SpaceSlog Itch release and major update

Today we have some exciting news! Firstly, we would like to announce the Steam Early Access release date, which is set for April 3rd 2026. We also released the game here on Itch with the latest update. You can see the changes below.

Highlights

Optimisations

Every update we continue to work on optimisations and this update has been no different. As an example, we noticed some hiccups in certain situations whilst playing. It turned out some AI functions in some specific instances were taking 170ms on my relatively fast PC. After some changes I managed to get this down to less than 1ms. So some big improvements in this one.

New Lessons/tutorial

SpaceSlog is a complex game and many people have been struggling being unable to figure out how to progress or decipher what everything does. We have tried to rectify this by first updating all descriptions to be more, well descriptive. But to also add a new lessons system which will teach you how to do things as you press various menus, objects and buttons. This is in addition to the previously added hint alerts that appear at the bottom right of the screen. We hope people will now find it much easier to play SpaceSlog.

Ranged combat

We have finally added ranged combat with a range of features (no pun intended). We have a cover system where pawns will lean out from behind objects to shoot and lean back in to reload. When in space you are less likely to hear the sounds of gunshots but would possibly feel vibrations instead, we have tried to mimic this by changing how gunshots sound when pawns are out in space, as opposed to on a ship, or later on a planet surface. Each gun has different sounds and characteristics and you will want to use whatever best suits the current situation. Its also worth noting, its probably not the best idea to shoot firearms inside a sealed cabin or around highly volatile materials.

Changes

• Major refactor of how facilities and factions work.
• Update how roles work and add roles to factions.
• Many Ai improvements and optimisations. 170x better in some cases!
• Improved and optimised melee combat.
• Added pawn ranged combat including cover mechanics.
• Added new ranged weapons:
  • Pistol,
  • Revolver
  • Lever action rifle
  • Assault rifle
  • Sub machine gun
  • Shotgun
• Added new melee weapons:
  • Spear
  • Hatchet
  • Battle axe
• All entities health is now adjusted by its material.
• Re-balanced health for many entities.
• Fuel will now last 25% longer.
• Incidents should happen twice as quickly when in high burn.
• Added a pistol on 'Original Start' scenario.
• Many icon textures updated.
• Added Hunting:
  • Added Hunting AI.
  • Added Hunting orders to the orders menu.
  • Added a hunting work type.
• Improvements to many text and descriptions.
• Added the option to store dead bodies in stockpiles.
• Improved the stockpile menus.
• Your crew will be happier if they have a captain, and not quite so happy otherwise.
• Your crew will be extremely upset if their captain dies.
• Your captain may get grumpy if they do not have a captains chair to sit in every once in a while.
• Your selected Quartermaster will be chosen when trading, unless they are unavailable.
• Added a building tag system for improved mod support for AI.
• Some roles will show an icon next to the pawns name to make them easier to spot.
• Added drop, impact, destroyed and hit sounds for different materials.
• Pain threshold characteristics are now working.
• Improved ship bribing and include pawn characteristic modifiers and trade skill (inc faction trait modifiers).
• Added eating sounds.
• Overhaul how blood and bleeding works.
• Updated role select menu and included tooltip info.
• Added Quick learner characteristic.
• Improvements to pawn health and healing.
• Don't consider hostile events if in Harmony mode and the player has no mobile crew members.
• Added new asteroids that can appear the farther you travel.
• Buffed Squamidons and increased the time in which they will appear.
• Added various new injury types.
• Barrels will say on its menu when a recipe is ready.
• Added tooltips to items on the trade menu so you know info of the items you are trying to buy/sell.
• Improved tooltips of items on the equipment menu.
• Added a new recipe: Bone broth.
• Add forced action heal pawn. (Right click menu)
• Negative darkness and low light thoughts now only effects those scared of the dark.
• Added new thoughts:
  • Content.
  • Low reserves.
  • Uncomfortable in space gear - if the pawn has been in full space gear for a long time.
• Removed the old temporary hints and started to add a new tutorial/lessons system.
• Updated and shortened scenario texts as many people complained it was too long.
• Updated some bits of lore within the game.
• Updated French translation from Danieel53.
• Gunshots and some other sounds will sound different when in space.
• Adjusted some sounds when the camera is zoomed all the way out.
• Decrease the time it takes to grow plants in Aeroponics by 25%.
• Re-introduce a very small chance for broken asteroids to spawn aggressive worms but only if on random game mode. (This also depends on game difficulty)
• Harmony is now the default selected game type.

Fixes

• Fixed: Not all items would be removed when entering high burn.
• Fixed: Ensure you cannot force melee on the same pawn over and over.
• Fixed: Regression with room enclosures not working correctly.
• Fixed: Changed some saved positions from global pos to cell pos, as the conversion to and back could end up being incorrect.
• Fixed: The bribe amount for ships would change every time you reopened the menu.
• Fixed: Hotkey C (Center map) did not move the camera to the correct position.
• Fixed: Diamond and glass was using the incorrect colours.
• Fixed: Various modifier issues.
• Fixed: Pawns not correctly tending to other pawns.
• Fixed: Radiator vents would not always connect/disconnect correctly.
• Fixed: The heat extractor would continue to glow even when powered off.
• Fixed: Fix incorrect termination colour for cable/ducting in some instances.
• Fixed: Crash on save/load menu if pressing enter.
• Fixed: The sort order of some text on the Factions menu was incorrect.