Factions

Updates during this phase of development focused heavily on Factions and their larger role within the game. This included UI changes, feature expansion, fixes, and polishing of existing mechanics. Full list of changes below!

Changes

• Reputation System: Now incorporates external metrics such as wars, assets, and faction activity
• Influence System: Now calculated based on internal factors, including member progression and engagement

Additions

• Faction Treaties:

  • Factions can form treaties with multiple factions
  • Treaty members can transfer weapons between factions (fees applied)
  • Treaty members can participate in allied faction wars
  • New treaty members require unanimous approval

• Faction Customization:

  • Factions can upload custom symbols
  • Added banner system (cover-style visuals across faction pages)
  • Tier 2: Leaders can now set Faction Tag
  • Tier 2: Leaders can now grant custom ranks for members

• Faction Invitations:

  • Leadership can send faction invites at a CR cost
  • Cost scales based on faction tier
  • Citizens can opt out via Settings → Game Preferences

• Faction Restrictions:

  • Leaders can define sector access limitations for members

• Faction Scoring - Influence = members + controlled hex tiles + civic tile influence - Reputation = war record + arsenal + faction age - Faction Score = influence + reputation

War Grid

We introduced the War Grid - a mechanic that allows Factions to fight for control over areas of their own Sector, and others. Each sector has a balanced amount of tiles and what benefits those tile provide when a faction has control over them.

This will be a feature that requires extensive development cycles. It opens the game up to simualted combat across the terrains and landscapes of the five Sectors. Early rollout will see the reveal of the Hex Grid (aka, the Battle Grid). A map that shows the future of the battlefield. Additional features such as defensive and offensive assets will be released into the game, eventually tying in battles for sector tiles and control!

Improvements

• Faction Browser:

  • Redesigned interface
  • Added filtering capabilities

• Faction UI:

  • Redesigned faction overview page
  • Improved administration interface
  • Admin tab state now persists between sessions

Fixes

• Fixed incorrect labeling of faction tiers

Skills

• Faction Management:

  • Reduces invite cost when used by sender

• Faction: War Planning [new skill] - Allows players to see more details on War Grid

Items

Introduced scarcity mechanics to reinforce economic control and supply dynamics.

• Personal Data Display:
  • Now enables tab in My Pod to store and take notes

Changes

• Shop Inventory:

  • Items are now limited in quantity per location
  • Restocking occurs on scheduled intervals

• Personal Data Display

  • Now usable in My Pod as a note taking device

Additions

• Oliver's Weapon Shop:
  • Replaces previous vendor temporarily

The Agency

Improved the design and fixed many bugs across the ad systems

Changes

• Added queue and scheduler logic for ads
• Clarified ad types

Inventory

Improvements for usability and expanded functionality.

Changes

• Added ability to use consumable items from inventory

Fixes

• Fixed bug that crashed inventory when using last of item
• Fixed dispaly of right panel when switching between primary/equipped weapons and armors

City Map

Improvements

• Improved zoom handling
• Added live weather panel
• Improved weather animations

Game Engine

Improvements

• Asset Loading:

  • Reduced load times across the game

• Weather System:

  • Introduced new weather conditions
  • Improved transition realism and pattern flow

• City Map

  • Fixed bug that caused building data loss when adding new buildings after game build

Battle Arena

Changes

• Access Rules:
  • PvP opt-in now applies only to PvP combat participation
  • Players can view the arena without opting in

Fixes

• Fixed incorrect "exhausted" state display

Player

Additions

• Custom Avatars:
  • Upload via Settings → Game Preferences

Changes

• Regeneration:
  • HP and Energy now regenerate over time
  • Vitality now influences regeneration rate

Forums

Fixes:

• Fixed UI when replying to post

Armor

Changes

• Classification System:
  • Updated armor tiers: 10 => Covered 20 => Reinforced 30 => Guarded 50 => Shielded 70 => Fortified 90 => Hardened 120 => Bulwarked 160 => Plated 180 => Bastioned 220 => Aegis

E.C Exchange

Many changes to advance the push towards realism. These changes help introduce realism and better simulation of the actual market economy.

• Reformed Market Mechanics

  • Replaced basic price formulas with a realistic "Price Discovery" model.
  • City actiivty no longer shows which citizen bought how many shares of which stock.
  • Large orders now face non-linear slippage and market noise to prevent bulk-buy exploits.
  • Trade Cooldowns: Added a 15–30 minute cooldown after buying a stock before it can be sold again.

• News Articles

  • Introduced more dynamic articles based on actual marke performance and mining contracts
  • CEOS have limited range of branching when giving opinions on their company's performance

• My Portfolio

  • Now shows historical information of transactions within each symbol's panel.

• UI Improvements:

  • Added persistent searc bar to Exchange nav
  • Improved company search bar, now auto-suggests potential company names

• Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed missing company data in edge cases

• Skill-Gated Data: Players with the Financial Analyst skill now see full OHLC candles and volatility metrics; others see a basic daily line chart.

• Market Sentiment Update: Sentiment is now weighted toward real trade volume, along with news. Updates in near-real time with current conditions.

• GCC* Integration: Game-controlled citizens now engage in trading actively.

* GCC = Game Controlled Citizens / Estin City Controlled Citizens. Citizens that operate and behave autononously within the city with varying degrees of *approaches*.

Mining

• Added Storage Explorer
• Fixed Contract Bugs:
  • ATIOS: Several bugs across various contracts preventing completion and progress
• Fixed bug that calculated sold ore incorrectly
• Improved UI of the Mining Operation
• Improved Automation Module stability and consistency

Factions

• Wars now send uh... invites? and notifications correctly to Faction leadership
• Wars now enable Battles between players, only affects Faction reputation.
  • Does not opt in citizens to Battle Arena system
• Fixed expiration notifications of Faction Wars

City

• Added live social hub to city
• Added customizable map UI
• Corrected images for Public Market
• Corrected location categories
• New Maglev Raillines added:
  • Deep Kitchen now connected
  • The Agency now connected
• Added Inventory access
• Adjusted Sector access menu

My Pod

• Fixed broken Medical Bay in the Prime Pod

Inventory

• Inventory now accessible most places in the city and UI
• Redesigned inventory to be more intuitive and easier to use
• Fixed bug that allowed careful players to equip other player's loadouts

Bank

• Fixed bug with loan system being disabled after selecting predefined amount or custom amount
• Fixed rounding error with totals in bank
• Savings total now more secure (mouse over Savings Balance to see total)

University

• Fixed bug that broke the UI when expanding unvirsity courses.
• Improved UI and UIX
• Added course filtering to Entry and Career Path locations

My Sector

• Fixed bug preventing Factions from showing up correctly in the Factions tab
  • New Factions now reported in the Activity tab

The Agency

• Added The Agency; Creative advertising for those with creative ideas!
  • Adds ability for players to buy ad space for: Factions, Mining Operations, Trading, General Player

Friends

• Added ability to add friends
  • Can now send items, trade requests to friends

UI

• When a citizen has less than 25% HP, UI now indicates low health better
• Improved readability (font size increases and UI feedback messages) across many areas
• Improved visibility of the global UI nav and notification bar

Skills

• Awareness:
  • Better detectection of lesser visible areas of the game
  • Better highlights lesser known information in the Maglev Racetrack

Company CEOS

• CEOS now have limited branching personalities types:
  • Allows them to dictact certain news responses and market events.
  • Allows them to drive contract constraints.