How many NPC ships can fight in one battle?

In our stress tests, a single sector held a battle with up to 2000 NPC ships. Every attacker joins at the next combat step. If a sector becomes too busy, time slows down instead of freezing.

What is a mission bubble?

A mission bubble is a private 250 km bubble that opens around a mission objective. Only you and your group can see it. It can contain nebulae, solid objects, enemies, wrecks and asteroid belts. It closes when you leave or after 30 minutes.

How does the Orbit command work?

Orbit makes your ship circle a structure, a gate, a wreck or another sector object. It does not work around planets. If the target is faster than your ship, you chase it and a warning appears.

How does rank work in Kron Wars?

You earn rank points from kills. The points depend on the tier of the target, with a daily limit of 1,500 points. Kills below your tier give no points but give 25% Honor. Missions require a minimum rank.

DEVLOG #11

The Thousand-Ship Sky

Q: Do shields recharge in Kron Wars?

No. Shields no longer regenerate. You buy replacement shield points for 20 KRON each, at the fitting screen and in the store. A shield protects you only when it is equipped.

Huge battles. Fair rules. Private missions.

15 October 2026 · covers 23 September – 13 October 2026

In DevLog #10 we moved combat into the shared sector. This time we asked a harder question. What happens when hundreds of ships fight in the same place?

The answer took three weeks. In our stress tests, one sector now holds a battle with up to 2000 NPC ships. This update also changes how shields, ranks and missions work.

Here is everything that matters to you, Commander.

2000

NPC ships in one stress-test battle

40–70

frames per second when a large wave arrives. Before: 4–12.

targets that you can lock at the same time

Battles With Hundreds of Ships

A large battle is a hard problem for the server and for your browser. We worked on both.

Everyone Joins the Next Step

Every attacker enters the battle at the next combat step. Up to 2000 ships can join.

Time Slows, It Never Freezes

If a sector becomes too busy, time in that sector slows down. It never goes below 10% of normal speed. The battle continues instead of stopping.

No Stutter on Arrival

The viewer now prepares ships, fighters, shots and explosions before the battle starts. When a large wave arrives, you see 40–70 frames per second. Before this change, we measured 4–12.

No Freeze After Victory

After one large battle, 497 wrecks remained in the sector. The viewer used to stop for 20–65 seconds. This bug is fixed. Sector Intel also updates only once per second during combat.

Orbit and Tracking

Combat now rewards movement.

Orbit

Use the new Orbit command from the terminal, the 3D menu or the fleet panel. Your ship circles a structure, a gate, a wreck or another sector object. It does not orbit planets. NPC ships also orbit now.

Tracking

Your hit chance now depends on how fast the target crosses your line of sight. A ship that stands still is easy to hit. A ship that moves across your view is harder to hit. This applies to cannons and lasers. It does not apply to fighters.

Keep at Range

Set your preferred distance in the RANGES menu, up to your scan range. Your ship moves to hold that distance. You choose it yourself. The game never does it for you.

Approach

Approach moves you once to 25 km from the target. It is a single move, not a chase.

If the target is faster than your ship, you chase it. One warning appears: “Target too fast to orbit.”

Rules of Engagement

Some rules changed. They make battles fairer and easier to read.

Equipped Shields Only

A shield protects you only when it is equipped. This is true when you attack and when you defend.

Shields Are Bought, Never Recharged

Shields no longer regenerate. You buy replacement shield points for 20 KRON each, at the fitting screen and in the store. You repair the hull at the fitting screen. NPC wrecks no longer carry shields.

Shield Bypass

Shield Bypass weapons ignore the resistance and the hardness of a shield. Their damage stays on the shield. It reaches the hull only when the shield is gone.

Spires Are Feared

Spire weapons now hit much harder. They have very high penetration and perfect tracking. Point Defense Arrays shoot down fighters. Ships cannot mount Spire weapons. Think twice before you enter a sector with a hostile Spire.

Combat Controls

The controls now follow the pace of large battles.

Target Queue

Lock up to 6 targets. Each locked target shows a TARGET badge, and one card shows the selected target. The red lock line is gone. You read the lock on the target itself.

Weapons That Stop

Your weapons stop firing when the target dies.

Smarter Defenders

Defending fighters now attack the nearest aggressor.

Custom Hotbar

Hide the buttons that you never use. Open the right-click menu or the three-dot menu on a button.

Bounties, Ledger and Rank

Rewards and progress also changed.

One Bounty Line

At the end of a battle you receive one line: NPC Kills ×N. Before, you received one line for each kill. The KRON balance in the header now refreshes at most once per second.

A Ledger You Can Verify

Every KRON movement between players is recorded in the KRON ledger. The ledger checks its own integrity at regular intervals.

Rank v3

A Longer Curve

The rank curve now reaches 700,000 points.

Points Follow Tier

Kills score by the tier of the target. The daily limit is 1,500 points. A warning appears when you reach it.

No Easy Farming

Kills below your tier give no points. They give 25% Honor.

Rank Gates

Missions need a minimum rank. A lock icon appears on the mission board when your rank is too low. The leaderboard uses Total Score.

The highest tiers are competitive. Tier 18 requires you to conquer 3 hostile Spires. This part of the game is not connected yet, so these tiers cannot be reached today.

Mission Bubbles

A mission objective in a sector now opens a private bubble. Only you and your group can see it.

Arrive

You arrive outside a 250 km bubble. It appears in your Sector Intel like a gate or a port.

Warp In

Warp into the bubble. You stop 5 km inside the edge.

Complete the Objective

Inside you find nebulae, up to 40 solid objects that you can collide with, enemies, wrecks and dormant fighters. In an ambush, the enemies stay still until a trigger fires. There are three triggers. You come within 50 km of an object. Someone fires the first shot. Someone loots a wreck.

Leave

The bubble closes when you leave, when you abandon the mission, or after 30 minutes.

Private Asteroid Belts

Some bubbles contain asteroid belts. Only the holders of the mission can mine them. The rocks are solid, and NPC ships fly around them.

New Enemy: Bilge Rat

The Bilge Rat is a weak pirate for new Commanders and Easy missions. It only defends itself. Its bounty is a fixed 100 KRON. Its wreck contains only Recycled Metals.

Fair Enemy Loadouts

NPC loadouts now match the level of the mission. Kryllith no longer appear in Easy missions.

350 New Missions

350

new missions written

story arcs

Four story arcs hold 100 missions: DUSTWAKE, TIDELINE, MARIONETTE and PALEHOUR. Ten more arcs hold the other 250. They include mining (LODESTAR and DEEPCORE, from Easy to Legendary), delivery, trading, escort and diplomacy.

One mission is already playable in our tests: “The Claw in the Violet Haze”. It is a Hard mission that chains several objectives in one bubble.

The new missions enter the game after testing.

Sector Intel and Windows

You spend most of your time in the sector viewer. So we moved more tools into it.

Five Fixed Tabs

Sector Intel is now one flat table with five tabs: GENERAL, TARGETS, MINING, WARPTO and ALL. It remembers your last tab and your sort order. It looks and works the same in the terminal and in the sector viewer.

Identifying…

A ship that has not yet shown its corporation flag appears as “Identifying…”. It stays out of TARGETS, so you cannot lock it or attack it from the list.

Overview Settings

Tune your list in Overview Settings. It has three tabs: Tabs, Filters and Appearance. Your own tabs obey the same scan limit as the system tabs.

Windows in the Viewer

The 11 menu groups open as windows inside the sector viewer, and each sub-page is a tab. You stay in 3D space. The Mission Board is a floating window: drag it, resize it and see through it.

Bookmarks and Void List

Add the current sector with one click and choose a colour. Each list holds up to 500 entries. A note can have 200 characters.

Also in This Update

Corporation Lockout

If you leave a corporation by choice, you cannot rejoin it for 48 hours. A kick still has a limit of 24 hours.

Jump Fix

We fixed a case where a jump could leave you in the wrong sector.

Mining Laser

The Basic Mining Laser now extracts only the materials that the single rock contains. Before, it could extract Plasma Ore from a mixed belt.

TURNS Panel

The TURNS panel now appears in the sector viewer. A jump from the viewer no longer spends your turns by mistake.

No More Ghosts

We fixed ghost battles after a death, invisible pods and dead NPC ships that stayed visible. An attack on a ship that is already destroyed is now refused.

“A big battle is only fun when you can read it. This month we made the battles bigger, and we made the rules easier to see.”

— Alien Bulb Studios, October 2026

What Comes Next

Weapon Balance

In very large battles, the result is often clear in the first seconds. We want long battles with many turning points.

Spire Conquest

Conquering Spires will open the highest ranks.

More Missions

We will test the new story arcs in the game and bring them to you.

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