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Changelog

What changed in each version of Orbitarion. Full technical detail lives in the in-app changelog (Settings → Changelog).

4.2.0 — 2026-08-25

New

  • Antimatter is a choice — every launch lets you decide whether to spend antimatter on the Warp tick (2 within your cluster, 3 across clusters). Decline and you travel one tick slower, spend nothing
  • Research queue (Premium) — queue one research behind the one running; cost taken on queue, refunded in full on cancel
  • Stronghold damage tracking — every Void stronghold shows how close it is to breaking, who did the damage, and what remains. Visible to everyone
  • Garrison floor warnings — your alliance is told the moment a holding drops below the minimum, with the shortfall and the deadline

Fixed

  • Stronghold defenders were effectively immortal — only the attacked planet ever took losses; breach rewards recalculated to scale with what the stronghold actually holds (10–25% by tier), plus the promised commander XP
  • The Void could not target Destroyers, Cruisers or Battleships while any light ship screened (its frigate now runs a standard Fr → De → Co chain)
  • Battle reports hid both losses and captures when you hijacked a ship type you already fly; battle news no longer calls a lost attack "Defence held!"
  • A newly installed Orbital Shield now starts at 0% and switched off — upkeep scales with strength and orbitals, so it no longer bills you while protecting nothing. Shield confirmations on iOS actually work now
  • Alliance defence fleets hold position 1–5 ticks like every other defending fleet; Diamond −1 tick applies to them; reinforcing a Dominion sector during its cooldown works

4.1.0 — 2026-08-24

Alliances are now permanent. Your alliance carries over to every new round, and you stay a member until you leave or an officer removes you — missing a round never costs you your seat.

New

  • Give up a Nebula slot or Dominion sector deliberately — garrison comes home, territory reverts to the Void
  • Recall a deployed alliance defence fleet to the pool; arrival previews show whether a deployment beats the incoming attack; multi-ship donations in one go
  • Battle reports are open to everyone — knowing what happened in your own fight is neither cosmetic nor convenience
  • Donors of alliance defence ships get their own battle report

Territory

  • The garrison floor is 50% of a holding's full capacity (all ten garrison positions combined), with 48 ticks to meet it before the Void takes the holding back. Slots and sectors show committed value, required value, and the countdown
  • Fixed capacity reading ten times too high, countdowns carrying over to a new owner, understaffed holdings never reverting, and one-sided nebula adjacency

Fixed

  • Captured ships no longer fight in the battle they were taken in
  • A winning attacker no longer scatters; winning attacks take orbitals again
  • Alliance defence fleets travel with real ETAs, are visible to military scans, and no longer freeze when two return on the same tick
  • Alliance tier now updates when VP comes from treasury donations
  • The ad orbital reward gives 5 initiated orbitals (2 Ti / 2 Si / 1 Ur) instead of 1 uninitiated
  • The Void no longer appears in player or galaxy rankings
  • Battle report rows show all four outcomes at once: sent, destroyed, hijacked, frozen

4.0.0

The biggest update the game has had. Full notes in the app under Settings → Changelog.

New systems

  • Void Strongholds — a tenth, Void-only galaxy per cluster at four difficulty tiers. Attack one planet and fight the whole galaxy; wear its strength down and share the breach reward by damage done. While the Void is awake, a full-strength stronghold can mobilise against the top of the rankings. Guide: Void Strongholds
  • Territory upkeep — holding Nebula slots and Dominion sectors now costs the alliance treasury every tick, superlinearly with total holdings. Under-garrisoned or unpaid territory reverts to the Void; you can also release a holding deliberately for a partial refund
  • R&D research branch — expedition vessels that hunt orbitals or antimatter, the new resource that fuels Warp Drive and can be donated to the alliance treasury. Guide: Research
  • Ion Thrusters — a fourth Engines tier; the fuel discount moved here, and Warp Drive now burns antimatter on launches outside your own galaxy
  • Alliance ship pool — donate ships, and the Defence Minister (renamed from Communications Officer) deploys pooled fleets to members under attack. Score-neutral for donors
  • Alliance treasury now takes antimatter; manual donations award VP. Auto-donate (Premium) streams 5–50% of your income to the treasury — automatic donations award no VP
  • Galaxy invite codes — bring a friend straight into your galaxy

Combat

  • Orbital Shield rebuilt — drains by a fixed percentage per attack based on the attacker's fleet value against your orbital network; breaks at 60% charge (was 25%); never participates in combat. Guide: Orbital Shield
  • Targeting ladder — T1 100% / T2 85% / T3 70%, and a ship with no valid target class now fires at 40% instead of sitting out the battle
  • Ship-steal everywhere — Cartel steal-ships now fight (and hijack) in the Nebula and Dominion; each hijack consumes one steal-ship, and hijacked ships count toward the 50% panic-retreat floor
  • Military scans reveal fleets inbound to your target (Quantum Scanners)
  • Spymaster cloak is a 96-tick cooldown instead of once per season
  • Commander rank nodes — points past a fully unlocked tree buy repeatable tier-5 bonuses at escalating cost. Engineer commanders now earn XP from orbitals initiated, build batches and research — not just combat

Quality of life

  • Net income in the top bar (shield upkeep already deducted)
  • Inactive planets are taken over by a caretaker bot after 7 days — you get the planet back the moment you log in
  • Rebuilt spy reports, grouped Intel events, fleet value in every fleet tab, alliance fleet overview with collision warnings, online status for alliance members

3.1.0

  • Orbital Shield — a new four-tier PDS research chain (Shield I–IV). Charge it with your orbital network: while the shield holds 25%+ charge, no orbitals can be stolen from you. Control strength, upkeep and charge from the Overview screen. Full guide: Orbital Shield
  • Saved Loadouts — build fleet templates once, fill a fleet with one tap from the Galaxy sheet or Shipyard. 1 slot for everyone, 5 with Premium
  • Orbital theft rebalanced — losing attackers now steal nothing, draws steal less (0.40×)
  • Planetary Shield Generator is now pure armor (max 1) — theft protection moved to the Orbital Shield
  • Battle reports show shield results: damage absorbed, SHIELD HELD or SHIELD BREACHED
  • Planet Scans show the target's shield tier; Military Scans also show the combat-effective charge %
  • Battle Calculator on tools.orbitarion.com simulates shields and prefills from Military Scans

3.0.3

  • Daily Missions overhaul — catalog expanded to 60 mission types, smarter assignment (impossible missions are never handed out), better daily variety, and skipping never leaves you without a mission
  • Daily mission tracker on the Overview screen with streak & progress
  • Mission titles and Commander briefings now in all 9 languages
  • Mission sheet: close button, clearer claim state, streak meter fix
  • Push notifications fully localized (trade, streak rewards, and more)
  • Nebula error messages now shown in your language
  • Fixed the planned-attack screen showing the wrong language
  • Ghost fleet: max size now correctly scales with your fleet
  • Research XP now matches round settings
  • Market offers you can't afford are clearly marked
  • Ranking points visible on all platforms
  • In-app review prompts at key moments
  • Lots of UI fixes — sheets and layouts work on all platforms

3.0.2

  • Planned attacks: fleets that are away can now be scheduled — they launch automatically on return
  • Scheduled-launch failure reasons localized in all 9 languages
  • Daily mission catalog expanded, with localized Commander flavor
  • Commander balance pass: Tactician and Defender trait values re-tuned
  • Speed-round banner on the Overview screen
  • The Void's name corrected across all languages

3.0.0 — Trade & Raid

  • Trading: player-to-player market with offers, escrow, and delivery — gated by a new four-tier Trading research branch (galaxy → cluster → The Void → all clusters)
  • Raid corvettes: one per race (Harrier, Broodleach, Specter, Raider) that steal resource stockpiles; the old STC steal-corvette Raider was renamed Marauder
  • Daily Missions: Commander-driven objectives with rewards and a 7-day streak
  • Ship scrapping: break ships down for 40% of their build cost
  • EMP rebalance: Aetherian Pulse, Arc, and Volt now fire earlier — the freeze lands before the enemy shoots

2.x highlights

  • 2.0: Commander system (four archetypes, trait trees), Orbital Dominion (the alliance hex star map), the Sytherian Cartel ship-steal redesign, and the public Battle Calculator
  • 2.1–2.4: Nebula War expansion, Void Awakens, player trading (the system the v3 market is built on), alliance war plans and diplomacy, scheduled fleet launches, and the panic-retreat / scatter combat safety net

Documentation reflects Orbitarion v4.2. Last updated: 2026-08-25.