0.5 update & personal update

Hey all,

So just a quick update about 0.5: Malaena's progression has been complete and I've started my own personal testing on the build. Should be with the alpha testers tomorrow and should all be good and signed off for Friday as planned! I've added in some new features too that were requested, like making refuel available from the galaxy map view when docked at a planet and allowing you to leave the ship to get on the planet (now done via door in the Engineering room.) 

There's something that has happened recently in my personal life that I wasn't sure if I should bring up or not, but I've opted on the side of full disclosure. 

2 weeks ago I lost my job, a job which I had held for 7 years. Though it came as a sudden shock, it wasn't all that of a surprise. Not to go into too much detail, though it wasn't my choice, it was amicable on both sides. 

The strangest thing was having to go on gardening leave (basically means I'm not allowed to work my last month), which also wasn't a surprise given my role, but again was just a sudden shock adjustment to my life style, especially with everything else going on in the world at the moment!

Obviously finding a new job is going to be difficult in the current climate, but I am financially secure for a little while (so need to worry about that). However this has / will allow me to focus on the projects for a while.

Some of you may seen that I have picked up a second project. And I know some people may worry what this means for The Solarion Project. Speaking frank. Nothing much will change with The Solarion Project overall. I unfortunately can't produce progression builds any quicker. If I did, eventually code / development will be ahead of artwork, which isn't the best way to operate) as it's best having a backlog of artwork ready to go.

Currently we are 3 builds ahead in terms of artwork, and I'd like to keep that gap going for as long as possible so that way if anything serious happens it can be rectified without causing delays to each monthly build. 

It does mean I can however focus on some of the systems that aren't reliant on artwork (or specifically the commissioned artwork) such as the battle systems (both space and ground.) Which means you should expect to see them come sooner rather than later. It also means I can spend more time fixing bugs, writing better dialogue etc. Rather than frantically trying to fit it in with my spare time!

To give an example I went from spending around 40 hours a month on this project (sometimes more, much more!) to now being able to spend 40 hours a week... (pretty crazy!)

For the future, I'm actually thinking about picking up a part time job, instead of going back to full time employment. Which will give me more time to work on these projects and keep a proper balance (though, less time to work on them than I do right now!). But obviously a lot of this is up in the air at the moment just generally due to the uncertainty of Covid-19.

Basically my tl;dr point on this is: do not worry, TSP shouldn't be affected by it. I just wanted to let you guys know where I was at.

Speaking of TSP, anyone excited for the absolute degeneracy that 0.5 will contain?

Until next time!

 - Nergal