Sorry guys but does someone have a small starter ship design I could use to learn the designer? its very confusing for me just need a little something to get my head around it.



Thanks!

Missile Crashes Server
Several servers crashed in the past week or so. Each time, the stack trace led to a missile explosion.

Changed the sequence of some final actions of a missile explosion. It should fix the problem.

A relatively simple/small change, but I'd love to be able to put custom notes in the Notes column of the city list in the Governance window. This one:


I kept right-clicking and expecting an option to put in my own notes, haha. I'd like to be able to mark what a city is producing and such using that column, would make it much easier to tell from a glance where I need to make adjustments.

The visual state of gas giants since the oceans were added seem weird. They feel way too much like giant ocean worlds rather than gas giants.

The atmosphere should probably be more cloudy, and the ocean surface should be more like heavy clouds than just water surface. Light from the star should probably also become dimmer the closer you get to the ocean surface, so it doesn't just become suddenly dark because under water.

Maybe it would also be interesting to lower the ocean surface level more too, but that might not be very backward compatible.

Currently we have to click 4 buttons in order to enter the game. One of these seem to be able to at least be spared with a little rework to the login screen on the client.
i made this mock-up a while back, because Paint.Net is fun, but never got around to posting it here.

Put simply, merge the "client selection" and the "login" screens.
And while on it it is a good idea to add some labels to the screen so new players will know what button does what, without relaying on them thinking to read the tooltips.

PS: No "Deantwo" is not my username, and the password I typed is just "password". And yes that is the window size I use for the client on my computer.

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Status Update
There have been no updates for a while. What's going on?

I have been deeply engrossed in upgrading the creatures.

I pulled out the code that was started just before the new spacecraft and building designers were implemented. At the time, I felt they were a higher priority than upgrading creatures so I put creatures on the shelf for a while, two years?

The creature maker had suffered from some code decay but it didn't take much work to get it going again. I was not satisfied with it. The CPU work to make the skins of creatures was too much and the result frequently drew out the term uncanny valley. It also relied heavily on data to drive the shape of body parts.

This time I am taking a different approach. The appearance is much more cartoon than realistic, detouring around uncanny valley. The CPU work required to make the models is small, possibly less than it takes to put together the current/old style creatures. All body parts are generated so there is no reliance on any 3D model data.

I am almost finished with the first male/female pair of people. I'll post screen shots as soon as I have something that is presentable, likely within the next week.

The "Stonehenge" structures that provide teleportation between systems should also allow the transfer of goods instantaneously between systems. This could provide some real use to them.

In order to use them, they must be found then hooked up to the trade network by road, airport, or harbor in the same way as any other building.

• Two empires, hostile to each other and everyone else. The umpire has total authority over both, allowing oversight and enforcing the rules. He will use this authority as sparingly as possible.
  
• Players can vote for a team start, each team starting in one system, or a deathmatch start with each player in a system. In a deathmatch start, players are encouraged to manually attack other players on the same team. We'll have to see how well that works. More teams can be done, if there are enough umpire volunteers.
  
• Avatars cannot join after game start. Avatars can join who already exist in the universe, but they must enter the game naked, not on the roster of any ship and with an empty bank account. Fresh avatars are recommended. Highborns not allowed; demis allowed if you're a masochist, but once they're dead they're dead. 
  

• One sector is added to the zone for every two signups. Leaving the zone means you're disqualified. The umpire can see the empire starmap so he'll know.
  
• The zone will be fully surveyed by the umpire before game start and starting systems allocated to players.
  
• Players will be transported naked to their starting locations by the umpire.
  
• Warp permitted or not permitted based on player vote at game start. For small games, no-warp is encouraged. Umpire can see the patent lists.
  
• The zone will be in a remote location revealed only to participants. Unauthorized ships entering the zone will be destroyed by umpire forces.
  
• Umpires should survey the area using their own empire, so as not to reveal the starmap to the participants at game start.
  

• The game has a maximum time of 4 weeks, increased by 1 week for every player above 4.
  
• The game is over when the time expires, one team is destroyed or a player/team is declared winner by all other players/teams. A game can be declared stalemate by unanimous vote.
  
• There is a grace period of 48 hours at the beginning of each round, during which players may not leave their starting systems. Particularly in small games, this prevents the player in the earlier time zone from running around grabbing everything.
  
• The game is scored by developed systems owned and cities conquered. Each system owned is worth one point. Each city conquered is worth 4 points. Conquests must be reported to the umpires as they occur and will be counted throughout the game. This scoring system will develop over time. Umpire decides whether a system is developed enough to count.
  
• As a prize, everything in the zone will be surrendered to the winning team. The winning team has a week to remove what they want to the wider galaxy before the umpire deletes everything in the zone. The umpires may at that point remove anything still remaining to their own empires.
  
• To help ensure the availability of umpires, the winner of each round is expected to umpire the next round unless there is a good reason not to.
  

• Rules will develop over time; the umpire has authority to enforce fair play as he sees best. That authority will become more circumscribed as concrete rules emerge.
  
• No lag-bombs or exploits affecting quality of others' gameplay.
  
• No unconquerable cities or indestructible spacecraft. 
  
• No creative use of pirates. Pirates which emerge organically are thrown into the mix.
  

1. Haxus (0000) Ron Pauline Empire
   

1. Raymond Holt (5261796d6e6420) Weischelbrauniacs
   

1. Jake Peralta (9544) Beatsie Boys
   

It might be interesting if every month or so, all the new black holes would open up wormholes to a small area of sub-space, maybe a few sectors in size. Inside this sub-region are exotic materials, and controlling a majority of the space grants empire-wide bonuses to the empire holding the most territory. After a week or two, the region collapses in on itself and all cities inside are lost. Any cities and ships inside are destroyed, and avatars teleported back to the main galaxy.

Hello friends. I would like to tell you where to find me. Near berlin to the east. You will find me.