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• Patch Notes·15 Sept 2026Official

  September 2026 Update: Our Take on RTS

  Greetings, Astra Odysseans!We hope you're doing well. We've been working on Beyond Astra, our first game, for almost seven years now. Development is taking longer than we imagined, and your patience and your messages of support mean a lot to us. Thank you as well for your feedback on these DevLogs: sharing the game with you as it takes shape is a real pleasure. Right now, Valentin is finishing up gameplay loops and fixing issues ahead of the beta.Beyond Astra is built on 4X mechanics, enriched by grand strategy and its six pillars (covered in Gameplay Insights #2 and #3) and by planetary city-building. Today we're looking at its RTS side: real-time combat. What we keep from RTSWhat draws us to RTS games is choosing between priorities: produce or invest, expand or defend, gather your forces, hold a position or attack. In Beyond Astra, your resources, your information and your decisions give you the means to face the other civilizations, the megafauna and the threats you'll meet along the way.That said, we want decisions and positioning to matter more than execution speed. Active pause and adjustable game speeds are there for exactly that. You can pause the game, assess the battle and issue your orders, then resume when you're ready.Zooming in and out also lets you make decisions at different scales. At the galactic scale, you choose where to commit your forces. As you zoom in, you identify unit roles and threats, then direct maneuvers on the ground or in space. The seamless zoom isn't just a visual showpiece: it's a command tool. Every unit countsIn the late game, you'll command fewer than a hundred units, ground and space combined. We want your army to stay manageable throughout the game, with every unit easy to recognize. That's the balance we're striking between the scale of battles and their readability.The six ship classes (Pioneer, Raider, Artillery, Escort, Cruiser and Vanguard) are designed to complement and counter each other. Each has its own base stats, it...
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• Patch Notes·20 Jul 2026Official

  July 2026 Update : The Four X's, in the Order You'll Live Them

  Greetings, Astra Odysseans!An honest note to start: we've been buried in balance passes and tooltips for weeks. It's not the glamorous side of game development, but it's what turns big systems into a playable game, and it brings the beta closer every day.Now, to today's topic. In our previous updates, we explored the six strategy pillars of Beyond Astra, the diversity of its planets, and your cities. This time, let's walk through how a game actually unfolds: the four X's, in the order you'll live them.For decades, the grand space 4X has carried a giant-spreadsheet reputation: brilliant, deep, slow to tame. Beyond Astra was born from a simple intent: keep the four X's and their depth, and make a game you read on the surface of its planets before you ever read it in a menu. eXploreYou start with one city and one Pioneer, on an almost unknown world. Your Pioneer holds the most important job in the game: going out to discover. Ruins, wildlife, a strange deposit two valleys over. Every analysis produces Exploration Points, Exploration Points become Knowledge, and Knowledge is what technologies cost.Then, space. Movement there is free: no route is ever forced on you. The lanes that exist are lanes you build yourself, for your trade; your ships can ride them for speed, or leave them at will. Space has real terrain of its own: paths that use the gravity of stars and planets to pick up speed. And the void between the stars isn't empty either: nebulae slow ships down and wear them out, they shelter their own fauna, and a unit hiding inside sees out without being seen.With planetary and space gameplay woven together, the wonder of science fiction lives on both sides of the sky.eXpandEvery civilization starts from the same line: a race from zero. Your first hour sets the tone: meet your population's needs, found a second city with a Command Center, produce your first Space Pioneer. Then follow it through liftoff, seamlessly, all the way to your first colony beyond your cradle.A...
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• Patch Notes·11 May 2026Official

  May 2026 Update: Galactic-Scale City-Building

  Greetings, Astra Odysseans!In our previous updates, we explored the six grand strategic pillars of Beyond Astra (Science, Religion, Culture, Economy, Diplomacy, and Military), as well as the diversity of the planets that make up our galaxy. Today, we are zooming in to focus on the beating heart of your civilization, the place where everything begins and converges: your Cities. The Visual Identity of Your EmpireLast year, we began the production of our 3D models. Visual identity is crucial: it is what truly anchors the immersion in a Space Opera. Your cities needed to be majestic and alive.Rather than arbitrarily tying an architectural style to a species, we took a different path. Architecture reflects the philosophy and values of your civilization. At the start of each game, you will choose the style that will define the appearance of your cities and units:Utility: A functional style defined by industrial concrete and metal. It is the architecture of a civilization driven by Ambition, prioritizing raw efficiency to maximize output.Bio-Shape: A style with soft tones, characterized by flowing and airy structures made of organic compounds. It embodies a society of Balance that chooses to live in symbiosis with nature.Pure: A sleek and minimalist futuristic style, with smooth, white surfaces. It is the society of Reason, where high technology fades into everyday life, leaving room only for clarity and the essential.Neo-Ancient: A revisited classicism blending warm stones, arches, and colonnades. It represents the society of Continuity, an empire proud of its heritage that builds for eternity by combining tradition and modernity.On a planetary scale, they look massive because they are; the unit next to them is already several hundred meters long. These cities are designed to house millions of people, and their density will only increase as your technology advances. The DNA of a City-Builder on a Galactic ScaleThe integration of spherical physical planets and our seamless...
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• Patch Notes·6 Mar 2026Official

  March 2026 Update: Forging New Worlds - Visuals, Biomes, and Exotic Wealth

  Greetings, Astra Odysseans! In our previous updates, we deep-dived into the grand strategic pillars of Beyond Astra: Science, Religion, Culture, Economy, Diplomacy, and Military. Today, we are taking a step back to discuss a lighter, yet equally vital topic: the worlds you will conquer, and how they look.But first, let's address the question we receive most often: "When is the game coming out?" The honest answer is: when we feel it is truly ready to deliver the experience you deserve. What we are showing you today is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the scenes, Valentin is constantly optimizing the engine, squashing bugs, and fine-tuning the intricate gears that make a living galaxy tick.The Visual EvolutionDuring the Alpha Preview Demo, we opted for a semi-stylized art direction with a restricted polygon count. We chose this path as a safety measure: we wanted vibrant, recognizable planets, but we needed an absolute guarantee that our seamless "city-to-galaxy" zoom would run smoothly on a wide range of PC configurations.Thanks to the incredible success of the game's announcement, the Alpha Demo, and your massive support, we gathered invaluable performance data from tens of thousands of different setups. The great news? Our multi-threading and engine optimizations performed even better than expected, leaving us with significant performance headroom.Coupled with the success of our Kickstarter and additional funding secured, we made a bold decision: pushing the game's visuals toward a more realistic, credible, and immersive art style.This visual leap leads us directly to the very foundation of Beyond Astra: The Planets.A Universe of BiomesBeyond Astra unfolds both in the void of space and on planetary surfaces. This balance between space and ground gameplay is the root of our tangible 4X experience. To make this universe feel alive, we have designed over 20 distinct planetary biomes for you to discover. When creating your civilization, you will choose a home biome,...
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• Patch Notes·21 Dec 2025Official

  December 2025 Update: Grand Strategy Overview - Economy, Diplomacy, & Military

  Greetings, Astra Odysseans!In our previous update, we explored the pillars of Science, Religion, and Culture. Today, we are completing the picture by diving into the remaining three foundations of Beyond Astra: Economy, Diplomacy, and Military.Development is progressing passionately. As many of you know, Beyond Astra is a debut project, coded entirely by Valentin. Originally, we aimed for a Beta release by the end of 2025. However, this window has shifted slightly to early 2026. The core game is solid, but we want to take this extra time to polish the experience. While the first phase of the Beta will still have rough edges, this additional time ensures a smoother entry into our universe. Beyond Astra is a 4X sci-fi game that unfolds both in space and on planetary surfaces, with a focus on tangible action. Going beyond simple menu navigation, the game empowers you to directly build cities, tame worlds, and command your forces. Let’s look at how this philosophy applies to the engines of war, wealth, and politics.EconomyAt its heart, economics is the management of your home. We wanted to move away from static spreadsheets and dragging pop icons into job slots. Instead, let’s look at the philosophy behind your empire’s growth.The City-Building FoundationIn Beyond Astra, your cities are the engine of your civilization. By integrating planetary gameplay into the 4X formula, we’ve added a layer of citybuilding. You have access to over 30 unique building types: housing, energy, agriculture, services, commerce, industry, and military defense. Because cities are your most precious assets, space is limited for defense purposes, meaning you cannot build everything in one place. You must specialize your cities to optimize your empire. To streamline this, you can save your best city layouts as Templates to instantly replicate your most efficient designs on new worlds.Resources & LogisticsThe galaxy is rich but unevenly distributed. Basic resources (water, minerals, fertile soil)...
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