Ports on Big Bang Smugglers

Ports & Services

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The eleven services

A port runs a fixed set of services determined by its archetype. If the service isn’t there, the action isn’t available.

Service	What it does	Where
`trading`	Buy and sell commodities	Every port
`banking`	Deposit and withdraw — you must be at a teller	The three starports, Federation Ports
`shipyard`	Buy, sell and switch hulls; restock; limpet sweeps	The three starports
`repair`	Restore shields and hull	The three starports, Federation Ports
`upgrade`	Buy stat upgrades, drives and tech modules	Tech Ports, Pirate Haven, Merchant Exchange
`research`	Tech modules and intel	Research Ports
`supplies`	Deployables and provisions (turns)	The three starports, Agricultural Ports
`recruitment`	Security personnel and mining workers	The three starports
`defense`	Defense contracts (purchased PvP immunity)	Stardock, Merchant Exchange, Federation Ports
`blackmarket`	Buy and fence contraband; cloaking devices	Pirate Bases, Black Markets, Pirate Haven
`tavern`	Rumors and intel; mercenary retinue hiring	Stardock, Pirate Bases, Pirate Haven
`priceboard`	Galaxy-wide live price sheet	Merchant Exchange only

The bounty office is not a service key: posting a bounty and redeeming faction claims happen at the two faction capitals — the Stardock and the Pirate Haven — and nowhere else.

v2.1.0 — Out of Beta

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Everything shipped since v2.0.9 — a launch-month cleanup rolled into one release.

Out of beta

The beta labels are gone, the app store link points where it should, and the game now has a proper credits screen. Thanks for flying with us this far.

Combat & mines

Minefields now name the captain who laid them — in the moment, and in the feed.
Mine strikes are reported as attacks, not bad weather.
Escape pods work the way you’d expect: a pod is a respawn, defending yourself earns the protection it should, and post-battle immunity actually covers everything it claims to.
A rare double-report on NPC kills and a bounty-payout accounting bug are fixed.

Ports & trading

The Port and Starport screens are now one Station Directory — one dock, one door.
Bounty offices live at the faction capitals, where they belong.
Per-transaction purchase caps are gone.
Planet trading posts got a real storefront, and your cargo’s cost basis follows it properly through storage and sales.

Quality of life

Victims of an attack are told about it.
Filter chips wrap instead of scrolling.
Sector headcounts count the captains you can actually see.
Admin announcements can now reach you in-game as a toast.

Seasons ahead

Groundwork shipped for seasons of any length — sprints to marathons — each tuned so progression fits its span. Current galaxies are unchanged; you’ll see this in action when the next season begins.

v2.0.4 — The Galaxy Comes Alive

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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:

v1.20.0 — Limpet Tracker and Deployable Mines

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 18:00:00 +0000

v1.20.0 sharpens the deployable layer and ships a batch of critical fixes from v1.19.0.

The headline is the Limpet Tracker — the first device in the game designed for intelligence gathering rather than direct combat. Proximity mine behavior also closes a long-standing warp loophole, and the Hangar gets a proper home as a visitable location with better trade-in terms.

Limpet Tracker

The Limpet Tracker is a new deployable available for purchase at ports.

v1.18.0 — Planets 2.0

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:13:44 +0000

v1.18.0 is the largest planet update in Big Bang Smugglers history, paired with cinematic travel moments, new combat systems, and improvements across trade, navigation, and corporation management.

Planets 2.0 — Claim, Build, and Defend Your Worlds

Planet development is fundamentally richer in v1.18.0.

The planet economy is now config-driven with up to 2.5× production output, so a well-developed world produces far more than before.

Planets can now be taken by force. The new siege combat module lets you assault rival planets and capture them for your own. On defense, build a Barracks to produce fighters and garrison your planet, then cap it with the Citadel — a high-tier capstone structure that boosts both production and defensive strength.

v1.17.2 — Season-End Stability

Fri, 08 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

v1.17.2 is a stability patch addressing two issues uncovered after the Red Dwarf beta season ended.

Blank Screen on Season End

The app could briefly show a blank screen when launched after a season had closed, then loop back to the recap screen repeatedly. Both issues are resolved; the app now navigates correctly to the season recap on first open.

Post-Season World Cleanup

After a season ends, sectors, ports, planets, and player galaxy links are supposed to be cleared automatically. A missing function registration meant this cleanup job was never deployed and never ran, leaving old world data in place indefinitely. The registration has been corrected; ended seasons will now be fully cleaned up and archived as intended.

v1.15.0 — Trading, Repair, and Beacon Travel Fixes

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:59:00 +0000

v1.15.0 improves several of the most common day-to-day actions in Big Bang Smugglers: trading, repairing, navigating, and moving between beacon locations.

This release also clears out a cluster of state-sync issues that were making some screens look wrong even when the underlying game data was correct.

Better Trading Max Calculations

Port trading Max buttons now respect both available hold capacity and current port stock.

That means the buy flow stops overfilling the quantity field with values your ship cannot actually carry.

v1.14.1 — Security Hardening and Web Launch Prep

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0400

v1.14.1 is a security-focused release that hardens account protection, improves session safety, and lays the groundwork for the upcoming web launch.

Stronger Account and Session Security

This release adds multiple layers of protection to how the game verifies your identity and safeguards your session.

Client connections now use device-level attestation, session storage is more resistant to common browser-based attacks, and server-side checks are stricter about who can access what. These changes apply across Android, iOS, and the upcoming web client.

v1.10.3 — Scanning, Factions & Pricing

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:00:00 -0400

v1.10.3 brings faster scanning, faction-driven economics, and a round of scan reliability fixes.

Instant Scan Sector Results

Sector scans now return results immediately with richer detail. The bridge flow is faster — no waiting, no extra taps. You scan, you see what’s out there.

Faction Reputation Pricing

Your faction standing now directly affects your wallet. Ports controlled by factions you’re aligned with offer discounts on trades and purchases. Hostile factions mark prices up. NPC traders follow the same rules — reputation matters everywhere you spend credits.

v1.7.0 — Corps Tab Rebuild

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 19:05:00 -0400

v1.7.0 is a bigger corporation update that rolls the recent corps fixes into a cleaner, more integrated interface.

The Corps tab has been rebuilt from the old sub-tab layout into a card-based screen that stays in theme with the rest of the app and puts the most important actions directly in front of you.

Corps Tab Rebuild

The old My Corp / Browse / Create sub-tabs are gone.

If you are not in a corporation, the Corps tab now shows:

Combat System Highlights: v1.2.6 through v1.4.3

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Over the past couple of weeks, combat has seen the most significant overhaul in Big Bang Smugglers history. This is a quick summary of what changed and why.

Shields Are Now the Only Thing You Repair

Before v1.4.0, repair was a blurry concept. The starport would try to restore fighters, torpedoes, and shields all at once, but the math was inconsistent and the display was confusing. More importantly, it didn’t make a lot of thematic sense — you don’t “repair” bullets.

v1.4.3 — Combat Loss Fixes

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 20:00:00 +0000

v1.4.3 fixes a series of bugs where losing a fight had no real consequences.

Combat Losses Now Stick

When you lost a fight, the defeat recap screen appeared correctly but nothing actually changed. Your shields, fighters, and credits were untouched, and your ship was never disabled. This happened in two different ways:

For non-aggressive NPCs, the combat commit was fire-and-forget — if it failed silently, you’d see the recap but no effects applied. The fix: the app now waits for the commit before showing the recap, and surfaces an error if something goes wrong.

v1.4.1 — Starport Weapon Purchase

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:00:00 +0000

v1.4.1 finishes the weapon purchase system introduced in v1.4.0 and fixes a loot calculation bug.

Weapon Purchase in TriStar Shipyard

The Fighter Bay and Torpedo Bay are now available inside the TriStar Shipyard & Maintenance Bay at any starport. Use the quantity stepper to buy as many fighters or torpedoes as you want at flat prices — 75 credits per fighter, 150 credits per torpedo — up to your ship’s maximum capacity.

v1.4.0 — Combat Overhaul

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000

v1.4.0 is a significant overhaul of the combat system and how you manage your ship’s weapons and defenses.

Attack vs Defense

Combat power is now split into separate attack and defense calculations.

Shields are pure defense. They have no effect on your attack power — only on how hard you are to damage or disable.

Fighters are pure attack. They deal damage but contribute nothing to your defense.

Torpedoes are pure attack with a heavier punch than fighters. One torpedo is worth roughly 2.5 fighters in attack power, but costs twice as much to purchase.

v1.3.5 — Repair Modal & Feed Polish

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 22:00:00 +0000

v1.3.5 is a small polish release.

Styled Repair Complete Screen

The plain gray system dialog that appeared after repairing your ship at a starport has been replaced with a proper in-game screen. It now shows exactly what was restored (fighters, shields, torpedoes) and what it cost, including bank fees if applicable.

Feed Highlights Trimmed

“Your Recent Highlights” in the Galaxy Feed now shows one item instead of five. It was too noisy.

v1.2.6 — Starport Polish & Ship Stats

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Version 1.2.6 is a polish pass on the starport and ship screen, fixing a cluster of display and behavior bugs reported by players.

Shipyard Overhaul

The shipyard now shows fighters, torpedoes, and cargo holds as separate cards, each with a consistent layout: your current count, the maximum you can reach with upgrades, and a buy button with the cost shown inline. If a stat is fully upgraded the buy button is replaced with a confirmation so you know you have hit the ceiling.

v1.2.3 — Bug Fixes

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Version 1.2.3 is a follow-up to v1.2.1, which introduced several regressions that made it into the Play Store before they were caught. This release finishes what 1.2.1 started.

Combat Power

Your combat power was always displaying as 50 during NPC encounters regardless of your actual fighters, shields, and torpedoes. The screen data endpoint that powers the navigation screen was returning a stripped-down ship object that omitted combat stats entirely. It now returns the full stat set, so your displayed combat power reflects your actual ship.

v1.2.2 — Web and Screen Data Fixes

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Version 1.2.2 is a hotfix for regressions introduced in v1.2.1’s performance pass.

What Broke

The v1.2.1 performance update removed unnecessary authentication token refreshes from every cloud function call. During that cleanup, three composite data endpoints were accidentally rewired to call the wrong backend functions. Each one returned a different data shape than the screen expected, causing silent failures.

The navigation screen went blank. The starport showed “Unavailable.” The ship screen failed to load. All three issues had the same root cause.

v1.2.1 — Performance, Warp, and Combat Fixes

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Version 1.2.1 is a performance and bug fix release. The game should feel noticeably faster across the board.

Performance

Every cloud function call – moving, trading, scanning, combat, warp, everything – was force-refreshing the authentication token before executing. Firebase tokens are valid for an hour, so this was an unnecessary server round trip on every single action, adding roughly half a second to a full second of latency each time. That is removed. The whole game is faster now.

Planet Combat, Intel Brokers & Starport Fixes

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Big night. 14 issues closed across two parallel workstreams — new features going in while bugs from yesterday’s QA session got fixed simultaneously.

New Features

Planet Combat

You can now attack enemy planets. Raid them for loot, hold them with your garrison, lose them if you leave them exposed. The planet raid system closes the loop on one of the biggest gaps from the Feb 6th planets audit — we had colonization and production, but no way to actually fight over territory. That changes today.

Starport Services Launch

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Remember the Federation Starports redesign post? The one where most sections said “coming soon”?

Today we crossed them off.

12 GitHub issues closed. All six starport locations now fully operational. The redesign isn’t a concept anymore — it’s live.

What Shipped

TriStar Shipyard

Warp drive is now a real thing you can buy and install at the shipyard. The upgrade path works too — take your existing drive and push it to the next tier. Both the install and upgrade functions went through testing and shipped today.

Federation Starports: From Menus to Living Spaces

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000

The old starports felt like a vending machine.

Click a tab. Pick a service. Done. Functional? Sure. Immersive? Not even close.

The new starports feel like a place you actually visit.

When you dock now, you see a directory. Six distinct locations. Each with its own name, its own purpose, its own vibe. You’re not navigating menus—you’re walking through a space station.

The Six Locations

🏦 Federation Reserve Bank

Your credits. Secured.