I hope all of you have been enjoying the latest update to Stellar Navigator, and I want to thank everyone who submitted feedback and reported issues during the public beta of v0.4.3. It really made the release process go much smoother, and I look forward to future open beta tests of up coming versions. Your support and contributions mean a lot and make a big difference! So keep an eye out for the next open beta branch.
Major Update One
With the minor update out of the way bringing with it a few new features and bug fixes, work has since been started on the first Major Update of Stellar Navigator. This one will come with more planet types, user feedback, and of course the ability to create multiple galaxies. This will lay the ground work for the next major update which will include Steam Workshop support. Remember to follow along with the public road map to see any mid-month status changes to features.
Much the same as was done in the latest version, there will be another conversion script to bring your galaxy into the new multi-galaxy model. As such, this will be another "breaking change" to Stellar Navigator. What this means is once your galaxy file has been converted, older versions of the application will not be able to use them. However, when this update is published, it will open up the scale and freedom of Stellar Navigator as well as bring with it the initial tools for collaborating with your friends!
In later versions there will be further work done to bring the various galaxies you create into a much more exciting format, but for now you can expect the ability to create and load galaxies through a new galaxy selector which will appear on the main menu.
To give a little more insight into what is being planned for this update and the galaxy selection menu. These are some of the ideas being experimented with to not only allow for the ability for you to create multiple galaxies, but also to give you the tools to define them with your creativity:
Galaxy image selection, use the default galaxy image or add your own.
Galaxy information, write about what makes this galaxy unique.
Galaxy type, is it a spiral, Elliptical, Barred, or Irregular?
Please remember: this is a work in progress and ideas shared may or may not make it into the final update. As always, the focus will be on adding the core functionality to bring you these exciting new updates faster.
That's it for today - keep an eye out for updates on the official Stellar Navigator Discord server. And as always, keep looking to the stars!