Greetings! I’m reaching out to update you all on the release schedule for the next universe cycle and the upcoming changes to PvP in Wild Space. My aim here is to provide high-level information on the planned changes and communicate when you may expect more detailed information and a concrete universe reset announcement. If you’re just here for the basic information, here it is:

1. The next universe reset will occur in April at the earliest.

2. Once decided, the reset date will be announced with four weeks’ notice.

3. Upon universe reset, there will be a two-week temporary universe so that players can get accustomed to the new ownership mechanics in Wild Space.

4. After the two-week temporary universe, another reset will occur and we will have a full 4-month universe.

If you have any questions or clarifications, you can feel free to send me a DM on Discord at enk#3571.

Controlling and Contesting Territory

While contesting territory is an iconic part of Star Sonata, too often it takes place in a cynical manner where the actual value of the territory is irrelevant and the true aim of the conflict is to inconvenience one’s opponent. To make matters worse, the rules and restrictions surrounding galaxy assault are impossibly complicated to the point that even the devs are not always certain of every detail of the system. It is clear that we need to drastically simplify the process of contesting territory, and do so in a way that prioritizes genuine conflict over resources.

One of the greatest obstacles to this vision is the current ownership system. Simply put, it’s too quick and easy. In a short ten minutes, you are capable of greatly reducing your opponent’s ability to assault your territory, and any assault they would make would be subject to the arcane rules of BvB. We are going to have to make some big changes to galaxy ownership if we are going to realize our vision for Wild Space conflict.

We have prepared two major changes to the process of claiming and contesting territory in Wild Space:

1. Establishing ownership will take longer than before, and carry an initial and periodic resource cost. Instead of merely controlling a galaxy for ten minutes, you must deploy a new type of base and complete a resource-intensive construction project in order to establish ownership. This process may take a couple hours. Once ownership is established, a steady stream of resources will be consumed to maintain it.

2. There is no PvP possible whatsoever in owned galaxies.

Note that these changes work together to focus all territory conflict on the first few hours after an initial claim, as this is the time when it’s most typical to see genuine conflict over resources. The rules of engagement are also drastically simplified since all fighting takes place in an unowned galaxy state.

Changes to Base Combat

Focusing all territory conflict into the unowned galaxy state means that we need to make some changes to how base combat works. Otherwise, it would be too easy for people to deploy effectively unlimited numbers of bases (especially unattached bases) and cause the same kind of lag and frustration that led us to take this project on in the first place. We have prepared a couple changes to base combat that will address this concern:

1. Unattached bases can’t be deployed in unowned galaxies.

2. Base weapon ranges are greatly reduced (maxing out around 3k overall).

3. Bases no longer use healing weapons.

The reason base weapon ranges are so long is to allow bases to effectively defend against players while the base owners are offline. This is no longer necessary since ownership confers absolute defense against PvP. In the new system, base combat (against other players) only takes place in a window of a few hours, during which time the base owners are online and actively working to establish ownership. Therefore, it’s no longer necessary for bases to be able to “take care of themselves” to the same extent as they do on Liberty. A similar explanation holds for the removal of base healing: this is something that helps bases stay alive while their owners are offline, but that won’t be a concern anymore in the new system.

These changes mean that contesting territory is all about surgical PvB against your opponent’s isolated industry bases, all the while fending off PvP from that opponent and potential PvB incursions against your own growing territory. The best thing about this is that the time scale of each fight is on the order of an hour or two, not a 12-hour BvB slog or a universe-long war of attrition. I’ll never forget the time my EU friends made me get up at 2 AM Eastern to organize a BvB and then teased me six hours later for wanting to take a break for breakfast.

Mid-Universe Reveals

Changing the ownership mechanics as detailed above has some serious knock-on effects to other aspects of Wild Space. By ruling out any PvP in owned galaxies, we could be making Wild Space too safe and boring. Not only that, but someone who had an unlucky reset or joined mid-universe would not have any way of taking territory away from those who got there first. It turns out that these two concerns share a common solution: mid-universe galaxy reveals.

1. Every 9 days and 17 hours*, a fresh batch of galaxies will appear in Wild Space, connected in some way to the existing map.

2. These galaxies will have higher average resource abundance to make up for lost time.

3. Since ownership is a time- and resource-intensive process, it no longer requires a connection to your team’s HQ. Anyone with spare base slots will be able to compete for the newly revealed galaxies no matter where they appear on the map.

*Bonus points if you can figure out the logic behind this timing!

Release Schedule

We will continue the precedent of giving four weeks’ notice of universe resets. This means that April is the earliest that the current universe can end. You can expect detailed information on the Wild Space Conflict project to be released along with the universe reset notice. In order to give players time to familiarize themselves with the new ownership mechanics, the next universe reset will enter a 2-week temporary universe after which we’ll reset into a full 4-month universe.

I’m sure that many of you have questions and concerns about the information I’ve shared here. That is completely natural and expected since I’ve glossed over the details and left out a lot of nitty-gritty considerations and adjustments we’ve got planned. Rest assured: you’ll get your hands on all that information when we make the 4-week universe reset notice. However, if you are fired up about this and can’t wait until then, you are more than welcome to reach out to me via Discord DM and share your comments, questions, and concerns.