Focusing on polish ahead of iter 12. So bug fixes, gui fixes, touch ups etc. Had a playthrough and that yielded about a half a dozen notes on tweaks.

The recently added “mouse over” info in tactical mode is really a great addition. Originally the mouse over info (eg: put the mouse over an asteroid base to see its name and crew count) was to help the player in selecting objects, but now has evolved into its own very neat feature. For example putting the mouse over an asteroid base lets the player see not only its name and crew count, but also its resources (and +- changes in them), shipyard queue, research queue. Thus this means that instead of the player having to look at 3 different screens the player simply has to mouse over the base to find out the summary information. This means that the player gets to hang out in a more active state (zooming around and mouse overing on objects) rather than a more passive (sitting in the shipyard or research screens). A really cool feature I believe, and I have to admit (somewhat sheepishly) that I didn’t expect this big of an impact, though it now seems obvious.

The dynamic of the player having two roles – the warrior and the leader is taking shape niceley. Meaning that the player can engage in ship to ship combat in ship mode and while waiting for these engagements will be managing the empire. This is a good sign that I’m very happy to see.