Shared Skies Update

New

Multiplayer

• See every pilot in the system. Pilots in the same star system now see each other anywhere in the system, not only nearby. Every pilot appears in your Tactical list tagged hostile, neutral or friendly, and you can warp straight to them.
• Rules of engagement, up front. Before you open fire, the Tactical list and the target panel show what attacking that pilot means where you are. In Lawless space any pilot is fair game. In Contested space PvP is allowed, but an unprovoked attack costs law standing and marks you a criminal for a while. In Secure space attacking a pilot is a crime: you lose law standing, you are marked a criminal and the Accord Marshals respond. Your clan and crew are friendly, and your weapons hold fire on them.

Music

• A new soundtrack. Thirteen new pieces of music for hangars and stations, for Secure, Contested and Lawless space, and for the long quiet of exploration.

Community

• Join us on Discord. The official XETODUS Discord is open: find wingmates and clans, share screenshots and talk with the team. Join the Discord.
• Send feedback from the game. Press F8, or choose Send feedback in Settings, to send a bug report, an idea or a balance note straight to the developers, with an optional screenshot.
• Leaderboards, redesigned. The public leaderboards page has a new look: the top 100 pilots overall and on every skill board, no sign-in needed.

Account

• Passkey sign-in. Sign in with a passkey right from the callsign field.
• Welcome and verification email. New accounts get a welcome email with a link to verify their address. You can resend it from Account settings.
• Passphrase recovery. Forgot your passphrase? Pilots with a verified email can now reset it from the sign-in screen. Your authenticator and passkeys stay in place, and you are signed out everywhere for safety.

Ships and travel

• Stored ships. The hangar now lists the ships you have stored at other stations, with a button to set a course to each one.
• Skip animations. A new Skip animations option (Settings, Gameplay, and the jump gate screen) shortens the jump and warp tunnel sequences. Travel times stay the same.

Improvements

Flight and multiplayer

• Other pilots' ships move more smoothly, with fewer jumps and snaps, even on a busy connection.
• The jump animation is ready before you need it, so jumps and undocking start without a hitch.

NPC ships

• NPC ships close to you are now drawn in full detail, with the same navigation lights, engine glow and trails as player ships.
• Better performance in busy systems with many NPC ships.

Graphics

• Lower memory use on the lower graphics presets.
• Switching graphics presets is faster and shows a progress bar.
• Ships and stations finish loading before you enter the game, so the first view is complete.

Interface

• A compact hint shows when the mouse is released from flight control.
• Phones and narrow windows get an icon menu with a labeled More page.
• Tooltips on touch screens stay open until you close them, and now have a close button.
• A countdown banner announces scheduled maintenance on every screen, so you can land safely before it starts.
• Account settings can now be opened from the flight menu and the station list.
• Flight School has new story moments to guide your first flight.

Fixes

• Fixed NPC ships sometimes showing only their lights, without the ship, on some graphics presets.
• Fewer graphics crashes. If the graphics driver does stop, the game now recovers on its own at safer settings.
• Fixed the chat window jumping to the top of the screen and locking in place when you send a private message. On desktop it now stays where you put it.
• Fixed the terms of service checkbox on the sign-up screen.
• Fixed several layout issues on phones and small screens.
• Fixed the install banner on website pages that show screenshots.

Balance

• Flight School: the training scout now gives new pilots a few seconds to get their bearings before it opens fire, and hits a little softer.

Coming soon

Clearer navigation icons, a wanted-status display, and activation modes for repair and defense modules (Manual, Auto on damage and With Engage).