Combat
Physics-based gunnery
Weapons track, lead and miss. Projectiles carry momentum and take time to arrive, so a hard burn across a firing arc is a real defence and a ship caught drifting is a real target.
2.5D Space RTS
In developmentNovalast
Full physics-based fleet combat, a supply war you can actually sever, and a captain's chair you can climb into mid-battle.
The setting
Year 3125.
The Nolithium stopped flowing.
Civil war has taken hold of known space, and it started the way these usually do — with a supply that stopped reaching the people who needed it. The Order of Terra holds the Nolithium, and has spent decades deciding who is entitled to any of it.
Novalast, a nebula deep in the Zeta Quadrant, holds the richest veins left. Nolithium is the catalyst that supercharges nanotech: hull fabrication, shield lattices, sensor micro-arrays and every repair that matters run on it. Whoever holds the veins holds the industrial capacity of humanity's fleets. Everyone else waits, and does without.
Sol's Vengeance formed to open that supply back up to the people it was being withheld from. Both fleets are in the nebula now. Neither intends to leave.
- 01
The Order tightens its grip on the nebula’s mining colonies, citing security.
- 02
Colonists accuse it of hoarding Nolithium and ignoring humanitarian need.
- 03
Peaceful protest turns to skirmish, and defecting officers expose the corruption behind it.
- 04
Both sides now hold the nebula as the right to define humanity’s future.
From the build
In-engine captures
01 / 01Broadside Engagement
Systems
Everything on screen is being simulated.
Combat
Quadrant shields
Every hull's shielding is split across four faces. Keep your strong arc into the incoming fire and you can trade all day; let something slip around behind you and the hull takes it raw.
Economy
A logistics war
Nolithium is extracted, refined and hauled by ships that exist in the world. The supply network is fully physicalised, which means starving an enemy of fuel is a legitimate way to win a battle you could never win head-on.
Command
Direct control
The twist: you are not only the admiral. Drop into a ship on the front line and fly it yourself while the wider engagement carries on without you — because it will carry on without you.
World
Generated maps
Sectors, the corridors between them and the hyperlanes that link them are all generated, then checked for fairness before anyone flies through. Where the asteroids and the claims worth holding sit changes with the map.
Combat
Everything has mass
Missiles are real objects with thrust behind them, and a big enough detonation shoves a hull off its heading. A light ship caught in a capital-scale blast gets thrown; a heavy one barely registers it. Where you are standing when something goes off is a decision you made earlier.
The fleet
Inspect your fleet, admiral.
Every class is a different answer to the same question: how much weight can you afford to move, and how quickly does it need to be somewhere else. Pick one to read its numbers.
Choose a side
One fights to preserve the old order.
The other fights to redeem it.
Neither faction is the villain of this war, and both of them know exactly what they are fighting for. Only one of them can hold the nebula.
The Order of Terra
Order · Stability · Hierarchy
Not an evil empire — a once-noble institution that has veered off course. The Order still sees itself as the mature authority holding back chaos, and many in its ranks believe that fiercely. It holds the Nolithium, rations who is entitled to any of it, and calls that stability. Clean lines, brass trim and academy-trained officers, run to the letter of a regulation written a long time ago.
How they fight
- Reinforced shield arrays that soak sustained fire
- Heavy, reliable guns built for stand-up fights and choke points
- Big reactors and heavy hulls — slow, and slow to turn
- Designed for frontal engagements; flank them and the rear is bare
Ships are named like
- Indomitable
- Resolute
- Perseverance
- Valiant Horizon
- Stalwart Crown
Sol's Vengeance
Rebellion · Redemption · Conscience
Officers, colonists and workers who reached breaking point and defected — not to tear civilisation down, but to put the Nolithium back in the hands of the people it was being withheld from. They are not anarchists: rank and discipline still hold, they simply refuse to serve a corrupt command. Their fleet is largely reclaimed Order hulls, repainted, patched and rebuilt into something faster than the navy that built them. Where the Order sees traitors, Sol's Vengeance sees patriots correcting a moral failure.
How they fight
- Hit-and-run specialists — fast in, quick kill, fast out
- Light hulls and uprated drives make them exceptionally agile
- Slip through the cracks and gut the undefended backline
- Thin armour and shielding; a long engagement is a losing one
Ships are named like
- Liberty's Hand
- Oathbreaker
- New Dawn
- Echo of Justice
- Free Horizon
Work in progress Faction artwork is AI-generated placeholder art. Expect these to shift.
Standing on shoulders
If you loved these, you'll be at home.
Novalast is drawn from a very specific shelf of space strategy — and from one thing each of them got right.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada
Capital ships with weight. Every turn costs you something, and facing decides fights.
Supreme Commander
Strategic zoom and scale — the same battle readable from one hull or the whole theatre, without ever cutting to a separate map.
Conquest: Frontier Wars
Supply as a hard constraint. A fleet that has run dry is cannon fodder until something reaches it.
Sins of a Solar Empire
A front line that grinds. Wars measured in hours, won by attrition and position rather than one decisive push.
Ashes of the Singularity
Fleets as standing orders rather than click-by-click micro. You set an intent and it holds while your attention is three sectors away.
Homeworld
The fleet is the campaign. What survives an engagement is what you take into the next one, so a costly win is still a cost.
Platforms
Where it runs.
Specifications to be decided
Platforms and system requirements aren't settled yet, and we'd rather say so than publish numbers that turn out to be wrong. They'll be here — and on the Steam page — once they're real.
Follow on SteamRelease date TBA
The Nolithium must flow.
Wishlist Novalast on Steam to hear the moment there's a date, and join the Discord if you'd rather watch it get built.