Dev Comms

Hello Sector Commanders,

This week we focused on improving combat AI and battlefield behavior. Ships now choose tactics more intelligently, coordinate their attacks, and AI empires are capable of launching organized raid fleets.

Smarter Ship Combat Behavior

Ships have learned to fight more intelligently. Instead of flying directly toward the enemy, ships now adapt their behavior depending on their weapons, maneuverability, and current condition.

Depending on the situation, ships may:

• Orbit around their target while maintaining optimal firing distance
• Perform quick attack runs followed by disengagement
• Retreat along a curved path while keeping their weapons aimed at the enemy
• Attempt flanking maneuvers to attack from the side

These changes make battles feel much more dynamic and believable.

Threat Envelope System

Ships now evaluate the tactical situation before committing to a fight. A new Threat Envelope system analyzes several factors:

• Number of nearby allies vs enemies
• Weapon ranges on both sides
• Local battlefield conditions

Based on this evaluation, ships decide whether to:

• Attack aggressively
• Hold their position
• Withdraw from combat

This prevents ships from blindly charging into unfavorable fights.

Empire Raid Fleets

AI empires can now organize raid fleets. Empires may dispatch small strike groups of 2–4 ships to attack hostile systems. These fleets engage the enemy until their losses become too high. When that happens, they regroup at a rally point and return to their home system.

To prevent constant attacks, each system receives a temporary protection period after a raid.

Target Coordination

Ships belonging to the same empire now share targeting information. Instead of every ship selecting a random target, fleets can now coordinate their fire and focus on the same enemy ships.

This significantly improves fleet effectiveness and makes battles easier to read.

Performance Improvements

Several performance optimizations were also implemented. Ships no longer recalculate targeting every frame. Instead, target evaluation happens periodically every few seconds.

Additionally, newly spawned ships receive a short grace period before entering combat. These changes reduce CPU load during larger battles while keeping combat behavior responsive.

AI Combat Behavior in Action

In this clip you can see a potential combat scenario: ships of the United Earth Remnants (UER) engaging a pirate fleet.

Thank you for following the development of NGC-404. More updates are coming soon as we continue improving AI behavior, fleet combat, and large-scale battles across the sector.

Hello Sector Commanders,

It's been one week since we launched our Steam page, and we'd like to share some of the improvements we've been working on recently.

Turret Firing Arc Visualization Overhaul

Until now, turret range and rotation were represented by a very basic visual. It was functional — but not precise enough. It was time to improve it.

Now, when you select a ship, a transparent blue firing arc appears around each weapon. This "fan" clearly shows:

• The exact firing angle
• The maximum weapon range
• The area the turret can currently cover

Visual Improvements

• Range rings at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% distance
  • Rings closer to the ship are more faded to reduce visual clutter
• Angle markers:
  • Small ticks every 15°
  • Larger ticks every 45° (like a clock face)
• A gold directional line with an arrow shows where the turret is currently aiming

Weapon Group Filtering

Players can now press 1–5 to select a weapon group. When selected:

• Only firing arcs from that group are visible
• All others are hidden
• The active group is highlighted in the bottom HUD panel with a brighter color and larger font

This makes tactical control much clearer during combat.

Fleet Movement & Navigation Improvements

Next, we focused on ship movement, collision avoidance, thrust control, and issuing orders to multiple ships at once.

No more flickering path arrows

When a ship approaches its destination, path arrows and lines now smoothly disappear. Only the destination marker remains. Previously, these elements would flicker and behave erratically.

Ships no longer need pixel-perfect positioning

Ships now stop when they reach the target area instead of trying to land on an exact point.

Formation-aware arrival system

When you send multiple ships to the same location:

• Each ship receives a separate nearby destination point
• Points are spaced far enough apart to prevent collisions
• Ships automatically select the closest available slot

This results in much smoother fleet behavior and eliminates chaotic stacking.

Improved collision avoidance

Ships now actively search for the best possible path to avoid collisions. Instead of pushing into each other or stacking at choke points, they dynamically adjust their trajectories to move around nearby ships.

Fleet movement is now smoother, more readable, and far less chaotic.

Engine Upgrade

We've successfully migrated the project to Godot 4.6.1 (previously 4.5).

Thank you for following the development of NGC-404.

NGC-404 is now officially on Steam.

After months of internal development and iteration, the project has reached a stage where it makes sense to open it up publicly. The store page is live, and development will continue with a clearer roadmap and community visibility.

NGC-404 started as a systems-focused space strategy project built around one core idea: a living sector driven by simulation, not scripts.

The game combines:

• A fully simulated economy
• Procedural sector generation with seeds
• Tactical 2D fleet combat
• Logistics-based warfare
• Colony development
• Multiplayer with hot join

The focus has always been depth through interaction between systems — economy influencing war, logistics influencing combat readiness, exploration influencing expansion routes.

There are no scripted story missions. The sector evolves based on simulation and player decisions.

Why Steam Now?

The project has reached a point where:

• Core economic systems are functional
• Sector generation is stable
• Fleet combat is operational
• Multiplayer foundation is implemented

There is still a significant amount of work ahead. Balancing, optimization, AI refinement, UI clarity, and long-term progression systems are ongoing.

Putting the game on Steam now allows development to move forward with transparency and feedback.