What changed

2026-09-12

• Helium-3 used to be something you chipped off a boulder. That is gone.
• Five rim systems have a giant you can draw from — Orion, Cygnus, Draco, Lyra and Hydra — on a new screen beside the belt.
• It needs a Containment Licence and a tank fitted at a yard. Four of the nine hulls cannot take one at any price.
• The tank is not the hold, so a draw fills it while your cargo stays put.
• The rock field did not get poorer — an ice shelf worth the same replaced the gas pocket.

2026-09-11

• Mining is no longer safe. A run can be interrupted, and you meet them holding everything you just cut.
• The core is still safe. The midlands are watched and the rim is hunted, and the belt screen says which before you start.
• Mining still pays better than hauling. It now costs something to be out there.

2026-09-11

• A belt used to bleed back a fraction of a unit an hour, for ever. That is gone.
• Work a site out and it shuts. A day later it is whole again: every rock, full.
• Strip a system's entire surface and the next field comes back a quarter richer.
• There is a great deal more ore in the galaxy, and it arrives in bursts rather than a trickle.

2026-09-11

• The station you are standing at posts news in the voice of whoever holds it. Fly one jump and the tone changes completely.
• The same board for everyone at that dock, and a different one tomorrow.
• You will hear about the gates from the core now, rather than having to fly to the rim to learn the universe is being extended.
• And the four factions say who they are, beside your standing with them.

2026-09-11

• Your chart has a Lanes section listing every lane you have flown, with who cut it and why.
• The lane you are flying is named on the transit screen, with its story under the clock.
• The gates are easier to find: on the system page whether or not you are docked, listed on your chart, and brighter on the map.