Empty Sectors
Every sector has at least one solar system. That means you can go on forever outside the galaxy.

The number of solar systems in a sector is now allowed to reach zero when the star density of the galaxy reaches zero. Star density reaches zero outside the galaxy and it can reach zero in thin areas within the galaxy, creating starless voids.

You can travel through empty sectors. The star map will show a single "explored" dot at the center. That is where the ships present and energy emissions appear.

Star density is not allowed to reach zero at the core. There is always at least one solar system at the core.

Existing sectors and solar systems are not affected.

Organ Models
Some organs still do not have 3D models.

All organs now have models to represent them in the game environment.

The organs dropped by creatures are now determined by their DNA. 

Videos Link Broken
The Videos link on the screen in the game does not work.

Fixed videos link.

Asteroid Impact Inconvenient
Some players cannot defend against the asteroid because the impact happens at an inconvenient time in their real lives.

When starting a new avatar, the impact time of the asteroid can be adjusted up to a full day before or after its scheduled time, which is one week from creation of the avatar.

Field of View Angle
The field of view angles are shown on the screen when resizing the window. They are wrong, by a factor of two. The numbers shown are twice the size of the actual field of view angles.

Field of view angles fixed when reported on the screen.

Field of view angle adjustment added to Settings|Scene window.

Default field of view angle changed from 45 degrees to 60 degrees.

Sky Box Resolution
A request was made to increase the resolution of the sky box texture.

Sky box resolution control added to Settings|Scene window. Default is 1024.

Sky box mipmap control added to Settings|Scene window. Default is on.

I find the picture quality to be the best when this is set to about 1/2 the width of the view window. Field of view angle determines how much of the sky box will be stretched across your screen at any given moment. Each 90 degrees of field of view width equates to one pane of the sky box; at 90 degrees, the number of pixels of sky box across the width of the scene equals the sky box resolution; at 120 degrees, the number is about 1.33x the sky box resolution. If the window is less than that width, the sky box texture is too big; pixels will be lost; that is where mipmapping can help. Using a skybox resolution that is 1/2 the size needed insures ample color data is available to paint each pixel of the scene, providing a richer deeper star field.

My view screen is 1600 pixels wide. At 800 pixels, my sky box looks fantastic.

Observed System Contents
The star map should show the contents of systems that are explored but not scanned.

Star map will now show contents of explored systems. Right-click now offers an "Observatory Report" for systems that are explored but not scanned.

Manufacturing Processes for Hull Modules
Why are there manufacturing processes for hull modules?

Manufacturing processes for hull modules should no longer appear anywhere.

Biodome in Deep Crater Has No Plants
A biodome in a deep crater on a moon did not have any plants inside.

Fixed plants in biodome.

Just getting back into the game and I know there have been a lot of changes. The more recent changes seem to have removed all of my buildings. I managed to build a basic mine to gather stone but the city is not showing on the city list. I still have a flag standing where the town square used to be but there is no square? I used the build window and tried to demolish it to place a new flag but there is nothing to destroy. I then tried to use a new flag but nothing happens. I have 4 flags in my inventory and none can be used/placed. All I have left of the cities are the roads. The only city that shows up on the F12 window is the one I had in the Babylon system. 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Spacecraft Damage
I have never been very happy with the way spacecraft damage is managed. Every bit of damage equates to a part that must be replaced.

Damage tracking was completely revamped. This affected both spacecraft and buildings.

• All damage was removed from existing spacecraft and buildings. The old data was incompatible.
  
• Damage is now separated into hit points of damage and parts that are broken.
  
• Each system (hull, transporter, maneuver drive, etc.) has a total number of hit points.
  
• Most damage is recorded as hit points, against that total.
  
• Some damage is recorded as broken parts. A broken part equates to 10 hit points from the total.
  
• Most damage is applied to the hull system, comprised of hull, hold, and fuel portions of the ship.
  
• Critical hits may affect internal equipment systems: weapons, engines, etc.
  
• Critical hit damage is distributed between hull and internal systems according to the ratio of hull damage to full hull health. Critical hits affect internal systems more as the hull becomes more damaged, not at all if the hull is undamaged.
  
• Damage Report window changed considerably. It now shows hit points damage, broken parts, and other conditions such as fire and acid.
  
• Request Repairs page of Spacecraft Services window changed considerably.
  
• Repair shops can now assign multiple workers to a repair job to get it done more quickly, never less than 10 seconds.
  
• Tools can be used to perform repairs by hand. If parts are needed, they are fetched from the hold when the tool is used. If no parts are in the hold, they are fetched from your gear. If no part is installed, whether not needed or not available, the tool repairs hit points of damage, the amount dependent on the quality of the tool.
  
• Hull damage is always the hull material and internal system damage is always a module. The only tools needed to repair a ship are a hammer and a wrench (fitting wrench, pliers or wrench).
  

• Hull modules no longer exist as a commodity. They exist only for designating hull materials. Hulls are built of metal, magmium, vulcium, or adamantine.
  
• System modules are manufactured at airport repair shops. That did not change.
  
• System modules now require very few parts to manufacture. Previously they took lots.
  
• System modules are installed and removed using a fitting wrench, wrench, or pliers.
  
• When repairing a system, use the same kind of module as is already installed.
  
• When all modules are removed or destroyed in a system, the first new module can change the system type, to perform an upgrade by hand.
  
• When upgrading by hand, modules of a different system type are not grabbed from the hold automatically, only from your gear. To change a system type by hand, you must possess the first new type module that is installed. After that, additional modules can be acquired from the hold.
  
• System Upgrades page of the Spacecraft Services window can be used to change the type of an entire system at an airport repair shop. All modules must be replaced. The number of modules needed to perform the upgrade depends on the system. Previously, only one module was required to upgrade any system.
  
• Modules are used to manufacture spacecraft. This change reduces the construction time of spacecraft quite a lot. Atlantis went from 5 days 14 hours down to 23 hours. Basic Design went from 3 min to 1 min.
  
• Modules can be disassembled using a screwdriver, the same way a carcass is butchered using a knife. 1/2 of the parts consumed to make the module are recovered (fractions are rounded up).
  
• No patents are required to build any spacecraft. Previously, the module patents were required that would have been needed to make the various system modules. Now it is possible to sell/give/transfer modules to someone to build a spacecraft, without giving them the technology to make the modules.
  
• Model of a module now looks like a small grey box with some wires, instead of a huge crate.
  
• All modules weigh 1kg each, instead of whatever massive weight they had before.
  

• Textures were removed.
  
• Shaders were removed.
  
• Story lines were updated to use a modern spacecraft design.
  

• Item Designer is now usable by me. It is disabled for everyone else.
  
• Item Designer enables me to make item models for use in the game. No more Blender!
  
• Brain and Heart now have 3D models, instead of the bolt cube.
  
• Module model is a .SoH model.
  

Well, as the title says.

Some sort of "Asteroid test" mode added to the game modes of the arena.
It basically just spawns a system containing your selected ship, a single planet and an inbound asteroid with 1 hour or so left until impact.

So we can test if a given ship can deal with asteroids without needing to build it first / needing to find an asteroid first .

Someone asked when I was going to get back to working on the game.

The short sarcastic answer is, "I never stop."

It was a valid question, none-the-less. The last update was posted before Christmas and I have not posted on the forum since then.

I am working on some changes to spacecraft that dragged me down a rabbit hole. That work should be completed in a few days. I expect to post an update next week, likely later in the week.

The changes may break old style space ships. The extra work to maintain the code is becoming a nuisance. The database shows over 1000 of them still in the game.

I urge everyone who is still using any old style space ships to abandon them as quickly as possible. They might not exist by the end of next week.

Hello, I am making this thread to share some things I have made, and for others to share things that they have made.



You may use or modify any of my creations, no strings attached. 

• Blend file: https://anonymousfiles.io/trIm6G9k/
  
• Mattress STL: https://anonymousfiles.io/meuB1TMf/
  
• Frame STL: https://anonymousfiles.io/2bzNKs2B/
  
• SOH File: https://anonymousfiles.io/aLOgRPqy/
  

'H' Capitol

• Blend file: https://anonymousfiles.io/qlXnbmjI/
  
• SOH file: https://anonymousfiles.io/hBC7rzNE/
  

---

Death Barge

• Blend file: https://anonymousfiles.io/z3Ox7gn4/
  
• SOH file: https://anonymousfiles.io/fTITL2BR/
  

See title.

The addition of platforms which you can build under the sea and on the sea floor would be really helpful. Given all the other platform and biodome types there's no reason they shouldn't exist. Or you could just allow existing aerial platform types to go into negative numbers, below MSL. 

They would be especially invaluable on gas giants, where you'd then be able to place airports with transporters within overlapping range at various heights within the deep sea. That would allow you transport from the core into orbit and vice versa by "island hopping" from one platform to the other.

The Building Code guide and Usage Tips are something I find really useful in the designer.

More reference material in the main game would really help with planning your empire. All the info is there in the code and databases, so I would really like to have a window where you can look up the material requirements, tools, modifiers and base time to run any given process. Perhaps you can check and uncheck modifiers to see their effect. It would really help with setting up larger scale production chains and broker shipments, and I'd use it a lot. 

Ultimately I'd also like to see an "empirical" usage chart which you can set up at a concrete city: i.e. you tell a city to "prepare detailed usage report" and it will log a power, food and resource usage flow chart for every building/home/process in the city over a standard period so you can identify bottlenecks and understand shortages at the source. It shouldn't add to the general strain on cities since it the info will only be logged when you request it in advance.

You can limit the number of workshops actually used, when a building has more than you need. This allows you to balance productivity where it is needed without having to redesign buildings each time.

You can't do this with homes - often you will overshoot your target population and incur all sorts of morale penalties unless you solve the puzzle carefully beforehand.

E.g. You have a city with 88 residents, needing 1 cantina, but the public cantina design you use has 3 homes, putting you into the range where you need 2 cantinas.

It would be much simpler and make the design exchange more useful if we could just tell buildings only to use a certain number of their available homes. Just say the government is using its arbitrary power to declare some unfit for habitation or something.