I'm uploading today because I said I would.
I scrapped everything and started over April 2025. This release is around 4-5 months of work.
The Cartographer is now a 2D app. Very limited space sim game play. All you can do right now is fly through star systems you create.
I wanted to have a functioning galaxy up and running with enemies to engage with and space stations to dock at with today's upload. Unfortunately I've had things in my personal life I needed to deal with. The plan was to have another update next month, end of September 2025, but now I'm gong to have to release several updates throughout September to get to where I wanted to be now. I understand people are going to be disappointed. There were several days I had scheduled to work on this but wasn't able to due to things beyond my control. That's why I'm behind.
The hull designer has been removed from this build because creating 3D models and then importing them into the game increases RAM the game uses more than I'm comfortable with. So I'm going to rework it and the Hull Designer will be back in a future update.
The default launch option opens the Cartographer. Pressing the "Play" button from Steam library will bring up launch options. Choose the second one to fly around in star systems you create. Right now it's simply a flying camera. The Space Sim part of the game currently is hard coded to only load a star system named "Rigel".
Star systems you create with the Cartographer will be saved in "Documents/My Games/SpaceTimeShipyard/StarSystems/
Pressing the ESC key in the space sim will freeze the game and bring up the menu. Currently the options are to adjust the LOD system for asteroid fields and change keyboard controls. Obviously there is so much more to be added.
The default controls are W - Forward, S- Stop, A - turn left, D - turn right
I apologize I really wanted to have so much more for this update. I'm going to try to release a minor update on September 4th, next week and more throughout the month of September to get the game to where it was supposed to be today.
Asteroid field position is correct but they're too big I need to adjust the scaling.
Planet destruction is disabled as I need to adjust it. I mention that because I showed in in a trailer.
Changed files in this update