{"id":1431,"date":"2025-07-16T16:13:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starshipsimulator.co.uk\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2025-07-16T16:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:33:19","slug":"what-weve-achieved-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starshipsimulator.co.uk\/?p=1431","title":{"rendered":"What we’ve achieved in 2024!"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″ background_color=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px|true|true” custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px|true|true” border_color_all=”#000000″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ width=”100%” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” border_color_all=”#FFFFFF”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.9.1″ text_text_color=”#FFFFFF” text_font_size=”16px” text_letter_spacing=”1px” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px|true|true” custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px|true|true” sticky_enabled=”0″ header_text_color=”#FFFFFF” header_font_size=”19px” header_letter_spacing=”1px” header_text_shadow_style=”preset1″ header_text_shadow_color=”#000000″ hover_enabled=”0″]

In terms of progress, in 2024, we released a total of\u00a057 development builds<\/strong>\u00a0for our backer community to check out, with a release cadence of\u00a01-2 new builds per week<\/strong>\u00a0during the latter half of the year.<\/p>\n

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We also launched a new series of regular live development streams, with a total of\u00a096 live streams<\/strong>\u00a0in 2024. That’s over\u00a0128 hours<\/strong> worth of live development action, with most streams averaging 3-4 hours long. If you haven’t been watching, then why not join the fun every Wednesday and Sunday on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Of course, the biggest news of the year by far was our unbelievably successful Kickstarter<\/a> campaign in April, where\u00a05,761 backers<\/strong>\u00a0pledged a mind-blowing \u00a3402,085. After the usual fees and tax deductions, that was a \u00a3290,000 cash injection into the studio, which we’re using to bring additional talent onto the project.<\/p>\n

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In other news, thanks to our other fantastic backers on Patreon<\/a> and Ko-Fi<\/a>, we were able to construct our brand new\u00a0“Dev Shed”<\/strong>, a dedicated studio space for development and streaming, the very beginning of Fleetyard Studios!<\/p>\n

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As for the game itself, during 2024 we focused on several core features<\/strong>;<\/p>\n

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GALAXY GEN<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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We completely overhauled the Galaxy Gen system, adding refinement and optimisation across the board. The coordinate system was re-based to place Sag A* at 0,0,0, and thanks to a new seed system with\u00a02^256 unique vector-based seeds<\/strong>\u00a0(a truly massive number), every cubic lightyear of space now has its own unique seed.<\/p>\n

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We also significantly increased the number of real-world stars in the game, with\u00a018.2 million Gaia Catalogue Objects<\/strong>\u00a0now extending out to a radius of 2,000 LY around Sol. Without wanting to blow our own trumpet too much, this makes our simulated Milky Way galaxy the largest and most accurate ever made for the consumer market, and we’re only just getting started!<\/p>\n

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To help render all of that new data, we also added L, T and Y class brown dwarf stars to the game, along with over\u00a070 new stellar sub-classes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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SYSTEM GEN<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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Just as with the Galaxy Gen, we completely overhauled the code for generating Star Systems within the game. In addition to numerous optimisations, we also added significantly more detail to the generation process. Here are a few highlights:<\/p>\n

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Our planet formation model now uses\u00a0Core Mass Accretion<\/strong>\u00a0when forming initial planetary cores, with iron content properly decreasing with distance from the central star.<\/p>\n

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Gas Giants are now formed using\u00a0Runaway Gas Accretion<\/strong>, whereby the gas envelope grows exponentially when the escape velocity of the planetary core is greater than that of molecular hydrogen.<\/p>\n

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A star’s\u00a0Roche Limit<\/strong>\u00a0is now properly taken into account when generating the innermost planets in a system, along with that star’s\u00a0Dust Sublimation Line<\/strong>. This ensures the orbits of the innermost planets are scientifically accurate.<\/p>\n

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Once a star’s proto-planetary disk has been largely exhausted of mass, a\u00a0Scattered Disk<\/strong>\u00a0of small icy bodies is generated with increasingly eccentric and inclined orbits. This is similar to our own Kuiper Belt, which includes the likes of Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. All of which are also now in the game.<\/p>\n

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LIFE GEN<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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We started work on our Life Gen system, which now applies a high-level\u00a0Political State<\/strong>\u00a0to galactic sectors when they are generated. This determines if a sector consists of independent worlds, multiple factions, or even a single all-powerful empire.<\/p>\n

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Alien civilisations<\/strong> are now also being generated throughout the entire galaxy, with the initial groundwork complete for generating data points such as:<\/p>\n

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