Pictured: a planet used to be here, until a bug let me "break it for salvage". Backing out of a menu made the game think the planet was a comm relay, and, well. At least I got some scrap out of it!

I released an update to my icon pack "Food, Spices, & Drinks"! Added 12 icons people requested in the comments over the past year or so. dgbaumgart.itch.io/icons-food-s...

The console commands mod just got one heck of an update, courtesy of @lukas04.bsky.social. Super impressive stuff! fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index....

testing new Starsector content at the minimum supported screen resolution

Super cool 3d rendition of the Wolf! www.reddit.com/r/starsector...

Ok ok, being able to cast like this in Java: if (x instanceof String s) And then use s as a string is so liberating, wow, how did I not know about this! (The only reason I found out is I thought "they *must* have made this redundant cast less annoying by now!" and went looking, and, yep.)

(Website looks like it's down, checking into it now)

Stock Starsector dialogs: - Harangue a planetary administrator into giving classified information - Buy a round for the space-bar - Someone standing next to you is shot due to convoluted political machinations - Use story point to convince someone that you are the literal devil. Somehow this helps.

New Starsector blog post: Officer Flexibility fractalsoftworks.com/2025/08/18/o... Talking about some changes that make officers easier to work with, as well as some changes to s-mods, and a quick update about the plan for the next release!

Added the ability to change the s-mods on a ship for a LOT of credits, at a player-owned colony with heavy industry. The original s-mods still require story points to add, but this should make it easier to revamp an endgame fleet.

Presented without comment www.reddit.com/r/starsector...

Reduced the leash range on the "Defend" (and similar) commands by a third. Seems to be working well so far - the actual performance of the fleet in battle is *much* better with the new leash range!

I wrote so much very specific-feeling dialog for a minor character that I felt like I might as well make them a unique person - then realized I had a stray character half-developed (portrait even!) for a very unimplemented narrative arc that fits perfectly into the role. ... Perfect! #starsector

First round of a community-run Starsector pvp tournament! Super cool to see all the different builds and how it all plays out. (The Anubis, hmm.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJK7...

I wrote a blog post for @amosolov.bsky.social's Starsector, "Creating Threat", about drawing spaceship horrors. (It starts with bismuth and deep-sea snails and ends in... well, HR Giger, basically.) fractalsoftworks.com/2025/07/03/c...

Over in Starsector news, writing a big chunk of new narrative and quite enjoying myself. Really fun intersection of Scifi!, characterization, & Sector politics. Also being an idiot and going convoluted & non-linear. BUT I think it'll work! Got some new structural concepts... Any excuse to DS9 gif.

every starsector player has 3 friends

I wrote a (really long) blog post about doing narrative design, writing a space religion, and having fun with mystery-solving monks in @amosolov.bsky.social's #Starsector. -> fractalsoftworks.com/2025/04/29/w...

Starsector 0.98a hotfix is now up! Fixes the shield AI vs [REDACTED] beam issue, along with a slew of other bugfixes and some other tweaks and adjustments. You can get it here: fractalsoftworks.com/2025/03/27/s... Just re-download and reinstall the game. Save-compatible with the previous hotfix.

Super cool video about Starsector! www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEfk...

The new Codex is pretty cool @amosolov.bsky.social. Very nice how customiseable you made it. People have been wanting me to add ingame documentation for my skill mod for a while.

I saw this and so now you have to, as well www.reddit.com/r/starsector...

Goblin Friday! Wormsy makes some friends. (Sort of.) Implementing scripted memory timeout counters, doing some art upgrades, some scripting improvements, and planning out more of Scenario 2.

Starsector 0.98a hotfix is out! Includes a bunch of assorted bug fixes, including for the shield AI issue, and a few balance tweaks. You can download it here: fractalsoftworks.com/2025/03/27/s... Can just reinstall on top of the existing installation, and it is save-compatible.

"Fixed abyssal hyperspace depth discontinuity" might be one of my favorite patch notes to have written

Starsector 0.98a is out! Fight new enemies, acquire new ships and weapons, and much more, featuring new story missions, autosave, a revamped combat simulator and Codex, and other UI improvements! fractalsoftworks.com/2025/03/27/s... Please repost!

Starsector 0.98a is out! Fight new enemies, acquire new ships and weapons, and much more, featuring new story missions, autosave, a revamped combat simulator and Codex, and other UI improvements! fractalsoftworks.com/2025/03/27/s... Please repost!

Current status: making a release candidate that has a non-zero chance of being the actual Starsector 0.98a release! Let's see how it goes...

Getting absolutely wrecked by a "but it looks harmless" Kite with torpedoes when I start playtesting is just a tradition at this point

Illustrating for #starsector. Hoping to sneak this one into the next update.

I hear that @amosolov.bsky.social is considering new sector map generation modes

In-development patch notes for Starsector 0.98a: fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.... To be clear: this isn't out yet, just the patch notes for what's going to be in the next release! Still adding a few things here and there, too.

Did you know you can change the aggression of your un-officered ships? It's a bit of a hidden feature; hopefully this'll make it easier to figure out!

In addition to the Avoid changes (being able to put it on a waypoint/objective, not just a ship), also added a new "Ignore" command. I'd expect it to be pretty situational - ignoring even a frigate is often a bad idea - but it'll be a nice extra bit of control to have!

(Ahem,) In every case, it'd be better to see what the human put into the prompt box so I could know their intention with the text rather than trying to fish it out of the generated slop. Often it's just "hype this garbage up", to be fair; and it'd be nice to just get that done with and move on.

Added the option to put an "Avoid" order on waypoints and objectives. Excited about the strategic possibilities this should open up! (First thing I'm going to do is put one on the enemy spawn so my ships don't go there and get ganked by the reinforcements coming in.)

Heads up that the fractalsoftworks.com website will be down for some significant portion of the 6th this month; hosting provider is doing some kind of emergency maintenance.

Heads up that the fractalsoftworks.com website will be down for some significant portion of the 6th this month; hosting provider is doing some kind of emergency maintenance.

Having a look at the Fury; I'm sure this build is far from optimal - and be honest I didn't think about it that much - but it already doesn't seem too bad? One thing I'm *not* seeing in my testing is it over-extending due to its "move forward" mobility system; possibly due to in-dev AI changes.

Refit Filters 2 is an instant classic. fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.... #starsector

Hahah, that didn't take long! There's a mod that adds the Anubis (and makes the Paladin changes) if you feel like trying it out early :) fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index....

New Starsector blog post! Anubis-class Cruiser fractalsoftworks.com/2024/12/20/a... Talking about the design and art process for a new high-tech ship!

I put together a version of my free hex/square painterly tile sample pack for Itch.io. This is like a little mini-tour through all my terrain tilesets, and best of all, they're gratis! Get it here -> dgbaumgart.itch.io/hex-and-tile... (Guess I should tag stuff,) #gamedev and #indiedev I think.

More for @amosolov.bsky.social's #starsector: The next update will bring back this fan? favorite? character due to popular? demand. Buckle up, starsectorers!

Adding a new ship to the game, the Anubis-class Experimental Cruiser! Will post more when we have the proper visuals for it, but so far it's shaping up fun and pretty different in some ways :)

Posting my #starsector gainz

Adjusting the Tempest a bit and making the drone replacement time 5 seconds was definitely too much, it was casually swatting destroyers with that. 10 seconds, though, feels like it may be be pretty good - enough so there's good uptime on the drones, but not as overwhelming. Hmm.

Added high tech skins for the Mining Laser and the Mining Blaster; you can see what the regular MB looks like in the dialog. It'll be nice to have those match the hulls better!

"Developer of upcoming indie RPG Starsector" is what @amosolov.bsky.social 's bio says. This is a complete lie. Starsector is *already* a fantastic huge space playground, supported with excellent work from @dgbaumgart.bsky.social You can pick it up here: fractalsoftworks.com

Really enjoyed the original Shadowhand, looking forward to this! Looks like it's going to be a chill and beautiful solitaire, so just depends on whether that's your cup of tea or not :)