We in Rome were trying to set a nice new flag, the following image:



When setting this flag, however, we found that our flag ceased to exist. The default flag is visible on all of our buildings / ships and there is no flag shown in the UI. We are unable to change our flag back because the flag image served as the button to set the flag, and that flag image is now gone.

Created a new avatar to use as an alt while my main was stuck in limbo, spawned on an airless moon, died instantly. Avatar ID RKAKB.

It would be nice to have an option to flatten the star map for easier wormhole navigation; the Y-value of systems isn't very important when navigating through wormholes except for determining what sector a system is in, but with the ability to flatten and unflatten at will, that issue could be negated. Flattened maps are much easier to read than 3D maps, even if some information is lost in the flattening process.

I think there is something wrong with repair time calculation.

I respawned my basic Scout by Haxus (Blueprint Number 2002) after an accident. I then landed it and brought repairs.

The text and icon of some categories (e.g. in the "Buy category" command) do not match.
It says tools, but the icon shows weapons (it will buy weapons).
It says technology, but the icon is a hammer (it will actually buy tools)
It says spare parts, but the icon is a module (and yes, it sill buy modules)

Others are also wrong. I didn't try them, but there is a pattern there so I can guess what they'll actually buy/sell :P

Set the default workshops amount when making a new production line to the minimal value of 1. Purely a quality of life improvement in my opinion.

Warp bubble has a lensing/warping effect on the background skybox, if possible, hide the background skybox or increase the opacity of the warp bubble will improve the warp effect look, as both effects occurring concurrent are clashing.

As title says, when you deadhead to a system, light speed shows the warping of space effect, and you can still see the static background. There should only be a discoloration of Blue at the front hemisphere as objects in front are blue shifted, and red at the back hemisphere are red shifted, but no warp/lensing effect should show.

Joining existing empires has always been a tricky subject. On one hand it helps new players to play with their friends a lot, but allowing anyone to join an empire will always spell desaster.

After "open immigration" was removed, there was no longer any need for a player to be presented with a list of all empires anymore. There after it was just cleaning up the avatar creation process that saw the joining existing empires fully removed. It removed the weird empire passwords and other weird "join emperor with no cities" logic.

Now I don't see an issue with allowing joining existing empires, as long as it is implemented in a simple way that doesn't overcomplicate avatar creation process or empire controls.

One way to do it would be to copy what a few other games seem to use nowadays:

The empire has to have an empire capital, that seems like a simple requirement that doesn't take more than a little while to build. Then in their empire policies, they enable new avatar joining and get a randomly generated "password". This could be a simple UUID or similar. The emperor then give this "password" to the player that they want to join, upon avatar creation you simply have an optional "invite password" field that a player can add this "password" to. If a player creates an avatar with a valid "invite password" entered, the new avatar will spawn at the capital city of the empire who matches that "password". The emperor can then disable the option, or generate a new random "password".

This means that the player doesn't need a list of all empires while they are creating an avatar. On the avatar creation UI it is just a simple input field that can be left blank. The emperor does not have to choose a password themselves that can be guessed or accidentally left blank. This is something players might understand how works from having seen it in other games.

Universe Restarted
Sorry for posting this a bit late. It was a busy day yesterday.

The game universe was restarted yesterday. That required some work to finalize and post all of the building and spacecraft designs for the public exchanges and for the pirate empires.

Then of course I had to get busy building a new civilization. Who could resist? I got kind of a crumby starting location but they all work; I'm playing it out. My homeworld is one huge continent and a couple of little islands. I started on the larger of the two islands. When I next log in, I should be ready to build my first space rocket. Then I can find out why Gagarin is not appearing for people. It seems the rocket training mission is temporarily out-of-order.

The solar system map shows an asteroid belt between me and the sun, quite visible in the daytime sky, and another habitable planet co-orbiting with mine, opposite the sun. Maybe it is nicer. Can't wait to go there and see.

Some people reported their initial spawn location was on an airless moon. They suffocated and died. Spawned somewhere else. Lost their knife.

That bug is my first priority to fix this morning. The rocket trip will have to wait.

If that happens to you, I recommend restarting with a new guy. Nothing is invested yet in the one who died. If you choose to continue after the initial death, your new homeworld will not be targetted by an asteroid. If you want to experience that scenario, your only choice is to restart.

Here are some last-minute things that got done before the restart.

Gravel in Rings
The gravel in space should increase in density when in or close to a planetary ring.

Gravel density increases in rings now.

Spacecraft Recovery
Spacecraft that are recovered from destruction used to get minimal repairs to hold orbit and seek further repairs. They are no longer fixed when recovered.

Spacecraft recovered from destruction now get minimal repairs. Repairs are hit points only. Broken parts are not repaired.

• All control stations are repaired.
  
• Maneuver drive repaired up to 5%.
  
• Power plant repaired up to 5%.
  
• Life support repaired up to 5%.