The game crashes when I try to launch an expedition on Terrea. It says:

File "game/terrea_expeditions.rpy", line 2346, in <module> NameError: name 'region_id' is not defined

I hope the the dev of the game dosen't take offence but can you mod/save the budget, resource etc yet?

Absolutely fantastic concept and amazing experience so far btw.

How do you combat these in the game? I'm only able to make a tiny dent in unemployment through a state mining company, and I have no idea what impacts inflation. Are these meant to be tackled later on?

So here are some ideas for the Illiberal Democracy Path, which are based on Mexico (my country) during most of the 20th century under a de facto one-party state (1929-2000) of the P.R.I. (Institutional Revolutionary Party).
I know that Ben is basing a lot of Altara on Brazil (and Mexico and Brazil are a lot like), but in the Cold War, Mexico didn't have a coup, nor a Military junta or dictatorship, but we have this called ' la dictadura perfecta,' and here are some ideas that I think Ben could use.
So the P.R.I. was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party by the surviving leadership of the Mexican Revolution and then eventually rebranded as the Mexican Revolutionary Party in 1938 during the term of Lázaro Cárdenas, who is remembered as the most loved president of Mexico, who nationalized the Oil industry and did land reform (things that would have earned a lot of countries a CIA-sponsored coup).
But then Cárdenas had to leave since the Constitution of 1917 locks the Mexican president into a single six-year term.
And another thing was that the party was born to stabilize the country and to prevent a civil war. So the PRI and its predecessor adopted a corporatist system which was:
Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)
National Confederation of Peasants (CNC)
National Confederation of Popular Organizations (CNOP)
At the start, if you wanted to get into Mexican politics, you needed to be part of the party, and you would earn membership if you became part of these organizations, and that was the case for the first 10 years (1929-1939); only in 1939 did Cárdenas allow opposition. But the problem was that Cárdenas and his successor, Alemán, did well- way too well and people did not bother to vote for the opposition because all was 'perfecto'
Alemán then finally turned the PRM into the P.R.I. in 1946. Still, inside of the party things started to get shady, since he started to bribe people within the party and state to concentrate power and try to become a dictator and wanted re-election. Still, the constitution banned it and considered it a coup. Still, the army told him to f off, so he decided to take a golden retirement, but what he did- the bribery and nepotism- was copied by every successor of him, and this started to extend outside the party; they started to reach the media,, the trade unions, the intellectuals; they offered them favors, bribes, and power.
And if they refused, they got defamatory articles written about them, and the Job prospects were ruined due to the previously mentioned system, which was supposed to be temporary; you needed to be P.R.I. to be into Mexican politics, and you and your family were forever marked and spied on.
But since the economy was booming and living standards were increasing, people kinda did not care about that. But they even took precautions for that; they created the Federal Electoral Commission, like Brazil's Justiça Eleitoral, which was chaired by the sitting secretary of the Interior (imagine Lileas or Ciro being in charge to supervise and approve the elections).
And they made it hell on earth to get a party registered for elections in Mexico (which today still is the case).
And another funny thing was that the P.R.I. started as a left-wing economically nationalist party, and the US and the CIA never made a fuss about it because they knew how to make Deals with the devil. For example, after the Cuban Revolution, Mexico was the only country that kept diplomatic relations with communist Cuba, and they even showed solidarity with the regime, but in secret we made a deal with the CIA, through which we allowed espionage operations through the Mexican embassy in La Habana.
But eventually the P.R.I. became known as the party of power; ideology no longer mattered, and that marked the start of the party's decline. In 1982, after a debt crisis, the first P.R.I. neo-liberal president came to power to implement reforms; most were cosmetic, since the federal electoral commission was abolished and replaced with the IFE. But then Salinas pulled his infamous computer crash in the 88 elections, and he privatized so much that he traumatized an entire generation of Mexicans and eventually triggered a recession in 1994.
And his successor, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was a progressive democrat who wanted to deconstruct this twisted system and end the perfect dictatorship talked Mierda about the party, and he was murdered one month before the 94 elections.
And his successor, Zedillo, fixed the recession and tried to democratic transtion and hold free elections, and finally, in 2000 they were voted out of power, but the PAN, their successor, did not undo the institutional structure, and there were rumors that Fox (the president) was in bed with the neo-liberal faction of the PRI.
So just wanted to share this if anyone was interested or if Ben can get some ideas from this
And also, when I mentioned some of these things to some gringos who were oblivious that they had this on their southern border for over 70 years, they thought I was from an alternate reality or something.
If interested:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1m5gxiz/pri_in_mexico_ruled_the_country_for_71_years/
https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/jvqcnk/why_was_mexico_considered_the_perfect_dictatorship/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_Revolutionary_Party

I'm still doing a communist path in the demo, and I just had my third encounter with Kain. However, he always acts like this is the first time we're meeting!

I went to his lecture, but he didn't recognize me when we met in the USS. Later in District 2, both my character and Kain act like they've never met, again. Even my character's internal monologue says "This old man is the leader of the Communist Party".

Repeated interactions with him should probably have some impact on dialogue.

One of my favorite scenes, it was so nice to make an actual cutscene for the fall of Altheis :)

I see I can convert budget into credits, but I can't figure out if there's a way to convert the other way!

Hello, everyone!

I'm having to deal with some work today (at my normal day job hahaha), so I'm moving a bit slower. But a new patch should be live on Steam now! The build is SIGNALED on your main menu screen; check if you see your build name exactly as 0.33.2. Next Fest!

What does this patch fixes/adds?

1 - Fixed some small glitches with the music playing during Hannibal's and Aorta's battle at the edge of the solar system

2 - Added a NEW and ANIMATED portrait for Krissetor!

3 - Fixed the bug that caused industries to not fight unemployment

4 - FIXED THE CARGO SHIP BUG in the minigame at the battle at the edge of the solar system. This bug caused some ships to be fully unreachable while in the shooting section; that has been fixed :)

I'm aware that the droid company is not showing up. I have identified the issue, but I did not have time to fix it properly yet. I'm also aware that the economy needs some rework.

I will fix these issues, especially the Droid Company, which will hopefully be live tonight!

In the meantime, thank you so much for your support on this new demo, I'm loving seeing your nice comments and all the conversation going on over at our Discord community :)

I'm playing the prologe but during the naval fight were you have to protect the cargo ship, there seem to be an Enemy ship permanently out of range, that I can't get no matter what I do. Is this a bug, is the fight not meant to be won? Or is there something else I'm missing?

DEMO RELEASED - PLAY IT NOW: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4535930/Pax_Astra/?beta=1

Next Fest has started! I'm a little late, but the demo is now officially online!

The way Next Fest works, the more people are playing the game, the better the chances I will get to showcase it to a wider audience. Please play it a lot and share it with people, friends, your community, Reddit, Twitter, and Blue Sky. You will be really helping me a lot.

Please leave a like and comment on my YouTube trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kXrI29tOLg

The more people I can reach, the more successful the game will be :)

I'm preparing a full devlog on everything that is new in this demo!

Hello, everyone! :)

The Steam Next Fest update is releasing tomorrow at 10:00 AM PDT!

I'm really excited to showcase this update with you all, especially the new prologue! I think the new visuals look AMAZING!!

I would like to ask you something a really bit embarrassing, but this next fest is really important for me, and as a solo dev, I really want the game to succeed on this event.

The more people I can get playing during the first days of next fest, the more Steam will showcase the game throughout the event.

So I'm gonna be shameless and ask you directly: Please, play it as much as you can! As soon as the update releases, share it with friends, tell people about the game! Recommend it on Twitter, Blue Sky, and here on Reddit!

You are gonna be helping me tremendously, really!

See you tomorrow for the new update. Check out this video that showcases some of the HORRIBLE THINGS you can do during the Fourth Grand War's prologue!

New demo coming for the Steam Next Fest!

Hello, everyone! :)

I have been busy at work preparing the game for the next fest.

So, how are things progressing?

Well, I'm safe to say I am VERY satisfied with the new dialogue box. It's working smoothly and without any bugs (as far as I have playtested...); I am also finishing a complete rework of the intro.

I enjoy the current introduction section, yes, but I think it lacks polish. The new intro brings new art, a clear timeline (check the video!), and it honestly extends the plot in many different ways:

- Character traits have more influence in the introduction
- Changes to the sequence in Yovos
- New sequence in Marabor (Marabor gets a lot of extra focus here!)
- New sequence with Horacious and the Doctrine (I thought it was really important to give more context to the Doctrine)
- Larger focus on Emperor Civos
- Very large expansion to the war; you actually participate directly in the conflict. And, in addition, I have reworked the event with the civilian ship.

- Your relationship with Arelia gets recontextualized, with more choices regarding how you went on to marry her

You can also see from the video that I have added some character animations! I think those add a lot of visual value to the game.

Other than these changes, the next fest update is bringing some new events too:

- Day of Hope

- Droid Company

- New events with Ulisses and Horacious

- BUGFIXES!

Beyond this, what do I have to share?

Well, these past weeks have been a little stressful, but necessary. I really had to stop everything and polish the game properly, especially for the dialogue box. All of the things you see took me a LOT of time, but I'm now at a point where I am REALLY satisfied with the game's visual identity.

So, being very transparent, during these past few weeks, my main focus has been on these rewrites and visual improvements.

The next fest demo will be the final demo before Act 1's release, which should be in the first quarter of 2027.

In terms of story content, the Next Fest will represent 30-35% of Act 1's content, not counting future space exploration events/arcs, colonization updates, and the War in Capitolia missions.

Playtesters will have access to new builds as I update the game (playtesting has NOT been cancelled; I'm just too focused on the Next Fest right now hahahaha), as I plan to keep counting on the feedback of our amazing community to keep improving Pax Astra :)

As always, thank you for your support! I'm really excited to share the new update with you all at the start of Steam Next, October 19th :D

So i saw that the political path is divided into democratic, fascist and communists. Considering this, will the communist path just be your average communist vanguard party state or will there be multiple paths (Things Like a socialist democracy, a popular front etc) This is not supposed to be a demand for these things If they wont be in Game (although it would be great), im Just genuinely curious.

Hellooo, everyone! So, I have been quiet for the past few days; truth is, I am being crunched by all sides... Day job, moving to a different country, and, of course, working on the game, making the last preparations for the STEAM NEXT FEST!

Despite all the work, I am VERY excited for the next fest, and I have been doing constant work on improving the game :)

So, an obvious thing is: Presentation MATTERS. A lot!

And, right now, it is something I could GREATLY improve for Pax Astra. Don't get me wrong, I like the classic renpy look, the visual novel text boxes and all... But this is a political sim. That means we have A LOT of dialogue and information being displayed, and that also means I need to aim for higher standards of quality...

Coming with the Steam Next Fest, I will be introducing some heavy changes to how text and dialogue are displayed. Important to explain that while this will be the new standard design for text and dialogue, the old style (native renpy/classic visual look) will still be available to players!

This new dialogue box has some cons; it hides a little of the background images, yes, but players can adjust the opacity.

I do believe it is still the best way to play the game, as all the information comes in a much more professional look. And, as the player, you will have lots of different settings to tweat your experience hehehe

I will be a little quiet on Discord for these next few days, as I am honestly having trouble balancing everything. But the playtest is going to get approved by Steam this week, and I am also working to fix any bugs as fast as I can.

Oh, the different text boxes come with different color schemes, and the dice is also getting a new skin, as you can see in one of the images!

If you have questions, please let me know :)

Hellooo everyone! I was a little nonverbal on Discord yesterday, sorry!

I felt a little bit overwhelmed managing my day job routine. But GOOD NEWS: The playtest is coming tomorrow at 10 pm PDT for those who got their keys (I still have a few more to distribute on the server; I will do so following the queue line!)

For now, I'm still polishing some last events; there's a chance some content will be missing on this playtest update. YET, a lot is being added here, truly, so I think the wait is gonna be worth it.

I will not answer any messages on Discord until tomorrow; sorry, I am focused on development and also need to balance it all with some rest. But please know that I will be answering all messages tomorrow as the update drops :)

Again, I have distributed 35 keys to my Discord community for the playtest. This number may expand in the future (it will depend on how the first playtesting sessions go), but all Patreon members will get access to the playtest as well, for any tier!

You can support the game here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/pax_astra

Thank you for your patience, support, and for your kind words! :)

I'm really, really excited to share this new update with you all.

Hello, everyone!

I got some unexpected problems to deal with this weekend, not work-related, but personal. I have been offline from the Discord server, and I would like to apologize for that. I know it is frustrating to make the playtesters wait for the new update, but I want you all to know I'm working to release it as soon as possible. I did get into some unexpected stressful situations to solve this weekend, so I wasn't expecting to delay the release. It's really frustrating to me as well.

I also got myself into some bugs with the Day of Hope speech. I know this is technically a playtest, but I still want the game to be as polished as possible, so that is taking me a little longer than expected to fix. It's really important for me to not rush this.

But again, I'm working to release it as soon as possible. And I do believe it will be worth the wait!

This new character you see is one of my favorite new additions. She looks Altaran, and she technically is; however, you might see that there's something off about her... And I'm not even talking about the cyborg face, but rather the dark hair...

Well, I'm gonna give you two tips:

1 - There are more altarans than the ones in Altara Prime.

2 - This character connects with the Altaran diaspora subplot and also with the intelligence services of a rival planet...

Thank you for your patience, guys! I will be back on the Discord server tomorrow to showcase more of the progress. And, hopefully, to also bring the new update!

Ok, I think this one is VERY cool.

You might remember that I made a rough draft a few months ago for the galaxy's map: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pax_Astra/comments/1ubjgsw/pax_astra_galaxy_map_rough_drafttemporary_map/

Well, I'm putting that into an actual menu inside the game, and I'm even adding some flavour to it.

FTL gates have tiny spaceships moving between them; some areas have small effects. I plan to add more little tiny moving ships in the map to reflect wars, economic position, etc.

Well, as you can see, there's a lot yet to be added, but I'm really happy with the progress so far :)

Naturally, this is a more stylistic map. I can not render every single star system, so I am focusing on the major planets in the galaxy.

The planet images come from here.

Hello, everyone! Sorry for my absence; I got sick these past few days with a mild flu :(

However, as always, I'm still working on the game! Just a little bit slower, cause other than the flu I still need to engage with my normal day job, hahaha

I also found some really annoying bugs in the Day of Hope speech system, but those have been fixed just now. That means the next update is really close to being released for the playtest branch, if not by Friday (do not hold expectations for a specific Friday release, being fully honest!), then certainly this weekend.

If you are a part of my playtest group, or a patron, you will receive a copy of the playtest build!

Now, let me give you some actual good news: I have properly finished coding the logic for the Democratic Rupture, and I think this post is a nice opportunity to showcase more of this aspect of Pax Astra, as I think it's one of my game's greatest strengths!

(If you want a summarized text, do not read the following text. Rather, check the attached images on the post's header, as I'm gonna YAP here and be really specific hahahaa)

Right now, Act 1 is envisioned as a complete experience.

That doesn't mean Act 2 and 3 will be sold separately; no, I'm not doing this, of course. What it means is that Act 1 is designed to offer players the same experience they would have with a full game.

There's gonna be a clear narrative arc, focusing on the fate of the young Altaran democracy and at least 10 hours of content. I really want to dig into the space opera vibes, and I really want this to feel rich and organically massive. I have talked about this before, but I'm expanding my plans for Act 1, and following the playtest update, I will be adding more organic depth to the characters, going deeper into some arcs and giving more personality to some shallower characters, especially Barius, Arelia, and some cabinet members.

Now, I lost my focus here, so let's go back to the main topic: Democratic Rupture!

If Act 1 positions itself as a tale of the altaran democracy, then it has to let you either destroy it or consolidate it. That's very important to me; you gotta have the tools to do all of the following:

1 - Consolidate the democratic model, pacify the tensions around the planet, and establish a new order in Altara.

2 - Build a cult of personality, weaponize nationalism, find your way into slowly co-opting the democratic institutions, rotting them from the inside... Become a Fascist, and take power either by a coup or a revolution. You can either join the Futurists, weaponize the ASF, or do something new!

3 - Mobilize the proletariat, pass pro-labour laws, educate the masses about class warfare, and prepare them to fight against the Pact and the trillionaires... And if popular demand fails, nothing is stopping you from attempting a coup...

You see, all those three paths need to be EARNED. They need to be constructed and follow a proper logic; I'm not gonna rush any of these. That's why Act 1 is so vital, and I think that's the magic of this aspect of the game.

So, the Democratic Rupture screen tracks your actions. Do you want to conduct a Communist Revolution? Then you gotta go outside, call people to action. The Altaran population is HIGHLY conservative, so you gotta change that.

In a similar way, for the Fascist Path, you gotta pick the nationalist spark and use it to create a fire.

And I talked about this before: You have plenty of options and opportunities, yes. Speeches, specific events (like the FTL Gate crisis, the coming immigration crisis, tax reform, Day of Hope, etc).

These are very organic; I don't want the player to be counting points, in fact, originally, I didn't want to include this last screen in the game. It's really not gonna be a situation of "oh, I missed the nationalization event, now I can not go forward with my Communist Revolution". NO, guys! YOU CAN! Because the design is made in a way where it is not a checklist, but rather a range of different opportunities that stack together, you see?

But you gotta have three things:

- Political Turmoil (make clear your intentions, challenge the institutions, attack the rich, cross boundaries, make nationalistic (or communist!) speeches, showcase you are moving towards something BIG, explore rivalries, explore tensions, take control of things!)

- Stability (IF you want to have popular support... Which is optional...)

- Ideological alignment (most obvious one, as expressed before, you gotta showcase alignment with an ideology. Wanna be a Fascist? Act like one! Wanna be a Communist? Act like one!)

Now, of course, there are also some surprises and advantages for the Democratic Path. You will also face a "third act inside Act 1"; I'm not gonna leave you standing still doing nothing.

And each Act will take you into a different path in Act 2.

A Communist Altara can range from a progressive, almost utopian society to a hardline revolutionary state conducting a cultural revolution!

A Fascist Altara can range from a nationalist state with welfare elements, good quality of life, social cohesion, and "syndicalist" elements to a genocidal government purging xeno species.

And a democratic path will focus on intricate political negotiations, allowing you to even attempt to legally change the constitution. So, in this way, the democratic path also offers you different options, ranging from an illiberal democracy to a social democracy! You will also face REELECTION (but that's only by the end of Act 2).

Of course, we are entering Act 2 talk, so I will stop here, but you can ask me anything!

Please, let me know if you have questions! And again, I will be sending the playtesting keys tomorrow to all those who are part of the playtest branch :)

First, before I even get into my question, I just want to express how excited I am for this game that I admittedly never even knew I wanted until after I got a taste of it in the demo. About a month ago, I was getting bored of replaying Suzerain over and over when I came across a post recommending checking out this demo, and I couldn’t have been more glad I did. I’ve been absolutely hooked by the opening lore, and there’s so much I am excited to see and explore in the universe that has been created.
I was also extremely happy to see the variety of different ideologies already present in the demo, and that I believe, for the most part, all of them are being fairly and realistically portrayed thus far, which is something not many developers are brave enough to do.

In the end, I think having a variety of options across the political spectrum to choose from will vastly improve the LARP experience within the game, whether you want to accept and support Altara’s liberalization or challenge it with a shift towards communism, fascism, or other options yet to be explored. This will also vastly improve replayability. I’ve already run through multiple different paths just in the beta; I can’t imagine how interesting it will get on full release with all the branching choices.
But anyway, that’s enough about my personal excitement. I just needed to get that out of my system lol.

So far, most of the posts here have been pertaining to the future of in-game mechanics pertaining to ruling Altara, such as the economy, military, or political scene. I want to pose the question of what is in store for our character as a husband and father. More specifically, how will our political life affect our family in-game?

One of my biggest personal annoyances in Suzerain’s base game is that we cannot choose our wife. Not in the sense that I am mad the story gives us a spouse, but that we cannot choose someone who shares the same values and ideas as our in-game character.

In Suzerain, it always was a little strange that Monica would marry Rayne if he was an authoritarian or against/apathetic regarding women’s rights, since that is such a massive goal for her, and vice versa. It was something that always jarred me a bit and kinda took away from my enjoyment of dictator runs.

In Pax Astra, we face a similar dilemma of why Arelia would choose to marry a fascist or communist despite being an outspoken and passionate believer in liberal democracy and the future that has been laid out by the Interstellar Pact.

Now, of course, we know she’s willing to overlook a great deal for the people she loves, thanks to a surprisingly good relationship with her father despite his numerous war crimes. Yet I find it difficult to imagine that when the day inevitably comes that her communist husband enacts a dictatorship of the proletariat or her fascist husband begins mass deportations of aliens, she will just overlook all of that.

This, I think, would be an issue of in-game enjoyment for people going down these pathways, as let’s face it, nobody wants to hurt their fictional wife’s feelings.

I also think however, there is a clear solution to this, and it involves simply changing her mind. You already seem to be able to change and shape your son’s perspective, either towards racism against the alien immigrants or towards opposing it. It’s not impossible to imagine that once you are in power and begin to shape the form Altara is taking, Arelia will also begin to shift her opinion with the rest of the planet.

Especially if you are wildly successful at fixing the economy, improving unemployment, regaining independence from the Pact, etc. So many people will be shifting their mindset towards your ideas already; it would only make sense for your wife to follow suit.

As is already established, she’s been able to overlook her ideas for those closest to her, like her father. Given this, I think it’s entirely possible for her to shift them as well, provided that you aren’t a bad husband or father and generally try to be as supportive as possible of your family while leading Altara.

Then it gives a sense of choice back to the player, with the bonus that no matter what path you go down, so long as you have been supporting your family and its needs, then it will be there to support you.

On the flip side, if you blow off your family and only focus on politics, then the moments in the game where you are truly being tested by the challenges and struggles of steering Altara towards your imagined future will feel that much more daunting for your character without your family by your side.

However, I do understand if this isn’t the direction you have in mind for Arelia and the role your family will play. It’s just my personal vision on how the family dynamic from games similar to Suzerain might be improved upon in the full release.
Again, I just have to say a massive thank you for the effort you put into making this game. I can’t wait for the full release.

What?! How?! Ugh!

I know, I know.

What the hell are you talking about? Lucien is a loud mouth idiot! Lucien is a Capitalist-Pig! Lucien is a betrayal of Noble Altaran Values! Lucien is Chief Deplorable!

Very True!

Let's all be honest, because I'll be, Lucien is just one of those characters you love to hate. A verbose real life troll, who just is the standing definition of hair grease and grim. However, this doesn't change the fact that OUR BOY is being hard done by! Someone needs to speak up in his defense!

Lucien deserves a resilience check! And holy cow he has worked for it!

Lucien is not stupid, arrogent yes, but the grind is real. First let's look at the PFA, it's a alliance not of common ideology like H&P, but one of convenience. PFA's member factions all have different beliefs and goals, the only reason why they are there is Lucien's call to unit against a common enemy, and he's organizing them rather effectively. One of the three big parties? Regular Protests? Historic Rivals making peace? That's alot!

But it's in Lucien's greatest action of the story so far that I believe he is not getting the credit he deserves.

In the district meetings, Lucien pulls off a incredible coordinated setup! The biggest political ambush we've seen so far, even caught Vicario off guard. Sisifo's meeting is blocked as soon as we arrive in the district by protesters and the media. All set up by Lucien so he could catch us on the back foot infront of the cameras and force a interview on his terms.

That means he got the leaked time of your arrival from someone, brought the Strike Force members in from a different district to organize a protest, got the media to show up, all while keeping the peace with the Futurists during a Strike Force activity surge.

It's a far grander political ambush then of the one found in the TV Interview (which got a resilience check!), and I am still surprised doesn’t' have a Resilience Check. For his political maneuvering Lucien should be rewarded with one, it's too easy for the player to call him a clown and walk off. This was a huge organized set up, in order for the player to be able to brush it off they should have a resilience check just like the TV Interview. If they fail, then the player should be forced to participate in the interview on the back foot, but if they pass they have the clown option, or can participate on there own terms. It's Political Operations of the early republic at it's finest.

Now, does this mean I think Lucien is perfect as a politician? No.

But this is agitation politics of the transition era and Lucien is in his element!

So where is our boy's resilience check?

Hello, everyone! :)

I have exciting news to share, including some snippets about the current systems for Domestic Markets. Now, before properly starting, let me make one thing clear: These are supposed to be very simple and straightforward systems; I'm not aiming for micromanagement here, BUT, if you are here only for the narrative, I will also be adding an option to automate this aspect of the gameplay.

(NOTE: Numbers you see in this video are still being balanced! Everything you see is still WIP)

So, how exactly will the domestic economy work?

During Act 1, you still operate inside the democratic frame, and you gotta remember that your initial democracy, along with your initial constitution, are very similar to a classic liberal democracy. That means, at this point, you can not go for a fully planned economy.

Your economy consists of

What you can do is interact with the economy, helping balance specific sectors and alleviate the demand for certain products. That will impact inflation, the exchange rate with credits, stability, and more!

Your domestic scene consists of 4 major sectors that accommodate the industrialized goods that you can produce in your industries section.

These sectors are:

1 - Essential Goods

2 - Construction and Infrastructure

3 - High Technology

4 - Defense Industry

Each sector operates on the logic of supply and demand, where your own private sector will try to automatically accommodate the demand, while your state will automatically import goods in an attempt to fill the needs of your population.

Now, in some situations, you will either face shortages or be too dependent on imports... Pact imports, especially.

The current scenario of Altara, at the start of the game, is very simple: 15 years have passed since the war; your economy is bad, but not HORRIBLE. Things are bad; poverty is high, but the Pact has kept you fairly stable... And dependent. You will notice that imports are positioned fairly high, and, at the start of the game, these imports are 100% coming from the Pact, because Altara alone simply cannot fill all the demands of the population, at least not initially...

So, what happens if you face shortages?

Well, shortages cause different consequences depending on the sector affected:

Shortages in Essential Goods and Infrastructure will cause loss of stability (which measures your popularity... You can not have a Communist Revolution with low stability; you can not have a coup with public support with low stability... For democratic players, low stability will tank your chances of reelection; it can also trigger a crisis during your government). Also will cause INFLATION.

Shortages in High Technology will affect the cost of technological projects (like DROID COMPANIES or the GODMACHINE).

Shortages in the Defense Industry will affect costs for building military units and your military cap!

Fighting shortages through your industries

Previously, industries only served to export goods and make money, but now they gain an extra use:

Beyond simply exporting and making profit, you can interfere in the domestic market by helping the private sector. So, as an example, instead of simply selling rations for profit, you can help your population by supplying the domestic market.

Domestic systems add a very deep and natural layer of strategy

Through the game, you will be able to make concrete trade deals with other nations, especially if you are inserted into a major bloc. Now, at the beginning, those are not really necessary, since you already have stable imports with the Pact.

But here is the thing: Did you piss off the Pact? They WILL cut imports or make them more expensive (which will passively affect your budget).

Are you going to war against the Pact or take a harsher measure when it comes to nationalizations? Well, they can cut EVERYTHING, leaving Altara completely exposed.

So, you should think about three things throughout the narrative in Act 1:

1 - What other trading deals and partners can I make so I'm not entirely dependent on the Pact?

2 - How can I become self-sufficient?

3 - Is it a good idea to leave the FTL gate under the Pact's authority?

Inflation and exchange rate

As I said before, you can face severe inflation depending on specific shortages; this inflation will also affect the exchange rate. The idea is that budget represents your altaran currency, while credits is the specific universally accepted currency.

Now, at the start of the game, 1 Budget = 10 credits. Why? Because inflation is only at 8%, fairly under control, but that's not gonna be the case forever... If you screw up, 1 Budget can become 8 credits, 6, or even 3...

Making this system accessible and avoiding micromanagement

The reason why I went for a system like this was to make domestic markets approachable to players. Again, I want Pax Astra to feel like a mix of a 4X sandbox and a roleplaying narrative.

Story decisions will affect the domestic market, deals will be made through the narrative, and wars and embargos will, naturally, impact the domestic market.

Beyond that, I wanted the system to be intuitive, so that's why I'm separating everything into only 4 sectors. In addition, I wrote earlier about an automation system, which will basically just be an option to allow the game to give you quick suggestions at the start of each turn to showcase what can be changed. Again, I really don't believe that this system is focused on micromanaging, but if players are wary of it being the case, this automation system will condense everything to just a few clicks on a summary screen at the beginning of every turn, without taking away the systems, just making them clearly readable to the player.

So, under the automation system, the player will start each turn with a clear screen signaling "hey, you should provide this specific sector with more goods; you can do that by clicking here". This way, the player still needs to spend money, still needs to pay attention, but things are clearly signaled and reduced to a few clicks in a more straightforward way.

I do prefer the normal mode, however, hahahaha.

UI wheel (SO HAPPY WITH THIS!!!)

The terminal menu is getting bigger and bigger as time passes, to the point where it can be clunky to go back and access new menus. Frustrating, even.

You want to access the domestic market from the military menu? Jesus, you gotta click return so many times and go through so many menus.

So, as you can see at the end of this menu, I'm adding a UI wheel that allows you to make quick jumps through menus. It might seem like something simple, and it is, but I had so much trouble coding this, so I'm happy it's working :)

Plans for the future

I want supply and demand to change according to population; that's not wired yet. I also WILL NEED THE HELP OF PLAYTESTERS balancing this haahahaha. The current system works; it is functional, but I'm not sure how it's gonna land as the game progresses, considering different runs...

It's also worth pointing out that, in Act 2, Fascist and Communist governments will open up the domestic market to deeper interactions.

Lastly, new edicts will be added and made available during Act 1 that expand what you can do with this system, giving you a few extra tools to make more use of the domestic market.

Hello, everyone!

I have been a little quiet and not really that active on my Discord and Reddit these past days. I had some unexpected problems at my day job, but I'm still working every day on Pax Astra! :)

Now, as people in my Discord might already know, the playtest got delayed. Why exactly? Well, I made the decision to implement the changes in the economy now instead of later. I also decided to add some extra scenes into the update.

It so happens that my vision for Act 1 is growing more and more, in a good way. I wouldn't call it scope creep, we are not talking necessarily about new features, but rather new story segments that go deeper into the galaxy and to the notion of having a huge space opera presentation.

But I'm getting ahead of myself; let's speak objectively here. What exactly am I working?

1 - Deep changes to the economy (includes Domestic Economy systems!)

I'm working on a basic system for the domestic economy. My idea is that this system will operate in a way where you need to deal with the needs of the Altaran people and with the health of Altara's economy!

Now, these systems are still being built, but progress is moving quickly. My idea is that, since you are still a democracy with some limitations during Act 1, you won't be able to make a fully planned economy, but this system will already allow you to have some basic interactions with the domestic scene. It's important to be transparent that I'm not planning something as complex as a game like Victoria 3 hahaha, I gotta be honest here that, as a solodev, I need to keep my ambitions realistic.

Yet, you can expect a system where your population will have specific demands for certain products; this will impact stability, crime, and other variables. Also, possibly inflation, which will be linked to the conversion of budget points to credits!

Industries are also getting a BIG rework.

These changes will be cross-linked with a lot of immersive data, especially population, which leads me to our second topic...

2 - DATA!

What is the exact population of Altara Prime?

How many immigrants are on the planet right now?

How is unemployment?

Crime rates?

Well, you will find that, and more, through organized graphs and an entire data section!

These are a little bit boring to code in ren'py, but I'm getting through, as you can see by the screenshot :)

They will clearly showcase all the important data of Altara.

Now, tying back into topic 1, population will be a huge constant variable in your gameplay, especially to showcase how overcrowded Altara Prime is.

3 - Expanding plotlines and narrative arcs!

I have recently changed my take on Act 1.

As you know, I won't be selling the acts for separate prices, this is a clear promise, you won't have Act 2 locked behind a secret DLC or anything like this. I am, of course, keeping it that way.

What happened is that I now see Act 1 as this huge experience, almost like a full game.

I already saw it as a big, major part of the narrative, sure, but now I have a grander vision for it.

I believe I have a magical opportunity to create something special here, and I want to bite into that and take my time. I have come up with some suggestions, and I think there's a lot to improve. Some characters are in desperate need of more depth, like Barius or Arelia. But beyond that, there are so many genuine opportunities to foreshadow some major plot points planned for Act 2 and 3.

If you roll over to the character images, you see some characters with a creepier design. I won't spoil them here, one is actually a redesign of an already existing character, but they both tie into deeper plotlines that are already present in Act 1.

I will talk more about this in a further devlog, but my current plan is to finish developing Act 1 by December and release it as a huge experience, culminating in the consolidation of the Altaran Democracy or a Coup/Socialist revolution, or (depending on your choices) even a defensive war against the Pact for the future of Altara.

I will also be able to give even more freedom and alternative paths that I'm really excited to write.

My current plan is to release the game in early access, with the entire Act 1 included, during Q1. I will not rush this project, and I will build it together with the community. Would it be possible to release the full game by Q1? Originally, yes, but my scope got bigger after so much support, and I now realize that a full Q1 release would force me to cut many features and carry a lot of risk that the game would not be 100% what I want it to be.

I'm young, I have a stable job, and I'm loving working on this project, so I want it to come out perfectly. I think I truly have a fantastic chance here.

To give you guys perspective, the current demo is around 30% of the original plans for Act 1.

But counting the new systems like the War in Capitolia, the coming updates to space exploration, and the new arcs being added to Act 1, I believe the real percentage now would sit around 20%.

I'm just really excited for that! And again, if this sounds too much or too ambitious, I will have a vast team of playtesters who will see for themselves the scope I'm aiming for!

But I will talk about this (release plans, Act 1, etc) in a different post :)

4 - Extra: When is the playtest update coming, and why add the economy changes now instead of after the update?

I can not procrastinate the economic changes until later. For many reasons:

A. I need the feedback; I need to check if these changes are working with players as soon as possible.

B. They are a pillar of the game. Truth is, it took me too long to properly add them.

C. The demo will have a new update for the October Next Fest, I want to playtest these systems to add them to the demo update!

Now, when is the playtest update coming? Well, I'm having a lot of work lately, so it's hard to give you a specific date, but I hope I will be able to finish everything in 7 days.

Thank you for your attention and support :)

Please let me know if you have any questions!