Ships look different from this version on. Plating no longer spreads light evenly: it catches it the way steel does, with highlights that run across the panels as you turn and areas that stay in shadow.
The hull reflects the sector
Every map has its own sky, and now you see it on the hull. A cruiser crossing the Alcyone Veil carries the blue of the veil along its spine; the same cruiser in the Crucible wears a different colour. Edges, turrets and seams read from a distance because they are the first thing to light up.
The whole thing sits darker and heavier. That’s deliberate: a warship thirty metres along the hull shouldn’t look like a model lit from every side, and the faction stripes — Coalition blue, Axios red — stand out far more against metal than against a flat surface.
Across the whole fleet
It covers all five classes on both sides, the ten store designs, the mining drone and the ships shooting at you. There’s nothing to enable and no setting to touch.
What doesn’t change is how it plays. Hull points, armour, evasion, weapon slots and the size you get shot at are exactly what they were. It’s a ship that looks better, not a different ship.
Engines, stations and motherships stay as they were: their own light doesn’t depend on what’s around them.
Picking up a blueprint
The collection beam stays locked on the blueprint however much you turn the ship while it draws it in. You used to have to hold your heading to keep it; now you can manoeuvre through the pickup and the beam stays where it belongs. Same for yours and for a squadmate collecting beside you.
It’s a good moment to stop by the hangar: the ship in the middle is yours, so orbit it once and you’ll see the difference straight away.
