Citizen of the Galaxy Story
I used the Citizen of the Galaxy scenario to add another emperor to my empire. It seemed like a new player could use a few tips on how to do this.
A very brief story chapter runs when you enter the Citizen of the Galaxy scenario. The story provides a few useful tips including how to become a vice emperor.
Particle Harvester Story
The final two chapters of the Relic story are finished. It is final in the sense that the conclusion I was after has been reached. The goal of the story was to teach a new player how to use a stargate, which is a big feature that is not at all obvious how to operate.
It is hard to say final. I fully intend to continue writing more stories. At this point there is little left to teach, which is a nice turning point. It means future stories can be written purely for the purpose of telling a fun story.
The story ends with finality; there is no suggestion of more to come so the story can rest for awhile. I will work on the AI avatar emperor now. That is going to take a lot of work.
Particle Harvester
A new small spacecraft blueprint was published, 1011 Particle Harvester. It is needed by a new story chapter that was added. In developing this ship I found that it was not possible to make a small particle harvester because of the range required to harvest from a sun.
Harvester range calculation was changed to produce a minimum of 6000m, enough to harvest particles from a star even with the smallest particle harvester. You might only get one particle per sweep but it will work.
Officer Doesn't Harvest
There are harvest orders to configure the harvester bays. The officer never marks those orders completed. The ship gets stuck there.
I fixed that problem only to discover those harvest orders were obsolete. The obsolete harvest orders were removed from the order list. They will function if you have them in a mission but you can't add them to new missions.
Village Encounters Aboard Vehicle
Village encounters only happen when you are on the ground not in a spacecraft or vehicle. That means you can never find the village while searching on a motor bike or a sailboat.
Village encounters can now occur while you are aboard a vehicle or in a spacecraft, on the ground or in the air. If you are moving quickly in a vehicle you might not notice as you whiz past the indigenous people who show up to greet you.
Bulk Mail
Bulk mail does not work in solo play. I discovered this after adding a second emperor to my empire. Neither of them received city reports by mail any longer, because they are sent to multiple recipients.
Fixed.
Henge Fire
Henges should not have a pile of logs at the center when the world does not have an indigenous species. There might not even be logs in the environment there.
The fire already did not burn when there was no indigenous people. Now there are no logs either.
Henge Point of Interest
World maps do not show henges on the list of points of interest.
Fixed. Henges are now listed on the points of interest of a world map. That enables them to be selected as a transporter destination.
Henge Portal Fire
When the henge portal is open, a fiery effect appears. Some changes were made here.
Henge Portal Vehicles
Henge portals do not work if I am aboard a vehicle. Can this be changed?
Henge portal now allows vehicles. They also recognize when a person aboard a vehicle has a portal key ready to open the portal.
Ringworld Sector Diagonal
In the Reach for the Stars scenario, your homeworld sector is always within one sector of a sector that contains a ringworld. The intent was to keep the distances shorter as the story plays out. However this allowed the ringworld sector to be at the corner diagonal of my starting sector. I had to deadhead across two large gaps to get there, kind of a long way for a beginner player.
Diagonals are no longer considered close enough when finding that starting sector. This does not guarantee a player won't have to deadhead but it should not happen as often.
Asteroid Not There
Some people have reported no asteroid appears when it was predicted.
I made some improvements to the code that cleans up asteroids that are no longer wanted. It may fix the problem.
New Spacecraft Landing Gear
New spacecraft that are created on the ground should have their landing gear extended.
Done.
New Spacecraft Lights
New spacecraft should be created with all of their lights on.
Done.
Spacecraft Lights No Power
Spacecraft with no power should not show visible lights.
Fixed. Exterior lights on spacecraft do not light if the ship's capacitor is empty.
Helmet Auto Close
When thrown clear of an exploding spacecraft, your helmet visor no longer closes for you automatically unless you are not online at the time. This can happen in the solo game when you have multiple avatars and one avatar’s ship is destroyed while you are not playing them.
Preon Object Particles
Preon particle object should have sparkly particles like the preon ring.
Done.
Story Terminator
It is not obvious when a story chapter has ended. It only tells me if I click the hint button.
Story chapters are now followed by a section terminator symbol § to show it has ended. This appears in the story dialog window.
Story Dialog Text
It would be nice to be able to select the text that appears in the story dialog window.
Done. Each paragraph can be selected individually but all the text on the page cannot be selected at once.
Travel via Stargate
A Travel via Stargate order was added to the orders list. It only appears on the list when your current solar system has an active stargate open.
No Deadhead When Stargate Closes
A stargate works a lot like a wormhole. However, the crew should not deadhead instead when the gate closes, or other reasons.
Done. Crew now just waits if the stargate cannot be entered for any reason.
Coveralls
A simple coverall outfit would be nice for civilians.
Coveralls were added in six stylish colors.
Clothing Wear Algorithm
NPCs choose their clothing from a list of preferred types, based on their role in the game. That means all workers in a city will wear the same clothing even if several choices are available.
NPCs now choose clothing from two lists. The first list is their preferred clothing in their order of preference, for those who wear uniforms. The second list is other clothing for which they have no preference; these are selected randomly.
Universe Generation Seed
It would be nice to be able to choose a different seed for generation of the solar systems in the universe.
Done. This setting appears on the Program page of the Settings window.
The seed is only used when a new universe is created. Changes to the seed do not affect the current game or any saved games.
NPCs Always Run
Story characters should not always run. It is difficult to follow them.
Done. This also applies to indigenous people going to the henge ceremony.
—-
Here are some additional items that were posted today.
Spawn Recall and Settings Buttons Restored
Those buttons were put back on the button list in the view.
Harvest Ring Bug
Harvesting operations at rings are broken due to parent planet's axial tilt.
Fixed.
Render Ring Bug
Rendering of rings when you are inside them is broken due to parent planet's axial tilt.
Fixed.
Story Typo
A typo was reported in the story.
Fixed.
Snow Capped Peaks
Snow capped peaks were lost when worlds changed to the Perlin noise generated terrain. I never see snow capped peaks any more.
The bottom of the clouds and the snow line were both lowered, among other related changes. This does not consider air temperature so don't be surprised if its too warm for snow on a snow capped peak at the equator.
This change will affect worlds that already exist. Tall hills may become snow capped. This will cause a slight change in resources because ice will appear as a resource in the snowy areas.
Smooth Terrain
Sometimes the bumpiness of terrain is so smooth it creates weird shorelines that look like big round blobs.
A slight change was made to the initialization of the Perlin noise parameters so terrain will not be so flat. This change will not affect worlds that already exist.
---
Snowed in on a Saturday. What does a person do but work on rings and snow?
Ring Rendering
Rings around planets suffer from a number of rendering problems.
Today I bit it off and did the work to split up the ring model into multiple pieces that are individually rendered. This appears to have done the trick.
Grass in Snow
The grass plants should be removed from areas of snow. Shrubs and trees can stay. This would help the appearance of snow coverage.
Done.
Snow Sound
When walking in a forest with snow on the ground, I hear forest noise instead of snow noise. This seems wrong.
Fixed. Snow now takes precedence over foliage.
Snow Transition
The drop off of snow density going from solid snow to areas without snow is linear. This would be prettier if a cosine interpolation was applied.
Done.
I used the Citizen of the Galaxy scenario to add another emperor to my empire. It seemed like a new player could use a few tips on how to do this.
A very brief story chapter runs when you enter the Citizen of the Galaxy scenario. The story provides a few useful tips including how to become a vice emperor.
Particle Harvester Story
The final two chapters of the Relic story are finished. It is final in the sense that the conclusion I was after has been reached. The goal of the story was to teach a new player how to use a stargate, which is a big feature that is not at all obvious how to operate.
It is hard to say final. I fully intend to continue writing more stories. At this point there is little left to teach, which is a nice turning point. It means future stories can be written purely for the purpose of telling a fun story.
The story ends with finality; there is no suggestion of more to come so the story can rest for awhile. I will work on the AI avatar emperor now. That is going to take a lot of work.
Particle Harvester
A new small spacecraft blueprint was published, 1011 Particle Harvester. It is needed by a new story chapter that was added. In developing this ship I found that it was not possible to make a small particle harvester because of the range required to harvest from a sun.
Harvester range calculation was changed to produce a minimum of 6000m, enough to harvest particles from a star even with the smallest particle harvester. You might only get one particle per sweep but it will work.
Officer Doesn't Harvest
There are harvest orders to configure the harvester bays. The officer never marks those orders completed. The ship gets stuck there.
I fixed that problem only to discover those harvest orders were obsolete. The obsolete harvest orders were removed from the order list. They will function if you have them in a mission but you can't add them to new missions.
Village Encounters Aboard Vehicle
Village encounters only happen when you are on the ground not in a spacecraft or vehicle. That means you can never find the village while searching on a motor bike or a sailboat.
Village encounters can now occur while you are aboard a vehicle or in a spacecraft, on the ground or in the air. If you are moving quickly in a vehicle you might not notice as you whiz past the indigenous people who show up to greet you.
Bulk Mail
Bulk mail does not work in solo play. I discovered this after adding a second emperor to my empire. Neither of them received city reports by mail any longer, because they are sent to multiple recipients.
Fixed.
Henge Fire
Henges should not have a pile of logs at the center when the world does not have an indigenous species. There might not even be logs in the environment there.
The fire already did not burn when there was no indigenous people. Now there are no logs either.
Henge Point of Interest
World maps do not show henges on the list of points of interest.
Fixed. Henges are now listed on the points of interest of a world map. That enables them to be selected as a transporter destination.
Henge Portal Fire
When the henge portal is open, a fiery effect appears. Some changes were made here.
- Henge portal fire color is no longer always blue. Instead it is the same kelvin temperature as the ringworld sun to which it is connected.
- Henge portal fire is now bigger and more vigorous than the bonfire that burns there when the world has indigenous people. This helps to distinguish the portal from the fire since the kelvin color of the portal can be very close to the bonfire color.
Henge Portal Vehicles
Henge portals do not work if I am aboard a vehicle. Can this be changed?
Henge portal now allows vehicles. They also recognize when a person aboard a vehicle has a portal key ready to open the portal.
Ringworld Sector Diagonal
In the Reach for the Stars scenario, your homeworld sector is always within one sector of a sector that contains a ringworld. The intent was to keep the distances shorter as the story plays out. However this allowed the ringworld sector to be at the corner diagonal of my starting sector. I had to deadhead across two large gaps to get there, kind of a long way for a beginner player.
Diagonals are no longer considered close enough when finding that starting sector. This does not guarantee a player won't have to deadhead but it should not happen as often.
Asteroid Not There
Some people have reported no asteroid appears when it was predicted.
I made some improvements to the code that cleans up asteroids that are no longer wanted. It may fix the problem.
New Spacecraft Landing Gear
New spacecraft that are created on the ground should have their landing gear extended.
Done.
New Spacecraft Lights
New spacecraft should be created with all of their lights on.
Done.
Spacecraft Lights No Power
Spacecraft with no power should not show visible lights.
Fixed. Exterior lights on spacecraft do not light if the ship's capacitor is empty.
Helmet Auto Close
When thrown clear of an exploding spacecraft, your helmet visor no longer closes for you automatically unless you are not online at the time. This can happen in the solo game when you have multiple avatars and one avatar’s ship is destroyed while you are not playing them.
Preon Object Particles
Preon particle object should have sparkly particles like the preon ring.
Done.
Story Terminator
It is not obvious when a story chapter has ended. It only tells me if I click the hint button.
Story chapters are now followed by a section terminator symbol § to show it has ended. This appears in the story dialog window.
Story Dialog Text
It would be nice to be able to select the text that appears in the story dialog window.
Done. Each paragraph can be selected individually but all the text on the page cannot be selected at once.
Travel via Stargate
A Travel via Stargate order was added to the orders list. It only appears on the list when your current solar system has an active stargate open.
No Deadhead When Stargate Closes
A stargate works a lot like a wormhole. However, the crew should not deadhead instead when the gate closes, or other reasons.
Done. Crew now just waits if the stargate cannot be entered for any reason.
Coveralls
A simple coverall outfit would be nice for civilians.
Coveralls were added in six stylish colors.
Clothing Wear Algorithm
NPCs choose their clothing from a list of preferred types, based on their role in the game. That means all workers in a city will wear the same clothing even if several choices are available.
NPCs now choose clothing from two lists. The first list is their preferred clothing in their order of preference, for those who wear uniforms. The second list is other clothing for which they have no preference; these are selected randomly.
Universe Generation Seed
It would be nice to be able to choose a different seed for generation of the solar systems in the universe.
Done. This setting appears on the Program page of the Settings window.
The seed is only used when a new universe is created. Changes to the seed do not affect the current game or any saved games.
NPCs Always Run
Story characters should not always run. It is difficult to follow them.
Done. This also applies to indigenous people going to the henge ceremony.
—-
Here are some additional items that were posted today.
Spawn Recall and Settings Buttons Restored
Those buttons were put back on the button list in the view.
Harvest Ring Bug
Harvesting operations at rings are broken due to parent planet's axial tilt.
Fixed.
Render Ring Bug
Rendering of rings when you are inside them is broken due to parent planet's axial tilt.
Fixed.
Story Typo
A typo was reported in the story.
Fixed.
Snow Capped Peaks
Snow capped peaks were lost when worlds changed to the Perlin noise generated terrain. I never see snow capped peaks any more.
The bottom of the clouds and the snow line were both lowered, among other related changes. This does not consider air temperature so don't be surprised if its too warm for snow on a snow capped peak at the equator.
This change will affect worlds that already exist. Tall hills may become snow capped. This will cause a slight change in resources because ice will appear as a resource in the snowy areas.
Smooth Terrain
Sometimes the bumpiness of terrain is so smooth it creates weird shorelines that look like big round blobs.
A slight change was made to the initialization of the Perlin noise parameters so terrain will not be so flat. This change will not affect worlds that already exist.
---
Snowed in on a Saturday. What does a person do but work on rings and snow?
Ring Rendering
Rings around planets suffer from a number of rendering problems.
- Rings overlap the planet incorrectly as you approach the planet from a distance. They look correct up to a point then suddenly they overlap the planet completely, incorrectly, where the back side of the ring is in front of the planet instead of behind it.
- Rings are clipped by the atmosphere incorrectly when you are close to the planet. This is seen as a ring seeming to disappear as it passes behind the transparent layers of the atmosphere.
Today I bit it off and did the work to split up the ring model into multiple pieces that are individually rendered. This appears to have done the trick.
Grass in Snow
The grass plants should be removed from areas of snow. Shrubs and trees can stay. This would help the appearance of snow coverage.
Done.
Snow Sound
When walking in a forest with snow on the ground, I hear forest noise instead of snow noise. This seems wrong.
Fixed. Snow now takes precedence over foliage.
Snow Transition
The drop off of snow density going from solid snow to areas without snow is linear. This would be prettier if a cosine interpolation was applied.
Done.