and tried logging in to http://greybox.com/ but don't know my password!
New users who filled out the 'CREATE NEW ACCOUNT' section of the Dreadnought Steam launcher are given a temporary Grey Box password. You can reset this here by entering the email address you input when first launching Dreadnought on Steam. If you have any issues with this or need assistance, our Customer Support team is standing by to help!

> I got a code from a streamer/giveaway/pack-in. How to redeem it?
Codes that are "five five five" (XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX) are redeemed on Steam. From the Steam client select the 'Games' top menu dropdown and choose 'Activate A Product On Steam.' Then enter your code!

Codes granted via older promotions or from Dreadnought's time in Beta (typically in a XXXX-XXXX-XX format) are still redeemed on your account management page.


> Why is there no Steam achievements or Steam friends visible in-game?
More robust integration with Steam services should come with a future update. Our focus was on getting the game in the best possible state to launch a polished game.

Dreadnought will support Steam trading cards, emotes, and badges at launch, however, so go out and collect 'em all!

> Is the game still in beta or in early access on Steam?
Neither! With the move to Steam, Dreadnought is officially released. We will share more info on the exciting game updates we have planned once we have crossed this milestone.

>Now that Dreadnought is out of beta on PC, will I get my Founder's Pack elite status?

Elite Status as part of owning a PC Founder's Pack will be granted a few days after launch at the same time as the thank you rewards for our extended maintenance time. We want to avoid any issues associated with launch day preventing you from enjoying your time.

If we didn't answer your question, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter, PM a Community Manager on Discord, or ![/quote]

By blending science with the unknown power of a past foe, Oberon hopes to lead humanity over the bleeding edge.

For Oberon the manufacturing process is more creative than technical - more mystical than scientific - sparking ingenuity that leads to truly wondrous spacecrafts. The inspiration of their design originates from reverse engineering acquired Transhuman technology, establishing an otherworldly appearance. The form of the ships is fluid and resembles creatures and plants from Earth’s environment, similar to oceanic animals, insects and other chitinous creatures. Combining the form with the unusual metal like shell material of the ships creates the ethereal design of the Transhumans technology.

As this manufacturer delved into more research of the Transhuman tech, they became mesmerized by the sheer magnitude of complication discovered. Although their understanding of the tech is minimal, they are able to create some of the most compelling spacecrafts in the Solar System. The tech is a mixture of Transhuman technology and 21st-century contemporary design and these innovations are driven by a mixture of faith from before and fear during the Great Solar War.



The pilot house is the nexus of the ship - the nucleus of activity and command. It is where the captain, navigation crew and essential command personnel navigate and strategize during battle. The pilot house is located at the center of the lateral axis of Oberon vessels, allowing those inside a commanding view of their surroundings. The windows mimic the curved forms of the ship and have an ocean blue tint to emphasize the intellect that is pursued to fabricate these ships. Large windows present throughout the designs of other manufacturers, are wholly absent from Oberon’s schematics. Instead, these ships utilize advanced scanning technology in place of visual reference when in combat to avoid any human error. There are small vessel windows throughout the pilot house, but more for aesthetic purposes than purely function.



In keeping with the stylistic design of Oberon, the weapons show the innovation and tactical advantage of technological advancement. A good example is the Missile Repeater Transhuman tech located on most front-line ships. The Missile Repeater targeting computer fires medium-range fragmenting missiles at the selected enemy, but will seek new foes nearby if the original is destroyed. This advanced homing algorithm ensures no ordinance is wasted. Although such tech remains largely outside of humanity’s grasp, Oberon’s employees do their best to incorporate whatever knowledge they can glean from the lost Transhumans into their designs.



Oberon panel lines follow the contours of the ship and break up the shell to create functional segments of the ship. Some of the panels fold back to reveal weapons and others provide structural protection for battling the Transhumans when they inevitably return to reclaim their technology. Additional needed accessories for the ship include, intakes, small esoteric panel lines, mechanical punch-ins, vent slits, emissives, windows, or small blister nodes.The inner skeleton is more densely detailed than the outer shell, giving a sophisticated and commercial feel.



The thrusters on an Oberon ship resemble the the arms or web of the elegant cuttlefish and open and close to optimize the power needed, the way a squid would to control their movement through the water. The ship is littered in smaller thrusters, which give off an unnatural green hue due to their advanced grav dampeners and have a V or Y-shape to maintain stability. The technological advancement of these thrusters produce a ship that has the upper hand in maneuverability over more clumsy opponents. The green color of their emissions has been embraced by Oberon as company symbols of nature and new development.



Oberon accommodates for anyone who wants their ships but they heavily lend their designs to the Enyo nation. There the manufacturer enjoys a fair amount of latitude in acquiring, studying, and experimenting with Transhuman artifacts accumulated after the Great Solar War.

The Enyoans believe that holding a position of power is taking on a sacred trust. To them, leadership is a matter of faith - whether that leadership is governmental, military, or spiritual. Equally repelled by Federal Earth’s inequities and Troja’s might-makes-right attitude, Enyoans are determined to foster a culture of transparency, moral accountability, and spiritual enlightenment. While the adaptations of the Transhuman tech may be undesirable to the other nations, outlaws of the elusive Scum Belt couldn’t care less and are glad to have such advanced technology at their fingertips.

Only through reverse-engineering the technology of Transhumans can the human race gain the knowledge needed combat this otherworldly threat should it return.

Brutish, primal, and unsophisticated - but far from weak. These are the ships of Akula Vektor.

Welcome Comra...uh...Captains!

Pundits have decried the ships of Akula Vektor as brutish, primal, and unsophisticated - but never weak. As their hulking appearance suggests, their key characteristic is durability, a priority that can be traced back long before the Great Solar War. At the time, Akula Vektor was still two separate Earth-based companies, defense manufacturer Akula and civil contractor Vektor, whose collaboration helped to save the human race from extinction. History has proven that endurance is the key to overcoming disaster, according to Akula Vektor. Thus, to this day, its ships are designed to withstand extraordinary amounts of damage.

Its long term goal is to create an indestructible battleship. They are strict realists and their culture is serious, hard-boiled and no-nonsense. Akula Vektor ship launches are disciplined, joyless affairs where the ship is unceremoniously launched into space and the workers celebrate without getting sentimental – they get blind drunk on straight vodka and once they regain consciousness, quickly get back to work.

Akula ships are bulky and rounded. Their armor is manufactured in big chunks, connected without the use of any visible rivets or bolts. The composite armor material is usually in good condition as Akula uses “Nano Armor Technology” taking care of constant repairs. Their thrusters burn with intense red, reminiscent of a forge.


Unlike Jupiter Arms’ designs that aimed for fast serialized production during the war, Akula Vektor’s hull design philosophy sacrifices standardized armor plates for more durable individually engineered plates for each model. It might take longer to make an Akula Vektor ship but every minute of production time translates to an extended lifespan of their crew.



Akula Vektor panel lines are fairly non-uniform. Depending on the area in question, some lines will be curved while others will be straight. These lines help to break up large masses of the ship and provide a better distribution of kinetic impact force, hence providing the famed durability of these ships.



Although Akula Vektor ships are reliable and durable during a fight, proper maintenance is key to keep the ships’ systems in a fighting shape at all times. During construction, Akula Vektor paints different information crucial to maintenance crews directly on their hulls. We find warning labels, informational stencils, hazard stripes, squadron livery, trim lines, designation (theater, group, and squadron), fuel placards, serial numbers, design accents, kill tallies and more painted or embossed onto the armor plates. Many of these call back to the Soviet nations of Old Earth using the Cyrillic alphabet.


Akula Vektor's bridge locations are unique among manufacturers. Unlike Jupiter Arms or Oberon, Akula Vektor's bridges can be seated nearly anywhere on the ship itself. Akula Vektor captains generally prefer to rely on the readings of their instruments, scanners, LIDARs and sensors. This array provides a captain with more information about battle developments as opposed to looking out of the window and allows the manufacturer to experiment with different locations, shapes and general designs for the bridges.




Akula Vektor follows the same design philosophies for their modules and weapons as they do for their overall ships. The same materials that make up the hull plating of a ship are also used to create the module housings. This makes the modules very durable and able to resist even direct weapons fire. What could be worse than a crucial module experiencing a damage related malfunction in the heat of battle?




The diamond shaped engines of Akula Vektor ships are something to behold. The workers in their wharfs tell each other that every time one of these engines lights up, the fires in the forges burn a little brighter. While the Akula Vektor personnel usually is not prone to sentimentalities, some individuals will tell you (usually after an impressive amount of Vodka) that the engines are fueled by the fire in their hearts.



When the engines are activated to increase the maximum speed, the outer flaps open outward, like a flower, and the central engine block thrusts outward.

When they are inactive, the thrusters on Akula Vektor ships are non-emissive and blend right into the hull. This makes them a harder target to aim for and will ensure that their ships stay mobile even after the most fierce battle. These inset nozzles are usually found individually spread across the hull or in pairs, depending on the size of the ship and the desired agility of the model.




Akula Vektor used three different lighting systems on their ships with distinct functions. The most common ones are the general lights that are used in crewed sections of the ship such as hallways, common areas or crew bunks. The color orange has been picked for these lights. Psychological research has shown that crews working in an orange environment display a generally higher energy level and more alertness. Orange calls to feelings of excitement, enthusiasm, and warmth - emotions Akula Vektor deems beneficial for a battleship crew.



Warning lights on the outer hull are red and emit a blinking light. They are often found at the tips of antennae or as position markers on the edges of large sections of the ship.

Last but not least, Akula Vektor ships are equipped with several spotlights that illuminate the hull. These are warm white or bone colored. They often are used to highlight decals, emblems, or important features. Likewise, these spotlights are used to illuminate areas of the ship which the crew might interface with, such as a landing platform or an observation deck.



While the durable ships from Akula Vector’s wharfs are popular with all captain types all across the solar system, their values and philosophies are deeply rooted in the society of Federal Earth. Defending the cradle of human civilization has always been one of their highest goals, which they did achieve during the Great Solar War. After centuries of turmoil, Earth has made great efforts in wildlife and nature conservation. This ideal of protecting life at all cost is reflected in the sturdiness of the ships of Earth’s most successful manufacturer - Akula Vektor.

Peer into the decisions behind crafting this fearsome manufacturer.

When it comes to manufacturing engines of supreme destruction, no one hits harder than Jupiter Arms. The inspiration for their ship design harkens back to Earth military weaponry from the height of the 21st Century, emphasizing angularity and edged with very dramatic hard lines. These elements create an intensely assertive-looking weapon, similar to the classic F-117 aircraft and many other US military vehicles from the time. Jupiter Arms ships are often very symmetrical with a bulky frame to emphasize the harsh and authoritative stance of the manufacturer’s values. The design is forceful and dominant, striking fear into the enemy.



The pilot house holds the captain bridge and essential navigation personnel. The design for Jupiter Arms pilot house is always positioned on the center of the lateral axis to enhance the control and power exerted over the battlefield. From this vantage point, captains get the clear view necessary to make split-second decisions in combat. Larger ships will generally have two pilot houses, allowing for even more situational awareness. The windows on the pilot house emit a warm yellow glow when in a darkened environment which creates the feeling of an industrial plant back on Earth. Jupiter Arms windows are somewhat mirror-like and onlookers can make out small details behind the glass, giving the appearance of a control room. These pilot windows are separated by angular guards that have a hard, beveled form to further emphasize the superiority of Jupiter Arms space crafts.



To stay in line with this superiority of craftsmanship, the weapons maintain the same general form and materials as the rest of the ship while still looking and feeling like a classic ballistic weapon. A great example is the Scattergun Broadside, one of the most formidable weapons Jupiter Arms developed. The Scatterguns are located symmetrically on either side of the ship and fires a short-range volley at a targeted enemy. Jupiter Arms ships tend to lean towards aggressive tactics in battle. Their forward-built weaponry is designed to assist with their brutal strategies of war, focusing on dishing out damage rather than withstanding it. Even the supporting Tactical Cruiser line of vessels are dangerous. Lacking the nano-repair technology acquired by the other manufacturers, they tend to prioritize damage and offensive maneuvers over supporting other ships defensively. Jupiter Arms takes each weapon on their armada and innovates it to ensure they are adaptive on the battlefield, hitting harder than any who dare stand against these fierce warriors.



In manufacturing, most Jupiter Arms ships have large panels of metal that are broken into smaller sections with panel lines. Long panel lines are interrupted with “sawtooth” triangular patterns similar to the faceted panels on stealth crafts. The triangular shape of the panels are usually 45 degree and 90 degree angles, standard construction angles that allowed for quick fabrication during the Great Solar War. Unlike other manufacturers, Jupiter Arms openly display their intakes, hatches, punch-ins, vent slits, windows, and sensor arrays - a very “common sense” approach that prefers function to form. The exposed interior is more densely detailed than the outer shell, contains pipes, conductive metal components, windows, vent slits, crew hatches, and support struts, and give the crew inside a more industrial yet human feel.



Jupiter Arms engines open when activated - the outer flaps blossom outward, like a flower, and the inner ring is thrust further into its housing. The engines are mechanical and circular in form, glowing blue. When active, engines fire a plume of blue flame. The blue color represents solidarity, trust and respect, something the manufacturer strives for in their company mission.

When it comes to Corvettes, the manufacturer focuses more on maneuverability and stealth. These ships are not designed to sustain heavy damage, wanting their ships to function more for adaptability when combating the Transhumans. The CEO felt that reverse-engineering transhuman technology was unnecessary and a better technique to destroy them was to be prepared for change. The sleek Corvette design reflects this bold confidence for the future.



Jupiter Arms caters their designs to any nation’s needs but heavily leans towards Troja’s aesthetics and principles. These Trojans are similarly fearless, self-reliant, and often blunty aggressive in battle. They aspire to the classical warrior ideals and believe in winning at nearly any cost, caring nothing for any factors that are irrelevant in battle. Troja’s military adherence to ranks and regulations is at the core of its animosity for the Scum Belt’s outlaws, who are led by Bix Duquette, formerly hailed as the nation’s greatest hero.

Jupiter Arms offers everything needed to secure victory:
human ingenuity, strength, and determination.

Last time we spoke, it was about things we were getting done for our next major game release. The team’s work this month has been mostly on executing that same plan. Here’s some of the decisions we have been making and things we have been working on as we continue along the road to Steam!

We have been analyzing data throughout the beta and have determined that changes to market pricings need to happen prior to going wide on Steam. We’ll have more to say about this closer to launch, and rest assured, we have always been about making the game fun first. There aren’t going to be any increases in price or time-to-unlock, we are looking at some reduction in a few areas but we don't know to what just yet. The data we see indicates we should make some changes, for example, to the way bundles are sold or to how individual decals are priced. Our goal is always to give players the best “bang for their buck”. That all may sound a little vague right now and I’m sure some players have very particular questions about the market, we’ll make sure we are open with our plans so everyone knows what’s going on. Right now, we are entertaining a couple of different ideas and nothing is nailed down just yet.



Recently, I sat down with Nick Kay, art director, and The Beard to go through polish tasks we can get done in the time we have left to make sure the user interface is as intuitive as possible. The screens are all done, which is a huge milestone! Our focus now is on comfort; how many clicks it takes to do something or where there is some rougher UI interaction for the player. Where can we double-up on the functionality of a button to make it easier to navigate? Is the UI working as it should be? Everything right now is tweaking knobs and spit-shining the chrome. We have to both keep in mind our existing players who are used to particular interactions in Dreadnought now, but also for new players who have never touched the game before.

There’s a couple of UI interactions in the game right now are sort of “trial by error” to figure out like what’s in your secondary loadout is for each ship in your fleet or how many modules you have left to unlock to progress to the next tier. These elements are being adjusted to be more “in your face” as a player. Everything you would need to come back from a match, tweak your loadouts, and hop back in the queue is done intuitively and with little downtime. Our designers are pouring over this with a fine-toothed comb in prep for the next update.

As a matter of fact, our playtest earlier in the week was on two particular areas - Kinetic Weapon Amp reworks and certain re-balanced Officer Briefings. The whole company hopped on an internal build to make sure these changes felt right. The dev team will go through our internal feedback and start making tweaks. That really sums up the stage we are in right now in development. We have the content we want in for the next major release, no new features are being added, and our focus is now on ensuring the build is as polished as possible. Regular internal playtests are making sure we are delivering the quality we expect from an update as big and content-rich as what’s coming with Steam Launch.



Speaking of balance, our team invited a small group of our highest skilled players to discuss our balance plans for Dreadnought over the coming updates. We got feedback on the directions the game was heading and identified areas our plans weren’t addressing. Here’s a brief rundown of the topics we covered, so everyone has an understanding of what our balance team is focusing on in the immediate future. Please note that just because an item wasn’t discussed does not mean it’s not important.

Officer Briefings are getting a lot of tender love and care. Many of the stat boosts offered are being normalized and are no longer ship-class specific, which should make it easier to determine what an OB offers. As we talked about OBs more, there was some confusion on the less popular Briefings’ actual benefits compared to more popular ones; this leads to less competitively viable build options. We’ll be working to better explain the value each Officer Briefing has so you can make more-informed decisions.

Some folks suggested that we maybe over-nerfed Adrenaline Shot, and the 30% health threshold could be raised. The team will be continuing to make improvements to this and all Officer Briefings. There should be no clearly better loadout choice that towers over all others.

A lot of players agreed that the game needs more Scoring Events. We started heading down the right direction by adding Tanking Events in a previous update and rewarding Dreadnoughts for drawing enemy “aggro,” but there’s still more work to be done. We agree! In particular, we will be investigating adding Scoring Events for defensive plays; saving an ally with Anti-Nuke Lasers, applying status effects to enemies, or providing buffs to nearby friendlies.

Thank you everyone who participated in the round-table discussion. Many of the points raised mirror the feedback we are seeing on the Discord and forums, we appreciate the honest feedback, and look forward to another one once we launch!

On top of all of this, we have a daily triage meeting where reps from each team go through and identify issues with one goal: get the bug count down. No game has ever released with zero bugs (except maybe the original Pong), but we can make so the bugs present in-game are few and far between. Bugs are constantly being addressed and fixed in every update, and I am honestly blown away at the work our team is doing here.

Keep your radars open for more info as we launch in late Q3 this year!

Mike Donatelli
Game Director - Dreadnought




Here's what we have been up to on the community side this July. Be sure to follow us and stay up-to-date on everything Dreadnought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUHEU4iFaEg

In particular, we announced that we are shifting two features, Custom Games and PC Havoc Mode, to an update soon after Steam Launch. This gives our team more time to ensure a smooth transition to release.

We look forward to highlighting more about the awesome features coming to Dreadnought with Steam Launch and beyond in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!

Retrofits: a new way to customize your ships. Prepare to battle—and to look good doing it.

Hello again, folks.

As we near the Steam launch on PC and the code merge with PS4, we want to provide even more transparency with fun things that are in development. The next major element we want to share are Retrofits.

What are Retrofits?

In short, Retrofits give you the ability to change the geometry of your ship.

So, how is this different from a Hero Ship? Let’s compare:

• Are ships that can be directly put in your fleet
  
  
• Have lore behind them
  
  
• Have custom ship parts that are usable on any other ship of the same manufacturer and ship class (any tier)
  
  
• Have a unique figurehead (a second forecastle) that can be optionally used (most, but not all, Hero Ships have this)
  
  
• Are tier-specific, and allow you to try battling in a tier that you might not have reached through regular progression
  
  
• Have loadouts and appearances that can not be modified (however, these loadouts allow you to use modules and weapons you may not have earned yet through regular progression)
  
  
• Accelerate your progress. They give 10% bonus XP and credits. In addition, the XP earned is 70% convertible (able to be turned into free XP) and 30% free (able to be used on any ship straight away). This is a bonus that’s awarded even if your Hero Ship is just sitting idle in your fleet as you play other ships.

• Are a collection of custom ship parts that are usable on any other ship of the same manufacturer and ship class (any tier)
  
  
• Have none of the other benefits or limitations of Hero Ships
  
  
• Can be used with your favorite coatings, decals, emblems and patterns
  
  
• Are all about your style, your vision, and what you want your ship to be

Between these two types of content, tier-IV Hero Ships still provide the most value. However, Retrofits give you the most options for customizing your ships. You will eventually find Retrofits via the market window in the “bundles” section.

For example: here’s an early concept art mock-up for a Retrofit of an Oberon corvette (a Fulgora, Medusa or Mithras) we had internally codenamed “the Wasp” created by artist Ben Parker. You will see a number of different directions that could have been taken; however, the art team and art director picked a design based on variant D.



Going into the next phase of 3D concept art modelling, here’s a work-in-progress breakdown of what the individual parts look like when added to the base ship.



We called the resulting design the “Golden Legion,” which was actually the name of a progression 1.0 ship two years ago. We liked the name so much that we brought it back. When we put the Golden Legion into the game it will look something like this:





As we get closer to release, we’ll show you what our version looks like in-game and fully rendered. Of course, yours will likely look a little different. You’ll be able to make it dark and stealthy, or gaudy and loud (it’s your ship).

As with all ship parts within the “ship components” section of the loadout / appearance screen, you’ll be able to select Retrofit parts just as you would the bridge, hull, stern or forecastle of vessels in your fleet (Hero Ships and regular progression ships).



You’ll start to see more of the Golden Legion as well as other Retrofits soon. We expect to begin rolling out early, work-in-development versions in the coming weeks. We’re excited about this new type of ship customization, and we hope you are too.

Let us know what you think!

June's Monthly Upload show was jam-packed with awesome previews as we pried our UI/UX Manager Matt Giffels away from his desk long enough to show off the amazing new user interface coming to Dreadnought!

If you missed the livestream (first of all, follow twitch.tv/dreadnought so that doesn't happen again :P) here's the VOD!

https://youtu.be/jJIZg3NTHAg

And if that wasn't enough of a tease for what's coming soon to Dreadnought, Game Director Mike Donatelli published his State of the Game for May. In it, he talks about all of the hard work and effort the dev team is putting into our updates leading to Steam launch and beyond.

Read the full post below!


Hello again!

Here’s a (fairly extensive) breakdown on the past month to give a greater transparency into what we are accomplishing here month over month during our March To Steam and beyond.

One of the most talked about changes that players saw was us beginning to break the “heal ball” gameplay. We have been taking a look at data in combination with player feedback; data drives a lot of the decisions we make. The community is the canary in the coal mine, in a way. We want them to turn around and tell us what we should be focusing on, and we use data to confirm that feedback. There is still a lot of bigger changes coming to the Tactical Cruiser healing system, like how each manufacturer-class ship handles healing, the strength of the beam, what “reloading” could look like, etc. The heal ball fixes are probably some of the most forward facing issues players are seeing the results of now, with Adrenaline Shot being tweaked in the last build.

Adrenaline Shot was updated to only kick in at 30% health now instead of 100%. We’re getting feedback now that that may be too low. Especially for Tactical Cruisers, 30% is not a lot of health. We’re looking at the data of this change along with player feedback and will be making further adjustments.



Officer Briefings were updated this past month, again mostly based off player feedback giving us the tip off that some of these things need changing. This was only the first iteration, and you can expect more improvements in that area in the future. We have three designers dedicated to combat and balance completely, with Officer Briefings being a big part of their focus. There’s a lot of design space we can improve and add to with OBs that should give players meaningful gameplay decisions to make.

The design team worked to create an extensive lore background. We looked at the world of dreadnought and said “we have some lore. We have some background.” Enough to lay the foundation of the game, but we lacked deep-dives into that. Our resident “lore-ologist” Evelyn has been working with Behrens and Tobiason to come up with some really fascinating stuff. An entire timeline from where we are now in 2018 to where the game takes place hundreds of years in the future. From government politics, the “Transhuman Solar War”, and more. We really think lore-fans are gonna love it. Our plan is to release it piece-by-piece through out-of-game videos and opportunities, because there’s just so much to cover. The team was able to create a lot of amazing stories that provide context to the game and build on layers beyond just “shooting other ships”.

Most of this is taking place out of the game because the team working on Dreadnought is focusing on moment-to-moment gameplay and making that the tightest, most compelling experience possible. Our narrative department has a little more opportunity to explore what the world of Dreadnought is, right now, outside of the game. There’s a really unique aspect to Dreadnought they’re defining, which is that it takes place in our solar system. Like, not even just our galaxy, our solar system. A lot of other sci-fi has you hopping all over the place and is just insane! This is a story, or anthology of stories, that take place in our little corner of the universe. And it’s still just a massive amount of space out there. And knowing that, knowing those were the parameters, the game dev team can run with all sorts of interesting narratives. But looking to the future, we are going to be folding more story into the game content. The story our narrative team has built this past month will be the foundation upon which we build all of the story beats in Dreadnought.



As we mentioned at the top of the month, we are updating the entire UI and UX to make it easier to navigate through our game. The entire dev team, management, everyone in the studio has been doing these UI/UX playtests weekly to give feedback and make sure everything is working properly, so we can give the UI over to you all, the players, and continue getting feedback and making adjustments and improvements when this goes live in 1.13 early July.

To that same point, we got 8v8 up and running on our internal PS4 servers! Our team is testing it out for balance and stability, and the results are really positive. One of our primary goals, as we have said, is PC and PS4 parity. You saw a lot of it in 1.12 and PS4 getting all of those bug fixes and changes shortly after. We’re playing now with four-man squads on PS4 and with 4-man Havoc, expect that in an update soon. With Steam release, our goal is to have the same game update out on both platforms on the same day. Future updates from there on out will be no more than two weeks behind one another. We don’t have cross-play yet, but who knows…



Speaking of squads, we know that some players have been asking about eight-man squads, instead of four-man. Eight-man squads are tricky for us, because right now it throws our matchmaker out of wack. Dreadnought was just 3-man squads in early beta, but that got weird with two groups of three and one group of two; you gotta have the right number of friends online and if you have too many you all can’t play together. So we bumped it up to four. Now, we are finding we need to continue making tweaks to matchmaking to take into account these team sizes. At present it looks at whether you are in a squad or not, but not necessarily how big that squad is. We want to improve the matchmaker to look at squad sizes and pair them *against* squads of similar size before throwing a bunch of randoms in.

We’re aware that matchmaking isn’t really pulling its weight as well as it could. Matchmaking is this thing that is a necessary evil, in a way. We have to match players together with a similar level of experience. But we also have to make sure that these players that are incredibly skilled at the game get to play. To some degree the matching pools at Legendary are what they are. There is only so much we can do at the top level of play and you’re getting into the game with the 16 people that are queued at the same time you did.

There is work being done now to coincide with Steam to make this a smoother experience. We’re also looking at a lot of architectural and engineering work to be done after Steam launch. Matchmaking is something you have to work on all the time. There will never be a point where we say “we’re done! Matchmaking is fixed!” and there are always improvements we will be working on to fine-tune the algorithm. We do understand what the issues are and what player feedback says about how players are being matched currently. We have, right now, deliberately kept our queues at the same rate to ensure we continue getting player data and feedback, through bots hopping in empty slots or the search parameters sometimes widening more than would be completely ideal. We have temporarily stopped paid media advertising to get new players into the game, our natural, organic traffic is at a positive, steady rate we are happy with for where we are. All of that changes Q3 of this year, as we set those advertising faucets to full blast and tons of new players will be joining. We believe the matchmaking will be pulling together players of more similar prowess at this time, and that is when we are really going to be making meaningful improvements to the matchmaker.



We’ve also retooled some of the new player experience based off this same data. Sheltered Matchmaking, which was originally introduced to give new players a safer experience that kept them away from the hardcore veteran players, was previously 10 matches. We’ve found that to be a bit overkill, and have since scaled this back to 5 matches. We’ve done the same with Proving Grounds matches, reducing them from three to one. Data shows that players have a solid understanding of game mechanics by this point and can “take off the training wheels” so to speak. Keeping new players in these games for too long and they start getting weary of it. Overbalance, and then pare it back. That’s our plan.

You’ve probably already heard some of the new sound effects in-game now. Our team is continuing that, and more and more updated, amazing sounds making their way into Dreadnought in coming updates. We’ve also built this ridiculous Adaptive Music System that takes into account your playstyles and gameplay. As the action rises, the bass gets louder and the drums get faster. Then you finish your strafing run and maybe things kind of calm down. It’s really your own personal soundtrack! We’re testing this now, hearing it in our playtests and making tweaks. That’ll be almost a complete reboot of all the music in the game when it comes out.

Art-wise, we have a new system for making assets that allow us to make fantastic new things like holographic, projected decals and animated forecastles. Ships are gonna get a lot sexier. All of VFX are getting polished across the board. We are going through all of our assets and making sure everything is optimized and looking great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPsmqfPFLnY


We also ran our first XP event, granting Bonus XP to everyone on both platforms over Memorial Day weekend. There was some behind the scenes work that had to be pulled off to make that happen, and we are working on a system to make those events easier to do in the future. We want to get rid of the downtime needed when doing events like this. Being able to toggle these events on and off is our goal, and our engineers are making awesome strides towards this goal.

The engineers have also brought to bear something internally we are calling “Blue/Green Deploy,” and we’ve actually been taking this system for a spin during some of our recent maintenances and the results are impressive! The way it works is we sort of have two environments, Blue and Green, live and can swap between the two. So players are playing on Blue while are testing on Green. Then, once everything looks up to snuff, we flip it and now players are downloading and playing Green. Downtimes are minimal, maybe 30 minutes at most, which we are really happy with. There will always be some other updates we have to do, server stuff and back-end platform improvements, that make these downtimes longer. But if it’s just promoting a game update it’s super quick! Our engineering team has done a fantastic job of making these downtimes as little as possible.

Our Business Intelligence team completely replaced the analytic pipeline. It’s not terribly sexy, but we have better access to gameplay data and analytics to make even more decisions about gameplay balance, costs, progression speed, etc. Battle data in particular we are bursting at the seams with! All of those things that, just by tweaking a few knobs based on your feedback and our data, make Dreadnought a fun time.

Lastly, and probably the most exciting thing is, PC and PS4 has been significantly optimized in this past month. Looking at Dreadnought a few months ago, some of the performance was a little dodgy or chunky. The technical artists have retooled nearly all of the lights in the game, particularly in the hangar, to make those effects cheaper and easier to render. Draw distances have been improved, maps have been optimized, ships have been rebuilt and retextured, all without sacrificing quality. Performance across the board has just skyrocketed. The playability of certain maps has really improved, too. This kinda means our “min spec” is truly a minimum spec, meaning more players of various hardwares can still have a really solid experience in-game. On PS4, 8v8 becomes a lot easier to accomplish. Now, I don’t want to promise anything, but looking at the overhead we’ve been able to carve out with these optimizations it wouldn’t be impossible to do something like quadrupling team sizes even. What’s so awesome about this is the additional memory and performance room gives our design team a lot more tools to play with, and now they get to explore things like more complex maps, more dynamic or involved objectives, things like that. We can think outside the box and still keep a high level of quality.



Our art team, our design team, our balance team, all of us have been crushing bugs this month. We know that coming out on Steam is a huge deal and the team is focused on polishing the Dreadnought experience for both PC and PS4. Hundreds and hundreds of bugs, bug and small, are being investigated, triaged, and fixed by the whole team. It’s a massive undertaking, and I want to give a huge shout out to the team for working around the clock to get us ready.

Outside of the game, we have a small team of artists working on a swag store so people will be able to rep their favorite manufacturer or ship. I wanted to take all of our awesome artwork and wear it! So we went to the higher-ups and said, “Make me shirts I can wear that have sick Dreadnoughts on them!” Expect this to come out soon, mostly because I want to have an crazy, giant Akula Vektor on my chest when walking around town ;)

Mike Donatelli
Game Director - Dreadnought

1.12.1 introduces bug fixes and balances changes based on community feedback!

Interested in getting a jump-start on Steam launch? Join us this weekend 5/24 - 5/29 for our Bonus XP event! Play in any game mode to earn additional Ship XP and Free XP. Even better, all your Battle Bonus and Elite Status bonuses will benefit from this boost too!

Download for free now at http://www.dreadnought.com!

• Reduced the time it takes players to transition from "Match Starting" to the Orbit screen
  
• Improved the descriptions of many Hero Ship part names to help differentiate them from one another when editing your loadout
  
• Improved localization for French, German, Latin American Spanish, and Polish throughout
  
• Improved "In-Range" and "Ready" animations for Razer CHROMA compatible peripherals
  
• Updated grammar in the Tutorial
  
• Updated a number of market item descriptions

• Adrenaline Shot now triggers when healing/being healed while below 30% health
  
• Introduced a one second global cooldown between switching to primary then secondary weapons and back. Switching weapons happens instantly, this cooldown prevents switching back instantly
  
• Greatly increased the forward thrust on Evasive Maneuver V when compared to Evasive Maneuver IV
  
• Fixed an issue that was allowing two AI of the same name to spawn in Conquest mode
  
• Surge Drones should no longer target a full-energy ship when there is a ship with missing energy in range
  
• Tractor Beam Pods should now trigger consistently when an enemy is in range or leaves and comes back within range
  
• Edited the AI's Tier-II Corvette loadout to no longer include Plasma Turrets IV
  
• Machias primary weapon Dual Heavy Autocannons III now does 105 damage per projectile, up from 85
  
• Updated Light Flechette line of modules to appropriately display as "in-range" when 4,000m away from your target
  
• Resolved an issue that was causing the Command Ship to get stuck on Elysium
  
• Tesla Pods now consider shielded enemies valid targets
  
• Akula Vektor (Heavy) Tactical Cruiser's healing beam weapon no longer stops enemy ship regeneration

• Resolved a scoring error that prevented the XP Bonus for having a 'Fully Researched' ship to be applied for all scoring events

• Improved stability when in the Orbit screen
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing legacy players from logging in *Please ensure you are using the latest launcher*
  
• Resolved a crash that would occur when exiting the Hangar
  
• Resolved a crash that would occur when transitioning to the End of Match screen

• Updated multiple module VFX and audio including new visuals for Mines and Bomb Catapult
  
• Fixed the Phoenix hero ship's Stern vanity from clipping into thrusters/stabilizers
  
• Improved the Leviathan hero ship's Bridge to properly accept Coatings
  
• Improved the scaffolding on Rings of Saturn to prevent Corvettes from getting stuck
  
• Light sources have been added to Rings of Saturn for various map decoration lighting
  
• Improved the "Lagos - Argon Construction" logo on Kappa Base to appear at all view distances
  
• Improved rock textures on Red Sands to appear consistent at all view distances
  
• Added animations to the Beam Amplifier V and Stasis Beam V modules
  
• Improved clashing geometry in Ixion
  
• Improved Figher and Assault Ship animations to prevent "hitching" at certain view distances
  
• Updated the contrails VFX of missiles to appropriately follow missile trajectory
  
• Improved lighting on Elysium to no longer display artifacting
  
• Updated portions of Amirani map geometry to remain fully visible when playing at a low level of detail
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing torpedoes and missiles to sometimes remain stuck on enemy ships after making contact
  
• Updated camera shake on the Flechette Missiles and Plasma Broadsides modules to reflect the active duration and number of projectiles actually fired

Last week, our Streaming Relations Specialist Kyle sat down with Chief Operating Officer Christian to go over all the juicy details about our road to Steam Launch.

They showed off the brand-new UI coming to Dreadnought in our next milestone update, the sleek features you can expect to come online soon, and our plans for bringing players Custom Matches and the brand-new Havoc mode. If you're looking for more reasons to be excited about Dreadnought coming to Steam, we've gotcha covered!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1URCcLBomgo&t=5s
For everyone currently playing Dreadnought in our Open Beta, this month's Community Challenges are live! If everyone can band together and log 7,500 hours flying Dreadnought-class ships we'll reward the whole player base with a sweet 4,000 Credits.



This month's challenges also feature an exclusive decal that evolves as you participate in community events! So hop in-game now and earn this unique symbol of your dedication!

Currently running in open beta, Dreadnought is not yet integrated with Steam for account management and transactions. Our development team is hard at work modifying Dreadnought’s platform to integrate with Steam’s account management systems, log-in mechanisms, and their proprietary in-game storefront solutions. By the time Dreadnought is ready for Steam, PC players will log into Steam, play Dreadnought, and make purchases directly from the Steam platform.


Steam will allow the Dreadnought development team to concentrate on making a better game while still providing players with a stable and inviting game platform. The end result will be larger matching pools, shorter queue times, and higher quality matches. Another benefit will be cleaner social features for finding players for squads and increasing players friend connections.

Our intent is to make Dreadnought a Global game. Steam's player base and diversity will provide Dreadnought with the opportunity to quickly reach players worldwide. By the time we launch, Dreadnought will support English, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese

Steam also simplifies player payment options; allowing for gifting between friends and easier access to upgrades and exciting bundles.

With Steam Dreadnought will provide greater content and support for players while concentrating on game development.


There is still a lot of work to be done before Dreadnought launches on Steam. Our development team has some major features they still want to get into game, while efforts on polish, bug fixing, play balance, infrastructure, and platform improvements continue.

In all cases there are challenges we must meet; however, our current goal is to have Dreadnought ready for players in the second half of Q3 2018. We will keep you informed with more specific announcements as we get closer.

Please add Dreadnought to your Steam wishlist and follow us to have these updates and announcements surfaced to you


While Dreadnought will integrate fully with Steam, behind the scenes there is a third party account system, entitlement systems, in-game storefronts, and more.

When players initially start up Dreadnought on Steam they will be brought to the Dreadnought launcher and asked to either Log In (if you have an existing Grey Box/Dreadnought account) or fill out a very short form (account Email association and desired Display Name) that will create a Grey Box/Dreadnought account. Using either path, your Steam account will be associated and linkage with your Dreadnought account.

This is a one-time process linking your account, once complete players will not have to repeat this initial step again.



Following the transition to Steam, we will no longer support Facebook logins.

Players currently using Facebook Log-in to enter the game, will need to use the password reset option in the launcher so they can select a password that is not linked directly to their Facebook account.

Following that, players will be able to go through the one-time account linking process as described above.


If you are having trouble please reach out to our Support Team.


As an existing Dreadnought player all your stats, purchases, progression and unlocks will not be affected. On the day we launch on Steam, you will be asked to download a launcher and client via Steam as our current launcher system will be retired.

If you have questions on how to use your current account, please refer to our One-Time Account Linking section of this FAQ so that you can see what you will encounter when you start up Dreadnought on Steam.


The Development team has announced a complete overhaul to UI/UX before the Steam launch. They are also expecting to have custom matches and lots of balance and QOL updates coming to the game on a consistent update schedule prior to launch. They will also be introducing new ships, captain and ship vanity, and more on a consistent cadence leading up to launch. Finally, they will be adding at least two additional languages prior to launch and three more languages upon Steam launch.


We have been in Open Beta for about year and player feedback has been invaluable in changing how the game has evolved and the direction it has taken. While there will be continued development and evolution, the Steam launch will signify the end of the Open Beta program and Dreadnought will be officially launched.


For general help related to Dreadnought you can find articles here: https://support.greybox.com/hc/en-us
To submit a request to our Support Team for the link here: https://support.greybox.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

If you are having issue with the Steam Client please reach out to Steam Support. For all issues related to your Grey Box account, Bug, or the Game Client please reach out to our Support Team.


Yes, after we launch on Steam, selected Game Bundles (starter packs whose contents will be rotated occasionally) and GP packs (hard currency) will be able to be purchased with funds from your Steam Wallet. By purchasing GP packs, players can make additional purchases within the in-game store.



Since Dreadnought is not a title you can download via the Steam page currently some of the normal Steam features are locked behind release.

We still want to see the community's awesome content and highlight it here on the Steam page, so we ask that you submit them to us via our community email: community[at]playdreadnought.com

We’ve also created a space where you can find some Dreadnought-themed Avatars so you can get your personal profile ready for battle in style. You can download them individually or use the “download zip” options to have the entire set.



You can communicate with fellow players right here on the Steam Forums or visit our other sites on multiple platforms. (We have linked them below.) As we move forward through launch we will see whether the Steam forums or the forums at the Official Dreadnought site become more active. Come let us know how you like the game.

Dreadnought’s Official Site (with Forums): https://www.greybox.com/dreadnought/en/
Official Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/dreadnought
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playdreadnought/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/playdreadnought
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playdreadnought/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/playdreadnought
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dreadnought