new version uploaded, slowly getting back to adding in voidships
Dev Log – Map, Imperial Worlds, and Visual Systems
This phase of development has been largely about making the galaxy readable and believable, both mechanically and visually. A lot of time went into things that don’t immediately look like “new features,” but which are necessary if the game is going to scale beyond a tech demo.
The Map & Imperial Worlds
Work on the map has shifted away from the idea of showing everything and toward showing only what matters to the player.
Imperial Worlds are now treated as prefabs with authority, not just points on a star map. They carry identity, history hooks, and future expansion potential, but they don’t try to simulate the entire Imperium at once. This was a deliberate scope decision: the galaxy exists in full, but the player only meaningfully interacts with places that are relevant to their campaign.
The map itself is becoming more of a navigational instrument than a traditional strategy view. It’s meant to communicate distance, importance, and danger rather than raw data density. This also ties directly into Warp travel and why some routes (like the Pilgrim Path) matter more than others.
Servoskulls: Why They Exist
Servoskulls were added very intentionally as in-universe UI messengers.
Rather than dumping information directly onto the player through abstract menus, servoskulls act as:
- carriers of updates
- indicators of events
- guides between layers of information
They give the player a diegetic reason for why information appears when it does. A servoskull drifting into view feels like a message being delivered, not a UI popping open. This makes the interface feel more like part of the Imperium and less like a game overlay.
Mechanically, they’re lightweight, but conceptually they’re important: they’re the glue between systems that would otherwise feel disconnected.
Cherubs: Tone and Hierarchy
Cherubs serve a similar role, but with a different purpose.
Where servoskulls are functional, cherubs are about tone and hierarchy. They signal importance, sanctity, and ritual. When a cherub appears, it implies that what’s happening isn’t just logistical—it’s doctrinal, ceremonial, or significant within the Imperial worldview.
They help reinforce the idea that the Imperium doesn’t just do things; it enshrines them.
Scaling Fixes (A Big One)
A major technical cleanup during this period was fixing a number of scaling issues, especially around ships and Space Marines.
Previously, things technically worked, but proportions were off in ways that would have caused endless problems later. Battlebarges, Marines, and internal spaces weren’t always speaking the same “scale language.”
That’s now been corrected.
- Space Marines aboard the battlebarge now draw at the correct scale
- Internal and external views align properly
- Transitions between map, ship, and battle scenes feel coherent
This was one of those fixes that doesn’t feel exciting while you’re doing it, but dramatically improves everything built on top of it.
Returning Procedural Planets & Ships
Another quiet but important step has been the early return of procedurally generated planets and ships into the live game flow.
These systems existed before in isolation, but they’re now being carefully reintegrated in a way that respects the new seed architecture. The focus isn’t on quantity yet—it’s on making sure that when a planet or ship is generated, it:
- comes from the correct seed stream
- feels consistent with the campaign’s history
- can persist and be referenced later
This is the beginning of the galaxy feeling remembered, not regenerated.
Why the Dark Crusaders
During all of this, I finally committed to choosing a specific Chapter for the game: the Dark Crusaders.
This decision came out of a longer conversation with Alan Merritt about early Warhammer design and the importance of intentional gaps in canon. The Dark Crusaders are almost entirely undefined in official material, which makes them ideal for this project.
Choosing them does a few important things:
- It gives the game a clear identity
- It avoids constant lore friction
- It lets the player meaningfully define the Chapter without breaking canon
- It limits scope in a way that feels right, not restrictive
Rather than trying to support every Chapter equally, the game can go deep on one: fleet-based, crusading, bound to the Pilgrim Path, and shaped by long duty rather than conquest. Everything about them fits naturally with the systems already in place.
Where This Leaves the Game
At this point, the galaxy has structure, the map has intent, visual messengers have purpose, scale is under control, and procedural systems are coming back online in a disciplined way.
This phase was about alignment—making sure that art, systems, lore, and scope are all pointing in the same direction.
The next steps are less about deciding what the game is and more about making it playable moment to moment: Warp travel, Terra as an entry point, and letting the player actually live inside these systems.
More to come.