Fractured Space is a 5v5 team-based shooter where each player pilots a gigantic capital ship lined with a whole variety of weapons and techno-gadgets. It has had numerous free weekends since its 2014 Early Access release, but from today onward its going to be completely free-to-play.

Along with this announcement came an update that added new sector maps, ships to toy around with, crew members, missions to undertake, as well as a testing area where players can try out their ships and loadouts without the threat of being mercilessly blown up.

If you're wondering what all of this looks like in action, here's the most recent trailer:

There is a bit of an issue, however, and while Fractured Space still holds a mostly positive rating on Steam the recent recent series of updates has managed to turn the community against the developers, with accusations of pay-to-win flying all over the place. From what I can gather most of the complaints are centered around the unlocking of new crew members (which have important effects on ships) as the process is exceedingly grindy, and worst of all, has numerous random elements working against the player.

The development team is well aware of these issues, and they are working on fixing the problem, as noted by the CEO of Edge Case Games himself, so hopefully this gets sorted out in the near future. Here's the full message:

"The new Crew Collection System has been rolled out in a way that we are not proud of, and you guys have reacted to in a very understandable way. We have always worked closely with you, the community and listened along our journey through Early Access. And we are listening now.

We will now do what we should have done in the first place and ensure you have the crew you already played so hard to get. To ensure we don’t miss anything, the best way is to give everyone who had played Fractured Space before the last update all the available crew that were attainable then.

Also as some of you will have spent Platinum and Credits on Drop Ships, we will reimburse any currency spent.

As with all new features we’re rolled out over the past 18 months, the crew collection system will improve, and soon as well. The team have many plans to make it fair, fun and rewarding, and of course the team are working hard on many of the other great features of the game that we know you want such as Ranked Play, Replays, Spectator Cam and much much more…

Our sincere apologies – do stick with us – and I will see you on battlefield."

In other words, if you're looking to get into Fractured Space it would probably be prudent to wait a couple more days, or even a week or two, in order for the progression system to get its much needed rework.