Demo Patch: 2.0 Alves, Goblites and Leviathans

THE FACTIONS

- Three new fronts, each opened beside the sector it borders. The Grindings: the Goblites are the swarm, their warbands breaking out of the rocks, with the Junkmother and the Warboss as bosses. Silver Reach: the Alves are the swarm, dropping in astern, with the Vesper and the Oathbreaker. The Registry: the Custodians hold nothing back from the first minute, and the Arbiter waits at the end.

- Thirteen new ships. Goblites: the Lobber mortar barge, the Grapnel that harpoons your hull, the Tinker repair tug, the Junkmother hangar rock and the Gunhall, whose war drum makes every Goblite near it hit harder. Alves: the Heron lance, the Loom that shields the flight (kill it first), the Wren torpedo ring, the Halo ward ship, the Vesper carrier and the Lodestar, a great ring with a star on its mast. The Hollow Drover drives the swarm faster, and the Custodian Magistrate sentences your ships for its court to punish.

- The factions fight each other: Goblite scavengers cut at fallen Hollow capitals, Custodian pickets challenge Goblite raids, Goblites ambush allied Alve flights as they leave, and wreckers go for a stranded Concord capital while an Alve flight may drop in to guard her.

- Rival captains fly warships of their own: the Gallows, the Knifejaw, the Carrion Ark and the Sunderer.

LEVIATHANS AND SECRET BOSSES

- Some runs hide something that never shows on the chart. In the Drowned Yard the Coil sleeps wound round a broken dreadnought; in the Glass Ring the Rime Wyrm breathes frost that strips shields. Wake one and it lunges down a telegraphed line: cut its body to open the head.

- The Lattice in the Veil Storm adapts to whatever hurts it most. The Visitor stands behind four veil pylons. The Kraken takes ships in eight arms half a kilometre long. And at heat 10 the swarm parts for the Hollow Queen.

- The Hollow Queen now fights in four phases, each with its own warning and its own answer: burn her quickening sacs, shoot her swarm on the tether, get off the path of her dive. Like the leviathans she waits at the edge of the field until you choose to fight her.

- The Kraken no longer flings your flagship out of the battle area, and the drowned dreadnought no longer soaks your fire once its serpent wakes.

TACTICAL

- A slower way to fly a capital ship, on its own button on the main menu. The flagship is heavy and carries its way, the throttle steps from Stop to Flank, and the dodge is a hard-over turn.

- Main batteries fire slow, heavy salvos, and broadsides matter: turn your side to the target and every gun that bears joins in. The fire-control key puts them all on your target, and Rennick keeps them there while you swing.

- Damage control (fires, breaches, jammed wells) and a power triangle over shields, engines and guns. Sorties run 22 minutes, and Hollow hulls below a capital carry armour that each weapon family bites or glances off.

- Sponson conversions trade the spinal gun for armoured turrets your broadside brings to bear, on the Vigil, the Bulwark, the Seraph, the Halcyon, the Wraith, the Harrow and the Anvil, whose heavy pair sits on the keel and fires to either side. The Command takes a bow refit with point defence facing down.

GUN GROUPS IN HAND

- Press COMMA (View + X on a controller) to aim your heaviest guns yourself, then each lighter group in turn. Every other gun keeps fighting on its own. Works in Arcade and Tactical, in free look and in online co-op.

THE CAMPAIGN

- A story told in fifteen voiced radio logs, three standings on the chart (the Alve oath, the Goblite toll and the Custodian ledger), one choice per act and six endings.

- A supply freighter opens each fight beside you. Lose it and the fleet flies short on stores until a keeper sells you a new one.

- A new campaign asks whether you fly it in Arcade or Tactical, and keeps that choice.

CREW BONDS

- Every pilot on your roster keeps a bond with you. Bring their escape pods home and they can turn Loyal: they answer your lock first and once a node take a seeker meant for your flagship. Leave them to drift and they turn Resentful, and may resign from the wing for good.

- Pilots who fly together become Wingmates, who pull each other out of killing blows, or Rivals, who race each other's kills. A pair that falls out holds a Grudge.

- Wing sync: hit the same target as a Loyal pilot and a gold arc fills on your reticle. Full, your next spinal shot fires together with theirs, half again as hard.

- A pilot who resigned may come back as the rival captain, under their own name and with a few words about why they left.

CO-OP

- Online co-op flies the Campaign, with a vote on every jump and every event choice.

- Up to four players: two flagships and two escort pilots, in Steam lobbies with Quick Match, Browse and invites.

- Crew sync: both players share a gauge that fills when your fleets fight as one. Full, either player fires it for ten seconds of faster reloads on both fleets, every escort on both targets, and a tether of light between the flagships. Backslash, or View + R3 on a controller.

- Player two gets their own directive hands and every free refit the fleet earns, both players pick refits at the same time online, and the host no longer freezes when the partner drops.

A HEAVIER SHIP

- A heavy main gun: hold fire to charge one heavy shell that punches through small craft and splashes where it stops.

- Turrets swing at the speed of their size, the camera carries the ship's weight, manoeuvring thrusters flare as she turns, and the lights brown out when the spinal gun fires.

- A flagship's heavy guns are drawn up to 40% bigger, so a battleship looks armed.

EIGHT NEW FIELD EVENTS

- A critical reactor to strip before it blows, an ion front where no shield holds, a Hollow nest to kill or farm, a captured Warden to board, a Custodian defector to escort, a gravity rift, an Alve champion who asks for single combat, and a Goblite loot barge to sink before it reaches the rocks.

MUSIC AND SOUND

- A new score with a tension tier that climbs as a fight builds, and a theme for every boss. Options, Audio, Soundtrack: Classic brings back the 1.x score.

- Voices on the radio, creature voices for the leviathans, the Hollow, the Warboss and the Custodians, and the battle heard through the hull from the bridge.

ENDLESS AND BALANCE

- Heat 6 to 10 rebuilt from measurement: high-heat runs open survivable and turn hard once you have a build.

- Endless toughens on a steady curve, endurance caps rise with the clock so the middle of a long run stays a fight, and late Endless and Hold the Line no longer flood you with scrap.

STEAM DECK, CONTROLLERS AND MENUS

- The game reads controllers the way Steam Input presents them, shows a loading window the moment you press Play, and starts faster: the work before the title screen roughly halved.

- The main menu reads ARCADE and TACTICAL, with ONLINE CO-OP beside them and an EXTRAS page for the Register, the Collection, Records, Achievements, the Memorial and error reports.

- A target camera shows your target up close. The Records screen lists every run with its mode and heat. Shields light up only where a shot lands (Options, Shields to change it back).

- The game is translated into nine languages. The newest 2.0.4 lines, crew bonds and crew sync, are in English for now.

FLEET AND CREW

- Splatter Cat joins the Bridge Crew and Grendug signs on as a pilot. Pilots earn scars from what they live through, each changing how they fly. The Admiralty Yard adds eight late Drydock upgrades.

IF ENGAGEMENT.EXE GOES MISSING

- Windows Security can quarantine a new build it does not recognise yet. Open Windows Security, Virus and threat protection, Protection history, find Engagement.exe and choose Restore or Allow, then verify the game files in Steam.

Thanks to Irungol, Platius Cyndar, Phant0mCobra, Midnight, Emerald, linksdx, Sabrehawk, crump, Exodus, HiggMusic, Dudeness, sudan special forces and everyone posting on the forum. Most of this update started as one of your threads.