After a couple of months in beta testing, Rodina has just received a transformational update which promises to allow for more wide-ranging features as the Early Access space exploration game creeps towards its seventh year on Steam.
The milestone 1.5 release brings a number of features to the self-described "Daggerfall in space", but the main one is persistence, meaning that the lifeforms you mercilessly slayed on your last visit to a planet won't suddenly come back to life when you return. Likewise for planetary resources and the contents of the 45,000 asteroids rattling around the solar system.
Back in May, Elliptic Games (aka Brendan Anthony), revealed that efforts to improve the game had slowed, partly due to 1.5 being such an extensive rewrite, but also because sales had dropped off to such a point that Rodina was no longer being worked on full-time. The previous major update, a revamp of the planetary terrain system, was introduced last July.
Whether 1.5 be enough to staff the engine room remains to be seen, but I suspect I'll soon be picking up a copy after years of dithering. I've tried the demo a few times, and while I've enjoyed the scope of the game and the solitude of its worlds, the gameplay has lacked the necessary refinement to make a purchase. I'm also a notorious skinflint who never buys anything unless it's on sale - which Rodina rarely is.