// Development Log

Gatewake News

Updates from inside the build — what we're working on, what's changing in Demo Alpha, and deep dives into the systems taking shape underneath Sol.

Deep Dive · 2026-07-16

The Galaxy View Is Live — Seven Real Stars, One Probe Away

The minimap now has a Galaxy tab. Research First Interstellar Probe and a second view opens up alongside the Sol system map: the seven real nearest stars to Sol, laid out at their actual relative distances.
Every system is real astronomy first, procedural second. Alpha Centauri's survey report leads with the actual confirmed exoplanet Proxima Centauri b, then fills out the rest of the system procedurally. Sirius carries its real white-dwarf companion's radiation. Wolf 359 is a real flare star. Epsilon Eridani has a real dense debris disk. Nothing here is made up wholesale — it's grounded, then extended.
A probe, not a fleet. Surveying a system spends Research and clears its fog of war — it does not send a ship, and there's nothing to click to "go" there. Gatewake has no lightspeed drive; until a stabilized gate exists, the galaxy is something you learn about, not somewhere you visit.

Dev Update · 2026-07-16

Building Placement Now Shows You Exactly What You're Getting

A real holographic preview. Pick a structure and a translucent copy of the actual building follows your cursor across the grid, snapping to the tile you're over — not a guess, the real building art.
Red means red for a reason. The preview turns red the moment placement won't work — overlapping another structure, bad terrain, no adjacent road, or simply not enough resources banked. That last one used to only show up as an error after you'd already clicked.
Placement still means placement. Click and it goes exactly where the preview showed you, then a work crew is dispatched and construction runs its course — nothing pops into existence instantly.

Deep Dive · 2026-07-16

The Galaxy Beyond Sol Is About to Get a Lot Less Foggy

A new Galaxy View is coming. Zoom out past the Sol system map and you'll see the seven real nearby stars — Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, Lalande 21185, Sirius, Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti — sitting under fog of war. Gatewake has no lightspeed drive; nothing crewed leaves Sol without a stabilized gate, and that stays locked for the whole demo. But slow, unmanned probes don't need a gate, just time — and sending them out is how the fog clears.
Exploring is how you get to late-game tech. Surveying a system remotely doesn't colonize it, but it does bank real research progress — first contact, capital-ship doctrine, and more all require having looked outward first. This isn't flavor text; it's a real prerequisite.
Your first survey target matters. Which of the seven gets surveyed first is a real decision — Alpha Centauri for a safe, balanced start; Wolf 359 for a risky push with a salvage payoff (its old wreckage seeds Capital Ship Doctrine directly); Epsilon Eridani if you want to rush the economy. Whichever comes first locks in a permanent bonus for that playthrough.
Every system has its own personality. Barnard's Star is quiet and stable — great for research, nothing will surprise you there. Sirius is gorgeous and lethal, gated behind real radiation-hardened hull tech, but its stellar remnant material can't be found anywhere else. Tau Ceti is the one system whose survey data suggests it might not even need terraforming.
The capstone is a decision, not a conquest. Once you've surveyed a few systems, you designate a priority target for the first real expedition once gate travel is finally stabilized — a full-game milestone. Which system you pick sets a standing empire-wide research bonus right now. Different target, different playthrough.

Deep Dive · 2026-07-16

Mapping the Terran Research Tree

Early Game — Solar System Expansion. Survey, colonize, and industrialize Sol: near-Earth spaceflight through advanced Sol civilization, six eras of Colonization, Stations, Sensors, Ship Engineering, Logistics, Defense, and AI-assisted Automation branches, each gating real ships, stations, and colony buildings — not just stat bumps.
Mid Game — Reaching for the Nearest Stars. Once a commander clears the pre-interstellar threshold, the tree opens onto seven real neighboring systems — Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, Lalande 21185, Sirius, Epsilon Eridani, and Tau Ceti — with dedicated interstellar logistics and colonization tech to reach them.
Late Game — Contact, Diplomacy, and War. The endgame branches into Xenodiplomacy (first contact, translation, treaties, and alliances with Gatewake's nine major powers) and Fleet Warfare (capital ships, planetary siege, boarding actions, and multi-system defense).
Every ship gets real upgrade tiers — weapons, hull and shields, environmental resistance, sensors and targeting, propulsion and power, all on Mk.1/2/3 tracks that match the same tier progression you already see in unit art.
Also mapped: habitation and population growth, modular stations, satellite types, farming, deep mining, ocean and subterranean colony technology, and planet-type survivability for icy, scorched, and gas-giant worlds.

Dev Update · 2026-07-16

What We're Building Next for Demo Alpha

Matches with a real beginning and end. We're designing survival and elimination conditions so a session in Demo Alpha resolves into an actual win or loss, with an end-of-match summary — instead of running indefinitely.
Custom match setup. Difficulty, hostile activity, and match pace are being wired into a real pre-game settings flow so hosts can actually shape the match they're starting.
A commander worth remembering. Account-linked identity and persistent progress are in active design, so your colony's history follows you between sessions.
Performance groundwork for bigger worlds. We've moved surface terrain generation onto a background thread, verified at a full 1,000×700-cell world with zero impact on responsiveness — the foundation for much larger surfaces ahead.
As always: Demo Alpha stays Terran Coalition, Sol system, desktop-first while we get these foundations right.