Maybe this is just a me thing, but I love the idea of looking at a galactic map and choosing in which direction I should go. What I mean is, I do like the roguelike nature of Aurora4X but not to the extent it is currently at. I want the ability to know where I am going in a Known Stars galaxy. What I would want is for the option to have the galaxy’s jump point destinations to already be decided (in either a random or lightyear based way), and for them to appear in the galaxy map. I don’t know if thats possible, but if it is I would gladly appreciate it. If it isnt possible or not what dev wants then I would understand since the game is still amazing despite what I’d want C:
It would change the fundamental nature of Aurora to pre-generate the galaxy. You wouldn’t need gravitational survey ships, there would be no dormant jump points, no thrill of discovery when you enter an unexplored jump point. You would quickly be able to work out where the alien races had been generated, what chokepoints to seize and which systems to ignore. A lot of the mystery and unfolding discovery would vanish.
Also, everything in a system is created at the point of generation, including NPRs, spoiler races, random wrecks, etc. so all that would be active from the start.
If you just wanted to know where all the stars are in relation to each other in ‘known stars’, without them being pre-generated, any star map will tell you as Aurora has the correct locations in 3D space.
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Perhaps some support for players to pre-make galaxy maps? I know a few maps existed on the old forums, but when I looked in to it, it required some DB editing to bind the jump points together. Maybe in SM mode we should be able to connect and reconnect JPs? That way we could make our own Galaxies, which seems like a logical next step, and then we can share them.
Manually connecting jump points and breaking links is already in v2.8. Looks like that was another change update that was lost on the old forums.
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I may have failed in explaining properly what I had intended. What I meant was the stars themselves and their jump points are pre-generated, but everything else: planets, moons, asteroids, nprs, wrecks, ruins, etc etc are all generated the moment you enter the system. That way the act of discovery is still impactful. Idk, I just like the idea of seeing the galaxy map and being like “I wanna go to that star”.
Edit: I forgot to add an example of something else. The jump points connecting to whichever star in my mind could be edited before game start. Like, lets say a player wants the jump points to only connect to the closest star in 3d space, or maybe they want to set parameters like “connect stars within 10ly” etc.
I get what you mean, that is one of the big lures of a game like Master of Orion or Stellaris, seeing the galaxy around you and planning where to go next and speculating what might be where. Unfortunately that is not really possible with Aurora as Steve would have to redo the way systems are generated and the galaxy map is drawn. As he said, you can use a real star map to see their positions if you play with Real Stars.
Yeah thats the big problem here, I always knew what I was asking for might be impossible. I wouldnt ever want to put unreasonable expectations on Steve cause this game is a masterclass in and of itself regardless of what Id want lmao.
I will second this. I have often wanted some way to design the star map but leave the system generation up to chance. For example, I’ve occasionally thought about designing a map based on the BattleTech galaxy.
One way I can think of to make this happen:
Just pregenerate the system bodies (as they are modifying the JPs, I think), then create the links between the JPs, but make them “undefined”. So there is your Star Map.
To make the JPs “defined” you have to use grav survey ships to pinpoint there positions, just as usual. Also there could be some unknown dormant JPs, just for surprise, maybe make this a yes/no in the settings.
When entering a system just roll everything else as normal.
So, aside from having a complete Star Map from the beginning, everything else is the same.
Would this be a feasible way? (maybe something to put on the back burner ^^)
It would be feasible to generate everything and not allow a player to see anything except star type until he visits the system, at which point he can see all the bodies and jump point locations. However, that doesn’t solve the problem of generating everything else at the start, such as NPRs, spoiler races, random wrecks, etc..
There wouldn’t be any dormant jump points as they are generated when an unlinked jump point is transited.
The only real way to do this - as suggested above - is to change system generation to a two-stage process, with all stars and links generated at the start, then system contents created when someone enters a system. It’s a lot of work to do that with probably some unforeseen results.
Maybe just limit the radius? For example, pre-generate all systems at a distance of 10 LY from Sol, rather than the entire galaxy?
The distance is chosen by the player, geo-/gravsurvey (and JP links) is a separate options.
Also, in order not to overload the game, only Industrial/Minor races or Precursors/Rakhas will be generated in these systems.
And wrecks.
“Our astronomers have detected a change in the luminosity of Sirius. We’ve done some calculations, and we believe it could be the wrecks of a spaceship!” 