Hey guys, sorry i've bee quiet - really grinding super hard! (Though i'm told by other devs that I update frequently, hope you agree!)

Ok, so high level what's been happening is you know in the past it might have taken like a month to knock out a biome because of the way things were. Well now I'm knocking out assets daily, some of them are amazing. As such, things are moving faster than i can even think about!

Strakers Room being re-designed from ground up.

Kira's got two attacks, this is her bigger slower casting one.

Kaelix Day 11

I've re-factored the entire Day 11, and got the whole outline done on a stream yesterday- huge huge success. It feels much better and makes sense given her background.

I'm about 30% in, 70% to do but its about half a days work but the actual hard part (which was the full story design, having mechanics in place) are totally done. I'll want to finish this soon, maybe tomorrow or weekend so i can get our new voice actress on it and release a part of it as a showcase.

SAVE POINT

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There will be save points scattered around the world (i have 3 different animation types i'm testing). Here you can save, load etc like a normal RPG. That's now plumbed in.
Game autosaves at key checkpoints too.

JUMPING

You maybe saw a jump animation on the Starlanes video but it was never plumbed into the game as a full mechanic.

(image above floating platforms you can jump on and other things)

Now you can jump, but the jumps are at jump points which lets you jump down cliffs (one way), jump onto moving platforms (timed) and so on.

HARBINGER - FINAL RUN

I've been working on a mission-based dungeons experience, as a full mission inside the harbinger, where you'll sabotage critical systems, recover ancient artefacts, rescue prisoners, gather intelligence, and cripple these planet-killers from within.

Current mechanics in development include:

• Sentinel Nurseries – Arm C4 charges and destroy crystal nurseries before new defenders awaken.

• Temporal Chambers – Fight through areas where time slows to a crawl, using short bursts of speed to destroy temporal emitters.

• Radiant Field Generators – Deploy reality anchors to survive the Harbinger's hostile environment.

• Resupply Portals – Force open temporal apertures to summon a Vanguard FPV drone carrying supplies before it briefly joins the fight.

• Ender Grabbers – Endless shadow entities that can't be killed, only held back long enough to escape.

• Sentient Fuel Pods – Rescue prisoners trapped inside floating crystal pods, press H to attach a magnetic tether, so they follow you as you run about (much faster experience than Forge/Tribute hold)

Visually, I'm aiming for a dark synthwave aesthetic with towering crystalline architecture, deep violets, crimson lighting, temporal distortions and vast entropy waterfalls flowing through cathedral-like halls. I'm about halfway through mocking the systems up in code, and once the gameplay feels right, my main artist will begin bringing the environments and enemies to life.

CHARACTERS AND STORY WRITING

Once I complete the following pieces:

- Amu's Caves (80% complete)
- Albions Anchor (10% complete, but all assets complete)
- Harbinger (15% complete)
- Drunmuire (80% complete)

I can return to focusing on characters, relationship building and Visual Novel. I'm considering introducing some sisters of Neph...might even make one datable!


Guys one final thing, what i've shared just now isn't even 30% of what i've achieved in the past 5 days. I move fast, I move hard - and i'll keep on grinding gang!

(Image above - Screenshot of Drone Commander running on a windows computer thats not mine)

New Voice Actress

Firstly, I'm in talks with Rachel Lutrell, the main actress from Stargate Atlantis, it's looking good but not yet finalised; she seems very keen, so I'll keep you updated if it all goes through!

Splash Test Success

Next bit, is two of our mods have tested Drone Commander on their windows computer, these are the screen shots.

⚠️ Attention: this is not the waitlist, so don't worry if you put your name down, you're still in for a shot, i'll make sure to get around as many people as I can.

But the good news is, everything is going full steam ahead.

Main figure above is a boss you'll fight and he has phases, he'll be insanely hard.

Concept idea Kira Casting her Algochant (work in progress)

Amu's Sentient Defender mini-boss, very badass

Scottish dude

Kenny's mum.

Daria got jiggle physics.

Lots and LOTS going on, too much to cover, just i'm cooking like mad.

Black Fleet Male Combat Tech (full art, need to work on his backstory)

Clockwork Knight for Albions Anchor

He'll fight you in Albions anchor here, (I added environment obstacles, you take damage on pendulum hit)

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Fusion Core in the FNS Ember (Marta's ship)

A closer look from the outside

Interesting bug encountered when I forgot to remove old procedural code i had for creating assets

Snow terrain on Earth

Clockwork Drone

Notice how the snow naturally calms down when you find shelter (also i'm proud of the light beams)

Some human sector stuff

Strakers Avatar now changes if he is in combat armour

Fel lining up a punch on you

⚠️ This is a Pre-Alpha, read carefully and decide if you want on the list.

Guys, you may have heard I can now compile binaries.

I have roughly the following plan.

• 👉 Pre-Alpha (many)

• Alpha (2->10)

• Beta (1->5)

• Demo (1 or 2)

Pre-Alpha means - IT MOST LIKELY WILL BREAK ON YOUR MACHINE PRETTY FAST....but it might not.

If you are selected, all you need to do is, download it, try it out, let me know if it worked and how far you got.

Initially i'll open up maybe a simple skirmish, a mock Visual Novel for you to play through and Vanguard battle.

Its a chunky binary, maybe about a gig (I'll confirm).

The first round, i'll pick 2 or 3 people. Then once i've got them happy, i'll expand out to another 3-5 and so on.

⚠️ IMPORTANT - If it works...its kind of like a Demo. ⚠️

Meaning you get to experience all modes. Please do not share with others, it's for you only.

https://dronecommander.gg/community-tools

yes this scene is fully animated, she talks to you the night after.

Now lets talk about Kira's combat mechanics, I've left this one on the back burner until now.

Algo Chants — how Kira actually fights ⚡

Kira Virethorne is one of the sharpest minds aboard the Freexyl — a Sekarri Science Fleet officer that's become a coveted treasure. When she joins your team, she brings a suite of technical combat abilities built on the same foundations as Sekarri Demi tech: nanites, photon manipulation, and more. Her signature attacks work by shaping raw plasma with nanite swarms in real time.

Here's the twist: you can't just hand that to an AI. Even a hyper-intelligent battle AI can't solve every angle, vector and plasma density on the fly — enemies vary too much, and live combat is full of unknowns no simulation covers.

So the Sekarri split the job. Like all Sekarri, Kira carries a Neural Tether — a partially biological implant fitted in childhood. Through it, she issues her battle AI algorithmic protocols: compressed invocations that each unpack into an entire suite of manoeuvres and heuristics. She reads the battlefield with her own senses and judgement, and the Tether translates those mental observations into precise technical execution. The intuition is hers; the maths is the machine's.

But Kira is still flesh and bone, and there are countless variations to hold in her head. So she drills them — reciting invocations over and over in battle simulations at the Battle Center until calling an ice beam against a fire enemy is pure reflex.

Long ago, when battle-techs first adopted the practice, operators mocked them for it — muttering strings of invocations mid-fight, they looked like they were chanting spells. The name stuck, and the technique became affectionately known as Algo Chants.

Read the full entry in the compendium: https://dronecommander.gg/compendium#algo-chants

TLDR: A chance for you to share some ideas, and i'll try to do a stream tonight/tomorrow.

GOAL: To build out fully playable Harbinger Biome, with stuff to do and awesome playability.

ACTION: If you want to help suggest ideas but don't have time to read all this, jump to the bottom.

I'm going to be designing the inside of the Dark Worlder ships, specifically the Harbinger -> Why does this matter?

Because last time, some of you got to be part of the design input for when I created the Forge, and FOM Tribute holds and they turned out amazing.

It's a really fun activity because you get to think of 'whats the purpose?' 'what cool things can we do here/ should we do here' and so on.

As a reminder (before i share my new ideas), our existing mechanisms below:

The Human Entropy Factory

As you know, the Dark Worlders want our Entropy (Negentropy), the deal with Neph and the FOM is to supply them with tributes to be killed, and extracted. But the process is nuanced, and the Dark Worlders treat us like fuel. So far we have

• BATTERY: Capture, Kill and store your Entropic Body inside a single chamber.

• STORAGE: Capture, and store your live body inside a chamber (preferred as Entropy breaks down).

• CAPACITOR: Kill, and funnel you essence (souls) into giant sacs, ready for extraction.

• AC/DC CONVERSION: The Forge, takes your the unprocessed souls and converts them into useful, workable energies for the Dark Worlders to use as a resource.

R&D: Capture gifted, genius, intelligent beings and trap them in Krystalosis. Which puts them in a Coma, and tortures them forever, until all neuronal data is extracted.

Now, with the Harbinger, it's travelling in space, it destroys any enemies it comes in contact with and is apparently invincible.... or is it?

GOAL: To build out fully playable Harbinger Biome, with stuff to do and awesome playability.

Note: Harbinger will be more faster paced than FOM Tribute hold.

Sentient Fuel Pods

On the ship, you'll have various things to do, but one of them will be saving those about to be used as fuel.
Instead of the normal open prison, call in evac, escort to burners; you'll find these 'fuelborn pods' with trapped humans/Sekarri inside. You connect a magnetic tether and pull them along to an extraction point, where they either load up into an escape pod or you just shoot them directly down into space to be picked up.
FAST, REPEATABLE, FUN.

WHAT DO WE NEED?

• Visual Spectacles (i.e. Entropy/Blood waterfalls)

• Ship Defences: Turrets, Towers.

• Stuff to do: (i.e. Free prisoners, steal shards, Blow up shield emitters that allow RTS ships to take out a small piece....what else?)

• Something Profound (Maybe related to giant phase orbs, or story related - but a mechanic that's meaningful just like the Forge fire).

• IMPOSSIBILITY BALANCERS: Given they are undefeated, why don't they just pulse a light speed wave to disintegrate any invaders within seconds? We need a counter (Amu is the obvious choice, but need to think more).

• Data Banks - obtain Wiki Data logs

• MiniBoss - who could it be? Our first Dark worlder fightable baddie?

• Anything else?

⚠️ Attention: this isn't a timeline update or release announcement, it's showing a big milestone that's been hit i.e. the ability to create shipable execs (a really hard part done!)

It doesn't look like much, but I have now successfully completed the work to allow shipping of Drone Commander. Keen eyes of you will notice this is a mac build, in the next couple of days I'll do the same again with Windows ; it's only the end part that changes. What does this mean?

• Remember when I said shipping prep could take anything from 1 week to 6 weeks. That is now done

• When I'm ready to start sharing stuff with you, I'll be able to do carve out a playable demo in hours/days not weeks.

So what's next? I still want to focus the bulk of my efforts on hitting the first milestone of 25 hours continuous gameplay before carving out a 1 hour demo for you guys.

Check the progress tracker on the website for status updates.

But I might in the meantime for testing purposes carve out small bits for patreon volunteers and grow it out over time. Right back to work for me, but this is big news and a big milestone

In the early days of Brians time in the black fleet, he's been totally overwhelmed. It took the Sekarri brotherhood, to squirrel him away from time to time, and teach him how to say no.

Prior to him developing his place, he'd often flee to the blackfleets VIP lounge, they exist on a few of the big ships, including the BlackFleet's Freexy'l equivalent (competition to name it coming soon.
Sekarri females are meant to be low in number there, or so high up the chain they wouldn't hassle Brian too much, that was until he bumped into Makara.

It's not clear what her background is, what she does, but they do know she has access to all sensitive areas of the ship, she attends Morrigan's closed Briefings and has an infinite bar tab.
It appears no one can tell her what to do, other than maybe Morrigan and Vess - so Makara waists no time on seducing Brian. She's done her homework, she knows how randy human males are and thinks of it as a slam dunk.

The only issue is, Brian's been ravaged 3 times already that day, so it's all numb to him. However, Being Cathandled by a 7ft 6 Makara in her direct manner still secretly scares the shit out of him, as usual Brian folds.

Blackfleet doesn't need toilet porters, so until he finds a purpose and something to do, he decides to hit the gym more to raise his stamina levels so he can be more of a 'team player'

If you go to https://dronecommander.gg/progress

You'll first note a screen like this below.

This now tracks live the progress for the first major mile stone which is the 25 hour mark.
Full Act 1 complete, up to Saving Earth.

• This does not mean that it will take another 2x to reach 100%

• Progress is compounding, I expect 100% within 6 weeks.

In the main Title Screen Above (Developer Menu) , you'll notice a green button, that opens a web server for my Development tracker. I can track real time progress on my items completed, each chapter and I can adjust % if i want to override values .

It also has a Master Plan tracker, this is all the elements I wrote starting 2 years ago, so some of it I accept, others i've added new things and some don't make the final cut.

• If I do not hit the first milestone within 12 weeks, I will poll you all to make a decision on releasing part 1 as a Full Drone Commander 1 game. All Patreons get a vote.

Right back to work for me, things are going great btw!

Below are some random snippet testy/scratch bits

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