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In Infinite Fleet, there are many systems that govern your progress, and you can exploit a wide range of avenues to reach your ultimate goals. In this blog, we’re going to outline just a few of those systems that the team is currently working on. 

Commander Progression

You are a commander in the United Sol Federation Combined Fleet, and the USF quartermasters don’t lightly adorn their cutting-edge equipment to fresh recruits. You’ll have to prove yourself and rise through the ranks first, but with substantial effort you could become an Admiral of the United Sol Federation. 

Your Commander Level is the main indicator of your progression in Infinite Fleet as it determines your access to equipment, spacecraft, and features.

When you gain a rank, you will have access to a broader suite of licenses for equipment forging, which is a form of crafting that we’ll discuss in a later blog. Most importantly, you’ll be able to command ships of a higher level.

As you rank up, you will gain the responsibilities afforded to your title. You’ll be able to start a Division, assign missions to Division members, requisition the construction of orbital structures, colonies, and much more. 

Each rank is awarded a prestigious title and insignia, which will be displayed to the players in your area. Only the genuinely outstanding USF commanders will achieve the highest accolades, and they will have access to resources to turn the tide in the war.

Each time you level up a vessel in your fleet, you will gain experience points (exp), contributing to your Commander Level. Of course, the amount of XP received will scale along with the difficulty of leveling your ships. So, higher levels will receive more XP.

You will gain one-time rewards every time you achieve a new rank. These perks could be special ships, resources, equipment, and various other bonuses. 

Assembling your fleet

In Infinite Fleet, you will command one Centurion-class ship and four Cruiser-class ships, at any given time

The most effective fleets are expertly tailored to carry out specific tasks, whether focusing on combat - to which there are countless compositions to harmonize your deadly force - or optimized support fleets to fuel the war machine with resources, discoveries, or construction.

There are many options to augment your ships to fit the playstyle that suits you.

Firstly, you need to choose the type of ship. The ship type, such as the "Versa" or "Cannon," is the base from which you will customize. A Cannon type always has two massive, long-range beam cannons as its primary weapons, and you can be sure that its progression path will focus on blasting your enemies from far away. 

Abilities are the main actions that your ships can take. Centurions have three abilities, and Cruisers have two. So, with a full complement of vehicles, your fleet will have 11 abilities. There are both active and passive abilities, so you can design your ability build to suit how hands-on you want to be. 

This early mockup shows the abilities across the bottom of the user interface.

Part of choosing the appropriate fleet composition is checking which abilities you want in your repertoire. And particular consideration should be given to how these abilities work with each other. There’s a certain satisfaction to be gained from executing a perfectly optimized one-two punch, and even more so if you coordinate with your comrades!

Upgrading your ships

Each ship has base stats, such as its primary weapon range, primary weapon kinetic damage, primary weapon energy damage, armor, shield, hull, and much more. The 'MK' of a type of ship provides slight variations to its starting stats.

Leveling up a ship will increase its base stats and generally make it more powerful. Leveling is achieved by spending the required resources at a space station or similar structure. Upgrading ship levels provides XP to your Commander Level.

Each ship also has a tech tree. The tech tree is a network of upgrade nodes that you unlock by meeting the ship level requirements and spending resources. Nodes in the upgrade tree can have dependency connections to previous nodes, but some nodes will have multiple connections allowing for a variety of approaches. 

There is a wide range of potential benefits available as you progress through the tech tree - such as unlocking equipment slots, improving stats, and adding various functionalities. You won’t be required to make a permanent choice, as eventually all nodes can be unlocked, but you will have to choose wisely as you allocate your hard-earned resources to the ships in your fleet.

As you advance, your ships will undergo some visual changes. They will look progressively more intricate as you continue to unlock nodes and by the time you reach the highest tiers, your ship will look spectacular!

Customization

Let’s look under the hood. Ships usually have a few primary weapons, which are a part of the ship's chassis and cannot be added, removed, or swapped. It is one of the main contributing factors to the ship’s role.

The two shoulder-mounted rail guns are the Versa’s primary weapons, which cannot be swapped.

Equipment slots allow you to add and remove equipment to your ships and will affect their functionality. So you can install weaponry, other combat functions, like assault mode - which is that really cool function you saw in the trailer where all the ships turn into gigantic robots -  or support apparatus such as mining barges or extended cargo holds, and much much more. This is where your creativity and attention to detail come into play. 

You gain equipment by completing missions, purchasing from the USF, or by fabrication. Fabrication is the process of crafting equipment. We’ll be going into more detail about forging in a later blog. 

Infinite Fleet is all about achieving the perfect harmony - selecting, upgrading, and customizing the most deadly fleet in the galaxy. 

The challenge is yours, Commanders.