Starsector is an open-world single-player space-combat hyphenated-description game

Ianator

New blogpost! This one's about all the things that can happen to your colonies (and what you can do about them).

m!ttens

The lastest version of Starsector just released! Here's the news post from the website

Starsector version 0.97a is now out!

Use exciting new abilities for getting around the Sector – Reverse Polarity and Generate Slipsurge
Engage with new Colony Crisis mechanics with unique in-depth events that flesh out every major faction and have their own rewards (replaces Hostile Activity)
Explore the Orion-Perseus Abyss and a new mysterious star system found deep in abyssal hyperspace
Add a new low-tech phase cruiser (the Grendel-class) to your fleet
Use the new “Escort Package” hullmod to amp up your destroyers and cruisers when used in combination with larger ships
Take advantage of more powerful elite skill effects and the revamped Cybernetic Augmentation skill
Discover more unique encounters, from castaways on the far fringe of the Sector to brewing trouble in the spacer bars of the Core
It’s worth noting that the Colony Crisis event, despite being just one bullet point, make up the bulk of the content in this update! It’s worth thinking of each faction-specific event as a new mission, and some of these are very involved, both mechanically and in terms of new writing.

As always, there are also many smaller changes and additions, including balance adjustments, polish, ship AI improvements, bugfixes, and modability improvements! There are also a couple of new music tracks used when interacting with certain entities in the campaign.

Despite being a major version change, this release is actually save-compatible, though I would recommend starting a new game anyway – there would be some oddities with the layout of the new Abyss area.

The full patch notes, and the comment thread, are here.

The Escort Package hull mod looks like it'll be really fun to play with. Now your smaller ships can keep up weapon range with the cruiser/caps they are escorting. With that and the Cybernetic Augmentation I may try a run where the player character actually takes piloting skills to elite and give damage/mitigation bonuses to the whole fleet. A full on bounty hunter run or even pirate aligned run could be really fun and different from what I normally do. Of course I say that and it means that I'll probably find a Gaia world with perfect everything and a pristine nanoforge and all the other top tier colony goodies right away

Escort Package: it's back, in a very different incarnation
Can be installed on any destroyer or cruiser
Provides 25% maneuverability, 10% top speed, 20% weapon range while within 1000 su of larger ship
For destroyers, when the larger ship is a capital, these bonuses are doubled
For destroyers, when s-modded, also grants 20% reduced shield damage when in proximity

Cybernetic Augmentation:
Is now a top-tier skill, replacing Neural Link which moves down
Increases the number of elite skills officers can have by 1 (was: 2)
Now also increases the damage dealt/reduces the damage taken by all ships with officers
The bonus is 1% per elite skill the player has
The damage-dealt bonus is doubled for the flagship

m!ttens

New Blog Post!

Highlights covered:
Autosave!
User defined and placed map markers!
Expanded game-generated intel for POIs: wormholes, Hypershunt, Nexus, etc!
Salvor's Tally - a game-generated list of things you find but leave behind in a star system: derelicts, stations, cargo, etc!
Cleaned up intel screen parsing!

https://fractalsoftworks.com/2024/04/10/save-load-ui-autosave-intel-map-markers-and-more/

SiliconStew

Nice he essentially integrated the Autosave and Captains Log mods into the base game but also made them better. Those are always among my must have mods list.