It has been silent here but Phobos Down project is still very much alive. I have done a major input system and weapon UI refactoring. This should not cause many visible changes but makes further development easier and enables touch input for a mobile version. Mouse aiming has changed a bit. Now the mouse cursor is always captured in-game, so you don't accidentally click outside of the window. The "constrained mouse aim" toggle has been replaced with three-level "mouse aim range" setting that controls how far the mouse cursor is allowed to move from the player. The end results is the same but a bit more customizable. Although the weapon wheel UI looks the same, it is now scalable and supports more traditional point-and-click style interaction with mouse (or touch):
It was pointed out in the feedback here that the player needs to be aware of the containers outside of the camera's view. To help with that, I added constant screen edge indicators that show the positions of all containers beyond screen edges (the grey bars in the gif above). I started testing a new weapon modifier that goes by the name of "ballistic modifier" for now. In practice it turns the rocket launcher into a grenade launcher. This is going to need a lot of work before it is usable but I see great potential in it.
The auto-aiming works so that it uses the lower and more direct arc if target is close and the line of fire is not blocked. Otherwise the higher arc is used. This allows shooting in high arcs over obstacles while still shooting nearby enemies directly in the face. Currently the aiming does not account for targets velocity so hitting moving enemies is very hard. That is something I'm going to work on next. The next game update with these changes is still at least some weeks away.

This time the change log is a little shorter than usual but I wanted to get this update out sooner to fix some minor issues found in Steam review. There is a good amount of other improvements and additions too. Two new weapon modifiers have been added. Gliding projectiles modifier makes projectiles glide along the ground instead of hitting it, making it possible to shoot enemies while hiding behind hills:
Directed explosion fragments modifier makes missile explosions launch a number of projectiles aimed towards nearby enemies and cause extra damage:
Weapon modifier stats display logic has been changed to handle additive properties better. Previously the change percentages felt too random. Now 100% always means the value added by one maximum quality modifier for that property:
Here are the changes since version 0.0.12:

• Smooth enemy burrowing sound loop pitch and volume changes.
• Added additional enemy unburrowing sound.
• Prevent the player and the crawling enemies from climbing too steep slopes.
• Fixed planet mesh not always rotating behind mission menu.
• Added gliding projectiles weapon modifier.
• Improved weapon property change display when installing a modifier.
• Added new splash screen at start.
• Fixed spawner enemy children not inherting their parent's target.
• Open menu to pause the game when a controller is disconnected while playing.
• Pause game if Steam overlay is activated.
• Properly handle possible weapon modifier removal in version upgrade.
• Added directed explosion fragments modifier for the launcher weapon.

The time has come. Phobos Down is now available on Steam Early Access. Phobos Down has been in development for about three years and now has all major gameplay mechanics implemented. I have already done a lot of fixes and improvements based on player feedback on Itch.io and I'm planning to continue doing that with the help of wider audience here on Steam. The game has been designed with Steam Deck in mind from the start so it's really good to finally have a version officially installable through Steam. The initial game build for Steam is identical to the 12th public alpha version of the game. From here on, I'm planning to release updates simultaneously to all platform versions.