Alright. Command Tent Dev Log. Loose. Honest. Slightly sleep-deprived.
Dark Crusaders: Iter Sine Fine
Dev Log – Last Few Days
The big theme this week has been clarity over chaos.
We’ve been tightening the galaxy layer. The grid isn’t just a helper anymore — it’s becoming the spine of the whole system. Sectors feel deliberate now. Blocked regions actually read visually. Warp presence is starting to look intentional instead of “random blob soup.” That alone made the galaxy feel like a map instead of a texture.
Warp Tarot got promoted from flavor to system. Instead of me agonizing over what color the galaxy should be (sepia? blue? sickly green? grimdark brown?), we made the Warp decide. Tarot cards now function as emotional climate control for the galaxy — tinting, mood shifting, instability cues. It ties art direction and mechanics together, which feels correct.
On the Battlebarge side, we’ve been staring at UI composition and asking hard questions. Too much green telemetry text. Too much noise. The Astropathic Choir page is close, but needs breathing room. The Command Tent brain says: reduce clutter, increase weight.
Combat is the other big mental shift.
I found the original Doom helmet view spritesheet, and that unlocked something. Instead of overbuilding some insane 100 live camera NASA wall of feeds system, we stepped back. The smarter move is modular combat. One battle space. Multiple camera anchors. Illusion of scale, not brute force rendering.
That led to sprite work.
We’ve begun building a first-person style weapon sprite sheet inspired by Doom — but 40K. Straight rear view, no hands, no muzzle flashes, no effects. Clean base layers so I can add recoil, glow, muzzle flash, smoke, etc., in-engine later.
So far:
• Boltguns (multiple variants) • Missile launchers (classic patterns) • Heavy weapons in rear view • Clean sprite sheets, no baked effects
It’s starting to feel like a real modular FPS layer that can plug into the galaxy campaign.
The energy this week hasn’t been “add more stuff.”
It’s been:
Make it cohesive. Make it readable. Make it intentional.
Iter Sine Fine.
Still building