Free 2D space exploration and action sim Naev has a big new Beta

Naev is a reasonably well known free and open source 2D space sim, one that's about to get a whole lot bigger with the v0.10 release now in Beta (specifically, it's on its second Beta).

The developers mentioned that they've spent a lot of time modernizing and rewriting lots of the legacy code, which should also help improve performance. While this Beta has a ton of new content, it also sounds like it's going to be the basis for some really fun sounding additions in future too.

Some of what's new in this Beta release include:

• 14 new ships.
• New space anomolies.
• Lots of new places to explore.
• Support for different difficulty settings.
• Support for setting ships as escorts and thus player fleets.
• Asteroid rework:
  • Asteroids no longer randomly explode.
  • Asteroid scanning is no longer binary, but distance-based.
  • New mini-game based mining.
  • More diversity in types with different rarity.
• 45 new missions.
• NPCs revamped to be more flexible with many new messages.
• Tons of quality of life improvements, to make the game feel better ovall.
• The list goes on and on.

You can find it on the official site, itch.io and Steam.