Changelog

What's new in Pilgrims

v2.6 Apr 28, 2026

TRAILS v3, Fragment Bonds, Signal Phase 2 Ship

The biggest single-day ship of the year. Trails fully rebuilt, fragment bonds turn into permanent gameplay, signal cinematic lands.

TRAILS v3 — Antipode Methodology

  • 4 deterministic cardinal chains per base — every captain now has N/S/E/W chains computed by constrained Dijkstra to their antipode landmark
  • Active direction selector — pick a chain on /crew; drones, crew, ARIA, and Robot all build segments of your active chain
  • Conservation migration — every captain's existing trail km migrated with zero drift; nothing lost
  • Off-chain expedition speed bonus removed — chains are THE trail system now; expeditions use them, never mutate them
  • Per-source attribution — chain rows track Captain / Scientist / ARIA / Drone / Robot km separately for the trail summary modal

Fragment Bonds Get Real

  • Bond Bonus picker — every bonded fragment lets you choose ONE permanent +5% bonus from a 6-slot menu (SV, expedition speed, depot build speed, shards/hr, vehicle range, discovery rate)
  • Max 3 picks per captain, no duplicates, picks survive everything
  • Bonuses flow through the universal effects aggregator — they stack with upgrades, infra, tech, scientist stats, and bonds

Signal Phase 2 Cinematic

  • Signal Claim cinematic — full-screen reveal when you complete a signal_claim expedition
  • Puzzle fragments — collect Origin Site fragments with whisper text + decoder terminal
  • Bond fragment hint — your first bond's tx hash now seeds the decoder for every Signal entry

Bug Fixes

  • Unlimited SV accumulation — signal-network SV bonus was riding on shard-building reset clock; now tied to SV-building reset (#1426)
  • Shard Rush button missing — infrastructure Lv2+ upgrades now route to the right catalog so the rush button shows for ALL builds, not just first builds (#1427)
  • Build Time display mismatch — modal now shows the same discounted figure as the card row (the build was always discounted, only the display lied) (#1425)
  • Active Bonuses panel — /expeditions now shows up to 14 active bonus chips, not just Comms Array (#1419)
v2.5 Apr 13–19, 2026

Depot Recalibration + Signal Phase 2 Spec

Mars-realistic build times, Maintenance Drone gets a real job, Base page overhaul, Signal Phase 2 design locked.

Depot Recalibration (#1270)

  • Mars-realistic build times — early tiers in days, mid-game in weeks, late-game in months
  • Maintenance Drone — now grants passive +5/+10/+15% build speed across all upgrades
  • Scientist Engineering — high-ENG scientists shave significant time off every build
  • Build complete clarity — recently-completed builds now surface in a rich modal on /depot landing

Base Page Overhaul (#1317)

  • Refactored into smaller focused panels: shard generation, SV income, building queue, recent activity
  • Record SV button moved to Base for one-click claiming
  • Effective rate breakdown now shows EVERY contributing source

Foundations

  • 1000-line file cap (#1328) — split 17 oversize files into focused modules; codebase is sustainable again
  • Signal Phase 2 design (#1276) — fragment cinematic + puzzle terminal + decoder spec locked with Luke
  • Trail Take 3 (#1399) — tipped over into the v3 antipode rewrite that shipped a week later
v2.4 Apr 6–12, 2026

UI Polish Wave + Expedition Trust Fixes

Decimals out of the ribbon, expedition circle finally accurate, "Shard Some" returns.

UI Polish

  • No more decimals on Shard / SV ribbon (#1122) — clean integer counts
  • SV column on Confirmation buttons (#1131) — claim/extract now surfaces SV value before you commit
  • Standardized "Shard" vs "Extract" wording (#1327)

Expedition Fixes

  • Expedition Circle accurate (#1283) — range ring now matches the actual reachable distance
  • Round-trip required (#1281) — expeditions complete on RETURN, not on arrival at the destination
  • "Insufficient Funds" message (#1290) — explicit error instead of silent failure
  • Shard Some items returns (#1125) — bulk-shard your stash again from the discoveries view

Workflow

  • Brainstorm pages for Captain Stats (#21), Scientist Stats (#1108), Depot Recalibration (#1270) so design decisions happen in one place
  • Lab summary box (#1286) — see at a glance what's researched without clicking each branch
  • Tech time consistency (#1285) — research timers now match across pages
v2.3 Mar 23–29, 2026

Robot Crew + ARIA Hype Returns

Fourth crew slot unlocked via legendary discoveries. Shard timing nailed down. ARIA gets her hype-man voice back.

Robot Crew Member (#1147)

  • Forge a Robot — your scientist can build a 4th crew member from legendary discoveries
  • Exploration dial — Robot contributes to expeditions OR trails based on the dial setting
  • ARIA Autopilot brainstorm (#1145) — design page for AFK colony management started

Shard Timing Fixed

  • Effective rate accuracy (#1109) — Effective Rate section surfaces every contributing source
  • Discovery generation (#1107) — long expeditions now find appropriate loot; cargo limits enforced
  • Shard value calibration (#1126) — discovery values rebalanced for late-game pacing

ARIA Improvements

  • PilgrimBot timeouts cut (#1110) — admin chat reliability massively improved
  • Hype-man voice (#1115) — PilgrimBot's tone restored to celebratory after going flat
  • ARIA knows about trails (#1027) — chat can answer trail questions accurately
  • Better expedition return message (#1091)
v2.2 Mar 16–22, 2026

Bug Tracker Overhaul + SV Economy

Excel sheet retired. PostgreSQL bug tracker live. SV economy + scientist stats locked in.

Bug Tracker (now in /admin/bugs)

  • Native PostgreSQL tracker — bugs, history, comments, screenshots all in-database
  • Sort by Date Created (#1031), Status labels (#1037), Ready For Dev status (#1086)
  • Rename/retitle bugs (#1040), screenshot port from Google Sheet (#1038)
  • PilgrimBot bug queries (#1074) — admin chat can pull all your shard generation, bug status, etc.

SV Economy + Captain Stats

  • Shard Generator math (#1039, #1242) — generation rate calculation reliable across pages
  • Shard It All credits balance (#7) — bulk extraction now correctly adds shards AND SV
  • Drone base speed (#1050, #1082) — vehicle stats restored from the catalog
  • Environmental Impact line (#1030) — generation rate UI shows env multiplier

Foundation Fixes

  • ARIA Bond stuck in pending (#1046) — bonds now complete cleanly on landmark visit
  • Expedition discoveries credit balance (#1045) — shards from claims now hit the wallet
  • Sol number in ARIA photo journal (#4) — first appearance of in-game time dating
v2.1 Feb 7, 2026 · 8:50 AM

Depot & QoL Improvements

Richer upgrade info, smarter ARIA, and a pile of fixes across the colony.

Depot Upgrades

  • Richer Depot Cards — Cards now show all effect stats (night generation, expedition slots, discovery bonuses, generation multipliers)
  • Full Upgrade Path Modal — Every level now displays its effects, not just name/cost/build time
  • Habitat Module — Expedition capacity now properly scales with Habitat level (1-6 slots)

ARIA Intelligence

  • Research Page — ARIA now knows your SV balance, branch levels, and active research
  • Colony Page — ARIA now knows your infrastructure, vehicles, and build queue
  • Base HQ — ARIA now knows your active expeditions, crew missions, and generation rates
  • Depot Page — ARIA now knows your build queue capacity and infrastructure levels

Bug Fixes

  • Research Times — Lab page now shows full precision (days, hours, and minutes)
  • Map Centering — Crew/Trails map now centers on your base, not Andy's Town
  • Briefing Persistence — Dismissed briefings stay dismissed until new activity arrives
  • Legacy Migration — Old shop purchases automatically convert to the new upgrade system
v2.0.3 Feb 6, 2026 · 7:50 AM

Signal & Expeditions

Signal brainstorm page, expedition signal system, colony page fixes.

Changes

  • Signal Brainstorm Page — New page for exploring The Signal storyline
  • Expedition Signals — Signals re-integrated into expedition system
  • Colony Page Fix — Fixed layout and rendering issues on colony page
  • Lab Page Cleanup — Cleaned up research/lab interface
v2.0.2 Feb 5, 2026 · 7:05 AM

EVA Suit & ARIA Improvements

Simplified EVA Suit, depot build queue visibility, and ARIA anti-hallucination.

Changes

  • EVA Suit Simplified — Now boosts exploration stat only (+1% per level, up to +10% at Lv10)
  • Depot Build Queue — Active builds now show names and live countdowns in header
  • Depot Stats Display — Added stat previews and unlock reasons to depot cards
  • ARIA Anti-Hallucination — ARIA no longer invents data she doesn't have; added clear history button
  • ARIA Scientist Context — ARIA now aware of scientist assignments and stats
v2.0.1 Feb 4, 2026 · 4:53 PM

Depot Full-Stack Redesign

Depot completely rebuilt with upgrade paths, infrastructure, live build timers, and activity filters.

Features

  • Depot Redesign — Full-stack rebuild with upgrade cards, modals, and progression paths
  • Infrastructure in Depot — All 13 buildings now upgradeable through the depot
  • Live Build Timers — Countdown timers on building buttons with cache-busting
  • Activity Filters — Colony activity feed now filterable by event type
  • Changelog Page — Added this page, accessible from profile dropdown
  • Simplified Menu — Cleaner user dropdown navigation

Bug Fixes

  • DB Deadlock — Fixed database connection pool deadlock during concurrent upgrades
  • Tech Research Conflict — Added unique index to prevent duplicate research entries
  • Depot Countdown — Fixed duplicate JS variable causing timer issues
  • Colony Images — Fixed image rendering for upgrades on colony page
v2.0 Feb 3, 2026 · 7:25 AM

Economy Redesign

Complete overhaul of progression systems with balanced 10-level upgrades across all categories.

New Systems

  • 10-Level Depot Upgrades — 11 upgrade paths with 10 levels each (110 total upgrades)
  • 10-Level Tech Tree — 4 research branches with 10 levels each (40 total techs)
  • 10-Level Infrastructure — 13 buildings with 10 levels each (130 total structures)
  • Prerequisite Gating — Advanced buildings unlock when earlier buildings reach certain levels

Pricing & Balance

  • 1.12x Multiplier — All upgrades use industry-standard 1.12x cost scaling per level
  • 14-Day Build Cap — Maximum build time capped at 14 days for any upgrade
  • 3-7 Day Payoff — Income-generating upgrades pay for themselves in 3-7 days
  • Sepolia Shards Everywhere — Unified currency naming across all UI

Endgame Buildings

  • Regolith Forge — Unlocks at Refinery Lv7, generates 50-257 shards/hr
  • Resonance Chamber — Unlocks at Forge Lv5, generates 75-386 shards/hr
  • Thermal Vent Tap — Unlocks at Resonance Lv5, generates 100-515 shards/hr
  • Monolith Antenna — Unlocks at Thermal Lv5, generates 125-643 shards/hr

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed tech research database conflict when upgrading
  • Fixed blockchain reward validation for tech completions
  • Wired life_support_cost_mult effect to expeditions
  • Fixed trail system routing and connectivity
  • Major codebase refactor — reduced file bloat
v1.5 January 2026

Codebase Refactor

Full-stack refactoring from monolithic files into small, focused modules.

Changes

  • Templates split from 2000+ line files to under 300 lines each
  • CSS extracted to external files (core.css + per-page styles)
  • JavaScript extracted to external files with PAGE_DATA bridge
  • Python utilities modularized into focused files under 1000 lines
v1.0 October 2025

Initial Launch

Pilgrims launches with core gameplay loop.

Features

  • Expedition system with destinations across Mars
  • Discovery collection and analysis
  • Crew management with Captain, Scientist, and ARIA
  • Trail network construction
  • Infrastructure building
  • Blockchain-backed Sepolia shard economy