Ok, I know I haven't said much on the forums as of late, but I've been quite bust with coding, so my focus was elsewhere.

Anyhow, now that I am here I'll explain. We didn't think the app was going to be rejected, and we had already started on working on the upgrade. For those that play in beta I am sure they all know about the top level galaxy map and how you couldn't see where you had ships easily. The only system that would get highlighted was your home system.

This is no longer the case. When we we notified of the rejection, We were already quite far in refactoring the code to support the new galaxy engine. We had a choice. We could either do a quick hack to support consumables, or do things right.

We decided to push the galaxy engine in the next build, along with the new front end we were developing for accounts.

Here are some screen shots of the new galaxy engine "unexplored" and "full Map":
Galaxy Map.jpgExplored Galaxy.jpg

The first image shows only the home sector that I am in, along with the new "unexplored" tile graphic. ( square with a dot in the center). The second is a full map that is completely open. You can see a shaded sector a few tiles over from my home sector. That tells me there is someone there that I have uncovered. The tiles are the same for the Galaxy level as for the sector level. So you can easily see where you have ships, and in what sectors. As well as if you have uncovered other civs in the sectors, just as the map above shows. I'll see if I can get someone to post a "tile" listing and what they mean. I don't recall if one of the videos goes over that.

Here is a sector level display, unexplored. It shows the unexplored tiles:
Sector Level.jpg

Now for the people that were in beta something else you may have noticed is you can now tell how much of a sector level has been explored from the galaxy level. The new engine can do a lot, and we have a lot of future plans for it. Including displaying combat locations, and event locations. That will wait till the next release though... Need to save some things.

Here are some new pics of the new signup screens, and character selection screen:
Account Creation.jpgCharacter Select.jpg

Under the new signup system, you create a "Main" log in similar to any MMO you have played out there (WoW, EQ, LotR, StarWars.. etc...). Then you get to a character screen. You will create a new character in game by clicking on the "CREATE NEW CHARACTER", give the character a name, and that will be a character you play in game. It is the name seen by other players. They won't know your account name.

You will notice the push option button. If you press that after you have a new character you will be presented with a list of configurable push options. The list is as follows:


  1. Build Complete
  2. Combat Events
  3. Game Start
  4. Got Mail
  5. Lost Home World
  6. Move Complete
  7. Skill Complete
  8. Status Change
  9. Subscription Expired

You can set those events for each character you create.



That's a big part of what's been going on behind the scenes. Hope you all like the changes, and we look forward to seeing you all in game, and getting feedback on what you like, and what you would like us to improve.