To make Hazeron starship succesful imo, it needs to emulate what made Shores of Hazeron attractive in the first place:
- A sense of fear of being invaded and urgency to develop your fleet/colonies/empire to make it as unlikely as possible to be completely annihilated.
- The ability to meet other empires at various stages of develpment and interact with them. (Observe, spy, trade, assist, protect, invade, vassal, ally)
- Having easily designable ships with full interiors. Every player should be able to do this.

Basically there are two reasons why I lost interest in Hazeron starship alot faster than in 2014 Shores of Hazeron.:

1. Lack of threat and interaction with other empires, need for AI empires.

I know there is a thread about buffing the pirates, and I do agree with that, but I feel that is not enough to replace players.

It struck me that in Shores of Hazeron, you could basically do everything you can do in Stellaris, but then in first person. I don't htink there ever was any other game where you could really do this. There even was the looming threat similar to the Xenon from the X-series or Mass Effect's Reapers (in the form of the Syndicate :p)

To reach this, we'd really need some AI empires that can actually colonise worlds and which can either be friendly, neutral or xenophobic hostile species with whom you can interact in various ways through the diplomacy screen.

Right now you kind of can make this happen, by making different empires with different characters and have them form alliiances and/or fight eachother. This is dull though, due to the fact that you are the director, who decides who wins or loses, without any real feeling of fear.

Additionally, some extreme threat like the Reapers, Xenon or Outsiders would be neat. Some invasion that would only occur after some set or random time after you playing, or when specific conditions are met, and for which you have to prepare and build up a huge fleet, perhaps even ally with other empires. Just like in Stellaris. You could even just encounter them when you venture into another galaxy. (e.g. after you've visited 3 galaxies). It could be a part of the story aswell. They could maybe even be present in the mmo, if it ever comes back, appear periodically or as an event) and require players to cooperate to stop them.

The first person world of Hazeron , combined with the diplomacy/interaction features of Stellaris, would make this game be amongst the best 4x games that ever existed.

I realise programming AI that colonises, invades and in various other ways iteracts with player empires, is probably not an easy task.
If that is not possible, just periodic spawning of a hostile fleet that goes from system to system, would be nice also.

Without the game is fun for a while, but nowhere nearly as engaging as Shores of Hazeron was.

2. Interior design

Also, sorry, but have to say this again: the old ship and (similar)building designers were superior for interior design.  Drawing rooms and room voids  and associating room voids with door open states and pathing, feels a bit too much of a chore, to the point where, after designing 5 ships, I don't want to design any new ship interiors anymore, and because of that don't feel like playing the game anymore.

Just having two different interiors for ships is a bit dull, one for shuttles and corvette sized ships, another for frigates, destroyers and medium harvesters and haulers, I simply don't feel like designing a 3rd one for cruisers, battleships and carriers. I also still haven't finished a space station design.

It does not need to be the same as the old one, but just something where u can more easily draw rooms and just place doors, that automatically connect rooms. Adding floors one by one to buildings was neat.

Also in the old system areas were inaccessible, because systems were there. Right now you have empty, dead weight areas that are inaccessible, simply because you don't feel like designing interiors. The old placement of systems was nice, but too demanding on gpu. Instead it could just be 3D blocks that determine where systems physically are located, without actually drawing hunderds or even thousands of system modules. These 3D blocks were engines or weapons are located, would then not allow for hallways or rooms to be made in the exact same spot, to have an excuse as to why some parts of the ship are inaccessible. It made more sense and was similar to other 4x games where u need to place systems within the ship's hull.

Conclusion

Basically the lack of a threat/interaction combined with the interior design of ships and buldings is what made me lose interest to the current version of the game. If 2014 type of buildings and spacecraft interior design (or rather something similar, but more streamlined) would come back and there was something to fight and fear, I'd be alot more willing to play this again, and with a few exceptions, I think this would be the case for the majority of players and potential players. I think adding these features could mean the difference between a huge succes and failure for the Steam release of Hazeron Starship.

For reference: I played Hazeron starship for a little over 268 Hours. I played 2014 Shores of Hazeron for over 2000 hours in 6 months before it was taken down (I was unemployed at the time), and my total playtime until the removal of the old designer was around 5000 hours. Designing ships was fun, because even the most complex designs took a max of a few hours. Being afraid of Syndicate was fun. Being paranoid and having many distant backup colonies was fun. Being a vassal but scheming to overthrow the overlord was fun. Joining an alliance to overthrow the Evil Pony empire and blockading their planets was fun. Spending 50 hours on a single ship fiddling with voids, associating doors and pathing is not fun.

To me 2014-2016 Shores of Hazeron was the best game that ever existed. There's no other game that I have played more than that. My second most played game is Black Desert Online at 3783 hours, but that's only because it's a typical addictive/manipulative MMO that deliberately uses psychological tricks to addict players. It was not really fun at all. 2014-2016 Shores of Hazeron very much was fun.

I myself am trying to stop playing videogames, but I do want this game to be succesful. I hope that if I do start play mroe videogames again sometime, I can play a version of Hazeron Starship that has more of the things that, at least to me, made 2014-2016 SoH the best game that ever existed.

Haxus doesn't appear to be getting my email regarding joining the Steam Beta, does he still check the Cantina every now and then, or do I need to go bother the Updates section?

Eleven achievements are currently defined for Hazeron Starship. They are:

Skin of Targoss - For claiming your homeworld using a flag handcrafted from the skin of Targoss.
Astronaut - For orbiting a world for the first time.
Interstellar Astronaut - For orbiting a world in a solar system other than your home world solar system.
Intergalactic Astronaut - For orbiting a world in a galaxy other than the one containing your home solar system.
Colonizer - For building a city on a world other than your home world.
Journeyman Colonizer - For building cities on ten different worlds other than your home world.
Master Colonizer - For building cities on fifty different worlds other than your home world.
Spacecraft Architect - For publishing a spacecraft blueprint to the exchange.
Published Spacecraft Architect - For publishing a spacecraft blueprint to the Steam Workshop.
Building Architect - For publishing a building blueprint to the exchange.
Published Building Architect - For publishing a building blueprint to the Steam Workshop.


A graphic image is needed, for each one, that will appear on Steam. Here are the requirements for achievement graphics, from the Steamworks SDK.

   Design: For best results, achievement icons should be 256x256 px JPG
   images. They can be as small as 64x64, but it is recommended you use
   the larger size. We recommend that achieved icons be colorful;
   unachieved icons should be grayscale.
   
   Requirements: Since achievements can appear in various places
   throughout the Steam Community, the names and icons you enter must be
   appropriate for all ages and audiences. Valve may remove games from the
   store entirely if their achievements violate community content
   guidelines or are otherwise offensive.


Would anyone like to create these 11 icons for the Hazeron Starship achievements? I will accept submissions for any or all of them. If I use your icons, I will pay $200 each, up to a total of $2200 for the complete set.

I can create the unachieved icons myself, if you do not submit them. I will simply make a grey scale edition of the submitted achievement icon.

Because this is a work for hire, Hazeron Freehold LLC will own all the rights to the images that are selected for use in the game and purchased according to this offer. I will not retain any rights to submissions that are not used, nor will any compensation be paid for submissions that are not used.

This is the basic set of achievements. The game is so complex that I can easily come up with more after they are done, especially if I like your style.

I am open to suggestions for additional achievements. I like it when the achievements highlight some interesting aspect of the game.

You will be listed in the credits if your icon is used, with your permission of course. You can specify what name is to appear, including contact information if you desire.

Send submissions to achievements@hazeron.com.

Basically increase ship file size limit from 60 MB to 256, 512 MB or whatever. 
Reason? It's selfish, yes, but I would like to be able to build my fancy constitution class refit 

Edit: It's currently at 90MB and I still have the shuttle bay/cargo bay area, three lounges, troop quarters, and crew quarters/officer deck to build!

So pretty please with sprinkles on top?

The basic ESI production buildings(64 slots), 2000 population morale buildings, and some other utility buildings have been published to the workshop.

As soon as steam finishes reviewing the content, the collection will be available at the following link.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f...2975661297

I understand the reason why a new designer was needed (just for the buildings etc.). Is it possible - technically - and also because of usability to implement the old designer again?

Designer Exit
The designer kicks you out if it takes too long to do something. This is very frustrating.

Fixed code designed to keep people from staying in a designer after they log off. In solo play, it no longer kicks you out for any reason.

Translation
A few bits of french translation were completed.

The final (I hope) round of translation was finished by the translators. We should be done with them for a while.

If the release of Hazeron Starship goes well I will likely ask them to translate it to one or more other languages. The cost will be considerably less since they have the project in their system. I was considering spanish or russian. Are people in russia allowed to buy games on Steam these days?

What the subject said. I know the designer is not done and you are working on it Haxus, but it is possible you can add more than 15 texture palette objects so we can assign a bunch more of our own? That alone would allow for some more flavor choices when designing...

Oh man... I am really missing myltiplayer function in Hazeron.

I am willing to host a dedicated server, even if it would require a small player count to work.

Is there any hope of a dedicated server program being built?

Would be great to be able to host a few sectors and an arena space for pvp testing of spacecraft designs.  Perhaps using something like Ark's cluster system to allow multiple servers to mesh together and download ships and players and items to download between them.

I am finding it difficult to find any creative motivation in an isolated system.

French Translation
French translation is now available.

There is a setting on the Program page of the Settings window to select language. The default uses the system locale.

The program must be restarted for the language change to take effect.

I would welcome feedback from any french speaking players out there.

Note that the design report of a blueprint published to the Steam Workshop in french, will appear there in french. After downloading a blueprint, the design report is produced using your local language.

Designer Snap to Center of Object
A new snap option was added to the designer, to find the center of objects.

Icon Sizes
Program icon sizes can now be changed on the Windows page of the Settings window.

Blueprint Exchange Sorting Broken
Blueprint exchange sorting is broken after getting Steam list.

Fixed.

Story Chapters Added
Several story chapters were added to accomplish two things.

The first objective was to connect the Rocket Training chapter with the Relic chapter. Previously nothing happened until the player built a space station. Some players never built a space station.

The second objective was to provide a conclusion to the Beacon chapter. The current ending feels somewhat like a cliff hanger, with a need to return to the university to help Dr. Xian. Now the ending leaves an implication of more to come, with no call to action by the player.

I do intend to continue the story, as an endless series of chapters, somewhat like sequential episodes of a television series.

All current story chapters are fully translated into french.

Lock up while playing.
Game locked up solidly while I was playing.

Found/fixed a mutex deadlock when rendering sound.

NPC suit lights not visible.
In one of the new story chapters, npc's were seen running on a moon. Their suit lights were not visible in the darkness.

Fixed npc lights.

Ordered a passenger to move and they released their berth.
I ordered a passenger to move to a location aboard my ship and they released their berth.

Fixed.

Adam and Eve
There are a large number of habitable worlds with no indigenous population. The way to establish the indigenous population is not obvious.

A brief story chapter now runs when you land on a habitable world with no indigenous population. It explains the consequences of not having an indigenous population. It also explains the two methods for establishing the indigenous population.

For those who do not know, they are:

Adam and Eve Method - Move two passengers (or crew, troops, or officers) outside into the wilderness, a male and a female of the same species. They should be within 100m of each other. Select them on the Unit Orders window. Issue the Garrison command. That orders them to release their berth and to make the world their home. They will create a village and establish the indigenous species.

Lost Populace Method - Another way to establish the indigenous species is to build a city. The city method is less direct because it depends upon the city losing some population into the wilderness. The city reports when that happens and the indigenous species is established. If the city has citizens of mixed species, you will not control which one becomes the indigenous species.

Aliens
When you land on a habitable planet with an indigenous species that is different from your own, a brief story chapter runs to explain the Alien Invader penalty that will appear on your city reports.

Story UI
The user interface on the Stories page was improved.

Story chapters that were completed are now listed. When selected, a brief description of the story chapter appears with the outcome of the chapter shown. For chapters you have already completed, the outcome may be incorrect.

Story Engine
While writing the new story chapters, a few bugs in the story engine were fixed and a few improvements were made.

It keeps getting better. Perhaps some day it will be good enough to permit players to write stories.