Devlog #15: alpha 12, a big round of fixes and a new sound pass

30 Oct 2026

Alpha 12 is mostly a bug fix release. After alpha 11 went out we went through your reports and our own, and cleared a long list of things that felt wrong or broke. It also has the biggest sound pass so far.

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A new sound pass

Almost every sound is new: more than fifty effects replace the old ones, covering weapons, hits, shields, explosions, alarms, locks, warnings, cockpit and menu sounds, and the results fanfares.

• There is a new mix. Pilot voices sit on top, then alarms and big events, then your own guns and impacts, with enemy fire, the Gatling and engines underneath. A limiter keeps loud moments clean, and fast repeats of the same sound are dropped, so gunfire never crowds out alarms or voices.
• The cockpit has a quiet hum, each map has its own slow background, and the hull creaks and thuds. Near a fight you hear distant booms and radio chatter.
• The burst cannon plays one sound per bolt, and the laser cannon has its familiar sound back.
• The Gatling no longer cuts out mid-burst. It has new overheat and ready cues, and its sound and tracers stop together.

Crashes and stuck ships

A ship pressed into a pocket of rocks now settles outside them instead of sinking in. A late snapshot from an old match no longer crashes the game after a map change, and the loading card now stays up until the new match is ready.

Ejects

The bomber now ejects its pilot when it is destroyed, like the fighter, and the pod leaves from the pilot's seat instead of the middle of the ship.

Guns

Your tracers stay on the right gun after a relaunch.

Matches

Leaving Quick Fight while it is still searching no longer leaves your ticket in the queue. Practice vs bot lets you choose the fighter or the bomber.

Downloads

Ships and scenery now download once and every build shares them. If a cockpit is not installed yet, the game says so, instead of showing an error about a missing file.

HUD and menus

Friend and foe markers are thin corner ticks, and target boxes are sized from how big the ship looks on screen. The HUD has its own scale slider, menus fit any window size, and Reduce motion holds the jittery effects still.

Which bugs still bite, and what should we fix next? Tell us in #feedback on our Discord.

Devlog #14: alpha 11 is out, sign in, and fly three new ships

28 Oct 2026

Alpha 11 changes how you get in, and it brings a new fighter, a new bomber and a new frigate to fly with and fly from. The Anvil also has a voice now.

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Signing in

The alpha now asks you to sign in once. It is free for the first 100 pilots.

• Download the game from the website and start it. It opens on a sign-in screen. Choose Sign in with browser, then use Google or ask for an email link.
• Your browser hands a key back to the game. The key belongs to your PC and lasts 30 days. The main menu shows how many days are left and has a Renew button, and it turns amber in the last week.
• With a key, Practice vs bot works offline. Joining any public server uses the same key.
• Google holds your email for the sign-in. We keep only a scrambled record of your account, never your email, and it is not linked to your pilot id, your rating or your matches. The privacy policy has the detail.
• If the game does not pick the key up, copy it from the page, save it as tester_key.txt in the game's config folder and start again.
• The ships and scenery now download after you sign in, so the first download is smaller. The game shows its progress, and names the problem if one file fails.

Three new ships

The gull wing fighter. The Fighter has a new hull with about five and a half times the detail of the old one. Its wings fold, its cannon swings out, and its gear and canopy move when you land on a barge.

The bomber. A 21 metre delta with a nose Gatling that spins up and heats as you fire, and heavy handling to match. You sit at its own canopy. It is in the default ship list next to the Fighter.

The frigate. The new 428 metre frigate is now a ship you launch from. On respawn in a team match up to 5v5, a lift takes you down to the hangar and a rail flies you out of the bay. Quick Fight is now 5v5.

Weapons

• Twin-gun ships fire both barrels together or take turns. Press F to switch; the armament readout shows ALT.
• The laser cannon has new variants: Burst fires three fast tight shots, Breaker strips shields, Piercer is a slow heavy needle for hulls.
• The bomber's Gatling has its own sound, bolts and icon.
• Fast guns now keep sounding in a busy fight.

Sound and the Anvil

The Anvil announces the match in its own voice, with 168 spoken lines. Subtitles sit in a lower band on screen, and there is a volume slider for the voice. Music now ducks under key cues.

Servers and menus

• Custom servers run up to 8v8, sixteen pilots in all, and Create a server sets the player limit up to what the service allows.
• Joining a server no longer freezes the window. You see each connecting stage, and a loading card covers a map change.
• The Instruct entry is on the main menu. You can ask for an instructor, and instructors can take lessons and send call-outs. It is a first version.
• Cloud cover on Spindle hides ships and jams your instruments while you are inside it.
• In Quick Fight, Back is always there and leaving never waits on the service.

Your call: what should we fix first? Tell us in #feedback on our Discord.

Want to support development? Find us on Patreon.

Devlog #13: clouds, instructors and the frigate's elevators

27 Oct 2026

Weather now gets in the way, you can learn from a coach, and the frigate is growing its launch bays. Here is what changed since the last devlog.

Bigger custom servers

Custom servers can now run 8v8 matches, sixteen pilots in all.

Clouds get in the way

Cloud cover now hides ships that fly into it and blinds your instruments while you are inside. Puffs of cloud no longer wash out the cockpit panel. Use it to break a lock, or lose your target in it.

Instructor mode

There is now an Instruct entry on the main menu. The instructor sees the pupil's view and sends call-outs such as "Chaff. Now." and "Shields aft." that show up as a strip on the pupil's screen. It is still in development.

The frigate gets elevator bays

We are building the new frigate hull in clay, form only, at 428 m long in play. This week the turret mounts were fitted to follow the hull skin, and the launch lanes, turntable halls and magazine were cut into the keel. The turntables are now elevator shafts down to the hangar floor, with pressure doors at the end of each rail.

The frigate launch sequence is in development: on respawn the server flies you out along a rail. It is switched off in the current build, so you will not see it yet.

Gull wing: from clay to texture

Texturing the gull wing fighter is under way. The unwrap is done, the decal set is built, and the first WW2-style nose art is ready for the bake. The pipeline is documented from clay, through the rig, to bake and decals.

How much more is in it

The gull wing is built from about 99,700 triangles close up. The old fighter has 17,928. That is roughly five and a half times the detail, and there are three lower detail levels for distance. The extra goes where you will see it: panel breaks along the hull, hinges and fasteners, engine intakes, and cannon tips. Nearly every part also moves. The wings fold, the cannons swing out, and the canopy, airbrakes, doors and chaff dispensers all work.

Our own modelling pipeline

We built our own pipeline for ships, and the gull wing is the first to go all the way through it. Each ship goes through the same stages: a shaded block-out to fix scale and silhouette, a clay stage judged on form alone with a sign-off before any detail is added, a rig so every moving part is tested, then texturing, decals and the final bake. Every stage has a budget and a check before the next one starts. The frigate and the bomber are now going through the same stages.

The bomber

A new bomber is in design: a broad delta hull with a bubble canopy and a tail gun, about 20 m long. Here it is with its first paint test: stealth-dark facets, the F3 mark and the first markings. Vents, lift ports and thrusters come next.

Your call: what would you like to see from the bomber, and what should an instructor teach first? Tell us in #feedback.

Devlog #12: the gull wing, and a week of everything else

24 Oct 2026

The biggest thing this week is a new fighter. Around it, the game itself took a long list of fixes, and those are in alpha 10. We will start with the ship, then run through the rest. The fighter is still work in progress.

The gull wing

Our next fighter has swept wings that fold, a cannon that swings out, airbrakes, doors and chaff dispensers. It went from design to clay this week, and it scored 8.4 out of 10 on our art bar, against a target of 9. The clay stage is form only: one grey material and no paint, so the shape has to work on its own.

Every moving part is now rigged, so the same model opens and closes. The wings fold up with the cannons raised, the spine plate lifts, and the airbrakes deploy.

Next comes paint. The decal set is built, and the first WW2-style nose art is done. The 8K bake is starting.

The maps

Spindle now has cloud banks and rain. Its play area is 9 km, so the whole floor sits clear of the edge warning. Event Horizon has wider bounds, so the barge landing corridor sits inside the play area. Arena One's pylon energy wall is lethal. Every map has a loading card with its own picture.

In the cockpit

• Practice vs bot lets you pick the map, change it from the pause menu, and bots spawn 1000 m away.
• The kill feed sits at the top right, the HUD text is smoother, and the LCD glass is darker and clearer.
• Ships use levels of detail, hit boxes follow the model, and the shield glint is brighter.
• Left Turn is the main theme, and the engines go quiet behind every menu.
• The bug reporter now attaches your camera and ship position.

What is coming

Instructor mode is in progress: a coach seat on the server, so an instructor can fly alongside a pilot. We have also approved photo mode, rank shown in game, and a House war ladder. The free alpha offer for the first 100 people is open on our Discord.

Your call: what should we show you next? Tell us in #feedback on Discord.

Devlog #11: two new maps and a rebuilt dash

Alpha 10 in progress

Since alpha 9 we have been building out the map pool, tightening combat and rebuilding the cockpit dash. This is a work in progress, so expect rough edges.

Arena One

A ring of weathered pylons around a drifting satellite graveyard. The pylons are solid, and the lit beams between them kill you if you touch them. The beams also mark the edge of the arena, and crossing that line kills you too, so you can't leave the box. Satellite hulks make cover and landmarks, with harder shadows, denser beam shafts and cooler fog.

Spindle

A habitat cylinder turned farmland, with fields, hedges, rolling hills, a deep lake and rocky massifs. Birds fly and sheep graze on the ground below you. It is the calmest map we have, which makes it a good place to get shot at. Spindle and Arena One are both in the alpha 10 map pool, and The Seam has been rebuilt as well.

The dash, rebuilt

The instrument panel got a full rework: instrument glass, scratches, oil stains, dust, worn numerals and glowing bars. We are going for rugged, muted and tight, like a cockpit that has been flown hard for years. The speed dial now marks the safe landing band.

Already in: matchmaking and ranks

• Bot fill, so matches never start short.
• Skill-based matchmaking.
• Ranks and divisions.
• A feedback prompt, which you can turn off for good in settings.

Combat and spawns

• Bombs now have a 500 m blast.
• Capital ship collision is fixed.
• Missiles have minimum lock ranges.
• A new control targets your last attacker.
• Quitting asks you to confirm first.
• Every side starts beside its own frigate and barge.

Smoother and clearer

• Matches now hand over cleanly: the game stops, loads the next map, resets, lines everyone up and runs a 10 second count-in.
• Enemy fighters within 1 km get a red four-corner box.
• Large maps are split into tiles that only draw when you can see them, with their own levels of detail, so Spindle's farmland runs lighter.
• The radar now shows a single green sweep line.

Coming in the next build

A lead pip that turns red in firing range, kill feed icons, an armament overlay, and a pilot profile and rank icon. We will add screenshots once they land.

Your call: what should we fix first? Tell us in #feedback on Discord.

Devlog #10: alpha 9 in testing

Alpha 9

Alpha 9 is in testing. Loadouts are in: a fighter's laser, missile, shield cell and engine are parts you choose in the new Arming screen, which opens from the lobby or the pause menu. The Seam gets its Titans layout, bombs strike every hostile ship near the blast, and vapour clouds blind enemy sensors. Capital ships now break into hull sections, and fighters break into pieces of their own hull. Join our Discord to get in.

Devlog #8: alpha 8

Alpha 8

Alpha 8 is out in the free public alpha. Quick Fight puts you into a match in one click, and Create a server lets you name your own server, set its rules and make it public or private. Fighters now drift at boost speed, and barges take landings through a corridor of gates, rearming and repairing your ship. The menus and lobby are rebuilt, and the cockpit has new canopy glass and a four-bar shield gauge. Join our Discord to get in.

Devlog #7: alpha 6

Alpha 6

Alpha 6 is out in the free alpha. It adds a dogfight scoreboard (press Tab to see scores, play to 25 by default, and the round restarts), concussion missiles and chaff, in-game chat, new asteroid scenery, a refined cockpit, and a dedicated alpha 6 server. Join our Discord to get in.

Devlog #6: targeting and the cockpit

17 Oct 2026

The cockpit you fly in now shows more of what you need in a fight. The HUD sits on the top layer, with cleaner white marks, a thin black border and the distance to your target. All five ship classes use the new cockpit.

Targeting

Cycle through targets, lock the nearest, and an off-screen arrow points you to enemies behind you. The enemy's name shows on the LCD.

Power

Power now affects the simulation, so the pips you set change how the ship handles, not just the dash bars.

Ghost pilots

A player who disconnects no longer leaves their ship drifting in the match. This fix shipped in 4.2.

Your call: which target information do you want on screen all the time, and which would you hide until you need it? Tell us in #feedback.

Devlog #5: the modelled cockpit flies

17 Oct 2026

The cockpit we have been building part by part is now the one you fly in. The Fighter uses the full modelled cockpit: framed canopy, two large gauges that move with your speed and power, a signal display, warning lamps, a tilted radar scope, and live bars for weapons, shields and engines. Every other ship keeps the flat cockpit for now. We have also cleared the forward view, so the centre panel no longer sits in front of your crosshair.

Power management

You now have six power pips to split across weapons, shields and engines, with the 1, 2 and 3 keys. The bars on the dash show where your power is going, so a glance tells you whether you are built for speed, firepower or survival.

What is next

We are putting model work on hold to make alpha 4 stable. Expect fewer new parts and more fixes to input, servers and the feel of the fight.

Update: alpha 4 is now with our testers, with the cockpit layout, power management and the edge-warning fix described above.

Your call: what should always be visible in a fight, and what would you move out of your way? Tell us on Discord.

Devlog #4: class parts and flying on your own hardware

17 Oct 2026

Five parts for the other ship classes have passed review this morning, and a round of fixes for people who fly with a stick and throttle.

Class parts

The Fighter kit proved the idea. Now the other classes are getting their own parts, each scored 9 out of 10 or better by our art critic before it is used.

HOTAS

• Two devices with the same name now stay apart, so a pair of identical sticks no longer fight over one set of bindings.
• When you rebind, the game binds the device that actually moved, not the first one it finds.
• You get a single throttle, and throttle up and down can be set as buttons if your hardware has no lever.
• The Axes tab is now part of Settings, with the direction of a lever taken from how you move it.

Servers

Idle clients are warned and then removed, so a server slot is never held by someone who has walked away. The window title also reads "none" for an empty enemy slot instead of a blank.

Ships

The Fighter now has a budget of 8,000 triangles, up from 6,000, so the kit parts can carry more detail where you will see it.

Alpha

Alpha 3 is out, and the London server is running it.

Your call: if you fly with a stick, throttle or pad, what is the one control that still feels wrong or hard to bind? And which class do you most want to see built next? Tell us on Discord.

Devlog #3: the cockpit, rebuilt

17 Oct 2026

Hours after the first assembled cockpit, here is the next pass. The windscreen posts are lighter so you can see more of the fight, the pod tub is rebuilt from scratch, and the seat, stick, pedals and side consoles are all new and better detailed. The view is looking down over the dash toward the stick.

Inside the pod

The four-view cutaway shows the full rig: the rebuilt tub, the ejection seat with its headrest and harness, the stick and pedals on the floor, the dash and the two side consoles. The seat now has a new rake, and the whole cockpit has passed our art review at 9 out of 10 or better.

Your call: the windscreen posts are now thinner. Do you want a clear view out, or the heavy framed feel of the first version? Tell us on Discord.

Devlog #2: the cockpit

17 Oct 2026 · Work in progress

This is the Fighter cockpit, fully assembled for the first time. Every control you see is its own part, built from the kit and slotted into one rig: the framed canopy, a dash with two big gauges, a signal display with a live readout strip, banks of switches and warning lamps, a radar scope up on the hood, and throttle consoles on each side. The whole thing sits in an ejectable pod, so when a Fighter is destroyed the pilot goes out with their cockpit around them.

The parts that are locked

Each part has to score 9 out of 10 from our art critic before it goes into the rig. Three are locked so far.

Your call: looking at the pilot's-seat view, what is the first thing your eye goes to, and what should it go to instead? Tell us on Discord.

Devlog #1: ships built from parts

17 Oct 2026 · Work in progress

Welcome to the first dispatch from Foundation Three.

1. Ships are now built from parts

The Fighter is no longer one lump of mesh. It is assembled from a kit: a spine with the cockpit pit, nose cap, flank fairings, tip nacelles, cannon pods, astromech bay and cockpit pod. Each part has to score 9 out of 10 from our art critic before it goes into a ship. The point of the kit is that the Interceptor (slim dart, three tail engines), Scout (delta wedge with twin booms), Bomber (fat, deep, torpedoes slung below) and Support (the big one, with a bridge mound and a four-engine cluster) get built from the same vocabulary, so the fleet looks like one factory made it.

2. Ejecting

Destroy a Fighter and the pilot ejects in a cockpit pod. The pod tumbles for five seconds and your camera follows it. It is cosmetic only: nobody can shoot an ejected pod.

3. Beta features in testing

Team matches with ready-up and a warm-up countdown, friend and foe brackets, and Fleet Battle: two teams, capital ships, and three phases (the Open is a kill race, then the Frigate phase, then the Flagship phase). The map edge now warns you, counts down 10 seconds, then destroys you.

4. Coming next

Power pips: six pips to split across weapons, shields and engines, with live readouts in the cockpit.

Your call: each House has a colour scheme (Ventry, Strand, Tessel, Lumen, Nul). Which House livery should we show on a ship first, and why?