Hopefully, "a complete overhaul of the 'food shortage' event" means that food gets treated like any other hot commodity in trade disruption, or least something less silly than a reputation trap for those who do not know how to game it.
Yeah. Part of it is selling food (and other stuff) will now fill demand for it at a reasonable rate, matching the number the shortage event says is required - the price boost isn't artificial, but due to reduced supply, which selling fills. So overselling naturally brings the price down to where it's not worth it. The related investigations are gone. Basically, the overhaul was a cleanup and simplification type job.
You could put hyperspace waves and snaky paths together to get hyperspace currents/rivers/rapids/whatever - areas where you get pushed in a certain direction. Would achieve go faster and reliable while still being interesting. Like earth rivers they could shift position and change speeds, too.
Yeah. One issue with currents is how to visualize 'em. It's not straightforward at all, and any "obvious" solutions tend to involve an unreasonable number of particles to indicate movement.
IMO, the AI understanding terrain is pretty important. I remember there was some MMO space game where there was an area with a ton of stars that slowed you to a crawl. There were speed boost stations around the edge of the area that allowed you to go by in a few minutes, but the AI ships didn't know about them and plowed right through the center of the stars. I think it took at least half an hour that way. (I know this because I followed the AI my first time there. )
Right, I'm not going to say it's unimportant, but it hasn't been a glaring issue.
Edit: If I'm reading this right, then if you are in open space you can spot people in deep space before they spot you. Interesting.
Yep. I'm still thinking about that, though - might change it to be more like the nebula since it looks similar enough that a different effect might be confusing.
My first response upon reading the blog post (and about the hinted-at new feature), after the "YAY! NEW STUFF!" was "DAMMIT!!! The update is further off than I thought, UGGGGGGHHH!!!" But then I took the time to actually think about the situation and I've come to the conclusion that the new update, however far off it may be, is gonna be awesome. I don't think we've ever had an update this big.
(Fair enough, but! There's actually a good reason that there's some time to work in an "extra", which shouldn't cause a delay compared to when it would release minus said extra. And I think it's a preeeetty cool "extra" at that, assuming it works out. More, I will not say
)
I've always thought hyperspace is like Warhammer 40K's Warp minus the demons. Just have jet streams going across the map at random set points and allow it to deviate a little (like pouring down a thin stream of water down the shower wall). Add in warp storms etc and all the random factors would require players to pay attention during travel while not guarantee the same result every time.
Well, hyperspace storms are more or less that, right? The thing is finding which ideas work well, which, as demonstrated by the wavefront thing, can be aggravatingly non-obvious before trying stuff. Plus I wanted to do a minimal version - the smallest amount of mechanics/terrain that does the job. It's cleaner and easier to build on that way, from adding in AI awareness to adjusting it later if need be.