Update#10 : What's That Over There?

I lost a few hours of work to a really stupid mistake on my part... but most of the last day and a half was genuinely spent coding and bug-fixing the star-designer. I thought it was going to be simple and no problem, but I was so very very wrong.  Not only did it take a full day to make the star designer, but when I finally debugged it to the point that I could start seeing any results, I found that it wasn't even close to producing the results that I was hoping for.  I'd spent the better part of 3 days pre-designing how the designer should work, and it failed.  Fortunately, some extra-hard work and a few eureka moments led to an acceptable solution.

Even still, it's only partially finished. Looking at the numbers produced by the star designer is one thing, seeing them actually come out the way I want them to is quite something else. I'm still a little iffy on the numbers coming out of this thing, too...

I just finished writing the next step, which is the part that takes the star data and makes it into a reality.... next part should be easier though, and hopefully it won't drive me nuts; the star cluster generator which is basically practise for the galaxy generator, and will use the previous parts to actually build star clusters (duh) which will allow me to really start on the next step: finalized design of planets, planet formation, and the introduction of player-controlled elements.

I need to stay focussed and keep myself held back though... I think I also lose a fair amount of work time by thinking too much about next-steps. Many times I had to stop myself, as I got into tangents of how various star properties should be used or handled, while I was trying to figure out how to generate the properties. I need to remind myself: handling the properties of the universe can come later... and if I don't like the properties, then too bad, because it's a harsh place XD

I won't simply allow you, players, to suffer in a harsh game, though. A major reason that I'm building this game is because I want to play it myself! So, I'll feel first-hand how things are and aren't working well, and I'll suffer with you when requirements or living conditions are harsh.  It will be tough, but I promise I won't cheat  o7


Time for a short break, and then on to the cluster generator.