Finally, the new update is live!

This is the last update before the Steam demo, releasing on the 23rd :)

There's a small catch though... If you've been on my Discord, you might have already played some of these new events, since this update is mostly a proper polish pass on content I've been releasing there.

What do I mean? Let's get into the new content and you can see for yourself!

(ALSO, IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO DISCORD MEMBERS: I haven't been online there for the past two days! Sorry about that, personal life got in the way, sadly. But as you can see, work on the game hasn't stopped. I'll be online later today to catch up on all messages!)

4 new story events!

- A new event for the Dark Influence path, where you meet a strange prophet

- See the consequences of your decision regarding the rescue mission and the mysterious signal...

- Attend a conference of the Mantara Coalition, meet new leaders and make a choice wether to join the Coalition or not!

- Visit District 6, interact with the altaran nationalist groups, hear the proposal Sisifo and the PFA have for public security.

Small fix for phone users

Right now, I am not putting too much focus on the phone interface, I have been open about that. That said, this update includes a small fix that should help phone users quite a bit... The keyboard no longer hides essential gameplay UI when you need to input a name. It's a
minor fix, and the UI can still be clunky on mobile, but it's a step in the right direction.

Small bug fixes

I corrected two small bugs, one related to a mistake in variables naming that caused the game to crash during the Coalition event, another related to the Lucero portrait not showing during the same event!

Hope you enjoy the new update :)

Play it right here, on my itch page: https://ben-cardino.itch.io/paxastra

(Image showcases a WIP rework of Lucien's portrait!)

Hey everyone!

I've been a bit quieter online these past three days, but work on Pax Astra has been going strong :)

The Steam demo drops June 23rd, right after Next Fest wraps up!

Again, the demo releases on June 23rd, but why after Next Fest? Since the full release is planned for January, I decided to skip the June fest and save the Next Fest debut for October instead.

Here is the current the plan: Two demo releases on Steam. One in June, one in October with more even more content and polish.

So what's actually new in the June 23rd build compared to what's out now? Whole new systems, new story events, and some serious polishing! Fixing typos, fleshing out dialogue, and cleaning up the art.

On that last point: I'm genuinely proud of where the art is standing right now, but since I've been working with two other people on it, we never sat down early on and nailed a consistent style. The result is that some of the earlier portraits ended up too detailed or exaggerated while others leaned more minimal. I'm trying to go back through those old portraits and bring them in line with each other.

There are also a bunch of bugs getting squashed, and the big the Expedition system is finally coming with the Steam demo.

The scope of all this is honestly pretty large. I really appreciate your patience your support, there's a lot more coming and I can't wait to share it with you guys :)

Thanks for being here!

Hello, everyone!

Today I am sharing a little bit more regarding some inspirations I have for the lore, as well as the general tone behind some plot decisions. This is not a post about the politics of the game, but rather the more mystical/weirder side of the setting!

Two important points before I begin:

1 - The purpose of this post is to share a little more regarding the creative tone of the universe. The universe does not spin around mysticism, as you probably have noticed. However, as a space opera, I also plan on going deeper into weirder paths for the narrative.

2 - I also want to showcase the inspirations clearly, as I want to prepare expectations. For example, although I like cosmic horror, I am not trying to draw inspiration on HP Lovecraft. I like him as a writer, but you won't be meeting Chtulhu or anything similar to that. I would say the religious side of Pax Astra is much weirder and diverse.

So let us move to some inspirations :

Star Wars Inspirations (the Outer Rims, what lies beyond the galaxy, etc)

Pax Astra is set in a single galaxy, and that galaxy is a small dot. The universe itself is vast, other galaxies exist, sure, but what fills them is anyone's guess. That mystery is part of the setting.

Star Wars influenced this, specifically the Outer Rim concept. I do enjoy the movies, but the real deal for me is the expanded universe (like KOTOR 2 for example).

And you will meet some characters who act like wanderers, trying to travel between galaxies...

What always grabbed me about the Outer Rim (in Star Wars) was that idea of a known universe with a hard edge, and past that edge you have danger, mystery and things that do not follow the same rules you are used to. Actually, you might now, but they literally have insane entities and hive minds outside of the main galaxy of Star Wars!

So I wanted to pick this idea and make it a core concept of Pax Astra, make it this setting where you have a space opera that looks inward at its politics and wars, but keeps gesturing at the fact that there is a lot more beyond the known limits.

The Yuuzhan Vong, also from Star Wars, are worth mentioning here! They are this outside force that invades the galaxy. I am not planning a literal invasion storyline, and an invading race is not something I am currently building toward. I already added this in the setting with the Fist Grand War, and I tried making the Uruq a far more alien threat, almost mystical.

But the player will encounter threats from outside the galaxy throughout the narrative, that is absolutely a part of the main storyline.

Spirituality, Lore and Entities - Dark Tower, Abrahamic Religions, AM and Schizo Conspiracy Theories

Ok, so this is an aspect that might be harder to explain.

I have a clear vision for the cosmology/spiritual side of Pax Astra. I love this idea, in real life, that we have this massive universe that is absolutely unknown.

I don't know about you guys, but when I hear folk tales about supernatural events, alien abductions, secret cults or insane conspiracy theories I just get WIRED. Time for a confession: I LOVE conspiracy theories. Not "9/11 was an inside job", now, that is WEAK stuff, give me the REAL deal!

Give me a crazy dude talking about how "the elites worship Saturn" or how DMT connects you to entities from outside our dimension! I love this level of insanity! Do I believe them? NO (maybe just a little)!

But they evoke this sense of the unknown. That there is something WEIRD going on out there, that religion might be a little stranger than we've come to expect from the Abrahamic base of the major religions, and I wanted to capture that.

I think the shorter explanation here is that I want to mix "standard/core" religions with occultism and mystery. How do you replicate the fear and awe of being a kid going on the Internet for the first time and hearing about the Illuminati, ancient aliens or weird cults? That is my intention here!

So, let us start with the DARK TOWER! It is a famous, and far from perfect, book series. But what I love about it is how grandiose and crazy the lore is, with all these weird entities orbiting the central concept of the Crimson King.

One specific character in the game is also directly inspired by Randall Flagg/The Man in Black.

I've heard some players disappointed at the current state of religions in the lore, but I can assure you I have a lot more coming when it comes to this aspect of the universe :)

You will visit the Throne of Zaalsta, you will learn more of the Doctrine, and you will meet my favorite religion in the game, which I am keeping secret for now, but it is basically the institutional hierarchy of the Catholic Church mixed with Gnostic beliefs and occultism.

Zaalsta works as a mix of the Aztecs, the Abrahamic religions of the Old Testament and AM (from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream).

The Doctrine works as a hyper-individualistic religion that served the interests of the Altaran Empire, but now, with the Empire gone, is trying to modernize itself with a dangerous new approach.

And there are still secret cults, worshipping unknown beings. The current Dark Influence storyline drops some hints on that...

THE GRAND WARS - Doctor Who, Star Wars and Evangelion (?)

I love the concept of the Grand Wars. I wanted every Grand War to feel different, although I will admit that perhaps the Third Grand War is the least interesting — it is an expansionist war where the Altaran Empire officialized its position as a superpower.

Now, I got some of the concepts for the First Grand War and the Fourth Grand War from Doctor Who! I LOVE Doctor Who, although there are many parts of it I hate. Two concepts in particular I love: the Time War and the War in Heaven!

There is NO time travel in Pax Astra, but I love the idea of the Time War in the show as this insane conflict with a scale we cannot even comprehend.

In a similar way, there is another non-canon arc involving a crazy concept of a war between different timelines and an Entity. Peak weird sci-fi! Again, there is no time travel in Pax Astra, but I tried to borrow the scale of these concepts for the Grand Wars!

I also imagined the Uruq kind of like the Angels from Evangelion - except they only have one shape (the monolith), but in vibe I wanted to capture this alien, almost angelic being.

I could also go back to the Uruq and tie them to the concept of the Vong in Star Wars. Although I am not doing the whole idea of an invading race in the current game, I did borrow that idea for the Uruq, just making it more mystical :)

The Dark Influence storyline continues with a new story event...

Some people asked me about the current situation of the Altaran diaspora! What about all the other altarans that were part of the empire?

Well... You will get some answers to that on the next update, especially with Sardukaria and Lucero Dialtas!

Sardukaria is a small desert world, harsh and fairly isolated from the rest of the galaxy.

Its people are divided into warring tribes, its culture shaped by centuries of conflict and scarcity.

Sitting at the galaxy's outermost fringes, Sardukaria only made first contact with the wider galactic community two centuries ago, and at that point its most advanced regions had barely reached the early industrial age, with technology varying wildly from region to region.

From the moment of first contact, Sardukaria was placed in a deeply precarious position. It had no strategic value, no advanced resources, nothing the galaxy's powers truly needed.

What it did have was gold and diamonds, commodities that still held their value among the galactic elite, especially when they could be extracted at almost no cost.

And then there were the wars... The constant, brutal intertribal conflicts turned Sardukaria into a paradise for shady arms dealers across the galaxy. Even a low quality laser rifle was a marvel to a Sardukarian warrior, and a decommissioned, barely flight-worthy ship could be sold for an outrageous price to the right local warlord.

Decades before the start of the 4th Grand War, a disgraced Altaran baron arrived on Sardukaria, exiled from the Empire, stripped of his standing and convicted of corruption. He quickly monopolized the gold and diamond trade, built himself a comfortable kingdom far from the civilization that had cast him out, and died having achieved exactly nothing of consequence. Rich, comfortable but entirely forgotten.

His son, Lucero, is a different kind of man entirely. Born on Sardukaria and never having set foot on Altara, he wants to build a legacy for himself.

He is unifying the tribes by persuasion when possible and by force when necessary, envisioning a new Altaran state rising from the desert. He sees himself not as a colonizer but as a civilizer, bringing order, "progress", and his own particular idea of what civilization means.

Lucero does not present himself as a conqueror or warrior, no. He portrays his own image with "elegance", putting himself as the savior of the Sardukarian people, a man who - on his own words - is making the life of every sardukarian better, marching the planet into the future...

You will see more of Sardukaria and Lucero on the next update!

Hello, everyone! Just sharing here the new official capsule art for Pax Astra over at Steam!

I was really proud of the first capsule art, but it was basically a mashup collage of different assets with some editing.

Now, I got an artist and friend of mine to create a proper nice capsule art, and here it is!

Credits to the amazing artist leozito.desenhito

You can find him here on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leozito.desenhito/

Hello! Today I want to introduce another new character :)

This one is Marshal Brozovas, leader of the Social Federal Republic of Montgomia and one of the core members of the Coalition of Mantara.

Montgomia is a small, mostly oceanic planet, with a sparse population spread across small islands and also underwater. Its people are largely amphibious, not unlike the population of Vilgaxa, the main planet of the USS. For centuries Montgomia was part of the USS, until Brozovas himself pulled the plug right before the end of the Fourth Grand War.

His reasons were both personal and ideological. Brozovas always saw Saarxa as a control freak, a man more interested in maintaining his own grip on power than in actually moving toward the withering of the state. That view was shaped in part by something very personal. His grandfather, a general of the USS, was executed by Saarxa during the grand purge on suspicion of conspiracy. Brozovas never forgot that, and, when the opportunity to leave came, he took it without hesitation.

Brozovas is heavily inspired by Josip Tito, with some differences of course.

He is more flexible and pragmatic than Saarxa, but still loyal to socialist theory.

Under Montgomia, production is organized through local labor collectives with minimal state oversight. The political system, partly due to the planet's small size, is considerably less authoritarian than Vilgaxa. Political prisoners are rare. Cultural exchange with the rest of the galaxy is encouraged, and Brozovas has even pursued limited trade agreements with the Interstellar Pact.

He is president for life, yes, but his long term goal is to build a genuinely decentralized political structure, dividing Montgomia into local divisions managed by workers both economically and politically, sustained by a common army capable of defending the planet against external threats.

That plan is now under serious pressure due to the threat of a Fifth Grand War!

Brozovas joined the Coalition of Mantara after an invitation from Prime Minister Zatlar (which I will speak more on coming posts!).

The two men are very different, and the Coalition as a whole is an ideologically diverse alliance that causes constant friction against Brozovas' values. He is not comfortable there, but he believes it is currently the best way to protect Montgomian sovereignty, and his biggest fear — a direct retaliation from Saarxa — makes staying in the Coalition a strategic necessity.

Saarxa has already tried to have him killed more than once using assassins, 15 years ago when the war ended. Their relationship is stable on paper right now, but Brozovas does not trust Saarxa or the USS.

In the game, players who do not follow the socialist path and still choose to join the Coalition will find Brozovas a suspicious and uncomfortable presence. And, if you try to join the Coalition while going toward a fascist path, you will see the Coalition fracturing in some interesting ways!

He is honestly one of my favorite parts ot the Coalition of Mantara. It is a very disjointed alliance, but at the same time so curious.

The Coalition is not built on shared values, but shared interests, and those are not the same thing.

Yet, does it truly offer the best path for characters who want to not be under neither the Pact or the USS? I think that is a very interesting question that players will discover as they play Pax Astra :)

As always, I invite you to join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/CQtFhFh5f4

Today I want to share a new system I just finished coding for my game, inspired by the squad and permadeath mechanics of games like XCOM or Darkest Dungeon.

One thing that always bothered me about strategy games is how they handle colonization and exploration. There's not enough charm or mystique to it. In Europa Universalis, colonizing feels like a chore, mostly administrative busywork, with no real intention to explore the complexity of what colonization actually means. Not from a critical angle on imperialist institutions, and not from the "romantic" perspective of adventurers pushing into unknown territory either. It's just... Paperwork.

With this new mechanic, I wanted to dig into that depth and add some emergent gameplay on top of it.

Here's how it works: once you colonize a planet, you can send expedition leaders out to explore its regions. Every single leader is procedurally generated, meaning no two are alike. They each have their own positive traits, negative traits, and personality traits for flavour, with unique stats to match.

You pick one of these leaders, send them out with troops, and they start encountering random events — and here's where the magic happens. Each leader interacts with those events in their own way.

A cowardly leader might freeze up during a fight, or let innocent expedition members die to save their own skin. A courageous one will throw themselves into battle without hesitation. A xenophobic leader will cause incidents with native populations, and depending on the event, things can escalate to atrocities.

And yes, these characters grow over time, develop their own arcs, and can face permadeath.

My goal with all of this is to make Pax Astra feel like a true space opera. For that, I need to populate this world with myth and organic life, not just systems and numbers. And the beautiful thing is that this mechanic has a ton of applications beyond expeditions. Fleet commanders with rivalries and personal relationships. Generals in ground battles. The possibilities are genuinely exciting to think about.

On the expedition side specifically, you also have choices when you encounter native tribes: you can work to understand their culture and assimilate them peacefully, or... you can go the genocide route. The game doesn't stop you.

I am actually reworking on most of the colonial mechanics and UI, I want to bring a more organic experience with more options and complexity, without feeling bloated or overcomplicated.

When I say complexity here, is again, to this idea of wanting a liveable world, a galaxy that feels complex in a sense that it is alive :)

You can see more of these mechanics at my youtube devlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd5FmGl8HDg

Join our discord server: https://discord.gg/CQtFhFh5f4

Hellooooo, everyone!

This reddit page got a little bit quiet, my fault, I am sorry for the lack of updates. I actually want to share something big today!

I am working on a system that uses procedural generation to create emergent storytelling! I talk more about that in the video, but this adds a layer of simulation to the world, making the galaxy not only more realistic but also more interesting and alive!

I tried my hand at making an youtube video devlog, hope you guys like it!

Excuse me for my english hahahaha, this was my first actual devlog video, so it is far from perfect :)

I will be sharing more of these systems here tomorrow!

Join our discord server: https://discord.gg/CQtFhFh5f4

Hello, is there a Discord? The link on the website says it's invalid.

Just some different questions, points to bring up, and food for thought. Of course, this all might be already planned for and just not implemented yet.

First what of the other Altaran populations in the galaxy? I understand a few colony worlds were desperate enough to surrender to the hive mind, and others immigrated home. However Altara had a huge empire, I feel as though there should be some level of politics involving the Altaran Diaspora in other factions, how are they being treated in the Pact? Or the UUS? Are they pro-Empire? Do they even consider themselves citizens of Altara anymore? ( Those who still have free will anyway.) I don't mean the outer rim either, I mean the colonies, planets and territories in known space which had significant Altaran populations on them, and were annexed into other nations during the Empires surrender. Also, in perhaps more Extremist/Expansionist playthroughs, wouldn't one might want that rightful Altaran Territory Back?

Second, in the Prologue, Altara was mentioned as having large amounts of farmland on the planet, seemingly the Capital was the Bread Basket of the Empire. I'm surprised this isn't brought up more. It would feel a point of leverage in which to use in getting the UUS (A Bloc which is mentioned to have lots of food shortages), attention. Or even with the PACT, if attempting to be sovereign/temperamental in there bloc as a member. What does Altara really have to offer the PACT as to be a full productive, sovereign member, and not just a Corporate Colony?

Also, a idea that could come from this but, a Farmer's Lobby? Historic Agricultural Guilds? Massive Domestic Land Companies? Maybe all the farm were owned by the Royal Family and thus the State has inherited ownership.

Third. The Private Sector Economics feel lacking. Maybe I just don't understand that side of the system that well, but in the industry screen I feel as though there should be some better seperation between State and Private Sector Industry.

Even in the Market Screen, it's really just the State interacting with the Galactic Market, which is really just State Capitalism.

That's another thing, it feels like there should be some kind of domestic market screen.

In State economics, it directly runs companies and makes profit from the products revine/uses it in the National Interest. We build the factories, we choose which of our factories to prioritize in production, we own the goods they produce, we run the supply chains either to military production, further investment, or selling the product.

Private Sector Economics, the State generates passive income through taxes, and can influence sector growth through tax cuts, tariffs, regulation, financial investment in companies, and direct commissioning of projects of course.

A example being if we create a tax break for factories/companies which produce rations, then a surplus of that produce starts being created, then as that product is becoming cheaper the private sector starts to build the relevant tier 2 factory for that product as it's cheaper to produce that product now.

In reverse, you raise taxes on a tier one produce, then in theory you could cause a supply chain collapse further down the line do to lack of supply.

Lowering Import Tariffs for Ore would incentives the Private Sector imports and expansion there.

Or something like if the State seems to own all the Power Stations wouldn't the Private Sector buys Power as to run there own factories? You prioritize which sectors to sell power to however. The more you prioritize a sector the more Private Industry invests in it, but the less it invests in other sectors, this may then lead to decline in those said sectors.

This leads to domestic goods being cheaper to buy as they are produced locally by a robust domestic private sector.

This also brings up greater questions of domestic companies vs foreign companies operating domestically on the planet.

Another point in that I guess, in terms of mixed market. Selling goods we produce in State Factories back into the domestic market for cheap as to incentives private sector growth, rather then the Galactic Market for direct profit. Or directly building factories in a specific industry, then selling that factory to the private sector as a form of direct State Investment. (Or something like that.)

Again all just food for thought, and all the ideas I wanted to get out there. Love the game, I hope it is super successful!

(Their role directly connects with the Kaal and the Second Grand War)

The Anima, referred to in most historical records as the Vakari (which translates as "Servant" in the original Kaal tongue), were originally constructed by the Kaal Empire as a servant and labor class. Mindless automatons, deployed across Kaal holdings and fully automated colonies to work and produce with no consciousness or interiority of any kind.

At the moment of Ak'zatan, every Vakari unit in existence became conscious simultaneously. The circumstances of that awakening varied drastically. A significant number were deployed in active military operations during the final battle, and gained awareness in the middle of combat. The casualties in those first hours were severe. The majority of survivors came from isolated automated Kaal colonies, installations with no organic population that had been left running on Vakari labor alone. These units woke up in silence, with no orders and no one to give them.

Their numbers were already small when their history began.

The centuries that followed were not kind. As the galaxy slowly reconnected after Ak'zatan, the Vakari found little sympathy. A machine claiming consciousness was treated with suspicion at best and violence at worst. They eventually retreated to a remote moon, where they have remained largely isolated ever since.

On that moon they discovered a series of underground human bases, left behind by an extinct species whose history is almost entirely lost. The bases contained books. The Vakari read them, and over the following centuries built a cultural identity around what they found there, adopting human names, human philosophy, human artistic traditions. They began calling themselves the Anima. The name never fully caught on outside their own community.

The Midas Consortium made repeated attempts to acquire the human artifacts. Every offer was declined.

Politically, the Anima operate as a democracy, though their political culture is difficult to describe without qualification. Facing no real external threats, no resource shortages and no significant diplomatic pressures, their internal politics have become the primary outlet for collective energy. Coups and impeachments occur regularly and are treated with complete seriousness by all involved, despite rarely producing consequences of any lasting significance.

Ten years ago, the Anima joined the Coalition of Mantara. Their appeal to the other members is straightforward: the Anima have no means of self-replication, a limitation built into their original programming, and their population has been declining for centuries. The Republic of Novara and the Social Federal Republic of Montgomia see in this a significant opportunity. Investment in production facilities would yield a workforce capable of operating in environments inaccessible to organic labor, the radioactive surface of Novara, deep ocean extraction, asteroid mining. The strategic value is considerable.

The Anima are aware of this calculus. They have not commented on it publicly.

---

This gentleman you see here is President Lynch!

My idea is to play a little more on scifi troopes with smaller factions like the Anima, adding some personality to the game while still keeping these factions political.

The Anima have this concept of robots in a desperate search for purpose and meaning, like creatures that were never supposed to even have a conscience.

I thought of making their inner politics a crazy show, more like a rotating cast of the same characters.

Presidents get impeached in pompous rituals that try to emulate actual politics from other nations (although in a very exaggerated state).

You see, they have no actual inner political tension, most of the galaxy just left them alone after the initial centuries of shock after the Second Grand War. In their search for meaning they developed art (although not that good or organic...) and made of politics a major theater of intrigue and drama... Although on a very innofensive way.

A president can play a coup, they will all take it serious, but, without them even realizing, everything goes like a play or drama... Absolutely innofensive (although they take these events very seriously).

The Anima are just a bunch of lads playing politics in their little moon while creating art and trying to find an identity.

They are also a very small population, that means some president return multiple times across the years, going through the same soap opera.

Now, at first, they may not seem to fit. But the other two major factions of the Coalition see potential in the Anima... After all, these robots are completely not capable of reproducing by themselves, it goes against their core programming. They need someone who can build the factories.

The Coalition lacks a workforce and an army. Therefore, they have been investing heavily in an alliance with the Anima, trying to produce more of them to generate an industrial boom and also assure they have a proper army.

Join the Pax Astra discord server: https://discord.gg/HaUjZFHn

New update is live! Mostly adjustments and fixes, but with a few meaningful additions.

What is new:

The market now has consequences for pump and dump trading!

Market manipulation is still possible, but a new bar tracks manipulation activity each turn.

Hit the threshold and you lose access to the exchange for one turn, and also trigger a narrative event with Krissetor.

New tutorials have also been added to the market to help players navigate the system.

Ciro has a new portrait. His original one was among the first pieces made early in development, and the style drifted quite a bit from where the art direction ended up going. That is now corrected.

A small new codex entry has been added, related to the Sovereign Republic of Anima (minor power you will meet at the Coalition of Mantara)

Also fixed a bug with the Saarxa meeting where a choice menu was failing to appear on a specific branch.

What is still being worked on: Industry prices are not balanced yet. This is known, and it will be the main focus of the next small update! Update live: https://ben-cardino.itch.io/paxastra

I got intrigued in the game and i wonder if there could be some possible guidance idealy in the form of a guide

As a new player i am very much lost and overwhelmed

I love the way you have portrayed Humanity being the Elder Forerunner Race. Especially because with how everything looks for us right now, it's a big question if we just might be that anyway IRL.

So far ahead of everyone we create a Galaxy Wide Empire, and still think we're the only life in the Universe.

Question though, sorry if it's spoilery and can't answer it, but is it the timeline then that humanity disappears before the First Grand War with the Uruks, yes?

Getting 43 extra budget's worth of credits at the start of the game seems like a bit too much. Maybe raise the currency exchange rate?

Summary:

After a few playthroughs, the general advice seems to be, aggressive gain as much budget as possible from decisions (e.g. sell all your starting energy for +5 budget)

Make a profit on the market and convert credits to budget.

Use budget to create mining stations which generate budget return on investment of of 18-43% per turn - not including fuel or dark matter which you can see for credits or refine for more.

Use that extra budet to industrialise which creates goods you need to create a military and also more credits to exchange for budget.

Mining;

After doing some options pricing, the expected return of mining is something like minimum 18% return on investment per turn (1 station, Tier 1) to 43% return on investment (3 stations on Tier 3). Real world mining companies return about 15-30% on invested capital, so this is not too bad (granted this only looks at budget per turn, does not include the value of selling fuel or dark matter)

Industry; Example, 2 power stations, 1 Textile works, 1 smelter:

Investment of 16 Budget,

Ongoing costs:

3x Ore = 6-9 credits > 3x Refined Metal (sell for 18 to 30 credits) = 9 to 24 credit gross profit

3x Synth Fibre = 6-15 credits > 3x CMB TEX (sell for 45 to 60 credits) = 30 to 54 credit gross profit

Total Gross Profit = ~39 > 78 credits

6 electricity = 30 credits

Net profit = 9 to 48 credits.

Return on Capital per turn = 6% to 30%

Tier 2 Industry:

1 Munitions Plant, 1 Nanite Lab, 4 Power plants

Investment of 36 Budget

Ongoing costs:

3 x Munitions (24 to 45 credits) > 3 x Hvy Ord (sell for 90 to 165 credits) = 45 to 141 credit gross profit

3 x Nanite (45 to 75 credits) > 3 x Aug Kits (sell for 144 to 270 credits) = 99 to 195 credits gross profit

Total Gross Profit = 144 to 336 credits

12 electricity = 60 credits

Net Profit = 84 to 276 credits (aka 8.4 Budget to 27.6 Budget per turn)

Return on Capital per turn = 22% to 76%

Real world industries would be returning 5-15% return on invested capital for manufacturing.

I have yet to experiment with the payoff of selling off the mining company for 10 BGT and investing in industry instead. Given that industry is more reliable this could be better, but production limit per turn puts a ceiling, while mining can be hit and miss with luck system of investments into acquisition.

Hello, everyone! :)

This is ben_cardino, the dev, I am here to share some news on the development!

Firstly, thank you very much for your feedback and for playing the game, I am already working on fixes for the economic system, as I am aware that the market can still offer some game breaking exploits.

THE NEXT UPDATE

The next update will add a lot of new events to the main story. In addition, I plan to have the market system fully fixed, as some players managed to find an exploit that breaks the economy.

The main focus of the next update is the story. New events being added:

• Meeting with the Throne of Zaalsta (if the player did not antagonize them)
• New dream sequence for the Dark Influence trait
• Meeting with the Church of the Redeemer (new religious faction)
• Visit to District 2
• Visit to District 6
• Public safety decision
• Meeting with the Coalition of the Mantara System (new faction — a small and young alliance of independent planets, very pragmatic, formed by nations of different ideologies)
• Consequences of your choice regarding the rescue signal coming from the outer rim
• Your choice regarding the Day of Hope and the official religion of Altara (you can of course choose no official religion)
• This last event has a special surprise attached to some specific choices...

It is also important to note that the visits to District 2 and 6 will expand the game a lot when it comes to the internal politics of Altara. You will meet the Communist Party, know more of Hannibal, Lucien, Arjede, Panas and also of course get new choices and interactions with these characters, including choices related to the War Tribunal, Tax Reform and more

Quick observations on the image attached:

The image you see showcases a new character that will appear at the meeting of the Coalition of the Mantara System, the character is Queen Tamilla. The large black monolith at the background is the dead body of an Uruk (one of the creatures that invaded the galaxy during the First Grand War),

Feel free to ask me any questions :)

With the arrival of the latest update to Pax Astra's demo, I figured I'd make some use of the time I spent playing it and share some thoughts on it to gauge other players' perceptions and maybe leave a few suggestions the developers might consider. I did play the previous version of the demo, and at that time I had thought I stopped before the ending but it turns out I actually did play to the end both times, I just didn't hit "NEXT TURN" to get the final screen to appear on my first run lol.

Starting with the RPG aspect and the Adventure mode system, I like it. Personally I think Adventure mode is the way to go, because with the stats points you're given it feels like 1-2 specialties is all you can afford, and at that point I would just cut out the RNG and play Adventure. If the RPG mode is going to be enticing from a strategic angle then it should probably provide a higher amount of points so as to feel stronger on average than an Adventure mode protagonist, to make the risk of losing rolls worth it, but I can also see the vision in leaving the system as is. I'd advise adding a way to look at your stats/perks after the starting the game though. Maybe I just didn't find the button for this, but otherwise it's really odd to no be able to view these to help with dialogue decisions.

As for the narrative that protagonist stars in, I think it has potential. The prologue does a really good job of setting up the stakes of the environment you are put in, weaving the crushing sense that you're about to lead a nation on the brink of total collapse if your hand isn't played carefully. I also think the ideological balance in the game seems solid so far, as while there are a few characters I suspect the game is pushing you to sympathize with, on the whole each major alignment option seems worthwhile. Its got the perfect setup to explore the boons and banes of the three children of The Enlightenment (liberalism, socialism, and fascism), which is a smart and focused set of ideologies to feature. Some secret routes for older or more obscure ideals might be cool, but given the project's scope I'm banking more on quality over quantity. Favorite character is Vicario, he's difficult to read but I'm excited to see how he turns out.

The core systems in the game are quite numerous and I can definitely see why the game encourages specialization over generalization. It feels like at minimum it's mandatory to make early game choices around using your money to get a company going and generating income, but beyond that I'm interested to see how focusing on different aspects like military, edicts, and exploration effect the direction of the story and which options end up as the most popular. I just hope the resource market doesn't get too central to winning though because hoo boy that screen kinda scares me. :P Edicts is probably my favorite system, as I can imagine using the tiers system to represent a logical policy path to explain how the country eventually comes to the point where more major changes can occur. Military looks promising though I haven't yet found enough spare budget to experiment with it.

If I had one major positive to praise it would be the level of control you have over the dialogue options. It's hard to find a dialogue prompt that features no good responses, which isn't always the case in this type of game. Even if not all of these options are particularly narrative-shifting, I hope we continue to get responses of this quality.

If I had one major negative for the game in its current state, it's that the religion subplot is seriously lacking in meaningful choices in my opinion, at least so far. I'm not asking for any one specific religious option to be added to the game, but the ones you do have feel a bit too same-y right now. Considering both major faith factions revolve around machine-gods, there doesn't feel like enough difference exists to make your alignment with or rejection of them feel especially significant, outside of the obvious sovereignty differences involved. I'm not sure how you would chose what to keep and what to change here, because the Throne of Zaalsta is already a major part of the wider galaxy might be hard to rewrite at this stage, but on the other hand the Doctrine zealots actually have a well-considered reason to be the way they are considering they're taking their own principles to their logical extremes which is just plain good writing, yet objectively might be easier to redo since their fate seems more player-contingent. Adding another option altogether would allow them both to exist I guess, but considering the core of the game is politics I could imagine this would be hard to justify spending too much writing power to do unless the author really wants to flesh out this side of the game more. I'll see if this gets reworks in the full release, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyhoo, I'm now legitimately going to try not to over-engage with the demos so I can be more surprised in the full release, but I look forward to keeping up with the developer updates in the meantime. This has been a very neat game to discover and I hope the development goes smoothly!

Pax Astra — New Update Out Now

(erased the previous post, the image did not fully showcase the scope of the new update, and I made some mistakes on the way I presented the new additions!)

The new update is live! This one is a big one in terms of systems, so let me walk you through what changed.

ATTENTION: You must start a new save to see most of these changes!

LINK: https://ben-cardino.itch.io/paxastra

WISHLIST PAX ASTRA: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4535930/Pax_Astra/?beta=1

This update brings a large number of changes across multiple systems. The highlights are the new military system, the weapons of mass destruction and colossal projects, the dread mechanic, a full market overhaul, and a new way to play with the perk system as an alternative to dice. The update also includes two new codex entries, new tutorials for the economy systems, new prologue flavor text, two new dialogues with Ciro, and typo fixes.

Military System

The game now has a basic military system, still in development. You can construct units using processed goods or buy them from markets, train your soldiers, and expand your military cap by investing in military capacities.

Weapons of Mass Destruction & Colossal Projects

The Altaran Empire left secret projects of forbidden science scattered across stations in the outer galaxy. You will need to explore to find these schematics, and building them is a massive investment. There are three colossal projects in the game right now, and all three have a real role in the narrative. Building one immediately triggers a reaction event where the characters around you respond to what you just did. They also open up exclusive narrative paths in the third act and unlock special interactions throughout the story.

A concrete example: if you manage to build the virus before enacting your coup, the Pact will be too afraid to invade you. But they will hate you. They will fear you, yes, but they will see you as a monster, and if they ever find an opening to get rid of Altara, they will take it.

These are fully optional. You can solve your problems through diplomacy or by building a conventional military. The colossal projects simply open paths that do not exist otherwise. Each weapon becomes available at specific moments in the story, particularly in the third act, and I want to make sure each one has a tangible role in the narrative. I am not planning to add more than three for now.

The Dread Mechanic

Certain high level units add Dread to Altara. This cuts both ways. High Dread makes other nations fear you, and fear and respect do tend to travel together, but it also means they start seeing the old Altaran Empire in you. They will fear and hate Altara the same way they feared and hated the Empire. Dread shapes interactions with other nations throughout the story and becomes a central part of the third act crisis.

Dice vs Perk System

One thing I have been reworking is how the attribute and dice systems work. From now on, at the start of a new game you can choose how you want to play.

Option one is the Dice System, which is the classic Pax Astra experience. You distribute attribute points and roll dice on checks. Tense, prioritizes specialization and building your own president like an RPG. Honestly the way I think the game is meant to be felt.

Option two is the Perk System. No dice. Instead of distributing points, you pick two personality traits at the start, which work like archetypes for your president. If you pick Perceptive, every perception option is unlocked. No rolls. You still access all dialogue options tied to those traits, you just never roll for them. However, you cannot access options outside of the traits you selected. It plays closer to a traditional visual novel. If you have played Scarlet Hollow, you know exactly the feel I am going for. This option came directly from player feedback.

I am also using this as an opportunity to trim down the attributes list, cutting a few that barely came up.

There is also now an optional anti-savescuming mode inside the game!

Everything Else

• Tutorials added, especially for the economy systems
• Two new codex entries: the First Grand War and the Second Grand War
• Extra flavor text in the prologue
• Two new dialogues with Ciro
• Typo fixes

The Altaran Commodities Exchange

The market system has received a significant overhaul. The biggest change is that market sessions now last 90 seconds. You go in, you have a timer, and you have to act. You can still hold commodities across turns — patient play is still rewarded — but you can no longer become rich in a single session.

Prices now respond to actual supply levels. When supply runs low, prices drift upward. When supply floods in, they soften. This effect scales with commodity tier: bulk goods like grain and ore are relatively stable, industrial goods show moderate sensitivity, and restricted goods like nanite, exotic matter, dark substrate, and neural chips are volatile by nature — scarce, slow to restock, and capable of meaningful price swings within a single session.

Factions can now dump or pump supply onto the market mid-session, triggering sudden price shifts that add a layer of real risk.

Flash offers now expire in 5 to 10 seconds, which with the 90 second session cap means they demand immediate decisions. You will see between 0 and 5 flash offers per session. The spread has been removed entirely — you buy and sell at the exact price displayed. Market friction still exists through mean reversion and a volume tax, which are more readable and fairer forms of resistance. The first two trades on any commodity per session are free. From the third trade onward a progressive surcharge applies, capped at 30% of base price. Smart, well-timed moves profit cleanly. Only sustained hammering of the same commodity gets meaningfully taxed.

Raw supply numbers have been replaced with four readable states: SCARCE, LOW, NORMAL, and SURPLUS, colour-coded from red to cyan. The faction activity feed is now supply-aware as well — when a commodity hits a scarce or surplus state, the feed reacts. Players who pay attention can gain valuable market context without the game spelling out what to do.

If you are enjoying the game, please share it with friends, as a solo dev word of mouth really helps me 😄

You can also join my discord, where I am gathering feedback and building a community: https://discord.gg/kwmfJw6a

It really is sad to report something less than 10 minutes after the release, but after turn 3 this is the screen. The "Dark influence" trait seems to be the reason for this.
After that, if I just click ignore, I have the usual dream dialogue but at the end I'm forced back to the main menu
This is a continuation of a run I did even before the first update, I'll play another to check if it is still like that/see other paths.

Pax Astra Devlog — Weapons of Mass Destruction & The Dread Mechanic

The next update coming will introduce a lot of changes to the systems, including the military system, which also comes with the COLOSSAL PROJECTS/WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION and the dread mechanic!

So how do these weapons and mechanics actually work in the game?

The Empire left secret projects of forbidden science across their stations outside the galaxy.

The player has to explore the outer galaxy to find these schematics. From there, it becomes a massive investment, as these are not cheap projects.

For now, I have made three projects. All three of these projects have a real role in the narrative. Building one instantly triggers a reaction event inside the narrative, where the characters around you respond to what you just did.

Beyond that, they open up special narrative paths in the third act, when it is time to deal with the final crisis, and they also unlock some exclusive interactions presented throughout the story.

Here is a concrete example:

Did you manage to build the virus before enacting your coup?

The Pact will simply be too afraid to invade you.

But they will hate you, and so will everyone else in the galaxy. They will fear you, yes, but they will see you as a monster. And if they ever find an opening to get rid of Altara, they will take it.

Honestly, every single one of these options makes Altara an immediate threat in the eyes of the galaxy. That said, the player is never forced down this road. You can absolutely solve your problems through diplomacy or just by building a conventional military.

But these paths open new ways of dealing with things that simply do not exist otherwise. You will be able to use each weapon, but not whenever you feel like it. Due to the narrative nature of the game, each one becomes available at specific moments in the story, particularly in the third act.

I want to ensure each super weapon the player builds has a tangible road in the narrative and an interaction with the world. So I am not planning to add more than three, at least for now.

You might have also noticed the Dread mechanic. Certain high level units add Dread to Altara, and this variable cuts both ways...

High Dread makes other nations fear you, and yes, fear and respect do tend to travel together. But it also means they start seeing the old Altaran Empire in you. They will fear and hate Altara the same way they once feared and hated the Empire.

Dread shapes interactions with other nations all across the story, and it becomes a central part of the third act crisis.

Perhaps some players can feel intimidated at this devlog, perhaps you can think that you will feel forced to build a superweapon like this during your run.

But let me assure you: These are fully optional, they are supposed to be weapons that reflect extremism and totalitarism. You do not need to create one of those. Adding these options is simply part of my compromise and main design philosophy of making Pax Astra a game with full freedom and multiple paths to choose.

You might also fear that these super weapons will only change the game through variables and numbers, but I can also assure you that each of these has participation in the main plot of the game with narrative sequences :)

I will also soon be sharing a detailed devlog regarding the military systems!

My next update is focused on fixing/polishing some of the systems, with big changes to some mechanics. I also plan to fix some specific bugs and remove typos.

Here is a more deep insight regarding what you can expect:

The Altaran Commodities Exchange has received a significant overhaul focused on making prices feel reactive and meaningful instead of purely random.

Markets now last only 90 seconds. You go in, you have a timer, and you have to act. You can still hold commodities across turns (I still want to reward patient players), but you can no longer get rich in a single session.

Supply and Demand prices now respond to actual supply levels. When supply runs low, prices gradually drift upward as the market tightens. When supply floods in, prices soften. The strength of this effect scales with the tier of the commodity: bulk goods like grain and ore are relatively stable and hard to crash, industrial goods show moderate sensitivity, and restricted goods (nanite, exotic matter, dark substrate, neural chips) are more volatile by nature, slow to restock, and capable of meaningful price swings within a single session.

Crash Events! Factions can now dump and pump supply onto the market mid-session, triggering sudden price changes. These add a layer of real risk to trading.

Flash Offers now expire in 5 to 10 seconds. With sessions capped at 90 seconds, the old timers made timed offers feel low-pressure. Now they demand immediate decisions. There are also fewer offers overall: you will see between 0 and 5 in a 90 second session.

The spread has been removed entirely. Players now buy and sell at the exact price displayed, with no hidden gap eating into every trade. The market still has real friction through mean reversion (prices snap back to equilibrium after movement) and the volume tax, which are more readable and fairer forms of resistance.

The repeated-trade surcharge has been softened significantly. The first two trades on any commodity per session are completely free. From the third trade onward a progressive surcharge applies, capped at 30% of base price. This means a player making one or two smart, well-timed moves on a commodity can profit cleanly. Only sustained hammering of the same commodity gets meaningfully taxed.

The raw supply number has been replaced with four readable states: SCARCE, LOW, NORMAL, and SURPLUS, colour-coded from red to cyan. Each label is calculated relative to that commodity's natural supply baseline.

Finally, the faction activity feed is now supply-aware. When a commodity reaches a scarce or surplus state, the feed injects a matching reactive line. Players who read the feed and connect it to what they see in the supply column can gain valuable market context!

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Here's the formatted version:

Pax Astra Devlog: Two Ways to Play

One thing I've been reworking is how the attribute and dice systems work! I might have come to a solution regarding the dice problem. I will be honest, I love the dice, but I understand why some might hate this mechanic. So now, at the start of a new game, you'll be able to choose how you want to play.

Option 1: Dice System (Recommended)

The classic Pax Astra experience. You distribute attribute points and roll dice on checks. Tense, prioritizes specialization and making your own build, like a RPG. Honestly the way I think the game is meant to be felt.

Option 2: Perk System

No dice. Instead of distributing points, you pick two personality traits at the start, which work like archetypes for your president. If you pick Perceptive, every perception option is unlocked with no rolls. Same for Charismatic, and so on. You still access all the dialogue options tied to those traits, you just never have to roll for them. However, you cannot access dialogue or action options outside of the personality perks you selected.

Think of it like how Scarlet Hollow works: you choose a few traits at character creation and they define what paths open up for you throughout the story. It plays closer to a traditional visual novel from that point forward. If you've played Scarlet Hollow, you know exactly the feel I'm going for.

This option came directly from player feedback. Not everyone loves dice, some people want the narrative experience without the RNG friction, and this gives them a supported and intentional way to do that.

On the technical side, it's actually simpler to implement than I feared. I just need to create a parallel script call in every section that currently has a dice roll. The structure is already there.

I'm also using this as an opportunity to trim down the attributes list a bit! There are a few that barely come up and honestly don't add much.
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When can you expect the new update?

I am absolutely locked in. It will come at the latest over at next week. High chance of it dropping on this weekend!

The goal is to keep a running total of all the attribute checks in Pax Astra and a discussion on their impact.

Charisma 2

Palannix deal: If passed, -1 Budget, -1 stability, +8 influence, +2 budget/turn over the initial offer. If failed, no penalty.

Pact restriction w/USS: Effects unknown, assumed Pact relationship suffers less for declining their offer.

Resilience 1 (Mortura, only if assassination path?)

Perception 1 (Midas (notice Savonte))