Star Map - An Introduction

The map has been relatively complete for a while now, but I haven't had the opportunity to show it off.

Already implemented:

• Warping to other sectors
• Warping to other solar systems
• Map Controls and Map View
• Dynamic description of the sector before warping to it

Left : viewing a solar system
Right : viewing the galaxy






What I actually implemented in the last few days is adding shipyards, shops and recruitment hubs to sectors. So now, when roaming the map, you might encounter an enemy fleet. Destroying them nets you some space bucks that you can then spend to hire more crewmembers, strengthen your ship or buy blueprints to unlock ship parts (like turrets or subsystems).

Hey, this is more than some kickstarted games have to offer, so it's pretty great. Technically this is "playable", we now have the basics for exploration and growth.

Shipyards always look the same - you want to be able to notice one and also fit your ship in it. Shops and recruitment stations however, are based on user-made ships - in fact, if you don't add engines to your ship, it will automatically be loaded as a station. In the future this would allow the player to place their own stations in sectors, maybe to mine gas or minerals and have a steady income.

I don't have a build for you this update, the world exploration mode needs to be much closer to completion before I feel like I can release it. That said, it's not as far off as it seems.

PS: It turns out the bug in the last version only happens if you use Anti-Aliasing with only Ambient Occlusion turned on. Unity's implementation of AO is nowhere near the quality I want in the final version, so this bug will definitely be fixed, most likely by buying another AO asset or just making my own.