News
News from building Nova Protocol
One post per release, in the spirit of Factorio's Friday Facts - candid about what shipped and why, with the highlights, screenshots, and the occasional video. Patch releases fold into their feature post; for the terse, complete list of every version see CHANGELOG.md.
v0.15.0 - A world to fly into
A seeded open world of rock fields, planetoids, wrecks and generated ships - and a ship with a hold, a mining beam, a cargo intake and docked trade to work it.
v0.14.0 - Every ship at its own scale
Newtonian flight, physical docking, a story rescue and a 62-lesson handbook - with combat, cameras, wrecks and the HUD all measuring the real hull.
v0.13.0 - The game on screen
A railgun the ship has to aim, sections that are machines, a fleet the game draws itself, rock that is a material, and the first audio pass - all of it in meters.
v0.12.0 - Build the mission
The editor holds the whole mission and saves it as a mod, every key and pad button rebinds from Settings, and combat learns it happens in a vacuum.
v0.11.0 - Ships come apart
Ships wear damage and tear into wrecks, every round and torpedo gets a readable purpose, derived skins give hulls four identities, the editor becomes visual, and bullets leave the physics world.
v0.10.0 - Nova demonstrates itself
Nova gains proof-bearing automated runs, semantic ship parts with explicit structural mates, typed scenario lifecycle edges, reproducible captures, and clearer ownership throughout the engine.
v0.9.0 - Cockpit and command
The cockpit becomes a NOVA OS ship computer: a phosphor CRT terminal with command output, apps, sound and power controls. Combat gets allegiance markers and neutralized ships, scenarios browse by campaign, and the website adopts the same phosphor skin.
v0.8.0 - The campaign finds its voice
The base campaign is finished and learns to talk - two new chapters close the arc and the whole mainline breathes between beats. The Ledger mod grows a stealth run, a forking finale and a reward chapter, Gauntlet becomes a time-trial, and the new nova_probe run-harness verifies a playthrough is still correct.
v0.7.0 - A game you can win or lose
Scenarios can declare victory or defeat, a second base chapter and a full campaign mod land, fights get smarter with cover and reloads and earned locks, RCS docking thrusters arrive, and a real Settings menu ships.
v0.6.0 - Mods over the wire
A static mod portal and an in-game Explore online tab install and update mods over the wire, dependencies resolve end to end, a Scenarios picker lands on the main menu, and particles return to the web on WebGPU.
v0.5.0 - Lock, look, and a front door
Passive targeting gives way to deliberate radar locking with a live viewfinder and kill cam, the Shakedown Run teaches the first minutes, typed damage arrives, and the game gets a menu and a home on the web.
v0.4.0 - The flight toy learns to fight
Guided torpedoes, a targeting arc, turret auto-aim, a faction model, an AI wave that fights back, and the first audio and combat juice.
v0.3.0 - Where and when it hurts
Zone lifecycle events for richer scenarios, the torpedo bay with area-of-effect blast damage, per-section health, and sharper shaders - then the Bevy 0.19 jump in 0.3.1.
v0.2.0 - A reason to fly
A data-driven events and queue system, the first scenario and modding capabilities, and procedurally destructible asteroids. Video devlog included.
v0.1.0 - A cube learns to fly
Where it started: thruster-driven modular ships, PD-controlled steering, turrets that shoot, and sections that shatter into chunks. Video devlog included.