Sorry for the length of time between updates – real life job sometimes gets longer and more job-y. However, I have recently had a few days off and I have put that time to good use, working hard on .3. I have listened to your requests (thanks to all who voted!) and I am wrapping up work on a quicksave/quickload system that will auto-save each turn AND let you save at any time by hitting F1 or quickload your last save by hitting F2. Since this is not a forms-based game, it is up to the programmer to create the save/load form by hand, so that’s a project for another day. There will also be a small debug feature that will let you turn off the system info bar on the galaxy screen (this is causing issues for a very small portion of people and I want to isolate it as an issue) by pressing hotkey ‘I’.

I have also worked on some data streamlining while I was mucking around in my classes and data managers, so hopefully you should notice some game speed improvements.  Since save and load seems to be far and away the most requested feature, it will be the primary feature in .3. Next after that? The emperor screen, with personal edicts and your tyrannical/nationalism rating, and more data about your reign that you can view. And after that? A (vastly) improved Economics screen, with Edicts for taxation limits, saving, and more! Also, I think I have worked out a good way to show trade flow, so that you should know where your goods are coming and going so that you can more accurately plan out your trade/manufacturing/embargo strategy.

Even though it wasn’t ‘voted’ high, I do want to start adding triggers and events generated by high character anger and jealousy. This will make your dealings with characters more circumspect and hopefully make the ‘bad boy’ path to victory a little more fraught with danger. This will also create the foundation for ‘coalitions’ of people working, say several sector governors working together if they hate you enough to destabilize a portion of your empire and work to discredit you among their people, seriously hurting your PoSup in those sectors. And I can’t wait until military/starships get put in! 😀

Finally, I will be spending all of Friday on the wiki. I am looking at moving to a different wiki system that is easier to edit and manage, so I’ll keep everyone posted.

I’m not going to give a firm release date for .3 except – Soon(tm)!

Thanks!

-Steve