Three changes that do not touch a single combat number, but change how a fight feels.

Cracks in the hull

When you lose health, red-hot breaches with cracks open on your hull, and they appear exactly where you were hit. The more damaged the ship, the more cracks. Below 30 % health, fire-coloured sparks fly as well.

Repairing closes them, and when you respawn after going down, the ship comes out clean.

It works the same on everyone else’s ships: at a glance you can tell who is hurt and on which side. Creatures and the Leviathan do not crack; they have a look of their own.

Combat mode: music and alarms

The game knows when you are fighting:

  • You enter combat when you are attacked, when a missile is chasing you or when you fire on a locked enemy. Shooting a rock does not count.
  • An alert sounds and chase music kicks in. The alert does not repeat if you are back in a fight within 25 seconds.
  • With your hull below 30 %, a continuous alarm sounds, even out of combat, until you repair or go down.
  • A thin red border flashes on screen with every hit you take.
  • Calm returns after 8 seconds without activity, and also when you go down, jump sectors or dock.

Switch it off in Settings → “Combat mode (music and alarms)”. It is on by default.

A sense of speed

Dust motes always drift in space, and hitting the booster brings out speed streaks. The camera widens its field of view as you accelerate, pulls back a little and shakes with the booster according to class: a fighter vibrates, a cruiser barely rumbles. Heavy ships kick up fewer streaks.

Switch it off in Settings → “Speed effects (dust, streaks, camera)” and the classic camera returns. It is on by default.

Also

  • Shots hit where you see them: the round that lands is the one that reaches the hull, and the one that flies past misses.
  • Distant ships shrink with range, large ones more than small ones, but never vanish from view.
  • Shorter, clearer warnings: “3 INCOMING MISSILES”, “⚠ OUT OF BOUNDS — TURN BACK”, with a few seconds’ grace, and “☠ LETHAL ZONE”, now shadowed so they read over any background.
  • Enemy pilots no longer roll over as they turn to face you.