Q. Do you want help with Startron?
A. Generally no, this is largely a quest I've chosen to embark on alone. However, if you're a musician, or have something you think would help, though, I'm listening.
Q. When will Startron be done/finished/released?
A. Startron has no end state, it'll simply be improved with each version as a labour-of-love exercise. (If you think about it, most indie sandbox games have also done this. Sure, they'll define an arbitrary release point but then continue adding content well past that date so the concept of a "final version" or "release date" is meaningless - I am choosing to skip this nonsense in favour of just improving the game for people to enjoy.) As far as the Steam release goes, this was just a formality to get the game on there as an open-ended project.
Q. Will Startron be ported to anything else?
A. At the moment, Startron is available for Windows and Linux via .Net and the Unity terminal emulator. (Whether Startron works with .Net or Unity on OSX or not remains to be seen - I'd have to find somebody who actually owns a Mac first ;) ) I have no immediate plans to make Startron available on any other platform at this time. (Getting Startron to work in Linux and then again later through Unity was a marathon, so it'd take some convincing before I embarked on another port.)
Q. Does Startron support my language?
A. At the moment, Startron is only available in UK English & US English but the internationalisation code will readily accept other Latin-alphabet, left-to-right text if I have a full set of translated strings. Unfortunately, I don't know any other languages so would require volunteers to translate Startron for this purpose; if you want to translate Startron, I'll happily make your language an option available from the main menu.
Q. Will Startron be multiplayer eventually?
A. While not impossible, this is an unlikely direction for the project to go in. Startron was always intended to be a single player experience.
Q. Will you ever upgrade Startron's graphics away from ASCII?
A. Not impossible, but not likely. The way Startron is designed relies too heavily on the ASCII codepage 437 characters to make this a viable option for the most part. The original premise of making Startron using ASCII was to allow me to focus on artistic expression and to keep the style consistent while also ensuring fast turnover of new features in an achievable and non-overreaching manner. If I swapped the ASCII graphics for sprites, I may as well animate those sprites, then I may as well swap from sprites to 3D models, then I may as well make the engine VR compatible, etc. - the cost of doing these large-scale jumps in scope and complexity is not justified in my opinion and they result in game development projects becoming bloated and unfinished; I've found that creating & managing lots of in-game assets is the direct cause of burnout for game developers. (I have tens of gigabytes of half-finished projects from the last 25 years that just got too big for their own boots so I am attempting to remedy this situation by creating something involved, in-depth & interesting, but, at the same time, achievable in scope.) The motive behind choosing ASCII was to clearly draw the line somewhere.
Q. Will Startron ever support more text characters?
A. No. Besides the bending of the rules for the © and ω characters, it has always been my intention to stick as closely to codepage 437 as possible. If I can't visually represent something within the bounds of these 255 characters, I'm not doing my job right ;).
Q. Will Startron ever support modding officially?
A. While I'm never going to stop or discourage somebody from modding Startron, I'm not going to be providing official support to do this. Startron is the way it is, because that's how I intended it to be. That being said, if you do manage to pull off modding Startron, props to you - by all means post about it in the Discord. (Tip: It would probably be quite easy to re-skin the materials & 3D sections, if folks want to create texture-packs, as it were.)
Q. Will Startron ever cost or become monetised?
A. No, I always intended Startron to be a free game with 0 ads - if people choose to donate, that's fine, and is appreciated, but there is absolutely no obligation to pay for any version of Startron; all versions of Startron on Neocities, itch.io & Steam will be free forever. (Currently donations are only available on itch.io)
Q. Will Startron be open sourced? / Can you send me the source code?
A. Of course not; no sooner would I unlock my front door and invite the world round for crumpets or lay all my belongings out on the street lol.
Q. What inspired Startron? / What is Startron based on?
A. The concept of Startron was inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Factorio, No Man's Sky, Rimworld & Starport: Galactic Empires. I felt I wanted something more from each of these franchises, so it became my mission to create that something myself.
Note: Any resemblance to games like Nethack or other 80s DOS/terminal games is essentially a coincidence; I haven't played the half of them, and lots of space games look like other space games.
Note: There are plenty of other subtle references and nods to various games & media in Startron as well.
Q. Who are you? / Where are you?
A. We are a small band of developers from 3 different parts of the UK who work together on various projects - most recently maintaining the Startron community and updating Startron itself.
Q. Will you do a game development course on Youtube?
A. No.
Q. When did Startron start?
A. The first proof-of-concept code and screenshot are from 2020.6.2.
Q. How big is the codebase?
A. The Startron C# codebase was over 83,000 lines long around the time v0.152 was released, with about 190 .cs files between the main game and the Unity emulator.
Q. How does x work?
A. All tiles, buildings, shop items & cargo bay items have information available if you select or hover over them and press I. Failing that, the cosmic database in your ship details most key systems as well. If you genuinely can't find information or think something is missing, by all means reach out on the Startron Discord server and we'll see if we can sort it.
Q. How do I make x?
A. In the cosmic database on your ship, find the page for x, it should tell you what you need.
Note: If the database does not say how to make something, you probably can't make it yourself.
Q. Is there a way to access and re-use my cosmos seed?
A. No. This is not a planned aspect of the game.
Q. How do I upgrade my petroop storage so I can explore further without getting stranded?
A. Head to engineering and press G - you'll need 10 hard plating for each stage of the upgrade.
Q. How do I get fluff?
A. Puff plants can be found on planets with atmospheres, these plants will yield both fluff as well as puff seeds to grow your own.
Note: Fluff also collects in the output nozzles of extractors.
Note: You can also repurpose abandoned dwellings on asteroids if you're really stuck.
Q. How can I store more resources on the surface of an entity?
A. Yards are intended as extendable entities that can be collected from or beamed into in one transaction. Placing yard tiles adjacent to each other effectively connects them as one larger yard.
Q. How many workers does a dwelling hold?
A. Just the one worker entity is sufficient to ensure dwellings will provide workers along roads.
Note: Dwellings will provide work power along roads more readily if their residents are happy.
Note: Workers die if polluted.
Q. How long do plants take to grow?
A. It's random, just like Minecraft trees. Most seeds & plants need to be adjacent to lithrogen and on soil or a seed tray in order to grow or fruit.
Q. I've run out of petroop and have no way to refuel?
A. Command tried to warn you as soon as you zoomed out to view the cosmos for the first time :') . Your only option is to initiate self-destruct from the bridge; you will lose the contents of your ship's cargo bay, any addons in engineering, the crew & any chits you had on you, but any colonies and infrastructure you've built will be untouched.
#Prior-Planning-Prevents-Poor-Performance
Q. Can I see other systems without flying to them?
A. While zoomed out viewing the cosmos, you can press P to enter panning mode. While in panning mode, you can see the names of other systems and some basic information about them.
Note: Remember you can open the Captain's log with ` at any time to take important notes while you play.
Q. How do I mine manually?
A. Hold M over a mineral or liquid. The result will be beamed directly to your cargo bay.
Q. How do I install a ship addon?
A. Build, then hover over a ship factory and interface with it using I. Alternatively, you can find a salvage yard use the yard manager's interface.
Q. Howcome x isn't for sale anywhere?
A. Most tier 2 resources are not traded in the cosmos as they are largely a stepping stone to tier 3 resources. Other more exotic materials and components may be being sold by pirates or must be created by you.
Q. My refinery/factory/lab/picker/nursery isn't picking up resources, what's going on?
A. Firstly, ensure the building has power (shown as Zs flashing on conduits) and work power if required (shown as ☺s on roads) adjacent to it.
Secondly, ensure the building is turned on (it'll be flashing red if you've turned it off).
Thirdly, make sure the resources it's trying to pick up are within the building's catchment area (shown as a flashing blue/purple box when you hover over it).
Q. How do I stop my crew becoming ill or addicted?
A. If your crew are becoming ill, check you're not holding any dangerous cargo aboard.
Whether your crew are ill or addicted, hire a doctor at a space bar; he'll sort em out.
Note: vectron crew members cannot become ill.
Q. Am I playing Startron wrong, or is it just super hard?
A. Startron is intended to be a challenging experience. The first foray into space colonisation for any species is never going to be a cake-walk.