RimWorld in space, colony sim Stardeus gets a major upgrade with ship combat

Kodo Linija and publisher Paradox Arc have released a massive update to Stardeus, that's a bit like a RimWorld in space with ship-building. Now, it has ship to ship combat too.

The Ship Combat update introduces ship-to-ship combat and NPC ships from various factions. You can choose to fight these battles and NPC ships can also fight amongst themselves. Additionally, you can now also interact with NPC ships outside of combat which opens up various trading opportunities.

There's various new ship to ship interactions in the update including:

• Hail: Any ship can hail another to initiate a chat and trigger interactions.
• Attack: A ship can attack another or join an ongoing battle.
• Give Gift: A ship may offer gifts to improve faction relations.
• Ask Fuel: A low-fuel ship can request fuel, affecting relationships.
• Trade: Some ships are open to exchanging goods.
• Extortion: Pirates may demand ransom under threat of combat.
• Follow: A ship may tail another out of curiosity or with later intent.
• Avoid: Threatened ships try to escape and hyperjump away.
• Ignore: Ships may ignore you, which can be a relief when it’s pirates.
• Surrender: Only in combat, and not guaranteed to work.
• Insult: Throw insults and see what happens.

The update also improves Hyperspace travel with new engine types that allow warping directly to distant sectors. Another new feature, Return Beacons, lets players mark and revisit previously explored locations for fast travel. There's also various UI enhancements, a number of new story events, quests, weapons and more.

With this update it's really turning into a much bigger and more interesting game.