RELEASE NOTES 3 August 2026
B Big Bang Smugglers
Release 3 August 2026

v2.0.4 — The Galaxy Comes Alive

The public feed now tells the galaxy's story — battles, captures, claims, and commissions — plus hull differentiation for all 45 ships, warp fixes, and honest hangar values.

Day two of launch week, and the galaxy just got a lot louder.

The Feed Tells the Story

Until today, the galaxy feed only carried system notices — battles, land grabs, and arrivals were happening all around you, invisibly. No more:

  • Battle reports. Every PvP engagement now posts publicly — “X destroyed Y in sector N,” or drove them off, or watched them run. The ⚔️ combat lane from v1 is back.
  • Ship commissionings. When a captain commissions a tier-3+ hull, the galaxy hears about it.
  • Land and war. Planet claims, port captures, and ports shaking off their occupiers all post publicly now — several of these were being written with your name on them and delivered to no one.
  • New captains and season honors appear for everyone, and feed entries carry proper categories again.

Every Ship Is Now Its Own Ship

A sharp-eyed captain noticed two ship classes with identical stats. The audit found it ran deeper: the Federation line was a stat-for-stat clone of the neutral line. As of today:

  • Federation hulls carry +10% base shields — the doctrine is now Federation = shields, Pirate = escape and hidden compartments, Neutral = baseline.
  • All 45 purchasable hulls have provably unique stats, and an automated test now makes it impossible to ever ship a duplicate again.
  • The T4 Starlane Guardian’s sensor edge now actually improves on T3 (reveals cloaked ships at StarNav 2+), and the Star Galleon finally gets its identity: +10% cargo capacity.

Your owned ships keep everything they have — ceilings only went up.

Fixes

  • Warp travel was blocked for everyone by a false “not enough turns” — fixed.
  • The StarNav 2002 install button was missing from the starport — fixed, and drive pricing now comes straight from the live catalog.
  • The hangar showed “Paid 0 cr · Value 0 cr” — ships now record what you actually paid, and Value shows the real trade-in quote.

Android: version 2.0.4 is rolling out on Google Play. Web players at play.bigbangsmugglers.com are already flying it.