The Great Space Station Redesign Continues

The new station exteriors are coming along nicely, and I'm having a surprisingly good time working on them. Graphics have always been a headache for me, as you probably know because I bitch about it all the time, but it's pretty exciting seeing things come together as I slowly dial in a visual style for Black Road Sky.

Improving Upon The Cube

The small space stations, which I am now calling 'depot class', are complete. These are replacing the cube stations such as Laika Orbital. Nothing against the cube (I still like it, and some version of it will probably return eventually), but I think this brings more visual interest and feels a bit more believable as a space station. I gave it a modular design, so I can add more shit later: cargo drop off, external refueling dock, who knows. I had a lot of fun making it, and maybe I'm deceiving myself here, but I like to think that it shows.

Laika Orbital

Outpost Class Stations

The medium sized stations (e.g. Gagarin), now called 'outpost class', are also complete! While the new depots are significantly smaller than the old cubes, these outposts are pretty comparable in size to the old designs. But I think they look a hell of a lot cooler.

Gagarin Station

Looking sick as hell from the dark side

The hangar is smaller than before, and the terminals for refueling and managing contracts will be closer to the hangar exit, reducing the tedious running back & forth. Eventually there will be more to do in the stations, but for now access will be limited to this dock & commercial services area. Here's a little map of how I imagine these stations to eventually flesh out:

Outpost Map

Coming Up Next

I was really hoping to have the city stations done by now, but I've just barely started on them. These are going to be massive, and provide a different docking challenge than the other stations. Now that I'm in the groove, I'm confident that they should be ready in about a week.

After that, it's finally back to working on the visuals for the planets & moons. Some of them are starting to look pretty stale in comparison to the new space stations, and I'm looking forward to giving them a bit of a make over. The next step after that will be the new station interiors (which will be fairly limited for now), then it's on to bug fixing and polishing for a version release!