We're back with another DevLog! This time, I'll be going over concepts developed for the ship the player calls home, and the first planet!

The scavenger ship the player uses as a base will be a very important part of the gameplay. I've been working on concepts for the ship and a small chunk of the larger first planet area, the area itself contains certain environmental obstacles, locations and POIs that would be present in a much larger, full scale version of the planet.

A Hostile Planet

Planet 1 is currently unnamed, but the concept behind it is of a desert planet, where the player will navigate through hills and dune, tall rock formations and caves and will be able to climb along the rock faces to reach new heights and discover hidden secrets. The current slice of the map is the size we will be using for the vertical slice of our game, and is 10x larger than the initial one used in our prototype. We plan on having even larger areas to explore for the full game, so we'll keep you posted!

Resources and Secrets

Since this planet is fairly inhospitable the amount of resources found on it are quite limited. The player can harvest ore here as it is the only resource found in great abundance. Ruins and caves scatter the map and can serve as opportunities to do a little treasure hunting, but more on that another time!

Climbing

Players can climb rock faces marked with protruding parts. These parts can be climbed by placing your hand over them and using the grip button the controller, using these climbing rocks will allow the player to reach new heights, get a survey of the area around them and possibly lead to something special. Not every rock face will have this ability, so you'll need to keep an eye put for them.

Home in the Stars

Now for the ship! The ship has increased in size overall, with multiple areas that will be used for upcoming features. The workshop area where our initial concept took place has increased. Specifically it is now twice as large lengthways, offering more space to move around, and adding new placement options for future lab upgrades. 

On the left side of the workshop is a door that leads to the players quarters, here we plan on having objects such as a bed, planning wall for use with markers, notes and recipes, storage and more in the future! There is a second doorway to leads to a corridor, from here the player can quickly access the next room... The cockpit!

Cockpit, and Planned Travel Update

The cockpit will be used to plan your trips, a center console will allow you to choose which planet you wish to travel too, however, in these trying times fuel isn't cheap. It'll cost a sum of money to travel from location to location, so you'll need to gauge whether the trip you wish to go on is worth the cost. You can of course stop by another planet on the way at no extra cost should you need to drop on by for an order, or otherwise. But beware though, these are desperate times, and there are those that would take any opportunity to make a quick buck... Ravagers roam the system searching for their next big haul, and you could end up on their radar if you're not careful.

This idea is still being developed, so hopefully next time we'll have more to show you on that!

That sums up this DevLog, next time we'll be discussing the newly improved sprites and models developed for STIM!

Thank you all for reading, and we'll see you next time! - StimTraders