Devlog 24.44

It has been 2 weeks since my last post.

Code Maintenance: Once again, thankfully little in the way of code maintenance the last couple weeks. I've been able to clean up as I worked on new code without leaving so much for Future Tanys to do.

Feature Updates: After a bit of misadventure with some planetary rendering code, I got planets to display again. I'll have a few things to nail down before they're interactive trade environments but I'm looking forward to setting those up.
That said, I have several features I've been juggling that are all nearly ready at the same time. I'll try to touch on each one a little:

* Trade Goods: I have a handy CSV with all the data I need, including base prices and whatnot. I just need to setup the io bit and write some code to select available goods for each type of world. The more time a player spends hanging out on a given world, the more potential brokers and vendors they'll discover.

* Brokers: Purveyors of goods and middle men who connect buyers and sellers. They know their local markets better than the spacebourne traders who show up on the planet's proverbial doorstep, but they take a cut of every transaction and may jealously guard information about their suppliers so as to protect their margins. Dealing through then can have some benefits however, as brokers have a tendency to advertise both sides of a transaction--or maintaining secrecy--depending on the nature of the deal.

* Vendors: I'm not sure yet if the next release will offer one vendor (and one broker) per world or multiple, unlockable vendors. There area few different kinds of vendors you might deal with, including various distributors, manufacturers, megacorporations, and wholesalers. For now however, it makes sense to limit activities to the spaceport, so I might leave it at just one vendor (and broker) per planet in this release.

* Star Systems: I been dealing with one display issue after another this year, and one of the big things I worked on was making it feasible to transition from Sector, to Star System, to Planet(ary Orbit) as smoothly as possible.

* Battle System (Turn-based): I started implementing the battle system for character-level encounters over the weekend. I want to have at least a minimalist implementation for the next release so I can build on it with future updates. The primary intended features for the battle system will be a visible turn order that can be manipulated, visible enemy intent (which can also be manipulated), switching party members & gear during battle with "tag-team" and "weapon-swap" powers, and a parley system to intimidate, bribe, or negotiate with enemy combatants.

* Character Creation: This is pretty bare-bones at the moment, but consists primarily of building a crew to begin exploring. Skills will play a fairly large role in the game, comprising all the non-combat actions carried out on the individual-character level, from piloting, navigating, or repairs, which brings us to the next feature...

* Legal System: This one's a big deal bc the designs have been in the works for a long time. Each player character will have a "paper trail" consisting of documents in their name, such as citizenship, military records, diplomas, certifications, employment history, deeds of ownership, credit history, permits & licenses, arrest record, outstanding debts, and so on. In addition to being able to forge, alter, or steal records & documents, characters will be able to create an entirely new persona if needed, and smear, implicate, or blackmail NPCs as part of an operation.

* Functionally, the legal system is an extension of the "parley" system from battle, and will necessarily start out small (with your crew's reputation). It should eventually be possible for your characters to be arrested for smuggling AND for you to represent yourselves in court AND argue for your release by blackmailing the sitting judge. Or bribing them. Or threatening their family. You know, nefarious stuff.

* Different planets will have different levels of strictness when it comes to offenses, with rugged backwater worlds being anarchic havens, and fascist regimes looking for any excuse to lock you up and impound your ship. I have designs for a system to handle incarceration to eventually support break-outs and escapes in addition to "prison encounters" like forced labor, solitary confinement, and riots.