One Flat-Earther theory is that the world isn't round because aircraft don't fly straight off it when flying.

In Hazeron aircraft do fly straight off the planet rather than follow the curve of the world. I would like it if they followed the curve of the world while inside the atmosphere.

I recently started playing Hazeron again, and as I've been rebuilding my empire, I've realized that there is barely any progression in Hazeron anymore. There are patents, but those take insignificant amounts of time to create and are entirely passive. Not every resource is available in every system, but it's now trivial to set a basic shipyard up and go out to find them. It seems to me like a group of experienced players could go from nothing to Warp 9 ships in a matter of days at this point, and that is a problem.

To that end I am suggesting, as you may have guessed from the title, that we put the old tech level system back in. Expert, you might ask, why put that system that we all thought was an inadequate progression system back into the game? Well, reader, because when we were hating on it through the years, the general assumption was that something else would be instituted in its place! What we got was the even more passive year long wait to reach max quality, and then that was removed, with nothing at all put in its place! Most of us that discuss Hazeron's mechanics on these forums already have established empires, and we rarely hear from people who are only just establishing their empires. Because of that, I feel like we've overlooked the progression of the game too much as of late.

I think we all acknowledge that some level of gating is necessary, but have disagreed on the level. I hope we can all agree that patents are not a good form of progression. In other games, built up groups that have been around for years have not only the advantage of being spread out and experienced with the game, but are also protected by progression systems that impose constraints on new players. In Hazeron, at the moment, the only two differences between well-established empires and brand new ones are their patents and the number of systems they're spread out across. With the highest quality effect being 2.5x, the biggest gap separating old empires from new ones is really just that the older empires have hidden shipyards in the middle of nowhere that allow them to wage war without concern for their industrial base.

Was the old 32 tech level system perfect? No, it was by no means a perfect solution, and we all know that. It was, however, better than nothing. Most importantly,  it prevented brand new players from rapidly acquiring ships capable of everything that a ship made by a well-established empire was. We all know that it was often circumvented by gifts of money and technology from friendly empires, but other empires could at least try to threaten people into not giving technology away to new players. I'm not suggesting that we bring tech levels back to stay, but rather as a stop-gap solution. Right now, Hazeron's progression is simply far too shallow. We could do nothing about it, with the Steam release rapidly approaching, or we could put a band-aid on it, something to tangibly improve the game experience until a better and more permanent progression system can be implemented.

I recognize that there's probably a very slim chance of this actually happening, but if nothing else I hope we can get a discussion on a proper progression system going again.

Running List of Supporters:

• Myself
  
• Celarious
  
• nightslay
  
• Mortius
  
• VhwatGoes
  
• Minty
  

• Anr
  
• Deantwo
  
• Ikkir
  
• pizzasgood
  
• Resonkinetic
  
• martianant
  
• Phenoix
  
• Spacegeek
  
• Norway174
  

In the old-style of cities, it was very easy to make buildings larger, just by adding on new floors.

In the new-style, you have to either find a different building that meets your needs, or publish multiple larger versions of the same building and tear down the old one. It would be nice if you could make multiple size versions of buildings in the editor, then save them to one file that supports multiple size 'versions', and all you need to do to make them larger is either make it larger from the start using the scroll wheel to select a larger size, or click on the building again with the same building, much like the old-style way of adding floors.

This would lower the eventual amount of nearly-duplicate buildings in the blueprint exchange for people who want multiple sizes of the same buildings, and since most buildings don't even come *near* the size limit (and those that do are likely too complicated for the player to make multiple versions of), you don't need to quadruple the file size or anything like that to accomodate it.

Currently, every time I want to finalize a design I have to move into position, disable the grid, hide things like hull voids and walk paths, remove my helmet, and disable the hud.  Then afterwards I have to remember to put my helmet back on, especially if I'm using a designer on a hostile world and entered the studio from outside.  (Oops.)

My proposal is to create a "Preview-Image Properties" window with options to define all of that stuff and save it with the design so that it can be applied automatically (and temporarily) during finalization. Settings should include the viewpoint (with a "save current view" option for defining it), checkboxes for stuff like the grid, skybox, ground, hud, and helmet, and a list of part categories that you want omitted.  The defaults should be such that most of the time we don't have to fiddle with anything but the viewpoint.  Saving the chosen settings on a per-design basis also means that re-finalizing something after making some quick edits takes zero extra steps unless you need to reposition the viewpoint due to rotating or reshaping the design.

This could even be bundled together under a "Preview Camera" object placed into the scene so that if we do a select-all and move or rotate everything, the viewpoint would get the same transform and not need manual adjustment.

Bounties on Web
It would be nice if bounties were shown on the avatar page on the web site.

The following information about bounties is now shown on the avatar web page.

• All current bounties.
  
• Number of bounties collected.
  
• Amount of cronos collected from bounties.
  
• Number of bounties collected on you.
  
• Amount of cronos collected from bounties on you.
  

• The head you drop when you die is tagged with your highest current bounty, if you have one.
  • Multiple heads can be tagged with the same bounty.
    
  • A head with a bounty shows that information on its item name and in its description.
    
• A head with a bounty is redeemed using the gear window.
  • If the bounty on the head is still active on the avatar, you will receive the money and a notification. The bounty is removed from the head.
    
  • If the bounty on the head is no longer active on the avatar, you receive notification but no money. The bounty is removed from the head.
    
  • If the avatar cannot be located, you receive no notification. The bounty is not removed from the head. You must try again later.
    
• You cannot redeem a bounty from your own head.
  

• Solar system contents in sectors generated after this update will no longer change when regenerated.
  
• Systems in sectors that currently exist could change one last time, if their sector gets regenerated.
  

• A new body pose was added to become receptive to mating; crouching no longer works.
  • You must be a naked adult creature to assume the mating pose.
    
  • Default binding is Shift+X.
    
  • The body lies on its back in the mating pose. Sorry dogs; its missionary or nothing.
    
  • Male or female sentient creatures can initiate the mating pose. Animals do not mate.
    
• Mount a receptive sentient to mate, using the E key.
  • Both participants must be fully grown adults.
    
  • They must be of opposite gender.
    
  • They must be naked.
    
  • They must be conscious and alive.
    
  • If the couple has compatible DNA and the female is not already pregnant, she is impregnated.
    
• To mate with crew or passengers, assume the mating pose and order them to mount you. You no longer have to undress them; they will undress while mating.
  
• To mate with NPCs in general, initiate a conversation by saying hello. Assume the mating pose and accept their response.
  

Saw some discussion on the Discord about there not being a lot of rooms types to fill a large spacecraft with. So I went about to make a small list of ideas and felt it was a good idea to share it here. You can all comment with your own ideas, but even more so if you have more rooms that actually serve a purpose as opposed to simply vanity rooms.

Purposeful rooms:

• bridge
  
• cabins/berths
  
• engineering
  
• medical bay
  
• transporter room
  
• spacecraft hangar
  
• ground vehicle hangar
  
• external door access
  

• commissary room
  
• observation deck
  
• military strategy meeting room (long map table)
  
• engine room (flashy warp core)
  
• captain's quarter/cabin
  
• trophy room
  
• barracks
  

It might be difficult to add, but some way to play sound clips from spacecraft would add some atmosphere to the game. Maybe this could be done in a similar way to picture frames?

Looking forwards to the Steam release, there will be more players in-game than there have been since the free-to-play era, possibly more. I would like to suggest improved permissions for new empire citizens to better promote cooperation and multi-player empires. I've been thinking about what it'd take for me to consider accepting players into the Weltreich empire, and I thought it'd be good to start creating a list.

Some key features that'd make a large difference:
-Limit starmap data to administrative domain. This would prevent sensitive intelligence from leaking out, sort of like varying levels of clearance in the US government.
-Allow the selection of an empire city to spawn at other than the empire capital. Similar to the above, and would allow a starter system to be created. This could be a huge help to new players once custom stories are added, and could contain small starter ships.
-Allow the creation of default permissions for new citizens. This would make things much easier on any top empire officials.
-Define systems/sectors a citizen can access and take possession of empire fleet spacecraft for personal use. This is related to the starter system idea.

I'll add more as I think of them, and discussion on this is encouraged!

The day I made my happy daily visit to Hazeron.com, to find a "thank you and goodbye" instead of the usual tantalizing slides of a world far away, the bottom fell out of my stomach. That was the day I realized how much Shores of Hazeron really meant to me - I was far from alone. It is a game, a universe and a work of art which feels somehow benevolent and familiar even at its most urgent and frightening moments, because of the unique stamp of Haxus' mind on it. That is something which could never be recaptured. When the game went down in 2015, I felt that even if I'd waited till 2215, nothing could truly have replaced it. I'm grateful to all the people who fought for its return - I was too young to get involved - and of course to Haxus himself, above all, for being persuaded. A subtle, deep-down sense of not quite believing it, of having things to good to be true, has pervaded all my playtime since then, like someone living on borrowed time. I understand we all owe the French players substantially for that.

Now that we've been talking about Steam, resets, critics, sustainability and all the rest of it, it seems like the right time to ask how we, as a community, can make sure that sad day never comes again. I hope Haxus is much more aware now than he was then how much his creation means to us, how much we care and what lengths we will go to to keep it alive: and that he will not be shy of asking of us whatever is needed. He must have felt very alone in this project, back then.

While believing in the fundamental appeal of the game and taking all the practical steps we can to make Hazeron a continuing success - pitching in with every community effort, the wiki, the design exchange, orientation and recruitment of players - should we also start to make our Plan B (or Plan Z)? Let's say that, after the Steam launch, Hazeron's server costs cannot be met by the number of subscriptions, and Haxus is sitting on the tarmac scratching his chin, preparing to fly down to the server room for the last time. What offers, what commitments, what opportunities would he need to be aware of, on such a day, to have options beyond just pulling the plug?

The main things I'm currently aware of are: servers hosted, at least partially, by the community. Lots of games have this and some of those also have official servers, alongside. A graceful decline and transition of players from official to community servers, in the case that they cannot continue, would be one of the least rupturing ways to continue. Cloud hosting options and rented server power, together with more advanced tech solutions, are something that we often hear about from knowledgeable players. Selling the code and the database to the community or its chosen technical leaders would also be a way of keeping it alive if Haxus can no longer justify the commitment to himself. What offer would we need to make, if it came to it? There is also the question of finding a worthy inheritor to continue the game into the next generation, once Haxus' great grandchildren come along and his jam-making business explodes, and he is so busy with them he has less time left for us - so these questions will face us even if Hazeron is the success we all so earnestly desire it to be. It is better to talk now, when there are no clouds on the horizon, even while we work to ensure they never come.

While last time we shut down Haxus contemplated resurrecting Hazeron in the future, and was thus unwilling to let go of it, our suggestions here should be aimed at a situation where Haxus does not imagine a comeback. In such a situation, I hope he would believe that the game deserved to survive - as a monument to his skill and cosmological poetry - even if he felt it was time for him to become its grandfather rather than its father. 

I invite the technically minded to repost here some of the ideas they've had on the Discord and the galactic chat over the years. Tackeart, will you get the ball rolling? Haxus, are you willing to give us some figures, in a private subforum if necessary, on how the logistics and economics of the game actually work? And again, let's hope this topic becomes so irrelevant so quickly that it can simply be deleted a few months from now...

I get some questions now and again about where to get Gw6, it is gone forever? or will it make an appearance at a later point? I did think it was an interesting game, but prefer SoH by far.