There have been some major developments in the past...hour or so, as well as some new events posted. Here's the news.

Development Updates:

New Structures: 3 new structures have been added: The Sensor Base, the Antisensor Base, and the Interdictor Base. Check out the Building Guide for more detailed information.
Fighters, AR Missiles: Fighters are now equipped with AR Missiles, which replace the old SABOT rockets. The missiles will track the target, but take longer (~30sec) to reload, and will still fire 3 rounds. However, they will not destroy planetary targets.
Ship Resources: For now, ship resources have been disabled, meaning you can choose any ship no matter the cost, if you have the required rank and/or badges.
Ship Selection Screen: Has been redone, and the interface section of this site will soon be updated.

The long awaited release date has finally been announced by Palestar: Darkspace will go public on December 17th, 2001. Palestar has partnered with Playnet.com to bring you the final release of Darkspace. Palestar will continue to be the main development of the game, whil Playnet.com will provide hardware, bandwith, billing, and customer support services.

Darkspace Accounts
A few things will occur if you wish to continue playing Darkspace upon its release...
- Current Beta players will be able to retain their current usernames.
- Beta testers will recieve 50 bonus prestige, as well as a special "beta tester" badge.
- A total reset will occur, returning all stats to zero.
- Once "Pay to Play" is activated, all accounts will become demo accounts until payment information is provided.
- Demo Accounts will allow limited access play. You will not have to access official servers
- Darkspace will continue to be a free download.

Payment Plans
On the 17th of December, you will be able to click a BUY button in the Darkspace Chat Lobby. This will redirect you to the Playnet.com homepage, where you will have to register and choose your payment options. You will be able to pay with Visa, Mastercard, or Cash. There are 3 payment options:

Pay To Play Benefits
- Access to all 3 factions: UGTO, ICC, and K'luth.
- Gain Ranks and Badges, and access to bigger, better ships.
- Access to high bandwith multi-processor servers, for smoother gameplay.
- Ability to form player clans, which will lead to clan capture and control of planets in MV.
- Continuous updates of new weapons, ships, factions, maps/scenerios, space monsters, and more.

The Palestar Development Team thanks all the BETA testers who participated in the growth of this massive online mutliplayer space sim, and is looking forward to seeing all the testers in the Darkspace Universe on December 17th.

Servers Down
As you may have noticed, Darkspace and the Palestar servers were down yesterday. This was caused by a router problem at Palestar's ISP, and occured around 2PM CST. Everything has been trasnferred to new servers, and is running smoothly once again

Development Updates
There are a couple of development updates that you want to be aware of:

Remote Control Mode: This is a new code that will allow you to change the tactical view into a remote control view. Hit "C" to toggle the remote camera.
Pause / Continue Production: These new commands have been added to all structures. This will give you the ability to pause / continue the production of a structure. This will be useful in resource management, as you will be able to stop a barracks from producing troops or turning off a defense base to save resources.
Metaverse: Navigation Map: The Systems Links box has been removed, and the Metaverse Map has been moved into the Navigation Screen. If you are in Metaverse, and wish to see the included systems, simply go to the Navigation Screen (F2), and zoom out to get a full view of the entire Metaverse.
ICC / K'luth Home Systems: The home systems of each faction have been moved, ICC will occupy Epsilon Eri, the K'luth will be from near Epsilon Ind. The UGTO still are from the Sol System.

HomeLAN Interview
There is a new interview with Palestar's president Richard Lyle, thanks to HomeLAN. The chat goes over the main aspects of Darkspace, the history of it, as well as the history of Palestar. There's more good stuff, so take a look at HomeLan.

Finally, after a month after it's beginning, the Darkspace Fansite has come to an end, and n00bspace is your #1 Darkspace Fansite! Here is a list of the other top winners:

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to all the participants for creating great websites!

Palestar has announced that they have reached and exceeded the 20,000 registered users mark. for their current game: Darkspace. This announcement comes in a press released by the small Austin, TX based company, which marks the final stages of the open beta test for Darkspace. Richard Lyle, Palestars President and Lead Programmer, says, "We're pleased with the way in which the game plays at this point. With the recent addition of the map editor, we believe the product is ready for launch. Now we're simply awaiting our agreement with the new partner to be finalized".
Palestar's Official Press Release

Although the open beta testing will soon come to an end and Darkspace will go into its final release, new players are still encouraged to download and experience the game for themselves. Players can visit http://www.darkspace.net to download the game from one of their many mirror sites.