Release 0.16.0 welcomes new players properly and gives espionage a real counter-play layer.
New player onboarding
- Welcome screen — A one-time intro greets new commanders and explains the core loop.
- Objectives dock & page — Track your early goals, see their rewards, and claim them as you go.
- Guided tutorial — Spotlight coach-marks walk you through the interface, then fade out.
Espionage & ECCM
- ECCM fog — A new research fogs enemy spy scans, returning value ranges instead of exact numbers.
- More probes, sharper intel — Sending more probes narrows the ranges; a strong ECCM widens them.
- Hidden counter-intel — Spy reports no longer reveal a target's exact ECCM level.
- Faster probes — Spy Probes fly three times faster for triple the fuel.
Pirates & combat
- Intercept pirates — Hunt and fight roaming pirate fleets in deep space and capture their generals.
- Pirates feel rarer — Destroyed pirates and depleted asteroids no longer respawn almost instantly.
Fleets & galaxy
- Forward bases — Launch ships stationed at an allied base straight from that base.
- Clickable map references — Planet, asteroid, and base mentions now jump to the galaxy map.
- Asteroid resources — Mining cards show each asteroid's remaining unmined metal, carbon, and hydrogen.
- Cleaner generals picker — The dispatch Generals selector is now a tidy clickable table.
- Faster first-load — Menu screens preload in the background, so opening them feels instant.