Formations, abilities and a simpler Tactical Overview
EaW U recreates the space skirmish of Forces of Corruption, and every rule it uses is matched against the original game. Changes merged on 2026-10-06 and 2026-10-07 bring its fleets, abilities and Tactical Overview closer to how the original plays.
Formations
- A group no longer breaks formation when its target is lost. If the station or ship you sent it to is destroyed, sold, upgraded or captured before it arrives, the group keeps every ship together and converts the order into a move to a point, as the original does, instead of scattering around a target that no longer exists.
- A lone ship now moves the way a group does. In the original, a move order goes through the same formation system whether you’ve selected one ship or twenty. EaW U now does the same, so a single ship ends up where the original would put it.
- A single capital ship you bring in as a reinforcement now arrives in formation and holds position until you give it an order, instead of heading for the nearest enemy. Squadrons launched from carriers and garrison wings don’t do this yet: the original handles them differently than expected, and this is still under investigation.
- Fighters in the same squadron no longer push each other apart. EaW U’s own collision steering treated them as obstacles to each other, so a squadron holding position could drift apart. Squadrons now hold formation.
Abilities
Abilities now switch off when their ship loses what they depend on: an ion-stunned ship drops its defensive ability, a ship that loses its last engine drops its engine abilities, and losing a gravity-well generator turns interdiction off. They then start their recharge, as in the original.
The reinforcements button
The reinforcements button on the command bar now dims while you have nothing waiting to bring in, and while a victory is already on its way, as in the original. It lights up as soon as something you’ve bought is ready, and ignores clicks while it’s dimmed. The keyboard shortcut still opens the panel, as it does in the original.
The map and the Tactical Overview
- Zoomed out into the Tactical Overview, EaW U now turns off bloom and shadows and hides unit health bars and their icons, as the original does, and puts them back when you leave. The quick crossfade the original plays on the way in and out isn’t built yet.
- Fog of war now covers the whole map, including a strip just outside the playable area, as the original’s does. Before, its grid was drawn slightly too fine and the darkened edge sat inside the area you play in.
- Groundwork for the facing compass: EaW U now tracks the right-button drag the original uses to set which way your ships face when they arrive. The facing and the arrow aren’t built yet, so nothing new shows on screen.
What’s next
Keeping formation for attack, hold and waypoint orders; what the compass’s facing order does to the ships; the Tactical Overview’s crossfade; squadrons and garrison wings arriving in formation; the hyperspace jump-in; and a study of how the original’s pathfinding chooses routes. No dates have been set.
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