Heading into the 4th quarter of 2026, my goal looms ahead. I am confident of reaching it. Now that Friends and Family testing is ongoing, that confidence continues to rise.
A shout out to Imbonked, Kazz, Calzu, Surge, MixedBeast, Parzival, Stocky, and Tootie for the time, feedback, and work they have already put into Commander's Gambit.
The Dev Notes will change a little from here. With people actively testing the game, I want to openly share their feedback, what they find, what I change because of it, and what I learn from watching other people actually play the game.
I spend far more time fixing and adjusting now. I think the heavy part of “creating” is done for this stage. That is a heavy but welcome change.
Friday Dev Notes — October 2, 2026
Player Canvas / Main Map
- Map size increased
- Map pans via WASD and arrow keys — moved map controls from direct C++ key handling to Enhanced Input; middle mouse hold was unreliable and felt awkward
- Mouse zoom in/out functional through the middle mouse wheel
- New base starfield layer
- New Grid System implemented
- Fog of War added
- New map populated with all celestial bodies — Data Table populated with all bodies and their coordinates
- Rebuilt several menus for cleaner presentation and function — moved more functions into C++ and kept helpers focused on visuals
Combat Interface
- Combat Alert is now available on all screens — it is never fully hidden
- Clicking “Combat Alert” expands or collapses the details while leaving the alert itself visible
- Flashes when a new battle alert arrives
- Failure notices added for combat action buttons — particularly useful on “Claim,” where it will tell you why the action failed (not enough Credits, etc.)
- The failure-notice system works across all combat action buttons
Fleet System
While setting up the Fleet basics on the Player Action Panel, I decided to use the opportunity to lay in the stubs for the complete Fleet system. Fleet is its own system and belongs more naturally on the main screen. Current / planned Fleet functions:
- Create / Rally — when a ship is built, it can join an existing fleet or create a new fleet
- Patrol
- Assign
- Transport troops / Special People
- Land Troops
- Bombard
- Scout — scan a planet using a ship; added
SensorRangeto ships to support the Scout action - Marauder — has subcommands, planned for a future release
- Raid — has subcommands, planned for a future release
- Also added to Fleet: Light Fighter and Light Freighter
Data / Systems
- All Celestial Bodies and Body Sectors are now in the Data Tables — 135 sectors!?!
- Improvement Data Tables cleaned up and set for testing
- Added deterministic seed/state identification
- Added command history/replay
- Added save system
- Added basic character creation
- Added basic intro
Friends and Family
- Friends and Family pre-alpha testing released September 29, 2026
- Lots of little touch-ups made specifically for Friends and Family testing
- Added the forgotten Exit Game button!!! :)
Alpha
The steady, deliberate march to Alpha has officially begun.
