Open Realm of Stars 0.26.0

There is a new version available for Open Realm of Stars. Basic things has been redesign for this version. Space race, governments are completely redone, they have traits which define how they function. These traits are scored and now each space race and governments have equal amount of score. Of course space race and governments resemble the old one, but there are some changes. Alonians have been removed from the game only special thing they had was their starting.

In this version each realm can choose/randomize starting scenario. One can start from certain type of planet, including Earth, or without starting planet or from utopia planet which has lot's of buildings done, but have no ships. Last choice is starting planet that is doomed to have some kind of bad event(s). Idea is to react and just move population to other planet.

For one realm there are 15 space races, 22 governments, 17 starting scenarios and toggle setting for elder race. So there are 11220 different kind of starting for one single realm. Maximum number of realms is 16 so there is quite many ways to generate starting galaxy.

Game is now using JSON files to load speeches, space race, governments, buildings. So these are no longer made with purely in Java code. Good side is at least in theory it is possible to mod the game. In the future it is also possibility to add editor for creating custom space race and/or government.

Second big change is the planets. Earlier planets were quite similar between each others. They had radiation, size, and amount of metal. Planet type was almost purely for cosmetics. In this version planet has temperature, radiation, size, gravity and water level. Based on these world type is selected. When starmap is being created, sun type determines what kind of planet is more likely to be created. Hotter sun have hotter and more radiated planets. Temperature affects how much water planet has. Planet size affects directly on gravity planet has.

Due these changes space races now have abilities which may give bonus or mallus depending on planet and space race. For example there space race which are more used to function in low gravity. If that colonizes normal or high gravity planet they get mallus for mining and production. On other hand if space race used for high gravity gets bonus on low gravity or normal gravity bonus. This same goes also with temperature. There are space race which are more tolerant for cold and some are more tolerant for hotter planets. Water level on planet directly tells how much food planet produces naturally without any changes.

There are also statuses with planets, that are triggered to activate after certain amount of star years. For example precious gems are no longer discovered immediately after colonization, but just after few star years. Planet can have multiple of these statuses.

Although it might sounds these changes were small, but there has been quite a lot of code rewritten to implement all this. For this it is good to continue to have new features.