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[JobLeonard]

I agree, it adds flavor to the game

And yes, it totally reminds me of those 90s games too :D

[VampireSquid]

This looks very promising. I will be following. The ASCII giv s you the ability to make a monstrous complex universe.

Please let this be dwarf fortress in space.

[Rogod]

@vdapps :D The 3D rooms were already there - I just moved the menus out the way to get a better view (it's exposed a perspective error on one of the walkways though, so I may need to fix that now)

@JobLeonard The rooms were definitely an aspect that always helped me feel immersed in those older games. You just don't see that anymore - I think the last modern example of that I can remember was in Starcraft 2, but other than that, game-oriented constant locations don't really happen anymore (especially not in a sandbox game )

@VampireSquid That certainly is the plan regarding the complex universe; there are a bunch of large-scale features I have planned, and already some things working that I'm pretty happy about. (Not to mention I do want to find a way to increase the number of systems that generate with a snazzier algorithm; the number that generate right now is just a small handful for development purposes, but this could easily be doubled or tripled - it's just a matter of representing them on the cosmos overview in an easily navigable way.)

The idea of "Dwarf Fortress in space" has certainly been an inspiration but obviously I am not actually trying to copy Dwarf Fortress; the mechanics for space sandboxes have their own entertaining requirements. (The Dwarf Fortress devs also have a couple of decades of game development on Startron too )

[Rogod]

Update v0.38
Even more space!
List of updates/fixes

• Resources, materials & products are now visually distinguished from each other by either 1, 2 or 3 notches down the left side respectively

• The version now displays on the menu (for support purposes)

• Fixed not positioning the ship at the entity you left when returning to the system view (so the ship no longer has to fly off and find where it's supposed to be)

• Improved the nebula appearance and made it render behind entities when zoomed all the way in (previously it was just empty space because I was being lazy )

• Improved how your ship's available directions are represented in the cosmos view - your available routes are now blue so you can actually see where you're going (the contrast between dark grey and white from before wasn't good enough in my estimation)

• Improved the cosmos generation algorithm to generate more systems while ensuring navigability (previously if I'd just upped the number, they'd be all on top of eachother)The cosmos now generates 92 systems, up from 56 previously (you can compare the generation algorithm with a screenshot of the old one here)

[Rogod]

Update v0.39
Receiving transmission Captain!
List of updates/fixes

• Transmissions are now sent for story objectives, damaging space stations, attempting to board other ships or intercepting debris!Transmissions will highlight relevant systems and entities in blue so you know what they relate to (they'll do surface pinpointing too, but there aren't any transmissions that use that yet)

• Gas giants are now colonizable!They're functionally a bigger asteroid field with more mineral types and larger land masses

• Fixed systems generating on top of eachother

• Made the Captain's log more obvious (even I keep forgetting it's there ) and made the cursor on it flash so you know what it's for at a glance

[JobLeonard]

Is that a static image in game, or is that animated?

[Rogod]

Not sure I understand - which image?

[Rogod]

Update v0.40
Super turbo rock blaster 3!
List of updates/fixes

• Fixed crashing the game when accessing the cargo hold from outside of an entity

• Fixed the position of the title and leave-prompt on shops (they should have been left justified)

• Added a minigame which will appear in the bar of some space stations

More importantly I made a new video to go with v0.40 with commentary on how Startron is played :D

[JobLeonard]

I meant the gas giant/asteroid field image! That would probably look sweet if it were moving

[Rogod]

Ah, ok - for the moment it's just a stationary background, but I do have plans to include clouds on other planets, so I'll probably do something more fancy with the gas giants too (some kind of swirly effect like the nebulae should work well).

[Rogod]

Update v0.41
Nothing too important!
List of updates/fixes

• Made the gas giant background swirly now (good shout there)

• Added a config file to tune one's preferences for launching Startron

• Fixed some overlap bugs on the cosmos overview

• Remade the title to be more in-keeping with the style

This was just a small bug fix release - next up is tackling the story and a few more graphical enhancements like particle trails and clouds

[JobLeonard]

itsnotmuchbutitshonestwork.jpg

[Rogod]

Update v0.42
Cloudy with a chance of space ships!
List of updates/fixes

• Your ship now leaves a little trail of blue exhaust puffs in the system overviewThese are omitted in the body view because they'd get in the way and are restricted to 4 directions so look dumb anyway

• Tweaked the gas giant colour so it has an internal and external shell (just helps make what you're looking at more apparent)

• Added clouds to planets!Looks better in motion

[vdapps]

Geeez, super nice this planet with clouds. Such magic with ascii. 

[Rogod]

Update v0.43
Once upon a time ... the cosmos was generated!
List of updates/fixes

• There's now an instructional storyline to follow when you start the game - this will be expanded over time to include transmissions from different game aspects & factions but the first part is there just to get you started (it follows a similar path to the video I posted for v0.40)

• Fixed the colour of illuminated ice not being distinguishable from ice in shadow

• Fixed the colour of illuminated space stations changing as you fly over the hull

• Fixed destroying space making it look like something has happened (sparks no longer fly out in all directions when this happens)

[Rogod]

Just wanted to keep folks posted - I haven't given up or died! - I've been ill (thankfully not Coronavirus; just a cold), so I've not been doing much development over the last week or so (aside from having a fairly large project to code for work this last month). But rest assured v0.44 was already underway and has some new content and minor fixes already! I just wanted to put something more substantial in and round off the new stuff before releasing a proper update.

The next update will be ship upgrade oriented which will eventually expand development into the meta-game features I'd intended to add for tinkering with the crew, the ship & appeasing factions etc.

[vdapps]

Get better soon! I like your space ASCII posts.

[JobLeonard]

Stay safe and take good care of your health!

[Rogod]

Update v0.44
Now with 100% more yarr!
List of updates/fixes

• Added an addon shop in some space stations! (The more expensive addon for sale doesn't do anything yet)

• Using one of the new ship addons, debris and space junk are now salvageable (there's a loot table with a bunch of different things you can get)

• Added a secret pirate shop! (Clues to finding it are in-game too)

• The system type you're in is now visible on the bridge

• Fixed straight lines rendering with a corner at one end

• Fixed in-game messages appearing on the menu

[Rogod]

Update v0.45
Contributing to atmospheric gases!
List of updates/fixes

• Cargo bays and storage yards can now hold wayyyy more of an item (they were previously limited to 255 - now it's over 32,000)

• Made refineries pollute the local oxorine tiles on planets (pollution will drive residents out of dwellings and lower the tourism rating of an entity in future updates) (explosion chambers will likely create pollution later too)

• Prevented being able to build on Cattus Prime (building an off-world colony on your homeworld is cheating )

• Implemented the integrity field emitter (so now you can travel through worm holes if you really want to) (this will have some kind of awesome onscreen effect later; it's pretty underwhelming at the moment lol)

• Fixed being able to miss the second story transmission by going to the space port too early

• Fixed the game crashing if you fly off to a system with fewer than 2 entities in it after buying the supplies you're told to get

• Tidied the story and general transmissions text into the internationalisation listing where all the strings are stored - yes that's right, technically Startron can be translated into another language (but none of the highlighted letters would match up if I added support for that at the moment - let me know if folks actually want this & I'll bump it up the priority list)