Sprint 26 - Shaping the Universe: QUINTESSENCE

[color=#cc0099]For this development update, we’re taking a dive into one of the most important systems in Sunless Skies: procedural generation. Your feedback in Early Access has been instrumental in some major changes coming later this month, that will transform the way Sunless Skies feels to play[/color].

I love the segment design. It seems like it’ll be a good compromise between the more open world generation and keeping a uniform art style/color scheme. I definitely like the world generation in Skies better than Seas, its more random and less… square. The only thing that I haven’t liked, which it seems that the segments might address, is the lack of overall geography. It seems like ports appear randomly throughout the high wilderness and its to get a sense of how they ‘fit’ in the world. Hopefully segments will mean that areas will feel more defined. Thanks for keeping up with the development updates!

Seconded, I love the idea of tiles that make sense within themselves.

A suggestion, if it might not be already too late. Within a single hub, don’t -center- the onion-like layers within each other. Use lopsided wheels arranged in epicycles instead, so that the distances between ports are somewhat random, and the round center “tile” of each layer is off to one side of that layer in a random orientation. I think you’ll get a lot more variety in the potential layouts with that idea, instead of a design of concentric circles.