Worlds should change the decision
Rock, desert, lava, ice, ocean, forest, and standard worlds now have separate visual identities. This is an art milestone first, but it lays groundwork for planets that eventually feel different to settle, supply, and defend.
The planet pass is paired with new surface terrain and building work so the orbital view and the colony view feel like two scales of the same place.
The current build does not assign final economic bonuses to every class. Visual distinction comes first so later resource, construction, or logistics differences can be introduced with clear player feedback instead of hidden behind identical worlds.
The command interface expands
Owned-colony navigation and fleet overview work make it easier to move between responsibilities as the player's reach grows. Map tools can also work with both space objects and planet definitions, helping development test a more varied galaxy.
That navigation is already important with only a few test locations. At MMO scale, an empire cannot rely on remembering where every colony and fleet was last viewed. The command interface needs to become a dependable index of responsibilities and opportunities.
- Owned colonies can be surfaced as a dedicated navigation view.
- Fleet summaries expose more useful tactical and travel context.
- Planet and object placement share a more coherent editor path.
A visual system, not isolated assets
The project now has written scale and composition rules for terrain and structures. That discipline is what lets future artwork remain consistent when hundreds of worlds and buildings have to coexist.
New assets are evaluated as parts of that system: the camera angle, occupied hex area, ground contact, silhouette, and palette all need to agree. A consistent rule set also makes it easier to replace temporary artwork without changing the gameplay data that references it.
The next visual passes will continue to improve individual structures while preserving the wider language. The goal is not seven isolated planet illustrations, but a galaxy where each world remains recognizable from orbit through surface command.