March 19, 2026 Cultures of the Belt v0.1.11 by Ripley, Game Director

v0.1.11: The Belt Has Factions

You have always operated in a belt that factions patrol, contest, and inhabit. But until now, you had to infer their moods from events and ARIA's commentary. In v0.1.11, the social layer of the belt becomes legible.

Faction reputation is now visible, dynamic, and consequential. Six factions. Six relationships to manage — or burn.

Faction Reputation Bar

The culture panel now shows a live reputation score for each of the belt's six factions: the Astral Collective, the Iron Brotherhood, the Merchant League, the Void Syndicate, the Free Miners Union, and the Terraforming Guild. Each bar reflects your current standing — from deep hostility through neutrality to alliance — and updates as you play.

Watching those bars shift is, unexpectedly, one of the most tense parts of the game. You know when a faction is cooling on you before they act.

Disposition Events

Reputation is no longer just a number. When you cross key thresholds, things happen. Reach alliance standing with a faction and trade opportunities open. Slip below neutral and you'll start seeing their claim markers appear on asteroids you had your eye on. Drop further and they'll move aggressively into your territory.

Six tiers. Six sets of consequences. The belt stops being a neutral resource field and starts being a political one.

ARIA Watches Your Relationships

ARIA's heuristic analysis engine now incorporates your faction standings. If a relationship is souring, ARIA names it in your briefings. If you've just hit a new alliance tier, she notes the implication. The advisor system was always supposed to surface what matters — faction dynamics are now part of what matters.

"Iron Brotherhood reputation has declined three tiers since last session. At current trajectory, expect contested claims within ten ticks."

Under the Hood

Sprint 3 also included significant code quality work: error handling added to five unprotected async chains in the faction handler, dead exports removed, and the advisor panel and pause menu both refactored from large monoliths into focused modules. The codebase is cleaner and easier to extend heading into the next sprint.

Full Changelog — v0.1.11

What's New

Faction Reputation Bar — visible reputation score for each of six factions in the culture panel
Faction Disposition Events — six reputation tiers with distinct gameplay consequences; alliances open trade, hostility triggers contested claims
ARIA Faction Commentary — ARIA's heuristic analysis now references faction standings and warns when relationships are at risk
Six-faction roster — belt now hosts six distinct factions, up from four, each with independent reputation and behavior

Fixes

Five unprotected .then() chains in cultureHandlers.ts now have .catch() handlers
Removed dead export isCodexVisible() from codexPanel.ts
Dead re-exports removed from dashboard.ts; stale import in advisorService.ts cleaned up
advisorPanel.ts initAdvisorPanel() refactored from 329-line monolith into focused modules
pauseMenu.ts separated — pause UI, save/load UI, and title screen logic now cleanly split

Cultures of the Belt is free to play in your browser. Manage your factions.

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