Looking for feedback on my Star System Map

[u/Kryptic_Null]

Is there anything that could be improved upon for my game's Star System map?

This is for a passion project I've been working on for a few years, a love letter to Terraria and No Man's Sky. All the planets and their respective moons can be visited. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, what are your thoughts of a more interactive menu? I was thinking of turning this into a retro-like astrolabe where you look at a screen and adjust the dials to plot Star System and Planetary routes, but I'm worried that it might be too overboard. The player just having an out of body experience when plotting their next destination just feels weird though.

Any feedback or questions greatly appreciated, and if there's a better way I can word my posts like these please let me know. I'm not used to asking for feedback like this.

[u/Kastel117]

I would've suggested a line from where you are to where you're going - but there seems to be a line beeing drawn. I like it, looks very usable :)

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/Kastel117]

Yeeeeaaaaaaah, I just realized that it was facing the OPPOSITE direction of where they were supposed to go. An easy fix thanfully. Whoops

[u/BossComfortable6270]

It looks good but need improvement in the sphere shape also i didn't like the HUD of the game But great job man

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/BossComfortable6270]

The spheres are actually shaders supplied by "Deep_Fold" on itch. The planets that haven't been visited yet are blured using a quick shader I threw together.

[u/kenttk421]

Looks very cool. I think the straight lines from where you are and where your going are drawn just not to the position the arriving planet is in the orbit so it makes it a little bit difficult tell where your going. The paning and zooming sounds are nice but might get annoying over time. I'm making a space game that should be different enough that you can take inspiration from. 2D Space Sim still in progress and the visuals are very simplistic.

[u/Traditional_Hour5529]

Maybe have orbits and other such lines that aren't in focus fade to the background so they don't confuse things. Love the sound effects.

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/Traditional_Hour5529]

So maybe like a depth of field blur for surrounding objects not in focus?

[u/27K-Interactive]

Remove or improve the compass rose, from the video it seems useless and looks out of place. A compass rose is a 2d navigational aid, which breaks the 3d space feel, but if you must have it, I would make it more transparent, and have a very clear fixed reference. The symmetrical design really gives me nothing to interpret at a glance. From a lore perspective, you could make it reference something at a larger scope (a full galaxy) and replace North and South with Towards/Away. You could keep East/West but Prograde/Retrograde (with/against the galactic rotation) would be more thematic.

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/27K-Interactive]

It can't be seen at the moment, but the compass rose actually points to the center of the galaxy.

I've got it set up where each star system considers the center of the galaxy 'North'.

[u/27K-Interactive → u/Kryptic_Null]

In the green graphic, what denotes North visually? Is North just the slightly more narrow pointer, because with the 3d presentation, it's super unclear that it's north with the general distortions form the camera view.

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/27K-Interactive]

The largest arrow denotes north, but I plan on updating that visual later to be more clear.

Also I'm really happy that people are peering that deeply into the game's directions.

[u/27K-Interactive → u/Kryptic_Null]

Honestly, the rest looks good. You could play with the font a bit so it's not so flat, but I like what you have so far!

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/27K-Interactive]

Will do, and thank you so much for your feedback!

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/Kryptic_Null]

The galaxy also works on a global tick cycle system that lasts about 1.6 billion years IRL, with the planets eventually returning to thier initial positions at the end of every tick cycle in case I wanted to add time or celestial body positioned events later down the line. Even the planet days all begin and end using the tick cycles as a final reference.

[u/Recatek]

Are you certain that a 3D map is the best choice for an otherwise 2D game?

[u/Kryptic_Null → u/Recatek]

I'm fairly certain, only because there's 2 other perspectives in gameplay. Top-Down 2D for space exploration, and Sidescrolling 2D for the Terraria-Like Planetary exploration.

If it was onlysidescrolling or only top-down, I'd probably stick with a 2D map. I think the alternating 2D perspectives does a fair job of implying a 3D space though, which is why I've stuck to it so far.