Back on Track (18.06.2026)

Hello everyone, and welcome to this dev diary. Today, it is one of those diaries where I mostly talk about stuff rather than showcase it.

If you are only interested in what is next, skip to the "Next Steps" section. The first part is going to describe my experience with the latest update. Yes, I do play my own mods. After all, I mod for myself first and foremost. Those who have followed me for a very long time probably know that I am not a typical player. I treat the combat layer more as a means to an end, while empire-building and exploration are the main course. I will be very brief with my summary.

A "Quick" Journey

An in-and-out, 20-minute adventure turned into 15 cycles of building a faction. Because I felt lazy and did not want to come up with a name, I went with a generic one.

Cote Administration

This was also a playthrough with a few more mods than I usually use, to see how the new economy behaves with the rest of the sector. Before we move on to showcasing our shining jewels, I was surprised to see this during the campaign.

Culann defeated by AI!?

A Smoll Peek into the Cote Administration

I am the kind of guy who starts a colony really late. You know, preparation time. Finding the cryosleeper helped speed up this process, and in Cycle 215, a new faction emerged onto the sector's stage.

The Theory of Toolbox economy was really BRUTAL for me in the beginning. There were constant shortages on my colonies, but it was really fun to build around them. One of the biggest gripes I had with the colony system was its abstraction. You just needed one industry to feed everyone.

With that changed, you can see on the economy graph how it went from the beginning until now, from Cycle 215 to Cycle 232.

Me like graphs

I spent nearly two cycles dealing with each crisis individually, which limited my expansion ambitions A LOT.

With the blueprints I had collected, I had two templates serving as the main baseline for all my patrols once I was finally able to expand.

Yea yea I know

Military Composition

Show Me Your Colonies

Here they are. I did not really go wide this time, instead keeping my empire cohesive and responsive to all threats thanks to the proximity of its worlds.

All holdings

And this is the shining jewel of the entire faction: Gjalf, our capital.

Welcome to wonderful world

Thoughts After the Playthrough

There is good, and there is bad. This is my third playthrough with the new module, but the first after its major release. During playtesting, some things only become noticeable after some time.

Theory of Toolbox definitely forced me to think about my colonies. The starting sector was already experiencing a food shortage, forcing me to look for a first world focused on agriculture.

The first three cycles were really rough for me, given that I also tried to murder-kill every crisis so that I could have some peaceful rest. After that, it was really smooth.

More than ever, I feel that Theory of Toolbox was necessary for both modules. It makes establishing new supply lines much harder, makes megastructures much more beneficial, and also forces you to think about how you spend your resources. Now every order, every black-site project, every megastructure, and every industry consumes the same resources.

But then there is also the bad. While I had a lot of issues with the vanilla system, some other issues became more noticeable because I had eliminated the main problems I had with colonies.

Pre-Collapse Facilities feel bland after fighting yet another Remnant fleet. I have to admit that this part of VoK dates back to versions 1.2 or 1.3, when encounters like these were the most I was capable of creating.

Now that there is a new economy system, SoP policies could use a major revamp. Some need to be reworked, but most importantly, there needs to be a much, much greater variety of them.

Some colonies still earned far more money than I expected. Note that I am only using AoTD industries and nothing else. Some commodities also seem to be produced too easily.

Some wonders cost far more resources than they should, considering that they are meant to be something between a normal industry and a megastructure.

And the biggest issue of them all: getting gangbanged by every faction simply because you exist. This is why I want to rework the entire crisis system into something very different. More about that in the second section.

Next Steps

If you read the first section, you probably already know where we are going next. Let us unravel the plans for the future. These updates will be released in the order in which you read them.

(NOTE: Once 0.98.5 is released, updating all modules to this version will take top priority.)

Seats of Power 3.2: Armory Tab Update

I have been postponing this because of some very nasty bugs, but since I have reworked the UI for selecting ships, weapons, and fighters, I will release an update at some point that simply adds this feature.

I can guarantee that this update will be save-compatible.

Theory of Toolbox 1.1: Trade Events, Special Investors, and Stable Structure Rework

I heard you wanted more trade volatility. Sudden surges in demand or production across a single world, an entire faction, or even the whole sector? Well, that is what the 1.1 update will bring. Welcome back, VoS.

These events will purely affect how much a planet, faction, or the entire sector suddenly starts to produce or consume. Let us say that Gilead experiences an ongoing bad-crop canon event, causing every world within five light-years to produce less food depending on its proximity to Gilead, thus driving the demand for food even higher.

Or, in reverse, conditions could be so perfect that predictions show those worlds producing far more food than planned, potentially causing an excess in the sector.

Alternatively, Tri-Tachyon might become interested in exploring the sector, causing the demand for ships and fuel to skyrocket.

The purpose of these events is to introduce trade volatility and create an ever-changing sector landscape.

Special Investors, on the other hand, will provide very special trade contracts issued by contacts who are regarded as traders.

Fulfilling these contracts might grant you some concessions on resources, or perhaps something much, much more interesting.

The Stable Structure rework will allow you to govern an entire star system. Within it, you will be able to build a limited number of structures that provide bonuses to either you or your faction. It will heavily utilize the trade contract system.

The idea is to make systems with existing space infrastructure much more... appealing. You will also be able to manage it remotely instead of personally flying over and placing each structure manually. You are the leader of a faction. Surely, you have other people who can do that for you.

Vaults of Knowledge 5.1: PCF Rework, More Scientists, More Synergies

I want to turn PCF encounters into many different types of experiences. I have been learning a bit about making puzzle games, so perhaps some encounters will involve puzzles. Others may feature regular combat, and so on. What I want is for each encounter to offer something a little different instead of always making you fight the same enemy—or even requiring combat at all.

On top of that, a new scientist will be added, tied to a new special project: the Hyperspace Nullifier. He will also be a specialist in hyperspace in general, so he may provide your fleet with some additional bonuses.

Seats of Power 4.0: Faction Diplomacy, Crisis Rework, Faction Ambitions, Way More Policies, and More... Military Actions

There is also one more feature I am planning for version 4.0, but I will not mention it yet. First, I need to check whether it is actually possible.

The goal of version 4.0 will be to introduce politics into the sector. Basically, diplomacy and crises will intertwine with each other. This is still heavily in the design phase, as I am still thinking about exactly what I will include in the 4.0 update. The system I am planning must accomplish several things.

• No longer nothing ever happens: factions will respond to your... ambitions.
• They will not immediately take an interest in someone who lives 20 light-years away from the Core. I first want to add a period during which other factions need to discover that a new faction has been established.
• Reward players who play their cards well by allowing them to resolve issues with factions in multiple ways.

One of the things I really want to introduce is colony questlines, also known as Faction Ambitions. Basically, you choose a victory condition for your faction and receive quests to complete that take you down the path of that ambition.

This is a mechanic I have already been working on for some time, but it still requires a lot of work before it feels good.

Ad Astra Per Aspera

Hands of Demiurge 1.0: New Module, Faction Creator

The entire purpose of this module will be to offer, both with and without Nex, a starting option where you can create your own star system with colonies arranged exactly as you see fit. Of course, your choices will be limited by the number of points available to you.

You will also be able to save the star systems you create, allowing you to reuse them later or even share them with others in the same way that you can share patrol fleet templates. As in already made faction with all techs chosen, planets set up etc etc.

Question of Loyalty 3.0: Total Module Revamp, Career Paths, and Coup d'État

This is going to be another major project to undertake. I will be scrapping the entire QoL module and rebuilding it from the ground up. It will offer more than just money, including multiple career paths. Some will be more mercenary-focused, allowing you to freely jump from one faction to another, while others will lead you towards becoming a permanent member of a faction.

There will be more information about that once we get there. For now, that is everything I have planned.

Also wanted to use this dev diary to thank all Patreon supporters. We have reached goal of 1.1k euro. I am very glad of it, this is really helping me personally, as well as in commissioning stuff for mod.