Sadly, no; not outside of the game. However, once installed and running (and it’s only about 2.8 GB on my tertiary data drive with all those maps included), you can scroll through each and it shows a quick grey-scale image of how the galaxy looks. You can rotate the image, as it’s 3D.
Examples;
Island Kingdoms 504 (top-down view)
Hollow Tetrapod 399
I kept Astrox Imperium and now have about 15 hours into it, and it is really very good. Relaxing – haven’t had a space battle yet, which is fine. I’ve had pirates attack while I’m on missions, but I just run for the hills. I’m still enjoying doing various missions, and trying to plan out multiple missions to maximize the $$ for my routes. I can finally afford a merc, who I hired to do separate mining to bring in extra cash. What he brings in so far is only slight above his salary, but I’m hoping that improves. The visuals are excellent and it runs well on my mid-level laptop. Auto-pilot and auto-dock also make it very relaxing to play. I’m also nearing the point where I can afford to buy an upgraded ship.
But that brings me to my next point – the UI needs a lot of work. I’m constantly fighting it, and comparing current stats and equipment to potential upgrades involves flipping back and forth between screens. The side panels all have hotkeys to open and close, except for the missions list, which is a small button on the side panel below it. Things like that make no sense. And the ESC key doesn’t close the full screen panels – it only brings up the save box. Which drives me crazy. The UI is one thing that could stand a lot of improvement.
On the plus side, their discord server is fairly active, and anytime I have questions either the dev himself or the moderator (an alpha tester) is online to answer fairly quickly. So other than the clunky UI, it is a great work in progress and the more time I spend with it, the more I like.
I am so happy to hear that.
Hey @tylertoo could you possibly send me an invite to that Discord server? I bought the game during the Summer Sale and played a bit of it last weekend, I think.
Question about the game though-- do I have to use my scanner to suss out which station in a system is which every freaking time? From the bit I played (and it was slightly less than an hour) that seems to be the case. I sure hope I’m missing a way to have my ship “remember” which station is which.
Absolutely not. Stations and platforms, as well as gates to other neighboring systems, that you’ve scanned will show up in your targeting list when you return to the system. Maybe that doesn’t happen in the tutorial missions, but it does in the game itself. Enjoy!
Ah, so the maps are for the strategic layer, not the combat layer as I thought.
Friends, big news! Starting next week, I’ll be able to start working on SGJ full-time. This means daily streams, more written content, and more of the content we already do. Read about it here (https://www.spacegamejunkie.com/miscellaneous/forget-the-guns-ramming-speed-i-e-big-stuff-incoming/) or watch the announcement here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACWhFG3DMas) for more information, and if you could, please help me spread the word. Thank you so much!
Wow, Brian! Congrats!!! :)
vyshka
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Congrats on the new adventure Brian. Very happy for you.
@BrianRubin: I am rooting for you! I really hope you can make this passion your day job - in fact I know you can. Best wishes for this new start!
Adding my good wishes to the chorus.
OMG SHILL BAN IMMEDIATELY
Good luck with this, man ;)
All the best Brian. Make a living from your passion and you never have to work a day in your life.
Hey friends, welcome to another week of spacey gaming! This week we’re starting off with the Master of Orion 2-inspired 4X made by some awesome former space game journalists, Interstellar Space: Genesis! I’ll be doing more videos throughout the week as time allows as well.
Here’s what’s coming up on the streams this week, which you can watch on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer and Steam:
This week on the podcast (Tuesday, 5:00 PM Pacific), we’re gonna focus on mods. Not only our favorite mods, but what mods have done for gaming in general.
Then this coming Wednesday morning (8:00 AM Pacific), I’m gonna sit down with the developer of Alliance of the Sacred Suns to do a playthrough of this fascinating “5X” strategy game.
For this Thursday night stream (Thursday, 5:00 PM Pacific), it’s up in the air right now. It WILL happen, I’m just not sure of what yet. ;)
Finally, remember that next week I’ll be going full time, and you can read all about it here and check out what’s coming up on the calendar! Can’t wait to get started! Thanks for being awesome y’all!
Oh and thank you for the support y’all! Seriously.
@BrianRubin I saw you mention you got a green screen , so you soon will have a setup to show your face as you stream. @Scotch_Lufkin is the man to talk to in terms of getting just the right amount of zoom and screen size / position.
