I hit a personal goal last week with getting Friends and Family to its 3rd iteration. It was a pretty big overhaul.
Work this week was all about refining that 3rd iteration into the best possible version.
Little changes, tweaks to the presentation and layout, and making the overall experience better is, was, and will continue to be my goal. To that end, I also released Friends and Family 3.1, which cleaned up some unexpected visual overlaps, fixed a couple of minor bugs, and added a little more along the way.
Friday Dev Notes — October 16, 2026
From this point forward, Friends and Family updates will be organized around release numbers. That should make it easier to follow what changed, what was fixed, and what was added with each build.
3.1 was primarily about refinement, cleanup, and fixing things found after the larger Friends and Family 3.0 release.
Explore
- Added the new Explore command
- Troop-carrying ships can explore unknown locations over multiple turns
- A successful exploration reveals one sector and returns the troops
- Exploration can fail if the transport is destroyed, the transport moves away, or the troops encounter defenders
Tech Tree
- Fixed the Stall Reason display
- Cleaned up visual overflow issues
Interface and Presentation
- Added a New Game button to the menu
- Cleaned up the Troop and Fleet submenu presentation
- Replaced several spin boxes with sliders for cleaner interaction
- Fixed the Main Map End Turn button proportions
- Fixed hover and click behavior on the End Turn button
- Cleaned up several unexpected visual overlaps found after the 3.0 release
General
- Fixed a couple of minor bugs discovered during Friends and Family testing
- Continued presentation and layout cleanup throughout the build
I also released a development version of the Diplomacy system information for the Pathfinders, the Friends and Family testers actively helping test Commander’s Gambit, to read.
Diplomacy is not in the game yet. The idea is to give the Pathfinders a head start on understanding the system before they are suddenly handed all of it in-game.
If development continues where I currently expect, Diplomacy may begin making its way into Friends and Family 4.0.
