Category: Devlog

Alpha 13 unveils a key feature: opponent personalities. During game setup you can select from a list of historical admirals who each have their own strategic and tactical personalities. Should make the game a lot more interesting for replays! Other big changes include the ability to set targeting criteria, actual retreat zones making your tactical decisions more challenging, and exposing key mapping!

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Feature Changes

• AI players now have personalities!
  • Purely a visual design, first step to player-selected fleet designs
• Class-based targeting system created
  • Now can target by Nearest, Capital, Screen, and Weakest
• New per-ship retreat zone exists
  • No more full-fleet auto-retreat
  • Ships can be set to disengage at varying damage levels
• Exposed key bindings in Settings and allowed for remapping
• Scenario Editor first pass is live
• Removed Corvette B visual design
  • B-designs not ready, streamlined for clarity

Tuning Changes

• Expanded tactical scene size
  • Fleets now start slightly further apart
• Formation tuning, especially with additional units to a limited formation
  • Includes Tight vs Loose formation designations
  • Clearer roles for ships (Escort/Mid-Weight/Capital)

Bug Fixes

• Significant performance bugs solved in tactical scene
  • Large missile launches should now behave much better than previously

Alpha 12 hands back control of when a battle happens. Every engagement now opens with a pre-battle window, so you commit to the tactical map deliberately or auto-resolve and get on with the turn. Missile loads are also tracked per ship and reloaded at friendly stations, which starts making magazine depth and station access a strategic concern rather than an abstraction.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Feature Changes

• Added Corvette B visual design
  • Purely a visual design, first step to player-selected fleet designs
• Added movement tails to fleets at the strategic layer
  • Help see direction of fleet movement
• Battles are now opt-in with a pre-battle window per battle
  • No longer dumps a player into a battle
• A menu in game!
  • Triggered via Esc key
• Missile loads now tracked on a per-ship basis
  • Reloads available at friendly stations
• Auto-resolve is now possible for battles

Tuning Changes

• Increased strategic speed of DD, CA, BB, and DN units
• Clarified uninhabited vs inhabited iconography
  • Filled = inhabited, Unfilled = uninhabited
• Major design pass on menus, all should now match core design system
• Increased visibility of various range markers (Engagement, Powered Missile)

Bug Fixes

• Text alignment in top bar
• Ships teleporting to an assigned fleet after build completion when fleet has left the system
• Aimed fire at Long Range is sending a second volley before the first arrives
• Game Icon now exists properly

The headline change in Alpha 11 is a significant rewrite of the tactical movement model. Ships now auto-dodge under fire with a slight side-to-side shimmy and strafe into new formation slots rather than sliding into place, which changes both how an engagement reads and how well ships survive at long range. Shipyards also open all the way up to level 10.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Feature Changes

• 2X speed option now exists in tactical battles
  • Great for AI vs AI battles
• Windows now stay where they were placed / minimized after a battle
• Starfield background replaces plain black background in tactical map
• Can now Transfer ships between fleets

Tuning Changes

• Tactical combat movement model update – significant rewrite
  • Ships now auto-dodge (slight shimmy side to side) when under attack
    • Most useful when beyond powered missile range
  • Ships strafe into new formation positions
• Intel missions now provide intel on the system for 3 turns
  • Missions also show faction owner
  • Missions also show shipyard status (level of and ships queued)
• Shipyards can now be upgraded all the way to level 10
• Strategic AI now has tuning knobs for research

Bug Fixes

• Ships getting lost on the way to a new formation slot
  • Now includes strafing movement to get there
• Research tree: when a research project is blocked, weird formatting issue on the yellow description text
• Uninhabited systems can no longer be owned
• Repair cap was to original hull max, not researched hull max HP
• All scroll and pan is now middle-mouse button (strategic map was right-click)
• Build menu can now scroll if text spills off the sides
• End-of-game via battle completion bug fixed

A short release built around one large change. The strategic AI got an overhaul and is now meaningfully smarter about how it expands, builds and commits its fleets — which also made the long-standing problem of battles failing to resolve at the strategic layer much harder to ignore. That is fixed here too.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Feature Changes

• Strategic AI overhaul – now significantly smarter

Tuning Changes

• Ship build times brought down
• All factions start w/ level 1 Intelligence Service

Bug Fixes

• Battles not resolving at strategic layer

Engagement range and fire rate become independent settings at the tactical level in Alpha 09 — and, more importantly, the AI actually shoots now. Orders also stopped being one-way: you can cancel or redirect a fleet before it leaves, change where a ship under construction is delivered, and cancel a build already in progress.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Feature Changes

• New research update
• Win Condition trigger updated
  • Show when factions are eliminated
• Massive changes to Engagement Range and Fire Rate
  • Independent settings at tactical level
  • AI shoots now

Tuning Changes

• Post-Battle report text updates. Now includes system battle took place in.
  • Update name of post-battle screen to "After Action Report"
  • Update button to say "Confirmed"
• Can now cancel and change orders for a fleet prior to it leaving
• Can now change destination fleet for ships being built
• Can cancel build orders in progress

Bug Fixes

• Win condition not being triggered bug fixed

Alpha 08 is mostly about the fleet being recognisably yours: name your faction, pick its colour, and read a proper after action report when the shooting stops. It also clears out three separate crashes and the jamming bug that had quietly been stopping jamming from affecting missiles at all.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Feature Changes

• Ability to name your own faction
  • Pre-generated list of names included
  • Pick your own color too!
• Unique ship iconography now overlays when you zoom out in battles
• New post-battle after action report

Tuning Changes

• Updated jammed missile behavior to show obvious veer-off and detonation

Bug Fixes

• Crash on battle load found & fixed
• Crash in tutorial found & fixed
• Crash in tips found & fixed
• Jamming bug that blocked all jamming from affecting missiles
• Fixed PDC intercept bug
• Fixed PDC aiming bug

The two halves of the game start behaving like one game in Alpha 07. Damage carries back and forth between battles and the galactic map, repairs only happen at starbases or shipyards and compete for building slots, and drones and jamming resolve at the fleet level — which is what finally makes the relevant research visible in combat rather than theoretical.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Feature Changes

• Ship damage now carries back and forth between battles and galactic map
• Ship repairs overhauled:
  • Repairs only happen at starbases or shipyards
  • Rate of repair is gated by the number of available building slots
• Intel system overhaul
  • Now has a cost
  • Intel mission times reduced dramatically
  • Visible arcs of sensor coverage
    • Probably needs better naming & lore
• Drone & Jamming behavior now happens at the fleet level
  • Research impact of drones, jamming, and PDC efficacy now very apparent

Tuning Changes

• Tactical AI overhaul, now can see different AIs making different choices
  • Not super challenging yet, but it’s better
• Strategic AI overhaul, now have different behavior by difficulty
  • AI does not mass fleets, lots of individual ships running around
• Ship hull values doubled across the board

Bug Fixes

• First performance pass complete, let’s see how it translates

Alpha 06 gives the strategic layer something to actually play toward — a win condition — and gives the tactical layer the range visualisation it badly needed, with toggles for powered missile, engagement, jammer and PDC ranges. New engagement modes let you choose between sequenced and max rate fire, and missile fuel was tuned so that missile range means something.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Changes

• Win condition now exists in strategic layer
• Added Tutorial and updated Tips functionality
• Added toggles in tactical layer:
  • Powered Missile Range
  • Engagement Range
  • Jammer Range
  • PDC Range
• New engagement modes exist:
  • Sequenced Fire
  • Max Rate Fire
• Tuned default missile fuel to make missile range meaningful
• Tuned spawning locations to allow for more maneuvering time prior to engagement

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Drone behavior (from 100% pull on incoming missiles)
  • No longer pulls all missiles, likely needs further tuning
• Multiple battle reports now show appropriately at the strategic layer
• Right side fleet now starts facing the left side enemies

Ships now explode properly instead of quietly disappearing, the Formation Editor moves to the main menu with a save system and ship sprites, and skirmish mode gets AI opponents. Star systems were also renamed, for reasons the notes put more bluntly than I will.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Changes

• Added Ship Explosions
• Add Formation Editor / Save System to Main Menu
  • Add ship sprites to Formation Editor
• Updated Star System names
  • Hey look, less IP problems!
• Added AI players as option in Skirmish mode
• Added ability for multiple fleets from a single faction to be in a battle

Bug Fixes

• Improved jammer behavior
  • Should be actually impactful after upgrades

A quality-of-life pass on missile handling. Remaining counts appear on the ship status box, missiles show on the minimap, and there are more engagement options in the central command bar. The radial menu is gone entirely — right click is now just a move order.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Changes

• Added missiles to the minimap
• Removed radial menu, right clicking is now just a move order
• Increased missile engagement options in central command bar
• Added remaining missile counts to ship status box
• Added value measurement in Skirmish mode for ships and research

Bug Fixes

• More missile spawn fixing. I think, maybe, finally it’s fixed.
  • (or it’s just hiding from me)
• Cleaned up some duplicate data between ship and fleet data

The project got its name in Alpha 03 — Throw Weight: Fleet Doctrine — along with a split-screen tactical view that shows both fleets simultaneously instead of making you pick one to watch. The main menu was also brought in line with the strategic mode styling.

Editor’s note: the game is now called Throw Weight: Strategic Command. These notes are preserved as originally written.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Changes

• New view setup in tactical battles, split screen to show both fleets simultaneously
• New main menu to match strategic mode styling

Bug Fixes

• Missile spawn location bug fixed, then re-appeared (NEED TO TRACK DOWN)
• Ship survival and PDC effectiveness tuned
• Improved formation station-keeping logic

Alpha 02 puts shipyards at the centre of the economy: every level adds 100 income per turn and another parallel construction slot, which makes yard investment the main strategic lever. The interface also became movable, with draggable panels and information icons explaining what each window contains.

Known issue at time of release: there is no win state yet.

Install note: You will need both the .exe and the .pck files downloaded!

Changes

• Updated economy so that each level of shipyard increases income by 100/turn
• Updated shipyard functionality so that each level of shipyard allows for another ship to be constructed in parallel
• Added formation selector at strategic level for fleets
• Added information icons that open on click to describe the contents of each window
• All panels can now be dragged around via their title bar
  • (known issue: panels revert to original placement after battle)
• Updated “Requires Orders” window to “Available for Orders”
• Added shading to uninhabited systems

Bug Fixes

• Research tree now populates (damn text files!)
• Intelligence now shows incoming fleets, not just fleets at systems
• Missile trail brightness reduced and volley spread on launch increased
• Destroyed fleets now disappear instead of leaving an empty fleet at the system
• Fixed formation movement sometimes sending ships off to infinity
  • Should also have fixed the movement issue