What's new: Galaxy & Traits Update​

Very happy to report AstraX 0.1 just got out of the coding factory!

The focus of this version was Usability, User Interface and Galaxy Generation. I'm extremely happy with the progress in this version and can't wait to start working on the next.

There are a lot of features yet to be added, which you can read about in this post on itch.io. The full changelog of this version can be found here on itch.

Read on if you want to read about its features!

Let me know what you think - Feedback is appreciated greatly! 

What's new

Let's  dive a bit into the new features!

In this version it is possible to travel through a procedural-generated galaxy. Full star systems tend to spawn more frequently in more luminous areas of the galaxy; a mechanic that will be extended upon in the future.

There are inter-dependencies between planet traits now, which means that e.g. there will be no geysers generated without the planet also having the volcanic activity trait. It's just a one-to-one dependency for now. In its final form, the trait system will resemble a complex "tech" tree of traits. Every planet will have its own tech-tree that can be discovered by your ship's different scanners. This should allow for higher realism and accuracy.

As a result of this, planet texture layering has been improved. Planet traits directly influence the texture of each planet and it's possible that you discover beautiful earth-like planets as shown below. Further improvements on texture layering can be made.

There is a rudimentary galaxy map that displays your position inside the galaxy now. It will feature a jump drive one day, so you can get around more quickly.

I managed to build up a whole user interface from the ground up in this development circle. There are information messages being displayed, a functional tabbed game menu and much more. The game is finally communicating back to you!

The StarMap got a major overhaul. You can now drag the view with a mouse, zoom in and out, reset the zoo and focus on the player or selected planets. 

The Planet Info panel also received an overhaul. Here's a handy tooltip that is showing up on hovering over one of the planet traits.

Speaking of traits, a lot work went into adding realistic planet traits with scientifically accurate descriptions, such as including spectral classification of stars.

Want to see how all of this looks in action? Take a look at version 0.1 of AstraX now!

Post Mortem for this Cycle

• I met all milestones, except for one! Hooray!
• I managed to add extra features, originally intended for version 0.2
• The missing feature will be provided in version 1.1 instead (galaxy/starsystem saving)

From a technical point of view, the codebase and architecture is in very good condition. This game as software is flexible and easy to extend, allowing me to implement powerful game mechanics in a rapid speed. I hope to maintain these qualities in the future.