Ownership in the galaxy is no longer permanent just because you planted a flag first. Leave a world undefended, and another commander can take it from you.
Planet Ownership Can Now Change Hands
Claimed planets can now be captured by other commanders if they're left undefended.
A planet is considered defended when one of its owner's ships is parked at the Citadel. If nobody is guarding it, another commander can land, claim the world, and take ownership.
A planet without a Citadel is always vulnerable — there's nothing there capable of securing the claim.
Want to protect a world? Leave a ship behind:
Citadel → Exchange Trader Ships → Park Ship Here
As long as one of your ships remains stationed at the Citadel, the planet cannot be claimed by another commander.
Try to claim a defended world and you'll now be told exactly what's stopping you:
"This planet is already claimed and defended — its owner needs to evacuate any ships parked at the Citadel first."
And capturing a developed planet means capturing everything that comes with it. Colonists, the Citadel, Treasury funds, and existing Planetary Trade Agreements all remain intact and transfer to the new owner.
If that planet was earning money through a Trade Agreement, the agreement keeps running — the revenue simply starts flowing to whoever controls the planet now.
Trade Port Agreements
The Citadel also has a new Trade Port Agreements option, located directly beneath Display Traders Here.
It provides a quick report of every port currently doing business with your planet, including its sector, traded commodity, and your negotiated revenue share.
Garrison the worlds you care about. Leave them unattended, and someone else may eventually decide they care about them more.
Combat Overhaul — New Rules of Engagement
Combat received a major overhaul. The old fixed exchange of damage has been replaced with a set of rules governing how ships respond, how sector defenses participate, and what happens when you fly into trouble.
Rules of Engagement
Every ship now has its own Rules of Engagement setting controlling how it retaliates when attacked.
Aggressive — Fight to the Death Your ship commits everything it has left to the counterattack. Fighters are spent whether you win or lose.
Measured — Tit for Tat Your ship responds proportionally, committing only what the attacker committed against you rather than throwing everything into the fight.
Hull statistics still determine actual combat effectiveness. Rules of Engagement determine how much you're willing to commit when somebody takes a shot at you.
Every Fight Leaves a Record
Combat now generates a Daily Log entry for everyone involved.
The sector, combatants, and outcome are recorded, while exact damage information remains deliberately vague. Whether your ship survives or gets destroyed, you'll know a fight happened and who was involved.
Tolls Are Now a Choice
Flying into a hostile Toll deployment no longer automatically deducts credits.
Instead, your ship stops and you're given three choices:
Pay the Toll. Attack the deployed fighters. Retreat.
You have 30 seconds to decide before the server resolves the encounter automatically.
The encounter is maintained server-side, so refreshing your browser won't make the problem disappear.
Sector Attacks Resolve in Order
Sector hazards now follow a predictable combat sequence.
Any hostile fighters deployed in Offensive mode attack an arriving ship first.
Only after those attacks have resolved is a Toll deployment evaluated.
That means you won't simultaneously be negotiating a toll while somebody else's fighters are already shooting holes in your hull. Survive the sector first. Then deal with the toll collector.
Defensive Fighters Actually Defend
Defensive deployments now live up to their name.
Attack another commander's ship or planet — including using an Atomic Detonator — and deployed fighter stacks belonging to that commander or their corporation in the same sector can respond.
That includes fighters specifically placed in Defensive mode.
They won't attack somebody simply for entering the sector, but attack what they're protecting and they join the fight.
Combat is no longer just a fixed exchange of numbers. How you configure your ship, where you deploy fighters, whether you pay or challenge a toll, and what forces are nearby can now determine how an encounter unfolds.
More in This Update
Sector View Name Labels
Ship, fighter, and object labels in the zoomed sector view are now rendered as actual 3D sprites inside the scene rather than flat text layered over it.
That means labels finally obey depth correctly. If another object moves in front of a label, it blocks the label instead of the text magically floating over everything.
Cloaked ships, naturally, never display a name label.
Name Label Toggle
A new toggle in the Computer nav panel, next to the billboard icon, lets you turn sector name labels on or off.
Labels default to on, and your preference is saved to your account between sessions.
Hide-UI / Mobile Viewing Mode
Want the galaxy without the controls covering it?
A new eye icon in the Computer nav panel hides the entire navigation pad and Computer interface, giving you a clean, unobstructed view of the sector.
A small floating eye button remains in the upper-right corner so you can bring the interface back whenever you need it.
It's especially useful on mobile, where every bit of screen space counts.
Visual Tuning
Beacon, billboard, ship, fighter, mine, and pod positioning has also been adjusted in sectors without Trade Ports.
Objects now sit more naturally within the scene instead of appearing awkwardly high when there's no port structure beneath them.
The galaxy is getting harder to hold onto.
Planets can change hands. Defensive fleets matter. Tolls can turn into firefights. Ships can decide how aggressively they retaliate.
Claiming territory is easy.
Keeping it is becoming the interesting part.