Indie developer, 4gency, today announced several new updates to Habitat: A Thousand Generations In Orbit. The v0.20 update with a new “HAL” Management System, Combinations, and Advanced Construction Mode is now live and currently available through Steam’s Early Access program. 4gency also announced that they will be supporting Steam Workshop which means that players will be able to build their own custom ‘junk’ for use in-game in the future.

About “HAL” – The Habitat Management Interface
- HAL is the system that allows players to tactically manage their creations.
- Health, resource production and the new combination system, and management of key habitat properties like rocket throttle settings, fuel usage, and weapon tuning are all presented in a simple and clean way.  Time is even stopped so that players are given a chance to learn, think and strategize.
- More features will be rolled out in the future including features like citizen and crisis management, upgrading parts, re-wiring of resources, and engineer management.

About Combinations
- Accessed in HAL, a new combination system has been added that unlocks certain bonuses for particular configurations of different components.
- In this update players can expect bonuses to booster rockets, weapons, and producers like fuel tanks and electrical generators. 
- The team is also working on future combinations that will allow for advanced weapon systems, auto tracking turrets and shields.

Advanced Construction Mode
- As a result of community feedback a precision based construction mode has been added that gives gamers a more reliable control of angles, distances and symmetry to balance their stations in both operation and aesthetics. This will be the default construction mode in the game.

The Habitat HQ
- Players now have a Habitat HQ! This is the player’s central hub and houses the Engineer Training Facility, where they can build new engineers for reinforcements. This also makes it a defensive focal point.  If the HQ gets destroyed, it’s game over.
- As players face more challenges and areas to explore, they will have to balance the need for engineers and resources from the HQ with the risk of putting the HQ in danger.

More uses will be added for the Habitat HQ in the future.

New space junk, gameplay tweaks, and bug fixes have also been added to the update and more functionality will be coming to HAL and the Combination system with future updates.

An Early Access build for PC, Mac and Linux is now available through Steam, Amazon, Humble Store, GameFly, Gamer's Gate, GreenMan Gaming and Nuuvem priced at $14.99, £10.99 and €14.99. 

In Habitat gamers have to build and manage the future homes of humanity from orbital debris they find in space junkyards surrounding Earth’s orbit.  Leading their team of engineers, they will have to build and fly space stations in a zero gravity setting, mastering physics driven flight simulation to explore space. In order to thrive and grow they have to manage their population and their population’s environment.  In the event of a threat they will have to turn their space stations into deadly weapons using pieces of debris picked up such as rockets, lasers and particle accelerators to fight and ultimately survive against attacks from the enemy. This is a space survival game where crisis is guaranteed and the only chance for survival is to be creative and decisive in the face of disaster.

Visit the website: www.jointhe509th.com 
Steam’s Early Access:  http://store.steampowered.com/app/299340